Chapter Nine

General Felix Felini was strapped to a cold metal board, sharp electrical prongs poking him uncomfortably. Granted, the discomfort was much worse when the prongs were actually sending powerful volts into him. He was beginning to wonder why Pigma didn't just kill him already.

"I'm going to ask you again Felini- where are the files?" Pigma readied his hand by a button.

"I told you- on the Brea Defense Base in the main computer!"

He let out a yowl of pain as an electrical jolt shot into his leg.

"He lies, Master Pigma! There no files on the Brea computer main. We've checked, reports are that the base has been infiltrated by the outside military scum. They must have taken them!" Captain Reptilian shouted. Felini never cared much for the slimy Captain Reptilian- he'd always had him pegged as a soldier who was too coward to become a traitor on his own, but would be a turncoat in an instant if somebody else led the way. It seemed that Reptilian was gunning to be Pigma's right hand man. Another shock jerked through his body.

"Who has my files?!"

"Please- please, just don't hurt me anymore…" he gasped, sweat running down into his eyes and making them sting.

Captain Reptilian cackled. "Be a man, Felix! You were a general, after all!"

Pigma gave him another shock. "That's for wasting my precious time! It was fun at first, but now I mean business! WHO HAS MY FILES?!"

A jarring volt went up Felini's spine, even Felini couldn't believe that scream was coming from him. "I- I- I'm not sure, it is probably Star Wolf…Corneria sent them…" his head was rolling around, it was all he could do not to pass out.

"Wrong again, Felini! Star Wolf is on a mission for me! They know better than to betray me again!"

"Then I don't know! I really don't, just please…no…more!" Felini begged, losing consciousness.

"That will be enough, Pigma," came a raspy voice over the voice com. Pigma grunted.

"But Professor, he has stolen your plans and…"

"I know, and I know who has them now. They've fallen into the hands of the teams Star Fox and Star Falco."

"Whaaattt?" Pigma squealed, knocking over Captain Reptilian in his rage. "Those losers? I should have known Peppy couldn't do anything without relying on those tools!"

"Just another fly in the spider web, Pigma. Now what of the real prize? What is the status of Star Wolf?"

Pigma frowned. "They are waiting for Kursed to arrive."

"Hmm," Professor Andorf was also displeased. "It should not be taking this long."

"If Star Wolf fails, I promise I'll bring Kursed to you myself. That little chick can't hide from me!"

"Yes," Professor Andorf replied. "Once we have her, you'll see Piggy, our power will be complete enough to conquer any galaxy, especially Lylat."

Pigma grunted again. He wasn't sure he liked where this set up was going at all. Professor Andorf had promised him the leadership, glory, and revenge on Lylat, and of course plenty of money would come with that. Professor was to remain in the shadows, a ghost-writer to the chaos (that is, unless Pigma became strong enough to overpower him). But Pigma was starting to wonder if he could be trusted. He had seen Professor Andorf in the beginning- a fairly young simian who liked to play scientist and wear a sort of war paint that made him look like a menacing baboon. Lately however, Pigma was seeing less and less of him, transmissions were taking place over voice coms rather than in person or via the video transmitter. Was he trying to hide something from Pigma? Then there was the fact he was talking crazier everyday and was now making demands. Pigma had a feeling that Andross's blood did truly run through his veins as he'd claimed- and that the insanity and insatiable thirst for power couldn't be controlled, just like Andross.

Well, Pigma would just have to control it for him. He already had no intentions of letting Star Wolf get credit for capturing Kursed, he would kill them and deliver Kursed to Professor Andorf himself. For now he would stay cool, letting Professor Andorf build up everything for him, but the scientist would soon come to learn that the monster he built had no problem turning on its creator.

*

"Rogue ship, what is your ongoing destination?"

Hawkeye kept his cool. "Planet Kale for vacation, sir. Thought I'd take the whole family to experience a much simpler lifestyle and get some appreciation."

"Nice try, flyboy. Everyone knows the people of Kale don't take kindly to tourists."

"We're not from here, we're from the planet Raleigh in the Greensboro system."

"Greensboro system? Never heard of it! How come you're flying what looks to be a battle freighter ship?" In the background he could hear a second soldier yell, "Cut the small talk and FIRE!"

"That's our cue," Hawkeye said to the team. They flew their ships out of the docking bay. "Can you handle the Falcon alone, Slip?"

"You bet!" Slippy gave a thumbs up. ROB was sprawled on the ground next to the pilots' chairs, emitting a droning buzz. Hawkeye gave him a hard nudge with his foot and that shut him up. He hurried into his ship, a classic style Arwing that he as well as Miyu borrowed from the CDF. Fox had stubbornly insisted on using his own ship.

Soldiers were heading for them, their small and agile crafts trying to surround them and firing laser shots. Star Fox and Star Falco took them on.

"There's one!" Miyu cried excitedly as her target exploded.

"Hang tight honey, you got one trying to tail you," replied Katt. She locked on to the ship and fired.

"Nice shot, Katt!" exclaimed Scout.

"Since you guys got this under control, I'm going to check out the inside of the checkpoint," said Falco. He blasted a ship out of his way and jetted towards the check point's landing bay.

"Falco, don't be an idiot! You don't know what kind of defense they have in there!" said Fox.

"Hey, that's why you guys are here to back me up, right? I'll give you a holler if I need it."

Fox grumbled some choice expletives under his breath as he spun out of the way of some laser fire. Sure, they were doing all right with this fleet, but what if the enemycalled for back up?

"Surrender now! Master Pigma knows you're here!" cried an eager pilot. Faye came up from behind and blasted him.

"You five hold them off. I'm going to check on Falco!" Fox called to them.

"I don't need your help, Fox!" he snapped back. Fox had a feeling that wouldn't be the case though. He headed towards the check point. When he got in, Falco did seem to be holding his own.

"I told you, I got this Fox!" he said. "Go get the others so you can bring them through- what is that?!"

A large ship was approaching the exit of the check point, threatening to cut off their way out. "You do not have clearance, rogue fighters," said one of the soldiers on board.

"No kidding," said Falco.

"Here we go. Okay team, we're going to need some back up!" Fox called.

"We'll try to hurry, but we got our hands full out here!" Scout answered.

For half a second Fox debated turning around and helping the others before helping Falco, especially since Falco had gotten himself into this mess. Then he saw a powerful shot from the ship narrowly miss them and he knew what he had to do. The ship had reached the exit port, not leaving them much room to move to the outside and there wasn't a whole lot of room to maneuver around the port. They fired valiantly at it. Falco shouted, "Heads up, Fox!" and spun in front of a laser shot that was headed straight for Fox, deflecting it.

"Thanks," said Fox, still firing away. The ship let loose a large missile that was headed straight for Falco. Falco didn't notice because he was too intent on shooting.

"Falco, look out!" called Fox. Falco wouldn't have time to move out of its way. Fox cut in between them and fired. He was able to take out the missile before it hit Falco, but not before it clipped the side of his ship. He could feel his ship rock and rattle from the impact and wondered how bad the damage was.

"Hang tight boys, we're moving in!" Katt cried triumphantly. The increased number of their fire power was enough to take down the ship.

"Head out the entrance way!" Fox shouted. They turned their ships and blasted out of there as the explosion from the ship blew up the check point. Unfortunately for Fox, with his ship shield down and a slight delay in his rockets from the missile impact, his ship felt the heat a little bit more.

They landed in the Falcon's docking bay. "Dang Fox, are you alright?" asked Miyu, looking at his damaged ship as she climbed out of hers.

"I'm hanging in there."

"Maybe you better sit out on Kale and let Slippy fix your ship," Falco suggested. "That way, your ship is in good shape when we get to Jericho after that."

Fox looked over at Falco. They hadn't discussed Jericho yet. Was he giving him a hard time? He caught Falco's eye and Falco gave a brisk but sincere nod of the head. Fox knew that was Falco's way of thanking him for saving his tail. Fox nodded back.

*

Kursed slowly came to, and found herself in pitch darkness. In fact, it was dark and cramped. She struggled to move her arms and legs around, but in doing so she realized they were bound together. She kicked her feet on top of the ceiling (or whatever it was).

The light hurt her eyes as the top was lifted from wherever she was. Wolf stood overhead, grinning at her. "Good morning, starshine!" he said. "You're cranky when you wake up. Keep kicking like that, and I'll have Panther subdue you again."

She spit at him, but Wolf dodged out of the way. "Easy now, we're not going to hurt you, you're our precious cargo."

"What the hell is this, Wolf?" she growled. "What happened to our deal?"

"There's still a deal, and you're still part of it. Only, instead of turning us over to Pigma, we'll be turning you over to him. It's nothing personal, Kursed, it's just better business sense."

"But I wasn't going to turn you over to Pigma, you know that!"

Wolf shrugged. "Sorry…you know, maybe it is a little personal, now that I think about it. Hell hath no fury like a man scorned. First you break Panther's heart, then you have Leon waste his time training you, only to run off from the team and use your new skills to profit without us. So really who's to say you're not above more betrayal?"

"It's not like that," she said quietly. He snorted and slammed the lid shut on her.

"Too late for apologies!" he called.

She took a deep breath, and then realized she better not do that if she wanted to conserve her air. She shut her eyes. They had taken her weapons and communications, of course, but she wasn't defenseless. She kicked at the lid of the compartment with all her strength, but other than making some dents, it was useless. Wolf had locked it up tight. Beads of sweat ran down her face as the air grew thicker and hotter. She would not panic. No. She shut her eyes and as much as she tried to fight it, she gave into instinct. She visualized Fox McCloud, everything about him, and was flooded with emotions she had locked out for a long time. She focused on that and after the initial shock the emotion brought over her, she concentrated and hoped that even if he did not have any known telepathic abilities, their personal connection was still there, deep down somewhere.