I do not own Star Fox. This is my way of getting away from the rest of world and doing something to ease the mind. I'd be totally insane otherwise.

Strangers No More

Ev^-^

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Chapter 6, Doctrine and Allegiance

How good they were together depended on Fox's ability to keep his focus on the ships instead of Krystal. Too bad he was having some slight difficulty with that. He watched her pull out the comlink. Made a few last-second adjustments to the indicators. Fluid and calm with her movements, she picked up the com and held it to her mouth. "Rob, this is Krystal. Looks like we'll be needing help out here soon as we can get it."

"Affirmative," Rob replied over a waves of static. "I'll patch you over to Falco."

Krystal hung up the com and raised the speaker volume. She reached above her to flip off the row of switches that operated the cabin and exterior lights, then keyed the standard lasers on the higher pulse. She must have had enough about standard lasers to know they carried less of a charge than twins and doubles, and to make up for the disparity, rates and ranges of fire were controllable, allowing even distribution among multiple targets.

"There they are.." She looked ahead to the line ships that had just appeared in the sky out of nowhere. "I'd better go back for our masks just in case."

He reached out to catch her just as she'd swung the chair around and got up. "Hey, don't take too long, I need you up here." To that she had bowed and pecked him a kiss on the head before leaving him alone. Seconds later, Falco's voice scraped in over the static.

"Fox? You're at it again? Why the hell does it seem no matter where you go, you attract a swarm of space maggots? You owe me this time, pal."

Fox pulled on his headset and turned on its mouthpiece. "Falco, give me a time estimate."

"I can't go any faster than what I'm goin'...You just hold together 'til I get there."

Hold together...Yeah, that'll be a piece of cake...

Krystal screamed.

"Krystal!" He looked back and saw her at the rear, pushing her body against the door that led to the main circuitry compartment, struggling to keep whatever it was on the other side.

"Fox! I can't....."

He flipped on the autopilot and snapped out of his restraints just as the door gave way to a strange slithering wormlike alien that roared then wrapped its thick tentacles around her legs, entangling her, then dragged her back through the opening. Finally were her piercing cries, more chilling than any he'd heard in his entire life....

"Hey Fox!" Falco shouted. "What was that? What the heck are you two doin' out there!"

Fox threw down the headset and dashed for the doorway while the ship held its course straight ahead. He pulled his blaster and set it ready as he made it to the deck entrance of the circuitry area. A mix of whirring motors and popping of severed circuits in the dim lighting were just enough to make his fur stand on end. With the blaster drawn in front of him, he did a point check, swinging from left to right. It was when he swung right that something clinched his forearm. He jumped a bit as he was taken by surprised then looked down, seeing the hand of his dear blue vixen, the communicator attached snugly to her wrist. With blaster raised, he immediately spun around, discovering her trapped to the wall in the clutches of the worm, its tentacles binding tightly around her neck and choking her, and her eyes glistened, watching him in desperation when he aimed the gun. He took a few steps back after prying her hand from his arm, knowing he had but one chance at a clean hit and his grip couldn't waver an inch, that a miss could hit her neck, kill her instantly at such close range, or blow right through the side of her face. No time to waste, he stood firm and got a good look at his target, bringing the blaster in closer to his muzzle, scope to his eye. Couldn't blink. Steady hand. One shot. He fired. The thing made a hissing sound and squeezed at her one last time before it fell away, and Krystal fell limply into his arms when the hissing returned somewhere nearby, and he aimed his blaster again at the thing that slithered away faster that he could fire.

"My God..." she whispered. "It's still alive...."

He held her then pulled back after noticing three small marks on the nape of her neck with no traces of blood, but before he got the chance to mention it, the alarms started ringing in front.

"And they're still out there.." This time he grabbed her hand and tugged her back with him, but she stopped halfway and retrieved her staff from the storage compartment.

A swift check of the indicators reported the second shield knocked out. They were off course. Krystal turned her chair as to see behind her while she radioed Falco again and gave him all the vitals on the situation which he relayed to Peppy. Five enemies were left now, and Fox did a quick scan of their fire and found out it was actually live ballistics... Alive...

"Dammit, they're firing those things at us..."

"What?"

"Look at the scan."

She leaned slightly toward to read the display. "Globins. Free organisms used as weapons. Able to penetrate energy fields. Adheres itself to solid objects as a method of attack. Extremely sensitive to light. Bloodsuckers. Expels deadly venom at full maturity..."

"It wasn't full grown," Fox quickly clarified when Krystal looked horrified and for the first time he saw her touch the bite marks on her neck. "Look at the diagram."

"But how long does it take for one to reach full maturity?"

"Scroll down."

She tapped the screen and read further. "Two months."

Fox took a few more shots and knocked two ships out of the sky. "We'll have these guys capped and this thing landed long before that..."

Krystal was still able to focus on the targets, calling them out, and soon picked up her headset from its clip on the console and adjusted it on her head, another gift he'd given to her before take off, one that that she'd accepted with delight. He'd even remembered her exact words: ...I love the things you give to me, and when we get to the planet, I'll thank you for each and every one...and even more...  

"That thing stung me," She rubbed the wound. "It hurts a little."

Her discomfort gave him even more of an incentive to bear down on the acceleration, had to land safely and get her checked out soon as possible.

"Hang on,"

The old ship cooperated with him when he gave the thrusters a good boost, increasing their speed by a mach and tore through the black sky. That led to a chase, ten of them on his tail, scattering lasers ahead of him, a few hitting his rear hard and jolting Krystal forward in her seat. The fact that they were messing with him like that capulted him into a seething anger, made him want to break and roll into attack mode, then blast them all out of existence if only he'd had his Arwing instead of this heavily worn, hard to maneuver, mound of bulk. Additionally, if only there were better weapons aboard, and he'd wished he had let Slippy test out that conduit that could've been used to form an electrical force field around Krystal's ship--something that could have worked well on those worms penetrating the hull. Fox knew the sound of them, like a thud. The next hit knocked out the stabilizers, forcing him to deal not only with the shooting but the steering as well which was now virtually impossible. In all the noise, Krystal was suddenly quiet.

"What's our location?" He asked just to check and looked over at her when she didn't respond. "Krystal?"

She rubbed her forehead, and her face had turned somewhat of ashen blue. "I....I don't feel good," then she got up after removing her headset, appearing wobbly, and headed to the back again.

"Krystal--" Fox called to her and saw when she turned into the bathroom, so worried he couldn't concentrate, didn't even notice the barrage of incoming projectiles that he could've intercepted if he'd seen them in time. In the next minute the bombs pounded them, broke through the last shield and finished off what was left of the guidance system.

*******

Falco made a final pass around the area where Fox and Krystal had called for help. "I don't see a thing, Peppy. Nothing. You got anything from that Earthwalker?"

"He hasn't heard from them either," Peppy answered sorrowfully. "Falco, I think you'd better come on back. There's not too much we can do now except wait to hear from them again. They just might be heading there but can't contact anyone if the com's been knocked out."

"Yeah, guess you're right." Falco turned around and headed home even though he had a funny feeling about doing so.