Disclaimer: Star Fox is one of the best Nintendo games series ever...but it's not mine.

Note: I'm very sorry for the extreme delay for this chapter. I had some stuff come up in my personal life so I couldn't work on this. But now...here it is! (Try to) Enjoy!

The Catastrophe of War

Chapter 4

Fox looked around at the CAHQ lounge as he walked in. 'Well well...It seems that they have remodeled the inside of this building...'

The floor was covered with silver tile that reflected the sunlight outside of the CAHQ building and the artificial lights inside. The walls were silvery in color but gave off a gold glow. On these walls there were holographic signs showing the availabilities of services, maps of the CAHQ's many floors, maps of the Lylat System, and the guidelines of the building. Along the east and west walls, many desks sat next to each other and were occupied by two animals each. In front of each and every single desk there were lines for both animals at the desks. These lines were so long that the backs of the many animals formed a 3 foot 'walkway' in which Fox and the guard were walking along.

As Fox walked toward the wall where the elevators were, he gathered enough information from the talking animals to guess why they were at the CAHQ, but he could barely hear himself think, as it was extremely loud from all of the talking animals. Many of them were there to ask for help for all kinds of things ranging from asking directions to the many areas of Corneria City to asking for assistance at their job. Others were demanding to hire the Star Fox team for whatever trouble. Fox was slightly disgusted when he overheard one female tiger wondering aloud if Fox could help her deliver her kit. Fox wondered why she was here, not at the hospital.

Fox looked up at the extremely high glass ceiling, which reviled the 30th floor lounge, he noticed that many animals were gazing down toward the ground floor lounge. As he squinted up at the animals pointing down, he saw that the majority of them were pointing at him. He waved politely up to them and they waved frantically back.

As Fox leveled his gaze back to the ground he noticed with horror that many dozens of animals were charging at him. He stopped his steady pace to the elevator and took a step back with his arms raised in a way to try to signal for the animals to stop...but that effort was wasted. The front line of animals jumped on top of him, knocking him to the ground with a loud grunt that was not heard. He let out a yell when the rest of the animals jumped on top of the first group, causing Fox to spit up some blood. The combined weight of the animals added to like having a whale was on top of his gut, thus, Fox was not able to breathe. He struggled to catch some air and, oblivious to the fact they were suffocating Fox, all of the animals began bombarding him with requests.

"McCloud! You must come to Macbeth! There has been a massive explosion-"

"Mr. McCloud! You need to come to Katina! The main base is structurally unsound, and your team is-"

"Mr. Fox! Can you please sign this-"

"Fox! Please go to Aquas! The planet's oceans are overheating and you need to find out-"

"Fox McCloud! You must go to Zoness! The poisoned waters have-"

Fox didn't even try to answer these requests, because all of them were ridiculous, and he couldn't talk because he had no strength to do so. As he started to gag slightly, Fox pushed himself out of the pile of mammals and reptiles in a rolling motion. He got free and jumped to his feet, took a well needed deep breath and looked behind him at the dog pile of animals. The animals on top were still trying to get to the bottom of the pile. Fox assumed that they thought he was still under there and set off toward the elevators at a quick jog.

As he got about 20 yards from the bronze elevator wall, something grabbed him by the ankles and he fell yet again. Fox did his best to brake his fall by throwing his arms in front of him, but when he landed, that action just doubled the pain. He grimaced at the throbbing pain and looked behind him to see what grabbed him.

'That tiger...'

"FOX! You need to help me give birth to my kit! You're the only that can do it!" the white tiger yelled at the top of her lungs.

"How am I the only one that can help!" growled Fox. "There is a hospital two miles down the street!"

The tiger didn't respond to him but continued to beg for his help.

Fox shook his head slightly at the stupidity of the tiger and pulled himself to his feet. The tiger held on tight and refused to let go. Fox took a deep breath and heaved himself forward, as well as the tiger ever so slowly to the elevators. He pulled harder and even did some short hops to get over to the elevators quicker. As Fox got closer to the bronze wall and noticed the guard standing next to elevator 12B. He inched his way over to the guard.

"Mr. McCloud. I didn't notice that you fell behind. My apol-"

"No need for apologizes." interrupted Fox gruffly while trying to free his feet from the screaming tiger. "I just need you to find other guards and escort this tiger to the hospital."

"Of course." said the dog. He signaled other guards, who were at other elevators, and they came over at a lightning speed. The entrance guard whispered to them what orders Fox just gave and the four other dogs nodded. They walked over to the tiger at Fox's feet and crouched down next to her. They tried to talk her out of letting go of Fox, but she held on, even tightening her grip with each word the guards said to her. They tried again. She ignored them. The guards shock their heads in unison at the defeat of 'peaceful' removal of the tiger. One of them stood up and took out a stunning blaster. He fired weak shots at each of the tiger's arms, making her yell in pain, and lose her grip on Fox. The guards grabbed her by the elbows and pulled her toward the huge glass entrance doors of the building. She screamed and kicked to get back to Fox, but with four dogs pulling her, there was no way she was going to get free.

Fox sighed and hoped the tiger would be ok and that her kit didn't have the same obsession with him as it's mother. He turned to the elevator and found out that the guard was already inside of it, holding his paw in between the doors so Fox could get in. Fox walked towards the elevator then heard a rumbling behind him; he glanced backwards. He gave a shout and ran the rest of the way into the elevator to avoid the same group of charging animals that jumped him in the first place.

As he ran past the guard, the dog immediately pushed the 'close' button to make the doors of the elevator close. Fox crashed into the back wall of the elevator and got the wind knocked out of him yet again. He glanced backwards in time to see a pig, lioness, and lizard reaching forward towards Fox, about 4 feet from the doors, but they closed in front of them, saving Fox from the idiotic animals.

"Holy cow..." muttered Fox. "Do you have to deal with that every single day?" he asked the dog as the elevator started to move upward toward the 68th floor.

"Yes, yes I do." replied the guard with a slight moan.

Fox and the guard arrived at the 68th floor in less than 1 minute. The doors opened and Fox stepped off of the elevator and braced himself for another stampede, but there was none. He looked back to the guard with a puzzled look.

"...Mr. McCloud," said the guard dryly, "This is General Pepper's floor. There are no civilians on this floor. Only specialized personnel know the code to get on to this floor."

"Right..." muttered Fox.

"You will find General Pepper's office to your right, and 5 doors down. Have a good day." said the dog and he pushed a button inside the elevator. The doors started to close.

"If you are going back to the ground floor, watch yourself; its a jungle down there." said Fox hastily as the dog started to disappear behind the doors.

"Will do." said the dog with a smirk, and the doors closed completely in front of him.

Fox turned around and looked at the 68th floor landing. Formal looking animals were walking along the red carpet in a professional way...not looking anywhere but in front of them, walking as if they were in a line of marching soldiers, and had a set face that did not change. Fox felt a bit...under classed as he turned to his right and moved down the brightly light, silver walled hallway, toward General Pepper's office. Fox noticed that this level only consisted of the General's employees. No army personnel, no janitors, no guard dogs. All of the animals had the same blue and gray uniform, with the red words 'Employee of General Pepper' printed on the chest.

Fox realized that he was so intent at looking the employees, that he surpassed the General's office by 15 doors. He doubled back toward the General's office and knocked on the door.

"Come in." said a female voice.

Fox stepped inside. General Pepper's secretary was typing on her computer and looked up when Fox stepped inside.

"Ah, Mr. McCloud. General Pepper is waiting for you." she pointed towards another door, which Fox walked over to it, after saying "Thank you." to the secretary and knocked on the door.

"Come in Fox." said another female voice; this time, Fox recognized it. As he opened the door and stepped into the brightly light room, Fox saw Krystal sitting in front of the General's desk, where the hound dog was sitting himself.

"Fox! You made here just in time; I saw you run down the street." said General Peppy with a hint of amusement in his voice.

"Well, I didn't want to be late...for whatever you sent me for." said Fox as he closed the door and walked over toward the desk.

He took his time going to the desk though, because he wanted to look around at the General's office. The walls were painted with a bright gold and many certificates lined the wall behind the General. Fox looked to his left and noticed that there was no wall, but every square inch of where a wall should be, there was a single giant plate of glass made a huge window that looked over Corneria City. He looked to his right and the wall was lined with many filing cabinets.

Fox sat down next to Krystal. The blue vixen said nothing, but she just glanced at Fox when he sat down.

"Well, Fox, you have decided to let Krystal to join the team. I'm completely fine with it, and I could not change it if I had the chance, because you are the leader of the team. However, you need to train with her every other day to help her upgrade her skills." said the General. "I have set aside a shooting range for the Star Fox team, and is off-limits to the rest of the Corneria population; expect for me and my employees of course. You can head there right now if you like."

"Ok General, but, where is this shooting range located?" asked Fox.

"Right next to the Great Fox hangar two and a half miles from here Fox." said General Pepper.

"How convenient." muttered Fox. "We'll head there right now."

At those words, Krystal stood up, walked over to the door, opened it, and walked out of the room without a word.

Fox stared at the door which Krystal just walked through.

"...Any idea whats upsetting her Fox?" asked Pepper.

"None..." sighed Fox.

"Well, catch up with her and see what is troubling her." said the hound dog.

Fox was slightly shocked; he thought the General wanted him for a more pressing matter, like a mission, rather then what the General just told him.

"Does that mean I'm dismissed? Thats all you wanted to see me for? To say that I needed to train with Krystal?" asked Fox.

"Hmm...that's a 'yes' to all three of those questions Fox." said Pepper with a smile.

Fox laughed and set a face pace towards General Pepper's office door. But when he was about to open it, he looked back at the General.

"General...down on the ground floor lobby, several animals were saying that there has been an explosion on Macbeth...the Katina main base is collapsing...Aquas' oceans are overheating...and that Zoness' oceans are too poisonous for the structures there. Are any of those true?" Fox wanted to make sure that the animals downstairs were lying.

"Haha...they really said that down there? No Fox, none of those statements are true." said the General.

"Thank you General." said Fox with a sigh of relief and turning to the door to open it.

He made his way out of the secretary's office, the 68th floor hallway, and pushed the 'down' button near elevator 9A. Within a couple seconds the doors opened and Fox stepped into the empty elevator and pushed the 'ground floor' button. The elevator moved so fast downward, Fox's feet left the floor of the elevator for a split second. As Fox got onto the ground floor, he sprinted toward the entrance so he wouldn't be spotted again.

He stepped out of the CAHQ, and looked around the block. Many animals were walking along the sidewalk, and Fox couldn't see Krystal anywhere. He got worried very quickly and ran towards the hangar on the edge of town. This time, even though he thought he learned his lesson about running this fast down a street, Fox almost crashed into Katt, who he said "Hi Katt." as he ran by the pink cat.

About 1 mile down the road, he ran out of breathe and energy so he slowed down to a fast walk. As he walked past an alleyway, he heard some voices, a dull thud, and a piercing scream. He looked down the alleyway. A female wolf was laying on the ground getting the crap beat out of her by two cats.

Fox saw her head turn toward his direction.

"HELP!" screamed the wolf stretching out her arm toward him. One of the two cats that were beating her up looked toward the entrance of the alley.

The other kicked her in the gut. "Shut it now Kathleen, unless you want your arms broken..."

Fox, due to his good nature, decided to help her out and to give the cats what they deserve. He took out his blaster, put it on stun mode and walked over to the two cats who were harming the wolf.

"Leave her alone!" yelled Fox while raising his blaster.

"Oh, like that's going to make us stop? Ha! You are only one fox; we can take care of you quickly then take this wolf's money and identification card. Come on Kent." said the flame colored cat.

The black cat nodded and stepped forward with the flame furred cat. He took out brass knuckles out of his jean jacket then put them on.

'Great...I hate those things...' thought Fox as he took a step forward with the blaster still raised.

"Heh...think you can act tough eh?" said the black cat. "Fine then; it's your funeral! Lets get him Raxis!" he yelled and both cats charged at Fox.

Fox shot a normal blast at Raxis' feet, making him jump. While he was in the air, Fox charged forward. Kent threw a few punches at Fox, but he dodged them and slammed into Raxis' chest. The cat squealed and flew backwards and hit the ground with a loud and painful grunt. Fox quickly charged a blast and hit the flame furred cat in the gut with the charged shot. He let out a scream that was cut short by another shot hitting his chest. He got knocked out cold and Fox turned in time to see brass knuckles contact his face.

Fox grunted and stumbled backwards, still keeping his balance. He felt around his face and felt warm blood flowing out of his broken nose.

"You'll pay for that..." growled Fox. He started charging a shot and pointed it at Kent.

"Do you think that you will get me with that same trick you played on Raxis?" sneered the black furred cat.

"No, I do not." replied Fox roughly.

He pointed the blaster to his right, where a pile of metal boxes lay, and fired the shot. The shot made the pile of boxes fall over, threating to crush Kent. Kent looked up in time and jumped out of the way.

As Kent look to where Fox was, he noticed that Fox was no longer there. He looked around frantically, with his fists raised, the brass gleaming in the sun light. As he thought that the fox gave up and ran away, he got hit hard on the back of the head.

"Ughnn..."

Fox was standing behind him, with his unextended staff raised, like a metal rod. The black cat fell to the ground and lay there, not moving.

Fox put his staff back on his belt and walked over to Raxis' body.

"What a waste..." muttered Fox as he picked Raxis up, and walked over to Kent's body. He moved the black cat's body to the wall, leaned against the silver metal wall and put Raxis' body next to him. He tied them up with rope that was nearby to make sure when they woke up, they could not get away from the cops that would come down this alleyway to do a daily checkup on the area.

As he finished putting rope around their feet, he took out a notepad and wrote:

'These two cats, Kent and Raxis, need to be charged with aggressive assault and attempted robbery. They have severely wounded a gray female wolf, by the name of Kathleen, and she is going to report to the hospital. I hope you will know what to do with these two criminals. And please check on Kathleen in the hospital whenever possible. Thank you. (Signed) Fox McCloud.'

As he put the note on the ground in front of the two unconscious cats, Fox felt a light tap on his shoulder. Fox glanced up and saw the wolf with her purse over her shoulder. She was a mess. Her eye was swollen, her arm was bleeding, she had cuts all over her body, and her gray fur had a red tint all over.

"Thank you very much..." she muttered.

"No problem ma'am." said Fox as he stood up. "I couldn't let you get pummeled after I saw you in trouble; I would never be able to forgive myself if I did nothing."

He noticed that her green eye's widened when she looked at his shirt, where the Star Fox logo was.

"Are...are you...Fox McCloud!" she said breathlessly.

"Yes."

"OH MY GOD!" she yelled; Fox took a step backwards, almost tripping over the two cats.

"Can I have your autograph?" Fox nodded and the speechless wolf handed him a piece of paper and a pen.

Note: I hope it was good enough for that delay. There may be one or two more chapters before I get to post-Assault. Then it will get much better (in my opinion). Also, school is starting in a few days, so expect more delays with the chapters :(