Sweet as Pie

Past Time - Between Plight of Sauria and Aparoid Invasion


Life was amazing because every day Fox showed Krystal around the ship, teaching her something new, and she was taking it all in. Today she'd spent most of the morning in the launch bay, tucked up in the cockpit of an Arwing with Fox sitting nice and close right next to her on the edge, while showing her the controls. Then he had announced that he was 'peckish' which to her delight had turned out to be a funny word in their strange language for being a bit hungry, so they had made their way to the kitchen.

It was one of her favourite rooms in the ship, because the pantries were full of strange and exciting things to explore, including that cold pantry they called a refrigerator. That's what she was investigating right now. She pulled out some sort of orange vegetable.

"Are these magic night-vision roots?" she asked.

"Er... We call them carrots," said Fox and added. "But they are meant to be good for your eyes."

She kept looking. There was a small, triangular biscuit looking thing in a packet. She picked it up, opened the packet and sniffed the biscuit.

"That needs to be rehydrated," said Fox and gently took it out of her hand. "Watch this!"

He placed the biscuit on a plate, put it in a machine next to the refrigerator, closed the door and pressed a couple of buttons. The machine hummed for a few moments and through the glass door she could see the biscuit quadruple in size.

"Open it and take it!" said Fox. She opened the door and a wonderful smell wafted out. She sniffed loudly and picked up the plate. The biscuit had turned into a slice of pastry with some sort of dark blue filling. She picked it up and took a bite. It was nice and warm and absolutely amazing!

"Here's a spoon! Oh, never mind!" said Fox holding a metal thing in his hand. Then he made an odd sign. He pointed to his lips doing a circling motion with his finger. Did that mean he wanted a kiss? She put the food back down on the plate and then noticed that her fingers had turned as dark blue as the filling. She imagined that her mouth would look the same and giggled. Fox cracked up in a big friendly smile. It really would be nice if he kissed her though! But if not, then this delicious food would have to do for now. Sighing and moaning she tucked back in and savoured every mouthful.

"I'll have what she's having," announced Falco as he entered the kitchen.

"Falco!" hissed Fox angrily.

She stopped eating and looked puzzled at them. They were and odd couple those two. It was obvious that they had known each other for a long time, because they seemed to have their own way of speaking that she didn't understand. They were often rude to each other (well, mostly Falco to Fox) but without getting cross. She shrugged and kept eating.

"What is this?" she asked.

"That's blueberry pie," answered Fox.

Blueberries? Yes, those little round things that grew in the forest. How did she know that?

"I think it's my favourite!" she said.


Days turned into weeks and the weeks turned into months. Life on the Great Fox started settling into a routine, but it was never boring. She had learnt Lylatian fluently, so they didn't have to use translators anymore, and she had figured out how to read their writing too. She was laying on the floor in the common room with a tablet in front of her. She was going through the archives, hungrily devouring information about the Lylat system, flipping pages by waving one hand in front of the screen, while her head rested in the other hand. Every once in a while she flipped something up on the hologram, like now when she was studying one of the planets closer.

The door hissed as it opened and Fox came into the room.

"Hey Krystal! Do you feel like a flying lesson?"

"Maybe," she said.

"I mean a real flying lesson. Out in space!"

"Oh, yes!" she exclaimed and jumped up. Finally! She did like every moment spent with Fox, but she really did want to do something more exciting than just sitting in the cockpit or practicing on the simulator.

Fox looked her over with a slightly concerned look. He had given her various clothes to try, but she often slipped back into her Saurian tribal gear that she felt so comfortable in. It showed a fair bit of skin. Most of it actually, since it pretty much consisted of a bra and a loin cloth. Fox found her drawn to those tattoos on her arms and legs again. They looked like ancient symbols and he wondered what they meant. I have no idea, thought Krystal and cleared her throat.

"Oh, yes, right," stuttered Fox. "You'd need a flight suit and have found something that just might fit."

They made their way to the living quarters, where she found some clothing in a bundle by her door.

"Please try it," said Fox. "I'll leave you alone for a moment."

She slipped into her room and studied the black and blue suit before starting to pull into it. It was rather tight but quite comfortable. She checked it out in the mirror. It matched her hair and did not at all hide the fact that she was a woman. She wondered what Fox would think of that and suddenly had a feeling like butterflies in her stomach. And she felt that she looked the way a pilot should.

She pulled on the matching boots and stepped out of the room. Slippy and Falco had joined Fox, and Falco made whistling noice. That was a very rude thought of you, she thought and glared at Falco. Fox on the other hand, he would be allowed to think that.

"Ready?" said Fox and she nodded. "This is how we do it. Prepare for launch, ROB!"

Then he turned and started running with Falco and Slippy right on his heals. That was odd, she thought, but set off after them. She found that she could move quite freely in the suit and she had no problem keeping up with them. They bolted through the door to the launch bay and she saw first Fox then Falco jumping over the sides of their Arwings and landing cleanly in their cockpits. She copied and then saw to her right how Slippy got caught on something and went in head first, so that only his skinny legs could be seen sticking up out of the cockpit. She couldn't help giggling. Then the canopy closed and a whining noise increased in pitch and volume.

"Let's go, team!" said Fox over the comms.

She screamed as she suddenly and forcefully was squashed into the back of the seat as the plane was catapulted down a rail and then she was out in open space. She saw the others barrel roll and zoom off and again she copied. Soon they were flying in formation around the Great Fox and Krystal was in awe of the sights of open space.

"How about some good, old fashioned dog fighting?" came Fox's voice.

"What does that mean?" she replied.

"That means we split in pairs and we try to lock our weapons on our opponents."

"But of course not actually fire," Slippy filled in.

"You and me are one team, Krystal," continued Fox.

"Watch your six!" chuckled Falco.

What six, wondered Krystal. There were only four of them. Falco and Slippy peeled off in different directions and Fox took off after Falco. She wondered where they went and what to do next. Then she remembered the radar and started looking for those blips she had seen in the simulator. But the radar monitor was flat, while space was three dimensional, so she didn't find it very useful. Maybe there was something better. She sensed someone coming up behind her, thinking about her, so she did a sharp turn.

"What the...?" came Falco's surprised voice. He disappeared out of view. But then he thought I'll get you from underneath. No, you won't, mused Krystal, rolled her Arwing over so she could see him, and again made a turn he could not follow.

"Struggling to tag a rookie, Falco?" chuckled Fox.

"How's she doing that?" Falco complained.

Krystal spotted Fox, snuck up on him, positioned her Arwing above his, and then rolled upside down so that she look down on him.

With ease, my dear Fox! she thought to him. It seemed like he got a fright because his head turned from side to side, then he looked up with eyes and mouth wide open.


They were back in the launch bay, where the Arwings were cooling down.

"I'm starving!" announced Falco and stomped off. "Flying makes me hungry."

"You're just sneaking off because you couldn't get a lock on Krystal," teased Slippy and followed.

"Didn't want to. You have to go easy on noobs."

The bantering continued as they walked away through up the corridors, until they could no longer be heard. Krystal felt quite pleased with herself.

"What was that about?" Fox asked.

"Your people have a peculiar way of showing friendship," mused Krystal.

"That's not what I meant! What did you do? How did you get in my head? Are you a telepath?"

"Telepath?", said Krystal slowly, trying out the new word with her mouth.

"Like, can you read minds and stuff?"

She smiled and nodded.

"And, err, like project thoughts too?"

"Yes, is that not common among your people?"

"No, not at all! And it would freak most people out," said Fox. Then he added rather solemnly "The only voice I've heard in my head is my father's."

"Is he a telepath too?" she said excitedly.

"No," said Fox and hung his head. "He's dead."

"Oh, I'm so sorry," she said but couldn't help thinking that they might be getting somewhere. Fox never spoke about his past.

"It was a long time ago," continued Fox. "He disappeared into a black hole created by Andross."

"Andross? The same being who tricked us on Sauria?"

"The one and only!"

She wanted to comfort him so she embraced him and he tentatively put his arms around her too. She could get used to this. And maybe they were more alike that she had thought.

"Maybe your father is a spirit like the Krazoa now? And maybe you could be a telepath too but you just haven't learnt it yet? Maybe that's why your father can talk to you?"

"You're starting to freak ME out now," he said and wriggled out of her arms. "And most people wouldn't like their minds read."

"Why not? It doesn't matter? Unless they've got something to hide," she said and felt a little bit disappointed. Fox's wrist comms crackled and Peppy's voice came through.

"We've got an incoming message from General Pepper. Come up to the bridge on the double."

"It might be a mission," said Fox. "Are you ready, Krystal?"

"Oh, yes!" she said and the excitement was back.


A short time later they were all standing on the bridge of the ship with the strangest structure Krystal had seen in clear view through the window. She thought of it as slices of a large, round metal cake, where one quarter were missing, and in its place two long arms extended. Or maybe it looked more like a giant metal creature about to eat them? Lylat was a wonderfully weird place, she thought.

This was the Orbital Gate, they had explained to her, and it had been designed by none other than Slippy's father Beltino. The message from General Pepper had been short and clear. The Cornerian fleet were locked in a battle around the planet Fortuna and in need of immediate assistance. The Orbital Gate was the fastest way to get there. She watched in awe as concentric circles of green light appeared out of nothing, growing larger and brighter until there was a radiant disc big enough to swallow the Great Fox.

"This is so exciting," explained Slippy to Krystal. "The gate will turn us from matter into energy that will be transmitted at light speed and then converted back to matter again."

"Which means it's going to feel a bit weird," added Fox.

The ship advanced and pierced through disc. Then there was a falling sensation, a swirling vortex, a beam of light and a sense of déjà vu. Was this how she had gotten from Cerinia to the Lylat system? As quickly as they had entered they exited the gate and before them was a fierce battle with hundreds or even thousands of ships. Lasers and missiles were crisscrossing the battlefield.

"Command!" hailed Fox. "Team Star Fox ... ready for duty!"

"The outcome of this battle hangs on you, team," came the reply.

"All right, you know what to do. This is not a drill, Krystal!" said Fox.

She was more than ready and they started their sprint down to launch bay, just like in the training, but this time she wasn't going to be left behind. She was right up the front next to Fox. She would show him how ready she was.

She was looking forward to the sensation of violent acceleration, and it didn't disappoint as they were catapulted into the battle. But actually fighting in space was harder than she had thought. She watched in amazement as Fox, Falco and Slippy took out one enemy fighter after the other. Keeping track of Falco during training was easy, but here there were hundreds of minds buzzing around, each one of them a potential attacker. She stayed in the wake of the three others and managed not to get shot.

"We need to find Oikonny's ship," Fox called on the comms. Then he added an explanation for Krystal. "He's the leader and if we take him down, his rebel forces will fall."

"I can feel something just a bit further up to the right of you," answered Krystal. "It's strangely familiar."

"He's the nephew of Andross," explained Fox. Krystal gasped. "Yes, the very Andross who trapped you on Sauria."

"I can see him!" squealed Slippy. "At two o'clock, ten degrees down. He's heading for the surface."

The team followed and dove down through Fortuna's atmosphere a lot faster than Krystal has expected. She got a little bit frightened when her Arwing's head shields started glowing and giving off flames, but then she sensed the others calm, so she decided to enjoy the spectacle instead.

"Adjust those G-diffusors, Krystal," Fox called out to her reassuringly. "We're going in really low!"

As they got to the surface they slowed to subsonic speeds, but that still felt extremely fast as they dove into a lush green canyon and whizzed past trees and waterfalls. She was getting the hang of it and was enjoying every second of it, while taking in the views.

They soon caught Oikonny's flagship but it transformed in front of them, turning into a giant flying robot with phasers firing in all directions. It was a fierce battle and the Arwings were darting back and forth around the larger ship, hitting repeatedly, but not damaging it.

Suddenly a laser beam hit Oikonny from above, piercing shields and hull, and downing his ship. Baffled the team slowed down their ships, hovering in front of the wreckage. A strange shape fell through the sky, then extending eight wings to halt its decent and hovered at a low altitude with wings flapping. Krystal thought it looked like a giant, mechanical butterfly. Yet she could sense something.

"Such strange thought patters," she said as much to herself as to the others, and tried to scan the creature again. She was vaguely aware of ROB repeating the same word in the comms.

"Aparoid! Aparoid! Aparoid!"

The thing turned around, pointing one end of its body towards Krystal, but she couldn't feel what it was up to. Was it getting ready to attack? She pushed the controls and the Arwing rolled sideways avoiding another laser beam with the smallest margin. Fox, Falco and Slippy went to the counter attack and quickly finished the thing off.

Krystal was confused. Was it a machine? But she couldn't read machines like ROB the android for example. That machine had been alive!