XXXVI. Star Wolf to The Rescue?
Fox woke up seeing that the previous day hadn't been a dream. He was broken from his daze when Krystal let out a loud yawn. "Fox.." She mumbled but said nothing else. "I'm sorry. Go back to sleep." He whispered back
"Fox!" A voice from the hall came and barged into the door "What the heck happened here? Better yet I don't want to know, Corneria's been attacked!" It was Falco and Fox didn't believe him for a minute "I doubt that it's anything terrible if anything." Fox sighed, "No it's bad and were landing in fifteen minutes so hurry up you two!" The vulpine scrambled up, pushing Krystal off of the bed.
Krystal woke up with a scream before making a thud on the floor. "Fox?!" "No time. Go get ready." Was all he said before he shut the bathroom door and took his morning shower.
"What's our plan going to be?" Krystal asked him when they both were ready, they were on the way to meet up with Falco, Slippy and Peppy on the Bridge. "I'm not sure what the situation is so I don't know." He laughed slightly.
"This is terrible Fox!" Peppy said as they entered the room, Fox's jaw dropped when he saw the pictures from Corneria City. "Our radar has been blocked by them this time." Falco added. "Great.. They got smarter apparently." Fox groaned and came up with a strategy.
"I'll take out whatever's blocking our radar while you guys support me in Arwings." "Going to be the hero again Fox?" Falco said angrily. "No it's got nothing to do with being the hero, if I can't make it you go on after me." "Fine, I like the sky more anyways." He muttered sarcastically and headed out.
Fox flew down to Corneria speechless at how bad the situation was, his mouth frozen wide open for a minute. "Is this even Corneria?" Fox asked when he landed on the nearly destroyed planet. "Yep now get to work Fox." Peppy said and Fox made his way through the city.
"This is terrible everything's in ruins." Fox exclaimed as he made his way through Corneria's capital city.
"I think I already see what's messing up our radar." Fox stated as he saw something that looked like an eye floating near some wreckage. He shot but it seemed not to be affected "Huh? I'm not doing any damage to it!" Fox yelled out in frustration before the eye opened and shot a weird ring of energy at him. The next shot he took he waited for the eye to open and that did the trick. With one shot from the sniper rifle he could take one down easily.
He traveled east, west, north and south across the city finding each target and taking out the enemies on the ground as well. Finding the jammers was an easy job for him, each one made a large green fog on the radar leading him to each one.
He was headed over a bridge heading for the last one when suddenly the bridge collapsed under him. He was on the center of the bridge so his only option was to hang on for the ride.
The loud sounds of the bridge falling could be heard over his yelling voice, the team had no idea what had happened to him. Fox groaned and tried to get up, unable to move for a moment luckily a building under him broke his fall.
"Fox? Fox?!" Falco asked after moments of silence. "I'm fine." He said even though the pain in his hip said otherwise. "Good! Fox! Help!" Krystal yelled out. Fox forced himself to stumble up and grab his weapon, only one problem his weapon wasn't on his back as usual. "Hang on Krystal!" He said and looked down on the building's top for his weapon.
Finally he found it, it had fallen through a hole on the roof down to the floor below. He looked down to check Krystal's shields luckily they were only down to sixty percent. Finally making his way to the top of the building to get a view of her Arwing he tried to get a shot on the three ships following her.
He couldn't get a clear shot, she kept winding back and forth behind buildings to try and get away. "Krystal...I can't get a clear shot...The buildings." He managed to say trying his hardest to get even one of the ships. He looked down her shields were going down faster and faster. "Okay hold on I'll fly by you." She struggled to control the ship and make her way towards the vulpine.
It didn't help at all, the buildings were the only objects blocking most of the laser fire from the ships. Fox watched the gauge cautiously fourteen, thirteen then it happened. Her engine started giving out and almost flew her straight into the ground. "Krystal abort!" Fox ordered seeing that they were in a losing battle. She tried to refuse and trust the vulpine would save her "Krystal now!" Fox muttered still trying to get a shot off.
She had no choice now five percent and dropping, "Okay, good luck." and with that she put all her power to the engines and sped off back to base. "I hope she can make it.." Fox muttered aloud and he sat down for a moment frustrated at himself.
"Fox get back to work down there!" Peppy ordered minutes later, the vulpine had been trapped in thought. "I-I was j-just grr." Fox got up and put his frustration onto the next radar jammer and smiled slightly at what he thought to be a successful mission.
"Fox I sent you another Arwing find it and take out the flying Aparoids!" Peppy ordered again only frustrating the vulpine. He followed his orders as usual and ran towards the Arwing on radar. The absence of Krystal brought silence to the whole team for the entire mission and when he got on the building top that the Arwing was landed on the silence only got worse.
Fox was ambushed by Aparoids from all sides and another Aparoid came flying in. "Aahhh!" Was all the vulpine could yell as lasers fired all around him, he finally saw a hole and ran for it only to get hit by the flying Aparoid.
He opened his eyes a split second later, he wasn't on the ground but he was alive and that by itself was a miracle. "Wolf?! Why the heck are you here?!" Fox yelled when he realized he was on the wing of a Wolfen. "I thought I'd drop in, you complaining about it?" He asked with a smirk "No...Just why?" Is all Fox could manage out, millions of thoughts going through his mind.
"If anyone's going to finish you it'll be me. Now use this and blast those annoying bugs!" Wolf handed him a plasma cannon, the same one Falco had handed him on Fichina. "Does everyone have one of these now?" He asked before Leon and Panther cut in "Yes.. They're very easy to get...Illegally." Leon laughed "What happened to the girl?" Panther snarled but Fox didn't answer, ashamed of himself for not protecting his team and especially her.
"Fox get shooting they're all over me!" Wolf yelled breaking Fox's guilt and the vulpine shot away at the flying Aparoids while the lupine flew around the city. To Fox's surprise he worked well with Wolf but a bigger task was soon at hand when R.O.B. Yelled out an alert of another ship entering the area.
"Is that the General's flagship?" Peppy asked, indeed it was the old hound was flying to them. "Is he here to congratulate us?" Wolf asked but Fox knew better and could see something was wrong when the cockpit had some sort of purple glow to it. "Fox? Is that you... The Aparoids have taken control of me!" Pepper barely was able to speak. Fox's heart was pounding before and now it had dropped down almost into the pit of his stomach. He knew he had to take out General Pepper, here and now.
"Fox just accept it and don't let up!" Wolf cheered him on as Fox struggle to pull the trigger on the general, his friend was now his enemy and the Aparoids wanted it that way, they knew how to get to him and his team from all the memory they had absorbed. "Fox don't stop!" Falco cheered him on, Slippy could be heard crying knowing that either his best friend or his other friend would die from this.
The general shot missiles, lasers, everything to try and stop the vulpine but he didn't stop he fired until the general's ship took too many hits and his ship fell with a small explosion. "General Pepper!" Peppy yelled and his Arwing came flying into the battle. "Peppy?!" Fox yelled out as he saw Peppy fly under the general in an attempt to save his life, then a huge explosion came from both of the ships Fox knew that they both now were dead and shed a tear.
"Ouch..I'll feel that in the morning.." Peppy groaned bringing a sigh of relief from everybody "Peppy what have you done?" The general asked but Peppy only grinned "Looks like I'll never retire now. Get me to a medic." Peppy smiled even though he was injured from his job well done.
Fox flew back to the Great Fox to check on Krystal. When he arrived the vixen was nowhere in sight only worrying him more. "Krystal?!" He yelled out, no response. He headed for her room, no lights were on so he figured she wasn't there but went in anyways.
"Krystal?" He saw the vixen laying face down on her bed only bringing him a sickening feeling of guilt in his stomach. "What's wrong?" She could tell he was angry with himself over the matter and only muttered to him "I have a terrible headache, I hit my head on the dashboard of my Arwing when I was going down.." She lifted her head to show a slight bruise but nothing worse. "You'll be fine.." She smiled at him before crashing her head back down. he rubbed her temples trying to help her before Falco barged in "Fox we need to go help out at the gate!" "Okay, I'll be there in a second how bad is it?" For once he didn't seem affected that Falco had barged in on them when they were alone.
"There's a giant missile on it's way!" With that he got ready to head back out to aid the gate. Krystal tried to get up as well. "No you're staying, I'll be back in like five minutes." He smiled at her and left with a kiss to her forehead.
Fox and Falco went alone to take out the missile, finding a swarm of small aparoids in their path. "Target practice!" Falco laughed, enjoying his time in private with the vulpine on a mission. "There it is but all those Aparoids are swarming the gate too, we might not be able to take them all." Fox panicked soon three more ships came to their aid "Don't sound like that now Fox, We'll take the missile you guys focus on the swarm!" Wolf commanded and came in the nick of time too.
"Okay you heard him Falco lets see who can get the most ticks before we're done." The two took the mission as a joke and it was after that, Star Wolf easily took out the missile with three ships while Fox and Falco swept each corner of the area from Aparoids.
"Good luck at their homeworld..Bird.." Leon hissed as Star Wolf left the area. "There done with that!" Fox sighed. "What's your total Fox?" Falco asked "Four hundred and two." Fox said proudly at the number of kills. "Bah, you're kidding I got four hundred even." they both laughed "Well it's close enough so lets just call it a tie." The vulpine offered which Falco gladly accepted.
Krystal was awoken from the loud noises of Arwings landing in the hangar as Fox and Falco came in to see Slippy, R.O.B., and a bandaged Peppy. "Alright it's time to go to their homeworld so get some rest, tommorow we start our invasion." Peppy said bringing a nod from Fox and less positive response from the avian.
"What?! Tommorow? Do I not get a day off?!" "Well if we take a day off another planet will be in ruins!" Fox responded to Falco and only brought a sigh from him. "Okay Peppy get us there, I'm going to check on Krystal." Fox said and hurried off to try and help Krystal from her headache. Stopping for a shower on the way.
-Author's Note: YES I am still alive, got home later than planned from snowstorms and came home to no power, bummer. Sorry for the delay, this has put me way behind my planned schedule so I had to minimize these two missions and probably the next two for time. If for whatever reason I cannot get in the end of Assault tommorow I will add a one shot Christmas special, if I can I will add a chapter for it. Hope you enjoy this sloppy chapter somewhat and don't hate it totally. I will make something special for the holidays so keep watch. THANKS FOR READING. Your comments and messages make it all worth while. Hope you have a Merry Christmas!-