Chapter Three

Versus Mode

Sweat pooled under James' arms. Vixy was a damn good pilot, and that Arwing was making her virtually unstoppable. The G-diffusers allowed her to pull off near impossible maneuvers, and it was all James and his teammates could do not to get vaped over and over.

"James, I need a little help!" came Peppy's voice over the teamcomm, sounding more strained than usual. Peppy had been bearing the brunt of Vixy's attacks this round, and the hare was in danger of actually become enraged.

"On it," James replied, gritting his teeth as he maneuvered his Switch-Wing behind Peppy's. In front of him, almost lined up in his targeting reticule, Vixy continued pouring on the fire, her Arwing's nose cannon lighting up the darkness with green laser flashes. A volley of about five bolts poured from her cannon, two of them hitting Peppy's port wing. The hare began dodging erratically, clearly at a loss for what to do. "Just hold on," James muttered to himself. The targeting reticule aligned.

"I've got you now, bitch," James said, venting some of his frustration in the curse. Holding down the trigger he charged up a shot, the green energy pooling around his forward cannon. Five seconds later he released the trigger, sending the ball of coruscating energy hurling towards the Arwing. "That's right, take it!"

It should have been a kill. It should have been the end of the Arwing, and of Vixy's disgustingly proficient piloting. It should also have provoked a response from the vixen. She should have been pulling away, trying to escape the shot before it incinerated her fancy prototype fighter. Instead she just kept right on at Peppy, pouring fire on him. Just as the bolt was going to hit, the Arwing did that jaunty little barrel roll that she had used to greet him on the fly in to Corneria City. "Going out with style, huh? Typical."

What James expected was an explosion, what he got was the image of his charge shot disappearing, and inflicting not a scratch on the Arwing. "What?! What the hell was that?"

Archer's voice crackled in his earpiece, his voice sounded both awed and worried. "Gravitic anomaly, looks like a mini-singularity. It just...ate the energy."

"How?" James asked, watching helplessly as Peppy's fighter broke up and the "pilot down" symbol superimposed itself over the Switch-Wing's HUD. To his credit, Peppy didn't make any sort of dramatic scream, instead taking his third consecutive loss in stunned silence.

"Must be the G-diffusers. I'd heard they were supposed to do that, but I assumed it was just a rumor."

"Shit." James adjusted the angle of his pursuit, pouring on a bit more speed as he rocketed after Vixy, the Arwing still in his sights. "Ideas?"

"Charge shots are gonna be useless," Archer answered. "She'll just barrel roll them into oblivion. But I don't think she'll be able to do the same with rapid, concentrated fire."

James nodded, locking on his with two secondary wing cannons. "Engage hyper-lasers."

"Copy, engaging."

"Take my wing," James ordered. "I'm getting us a kill today." The Arwing started putting on speed, dodging up and down, left and right, all the while trying to get out of the Switch-Wing's range. "Oh no you don't." James put his Switch-Wing into full throttle. Aiming would be more difficult at this extreme speed, but he didn't plan on accuracy, just on an overwhelming bullet hose.

A proximity alarm beeped briefly to his starboard side, and James spared a glance to see Archer forming up alongside him. "James, we can't keep up this speed indefinitely," he warned.

"We don't have to," James countered. "We just have to keep it up long enough to teach this vixen a lesson."

"Copy." There was a note of gruff approval in Archer's voice.

A hologram popped up on the cockpit canopy indicating he'd reached optimum range for his hyper-lasers. The moment it registered James started firing. Blue hyphens of death erupted from his wing mounted cannons, all of them flying toward Vixy's Arwing. The Arwing kicked its evasive maneuvers into overdrive, foregoing standard patterns for unpredictability, but some of the strikes hit home. "That's right Vixy, I know you can eat it like a champ," James growled.

"Say again?" Archer asked, opening up with his own hyper-lasers. "You're on an open comm boss."

"Nevermind," James answered, smirking as he continued firing. There was no way Vixy could dodge all of that fire, and no way her shields could absorb it for more than a few seconds. We've got her, James thought to himself.

Of course, the moment he thought that to himself, Vixy seemed to pick up on it, and decide that she was far from done. Even as the hyper-laser fire impacted on her shields, she elected to show off another one of the Arwing's capabilities. James, convinced his victory was assured, was too cocky to notice what was happening. In a fraction of a second the Arwing stopped all forward motion, coming to a braking halt that would have flattened a pilot like a pancake in any other craft. But the Arwing's G-diffuser technology was, once again, paying dividends.

"Where'd she go?" James gasped. His answer was a fusilade of high energy lasers impacting his rear shields. "Dammit," he cursed. He did his best to maneuver away, but Vixy was on his tail.

A familiar voice, female, came crackling through his Switch-Wing's speakers. "What was that about me eating it like a champ?"

Shaking his head James tried to loop around behind her, but it was too late. Space around him exploded in white light, and the computer announced, "Star Fox Lead is down."

Moments later the computer echoed the same thing for Archer. James collapsed back in his seat, taking a deep breath and running a hand across his sweat slick brow. A countdown appeared on his screens, giving him two minutes to ready up for the next round. Opening his team channel, James said, "Alright guys, we're zero for three here, ideas?"

"Yeah, don't get shot," Peppy said, sarcasm dripping from his tone.

"Right," James said, shaking his head. If Peppy was that pissed off, then his own sanity was probably in serious jeopardy. The countdown ended, and the light speckled vista of space shimmered into holographic existence. "Star Fox, we're gonna do this, okay?" Acknowledgement lights winked across his HUD. Setting his face in a look of determination, James rocketed ahead, right back into battle.

Vixy looped and rolled through a simulated asteroid field. Judging by the size and proximity of the floating rocks, she guessed this was meant to be one of the thicker parts of Meteo, Lylat's own belt. Every now and then her proximity warning would blare with an alert about an asteroid too close to dodge, and she would light up the wayward hunk of iron and nickel with a few bolts of high energy lasers, shattering it and peppering her canopy with its remains. Thus far there was no sign of the Switch-Wings she was supposed to be hunting.

This was their fifth round now, the last one having gone, just barely, to Star Fox. They'd managed to triple team her, overwhelming her shields and allowing Peppy to score a kill, even after she'd managed to vape both Archer and James. She had a feeling Peppy was feeling rather proud of that, and that he'd probably hold it over James for a good long while. The thought made her smile, remembering how the two of them used to compete with her in long, obscenity filled videogame sessions back on Papetoon. Considering what they were doing now, she wondered how much had changed.

"Where are they?" she wondered aloud. She wouldn't lie to herself and say she didn't enjoy seeing James again, hearing his voice again. It reminded her of fun times in the back of her parent's car, hoping no one would see it bouncing up and down on the side of the road. Or the time James had been forced into a speech and debate class in high school, and she'd watched him stutter and mumble through his first speech, more nervous than she'd ever seen him.

Passing under one of the larger asteroids, Vixy got a strange feeling. The fur on the back of her neck started to stiffen, and she began to wonder if maybe, just maybe, she was walking into a trap. It would be just like James to be waiting in a dark corner for his chance to pop out and scare the living daylight out of her.

"Hey Reinard..." That voice of his came through the Arwing's comm, crystal clear in the silence of space. "Eat this."

Vixy's eyes widened as a target lock alarm sounded. "Nova bomb! Fuck." She did a quick roll, heading deeper into the asteroid belt. If she was lucky it would confuse the bomb's targeting sensors, and then it would either detonate prematurely, or slam into any of the myriad of debris that now surrounded her.

The Arwing looped and dived and dodged through the moving rock pile, and the bomb began to wobble behind her, losing track of her in the mess. A few moments later, as she was about to enter a clearing, the nova bomb detonated, vaporizing a good thousand metric tons of ice and nickel, but leaving her unscathed. Vixy breathed a sigh of relief, but it soon turned to a cry of alarm as her cockpit canopy lit up with the strobing lights of laser fire impacting her forward shields. "It was a trap!" she yelled as she went evasive, too late to avoid the stream of fire coming from Archer's and Peppy's Switch-Wings, which had been lying in wait for her the whole time.

The simulator pod informed her, helpfully, that she was dead, and the countdown began to the next match. "Fifteen minutes?" she looked doubtfully at the timer. "Seriously?"

The pod opened and Beltino's voice filtered through the loudspeakers of the observation deck. "Fifteen minutes people, go shake out your legs."

"Huh. Okay." Vixy climbed out of her pod and bounded down the steps to the ground level. She saw James, Peppy, and Archer walking down, all of them looking a bit haggard. Smiling she waved and walked over to them. "How you guys doing?"

Peppy spat venom at her with his eyes, not trusting himself to say anything in response. Archer just stared at her. James, on the other hand, looked at her appraisingly. "I guess this means that Cornerian flight school agreed with you."

Shrugging, Vixy replied, "That, and the fact that I have so much raw talent."

"Hmmm." James nodded. "I'm gonna get you though."

"Oh really?" Vixy batted her eyelashes at him. "I don't recall you ever being able to catch me before."

Chuckling, James said, "I seem to remember catching you a few times. And that you loved every moment of it."

"Eh." Vixy wobbled her hand in the air.

"Tease." James smirked, the light in his eyes dancing with as much amusement as Vixy's. "Come on, is there a place we can get a drink around here?"

"Yeah, there's a break room down the hall," Vixy said, beckoning them to follow her.

They made their way out of the simulator room, waving in Beltino's direction. He waved back, then tapped his watch, reminding them that they were on a schedule. Vixy guided them down the corridor and into the break room. It wasn't much, but it at least had a few comfy chairs and a vending machine. A window on the far wall looked out at a small park enclosure, and Vixy could see several people sitting on benches taking their lunch outside. "Does it take a card?" James asked, looking suspiciously at the machine's coin tray.

"No." Vixy walked up and put a few coins in. "Get whatever you want, on me."

James hit the button for a grape soda, tail wagging as he bent down to retrieve it. James seemed to sense an opportunity for more vulpine teasing, arching his tail a bit more than necessary to maintain his balance, and giving Vixy a nice view of his rear end. Vixy could hear the smirk in his voice when he said, "You looking at my ass Reinard?"

Standing behind him Vixy indulged herself fully in the sight before her. James' toned, muscular ass was being put on mouth watering display with that tight fitting, green flightsuit of his. Glancing at Peppy and Archer before returning her gaze to James' tail side, Vixy noticed that the snug fit of the male vulpine's flight suit seemed to be unique to him. Not that it surprised her, it would be just like James to try and show off his goods like that. Snickering, Vixy said, "So is Peppy."

"Am not," Peppy growled, glaring at her.

"Aw come on Pep, you know he's got a cute one," Vixy replied, taking James' place at the machine. She hit the button for flavored water, bending over as suggestively as possible when it rattled out. She could feel James drinking in the view, and she reveled in the feeling of both strutting her stuff and the nostalgia she got from doing it for James. Still, nostalgia is all it is really, she thought to herself. Turning back around she unscrewed the cap on the bottle and took a long gulp from it. When she was done she wiped her muzzle and looked directly at James. "Mmm. Zucchini."

James, much to her amusement, blushed a bit, remembering the meaning behind that word. It didn't take him long to shake off the shyness however. "Figures. You always liked zucchini."

Licking her lips, Vixy said, "Mmm. You know it."

Next to them, Peppy and Archer looked between the two of them in mild confusion. It was clear that some sort of old, inside joke was passing between the two foxes, but it zoomed over Peppy's and Archer's heads at warp speed. Peppy racked his brain trying to remember ever seeing Vixy eat zucchini. "Vixy, I thought you hated zucchini. Didn't you used to say it made you gag?"

Both vulpines turned to stare at him, grinning like idiots, their eyes wide as dinner plates. Then, much to the hare and lynx's mounting confusion, the two burst into hysterics. "Oh Pep," James said, collapsing into one of the chairs, hardly able to breathe. "Oh god."

Vixy, tail wagging in a blur, flopped down on James' lap, bending over his knee as she cracked up. "Oh my god. Oh no. Peppy!"

Looking at Peppy, Archer said, "I'll let you deal with this one." The lynx then set about getting himself a drink.

Still confused, Peppy sat down and tried to work through what he'd said. Finally, the two of them got control of themselves, and James replied, "Trust me Peppy, it's nothing you want to know."

"Uh huh." That alone spoke volumes to Peppy. "Where did you end up going to flight school, Vixy?"

Sitting up Vixy put an arm around James' neck, leaning into his shoulder. "Aero Academy," she replied.

Archer whistled, taking a seat next to Peppy. "Expensive."

"Yeah." Vixy shrugged, sipping at her flavored water. "My parents could afford it though. I wanted to get off Papetoon, and I think they were okay seeing me go."

"I doubt that," James said, recalling how close Vixy had been with her parents.

"Nah, they were fine," Vixy insisted. "I still talk to them all the time. But like I said, they knew I didn't like it there, and as mushy as it sounds they always wanted the best for me."
James nodded, then shifted in his seat. "Um, Vixy?"

"Yeah?" She looked at him, her eyes glittering with a mischievous gleam. She knew what was going on.

"You mind uh, moving to another seat?"

"Sure," Vixy said. "Wouldn't want your flight stick getting jammed, now would we?"

James shook his head, trying not to be reminded of his and Clara's similar banter earlier in the day. "Anyone ever tell you what a freaking tease you are?"

Giggling as she sat down in the next empty chair in the breakroom, Vixy said, "Everyone. I love it."

"Are they always like this?" Archer asked, looking curiously at Peppy.

Letting out a long, explosive sigh, Peppy said, "All the time."

Phones started buzzing before anyone could say anything further. Vixy took a look at hers and said, "Five minutes. We should probably head back. Beltino'll grow a new wart if we get behind schedule."

The four pilots got up and began walking back down the corridor. "He did seem a little jumpy about it," James mentioned.

"Not much of a surprise," Archer said, tossing his empty drink container in a nearby recycling can.

"How do you mean?" James asked.

"The Arwing is massively behind schedule," Vixy explained. "And about twenty-percent over budget. At the rate things are going, she may never see mass production."

"If things are that bogged down, why don't they just kill the project and move on?" Peppy inquired, raising his eyebrows.

"Believe me they've tried. But between Air Corp support, and an army of Space Dynamics lobbyists, no one has been able to dismantle the program. Yet," Vixy answered. "Still, we're one big fuck up away from shutdown."

"Surprised they're letting you pilot, then," James quipped. Vixy socked him in the arm, hard enough that James let out a genuinely pained grunt. "Just kidding, jeez."

Vixy rolled her eyes. "Want me to kiss it and make it better?"

Holding out his arm, James said, "I didn't know you were into elbows, but sure."

"That's the McCloud I remember." Vixy cackled at the image that sprang up in her head. It was good to be around James again.

"Where'd she go?" James looked frantically from side to side, trying to make visual contact with the Arwing. Archer was limping along next to him, one wing shorn off, and his I-Diffuser sparking from Vixy's latest ambush.

The simulator had dumped them in the middle of a deserted space base outside of Sector X. The station was in pieces, leaking debris and radiation in all directions, which was playing havoc with the sensors onboard the Switch-Wings. The only reason Vixy hadn't smoked them already was that the Arwing's sensors didn't seem anymore immune to the interference than they were.

This was their final match of the day, and Star Fox had just barely managed to pull even with Vixy's score. If they got a win here, the first day of combat simulations would be in their favor. And James wanted that win.

"No idea," Archer replied. "You better jet here James, I'm dead weight."

James shook his head, growling low in his throat. "No member of Star Fox talks like that. Peppy, can you see her?"

"Negative," Peppy said. "No...no wait."

"What is it?" James' hand tightened around the flight stick.

"I saw something on sensors. For an instant," Peppy explained, his voice sounding more crackly in the comms than usual. Damn that radiation.

"It's her," James said, infusing his tone with a confidence he didn't quite feel.

"You sure?" Peppy's voice was doubtful.

"It's gotta be," James replied. "Hell, who knows? But it's better than nothing."

"Right," Peppy didn't sound very reassured.

"Archer, you hang back here," James instructed. "We'll move ahead and check it out. If it's her, we'll smoke her. If it's not her..."

"Then I'm already dead," Archer finished. "Go."

James and Peppy's Switch-Wings boosted ahead, and James muttered a string of curses under his breath. Vixy was a damn good pilot, he'd always known that. Back in the day they'd trained on farm planes, spraying the Papetoon desert crops while pulling off barrel rolls and other maneuvers they had no business doing in a crop duster. Her time at Aero had certainly honed her skills. But the Arwing...well that made an already great pilot nigh on invincible. The combination of speed and maneuverability, along with firepower and durability that easily matched that of the Switch-Wing, led James to understand why they were supposed to gang up three against one. With the right pilots, just a few of those things could change the course of a war, James thought to himself.

"James, if this is just a sensor ghost, you know we're in real trouble," Peppy said, breaking James' reverie.

"Yeah, well, we were already screwed."

"Your confidence inspires me lead," Peppy groused.

James rolled his eyes. If Peppy was calling him "lead" he really was getting testy. Banking around a cloud of debris, James said, "Archer, anything on your end?"

"Negative James, all quiet. My poor Switch-Wing though." Archer truly sounded pained about the damage his fighter had taken.

"Just a simulator," James reminded him.

"It still has simulated feelings then," Archer argued, his voice in danger of cracking. James couldn't tell if he was being theatrical or not. He probably was.

"Remind me to add psychotherapy to the list of health benefits when this team actually gets off the ground," James said, trying to lighten the mood.

"Come out come out wherever you are," Peppy muttered into his mic. The hare immediately regretted saying it.

"Light it up bitches," came the staticy voice of Vixy Reinard. Laser fire poured into James' and Peppy's flight path.

"Fuck you!" James yelled, just barely managing to escape without losing a wing. Peppy was less fortunate.

"AHHHHHH!" The scream was more in anger and frustration than anything else.

"Just you and me James," Vixy said. "Wanna save us both some time and surrender now?"

"Never," James bit out, managing to maneuver into a workable, if not ideal, firing position.

"Awww come on. I'll be gentle," Vixy goaded him, bringing her Arwing up on its port wing and circling around him. James poured as much hyper-laser fire at her as he could.

"Gentle? That can only mean one thing," James answered, breathing a sigh of relief when he managed to stay behind her. The two of them were circling like sharks, taking pot shots at each other.

"What?" Vixy asked, her breath coming a little faster. That reassured James, it meant she wasn't just toying with him.

"You're an imposter. A filthy fake," James answered, queuing up a nova bomb. He had an idea. He just hoped the radiation would affect her sensors enough not to give it away.

"How do you figure?"

Setting the nova bomb to manual detonation mode, James nosed his fighter onto a course perpendicular to hers. It would give her three seconds where she could fire cleanly at him, but if things went to plan, neither of them would last that long. "Because the Vixy I remember..." A collision alert sounded in his cockpit, he silenced it immediately. Vixy, thinking he was going to play a game of chicken with her, maintained her course, not wanting to be the one who pulled away first. Typical. The two of them were almost nose to nose. James didn't dodge, despite his instincts screaming at him to. Vixy, not wanting to go down in a head on collision, angled her Arwing away, setting a course that would miss him by centimeters. Perfect. "...likes it rough."

James hit the control to detonate the bomb, but without bothering to fire it. His Switch-Wing went up in flames, but the explosion caught Vixy at the same time. Both ships disappeared in a blanket of fire and antimatter residue.

The pods popped open, and the computer announced that Star Fox had taken the final match, beating "Team Arwing" by one solid point. "YES!" James pumped his fists in the air, then clambered out of his pod. He ran down the stairs, heading straight for Vixy, who was clearly fuming. "In your FACE!" he called out, pointing both hands at her as he did a victory jig, any sense of professionalism he might have had tossed out the window by the pure elation of victory.

Vixy just smacked his hands and let out a stream of invective to make a sailor blush. Once she'd gotten it out of her system, she said, "I knew I shoulda finished off Archer when you guys left him behind."

"Yeah, but you didn't," James reminded her, grinning cockily as he gave her the finger.

Flipping him off with both hands, Vixy said, "I figured he was bait. And besides, committing suicide? Just so you could get the win? That..."

"Worked," James supplied, grinning.

"Urrrrr!" Vixy beat her fists against her sides.

Stepping between the two of them, Peppy held up a hand and said, "Simmer down, both of you. James, that was the stupidest thing I've ever seen you do, and I've seen you do a lot of stupid stuff."

The male vulpine just shrugged. "Hey, we won. Who cares?"

"Oi." Peppy buried his face in his hands.

Archer just shook his head. "Hey, at least I survived."

"Hell yeah you did." James clapped the lynx on his broad shoulders. "Archer, bringing it in for the win!"

"Excuse me." A throat cleared, and everyone turned to see a slight, bespectacled fennec in a sweater vest standing at the entrance to the simulator room.

There was a clattering of metal as Beltino rushed down the stairs from the observation area. "Mr. Phoenix! Mr. Phoenix, I didn't know you'd be here."

"I thought I'd drop in," Argus Phoenix said.

Stepping forward, James held out his hand, tail wagging behind him. "I assume you're the head honcho. James McCloud, commander of the Star Fox team."

Shaking his hand, and demonstrating a grip that actually made James wince in surprise, Argus said, "I know all about you Commander McCloud. Pepper sent along your files."

"All about me, sir?" James asked, looking a little shocked.

Chuckling, Argus said, "I'm being a bit dramatic. I know your name, and that you're one of the best pilots in Lylat. The only others who could hold a candle to you are right here, in this room. Tell me, what do you think about the Arwing?"

"It's a monstrosity," James informed him. "In the best possible way. I'd love to get my hands on a few for my team."

Argus nodded, looking considerate. "Hmmm. Continue to impress me in the simulator, and you might just get your wish some day." He shifted his gaze over to Vixy. "Well done Reinard. Well done. I'm confident you'll make up the score in the next session. Right?"

"Yes sir," Vixy responded, staring daggers at James.

"Well, I've got to get going," Argus said. "Just wanted to stop in and say hello. James, Peppy, Archer, Vixy, Beltino." He nodded to each of them in turn, then spun on his heel and walked out, whistling softly to himself.

There was silence for a moment, then Archer let out a, "Whoo! I met him, I met the head of Space Dynamics!"

Everyone laughed good naturedly, then Beltino said, "Just a few things to wrap up, and then I'll let you go. If you'll follow me to the office."

Falling into step behind the toad, James whispered to Vixy, "We cool?"

"We're cool." She glanced at him. "Buy me a drink?"

"More zucchini water?" he asked, elbowing her gently in the ribs.

Elbowing him back hard enough to get an oof Vixy said, "No. Something intoxicating."

"Deal." James looked at her for a moment, then added, "I'm happy to see you."

"Yeah." She nodded, then gave him a sultry little look. "I'll bet you are."

A/N: Okay, I need to make dummy notes for myself so that I don't keep uploading these so late on Fridays. Apologies about that.

This chapter is largely unchanged from the previous version, though it's a little more fleshed out detail wise. The next chapter however will be completely new, with nothing you will have seen before. I'll have a wee bit more to say for an author's note in that chapter as well. Like I said, though, these notes won't be on any regular basis.

See you all next Friday! (Hopefully earlier)

Vixy: It won't be.

Shut up.