The rocking of the Kremling Slave ship was enough to lull any kritter to sleep. Under the blanket of the night, with the soft light of moon and stars, Kremlings could rest easy. Especially with their Kong prisoners secure in their cells. For the Kremling Krew aboard, the night was peaceful. By the morning, they'd arrive on Krokodile Island and would be rewarded handsomely by King ; both for delivering to him a competent combatant for the Fight Pit, but also cause they were escorting the freshly captured, and very beautiful Tiny Kong, who'll be yet another jewel for the king of crocodiles.

Save for Captain Kutlass.

He was a Blue Kremling; Kutlass gave a low groan as he sharpened his namesake against the whetstone as he sat at the table of his room. The Captain's Chambers had much more furnishing than the bunkers and rooms that crewmen used, and much better than the prisons the prisoners endured. The Blue Kremline were a rare subspecies of Kremling, larger than most naturally and Kutlass was a large Kremling. Muscles bulged from his body as he sat there in candlelight. Besides his candle was a small device, similar to that of a tablet that was lying beside it.

[NO TRANSMISSION]

Captain Kutlass tried to be calm, but he was anxious. He did his best to just sharpen his sword and not notice the time passing, but he felt he could hear the ticking of a clock that wasn't there. His teeth started to grind against themselves, but he lifted his sword up to examine the blade. If he sharpened it anymore, the blade would be too frail to use. He felt sweat trickle down his neck, waiting for the call to finally come.

BEEP BEEP BEEP!

Kutass nearly jumped out of his chair. His heart skipped a beat as his sword dropped to the floor. His blue scales were starting to turn pale, but the sea captain grabbed the tablet and pressed a button. The screen flashed, a green scaled crocodile was staring him in the eye, one eye bloodshot and twitchy. Kutlass could make out the golden crown and crimson cape hanging off his shoulders, but the sole, red eye was all he needed to know who he was talking to.

The leader of the Kremlings; King K. Rool.

"My liege." Kutlass managed to say, giving a bow to the crocodile on the screen. "Captain Kutlass at your service."

King K. Rool's scales were a murky green color. A wide grin began to curl onto his lips. "Good evening, Captain~" He sounded so jovial, but Kutlass knew that the mood of his king could change at the drop of a hat. "Sorry to be calling you so late. It's just that your afternoon report had me so curious. Naturally, I thought I'd like to hear about it personally."

"Naturally, my liege. Of course." Kutlass hated to grovel like this. It was beneath him; even beneath that of an Orange Kremling. But he was smart enough to swallow his pride, as opposed to swallowing his tongue. "Is this about the fox I had mentioned in my message."

"Yes, yes, that exactly." K. Rool chuckled, "you're quite the lucky Kremling, Kutlass. You capture one of the four Kong Apostles that was under my greatest enemy. You smoke out Tiny Kong and her little Kong gang rebellion. And now you're hauling to me more trinkets from the sky and captured the pilot inside. You'll retire a very rich Kremling, my friend."

"Thank you, thank you. Your praise is too much for me." Kutlass said, smiling warmly at his king. It took all of his willpower not to snap his jaws at the screen, but he endured the humiliation. "This 'gift' from the sky, however, the fox. He's a wily one. I do not think this one will be as cooperative as the last one."

"Oh, that matters very little to me." King K. Rool rolled his eyes, "whether he wants to cooperate with me or not matters so little that it's laughable. But your report, the condition of ship looked." A picture of the Arwing appeared on the screen, battered and bruised and within the haul of Kutlass' ship. "Its parts look salvageable."

"That was a ship...?" Kutlass grumbled under his breath, but K. Rool heard him.

"Never mind that!" His sudden snapping made Kutlass snap back at attention. "I don't care what happens to the fox. Feed him to Kritters! Sell him to a Fight Pit! Eat him if you want. But that flying ship; if it's not delivered to my castle personally along with Tiny Kong and Dread Kong, you'll be working in a factory with the Kongs!"

Kutlass dryly swallowed the lump in his throat. The King of Kremlings was still knots away, but he felt as though he was right in front of him, with a clawed hand around his neck.

"Am I clear?"

"W-what?"

"I said 'am I clear', Kutlass?!"

His scales were turning white like a sheet, but the Kremling managed to nod his head. "C-crystal clear, sir!"

"That's good, that's good." K. Rool grew a new smirk on his face, a low chuckle flying from the back of his throat.

"Will...will that be all?" Kutlass asked. He waited anxiously for K. Rool to answer when the ship violently started to shake.

BOOM! BOOM! BANG!

"What was that?!" K. Rool demanded as Kutlass felt his heart bang against his ribs.

"Uh, let me get back to you, sir!" Kutlass hurried to say as he picked his sword up off of the ground. "Y-you know how it is. Duty calls!"

"Kutlass! Answer-"

Against his better judgement, Kutlass had shut off the tablet. King K. Rool was going to chew him out, but that was nothing when compared to the current crisis that was apparently happening right under his nose! Kutlass stormed to the door and forced it open, just in time to see his seamen dashing down the hall past his quarters. Once he saw an Orange Kremling darting by, the large Kremling grabbed him by the throat and lifted the scrawny croc up to his snout.

"What's the meaning of this?!"

"Th-the prisoners." The Kremling managed to choke out as he was literally being choked out.

"Tell me something I don't know!"

"N-no, Captain! Th-they've escaped! I-it's a mutiny!"

Kutlass stared blankly at the Orange Kremling, stunned into silence when he heard that final word. 'Mutiny'. It echoed in his head again and again. He dropped the Kremling onto the wooden floor before giving a loud shriek, piercing the heavens above the ship's roof. "Mutiny?! MUTINY?!"

With cutlass in hand, the sea captain darted through the halls of the lower deck. This couldn't be happening; he told himself that this was just some kind of prank being pulled by his crew. He was swearing to every form of creation that when he reached the top deck, someone was getting the nine-tails! But as he got closer to the deck, he could definitely here that something was happening. Raygun firing and sword clashing was echoing through the ship. Now Kutlass was horrified; was it really a prison revolt?! He was so close to Krokodile Island; K. Rool would have his scales if he sailed up to shore and told him that his prizes had escaped!

Giving a loud kick, he forced his way onto the top deck. His eyes were wide, stunned in silence as he watched the carnage. The Kongs truly did escape their cages! Large Apes were barreling into their Kong oppressors, snatching the rayguns and swords off their downed enemies and promptly using them now that they were armed! Monkeys climbed the ropes and mast, a raygun in each of their hand-like feet as they rained laser fire from above. Swordfights between startled Kremlings and readied Kongs ended when the Kongs disarmed their reptile opponent and ran their razor through their torso.

His eyes were flashing with crimson as he looked at the display. He growled, taking his sword and racing into the fray. The captain made an executive decision as he took his blade and ran it through the spine of a Kong as his scream broke through the crowd like thunder. The first thing on his mind; find Tiny Kong or Dread Kong. He was sure that one of them had sparked this rebellion! The Kremling was sure that if they were dead, then the Kongs would lose their morale! K. Rool would be aggravated at him for not bringing such trophies alive, but at least them being dead would be better than them escaping!

A Kong noticed Kutlass, pointing a raygun at him, but the Kremling captain was quick and able to cut the Kong's hand right off by the wrist. Crimson flashed against his eyes as the hand went flying into the air. Kutlass watched it rise and fall as the crocodile swordsman looked and saw it fall along with the ape that owned it.

Then, he saw her.

Tiny Kong had just cut down a Kremling with her own sword, panting heavily under the red moonlight, blocking another attempt at her life from a Kremling's sword. Sparks were flashing in front of her, but Kutlass couldn't see anything else but her. The noise around him had turned silent. His grimace had turned more sour as he bared fangs, containing his roar and keeping it down to a muffled growl.

He moved swiftly and without hesitation. Dashing for Tiny Kong with his sword ready, prepared to swing it from on high and cut her head right off. He was seeing visions of seeing Tiny's head drop onto the floor boards and roll away like a coconut, but his dreams of grandeur were stopped when a loud 'BANG' cut through the silence of his little world.

A raygun shot! It was fired right at his feet and forced him to back away to evade. Recovering his breath, he looked to where he was sure the shot came from, but didn't see anyone even look at him. Did he imagine it among the chaos? The thought crossed his mind, but then, he looked up. Kutlass watched as he saw the fox from this morning begin to swing down from the mast, raygun in one hand as he continued to fire shots at the Kremling.

Kutlass roared as he backed away, bringing up his namesake and deflected another shot. But then, another blast of hot energy hit his hand. He shouted as he felt his scales boil and he dropped his burning sword. It landed and clanged into the floor boards before the fox dropped from above and landed the sole of his metal foot right in the captain's chest. He lost the air from his lungs as he was knocked onto the floor of the deck.

Landing on the deck of the ship, the fox pointed his raygun at the downed Kremling. He looked at the smirk on the tod's face, which made the Kremling's blood boil. He was starting to see red as this stranger from the sky casually walked over to the downed captain.

"Allow me to introduce myself properly." He spoke, tightening his grip on his raygun. It was hard to hold it; clearly, it was made for hands much bigger than his own. It was bulky, looking like a flintlock pistol that modified and had a tesla tube on its side. For a Kremling, this was a handgun that one would quickly pull out of a holster, similar to his blaster. But for Fox, it was a hand-cannon that was had to get used to carrying around.

"My name is Fox McCloud. And now, you have two options." Fox kept his finger on the trigger as he stared Kutlass down. "Call off your men and surrender your ship. I'm sure you can see that you're losing, so give up now and I'll see to it your life is spared."

"Never!"

With a sudden scream that caught Fox a bit off guard, Kutlass grabbed the sword out of a dead Kremling's hand and threw it at Fox. Taken aback, Fox barely had the time to dodge as his heavy raygun was knocked right out of his hand. It went flying across the ship's deck. Fox wanted to run for it, but Kutlass had already grabbed another sword from his fallen comrade and decided to take out his anger on the vulpine pilot; hopping to his feet, he made another mad dash, but now had his sword prepared to cut Fox to ribbons. K. Rool be damned, he'd be getting this fox in pieces!

Fox, however, was quick and nimble. Kutlass' wide swing cut nothing but air as Fox ducked under the blade. He swiftly did a backflip to avoid another cut of the blade's edge. He landed next town a downed Kong, bleeding profusely as he gave a weak grunt.

"Take...please..." The Kong said weakly, holding up his arm and handing Fox his sword. Fox glanced at the dying Kong, nodding before he took the sword from his limp grip, all while Kutlass was racing after him like an angry bull.

CLANG!

With his knowledge of swordfighting being nonexistent, Fox was forced to imitate what he had been seeing for the last few hours. And with the flurry of sparks and blood, it wasn't much, but he managed to parry the incoming swings of the relentless Captain Kutlass, evading any other swift swings but whiskers on his face. Heart racing, Fox managed to steal the air for him to breath as he continued to evade the best he could. He'd feel himself lose his breath as he watched his jacket get cut up by the cutlass. Every step had to be precise or he'd be losing more than just a piece of cloth, but each swing got closer and closer to turning his green suit red; or, at least, what was left as Kutlass continued to tear it to ribbons.

"Hold still, damn you!" Kutlass shouted as Fox continued to back away. With each swing missed, Fox began to get used to the weight of the sword. As Fox stopped another blow from running scarlet, Fox was starting to tighten his wide arm swings. Learning how to fight with a sword on the spot was something Fox never thought he'd have to do, but he was always a quick study.

Nimbly hopping away from another swing, Fox landed on the railing of the ship. He was short of breath, but so was Kutlass. He was snarling and growling as he pulled his arm back for another wide swing. He roared as he swung again.

CLING!

Instead of meeting Fox's blade, he used his metallic leg to block the incoming attack. Kutlass tried to bring back his arm, but Fox was already swinging his arm down. Blood flew from the Kremling's shoulder blade as he gave a painful howl. He stumbled back, choking on his own screams as Fox jumped right for the crocodile and swung himself, delivering a heavy roundhouse kick to Kutlass' neck. Fox landed on his feet as he watched the Kremling's eyes roll behind his skull as he started to fall onto the floor of the deck.

THUD!

Fox panted, his ears ringing. He was sure Kutlass had him dead to rights, but he survived. He got ready to get back into the fray of the battlefield, but noticed that the fighting had turned silent. The vulpine looked around and saw that all eyes were on him. Kremling and Kong alike seemed astonished by the act of Fox having successfully bested Kutlass in a swordfight. The tension was so thick that Fox could cut it with a sword.

Taking advantage of the silence, Tiny Kong's voice erupted through the night. "If you Kremlings don't wanna end up like your captain, then drop your weapons!" Fox was left to watch as the various Kremlings began to follow Tiny Kong's demands. Fox couldn't help but feel a bit awkward; a feeling he hadn't felt for such a long time. He was being used as a threat; something that, admittedly, should've been something he was used to. General Pepper had no qualms stopping terrorist attempts with the hanging threat of calling the Star Fox Team.

There was just something about how he alien he felt. On Corneria, there were all sorts of people. Fox might not see, well, another fox for days or weeks at a time, but he knew they existed. And when your team consists of a robot and various representatives of the animal kingdom, it didn't matter if he was the lone fox of the group when Peppy was the lone hare or Fay the lone dog. But among these cheering simians and crestfallen crocodiles, he felt more like an outside, more like a merc, than he ever did in space.

But, at least for now, he could rest easy in knowing that the battle was over. The ship was there's and the Kremlings were now taken hostage. Fox was sure that the 'mission' wasn't finished, but the Pilot-Turned-Commando was just happy that he survived through the night in one piece.

To Newcomer64: Now that's a bit of a baseless observation. Just because Star Fox 2 is my favorite? I suppose it CAN be taken the wrong way; I've met the few games I've played overall, not the few games in this franchise I've played. Not that I've played EVERY Star Fox game-I don't think I did-but I did enjoy Star Fox 64, and Assault, and Command, and even Zero. It's just that 2's my favorite. And as for your last comment? You're wrong. I asked for it. And you know that old saying, don't you? If you want something done, you gotta do it yourself. Or something like that.