Disclaimer: Star Fox and Star Wolf characters copyrighted to Nintendo, Slice and Sear copyrighted to me.

Part XXV: Clash of the Titans! Part 1 of 4.

Fox anticipated the move and caught one of Wolf's blows with a large, metallic hand and returned the blow to Wolf's chest, the ship launching back as Wolf inhaled a gasp of air, his ship lurching forward from the blow. Frowning once again, Wolf launched into a barrage of punches being blocked or knocked aside by the fast paced arwing. Wolf had power, Fox had speed.

"Quit...blocking...and...FIGHT!" Wolf yelled through his com at Fox, whom smirked in an odd manner. "What are you afraid of? Think I'm going to whoop ya!" Wolf wasn't pushing the limits of his Wolfen fighter, not knowing of the true potential of the ship or himself. He wanted Fox to go away, and quickly.

Fox grinned, "Aw, you old lupine, you know you can't win against me. Just give up already." He threw a punch at Wolf's fighter, finding it deflected by a powerful swipe from one of Wolf's arms. "Being stubborn eh? I think it's time I stopped holding back." And as Fox said that, the aura grew to an incadescence Wolf had never seen before, when it faded the Arwing fighter had taken on new weapons and looked much more powerful then it had.

"I'm not giving up, so long as I still hold breath!" Wolf yelled, throwing punch after punch at the now larger Arwing. His blows being deflected left and right before he was grabbed and thrown, only catching himself with his thrusters timed at the right moments. Though, after he had gained his upright position he looked around and found himself under fire, warnings flaring up as he took one, two, three hits into the side of his ship.

"I told you you couldn't win, you stubborn old wolf!" Fox growled, his guns blazing as he strafed Wolf's vulnerable hull before hitting it with a larger blast in the torso.

"DAMN YOU!" Shouted Wolf as he was hit in the side with another laser blast, his ship wasn't going to be able to take much more punishment and his fuse was growing shorter.

"I told you you shouldn't have resisted Wolf." Fox growled as his ship came closer to Wolf's ship, which was currently near a kneeling position. He delivered a kick to the chest of Wolf's ship, eliciting a groan from Wolf as he careened backwards and crashed into one of the stationary meteors near the Sargasso hideout.

After the impact, Wolf groaned in pain, checking himself to see how much more punishment he, and his ship, could take. Life support was almost gone, the Duraglass was cracked to near breaking, he figured he was dead, or would be soon.

Inside the Sargasso Hideout

Leon couldn't help but flinch as Wolf's Wolfen fighter lay stationary on the meteor, "C'mon Wolf, you can't give up now!" To tell the truth, despite how Wolf treated him and Panther, Leon knew that Wolf was the best choice for a leader.

"C'mon Wolf..." Slice quietly cheered, one of her paws clasped over her mouth to keep her from sounding nervouse. She was worried about how Wolf was doing, it seemed that he was done for, the end, the big curtains for him. She wouldn't know what to tell Sear when she recovered. Especially since they had both become somewhat attached to the short tempered lupine.

"He'll be fine, just you watch. He'll get up and act like nothing's happened...I hope..." Panther said, the last part of it barely as whisper as the Meteor's slow circular motion showed Wolf go around again, still flat on the meteors surface. Indeed, things looked grim for Wolf. He knew Wolf was powerful now, but the look of Wolf's ship at the moment showed that he was in major trouble.

Back outside

Wolf grunted as he struggled to get the Wolfen fighter up from being on its back, he was sure he'd cracked a few more bones in the crash, he felt like one large pain. "Is that...all you got?" He grunted through the com, the look of surprise evident on Fox's face.

"Why don't you stay down old man?" Fox growled, slowly edging his Arwing fighter closer to Wolf's fighter.

"Because...quitters never win...and you're not going to beat me...pup..." He grunted, the head area of Wolf's fighter turning to look directly at the advancing Arwing. 'Looks like...this is it...' Wolf thought to himself, keeping himself from looking nervouse at all, though sweat rolled freely down the sides of his face as he grabbed his emergency space helmet from its compartment and put it over his head, taking a breath of the reserve oxygen. "You're...not going to win...if I can help it..."