Chapter 2
The return of the Sharpclaw
That morning was perfect. When Fox woke up he saw the blue vixen who he loved embracing him, just like he was embracing her. The events that occurred last night weren't a dream. That was more than enough to make Fox smile. When her azure eyes opened her gaze met his, and once again they were in a trance, just by looking into each other's eyes, creating a heavy blush on each, making the fur on their muzzles started to change color. Krystal decided to break the silence, but not their gaze.
"How did you sleep?"
"Like a rock. And what about you?"
"Can't complain." – she said, nuzzling into his chest, cuddling with him, before giving him a little kiss that easily grew to another thing.
On Thorntail Hollow Leonardo and Falco were deciding whether they should contact Fox and Krystal or not. They had found out something very interesting regarding what happened to all the Thorntails and Earthwalkers. Apparently the Sharpclaw army had been reorganized and modernized by an unknown hand and they had taken all of the inhabitants of Thorntail Hollow for slave work. Leonardo decided to send a message instead of "phoning" Mccloud and Krystal.
Fox and Krystal's make out session was interrupted by his wrist communicator's beeping indicating a message from Leonardo. He read it out aloud for him and Krystal being able to hear it. When he finished reading he and Krystal already knew that they would have to delay the next session.
He briefed General Peppy about this new mission to which Peppy approved and smiled at Fox like when a proud father smiles at his child when he saw Krystal, meaning that he understood everything but didn't say a word, causing Fox to blush. Krystal sent a message to starwolf saying that she was leaving the team and why, not even bothering to use the communicator or saying farewell on the transmitter. Fox knew that this meant that she had been mistreated by starwolf and he promised himself that he would find out why and make them pay for making her suffer.
It was still early and Krystal decided to deactivate and leave her Cornerian fighter at Cape Claw so that starwolf couldn't track her or that it couldn't be used by the enemy.
When they arrived at Thorntail Hollow they were already behaving like a regular couple, being Krystal the one to make the announcement. Even thought Leonardo and the warpstone didn't know her like a friend and comrade as Falco and Fox knew her the three congratulated them being happy that they were together after having heard from Falco why they had broken up in the first place and not censuring the course of actions that each one had taken.
The starfox team spent the morning in planning were to investigate and getting supplies from the shopkeeper that didn't even ask for payment as a token of appreciation of what they had done to the planet and seeing what Leonardo had done to Wolf O'Donnell.
After a quick lunch the four headed to the Lightfoot village, seeing that it was one of the few places that Fox knew that would be safe from a possible invasion. Fox and Krystal had their uniforms from Starfox assault, Falco had the same outfit as before and Leonardo had a dark blue cotton gi like when Gohan defeated Cell. When they arrived at the front gate Fox hit the trees in the order that the Lightfoot chief had instructed him in case he would need help. The gate opened and the four entered the village. Unfortunately, even the lightfoot had disappeared, leaving only wrecked homes and the corpses of those who had perished fighting. Team starfox decided to give the bodies a proper burial before heading to Walled City, the home of the Redeye and a proper place to use as a prison, using the enormous dinosaurs as guards and as a execution camp, serving those who disobeyed the sharpclaw as lunch to the hungry beasts. When they were exiting the village the gates closed them inside, entering a small patrol of sharpclaw from the underground tunnel.
"Stun or kill?" – asked Leonardo.
"Stun for now, but only if necessary… On my signal, kill." – instructed Fox to the rest of his team.
The patrol surrounded them carefully, and once they were sure that they were on their on the correct position one of them asked Falco:
"Who be you and what you be doing here?" – the sharpclaw asked with a cautious tone.
"We are mere travelers that were passing by to check up one some old friends." – answered Falco naturally.
The sharpclaw seemed to be filled with doubt.
"What be the weapons for?"
"Unfortunately the roads are filled with dangers these days."
When the sharpclaw picked up a radio to contact his superiors about the new travelers Krystal used her telepathic powers to disrupt the radio waves of the device, making it useless. The sharpclaw kept it in his pocket, obviously confused. Leonardo then left the whole patrol group unconscious with a karate chop to the neck on each dinosaur with lightning speed.
"Thanks Leo." – Krystal said happily.
"No problem Krystal." – Leonardo answered.
"Come on. We need to hurry." – Fox said impatiently.
The group quickly made way to Thorntail Hollow to their ships. From there they made way to the Great Fox. Their plan was to supply their ships and recon the other areas of the planet to know where, how and when to attack.
When they were halfway to the Great Fox they received a transmission from starwolf. Fox told the others to ignore it. That wasn't the best time for stupid fights about honor. When they arrived at the Great Fox they set course to the other side of Sauria to investigate Walled City through the satellite. What Fox and Krystal saw left them without words. The one who had reorganized the Sharpclaw army and enslaved most of the other tribes was none other than General Scales, although they didn't tell the others to avoid raising trouble because the quality still wasn't good enough to be sure that it was the tyrant that had worked with Andross that was still standing there.
When they saw him they were awestruck, but even he, bowed down at another sharpclaw, so it must have been him that reorganized the tribe. He was of a large stature, his scales were of a blood red and his eyes were of a bloodthirsty red with a yellow cat-like pupil.
"I wish we had a better audio than this…" – Fox asked.
"Sorry, but I'm doing the best I can. The volume is at it's to sound and so is the microphone, but I can't get the spying drone any closer without the risk of it getting noticed. After it's back we may be able to replay with a proper audio, but for now…" – Leonardo started.
"It's ok Leo, I was just joking. We'll see what we can do tomorrow. For now it's best if we got a good night sleep." – Fox told his team.
Leonardo called back the spying drone and everyone went to their rooms. Fox had lent his room to Krystal seeing that this Great Fox didn't have enough rooms for all of them. Fox was passing through the room where he used to sleep when Krystal called him.
"Fox."
"What is it Krystal?"
"I'm afraid…"
"Of what?"
"General Scales."
He entered her current room and embraced her.
"It's ok… You don't need to be afraid. I'm here for you, my love."
"Thank you,…Fox…" – she managed to say before placing her arms around his neck and started kissing him.
That night they fell asleep in the same bed, embraced, in a passionate kiss, like true lovers.