Krystal was waiting in the lobby of Star-Tech Industries Head Quarters with the Star Falco team. The lobby's entrance consisted of two pairs of sliding glass doors. Against the back wall was the pristine white reception desk, the desk curved towards the wall, leaving gaps between the wall and the desk. On the wall behind the desk, in neon blue writing, was Star-Tech Industries. On both sides of the room, were two rows of five navy blue chairs each. In the two corners nearest the door, were small black stands with two potted plants on top.

There was a very uncomfortable atmosphere for Krystal, it wasn't because it was her first time in the field since she lost Fox, nor the intimidating security guards, but the presence of the Star Wolf team, of him was driving her mad. When she saw the team she was shocked to discover she would be working with them. Upon their meeting, Leon had wasted no time in mocking the team over Fox's loss, however, it been aimed mainly at Falco, instead of her, but was just as painful. Panther was worse, immediately he approached her, attempting to flirt and achieve a date with her, expressing sorrow for her loss.

Krystal knew better however, not only was that not his character, but her telepathy revealed that he was fantasying about her spread naked across his bed, begging like a horny bimbo. It took all her strength to stop herself from lashing out at him. When they had a 'relationship', all Panther got was to look, not touch and demanded her privacy from him with promises of false rewards. She might have done it to spite Fox, but even she wasn't willing to go that far.

Fortunately, and surprisingly, Wolf stepped in and pulled Panther away from her, sending him to the far side of the room as if he were a misbehaving child. She was even more surprised when he apologised for his behaviour, and was sorry for her loss. At first, Krystal struggled to believe him, but he was honest and sincere, shining a new light on Wolf.

Katt had kept close by to help protect her from the perverted monster and the psychopath. Her presence assured Krystal that she would be here to help. Krystal had met Miyu and Fay before, and got on really well with them, and was looking forward to working with them. But the great white however, was slightly intimidating. Despite Lylat being only just aware of aquatic life since the Angular attack, she had seen their kind before, on Cerinia there had been a few aquatic species. But even then they were rare.

-x-x-x-

Falco's glare was constantly switching between the charcoal grey feline sitting behind the exotic white desk in front of him, and mercenary lupine standing beside him. When he took the job, the last thing he expected was to see the Star Wolf team, only to discover, he would be working with them. Resulting in this argument:

"Gentlemen," Pierce attempting to reason with the mercenaries, "I am fully aware of your rivalry, but you see, I don't care. My life is at stake, and I have hired you both and a vast number of mercenaries because I want this assassin dead."

"If you actually valued your life, you wouldn't have hired both of us," stated Wolf, almost in a mocking tone. "My team would actually prefer to fight this bird's team than work with them."

"Feelings mutual," replied Falco.

"I'm not going to pay you to fight each other, either you put your shit to one side, or fuck off," yelled Pierce. He was taking a gamble; Fox was out there, possibly stalking the streets right now looking for him, and needed these two teams for defence. Though it would be impossible for them to kill him, he would wipe both teams out within an instant. But their rivalry was destroying his plan, yet they were still mercenaries, desperate mercenaries.

"Fine," spat Wolf, before storming out the office door. Falco cast a glance at Pierce; he still wanted to make a deal with the feline.

"If I'm going to work with those dickheads, I want to get a better deal," announced Falco, the charcoal felines green eyes just stared at him with a blank expression.

"In what way?" queried the cat.

"A ship. Specifically a carrier ship," bartered Falco.

"Well then, if that's what I need to pay you to work with Star Wolf, so be it," said the feline; Falco was completely surprised by Pierces sudden agreement.

"I will add that to your payment, you will receive it when I feel that I am safe, agreed?" asked Pierce.

Falco nodded in agreement. The feline was now grinning from ear to ear, the grin was unnerving for Falco, it was the grin of a madman. Common sense quickly told Falco not to comment and just leave.

As soon as the avian stepped out of the office, he was by stopped Wolf O'Donnell leaning beside the door, with his arms crossed and left foot against the wall. The Lupine gave Falco a fierce glare, his one good eye refusing to blink. Despite the threatening look, Falco felt the Wolf was judging him. Falco calmly turned away from Wolf to leave.

"How you aren't dead is a bloody miracle," Falco heard Wolf comment. The offended Avian spun round to meet to lupine.

"What?" Falco said in reply.

"I said it's a surprise you're still breathing," spat Wolf in a much louder tone than before. "You and your team."

"And yet we've defeated you in the past," countered Falco, feeling smug.

"Star Fox defeated us, not Star Falco," corrected Wolf. "You just don't see it."

"What does that mean?"

"Just think for once in your fucking life!" growled an impatient Wolf. "Why would a multi-millionaire CEO of one of Lylat's most successful businesses hire a load of mercenaries for security? Most of the mercs here don't have a reputation and there will be rivalries that need to be dealt with."

"If something seems off, why are you still here?" stated Falco, highlighting Wolf's presence.

"Simple, even though I don't trust him, the payment is too good to turn down," said Wolf, spoken like a true mercenary.

-x-x-x-

When confident he was alone in the safety of his office, Pierce activated the secret communications program in his terminal. Within seconds, the image of Colonel Arachnid's eight eyed head appeared on screen.

"Ah, greetings Pierce," said the spider, as his pincers clicked, "To what do I owe this pleasure?"

"Well Colonel, not only did I get two rival teams of mercs to operate together, but ensure that our enemies are in Fox's line of attack," the feline chuckled at his victory guaranteed scheme.

"Don't let your confidence by your downfall Pierce, how can you be positive that Fox will strike down our enemies?" inquired Arachnid.

"You have seen the recordings of when he escaped, the man's a monster in battle, only capable of slaughter and destruction, some of Greaser's creations were ineffective, no wonder Eden's wants that power."

"But remember, Nova wasted nearly all of his thugs against him, and Vander was struck down with an entire regiment of marines at his side, McCloud isn't a push over. Even if your plan works, you will share their fate if something fails."

"True, but I still have a few aces up my sleeve."

-x-x-x-

Fox was crouched next to one of the buildings air vents on the highest roof on the building, with the wind howling around him, setting the fourth and final bomb to distract and devastate security. Heavy rain continued to poor, soaking the vulpine through his wet clothes, as the thunder roared and lighting flashed. With his final explosive in place, the vulpine backed away to his duffle bag by the corner nearest the bomb. Fox pulled out a makeshift detonator, the vulpine silently thanked Slippy for teaching him how to make his own explosives, Fox had no interest in learning such skills, he only learnt it because Peppy forced him 'and' tested him to make sure he wouldn't slack off.

'When you're trapped against the enemy, you will be glad when you realise you can make your own bombs.' Fox didn't believe him. Oh the irony.

-x-x-x-

Krystal walked down another bland corridor, with only a long window to view the on-going storm, as part of her patrol, laser carbine in hand. This was ridicules, they were protecting a business man, yet the level of security he had was similar to that of a Politician, maybe even beyond that. To Krystal, there was something wrong, and the security guards and mercenaries around her weren't helping.

They were difficult to read, the most she could get with her powers were basic emotions, like a dark aura. Never before had she experienced something like this, they were able to block her telepathy, all of them, one person who could was rare, two was a coincidence, but this many altogether was impossible, something was going on, and she needed to know.

"Well hello, Miss Krystal," purred a horrid voice. Krystal spun round in shock to see Panther standing right behind her. She was caught up in her thoughts she didn't sense him.

"What do you want Panther?" Krystal spat in a harsh tone.

"Can't Panther just talk to something as beautiful as you?" Panther asked innocently, with a creepy smirk.

"I've got a job to do, and so do you."

"Panther has a better idea, why don't we go out and have fun by ourselves."

Krystal knew what he meant. She could feel his eyes resting on her cleavage.

"Hey! You two!" Krystal was thankful to have this moment interrupted.

Approaching them were two security guards, although at a glance, their equipment would say otherwise. Both wore silvery-white combat armour with a black underlay and blue lining. The Star-Tech logo was placed on the left breast, with 'security' written underneath in blue letters. On their hips, was a holstered pistol each and in their hands were laser rifles. The tallest was a golden jaguar, and the other was a light brown weasel.

"Do you mind?" hissed Panther, "We were having a conversation."

"You're getting paid for security, not flirting," the jaguar pointed at Panther in a threatening manner. Krystal felt sick at the idea.

"What we do together is none of your business!" Krystal wanted to slap Panther so much.

"It is when…"

BOOM!

Everyone dropped to the floor as the corridor behind the guards was consumed by a bright orange, scorching hot fireball. Glass from the window and light bulbs shattered and scattered everywhere in tiny and large fragments, Krystal shielded her face with her arms. The explosion was ringing in her ears, drowning out any other sound. Soon the ringing subsided, and was instead replaced by howling wind, rain falling, the slight crack of flame and the wail of an emergency siren.

Krystal moved her arms away to see what was before her. The only light came from flashing red lights as the siren wailed. To her right, a hole interrupted the wall, the window completely shattered. Panther was slowly ascending to his feet, while the security guards remained still. The shaken vixen crawled towards the weasel; the back of the pristine white armour was now smoky grey with red specks. She moved closer to see a large shard of glass buried in the back of his neck, blood leaking heavily from the wound.

Krystal stood up and moved away from the dead weasel to the jaguar. Like the weasel, the back of his armour was smoky grey. No visible injuries could be seen. Gently, Krystal lifted the guards head and placed her finger on his neck. His pulse was rapidly pounding.

"What are you doing?" asked Panther greatly annoyed.

"He's alive, but he needs help," Krystal stated.

"Leave him, he's fucked anyway!"

The horrified vixen glared at the heartless feline.

-x-x-x-

A dark brown lizard, a pale grey crocodile and silver gorilla, wearing Star-Tech security armour and armed with their laser rifles, analysed the scene before them. The ceiling had been blown apart, bits of scrap metal, shattered glass and burning fragments littered the floor, and the pristine walls scorched a horrid brown from the heat.

The group spied the hole in the ceiling, thick black smoke obstructing much their view, but the shattered edges of air vent were visible if one looked hard enough. Rain droplets fell through the ceiling as if it was bleeding. Suddenly, a shadow engulfed figure emerged from the smoke. Its left arm replaced with a curved blade nearly twice the normal size of the limb. A pair of two handed weapons was behind its back.

The figure stabbed the gorilla through the chest, quickly drawing his pistol and firing three shots at the crocodile. As the crocodile stumbled backwards, the lizard fired against their attacker. A barrage of bright blue lasers, struck both the figure and gorillas corpse. The figure growled in pain, throwing the body it had been using as a shield aside, and jumped towards lizard. The lizard unleashed a continuous burst of laser fire as the gap between them diminished. The creature forced the guard to the ground, before thrusting its bladed arm through his throat, bringing the guards life to an abrupt painful end.

Fox slowly stood off the corpse of his newest victim. His bladed arm returning to its normal form. Carefully, Fox brought his hand to his chest, before instantly removing in upon contact. Pain erupted from his chest at the slightest touch, his jacket and charcoal grey shirt had burn marks decorating the fabric.

The pain from the lasers burns were beyond unbearable, worse than his detainment in the facility, worse than the unethical experiments that made him what he was. Fox grit his teeth as he forced his body to ignore the pain as he moved. He looked down at the rifle that the lizard had used against him. Its design shared some features from a blaster rifle, but heavily morphed into something nearly unrecognisable.

"All security personal," Fox spun round to see the downed croc wheezing into a wrist mounted communicator. Fox reached for the carbine on his back to shoot the weak guard. "Hostile intrusion. Repeat hostile in…AHH!"

-x-x-x-

Falco readied his rifle, his breathing steady, his mind focused. He hadn't expected this assassin strike on his first shift, and the explosions had caught him by complete surprise. But then again, Pierce had been receiving death threats for a while, so the last thing they would be expecting was to encounter was Star Falco, and Star Wolf. Falco grabbed the communicator on his belt and brought it to his mouth.

"Star Falco, assemble at my coordinates."

-x-x-x-

Fox sprinted down the short corridor to the five man team taken shots at him, his own rifle in his right hand returned a wild spread of fire, his hood flapped lightly as he ran. Fox would be lucky if one shot hit one of these grunts, but then again his shooting was more of a distraction. Three of the guards began slowly step away as the vulpine closed in.

"FOR ANDROSS!" one guard yelled. Fox snapped as those words reached his ears, if they were willing to die in the name of Andross, he would gladly answer their wishes. He gave a menacing grin as he allowed pain of his lefts arms transformation wash over him.

At the distance between Fox and the guards was now roughly a meter. With a clear as possible aim of a guards head, a red-orange monkey, Fox pulled the trigger. A continuous stream of laser fire brought the monkey down, turning their head into a smouldering pile of gooey flesh. Immediately after, the guard left of Fox felt the sharp edge of his blade tear through their armour and ripping their flesh underneath. Blood flew from the wound as the guard was sent spinning into the floor.

Fox resumed fire on the other three; the guards broke apart to avoid it. But once again, Fox was able to close the distance between them almost instantly. The central guard was severed in two by Fox's blade as tore across the top of his hips. The guard wailed and cried in pain as the top half flew backwards, while his legs fell to the floor. The horrified guards were barely able to comprehend what was happening, allowing Fox to impale the guard on his right through the chest with his with his blade, imbedding it in the wall behind him. Before turning his head to fire his laser rifle at the final guard.

Fox watched as the guard fell back against the wall, he could feel the blood of the other guard trickling down his arm. The vulpine looked to see blood leaking out of his wound, staining the pristine white armour. With a swift trust, Fox ripped his sword arm from the wall and guard. Suddenly, Fox felt a burning pain in his left hand forcing him to drop his rifle. Fox looked to see the back of his hand had a large burnt patch, emitting a thin trail of smoke.

Fox looked to see roughly ten guards standing in front of pair of large doors, all were aiming their weapons at the vulpine. Fox noticed a lack of consistency amongst their equipment; four of them were wearing standard security armour, while the rest lacked any form of uniformity. A dirty brown rabbit, wearing Star-Tech security armour, stepped from the crowd

"Well, look at what we've here boys," the rabbit boldly stated, "Fox McCloud."

Fox just snarled in response.

"We're gonna be famous in Ghost Company boys," hissed the Rabbit with glee.

"I'm sure you will be," Fox responded with a wicked and insane grin, "You'll be known as worst soldiers for threatening your greatest enemy, rather than shooting him when you had the chance."

"Correction, we disarmed you, and our kit got an overhaul," the rabbit replied. Fox laughed.

"I'm guessing no-one's told you," said Fox raising his hands as changed into their claw form, silently boasting his abilities, "I'm a walking arsenal."

-x-x-x-

Peppy sat in his office, watching the security recording from Kew. The orange blur at the end, tearing apart its victims in the most brutal of ways terrified him. Worse, it matched the description of what had been witnessed on the destroyed warship, and the wrecked escape pod that had been found, caused him even more worry. Fierce banging on his office door startled him, derailing his train of thought.

"Enter."

Colonel Silvers entered, slightly out of breath, saluting towards his superior, Peppy returned the gesture. The old hare was clearly expecting more bad news, because it seemed it was all Silvers had for him.

"General, explosions have been reported from the Star-Tech Industries Head-Quarters, and there have been reports of gunfire and casualties. Terrorist attack I fear." Said the Colonel, slightly panting.

Peppy instantly stood up from his desk. "Have whatever security forces in that area surround the building and secure the area! Assemble support forces and have them deployed, nothing leaves that facility! I will be overseeing this myself!"

Silvers opened his mouth to object. "Don't waste your breath, Colonel. I will not let this go to someone else until I am satisfied with the situation."

-x-x-x-

Pierce nervously paced up and down his office, McCloud had arrived. It was lucky he had both Star Falco and Star Wolf under the same roof, ready to be struck down, but he had been caught unaware, believing he had more time when none existed.

The door of his office hissed open to allow five security guards in. Pierce could clearly see they were anxious about something. A bright red fox, Pierce assumed to be the team leader, stepped forward.

"Sir, we've lost contact with the teams securing the laboratories," the vulpines voice trembled slightly.

"What was in the labs?" Pierce dared to ask, most of the laboratories in the building didn't officially exist. The few that did were for top secret 'experimental developments' for Corneria.

"Weapons Development, Sir, from 'those' labs," the vulpine replied. Pierce's heart froze with fear, if contact with the teams guarding some experimental weapons for Ghost Company had been lost, then it probably meant that McCloud had got to them, and worse, the weapons they had been developing had fallen into their enemies hands.

"Sir, we need to get you out of here."

"Hold on, McCloud wouldn't know what he has come across, try to contain him. I'll leave once he's secure, and if not, then we can use 'them' to buy us sometime."

-x-x-x-

Star Falco were ascending a stairwell, trying to intercept the hostile. Whoever this hostile was, they were moving through the building at an alarming rate, all security teams that reported encountering the hostile lost contact. Falco was almost certain they were here for Pierce, but their actions lead him to think otherwise. Instead of sneaking, they had blown several holes into the building, openly attacked security and were moving around seemingly without any thought of where they going, as if they were only here to cause chaos.

Falco's train of thought came to an abrupt end; Katt was shaking him lightly, while pointing down a corridor. Falco stared wide eyed at the scene before his eyes, illuminated by the flashing red warning lights. The severed remains of five bodies littered the passage, large puddles of crimson blood surrounding them. The walls bore the marks of laser burns, all of it painted a very familiar scene for the whole team, one they had hoped never to see again.

"It can't be," Miyu whispered, "It can't be."

Jaws seemed to be the least phased by the sight. Slowly he walked towards the nearest corpse of a pale grey warthog, whose right arm had been cut off half way between his shoulder and elbow. The Great White grabbed the hogs severed arm and examined the cut.

"Relatively clean cut along the flesh and through the bone," muttered the sea creature as he dabbed to fingers against the blood oozing from the arm, before bringing them to his nose to sniff the substance, "Fresh, yet a foul scent. Unnatural for such a fresh kill."

"You know we have encountered these kills before, or did you forget the warship," spat Katt in annoyance.

"Exactly my point, feline," Jaws replied in his cold stoic voice. Before he could explain, the corridor was filled with a voice on the speakers.

"Attention! Lockdown Procedures have begun in Research and Development! All security personal are to secure the area."

-x-x-x-

Krystal and Panther were following a security team to reach Research and Development. The guards had been rather short and blunt in their explanation for why a lockdown had been called. Apparently, the hostiles had navigated their through the building, from the top to Research and Development, at the back of the facility. How they had managed it, the guards didn't know, or more likely, didn't want to share.

Krystal had become even more suspicious of the guards; she could sense they were hiding something, something important. However, all of her efforts to probe their minds had been futile, like it had always been, even in a stressful situation such as this.

The sound of laser fire and shouting through wailing sirens caught Krystal nearly unprepared. The guards in front broke into a sprint, with them following close behind. The group arrived at the one of the lockdown gates, to see security shooting down a passage to the right, where Krystal assumed, was the hostiles. Krystal watched as a guard was hit in the chest by a bright red laser spark, orange sparks flew away as a small explosion erupted from the guard as he flew back into the ground.

The deafening shriek of metal rubbing against metal, and the loud hiss of hydraulics, prevented Krystal from comprehending her surroundings. Once it silenced, Krystal scanned her location. She was no longer in another of those corridors; instead it appeared to be some type of administrative block. Solid metal walls that came up to above her eyes, divided the room into roughly two dozen cubicles.

Opposite the cubicles, was large bright grey metal door, pristine yellow and black hazard markings could be easily identified around the edges and what appeared to be some form of locking mechanism in the centre. Krystal stared at the door in disbelief; it looked like something that was used on star ships to protect the crew in case of a breach in the hull.

A pair of guards were carrying the away the guard, a raccoon, that she had seen get shot. A small hole in his armour right upon his chest, glowing bright orange as if the armour had melted, if it wasn't for the wounds entry glowing, Krystal was almost certain she would be able to see through the guard.

"Don't worry, Miss Krystal," oozed a slimy voice, "Panther will protect from these assassins."

The blue vixen rolled her eyes in annoyance at Panther's flirting and stupidity.

"How can you be so ignorant?" she responded with a low growl. Panther raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Look around, doesn't anything seem off to you?" muttering in a quiet tone.

"Explain by off?" Krystal was tempted to lash out at the feline for his stupidity.

"Guards and mercenaries armed with equipment that would put the Cornerian Military to shame, a security door that looks like it is from a warship, over the top security for a CEO, and hostiles that are tearing this place apart," Krystal hissed in a quiet yet spiteful voice, "Is that what you could can consider normal?"

Panther just rolled his eyes, at her and walked down the passage between the cubicles. "You're hot when you think. But don't worry, if you think something's wrong, Panther will protect you."

Krystal tensed up at the repulsing idea, the sooner this job was done, the better. Ignoring the guards who were scurrying about, she searched for the guard that got shot. She found the corpse lying on a desk in a cubical on her right, halfway across the room. Brown lifeless eyes staring back at her. The vixen approached the corpse, before gently closing the raccoon's eyes. Her gaze flew towards the chest wound, the deformed metal ring surrounded the where the shot had entered.

BOOM

Krystal jumped away from the body and fell to the floor, her mind trying to comprehend what had happened. The vixen picked up her laser carbine that had landed beside her and scrambled to feet. She looked towards the security hatch. The orange glow of fire could be seen from where part of the locking mechanism had been, now replaced with partially exposed interior workings. The edge of the door and part of the wall had been deformed. Krystal could have sworn that some of the locks that the hatch used to secure itself to the wall had dislodged or broken completely. Wisps of black smoke poured from the exposed mechanics.

Security guards shouted back and forth in a panic. "WHAT THE…?"

"WHAT THE FUCK WAS IN THERE, WARSHIP MUNITIONS?"

"DEFENSIVE POSIST…"

BOOM

Another explosion wrecked the already damage security door, ripping it from its position. Krystal's ears were ringing from the explosion, the vixen nearly jumped as a hand grabbed her shoulder. The vixens stomach immediately became queasy when she realised it belonged to Panther. The passage way behind it was consumed with flames, thick smoke started to fill the room. Guards quickly attempted to secure the entrance. Panther charged forward, as Krystal deactivated the safety on her weapon, following to join the fray.

Then, she saw It. A shadow emerging from the flames. The guards didn't hesitate when they saw it, they just fired. Their shots did it no harm, and if they did, it had no effect, because the shadow leaped through the flames, impaling one of the guards through the chest with a sword for its left arm. Its right hand held what appeared to be an oversized pistol; Krystal guessed that it was meant to be to be a sort of two-handed assault rifle. Yet this thing was wielding it single handily.

The terrified Vixen froze with fear as she watched the shadow used the guard impaled on its arm as a shield. Lasers and bullet fire struck the corpse, while the shadow aimed its firearm at the guards. The barrel of the weapon flashed, as Krystal glimpsed the shot as it left a faint trail of distorted air before making contact with a guard. The armour shattered, a small explosion from the shot as it made contact with its target, then shooting through the body to strike another guard behind it.

With a strong swing of its sword arm, the corpse impaled on the blade slid off and landed right in front of Krystal, dead eyes staring up at her. The monster took swing at another guard, its head cut cleanly off, while firing its pistol wielded rifle in a fury.

The voice inside Krystal's mind told her to shoot; this thing was killing these people and would most definitely kill her the moment it saw her, but she couldn't. Instead she ducked inside the cubical on her right, standing above cover to fire a volley of shots at the creature. She could see Panther slowly backing away from the creature, while firing at it in an attempt to do damage. Again Krystal's mind told her to fire on her target, and this time, she complied. Her view of the hostile focused, it was easier notice some detail. Its face was shield by a hood, rendering it nearly impossible to see in the dark, with the exception for what appeared to be bright red eyes.

Whether it was by luck or by skill, she assumed the former; the seem to be assassin dropped its firearm, losing it amongst the chaos. What little joy this would have brought the vixen vanished upon witnessing the creature's next action. She could see the figures right hand swell, its fingers becoming longer until they looked like knives. She watched in horror as the monster jumped and swung its deformed hand across a guard's abdominal, his armour shredded and blood poured through the remains.

Realisation hit Krystal hard upon noticing that most of the guards had been slaughtered, and yet they still continued to fight with such devotion, it could be considered fanatical. However, no matter how hard they fought, this thing struck them down as if they were nothing, until only Krystal and Panther remained.

Panther backed further away, it pushed forward until it was in-between her and Panther, and swung the back of its right hand into the feline. Panther flew over the top of the cubicles, screaming and limbs failing about, before coming into contact with the wall. Krystal attempted to run, but a sudden bump forced her to the ground. Krystal stared up at the creature, its terrifying red eyes glaring down at her from underneath its hood. It raised its sword arm to its chest. The frightened vixen shut her eyes tight, her time had come, and she prayed it would be swift.

Nothing happened.

Cautiously, the vixen opened her eyes to look up at the creature. It continued to stand over her, gasping. Slowly, it lowered its sword arm, Krystal flinched slightly, until it rest by its side. It stumbled backwards until it was against the cubical wall.

Fox stared in horror at what was before him. She was here. She was lying on the floor in front of him, and he had nearly killed her. He could taste bile in his mouth.

The Cerinian vixen refused to take her eyes away from the creature that stood opposite her. It could and should have killed her, but there it was, keeping its distance. Carefully, Krystal attempted to probe its mind. Krystal nearly winced upon connecting with the creatures mind; she felt a sudden rush of emotions that made her head feel like it was about to implode. The strongest of these emotions were anger, hatred and…fear, this thing was afraid of something. She attempted to probe further, but immediately pain erupted throughout her body, as if she was dying and being reborn constantly. Quickly she cut her telepathic connection, what was this thing?

Fox remained frozen in place; 'Why was she here? Why was she here? Why was she here?" But the answer was obvious. It was a threat, to tell him what they were possible of, he had attempted to keep her out of this, but they had brought her in without her knowing. The vulpine debated his options, he could flee forget about everything, but that would leave her in Ghost Company's clutches and allow one of his torturers to escape. Or he could reveal himself…NO! That was not an option, he nearly killed her and how could he explain what happened. She had good memories of him, not perfect, but good, he wasn't going to spoil them for her.

"HOSTILE DETECTED! OPEN FIRE!" yelled a voice. Two dozen guards swarmed the room from all sides, a mix of security and mercenaries. Krystal crawled into the boundaries of the cubicle as lasers and bullets bombarded the creature that had spared her.

Fox charged through the thick firepower back to towards the smaller force of guards by the destroyed hatch. Krystal watched as the large group slowly followed at the rampaging terror, constantly firing in an attempt to push it back.

Krystal's mind was crying out for her to leave and find Katt, or Falco, somebody. Never in her life had she been so scared. The security guards ignored her presence, pushing past her and attempting to drive the creature back. Several bright flashes nearly blinded the vixen; she could hear the creature roar in pain. Tears were building in her eyes, the vixen was reaching her emotionally limit. She needed to get away; she quickly reclaimed her weapon and began to leave. She stopped when she saw Panther crawl out of the cubicles.

As much as the vixen wanted to abandon him, she would never be able to live with the guilt. She helped raise the Feline to his feet and the pair limped away from the slaughter that raged on behind them.

-x-x-x-

Pierce waited anxiously in his office, he had heard that the lockdown had been completed and Fox was caught; now all he needed was confirmation whether it had been successful or not. His guards showed signs of agitation, clearly unnerved by the idea putting everything on luck. Cornerian security forces had surrounded the building, but Pierce had advised them to avoid charging in and risk friendly fire.

The red fox's commutator beeped. Everyone held their breath. The vulpine activated the device.

"Report."

"Containment of Hostile has failed! Currently, attempting to hold…" the line broke into static. The guards turned to stare at Pierce, a blank look across his face.

"Contact all units who are not engaged with McCloud to evacuate the building." The arms-dealing CEO ordered.

"Sir, what about Star-Wolf and Star-Falco?"

"We cannot afford to trick Fox into killing them off if it cost us everything we have! He's our biggest problem, not them."

Pierce returned to his desk, opened the top draw on the left and pulling out a small rectangular plastic card and a small pistol. With his needed items in hand, the feline stormed out of his office, his bodyguard following like a shadow. They travelled at a brisk pace through the winding corridors and down a stairwell to ground level, but instead of heading towards the lobby. Pierce headed deeper into the building that had become a death trap for his soldiers. But, there he still had one last trick up his sleeve.

-x-x-x-

Fox stood amongst the remains of destroyed cubicles and dead bodies. He cast his eyes over every body. There was no sign of Krystal. He thought back to her, the look of fear in her eyes as he was on the verge of killing her. It was enough to make his stomach churn.

The sound of footsteps caused Fox's ears to twitch. He snarled and readied his claws. Three robots appeared opposite him, the plates that made up their body were dark grey, their optics glowed bright green, and each one carried a weapon.

Fox charged towards them and took a swing at the closest one with his right claw. However, the robot side stepped the vulpine and fired a shot into his back. Fox yelled as pain screamed across his nervous system. Another robot shot him in the gut, Fox yelled again as he stumbled backwards.

The robots backed away slightly in positions that gave them a clear shot away from Fox's reach. Though slightly disorientated, Fox lunged towards the nearest robot and pushed it into the wall. However, the robot punched Fox in the right side of his face. The vulpine once again stumbled away from the robot, before letting out a roar and making wild swing at the robot. His claws tore across its waist. His attention switched to the other two robots.

Again, Fox lunged for the nearest robot, his mind anticipating it to dodge his attack. He forced the firearm away and was about to strike the robots head. Suddenly, Fox gasped as he felt something pierce his side. He backed away to see a six inch blade jutting out of the robots left wrist, dripping with blood. Fox placed his hand on his side. Immediately, his fingers became sticky with fresh blood. Fox growled as his left arm formed his sword. He jumped forward, and swung his blade at the robots left arm.

He sliced through its elbow, and stabbed the robot through its chest. The last robot grabbed the back Fox's head and left shoulder and slammed him face first in to the wall behind it. Fox forced all of his strength against the robot and knocked it back. Brought out his hook and swung it underneath and pulled off its head. He watched as the head and body fell, sparking and crackling. But there was a whir as the second robot rose feet, with sparks spewing and crackling from its missing arm and stab damage. Fox growled as he approached it, bringing out its claws. Before the robot could aim, Fox grabbed its head and crushed it between his hands. Shards scattered everywhere while he could hear the sound of metal and circuitry being crushed.

Fox let the robots remains drop, clutching his side. His wound healing as he panted. It had been a long night and he was feeling the strain.

"ALL UNITS!" Fox's ears twitched and he looked down. The remains of severed arm lay at his feet, a communicator attached to its wrist. "Evacuation of Mr Pierce is in progress! Report to main entrance to secure escape! Be advised Hostile is still at large!"

Fox processed the information. Pierce was now on the run. All his guards would be there to ensure he got away, Krystal would be there. Fox felt trapped, he risked exposing himself to Krystal, and possibly, Lylat itself. Now, he had a choice to make.

-x-x-x-

Krystal watched as what remained of security escorted Pierce out of the office and into the hands of the Cornerian Defence Force. All that was left of his security team was her, Star Falco, Star Wolf, and roughly about thirty guards remained. Panther had been returned to his team, and was now waiting on medical assistance to reach him. Cornerian Soldiers had closed off both sides of the street, and where awaiting orders to deal with the hostile.

"CONTACT!" screamed a voice from the building's entrance.

BANG

The sound of the grenade would have definitely brought all attention towards the office entrance. Within the now dimly lit remains of the lobby, everyone watched as the silhouette of the hostile that had terrorised everyone through the night struck down the four guards in the lobby. Within a minute, all guards had fallen, at the hostile was now casually walking towards them, with a rifle in hand.

Everyone aimed towards the hostile. This was possibly their last stand, even with the Cornerian Defence Force against them, the hostile would not be intimidated. Half a dozen spotlights illuminated the entrance, exposing the target.

Krystal aimed, all of her focus on the target. She could clearly see...She gasped. She blinked. She could not believe her eyes.

"Fox..." she said and lowered her weapon. She must be seeing things.

"DROP YOUR...My God!" One of the soldiers was shouting into a megaphone, and forgot when Fox McCloud stood before him.

Krystal glanced around, one-by-one, the soldiers lowered their weapons, Star Falco lowered their weapons, and even Star Wolf lowered theirs. The look on their faces confirmed it, Krystal was not seeing things. The only people who continued to target Fox, were the Star-Tech security and the other mercenaries.

Fox stared at the crowd before him. Ghost Company had left him a choice, let one of them go, or expose himself. But the choice had been a double edge blade. If he exposed himself, he would expose Ghost Company, something they clearly didn't want. Ghost Company thought they could intimidate him, and Fox was going to prove them wrong.

I'm sorry this took so FUCKING long. I had a lot of problems and this thing seems to be cursed. It took me THREE tries to write this chapter, because something ALWAYS went wrong and I'm back at square one.

Anyway, this was not worth your wait. I'm sorry.