Disclaimer: I don't own Star Fox. Glad you asked.

Note: This is the last pre-Assault chapter. The next chapter will take place AFTER Assault. Just wanted to point that out. I know I've been a bit slow but I've had so much to do (blame school). Sorry 'bout that. O.K.! Here we go!

The Catastrophe of War

Chapter 5

'Right...now that Kathleen is ok, I think it's about time for me to get to the hangar...' thought Fox as he watched the battered wolf walk down the street, in the direction of the hospital.

He had signed the piece of paper that the wolf handed to him and added a note saying that the hospital can put the costs of Kathleen's medical bill to his account. When the wolf saw this, Kathleen burst into tears and hugged him tightly, murmuring her everlasting thanks to Fox.

As she reached the end of the street, Kathleen turned around one more time and waved to Fox, and he returned the wave. She blew a kiss to him and then walked around the corner. Fox smirked with slight embarrassment then turned toward the direction of the hangar.

As Fox turned around, his eyes hardened. When he was signing the piece of paper for Kathleen, he kept his eyes carefully neutral, not allowing them to show his emotions. Now that she was fine, Fox let his eyes show the anger and concern he was feeling; he growled slightly and sprinted down the busy street.

Even in the heat of the battle against Kent and Raxis, Fox was constantly thinking about what was troubling Krystal. He was deeply wondering why Krystal was acting like that; from what Fox saw on the surface of Sauria, Krystal has a fighter's spirit and seems calm at all times. But the way she had been so silent and looked very uncomfortable inside of the General's office...that wasn't up to par of what Fox thought about her...but now that he thought about it, Krystal seemed uncomfortable even when she was on the Great Fox.

Fox dodged a few civilians and turned left down an alleyway. Those two cats wasted too much of his time...he needs to find out what was troubling her...because if she keeps feeling like this around the team, she could quit being on the Star Fox team, and Fox couldn't bare it if she did.

Fox turned sharply to his right around a corner that led to the hangars.

WHAM!

"Ah!" Fox recoiled backwards, and fell to the ground. He hit the ground with a light 'thump' and sat there dazed for a few seconds. Fox rubbed and shook his head. His eyes came back into focus and he looked up to see what he had ran into.

"Fox, you really need to look around the corner before you go charging down it; you never know if someone is standing there." said Krystal, who had a paw stretched out to help Fox get to his feet.

Fox stared up at her.

"You didn't lose your balance when I ran into you?" he asked.

Something flickered in Krystal's eyes. "I did...but I didn't fall down on to the ground like you did. I just stumbled a few steps back. Plus, I braced myself for the impact a few seconds before you came running around that corner because I sensed you coming."

She smiled faintly and made a gesture with her paw, signaling to Fox to grab it. Fox continued to look up at her for a few seconds then reached up and gripped her paw tightly. Krystal pulled up and she helped Fox lift himself to his feet. He brushed off dirt off of his cargo jeans and looked at Krystal. She wasn't looking at him directly but seemed oddly interested about his boots. And when she did catch Fox's eyes, she looked away quickly.

'There you go again. Looking uncomfortable about something.' thought Fox. Krystal didn't react to his thought, but she turned around. Fox heard a small sigh and the vixen started walking down the street toward the gate in front of the hangar.

"Krystal..." groaned Fox, stretching an arm out towards her. She half-glanced backwards, but didn't stop. Fox lowered his arm to his side slowly and started walking after her. She was definitely thinking about something that was not good, and it was making her upset. When Fox caught up with her, he looked down at her legs to match her stride and looked straight at the side of her head, where her face should be if Krystal was looking at him.

"Whats wrong? I know there I there is something troubling you." said Fox after a couple of seconds.

Krystal ignored him.

"Come on Krystal..." muttered Fox, "You've been uneasy around the team and the General. Why are you so uncomfortable?"

The vixen didn't reply but her pace slowed slightly.

"If you don't talk about it, there is no way that you will feel any better." said Fox critically.

The vixen stopped dead and Fox, who didn't expect her to stop, walked right past her. He pivoted on his left leg to do a "U" turn and stood in front of her. Her head was bowed so he couldn't see her expression.

Fox was getting seriously worried; he didn't like seeing Krystal in this state. He reached forward to put his paw on Krystal's shoulder in an encouraging way. But as soon as his paw touched her shoulder, she took a step back, Fox's paw sliding down her arm.

"I...I don't think...I'm good enough...to be..." muttered Krystal. She had her head raised slightly so Fox could see that her eye's were closed tightly as if she was trying to block out everything from her vision.

"...To be...what?" muttered Fox.

She shook her head. "Part...part of this...team..." she whispered.

She took so many backwards steps that she hit the wall behind her. Fox took this chance and walked up to her as she just stood there with her head hanging low again.

"What makes you think that?" said Fox as he stopped in front of Krystal.

She looked up at him. Her eyes were filled with tears and she had the expression like she was scared of something, possibly the future.

"Compared to the rest of the team...Peppy...Falco...Slippy...you...I feel...weak in spirit...I'm not up to this...I have no skill at all...all I have is my staff and telepathic powers and thats it..." she muttered; she looked like she would brake out crying any minute. "I don't think I'm cut out to be a Star Fox member..."

Fox's eyes widened. "Krystal, you are NOT weak in spirit. I saw you on the surface on Sauria. You had the courage to face Andross when he was revived with the Krazoa's power! And even General Scales when you first came on to the planet answering a distress call! And speaking of which, you answered the distress call in the first place!"

Krystal muttered something inaudible.

"As for your skills, it's not like they are going to stay like that forever! That's why the General set aside this shooting range," Fox pointed over a fence, where the shooting range was, "So you can improve your skills. Yes, you do have some skill with this type of stuff Krystal!" he added when she looked at him with an expression clearly saying "But I have none..."

"...Fox..."

"Your staff is an excellent weapon! It can turn the tide of a ground battle!" said Fox, with each word he said, his voice grew louder. "Your telepathic powers! They are not useless! You healed my skull...think what you can do on the battle field! And I don't even think I have seen a single percent of your power yet! From what I could guess, you can eliminate an enemy ship with a single blink of an eye!"

"But...I'm not..."

Before he knew what he was doing, Fox was yelling.

"I KNOW YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO BE PART OF THIS TEAM KRYSTAL! YOU ARE NOT WEAK IN SPIRIT! YOU ARE NOT USELESS! YOU ARE NOT GOING TO BELIEVE THAT YOUR SKILLS AS A MEMBER OF THE TEAM ARE GOING TO STAY AS THEY ARE NOW FOR AS LONG AS YOU LIVE! I DON'T WANT YOU TO THINK THAT YOU ARE NOT FIT TO BE A MEMBER OF THIS TEAM ANYMORE!"

Krystal's jaw dropped in amazement. The tears in her eyes faded and the gleam in her eyes turned to a serious one.

"WE CAN HELP YOU GET BETTER! WE CAN ELIMINATE ALL OF YOUR DOUBTS! ALL OF THE THINGS THAT ARE WORRYING YOU SHOULD NOT EVEN BEEN THOUGHT OF! I DON'T EVEN SEE WHERE YOU GOT THESE DOUBTS FROM! YOU COULD OF ENDED UP QU-"

Fox was cut off by Krystal putting her paw over his mouth. Fox recoiled backwards from the shock of getting grabbed, and, due to Krystal holding on to his mouth firmly, he just succeeded of popping his jaw in and out of place.

The vixen gazed at the hurt and anger in Fox's eyes and she looked down at his chest to observe his fast breathing. She redirected her eyes to his, and she tightened her grip on his jaw, making Fox wince. Krystal pulled him closer to her so that they were nose to nose.

"Fox..." her voice was gentle, but there was a hint of coolness in it. "There is no need to yell. I could hear you clearly; from both your mouth, and your mind...I was not going to quit the team."

Fox glared at her. "But the way you were acting! Being uncomfortable everywhere the team went; the Great Fox, the hospital, General Pepper's office. All of that points toward that you would want to get away from being here!" he thought; he would have said these words but the vixen's paw was still firmly over his mouth.

"True." Krystal growled. "I was unconformable at all of those locations, because I felt I didn't belong here. I had doubts that I would be any help...Why? My first relief of being part of this team was not I was going to be with you, but that I would have someplace to be, not going all over galaxies looking for answers about my past." As she said this, Krystal tightened her grip more on Fox's mouth so he would not speak, and blocked out all of his thoughts so they would not interrupt her.

"Due to this, I felt I was being selfish, that I was only on the team because you offered your hospitality and I took it. Also, I thought I would be like one of those idiots that stay on the sidelines and watch their teammates do all of the work. Even though I would do my best on accomplishing the mission, I'd be a burden, and be as useful as those people sitting on the sidelines. I dismissed all of those thoughts... But...after the meeting in General Pepper's office, my uncertainty returned and increased. He had so much faith that I could do this. At first, I was pleased at the fact that he believed in you assisting me. However, the more I thought about the negatives, they replaced the positives. I started to think of what would happen if I never improved...and you can see what resulted of me thinking that."

"But...if you were having those kind of problems, then why didn't you ask someone for some advice? I would have given you some, or, you could've even asked Peppy...I think he would have given you more confidence than I would have."

"...I'm just going to say that I feel as though I need to earn the trust of the team before I ask them for advice " replied Krystal. "I need a bit more time to gain trust from the team...I've been on the team for only a few days; for all you could know, I'd kill you in your sleep...Fox...I just said you don't have enough reason to trust me yet." she added with a slight frown when Fox thought "I'd trust you with my life."

Fox was calmed down completely now, and he was starting to feel ashamed about the fact he yelled at her.

"Um...can you let go of my mouth now?" thought Fox when he noticed that his jaw was going numb with Krystal's above average firm grip.

Krystal smiled and let go of his jaw. Fox took a step back and rubbed his tingling mouth.

"Next time...just grab my arm or shoulder because having a numb mouth is not fun." said Fox.

Krystal nodded and grabbed Fox's paw. "Lets go train, shall we?"

Fox smiled and gripped her paw tightly. "Yeah, lets go." He was slightly surprised that Krystal recovered from that little episode; she was acting as though it never happened. Fox put in the code to open the hangar gate and led Krystal into it to get ready for the rest of the afternoon training.

Over the next year, Fox and Krystal trained on a daily basis to improve both of their skills. Before each training session, Fox briefed Krystal on what they were doing that day, which, after they finished with the basics, were over more advanced techniques. Each training session, Fox trained with Krystal on three major points: Arwing piloting, Landmaster control, and using blasters, homing rockets, etc. on the ground. Krystal, who acted like her doubts never existed after Fox's shouting, worked her hardest to improve.

As they trained, Fox noticed that Krystal has some very strong points. Her accuracy with the blaster, machine gun, and sniper rifle was 100 percent. During one memorable session, Krystal hit a target in the very center of the bullseye with the first shot she fired. After this, she unloaded the rest of the plasma clip on the exact same point, and the rest of the shots went straight through the first hole, and beyond it. Slippy, who was a few hundred yards behind the target, nearly got hit in the head with a shot. As he tried to get out of the line of fire, he ran right into another shot, which went through his favorite hat. Krystal, who was terribly sorry for putting a hole in the toad's hat, promised that she would sew it back together. When Fox asked how she shot like that, Krystal gave him a dirty look, which made Fox realize that he asked a stupid question. Falco, who was practicing nearby, pointed out to a confused Fox that she was using her telepathy to pinpoint the very center of the target.

Krystal's Arwing piloting skills were over par with Fox's. During the same session as the blaster practice, Krystal impressed the hell out of Fox when she completed a flight simulation. Fox's record of destroying holographic enemy ships in 3 minutes was 162. Krystal's was an astounding 203. Falco, whose record was 187, was furious about this, and practiced day and night afterwards to get better than her.

Her weakest point was the Landmaster. The massive tank, which was upgraded by Slippy, proved to be a big problem for Krystal. The control area for the tank was only had nine square feet of walking space. At the right hand side of this 3x3 space, sat a chair, with the controls of the tank in front of it.. Also, the ceiling was only four feet above the floor. When Krystal first got into the tank, she hit her head hard when moving toward control panel. This made the vixen get into a snappy mood, and didn't do to well with her first practice with the tank. What made it worse is that Slippy started teasing her about how bad she was with the Landmaster and that he could do better. This resulted in Slippy being chased by a 30 ton tank, while being shot at, all the way around the range.

When Fox saw this happening, he jumped onto a hover bike and intercepted the rampaging tank. It stopped in front of him, and Fox took this pause to try to reason with Krystal saying, "Ah, you did pretty poorly, but Slippy is very-HEY!" he added when the tank's turret turned toward his direction, and Fox could see the length of the inside of the barrel. When he saw a faint glow inside it, he jumped off his bike, jumped onto the barrel, and ran the length of it. The plasma shot fired behind him and destroyed the bike. He opened the hatch that led to the small control area. He found Krystal shacking with anger and she turned to find Fox's upside down head peering at her. She blushed and insisted that it was a joke. Fox took her excuse and said that they could try again tomorrow. Krystal nodded and crawled on the floor to avoid the low ceiling and climbed out of the tank.

A few months later, the team was on Katina, getting new battle uniforms. At first, Falco and Fox insisted that their suits were ok, but Peppy said that they needed new battle gear any way so might as well get new uniforms. Falco got a red uniform with gray on the sides of his torso and legs. Slippy got a banana yellow suit with finger gloves. Fox got an updated version of his Lylat Wars uniform; green jumpsuit, sliver vest, and red shoulder blades and boots. Krystal got a full body outfit as well, unlike her tribal outfit that she used on Sauria. It consisted of blue leather boots, a blue scale like material all over with stripes of black net-like material on her midsection and her arms. When she stepped out of the changing room, Fox was immediately speechless. When Krystal asked how they liked it, Slippy said it was ok, Falco said he didn't care, and Fox...didn't respond. Krystal noticed this, walked up in front of him and grabbed his left paw with both of hers. When Fox felt the warmth of her paws, he replied "It's very nice Krystal..." Krystal smiled and hugged Fox. Luckily, Falco and Slippy were already on the Great Fox.

They were about to go to the Katina base to check the security when the team got an urgent message from General Pepper.

"Star Fox! Corneria is under attack! Okinney is the mastermind in this invasion! We need your help! We can't do this alone!" the message was cut off by a massive explosion that hit the General's ship.

"We are on our way General!" said Fox, and turned around, where Falco, Slippy and Krystal had stopped walking. "We need to get there as soon as possible! Lets move Star Fox!" he yelled and the team ran back to the Great Fox to warp to Corneria.

Note: O.K. I can tell that was a pretty lame ending. I was using one of Fox's phrases in Assault (most of us know some of the corny crap he says in that game). I'm going to get to work on Chapter 6 later, and the story will get much better. Wait for it...

Also! Can you please submit more reviews? No, I'm not being pushy, I just want to know if the story is ok. As far as I can tell, you could be thinking this is a piece of crap and not telling me about it. If it is a piece of crap, tell me please. I will improve it to the best of my ability. (Flames are accepted...to an extent)