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Chapter 3
AIR FORCE BASE, 4:00 A.M. DECEMBER 17th
Corneria's military was well known for the soldiers they produced, no matter what field.
The pilots were falcons in the sky, the marines were sharks in the deep blue, and their army were predators of stealth. Only with the sheer numbers of Venom's extinguished military could one hope to combat the power of Corneria. For each division, the proud planet hosted impressive facilities. The Air and Space Force base was no exception, home to over thirty incredible hangars lying in two rows along a peninsula, and more ships than one cared to count. The only difference was the current festive decorations around the base exterior, mostly wreaths and red ribbons strung about the street lights. And of course, a blanket of snow covered everything.
To Falco and Slippy, nothing was interesting at four in the morning. Krystal was getting by well enough with a cup of hot mocha. Fox chose to blast his headphones into his large ears, flooding his head with some wake-up rock music.
As they came to the stadium-sized lot, Fox parked the car closer to the entrance. The team groggily stepped out of the vehicle. The two mammals were a little more energetic than the Avian and the amphibian.
Falco shivered, even through his flight jacket. "Four in the fuckin' morning. Hey Foxie?"
"Yo," called the orange fur.
"If we're up against some type of organization, I call first dibs on the lead punk."
Fox grinned. "Merry Christmas, feather-head," he chuckled, throwing the thumbs up back towards the Avian.
"Falco. Save me a little?" Krystal said with a yawn.
"Get in line," Slippy grunted sleepily.
The captain of the group laughed to himself. "Good old holiday spirit. Hey relax guys. This'll just be one more success we can toast to this December twenty-fifth."
Lombardi grinned across his beak. "Yeah I guess. Kinda hard to stay ticked during the holidays, huh?"
Slippy laughed. "The best holiday, needless to say. How often do you see my cold-blooded ass enjoying snowy weather?
The other three pilots joined in a laugh at the toad's remark. Krystal merely chuckled a little.
Fox noticed her weak laughter. "Somethin' wrong, blue?"
Krystal laughed. "Actually, quite the contrary, red," she joked back. "I'm actually excited, but a little nervous. This'll be my first Christmas at home, after all."
Fox's eyes widened a little. "That's right. I forget we had to work last year. Well this year we'll get the job out of the way so you get to enjoy the magic this year."
She put her arm around his as they walked. "Thanks, Fox," she spoke quietly.
"Your welcome, Krystal."
The two shared some warmth as they entered the base. The first room was a giant, completely clean lobby. The front desk had some golden streams outlining the top with red ornaments hanging about. A well-trimmed Christmas tree stood on each side of the desk, which was being occupied by a female Kangaroo, sharing the same exhaustion as the team.
"Merry Christmas, Jenny," Fox said cheerfully.
The marsupial looked up at the familiar team and smiled brightly. "Hey mates! Merry Christmas!"
Everyone wished her good tidings and vice versa before Fox brought up there being there.
"Hey Jen? Do you have us scheduled to see the General today?"
The pouched fur quickly typed a few sequences on her computer and moved her mouse around a bit. "Looks like it, Foxy. The ol' boy's expectin' you mates for somethin' important. Somethin' about you McCloud."
The team looked at Fox, who looked at Jenny oddly. "Me? What do you mean?"
The 'roo shrugged her shoulders. "Sorry mate. I don't got many details." She then turned to the female fox, keeping her eyes open for any hints at something juicy.
'So Krystal, your first Christmas on Corneria, eh? Gonna' have to get Foxy here to acquaint you with the mistletoe, am I right?"
Krystal smiled, slightly confused. "I'm sorry Jenny. I'm still a rookie with this. Acquainted with the what now?"
Fox tugged her arm, blushing heatedly while Slippy and Falco started snickering. "Assholes," he thought to himself. "Er…I'll explain it to you later, Krys. Anyway thanks, Jenny. Happy holidays again."
She wished them the same while the group walked to the elevator. The male fur of the group played the somewhat embarrassing moment over and over in his head, while the other of his species was still asking herself what a 'mistletoe' was. She could also pick up on some sort of sly thought patterns coming from Jenny's mind when it was mentioned. Her thoughts were interrupted by a recorded feminine voice.
"Welcome to floor seven."
The doors to the elevator slid apart and the group made their way out of the elevators and into the office wing. They headed left and stopped at the door at the end. On its window was placed a platinum panel with five stars engraved into it. It read "General D. Pepper, Commanding Officer."
Fox knocked on the door a few times.
"Please come in," asked a familiar voice.
The four walked in to the office of their long-time friend, General Pepper.
"Season's greetings, General," Fox said warmly.
The old hound saluted them and walked up from his seat, giving his young friend a strong hug. "Likewise old friends. Welcome back to the Base, StarFox. How's your vacation time coming along."
"It was good," replied Falco sarcastically. He grinned and shook his hand.
"While it lasted," Slippy sighed. He too gave the general a strong hug. Pepper let out an 'oof' at the amphibian's grip.
"Hopefully this isn't a long-term mission? Hm?" hinted Krystal as she gave him a big hug.
Pepper chuckled at the dry but good-natured humor. "Well it might be. My apologies for this sudden interruption, by the way. It's not really something so threatening that we truly needed your services, but…" he trailed off as he rubbed the back of his neck with a guilty expression.
Fox's brow rose quizzically. "But…" he spoke.
Pepper looked at him with a curious look. "But….well,…here. Let me show you the pictures."
The aged bloodhound picked up a small remote from his desk and turned on the monitor hung on the wall of his office. It blinked on to show a disturbing picture.
Two huskies, apparently military personnel, lay bruised and battered on the ground, several claw marks across their bodies as well as a number of scorch marks and laser wounds. It seemed to have been a one-sided fight as far as the five of them could tell.
Pepper pressed the button again and showed a similar picture, but with a different background. Again, furs of authority were badly wounded, except there was a much larger group of them; roughly ten. Behind them stood a large building, with something written on the side. The message had been carved in with some type of laser.
"You can't hide, Fox McCloud!"
Falco and Slippy stared wide-eyed at the display, wide even by Slippy's goggle-eyed standards.
Krystal stared in a very unusual way. Her look was one of shock, there was no doubt. However, there was another type of emotion upon her face. It was, for some reason, the face of a person seeing something that appeared almost…familiar.
Fox looked at the image in a very unique way. Sure he was perplexed, on the inside. But he stared at the words in a cold way, to a degree the very opposite of whatever plasma had carved the threat. His eyes narrowed menacingly while his curtain of lips pulled back somewhat to reveal a cast of fangs.
"Someone I know…..just don't know who," he half-whispered harshly.
Pepper looked at him. "How can you be so sure, especially when the offender's method is this typical?"
"Or is it?" Krystal asked herself.
Fox's eyes didn't move. "This message; it's a challenge. Whoever did this obviously has something against me. And I don't make many enemies unless I'm trying to kill them. And not to sound cruel, but I usually tend to go that far in the end. Looks like I let one job go unfinished."
He studied the pictures carefully, his keen fox eyes not missing anything. "This isn't Andross at all. I'm sure of it. Someone like him would make a much less discreet appearance, and he wouldn't be using guerilla tactics like this. Plus, me and Falco eradicated him. And we all know what happened to the Aparoids."
Pepper nodded. "I see. Whatever the case though, Fox, these images were taken from Aquas's islands and MacBeth. And there're a few more images, but nothing really different from these two. I should mention there seems to be a pattern apparent here. Based on the locations of the pictures and the dates recorded, this mysterious enemy is moving down Lylat towards our direction."
Fox nodded. "And if they knew where I was, they wouldn't be bothering with the other planets. They must be using the process of elimination, at least I'd assume. That, or it's a trap."
Falco interrupted. "Wait a minute. Why would they go through the trouble of baiting you? Obviously they're looking for you, and they can't be so weak that they'd have to set a trap."
"Falco has a point, Fox," Krystal managed to shake her mind from her thoughts. "As a matter of fact, I'd like to call a team meeting when we get home," she requested, kindly but obviously not leaving room for argument.
"Basically, Fox," began Pepper, "I'm not actually sure what to do at this point. I don't see the point of asking you to go embrace someone who has a death-wish for you, but our forces still haven't been fully regenerated since the bugs. So for Corneria's sake, I was hoping you'd be willing to terminate this strange challenger. I'm sorry for being so blunt, but-!"
Fox cut in. "No apology needed," he winked. "Fox McCloud doesn't turn down a challenge, after all. This should be pretty fun actually."
Everyone seemed surprised at Fox's sudden change in attitude; especially the General. He looked down and adjusted his hat. His throat cleared as he shifted his glance around before looking back to the red vulpine.
"Fox, m'boy, I honestly can't thank you enough for what you do for us. I assure you, your success will definitely put something very nice under your tree this year. I promise that," he said with a salute. He seemed to be fighting the urge to let his eyes water.
Fox put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey now, old friend. You know I'd take on Venom, Scales and the bugs with two broken arms for Lylat. It's in my blood, ain't it?"
Pepper smiled. "He'd be proud, Fox. They both would."
Krystal smiled in warm admiration as Fox seemed to beam proudly, looking just like James. Things like this were among the greater reasons she cared for him so deeply.
Falco and Slippy couldn't help but grin at their captain and best friend's heart, which knew no limits. They were really glad to be on his team.
"Thanks General," he responded, now sharing the difficulty of fighting back his emotions. "Say as long as we're here, do you mind if I do my…uh….you know," Fox winked at him a few times. "It's been a while."
Pepper looked at him strangely for a few seconds before he realized what he meant.
"Oh! Yes of course." He pulled out a card key and gave it to him.
"Your Arwings are outside the Great Fox dock right now anyway. We set them up on display for mechanical demonstrations. Right now they're free for whatever."
He then opened up a drawer in his desk and dug around for something until he produced an old walkman with a tape in it. "Don't want to forget this. Hope it still works for ya'."
The other three looked at them awkwardly. Falco and Slippy understood the situation to some degree, but Krystal was completely bewildered.
"Thanks. It's been a while now. I'm pretty sure it'll work," he assured him. Fox gave him another quick hug before turning to leave. "Again, happy holidays, sir,' the vulpine saluted. "The same, Captain," Pepper replied. He quickly said his goodbyes and holiday wishes to the other three as Fox waited for them. When all had been exchanged, the four of them left the office and went back to the elevator.
Krystal was still confused about what Fox and Pepper had been talking about, so she linked her mind to Falco's.
"Knock, knock, feather-head," she laughed.
Falco looked over at her, curiously. "Somethin' up, blue?"
She looked at Fox then back to him, hinting with her eyes. "What were they discussing a moment ago?"
Falco grinned to himself. "Don't ask me. I've been in your position too, but nothing's changed, really. As far as I know, ol' Foxie has a little pre-mission ritual. He hasn't told anyone what is except for the General. He promises to take it to the grave with him."
"Unless I find out," she thought coyly.
"I doubt it Krystal. Me and Slip-up haven't even been able to figure it out. So the saying goes, 'clever as a fox'."
She smiled wryly. "If there's one thing you should have learned from Katt, it's that a woman has her ways."
Falco's beak formed a smirk. "Whatever you say, fur-face. Good luck with that."
At that, Krystal severed the mental link and looked at Fox, who was merely staring at the walkman with a giddy smile.
"You can't keep secrets from a girl," she whispered so that none could hear.
The sly vixen grinned mischievously, thinking of what method she might use.
"Just wait, Fox. Just wait."