A shady figure pushed past the zoned out Krystal, bringing her back to the real world. She left her house a few hours ago after receiving a mental distress signal. She didn't know from where but the pattern of the thoughts that were disturbingly familiar. There were only two people that she could sense from long distances. One was Fox McCloud, the other was her brother Sabre. But the destruction of Cerinia ruled out the second option. But she should've been able to pinpoint Fox if he was on Corneria. But he wasn't. He was on the Great Fox, no where near Corneria. So why did the distress signal seem so sickeningly familiar?
Krystal walked into a local bar and was relieved to find that it was nearly empty. She took a seat at the drink bar and straitened out her white long sleeved shirt. She ran through the distress signal once again. There was no cry for help. Just a looming feeling of despair.
"Anything for ya, Sweet Stuff?" a bartender took notice of the new customer, bringing Krystal out of her thoughts once again.
"Uh, just water, thanks." she didn't want to be bothered much but going to the mall was too loud and her house was to quiet so here was the best option. Not too loud, not too quiet. She ran through it again. Except this time, it felt different. More personal.
"Krystal..." the voice came back and much like the distress signal, it has changed. Instead of the normal disgendered whisper, it was slightly masculine. She listened for it to return.
"Krystal McCloud..." her suspicions were confirmed. Except she failed to anticipate a third part.
"Help him..."
"What? Who?" Krystal was confused.
"Who are ya lookin' for doll?" the bar tender returned with a glass of water and put it in front of her.
"No one, thanks." she quickly drank the water and tossed a credit on the counter as she bolted out the door. "I'm gonna find you, whoever you are."
...
"E.T.A. to Corneria, 10 minutes Fox." Slippy gleefully reported.
"Thanks Slip." Fox stretched out his back then returned to his squatting position. He spent the last hour and a half attempting to repair ROB unsuccessfully. But the strangest thing came to his mind when he calmed his nerves on his way home. He felt like a second presence was connected to his mind. As if someone could hear his emotions. He shook his head and went back to splicing wires inside ROB. The android flashed to life for a few seconds but died out again.
"C'mon, ROB, work with me here, I need to find out what happened." no dice. He found a spare alternator for the Bullfrog and decided to try his luck. He found the electrical core to the currently deceased android and clipped them. He soldered a high strength capacitor and switch to the alternator and power core and crossed his fingers.
Fox flicked the switch, releasing a surge of energy into the alternator which started to spin furiously. It seemed to be working. The alternator was able to sustain itself and produce enough energy to power its host's core. The mechanics took it from there. The vulpine clapped his hands together in success.
"ROB 64 online. Error, limbs 1-4 inactive or destroyed. Warning, massive chassis shell breach. Warning, power core severely depleted. Notice, foreign charging structure present. Notice, charging in progress."
"Thanks for the notice, ROB, now what happened on the Great Fox?"
"Great Fox was boarded by unrecognized troops. Sabotage detected. Engine breach occurred. Great Fox mark two has been destroyed." The android reported.
"Who attacked you?"
"Unknown soldier. Best description, Angler foot soldier. Notice, life form has been detected. Does not match other soldier profile. Bears resemblance to... no further memory of event exists."
"ROB, this is a direct order. Authorization, Vulpine eight six nine four. Retrieve deleted memory from most recent entries."
"Unable to comply, memory erase was complete using McCloud, Fox's authorization code." Fox growled angrily. He told no one his authorization codes. But there was one thing no one could erase, not even ROB himself.
"Patch into my comm system visual display. Show me the last ten minutes before you went off line." His wrist comm flashed to life and displayed a squad of eight or nine strange looking soldiers being fended off by a single vulpine with a longer looking broad sword. He was doing a spectacular job of holding his own until he was rushed and his line was broken. ROB's visual went blurry for a second then showed the vulpine standing over the robot and muttering a code, then it went blank.
"Fox..." the voice came back. But different. It was decidedly masculine.
"What do you want? I don't have time for your games.
"Fox McCloud..."
"There, you're done. Stay out of my head." Fox waited in silence.
"She's coming..."
...
"You are cleared to leave the hanger." The dog soldier told Slippy and Fox. Fox was carrying the android under his arm and walked out of the door.
"Oh, one more thing please, Captain?" Fox growled to himself and acknowledged the soldier.
"It's good to have you back in the fight, Sir. Now we have a chance in this war." the soldier shot the fox a sharp solute then crisply returned to his position.
Fox growled to himself again. "Tell that to Falco" he walked strait to the cybernetics lab on the fourth floor and dropped off his damaged android, leaving strict instructions to make it so he's functional in less than an hour. Fox made a beeline for the new turbo shaft elevator system, a new upgrade that came into effect after the Aparoid war. He stepped inside and pressed a button and the elevator shot up over 100 floors in a few seconds.
Fox stepped out of the car, straitened his vest and walked toward an oak-wood door. He twisted the brass knob and opened the door.
"F-Fox..." Peppy was shocked his former team mate just walked into his office.
"Ya, it's me, old timer. Did security not say I was coming?"
"No, they managed to leave that out but," Peppy stood up and straitened his uniform. "It's good to see you, Son." the two hugged over the desk.
"It's good to see you too, Peppy. But unfortunately, I've got bad news with me."
"Alright. Have a seat, and tell me what's been going on." the two sat down and Fox started to explain the details. He continued unbroken until he got to the last few hours.
"I may have helped liberate Katina, but Fachina is a lost cause. The military was decimated. Now the Anglers are fortifying their position with the help of Andrew Oikonny."
"Oikonny, wasn't he destroyed in the first wave of Aparoid attacks?"
"Apparently not, He's the one who ordered the destruction of the Great Fox and found my dad's secret bunker. But I have a feeling I've taken care of him. Permanently." Fox took a certain satisfaction in the thought that one of his enemies was finally destroyed for good.
"There's something else on you mind though, what is it?" Peppy saw right through Fox's shield.
"Falco's... K.I.A." Fox looked at his feet and felt a wave of depression sweep over him.
"He... can't be... he has the best piloting skills, and the fastest ship... it's not possible." Peppy saw all the Star Fox members as his children, even the newest addition, Krystal. The fact that one of them is dead stung him deeply.
"Pep, he allowed me to escape. There's the silver lining. If there is one in this situation. But with out a command center, or some heavy ordinance, that silver lining will turn gray, fast." Peppy soon composed himself and stood up.
"Come with me, Fox. I've got a little something for you. For old times sake."
...
Peppy pulled out an archaic key that was discontinued after the invention of widespread fingerprint and retinal scanning. He inserted it into a slot in a thick steel door and the door opened. A bright light flooded out. Of the door and Fox walked in and his jaw dropped.
Inside the absolutely massive room sat an equally massive Great Fox. Twice as large as the refit Great Fox. The body and wings were the same except for some minor details and high lights.
"How much for it?"
"On the house."
Authors note: Greetings from me! Be happy. I hope you guys don't mind that this is my longest chapter so far with a total of 1409 words or something like that. Anyway, thanks for stayin with me and don't forget to check out my other stories which are Human Transformer, and Krystals Knockout. (note to self, cross of self promotion) but I will say that Krystals Knockout is very poorly written (never mind the self promotion.) so ya, i'll see you in a few days. Imma signin' off.
