Author's Note: Okay, this chapter has some action in it. Let me know what you think; read and review.
Fox and Krystal soon realized there was no hope for slipping out quietly; the pirates had all the exits covered, and were spread all over the stands looking for Wolf and Panther.
"They're looking for Wolf, right?" Fox pointed out. "Maybe they'll be too busy to bother with us."
So, Fox decided to try out a rather unconventional tactic; walk right past the guards.
Fox, followed closely by Krystal, walked up to the ruffians standing guard by the exit. He had no idea what happened to Wolf and Panther; it suddenly occured to him that if these creeps were after Wolf, then he was probably using Fox as a distraction while he slipped out some other way.
But, it wasn't as though they had another way out of Gladitoria; all they could do was play along... and be ready for when the shooting started.
"Hold it right there, foxy," said one of the guards. "Where do you think you're going?"
"We were just leaving..." Krystal responded.
"Not just yet," the pirate insisted. "We saw yous talkin' to Wolf over there."
"Who?" Fox said, feigning ignorance. But the pirates weren't that stupid.
"Don't play dumb with me, puppy!" The pirate said angrily. "We was watchin' you the whole time; you were havin' a nice long chat over there with our old pal Wolf. Now... tell us where he went, and we might let you live."
So far, these guys hadn't recognized either Fox or Krystal as being part of Star Fox... but they suspected them of being friends with Wolf O'Donnell, and that was bad enough.
"Look," said Fox. "I honestly don't know what your problem with Wolf is," he lied. "...and I don't know where he is, or where he's going. So why don't you just cut us some slack?"
"The proprietor won't take too kindly to you shooting up the place over this," Krystal added, jerking her head back the arena.
"Am I supposed to give a shank?" The pirate shot back. "One. Last. Time; tell us where Wolf is, or-"
"You know what?" Fox said, drawing his blaster. "Forget it."
With that, he pulled the trigger. A charged shot struck the ape square in the chest, knocking him flat on his back. Before he could react, Krystal clubbed the second goon over the head with her own blaster, and picked up his machine gun.
"Run!" Fox shouted, and he and Krystal bolted out the door; Fox turned and shot the control panel so that it sealed behind them.
Unfortunately, the pirates had more goons outside the arena as well, and they'd heard the shots. As Fox and Krystal ran past the wrecked android at the ticket booth, shots rang out from down the adjacent corridor; more pirates, bearing down on them with machine guns, shotguns, and blasters.
The two foxes returned fire. Krystal sprayed the ruffians with machine gun fire, filling the air with green tracers, and knocking down several of the pirates. Fox likewise hammered the trigger of his blaster, hitting one goon after another with a series of well-placed headshots.
"Keep moving!" Fox said. "Let's hope they haven't shut down the tram!"
Hordes of pirates stood between them and the tram station. Fox picked up one of their shotguns for himself as they fought their way back to the terminal; some of the pirates were using barriers for protection... normally a charged blaster shot would deal with these, but the shotgun was even better- as one pirate charged Fox head on, protected by a shield, Fox let loose with the shotgun.
When he pulled the trigger, volley of red blaster shots tore right through the barrier and knocked the pirate off his feet. Fox pumped the shotgun and shifted his aim, bringing down two more unshielded pirates with a single shot. Krystal followed up with yet another barrage of machine gun fire, mowing down the last of the pirates between them and the terminal.
They boarded the tram; it took off for the docking bay as soon as Fox gave the order to the android driving the vehicle, and it looked as though they were home free- until the tram came to a sudden halt halfway back to the dock.
"They've shut down the tram!" Krystal exclaimed.
"There's gotta be another way out of here..." said Fox. Sure enough, there was an emergency hatch on top of the tram car; Fox popped it open and climbed out- Krystal followed.
"We should be able to get back through the maintenance corridors," Fox suggested. There was an access hatch to the maintenance ducts just ahead from where the tram car had stopped... but another tram was head straight for them, and Fox could see it was loaded with more pirates.
"Look out!" Krystal shouted. Fox saw the danger; when the doors on tram open, one of the pirates that stepped out was carrying a rocket launcher. Fox and Krystal quickly dived into cover- a rocket sailed over their heads and blew up the tram car they'd just vacated.
They were now right under the tracks. The pirates dropped down, all except the one with the rocket launcher, who'd stopped to reload his weapon.
Fox took down the leader using his pilfered shotgun, and spotted a grenade on his belt; he took it, primed the explosive, and lobbed it up and over the tracks; it landed right beside the rocket-toting pirate, who didn't realize until it was too late. He dropped his rocket launcher over the edge just before being blown to smithereens.
They cleared out the rest of their adversaries without much trouble. Krystal picked up the rocket launcher before they made their way to the maintenance hatch.
There were a series of small tunnels and lifts to navigate to reach the docking bays. At one point, Fox and Krystal found themselves in a large shaft that looked as though it stretched from the bottom of station to the very top. Judging by the fans around the edge of the shaft, this was part of Horizon's ventilation system.
The shaft was filled with hovering maintenance drones that were working on repairing and replacing the fans in the ventilation shaft; the flat-topped androids served as improvised platforms so Fox and Krystal could make their way down.
"Don't look down..." Fox advised, jumping from the head of one of the drones to another as it drifted downward.
"I see an open shaft over there!" Krystal pointed out a hatch just a few more feet below them; and access port for the maintenance bots. That was there way out.
They made it without too much trouble; at one point, Krystal slipped and fell off of one of the repair bots when it suddenly shifted direction, but Fox caught her before she fell into the shaft... leading to a somewhat awkward moment as the fox held her in his arms, carrying her bridal-style the rest of the way down.
"You alright?" Fox asked, setting her down. She nodded; both of them were blushing like crazy. He had to wonder when he and Krystal would get past this embarrassing and awkward stage in their relationship, especially considering how long they'd been together... but that was for him to worry about later. Right now, those pirates were likely still after them, and would no doubt be waiting for them in the hangar.
A half-an-hour later, Fox and his companion emerged from the maintenance hatch in the Docking Sector... not too far from the cheery android that'd helped them earlier. Just as they expected, there were a number of pirates around the hangar, and they'd deployed sentry guns to cover the entrance. This wasn't much of a problem; Krystal still had the rocket launcher she'd picked up in the tram tunnels, and was able to make short work of these sentries. Once the way was clear, both foxes rushed into the hangar bay, where there Arwings were waiting for them. Fox quickly climbed into the cockpit of his own ship; Krystal stopped to dump the spent rocket launcher off the side of the catwalk before doing the same.
He wasted no time in bringing the Arwing's weapons and engines online, causing it to hover off the deck and allowing him to swing the fighter around so that it faced the hangar exit.
"Krystal, are you with me?" He checked.
"All systems online. Let's get out of here!" She insisted. Fox saw no reason to argue with her; he gunned the engines, and both fighters rocketed out of the hangar...
...and into a storm of laser fire.
"They were waiting for us!" Fox exclaimed.
There were hundreds of them; snub fighters, mechs, and maybe a dozen or more capital ships waiting for them just outside of Horizon's exterior framework. There was no way the could jump- they have to blast through them.
"Fox?" It was Peppy's voice he heard over the communicator channel. "We're seeing a lot of unidentified ships heading towards the station; right for the hangar where you and Krystal docked. Is everything all right?"
"Nothing we can't handle, Peppy!" Fox assured. "Have you heard from Wolf?"
"No sign of him," Peppy answered. "I take it this was a trap?"
"Not quite," Fox replied. "I'll explain when we get back; send in Falco and Slippy. We're gonna need help breaking out of here."
"Fox? We've got enemy ships, incoming!" Krystal warned. Fox could see them; several dozen pirate fighters were headed straight for them.
Fox's opened up with the Arwing's dual hyperlasers as soon as the attacking ships were in range; the first wave of pirate fighters quickly disintegrated in a hail of blue laser fire. Krystal was right beside him, helping to plough the road ahead.
The second wave of ships accelerated, splitting their formation and looping around behind the two Arwings. Red laser fire streaked towards him from behind; Fox snap-rolled his ship to the left to avoid it.
"Fox, you've got one on your tail!"
Fox could see him; a tri-wing pirate fighter was directly behind him. Fox swerved, dived, and looped in an attempt to shake the enemy fighter, to no avail. More red lasers streaked past his cockpit.
"I can't shake him!"
"Hang on!" Krystal was coming up behind the pirate craft; Fox looked over his shoulder, and saw the nose of her Arwing glowing red, indicating she was charging her primary laser.
Krystal fired. The blast from the main cannon tore right through the fighter's shields and breached the hull, causing fire to erupt from the ship's starboard side. Krystal followed up with a sustained barrage from her hyperlasers, and was rewarded with an explosion.
"Thanks, Krystal..." said Fox. He turned his focus back to the enemies ahead of him.
Fox could see Pirate battleships trying to block their path. His targeting computer highlighted the weak points near the center of each ship, where the main reactors would be located. He primed a smart-bomb, and locked onto the nearest ship.
He fired- the projectile tumbled through space, heading straight for the center of the battleship. It landed right on-target, causing an explosion that ripped the battleship in two. A second explosion followed as Krystal bombed the second ship.
Unfortunately, the wreckage from both ships collided with the surrounding framework. Fox remembered that Horizon's entire exterior structure was like a giant Tesla coil; as such, when the beams collapsed, lightning cascaded across the damaged section and the hulls of the two wrecked ships, creating a wall of electricity that they couldn't get past.
A squadron of pirate fighters right behind the battleships realized this too late, flying right into the electrical field, and were vaporized on contact.
"This way, Fox!" Krystal shouted; her Arwing banked left, away from the wall of lightning. Fox followed her lead through the undamaged framework.
This turned out not be the safest route through the station; the electricity that rippled across the structure presented a potentially deadly hazard. Fox had to be careful not to stray too close to the framework, lest he get zapped. This part of the structure was also filled with all kinds of machinery directing electricity into the station from the power stations on Fulmin.
A series of spinning, ring-shaped instruments seemed to form a corridor that would lead them further out of the station, but these devices were actually Tesla coils that ignited every few seconds. Fox and Krystal found they could fly right through them if they time it right, but they had to do this while still under fire from enemy fighters.
Then there lightning rods, force fields, and automated repair ships that serviced the station, as well as laser batteries and mines that the pirates had deployed in their path. Fox had seen it all before, but it still presented a challenge to navigate through these obstacles.
Eventually, they did manage to get through; but the remainder of the pirate battleships were waiting for them just outside the station's framework.
"Krystal; heads up, we've got more company!" No sooner had the word left his mouth than one of the battleships exploded... and a familiar voice was heard over the comm.
"Fox? You still alive?" It was Wolf O'Donnell.
"Still here, but there's a lot of ships in our way," Fox replied.
"I'll do what I can... but I'm all alone out here. Panther and I got separated," said Wolf.
A second battleship exploded, and Fox was able to see a lone Wolfen fighter dive through the debris. Two of the six remaining battleships broke off after Wolf, along with most of the fighters. That left three more battleships and their fighter escorts for Fox and Krystal to deal with.
"Falco, Slippy; where are you guys?" Fox asked.
"Hold on to your tail, Fox; we're almost there!" Falco replied. Fox was tracking two more Arwings on his radar, but they were still a ways out.
"Okay, Krystal... help is on the way. But we still gotta bust out of here!"
"I hear you, Fox," Krystal acknowledged. "I think it's time these ruffians knew exactly who they're dealing with."
Krystal punctuated that statement by firing several smart-bombs at the oncoming ships; Fox followed her example, firing off one of his three remaining bombs into the swarm of enemy fighters, before switching to hyperlasers.
One after the other, the pirate ships popped like firecrackers. The first battleship in their path blew up when both Arwings turned their guns on the center structure. Fox charged up his main laser to deal with the second ship; Krystal immitated him. Two red laser blasts collided with the side of the ship, and the ship exploded in a brilliant fireball.
The last battleship was much larger than the others; upon closer inspecting, Fox realized it was actually an old Venomian carrier, not unlike those he'd seen as part of the fleet in Sector Y years ago, with several Shogun mechs loaded on the deck.
"Fox, Slippy and I are inbound. I got eyes on that carrier; wait for us before you try to tackle that thing," Falcon advised.
Falco and Slippy's Arwings were coming up on the carrier from behind. Fox saw Falco launch a smart-bomb at the carriers engines.
"How do you like that!" Falco cried out in triumph as an explosion erupted from the carrier's stern. The ship began to list heavily to port; as it did, Fox saw three mechs launch from the deck.
"That should put the carrier out of commission," said Slippy. "Now we just gotta take care of those mechs!"
Easier said than done; the pirate's space mechs were equipped with long-range laser cannons rigged to their right arms, and heavy metal shields rigged to their left which could repel the Arwing's laser fire. They were also very fast and nimble.
On the plus side, Star Fox team outnumbered the pirate vehicles... and the ruffians weren't as well-trained as Fox and his team.
The first mech went down easily enough; Fox was able to take it out with a few well-placed shots to the back as it barreled after Falco, which left it's flank exposed. The second and third one went down just as easily- but by then, the carrier was ready to launch more mechs.
"We need to destroy that carrier," said Fox as another mech went down. "Or they'll just keep sending out reinforcements."
"I'm not seeing any other weak points on that ship, Fox!" Slippy replied.
"Try destroying the mechs before they launch," Falco suggested. "If they blow up on the deck, it may damage the carrier."
"Alright; Krystal, follow me in," Fox ordered. "Falco, Slippy; you handle the stragglers. Keep them off our backs while we go after the carrier."
"Roger that, Fox!" Slippy acknowledged.
Falco's idea worked like a charm; as Fox saw another Shogun mech being loaded on the deck of the carrier, he fired off a smart bomb. The mech was utterly defenseless sitting on the launch pad like that; it couldn't shoot back, nor raise it's shield to protect itself until it was airborne.
The mech exploded, breaching the carrier's deck armor and causing the already crippled vessel to tumble over. It wouldn't take much more to finish it.
"Krystal, you're up! Finish it off!" Fox ordered. Krystal's Arwing swooped in under the carrier, which was now upside-down. Fox could see at least a half-a-dozen more mechs stored in the carrier's launch bay through the breach in the hull; when they blew up, they would take the whole ship with it.
The pirates had other ideas, though. Before Krystal could launch a smart-bomb, the bow of the ship exploded, and the remaining Shoguns began pouring out of the breach; they'd blasted their way out!
"Uh-oh..." said Fox ominously. "Brace yourselves!"
Fox counted fourteen heavy mechs in all. All were outfitted with shields, lasers, and missile pods. This wasn't going to be easy. He checked his weapons; he only had one smart-bomb left, but it wouldn't do him much good unless the mechs flew in a tight formation; and they were already splitting up, with at least three-to-four mechs pursuing each of the Arwings... and five of them were head straight for him.
Before he knew it, Fox was surrounded. All five mechs had their laser cannons trained on him, and his teammates were too busy fighting off the others to help.
"Nowhere to run, mercenary scum," the mech leader proclaimed. "Give up."
"I don't think so," Fox retorted. He put his craft into a vertical dive, breaking free of the mech's formation; they gave chase, firing lasers and rockets after him.
Fox looped, rolled, and dived to avoid the incoming fire, but he was outnumbered and outgunned five-to-one; he couldn't take the offensive.
"Star Fox, report in! I've got bogeys on my tail!"
"We've got our own problems here, boss!" Falco replied.
"I can't shake them!" Krystal cried out.
"Uh, guys? HELP!" Slippy pleaded.
Fox looked for Slippy on his display; in addition to the four mechs tailing him, more pirate starfighters had entered the fray, and most of them were gunning for the unfortunate toad. Fox was still dodging fire from his own pursuers, as were Falco and Krystal. This was bad. This was very bad...
Then, something very strange appeared on Fox's radar- twelve unidentified Arwings had just appeared out of nowhere, and they were closing fast.
"Heads up, we've got more company-"
No sooner had the words left his mouth than one of the mechs tailing him exploded.
"What in the-!?" The mech leader exclaimed. Another mech exploded, then another... and then...
"ARGH!" It was the mech leader; his robot disintegrated in a barrage of blue laser fire. His two remaining wingmen follow suite.
That was when Fox saw the culprit; one of the unidentified Arwings blew through the debris and came up right beside him. It look just like the Assault variants that Fox and his team were flying, only it was jet-black, and devoid of any markings or insignia.
The Arwing quickly took off to join the others, all of which were painted black just like it, though the others also featured a red trim. If Fox had to guess, he would say the unmarked one that just saved him was the leader.
"Who are these guys?" Falco asked no one in particular. Unexpectedly, it was one of the pirates who answered.
"It's Black Fox!" The unknown pirate shouted over the comm. "Everyone, get out of here! Every man for himself!"
"They're everywhere, I can't shake 'em-"
"Bogey on my tail, he came out of nowhere-!"
"I'm hit, I'm hit, I'm-!"
The comm was flooded with the pirate's cries for help as Black Fox tore into them. More black Arwings materialized out of nowhere. Some of the pirates tried to fight back, but whenever one of the Black Fox got an enemy on his tail, he would simply vanish- and then reappear, behind his would-be assailant.
The others tried to scatter, but Black Fox was merciless, chasing them down and destroying their ships with methodical precision. Fox had never seen anyone fly like they did.
As quickly as they appeared, the Stealth Arwings vanished; only the leader lingered long enough to put a smart-bomb into the wrecked carrier, destroying it for good... and then he too disappeared.
Star Fox formed up on it's leader. Krystal and Falco were both a little worse for wear, while Slippy's Arwing was in pretty bad shape, with both wings shot off and the fuselage covered in scorch marks.
"I'm okay!" Slippy reassured.
"That was a close call..." Krystal stated.
"Who on earth were those guys?" Falco asked. "They were flying Arwings! Our Arwings!"
"I heard the pirates call them Black Fox!" Slippy supplied. "Anyone ever heard of them?"
"Krystal and I have," Fox informed. "Wolf had some very interesting information to share; let's back to the Great Fox, and we'll fill you in."
Author's Note: Black Fox's sudden and convenient appearance will be explained in the next chapter. As for Fox and the team nearly getting beat by common pirates... well, even Star Fox occasionally finds itself outgunned. Happens all the time on the Hard route in Star Fox 64. Let me know what you think of the story so far... I think I may have been a bit lazy when it came to writing the battle scenes.