Past Time - Aparoid Invasion
The team was back on the bridge of the Great Fox, which was tearing through space between the planets in the Lylat system at incredible speed. There was much commotion as a transmission with General Pepper was wrapping up.
Life had turned into a blur. Krystal struggled to keep up as they were thrown from mission to mission and planet to planet. There was hardly enough time to think, let alone apologise for teasing Fox about Panther.
She had seen some amazing and some awful things though.
Pigma had been located on the icy planet of Fichina, where they couldn't even fly their Arwings because of the forceful blizzards. To Krystal's despair it was again Fox who went solo down to the surface in a Landmaster, while all Slippy, Falco and herself could do was to hang around and spin their wheels over the raging snow storms. After the usual series of mishaps, Fox managed to save the day again, and got the climate control centre online, but he was still under attack of Aparoid virus infected bots. First on the scene to help him was Falco, and when Krystal arrived there moments later, Fox was of all things riding on the wing of Falco's plane. Not only that, he had a plasma cannon on his shoulder and was shooting down flying bots like it was a sunny day on the training range. Was there nothing that man couldn't do?
But Pigma had taken off again, and they tracked him to the asteroid belt. What followed was a lunatic maze run in between a myriad of space rocks and attacking foes. Krystal wasn't used to that sort of intense flying, and Fox had to save her backside more than once. Then again, it was her senses that tracked the mind of Pigma, but she was puzzled by how his thought patters kept changing. The reason became clear when they finally caught up with him, and found that he had been infected and evolved into the most menacing looking Aparoid they'd seen so far. The only thing that remained of him was his ugly face.
What if one of her friends got infected like that, she thought in despair and slumped down on the floor in a corner. What would she do? Kill it, since they knew no cure? She couldn't do that? Then again, if she got infected, she hoped they would kill her.
But at least they had retrieved the core memory and sent it for analysis. Beltino was hoping it would reveal the location of the Aparoid Home World, and until then or until there was another attack, they had a moment to catch their breaths. She was exhausted. She should get some sleep. She closed her eyes.
We're under attack! Help! I'm hit! I'm falling!
What a strange dream! There were no images, only voices, which were not clear enough to make out who they belonged to. She did recognise the language though. Then she opened her eyes and saw everyone still standing there discussing core memories and home worlds, and realised that she hadn't actually nodded off.
"Fox!" she started. He turned to look at her and smiled. "I'm sensing a distress call from planet Sauria..."
The smiling face changed to one of grave concern. Both of them knew how much the planet meant to the other.
Krystal was riding shot gun under the hot sun across the plains of Sauria. Ok, so she was squashed up next to Fox in the cockpit of the Landmaster, which really was meant to be a single seater, but that didn't matter. It was a mission together at last.
Like their planes the tank was powered by gravity diffusion engines, and they protected the driver, so it wasn't a bumpy ride, even if the ground was. She quickly understood why Fox could cause such devastation with it. He drove it as well as he could fly an Arwing if not better. The ground was literally flying past under them. They came to a small river that crossed the plains, but Fox just hit the upwards thrusters and the tank took a long leap, soaring high in the air, before touching down on the far side still at full speed.
"Better than a roller coaster!" he said.
"What's a roller coaster?"
"Um... Just something you find on an amusement park."
What was an amusement park? Now, she did like the sound of that! But she didn't like what she saw around her, or rather what she didn't see. They hadn't spotted a single Cloud Runner in the air. She tried to sense the presence of the dinosaurs, but they weren't there.
They climbed over a crest, and as Fox hit the brakes, the Landmaster's wheels locked up and dug deep grooves through the grass into the dirt. Krystal's heart sank. Just a few paces in front of where they'd stopped, there lay a big High Top dinosaur on its side with greenish blue fractures slowly spreading over its skin. She recognised the telltale signs of the Aparoid infection, which they'd seen on Pigma Dengar. Then she looked up and saw hundreds more laying across the field, with fallen winged dinosaurs scattered between them. Was this what had happened to all the Cloud Runners? Was it her friend Kyte who had sent the distress call? Where was Tricky?
"This is unforgivable!" lamented Fox.
Two Arwings screamed past over them and started circling the fields.
"Those scum are gonna pay for this!" came Falco's voice in their earpieces.
"There are Aparoid hatchers everywhere from where you are all the way up to the Walled City," called Peppy from the Great Fox. "You've gotta take them out to stop them multiplying."
"You go up through the jungle and clear the ground," said Slippy. "Falco and I will take care of the skies."
Fox reversed a bit, so he wouldn't run the dinosaur over. Then he turned and floored it with sprays of dirt and mud flinging off the Landmaster's wheels. They reached the forests and the tank flew through the trees, while Fox kept inflicting damage using the cannon. Krystal cherished every target hit and a new emotion was bubbling up, one that she didn't have a word for yet.
At the foot of the mountains the forest became too dense for the tank.
"Well, this is the end of the line," said Fox. "It's on foot from here."
"I know a shortcut to the Walled City through the caves," said Krystal.
They climbed out, Fox opened the hatch to the weapons compartment and started loading himself up with blasters and ammunition. Krystal had a look too, and decided on the biggest thing she could find. She huffed and grunted but managed to pull it out and heave it up on her shoulder.
"Huh? The gatling gun? Are you sure?" said Fox with an astonished expression. She was sure. "Ok, suite yourself!"
The gun was quite heavy, but she had stamina and determination. She would show him. They ran through the tunnels, their footsteps echoing off he walls and occasionally their boots were splashing through standing water. Their skills complemented each other and they worked efficiently in synergy. Krystal would sense whenever Aparoids were approaching, and alert Fox on where, and he took them out with short bursts from his machine gun.
"That way!" she called as they ran into a larger cave with several entrances. Fox ran to the tunnel she had pointed out, but stopped.
"There's a whole swarm of them up ahead," he said.
Krystal got a bad feeling, as her senses became overwhelmed. Suddenly alls sorts of Aparoid bugs spilled in from every entrance. She hoisted he gatling gun up on her hip and pulled he trigger. All hell broke loose as a hailstorm of plasma blasts rained over the cave. Fox had to duck for cover behind Krystal, as she spun all the way around. Then the fire storm ceased, and the only sound that could be heard was the spinning whizz of the smoking barrels as the gun slowly revved down. Not a single bug had survived.
"Whoops!" said Krystal.
"Well, that's one way of doing it," said Fox and shrugged. "The gatling gun runs out of ammo pretty quickly though."
"Oh, does it?"
She dropped the used up gun, pulled her staff from its holster on her back instead, and they continued through the tunnels. Soon they reached the Walled City and quickly dispatched of the remaining hatchers. The Arwings were back in the air above them.
"The skies are clear!" announced Falco.
"But the denizen casualties are huge," cried Slippy.
"I don't like this. It was too easy," said Fox. "It's as if they're retreating."
Krystal and Fox continued walking around the city, looking for any signs of life, but they saw neither living Aparoids nor any tribe people. She felt a feeling of despair coming over her.
"I hope the tribes are hiding in the caves," said Fox, as if reading Krystal's thoughts. Then there were the booming noise of footsteps from something heavy.
"FOX!"
Through some bushes barged none other than Tricky the Earth Walker himself, who ran up to Fox to embrace him and nearly crushed him in the process. Young Tricky had grown indeed. Krystal giggled as Fox tried to fend off Tricky's enthusiasm and pleas for them to let him join the fight. Fox was having none of it.
"Besides, I'm leaving Sauria in your care! Remember, you're the leader here now, Tricky!"
She could see Tricky's kind but not very fast mind struggle with itself.
"Yeah, yeah! I'll take care of things here so you two can come back on your honeymoon!"
"What! What're you nuts? We aren't... We're not yet!... Uh..."
"Not yet?"
Krystal just laughed at Fox's attempts of getting himself out of a type of sticky situation that he wasn't so good at handling, since it involved words rather than blaster. Honeymoon? She'd heard of that. It was something couples went on after they married! What would that be like? She let herself daydream for a bit.
"All right, that's enough boys!"
Fox's mood had changed as soon as they arrived at Corneria. While they had been sidetracked on Sauria, a massive armada of Aparoids had invaded Corneria and taken down the city. Had Sauria just been a diversion? Where the Aparoids that calculating?
And Fox was back to his old self. There were radar jammers on the surface, so it was useless attacking with the Arwings. Fox announced that it was no point them all getting killed, so he decided to go alone to take out the jammers, and in case he failed declared Falco his second. It was no use reasoning with him, so Krystal and the others were left on the Great Fox just listening to the comms and hoping for the best.
And for Krystal it also meant coming to grips with a new emotion: guilt. She had heard the distress call from Sauria, so she had led them there, away from Corneria, and it felt terrible. Just as terrible was not being allowed to try and help. She felt as useless as when she was locked up in that crystal cage in the Krazoa Palace years ago.
Instead it was the Star Wolf team that showed up again, and of course not having to obey any orders by Fox, they jumped straight into the action. Were they actually helping Fox? Krystal couldn't believe it. Then again up against an enemy like this, it made sense for old foes to join forces, however temporarily.
Then the day turned from bad to worse, and from weird to bizarre. General Pepper's voice came over the comms, declaring that his flagship was compromised. Krystal was desperate to do something, and pushed her senses to their limit.
"I can feel strange thoughts," she said in despair. "I think he's being infected."
"Oh, dang it!" said Peppy and started heading towards launch bay. "ROB, prepare an Arwing. You stay here kids! I'm old anyway."
And with that he was off in an Arwing, and the day that Peppy used his own plane to stabilise General Pepper's flagship in a crash-landing, saving the general from a certain death, became the stuff of legend.
The call finally came through that Fox and Star Wolf had taken out the radar jammers, so they could all jump in their fighters and help clear the city from Aparoids. Then they had to protect the Orbital Gate from attacks as well, so that they could use it to launch their strike on the Aparoid Home World.
Fox and Krystal were scrambling across the surface of the Aparoid Home World. It was the most awful place she had ever seen, half planet and half machine. But they had to get inside it. Beltino had found that the Aparoids had a genetic self-destruction mechanism, and had devised a program to trigger it and set off a chain reaction. But it had to be launched straight into the Aparoid Queen itself, which was residing in a hive in the centre of the planet.
Barring their way was a laser proof shield across the tunnel entrance to the inside of the planet. Heavy bombardment from their Arwings had done nothing, which is why Fox and Krystal was on the surface, trying to find and take out the shield generators. Slippy and Falco were covering them from above, but it was still a cray mission, with Aparoids appearing everywhere.
"That's my last charge," said Krystal and secured one more bomb.
"I'm done too! Get the heck out of there. Detonation in five, four, three, ..."
She dove for cover as the charges went off. She could hear Fox scream of excitement in her earpiece as the shield crumbled, but the joy stopped abruptly as the shield just regenerated.
"What the...?"
"There must be backup generators under the surface," called Slippy. "We'll never get in."
From Falco there came only profanities.
Then Krystal looked up and saw the Great Fox approaching, covered in crawling Aparoids. She tried to reach out to Peppy, but his thought were distorted. The Great Fox was infected, and so was Peppy. Krystal and Fox had to scramble out of the way and back into their Arwings, as the Great Fox was heading straight for the shield.
"Peppy..." cried Fox. "You mustn't!"
"Yes, this is my duty. And now you must fulfil yours as well, Fox" replied Peppy and with that the Great Fox slammed into the surface and broke the shield.
Krystal wanted to stop, she wanted to scream, she wanted to grieve her friend, but there was not a second to lose, as the shield was down however temporarily.
An emotion that Krystal had been feeling since Sauria crystallised itself. Hate! Loathing!
She did not like it one bit, but it was effective. As they dove their fighters down through the tunnels of the Home World, it was like she was turning into a machine herself. She soon lost count of how many Aparoids she was taking down, as she was performing laser surgery with the Arwing's cannons. This wasn't defence anymore. This was a full on assault.
"Falco! We've got uninvited guests following us...," called Fox.
Krystal checked the radar, which showed three extra blips catching up on them. A quick glance in the rearview screen confirmed her suspicions. The wolf pack was back. Were they here to help, or to try and steal the glory? A Wolfen decorated with a rose took position next to her Arwing.
"Don't worry, Krystal," came the Panther's voice. "I'll protect you from here on in."
Is that so, she thought as she spotted an Aparoid moth in the Panther's flight path. She gave the bug a generous serving of laser, and watched with satisfaction as the debris bounced off the distracted Panther's windshield.
"So seven ships in all... Well, I guess that's better than four!" said Slippy. Krystal could second that.
They soon reached the planet's core where the hive was, but also a road block. Surrounding the hive was a such a number of all sorts of Aparoids, that it was impossible to break through. Attack upon attack by the seven fighters yielded nothing. Then Wolf came through with the goods.
"We'll distract 'em... You guys take out the queen!"
Team Star Fox fell back as the three Wolfens attacked and the wonder happened. Team Star Wolf got the attention they wanted and took off through the tunnels followed by a large swarm of Aparoids. Team Star Fox could quickly finish off the stragglers and enter the hive.
The most bizarre thing happened. The four of them could hear voices, the familiar voices of Peppy, General Pepper, James McCloud, Pigma Dengar and even ROB, pleading with them to surrender and join the evolution as one. The Aparoid Queen was distracting them, using information that she had assimilated, and Krystal could feel Fox waver, so she reached into his mind. To her disbelief she could see Fox riding the wing of a Wolfen, and hear the voice of Wolf himself.
Don't hesitate! When the time comes, just act!
And Fox acted and launched the missile with the self-destruct program straight into the queen. But it wasn't over yet, as the queen released mined to buy time while suppressing the program, so again they had to attack with absolutely everything they had. Finally there was a scream of digital anguish, as the queen caved in.
"No! We are the truth! Only us! No!"
Yet still it wasn't over, as the program executed and the destruction started spreading throughout the planet. It was a crazy race to the surface at maximum velocity, trying to neither get caught in the detonation nor crash into anything. They just managed to escape, as the Home World exploded behind them.
Heading back towards the entrance to the Orbital Gate, there was finally time to celebrate and to reflect. The team member were cheering and giving each other verbal back slaps, except Krystal who found no joy.
"But... So many casualties... Peppy... Wolf's team... So many noble sacrifices."
Slippy was obviously still on edge, because he let out a scream as they spotted a blinking red light. Getting closers, they could see that it looked exactly like the escape pods of the Great Fox. A familiar voice hailed them.
"Hey, you're all OK! Whew! That was hairy. I promise I'm really going to retire after this."
Peppy! She looked over towards Fox, who didn't seem one big surprised. Why hadn't she noticed? She had been so consumed by grief, that he hadn't even sensed that he was still alive. With Peppy OK, it was possible that others had survived the infection too: General Pepper, Star Wolf, everyone.
"My friends...," said Fox. "Thank you."
As a sign of appreciation from the Cornerian government, they had been offered accomodation in the Luna Stone Hotel, which luckily were one of the few buildings that were still standing, at least parts of it. Krystal was sitting on a couch in a little alcove outside the top floor bar, looking out over the night skyline of Corneria City. It was so different. She had been there before and loved the bustling city, which was such a contradiction of sky rise buildings and long green boulevards, but the invasion had devastated it. Instead of brightly lit up by a myriad of windows, neon signs and advertising screens, the city was mostly dark as the buildings and ruins were illuminated by the faint light of a crescent moon.
It was past midnight, but she could still hear the merry and slightly inebriated voices of the others from the bar, which was open just to serve the honoured guests.
"You should have seen it. Of all things, she picks up the gatling gun!" came Fox' voice.
"Could she actually use it?" she heard Slippy say.
"Could she even lift it?" Falco taunted.
"Well, she did walk a bit lopsided, but you know how stubborn she can be. So, halfway through the tunnels we got cornered, and she absolutely sprayed them. Emptied all the clips in one go. Needless to say, there was not a single bug left."
Laughter erupted.
"Well, I'm beat. Good night everyone!"
And by that, they scampered off to their rooms. She heard footsteps walk past her and then stop. She looked up and there stood Fox with a concerned look on his face, a bottle in one hand and a glass in the other.
"Night cap," he explained. By now she had smartened up a bit to their way of speaking, and assumed that the saying had absolutely nothing to do with hats. "What's up? Can't sleep? That mind of yours still buzzing."
She nodded.
"Yeah, it's been a bit hectic, hasn't it?" he said and said down next to her. Then he poured some contents from the bottle into the glass and offered it to her. "Try this. Some nice single-malt. That calms my nerves anyway. Cheers!"
She took the glass and he clinked it with the bottle. Then he took a swig straight from the bottle. She sniffed the contents of the glass, and the smell stung her nose. Then she took a sip and started coughing from the burning sensation.
"Sorry about that," he said and patted her back. He held his hand there a bit longer than necessary, but not as long as she wanted to.
"All the destruction, so many lives lost...," she lamented and looked down at her feet. "What if it was because of me? What if we hadn't gone to Sauria?"
"If you have two friends, but can only save one, which one would you choose?" said Fox and shook his head. "Don't worry. You were great! And a lot of people would have gone hiding in the caves in the mountain, like Cornerians have done many times before. They'll come rocking out soon."
He sat quiet with a blank stare for a moment, deep in thought.
"Those Aparoids... So, the whole thing was just one big entity. She tried to bypass evolution by stealing souls...," he started and had another mouthful of whiskey. "But you have to be born with one."
Wow, that was deep coming from him. She wondered what was moving in that mind of his, which he was so protective of. She could take a look whenever she wanted to, but it felt like stealing. She wanted him to allow her into it. And she wanted him to talk more. But maybe right now, words weren't necessary? He looked at her and she drowned in his eyes as she had done many times before. Then he slowly leaned in and gave her lips a soft kiss.
"Sorry, don't know what got into me," he said and stood up, but she grabbed his free hand and they just stared into each others eyes for a moment. Then he gently pulled her up and they started walking through the corridors, hand in hand. He paused for a moment outside her door, hesitated, before he continued walking. He opened the door to his room, and she followed him in like she was on a leash. He closed the door, without turning the lights on, and then tried to speak.
"Krystal... I... Ah, you're just so out of my league!"
Whatever that meant, she thought puzzled. Why couldn't he just talk straight? She could see his nervous eyes and his ears were twitching in the moonlight that filtered in through the windows.
"I... I'm in love with you, Krystal!"
Her heart nearly jumped out of her chest.
"And I love you too!" she answered without hesitation.
Then he kissed her lips again. Softly. And again. The tip of his tongue got involved, and she eagerly parted her lips to let it inside her mouth, then yearning to learn she copied what he did. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close, and she couldn't help but letting out a little whine. He was strong, yet so gentle. One hand touched her neck and went through her hair. The other found its way under her jumper to the small of her back and the tattoo that he was so mesmerised by.
They ended up in his bed, while their clothes ended up on the floor. He made her feel things that she had never felt before, things she didn't know were possible. She let it all happen and just followed the flow of emotions on a long ride down the stream, then through the rapids, and over the waterfall.
She was laying on her side in the bed, with him close behind her and an arm wrapped around her. She could hear on his slow breathing that he was sleeping, but her mind was still buzzing. She wished the morning would never come, so that they could stay like this forever.
There was just one little thing that she was pondering. Wasn't he meant to ask something before they did this? Wasn't he meant to 'pop the question' as another of their odd sayings were? It seemed like the men had the initiative around here. At least Peppy had spoken very affectionately about dropping down on one knee and presenting his to-be wife Vivian with a ring. It sounded so romantic. She looked at the fingers of her hand and tried to image what it would be like. She liked the sound of it: Krystal McCloud.
