Hello, thanks so much for checking this story out!
For years I've wanted to publish a fanfic, and although I've written a bit before, this is the first time I have made my work public. There are several talented writers on this site that I can thank for motivating me to take this step.
I am more of an artist than a writer, but I have still tried to create a good story and I hope you enjoy it. Reviews and critiques are greatly appreciated.
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The dim sun stared down on the planet Locust as if judging it for its actions.
For a planet deep into the Lylat System's outer rim, no one ever stumbled upon Locust by accident. It was a small planet inhabited by conmen and bandits on its best days and swarming with felons on its worst. It made the perfect hideout for anyone that was gutsy enough to stay there, and it was the perfect hub for the system's toughest bounty hunters.
Locust was covered by a sprawling and uneven city, and in its center was a palace made of scraps, an inhuman mesh of various junked ships and building parts. It had seemingly random decorations and most of its windows were barred, but it was majestic compared to the short and decrepit buildings that surrounded it. A large docking bay jutted out of one end of the palace, perhaps the cleanest feature of the building. All kinds of fighters and ships arrived and left the palace constantly, like bees swarming around a hive.
One such ship, a smaller fighter with black plating and indigo markings, touched down on the docking bay in the late afternoon. Other than the unique paint job, the ship was nothing more than a standard-issue gunship that many rogues knew like the back of their hands. The ship's pilot, on the other hand, was anything but unremarkable.
Other bounty hunters on the docking bay stopped what they were doing and stared at the vixen that exited the small ship. Canines and vulpines were common in the Lylat System, even on a planet as remote as Locust, but no other creature in the galaxy shared this vixen's deep cerulean fur and unique tribal markings. She adjusted her black jacket around her arms, but she was less interested in hiding the dark scars on her chest and stomach. Her dark blue tail flicked in anticipation as she tossed a heavy satchel over her shoulder. Her long indigo hair billowed around her as the engines on her spacecraft finished powering down. Her dull, silver tiara briefly sparkled as she caught a glimpse of the setting sun in the distance, but her eyes were cold and dark, like black ice on a landing track.
No one dared to stare at her. Most of the rookies and lesser hunters either cowered away from her, or they began to inquire loudly about her until they were hushed by the others. Normal conversations became quiet murmurs as she walked through the corridors of the palace, and rumors started to fly instead.
"Is… is that Kursed? I've never seen her in person before," one rookie said.
"Quiet, she'll hear you!" hushed another, "I heard she can hear you from hundreds of meters away!"
"I heard she doesn't even use a blaster, she uses this weird-looking staff instead," one said, "and she avoids enemy blaster shots by just dodging them. How can she move that fast?"
"No one can move that fast," commented an older hunter, "I think she's an android. Haven't you seen her arm?"
Kursed said nothing, but she slowly adjusted her jacket sleeve over her right arm as she continued past the nosy hunters. This was nothing new.
The entrance to the palace's central room was marked with large, brightly colored doors, fitting of the guildmaster that resided beyond them. Two large feline bodyguards watched the entrance, but despite their intimidating appearances, they cautiously stepped out of the way once Kursed appeared in front of them. Neither of them addressed her or made eye contact with her as she pressed on the doors with her free hand.
Natural light washed over Kursed's face as she entered. The guildmaster's room was the most spacious in the palace, and it also had the most windows, even though most of them were barred like the others were.
"Ah, Kursed! Pleasure to see you again."
"Salvador." Kursed spoke quietly.
The crow spread his arms to welcome Kursed, or to show off his extravagant robes and gaudy jewelry. He remained seated at his desk as Kursed approached and removed the satchel from her shoulder. She set the bag on his desk with an audible thunk.
"I take it the mission was a resounding success," Salvador's black beak contorted into an uneven grin. "Were the masked bandits hard to deal with?"
Kursed shook her head. "No. You'll find proof of their defeat in there."
Salvador unraveled the tie on the bag like a giddy child on Christmas morning. The room lit up with a red tint as a bright crimson gemstone fell out of the loose bag, surrounded by several damaged masks. Salvador giggled as he ignored the rest of the bag's contents and picked up the gemstone for further inspection. Its crimson sheen filled his dark eyes, and his grin grew even larger.
"Yes, this is certainly it," he held the gemstone up to the light over his desk, "the one and only serpentine heirloom… mine at last! Oh, just look at how it sparkles! It will make an excellent brooch. Is it not the most brilliant red you've ever seen, Kursed?"
The excited crow pressed the gemstone towards Kursed's snout. Instead of flinching, the surly vixen stared at him with her cold turquoise eyes, even the gleam from the jewel was not enough to brighten them. Salvador hesitated, but he sighed and tossed a smaller sack at Kursed. Old credits clinked together as she caught the sack with her left hand.
"Here you go, job well done once again," Salvador said, but his attention was already back on his prize after the payment was transferred.
"What's the next job?" Kursed asked bluntly.
"Next job? Already?" Salvador set the gemstone down on his desk and pushed the rest of the bag to the side. "Tenacious as ever, aren't you? Most hunters around here give it at least a few days before they come back for another job, you know. Aren't I paying you enough to give you a break?"
No response.
"Anyway," Salvador sighed as he set a few papers and holograms on the desk. Each outlined details for a new bounty or other odd job that circled around the area. Salvador prided himself on a large selection of jobs, although it was difficult to defend the paying price most of the time.
Kursed took a glance at the jobs. Nothing unusual. There was a small gang of small-time hustlers that needed to be disbanded a few planets over. One bandit stole from another and now they wanted a third party involved. Someone wanted protection against wild Gronkats, whatever those were. The only thing consistent among the jobs was the pay amount—not much.
"Is this all you have? I can barely keep my ship running for this much." Kursed expressed her disappointment, but Salvador just shrugged and remained focused on his jewels.
"Sorry," he clicked his tongue, "That's all I've got. Maybe if you give it a while, I'll have something more valuable for you."
"You're hiding something." She stared at the distracted crow with heightened focus.
Despite the competitive job market, Kursed seldom had opportunities to take full advantage of her telepathic powers, and she relished them whenever she had the chance. Reading a simple mind like Salvador's was child's play compared to some of the entities she had scanned before. A brief memory of Aparoids flashed in her mind, but she buried it before it could fester.
Salvador turned to face her. He was beginning to mouth "What?" before he stopped himself and rolled his eyes again.
"Oh, right, telepathy. I forgot. I guess there's no use keeping secrets from you, hm? It's a good thing I don't keep any safes around here." He tapped his beak with a bejeweled digit. "Yes, there is one other job. A personal one. I need someone to get rid of a rogue hunter to me."
"That's all?" Kursed replied. Her expressionless attitude almost turned into a scoff.
"Not just any hunter! He used to be the finest hunter I had, so I can't just send anyone after him, or they'll end up dead and then he'll come after me and I don't want that kind of drama. And I didn't want to tell you about it because I don't think you can handle him. Let's be honest, you're not a half-bad hunter, but you're no Samus."
"Then why don't you hire her instead?" Kursed had heard the name Samus a few times since arriving on Locust, but she had never seen the "famous hunter" in person, and if Samus was as impressive as the rumors made her out to be, then it was hard to believe she would ever visit a place like Locust.
"Who what? Hire Samus? Samus Aran!" His necklaces shook wildly as he threw his head back and guffawed. "Silly girl, I can't hire Samus! She's—how should I say—too famous for a place like this. Yes, she used to stop by many years ago, but nowadays she just works for those stuff-shirts Galactic Federation or whatever they call themselves. A waste of talent if you ask me. Yes, having her here would solve all my problems, but I'm just not that fortunate."
"Then it sounds like I'm the best you have," Kursed smirked.
The crow sighed as he set a new hologram down on the desk, and a distorted image of a masculine leopard appeared. The leopard's pilot jacket was flashy like his spotted fur, and his arrogant but menacing grin brightened the room as the hologram slowly spun around.
"He goes by Leo. But he's serious business. He was my best hunter up until he decided he didn't want to do business with me anymore, so now he's going around and stealing all my bounties and cutting me out of the deals. We can still track his ship since he used to work with us. I'm not sure why he hasn't just removed the tracker, but he probably thinks that no one is brave enough to challenge him. He's one of the quickest draws on Locust, his kill count is higher than any hunter that's ever worked here, even Samus."
"And you want me to get rid of him? Easy," Kursed said as she scooped up the hologram. Salvador sputtered as she turned to exit the room, as if his warnings hadn't been severe enough.
"I'm serious!" Salvador asserted himself, although he doubted his words would sway Kursed at this point in their conversation. "He's a monster. Even veteran hunters don't want to deal with him. And apparently, he's been raiding Space Pirate freighters lately. He's either confident or stupid but considering his skills it's probably the former."
"Space Pirates?" She stopped for a moment.
"You know, 'scourge of the galaxies?'" He chuckled. "Sometimes I forget you've only been out here for a year. You're almost more of a rookie than those kids on the landing pad! Ha!"
"A year is a long time," Kursed defended herself.
"Not long enough to learn about Space Pirates, I guess." Salvador smirked. "I thought you had heard of them. They're a race of reptilian beasts, they specialize in bioengineering. I thought their bases of operation were at least a few galaxies over, but they've been more active in Lylat lately. I heard they're filthy rich with their advanced tech and bio research, but no one is insane enough to challenge a group that big or organized. I guess Leo thinks he can handle them. No idea what his strategy is, but if you go after him, you might have to deal with them too. It's a suicide mission, really."
But Kursed was already on the way out the door as Salvador finished explaining. "I'll be back soon."
Salvador grumbled. "That confidence is going to get you killed one of these days."
But the doors were already closing shut as he finished his sentence.
…
Leo's tracking beacon lead Kursed far away from Locust, past a few planetoids and asteroid fields, until she arrived at a large ship drifting in deep space. It looked like a transport ship, but its design was unfamiliar to her. It didn't have the same menacing design as Aparoid ships had, but it was far more advanced than the standard hunters' ships she saw buzzing around Locust. It was covered in black plating and was decorated with gold rims that glimmered as the light of distant stars passed by. Leo's ship was haplessly parked alongside the ship; his small, bright-red fighter was like a blemish next to the dark freighter's sleeker design.
Kursed moved in closer to the freighter and took aim at Leo's ship. A few quick volleys from her ship's twin blasters were enough to disable Leo's hyperdrive just in case he had plans to make a quick getaway. Once the escape route was locked down, she parked on the opposite end of the freighter's cargo bay and gathered her things. She was half-focusing her mind on the ship as she loaded her blaster and sheathed her staff on her belt.
The interior of the freighter seemed quiet. Normally her telepathy gave her access to hundreds of different thoughts and voices if she focused hard enough, but she only picked up a single thought pattern from the ship that seemed relatively normal: it was a series of excited thoughts, as if someone had struck gold and didn't have a bag to put it in. She smirked as she entered the freighter.
Kursed's trek lead her through multiple dark corridors full of stray blaster shots and damaged turrets. The hallways were dimly lit and eerily quiet, as if the ship's main generator was out and the auxiliary power was barely holding on. It was odd to traverse such a large craft without hundreds of machine noises to scramble her thoughts, but she was grateful for the quiet. Focusing on the single thought pattern was much easier.
Eventually she arrived in a larger, circular room. Computers and monitors of all shapes and sizes lined the walls, but the large tubes in the room's center caught Kursed's attention much easier. Each tube contained a dubious parasitic blob: a mesh of tendrils, nuclei, and asymmetrical teeth. None of them were of Lylat origin; even Andross had never come up with bioweapons like these. Leo stood in the center of it all, hunched over one computer and tapping away at the keyboard while occasionally looking up at the specimens in the tubes. He turned to face Kursed as he saw her approach.
"Who are you? You must be another bounty hunter." Leo welcomed her with a calm voice. Kursed didn't know whether it was the darkness that was hiding her appearance or the giddiness of Leo's previous thoughts, but he did not seem intimidated at all.
"You must have picked up the distress signal too." He gestured to the computer screen and to the tubes around him. "Look at all this biodata! The likes of which Lylat has never seen. I know people who would pay millions for this kind of knowledge. Space Pirate ships are mobile treasure troves. And the best part is, there are no Pirates left here. All the escape pods are gone, and I made sure there weren't any stragglers. I guess one of their experiments went wrong or something, but it's just you and me now—and all this loot."
Kursed took another look at her surroundings. Leo was right—she figured this was a Space Pirate ship based on Salvador's description, but even if she had never seen a Pirate in person, there were none in sight, and using her telepathy only let her delve deeper into the primitive and underdeveloped minds of the bio-blobs that hovered in tubes above her.
"Normally," Leo's expression darkened, "I would cut other hunters out of the deal, but you seem new, so I'll cut you a break instead. You can have whatever I don't take. Besides, I can't take all this treasure even if I wanted to."
"No thanks," Kursed unhooked her staff from her belt and extended it to its full length. "I'm here for you. Salvador's orders."
Leo took his focus off the screen and turned to Kursed again. As he stood up straight, he better resembled the cocky but menacing hologram that she saw earlier. "Oh, my dear, I would rethink that decision." He grinned viciously as he flashed the blasters at his sides. "Didn't Salvador tell you anything about me? I will kill you."
"But," he didn't cover the blasters up, but he resumed a casual stance, "you seem like a nice lady, definitely a rookie, and you caught me in a good mood. How about we forget about whatever bounty ol' Sal put on me, and you can scurry on away. And if you don't step out of line again, I might let you keep something on the ship. Otherwise, I'll send your limbs to Sal, and he'll stop sending pests after me. Sound good?"
"If you didn't want pests, you should have turned off the tracker." Kursed narrowed her eyes and took a confident pose, her staff aimed towards Leo's face.
As quick as a flash, Leo drew his blasters and fired a volley of rapid shots, but regardless of his apparent prowess with firearms, he fired the same plasma blasts that Kursed saw many times before. She weaved around Leo's shots with the grace of a dancer, all the while rapidly closing the distance between them. Her staff stayed at her side like an additional appendage, ready to strike at a moment's notice.
Leo's shots grew sloppier as he noticed Kursed's movements. He had never seen anyone move so quickly before, much less someone who was gutsy enough to challenge him to a fight without a blaster. Once she was only a few inches from him, he roared and unloaded both weapons straight at her head, but after the flash from the shots disappeared, he only saw a tinge of indigo hair. A gold staff swung into his view, slamming into his wrists until both of his blasters clattered to the floor. Before the leopard had time to react to the pain, another precise swing struck him in the chest and knocked him against the central monitor.
The leopard's casual façade vanished completely by the time he scrambled back up from the mess of computers he created.
"I don't know who you are, but you've made a big mistake. No rookie messes with Leo and lives!" He growled audibly as he reached for a pocket hidden in his jacket.
Kursed was unwavering. Leo was much bigger than her and maybe had more bounty hunting experience, but she didn't sense any unique tactics from him. He was just another big target, and her warrior's blood boiled within her. She was almost excited for Leo to ready his next weapon.
Beep… beep… beep…
Suddenly, a familiar and sickening noise filled the vixen's ears, and a phantom pain erupted in her right arm. She froze as her eyes fixated on the round grenade that Leo lobbed at her feet, and her tail contorted. Instead of ducking for cover, the vixen flinched and remained in place, like a deer in headlights.
BOOM.
The smoke grenade detonated at Kursed's feet, and a wave of dark smog enveloped her, causing her to yelp and cover her eyes with her right arm. The grenade's countdown rang in her ears and her heart was racing. She tried to catch her breath to calm back down, but it only made her cough more. Her focus evaporated, and even as the smoke began to clear, her feet remained glued to the same spots on the floor.
"Now I've got you." From the receding smoke, the figure of a sly leopard appeared, and he brought down a large knife towards Kursed's head with an overzealous swing.
What happened next was difficult for the leopard to follow. First, he saw scraps of the vixen's black jacket scatter as his knife tore it apart, but then he saw sparks erupt where he should have punctured flesh. Before he could process the sparks, he felt the vixen's staff smash against his chest, and then her foot slammed against his cheek. A silver fang spun through the air as Leo tumbled across the room and fell into a heap on the other end. Kursed sneered as she sheathed her staff and stole a glimpse of her exposed right arm. She hoped it would go unnoticed, but the dim lights from the room reflected off the metal on her arm as if shining a spotlight on it, and the rest of her was illuminated better as a result.
"What… is wrong with you…!" Leo roared as loud as he could, but he could barely muster more than a scathing whisper. "You could buy your own planetoid with the money in this room alone. Why are you so focused on the bounty? Salvador is barely paying you a fraction of all this."
"I didn't come here for Pirate data," Kursed responded firmly while trying to hide her shortness of breath. Her eyes darted around the room to try and find the scraps of her jacket to cover herself back up.
Leo paused as he stared at her arms. "Wait… I know you," he coughed, "you're that Kursed hunter."
"Yeah? What about it." Despite the rush of emotion, she was holding fast.
"You really are a rookie," he managed a raspy laugh. "You were barely starting out with Salvador's guild by the time I left. The other hunters wouldn't shut up about you, how you were strong and all that. I guess the rumors were true. Even the one about your arm."
Kursed grimaced. She knew better than to listen to a beaten enemy, but she was still trying to calm back down. Leo's words were getting to her far more than the hunters back on Locust.
"I don't understand you." Leo sat up and sneered. "So, you're as strong as they say. Why aren't you taking advantage of it? Forget kissing up to Sal! You know why I left, right? Because I didn't need him. I don't need anyone, and you don't either. I know you've been through hell. I can tell by your arm. This whole freighter is your ticket to a better life, and you don't need someone to help you get it."
"You… you don't know what I've been through." Kursed frowned as she turned to make her right arm less visible but doing so only made her holstered blaster easier to notice.
Leo almost laughed. "That's your blaster? It's not even lethal, it's a stun gun. There's no way Sal wanted me alive. Is that all you have? I know the rumors; they say you only use your staff when you fight. You haven't killed anyone since you started, have you? You're a pathetic excuse of a bounty hunter."
"Enough." Kursed spoke quickly as she drew her blaster, but Leo's verbal assault continued.
"Listen. I don't know what moral code you're trying to follow, but you want to know something? Morals mean dust out here. You're a bounty hunter now, and you're no different from the rest of us. You're never going to get anywhere unless you cut a few ties. Someone's going to end up killing you one of these days and they will not care—"
There was a sudden flash of light and the uneven sound of old blaster fire, and Leo fell silent immediately. Kursed's stun gun wasn't the most potent model, but it was at least good enough to keep the leopard quiet until the mission ended.
Smoke was billowing off her blaster as it fell to the floor. She stood motionless, staring towards Leo's body but not looking at him. Her thoughts were racing a mile a minute. Maybe Leo was right. Maybe the morals meant nothing anymore. She gritted her teeth. No, now was not the right time to think about that. She lifted Leo's limp body over her shoulder and turned to leave, while knowingly ignoring all the data around her.
The corridors were even more silent as she exited the ship, but with no other thought patterns to focus on, her own thoughts were deafening.
"You are a warrior; you are a bounty hunter. You deserve this life."
Normally she could tune out the intrusive thoughts, but the terror induced from the grenade prevented her from calming down. The Pirate data wasn't hers to take, but if she ignored it, then how much longer would she be alone? She had only been a bounty hunter for a year, and it was already taking its toll on her. She wondered if she would even be recognizable if Fox—
"No… not again. I don't want to think about him." She spoke aloud as if asserting her thoughts.
She took a deep breath as she arrived outside the freighter, and the beauty of space around her offered her a brief respite.
Before she was a bounty hunter, her name was Krystal, and she was an innocent girl with short hair and teal-green eyes full of wonder. She was hopeful and brave, and she had an intense perseverance that rivaled her old friends. Love and compassion were second natures to her, and she recalled how her willingness to help others got her entangled in many adventures.
Now, she was a bounty hunter, and she was much different than she was before. She was thinner, her hair was longer, and she had scars and an ugly robotic prosthetic where her right arm used to be. She was hardly the same as Krystal, but no matter how badly she tried to bury her old memories of Star Fox, she could not forget them. Even after a year of isolation, her surly façade was not impenetrable.
She stared into the sea of lifeless stars, and they stared back with a beautiful but empty comfort. Was this all there was? When she was this far in space by herself, her morals were all she had, but if she didn't let them go, she was doomed to be alone for the rest of her life. Without her morals, she had nothing else to stop her thoughts from echoing in her mind.
"You are a warrior; you are a bounty hunter. You deserve this life. You deserve to be alone."
Her eyes began to reflect the light of space around her, if only for a moment. Tears began to well up.
"It can't end like this. It can't…"