Authors note: Hello guy's , just wanted to tell everyone a late Merry Christmas and an early Happy New Years! I was planning on posting this chapter up yesterday, but my laptop ran out of battery and I had accidentally left it's charger over at my friends house, anyways, I hope you all can enjoy this new chapter to my story titled, Chapter 10: Standoff

"R.O.B, we're starting to head back over to you, do you copy?" Fox spoke over his radio, as he placed his Arwing in the correct position with the other three members, creating a diamond formation.

"Roger that sir, would you like me to inform General Pepper of your current status?" R.O.B responded.

"Not yet R.O.B, we found what appears to be an AI Pilot in the wreckage, I want to see if we can gather some Intel from it before we contact the General." Fox answered.

"Okay sir, I'll open the Loading Bay for you arrival." R.O.B spoke before going off to complete his new task.

"Thanks R.O.B."

Fox took his headset off; the ear piece was beginning to hurt his ears, and placed it off to the side. Letting out a tired sigh, Fox placed his Arwing into auto-pilot and took the chance to stretch his body out. He felt his muscles stretch, along with some bones near his shoulder and back cracking, as he extended out his arms over his head and let out a yawn. It wasn't much longer now; Fox could see the Great Fox's burners off in the distance. Soon the team would be able to dock inside the mother ship, finish this mission, and finally get to go on vacation. He went to reach over for his ear piece to give the order to prepare for landing, but he suddenly froze, a sharp white blade was placed in front of his neck, threatening to slice him.

"Who are y-you, and where a-am I?" a gruff voice spoke suddenly, breaking the silence within Fox's Arwing.

Fox didn't respond. He took a small gulp of air as he turned his head, following the blade to the white metallic hand that was holding it, all while thinking about what to do next.

'Krystal, can you hear me? Please tell me you can hear me.' Fox began saying in his mind.

'Yeah, what's wrong?' He heard Krystal's voice in his mind.

'I don't think that the metal object is a robot, Krys.' Fox replied.

'What makes you say that, and why aren't you using your communicator?' Krystal asked

'I'm being held up at knife point by the object we recovered at the wreck.' Fox responded

'What do you want us to do?' Krystal asked.

'When we dock, surround my Arwing and keep your blasters aimed. I'll try to talking first, if things go south, then open fire.' Fox responded.

'Okay.' Krystal replied before ending their communication, leaving Fox alone with the being still holding a combat knife up to his neck.

"Okay buddy, just relax. We don't want to do anything stupid." Fox said, trying his hardest not to sound hostile.

"You're right, so don't be stupid and answer my question. Who are you and where am I?" the being asked again, its tone of voice sounded stronger than when it first spoke.

"My name's Fox McCloud, I'm a mercenary for the Cornerian Army. We're currently heading back over to my mother ship." Fox replied slowly so that the being would understand everything.

The being stayed silent for a minute, the only noise coming from it was the sound of heavy breathing. Fox clenched his jaw; the silence in his Arwing was beginning to get dangerously uncomfortable. Fox began contemplating the thought of trying to take the knife away from the being, he was certain that he could overtake the being but he didn't want to underestimate its strength and risk getting killed.

"You seem hurt; I have a medical center back over at my ship where we can get you checked out for any injuries. I mean, that was one hell of a wreck you just survived, surely you must have sustained some moderate to severe injuries..." Fox spoke, breaking the silence.

"I'm fine; I don't need any of your medical attention." The being interrupted quickly, an obvious lie.

"Okay, then I can help you in some other way. Just do me one favor, get your knife away from my throat, I really would hate for someone to get hurt." Fox continued, he could see the Great Fox getting closer and closer, its loading bay was all set to receive the incoming Arwings

"How do I know I can trust you? How do I know it wasn't you or your team that shot me down in the first place?" The being asked, its grip on the knife tightened.

"I didn't shoot you down, I was sent over to your vessel to go investigate what happened, I swear." Fox responded.

There was another moment of silence inside Fox's Arwing. The being seemed to loosen its grip on the knife, before finally pulling its hand away from Fox's throat. Fox let out a silent sigh of relief, as he went for his ear piece

"Is that your mother ship?" The being asked, completely ignoring Fox's reply.

"Yeah, her name is the Great Fox. She serves as my teams HQ when we're out completing contracts." Fox responded, as he took his Arwing off of auto pilot and grabbed the crafts manual flight controls.

"You might want to sit back and grab a hold of something; we're going to have a slightly rough landing." Fox added, as the Arwing prepared to land and dock within the massive grey mother ship.

Alex let his grip on the side of the seat go as the spacecraft he was riding in finally went to a complete stop; his hand print had embedded itself on the arm rest from gripping it tightly to prevent him from hitting anything and agitating any of his injured areas. He let out a small concealed sigh as he placed his right arm across his midsection and tried to sooth himself of the burning pain in his abdominals.

Meanwhile, he could hear the pilot sitting in front of him beginning to unbuckle his restraints and prepare to exit the space craft, speaking in a low volume to himself as he opened the airtight hatch that was located above them. Alex quickly turned his attention from his wounds as he saw the pilot exit the craft and disappear from his sight.

Alex cautiously began his turn of climbing out of the rather compact craft despite the fact that his body was absolutely in pain. It took him about a good three minutes for him to maneuver his injured self about in the cockpit of the spacecraft before Alex was finally able to climb out of it and touch the ground of the large metallic floor of the Great Fox, although he landed a bit awkwardly due to his condition. Alex tried his best not to let out any sign of pain escape his mouth as he slowly forced his body to stand up straight and look around the docking bay. Once he was standing up straight, Alex found himself looking at a sight he could not believe.

"What in god's name…" Alex spoke in confusion as he found himself standing in front of human like animals.

Alex only stood in his place, staring down the four beings that stood in front of him, three of them holding pistol like weapons aimed straight at him. He took note of their appearance, starting with the one to his far left, which was a small green tree frog, then tall blue avian with its sharp yellow beak, the orange and white vulpine standing next to him had no weapon out in sight and finally ending with the blue and white fox next to the orange one. For a moment, no one said absolutely anything, Alex only stood in place, and the atmosphere within the docking bay of the Great Fox resembled that of a western standoff.

"Okay there buddy, like I said before, we are here to help you. I promise you that we won't do anything to bring you any harm, just as long as you don't give us a reason to, Okay?" the orange one spoke in a calm voice.

"You want to help, huh? How about telling your friends to put down whatever they are pointing at me first and foremost. "Alex said as he took two steps forward.

Suddenly, Alex felt his legs buckle underneath him as he fell over to his left knee, his body sending a shock wave of pain all over, as he tried to maintain his stance. He noticed that the other beings in front of them had quickly raised their weapons into a firing stance, their fingers waiting for the moment to pull their guns triggers.

"Look pal, I don't care what you say, you need medical attention. You're so hurt you can't even stand properly. How about letting us take you over to the sick bay, we don't mean you any harm." The Orange named Fox, Alex believed, spoke with sincerity in his voice.

"And like I said before, I don't need any medical attention; I'm completely fine. My legs just got tired is all." Alex said between gritted teeth, trying to hide away the pain as he stood back up.

Alex saw Fox walk up to him; just in time to catch him as he fell back down. Alex's leg was more than just tired, it was hurting like hell. Fox placed Alex's left arm around his shoulder and turned to face the other three beings standing in front of him.

"It's okay, guys; you can put your blasters up and help me carry this guy over to the sick bay. Slippy, why don't you go get R.O.B to see if he can give our new guest a diagnosis of his condition?" Fox spoke as he began walking, or more respectively dragging, Alex towards the Great Fox's sick bay.

"Okay, I'm on it." the small frog spoke, as the avian and the other blue fox got next to Fox and began carrying Alex over to his new location, while Alex continued saying he was fine and in need of no help, struggling to get loose of his captor's grasp.

and there you have it folks, that's the end for this chapter! I hope you guys keep reading and enjoying my story, there is plenty of more chapters to be uploaded and now that I'm on break from school, I should have plenty of time to post them. so as always, keep reading and leave a review if there is anything you wonderful people would like to tell me, I'll gladly respond to you as soon as possible.

Happy Holidays's!

Sfz_Eldorado