Chapter 21

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Fox or any of the characters, they are owned by Nintendo. However, Tex Hempioro and other characters belong to me.

Unknown location, unknown time

It was quiet, no noise, no color, no air to breathe, just the vast expanses of darkness and swirling mist. A noise bellowed out, cutting through the silence and the shadows, it was giddy and full of joy.

"Who is there?"

There was no answer. It rose and fell; it was the rhythm of laughter. He spoke out again.

"Who's there? Show yourself."

His demands came with no response. From his spot lying on the nonexistent floor, Tex stood tall on his feet and walked towards the laughter. As the wolf continued walking through the veil of mist, the sounds began to change. What was once full of happiness began to turn depressing, causing his pace to quicken. He heard screams, a small child's screams.

"Run, son, I said run. Can't you hear me? I said run!!"

That voice followed by the cries of a small child, it sent shivers down the wolf's spine and made the fur on his neck stand ridged. Farther he ran, bursting through walls of mist, the ethereal tendrils of moisture clinging to his skin and tattered clothing. He finally came to a stop; the veil of mist was cleared from this one location while everything else around it was covered in the fog. A flash of crimson, then a gurgled shout of agony followed by a boy's screams. The sounds changed, the bubbling laughter of a young woman being tickled relentlessly.

The sounds were filled with joy as a male voice joined in on the laughter; the masculine voice was deep and shady. It was his voice. The sound of a pair of lips tenderly kissing echoed through the darkness.

"I love you, Jenna."

With the mention of that name, Tex crashed to the floor and dug his claws into the black ground.

"I love you too, Tex."

The sounds changed again, a woman's agonizing scream followed by two other masculine voices shouting and grunting in pain. Three bodies fall to the floor and a muffled explosion causes more flashes of crimson and the splattering of blood. Footsteps echo down the hallway, then a pair of knees fall to the floor.

"I'm sorry."

A shaking voice whispers. Deep and full of sorrow, the owner of the voice sucks in air to stifle the tears and the urge to cry out in pain.

"This...isn't your fault...promise..."

"What promise what?"

"Promise me, Tex...Promise me...you'll be...happy..."

Air escapes with a hiss. Tex suddenly feels very cold, his inner workings freezing over and his eyes dilating until they shrink to the size of pinholes. He stares at the floor, his mouth agape and tears dripping from his eyes. He shakes like a brittle brown leaf in an autumn breeze. The noises go from sad to violent.

"No, no more please, GAAHH!!"

"For justice..."

A deep, hollow voice full of torment and anger echoes through the darkness and cut through the mist, Tex was familiar with this voice.

"Please, don't kill me please. I have a wife and child, I can't leave my family, please have mercy!!"

"You're only wanted dead, sorry."

A blaster fires, the searing hot blast shoots through meat and bone with a sickening hiss. Church bells rings and echo through the veil of mist as more people scream and gun fire pierces the air.

"My son, stop this madness! You have lost yourself to this darkness and you need guidance! Let us help you!"

"I need no guidance, step aside priest."

More blasts and screams. The scene materializes into reality before the wolf's eyes. A black wraith slowly stalks down the walkway of an empty church. Priests storm in front of the gun wielding individual and get gently pushed aside. The wraith fires more hot energy blasts at the man who storms up from behind one of the benches and fires a blast at the tall wolf.

"Stop this, heretic! You are in the house of the Goddess and by bringing in such violence you damn yourself, do not dare spill another being's blood in this building!"

Instead of staying back, the priest continues to pester the tall wolf by stepping in front of him and pushing him back. The wolf soon gets annoyed and unloads two bullets into the robed lion, shattering both his kneecaps. As the large cat falls to the floor in agony, the wolf steps over the body and continues blowing holes into the walls and painting the church with the splatter of blood and pieces of bone. A thick hickory door slams and latches shut, a panicky whimper can be heard from the other side of the polished wood.

"Get the f--k away from me, man! You don't know who you're messing with; I got friends, friends you can't imagine! I got friends in every planet and in every system, you kill me and you're dead, you hear me, dead!"

"I'm already dead."

The wolf charges forward and slams his left shoulder into the hickory door, shattering the incredibly hard wood into splinters and crashing onto the cowering fugitive. An eardrum rattling crack sounds from the wolf's shoulder and he crashes to his knees. The bounty, a panther with bloodshot yellow eyes climbs back up and limps towards his gun. The wolf is up quickly and he pounces onto the cat. With his left arm useless, the panther grabs his gun as the wolf wrestles with the firearm with his functioning right arm.

They grappled with the gun in each other's paws, the feline attempting to turn the barrel to point at the lupine's scarred face. The wolf slams his knee into the feline's gut and wraps his right arm around the panther's black furred neck, quickly jerking his forearm and snapping the cat's neck and finally putting an end to his pondering whether he would bring him in alive or dead..

"No more, please, I can't take it any longer!!"

Tex slams his fists onto the floor and yells and screams for the entire world to hear. There wasn't a soul nearby to listen to his cries of pain as he witnessed memories from his past that haunted him so passionately. He pounded his fist into the ground until it began to spout blood from his knuckles, shouting and howling as tears fell like rivers from his silver gaze. He couldn't take another moment, he stood up onto his knees and grabbed for one of his blasters, clicking off the safety and placing the barrel to the roof of his mouth. He attempted to pull the trigger, but his finger wouldn't press down.

He couldn't do it, yet he wanted to so desperately. He wanted the searing hot energy to blast through his skull and put an end his torment, but his finger remained solid as stone. By some unknown power, his paws began to lower and his grip loosened on the gun, causing it to fall and clatter on the floor. His heart raced as he glanced at his right paw and noticed another resting on top of it, slowly tracing his gaze up the wrist and forearm to stare up at the face of the paw's owner. A strong face that had a striking resemblance to his own stared back at him with deep blue eyes and a confident smile.

Tex's jaw clamped down so tight that he thought it would pop from his skull at a moments notice as he looked up to face the visage of his deceased father. Mark Hempioro placed a paw on his son's shoulder and lifted him off the floor. He didn't speak or make any noise; he simply lifted his son off the ground and pointed to his left with a big smile on his face. Tex glanced in the direction his father pointed and noticed a dim glow slowly illuminating the area around him. He turned back to the older wolf and nodded his head in understanding, stepping forward to give one last hug and then he walked towards the light.

Planet Aldun, inner tundra fortress, 1:13 a.m. local time

Krystal's ears perked as she heard a soft grunt emit from the limp body she hefted on her shoulders. She gently placed Tex down and propped him up against a wall, placing a blue furred paw to his face to check for signs of consciousness. As she probed his mind, his ears fell flat on his head and the small whiskers on his face bent back as he curled up his lips in a mild snarl.

"Tex, are you alright? Open your eyes if you can hear me."

He grunted and slowly opened his hollow gaze, sucking in air through his nostrils and slowly emptying his lungs from his mouth and the gaping hole in his chest. He continued to suck in air at a hurried pace as Krystal examined his wounds, the tips of her fingers began to grow purple as the red blood mixed with her blue fur.

"Are you in pain? I can help you to an extent to at least make you more comfortable."

The wolf simply shook his head from left to right and glanced down at his chest. He swallowed the lump in his throat, grimacing to the rusted taste of blood and bile sliding down his esophagus as he looked over the blue vixen's shoulder. Krystal noticed his irises shift and could see the reflection in his eyes of some foreign person behind her, their thought patterns began to swim in her mind. Swinging around and lunging down the hallway, she grabbed a young Husky by the throat, slamming him against the wall and bringing her pistol to his temple.

"Don't move, or it could be the last thing you'll ever do."

She hissed, her brows coming together in a glare and her ears going flat. The Husky merely smiled and breathed a sigh of relief.

"So you really do have blue fur. And if what Falco said was true, you could read my mind and know that it wouldn't be a good idea to blast my brains out."

She quirked a brow and reflexively scanned his mind. As quick as a bullet train, she was fully informed of the situation as Falco appeared from one of the hallways accompanied by a female lynx hefting a scoped rifle.

"Hey, Krystal, we heard you needed help. Oh and don't worry about these two, their-

"Their former Imperial arctic troops, I already know, Falco."

The avian brought his hands together and rubbed them, feeling the warmth coming back to his fingers.

"Good, now that we're all up to speed on things, where's big guy?"

Krystal holstered her blaster and hooked a thumb behind her. She guided the other animals towards the wolf who continued to heave as he attempted to retain air in his lungs. Tex glanced up at the crowd of animals that stood before them and gave with a lurching cough. Corvine quickly knelt down and attempted to lift the large animal, grunting as he tried to carry the heavy lupine. Lexington took the wolf's other arm and helped her canine companion lean Tex against the wall and lift him up.

"Be careful with him, he's in serious condition."

Krystal warned the two Imperials. Falco moved to Corvine and took his position of holding up Tex. The wolf grunted at the slight shift as Falco switched with the Husky and he attempted to help by placing both his feet on the floor and tried walking.

"Mike, you cover Krystal, we're gonna need that rifle of yours."

Corvine readied his rifle and placed the stock against his shoulder as he sidestepped down the hallway. Krystal pulled out her pistol and walked in-between Corvine and the group of animals behind her. The Husky glanced at his watch and sighed, he had been awake for nearly twenty hours now. He glanced behind him and quickly whipped his head back to face forward.

"It's going to take awhile at the pace we're going. Hope your buddy's as tough as he looks or he may not get out of here alive."

"He'll make it, hot shot, you just keep moving."

Falco grunted. He glanced up at Tex, his eyelids falling over his eyes and his head was starting to sag lazily on his neck.

"You gotta make it, big guy. You still need to get your freak on with that Vicky girl of yours."

Falco smirked as the lupine seemed to surge to life as red hot anger began to fill his gaze. Though Tex realized that the bird was only trying to help by making him angry enough to shake off the grip of death, it would quickly get on the lupine's nerves.

Planet Aldun, tundra fortress main chamber, 1:05 a.m. local time

The orange fox looked up with both puzzlement and shock at what stood before him. In front of him was a large glass capsule filled with some sort of green liquid that swelled with paths of oxygen trapped in bubbles. What caught his attention were not the air bubbles, or the strange colored liquid, but what was submerged in it. Fox walked towards the small screen attached to the glass capsule, placing a finger to the touch screen and looking up information on this "thing".

"Subject number eighty-three..."

He spoke out loud as he read the text that was printed on the screen.

"The first subject to survive the evolution process, subject is a male wolf, two hundred and ten pounds, three ounces before evolution and six feet, two inches tall. Subject had experienced rapid increase in body temperature and rapid growth rate of body mass as all subjects had experienced. Subject began to slip into temperature induced coma and began flat lining after injection of evolution serum. Subject began decreasing in body temperature and stable heart beat was restored as subject's DNA structure began to adapt and absorb the evolution serum, the experiment was a success. Final analysis confirms that subject had grown to twelve feet, seven inches tall and weighted in at approximately nine hundred and seventy three pounds.

Tests have shown that subject has developed an advanced skeletal frame and muscle structure. Further tests show that body is capable of resisting small to medium gun fire and standard controlled explosions. Body is still susceptible to radiation, extremely high temperature and heavy rounds to missile fire. Titan project is now being refined and perfected."

Fox stopped there, clicking off the screen and slowly backing away. He brought a paw to his face and rubbed the area around his eye sockets in disbelief. The Imperials were sick, Fox had seen plenty enough what they were capable of doing to those that opposed them. But never would he believe they would do something like this to their own. Fox checked the vital signs of the "Titan" as it was called; it had a rapid heart rate twice the normal speed of an averaged size wolf.

With such a large body, the heart would have to pump incredible amounts of blood for it to function. With such physical strain on the body, the Titans would probably only have half the life spans of normal animals. The vulpine tapped a claw against the glass for a moment, seeing just how sedated the titan really was. With a heavy heart, he un-slung his backpack and pulled out a few detonation packs and set the time limit. He felt rather guilty at what this as well as the other titans that were located in this room must have gone through to become these monsters, even more so that he would have to destroy them with a timed detonation.

A mechanical hiss caused his ears to twitch and he quickly whipped around to see a surveillance camera zooming in on him. Glaring at the lens, he lifted his right paw and flashed a particular finger at the camera, sticking out his tongue and quickly turning around as he hurried to finish setting up the explosives.

Planet Aldun, tundra fortress command center, 1:07 a.m. local time

"I have the surveillance feed back online, sir."

The Imperial leopard checked the systems of each camera as the static filled screens began to be replaced with live video feed. The fortress warden, the stout badger, Rasputin stood beside the feline and watched the screens return.

"Sir!"

The leopard's sudden outburst caused the warden to slightly jump.

"There, on camera four of the main chamber! It's that fox, the mercenary from the reports on Crones!"

The badger watched as the orange fox turned around and gave a vulgar gesture with his right paw. The badger flattened his ears and glared as he panned his gaze back to the leopard. He pointed to the screen, jabbing his finger against the glass.

"Can you access the capsule functions from this room?"

The leopard hesitated for a moment as he tried to discern what the warden was attempting to do.

"Yes...but why do you need me to access the capsule controls?"

"The titans still need an active combat test. I want you to activate the first capsule."

The feline glanced at the screen then back to the badger in disbelief.

"That I need a confirmation from the engineering station before we continue with the program. If we activate it now, we could have complications."

The warden cared very little for the consequences as he pushed the cat aside and punched down on the access control and began typing in the activation code for the main capsule.

"Record it, at one, ten a.m. and ten seconds. The titan program has now been activated."

Planet Aldun, tundra fortress main chamber, 1:07 a.m. local time

A sudden jolt from the capsule above his head caused him to stop. Fox paused and glanced up at the green liquid filled tube and saw that the eyes of the large enhanced wolf were fully open and staring directly at him. The vulpine stood there for a moment, clutching one of the charges in his paw and slowly moved away. The fierce eyes followed him as he slowly tried to sidestep from left to right and check if the beast had seen him. The massive arms uncurled from the large torso and its legs that were pressed against its chest fell as it fully extended all its limbs and slowly opened its mouth.

Uncoiling all its fingers, the claws on the ends seemed to extend longer and it began clawing at the glass, roaring a gurgling shout from the liquid. Torrents of bubbles escaped from its gapping mouth as Fox continued to step back.

"Aw sh-

The glass broke to pieces and the green fluid spilled from the capsule as the large monstrosity leapt from its prison and stood tall on two feet. The first thing that came to the Fox's mind was to run, but the smart part of him kicked in and his feet stood on solid ground. He slowly stepped back as the titan took a giant step forward, the claws on its toes scrapped against the metal floor as it reflexively dug into the ground below it. It shook its head rapidly from left to right as it shook the moisture from its fur and bellowed a deep guttural roar, droplets of saliva spewing out of its maw and into the air. Fox thought quickly as his back was pressed against the wall.

Glancing at the charge in his paws, he threw it towards the beast and sprinted, diving under the titan and sliding through the gap in-between its legs. Pulling out his blaster, the fox shot two rounds into its back, leaving merely a scorched patch of fur and a small smoking area on the beast's back. It appeared unfazed as it roared again and charged, hunching forward and propelling its large body forward by kicking off with its legs as well as its arms. It swung its tree trunk like arm and struck the floor as Fox quickly rolled out of the way, a crater erupting as the titan lifted its arm. The vulpine regrouped quickly as he leaped out of the way of another massive sweep of the titan's arm.

This wasn't working; he couldn't dodge this thing forever. Sooner or later he would slip up or this thing would try a different tactic. Fox began thinking again; his little blaster would prove useless in this situation. He didn't have a grenade with him, and even if he did, it would also fail to damage this thing. He needed a rocket launcher, or a flame thrower. A Landmaster would be pretty nice right about now too.

An idea struck him as another massive arm swept above him as he ducked. Fox ran behind the monster and leapt up to clutch onto the beast's back, digging his fingers into the coarse fur and climbing up to stand on the titan's massive shoulders. Charging up his blaster, he aimed strait down at the beast's head, intended to separate it from the rest of its body. The titan however had other plans. It reached up with its large paw and wrapped its crushing grip around Fox's torso.

Holding the vulpine to his face for a moment, the titan wrapped both paws around the fox and began to squeeze, forcing all the air out of Fox and causing him to squirm and kick until he felt light headed. He took his blaster with his free paw and shot a hole through one of the titan's eyes, causing it to roar and drop the vulpine to the floor. He sucked in air and croaked as he quickly moved from the thrashing beast. He had found a weak area, but even though it could be blinded, it would still thrash around wildly until it killed him in this confined space. The titan reared its head up and stared down at the fox with rage glowing in its one remaining eye, hunching down and preparing to charge.

Fox switched his blaster to its highest setting and held down the trigger to charge the shot. The bright green energy collected and grew at the end of the barrel until the pistol began to shake in the vulpine's paws.

"Ok tough guy, let's see just how resistant to gun fire you really are."

Planet Aldun, outer perimeter of tundra fortress, 1:32 a.m. local time

The cold air whipped against their faces. Krystal shielded her eyes from the shards of ice that flew around in the torrent of rushing winds, glancing behind her as she shouted and fired more blasts at the armored Imperials chasing after them. Falco and Kris were feet ahead from the blue vixen and the Husky that kept rushing forward into the fire and tore through the ranks of Imperial Black Ops. Corvine reloaded his rifle and jumped out of his cover, quickly depleting his clip and charging into the group of black armored animals, bashing whatever came close to him with the stock of his rifle.

"Corvine, I need you back here!"

The Husky ceased reducing one Imperial's face into pulp with his rifle and regrouped to Krystal's side. The blue vixen took cover while Corvine held off the troops and she began contacting Slippy on the Great Fox.

"Slippy, come in, we're out of the fortress. We are going to need a carrier down here to transport all of us off this planet!"

After a brief pause, Slippy's high-pitched voice emitted from her wrist computer.

"Isn't it just you, Tex and Falco who need an evac? The Arwing should hold the three of you."

"Listen, there isn't time to explain to you in detail but we have two other animals down here that need to get out of here with us. Transmit the carrier down to the planet surface and we'll hitch it to the Arwing. I'm sending you our location."

A blast hissed past her head as Corvine pushed her down below the mound of snow. He reached for his belt for another clip and cursed as his paw grasped thin air. Spitting out curses in Imperial, he tossed his gun at a Black Ops, knocking him unconscious as he pulled out a small pistol from his holster.

"We could use that evac now! I can't hold all of them off!"

"Give me a second!"

Krystal snapped back. Her eyes caught a faint glow as a large metallic container began to materialize out of thin air. Slippy had teleported the carrier to the planet's surface successfully, however the bulky container quickly became taken under fire as Falco and Kris loaded Tex into it. Falco sprang out and sprinted towards where he landed his Arwing, disappearing into the swirling snow fall. Kris took cover and occasionally peeked out of the carrier unit to blast a hole through a Black Ops chest with her rifle.

Tex propped himself up against the wall and took one of his armor plates from his chest plates, using it as a way of seeing behind him as he leaned his paw out of the carrier and blind fired with his blaster. Through the reflection of his metal plate, he could see who he was shooting at as another Imperial dropped to the floor from a shot to the neck. Kris took cover and knelt down beside the injured wolf.

"Save your strength, you're no good to us in your condition. You just sit this one out and we'll get you patched up soon."

Tex sighed and hung his head as he felt a wave of dizziness attack him.

Planet Aldun, tundra fortress main chamber, 1:38 a.m. local time

His feet were suspended above the ground twelve feet in the air. Both giant paws of the titan held Fox's arms, pulling slowly as the beast would attempt to either rip out his arms or tear him in half. He yelled as he felt his shoulders being pulled out of their sockets and a sickening crackle caused him to bare his teeth. He looked below him, his feet dangling above the ground and his tail from between his legs. He gasped as he saw what could be his hope of winning, the discarded detonation pack that sat on the floor, just a few inches from the beast's foot.

He had to think fast, glancing at the large fingers that coiled around his arms. Opening his mouth, he sunk his teeth into one of the fingers, cutting through the fur and skin until he felt the rusted taste of blood. The beast withdrew and the vulpine slipped from the titan's crushing grip. He dived for the charge and ran as if the devil himself were after him, ducking as the titan swept his arm at him and it sunk into the ground, shattering the tiled floor. Fox quickly turned around and ran up the large forearm, up to the beast shoulder and jumping onto its back.

The titan thrashed and clawed at its back as it felt the little fox scurry up to the base of its neck. Fox activated the det-pack and bolted it into the beast's neck, leaping from its back as another clawed paw swept after him. He was caught in midair by the large paw and held up to face the titan, its hot breath blasting against his face. He pulled and squirmed as he neared the titan's mouth, seeing his panicked face in the reflection of the gleaming rows of fangs. A subtle beeping began to emit from the beast's back, causing it to pause before chomping off the vulpine's head.

Fox's expression grew confident as the beeping grew louder and the titan realized a little too late what was about to transpire.

"This'll be messy."

Fox took his free paw and covered his face as the beeping stopped and the beast gave out one last grunt. An explosion blew the titan to pieces, causing Fox to fall and land on the floor on his tail. He stood up and saw the smoking remains of the beast that nearly killed him, smiling until a shower of fluid and organic remains rained down upon him. He slowly rubbed the slime from his face and coughed at the smell, his body dripped with red and orange fluid, dampening his hair and the fur that covered his face and neck. The gunk dribbled down his neck and began to trail down his spine, causing him to stiffen up.

"Sick..."