Delirium Trigger
A rogue infant aparoid queen, long dormant, finds itself in the new Great Fox and does what it does best: it evolves…
This is set, clearly, a while after StarFox Assault. It's important that I go right into the story, so I apologize if the background seemed vague.
This chapter is meant to go with the song of the same name, by Coheed and Cambria. They're an amazing band. I highly recommend hearing the actual song, as the music itself goes to the same theme.
Oh dear God, I don't feel alive!
When you're cut short of misery…
Will you pray it be the end?
Coheed and Cambria, Delirium Trigger
Chapter 1
A nearly inaudible hum settled over the interior of the Great Fox II as ROB employed the scanners set over the rooms to run his nightly medical diagnostics.
The avian slept, as he always had since his return to the team, with a blaster under the pillow and an increased pulse. The motion sensors showed evidence of his fitful sleep, as his comfort lay discarded somewhere in the sheets that had been kicked off in the midst of whatever haunted Falco's subconscious.
The amphibian slept peacefully and without incident.
The hare appeared more relaxed than any of them. Perhaps it was the relief spreading all the way through the tips of the fur in his lanky ears that they had finally gotten a period of rest between missions, and everything was all right despite the threat of the aparoids.
The two vulpines, he saw, were doing fine. A slight anomaly in Krystal's readouts caused ROB to pause for an instant. He studied them more carefully. Could it be…?
Suddenly there was an intense spike on all of Peppy's charts. ROB's attention snapped hurriedly back to him, activating the emergency video receptors placed around the room. Peppy had convulsed violently in his sleep.
Peppy's eyes opened sharply and were coated in stinging tears for a moment as he desperately tried to focus his attention. There was a sudden ache in his chest. Was he having a heart attack?
But the pain receded and Peppy's brain slowly unclenched, falling back into very uneasy unconsciousness. His subconscious fired off an image pieced together from Peppy's imagination, and the hare's tired eyes suddenly saw his stomach burst open in an avalanche of his own insides as something erupted out of him…
Peppy became awake again, clawing at his stomach, then relaxing as he saw the closed skin.
ROB, meanwhile, had activated the speakers, vocalizing in his broken intonation. "Peppy. Sensors indicate discomfort and possible illness. How do you feel?"
"I feel…" Peppy wheezed, then coughed as his lungs felt dirty. "I'm all right, ROB. Just, I…" He coughed again. His lungs didn't just feel dirty, they felt like they were being shoved aside. His body was wracked suddenly.
The tiniest movement under the skin and fur on Peppy's stomach caught ROB's vision immediately. He opened a channel to Fox's room.
"Fox. Peppy requires assistance that I cannot provide. You must transport him to Corneria."
Fox's eyes shot open. He pulled himself out of the bed, scratching his back. "What kind of assistance?"
"Peppy appears to be infected."
"Infected by what?"
A few minutes later, Fox had dashed into Peppy's room, waking Falco and Slippy, as he carried the old hare into the Great Fox II's lackluster medical wing. He laid Peppy out on an operating table as ROB came in, having been quickly sterilized.
Peppy's coughing had receded for the moment. He opened his eyes with an effort, seeing Fox and the others waiting there. His voice was dry and rasping. "Fox…"
The McCloud boy's eyes snapped to Peppy. "What is it, old friend?"
"That… time. When I crashed the first Fox to open the way. With the aparoids."
Fox nodded.
"I… one of them… got inside."
The vulpine's fur rippled as he shuddered. "What happened to it, Peppy?"
"I couldn't tell. Thought I killed it. But now, I think—" He broke off into another sudden fit of coughing. ROB noticed the pulse at his stomach again.
"I think it got—" Peppy could speak no further. He seized up again. And now even Fox, Slippy and Falco saw the growing protrusion on the hare's belly.
Fox carefully placed his paw on Peppy's sweaty forehead, waiting for the coughing fit to subside. Gradually, it did. "Listen to me, Peppy. Did the aparoid… infect you?"
Peppy's eyes locked onto Fox's, and there Fox could see a mix of fear, of sadness, and surprise. Peppy nodded slowly. A small trickle of blood made its way out of Peppy's navel.
Falco spoke almost hesitantly. "Fox. I have the blaster. Should I—"
"No." Fox cut him off. "Any chance Peppy has we're going to give him. We can't lose him after all he did for us."
Falco sighed and nodded. But he switched the safety off.
Peppy was no longer twitching, but the lump under his stomach was pulsing. The old hare's eyes glazed over. Only ROB knew the moment the hare gave out, but it was long before the aparoid queen burst out of Peppy's stomach and shot off into the shadows—before Falco even had a chance to fire. Before the dazzling red bolt flashed into the operating table, singing Peppy's lysed body.
Fox whirled around and snarled, baring his teeth. "Lombardi!"
Falco turned his wrist, pointing the gun under the vulpine's muzzle. "Easy, Fox. We have an aparoid loose on the ship. Do you remember what those things can do?"
The door opened, and Falco and Fox forgot their anger and turned toward it. Fox drew his own blaster and edged toward the door, looking around the corner.
ROB's head swiveled on its axis and pointed through the wall. "Fox. Unidentified intruder is attempting to force access to Krystal's room."
A growl bubbled out of Fox's throat as he tore out of the room, hurtling down the corridors that seemed years too long.
His breath became short and ragged as the metal floor was merciless to his legs. He finally reached Krystal's open room and dashed inside, stopping to see the Cerinian vulpine still sleeping.
He edged over and laid a hand on her shoulder, pointing the blaster around the room. "Krys!" he hissed through his teeth.
She didn't move, but under his hand he could feel her pulse and breathing change. She was awake and listening silently.
"There's something in here. I don't know where it is. But we need to get out of here now. Climb on my back and we'll run."
He turned, still scanning the room, and felt her noiselessly climb onto his back.
The door slid shut.
Fox cursed loudly and Krystal tightened her grip around him. He squeezed off a blaster shot into the door control panel, hoping it would somehow hotwire it or something. He really had no idea what he was doing.
All he knew was that he and the girl he loved were trapped in a very small room with a very lethal alien.
There was a thud from the opposite corner. Fox turned and shot by reflex. There was nothing there anymore, except that the blaster shot just for a moment illuminated a shed skin.
Fox backed up into the wall and pounded on the door with his free hand. "Slip! Falco!" he roared. "Get me the fck out of here!"
Falco and ROB were desperately working at the door from the other side as Slippy dashed off to the armory. "Hang on, dammit!" Falco grunted as sweat trickled down his forehead.
Fox heard another noise and fired. This time the shot lit up a small figure. From the brief moment of light, Fox could see glistening, sharp teeth and… long, floppy ears?
The door shot open. Fox stumbled backward and Krystal let go of him, drawing her staff. A shadow dashed towards them. Fox raised his blaster and Falco and ROB shut and locked the door. There was a thud from inside.
Fox's blaster slipped from his sweaty hand. His knees buckled from under him and Krystal caught him, holding him up by his underarms.
Krystal's adrenaline rush faded and her brain began to pick up signals from her nerves. Something was erupting inside the pit of her stomach. Something sickly and warm…
She doubled over, holding herself tightly as hot bile gushed out of her muzzle, leaving a bitter taste and chunks of her own meal in her mouth. The thought of what she was doing triggered her gag reflex and she vomited again, as the spreading puddle reached her feet and the others leaped out of the way.
Fox, now with his paws soaked in vomit, allowed his brain to unclench its grip on his consciousness…
-End of chapter-
All right. I have a few ways this story could go in my mind, and I'm not sure which I'll pick yet. I just hope you guys like. And yes, I will explain the thing with Krystal later.