A/N: Might not have another for a short while working on a few things but, I also have class this week. also ^^ because people have often voiced opinions I'd like to write a few suggestions into this fic. So any suggestions will be taken into consideration toward the final product.

Chpater 8

Vinna Colletta pt 2

Skye was still not certain what was going on when she woke up. Whatever Krystal had done to her it had shut down most of her motor functions. The fact that the entire mission had been nothing but a set up irritated her to no end on top of the fact that she'd so easily been beaten by Krystal. She did have to admit that the entire situation had been convincing but, in the case of everything else that had happened, it all had seemed a bit too easy...she simply hadn't figured how easy it had been or why. It was some time later that she found herself sitting at a small table in the center of what was most likely the largest Galley she'd ever seen. Several animals stood behind a long counter that led to a large kitchen where orders were handed out and taken. It seemed more like an enormous restaurant than anything else. As she waited there, a familiar blue furred vixen met her at the table, this time dressed in nothing more than a white tank top and a pair of rather tight fitting jeans...

"I promise the headache will subside," She said sitting across from the young canine, "The Kiss is meant to subdue without intent of injuring."

Skye shook her head rather gingerly, "You and Fox both keep saying that. What the hell is "The Kiss" and why was I paralyzed?"

Krystal chuckled, "On Cerinia, where I am from," She replied, "my ancestors created that technique to protect themselves without the need to kill one of their own. By studying the habits and motions of a serpent near my village, a master warrior discovered that she could mimic the venomous effects of the serpent's bite with her fists. It took her ages but, she eventually began to teach her fellow Cerinians "The Viper's Kiss" or simply "The Kiss"."

"How is that even possible?" Skye asked.

Krystal sighed, "The viper that was studied has a habit of attacking certain centers of nerve clusters in the body. Because the warrior was very well studied in the body she learned of these points and developed a way of striking at them that would affect them thusly."

Skye nodded, "Hmm...I guess that makes sense," She replied, "does Fox know..."

Krystal shook her head, "Tradition on my home world dictates that the skill only be passed on from one female to another. You see that is why Marcus is so different than other males in Lylat. Cerinian males are naturally weaker physically, but, his mental prowess is beginning to even overpower my own. He really misses you."

Skye sighed lightly shaking her head, "How is he?"

"Not as horrible as I would have imagined to be honest," The blue vixen sighed, "I had always hoped he would find peace elsewhere in his life. Working in the Academy or somewhere with little chance of being shot at or killed. His spirit however is nothing like mine. He has Fox's spirit; the need to prove himself and the necessity to fight for those things he believes in."

"Marcus believes in too many things." Skye chuckled.

"He believes in you." Krystal smiled.

Skye sighed heavily, "I think all that time together gave him the wrong idea."

"What exactly is the wrong idea Skye?" The elder vixen sighed, "that you care about him?"

"NO..." Skye replied shaking her head as she looked to the table in front of her, "...it's just that. Well I've never seen myself as the kind of girl that just..."

"Settles down?" Krystal finished her sentence, "do you think that is what Fox and myself did? Just settled down?" She asked receiving a light nod, "you're wrong. Kursed never settled down, even after I forgave Fox. She wouldn't let me slow down for one moment...and for most of that time I did not want to. Look at it this way...how did it feel to you when those people down on Hades abducted you?"

Skye thought for a moment, "It was odd...I would have thought that I'd be afraid of something like that you know? But, I was actually...excited."

Krystal dropped her fist to the table, "Exactly. That was what I felt when I was Kursed, every moment of every day was excitement..." She said finally looking to the table as she began to fiddle with the platinum band around her finger, "but, all that time I knew something was missing. All that excitement and danger, it was just a way of covering up the fact that I still loved Fox," The vixen finally looked Skye in the eyes, "I learned back then that you can love someone for ages and not even realize how bad it all is...until you don't have them anymore. As a leader to these people, you're going to need to learn to rely on your emotions rather than hide from them, they rarely steer you wrong..." She said with a wink, "...trust an old vixen who's been there."

"You really should listen to her," Fox's voice caused Skye to look over her shoulder as he walked to Krystal's side kissing her gently before sitting down, "she's possibly the wisest person I know."

Seeing Fox sitting there Skye couldn't help herself, "What the hell is all of this? Why did you attack me? And what the hell did Krystal do to me?"

Fox laughed in tandem with his mate, "Calm down Skye. Listen, this was not just another test, it was THE test. I had to make sure you were ready for this before I went through with it all. The Grand Fox is just a party favor," He said holding out his hands, "this is your ship."

"What?" The canine asked in a dumb-stricken voice, her eyes expanding to the size of dinner plates.

"Let me explain before you start with more questions," He said, "you see, ages ago Wolf and I put together a little underground group called "Wraith". It was an undercover band of mercs that would act under the radar against Enforcer presidents. We knew where the Mercenary Liberation Act was headed and something had to be done about it. The idea of Wraith Cells was nothing more than a rumor to throw off the government."

Krystal nodded, "One of your father's better plans," She pointed out, "this is Wraith. This ship, it's crew, everything about it does not exist to the government. It's never been registered with the Accord and is equipped with the most sophisticated stealth and shield technologies money could never buy. See, Fox took notice of something about the Enforcers very early in his workings with the government..."

"It actually all started with a street drug that became pretty popular with kids your age about thirty years ago..." Fox pointed out.

"You mean HYPE." Skye cut him off.

Fox smiled with a light nod, "Exactly. Hype was killing people in more than one way; it was causing delusional psychosis, radical hallucinations, abnormal strength, resistances to pain, emotionless rampages. Even now it's a difficult drug to combat, see originally it was meant as a serum replacement for anabolic steroids, none of the disastrous side effects of the original, but, it came with its own laundry list of problems," He sighed, "before the Enforcers, there was no legitimate source of Authority in Lylat. We had no actual system wide police force. The Enforcers was a solid idea, until they became corrupt..."

Skye shook her head, "I don't understand."

Krystal nodded, "We had figured that would be the case this far. You see, the Enforcers began to...unify into a single branch that sets patrols for each individual planet. Eventually the Enforcers' higher ups decided that what each Enforcer was paid was simply not enough...commission based work seldom is. So, their biggest question became. How to make crime increase, and keep their jobs?"

Fox chuckled, "It was actually pretty ingenious. Several of the Lieutenant Generals of the Enforcers decided to work with a well-known chemist by the name of Randall Carth. The man that cured Tarrence Wailes Syndrome. For the right price, Carth managed to get his hands on a dose of the synthetic form of HYPE, and from that he began to alter the batch so that it would become radically addictive. The Enforcers hired some street walking scum to push it on the streets, and voila..." He said holding out his arms, "...a criminal pandemic is born. One shot of HYPE is enough to get someone hooked. Once Enforcer pay begins to drop, a new batch of the shit lands on the streets, this time usually in another leg of space. It's pretty horrible."

Skye blinked partially in disbelief, "You mean all Enforcers are crooked?"

Fox shook his head with a chuckle, "No, no, no. Plenty of them are just doing their jobs, but, the higher official ranks of the association have their little agreement. The man Wolf and I tracked down had a wellspring of accounts and figures that Krystal dug out of his head for us. It was because of that information that we've managed to follow their every move, but, something recently started looking wrong when Krystal's nightmares started."

"See, when a Cerinian dreams," Krystal pointed out, "it is often a glimpse at things, either past or present it can be difficult to tell sometimes. But, once in a great while, one of those dreams will be of things yet to pass. My dream was one of those; I have a notion that the Enforcers are in league with a force outside of the Accord. I am not certain what this force is or who they might be but..."

Fox patted the vixen's back, "It didn't look good from what I've been told. The dreams started about twenty years back, not long before you were born."

Skye nodded, "So then the point of this is all to stop whatever it is that's coming at us. What makes you think this little group could stop them?"

Fox chuckled as he noticed the usual lunch rush in the galley, "Any of these faces look familiar to you?"

A tall wolf passed them all before finding a seat with three lovely young females of various species, "That's..."

Fox nodded, "Maveric Quasar? He got tired of the Powerball circuit and fell into some underground cage fighting tournaments. By the time me and Krystal found him he didn't even remember who Maveric Quasar was. Goes by Maven now; there are nearly four thousand crewmen on this ship, and they will all be under your command, can you even guess why?"

The young canine shrugged her shoulders causing Fox to laugh...

"It's the same thing that made your old man a great leader," Fox replied, "the same thing that Krystal shows when she leads, and the same thing that caused a lot of people to follow me. You have a leader's heart, every action you do pulls others in with you. It's the ability to make friends out of enemies. I wanted Marcus in that seat so badly, but, you've spent time with him, he's no leader. He's shy and withdrawn, has no respect for his own skills..."

Skye felt strange asking but as the thoughts of Marcus built up, "How is he by the way?"

Fox looked to Krystal, "You didn't tell her?" He asked causing the vixen to simply shake her head, "no really easy way of saying it Skye. Marcus passed his training with flying colors, his unit was deployed to the civil war in Stygian. We haven't seen him for some time," He replied, "the Sergeant said he completed basic training in two weeks, advanced training in three. It's the shortest amount of time anyone's ever spent in the Viper program before becoming a Viper..." He shrugged his shoulders, "...however he's doing and what he's doing right now...it's all classified."

Skye scratched her forehead causing the small ruby jewel dangling about her face to bounce around a bit as it leaped from her finger...

"So this whole thing is mine?" She asked cutting her eyes at Fox resulting in a positive nod, "Star Fox."

Fox gave the young female a confused look, "What about it?"

Skye sat up and stretched out her arms, "Lot better name than Wraith."

Fox chuckled, "You're more like your father than I thought," He smiled causing Skye to give him a confused look, "you have his knack for asking for trouble."

"That team was all I ever dreamed of when I was little," Skye replied, "a little trouble is much less than I'm willing to pay to be a member of that team. I know it sounds stupid but, Star Fox was the whole reason I ever even joined the Academy in the first place."

Fox shook his head, "No need to explain. Krystal and I will remain here on the ship with you for your first few days. After that you'll answer to us only through a complicated com system. Understand?" He asked receiving a positive nod, "good now, let's go have a look at your new ship."

Skye eventually found herself standing in her quarters; night had set in and where she would have normally been tired, she could do little toward concentrating on sleep. She couldn't believe what was happening, it felt like just a short while ago she was a child barely old enough to cook her own meals, now she was being thrust into the position of leader of what looked like an entire army. Finding no solace in the room she found herself seated, then walking, then standing quietly, then back to pacing the floors again—whatever her urges she simply could do nothing to keep them in check. Much of the time she found that her body would simply not allow her to bother with something as foolish as sleep—her thoughts paced about her head just as endlessly as her feet did the floor. The ship—so far as she'd seen—was a grand thing many times the size of the Grand Fox, the galley itself was the size of the Grand Fox, and now that she'd been told the truth—she knew that the Grand Fox was nothing more than a large dropship. What sort of troubles could this new Star Fox squadron be of use for? Where they meant to be some sort of mercenary army? There was merit in the idea, but, it was just merit and it would all matter for not if the case was she was the wrong person for the job anyhow...

"Why is all of this happening to me?" She asked herself, "maybe it won't be all that bad though-" She sighed, "-what I need right now-is a fight."

With a bright smile, the canine stood and wandered off, of all the places in the ship the one place that she did not get to see as much of as she'd have liked to, was the training hall. In the case of the massive ship, it was an equally impressive room—many training rings, as well as many of the most modern day pieces of equipment a person could find. Gravity based weight stations, mills that simulated a running environment so that a body was given the impression of jogging through a landscape instead of simply running in place. It was as if the entire training hall was run of something far greater than she'd at first imagined. Walking into the room however the shrill slap of a strike meeting the face of a large punching bag followed by a semi-robotic voice caught her attention...

"Right leg...nine hundred thirty-six point four five pounds per square inch..."

The wolf standing near the bag was none other than the white furred canine that had been a part of her initiation into the group however, as he stood there, she noted that his right leg was missing something. Flesh, bone, muscle...all was replaced with a skeletal model of machinery...

"What was the measure for the left leg again?" He demanded.

"One thousand, three hundred, twenty-six, point three, three pounds per square inch..." The automated voice replied.

Dax nodded, "Hmm...sounds about right. Send those results to Doctor Vallding in the sick bay, I might need to have the links looked up on..." He pointed out causing the computerized voice to respond positively, "you're up late. Can't sleep?"

Skye couldn't help but to be taken back, his back was turned, the door had been completely silent and she never wore any type of perfume, "No I couldn't," She replied regardless, "lot of shit to take in in such a short amount of time."

As Dax stood by he reached for something that looked like a rubber sock of sorts before slipping the metallic appendage into it and rolling it up to his thigh. The entire thing then tightened down causing the leg to look no different from his other leg...

"Not a whole lot of people that come to a training hall because they can't sleep," He chuckled, "I come here pretty often. I've been a member of this team for four years now...and I think that most of that time has been spent in here," The wolf smiled and sighed as he walked by her with a sweat towel draped over his neck, "cute little tattoo by the way. Though I'm not sure why you'd get it in such a strange place."

Skye's eyes widened as she recalled the fact that her and Tilly had been nude for a short time while they were escaping from the false kidnapping plot, "I was stupid alright..." She replied rubbing the side of her ass with one hand, "...I wanted to be different but, I didn't want mom and dad to see it."

Dax chuckled, "You just never came off to me as the type to have a heart tattooed on her ass is all," He replied, "that big ol' gal you were with maybe...but, you came off ta me as one of them...shoot you in the face with a happy smile types. On any side note I'm sure your boyfriend likes it."

Skye shrugged her shoulders, "I'm sure he would if I ever had one. I'm not exactly girlfriend material."

"Depends on which angle you're looking from really," Dax smiled while tilting his head to one side, "then again, you're a lot easier to look at than that last girl I dated...well let's be nice about it and just say she wasn't exactly a model."

Skye grinned cockily as she rested a hand on her hip allowing her body to slouch to one side, "Now you're comparing me to a model?" She chuckled, "you gonna hit on me next?"

The wolf chuckled, "Must be losing my edge..."

"No..." Skye reassured the wolf, "...you're just nowhere near as charming as you think you are."

Dax placed a hand over his heart, "Ow..." He scoffed at the pretty young canine, "...that—really fuck'n hurt..." He laughed before stepping forward with an outstretched hand, "...look maybe we started this all off wrong what do you say we start this over?" He chuckled as their hands met, "Daxter P. Spalding."

Skye could only chuckle as she shook the wolf's hand, he was trying, "Formerly Summer Skye..." She smiled, "...currently Skye O'Donnell..." The female's smile was clearly one that was to poke fun at his name...

"Look go easy on the name alright?" Dax chuckled, "it was hard enough growing up with that noose around my neck. I don't need that kinda shit on my head here."

"fair enough," Skye chuckled, "just don't call me Summer or O'Donnell in front of anyone and I can hold up my end of that deal."

Dax looked the canine over, "So... training gear or do you always dress with this much skin and fur showing?"

Skye sighed heavily, "I'm beginning to see that flirting of yours as a reflex...so I'm gonna overlook that comment," She smiled, "on that—yeah I pretty much always look like this..." She chuckled, "...you know what? You're alright Dax. S'kinda why I feel a little bad about this."

Dax scoffed, "About what?"

Skye's grip suddenly crushed down on Dax's hand before a lighting like motion allowed her to bring her other arm up under his shoulder. The surprising amount of force in which he was whipped over the female's shoulder tore him from the ground. Upon feeling his back slam against the mats, the wolf felt the air rush from his lungs...

"Ow..." He coughed, "...nice takedown..." He coughed again as he fought to catch his breath, "...my turn to apologize."

The strange way he moved completely took the canine off guard, in one serpentine motion he managed to slide beneath Skye's legs rising so that she was seated on his shoulder. As she was lifted into the air however, Dax spun about before swinging the female into the ground, planting her painfully onto her back. She's seen wrestlers do the same thing many times before...and now she knew for sure that the maneuver hurt like hell. As she lay there perhaps rethinking what had just happened, Skye kicked off her neck and shoulders, landing on her feet before swiping a powerful kick at the wolf's face. A resounding force met only by the wolf's hand...

"You know there are better ways of getting a person's attention..." Dax chuckled.

Skye scoffed, "Don't flatter yourself..." She replied managing to wrench her leg free and placing a powerful spinning kick into the wolf's gut which dragged him from his feet while pushing him back and into the air before dropping him on his face, "...just shut up and fight." She laughed.

Dax coughed again as he struggled to his feet, "That was a pretty cheap shot," He laughed as best he could, "I like that..."

As the wolf finally made it to his feet he stretched his neck and took stance, a rather rudimentary stance of the lot she'd never actually seen. Unfortunately, as crude as his stance may have been it proved all too effective as the attractive young female rushed in at him. Her punch was solid, well aimed, and strong—however, as her fist glanced to the left, in a similar throw to the one she'd used on him, Skye found herself soaring through the air before she landed on her feet kneeling near one of the rings. She could not place what had happened in her own mind, it had almost been as though her punch had simply slid off as it contacted leaving her wide open for the counter she now attempted to recover from...

"I grew up in a monastery you know?" Dax pointed out, "it was an interesting life but, the monks there found me abandoned near an old tree on their grounds. They didn't care that I was a deformed infant, they even went through the trouble of having my missing arm and leg replaced with Links that could make my life relatively normal. Studying their martial arts helped integrate these Links into my network, now they're no different than real limbs. The doctors are still trying to learn why my synaptic connection with them is so advanced, Valding seems to think it has something to do with my missing limbs from birth," He sighed turning and returning to his bench to towel himself off, "you're good…nothing less than I'd expect from an O'Donnell, even more so from someone chosen for this position by Fox himself; I'll gladly follow your orders as a captain, but, until you stop getting in your own way…you're gonna find growth to be a bit difficult."

Skye stood up holding her ribs, still uncertain when he'd struck her before the throw, "The hell is that supposed to mean?"

Dax laughed a bit as he headed toward the door, "You're a good fighter and a smart girl you'll figure it out. It was a pleasure meeting you face to face Captain; I hope I can be some sort of help in all of this soon. Call on me whenever you need me…"

"Dax!" The canine's call caused the wolf to stop inside the doorway, "I'm not looking for anyone to follow my orders…" She smiled at him, "…but, I can always use another friend."

With a light smile the wolf nodded toward the ground, "That actually sounds all the better for both of us. I'll be at my quarters for the remainder of the night…"

As he left the room Skye remained seated there; when they'd first met, she'd had the notion that she'd figured him out completely. Yet, there was another person completely under his cocky attitude, and a level of wisdom that simply did not seem to fit in her own mind. Oddly however, despite the outcome of their match, she did feel more at peace with her situation and decided that it was time she retired as well. She only hoped that at some point Fox would contact them with some form of work related to what they'd talked about previously…

Skye woke from a rather deep sleep and found her mouth to be sickly dry; the cooling unit in her room had been acting up and unfortunately the heat had been turned on all night. Because of this she'd gone to bed wearing nothing more than a pair of black panties and a very unpleased expression. As she staggered toward the bathroom however, the airy hiss of her chamber's door sliding open caused her to quickly look toward Dax, whom now stood there a bit dumbfounded. Skye however, simply looked to her bare chest before shaking her head.

"Just come in," She mumbled heading toward the bathroom, "too tired to care…I'll kick your ass later."

As Dax entered the room he called for the door locks, "You know if you were to keep your doors locked this wouldn't happen."

Skye's voiced echoed from the bathroom, "Well as hard a time as I had sleeping last night I'm surprised I'm wearing anything at all. So, what are you doing here anyhow?"

"Well," Dax replied rubbing his neck, "Mister McCloud called for a meeting this morning, I figured it had something to do with our captain…the file he sent was marked as being pretty urgent," As the young wolf reentered the room, now wearing a black tank top and fatigues she gently rolled her neck resulting in a series of pops, "say…not to bring this up and all but. What's with the…." He paused scratching at his own chest, "…accessories?"

Skye looked to her chest again for a moment with a scoff before getting her boots and gloves on, "Second year of the academy I met this girl, we became pretty close so I guess you'd say a best friend. One day we saw someone in the shower room after CQC training who had it. She thought it was cute, I thought it was kinda different so I agreed to get the same thing done too," She half smiled stamping her foot, "not quite the story you were expecting?"

Dax simply shrugged his shoulders, "Not really, just sorta took me by surprise. You never came off to me as the type."

"Well," Skye sighed slapping his shoulder on the way by, "count yourself lucky as one of three guys to ever see my tits…and keep all of his teeth."

As the two headed out, Dax paused, "Three?"

Skye chuckled with a sight, "Figures that would be the one part of that whole story you'd give any thought."

The com room was a different room located of the ship's third deck; more of a tactical planning and operations area, it was equipped with little equipment other than an advanced version of a Subspace transmitter. A large glass dome at the center of a circular black table surrounded with chairs seemed to be the room's only decorum, but that was just about all that seemed to be needed. Upon entering this room, Skye found that a roughly two-foot-tall holographic image of Fox McCloud stood at the center of the table; Tilly, Artimus, Gryfith, and Lamont already sat around the table in wait…

"Good," Fox's image said nodding to her as she sat, "now that the six of you are here we can get started. I'm sure the loft of you are interested in hearing what I have to say."

There was only a silence in the room from the six onlookers.

Fox sighed heavily, "There is an issue down on Macbeth that needs immediate attention. Now as for the six of you this mission will only require the lot of you. Your ship and crew will only act on the emergency that they are needed. Until then, the ship will be working on intergalactic protocol; as per my instructions, Lamont and Artimus have already sabotaged the Vinna Colleta's power core and it is steadily losing power you should reach Macbeth in a matter of hours," He said causing a map of the planet to appear beside him, "one of the Lylat System's biggest manufacturing worlds; it supplies more than 60 percent of our military munitions and firearms. Only a few short days ago we lost total coverage of the lower half of the prime continent; we have currently sent in Viper Sigma-9 but have yet to hear back from them. Seeing how Viper protocol works, radio silence means that they have either been captured, or are in hiding from a severe threat."

"What could be so bad that it could threaten a Viper team?" Skye asked, "I thought they were always trained to be the best of the best."

Fox nodded, as the image of Macbeth zoomed in to show a topographical map of a wide city area, "My sentiment exactly," He replied as a red blip showed up on the rooftop of a single building, "Southhaven was where we last had contact with Sigma-9, you'll begin your search there on top of Inquisitions Center. That was where the team's leader made his last call before his radio cut out. So far your mission is to find the source of this disruption and take it out, but, if you are to find any members of Sigma-9 you are to equip them with anything they deem necessary and assist them with their mission immediately. You will keep a low line transmission set up with the Colleta, upon any sort of discovery you will report to the Colleta which will then report directly to me. You all should understand that something like this has happened before, just before civil war broke out between Corneria and Venom, so this is a VERY time sensitive matter. The council requires immediate contact with the Macbeth senate. Therefore, your ship will be docked for emergency repairs, and under guise of a work crew, your six-man team will sneak out into the city of Southhaven. Unfortunately, we can only give you a window of seventy-two hours to keep this all from boiling over. On a further note," He paused causing a white, roughly drawn out, diagonal A inside of a circle to appear, "this symbol was found in several places before the team went quiet; any worthwhile information regarding to the meaning of this glyph will be…very helpful. Just remember, you'll have no more than seventy-two hours after your arrival; McCloud out."

As the image faded Skye looked stunned, she knew that a call from Fox would mean something serious but this was going to extremes. Stopping what could possibly be a civil war inside Lylat itself, "Seventy-two hours?" She asked, "did he send any information about the Viper Team?"

Lamont, seated across the table shook his head while folding his arms over his chest, "All Viper Units are black listed the moment of their induction. Makes it almost impossible for outsiders to know who is and isn't a Viper. All I have here is the rough information that is actually military mainstream information."

Skye sighed as the cheetah print fox passed her the folder in question, "Wow…black list, black list, black list, Cornerian. Black list, black list, Unknown?" She paused for a moment, "black list black list…Macbethian. Wow when they black list someone they really black list someone don't they?" After a moment, she finally pulled a single document from the file, "holy shit. Team Sigma-9, set overall record for the V-tek trial run, an unbroken record in over two hundred years. Each member is an expert marksman, first rate martial artist, and ace pilot. If these guys went down we've got a real problem on our hands. Anyone know the area Fox was mentioning?"

Dax nodded, "I'm not directly from Southaven but, I have been there enough to know the area pretty well."

"Fair enough," Skye replied, "then the moment we get into Southaven, you and me will head toward the point Fox specified. While that's all going on, Gryfith will secure a perimeter and Tilly will stay with Lamont and Art while they do their best to set up a relay point and establish a closed connection with the ship."

"Anything other than that?" Dax asked.

Skye sighed, "Yeah, just try not to get yourselves killed."