Authors note:

In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have started writing a story, since I procrastinate far too much and now I'm starting my A2 course. Oh well..

Chapter 6: Mission

The space port door whirred open. Wolf never got a chance to see the other ships docked there, since Fox was in such a rush to get into the Great Fox. There were many other carriers inactive, probably decommissioned. One ship stood out from the rest though, a ship slightly smaller than The Great Fox. It had short, antenna like protrusions along the sides and on top, which seemed strange to him. On the side it read 'MV-Cruiser402'. 'MV? Haven't heard of that before.'

When reaching the Great Fox, he noticed the hangar door had been left open. 'Guess somebody's already in.'. Looking at the fighters docked, he noticed his Wolfen, alongside what he could only assume was the Catspaw. His ship looked completely different, resembling more of an Arwing than his original Wolfen. The red on the wings of the ship were also painted over blue. He also noticed the plasma burn on the side of his ship, next to his cockpit, noting that they didn't change the hull. Plasma burns were impossible to remove from a ship without changing the exterior plates, but could still be repaired.

Stepping into the elevator, he pondered on what the assignment was. It wasn't a normal thing for pirates to orbit planets, Fichina especially, so something was up. Wolf could hear a commotion further in the ship, most likely in the bridge. Deciding to follow the noise, the voices inside were becoming more distinct the closer he got.

"Can't we just go already? We're all here." A female voice said, huffing.

"Well no, we're not all here. If you hadn't noticed, Wolf isn't here." A different voice sounded.

"Who cares, he'll probably just slow us down anyway, maybe even sabotage the mission." He assumed this was Katt by now.

Walking through the doorway, everybody turned to face Wolf, staring at him. "You're late." Katt remarked, turning to look out of the window,

"Last time I checked, I should be here for 11. It's still 15 minutes until then, so shut up." He replied.

"Quiet, both of you. Now we're all here, we can prepare for take off." Fox said, turning to Peppy. "You ready to get this thing up in the air?".

"Sure thing Fox." Peppy walked over to his seat, starting the flight procedures. "This is Peppy Hare from the Great Fox, requesting permission to take off." He asked into his headset.

"Permission granted." Someone replied. The roof slowly opened, bathing the other ships in the dock in sunlight. The ship slowly raised from its position until it was high in the sky. Suddenly, the ship lurched forward, and not being accustomed to this Wolf was knocked off balance, taking Fox with him to the floor.

"ESTIMATED TIME OF ARRIVAL: 1 HOUR, 12 MINUTES, 34 SECONDS." ROB's said monotonously.

Wolf slowly got up and dusted himself off, his shoulder hurting from the impact. "You could have warned me that was going to happen, I could've taken someone out from that!" He exclaimed.

"You did!" Fox shouted up at him. Suddenly, Wolf looked at him guiltily and held out his hand.

"Sorry..." He pulled Fox up from the floor a bit too hard, making Fox tumble into him slightly.

"Thanks."

"Well, we've got another hour or so until we get there, so I'm going to go get something to eat. You coming with?" Katt said, looking expectantly at the others.

"Sure I'll come." Slippy chimed in. Peppy nodded alongside him.

"I've already had something to eat, so I'll stay here." Krystal said. Fox also shook his head, resulting in the three of them starting to file out the room. She didn't check for Wolf's response simply because she didn't care. "Just to think, If we set off an hour ago like I wanted to, we would have been there by now." She snidely said as she was leaving.

"Katt!" Fox warned, but it fell on deaf ears as they had already gone. "I don't know what's gotten into her, during the Lylat wars she was so carefree but now she's..." Fox trailed off

"A bitch?" Wolf filled in the blank, resulting in Fox turning to look him.

"Don't you start. I don't want you two fighting constantly, it's already getting old."

"What she can't hear can't hurt her."

"I don't care. This has to stop. You have to learn to be civil with eachother."

"I am being civil, how about you ask her? I wasn't the one spouting off."

"I'm sure she'll get used to you, and you'll become friends. From what I've seen she's a bit rough around the edges, but once you know her she's one of the most caring people you could know." Krystal added. "I've seen how she acts with Falco."

"Sure, and I can fly." Wolf said as he left the room, leaving the other two alone.

The Great Fox orbited the base above the Fichinian atmosphere. The perpetual blizzard raging on Fichina seemed to be more fervent, the clouds forming in a cyclone shape.

"NOW ARRIVING IN FICHINA AIRSPACE. ALL CREW TO THE BRIDGE." The blasted through Wolf's room, startling him. Heart racing, he left the room and walked down the corridor. He still wasn't too sure about the mission, mainly because it was so odd.

"That's all of us. Okay, what's the game plan Fox?" Krystal asked.

"Well, we're not really going to need us all to investigate the base, only around 2 I would say. Any volunteers?" Fox looked at the faces in the room, stopping on Wolf. "It would probably be a good idea for you to go Wolf, since you're the most adapted to the climate." This resulted in a glare back to Fox.

"I don't want to go down there. Why can't Katt go?"

"Me? Fat chance! Cold and me don't go well together. Just suck it up"

"I would also rather stay on board, Fox." Krystal added.

"Well, I'd want Peppy and Slippy on board, since they know the ship the best, but that leaves... Me and Wolf." Fox said sighing. "I guess it's decided. Come on, Wolf." Fox lead onward, Wolf hesitantly following after him.

"Let's just get this over and done with. I don't want to stay down there for longer than I have to." Wolf said as he caught up to him. "I don't exactly have good memories about this place..."

"I wonder why."

"Hey, It's your fault! By the time they got me out from there, my fingers had nearly frozen off."

"You were the one who came in guns blazing. Did you expect me to just leave you to kill us?"

"Hmph." Wolf looked forward, ending their conversation. 'I guess he does have a point.' The two continued in silence up until they were both in their ships.

"I guess you're right." Wolf started.

"What?"

"About what you said earlier. It probably was a good thing you took me down in the end, I would have dreaded to see this system run by Andross." Fox smiled at this comment, thinking Wolf wasn't as bad as he thought he was. 'Atleast he still has morals.'

It wasn't often that Wolf got introspective on events, but sometimes he couldn't help it. Only recently had he thought on his past life, and how much he wished he could change it, but it was impossible. So now, he surmised, he should try and make his future different, as he can control that.

"You ready?" Fox butted into his thoughts, catching Wolf off guard.

"Yeah sure, lets go."

The two ships blasted out of the hangar, a red and blue trail left in their wake. Their journey through the atmosphere was fast, and soon they were under the clouds. The storm wasn't as strong at the troposphere, but that didn't stop the cold.

"Something seems wrong here Fox."

"How so?"

"Weren't we told that pirates were hovering around Fichina? Because I'm noticing a distinct lack of Pirates..."

"Maybe they left, or went into hiding. There's no point in turning back now."

"Yeah, there's no point in turning back now, Fox." Another voice sounded through his headset, with a nasally tone.

"Wait-"

"That's right, Star Fox! You thought you saw the last of us?" Leon's face popped up on his visual, his scales taking a slightly bluer tone.

"You again? So you're the ones causing trouble, I should have known!" Fox shouted through his headset, his rage evident.

"Looks like you've got a new friend. What a hero, picking up a little Star-pup and taking him under your wing, how heroic."

"Shut your mouth Gekko before I rip you limb from limb!" Wolf snarled into the mic, baring his teeth.

"Oh dear, I'm so scared." He cackled, getting on both of their nerves. "How unfortunate that you came, though. It seems that you're already too late." His cackling continued.

"What do you mean?" Fox asked.

"We've already collected what we needed, so there's no point in being here. At least you tried though, unfortunately you were too slow." His laughter didn't stop.

"You're going down!." Wolf could hardly control his anger.

"I don't think so, you see... You've already walked straight into our hands. You're done, Star Fox." His laughter seized, taking on a menacing glare. "Remember what you did to us the first time we were here? How about we repay the favour?"

"We?" Suddenly, two other red dots appeared on Wolf's radar, seemingly out of nowhere. 'How did they hide their ship signals?'

"Indeed." Panther purred into his headset. Now that the odds weren't in their favour, they had to escape, and only Wolf noticed this.

"Where did that come from?" Fox asked. His radar had not showed the other signals, possibly malfunctioning under the cold.

"Fox! We gotta get out of here!" Wolf shouted into his mic. "We're outnumbered, Panther and another ship are behind us!"

"Not so fast! We knew you would think of this, but sadly this means we can't take you out personally." Leon's face dropped. "Like I said, you were simply too slow." Suddenly, Fox's ship jolted to a stop, tilting and nose diving downwards. He looked out of his window, noticing Wolf's ship doing the same thing. "EMP bullets, so small you didn't even notice them. Goodbye, Star Fox." His cackling started again.

All Fox could see was white as his ship gained accelerated, and he panicked. Suddenly, he remembered he had an emergency battery pack for situations like these. He quickly set it up and sent a jolt through his ship, but he was already close to the floor. He pulled up on his joystick, trying to slow down. "Wolf! Use your energy pack, or eject! Do something!"

"Wh-" His voice cut out, and in the distance Fox could see Wolf's ship hit the ground.

"WOLF!" His ship continued at it's speed, slowly decelerating. However, he wasn't fast enough and his ship hit the ground, the damage being much less than what it could have been. His head banging, he got out of his ship, looking over at Wolf's ship. They had landed close to the base luckily.

In the sky, Leon cackled to the other members of his team. "That'll show them. Now they have no chance of stopping us."

"Are you sure? They could survive. We should probably go after them, make sure they're dead." Panther questioned.

"There's no chance they survived that. And even if they did, they won't survive down there for long. They'll freeze to death, stuck in their ship in the freezing cold." Leon sighed. "I wish I could have seen their face as I shot them out of the sky though..."

"Whatever you say, we should get going. We don't want to keep boss waiting." Panther added, turning to face the sky.

"Comeon." A different voice sounded, as the three of them left the atmosphere.

Fox ran to Wolf's ship, examining the damage to his ship. The glass of his cockpit had shattered, pieces of glass sticking out from his fur, his face mangled. He was unconscious, his breathing slow and laboured. Fox looked at him in pity, quickly grabbing him under his arms and lifting him out of the ship.

"Wolf! Come on, wake up! WOLF!" He shouted trying to wake up, to no effect. However, the cold did have an effect on them both, as Fox could feel Wolf shivering, and could also feel the chill on his skin. He put Wolf in his arms and carried him into the base, hiding from the cold. The base was small, and only little power ran through the base. Fortunately, the heating was still on, albeit slightly. It wasn't warm by all means, but it was better than out there.

He carried him into the corner of the room, where he laid Wolf on the floor. He looked for medical supplies, and found a med-kit. He walked over to the corner of the room and sat next to Wolf. He started pulling shards of glass which had pierced him, blood slowly pouring out. Fox quickly covered the cuts. One shard was dangerously close to his eye, any closer and he could have been blind in both eyes. Pulling this shard out incited a response from Wolf, howling in agony. This took Fox by surprise, looking at Wolf.

It seemed Wolf had gone into a stage of shock, not able to control his body. He quickly wrapped his arms around Fox and shook violently, whispering to himself. Fox tried to listen to what he was saying, but it was hard to tell what he was saying.

"Please don't leave me. Please don't leave me. Please don't leave me..." He whispered on, repeating himself over and over. Fox had no idea what caused this, but grabbed Wolf, trying to console him. He slowly stroked his back, calming him down. He shaking slowed down, turning into more of a shiver.

"Don't worry, I won't leave you. You're not on your own. We're getting out of here." Fox whispered back, reassuring him. He wasn't even sure if Wolf could hear him at this stage, as he seemed to be in a world of his own. "You'll be okay."

Wolf continued to grasp onto Fox, and any slight movement to get out of his grip was futile, as he just grabbed harder. Fox sat there, with his right arm stroking Wolf's back and his left at an awkward angle, trying not to hug him. 'At least like this, we won't lose as much heat.' Fox mused, stopping his stroking, as it seemed Wolf had fully calmed down. He was warm at least, the feeling almost pleasant to Fox, a huge contrast to the cold outside. 'This feels good? What's wrong with me...'

Fox struggled to fall asleep, his heart racing, but eventually his exhaustion could not be stopped for long, and he lay on the floor in Wolf's arms.

End note:

Strange reaction?

It's been a while since I updated, and I am sorry about that. I can't guarantee that the next chapter will be up soon, but I will at least try. I'm finding it hard to make time for writing this story between focusing on my work and socialising with my friends, but I will finish this, even if it isn't as good as I wanted it to be... Until next time.