Authors Note: Sorry it took so long. Just in case anyone is wondering, I do intend on finishing this fic. It's just been taking a while, between school and writer's block. Just be patient. Thanks!

"When things go too well, that means something's wrong."

-Samus Aran

Falco Lombardi

Master Hand gave us the news a couple of days ago. Fox, Samus, and Ness were stuck in Hell. Of course, he said some stuff about staying calm and stuff. But it's kind of hard to when you hear that someone you know is stuck in Hell! A town called Silent Hill leading them to Hell. Who saw that coming?

So here, we tried to putting together a plan to locate them. Problem was, all digital signals were blocked, stopping us from locating Fox via headset. More so, we tried sending unmanned drones from Great Fox. However, every time we tried to do so, the results were all the same. Fog, static, dead signal. It was as if the place was designed to keep everyone in. Sick of it all, I decided to fly from the mansion and back to Great Fox, hoping to get some fresh ideas. But before I did, Zelda insisted on coming along, wanting to help. I didn't bother protesting. I was too mentally drained to put a fight and I didn't really see how her coming along would hurt things.

And so here we were, with me sitting and Zelda standing by my side as I looked out the window of the bridge of Great Fox, looking down on Earth. I sighed as I pressed a key on one of the panels. A screened opened up and showed a wavy screen before it revealed a green toad-like Cornerian, twisting a screwdriver in his hand as he tried to piece together another drone.

"Slippy, what's the status?" I asked.

"For the millionth time during the half-hour, I'm working on it," he replied, rather irritably. I growled.

"Could you hurry up, already? If you keep on taking this long, Fox, Ness, and Samus could DIE! Do you not understand that?!"

"Falco, don't you think you're being a little too -" Zelda starting, trying to interject.

"NO, I don't!" I replied angrily. "He's just taking his sweet time! Time we don't have!"

Slippy stopped working on the drone and looked at the monitor.

"Falco, you want me to work faster?" he asked sincerely. I nodded. Slippy then smiled as his voice tone returned to its cheery self. "Well, if you want to help me, do me a favor and do this one simple request: SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!" Zelda and I looked at the screen blankly. "Seriously Falco, I'm working as fast as I can. I'm heavily aware of the gravity of the situation, and I empathize with you, more than almost anyone else in this universe. But working on this is hard enough without you constantly on my ass about it. Just let me work on this, and if I have something, I'll tell you. Okay?!" And with that, the screen went black. I sighed as I rubbed my eyes.

"He is right, you know," Zelda said as she laid a hand on my shoulder. "Everyone's doing the best they can so they can get them home safely. Slippy especially. He has known Fox all his life and was there side by side through every war he has been in, just like you. So, don't give him a hard time, please?" I sighed before I nodded.

Slippy Toad

As the screen went black, I looked down at the table, sighing, letting my anger subside. Quite frankly, I couldn't really blame Falco. I doubt I, myself, would have acted any differently.

I returned my attention back to the few drones we were able to recover. One of them came back burnt from the heat, so we sent one that we usually used to monitor the sun. That one came back shut down. I furrowed my eyebrows. Could it be the fog? It couldn't have been the environment, because Fox and company would have been burnt to a crisp. So it had to be the fog. But how could fog cause this?

My lips twisted into a slight frown as a thought occurred to me. I didn't want to say it since I hated the "M" word. But it became more aware to me that it would be the case. I sighed as I hit a key next to me, bringing up the screen again.

"Falco, Princess Zel-"

"Don't call me Princess," Zelda interjected politely. "We're not in Hyrule. We're on equal footing here."

"Okay," I said with a brief smile. "I don't think the fog is something technology can solve."

"Why not?" Falco asked. "You've made Landmaster tanks and submarines out of old Arwing prototypes. What makes fog so difficult that...?"

"Falco…" Zelda said with a cautionary tone. She looked at me through the screen. "What's the problem, Slippy?"

"I think we're dealing with magic."

"Magic, huh?" Zelda said. She looked off-screen, possibly back at Earth. She then looked back at me. "Does your Arwing seats two?"

"One of them does," I said, scratching my head as I recalled the two-seater that . "Why?"

"I think I can clear the fog. Completely. But I need to get close to it."

"I can get you close, but how can you…?" I started to ask.

"I'm more than princess, Slippy," she said with a smile on her face. "I'm also a sorceress."

I nodded my head. "Okay. Falco, if you could, get the Arwing ready."

"Sure thing Slip." And with that, the screen went black.

Falco Lombardi

I sat back in my chair, sighing. I looked up at Zelda and smiled slightly. "It's going to take a while. I just hope Fox and company can keep themselves alive long enough."

"Don't worry, Falco. Knowing Samus, she probably has a plan, albeit a crazy one."

Fox McCloud

Samus had a plan. And it was a crazy one.

It involved being a distraction by playing injured. Except she didn't think "playing" was enough. She decided to take it one step further and have one of us get the shit kicked out of us. Alessa, Samus, and Kerri were ruled out, since I had a thing against hitting women. Plus I wasn't okay with kicking around my daughter, the love of my life, or a burn victim. Ness was out, since he was just a kid and DFX-10… I just didn't think it would be right. So that left me, with the healing factor.

So now I was rolling around the ground, coughing up blood after getting my ribs kicked in, while the others were hiding. I then heard the sound of a Jeep coming closer before it came to a stop. I groaned as I rolled around some more, before coughing up a huge gush of crimson.

"Hey, that's Fox McCloud," I heard a voice said.

"I guess he had a rough night," I another voice replied. "Look at him, rolling around like an animal."

"Dahlia would reward us greatly if we bring him to her. That would take care of one of her problems!"

"Emphasis on 'if' and 'would'!" I heard Samus yell. I slowly stood up as I heard the sound of a thunderous booms and bodies and lead shells hitting the floor. I tried to steady myself before looking around. "Phase one is complete. Now it's time for a little infiltration."

I eyed the jeep the soldiers were in. It was your typical jungle green Army Jeep, albeit an old one. In fact, it should have never been in use at all. However, mounted on the back was a fully functional mini-gun. I smiled at the potential fun.

"I call mini-gun!"

Author's P.O.V.

"Thirty more minutes before the big finale!" a voice boomed over the PA. "Make sure the motley crew doesn't do a damn thing about it."

One of the soldiers at the gate yawned as he heard this. "That's the tenth time he reminded us of the big event." He shrugged. "We're over 200,000 deep. What could the fur ball and his company actually do to us?"

"Keep focused Adams," the other guard replied. "As much as they are hated by us, Fox McCloud and Samus Aran have mowed down bases like this many times before. Sometimes multiple bases in one day. Don't be lax!"

"All that may be true, Anderson, but we're armed to the teeth with M-16s, MP5s…. heck, we have an arsenal large enough to take over a small country. Unless they got some with heavy firepower, then they aren't even going to be a thorn in our side." Adams then looked forward as he heard the sound of a jeep. "I guess they are done policing the area for now." He then raised an eyebrow. "Why aren't they slowing down?"

They received their answer as they suddenly cut down by hail of bullets. The jeep crashed through the gate, setting off the alarm.

DFX-10

It didn't take long before hundreds of soldiers started to come out and greet us. I merely pressed the accelerator and looked for the entrance. Fox and Samus fired off rounds from the mini-gun and pistol, respectively, with Samus riding, as she called it, shotgun. In the back with Fox, all huddled up, were Alessa, Ness and Kerri. I jerked my head to the side, dodging a stray bullet. Growling, I suddenly turned the wheel to the left, going into a drift.

"Jeeez, you're a worse driver than Kerri!" Ness commented. I then noticed a hand gesture from the young ghost that involved the retraction of four fingers. I merely stayed focus on my driving through the sound of simultaneous gunfire, making a mental note to ask Kerri the meaning of such a gesture. As soldier after soldier fell, I started to wonder how inaccurate so many armed could possibly be.

As soon as I made a turn for what looks like the entrance to the underground, I heard the sound of punctured tires. I struggled hard to keep control, trying to crash through the tunnel.

"Hold on!" I yelled out as more bullets found their mark. Soldiers started to crowd the entrance and fire off more bullets. I slammed the accelerator, going full speed ahead. Some soldiers wisely moved out the way. The ones who weren't so wise impacted against the front of the vehicle. My ears twitched as I heard the sound of bones impacting.

Alessa Gillespie

I had the two children pressed up against me. As Fox waved around the turret and DFX came to a slow, I slowly released my hold on them.

"I guess this makes me the nanny," I scoffed. I then looked around the tunnel. It looked like it was made of concrete, and it was round, as if the whole tunnel was drilled. The floor was metal, and seemed to be vented. The floor was littered with some metal cargo crates, like those found on a cargo ship. Some were stacked on top of each other. What surprised me most was the size of the tunnel. It was large enough to fly a fighter jet through. Not that a pilot would do something like that. "So what's the point of being in this tunnel?"

"There are some places of interest. In the second and third sublevels below are the White Claudia farm and the production plant, respectively. In the basement is the base's power room. Then there is the electronics room and the nursery chamber on the main floor."

"Why are the last two places significant?" Fox asked.

"The electronics room is where all new technology is developed or researched." He turned towards Samus. "This may be where your suit is." Samus's eyes narrowed.

"It may not be in good shape… but we need all the help we can get," she replied.

"Then there's the nursery chamber. The fetus that Ness coughed up is probably held there. All they need to do is find a suitable holder."

"Holder?" Ness repeated.

"Let's just say, we can't let that happen," I added quickly. "If that happens, we're fucked with a capital 'F'!" As I said this, the sound of footsteps started to sound.

"Alright," Samus said. "Fox, you and DFX take care of the White Claudia and the factory. I want to make sure this drug never, ever, sees the light of day! Ness and Kerri, you two take care of the power room. Blow them away. Alessa, you're with me. Now let's go find the elevator!"

We all ran up the tunnel. I looked behind, only to jerk my head forward to dodge a stray bullet.

"Shit!" I yelled. We decided to duck behind a few crates, with DFX-10, Samus, and I on one side, and Fox, Kerri, and Ness on the other side. The air was then filled with the sound of bullets impacting against metal.

"This is not looking good!" Fox yelled out. "Ness, can you keep them busy?"

Ness immediately stepped out into the open. In mere seconds, thousands of bullets stopped in mid air. The act itself was enough to cause the soldiers to stop shooting. However, it was immediately followed by each lead slug turning round and slim. So slim that the edges looked razor sharp. They then flew forward as seemingly supersonic speed. I didn't see what happened next, but my ears and nose told me all I needed to know: our pursuers were sliced to death. I turned toward the one I was cloned from.

"Is he normally this, bloodthirsty?" I asked him.

"No," Fox answered in a whisper. "As a matter of fact, I might have to look into getting his memory erased."

"Why?"

"Kids aren't supposed to be doing shit like this."

The six of us stood up from our hiding places. The alarm was still blaring as we walked down the end of the hall. There was an elevator with polished metal doors. I narrowed my eyes. The elevator seemed to have a handprint scanner next to it. A similar device was next to the door.

"Of course, that would be TOO easy," Alessa quipped. "Looks like we're going to have to find a hand from one of those -"

She didn't get a chance to finish her statement as a dismembered hand floated in front of Ness. While Alessa looked at the hand all shocked, I calmly grabbed in from the air and pressed against the panel. As it scanned, Samus spoke to Ness.

"Where'd you find the hand?" she asked.

"As soon as I saw it was a print scanner, I decided to… grab one from one of the dead soldiers," he replied. As the elevator doors opened I turned towards Samus and Alessa.

"This is the part where we split up," I said. I tossed the hand towards Samus, who grabbed it. "Use this get into the rooms."

"We'll take care of the rest," Fox said.

"Just come back in one piece," Samus said. "I'm not leaving here without you."

"Likewise," Fox said we entered the elevator.

Fox McCloud

DFX and I were the first ones to exit the car. I almost didn't want to let Ness and Kerri go. But they managed for themselves before without me. I sighed as we walked down the hallway, drawing a laser pistol in one hand and a Colt .45 in another. I handed DFX the Colt, who grabbed it and looked at the weapon before cocking it. I surveyed our surroundings. The place was pretty clean, as expected. The theme seemed to be polished metal. Only the floors weren't metal, instead made from linoleum. As we walked down the corridor, I couldn't help but watch DFX from my peripheral.

It felt weird being around a clone of me. It wasn't an everyday occurrence to me. Not even a once a year occurrence. I narrowed my eyes.

"Why are you here?" I asked the clone. He turned to look at me, a look of confusion on his face.

"Am I not supposed to help you destroy the farm and factory?" he replied with a tone that matched his look.

"That's not what I meant. Why do you even exist? Why did a make a clone of me?"

"I was supposed to be here to kill you." I raised an eyebrow. "I was supposed to be a nigh-emotionless killer. The Order didn't want you guys to be close. So, they decided that to make me to deal with you all."

"So what changed?"

"Samus spared my life. It confused because during my creation, I was taught to kill or be killed. I guess…. Mercy is it?" I nodded briefly. "Mercy was a foreign concept to me. After getting attacked by Mother Brain, I ran off until I found Alessa. She convinced me to stay to help you out."

"I see." I bit my lip as we came to the door. Above was a white and read sign warning everyone to seeing it to wear masks before entering. To the right was a whole rack of what looked like gas masks. I narrowed my eyes. This was too easy. Almost as if he read my mind, DFX spoke.

"Am I the only one uncomfortable with the lack of challenge getting here?" he asked.

"No, you're not," I said as I reached for two masks. I handed one to DFX before placing the other one over my face. It took some effort due to my communications helmet. I took a few breaths before, not only to test the breathability of the mask, but see if I could smell the air. "How's your mask?"

"No problems with it," he replied.

"Why would we need these anyway?"

"White Claudia is very dangerous to handle. Its flowers contain a type of pollen that, when inhaled, can cause paralysis of the lungs, prevent respiration. When disturbed suddenly, it will launch the pollen in the air, taking up the attacker."

I blinked. "Well, I guess we wouldn't want that, now would we?"

"Asphyxiation is not on my agenda."

We opened the door, and entered. I almost dropped my pistol.

The farm was a whole lot bigger than I thought it would be. As a matter of fact, the place could only possibly be measured in acres. I blinked a couple of times before looking above us. The ceiling was kind of high, and hanging from it were lamps, probably used to provide the plants with the needed light. Many lamps hung across the ceiling. However, for some reason, I couldn't see much of the ceiling itself, even with my vision. I didn't hear anything either. I then looked at the plants themselves. I walked up to one of them.

Each plant was rather small. It almost looked harmless. Especially it's flower. Its seven petals were pure white outlined by black. It was beautiful. Too bad it was dangerous in the wrong hands.

I licked my chops.

"This is still too easy!"

I remembered some of earlier days of being a member of Star Fox. While Slippy, Falco, and I were already top-notched pilots, Peppy was teaching us the groundwork of being a mercenary. One of the lessons was stealth, and how to use environment in that respect, including the dark.

"When you're the dark, you can see everything in the light. But when you're in the light, you can't see anything in dark."

That was what he said. What did this have to do with my current situation? Well, remember the ceiling that I couldn't see much of?

I felt something fall on my shoulder. I stood up straight and picked up the object. The object was a large cocoon, large enough to cover my hand. I looked towards DFX, who had a cocoon hit him on the head. I then looked towards the ceiling as many cocoons fell, sound like plastic hitting the floor. I then looked at the cocoon in my hand as it started to crack. As it hit the floor, it started to crack open. I pulled out my pistol and fired at it. It was immediately vaporized. I then heard a chorus of cracks. DFX and I looked forward to see a bunch of dog-sized insects crawling towards us. They looked a lot like the wetas, except their mandibles were relatively larger, and I'm pretty sure saliva didn't run out of the mouths or normal wetas.

Oh, and in case you're wondering what a weta is, look it up on Wikipedia. Then look at the picture. Then you'll realize why a part of me wanted to piss my pants at that moment. Not something you want to see when you're entomophobic/arachnophobic.

DFX didn't stand there as he immediately opened fired. As he did so, gunning down six out of what looked like thousands in the process, I ran for the door, hoping to escape. I tried to open it, it just didn't budge.

"Typical!"

I turned around and fired several pistol shots, downing seven of them. DFX and I kept on shooting, trying to fend them off. I then tossed DFX two magazines when I heard his pistol empty. He caught one of them, letting the other one fall to his foot for now. We kept on firing, trying to keep them at bay. Problem was, they were getting closer and closer. I didn't know what to do at first. I then thought of something.

"DFX, what would it take to disturb the plants?" I asked as I kept firing.

"Just sudden nudge!" he yelled back. I smiled underneath my mask.

"Down the lights!" I yelled. Nodding, he opened fire on the steel wire that was supporting the lights. I followed suit as, one by one, each light fell. And each one hit a section of the plants. As DFX explained earlier, pollen filled the air. The insects screeched out loud as they clawed the air. Eventually, they all collapsed, trying to breath. I looked towards DFX, who lifted up a hand. The hand suddenly ignited.

"It's time to complete the mission."

I watched as he shot out a stream of fire from his hands burning one of the plants. As he moved forward, I sighed as I ignited my own hands. The room started to turn red and orange as flames filled the room. The scent of burning plants and crackling insect carcasses filled the air. I kept on shooting out streams of fire, making sure each plant didn't go unharmed. As set the room ablaze, I thought about DFX. Prior to him, I had no existing member of my bloodline. Both of my parents were lone children, which meant I had no uncles, aunts, or cousins, and my grandparents have been dead for a very long time.

He's all I have left.

DFX-10

The deed was done. The plants were dealt with. The factory itself wasn't a problem at all. We torched everything we could, destroying machines and conveyor belts. I was even able to hack one of the computers and erase the formulas.

After the ordeal, Fox and I were showering in a hazard stall made specifically for cleaning. I scratched at my fur, trying to make sure no pollen is left, I hear Fox whistle. I turned towards him and listen to the tune. He kept on whistling until he caught me staring.

"What's up, DFX?"

"The tune, it intrigues me," I replied. I was met with a small smile. He turned away at first, but he then looked at me.

"Hey, about earlier… Sorry for shooting at you."

I didn't really know how to respond, since this was the first time someone has apologized to me. I merely nodded. He then smiled slightly.

"And when this is over, we need to do something about your name." I blinked a few times.

"What's wrong with my name?"

"It's not a name. It's a designation, a serial number. You're not a product. You're…"

"…family?" I replied, attempting to complete the sentence. Fox smiled.

"Family." He then looked up into the ceiling. "I wonder how Ness and Kerri are doing."

As if to answer his question, the lights went out. Fox chuckled.

"Not bad. Let's get dressed. We're headed out of here."

Kerri

Fifteen minutes earlier….

I poked one of the soldiers lying on the ground with a bayonet.

"Yuppers, he's dead," I commented. All of them were. Ness nodded at me as the glow in his eyes dissipated. We focused our attention on the generator in front of us. It was tall and cylindrical in shape, and seemed to be made out of steel and plastic. On the front of it was a screen, displaying the status of the energy source, and a keyboard right below it. I narrowed my eyes as I approached the console. I pressed a key. Immediately, the screen changed, showing the word "PASSWORD" and a blank, rectangular box below it. I narrowed my eyes, trying to think of a password before typing in "DAHLIA". It didn't work, giving me an "access denied" message.

"Typical," I said muttered. I looked towards Ness. "You wouldn't happen to be cyberpathic, would you?"

"The only cyberpathic act I ever committed resulted in the destruction of my Nintendo 64."

"I see." I stared at the screening, not wanting to cause the whole base to explode, just in case the others were trapped inside. I sighed, trying to think of possibilities for the password. I kept on entering password after password, from "ALESSA" to "FOX MCCLOUD", to "DFX10", failing each time. Exasperated, I entered "QWERTY". This resulted in the screen flashing "PASSWORD ACCEPTED" and then displaying several options.

"QWERTY…" I said to myself. "The password was QWERTY." I pressed my tongue against my cheek before shaking my head. "Does that make any sense?" Ness scoffed.

"Makes as much sense as this whole town," he commented. I shrugged as I strolled through the many options, finally finding the emergency shutdown.

"Oh Dahlia, you're gonna regret ever taking your password out of a typing instruction book!"

Select.

Enter.

The room went pitch black. Then a orange-yellow glow radiated from Ness's hands.

"Good work," he said with a smile. He then jerked his head towards the door. "Let's go."

Fox McCloud

I looked at the Kerri and Ness as they exited out of the base.

"Took you guys long enough," I commented. I sighed. "Good work."

"Thanks," Kerri said as the two stopped in front of us. Ness then looked around.

"Where's mom?"

"Right here!"

We all looked up at Samus, with Alessa in tow. This time, Samus was fully clad in her power suit. The suit was different, however. Instead of the usual orange and red motif, it was dark blue in black, with the cannon the color of gun metal. On the only arm that had a hand, she dragged along a soldier in it, leaving a trail of blood behind her. I smiled, glad to see her with her most dangerous weapon. She stopped in front of us, tossing the soldier's body aside.

"We've found the tech room with no problem," Samus said, her voice sounding slightly echoed and muffled under her helmet. "There was nothing in the nursery, though. It was empty. Everything seemed stripped bare." She tilted her head. "I couldn't even track them via scanner."

That's when we paused. All six of us stood there, looking at each other. We couldn't find the fetus. I sighed, looking down at the ground.

"Maybe the fetus is dead," Kerri suggested with a hint of optimism in her voice.

"It is a distinct possibility," DFX… my clone said. "It could have been a while before they could keep it alive."

"We did manage to destroy a drug lab," Ness added.

"Which means no more of the dangerous White Claudia," Alessa added. "We've wiped more drugs off of the Earth than the DEA! Maybe they should hire us to sweep through Columbia." This brought a light chuckle from the whole group. Then that feeling settled at the pit of our stomachs. It was the same feeling that I've felt in the pit of my stomach many times before when I felt things were going too good for me. And, despite the fact that really didn't achieve everything we wanted to do on this raid, I couldn't help but feel that things were going too good for us.

"Too easy," I said.

"You're right, Fox. This IS too easy."

The six of us turned around to face the source of the voice. I clenched my jaw shut, growling out loud.

"Typical," Alessa said. "You just couldn't give up, could you?"