This story begins five years after the "G-Zero Prix" ending of Star Fox: Command. If you have yet to reach that ending or have no ide what I'm talking about, I recommend looking it up and learning what happens in order to fully understand this story. Thanks guys.

Star Fox is the property of Nintendo. I have no ownership of Star Fox or any of it's copyrighted material (yet).

The sound of other racing vehicles roaring their formula-devouring engines beside, behind, and, as for one racer, ahead of him faded into all but a hum as he literally flew around the track at speeds that at one point in time he had trouble believing were possible. The crowd was going nuts for both him and his racing partner out in the sun drenched stands as he just barely trailed behind his close friend, but he didn't take the risk of having a moment to enjoy it in fear that it would cause him to lose an ounce of concentration.

The thrill of being so close, so close to getting that win was almost as exciting as attaining the victory itself. He watched the all-too-familiar vehicle ahead very closely, not willing even for a second to turn his eyes away. He had two laps left, now- mere seconds to get ahead. He wasn't determined to beat his partner nor had he made a conscious decision that he wasn't going to win. He couldn't afford to make a choice that his racer was meant to make for him.

He passed the line into the final lap with the nose of what was once his space-traveling pride and joy literally making contact with the right side of the leader's racer. He remained watchful, focused, and in that same position until he lost track of distance and passed the finish line in second place. Amused at his own lack of even distribution within focus, he laughed out loud at himself.

To think that five years ago this was just a stupid idea Falco had come up with on a whim, and now it was literally what Fox lived for. The memory of watching as machines turned his beloved Arwing into a G-Zero vehicle was only painful for awhile before he had realized just how it was that these pilots become so addicted to what they did every day.

The Fox from a few years ago, the one that was way too dedicated to his work and his responsibility of keeping the galaxy safe, would have never let his best friend talk him into this. But one thing led to another and here he was, happy as ever with his partner and a household name across the galaxy. His past endeavors hardly ever crossed his mind anymore, and when they did, the reminiscing was brief.

Memories that used to bring him unthinkable pain now just scurried by whenever they were threatened to be brought back up in his memory's depths- now, this was his life. He tried to stay in touch with his old friends; Peppy was much busier now that Pepper had passed away and he was trying to catch up on where he left off but he occasionally got back in touch with his old father-figure. Slippy showed up to watch a race from time to time, not so much anymore now that he was a full-time father but he certainly made his efforts. Other than that, the aspects of Fox's old life were just that- an old life. Nothing more, nothing less.

The crowd was cheering loudly as Falco waved and smiled triumphantly in the sea of confetti and flashing cameras as he stood victorious, holding his trophy on his shoulder in victory lane. Fox walked coolly towards him and Falco greeted him with a hardy chuckle. The camera zoomed in on the two as they exchanged a trademark fist bump, and the crowd went wild.

"Good racing, Foxie." Falco told him with a grin.

"Yep. All in a day's work." They slapped each other's backs and smiled for a picture.

With the vehicles parked away safely and the crowd basically cleared out, Fox and Falco were both clear for leave. They walked through a concrete tunnel to get to the parking lot where Falco's sporty ride waited them, and with the sky still bright blue, Fox was wondering if he could convince his closest friend for a ride to eat somewhere. Considering they were both probably starving, it wouldn't have been a hard task unless Falco had a date or something, which was likely.

Never one for the dating scene (though Falco could never figure out why), Fox kept his distance from possible relationships and any friendships he had with the opposite sex were, much often to the ladies' chagrin, kept strictly platonic. So when Falco went out with his newest encounter, Fox found himself at home alone with nothing to do, which was fine, he supposed, but tonight in particular he was really hungry.

Falco yawned as they reached the entrance to the tunnel. "Hungry?" he asked flatly.

"You read my mind." Fox replied, stuffing his hands in his jacket pockets, trudging up the slightly tilted upward tunnel alongside Falco.

The bird scoffed. "No, I just heard your stomach." He shot a cocky grin in Fox's direction. "Ever heard of a thing called breakfast?"

Fox shrugged. "I didn't really have time this morning."

"Dude, we left at ten. You had time."

Fox rolled his eyes, not entirely in the right mood for an argument. "Yeah well," he replied, looking downward as he walked. "Now's the time to make up for it."

Half expecting Falco to have some sort of reply (considering he usually did), Fox was a bit surprised to hear that Falco had none. What he was more surprised at, however, was to look back to see that Falco had stopped, staring in disbelief, brow furrowed, up at the other end of the tunnel.

Fox sharply followed his gaze and gasped.

"Peppy!" Falco called out before releasing a surprised laugh. "Hey, you old hare, is that you?"

Both men picked up their pace an exceptional amount to meet up with the General. Fox smiled widely at the sight of his old friend. So caught up in the excitement of seeing the hare, it was only until after he had received a friendly hug from Peppy that the idea that something might have been wrong actually crossed his mind.

Falco slapped Peppy's shoulder. "How have you been, buddy?"

Peppy sighed and smiled. "Busy as always. Retirement just isn't in the stars, I guess."

Fox laughed at him. "You have some insane responsibility now, huh?"

Peppy shrugged. "I guess that's what you'd call it." But he shook his head, almost as if to stop himself from continuing the greetings and to change the subject. Noticing this, both Fox and Falco's smiles faltered. "But boys, I'm afraid I didn't come to catch up."

Fox felt his heart drop. Something was wrong, or someone was dead, or something negative was afoot. He didn't dare further the conversation in fear of what it might lead to, so Falco did it for him. "Something wrong?"

Peppy sighed and turned to walk out. "Come, let's walk this way." Fox and Falco exchanged a worried glance but nonetheless followed suit. Peppy walked slowly up the rest of the tunnel and back into the sunlight slowly, the pilots following closely.

"It would seem that you two have made some pretty big names for yourselves." He said as he lifted his face to get some sun. "You're both successful and very well you should be- you've got a thing for public eye, you know." Fox bit his lip and Falco noticed, so he bumped his shoulder reassuringly. The vulpine pilot just shook his head.

"But-" and there it was. Both pilots held their breath. "-it's necessary, and I almost hate to do this, to ask you leave that life for some important matters."

The two friends exchanged a quick, confused glance behind Peppy. The hare turned around and looked at both of them, one after the other, straight in the eye before he continued. "Listen to me very closely, gentlemen." He held a very commanding, authoritative stance, as if Fox and Falco had never been his teammates, or his friends, but as if this were a General commanding his troops. "Our communications unit has received foul hints that Corneria will be invaded soon, as will the rest of Lylat."

Fox didn't know how to feel. He was relieved that this wasn't something personal, but he knew where this conversation was going to lead.

"We're in desperate need of people we can trust to protect us, to be there when they hear the call." He sighed, dropping his demeanor a bit. "I don't want to have to drag you away from the life you both have worked so hard to build." He shook his head. "But I have no choice but to ask if you would come assist us."

Fox and Falco were silent for awhile before Peppy tried again. "Believe it or not we haven't had a threat like this before. All of our other attacks have been things that we can handle on our own, but we need some experienced soldiers to defend Corneria, because that seems to be their main target." He searched their eyes for an answer, found none, and continued. "The Star Fox team," Fox almost cringed at the sound of it, "is my personal best bet in keeping the planet safe. Now obviously Slippy is starting a family, so I didn't have the heart to ask him to join us." The gray hare just sighed. "So I came to you two."

Falco put up a hand to stop him. "No disrespect, buddy, but you've got Star Wolf, remember?" Falco put a sarcastic tint on the phrase. "I thought they were your heroes in shining armor now."

Peppy sensed the sarcasm and glared at the younger pilot. "That was five years ago, Falco." He said, almost belittlingly. "They're still acceptable residents of Corneria, but that's basically all they are." He looked to the side, as if in embarrassment. "If we asked, they would help us, but that's not the point." Fox was still a bit angry, but he understood. "We don't trust them with the information it's necessary they know in order to protect Corneria."

"This job is different then the rest." He said, returning his gaze back to the younger men. "I need someone I can trust." As he said this he looked specifically at Fox, who had remained silent this whole time.

Fox took the silence as his turn to speak. "I…" he couldn't look at Peppy as he said it, so he looked downward. "I've left that life behind me."

He could hear Peppy sigh in frustration and that made him cringe. The last thing he would ever want to do is disappoint him, of all people. "I'm sorry," Fox continued. "But, that's not who we are anymore."

He kicked the gravel below him, not wanting to disappoint Peppy and angry that Falco wasn't backing him up on this. "You're basically asking two G-Zero Prix racers to defend the Lylat System."

Peppy shook his head. "Not just any two Prix racers, Fox. I'm asking my two teammates, two of the finest pilots the galaxy's ever seen!"

Fox bit back a snark comment. He couldn't hurt Peppy, now matter how out of line the whole thing was. "I'm not…" he sighed. "I don't think I could even if I tried."

Peppy groaned in agony. "Fox, come on, now. We need you. Lylat needs you." Peppy put a hand on his shoulder to make his old teammate face him. "I need you."

The hare's eyes didn't lie- he honestly believed the only chance Lylat had was if Fox and Falco joined the fray. The shorter of the two pilots opened his mouth to speak but closed it and looked at Falco instead.

The blue avian returned his gaze and shook his head. "I'm with you no matter what." He told him. Fox felt warm at the comment for a short moment before he looked at Peppy's pleading gaze again.

Fox sighed. "I'll have to think about it."

Peppy took it for what it was worth. "I suppose that will have to do, then." He patted Fox's shoulder and smiled. "You have three days to make up your mind."

Fox blinked. "Are you sure there's not someone else?"

Falco scoffed. "Not like us, there isn't." He began walking in the direction of his car, grinning. "We could kick more ass then the whole Lylat defense system combined."

Peppy nodded in Falco's direction. "What he said."

An old burger shop that was known around town for it's insanely good French fries was just a short walk from the apartment the two shared together, so Falco parked his car at home and the two took a walk out in the fresh air to clear their heads in silence.

After dinner, the two walked out to find it was getting dark. Falco exchanged flirtatious glances with the waitress before the two headed on their way back to the apartment.

"Shortcut?"

Fox looked at him and then looked down the dark alleyway. "Sure."

The duo wordlessly made their way through the beginnings of the shortcut the two had found out in the five years they had lived in the insane city, and when they had exited the alleyway they were on a different road that was much less crowded at this time of night.

"You been thinking about what Peppy said?"

Of all the things to ask him at the time. "Yes and no."

His friend scoffed. "You either think about something or you don't, Foxie." He tightened his jacket around him, clearly getting chilly. "It's no more complicated then that."

"Well this is." Fox replied curtly. "I've been thinking about it without meaning to."

"How can you not?" he pulled a cigarette out of his back pocket and put it in between his beak. "This is kind of a big deal."

As Falco lit the blasted cylinder of nicotine Fox focused on the road ahead and watched as a shady character stood against the wall coolly. Not one to judge by circumstance or appearance without the necessity to do so, he just looked away after a while. "I don't think this is something we need to get caught back up in."

Falco shrugged and took a drag. "I couldn't care less."

The dark city streets were unwelcoming as thoughts and memories that usually didn't even come into play in the last five years were now threatening to break Fox's heart all over again. He didn't want to do this but at the same time he did. He wanted to remember what it was like to be needed again, but he never dreamed he would leave something he loved as much as racing behind.

But then again, he had thought that about flying too.

"We've worked too hard to get to where we are to just drop everything and go back to help people that suddenly decide they need us again." He wondered if now would be a good time to start smoking. Because he was needing something to get his mind off of this. "At the same time, though, I… I want to help Peppy. That's the only reason I'm even considering this."

"If it were anyone but him, I-" he stopped dead in his tracks. "Hey! HEY!"

Falco looked at him like he were a maniac before swiftly turning to see where it was Fox was staring at in horror. The same shady figure that Fox had been watching carefully earlier was trying to wrestle a purse away from a young canine female.

Without thinking twice both boys raced over, and upon seeing the two of them the thief pulled the purse away and ran into the alleyway behind him.

Fox turned the corner swiftly in hot pursuit, Falco right beside him, the blood in both of them pumping and the anger in Fox's face terrifying even to his friend.

They alleyway was a dead end, unfortunately for their criminal in question, and Falco watched with his arms crossed as Fox grabbed him by the collar and slammed him against the wall.

"The hell's the matter with you?" he asked through gritted teeth. "Hurting innocent people, you worthless punk. People like you make me so sick." He released the man and kicked him hard in the groin, causing Falco to wince. "I felt that!" he called as the criminal sunk to the ground in pain.

Fox returned the purse to the young woman and told her to hurry home, which she did aptly after thanking both men generously and asking how she could ever return the favor.

"Get your ass home." Falco told her with a kind smile. "Get out of harm's way and don't take this road again, and we'll be even."

The floppy-eared woman had giggled and had done so. As the two young men watched as she safely ducked into an apartment building, Fox heard Falco start to chuckle as he smashed a cigarette under his shoe.

He looked up at him sharply. "What?" he aked. "Something funny?"

Falco raised an eyebrow at him. "You know you want this." He said with a smile. "You're a hero without even trying to be one." He walked ahead of Fox as his racing partner just stared at him. "Do yourself a favor and finally just admit that you miss beating the shit out of worthless scum like that guy."

Fox sighed and followed Falco to their home, with his hands in his pockets and his eyes to the ground below.

The bird tossed his cell phone to his roommate and best friend when they had gotten home. "I'm gonna jump in the shower. Call Fluffy and tell him we'll be there for a briefing whenever he's ready for us."

Fox held back his comment about how late it was knowing that it wouldn't matter either way.