This is crazy. This is crazy. This is crazy. I can't believe I'm doing this.
Apprehensive was an understatement. Fox was terrified that he was putting himself and his entire team's survival in the hands of Wolf O'Donnell and Leon Powalski. But what choice did he have? The Arwings were useless at this point. Thankfully, he was given access to the Wolfens that were hangared here at Sargasso. If he could have it his way, he'd take Slippy to the Great Fox, then come back for Ben and then Falco. An Arwing, and presumably a Wolfen, had room for two passengers, although it would be an uncomfortable ride.
Granted, he could at least trust Wolf somewhat because he was his wing gunner during the Aparoid invasion of Corneria City. Wolf never tried to throw Fox off his wing during that battle, and if anything, the job of piloting Wolf had done that day was phenomenal. Definitely enough to leave Fox duly impressed.
For some reason though, Fox was trying his hardest to misconstrue Wolf's intentions as a way to get rid of the Star Fox team. In his mind, the Aparoid invasion somehow "didn't count." It was difficult to all of a sudden trust one of your most hated enemies, especially when seventy-five percent of your team was unable to defend themselves.
Once they arrived at Corneria or the Great Fox, their prospects didn't look any better. How would ROB respond to the arrival of a Wolfen? How much of a spectacle would landing a Wolfen at the Corneria City docking port make? How would any of the Star Fox or Star Wolf teams keep a low profile? And how long would Fox have to be Wolf's "leverage?"
Calm down, Fox thought to himself. You're thinking too far ahead.
Fox was piloting one Wolfen with Slippy crammed behind the cockpit seat. Wolf was piloting another, carrying Falco with him. And Leon was begrudgingly giving Ben a ride. It was originally flipped, with Wolf responsible for Ben and Leon responsible for Falco. But that idea was quickly vetoed when Leon gave an obvious grin, ready to torture his rival.
As they waited for the hangars to depressurize, Fox ran through a mental checklist on the Wolfen. These fighters were designed after Arwings, thanks to the thankfully late Andross, so the vast majority of a Wolfen's systems were identical to an Arwing's. A couple of display features were slightly different, but the controls were all the same. All diagnostics passed for Fox, although he noted with some dismay that the cockpit smelled like roses. This was Panther's Wolfen, nicknamed the Black Rose, and he apparently went to great lengths to make sure it embodied the concept of a rose.
"This is Wolf. Checking radio frequency. Respond, over," Wolf announced into his headset.
Seconds later, Leon said, "This is Leon, copy."
"Fox here. Copy."
"McCloud, give us a flight path," Wolf instructed.
Fox involuntarily winced slightly, not used to his adversary giving him instructions. After a couple of seconds, he announced, "We're swinging by Aquas. ROB and the Great Fox are there. A direct line to Corneria is blocked by some object that's causing a debris field."
"Gravity well," Leon said almost immediately.
"A what?" Fox asked.
"Grraaavitee welllll," Leon repeated at an excruciatingly slow pace.
"Janus' fixer let that info slip when he visited us," Wolf said through clenched teeth.
Don't ask questions, Fox thought to himself. Worry about that on Corneria. He was simply thankful neither Wolf nor Leon objected to his planned route.
Fox sighed, mulling over his decision to side with Star Wolf for the time being. "Nobody boards the Great Fox," he said through his radio collar. "As we approach it, I'm going to instruct ROB to pilot back to Corneria City." The idea hit him suddenly. He wondered what might happen if Leon or Wolf got a hold of ROB or the Great Fox. At this point, all he could trust was that Wolf wanted to see his plan through with Janus. Beyond that, there was no telling what he and Leon could do. Best not to give them a chance in the first place.
At that moment, the red lights on either side of the bay holding what was formerly Panther's Wolfen turned on. Hangar depressurized. Fox waited for a second before the bay doors leading out of the Sargasso Station began to open noiselessly.
"Don't engage in any dogfights," Fox instructed, reminding Wolf and Leon of their predicament. He wished he could use something to his advantage to make sure they followed his orders, but nothing came to his mind. Besides, it was quickly decided for Fox to take Slippy back to Corneria, probably for that exact reason.
"You just worry about your frog," Leon chided.
The pitch-black backdrop, painted with stars, filled Fox's vision as the bay doors finished opening. To him, it was nothing out of the ordinary. Being in space was almost second-nature to him. Fox lifted the Wolfen off of the hangar surface and coasted out, away from the station. To his right, two other Wolfens appeared.
Fox stalled his starfighter and began working with the astrogation interface on the panel in front of him. Most of the commands were the same as an Arwing, except they were arranged differently. With some effort, he slowly set the course to take him, Wolf and Leon past Aquas. It didn't take long after that to finalize the route to Corneria City.
And just like an Arwing, he uplinked the intended route to Wolf and Leon. Given the capability for the speeds the Wolfens could reach, Corneria City was about twelve hours away.
Fox glanced backward at Slippy, who was unconscious at this point. Normally, his skin was a vibrant green color on his back, and his chin was light yellow. But Falco was right in his assessment that Slippy was anemic. His hands and the area around his face were beginning to darken, and the once-vibrant green was now much lighter in tone. Fox sighed, hoping he could get Slippy some medical help before it was too late.
"Starting course to Aquas, followed by travel to Corneria City," Fox announced through his radio collar.
"Copy," Wolf and Leon said simultaneously.
Fox directed the Wolfen toward the flight path and began accelerating away from the Sargasso Station. Not far behind were two other Wolfens.
"I want periodic updates on how Ben and Falco are doing," Fox announced, trying to gain a vestige of control in this predicament.
"Your teddy bear is doing fine," Leon said sarcastically. Fox rolled his eyes, knowing someone who supported Wolf so much would take every opportunity to remind him where his allegiance was.
"From Falco and Ben," Fox clarified with a hint of frost in his voice.
"Wrist is in pain, but I'm okay," Falco immediately said from behind Wolf.
"Can't say how the bear is," Leon replied slowly, trying to provoke Fox. "I've gotta keep my focus forward, and he's still unconscious."
There was no word from Wolf about Leon's comments. In all of his interactions with Wolf, Fox never heard him chastise one of his teammates. He noticed Wolf gave them pretty free reign on what they could say, but the moment their goals diverged from his own, they were booted.
Fox gritted his teeth, doing his best to make sure Leon didn't get into his head. If there was ever a time he needed an infinite supply of patience, this was definitely it. In the back of his mind, he wondered if Wolf and Leon were planning on disposing of him after they were finished with Janus.
Keep focused, Fox reminded himself. You won't get anywhere without trusting them.
"If Ben wakes up, I wanna know," Fox replied to Leon after a short silence. And silence met his ears again. There was nothing to say after that exchange. The level of distrust Fox had for Star Wolf was almost ridiculous. Sure, Wolf had helped Fox and company end the Aparoid threat, but it was only seemingly because Wolf wanted to be the one to dispose of Fox.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend, Fox thought sarcastically. He squeezed his eyes shut in irritation. Fat chance. He glanced backward at Slippy again. There was no change in his skin tone, although his blood was beginning to seep out of Falco's flight jacket.
Just as he turned his attention forward, Leon's voice crackled into his headset. "Gravity well on the ecliptic, heading our direction. Adjust flight path twenty degrees upward."
"Copy," Fox said reflexively. He hoped Leon was telling the truth about the gravity well.
Looking forward, Fox noticed Aquas turn from a point of blue light into a marble-sized planet within a matter of minutes. Even with the suborbital circling of the Lylat System's two stars, a properly equipped starfighter could easily reach the distance between planets within a matter of hours. The only true barrier to how fast they could travel was the speed of light. In practice, however, the materials needed for construction limited the top speed to about seven-tenths the speed of light. Any faster than that, and, of all things, the radiation pressure from the Lylat System's stars would become too much for the materials to handle.
Suddenly, a small circle of Aquas seemed to disappear just as the blue color brightened. The edge of the section cut out of the planet smeared into a diffuse blue light.
What the hell is going on? Fox wondered. But he didn't question Leon's orders as he pulled the yoke backward, nosing the Wolfen up. The cut-out section of Aquas adjusted itself downward on the planet before slowly disappearing entirely. And in its place were two separate Aquases.
Nineteen. Twenty. He leveled the starfighter out as his radar screen chirped, signaling a threat below. There was the same debris cloud as before. The one Ben lost his G-diffusers fighting against.
Fox looked again at Aquas to find what he thought was the real planet in front of him, steadily getting larger. But below, was the same planet, only appearing more squashed. It quickly turned into a diffuse blue light before completely disappearing, leaving only one planet behind.
"Never seen that before," Wolf mused.
The three Wolfens nosed back downward, reaching the ecliptic plane once more. Aquas filled approximately half of Fox's canopy view, which meant they were going to turn toward Corneria in a few minutes.
Fox removed his headset and adjusted the setting to encrypt his communication. He switched the channel to Gamma-One, the frequency for the Great Fox.
"ROB, no boarding of the Great Fox is to happen until we arrive back home. Switch course to Corneria City docking port."
He waited. A few seconds later, ROB's voice crackled over his headset.
"Affirmative," came the reply.
Just to check, Fox asked, "What is the status of the Great Fox?"
A few seconds passed. "No damage. No interactions with hostiles."
"Did anyone try to board the Great Fox?"
Pause. "Negative."
Fox shrugged on the inside. Nothing of interest, which was great news to his ears. He whipped his headset off again and decrypted his communications. Switched the channel back to its original setting.
"Turning left, toward Corneria," Fox stated. "Set flight path to Corneria City. We're landing at the docking port unannounced." He took a deep breath and sighed quietly, wondering what he had gotten himself into.
"That sounds normal to me," Leon said, his inflection betraying a grin.
"Good call," Wolf acknowledged.
Arriving at Corneria City without fanfare made the most sense to Fox. If he would have announced Wolfens on the way, the three starfighters would have been destroyed quickly, without giving Fox a chance to explain himself. And it didn't help that Fox thought his communications with Peppy were hacked. How else could someone explain the Venomians guarding Aquas? Or the Sargasso distress beacon?
But approaching the docking port unannounced in Wolfens was just asking for the Cornerian military to spring into action. Fox grumbled slightly, knowing he was proverbially walking on a razor's edge. Everything would have to be timed perfectly for them to step foot on Cornerian soil without any other injuries.
And so without protest, the Wolfens banked left and accelerated toward home.