Before I start let me throw in the Disclaimer: I do NOT own anything that related to Starfox which belongs to Nintendo. But I do own Dean who is nothing but a figment of my imagination. And I want to extend my special thx to Nightmareblade Arch Warrior 213, and everybody else that has taken time out of their lives to R & R on my story. And also to XxSanitariumxX, for without him the story would still be back on Chapter Four. He helped me write Chapter Five.

HF 4256

Chapter Nine

The Trip Back to Earth

March 21, 2016

03:00 hours CST

Great Fox; Cornerian Orbit

Dean awoke with a start and rolled out of bed landing in a crouch and drew his blaster from underneath the mattress where he had hid it for an emergency. What had awoken him in such a matter?

Scritch, Scritch...

Dean pointed his gun at the sound.

To his trained analytical ear, it sounded like someone was dragging their fingernail across something metal. Dean moved toward the sound and snapped his fingers softly to activate the lights at minimum power. The first thing that Dean saw was the door, which explained the...

Scritch, Scritch...

Dean shook his head causing the automated system to open the door. What he saw on the other side made him chuckle slightly. Fox was standing there with the tip of his nose about two inches from the tip of Dean's blaster. He had a horrified look on his face.

"If I wanted my head blown off then I would have simply barged in." Fox said then lowered his voice when he saw the slumbering vixen, Krystal. "I came here to get you to come to the bridge for an important meeting."

"At three o'clock in the morning?" Dean muttered.

He looked over his shoulder at the bed and Krystal's form underneath the blankets and thought of the warmth of her body against his.

"Make it fast..."

"Right."

Dean followed Fox to the bridge and upon entering saw that Peppy was already there.

Fox took his spot in the Captain's chair and Dean took his by the jukebox.

"Right," Fox said aloud. "Dean, seeing as this has never happened before and will probably never happen again...I Fox McCloud of Corneria, hereby relinquish tactical command of the Starfox Team to Dean Williams of Earth for the next mission against Andross. Now before you object, Dean, the only reason that I am doing this is is because, this is your home planet, not mine that is in danger and you are going to need all of the tactical assets that you can get to beat Andross."

"Actually Fox, I have defeated Andross before." Dean muttered. "It may have been only a video game but it still taught me all of Andross' weak spots. Hands, eyes, mouth, rear lower section of the brain, pound those and Andross is history. Now if you'll excuse me I need to get back to bed if I am going to fly back out to earth in the morning. Dean rose and turned to leave but Fox stopped him.

"Dean?" Fox called his name. "Not even a word of protest about me handing you the command of Starfox. Why?"

"Because I wont need it, goodnight Fox, Peppy..."

As Dean walked back to his assigned room he didn't have a thought in his head except crawling back into bed and snuggling up against Krys. And he did just that.

…

Dean awoke later that day and looked at the clock. It read 10:07. That was a crazy ass dream. Dean sighed and went to climb out of bed before he noticed that Krystal was lying there gazing up at him with a questioning look upon her face.

"Good morning my love," Dean told her and kissed her right between the eyes causing Krystal to sigh with contentment and happiness.

"So today's the big day, huh?" Krystal asked. "Back to earth?"

"Yep," Dean told her. "And you are welcome to come along if you want to."

"I think that I will." she told him.

…

Dean Williams of Starfox to Cornerian Gate Control...

…

"What the FUCK happened?" Dean shouted as he looked down at the smoldering remains of what used to be Dallas, Texas from orbit. It didn't look like a thriving city anymore, all it looked like now was a smoldering crater."Chris open a com channel to Fox right now."

"Roger," the AI responded. "Channel open and secured."

"Dean to Fox," Dean snapped into the com link.

"Fox here," Fox's voice said through the com link. "Something wrong Dean?"

"Yeah," Dean snapped. "An entire city is missing, apparently our prediction of Andross being at full strength in ten months was incorrect. I need you here at Earth now."

"Roger, boss." Fox said. "ETA is Five minutes."

"Boss?" Dean asked.

"Yeah you're the boss on this mission so I call you boss."

"Whatever," Dean told him. "I'll activate my homing beacon so that you will be able to find me when you get here, Dean out."

Dean switched the comm channel over to the US Military channel and through the Arwing's afterburner into overload, and shot toward the surface. A quick glance at the radar showed that Krystal was still with him.

"Major Dean Williams calling any units," Dean snapped into the comm link. "Does anyone read me? Over."

"Major Williams," a voice replied. "The Flying Demon himself. Good of you to show up finally, over."

"Finally?" Dean snapped. "Who is this, over."

"Wilkerson, over."

"Recognition code? Over." Dean prompted.

"India-Tango-November-oh-eight-four, over."

"It's good to hear from you general," Dean gave a sigh of relief as he realized that one of his closest friends was still alive.

"Status, General? Over."

"Dallas is gone and the world is in a state of panic," Wilkerson told him over the radio. "A giant laser came down from space and destroyed Dallas in an eye-blink, over."

"Andross is behind it," Dean told him. "And the rest of Starfox is on their way here as we speak to help me take him out over."

"I dont know who is behind it," Wilkerson said. "But I need you at the following coordinates, 38º52'15.56 by 77º3'21.46, over."

"Roger, ETA is two minutes at my current speed. Dean out."

Dean angled his Arwing toward the northeast and activated his beacon and set it so that only Cornerian tech could pick it up.

Suddenly Dean's shields dropped to half power.

"Whoa, break off Krystal now."

Dean yanked on his flight yoke and shot toward space. Within seconds he was just outside of the atmosphere and streaking toward the coordinates of Andross' hidden base, only it wasn't hidden anymore and it was huge. Suddenly a warp signature appeared right behind Dean and the Great Fox appeared out of nowhere. Dean barrel rolled and got out of the way just in time.

"Damn it," Dean muttered to himself. "Now even Fox is trying to kill me."

Krystal, status?

Still in one piece here, Dean.

Good.

"Fox do you read me?"

"Loud and clear Dean, orders?"

"Okay this is my plan," Dean told Fox over the com link. "First encrypt the com channel."

"Encryption software on-line. Annnd the channel is now encrypted."

"Okay, push the shields on the Greatfox to overload strength and ram the worthless son of a bitch," Dean told Fox. "Then once that you ram him out of the gravitational field of the earth blast his ass to Hell."

"Roger."

Dean watched as the Greatfox accelerated toward the mammoth of a base and rammed it, knocking it clean out of orbit. Next there was a great flash as the Greatfox fired upon the base and blew it into a storm of debris and Hellfire. Dean watched as the debris slowly moved outward and noticed that one spec was moving in the wrong direction, which was directly toward the Greatfox. Dean magnified the image and saw that it was none other than Andross himself.

"Fox, I sure hope that your shields are still up, because Andross is inbound to your location."

Dean shot off in the direction of the Greatfox, and dropped in behind Andross. He launched a smartbomb, and it slammed into the back of Andross' head causing him to turn around.

"So Andross, are you ready to die once and for all?" Dean asked the psychotic ape. "Because when I destroy you there is no coming back. Not this time."

"No I will not be the one dying." Andross responded. "You will Dean Williams."

Andross swung at Dean and Dean barrel rolled and easily avoided his swing. He fired his newly installed Plasma Cannons twice, and gaped when the shots that he fired at Andross' hands vaporized both of them.

Note to self, friendly fire is no longer a hazard it means the death penalty.

Dean fired two more shots, one at each of Andross' eyes and laughed evilly when both of the eyes were vaporized in an instant. This caused Andross to shake of his skin and reveal his true form. Dean hammered him with plasma blasts, each one knocking Andross back until he was no more.

Dean heard cheering over the com link and flew down toward the surface.

Krys meet up with Fox on the Greatfox.

Okay.

"Fox, I hereby release my command of the Starfox team back to you. Oh and one more thing take care of Krystal for me, i'm staying here to help with the clean up efforts."

"Roger, will we ever see you again?"

"Sooner then you know," Dean told him.

Wait if you're staying then so am I.

No. You are to return to the Greatfox and return to the Lylat System. Your Place is there not here, besides, I'll see you again sooner then you realize. Dean out.

And with that Dean shielded his mind with a full mind block that not even Krystal could break and flew down toward the coordinates of the Pentagon...

To be Continued in THE INDEPENDENCE WAR

Howdy peeps. Now before anyone gets mad at me the story will go on in The Independence War. I'm sorry about the ending, I never have been good at endings so I will tell you what happens between now and then...

Krystal falls in love with Fox, and Dean marries a human woman named Jessica. The Independence War will take place some years in the future. I haven't decided how many yet. Again sorry for the ridiculous ending. I will make it up to everybody in the next arc of the Dean Williams installment. I PROMISE!

M. T. M.

As an after note, this story was a test-run for a prologue to the main killer The Independence War. The story however is still in the editing stages, so hang in there!