"Hey Peppy!" Falco waved to the hare as he ran up to the deck, with Fulton and Slippy following close behind. "What's happening? What'd you call us here for?"

Peppy had a serious look on his face. "It looks like 'Blue Specter' is in trouble. I just got a distress call from Fang. He's under attack it seems, while Topaz and Krystal look like they're stuck on Necross somewhere."

"The Cybers captured them?" Fulton asked, as he sounded very concerned.

"I'm not sure..." Peppy shook his head. "All I know is, I should send Fang some help as soon as I can." He looked over to the young wolf. "Mr. Reese…how is your piloting skill?"

Fulton scratched his head some. "Oh, not too bad."

Slippy chuckled. "Ah, he's being modest. I saw him heading towards the Great Fox when he came here. He was making better turns than a guy at his current development has any right to be."

"Is that so?" Peppy smiled a bit, as he looked to Fulton again. "Think you'll be able to fly with us, young man?"

"Yes sir!" Fulton nodded enthusiastically, seeing the chance to fly with Team Starfox to be a great honor.

"Good!" Peppy grinned. "I have some extra arwings being prepped on the lower levels. Take whichever one you wish. And hurry! Fang sounds like he's in serious trouble."

Fulton nodded and walked off with Falco and Slippy, passing by the cell where Panther was being held.

"Hey…" Panther spoke from the window. "Where are you going? If you're gonna go after those Cybers, then take me with you!"

Falco scoffed as he turned to face him. "What? And run the risk of you going on the lam in process? What do you think we are? Retarded?"

Panther looked at the group and then back at Falco, smiling. "Well yes…I mean I kind of assumed that from you guys still keeping the toad around." He looked to Slippy. "No offense…"

Slippy scoffed, and in an uncharacteristic move, flashed Panther a rude gesture. "None taken."

"Forget it, pal." Falco sneered. "The only flying you're gonna do with us, is when we take your sorry ass to a prison colony."

"You're going to talk to me in such a tough way?" Panther sneered as they started to walk off. "I saw you getting your ass kicked by that girl!"

Falco turned, and simply smiled. "You're one to talk…remember who brought you here?"

Panther's eyes went wide as he remembered, then flattened his ears as he grumbled, and went back to sit down inside of his cell. Peppy watched all of this, and thought to himself quietly, as Fulton split off from Falco and Slippy to get to his arwing.

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Krystal and Topaz had found a passage down into a service tunnel under the main floor of the Cyber base on Necross soon after their escape from Diamando, running along the dimly lit paths together, the plaster ground damp beneath their feet.

"Question…" Krystal spoke as she ran. "How do you access important information from a computer system that's controlled directly by the leader of your enemies?"

Topaz mulled this over as she searched around in the tunnel system, listening for the tromping steps of Cybers above them. "I don't believe that he has firm control of every system on this base. An organic brain, even the most brilliant, has its limits when used with this sort of technology."

She led Krystal down another tunnel on a hunch. "I think we need to get as far from his central processor as we can, and reach some small, negligible terminal on another part of the base. I might be able to patch something through, like a map, or some coordinates, and get it into our hands while keeping him from intercepting the transmission."

Krystal nodded, and walked down another tunnel with her as she shook her head, her mind turning to another subject. "Can you believe it? He made a Cyber that looks just like us!"

Topaz sighed and nodded. "I know…I guess after I turned against him, he felt the need to have a new right hand."

Krystal shook her head again. "But I don't understand…I thought Xerxes was only a master of mechanical, and cybernetic technology. Where did he get the knowledge to reproduce such realistic organic flesh?"

Topaz sighed for a moment. "Mother must have taught him a few things."

"Rose taught him?…" Krystal scratched her head, mentioning the name of Topaz's mother. Her real name was Rosalyn, but Topaz explained that Rose was her nickname.

"Yes." Topaz nodded. "See, in addition to knowing how to defend herself in the Cerinian tradition, she was also an accomplished biologist. She wasn't a prodigy, but she was still rather good. She told me once that she was even part of this project, called 'Life Force'…"

Krystal listened, interested, as the passage they walked on began to angle up. "See, the idea was to introduce this device, made up of so many devices and chemicals that would take me all day to describe, and just fire the thing at a dead planet. It would create this huge wave of energy that would eventually bring life to the planet, water, an atmosphere, you name it, and you could customize it to make the planet into anything you desired."

Topaz then looked down as she walked. "Unfortunately, just as they were working on the prototype, Cerinia was attacked."

Krystal looked on as she walked. "It's a shame. Your mother could have helped bring a lot of good to the galaxy through her work."

Topaz nodded and smiled a bit, opening up her necklace as the music played once more, looking at the picture. "She cared so much, you know…about everyone. When we were on Mondas, and the plague swept through the city, it really upset her. I even saw her cry over it once. She really wanted to help those people." She then frowned a bit. "Of course that was how she found out about what Xerxes was really up to with his Life 2.0 project, which she was always suspicious of. She secretly studied the water and the blood of the people very, very closely, and found his engineered virus, which he had created using the knowledge she had shared with him on viruses, in one sample, which of course led her to later discover his secret logs, and then…well you know the rest…"

Krystal patted Topaz's back as she closed the necklace up, stopping the music, as their minds turned back to Xerxes.

"We've thwarted him before, Topaz…" Krystal spoke. "And as long as he keeps trying to push his twisted ideals onto everyone, we're going to keep thwarting him. Now let's go stop him from doing any more damage, and make your mother proud."

Topaz nodded with a smile, as she ran with Krystal, looking for the nearest exit, as they were now rested, and ready to fight once more.

As this all went on, Diamando was standing in the corner of the same lab room she had walked into earlier, just watching with a small smile as Xerxes manipulated the controls to the cryo-tube, using a pair of robotic arms that came out from walls.

Within moments, the tube slowly opened, the work on the specimen now complete as steam flowed freely from the inside out. From this steam, a large figure began to emerge…the figure of what used to be General Scales of the Sharpclaw.

Scales jumped down from the tube, and stood slowly, both his organic eyes replaced by glowing, computerized ones, his snout covered mostly in chrome, with sharp titanium teeth, his scales still present on the back of his head, as well as parts of his arms, legs, and chest. Most of his body, however, was now covered over in cybernetic implants, his arms from the elbows down in the form of enormous metal limbs, his large fingers flexing slowly as his long, metal tail, complete with a laser blaster at the tip. Swished gently.

Xerxes smiled and addressed Diamando. "Once the leader of an entire Saurian tribe, he is now my powerful left hand, to go with you as my right…He shall now go by the name I give him…Ares."

He then looked to his newly christened creation. "How do you feel?"

Ares answered coldly, his voice having some electronic distortion. "I feel nothing."

"Good." Xerxes smiled. "What is your primary function?"

Ares answered once more. "To serve you, the great creator, and to serve and protect the ideals and systems of Life 2.0, at any cost."

Xerxes grinned and nodded. Ares' newly wired brain was obviously in good working order. "Splendid. I have an assignment for you, then."

Ares turned to a screen as Xerxes showed him pictures of Krystal and Topaz. "These two Cerinians are currently on the run in the lower levels of this base. I want you to go off with Diamando, find these two, and delete them at once. You shall be given command of your own unit of Cybers to assist you in this."

"Affirmative…" Ares nodded slowly, before tromping off slowly on his metal feet, Diamando following as she twirled her metal staff behind her.

Krystal and Topaz slowly opened a door, and peeked into a lightly guarded room in the base, Topaz looking to her left and right.

"Well, I'd say we're pretty far from the center of this place, from the looks of this room." She said, as Krystal nodded gently. The two slowly crept out of doorway, trying to avoid detection as they stayed in the shadows, creeping along the walls.

Topaz slowly went over to the end of one hallway, where a doorway into what looked like a computer lab as just behind her at the side. She slowly turned and took a peek inside…

Unfortunately, there was Cyber standing right at the doorway, looking right at her.

"Delete!" The Cyber exclaimed, holding out its hand and firing.

Topaz yelled out and grabbed Krystal, pulling her along as they were both spotted now, Cybers walking out and firing at them from other rooms, as Topaz held out her staff and froze one of them with an ice blast, as Krystal ran over behind her and swung her staff at the Cyber's frozen head, shattering it.

Topaz jumped as she ran towards another room, nailing another Cyber in the head as she extended her left foot in a jump kick, sending it back into two other Cybers, as another Cyber suddenly grabbed Krystal from behind her. She struggled and managed to grab its right arm as it tried to send an electrical current with its hand, rolling down and forward as she pulled the Cyber's arm, taking it down with her as it flipped onto its back. Krystal still had a hold of the Cyber's arm as she nailed the machine in the head with an elbow, and grabbed its wrist, twisting the arm as the current still ran through the Cyber's hand, making it touch it's own chest, and making it shock itself to death in the process.

Krystal quickly got up and swung her staff to the right, knocking away another Cyber as she ran to join Topaz in another room, Topaz quickly turning the handle and closing the doors, learning how to engage the locks as well.

"Well, so much for the subtle approach." Topaz grunted, walking to the computer terminal in the room and typing away.

Krystal looked to the door, the Cybers pounding away at it, as she looked back at Topaz. "How long is this going to take?"

"Hopefully not too long." Topaz spoke as she worked. "It all depends on how much of a stronghold Xerxes has on this sector." She furiously typed away as she hacked into the system, successfully keeping any attempts by Xerxes to prevent her from obtaining what she needed.

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Fang was nervously clutching at his controls as he rolled and ducked the furious attempts by the two Cybers in their ships trying to bring him down. One shot clipped his left wing, as he was shaken, and pulled quickly off to the left.

"Damn it!" He exclaimed, dodging another shot. "I sure hope my message got through…I've got too much left to do for Corneria to have it all end here!"

"Don't worry buddy…",a familiar voice came on over the communicator. "You're gonna have plenty time left to bug everyone on the force."

"Falco!" Fang shot up in his seat, as he saw the impromptu Starfox team, complete with newcomer Fulton, zoom in from the opposite direction. "Boy, am I glad to see you guys!"

"Hang tight, Fang." Falco responded. "We're gonna scratch this little itch for you right now!"

Falco then suddenly saw one of the Cybers flying right towards him, getting ready to fire, before another shot came out from right side, and smacked into the stolen Wolfen craft, making it fly away from the Starfox veteran.

"Hey, nice shot, Fulton!" Slippy called out from the other ship.

"Thanks" Fulton grinned as he gripped the controls to his arwing. "These ships are a bit trickier than what I'm used to, but I think I'm getting a handle on it nonetheless."

Falco nodded. "Well, keep surprising us with your skill, Fulton, because it looks like we're gonna need even more of it."

He motioned in front of everyone as Fang pulled over to join their group. The two Wolfen ships regrouped, and sat there, as a squadron of crescent shaped Cyber fighters suddenly appeared from the distance behind them.

"Hoooh boy…" Fulton fidgeted in his seat, nervously.

"They must have realized that Fang was looking for help." Slippy observed.

Fang adjusted his weapons systems as he saw the ships flying closer. "I think you're lost, guys." He grinned as he addressed the Cybers. "Necross is THAT way!" He pointed with his finger to his front. "Let's give them a little guidance!"

Falco nodded slowly, as he watched, and waited, while the enemy ships flew closer and closer.

Once they were close enough, he shouted. "Ok guys, give 'em hell!" Leading the charge into the new battlefield in space.

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"I've almost got it…" Topaz smiled as she hacked into the computer still. "I've almost got it."

Krystal nodded as she looked to the door; light dents being made in it now as the Cybers pounded away, trying to disengage the locks.

With the push of a button, Topaz finally printed out some papers on a special generator next to her monitor, and picked them up a moment later.

"Here they are! The exact coordinates to where Fox is being held!"

"Great!" Krystal smiled, looking to another door in the room. "Now let's get the hell out of here before they bust in!"

Topaz nodded and ran off with Krystal, heading for what they thought was a safe door. Just before they reached it, however, a loud THUMP came from outside of it. A huge dent was made in the door, as the two vixens jumped back, keeping their distance, as a strong blast shot through the door, blowing it wide open.

Krystal looked on in shock as she saw what came through the shadows of the door's wreckage. The form of Ares, the one-time General Scales, tromping in through the doorway slowly, as a unit of freshly polished Cybers marched in around him, surrounding Krystal and Topaz.

Ares lowered his gaze, his red computerized eyes glowing as he spoke in his electronic gargle.

"Deletion is the only way out…"