-1CHAPTER 4
Fox awoke to find Krystal, still asleep beside him, but she was now facing toward Fox instead of away. Fox gave her a quick lick on the cheek, which caused her to stir, and to gently awake.
"Hey handsome." She said as she stretched her arms into the air.
"Mornin', beautiful." Fox said back.
"We'd probably want to go ahead and get dressed and ready…I'm actually surprised Peppy hasn't gotten us on the VAC to tell us we're on the outskirts of the region."
Krystal nodded. "Not a bad idea. I'll go ahead and go get dressed." She said as she got up and lazily walked towards the door.
"Hey wait." Fox said.
"Yeah?"
Fox grabbed her around her waist and gave her a long passionate kiss before the door opened up.
"Love you." he said.
"You too."
He got his red bandanna his dad had given him years ago and tied it around his neck as he looked at the crimson display on his clock: 10:16 a.m. He walked out of his room and proceeded up to the bridge.
Peppy and Falco were the only ones in there. Peppy was sitting down at his console sipping on some coffee and Falco was trying to eat a bagel, something nutritious for a change. He gave it up, tossed it in the trash can, and pulled a candy bar out of his pocket. Fox rolled his eyes.
"What's our ETA to Sargasso, Peppy?" Fox asked.
"Comin' up on 80 minutes and counting." Peppy said as he set his drink on top of the console.
"Fox, we're gonna need you and Slip-up to go inside the hideout and take control of it by any means. Falco and Krystal will give you guys air cover outside the base should any reinforcements arrive." Peppy said.
"Ok then. Is everybody else awake as well?" Fox asked. Peppy nodded. "Yep. I've done given them the briefing myself." Fox nodded, and excused himself from the bridge.
Fox walked off the bridge down to the ship's armory, knowing he'd be needing a lot more than a standard-issue semi-auto blaster for this one.
He placed his eye in the retinal scanner and as the doors opened he smiled as he saw that the shelves inside the armory were filled with various assault rifles, sniper rifles, heavy machine guns, some rocket launchers, and pistols. Fox avoided the pistols as he walked among the shelves, deciding which weapons he should carry.
Fox checked his gear pack. His blaster was still there, just in case. He picked up an assault rifle, jammed a fresh clip into the magazine well and slung it over his back as he put a few magazines in one of the pouches.
He picked up five of the large yellow grenades and placed them carefully into their own pouch, so as not to hit the 'arm' button by mistake, and last but not least, Fox picked up a sniper rifle.
He rammed in a 10-round magazine, and stuffed a couple more in another magazine pouch, and walked back towards his Arwing.
Fox grabbed a ladder and set it up beside his left wing. He climbed up the ladder as he withdrew his assault rifle and laid it down on the wing.
Fox opened up a compartment located directly behind his cockpit and gently laid the sniper rifle inside as he flicked the safety to the 'on' position.
"Hey." Came Krystal's voice from behind. Fox jumped and hit his head on the opening of the compartment. Krystal burst out laughing so hard she nearly laughed herself into tears.
"Hey..." He said as he began blushing slightly and rubbed his head. Krystal climbed up the ladder to where Fox was and picked up the assault rifle that was still lying on the wing. "Wow. What are you going to need this for?" She asked as she picked it up and looked at it.
"Well, Krys, whenever you're going inside a place that houses the most dangerous criminals in the system, you'll need some heavy artillery to get the job done, and to not get killed yourself." Fox said.
Krystal smiled. "Be careful in there, Fox." She said. "Always." He said as she handed him the rifle and he put it inside of the compartment and closed the hatch. "Just be careful outside there yourself, Krystal, Ok?" Fox said with a smile.
"Are you saying that I can't handle myself out there!" Krystal said with a grin and put her hands on her hips.
"No, it's just that I worry about you, that's all." Fox said as he raised his arms in mock surrender. Krystal laid her head on his shoulder and rolled her eyes up to look at his. Fox gazed into her arresting eyes, trying to force himself to look away, but he couldn't.
"Don't worry. I'll be careful." She said as Fox put his arm around her shoulders. Fox could feel his tail twitching, and made sure to keep it on the side of his body farthest from Krystal so as not to hit hers but Fox felt Krystal's tail touch his, and he began to wrap his tail around hers, feeling himself blushing profusely under his fur.
"Aww...how sweet." Came Falco Lombardi's voice from behind them. Fox whirled around to see his friend standing a few feet away, with a smug grin on his face. Fox narrowed his eyes in frustration, and Falco only started laughing.
He said nothing and jumped from the wing to get Falco in a headlock, but not before helping Krystal down. He grabbed her by the waist and lowered her down, then smiled evilly at her. She knew what Fox was thinking. She nodded, and he smiled and ran towards Falco, who was still howling with laughter.
"Oh Shi...Oof." Falco said as Fox got him in a headlock and gave him a noogie.
"All right! All right! I give up!" Falco said as he struggled to break free from Fox. He let Falco go and he straightened the feathers on his head that Fox had really messed up. Fox laughed as the feathers continued to stick back up after Falco rubbed them down with his hands.
"You're really a smart elec, you know that, Falco." Fox said. "Hey, it's my job, Fox." Falco said. Krystal laughed at Falco's remark.
"Ok, guys. It's do or die time. Get to the Arwings." Came Peppy's voice over the comm.
"Well, I guess we're here." Falco said and walked to his and climbed in the cockpit. Krystal walked over to Fox as he neared the ladder to get inside the cockpit.
"Be careful." She said. Fox hugged her tight and gave her a kiss on her forehead. "You too, Krys." He said.
Krystal smiled and walked towards her arwing. Fox took a deep breath as he buckled himself in and closed the canopy. "Slippy, you got your weapons?" Fox asked.
"Yep. I got 'em." Slippy said. "Good. I would've thought you'd forget 'em. That's why I asked." Fox said over the comm and laughed.
"Shut up, Fox." Slippy said, obviously embarrassed. "Oh Fox. Someone from the hideout sent us a transmission saying that this was 'Lord O'Donnell's territory.' That name sound familiar to you, Fox?" Slippy said.
"Hmm...a little bit. I can't seem to quite place it, though. Oh well. Let's get this over with." Fox said as he released the locks on his Arwing. A chorus of "copy's came from the group and Fox hit the gas, pushing his head back against the seat once again, as everyone else followed in close behind him.
"Asteroids. A bunch of 'em." Falco said as they neared the coordinates that Peppy had transmitted to them.
"They're using them to conceal the hideout." Fox said. "Keep your guard up, guys. Don't hit any of 'em. They're huge." Fox said as he banked hard left, dodging one of them.
"Crap I don't even see it yet." Falco said. "Wait...is that...yeah. It is. To the left." Fox said as he threw his arwing into a kick spin, pointing his nose directly at the hideout.
"Well, at least it doesn't look all that big from here." Slippy said. "Don't get your hopes up, Slip-up. We're still pretty far away." Falco said. "Holy crap..." Fox said as they neared the hideout. The place was huge. There were four stabilizers at the bottom-most part of the hideout and it stretched up about what looked like ten stories. The docking bays on either side of it could dock a Cornerian battleship.
"Falco look. A battleship." Krystal said. Fox's heart jumped for a moment, but then he remembered that Krystal was just as much of a fighter, and a pilot, as he was.
"She'll be fine. Her and Falco can take that damn thing head on…" He thought.
"Ok you guys take care of that problem. Can you handle the outside alright?" Fox asked through the comm.
"Ten-four, Fox. We've got 'cha covered out here. You worry about your own hide, ok?" Falco radioed back.
"Got it. Krystal, take care of Falco out there for me." Fox said with a laugh.
"Yeah and I hope you get shot in the leg, McCloud." Falco said.
Fox rolled his eyes as he carefully piloted his arwing into the docking bay of the Sargasso hideout and pulled out his weapons from behind his seat as the autopilot kicked in, bringing him to a halt inside the landing bay.
Fox strapped the sniper rifle to his back and flipped off the safety on his assault rifle as he opened up the canopy.
"This is McCloud. I'm inside. How are things on your end of the area, Slip-up?" Fox asked.
"I'm in. Things aren't so bad over here." Slippy said in a hushed voice. "Geez. It's about time he did something right." Fox thought as Krystal giggled over the comm. Fox grinned as the noise of her laughter. He just remembered, again, that Krystal could read his thoughts.
"How's things up there so far?" Fox asked quietly into the comm so others inside wouldn't pick up on his voice.
"Don't worry about us, Fox. It's all good from up here." Falco said just as Peppy's voice chimed in.
"Ok, Fox. Here's the game plan. You're going to need to take out as many of the transfer devices around here as you can. My scanners are---" Peppy began to say.
"Transfer devices?" Fox asked. "Well, let me finish, Fox. Chill." Peppy said.
"Sorry." Fox said with a grin.
"Anyway. Scanners are picking up ten of them. You've got to take out as many as you can find, preferably all of them. After that, then we'll be able to gain control of the hideout. But don't try to play hero. You're going to have a lot of resistance from here, and you're going to definitely be outnumbered here." Peppy said. Fox withdrew the AR, racked back the bolt, and crouched behind a wall while he studied his radar to find out where the transfer devices were placed.
"Well then the numbers are about even, then." He said to himself.
Fox looked around at the huge facility that towered before him. It was gigantic, to say the least. At least five more levels above him about the size of football fields. Maybe even more. Fox couldn't begin to imagine what would happen should this place become fully operational against the Cornerian Fleet.
This place had to be under Cornerian control, whether Pigma Dengar was here or not, and Fox knew that he was the right guy for the job. Unfortunately, the radar didn't have anything that could differentiate what levels the transfer devices were on. All they showed was if they were in front of him, beside him, or behind him, and the distance away from him.
"Ok, Slip. I'm gonna need your help on this one big time. There's ten of these damn things, and I we're pretty outnumbered." Fox said quietly into his wrist comm.
So far he hadn't seen any enemy activity in here. Just a couple of machines moving crates, probably containing some ammo or explosives, about the facility on his level. Fox walked out from behind the wall, AR in hand, still crouched. "What's going on here" He thought, looking around and not seeing any enemy infantry movement.
"Holy crap! There's this thing here shooting out soldiers!" Slippy whispered over the comm.
"Blow it, Slip. That's what we're looking for." Fox said. "Got it." Slippy said and Fox looked up to see an explosion a few levels above him, on a large catwalk. He grinned, but it quickly faded as the alarms came on, and the hideout flashed red around him as a voice sounded over the intercom, alerting the base of intruders.
"Crap." Fox said as he ran to the nearest crate for cover. Fox looked at his radar, and it showed a transfer device about twenty feet from him. He looked in that direction and saw nothing but crates, stacked two and three high.
Fox took out a grenade, pressed the 'arm' button, and tossed it behind the boxes. It exploded, and Fox looked to see an objective mark disappear from his radar.
"Transfer device destroyed." He said in his droning voice. Fox grinned and raised his AR to pick off the infantry that had come out from behind the boxes.
"Watch it, Slip! They're all over the place!" Fox yelled into the comm. Fox ran up the nearest stairway to an open area one level above him. Not a good idea.
Laser blasts surrounded him as he ducked and laid flat on the ground, shouldering his AR. Fox took careful aim for each of the troops he saw, and put a laser through each one's armor.
"Damn there's so many of 'em!" Falco said as he vaped another enemy fighter. "Krystal! Hit the fighters. I'll go after the battleships!" He said as he came out of cover of an asteroid and launched a nova at a battleship, blowing it into oblivion.
"Got it." Krystal said as she vaped a squadron of enemy fighters. Falco narrowed his eyes as he looked at the radar. Five battleships surrounded the hideout. Where they came from all of a sudden, he didn't know. Falco blazed away at the nearest battleship, nearly colliding with it as it exploded.
Falco glanced to the right, outside of the canopy, and saw a green blast fly right past his Arwing. Falco pulled a loop and actually saw the pilot in the enemy fighter as he got above the enemy craft.
Falco grinned at his look of shock and 'shit I'm screwed' on the pilot's face as he painted it with hyper lasers and it exploded. He grinned as he saw a battleship explode in the distance, taking a bunch of fighters with it.
"Good goin', Krystal." He said. "Thanks. I try." She said sarcastically as she pulled a loop, getting an enemy fighter off her tail, and totaling it with laser fire. "Be careful in there, Fox. Oh God please be careful..." She thought over and over in her mind as she painted fighter after fighter coming from the battleships.
Fox rammed in another 50 rd. magazine into his AR and climbed the stairs, placed the gun at his hip and started blasting troops down below him. He got to the top of the stairs and rolled his eyes as he saw there still eight targets on the radar display.
"Slippy, I need you to--AHH!" Fox said as a nearby explosion threw him to the floor. He shook his head as he got up and dove behind a crate.
Fox pulled a grenade out of his pouch, stood up, and hurled it at a machine that was, just a few moments before, unloading crates, but had shot a wave of missles at him. The grenade exploded, and it took a few infantrymen with it.
"Listen up, you scum. We protect the hideout to the end." Someone said as Fox again dove behind the crate as it was painted with laser fire. Fox raised his AR over the crate and fired blindly into the crowd, taking out most of the troops. The remaining ones retreated, but Fox shot them before they got far.
He glanced at his radar to see that a transfer device was nearby, if it was on this level. Fox neared the contact, and saw the transfer device in a corner. Fox wasted the infantry surrounding it and fired his AR at it, wasting the transfer device, and emptying the clip.
Fox dropped it, rammed another one in, and racked the bolt back as he looked down at the bottom of the hideout, only to see a transfer device he had missed. Fox withdrew the sniper rifle, flicked off the safety, and kneeled down to get a better shooting position.
Just as Fox was going to pull the trigger, he heard a 'click' behind him.
Fox dropped the sniper rifle and turned around to see an ape soldier holding a pistol to his head. Fox kicked the pistol out of his hand into the air and jumped up to grab it. Fox landed and pointed the pistol right back at the ape. Fox smiled and squeezed the trigger. The ape fell back, lifeless, and came to rest on the floor.
Fox picked up the sniper rifle and kneeled down. He squeezed the trigger and winced at the recoil the sniper rifle had. Fox had hit the transfer device and he stood up, slung the sniper over his back, and rubbed his shoulder.
"Wow" he thought as he withdrew his AR. Fox looked up to see several consecutive explosions. "Slippy! Was that you!" He said into his wrist comm. "Yeah, Fox. Scratch three devices." Slippy said.
"Good. Three left." Fox said. He climbed another stairwell and saw slippy, who waved his own AR at Fox, feeling proud of himself. "Good goin' Slip-up." Fox said and patted his friend on the back.
"Wait, Fox. That's not all." Slippy said as he pulled a small remote-like object from his yellow jumpsuit.
"What the--" Fox began to say as Slippy pressed the button, causing an explosion a few levels below them. Fox cocked a brow. "Nice." He said. "But...Where's the last two!" He said. "Hmm...maybe there's another level. Try looking for some kind of elevator." Slippy said. "All right." Fox said and ran up the nearest staircase.
Fox got to the top, panting heavily as his adrenalin rush began to leave him. He put in a new clip in his AR and glanced around. This level was different.
It was one long walkway that went around the walls of the facility, making an O shape, with four doors, two on each side opposite each other. Fox ran for one of those doors. Right when he started, he heard a 'whizz' on the ground behind from a near miss from a laser blast and he whirled around to see three gun turrets, manned by their own ruffian, blazing away at Fox.
While constantly moving, Fox took out his sniper rifle and sighted each target. He fired three carefully aimed shots, and the turrets fell silent. Fox looked over the edge as he ran and his stomach dropped. He was a lot higher than he thought he was.
Fox got to the open door and stopped. He quickly turned his head around the corner, then pulled it back as quickly as he could.
"Holy crap!" He thought. There were thirty troops, and there were six gun turrets along with five of the missile robots in that hallway, waiting for him. Fox checked his ammo pouches. Two grenades left.
He pulled one out, pressed the 'arm' button, and tossed it into the hallway. He heard yells as the troops tried to make a run for it, then, BOOM. Fox peeked his head back around and all the infantry lay lifeless and the robots smoking, all their circuits fried by the blast.
Fox ran back out the door at the end of the hallway and it led him back to where he was. The long O-shaped walkway. Fox walked around slowly, not knowing what to expect, then felt a sudden jolt beneath him.
"Umm...Slippy. I found the elevator." He said as it ascended into a new area of the hideout. Fox shouldered his AR as the elevator reached the top, but there were no troops to be seen. Fox cocked a brow as he slowly lowered his rifle and walked inside.
"Slippy, I don't see--" Fox began to say but felt a sharp blow to the back of his head. Everything was blurry and spinning, then the metal floor of the Sargasso hideout rushed up to meet him as he fell.
When Fox awoke, his arms and legs were bound to a chair, his head was throbbing painfully, and he was surrounded by five of the ruffian troops, each armed with their own assault rifles. Fox looked around to see that all his gear was missing. "Fox!" Slippy yelled through the comm.
"Do you read me F-" Slippy said but one of the apes had it in his hand and smiled as he smashed it on the ground with the stock of his AR.
"How…the hell did I get into this…?" Fox thought. One of the apes slung his AR over his back and walked towards Fox. "You look familiar…have we met?" He asked. Fox said nothing.
"Who are you!" The ape said again as he hit Fox in the face with the stock of his AR. Fox let his head hang over to one side for a moment, then brought it back upright, staring down at the ground. Fox broke out into a sweat, mainly from the pain of the blast, but also from the anger that had just erupted inside him because of the lowlife that had dealt him the hit.
Fox could taste blood in his mouth and he felt a bit flow down from his face where the ape had struck him in the side. Fox still said nothing as the ape reared back his rifle again for another hit. Fox winced at the sudden pain that the synthetic rifle stock had to offer. "Krystal, I hope you can hear this…I'm in some real deep crap up here…" Fox thought.
Krystal gasped. "Oh God." She said. "What? What is it, Krys?" Falco asked as he dodged and blew a squadron of fighters to bits.
"Fox is in trouble. Take care of the battleships for me, Falco. I'm going in myself." Krystal said as she threw her Arwing into a kick spin and pointed the nose straight at the facility entrance.
"But Krystal! I can't take all the-" Falco began to say. "Now's not the time! You can handle them; I know you can!" She yelled. Falco said nothing. Krystal parked her arwing in the docking bay and picked up her blaster as the canopy opened. "Come on, Fox! I'm in the building. Where are you!" She thought, fearing for the worst…his mind patterns had begun to fade since the last one.
Fox winced as the ape hit him, yet again, with the rifle stock. "Not planning to talk, are you…?" He asked.
"Fox McCloud." He answered weakly. "Oh...The famous Fox McCloud." The ape said sarcastically as the others laughed and one of them lit up a cigarette. Fox looked at the ape with utter hate with his one good eye he had left. The other had swollen shut due to the numerous impacts of the rifle stock against his face.
"Now, Fox McCloud. What are you doing here?" The ape asked, nearing Fox. He put his face practically unbearably close to Fox's to try and intimidate him. He was so close Fox could feel, and smell, his putrid, smoke-stained breath hit his face. "Looking...for Pigma Dengar." Fox said wearily.
The ape nodded, almost in understanding. "Sure you are…" He said sarcastically, not believing what Fox had said.
"Topmost…facility…elevator…" Was all Krystal could read out of Fox's last noticeable mind pattern. She thanked God for her telepathy as she set off in a run towards the staircase. "Krystal!" Came Slippy's voice as she reached the level where he was. "Where's Fox!" He asked.
"I...don't...know..." She said as she caught her breath. "All I got from him was that he's in the highest part of the facility. That's all I know." She said. "Krystal, you're gonna need this." Slippy said and tossed his assault rifle to her.
Krystal caught it and tossed Slippy her blaster. "You gonna be all right, Slip-up?" She asked.
"Sure. By the way, there's the elevator." Slippy said and pointed at it. Krystal nodded and ran towards the elevator. She checked the Gauge on the side of the AR. 50 rds and planted the stock on her shoulder, just as Fox had shown her earlier, as it reached the top...
Fox could hear faint laser blasts outside the door and all the apes turned towards it, a look of fear on their faces. "Oh…shit." One of them said.
Fox laughed. "Damn you guys are screwed…" One of the apes grabbed the fur on Fox's head and pulled back on it. "You're not alone? Well…that's two birds dead with one stone." He said menacingly. Fox reared back and spit in the ape's face.
"Like…hell." He said weakly.
The guard gave Fox another hit with the rifle stock, nearly knocking him out cold.
"We can hold out 'till the boss gets back." He said as he walked towards the door and hit the open switch. "Whatever's out there, we're probably screwed." another ape thought.
With receiving that thought, Krystal hid behind a box as she shot the last soldier in the hallway. She heard a door slide open and footsteps following that noise.
She stood up, shouldered the AR, and wasted the five infantry troops that came out, careful not to hit anything behind them. "Oh dear God...Fox!" She said as she ran inside the room where Fox was being held captive. Fox barely possessed the strength to speak.
Krystal untied the ropes holding his arms and legs to the chair and helped him stand up. Fox teetered from side to side a bit, but kept his balance.
"Wow...aren't you a sight for sore eyes." Fox said and smiled weakly. Krystal felt a tear run down her cheek as she looked at her battered friend.
He was a wreck. His left eye was swollen, he had cuts and bruises all over his body, and he was bleeding pretty badly. Krystal smiled and rubbed his forehead. Fox stared into her blue arresting eyes, and she in his.
Krystal leaned forward and kissed Fox. Fox returned it but just as soon as it began, it ended as Krystal pulled away, a faint sound of a gunshot falling into her ear. "Sorry that was a bit quick. We can get back to that later." She said as she tossed Fox one of the ape's rifles.
"That'd be nice." He said as he gave the bolt a good pull to the back, chambering a fresh cartridge.
"Well, Krystal, you're one heck of a navigator." Fox said. "Thanks. It seems you're a glutton for punishment though, love." She said.
"It follows the line of work."
"You ready to get that last transfer device?" Krystal said with a smirk. "I'll take point." Fox said and picked up one of the ape's pistols lying on the ground and smiled at her. Fox picked up his gear pack and strapped it on.
"All right, this is what we're here for. Give me some cover, Krystal." Fox said as he shouldered the rifle.
Fox knew that the only thing that was keeping him going, besides the adrenaline, was the thought of Krystal. He wasn't doing this for himself, and he was so badly beaten that he shouldn't have gone on to go after that last transfer device, but he did anyway.
Fox walked down the hallway, not seeing anymore troop movement as Krystal walked a few feet in behind and to the right of him, AR pointed ahead. Fox stopped at a corner and his ears went back to full alert. He could hear the hums of the turrets just around the wall as he held up his hand to signal her to stop.
"Got any grenades?" He said as he looked back at Krystal. She nodded her head and slowly exposed one from her own gear pack on her back. She tossed it to Fox, and to her surprise, he caught it.
Fox pointed to the ground, signifying for her to take cover, and pressed the 'arm' button. He tossed it around the corner and heard yells of surprise as he dove to the ground and covered his head.
As soon as the explosion had dissipated, before Fox could even get up, Krystal was out in the open with her AR at her hip, blazing away at the stragglers. Krystal slung her AR to her back and turned around to help Fox up.
He smiled weakly as he took his AR in one hand, and her hand in the other as he got up and re-shouldered his rifle.
Fox stopped at a huge double door, almost twice his height and Krystal looked at her radar.
"This is our target here." She said. Fox adjusted the AR in his right hand and was about to press the button to open the door when Krystal stopped him.
"Not yet." She said. Fox's finger stopped just a few inches from the button and he turned around and cocked a brow.
"Fox, there's a lot of 'em in there. I can hear their thoughts. They're waiting for us in there, and I don't know if we can take them. I'm almost out of ammo." She said to him.
Fox nodded, and was about to speak when she started talking into her comm. "Slippy, Krystal here. I got Fox out. He's really beat up and we need your help up here. Find us on radar and meet us up here." Krystal said.
"Acknowledged. I'll be there as soon as I can." Slippy said. Fox's vision began to blur, and he began to wobble from side to side. "Krystal I..." He began to say as he fell.
Krystal dropped her rifle and ran over to Fox to catch him before he fell. He was out cold due to blood loss, and let alone being beaten practically senseless. Krystal gently set him down right before he fell unconscious. She picked up his AR and held it in her left hand.
She figured she could handle two, one of them in each hand, if the need being. Slippy came up from below not long after she had set Fox on the ground, far away from the door, and returned, still with an AR in each hand.
"Where's Fox!" He asked. "I had to set him down somewhere. He's gone unconscious, and that last transfer device is in there. He's about thirty yards behind me, Slip. He needs your help more than I do." She said. Slippy nodded and walked back to where Fox was lying and returned some minutes later, placing a roll of gauze tape back into one of the pockets in his yellow jumpsuit.
"He'll be ok. Just a bit shaky, but he should be fine…I don't know about that left eye though.Should be fine."
Krystal nodded and wiped some sweat off her brow as Slippy looked quizzically at the door.
"So we're...going in there?" He said and pointed his AR at the door. Krystal nodded and smiled at him. Slippy gulped noticeably and said, "Ok...I guess I'm ready." Krystal grinned at his thoughts of worry. "You'll be fine. Just cover me, Slippy." She said as Slippy walked over to the button that opened up the door and Krystal walked on the opposite side of the door. She nodded and Slippy pressed the button.
The door slid open and one of the soldiers cocked a brow, since he didn't see anyone outside. He slowly walked outside of the room and was met with a laser blast from Slippy's sidearm. Krystal jumped right where he had been standing and blazed away at the troops with both ARs at her hips before they had a chance to return fire. She got all of them, but the ARs didn't work on the missile robot inside.
"That's new!" She exclaimed in frustration as she dove for cover behind the wall.
Slippy held the trigger on his blaster, and to Krystal's surprise, it held the energy back as it charged. Slippy grinned as he watched the gauge rise to full power.
"Check this out." He said with a grin.
He walked into the line of sights of the robot and fired the blaster just as it was preparing to launch a wave of missles at him, the blast of the pistol nearly knocking him off his feet as the robot was enveloped in a huge explosion.
Slippy walked in the room and destroyed the transfer device as Krystal ran back to Fox to try and get him woken up. Krystal kneeled down and placed his head on her knee as she stroked his forehead, trying to wake him up while she waited for Slippy.
"We've got to get him out of here, Krystal. Before more of them show up."
"You sure he'll be ok?" She asked, feeling slightly worried.
"Yeah. He's lost some blood, but he'll be fine. We've got to get him out of here." Slippy said as Krystal picked him up, one arm behind his knee caps and the other around his neck.
Slippy took one of her ARs and made sure there weren't any stragglers as Krystal made her way to the bottom of the facility. They reached Fox's arwing, and Krystal placed him, rather gently, on the wing as she climbed up herself.
Slippy jumped up and handed Fox to her as she got situated in the cockpit. "I wish they would make these things in double seater models or something." Krystal said as he handed Fox to her. "Yeah...me too." Slippy said and jumped down off the wing. Krystal hit the startup and pointed the nose outside of the hideout, and pushed up the throttle.
As Krystal was carrying Fox to the medical bay, still unconscious, she met up with Peppy on the way there. "Oh my..." Was all Peppy could say.
"Yeah. He's been beat up pretty bad." Krystal said as she entered the medical lab. "Call ROB down here, could ya?" She asked. Peppy nodded and quickly walked out. ROB returned a moment later and asked, as always, "What is the nature of the emergency." "Why don't you look for yourself?" Krystal said to him.
"Moderate..." ROB said as he walked over to Fox. "Minor abrasions, swollen eyelid, blood loss..." ROB began as he analyzed Fox's damage aloud and recorded it in his memory.
When Fox finally woke up, he was in his quarters laying down in just his boxers and a tank top, and the first thing he saw, with both eyes now, was Krystal's face over him.
"Hey handsome." She said with a smile as she rubbed his forehead with a damp cloth. She leaned down to kiss Fox, and he returned it as he stroked the back of her head with his hand. Fox pulled away and asked,
"What happened...I don't remember anything after you broke me out of there." "Well, It's very...interesting." She said. Fox cocked a brow. "You don't even remember getting up and going after that last device after you kissed me?" She asked. "Well, I remember kissing you. That's all." He said. "Wow...anyway, you went out right before you were about to press the button to the door that had the last transfer device inside it."
"Well, Did I?" Fox asked. Krystal shook her head. "No. I told you to stop, that there were a bunch of troops waiting for you. Then you went out, so..." She said with a smirk.
"What?" Fox implied. "Well, I had my assault rifle, and apparently you weren't using yours at the time, so I decided to take yours also." She said. "So what'd you do? Use yours and strap mine on your back in case it ran out?" Fox asked. Krystal shook her head and Fox laughed.
"How did you do that! You managed one rifle in each hand?" Fox asked. "Yes, I did. Do you still not think I can't handle myself out there?" She said. "No it's just that...dang, Krystal, those things aren't exactly BB guns either." Fox said. Krystal giggled.
"Guess I don't know my own strength." She said. "Heck, neither do I anymore." Fox said and laughed. Krystal moved her head down and kissed Fox on the forehead.
"I guess I got that strength because I love you. I couldn't stand seeing you hurt like that." She said. Fox moved up his head and kissed her as he embraced her and pulled her down to him.
Fox's eyes, along with Krystal's, closed as they became oblivious to the world around them, locked in a passionate kiss, until the ship's VAC chimed in a few minutes later. "Dang!" Fox thought. Krystal laughed and got up to see who it was.
"Fox! You've got to head back down there! It turns out that 'Lord O'Donnell' is your old 'friend' Wolf." Peppy said.
Fox's jaw dropped as he sat up in the bed. "It's been a while since I've seen him." Fox said as he got up, but fell back down on the bed due to disorentation. "No, Fox. Stay here. We can take care of them." Krystal said as she sat beside him on the bed. "I could use the spare Ar-" Fox thought.
"No. Promise me, Fox, that you'll stay here. Trust me. We can handle Wolf." Krystal said. "Krystal I can't do that. If you're down there takin' fire, I'm gonna be down there with you, no matter what condition I'm in. It's my job." Fox said with a grin and gazed into her clear blue eyes.
He tried to look away, but he couldn't as he waited for Krystal's response. She kissed him and said, "Just as stubborn as ever, Fox McCloud." She said with a grin.
"You know it." Fox said as he got dressed in his flight outfit and walked towards the hangar. Fox climbed in the spare Arwing, and Krystal back in Fox's own. "You ready?" She asked over the comm as Fox strapped himself in. "Always." He said and hit the startup and accelerated out of the hangar, Krystal behind him.
"Damn!" Falco said as laser fire nearly scorched his arwing. "Three on one are REALLY CRAPPY ODDS!" He said in anger. "Where the HECK is Fox and Krystal!" He thought.
"Right here." Krystal said as she punched the throttle to full and hit the hyper lasers. "Hey, Wolf. That you?" Fox said sarcastically as he got one of the Wolfens in his line of sight.
Before Wolf could answer, a new voice chimed in. "Allow me to introduce myself, Mr. McCloud. I'm Panther Calroso, and all who see my rose have met death." He said. "Oh give me a freakin' break." Fox thought as he shot his lasers at the Wolfen, hitting it a few times, but not doing any visible damage.
"I'm not doin' any damage! What's the trick to these things!" Fox said as he continued to hit the Wolfen with laser fire, still doing no damage. "Lock on, Fox! Hey...what are you doing out there?" Came Peppy's voice over the comm.
"Nothing..." Fox said evilly and locked on to the Wolfen and fired, disabling its engine systems on the ship. "Damn!" Panther said as he frantically tried to restart his Wolfen and get the systems back online, but failed.
"I found a weak spot! Lock on to their engines to disable them. Don't kill 'em…yet. Remember, we need to find out where Pigma is!" Fox said as Wolf came on his tail. He was having one heck of a time trying to dodge Wolf's lasers, considering that Wolf was at least 20 years older than Fox, and just as good, if not better, than he was, but Fox had something else up his sleeve.
Fox threw his Arwing into a loop, and came out with Wolf right in front of him. "Just like old times, O'Donnell." Fox said as he got a lock on Wolf's ship, but missed. "Don't mess with me, Fox." Wolf said.
Fox's Arwing shook violently as one of his wings was sheared off by a laser from Leon Powalski's Wolfen. Fox cursed under his breath as he struggled to regain control of his Arwing, which was heading for the Sargasso hideout.
"Come on...come on..." Fox thought as he pulled up on the flight stick as hard as he could. The Arwing continued it's same heading. Fox pushed the stick downward, and threw his Arwing in sort of a reverse U-turn, steering him away from the hideout as he regained control. "You Ok, Fox?" Krystal asked. "Never better." He said as he got Wolf in his sights.
Krystal winced as she noticed a few laser blasts fly by, dangerously close to her Arwing. She did a barrel and threw her Arwing into a loop, bringing the Wolfen back into her sights.
"Hrmph. That's no way to treat a lady. Eat this!" Krystal said as she locked on and fired, hitting the sweet spot and disabling the Wolfen. "It can't be...I've been beaten..." Panther's voice came over the comm.
"What! I already disabled you! How'd you get your engine back after I blew it up!" Fox asked angrily at Panther. He didn't acknowledge, and Fox let a charged blast fly at Wolf's wolfen, knocking the engine out cold.
"I got Leon!" Falco said over the comm. Leon mumbled something over the comm that sounded like it referred to Falco's mother. "What was that!" Falco said. Leon said nothing. "That's enough for now, Fox." Wolf said.
"Enough of this crap already, Wolf. We didn't come here to mess with you guys. We cam-" Fox began to say. "That's easy for you to say after all you've done, McCloud." Wolf said. "Anyway, Pigma is no longer part of Star Wolf. I personally kicked him out a while ago. If he'd shown himself here, my men would've killed him." Wolf said.
"But...then where else could Pigma go?" Krystal asked to nobody in particular. Panther whistled over the comm and said, "Ahh...the lovely Krystal. Words do you no just--."
"Hey! She's with me!" Fox yelled, as he reached for the nova bomb launcher. "Who's this dumb a-" Falco began to say. "Quiet, bir-" "What was that!" "How could I resist this beauty?" Panther said as Fox's finger quivered nervously over the launcher, locked on to Panther's ship.
"I believe the communication records will point you to Fichina." Panther said.
" Idiot. You talk too much." Wolf said.
"Remember this, McCloud. One day, I am personally going to take you out. Leon! Panther! Let's get out of here." He said and hit his warp drive. "Whew. Glad they're gone. I'm kicking his ass!" Fox said.
"Oh forget him. Remember, Fox. I love you. Not him." Krystal said and giggled. Falco let out a quiet laugh over the comm.
"Let's get out of here. Fichina's a good day's journey from here. It's on the other side of the system, and who knows what Pigma is up to." Fox said.
A chorus of 'copy's came from the rest of the team as Slippy's Arwing joined them. A beep sounded on Fox's HUD, signifying that slippy's comm. system had just come online.
"The hideout is under control. What'd I miss, Fox?" He asked. Fox rolled his eyes.
"Nothing, Slippy...nothing."
"Ok." Slippy said. "Let's get out of here."
"Sounds good." Krystal said as Fox punched up the throttle and headed back to the Great Fox.