Chapter Sixteen: Step by Step
I don't own Star Fox, but I own my characters. Using my characters means you have to ask me for permission and giving me credit. I would be delighted then when you do! This is probably one of my long-running stories, so bear with it!
"James, how could you do this to your son?" Wulf yelled as braced from a probable attack that he felt was coming. "And you Fox; I thought you're smarter than this! We were so close in stopping this madness, yet you gave up and allowed it to swallow you!" The younger vulpine just shook his head.
"You don't understand, Wulf…" Fox replied as he slowly approached the lupine. "What's the use of fighting when the ones you wished to save enjoyed what's happening in the first place? Don't you feel the bullshit on that?" He suddenly flailed his tails towards Wulf, hitting the wolf and flinging him to a side of the room.
"If you'll walk away, then I suppose I could forget you," James also added a simple request, "but if you'll insist, then I would have to give you the most horrible death I could think of. You are a large threat to the evolution which is about to unfold in the whole planet, and the whole system." He then glanced at the wolf keenly, who was trying to stand up from the attack. "Look at yourself. Don't you at least pity yourself? Like what my son said, you're just wasting your energy… The people liked what happened in them, for they don't have much desires…"
"…except for a few, like Wolf," Wulf replied as he wiped blood from his mouth, "he doesn't want to be alone… He snapped out from the allurement of the evolution because he felt that he'd still be alone afterwards… And you… You told us you snapped out from the controls of the scientists that turned you into that because you wished to see your son Fox again… However, your desire got to the extent of madness… He's already here, safe and sound, so what's the point of evolving each Lylatian!" Fox, who was angry, rushed towards Wulf and pushed him to the floor.
"Because he doesn't want others to meet the same fate! I thought you were listening…" He then grabbed him to the neck, and then he started to squeeze his grip tightly. James however, told his son to stop.
As Fox released Wulf, the alpha fox grabbed his right arm, and slowly crushed it. Wulf felt incredible pain as James squeezed his arm tightly. He screamed as he felt his bones and joints breaking and snapping from the strong grip of the fox. Afterwards, he threw him away making him hit the wall. From that event, Wulf took so much suffering. He fainted from the throw, but a thought resided inside him… he won't be able to fight with his right arm disabled. James then commanded the other evolved soldiers to bring him back to his cell.
"Dad, when are we going to do next?" evolved Fox asked his father as he sat to a chair. "We can't wait for Corneria City to be evolved, for what I know; Wulf's team has already informed the general and the other parts of the city about the water infestation. Only small areas of the city were affected. And also, what about Wolf and Falco?" James took a moment to think about it, and then assured him of a counter plan.
"Don't worry," he replied as he opened a large holographic monitor, "I already have news about that, and have sent people to send the CEL virus to the gates of the waterways. That way, we can quickly reshape the whole city in just about twenty minutes. As for the two, I developed a mental-controlling program, say a brainwashing formula, so that they'll return to us…" Then, two people entered the room, making Fox relieved. "Ah, here they are. How are you, Wolf and Falco?" Two muscular figures – a blue hunky bird and a wolf with many piercings, nodded with respect to their leader.
"We're back in the track, sir," Wolf fledged out with his heart. "Thank you for returning us to the right path. We'll be glad to help Fox out."
"Wolf's right! We're going to stop that Galaxy Wulf from ruining this big party!" Falco grinned as he created a fireball from his hand.
Fox, even though he was evolved, felt comfort from the two's support. "T-thank you guys… I thought you're going to abandon me…" He then stood up and gave his muscular arm out. The two did the same thing, and smiled with a nod.
"Good, now that you three are back in action, I have a mission to give you…"
Bill giggled as he flexed his body once more. "Check out these rippling muscles!" he laughed as he started to do different poses. Katt suddenly hurled a wrench towards the dog, hitting him to the head, but it seemed he wasn't harmed or anything, for he didn't feel any pain.
"Damn, now I won't be able to kick your ass!" Katt angrily shouted as she started to punch Bill's arm repeatedly.
The female bat floated down to the ground after a few rounds of flying. "Sir Bark Arfie," she called out as she approached the dog with thick eyeglasses, "here's the report of the scouting me and my team made." She handed out a disc towards the dog, which he immediately inserted in the computer he was working on.
"Wow, this is good… Nice shot here," he replied as Peppy also took a look at it. "Hmm… so this means Corneria isn't really much infected. It's only the whole city, which's where the water supply supplies water."
"Thank you sir," the evolved bat, now back in her senses, nodded, "but we also saw evolved soldiers trying to ruin the blocks of the waterways leading to the other areas near Corneria City. Even some of the personnel responsible for keeping the gates were evolved. My team was able to stop the wave of attacks to the blockades, but we're not sure if they had stopped."
Peppy rubbed his chin. "So now our goal is to keep those gates from being opened, eh? That won't be much a problem now, right, since we have the defense force with us…" Bark nodded from his statement. It's another battle they must face.
"Thankfully, the naval force is still A-OK. I doubt that they'll be infected and I think they could help us by using their weapons," the dog again spoke out. Peppy agreed from the idea.
"This pains me," Eagle sighed as he looked at himself, an eagle wearing nothing more than a loincloth. "I want my old body back! I don't want to rush you or anything, but are you two done with the formula?" Slippy and Leon just laughed from the bird.
"Don't worry, Eagle! We're trying to make the best antidote for this kind of situation!" Slippy smiled as he dropped a small drop of chemical to a solution. As it hits the solution though, an explosion occurred, giving the frog a bath of soot. "I'm okay! I'm okay!" Eagle just felt worried more.
Leon, after laughing from what happened to the toad, reassured him. "You don't have to worry! It's just a matter of changing the DNA set-up to the original layout, and removing the virus inside the body! For now, just try to put on another set of clothes!"
"That's the problem," Eagle grumbled once more. "I couldn't find anything that would fit me, and it feels so hot and uncomfortable when I'm wearing one… and my bandanna broke out!" Garou just slapped the bird's back and laughed out.
"You know, I kinda like this body!" he smiled as he gave a flex to his left arm, showing his bicep. "I'm pretty sure the girls will be magnetized with Giga Garou! This also saved me a lot of work-outs!" Suddenly, a powerful blow to the head was given to the ice wolf, knocking him down to the ground. It was Lupina who gave him that, and for a normal person, she could kick an evolved person's back.
"Do that and you'll be my punching bag for a week!" she grumbled as she showed her clenched fist to the nervous ice wolf. "Anyway…" She closed her eyes, then after a few seconds, she smiled out happily as she thrust her arm forward, showing a "V" sign with the fingers. "Mission complete! I knew something bad has happened to Fara so I went there, kicked some ass, and returned back while saving her!"
"Wow, you're strong…" Katt commented while showing signs of speechlessness.
"I have to think of something to thank her someday! I owe her a lot!"
Fara, with Louie, arrived at the defense force just a few minutes after Lupina made it back. She was left with torn short shorts and upper clothing that was nearly peeled off. Louie was the lizard with spikes coming out from his back. Lupina greeted them.
"Hi ya! Thanks for joining the evolved people who will fight for freedom!" she smiled as she pointed out the other evolved soldiers who were snapped out from their minds. She then glanced at Louie, the lizard that received quite a punch from her earlier. "Um… sorry about what happened earlier! I hope you're not fatally injured from the punch! You too, Fara, I hope you're okay!"
Louie laughed by the excuse. "Well, I must say that you gave quite a killer move back then, but I'm fine now, and so as Cheeks here."
"Cheeks?" Katt smiled at Fara. "So he's the new boyfriend you're talking about, eh?"
"Well, yeah… He's a nice person to talk to and…" Fara replied while blushing. "Anyway, we're here to help you out. And…" Before she could finish out, she noticed Bill, who was posing for the ladies.
"Give me a shot here!" he smiled as he made another pose. He knelt down with one arm flexing and the other one lifting a dumbbell. Many female fans of him smiled and grabbed cameras.
"Should I punch him?" Garou asked Lupina as he cracked his knuckles.
"No, leave it to me," she smiled as she walked towards the show-off stud. Katt, Garou, Fara, Louie, Bill, Peppy, Slippy, Eagle, Leon, and the rest of those who have tasted how Lupina beats people up covered their ears and eyes, for they now what's going to happen next, and it's not going to be clean and smooth.
"Okay, how's the status of infestation of Corneria City?" Admiral Lombert Poe, a Siberian tiger officer in charge of the naval force of the planet, asked one of the personnel in charge of intel of the ship. "And how is the foreign team who gave us the information?"
A male cheetah replied, "Infestation level of the city has gone to a critical state. Nearby towns are currently in green condition as of now, but according to Galaxy Wulf, there have been sightings of evolved soldiers making an attempt to destroy the blockages of the waterways. If they succeed in destroying the gates, then the neighboring areas would be infested by the CEL virus as well…"
"That's as far as they can go. We mustn't allow that to happen…" he assured the officer. "We're in an area they can't touch and the general is away from the planet, yet we can still help those on the land. Once we have news of the vaccine they are developing, we can create powerful missiles to send it out and cure many people at a large area… that Bark Arfie surely knows what to think…"
Things were going smoothly inside the Nautilus, the name of the battleship Admiral Lombert was operating. Well, that's true until an alarm was buzzed. As their monitor showed, a suspecting small vessel was detected by their radar. "Scan on the area. Display the scans." He commanded. However…
"Sir, the ship just disappeared!" a coyote intel personnel reported with surprise. "We've lost it in the scans and… Alert! Nautilus has been breached! I repeat! Nautilus has been breached!" he double-checked his monitor, and he's pretty much sure that the ship has detected unauthorized people.
Lombert rushed from his seat to the outside of the ship. He exited the bridge and went to the deck of the ship. He glanced at the sea, which was strange, since it was calm. "This is odd… There's no sign of the vessel, nor signs of breaching invaders…" He suddenly got a message from bridge.
"Sir, something's wrong with our system! Our sprinkler showers has just activated without reason! I think we should check out our technical personnel about this."
"Confirmed. I'll return to bridge immediately," he replied. Odd events suddenly made him nervous. He quickly returned back to the bridge. "Hmm… maybe the wrong readings and false alarms were just caused by faulty systems…"
As he returned to the bridge, the showers have already stopped squirting, and everything's wet, but that wasn't the thing that worried him. His men… they started to feel pain. They were all on the floor they were leaning on their consoles, trying to hold their pain.
"Sir! AHH!" the cheetah yelled as he pulled his uniform out. His anatomy's starting to change. Muscles burst out from his body, ripping everything and leaving him only his underwear.
"Get out… now… sir!" the coyote growled as he tacked the cheetah away, but he too, was evolving. It's not long before he shared the same fate as of the cheetah. His palms were able to create electricity, and so did he give the admiral a taste of electricity. Lombert fell down the floor, harmed.
It was not long before every unit in the ship was evolved. How could it be? The Nautilus was far from the land! How could it be touched by the CEL virus?
"Okay boys, stop," a voice jeered out of nowhere. Suddenly, flames gathered in an area. As it exploded, Falco came appeared from it. "The admiral wants his rear be beaten by us!"
"You got that right, Falco!" Wolf sneered evilly as he entered the room as well. The admiral backed away, trying to keep a safe distance from them. However, he bumped someone, as he was moving backwards without looking behind his back.
"Where are you going, admiral?" Fox grinned as he grabbed the admiral by the cape, and then hurled him towards his seat. "I thought you and the ship were connected to each other!"
Admiral Lombert was surprised to see Fox McCloud evolved. "S-star Fox! You, you got yourself…"
"…evolved? Yeah! That's what happened to me! Don't worry, you'll be receiving the same treatment!" he laughed as he took out a vial filled with water containing CEL virus. "Your water supply was easy to be infested, but you weren't there! Anyway, your current mission ends here and the new one is about to be given… after you evolve of course!" He gave a nod to Wolf, who started to remove his earring.
He commanded the accessory to turn into a large metal bar. It wrapped around the admiral, making sure he won't escape. Wolf grinned, "Are you sure you're all right there, admiral?"
Falco then forced the admiral to open his mouth. "Come on! Don't be a baby! This is should be quick, so don't be a burden!" he sneered as he lifted the upper jaw of the tiger. Fox then poured the liquid towards the mouth of Lombert, making sure he was able to drink everything.
Wolf released the admiral to make sure he could move while feeling the pain before evolving. The men of Admiral Lombert Poe cheered as they saw their leader turning into one of them. As his body started to evolve, Fox glanced at his teammates. "We're slowly going to pluck them one by one, making sure that they won't be a bother to us…"
"The only thing I worry about is Wulf," Wolf grumbled. "I know he can recover those injuries… will he be an obstacle against us?"
"Nah! He won't! He'll just feel hell if he starts acting one!" Falco laughed.
They then looked at the newly evolved admiral. His muscles are of new structure as well as his anatomy, and his ability to control the waves mentally made him a formidable ally. "I shall be of service to the prince of the new Lylat!" he proclaimed as he bowed down.
"Yes, you will be of great service…"