Chapter 1: Star fox, Still on Duty!

Great Fox Mk III, Passing Corneria airspace.

March 27th, 2061 11:37 PM

Almost 3 years has passed since the last Battle, and Marcus proposed to the girl of his dreams. Now engaged and You may think Marcus wouldn't have ended his career as the leader of the Star Fox team and disband it for good, well he didn't, besides He still wanted to continue working as Leader of the Star Fox team that his Grandfather, James McCloud, has founded and swore to protect even on his dying breath. He wish to protect the Lylat System no matter what or die trying. Of course following both his father's and grandfather's footsteps, nothing could stop him after extensive training both physically and mentally. Still carrying his Cerinian Staff that he inherited from her mother, Krystal McCloud, as his weapon of choice that he was taught how to use at such a young age and due to the fact he lost all of powers in his last battle, he began slowly recovering his lost powers from his previous fight bit by bit. He did gain his telepathic powers and most of his staff's powers back. Knowing many sacrifices was made including his now fiance who was presumed killed in combat but then returned to life thanks to his Cerinian ascendants, he WAS gonna disband the starfox team until a familiar but unknown voice echoed to him. The lylat system may be safe for future generations to come. However new evil will appear to threaten the Lylat system and the planet's, including Corneria's inhabitants at any given chance it takes. That is when the voice told him that the one thing that being a hero is to never give up no matter how many times he or his fellow comrades or loved one falls. Like his father and possibly his grandfather, them and their allies sacrifice their lives to serve and protect their home in the front lines as part of their roles as legendary heroes of the galaxy. Marcus understood and now just like his father and grandfather, knows that he is still gonna protect not just his families, but friends and one day his own family. just like him they are willing to give their lives to not just protect Corneria and the other planets of the Lylat system but also wish to protect Marcus. At that point he is now gonna remain calm and determined to keep fighting to protect the only galaxy that considered his home and put his life on the line possibly for the rest of his life. No matter how bad or worse the situation gets.

Marcus still remember those words until this day, and is FAR too young and WAY too determined to actually retire and disband the team. Him and his friends are still fighting with him until his or their dying breaths. Star fox is not dead, it is still thriving onward and remain part of Lylat system history until somebody wipes it off of history, which is most likely will NEVER happen. Also unlike the previous star fox teams, both his father's and grandfather's team, Marcus will continue doing his duty as the leader of the team until somebody takes his and his teammate's place and will remain known as the Lylat system's known hero in the galaxy.

Marcus shakes off his flash backing trance of his past up until now, he remembers to remain focus and move forward. Knowing his next battle will save countless lives with the possibility at the cost of his own.

And it's all in name sake of loyalty as a McCloud.

With that being said, his brand new adventure and the next battle has begun...

Marcus making his way through the ship's corridors, stretching and popping a few joints after a training exercise with his significant "other" and on his way to the bridge to meet up with the rest of his team. In fact all of them are looking forward to having a vacation on Marcus's home planet, Corneria, after getting back from a reconnaissance and security mission on Fortuna and assist and rescue mission in Sector Alpha. Which of course almost took a lot out of them, due to them fighting a huge armada, and it was worth it.

As Marcus finally reaches the bridge he sees one of his childhood friends with his fedora over his face, sleeping on the couch. the Starfox's Mechanic and tech specialist, Chase Toad. And sitting next to him reading a magazine on the new Corneria's resort park is the Team's supporter and Second childhood friend also Chase's Girlfriend. Anna Grey. over at the bridge and reassembling one of the new weapons, is the Team's new Weapon's specialist, Peter Dengar, Pigma Dengar's great nephew but he is more tall and muscular toned than his greedy fat swine that is his uncle, Once incarcerated to Corneria Prison, is where he first met Marcus when he is thrown in jail presumably for a crime he didn't commit. Peter's sentence was then later terminated and was pardoned because of his assistance with Marcus and his Team while fighting against The revived Andross and the venomian army and also clearing Marcus's name.

Then comes into Sharp Claw Saurian, Damalgo, studying on his desk is the Team's backup mechanic and foreign expert. He actually first met Marcus when he was sent to Sauria to investigate the symbols from the robots that Marcus and his team took down on his first adventure of the new reformed star fox team. with Damalgo's help they were able to figure out what the venomian army was planning and stop doomsday from happening, just barely though. Of course after the battle, he also helped Chase repaired the Blue Marine and consider a great back up to Chase if he's having trouble with repairing or tuning up the vehicles and gadgets. Rob 64 is a droid that existed since Marcus's Father's team and was rebuilt by Chase. The bugs that happened to him since the last adventure on Marcus's team has been fix...sorta.

Marcus walks to the seat where Chase is sleeping with his Hat on his face. Anna smiled and sets the Magazine down as she looks at Marcus.

"Morning, Marcus! Training gone well today?"

"Training went smoothly. Though I am gonna be sore afterwards" he looks at Chase who is slowly waking up gets his fedora wears it back on his head.

"Hey, Marcus! Did your exercise with your "training partner" went well or did she made you eat the mat? " Chase jested while stretching and yawning.

"are you kidding? She put up one helluva fight but-" Marcus was interrupted by a pair of grey arms wrapped around his neck followed by a seducing voice that made him nearly jump and face lit red like a tomato.

"but what, Mark? You just gonna brag without explaining what REALLY happen?" a light grey female wolf appear from behind him while giving him bedroom eyes and seductive smile then gives him a killer wink.

That girl is Star Fox's first lieutenant, Second in command of the team and Marcus's Fiance ,Coyote O'Donnell, she is also happens to be the Daughter of Wolf O'Donnell, an EX leader of a mercenary squadron known as Star Wolf and once worked for and getting paid from the mad scientist, Andross, and long time sworn rival of Fox McCloud. before Coyote first fought Marcus, she took her father's Place as leader of Star Wolf to become rivals with Marcus due to the whole rivalry between Wolf and Fox and they didn't know much about each other around the time until she did some digging and found out about her family's history just recently. since they first encounter each other when they are 10 years old and didn't properly introduce each other's names. However after the final battle with Andross which Marcus and his team did fought and won with the help from the original Star Fox team AKA their parents along with the rest of the Star Wolf's crew; Leon Polwalski, Panther Caroso, and Andrew Oikonny, Wolf ended his rivalry and became friends with Marcus's father and acknowledging how her daughter TRULY feels about falling in love with him. He even vows that as long his Daughter is happy, he is happy as well.

Anyways the group stared at them with one of them, Damalgo, one of his eye brows crooked upwards and Chase with Anna roll their eyes. Debating whether or not to admire the engaged lovebirds.

"guys we can understand that you two are engaged, but can you give it a rest? " Peter groaned and face palming just from looking at them, despite how much respect he gives to Marcus not just because he's the Leader.

"if only it was that simple" Marcus muttered under his breath with his face turning redder.

Marcus and Coyote break away eventually, as he check on Anna who is walking to him with Chase behind her.

"So Marcus, where do you think where all of us should go when reach to Corneria?"

"well, what do you or Chase have in mind?"

"how about here, at the new resort beach that just opened up down at the Cornerian sand side Harbor!"

Coyote hears the conversation as she joins in on the plans.

"A beach resort? They just opened that up after we've been only gone for almost 3 years now?"

"yeah! according to this, they are usually opened in the Spring and Summer because the ocean water is pretty warm and the view is perfect!"

Marcus and Chase blushes at the discussion at hand, but just when is about to get "interesting" to say the least for those two along with Peter and Damalgo just smiling at the idea and possibly getting perverted fan service ideas, An alarm goes off on the ships briefing room's monitors, Marcus walks up front along with Chase, Anna and Coyote beside him.

"ROB, report!"

"distress call from Corneria, patching through now!"

The monitor switches to the holographic digital image and General Peppy Hare and General Grey appears on screen.

"Marcus McCloud, it has been a long time since we last heard from you. Good to see you and your team are alive and doing well."

"glad to see you are too, we have only been gone for three years" Marcus replies. Smiling while crossing his arms.

"its nice to you again, Dad! And you too, grandpa!" Anna happy to her both her father and grandfather on screen, which to her felt like almost forever since they last seen each other in person and due to the fact Peppy is suppose to be retired, but guess he's not gonna retire just yet. no matter how old he is.

"How's mom and dad? Are they doing alright?" Marcus ask to peppy, actually it is nice to hear he is concerned about his parents, in fact he has every right to ask. after all he has been out of Corneria and out of his parent's house since the incident with he-knows-who-should-not-mention.

"Your parents are doing well, we also wanted to congratulate you on your proposal with Ms. O'Donnell. You're parents are very proud of you." peppy smiles and Marcus smiled back.

"Thanks Peppy, we really appreciate that"

"uh with all due respect; sorry for interrupting your little reunion, Mac" Peter jumps in the conversation. "but did you guys send us a distress signal, or did you just wanted to contact us to see how we are doing?"

"sorry, didn't mean to take the reunion a little too far. We hope you don't mind if you do another mission for us even though you just got back" Bill responds.

"aww, I was looking forward to this vacation on Corneria too!" Anna groaned.

"yeah, that sucks!" Chase now feeling just as miserable as Anna now.

"Hey more of the reasons why we should do a mission, so we can sharpen our edges but also wanted test out these new visors I have modified from the original visors with Chases help!"

Peter holds up one of the visors as Marcus and the others look over at them before Peppy and Bill informs about the mission he's giving them.

"we'll try them as soon we as possible, Peppy what's our mission?"

"just moments ago we received an anonymous S.O.S. signal on Katina near the in construction outpost. We were unable contact anyone there even despite our best efforts and responded to them. The signal is still being transmitted, but there is still no response."

"why send us Peppy?" Coyote questioned "Why couldn't you send some of soldiers to investigate?"

"because we encounter almost similar situation before, during the aparoid invasion...and boy would I ever forget it"

What peppy is referring to on that day is when he and the previous starfox last went to the Katina outpost to investigate in the same scenario due the aparoids involvement and hoping they find survivors, this was around the time before Marcus was even born and his Father disbanded the Star Fox after marrying his mother, Krystal. the Katina outpost mission was a success only to realize that is Pigma Dengar, a traitor of the first Star Fox team and the man responsible for James McCloud's Death and Peppy's near death experience which he barely made it out alive if it weren't for James sacrificing himself to get Peppy to safety, who was sending the S.O.S. signal and trick the team then stole the core memory from the fallen giant aparoid during the aparoid attack that Fox and his team took down, just so he can make a quick buck. It did took Fox and his team a lot of effort and patience to not only take back the core memory from Pigma, but put him in his place, though he already did bit the dust when the core memory affected his body and turning him into a aparoid in the process.

Now back to the present. after the mission briefing with Peppy and Bill, Marcus's team has already setted coordinates and entering the Katina airspace. Marcus and the other teammates surrounds the monitor showing the overlay of the planet.

"alright team, let's brief this mission one more time before heading down there." Marcus explains to his teammates with Anna backing Marcus up.

"as Peppy explained, the S.O.S. signal is coming from the reconstruction-in-progress Katina outpost." a lock on marker marks the location of the map. "there has been no response from the person who is transmitting it."

"according to grandpa, this anonymous S.O.S. is being transmitted in a similar pattern as Pigma's when he did it during the aparoid invasion, but the transmission is a bit off however it's a similar behavior"

"so knowing this and not taking any risks of one of us going down there, we have to assume it still might be trap. So it's best we go into groups of two. Anna, Chase, you two cover the two of us from above. Coyote and I will investigate the base on foot. Al, Peter, and ROB; you guys can monitor us from above in the Great fox and provide us reinforcement if the situation gets out of control or it escalates too quickly."

"sounds like a good plan so far. but does Coyote have to go with you, Mac?" Peter simply rubs the back of his head.

"I mean if you two are concern about each other why not one you guys go down there anyway and the other supports the other two member's flying and covering you from above?"

"because so that way one teammate can support the other teammate without the risk of getting shot down while landing the arwing and rush to the partners side." Marcus nods to Coyote while his gaze locked on to hers for a brief moment before focusing back to the team. "it's worth a shot, the faster we get this done, the faster we can enjoy our vacation. One more mission for Corneria won't hurt!"

Not wanting to argue, the group acknowledges him and 4 of them; Marcus, Chase, Anna, and Coyote ran all the way to the Arwings hangar bay. Marcus and the others jumps into their Arwings with Coyote with her modified Wolfen, the Iron Maiden, and the ships starts up. monitors on and engine running.

"communication lines, all green!"

"alright people, be sure to try on your new visors." peter suggests and everyone put their new visors on. All of them activated immediately as they were put on. The hanger bay doors begins to open.

"alright you all ready? ROB start the countdown"

"we are now at 7...6...5...4...3..2..1-Launch all ships!"

The Arwings and Iron maiden flies out of the hangar bay.

"it's the final countdown!" ROB, blurted out as the ships fly out of the hanger.

"Chase, I thought you fixed most of the "major" bugs off of him!" Marcus grumbled.

"Sorry guess he just needs a bit of a tune up" Chase nervously laughs.

The group already out of the flying around outside the Great Fox.

"Alright, Marcus reporting in! all aircrafts report! Check your G-Diffusion Systems!"

The monitors lit up showing all the teammates Icon's and shields on their visors.

"Chase here, all systems is good to go. Standing by!"

"Anna reporting, I'm all Ready to Rock and roll!"

"Coyote standing by, Locked and loaded!"

Marcus and his Team is about to head down to the planetoid before Peter interrupts em.

"Now hold on guys, let's check and see if your aircraft's flight Calibration and Combat systems are still working,also should check the Calibration of your new visors. Activating Flight and Air Combat simulation!"

Holographic images of enemy aircraft appears follow by rings forming a particular path.

The Team splits up with Marcus going forward to the path of rings in front of him. He immediately locks on the two holographic enemy aircrafts and fire two charge Shots at the targets which homes in and destroy the non existance computer image aircraft in a explosion of energy burst from the Charge Shots while Swerving and passing through the rings with little effort follow by the Ring paths which force him to use a Sharp U-turn which he pulled off easily right off the bat.

"Nice flying, Marcus! your new Viser and Combat systems is functioning perfectly. And your flight calibration is running smoothly!" Damalgo compliments with him with the tone of approval in his voice as if Marcus pass a test.

"Yeah though that Sharp U-turn kinda put a minor strain on my wrist a bit, I'll get use to it"

Chase follow his ring path but then the Holographic Aircrafts are closing in as he performs a loop and lock on to the Air crafts and fire lasers at the aircraft which made them shatter and fly past the last ring which is gold.

"Alright, you combat systems are good but the flight calibration is a bit off. But it'll do for this mission" Damalgo explains.

As for Anna and Coyote, those two are teaming up and shot down 4 of the ships while passing through their respective rings.

"You two did good. The flight Calibration and combat systems is all green. And your visors calibration is all good as well."

The Team forms back up.

"You guys did great, gotten a little bit rusty but you did good regardless. You guys are good to go. Remember, this S.O.S. still my be a trap, keep your eyes up front and peeled. Good luck down there all of you!" Peter cheers for them.

"thanks, Peter. We'll do our very best"

"Alright! Star fox team, let's move!" as Marcus shouts, they finally blast off and heading straight towards to Katina's Surface with Marcus in the lead. Upon entering the planet's atmosphere with the Katina outpost already in their sights, Marcus and Coyote lands near the entrance with Chase and Anna not too far behind and flies above the base, keeping close by enough to cover Marcus and Coyote.

"This is Marcus, Coyote and I made it inside the base...and its quiet." Marcus reaches for his staff and readies it, Coyote pulls out one of her automatic blasters out, turning the safety off and readies it while sticking close to him.

"it's TOO quiet…." Coyote muttered as they notice the base hasn't been finished being reconstructed, and to make the situation even more suspicious. There are no construction workers or repair drones anywhere in sight.

Already red flags going up for Coyote and Marcus as they continue further into the base.

"Marcus, There is something wrong here."

"I'm way ahead of you, Coyote. There are no construction workers, there are no repair drones, no Construction ship units, nothing!"

"Maybe everyone is on a day off or something for all we know." Anna assume what she thinks is going on.

"C'mon Anna, you know there has to be at least two or three guys here watching this place making sure no one is crazy and stupid enough to trespass here without authorization from Corneria. Even if the place is still under reconstruction from the aparoid invasion"

Marcus and Coyote investigate the base even further, remaining focus and cautious.

"ROB, scan the entire base. Is there anyone on the base right now?" Marcus requested.

"...negative, no organic or mechanical life forms detected" ROB informs Marcus.

"Chase, Anna! You guys got anything on your radars or see anything from up there?"

"Nothing, Radars clean-" Before Chase could conclude his sentence.

"Hey wait, I see something! Upper section of the base near the storage units!" Anna hollered. Coyote and Marcus runs to the part of the outpost base then sees a what looks like a droid digging through the pile of junk near one of the storage containers as if it was searching for something.

Coyote looks at Marcus and back at the Droid.

"Repair drone unit?"

"Not any Repair drones I've ever seen before"

Marcus and Coyote look and nods at each other and approach the Droid, Marcus's Staff and Coyote's Gun readied at the Droid. Before they could react, the Droid turns around and looks at them. It changes its expression based what looks like Cell Phone text emoticons to them, already the duo are already confused by it's appearance or should I say HIS appearance.

"Oh! Hello! My name is PIERCE!"

Marcus and Coyote looked at each other then looks back on the droid.

"Pierce? sounds like a name give to a robot use a punching bag or something" Chase remarks.

"Pierce is an unusual name to give a droid." Anna thought outloud.

"What is your model name stand for?" Marcus asks Pierce.

" That's simple to explain, sir! I'm a Personal Insurgent Engineer Robot Class-3

But my master and friends call me Pierce!"

"An Insurgent Robot? Here in Katina on Cornerian government property?" Coyote stammered in confusion. Already another set of red flags gone up in the duo's heads

"I must apologize for the inconvenience, miss. I was dropped off here by my master to seek out vital Information and spare parts. In fact my Master is going to transmit communication with me any minute now!" The droid changes it's emoticon to a Happy face. Marcus communicate with the others while Coyote with her gun still aiming at Pierce.

"wow, he's actually respectful and kind robot!"

"I agree, for an insurgent robot, he's actually really nice."

"i wouldn't go that far, you two. Peter, I really hope you got all that."

"We got every word he said. I couldn't help but ask…" Peter looking back at Damalgo who is just as Stumped but also concerned as he is. "why the name of Crazy Earl is there an Insurgent repair droid on the in construction parts of the unauthorized Cornerian government property finding basically garbage?"

"I think the question you should asking is what "Vital" information is he talking about and why he is looking for it?" Damalgo corrected him. Before Everyone is about to confront Pierce, another communication interrupts the team which is a female voice but it's all static but only can make out a few words.

"Dam….pie….of ….shit!..mbody...qui….fu...ing…..rou….the...com...nations! ...ive...r...DIE!"

Marcus and Coyote couldn't help but look at each other and back to their communicators with the person on the other line until a loud ear piercing bang shot out which cause Marcus and Coyote to jump and wince in pain as they felt like their ears drums have been shot out and possibly left them deaf but it left their ears ringing a bit before the static disappears and the voice on the other line becomes clear.

"Finally! thought I never get this piece of crap to work. Still gotta work on the bugs"

Marcus speaks to whoever's female voice that is on the other line.

"This is Marcus James McCloud from the Starfox team, please identify yourself and state your business here!"

The Girl on the other line clears her throat before getting back to Marcus.

"So I was not hallucinating, the Famous Marcus McCloud on the other line. I don't know if I should feel Honored or what"

Coyote jumps in on the conversation.

"Uh hello! He just ask you about your name and why you're here!"

"Sheesh can I at least savor every moment nowadays? Anyways my name is Alyssa Monday, I'm Pierce's Master and what I am doing there is none of your business"

"Uh Actually it is now OUR business when your droid is searching for Vital information. What are you really looking for really?"

Alyssa scoffs at the question.

"No really, it really isn't. In fact Pierce already got what we wanted. So Pierce, would you kindly leave the area immediately and wait for the Boss to come in"

The moment she said, everyone is on high alert but then catches on almost right off the bat what is going on.

"So it was YOU who was sending in the S.O.S. Signal!"

The moment Marcus said that Alyssa went from being a smart ass outlaw to basically now concerned.

"Wait...you stupid cornerian idiots actually Responded to the SOS Signal?!"

Then all of the sudden a loud explosion occurred on the side of the base where Marcus and Coyote as well Pierce is standing then all of the sudden Soldiers which dress like cornerian foot soldiers took aim and readied their weapons at Marcus, Coyote, and Pierce and without warning they opened fire at them. Marcus didn't hesitate grab her wrist and both took cover behind the pile of empty metal boxes as they are fire upon. Luckily. Neither him or Coyote are hit. Chase and Anna are just about fly in and help them out until the soldier's aircrafts comes flying in and attack them as well, forcing both of them to break away from covering Marcus and Coyote.

"Chase, what the hell is going on?!"

"We are being attacked. They look like Cornerian Soldiers!"

"Why are we being attack by our own men?!" Peter stammered in complete horror and confusion

Alyssa interrupts the entire team conversation.

"Those are not Cornerian Soldiers, you dumbasses! Those are other mercenaries, guns for hire!"

Marcus goes back to the communicator. Meanwhile Coyote pulls out her second automatic handgun, turns off the safety, and fires back at the mercenaries.

"What do you mean guns for hire? And why did you send the S.O.S. signal?"

"Listen to me McCloud, now that you are being attacked you are now involved in this. Those guys are after some private information that doesn't wanted to be leaked out into the lylat System news. That S.O.S. signal I transmitted was NOT meant for you or the cornerian army, so now your dumbass along with your team is gonna pay the horrible price for it. So unless my boss arrives to lend us a hand, you all are screwed!"

"Boss?!" coyote stammered.

"that S.O.S. signal I transmitted was meant for him through via nano communication. Until one of my boys blew the communications servers out and the boss was forced to get where Pierce quickly."

Marcus didn't hesitate as Coyote took cover and reloading her blasters, he gets out of his staff and shoots his fire blaster out of his staff at the enemies and took out 4 of the guys out. while Pierce took cover. Despite having no damage from the blaster.

"Pierce! Safety disable, initiate battle berserk mode"

Alyssa voice command cause the defenseless and harm droid to spasm a bit and his emoticon to change from a scared emoticon to that'll possibly make anyone piss a fountain or shit bricks or maybe both. Follow by him letting absurdly loud and haunting roar in a deep robotic mad man voice.

"LET'S FUCKING GO!"

Without warning the now horrifying droid charges right at the enemies as they firing at him, bullets literally bouncing off of him.

"MOM MADE CHICKEN AND FUCKING ICED TEA!"

Pierce tackles one of the soldiers which led to a series of sickening sounds of bone cracking which can be heard from Marcus's and Coyote's distance. All the while tearing every soldier apart and screaming words and phrases that no cornerian, hell no being in the lylat system or any universe would say!

"I'LL SHOVE MY MISSILES UP YOUR FUCKING ASS AND BLOW YOUR FUCKING BALLS OFF!"

He grabs the rifle of the dead soldier he just tackled to death and opened fired at the soldiers while using the contorted mangle body from the tackled soldier as a human shield.

"RAT TAT TAT TAT TAT, MOTHER FUCKER!"

He then tosses the mangled beehive holed body at one of the soldiers which sends em flying towards marcus and Coyote and keeps firing at them till only one of them remains which he made a break for it.

Coyote and Marcus saw the bodies that Pierce tossed beside them on their left side. Marcus is utterly speechless while Coyote screamed "Holy shit!"

The Merc runs for his life until he thinks is hidden away enough from the now mass murdering machine that Berzerker Pierce.

"Sir, We located the droid but he went on an absolute rampage and turned my squad into swiss cheese, I need reinforc-" before he can finish his sentence something grabbed his head slammed his head against the wall, face first, with such force he caved his entire face in and huge blood splatter across the katina outpost wall. His entire body limb and motionless.

"YOU SHUT YOUR GAP, YOU FUCKING TWAT!"

Pierce then tosses the now lifeless body on the ground, revealing to every the now entire face is gone as if his face smashed in by a giant sledge hammer.

Marcus and Coyote seen enough already, Chase and Anna still flying their Arwings fighting off the mercs and got couple of glimpses of what happened.

"Alyssa...what the hell...did we just saw?" Marcus stammered in complete horror.

"like my droid now? he's quite useful for gathering information. But in combat he sucks, so that's why I placed a special demon war drone core in his main processors!"

"Wait, you put in a what in his main processors?" Chase ask, with a utter shock in his voice.

"you heard me, and in case you didn't hear the first time I should remind you to get your ears checked.

I shove a demon war drone core in him"

"Are you crazy?! How are you not dead yet?! Do you know what you are doing is illegal and extremely dangerous?!"

"Sorry toad boy, but I'm an outlaw. Rules or laws don't apply to me at all. I'm also a risk taker. And to answer your question "how am I not dead yet?" simple! Voice command! By enabling his safety and shutting off his demon core. He becomes a delicate little flower."

"you are seriously messed up in the head, you know that?"

Marcus and Coyote makes a run to the base's entrance before more the mercs shows up right in front of them and sealed the door.

"damn it were locked in! " Coyote readied her blasters as the mercs closing in on them, surrounding them.

"Peter, Al we can use your help down here!" one of the mercs opens fire at him and he dodges the laser shots. Coyote fires back and dodges the laser fire.

"just hang in there you guys we are already at the hangar, try to hold em off just a bit longer!"

"at this this rate, we won't last much longer!" Coyote continues firing off rounds after rounds at the mercs, only taking a handful of them out while Marcus is dodging the laser fire and firing off fire blasts from his staff at the mercs. More mercs begin rush at them at the other side of the base. Without hesitation, Marcus slams his staff on the ground causing a shockwave which it is enough to blast the door opened.

"Coyote, let's go!" Marcus call her out while she is not too far behind.

"Right behind you!" the duo makes it to their respective fighters and flies out of the base and aids Chase and Anna. One of the mercs ships comes rush to them, Coyote opens fire and shot most of them down and shot the two fighters that is tailing Anna.

"phew, for a moment there I thought I was done for. Thanks, Cousin!"

"no problem, let's not let our guard down just yet. Lets clean up this mess and get out of here."

"what about Pierce?" Chase ask until Alyssa interrupts em again.

"you're not planning on taking MY droid, are you?" Marcus looks at his team and already acknowledging him about Pierce.

"sorry to say this, but yeah we are!"

Before Alyssa could scold them to stop em, another Voice comes over to their coms and all the Mercs ship are shot down. And I mean ALL the mercs on both the ground and air by a blur object. Marcus and his team can barely see who is firing at the enemy.

"Don't count it, you idiots" a deep and mature voice interferes with the teams coms.

"Boss! About damn time you showed up, where the hell have you been?" Alyssa speaks to the unknown pilot. Soon after a bunch of bandit fighters follow by cargo ships enters the air space and lands near the base with the fighters surrounding the skies.

"Making sure our pick up crew has arrived safely undetected." the fighter finally appears in front of the team with 5 or 6 other fighters behind and beside him. The team couldn't believe what they are looking at. The Fighter in the middle looks like the Arwing, in fact the ship IS the arwing but the design looks it was use during the Aparoid invasion and color design is Black and red with amber colored cockpit window with a deformed eagle's skull with red wings but with the left wing much shorter than the other. There is no Star Fox insignia anywhere on the ship

"Marcus, that ship looks just like…!" Chase Stammered in complete shock at the modified Arwing.

"Where did you get that?" Marcus stammered, just looking at the Strange Arwing is already Menacing enough but Marcus looks closer inside the Cockpit and sees black figure inside the Ship which looks a bird. At first he thought to himself it's Falco but he knows that Falco will never alternate his Arwing to the Arwing that his and team is looking at.

"There's no way…" He thought outloud before Trying to get a hold of ROB.

"ROB, where's Peter and Al?"

….

But there was no Response.

"ROB! Come in! Anybody!"

"Marcus the communication is scramble! I'm tried getting ahold of them as well." Chase warns Marcus and the others.

"Don't bother." The Pilot in the black Arwing responds to Marcus.

"I've jammed your communications. So requesting reinforcement will be impossible at this point and the only you'll get communication back, is by shooting me down. That is if you can."

"Who are you?!" Marcus yell in a demanding tone.

"The name's Crow, Crow Hunter, and this Arwing you looking at is my Arwing, Code name: "Swift Death."

I'm neither Cornerian or Venomian as my boys here. But if get rid of you and return the droid to my employer, it'll fetch a pretty penny!"

"you're a bounty hunter!" Anna Gasps.

"you catch on quick, fast thinking to bunch of well trained kids of the original star fox team that i once knew"

The team couldn't believe what are they learning about this mysterious pilot in a modified and Customized Arwing. Knowing they have no choice but to fight the Mysterious Bounty Hunter, Crow. but Down below Pierce is escorted onto the Bandit's cargo Ship just as it about to takes off. Already two Arwings which is Peter and Al comes flying in.

"Sorry we're late, Marcus! Our communication, tracking and support system has been cut off. We're go after the cargo ship, you guys take care of that arwing imposter!"

Without arguing or explanation the Team goes after Crow. all of them flies out of the Katina's base and into the Canyons.

Peter and Al shoots the bandit fighters as they reach to the cargo ship to capture it and take back Pierce. Before they could even make it to the Ship. Al looks up and sees a more Ships coming in a top of them.

"Peter! Eyes on top! Enemy ships, dead ahead!"

"Roger that!" Peter and Damalgo shoots down the enemy soldiers as many as they could. But they just keep coming.

"Protect the cargo ship, you stupid monkeys! If that Cargo Ship is gone, you can say bye bye to your Massive Paycheck!" Alyssa screamed while still on the coms.

"We can still hear you, you know that right?" Peter smartly remarked.

"Oh shut up you stupid Swine boy! You could at least be like your Uncle for once!"

Peter tone changed immediately the moment she saids that.

"Don't you dare compare me to that asshole! The last thing I want is thinking about my deadbeat Uncle. If we ever meet in person I swear I will punch your lights out just for that!"

"Peter, Focus! We got to stop that Cargo ship from leaving Katina's Orbit, we can worrying about her and your uncle later!" Damalgo advice did help Peter out of his anger.

But despite their best effort, The Ship has already left orbit. But Peter and Al is not gonna let that happened and decided to chase after and planning on shooting it down. However without warning, the Ship slowly dissipates and just mysterious disappears off of their radars.

"The hell?! Where did it go?!"

"I don't know! It just vanished!"

Peter and Damalgo is now completely confused out of their minds not just because they lost the Cargo Ship and failed the mission, but also wondering what just happened and what did they just witnessed. And to make matters worse, they can't contact ROB to track the Ship.

"We got to find that ship, Peter let's head back to the great fox and see if ROB is able to target and track the Ship."

"Alright, but what about Mac and the others?"

"Those guys will be alright...I hope."

Meanwhile Marcus and his Team with their Boosts set to max trying to keep up with Crow as his boys are right behind them.

"Holy crap! This Guy's arwing is much more faster than ours!"

"We can't slow down now, not even for a second!" Marcus tells Chase.

Crow pulling off maneuvers that to anyone that is highly skilled ace pilot including the Starfox team themselves cannot Pull off. The team didn't hesitate and kept going but each time they try to go faster to keep up. Crow's "Swift Death" goes faster.

"Marcus, we can't go any faster! We'll going to end up crashing into the Canyon's walls!"

Marcus ignores Chase's warnings and sets his G-diffusions to max everyone thinks Marcus has lost his mind as he took of like a blur and gotten closer to Crow. pulling off impossible Split second Maneuvers.

"Not back, McCloud! But you gotta do better than that to keep up with me!" Crow Remarks to him as they to an opened Lake.

Chase and the others we're able keep up with Marcus and they saw Crow stopped dead in his tracks and turns around facing them.

"Hey boss, I say we let them have it!"

Crow looks at the bandit with a serious look on his face.

"No, all of you leave. I'll handle these guys, Myself!"

"But boss-!"

"Return to the base and leave me behind. That's an order. Besides we are already done here"

"wha-!?"

"the cargo ship with Pierce on board has already left Katina's orbit. Oh yeah don't even bother trying to track it. Its special stealth tech is also super effective against any hi tech radars including yours, star fox."

Marcus and his team is floored to what crow is saying, only to also realize the crow is simply just a decoy to keep the major threat, which is Marcus because of his telepathy he inherited from his Cerinian blood, or more specifically, his mother. To track em easily.

The rest of the bandit fighters fly off outta of orbit but leaving the infamous and mysterious bounty hunter behind.

"holy crap, this guy is dumb! And by dumb I mean really smart!" Anna stammered at the situation.

"not wanting to brag, but I am gonna give you credit for knowing I am bounty hunter, more specifically the most notorious, well known and most wanted bounty hunter of the Lylat System"

"and we should care because why?" Coyote ask him.

"because now that we are alone, I want to fight all four of you at once. I always wanted to do an honorable dog fight against the the most well known mercenaries in the galaxy."

The entire couldn't help but busted up laughing. Chase laughing hysterically while on banging on the cockpit controls. All the while Crow sits there all silent while everyone is literally their asses off.

"they honestly think I was joking?" Crow though.

"please tell me this guy can't be serious" Coyote wipes a tear from laughing so hard.

"okay, are you really gonna challenge us to fight you? Let us gives you some news flash, you are one guy against four people. All of us are well trained pilots and have been fighting for a very long time!" Chase explains despite laughing a bit more from Crows request...which They are gonna regret. (foreshadowing)

"yeah, there's no way we can lose! So don't think you gonna win this fight even if you try" Anna cheers and determined they might win this.

"don't get cocky because there's only me and four of you. And besides...even the most well trained pilots shouldn't underestimates their opponent regardless their size or numbers. I'm sure a certain someone taught you that, Marcus James McCloud."

Almost immediately the attitude and tone went from obsoletely comical, to complete suspicion. Marcus then realizes that Crow is not pulling his or his team's leg, he's absolutely DEAD serious. Even him calling Marcus out by his full name indicating he knows about him and his team. Even the rest of the team is shocked that Crow knows marcus's full name.

Marcus telepathy kicks and right off the bat, he knows there something horrifically strange about Crow. He immediately warns Chase, Anna and Coyote at the situation in hand.

"Team, be careful! This guy is not your average bandit or every day bounty hunter...he's completely different somehow!"

"Different? How is he different, Marcus?"

"his brain patterns are very faint, as if he has little to no emotions at all. As if he's not...really cornerian or venomian at all as he just claimed."

Now hearing this, Everyone is now on the same page as Marcus. Realizing that they might be dealing a very dangerous pilot. The team switches their arwings and wolfen ships to all range mode and prepare to attack Crow.

"let's play!" Crow's only quote then charges at the team, barrel rolling and firing his twin lasers at them with such speed and accuracy was able to hit Coyote and chase they break up to get out of Crow's line of fire. Chase then went to go after him and was right behind him.

"okay, now I gotcha! " Chase fires his lasers before Crow all of the sudden vanishes. He even disappeared off his radar.

"what the...where did he-" Chase begins panicking thinking he lost him.

"did he just use that stealth tech and escape-" before Anna could continue, Marcus called Chase out.

"Chase, behind you!" Chase looks behind him before he can react, Crow opens fire and got a good couple of shots. Causing one his wing to break off, not just knocking it off balance but forcing chase to struggle to stabilize his now unbalanced.

"always letting your guard down even for second, just like your father. Chase Toad!"

"S-Shut up! Somebody get this creep off of me!"

"Hang on Chase, I'm coming!" Anna flies head on to Marcus and Crow.

"Anna, wait!" before Marcus could stop her she's already behind Crow and already have a lock on him and about to do a charge shot.

"now I got YOU, no one messes with my froggy!" she fires the charge shot, Marcus and Coyote thought she actually got him...HOWEVER.

"think fast!" it happen a half of second, before the charge shot could even reach him. He does a U-turn barely misses the Charge shot and instead of hitting him due it being locked on to him, Anna ended hitting Chase instead, the hit from the charge shot not only destroyed one of the G-Diffusers causing Chases Arwing to become a lot more slower than before. But also G-Diffusion booster to broke off and hit Anna's arwing, strucking it at the G-Diffuser scraping the shit out of it.

"Gah! I'm Hit!"

Marcus and Coyote is now absolutely stunned and silent from what they just witnessed until Coyote broke the silenced.

"Unbelievable, he not only he broke out of the lock on system..he redirected it at Chase!"

"we have no choice we have to retreat! Chase, Let's get outta here!"

"You guys go, We'll hold him off!" Marcus order Anna and Chase

Now Marcus and Coyote are left to fight Crow as Anna and Chase returns to the Great Fox.

"Coyote, no time to hesitate. Return fire!"

"Roger that! Lets not lock on to him this time. Lets fire him with our main lasers!"

"you read my mind!" Coyote and Marcus charges at him. They begin shooting blindly at him. Only to barrel roll and boost out of their line of fire. Marcus charges in and opened his cockpit. While it's flying, then he pull out staff and fires a wave of cryogenic energy at the Swift Death. Knowing that Arwings cannot be flown in harsh conditions such as sandstorms and blizzards, by using his staffs freeze blast should at least stop his G-Diffusion systems and slow him down for a clean shot. Crow's Arwing begins being covered in ice.

"that'll cool him off a bit! Coyote take the shot!*

"been awhile since I saw you use that! Eat this, bounty hunter scum bag!" Shot a bomb at the now frozen Swift Death as is starts to slowly plummet into the ground.

"oh you got me…" all of the sudden the G-Diffusion starts up again with a sickening crimson red after burn. Marcus and Coyote couldn't believe what they seeing. It's too good to be true.

"...NOT!" the Swift Death took off like a bat out of hell and broke off the ice on the arwing. Then U-Turns back at the Duo.

"hey, O'Donnell. Nice bomb precision, too bad you have to waste one of them. Let me give you, by sparing my own!" Crow then Shoots his own bomb at Coyote and Marcus.

"No way!" Marcus swiftly gets back his Arwing and flies away with Coyote behind him. The Bomb explodes and the shockwave was able to catch Coyote from behind due to her being close the blast radius where the bomb went off. Coyote's Fighter begins malfunction and her controls lock up due to the explosion knock the G-Diffusors out of commission and now her fighter is begin plummeting to the ground as she fights the controls. She even starts pulling on her controls and using her feet to pull on the controls till she ended breaking her monitors trying to stabilize her ship.

"c'mon, C'MON! This cannot be happening!"

"Coyote, abandon your ship! EJECT!" Marcus cried and Coyote is force to eject from the ship, luckily just in a nick of time before her Ship plummeted into the ground in a fiery explosion with the the sound of flying metal. Coyote manage to parachute to safety.

"Coyote! COYOTE! Are you alright?! Please respond!"

"I'm okay!" Coyote respond to Marcus's cry.

Marcus letted out a huge sigh in relief, but now worried because he is now the only Fighter in the air with Crow still standing. Marcus begins losing his patience, his entire team is taken down by one guy. Now it's one on one, mano a mano. Mercenary vs. Bounty Hunter. Marcus and Crow boosts towards each other with lasers firing at each other, all of them didn't hit either of them.

"all your friends are out of the game, McCloud. do not make shoot you down!" Crows squalls at him.

"Not if I shoot you down first!" Marcus barks back as they just about to fly into each other.

The two then fly past each other now looking at each other in their respective cockpits, Marcus takes a good split second look of the pilot of the Swift Death. A black Crow with his hair on the back spiked and feathered out, his eyes are crimson red locking on to marcus's eyes giving him the gaze of death. Wearing tanish dark dirt brown unzipped jacket with leather plating on the front and back of his jacket with a battle knife strapped to the front of the front left side of his jacket, the leather plating shows on the upper chest to shoulders to the upper part of his back, the other set of leather plating On lower part of the jack close to the zipper, and another leather plate on the lower back. On one of the leather plate on his upper arms is a insurgent bounty hunter patch on it, and closer look shows a red crow with a broken wing which is much more shorter than the other wing.

The two speed off with Crow behind Marcus raining lasers at him while he was barrel rolling and deflecting Crows shots. Then pulls off a somersault and the tables have turn. Marcus ends up fire his lasers at Crow's ship. But instead of barrel Rolling, he speeds off and getting out of the line of Marcus's Laser Fire while keeping his visor locked on to him and keeps firing.

Crow flies past him while firing back at him which led a couple of good shots to his wings and through his cockpit windows and barely missed him. But of course it didn't faze him or even made him flinch. He continues firing Back at Crow, only for him to dodge it. Marcus charges at him. Crow and Marcus are now literally somersaulting and shooting at each other while dodging each other's fire, wince and repeat throughout the entire dogfight. Marcus is about to make one more desperate move until Crow perform his own charge shot. Realizing that Crow doesn't have the special lock on visors like he does, he can simply boost away. But then the atmosphere change from overconfidence to pure horror as Crow fires the charge shot, its leading straight to him. Marcus tries to dodge but it's too late, the charge shot didn't just Knocks Marcus's arwing out of commission. but the charge shot blew both its wings off and the G-diffusors off as Marcus begins plummeting to the ground with the alarm blaring throughout his ship with monitor and voice blurring "Malfunction." Marcus swiftly reaches to the ejected level and pulls but instead of him ejecting out of the ship, sparks fly as the he pulled the level. indicating the ejection system has locked up and became fried.

Marcus now has no other choice but brace for a bumpy but devastating landing.

"AAAHHHH!" Marcus screamed and just so happened Coyote saw Marcus's Arwing or what's left of it. Plummeting and heard his scream, Coyote couldn't believe what she is seeing.

"M-Marcus!" She follows the best she could, only to witness her fiance's Arwing crash in absolute dread and horror.

Marcus's Arwing plummets and hits the lake below then skids and rolls horrifically across the lake till it crash back of the Arwing first into the wall of rocks near the shore line in a fiery crash. Coyote witnessed all of it and got halfway shore line and saw the crash site. The feeling of dread escalate as her heart starts pounding out of her chest in absolute fear.

"Marcus...no...no!" Shaking her head in complete disbelief, she sprinted across to the shore line like a bat outta hell. Running as fast she could trying to get Marcus.

At the crash site with Marcus still inside the cockpit, woken up from being knocked unconscious from the crash with sparks flying all over inside the cockpit. He notice he's on the ground with the arwing on its left side. He went to open the cockpit only to realize its jammed. He climbs up till his legs are free and begins kicking the Cockpit door. Each time the cracks on the window gets bigger. With one more strong earth shattering kick, the cockpit windows breaks and the door is kicked open. Allowing marcus to hop out feet first only to land on his hands and knees on the sand.

He swiftly gets up only feel a strong pain on his abdomen just below of his left chest. He grasps it only to see blood on his hand.

"that's my blood, oh crap that is a lot of my blood…" he then gets up and slowly scurrying away while looking at what's left of his arwing till it exploded in a massive fire ball behind him causing him to fall back. Luckily he was far away enough before his fighter blew up. He looks at his now destroyed Arwing before getting up and attempts to walk out of the canyon. His ear twitched as hear an arwing landed nearby, at first he is overjoyed but then that sense of joy turn to dread when looked at where the arwing sound came from as his telepathy kicked in again.

The Swift Death is hovering over him, Marcus kept himself together and reaches over and grabbed his staff as it extends then he readies it at Crow's Ship as it lands near the shore line. The cockpit door opens and the Pilot jumps out, landing on his feet. Now getting the see the man that shot him and his team down in person as he approaches him.

Crow then reaches to his huge holster on the back below his hips and pulled a gunblade out of his holster in its gun form pointing at Marcus as he gets closer to him.

"Really, a stick? You a brought a stick in a gunblade fight? I was expecting a lot more from you, McCloud!"

"lay off, asshole!" Marcus charges at him and fires his pyro blaster at Crow. Crow dodges it and opens fire at Marcus. Despite being critically injured, he is able to dodge and cartwheel from the gunblade's fire then swings his staff at him. Just before it hit him, Crow's gunblade transform into a sword with high frequency red electric current flowing through the blade and blocked the blow from Marcus's staff.

"w-wha-" before Marcus could react, Crow broke through the block and swing his gunblade, disarming Marcus from his staff then follow it with Crow step in a land a perfect headbutt to marcus's head knocking him down flat on his back.

Crow reforms his gunblade back to gun mode and aims at Marcus. Marcus now gazing at the barrel of his weapon, thinking this is it. Until a sound of a gun clicking is heard next to Crow. he simply smiles as looks over to his shoulder to see Coyote with her Gun aimed point black at his side.

"Put your hands up where I can see em and step away from him slowly"

"Sorry, following a ladies orders or anyones orders that doesn't pay is not my style."

He feels her gun pressed against the back of his head. He simply smirks from the threat knowing she is actually serious.

"I said put em up and step away from him, NOW!"

Within a fraction of second, Crow swiftly disarmed Coyote by knocking her blaster into the air which forces her into grab her second blaster as Crow sees Marcus Running for his staff. He swiftly switches his Gunblade back to sword mode and press the blade of his weapon against her throat with the electric current flowing blade just barely touching her skin and using his other hand catching Coyote's blaster and aimed at Marcus and opened fire at him. He shoots in front of him as he just about to reach his staff made him stops dead in his tracks.

Both members are now held at both knifepoint and gunpoint at the same time. Crow looks over to Coyote, giving him a gaze that it suppose to make him shiver but shrugs off.

"Bit of a advice, Baby; Next time you point a gun at somebody be ready to pull the trigger, if not then try using Knifes next time so it's better for close encounters." Crow Smirks to her as she got the shock gaze at him.

"Did he just called me "baby?" last time I checked; I am not HIS baby!" she thought.

Marcus was staring at the barrel of Coyote's gun this time before Crow tosses her gun back to her and reforms his gunblade in gun back and withdrawing it back to his holster.

He then walks to Marcus and kneels to him, assessing the wounds on Marcus then notice the wound below Marcus's left lower chest then looks back at him, facing him.

"You might wanna get that patched up before you bleed to death."

Marcus gets up but got up too quickly, causing him to gripping his lower chest more blood leaked out till it's now seeping through his uniform.

"grr...If I wasn't this injured, I wouldn't punched your lights out permanently!"

"I'm afraid you don't wanna do that. You'll open your wound up even further and bleed out faster"

Marcus begins Panting heavily as he lays on the sand. Coyote runs over to him and hold him in her arms while his grips the wound on his Chest. Crow reaches over to his kit on the back of his pants pulled out a medical syringe and removes the cap at the bottom as it opens with the needle coming into Coyote and Marcus's View.

Marcus grip begins to loosen and his eyes begins to slowly close.

Coyote sees his face and shook her hand.

"Marcus, No! Don't close your eyes, please stay with me!" She looks back at Crow as Tears begins to well up.

"Don't just stand there! I don't know what you are going to do, but you are responsible for this. do Something!"

Crow simply stood the auto injector syringe in hand, all ready to go.

"Not if you forget to say please."

Coyote now baring her teeth and growling at him but then realize that every second. Marcus is getting worse and worse. Now having no other choice. Coyote buried her face in Marcus's chest as her face blackens. She then pleads to him with the tone of absolute sadness, tears are now shedding down her cheeks and landing on Marcus's cheeks.

"Please...I beg of you, save him. Save Marcus, we are...just about to get married. I can't and I won't live without him. Please!"

Crow then kneels down to Marcus now motionless body as his hand goes limp.

"And Fyi on what I am going to do to him."

Coyote watches as Crow lines up the syringe to Marcus's chest just wondering what is he going to do.

"I am going save his life!" without another word or second to spare, Crow then stabs the Syringe into Marcus's chest and pressed down on the injection button which made a loud hiss. Almost immediately Marcus eyes snapped wide open and gasps loudly for air. Coyote couldn't believe what she just witnessed as Marcus was thought to have died only for Crow to save him just from being on Death's doorstep.

Marcus look up at Coyote who is now hysterical and very happy to see Marcus is still Alive her tears of sorrowed turned to tears of absolute joy.

"Oh my God Marcus, I can't believe you are still alive. I thought you were about to die in my arms."

Marcus blinks in complete confusion. Looking around.

"What happened…?" he looks over to Crow as he walks back to his ship.

"Hey!" Marcus called him out only for Crow to stop and look back behind him.

"I don't know who you are but don't think I am not going to forgive you for what you did. Not by a long shot!"

Coyote not wanting to argue but is now angry at Crow for forcing her to beg for Marcus's life but now skeptical for why did he wanted to save Marcus in the first place.

"I'm not expecting any forgiveness from one of you"

Marcus and Coyote looked at him in response of that statement.

"If I wanted you and your team dead I wouldn't done so back at the base or shot your friends down while they escaping. Better yet where you are right now. Left completely vulnerable and wide opened to get gunned down."

Marcus and Coyote continue gearing him and expression turned from anger to confusion. Marcus breaths heavily from his breath returning him.

"Who or what are YOU? And how do you know about me and my team?"

Crow turns around and faces them, Coyote slowly reaches to one of her guns in her holster.

"i've known you for the longest time, Marcus McCloud. After all I am a admirer and huge fan of your father.

"how do you know so much about him and family, and what are you talking about?" Coyote ask still holding Marcus's head.

"you'll find out soon enough, well only for Marcus of course. But business beckons.

Maybe the other time we again next time and maybe honed your flying skills a bit, I might share a secret or two."

Marcus gives off the dumbstruck and annoyed expression. As if Crow is serious about that, Coyote gives away the same expression because Crow just down right brutally insult him.

"a-are...are you serious?" Marcus asks.

"maybe I am, or maybe just kidding around with you, kiddo." Crow then whips out his wrist com and pressed a couple of buttons.

"I've disabled the communication Jammer. You're free to call in reinforces or this case the medical corp. All I did is inject a special anaesthetics and stabilizer to keep your vitals stabilize while also stopping the bleeding."

Crow then jumped into his ship and closes

The cockpit door. The engine of his ships starts up and is about to take off until Marcus ask him as he takes off.

"What are you really? And why are you helping me?"

Crow's ship takes off leaving both Marcus and Coyote near the wreckage of Marcus's Ship. Crow then responds to Marcus's question as he flies off out of Kitana's orbit

"again, I lend a hint or two. As for what I am, that's for you and friends to figure out. I shall see you again, Marcus James McCloud."

After that, the communication with Crow is gone. Then another communication is linked and Marcus Respond to it.

"Marcus, it's Chase! Please respond!"

"Chase, is that you?"

Chase let out a huge sigh in relief before responding back.

"oh thank god, you're okay. The line is finally jack free. We saw two explosions not far where we were. We're coming in gyro wings now!"

"Alright! See you soon."

Marcus look up at Coyote and she embraces him.

"I thought I was going to lose you."

"well I'm still here alive and well like a million bucks. Though that crash was brutal."

Coyote smiles and lays next to Marcus looking at the clouds with him.

"but man that fight though, Crow was really tough. More tough than any opponent I've ever face. We're talking about Andross and I-will-not-say-her-name combined."

"than any opponent WE have ever faced, Marcus. We were fighting him too."

Coyote and Marcus laughed. Then Coyote roll over to Marcus facing him then placing her hand on his chest. But then Marcus wince in pain.

"Ouch! Watch the stomach, Coyote!"

"Oh sorry!" she swiftly pull her hand away from Marcus's Chest. She then snuggle her arm. Then Marcus slowly sits up obviously trying not to reopen his wound. And coyote sits up with him. They look at each other with coyote making the first words.

"we'll pay that bounty hunter back soon if we ever meet him again. I'm with you till the end"

"till death do us part"

"to be honest, I would rather die with you then being away from you"

No more words were said as they slowly lean forward to each, their lips are just about to connect-

"Marcus, Coyote, up here!"

Marcus and Coyote look up and see Anna in the Gyro Wing carrying her Wolfen and Chase behind him.

Marcus and Coyote romantic moment has been cut short. Coyote growl and crossing her arms. Marcus place his hand on her shoulder.

"don't worry, we'll make it up back on the Great Fox. But for now, that kiss is gonna have to wait."

Coyote unsatisfied expression is replaced with a smile and bedroom as Marcus's eyes gaze locked on hers for a brief moment.

"it's Alright, I'll wait…"

Marcus signals chase. As he lowers the Gyro Wing.

Back on the Great Fox and 2 of Hours of examining and medical treatment.

"3 fractured rib cages, internal bleed which healed itself, don't know how though, and a minor concussion."

Chase points to Marcus as is now topless and lower abdomen to his left chest is wrapped in bandages.

"also whoever this crow guy is, he didn't just inject anesthetic and stabilizer into you, he also injected some kind adrenaline compound that Jump start your entire body"

Marcus shook his head and slowly gets off the medical bed then slips on his Muscle T.

"all I remember was hearing Coyote voice and next thing i know, something was stabbed in my stomach and I just woke up."

Chase puts his hand on Marcus's Shoulder.

"what matters the most it's that you're okay now."

Marcus simply shook his head.

"but we failed the mission, and almost lost our arwings."

Damalgo steps in.

"good news is that Chase and Anna's Arwings are not as bad as yours but speaking of which, you and Coyote are probably not gonna be flying again anytime soon" Marcus walks to what's left of his arwing, the arwing is busted, the wings are broken off and the boosters are burned out. As for coyote's Wolfen, the iron maiden, is just as bad as Marcus's Arwing.

"How bad is it, Chase?"

"Marcus, it's totaled to the point it's unrepairable, even if Al and I work together to fix it. It's no good, and worst of all. The G-Diffusion system is burned to a crisp. It literally won't fly anymore. And if we try to repair it, it'll probably take us months to fix it. But that's not counting on Coyote's Wolfen too."

Coyote ears drooped downward from hearing the damage report on both her and Marcus's ships.

"I can get my ship fully rebuilt back on fortuna, but we're pretty much far away, and we're getting close to Corneria any day now."

Marcus crosses his arms feeling bad as well. Not just about his and Coyote's Ships but he has to report to Peppy and Bill that they failed the mission. His biggest fear is that what was forgot to mention is that his Father is now a general of the cornerian army as well, at this point he doesn't know what to say or how to explain that him and team failed the mission and Marcus almost died.

Eventually the entire team round up to the monitors as Peppy, and Bill along with Fox shows up on screen. Fox did eventually learned what happened with Marcus and became worried. But reluctantly let out a sigh of relief to see his son still alive but saddened to see his son is injured but was happy he is okay otherwise.

But of course Marcus was hesitant at first then explains all three generals about the mission and what happened.

"What? A bounty hunter stopped you?!" Fox ask in shock.

"yeah, he was very tough and has unbelievable flying skills unlike we have never seen before. And he took all four of us; me, Coyote, Chase, and Anna down with little to no effort. We thought we have the advantage until I was forced to fight him alone and we were at equal grounds in terms of flying skills...but I lost"

"Don't beat yourself up, Sport!" Fox speaks with him in confidence. "you may have lost the fight, but you'll get him back soon enough. I believe me, if I actually did fought him I'll be sure he will be roasted bird afterwards"

The team laughed a bit while Peter let out a chuckle from it.

"Thanks, Dad" Marcus's returns as he fist pumps to him but does it quickly and ended up nearly falling over and grasping his wound.

the team rush to him and help him up.

"Marcus, take it easy! You're still injured from the crash!" Chase helps him up. All the while worried about him.

"C'mon, Chase! It's gonna take more than a couple of broken bones and endless sting all over to take down me down"

Fox cocky and confident attitude is then replace with seriousness just from seeing his son hunched over and clutching his wound while trying to put on a brave smile.

"We'll get him back, Marcus. We'll make him pay for what he did to you"

"Don't go overboard, Fox. I understand he's your son but swearing vengeance on the man who almost killed him then all of sudden had a change of heart, is not the way."

"it's under control, peppy."

"yeah, but seriously. A bounty hunter, one guy, took down an entire squadron all by himself. Reminds me you taking on Star Wolf, and Andross by yourself, Fox!"

"it wasn't easy though, took me quite a little bit of time to take em all down. And now there is this guy."

Marcus stood up slowly as his pain subsides. Peppy then gets back to him and his team.

"anyways did you at least get his name out of him?" the moment Peppy asks that question, Marcus immediately responded to it and hopefully. Learn a thing or two about him.

"yeah, we did. He goes by the name of Crow Hunter, does that name ring any bells to anyone on you guys?"

"hmm, that name does indeed sound familiar to me. However I am gonna do some digging to confirm it."

"I've never heard anything from that name before" Bill shook his head before looking at Fox.

"I never heard of anyone by that name before either."

And hour of talking past and the generals tells Marcus to rest up and recover until they get back to Corneria so they can fully treat Marcus's wounds. The team says good byes and promised them to see them soon back Corneria.

Later on as the team hits the sack, Marcus with only his muscle T-Shirt boxer briefs wide awake, He sits on his bed still looks a bit worried. He begins wondering about Crow.

"Crow, says he knows me for the longest time. Just what does he mean that? Has he been watching me, through my adventures the entire time? " he thought to himself. "who ever this guy is, I don't know if he is nothing but bad news."

Before Marcus could think any further about Crow, the door of his quarters open with Coyote standing outside then enters. Wearing her spaghetti strap shirt and underwear, she approaches to Marcus and sat next to him on the bed as the door closes.

"Something bothering you, Mark?"

"I just can't get over the fact that he beaten all four of us. But what's really troubling me is that he saids he has known me for the longest time. I don't even know if what he is saying is actually legit."

"He's probably saying that just to intimidate you and get you on edge. I don't know how he knows you or your father. But don't let him get into your head because of it." Marcus simply looks at her before speaking again.

"but what if he was not kidding? If he is capable of taking us down without breaking a sweat, knowing exactly who we are. We might be dealing with someone who is just as bad if not the worse enemy we've ever face." simply looks down at his feet as his face darkens in fear and doubt. " What if he savouring every moment like he did back on katina. I only fought because I wanted to protect you and the others..only to get shot down and almost-" his sentence is interrupted with Coyote's hand on his cheek and turning to face her in a gaze lock.

"Marcus, Look at me." Coyote requests in a serious tone. Marcus immediately then snaps out of it while Coyote is holding his head with her hand, keeping it to face her.

"just like your father said, Do not beat yourself up because we got taken down by just one guy and failed the mission. It maybe the first mission that the star fox team has ever failed in history, but don't forget we all make mistakes and we learn from it. And you said it yourself when you reformed the team. If we get knocked down, all we have to do is get right back up. If someone punch us, we punch em back. You are strong and confident like your father, and lovable and wise like your mother. That is why we still follow you and fight with you to the very end. That is why the lylat system is now depending on you. And best of all…." she then look away a bit while biting her lower lip before looking back at him now locked in a trance like gaze before concluding her sentence.

"That is why I've always loved you...so much!" Coyote now giving him bedroom eyes while her face is almost red like a tomato. Marcus couldn't help smile and remove her hand from his cheek and now hold both her hands.

"You're right, I may have almost died back there but I am not gonna just give up just yet. And they say I am good at helping and cheering up others." Coyote smiled from Marcus's response then giggles a bit from seeing Marcus back to being confident again, the Marcus she knew and love.

"guess I can consider this getting even. And speaking of "getting even" Marcus. Didn't you promise me we can make up for that long awaited kiss back on Katina when get back to the Great Fox?"

Marcus gives of a smile and bedroom eyes back at her. Knowing what comes next.

"of course I did, how can I forget?" Marcus leans in close to her slowly closely in as Coyote did the same before kissing and locking their lips. Marcus then slowly leans forward while making out with Coyote and ended laying on Marcus's bed with him on top of her and the romantic and engaged moment continues.

The Great fox flies off on to it's next destination and that is Corneria…

Elsewhere

Sargasso Space Station, 12:57 PM

inside the corridors if the hideout well known to be home of the most well known and dangerous criminals lies a familiar face. Crow Hunter sitting and leaning back against the chair with his legs resting on the desking taking a personal call with a suspicious person.

"Crow, I just received a word from the other generals that Marcus James McCloud, Fox McCloud's Son, almost lost his life after the completely unnecessary 4-on-1 dogfight back at the Katina outpost near the canyons."

"yeah, your point?"

"my point is that we had an agreement, I gave you and your subordinates authorized access to the Katina's outpost to search on the information we need on the organization that we thought we decommissioned. You also made a promise to me that if the starfox team were to intercept the S.O.S. signal and head straight to Katina, you will not show any hostility towards them in any way."

Crow sighs before speaking again in complete annoyance.

"okay first off, yes I blew that so call "well thought out plan" way out of proportion but keep things going MY way, no one else's. Second of all, that unnecessary dogfight was just a test to see if they can hold out their own against me even if I blew that out if proportion as well. furthermore we got the information you needed from Pierce, and I got the money. So with all due respects, GENERAL, why don't you do me a favor and fuck off!"

Alyssa hears the conversation and was in complete awe from Crow's complete disrespect towards the certain general on the other line.

"Very well, but we wish to ask one more job for you, and the one you've been waiting for. The man who you have been hunting down for 6 years now. Because of the information you've provided to us, we were able to reopen the Coalesces case."

Crow simply sits on the chair with his feet still on the desk. Pierce walks in while Crow is on the phone.

"hello, Mr. Hunter! The money is given to the soldiers just like you ask"

Crow looks at Pierce with a death Gaze.

"Shut it, Rust bucket!"

He then turn back to his phone.

"so, is this really legit. Is Coalesces is really Still alive?"

"I can't really much explained but if these evidences are correct, then not only its proof that Coalesces is still alive. but also the entire galaxy is indeed in great peril as we speak. We may have no choice but ask you to join the star Fox team as the key witness for in case, and aid them on their fight."

Crow thought about in silence before breaking it.

"what will it pay?"

"I beg your par-?!"

"bounty hunter, remember you old hound dog? I've told you the first time when I first starting doing business with you. I will and only work if there's money sitting on my table, no questions ask, that is it and that is all."

The General simply sigh and resumes speaking to Crow.

"I suppose it can't be avoided, please name your price. "

"name my price, huh? As in any price?"

Alyssa and the other members of the hideout hears the conversation.

"as long it's enough for you to help us and fight along side with Star Fox. We have no other choice therefore we need all the help we can get."

Crow simply grin ear to ear the moment the general offering him to basically anything from him.

The crowd outside his quarters notice his devilish grin and their reaction change immediately as soon Crow names the General offer"

"twenty-five thousand grand in cornerian dollars, non-negotiable."

"T...T-Twenty-five thousand grand? have you gone mad?!"

"hey, you just sealed your words. So either we have an agreement or i'm leaving your business. Your choice"

The general now completely distraught and absolutely floored. He puts Crow on hold for moment before returning him.

"so do we have a deal?" crow asks.

"after speaking with other superiors...we have decided. we REALLY need your help at this point so if that's what it takes for you to help us then yes, we have deal."

Crow becomes cheerful and looks at the now mouth dropping eavesdroppers that is Alyssa, pierce and the some of the bandits.

"okay, key witness service and saving the entire lylat system with the most well known mercenaries in the galaxy for $25,000k in cornerian cash it is. So where is the meeting taking place?"

"err..Star Fox is currently going to be on 3 month vacation, they are also using this so Marcus can recover from his wounds. So by the time we gather them up, Marcus will make a full recovering"

"fair enough, I'll let them relax a bit before I straighten them up a bit. So that means I should be expecting them before I get there, to greet them properly. I suppose"

"Marcus has done a lot in the lylat system just like his father, so please show respect to him and his team."

"only if they deserve it, in which they don't. You have good night...General Pepper. Crow Hunter, over and out."

Alyssa walks in with her mouth still dropped.

"twenty-five. thousand. grand?!" without another word, her eyes roll back and collapse on the floor, fainted.

"my, Mr. Hunter! No mercy once or ever!" pierce simply hugs him behind as he looks over to the a pair of sunglasses of a certain someone that he admires just as much to Marcus, and Fox, locked behind a see through safe.

"Hmph, Doesn't pay as much."

End of chapter 1: Starfox, Still on Duty!

Whoa….put in a lot of work into this chapter and already we have a plot twist and among a few other things. Who knows, we might encounter more about Crow's history. (or you guys catch on quick right off the bat for who he is from the previous- shit that almost slipped out!) as for the "romantic and engaging" moment with Marcus and Coyote, I let you guys use your imagination on that.

Again I wish to thank ZombieAxeHero for letting me using his character. Any reference to his fan fiction stories here will Contains spoilers throughout this fan fiction, so please be sure to read his Fan fictions first before continuing reading this fanfic.

Fun fact(s)!

Crow's Arwing, The Swift Death, is based off the Black Arwing from the new release Wii U star fox title: Star Fox Zero. (At first I didn't like the game because of the controls but opinions changed.)

Marcus wasn't actually about to die back on Katina. He was losing consciousness due to losing a lot of blood, the most damage that was gonna taking his life is his eternal bleeding hemorrhaging one of his lungs.

For those who doesn't know about money or simply doesn't like math (que madworld quote "nobody said there'll be math!") $25,000k or twenty-five thousand grand is basically $25,000,000. Yeah, Crow is THAT insane when it comes to money...or is he? (Foreshadowing….again)

Chapter 1: Star Fox, Still on duty! Music track.

Introduction, Enter Marcus McCloud and Star Fox team! ( Theme of Star Fox Assault, Star Fox Assault OST)

Mission Request from the Cornerian Generals. (Theme of the Great Fox (also known as Briefing 1) Star Fox Assault OST) (gotta keep some originality, after all this is Star Fox! ^_^; )

Initiating flying and combat simulation! (Tutorial medley, Star Fox Zero OST)

Rampaging P.I.E.R.C.E (also his battle theme) "I'm the big motherf #&ing gun!" (Wolfgang Boss Theme Mix, Skylanders Trap Team OST)

Unknown new enemies, propel the threat! (Enter Bounty Hunter, Crow Hunter) (Sector Alpha (Inside the Salvadora) Star Fox Zero OST)

Crow's Chase (Corneria, Star Fox Zero OST)

Marcus (Chase, Anna, and Coyote) vs. Crow (Vs. Jin & Xiaoyu (Tekken Mid Boss) Street Fighter X Tekken OST)

Crow's change of heart. (Riku's theme, Kingdom Hearts 2 OST )

Marcus & Coyote: Cheering and Making up. (The Price of Freedom, Final Fantasy 7: Crisis Core OST)