Chapter Eight: "Star Wolf"
The Katinan squadron departed Sector Y beside General Pepper the next day, bound for Corneria. The final moments of parting between Celestra and Anilora were rather awkward, in which the captain gave her a useful item: a key to open any lock. Celestra accepted it in full gratitude, knowing that it would prove vital to her at a later date, and she and Anilora parted ways, but not, both were certain, for the last time.
Under teh careful guidance of ROB, Great Fox drifted southeast for the remainder of the day, passing between the asteroid field and Katina, and Peppy did not miss the yearning look on Celestra's face as they left the home of Bill Grey behind them. Fox reported that the newest defensive base was fully operational upon Lylat's third planet, Fortuna, and that he suspected Peppper would have them drop it on it to be sure all was well.
Things had definitely improved for Celestra since her act of self-discovery; she and Fox were on the most peaceful of terms, determining their next course without argument. Peppy was delighted to have regained something of a daughter virtually overnight, and Slippy was much less tense around her now, even going so far as to let her pilot the cruiser if she fancied. Her only problem that remained was that of Falco. The avian continued to be openly hostile, but Celestra took his comments instride now and didn't offer any retorting remarks. Fox assured her that Falco would mellow out eventually, and the assassin truly hoped so: aside from being brash and sarcastic, Celestra found him to be quite handsome.
Fox and Celestra were in the tactics room with a rather disgruntled Slippy when ROB's mechanical voice came over the intercome, "Incoming transmission from General Pepper. Priority one!" The three exchanged a knowing gaze and sprinted off to the briefing room to find Peppy and ROB waiting for them.
"How was your return trip to Corneria, sir?" Fox questioned, sitting in a chair before the G-Diffuser screen and kicking his feet up.
"Forget the return trip!" Pepper snapped, and it was then that they all noticed his haggard, exhausted appearance. "The Fortunan base has--"
At that moment, Falco strolled in.
"Why are you always the last one to mission control?!" Slippy exclaimed.
Falco scowled. "Well, if you must know, it was my turn to run diagnostics on our Arwings." As an afterthought, he added with a smirk, "Oh, and I skipped over yours, Slip."
"Enough!" shouted Pepper, and everyone aboard Great Fox fell silent without any further prompting. "Now listen carefully, all of you--Andross has seized control of our defensive base on Fortuna."
"Damn," Falco muttered, crossing his arms. "Doesn't that monkey have anything better to do?"
"Shut up, Lombardi," Fox hissed, and the avian cursed again but hushed. "How many guys are we looking at, General? Fifty, at least?"
"No," said Pepper. "Five."
Falco burst into laughter. "Alright, maybe Andross has a new strategy: strength in . . . er . . . well, a couple of guys."
"Shut up, Lombardi!" Fox, Celestra, and Peppy all shouted at once.
"Let's think," Slippy began thoughtfully, turning his red baseball cap backwards, "how many people do we know who are stupid enough to usurp a base with so few numbers?"
"Three guesses, and the first two don't count," Falco commented. "And here's a clue--his name starts with 'O' and ends with 'Donnel'." By this time everyone in the briefing room was laughing too hard to tell Falco to stop talking.
Everyone except Celestra.
"But you said five, General," she realized, brow furrowed in a frown. "Star Wolf is a mercenary squad made up of four guys: Wolf O'Donnel, Leon Powalski, Pigma Dengar, and Andross's own nephew, Andrew Oikinny."
At this point, the laughter died away.
"And I meant five," the general confirmed, a bit of the sternness in his voice fading when he looked with pity at Celestra. "The fifth is an assassin, hand-picked by Andross himself with the sole purpose of hunting you down, Marquette."
Fox was shocked to see that instead of the assassin's usual confidence, her face had grown quite pale. "Who?" she asked, almost inaudibly.
Pepper's face was grave. "Reivin Frost."
Celestra, standing near the door, stumbled a bit and sat down very hard in a chair beside Peppy, who placed a hand on her shoulder, face distraught.
Falco ruffled his feathers and gave a sigh. "I take it we're supposed to be afraid of this guy?"
"Any sane man would be," Peppy answered, looking up with an odd light lingering in his eyes. "He's a cold-hearted killer, an unfeeling tool that Andross took advantage of long ago. He's a personal friend of Leon's, too, so don't be surprised if he's given Powalski a few pointers, Falco."
The avian gritted his beak but said nothing. Leon Powalski was his childhood arch-nemesis.
"Recover our base, I beg you," Pepper pleaded in a helpless tone. "If you fail, this war very well may be over." Without another word, the general cut the transmission, leaving the Great Fox in a very gloomy state indeed.
"What I would like to know," Fox began quietly, glancing at Celestra, "is how you know Frost so well."
The assassin rose suddenly and crossed to the windows, considering the light blue and white planet that was Fortuna. "It's a difficult story to tell, Fox, but I'll do the best I can.
"If you didn't know, Bill Grey is also an assassin. He's from Katina and is really the person I thank for getting me into this profession. Anyway, he and I are childhood friends, and somewhere in out beginners' pilot training we met a raven our age whose name was Reivin Frost. Bill and Reivin hit it off instantly, and the three of us graduated at the top of our class. That pair of them were a few years older than I was, so they became assassins right out of flight school, and I enrolled in an advanced class to pass the time.
"A couple of years passed, and Bill and Reivin started getting into a lot of trouble--drinking, drugs, gangs, the whole nine yards. They got arrested one night when they broke into a liquot store and tried to bust into the cash register."
"Sounds like Bill," Falco muttered. Fox glared at him.
"The cops caught Bill, but Reivin got away for awhile. The sheriff made Bill talk, and Reivin went to jail right alongside him.
"Well, when they got out, I became an assassin, and Bill quit doing all the illegal stuff he had been into. Reivin became the guy that lurked in dark alleys, leading gang fights, and somewhere along the line, a guy came to him with a job and said that he wanted a close friend of Bill's dead. After some thinking, Reivin took the job and tried his luck. After the first successful mission, Reivin went ack an innumerable amount of times, until I was his prime target.
"As it turns out, he gave me my first scar on the job," Celestra finished, lifting up her shirt a bit and showing them a foot-long scar running along her ribcage. "Nobody really won that fight. When it came down to crunch time, Bill and I hooked up with Pepper, but Reivin fell in with Wolf and Leon and wound up next to Andross."
"And he still wants you dead?" Fox asked.
Celestra nodded. "Ever since Bill turned his back on gangs and drugs and got clean, Reivin's been out to get the two of us."
For some time nobody spoke, merely perused the information until they were clear on all the details. After what seemed like an hour, Fox cleared his throat. "Is everybody good to fight?"
"Personal battles are the ones that prove what kind of person you are," Slippy told them. "I'm in."
"Personal battles suck, Slip," Falco corrected. "But if I get to tangle with Powalski, I've got no complaints."
Peppy's eyes were literally on fire. "This is Dengar we're talking about, Fox. I"m there."
"Celestra?"
The assassin didn't answer right away. It had been years since she and Reivin had had a fight of any kind, but she had not forgotten any of their confrontations. Their hatred of one another ran deeper and more thick than blood, and she would not give him the satisfaction of knowing that she was afraid.
"If he wants a fight with me, he can have one," Celestra answered, firming her jaw. "As soon as I see him, I'll rip him apart."
~~*~~
Leon Powalski had been milling around in the trees for about an hour by the time Reivin found him. Although Reivin was arguably one of the stealthiest people in the galaxy, Leon sensed him first: he was a chameleon, and his senses of hearing and smell were second to none. Leon's skin was an alluring shade of green (when he allowed it to be), and there was visibly not an ounce of fat on his well-toned body. The boots he wore complimented his claws and his mode of climbing well, for they expanded or contracted in accordance with the surface. His eyes were the color of onyx, but held no warmth: he was a killer, a torturer, and he held little love for friends, only for allies.
Reivin was not surprised when Leon shimmied down a nearby tree soundlessly and reverted to his natural color: unlike Reivin, Leon had been born a master of stealth, but Reivin had nearly perfected the art.
"My greetings, Leon."
"And mine." The chameleon's voice was smooth, as though he hadn't a care in the world. "Where are the others?"
Reivin cocked his head to indicate the base, some quarter of a mile behind them. "Dengar is one his way. I have yet to see Andrew. Wolf is speaking with Andross, and will be here shortly."
The chameleon did well to mark the edge to Reivin's voice, so it was with conviction that he commented, "You are heavily anticipating this battle."
Reivin crossed his arms and scowled; there were very few people who could register his emotions with such accuracy, but Leon was certainly one of them. "I have a mission to complete. Anticipation is a well-expected by-product."
"By-product nothing," Leon countered, clicking his tongue out to better study the environment. "You're facing the Marquette girl today. Your fighting equal."
"I have no fighting equal, Leon." Reivin was having difficulty keeping his temper in check now.
Leon grinned and melted back into the trees leaves, invisible even to teh assassin's keen eyes. "Perhaps. Only your heart can tell you such things. But, if I may, she would have been dead long ago if her skills were inferior to yours."
"Oh, shut up, Powalski."
Reivin turned and found himself facing Pigma Dengar, the biggest swindler he knew. Pigma was quite short and pudgy, preferring his fighter jet to hand-to-hand combat as Reivin and Leon did. The swine had turned traitor many years ago, an act that ultimately brought about the end of James McCloud, and the assassin had no doubts that Pigma would turn the lot of them in if it would prove beneficial to his career. Everything about the rotund pig, from his beady brown eyes to his unusually high-pitched voice, annoyed Reivin beyond words, and it was all he could do now to keep his fists from pummeling the greedy little mercenary's face.
"Ah, Pigma," came Leon's voice from somewhere within the boughs above. "We were just discussing the impending battle. Would you care to share your thoughts?"
Pigma wisely kept his mouth shut. It was common knowledge that, in addition to bringing in James McCloud, he had let Peppy Hare escape. Many believed that if Peppy had also been killed, the war would have been given to Andross with little extra effort. Reivin smirked to himself and silently applauded Leon for so deftly silencing the pig.
"What about your little rivalry, Powalski?" Pigma snapped. "Could it be that Leon has found his own match in Falco Lombardi?"
"He lives because I allow him to," Leon replied without missing a beat. "And, if I must remind you, your situation is much the same."
Reivin did chuckle a bit at that; Pigma's face flushed a deep, ugly purple.
"Enough, all of you," came another voice, and Wolf strode into the shade of the trees, adjusting his eyepatch. "Our adversaries have departed their cruiser and are en route to the base. They will arrive in seven minutes."
"Excellent," said Reivin, smoothing his sleek black feathers and straightening up. "Andrew has placed the detonator?"
Wolf sneered and beckoned the three on, and they fell into step behind him. "Fear not, Reivin--whether or not we win or lose, Pepper will be minus a defensive base." All of them shared a sadistic laugh at that, even the assassin, whose eyes were scrutinizing the distant sky.
It would be good indeed to see Celestra Marquette again.
~~*~~
Fox led the way into Fortuna's rich atmosphere, scanning the treeline for a general idea of where the base was located. Falco and Slippy flanked him, fanning out to the sides, and Peppy brought up the rear, computer tracking the transponder in Celestra's Arwing. She had chosen to serve as backup, a position that meant she would arrive at the battle from another location and hopefully take Star Wolf by surprise.
Falco found the base first, and then only because of a few wisps of smoke coming from the slits in the roof. Even as they moved to close in, four aircraft emerged from the trees, and each individual paired up with one of their enemies: Fox to Wolf, Falco to Leon, Peppy to Pigma, and Slippy to Andrew. The red lasers of Star Wolf's crafts razed long lines of smoke through the air, but the Star Fox team wisely kept their shots in check in the opening seconds, for they were so bunched together that they may have hit one another as well as their adversaries.
"We meet again, McCloud," Wolf taunted over the open intership channel.
"O'Donnel." Fox cornered sharply, spotting Andrew out of the corner f his eyes and firing a line of yellow shots that grazed the underside of the ape's craft. "Do I even have to ask under whose orders you have apprehended this base?"
Wolf barrel-rolled to deflect Fox's newest barrage, setting his sights on Peppy for a moment and igniting the rear of the hare's craft. "Oh, I don't think you need to be told."
Peppy checked his shield gauge, which was slowly dropping due to the flame spreading along the end of his ship. Cursing, he spun his controls in a wide arc, only to be blocked by Leon as Pigma closed in from behind. The hare turned the opposite direction, shields screaming in protest, far too slow . . .
"Hey, Powalski, let's keep this between me and you!" shouted Falco, cutting in from above and loosing a barrage that rained down upon Leon, weakening his shields from full to half in a matter of seconds. Leon somersaulted flawlessly, coming in right beside Falco, and Peppy U-turned, firing and leveling the right side of Pigma's craft and veering low, skimming the trees, glancing over his shoulder and daring his nemesis to follow.
"Well well, Lombardi, your skills have improved since last we met!" Leon called smoothly, glancing over and locking eyes with Falco. The avian cursed explicitly and slammed his Arwing into Leon's, metal squealing against metal, sparks flying until the pair parted to dodge a few trees. Leon U-turned, bringing Falco more fully into his sights and snickering in the ecstacy of battle.
Slippy dipped low, the belly of his Arwing nearly scuffing the ground, and Andrew fired again, this time severing one of the wings and causing Acid Rain to overbalance precariously. Slippy was having a far worse time than his comrades in this battle, terribly outmatched by his opponent, who was more than a better pilot, but nearly as good of a strategist as well. The young toad kept an eye on his shield gauge, watching it dwindle to fifteen percent, wondering if he could last another two minutes.
"Fox! I'm cornered!"
But the battle was far from won, as another Arwing bisected the trees and came at Andrew full force. An endless stream of silver laser energy pummeled the ape's ship, and he cried out, somersaulting in a desperate attempt to evade. Celestra narrowed her eyes and mimicked the move, keeping Andrew in her sights until his shields were exhausted. Slippy cut back in, not just hitting the craft but imploding the engines, and with a strangled yell, Andrew crashed helplessly into the trees.
"I owe you big for that one, Celestra," Slippy breathed, heart racing as he re-checked his vitals.
"Forget about it," Celestra snapped, but the young mercenary let it go, knowing that her nerves were straining to their maximum. Slippy barrel-rolled just in tme to deflect a shot from Pigma, and without another word he was off again. For a moment, Celestra wondered why Pigma was off flying free, but glancing at the immediate area, saw that Peppy had also been shot down.
Something very odd happened to the assassin then. As she turned several corkscrews, trying to discern another target, Captain Anilora's voice echoed in her head, giving her considerable pause.
'Fox McCloud fights with passion, and that is why he wins.'
Celestra glanced down, just catching a glimpse of Peppy as he stumbled out of the wreckage of Nebulafire. What if he had been seriously hurt, or worse, killed?
Murdered by the same man who had killed James McCloud.
"Passion," Celestra whispered, and with a strange wrenching in her stomach the assassin U-turned and sped up, her sights set firmly on Pigma Dengar.
"You'd better run for your life, Dengar, 'cause today you pay!" she cried.
Far below, his sleek black fighter jet concealed within the trees just east of the base, Reivin Frost grinned at the girl's bravado. Then he booted up his main thrusters and sped toward the battle.
Celestra almost felt blind, letting her emotions guide her through a series of daring pursuing manuevers as Pigma dodged in terror. Somewhere in her subconscious she knew she had yelled something, but she only fully awoke again when Pigma's craft burst into uncontrollable flame and exploded.
"Not a bad speech, Celestra!" Fox called through gritted teeth, Arwing shuddering as Wolf closed in mercilessly.
"What did I say?!"
"You kept yelling something about passion; I'm not quite sure."
Celestra laughed, but the action ceased as she jammed on her brakes, face white again. There, floating easily twenty feet away, was Reivin Frost, her greatest, most hated enemy in all of Lylat. He glared at her for a moment, eyes glittering with intense dislike, and said, "So, Celestra--how's Bill?"
The female assassin screamed in denial and dove at hiim with all the speed her boosters could give. Still Reivin evaded, but she pursued, and their deadly game continued high above Fortuna, endless, flawless. The pair spiraled higher, nearly exiting the atmosphere, neither winning, straining for even a glancing blow. Reivin couldn't admit it to Leon, but he did to himself: Celestra was, without a doubt, his fighting equal.
Celestra barrel-rolled threet imes, but was so overcome with emotion that she wasn't even dizzy; at the end of her third spin, she slammed into the side of Reivin's ship, rapidly dropping both of their shield gauges. Reivin gnawed his lower beak and fired at point-blank range, sending sparks shooting up all along Rage of Macbeth's left tailwing. They broke apart, Celestra leading, and the pair chased one another into the thick trees, moving back toward the base.
Meanwhile, Falco was in dire straits. Leon had him cornered at every turn, limiting the seemingly unending offensive moves, and the avian's fear of the torturer was starting to get the better of him. Falco cornered left and then U-turned, hoping the create some space, but the crafty chameleon somehow ended up right behind him, shooting for MeteoRiot's engines at his leisure. The avian doubled back and took an awkward shot at Wolf as he did so, but Leon was there again, obliterating Falco's shield energy this time and closing in for the kill.
"My shields are gone!" Falco cried, voice quivering, knowing that it was too late.
Only a few thousand feet away, Celestra heard Falco's desperate plea. All the petty grudges she held for him flew away at the sound of his ovice, scared and helpless and she pressed a button on her helm labeled 'illuminate'. Instantly, Reivin's eyes were temporarily blinded, and Celestra broke away from him at last, making with all speed for Falco.
Leon saw her coming out of the corner of his eye, but he reacted too late. Instead of finishing his helpless target, the chameleon turned his craft to fire at Celestra--a bad move indeed, for while she did intend to take him down, she did not intend to use her laser energy. With a sickening crunch their spacecraft collided, and Celestra's wing-tip razed a motral gash down the side of Leon's ship, causing the craft to malfunction in all of its internal components. The wing snapped off, sending both pilots into a dizzying spin, aiming Celestra for the ground.
Leon Powalski's ship turned a one hundred and eighty degree angle, leaving his back to Falco, who did not hesitate to obliterate the rest of the craft.
Celestra had no hope of pulling out of the frantic dive, and her Arwing skittered to the ground like a stone.
~~*~~
When Falco and Slippy joined Fox, Wolf had no choice but to retreat.
"I thought your shields were down?" Slippy asked the avian curiously when the trio had landed and shut down their Arwings, trekking on foot to find Peppy and Celestra.
"Powalski had me," Falco gasped, shaking his head in disbelief. "And Marquette . . . she . . ."
"It's called a sideswipe," Fox broke in, studying Falco's face in amusement. "It's not an offensive manuever they teach in the Academy because most officers consider it too dangerous to be classroom material. The move is meant to critically disable the opponent and expose the back."
The avian hugged himself, completely at a loss. "Yeah . . . well . . . it works. At least now we know that."
They found Peppy sitting upon the safety lockbox of his Arwing, which was demolished. The hare, amazingly, was not badly hurt.
"Tougher than nails," he assured them with a wink, and they set off to locate the last of their group.
Celestra saw them coming from a distance; she, too, had not been mortally injured in the crash, but the open door of the defensive base had caught her attention. Faint curls of smoke were trailing like snakes out into the sunlight, and that sight alone struck the ever-alert assassin as terribly out of place.
"Five minutes," came a cold voice from behind her, and Celestra was not in the least surprised to find Reivin Frost standing casually behind her, idly twirling a pair of knives in the fingers of each hand. "Do you really think you can diffuse a bomb and make it out in time?"
Celestra drew out her switchblades and likewise began twirling them, mentally preparing herself for the true confrontation. "You'd better believe I can."
A hearty laugh erupted from the raven's belly. "That's the spirit!" he congratulated. "Go on, Celestra--I'll even give you a head start."
"Slippy," Fox muttered over his shoulder. "We need our cruiser; I get the feeling we're going to need to make a quick getaway in a few minutes. Can you and Peppy electrically attach the downed Arwings to the back of yours and get them back to their hangars for reconstruction?"
"You bet," Slippy conceded.
"Do it. Meet us back here as quickly as you can. Falco and I will make sure Celestra makes it out okay." Slippy and Peppy rushed off, and beside Fox, Falco crossed his arms, frowning with intense dislike at Reivin.
Celestra gritted her teeth and darted inside.
Reivin, true to his word, counted to ten, then charged in after her, knives raised.
~~*~~
It was deathly dark within the defensive base; many of the power circuits had been tripped with the wiring of the detonator, and the only light came from overloading circuitry emitting sparks. Celestra did not look back, but pressed resolutely ahead, knowing full well that the specter of Reivin Frost gliding along behind her like a shadow of doom might very well freeze her in her tracks.
She sensed the throw not a moment too soon, diving for the floor and rolling onto her back just as Reivin's first dagger sliced through the air where her head had been and sailed out of sight. He was upon her in an instant, rolling down the hallway, letting his momentum carry her along with him as they hacked at each other with reckless abandon. Reivin moved his knife in, aiming for her throat, and she brought her switchblades up before her in an X and caught the blow, straining to keep him back.
"I've dreamed of this moment," he whispered seductively into her ear, channeling all of his strength into his blade arm. "Finally you will die, and my sweet revenge upon Bill will be complete!"
Celestra grunted, shifted her right leg, and brought her knee slamming hard into his abdomen. He wheezed and the pressure slackened, allowing the female assassin to wriggle free and regain her feet, tearing back down the hall. Reivin was impossibly fast in his recovery, though, and he bolted after her, cackling wickedly at her back.
"Run!" he called, gaining with every moment. "Even if you find the bomb and disable it, you'll have to fight your way out of here!"
The remale assassin turned right, following the trail of smoke, catching a glimpse of a faint green glow in the imminent darkness. Hope renewed, she continued on, inwardly pleading for her legs to hold out. Reivin was only two steps behind now, and he reached out, drawing a line of blood across her shoulderblades. She cried out and whirled about, switchblades at the ready, to find that somewhere along the way her nemesis had regained his lost knife. Never hesitating, she came at him in a flurry of blades, and he blocked every one of her attacks, only to send moves of his own at her and find them similarly foiled. Celestra led the deadly dance, working her feet under her and closing the distance between them until she had a clear shot at his ribcage, which she took. He choked out a cry, eyes ablaze, and came at her even stronger, scoring another minor hit across her forearm.
Celestra aimed one blade, ready to throw, and Reivin, thinking his chest the target, ducked and took a swipe at her legs. She jumped back and let fly, smiling in grim satisfaction as the knife thudded intot he wall opposite them, severing the fuse of the detonator just above the traveling flame. In an instant, the tiny spark flickered and died.
Reivin howled and dove at her again, but his aim was low in his rage and she leaped right over him, letting him lead now as they backtracked down the hall the way they had come. His thoughts were solely on killing her, but Celestra's mind was elsewhere, still silently reciting Captain Anilora's words and taking strength in the mental image of Star Fox, the first friends she had every known, alive and well. She could see the sunlight just over her shoulder now as she intricately worked Reivin's blades up high and jabbed him in the chest. He responded with a slash at her stomach, but she parried it perfectly and hopped back, closing the gap between her and the exit.
Then, without warning, her foot slipped on the step seperating the hallway from the grass outside, and she fell backwards into the sun, collapsing on her back.
Her last switchblade skittered out of reach.
Celestra expected to feel the cool steel enter her heart, or her throat, or any other vital area. When she realized that she was still alive, she chanced a glance up, and what she saw stole the rest of her breath.
Standing resolutely with his feet planted apart, one wing out wide to conceal the fallen and injured female assassin behind him, the other stretched out before him brandishing the combat knife from Peppy's lockbox, was Falco Lombardi. Celestra could feel the blood from the mortal gash across her back seeping down and soaking her flight shirt, and she grimaced in pain. Falco's eyes intensified at the helpless sound, and in all sincerity he said over his shoulder, "Hang in there for a few more minutes, kid. Help is on the way."
The male assassin across from the avian slowly lowered his knives, eyes glittering at Falco in such a way that suggested he was truly surprised by the intrusion. "You must be Leon's friend, Falco Lombardi. A pleasure to meet you."
Falco tightened his grip on the handle of the knife and frowned deeply. "That's my name, but as for being Leon's friend, you were obviously misinformed. And the pleasure is all yours, scumbag."
Reivin chuckled at the remark. "Step aside, mercenary. This is none of your concern."
Celestra could not have been more surprised when Falco retorted, "I just made it my concern, assassin."
"I am warning you: if you do not get out of my way, I will kill you," the raven warned.
Falco shook his head and gritted, "Go to hell. I ain't movin'."
Reivin stared at him for a moment, seemingly confused, then the familiar smirk found its way to his face as he gestured to Falco's combat knife. "Do you even know how to use that thing?" he teased, coming forward in a rush.
Falco quick-stepped in front of the first blade, deflected the second, sending it sailing out of reach, and sank the knife deep into Reivin's side. The assassin gasped and choked out like a beached fish as Great Fox lowered from the sky, with Fox hanging out of one of they hangars. "Come on, Lombardi, let's move it!"
The avian hoisted Celestra easily into his arms and clambered into the hovering cruiser behind Fox; Celestra just felt the tip of Reivin's wing scrape the back of her neck before Fox slammed the hangar door shut.
~~*~~
Celestra stared down at her bare feet, wearing nothing but a sports bra and a pair of sweat shorts as Slippy finished wrapping tape around her chest, securing the bandages protecting the wound in her back. The assassin idly clenched her right fist, feeling the muscles tighten in protest along her injured forearm but finding she was pleased with the way Slippy had mended it. "Thanks, Slip. That puts us back to about even, I would say."
Slippy laughed heartily and replaced all of his medical supplies in a small briefcase. "It's the least any of us could do--I think you saved about everyone from certain doom out there today."
Celestra shook her head, testing her forearm yet again. "No, my friend--teamwork." She laughed as the toad backed out of the room, leaving the assassin alone with the gradually subsiding pain of her many wounds.
Barely a minute later a faint knock sounded against the door, and when Celestra honored it she was surprised again to find Falco standing there, smiling softly. She beckoned him inside, returning the grin, and the avian found himself wincing as he studied the white surgical tape covering half of the rippling muscles in the assassin's back. She sat down on the table again, gazing at him quizzically, and he leaned casually against the wall, arms crossed across his flight jacket.
"Why did you--?" Celestra began, but Falco cut her off with a dismissive wave of one wing.
"First I'll settle for an explanation of the little trick you pulled on Powalski," Falco remarked.
Celestra attempted to lean back against the wall, but found the pain only intensified so she righted herself again. "I perfected the sideswipe at age sixteen, under Peppy's patient tutelage. General Pepper deeply disapproved, but Peppy insisted it was a skill I should take the time to learn. I must say that it has its benefits."
The avian's dark eyes twinkled at her, and Celestra's stomach churned a bit. "Let's just say I did what I did because you saved my life. Don't read too much into it; you'll make this into a big heroic story, and I don't think I could handle the fanfare."
She laughed at that, and after a moment Falco joined in. Then he came and sat next to her, seeming almost embarrassed as he continued, "So thanks, Mar--Celestra. I don't think I would have walked away from that one without you."
"I should be thanking you," she insisted.
He raised his eyebrows humorously. "Then by all means, do." And they shared yet another hearty laugh with one another as he added, "By the way--that Frost guy is a psycho."
"Agreed."
Long after they had exhausted their jokes of Reivin, Falco sat with one wing draped carefully over her shoulders so as not to disturb her back. Celestra appreciated the gesture, but at the same time she couldn't keep herself from insisting that Reivin Frost had somehow survived.
Somehow he always did.
The Katinan squadron departed Sector Y beside General Pepper the next day, bound for Corneria. The final moments of parting between Celestra and Anilora were rather awkward, in which the captain gave her a useful item: a key to open any lock. Celestra accepted it in full gratitude, knowing that it would prove vital to her at a later date, and she and Anilora parted ways, but not, both were certain, for the last time.
Under teh careful guidance of ROB, Great Fox drifted southeast for the remainder of the day, passing between the asteroid field and Katina, and Peppy did not miss the yearning look on Celestra's face as they left the home of Bill Grey behind them. Fox reported that the newest defensive base was fully operational upon Lylat's third planet, Fortuna, and that he suspected Peppper would have them drop it on it to be sure all was well.
Things had definitely improved for Celestra since her act of self-discovery; she and Fox were on the most peaceful of terms, determining their next course without argument. Peppy was delighted to have regained something of a daughter virtually overnight, and Slippy was much less tense around her now, even going so far as to let her pilot the cruiser if she fancied. Her only problem that remained was that of Falco. The avian continued to be openly hostile, but Celestra took his comments instride now and didn't offer any retorting remarks. Fox assured her that Falco would mellow out eventually, and the assassin truly hoped so: aside from being brash and sarcastic, Celestra found him to be quite handsome.
Fox and Celestra were in the tactics room with a rather disgruntled Slippy when ROB's mechanical voice came over the intercome, "Incoming transmission from General Pepper. Priority one!" The three exchanged a knowing gaze and sprinted off to the briefing room to find Peppy and ROB waiting for them.
"How was your return trip to Corneria, sir?" Fox questioned, sitting in a chair before the G-Diffuser screen and kicking his feet up.
"Forget the return trip!" Pepper snapped, and it was then that they all noticed his haggard, exhausted appearance. "The Fortunan base has--"
At that moment, Falco strolled in.
"Why are you always the last one to mission control?!" Slippy exclaimed.
Falco scowled. "Well, if you must know, it was my turn to run diagnostics on our Arwings." As an afterthought, he added with a smirk, "Oh, and I skipped over yours, Slip."
"Enough!" shouted Pepper, and everyone aboard Great Fox fell silent without any further prompting. "Now listen carefully, all of you--Andross has seized control of our defensive base on Fortuna."
"Damn," Falco muttered, crossing his arms. "Doesn't that monkey have anything better to do?"
"Shut up, Lombardi," Fox hissed, and the avian cursed again but hushed. "How many guys are we looking at, General? Fifty, at least?"
"No," said Pepper. "Five."
Falco burst into laughter. "Alright, maybe Andross has a new strategy: strength in . . . er . . . well, a couple of guys."
"Shut up, Lombardi!" Fox, Celestra, and Peppy all shouted at once.
"Let's think," Slippy began thoughtfully, turning his red baseball cap backwards, "how many people do we know who are stupid enough to usurp a base with so few numbers?"
"Three guesses, and the first two don't count," Falco commented. "And here's a clue--his name starts with 'O' and ends with 'Donnel'." By this time everyone in the briefing room was laughing too hard to tell Falco to stop talking.
Everyone except Celestra.
"But you said five, General," she realized, brow furrowed in a frown. "Star Wolf is a mercenary squad made up of four guys: Wolf O'Donnel, Leon Powalski, Pigma Dengar, and Andross's own nephew, Andrew Oikinny."
At this point, the laughter died away.
"And I meant five," the general confirmed, a bit of the sternness in his voice fading when he looked with pity at Celestra. "The fifth is an assassin, hand-picked by Andross himself with the sole purpose of hunting you down, Marquette."
Fox was shocked to see that instead of the assassin's usual confidence, her face had grown quite pale. "Who?" she asked, almost inaudibly.
Pepper's face was grave. "Reivin Frost."
Celestra, standing near the door, stumbled a bit and sat down very hard in a chair beside Peppy, who placed a hand on her shoulder, face distraught.
Falco ruffled his feathers and gave a sigh. "I take it we're supposed to be afraid of this guy?"
"Any sane man would be," Peppy answered, looking up with an odd light lingering in his eyes. "He's a cold-hearted killer, an unfeeling tool that Andross took advantage of long ago. He's a personal friend of Leon's, too, so don't be surprised if he's given Powalski a few pointers, Falco."
The avian gritted his beak but said nothing. Leon Powalski was his childhood arch-nemesis.
"Recover our base, I beg you," Pepper pleaded in a helpless tone. "If you fail, this war very well may be over." Without another word, the general cut the transmission, leaving the Great Fox in a very gloomy state indeed.
"What I would like to know," Fox began quietly, glancing at Celestra, "is how you know Frost so well."
The assassin rose suddenly and crossed to the windows, considering the light blue and white planet that was Fortuna. "It's a difficult story to tell, Fox, but I'll do the best I can.
"If you didn't know, Bill Grey is also an assassin. He's from Katina and is really the person I thank for getting me into this profession. Anyway, he and I are childhood friends, and somewhere in out beginners' pilot training we met a raven our age whose name was Reivin Frost. Bill and Reivin hit it off instantly, and the three of us graduated at the top of our class. That pair of them were a few years older than I was, so they became assassins right out of flight school, and I enrolled in an advanced class to pass the time.
"A couple of years passed, and Bill and Reivin started getting into a lot of trouble--drinking, drugs, gangs, the whole nine yards. They got arrested one night when they broke into a liquot store and tried to bust into the cash register."
"Sounds like Bill," Falco muttered. Fox glared at him.
"The cops caught Bill, but Reivin got away for awhile. The sheriff made Bill talk, and Reivin went to jail right alongside him.
"Well, when they got out, I became an assassin, and Bill quit doing all the illegal stuff he had been into. Reivin became the guy that lurked in dark alleys, leading gang fights, and somewhere along the line, a guy came to him with a job and said that he wanted a close friend of Bill's dead. After some thinking, Reivin took the job and tried his luck. After the first successful mission, Reivin went ack an innumerable amount of times, until I was his prime target.
"As it turns out, he gave me my first scar on the job," Celestra finished, lifting up her shirt a bit and showing them a foot-long scar running along her ribcage. "Nobody really won that fight. When it came down to crunch time, Bill and I hooked up with Pepper, but Reivin fell in with Wolf and Leon and wound up next to Andross."
"And he still wants you dead?" Fox asked.
Celestra nodded. "Ever since Bill turned his back on gangs and drugs and got clean, Reivin's been out to get the two of us."
For some time nobody spoke, merely perused the information until they were clear on all the details. After what seemed like an hour, Fox cleared his throat. "Is everybody good to fight?"
"Personal battles are the ones that prove what kind of person you are," Slippy told them. "I'm in."
"Personal battles suck, Slip," Falco corrected. "But if I get to tangle with Powalski, I've got no complaints."
Peppy's eyes were literally on fire. "This is Dengar we're talking about, Fox. I"m there."
"Celestra?"
The assassin didn't answer right away. It had been years since she and Reivin had had a fight of any kind, but she had not forgotten any of their confrontations. Their hatred of one another ran deeper and more thick than blood, and she would not give him the satisfaction of knowing that she was afraid.
"If he wants a fight with me, he can have one," Celestra answered, firming her jaw. "As soon as I see him, I'll rip him apart."
~~*~~
Leon Powalski had been milling around in the trees for about an hour by the time Reivin found him. Although Reivin was arguably one of the stealthiest people in the galaxy, Leon sensed him first: he was a chameleon, and his senses of hearing and smell were second to none. Leon's skin was an alluring shade of green (when he allowed it to be), and there was visibly not an ounce of fat on his well-toned body. The boots he wore complimented his claws and his mode of climbing well, for they expanded or contracted in accordance with the surface. His eyes were the color of onyx, but held no warmth: he was a killer, a torturer, and he held little love for friends, only for allies.
Reivin was not surprised when Leon shimmied down a nearby tree soundlessly and reverted to his natural color: unlike Reivin, Leon had been born a master of stealth, but Reivin had nearly perfected the art.
"My greetings, Leon."
"And mine." The chameleon's voice was smooth, as though he hadn't a care in the world. "Where are the others?"
Reivin cocked his head to indicate the base, some quarter of a mile behind them. "Dengar is one his way. I have yet to see Andrew. Wolf is speaking with Andross, and will be here shortly."
The chameleon did well to mark the edge to Reivin's voice, so it was with conviction that he commented, "You are heavily anticipating this battle."
Reivin crossed his arms and scowled; there were very few people who could register his emotions with such accuracy, but Leon was certainly one of them. "I have a mission to complete. Anticipation is a well-expected by-product."
"By-product nothing," Leon countered, clicking his tongue out to better study the environment. "You're facing the Marquette girl today. Your fighting equal."
"I have no fighting equal, Leon." Reivin was having difficulty keeping his temper in check now.
Leon grinned and melted back into the trees leaves, invisible even to teh assassin's keen eyes. "Perhaps. Only your heart can tell you such things. But, if I may, she would have been dead long ago if her skills were inferior to yours."
"Oh, shut up, Powalski."
Reivin turned and found himself facing Pigma Dengar, the biggest swindler he knew. Pigma was quite short and pudgy, preferring his fighter jet to hand-to-hand combat as Reivin and Leon did. The swine had turned traitor many years ago, an act that ultimately brought about the end of James McCloud, and the assassin had no doubts that Pigma would turn the lot of them in if it would prove beneficial to his career. Everything about the rotund pig, from his beady brown eyes to his unusually high-pitched voice, annoyed Reivin beyond words, and it was all he could do now to keep his fists from pummeling the greedy little mercenary's face.
"Ah, Pigma," came Leon's voice from somewhere within the boughs above. "We were just discussing the impending battle. Would you care to share your thoughts?"
Pigma wisely kept his mouth shut. It was common knowledge that, in addition to bringing in James McCloud, he had let Peppy Hare escape. Many believed that if Peppy had also been killed, the war would have been given to Andross with little extra effort. Reivin smirked to himself and silently applauded Leon for so deftly silencing the pig.
"What about your little rivalry, Powalski?" Pigma snapped. "Could it be that Leon has found his own match in Falco Lombardi?"
"He lives because I allow him to," Leon replied without missing a beat. "And, if I must remind you, your situation is much the same."
Reivin did chuckle a bit at that; Pigma's face flushed a deep, ugly purple.
"Enough, all of you," came another voice, and Wolf strode into the shade of the trees, adjusting his eyepatch. "Our adversaries have departed their cruiser and are en route to the base. They will arrive in seven minutes."
"Excellent," said Reivin, smoothing his sleek black feathers and straightening up. "Andrew has placed the detonator?"
Wolf sneered and beckoned the three on, and they fell into step behind him. "Fear not, Reivin--whether or not we win or lose, Pepper will be minus a defensive base." All of them shared a sadistic laugh at that, even the assassin, whose eyes were scrutinizing the distant sky.
It would be good indeed to see Celestra Marquette again.
~~*~~
Fox led the way into Fortuna's rich atmosphere, scanning the treeline for a general idea of where the base was located. Falco and Slippy flanked him, fanning out to the sides, and Peppy brought up the rear, computer tracking the transponder in Celestra's Arwing. She had chosen to serve as backup, a position that meant she would arrive at the battle from another location and hopefully take Star Wolf by surprise.
Falco found the base first, and then only because of a few wisps of smoke coming from the slits in the roof. Even as they moved to close in, four aircraft emerged from the trees, and each individual paired up with one of their enemies: Fox to Wolf, Falco to Leon, Peppy to Pigma, and Slippy to Andrew. The red lasers of Star Wolf's crafts razed long lines of smoke through the air, but the Star Fox team wisely kept their shots in check in the opening seconds, for they were so bunched together that they may have hit one another as well as their adversaries.
"We meet again, McCloud," Wolf taunted over the open intership channel.
"O'Donnel." Fox cornered sharply, spotting Andrew out of the corner f his eyes and firing a line of yellow shots that grazed the underside of the ape's craft. "Do I even have to ask under whose orders you have apprehended this base?"
Wolf barrel-rolled to deflect Fox's newest barrage, setting his sights on Peppy for a moment and igniting the rear of the hare's craft. "Oh, I don't think you need to be told."
Peppy checked his shield gauge, which was slowly dropping due to the flame spreading along the end of his ship. Cursing, he spun his controls in a wide arc, only to be blocked by Leon as Pigma closed in from behind. The hare turned the opposite direction, shields screaming in protest, far too slow . . .
"Hey, Powalski, let's keep this between me and you!" shouted Falco, cutting in from above and loosing a barrage that rained down upon Leon, weakening his shields from full to half in a matter of seconds. Leon somersaulted flawlessly, coming in right beside Falco, and Peppy U-turned, firing and leveling the right side of Pigma's craft and veering low, skimming the trees, glancing over his shoulder and daring his nemesis to follow.
"Well well, Lombardi, your skills have improved since last we met!" Leon called smoothly, glancing over and locking eyes with Falco. The avian cursed explicitly and slammed his Arwing into Leon's, metal squealing against metal, sparks flying until the pair parted to dodge a few trees. Leon U-turned, bringing Falco more fully into his sights and snickering in the ecstacy of battle.
Slippy dipped low, the belly of his Arwing nearly scuffing the ground, and Andrew fired again, this time severing one of the wings and causing Acid Rain to overbalance precariously. Slippy was having a far worse time than his comrades in this battle, terribly outmatched by his opponent, who was more than a better pilot, but nearly as good of a strategist as well. The young toad kept an eye on his shield gauge, watching it dwindle to fifteen percent, wondering if he could last another two minutes.
"Fox! I'm cornered!"
But the battle was far from won, as another Arwing bisected the trees and came at Andrew full force. An endless stream of silver laser energy pummeled the ape's ship, and he cried out, somersaulting in a desperate attempt to evade. Celestra narrowed her eyes and mimicked the move, keeping Andrew in her sights until his shields were exhausted. Slippy cut back in, not just hitting the craft but imploding the engines, and with a strangled yell, Andrew crashed helplessly into the trees.
"I owe you big for that one, Celestra," Slippy breathed, heart racing as he re-checked his vitals.
"Forget about it," Celestra snapped, but the young mercenary let it go, knowing that her nerves were straining to their maximum. Slippy barrel-rolled just in tme to deflect a shot from Pigma, and without another word he was off again. For a moment, Celestra wondered why Pigma was off flying free, but glancing at the immediate area, saw that Peppy had also been shot down.
Something very odd happened to the assassin then. As she turned several corkscrews, trying to discern another target, Captain Anilora's voice echoed in her head, giving her considerable pause.
'Fox McCloud fights with passion, and that is why he wins.'
Celestra glanced down, just catching a glimpse of Peppy as he stumbled out of the wreckage of Nebulafire. What if he had been seriously hurt, or worse, killed?
Murdered by the same man who had killed James McCloud.
"Passion," Celestra whispered, and with a strange wrenching in her stomach the assassin U-turned and sped up, her sights set firmly on Pigma Dengar.
"You'd better run for your life, Dengar, 'cause today you pay!" she cried.
Far below, his sleek black fighter jet concealed within the trees just east of the base, Reivin Frost grinned at the girl's bravado. Then he booted up his main thrusters and sped toward the battle.
Celestra almost felt blind, letting her emotions guide her through a series of daring pursuing manuevers as Pigma dodged in terror. Somewhere in her subconscious she knew she had yelled something, but she only fully awoke again when Pigma's craft burst into uncontrollable flame and exploded.
"Not a bad speech, Celestra!" Fox called through gritted teeth, Arwing shuddering as Wolf closed in mercilessly.
"What did I say?!"
"You kept yelling something about passion; I'm not quite sure."
Celestra laughed, but the action ceased as she jammed on her brakes, face white again. There, floating easily twenty feet away, was Reivin Frost, her greatest, most hated enemy in all of Lylat. He glared at her for a moment, eyes glittering with intense dislike, and said, "So, Celestra--how's Bill?"
The female assassin screamed in denial and dove at hiim with all the speed her boosters could give. Still Reivin evaded, but she pursued, and their deadly game continued high above Fortuna, endless, flawless. The pair spiraled higher, nearly exiting the atmosphere, neither winning, straining for even a glancing blow. Reivin couldn't admit it to Leon, but he did to himself: Celestra was, without a doubt, his fighting equal.
Celestra barrel-rolled threet imes, but was so overcome with emotion that she wasn't even dizzy; at the end of her third spin, she slammed into the side of Reivin's ship, rapidly dropping both of their shield gauges. Reivin gnawed his lower beak and fired at point-blank range, sending sparks shooting up all along Rage of Macbeth's left tailwing. They broke apart, Celestra leading, and the pair chased one another into the thick trees, moving back toward the base.
Meanwhile, Falco was in dire straits. Leon had him cornered at every turn, limiting the seemingly unending offensive moves, and the avian's fear of the torturer was starting to get the better of him. Falco cornered left and then U-turned, hoping the create some space, but the crafty chameleon somehow ended up right behind him, shooting for MeteoRiot's engines at his leisure. The avian doubled back and took an awkward shot at Wolf as he did so, but Leon was there again, obliterating Falco's shield energy this time and closing in for the kill.
"My shields are gone!" Falco cried, voice quivering, knowing that it was too late.
Only a few thousand feet away, Celestra heard Falco's desperate plea. All the petty grudges she held for him flew away at the sound of his ovice, scared and helpless and she pressed a button on her helm labeled 'illuminate'. Instantly, Reivin's eyes were temporarily blinded, and Celestra broke away from him at last, making with all speed for Falco.
Leon saw her coming out of the corner of his eye, but he reacted too late. Instead of finishing his helpless target, the chameleon turned his craft to fire at Celestra--a bad move indeed, for while she did intend to take him down, she did not intend to use her laser energy. With a sickening crunch their spacecraft collided, and Celestra's wing-tip razed a motral gash down the side of Leon's ship, causing the craft to malfunction in all of its internal components. The wing snapped off, sending both pilots into a dizzying spin, aiming Celestra for the ground.
Leon Powalski's ship turned a one hundred and eighty degree angle, leaving his back to Falco, who did not hesitate to obliterate the rest of the craft.
Celestra had no hope of pulling out of the frantic dive, and her Arwing skittered to the ground like a stone.
~~*~~
When Falco and Slippy joined Fox, Wolf had no choice but to retreat.
"I thought your shields were down?" Slippy asked the avian curiously when the trio had landed and shut down their Arwings, trekking on foot to find Peppy and Celestra.
"Powalski had me," Falco gasped, shaking his head in disbelief. "And Marquette . . . she . . ."
"It's called a sideswipe," Fox broke in, studying Falco's face in amusement. "It's not an offensive manuever they teach in the Academy because most officers consider it too dangerous to be classroom material. The move is meant to critically disable the opponent and expose the back."
The avian hugged himself, completely at a loss. "Yeah . . . well . . . it works. At least now we know that."
They found Peppy sitting upon the safety lockbox of his Arwing, which was demolished. The hare, amazingly, was not badly hurt.
"Tougher than nails," he assured them with a wink, and they set off to locate the last of their group.
Celestra saw them coming from a distance; she, too, had not been mortally injured in the crash, but the open door of the defensive base had caught her attention. Faint curls of smoke were trailing like snakes out into the sunlight, and that sight alone struck the ever-alert assassin as terribly out of place.
"Five minutes," came a cold voice from behind her, and Celestra was not in the least surprised to find Reivin Frost standing casually behind her, idly twirling a pair of knives in the fingers of each hand. "Do you really think you can diffuse a bomb and make it out in time?"
Celestra drew out her switchblades and likewise began twirling them, mentally preparing herself for the true confrontation. "You'd better believe I can."
A hearty laugh erupted from the raven's belly. "That's the spirit!" he congratulated. "Go on, Celestra--I'll even give you a head start."
"Slippy," Fox muttered over his shoulder. "We need our cruiser; I get the feeling we're going to need to make a quick getaway in a few minutes. Can you and Peppy electrically attach the downed Arwings to the back of yours and get them back to their hangars for reconstruction?"
"You bet," Slippy conceded.
"Do it. Meet us back here as quickly as you can. Falco and I will make sure Celestra makes it out okay." Slippy and Peppy rushed off, and beside Fox, Falco crossed his arms, frowning with intense dislike at Reivin.
Celestra gritted her teeth and darted inside.
Reivin, true to his word, counted to ten, then charged in after her, knives raised.
~~*~~
It was deathly dark within the defensive base; many of the power circuits had been tripped with the wiring of the detonator, and the only light came from overloading circuitry emitting sparks. Celestra did not look back, but pressed resolutely ahead, knowing full well that the specter of Reivin Frost gliding along behind her like a shadow of doom might very well freeze her in her tracks.
She sensed the throw not a moment too soon, diving for the floor and rolling onto her back just as Reivin's first dagger sliced through the air where her head had been and sailed out of sight. He was upon her in an instant, rolling down the hallway, letting his momentum carry her along with him as they hacked at each other with reckless abandon. Reivin moved his knife in, aiming for her throat, and she brought her switchblades up before her in an X and caught the blow, straining to keep him back.
"I've dreamed of this moment," he whispered seductively into her ear, channeling all of his strength into his blade arm. "Finally you will die, and my sweet revenge upon Bill will be complete!"
Celestra grunted, shifted her right leg, and brought her knee slamming hard into his abdomen. He wheezed and the pressure slackened, allowing the female assassin to wriggle free and regain her feet, tearing back down the hall. Reivin was impossibly fast in his recovery, though, and he bolted after her, cackling wickedly at her back.
"Run!" he called, gaining with every moment. "Even if you find the bomb and disable it, you'll have to fight your way out of here!"
The remale assassin turned right, following the trail of smoke, catching a glimpse of a faint green glow in the imminent darkness. Hope renewed, she continued on, inwardly pleading for her legs to hold out. Reivin was only two steps behind now, and he reached out, drawing a line of blood across her shoulderblades. She cried out and whirled about, switchblades at the ready, to find that somewhere along the way her nemesis had regained his lost knife. Never hesitating, she came at him in a flurry of blades, and he blocked every one of her attacks, only to send moves of his own at her and find them similarly foiled. Celestra led the deadly dance, working her feet under her and closing the distance between them until she had a clear shot at his ribcage, which she took. He choked out a cry, eyes ablaze, and came at her even stronger, scoring another minor hit across her forearm.
Celestra aimed one blade, ready to throw, and Reivin, thinking his chest the target, ducked and took a swipe at her legs. She jumped back and let fly, smiling in grim satisfaction as the knife thudded intot he wall opposite them, severing the fuse of the detonator just above the traveling flame. In an instant, the tiny spark flickered and died.
Reivin howled and dove at her again, but his aim was low in his rage and she leaped right over him, letting him lead now as they backtracked down the hall the way they had come. His thoughts were solely on killing her, but Celestra's mind was elsewhere, still silently reciting Captain Anilora's words and taking strength in the mental image of Star Fox, the first friends she had every known, alive and well. She could see the sunlight just over her shoulder now as she intricately worked Reivin's blades up high and jabbed him in the chest. He responded with a slash at her stomach, but she parried it perfectly and hopped back, closing the gap between her and the exit.
Then, without warning, her foot slipped on the step seperating the hallway from the grass outside, and she fell backwards into the sun, collapsing on her back.
Her last switchblade skittered out of reach.
Celestra expected to feel the cool steel enter her heart, or her throat, or any other vital area. When she realized that she was still alive, she chanced a glance up, and what she saw stole the rest of her breath.
Standing resolutely with his feet planted apart, one wing out wide to conceal the fallen and injured female assassin behind him, the other stretched out before him brandishing the combat knife from Peppy's lockbox, was Falco Lombardi. Celestra could feel the blood from the mortal gash across her back seeping down and soaking her flight shirt, and she grimaced in pain. Falco's eyes intensified at the helpless sound, and in all sincerity he said over his shoulder, "Hang in there for a few more minutes, kid. Help is on the way."
The male assassin across from the avian slowly lowered his knives, eyes glittering at Falco in such a way that suggested he was truly surprised by the intrusion. "You must be Leon's friend, Falco Lombardi. A pleasure to meet you."
Falco tightened his grip on the handle of the knife and frowned deeply. "That's my name, but as for being Leon's friend, you were obviously misinformed. And the pleasure is all yours, scumbag."
Reivin chuckled at the remark. "Step aside, mercenary. This is none of your concern."
Celestra could not have been more surprised when Falco retorted, "I just made it my concern, assassin."
"I am warning you: if you do not get out of my way, I will kill you," the raven warned.
Falco shook his head and gritted, "Go to hell. I ain't movin'."
Reivin stared at him for a moment, seemingly confused, then the familiar smirk found its way to his face as he gestured to Falco's combat knife. "Do you even know how to use that thing?" he teased, coming forward in a rush.
Falco quick-stepped in front of the first blade, deflected the second, sending it sailing out of reach, and sank the knife deep into Reivin's side. The assassin gasped and choked out like a beached fish as Great Fox lowered from the sky, with Fox hanging out of one of they hangars. "Come on, Lombardi, let's move it!"
The avian hoisted Celestra easily into his arms and clambered into the hovering cruiser behind Fox; Celestra just felt the tip of Reivin's wing scrape the back of her neck before Fox slammed the hangar door shut.
~~*~~
Celestra stared down at her bare feet, wearing nothing but a sports bra and a pair of sweat shorts as Slippy finished wrapping tape around her chest, securing the bandages protecting the wound in her back. The assassin idly clenched her right fist, feeling the muscles tighten in protest along her injured forearm but finding she was pleased with the way Slippy had mended it. "Thanks, Slip. That puts us back to about even, I would say."
Slippy laughed heartily and replaced all of his medical supplies in a small briefcase. "It's the least any of us could do--I think you saved about everyone from certain doom out there today."
Celestra shook her head, testing her forearm yet again. "No, my friend--teamwork." She laughed as the toad backed out of the room, leaving the assassin alone with the gradually subsiding pain of her many wounds.
Barely a minute later a faint knock sounded against the door, and when Celestra honored it she was surprised again to find Falco standing there, smiling softly. She beckoned him inside, returning the grin, and the avian found himself wincing as he studied the white surgical tape covering half of the rippling muscles in the assassin's back. She sat down on the table again, gazing at him quizzically, and he leaned casually against the wall, arms crossed across his flight jacket.
"Why did you--?" Celestra began, but Falco cut her off with a dismissive wave of one wing.
"First I'll settle for an explanation of the little trick you pulled on Powalski," Falco remarked.
Celestra attempted to lean back against the wall, but found the pain only intensified so she righted herself again. "I perfected the sideswipe at age sixteen, under Peppy's patient tutelage. General Pepper deeply disapproved, but Peppy insisted it was a skill I should take the time to learn. I must say that it has its benefits."
The avian's dark eyes twinkled at her, and Celestra's stomach churned a bit. "Let's just say I did what I did because you saved my life. Don't read too much into it; you'll make this into a big heroic story, and I don't think I could handle the fanfare."
She laughed at that, and after a moment Falco joined in. Then he came and sat next to her, seeming almost embarrassed as he continued, "So thanks, Mar--Celestra. I don't think I would have walked away from that one without you."
"I should be thanking you," she insisted.
He raised his eyebrows humorously. "Then by all means, do." And they shared yet another hearty laugh with one another as he added, "By the way--that Frost guy is a psycho."
"Agreed."
Long after they had exhausted their jokes of Reivin, Falco sat with one wing draped carefully over her shoulders so as not to disturb her back. Celestra appreciated the gesture, but at the same time she couldn't keep herself from insisting that Reivin Frost had somehow survived.
Somehow he always did.