"Normal Speech"

'Normal thoughts'

{radio, comms, or electronic}

~locations and transitions~

No Beta Reader

Disclaimer: Star Fox or Naruto

Edit 1/10/2022: redid a good amount of this chapter. fixed some grammar errors, some repetitive word usage, and bulked it up a bit. will be doing this for the other chapters when I have the time

Chapter 1: a Cry for help

Flying inside Sector Z, deep in the Lylat system, was the flagship of the Star Fox team: The Great Fox. A Dreadnaught class spacecraft that acts as the home for the famous mercenary team, Star Fox. Flying out of the front hanger bay of the ship, came four fighter crafts that scattered to fly around the cruiser.

In one of the fighters was the leader of the Star Fox team as he spoke through the video comms to the rest of his team. "Alright guys, this is a routine exercise to see how well Krystal does in an Arwing." Fox then hit the switch that would set his Arwing to all range mode so they can maneuver better.

Falco smirked as he did the same with his Arwing. "This should be good. Let's see how the Princess handles these babies." He boosted into a barrel roll as he was ready to start.

Krystal smiled as she had gotten used to Falco's attitude. He may be hot-headed but he never looks down on anyone. He just has that tough-guy persona "I won't let you down, everyone." She pressed a few buttons on the Arwing's screen to configure it to her preferences

"Aw, she'll do fine. She almost beat both of your records in the simulator. Not to mention that Fox had been teaching her ever since she joined us." came Slippy's voice from the comms as he piloted the fourth Arwing

It had been a year since Fox's adventure on the Dinosaur Planet, Sauria, and since then many things had changed for them. Krystal had joined the Star Fox team after she spent four months training in the Cornerian army. Fox had asked General Pepper for a favor to have her take part in the training before she would fully join the team. General Peper saw no problem in granting this favor due to the service Star Fox has done over the years and the friendship he had with the team.

Another thing that had changed during that time was the growing relationship between Fox and Krystal

Something the Team had teased Fox relentlessly about.

Peppy's face popped up on all of the screens as he spoke to the team. {Alright, everyone, we are going to start with the usual formation. Slippy had set up the perimeter so the first thing we are doing is a full circuit on the edge. Then we are going to do a combat scenario.}

Falco rolled his eyes as he heard this. "We know, old man. We already went over this before we started flying."

Fox smiled at Falco's attitude towards their oldest member of the team. "Easy, Falco, you know how Peppy is. He just wants to make sure we all know what we are going to be doing."

{And I would very much like it if you actually LISTENED TO ME!}

Falco winced at the loud shout that came from the old hare. "Ok, old-timer."

Fox then called to the group "Alright, everyone, form up."

The rest of the team formed up to be in a diamond formation as they made the circuit.

Despite her calm demeanor, Krystal felt a bit nervous as this was her first time flying an Arwing and she could tell that it flys differently from the Military flyers but she did her best to stay in formation.

'...'

Krystal froze as she could have sworn she heard something but it was so quiet, that she soon thought it was just her imagination and maintained her place in the formation.

Fox nodded as they finished up and soon leafs the group to the center of Slippy's setup area. "Alright, Peppy. You can set up the marker."

Peppy, who was sitting in the Great Fox's command seat, nodded as he pressed a few keys. "Alright. Rob, is the combat program set up for randomized situations?"

Rob nodded as he also pressed a few computer keys, bringing up a radar screen, showing the Arwings becoming stationary not far from the ship. {program loaded into all Arwings and set for space battle.}

Peppy nodded as he pressed a large button "get ready everyone. Starting now. And remember that all weapons have been disabled for this training exercise so you won't have to worry about hitting any of your teammates but you will be docked points if you do,"

{we get it, old-timer. let's just get this party started.}

Peppy sighed as he leaned back in his chair "it's already started, Falco."

Falco looked down to his radar to see a group of red dots closing in. "alright! Now let's have some fun!" he broke formation as everyone split into their own groups. The Cockpit's canopy gained a green holographic overlay and he saw it show an enemy ship in front of his Arwing and he clicked the trigger, getting the screen to simulate single green laser fire shooting out. "Would have preferred to have dual shots but I'll get it when the upgrade shows." Getting the enemy in front of him, he banked to the right to find another target.

Krystal had caught a target in her sights but held off from firing until she could get a clear shot.

{Don't forget you can hold the green button and trigger to fire a homing shot.}

Listening to Peppy's advice she moved her left hand to the button and held it while holding the trigger down. She watched as the enemy gained a red reticle around it before she released the trigger, sending a shot at the enemy before destroying it.

"Nice shot, Krystal."

Krystal smiled as she responded "thanks, Fox."

"...!..."

Krystal shook her head before she looked around into the emptiness of space. Despite the holographic layer over the windows, she looked past it as if she might see what she heard.

"Uh, guys!? Help me!"

Krystal shook her head as she saw through the holographic window, a bogey on Slippy's tail. "Hang on, Slippy."

Falco smiled at this situation. "Why are you always getting a bogey on your tail, Slips?

Slippy tried to maneuver himself into losing the bogey but it was being stubborn. "You tell me!"

Krystal lined up her Arwing behind the bogey before charging another homing shot. She let it loose as she got target-lock and saw it destroy the enemy.

Slippy sighed in relief as he slumped in his seat. "Thanks, Krystal."

"You're welcome, Slippy."

Falco shook his head before he spotted an Arwing upgrade. 'Sweet.' He banked to his right to head towards the upgrade. He was about to collect it but another Arwing flew from below and collected it before he had a chance to. "Hey! That was mine!"

Fox turned his head to look at Falco's Arwing and smirked. "Better luck next time." He did a u-turn before blasting at the sides of Falco, taking out two enemy fighters. "Also you have a bogey on your tail."

Falco looked to his radar to see that Fox was right. "Not for long." He double pressed the boost as he pulled up, doing a loop and getting behind the enemy. He blasted it down and smirked at the counter he had showing how many he took out. His smirk dropped as he saw that Fox was a few points ahead of him. "We'll see about that." he flew off to gain a few more points to beat his team leader.

Krystal moved to take out another group and looked at the score of the group. She was third on the scoring board and so far she had received no damage points. As she flew to get another few points, her mind kept going to what she had heard before. There was something about it that grabbed her attention but it was so muddled that she couldn't put her finger on it.

{Ok, everyone. Setting up larger enemy encounter.} said Peppy as he made a selection on what enemy they would face.

Fox nodded as he called everyone on the channel "Alright, everyone, form up and get ready." he saw that Falco, Slippy, and Krystel formed up in a diamond formation. "Ok, Peppy, we're ready."

The group then saw on their radar a large red marker coming up from behind them.

Falco smirked as he saw it was one of the enemies they battled in their first bout against Andross' forces. It was the Meteo Crusher. "This is going to be fun."

Fox turned to Krystal's Arwing that was to his right. "Ok Krystal, this is an old fight we had. Several areas are key areas. Keep an eye out for the areas that light up. It will tell you when it's about to fire." seeing her nod he looked forward. "Ok, everyone. Get ready."

Krystal adjusted her G-diffusers and waited for the go-ahead. Unfortunately, something else caught her attention.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

Krystal's eyes shot wide open as she realized what the small voice was she was hearing. It wasn't her imagination. flashes of muddy images came to her mind and she felt it. Just as she heard the sound that signaled the start of the battle, she adjusted her ship's trajectory and used the boost to head back to the Great Fox.

Fox halted his assault as he saw her fly off at max speed back to the Great Fox. "Krystal!? What's going on?!" He ignored the alert telling him he was being hit by the hologram as he watched his mates flying back. He nearly jumped at the sudden call from Krystal

{We have to leave! Now!}

Fox heard the urgency in her voice and knew something was wrong. He opened the channel to the rest of the team and ordered. "Alright gang, return to the ship."

Falco slumped in his cockpit. "aw man. I wanted to blast the thing out of the sky this time."

Fox looked to his Ace before shaking his head "next time, Falco."

The remaining three followed Krystal back to the Great Fox

Peppy had shut down the program when he saw them all coming back. He rubbed his chin in thought as he switched to the security cameras to see Krystal dock her Arwing and not even wait for it to finish as she jumped out of the cockpit. Only a few minutes later did he swivel his chair around as he heard the door open and Krystal come running in. "Krystal? What's going on?"

Krystal moved to the console and began to press some of the keys, getting the Great Fox to begin changing direction.

Fox, Slippy, and Falco came in a minute later with Fox walking up to her. "Krystal, what's wrong?"

Either Krystal didn't hear Fox or ignored him as she focused on where she heard it coming from and kept adjusting the angle of the Great fox until she was sure it was facing the right direction. She then set the ship to fly as fast as it could towards it. "I can hear it Fox." she turned to him and whimpered out "I can hear it."

Fox grew worried as he saw her begin to shed a few tears. He brought up a hand to cup the side of her face and used his thumb to wipe away a tear "Hear what?"

Krystal leaned into his touch as she closed her eyes. In doing so, however, she could hear the screams again, wincing at the amount of pain and anguish it portrayed. She opened her eyes again and answered "I can hear a cry of pure agony. Someone is calling for help."

A bloodied child tried to drag himself away from his attackers but with both of his legs broken, he could not move far. He had been enjoying his time in the cabin in the woods that he called his home when they broke in and began their assault. He wondered where the people in masks that were supposed to help him were but he didn't have time to think about it when he saw that the ones in masks he was just thinking about were with the….monsters. He was then grabbed by one of his legs and then found himself dangling upside down. He opened his eyes to look at the monsters that did this to him. He looked through blurry vision as he saw one of the monsters bring up the limb that they had cut off. The monsters then tied a rope around his leg before hanging him by the rafters of the cabin. He would have asked why they were doing this but he didn't know how to talk.

He was never taught how to speak so, to him, the monsters were just making odd noises.

He let out a whine as a whip was used on him

He wondered why these monsters hated him so much to make him hurt. sure he didn't look like them but he didn't see any reason for such action against him.

*crack*

He screamed at the strike but after a few more, he fell unconscious, wishing someone would help him.

what he didn't know was that one of the masked people in this group sent word back to his higher-ups that everything was ok.

~Great Fox~

It had been a full twenty-four hours since the Star Fox team began their journey towards where Krystal felt the cry for help come from.

Falco had asked why they couldn't use a warp gate to reach their destination faster till it was shot down by Krystal saying that she didn't have any real coordinates to use. The only thing they had was a direction but not distance so even if they used a warp to move further, they ran the risk of bypassing their destination

This caused Krystal's worry to grow.

Krystal had not slept since they started and she was pacing around the command center with her tail flailing back and forth.

Fox wished he could help ease her worry but there wasn't much he could do since the only lead they had was the direction she felt the cry for help come from, so all they could do was hope the Great Fox made it to their location soon.

When they began the trip, he had brought up a galactic map to see if they could figure out what planet the cry was coming from but none of them were in their path. Sure there were a few they would pass by but the distance between them and the planet crossed them out as possibles.

He got up from his seat, walked up behind her, and stopped her pacing as he wrapped his arms around her waist.

Krystal had chosen to wear her Cerinia attire but without the tail bindings. She felt more comfortable wearing it as it wasn't as constricting as the clothes she got from the Cornerian shops. She still didn't find clothes that she was fully comfortable with but Fox didn't mind.

She leaned back into him as she felt some comfort with Fox being here with her. "I wish we could get there sooner, Fox. He needs our help."

Fox and Krystal were now staring out into space as they stood there.

Fox nodded. He didn't know what it was like to be hearing this cry for help but with how distraught Krystal was, he could only guess. "Do you know how much further it is until we get there?"

Krystal wanted to say they were close but the way the cries were, she couldn't tell. She shook her head as she pressed her hand on the glass. "I wish I knew, Fox. There aren't any words to it. Just….screams of pain and helplessness." she tried a calming breath but it did little to help. "It sounds so young as well."

That was one of the things that bugged Fox the most. Krystal told him that the cry for help sounded young, like a kit kind of young. 'What could be happening to cause a kid to be screaming for help so much that Krystal could hear it from this far?'

They were both brought out of their thoughts when the comm came to life with Rob's voice

{We have picked up a planet on our long-range radar. We are on a direct course to this planet and will have a visual within two hours}

Fox looked up as he responded. "Thanks, Rob." He then looked back out the window. "Think it's the one we are looking for?"

Krystal grew anxious at the idea of arriving as she could still hear the whimpers. She had sent her own message through her telepathy to try and give some reassurance but she did not know if it ever connected.

The team was all in the command center as they looked at a screen that showed the planet they were heading to.

Falco had his wings crossed as he looked it over. "so what's the deal with this place anyway? I mean we are in an unknown system heading to a planet we don't know anything about."

Fox nodded as he looked at Rob. "Can you get us a visual of the planet's surface using any orbiting satellites?"

Rob pressed a few keys before answering {no satellites detected, no visuals can be acquired.}

Peppy rubbed his chin as he analyzed the image. "hmm, very risky going to a place with no information. And we don't know if this is even the right one."

Fox nodded as he turned to where his mate was standing only to see her no longer there. "Krystal?"

Rob got an alert that he relayed to the others. {Hangar bay doors opening, Arwing #5 launching}

Everyone went wide-eyed as they turned to Rob. They looked back to the screen as Slippy switched it to the Arwing's camera.

Fox spoke as he activated the comms "Krystal, what are you doing?"

{it's coming from this planet! I'm going down there to help him.}

"On your own? You should have waited for the whole team to prep for launch."

{I can't waste any more time, Fox. He needs help now!}

Fox could hear the desperation in her voice and knew that he wouldn't be able to convince her to wait. "Ok, we are going to get ready on our end. Wait for us over the atmosphere so we can enter together."

{sorry, Fox but I've already entered and am close to landing.}

Fox sighed at this. 'She must have been pushing the Arwing hard for it to go that fast.' "At least tell me you brought a blaster with you."

Krystal nodded as she moved to press a few keys in her cockpit. {as well as my staff. I will call you when I find him as I'm landing now.}

Fox shook his head as he gave his order to his team. "Get prepped and get to your Arwings. We don't know what kind of trouble Krystal might run into so move!"

~planet surface~

Krystal initiated her Arwing to land the second she broke through the planet's atmosphere not caring about possibly getting spotted as she was more concerned about getting to her destination.

one of the protocols of a newly discovered planet was to be scouted first to see their technological level and see if the people should be interacted with if the planet was eligible, an envoy would be sent to the planet to meet with the leaders to discuss potential planetary alliances, if not it would be left alone and marked for later evaluation.

Once her Arwing landed, she jumped out of the cockpit and went into a sprint towards where she could feel the cries coming from. After running for a few minutes she saw that ahead of her were a group of humanoid beings surrounding something. It was when she heard a scream that she recognized she chose to forego diplomacy. Especially since she caught a glimpse of the thing they were attacking scream in pain from what she assumed was a whip.

Still only wearing her Cernia attire, she didn't have much in terms of protective armor but she did have a belt with a holster where she put her blaster before she pulled out her staff and charged it with her magic. Leaping into the air, she lifted her staff over her head and brought it down in the center of the group, being sure to avoid hurting the small one.

She used Ground Quake to send them all flying before she spun the staff a bit and sent out a few fireballs at the ones she saw correct themselves in the air, hitting their mark and setting them aflame,

the ones set on fire immediately tried to put themselves out.

Krystal heard movement behind her and shifted her staff into her left hand, going into a crouch as she pulled out her blaster from its holster with her free hand, and shot just over her hip at the two behind her. She was thankful for her training as she made sure not to hit anything vital. She may not know the biology of this species but she knew that hitting the legs would just cripple them.

She didn't have time to think about anything else as she heard the sounds of what she thought to be an explosion and turned to see a wall of fire heading her way. She dropped her blaster, struck the ground next to the one she was protecting, and erected a forcefield around them. She felt her magic pool dropping from how hard the fire seemed to strike the shield but she would not let the shield fail. Seeing the flames stop, she dropped the shield, feeling the heat of the fire that encircled her, picked up her blaster, and aimed at the general direction the fire came from. Looking past the flames as best she could, she caught a glimpse of who she assumed did it and shot at him. She didn't concern herself with the cry of pain she heard come from the one she shot at as she used her ice blast to douse the flames before looking around to see that everyone there was down for the count. She heard them speak in a language she couldn't understand but she assumed they were curses and complaints of pain based on the tone.

Now that she had a moment, she looked at the one they were attacking and could not help but gasp at the sight. "He's…...only a child."

The boy looked only to be four or five years old based on his size and body structure. He was unconscious from the beating and bleeding from several lacerations on his body with a majority of it coming from a severe injury on his tailbone.

Krystal placed a hand on the boy's cheek and using her empathic ability, could feel the fear and sadness he had. She peered into his mind and all he seemed to remember now was the shadowed faces of the people that attacked him.

It would seem that his mind was not able to distinguish the people from each other as they all looked like the same shadowy figure. Thanks to her studies in the Cornerian army, she could surmise that his psyche was heavily scarred if he couldn't distinguish one from another. This is the kind of scar that could be the seed of hating others. 'And at such a young age.' As she pulled her hand away from his face, he grabbed her hand and put it back. She couldn't hear any words coming from his mind but she could understand the feelings he had.

He felt some slight sense of security at her touch.

Hearing a groan coming from the ones she stopped, she made a rash decision. She holstered her blaster and staff before picking the boy up and began to run back to her Arwing.

She made sure not to jostle the boy too much as she didn't want to agitate his injuries more than they already were.

Back at the battlefield outside Naruto's cabin, a new group appeared out of the forest with an elderly man looking around at the damage

He noticed several of his Anbu and a group of villagers on the ground, beaten but alive. He gestured for some of the Anbu that arrived with him to take the civilians away to prison as he could already tell what might have happened. He then made a gesture for the Anbu that were on the ground to be restrained and one to be brought to him. "What happened and where is he?" his voice may have been calm but everyone there could already tell he was furious.

The Anbu, who wore a bird mask, looked up and spoke. "We were attacked by a blue fox woman. She got the drop on us and started protecting the demon."

The old man, Hiruzen, felt his anger rise and despite how he wanted to unleash it, he kept it internal. "And why would this….. 'fox woman' need to protect him?" His Ki was now focused on this single man as he now understood that these Anbu did something to harm the boy

It was then that Bird knew he had slipped up. His anger at the demon and being beaten by another fox blinded him so much that he had accidentally let out their inclusion in the torture.

Hiruzen then spoke "Neko, Inu."

Two Anbu appeared at his side with one being male with gravity-defying silver hair, with the other being female with long purple hair

The old man then gestured to the other Anbu that were restrained. "kill them."

Without a word, Inu went through hand signs as before his right hand was engulfed in lightning

Neko pulled out her katana and positioned herself in a striking stance.

The two then disappeared from sight before they began killing all the Anbu that were being restrained.

Hiruzen looked down at Bird before he gripped the man by the throat and brought him face to face "you will live long enough for Inoichi to pull everything out of your head. Then you will be used as a test subject for several torture practices that the T and I department wanted to try but never got authorization for how brutal they were. Then you will die dishonorably as a traitor to the Leaf!" he gripped hard around the man's throat suffocating him to the point of unconsciousness. He dropped the man as he looked around. "Inu, once you are done, I want you to track Naruto down and make sure he is safe."

Inu pulled his hand out of the chest of one of his former allies and looked to the Hokage. "Hai." He went through hand signs before summoning Pakkun and began to track the direction Naruto's scent came from

Hiruzen had given this cabin to Naruto as it was way too dangerous for the boy to stay in the village as it would almost always lead to an attack for just walking. He had set up an Anbu protection team that would rotate weekly to make sure he was safe. This group though seemed to have forgotten their duties and went into their own vengeful thought process which they are now reaping the consequences. As he was looking over the battlefield again, something caught his attention in the sky, and looked up to see something launch itself upwards and continue until it was no longer visible. The Thing that concerned him the most was that it was in the direction of where Kakashi ran, which meant that Naruto would have been in that direction. "What in the world…..?"

Krystal looked down at the boy on her lap in concern as she heard his breathing become ragged. She moved her paw over to the comms and called her team "Fox? Can you hear me?"

Fox's face came up on the screen with a look of concern {Krystal, good to hear from you. We are on our way towards your location."

Krystal shook her head "return to the Great Fox and prepare the Medbay for an emergency patient."

{are you hurt?}

Krystal felt a bit touched at his concern but quickly shot down that notion. "No, but the one with me needs immediate medical attention. Based on what I learned in the medical portion of my training and what I have seen while on my own, these are extremely severe and he might not make it if we don't hurry."

Fox grew serious when heard this and personally wondered where this person was since the Arwings aren't really made for multiple people. He figured that she might have secured him in the hatch below the ship but that wasn't important right now. If the kid was in that bad of a condition they needed to move. {Copy that. Team, return to base.}

Krystal sighed in relief that Fox was going to set up the Medbay for the boy. She looked down at the boy and despite how tight the cockpit was at the moment, she tried her best to make sure he was at least somewhat comfortable. As she saw that her Arwing was returning to space, she used her hand to move his tail to cover his belly as she shifted a bit so she could grab his hand. Her blue fur-covered hand held onto his orange covered one as he gripped it as hard as he could

End of chapter

Another new fic? Yep. should I stop and work with the ones I have already? Yep. will I? hopefully

YES, I KNOW the "attack Naruto" thing is a trope that has been overdone to the point of ridiculous but I couldn't think of another way for Krystal to get a distress call from him. So please don't leave a review saying that it was overdone or trash or crap because of it. A story isn't crap just because they are using a trope. Judge the story for the STORY, not the start or trope they use.

Krystal is acting on emotions and less on logic. In a logical sense, she would have taken them to the nearest settlement but with how things went she would think it's a bad idea since what had just happened Naruto makes her choice more clear

The aparoid attack did NOT happen yet. I'm going to rework some things to work out for how I imagine the story to go.

The name of the Fic and the Summary will change further in when I come up with something better

Flames will be ignored.

Criticism is accepted

Ideas are taken into account and considered

Positive reviews are appreciated

Favs and Follows are motivation

And your enjoyment in reading this is the goal

So please Read, Favorite, follow, and review