Finally, the Starfox team can take care of the Slayers and leave their pasts behind them. Only, if they defeat the so called 'Tim', who has an odd taste for recieve his guests...

Chapter 13: Spectre confrontation

The mall is empty. Everyone is gone except for Krystal, walking aimlessly as she searches for a signal from the bug on the Slayer's back. All screen the Slayer logo, painted in blood red, almost looking like real blood, dripping.

'Argh! I can't find that bug. The device can't at least. Hhm, what's this?'

She notices a button. She presses it and an antenna comes out. The screen opens a program that's used for hacking devices.

'Oh! How confinement. Let's see if I can get the camera feed on the big screen... *feed appears* Yes! Now to find my guy.'

After a little zapping, she finally finds him entering a door saying 'Control Room' on 6F.

'Of course. Always in the middle.' she says as she takes the elevator to 6F. The doors open and reveal a lot of offices. Everyone is gone. She reaches the door.

*click*

'Locked!' she looks at the device. 'What else can you do?'

She presses another button and a lock pick appears. 'Wow, this thing has everything.' She opens the door. 'Fox, I'am in.'

'Copy Krystal.'

She enters a narrow, blue enlightened hallway. Computers and monitors are spread out over the hallway. She follows the hallway, as it is nothing more than a way without any other turns. She continues, until she sees a small, red puddle in front of her. She kneels and touches it. *Blood!* Krystal looks to her left but quickly looks away to the right in pure disgust.

'*cough* Fox, I'am at the right hallway..'

'How do you know?'

She makes a photo and sends it. The team's reaction is the same: disgust.

'Argh!'

'Gross!'

'Urgh, anyone got anything for a bad stomach? Bleh...'

The image Krystal send is certainly disgraceful. Four security guards are nailed to the walls, ceiling and to the floor with tent hooks. Multiple impact marks show that they switched positions constantly, as if they were not on the right place, or just overkill. As the team looks away from the picture, the image disappears from the screen.

'Provocative image deleted.' says ROB.

Falco nearly pukes. 'Bleh, thanks ROB *burp*'

'Agh, Krystal, you're right. You're on the right path. Be alert, more surprises might come your way soon.' warns Fox.

'I'm aware of that Fox.' concludes Krystal.

She manoeuvres through the bodies and tries not to get blood on her suit and face. She turns right and she her bugged man being launched against the side of the hallway. She quickly runs towards his rescue, but is already too late. Numerous bullet wounds conclude that it was a close up shotgun blast to the body, but there're so many, that she can't think of a round that devastating. She follows the blood trial the man left behind and sees a big, red chair standing before a lot of monitors, showing the logo. Someone is smoking an usual sigar.

'Fox, I, Hssshshicieie...' screeches through the lines again, but this time ROB quickly turns it off.

'No radio contact possible.'

'*sigh* Hack into the security feed. I want to see what's going on over there.'

The monitors chance to the Starfox logo when the someone taps his cigar. 'So Krystal, I thought you would never come.' sounds from the chair. 'You overtook me in my own game, without even playing it. *applause* Congrats. Hhm, you're silent isn't?'

'Let me introduce myself. Or better yet, you take a guess. Does the name Dillinger say anything?'

Silence.

'No? Okay, how about Roger eh?'

'Still no bells? *tries to remain calm* Roger Dillinger maybe?'

The following silence angers him as he tears off a piece of meat of an arm and taps three times on his cigar. He throws the arm over his head and in front of Krystal's feet.

'Spicy, almost *hollow laugh* Pyro…' he says soft before screaming: 'How about Phantom!?'

Krystal's eyes spring open.

'Ah, that's the silence of reconization I needed. Allow me to introduce myself…' *turns around* 'I'am Spectre, the man who masterminded this all. Also known as Tim Dillinger, the little brother of Phantom, aka Roger Dillinger.' he says with an evil grin as he chews on Pyro's flesh.

His face reflects his psychotic behaviour: Blood is all over him, vicious fangs are shown as blood fused with slime drools from his mouth. He blows out some smoke from a good inhale with the cigar. His right eye, simply reflects the frightened Krystal as she watches him.

'You know, when Phantom died to save your sorry self, I vowed to destroy you.' he says calmly as he throws the cigar away. It's not a cigar however; it is Mykll's middle finger. All that is left, is his nail. The rest is ash, laying on the ground.

'Your pain was harsh. Oh, so harsh and unforgiving… broken love *lays his paws on his 'heart'* oh, so sad.' he says quasi-compassionate.

'*points in the air* Hear that? Disturbed's Pain Redefined. That fits, cause *over boiled* your pain was nothing more than pathetic foxy love! Mine is physical and emotional!' He strokes his scope and points at it. 'And this is a eternal memory to both of them! Got it three days after I heard Phantom died, and the day the war on Titania began… Two years in a horrible warzone. *turns sad* Do you have any idea? Events, so horrible… no words or feelings can describe it… and you are sad b..because of love.. and, and, loneliness… not being accepted. *Furious again* You think anyone cared about ME!? I was in the MIDST of it. Nobody gave half a SHIT when that laser cut it's way through my head… and SOUL!' Tears burst out of his eyes when he said 'soul'. 'NOBODY, wants my live, in their live. FUCKING NOBODY!'

He bows his head in grief as his ears slowly shrink. Krystal starts approaching him, with the intention to confront him as she feels sympathy for him.

'Unless… muhuhuhu…' sounds. 'You are called 3, or maybe 2, *rises from his chair* or maybe 1, or… *pause and looks at Krystal* maybe KRYSTAL! Mahahaha, WHAHAHAHA!' he laughs demonically. He grins evil, showing his horrible disfigured and sharpened fangs.

'You really thought that I, 'I', would fall for that sort of emotion!?' He grabs his revolver from the table and accidentally hits a button, opening a part of the wall. Krystal looks horrified at Pyro's body, chained to the inside of the wall. His left arm is torn of, '3' is engraved in his face in a similar fashion as Mykll had and his chest is torn open as organs drip out. His eyes are also gone.

'Hey.' remarks Spectre annoyed. 'You weren't supposed to see my food stock, that's private.'

He closes the wall again as Krystal reclaims her breath.

'He's tasty.' says Spectre, as if offering him to Krystal. She is simply disgusted. 'Come on, we are foxes. We eat meat!' bites Spectre.

He holsters his revolver and continues. 'Alrighty then, to the point. 3, or Pyro, is dead. So are all the others. Yes Fox, also Kyla.' He lifts his paws to reveal his six golden rings. Three on each paw, placed around the pinkie, middle finger and his thumb. An eyeball is gauged on each of them, looking at Krystal. 'Here they are.'

He laughs a little while he returns his paws.

'I'm going to enjoy torturing you Krystal.' he says as he slowly walks towards the paralyzed vixen.

'*points at the middle fingers* Cause, you know, this was number 1, or Mykll. Death by a knife to the eye. That's why one has a hole in it. Weakness: Trying to be a leader. He just wouldn't shut up. He didn't scream however, shame. *points at the thumbs* This was number 2, or Kyla. Death by torture. Weakness: friendship. Should have killed you and Fox at SD. Instead, plan B was used. Plain pathetic. She did scream, like a bitch. Beautiful!'

Fox hears it all: *Fuck, why her?*

'*points at the pinkies* And finally, 3, or Pyro. Death by cannibalism. Weakness: *thinking* none.' he says slightly surprised. 'Oh yeah, just got dragged along with 2's mistake. Collateral damage. He was the only good one, didn't scream either. Such a pity. Well, now I'am Slayer itself.'

Spectre looks at Krystal. He spots his machete. He lifts his right paw in the air, bloody as it is. He opens his paw and the machete starts jingling. 'That's mine.' he claims as the machete flies towards his paw. After some unnecessary spins and tricks, he puts it back. He continues walking towards her as she walks back, away from Spectre. The tension rises when Krystal aims her assault rifle, giving her some trust in this situation.

'Are you gonna shoot ME!?' Suddenly, the trigger freezes for no reason. 'Frozen trigger finger?' comments Spectre jokingly. 'Haha, but seriously, I really froze it? Wow, I'm good.' he says to himself. With a absurd look on his face, he looks at Krystal again. As maniacal Jim Carry, he continues walking towards her.

He squeezes his right paw and a large, hooked blade erupt from his sleeve, slightly above his arm. He looks at it and isn't satisfied. 'Hhm, maybe two will do the trick.' He squeezes his left paw and a straight blade comes out and appears over the first one. He starts approaching her a little faster as he scratches the wall to his right, leaving a trail.

'What's wrong, scared?' he asks manically as he wipes some residue of the blades. 'Don't worry, it will only hurt for endless hours. Maybe days… if I'm in the mood.' he lustfully assures.

'That's it, I'am going in!' shouts Fox, seeing that Krystal is too overthrown by everything see has seen. 'Falco and Leon, you're with me. ROB, find anything automatic to defend Krystal.'

'Affermative.'

After a few moments, Krystal hits the wall behind her. The shock makes her drop the rifle, not that it worked anyway. Spectre stops and puts the tips at Krystal's neck as she swallows hard. He prepares a swing as the Arwings and the Wolfen crash their way into offices of 6F and come to the rescue. Spectre prepares a swing, and everything goes in slow-motion for her. As Spectre slowly closes his eyes, with a swing ready, Fox bursts open the door. Spectre grabs a hold of Krystal's left shoulder, as he enjoys her pain. 'You know what your weakness is?' he whispers. 'Love… aaahaahahrgh!' he screams as he suddenly gets a headache.

*TIM!*

*P…Phantom? Wha…?*

Phantom's unexpected distraction gives Krystal the opportunity to kick Spectre away. Spectre regains himself faster than expected and swings towards Krystal, only to be stopped by Fox's wristpad.

'That, that is her strength.' states Fox as he shoots Spectre in the chest with his blaster. Only known to Krystal, a large object is trying to ram them from above. With all adrenaline going loose in her body, she moves the object further away from their position as Spectre stumbles back, trying to regain himself.

The object reveals to be a huge sword, that slashes right through the monitors and the Ring itself, opening the door to space. The background shows the garbage truck again, but everyone is busy with other business. Spectre is quickly sucked towards the hole as he tries to hold on using his swords. Screaming out loud in pain, the blades breaks as Spectre falls to an immediate death as Fox and Leon pull up Krystal. Falco blasts the alarm as the ring destabilizes. 'Come on, we gotta get out of here!' he shouts.

'Peppy, send Krystal's Arwing, now!' says Fox while running through the hallways.

'On its way.' says Peppy disturbed. 'And you all should definitely come back to the Great Fox, like now!' he suddenly yells.

'Fine, we're on our way.' ends Falco.

'He, what's wrong with that rabbit?' asks Leon.

'Probably saw a ghost or something.'

'Unknown sword-wielding creature detected.' reports ROB, but the team doesn't hear it anymore because the vacuum of space sucks away all sounds. The Arwings fly off to the Great Fox who is also presented as a reflection by the giant sword.

'Can't let you do that, Starfox.' transmits Wolf.

Wolf, can't stay away to interfere with everything Starfox does. Can they defeat him, or does he have a nasty secret...