A/N: My fanfiction fans, I greatly appreciate the reviews for my story and I just want to apologize for keeping you waiting for sooooooo long. I've had a research paper assigned to me recently and I have to pass it to graduate from High School. I also had a 7 day cruise I went on which delayed me even more. I hope you enjoy this chapter because I've crammed it with plenty of action and some suspense especially at the end. Thanks for your patience and enjoy.

Chapter III: Operation Search and Rescue

Andrew Oikonny stood in his office gazing out the window in front of him. He was in deep thought about what he should do about the spy they caught just a few moments ago. Andrew reached for his headset and called the army's interrogator, "Andrew to Leo."

The device responded, "This is Leo go ahead."

"I need you to come to my office immediately, I need to discuss with you about what to do with our little friend." Andrew said.

He then took off the headset and set it down on his desk, then walked over to some security monitors and looked at the one that had their prisoner sitting in the interrogation room. He trotted back to his desk and sat down in his leather chair; he picked up a snow globe sitting on the desk and shook it causing the flakes in the globe to swirl around. Then the door to his office slid open revealing a muscular and very heavily armed tiger standing in the doorway. "Sir you wanted to see me?" The feline asked his boss.

Andrew stood up and walked out from behind his desk with his hands behind his back, "Yes, Leo I need you to go to the interrogation room and question our little friend. All I need to find out is who she is and who sent her, after that you can do whatever you want to her."

The tiger grinned at Andrews request, he was a fighter and a very skilled one. He was armed with several weapons which were hooked on his belt, a blaster, tazer, and a laser dagger. He also had two five foot double edged swords that were crossed like an X on his back. Leo is a very agile creature he can sneak up behind his victims and attack without them even knowing he was there. 'Well what if she refuses to talk?" the feline asked.

Andrew turned his back to Leo and walked back to the window and looked over his shoulder, "I'll think about what to do if she decides not to cooperate, now get going."

"Yes sir." The feline responded while saluting to his boss.

Meanwhile three arwings were gliding through the Meteo asteroid field. "Team we are just a few meters from Katina." Fox's voice said over the intercom. "Activate the cloaking device and prepare to enter Katina airspace."

The three arwings then disappeared out of sight and started to enter Katina's atmosphere. Soon the base came into their sights and Fox saw a series of tall hills an ideal place to hide their arwings when they deactivated the cloaking. The others followed Fox and landed behind the small range of hills, and disengaged the cloaking option. The arwings reappeared and the team opened the lids to their cockpits. As Fox started to stand up in his cockpit his foot nudged something. He looked down by his feet and saw a small rod sitting by his right foot, it was Krystal's staff and attached to it was a note that read, "Hi Fox, I just snuck this into your arwing just in case you needed it." Fox sighed and slipped the staff on his belt next to his blaster. He jumped down from the arwing and regrouped with the other two wingmates waiting for him on the top of one of the hills.

Bill held up his digital binoculars and located two lizards armed with blasters patrolling the front doors. He lowered them and turned to Fox and Falco. "If we are to get in the base we need to take out those two down there."

Falco grinned and reached for a small briefcase lying on the ground. "Not a problem. I've been waiting for some action." The avian said opening up the case, it contained a sniper rifle with a screw on scope. He took out the gun and scope and examined them, then he attached the scope to the top of the gun and spun it around until it locked into place. Then the falcon charged the rifle, looked into the scope, adjusted the focus and aimed at one of the two lizards then fired. The guard fell to the ground with a thud and the other took aim with his blaster and frantically milled around to see if he could locate who shot his partner. He then quickly raised his communicator on his wrist, "This is G097 to And…" Falco shot him down before he could warn Andrew of the situation. Falco lowered the rifle and stared at it, "Dude I love this gun!"

The three pilots dashed down the hill and approached the front door. Bill walked over to code panel and punched in the access code and Falco grabbed his blaster out of its holster, the giant doors began to slide open. As the doors were opening a marmoset on the other side turned around and faced the door aiming his blaster. To his surprise when the doors opened there was nobody there, so he slowly strafed towards the left side of the door with his blaster held out in front of him. The guard quickly turned the corner only to see Falco standing right in front of him.

"Hello!" the eagle shouted and gave the guard no time for reaction, the avian quickly executed an overhead strike with the butt end his blaster which made contact with his foes skull. He then swung the gun across the right side of his enemies' maw sending him falling to the ground. Falco then aimed his blaster at the terrified guard lying on the ground.

"What do you want from me?" The marmoset said shaking in fear.

"Where is the prisoner that was captured a few hours ago?" Falco asked with the blaster pointed at the marmosets face.

"We…we usually send prisoners to the interrogation room to be questioned. Now please let me go." The frightened guard pleaded.

"Sorry, I just can't do that." Falco alleged lowering the blaster to his foes chest finger on the trigger ready to depress it.

"Wait Falco," Fox said putting his paw on and pushing down the eagle's blaster, "Violence doesn't always solve everything you know, maybe he can help us. There's no way we can navigate this whole base without getting caught."

Bill marched over to his team mates and nodded in agreement with Fox, "You know he's right, this base has a top notch security grid and the only way to prevent from getting detected would be shutting off the surveillance system."

The marmoset looked extremely relieved when Falco's blaster was removed from his gaze. He overheard their plan and chimed in, "I can shut off the surveillance system. I can get you guys to where you want to be."

The team all agreed to let the marmoset help them and Falco adjusted his gaze to the paralyzed guard and once again held his blaster in the marmosets face causing him to raise his paws in front of his maw, "Ok but if you try to screw us over then you will have a new hole in your face."

The marmoset lowered his hands, sat up wiped the small trail of blood running from his nose, and nodded in agreement. Falco approached the animal and lifted him to his feet tightly grasping the back of his collar so he could not run away. The marmoset was shaking with fear in his uniform, he had never had to deal with this kind of situation before. "Just follow me." He said leading them deeper into the base.

Katt Monroe was sitting tied to her chair at a lone table in the middle of the interrogation room reflecting on what happened just a few hours ago. She was patrolling the hall near Andrew's office cleverly disguised as a common foot soldier when she overheard him talking about a 'secret weapon' that could devastate the Lylat System. She remembered quickly dashing out the door and finding a safe alcove to make contact with General Pepper. The last thing the furry feline remembered was as she was talking to General Pepper she looked up to see a fierce looking tiger staring down at her and saying, "Well what do we have here? Looks like we got ourselves a little trouble maker on our hands." Next thing she knew she was sitting in a dark dank room. She couldn't call General Pepper back because when she woke up she noticed that her wrist communicator was gone.

Suddenly the doors to the room slid open and Leo stood in the doorway with a grin on his mug. He stepped through the doorway and proceeded to the table where Katt was sitting. Katt narrowed her gaze at Leo and turned her head away from him and looked up at the security camera mounted on the ceiling. "I knew there was something suspicious about you." Leo said stopping at the other end of the table looking down on Katt, "You thought you could get away with spying on us didn't you?"

Katt didn't answer she adjusted her gaze so her face met Leo's and just remained silent. "I just have a few questions for you my little friend." Leo said, "Who are you and why are you here?"

Katt answered. "My name is Katt Monroe and why I'm here is none of your business."

Leo narrowed his eyes at Katt, he could tell that this feline would give him some resistance. "Now I don't like to use force Ms. Monroe but I'll be forced to if you don't cooperate." Leo said putting his paw on his blaster as to scare Katt. His attempt to scare her failed, Katt just grinned and let out a slight giggle. This frustrated the tiger and he quickly pulled his blaster from his belt, and then aimed it at Katt's forehead. Leo had a very low tolerance for resistance and the slightest thing like that would infuriate him. "Now unless you tell me who sent you I won't be forced to shoot you." Leo alleged still aiming the gun at Katt.

The pink feline just looked up at her enemy and scoffed, "Not…a…chance." She then turned her head once again to the security camera, only this time she noticed that the red light on the camera was not glowing. Her eyes widened and she directed her gaze back at Leo.

"Fine then, if you won't cooperate with us then I will be forced to take action." Leo said charging his blaster, "Last chance my cocky little friend." Katt just remained silent. "Well then…goodbye."

Just then Leo's communicator on his wrist buzzed, "Leo, come to my office immediately, we have a problem." Leo lowered his blaster and growled, "What the hell does he want?" He turned around and proceeded out the door.

As soon as he was out of sight she struggled to free herself from the ropes that were coiled around her paws and feet. It was no use the ropes were too tight and she couldn't get free. She looked around the room to find any way she could escape if she managed to free herself from the ropes. She scanned the room and her eyes crossed a ventilation duct mounted on the wall. Then she heard footsteps outside her door, and they were growing louder and louder. The door slid open and Fox and the others trotted through it with their blasters in their paws. Falco caught first glimpse of Katt and his jaw dropped, "Katt?"

"Falco?" Katt answered.

"What are you doing here?" Katt and Falco both said at the same time.

"You are the spy we're supposed to rescue?" Falco alleged, "But you're not part of Star Fox or the Cornarian Army."

Katt grinned at the falcon, "I'll explain it to you later, right now let's focus on escaping."

Bill pulled out his laser dagger ambled over to Katt and began to slice the ropes that were constricting her.

MEANWHILE

Leo strolled down the hall to Andrew's office, he stopped at the door and let out a sigh. He depressed the button that opened the door and proceeded through it. "What seems to be the problem sir?"

Andrew was pacing up and down the room, he stopped and glanced over to his minion. "Leo, the security cameras have stopped working." The ape pointed to the blank screens sitting right by his desk. "Could you reactivate them for me?"

Leo just looked baffled at what he just heard. Andrew, the computer genius was asking him to reactivate the security from his own computer. "Umm…sir can't you do that yourself?"

Andrew looked embarrassed, "Well I would except, I forgot the password to the mainframe."

Leo rolled his eyes and went over to his boss' computer, he gently tapped the keys on the keyboard and soon he looked over to the monitors in the room and they started to flicker on one at a time. "There we go, they're all up and running now sir." Leo told his boss.

Andrew turned to the tiger, "Thank you Leo you may go now."

The tiger started heading for the door and as he approached it he gazed at the monitor with the interrogation room. He then looked away and continued for the door. As the door slid open he stopped and quickly twirled around. He then trotted at a fast pace back to the monitors to check the one he was looking at one more time. What he saw was a fox, eagle, a hound dog, and Katt, he then asked his boss, "Sir, did you send anyone to the interrogation room to cover for me?"

Andrew flipped around, "No why?"

"Well, there are three others in the room at this time."

Andrew approached the monitors and glanced at it, then his eyes widened and his jaw dropped to the floor, "What the hell? That's Fox McCloud!"

Leo's eyes also widened and he turned to his boss, "Fox McCloud? Isn't he the one who almost killed you during the aparoid war?"

"Yes that's him alright, and I want you to repay the favor…kill him and his friends!" Andrew shouted in a furious tone. With that order the ferocious tiger bolted out the door, and Andrew whirled around and approached the window once again. "If Fox and his friends escape then the entire Cornarian Army will be after us and we'll be in serious trouble." Andrew thought to himself.

MEANWHILE IN THE INTERROAGAION ROOM

"Almost done Katt," Bill said as he finished slicing through the ropes that were around Katt's paws and feet. The ropes snapped and fell to the ground, Katt stood up and rubbed her wrists and then pointed to the vent sitting on the wall.

"There we can get out through that vent," Katt alleged, "We just need to pry the cover off."

Fox reached for the staff by the holster of his blaster, he approached the vent cover and extended the staff. He placed the tip of the rod under a portion of the vent, put one leg on the wall and pushed back from the wall hard. The vent popped off and hit the ground with a loud crash. Fox contracted the staff to its normal size and sighed, "Piece of cake, ok everyone get into the vent quickly."

Katt was the first to get into the vent, Falco came up and gave her a boost up into the vent. Bill was the next to go so he could lead them throughout the ventilation system. Fox was after him and then, Falco crawled into the vent last. As Falco's foot disappeared into the vent, the doors to the room smashed in. Leo lunged into the room with his blaster withdrawn quickly turning around in different directions to be sure he wasn't going to be taken by surprise. "What the…how did they…" the angry tiger mused as his gaze was directed to the vent cover lying on the ground. "The ventilation shaft, that's how they got out!" Then he charged back though the opening where the door used to be.

The team crawled through the vent and Falco whispered, "Bill, are you sure this shaft can hold all of our weight combined?"

"Yes Falco, I'm pretty sure it can." Bill answered.

Fox stopped and turned his head, "Everyone we need to be as quiet as possible, it we get caught here our trip up here will be for nothing." The team all agreed and they continued proceeding through the shaft.

The team then came to a point in the shaft whether to go left or right. "Turn right here everyone." Bill whispered as quietly as possible.

Leo slid around the corner and ran down the hall, he then skidded to a stop halfway down and tilted his head to the right and looked up at the ceiling. He thought he detected some faint noises coming from the ceiling as he was running down the hall. He then aimed his blaster at the ceiling. "I know you're there and you can't escape from me forever."

Fox and the others heard Leo and stopped in the vent and remained totally silent, just in case he was bluffing. Leo's voice boomed once again, "If you give up now, I promise that we will go easy on all of you." Leo continued to aim the blaster at the ceiling. There was no response, "Have it your way then." The tiger said and fired five shots into the ceiling. There was a long silence and he listened for any cries of pain but there weren't any. He grinned and continued down the hallway.

The team waited a few more moments to make sure he was gone. Fox could hear Falco breathing heavily, and he turned his head to him. "Falco are you ok?"

"He…he shot me Fox." Falco groaned in pain.

"He shot you? Where?" Fox shouted worrying about his friend.

"Shhhhhh...it's ok Fox he only got me in…the foot." Falco mused.

They continued on and rounded the last corner and saw an opening with sunlight passing through it, "There that's the end." Bill said with glee, "This will take us outside to the doors we came in."

Everyone let out a sigh of relief and crawled toward the opening. Fox once again grabbed his staff and extended it. "Here Katt, use this to pop the cover off just like last time." Katt extended her right arm behind her and grabbed the staff. She then put the tip of it on the top and pried it off the wall. "Well that was easier then I expected." She said with a slight chuckle.

Suddenly a massive paw lurched through the opening, grabbed Katt by her throat and threw her down to the ground. The staff landed just outside the vent shaft and everyone else quickly shuffled out of the shaft. Fox went for the staff lying on the ground just a few feet behind Leo. "So you thought you could escape me huh? Well you were wrong and now you are going to pay for ever messing with me." Leo mused as he aimed his blaster at Katt, ready to fire. Then Fox jumped onto the tigers back, held onto the staff at both ends and placed it on the front of Leo's neck. "No, leave her alone!" Fox shouted at his enemy. Leo struggled with the vulpine and grabbed the back of Fox's uniform and hurled him over his massive shoulders. The vulpine flew through the air and slammed into the ground bouncing once.

Fox groaned as he stood up and wobbled around. Leo folded his arms and scoffed at vulpine, "I expected you to be more of a challenge to me, and I'm very disappointed. I thought you were a skilled fighter but I guess I was wrong." Leo turned his back to Fox.

Fox regained his composure, reached for the staff on the ground and grinned. "So you want to challenge me huh? I except you challenge."

Leo spun around and also grinned, "Very well, choose your weapon." Leo reached for one of the swords strapped on his back and pulled it out of the holster. Fox put both of his paws on the staff and held it out in front of him. Leo laughed ruthlessly at the vulpine's choice of weapon. "That stick is your weapon? I'll snap that thing in half like a twig!" The ravenous tiger leaped into the air and executed an overhead strike with his blade. Fox quickly raised the staff over his head to block the attack. The two made contact and to Leo's surprise the staff didn't even scratch when he made impact. He quickly leapt back, "How is that possible? My sword didn't even scratch it."

"Maybe you shouldn't judge something just by the way it looks." Fox answered with a grin.

Leo charged at Fox and slashed his sword at the vulpine's head. Fox dodged the attack spun around and planted the sole of his boot into the tigers stomach. He then took his staff and swung one end upwards making contact with the tiger's massive jaw. Leo took a few steps back and wiped a small portion of blood from his maw. "Grrrr…this is harder that I expected. I'd better get serious" Leo thought to himself. The tiger yelped and once again charged at Fox. He executed several swings with his sword which either missed or were all blocked by the staff. "Hold still you punk!" Leo yelped desperately trying to land a blow on the vulpine. He paused for a moment.

"I expected you to be more of a challenge to me, guess I was wrong." Fox said repeating what he was told just moments earlier.

This enraged the tiger and he swung his massive fist across the vulpine's muzzle. The punch made impact and turned Fox's head 45 degrees to the left. Fox quickly answered and jabbed the end of the staff into Leo's abdomen, and fired three fire blast shots into it. Leo was forced back a few feet and fell on one knee trying to catch his breath. He wasn't sure what just happened, "Wh…what the hell…was that?" Leo yelped holding his stomach.

"It's a little trick I learned while on another mission a few years ago." Fox chortled.

"Well you won't get that chance again." Leo said standing back up, and pulling his second sword out of its holster. "I've had enough of this, now I'll finish you off!"

With both swords drawn Leo ran at Fox and swung both of the swords at the vulpine. Fox leaned back and the tip of one of the blades scratched his muzzle and a small amount of blood trickled down it. Leo brought one of the blades over his head and forced it down to slice Fox in half. The vulpine quickly moved out of the way and swung the staff with such force that it knocked one of the blades out of Leos grasp.

The blade flew through the air directly at Katt. Falco quickly ran to her aid, "Katt look out!" the avian said as he dove for Katt shoving her out of the way. They both landed on the ground hard and Falco looked at Katt, "Are you ok?" he asked.

Katt nodded, "Yes Falco, I'm fine."

Leo looked back at his sword and then redirected his gaze back at Fox. He scowled at his enemy then quickly reached for his tazer and fired it. A hook with an electrical wire shot out of the gun and hooked Fox in his chest. Leo let a surge of electricity through the gun and shocked Fox. Fox yelped in pain and fell on his knees. The tiger let another surge through and electrocuted Fox once again. The vulpine fell on his side and desperately tried to loosen the hook that was jammed in him. Leo approached Fox and laughed, "Now what are you going to do?" He shocked Fox one more time and the vulpine suddenly stopped moving. Fox now lied motionless on the ground. Leo picked Fox's frozen body off the ground by his arm and pulled out his blaster. He carefully aimed it at Fox's chest. "Goodbye Fox McCloud!" Leo fired two shots into Fox's chest and tossed him aside.

Bill yelped in terror, "No Fox!"

Leo laughed maniacally and then suddenly stopped. A sharp jolt of pain surged through his body and he looked down, only to see that he had been impaled by his own sword. The blade was jammed through his back and out of his chest. He slowly turned around to see Katt standing a few feet behind him with a blaster at the ready.

Leo started to move at a fast pace towards her, "Why you dirty little bi…" Katt fired the blaster and made contact with the tiger's forehead. Leo fell to the ground and landed on his back, which pushed the blade the rest of the way through. He was dead.

A ship was then seen flying off in the distance, it was Andrew.

Katt and the others ran for Fox's motionless body. Falco kneeled down beside him, ripped the hook out of his chest, and nudged him, "Fox? Dude please be alive, come on don't die on me man." Falco started to give his friend CPR to try to save him. Tears began to appear in their eyes. "Fox come on…please…please breathe!" Bill said starting with tears starting to flow out of his eyes. Falco continued to give CPR to Fox but it didn't appear to be working, there was no sign on life in his body. The falcon continued to try to revive his best friend, and Bill then put his paw on Falco's shoulder. "Falco…he's gone man. I'm sorry."

Falco grabbed Bill's paw and shoved it off his shoulder, "No! I won't give up, I won't!"

Katt slowly approached him, "I'm sorry Falco, Bill's right he's gone and there's nothing we can do about it now."

Falco stood up, picked up Fox's body and tossed it over his shoulder. Then they started to make their way back to the arwings. "Can you drive an arwing Katt?" Falco asked

"Yes I can. It's basically the same as my ship." Katt mused

When they arrived back at their ships Falco opened his cockpit placed Fox in the seat behind him and climbed in. He turned on his transmitter, "Falco to Great Fox."

Peppy answered his call with glee, "Falco it's so good to hear from you. How did the mission go?"

"Mission accomplished sir, we rescued Katt but…" Falco said with tears beginning to flow down his eyes.

Krystal appeared on the screen, "What is it Falco? You don't look so good."

The avian took a staggering breath, "It's Fox."

"Is he alright?" Both Peppy and Krystal asked.

Falco shook his head, "No." He looked away from the screen, "He's dead."

There was complete silence, no one said a word. Krystal's eyes glazed, "He's dead?"

"Yes, I'm sorry Peppy and Krystal he's truly gone from this world. We'll be back soon Falco out." Falco said turning off the communicator and quietly sobbing. Everyone started their arwings, put on their restraints, and they lifted off the ground and took off into space. They left the atmosphere and proceeded back to Corneria.

"Stop right there!" Andrew's voice was heard over the radio, and his ship appeared out of nowhere.

Falco and the others slammed on their breaks, causing them to thrust forward in their seats. "You don't think you all will get away alive did you?" Andrew boomed.

"Y…Yes…I think that's…what we originally…planned." A voice whispered from behind Falco. The falcon slowly turned his head around, "F…Fox?"

"What's up my…friend?" Fox staggered grinning at his best friend.

Falco was flustered, quickly turned on the radio and yelled, "Everyone, Fox is alive!"

"He's alive? Oh thank heavens!" Katt responded

"That's our leader he never gives up, even when he's dead." Bill chuckled with glee.

"So he's alive huh? Well I guess I'll have to finish the job Leo started." Andrew chortled.

Falco smirked, "You think you can take us, you and what army?"

The ape started to chuckle and soon his shoulders heaved with laughter. "What army?" Andrew inquired, "This one…Stealth Squadron appear, show them what their up against."

A fleet of ten to fifteen stealth ships appeared in front of the arwings poised and ready to attack. Falco and the others looked around at the army in their wake. The eagle turned on a private connection to Katt and Bill. "Does anyone have an idea of how to get the hell out of here?" Falco asked.

"Use…stealth mode…Falco." Fox told the avian. Falco looked back at Fox and nodded.

"Katt you see that blue button on the panel press it on my command. Activate stealth mode now!" Falco commanded. The arwings vanished into thin air and Andrew was baffled, but then quickly regained his confidence.

"Oh wow so your ships can disappear, big deal, that doesn't help you in the least." Andrew alleged. There was no answer. "I must bring an end to our relationships. Die!" Andrew roared, "Stealth Squadron open fire."

A/N: "Oh no don't stop there." You say shaking the computer screen. Sorry but that's the perfect way to end chapter 3 I hope you enjoyed it. Once again I greatly appreciate all of my reviewers so far. One of them actually helped me with the end of the chapter in a way, thanks Sly Fox 03. Anyway the research paper is going great so far. It's due December 12th so just stay tuned for the next chapter it may be a while, but not 25 days like this time. In these reviews I'd really like to hear what you thought about Fox's "death". Did I shock you, bring a tear to your eye, drag you deeper into the chapter? What? Anyway thanks for your patience and see y'all. WEEEEEEE! runs away