Fall of a Hero
-chapter seven-
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by l77ercenary
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"Fox!!!!" Slippy's high pitched voice could be heard ringing through the communicator.
Fox braced himself, waiting for the impact, closing his eyes against what he knew would come. His ship rocked from what felt like an aftershock, but otherwise he felt nothing. When he opened his eyes, he realized that nothing had happened. To him, anyway. Wolf had locked on. Did he miss? If he did, then what made him miss?
"Slippy!!!" Falco's voice rang over the communicator then. Fox then knew something serious had happened. Falco didn't shout like that for nothing, especially not for Slippy.
Wolf hated it that he had missed. He hadn't wanted to even confront any of the other members of Star Fox other than Fox. He held an old grudge against Fox since the academy that he wanted to settle. Fox had always been better than him, always just one step ahead. Always making better scores, better jobs, better ships................better friends..................
Wolf's communicator blipped on. One of Andross's top commanders was heard. "Wolf, withdraw immediately! Andross's orders."
"What?!" Wolf spat.
"I'm only relaying orders. Withdraw and report to Alpha Base 1 on Macbeth." The ape finished up before the communicator blipped off.
Wolf hated it. He hated it all. Andross obviously wasn't paying attention to the battle. Just one more bomb would have finished Fox off. Still, he couldn't go against Andross's orders. Last time he tried that......... He was out of bombs, anyway, he mentally grumbled.
"See you later, Star Fox." Wolf said as he flew out of the battle area, using his boost to shoot him upward toward the atmosphere. He disappeared in a matter of seconds.
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Fox and Falco landed their Arwing IIs as quickly as possible. Fox was the first out of his jet. At full speed he ran across the tundra toward the downed Arwing II not far away. The outside of the Arwing II didn't look all that damaged. Except for a few laser marks and a few scrapes from the crash, the outside looked just fine. It was the inside that was the worry. The canopy of the cockpit was blasted open and charred. In fact, the canopy had been blown in half. The cockpit itself was barely even recognizable as the cockpit.
And in the middle of it all was Slippy.......
"Why did he get in the way?" Fox said, his teeth clenched. He was shaking with anger, his teeth clenched. "He should have just let the bomb hit me...."
"Fox," Falco tried to console his friend, though he didn't really know how. "Slippy did what he thought was right."
"Shut up, Falco!" Fox snapped at the avian. He didn't really mean to, but his words ended up coming out that way.
Falco took one last look at the wreckage of Slippy's Arwing II, then turned and started walking away. Sure, he felt the same way as Fox, but Fox was already breaking down as it was over the ordeal. He couldn't start.
"Where are you goin'?" asked Fox.
"We still have Peppy to worry about." Falco said. "Or don't you remember?"
Fox looked at Slippy's Arwing II for maybe a second or two longer, then turned and joined his friend in running toward their own Arwing IIs. Falco was right. They did still have Peppy to worry about.
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As Fox had expected, the battecruiser carrying Peppy tried to make a break for it. The Great Fox's dual laser cannons punched a hole right through the thick outer hull of the ship, disabling it. In exchange for their lives, the crew anxiously handed over Peppy. Star Fox let the crew on the ship live, of course, but they also left them on the battlecruiser stranded in the middle of Titania space.
"Slippy....." Peppy had just heard the news of what had happened on the planet. "Who knew the little guy had it in him?"
Fox wasn't nowhere to be seen in the lounge area of the Great Fox. Fox had went to the docking bay to work on his new jet, the Arwing II. He couldn't just sit around and do nothing but think about what had happened. He had to have something to take his mind off of things. If working on his Arwing II was what would do the trick, then he'd do it.
"Fox's taking it hard." Falco said to Peppy.
"He takes death hard. I thought he'd end up killing himself when his father died." Peppy said.
Inside the docking bay, Fox had stopped working on the Arwing II just long enough to rest for a while. He sat on the nose tip of the Arwing II. Andross's hands had just gotten themselves even more bloodied with even more reason for Fox to destroy him.