Welcome back to this old story!
So, with this chapter, we join Fox and his friends as they return to the Great Fox. Krystal has been stranded there the whole time with certain visitors, as they give her a ton of questions while waiting on Fox to return.
Who are they? This one, I'll leave for the story itself to answer.
...
[Corneria Skies, Present Day, 18:03]
The trio of Arwings surged through the air, bound for the large gray ship in the distance. Two pulled further ahead, racing ahead together.
"Aw, come on, you guys!" Slippy's voice cried over the communications channel. "Do we really need to race like this, right now?"
"You better believe it, Slip!" Falco laughed. "There's no better way to practice your ship's limits!"
"Fox, come on," whined Slippy. "Falco's always like this, but you're not—"
"Hang on, Slippy," interrupted Fox. "I'll let you finish as soon as I blow past Falco."
"Oh, I'll give you something to blow on," taunted Falco. "My dust!"
Falco's Arwing boosted ahead, rocketing off from the other two. Still, Fox refused to give in and charged after Falco, leaving Slippy a distance back.
"Guys," griped Slippy. "Just…wait up a little bit?"
"No chance," mocked Falco. "Seriously, Slippy, you designed these ships! You helped build them! How are you still not able to—"
"Eat my dust, Falco!"
Fox laughed as his ship pulled ahead of Falco's, nearing the mother ship.
"Bah, you're not getting away that easily, Foxie!"
"Really?" Fox smirked as he glanced at his radars. "Because from where I am, it certainly doesn't look like you're catching up."
"Think again, Fox!"
Pushing the fighter once more, Falco's Arwing caught up with Fox's, and the two were close to the massive ship.
"ROB, make sure the Great Fox's hangar is cleared," called Fox over the radio.
"Affirmative, hangar is clear for landing," replied the robot.
"How's about for a crash landing?" Falco smirked. "Fox might be due for one."
"That is ill advised," cautioned ROB.
"You heard him, Falco, no bumping," ordered Fox.
"Heh. No worries."
"Why's that?"
"Cause I won't be needing it!"
Right near the open space of the Great Fox, Falco raced ahead, quickly flying into the hangar. Fox rolled his eyes as he slowed his ship to dock, with Falco nearly smashing into his spot. Both Arwings parked next to one another, while noting two Cornerian Fighters docked on the opposite side. Fox turned as Falco laughed through the ship's window.
"Ha! That's another win for me, Fox!"
"Right, but you're lucky that you didn't bang up the ship, Falco," teased Fox. "Otherwise, you'd definitely be paying for it."
"Sure, sure. And you're just lucky that Slippy's so slow, otherwise you'd be cooking tonight's meal."
"Actually, I think we still have leftovers."
"Seriously?" Falco buried his head into his hands. "Ugh. I want something fresh!"
"You're welcome to it, if you can afford it," joked Fox.
"Nah, it's fine." Falco picked his head up and folded his arms. "So, who came to say hello?"
"Those Cornerian Fighters? I'm not sure," murmured Fox. "Didn't you mention someone visiting Krystal?"
"Yeah, but I wasn't here, so I didn't know who."
"Hmm. I wonder what they're here for, then."
"Can't be from Pepper, or he would've blabbered about it earlier," noted Falco. He furrowed his brows and tapped on his controls. "What's taking Slippy?"
At his words, the third Arwing pulled in as the hangar gate closed. Slippy braked hard with his ship, stopping before his spot. He then pulled forward a bit too quickly and slammed the front tip against the barrier.
"Yikes!"
"Slippy, come on," groaned Falco. "You're going to make me cry over here."
"Hush up, Falco," snapped Slippy. "I'd like to see you work a wrench as well as your mouth!"
"What was that?!" Falco slammed on his dashboard. "Listen, you little pipsqueak—"
"Ok, cool off, both of you," commanded Fox. "No need to get worked up over a quick race."
"Which I won."
"Falco…"
"Heh, ok, fine." Falco folded his arms behind his back. "We cool, Slip?"
"Yeah, I guess…"
"Good! Now I can bug you about heating up leftovers!"
"Wait, what?!"
The three pilots exited their ships and made their way down from the hangar. Walking through the corridor, they made their way to the bridge.
"Whoa, they've had Krystal here for hours," realized Slippy, checking the time. "Wonder what's going on."
"Hopefully nothing too annoying," muttered Fox.
"Or anything that they'll need us for," grumbled Falco. "If they've been with Krystal this long, fine, but they better not be spending the night here!"
"That's really unlikely, Falco."
"Hey, you never know. Fox's had slumber parties here before."
"It was Bill, Falco," corrected Fox. "It was business. Plus, he's an old friend."
"Yeah, whatever."
Fox approached the monitor for the bridge, typing in a code. A scanner read the three present.
"Recognized," sounded a recording of ROB. "Pilot Designation 01: Fox McCloud. Pilot Designation 02: Slippy Toad. Pilot Designation 03: Falco Lombardi."
"Yay, it knows us," deadpanned Falco. "Can we just go in already?"
"Relax, Falco," chided Slippy. "The new system is going to help us with security."
"From who? We've never had security issues before."
"Not with our roster, no."
"Which roster? Fox, we've only had…" Falco snapped his mouth shut and whacked the side of his head. "And I'm an idiot. Look, Fox, sorry about—"
"It's fine, Falco."
The doors slid open, cutting off any more of the coversation. Fox led the way in, and his ears twitched at the voices inside. Gazing past the monitors, he stared ahead at three females talking with one another: one blue vixen in a indigo uniform and white jacket that matched the rest of Star Fox's, a fennec vixen with a lab coat and a magenta uniform, and a white spaniel in a shorter blazer and a rose pink uniform.
"…Honestly, I don't know when they'll be back," explained the blue vixen. "But, I will be sure to let you know."
"Yes, well, thank you, Miss…Krystal," managed the fennec. "We'll be certain to—"
"Fara!" The spaniel nudged the fennec. "Look who just walked in! There!"
Quickly, the fennec whirled around and her eyes widened a bit, focused on Fox. Her shoulders suddenly lifted as her cheeks flushed.
"Oh! Ah…Fox. Or, uh, Mr. McCloud." Fara coughed and cleared her throat. "H-Hello. My name is Fara, as Fay shouted out. Um, Fara Phoenix."
"Fara, relax," hissed Fay. "He just walked in."
"Fay, if you don't mind," grumbled Fara. "I'm trying not to leave an awful impress—"
"Fox, Slippy, Falco," interrupted Krystal. "Welcome back, boys. Fara and Fay are from the Cornerian Army."
"Space Dynamics," clarified Fara. "We're working in cooperation with the Cornerian Army to establish a better science division for them."
"Ah, I might have heard a bit about that." Fox nodded and scratched behind his head. "Can I help you ladies with anything?"
"Well—"
"Fara was wondering if you could help with a few things at the lab tomorrow," piped Fay.
"Um, yes." Fara grinded her teeth while Fay giggled. "So, uh, if you could…would you be able to stop by?"
"Me? Not Slippy?" Fox tilted his head in confusion. "His father's actually the Engineering Director there, and Slippy has some access to certain files if Beltino isn't available, right Slip?"
"Uh…yeah?" Slippy adjusted his cap. "But I still need authority access to files, so—"
"Actually, it's concerning older research that your mother worked on," intervened Fara. "She, uh…she worked with—"
"Robotics, yeah," Fox cut in. "But I don't have any recordings of my mother's research. Everything she worked with was either recovered by companies like yours or destroyed, physically or through data corruption."
"Yes, I've been informed," murmured Fara, and she folded her arms. "I'm sorry, I know it's a sensitive subject for you."
"That's a bit of an understatement." Fox folded his arms as well. "But, that's fine."
"Right, well…we did actually uncover a bit of her research, parts that could be key to working on a new unit for the Cornerian Defense Force," described Fara. "And, well, we were—"
"Fara wants to invite you over tomorrow to see the progress on your mother's work."
"Fay!"
"What? You're taking forever with this," complained Fay. "Plus, you remembered him almost perfectly, with your similar fur color and those green eyes…!"
"F-Fay!" Fara punched Fay's arm as the spaniel nearly doubled over in laughter.
"It's fine, Fox gets all the ladies to swoon for him," snickered Falco. Fox sighed and rolled his eyes.
"W-What? N-No, it's not l-like that," managed Fara, blushing again. "Fox and I used to be, ah…well, it's been years, so, uh, n-never m-mind." She cleared her throat again. "Anyway, it's late, and Fay and I were just leaving." She turned to Krystal, who smirked. "Thank you again for your cooperation, it was most helpful to our studies."
"Aw, come on, Fara, we should stick around and—"
"We're leaving." Fara clamped her hand around Fay's wrist and dragged her forward, stepping in front of Fox and his teammates. "Excuse us, and have a good night."
The team stepped aside as Fara pulled Fay from the bridge, making their way to the hangar. As soon as the doors shut, Krystal burst out laughing. Fox turned to see Falco smirk and Slippy shrug before walking over to his fourth teammate.
"So, uh, mind explaining—?"
"Just a second, please," cackled Krystal. She took a deep breath, laughed a little more, and then shook her head. "Oh my, Fox. That Fara, she…if you could just read her mind, or even read her friend's…"
"Were you really prying? Krystal, come on now," chastised Fox. "You can't use your telepathy to dig around whoever's head you please."
"Please, it's just a little fun and mischief," teased Krystal. "Besides, you think it's pretty funny, sometimes."
"Useful, yes," corrected Fox.
"Hmph. And here I was going to tell you all about my little chat," taunted Krystal.
"Fine, it can be funny."
"Ah, we're going to need a bit more than that now."
"Ease off Krystal," intervened Falco. "As much as I appreciate toying with Fox, it's been a long day for him."
"Oh right, the crash." Krystal's smile faded and she leaned on the railing before the main computer. "What happened with that?"
"Well, they were two ships that had really similar designs to the Arwings," began Slippy. "And…hey wait, where's ROB?"
"Present," announced the deep, robotic voice. Slippy peeked under the railing to find the golden robot below, typing at a computer on the sublevel.
"They first started poking around at him when they visited, so I wanted him distanced from them," explained Krystal. "Honestly, the nerve…but I digress."
"Scientists are just curious," excused Slippy. "ROB, would you be able to beam up a few ships for us? They're back down on Corneria…here, let me find the coordinates."
"Preparing long-range transmission system." Slippy hopped down and typed at the computer near ROB.
"Now, was there anyone in the wreckage?" Krystal brushed back strands of her hair, running her fingers gently over her tiara as she lowered them.
"Two pilots," reported Falco. "Two robins, actually, and both named Robin."
"Oh, that's…confusing," murmured Krystal. "Yet one is spelled differently based on the name tag you found? The female's name has a 'Y' in it?"
"Yeah…but you could just read through my thoughts for the rest," quipped Falco.
"Sorry, sorry, I got excited. Please, continue."
"Sure, so, turns out they're both alive from the crash, and yet, neither of them remembers a thing."
"Amnesia?"
"Yep. Bad. They couldn't even remember their own names." Falco shook his head and smirked. "Knew Fox's right away, of course."
"They knew Fox's name?"
"My name, the team, and my father," clarified Fox.
"What?! That's…eerie."
"Tell me about it."
"Crazy stuff," agreed Falco. "Anyway, they ended up proving pretty helpful against a bunch of thugs that showed up to attack, some of Oikonny's grunts."
"Oikonny? Andross's nephew?" Krystal tilted her head. "I thought we detained him after he was discovered from the Aparoid Invasion."
"Not so much, unfortunately," grumbled Falco. "Rotten pest slipped away after using a spark from his ship's broken parts to blind the soldiers holding him."
"We'll deal with him later, then," realized Krystal. "So, the new robins helped you take care of those brutes?"
"Yep. After that, Fox had Peppy take them by the hospital, and Pepper will probably question them once they get an all-clear."
"Sounds good." Krystal nodded and tapped at her cheek. "Though, now I'm rather curious about what they're doing on Corneria. There weren't any past records of them found in the scans?"
"Nope, nothing," called Slippy. "Their ships will be up and in the hangar in a few hours, Fox. Transmission system is…well, you know how it is."
"Bugs and all, fantastic." Fox grunted and sighed.
"It'll be useful to just have them around," soothed Krystal as she stood up and patted Fox's shoulder. "Besides, maybe I should be the one probing their minds, rather than Pepper's officers. They could have memories buried in their subconscious that I can access."
"She's got a good point," agreed Falco. "Worth a shot."
"Once they're cleared, sure," decided Fox. "If Pepper can learn something from them first, it might be better. They might get…too close to me, I guess."
"Huh. Didn't think of that," admitted Falco. "Maybe we better rethink that idea, Krys."
"Falco, please," argued Krystal. "How hard could it be to keep two amnesiacs away from Fox?"
"You didn't see them jump into the fight."
"I was busy."
"Speaking of," jumped in Fox, "Do you want to explain what we missed here?"
"Ah, right." Krystal inhaled through her nose and exhaled through her mouth. "So, those two ladies came by, originally asking for you, but then were distracted by ROB. I separated them and then they began asking about some anomalies that their devices picked up on odd frequencies. They were conducting orbit experiments and were on a trip back when they registered them. So, naturally, they assumed it was something from the biggest ship currently in the sky, the Great Fox."
"We did just get it repaired," recalled Slippy as he climbed back up. "But…I don't know any wavelengths that our computers would put out that would trigger theirs. Did…we upgrade the software too much?"
"Perhaps." Krystal smirked.
Fox folded his arms and raised a brow. "Or…?"
"Well, I haven't exactly figured it out yet, so it's possible that I could be—"
"Short version, Krystal."
"Oh, fine."
Glancing around the room, the vixen shrugged and slipped her jacket off, tossing it across the bridge. She lifted her hand and stared at the coat, which flopped to the floor and settled there. The others turned and watched the jacket for a minute, and then turned back to Krystal.
"Something…should be happening, right?" Slippy folded his arms.
"Give me…just a…minute," managed Krystal. "This is…still new."
"Uh…maybe you should've just explained it to us," suggested Falco, placing his hands on his hips. "You know, rather than…whatever this is."
"Hush," grunted Krystal.
"But Krystal, just what…?"
Before Fox could process the rest, Krystal's eyes lit up in a faint blue glow. The team gathered around either side of her and observed in confusion. Glancing back to the jacket, they gasped as it lifted into the air.
Holding her head with one hand, motioning with her other, Krystal proceeded to twirl the coat around, opening it and extending the sleeves. Slowly, she guided it back over to her and kept it positioned before her. Quickly, she threw her arms inside of it and put it on, just as her eyes returned to normal.
Gaping, the trio remained silent for a moment. Falco soon broke it, and uttered, "Just what was that about?"
"Like it? That's telekinesis," proudly introduced Krystal. "Not every telepath is capable of both that and telepathy, so I wasn't sure if I could ever pull it off. But, I've practiced focusing and moving objects with my mind a lot lately, just to see if I could help push it along and see if I could force it out." She smirked and knocked on her head. "Guess when it finally decided to work?"
"Just today? Krystal, that's amazing!" Slippy bounced and cheered. "Oh wow, this is the coolest! Can you pull off all sorts of psychokinetic tricks?"
"Not quite." Krystal's smile faded and her head lowered a bit. "Psychokinetic abilities refer to masterful manipulation with the mind, in which telekinesis is a derivative of. But, telekinesis is limited to the mental force of moving just objects, whereas psychokinetic abilities go beyond that." She shrugged and folded her arms. "I don't know if I'll ever be able to get that far myself, since I'm still developing my telepathy as it is, and I just started telekinetic control, so…I've still got a ways to go."
"This is still great work, Krystal," complimented Fox. "Didn't you just mention that you weren't even sure you were capable of it? And now you can actually use it; even if you're just starting, that's extraordinary. You should be proud over making even that much progress."
"Thank you, Fox." Krystal beamed to him. "That's sweet of you."
"Yeah, well," Fox chuckled.
"Great stuff," piped up Falco. "But I think we're all familiar with Krystal's psychic specialties."
"Aw, don't you want to get reacquainted with them, Falco?" Krystal winked at the bird, who winced a bit. "After all, I was going to suggest some combat training to end the night." She grinned wickedly. "And if you thought it was fun with me messing with your mind, just wait until I master messing with the objects around you!"
"…Can we not?" Falco pleaded to Fox. "Last time, she convinced me to keep hitting myself while chanting to stop, and I just…do I really need that now, since she can whack me with her jacket on top of that?"
"Yes!" Slippy clapped. "Even if she does the same to me, it's worth it to watch her mess with Falco!" Krystal shared a laugh with him while Falco glared.
"We could probably use some hand-to-hand training," admitted Fox. "But, I was looking to try out a dogfight to end tonight."
"Now that's more like it!" Falco smirked. "I'm all for flight and fight practice."
"So, we go from picking something that I'd have an advantage with to something that Falco will probably ace at." Krystal rolled her eyes and playfully glared at Fox. "That's really fair, Fox."
"Flying is everyone's skill, not just Falco's," retorted Fox. "Even…if he's the ace."
"And don't you guys forget it," laughed Falco. "C'mon, let's get right back out."
"Fox, do we really have to? I already dented in my Arwing's nose."
"You heard the leader, Slip!" Falco opened the door back out again. "Flight practice is on, and we all need it! Now, let's go!"
"Don't worry Slippy," whispered Krystal as she strolled out with the mechanic. "We'll team up and take Falco out first."
"Honestly, you should leave that to Fox," advised Slippy, glancing back as their leader followed them to the corridor. "Falco may be the best flier, but Fox is probably the best fighter."
"Well, sometimes," mumbled Fox. "I'm not perfect at it, and some days I whiff it pretty badly."
"Oh, quit being modest, Fox," teased Krystal. "Slippy's right, and it's good that you are, or else we'd have a lot more trouble with missions."
"Fair enough," relented Fox.
Navigating back to the hangar, the three caught up with Falco and boarded their Arwings.
...
Hooray, dogfight comes up soon! If you want to get straight into that, it's on the next chapter. It's basically Fox and friends battling it out for fun and to practice. Hey, they've got to work out their tension somehow, right?
If you'd like, several explanations are below to go over new changes to the mothership, some character flavored stuff, Krystal's new powers, and other bits if I didn't mention them now.
The stuff below is a bit lengthy, though, to properly explain what never comes up in the story.
...
Ok, first up, after the race, Falco gets annoyed a pilot security check, Slippy tells him that it's new and for them to be protected, and Fox mentions that it wasn't a problem for his line-up, which Falco starts berating but quickly apologizes.
Now that part was a shot at the original Star Fox team, because they had a traitor on their team: Pigma Dengar. After the events of Star Fox Assault, a new Great Fox was built, or rather the old one is updated, but we never get to see that because of Command making it...ugly and weird.
Basically, Fox had Slippy install it so that they never end up having trouble with enemy pilots trying to commandeer the Great Fox. And this issue I will credit to Command, since Wolf ends up on the Great Fox without explanation, so I headcanoned that he stole it for his own mission purposes, which ultimately doesn't line up, but there's no saving Command's messy storytelling.
Anyway, the later use for this was to help keep track of the pilot roster that Fox's team would ultimately accumulate. The roster would include the usual five (Fox, Falco, Peppy, Slippy, and Krystal), and gain a LOT of other pilots.
I was looking into using Marcus (Fox's kid), Fay, Miyu, Fara, Star Wolf (Assault's team, so that would be Wolf, Leon, and Panther, at least), Bill from the Cornerian Army (Bill Grey, remember him?), and several other pilots that would appear later. So that was a team roster that was upwards of at least 13 characters. Yeah, younger me was a bit too ambitious.
...
Next up, the new characters! Or rather, old characters dragged back out from beyond the holes of time and repurposed?
Basically, I wanted to use characters that Nintendo never would. Again, I wrote this back in 2015/2016, so past me never had any notion that Nintendo would bring back Star Fox 2 from its trash bin and sell it back out again. Which...only screws the lore for Star Fox even more, since Fay and Miyu now officially exist, and were definitely part of Star Fox, but are never again mentioned by Fox and friends. We'll need a new Star Fox game that reboots the series or continues with whatever SF: Zero left us, which...is still basically Star Fox 64. So, either Adventures 2.0 happens, or we go in a newer direction.
But I digress.
Included above are Fay and Fara, two characters from older Nintendo media. Fay was from the then-cancelled and now-released Star Fox 2, added as a new member of Star Fox. Fara, on the other hand, was never technically official Nintendo property, since she's from the same comic series that Fox's mom is from, which was from Nintendo Power and not the company themselves (to my knowledge anyway). She was, however, slated to be included in Star Fox 2, labeled "Lady," but was never added in, eliminated with what would've been a playable Andross under the name "Saru," which is Japanese for either monkey or ape.
First up is Fay, the joyful and spirited partner to Fara in this story. From the Wiki information that I read years ago, she was referred to as some time of spaniel, but nowadays, they seem to refer to her as a poodle. Whoops for me, but oh well. Here, I included her to basically be an understudy to Fara, being part of the Space Dynamics and hence the science division for the Cornerian Army.
Yeah, I knew she was a pilot from Star Fox 2, but I wanted to use her elsewhere to develop her separately from that life. It gave her a chance to shine as her own character prior to joining with Fox. And, honestly, would've been much easier when we got to her joining on later, since she would've been like, "Absolutely, let's totally join up!" Never got there, though. But, she's in the later chapters, so more later.
Along with her is Fara Phoenix. Originally, this character was introduced as a mere love interest for Fox in the comics back from 1993, so she doesn't have a lot to go by. However, she's very popular with the older fans of the Star Fox series, as they have fond memories of her teaming with Fox's group and saving the day. Rather than do as Nintendo did and just ignore her, I wanted to be inclusive and toss her into the story.
Fara was going to be reshaped as a top tier scientist for the Space Dynamics division, basically shining in all the ways that Slippy never got to. Because, and I don't think it's mentioned in the story for a while if at all, she was originally part of the same space academy that Fox, Slippy, and Bill all attended, lost somewhere in the Star Fox lore. Well, the three of them going there before Fox and Slippy dropped out to fight Andross. Fara is...not, but I put her and Fay in there, because tying characters back in.
Anyway, getting back into that, Fara's a cool doctor with the Space Dynamics, and she was going to have perhaps a less capable fighter role to start for the story, since Krystal would've been the faster fighter. However, she was going to join Star Fox later on, and learn how to work alongside the others and Fay. Similar to the comics, she has feelings for Fox.
Here, though, Fox doesn't really remember Fara very well, if at all, so they don't have a requited romance. Furthermore, Fara was the busy type, and would constantly push down her feelings for Fox, similar to everyone else on his team, and thus never admitted to them in her life. Fay, noticing her behavior, would tease her friend about it, and basically acts as her shipper-on-deck.
That's the bit on honoring some aspects of her character, but I mostly wanted to write her as an individual first, and let readers choose if she was going to be Fox's girlfriend again, or stand as a separate character for the team to work with instead. Some more of her development will be later, though, so I'll leave it like that for now.
...
Lastly, some development for Krystal was included.
It's an understatement when we acknowledge that Krystal is a base-breaker for the Star Fox fandom. For the original chronology of Star Fox, she represents a vast change to the era, where we finally depart the Lylat Wars regurgitation from the 90s and into the weird 2000s storylines that are ultimately left rather abandoned by Nintendo.
For some fans, Krystal is the mark of an exciting new era of Star Fox storytelling, where Fox goes to a weird dinosaur planet and picks up a new girlfriend who joins the team. For other fans, she becomes the love interest that marks the downfall times of Star Fox's lore, where she basically gets forced to inclusion so Fox has a lady to rescue.
Personally, I like the concept of Krystal and her background lore that essentially never gets explored in the games properly. I liked Adventures and Assault, while I blame Command for destroying the story's canon, which by that point, isn't really Krystal's fault, but the writers' fault instead. So, I think that she's ok to include in Star Fox material, since she is really popular for one reason or another, and she has potential.
Nevertheless, I wanted her to be more exciting than her usual depictions from the games, because they ultimately do not give her much to be proud of, and her haters have as much basis for criticisms as do her fans for liking her. After all, in Adventures, she is introduced to Fox trapped in a big crystal, and with a sleazy saxophone track while Fox eyes her up, and then joins the team on that same riff. So...yeah, none of that here.
So, in this story, she was immediately increased on her capabilities. Rather than just "oh no, Fox, I sense danger" for her powers, I wanted Krystal to have full access to telepathy, which I think they were going for in Star Fox Adventures. She communicates with Fox a few times with her mind in that game. Anyway, she can do the whole nine yards here: reads minds and thoughts, senses danger, gets to do vibe checks, and all the rest. Hence, she makes fun of Fara and Fay's thoughts after they leave, interrupts Falco when he's recounting the events with Oikonny's forces, and is generally more playful because she holds fun powers. Because, hey, abusing psychic powers is fun.
To further with that, I just kind of went ahead and gave Krystal telekinesis. That's new to this story, and basically gives her a power to use with levitating objects, creating psionic (?) barriers, and basically makes her a credible threat on the field later when she combines that with her training from the Star Fox team and is then capable of fighting with the tougher bad guys, as well as using her staff in combat while everyone else goes to guns. (Not that she wouldn't touch blasters, but she would be more talented with alternative techniques.) She introduces this above, and everyone's impressed, because "whoa, that's new," and later on, she'd relate to other characters that would be introduced with similar abilities. (I had plans for a character who would be her opposite: someone strong with telekinesis, but terrible with telepathy. Krystal would've been ok with telekinesis, but not as good as with her telepathy.)
Finally, a major boon for Krystal wasn't in her powers, but rather, her personality and relationships. As mentioned before, she's more playful and mischievous here. She's got a slight edge over anyone else in the room, and though she knows it doesn't make her beyond her friends, she has fun with it. More over, she has more dialogue concentrated on teasing Falco and teaming with Slippy, as they barely interact with her in the games proper, while she is more or less relegated to Fox's side. I think that's a core element that's virtually void from Krystal in the games, even when counting Command, where she's...very nasty to Slippy and I don't think has memorable interactions with Falco. And suddenly she feels whole, because she's interacting with everyone, instead of just crushing on Fox.
She and Fara are a lot alike...Nintendo should do better with developing them. Ah well. They make games, not stories, right? Bleh.
...
So, now that we're done playing catch up on my thought process on developing the cast, let's go ahead to the next chapter, where Fox and friends have a skirmish with each other. For practice, and for fun.
