Author's Notes; Crossover AU. StarFox and Megaman X. Character POVs. Shounen Ai. Fluffy. Action. Spoilers if you haven't played StarFox Adventures. This chapter covers finding the Ocean Force Point and placing the first Water Spellstone, which now I can safely say is halfway or more through the game. The number of chapters total remains unclear at this stage, but if 7 and this are the halfway points, I'd say between 14 or 16. I do know for sure that the next chapter will certainly get crazy once I get to it. Ah, and arschlochen means assholes in German. Please enjoy.
Hidden Temple
We were glad to see nothing was amiss in Thorntail Hollow as Fox landed the Arwing. For some reason we were unsure of, he allowed Zero to carry the first Water Spellstone. I guess that makes him the leader for a while. Z did something kinda unexpected as everyone got out. Instead of turning his back to me so I could get on, he lifted me by my sides and allowed me to cling to the front of his body. My arms wrapped around his neck carefully and my legs embraced his hips gently, finding my head against his chest lens. Tricky protested by saying that none of my limbs were broken and then asked about the scar across Zero's left eye. No one uttered a word nor grunt, just a pause before Fox insisted we hurry and find the temple at Cape Claw. Zero supported my back to keep me on as he took flight after them. Zero's scar...a healed but permanent reminder of this mission. If they ever are able to contact us again, no one at HQ will believe our story until they see that scar. If we ever get back.
There was a fuss at the beach when we arrived. A red bipedal dinosaur holding a spear was being attacked by two Sharpclaw just past the first ramp on the right. This dinosaur had the same build as Gradabug, it must be a Lightfoot. Both Fox and Zero dashed in that direction, quickly picking off the Sharpclaw. We learned that this Lightfoot was, as Zero would say, a thankless punk. Instead of being grateful we saved him, he threatened us with his spear saying if we didn't stay away, he'd smash us good. Fox protested that we had saved him and as he held a strange orange gem the Lightfoot remarked that he trusted no one and that the Sharpclaw said he stole their things, but they were liars. Just then, another Sharpclaw shot at us with a cannon from across the water, knocking the Lightfoot to the ground and alarming the rest of us. The cannon's aim was on the person holding the gem and realizing this, the Lightfoot screamed and passed it to Fox, who passed it back when the cannon pointed to him. The Lightfoot then threw it back to him before swimming away. Zero and I gave each other an exasperated sigh. We hated people like that. And dinosaurs.
When the Hightop told us that there are secret chambers behind that huge Krazoa head, we took our search near the very ladder that he had been able to drop. On the opposite side of the switch from before was a Sharpclaw Only door. When Fox doned his disguise and went in with Tricky, Zero decided to stay outside and watch the area for any changes. Enjoying the warmth of Zero's chest lens, I scouted out too. I saw a waterfall turn off and reveal a hidden passageway under the bridge to the Krazoa head, Zero had noticed it too and went back to lead Fox to it.
Without hesitation, Fox ran to the site and jumped into the water. Zero touched down on the bridge, allowing me off and letting me crawl under his mane. If the water was high, he didn't want me to drown. Once I was under his mane, he lifted off and dove into the cave. The current was fast, several whirlpools lay ahead, and waterfalls were all over. Zero flew above the water, catching up to Fox on a high ledge. Fox dropped down and landed on his side hard, but there were crates around to help him recover. Zero took it slowly, gently lowering himself to the ground. In front of us was a cave with nothing but the sound of dripping water and a single small Krazoa Head holding the same kind of gem the Lightfoot had. After dousing a flame in front of it, Fox took the gem only for the cave to begin filling with water. This time, Zero wasn't able to escape the rising water. We both were soaked and he swam after Fox towards an opening to the beach. The door into the Krazoa Head, serving as its mouth, had opened for us. Inside were more Krazoa Heads, but these were empty. Fox promptly put the gems into the heads' mouths, but only one lit up. Zero pointed to a wad of weeds behind the huge Krazoa Head's left eye and noticed that one pillar close to it had a switch for the scepter. Using that switch, Fox got Tricky onto the pillar, which let him burn the weed off, once he was high enough, and allowed the light onto the gem. This opened the huge doors between the small Krazoa heads and it looked like we had found the path to the temple.
One more obstacle awaited before the temple. There was a switch that when stepped on, opened the gate out, but nothing to keep it down. Having noticed a lock for the Fire Blaster, Zero flew me towards the switch where a Buster shot made the area flood all the way to the switch. Both sides of the passageway were underwater, but there was another that led to another patch of weeds blocking a stone block. That would be great to hold down the switch with. After Tricky burned out the weeds, Zero pushed the block out before I took another shot at the switch, which drained out the water. Fox pushed the block onto the switch, holding it down and the gate up, and we finally had access to the temple.
Elemental Chaos
It was evening when we reached the temple grounds. I couldn't shake the feeling that we would see that ingrateful Lightfoot again. In any case, the temple grounds looked like something humans would perceive as an exotic paradise. Ruins of stone pillars, some of the pillars were made of water in suspended animation, low relief sculptures of the Krazoa on the second level, and waterfalls landing in pools of water on both sides. These Krazoa must be ridiculously powerful if they can put a fluid like water in suspended animation.
The last few days had been rough. The sound of Tricky's yawn made me realize everyone was beat. Even Fox was starting to look rough. He allowed us to settle down and rest. I took X towards a large rock on the left side near one of the falls and pools before sitting down. When X was off, I allowed my body to drop onto my left side, folding my wings. X pulled me over onto my right to face him. He moved as close to me as possible and kissed my lips. My mane and left wing covered him, my left arm kept him close as I kissed him back. We exchanged kisses, hugs, and even snuggles before we both fell asleep.
Everyone was ready to go just before dawn. X gently pushed me awake and helped me stand. Feeling sluggish with a deep yawn, I let him pull me towards the ladders going to the second level. A fully armored Sharpclaw guarded the gate which Fox promptly engaged as X and I caught up. I spied a blue pad in front of the gate that had a spot for the Spellstone. I watched after getting it out as the gate flipped over, allowing us entrance. An uneasy feeling surged through me as X and I went inside the temple and we found justification for it at the end of the hallway. Before us, the obstacles were two sets of shock tile floor, two large Sharpclaw guarding an orb, a waterlogged area across from the shock tiles with a suspended walkway above it consisting of four paths, and a platform with a warp pad on it. After all the shocks from Scales' stupid robots locking my muscles at the fortress, I hated the idea of crossing a shock tile floor on foot. Sorry, Fox and Tricky, we're flying. X looked at me in concern after looking at the shock tiles. I motioned for him to get on and once onboard, I flew over that mess and dove straight into those damn Sharpclaw. X held one off while I fought the other. Sometimes these big arschlochen would swing their axes, impatient for their turn. Very rude and it puts X in a bad spot. We could see Fox making his way carefully along the shock tile floor as we fought, having Tricky stand on a switch that had a safe path lit up for him to cross. Unfortunately, it took him a few tries. After beating the Sharpclaw, we witnessed him get shocked and sent back to the start of the tiles to try a different path. I was glad I wasn't trying that. X and I agreed that from our perspective, Fox needed to use reverse psychology to get across. We ended up having to coach him across with that knowledge before he finally reached us.
We had to exterminate some floating turtle-like vermin, the same we saw on the fortress, to get to the suspended platform with the four walkways. One allowed us onto the platform, the other three led to switches for the scepter that needed to be flipped. Fox allowed us each a turn, starting with himself. Upon further inspection, we noticed that the walkways got narrower and had more turns to them. I was almost expecting to get the one with the smallest path and all those turns and slants. Fox's lever flip lifted a gate to the platform with the warp and soon he passed the scepter to X, who gently crawled off me and tried the next path. Based on his movement, he was sliding slightly, these walkways must be slick. They look to be made of stone. Are they coated with water? Ice, maybe? Water is a better guess, I suppose, since the rest of the water in this place is in liquid form. X's flipped lever shut off a current blocking the way to the platform. It looks like its my turn. As expected, I got the very narrow path with all the turns. When X passed the scepter to me, I carefully started along the path. Indeed, it was slick, I had to take my time here. Being slow and steady, I gradually made my way across and flipped the lever, which seemed to activate the orb. I was certain X's Buster could light that one. Flying back to the group, I gave back the scepter and let X back on before flying to the platform. Upon landing, I sat down beside the warp to give X a clear shot. It did the job and the warp seemed active now. When Fox and Tricky caught up again, we allowed him first to go through the warp before we joined him, which led into the depths of the temple.
Just like the Volcano, this temple was huge. We were a miniscule pack of ants in comparison to the temple. The Volcano may have had views of the sky, but this one didn't. If it wasn't this huge, this wouldn't be a place for the claustrophobic. Going through the huge door before us, we noticed our only currently accessible path was to the right. As we ventured to the next room which was flooded, we noticed more of those annoying brain-like tentacle creatures hovering overhead and that there was also a small and narrow second level. Both X and I could see what looked like another warp pad and an orb that needed to be lit. First thing was first though; The water level needed to go down so we could figure out how to open this other door. Fox quickly took care of that with the use of two switches, one for the water and one for the door. He also used his disguise to open a Sharpclaw Only door that had, of all things, a stone block to move around. What a waste of space. The rooms are so dark, it could've been hidden anywhere and blended in. I'm almost convinced the brains of these Sharpclaw are either microscopic or nonexistent. As Fox pushed the block into a wide enough crevice, I flew into the next room to see what the next chore was. This was interesting. A statue of a Krazoa was in each corner, each with a Fire Blaster switch just under it and under them was what looked like a turntable with four tips, likely for fire. Fire in a water temple? About as strange as those blue flames we saw getting past the first gate into the temple. I could see a spot for Tricky's flames to activate the mechanism. This armor grants the use of ice, not fire. We'd have to wait for Fox and Tricky, although I could probably help put out those fires once it got going.
Our theory was correct, proven by Tricky's flames, once Fox and Tricky made it to the room. The turntable began to rotate slowly and a shot of the Fire Blaster on the statues made a statue lean down and breathe a watery substance onto a flame. When a flame was within my reach, I tried ice breath on it and that seemed effective too. The next door opened to a room with a small block maze in the center after all the flames were out. I sighed, hovering above the maze. I'm not too good with mazes, but at least this one was small. X is way better at mazes than me. Keeping above the maze so we could see the path clearly, he told Fox which way the block needed to go through the maze. As the block reached the goal and I disposed of a brain-like creature that kept chasing me, a boost pad for Fox's scepter became active in the room we had warped in from. I flew up to the ledge that the boost pad was under and followed Fox once he was up too. These hallways were way too narrow for me to fly so I had to run to keep up. We saw Fox stop once he saw the same warp and orb we had seen earlier and lit the orb, making a bridge emerge and connect to the warp's platform. We took the warp into a familiar area; the same place where the first Fire Spellstone rested. It looked like it was my turn to stop one of these remaining three magic energy beams. Once I found the right spot, I placed the Water Spellstone, causing the ground to rumble a bit as it had last time. This time, as we looked up, there remained only two energy streams. Unless we've overlooked something crucial, I'd say we're almost done here.
