Strangers No More
Evora
_________________________________________________________
Chapter 4, Tears
After tossing and turning half the night, Fox was up and out at 0500 hours to get a good estimate of the damages caused by the magnetic storm. He went first to the bridge only to be greeted by a complete system malfunction, and of course Rob, who had managed holding a steady course with limited use of the navigational instruments. "We are at less than one-fourth normal capacity," stated the robotic arm of the Star Fox team. "If we are struck again, the Great Fox will suffer irreparable damages."
"Yeah...thanks Rob," Fox replied tiredly and made his way across and to the elevator, took it down to the partially-lit the hangar then went out to the landing dock where Krystal's transport was parked head-in beneath the outer canopy. A few more steps and he was right upon the old vessel that looked already weathered and dull in the foreground of a starry black sky. The canopy shielded the temporary hideout now that it was no one else's business in outer Lylat that Krystal had come aboard the Great Fox, and was Fox's decision to keep it that way by making sure the craft stayed well hidden until Slippy cleared a spare port for permanent docking. In the meantime, he took out his scanner and walked slowly around the ship, aiming steadily at each section, downloading the preset specifications for later use if any repairs were needed. Once finished, he keyed in a code that would give him access to the ship's statistical and ownership history. In a matter of seconds the readout came up on the scanner's small rectangular screen:
positive source downloading.... 7839.3894 centoms traveled. Triple force-field shields operational. Standard defense weapons only. Initial license granted, G.O. Scales...
"Scales..." A lingering distaste hung in Fox's mouth and a twinge of searing hatred shined in his eyes as the thoughts embedded in his memory found familiarity in that ship. He then nodded, gradually recalling Ice Mountain and a hovering ship that dropped Prince Tricky onto the club-wielding Sharpclaws below; either it was an exact replica or the exact same one, Fox would've bet all of his change in the bank on the latter. A closer look at the ship's side revealed the three-hooked symbol which adorned on General Scales belt, and beside that was another design in the form of a leaf. He then wondered how the hell did this ship end up with Krystal and had the urge to run back up to his room and frisk her down in places he hadn't tried yet until realizing that probably wasn't such a good idea at this point. After all, she'd put all of her trust in him and deserved as much in return.
Finally he turned off the scanner and headed back for the bridge where Rob managed holding steady despite all of the warning lights and buzzers going off around him.
"All incoming and outgoing communications are suspended until repairs can be completed." Rob reported as Fox sat down in his chair, stored the scanner, then logged on to his laptop to check if any private messages got through before the communications link crashed.
There were two. The first came from Bill Grey. ----McCloud, you sly dog, you. It's about time you made good on your promise and stopped by Katina, don't you think? Besides, I'd like to meet this Krystal of yours. You've got the guys here slobbering with envy. I have about fifty of them who want to know if there's any openings on the Great Fox(lol). "Yeah, maybe mine," Fox said to himself and opened the second message. The header was series of letters and numbers followed by a time stamp. Usually he didn't open that sort of message because it could've been a package disguised as legit when it was really a hack, but figured Rob must've done a general check before patching it through from the main server.
-----O 4151425122 V 23:09 Congratulations, Fox, on another successful mission. You are now Lylat's most famed mercenary. Let's see how long you can hold the title.
He sat for a moment, not really re-reading the message, but hearing the voice that would have spoken it. Those words, that voice, a challenge placed firmly in his hands by none other than the enemy he knew had been laying in wait for the past eight years, regrouping, constructing newer, better weapons, an enemy so vile that he would seize and kill anyone who got in the way of his quest to finally capture the leader of the Star Fox team.
"I'm not playing your game anymore, Wolf...." He looked up, in the direction of the bedroom where Krystal slept, briefly re-evaluating what it was out of life he really wanted and what it would do to him if something happened to her...
"Snap out of it, loverboy," Falco had come in and slapped Fox over the head with a rolled up magazine. "We've got too many problems for you to be sittin' here with your head in seventh heaven."
Fox looked around and checked the time then got up. Peppy and Slippy were at the map console with Rob, the time was six-thirty, and then was Falco, wide awake and in his face.
"The whole system's goin' downhill as I speak, Mister 'this-ship-can-repair-itself.' As of right now Rob can't even steer the thing let alone get it on track towards Corneria. The best we can do is fly in circles until Slippy gets things back in order. I think you know that pretty much means we're stuck out here, right?"
For some unexplainable reason he wasn't feeling the concern about his ship for not being able to pull out of his fixation with Krystal.
"Hey, Fox! What's wrong with you today anyway? Man, you've changed a lot since I've been gone..."
Falco's voice trailed off as Fox walked away. The elevator doors closed, the lights dimmed slightly as the lift rose slowly to the next floor but he didn't give it much attention, not even the brief flickering when the door opened up again. He went straight for his room, using the manual control to open the door and went in to check in on his coveted guest who should have been resting comfortably, yet when he found her walking about the room while sporting his loaned blue robe, gathering the few items she'd brought aboard and packing them into a small case on the bed.
"Wait a minute...what's...all this?"
"I'm leaving."
His green eyes starkly brightened. "Leave... You can't....your ship..."
"Your friends love you to death,"
"Aw c'mon, Krystal,"
"But not me... And Falco just couldn't wait until you stepped out so he could get the chance to get his hands all over me,"
"What-!"
"Not to worry, he didn't get far. But he did tell me all about that girlfriend of yours.....Fara, is it? And she'll be waiting for you when we arrive in Corneria. And you made sure of that when you called her to let her know when you would be getting there,"
".....I'll be damned..." Fox grumbled under his breath about Falco and was glad to know the robe had sufficed as a temporary coat of armor. "Whatever he's told you about me and Fara doesn't matter--"
"Oh it doesn't?"
"She's my ex-girlfriend, Krystal. Ex, as in former...no more. And yes I called her because she used to be a member of the team...well, sort of an honorary member, but I did that before you came aboard, and even so, it wouldn't have meant much because we're-"
"On and off again," She concluded. "That's what Falco told me,"
"...idiot.." He sighed heavily, regretting his knee-jerk decision to let the blue-feathered brute back on the team. "What else did he tell you?"
"Well... You were going to marry her, but at the last minute she decided to call it off. What could you have done to her to cause that, Fox? Surely you didn't cheat on her?"
Another sigh. "No, I didn't cheat on her, Krystal."
"Then why didn't she marry you?"
"Personality conflict. She just didn't want..."
"Oh please, don't stop there."
"Fara knew long before the day of the wedding that she wasn't really ready..." He didn't have to wait for the next question, knew what she wanted by the way she leered at him. "I was gone for six straight months. My first mission against Andross and a whole lot of bloodshed. Guess it got to me, made me think about the future."
"Future? You mean kids. So, she wasn't ready for that?"
"She didn't want any. At first it didn't really matter to me, not before..."
"Before? Andross?"
"Before I realized just how different we were. She had this idea that we were going to settle down in a little house back home and live happily ever after..."
"Sounds nice."
He fell silent, his eyes fixed on her as she went back to folding stuff into the little black case while her bushy blue tail swirled hypnotically, seductively, to the beat of some strange harem-like song that kept playing in his head for quite some time now. Watching that brought back his memory of the message from Wolf that got him thinking about the future and how he wasn't going to stick around much longer for the war games; destroying Andross had been his mission, and now that it was over, he was going to return to Corneria, become a regular denizen, live in a regular home, find a decent job--
"Who am I kidding?"
"Excuse me?"
He was nearly embarrassed for letting his thoughts escape aloud and knew he needed to explain. "My home is here. Any family of mine will have to live here and my wife would have to understand what I do for a living and why I do it."
Krystal stopped what she was doing and looked at him with her eyes gleaming, her head tilted slightly. "And so, Fox, why do you do it?"
The tail kept swinging behind her...brushed once against his leg, and he felt a strange twinge along the core of him and looked over at his desk, seeing the photos of his deceased parents.
"Every one of us has a responsibility, but there's a few of us that have something a little different built in. We can't settle for waiting and watching someone else do what needs to be done. We have to go out and do it ourselves even when it seems we don't have a chance in hell of succeeding."
"Yes," She nodded. "That's what it was when you didn't give up on saving me, wasn't it?"
Not waiting for an answer, she moved forward, slipped her arms around his waist and nuzzled her nose in his ear. "...And I believe I haven't thanked you enough yet. Perhaps it would be easier for me if we got out of here... Just the two of us. I know of a place,"
He'd almost allowed her to coax him into it when he thought of what Peppy might say if he dared to leave now. "No, I...I don't think we should-"
She'd quickly hushed him by pressing her fingers onto his mouth. "...The same place we first met. But this time, no nasty generals or mad scientists. Just you and me. Unless your crew doesn't trust us going away together..."
They didn't trust her but he wouldn't tell her so. Just like he couldn't tell her about the ship and how bad of shape they were really in...
"I suppose we could," said Fox with almost the same uncertainty as when Krystal first arrived aboard his ship. However he realized it would be better to get her away from things she didn't need to know about, then saw images of a honeymoon instead of the same old command center day in, day out. "Hey, maybe that's not such a bad idea after all."
"Well then," she looked down at the small case that she'd almost completely packed. "Guess I should get something bigger and prepare for the trip..."
"Oh yeah, I wanted to order some extra clothes for you. The comlink is out. That means I couldn't contact anyone to make a delivery, so I had Rob log on to our machine port downstairs. There's a few pieces waiting for you to try on down there."
She smiled. "That's so nice of you."
"No problem. I've done a scan on your ship. Me and Slippy can do a few quick repairs. Probably won't take more than a two hours, three at the most. Remember, if you need anything--"
"I know. Call."
He nodded, but then had something else. "I was about to say, if you need anything, I'll have an eye on you..." Then he held up his wrist to show his communicator, pressed a button, and an image of the machine area downstairs came up on the PDA. "The dressing room is right there. Sure would be nice if you'd leave the door open,"
Her cheeks had blushed to a deeper blue when she realized he was serious.
"Don't worry, it'll be a private thing...just between us. I'll have Rob circle for us while we're on Dino planet. Doing that'll change our arrival time in Corneria, but that's okay, I wasn't in any big hurry to get back there anyhow."
The details of the trip had been worked out before Peppy got the chance to make any objections. Slippy was almost finished with the repairs on Krystal's ship, the flight path had been plotted, and it had been decided between Fox and Krystal to be gone for at least a week-long enough to get to know each other better, much better, and finally be together, just the two of them.
"Now Fox, the last thing I want is to seem like the bad guy here," said Peppy. "If anything I encourage your relationship with Krystal but I just think you're jumpin' the gun a bit. You get out there and something goes wrong, how do you think we'll get to you? The ship suffered lots of damage, remember?"
Fox saw Falco over at the water fountain. "You're forgetting about our old friend over there. He's got a ship, he'll be there if I need him."
The look on Peppy's face was hardly pleased but Fox didn't stick around to try explaining himself any further and followed his initial plan of going out to the dock to check on Slippy's progress with the repairs. For the next thirty minutes he was there, giving Slip a hand when and trying his best not think about Krystal but then he remembered something that Slippy had said previously.
....You're not shy, are you, Fox?....
No he wasn't which was the darn reason he couldn't continue faking interest in watching fuses being changed a few new wires being run while his PDA gave him nice live colorful shots of his honey as she shimmied in and out of an ample selection of outfits and finally seemed to be doing things she knew would crack his attention like a whip. He'd get in trouble for this. Deep trouble. But to hell with caring about anything else anymore-for the first time in his life he knew exactly what he wanted and how to get it, and this time, nothing would get in his way.
"Hey Fox! Where'ya going?"
From the front of the ship, he glanced back at Slippy, "I'll be back." was all he said before walking to the exit and taking the elevator down to the next level.
The machine port was a large area with three separate entrances from a corridor loop near the rear of the ship. The first entrance housed all the main circuits and controls to the port itself and it used a private access code no one else had except Fox and Slippy. The next entrance contained data storage for the scanners that retrieved physical information on everyone who boarded the ship, this entrance was accessible only to Fox, Slippy, and Peppy, and it was also how Fox got the clothing sized perfectly for Krystal. The third entrance was where Krystal had gone in. It was an open area for everyone, as a matter of fact, it had even been visited by a group of school kids on a field trip to see what living in outer space was like. Being called the machine port, it was filled with machines of different shapes, sizes, and functions. Material was developed in house by optical synthesis-a process that produced fabric virtually, using extremely high-powered imaging onto material samples that created exact molds going directly into a fabricator, the machine then crafted rolls of usable material which was much sturdier than conventional methods. From this, the only other thing needed was the scan of the client along with the system's embedded style planner, and in a matter of hours the wardrobe would be complete.
He turned to the second door, entered his code and went directly to the main controls and temporarily shut off the cameras, then made his way into the machine port, passing by the fabricators on his way to the private dressing area until he finally got to Krystal. She'd been so busy changing that he'd managed sneaking up on her which gave her a such a good scare that she grabbed the first garment from the bench to cover up with.
"Oh, Fox, it's you..." She sighed with relief but still held the piece in front of her.
"Yeah, who were you expecting?"
She just kind of looked down and backed up to the clothing shelf.
"Don't tell me Falco's had his claws on you again-"
"No," She then stepped forward again and grasped onto his forearm. "No...he hasn't done anything else. I think he got the message the first time. It's just that....well, this is a very large ship, the largest I've ever been on and it's sort of frightening at times. I feel like someone's watching me."
He tapped the screen of his communicator as she let go of his arm. "That was me, remember?"
She then looked passed him to the security camera that on the far wall that was still aiming directly into her dressing stall. "I know it was you watching me, but it still felt like someone else was there."
"I blocked all the other outgoing transmissions before you came in here. That picture didn't go anywhere else except," tapping the PDA again, "Right here."
Still she didn't seem that convinced.
"Krystal, I wish I could prove to you some kind of way that this ship is secure but I just don't have a way of doing that. You'll have to take my word for it, and I thought by now you'd trust me that much."
"I do-"
"Well is there something you're hiding from me?"
"What?"
"You sure are holding that piece of cloth pretty tight. You're not hiding any special weapons under there I hope. If you are I'll have to confiscate them right away,"
"No," She smiled at his sly grin and playfully tickled the underside of his muzzle. "No secret weapons, but something else you might enjoy,"
Next she lowered the garment, positioned herself directly in front of him as to block that camera, then they kissed, not for long, but by the end of it he'd knew he'd become so visibly aroused that she couldn't have had any questions about where this was going. Since learning early in life to always be prepared, he went out to the fabricator and pulled off a few yards of material that he intended to keep her comfortable with then returned to the dressing room and closed the door. Krystal was seated at the end of the bench looking a bit nervous as she'd draped herself with a long mesh cloak. He then proceeded to lay down the material, got down on his knees and bulked it up a bit where he wanted her head to lay, then outstretched a hand to her. She then dropped the cloak and carefully took hold of his hand, slid from the bench a bit unsteadily, and slowly onto the floor.
"You know if we had kids together, they would probably look very interesting." She said and took a strikingly seductive pose upon the soft white material. "Tan and blue?"
Pleasurably stunned and eager at the same time, he went for it right away, untying the bandana and pulling it off of his neck with a fast flick then put it aside, unfastened his belt, made a few more adjustments before lowering onto her.
"Tan and blue. And I'll be proud of all fifteen of them..."
"Fifteen!" Her voice wavered and her breath skimmed the fur on his ear.
"Eight girls, seven boys," He'd seen it in a dream one night, and most of the time Fox was real believer in his dreams. "The girls will be beautiful like you and the boys'll be mercenaries like me..."
He pushed a few strands of hair from her face and they kissed again.
"Oh god, Fox... No wonders your ex was squeamish about you. You keep this side of you very well hidden."
"I have to. I'm a private kind of guy...what's between us stays between us..." He stopped her from speaking again with another kiss then raised up just enough to watch her breasts rise and fall as she breathed,. "Nice..." He whispered and felt the tip of her bushy tail flutter on his thigh just as she whined high and loud, perhaps so piercing that it could've carried further had he not placed a gentle palm over her mouth and begged her to be quiet. At the same time he explored her tenderly sweet surroundings with the tips of his fingers. Then he felt her gritted teeth against his other hand when he dabbled at her nestled tuft of warm fur, and he soon moaned with the exuberant pleasure of having her, no matter that he'd had to work a bit until finally, she relaxed with his undulating movements.
"I'm sorry...."
"Shhh," He held two fingers to her mouth again. "It's okay. We're taking it slow, remember?" He rolled onto his back so that she could be above him. "See? You're in control now, Krysie. Go for it."
She positioned herself above him, her back arched, allowing him a magnificent full frontal view of her svelte curves, and this time she yelped louder with the first sharp thrust and gasped as she felt him extending within her. This occurred far more than once-in long yiffing outbursts, then quelled at each break until finally came the strong tingling sensation that rippled from his torso to his spine and surged from the base of him to the core of her, saturating her until she collapsed on top of him and began nuzzling his ear with her nose.
A while longer and he rolled over with her, then he rose up, noticing how she looked passed him to the dressing room door that had somehow come open again and the camera that was aimed directly on them. Looking back at her pinched at his heart; she was crying.
"Stop," He petted the wetness from her face and pulled the garment she'd held over earlier from the bench and gave it to her to cover up with again. From there he made the necessary adjustments to his own clothes and got up, told her to finish dressing and pick out whatever she wanted and that he'd have her things brought up and packed.
"I wish you wouldn't go--" She got up quickly. "Please don't leave me down here alone. Please..."
She'd tugged him back and from that he couldn't just walk away.
And after promising not to leave her, he stepped out of the changing room and closed the door behind him, and for a moment he just stood there with his eyes focused on that camera, knowing it couldn't have been online unless the red light was illuminated, then for some reason the fur at the nape of his neck stood on end and then he snarled on instinct. Something bothered him and he couldn't ignore it when he took two steps and looked back toward the changing room, then turned around again to look at the camera, just catching the glow of red light that flickered then went off.
Evora
_________________________________________________________
Chapter 4, Tears
After tossing and turning half the night, Fox was up and out at 0500 hours to get a good estimate of the damages caused by the magnetic storm. He went first to the bridge only to be greeted by a complete system malfunction, and of course Rob, who had managed holding a steady course with limited use of the navigational instruments. "We are at less than one-fourth normal capacity," stated the robotic arm of the Star Fox team. "If we are struck again, the Great Fox will suffer irreparable damages."
"Yeah...thanks Rob," Fox replied tiredly and made his way across and to the elevator, took it down to the partially-lit the hangar then went out to the landing dock where Krystal's transport was parked head-in beneath the outer canopy. A few more steps and he was right upon the old vessel that looked already weathered and dull in the foreground of a starry black sky. The canopy shielded the temporary hideout now that it was no one else's business in outer Lylat that Krystal had come aboard the Great Fox, and was Fox's decision to keep it that way by making sure the craft stayed well hidden until Slippy cleared a spare port for permanent docking. In the meantime, he took out his scanner and walked slowly around the ship, aiming steadily at each section, downloading the preset specifications for later use if any repairs were needed. Once finished, he keyed in a code that would give him access to the ship's statistical and ownership history. In a matter of seconds the readout came up on the scanner's small rectangular screen:
positive source downloading.... 7839.3894 centoms traveled. Triple force-field shields operational. Standard defense weapons only. Initial license granted, G.O. Scales...
"Scales..." A lingering distaste hung in Fox's mouth and a twinge of searing hatred shined in his eyes as the thoughts embedded in his memory found familiarity in that ship. He then nodded, gradually recalling Ice Mountain and a hovering ship that dropped Prince Tricky onto the club-wielding Sharpclaws below; either it was an exact replica or the exact same one, Fox would've bet all of his change in the bank on the latter. A closer look at the ship's side revealed the three-hooked symbol which adorned on General Scales belt, and beside that was another design in the form of a leaf. He then wondered how the hell did this ship end up with Krystal and had the urge to run back up to his room and frisk her down in places he hadn't tried yet until realizing that probably wasn't such a good idea at this point. After all, she'd put all of her trust in him and deserved as much in return.
Finally he turned off the scanner and headed back for the bridge where Rob managed holding steady despite all of the warning lights and buzzers going off around him.
"All incoming and outgoing communications are suspended until repairs can be completed." Rob reported as Fox sat down in his chair, stored the scanner, then logged on to his laptop to check if any private messages got through before the communications link crashed.
There were two. The first came from Bill Grey. ----McCloud, you sly dog, you. It's about time you made good on your promise and stopped by Katina, don't you think? Besides, I'd like to meet this Krystal of yours. You've got the guys here slobbering with envy. I have about fifty of them who want to know if there's any openings on the Great Fox(lol). "Yeah, maybe mine," Fox said to himself and opened the second message. The header was series of letters and numbers followed by a time stamp. Usually he didn't open that sort of message because it could've been a package disguised as legit when it was really a hack, but figured Rob must've done a general check before patching it through from the main server.
-----O 4151425122 V 23:09 Congratulations, Fox, on another successful mission. You are now Lylat's most famed mercenary. Let's see how long you can hold the title.
He sat for a moment, not really re-reading the message, but hearing the voice that would have spoken it. Those words, that voice, a challenge placed firmly in his hands by none other than the enemy he knew had been laying in wait for the past eight years, regrouping, constructing newer, better weapons, an enemy so vile that he would seize and kill anyone who got in the way of his quest to finally capture the leader of the Star Fox team.
"I'm not playing your game anymore, Wolf...." He looked up, in the direction of the bedroom where Krystal slept, briefly re-evaluating what it was out of life he really wanted and what it would do to him if something happened to her...
"Snap out of it, loverboy," Falco had come in and slapped Fox over the head with a rolled up magazine. "We've got too many problems for you to be sittin' here with your head in seventh heaven."
Fox looked around and checked the time then got up. Peppy and Slippy were at the map console with Rob, the time was six-thirty, and then was Falco, wide awake and in his face.
"The whole system's goin' downhill as I speak, Mister 'this-ship-can-repair-itself.' As of right now Rob can't even steer the thing let alone get it on track towards Corneria. The best we can do is fly in circles until Slippy gets things back in order. I think you know that pretty much means we're stuck out here, right?"
For some unexplainable reason he wasn't feeling the concern about his ship for not being able to pull out of his fixation with Krystal.
"Hey, Fox! What's wrong with you today anyway? Man, you've changed a lot since I've been gone..."
Falco's voice trailed off as Fox walked away. The elevator doors closed, the lights dimmed slightly as the lift rose slowly to the next floor but he didn't give it much attention, not even the brief flickering when the door opened up again. He went straight for his room, using the manual control to open the door and went in to check in on his coveted guest who should have been resting comfortably, yet when he found her walking about the room while sporting his loaned blue robe, gathering the few items she'd brought aboard and packing them into a small case on the bed.
"Wait a minute...what's...all this?"
"I'm leaving."
His green eyes starkly brightened. "Leave... You can't....your ship..."
"Your friends love you to death,"
"Aw c'mon, Krystal,"
"But not me... And Falco just couldn't wait until you stepped out so he could get the chance to get his hands all over me,"
"What-!"
"Not to worry, he didn't get far. But he did tell me all about that girlfriend of yours.....Fara, is it? And she'll be waiting for you when we arrive in Corneria. And you made sure of that when you called her to let her know when you would be getting there,"
".....I'll be damned..." Fox grumbled under his breath about Falco and was glad to know the robe had sufficed as a temporary coat of armor. "Whatever he's told you about me and Fara doesn't matter--"
"Oh it doesn't?"
"She's my ex-girlfriend, Krystal. Ex, as in former...no more. And yes I called her because she used to be a member of the team...well, sort of an honorary member, but I did that before you came aboard, and even so, it wouldn't have meant much because we're-"
"On and off again," She concluded. "That's what Falco told me,"
"...idiot.." He sighed heavily, regretting his knee-jerk decision to let the blue-feathered brute back on the team. "What else did he tell you?"
"Well... You were going to marry her, but at the last minute she decided to call it off. What could you have done to her to cause that, Fox? Surely you didn't cheat on her?"
Another sigh. "No, I didn't cheat on her, Krystal."
"Then why didn't she marry you?"
"Personality conflict. She just didn't want..."
"Oh please, don't stop there."
"Fara knew long before the day of the wedding that she wasn't really ready..." He didn't have to wait for the next question, knew what she wanted by the way she leered at him. "I was gone for six straight months. My first mission against Andross and a whole lot of bloodshed. Guess it got to me, made me think about the future."
"Future? You mean kids. So, she wasn't ready for that?"
"She didn't want any. At first it didn't really matter to me, not before..."
"Before? Andross?"
"Before I realized just how different we were. She had this idea that we were going to settle down in a little house back home and live happily ever after..."
"Sounds nice."
He fell silent, his eyes fixed on her as she went back to folding stuff into the little black case while her bushy blue tail swirled hypnotically, seductively, to the beat of some strange harem-like song that kept playing in his head for quite some time now. Watching that brought back his memory of the message from Wolf that got him thinking about the future and how he wasn't going to stick around much longer for the war games; destroying Andross had been his mission, and now that it was over, he was going to return to Corneria, become a regular denizen, live in a regular home, find a decent job--
"Who am I kidding?"
"Excuse me?"
He was nearly embarrassed for letting his thoughts escape aloud and knew he needed to explain. "My home is here. Any family of mine will have to live here and my wife would have to understand what I do for a living and why I do it."
Krystal stopped what she was doing and looked at him with her eyes gleaming, her head tilted slightly. "And so, Fox, why do you do it?"
The tail kept swinging behind her...brushed once against his leg, and he felt a strange twinge along the core of him and looked over at his desk, seeing the photos of his deceased parents.
"Every one of us has a responsibility, but there's a few of us that have something a little different built in. We can't settle for waiting and watching someone else do what needs to be done. We have to go out and do it ourselves even when it seems we don't have a chance in hell of succeeding."
"Yes," She nodded. "That's what it was when you didn't give up on saving me, wasn't it?"
Not waiting for an answer, she moved forward, slipped her arms around his waist and nuzzled her nose in his ear. "...And I believe I haven't thanked you enough yet. Perhaps it would be easier for me if we got out of here... Just the two of us. I know of a place,"
He'd almost allowed her to coax him into it when he thought of what Peppy might say if he dared to leave now. "No, I...I don't think we should-"
She'd quickly hushed him by pressing her fingers onto his mouth. "...The same place we first met. But this time, no nasty generals or mad scientists. Just you and me. Unless your crew doesn't trust us going away together..."
They didn't trust her but he wouldn't tell her so. Just like he couldn't tell her about the ship and how bad of shape they were really in...
"I suppose we could," said Fox with almost the same uncertainty as when Krystal first arrived aboard his ship. However he realized it would be better to get her away from things she didn't need to know about, then saw images of a honeymoon instead of the same old command center day in, day out. "Hey, maybe that's not such a bad idea after all."
"Well then," she looked down at the small case that she'd almost completely packed. "Guess I should get something bigger and prepare for the trip..."
"Oh yeah, I wanted to order some extra clothes for you. The comlink is out. That means I couldn't contact anyone to make a delivery, so I had Rob log on to our machine port downstairs. There's a few pieces waiting for you to try on down there."
She smiled. "That's so nice of you."
"No problem. I've done a scan on your ship. Me and Slippy can do a few quick repairs. Probably won't take more than a two hours, three at the most. Remember, if you need anything--"
"I know. Call."
He nodded, but then had something else. "I was about to say, if you need anything, I'll have an eye on you..." Then he held up his wrist to show his communicator, pressed a button, and an image of the machine area downstairs came up on the PDA. "The dressing room is right there. Sure would be nice if you'd leave the door open,"
Her cheeks had blushed to a deeper blue when she realized he was serious.
"Don't worry, it'll be a private thing...just between us. I'll have Rob circle for us while we're on Dino planet. Doing that'll change our arrival time in Corneria, but that's okay, I wasn't in any big hurry to get back there anyhow."
The details of the trip had been worked out before Peppy got the chance to make any objections. Slippy was almost finished with the repairs on Krystal's ship, the flight path had been plotted, and it had been decided between Fox and Krystal to be gone for at least a week-long enough to get to know each other better, much better, and finally be together, just the two of them.
"Now Fox, the last thing I want is to seem like the bad guy here," said Peppy. "If anything I encourage your relationship with Krystal but I just think you're jumpin' the gun a bit. You get out there and something goes wrong, how do you think we'll get to you? The ship suffered lots of damage, remember?"
Fox saw Falco over at the water fountain. "You're forgetting about our old friend over there. He's got a ship, he'll be there if I need him."
The look on Peppy's face was hardly pleased but Fox didn't stick around to try explaining himself any further and followed his initial plan of going out to the dock to check on Slippy's progress with the repairs. For the next thirty minutes he was there, giving Slip a hand when and trying his best not think about Krystal but then he remembered something that Slippy had said previously.
....You're not shy, are you, Fox?....
No he wasn't which was the darn reason he couldn't continue faking interest in watching fuses being changed a few new wires being run while his PDA gave him nice live colorful shots of his honey as she shimmied in and out of an ample selection of outfits and finally seemed to be doing things she knew would crack his attention like a whip. He'd get in trouble for this. Deep trouble. But to hell with caring about anything else anymore-for the first time in his life he knew exactly what he wanted and how to get it, and this time, nothing would get in his way.
"Hey Fox! Where'ya going?"
From the front of the ship, he glanced back at Slippy, "I'll be back." was all he said before walking to the exit and taking the elevator down to the next level.
The machine port was a large area with three separate entrances from a corridor loop near the rear of the ship. The first entrance housed all the main circuits and controls to the port itself and it used a private access code no one else had except Fox and Slippy. The next entrance contained data storage for the scanners that retrieved physical information on everyone who boarded the ship, this entrance was accessible only to Fox, Slippy, and Peppy, and it was also how Fox got the clothing sized perfectly for Krystal. The third entrance was where Krystal had gone in. It was an open area for everyone, as a matter of fact, it had even been visited by a group of school kids on a field trip to see what living in outer space was like. Being called the machine port, it was filled with machines of different shapes, sizes, and functions. Material was developed in house by optical synthesis-a process that produced fabric virtually, using extremely high-powered imaging onto material samples that created exact molds going directly into a fabricator, the machine then crafted rolls of usable material which was much sturdier than conventional methods. From this, the only other thing needed was the scan of the client along with the system's embedded style planner, and in a matter of hours the wardrobe would be complete.
He turned to the second door, entered his code and went directly to the main controls and temporarily shut off the cameras, then made his way into the machine port, passing by the fabricators on his way to the private dressing area until he finally got to Krystal. She'd been so busy changing that he'd managed sneaking up on her which gave her a such a good scare that she grabbed the first garment from the bench to cover up with.
"Oh, Fox, it's you..." She sighed with relief but still held the piece in front of her.
"Yeah, who were you expecting?"
She just kind of looked down and backed up to the clothing shelf.
"Don't tell me Falco's had his claws on you again-"
"No," She then stepped forward again and grasped onto his forearm. "No...he hasn't done anything else. I think he got the message the first time. It's just that....well, this is a very large ship, the largest I've ever been on and it's sort of frightening at times. I feel like someone's watching me."
He tapped the screen of his communicator as she let go of his arm. "That was me, remember?"
She then looked passed him to the security camera that on the far wall that was still aiming directly into her dressing stall. "I know it was you watching me, but it still felt like someone else was there."
"I blocked all the other outgoing transmissions before you came in here. That picture didn't go anywhere else except," tapping the PDA again, "Right here."
Still she didn't seem that convinced.
"Krystal, I wish I could prove to you some kind of way that this ship is secure but I just don't have a way of doing that. You'll have to take my word for it, and I thought by now you'd trust me that much."
"I do-"
"Well is there something you're hiding from me?"
"What?"
"You sure are holding that piece of cloth pretty tight. You're not hiding any special weapons under there I hope. If you are I'll have to confiscate them right away,"
"No," She smiled at his sly grin and playfully tickled the underside of his muzzle. "No secret weapons, but something else you might enjoy,"
Next she lowered the garment, positioned herself directly in front of him as to block that camera, then they kissed, not for long, but by the end of it he'd knew he'd become so visibly aroused that she couldn't have had any questions about where this was going. Since learning early in life to always be prepared, he went out to the fabricator and pulled off a few yards of material that he intended to keep her comfortable with then returned to the dressing room and closed the door. Krystal was seated at the end of the bench looking a bit nervous as she'd draped herself with a long mesh cloak. He then proceeded to lay down the material, got down on his knees and bulked it up a bit where he wanted her head to lay, then outstretched a hand to her. She then dropped the cloak and carefully took hold of his hand, slid from the bench a bit unsteadily, and slowly onto the floor.
"You know if we had kids together, they would probably look very interesting." She said and took a strikingly seductive pose upon the soft white material. "Tan and blue?"
Pleasurably stunned and eager at the same time, he went for it right away, untying the bandana and pulling it off of his neck with a fast flick then put it aside, unfastened his belt, made a few more adjustments before lowering onto her.
"Tan and blue. And I'll be proud of all fifteen of them..."
"Fifteen!" Her voice wavered and her breath skimmed the fur on his ear.
"Eight girls, seven boys," He'd seen it in a dream one night, and most of the time Fox was real believer in his dreams. "The girls will be beautiful like you and the boys'll be mercenaries like me..."
He pushed a few strands of hair from her face and they kissed again.
"Oh god, Fox... No wonders your ex was squeamish about you. You keep this side of you very well hidden."
"I have to. I'm a private kind of guy...what's between us stays between us..." He stopped her from speaking again with another kiss then raised up just enough to watch her breasts rise and fall as she breathed,. "Nice..." He whispered and felt the tip of her bushy tail flutter on his thigh just as she whined high and loud, perhaps so piercing that it could've carried further had he not placed a gentle palm over her mouth and begged her to be quiet. At the same time he explored her tenderly sweet surroundings with the tips of his fingers. Then he felt her gritted teeth against his other hand when he dabbled at her nestled tuft of warm fur, and he soon moaned with the exuberant pleasure of having her, no matter that he'd had to work a bit until finally, she relaxed with his undulating movements.
"I'm sorry...."
"Shhh," He held two fingers to her mouth again. "It's okay. We're taking it slow, remember?" He rolled onto his back so that she could be above him. "See? You're in control now, Krysie. Go for it."
She positioned herself above him, her back arched, allowing him a magnificent full frontal view of her svelte curves, and this time she yelped louder with the first sharp thrust and gasped as she felt him extending within her. This occurred far more than once-in long yiffing outbursts, then quelled at each break until finally came the strong tingling sensation that rippled from his torso to his spine and surged from the base of him to the core of her, saturating her until she collapsed on top of him and began nuzzling his ear with her nose.
A while longer and he rolled over with her, then he rose up, noticing how she looked passed him to the dressing room door that had somehow come open again and the camera that was aimed directly on them. Looking back at her pinched at his heart; she was crying.
"Stop," He petted the wetness from her face and pulled the garment she'd held over earlier from the bench and gave it to her to cover up with again. From there he made the necessary adjustments to his own clothes and got up, told her to finish dressing and pick out whatever she wanted and that he'd have her things brought up and packed.
"I wish you wouldn't go--" She got up quickly. "Please don't leave me down here alone. Please..."
She'd tugged him back and from that he couldn't just walk away.
And after promising not to leave her, he stepped out of the changing room and closed the door behind him, and for a moment he just stood there with his eyes focused on that camera, knowing it couldn't have been online unless the red light was illuminated, then for some reason the fur at the nape of his neck stood on end and then he snarled on instinct. Something bothered him and he couldn't ignore it when he took two steps and looked back toward the changing room, then turned around again to look at the camera, just catching the glow of red light that flickered then went off.