A/N: Hey, just real quick. Sorry, I haven't updated in a while. I moved again and won't have internet until tomorrow. I had to drive to my local Starbucks to upload this file, tonight, haha. Wooord! All right, boys and girls, enjoy this. I hope you all see the foreshadowing that leads into ASSAULT. Pigma tries to induct Wolf's help and Wolf tells him to get lost, and Fox and Krystal have their first 'training mission' alone, as Krystal optimistically looks at it, and they have time together, which Krystal seems to enjoy a great deal, in ASSAULT. This has started out as a short story about Krystal that turned into a story about what happens in Krystal's life, between ADVENTURES and ASSAULT. If you guys like the direction this story is going in, tell me. I've only decided to extend it this way, so it lasts longer, which I've been told is exactly what yaw'll readers want! So feed back and let me know if this is making you happy!
-Kit
Chapter 7: Proving herself.
There was a twitch, followed by another involuntary shutter. Krystal's soft lashes fluttered open, gazing up at the twisted metal wreckage around her. She thought for sure that an abandoned theme park, of all places, on an asteroid would not have breathable air. And yet, with the gash in her shuttle, breathable, faintly stale air made it's way in. Her mind began to piece together what happened.
The enemy fighter gouged her ship and an emergency forcefield came up to protect from vacuum and atmospheric decompression. Now that they'd crashed, the ship had powered down, leaving all systems inoperable, except for an emergency, battery backup flood light, that cast a dim glow within the shuttle's confines. As her eyes adjusted, the world around her sliding into focus, she realized that she was still in her cockpit seat, suspended by the chest belt that held her in place.
Fox was on the other side of the glass beneath her, not moving. She shrugged her shoulders, then rotated her wrists and ankles. Nothing broken. Her legs lifted outwards, then she went for the seatbelt release. She quickly dropped, landing on her hands and knees, on the plexi-bubble windshield, which was now spiderwebbed in three places. Her mind reached out for Fox but he was unconscious. However, she could sense that he was alive and it alleviated her immediate worries. Now, her only concern was to make sure he wasn't injured.
She, like her tribe of skulk, was a healer. The branded picture on her leg, which was inked with white was the symbol of the Cardinal Sun, a compass overtop a shining star. Krystal knew she could heal him; all she had to do was get out of her shuttle. She lifted her hind paws and tried to kick at the plexi-bubble but even with a kick directly in the center of the spider-webbed sections, it wouldn't give.
She glanced up at the hook where her staff used to hang, but it was back on the GreatFox. Her eyes rolled, glancing back down through the cracked windshield at her friend, in the cockpit beneath, completely motionless. She squinted at him, and it appeared as though he wasn't breathing. She focused her mind for a moment, and then placed her paws against the windshield once more. Suddenly, the windshield shattered in shards of tempered plastic. She felt herself plummet, dropping atop of the Arwing, sliding half-way down its fuselage. Her paws reached for something to grasp, during her fall, snagging her left paw across the handrail on the frame of his canopy.
Her body flung downwards, hanging by her left paw, about seven feet in the air. She arched her back, putting her feet on the side of the Arwing's hull and pulled herself up. After a few minutes of tinkering with the manual release lever, she figured it out and the canopy clicked open, there was no hiss of air decompression, it was more of a suction sound, like opening a vacuum tube. She grabbed onto Fox by his collar, still hanging off the side of the Arwing, which half supported the weight of her shuttle. After a moment of struggling, she managed to unclick his safety belt, bringing both of them sailing to the ground, him landing on his back, her landing unceremoniously upon her rump.
There was no time to grouse, she knew what she had to do. She quickly dashed over to where Fox was laying, pinching his nose shut with her right index and thumb, using her left paw to part his muzzle. She took a deep breath, then forced her mouth over his, pushing the air into his lungs. She released his nose after a few seconds, then placed her paws, one overtop the other, upon his chest, beginning to push on his upper torso, performing CPR. Nothing.
She knew her chi-like power strike was a little dangerous for someone with an older heart, like Peppy, but Fox was different. She kept her palms flat upon his chest, then performed the same maneuver she did on the windshield, and during the spar the other night, when they were practicing against one another. The sudden jolt of energy against his chest caused her body to be pushed apart from his own, knocking her away from him for only a moment. She then scrambled back over to him and went back to forcing air into his lungs.
It worked. He coughed into her muzzle, causing her to break the air-tight seal of their lips, to let him gasp for air. She sat back on her haunches, just staring at him for a moment, her sigh of relief rather audible. Fox continued coughing, in an attempt to get a fresh breath of oxygen, but was only awarded with the stale air of the old Asteroid theme park. The oxygen tanks hadn't been stirred in over a decade, for the most part, so the entire atmosphere had a stale sort of taste to it.
Fox flopped back, breathing normally again, looking rather worn and beaten. Krystal scooted back over besides him, patting his cheek, right on the side of his muzzle with her paw. "You'll live to get married," She said with a chuckle, then stood up, quickly dusting herself off. The Arwing was in exceptional shape. The Shuttle, on the other hand, was a total loss. If she could somehow fit in his Arwing that would be one thing, but they'd have to find a way to get the shuttle off of it, first.
Fox muttered only loud enough for her to barely hear him, "I dislocated my shoulder somehow, I don't even know how I did it."
"That was probably from me, pulling you out of the cockpit by your shirt collar. Sorry about that, I was in a hurry, you weren't breathing. What happened to your life support?" She asked, still dusting herself off.
"I rerouted the power from that system to help with the landing. I didn't realize the impact and the G-Forces would render me unconscious," he sighed, shaking his head. He was in a great deal of pain, his shoulder causing incredible grief. She lifted her left paw, showing him where she cut herself across her paw's smallest finger, from where she had grabbed onto the canopy latch, a moment prior. It happened when she slid off of his fighter, after tumbling out of her own ship.
"Nice. We should probably get ourselves fixed up and contact Corneria, let them know what happened," He said. "My arm hurts so bad, it's giving me a headache. Wanna see if you can't climb up into my cockpit and grab my headset, it must have come off during the crash."
Krystal gave a slight, lopsided grin, then clambered back up to his cockpit, leaving occasional bloody paw prints up the side of the armor plated hull. She snatched his headset then slid back down and dropped to her feet. Handing the headset over, she added, "You know, we've got to figure out how we're going to get me to fit behind the cockpit seat, if we can get my shuttle off the top of your fighter."
"Let's cross that bridge when we get to it. We'll contact Corneria and have your shuttle taken off the top of the Arwing first," Fox explained. He slipped the headset over his head, speaking into it. "Slippy, it's Fox. I need your help, man," He said, waiting for a reply.
A moment later, Slippy's reply, garbled from poor reception, came back. "Hey F-fox. We saw you go down, on the satellite over MeteoLand, but GreatFox is in mid-refit, we haven't finished securing the deal on the rest of the Arwings yet, and securing transportation out there will take at least one planetary rotation. Can you stick it out for just one day?"
"Yeah, but HellCat Alpha is under attack. Krystal and I think another mercenary group is going to ambush them to help out Andrew," He explained into the headset.
"It's all over the news," Slippy said, shaking his head, on the tiny little holographic emitted image that hovered above Fox's left wrist's gauntlet. "HellCat Alpha doesn't exist anymore. Pepper won't send us in, either, because you crashed, and because their non-war-time murder is considered a police action investigation. So they're leaving it up to cops. Whoever pulled it off has gotten away with it, left no evidence except for scraps of metal and little tiny pieces of shrapnel. They're professionals, whoever they were," said the toad, with a shake of his head.
"I'll survive one day. Let me know when S&R is underway. You may not even need to send an SWACs to get us, if Krystal and I can get off this place on our own. I'll keep you posted. Fox out," He said into the headset unit then flipped a switch on his gauntlet that closed the channel.
"I guess we're here for at least one day. I hate feeling helpless, so let's see if we can't find something around here to use to our advantage, see if we can't secure something to eat and see about finding those theme-park control towers, stir the oxygen tanks and maybe have some fresh air," he said to her.
"You didn't bring rations?" She asked, partially surprised he didn't prepare.
"It was an Arwing test drive, it wasn't supposed to be a full, real mission. No, I didn't put any ration packets into the storage compartment. C'mon, this place should have a ton of synthetic food in frozen storage, that stuff has a shelf life of ….several decades, easily. We don't have to be stranded, and this mission could turn out to be fun, let's go," He said, taking point, keeping his left paw over his right shoulder, tenderly favoring it.
Krystal placed a paw on her hips, pausing for a moment to survey the area. They were surrounded by rides and abandoned convenience stores. She folded her wrists behind her back, looking around in silence for a moment longer, before placing her arms back around her waist, her expression showing one of dismay.
"What's wrong?" Fox asked quietly, still favoring his arm at the shoulder. She didn't really reply, so he thought better of the situation and simply told her, "I know this place somewhat, I went here a few times as a kid; Peppy took me."
"How old were you when Peppy began to raise you?" she asked, falling into step besides him. The two walked along, keeping their eyes peeled for any signs of anything that would make their life any harder. In consideration of everything that had gone wrong thus far, both of them were paranoid and weary. Krystal didn't sense anyone, including the one that caused this mess to begin with, but that didn't mean there weren't any guard sentries around.
Fox tilted his head, talking as they walked, "Well I was 10 when dad was involved in Andross being banished. He was a key witness that Andross caused the death of my mother, but I didn't learn the details of that until I was a little older, because Dad felt that no child should hold that much hate for someone, until I was mature enough to handle the emotion."
"And when your father disappeared?"
"I was 16. It was really difficult, because I was in my senior year at the academy. I dropped out that year and went recluse, but Peppy's return 35 days after they went MIA/Presumed-Dead status, helped me cope," Fox explained to her. "I went back at 17, and finished my last three months, since I was a valedictorian superintendent's honor roll up to that point. I didn't have great grades at 17, in my last three months of school, but I graduated, and began to save money from everything that was left in dad's will and everything that that I was given by the military for being a minor with dead parents. Life insurance money became available when I turned 18."
"And Peppy took legal custody of you?" Krystal asked, able to partially sense him, simply because his feelings were so strong, pure and honest.
"Yeah," McCloud nodded. "There was a huge list of problems. Place to live, affordability, trying to hide out and lay low while we used money to illegally purchase a dreadnought. It isn't an illegal cruiser, but at the time, with a war brewing and political tensions mounting, they didn't want people owning something like that, with massive guns on the front, that's armed like that. Corneria was initially afraid we would look too militant and peace talks with Venom wouldn't work out."
Krystal was able to finish his statement, due to the proximity she was from his mind, adding, "But the peace talks had no chance because Andross had no intent for peace and he was the one who was standing behind Venom?" To her words, Fox nodded. She frowned slightly, "And then the law changed concerning your ship?"
"Naw," Fox glanced at the computerized gauntlet on his arm, which had a built in chronometer. "Not really, they were kinda being crappy about it. So we stayed away from Corneria and made Papetoon our base of operations, because they were neutral, as far as the government goes…. The people weren't, but with GreatFox not completely finished, and finding it difficult to get help in construction with the law still standing, we stayed in a deserted part, outside of town, hiding out beneath an oak tree basement complex."
"What happened with Pepper, how did you guys get called into action?" She asked.
"It's kinda complicated," Fox admitted sourly, as they walked through the deserted theme park, "he sent for us, through an encoded holo-video. Once we got it, we snuck aboard a Phoenix Enterprises transport shuttle. We wound up at Corneria, assessed the situation and did our best to plan a small attack through the wormhole distortion field. We did all right, but Andross wasn't ultimately involved in the end attack. It was just a short mission, and we spent about a week on base in the Cornerian Capitol city."
"Go on," Krystal said.
Fox chuckled, still rubbing his shoulder with his paw. "Andross had some sort of clone or robotic twin, we didn't do anything. Another year passed and we were paid just enough to finish GreatFox. We still had to avoid Corneria with it, and tension was really high, politically. We disappeared again, but this time, we had just enough money to buy the prototype Arwings from Pepper and by then they were slightly updated. He knew what we did, but it was kept quiet, except on Papetoon, where it was obvious when we had to fight an attack off, there."
"Oh my," She said, the two vulpine approaching the end of the adult ride sections, with massive spires and roller coasters. "I take it you guys sat on the sidelines while Corneria's defenses began to get… what's the term? Flushed down the tubes?"
"Something like that," Fox chuckled softly, doing all that he could to keep his mind off the pain in his shoulder. It was so bad, that Krystal could feel it in her arm, sensing his injury and the hurt he experienced. "Anyhow, I was kinda upset with Corneria at the time. They weren't helping much with the murder of my father, and they weren't helping beyond a slight monetary deal through General Pepper. When Corneria began to lose the war, Pepper got desperate… He begged us to help."
"By then, you'd had good training with your fighters, and your team was ready, but now, in more modern nights, they've been sitting stagnant and you had to retire Peppy," Krystal added, again finishing his sentence. "But Peppy can still fly?"
"He gets tired and achy joints from sitting in a cockpit for long periods at a time. We were in the cockpit for a pretty good amount of time during our official Lylat War sortie run over Venom. I mean 7 and 8 hour periods for one run, between refueling. Everyone was achy, but he can't go more than an hour now."
"I'm sorry to hear that," She mused aloud. They now stood in front of the main control offices, where most of the rides were operated and monitored. Fox used his wrist computer to cut the lock, with an ingenious laser and torch attachment that could be used to spot weld if need be. He took out the hinges and Krystal pushed her shoulder against the door, heaving it open. Fox's own shoulder was obviously not in any shape to have done the same.
Inside went without incident. They stirred the oxygen tanks and turned on the power to activate flood lights throughout the park. But without food, until rescue arrived, Fox's only hope was to see if he couldn't fix Krystal into his Arwing, but that wouldn't be fair, in a tiny space that would require being literally stuffed into the equipment cubby.
"Let's find something to eat; the food storage is on the other side of the park. I don't think the sentry bots work anymore, this long without servicing and without the recharging stations active, we should be fine," Fox said, leading her back out into the park. As they walked through the desolate area, the air slowly but surely began to regain its freshness, due to their efforts of stirring the O2 tanks. Up ahead, the path had become blocked by wreckage and crumbling pillars of steel and sections that were destroyed that had been converted into a Venom outpost.
Fox could remember this area, from the bombing runs, and now the way was blocked. Who'd have thought 8 years later, he was blocking his own path? The two began to climb up over the wreckage, in an attempt to get over it. Heaps of twisted steel beams and concrete blocks were strewn about the ground, in a massive pile that raised several stories into the air. The further they climbed, the more difficult it began to get for Fox, due to his shoulder injury.
Once they reached the summit, the two decided to take a few minutes to rest. Fox glanced at his computerized gauntlet, which had a compass adjacent to the chronometer. They were certainly headed in the right direction, but sitting on the top of a massive junk pile really put things into perspective. Behind them, the Arwing crash site was over several miles in the distance. Ahead of them, the restaurant sections that were still at least several more miles beyond them made them feel almost teased.
"Are you tired, Fox?" Krystal asked, perching herself upon the edge of a vertical iron girder.
"My arm is killing me. I'm glad I was able to save you, because you really earned your way onto the team by returning the favor," Fox said.
"No, that was just being a healer. It's what I do, Fox. It's far from earning my way onto something as prestigious as the StarFox team," She said in reply.
Fox shook his head, chuckling slightly, "If you say so." He winced in pain again, then directed his vision back down the metallic slope, shaking his head with a frown. "This isn't going to be fun, you know."
"Not for you, but let's keep our spirits up. I'm optimistic, Fox, that we can survive this," She offered in dulcet tones.
"Where's the incentive?" Fox inquired, in joshing tones of reply, "I'm not starving or anything. It's an awfully long hike. And it's not like this mission is going to pay, I'll understand if you want to stay close the Arwing until tomorrow."
"Need an incentive, do you?" She asked. She could sense that it was how his mind worked. He never put himself or his friends into danger unless they were well paid or the danger was worth it, in the end. She simply leaned forward and placed a soft kiss against the side of his muzzle. This was her training mission as far as she was concerned and she wanted to prove things to him. This mission was important to her, in her heart. She had a leader to impress.
The kiss upon his cheek made him blush, but it also made his chest flutter in an explosion of butterflies. What many women failed to understand about a man who had little experience with women, was the fact that a man's first love and sometimes even his second love, if the situation was pure enough, could make him light on his feet with just one kiss. He immediately began suite, following her down the side of the twisted wreckage pile, heading to the ground with minimal struggling.
Once there, the pair quickly made a game plan, heading for the abandoned restaurants. It was still a few miles of walking but only because the public transportation lines were not active. Most of the rails were destroyed from the Lylat War, over 8 years ago. Krystal felt simply awful that he was in such pain and wanted to help him, but relocating his shoulder would be excruciating to say the least. During their walk, she took some time to get up the courage to ask permission to offer such a service.
"If you would like, I can try to push your arm joint back into the shoulder socket, but it will hurt at first," She told him, a frown marring her face at the thought of causing him more pain, even if it was to help.
"Do I get another kiss?" Fox asked, pushing those shy connotations aside, trying to look comfortable with the idea of intimacy. The fact was, he had less trouble with the public display of affection when they were alone. When his team was around, he got embarrassed about the thought of him being with a woman and she would simply have to learn to understand it.
"I suppose I can manage another kiss like the last one, if you're good about letting me cause you more pain," She said, coming to stand besides him, placing her left paw on his shoulder and her right paw upon his firm bicep. Fox paused, bracing himself for the pain that would happen any moment, and it was now or never.
Krystal tensed up, forcing the ball joint to slip back into the socket. The dislocated shoulder was replaced but not at the expense of grinding nerves which caused Fox to yelp. The sharp spike of pain was so bad that he didn't even realize the hurt disappeared, at first. He reached his left paw back up to favor his shoulder, but Krystal redirected his attention by cupping his jaw with her right palm, bringing her lips to his for a quick, chaste kiss.
Fox froze. Krystal couldn't be sure if he was freezing against her lips because he wanted to melt into it and keep the kiss going for a bit longer, or if he locked up in fear. She couldn't sense anything over her own swirl of emotions. After several lengthy seconds, the kiss broke naturally and she smiled. Fox smiled also, but quickly lowered his head, reaching his left paw behind his head, grinding his toe into the dirt, chuckling nervously.
"How's your arm feel, Fox?" She finally asked.
"My arm? …Oh! Yeah, uhm, my arm! It feels a lot better," He admitted, having forgotten that it even hurt after the kiss, "Thanks. Much better. Little achy, but that's nothing a little heat won't be able to fix. It feels a hundred times kiss…er.. I mean, better! It feels a hundred times better!" Fox seriously wanted to smack himself in the forehead, he felt like he was making a jackass of himself and mentally scolded himself for losing all composure because of a simple, innocent kiss.
Krystal, on the other hand, giggled softly. She brushed her paws together, a pleased look upon her maw. "I'm glad I could help. Let's go get something to eat. I'm sure we're both famished by now. C'mon!" She gave a playfully tug at his hand, then started a brisk walk towards the restaurants and food stands in the distance.
Fox, on the other hand, had inadvertently rooted himself into the soil, during that last kiss. Even better, this one wasn't on his cheek, either. It was on his lips and he wouldn't forget it. He tried to remember what the pain in his shoulder felt like, but that memory simply didn't exist. Finally, he pushed himself to move, heading after Krystal. He felt lighter on his feet and even had a slight bounce in his step. As long as the guys didn't find out, he felt like he could tackle a wave of fighters barehanded. His mind was disoriented and he was struggling to keep the mission priorities above his personal ones.
Krystal, up ahead, was an ethereal beauty. His eyes and heart and everything south of such was completely pleased. She turned her head just slightly, to steal a glance of him over her shoulder, using only her peripheral vision. It caused the flood lights of the area to reflect off of those sea green irises and caused his heart to skip a beat. He mentally scolded himself to rearrange his priorities and the thought, which she could sense, caused her to crack a very slight, sexy smile.
She knew how he felt inside. She also knew that he planned to stow his feelings because they were inappropriate. He swallowed his pride, keeping an air of confidence and a sense of mission about himself. They fell into step once more, side by side, heading across the themepark.
"So, uhm." Fox paused. She turned to cast a gaze upon him, as if to goad him to finish his question. "Yeah," Fox chuckled nervously, wondering if she knew exactly what she had done to him. "Can you sense anything up ahead?"
"Nothing else is living on this rock, besides us." Her words were plain and to the point. She felt if she could put forth a sense of duty, it would help him get over his almost boyish feelings that were beyond adorable. "Let's hurry. I'm sure we can have a camp set up by nightfall."
"Yeah," Fox agreed quickly, "We can definitely secure a camp within the next 5 hours. Let's hustle."
Lord Wolfarus O'Donnell sneered at the monitor fixated above him. They weren't giving credit where it was due, but Wolf reminded himself that it wasn't his place to get politically involved in helping Andrew Oikonni. The guy was an idiot and Wolf simply wanted a few bucks out of the deal. His cold emotion melted into a grin of satisfaction, due in part that the media never knew who was at fault for the mass destruction of HellCat Alpha.
Wolf now stood inside the large bar that was inside the star base of what used to be old Bolse Defense station. He had walked the promenade for an hour, listening for information on what could lead to the next big job but learned nothing. Now he was doing the same thing inside the bar, where contraband flowed like water and the seedy little joint breathed cash and contacts if one knew how to handle themselves here.
A tap on O'Donnell's shoulder caused him to whirl around, standing face to face with a disgustingly pudgy visage, his gaze growing wide. He was in so much shock that he had to lift his eye patch and use the uninhibited bionic gaze to make sure he wasn't going insane. Pigma Dengar stood before him, fists on his hips, and a smirk on his pudgy pork-chop face.
Wolf lifted his chin, pulling the eye patch the rest of the way off, as if to downplay his surprise by acting like he did it on purpose. "Nice clothes, fatso. Weren't you dead?"
"It's surprising what 8 years of interest does to your account, even if you only got half of your reward to begin with... Yeah I was, but not dead enough. You should get rid of the eye patch. You look more intimidating with the bionic eye," Pigma said with a snicker.
Wolf smirked and pushed the patch into his pocket. "I only hide the bionic eye so people don't know I have an advantage. So you're fat, stupid, rich but alive, huh? Congratulations on being so cool, you want a sticker?" O'Donnell asked with a cross tone.
"No, I want another shot at Fox. How long has it been, Wolf?" Dengar's reply wasn't nearly as terse.
"Almost ten years, tubby," Wolf replied, folding his arms over his chest. Pigma was actually asking to fly with him again? He killed Fox's father, and even Wolf, himself, didn't trust this hog as far as the lupine could throw him.
Wolf's words confirmed what Pigma had feared. He'd been under for eight years... or worse... he could be a clone of a man who's been freshly killed and immediately frozen for nearly a decade. Wolf, on the other hand, didn't know what Pigma had gone through recently. Pigma held his hand out with a light smile. "Miss me, didn't cha?"
Wolf replied by crossing a left jab across Dengar's snout then pushed his paws into his pockets. "No. And don't touch me, you whiny little turd." Wolf didn't miss anyone at all, especially that tubby freak.
"Touch? Didn't YOU just hit me?" Pigma said, as if he was unfazed by the punch.
"It was a reflex action. Screw off, Porky," O'Donnell growled.
"Hear me out first, Wolf. If ya don't like what you hear, I'll leave you alone, if you do... just think about it, you don't gotta commit to anything yet," Dengar explained.
Wolf smirked. "All right," he said casually, then added, "Tell ya what, big guy, let's go get a booth. I'll actually buy you a beer, and you can tell me your sob story, then I can tell you something that will make your jaw fall off, and then? We'll see where you stand. Go get a booth, I'll be back with the brew."
Pigma did just that, walking over to a quiet booth that wasn't near anyone else, and sat down. Wolf came back with two large 40 ounce mugs of frosty beer, setting them down on the table. He plopped into the booth, his back against the wall, with one leg across the rest of the bench, turning his head to look across the table at his old wing mate.
"So what's your story, bacon-boy?"
Pigma had a sudden memory lapse. Every single time Wolf ever referred to him by a meat product replayed in his mind, simultaneously. He played it off by rubbing his eyes, looking away and grunting to himself. "Bacon - boy? Bacon - butt? Pork Grind? Don't you ever come up with anything original, Wolf?"
"Like bXXch-tXts?" Wolf said, reaching across the table to flick Dengar in his chest, causing his jolly build to roll and quiver for a moment, just underneath his extra, extra large tank top.
Pigma rolled his eyes, "Okay, that one's a first. Anyhow, someone crashed a core base into Venom. It was on an autopilot course for Venom and collided when no one disengaged the computer. I guess the auxiliary power lasted about two months before the system finally crashed and reanimated my sleep chamber," He explained. He paused to look and see Wolf's reaction. The Core Base had been ignored and no one cared to investigate the odd computer virus that caused it.
Wolf was amused and yet confused. "Were you on it?"
"Oh really, Wolf? A moment ago, you said you didn't miss me?" Pigma replied, reaching up to rub his snout where he'd been socked.
The one-eyed pilot shook his head. "No, Dengar, I asked if you were on it. I didn't say I miss you. I said you're fat, you're ugly, you whine a whole lot, and I can see every time the planet you're on passes in front of Sol because you eclipse the entire star. So what are you babbling about... Spit it out," Wolf said, beginning to grow frustrated. He paused to take a sip of beer and let himself calm down.
"I don't know what's going on, however, I woke up when the power failed. In the chamber next to me was a beat up version of me in a deep freeze. Although without power, I don't know how long it'll take for that corpse to thaw out and rot," The swine explained, reaching for his own beer. He shuttered at the taste, giving a look of disgust, but continued to drink from the mug.
"What the hell, Pigma? You love that beer," Wolf said, looking at him strangely.
"Must be an acquired taste," The oversized pilot muttered.
"Lord knows, you drank enough of it to learn how to breathe through it," Wolf said. "In fact, I never did figure out how you sucked down beer, with your nose halfway in it. Doesn't it burn when that crap runs up your nostrils? Shoot, it's only THEE most carbonated beer out there."
Pigma placed the glass on the table and rubbed his sleeve against his nose. Amusingly enough, he did just get beer up his snout and it did burn, but he played it off as if Wolf's jab was starting to smart. "Speaking of my nose, you didn't have to haul off and punch me in it," He groused, softly.
Wolf shrugged and replied casually with, "Whatever. So what's your deal? You think the clone of you died in the impact? Andross was all into that cloning crap. Waste of time, if you ask me. Could'a been from getting thrown around in that casket-like box during impact. You know, you're even more ugly since I remember you 8 years ago, and don't look like you aged that much. Good job, you swanky pornstar, you."
"Yeah. I don't know. I don't remember much. It's been two days and I feel like I'm getting older each day. Catching up with my age. The last thing I remember," Pigma trailed off, then casually took another sip of beer, this time making sure not to get any up his nose. "Fox McCloud... then my Ejection manifold was throwing sparks because my canopy was mangled. The unit stressed itself until the transformer made a loud popping sound... my proximity alarm was screaming, I lifted my head just in time to see the ground rise up to me... "
Wolf shuttered. Pigma's description of the last events before his supposed death were chillingly detailed. No pilot wanted to think about that, because it was almost always the end. A pilot rarely survived the crash, because the cockpit was always crushed and with the weight of an engine behind him, he should have been flattened.
O'Donnell shrugged, once more, taking another sip of his frosty brew. "Yeah? What happened? The fighter exploded but you bounced because you're rotund roundness protected your overly stressed skeleton from shattering? I bet there was a mighty earthquake on that day."
"I think the guy in the ...other cryotube... was the real Pigma," Dengar said.
"BullsXXt. You wouldn't have any memories, especially the one of hitting the ground," Wolf replied between swigs of his drink.
"I guess. I just came from there two days ago. It's been bothering me ever since. All I remember is that Fox shot me down and robbed me of a lot of money. I need your help getting him back. Are you in?"
Wolf looked sour. "So. I heard Andrew is trying to take over his empire and use his stupid telekinesis equipment... Maybe that means Andross is dead."
"Andrew...? He was half the pilot I was," Pigma scoffed.
Wolf grinned and nodded, "Yeah, but you were twice the screw up he was. Being evil wasn't something you were good at, because you've gotta do it with grace. So, then Andrew escaped a Corneria prison with help from somebody. I think he plans to reemerge as the new Emperor over Andross' old forces. Eight years and he tries to become the leader of a rebellion. What kinda lame crap is that?" The lupine asked to no one in general.
"How's Leon?" Pigma asked, changing the subject.
"He's good. He got something I didn't… a new eye. They took that stupid looking square box off his face and he looks great, the thing is, the larynx was crushed and his new vocal chords sound kinda scratchy. He sounds like crap when he talks. Corneria actually got Andrew new eyes too," Wolf explained. Andrew was wearing that rectangular box after first being shot down over Fortuna, during the war. He was doing far better, now-a-days. After he went down over Fortunia and again over Bolse, he had his face shattered. When they fought Fox over Venom, Andrew was flying with his new optical visor. Corneria restored his natural vision in a special surgery.
"Good to hear," Dengar said, then added, "Sorry if I'm bugged out. It's just driving me crazy that some of my memories are a little fuzzy. I've been getting them back, more and more, over the last two days but with everyone thinking I'm dead and half the goons out there not remembering who I am, it's like living in the twilight zone."
O'Donnell shrugged. "Nah, you're probably not a clone. And those things that shagged that old abandoned Core Base and crashed it into Venom, it was this little half-robotic, half-flesh being. I don't remember what they're called but I've been paid to kill them once or twice. They usually don't mess around in Lylat. Let's just hope it stays that way." Wolf grinned. After all, Pigma did say he had some memories missing A massive trauma like hitting the ground in a medium fighter at well over Ten Kilometers per Second... would probably cause anybody to lose a few memories.
"You believe in the Goddess, Dengar?"
"Of course I do. I may swear to her from time to time, but that doesn't mean I don't believe in her," Pigma said, looking at Wolf suspiciously. "Why? Did you go religious?"
"Nah," Wolf said. "Just that they say Clones don't have a soul. If you believe in the Goddess, even in the midst of all this scientific crap, like clones and stuff, you're probably not a clone."
"I don't know how that means anything, Wolf?" Dengar snapped. "Clones would have the same free will to make their decisions on religion and whatever else. I think the question is, if I'm a clone, will I go to heaven or hell? Or can I be as evil as I want and not have to worry about eternal damnation. There's no door prize at the end. There's no reward or punishment at the end, if a Clone dies," Pigma said.
Wolf shrugged. No one had seen Dengar around in years. Even his assistant, Ruffian had never heard of Pigma Dengar. "Theoretically. Who knows, maybe because the original Pigma betrayed his friends and killed the father of two children who thought of him as an Uncle at one point of time... you AND your clone will go to hell. Then again, they say the Goddess is forgiving and repentance gets you in, but hey... It's all just a bunch of theories. We might all die and wake up as hairless apes on some far-away planet where they don't even have interplanetary space fighters yet, claiming they're the center of the universe, where everyone has a different idea of who to pray to and they all have to get around using wheeled transportation that doesn't even break the speed of sound."
Pigma shuttered, shaking his head rapidly. "Now that sounds like a bad dream. Everyone's the same race and don't know the joy of star fighters? What could be worse?"
"If they were so dumb that they had to break their own race down into classes, because they didn't have any pigs to pick on, like you. Or maybe, since they didn't have fur, they segregated themselves by skin pigment or something," Wolf chuckled.
"How does a planet of only one race segregate themself? That's the dumbest thing you've ever said, Wolf."
"Yeah, the whole hairless apes on a planet that thinks they're the center of the universe, segregating themselves idea... is probably the dumbest thing I've ever said, and I'm not even drunk yet," Wolf chided, leaning back in his booth seat, resting both his legs across the bench, crossed at the ankles. "By the way, I don't trust you. If a few dollars can get you to turn on your old squadron leader, Corneria could buy you back because lord knows my bounty would make you see money symbols in your beedy little eyeballs, Mister tons'o'fun, so just remember this, snack-bag, it's been 8 years and I've done great without you."
"I've got money now, now I want to get Fox. Is that such a problem?" Pigma sneered.
"Yeah, go start your own gang. Not a problem at all. Go find a nice little planet that you can hide out on and run your own operation. You have a few dollars put aside? Great! Go build a base. I hear Fachina would be abandoned if you destroyed the environment control center. Oh, and I'm sure Katina could fall pretty easy. If you had an unquestioning army behind you, you could overrun their outpost real fast. Heck, maybe you could even build your own, in the middle of nowhere." Wolf said.
"Please, Wolf. At least consider it?" Dengar said with an angry sigh.
"I'm open minded enough to consider it, but your past is history. I'd rather move forward than backwards, Dengar. And next time you come looking for me, give me warning because I could have broken your finger or hand... or arm... or shoulder or spine …before I turned around. Now, our little business conversation is done, because I've given you five minutes and thirty seconds, and that's too long, chump."
"Wait," Pigma said, glowering, "You honestly don't want to help me kill Fox McCloud? I can't kill him alone, all I could probably do is steal from him and hurt him a little at a time. It's what I'm best at."
"Have fun," Wolf added with a smile, then quickly picked up his beer and downed it, leaving the mug on the table. "I'm sure something will happen soon enough, that will make your jaw drop," he added, then walked off. He made it to the door by the time a waiter approached Pigma, for the bill.
Dengar's jaw dropped, just as Wolf had predicted, and he glanced up at the Lupine with shock. Wolf smirked over his shoulder and left, entering the crowded promenade and disappearing.
"You ass, you said you were buying ME a drink!" Dengar shouted, but Wolf was already gone. As far as the news about Andrew, his mind didn't take that all in, just yet. As far as Wolf accusing him of being that untrustworthy, the screams of James' tortured cries rushed into his mind and the memory washed over him suddenly, causing him to lose his desire to finish the rest of his own beer.
Dengar threw a few disposable credit vouchers onto the table and stormed off, leaving the currency for the waiter to collect. Guess Wolf didn't want to end up like James if Pigma was really that untrustworthy. But he couldn't remember clearly. For now, it was time to get back to the CoreBase and salvage as much as he could and take it to a nearby planet to get his base of operations started. Maybe Wolf would reconsider, later. The thing was, Pigma had two years of work ahead of him, to try and get his plan in order.
A voice was heard in his mind, whispering instructions, but it wasn't something he consciously realized was happening. "There will be an invasion. We will wait until your system is once more at war with this being who returns to Venom, tonight. In two short years of time, we will strike without warning. Hurry now, your tasks await you."
Krystal and Fox spent the past hour dining on delicious, sweet foods that had been frozen in the storage facility. Fruit topped funnel cakes with mountains of powder sugar and ice cream. It was a new world for Krystal and she had no problems with adapting to her surroundings. She, in fact, went out of her way to enjoy all these new, fascinating things that Lylat had to offer. It was a huge, diversified system with a multitude of cultures to explore.
Fox beamed. "You like it? It was my favorite thing to eat when Peppy brought me here as a kid," Fox admitted with a grin. "It's a little too rich for my diet, anymore, but that doesn't mean I won't treat myself to some sweets every now and that. I love Chocolate, after all."
"Ah yes," Krystal mused, finishing the funnel cake. "You mentioned something about Chocolate, before. I tried the synthetic kind, is it the same?"
"No. That's sugar free. You've got to try the real thing. I'll find you some, soon," Fox told her. "And trust me," he added with a grin, "You'll love it."
"Will I?" She asked with a grin. "Well, if that's the case, I'd love to try it sometime. Now, let's take some of this food back towards the Arwing and figure out a way to get my shuttle off your fighter. Then we'll see about sitting arrangements. I don't think there's enough room to sit on your lap, so we'll have to figure something out," She said. Fox looked away so he wouldn't blush, which made her grin, inwardly.
She absolutely loved his reactions, because in the world where she was from, everyone's thoughts were shared publicly. She'd never experienced someone being shy before. It was new to her and for some reason, it tickled her feminine side.
The two finished their meal and packed things that Fox felt wouldn't spoil over night. Once they were ready, their gear packs filled with a night's worth of food, they began their trek back across the Theme Park, heading for the crash site. Krystal thought about placing a paw into Fox's paw, but decided better on the situation, since they'd only been friends for such a short time. Thing was, she trusted him and that was important and special.
The walk was a lengthy one, but the sunlight was still two hours from twilight by the time they reproached the mountain of twisted metal. "Where'd this all come from anyhow?" She asked.
"Eight years ago, Andross built a base here. I did an attack run and my wing mates did a bombing run, behind me, laying to waste all of Andross' buildings. This is what's left, we flew overhead, right here, back on that mission," Fox explained.
The two began to scale the debris again, heading for the crash site, when something caught Fox's eye, at the summit. A flash of a shiny metallic object flitted by, up ahead. He did a double take but there was nothing there. He turned to Krystal and frowned.
"What is it, Fox?"
"Do you sense anything here with us?" He asked.
"If I did, I would certainly have told you, Fox. We're alone. Maybe you saw one of those worker droids you spoke of earlier?" She asked.
McCloud shrugged lightly. Anything was possible. "Maybe. They wouldn't have had very long to charge, since we only just reactivated the power three hours ago. All right, let's get back to the ship. If we do find one of those things, maybe I can have Slippy send a program to my wrist computer, then we can reprogram it and use it to move the shuttle off of the Arwing," Fox mused, out loud.
"Well then let us hope. I rather think optimism is becoming of you, Mister McCloud," She replied with a chuckle, working her way down the huge twisted spires of wreckage. Fox quickly followed, keeping his eyes open for any signs of security droids. With Andross having had a base here, Fox could only hope that they weren't reprogrammed to be hostile, or refitted with weapons. But a gut feeling said it was more than likely.
Next: "Chapter 8: Political Tension Means a Repeat in History."