OMG I know, taking forever, but got some HUGE plot twists! YAY! IT MAKES UP FOR IT!
"No, I don't know all of what happened during this mission."
'Tell me what you know then!'
"Finally you speak close enough for this hidden tape recorder to hear you! My congratulations…. Now untie me. Don't give me that look; I'm not going to bolt. You have to hear this story in full or else you won't know everything!"
"Fine, but don't try anything, I know how your kind can get!"
"My kind? Kid we are both foxes here, your racism is misplaced."
"Kid? I've lost everything my parents built; they defended this system for peace… and what did they get for it? Once they settled down they were out casted, forgotten and never spoke of again, until Oikonny returned and killed my dad in cool blood, my mom told me to run and search for a fox named Tyronos, and that he would be able to help us all, then I watched her die as well."
"Holy shit… You're… a McCloud?!"
"Marcus McCloud, and you, 'Hopeless', I have spent my entire life looking for you, I have a score to settle with Oikonny, and you will help me get it."
"Fine, I was in the same boat as you kid, now drop the gun and listen up. I don't know exactly what happened during the mission through the asteroid field, but I can tell you what I know, and there is a data pack in my pocket. It has the entire log from Aparoid War on it. Skip to pack twenty, which should be where it started. Now get me untied, now that it's no longer so formal. We need to start moving, my enemies, are now your enemies and your parents would kill me if I let you die now."
Great Fox Guest Room
Tyronos stirred as his slumber was interrupted once again by the short beeping. Cursing his inability to drown out high pitched noises, he sat up and looked at the screen; he had received four messages, one confirming his arwings destruction. Another two from General Pepper in regards to his health and his mission ready status, the last was from Slippy. This message was the only one that really intrigued him, as Slippy seemed way too shy to outright contact him. Tyronos opened the message, finding out that Slippy was awake and wanted to talk with him as soon as possible. Groaning in mild pain, Tyronos forced himself upright, after a quick shower and some fresh clothes that were supplied to him, Tyronos made his way to the kitchen.
"That was quick!" Slippy said as he saw Tyronos enter the kitchen. "Considering your injuries, how are you doing?"
Tyronos grabbed a mug and poured some coffee into it, gulping it down greedily. "Been better, I'll survive, whats up Slip?"
Slippy suddenly grew a great interest in his own mug. "Well, Ty… you know how those Interplantary Time Tears work, it got me to thinking… I've seen you before, but I can't for the life of me figure out where." Tyronos sighed and finished his coffee, Slippy was right, he had seen him before. Tyronos thought about it for a while, noticing that it made Slippy all the more uncomfortable. "I mean, I think I did I don't know for sure… but I know I have, and the more I think about it the harder it gets for me because I can't remember when or where!"
Tyronos set his mug down, the noise disturbing Slippy's rant. "Slippy, you woke me up at three in the morning, made horrible coffee, and now demand this info from me?" Slippy's face lost color, pissing off Tyronos wasn't on his to-do list this morning. "And you can't remember when… Good thing I can." Slippy nearly fainted right there, but focused his attention completely on Tyronos now, his coffee unimportant. "Do you remember way back when Fox asked you to join the team as the mechanic?"
"Yeah, he came to me all excited, at first I thought he'd lost it, but then again he was the son of James McCloud, how could I say no?" Slippy laughed at the memory of Fox running towards him, nearly tripping over everything in his excitement. "You know I'm still to this day glad to have joined, never a dull moment around here, especially now with Krystal on board, Falco's never been wittier!"
"Yeah, Falco's witty alright, borderline retarded if you ask me." The two shared a laugh, before Tyronos filled Slippy's mug back up with coffee, and fetching a bag of 'tea' leaves for himself.
"My coffee really that bad?" Slippy asked with a wine, Tyronos shook his head, smiling to himself.
"This is doctor ordered tea to help my nerves, tastes horrible… but totally worth it." Tyronos steeped his 'tea' and continued with his story. "Anyway, do you remember that design contest you entered just before then?"
"Yeah, I got second place in that contest… Someone tampered with my project, it still worked, but I couldn't completely fix it, some other mechanic won and got to be chief mechanic for the Cornerian forces, it was my dad's old job, and I wanted to follow in his footsteps." Slippy sighed rotating the warm liquid in his mug before sipping it.
"OK, that much you remember, good. So let's say you won that, you would be chief mechanic for Cornerian forces correct?" Slippy nodded. "Then you wouldn't be as quick to jump ship and go and join Star Fox, right?"
"Ok, yeah. I guess I'd still be there right now."
"Right, so the way I see it, you can't get mad at me." That peeked Slippy's interest, and before he could speak Tyronos silenced him. "I sabotaged your invention Slippy, and I did it so Fox would pick you to go with him on his team, and we know for a fact that if Fox saw that you had a career in front of you, he wouldn't tear you away from it. Now, I pretend to be a judge, when we came up to yours I was the one who said, 'Better luck next time.'"
"You!" Slippy didn't know what to think, here was the guy who cost him his dream job, but also gave him the job he had now, his real dream job. "Should I punch you or thank you?"
"Whatever floats your boat Slip." Tyronos downed his tea, shaking and twitching at the taste, forced himself to swallow the vile concoction. "I've got to check in with Pepper, I'll talk to you later."
"Later." Slippy waved at him as Tyronos left the kitchen, with a sigh and a small laugh, Slippy gathered up their mugs and put them in the sink, and he dumped out the remaining coffee, and put a new pot on, figuring someone would be up in the next two hours. "My coffee doesn't suck!"
Great Fox Bridge – 4 hours later
"Rob, give me the situation out there!" Fox ordered as both he and Krystal entered the bridge.
"Always this late together?" Tyronos asked Falco as he noticed the two other foxes enter.
Falco laughed. "You didn't hear how they release tension?" They laughed at what Falco was implying, causing both Krystal and Fox to glare at them.
"I don't really care what they do on their own time, besides if Zarah was still alive, and on board we'd release some tension as well."
"Even you two!" Fox growled, not really wanting to let that conversation get too out of hand.
"Come on Fox, it's not like it's a secret anymore, not with these guys anyway." Krystal giggled, grabbing Fox's hand. Fox's face matched a tomato as from that comment.
"Asteroid field is making it hard to track Pigma, this is where the signal leads." Rob blared from his station, getting the conversation back on topic.
"Seriously?" Falco yawned, already bored at the idea of an asteroid field. "Does he think he can run? Does he think he can hide? Don't mess with us Pigma!"
"What is this like an amusement park for gang members?" Fox asked looking over to Tyronos and Falco.
"You know it." They answered in unison.
Peppy folded his arms and nodded. "Finally, this time we'll get that core memory!"
"Let's move!"
Tyronos sat down beside Peppy, hanging his head. "Still not cleared to fly huh?" Peppy shook his head, opening up the com channel. "Well I guess sitting here and annoying you is the next best thing."
"Pepper requested to speak with you, so I suggest you get to it." Peppy stated, smirking at Tyronos.
"I talked to him this morning; He told me what I needed to know. So yeah, you're stuck with me." Tyronos relaxed more into the seat, grinning as he heard Peppy sigh.
Asteroid Field
The five ships sped towards the giant chunks of floating rock, the pilots happy to finally end this chase with Pigma. Tyronos grit his teeth, he had seen what would happen if Pigma won here, and he knew Fox had stop him, he only hoped that he could do it without his help.
"What's that? It looks like… a Wolfen?" Slippy asked as they entered the field.
"What the hell was Wolf's team doing here?" Fox thought out loud, shrugging off the question.
"Does that mean Wolf and his team were destroyed?" Falco sighed. "Great, now we need a new team rivals."
"I'm sensing faint brain patterns. They abandoned ship!" Krystal flew her arwing away from the vessels and back to the team.
"Keep your guards up team!" Fox shouted as they flew further into the ever growing population of rocks.
Tyronos laughed to himself, either the tea was still effecting him or whenever the team spoke their entire face minus their mouths stayed still, and even then the mouth movement was so out of sync it provided him lots of entertainment. Peppy's sigh grew louder, he cursed under his breath. "Ty, why don't you look over the systems, some of us have a job to do right now."
Tyronos stood up and walked from Peppy's chair to where Falco would normally sit, checking the systems as instructed. "You know Peppy, if you didn't want me near ya, you could have asked."
"It's not your fault Ty; I haven't had a decent night's sleep in a while." Peppy yawned as if to prove his point. "Fox and Krystal aren't exactly quiet."
Tyronos laughed, nearly falling to the ground. "Peppy, say no more, go take a nap, I'll watch over the team, and before you say no, I'll remind you that I've seen this before."
"What are these things chasing the arwings?" Slippy yelled over the com channel, sending chills up Peppy's spine.
"Ok, sure, thanks." Peppy ran from the room. Tyronos walked back to Peppy's chair and sat down in it.
"Alright folks, Peppy's taking ten… or whatever, napping if you will. So I'm taking over, my advice Slippy? DO A BARREL ROLL! L BUTTON!" The silence that followed unnerved the team; no one really knew what to say.
"The fuck is an L button?" Fox asked, breaking the silence. Everyone laughed then, and set their focus back onto the mission.
"Watch out something's out there!" Krystal said as enemies began appearing behind the asteroids.
Falco growled. "That fucking Pigma, he must have something planned!" The team easily shot down both asteroids and enemies alike, pushing their way through the field with more ease then they had anticipated.
"Damn it, these guys just don't give up!" Fox boosted away from his followers, but they still managed to stick with him. Suddenly they exploded behind him, Fox sighed in relief. "Thanks for the help."
"Anytime sexy." Krystal purred, causing Fox to blush. "Looks like you owe me one."
"Enough foreplay guys jeez." Tyronos sat back in Peppy's rather comfortable chair. "Oh shit, looks like you guys are coming up on something huge!"
"As if the lasers mounted on asteroids, and the kamikaze rocks weren't enough." Falco tightened his grip on his controls.
"What the hell?" Slippy felt his nerves begin to work against him. "How are we supposed to beat that?"
"Follow the fearless leader!" Tyronos laughed. "God damn, do I wish I could join you guys. Give them hell!"
"Is he on drugs?" Krystal whispered, watching four heads nod at her. "Great."
"Don't worry Krystal, I'm quite sober now." Tyronos snapped into a new mode, ready to assist his team. "Seems like Pigma was either really busy, or is really lucky to have found a nearly complete base."
"Never missed an opportunity like that." Fox muttered. "Get ready guys."
"Fox, stay calm, don't let the past mess with your judgment now." Falco warned, getting his by a stray blast. "Son of a…" He boosted towards the base, taking down ship after ship as the rest of the team followed the hot headed ace into battle.
"Say what happened to all the asteroids?" Slippy inquired, pointing out the obvious lack of non-base items floating anywhere near them.
"Slippy! Less talkie,talkie, more shootie shootie!" Tyronos yelled, snapping Slippy's attention back to the fight. "And for god's sake, do a fucking somersault to get rid of those enemies behind you!"
"Krystal look out behind ya!" Fox shouted, taking out the enemies that she had picked up. "Got 'em!"
"Thanks Fox!" Krystal said, falling back into formation as they moved up the wall. "Pigma must know we're here by now, I can sense a lot of enemies moving towards us!"
"What the fuck is that?" Falco yelled as a new enemy appeared before them. It looked very similar to the knight shaped enemy they had fought over Fortuna, but it looked like it had been infected.
"It's been infected by the aparoids!" Krystal yelled, the four ships began to shoot at the new enemy.
"Alright charge up your shots, this is taking too long!" Fox said, waiting for his team to ready their weapons. "FIRE!" The quad-shot instantly destroyed the infected prototype.
"You'd think this would be harder!" Falco flew towards the opening in the base.
"Three levels of difficulty." Tyronos muttered. "Ok it's showing here that the base isn't complete so you should be able to fly through it no problem!"
"Roger!" Fox boosted his ship towards the base interior, charging his laser as he went.
Tyronos shifted uncomfortably in Peppy's chair, thinking it was just the effects of his tea, he tried to ignore it. However, the more he tried to relax, the more worked up his mind got.
"You can't save them, Tyronos."
'Kojic!' Tyronos gave up on relaxing now. Kojic still wanted him dead, and there wasn't any I.P.T.T. around to save him this time.
"What the matter? Cat got your tongue?" Kojic laughed his ship finally in the sights of the Great Fox. "Do you honestly think they can beat them?"
"I've seen it happen, even without my help." Tyronos spat, he couldn't show fear, Kojic would capitalize if he saw even a moment of weakness. "Fox just has to remember what he's fighting for."
"Love? You think that his love will be enough to keep his team safe?" Kojic laughed, turning his ship around. "Well it seems you've sentence your own fate, my boy, I'll be back to pick the bones."
"You don't know what you're messing with, Kojic. Don't fuck with this team, especially with Fox or Krystal." Tyronos growled, he had to keep Kojic's threats on himself or else everyone would be in danger.
"Boy, don't think for a second you've got what it takes to bring me down. This ship alone has the power to destroy the very ship you call a home." Kojic began locking on to the Great Fox. "Try me."
"Kojic, your fight is with me, not this ship, this team or even this system. It mearly plays a host to our cat and mouse game." Tyronos sighed. "Leave them alone, and I'll let you win."
"So, I guess we know the real reason they call you 'Hopeless', You've got soft since we last had this standoff, normally by now you've moved to a different time. What holds you here now?"
"The idea of getting revenge on the person that caused your true self's death… Now it's just to make sure you don't interfere where you don't belong."
"And you think you do?"
"What? Is that Pigma?!" Falco yelled as the team saw Pigma slowly being absorbed by purple goop. The shouting drew Tyronos's attention away from Kojic, giving him enough time to disappear. Tyronos thought about what Kojic said, this was his time, wasn't it? Why wouldn't he belong here? Tyronos shook his head, it was something he would have to think about later, right now he had to make sure Fox destroyed Pigma, things would not go well if he didn't.
"Look the memory core! He's absorbing it!" Krystal flew in as Pigma's body was full absorbed; a blinding light erupted from the giant ship, causing the team to fly back, shielding their eyes.
"Krystal get back here!" Fox yelled, he looked at the new enemy, Pigma's face was at the center, while six arms move spastically around it. "That isn't Pigma anymore, Who or what are you?"
"We will answer, we are the ultimate liveform, we are the ultimate exsitance, you will join us or you will be destroyed." The enemy used Pigma's voice.
"Seriously?" Falco sighed charging his laser, and firing at the face, hitting it perfectly in Pigma's face.
"Shield analysis complete, bringing it up on the monitor!" Slippy said as he sent the info to the other arwings, as well to Tyronos.
"Those arms are throwing asteroids! Watch out!" Krystal moved out of the way of the huge space rock, firing at the arm that threw it at her, damaging it enough for it to rip itself off the ship. "Boo-yeah!"
"Seriously?" Falco repeated.
Fox growled as he dodged another asteroid, the more he shot at Pigma's face, the more consumed by rage he became. "DIE YOU FUCKING SON OF A BITCH!" Fox roared as he sent a volley of laser fire towards Pigma, it did little damage as Pigma shielded his face, seconds before impact. "FUCK!"
"Fox, calm down!" Tyronos yelled, watching the team leader freak out sent warnings in his mind. "If you don't then this mission is a failure!"
"You don't understand!" Fox growled, relentlessly firing blast after blast at Pigma. "This fuck killed my father!"
"And if you don't stop you are going to kill a teammate ok?" Tyronos hated bringing this kind of information to different realities. "I've seen this before, and if you don't focus, and calm your nerves you will get Falco or Krystal killed!"
Fox stopped shooting blindly, a stray blast nearly hitting Krystal as she made an attack run. "Stop kidding around Fox!" Fox looked down at his controls, his shields where nearly gone, and his guns were overheating, he felt time slow down as he watched his team destroy arm after arm, until there was none left.
"Fox, remember when you said that you knew my pain? I know yours too; this isn't what James would want. I know you want to be the one to end this, and trust me you will. You aren't in a solo operation here, everyone knows what Pigma has done to your family, and they will let you get the revenge you want, just don't let it control your thoughts."
"Fox, take this!" Falco said as he flew in front of him, a nova bomb in his wake.
"You know Tyronos; I never thought you'd be the one to give me a verbal punch to the head." Fox boosted towards the bomb, aiming it at the exposed face of Pigma.
"End this fool!" Slippy yelled, throwing everyone off balance. Fox aimed once more at Pigma.
"This is for James McCloud!" he yelled, firing the nova bomb. Pigma yelled as he was hit by the bomb, the doors closed once more before Pigma's yelled grew louder, a brilliant light surrounded body of Pigma's new ship, before disappearing with an explosion, leaving only the memory core in the aftermath. "Grab that core Slippy, and get it ready to send back to corneria. Rob get ready to go back home. Good job team."
'Thank you Tyronos, I didn't think Fox could be calmed down…' Krystal's thoughts entered Tyronos's mind, his mental defenses dropped. 'Hey it doesn't shock me when I enter your mind!'
'It was nothing, and don't get to used to it… My mental barriers are weaker when Kojic is around.' Tyronos looked out towards space, not looking forward to discussing anything that was said. "Oh shit, Peppy is still asleep!"
Future - ???
"I thought you said you didn't know what happened? Sounds like you were there for the whole thing!"
"Marcus, you don't know what kinda of tea I had do you?"
"Whatever, you said we had to get moving. Where did you have in mind?"
"An old base I used, with permission from Pepper. No one knows about it, it's hidden on Fortuna."
"How soon can you get us a ship? And who is after us?"
"I've got one on the outskirts, Corneria isn't as friendly as she used to be. As for who's following us its—"
"Who?"
"No time, he's here! I hope that gun is loaded! Shoot that door!"
"What?"
"JUST DO IT KID!"
"It has been a long time Tyronos!"
"That voice sounds familiar!"
"He's here…. Kojic found us."
!!!!!! WTH?! Kojic is in the future? Tyronos is talking with Marcus? (This chapter was really short?) Peppy is asleep?!
I think things just picked up!
H-T
