Doc had been sitting in the interrogation room for a couple hours. He had always been a patient man, but these cops were fucking clueless. It was like they had no idea what to ask him. He knew when one officer interrogated him, another would come in and ask the same exact questions.

It was fucking irritating.

He knew there were officers on the other side of the one-way mirror. Pretty damn cliché if you asked him. But since they were listening to his every word, why ask what you already knew the answer to? He was about ready to go to sleep in his chair if these cops couldn't ask something original for once.

Suddenly, Fox and Falco walked into the room. Doc looked genuinely surprised.

"Well, well," he began. "You gentlemen came all this way for me? I'm flattered." He said sarcastically. Neither mercenary said anything. They just stared at him, which began to bore him even more. Doc sighed. "And here I was hoping you would be more entertaining than the pigs behind that mirror," he was sure those cops were looking at each other wondering how he knew. Idiots. "If you aren't gonna ask me anything the make yourselves useful and get me a magazine or something. You people are more boring than prison."

"I think you know what we're after," Fox finally spoke. Doc sighed again. At least they said something.

"I do, actually," he met their eyes. "Do you?"

"Where's your hideout?" Falco asked. Doc actually hadn't been asked that question yet.

"What are you, twelve? This isn't a T.V show where the bad guys always have a secret hideout underground or in the slums. We don't have one. We only take what we can carry and operate by foot." He said. Fox was actually surprised he was answering.

"Who hired you?" Fox asked this time. "We know someone did. The gem you stole was highly classified, not just anyone knew about it."

"We stole a lot of diamonds from those freighters. We could care less about some classified gem that was in the pile." Doc replied.

"Nice try," Fox said with a smirk. "The other diamonds you stole were found in an alleyway down in Tressan. Everything accounted for besides the rare Gem of Solitude. Obviously, you stole the other diamonds to cover what you were really after, that Gem." Doc chuckled.

"I'm impressed." Doc admitted. "But to be honest I don't know who hired us. I was supposed to find out today as a matter of fact but your new friends interrupted me." Fox leaned onto the table with his arms.

"Are you lying to me, Doc? Because if you are-"

"I don't lie," Doc interrupted.

"Yeah right, like we'll believe that one," Falco said skeptically. Doc shrugged.

"I don't give a fuck whether you believe me or not. That sounds like a personal problem to me." Fox and Falco looked at each other. "I didn't become a criminal, you know. I was average, didn't bother anyone and no one bothered me. All of a sudden I come home to hundreds of illegal explosives and firearms in my apartment, and the cops had conveniently been called before I knew what the hell was going on. Ended up with a 25 year prison sentence, and a hell of a lot of questions. Someone's pulling strings, and I intend to find out who."

"That sounds like a personal problem to me," Falco said using his words against him. "But I wonder how you intend to find out who 'set you up' by stealing shit from the military,"

"Somehow, I think it's been for the military," Doc said. They both looked at him wide-eyed.

"What do you-" Fox was interrupted by a rumble of the ship. They both walked out of the room, carelessly keeping the door open. "What the hell happened?" Fox asked. Katt rushed up to them.

"They're saying an explosion went off on one of the sublevels!" she exclaimed. Fox cursed under his breath.

"Falco take Katt and help these guys out in any way you can. I'll stay here and keep an eye on-" Fox was interrupted by Doc jumping over his head with the help of Fox's forehead. "What the hell?!" he looked back to see two unconscious policemen who probably tried to move him after the explosion. His handcuffs and the key to them were lying on the floor. "Dammit!" he cursed again. "He planned to be caught!" The three Star Fox members gave chase. Doc expertly fought past the officers in his way and still managed to keep a lead on his pursuers. He clotheslined an officer pulling out his service blaster, roundhouse kicked another, and countered an officer's punch and threw him through a window. While running he saw a control panel for some security doors. He smashed the controls, making them start to close. A woman completely unaware of the situation at hand walked in the middle of the hallway carrying some documents. She saw him speeding towards him and screamed while throwing the papers in the air. Thinking quick, Doc slid between her legs, making her dress blow up from his wind. The last thing Star Fox saw was Doc holding two middle fingers as he slid backwards on his stomach through the doors as they closed.

"Shit!" Falco cursed. "This guy is really starting to get on my nerves,"

"Never mind that Falco, what about those explosions?" Katt asked worriedly.

"Calm down, babe. They were just decoys. This asshole must have his friends onboard or something." Falco responded.

"Not just that, they were precision timed." Fox explained. "Doc knew exactly what he was doing the moment he got caught. But, why? Why be arrested on purpose? To mess with us? Scare us or…"

"Wait, about the Gem they stole," Katt started.

"The Gem of Solitude, what about it?" Falco asked.

"There are more of those Gems! There were three to be exact, The Gems of Solitude, Tranquility, and Willpower! I remember reading about them on Fichina."

"But that still doesn't explain why he got himself arrested," Falco said annoyed.

"It's simple Falco," Fox said walking off. "One of those Gems are on this station."

"You three sure took your sweet time," Doc said at the rendezvous with his team. They were just getting off a merchant ship they stowed away on. Eagle tossed him a duffel bag with his gear and clothes.

"Have fun?" Raven asked him teasingly. Doc scoffed as he began to change.

"You kidding me?" He asked. "Cops are so boring nowadays. I'd have more fun watching paint dry," he opted. He looked at Eagle once he was in his proper attire. "Alright oh-fearless-leader, my plan to get us here worked. What's next?" he asked.

Eagle walked past him. "We've already detonated the small bombs we stashed a couple days ago, so the station should be in panic. Raven and Samu, it should be easy for you two to get to the Weapons Experimentation Room undetected. Doc and I will create a diversion, get moving." He said. The two ladies ran off and tore a vent off a wall before crawling through. "You and I need to get some attention," Just then, a bunch of officers and Station security guards ran in with their blasters trained on them yelling "Freeze". Doc and Eagle looked at each other and back to the officers.

"That was easy," Doc said amused. Immediately, Eagle pulled his own blaster out and fired while Doc did the same.

Krystal was busy helping the faculty aboard the space station put out the small fires caused by the bombs. She searched in vain for an engineer so she could learn the extent of the damage.

"Hey you!" she yelled finally catching one. "What's this station's status?" she asked him. He was a monkey of some kind.

"The bombs took out two of our engines, but we've still got two to go so we're stable," he said making Krystal sigh in relief.

"What about civilians? Any wounded?" She asked. The Cornerian Space Station was home to multiple fashions of commerce. It was a place where nations could buy, sell, and trade. It was also a place where scientist preferred to experiment and militaries did weapon some testing. Because of that, it had plenty of civilians from every nation walking around.

"None. We haven't gotten any reports of people getting hurt anywhere on the station," he said. Krystal looked at him confused but dismissed him anyway. It was peculiar indeed. Normally when bandits attacked a spacecraft, they'd take a few hostages and kill a couple of civilians to instill fear and show the cops they meant business. But these people did none of the above.

"Krystal," she heard her name through her communicator. "We believe the attackers are after a rare Gem that's onboard. I'm sending Katt ahead to meet you. I want you two to secure the Gem. Don't let these people get their hands on it. It's located in corridor G room 23 on the 3rd Level. Get there as quick as you can, Fox out," he ended.

"What about you and Falco?" she asked worriedly. Already knowing what he was going to say.

"We've regrouped with Wolf and Panther. We're going to proceed to hangar where the fugitives are already fighting Police and Security. We're going to give them a hand. Hopefully we can overwhelm them," he said. She knew it. Same old Fox rushing head first into battles like that. She was just frightened that one day, he wouldn't come back.

"Fox…" she knew it was useless to argue. He had been doing this since before they even met. He had saved the Lylat System without her even knowing. She sighed. "Just…"

"…Be careful, okay?" she asked quietly. Fox had already sensed her worry. He knew she didn't want him to go.

"I will, Krystal," he replied. He nodded to Katt, who took off in an effort to find Krystal and guard the Gem from enemy hands. "Let's go," he said to Falco, Wolf, and Panther. "If one guy was able to incapacitate you two then those cops won't last long." Fox said as they all took off running towards the hangar, with Wolf muttering something about him getting a lucky break.

"Level 3, Corridor G Room 23, huh?" Raven said to herself. She and Samu had overheard the conversation between Fox and Krystal. "Looks like we'll have a little competition when we get there too," she said smiling. Samu didn't like the sound of that. She could hack anything and fly anything. She wasn't much of a fighter.

"We'll deal with it. But I'm sure the door's security program will be heavily encrypted. I'll need a few second with it and we'll be good." Samu explained. She pressed a finger to the communicator in her ear as they continued to the room. "Doc, this is Samu."

"Fox, Falco, wolf and Panther are headed your way right now," she finished. Doc smirked as he punched the last officer, knocking him out.

"'Bout time." He said calmly. He looked at Eagle, who also had a number of cops at his feet. He nodded, letting him know they were on their way. He sighed at looked at the unconscious cops around him.

"We may have overdone it a bit," he said bored. He sighed again. "Oh, well. At least a primary objective has been completed. It's up to the ladies now."

"Yo, Fox! We're gonna need some kind of strategy to take these guys down." Wolf said while running. "Doc is too fast and Eagle may not be a pushover either." Fox's mind was racing for the best possible way to deal with this threat. Wolf and Panther only recently recovered from their fight with Doc, they had been at the station's first aid center for the majority of their time on the space station. Thankfully, all they needed was bed rest. The foursome turned a corner and saw a sign that indicated that the hangar was straight ahead. When they reached it, the doors swished open to reveal the backs of Doc and Eagle. Evidently, the swishing door caught their attention and their eyes settled on the four new additions to the room. Fox looked around the room. Every officer or security guard that responded was on the ground incapacitated. He looked at Eagle, who was just as tall as him. From the footage he expected him to stand much taller.

"Looks like we missed the party," Falco muttered. "I'm a little disappointed you two started without us."

"Apologies, we weren't aware you were invited," Eagle proclaimed. Doc chuckled a bit.

"How about we make it up to you," he said taking his fighting stance. Consequently, so did everyone else. "Welcome to the after-party,"

"The cat is too fast for us," Panther whispered. "Let Wolf and I take Eagle. We should be able to match his strength while you and the bird match Doc's speed." Fox nodded.

"It's a plan," he responded. Fox and Falco rushed Doc, throwing a flurry of punches and kicks his way. Doc was able to parry all of them and kick Fox I the chest, making him slide a couple feet back. However, Falco was able to land a punch to his face, making him stumble backwards.

Wolf and Panther rushed Eagle at the same time Fox and Falco rushed Doc. Wolf was the first to throw a punch, which Eagle dodged. Eagle threw a punch at Panther with his left arm after dodging Wolf, but was blocked. Wolf used the opportunity to punch Eagle in his ribs. Eagle retorted by punching Wolf in the chest with his mechanical arm, taking him off his feet. He grabbed Panther with the same arm and threw him opposite of Wolf.

Doc smirked, while Fox certainly had speed, he wasn't on Doc's level. However, with Falco here, every hole Fox had in his defenses were covered. Doc thought his one-on-one with Wolf was a fight on the playground compared to this.

"This is the place," Raven said from the vent. She kicked off the ventilation cover and hopped down gracefully. Samu followed, but fell to the ground. "You should work on that," she said smiling. She was fairly sure Samu was mentally flipping her off. The room had an ominous blue glow. The cause of which was the big blue diamond that was place at its center. The Gem sat on a technological platform that was, no doubt, used to experiment on it. "Look here, Samu," Raven got a grumble in response. "And you didn't even have to hack the security pad."

"Lucky me," Samu muttered. She looked at her surroundings. "…Damn," she said. She walked up to a computer console and started typing. "Looks like there's some kind of decryption key," she droned. "If I can reconfigure the algorithms of the operating system then I should be able to rewrite the programming long enough for…." Raven interrupted.

"Ok, Nerdy Professor, just do it before…" Suddenly the door swished open revealing Katt and Krystal, ordering them to stop. "Great…" Raven took a fighting stance.

"Cover me, I'll be done in a sec," Samu reassured, typing away. Raven rushed the two mercenaries with full force. Krystal, having trained with Fox for a while, was able to hold her own against the avian. Katt was faring a tad worse as she was subject to Ravens many kicks and punches. The fight was moved to the hall, much to Samu's pleasure. It was hard to concentrate with people fighting behind you. "Got it!" She exclaimed. She moved to the Gem and took it into her hands.

"Unauthorized Handler," the station's female voice droned. A medium sized bomb presented itself from a hidden compartment. "Cornerian Space Station will self-destruct in 10 minutes. Have a nice day." Samu's eyes grew wide. Gem in hand, she barged into the hall where Raven was still fighting the vixens. Upon seeing her with the Gem, Krystal made an attempt to stop her. Samu blocked a kick and held her foot.

"You two are heroes aren't you?! You have to evacuate this base! It's going to explode!"

Doc was still having a tough time with Fox and Falco. He was getting tired and Fox's kicks were nearly just as powerful as his own, while Falco had a nasty hook. Eagle was faring a tad better with Wolf and Panther, but it was obvious he was still losing. Doc was only able to beat them last time because of Panther's arrogance, he left his guard down and Doc knocked him clean out in one kick. But now he was aware of his mistake and was giving it his all. In addition, Wolf was one of the most ferocious fighters he'd ever met.

"Doc!" Samu's voice came through his communicator.

"Kinda busy, Angel," he said dodging a kick. He heard the urgency and worry in her voice. "What is it?"

"I triggered a trap. This base is going to blow up in 9 minutes!" she yelled. Doc didn't ask any questions. He deduced there was a 7% chance the Gem would have a booby trap set even if Samu hacked it. He cursed.

"We surrender!" he yelled to the mercenaries. They looked at each other confused. Even Eagle looked a little puzzled. "We have to evacuate this station right now. It's in self-destruct mode, it only has 9 minutes and counting." He explained calmly. He pressed his finger to his communicator. "Samu, you and Raven start leading people to the hangar, Eagle work with Star Fox and get people in escape pods." Fox was puzzled by this change in demeanor. "Eagle," Doc said. "It's time we told them," Eagle nodded and ran off to help evacuate. Fox looked at Doc.

"Told us what?" he asked. Doc smirked.

"Not the time, Mcloud. I need your team to help mine in evacuating this station. I'll be damned if I let these people die because of us. C'mon!"

Fox and his team helped evacuate the hundreds of civilians into escape pods. Now most of them had launched or were about to. Fox ushered Krystal, Katt, Falco, Wolf, and Panther in to the last escape pod. Unluckily they hadn't brought their Arwings or Wolfen. Eagle climbed into the pod with Raven and Samu. Fox looked back to see Doc not get in.

"What are you doing? Come on!" he yelled. Doc shook his head.

"Not this time. I'm gonna go see if I can disarm it. I'm a demolitions expert aren't I? Besides, we may have even missed someone. I'm not taking the risk." Doc announced. "I'll see you guys later. If I fail…then this is goodbye." He turned and was about to take off when he felt a hand grab his sleeve. It was Samu.

"I'm not leaving you," she declared.

"No, get out now, I'll see you…" she cut him off.

"It's not up for negotiation," she ran past him. Doc looked to Eagle.

"Good luck, my friend." He said. Doc nodded and launched their escape pod.

The eight passengers of the pod watched in suspense. The space station looked so peaceful, you'd never know its very existence hung in the balance.

"How long?" Eagle asked into his headset.

"About two minutes," Doc replied. "I think I've almost got it," he could hear him grunting in frustration. "Damn!" he cursed. "I cut a false wire." He sighed. Eagle was pretty sure he was sitting on his bottom now. "That's it. I can't even see the timer anymore. I couldn't stop it." Eagle's head sunk. Shortly, his best friend and teammate would lose their lives in a fiery explosion. "Eagle, listen to me. Finish this mission. Don't let our deaths deter your will. You're the strongest guy I know, and with the help of Star Fox you'll be unstoppable." Raven had let a few tears slip out as she covered her mouth in shock. Everyone else hung their heads awaiting the inevitable explosion. Eagle stood up and looked out the pod's rear window at the space station. The serenity it possessed was priceless. He stared on, hoping it would stay like that forever. His mind flashed back to his childhood. When Doc had been the weakest of every orphan in the orphanage. How he was constantly bullied until Eagle stuck up for him one day. Since then they had been like brothers. But now…

BOOM!

A/N: To be honest, I was tearing up towards the end of this chapter. Doc and Samu bit the dust. And Now Eagle got some 'splainin to do. I hope it wasn't too obvious that Eagle and Co. weren't actually villains. You'll find out more about that next chapter. I want this story to have that whole now-everything-comes-together- vibe so expect some flashbacks in the future. I'm praying the Veteran Readers/Writers don't already know what's gonna happen. But if you do, that's worth 90 cool points. Good for you.

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Ps. I caught wind of a Super Smash Bros. 4 at E3. What do you think that'll be called? And what if this bunch of OCs were in it? Fuckin' Sweet.