Chapter 3 – Meeting the villain

Kyle slowly woke up and found himself locked inside a prison cell with Fox, who was lying still in front of him. Kyle quickly checked Fox's vital signs and was relieved to know that he was still alive. Kyle had seen those gas grenades during his service in the Cornerian army, but those grenades contained poison gas meant to kill enemy soldiers. Whoever used that one on them obviously wanted them alive. Gradually, Fox woke up. After noticing Kyle in front of him, he looked around.

"Where are we?" he asked.

"Your guess is as good as mine." Kyle replied.

Suddenly, a voice in front of them said, "Alright, you two, you're coming with me."

Fox and Kyle looked up. There was a gray wolf in front of them, dressed in a Venom military officer's uniform and wearing sunglasses. He was pointing a pistol at them as he unlocked the cell door.

"Wolf." Fox snarled, "I should've known you were lying."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Everything you said in that letter. All of it was…"

"Uh, Fox," Kyle interrupted, "That's not Wolf."

"If you're referring to Wolf O'Donnell," the officer said, "then no, I'm not that pathetic excuse for a pilot."

The officer opened the cell door and escorted them out of the room at gunpoint.

"How did you know he wasn't Wolf?" Fox asked Kyle.

"I remember Wolf's smell," said Kyle. "and Wolf never smelled as bad as this guy."

"Stop talking!" the officer said, ramming his gun into Kyle's back.

Soon they taken into a throne room, where a large ape about 7 feet tall, was sitting in a chair. He turned his chair around to face them.

"Andross!" Fox shouted, "How in the hell…?!"

"I am NOT Andross." the ape said, "I am his brother, Bruno."

'WHAT?!' Fox thought, 'Andross has a brother?! You've GOT to be kidding!'

"For several years I've been looking forward to meeting the famous Fox McCloud," said Bruno, "who continued to dance, but ceased to amuse. Now that I've got you, I'm going to do what my brother couldn't do: take over the Lylat system! Only this time, you won't be able to get in the way. Captain, do the deed."

The Captain took out a syringe and plugged it into Kyle's neck, injecting an anesthetic into him. As Kyle passed out, the Captain did the same to Fox.

* * *

Fox slowly woke up, finding himself lying in a dark area. After his head stopped spinning, it didn't take him long to realize that he was lying in a dumpster. As he pushed open the lid he found that he was no longer wearing his gloves or his boots. Kyle, who was lying next to him, was in the same boat. Fox reached for his PDA, but it too was gone.

"Shit!" he said.

Fox climbed out of the dumpster. As he started brushing off his clothes and fur, Kyle began to come around.

"Man, have I got a headache." he said, as he started to wake up.

"You all right?" asked Fox.

"I think so." Kyle said, climbing out.

As his bare paws touched the ground, Kyle looked down.

"Where are my boots?" he asked, "And where are your boots?"

"It must've been Bruno." said Fox. "He probably took our stuff before he had us put here. Wherever 'here' is."

Kyle looked around.

"Wait… I recognize this place." he said, "Yeah, this is the alley, where Wolf and I were attacked by those gangsters! We're on Corneria!"

"What?!" said Fox, "Corneria? Why would he put us back on Corneria?"

"You got me." said Kyle. "What I'm wondering is, why didn't they just kill us when they had the chance?"

Fox and Kyle started walking out of the alley. The ground felt unpleasant beneath their bare paws. Suddenly, Fox felt a sharp pain in his paw.

"OW!" he screamed.

Fox looked at his paw and found that he had stepped on a piece of glass. There were several pieces of glass, scattered in front of them. After pulling the glass out, his paw started to bleed. Noticing this, Kyle quickly reached into his pocket and pulled out a roll of bandages.

"Good thing I always keep these on me, just in case." he said, opening it.

He wrapped some bandage around Fox's paw, tore off the other end and put the rest away.

"Thanks." said Fox.

"Just doing my job."

They carefully picked up each and every piece of glass that they could find and put them in the dumpster. Then they left the alley, being careful not to step on anything else. As they reached the end, Kyle stopped.

"Let's see." he said, "We split up right here. I ran this way, and Wolf went…"

Suddenly, he stopped and began sniffing in the other direction.

"What's up?" asked Fox.

"That scent! Can… can it be?!"

Kyle ran in the direction that the scent was coming from. Fox shrugged and ran after him.

"Wait up, Kyle!"

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End of Chapter 3