Challenging Yourself
Author Notes: This story is based off the original ending of Star Fox: Command when you play through the game for the first time. I plan on making this a pretty long and continuing story, but that all depends on the popularity and my will to write, which at the moment is pretty good. I worked hard on this and it is my first attempted at writing in the Star Fox universe. I'm usually a Sonic only artist, but I have gained a new appreciation for Fox as of late, so here is my first attempt. I hope you all enjoy it. Not sure if the name of the fic is the best in the world, but it is all I could come up with.
Chapter 1: The Message
It has been nearly ten months since the Anglar invasion was thwarted from their invasion of the Lylat system. Things have really changed since then, some for the better and some for the worse. The federation has been rebuilding their fleet slowly but surely and reclaiming their control and presence on the planets in the system. Things were a little rocky at first, the usual fighting over funds and which programs got to be rebuilt first, but by now, the majority of the programs were nearing completion or partial completion.
Peace and order has finally been restored to the planet Venom. With the water now no longer hazardous and the planet seemingly safer, rebuilding there has commenced, as well as the building a new federation base as well, more of a safe guard for the future, because of the planets history. There may not be that many people on the planet at the moment, but this safe guard was deemed necessary after the several invasion and hostile forces that have been able to accumulate there without the federations notice. This base was going to be meant to prevent this from ever happening again.
Team Star Fox remains in active duty during the reconstruction since they are all still together and in pretty good shape even after all the problems during the invasion. They would go from planet to planet as ordered to, to check out suspicious activities and repel any rebels or outlaws that thought it good to attack the rebuilding federation or innocents in the cities.
Though there was a bit of a change with the team now though since Krystal was still gone from the team. After she ran away from the team yet again and returned to Star Wolf, she hasn't really been seen or heard from since. It was assumed that she was still with the group and most likely dating Panther Caruso from the last few things she told Fox. The team wandered around for awhile on just three members getting along great, though after awhile, they were approached by Katt Monroe who was wishing to join the team to take the place of the departed Krystal.
Katt had always wished to join up with the team to be near to Falco, though this idea did change after awhile when she wanted to expand her flying skills to an even more professional level that the rest of the team was at. Fox had really not cared at first when she wanted to join but Falco had some complaints at first concerning her all ways being around them. This did change after she had been
around for a month, though he still acts sometimes like she shouldn't be in the group, he does seem to act at least a little calmer when they are flying with her around, though it was never much to make much a difference with him.
The team seemed pretty stable now and the system stable as well. There has really not been that much trouble, and even Star Wolf had not been heard from since the invasion. It was if they had disappeared for awhile, which with most people was a good thing. No bounty had ever been put on Krystal's head as of yet since she had joined the team, but the others knew it was only a matter of time if she started participating in the acts that the others had committed in their time during their time in the team. This did worry Fox, and kind of eat at him from time to time, but he was trying to move on the best he could, though this was not having much success since he really didn't want her to leave after he had apologized to her.
It seemed Fox had definitely been affected by her leaving and basically abandoning her after he tried to apologize for what he had done to her, but it seemed she no longer wanted to be with him and it was hurting. Peppy and Slippy were constantly trying to get his mind off of her whenever they would return to Corneria. They would try and make him get out and maybe meet someone else, but any place they would take him, he would just be staring at the walls or ignoring the people that were being introduced to him, his mind constantly wandering off to Krystal once again, since she was the person has had shared his feelings with at one time and now was alone once again.
When Fox was working or partaking in a mission he seemed to be his normal self and would get the job done with the utmost precision and success. Though the second he would return to the ship, he would usually lock himself inside his room for the rest of the day. It seemed he didn't carry much joy as he used too and would only show his seriousness when he really wanted to. The others were kind of concerned with this, but just hoping it would eventually pass. That is what all of them think and are hoping for.
At the current time, the Great Fox is floating just outside the atmosphere of the planet Corneria. Team Star Fox had currently come from a debriefing down in the planet after their last mission where they had to go after a small band of rebels on the nearby planet Katina. It only lasted a few moments, when the rebels foolishly tried to attack the Great Fox in just four small well out of date space fighters. They had never stood a chance against them, but had been causing some pretty good problems for the people rebuilding their homes in this region since they were finally returning to their homes after so long of being away.
The team was planning on just staying here and resting for the rest of the day before heading further into space to go on patrol for anything that looked out of the ordinary and for now it looked like just that was what they were going to be doing for today. Fox was currently locked up inside his room as usual. Inside he was laying on his bed still fully clothed and looking out his large window next to his bed just staring into space. He did this a lot and always wondering what was becoming of his life. He was the hero of the system for his constant service in protecting everyone several times now. He had a
successful team that was in constant need because of their expert pilots, and he had several friends that cared about him. Yet he still had this empty feeling inside of him.
He knew what it was, but could never do a thing about it seemed. Ever since Krystal had run off and not been seen in awhile, he constantly wondered if she was still safe and alive. He also wondered if she was doing the horrible deeds known to be done by members of Star Wolf. He always just laid here on his bed looking out the window staring into space to see if he would ever get a glimpse of her again. He knew that was possible never going to happen, but he always prayed for a miracle that maybe he would one day as she returned to him and never leave again.
He has been doing this for so long that he cannot remember when he started or half the time when a whole night had passed of doing this and not getting one wink of sleep until he was summoned out of the room for some reason, that had to be important. If it was not an emergency, he tended to just let the others handle it when they could; he was just too upset to come out unless it was urgent.
Up on the bridge, Slippy is sitting at the computers checking over the Great Fox to make sure everything was in working order. Katt is sitting on the other side of the bridge watching monitors and manning the communication network at the moment. These monitors helping her check their position to make sure they were at where they were supposed to be and maintaining that position as well. The Robot ROB was programmed at the moments to maintain their current course of orbit around the planet and report any dangers to their ship. Falco was absent from the bridge at the moment though, he excusing himself to kitchen of the ship to get himself something to eat, since he was bored with bridge duty at the moment.
Everything was quiet and continued to be quiet all around the ship. Just the occasional clangs of little rocks outside knocking at the hull of the ship or the beeps and noises of circuits working was all that was being heard. No was really talking at the moment, or wanting to talk. It had been a very tiring day having to go down to the planet and listen to a general talk for about an hour telling them how they had done a good job and to apologize for sending them on such easy missions. It was mainly because regular Cornerian forces were busy elsewhere at the moment and they were the quickest in range of the planet.
Who knew that the federation had been hurt so hard by the Anglar invasion that it was taking this long to fix all the repairs and train enough new recruits to fill all the space lost during the war. They all knew it was going to take awhile, but this was taking quite a bit longer than normal. Apparently that was because of the so many invasions, people were starting to become a bit wary about joining up, since it most likely could mean your death at some point if you joined. It took the governments a long while to convince people that there was no longer any threat to the system that would guarantee them seeing combat. It did work, but it was working at a very slow pace, since many people still didn't believe them in this.
Everyone sat there on the bridge before a small beep starts to happen over at Katt's station. The communicators were going off, someone seemed to be wanting to contact them. "Slippy, we have an incoming transmission, source unknown, it is being blocked." says Katt relaying what she was getting
from the communicators. Slippy starts to pound on his keyboards he trying to pick up where the signal was coming from very quickly, but ran into a jammer the moment he tried to, it seemed the source of the transmission didn't want to be found. "I can't find the source either, can you tell what the person on the other end wants." he asked her spinning his chair around to face her as she presses a few buttons. "It won't give that information either, you better get fox up here, no telling who this is." Say Katt turning to face him. "Don't worry, I'll just send him a quick message down to his room to tell him to come up right away." says Slippy and starts to type up a message that would get Fox's attention, he placing it under urgent since there was no telling who the sender was.
Down in Fox's room, he is still laying there on his bed staring out the window. His mind was lost in thought he barely hearing his computer near his bed beeping with an urgent alert on it. Fox almost didn't hear it, but it eventually broke his concentration as he leans up and sees the urgent alert on the screen and shakes his head aggravated wondering what it was this time. He clicks the computer to give the people upstairs that he got the message and would be up shortly to see what they want. He really wasn't in the mood at the moment to go up and deal with some emergency or whatever it was, but he knew he better or Slippy would be pounding on his door like a madman and he would rather avoid that whole situation after a day like today.
Fox slipped his boots back onto his feet and walks over pressing the button to make his door slide open and he step out into the hallway so that he could make his way towards the bridge. He doesn't say one word as he is walking down the hallway, just the metal clangs of the floor making noise as he walks. He really wasn't in the mood for this, but he was doing it anyway. He would rather still be back there in his room looking out his window day dreaming, but of course, duty was calling once again for him.
It took Fox nearly five minutes before the door slides open to the bridge and he walks onto it the others looking at him as he enters. The communication center was still beeping as well too. Apparently whoever was on the other end of it was patient enough to wait for Fox to get there and not just go away. "Now, what is this big emergency that needed my attention so urgently Slippy? I was about to try and get some sleep soon." he says lying to him to kind of suddenly since he really didn't want to be up here at the moment. Slippy was a little caught off guard with this attitude towards him so suddenly like this, but he kind of could understand that he would be upset too if he was called up here like this when he was trying to sleep as well.
Katt looks up to Fox and gets his attention. "We have a communication coming in with blocked signal that we can't track. We have no clue who it is, so we thought it best to get you up here before we activated it, though we did sent a response back to be patient, so they should be still on the line." she tells him right away looking back at him. Fox hears this and nods and goes over and sits in the main captain's chair of the craft and looks up towards the big windows all around him. "Activate the monitors and let's see who our mysterious caller is then." he says in such an uninterested voice that sounds as if he wouldn't mind just leaving them on hold forever. Fox though got a very big shock once the monitors popped on and showed the person on the other end staring back at him. It was none other than his rival
Wolf O'Donnell staring right back at him with those same eyes he always has ever since they started being in competition with each other so long ago.
"Took you long enough to answer Fox." he says sounding kind of ticked off at having to wait so long for a response from them. "What, did I catch you in the middle of bed time?" he says just grinning and kind of insults everyone in the room, who were now all looking up at the monitors as well, but Fox looks quite angry as he is staring at the screen with Wolf on it. "What do you want Wolf, you come to finally surrender to us?" he asks already knowing the answer to that , but wanting Wolf to just get on with it, so he didn't have to sit there and look at his face any longer than he had to. It seemed just seeing Wolf was making Fox steamed for some reason, though he was trying his best to hide it. "Fat chance, but I have something far more interesting to propose to you Fox." he says looking only at Fox, ignoring the other two in the room looking right at him as well. "I'm listening and make it quick." says Fox just sitting there trying to look calm.
"Kind of moody today are we?" says Wolf and just chuckles some he kind of liking seeing Fox like this, since it made him not look all high and mighty and in control as he would like to be in most situations. "I said hurry up or I'm cutting this line." says Fox in a more aggressive tone towards Wolf. The two of them are usually calm to one another when they talked like this, but Fox was just not himself lately as he glared back at Wolf at the moment. "Fine, if you wish to just get down to business, I'll do just that. I am calling for a battle, just you and me, no tricks or funny business, just you and me. I will leave my partners behind if you do the same." Says Wolf and just watches to see the others reactions to this. It certainly did get the others attention at hearing this, especially Fox who was grinning at this. "You want a fight, fine, name the place and time and I'll be there Wolf." he says just looking back at the screen still trying to keep his composure as he looked at one of the people he was most angry at, at the moment.
"Good, good, just what I wanted you to say. Now, you better get this recorded, because I'm only saying it once you got that." says Wolf and just waits for a moment before continuing. "If you wish to heed my challenge then meet me tomorrow on Fichina at midday. No matter the weather conditions there I will be waiting, so you better show up. If you don't, I will quickly spread it around that you denied a fair challenge to your combat skills, and I'm sure you don't want that." he says knowing this will most likely get him to come since he knows that if the Star Fox team doesn't keep up their reputation then they will lose respect, which might cause more troubles that they didn't need. "I'll be there." says Fox right away before consulting the others which kind of shocked them since they usually consulted about matters like this. "Good, I'll be waiting." says Wolf before the feed cuts and the screen goes black.
"Fox, you can't be serious, that is obviously a trap." says Slippy standing up from his seat to emphasize how much he thought his theory was the right one. "Slippy's right Fox, this has to be a trap. No way would Wolf just submit to a fair fight out of the blue without having come up with some plane beforehand." says Katt. "Yeah, what she said, you need to listen to us Fox, we need to come up with a plan of defense in case Wolf tries to pull something on you if we are to go." says Slippy still standing near the railing of the seat Fox sat in not moving at all or even looking at them as the two of them talk to them.
Fox remains quiet for a bit more as they continues to lecture him on how it was most likely a trap before he just looks over towards both of them and just shakes his head. "I'm going." he says simply leaving the both of them in shock at this response. "What! No way Fox, this is dangerous. Even I can spot this trap." says Slippy, though that didn't really mean that much since Slippy can fall into even the most obvious traps at times. Katt just shakes Fox off and goes back and sits In her seat once again, she seeing she wasn't going to be getting through to him, and wasn't going to waist her time like Slippy seemed to be. "If he wants to go, we can't stop him." she says simply to Slippy to try and make him shut up about this.
Just then the door to the bridge slides open as Falco finally is returning to the bridge he hearing all the yelling and complaints on his way there. "What is the deal with all the noise I heard coming from in here?" he asks simply stepping onto the bridge he kind of not wanting to deal with things like this at the moment. Slippy doesn't waste time to tell him, since he was most likely not going to get a response from Fox who was still staring up towards where the monitors were like he was looking for something he couldn't see. He had been like that since the screen had turned off, he hasn't even moved away from looking yet. "We just got contacted by Wolf, and he gave Fox a flying challenge for tomorrow, and he's actually thinking about going!" says Slippy, he expecting Falco to get on his side of this. Katt no longer responding to him, she now actually ignoring him.
Falco looked at Slippy when he says that and back at Fox and just gives a simple shrug and seemed to almost be looking past Slippy now. "Hey, if Fox wants to take him on, I'd say let him. Sure it might be a trap, but if you are challenge, you have to accept or else you are not worthy to be flying around in your ship with honor. I know if I was challenged like that I would be wanting it to be sooner rather than later." says Falco right away, he barely even thinking about it, but there really wasn't a need to in this matter.
Slippy was now looking like he was in shock now. Yet again, someone had ignored his suggestion in favor of going for the challenge. He could see that no one was listening to his suggestions and just finally goes over and sits back down. He knows this is very suspicious but no one is listening to him. If this was a trap then they were going to be very unprepared to react to it, but no one seemed concerned about it, not even Fox, who was still staring up into space.
After about ten minutes of silence he finally spoke. "Rob, set a course Fichina." says Fox suddenly he breaking the silence that had been in the room now. The others all look to him as he says this, it showing that he definitely was intent on going to take this challenge, much to the concerns of his friend Slippy. Fox's robot starts to press in some buttons and coordinates for them to take towards the desired planet and confirms to his owner. "Affirmative, course to the Planet Fichina confirmed." says Rob as the ship gives a small kick at the engines kick on and it starts to move towards the direction the ship should be moving in to head to the designated destination.
"Estimated time of arrival Rob?" asked Fox looking over at him, as Rob presses a few buttons upon hearing the new request. "Arrival at normal thruster speed is five hours." says Rob after only a few button presses bring him to this conclusion, of which Fox approved of. They could have gotten there
much faster, but there was no rush since they didn't really need to be there until the next day, but better to get there early than to be late for something. The others seemed happy with this, since there were no complaints at all, so Fox assumes everything is good and stands up and walks to towards the door to the bridge. "I'm going back to my room. Call me once we arrive and I'll return to the bridge, I'm sure you guys can handle things until we get there." he says not even giving the others a chance to respond to him before he has already made his way out of the door, it closing quickly behind him.
The others all looked over at the door that Fox had just left out of off and then look back at each other. It was like they all were at least a little concerned for him, since he barely was spending any time with them at all or even that much time on the bridge at all. Slippy was always the most concerned about him, While Falco and Katt were a little less worried about him, figuring this would eventually pass. Though none of them knew this or not, but they did all figure it was still over Krystal since that is what at first brought him into this state.
Meanwhile, back in Fox's room, Fox was just returning into his room, the door sliding open and closed quickly as he entered the room. He locked it behind him, kicks his boots back off and lies back down onto his bed looking out the window like he had been doing earlier once again. This time though he had a few other thoughts running through his mind as he looks out into the endlessness of space. This message from Wolf couldn't have been any better than any other idea he had to probably see what has become of Krystal again. He was planning if he won to at least inquire about how Krystal had been doing this time, since he had not heard anything about her ever since she left. He didn't know if she would ever accept him back or not, but he at least still wanted to stay in contact with her. But with her in Star Wolf as she is, that was nearly impossible.
There would be no way Wolf or Panther would ever allow something like this and that just got at his mind even more making him wondering what he really should be doing now. He had friends and other people that really cared about him, but the person he cared about the most in the universe, didn't seem to return that same care back towards him, like she had at one point. He constantly blames himself for this, because if he had not been so stubborn in driving her away in an effort to protect her, most likely the two of them would still be together to this day. He constantly is reliving this moment in his sleep and inside his head and he easily seeing each time where he had gone wrong in doing so. He was just too stubborn for his own good. She was willing to take the risk of being in love with an ace pilot that could possible meet his end or her own end at any time, but he didn't think the same and drove her away.
Fox just stares out this window sighing and taking deep breaths as he let his thoughts continue to run through his mind. There was no way he was coming out of this room again at the moment until they reached their destination. That would give him the time he needed to get his thoughts together and his plan of attack. He knew Wolf wasn't going to be an easy opponent and no doubt he might play dirty a little bit, but with Wolf, anything was possible as he had seen in the last two invasion with Star Wolf had helped them out in defeating the Aparoid's and the Anglar's. This always made Fox think things could always change between the groups, but with their attitudes the majority of the time that was highly unlikely.
Fox lays there staring into space as he eyes slowly start to get heavy until they were fully shut. He hadn't planned on it, but he figured he should at least get a little rest since he was here so he wasn't tired for the encounter. He was going to need every bit of energy he could use before he took on Wolf one on one. Who knows, maybe this would be the final encounter, but if it was, he had to be prepared. Fox just lays there with his eyes closed listening the engine of the Great Fox for a few minutes before he drifts off to sleep. He just lays there resting, trying to get a peaceful night sleep for once, but his face and twitching was showing otherwise as he lays there. The challenge was only about a half a day away now, but is Fox prepared for it?