I do not own Star Fox or any of the characters.


Haven

Fox dropped out of his arwing, looking around the area. A long trench with Katt's signature pink, arrow-head shaped ship lying in pieces at the end of it, small fires still dotting the area where the ship's fuel was still burning, and water all around the island that Katt had somehow gone from one end of to the other, miraculously without going into the water. The only problem was, no Katt. Fox looked around further out. Blue sea, blue sea, blue sea, and oh look, more blue sea. Finally, he stopped as he spotted the only other island, miles away.

"Please, for the love of God, tell me we don't have to swim there," Falco said, also staring at the island.

"Peppy, any sign of Katt in the water between here and there?" Fox asked.

"Nothing on the surface," Peppy said. "But...uh..."

"I'll take the Blue Marine," Falco said. "Hopefully I find nothing, and if I don't, you'll find her, which means you get to have fun with whatever came looking for her."

"Maybe nothing did," Fox said.

"She said she was ambushed," Falco said. "If that's the case, they probably want to make sure she died."

Fox nodded, sighing and climbing back into his arwing. "Krystal, Slippy, you're coming with me to that island."

Both nodded, climbing into their arwings as well and they took off, flying over to the other island as the Great Fox landed in the water, allowing Falco to swap his arwing for the Blue Marine. Within a few minutes, Fox and his two remaining teammates had set their fighters down on the shore of the island and climbed out, staring up at the completely deserted resort. Fox turned to Slippy and Krystal only to stop, staring at Krystal. She had neglected to wear her body suit, instead choosing to wear her tribal outfit consisting of essentially a bra, loincloth, and jewelry. She also had her staff in hand, but he still had to question her choice of clothing.

"What?" she asked.

"Where's your suit?" Fox asked.

"The computer said resort planet," Krystal shrugged. "I thought that meant we'd be able to relax."

"So you decided to wear a loincloth," Fox said.

"I've got underwear on you know!" Krystal said, blushing through her fur. "Quit staring at me and focus on the mission perv."

Fox shook his head, turning away from her and looked around. Before them, there was one hotel that looked to easily have several hundred rooms and looked to be a log-cabin-style hotel, there was a boat house about five hundred meters away on their left, and there was a pool house, for some unknowable reason, about six hundred meters away on the right.

"Slippy, check the pool house," Fox said. "Krystal, boathouse. If either of you finds anything, radio. If either of you finds nothing, radio. I'll start on the hotel. Meet me there once you're done. Hopefully with Katt."

Both nodded, walking away and Fox walked to the hotel, pushing the door open and stepping inside, the guy at the desk, a calico cat, looking up at him and grunting, looking back at his playdog magazine. Fox rolled his eyes, walking over to him.

"I'm looking for someone," Fox said.

"I don't swing that way," the cat said, Fox rolling his eyes.

"Not what I meant," Fox said. "I was wondering if you'd seen them."

"Nope," the guy said.

Fox drew his blaster, setting it on top of the guy's magazine, miraculously having his full attention now. "As I was saying, I'm looking for a pink cat, she was probably wet when she got here, probably injured, most likely tired."

The guy stared at him for another second before shaking his head. "I'm sorry man, but there's no one here that fits that description."

"Do you mind if I look around?" Fox asked. "With the Master Key? She's hurt and needs medical attention. You'd be saving a life. Or, I could just shoot you and take the key anyway."

The guy held the key out and Fox accepted it, thanking him and putting the blaster away, walking into the building as the guy stared after him then flicked his magazine, returning to what he had been doing before. Fox walked through the rooms nearby, checking the lounge, the dining room, the kitchen, and finally reaching the rooms. As of yet, there had been no one. There should have been people. It shouldn't have been so silent in the middle of the day at an island resort. He unholstered his gun, charging it and unlocking the first room, pushing it open. Empty. He checked the bathroom. Empty.

"Fox, the boathouse is empty," Krystal reported telepathically. "I'm on my way to the hotel now."

"Be careful," Fox responded. "Something's wrong here."

He continued searching the rooms. Nothing. Just as he finished that entire hallway, Krystal and Slippy met him back at the beginning of the other two, the stairs just beside them.

"Krystal, can you sense her in the building?" Fox asked. "Can you sense anyone?"

Krystal focused but shook her head. "There's no one. Except for him."

She gestured at the guy behind the desk. Just then, Fox's comm unit beeped and he answered, Peppy's face appearing over his arm.

"Fox, Falco's on his way to the island, he couldn't find anything under water," Peppy said.

"Thanks," Fox said. "Send him to the hotel."

"I will," Peppy said before his head swiveled away then back. "Scanners are reading a structural anomaly in the basement. Also, there are no signs of life on the island besides you three and one other person."

"That's not her either," Fox said. "Tell Falco to meet us in the basement then."

Peppy nodded and Fox disconnected, heading back to the front, aiming at the guy again.

"Where are all of the people supposedly staying here?" Fox asked.

"There's no one here," the guy said. "Had you asked before I'd have told you. No one's come here in weeks. Look."

He gestured to the side and Fox looked, seeing that all of the room keys were hanging from their pegs. Fox nodded, turning back to the guy.

"Where's the door to the basement?" Fox asked.

"Take the stairs," the guy said.

"Thank you," Fox said, walking away, keeping his blaster ready as they reached the stairs.

He opened the door, walking down the stairs and silently opening the door, peeking in.

"What do you see?" Krystal whispered.

"A hole," Fox said, pushing the door the rest of the way open and walking into the room, looking around then down into the hole.

It was pitch black inside, but just as he was about to shine his flashlight into it, Falco tapped him on the shoulder, jumping him and making him spin.

"Whoa, easy Fox," Falco said. "Just me."

"Sorry," Fox said. "Just getting a really bad feeling about this thing."

"Same," Krystal said quietly. "I can...I can sense something."

"What?" Fox asked.

"I don't know," Krystal said. "Something."

Fox nodded, sighing. They had to climb down it eventually. He shone a light down the hole, seeing that it leveled out a little after a ten foot drop, not enough to keep their footing after drawing to it, but enough that it wasn't a fatal fall. Fox looked around, finding several long boards and walking over, grabbing them and lowering them to the bend in the hole, then leaning them against the opposite side of the hole. He looked to the others who nodded.

"I'll go first," Fox said. "Whatever happens, be careful." His eyes lingered on Krystal for half a second more than the others before he tore his gaze away, sitting on the boards and slowly lowering himself down.

Once his feet his the side of the hole, he realized that it had been pressed into a near stone-like hardness. He raised his boots, extending metal spikes from the bottoms of them and setting his feet down, his weight pressing the spikes into the dirt. He stood carefully, testing the boots gingerly before sighing, shining the light down the tunnel. For a moment, he could have sworn he caught a flash of movement, but then it was gone.

"Alright, Falco, you're next," Fox said.

Falco carefully descended the boards, standing on the opposite side as Fox, also using his boots' spikes. Next, Slippy came down, extending his spikes and stopping a little further down than Fox or Falco, both he and Falco aiming down the tunnel as Fox holstered his blaster, turning back around to help Krystal down, since she didn't have spiked boots. Once she was down, he turned around, Krystal holding onto him from behind as he unholstered his blaster, slowly beginning to work his way down the tunnel, bringing Krystal with him, Slippy and Falco standing shoulder-to-shoulder with him, forming a wall to keep Krystal from falling. After what seemed like forever, they reached the end of the tunnel, a massive underground cavern with a small stone platform outside their tunnel, then water filling the rest of the floor. Krystal walked to the water, carefully lowering her staff into it until it found the bottom, about waist deep. She tried a little further out. Same. A little further. Same.

"Looks like it's pretty level, at least for here," Krystal said. "We should leave something here so we can find our way back."

Fox nodded, cracking a blindingly bright green glow stick and dropped it near the tunnel. "There. That's good for twenty four hours. If we're not back here by then, we'll have other problems."

Krystal nodded and turned back to the water just as several ripples reached their little island. "Did you see that?"

"Unfortunately, yes," Fox said, shining his light around the island slowly. "Hopefully, it's just a fish."

"Just don't think of Zoness," Falco said, Fox glaring at him.

"I'll shoot you," Fox warned.

"Zoness?" Krystal asked.

"I'll tell you about it later," Fox said, slowly and carefully inching his way out into the water, shivering as he entered the ice cold liquid.

The others followed suit, only Slippy not seeming to mind the temperature. They moved slowly, barely making a ripple between the four of them as they inched along, three with blasters in hand and one with her staff raised and ready. Everything was silent. Horrifyingly slow. Fox grit his teeth, feeling his nerves fraying and the muscles around his spine beginning to quiver from suppressed shivering. His nerves frayed more. Suddenly, the sound of a droplet of water hitting the water sounded off to the left. They spun, everyone aiming, flashlights shining into the darkness and illuminating nothing. Fox swallowed, the sound seeming unnaturally loud in his ears. His breathing began to quicken as his frayed nerves turned to panic.

A hand touched his shoulder and he jumped, turning only to relax when he saw it was Krystal. She let her hand slip down his arm to his, squeezing it gently as she smiled before she let go, lookin around. Fox sighed. He was getting worked up over nothing. There was probably nothing anywhere around them. It was just really dark.

He turned, raising his rifle and staring into the yellow eyes, seeming to glow from the flashlight. It was surrounded by a pointed, scale-covered face with sharp pointed teeth filling its mouth, a pair of long appendages on the creature's back that curved forward like scorpion tails but simply going to a point, rather than a stinger, and the general body shape of a T-rex, only standing at about Fox's height. Its front hands were also not tiny and useless. They were more akin to a SharpClaw's arms, useful, scaled, muscular, and holding Fox's forearm in a painfully tight grip. Fox's eyes slowly widened as he stared, the other staring in just as much shock, and then Fox's blaster dropped.


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