Hello there, and thanks for continuing if you chose to do so!
This chapter was originally meant to be part of the first, but the reviews suggested some confusion at the timelines and flow for the story. So, instead, I've placed it separately in its own chapter.
As it was originally planned, the story was going to tell of Fox's son in an apocalyptic future, where Corneria went to hell. I made sarcastic jokes about how unoriginal that was, but the execution was going to be a new experience for me.
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Basically, the context was originally going to be about how robots took over the entire Lylat system, and work at terminating organic life. This was going to be a payoff idea where the readers were presented with this ruined place, it was revealed to be Corneria, and how there was a resistance struggling to survive from the robots trying to wipe them out.
The kicker was that, in the present, it was going to be a combination of Andross and ROB (yep) that were going to create this. Andross would have "lived on" through computers and his dying army, have his mind uploaded, and basically works as a virus. He would have a background plot where he ultimately takes over ROB, and uses him for scheming. And then that would lead to the future drama.
I'm explaining all of that here because, surprise, life happened, and I never came close to writing that much up. So, it's not what will ever be addressed in the story.
Instead, I'm leaving what was originally written below for the first chapter, now as its own, which introduces the future characters. They basically work like original trash, but it was ultimately going to be revealed that they were based on present characters. They each use codenames because their identities are recorded by the robots for their databases, and therefore easier to identify and hunt.
To get you invested, Vulpes is Marcus McCloud, Fox's son.
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But that's enough boring talk for the moment. If you'd like, feel free to read the bit of the chapter and character explanations below.
This doesn't really develop though, so if you lost interest, you can just skip ahead to the third chapter.
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[25 Years After Aparoid Invasion; Future]
A hooded figure stood away from the shattered window of the old building. His head jerked back a bit as something thundered in the distance. Quickly, the figure leapt back and covered himself as a missile burst through the window and exploded.
Glancing up past his navy blue hood, he gasped at the crumbling ceiling. Without missing a beat, he blitzed for the unhinged door and bolted down the stairs. The charred hallways crashed behind him as he escaped through the side exit of the building, diving as it collapsed behind him.
"This is Alpha Felidae, over." A feminine voice radioed over. The cloaked figure pushed up from the ground, checking the night sky as he hurried to a shadowed alley. He tapped on his headset communicator, opening the channel. "We saw the explosion from here. Vulpes, do you copy?"
"Vulpes here." His voice was more hoarse than usual and he coughed to clear his throat. "Got out, just barely."
"Copy," a more masculine voice came up. "Felidae Omega here, and I think we seriously need better code names."
"Oh, shut up," came the first voice. "Vulpes, you need to get back to HQ. They've got sentries deployed and they'll swarm you any minute now."
"So, run and gun." Vulpes slipped out a black blaster and turn the safety off. "Should be fun."
"Fun?! Vulpes—"
"Relax, Alpha. He's got it handled." The second voice chuckled over the communication link. "Give them hell, Vulpes."
"Will do. Give me a few; I'll be back soon. Over and out."
He pulled his hand away from his left ear and lifted the blaster, glancing out of the alley. Though nothing appeared to be around, he crouched down and lifted an empty glass bottle. Aiming it, he flung it out into the street.
Yellow lasers zipped through the sky, piercing and shattering the bottle. Vulpes crept further down the alley, ducking behind a dumpster and waiting.
He peeked out and watched as a silver robot marched in front of the alley, turning and scanning it. The bulky sentry held more than seven inches over the cloaked figure, with a single red scanner for an eyepiece, and one arm that transformed into a cannon.
Charging his blaster, Vulpes steadied his breathing. His free hand slipped over his belt and pulled out a yellow sphere. He clicked it and it lit up.
"Threat detected," announced the sentry. The hooded figure peeked out quickly and retreated as three more sentries entered the alleyway.
Under his breath, Vulpes let out, "You have no idea."
Deftly, he lobbed the yellow sphere out toward the robots. They turned to face it as he sprung from behind the dumpster and fired a red beam from his blaster.
As soon as it connected with the sphere, he dove back behind the dumpster, his cloak taking a few shots from the sentries.
With a sharp bang, the yellow sphere exploded, and flames engulfed his adversaries. The alleyway lit up as Vulpes ducked down and covered his mouth, holding his breath for a moment.
After waiting and watching the light from the alley fade, Vulpes stepped from behind the dumpster. Burnt parts of the robots were scattered around, with at least two arms and a leg still aflame.
Vulpes smirked and sped from the alleyway, charging his blaster again. He glanced back and watched as three more silver sentries rushed out into the otherwise deserted streets.
Spinning around, Vulpes let a charged blaster beam rip out and pierce through the first robot. A hole burst through its chest, but the sentry only fell back in line with its comrades, still pursuing their target.
Still, Vulpes ran through the streets between the burnt and broken buildings, only giving the blue and gray blurs a passing glance as he raced from the city. He dropped another grenade from his belt, activating it as he rushed out.
Slowing for just a moment, Vulpes turned and watched as the grenade went off, bursting under the three sentries. He smirked again, and then dashed off once more.
The figure tore across the scorched fields, his cloak flapping as the wind brushed beneath him. A yellow laser fired out beside him, and then another ripped over his shoulder, grazing him slightly.
With a yelp, Vulpes turned back and his eyes widened. Five more robots aimed their arm cannons, marching out of the city after him. A large black and green tank rolled out behind them.
Abruptly, a missile whizzed out and crashed into the robots, blasting them along with the front of the tank. Looking skyward, Vulpes noticed a large, red and black fighter ship floating overhead. He sighed in relief and waved as it lowered. The cockpit opened and a helmet covered wolf waved to his hooded friend.
"About time you showed up, Canis!" Vulpes laughed.
"Aw, sorry, were you waiting on me?" The wolf teased and stuck his tongue out.
He climbed aboard and sat behind the wolf, as Canis closed the top back down. They flew off, leaving the city far behind them.
"Lucky you, having me save your butt yet again," Canis ribbed. "Are we still keeping score? I think I'm up by two now."
"Please, you owe me your life," mocked Vulpes. "And no, you've just caught up."
"What?!"
"Remember the time where I had to grab you from the exploding factory?"
"That doesn't count! I was already out!"
"Sure, right," Vulpes ridiculed. "And the time where you almost drowned after dragging a sentry into the lake?"
"Again, I had it handled!"
"If that's what you believe."
Canis sighed. "So, did you find the documents?"
"Yep, already scanned and sent them to the twins." Vulpes pushed back his hood a bit, wiping his forehead. "We can finish it up and have it running soon."
"That's great! And then we…uh oh."
"What is it?"
"Trouble."
Leaning forward, Vulpes gazed out the window past Canis as his mouth dropped open. A larger, silver fighter floated ahead of them, blocking the way to fly forward.
"You can outrun it."
"I can try."
"Canis, we need to get back to base!"
"…Yeah. Ok."
Hesitating, waiting to see the opposing craft make a move, Canis attempted to rocket his ship to the west instead. A cannon rose from the other ship, and it launched homing missiles against Canis's ship.
"Death seekers," murmured Canis as he checked his radar. "They must have been saving them for us."
"No worries," reassured Vulpes, "we've gotten past these before!"
"That didn't end well for the other guys though."
"Focus! We won't end up like them!" Vulpes tugged his hood forward. "Just get to the ship."
Using the thrusters to boost the ship, Canis watched on the radar as the missiles continued to fly after them. He dropped a Smart Bomb back and flew forward, hoping the missiles would be engulfed in the ensuing explosion.
"Did that work?"
As the blast settled, Canis watched the radar kick on again, with the missiles still inbound. He grinded his teeth and shook his head.
"Vulpes—"
"Relax, we'll be fine." He pointed forward, at a valley in the distance. "We're almost there, we just need to get to the vale."
"And the missiles?"
"The twins can take them down once we're close. They're on stand by!"
Unconvinced, Canis sped up again, closing in on a space between the hills. He spun the ship around, flipping it over. Touching the roof, Vulpes pushed himself back down into his seat.
"What are you doing?!"
"Preparing safety measures," explained Canis. He punched a sequence into several buttons on his computers. "The eject sequence is prepped."
"Fine, but we won't get there fast enough if you launch us out too early."
"Don't worry about that."
Light blipped over the fighter's radar, as the missiles closed in on the two of them. Vulpes tugged on his hood, nervously staring back out of the ship.
"Hey," Vulpes spoke up, "I know that a straight line is the fastest way to close in, but if you don't add a trick maneuver in this flight pattern, we really are getting burned."
"I already calculated that."
"Then what are you doing?!"
Canis chuckled lightly to himself and shook his head. "You're just too trusting of people, Vulpes."
His companion glanced forward, noticing too late that Canis had a finger over a pair of lit crimson buttons.
"Canis, wait—"
"Just fix this Vulpes. And hey," he elbowed his ally's arm, forcing it back as Vulpes attempted to stop him. "Trust your heart, but do whatever it takes."
"CAN—"
Pressing the back eject button, the roof opened and the back seat of the fighter flew down from the sky. Vulpes gripped tightly as the seat flipped and deployed a parachute.
He gazed up past it, helplessly watching as the fighter soared up into the sky. The black missiles chased after it, closing the distance easily. Watching the first one near the wings of Canis's fighter, Vulpes turned back and looked away, as explosions burst above him.
Not too long after, his seat soared down and landed in the valley. Hesitating as his mouth quivered, Vulpes unbuckled himself from the seat and slowly walked away, reaching the hills a short distance away.
From behind a split tree, two cats in armor rushed out, blasters in hand. They hurried over and pulled Vulpes along, dragging him behind the tree. While they focused on the silver fighter that loomed in the distance, Vulpes only turned back to see the smoke from his teammate's fallen fighter.
A slight whir sounded as the three jumped into a hole in the ground, and one of the cats covering it with a manhole lid. They descended into a dark tunnel, traveling beneath ground for a ways in silence.
Eventually, the trio reached a larger opening to a cavern, which housed a massive, partially destroyed white flagship. They passed a few rocks while water dripped from above, making their way to and inside of the flagship.
They walked inside and entered the vessel's monitor room, where a violet falcon sprung up from her seat. She whirled around and smiled as the three walked in, but waited in silence as the door closed behind them.
"Vulpes? Where's—"
"Didn't make it, Ava."
Her shoulders dropped and she heavily sighed, lifting a wing over her face. The two cats took off their helmets, revealing one black one and one white one, with similar facial features.
"Look," the white cat turned to Vulpes, resting his hand on the cloaked figure's shoulder. His yellow eyes searched past the hood, trying to reach through his comrade. "Canis did—"
"Not have to die for this!" Vulpes slammed his fist against the nearest wall. "He didn't have to…"
"Vul—"
"Let him be, Omega," the black cat responded and shook her head.
"Do we seriously need to use codenames right now?" Omega shook his head as Alpha rolled her blue eyes. "Look, I get that they could be listening in at all times, but we can't live like that."
"I agree that it's annoying, but we have to," reasoned Alpha. "Just for now."
"Ava," Vulpes shook his head and strode over to the falcon, "how long until it's ready?"
"Just a few more days, and I should be all set." She wiped her eyes and nodded. "The documents were worth the trip to the city, and I'll be able to finish it now."
"Good." Vulpes marched over to the main monitor, glaring at it. "We need to fix their mess."
"But Ma…Vulpes, we can't—"
"Canis shouldn't have died for nothing," Vulpes murmured. Silently, Ava nodded. "Come on. We all have work to do."
He marched back across the room, making his way out with Ava in tow. Alpha and Omega exchanged confused expressions, and then turned, staring at a damaged screen. It displayed a distorted side profile of a running scarlet fox, with a giant wing and a flowing tail. They shrugged to one another and started typing at the smaller computers in the room.
...
Ok, so, let's explain the characters themselves, since that's probably the weird takeaway.
Vulpes is the son of Fox McCloud, Marcus, and only definitely Fox's son. I'll explain that later, but it was to let readers have fun with shipping, which would have been based on reader preference.
Canis, real name Ulrich, was to have some type of relation to Wolf. I list his information like that rather than definitely calling him son, because based on reader choice, he would've been related in different ways.
Alpha and Omega, real names Luna and Haul, were cats (hence use of Felidae) that would have been related to either Katt or Panther, along with another character that was never introduced.
Ava, however, was meant to be an original character, and unlike the others, had no codename nor surname. She was meant to be a salvation kind of character that had ties to the Nexus, which will be explained later on too. I did toy around with her being related to Falco, but I was mostly moving past that.
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They have another chapter later on, but the basics are that they're the last of Star Fox, resisting the robots that were trying to basically dominate all organic life. And the robots were doing so, hence the bad future. This was going to culminate in a last ditch plot effort for the future heroes to send Marcus back in time, where he'd end up meeting up with his dad, Fox, and his other parent, selected by the reader.
I originally mentioned that I mostly didn't want to follow Command, since...well, I personally blame that for stopping the Star Fox franchise's story dead in its tracks, and why the series ended up retelling the same story (Lylat Wars) for over a decade. More on Marcus having a second parent later though.
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So, why did that end up being this weird and vague stitch-in for a chapter? Well, as previously mentioned, this was originally a teaser entry for the first chapter. The future segment wasn't going to get much detail in the earlier parts of the story because it was going to be brought back up later on with Marcus telling Fox about how things fell apart. He never learned what made ROB go evil, so he doesn't suddenly attack Fox's robot upon arrival or anything.
Because it was to just set up how the future plot would be told, this portion was just meant to establish it being part of the story for later. There's just the attack while Marcus and Ulrich escape, they lose Ulrich here, and his fate is left assumed deceased, but based on how it would've unfolded, he was supposed to have his future altered because of Marcus messing with the past, and therefore he survives. Never got there, whoops.
And it was all meant to be very vague, so there's no hard confirmation until the end, where Ava almost refers to Marcus by name, and there's a messy logo of the Star Fox team. So, yeah.
Chapter 3 returns to the Star Fox team in the present, where they follow the lead that Fox was tipped off about.
