Peppy sat back in his chair. The rest of the crew sat around the table, all looking drained and down. "Where do we go from here?"

"I'm still waiting to hear from Pepper. I don't know if he was shot down or had some sort of failure."

"The Airwings were fine when I did my daily check-up."

"But we can't assume that he was shot down either. All we can do is wait."

"But what about Krystal! What if they shoot her down too!" Falco yelled out.

After Krystal had been told the bad news she had refused to believe it. She told Peppy that should wouldn't believe it till she saw a body. With that being said, she had raced off to her own Airwing, taking off for the blue orb.

"We can't rule that out. But… we can cross the bridge when we get to it."

And as if almost on cue, several alarms went off.

(Three Hours Before - Earth)

Jason looked from the table to the fox laying on the cot.

"You don't remember who you are? Anything?"

"I think I know where I am from. And I know what those things are." He said, motioning to the equipment on the table. "But that is it."

"Any names popping up? Maybe someone you know?"

Fox seemed deep in thought for a moment. "Nope… nothing."

Jason sighed and shook his head. "Alright, well the first step is to get that thing out of the ocean and into the garage. I know just the person to help."

(Thirty Minutes Later)

"Yo, Jason. Said you needed help haulin' somethin' out of the ocean… What did you get, a beached whale."

Jason smirked hearing his long time friends banter. "Nah, why would I call you for something like that, Michelle? I got something a little more interesting. Pull your truck around back."

Michelle nodding, ducking back into the flatbed truck. She drove the truck around the back of the house and to the waterfront.

"What the hell is that?" She said, removing her sun glasses and looking out as a good portion of the Airwing was visible above the water. It had since burned itself out.

"Alien space craft?" Jason offered. "I'm not so sure myself."

Michelle wasn't completely satisfied with his answer. But accepted it anyway, pulling the winch hook from the truck. "Well, lets get it out of there."

Jason nodded, grabbing the hook he swam out into the ocean, hooking the hook onto something that looked sturdy enough. Coming up, he gave the driver a thumbs up, watching as the truck's system screamed to life with a roar.

Slowly, the ship was pulled from the sand it had embedded itself in. Slowly, with a lurch movement and a creak, the ship began to move.

It had a taken a little less than twenty minutes to get the ship entirely loaded onto the back of the truck and into the garage.

"Alright. I want some questions answered." Michelle said, hands on her hips.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Ok… I think I get it now." Michelle said, eyeing the sleeping fox-like creature on the cot. "Well… that makes one of us. I'm still trying to understand the whole thing myself."

Both people jumped when Fox shot up on the cot. "Krystal!" He was gasping hard.

Jason was there in a moment trying to calm him down.

"You starting to remember things?"

"Just one… another fox… blue."

Jason sighed. "Lets go look at your ship. Maybe there is something there that can help us."

(In The Garage)

Fox looked at the tangled mess that was his ship as it laid on the floor of the garage. He moved to the side of it, look into the cockpit. Jason watched with curious eyes as the fox pulled out a small metallic box, he set it on the ground.

"Something keeps telling me to open this…" He was whispering.

Michelle and Jason met him at the side. Watching as he opened it.

Inside were a few things. A couple of blaster power cells, three pictures, and a couple of dog tags.

Fox took out one of the dog tags and hunt them from his paw. "Fox McCloud…" He read off. "Look, there's an age, ranking, and there's something on the back… a symbol of some sort."

He pulled out the pictures, the box itself must have been waterproof as nothing had water on it. "That's the person… Krystal." He said, pointing out a blue fox that was hanging on his back. She was smiling a nibbling on one of his ears.

"Looks like you two are close." Michelle noticed. Fox nodded. "Must have been…"

He flipped it over. On the back, an entire sentence was looking right back at him. "Love yah, Fox McCloud, happy birthday." Fox repeated, looking at the signature on the back. "Love Krystal…"

"So, your name is Fox McCloud… and that's Krystal."

"Seems like it."

"So what… do you live on an entire planet of foxes, or somethin'?" Michelle asked.

"Dunno."

He looked at the next picture; on it was a small Fox with another one right next to him.

"Happy twelfth birthday, son." Right next to the note it read off. "James McCloud."

"Ok… so that's you dad… what are those dates right next to that note?" Jason said.

"Dates of birth and death." Fox answered. His memories were coming back in small flashes the more he looked through this box. But it hadn't been his memories that had told him that. The second pair of dog tags had the name 'James' visible before a piece of black tape was put slanted over the rest of it. Signaling death.

The final picture left everyone in slight awe. A few more human-like animals were sitting around a table, on the back were several names.

"The Crew: Falco, Peppy, Krystal, and Slippy."

"Well; I think we can guess who is who in that picture."

"Yah." Fox agreed. Dropping everything back into the box he headed outside.

"So… my name is Fox McCloud… my apparent love interest was, or is, another fox named Krystal. My father is dead… and I'm an apparent leader of a crew of a ship. But what does this symbol stand for?" Fox wondered aloud, looking at the symbol in the back of the tags with his name on it.

"It's getting late. Why don't we call it a night. Amy will be home off work soon. Thanks Michelle." Jason said. Waving Michelle off before walking to the door. Fox soon followed.

Neither of them really knew that in just a hour, there would be another visitor.

Though as Jason sat down in the living room he sighed. "One can only hope that your presence here does not get out. God only knows what the media would do."

Fox didn't pay much attention to what Jason had said. "Do you have something I can eat?" He asked, eyeing the cupboards.

Jason chuckled. "Must be hungry. I can figure something out…" He said, going to work in the kitchen.

As Jason set the plates down on the table in front of the couch, he handed Fox a fork and a knife. Turning the TV on, Jason mumbled as it fizzled out.

"Damn thing. Never works right."

However, Jason's interest went from the TV to Fox who was walking over to it. He seemed to use a claw to pry the back of it open and fiddled with it for a moment. Shutting the back he stood up. "Try it now." He said.

Jason blinked a few times, but did as he was told. The image flickered to life.

"How did you do that?"

"Not really sure. I didn't know what I was doing, it just seemed natural."

"Wish I could do that." Jason mumbled under his breath, flickering through the channels again.

Though the image was fuzzy for a moment, just as a sonic boom rocked the house.

"What the hell was that?" Jason said, moving to the nearest window. He couldn't believe his eyes.

"Do you guys just fall from the sky or something?" He sighed, grabbing the extinguisher again, he made his way outside. "Looks like this one hit father out. Hope Michelle didn't fall asleep yet."

With that he had jumped into the water, Fox followed him out. When Jason dived down he found a blue fox in the seat this time. "Is that Krystal?" He mused to himself, trying to pry the door open. This one had sealed itself shut, but not enough to keep the water out.

Resurfacing he yelled to Fox.

"Come on!"

"What, we're going to leave her here!"

"No, but I need some tools!"

They made record time going back to the house and jumping back into the water. This time, before Fox had a chance to get back in, Jason yelled back to him. "Listen, you know how to work a phone, right?"

Fox gave him a look. "Yah…"

"Press and hold nine. There's going to be a women who answers the phone. Her name is Kasey. Tell her you need her and Bryan to respond to Jason's house. Tell them it's an emergency and bring some medical equipment. Got it?"

Fox nodded, making a b-line for the back door.

Jason swam back out, lighting the underwater torch, he dove under again. Putting the torch to the metal he was pleased to see it doing it's job. When he had enough of the hatch cut he went back up for air, diving quickly down again he placed his feet on both sides and pulled hard. The hatch swung open, releasing the small air bubble within it. Grabbing Krystal, he made his way for the surface.

On shore, Fox waiting for the two to come up. When they did he saw how limp Krystal seemed, and hoped that she was only unconscious. When Jason pulled her to the beach he pressed his ear to her chest and began a pattern of pushing and breathing. Fox watched, he had never seen a human - hell, anyone - do this before.

As sirens were heard in the distance, Fox continued to watch.

Tires were heard coming to a screeching halt outside the house and flashing lights could be seen on the trees in the back ground. Fox watched two more humans come running around the side of the house. One of them saw Jason doing "CPR" as she called it and ran back to the car out front. The other one, this one a guy, kneeled down and took over for the pushing.

"What is this? A fox demon?"

"I dunno. My guess is she's from space. Just like him over there."

The other guy looked over his shoulder at Fox just as the women jostled him to the side. A large box in her hand.

"What do we got boys?"

"Female. Was under water for a period of time."

"What is this; a furry convention. She's wearing a fox suit."

"Kase, this isn't a suit."

"Explain later. Right now, Clear!"

Fox guessed that "Kase" was short for "Kasey" and that she was the one he talked too. He guess too that the man was "Bryan".

Fox nearly jumped out of his own skin when Krystal's body jumped a few inches off the ground. "Come on, starting breathing…" Bryan whispered. Seeing nothing, he called out. "Charge!"

"Clear!" Another jump, this time Jason put his ear to Krystal's mouth. He listened for a second. "I got a breath!" He called out. Fox's eyes lit up. As Jason lifted his head away, a gush of water came from Krystal's mouth as she coughed violently.

All the human's back up a little as she flipped onto her hands and knees. Pulling herself up to stand. "Where am I?" She whispered.

It was a matter of seconds before she had her blaster pulled from her hip, pointing it at the three humans. Two of which had pulled two black blasters of their own… but these were smaller… and seemed more, mechanical.

She was backing up, not paying attention to Fox until she bumped into him.

"There you are. Let's go we could probably find a transport spot." She whispered, not moving her eyes from the humans. "Drop your weapon." Kasey called out.

Krystal didn't listen until Fox put a hand on her shoulder. "Krystal, lower that thing. They aren't going to hurt us. They just saved your life." He said, using his other hand to push her's down.

"What, Fox?"

"We're safe here."

"But what about Great Fox? Or Corneria?"

"Who? Where?"

"Fox…"

(Twenty Minutes Later)

"So you crashed landed here, and him - Jason - saved you?"

"Yah…"

"And you can't remember anything…"

"Yup."

"The lock box we found in his ship told us a few things. Who you are, who a few other people are. But we still can't piece everything together."

"Like what?"

"Well for one thing. What this symbol is. It was also painted on the side of his - and your - ships."

"That's the StarFox symbol. The Great Fox is a large ship that Fox is in charge of. We're a rather famous group of mercenaries. We were supposed to open a negotiation with your people in order to get help for the people of Corneria. There's a large threat to the Cornerian people… your planet looks like it had the right weapons we needed to take the threat out."

Jason nodded. "Well… we'll see how that goes. But… how do you guys plan to get back to the 'Great Fox'? It seems as though somethin on this planet causes massive electrical failure to any of your ships. It wouldn't surprise me to find that whatever it is, is also blocking communications."

"That's why we couldn't read your vital signs… the signal was blocked."

Bryan and Kasey came back in from their car after packing most of their stuff up. "How are you doing? Feeling any better?" Bryan asked, sitting on a couch across from the two foxes. Kasey took a spot on the arm rest.

"Alright, I want some answers here. And assuming how Mr. Fox here doesn't have half of his true memory back, I'm gonna be look'n at you Krystal." Kasey said, folding her arms and staring Krystal right in the eyes.

Krystal wasn't sure if she liked Kasey's tone. But given how the human had just saved her life, she wasn't going to argue.

"Alright… what do you want to know?"

"Well for one thing, what the hell is that ship!"

"It's called an Airwing. It's a fighter craft that we use on missions and transport."

"A fighter craft… like what… a F-16?"

"A… what?" Krystal asked, cocking her head to the side.

"It's our version of an Airwing." Bryan said, casting a glace at Kasey. Hoping she got the message to turn the heat down a little.

If Kasey got it, she ignored it. "Alright, then what the hell was that thing you pointed at us!"

"What, my blaster? Don't you have two of your own? Right there, on your hips?"

"No… these are Colt 1911s…" Bryan said, detaching his; he ejected the clip and slid the chamber back; catching the ejected bullet in mid air. "It fires these." He said, holding up the bullet. "They're nine millimeter rounds. Armor piercing, too."

"A what? I get the armor piercing thing… but what's a colt?"

"A colt is a type of weapon we use here… your blaster, how many projectiles can it fire off in a second?" Jason clarified.

"Depends, in assault mode it can fire off about forty to fifty. In single mode, however fast I can pull the trigger."

"So that would qualify as an assault weapon. Those are called handguns." He said, pointing to the weapon that Bryan had laid out on the table.

Krystal seemed to grasp the concept. Though it didn't seem like she had it completely.

"Wait! If we couldn't read your signs then… Peppy must thing I'm dead too!"

"What does that mean…" Fox said, looking Krystal head on.

"Fox… we might be stuck here… and Corneria might be destroyed!"

"Oh; that is not good." Bryan said under his breath.

And the hits kept coming as Fox remembered something Bryan had said before.

"Wait… you said that if anyone found out that we were here there would be trouble… what about those two!" He said, pointing at Bryan and Kasey.

"They can keep their mouth shut. They stuff like this every day. After all, they do work for DCTU…"

"DCTU?" Fox echoed. "I'd say that I had heard of them… granting that I could remember anything from before a day ago."

"DCTU is a Counter Terrorism Unit. We specialize in extreme cases. Stuff like this doesn't faze us anymore."

"So you guys are like, what? Mercenaries?"

"I guess you could say that."

"What do we do now, Fox? If we can't open negotiations with some powerful figure around here and get back to the Great Fox, we're doomed!"

"I don't know what to do Krystal… sorry."

"We'll figure something out, for now why don't we all get some rest. Besides, I'm sure Kasey and Bryan here would love to go back to the office."

Jason heard the door open and keys being hung on the hook. "Hey, Jason! Is that Bryan and Kasey's car out front? They left their flashers on… something going on?" A moment later Amy walked into the room, holding a plastic bag of groceries. "Dear god… there's another one."