Authors note: I'm sorry, I couldn't resist. The title, just looked at me with big puppy dog eyes, and I had to write a chapter for it.
Fox just skidded his jet-bike to a halt, and took half a dozen shots at the camp. "Don't worry, that big bruiser is going down!" He lined up a charged shot, the blaster whining as it charged up, only to whine down. He checked the charge reading, less than 10 shots left, not enough for a charged shot, oh crud!
"Er... change of plan. Run away!" Krystal was already boosting off in the direction they'd been going. Fox followed, feeding her directions. He could hear the Sharpclaw bikes coming after them, and checked the time display. 'Okay, we need to keep them occupied for another 42 minutes, then my Arwing will be overhead, and we can get away.'
They zoomed across the vale, and Fox switched to proximity scanner the same one he'd used throughout the Aparoid war. Not so good for humanoids, but power sources like those bikes would show up nicely. He caught up with Krystal and took the lead, bringing out the staff to hold as he sought the best route to take.
"Whoa! Get low!" Fox called out. They dived into the forest on the other side, under a massive fallen bole with barely enough room to accommodate their bikes. Both Fox and Krystal had enough warning to duck, but from the yowl and explosion behind them, it seemed that at least one of their pursuers hadn't. Fox deliberately slowed down a bit to keep the remaining enemies on his scanner.
He thought rather than yelled, confident Krystal was close enough to pick it up. 'The idea is to keep them engaged. The only things that can follow us are the other jet-bikes, and from my count, only five of the dozen we saw are after us. I'll bet the others are right now dashing to find their other scouting parties and send them after us!'
They rode down the side of the rivulet, and in a few moments had exited the side valley and headed out in a broader, lower valley with a wider river flowing along the centre. They burst out into another clear area, where the river had wound round in a massive S curve, widening into a ford.
The rivulet they'd traveled down tumbled over a bank into the main watercourse, and they shot out over the low waterfall, landing on the river and swinging around shoot across the ford, throwing off massive trails of spray. The Sharpclaw bikers followed them, trying to cut across on a tighter path to catch up with them.
One failed to keep his nose-cone up, and ploughed his jet-bike head first into the river bed, flipping over and over and spilling him off just before it exploded against a rock on the far bank. But three others managed to come up alongside them, one even zoomed ahead.
Fox veered away from a wild swipe of the axe of the Sharpclaw to his left, then back as he dodged a mine dropped by the one in front, dropping his speed slightly so he smashed sideways into the engine section of the first jet bike, crippling the nacelle of the starboard engine. He extended the staff he still held, and swung it sideways, flinging the Sharpclaw on it sideways. It veered away, and smashed into a fallen tree.
Fox was already baiting the Sharpclaw in front of him, while coordinating with Krystal telepathically. She was playing keep-away with the Sharpclaw that had homed in on her, and Fox nudged up behind the mine-layer, veering to one side as it dropped one. Krystal swerved the other way, avoiding the mine while leading her Sharpclaw over it. The water apparently magnified the effect, and the Sharpclaw fell away, engine trailing smoke.
That left the one in front of Fox which dropped back and tried to close in and jump across. Fox just smashed him down with his staff, and zoomed under the tree trunk that had fallen across the river where it narrowed back into a cataract between high banks. Krystal followed, and shot upwards with her staff as they passed underneath, causing the log to break and fall behind her.
The last Sharpclaw jet-bike somehow ran up the gap in the middle and went flying over their heads, tumbling onto the bank above, smoke rising from it's landing place. Fox had sensed her actions and risked a glance behind him as the route ahead was clear. "If that doesn't attract every Sharpclaw within 10 skm, I don't know what will! Good one!"
They swept down the river, spraying fan-tails of water to either side. The jet bikes were surface effect vehicles, and seemed to work equally well as jet-skis. Fox finally saw another ford up ahead, and rode up the bank, sliding to a stop. Krystal slowed down alongside, flushed and breathing hard.
"Wow... that was amazing! But how did you know which path to choose?"
Fox smiled. "The staff helped me, as always."
Krystal frowned. "Fox, we didn't have time last night, but I don't understand, Ema didn't either. A Protector staff doesn't show you visions, and even if the one you got on Sauria did, I'm carrying it! Yours is just a training staff."
Fox looked down at the staff in his hand. "But..." Suddenly a light dawned. "Ahh! Idiot! Master Ti has been trying to get me to focus this future seeing ability I'm supposed to have, and finding it heavy going. But that's because I already have a way, it was me all along!"
He sighed. "I guess I wouldn't have believed I could do it even if someone told me, but whatever psychic link that staff triggered when I first picked it up must have kicked something loose. And with all the other weird stuff that was going on, I just added the visions as one more freaky thing the staff could do, and didn't resist it."
"Can you still do it?" Krystal asked, suddenly worried.
Fox focused his thoughts, and a vision came clear to him. "There's a clearing up ahead, big enough to land my Arwing. It looks like yes, for figuring out where to go at least."
The comm software on his PDA bleeped, and he accepted the signal.
"Is this how... Ah Fox! We fought off a group of Sharpclaw with the aid of the Cloudrunners, but one got away. I'm afraid we need you here as soon as possible!"
"Okay, Master Ti, we'll be there as soon as possible, which should be... 34 minutes, hang on I'll set you a timer..." He did as before, packaging his Arwing orbital clock function to send, and adding an ample 6 minutes to the time for the atmospheric flight. From the calculated signal strength, the other PDA was only 40 skm away.
"Okay, we should be there when the big hand reaches upright..."
"I understand Lylatian numerals, you thought in them often enough when I was training you. It will be good to see you both safe."
"Should have guessed." Fox said, "We'll be there! Hope the Ancients are working overtime on this one!"
He dropped the comm, and changed his blaster power-pack. He'd save the remaining five shots for training Krystal, they'd be equivalent to about 500 laser-painter shots. "Let's hope I don't get into too many more battles. When these are gone, they're gone!"
The blue fox caught his thoughts. "But you're going to teach me? Besides, surely your sky-ship has power to spare?"
Fox shrugged, and held up the magazine. "Slippy might be able to jury-rig a magazine charger from the main accumulators on my Arwing, but if I tried it, I'd most likely just blow the power-pack, and myself, back into orbit. These things have a lot of energy in them."
Krystal moved round to sit sideways on her bike seat. She could sense he was a eager as her to move on, but they had to wait for his sky-ship. "You have so many wonderful things. Like those meals that heated without a cooking fire, and that expanding towel. Did you commission the craftsman who made it to add your symbol?"
Fox chuckled. "No the Star Fox logo was merchandising." They had a few moments to wait before the Arwing came, and this was a safer topic than some others. It took a few minutes to explain the concept of merchandising, but Krystal quickly caught on, being the daughter of a trading family helped.
"So these companies paid you money to put your symbol on goods, because you were famous?"
"Yup. Mugs, clothing, plush toys... it was guilt free money, and I had a starship mortgage and a payroll to meet. After the Aparoid war, one toy line even included a plush toy of you, one of the best sellers. I made sure you approved it, of course." He didn't add some of the things they'd stopped, some not fit for polite society.
Krystal shook her head. "I still want to understand the future me you knew. Some of the things she did made no sense."
Fox shrugged, looking distant. "I don't know if I can help, I loved her, but it's not like I ever really understood her either."
The blue vixen frowned. "That's one of the things that makes no sense. She should have been able to spot your potential, the fact that you could use her staff would have been a give-away, and even though I'm not as skilled as Master Ti, she should have been able to start training you. Then there would have been fewer misunderstandings."
"Maybe that's why she didn't." Fox had turned to face Krystal. "She never wanted to talk about her past. Not only would training me have forced her to remember it, I'd probably have picked up at least a few things. Of course, I wasn't the most open guy in the galaxy either."
"You do alright." She gazed into his eyes, and he felt the warm regard in them.
He couldn't help returning that regard, but he cut it short by ducking his head. "Like riding a jet-bike, I finally figured out what to do from my mistakes. And I made a lot of 'em. For now, we get to that open area for my Arwing to land. So saddle up!"
They drove away from the river, looking for a clearing or even another meadow. And they soon found one, a shallowly sloped grassy vale leading down to the main river. They came to a stop, and Krystal looked around. "How much time before your sky-ship lands?"
"Only another twelve minutes. It should already be starting it's descent. And I couldn't have designed a better place." Fox looked away from the holo-display, gunned his twin jets and drove out into the middle of the open area to set his beacon.
Krystal nodded. "Well at least something has gone without a hitch."
Fox winced. "You never, ever say that on a mission. It's like waving a sign at the fates saying 'bring it!'."
"What could possibly..."
There was a crashing noise, and a chilling roar. Suddenly trees were smashed down not far away from them, and the giant Red Eye, with a howdah arrangement on it's shoulders, and a Sharpclaw Alpha riding it, crashed into the clearing.
"That, for a start!" Fox started to bring his jet-bike around, only to dive off it as the Red Eye opened it's mouth and spat a crackling ball of lightning at him, blasting the bike and the salvaged comm unit to pieces. He tucked and rolled, coming up with his blaster in a two handed marksman's grip.
"This time I've got a full magazine!" He charged up and fired a charged shot which took it full in the chest... and dissipated, energy crackling over the pebble-like scales of it's armour. "Oh, you have got to be kidding!"
It looked like Andross had helped out General Scales with more than Venomian army surplus hardware. This enhanced Red Eye was exactly the sort of bio-technological weapons system he delighted in developing. It wasn't even unique, the winged mutant Drakor had been able to fire energy bolts, and several bio-weapons during the Lylat wars had been blaster resistant.
Of course, at the time, Slippy had guessed that Drakor had been created by General Scales using the planetary energy field, but in retrospect, that made no sense. Where would a sword swinging barbarian have found the information to pull off something like that? In fact, it seemed crazy that no-one had made the Andross connection until he revealed himself, even if they'd thought he was dead.
Fox wasn't musing on these matters, he was in full tactical mode, and his first action was to dash forward, heading straight for the monster. It might have seemed insane at first glance, but it was actually good sense. Playing 'dodge the energy ball' until the Arwing got there was a losing strategy, and if a charged shot had little effect, he had no other way to hurt it at range. Up close he might find a weak spot.
He jinked and weaved from side to side, dodging two more lightning bolts before he got into melee range. It was driven forward, and it's head dipped, jaws crashing together, and he barely ducked under them. It's hot stinking breath gusting over his fur, carrion mixed with ozone like a vorpal photo-copier. He was close enough to sense it's will, a harsh laser pinpoint of killer intent. As it reared back to try again, he dived between it's legs, then had to make a leaping forward roll over the tip of it's tail as it swung round, trying to find him.
One of the other modifications Andross had made was a double row of spiny plates running up either side of it's spine, from hand sized ones at it's tail tip, to plates big enough to shield the Sharpclaw Alpha at the neck. In fact, that was what formed the howdah.
Even as he tucked and rolled out of his leap, he had an idea how he could use it to his advantage. He made his idea as clear as possible in his mind, hoping Krystal would be able to pick it up, even from across the clearing. He could barely sense her, which was good because it meant she was back at the tree line, out of harms way. He shadowed the monster, fortunately Andross hadn't enhanced it's agility, and it was exactly as agile as you'd expect something 10 meters tall to be.
As soon as he saw an opening, he leapt again, but this time _on_ to the tail, as high as he could manage. He was thrown about, but managed to get a grip on one of the plates, and set his feet, at which point the mol-stiction pads in his boots could get a grip. He worked his way up to the root of the tail, and flung himself over the plate, to land on the thing's spine. The Alpha finally spotted him, and turned, holding onto it's perch with one had and readying a throwing spear with the other.
Fox trusted to the grip of his boots, and raised his blaster, firing off a shot which grazed past the Alpha's head due to being thrown about by the Red Eye's movement. However, the same effect threw off the Sharpclaw's aim, and he didn't even need to duck. He started working his way up towards it, and it drew it's massive mace and quit it's position, hoping to get close and smash him before he got a shot on target.
This was what Fox had been waiting for. 'NOW!', he thought and yelled with all the force he could muster, and was rewarded with the sound of a jet-bike firing up. He focussed, feeling the motion of the Red Eye as it rampaged forward, no longer guided by the Sharpclaw bearing down on him.
He stood his ground, raising his blaster, gauging the exact moment where the motions of the monster would bring it's muzzle into line with the muzzle of the Alpha... Now! A bolt of plasma shot forth from the tip of his weapon, and demonstrated that although the Red Eye might be blaster-proof, it's rider wasn't.
Fox holstered his blaster and turned, running down the spine. If Krystal was doing her part, he didn't want to be up on top of the creature. He needn't have worried, Krystal drove her jet-bike in, easily evading the poorly aimed lightning balls it spat, and skidded to a halt only a half dozen meters away. Jumping off her bike before it had even stopped, she landed with her staff raised high, and slammed it down as she triggered the most powerful seismic strike the device was capable of.
Just as on Sauria, the staff proved the old adage, 'the bigger they are, the harder they fall'. The Red Eye tumbled forward, measuring it's length on the ground, and roared in pain. Fox leaped off as it went down and jumped clear. The impact stunned it, and it spent a few seconds weakly scrabbling at the grassy sod, tearing great holes in it with it's talons. Krystal had also jumped clear of the crash site, and she came around one side of it's head while Fox dashed up to the other.
Fox unslung his training staff and jumped up, striking at it's crimson eyes, hoping to get a thrust to the brain. But it's eyes were lidded, and the eyelids were tough enough that they defeated his thrust. Unlike the King Red Eye, there seemed no weak spot in the top of it's head. It opened its jaws, and he could smell the ozone as it started to charge a lightning shot, and had another idea.
But Krystal was in a better position to try it. She moved over to the jet-bike, hauled it around by main strength to face the monster's maw, and gunned the accelerator to maximum, flinging herself back and to the side to avoid the flare of the twin jets as it shot forward into the creature's open mouth.
Fox flung himself to the ground too, and just in time, as the lighting shot formed, crackling over the shell of the bike, and causing massive localised heating, which ruptured the fuel tanks and triggered an explosion as the highly volatile fuel vapourised. The Red Eye's neck snapped backwards, and it's head exploded.
Both foxes were slightly singed by the proximity of the explosion, even though the force had been directed mainly away from them. They were also thoroughly deafened, though their hearing started to recover almost immediately. And of course the secondary spray of half cooked Red Eye meat did nothing to add to their sartorial splendour, unless you were fond of red. It quickly vanished the same way Sharpclaw did.
Fox pushed himself upright, brushing off the debris, and ignoring the twinge in his shoulder where the Fast-heal was still working. He shook his head to clear the ringing in his ears, moving towards where Krystal lay, though he could sense she was unharmed.
"Whoa, this is why I never like catching the red-eye..."
He offered her a hand up as she stirred, but she levered herself off the floor and sprang to her feet. His hearing might not be quite back to normal, but backed by the thought there was no misunderstanding. "I'm alright Fox."
"Better than alright, that was great!" Taking her at her word, he reached into his back-pack and set up the beacon out in the open.
"It was your plan, I just carried it out." Krystal said, modestly.
"Heh, I'd hardly call it a plan, but I'm just glad it worked, and that was down to you. We make a good team." With the beacon planted firmly, he backed off towards the woods. "Now let's get to cover. You stand watch while I monitor terminal guidance..."
The ship interface icon was on his PDA holo-screen when he opened it, the ship station-keeping at 10 skm. Krystal ended up watching interestedly over his shoulder as he worked with the interface, though he could sense her empathy was still reaching to cover the area against another assault.
Opening up a down-looking holo-cam viewpoint, he checked the flight data and told it to home in on the beacon, zooming in and isolating an off-set open area for the landing spot. He didn't trigger active sensors until the last moment, to confirm the altitude and landing area was solid, but the passive view of the holo-cam and the beacon signal overlay was more than adequate. There was a descending whine out in the clearing, and Krystal looked up to see the sky-ship live for the first time.
After it touched down, she dashed over to it, circling around. "It's... beautiful!"
Fox strode over more slowly, but with a proprietary pride. "Yes, she is. The Space Dynamics Arwing II Aerospace Superiority Fighter. I flew mod B's back in the Lylat war, and you, future you, checked out on the mod F. But this is the best of the lot. Better shields, upgraded to twin lasers, the best avionics, and plenty of power and manoeuvrability."
He let down the steps and opened the canopy with his PDA, and Krystal clambered up to look in. He in turn turned to watch the tree line.
"Uh... there's only one seat." He heard Krystal say, puzzled.
"If we had time you could ride the wing, I've done it before, but I'm gonna have to boost pretty hard." Fox hesitated, a bit embarrassed. "Uh... I need clear access to the flight controls, so I'm going to have to push the seat back as far as it'll go and well... sit on your lap."
"That's alright by me." Krystal said, stepping down off the foot rest, completely unconcerned.
"Don't get the wrong idea, this is because I have to. It's hard enough already...Ahh... I mean..."
"It's just as well I'm not sitting in _your_ lap then." Krystal giggled as Fox's face emulated a distant galaxy, at least the red shift due to his increased blush was similar. She calmed down and replied. "I'm sorry, I couldn't resist. It's alright Fox, I won't do anything to make it any harder... sorry."
Fox had recovered the beacon, and was already climbing up on the step, re-rigging the seat and straps. Oddly enough her teasing actually helped, he could sense there was no meanness in it, just humour He chuckled. "I know, it's kind of ridiculous the way I'm acting..."
"I think it's sweet. Don't worry, I said we'd talk about it later, so I'm not going to push anything now. We protect the New Dawn, get the Cloudrunners to safety, and then we'll talk."
Fox's relief was evident as he stepped down, giving the place one last scan. "Thanks Krystal. Okay, it's set up."
Krystal snuggled down into the seat, and Fox climbed in, lowering himself gently onto her lap. She rested back, arms around his waist, supporting him both physically and mentally. "Don't worry, I'm not made of glass."
"Oh, I know that..." The lengthened straps just fitted over them. He pushed out gently with his empathy to check she wasn't feeling trapped, sandwiched between him and the seat, but if anything the opposite was true. Krystal was enjoying her sandwich.
Fox lost himself in the start-up routines, if not ignoring the warm and distracting presence behind him, the scent of her fur, at least able to relegate it to a level where he could pilot effectively. He could feel her alert interest, and while he didn't slow down, he made sure he thought about what he was doing so she could follow it.
Power up, G Diffusers adjusted for atmospheric flight, Master Ti's PDA locked in as way-point... He heard Krystal give a little yelp of surprise as the G-Diffusion kicked in and their effective weight dropped to a fraction of normal.
As they lifted, he said, "Sorry, should have warned you. The G-Diffusers make the whole ship lighter, it's what gives us such manoeuvrability and speed, but space fighters don't have room or power to spare for an artificial gravity system to give the cockpit normal weight. You get used to it."
He hadn't thrown up active sensors, more out of habit since he mentally labelled the area hostile territory. But a check of passives as they rose above treetop level flagged up something odd. As soon as he'd turned towards the distant beacon and started boosting, he threw in his e-warfare suite and analysed the signals.
"That's odd... I'm getting some power sources, pretty big ones, not more than fifteen skm away... No active sensor traces though... Let's see..." He triggered his own active sensors, and zoomed in with the utmost power of a holo-cam viewpoint. "It's moving... Dang!"
At maximum magnification, they could just see a galleon-like sky-ship, three or four times the size of the New Dawn, a sloop rig with dragon-like wing sails and a stern propeller, as well as... rocket engines? General Scales' tri-bladed symbol was boldly displayed on the mainsail. The prow was built up in a dragon head that seemed to be moving independently, and the stern castle carried two martial looking towers each with a smaller, fixed dragon head, though they looked more stylised, like a carving.
"I've got a match, that head is some sort of Andross bio-tech weapon, one of the power sources, and the rear turrets are powered too. Venomian jet thrusters... Lylat! That thing is a mash-up! And it's on a converging course with us and the location of the New Dawn." His face took on a grim expression. "Well it's not going to get there..."
Even as he started to change course he felt Krystal reach out with her empathy, then cry out. "No!"
"Huh? What..." Then he felt it relayed through her, there were Cerinians on that ship as well as Sharpclaw, slave sailors that were running it, under the lash. The emotions were strong, raw, but even so, sensing them at this distance, Krystal was something else.
"Fox, we've got to get help, Master Ti and Ema." Krystal stated. "We have to get on board that ship and free those prisoners..."
There was no room for disagreement, or need for it. "Okay, one death defying rescue coming up!" He boosted ahead towards the landing site of the Protector sky-ship.