CHAPTER NINE

Enter Star Wolf!

One week later

In orbit above Planet Fichina

Sitting in his ship had never felt any more different to Wolf than it did now. Though it retained the same basic structure, it had been painted dark gray and red as opposed to the standard Arwing colors of white and blue. It had also been given a new collective name: Wolfen. For some reason, Andross seemed to favour Wolf and immediately announced him the leader of this group, as well as a name for the group.

"Star Wolf." Wolf thought, scowling at the name. "We sound more like a cheap knockoff than a rival gang."

"Alright, they're within range." said Pigma. "Let's get in there and reap our reward, boys."

Wolf groaned in disgust. Was that all that Pigma thought about? Unfortunately, the porcine sleazebag didn't seem to be the only one who wanted to do away with Fox.

"Well, O'Donnell?" Oikonny said. "You're the leader here. Give us the order already."

Wolf had the initial thought of telling Oikonny to shove it up his ass and was fairly close to saying it, but he knew that wouldn't do him or Leon any good. He wanted Andross dead as much as the next guy, but he couldn't risk someone else's life to do so.

Besides, no one said he had to kill Fox. He just needed to stop him from getting to Venom. That said, he still needed to make it sound like he wanted to kill Fox, but there was no way he'd do it for real. James' last words still haunted Wolf, though. The seeds for James' revenge had already been sown…if Fox was anything like Wolf, he wouldn't stop until his parents' killer was gone.

Wolf sighed.

"Fine. Star Wolf, move in."

The four Wolfens descended into the atmosphere, through the thick clouds and down to the barren and snowy landscape. A light snowfall was going on, the flakes melting the instant they touched Wolf's windshield. The planet itself was fairly beautiful with a bright sky and beautiful white environment, but the large structure below and the four blue and white ships blasting down Venomian ships as fast as they could.

"Alright, Fox is definitely down there." Pigma said as he sent a group of images to Wolf's monitor. "Looks like Peppy's still in the game, too."

Wolf has happy to see that Peppy had made it off of Venom in one piece, but it was Fox he was the most interested in. Aside from being much younger and lacking sunglasses, Fox was a spitting image of his father as Wolf had somewhat expected. He was a good-looking boy, making it more of a shame that Wolf had to fight him.

"Who are these other two?" asked Leon.

The other two were a green-skinned frog wearing a baseball cap and a blue-feathered falcon with a rather cynical look on his face.

"Slippy Toad." Pigma replied. "He's one of Fox's closest friends and he's apparently a pretty skilled mechanic. He pilots like shit, though, so we might be in luck."

"Don't count your chickens before they hatch, Dengar." Wolf growled. "What about the bird?"

"That would be Falco Lombardi. Ex-vigilante, previously the leader of group called the Hot Rodders. He's a bit ego-centric. Doesn't play well with others."

"Then why the hell did he join the team?"

"That's his problem."

Leon stroked his chin.

"Doesn't play well with others." he repeated. "Sounds like my kind of guy…he's mine."

Pigma chuckled to himself.

"Hoo, boy, won't Peppy be pissed to see me again. This is gonna be priceless."

"I'll take the frog." Oikonny said.

Wolf gritted his teeth. "Great…guess I got McCloud, then…move in. Intercept their communications channel."

After a little tampering, they were able to hear the banter between the teammates.

"Uhh, guys?" Slippy asked. "Why exactly are there ships coming out of the base like they're on fire?"

A robotic voice responded, which Pigma had stated was likely a former military probe called ROB 64.

"Confirmed. A bomb has been planted at the base."

Then Wolf heard Fox speak. "Jeez…can anybody take care of it?!"

They couldn't hesitate anymore. The four Wolfens zoomed into view.

"Can't let you do that, Star Fox." Wolf said solemnly.

"What the…" sputtered a cocky and accented voice, likely from Falco. "Who the hell are you?!"

"We are Star Wolf," Leon replied. "And Andross has ordered us to take you down."

"Ooo-hoo-hoo, yeah, you're real scary. Come get me, then!"

Pigma flew up alongside Peppy and smirked at him until he turned his head.

"Holy mother of…" Peppy started.

"Peppy! Long time, no see…a week, but it's a long time in my book."

"You son of a bitch, Pigma!"

Andrew swerved down toward Slippy and immediately began firing like a madman on the poor frog.

"Whoa, whoa, hey! What gives?!" Slippy yelled.

"Andross' enemy is my enemy!" Oikonny responded.

Fox looked over at Wolf right as the latter came barreling towards him. "You're mine, McCloud."

Fox gritted his teeth.

"I don't know who you are, but I don't care. If you get in my way, I'll annihilate you!"

Judging from that line, Wolf had confirmed two things. One was Fox was naturally going to fight back to the best of his ability since no one could stop him from gaining his revenge. The other was more of a personal blow to Wolf since Fox had said he had no idea who he was. That would indicate that Peppy hadn't told Fox anything about him. Given that Peppy and Wolf had only known each other for a week, it wasn't really that surprising since they had barely known anything about each other anyway.

It didn't matter. The second Wolf had swerved toward Fox, the latter took off like a bullet as if daring Wolf to go after him, and go after him he certainly did. For a moment, Wolf had no idea why. This was the son of a man he admired beyond anything else, almost as much as his father. So why was he going after him without a second thought or any form of mercy for that matter?

Then he began to realize what was going on and felt sick to his stomach when he realized it. This was the exact same sensation he had gotten when he had been fighting off Ramero's goons and even killing the Venomians. It was the thrill of the hunt as Leon would put it. He was actually starting to enjoy taking others' lives, or in this case chasing after someone he perceived to be far weaker than him. The big question was why. Why did he enjoy this? Was he degenerating into the same kind of person as Andross and Ramero? It certainly seemed like it.

Before Wolf even had the time to try and talk himself out of it, he pushed the fire button, sending a barrage of lasers flying at Fox's Arwing.

"Mind telling me who you are before you try and kill me?" asked Fox.

"Wolf O'Donnell."

"How quaint. Is that all you're going to tell me?"

"It's all you really need to know. It won't matter since you'll be seeing your dad soon, Fox."

He could feel Fox's anger quell up on the other end of the comm.

"Only if you can catch me, you son of a bitch."

He couldn't blame him for saying that since mentioning his father was hitting below the belt in the worst kind of way. What really hit him was what Fox had said. It reminded him of all the times Nina had come home saying that Ramero had called her a bitch. It wasn't like Fox had known anything about this, but Wolf frankly didn't give a damn.

"You're dead, McCloud."

"We'll see."

Leon blasted away at Falco, who simply twisted, turned and did everything he could to stay out of his line of fire.

"Annoying bird…I am the great Leon!"

"Shakespearean, buddy. Fuckin' beautiful. Too bad you can't aim to save your life."

"Too bad, indeed. I'll blast you down and watch you bleed out if I get half the chance."

"Alright. Then do it! C'mon, I dare ya!"

Leon held down the fire button for a brief moment and released a charge shot that Falco was just barely able to dodge, nearly colliding with the ground as he did so.

"…uhhh….y'know I was kidding, right?"

"Shame. I wasn't."

"Aaaah, shit…"

Peppy swerved out of the way of Pigma's laser fire. Pigma himself simply laughed.

"No worries! I'll do you fast, Peppy old pal!"

"Goddamn you, Pigma!" Peppy spat. "How could you just turn against your own friends like this?! You should be ashamed of yourself!"

"I got no worries or shame so long as I get my reward! Now hurry up and die!"

"You son of a bitch…"

Peppy wasn't the only one disgusted by how Pigma was treating this, but Wolf and Leon were far too busy with their own individual targets. By now, the thrill of the hunt was taking effect on both of them. Neither of them thought of the repercussions of their actions. Their instincts were telling them Fox and Falco had to go, so if there was even a slim chance, they were gone.

Fox strafed back and forth, barrel-rolling as he did so to deflect anything Wolf fired at him. After taking some time to adjust to Fox's pattern, Wolf waited for the precise moment and fired a charged shot. Then came the big shock: Fox suddenly hit the brakes and looped over Wolf, placing himself directly behind him.

"What the fuck?!" Wolf sputtered.

"Guess your coach didn't teach you how to do that, eh?" Fox asked with a moderate smirk.

"Great. You know one trick I don't know. You really think that's gonna save you?"

"Yes. Thank you for asking."

As the rest of the team had somewhat expected, Oikonny was giving Slippy a fairly hard time, not letting up on him for even a second.

"For goodness sake, get off me…GAH! Dammit!" the frog whined as he just barely missed getting hit by another laser. "This is really starting to piss me off!"

"Then next time, just stick to the pond, froggie!" Oikonny cackled.

Falco swerved downward and veered off to the right just as Leon jetted toward him again. He looped around a nearby radio tower and proceeded upward with Leon still following him.

"You know, you're not as tough as I thought." the chameleon sighed.

"I haven't even tried to hit you yet, smartass. And trust me when I say it's gonna hurt." "Looking forward to it."

"…huh?"

Much to Wolf's surprise, even though Fox was a few years younger than him, he already seemed more experienced. Perhaps that was because he had been a student at the Cornerian Flight Academy (a dropout by the looks of it, but a student nonetheless), while Wolf had been tutored for only a couple days before heading out on was pretty much became a suicide mission. Now Wolf was being chased all about for a few moments, and he realized yet another strategy of Fox's: hit-and-run tactics. He got in, took a few shots, and then got out of the way before he could get shot himself.

"Not bad, McCloud. I think I've underestimated you."

"If you're trying to set a friendly mood, it's not working."

Peppy swerved all about, trying to shake Pigma off his tail but to no avail. Every time he tried to get somewhere, Pigma followed closely behind. It eventually came to light that Peppy wasn't going to get away on his own when Pigma landed a successful shot on him.

"Doggone it…take care of the guy behind me, Fox!"

As if on cue, Fox veered away from Wolf and began targeting Pigma instead, and he attacked him far more furiously. Of course, why wouldn't he? Pigma had been the one who betrayed his father and left him to die while he had gone on to live his life as though it meant nothing. Much to his own surprise, Wolf did nothing to stop him even as Oikonny nagged him about it.

"What are you doing, O'Donnell?! He's attacking your teammate and you're just going to let him?!"

Wolf looked over at Oikonny with a smirk and replied with that one simple and rude gesture using only that one finger. Oikonny quickly grew as red as a tomato and only became angrier when Slippy had managed to sneak in a quick shot.

"Ha! Boom, baby!"

"Gah! You little…"

Pigma started looking all about in panic when he felt his ship suddenly get bombarded with laser fire, and upon looking behind him, he grew enraged.

"Y'know, I never really liked you that much, kid."

"Right back at you, fat bastard. See you in hell…"

With that last line, Fox let fly with a charged shot, and it collided with Pigma long before he had even a second's chance to get away.

"My beautiful reward! Goddammit!" he cried as his Wolfen steadily plummeted to the ground.

"Phew!" Peppy breathed. "Thanks, Fox. You're becoming more like your father."

That was more than Wolf could say for himself. He was nothing like his father, but it wasn't like he was legally required to be. In fact, being exactly like his father wasn't what Rodrick or Nina would have wanted.

"Nice display of heroism, McCloud." Wolf spoke up. "I'm still gonna kick your ass, though."

"Bring it on!"

Slippy dashed all about, Oikonny following him closely behind. Then Slippy got somewhat crafty. He flew closely to one of the radio towers surrounding the base, and the second Oikonny was close enough behind him, he pulled up and out of the way, leaving Oikonny uselessly scrambling to try and avert his ship away from the tower. Too little, too late as they say. He smashed into, severing a wing as his ship's engine failed in a smoky mess.

"UNCLE ANDROSS!" he cried before his ship when down in the same manner as Pigma's.

"Good riddance!" Slippy called after him.

That left only Wolf and Leon, and these two would perhaps be the hardest of the four to take down. What matters worse, though, was…

"Red alert!" ROB blared. "Base in critical condition. Five minutes until detonation."

"Fox! Falco! Hurry up!" Peppy hollered.

"We're goin' as fast as we can, Gramps!" Falco shot back. "Don't get your ears in a knot!"

Then came perhaps the most intense moment of the entire dogfight: Fox and Wolf had halted a good fifty feet away from another, looking directly into each other's eyes. Neither of them backed down from the challenge the other presented, and for several moments, they seemed to be locked in a battle of courage. Finally, they both gripped their steering controls and floored their boost pedals, rocketing toward each other at a fantastic speed.

They seemed to both have the same idea in mind, because right when it seemed they were about to collide, they slammed on their eject buttons. They shot upward out of their ships into the cold winter air before falling to the ground and landing on their feet, leaving their ships motionless in the air.

The fall had been close enough to the ground that they wouldn't sustain any injuries, but far enough that it still sent shocks throughout their bodies. There was no time to lie down and complain about it, though. The second Fox and Wolf made eye contact, the former broke into a run, sprinting away from the latter as fast as he could.

"Oh, no you don't!" Wolf shouted, using his wrist remote to pilot his Wolfen safely to the ground before running after his prey.

That was it. The thrill of the hunt had taken Wolf over completely. He wanted to pounce on Fox and tear him to pieces. When he looked at Fox, he didn't see the son of James McCloud anymore. He saw everything that had ever made him suffer in his life, and it infuriated him…made him into a wild animal…made him like…

"No. I'm nothing like that bastard and I never will be." he thought, damning himself for thinking that for even a split second.

Fox continued running, but Wolf was steadily catching up. Before long, Wolf was able to close the distance with a lengthy jump onto Fox's back, seizing him and dragging him to the ground. They wrestled in the freezing cold snow for a minute or so, grabbing at whatever bit of each other they could find. Suddenly, Fox shot his head forward and slammed it against Wolf's nose, loosening his grip enough for Fox to slip his foot under his stomach and kick him off.

Once Wolf got to his feet, Fox held up his fists and stood almost defiantly. Wolf smirked.

"Alright, then. Let's fight."

Wolf made the first move, dashing forward and slashing with his claws. Fox shifted around the attack, and Wolf suddenly found himself on the receiving end of a giant flurry of punches and kicks. Fox wasn't just a superb pilot. He was fast…really, REALLY fast. However, that only left a very exploitable weakness: he had tremendous speed, but subpar strength. Granted, he wasn't the weakest person Wolf had ever met, but he was still nowhere near as strong as many others.

And thus, this became what Wolf exploited. The second he had focused, he grabbed Fox's leg as he came in for another kick and slammed his elbow into Fox's knee. Fox let out a sharp cry of pain, but still managed to wrench his leg free and deliver a roundhouse kick to Wolf's face. Once Wolf had recovered, he flexed his fingers, showing off his claws.

"Care for a little battle of blades?"

Fox reached under his silver jacket and withdrew a long knife.

"Could be fun."

This time, Fox was the first to attack, giving a quick swipe with his knife. Wolf stepped away, then stepped back in and stabbed at Fox with his claws. Fox deflected it, and the two rushed each other once again. For several moments, the two were locked in close quarters combat, both swinging just as effectively and just as quickly. It was a surprise to both. They were evenly matched. Neither one was seeming to win…until Fox jumped back and kicked up a huge mass of snow, obscuring Wolf's vision for a brief moment. Once Wolf had swatted the snow away, however…

"What the…where'd he go?!"

It was true. Fox had strategically used the few precious seconds he had to escape. But there was no way he could have gotten far! Wolf could sense him.

His eyes roamed all about until he spotted a nearby radio tower. The tower was wide…wide enough for someone to hide behind it. Steadily, he crept along, trying his hardest not to make a sound. Right when he reached the tower, he jumped around the corner and withdrew his machine pistol…only to find that Fox wasn't there.

"What…how did he…"

Suddenly, Wolf heard a loud battle cry behind him and spun around just in time to see Fox springing out of the heavy mass of snow before him. It was too late to block him, though. Fox planted his knife against Wolf's neck and pinned his gun arm to the metal wall. The two stood panting for a brief moment, staring deeply into each other's eyes. Wolf knew that the second he made a wrong move, Fox could and most likely would slit his throat.

Fox gritted his surprisingly sharp teeth and whispered menacingly.

"Don't push it…don't push it, or I'll give you a war you won't believe."

Wolf said nothing. Fox spoke again. "Did you have a hand in killing my father? Did you?!"

"…no. I'd never even think of it."

"How do I know you're not lying?"

"You'll just have to trust me." "Trust you. Trust you after you just tried to kill me."

Wolf was very tempted to tell Fox the real reason about why he was here, but there was no conceivable way to get him to believe it for even a moment. It may have been true, but it was still too farfetched.

"There are more important things going on than you and me right now."

Fox eased the knife's pressure before slowly retracting it and proceeding toward the base to deactivate the bomb, though not before turning on his heel and pointing at Wolf.

"Stay there. I'm not done with you."

Wolf obeyed. The thrill of the hunt had finally worn off, helped when Leon backed off after seeing that Wolf had been defeated. As he waited for Fox to return, he thought about how Fox had beaten him. He had utilized speed, strength, and stealth in the most efficient way to beat his enemy. It was impressive, but it was that certain kind of impressive that still made Wolf angry. He couldn't beat Ramero, he couldn't beat Andross…and he couldn't even beat an eighteen-year old boy. The feeling confused him, but he'd have to think about it later. Fox returned from defusing the bomb and stood cross-armed in front of Wolf.

"Alright. Explain."

"I can't tell you everything."

"Why not?"

"Simple. You won't believe me."

"Whatever. Just tell me the facts."

"I was there when your father died, but I had nothing to do with it. He was a great man, Fox." "So I'm told. Get to the point."

Wolf reached into his pocket, and Fox thought for a moment that he was about to pull a weapon on him, but then he pulled out the greatest memento Fox could ever receive: his father's sunglasses.

"You...you kept those?"

"Yes...because somehow I knew I'd eventually be giving them to you."

Wolf placed the sunglasses in Fox's hand. Fox stared at them for a brief moment, entranced that Wolf had respected James this much, before slowly putting them in his pocket.

"All you need to know..." Wolf continued. "...is that he'll be proud of you no matter what you do. He loved you more than life itself."

Fox's brows eased up, signalling his anger steadily fading away.

"…what were his last words?"

"He said that seeds for his revenge had already been sown. He knew that there was no way anyone could stop you from taking your revenge…and I won't stop you, either."

"You won't follow us?"

Wolf had no intention of following Star Fox when they were this good, but he didn't forget that he ahd been out for revenge, too. There was no way he could have it directly now, but if he had some indirect help…

"No. But in exchange, I want you to do something for me once you reach Venom."

Fox groaned in disgust. The last thing he wanted to do was make a deal with this guy, but perhaps it was worth it if he and his team wouldn't follow him.

"Let's hear it."

"You know Kodek Ramero?"

"The Macbeth Quarries CEO?"

"Yeah. If you see his company's brand on Venom at all, take a snapshot of it."

"Are you telling me that he's been making dealings with Andross?"

"Only one way to find out, right?"

Fox's wrist communicator buzzed and Falco's voice crackled over it.

"C'mon, Fox! Ditch that joker and let's head for Solar!" he yelled.

"Alright, I'm on my way. Gimme a second."

Fox looked at Wolf one last time, giving a quick smirk.

"Even if you're not going to be following me to Venom, I've got a feeling we're going to be seeing a lot of each other in the future."

Wolf responded with a smirk of his own.

"Count on it. Now go. Avenge your father, and don't let anybody stand in your way."

Fox nodded and proceeded back to his Arwing. Once the team had blasted up into the atmosphere, Leon landed next to Wolf and hopped out.

"That went well." the chameleon sighed.

"Indeed it did."

In what seemed like a matter of seconds, Pigma and Oikonny had trudged up to Wolf with very cross looks on their faces.

"You let them get away!" Oikonny yelled.

"Yeah. So what?"

"Let's get after them right now!" "No. I made a deal with Fox, and I'm a man of my word." "You also promised Andross that you'd kill him!"

"I didn't promise Andross anything. Personally, I hope Fox blows his brains out." "H-how dare you!"

"What's the big idea, O'Donnell?!" Pigma growled. "Andross promised us a big wad of cash and you're just let it slip away from us?!" "By 'we', I guess you mean 'you'. James' biggest mistake was letting you onto the team. Look at you. You're a money-grubbing coward."

"You snotty son of a bitch!"

Pigma suddenly seized Wolf's neck, but Pigma hadn't been in a child labour camp for over half a decade, making it no surprise that Wolf easily pushed him away before suddenly clawing the top of his bald head. Pigma cried out in pain and leaped away from Wolf with a now frightened look. Oikonny stepped forward with gritted teeth and clenched fists, but got cold feet once Wolf looked at him menacingly.

"Oh, you want some too, monkey boy?! Huh?!"

Oikonny and Pigma backed away before turning and running as fast as they could, climbing into their Wolfen's escape pods and rocketing away as fast as they could. Wolf and Leon stood there smirking as the two cowards fled practically in tears.

"Pathetic." Leon grumbled.

"My thoughts exactly." Wolf replied before turning to him. "How about we keep this little gang together, just the two of us?"

"Really now? What do you propose we do?"

"A better question is what do you propose we don't do. There's a whole galaxy of oppourtunity out there. We can do whatever we want, and aside from Star Fox, who's gonna stop us?"

"You mean like renegades?"

"Exactly like renegades."

Leon thought it over for a brief moment before laughing.

"Sounds like fun. Alright. I'm in. So do we stick with Star Wolf as the name or do we change it to something a little less cheap?" "Nah. We'll stick with Star Wolf. It's kind of stuck by now."

A few days later…

A few days after Fox and Wolf had their encounter on Fichina, it was announced over the Cornerian News Network that Star Fox had been victorious. Andross had been killed and the remains of the Venomian Army had scattered across the galaxy. The entire planet was alive with cheers and celebration, but was soon followed with surprise upon seeing the next headline.

It turned out that Fox had kept his promise. Star Fox had successfully found a tanker bearing Ramero's company brand, and upon showing this evidence to General Pepper and receiving a warrant to look through Ramero's transactions, he was found guilty of treason, worker abuse, and a plethora of other crimes. Thus, he was sentenced to a fate that many argued was worse than death and reserved only for the most corrupt of criminals: banishment to the planet Kew.

From somewhere far away, Wolf smiled at both his moderate retribution and Fox's victory. He was somewhat proud of Fox, but that feeling he had gotten on Fichina had come back full force. He respected Fox, but still held a grudge against him. He felt humiliated and honoured at the same time…and he wanted more of it.

The thrill of the hunt had returned. It was subtle, but it was there. Ramero was no longer the target of Wolf's obsession. Wolf had found himself something more worthwhile than a nemesis.

A rival.

Told you he'd say it.

For all those who wanted to see Ramero dead, this may not be too satisfying, but don't worry. I don't think Ramero's done with Wolf just yet.

SOUNDTRACK SO FAR

Perking up the workers' spirits- "Livin' On the Edge" by Aerosmith

Nina's lullaby- "Shenandoah" by Hayley Westenra

The escape plan- "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" by AC/DC

The death of Nina and Rodrick- "Watch Me Bleed" by Scary Kids Scaring Kids

No comfort for the weak and wounded- "The Unforgiven" by Metallica

Escaping Macbeth- "You Know My Name" by Chris Cornell

The Stray Dog- "I Remember" by deadmau5

Wolf and Leon- "People Ain't No Good" by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Standoff at the Stray Dog- "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath

Poker night in Hell- "Black Rain" by Soundgarden

Running as fast as God will let him-"Run to the Hills" by Iron Maiden

Standoff on Papetoon- "Wanted Dead or Alive" by Bon Jovi

Lost an eye and left to die- "Lost and Found" by Senses Fail

Wolf and James- "Carry On Wayward Son" by Kansas

Another father gone- "Shadow of the Day" by Linkin Park

Enter Star Wolf- Star Wolf theme (any version, though the one from Assault is my personal favourite)