STAR FOX

LYLAT WAR II

Chapter I: A new Threat

There stood Fox gazing at his enemy in horror not believing who he saw standing before him. "N…no it can't be…it's not possible. How are you still alive?" Fox said to his enemy. "I…I destroyed you back on Sauria, I saw you die."

They were standing on the top of the Cornaria City Hall skyscraper. Lightning lit up the sky and thunder rattled the air as the two exchanged gazes at each other.

"Well Fox, apparently you didn't destroy me or I would not be standing before you at this very moment now would I?" The enemy asked. Fox only could stand paralyzed in shear terror. "For I Andross am still alive and here to finish what I started back on Sauria." Andross pointed at Fox, "To destroy you once and for all Fox McCloud!"

"But before I kill you, you look like you are still puzzled on how I'm still alive and well. Well allow me to explain." Andross said. "You see while you were on Sauria you were being closely watched by my nephew. He monitored you and gathered information on your fighting abilities, strengths, weaknesses, and your fighting techniques." Andross started approaching Fox. Fox backed off as Andross came closer and closer to him knowing that he would attack when he least expected. Andross continued, "When you destroyed me on back at Sauria particles of my mind were still floating in the vastness of space. Surprisingly my nephew found just enough particles of my mind in space to clone me, bringing me back from the grave, as well as give me this body and giving me a few new abilities as well." Andross stopped approaching Fox, who was still paralyzed with fear. "Oh, I almost forgot Fox, I thought you would like to hear this, all of your friends have been killed as well as your precious girlfriend Krystal."

Then rage filled Fox's body and he shouted, "No! There's no way that is possible, there is just no way!"

"It's true Fox, I shot and killed them all!" Andross bellowed. "The frog was my easiest target, he didn't even put up a fight. The eagle was slightly harder to deal with but I eventually killed him too."

Fox was furious at Andross and the memory of his father flew through his mind. He suddenly remembered what Peppy told him about the fate of his father, and tears filled his eyes. "You…you cold hearted beast. You'll never get away with this!" Fox cried.

Andross just laughed maniacally at Fox. "Oh but I already have Fox, and there is nothing you can do about it now."

Fox rushed at Andross Oikonni and gave the tyrant a combination punch, square in the face. The Vulpine then socked his foe across the side of that massive gorilla jaw with a roundhouse kick, which caused Andross to recoil grabbing his maw. His eyes lifted and a grin began to tug at the corner of his mouth, growing into a wide Cheshire smile. His shoulders heaved slightly as laughter began to bubble forth. Fox blinked disdainfully seeing the attack had no effect. Vertigo gripped his chest and now he too was afraid. "Is that the best you've got Fox, because if it is you better surrender to me now." Andross said victoriously.

"I'll never surrender to the likes of you Andross!" Fox bellowed at his enemy.

Andross just laughed maniacally at Fox and said, "Well then…allow me to show you some of my new techniques."

Andross suddenly vanished into thin air. Fox whirled around only to find Andross looking down at him, and then he delivered a punch that hit Fox straight in his muzzle. His punch hit with such momentum that it caused Fox to fly through the air, nearly causing him to fall off of the building. Just as Fox was about to get to his feet Andross appeared in front of him grabbed him by the throat, and lifted him into the air. Andross walked to the edge of the skyscraper with Fox in his grasp and held him over the edge. Fox struggled to get free of his grasp but it was no use, Andross' grip was too tight. Fox was helpless.

"This is the end for you Fox, this is where you die." Andross told Fox as he pulled out his blaster. He held it up for Fox to see and said, "You see this blaster Fox? This is the same blaster I used to kill your father, a Quantum XDS9. I just thought it would be an honor to shoot you with the same blaster your father was killed by."

Fox knew that particular blaster was the most powerful blaster on the market and the rarest one in the in the entire Lylat System. It can shoot through anything even the strongest of all metals. He could only watch helplessly as Andross loaded up the blaster with plasma, and then charged it and put the barrel of the blaster on his (fox's) chest.

"Finally," Said Andross triumphantly, "This is the moment I've been waiting for, for the past 9 years. I'm finally going to get my revenge for all of the times you have foiled my plans for destroying the Lylat System. Goodbye McCloud!"

Andross then fire two shots at Fox at point blank range and threw him off the edge of the building. Fox yelled as he fell to the ground hundreds of feet below. He hit the ground and then quickly sat up in his bed.

Fox was sweating profusely and breathing heavily then let out a sigh of relief, "Just a nightmare." Krystal who was in the adjacent room to Fox came running through her door.

"Fox, are you okay?" Krystal asked. "I heard you screaming from my room."

"I'm fine Krystal, I just had a nightmare. Thanks for asking though." Fox said

Krystal sat down on the left side of Fox who was shaking, and put her paw on his left leg in an attempt to calm him down. Then she leaned over and gave him a gentle kiss on the left side of his muzzle, causing him to blush slightly. Krystal just loved to do those sorts of things to Fox because she knew that he would always react in that fashion. "Well it's over now and I'm here for you." Krystal told Fox

Krystal didn't need to ask Fox what he dreamed about because all she had to do was read his mind. She sensed that he was thinking of his father and his past childhood, but couldn't figure out why Andross was on his mind.

After a few moments Falco suddenly barged into the room, "Hey Fox, you have a…" he suddenly stopped, noticing that Fox and Krystal were sitting together on Fox's bed. "So…what's been going on in here Fox?" He asked in his regular arrogant tone, "I knew sooner or later you wouldn't be able to stand it anymore."

"Shut up Falco, it's not what you think. I just had a nightmare." Fox explained

"Yeah whatever Fox." Falco said, "Well as I was saying, you have an old friend from the Academy in the breakfast room."

Fox got up from his bed and went over to his closet, and got his football jersey with his number 05 out of the closet and slipped it on. Back when he went to the academy Fox was the fastest football player on the entire team. In his football carrier he was most known as their "secret weapon", because when they were down by 7 with only 30 seconds or less left in the game they used his speed to score the winning touchdown.

Fox held out his right paw to Krystal, "Well let's go see who it is shall we?" Krystal took his paw and they both left the room hand in hand. When they stepped out the door the fresh aroma of coffee filled the air, and Fox decided that maybe a fresh cup of coffee would help calm him down.

They walked into the breakfast room of the GreatFox and Fox's best friend and colleague Bill was sitting at the breakfast table. Fox shook Bill's paw, "Bill, what's up? I haven't seen you in years."

"Yeah I know it's been…around 6 years I believe." Bill alleged. Just then Bill caught his eye on a lovely young vixen standing just to the right of Fox. "Who is this lovely lady?" Bill asked raising his eyebrows.

"This is Krystal our newest member of the StarFox team." Fox said while getting a cup of coffee, and picking out an apple from the fruit basket on the kitchen counter. "She is quite tough when it comes to business, so don't let her good looks fool you." Fox taking a bite of his apple.

Bill held out his paw to shake Krystal's, "Nice to meet you, I'm Bill, Bill Magness."

Bill leaned back in his chair, "So I take it you and Fox are married?"

Fox nearly choked on the apple after Bill made that remark, "What…ma…married? Err…no, no, no we are just friends Bill, just friends."

"Yeah, he wishes he was married to her." Falco said. Fox looked over at Falco and scowled at him as he sat down across the from Bill.

Bill looked astonished, "Well I saw you two holding hands while walking in here, so I just figured you two were married." Bills tone suddenly turned sincere, "Now Fox the reason I'm here right now is because the Katina base was invaded just a few moments ago by a mysterious force. We didn't know what had happened in those few moments. There we were doing our jobs and minding our own business when suddenly we were invaded and forced to leave the planet."

Fox's eyes widened and his jaw dropped, and just as he opened his mouth to say something to Bill, Peppy came over the loud speaker calling them into the control room. Fox grabbed another apple for the road and led his friends to the control room.

The control room was an enormous room it had the symbol of StarFox in the center of the room, and had a gigantic video screen mounted on the wall just above the control panel. Peppy and Slippy were standing on the platform near the control panel. "This is the crisis team. If Bill hasn't told you already the Katina base was just recently invaded. We have an image of the enemy but I waited for you all to come before I opened it." Peppy pressed the button to reveal a horrid picture of an ape like creature with a white beard, and a bionic eye with a reddish glow in it. Peppy was stricken with fear.

"It can't be…is that Andross?" Fox said with a hint of fear in his tone.

"There's just no was Andross can be alive. We all saw him die back on Sauria." Falco commented.

They were so busy studying the photo that they didn't realize that Krystal was walking out of the room. She knew who that horrible creature on the screen was and what it did to her home planet Cerinia. Krystal walked down the hall, entered her room and closed the door behind her. She then walked over to the bed, lied down and covered her eyes with her paws, then started to cry.

"I can't believe Andross is still alive." Fox said clenching his fists. "How did he survive back on Sauria?" Fox hit the side of his fist against the wall.

"Th…that's not Andross Fox." Peppy said with terror in his voice. "That's Andross' father, Invictus." A sharp pain ripped through Fox's chest as he slowly realized that thissituation wasclosely related to the nightmare he had just a few moments ago.

Peppy explained that a long, long time ago when James McCloud was around 18 years old Invictus tried to destroy Cornaria along with the entire Lylat System. Luckily he failed and was banished from Lylat forever, but now it seems like he is back for revenge. Fox looked around and noticed that Krystal had left the room, "Hey, did anyone see where Krystal went?" Fox asked. "Maybe she went back to her room for something. I'm going to go check on her to make sure she is ok." The young Vulpine began to walk out of the room then Falco made a cutting remark.

"Are you sure you are going to 'check' on her Fox? Or are you hoping for something else?" The falcon said with a smirk on his face. Fox looked at the apple he was holding in his hand, then a grin came across his face. He then turned around and chunked the apple at the falcon hitting him in the backside of his head, causing him to grasp his blue feathered cranium. "Dang Fox what was that for?" He asked rubbing the back of his head.

"That was for not dropping that particular subject when I asked you too." Fox said grinning at his friend.

"Okay, Okay I'm sorry, I'll drop the subject geez." Falco said. The falcon and vulpine both started laughing and Fox continued heading down to Krystal's room to check on her.