CHAPTER 6: DISTRESS SIGNAL

"Ehhhh."

"Problem?" Samus asked as she pulled back the little round mechanism from Fox's forearm. She had just injected the so-called "antidote" for the Metroid's venom into his body. Needless to say, Fox was a little wary about this substance even before he saw her withdraw it in a rather fancy looking case from her ship. Things that were too convenient were just...too convenient for him to trust fully. Still, he was almost sure he was starting to feel a little numb in the tips of his fingers and toes - so he figured he'd take this one chance.

"No..," he replied to her question, rubbing the after-feeling from his arm. Fox wasn't crazy about needles. Even these more finely tuned methods of injection still gave him the willies. Just like the Metroid experience, having things digging into his flesh was not something he was overjoyed about feeling.

"That aught to be good, then," she said, placing her tools back in the small intricate case with the elixir she had used on him. Grasping the handles on the container, she placed it back into the storage compartment near the rear end of her ship.

"Miss Aran!" came Peppy's somewhat raspy voice then as he entered the dock, waving. "We've transferred your fee. Everything should be in order." He gave a small, polite, harish smile.

"Splendid," Samus replied, closing the compartment with a thick clunk noise.

"Mpmpmh..," Fox mumbled at this remark.

"Pardon?" Samus seemed to have overheard.

"Nothing," Fox replied, giving a foxy grin as if nothing was bothering him at all. The blonde bounty hunter gave him a slightly smirky response and turned to mount her ship. Some people were rather amusing when you ruffled their feathers a bit.or fur rather in this particular case.

"Haaa~," Slippy declared shrilly as he hopped into the room with a box containing a bunch of his own gadgets. "Don't tell me you're leaving already, Miss Aran!? I have so many questions!" Samus was already putting her helmet back on and standing on the platform to head into her ship.

"Sorry, Froggy. We'll have to save that for another day," she said with a small wave before the platform lowered her into the bulky vessel. Slippy's expression seemed to melt with disappointment as he watched her do so. Fox glanced at the ship in such a manner that his face seemed to say 'Good riddance'. He and his fellow Starfox teammates turned and entered the interior of the ship so that the docking bay could be opened for Samus' exit. Once the bay doors were open, the bounty hunter jetted out of the ship as if she had some sort of engagement she was late for.

"She seems in an awful hurry," Peppy commented as he stood in front of the window looking out towards the now empty docking bay as the doors closed. "I don't think I was ever so reckless." He chuckled to himself, seemingly amused. "Though I can say it does remind me of a certain someone I know."

"Please, Peppy. Don't start.," Fox replied, his tail flicking to the side as he raised a hand. Turning to head down the hall his thoughts were disrupted by an announcement from the Great Fox's computer that there was a transmission being sent. Jogging down to the main control room, followed by Slippy and Peppy, he wondered if this was a message from General Pepper. That would be nice. While he wasn't terribly fond of Pepper himself sometimes, any jobs he had to offer were more than welcome - provided the client was willing to pay their fee that is.

As they entered, Slippy hopped over to receive the transmission that was coming through. Sadly, no holographic head of General Pepper's showed up. In fact there was no picture or sound at all.

"Fox, it's a distress signal," Slippy finally concluded upon discovering what type of signal it was. "From a location not too far from here it seems!"

Fox hummed to himself and scratched the back of his head. Great. A distress signal. Translated: people wanting/needing help who quite possible can/won't pay for it. Of course, he wasn't totally stone cold about helping out people..he just liked it better when he got rewarded for it.

"Where is it, Slippy?" he finally asked. Slippy seemed happy that his response had been positive and turned to check.

"Just a quadrant or so east from our current location."

"How lucky for those folks we happened to be in the right place at the right time," Peppy said, seating himself in his own designated chair.

"Yeah, guess so," Fox replied. "Alright. Ready up my Arwing and I'll go check it out."

* * * * * *

It felt nice just to get out in his ship again, Fox found. The depths of space themselves were rather calming at times when his day had been unpleasant. Of course, when he thought about it, they weren't too unpleasant. Certainly, he didn't appreciate Samus Aran's attitude or manipulative qualities..but he did (secretly) enjoy running into people who were a match for his own skills and wit. It was a sort of love for rivalry, he figured. He recalled that he used to have that sort of rivalry with Falco a long time ago when they were still training together. Falco, as of late, however, had taken it upon himself to go off on his own. Fox hadn't heard from him for a long time.

Samus had a mischievious look to her - he decided. In her eyes and the way she smirked there was something challenging, vibrant, and almost playful. Fox shook his head mildly to clear it of those images. Best not to think of her.it. Best not to think of IT. The whole day would just have to be wiped away. He had a job he was supposed to be doing - no time to get intrigued by some female's blue.blue eyes.

Fox smacked himself in the side of the head angrily.

When he looked back up he caught glimpse of the distress signal's source. It seemed like some derelict space station that had run into some bad times. A few areas of it seemed to have taken some hits by a rather powerful shot. Glancing around as far as he could see and scanning the area, however, he didn't take notice of anything big enough to make such damage. It seemed whatever had attacked the place was long gone. All that was left was the giant hunk of floating metal pieces and a few bits of space junk left over from the one sided battle.

Zooming in he came to the docking area that seemed to still be in working order, thankfully. The doors opened automatically to the appearance of his ship and closed once he had docked. He opened the cockpit and hopped out, making sure to take his blaster with him close at hand. Walking through the smaller double doors into the main hallway, he surveyed the area. It had that strange unsettling feel about it already. When things are too quiet except for the crackle of broken machinery and wires. Shadows flickered on the walls with sparks and half functioning lighting.

His fur stood on end for a moment at the chill in the place until he shook it off and began cautiously venturing down the hall. Someone had sent a distress call.so someone still had to be alive in this place, and so help him Fox was going to find them.

He stepped around a couple dead forms in the hallway and veered his gaze away from them. Dead people weren't good in any situation, but there was nothing he could do about it but take it as a warning to be careful. He pulled his blaster from his belt into his readied hand for good measure.

As much as he might have liked to call out "hello? Is anyone there?", Fox restrained himself. Doing that sort of thing in questionable places such as this could be the worst mistake. For one, something you might not want to answer probably will. For two, most the time the victim wouldn't answer anyway unless they knew you weren't threatening.

He slowed his steps at a peculiar smell near an automatic door that was frozen into a partially open state. Sidestepping a bit with his back to the wall he turned to peek in. From what he could see amongst the shadows and dim lighting it looked like a bunch of tiny creatures feeding on a mess of corpses in the room. It stunk the high heaven. Fox held his breath a moment and pulled back. Best not to disturb the little buggers as long as they left him alone.

Strangely enough at this thought there came a light whooshing noise and the sound of an explosion in that very room. A blast of light emerged from the crack in the door and Fox braced himself as the room rocked.

"What in the-?" he questioned no one in particular when the blinding light had cleared. As he turned to look back in the room, something round and shiny came flying out through the hole and skidded across the floor and wall down the way he had come. Fox blinked once or twice to check his vision and looked back in the room first - all the creatures had been incinerated. Narrowing his furry brows he made for the metallic sphere to find out what the hell it was.

It wasn't too hard to track as it made a light skidding noise of metal on metal as it rolled along. Fox kept his distance warily and slowed as the sphere did. It was peculiar for a moment as it appeared to be looking around or contemplating which direction it planned to take, and eventually rolled into an open doorway. Using the opportunity to catch up, Fox quietly came to the door and peeked in.

It seemed some of the control panels in this main room were still somewhat functioning as the screens still glowed with life. His eyes were tugged from this brief view as the small sphere rolled along in front of the control panels and suddenly warped into a different form.

"What the hell??" Fox couldn't keep himself from saying aloud as he whirled and stepped into the room. The once-been sphere, now full armored Samus, turned and looked at him from the panel. Her eyes narrowed a bit behind the visor of her helmet.

"What are you doing here?" she asked before turning to access the panel.

"What..?" Fox asked incredulously, approaching her. "What are YOU doing here is more like it!"

"What do you mean?" Samus replied. "I'm answering a distress call! Did you send it?"

"No. Did you?" he returned the question. She shook her head simply. "I thought you were out of this part of the galaxy by now the way you went streaking out."

"I got the distress call and wanted to get out and find it.," she said, scanning through the computer best she could. "So eager to get rid of me, then, fuzzums?"

"Don't call me that!" Fox declared and then composed himself. "Listen. I received the same distress call and decided to check it out."

"Oh? How thoughtful of you."

"I didn't expect you to be here."

"My ship is right outside, didn't you see it?"

"Oh, I must have picked it up as a piece of space trash," he said staley, coming to the panel himself. Samus knawed her tongue a bit at this. Touche` Foxy. "Well, have you found anyone, bounty hunter?"

"Strangely, no," she replied, letting her tone turn back into a business one. "I've covered at least half the station and most of the electronics seemed to be haywire. This is the first panel that I've seen that would even be able to send a signal like that." Fox's ears perked at this.

"Don't suppose the computers might have sent a signal automatically when they read low life signals, do you?" he asked, returning to business as well.

"That could be so. But I get this strange feeling it's not the case." Fox agreed, feeling the same sort of eerie nature of the whole thing, but he didn't say anything about it. Samus shook her head again. "I can't even find an identity of who might have sent the signal. or when."

"This station looks pretty beat up.. Don't you suppose-"

"That the signal should have been sent before it got this bad?" she finished his thought. "That's what bothers me. I've been picking up little or no life signs on this place. What I've found are small scavengers, though, not the crew or civilians. People in distress usually call for help before they're near death. Unless the people on this station were attacked so forcefully they couldn't get to their systems in time."

"That's assuming they were boarded.," Fox added, leaning against the edge of the panel and assuming a thoughtful pose. "Attacked from the outside and then boarded later?" He looked to Samus.

"Sounds plausible from the scene here..," she said. "But I still don't see why that wouldn't have left enough time to send the signal earlier. And if it was sent during the attack then there should be some signs of the invader."

"No visible ship outside.."

"Seemingly no one inside.." The two paused in silent thought a moment. Their trains were suddenly derailed, though as a frightful thumping began in the hall - like something large and heavy was heading towards their door.

Both Fox and Samus looked up, getting ready to go into defensive mode when the door was forced the rest of the way open by a clawed hand. Fox narrowed his eyes again, though the feeling of surprise stuck with him a moment.

"You-? How can you?!" he finally uttered as the large form filled the doorway.

"Hey!" Samus declared, causing Fox to jump just a tad. "I know you! There's a rather large bounty on your scaley hide!!" Fox looked at Samus a bit bewildered that she recognized the figure looming before them.

"How do you-?"

"Oh, he's on a rather rewarding wanted list," she mentioned, not taking her eyes off the door. Fox was almost certain she was smiling at this encounter.

"Indeed," growled the intruder with a large, toothy grin. "General Scales is not so easily defeated! Now that Andross has lost control of me I can do as I please. And I think it's about time I skinned myself a Fox for all the trouble he's caused me. If it means I'll have to take out a pesky bounty hunter in the process all the better!"

He began to laugh lowly and Samus and Fox glanced at each other as they both poised their weapons to fight.

(Note to readers: Okay, before you start rolling your eyes hear me out. I think General Scales was highly underused in Starfox Adventures. While he had potential to be a rather villainy villain his chance at stardom kind of got jacked by Andross. I mean come on. You don't even get to fight the poor guy! All that evilness for nothing. geez)