Hey again. This chapter picks up from the plot of the last chapter.
To summarize, Fox had some visitors on the Great Fox that Krystal had dealt with until he returned. And after they left, she filled him in on that, while Falco filled her in on their events a few chapters back.
This chapter just lets them goof around together with dogfight practice, and is me poorly attempting to write ships battling in the skies. Yay for the action sequences!
It's shorter than the last chapter, but with fun trivia on what never happened below. Enjoy.
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Fox tapped at his controls to start the fighter up, with the rockets roaring back to life. He opened up the communications channel with the others, and checked his weapons supply.
"Remember guys, only fight until shields run out." Fox glanced at his filled shield gauge and nodded. "No need for overkill."
"We don't need this reminder at every training session, you know. It was one time, Fox," spat Falco. "…Peppy was really feisty that day."
"He hit all of your nerves," recalled Krystal. "What was it he mentioned about fried feathers again?"
"Listen, 'Little Miss Psychic Star,'" fired back Falco. "You want get knocked out of the sky first? I'll gun for you, if you're looking for it."
"Go on, I dare you."
"Don't worry, it'll happen," assured Falco. "But…I know you're protecting Slippy, and he's the easy one to knockout, so, you'll go down after him."
"Thanks for nothing, Falco!" Slippy unintelligibly grumbled under his breath. "Just wait. You'll get yours."
"Yeah, from who? You?" Falco laughed. "Not likely."
"Are we going to smack talk the whole time, or are we ready to fly?"
"Ready whenever, Foxie."
"ROB? We're ready."
"Affirmative," announced the robot over the speakers. "Opening gates."
As soon as the hangar's gate was ajar, the four Arwings raced out and from the Great Fox. Flying over Corneria's early night sky, they soared off to an open area nearby and spaced out from one another. Turning in, they faced one another, readying their ships' lasers.
"Any last words?" Falco grinned at his opponents.
"Friends shouldn't fight?"
"Nice try, Slippy."
"Give us a countdown, ROB."
"Affirmative. Commencing dogfight scrimmage in three…two…one…go."
Falco's ship flew forward and ascended as Krystal and Slippy rushed at him, opening fire to start. They missed and pelted each other with laser blasts instead.
"Ha! Completely predictable," taunted Falco. He then yelped as his ship took a barrage of hits from laser fire. "What the…?! Fox! How could you?"
"This is a free-for-all, Falco," reminded Fox.
"Bah, we could've teamed up too," muttered Falco. "Whatever, I was looking for a real face-off at the end, but sure, let's start it up right now."
Somersaulting, Falco looped his fighter behind Fox and fired a locked on shot of his own, connecting a heavy hit.
Still chasing the opposing fighter, Falco rocketed another series of lasers. Doing a barrel roll, Fox took a few less hits, deflecting the rest of Falco's shots away.
"You're off your game, Fox," gibed Falco. "No worries, I'll make it quick and painless for you."
"That's what you think!"
Krystal spiraled her Arwing at Falco's and rammed into him, using her boost to crash into his ship. Both of their shield gauge's fell to the half-depleted, and Falco groaned from the damage.
"Ease up, Krys," he griped. "That take down stuff is heavy."
"Oh please, like you haven't used it before."
"Maybe I'll have to finish you off with it."
Rolling around, Falco re-positioned himself and fired a few shots at Krystal. She scowled at the hits, rolling and deflecting the last few from damaging her.
"You're already gone," laughed Falco. "Warned you!"
He cried out again and checked his radars. Slippy had braked and positioned himself to open fire on Falco.
Charging a locked-on laser, Slippy concentrated on Falco's Arwing.
"And who warned you?"
Releasing it, the charged laser homed onto Falco's ship. Barrel rolling and boosting away, Falco dodged the attack, along with a few shots from Krystal.
"Ha-ha! Nice try, small fries," mocked Falco. "You may have knocked me down a few pegs, but I'm—"
Breaking into a yell, Falco watched his shield gauge reach a low level. He glanced at his radar, watching as Fox's Arwing fired a charged laser at him.
"Better luck next time, Falco."
The homing shot connected, knocking Falco's shields to a critically low level. He glared at the smoke that billowed from his ship and the dents from the damage.
"Aha! Got him!" Krystal laughed. "Who was the one to go down first now, Falco?"
"Way to go, Fox!" Slippy applauded. "We got him!"
"You've got to be kidding me." He hammered on his controls. "All three of you teamed up to tag me out? Weak."
"Not really. We're supposed to work as a team to take down stronger enemies," explained Fox. "Also, Krystal and Slippy did make it easier to catch you in the open."
"Yeah, yeah," murmured Falco. "Well, I'm headed back. Who's next?"
"Well, now it'll be more of a fair fight," noted Krystal. "So—"
"Sorry Krystal." She barked out as a charged laser crashed into her Arwing. "This is where my evil plan unfolds and I betray you."
"S-Slippy?!" Krystal gasped. "How could you?!"
"It's nothing personal. Your shields are just the lowest."
Firing another few shots, Krystal grimaced as her shields dropped to a critically low state. Sighing, she turned her broken, steaming ship around, and flew after Falco.
"Not bad, Slippy," congratulated Krystal. "I didn't even think to read your mind for such a plot."
"Thanks!"
"You do realize, however, that there's only two of you left now."
"…Wait."
Slippy shivered and gaped at the radar, turning his fighter to face Fox's. The team leader grinned as Slippy slouched in his seat.
"Nice work, Slippy. Ready to end this?"
"W-Wait!"
Swiftly, Fox opened fire on the opposing Arwing and nailed Slippy directly, knocking his shields below the half. He pulled a u-turn and fired another barrage at Slippy's ship, which barrel rolled to deflect the assault.
"F-Fox, can't we call it a tie or-or say that you won anyway?"
"That's not how the game works." Fox locked on to Slippy's ship. "Sorry, Slippy."
Releasing it, the laser homed onto Slippy's ship and scored a direct hit, knocking it lower. Slippy somersaulted and fired a few shots, with only one hitting Fox's Arwing, not causing nearly enough damage.
"Good effort," complimented Fox. "But…we're done here."
With another barrage of laser fire, Slippy winced as his shield gauge rang out, dropping to a critically low level. Groaning, he buried his head at the controls, with his Arwing hissing from its beating.
"Just when I thought I knew what I was doing…"
Slippy flew his Arwing off after Krystal and Falco's navigating back to the hangar. Fox smiled and nodded.
"This game's winner is Fox," announced ROB.
"Gee, thanks for that, bucket-head," snapped Falco. "What a surprise."
"The predicted outcome, of course," muttered Krystal.
"For once, I was so close," wailed Slippy.
"Nice to feel so loved by my teammates," teased Fox. "Well, I guess that's that. ROB, some Supply Rings, please?"
"Acknowledged."
"Shouldn't we be saving those?" Slippy rubbed his forehead. "Not that I want to stay up late fixing each ship."
"Then that should be reason enough to use them," determined Fox.
Four golden rings materialized in the sky, and each pilot navigated the fighter through one. Lights flashed and connected to the Arwings, recharging the shields and restoring them from their damage. The rings then sparkled and disintegrated against the wings of each Arwing. All four ships returned to the Great Fox's hangar and docked back in.
"Well, I'm spent after that thrashing." Falco stretched. "Maybe next time, we can avoid the team ups against me."
"Nah," Krystal and Slippy sang together. They laughed as Falco rolled his eyes.
"Whatever. I'm grabbing a drink and heading to bed."
"Please, it can't be that late already," gibed Krystal.
"It's 21:18."
"Wait, what?!" Krystal gaped and shook her head. "Oh no, I still want to get some combat practice in." She darted off from the hangar and hurried out, calling back, "I'll be in the simulation room."
"Guess I better run an inventory check and fix a few devices up in my lab," decided Slippy. "Don't want to be up later than I need to be."
Both Slippy and Falco made their way from the hangar, stepping outside of it. Slippy left, but Falco paused and turned back.
"What's on your schedule, Fox?"
"Ah…I need to check actually."
"Well, I guess I'll speak for the rest of us and send you an invite to…well, whoever."
"Thanks Falco."
The bird nodded and exited the room. Fox walked over to a computer and tapped at it, checking the system.
"Hmm. Nothing." He leaned back and folded his arms. Tapping on his communicator, he glanced around the hangar, gazing at the docked ships, yet finding nothing that needed attention. "ROB, have we received any mission calls, or anything I need to work on?"
"Checking…negative."
"Really?" Fox eyed a few tanks and barrels in the hangar, and checked their screens. Filled. Each of the cords and tools were placed back properly in their shelves and cabinets as well. "Are we short on any supplies of some kind? Do I need to head out and get anything?"
"Negative. Only Peppy and his Arwing are missing."
"And they're—?"
"Status normal. Currently located at the Corneria City Hospital."
"Huh." Fox scratched his head. "I wasn't expecting any free time. Do you need anything, ROB?"
"Negative. I will need to recharge in an hour. That is all."
"Ok then." Fox walked up the steps and stood by the hangar door. "Guess I could take Pepper's advice and see what everyone's…or, uh, someone's up to." He opened the door and waited before the corridor. "The question is: who do I go visit? I've only got time to stop by one of them before bed, probably."
He waited a moment and thought it over. Deciding, Fox stepped into the corridor and followed it down, with the hangar's door closing behind him.
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A little lighthearted fun never hurts, and I figured a brief chapter for it would be nice.
It was originally part of the last one, but I figured it would be fine enough to include this one alone. And...I couldn't really narrow down as much of the last chapter as I thought that I could.
Continuing from before, this includes some more playful banter and shenanigans between the Star Fox team, so that Falco, Krystal, and Slippy have a more balanced dynamic with one another, and play off each other along with Fox rather than only with him.
Below is shipping stuff, so if you're not interested, you can continue onto the next chapter!
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For the ending, this brings us to that stuff I kept mentioning in previous comments. It's a major developmental process that never came through, since I never did go forward with it all.
The concept from this point would lead off into separate stories where the readers chose to follow Fox as he spent the last few moments of the night with their chosen teammate. This was back when I didn't know about the website's workings, so I thought I could link those together better with this story. Psyche.
But yeah, it was meant to be separate from the main story, so that it would be flexible to follow however readers wanted it to line up, and therefore they could each read the same main story, and select a companion piece that went alongside of it.
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To boil it down to a simple manner, it was going to introduce shipping Fox with his friends and thereby creating the character who would become Marcus's other parent, which I mentioned in the notes from his chapter.
And this is where that inspiration from Mass Effect came in, where we'd pair Fox off with a teammate, he'd develop a bond with them, talk some more after a later section of story, and then eventually go on a personal mission with that respective team member.
After that, he'd have a deeper bond with them, they'd reveal that they'd like to try a relationship with Fox, and later on, would find out that Marcus is their kid too. The very last chapter of each side story would show the ending of that character respectively with Fox.
One of the problems that left this task to be absolutely insane to approach was that I was planning on doing so for every teammate of Fox. So, above here, that allowed friendship and potentially romantic paths for Falco, Slippy, and Krystal. Later chapters went for Peppy, Robin, and Robyn. Even later on would have been Fara, Fay, Miyu, Katt, Panther, Bill, Leon, and Wolf, at minimum. Yeah...that was not a smart idea by younger me.
Oh, but the fun part would've been Marcus appearing and revealing himself to be the kid. In this story proper, his appearance would've been described as having that of Fox's look and build, but his fur color would've matched his other parent.
If the reader had selected Krystal or Fara as a partner, that would've been a typical kid route. Any other partner would've resulted in Marcus being a laboratory success story where they spliced Fox's genes with his partner's and made their kid without need of a surrogate's DNA mixed in. Again, not smart on younger me's part, but the effort was there, it seemed cute.
And if you're the type to argue about the realism behind that, this is a reminder that you're reading a sci-fi fanfic that features an alternate universe about human-like animals zipping through space in hyper advanced ships to battle evil animal people and robots. Loosely based on Star Wars, I might add. So, I'm hoping that the mere thought and possibility of two such guys having a baby doesn't shatter your immersion. And it never came up, so, it doesn't ruin the story at all here. (I'd imagine the Star Fox fandom is ok with that stuff, though, all things considered.)
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So, that's the story on what never happened with this part. Click ahead to read the story continuing on!
