Chapter 1: New Venom.
In the outer reach beyond Venom at the edge of the Lylat System; not far from where the debris field of what remains of the Aparoid home world now orbits, a small Sargasso cruiser zooms in from a distant twinkle of light in space from a warp jump and slows as it approaches a dark shadowy space station hidden by the darkness of space.
The ship slows to a drift; its thruster engines dimming, as four quad-winged Wolfen fighters emerge from the split, front launch bay of the ship and veer toward the silhouetted object. Guidance lights beam out in orbs out in front of the object, revealing it to be a massive cylindrical space station, and the four Wolfen fighters, in formation fly along the holographically projected guide lights until they reach a protruding segmented structure jutting out from the space station, and they flew in through an airlock shield, one by one, like food components through a cell's membrane. The structure of the space station was only slightly visible, a large cylindrical cone structure at the center with a bulbous top, and rings and protruding box structures jutting out here and there, surrounded by a few more box-shaped spaceships lazily drifting about like passive hive insects.
Wolf O'donnell, Panther Coroso, Leon Pawolski, and Algy Oikonny walk in formation down a busy metallic corridor, busy with ruffian ape soldiers going about their jobs, carrying documents and cases of equipment, all wearing similar gray-tan uniforms with patch adornments on the shoulders signifying rank, and sometimes hats featuring the letter "A" or even a full visor helmet.
The metal walls, floor and ceiling had a bronze color to them, and the floor and ceiling were connected by angular, rib-like support structure beams rising to the ceiling and bolting them together, there were rectangular lights slightly angled diagonally toward the center running along where the ceiling met the walls, and where the walls met the floor. Bulb-shaped lights in the middle of the paneled ceiling, and the floor was of tiles, and occasionally bulky vents bolted to the rest of the floor.
The walls and ceiling were a maze of wires, cords and pipes running along everywhere but the floor, and beaming lights running along the walls and ceiling, flashing with running lights like blood through veins.
Wolf wore a plated jacket, adorned by his spiked shoulder plating, beneath it a black cargo shirt, and jewelry, his gray jeans decorated by his spiked knee pads and plating on his thick boots. His bionic eye gleaming blue-green whenever passing through an area of low light in the crude metal corridors of the space station.
Panther wore a full jumpsuit, somewhat form fitting at his chest and shoulders to boast his masculine tone, the suit decorated by bold, bright blue and white stripes. It also had extravagant gold trimming along the padding on his shoulders, torso and on his boots.
Leon wore a simple, plated black uniform shoulder to his feet, and black leather gloves over his three-digit hands, and spikes running along the spine of his uniform over his hunched-forward back, and down to the lower back where his uniform freed his coiled tail.
Algy had on a simple, old-war Venomian pilot uniform, it was of a grayish purple color, with tubes running along his sides to his back, and a dome helmet hung from a strap connecting it to the rest of his suit by the back of the neck.
They emerge from a dual-sliding metal door as it slid open with a mechanical whine ending at a clank as it reached the edges of the doorway, the team strolled into a room lit at a slightly lower level than the crude corridors of the station.
The room was a small round room with a spider-web glass doom window at the ceiling, decorated by the stars and darkness of space, along the doom's walls were bulbous lights filling the room with a shading reminiscent of candle light.
A red, fine carpet rolled straight across the polished metal floor to a set of terraced steps, holding up a desk at the edge of the rounded room, an elegant desk where sat Dash Bowman, at a velvet-padded throne-like chair hovered. Dash rolled it back and stood up, his eyes met with Wolf's as the team stood firm at the bottom of the terraced steps, right at the edge of the red carpet.
Dash walked around the desk, wearing a suit-like uniform decorated by badges and banners across his chest, angular shoulder guards holding up a red and black cape that cascaded down his back partially concealing his monkey-tail, and the cape-collar wound around Dash's neck. Behind the desk, looming over him, was a detailed oil painting of Andross; staring down at his nephew from behind the painting's gold-trimmed frame.
"So glad you could make it, Commander O'donnell." Says Dash as he narrows his eyes slightly, composing his smile to a mere short smirk. Team StarWolf all jolt erect and raise their hands to solute him.
"At ease." says Dash, the StarWolf members lower their hands, Wolf's face remaining gruff and firm. The smirk on Panther's face recedes to a more plain look. Leon remains unchanged, and Algy simply makes a gruff blink of his massive eyes and crosses his arms. Dash raises his chin revealing his grin a bit more.
"Straight to business." he says. "What are the status reports of the Sargasso fleet?" he asks.
"We've managed to transport the station out of Cornerian occupied space and into this region, we'd have it on our side of Venom in probably about six hours." Wolf explains. "And my forces are all at our side as well, waiting on command." says Wolf.
"Good..." says Dash. Leon holds his hand forward, bending one of his long fingers up as he spoke.
"What's more, is that Andrew Oikonny's fleet had survived shortly before the Aparoid invasion, we found them hiding out in the Meteo belt, thanks to Algy here, he knew their secret transmission frequencies." he explains. "They pledge their loyalty to you, great emperor." says Leon.
"Excellent!" Says Dash with a grimace, and a shake of excitement in his voice.
"We also have support from some of the planets rallying to our side either...in my diplomatic ventures in...that part of the Lylat System.." Dash began. "I had met with some of them, and not all of them are happy with Cornerian leadership either. The Macbeth mining corporation supports us, thanks to their resources, and some of Venom's subterranean caverns that Corneria never found out about, we were able to rebuild an armada similar to the one we had in Area 6 orbit, we were also able to construct a small supply of IPBM's, and about nine Salvadora-class capitol ships, most of them were just those we had restored to functionality from Andross's old weapon supply depot he had hidden away, we even have two of them equipped with the planetary nova-cannons up to full functionality." says Dash.
Wolf stood there, his lip hung open.
"You've been busy, sir.." says Wolf.
"Indeed my friend." says Dash. Wolf raises his eyebrow.
"To be honest, sir, I thought you were all just peace talk with Corneria and the other Lylat System powers... now I understand what you were doing." says Wolf.
"The StarFox team, the very thing that had crushed us, and our later rebel uprisings, will be the foundation to our new empire, if you remember during the Anglar Empire, they helped me gain back power over Venom, where we have built a new unified planet nation. They will now be the bringer of their own destruction." says Dash.
He turns to the oil painting of Andross and smiles with pride.
"Uncle, you were the architect of something great...I will build your creation, I will finish what you started!" says Dash.
Wolf lowers his brow and takes a step forward.
"Dash, there's something you need to know, about your Uncle...the great emperor Andross." says Wolf.
Dash's expression quickly changes, as his mind analyzes the tone in Wolf's gruff voice.
"What are you saying.." Dash says as he looks over his shoulder, his head bent low, narrowing his eyes to meet Wolf's cold, almost robotic gaze.
"Andross lost...," says Wolf. "Uhh..." "..." "!?.." Panther, Leon and Algy all jolt from Wolf's statement, in utter shock.
Dash felt a swell of rage grow in his chest.
"Last I checked, you did too." says Dash.
Wolf lowers his head a bit, his snout angling low.
"Which is why we need to know what we are up against in the future...StarFox will come back, all of them, we need to be prepared to crush all of them.." says Wolf.
"Andross studied ancient peoples of our system, I remember him being obsessed with their power, he turned himself into that...thing... And yet, he was still vanquished by Fox." says Wolf.
"Wolf, what are you saying!?" says Leon as he looks at Wolf in shock.
"At ease, Leon.." says Wolf.
"We will learn from our mistakes, and do it right this time..." says Dash.
"When will our invasion begin?" Wolf asks, as he looks toward a holographic map of the Lylat system that stood flickering in the corner.
"I only just got back from our previous visit with the Lylat peace embassy on Animus, we should wait a few more days... It won't be long now." says Dash.
The door flung open as Dash sat back at his desk, dismissing the StarWolf team, the group walked through the sliding doors and began down the corridor, returning through an open area, surrounded by dozens of standard venomian fighters suspended from launch racks.
"Wolf, why would you say something like that to our emperor, did you want to tan our hides!?" Algy asks.
"He wouldn't do anything to us, Algy...he needs us for his army... I am loyal to him, but how can we expect this kid to do what Andross himself couldn't?" Wolf asks. Leon clenches his fist, crinkling loudly under his leather gloves.
"We already have the knife resting at Corneria's throat; we can have any idiot sit behind that desk as long as it gets the masses of New Venom fired up, our attack will be a slit of their throats, and victory will be ours." Leon says in his low cold voice. "Might as well light the cigar now." he mutters.
"If it's celebration you're looking forward to, Leon...I say we go to New Venom City and hit the bar.." Panther says as his voice grows low behind his fanged, lustful grin.
"Panther, wallow in your sin by yourself I want no part." says Leon as he flicks his bulbous slit eyes to him and returning forward.
"Just a suggestion.." says Panther.
"And Wolf, don't you think our leadership should be strong? You gave him a pretty harsh shaking back there, I'm surprised he wasn't angry." says Panther.
"He needed the reminder, if he wants to attempt to fill Andross's nonexistent shoes, that's his choice, but he needs to know not to let his arrogance be the downfall of his own regime." says Wolf.
"...And you say I talk too much.." Panther says with a roll of his eyebrows as they finally returned to their pristine Wolfen fighters.
A whining, 16bit chip tune alarm began blaring, a few feet from Fox's face as he awoke in his bed, face down in only his underwear, his eyes flicked open, and he glared at his alarm clock, projecting a polygon Arwing rolling about and shooting holographic lasers.
He flicked his hand forward and tapped his alarm projector, the polygon Arwing hologram played a short animation of it exploding from being touched by his hand, and its noise ceased after a scratchy explosion sound effect.
Fox rolled to face up, flicking his tail and pulling it through his blanket as he hoisted himself on his arms until he sat up. He rubbed his face with his palms as he scooted his paw-feet to the side of the bed and set foot on the carpet floor of his bedroom.
Later, he sat at his couch eating cereal as he droned off looking at the projector-screen displaying a brown-furred canine female with glasses stood on the news at a desk, dully going on about sanctions on Venom being lifted after recent peaceful negotiations between Corneria and Venom. Her voice fades out as Fox lets out a sigh, glancing toward some of the photographs of Peppy, Slippy, Falco and Krystal; all smiling as they and Fox among others were laid out on some furniture on the far side of his apartment living room.
It was an extravagant apartment towering high in the canopy of Corneria city as hovering cars skittered about on suspended roadways weaving in and around the buildings of Corneria city.
Fox turned away from the photos of his friends as he sank into his couch, his expression flattened on his face as the news lady's voice began to fade as Fox stared off through the apartment window.
Suddenly, his holographically projected screen began displaying an incoming message logo; represented by a blinking yellow button, and a chiptune-sounding ribbit noise running in repeat.
"Ahh, Damn!" Fox snaps to attention, leaping to his feet, and rushing to put a green shirt and pants on, his clothes strewn about his apartment in utter disorder.
Finally he got himself together, in a poor attempt to make himself look presentable, he grabs the remote and hits the C-button, and his projector screen is then filled by Slippy's smiling green face.
"Hey Fox!" says Slippy as he waves his hand.
"Oh, hey Slippy how's it going with you guys on Eladard?" Fox asks, instantly changing to a bright smile for his friend.
"Eh, could be better. We're still testing weapons here since the place is polluted from Andross's factories anyway, I've been trying to design new types of vehicles based on the Arwing, nothing's been too impressive but..." Slippy goes on.
"Oh hey!" Slippy bursts loudly with some returning enthusiasm in his voice.
"My Dad's been working on taking his warp-gate system a step further, he wants to perfect personnel teleportation, sorta like how we are able to transfer machines from ship-to-surface." says Slippy.
"Ugh, go on?" says Fox as he sits back down at his couch, watching Slippy on the screen.
"Well, if you remember back on Sauria, all those flashy teleporters?" Slippy asks.
"I try to forget." says Fox with a chuckle.
"Well, Dad and Peppy think those were built by the Cerenians, not the Saurian dinosaurs!" says Slippy.
Suddenly Fox could hear Peppy's gruff, accented voice coming in from the back.
"Eaggh!" Slippy grunts as Peppy's hand shoves him aside and Peppy squeezes in, taking up half the screen while Slippy was squished to the far side.
"How ya doin' Fox?" Peppy asks.
"Retired, like you were supposed to be, Peppy." says Fox.
"That ain't no fun and you know it, Fox, why don't you come on down?" Peppy asks.
"Mhhmm.." Fox grunts.
"Look Fox, I promise it would be fun, I'm actually not supposed to tell you this but we're also spearheading a new Great Fox III construction, it's nearly complete and its better than ever." says Peppy.
"They choose you to spearhead something like that?" Fox asks.
"You crashed the first one, Peppy." he adds.
Peppy slants his eyelids. "Real funny Fox..." he says. Fox manages a brief smile.
"Oh hey, you have any idea what Falco's been up to?" Fox asks.
"Oh I dunno, he ran off with Katt and their hot rodder buddy's. Now I don't know where they're screwin' around!" Peppy replies.
"And Krystal?" Fox asks.
"Well...difficult to say, since Beltino needs data on the teleporters; we decided it was only appropriate that she goes to the ruins on Cerenia, she says she was okay with it..." Peppy explains.
"...Krystal.." says Fox.
"Thing is, after the Cerenians were wiped out, you were just a young lad at the time Fox... we don't know much about what happened, there was never any conflict that we have had with Cerenia, but they never interacted with anyone else in the Lylat System either so we never got to know much about them or their powers." says Peppy. Fox looks down to the floor, lost in his thoughts about Krystal and her powers, she never seemed like she knew too much about her people either.
"Krystal, is she alright?" Fox asks. Peppy scratches at his facial jowls, and darts his eyes to the side, his ears bouncing about with each movement.
"Difficult to say, I guess she takes after her people, she's never been too open with what she feels, I'm sure she's okay." says Peppy.
"Are you?" Peppy asks, as his voice and expression quickly grow solemn, even detectable to Fox through the scratchy filtered digital audio of their screen.
"Yeah Peppy...I'm fine.." says Fox with a plain look on his face, other than being wide-eyed, nervous that Peppy was somehow concerned. Even if Fox himself was never aware of it, Peppy always seemed to know when something was wrong.
"Oh and uhh, any news on General Pepper?" Fox asks. Desperate to change the subject.
"I talked to him yesterday, he's still in the hospital, but he says that he'll be out by tomorrow." says Peppy.
"Gotta go Fox, Beltino's complainin' about somethin', I'll see ya later!" says Peppy.
"You take care of yourself, Fox!" Slippy adds.
Fox smiles as Peppy and Slippy disappear from the screen, and immediately after, his room returns to silence, and Fox leans back into the couch.
A small Cornerian landing shuttle flew on toward Cerenia; the planet had one single set of rings passing over its North and South poles, it had a dead yellowish gray shrouded color about it from its cloud cover. There was also an ugly, deep scar cracked through the planets surface, glowing orange as it cut deep into the mantle, the planet was as though gradually splitting into three sections, narrowly retaining itself as a solid sphere. Clearly visible in the distance of space, the orange gas giant that which orbited Sauria; Cerenia's primitive neighbor.
Rob64 sat at the ships controls, and Krystal sat at another swivel chair a short ways behind, her legs crossed, her hands on her knees as she was locked in meditative focus. The bridge of the ship was similar to a Great Fox, but cramped, and was darker and cruder. The ship could easily land inside the old Great Fox. The bridge consoles were set around three small swivel chairs, one forward, and two behind it with a small slide door at the back of the bridge deck behind them, the ceiling and walls ribbed by bulky framework support structure.
"We have arrived at, Cerenia." says Rob64 in a plain, digital voice. Krystal opens her cyan eyes to look on through the window at the dead planet, her birthplace, if she was even born on it. She lets out a sigh as she feels a slight, stinging sensation resonate on her heart and lungs.
Peppy's friendly rabbit face came on screen just above the bridge viewing window.
"Alright Krystal, see, shortly after the mysterious disaster that took place on Cerenia, the planet was placed as a 'Do-not-enter' zone. What little diplomatic interaction they made with others was brief, they allowed us to build an embassy on their homeworld, but they merely put a teleporter there that leads to one on Corneria, but its never used anymore. They were always peaceful and never approached any other group in the Lylat System with any sort of aggression whatsoever. They even came to Lylatian unity meetings to promote organization of a singular Lylat alliance." says Peppy. Krystal raised her hand to her side and stroked her thumb to her fingers.
Krystal wore the same uniform she wore during the Aparoid war, but she had now tweaked it with traditional Cerenian-style armor, decorated by the mystical symbols she has as permanent markings in her fur, it always confused her that they fashioned armor and weapons when they considered themselves peaceful, but she felt it suited her more than most of the clothes and uniforms worn by most of the Lylat System. Her uniform was a dark blue and black form fitting suit, but now featured dark blue plating on her thighs, knees and shins, and bracing on her forearms, biceps and shoulders. There was a jem-encrested jewel ornament on her chest that twined a blackish blue cape draped over her shoulders and down her back, disrupted occasionally by her tail, still decorated by silver rings.
"We've given coordinates leading straight to the old Cornerian embassy marked on your map." says Peppy. "Slippy has transferred the coordinates to your Arwing when you are ready, Krys, but once you get to the surface we don't know what's down there so be cautious." says Peppy. Krystal brushed her beaded blue hair strands aside aside as she stood up, twiddling her hair in her fingers as she walked around behind Rob, whom made repetitive mechanical movements with his arms as he tapped away at controls.
"Given what we have seen before, I don't think there's anything down there that could scare me." she says, unfiltered of her proud accent.
Peppy's face sank to a glum look. Krystal raised her eyebrows as his expression changed, letting a nervous breath leave her lips.
"Peppy?"
"There still might be things you wouldn't like to see, so be ready." says Peppy.
"I will, Peppy...Thank you.." she says in a squeaky tone of her voice.
"Be safe, Krystal." says Peppy as Krystal turned her back to him, turning for the door.
Rob64 made a turn as Krystal headed for the back doorway.
"Surface conditions are highly hazardous, prep yourself with protective clothing." Says Rob64. He turns and hits a button, and turns back to Krystal. Her reflection staring her back in his red visual scanner.
Krystal grabbed and through over her shoulder a silver backpack, pressing her cape a bit, and then took up a helmet with tubes leading to a box-console that hung like a necklace, and put it on over her head, her face showing through a dome-visor with a greenish blue filter.
The single door slid open with a hiss, and she stops, turns to Rob64 as he watched her walk through the doorway.
"Thank-you, Rob. I will return soon." she says. Rob64 bobs his head once, before spinning at the waist, and peering down on a console's controls.
She walked through the doorway that lead to an Arwing held on a suspension rack, down below it had an airlock door that slid open at the bottom.
The lower door folds open, and the Arwing descends from the belly of the ship, and rockets forward with a blast of its thruster boosters. The Arwing zooms and veers toward Cerenia, trailed by a blue stream of light that which transitioned to a reddish pink as it came in contact with the pressure and atmosphere of Cerenia.
The Arwing descended through gray-yellow clouds over a circular ruins of an industrial area, the buildings yet retained a historic style, build rising upward in pyramid or monolithic shapes decorated by symbols and etch work. It was all but covered in black ash, and crumbled. Everything here has since been slowly buried or eroded by the endless lifeless winds blowing about sand and dust.
Krystal looked on her digitized map, and saw what was clearly a Cornerian building; box-like unlike the others sitting at a street intersection of the city.
Like her, it was of another culture standing among inhabitants of a different world, an alien to all others.
The buildings lay in a sea of dust as her Arwing hovered in a short ways in an opening not far from the Cornerian embassy; rising from the dust at an angle, and crumbled inward in places. The Arwing's landing gear shifted outward like spindly legs as it landed, dust being thrown about created a grayish shroud around it.
The hatch whined open and Krystal hung from the lip of the cock-pit before setting her feet down on the soft snow-like carpet of ash and dust. She hit a button on the side of the Arwing and her hatch closed.
There were pillars of smoke in the distance, rising from the still-smoldering ruin. There were flakes of dust coming down like snow as she walked toward the building. She drew her staff, and walked with it like a third leg. Her cape, and tail fur fluttered with the wind as she walked. Other than the huffing blow of her air supply, through her helmet it was near silence and the blowing of low, dead wind.
She stood at the set of dual doors, she held her staff forward, and drove the spade of her staff through the crack between the doors, and roughly shoved her staff, splitting the doorway by force. She pried it open, digging her fingers through the doors and shoving them open with the grinding of the door rails, light cascaded inward in beams, lighting up a dusty marble floor surrounded by darkness.
She tapped her staff, and the gem ornament in the spade lit up brightly as she entered the building.
There managed to be a decent amount of light as she walked through, despite it was the Cornerian embassy, there were brilliant statues depicting beautiful male and female figures of stone, Cerenian figures stood tall and proud, holding staffs and other primitive weapons. By just looking at them, and how similar she looked to the Cerenian girl statues, she instantly felt she had fit somewhere.
The Floor was covered in patches of dust and piles of rubble, the place was a mess.
Suddenly, she almost stumbled on one of the dust piles, there were sticks, or barbs there. "Upmff.." Krystal grunted, frustrated from her trip.
She looked down and moved her illuminating staff about, casting light across the floor when her heart became as ice by what she saw, and began to notice all around her as she stood in the middle of the marbled floor. She let out a loud, frightened gasp that echoed off the walls.
She was surrounded by dusty skeletal remains of men, women and children, sprawled out all over, the room here was filled with hundreds of them, most of which faced inward away from the entrance as she looked about, gasping and wincing in fright.
"Aiighh!..." she cried to herself. She began to notice that they were laid out as they were fleeing into the building by the dozens, maybe the hundreds, there was little space in the marble floor without Cerenian bodies laying.
"Krystal, are you okay? Keep in mind your audio was on.." Says Peppy, his relaxed old voice seemed almost soothing, shortly after hearing him her heart began to slow back down.
"Y-...you were right Peppy.." she says in a huff.
"I was right? I know I'm always right, but about what?" he asks.
"...Peppy...there are people's remains in here..." says Krystal. She heard an audible gasp from Peppy.
"Are you okay, Krystal? If you want to abort, there's no shame...few can handle such a sight..." says Peppy.
"No Peppy, for these people here I must complete my mission." says Krystal sternly.
"Copy that..." says Peppy.
"Peppy...it looks like they...were running from something, as though they saw something...they were all destroyed at once.." says Krystal.
"Based on your observations?" Peppy asks.
"Sad thing is... this should have been investigated long ago, your assessment is probably the best data we have...I'm sorry it has to be you." says Peppy.
"It's okay, Peppy.." Her voice replies with audible choking, Krystal began blinking repeatedly as she fought back tears, wanting so badly to be as tough as the others. Peppy sat at the console as did Slippy, in utter silence, Peppy's old heart sank to his stomach as he heard her voice.
"..Krystal, just find the teleporter, activate it, and get out of there..." he says.
"Yes sir." says Krystal.
She strolled on, walking down a columned corridor, wide but with a ceiling only a couple of feet above her head, the metal grated columns were bent and twisted as the ceiling was slanted and rolling in places from collapse.
The floors, ceiling, and walls were decorated in a way almost identical to the Krazoan temples on Sauria; Krystal made note of this in her mind, as did her video record, being shown to Slippy and Peppy back on Eladard. It felt surreal that the décor of the interior was Cerenian, inside a Cornerian styled building, even if it were decades older than the other buildings built by Cornerians; they usually had an angular, sleek style to them.
Before long, there was a slightly larger square room with a low teleporter, it was a grated platform beneath a mirror imaged platform, but it projected no light.
Krystal looked around before she finally spotted a plate on he floor with a plug-in hole vaguely similar to her staff.
She stood over it, and pressed the tip of her staff into it, and her staff began to glow with violet flickers of energy, sparking in through the floor, the hieroglyphs on the floor, ceiling and walls erupted into blue light, and crystals that hung from the ceiling lit up in a blue color.
Streams of light in grooves carved into the ceiling beamed toward the teleporter at the center of the ceiling and floor, lit up blue and their familiar lights began flashing on.
The floor panel lit up as well, it began to hum. Krystal drew her staff from the plug-in.
"The teleporter is activated." says Krystal.
"Good, at Corneria base there is a similar set up...guess you'd have to activate the other end yourself." says Peppy.
"Understood...I'm heading out, Peppy..." says Krystal.
Suddenly, something flashed before her eyes, and Krystal felt herself fall into a vision. An image of an old-ape man face flashed before her, harassing her in her mind, laughing in a disturbing, inhuman voice before her, the voice similar to that she heard speaking to her and Fox when they first met. Krystal pressed her hands to her head.
"Ugh!.." she growls. She felt it strange that she wasn't even frightened or surprised during the vision, as though it had happened before in a dream while she was asleep, repetitively.
"What is this?..." she thought to herself.
Suddenly, as though she had woken up from a deep sleep, still standing in the room as though time was frozen and again began ticking. She let out a breath as though she were holding it in.
"Is something wrong, Krystal?" Slippy asks.
"Nothing, it's fine. I was just on my way out." says Krystal.
"Okey dokey!" Says Slippy in the scratchy com-link.
The Arwing took off from the city ruin, and Krystal undid her helmet as she sat in the cock-pit, her other hand glued to her control sticks, her eyes hung half-open, and she was silent. As were Peppy, Slippy, and even Rob64, at least until she approached the dropship.
"Prepare to dock." Says Rob64.
"Ready!" says Krystal with a forceful raise of her voice as she hovered below the dropship.
In a sprawling metropolis on Venom, known as New Venom City, built around statues of Andross carved over ancient structures, buildings rose into the sky, and elevated bridges and roads were filled with speeding, hovering cars. The buildings were decorated by neon lights and sleazy holographic advertisements.
The city was populated largely by ape and monkey species, with other reptilian individuals walking about cheerfully in a passive casual lifestyle. News media projected on large screens depicting their smiling friendly leader Dash Bowman, meeting with other members of the Lylat System, the news stories praised him as a figure of progress in a post-war Lylat System.
In a small scrappy pub in the downtown area of the city, Falco and Katt walked in through the front door laughing, excitedly sat down at a cozy booth beside each other.
"Well, at least we know the police here ain't fast." says Falco with a chuckle.
"Fast? You drove off a bridge platform onto another, and ran inward from traffic." Katt says with a sneering look on her face, angling her smiling lips, and raising her eyebrows. Falco was clad in a black leather jacket and pants, with knee high boots, and a red headband while Katt wore a scandalous short skirt, leather boots and knuckled gloves as they sat hunched in the corner.
"Whatever, it did the trick, anything else you'd like to do tonight?" Falco asks.
"...Falco, why are suddenly so interested in what I'm doing?" Katt asks.
"C'mon Katt I've always been interested...just that there's not a whole lot going on now, and, I got time on my hands." says Falco as he raises his hands and shrugs, resting his elbow on the table.
A female chameleon stood by with a note-card, her squinted eyes watching the two of them. Falco gave her a perturbed glance and smiled cheekily.
"Oh sorry, two drinks please." says Falco as he raises two fingers.
"Jeesh, these chameleons creep me out, thought it was Leon standing there for a second." Falco mutters. Katt narrows her eyes at him and back hands him in the arm.
"Aahh, hey!" Falco complains as she whacks him.
"She's just doing her job, Falco... Now do yours, and let me in." she complains.
"Well if you really need to know...ever since the wars ended the StarFox team went back to being sorta dull, that's literally it, Katt." says Falco.
"That's not what I remember..." says Katt. "Have you heard from Fox lately?" she asks as she leans back against the booth sofa, as she flicks Falco's feathery hand, causing his finger to flinch.
"Not exactly, whenever I try to contact him he just blows us off, both me and Slippy." says Falco, as he turns his head and rests his beak in the palm of his hand.
"There's probably something wrong with him, don't you think you should talk to him?" Katt asks.
"I've tried alright?" Falco whines.
"Well try harder, he's your friend." says Katt.
"I dunno..." says Falco.
"What are the others doing lately?" Katt asks.
"I dunno..." says Falco.
"Aww, c'mon Falco, let me back in!" says Katt. "I just want to get invested in your life." says Katt.
"There's not that much to invest in." says Falco.
"I think there is, why don't we go talk to him together?" Katt asks.
"Ehh...maybe tomorrow night." says Falco.
"Do you think it's because of how distant Krystal's been?" Katt asks. "If it's rejection from someone painted blue who isn't interested in you than I totally understand his feelings." says Katt.
"Hey, it's not that I'm not interested alright?" says Falco.
Katt smiles warmly and leans in on Falco.
"You know for a slacker you sure try hard to hide yourself." says Katt.
Yeah that's just- wait..." Falco says as he narrows his red-lined eyes, looking across the pub, at a booth further down, he recognized four sitting in a booth near the window on the other side of the bar. He could see Panther's face and the back of Wolf's head among others. The same chameleon maid stood at their booth, Panther leaning out into the aisles to eye her up with a lustful grin. Falco could vaguely make out, Wolf putting his hand to his forehead in embarrassment, thankfully while the waitress didn't notice as she was scribbling away at the note-card.
"It's StarWolf...over there." says Falco as he tilts his head upward, signaling toward them.
"Huh?" says Katt as she stood up and turned her head to see, Falco takes her arm and nudges her to sit back down.
"Wait, stay down." says Falco.
"Hey, they're the ones with the bounties on their heads..." says Katt.
"I don't think that applies here on Venom.." Falco says lowly as he crouches himself down beneath the seats of the booth, as does Katt.
"New Venom...I thought they were with us now." says Katt.
"I dunno, that Dash guy never quite clicked right with me, he's...a Venomian after all." says Falco.
"That's not stereotyping them at all.." says Katt with a sarcastic tone.
"Plus StarWolf sorta has us outnumbered right now, I guess it might not be a good idea to pick a fight here." he says.
"I thought you were supposed to be a tough guy." says Katt as she smiles on Falco.
"What could they be discussing.." says Falco as he watches them. He wondered what they were talking about, it didn't seem casual that they all had dark, focused expressions on their faces whenever he looked up at them. Falco automatically came to the conclusion that they were scheming.
