Authors Notes: Hey everyone, I'm sorry i'm so late with this. I had alot of issues with school, friends, my mind, and certain people on this site.....but anyways, On with the story!

Also, as we all already know Star Fox isn't mine only the massive amount of OC's are........

Song of the Day: Mind by System of a Down

Star Fox: The Company of Strays

Chapter 3

"Torture, Definition – The act of inflicting excruciating pain, as punishment or revenge, as a means of getting a confession or information, or for sheer cruelty." – Falanks's Musing's

Time: 11:00 AM, 2 days since the attack

Location: McCloud Residence – Cornerian Countryside

Two days had passed since the attack at the Cornerian base on Titania. It was really late in the morning; the sun was shining down on Corneria's surface with a burning gaze. But it was very quiet at the McCloud's residence, no one had heard anything from Falco, Katt had been staying at Fox's place since the attack, and Corneria had not taken any further action against Titania.

Everyone was still asleep except for a certain little blue vulpine, whom was up early watching Saturday morning cartoons. Of course being the young age that he is, Marcus did not understand why he had to keep the television volume low while everyone else was asleep.

After several minutes of watching cartoons and laughter that could brighten up any ones day, the phone began to ring.

It rang for several minutes before stopping, but after a long pause it began to ring again. Seeing as how Fox or Krystal weren't answering it, Marcus decided he should.

Marcus leapt off the couch, running as quickly as his little feet would carry him to the phone. Although, when he got to it, he realized that he couldn't reach, so he quickly grabbed a nearby chair, and climbed up to the phone.

Upon answering it, Marcus was surprised to hear a voice he hadn't heard in a long time, it was Peppy.

"Hello?" Peppy asked in an urgent and rushed sounding voice.

"McCloud residence, Marcus speaking." The blue kit said in a high pitched, somewhat nervous sounding voice.

There was a slight pause which was halted by Peppy's old and weary voice. "Ah, hello Marcus, how are you? Is your father there?"

Becoming a bit more confident, Marcus answered him. "Hi, I'm good, and yeah daddy is here."

"May I speak with him please? It's very urgent" Peppy asked, with his voice becoming a bit more rushed again.

"Okay!" Marcus shouted cheerfully as he jumped down from the chair and ran upstairs to find his father.

Marcus ran up to his parent's bedroom door and knocked really loudly which was replied with a loud *THUD* noise and someone, probably Fox, shouting "FUCKING SHIT! THAT HURT."

The door opened a small bit, Fox poked his head out and looked down at Marcus and asked him what was wrong.

Marcus replied by giving him the phone and then ran back down stairs to continue watching his show.

Fox closed the door behind him, sat back onto his bed, put the phone up to his ear, and asked in a very annoyed, yet sleepy voice. "Yes?"

"Fox is that you?" Peppy asked in a rushed tone of voice.

"Yeah, it's me. Is there a reason why you're calling me at this time?"

"I'm sorry; I didn't know you were asleep. But enough about that, I need to see you, Krystal, and Katt immediately."

Fox sighed deeply, "Can it wait?"

"No it can't wait! Get over here ASAP!" Peppy shouted, getting somewhat frustrated with the vulpine.

"Ok, ok calm down. We'll be right over."

Fox hung up, put the phone down, and turned over to Krystal who was laying on her side, staring at him.

"What did Peppy want?" she asked, though already knowing the answer.

"Peppy says he wants you, me, and Katt over in his office ASAP." Fox said while getting up from the bed to get dressed.

"Did he say why?"

"No, he didn't but it sounded urgent." The vulpine said finishing up getting dressed.

About 5 hours later…

Fox, Krystal, Katt, and Marcus were finally dressed and ready to go, but before they left Krystal and Katt noticed that Fox was checking the TV screen for something, but when he couldn't find anything he shrugged and they finally left for the Cornerian military base.

As they were driving through traffic, they kept getting red lights which eventually got really annoying for Fox. But at one red light, Marcus looked out his window and spotted a very odd looking wolf sitting on a bench.

The wolf's fur was white as fresh snow and looked a bit shaggy. Marcus also noticed the odd rag over it's eyes. Marcus guessed he was blind but if that were true, then why did it feel like the wolf staring at him?

The wolf seemed to nod to Marcus and as a truck passed in between them the wolf vanished.

The light finally turned green and Fox resumed driving.

Location: Cornerian Military Base

Time: 4:00 PM

Fox, Krystal, Marcus, and Katt walked into the main building to be greeted by two Cornerian soldiers. The soldiers didn't exactly greet them with respect, instead they told Fox and company to come with them.

The two soldiers led them through a number of hallways until they came into a large circular room. The lights were dimmed, there were people working at computer terminals everywhere, in the middle was a hologram projector, and sitting around it were soldiers from Corneria, Katina, Zoness, and the other planets of the alliance.

The two soldiers quickly filed out of the room once the group was inside. Peppy walked up to Fox and told him to find somewhere to sit but to tell Marcus to wait outside first. As soon as Marcus left the room Fox, Krystal and Katt found a spot to sit, which of course ended up being next to Peppy.

"Why exactly did you call us here?" Fox asked in a curious tone.

Just as Peppy was about to answer him the speakers in the room came to life and became filled with static. The static cleared, and was replaced by a high pitched ringing noise, nearly high enough to shatter glass. The noise stopped suddenly when the hologram projector blinked to life with no warning. Needless to say, everyone was surprised at what the machine was showing.

The image was black as a raven's wing aside from a small, dark yellow orb that seemed to be floating. Fox looked closer and quickly noticed that it was the exact same orb that had appeared on his TV. Krystal gasped as she realized this, but the worst part was the fact that the orb seemed to search the room, only stopping once it came upon the couple.

Suddenly the image flickered, and the blackness surrounding the orb seemed to brighten slowly. When the shadows had completely left the image, it revealed a cloaked figure sitting in a dimly lit room. The figure's cloak was an odd shade of red, appearing to bed nearly black. Its hood drooped down over the most part of the creature's face and muzzle. The only thing that could be seen inside the confines of the hood was the orb.

The figure began to glance around the room as if it were searching for something. That is until one of the Katinan soldiers spoke up, asking the soldier next to him something.

"Hey, man. Isn't that the guy who killed your brother?"

Before the other soldier could reply, the cloaked figure turned its baleful gaze upon them. After a few moments, a sadistic smile could be seen on the figure's muzzle and began to speak to the soldier in a high-pitched, but raspy voice. Like the voice of an evil Mickey Mouse.

"Ah! So you're Jim's little brother? What did he say your name was again?" the figure asked itself, tilting its head up in thought. "Oh that's right....Jake. How are you? Your brother sends his finest regards from hell." The figure snickered to itself in the confines of the cloak.

Jake, was enraged by this murderer's taunting and as such, stood up, grabbed his blaster, and stormed towards the flickering image. But when he got there, he realized that he couldn't hurt a hologram, it was just a bunch of bits and bytes. So, he did his best to calm himself, and turned to go back to his seat.

"That was a very smart decision on your part, Jake. Because, if you had come any closer we would've had to kill you."

Jake turned around and walked towards the projector again, where he tilted his head to the side and raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Oh yeah? And how exactly would you do that if you're talking to us through a hologram?"

"Like this..." The figure grinned under his hood, leaned toward the pixels that separated him from Jake, and the impossible happened. The pixels of the hologram seemed to bend around the figure's arm, where it grabbed a hold of the soldier's throat and ripped a fair chunk of it from his body before retreating back inside the image. Jake's body, suddenly began to spasm as his hands went to his neck, trying to stop the fountain of blood spraying out of his throat and onto nearby soldiers. Finally, his body went limp as he fell to his knees, then to the floor, where he lay in a quickly growing pool of his own cooling blood.

It took a few moments for everyone to realize what in hell's name had just occurred, but when the shock passed, everyone began to back away from the hologram as quickly as they could. Everyone looked to the figure in the image, who was simply sitting there, smiling at them while the lump of gore that was Jake's throat sat in his hand. Without another word, he simply placed the piece of meat in his mouth and ate it without any qualms.

"Well I'm stuffed!" The figure said in a much different tone of voice, now sounding overjoyed, excited and cheerful, much like a child. And instead of the rasping, murderous voice, the voice bore an extremely thick accented Australian voice.

As the cloaked figure began to lick his chops, the hologram flickered again as the lighting got a bit brighter, which caused the figure to look around in a slight panic. As the figure looked around frantically, trying to figure out what was happening, the sound of grinding metal began to fill the room. After the grinding stopped a blue blur was thrown at the figure, causing him to fall to the ground. The cloaked figure quickly picked himself up and moved out of the image.

Fox leaned over towards Peppy; "What the hell was that about?" He asked the nervous general.

Before the Peppy could respond two figures appeared on the hologram. No one could tell who or even what they were, this is because they both wore armour comparable to that of a tank. The tarnished metal they adorned themselves with looked like it would blend in very well with the sands of Titania, despite how obvious the bulky plating looked. The armour's visor glowed an eerie blue against the dark, metallic scenery that surrounded them. They didn't seem to be armed in any way, shape or form, though their fists most likely sufficed in close combat. One of the armoured creatures picked up the badly beaten creature they had thrown in, while the other brought over a flimsy looking chair. They both sat the bloodied creature into the chair and secured its wrists and legs to the seat. In front of the chair was a small, square table made of some kind of metal. The table was marred by bloodstains and rust, though it was near impossible to distinguish which was which. On the opposite side of the table, a figure was sitting in another chair, but its form was enshrouded by darkness. Only his blood red eyes were visible through the shadows.

The two armoured figures turned towards the darkness and left. But within seconds, a very familiar looking Arsenic coloured wolf emerged from the darkness and walked over to the injured creature. When he reached the bruised figure, he looked down at the wounds that covered the figure's body, he then walked around to the left side of the chair, while grabbing at the back of the creatures head, and proceeded to slam the unconscious figure's face down into the corner of the table, which resulted in a loud bang. The table now had a sizable dent in it, as did the creature's head. As the beaten figure began to stir, the Arsenic wolf gave him a flick on the side of the head causing the figure to open its eyes with a sudden fear.

Katt and Fox gasped as they could tell right away... It was Falco.

"Well, well, well. Welcome back to the land of the living, Bird" The shadowed figure growled in a tone so devoid of emotion it was chilling.* (Author's Notes: Think Rorschach's voice from Watchmen.)

Falco didn't respond, he was too busy shaking in fear, but at the same time he was somewhat hypnotized by the shadowed figure's red eyes.

Just then, another armoured figure came in from the darkness and handed the shadowed figure a small object. The armoured figure saluted by pounding the left side of his chest with its right hand. The red eyes just nodded to the armoured creature as it made its way out. When the red eyes looked back at Falco, the shadowed figure leaned forward a tiny bit. The figure made a fist around the small object he was given, he then began to shake his fist a bit, until he finally moved his fist over the darkened part of the table and opened his hand up causing a small noise which sounded like a small stone rolling on metal. Out from the darkened part of the table a die rolled its way over to Falco. It stopped rolling right when it reached the edge of the table, the number showing was six.

"Well, I guess this is my lucky day... I get six guesses" The figure said, his voice sounding a bit cocky... well as cocky as it can sound.

"Hmmm... let's see, your name is Falco Lombardi, your age is... I'm guessing mid-thirties. Your rank in the Cornerian military is Lieutenant..." The figure's eyes began to look upwards as the sound of someone sniffing the air appeared in the speakers. "...From the smell of it, you have not showered in some time..." Just as he said that, the Arsenic wolf, walked up to Falco, holding a medium sized metal bucket that looked to be filled with a fair bit of water, along with a number of ice cubes. When he was arms length away from the avian, he took hold of the top and bottom of the bucket and with a swinging motion threw the ice water right at the avian... Essentially giving him a bath.

Falco was now freezing his ass off, he was shaking and couldn't stop, his eyes were wide open now, and his wounds screamed out as the cold water moved dirt that had already settled there.

Everyone in the briefing room cringed at the sight of the freezing water being thrown onto Falco, and at this point Katt began shaking in complete anger.

The darkened figure's eyes glared at Falco with utter hatred as he began speaking again in his usual deep, monotone, and scratchy voice; "And last but not least—"

The figure was interrupted as Katt stood up from her seat and began screaming through the hologram at whoever this person was. "JUST STOP IT! JUST FUCKING STOP IT! JUST LEAVE HIM THE FUCK ALONE!"

The figure's eyes surveyed the hologram, and saw the pink feline standing up from her seat. shrieking obscenities at him. A small grin appeared on the figure's muzzle as he let out a deep, menacing chuckle.

"Well Birdie, it looks to me like you're in love... hmph, Love, such a useless emotion. An emotion that can be the death of any warrior..." The figure said, hatred filling his voice.

The figure looked back over to Falco and began to crack different joints in his body. "Well, I guess we should get down to the main questions that need answering..."

The figure leaned forward a bit and looked Falco dead in the eyes. "My first question is; How many outposts are setup on Titania?"

Falco didn't respond, he just kept a blank expression on his face as he stared into the darkened figures blood red eyes.

The figure let out an annoyed sigh and asked the question again… Falco quickly answered, fear showing in his voice. "There are about 15 outposts."

The figure grinned. "See? Now was that so hard… My next question, How well equipped are they?"

Falco was a bit faster to answer this time, though his voice was steadily getting shakier and more fearful. "E-e-each outpost is equipped with a few Landmaster tanks, at least six AA-Guns, four sniper towers, the latest in radar tech, and a good hundred troops or so…"

As Falco was saying this, the large Arsenic wolf behind him was making mental notes of what he was saying, while on the other end of the hologram, Peppy's face was buried in his palms.

The figure's eyes widened at everything Falco was listing. "Wow all that stuff for a small outpost…" The figure let out another sigh. "What are the Cornerians researching? What are they mining?"

This time Falco looked over at the holographic screen and tried to ignore the figure. He let out an angered sigh. "If you answer this simple question you will not be harmed."

Again Falco tried to ignore the figure and his threats. Now the figure began to get angry, his breathing began to get louder and more stressed. "So be it…"

The loud metal scraping noise filled the speakers again causing everyone sitting on the other end of the hologram to jump. Once everyone was done freaking out, Katt, Krystal, Fox, and Peppy looked at the hologram in fear.

There, standing next to Falco, was a wolf of some kind. It's fur was a Slate Grey, and it looked to stand nearly 6'1 despite it's slouched posture. It appeared to be wearing a pair of extremely tattered combat camos, and what looked to be a hoodie of some kind. It's left arm was completely cybernetic, ending in long, menacing claws which appeared to have fresh bloodstains on it. And on it's head, it wore rough cloth wrappings, which covered the majority of it's face.

The darkened figure glared at Falco and asked again trying to calm his breathing down; "Answer my fucking question... What are the Cornerians researching? What are they mining?"

Falco took a deep breath and answered; "...We are trying to research Titania's history, as for the mining... I don't know."

"If you want the history of our home, why don't you go ask Peppy? I'm sure he would love to tell you about it..." the figure exclaimed in a sarcastic manner.

Fox immediately turned to face Peppy; "What exactly is he talking about Peppy?"

Peppy just lowered his head with guilt.

"Hmmm... not gonna tell us? Very well, I guess you can explain that to McCloud and his whore later..." the figure said in a threatening tone.

"Now back to my question... Tell me what the Cornerians are mining..."

Falco took a quick glance at Peppy, then looked back at the blood red eyes that were glaring at him from the darkness; "All Peppy told me was that we are mining a mineral that is only found on Titania... I swear, that's all I know!"

The figure squinted at Falco until finally he spoke again; "Well, you're right about the 'minerals' only being located here... but you know more..." the figures eyes looked up to the wolf standing next to Falco; "Luckily we have methods of extracting information...heheheh."

"Falco, I would like to introduce you to a very close friend of mine... Ripper."

Suddenly, the wolf known only as Ripper, lifted up his cybernetic arm, took his index claw, placed the tip of it onto Falco's shoulder, and proceeded to make a clean yet gory gash down the avian's bicep. Falco began to shake and sweat from the dirty air that began its job infecting the wound.

The darkened figure leaned forward a bit more and growled at Falco; "Tell me what you are using the minerals for!"

Falco responded with increased shaking. In the briefing room Katt had her hands cupped over her eyes as she was crying to herself.

The figure began to grow impatient as he grabbed the edges of the table, stood up from his chair, and roared at Falco; "WHAT ARE THE CORNERIANS USING THE MINERALS FOR!?"

He looked over towards Ripper again and nodded. Ripper acknowledged the nod with a nod of his own along, with an odd click sound coming from his eye. Ripper then proceeded to, again, lift up his cybernetic arm, but this time he extended all of his claws. He looked at his sharp claws for a little bit, then he turned his attention to the deep gash in Falco's arm and rammed his claws all the way into the wound until he dug his claws right down to Falco's bone, causing a painful gasp to escape Falco's beak.

"So... are you gonna tell me what I want to know?" the figure asked, again trying to calm his breathing.

Tears began to stream down the sides of Falco's face as he began gasping for air. He looked at the figures eyes, then at Katt, then back to the figure; "Fuck you!"

The figure shut his eyes... when he opened them he nodded to Ripper again as he sat back down. Ripper looked into Falco's eyes with a maniacal laugh as his cybernetic claws slid out of the gash and raised his arm. With very little effort at all, Ripper swiped Falco's entire limb off of his body causing Falco to release a bloodcurdling scream as a veritable fountain of blood, gore, and viscera were sent soaring about the room. This of course also caused the majority of people in the briefing room to vomit. A few seconds passed until Falco finally stopped screaming and fell unconscious, whether it from the shock or the blood loss, no-one knew.

"Hmph... take him to his cell and get someone to patch up his new wound." The figure said, as two armoured creatures re-entered the room, unchained Falco, and carried him away.

The hologram flickered again as the lighting in the now bloody room got bright enough for people to actually see the mysterious figure. He stood up and looked right at Peppy. "Well, I guess this is good bye for now... but before I leave you to explain all of this to the public... I thought I would just at least give you my name... that way you'll know who you are dealing with..."

Fox, Krystal, Peppy, and Katt leaned closer to the hologram of this ebon furred wolf and listened. "My name is Spyke..."

Author's comments: Ok, so...hopefully this answered some questions and if not, it probably made you guys just ask more.... Also, If you want more info on Ripper, Don't ask me, I didn't create him. My friend created him but I do have his profile on my page....So, you guys should know by now my updates aren't planned, so it could take a while, R&R plz.....See Ya!