Old Tricks

Present Time - Lylat System


The arrow shaped Arwing fighter ship ducked and weaved through the asteroid belt.

"Enemy base located. Engaging two bandits", announced the pilot through his helmet microphone.

Or rather they were engaging him. It wasn't just the two persistent blips on the radar, but more so the blasts of plasma flashing past his cockpit. Now, let's see if you can fly, he said to himself, barrel rolled to the left and put his fighter in a tight turn around a large boulder of space rock. The bogies followed.

"Need a hand there, rookie?" said a voice in his helmet. What the...?

"Who's on my channel?" he replied while his fingers furiously worked a touch screen, trying to trim the gravity diffuser. He needed more speed than he had anticipated in this fight.

"Captain Lombardi at your service!"

"Falco? Where the heck have you been all this time? Still flying solo?"

He saw the streams after another Arwing fighter passing some distance to his right, but was interrupted by a blast hitting his rear shield, shaking the ship.

"I'm coming in, Fox!" said Falco.

"Negative, I can't afford sharing this fee," answered Fox. "But you're welcome back to my ship for a drink when I'm done here."

Spotting something he liked he banked and turned hard to his left. The fighter slipped through the way too narrow gap between two lumpy asteroids. One bogey misjudged the turn and disintegrated on impact. The other took the safer option and shot straight past.

"Man, you got a death wish or something?" Falco called out.

Fox' Arwing came banking back from the other side of the asteroid, now behind the second bogey. He fired his laser cannons and the enemy fighter went up like a firework, debris bouncing off Fox' windshield as he flew a bit too close. Now, where was that base? He turned around and backtracked towards a larger blip on the radar until the structure came into view. A gun tower was turning his way, but Fox came in too fast, firing his lasers first, and blasting the tower clean off the base. He did a couple of laps around the base to make sure nothing else came out.

"This is McCloud to Cornerian Forces. The air space is clear. You are good to go."

"Acknowledged, McCloud. We're coming in."

Fox relaxed while waiting for the Cornerian troop ships to arrive.

"So, Falco, are you thirsty?"

"I never say no to a free drink."

"Cornerian Forces to McCloud," came another voice over the comms channel. "Say, does that offer extend to an old general as well?"

Fox smiled to himself.

"It sure does!"


The Arwing fighter slowed down and entered through the starboard plasma gate of the old and formerly Cornerian Army assault carrier. It did a flawless touchdown on the flight deck and the high-pitched whine decreased as the G-diffuser engine wound down and stopped. The cockpit canopy swung upwards and forwards, and the pilot jumped out. He was about average height and looked fit yet not bulky. Removing his helmet revealed green eyes, red hair with an unruly white stripe running over the middle of his head, and the characteristic pointy ears of a vulpine from the desert planet Papetoon in the Lylat system. He looked neither young nor old, probably in his thirties.

A second Arwing had followed closely behind and out of this climbed a much taller man with the very distinctive appearance of someone of the avian race from Corneria, which was the commercial centre of the system. He had sharp, blue eyes, a rather large, sharp beak and a blue mohawk on his head, which made him appear even taller.

"Falco!" exclaimed the shorter man.

"Fox!"

They embraced and then Falco slapped Fox's back rather forcefully.

"Falco!" came another high-pitched voice and a short and stumpy man came running towards them with bouncy steps. His flat and boggle-eyed face and skinny limbs immediately gave him away as being an amphibian from the water planet Aquos.

"Slippy?" burst out Falco, using Beltino Junoir's nickname, which came from Slippy's habit of slipping on floors and letting his tongue slip at the wrong moment and so forth.

"Are you back flying with this crazy guy?" continued Falco, waving his thumb towards Fox.

"No, no, not at all," said Slippy. "I mean it would be so awesome, but I'm just visiting to bring some new equipment."

"Slippy is the new General Manager of Research and Development at Arspace Dynamics," explained Fox.

"Getting ready to take over your dad's job, are you?" wondered Falco.

"No, not yet. He should really retire, but he can't help himself, and I don't blame him."

"I've just received some experimental control systems from them to test out," said Fox.

"What? Are you a test pilot for that mob now? You really do have a death wish."

They were interrupted by a shuttle entering the plasma gate and settling down next to the Arwings. The door lowered and an old, stocky man with grey hair, long ears and small spectacles on his nose slowly walked down the ramp. What he lacked in height was made up for by his respectfully decorated army uniform.

"Welcome onboard the Great Fox, General!" said Fox and saluted.

"Peppy!" squealed Slippy, jumping with excitement.

"'General' Peppy!?" said Falco surprised. Then he saw the name tag on the uniform. "General O'Hare? What's with the 'O'? Isn't Peppy Hare good enough for you?"

"O'Hare is actually my birth name. I just never used it until I got General Pepper's job. Sounds more imposing, doesn't it?", said the old man and showed off his large front teeth with a wide smile. "But on the Great Fox I'll always be just 'Peppy'!"

"If I wasn't gate crashing I'd thought Fox here had some secret plan to get the old team together," continued Falco.

The general stopped and looked around at the sorry state of the flight deck. There were plenty of empty spaces between the few fighters ships, grimy equipment was strewn around, and one Arwing was half-assembled, parts scattered around it. Falco had noticed it too and said as much.

"Where are all the ships? Where's the crew? Are you the one flying solo?"

"Right now it's only myself, ROB and Faye Collins over there," said Fox.

A young, blue eyed woman with long, platinum blond hair appeared from behind the disassembled Arwing and waved at them. The big bow her hair was tied up with stood in stark contrast to her dirty and greasy overalls.

"She's here as a trainee for a while," said Fox. "She's a very promising engineer and good pilot too, although she's not old enough to get her solo license yet."

"Solid team!" stated Falco disapprovingly.

"And I KNOW you've been flying solo," continued Fox. "Heard it from Monroe!"

"Katt?"

"Yep! She's been helping out with the odd mission, but only when I can afford it because of the meagre fees I get from the few missions the Cornerian Army give me."

"Enough of this bantering," chuckled Peppy. "How about that drink?"

"Sorry," said Fox and smiled. "And yes, I've got something special for you. Come with me."

Fox led the way to the common room, Faye tagging on behind. A robot was buzzing about in the room as they entered.

"Peppy! Falco! I am excited!" exclaimed ROB, the ships resident android.

"Great to see you tin man," said Falco and flung himself down in a couch, arms and legs stretched out. He scanned the interior. There was an element of decay here too. Worn furniture, a broken down juke box, a half-dead pot plant, some computer game controllers and drink cans tossed on the floor. Peppy looked around too and couldn't help thinking it looked a bit unloved.

"Seems like you've got everything a bachelor needs here," said Falco as if reading Peppy's mind.

"I've got what's important," said Fox and pulled out a bottle and some slightly dusty glasses from out of a cupboard. "Something from home. Twenty year old single malt!"

"Oh, yes, Papetoon's two most famous exports," said Peppy. "Pilots and whiskey!"

"Sheesh, doesn't give the whiskey much credit then!" heckled Falco.

"Shut the front door, Falco!" growled Fox, but still grinning, as he poured the glasses and passed them around. "Cheers everyone!"

The liquid burned down Fox's throat, while Falco downed his. Peppy savoured it in silence, Faye barely touched her glass and Slippy was coughing and spluttering.

"It's great to have you here guys," said McCloud. "Back on the Great Fox."

"Well, A Great Fox," said Falco. "I always thought this one was a bit Not So."

"I really liked the first one," said Slippy.

"Which really was the second," corrected Peppy.

"Yeah, I liked it too," said Fox. "We had some good times on it."

"Why'd you have to wreck that, Peppy?" said Falco.

"Oh, thinking about those Aparoids still give me the shivers," added Slippy.

"Freaky machine insects," Falco filled in.

"I can't believe I'm meeting the team that ended the Aparoid invasion," said Fay excitedly. "What was it like?"

"Terrifying!" said Peppy.

"And we couldn't have done it if the General here hadn't had the cool of crashing our compromised Great Fox into the Aparoid Home World to break its shields," continued Fox. "We thought we'd lost him. We were a great team the four of us! Cheers to team Star Fox!"

"And Krystal!" Slippy blurted out. Fox's eyes darkened.

"Krystal?" said Falco. "The chick you picked up on Sauria. You really had a thing for her, didn't you? Blew that one!"

"Shut the front door, Falco!" growled Fox, this time seriously.

Slippy squirmed. Peppy tried to make eye contact with Falco, who was just checking his nails.

"And then it all went south during the Anglar Wars. Is she still hanging out with the Star Wolf gang?"

Fox slammed his glass down and stomped out of the room. Peppy and Slippy glared at Falco.

"What?"


The door to Fox's room slid shut and he slumped down on his bed. He just said quietly for a while, then reached into a drawer under the bed and pulled out the photo he kept there. It was of the two of them. He looked into her big, green eyes. He wanted to touch that incredible blue hair. The fringe was hanging down but didn't cover the tiara with the gemstone she always wore. The rest of her hair was shoulder length and on the sides there were a couple of braids with beads framing that beautiful face. He wanted to hear those sweet lips speak her funny yet elegant accent again. He so wanted to kiss that friendly smile. And then it had all fallen apart.

How had it come to this?