"Well, well…" Pigma sneered from the cockpit of his Hunter mech, "It looks like my little fox hunt has more than paid off. Pity you didn't leave your precious gem with your smoldering Arwing. Otherwise, I wouldn't be about to blast you to bits at this very moment!"

"That 'precious gem' is essential for restoring the planet! Now stand aside!" replied Fox as he and Krystal drew their staffs.

Krystal then said, "So you're Pigma Dengar, aren't you. We've only just met and already you sicken me. In fact, I'd say you're even worse than Fox's description made you out to be."

Pigma licked his lips. "Well, well, I see that you, Fox, have got yourself a sexy new lady friend too. Looks like after I blast you to ashes, I'll have two prizes! A gem that'll get me loads of cash, and a gorgeous new concubine! Can't wait to play around with that gorgeous bod of hers! Ahahahaha!"

Kristal's eyes widened in rage as she growled at Pigma. As much as she enjoyed sexual pleasure with the men in her tribe, she knew that they, like Fox, respected her sexuality and didn't see her as a tool for procreation. In fact, they mainly saw her as a wise and inspirational leader and a beacon of hope when things get dark and grim for them. Fox felt the same way. While the fact that Krystal was a voluptuous literal vixen did make him interested in her in the first place, what truly made him decide that she was the woman for him was her sheer willpower and how she is willing to keep fighting no matter how much pain and torment she goes through, and more importantly, how much of himself he sees in her. He would absolutely love to engage in a sexual intercourse with her, but he would want such pleasure to simply be a part of a very strong and meaningful relationship between the two. In their anger, they fired their Fire Blasts at Pigma's Hunter, but apparently the blasts did little more than scratch its paint job. Pigma laughed hoarsely and obnoxiously, and then fired a laser at Fox, but Fox immediately activated his reflector causing the blasts to bounce right back, but Pigma moved his Hunter out of the way dodging the blast. "Nice try, foxy woxy!" Pigma then activated a hyper laser from the mouth of his Hunter Mech. As Fox activated the defensive barrier from his staff, Krystal rushed on over to his side and activated the one from hers. The laser scattered everywhere without so much as scratching Fox or Krystal, and Pigma immediately shut it off, giving the vulpine duo a bit of breathing room.

Krystal then communicated to Fox with her telepathic abilities, Fox, head under the mechanical beast and perform a Ground Quake. I'll distract him!

Fox was reluctant to carry out with this command because he was afraid of what kind of danger Krystal would be in, but he dashed to the underside of Pigma's Hunter, while Krystal shot Fire Blasts at the cockpit, shouting, "Over here, you freak!"

Pigma was irritated at the Fire Blasts being fired at him, and went after Krystal. He didn't want to kill, Krystal, though, he just wanted subdue her just to take her as his concubine. Krystal thought that it would be a good idea to use Pigma's lecherous greed against him, as the target that he actually wants dead would be launching the attacks for his downfall before he could even react. As Pigma struggled to find a way to beat Krystal without actually killing her, Fox dashed underneath his Hunter mech, thinking that the Ground Quake would be at its most effective at the legs of the Hunter. Fox twirled his staff and rammed the tail end thereof into the ground, standing next to one of the legs of the Hunter. The release of the Ground Quake shook the Hunter off-balance and caused it to tremble as Pigma struggled to regain balance. Krystal then telepathically communed to Fox, Good! Now, get out of there! Fox bailed out from under the Hunter, and dashed up behind it.

A small aura glowed around Krystal and she concentrated her energy. Darting around Pigma's Hunter from behind, Fox noticed another version of him darting beneath the front end and then going right in front of it. He thought Krystal was onto something. He darted around the legs of the Hunter without letting himself get noticed. The illusion Fox fired his "blaster" at Pigma, but each shot didn't even phase the mech. Pigma laughed and fired his laser canon. The fake Fox dodged a few of them, but then tripped and fell. He panicked in terror. Pigma laughed maniacally and shouted "Say bye-bye!" and fired a big laser at the fake Fox. Upon pulling the trigger, an explosion occurred, and Pigma laughed until the smoke cleared… and he saw that Fox was still there! The illusion Fox smirked and then vanished, and then the laser cannon from the mouth of the Hunter went kaput. The real Fox thrusted the tail end of his staff into the laser canon and completely discombobulated it and was still hanging from the staff as it hung from the canon. Pigma's Hunter jerked around, shaking Fox around. Fox held on for dear life, but the staff slid out of the Hunter laser canon and Fox fell to the ground.

Angrily, Pigma set his sights on Fox and his Hunter mech kicked him to the ground. The mech pounced toward him, and then slammed its foot on Fox's body. Fox screamed in pain as the mech's foot slowly pressed down on top of him. He could practically feel his bones about to crack at any moment.

Krystal,quickly became alarmed at the state Fox was in. She quickly called his name and then rushed towards him to help, but a mechanical hand emerged from the side of Pigma's cockpit. Krystal spotted the hand behind her, and as soon as it swooped down to grab her, dodged the hand with a forward flip, but just as she was about to regain her footing, the hand grabbed her. Krystal struggled to get free as the arm pulled her towards Pigma's cockpit. As the hand returned to the side of the Hunter's head, Pigma said to her, "Aw… don't worry, sweetie. You'll be all nice and cozy at my side. All nice and snuggly." Pigma lecherously licked his lips, smiling ominously at Krystal. She cringed in disgust and glowered in contempt. Pigma went on, "Too bad I can't say the same for yer hubby. Glad to have a lovely guest in witnessing his… crushing defeat! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Krystal stared in terror seeing the man she loved suffered under the foot of Pigma's mech as it started to crush him. Her anger and fear welled up inside of her. A powerful, cyan aura appeared around her. The aura radiated powerful energy within her… energy she was ready to unleash.

She knew she had to save Fox McCloud. Ever since Cerinia's destruction, she has been unable to trust others. She read the hearts of many and sensed malicious intent, and did everything she could to protect herself from it. But ever since she met Fox McCloud, she knew that he had a good heart; that she could trust him. She knew that even though he lusted over her, he wanted to help her not to be rewarded with sexual pleasure, but simply because he doesn't want her to suffer. She knew that despite his hormones going wild at the mere sight of her, he wanted to hold back on having sex with her until the bond between them has gotten much stronger. He was helpful and supportive, forming a strong bond between them. He was the first person in… forever that Krystal would be able to trust. And to see him be taken away from her before her very eyes… the one person worthy of Fox's trust to the point where she could tell him about the tragedies that destroyed her life… to the point where she would invite him to touch her… horribly murdered, leaving her all alone again...

She would not have it.

The mechanical hand that trapped Krystal shattered into a thousand pieces in an instant and the aura around her glowed intensely, and she furiously shrieked out her ancient Cerinian battle cry. Her eyes glowed with a powerful intensity and Pigma, who previously drooled over Krystal and couldn't wait to spread his lecherous hands all over her, trembled in terror. How could one voluptuous young woman be so powerful? Krystal drew her staff and charged at the leg that was crushing Fox. She rammed the tail end of her staff into the knee of that leg, causing sparks to spark out of it. Then she rammed the head end of her staff into the top of the knee of that leg and kept hitting it over and over until the shin of the mechanical leg collapsed onto the ground, no longer on Fox, free from its pressure but horribly injured. The mech started to collapse due to its leg being toppled, and Krystal, horrified that Fox might get crushed, leaped down and grabbed Fox, shouting, "Get out of the way!" and dashed out of the way of the collapsing Hunter with Fox in her arms. The Hunter fell over, and Pigma struggled to get it back up again and Krystal placed Fox on the ground and charged at Pigma. Pigma started sobbing in fear as Krystal charged at him. He desperately started searching for a weapon he could use to fight her off. He tried searching in the left side of his cockpit, but found nothing. Then, just as he was about to check the right side, he heard a thud on his cockpit. He turned upward… and saw her. The girl he hoped to take as a prize was on the roof of his cockpit, snarling like a leopard, holding her mystical staff in her hands. Pigma whimpered in terror as she prepared to strike

Krystal thrusted the tail end of her staff into the glass of the cockpit of Pigma's Hunter. Pigma retracted back in fear, as the impact of Krystal's staff created a huge crack on the glass keeping her away from him. Krystal rammed the tail end of her staff into the cockpit glass again and the crack got larger. Pigma started sweating in terror. Krystal hit the glass a third time, and then, cracks were all over the cockpit glass. Tears started leaking out of Pigma's eyes, as he was now practically praying for a miracle. Krystal then rammed her staff into the glass a fourth time, shattering it into thousands of pieces. Pigma held his hands in front of him and turned away in terror, but Krystal grabbed him by the collar and pulled him towards her, glowering and snarling at the swine. Pigma sobbed as his face was being pulled closer and closer towards Krystal's given that she was downright seething at him. Staring directly into her face downright terrified him. Krystal ruthlessly tossed Pigma to the ground, and then thrusted the tail-end of her staff into the control panel for Pigma's Hunter, causing the electrical interface to go haywire, and then jumped to the ground towards Pigma. Pigma tumbled on the ground, rolling around in the grass, and by the time his movement came to a stop, he was aching in absolute pain. He struggled to rise up by putting his hands to the ground and tried to push himself back up, but his body was aching all over, so he could barely lift himself. Then, all of a sudden, he felt a hard landing on his belly that felt like a punch to the gut, and felt like a cold, metal bar was being pressed against his throat. He saw Krystal perched on top of him. He knew that Krystal had pounced on him and was pushing her staff's shaft against his throat. She was snarling at him, her eyes widening in rage, her muzzle pulling back, exposing her razor sharp teeth as she growled at the terrified swine, who kept sweating and sobbing in terror.

Fox stood by and watched. He knew that Krystal can be incredibly frighteningly vicious when confronting an evildoer, but in addition to all of that, Fox couldn't forgive Pigma for the horrible things he did in his life. Especially the death of Fox's father to whom Pigma was once an ally. So, Fox felt that Pigma may have actually deserved whatever horrid fate Krystal may have in store for him. So, he decided to stand back and watch.

Krystal hissed, venomously, "Any last words before I let you die screaming for your crimes!?"

Pigma cried, "I'm sorry about my concubine comment! I take it back! Please don't…"

Krystal punched Pigma in the nose in the blink of an eye. "A mere punch to the face would be proper retribution for that. No, no, no. Your death sentence will be for leaving Fox's father to die, nearly leaving his friend, Peppy to the same fate, siding with a sadistic, maniacal overlord, attempting to steal something vital to saving this planet, therefore letting it crumble apart with its denizens perishing, and nearly murdering Fox McCloud! All for the sake of your desire for more money! If you weren't willing to sacrifice innocents to satisfy your greed, I would have let you leave here alive!" Krystal leaned in closer to Pigma, now narrowing her eyes and smirking, sinisterly, "Now, how shall I send you screaming into oblivion? Should I freeze your limbs solid and shatter them?" Pigma immediately begged, "No! Don't! Anything but that!" but Krystal wasn't listening. She just continued, saying, "Or should I start ripping your flesh apart with my teeth? Or, I could poke a hole in your belly and start tearing out your entrails. Maybe leave you at the top of a tree and start burning it? Or maybe, just maybe..."

Pigma's begging and pleading started dying down. He outright dreaded what he was about to hear. "I could let the wildlife in this jungle be your executioner."

"No! Don't do it!"

"Several wild beasts in this jungle can't wait for a meal. For them, you'd be nice and plump."

"No! Please don't!"

"Or carnivorous plants that can poison you before slowly eating you alive. Oh, and I just blew up your Wolfen. Which means you can't escape this jungle if you wanted to."

"Please! Please have mercy!"

But then, all of a sudden, two other ships that looked exactly like Pigma's landed nearby Pigma's now discombobulated Hunter. After they finished landing, their cockpits opened and out of one stepped a chameleon in a purple and black bodysuit, and out of the other, a wolf in similarly colored armor with a cyan scouter on his right eye. As they approached Pigma, the wolf said to Krystal, "Step aside, woman. We'll take it from here." The wolf and chameleon stepped right before Pigma, and then the wolf smirked at Krystal, who defensively raised her staff, threateningly towards him, and took a slight look into his mind. It turns out the reason for the wolf's smirk did relate to Krystal's skimpy clothing, but not in the sleazy, lecherous way that she dreaded. Wolf saw that Krystal was able to frighten Pigma, and as far as he was concerned, it caused him to admire Krystal for that. He has witnessed Pigma attempt to fondle, or worse, even outright molest other women wearing other racy outfits, even though some of them were much less revealing than Krystal's. As far as Wolf was concerned, a comely young woman in such revealing clothing, such as Krystal being able to outright frighten Pigma is worthy of his respect and admiration. Krystal's stance relaxed slightly.

Fox approached Krystal, and turned to face his rival, drawing his staff. "Wolf! Leon! What are you two doing here!?"

Wolf sneered at Fox. "I think I should be asking you that question, pup! I'd love to say, 'Nothing that concerns you,' and it probably wouldn't have if Pigma hadn't simply… hogged my chance at taking you down."

Pigma whimpered, "But… But, I thought you'd be proud of me for taking down Fox! Isn't that what you wanted? Having him out of the pictu.."

But then Wolf kicked him in the stomach. "That privilege was meant for me! Know your place!" He turned back to Fox saying, "Pigma went missing for several days and Leon and I were looking for him."

Leon giggled, "He must have been a naughty boy, and we weren't happy that he's been acting up."

Wolf continued, "Of course, we never imagined our search would lead us to you. Don't think, even for a second that I have forgotten the score I have to settle with you, though. Because of the rut that you and your playmates are in right now, and because what you're doing here seems important, I'll let you off the hook. But remember this: Star Wolf will take you down one day!"

Krystal threateningly pointed her staff at Wolf. "If you want Fox, you'll have to go through me first!"

Wolf smirked at Krystal, but then dropped it and said to her, "This fight is between me and him, little girl. Stay out of it."

Krystal continued to leer at Wolf. "Make me."

Fox quickly became afraid that potential violence could erupt between Wolf and Krystal, so he hoped that changing the subject could ease the tension, "How come Andrew Oikonny isn't with you?"

"He left Star Wolf because he wanted to replace Andross as head of his empire. He considers himself to be his heir, but that's not the point. Give us Pigma. Now!"

Fox then told Krystal, "You heard him. Let's give him Pigma."

Krystal thought about it deep and hard. She really wanted to kill Pigma or at least let the monstrous wildlife in the jungle kill him. She couldn't forgive him for how much he has hurt Fox, and she certainly couldn't forgive him for being willing to let an entire planet's worth of innocent men, women, and children perish just to satisfy his greed. But at the same time, she knew that Fox didn't want a fight to break out between her and his longtime nemesis, Wolf. As far as Fox was concerned, the Komalia jungle already provided him and Krystal stressful battles and a battle with Star Wolf would do nothing more than waste their energy. Krystal let out a sigh of animosity, then stepped aside, saying, "Here, Wolf. You can have him." She then hissed at Pigma, "Congratulations, Pigma. You got off easy. This time!"

Wolf grabbed Pigma by the collar and started dragging him towards his Wolfen. After he threw Pigma into his Wolfen behind his seat and he and Leon jumped into the cockpits of their ships, Wolf said, "You'd better be ready the next time we meet. Because when we do, we'll be coming for you. And we're not gonna play nice!" The two Wolfens took off into the air and flew away.

Krystal said, softly and somewhat contemptuously, "So, that's Star Wolf…"

"Yeah. We've been at odds with them for years. But, we'd better get going. We have a jungle to escape from."

"You're right, Fox."

"And by the way, Krystal, thanks for saving me. I would have been squashed like a bug if you hadn't torn up the mechanical leg of Pigma's mech."

"You're welcome, Fox. But I really wanted to kill that pig so badly. All the lives he sacrificed for his selfish aims…"

"We'll fight him again someday. We can have our revenge then. Right now, we have other things to worry about. Can you still detect that source of magic from earlier?"

Krystal tried concentrating to track down the magic she detected. As soon as she sensed a strong presence, she pointed and said, "That way." She gestured Fox to follow her, and then they walked in the direction Krystal pointed. Fox activated his PDA and contacted Peppy. "Hey, Peppy!"

"You called, Fox?" asked Peppy on the intercom.

"Turns out it was Pigma who shot us down. But we took care of him."

"Great! Slippy is still working on my Arwing, but I can send it to you now, if you would like."

"I would prefer to wait until it's ready. Let me know when it is."

"Okay, Fox. I'll contact you when it's ready. Peppy, signing off."

"Okay, Peppy." Fox turned off his PDA.

Krystal kept thinking, You got lucky this time, Pigma, but the next time we meet, I will show you no mercy!