AN- The only character I own so far is Lucius. Now lets get on with the story, shall we?

Chapter 2: The Darkest Sky

James McCloud was worried about Andross. His friend hadn't been outside of his laboratory in about a week now, and he seemed to have changed a lot. James knocked on the door gently.

"Who are you?" A loud voice yelled.

"James." He answered, surprised at Andross's hostile response. "Can I come in?"

"No." He said quickly.

"Are you sure?" He asked. "If something has been bothering you…"

"Leave me alone!" He roared. James hurried away quickly after this outburst. He still didn't know what was troubling his friend, but he didn't want to hang around Andross in his mood.

The inside of Andross's laboratory was a mess. Broken flasks lay everywhere, and scraps of metal littered the area. Strange schematics lined the floor of the room, designed in Andross's recent mood. But the strangest thing in the room was Andross himself. He had become haggard and worn from his nonstop work, and gray blotches of sleep covered his eyes from a lack of rest. Despite the sleep he had missed, Andross was working more feverishly than ever to build things from the Dark Matter that had become his life.

Has he gone yet? The Dark Matter asked him.

"Yes." Andross said, gazing lovingly at the black ooze in his culture environment. It had multiplied into other Dark Matters, all of whom promised to help Andross gain control of Corneria.

After all, you can rule better than the Royal Family! It had told him. Remember, all you have to do is destroy the Krozoa Palace afterwards…

The Dark Matter had convinced Andross. He walked over to where his greatest weapon lay and activated it.

*******

"Alright, guys! We're here!"

After several hours, the Star Fox team had finally arrived in the Asteroid Field. Fox was surprised; he had expected to see something else in there except space. There were no cargo ships, military vessels, luxury freighters… heck, even a bogey would be a welcome sight to Fox. There weren't even very many asteroids there.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Fox told his wingmen.

"You're right about that, Fox." Falco replied. "I just wish there was something out here except us!"

In his ship, Lucius sighed. "If what I think what's happening is happening, there will be something else out here soon enough…"

Fox didn't have time to reflect on these words, as he was thinking about General Pepper's orders.

"Fortunata has been showing signs of decay, Fox. Fortunata is a vital military point for the Cornerian Royal Army, so we need you to check it out and see what has been decaying all of these planets. Also, we need to find a way to stop this from happening. Can you do it, Fox?"

Fox had been eager to help at first, but he felt nervous about his assignment now. How could you save a dying planet? He was lodged out of these thoughts by an emergency signal from Peppy.

"Fox!" Peppy exclaimed. "There's some kind of life form coming towards us!"

"Life form? What is it, Peppy?" Fox asked.

"I don't know." Peppy told him. "I'm just getting some strange readings on my scanner…"

Before Peppy could finish his sentence, something attacked Fox from out of nowhere. Fox yelled as his Arwing was hit by a strange black ball of ooze. He yelled as it started to dissolve the wing that it had hit. Suddenly, a laser hit the ooze, causing it to fly off of the Arwing.

"Lucius!" Fox yelled. "That was really dangerous! What if you had missed?"

His voice was deadly calm. "I would never miss that."

Before Fox could comprehend these words, more of the balls struck the Arwings. Falco's ship was struck by three, all of which were dislodged with a strategic Barrel Roll. Slippy's Arwing was also struck several times.

"Fox!" Slippy yelled. "Help me out here!" Fox heard his cry for help and struck all of the strange things with his lasers. "Thanks, Fox!" Slippy said in gratitude.

Lucius was also having a tough time. It took all of his skill to keep the ooze from hitting his craft. He Rolled everywhere in an attempt to shake them off. Finally, before he was overtaken, Falco arrived to blast them all away.

"There you are," he said, "I got those things off your back!"

"Thank you." Lucius replied simply.

"Well, that should…" Fox was stopped from finishing his speech by the arrival of more particles of ooze. "Rob!" Fox yelled. "Use the Great Fox's Plasma Cannon!"

"Affirmative." Rob said pressing the fire button. A green burst of Plasma erupted from the Great Fox's blasters, heading straight for the approaching particles. In the blink of an eye they were all incinerated. All that was left of them was a shower of black dust that fell through the air.

"Alright, guys!" Fox said. "Let's go back to the Great Fox!"

*******

Inside the Great Fox, Rob looked at the ships. They had all been damaged badly by the ooze, but Slippy's Arwing took the worst pounding. A hole had been burned right through one of the wings. Fox, Falco and Lucius' ships didn't fare much better; the ooze had short circuited some of their guiding functions, making them unsafe to fly in for a few days.

"Fox," Peppy said, "there's some of that stuff on Slippy's Arwing!" Peppy was right; some of the ooze had stuck onto Slippy's ship, threatening to do more damage. Peppy scooped it up in a glass container.

"I'm going over to the lab to study this stuff." He said, walking out of the room. "I need to find out just what it is."

After Peppy left the room, Fox turned to Lucius, who was deep in thought. The salamander's face was grim, and his brown eyes seemed troubled.

"What's wrong, Lucius?" Fox asked.

"What?" Lucius replied, snapping back into reality. "It's nothing. Nothing at all."

Before Fox could ask him anymore questions, Rob's voice blurted out over the ship's intercom.

"We are approaching Planet Fortunata at this moment."

When Fox got his first glimpse of the planet, he gasped. It was covered with the black substance he had seen earlier, a hole burnt into the core of the planet. "There we are, boys." Fox told his crew. "Now our mission begins."