Chapter 3
11:45 A.M.
While the soldiers stood in awe of the spectacle they had just witnessed, Fox limped towards the dark red vulpine, with his paw on the grip of his blaster as he wasn't sure if the mysterious figure was friendly or hostile. "Who, or what, are you?" He asked.
"Well, as to who I am, you can call me Cross," The dark red vulpine said, pointing to the black 'X' shape on his forehead, "As to what I am," He said turning his to look at his black tipped tail, "It looks like I'm an ordinary fox just like yourself." Turning his head back towards Fox with a sly grin and a voice similar to Fox's, but in a higher tone.
"No, I mean, what are you, like a government experiment or something? 'Cause I've never seen an 'ordinary fox' move like that." As Fox approached the dark red vulpine, he noticed that the assailant was much smaller than him as Fox was five feet, eight inches tall while as Cross was four feet, ten inches tall.
"I guess whatever helps you sleep at night, Fox McCloud" Cross answered, grinning arrogantly, showing his left fang.
It was no surprise that the vulpine knew Fox's name, considering the many times he had saved Lylat.
"Why did you help us?" Fox asked in a more serious tone.
"I saw that were having trouble, so I stepped in." He said while shrugging his shoulders. Fox kind of liked his attitude, sure Cross was a bit cocky, but at least he wasn't like Falco.
Krystal was digging into this newcomer's mind, as she was doing this, Cross turned his head and looked past Fox towards the blue furred vixen, "You can search my mind all you want, Krystal, it doesn't bother me, but all you're gonna find is everything I have already told you, I have nothing to hide. But keep searching around in there if you want, I assure you I can be trusted" Cross said while smiling at Krystal. This statement surprised Krystal, but she kept scoping around his mind, sure enough, nothing unknown was found inside the vulpine's head, so she stopped.
They were now just inches apart, face to face, or in Cross' case, face to neck as his bright yellow eyes were still fixed on the light brown-ish vulpine's face, "Say," Fox said while taking his paw off of the grip of his blaster, "You look younger up close, exactly how old are you?" He asked curiously.
"Fifteen."
"Fox almost fell back as if he were shot by a cannon in the chest, "What!?" He yelled in amazement, "No way, you're pullin' my leg right?" This caught Fox off-guard, he expected Cross to be young, just not fifteen years old.
"Nope, fifteen." Cross reassured Fox, who's jaw had dropped in hearing how young the dark red vulpine was.
Fox regained his composure, "Well Cross, thank you for helping us out, I'm grateful for that," He said as he extended his paw in a friendly manner.
Cross looked at the other vulpine's paw and gently pushed it away, then looked back at the vulpine's puzzled face, "No need to thank me, I was just doing what I was created to do, besides, I like this place."
"What do you mean by what you were creat--" Fox was interrupted by a high pitched voice over the communicator
"Hey Fox?" Said Slippy.
"What Slip?" The vulpine replied, startled.
"Did you happen to see, well...it's hard to explain but, did you by chance see some sort of red flash when you were fighting?"
"Hey I saw that too," Falco chimed in over the comm. link, "Some red thing came and sliced up a bunch of guys, I didn't even get a good look at it." As soon as Cross heard this he looked at Fox with a sinister grin.
"I think I've got an explanation, for you guys." Fox chuckled lightly.
"And what's that?" Falco asked curiously.
"It's better explained in person, trust me."
"Alright but this better be a damn good one." Falco said in an aggravated tone.
"Oh don't worry, it will." Fox said as he ended the conversation.
"I can't wait to meet the rest of Team Star Fox." Cross said while grinning, exposing his left fang yet again.
"Aww man we missed the party?" Said a voice from an approaching squad of twelve soldiers, "I was hopin' to blast one of those sorry bastards in the face, not fair!" The dark grey wolf sounded anxious for battle as the group walked up to the two vulpines, his entire face was black except for tips of his ears and muzzle which were white, his eyes were a dark brown, from a distance it would seem that they were black, but on closer inspection, the were indeed very, very dark brown.
"Oh like you didn't get enough fighting earlier, Hax?" Asked a light orange, almost yellow female fox, this one had a unique red stripe that ran down the center of her face, down past her muzzle, and disappeared into the neckline of her uniform, it would seem that this particular red stripe possibly went down her entire body because her paws had the same red stripe on them, running to her claws, the vixen had yellow eyes as bright as Solar itself.
"Well...I just wanted more, Ziv," The almost black lupine said with a smile, "Besides, you can't tell me that you didn't want more shots at 'em, right?"
"I think I've had enough near-death experiences for one day." The group laughed in unison for a moment, except for the grey husky leading them who had a serious look on his face.
As the group passed Fox and Cross, they each shook Fox's hand, giving thanks to him one at a time for his assistance, and glanced at Cross with similar cautious looks, except for Hax who simply gave them both high-fives, and Zivia, who gave Fox a long hug, they all made their way behind Fox to the other group where Krystal and Bill were standing, while one of the soldiers stopped at Fox to speak with him.
"Nice to know you're alright Alex," Cross said while looking up at the much taller husky who simply shot him a glance and then looked at Fox.
"I see you've met Cross, did he save you in the nick of time as well?" One grey husky with a large pure white dot on his forhead said.
"Yeah, and who are you?" Fox answered with his own question.
"Sergeant Alexander McKowlsky, and I already know who you are, there are important matters we must discuss with General Pepper."
"Yeah like who the hell we were just attacked by."
"Yes, as well as other topics." Alexander said while looking towards the dark red vulpine standing next to him.
"Right, then let's get going," Fox replied, then, turning to look at Cross, "I have some friends who I'm sure would love to meet you."
Alexander motioned for the soldiers to follow him, "I'm taking these soldiers back to the base to rest up, they deserve it, I'll meet you in Pepper's office."
"I'm gonna stay here with Fox," Cross cut in, "I can't wait to meet Falco, I bet he's a nice guy." The vulpine said as he walked back to where Krystal and Bill were standing.
Fox chuckled to himself, "I hope you like surprises." He thought to himself as he turned to follow the dark vulpine.
As the two vulpines made it back to Krystal and Bill, "So, who's this kid?" The canine asked while he couldn't help but stare at the X marking on Cross' forehead.
"His name is Cross, he's coming with us to go talk with Pepper." Fox answered.
"Oh really? Are you sure we can trust him?" Bill asked with a slight glare at the dark red vulpine.
"Well I just saved you all from certain destruction, I think that's a pretty good reason." Cross looked at the husky with a similar grin, showing his left fang yet again.
"Good enough for me," Said Bill while he stretched his arms, "Anyway, I'll meet up with you guys in Pepper's office."
"Where are you going in such a hurry?" Fox asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I have...stuff to attend to." Bill answered, turning his gaze to the ground
"Well okay then, we'll see you there."
Bill just nodded his head as he turned to follow in the direction that the soldiers had went.
12:15 P.M.
As the trio was walking down the alley in which they had used to get around the enemy forces earlier, Krystal had kept her eyes on this new vulpine to her left, as Fox was on her right, this "Cross" as his name was, she had some questions for this mysterious assailant who had helped them in their desperate time of need. So she spoke up, "Cross, I would like to ask you about a few things."
The dark fox sighed, "Everything I've told you is truth, no lies, no secrets, nothing."
"Yes but, how did you know about my telepathic abilities?"
"Easy, who doesn't know the famous Star Fox, it should be known by almost everyone by now that you're a telepath, why so surprised?"
"Because you seem to know a lot about Krystal but nothing about Falco." Fox cut in.
"What do you mean?"
"After the fight you said 'I bet Falco's a nice guy', what I'm saying is, you knew about Krystal's telepathy but not anything about Falco."
"Oh I get what you mean, you're talking about personality, I never said I knew anything about anybody's personality, All I know is common knowledge, like how Falco is the 'Ace Pilot' of Star Fox, and how Slippy is the mechanic, of course Krystal's telepathy, and I know how well of a marksman you are with your blaster. I never claimed once to know about personality, why is Falco not a nice guy?" Cross looked at Fox, expecting a clear answer.
"Well...uh...I, um..." Fox was searching for words but nothing came to mind.
"It's better in person, you'll see." Krystal said, saving Fox from the stare of the dark vulpine.
"Wow, this kids smart, and he's only fifteen!" Fox thought to himself, amazed at the intelligence of the answer he was given.
"Well, I see you made nice work of these guys," Said Cross as they passed the two limp bodies on the ground, "They didn't stand a chance," He said again as he stopped to observe the two corpses that were once enemy soldiers, "Nice clean cut across the neck, poor soul never saw it coming, pretty deep too," He turned to the other body, this one with a hole in what used to be a head, "This guy, luckily for you, wasn't quick enough to pull the trigger, my guess, considering the size of the hole, is that you charged your blaster as you were setting up to take the other guy out, and as soon as he turned around, it was all over, quick and painless."
"Wow, you actually explained it exactly the way it happened, and you weren't even here! How could you tell?" Fox asked, awestruck once again that this extremely young vulpine knew this.
"Sorry, but when it comes to killing, it's really all I know," Cross answered, shrugging his shoulders, "Anything else is out of my range.
"Well that's a pretty damn good observation," Krystal said with the same amazed look that Fox had, "I don't think I could expain it that well, and I even saw what happened."
"Alright, we need to get back to the Arwings to put them in the docking bay." Fox assured the two.
As they rounded the corner that Fox and Krystal originally used to enter the alley way, Cross noticed many scattered pieces of half melted ice, "What's this?" He asked in a curious tone.
"Well, uh, long story short, a bunch of guys pissed Krystal off, so she killed them, and let's just leave it at that." Fox chuckled, looking at Krystal.
The three foxes made it back to the Arwings, "Fox checked everything as he always did before he hopped into the cockpit, Krystal was already in her Arwing. Fox looked at Cross, "So, you wanna ride with me, or Krystal?"
"I think I'll stay on ground for now, I have to go get a change of clothes and a shower anyway." The vulpine replied, looking at his used to be white, but now blood soaked tank top.
"Well hop in, I'll take you to where you live and we can be on our way." Fox tried to help Cross, but to no avail.
"I honestly would rather run, if you don't mind." The dark red fox assured them, "I'll meet you at the docking bay, then we can go see this 'Pepper' guy."
"Wait, you don't know General Pepper?" Fox was surprised, considering that Cross knew a lot about Fox and his team and nothing about the General.
"Nope, but I can't wait to meet him."
"Well okay then, we'll see you there." And then the two Arwings took off, leaving the young vulpine alone.
"I guess it's time to run." Immediately after this was said, a bolt of red was dashing through the streets, not touching a singal thing.
12:45 P.M.
"Well it's about time you two got here," A certain blue avian said as Fox and Krystal exited their Arwings, "What happened, did ya get bored and start playing 'close your eyes, claim your prize'?" Slippy started to chuckle.
"That's enough Falco, or are you still mad that we tricked you on the Great Fox?" The vulpine said with a grin.
"I still think that was a sick joke but anyway, where's this surprise you got for me?"
"Right here," Said a voice from directly behind Falco, causing him to jump foward while turning to face the voice, "Surprise."
Krystal was trying her best to keep herself from bursting into another laughing fit like the one she had on the Great Fox II.
"Who...the hell...is this?" Falco asked, startled and trying to catch his breath.
"Falco, Slippy, this is Cross a.k.a. the 'red flash' that took out all of those soldiers." Cross was now wearing a black tee-shirt with the words "Heavy is the only Metal I like" on the front of it, along with a pair of black baggy cargo shorts, and a pair of pure white sneakers.
"No way, you're kidding right?" Falco said, clearly not believing what Fox was telling him.
"Yeah, I rarely do this, but I agree with Falco, this is hardly believable Fox." Slippy added.
"It's completely true, no lies here." He assured them.
"There's no way this little thing could've done that, I mean just look at him, he can barely pull one of my feathers out," Falco stated moving within inches of the dark vulpine, "Actually, he's kinda cute, look how small he is." Falco chuckled.
"Piss me off and you'll see just how 'cute' I can be." Cross said, scowling up at the much taller animal.
"Is that supposed to be a threat?" The avian asked in a more serious tone.
"No...it's a promise."
And without warning, Falco shot his left arm at the vulpine's face, but Cross had this well scouted as he slapped the avian's fist away and swung his own left, Falco saw the dark red paw coming at his face and grabbed it with his right hand, but as soon as he did, Cross spun around with his back facing Falco, and placed his right paw near the avian's neck and brought one clawed finger to Falco's neck, "All it would take is one swipe, and you're a goner."
"That's enough you two!" Fox ordered.
Falco let go of Cross' wrist as Cross backed away slowly and said, "One," As he brought his paw up to his neck, index finger extended, "Swipe." He said making a cut throat motion while grinning.
"Alright we need to go out front, I bet that the guy I called is out there waiting for us up and we shouldn't keep him waiting so let's go."
Falco and Slippy just looked at Cross with the same jaw-dropped expression that Fox had earlier.
Sure enough, as the team, and Cross arrived outside, a black furred feline was standing right beside the black hover car, "I kept it running for you Mr. McCloud, just like you asked over the intercom." He said, handing the keys to Fox.
"Thanks Gordon," The vulpine said, taking the keys from the panther's paw, "But from now on, just call me Fox."
"Yes Fox, now if you'll excuse me I must be going, I can't keep my friend over there waiting for much longer." Gordon said, pointing to a tiger standing next to a dark-green hover car.
Alright, you take care now." Fox said as he entered the vehicle, as did the others, and with that, they were on their way to General Pepper's office.
Author's Note: Well, this certainly didn't have much action, but it's a filler chapter or whatever it's called to keep up with the story. Hope you liked it. Until the next update, beware of the cake, for it is a lie...later.