"How are things with your new team going?" Fox asked Krystal, sitting across from her at the table, in the restaurant.
"Oh, not too bad." Krystal smiled lightly as she ate her food slowly. "It's exhausting work, being the leader of a whole team, but of course you know all about that from your experience."
Fox took another bite of his food as he chuckled a bit and nodded. "Yeah, but you're still doing a good job…at least that's what I've been hearing on the grapevine."
Krystal shrugged. "I'm just doing what I always do…" she sipped from her drink off to the side. "…I don't really pay much heed to what others say about me at this point. My only concern right now is finding every Cyber left in this galaxy, and stopping it before anyone else gets hurt."
Fox looked to her softly as he ate. "So…once you've finished hunting down these things, and making sure that every one of them is gone…what do you plan on doing afterward?"
Krystal thought this over. "Well…there won't be much for me left to do once I've finished this. Ever since Cerinia was destroyed, I dedicated myself to finding the answers behind it all…and now I have. I've destroyed the leader of the culprits, and I've scattered his surviving soldiers. I think my spirit will finally be at peace, once this is all settled."
"So…what?" Fox furrowed his brow. "Are you going to leave the force, or something?"
Krystal nodded gently. "I've been giving it serious thought. To finally settle down somewhere, possibly on Corneria, and just move on with my life."
Fox tapped his fingers on the table nervously as a new question entered his mind, smiling sheepishly. "Will there…be room for someone else? In your life, from then on?"
Krystal blushed a bit as she smiled gently, before responding. "We'll see…" she scooped up another bite of her food. "We'll see…"
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Krystal smiled a bit to herself as she went back over this recent memory, walking out of the magma filled room, and into another passageway, as she checked her coordinates.
"Fox…" she thought to herself as she walked. "For such a long time, it was easy for me to forget, about all the wonderful things you've done for me, in the past. Saving me on Sauria, taking me in as a member of Starfox…and taking such good care of me in the middle of it all…" She sighed to herself and looked down. "Care that I so often took for granted, after a while."
She then walked forward a bit quicker now, a new determination in her eyes. "Well, hold on, Fox…Because today I'm going to repay you for all of it! After saving me all that time ago, I'm now going to save you! I'm going to get you out of that tube, and off of this brutal planet, and to top it off, I'm going to send Xerxes right back to the abyss, where he belongs!"
She took one more sip of Red Cactus from her canteen, before she put it away and looked at the coordinates once more, running up another upward slanting path, as she slowly reached another door.
Krystal slowly opened the door, now feeling a blast of very cold air as she did so.
"Wow…from one extreme, to the other." She thought to herself as she shivered a bit, taking a look around inside of the room.
She walked carefully along the cold, slippery floor, as she soon realized where she was, seeing the containers in the distance…this was a bio-matter storage room. There were brains, leftover from Xerxes' original secret experiments, the ones that led to the creation of the Cybers, floating in little tanks, with wires attached to them, keeping them active.
The blue vixen sighed and shook her head slowly, as she walked up to one of the tanks, and placing her paw on the glass, addressing the brain inside of it.
"I'm so sorry this had to happen to you…" she spoke softly. "To all of you…and if it weren't for the fact that I'm trying to slip through here undetected, I would put you all out of your misery, here and now."
As she finished this sentence, a shot suddenly whizzed past her head, just barely missing her as it shattered the glass, and destroyed the brain inside. She quickly turned and saw a group of Cybers standing in her path.
"You shall elude the great creator no longer." The lead Cyber spoke.
Krystal scoffed as she twirled her staff. "If your pet monster down there couldn't even take me down, what makes you think you can?"
"You can only overcome the odds against you for so long." The cyber responded flatly. "Eventually, you will err, and we shall be there to capitalize."
With that, the cyber fired a shot from its wrist, as Krystal jumped off to the side and swung her staff, smacking the head into the shot, and sending it flying back into the Cyber, making it spark as it stumbled.
Krystal then jumped into the air and came down with her staff hitting the metal floor, sending a shockwave through the ground, and making the other cybers stumble in the process, many of them falling over onto the slippery, icy floor.
She then ran and hopped onto the chest of one of the downed Cybers, blasting it right in the face with a fireball. She then pushed off on one foot, riding its lifeless body as it slid across the room, a Cyber coming out of one corner as it swung for her with its right fist, making her duck as she rode underneath him, swinging out with her staff, and tripping it as she took out its legs.
Krystal finally hopped off of the Cyber's body, and slid towards the exit door on her feet. She avoided more of their shots, as she held onto the handle of the door with her left arm, and held out her staff with her right, sending a strong ice blast over, which hit the feet of many of the Cybers, freezing them in place as she quickly opened the door and slipped through it, closing it behind her as she ran on.
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Topaz ran along the halls of the base, frantically looking through her mother's notes as she got the chance. Her eyes went wide as she realized what some of them were.
"These…these are the original plans for the 'Life Force' system!" She exclaimed to herself, ducking behind some crates as she flipped through the pages.
"Yeah, it's all right here, right down to the blueprints, and Xerxes has them all…it's as if he's planning on building a unit of his own…"
She gasped softly as it dawned on her. "Oh my god…I'll bet that's EXACTLY what he's doing!" She then put the notes away, and slowly looked up behind the crate, checking around, and leaving once she was sure that the coast was clear.
"Well, if that's what's really going on here, then I've got no time to lose!" She ran towards the doorway to another passage. "He's already destroyed two worlds with his twisted ideals and weapons! And I'll be damned if I'm going to let him do it to another one!"
Topaz quickly opened the door, and ran into the passage, trying to find her way to one of the other labs she had seen in the coordinates she had given to Krystal, before something dropped out from under her feet, making her fall.
The blonde vixen gasped and almost screamed as this happened, sliding down the hidden chute, obviously too close to Xerxes' area of firm control on the base. She was dumped out into a wide, circular room, the door to the chute closing up as she fell out.
She quickly got back onto her feet as she looked around, turning and observing the wide open room, which seemed almost like a big, metal arena.
The Image of Xerxes came up on a screen in the middle of the room.
"I'm afraid I can't let this little trek of yours go on, child." He looked and saw her mother's notes in her pocket. "Especially now that you've figured out some of my little plan."
Topaz growled as she held the notes up. "Where, Xerxes…" She spoke, insistently. "Where are you planning on launching this thing? What's the target?"
Xerxes scoffed. "Well, isn't it obvious? I plan on launching it at my only real threat, the heart of my opposition."
"Corneria?" Topaz's jaw dropped. "You're going to shoot this thing at Corneria?" She shook her head slowly. "You've lost it…you're nuts…you won't even get through the outer defense systems with that thing."
Xerxes laughed a bit. "I know that, child…I know it's impossible with my current supply of ships, which are being hunted to the ends of the galaxy…what do you think I stole all of the Star Wolf ships for?"
Topaz gasped as she thought this over. "Of course…they're harder to detect…"
Xerxes grinned and nodded. "That's right…and within the next few hours, I'm going to launch one of them, with the Life Force device inside of it. Corneria shall experience an epic rebirth, the aftershocks of which shall be felt through all of its worlds. My Cybers shall make it their new home world, and use it to slowly spread the gospel of Life 2.0 throughout the Lylat system."
Topaz spun her staff at her side. "What do you think Krystal and I are gonna do? Just sit here and let you take over the galaxy? We're not gonna let you do it, Xerxes!"
Xerxes chuckled. "You're not going to stop me, child, and neither is Krystal. It's all been arranged."
His image vanished from the screen as the lights came up in the large room. Topaz quickly turned and readied herself with her staff. She heard someone walking into the room, as looked over and saw Diamando entering with a group of Cybers. Her face was mostly repaired now, except for her cyber eye, which was still glowing from under the spot where her organic eye had been.
"Hello again." She smiled lightly, as she walked in with her metal staff at her side, and stared down Topaz.
"Well…" Topaz smiled a bit as she looked to her replacement on the Cybers' side. "If it isn't the pale imitation." She then pointed to Diamando's eye. "I see you failed in taking Krystal down as well…not so easy, now is it?" She grinned, remembering her past fights with Krystal.
"Snigger all you want…" Diamando sneered, as she readied her staff, the Cybers making sure Topaz didn't try to escape. "I know all about you, Topaz…your secrets…your weaknesses…your past, including the relationship with your mother, who had planned to betray Life 2.0 as well."
"Don't you DARE mention her, you chrome plated bitch!" Topaz growled again, twirling her staff. "And don't think you're gonna take me down either! You may know all about my past, but I can still determine my future…and right now, that future includes sending your metal ass to the scrap pile!"
"Enough of this nonsense!" Diamando exclaimed, as she fired an electric bolt from her staff, Topaz rolling out of the way as she countered with an ice blast, freezing Diamando's staff.
Diamando grunted and put down her staff, running towards Topaz as she put her staff down as well, getting into a fighting stance as Diamando jumped up and caught Topaz off guard with kick across the face, making her grunt and stumble off to the side, as Diamando followed it up by lunging in and punching her right in the stomach.
Topaz grunted again and quickly ducked, as Diamando swung with her other fist, sweeping her right leg across the ground towards the green vixen's feet, and making her jump up and avoid the move. As she landed, Topaz got onto her feet, and nailed her with a right crescent kick across the jaw.
Diamando stumbled backwards as Topaz lunged in with a few straight punches, which Diamando ducked and weaved under, again with precision, before grabbing her right wrist with her hand, and throwing her, head over heels as she moved over to where Topaz had been standing, the blonde vixen grunting as she fell over onto her back, hitting the metal floor hard.
Diamando then slipped behind her as she tried to get back up, and wrapped her left arm around her throat, choking her hard. Topaz coughed and gagged, sputtering as she felt the grip slowly increasing around her neck, Diamando showing off her great strength.
Topaz desperately tried to hit Diamando's arm a few times, but it was no use. Diamando grinned as she choked her opponent, and raised her right hand, making the long metal needle shoot out as she prepared to finish the job.
Diamando quickly jabbed the needle down towards Topaz, who suddenly reached up and grabbed her arm with her left hand, stopping her as she was still being choked, struggling with the cyber vixen.
Topaz felt the adrenaline rushing through her body as she let it feed her strength, pulling Diamando's wrist along as she tried to jab again, making the needle go through her own left arm instead.
The green vixen yelled out as her pain receptors felt this, allowing herself to lose her grip as Topaz quickly bent down and kicked up her flexible leg behind her, nailing Diamando right in the head as she broke free of the move, rolling over and picking up her staff.
Diamando's staff had sufficiently thawed at this point, as she used the magnetic device to make it fly into her hands, wiping the ice off as Topaz yelled and ran in, twirling her staff above her head before slashing it down towards Diamando's middle. Diamando quickly caught the swing in her own staff, and pinned the staff down with her left foot, moving over swiftly and kicking Topaz right in the belly with her right foot, before leaning in grabbing the back of her head, pulling it down and smashing it into her hard knee.
Topaz fell back, but quickly defended herself as Diamando quickly ran in and thrust the head of her staff at the blonde vixen repeatedly. Topaz saw her chance, and grabbed Diamando's staff with her right arm, pulling her over swiftly as she jumped up, kicking her right in the back of the head as she passed by, and landing as she shot off a fireball.
Diamando ducked and rolled off to the right as the fireball passed her, growling and extracting her metal needle on her hand once more, as she tossed her staff to her left hand. She ran in and thrust the needle at Topaz, who quickly leaned out of the way, ducking and weaving as Diamando thrust and thrust fiercely with her hand, trying over and over to impale some part of Topaz on the needle.
Topaz grabbed Diamando by the wrist as she made a final thrust, attempting the same flip maneuver as she moved off to the side. Diamando landed on her feet, but Topaz soon followed it up with a hard roundhouse kick from her left leg, smacking and sending the Cyber vixen flying. She twirled a bit in the air, landing on her belly and right elbow, the force making the needle go into her left shoulder.
Diamando yelped and yelled out in pain as this happened, allowing Topaz to escape as she let the Cyber guards have it with a leap, followed by a slam into the ground from her staff, making them all stumble as she jumped, ran over their shoulders, and went out the door.
The green vixen finally got the needle out of her shoulder as she got back up, growling as Topaz left the area.
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Out in space, Fang, Falco, and the others, were still fighting off the other Cybers in their arwings. They were faring well against the regular Cyber fighters, but the two stolen Star Wolf ships were giving them major headaches. And the latest victim of their vicious pursuit of the arwings was Fulton.
"One of them's on my tail!" He exclaimed as he struggled with his controls. "It's got a lock!"
"Hang on, Fulton!" Fang yelled as he spiraled and blew up another Cyber fighter. "I'll be right there!"
Things didn't look good for the young wolf, as he turned and dove everywhere he could, almost colliding with a few Cyber fighters, only to have the wolfen craft still hot on his rear.
Then suddenly, something came out from the other direction, was yet another arwing.
"If I can't have my ship, no one can!" A familiar voice called out, as the arwing rushed in and fired right at the wolfen craft's weak spots, making it blow up before it could fire at fulton.
"Panther!" Falco exclaimed as he spotted this. "What the hell are you doing out of your cage?"
"Surprise, Falco." Peppy's face came up on the communicator. "I heard the poor guy going on and on about how his two allies were killed by these guys, and how he'd give anything to take just one shot at them for revenge…well, I couldn't just let such energy and determination go to waste, now could I?"
Fang was flabbergasted. "But, what if he tries to fly away on us?"
Peppy held up a remote. "He won't…I planted this remote explosive device on his arwing. He tries to escape, and he's dead."
"You drive a hard bargain, Peppy…" Panther spoke up. "But I appreciate you giving me this chance." He then addressed the others. "So how about we go give it to these walking garbage bins, huh?"
The others looked to each other, before slowly nodding in agreement, and letting their new comrade join in the fight.
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Xerxes looked on at a monitor, as Krystal was walking down another hallway, stopping to check on her coordinates again. He then turned to Ares, who was standing in the room.
"Diamando has done her best to get rid of both this pest, and the other who happens to be my daughter, but they both proven to be a bit too crafty for her." He lowered his gaze, expectantly. "Do you think you're up to the challenge?"
Ares nodded slowly. "They shall not outrun your grasp for much longer, sir…I'll see to it personally."
Xerxes smiled and nodded as Ares held up his right arm, making his incinerator flare up on his wrist as he grinned to himself…