CHAPTER NINE

Domestic Violence

Later that night…

McClouds' House

"Further evidence of a potential terrorist threat was present when Team Star Fox was suddenly deployed to Lylat and returned with their weapons specialist Dengar suffering from third-degree burns covering his body." said the newscaster on Marcus' computer screen. "This incident comes only two days after the disastrous F-Zero race after which a being known as Kursed proclaimed potential war against the Lylat System. General Peppy Hare had this to say."

The screen switched over to an image of Peppy Hare, one of the McCloud family's closest friends.

"I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of Kursed, but I can assure all Cornerian citizens that our defenses will be placed higher than ever. If this Kursed person does exist, we'll get them."

He was of course lying. Peppy was one of those people who could lie to you about something and you wouldn't realize it unless he told you himself, and that could be years after it happened. That said, he didn't appreciate doing it, though he had no choice this time. Had anybody found out who Kursed really was, there was no telling how big of a riot would break out.

The screen switched back to the newscaster.

"The assurance of greater defenses has left many citizens wondering if the military is hiding something from them, though any who were…"

"Fuck."

That was all that Marcus had the strength or patience to say as he pressed the power button on his computer and turned it off before slamming his head down on his desk. Needless to say, he'd had a very rough day. The hospital had just called him to tell him that Peter was going to be fine, but he had suffered terrible skin damage that was going to take a while to recover. Thankfully, he was at least in a perfect mental state. In fact, the first thing he asked upon waking up was if the rest of the team was alright. That alone would normally be enough to brighten up Marcus' mood, but that wasn't all that disturbed him.

Granted, he was relieved at that much. What was really eating away at him, however, was what Coyote had done to that Aparoid. She did sometimes get sadistic with her kills, but she never tried to outright mutilate anyone before. She hadn't even tried to do that to him when they were enemies back in the day. And what in the world was with that demonic roar?! Even some of the monsters the team had to face in the past didn't make noises as intimidating as that!

"What is Kursed doing to her? Coyote never did anything to her, so why…"

He didn't have to ask why. He knew it was just to get to him. It was just to make him angrier and angrier to the point of doing something reckless that would wind up with him giving her exactly what she wanted. She didn't care who had to die…why would she? She was a heartless monster.

"Dammit. I can't let this keep happening, but what am I supposed to do? I can't face her head-on, especially when she won't just show up and settle the score once and for all!"

Marcus sensed the presence of someone in his room before they came up to him. At first, he was nervous that it may have been She-Who-Will-Not-Be-Named, but the warm hand on his shoulder suggested otherwise.

"I heard about Peter, sport." Fox said. "Is he going to be alright?"

"Yeah…but it's my fault he got hurt. It's always my fault when people get hurt now."

Marcus looked up and sighed.

"She did something to Coyote, Dad…Kursed was able to hurt Coyote, and it's my fault that it even happened. Kursed wants to kill everyone on this planet, and seeing how she was able to give Peter Dengar, who is one of the toughest guys I've ever met…yeah, if she was able to turn that guy delirious, I don't see how anybody can stop her."

"You don't see it, but do you feel it?"

"What?"

"Marcus, remember when you took down Andross? You did the most insane thing I've ever seen anybody do, and nobody saw any possible way to kill him, but you still did it. You know why? Because you knew in your heart that he wasn't immortal and that you could defeat him. You just needed to try your very best."

"What's your point?"

"It's the same with Kursed. She may seem immortal and be everywhere at once like a parasite, but that doesn't mean she's unbeatable."

"But weren't you and Mom the ones who said that she wasn't someone to screw around with?"

"Yes, but you're much braver than we've ever been. Blowing your ship up in Andross' mouth and taking a leap of faith down to the ground? I never would have done that even if my life depended on it."

Marcus made another attempt at protesting his father's words of wisdom, but he was cut off.

"You're a fighter, Marcus. You can do it. You just need to have faith in yourself."

Marcus sighed once more before smiling. He was beginning to sound more like Krystal every day. Maybe that was one of the benefits of marriage: you slowly gained the positive traits of your spouse through assimilation.

"Seems like I'm getting words of wisdom from everybody these days. Thanks, Dad."

Fox gave Marcus a light hug.

"You should hit the hay now, alright? You'll feel much better after a good night's sleep."

"Yeah…hey, where's Mom?"

"Oh, she went a few hours ago to go see Lucy and Amanda. She'll be back any minute."

"Okay. Good night, Dad."

Fox left the room as Marcus got in the bed and shut the door. He let out a long exhale.

"That kid's under way more pressure than he deserves…maybe he should think about retiring."

He smirked.

"Nah. Just because I was a coward when it came to this doesn't mean he has to be. He'll be fine. He's a big boy now…heh. Come to think of it, Mark's growing up way too damn fast."

He turned off the light as he came into his bedroom and threw himself down on the bed, getting under the blanket and looking out the window.

"To think that he's getting to the age when he'll be having kids."

He nestled himself into the bed and slowly closed his eyes, but his ear twitched when he heard the door slowly open. He didn't turn around, but the moment he felt whoever came into the room lie down on the bed and drape their arms around his torso, he smiled. The hands gently squeezed at him more and more and caressed themselves all over his body, followed up by a light kiss on his cheek.

"Someone's a little frisky tonight, eh?" Fox said before turning over and looking Krystal right in the face.

He didn't find it odd that Krystal had her eyes closed, but upon him gently touching her face, she opened them and shocked him into drawing back. Her eyes were glowing bright red.

"Guess who."

Fox stared at her with wide eyes. Kursed simply chuckled seductively.

"What's wrong? Just relax and we can have one hell of a fun night."

"…where's Krystal?"

"In here with us."

"What did you do to her?"

"She's sleeping. I needed to borrow her body for a little while."

"Let me guess: you want to do to me what you did to little Coyote."

"Something like that. So let's get started."

Before Fox had the time to get out of bed, the possessed Krystal rolled on top of him and pinned him down, draping her tongue across his cheek. If it hadn't have been for the fact that Krystal wasn't the aggressive lover type of person, he wouldn't have minded this. Minding it, however, did him no good as he thrashed about to try and get loose.

"You're not gonna get away with any of this." Fox growled. "Someone's gonna…"

Her tail slinked up and covered his mouth.

"Hush." she cooed. "Don't worry about that. We're still husband and wife, after all. Why does my job have to matter?"

"Fmmk ymm!" Fox shouted, his obscenities muffled by the bottlebrush tail.

"I'll be glad to let you do that."

Fox furrowed his brow, particularly when Kursed moaned and her clothes started to unravel themselves.

"Let's not keep each other waiting any longer, shall we?"

Fox had had enough. He shot his head forward and smashed it against hers. When she pulled back, he got his chance. He pressed his foot against her stomach and kicked her away as hard as he could before he got up out of the bed with his fists raised. Kursed laughed as she recovered from the blow and stood up.

"You like playing rough, huh? I've got plenty of room for that."

"I'm sure you do. Let's go."

"Oh, but Fox, sweetheart. You married Krystal, and I'm part of her. Doesn't that mean we're married, too?"

"If that's the case, then consider this your divorce."

Fox was the first to attack by charging forward with a heavy punch. Kursed simply grabbed it and slammed his stomach with her knee. He had to force himself not to throw up before grabbing her by the head and vaulting him over her shoulder. This proved ineffective as she landed up right behind him and kicked him square in the back.

"Keep hittin' me. I love it."

"Of course you do."

His next punch was avoided and he found himself pressed flat against the wall. He pushed back and started throwing a barrage of punches, all of them avoided or blocked and the last countered with a punch to the muzzle. Once he recovered, Kursed pounced on Fox and pinned him to the ground again.

"That was real sweet the way you told Marcus that I wasn't unbeatable."

"You're not…are you?"
"Why ruin the surprise?"

The belt that had been holding up Krystal's pants snaked its way into Kursed's hands and she proceeded to press it down on Fox's throat.

"Why fight it? I just wanna make you feel good."

Fox had to choke out his next words.

"In all honesty, BDSM is probably one of those thing that I'd be into when I become a senile old man who can't tell left from right."

"Sounds good to me."

"Not to me."

"Just a way to please my dear sweet husband."

"Please this!"

He rolled over and slammed her into the floor, followed by him flipping back to his feet. The moment he did, Kursed brought her legs up and clamped her ankles on his neck, pulling herself up onto his torso. She licked her lips and started deep into his eyes.

"Come on…aren't I at least a little pretty?"

"You may have been back when you were dormant inside Krystal, but certainly not now."

Fox slammed her against the wall and pulled back, lowering himself into a fighting stance to get ready for her next attack. Instead, she just stood there. Much to his surprise, the seductive look was gone from her face. Now she seemed to be harbouring a look of intense anger.

"Oh, so that's it, huh? You think I ENJOYED being locked up inside of her? You think I ENJOYED her getting all the praise and me being shoved off to the side?"

"You think I ENJOY you starting a rant when I was pretty sure that we were fighting just now?"

Kursed scoffed.

"You're awfully cute, Fox. I can see why Krystal would want to marry you. What I don't see is how she can live with the fact that she tossed me aside in favour of you."

"Jealousy. Great. It's real fun to listen to."
"It doesn't matter anyway. Let me make one thing clear, though: Marcus may be braver than you, and I don't deny that, but you just lied to him in there."

"How so?"

"You told him he had the power to protect his friends from me. That is nothing but a lie. I had a lot of fun with Coyote last night, and she's too good of a toy to just throw away after one little playdate. Once I'm done with her, though, I'll be sure to play with Marcus.

"If you lay one finger on him…"

"You'll do what? Call for Krystal to subdue me? She is nothing. A piece of shit means more to me than her. If you'd like, though, I could make sure that she stays dormant in this body forever."

"ENOUGH!"

Fox aimed another heavy punch at her. She simply blocked it and followed it up with a palm strike to his forehead. From there on it was attack, block, counter, attack, block, counter. Occasionally one of them would perform a sweep kick or try to vault the other of their shoulders. After what felt like quite a long time to the one who was actually breaking a sweat, the entire room looked as though a tornado had run through it. Banging against the walls constantly was no help as it had eventually woken Marcus up.

"Jesus Christ, that better not be what I think it is." he said in a concerned tone.

Fox made a somewhat futile attempt at a roundhouse kick to Kursed's head. She grabbed his leg by the ankle with barely any effort.

"You people never learn."

Fox never thought that anybody could possibly have it in them, but he found himself being spun around by the ankle he was tossed across the room. A loud smash signalled that he had broken through the bedroom window, and this was only further emphasized when he went skidding across the driveway and horribly scraped the side he had landed on. Everything in his body hurt from his bones to his organs, and all this had been done with nearly no effort from his opponent.

"I knew I had to be a little rusty, but this is just too much…I'm beginning to think I shouldn't have retired."

Kursed still wasn't finished with him. She landed directly in front of him as he began to weakly pull himself up off the ground.

"You and Krystal were right to say I'm not to be trifled with. I'll slit every throat on this fucking planet if I have to."

"Yeah? Well, I ain't half-bad at putting bullets in peoples' heads, but you don't see me getting all full of angst about it."

"Wonderful, clown made a funny. You can't stop me, Fox. No one can. Not with the kind of power I have now."

"What's power if you're a whack-job that can't even use it properly?"

"That's enough. Time for you to sleep."

She proceeded to move forward only to have Fox pull a pistol out from under the hem of his shirt and aim it right between her eyes.

"You think I was unprepared for you showing up? I'm not as dumb as you think I am."

Kursed stood there for a brief moment before the seductive smile crept across her face again. Just seeing it made Fox sick enough to want to punch it right off.

"Go ahead, then, if you're man enough to kill a woman. Why don't we see just who the stronger one is by having one blast the other in the face?"

To say the least, she wasn't expecting to see him cock it back and aim true, but he did it, and never once did he change his angry and determined expression.

"I haven't killed anybody in almost twenty years…and I never thought for a moment the first person I'd kill in that time would be you."

Without a second of wasted time, he pulled the trigger, but not before he heard the front door be kicked open.

"DAD, NO!"

The bullet stopped in mid-air and was reduced to a pile of ash as Marcus intervened. Fox stood absolutely dumbstruck that the person Kursed had been hunting in the first place had just single-handedly defended her when he was about to end it once and for all.

"Why did you do that?!" Fox sputtered. "I could have killed her right here and now!"

"It may be Kursed's soul, but it's Mom's body. The only person you'd be killing is Mom."

Kursed smiled.

"Aww, how sweet of you, Marky. Finally jumping to Mommy's side when she needs you the most."

Marcus turned to her and pointed at her with a threatening finger.

"This doesn't change anything, bitch. I will never forgive you for what you've done to Peter and Coyote. One of these days you and I are gonna square off once and for all, and when that day comes, I'm gonna be ready. Now get out of my mother's body. Now!"

"Hm. You're gonna be ready, eh? Here's a little newsflash for you, sweetie."

Kursed sneakily narrowed her eyes and leaned closer to him.

"I'm counting on it." she whispered.

Her words alone made Marcus shudder, and the way she had said them only made it more uncomfortable. He still stood his ground, wanting to lash out at her but knowing he'd just injure Krystal by doing so.

The body she inhabited suddenly began wracking itself before it let out Krystal's familiar cry of pain. She teetered forward, forcing Marcus and Fox to rush forward and catch her. She felt at her head and shook it, seeming as though she were waking up from a bad dream.

Then again, if Kursed was involved, it wasn't just a dream. It was a nightmare.

"What in Grimm's name just happened…do I have a black eye…Oh my God! Fox, what happened to you?!"

It took Marcus and Fox a moment to explain it to her, and when she fully understood, her brow was furrowed as well.

"How could I let her get back into me even for a moment?" she seethed.

"Whatever the case, we need to ready for anything and everything…" Marcus sighed.

They were all silent for a moment before angrily uttering out the same word simultaneously.

"Fuck."

Didn't expect a new chapter this early, did ya? Let's just say I really wanted to work on this story, and since that chapter wasn't that long anyway, I figured "Ah, what the hell." Not only that, but we're getting into the juicy stuff now.

I don't think there's going to be another chapter release this month since it's really close to exam time where I live. Yeah, school's a pretty nasty annoyance, but if it leads to a greater cause at the end, then I'm all for it. With that said, later days!

SOUNDTRACK SO FAR

Krystal's nightmare- "Parabola" by Mer (Originally by Tool)

Marcus versus Coyote (friendly)- "Name of the Game" by the Crystal Method

F-Zero race- "F-Zero Medley" by Entertainment System

Space pirate attack- Space pirate theme from Metroid Prime

Ridley- Ridley's theme from Metroid: Other M

Falcon takes down Ridley- "The Meaning of truth" by Hiro-X

The date- Ilia's theme from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Coyote versus the shadows- "The Beautiful People" by Marilyn Manson

The star Lylat- Magmoor Caverns theme from Metroid Prime

Marcus and Fox- "Simple Man" by Lynyrd Skynyrd

Fox versus Kursed- "Du Hast" by Rammstein