Chapter 3

Trouble

A cool morning breeze ruffled through Krystal's hair as she jogged along the street. Next to her, sweat beading on his forehead, was Fox McCloud. It had been a month since she'd officially joined the team, and in that time they'd gotten to know each other quite well. They'd grown close, staying up into the wee hours of the morning talking, laughing, and watching movies. Krystal had never felt this close to someone before.

Last week Fox had asked her if she wanted to join him for his morning jog, and she'd eagerly accepted the offer. It gave her a chance to start her day with him, and to get to know a little more about the neighborhood they were living in.

When she'd joined the team Krystal had been expecting to be living either in a barracks somewhere, or to have to get her own apartment. Neither of those things had turned out to be the case. Instead, Fox had shown her to a family home about two miles outside of Corneria City, tucked into a quiet, idyllic, suburban neighborhood. They'd arrived to find both Falco and Slippy already there. Fox had explained that, when they were on Corneria, they shared the house, which was more than large enough to accommodate all of them. Later, she'd learned why, and it had taken all of her strength not to reach into his mind and comfort him with her powers.

They stopped at an oak tree near the park, both of them slowing and putting their hands behind their heads, taking deep, steady breaths. They'd gone about three miles this morning, in a circle around the neighborhood. This oak tree was where they stopped each morning. Once she had her breath back she said, "Fox. I want to thank you."

"For what?" he asked as he leaned against the tree with one outstretched arm.

For a moment she was distracted by the firm, lean, musculature of his biceps. Not bulky. He was built for speed and endurance. She preferred that. Ripped men looked a bit...silly, in her eyes. She much preferred Fox's toned, sleek look.

"Krystal?"

"Oh. Uh, sorry." Krystal blushed like mad. He'd caught her looking. Oh, because you were being so subtle about it. Get a grip girl, you've only known him a month.

"For what?" He looked at her with a knowing gaze, and she could see him struggling to keep the corners of his muzzle from turning upward. Oh the tease, he knew what she'd been doing.

"Nothing. I...I don't know why I said that." Krystal frowned, then stepped over to him and wrapped him in a hug. She felt his spine stiffen, and she squeezed him all the harder for it. "I just wanted to say thank you. For taking me in. For giving me a chance."

His arms wrapped around her back, and his muzzle rested on her shoulder. They were the same height. "You're welcome. You uh, you don't always have to thank me though."

Krystal laughed and pulled away. Beeping him on the nose she said, "I know. You just feel so nice when I say..." She stopped, her eyes wide for an instant as she caught herself. "What I mean to say is, you always look so nice, and, well, the hug too, that feels nice. Nice enough. I mean, really nice. But not that nice. Not..." Krystal cursed mentally at herself. She was getting careless. She didn't want him to know about her powers. Not yet."I'm going to stop talking now."

With a smile, Fox said, "I'm glad I'm not the only one who can trip over their words."

Shaking her head she punched him playfully on the arm. "Race you home?"

"Last one there has to make breakfast. For the whole team."

"You're on." Without waiting for him to reply, Krystal tore off in the direction of the house, legs and arms pumping with the promise of Fox's cooking.

Fox's feet pounded on the sidewalk as he ran, tail billowing behind him. His eyes were planted firmly on Krystal, who was maintaining a small but growing lead on him. They were coming up to the house, and he laughed as she vaulted over the low stone wall surrounding the front yard. "You win!" he yelled to her.

She turned and jumped for joy, her tail wagged behind her as she slipped in the front door. Fox slowed to a walk and approached the house. Years ago this house had always had a bittersweet feeling. It had been the place he'd grown up as a child. It had also been the place where he lost his mother. And then the place where he'd opened the door one day to see a distraught looking Peppy and a grim General Pepper.

He'd told Krystal the story not long after he'd set her up in one of the upstairs bedrooms. Walking through the gate, Fox let out a brief, wistful sigh. It was a five bedroom house. Two downstairs, and three upstairs. Krystal had been curious about why his parents had had so many rooms, if they'd only ever had Fox. The look on his face must have said it all, because when she turned around she blanched and reached out to him. He'd told her the story. All of it. How his mother had been taken from him. How his parents had always planned to have a big family. And how, thanks to Andross, all that had been cut tragically short. He'd had tears in his eyes, and so had she.

That wistful sigh turned into a smile. Sometimes he got this crazy idea in his head that, when he confided in her, she felt the same emotions he did. You're being crazy. She's just empathetic. Besides, you've been dealing with Falco for a month. That makes any emotional expression other than 'jackass' seem crazy.

He opened the door and walked inside the house. Off the front door was a staircase leading up to the second level, and he caught Krystal walking up, her tail disappearing as he shut the door. "Showering?" he called after her.

"Yeah. I'll be down in ten," she replied.

"Alright."

Fox headed into the kitchen and opened the cupboards, looking for the pancake mix. He spotted Falco sitting at the kitchen island, munching on a bowl of Fruities cereal and flipping through his phone. "Morning," Fox said.

"Morn."

"Morn?" Fox glanced back at him, then pulled the mix off the shelf.

"Yeah. Morn. What?" Falco glanced up at him. "What's that smell?"

"I just went running," Fox replied.

"Uh huh. Try not to stand too close to me, will ya?"

Fox snorted and started preparing the food. Upstairs he heard the sound of the shower running, and for a moment he imagined what it would be like to be a fly on the wall in there. He'd never met a girl as gorgeous as Krystal. With her slender, athletic build, combined with curves in all his favorite places that made her look like some warrior goddess.

"Hey Foxy."

"Yeah Falco?" Fox looked over at his friend, and saw that he was watching him intently.

"You need to go beat off something other than those eggs? Cuz you got that look," Falco told him, a smirk on his beak.

Fox blushed and tipped his ears back. "Screw you," he growled. Falco chuckled and went back to his phone.

Getting a hold of himself, Fox poured the batter into four even circles on the frying pan. He loved cooking. Before his mom died, she'd taught him how to make his own pancakes. Somehow he never felt like they were as good as his mother's, but, thus far, everyone who'd ever tasted them said they were the best damn pancakes they'd ever had. Even his father, a cook in his own right, had left breakfast foods to his son.

"Where's Slippy?" Fox asked.

"Asleep."

"Still?"

"He stayed up late last night," Falco replied. "Said somethin' about watching the new season of some anime crap. You know him. Probably fell asleep halfway through."

"Right." Fox hid a smile. Same old Falco.

Footsteps sounded in the hallway leading to the kitchen, and Fox looked up from his rapidly golding pancakes to see Slippy enter, rubbing sleep from his eyes as he yawned. "Hey guys."

"Hey Slip." Fox smiled and said, "Falco was asking about your new anime. Said he wants to know if it's any good."

Behind him Fox heard Falco caw in protest, but before he could do anything Slippy ran over and started talking so fast it sounded like the legal disclaimer on a car insurance commercial. Reaching for a plate, Fox got the first stack of pancakes on it and set it down in front of Slippy. Slippy stopped talking and started drooling. "Oh those look good."

"Wait for the butter and syrup Slip," Fox advised. He opened the fridge and retrieved the two items, then set them in the microwave to warm them up. Once they were done he handed them back and said, "Dig in."

"I call next batch," Falco said.

"Sure. Unless Krystal gets here first."

"Playin' favorites, huh?" Falco cocked an eye ridge. "I see how it is."

"Do you?"

"Someone's looking to get into some blue panties," Falco said.

Fox's eyes widened and his lips curled back in a snarl. He spun around and fixed Falco with a glare rated to melt through durasteel. Falco flinched. "Don't ever say something like that again, Falco. Hear me?"

Slippy stopped with a bite of pancake midway to his mouth. Falco held up his hands in surrender. "Hey man, sorry. Didn't know you took it so seriously."

Turning back to his pancakes Fox let images and memories of the past month with Krystal float through his mind. He smiled a bit, his bad mood evaporating. Seriously? Oh Falco, if only you knew the half of it.

()()()()

"What do you say Commander. Am I crazy?"

Bill Grey smiled as he sat in the cockpit of his Vici-class fighter. He and his second in command, Lieutenant Commander Fay Spaniel, were flying a patrol in the Hinterlands region of Katina. Stretching as far as the eye could see was brown dirt, broken up by patches of vivid green around river beds, and massive, pink mushrooms. "No. There's no reason the Noodle Incident couldn't have gone down that way."

"See. See! Miyu keeps telling me I'm crazy."

Bill could hear the sort of loving exasperation in Fay's voice that came with a long term romance. Fay could be a handful. High strung, high energy, and a little crazy. A few months ago they'd gotten into a brawl in a local bar with some Oikonny loving thugs, and she'd giggled the whole time as she kneed them in their crotches. That said, she was a damn good pilot, and Bill wouldn't rather have anyone as his number two in Husky Squadron. "I think that has more to do with the fact that we'll never know how the Noodle Incident went down."

"Unless he starts writing again."

Bill chuckled. "That's not gonna happen."

"Could happen."

"Sure. Ever the optimist."

Before Fay could reply, Bill saw his commpanel start flashing. Tapping the controls he said, "Grey. What is it?"

"Commander Grey? This is base. We're detecting an approaching object, coming in at near terminal velocity from orbit in your sector."

"Fay? You hearing this?"

"Yup. I'm looking."

"Base, can we have projected impact coordinates?"

"Sending them now," the controller at base replied.

A set of coordinates appeared on Bill's screen. Then a sound like a clap of thunder, only about a hundred times louder, filled the air. Bill's radar flashed and a holoscreen appeared on his canopy displaying what looked to be a falling meteorite. "I see it. We'll check it out."

"Understood. Call in once you have something. Base commander says not to worry, we were expecting some junk from Meteo today anyway."

"Acknowledged. Husky Lead out." Bill closed the comm channel and angled his fighter towards the column of smoke on the horizon. Fay followed him, still on his wing. "Probably just a meteor," he muttered to himself. Why, then, did he have a bad feeling about this?

()()()()

Fay brought her fighter down half a dozen meters from Bill's. She went through the shutdown cycle, then popped the canopy and doffed her helmet, revealing a pair of floppy ears and long, white, hair. Grabbing her sidearm she hopped down to the ground, her boots crunching in the soft, sandy, Katinan dirt. The air was still, hot, and dry. It also contained the acrid scent of superheated metal. If it had been a meteorite, it must have been one with a nickel or iron core.

Crunching her way across the dirt, she met Bill at the edge of the crater, then looked down. She did a double take. Where she'd expected to find nothing but a chunk of space rock, she saw instead a large, blue, metal object. It was shaped vaguely like an hourglass, with a narrow middle and two bulbous ends. It looked to be about two meters tall, and it was popping and groaning as it cooled.

Whatever this thing was, it certainly wasn't a space rock. It had sleek metal lines, and it was smooth and unpitted. It was clearly artificial. Maybe a satellite? But it didn't look like anything she'd seen in Lylat. Looking at Bill, she said, "What is it?"

Bill frowned and crossed his arms. He looked at her and then at the unidentified object, and said, "Trouble."

A/N: Hey all! What's this? A plot point? Probably. Keep it in mind, because it'll be popping back up in the near future.

Speaking of the future, a slight change in plans for this story. I've decided to move the update schedule to every other week from here on out. I apologize for any of you who are really enjoying the story and are feeling the "morrrrr" but I think this'll give people a better chance to read each current chapter, without worrying that they're going to fall behind. So yeah, it'll still be Thursdays, but we'll be doing every other week. That means next week will be an off-week.

Welp, that's all I've got for now. As always, a thank you to my reviewers, as well as those who have dropped favs and follows, you guys are all super awesome!

See you guys next time!

-general whitefurfurfrufrufurfurfurfur