Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Fox or any of their characters, they are all owned by Nintendo. However Tex Hempioro and other characters belong to me.

Small establishment outside Katina's main city, 9:55 p.m. local time

The warm water that ran from the shower head felt good on his aching body. Tex turned the shower head so that it was set to the massaging setting, causing the streams of water to shoot out of the nozzle harder and faster in controlled bursts. The rhythm oh the streams reminded Tex of a semi automatic as the shower head continually shot out more controlled bursts of the damp projectiles to lightly pummel his shoulders. He may not have been hunting down any poor suckers that would have a price on their head, but he ached as if he had been working all week no matter what the circumstances, it was that damn left shoulder of his, at times he barely felt it and yet it would emit a crippling pain that would stop the lupine in his tracks; he always though that one of these days it would be the death of him, he would be in the middle of a gun fight only to crash down onto his knees and growl in pain, by then it would be too late to get back up and resume the fight.

He stepped out of the shower and shook the stray droplets of water off his moist fur. He looked at himself in the mirror as he always did, and grimaced at the sight of his heavily scarred face, also as he always did. The scarred areas on his face as well as the ones on his body were devoid of fur, making them easily noticeable to those who would most likely stare at him, If only they made cloths for your face that didn't make you look like a thug, he thought to himself, it wasn't that his face was ugly other than the scars, underneath those deep slash marks that marred his visage was a face that could probably make any young girl blush just by starring at them, but then again the harsh angry glare and dark looking frown didn't help his case much either, which made him feel strange that Marian would actually come up to him and engage in friendly conversation, even ask him to come see her again. He then strayed from his previous track of thought and began thinking about Marian, the cute little husky that was the closest thing Tex had to a friend other than his blasters and the knife his father gave him.

Why was she so kind to him, where others would turn their heads and walk away in fear of him? They always thought they turned away before he could see that they were trying to avoid his gaze but Tex saw it, he could smell the fear coming off those who were around him, he remembered when he was walking down the sidewalk one day and a stray soccer ball rolled in front of his feet, while a small pup walked up to him to get his ball back and like the good hearted person Tex was, he picked the ball up and handed it to the small child only to have his mother run up to him and lead him away from Tex. His face didn't show any emotion but inside it burned him up, he could hear the mother's whispered words as she leaded her son away from him, "Don't you dare go near that man, do you hear me? He's dangerous" he balled his paws into fists as they started to shake from anger, but soon unclenched them and took a deep breath to stifle the fire that was growing inside his chest.

He walked over to his dresser and pulled out a pair of boxers and a pair of green plaid pajama pants. He slipped on his sleep ware and fell onto his bed like a timbering tree, burying his face into his pillow and letting out a deep sigh. He stayed like that for a few minutes; he didn't even bother to lift his face from his pillow to get a breath of fresh air. Why the kindness Marian, why aren't you afraid of me? His ears perked up as he heard an annoying beeping sound that shook him from his thoughts, it couldn't have been his alarm clock; he was only laying there for a few minutes. He looked to where he was hearing the beeping sound and walked down the hallway to where his computer made residence. Just as he thought, the computer was the source of the noise and not only that but on the monitor was a display of a white envelope and the words "Urgent message from General John Pepper," hovered underneath it. He had gotten many messages from Cornaria, most of them were not the friendliest of kinds but never did he get one from Pepper directly, he thought about not accepting the message but his curiosity got the best of him and he at least owed the old hound a few words with, he did take him in when his father died after all. He pressed the accept button and General Pepper's face filled the monitor, along with the sound of trumpets sounding off to his presence on the screen. He was seated behind his desk with his hands folded in front of him; it was a defensive stance, apparently Pepper was preparing himself if Tex was going to be difficult.

"Tex, by the goddess you're one hard animal to find, how long has it been, eight years?"

Tex's face was still as if it were carved out of stone while he responded.

"Sounds about right, your looking well John, I almost began to worry about you when I heard the Aparoids invaded Cornaria."

He put a lot of emphasis on the word "almost" to make it sound like he didn't care if the old dog was alive or dead. Pepper winced at the subtle insult as well as being called by his first name instead of his title,seems Tex was still angry at him about what Cornaria did to the lupine all those years ago.

"You do know I am a general Tex, and you do know it's disrespectful to talk down to your superiors."

"Well John, normally I would call you by your rank but you don't have any authority over me, I denounced my citizenship when I left Cornaria so you're nothing more than an aging hound dog with a nice hat to me. So whatever you have to say to me you better say it fast or leave me alone."

The general let out a sigh and lightly shook his head at the tortured young mans disrespect.

"I thought your father raised you better than this Tex."

"Oh he raised me just fine, I respect women, I respect my elders, and I respect those less fortunate than me, what I don't respect are those who screw me over and try to arrest me for failure to follow orders given by a superior officer, which was exactly what you did, and you know damn well I had every right to not follow those orders, so I don't respect you nor should you deserve my respect so cut the shit and say what you wanted to say to me or we are done here."

His glare intensified, even though Pepper was only starring at a display on the monitor, the glare was beginning to make him feel very uncomfortable, what made him even more uncomfortable was that Tex knew what he was feeling, trembling fingers, shifty eyes, mouth hanging open slightly, all these small details told him everything, Pepper could swear those piercing gray eyes could see into his soul. He tried to straiten himself and continued.

"I guess I deserve that, but I didn't contact you to bring up those dark times of your past."

"No, you do deserve it, no guessing about it. And even though it wasn't your intention, you are bringing up the dark times."

"Tex, we need your help."

Tex remained silent.

"I know you would rather not help us but we are on the breaking point of another war."

Again he didn't respond.

"You know we cannot fight back another force, especially not one as large as the enemy we are facing now."

Tex crossed his arms and continued to stare at the general with an eerie silence.

"We ask you, no I ask you Tex, please all of Cornaria is at risk, the entire Lylat System is at risk; doesn't that mean anything to you?"

Like many of Tex's past targets, Pepper began to beg and plead. Tex cocked an eyebrow at this; he had never seen General Pepper so desperate for his assistance, it was…pathetic, a word most would never think of using in a way to describe the good general. Finally Tex responded to him.

"What are the details?"

General Pepper's face brightened slightly.

"Currently, the Star Fox team is trying to prevent the war from unfolding by sabotaging the enemy's supplies, machines, anything they could use against us, but they are having difficulty tackling such difficult missions with limited man power, their next mission will take them to one of the enemy occupied planets, it is an area rich with minerals and ores necessary to their war machines and ships, they will attempt to liberate it but they need more help, I ask of you Tex, will you assist the Star Fox team to help stop the Imperial forces? If you do, you can have your Cornarian citizenship restored as well as a full pardon for all your crimes against the C.D.F."

Tex took a moment to let the information sink in. Join Star Fox, help them save Cornaria, be able to come back to the planet unhindered and visit his father's grave again, start fresh with a clean slate and become a hero. It sounded like a dream, but he knew it wasn't, if it were a dream it wouldn't be as pleasant. His mind then wondered to another thing he might gain from this, money. Not that he needed it, he was getting a pretty steady stream of criminals to hunt down and the pay was pretty good, but extra cash was always nice, and with all of Lylat in peril they might pay very nicely, also the fact that he would be working with a team again, maybe he could have a good reputation working with McCloud and his mercenaries. He had experience with mercenaries before; they were a bit like him, they desire wealth, take on dangerous missions, and they like explosions, plus they would do almost anything for money, but the Star Fox team were different than most mercenaries, they would do the job and do whatever it took, but only as long as it wasn't illegal or goes against Cornaria. Tex turned back to the monitor to see a patient General Pepper waiting for a response.

"When do I get started?"

Great Fox, Sauria orbit, 8:04 a.m. local time

The bridge of the Great Fox was eerily quiet. Everyone was seated in their chairs waiting for their new arrival to show his face. Fox was seated in his captains chair staring at the automatic sliding door that would hopefully open soon to reveal their new temporary member, Krystal was standing next to him, starring at the door as well, Falco was pacing back and forth, looking out the window every now and then to see the lush green planet of Sauria floating out in the endless black void of space, Slippy was twiddling his webbed fingers impatiently. Falco stopped pacing and began to complain that he wasn't going to show up.

"The bum isn't going to show up, were just wasting time. A bounty hunter not showing up to help others whoa there's an eye opener."

Fox took his eyes off the door and looked in the direction of the blue falcon pacing back and forth.

"Complaining isn't going to make him arrive any faster Falco, why don't you do something constructive while you wait instead of pacing back and forth like that, its getting on my nerves."

The tall falcon stopped his pacing and sat in his chair with a loud groan that caused Fox to roll his eyes. Pepper said he would arrive around seven thirty, well it was already five minutes past eight and yet the good general claimed that this man was a professional, if this guy didn't show in the next ten minutes, they were going to call it off.

"Unknown vessel requesting permission to board the Great Fox."

ROB's monotone voice rang out. Falco sat up and looked out the window of the ship to see a lone stealth class fighter was floating outside the docking bay entrance. How was that possible, the sensor scope would have picked up his signal way before he could get that close to the Great Fox, even with a cloaking device, unless it was some special type of stealth class, but models such as that wern't even available to military staff, only the most elite of agents ever issued such fighters. Fox looked at the display readout on the computer where ROB was stationed at; sure enough a stealth class ship was waiting for permission to dock.

"Let me talk with him for a moment."

Fox pressed a few buttons on the computer and opened up a communication line with the owner of the ship.

"This is Fox McCloud of the Star Fox team, why do you request to dock here?"

The voice on the other side of the communication line responded in a deep gruff voice.

"I'm the bounty hunter that was sent here to assist you and your team, Mr. McCloud."

"ROB, give him permission to dock."

The robot responded with a nod from his head and informed the bounty hunter that he had permission to dock. Fox walked over to the door and looked over his shoulder to the rest of his team that were standing there.

"Well, let's go meet our new friend shall we?"

The team of mercenaries walked down to the ship that was readjusting to the conditions of the ship's docking area. With a small hiss from the atmospheric pressure escaping out of the sliding windshield, a very tall, muscular and heavily scarred wolf climbed out of the cockpit. He reached into his ship and pulled out two duffle bags and slung a large backpack over his right shoulder. He turned around to see the assembled group of animals staring at him. He walked up to the orange colored vulpine until they were only a few inches apart. If Fox were to stare strait ahead, his point of view would be at the lupine's mid section, he slowly looked up at the steel furred mountain that stood before him and cracked a nervous grin. The lupine blinked his bright gray eyes once and looked at the other animals that were present, he scanned the group until he stopped on Krystal; he heard that Star Fox had a Cerenian on their team but he had never seen one, and if the rumors were true, then this female would be the only one he would ever see. He could tell by the way her eyes kept looking back at the floor then back at him that he was making her uncomfortable so he directed his gaze back down to the orange fox he was towering over. He dropped his duffle bags and raised his paw to offer a hand shake to Fox, he looked at the offered paw and raised his orange colored one to meet the larger gray colored one. As he expected, the wolf's grip was strong and firm, but not so much as to hurt the smaller animals paw. Fox pulled his hand away and introduced himself and the rest of his team.

"Nice to meet you sir, I'm Fox McCloud, leader of the Star Fox team, this is Falco, our ace pilot, Slippy, our mechanic, and Krystal, our telepath, you must be Tex Hempioro, General Pepper informed us of your arrival and we greatful that you would assist us."

Tex glanced at the group of animals one last time and then responded to Fox with a nod of his head. Fox brows furrowed at the silent response he received, he didn't want to make this animal mad; he looked like he could break Fox in half if given the chance, and with all the scars, it shown that he could take a beating if it came down to a confrontation. Then in an unexpected move, the tall lupine spoke in his deep voice.

"Thank you, a pleaser to meet you as well, where will I be staying?"

His voice was just as intimidating as he was, gruff and harsh yet devoid of emotion.

"Uhh…yes well, I'd be happy to escort you to your quarters."

Before he followed Fox up to the bridge, Tex was stopped by a blue feathered hand in front of him. Fox sighed and slowly shook his head; he knew Falco was going to start something with this guy, not on account of his occupation as a bounty hunter, but the fact that it was some "fresh blood" to show who was boss and how to keep in line.

"Hey ya big guy, where ya get the beauty marks?"

Everyone's eyes grew large after Falco addressed the wolf's scars in a jokingly fashion. Tex blinked once and walked past Falco as if he wasn't even there.

"Hey railroad face I asked you a question."

The others gasped and Tex turned around to face the cocky blue avian. Though Falco was tall, Tex was still a good two inches taller.

"So, you gonna talk or you just gonna stand there and look ugly for all of us?"

He wore his trademark smirk and waited for a response from the mute lupine. As fast as a lightning flash, Tex moved his foot in front of Falco's and used an arm to push him into his black leathered boot, bringing Falco down to the ground with a loud thud that echoed off the metallic walls of the docking bay. Falco looked up from the flat of his back and just realized what happened, he was just taken down in less than a few seconds, the guy was big but damn could he move. Tex leaned over the fallen avian and stared down at him, and with a hint of humor in his voice responded to the blue feathered bird laying on the ground.

"Nice to meet you Mr. Lombardi, I can tell we are going to have quite the experience getting to know each other."

Then with a strong arm, he grabbed Falco by his collar and lifted him off the ground and onto his feet. He patted his paws on Falco's shoulder in a friendly matter and leaned in a bit closer to his face.

"And by the way, I got these beauty marks the day I died."

With that, he walked away towards Fox to follow him to his quarters while Falco stood there in bewilderment. How the hell did he know my last name, and what does he mean about the day he died? Falco's thoughts were soon interrupted by a small green frog standing next to Falco trying to stifle his laughter.

"And what's so damn funny?"

Slippy couldn't hold it in any longer and laughed out loud as he responded.

"You have no idea how much I enjoyed watching that, anyone who knocks you on your butt is ok in my book."

Authors Note: Took me a bit longer with this one, sorry about that. My mind was completely devoid of any ideas on this chapter, I must have re wrote this chapter about four times before I felt satisfied with it. Anyway hope you enjoyed this chapter, I know I enjoyed writing it, and sorry to all you people who like Falco but him getting knocked on his ass was fun to write. R&R see you next update.