Cowboy Star Fox

By Wolf O'Donnell

Author's Note: Star Fox and all related characters (including me) are copyrighted by Nintendo. Scales, Dinosaur Planet and all related characters are copyrighted by Rare. The Gospel Army, Dr. Jerome Kano, the Sekai Foundation and all related characters and places are copyrighted by me. Upon reading any word in this file, you hereby agree to forfeit all your rights to sue me and that I cannot be held liable for any psychological or physical damage caused by the fact that this fanfic contains swearing, violence and the use of British-English Spelling and Grammar.

P.S. I've decided to alter the story, so I've deleted all the chapters and started from scratch. Actually, there are very little changes to the first two chapters, but from this chapter onwards, the storyline is going to take a slightly different route from the original version. I recommend that you start reading again from scratch.

* * * * *

Episode 3: No Money

The large-eared, Fennec fox made her way through the burnt out corridors. This was the Gospel Army's latest base and as an agent of the Allied Military Intelligence Organisation, a subdivision of the Lylat Police, it was her job to fight against the terrorist organisation.
Slowly, she emerged out into a large hall. It had several doors in it, each one with the Gospel emblem painted on it, a dark red G made up of straight lines within a black square-shaped diamond. Her mind was on several things, as she stalked through the wreckage of the base. She looked around her and began to wonder what could have possibly caused so much damage. What could have possibly destroyed the terrorist organisation's base?
Whatever it was, it hade made a real show of destroying the place. The explosions could be seen for miles away and was what alerted the authorities to the base in the first place.
The Fennec fox mused on how the Gospel Army liked to install their bases underneath mansions, abandoned temples and palaces and underneath ruins. They loved hiding their compounds in such places. Slowly, she reached for her holo-communicator. Seconds later, a holographic image of a grey-furred canine appeared on it.
"Bill, you got anything?" she asked the canine.
"Nothing," sighed Bill. "What about you, Fara?"
She shook her head in reply.
"Whatever destroyed this place was very thorough," she told Bill. "There's not a single survivor." The fox began to shiver. Her body was not designed for such cold places. "I think we'd better leave and send for reinforcements." At that very moment, her keen sense of hearing detected a gunshot.
"What was that?" asked Bill.
"Don't know, but I'm going to find out," replied Fara, as she placed her finger more firmly on the trigger.
"Be careful."
"There's no need to tell me that," retorted Fara, before she switched off her holo-communicator. She began to run and then she heard a scream. Fara sprinted to the hideous scream and then skidded to a halt. Not too far away was some scaled monstrosity, standing over the torn body of what had once been a lion. "Stop right there!" she cried, as she aimed the gun. When it turned round, she suddenly realised that it wouldn't have understand a single word it said.
It was some kind of reptilian with large wings and incredibly longs claws that were dripping with blood. The face was vaguely ape-like and that was what worried her. To Fara, it looked like one of Andross's bio-weapons, but that couldn't be. Andross was dead. She had heard that Fox McCloud had killed him... twice.
The reptilian creature lunged at Fara. She fired at it, but the lasers didn't seem to penetrate its thick hide. Fara turned round and ran for it. As she ran, she fired at the creature, but the lasers didn't seem to do anything. Her mind had seized up with terror. It didn't occur to her to call for back-up. She turned round momentarily and saw the creature catching up with her. Fara tripped over a corpse and fell flat on her face.
Thinking on her feet, she grabbed the nearest object and threw it at at the reptilian creature. It batted it away like a baseball. Fara looked around her and saw a huge sheet of metal. She leapt to her feet and grabbed it, before throwing it as best as she could at the monstrosity. It tore through the sheet metal like paper.
A laser suddenly flew through the air and hit the reptilian monster. Several more lasers flew through the air and hit the bio-weapon.
Fara turned round and a smile spread across her face. It was Bill!
"Thanks," she called out to him, before she raised her gun and decided to open fire on it as well. Perhaps the combined fire power of two guns would bring this scaly monstrosity down. She pulled the trigger and fired laser after laser at the thing. "It's no use!" she cried.
Bill looked around him and decided on the best possible action.
"Run for it!" he shouted at her and when he saw her running, he raised his gun upwards and let rip with laserfire. He hoped that his plan would work, but if it didn't, it would at least buy them enough time to get some back-up.
The weakened ceiling suddenly collapsed and huge slabs of concrete came raining down towards the monster. Each one smashed into the scaly creature and there was suddenly a hideous shriek of pure agony.
The Fennec fox turned round and looked at the rubble.
"Thanks, Bill," she thanked the canine with a sigh. She backed off away from the rubble and turned to look at the canine. A smile spread across her muzzle. "You're just a regular hero."
"Aw, it was nothing," said Bill modestly.
Fara turned to look at the rubble again. That monstrosity worried her. It didn't look natural at all. She had never seen a creature like that before. Was it one of Andross's old bio-weapons or was it something far more sinister than that?
"Bill, I don't know about you, but something really bugs me about this place," she said, as she began to look around her. "It's as if..." She trailed off, not knowing what she meant to say. "Let's just get out of here and send for a clean-up team."
Bill nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, let's," he said slowly. Something didn't feel right about this Gospel base, but he wasn't sure what it was. He had a bizarre feeling that they were being watched, that the bio-weapon had been deliberately let loose just for them. Perhaps he was getting paranoid... Perhaps not...

It had been a year since Andross's second demise at Dinosaur Planet. More importantly, it had been two years since Fox had last set foot on Corneria, his home planet. The vulpine inhaled deeply and sighed in relief.
"It's good to be breathing that fresh air again," he sighed and suddenly choked on the exhaust fumes of a dilapidated lorry as it sped past. "Man, Corneria City's really changed since I last came here."
"Nah, it's always been like this," said Falco, before he took another sip of his drink through the straw that had been provided. It really didn't pay to be an avian when it came to drinking at a cafe, especially when they use those insanely tall, thin glasses. "You sure that he's going to come here?" asked Falco, as he looked around himself. "I would have thought that his type would have gone to seedy bars."
"You're probably thinking about yourself," joked Krystal. Her Lylatian had come a long way since the days of Dinosaur Planet, when the only Lylatian phrases she knew were, 'Hello', 'Goodbye', 'Andross is an arsehole' and 'Get lost' (the last one, usually directed towards Falco when he was drunk and trying to hit on her).
"Ha, ha, very funny," said Falco sarcastically, as he glared at her. "Say, Fox, what's wrong?" he asked, when he noticed that his friend was no longer laughing.
A toothy, smile spread across Fox's muzzle.
"Nothing," he replied truthfully. "Would you excuse me?" He rose from his seat and walked a short distance away from the table and towards the edge of the pavement near the traffic lights. Fox reached out and tapped someone on the shoulder. "Chris Seaver, I presume?"
The person turned round and Fox punched him in the face, knocking him unconscious.
"Huh, easiest ten thousand I've ever made," he commented, as he motioned over for his friends to come over.

The Lylat Police's Emblem wasn't very original. It consisted of a L and a P lodged in its crook, within a star that was within a shield. This emblem was plastered on the wall behind the police officer and was apparent on the cap of her blue uniform, which was like the Star Fox Adventures version of General Pepper's uniform, only blue and with white gloves.
"Excuse me."
The police officer, a Fennec fox, sighed as she lowered the paper in her hands.
"How may I help you?" she began and then she trailed off, upon seeing the person not too far away. Her pupils nearly widened at the sight of the person not too far away. "Fox?"
"Fara?" exclaimed Fox in complete surprise. One of the things that he had not expected to see was his old girlfriend. "Wow, it's nice to see you again."
"Yeah," agreed Fara with a nod of her head. She looked at the grey-furred fox that Fox held in his hand. "I see you've become a bounty hunter," she stated calmly, as she toyed with her pencil. It wasn't a surprising career change, at least, Fara didn't think so. During the war, the Star Fox Team had been a bunch of mercenaries. They were still doing jobs for money. "So, you're contracting your services out to the police now, are you?"
A smile spread across Fox's face.
"That's right Fara," he replied with a nod of his head.
"Hey, you'd better not go catching all the criminals, or you'd put us out of a job," joked Fara. She sighed turned round to the computer terminal and began typing in her passcode. "So, Fox, what's the guy's last name and initials?" She heard him clearly and began typing in a few items. A frown appeared on Fara's face. "Fox, you going for the small time crooks right now?" she asked curiously.
Fox frowned.
"What do you mean?" he asked Fara. "I was told that this guy had a 10,000 Zenny reward on his head. How is that small time?"

Slippy sighed, as he turned the screw.
"So, it isn't a 10,000 Zenny reward?" asked Slippy, as he continued working on Fox's Arwing. Well, what else was the frog supposed to do on a ship that badly needed repairs?
"That's right," sighed Peppy miserably, as he leaned against he hull of Fox's Arwing. "I misread the figure," he explained to Slippy, whom seemed to be the only one on the ship that would listen. "Seems as if there was a decimal point after the second zero." He winced at the thought of what Fox would do once the vulpine found out and then sighed, shaking his old head. "Fox always did hate wasting his time on the small fry," he stated. Still, at least Fox wasn't as bad as Falco...

"So, where's the reward?" asked Falco curiously.
Fox delved into his pocket and brought out a twenty Zenny banknote.
"Here you go, your share of the big ten thousand," he said in a mocking tone of voice, before he carried walking on down the steps of the police station towards the street.
"Hey, Fox! Wait up!"
That voice sounded very familiar to Fox and Falco. The two turned round and saw a grey-furred canine running straight up to them. He too wore the blue uniform of the Lylat Police and on his head were a pair of sunglasses, almost like the ones that Falco had.
"Bill! You're working for the Lylat Police as well?" exclaimed Fox.
"That's right, Fox," said the canine, as he ran up to them. "I just saw you leaving with your reward and thought it would be great to get together again. You don't mind helping us out with a job, do you, Fox?"
A sly smile spread across Fox's face upon hearing those words.
"How much does it pay?" asked Falco, beating the vulpine to the chase. He was always more concerned about the money that Fox, even when the Great Fox became run down. He folded his arms and waited for the answer from the canine.
Bill didn't hear any chiding words from Fox and suddenly realised that Fox had become more like Falco when it came to money. He suddenly realised that it was going to cost the Lylat Police quite some money.
"I'll tell you what," he began, "why don't we discuss this inside over a cup of coffee? It's not exactly best to talk about it right here."
"Sure thing, Bill," replied Fox with a nod of his head. "We can discuss the payment over that coffee as well," he stated, as he placed his arm around his old friend. "And while we're at it, we'd better talk about expenses, coz the Great Fox ain't what she used to be."
"Oh, sure, Fox," agreed Bill with a sigh. Perhaps it was a bad idea to enroll Fox's help.

* * * * *

"Wok kxuk eik ev xoho, oei ataekj," growled the large reptilian. His head was like that of a T-Rex and his eyes seemed to burn with a fury. This was the former SharpClaw General, Scales, the newest member of the Syndicate. He was a tall and terrifying figure, two metres of scale-covered muscle with a robotic left arm that could easily crush the life out of someone. He wore a black leather jacket over a dark red shirt, both of which had no sleeves so as to expose his arms. Combined with dark blue trousers and dark grey boots, he ended up looking like some thug instead of the mighty General that he used to be.
One of the criminals was suddenly shoved forwards.
"I'm sorry, sir, but we don't understand what you're saying," said the zebra. "Your translator seems to have broken again."
Scales lifted a scaly eyebrow. He couldn't understand a word the Syndicate thug was saying. He sighed and banged his robotic arm against the wall.
"Is that better?" he asked and received a silent nod in reply. He made a mental note to get his arm fixed. How he loathed McCloud. If it wasn't for his defeat at the Krazoa Palace, he would still have had the rest of his left arm. As it was, the SharpClaw had turned on him and he had lost it. "Get that crate out of here right now, you blithering fools!" he shouted angrily, his rage fueled by thoughts of the fox.
"Yes, sir!" came the chorused reply, before they hauled the crate away.
Reduced from a Leader of an entire Planet to a petty little criminal. That was what Scales loathed the most. Yet, the Syndicate was the only one that he could escape to. It was the organisation that had provided him with the military might to take over the Dinosaur Planet and it was the only organisation that knew him well enough to take him on without question. Scales raised his robotic arm and pressed flipped a lid that covered it to reveal a mass of buttons. He pressed one and then a few numbered buttons.
A hologram rose up from his arm and it displayed the face of a pig, Pigma Dengar.
"Mr. Dengar, the goods are ready for shipment," he announced to his new boss. At first, Scales had thought that Powalski was still in charge. After all, if he was to work for someone, it might as well have been someone related to his own kind. He had not known of the power change and when he did, it was too late. Once you join a Syndicate, they own you forever.
"That's good," said Pigma with a smile and a nod of his head. "I'm sure that you know what to do. Transfer it to the abandoned warehouse by the docks. The Gospel Agents will wait for you there."
"Of course," he agreed with a nod of his head. "Sir," he added bitterly. Well, at least he wasn't shipping drugs. That would have been even more degrading.

* * * * *

"When we were sorting out the dead, we noticed that some of those within the Gospel Base belonged to the Lylat Syndicate," continued Bill calmly. He noticed that the others were listening in pure horror and that the cups of coffee they cradled in their hands had gone cold. Bill glanced at his and noticed that he hadn't even touched his either.
Fox was the most horrified, especially at the pictures of the bio-weapon. It looked exactly like the Drakor at Dragon Rock. In fact, the more he looked at the pictures, the more he realised that it was a Drakor. He told them. He told them of his battle against the bio-weapon and what it looked like.
"You know, that makes sense," said Krystal after thinking about it. "How else could Scales have become so powerful all of a sudden? Someone must have supplied technology and weapons to him. It must have either been this Gospel Army or the Syndicate."
Bill nodded in agreement.
"You could be right," he agreed. "However, I doubt it's just one or the other. Lately, we've been gathering more evidence on the Lylat Syndicate and on the Gospel Army. For a long time, we couldn't figure out how the Gospel Army was getting its funds. We had agents looking everywhere and we couldn't find anyone laundering money to Gospel." He picked up his cup and peered down into it at the cold black liquid. His mouth was dry, but the cold coffee didn't look very inviting to him.
"It was as if Gospel was printing its own money or something like that," Bill continued, as he placed his cup back down. "That is, until now. We found Syndicate members and weapons at Gospel's latest base. We believe that the Syndicate is giving materials to the terrorist organisation, but we have no way of proving it."
"So why do you need our help?" asked Krystal curiously.
Falco sighed.
"Corruption," he said, "right, Bill?"
The grey-furred canine nodded his head.
"The Syndicate has got some kind of stranglehold on all of Lylat's police forces," explained Bill with a sad expression on his face. "It must have. Everytime someone attempts a case where the Syndicate is involved, they're unable to do anything. Evidence mysteriously disappears and the ones investigating the Syndicate are always caught doing something illegal or with illegal substances. Framed, in other words."
Fox understood Bill's predicament now. All that meant there had to be some officers within each precinct that were on the take.
"I see," said Fox in a thoughtful manner. "Bill, even though we're not in the police force, the Syndicate can still beat us."
"No, it can't," argued Falco with a shake of his head. "I've faced off against the Syndicate before. If we take them by surprise, we can tear their organisation apart, but it requires thinking out of the box, going beyond the limits."
"So, Fox, you'll help us, right?"
"Anything for a friend," replied Fox with a nod of his head. "But Bill, we'll need some money to repair our equipment. The Great Fox ain't what she used to be."
"Well, I guess we could pay for the repairs in part, but we're not made out of money, Fox," sighed Bill. He took the cup off his desk and peered at the cold, black liquid within it, before placing it back down on the coaster. "We can only give you so much money and even then it'll have to be taken out of your fee."
Fox sighed.
"Well, it doesn't matter," he said with a shake of his head. "As long as we get to eliminate the Gospel Army and the Syndicate, that'll be fine with me."

To be continued...