Some years ago, in the Lylat system, the Cornerian fleet was under attack by a race of disgusting, horrific, and indescribably powerful creatures. These were the Aparoids. The Starfox team managed to deliver a potion to the queen, so that she, along with the rest of the Aparoids, would be destroyed. This story takes place exactly one year from that day.
"Man, what is this stuff?" Fox was asking himself as he tended to his fallen comrade. He and Falco had been exploring the snowy planet, Fichina, due to some strange reports. The local inhabitants had claimed to have seen some strange aliens invading the weather tower. Peppy had assigned Fox and Falco do go on foot, and Krystal and Slippy to scour the skies.
When the team had reached the planet, Fox and Falco landed their Arwings outside the weather tower. They snuck in, letting Falco go first, since he was the fastest and quietest. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough to see what was coming. Falco was pounced on by a giant alien creature, it's black and crimson tentacles wrapping around his arms and legs, leaving him helpless. Slippy and Krystal managed to blow it to bits from their Arwings, but not before the creature had seeped some of itself into Falco's bloodstream.
Fox rushed over to the blue bird, which was slowly turning black and red. "This seems familiar…where have I seen this before?" Fox asked himself; he couldn't remember everything under the current circumstances. He hoisted Falco over his shoulder and brought him to his Arwing. They took off toward the Great Fox, leaving the other two to deal with the rest of the aliens.
Fox gave his friend's limp, cold body to Peppy. He could figure it out, no doubt. "You're not going to believe this, Fox," Peppy muttered, "but I know where this came from. Falco…has been infected by the Aparoids, just like Pigma was."
"That's impossible!" Fox shouted, "We destroyed them all when we destroyed the queen! They were all linked to her! Unless…" Fox pondered the idea for a moment.
Peppy took a sample of Falco's blood and put it under a microscope. "It seems," he said, "that there were some Aparoids that weren't linked to the queen. They must be rouge Aparoids. Luckily, since you got him here so quickly, I can take a sample of Falco's blood to create an antidote."
Fox watched as his friend began to wither away, and his eyes turn a bright shade of red. He could swear it looked like his soul was being sucked from his body. "It's finished!" Peppy yelled, "And it only took me a few hours."
Peppy administered the antidote through a syringe into Falco's neck. In only a matter of minutes, the bird was back on his feet again. "What happened?" he asked his team mates.
"You were infected by some sort of rouge Aparoids," Fox said, "but luckily, Peppy made an antidote, so now you're…"
He was cut off by a scream from down the hallway. Slippy ran into the room, lasers firing left and right. "It's Krystal," he yelled, "she's in some sort of a trance. She turned all red and started to…"
Slippy stopped in the middle of his sentence when a long, red tentacle pierced his stomach. It came from a creature in the hallway. It came from…Krystal, at least, what used to be Krystal. She too was now infected by the Aparoids. Slippy fell to the floor with a thud, and the rest of the team started to run to the Arwings.
In an instant, Slippy was back on his feet, infected like Krystal, and shot out a long, sharp tongue at Peppy. It hit him in the chest, and he too fell. "You two remember…" he said with his final breath, "the antidote is still in the ship! You have to…" He couldn't get any more words out; his body was no longer his own.
All of a sudden, there were only two left. Fox and Falco ducked behind the corner. "We need to get to the Arwings," Falco said, "they're our only hope to get outta here!"
"No," Fox yelled, "we have to get the antidote!" And with that, he ran around the corner, heading for the lab.
"Ah, who needs him…" Falco started, when Fox's pierced body fell next to him. He looked around the corner, but there was nobody there. He thought to himself, Who could have done this? He had absolutely no explanation for how Fox had become infected, something he didn't like to admit often. But he had no choice. He had to get to the Arwings.
As he ran, his teammates stumbled after him; Slippy, Fox, Peppy, Krystal, all shells of their former selves. As he ran, Fox shot out a tentacle which pierced Falco's arm. "Ah, you gotta be kidding me…" But he didn't become a lifeless Aparoid like the others. He figured that the antidote must be permanent.
He finally got to the docking bay, and he hopped in his ship and took off. He didn't know what was going to happen to the rest of his crew, but he did know one thing…
"I'm going to stop this Aparoid infection," he muttered, "if it's the last thing I do."
