I do not own Star Fox nor any affiliates. I own only this story. Enjoy!

Star Fox: Bring Down the Walls

Prologue: Aftermath

Fox jumped out of his Arwing and onto the hard metal floor of the Great Fox's hangar. The impact caused his legs to wobble and nearly buckle. He bit down hard and sucked in his breath through clenched teeth as his entire body screamed in agony. His hand started to tremor and his right eye twitched and spasmed. Fox was was no doctor, but any working-class person worth his salts could diagnose his condition in a heartbeat. Exhaustion.

The mission to the planet, newly christened Sauria, was long, difficult, and extremely taxing to say the least. At times Fox was sure he was going to end up in the belly of some giant, carnivorous beast. Hell, he DID at one point get eaten by a giant, carnivorous beast. Making a punching bag of the freak of nature's uvula quickly fixed that, thankfully.

But really, if it wasn't for the assistance of another person whom knew the planet better than he, his 'adventure' would've ended before he had even left Thorntail Hollow. Sharpclaw, though complete idiots, had a tough and scaly hide. His fists would've broke long before they did. The other person was able to both guide him through unknown terrain while his ship's planetary scanner was... broken (more like blown cleanly off, courtesy of Leon of Star Wolf), and could more than handle themselves in a fight.

Okay, yes, Tricky was an occasional help. Despite his incessant questioning, the young prince had really grown on Fox, and none of his questions were too prying as to cause unbidden memories to flash in the todd's mind. Honestly, he had more tact than most politicians. However, Fox wasn't thinking of Tricky in this case.

What, or rather whom he truly owed for helping him out was the rather unique vixen that now sat in the back compartment of his Arwing, looking like how he felt.

Fox stretched out, cursing himself for forcing his body to go from constant exertion on a planet with about 1.1 gees (not much,, but it still wears you out faster), straight to the low gravity of space and sitting in a cockpit for nearly an hour. Glancing about the hangar, Fox glanced about the hangar, noting the three arwings that all sat suspended by outdated gravity stasis equipment, all of them in various states of disrepair. One in particular had recent gouge marks from the space battle that had been fought only 15 minutes ago. Falco's Skyclaw rested in the grav-field like itt had always been there, and not on a sudden and unannounced leave of absence.

Even after days of endless treking, fighting, and weathering a varity of extreme temperatures (and no showers!), said woman still looked quite stunning. Her hair was frazzled and caked with mud and dried blood, she looked slightly malnourished from a poor diet of strictly pukpuk eggs, and she had a deep gash along the outside of her right leg that she had sustained on their final run through Krazoa Palace. Without any kind of medical supplies left at that point in their journey, they had to make due with a bofamdad and a hastily made tourniquet using Fox's ascot. Despite all that, her outlandish and apparently natural blue fur really accentuated her more ah... womanly features.

Fox shook his head of such thoughts. Even more amazing, and quite possibly terrifying, was that Krystal, for that is what the azure vixen called herself, was a telepath. Though she claims to be inexperienced and untrained, he was still convinced that she would be able to pick up on anything he thought. Better to be safe than sorry as the old addage goes. It had also been a VERY long time since he had thought of someone else in such a way... Falco had even taken to calling him a eunuch. Sometimes, after nearly breaking the bird's beak, Fox would internally almost agree with him.

"Oh dear," A light albeit fatigued voice cut him from his self-destructive thoughts. "I seem to be a bit stuck... You mind helping me a little?"

Fox looked up to Krystal from the ground and smiled. True enough, the safety harness was caught on her tail. She stood there fidgeting with the unruly contraption. The back compartment seat was trashy at best. Since he normally didn't have passengers, Fox had just converted the seat as a sort-of easy grab storage space for his gear on a missions. Powered armor, assault rifles, rocket launchers, and grenades all tended to sum up to be rather heavy, definitely exceeding the weight limit for the seat as well as catching and tearing the fabric covering.

He'd also been yelled at by more than one flight safety official that putting all of that stuff away in the back and not in the underbelly storage where it belongs is about the dumbest thing one could do. Though, they'd usually shut up pretty quick when he'd ask them to try landing in the middle of a firefight and then get out unarmed and wait for the ramp to descend while bullets and laser fire flew by your head.

"Alright, hold on," he said gently. Clambering up the Arwing again, Fox could feel the last of his reserve RESERVE adrenaline start to kick in. Avoiding inappropriately grabbing her tail, Fox unknotted the worn mess of a harness as she slowly extracted her cuffed tail from the tangle.

"Thanks, I'd feared that I was to be stuck there forever," she said with a sarcastic chuckle. "Still though, it's not as bad as the spring that, uhm... tried getting a little bold with me on our way to Cloudrunner Fortress."

Fox grimaced apologetically as he remembered the incident where the seat got a little too happy from having a pretty woman sit on it. The big hole dead center stood as a testament to the spring that was no longer there that Fox was NOT going to tolerate any fresh moves from his ship being made toward his passenger.

Personification aside, Fox jumped down and then assisted the lightly dressed vixen with getting down as well.

"We need to look at that gash again in the medbay and get it cleaned before it has a chance to fester and get infected," Fox said as he guided her through the hanger.

"What about the bird that helped us with Andross. Fago was his name? I'd like to meet him!"

Fox stifled a chuckle at the mistake. "Falco is his name. We will meet him and the rest of the team later, but that wound comes first."

"A shower would be fantastic as well, I smell like a Sharpclaw."

-END: Prologue-

(A/N): There, finally got it out. This will be a little side project of mine to serve as practice as well as getting my name out there. This will be a series of shorts that will go in chronological order, but will mostly be self contained with their own plot arcs (so no overarching evil entity here, unless you count me). The only real representative of time passing will be Fox's and Krystal's relationship growth. Each story will have varying degrees of action and seriousness, but most will contain at least some form of humor and romance. STORIES WILL GET BIGGER, Mind you this is only a prologue, so of course it's tiny! More will come soon.

It's been rough these past few months (senior finals and all that), and I've hardly had any time at all for myself! (Qui, if you are reading this, please foregive me! I'll read and review your story soon!)

Please read, review, fav, critique, etc. I promise to respond to all comments!