AUTHOR'S NOTE: I don't think you need a "Last time on War Stories" bit. If you don't know where the first part ended, go back and read it you lazy bum. Enjoy a conclusion filled with molten lava, giant heads and hallucinations.-TU
-Heroes and Villains, Part II-
The two fighters screeched towards each other, almost colliding before each rolled ninety degrees, the undersides of each ship facing the other as they met and sliced past, then both pulled into a sharp u-turn through the air. The Arwing and the Wolfen II met again in the fiery Venomian sky, turning back again only to weave back and forth between themselves, testing each other in a deadly, aerial dance. As the two ships weaved back together, the Wolfen II swept upwards in the beginnings of a rolling spiral, and the Arwing mirrored the move as the two ships twisted around each other through the air in the path of a helix across the sky. They suddenly broke off from their formation, flying side to side and high in the air far away from the palace, over the tumultuous volcanic wastelands of Venom.
Fox whipped his head to the side, glaring at the cockpit bubble of the fighter next to him and visibly seeing the one-eyed wolf inside. His enemy stared right back at him.
"You ready?" Fox dared.
"Hahaha. Now we're havin' fun," Wolf laughed.
They dived in unison towards the ground, screaming towards the jagged rocks and flowing rivers of lava at supersonic speeds.
Wolf suddenly cut his speed, drifting back behind Fox and veering in for a shot at his tail. Fox engaged the gravity brakes in full and banked to the right, hearing the breaks squeal with arcing energy as Wolf shot past him. Fox tapped the firing button, pounding Wolf's rear shields with twin blue laser blasts.
"Keep that weak shit out of here!" Fox snapped, remembering Wolf's words from the first time they'd met and throwing them back at him.
Wolf's only response was his gravelly, cackling laughter as his fighter boosted forward, swerving out of their vertical dive and jetting downwards at a less steep angle for the erupting volcanic mountain ranges below. Fox jerked backwards on the stick, pulling upwards as well, coming up behind Wolf again and pressing down on the firing button. Wolf's ship spun into a barrel roll, the flared shields scattering Fox's shot, then the Wolfen II darted upwards into a full loop over the Arwing.
Fox jerked his stick to the right, pulling into a stiff downwards turn before Wolf's loop could put him behind the Arwing yet again. Not even fully out of the loop, Wolf's fighter dived down after Fox at full speed, twisting through the air to follow him in his plunge. A burst of laser beams streaked by the Arwing, missing Fox by several meters.
The black arrow was soon coming up behind him again. Fox growled in frustration.
That damn ship of his was much more maneuverable than the one on Fichina.
Fox spun the Arwing into a barrel-roll, scattering the laser blasts that Wolf sent his way and then pulling back up on the stick. Before the Arwing could even pull up, a pair of direct hits rammed into the ship, rattling Fox in his harness and reducing his shields to 22%.
"Hahahahaha!" Wolf cackled, "You're good, kid, but I'm better!!"
Fox pushed the throttle into a boost, and the Arwing's plasma engines boomed with more power as he rocketed forward, sloping through the air upwards. He then twisted to the left and straight down towards the slopes of one of the large stratovolcanoes below. On the radar, Wolf's fighter swerved to the right, diving down the other way around the volcano to intersect Fox's path. As he pulled up from his dive, the Arwing soaring just a few hundred feet over the glowing lava floes down the volcano, an idea struck Fox, just creative enough to possibly work. He armed the nova bombs in the Arwing's magazine, still flying the star fighter over the volcanic slopes. The Arwing curved around the vast circumference of the fiery mountain, and in the distance Fox could see Wolf as he swooped back around, heading towards him. The fact that the crosshairs on the Arwing's heads-up display didn't flash red when one of the StarWolf fighters went past was enough to tell him that the targeting computer couldn't lock on to the enemy fighters. But a blind shot into the side of the mountain that Wolf was flying just a few hundred feet over would probably cause some damage.
Fox mashed his thumb into the control stick button to fire a nova bomb, and a stout red cone suddenly spat out of the Arwing's nose, gliding through the air and burying itself into the slopes of the volcano barely a half kilometer away from Wolf. A vast orange and blue explosion tore into the mountainside, sending dust, rocks and molten lava high into the sky as a thunderous crack split the air. Fox swerved hard away from the volcano, looking into the immense, thick grey cloud of dust as the light of the explosion faded away. To his shock, the Wolfen II fighter screamed out of the dust cloud like a bat out of hell, spitting bursts of crimson laser blasts in his direction.
"Let's see what else ya' got!" Wolf bellowed over the comlink.
Fox shoved the throttle up, tearing the Arwing over a flowing river of orange lava as Wolf started to come in behind.
Almost instinctively, Fox jolted the control stick forward, dropping his altitude further down into the tight canyon through which the stream of lava flowed. As dozens of crimson laser shots streamed narrowly over Fox's canopy, the Arwing swooped lower and lower down into the depths of the gorge, and soon the canyon walls on both sides and the lava river below gave him only about two hundred feet on either side and maybe four hundred feet under him between a collision with either solid rock or liquid magma.
With an enemy on his tail and little room to maneuver, the move was seemingly suicide, but Fox felt a calm confidence start to come over him.
The canyon walls rushed by and Wolf's fighter descended into position behind him, but Fox's mind was focused, not afraid. He felt like he knew exactly what to do, even though he wouldn't really know until he had to do it. It was like the Arwing and Fox were a single organism; both he and his ship knew which way to go.
Fox tipped the control stick ever so gently to the side, watching as scarlet laser shots from Wolf's fighter streamed harmlessly past, as if in slow motion.
Far in the distance, a towering pillar of rock stood precariously at the rim of the canyon side. Fox rested his thumb on the firing button, and he knew what to do.
"I got ya' now," Wolf growled softly, and Fox barely paid attention.
He jerked the stick to the right, barrel-rolling as Wolf's laser blasts bounded harmlessly off the flared shields.
The rock formation came closer, and Fox yanked the stick up, lined the pillar up in his sights and fired once, then a second time. Two sets of paired blue laser blasts barked out of the Arwing's cannons, tearing into the base of the large rock pillar and sending it tumbling forward into the canyon with a cloud of dust and a rain of rock fragments.
Wolf gasped over the comlink and began to pull up as the two speeding star fighters closed the distance in less than a second. Fox calmly trusted himself and pushed the stick down slightly, knowing that he would make the right move. The Arwing swooped gracefully down to barely ten meters over the flowing river of lava, shooting under the falling rock pillar before tearing upwards and blasting out of the canyon. The Wolfen II was traveling too fast, pulling up too steeply and intercepting the rock formation before it was all the way down in the canyon.
Wolf O'Donnell gave a yelp of panic, pulling the stick back as far as it could go. The fighter's shields crackled against the stone pillar as the Wolfen II scraped over top of it, the two bottom G-diffusers catching on the rock and tearing themselves in half with a metallic screech and a tremble that shook Wolf around despite his safety harness, slamming him into the side of the cockpit roughly. The Wolfen II whined with stress, trailing two thin tails of brownish smoke from its heavily damaged ventral G-diffusers. The fighter wobbled through the air and the engine thrusters began to sputter as the ship tried to maintain its stellar flight performance with only half its power plant functional. 'G-DIFFUSER DAMAGE. FLIGHT SYSTEMS COMPROMISED. SHIELDS AT 15% POWER. RECOMMEND DISENGAGE', the Wolfen II's computer console flashed.
The bright blue jet-wash of Fox McCloud's Arwing pulsed as it swooped gracefully up ahead. Wolf's lips drew away from his teeth in a canine snarl as his eye glared with murderous rage.
"Nice stunt, kid," Wolf hissed, "I think I'll kill ya' now."
As Wolf gripped the throttle in his claws, Fox McCloud's voice came over the comlink.
"I remember the things you said to me on Fichina. About how I didn't know what it was like to be ashamed, how the world really works, and how I couldn't fill my father's shoes," Fox said, his voice filled with calm confidence and passion, "You were right. You taughtme shame, and I guess I can thank you for that. I've seen how the world works by going all over Lylat and un-doing the things that you and people just like you have done. And because of that, I think I can fill my father's shoes, because I realize that all this is so much bigger than me and what I want. But you wouldn't know that. You're Wolf O'Donnell. You've never gone a day in your life when you've looked past yourself. You don't give a shit. And maybe that's why you'll always lose in the end. Because you don't play by any rules. Because you don't deserve it. That's why Lylat isn't doomed: Because I'll be there to save it from people like you."
Wolf's blood boiled and his mind raced as McCloud threw his own words back at him. He wanted to jump out of the cockpit, rip Fox McCloud out of his harness and shred the meat right off his bones. He was going to kill him. He was going to tear him apart and eat him alive for saying those things, for not dying when he was supposed to and for just being born with everything that Wolf could never have.
He had to die. Right now.
HE HAD TO.
The Wolfen II computer, insistent in its recommendation to retreat, even Wolf's own logic that would have at least made him cautious with his ship in such condition, was far from him at the moment, completely overridden by the beast within that wanted blood and blood alone.
"McCloud!!" Wolf bellowed, shoving the throttle into a boost and holding down on the firing button as his eye locked onto the ship up ahead.
The damaged Wolfen II thrusters still gave off an energized scream, flaring and blasting the fighter through the air as the laser cannons spat dozens of crimson bolts. Time slowed to a crawl as the Arwing spun into a barrel roll, the shields flaring and scattering Wolf's shots to the wind. Wolf gritted his teeth even harder, his eye emblazoned with hate as he continued to fire. The Wolfen II flew closer and the Arwing came out of its roll, the shots from Wolf's guns missing by several meters. The Arwing's nose suddenly pitched upwards, the entire fighter stalling through the air. The Wolfen II blew past and the Arwing pitched back forward in a perfect Cobra maneuver, now dead-locked onto Wolf's tail.
Wolf's heart stopped for a moment as his rage deflated, joined by frantic shock and dread.
"No!" Wolf yelped, choking his control stick and trying to evade, but gave off a grunt as the ship jolted severely, the engines whining in protest. The laser shot from McCloud's Arwing had taken Wolf's shields down to 5%. Alarms began to sound as Wolf weaved left and right to dodge the next few shots, but the ship was sluggish to respond, the amount of damage taking its toll.
"No, no, no!" Wolf barked hysterically, "No, this can't happen! It's not supposed ta' be this way! No, goddamnit!!!"
"Lights out, StarWolf," Fox McCloud replied.
Wolf had time only to take in half a gulp of air before a deafening boom rocked his ears, the Wolfen IIs computer console sparking as the ship died. The instruments went dark and the lurching feeling of gravity hit him as the inertial compensators failed and the Wolfen II began a lateral spin towards the ground at nearly ten Gs. Through the flames and the smoke surrounding the cockpit bubble, Wolf could see the ground of Venom coming up to meet him.
Gravity smothered his chest, forcing blood up into his skull and pinning his body against the seat, making it a challenge just to stay conscious. The burning, crumbling Wolfen II had become a flying coffin, built especially for Wolf. There was no time to consider how he had lost, how unfair his entire wretched life had been, there was only time for Wolf to sit back and accept the inevitable. His breath coming in and out in gulps, Wolf didn't know if he was laughing or crying, but both seemed fitting somehow.
The whistling, howling sounds of the wind outside suddenly became much louder as the cockpit bubble of the Wolfen II flew off. Wolf heard an explosion underneath him as his chin was shoved down into his chest, something clamped tight around his legs and his spine burned with the pain of being crushed from above. With the roaring explosion in his ears and the excruciating pain boring down on him, Wolf realized that this was how it felt to die. The explosion abruptly stopped, replaced by the whistling of the wind, and Wolf suddenly felt weightless, as if he was falling. Immediately after, a jerk on his shoulders practically knocked the air out of his lungs, and Wolf's eye opened to see the rocky Venomian land coming up slowly as his feet dangled in the air.
Confused, Wolf glanced upwards to see a white parachute spread out overhead, connected to his pilot's harness. Back down below, the Wolfen II ejector seat tumbled to the ground, smashing into the dirt a few meters from the smoldering wreckage of the fighter itself.
Wolf began to breathe again, the initial shock of being alive allowing him to feel nothing else as he drifted slowly to the ground. He slammed into the rocky surface of Venom in a heap, his knees buckling under him as the parachute fluttered down on top of him. Wolf unclipped the harness and stumbled to his feet, flailing his arms to free himself out from under the parachute. The light fabric of the chute slipped away with the faintest of flapping sounds, revealing the volcanic landscape and fiery skies of Venom all around him and his wrecked Wolfen II mere meters away. He gagged, breathing raggedly as he staggered forward, finally collapsing in a leaning position against the jagged, twisted carcass of the fighter.
Wolf just tried to breathe, to stave off the feeling of vomit coming up his throat, but already he could feel rage and despair returning to him. He had lost. Utterly and completely, Wolf had failed.
High above, the Arwing star fighter of Fox McCloud screamed past, tearing through the air on its return to the Venomian Imperial Palace.
At the sight of it, Wolf opened his mouth and erupted in an anguished, roaring howl that echoed through the landscape. He howled until his throat was raw and his lungs were empty, and then he collapsed to his knees and looked down at the ground. His clawed hands shivered with outrage, the grey fur on his fingers shifting as he dug his nails into his knees.
He couldn't even answer Leon's distressed hails or IG-N 96's promises that he was on the way with the shuttle as they both came in over the comlink.
He couldn't do anything right now.
Fox let out a long exhale as the Arwing streaked over the mountain range of volcanoes and back towards the immense dome of the Imperial Palace. He tried not to dwell on the feeling of pride that defeating Wolf had given him, as if it had disproven all of the things that Wolf had once said. He still had to focus on the goal, which wasn't achieved yet.
It still wasn't over.
Someone was still waiting for him.
As the palace came into view, the only other icon visible on the radar was a single blue arrow that came in from the other side of the radar map.
"Hey, Academy-boy," Falco greeted with relief over the comlink, "Looks like ya' gave that other fuzzball a run for his money. Gotta hand it to ya, I guess."
"Good to see you're alright, bird-brain. Where's the one you were fighting?" Fox asked as Falco's Arwing came into view.
"He bugged out," Falco answered with a verbal shrug, "I dunno, I don't think he was even all that damaged, ya know what I'm sayin'? Oh well. Maybe he just finally got it into his head that there's no way some shifty reptile's gonna take down any bird, let alone me."
"How's your shields? I'm holding at 22%," Fox informed.
"Eh, I gotcha beat, Foxie. 37%. Looks like we all got a little beat up. Not as bad as we kicked their ass, though, huh?" Falco answered confidently.
"Good," Fox responded, taking a breath, "Get your bombs ready. We probably won't damage the palace as much with only the two of us, but it should be good enough to--"
"Come, McCloud," something said to him.
It was a voice that Fox heard without actually hearing it, more like a thought that had been forced into his head than words reaching his ears. But it was still a voice, a deep, rich one that reverberated with an exotic accent in his head and chilled his blood.
"What was that last part, Fox? I didn't catch it," Falco inquired.
Fox didn't answer, still disoriented and confused by the command that had made its way into his mind.
"Come, Fox McCloud. Let us end this," the voice said once more, not making any real sound but still resonating within his brain.
Somehow, the voice not only delivered words, but told Fox how to follow its commands. He knew how to enter the dome of the Imperial Palace now, and how to navigate it, as if he had always known.
He glanced out the side of the cockpit, over to the dome, and saw a circle-shaped hole open in the top, in the center of the four large ridges in the structure. The opening called to him just as the voice in his head did.
"Hey Foxie, you alright?" Falco called.
Fox breathed in and out, shuddering both times with anxiety. He knew that bombing the palace wouldn't work; the structure was far too big, the monster inside too deep within for any bombs from the surface to have an effect. The only way to reach the monster was to follow its voice, and journey into its lair. And only Fox could go.
"Falco," Fox instructed slowly, "We've got a change of plans. You're going to go up to the Great Fox and tell them all what happened, then establish contact with General Pepper, alright?"
"What?" Falco demanded incredulously, "What are ya talkin' about? What about you?"
"I'm going into the palace after Andross," Fox explained carefully, hoping he was doing the right thing, "I can't explain, I just know how to find him and I have to do it alone."
"Fox, that's crazy," Falco argued, "Ya' don't even know what's down there!"
"Just trustme, Falco," Fox resigned, "I have to do this, and you can't follow. If I don't come back up, have the fleet torch this place from orbit, you understand?"
"No! Fox!" Falco snapped, "Afta' all this time leadin' us and lettin' us look up ta' ya, don't you fuckin' dare get yourself killed when it's this close ta bein' over!"
Fox smiled softly, his eye on the dark opening in the top of the dome, locking on to it and pulling sharply up.
"You're a good friend, Falco," Fox said, "I'll see you soon or not at all."
With that, Fox shoved the stick forward and drove the Arwing down towards the hole.
"FOX!!" Falco shouted, his voice filled with panic.
That was the last Fox heard from him before his ship was consumed by the darkness.
The hole opened up into a large, octagonal tunnel lined with metal piping and struts on the side, with thousands of dim glowpanels that made it just barely possible to see. The tunnel itself had to be hundreds of meters across; despite the enclosure Fox had at least a hundred meters clearance at all sides. The journey down the tunnel felt oddly slow for a dive, almost as if he was going down a horizontal tunnel rather than a vertical one, and he wondered if some sort of artificial gravity was installed to re-direct the planet's gravitational pull. If that was the case, he also wondered why someone would do that, but it seemed just about as logical as building an enormous tunnel hundreds of kilometers straight down into the crust of Venom for an Imperial Palace.
The Arwing came to the end of the huge passageway, which only opened up into an even larger rectangular tunnel. It had to be at least a kilometer from top to bottom, and probably five hundred meters wide.
What the hell was all this?
"I've been waiting for you, Fox McCloud," the voice came to him again, stronger than before, "I knew you would come before me."
In the dimness up ahead, Fox was just barely able to make out the passageway diverging to one route left and one right. The Arwing tore forward through the air, nearly smashing into the partition between the two paths before banking hard to the left and leveling off in a further stretch of cavernous tunnels. Fox almost immediately throttled down to half speed, to give him more time to react in the future.
"Nice funhouse, Andross," Fox murmured.
"You are in my world now, Fox McCloud. You are in my galaxy," the voice seemingly answered.
The Arwing continued down the gigantic corridor, coming to a junction every so often and turning down either left or right at random. Soon, Fox had little idea of which way he'd come. The mammoth tunnels seemed to go on and on forever. He had to be several kilometers underground now.
"It is foolish to stand against me, Fox McCloud. I have evolved beyond that of a pitiful mortal. I stand as a god, given form," the voice warned in his head.
"Is that what you think you are? A god?" Fox demanded quietly, keeping the Arwing steady as it swooped down another turn.
"I am. And I am generous. I have the power to save many lives, including yours, Fox McCloud," The disembodied voice of Andross offered, "I can give you what you desire most. You can become the hero of all Lylat, feared, loved, and respected by all as my champion. All in Lylat will kneel before you—if you but kneel before Andross."
"I think I'd rather die fighting you," Fox responded without a moments thought.
"Do not be foolish. Your father made the same mistake and paid with his life. You can spare yourself that fate if you only give in to my will,"Andross informed, his deep voice ringing softly in Fox's mind.
Fox breathed, then flexed his hands over the control stick. His green eyes were locked forward to the end of the tunnel.
"Never give in," Fox said quietly, "My father told me that. I think he would've wanted me to kill you."
"Then you will die as well," was Andross' only response.
Up ahead, the tunnel ended in a large circular hole leading to a dark space beyond. Keeping his thumb poised over the firing button, Fox guided the Arwing into the massive hole, entering the largest cave he had ever seen. The enormous, cavernous space was at least two kilometers high from floor to ceiling, and probably a dozen kilometers in length and width. The ceiling of the cave hung thick with thousands of icicle-like stalactites, some hundreds of meters in length, while teeth-like stalagmites and columns stretched up from the ground. Spaced around the vast cave, some barely visible in the gloom, were immense columns of rock stretching from the roof of the cave to the floor, no doubt supporting the gargantuan cavern from collapsing in on itself.
Though awed by the sight as the Arwing streaked into the cavern, he could see no trace of civilization or life aside from several glowpanels installed in the cave ceiling to give it just enough light to be navigable.
Where was Andross?
Had all this been some elaborate hoax to draw him away while the tyrant made his escape?
If such was the case, Fox had surely fallen for it.
What was he thinking?
He had just wasted precious time chasing after some bizarre disembodied voice instead of apprehending the monster and putting a stop to the war. Fox had been used like a tool. Andross was probably far away, maybe even off Venom before the attack began, and had left StarWolf here to destroy them as revenge for their assistance in the war.
As he angrily began to turn around, Fox saw a massive reading ghost across his radar before disappearing off the screen.
His attention drawn, Fox glanced around outside his cockpit, hoping to see something through the dimness. He saw only shadows, melting into darker shadows amongst the titanic rock formations of the cave. The orange fur on the back of his neck began to stand erect with caution.
Was there something in here with him?
With a squeaking alarm, the reading came back on Fox's radar, maybe a mere hundred meters behind him, and his eyes enlarged with surprise.
It was as big as a fucking starship. Maybe bigger.
"Now you will know true pain," Andross' voice returned to him menacingly.
A bright, thick ribbon of white light streaked overtop the Arwing, blasting into the walls of the cave with a tremendous explosion of fire and dust before winking out.
Fox's heart pounded in confusion and terror as he jerked back on the stick, narrowly missing a collision with a gigantic rock pillar before swinging back and turning to face the radar signature. He let out a gasp and his body seized up with horror as a pair of gigantic eyes the color of molten lava glared at him from across the cave.
The eyes rested inside a colossal primate head with dark, brownish skin and greyish fur. There was no body to accompany the head; it seemed to merely float on its own high above the floor of the cave.
Fox's horror only intensified when he recognized the titanic face, despite marked changes, as the face of Emperor Andross. He sat frozen in his seat, unable to move or process the nightmarish vision that he beheld. The Arwing soared forward through the dimness of the cavern, speeding closer and closer to the behemoth face, and a pair of enormous mechanical hands rose up at each side. Each massive hand was painted a bright yellow color, with a glowing white circular panel at the center of a palm that Fox could've easily landed the Arwing on. The hands seemed to float as well, and one of them rose up and spread its fingers wide as the Arwing approached, the white panel in the palm glowing brighter.
Something in the part of Fox's brain devoted to survival convinced him to jerk the control stick to the side, dodging the Arwing to the right as the bright beam of a pulse laser flashed from the palm of the enormous hand, narrowly missing Fox's ship and blasting a huge chunk out of the wall of the cave.
Fox's survival instincts kicked in, not questioning or caring about how little sense it made, telling him to either destroy it or escape from it and to figure out what it was later.
He throttled up and twisted the control stick, the Arwing zooming ever further towards the giant head of Andross and flashing overtop. As the Arwing sped over the massive forehead, the giant floating left hand reached up at the ship. Fox gave out a yell of terror as he jerked the stick to the right, rolling the Arwing to the side as it cut right and shot over the tree-sized fingertips.
A deep, echoing laughter began to boom around the cave, and Fox had little time to wonder whether it was in his head or if it was actually coming out of the giant head's mouth. The dense arrangement of stalactites hanging down from the cave ceiling like a forest of trees came down to meet him, and Fox rolled the Arwing ninety degrees without a moment to spare, the ship speeding between the two formations in just barely enough time. The laughter increased in volume, and suddenly Fox heard an ear-shattering boom as the beam of a pulse laser punched into the cave ceiling, blasting dozens of stalactites into dust. A flash of white light burned his eyes as another pulse laser exploded into the section of ceiling just ahead of him, unleashing a torrential downfall of rock and dust which Fox had no time to avoid. The Arwing sped into the falling wreckage, blasting through hundreds of rocks that bashed into the fighter with horrible dings and crashes. The fighter shuddered and jolted through the air as a beeping alarm began to sound and the computer flashed the message: 'STRUCTURAL DAMAGE DETECTED. STRUCTURAL DAMAGE DETECTED'.
Fox gritted his teeth and shoved the stick down, pushing into a full throttle to hopefully plow through the rocks, but not before a boot-sized stone slammed into the canopy and produced a small spiderweb of cracks at the point of impact. The Arwing rocketed out of the hailstorm of debris, shooting straight into the cave wall before Fox pulled back on the stick and sped along the length of the cave side. A glance out the canopy showed the huge Andross head grinning with bloodthirst as he raised his massive hands once more. Fox throttled into a boost, the Arwing screaming forward as the pulse lasers on each of the hands shot out one after another in pursuit of him, each time blasting apart sections of the cave wall that he had been flying up against mere seconds before. He suddenly jerked the stick up, rocketing the Arwing towards the large Andross-creature and praying that the emission lenses in the hands were just as fragile as in all other pulse lasers.
The massive facial features of the Andross-creature contorted with rage as the Arwing blasted forward, Fox aiming for the palm of the right hand and tapping the firing button. The cannons spat out three pairs of blue laser bolts, which struck the enormous hand with popping explosions, none hitting the emission lens. The Andross-creature opened its mouth and roared, a deep blaring sound that Fox could hear through the canopy. The right hand formed into a fist, lunging forward at blurring speed towards the fighter. Fox jerked upwards, speeding just over the mammoth knuckles of the fist as it blew past.
He cut his speed to get a higher turning radius as he zipped past the creature's huge, pointed ear, curving around to the other side of the head. Fox rounded the skull and reached the other ear, just in time to see the head snap around and glare at him with those blazing orange eyes.
He broke contact with the eyes just in time to see the left hand rise in front of him, fingers spread and its emission lens glowing. Fox dived down as another pulse laser flashed out of the hand and blew into the side of the cave. The Arwing's dive to the ground followed a half-circle pattern around the enormous primate's face, speeding past its eyebrows and down its cheek. The last thing Fox expected was for the head to tilt to the side and for its cavernous jaws to open wide as it lunged forward to bite the ship.
Fox let out a scream as the mouth snapped towards him, instinctively firing a shot into the star fighter-sized tongue. Twin laser beams pounded into the huge pink muscle and the head drew back as a titanic roar of pain shook the cavern.
At least it can be hurt, Fox thought.
"You cannot hurt a god! I will erase you from existence!" Andross' voice screamed in his head.
The initial shock of the idea that this horrid monster actually wasAndross had little time to skink in, the gigantic robotic right hand sweeping out of the darkness of the cave and sailing towards him with its fingers bared like claws. Fox tapped the firing button, this time sending a pair of blue laser bolts into the emission lens on the palm, and he grunted with triumph as the lens erupted into a storm of sparks before going dim. He curved the Arwing under the hand, jerking the stick to come back around for a U-turn as he held down the firing button for a charged shot. The fighter completed its turn just as the left hand charged through the air in his direction. The immense fingers spread out, the emission lens glowing white hot. Fox twisted the Arwing through the air, barely missing the deadly beam of the pulse laser as it seared past and plowed into the cave walls. The beam winked out and Fox tapped the firing button, sending a thick green blob of charged laser energy into the left hand's emission lens. The charged shot blasted into the palm, tearing through the emission lens and exploding in the depths of the hand. A crash shook the cave as the hand smashed lifelessly into the floor.
Andross let out a roar of fury, forming his right hand into a fist and sending it towards him again. Fox tapped the firing button frantically, sending shot after shot into the tensed mechanical knuckles, producing harsh explosions that tore the yellow durasteel plating off and exposed the machinery underneath, but still the fist did not stop. Fox swerved the Arwing to the side, narrowly dodging the fist and lancing straight towards Andross' humungous face. The magma-colored eyes leered at him with fury, and Fox lined up his crosshairs on the eyes and fired a single shot. The twin blue needles flashed through the air and burned into the pupils, which squinted shut with a booming scream of pain.
As Andross' face contorted in anguish, Fox jerked up on the stick and looped the fighter into an Immelman turn the other way, rolling right side up and targeting the right hand as it floated back. The hand abruptly sprung forward with the fingers held out in a grabbing motion, and Fox pressed a button on the control stick's side. The stout crimson cone of a nova bomb spat out of the Arwing's nose and plowed into the hand's gargantuan palm, knocking it backwards. Fox pulled into another Immelman turn just as the flash of the nova bomb's explosion cast a bright glow on the cave walls and shook several stalactites loose of their hold on the ceiling. Andross' head had apparently recovered, now looking angrier than ever as the Arwing sped towards it. The ape's jaws opened wide once again and it charged at the Arwing, but Fox was already prepared. He pressed the bomb trigger once more, throwing another nova bomb out of the Arwing's magazine and into Andross' open maw. The immense jaws slammed shut on the nova bomb, and the huge orange eyes locked onto Fox once more with a measure of confusion. Then the primate's wrinkled muzzle suddenly popped like an enormous water balloon, unleashing a veritable tsunami of blood as the bottom half of Andross' face merely disappeared.
The voice returned to his head, however this time it was filled with horrific screams of torment. The smoke and fire began to clear, and Fox saw that the bottom jaw, upper jaw and nose were all missing from the head, in their place a mere void made up of huge, jagged shards of yellow bone, strips of burnt meat and waterfalls of blood. Andross' head began to shake back and forth, the untouched sections of flesh pulsating wildly.
Fox thought he was going to be sick as he pulled the Arwing into a tight turn away, circling around and keeping his eyes on the convulsing mass of flesh.
As if made up of invisible seams, the skin all over Andross' face suddenly cracked and split apart, peeling away in giant strips of dermis and muscle that fell to the cave floor. His stomach churned as the bare, white crown of Andross' monumental skull became exposed, and flinched as the dome of bone suddenly exploded in a shower of whitish-yellow fragments. The bloody, putrid remnants of Andross' head slipped away, falling to the ground in a great, slapping boom of mammoth flesh and bone.
What remained in its place was an enormous, pulsing brain, with dozens of writhing tentacles stretching hundreds of meters in length where the brain stem should've been. Attached to the giant brain with optic nerves the size of support cables were a pair of eyes the color of molten lava that stared out at him from across the cave.
"Only I can rule Lylat," Andross growled echoingly in Fox's head.
"What have you done to yourself, Andross?" Fox breathed with disbelief, feeling a mix of disgust and pity, "You're a thing. A freak."
"No, no, no…" Andross snarled in his head, "I am a GOD!!!!"
Fox slammed the throttle up and blasted towards Andross, wanting to make the first move before this new form tried to attack.
As the Arwing began to circle around the hovering brain, the eyes followed him eerily on their stalk-like optical nerves. At the rear of the brain was small, dark green lobe that pulsated separately from the rest of the hulking mass of grey matter. Something in the back of his head told Fox that it was called the cerebellum. It seemed like a good place to start, if any. He shoved the stick down, and the Arwing dove into an attack run on the rear of Andross' brain.
"I have seen your past, Fox McCloud!" Andross bellowed within Fox's head, and suddenly his skull felt as if it was being split open. Fox gave off a scream of pain, closing his eyes and putting his hands on his head. The blackness of his squinted eyes was replaced by a flash of white light.
Almost as if in a dream, he saw Vixy Renard-McCloud's smiling face, her orange fur framed in the sunlight as she tickled him joyously.
Another flash.
James McCloud looked down at him, his face stony and grim, dressed in black robes as a group of men lowered a white metal casket into a rectangular hole in the ground. At the top of the hole sat a large stone tablet, and all that Fox could make out on it was Loving Wife and Mother before another flash hit him.
There was little to see in this vision, as Fox's face was pressed up against his father's chest in the cockpit of a prototype Arwing, the warm caress of tears soaking his fur. He then heard his own, ten year-old voice screaming, "I watched her fall and she's not coming back up, Dad!!"
Flash.
He was fifteen years old, sitting in the living room of his father's house in Corneria City, the Cornerian Flight Academy badge of James McCloud in his hands as a bandaged Peppy Hare sat next to him. His breath was short and there was moisture in his eyes as he wheezed in protest, "Peppy! I—I can't do this! I'm not a leader. I'm—I'm not a hero. I'm not… I'm not… him."
Flash.
Fox was back in the cave, in the Arwing as it sped towards the ground. He frantically pulled the stick up, shooting into the air. The enormous brain of Andross suddenly appeared right overhead, the writhing mass of tentacles reaching towards the ship.
Before Fox could react, the blinding pain returned to his head as Andross screamed in his mind, "I have seen your FUTURE!!"
Flash.
Fox stood on a large stone platform as rain fell from the skies above. Sitting next to him was an odd-looking orange and purple reptile with four legs and a bony frill extending from the back of its skull. As Fox looked up, he saw what looked like a female fox with vibrant blue fur, encased in a large crystal floating high in the air. She was the most beautiful person Fox had ever seen.
Flash.
Fox stumbled backwards, a blaster in his hands as a huge, purple insectoid with a single glaring compound eye reared up in front of him. The creature gave off a screeching, ringing cry that sounded neither biological nor mechanical.
Flash.
The gorgeous blue vixen from before kneeled at his feet in the middle of a sidewalk at night, tears streaming down her face as she held tight onto one of Fox's hands. "Don't you do this to me, you bastard," the vixen pleaded, sobbing in an elegant voice, "I love you, Fox; don't leave me…"
Flash.
A lupine with a blue cybernetic eye that Fox recognized as Wolf O'Donnell lunged forward and opened his palm. Almost as if in slow motion, Wolf blew a stale yellow powder into his face with a glare of contempt.
Flash.
Fox was back in his Arwing as alarms squealed frantically, nothing visible outside of the canopy save for dozens of squirming, writhing tentacles all around.
"And it shall not come to pass!!"Andross bellowed.
The Arwing began to heave and jerk, and Fox could hear a screech of warping metal as a blueprint of the fighter appeared on the computer console, showing both of the wings blinking red. Before he could even act, a metallic shredding sound shook the entire Arwing and the blinking red wings on the blueprint changed to solid red, indicating that both of the wings had been torn off.
The splitting pain still in his skull, the looming fear of death before him as Andross tore the Arwing apart; it all took a backseat as Fox simply acted, grabbing hold of the control stick and the throttle.
"GET OUT OF MY LIFE!!!" Fox roared as he tapped down on the firing button and shoved the throttle into full. The laser cannons barked and the plasma engines screamed to life as the tentacles all around jerked and flailed ever more wildly than before.
With a final, defiant, yell, Fox stabbed his thumb down into the bomb trigger. He heard an energized hiss and a sudden, meaty thump as the tentacles suddenly went dead and the Arwing began to fall. Fox frantically ordered the computer to go to full G-diffuser guidance, the only way that the ship could fly without wings. The G-diffusers hummed loudly with the extra work and the wounded Arwing suddenly shot forward, wobbling through the air over the floor of the cave and rocketing back towards the entrance.
"NO!! We will die together, Fox McCloud!!" Andross howled.
All that Fox heard was a planet-shaking explosion before the Arwing jerked forward. A flash of white light, brighter than any Fox had ever seen, blinded him as the fighter shook, and all that Fox could do was scream.
The sounds of the explosion faded away rapidly, but Fox could still see only bright light. There was only silence. He had stopped screaming, though he could not remember when.
Was he dead?
There was a sudden electric crackle in his ear. It was his comlink! He could still hear it, despite seeing nothing other than the brilliant white light.
What was going on?
The comlink crackled again, and Fox could've sworn he'd heard a voice in the static this time.
"Is someone there? Anyone?" Fox called out.
His only answer was another hiss of static.
"Hello?" Fox called desperately.
The comlink crackled again, and the static abruptly ended this time. Fox considered trying again, but was instead beaten to it.
"Hey son. What's shakin?" a warm voice greeted smoothly.
It stole the breath right out of Fox's lungs. His eyes went wide and his mouth hung open, his bottom jaw quivering. When he finally got the strength to speak, his voice was unsteady and light, like the voice of a child.
"…Dad?" Fox choked, disbelieving.
Fox received his answer when the white light abruptly faded back into view, replaced instead by Andross' immense cavern with the entrance to the tunnels of the Imperial Palace in front of him. Several things had changed.
Instead of being dark and dim, the cavern was lit with the bright orange and red fires of a vast explosion that seemed to be blossoming behind him in slow motion. He could hear the vociferous, roaring blast as it expanded to his rear, but it seemed to be moving at a sluggish pace compared to the Arwing. Fox's ship itself had changed, the alarms all quiet and the canopy undamaged. The ship flew so smoothly that Fox initially failed to notice that both of the wings had suddenly re-attached and regained functionality, slicing the ship through the air. The thing that Fox noticed the most, however, was the bluish-white jet blast of a silver, needle-nosed star fighter that flew at his ten o'clock. The fighter had the vintage look of the pre-war era, covered in shining chrome and sleek, sharp edges that were evident in both its gleaming rhombus-shaped G-diffusers and its bladelike, swept-back wings. Fox all of a sudden realized that he knew this ship. He had seen it and dreamt about it growing up.
It was a Space Dynamics R-16 prototype space superiority fighter, code-named the "Arwing". It was the early proof-of-concept model for Space Dynamics' revolutionary particle induction gimbal and G-diffuser technology, which would be later refined into the production-model R-64 Arwing. Only five R-16s had been built, and the only three of them that were flown were done so by an elite, daredevil mercenary squad named Team StarFox.
It was the Arwing of James McCloud's StarFox Team, not Fox's.
The R-16 slowed, forming up on Fox's left as they mesmerizingly drifted through the cavern, oblivious to the immense fire-blast that was expanding frame by frame behind them. Fox's eyes were fixated helplessly on the old Arwing, and they drifted up to the transparisteel canopy only to freeze in disbelief.
Looking intently out at him from the cockpit of the R-16 was a male adult fox with brownish gold fur and a pair of sunglasses over his eyes. Fox only breaths were in the form of short gasps in and out, in and out as he beheld the sight of his father. Without a word, James McCloud slowly faced back forward, and his Arwing picked up speed. Fox remained stunned as the R-16 moved up to his eleven o'clock, the force of his dazzled wonder preventing him from even touching the control stick.
"Come on, son," James McCloud directed, his voice calm and soft, "Follow me. We've got places to be."
Without even thinking, Fox took a hold of the control stick and guided the Arwing after his father, the booming sounds of the explosion behind him reaching his ears once more. The two generations of Arwing glided through the air, effortlessly traversing the rest of the massive cavern and coasting through the circular hole, back into the huge metal tunnels leading back to the surface.
As the ship flew into the tunnel, Fox could hear James McCloud advise him affectionately, "Never give up, Fox. Just trust yourself."
The glowing yellow and orange wall of fire behind them reflected off of the metal of the tunnel, bathing the fighter craft in an intense, fiery light. Fox struggled to maintain focus on the blue jet wash of his father's Arwing, switching on the canopy's glare shield to filter out some of the light all around them, and it suddenly struck him that this was all, somehow, very familiar.
A wave of revelation rushed through Fox's entire body like an electric current as it suddenly became so clear: It was his dream. Here he was, following his father through a tunnel filled with light, guided by both James McCloud's words and leadership. It hadn'tbeen a mere slumbering fantasy or an expression of his own hopes and fears, like Peppy had thought. It had been a premonition, a message forecasting his destiny. Fox could see it all now, he finally understood. It was all coming together in one moment; everything in his life had happened just to bring him here, so that he could defeat Andross and so that his father could show him the way home.
"There must be some kind of way out of here," James McCloud mused airily, "You coming, Fox?"
A fragile smile forming on his muzzle, Fox answered, "I'm coming, Dad!"
The fighters sped forward through the tunnel as things began to somehow speed up. The shockwave of the blast expanding behind them appeared to be slowly speeding up to the usual supersonic speeds of an explosion, as opposed to the unnaturally slow rate of travel it had previously shown. Rather than being worried or stressed, Fox was engaged. It was as if everything was following a set beat that he knew, and that he was safe as long as he stayed in time with the music.
James McCloud led Fox into a left turn down one of the tunnel junctions, and he heard his father say to him in a buoyant but firm tone, "Fox. Look. You're flying it. It's all you right now. You're in control. And nothing bad is happening."
Fox sensed a tightness in his chest and the beginnings of tears in his eyes at the beauty of it all, feeling like his father was in the cockpit with him, guiding Fox's hands on the control stick. Each moment seemed to be part of a harmonized, musical dance, with every movement a single note in a vast, complex symphony that Fox finally understood. He could practically hear the music, like a slow piano solo just under the crashing roar of the explosion tearing behind them. James McCloud's R-16 and Fox's R-64 drifted back and forth, over, under, and around each other in a graceful rhythm, drifting into a left junction, then a right junction with an elegance that seemed almost ignorant and even indifferent to the raging wall of fire rushing closely after them.
As Fox weaved in and out of formation with his father, he began to see all the things that had led him to this moment, wondering how it hadn't seemed so obvious until just now. Hundreds of memories flashed through his mind, all seeming to have significance, a few of them leaping out and coming back to Fox in particular.
"You're not and you can't be James McCloud!" Bill Grey's voice echoed from his past, and Fox heard his own echoing voice answer, "Well what choice do I have?!"
Like a ripple in water, the words seemed to melt into Wolf O'Donnell's drawling growl, telling him, "…You never had ta' work for it. You don't deserve it." Wolf's accusations lulled and droned until it was instead the voice of Peppy Hare, solemnly proclaiming, "We can't be perfect. We can't save everybody. But we can keep going... and that's what we're going to do." Peppy's hoarse affirmation softened into Fox's own voice at ten years old, whispering with awe, "I could spend the rest of my life doing this." Peppy's voice returned again, and Fox felt the pace of everything begin to increase as he said, "Nothing would make James more proud than for you to be there when the galaxy needs you. It's all that he ever wanted for you…you, more than anyone else in the universe deserves to be leading us on that day we stand up to them head-on, look them in the eye and tell them who we are." Peppy's voice aged about three years, as he echoed in a climactic final statement, "Right now when I look at you… I don't see the son of my best friend, I see a hero that's going to save us all. A hero."
The reverberations from times gone by subsided as James led Fox around another turn, and the Arwing began to shake as the shockwave of the explosion seemed to pick up more speed behind them. James' R-16 accelerated forward, and Fox throttled up in response, coming in just over top his father's ship as the two of them streaked through another junction. In the distance, Fox could see the octagonal tunnel that he'd entered seemingly so long ago, the dim orange skies of Venom just barely visible from where they were, getting closer by the minute. The rumbling roar of the explosion got louder, and the Arwing began to tremble even more as the shockwave reached ever closer to them.
Fox and James McCloud performed one final aerial dance, corkscrewing gracefully over and under each other's paths before his father formed up on his nine o'clock. Once again, Fox locked eyes with his father as the cloudlike flames of the explosion began to consume both ships.
"I will always be with you," James McCloud promised, "Never forget that my main reason for going out there was to make the world a better place for you to grow up in. And my main reason for coming home was to see your smiling face again. I love you, Fox."
With that, James McCloud put his palm up against the transparisteel of his canopy, his fingers spread out against the transparent surface. A tear rolled down Fox's face as he pressed his own palm up against his canopy and whispered, "I love you, Dad."
The Arwing was shaking almost to the point of being uncontrollable as flames began to lick their way around the canopy. Alarms began to buzz as the rumble of the explosion rose to almost deafening levels.
"Hold on," James whispered with a vocal smile, "I love this part."
Fox felt the rhythm of it all reach the crescendo and instinctively knew what to do, grabbing onto the throttle and shoving it into the red-labeled 'BOOST' notch. The plasma engines of both Fox and James' Arwings gave out a loud, whistling screech as they blasted the fighters through the octagonal tunnel and the flames.
The Arwing shot out of the top of the palace dome like a cork out of a wine bottle, roaring into the skies as the Venomian Imperial Palace was blasted to rubble. Just as the dust cleared, a single monument bearing the face of His Imperial Majesty Emperor Andross toppled to the ground.
Rocketing straight up into the Venomian skies, Fox let out a cry of triumph that was part yell and part laugh. As he looked out the canopy, he could still see the glowing blue jet wash of his father's Arwing up ahead. The joy of both his victory and the thought that his father was still alive squashed down any logic that would've led him to question how it was possible. His father was there, flying right in front of him, and that was enough proof for him.
He could almost reach out and touch it…
It was then that Fox noticed a sudden, immense pressure on his chest, as if someone had landed a ship on top of him. Up ahead, the computer console flashed the warning 'INERTIAL COMPENSATION SYSTEM MALFUNCTION. DECREASE SPEED AND ANGLE OF CLIMB'.
The huge loads of G-force snuck up on Fox, squeezing the blood out of his chest and into his head, and he tried to push the stick forward or push down on the throttle but he could already feel the immense wave of dizziness as the edges of his vision grew dark. He tried the exercises he learned in the Academy to tighten his abs and stave off a blackout, but it was too little, too late. Fox's last consideration was that, no matter what, he had to keep his father in sight. Then his entire vision went black.
Fox was unconscious for barely a minute or two, but by the time the Arwing's safety systems took over and auto-piloted the ship into a slower, gentler ascent, Fox awoke to find that things were not as they were when he had passed out. The small pinwheel of cracks in the lower corner of the Arwing canopy, caused by a falling rock from the cave ceiling, had returned. The G-diffusers were humming loudly with strain, and a schematic on the Arwing's computer console showed both wings in solid red. A look out the canopy showed that both of the fighter's wings were missing once more, torn free from the variable-sweep wing mechanism and resembling a chicken wing without feathers.
And both the radar and the thick, brownish green Venomian clouds outside were free of any other fighters aside from Fox himself.
Fox let out a near-breathless gasp of confusion, checking his radar again as the damaged Arwing continued to climb through the clouds.
No. No this wasn't right. Where was his father?
He had been there, flying with him only moments ago. He had shown Fox the way out of Andross' lair. It was only because of James McCloud's guidance that Fox had made it out of the palace alive. He had to be there, somewhere. Fox had seen him with his own eyes. There was no way he could have escaped from the palace if his father hadn't really been there for him to follow. What else could it have been?
Fox breathed harder in panic as the most logical explanation came to him, and he instantly sought the help of denial.
It couldn't have been a dream. No hallucination could give the almost spiritual clarity that Fox had experienced as he flew with his father, let alone accurately tell him the way out.
Maybe it was just subconscious, a part of him thought, Andross was, after all, making you see things before you defeated him; maybe in his death throes he simply brought your dream to life. Your recurring dream combined with your body's will to survive and your own memories to create a state of mind that would allow you to fly the Arwing, even in its poor condition, through the tunnels and out of the palace. Your imagination just did the rest.
No, Fox denied. He wouldn't believe it. It had been so real. It had felt so real. He desperately began speaking into the microphone on his headset, hoping to get some sort of answer.
"Dad, are you still there?" Fox pleaded, "James McCloud, do you copy?"
There was no response but silence, mixed with the occasional burst of static.
"James McCloud, do you read?" Fox called once more, gritting his teeth.
The comlink crackled only once, deadly quiet. Through the canopy, the brownish clouds and green haze of Venom's atmosphere began to thin and darken as the Arwing started to enter the black star field of space.
Fox could feel his heart sinking.
"Dad?" Fox breathed, barely whispering.
As the toxic clouds of Venom suddenly gave way to the black void and twinkling stars of outer space, his comlink hissed with static, and a tough, urbane voice came over the comlink.
"Wait a minute, I got somethin…Holy shit, it's Fox!!!" Falco Lombardi exclaimed in celebration, "HA-HA!! Tha fuzzball's alive! WOO!!!"
It wasn't the voice that Fox had been listening for. But it was still good to hear it, and somehow, it helped make the disappointment vanish.
"Way to go, Fox!!" Slippy Toad cheered excitedly.
"You did it!" Peppy Hare shouted with exuberance, "You god-damned did it, Fox!!"
Still, Fox did not speak as the swan-like form of the Great Fox appeared over the greenish-brown haze of Venom's atmosphere, moving towards him through space with the Cornerian armada visible far behind it. He gave one last, desperate look to the left and to the right before simply accepting it.
His father had never been there. But, nevertheless, Fox had followed in his footsteps. He had saved the Lylat System. He had won. And wasn't that the best that he could ever hope for?
"What's wrong, Fox?" Peppy inquired urgently.
"Nothing," Fox gulped, shaking his head and putting a smile on his face, "Nothing's wrong."
"Well, aren't you just tha saddest fuzzball that ever won a war," Falco remarked, his voice tinted with indredulousness.
"I didn't win a war," Fox grinned, "I kicked some Venomian ASS!!!"
"Hahaha!!! That's our leader!" Falco laughed.
"Fox," Peppy informed, "General Pepper wants to speak to you. I'm connecting you to him."
The comlink hissed a little bit with static, then there was a click as a rich voice came in on the comlink.
"Commander Fox McCloud," the voice greeted.
"General George Pepper," Fox returned with the same measure of pride.
"All that's left of the Imperial Venomian Starfleet has either surrendered or warp-jumped away," Pepper informed, "Almost immediately after the destruction of the Imperial Palace, we received an offer of unconditional surrender from the General Secretary of the Venomian Government. The war's over! You're a hero, Fox!!!"
Fox closed his eyes and breathed, allowing the word to sink in.
A hero. They thought he was a hero.
"Thank you sir!" Fox called back, "You have no idea how much that means to me."
General Pepper laughed heartily.
"Get back to Corneria, my boy," Pepper commanded, "They're going to throw us the party of the century!"
With that, General Pepper signed off, and Fox locked his gaze back on the Great Fox and the red, winged fox design on the tail. It was at that moment that it began to truly hit him:
He had done it. Against all odds and expectations, even his own, Fox had somehow not only survived the horrible war that had torn the Lylat System apart for almost two years, but he had actually made a difference. He had become the person that he had always wished to be, but never dared hope to be: an adult worthy of his father's place at the head of Team StarFox. A hero.
With a feeling of contentment and silent pride, Fox throttled up on his damaged Arwing and guided the fighter towards the Great Fox, where his friends—his family—awaited him with a champion's welcome.
But wait! There's more! Come back soon for the epilogue of this incredibly long story (even for me), some super-secret bonus material, and of course, your ending credits music. I'm serious. I'm working on it right now. Stay tuned. Review this shit or die.-TU