Not much of a note but I wanted to point out that in my opinion there is a two year gap between Adventures and Assault, and a one year gap between Assault and Command, I'm just adding this so that there is not confusion at a later point.
Chapter 5: Pink Petals
The Great Fox 3 remained in orbit for another week while Fara and Fox got their son used to the ship. When the ship left orbit, Wilson admitted that he couldn't wait to fly on a mission with Star Fox; ever since he had joined the Star Fox team Wilson had carried his katana on him at almost all times, just in case.
The Star Fox team was back in space and for two months, they flew missions; on several occasions Wilson proved his worth in ground combat using modern ranged weapons as well as his Katana and magic taking Fox's place for on foot combat situations. One particular incident on Fortuna, about a month after their departure, showed just how skilled Wilson was in ground combat.
A group of hereto-unknown pirates had taken over one of the Cornerian armoury bases on the outskirts of the main urban areas. While the base had a large number of both hand and ship mounted weapons in storage the personnel were able to lock down the storage areas before the pirates had killed all of them meaning that the pirates were now holed up in the base while trying to unlock the storage areas. As they were now active again, Brigadier General Dante Spiran had hired the Star Fox Team to free the base, without destroying it. In order to evade detection the Great Fox 3 had remained in orbit while sending Wilson down in the Gladius, which Fay had let him use as it was in good enough condition to act as a transport. Wilson set down about two kilometres from the base and climbed out of the fighter's cockpit; he was wearing a long-sleeved white shirt with a short-sleeved flight jacket, that was undone, overtop as well as blue jeans and brown approach boots with an ammo belt around the waste for storing extra clips. At the moment he was lying in the prone position on a cliff like protrusion of one of the hills roughly half a kilometre from the base; he was observing the base through the scope of his sniper rifle; he also had a standard issue charging blaster in its holster on the right of his ammo belt and his sword strapped at his side, as always. As the area around the base was full of hills it was easy to hide if he kept his distance, the area surrounding the base for about a 400m radius had been flattened to allow the base to be built, and he was careful not to let the guards be aware of his presence
"Only two guards and a shielded door," he mused to himself. The two guards in question were an orange tabby feline and a red avian with some yellow markings on his body; both were male. Wilson zoomed in closer on the door and gave it a good analysis. The door was sealed, most likely from the inside, and heavily reinforced.
'There's no way we can hack or rewire that door in the time we have,' he thought to himself, knowing that the people inside might eventually open the weapon storage areas and force them to destroy the base. Lowering the rifle he slid backwards down the slope of the cliff until he was far enough down that the people below wouldn't see him, then got up and moved quickly back towards the landing zone. It took him a good 30 minutes to make his way back. Once there he contacted the Great Fox.
"Great Fox 3, this is Wilson Kitsune, respond."
"This is Fox, I hear you, Wilson. What's the situation?"
"I've scoped out the base and it looks like most of the pirates are inside as there are only two guards by the entrance. The main door is locked from the inside and I can't get in without blowing the door," Wilson paused for a moment, thinking things over, before once again speaking into his wrist communicator, "I'm gonna need some help on this, send Krystal down will you?"
"I'm here, Wilson," Krystal's voice replaced Fox's on the communicator, "just tell me what you need and I'll bring it down."
"Right," Wilson said, "bring down a machine gun with extra clips, any weapon you want to use with all the ammo it can carry, some charges to blow the door, and make sure you bring your staff as we may have to resort to hand-to-hand combat at some point."
"Alright," Miyu's voice then replaced Krystal's on the comm.
"Wilson, if I may suggest something. Once inside you two should split up. With the exception of the loading bay on the other side of the base the hallways of these bases are not that large and have no cover for firefights; fighting in the same corridor will just make the two of you a bigger target and make it harder to engage in melee combat without hitting each other."
"Thanks, Miyu, I'll remember that."
"Alright, Wilson, Krystal should be down in about 10 minutes with the equipment," Fox said over the comm.
"Right, I'll wait here for her, just hurry because there's no telling how long before those pirates get the main weapons storage room open," Wilson shut his wrist communicator off, sat down on the ground, and waited for Krystal to arrive. He thought about his relationship with the blue vixen as he waited. He had learned a lot about her in the last month and he knew that she was a kind individual but was no slouch in combat; Wilson had never given any relationships enough time to advance, save for one person who he had not seen since leaving Fichina at the end of his training, and now that he had settled in as a member of the Star Fox Team, maybe he should try and get closer to Krystal.
Wilson's thought were interrupted by the sound of the Great Fox's shuttle's engines as the transport set down. Wilson watched as the shuttle's door opened and Krystal appeared in the doorway. In the week before the left Corneria, Krystal had discovered that her blue catsuit no longer fit her well as she had apparently grown a bit since the last time she had worn it; when she had tried it on it had fit but it was tight and, as a result, restricted her movement and was very uncomfortable. She had thrown the restrictive suit away and had spent some time on Corneria searching for something a bit more convenient.
At that moment, Krystal was wearing her chosen clothing for a mission: a greyish-green t-shirt, a brown cargo vest overtop of the shirt, olive drab camo fatigue style shorts which had a belt for storing her charging blaster, and boots which looked like they military surplus but still light enough to wear comfortably, if that were even possible. Krystal also had her staff stored on her back, which fit into a clasp on the back of her vest; her vest had places to stored extra ammunition for weapons. The blue vixen had discovered that this clothing allowed her to move more easily than her previous clothing had.
"I've got the equipment in here," she said.
"Right, let's get ready," Wilson entered the shuttle and picked up the machine gun clips, sticking them on his belt, and then grabbed the machine gun. Everyone had noticed that despite its lower power than most weapons Wilson preferred to use the machine gun, as it was lighter than most other weapons allowing him to move more easily. Wilson also picked up the two charges that Krystal had brought to blow the door. Krystal picked up the gatling gun that she had brought for herself and made sure that she had enough ammo for the mission. Krystal looked over at Wilson and asked.
"Are you ready?"
"As much as I'll ever be, let's get moving," Wilson and Krystal disembarked from the shuttle and Krystal followed Wilson as he led her towards the occupied armoury base.
It took time for them to get near the base and when they did, Wilson let Krystal look over the base through the sniper rifle's scope. When she had finished she backed down the slope until she was on the same level as Wilson, hidden by the cliff.
"So, why don't you just take them out, I've seen your marksmanship skills and you could hit them easily," Wilson merely sighed to the vixen's inquiry.
"The sniper rifle has a slow firing rate, so slow that if I hit or miss then one of them will be able to alert the rest of the base or at least run from my firing sight. I would like you to read their minds and let me know if one will be more likely to run, rather than alert the base, or if they are likely to be susceptible to intimidation."
"Alright just give me a moment," Krystal began to concentrate on the minds of the two guards. After a moment, Krystal spoke up.
"The avian is definitely the higher up of the two; he would remain calmer if the feline were killed. However, the feline will probably panic and if I can get within weapons range, I should be able to keep him from alerting the base if you can take out the avian. Not only that but it seems like he wants to quit this group; if given the chance to run and leave the group he most likely would."
"Alright, I'll stay here until you're in position. Just give me some sort of signal when you're ready."
"Alright, I'll let you known on the communicator," Krystal then began moving through the bumpy landscape, unnoticed by the guards. Wilson crawled to his lookout point again, careful not to draw the attention of the guards, and looked through the scope of his rifle. He waited for what seemed like ages to get some confirmation from Krystal. He felt like his body was starting to harden when his wrist communicator went off.
"Wilson," Krystal's hushed voice came, "don't respond, just look to your left of the base. I'm focusing on your thoughts so just let me know if you can see me by thinking so."
Understanding what she meant, the crossbred fox moved the scope of her rifle to the left and zoomed until he noticed the blue vixen, holding her gatling gun in a ready position, pressed against the outside wall of the base.
'I can see you,' he thought consciously, knowing Krystal would hear it, 'just nod if you can here this.' As Wilson watched Krystal, he was sure he saw her nod. Seeing this he consciously thought 'I'm going to take out the avian, when you hear my shot make sure to move in and stop the feline.' Seeing Krystal nod slightly, Wilson moved his rifle's barrel to the right so that the sights passed over the feline and came to rest over the red avian's head.
Martin, the feline guard, was nervous. He had joined the pirate group with high hopes but all the older and more experienced members of the pirate group treated him poorly and all he was assigned guard duty along with the red avian, whose name he had forgotten. He looked over at his superior and sighed quietly, wishing something would happen. He was about to speak up to the avian, when his superior's head was pierced by a bullet, causing him to fall to the ground with blood seeping from the back of his head. Panicking, he was about to radio to the inside of the base for help; he had the hand-held communicator to his mouth and was about to turn it on when voice to his right said.
"Stop right there, drop that radio or I'll put more holes in you than a dartboard." Mark turned and saw a blue vixen holding a large gatling gun pointed directly at him. More out of fear than obedience Mark dropped the radio but made no further movements.
"Drop your weapon," Krystal ordered the feline. The feline dropped his energy rifle and backed away from her, until the barrel of a rifle pressed into his back.
"Now I suggest you run, before we decide to shoot you." Not bothering to see who was behind him, Martin turned and ran in the direction of the nearest city. While he ran, he thought repeatedly to himself that he would decide to try to find honest work this time instead of joining a pirate group.
--
Back at the base, Krystal stared at Wilson, a little confused.
"How did you get here so fast? It's half a kilometre to where you shot that guy from." Wilson smirked, lowering the now empty sniper rifle and dropping it.
"I used my magic, I've learned to reduce the air pressure in front of myself and create spurts of air under my feet in order to run and speeds most people would find impossible. I feel a little drained but I'll be fine for this operation," as Wilson spoke, he took out the two charges and set them on the door.
"I see," Krystal said, swinging her large gun over her back. Wilson set the timer on the charges for 30 seconds.
"Now, on my order hit the arming button and run around the corner, we don't want to be here when they go off." Krystal nodded and stepped in front of one of the charges, while the other fox stood in front of the other.
"Now!" both foxes pressed the arming button then ran around to the side of the base where Krystal had hidden while waiting for Wilson to shoot the avian. They waited, both covering their ears until the charges went off. The sound from the blast was deafening, even through their covered ears, and they felt the earth shaking from the force of the explosion. Both foxes then raised their rapid-fire weapons, darted around the side of the base, and ran inside. After going less than 20 meters into the base, the two of them found themselves at a crossroad in the corridor, with one going off to the right and another off to the left.
"Miyu said we should split up, just in case we have to fight in close quarters," Wilson said, "so I'll right and you go left."
"We'll meet up before going after the ones in the central control room," Krystal said. She was about to run down her hallway but first looked over her shoulder and said, "be careful, Wilson."
"I will, Krystal. And same to you," the vixen smiled at Wilson's response then turned and ran down the left hallway while Wilson ran down the right one.
--
Vergil Kandles (pronounced: Khan-dless) was the leader of his mostly unknown pirate group; he had made the daring attack on the Cornerian armoury in hopes of gaining access to the armoury and outfitting his group with heavy weapons for larger raids. Unfortunately, one of the Armoury's guards had managed to lock down the weapon storage bunker inside the main base, the only door to which was located in the control room, which was where Vergil was now. Vergil was a stoat with mostly white fur in his late 30s, with short white hair and wearing a black uniform like outfit with a blue coat over top of it; he was 180cm tall and had brown eyes.
For the last four hours the pirates had been patrolling the interior of the base—just incase any of the facility's guards had survived—while Vergil and his half a dozen elite guards were holed up inside the control room, trying to get the main weapons bunker open. When the explosion at the entrance had gone off he had become both concerned and agitated. Reports began to come in form all over the base as he learned that two Foxes from the Star Fox Team had been moving through his base and slowly but efficiently eliminating every guard and member of his pirates within the base.
"Hurry up and get that door open!" he commanded two of his elite guard, who were trying to hack into the computerised lock. Though he was worried, he was ticked that his guards had failed to keep the assailants out of the base.
--
It had been some time since Krystal and Wilson had begun clearing out the base; they had actually made very good progress. Now Wilson was walking slowly down a corridor when he heard footsteps around the next the corner. Pressing himself against the wall, he moved closer to the bend. Checking to make sure that he had enough ammunition in his machine gun, he suddenly jumped out into the corridor and was about to fire when a voice said.
"Wilson wait it's me!" Krystal stood her hands held up in defence and with her gatling gun slung across her back. Wilson lowered his gun and sighed.
"Sorry," he apologized, feeling a bit ashamed for not recognising her before he had almost plugged her with rounds.
"It's
alright, I'm a bit on edge too," Krystal responded to both his
words and his thoughts,
"I read your mind around the corner so
I knew it was you. Good thing I did or one of us might be dead."
"I know," Wilson said.
'I don't think I could like with myself if I was responsible for Krystal's death.' Krystal smiled as she heard this thought but did not comment on it. Instead, Wilson spoke up, taking a more serious voice.
"So, could you check the thoughts in this base and tell me where the rest of them are?"
"Yes, just a moment," Krystal closed her eyes and began concentrating. After a while Krystal spoke.
"I can sense 27 other people in this building."
"Where are they?" Wilson asked.
"I can hear them thinking something about the main control room."
"Are any of them near us?"
Krystal shook her head "No, they all retreated after our attack on the base."
"Ok," Wilson raised his wrist communicator and called the Great Fox.
"Great Fox come in, this is Wilson Kitsune." A moment later Miyu's face appeared on the communicator's screen.
"This is Miyu, how is the mission going, Wilson?" Wilson glanced around before replying.
"We've managed to clear out most of the base and all of the remaining guards have retreated to the main control room, now we need a map of this base so we can find them before they get access to weapons bunker."
"Alright, just give me a moment, there!" Wilson's communicator then beeped, showing him that he had received the map from the large ship.
"Thank, Miyu, any advice for taking the control room?"
"Just that you should take out the most targets you can as quickly as possible; the pirates are bound to get more desperate when there are fewer of them left."
"Alright, talk to you later." Wilson shut off his communicator and brought up the map of the base.
"Krystal," he said.
"Yes?"
"We should take this route to get close to the control room," he said as he used his finger to "draw" a path on the map. "How much ammo do you have left?"
"About half a clip, and you?" Krystal asked.
"Practically none, we may have to resort to hand-to-hand combat or magic to finish this." The two of them began jogging in the indicated direction. En route to the control room Krystal spoke up to Wilson.
"Wilson, did you notice that all of the pirates were using old projectile weapons instead of energy based ones?"
"Yes I noticed; that must be why they are raiding this base. It also makes injury a greater risk as bullet could get stuck in you instead of just leaving energy burns," Wilson pointed out.
'Now we better not speak up, we're getting close to the control room so just focused on my thoughts,' he thought consciously to Krystal, who nodded in response.
The two foxes reached a T-shaped corridor and slowed to a creeping walk as they heard some minor conversation from the last of the pirates around a 90-degree bend to the left in the middle of their corridor. Krystal put a hand on Wilson's shoulder as they reached the bend in the corridor to stop him from moving any further. Krystal closed her eyes and began to search for the minds of the pirates who were still alive in the base. After a moment, she opened her eyes and made some gestures to Wilson using a crude sign language; it took Wilson a moment but he figured out that the blue vixen was saying that there were 20 armed-guards around the corner. After interpreting this, Wilson looked down for a moment and then drew his sword.
Krystal had never gotten a good look at Wilson's Katana before so she took a moment to examine it. The handle was simply made with black fabric of some sort weaved around the handle to gripping power. The sword blade had its cutting edge on the outcurve and a dull incurve coloured black; the cutting edge was silver but it had a red pattern on it that looked like red fire was coming off the front end so that when it moved through the air, it looked as thought fire was dancing along the sword blade. She blinked and then noticed that in addition to the artistic fire-like pattern along the blade fire was starting to appear on the sword's blade.
'I'm going to use a large scale magic attack,' Wilson thought to her, 'this is going to use a lot of my energy and I might be unconscious after I do this so you will have to finish the mission on your own. Don't protest,' he added, 'we need to take out those guards quickly and I have confidence that you will be able to deal with the leader and his guards easily, trust me'
Wilson took a deep breath and jumped around the corner. Both of them heard one of the guards shout "Over there!" right before Wilson swung his sword horizontally and sent out a large wave of fire. Immediately he followed the first wave with another, and another, and then he began swinging his sword in multiple directions each time sending a wave of fire down the corridor. After 12th wave he stepped back then jumped forwards, swinging his Katana down in the progress and shouting "HELL'S CREST" as he landed, the katana blade struck the floor and sent a massive wave of fire down the corridor.
Wilson staggered, panting from exertion after using up so much energy. His right arm, still holding his sword, fell to his side. Wilson then dropped his sword and collapsed onto his knees, and then forwards using his arms to hold himself in a four-legged position. Seeing this, Krystal dashed forwards and immediately asked.
"Are you alright?"
"Just drained," Wilson responded, while panting as Krystal helped him backwards into a sitting position against the wall, "sorry…but you'll…have to…finish this one…by yourself." Wilson took a deep breath and began to speak normally, "There shouldn't be more than seven left if you read the minds correctly." Krystal thought a moment then lifted her gatling gun off her back and set it next to Wilson. She then drew her staff from her back and extended it to its full length.
"I'll need more agility in there," she explained to Wilson, as she retrieved his sword and carefully pushed it into the scabbard at his left, "so I'll have to rely on my magic and staff, the gatling gun is too heavy and will just make it harder for me to evade attacks."
"Alright, just cool off the corridor before you charge in," Krystal blinked and then took her first look down the corridor to the main control room. She was very surprised as there was nothing but scorched metal and some piles of ash; the metal walls, floor, and ceiling of the hallway looked partially melted, being disfigured as gravity pulled the softened metal towards earth. She had not realized just how hot the fire from Wilson's attacks was. The crossbred fox took a deep breath and spoke quickly without panting.
"My fire is hot enough to melt metal but not to the point of liquefying it and using that much at once leaves me almost defenceless," he then inhaled and exhaled deeply before saying, "be…careful."
"I will," Krystal faced down the corridor and checked her staff's remaining power. "Full power, I can do this." She held her staff forwards and began t spin it like a baton. After a moment, a small breeze accompanied by some snow blew down the corridor, rapidly cooling the incredibly hot metal and solidifying it; after about 15 seconds she stopped. She gripped her staff in a defensive position and began to move down the corridor slowly, ready to face the last seven pirates she knew were waiting to ambush her.
--
As soon as he heard the attack in the corridor leading to the control room, Vergil ordered his six elite guards to hide throughout the room to ambush anyone who came through. Vergil carried a pistol that should have been an antique and was hiding behind one of the control room's computer panels. One of his guards, a blaze ferret, was standing by the entrance to the room with his rifle raised over his head so that he could club an assailant unconscious as soon as they came in the door.
Krystal was well aware of the threats in the control room, as she had been listening to the thoughts of the pirates for some time. She took a deep breath and dove into the room. The blaze ferret that had been waiting to club her swung down but missed her and Krystal swung her staff sideways knocking his head into the wall and leaving him unconscious.
One of the elite guards, a grey rabbit, charged her firing his rifle wildly. Krystal dodged and got into close range. She used her staff to spray him with her ice blast and the terrified rabbit watched as his body turned to ice. Krystal swung hard and shattered the ice statue that had been alive a few moments ago. The remaining four guards all emerged from their hiding places and began firing at the blue vixen. Krystal felt a bullet graze her left shoulder and the rounded in the direction of the shot and launched a bolt of fire from her staff at the person who had just hit her. The fire bolt flew across the room and struck the German shepherd who had shot her in the chest, throwing him to the ground either dead or unconscious. Krystal shot another firebolt at a ferret who got too close for her liking and disabled him as well and while a lioness across the room was reloading her rifle, Krystal drew her charging blaster with her left hand and fired four shots at her to delay her reloading, before dispatching her with a level one green charged shot. The last guard, an avian, did not take a chance at reloading and instead charged her, drawing a combat knife. Krystal sidestepped his slashes, put her gun back in its holster, and hit out at his hand, forcing him to shout in pain and drop the weapon. Krystal hit him from the left with her staff and then spun backwards knocking him on the chin several times before putting all of her strength into a swing and knocking him flying several feet before he struck a chair in the room and hit the floor, some blood pooling where he landed.
Krystal was panting from exertion and slumped slightly while standing but unfortunately she let her guard down; a moment later she felt a bullet strike her in her left shoulder. She spun around to see the stoat, Vergil, aiming a rather old handgun at her. Vergil fired off three more shots, two of which she was able to dodge but the third grazed her right ear tip. Unable to retaliate, owing to the risk of being shot in a vital organ, Krystal swung her staff in a horizontal arc creating a large cloud of mist and masking her from view; she used the time that they were hidden to dash behind a control panel, which hid her form view. She collapsed her staff, put in on her back, and noticed that shed was bleeding on her left shoulder where she'd been shot.
"I see you managed to eliminate all of my guards," the stoat shouted as the fog began to clear, "but I'm going to get rid of you and that friend of yours who came with you. I'll take the weapons from this base and make sure to gather enough followers to take all of the supplies we want or need." Unknown to Krystal, Vergil had seen where she had run and was approaching her as quietly as possible; he shouted the lines he was speaking all over the room so that his voice echoed and made it sound as if he was everywhere.
'This stoat is insane,' Krystal thought to herself. Krystal kept quiet and tried to figure out where the stoat was by listening to his voice, as her injuries and his yelling kept her form concentrating on his thoughts, but couldn't as his voice echoed making it impossible to pinpoint his location.
--
While Krystal had been fighting the guards, Wilson had discovered that he still had some strength left. Drawing his charging blaster, he crawled across the room until at the wall of the corridor leading to the control room. Using the wall as support, Wilson pushed himself into a standing position and moved along the wall, while leaning against it, to the doorway of the control room. He reached the end of the corridor in time to see Krystal create the cloud of mist; owing to his position, he was able to catch a glimpse of her dashing to her hiding place. When he saw that the stoat was not looking his way and was quickly approaching Krystal's hiding place, he drew his charging blaster and held it up in both hands, aiming at Vergil's back, as the stoat had not noticed him being too preoccupied with taking care of Krystal.
'I've only got one shot at this so I have to make it count,' he thought to himself as he steadied his hands and centered the aiming sights of the gun on Vergil's back. The stoat was at the control panel and had his gun aiming at Krystal's head.
"Now you die!" the stoat said. Krystal looked up and saw the stoat about to shoot her. The sound of an energy pulse from across the room caused her to flinch. Three more energy shots rang out and Krystal, realising she was still alive, looked up and saw the stoat, Vergil, slumped over the control panel, both arms hanging limp. He was dead.
"Got him," Krystal stood up and saw Wilson holding his charging blaster, which he had clearly just fired, pointing in her direction.
Wilson's arms slumped to his side and he collapsed, exhausted from the effort and Krystal dashed over to him, oblivious to her own injuries, and helped him back into a sitting position.
"Are you alright?" The blue vixen asked, concerned.
"Yeah, just tired, oh," he noticed the blood coming from both her left shoulder and left hand, "You got shot!"
"I'll be fine," Krystal winced, seemingly realising for the first time that she was actually injured, "But you can barely stand, I'll get you out of here." Krystal took Wilson's blaster, stuck it in the holster at Wilson's side, and lifted him up so she was supporting him on her right, where she wasn't injured. In this position, Krystal was able to help Wilson exit the base.
While the two of them limp walked out of the base, Wilson asked.
"Are you sure that you're alright, Krystal?" the fact that his voice and feelings were full of concern made Krystal blush slightly.
"I'll be fine once I get patched up. Here we are," she added as they arrived outside the base. The vixen raised her communicator, while supporting the crossbred fox, and pressed the button to call the Great Fox 3 with the tip of her nose.
"This is the Great Fox, are you alright," the voice was Fox's.
"We finished the mission, the pirates are all taken care of but you might want to get General Spiran to bring in a clean up crew," Krystal replied. "I'm took a couple of bullets in my left arm and Wilson's exhausted, so could you arrange for us to get out if here?"
"I thought ahead enough to recall the shuttle and the Gladius, I'll used the transfer system to send you the shuttle. Don't worry," he added, "this one is more reliable than the one you're familiar with." As the transmission cut off, a cylindrical beam of data descended from space and deposited the Great Fox's shuttle on the ground. Krystal half-carried, half-dragged the weary todd into the shuttle and set him in one of the ship's seats, strapped him in, then flew the ship off the planet and into space. Along the way, Krystal glanced back at Wilson a number of times evoking a strange look from him.
"Is there something sticking to me?" he asked.
Krystal shook her head, "It's not that, I'm just glad that you're alright."
"You should be more concerned about yourself, you took some hits back there, I just need some rest." Touched by his concern, Krystal turned back to the front as she guided the shuttle back into the Great Fox's hangar.
Several minutes later in the Great Fox's infirmary, Fara, who had taken on the additional role of the team's medic and was wearing rubber gloves, was checking over the two foxes who had just returned. Fox had come to see them and make sure they were all right before going to talk to General Dante Spiran about the payment for liberating the base from the pirates.
"You're lucky, Krystal," Fara said as she checked her injuries, "Those bullet didn't hit anything vital but I'll have to take them out. Wilson," she turned to the exhausted Fox, "Can you make it to your room?"
"Not on my own, could you help me again, Miyu?"
Miyu had been standing in the room as she had helped Wilson to get up from the shuttle to the infirmary. She nodded in response to Wilson's request.
"Alright," she moved over to the exhausted fox, lifted him onto her right shoulder, and supported him as they walked out of the infirmary and back to his room.
Fara turned back to Krystal and said, "Krystal, please remove your shirt, I need to get at the back of our shoulder." Krystal nodded and did as Fara requested, leaving her with only her upper body undergarments remaining; she flinched as she still had part of a bullet buried in her hand and shoulder.
"Now please, lie down on your front." As Krystal lay down, Fara picked up a pair of needle nosed surgical pliers and said, "I'm sorry I can't give you antiseptic but we should get that bullet out now before the wound is infected, but please try to stay still because this will hurt."
"Alright," the blue vixen said, gritting her teeth and gripping the side of the table she was lying on hard. Fara stood next to her and pushed her pliers into the wound on her shoulder, causing Krystal to yelp in pain as Fara dug around and eventually pulled out the bullet and dropped it into a metal pan she had set aside.
"Ouch!"
"Sorry, now give me your left hand, I have to get the bullet out of there as well," Krystal let Fara take her stinging hand and winced as Fara once again dug the bullet out with the pliers and dropped it in the pan with the other bullet. "There, now I have to clean and dress these wounds before they get infected." As Fara cleaned Krystal's wounds the two Vixens conversed.
"So, Fara, What do you think of Wilson?" Krystal asked as Fara dressed her left shoulder. The Fennec thought for a bit before responding.
"He seems like a good person, why are you asking?"
"Well," Krystal averted her eyes from Fara as she finished with her shoulder and began to dress her left hand, "I was just curious."
"You have feelings for him don't you?" Fara asked her, which caused Krystal to blush.
"Maybe, I'm just nervous about trying to start another relationship; my last two relationships ended badly and…" Krystal trailed off as Fara finished dressing her wounds and sat down next to her.
"Krystal, I can see how you might not have the confidence to try again, but you should give it another chance. If you don't you might lose any chance with him and I can tell he respects you."
"I guess so," noticing that she was still a bit unsure, Fara put her arm around Krystal and spoke as though Krystal were her daughter.
"Give it time, I don't know how things are where you come from but did you think that maybe Wilson was nervous to tell you or admit it to himself. Just spend some time with him and if he feels the same way then tell him how you feel; he can't read minds like you so you'll have to let him know yourself, and please try to remember that actions speak louder than words, or thoughts for that matter."
Krystal stared at Fara for a moment before asking, "What do you mean by that, Fara?" The fennec smiled at Krystal.
"I mean that maybe you should not try and interpret his thoughts but rather, judge him by what he does," smiled and said, "Maybe you could try just 'turning off' your telepathic and empathic abilities when he's around and get to know him more personally." Krystal blinked, and then stood up.
"Thanks for the advice, Fara, I'll try that." The blue vixen left the infirmary to go and sleep off her injuries and Fara shook her head softly.
"Krystal, I hope I can help you two. I better go check on Todd." Fara cleaned off the bed Krystal had been sitting one, washed her hands, and left to check on her son.
Krystal arrived at her room and was so exhausted from the events that day that she fell asleep almost immediately.
For the next few months, life on the Great Fox 3 was somewhat uneventful however; everyone could see that, after the incident on Fortuna, Wilson and Krystal were beginning to grow quite close. Taking Fara's advice, Krystal had started trying to get to know Wilson better by spending time with him; while she couldn't shut her telepathic and empathic powers off, she tried not to pay attention to the sensations she got from her powers.
Unfortunately, seven months after the events on Fortuna, Wilson took the Gladius out into space combat despite Fay's protests. While Wilson was a skilled survivalist pilot, years without proper maintenance meant that his fighter barely held together through to fight to make it back to the Great Fox 3 intact; the ship's shields had failed during the fight and there was a hole in its right wing. The old ship was sitting in the docking bay where Krystal, Miyu, and Fara (as Fara had weaned Todd and Fox insisted on watching their son this time) were watching as Fay vented her spleen on Wilson, who was backing away from the ranting cocker spaniel holding his hands up in defence.
"I can't believe you, I told you about 20 times not to try and use that old fighter in battle but you took it out anyways despite the fact that you could have used one of the available Arwing Mk IIIs. Now the Gladius is in worse shape than it was before and there is no way I can make it space worthy again. You're lucky to be alive after its shields short circuited, that ship should be in a museum, no matter how well it's built it can't survive any more space combat."
"Sorry, look…"
"Look nothing," Fay interrupted Wilson' attempted apology, "come and see me in an hour when I've calmed down." Fay stormed out of hangar, leaving Wilson nervous, Fara and Krystal embarrassed to see her like that, and Miyu exasperated.
"I'll go talk to her, just stay away from her," the Lynx said. Miyu turned and left the hangar, following Fay.
"I've never seen her like that before," Wilson said.
"She gets like that if we are irresponsible with our fighters out there," Fara explained, "I haven't seen her go off like that in a long time."
"Will she calm down?" Krystal asked.
"Eventually, just let Miyu handle this, they've known each other longer."
"Alright," Wilson said.
"Well I better contact our employer to make sure the credits are transferred, see you later," as Fox said this, he left the hangar leaving Wilson alone in the room with Krystal.
"Well, looks like I'll need to retire Gladius now," Wilson said as he walked over to his ship and placed a hand reverently on it.
"I guess," Krystal said, seeing his disappointment.
--
Fay was really ticked that Wilson had gone against her judgement, at the moment she was in the gym, not having removed her flight vest, shirt, or pants, and was currently venting her frustration on a punching bag. She was normally not prone to do this but when someone did not take care of his or her fighter properly she had to cut loose on something without hurting anyone. She stopped and placed her hands on the punching bag as Miyu entered the room.
"All done, Fay?" the lynx asked her friend.
"I guess so," she said, "I'm still ticked but I'm calmer now." The spaniel stepped back from the punching bag and walked towards the door.
"So, what are you going to do about it?" Miyu asked.
"I'm going to design a new fighter but I'll use the Gladius' body as the blueprint. I had a chance to observe Wilson's piloting style back when Fox got his skills tested at the Cornerian Military GHQ. I noticed that he prefers to use low speed evasion to high speed hit and run." Seeing her "engineering look" in Fay's eyes, Miyu just nodded and said.
"Well run it by Fox and Wilson, they would probably like the idea."
Miyu led Fay from the gym as she described the ship she was going to design.
"I'll give it higher powered weapons, lower its speed and remove it's lock on so I can give it better turning and stronger defences. I'll just keep the stinger missiles on and try to get more manufactured…"
--
Once Fay had run the idea by Fox and he decided that she should get the ship built she immediately contacted Space Dynamics and arranged to take some time to design the ship and start construction. Before they got underway to Coneria, Wilson decided to speak to Fox. The vulpine leader was standing on the command bridge and staring out the view screen, thinking over some things such as the report about Fay's outburst, when Wilson approached him.
"Fox," the team leader turned to look at Wilson.
"Yes, what is it, Wilson?" he asked.
"We've been in space for almost a year now, and I think that Fay's episode after the mission today proves that we all need a vacation." Fox blinked and thought over Wilson's statement for a moment before replying.
"I guess you're right, we could all use a break. Where were you thinking, Wilson?"
"Fichina, there's something I need to do there and I know somewhere that you could take Fara and Todd to relax; it will be springtime on the part of the planet where I want to go."
"Alright," Fox said, "after we place the order for your new fighter at Space Dynamics we'll head to Fichina for some R&R."
--
A week later the Great Fox was parked in high orbit around Fichina. Onboard in the launch bay, the entire Star Fox Team team, except for Wilson and Rob, stood near the shuttle. Krystal was wearing grey shorts and a white t-shirt along blue flip-flop sandals; she wore the platinum tiara with the blue sapphire back from when she flew with the team during the Aparoid invasion. Miyu was wearing a blue t-shirt, an olive drab cargo vest with loose shorts of the same colour. Fay was wearing a light blue t-shirt with a medium length skirt of the same colour and she had a pink bow tied on her left ear. Fox was wearing green pants, a pale grey t-shirt and black and grey sneakers. Fara was wearing blue jeans and black sandals. Fara held her and Fox's son, Todd, in her arms. Todd was dressed in a white shirt and grey shorts and periodically muttered baby talk.
Miyu tapped her foot somewhat impatiently, "Where is that crossbreed," her voice was irritable, "we've had our stuff loaded onto the shuttle for the last 15 minutes."
"Just be patient," Fara said as she passed her son to Fox, "I'm sure he'll be along in a moment." It was at that moment that Wilson chose to enter the docking bay. Everyone except for Todd gaped at his choice of dress. Wilson was wearing a loose shirt with closed sleeves that ended just before his wrists; covering his legs was an odd piece of clothing, it looked like he was just wearing a large cloth on the front and back of his legs with a slit on each side where each of his legs were. Underneath the cloth was a pair of what looked like a pair of black sweatpants; the outer layer of the clothing was all blue except that there were numerous 2cm thick silver bars all over the surface. The pattern of the silver lines was symmetrical on the front, the left and right sides were mirror images of one another, and had those gathered been able to see the back they would have noted that it had the exact same pattern as the front. He wore a pair of wooden sandals on his feet which made him stand about 4cm taller. He was carrying a suitcase, with the items he was bringing with him on this trip inside of it, in his right hand and he had his katana with the black sheath at his left side.
"OK, I'm ready." Wilson paused partway into the hangar and noticed at the gaping looks of his team mates and asked, "What is there something on my face?"
Fay shook her head and replied, "No, it's just…what's with the outfit?"
"Oh this," Wilson said, looking down as if realising how odd his style of dress was, "this is the clothing I wore when I was training here; I wear it whenever I come here, it helps me feel connected to my old home."
Accepting Wilson's explanation, everyone got onboard the shuttle. The crossbreed fox set his suitcase down with the others and sat down, thinking over a few things. Fara went to the cockpit, as Fox was still watching their son, and started up the shuttle's engine. Fara lifted the shuttle out of the Great Fox 3's docking bay and flew towards the planet.
The shuttle set down in a landing area on the outskirts of the city where they had booked the hotel rooms where they would be staying. A grey minivan, which Fara had ordered and paid for before they had departed, was waiting for them at the landing site. Fara took Todd in her arms while her husband, Wilson, Krystal, Fay, and Miyu unloaded all of the team's bags from the shuttle and loaded them into the minivan. When the loading was finished, Wilson spoke up.
"There's somewhere I have to go and if you want to come with me, you're welcome to."
"OK I'll come with you," Krystal said.
"We should go, Fara, it might be nice," Fox suggested.
"Alright, just let me get Todd's stroller," Fara said. The fennec gave her son to Fox, who set him down and watched him crawl around on the cement. Todd had not yet begun to walk on his own but he could pull himself into a standing position; the very young fox had yet to speak his first words and his parents hoped that this trip would allow them to spend time with him and maybe help him learn to walk and talk. Fara managed to get the stroller out and, with Fox's help, fastened her son into it.
"It's about a 20 minute walk, follow me," Wilson said, as he turned towards an unpopulated area and began to walk. Krystal, Fox, and Fara, who was pushing her 11-month old son in his stroller, followed him. Miyu waved them off and said.
"You go ahead and we'll sign in to the hotel."
"See you later," Fay called, waving to them as they walked away. The white cocker spaniel got into the driver seat while the lynx took the passenger side; Fay started the engine and they drove into the city.
--
Wilson led Krystal, Fox, Fara, and Todd through the countryside for about 20 minutes; they had to turn around a couple small hills, which had obscured their view when they were at the landing area. Finally, they arrived at a wooden fence with a tall square shaped wooden arch that acted as on opening. There was a sign on the top with several odd symbols written on it in red.
"What do those symbols mean, Wilson?" Fara asked.
"It's an older Fichinan language that was used before everyone spoke the same language in this system, it means something along the lines of, 'never give in without trying,' or something to that effect," the crossbreed fox explained. "Now just follow me, we're about to reach one of our destinations."
About a minute later, they were standing in front of a wooden house that, despite being well kept, looked as though it had been there for many years. Next to the house was a small shrine that looked large enough for two people to sit inside
"This place was my home after my parents were killed; my grandfather trained me and my friend here. The last time I was here was a month after the Aparoid invasion. I saw my friend here at that time and we fixed up the damage this place suffered from the invasion. That was the last time I saw him before we once again went our separate ways." Wilson stepped forwards and placed a hand reverently on the wall of the house.
"It's been so long since I've been here."
"Yes it has been a long time, hasn't it?" Everyone was surprised to hear the voice, which came from their right. They all turned to look at where the voice came from and Wilson was the first to speak up.
"I didn't expect you to be here on the same day as me, it's been a long time, Panther Caruso."
"Almost four years since we last saw each other or even spoke," Panther responded. Though none of them, Krystal in particular, were at all happy to see Panther, they were all quite surprised at his appearance. Panther was wearing the exact same clothing as Wilson except that the blue parts on Wilson's clothing were red on Panthers and the lines that were silver on Wilson's clothing were gold on Panthers. At his side, Panther had a sword attached to a sword belt similar to the one Wilson wore, except his sword was not a katana but rather a straight bladed long-sword. At that moment, Panther seemed to notice that Fox, Fara, Todd, and Krystal were there for the first time.
"Ah, I did not expect to see you here, Krystal and Fox, I assume by the child and his appearance that the fennec is McCloud's wife and the child his son." He turned to Wilson and asked, "Is that correct?"
"Yes it is. The fennec is Fara Phoenix-McCloud and the child is Fara and Fox's son, Todd."
"What the hell are you doing here?" Krystal almost shouted at Panther, "and how do you know Wilson so well?"
"Calm down, Krystal," Panther said, "I'm here for the same reason Wilson is, to pay some respects to our dead master."
Wilson turned to face the door of the house and spoke up, "follow us if you want but please be quiet inside, we'll explain later." With that, the two oddly dressed animals walked towards the small shrine.
Wilson opened the door to the shrine revealing a smaller, dresser like shrine sitting on a table inside. Panther placed a finger on tope of the shrine and swiped it across, picking up a fair amount of dust.
"It has been a long time since either of us was even here," the big cat stated.
"Yeah, not since after the Aparoid invasion," Wilson replied. Panther opened the smaller shrine and revealed that inside were several used candles and a picture of an older arctic fox that looked as though it had been damaged several times but still had held up. Wilson set about lighting the candles, three on each side of the picture and the two of them knelt down and stared at the picture for several moments.
While this was going on, Krystal asked Fox, "What are they doing?"
"I have no idea, but I'm guessing that picture is of Wilson's grandfather."
"That would make sense," Fara said, "I also think I know why Panther is here."
"We'll find out soon," Fox said.
After almost two minutes, Wilson and Panther stood up. Panther carefully blew out the candles and Wilson closed the small shrine.
Once the two were back outside Wilson began to explain.
"In case you haven't already figured it out, Panther is an old friend of mine. In fact he's the old friend who trained alongside me back when I was orphaned by Andross." Panther now spoke up.
"You see, back before I joined Star Wolf, I was living with my parents. We did a lot of travelling back then as my parents were interplanetary traders, and quite wealthy ones at that which led to me being home schooled and spoiled by them." Panther sighed. "They spoiled me because I never had a chance to make any real friends when I was younger, as we were constantly on the move. When I was 10 years old, we stopped on Fichina during one of our all too rare vacations. My parents, as part of my home schooling, always gave me a history lesson whenever we stopped for any length of time on a planet and it was then that I learned about how in the medieval time of our planets, this planet was home to some of the best warriors in the system; when I learned that three was still someone who was teaching those skill on the planet I immediately wanted to meet him and learn how to fight. My parents were only too willing to do that for me and shortly thereafter we found this place." Wilson took over at that point.
"Panther and his parents arrived on the day before my parent's left, the last day I saw them alive, and he demanded to be trained. I'll admit that I didn't exactly give them a warm welcome in fact I got into a fight with Panther almost immediately. Eventually my grandfather agreed to train Panther if he would stay with him over the summer months just like me and I was well…quite enraged that he would take on another student, keep in mind we were only 10 years old at the time. For the first little while we were almost always at each other's throats; we called each other insulting names, I called him a spoiled brat because he was used to getting what he wanted."
"And I called Wilson an explosive twit because he was so easy to anger; his grandfather wasn't too pleased with either of us because of that," Panther added.
"We never even tried to get along despite the fact that it was keeping us from training efficiently," Wilson continued, "but that all changed when the Lylat war began. We were, for all intents and purposes, stuck here while the war waged on. Because trade lines had closed Panther had lost contact with his parents and during the Lylat War, as I already told you, mine were killed. Panther attended my parent's funeral and that was the first time that we actually stayed in one place without fighting." Wilson hung his head, "It was a shame that it took that tragedy for us to actually start getting along and focus on our training but in the long run it helped us to become better warriors; Panther even watched me when I was learning magic and encouraged me despite the fact that he could not learn any magic himself." Panther then took over the explanation.
"We trained alongside each other for the entire time we were there and eventually we parted ways. The last time we were both here was just after the Aparoid invasion, after Star Wolf returned to the Lylat system and we helped to repair the damage this place had suffered because of it."
While Fara, Fox, and Krystal digested all of the information, both oddly dressed animals turned away from one another and began to walk in opposite directions. Mystified, Fox asked.
"What are you two doing?"
"Settling an old argument," Panther explained, "at the start of our training we often competed to see who was a better swordfighter, using these very swords that we carry right now."
"But our stamina was lower back then," Wilson added, "and we always exhausted each other before we could disarm our opponent, or make them bleed." Both the panther and the crossbred fox turned sharply back towards each other, standing about 12 meters apart from one another.
"By the time we finally were able to fight for long periods of time without tiring, our training schedule never gave us the time to duel and when we had time we were too tired to want to fight anymore."
"But today is the first time we have been here with our swords at the same time in a long time," Wilson drew his katana as he said this.
"So we will settle this now, once and for all," Panther also drew his sword as he spoke. Both combatants crouched and removed their wooden sandals, tossing them aside, They both then stood up, leaving their swords on the ground, and removed their outer layer of clothing, leaving them with only the long black pants they wore under the robe and white short-sleeved shirts. Tossing the garments aside, both men picked up their swords and held them in fighting stances, Wilson with both hands, and Panther in his right hand. Panther's sword was a straight bladed long sword with an ordinary looking blade that hand a 3/4 blood channel. The handle of Panther's sword was different, it was golden in colour and decorated with designs that boosted gripping power and both sides of the cross hilt ended in small curls up in the direction of the blade; there was only one adornment on the sword, a pale red pommel stone that was shaped like a rose, with its petals opening away from the rest of the weapon.
"This sword is why I made my symbol the red rose," Panther said, explaining this despite not having been questioned, "it's called 'The Rose Sword'"
"My Katana is called 'Yamato', my grandfather named my mother after this sword," Wilson said.
"The fight will go until one of us draws blood; we can be disarmed and reclaim our weapons as many times as we want and if one of us bleeds, we lose," Panther stated.
"Sounds fine to me," Wilson replied, "so shall we?"
"Yes, let's finish this today!" as Panther spoke that last word both combatants charged at each other and swung hard, their swords clashing together. For a moment they just stood, pressing their swords into one another's, then Panther spoke.
"You've gotten stronger."
"Same to you," Wilson replied. The two of them jumped backwards and then charged again, striking at each other multiple times. Both were very evenly matched and gave as well as they got, either blocking or dodging all of their opponent's attacks. The four observers, even Todd, were somewhat mesmerised by the skill both fighters were displaying as they were moving at quite a high speed. Krystal was surprised to see Panther fight like this, as she had never seen even a shred of evidence before today that he knew how to fight with a sword; though she was still a bit ticked at him she felt some of that dissipate and she realized that there was a lot more to the big cat than what she had found out.
The fight went on for about 4 minutes, during which neither of the combatants managed to even disarm each other.
"Those two have a lot of stamina," Fara observed.
"I can see that," Fox said, "who do you think will win, Krystal?"
"I can't really say. I can tell just by watching them that they aren't going to accept a draw in this fight, but they are tiring and this will end soon." The blue vixen's statement turned out to be correct.
A moment later, Wilson backed off and charged Panther, Yamato raised high. Panther saw this and pulled The Rose Sword back under his left arm. As soon as Wilson got close enough, he swung down hard with his Katana and Panther countered by swinging upwards and to his right at the sword. A moment later a loud clash sounded and Wilson's katana, Yamato, was knocked form his hands and flew 2 meters in the opposite direction of the spectators, landing blade first in the ground. Time seemed to hang still for a moment as Wilson stood behind Panther, having run past him after his attack.
"Looks like I win," Panther said, returning to a normal stance with his sword hanging down in his right hand.
"Nope, you only hit my sword, check the back of your left hand," Wilson smirked as he said this. Panther turned to face Wilson, a little confused, but before he could say anything he felt a slight sting on the back of his left hand. Surprised, he raised his hand so he could look at it and saw a small shallow cut on the back of his left hand; a very small amount of blood was seeping from the cut.
"Impressive but how did you…"
"You always countered downward slashes with that disarming technique of yours," as he spoke, Wilson moved over to his fallen sword and retrieved it, "but you always leave your left arm open to attack so that's where I hit you."
"I see."
A few minutes later all of them were inside sitting in the house's living room, which had a short coffee table, a three person couch, a loveseat, and an armchair. Both Panther's and Wilson's outer robes hung in the entryway which was where Todd's stroller also sat; it was where everyone's footwear had been removed and left. Panther had bandaged his wound from the first aid kit in the house's bathroom. Fox and Fara sat on the loveseat, with Fox holding Todd, Krystal sat alone on the right side of the couch and Wilson sat on the left, Panther sat in the armchair.
"This place looks like it's pretty well kept," Fox observed.
"Yeah, Panther and I come here occasionally to clean and make sure everything is in order. It's sort of a thank you to my grandfather," Wilson explained.
"Now, as long as we're here, we should catch up," Panther said this and then turned to Krystal. "Krystal, since it seems as though you have recovered from your depression I feel I can tell you now, back then a year ago, I was not cheating on you."
"What!" Krystal was shocked and extremely disbelieving, "but I saw you, you kissed that woman."
"Cheating, the last time we met I thought you said you gave up those old habits of yours," Wilson interjected. Panther smiled and replied.
"I did, you see it was when we were staying on Eladard…"
"The industrial planet," Fox interrupted, "but how did you even manage to stay put on a planet with that bounty on your heads."
"Let me explain, just promise you won't let anyone know that you know where Star Wolf might be staying."
"I guess it's the least we can do," Fara said.
"Good, now I shall explain. It was a year after the Anglar incident, Star Wolf was trying to find some place to rest, being chased by bounty hunters and the military is hard, and we just so happened to run across the industrial planet when it was under attack. Apparently some pirates were bombing the planet and wanted the inhabitants to turn the planet into their own personal fighter and carrier manufacturing plant. We couldn't stand their arrogance so we destroyed them and landed on the planet.
"When we landed, we received a surprising hero's welcome. Apparently the attacks we had stopped had been going on for quite some time before we arrived. The citizens were so grateful that they agreed to keep us safe from interplanetary police forces, the military, and bounty hunters while providing us a place to stay and store our fighters. In reality it was mostly thanks to Krystal that we were accepted as Wolf, Leon, and I weren't so kind at first but we did manage, with Krystal's help, to be nicer towards the people on the planet." Panther then turned to face Krystal and continued speaking.
"Krystal, you must realize that back then I was devoted to you, but I could see in your eyes that you still couldn't get over Fox, whether it was that you still cared about him or felt guilty for hurting him I didn't know, but I knew you had to confront him if you wanted to get on with your life. The year we were on Eladard, I was doing a lot of research with the help of a couple friends that I had made on the planet. I was researching how to block mental abilities such as mind reading so I could try and deceive you Krystal." Krystal tried to ask but Panther held up his right hand and continued.
"It took seven months and while I could not keep you from reading my mind, I did discover that if you were extremely emotionally stressed in some way that your ability to read thoughts might become inaccurate and I would be able to make you think I was being honest when I was lying or vice versa. That woman you saw me with was one of the friends who helped me find the information in fact the other one who helped me was her husband; they were the head librarians at the library that I did my research at.
"After hearing what I was trying to do and why I was trying to do it, they agreed to help me. I would go on pretend date with his wife and he would watch out for you in the same restaurant where we would eat. Personally I was afraid this would cause a rift in their marriage but fortunately, you got suspicious on the first night. I knew that if I broke up with you in some way that you would leave but since you could read minds, I had to do something that would prevent you from seeing that I didn't really want to leave you. That night, when you confronted me I put on a show of seeming disloyal so as to deceive your confused and stressed mind. I stayed up late and slept in so you wouldn't have a chance to figure out that I was still loyal to you. I knew that somehow you would find Fox and finally make peace with yourself."
"Actually," Krystal spoke up, "When I found Fox, he was with his wife, who was pregnant with their son who is sitting with them right now. I was shattered even more so than before but two weeks later, Wilson and Miyu, a newer member of Star Fox, helped me get over my past and start my life again."
"I see."
"Well that's enough sad talk," Wilson said, standing up, "Com'on, there's someplace I want to show all of you." While it took only a few moments for Krystal, Fara, and Fox to get outside, as Fara was now carrying Todd, Wilson and Panther took some time to get their robes back on and strap their swords back around their waists. The two old friends then led them around the back of the house, which sloped down into a small valley.
"Oh my!" Fara said.
"What are those?" Fox asked.
"They're beautiful," Krystal said.
"It looks like we came at just the right time," Wilson said. Below them, which was not too far down but enough that they could not have seen it from the front of the house, was a large field of trees with pink flowers blooming on them. The sight was quite breathtaking for Fara, Fox, and Krystal.
"They're called Sakura in an old Fichinan language, you would call them cherry blossoms," Panther explained.
"They only bloom like this once a year, we're lucky to be here when the time is right," Wilson said, "it's a nice place to spend with with family and/or your loved ones. Let's go." Wilson began to descend towards the trees in flower with Fox, and Fara, who was carrying Todd who's attention was still on the trees. Krystal was about to follow them when Panther spoke up.
"Krystal," the blue vixen stopped for a moment, "I know that you can probably still not forgive me for what I did but hear me out. I've known Wilson for a long time and he is a good person; I can tell that you have feelings for him but then again, you weren't very good at hiding your feelings."
"I guess when you live in a society where everyone knows how you are feeling at any time you just learn that hiding your feelings is pointless," Panther knew she was speaking of her home planet.
"Just make sure you give him a fair chance, he deserves it after what he's been throught."
"But what about you?" Krystal actually sounded concerned.
"If I find someone who's right for me, I'll let you know." Panther then began walking in a different direction than the others had. After a moment of waiting, Krystal moved to follow the others. About two minutes later she found herself amongst the shade of the cherry trees and staring around at the petals, some of which fell like snow. She spotted Fara, Fox, and Todd and went over to them.
"Hello, where's Wilson?" she asked.
"He went that way," Fox said, pointing off deeper into the trees. Krystal nodded a thank you and took off in the direction that Fox had indicated. When Krystal found Wilson, he was sitting under a tree that was standing on top of a small hill with a short cliff, no more than a couple meters, at its front. As she approached him, he spoke up.
"It's a nice view isn't." Krystal smiled and sat down next to him.
"Yes it is."
"I used to come here back during my training. My grandfather says this is where he met his wife for the first time and where my mother first brought my father when they met." This statement surprised Krystal.
"I see, does this place, bind people in your family together?"
"Perhaps, I never really gave it much thought. Panther sometimes came here to clear his head as well."
"I'd like to stay here with you a little while longer, before we go back," Wilson smiled and put his left arm around Krystal.
"I'd like that."
Krystal closed her eyes and thought to herself.
'They're right, I have fallen in love with Wilson, but I'll just enjoy the moment for now confessions can come later. I can tell he cares about me but I won't read his mind, it would be like cheating in the game of love."
Unbeknownst to the two of them, Panther was watching from a short distance away. The dark coloured cat smiled as he saw them under the spot where both he and Wilson went to think back when they were training.
"Those two really deserve each other. I'd better get back before the others start to think that I abandoned them." Panther turned and walked away through the trees leaving the soon to be couple alone.
--
Well that's it for this story, I know that it took me a long time but I had to really give myself the desire to keep writing this story. I know the ending has a lot of potential for a sequel but I find that after and even when I am writing the 5th chapter of a story these days, that I begin to lose interest and it takes me forever to get writing, this story and "Cardcaptor Bear" are perfect examples of this.
This story has changed a lot since I first conceived it. Originally, Wilson wasn't in the cast and the story would only be three chapters long. The first two chapters were always the same, with only some minor alterations such as the removal of some extra flashback scenes, which I may go back and add later if I feel like it, but the third would have sped up to Todd's birth, then have had Fara killed off through the use of some poisonous non-sentient animal (most likely a snake) which would allow Fox and Krystal to get back together. In fact even as I was writing the second chapter this was my intention however, some reviews (Fin in particular) and the fact that I began to feel that killing of Fara would just be wrong made me consider rewriting the story.
The next version did not include the "Devil May Cry 3" references, particularly what Miyu said in chapter 3, but did have Wilson join in a similar manner and I was planning on making an unresolved love triangle between Wilson, Krystal, and Miyu. But that fizzled rather quickly as I thought it was corny.
The third idea was almost identical to what I have now but was not as sympathetic to Panther as this version was. This version would have had Wilson and Panther (who used a Fencing Sabre rather than a long sword) essentially competing over Krystal, though it would be said that later Wilson did not think of it that way; this version lacked the base battle at the beginning that this version has. I had started writing the fourth chapter (in which Wilson never mentioned a friend during his story) when I read the story "Thierry" which showed Panther in a rather sympathetic light which convinced me that I should be kinder towards Panther's character and even give him a little background.
Even after I decided that I did not want Wilson and Panther to be enemies, I still wanted to put the Wilson vs. Panther sword fight in somewhere so after some serious brainstorming I decided to link Wilson and Panther's pasts together. Panther's sword is somewhat inspired the sword of Martin the Warrior from the Redwall series but I made the pommel stone rose shaped to explain why he always considers the red rose his symbol.
The battle scene in the base on Fortuna also got reworked a couple times. Originally I would have had an overly dramatic scene where Wilson and Krystal vaporised Vergil with charged blasts form either side in place of Wilson quickly killing him with several shots to the back. I then decided to scrap the power scenes and have then use a hail of gunfire to clear the hallway leading to the control room. I decided to use a mix of the two scenes in order to allow Wilson to save Krystal and provide a reason that he would be tired.
Before you review I would like to point out that I know that Wilson's "Hell's Crest" technique is a little over the top, but I must point out that Wilson is barely able to support himself after using it so I want you not to continuously point out that he seems too overly powerful; the technique is modeled and named after a technique used by Commander Margulis in the battle with him during "Xenosaga Episode I".
The fact that the General who hires the team is named Dante and the person he sends them to fight is name Vergil is another "Devil Mary Cry 3" reference as those are the names of the player's character and his primary enemy throughout the game respectively; the two are twin brothers and originally there would have been a sub plot which revealed they were related but I scrapped the idea as it would have take too much time and been completely unnecessary.
I am leaving the ending semi-open ended just in case I do decide to write a sequel or continue this, though if anyone wants to write their own sequel they are welcome as long as it isn't making fun of this story or try to alter Wilson's character too much.
I am happy with how this turned out considering how long it took, I am just glad that I was able to finish it before the end of this weekend.
So please review and tell me what you think but please no flames, I did not post this just so I could be flamed.