Chapter 4: Venom
"Approaching Venom now, Fox." Slippy said as he looked at his monitor. "Good, we'll go down there and find Andrew. He'll know something since he rules the planet now." Fox said as he observed the planet from the window. He and his crew had traveled many light-years at light speed to reach Venom in the Lylat System, and the long drive was finally going to pay off. They did make a detour before they came to Venom, though. Fox had stopped off on Corneria to visit Krystal, who was pregnant with their son. They hadn't chosen a name yet, but that was going to have to wait until after the crisis had past.
"Prepare to board Arwings." Fox said as he pressed a red button on his control panel. He, along with his crew members Slippy Toad and Falco Lombardi, got up and ran down the hallway to the Arwing hangers. Once boarded, they checked their systems and G-Defusers and then took flight into space and down into Venom. As they passed through the atmosphere, Fox remembered their first visit to Venom back when the mad tyrant Andross had launched an attack on the Lylat System. Fox couldn't believe it had been almost twenty-years since he defeated the tyrant and thought he saw his deceased father. The team continued to pass through the atmosphere and finally broke from it and spotted Andross' left behind kingdom which was currently being run by his nephew, Andrew Oikonny.
As the team continued to proceed towards Oikonny's palace, they were surprised that Andrew hadn't attacked them yet, seeing that all of Venom desired Star Fox dead. All of a sudden, Fox's intercom came on and he heard Andrew's voice. "Fox McCloud, how long has it been?" Oikonny said calmly as he waited for Fox's reply. Fox picked up his communicator and replied. "Not long enough, Andrew. We've come to negotiate something rather important." Fox said. "Well, then feel free to land on the deck with the flashing lights. My guards will escort you to me afterwards and then we can talk." Andrew stopped and the intercom went dead. Fox signaled his friends to land with him on the flashing pad.
Once on the ground, Andrew's robots escorted Fox, Falco, and Slippy to Andrew's throne room. The halls of the palace were decorated with statues of Andrew and Andross along with the Oikonny coat of arms. The sight of Andross' face sickened Fox to the point that he couldn't look at it anymore. Once in the throne room, Fox, Falco, and Slippy stood before Andrew who sat there staring at them. "Now then, we'll skip the hellos and go right to the action. Why have you come to my kingdom unannounced?" Andrew said as he continued to stare menacingly at Fox and his friends. Fox stepped forward. "I'm here to ask if you know anything about Wolf and him smuggling a gaseous chemical in Venom's atmosphere out and to Earth." Andrew looked a little calmer now and answered him. "I tell you what. I've been a bit bored lately and I need something interesting to do. So, I'll give you the information you desire IF you fight me in a sword dual....to the death!" At this, Slippy looked worried while Falco eyed Fox curiously wondering if his friend would except the tyrant's challenge.
Fox stood his ground and answered Andrew calmly. "I except your challenge." Andrew looked overjoyed at this and motioned for his robots to bring them weapons. The robot handed Andrew a sword and Fox a sword and then motioned for the two of them to stand in front of each other. Once in the proper fighting stance, the robot gave a countdown and then motioned for the fight to begin. Andrew immediately struck straight out towards Fox's heart but he missed when Fox dodged out of the way. Fox thought he had Andrew off guard but was surprised to see him already planning to strike again. Dodging easily again, Fox tried to find an opening to hit Andrew but it seemed like Andrew had been practicing and was guarding all possible vulnerabilities. As the battle raged on, Andrew managed to get a lucky shot and took a little skin and fur off Fox's arm. Fox recoiled a little bit while Andrew, being a sporting person, waited in triumph for his wounded opponent to recover. Fox got back into his stance and continued the fight hoping that his little recoil had made Andrew cocky.
Fox's little plan paid off when Andrew retried the same stunt of hitting Fox in the arm again but this time, Fox blocked it and sent Andrew's sword flying. Fox then aimed the sword's tip at Andrew's throat and stood in triumph. "Now then, the information please." Fox said as he continued to hold the sword towards Andrew. Andrew, breathing heavily and looking a bit shocked, answered, "Wolf was sent here to gather a harmless chemical from the atmosphere that when mixed with water turns into a deadly virus that kills within ten minutes. Earth's Eric Dawson discovered that after Wolf was told to bring it to him." Fox stopped Andrew and continued the questioning. "Alright, who's in charge of the operation? Wolf? Dawson? You?" Andrew gave a slight smile and then looked up at Fox again. "You don't know?" Andrew laughed at Fox. "You haven't figured it out yet!?" Andrew said as he continued to laugh at Fox. "The whole scheme was created by the ambassador from Earth, Trenton Granger. He came here and made the deal with me. I gave him unlimited supplies to suck the certain chemical out of the atmosphere in exchange for Earth's weapons. With them, I was going to conquer the Lylat System out of revenge for my uncle. But now, I don't think that's going to come true." Andrew said, all the while laughing.
Suddenly, a large shot rang out in the room and Andrew fell down on the ground and started shaking violently, and then puked blood and died. Off guard and disgusted, Fox tried to shake off the feeling to find whoever shot Andrew, but there was no sign of anyone in the room, even Falco and Slippy had disappeared. As Fox looked around the empty and dead room, a loud speaker came on and Granger's voice came up. "Well, well, well. It appears you've figured it all out, Commander McCloud. But you're too late to stop me now. I've already created the virus and have all of it with me." Granger said with a loud chuckle. "Where's Slippy and Falco, Granger?" Fox yelled. "Don't worry, I have no need to kill them so I put them in Oikonny's dungeon. They will be freed after I settle my scores with you and your partners. Come back to Earth immediately, I have something that may interest you." Granger ended with another distorted chuckle while Fox ran outside and into his Arwing. He had to get back to Earth fast! Who knows what Granger was about to do!?