Capacitors are cylindrical electrical components that store electricity and quickly discharge when their prongs touch a conductive surface. You will understand why I reminded/taught you this later.

"Would you rather... Uh, pop a fish oil capsule in your mouth, or fight a tree that somehow has fists?" Krystal asked looking through a magazine for would you rather ideas.

"Is the tree dry rotted?" Slippy asked

"No, it's just your run of the mill mutant tree."

"Would I be allowed to use that numbing stuff dentists use?" Fox asked.

"No. You either taste something putrid or fight a tree."

"Are power tools allowed?" Slippy asked again.

"Yes, it's still a tree it won't get upset about you not playing fair."

This triggered both Fox and Slippy to choose the tree.

Eight Minutes Later.

"Destination reached, awaiting further instructions." A robotic voice spoke for the console.

Slippy opened a comm link with the Tritari parking complex. "This is Slippy Toad of Star Fox requesting permission to land."

"Identity confirmed, go ahead mister Toad." Answered a woman from the traffic control station.

The doors of a 40×40-foot circular entrance in the ground slid open, revealing a parking complex where both hover cars and small shuttles alike could be found parked.

Upon parking, the group got out and made their way through one of the many hallways that made up Tritari. Helpful signs were placed at every corner to ensure nobody got lost.

"It just occurred to me that we have no idea where the new tunnel is." Fox looked at a conveniently placed digital map on the wall.

After a bit of walking, an elevator ride, and some scaling down a shallow underground ravine, the trio made it to the area where the doorway was found. Outside the doorway was a setup consisting of a ham radio and a signal transmitter/receiver

Fox stepped towards the mysterious hole

only to meet the officer Peppy had supposedly sent for them. The officer stepped forward and held out his arm to shake Fox's hand, which Fox accepted.

"Hello mister McCloud, my name's Damien. General Peppy sent me to assist if the need arises since this could be anything from a previously undiscovered natural phenomenon to a path to a ruin of some kind."

"He didn't say he was gonna send anyone."

Fox inquired. "Okay then. Do we just go through it and see what happens? Sounds risky."

"It doesn't seem harmful."

Krystal telepathically spoke Fox.

"I can't read this guy. I don't trust him."

She continued to try reading the soldier.

Fox looked at her then back to the officer. "Let's see what happens then." He said. "Lead the way."

Upon reaching the doorway, Krystal extended her staff and pointed it into the light. "doesn't seem to be doing anything."

"I have a bad feeling about this." Slippy said as he nervously stared at the light.

"It's now or never." She walked into it.

"Krys wait- dammit." Fox and the others chased in after her.

In a wooded area in Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, A bright light appeared in a rocky outcropping, a rectangular hole formed, and the four Lylatians stepped through.

"What in the-" Slippy messed with his communicator. "Hey, are you guys getting our signal?" He attempted to contact the radio operator on the other side and tried stepping back through the hole only to find a wall. "Oh shhhhit..."

"Well, this is the last thing I would have expected." Fox said bluntly while Krystal was looking completely dumbfounded and Damien already knew to expect something out of the ordinary. "Wait a minute what are you oh shittin' about?"

"This. We have no way back." Replied a bewildered and slightly panicked Slippy.

"You're kidding right?" Krystal looked back through the doorway.

"Well then. I guess we should just see if we can find civilization?" Damien asked while Fox successfully connected his phone's GPS to this planet's network. "We're on Earth somehow..."

"That's impossible! It's almost ten light years and we made it here in a few seconds!" Krystal pointed out.

"Apparently it is possible if that's literally what just happened." Damien sat down on a conveniently placed rock as he considered attempting to contact his employers.

"WHAT IN THE FUCK!?" A dark-haired human male could be seen running in the opposite direction from the group's location.

"Something's wrong! He's never seen a Cornerian before!" Krystal immediately grabbed a blaster off Fox's hip and ran after the human.

"Krystal! Give some warning!"

The rest of the group followed.

After setting the blaster to stun, she fired an electrically charged gaseous bolt at the fleeing human, which caused him to drop like a sack of potatoes. She turned the stunned man over and the rest of the group stopped. "Give some warning next time you run off like that! Also, why'd you shoot this man?" Fox took his gun back from her.

"He's never seen one of us before. From his perspective we're an equivalent to Bigfoot. Naturally, that's an alarming thing." She stated and got on top of the shocked and terrified man to pin him down. he stared at her silently.

"So, we've shifted realities or something?" Slippy asked. "That's the only way this guy could possibly have no idea what we are."

"W-what are you?" The man asked, still held down.

"We're people, just like you." She responded calmly.

"From a star system about nine and a half light years from here. Multiple countries are allied with Corneria, the system's capital planet, one of those countries being this one. Can you confirm?"

The man shook his head no.

"Will you not run away and just talk to us if I get off of you?"

The man hesitantly nodded. "Please get off."

7:58 PM CDT.

The group sat around a quickly made campfire, sun setting.

"So, you're saying first contact was never made?" Fox inquired.

"Called it. We hopped realities." Slippy croaked, messing with a mobile scanner.

"No, we've never contacted an alien race as far as I know." The human said. "My name's Jacob by the way."

"My name's Fox, this is Slippy, Krystal, and- wait a minute where's Damien?"

They all looked around.

"Uhh-oh, guys? I'm picking up multiple life signs surrounding us." Slippy said as he drew his pistol, Fox and Krystal following suit. Jacob hitting the deck immediately.

Suddenly, multiple bright lights were shone, and a 12-gauge bean bag hit Slippy in the gut, he dropped to the ground with a startled yell. Luckily his flight suit absorbed most of the impact, but he acted as though it didn't anyway.

"Shit!" Fox started firing both of his pistols in the direction of the attackers. The attackers only responded with a capacitor-like projectile being shot and stuck into Fox's chest, which caused him to jerk and fall backwards. By some miracle it didn't stop his heart.

Krystal immediately ducked behind a tree and used her staff to create a protective bubble around herself. This enemy was clearly trying to take them down non-lethally. Must have had some advanced alloys for a barbed piece of metal to penetrate their armor so easily. She was considering surrender until a man ran up and slammed his palm into her bubble, causing a flash of green light like a miniature aurora and a shockwave. The bubble collapsed from around the now flash blinded vixen. The man then pulled out a pistol and shot her with two similar yet smaller projectiles than what was used on Fox. She squeaked, seized, and fell unconscious.

When one of the attackers went to make sure that Slippy was neutralized, Slippy quickly rolled over and shot his laser into the man's crotch. Naturally, he screamed bloody murder and fell over bleeding out from the former location of his testicles.

"You should have a had your gun aimed."

Slippy rolled and took cover behind a different tree from Krystal's.

The soldier immediately projected a ball of yellow energy in his hand and stood up in a very unnatural manner as if there was something pulling him forward to his feet and the bleeding stopped. This was interrupted by Slippy firing his pistol again before another capacitor-slug projectile hit him in his side with the same effect as the others.

The man dropped to the ground, his entire right arm and shoulder disintegrated with part of the skin covering that side of his ribs. Needless to say, it was a lethal injury.

11:04 PM CDT, GOC Covert Base.

"Wake up." Fox heard an unidentified voice.

He groggily opened his eyes to find a bright spotlight being shone in his face, a man wearing a black fedora and trench coat sitting across from him. "W-what-" He realized what was happening and sighed, unable to move. "Okay. Who the fuck are you, and why couldn't you have just come and talked to us like civilized people? Speaking of civilized people, what happened to Jacob and my team?"

"The parathreat's fine. Why were you and your people with him?

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Fox replied.

"Humor me."

"Okay then. We found an underground doorway on the planet Corneria, went through it, it brought us here, Krystal tackled Jacob, and he is either an extreme hermit, mentally ill, or my team and I have accidentally proven the multiverse theory correct."

"Why do you think that?" The man continued.

"The United States, England, Russia, and Canada are all allied with Corneria. Apparently not here though." Fox stated.

"I can confirm that they are. You were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. You see, the man you've been calling Jacob is actually a very dangerous parathreat. He has the ability to manipulate water. That doesn't sound like much but it's more dangerous than it sounds. You and your team will be administered amnestics and released once we receive the next shipment. Until then you'll be treated as guests, but we'll be watching you, closely." The man stated, unlocking the cuffs.

Fox sat there confused and rubbed his wrists. "Okay how about you explain what exactly an amnestic or a parathreat is?"

"No." The man replied as he opened the door and spoke over the intercom next to it. "Let the Cornerians out of confinement. And keep them under close surveillance."

Fox got up and looked out to see a hallway full of what looked like over engineered prison cells, heavy metal doors. This sent a nervous chill down Fox's spine. A difficult feat for sure, but there was just something about this place that gave the vulpine a very bad feeling. He stepped into the hallway and started walking down it.

Meanwhile_

Directed by a guard, Fox walked into a large partially furnished cell where his team was. Damien was missing.

Krystal immediately started telepathically speaking to everyone in the room. "These people are evil. There are things in the cells and most of them are completely passive, but they're scheduled for execution anyway. And on top of it all they're witches. They even steal the memories of any witnesses."

Fox rubbed the area on his chest he was shot and sat down.

Slippy thought assuming the vixen was listening. "So, what do we do?"

2:30 AM CDT, Site-81 MTF Deployment Facility, Bloomington Indiana

Two large matte black triangular craft hovered above what appeared to be a water treatment facility.

Inside the facility, a mission briefing was being held.

A middle-aged man clad in a lab coat not unlike the ones from earlier stood in front of a screen where a satellite image was being projected.

"Our satellites have captured possible GOC activity to the south of Fort Gibson, Oklahoma. Your mission is to find out what the hell they're doing here and possibly where they're working out of. The exact coordinates are loaded into the autopilot of the AGC that'll take you there and another will provide backup if the need arises. Good luck."

The commanding officer of the group being briefed spoke into a communicator on his left wrist. "This is Recon Team Eta-1. Initiate transport."

The team consisting of multiple people clad in armored black jumpsuit-like uniforms and wrist mounted energy weapons disappeared in a white flash with a whoosh-like hum. The anti-gravity crafts cloaked and zipped off at breakneck speed about a minute later.