Chapter 5
Krystal pushed Fox into a room connected to the hangar. Krystal closed the door behind them. The room had three tables covered with random junk. Windows looked out to both the hangar and a street behind the spaceport. Fox stood immobile from the shock of what was happening. She saw that Fox was not moving and grabbed his collar. She moved him to a chair and sat him down.
"Fox let me ask you. Why are you here?" He sat silently slightly moving his head every so often. Krystal knew he was too deep in thought so she had an idea to bring him back. She grabbed a thermos with black liquid inside. "Was this coffee or an oil test?" Krystal said aloud. She removed the lid and threw the contents on Fox. Fox came back quickly when he felt the liquid hit him. He jumped up and wiped his face rapidly a piece of cloth that was in arms reach. "Heh, lucky you it was coffee." Fox wiped his eyes and looked at her.
"Is he mine?" Krystal gazed over the window and watched her child. He was a creative kid and currently played with sockets like they were toy cars.
"Yes, Marcus is your son." That news struck Fox in a way that made him unsure how to feel. He had a kid that he never knew about. He missed so much of his life already. Fox knew he had to do something.
"Alright, but why didn't he recognize me?" Krystal turned back to Fox.
"Sadly his father is away saving the world and can't come here right now." Krystal said coldly. Fox stood up to protest at what she just said but was silenced by Krystal's hand on his muzzle. "That's what I told him and you won't tell him anything different." She removed her hand from his mouth.
"Why?"
"Why, Fox what were you doing before this? Actually let me guess, you were sitting around the McCloud estate and saw that this system has someone problems." Krystal became angrier at the end of each sentence. "You then rushed into battle without telling anyone because you think it's your duty to keep the universe safe. You'd rather die than know you failed." Her angry tone died down for a more somber one. "Fox. You can't stop fighting. It's like you're addicted to it. I don't want Marcus to meet you only to see you leave and never come back."
"If you're afraid of Marcus not having a parent than why do you still fight?" Fox said dryly.
Krystal Paused for a moment before saying, "Because the man who saved me, never taught me how to do anything else but fight." Fox felt his heart sink. She was right, in all the time he knew her he never did anything else but fight alongside her. "Fox do you know the old quote, "You either die the hero or see yourself become the villain," It uncomfortably applies to your situation. A man who was revered as a hero but over time couldn't stop what he was good at and now fights a fight he has no ties too." Krystal looked at the floor. Fox stood up quickly
"I have changed since then I swear."
"CHANGED, Fox no less than twelve hours ago I saw you jump off a building into a fighter and shoot down two fighters." Krystal raged back at him.
"You shot them down." Fox said. Krystal was about to say something but Fox cut for off. "Yeah I know it's not important but I need to know. You could've just left and flew transport or captain a cargo vessel. There's some reason you still fight. What is it?" Krystal almost lashed out at him but calmed herself down. "Money or did they promise you something?"
"Fox when I was brought back from Cerinia, I vividly remember this system."
Nine years ago, the Kew system
A eighteen year old Krystal had just watched her world destroy itself from weapons made of light and sound. A light came out the sky and caused the ground to crack like ice. The world shook and came apart. Krystal remembered flying through the sky and into the cold space while the gravity of her planet vanished. The ground itself uprooted and followed her and her village into the atmosphere. The further up she went the harder it he came to breath. Soon She had no air left as all of it disappeared into space. Her entire body grew cold and She could nearly feel her death coming. At the last second, Krystal felt a hand on her back and around her waist. Though she blacked out before she saw whoever did it.
Krystal came to with no strength to move. She sat alone in a room handcuffed to a bolted down desk. As much as she struggled she couldn't get free of her imprisonment. Krystal gathers herself so she could use her telepathy on anyone in the area. Maybe she could find out ago did this. After a moment a candidate was found.
"Andross is gonna kill us when we only come back with one of 'em." Said a male voice to the person whose mind she listened to. Something the average person wouldn't know is that minds have similar patterns for words. While she couldn't understand what they said directly, she could find out the majority of what a person said in their head. Krystal listened in on everything she could but some words were beyond her. Talk of spaceships and Lylat went over her head.
"Yeah but that weapon was his idea. At least we can report that it worked like a charm." Said another voice. The longer she stayed in the mind of her captor, the clearer the picture became of whoever this person was. The first person sat in a chair outlooking a starry vista. It would've been more beautiful if Krystal could see it through something other then the mind of her captor.
"He's still going to be pissed at us." Krystal got a clearer view of the people behind her kidnapping. Both were primates inside a control center watching screens and pushing buttons. The one who recently spoke stood up and walked back. "I'm going to check on the guest." He said. A hissing noise came from the corner of the room as a grey indent lifted into the ceiling. The primate who entered wore black pants and a green sectioned shirt. He had red one lens glasses with an electric dot that moved back and forth. He knelt down next to Krystals cage. A silver glint on the primates chest caught her eye. "I don't know what he wants with you, but if I were you, I'd think about whatever good times you had." Krystal recognized the silver on his chest as a sheathed knife with a handle facing up. The ape leaned over so his arm prodded two of the cage bars. "...'Cause I'd bet you won't have much longer to think about anything."
Krystal saw this as her one chance out. With one hand she grabbed the ape's shirt and pulled him close. The other hand grasped the knife handle and pulled it out of its sheath. The ape grabbed her arm but couldn't hold back her forward motion of her arm. It punctured the apes chest past his ribs into his lungs. He struggled for a second trying to get the knife out from him only to find it a vain attempt. He tried yelling out for his partner but couldn't get more than a small audible breath out. He fell on the cage and didn't move.
Five minutes of fumbling around with the ape's coat, Krystal walked out with a blaster in her hand. She had tapped into his memory too see where she was being taken. She knew everything that the ape had previously known. Even in death an undamaged mind could give details of someone's life. A shaken Krystal became contempt that the man she killed did not live a virtuous life. The same could be said for the one other person on the ship. She walked out to the control center and brought the blaster to the back of the chair. Krystal pulled the trigger twice aimed at the apes chest. He never knew what happened.
Krystal looked through his memory as well to find out where she was. The memories of both apes granted Krystal the ability of their language and customs. She also learned how the ship worked. She was in the Kew system or somewhere near the main planet. She used the memory of the ape to manage her way onto the Kew ground. Sadly she could not find out how they got to Cerinia. The ship had a predetermined route by a computer. She had no chance of finding it and before she knew it could have been hacked into, she sold the ship for money and a smaller ship.
Present
"That is why I'm here. To find out where my planet is. I hired an astronomer at the university to help me but he asks for payment each time. Anytime I take a job to pay him, I never take a mission that I may not make it back from." Krystal sat down on top of a box. Fox saw her disheveled state and wanted to do something about it. He moved over to her, put his arm around her and brought her into a comforting embrace. He may not have seen her for over five years but felt it was right to do so. Krystal tucked herself against Fox and pressed her head into his chest. "I have missed you Fox, but right now, I need to think about the needs of my son and I."
"I'm sorry." Fox said sadly. He stood up slowly while removing Krystal from his chest. "If you change your mind, I'll stand by my word. There's a spot open on my team if you want it." Fox walked toward the door. He put his hand on the doorknob when one final thought entered his mind he had to say. "I missed you too." With that said he opened the door and left.
Right outside the office, Marcus used mechanics tools and parts as improvised toys. He put sockets in top of a bent metal sheet meant for the curve of a wing and watched them roll down. He held what looked like a metal doll. Upon closer inspection the body of the doll was the muzzle brake of a ballistic rifle. Four alan keys ran through the bottom giving the doll legs. Two more alan keys ran through the middle giving it arms. At the top was a metal fox head with a mean face sharpied on. If Fox were to guess the fox head was some kind of hood ornament.
Fox looked closer at Marcus now as he walked closer the the outside of the hangar. He had Fox's near signature features. A white Mohawk running through his head and two jade colored eyes. Marcus looked up to the window into the office. "Wow mister, I haven't seen mommy smile like that ever." Fox turned his head where he last saw Krystal. She sat on the box where they were a moment ago. Only now she had a hand over her eyes. Light drops of water could be seen seeping through her fingers but a clear smile was present on her lips.
'I wonder what she's thinking?' Thought Fox. He debated walking back pulling her close and not letting go or just leaving like he was going to.
"She's thinking there's still a chance." Marcus said. Fox looked over at him but he put his head down quickly. "Sorry my mom says I'm not supposed to look into other people's minds." Fox continued to look at him. He knelt down while Marcus went back to playing with the handcrafted tools.
"It's okay." Fox said plainly. He watched as Marcus set the socket back at the top and raced down and jumped itself at the bottom. The socket flew up in the air and landed by the muzzle brake doll. "So what are you doing?"
"I'm trying to launch the rollers to my dad." Marcus said putting another socket or 'roller' as he called them on the top on the metal piece. That last part though caught his attention as it should have. Marcus called the brake doll his father. The roller ran down gaining speed and momentum. It flew through the air for a second or two until it fly into the two mid section alan keys. The roller hit the brake making it wobble a moment before it sabalized. "That's your dad?" Fox asked. The four legged doll stood static with a socket in its two outstretched key arms.
"Yeah, it's not my real dad. My mom says my real dad is fighting all the evil people in the universe. She told me he was the most strongest and most bravest person she ever knew. I wanna meet him someday, Marcus said excitedly but then lowered his enthusiasm for the next sentence, "but mom says he may never be back because there's alot of evil in the universe." Fox choked up a small amount. Krystal still spoke kindly of him even though she was raising him on her own. "Do you think I'll ever see him?" Marcus asked staring him in the eye. Fox looked back at him sincerely.
"I bet you'll meet him someday soon."
A/N: Have you ever been driving somewhere and sometime while you're driving you forget where you going. Yeah that same thing happened with Heroes. So until I figure out where that was going in putting my effort into this story. In other news E3 is upon us and I have my fingers crossed for a new Star Fox.
Until next time LONEW0LF out.
