Chapter 8

12:00 P.M.

"Okay, let me get this straight," Fox said, "What you're telling us is that our enemy has a base on a deserted planet in the Grexian galaxy, and we need to go in, retrieve any information that we can, and blow the place up?" The vulpine questioned.

"Yes, that's your mission," Pepper confirmed, "I'm sending the layout of the base as we speak, I'll also be sending two soldiers to help you, they will arrive on your ship in thirty minutes." The canine added while putting a small cylinder onto a platform, Pepper pushed a button and the cylinder faded from view.

"So having Cross with us isn't enough?" Krystal asked.

"I'm sure Cross is more than enough help, but I'm sending more help just to be safe." Pepper answered.

"Speaking of Cross, why did you want him with us in the first place?" Fox cut in as the small cylinder arrived on a similar platform in front of him.

There was a short pause, "Because he can help you with your mission, didn't I explain that before?"

"Come on General, I wasn't born yesterday."

"We'll discuss that a different time, right now you have a mission." Pepper told the vulpine, avoiding the question as the image of the General disappeared.

"That went well." Falco said sarcastically.

"Shove it, Falco." Fox told the avian.

Thirty minutes later, "Unidentified ship approaching." ROB informed the team.

"Let 'em in." Fox said.

"Affirmative." ROB opened the docking bay doors as a small fighter entered the Great Fox II.

"Alright, let's see who these two are." Fox turned to exit the bridge, the others followed. Soon they arrived at the docking bay, where Fox noticed that the fighter was extremely small, almost half the size of an Arwing, the light grey aircraft was round, had no wings, and the thrusters weren't even able to be seen, it looked more like an escape pod than anything else, then, a light orange fox crawled out of the top of the fighter, she had a pure red stripe that ran from the top of her head down past her muzzle, Fox couldn't forget a face like that, "Hey, I remember you, we saw you back on Corneria."

"Yep, the General figured we would be the most suitable to help with your mission." The vixen said as she removed her helmet, revealing her straight shoulder length hair that was just as red as the stripe on her face.

"We?" Fox questioned, just then, a hole opened up from the side of the small fighter, and a black wolf stepped out, he had a small bush of white hair on his head that also overlapped his left eye.

"Hax, you're not supposed to take your helmet off when we're flying." The orange vixen scolded the lupine as she hopped from the small aircraft.

"What can I say, rules are made to be broken." Hax replied.

The vixen rolled her eyes and turned to Fox, "We haven't been properly introduced yet, I'm Zivia, and this guy's Hax."

"Nice to meet you." Krystal greeted.

"So, when's this mission gonna happen?" Hax asked.

"In a couple of hours, we still have to come up with some kind of plan," Fox said, "So, why exactly did Pepper send you two to help us?"

"See, Hax and I both passed training at the top of our classes, simply put, he's the best fighter, I'm the best shooter, I also graduated from the Cornerian Flying Academy at the top of my class, they told me I was the best pilot since well, you guys." Zivia explained.

"Along with that, I haven't met a database that I can't hack." Hax added.

"I see, so Pepper sent you for good reason," Fox said, "Also, what's this thing? I've never seen it before." The vulpine asked, looking at the odd aircraft.

"Oh, it's a little project that the military's been working on, it's called the 'Complete Silenced Aerodynamic Fighter' or 'CSAF' if you will, it has a cloaking device that makes it completely invisible to the naked eye as well as radar, but it can only be activated for a short period of time, the weapons system fires small stabilized jolts of plasma with even more force than your Arwings, it also matches the Arwing in every aspect of quickness, and is also faster than the Wolfen, even an amateur pilot can be a threat in one of these." Zivia answered.

"Interesting," Fox managed to say despite his awe, he soon shook it off though, "We might as well head to the bridge, we can make a plan there, ROB, set the ship in hyper-speed, take us to the Grexian Galaxy and put us in orbit around planet Coluxine as soon as we get to the bridge." The vulpine said, turning to the hallway door.

As the group of seven walked down the hall to the bridge, "Tell me," Falco started, "What kind of name is 'Hax'?" He asked.

"Actually, my real name is Vaughn, but everyone calls me Hax." The lupine answered.

"I can see why." Falco chuckled.

"Eh, I prefer Hax anyway, it has a better ring to it." The black wolf admitted.

2:45 P.M.

Two hours had passed as the Great Fox II was in orbit around the desert planet known as Coluxine, the plan was simple, Hax would hack the base's defence system's which would give Fox, Krystal, Zivia, Falco, and Cross thirty seconds to land on the planet's surface half a mile from the base without being detected, Zivia would then snipe anyone she saw outside of the base, making sure that the rest of the group wouldn't be detected before they got inside, Krystal, Fox, Falco, and Cross would then enter the base, gather any information possible with a small chip that could break into any system courtesy of Slippy, set the charges, and get as far away from the base as possible.

"Are you ready, Krystal?" Fox asked.

"Of course." She replied over the comm. link.

"Falco?"

"I was born ready."

"Zivia?"

"Yep."

"Cross?" There was no response, "Cross?" Fox asked again, turning his head to look at the dark red vulpine.

Cross had dug his claws into the back of Fox's seat again, he gulped, "Y-yeah." He managed to say.

"Alright Hax, tell us when."

A few seconds passed, "Go now!" Hax shouted.

All four fighters took off simultaneously towards the barren planet, as the fighters entered the atmosphere, "Twenty seconds until the radar is online." Hax warned as the group shot throught the clouds, the ground below them was dry and cracked, "Ten seconds!" Hax yelled.

"This is gonna be close." Fox thought as they started slowing down to land.

"Five seconds!" Hax warned again.

The group landed in the designated area half a mile from the large base shaped like a mountain, "Did we make it?" Krystal asked.

"Yeah, right before the systems came back online, you guys got lucky." Hax told them.

Cross still had his claws in the back of Fox's seat, frozen in place, "You okay Cross?" Fox asked as he opened the cockpit hatch, but Cross didn't respond, Fox looked back to see if the dark vulpine was even breathing, Cross' fur was standing on end, his eyes wide as he sat completely still, not moving an inch.

Krystal walked up to Fox's Arwing, "Is he okay?" She asked, concerned.

"Yeah, but I think he's in a state of shock." Fox answered, looking at the frozen Cross, Zivia overheard this and walked over to Fox's Arwing as well.

"What wrong with him?" The orange vixen asked.

"He has a bad fear of flying." Fox answered.

Zivia hopped onto the Arwing and examined the dark vulpine, "Hmm," She thought for a moment before pulling her right paw back and slapped the side of Cross' muzzle, Fox and Krystal both flinched from the loud sound, "That should do the trick." Zivia said as she hopped down from the Arwing, Falco witnessed this and started to laugh.

"I don't think that--" Fox started to say.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" Cross yelled, suddenly removed from his frozen fear and rubbing the side of his face.

"See, I told ya." Zivia said.

"Why does my face hurt?" Cross asked.

"Nevermind that, let's get started on our mission." Fox ordered.

Zivia found a spot that she thought would be suitable for cover-fire when the rest of the group left the base, she had a hunch that enemies wouldn't be too far behind of them, a few minutes passed while she looked over the base through the scope of her sniper rifle, "All clear." The orange vixen informed the rest of the group.

"Alright," Fox said while strapping a pair of grenades to his belt, "Team, let's go."

The group ran towards the base, as soon as they arrived, "Okay, there's weak points inside the base, Slippy said we need to set the charges in these areas," Fox told them, pointing to five spots on the layout of the base, "We'll set them while we get our info, everyone besides the four of us here is a hostile," He said while reaching into his backpack and pulling out two small spherical devices and sticking them to the wall, "Stand back," The vulpine ordered, they did so, and a few seconds later, the wall vanished into thin air, "Let's move."

Everything went according to plan, despite the many enemy soldiers in their way, they had set four charges so far, but needed to get to the master computer room, where Slippy told them if any information could be gathered it would be there, unfortunately, this is where most of the resistance was, "These guys just won't stop, it's like there's a limitless supply of 'em!" Fox exclaimed as a charge shot escaped from his blaster and through the head of an unlucky soldier, the group was in a large hallway, the walls, floor, and ceiling all blood red.

"Then there's only one thing left to do." Cross said as his eyes turned a dark red, matching the color of his fur. Cross grabbed a small pebble and threw it into the crowd, Fox noticed that three soldiers fell immediately after the pebble left Cross' paw, just then the dark vulpine dashed straight into the horde of enemies, each of them falling one by one, blood spurting from their limp bodies, soon after this, Cross stood where the seemingly endless amount of soldiers once were, Cross' eyes changed back to their original gold color as he smirked, exposing his left fang.

"Cross watch out!" Krystal yelled as one soldier fired a plasma shot from his rifle towards the back of Cross' head, the dark vulpine dodged the shot and dashed towards the enemy soldier, the soldier tried to fire again but was too late as Cross literally tore through the soldier, ripping him in half.

"Showoff." Falco said.

"Well, the master computer room is right down that hall." Fox told them as a plasma shot zipped past his head.

They immediately took cover, "Fox, take Cross and finish the mission, we'll hold them off." Falco said.

"Okay, be careful," Fox handed a device to the avian, "You two need to get back to the Arwings, if I'm not back in thirty minutes, you know what to do." The vulpine started to turn around.

"Don't do anything to get yourself killed, or I swear I'll kick your ass." The blue vixen told him before she shot a large ball of fire into the crowd of soldiers with her staff.

Fox chuckled as he and Cross ran down the large red hallway, the two vulpines soon came to a large room, on the wall was a large computer screen, Fox walked over and inserted the small chip into the port on the control panel.

Cross stood beside the entrance, ready to strike anyone who entered, "Cross..." A voice similar to his own said.

"What?" Cross asked.

"Cross...Cross..."

The dark vulpine walked to a door which led to another hallway.

"Cross..."

Cross walked down the dark hall and into a room where a tall cloaked figure stood, the figure had a long sheath dangling from it's side "Who are you?" Something about this figure was familiar, and it angered him for some reason.

"Me? I am your creator." A cold voice came from the hood.

That voice was familiar to Cross as well and also angered him, "My creator?" The vulpine asked, managing to sustain his sudden hatred.

"Let me show you." The cloaked figure pulled back his hood, and revealed his face, he was a black vulpine with two different colored eyes, his left eye was gold, while his right eye was silver.

Suddenly, Cross felt a stinging pain in his head, images started to flash before his eyes as if he was living them, the pain throbbed with every passing second as Cross came to the sudden realization, "No..."

"Okay Cross, I have the files and set the charge, now we just need to get out of here." Fox said as he turned to the exit, but as he looked at the exit, Cross was nowhere in sight, "Cross?" Fox asked, hoping to hear something, just then a large paw grabbed Fox by the throat, and lifted him high in the air, choking the life out of the vulpine, Fox quickly reacted by swinging his lower body and kicking as hard as he could, he felt his boot collide with something, and soon Fox was dropped, when he hit the floor he instantly jumped back as a massive cloaked figure almost twice Fox's size stood before him.

"That hurt," The figure spoke in a deep, gruff voice, "You'll pay for that." The figure charged at Fox who quickly jumped into the air and landed a spin-kick in the process, his heel connecting with the side of the figure's head, forcing the hood backwards to reveal a grey wolf with an eye patch over his right eye, a scar ran down the entire right side of his face.

"I gotta make this quick," Fox thought to himself, "Come on, ugly." He taunted as the massive lupine charged at him again, Fox jumped over the wolf and left a flash bang behind him as he ran towards the exit, the lupine was blinded by the light, and when he could finally see again, Fox was gone.

Fox heard a loud roar as he ran down the hallway and towards the exit of the base, "I guess he didn't like my trick, I hope Cross is alright." The vulpine thought to himself.

"So, do you remember who I am?" The black fox asked Cross.

Cross stood there with his eyes closed, "I remember everything," The dark red vulpine opened his eyes, "Father."

"Yes Cross, but you shall call me Chaos."

"Yes." Cross answered in a hateful tone.

"Ah, I see your spirit is strong, but no matter how strong a spirit may be, it can still be broken."

"Bones can be broken too." Just then, Cross leaped into the air, prepared to strike the black vulpine, but as he was inches away from surely ending the fox's life, his body suddenly stopped in mid-air.

"I was hoping it wouldn't be like this, I want you to meet someone," Cross' father pointed to his left, where a fox with deep blue fur hovered just a few inches off the ground, the fox had a pure white plus mark on his forehead, similar to the black X on Cross', "Do you recognize him?" The black vulpine asked.

Cross could only move his eyes and mouth, he didn't remember anyone like that, until he saw the gleaming silver eyes, "Brother!" He realized.

"Yes it is, and now you will die by your own brother's paw." Chaos snickered.

The blue vulpine's eyes turned a deep blue, Cross felt a pain in the back of his head, it felt as if his brain would explode, the pain started to become too much, and before Cross passed out, the last thing that he saw was his brother, then, complete darkness.

As soon as Cross passed out, the blue vulpine released his hold, and turned his attention towards Chaos, "What are you doing!? Kill him!" Chaos ordered, but to no avail as the blue fox focused his gaze on the black fox in front of him, mere seconds later, Chaos' body was blasted through a wall, the blue vulpine then engulfed himself and the unconscious Cross in a white sphere, the sphere vanished seconds later.

And now a word from our sponsor...wait a minute, I don't have a sponsor! Shit...this is awkward.

Author's Note: I hope I've done well on this story so far, this chapter wasn't as long as my other chapters but I hope it's still good...oh yeah, until the next update, later.