Chapter 7: Aftermath

They all were frozen, unable to react to the words of the robot. Sure what he had said was shocking, but it was expected. Something they didn't want to happen. But there wasn't any room to argue was there? What had been done was done and now all they had to do was cope with it. Of all the outcomes that they foresaw this one didn't quite come to the surface. They were happy no doubt, but confusion was definitely setting in.

The first of the three to speak was Slippy, "ROB, how did that even happen?"

Falco decided to speak up as well, "Yeah I saw where that shot hit him and that should not have happened."

The metal helper simply walked past the three before reaching over and connecting to one of the charger ports set amongst the ship, "The blaster round had shattered off a piece of his ribs and sent it into the mid-section of his spine. The shard had imbedded itself into a nerve that controlled all movement and feeling in the left arm. The shard was large enough to make simple repairs impossible so I made a decision that would best benefit Captain McCloud."

Krystal gazed over to the room where he was before turning back to the machine, "So you cut off his arm?"

ROB nodded before changing some functions on the wall panel, "Yes, and replaced it with a synthetic apparatus capable of sensation that he could feel from his normal arm. It also has all the same functions as his old arm but with an eight hundred percent increase in performance."

Falco was left scratching the back of his head, "So from now on he's just going to have a metal arm?"

After settling into the port and shutting off most of his functions ROB looked back to the rest of the team, "After Captain McCloud recovers fully from this I will cover the arm with synthetic skin and fur replicating a real arm. He has been told all of this and is waiting for you in the next room."

Slippy jumped out of his chair and ran over to the robot, "So instead of sitting out here and talking to you we could have been in there seeing if he was okay!?"

"Yes, he has been up for the last 26 minutes and was waiting for the rest of you," ROB didn't see the fault with his explanation.

Krystal patted the toad on his shoulder before turning towards the door, "It's okay Slippy. Think about how we would have reacted if ROB had not told us about his injury and just let us go in there and see it for ourselves."

Slippy's posture slumped down as if he had been defeated, "I guess, but I still think I need to reprogram his AI to have some form of sympathy drive in it."

Falco shook his head, "Slippy if you could find a way to do that then I don't think you'd need this job as a source of income."

The smaller amphibian just let out a groan before trudging over to the door where the vixen had been waiting, "Let's just go see Fox and then turn in for the night. Now that I know he'll be fine I just want to sleep. These last few hours have been an absolute nightmare."

Krystal entered the unlock code for the ships door but held off from opening it, "I know that from here on out is going to be difficult, but I want you guys to promise that no matter what we're not going to turn our backs on each other. That we're always going to be there for support."

Falco rolled his eyes, "You ought to be spending less time with Fox Krystal, you're starting to sound like him."

The vixen held strong, "You promise?"

The avian nodded, "That sounds a little bit more like you."

Krystal crossed her arms and gave the bird a little bit more of an aggressive look, "That wasn't really an answer Falco."

Falco huffed at the Vixens stubbornness, "Fine, I promise to never turn my back on any member of this team, Happy?"

The grin that the vixen had could only compare to that of their vulpine leader, "Quite, what about you?"

Slippy chuckled at the small back-and-forth banter that the two had just shared, "You won't get a smart ass comment out of me, I promise."

Krystal replaced her hand on the unlock button and took a deep breathe, already arguing with herself about what to say, 'what am I going to say? What do you even say to people that you care about when they almost die?'

The other side of her mind decided to speak up, 'It's not like he's a different person. All you have to do is tell him that you are extremely happy that he's alive and that you thought you might never get to see him again.'

She hit the button and braced herself for the worst, expecting to see the person she loved carved up like a jigsaw puzzle with his left arm replaced with a mechanical monstrosity. But she received much less than what she expected. In fact, she received nothing at all.

None of them did, the room lay empty. The only sign that someone had been there were the tussled sheets of the hospital style bed. They entered, each one taking a couple steps away from each other as if they thought their captain was hiding in a corner of the room waiting to jump out and shout surprise.

But he wasn't there. Surely ROB had not lied to them about all of this. And just as they started to question the robots motives the door to the bathroom opened and standing there clad in nothing but hospital pajama pants was Fox McCloud very much alive.

As he realized his teammates he couldn't helped but smile. He had no idea how much they had been worrying about him and just seeing them after everything that happened was exactly what he needed, "Hey, you guys all okay?"

"Are we okay? Are you okay?" The small toad practically bounced over to the vulpine, hell-bent on seeing the mechanical appendage for himself.

Fox shook his head as the amphibian grabbed ahold of his new left arm and turned it to-and-fro trying to take in all of its features, "I'm glad to see that you care so much about my arm Slippy, but can you leave it alone?"

Slippy took one last glance over the medical wonder before turning to one of the small chairs set off to the side of the bed, "Sorry Fox, with everything that has happened today I guess the good news has gone straight to my head." He emphasized his point by throwing his hands randomly in the air before resting back into the seat.

Falco nodded as he came up to his friend, "I gotta give this one to Slippy, today has been one hell of a workout. The past few hours have been fueled by nothing but adrenaline and after we heard you were gonna pull through it was as if everything that had happened finally caught up to us."

Fox sat down on the edge of the bed and started to rub behind his left shoulder where the new implant met his muscle tissue, "Yeah, today has been less than extraordinary."

Krystal sat down next to the vulpine, "I'm just glad you're okay." The vixen rested against the right side of Fox's body before letting off a small yawn.

After looking at his team Fox realized how much the day had actually weighed down on them, "I think you guys should all go get some well-deserved rest after what happened today."

The two males gave no argument as they left to their rooms leaving only the two foxes to themselves, "You should go get some rest Krystal, you need it."

The vixen gently ran her hand down his left arm, "Today I thought I was going to lose you."

Fox gave her a puzzled look not understanding what she had meant, so she continued, "When you passed out on your way to the medical wing I thought that was it, I thought I'd never get to be with you again. And even though you're okay I still don't want to leave you just yet."

As she finished the vixen started to doze off but was trying her hardest to fight it. Fox couldn't help but smile, she cared about him so much more then he realized.

He stood up, gently lifting her up in the process. As he carried her out of the room she finally let sleep come over her. He looked down at the vixen in his arms and realized that this was the person he was going to spend the rest of his life with. That no matter what happened to them as long as they could hold each other in their arms at the end of the day everything would be okay.

Not exactly the same as the first time I did this, but everything works out just the same. So Fox has a mechanical arm now, so what? Little bit of a fun fact here, in the original Star Fox game all members of the team had both of their legs amputated so when they pulled high-G maneuverers the blood wouldn't rush from their heads to their legs causing a black out. Yet in all of the later games it seems as though they all have normal legs again. So that means they are so badass they grew their legs back. If you guys don't believe me look up a Youtube video by DYKGaming about Star Fox and you will see the proof. Anyways knowledge has been given and now everyone knows Fox will be okay, Later.