Prototype
Two chapters in one day what?
I don't own Starfox
The Great Fox medical bay a couple of days later
Siris had been lying in bed for days, recovering from his blaster wound, his back still hurt a lot, but it was getting better. That was good because he was gonna go insane from boredom soon if he didn't find something to do.
He had a tablet to entertain himself with, but it could only do so much, right now he was looking for a new ship.
Kursed wasn't around to talk to anymore either she had recovered and left a couple of days ago already. Siris knew the Great Fox was moving, but to where he didn't know.
Siris heard the door open and looked up to see Fox walk in along with Kursed.
"I want to ask you a few questions about the ambush," He said.
"Okay," Siris said setting the tablet down.
"Did you see any Cornerian markings on the ships that attacked you?" Fox asked them.
Before Siris could answer, Kursed answered for him.
"Now that you mention it, no I don't remember seeing any official markings on any of the ships," Kursed said. "But they were Cornerian ships."
"They came out of nowhere like they knew we'd be there," Siris added. "We only escaped, because of StarWolf. They covered our escape."
That reminded him, he hadn't seen or spoken to Wolf since then, he had no idea if they had survived the encounter.
"I need to contact Wolf," He said suddenly, reaching for his communicator.
Siris pressed the call button on his communicator. There was a long pause before Wolf answered.
"Yeah?" Wolf asked.
"Wolf," Siris said. "I wanted to let you know we made it back to the Great Fox, and to thank you for the help."
"I'm glad you called. I have something you might be interested in," Wolf said, and a picture of a black and gray Arwing showed up, the ship was nearly invisible against the darkness of space.
"Have you or your Starfox friends seen this ship before?" Wolf asked. "Almost took me down, nearly took Panther and Leon down as well."
"No, never," Fox said. "It's not any of ours."
Siris took a closer look at the fighter, something about it struck him as familiar. Mainly the paw print insignia on the side.
"Thought you might find that interesting," Wolf added. "Just do me a favor, when you find this guy, kill him." With that Wolf ended the transmission.
"So there's a rogue pilot out there with access to Cornerian ships, and an Arwing, that can't be good," Kursed commented.
"No," Fox said. "It can't."
"Where was this exactly?" Fox asked.
"Well, we were on route from Kew, we weren't using Slipspace to save power," Siris said thoughtfully.
Fox brought up a holo-map of the Lylat system and zoomed out until Kew showed up.
"We found you and Kursed, here," Fox said, pointing at the map, at empty space between Lylat and Kew.
"I was forced to make a blind jump to escape the ambush," Kursed. "We lost power and exited slipspace there."
"Okay," Fox said.
"You said those ships were Corninian, are you sure?" Fox asked. "Because if you're wrong…"
"I'm not wrong," Siris said. "I'm willing to bet they had something to do with that prototype Arwing you were supposed to steal as well." He said to Kursed.
"I'm gonna go make a call," Fox said before departing from the medical bay.
"What can you tell me about the Arwing you were supposed to steal?" Siris asked Kursed once Fox and left the room.
"Not much," Kursed said shrugging. "It was a prototype, that's all I know about it."
Siris pressed some buttons on his tablet before flipping around and showing it to Kursed.
"Is this it?" He asked showing her the picture.
"Yeah, that's it," Kursed said. "It's being held at the Cornerian Flight Academy."
"Perfect," Siris said.
"Why is that perfect?" Kursed asked him.
"Because we're gonna steal it," Siris said.
"How?" Kursed asked.
"First, we're going to need Fox's I.D. card to get into the Academy,"
"How am I supposed to get that from him?" Kursed asked.
"I'll leave that up to you," Siris said with a sly smile.
Kursed rolled her eyes and left the room.
Later that night, as Fox was getting ready for bed, there was a knock on his door. He frowned but got up and answered it anyway and was surprised to see Kursed standing outside his door.
She was wearing the same flight suit she had before she had left the team, her hair was back to its natural blue color. Fox's mouth dropped open slightly.
"Can I come in?" She asked.
"Um…sure," Fox said stepping aside to let her in.
Kursed walked into the room, and Fox closed the door.
"I wanted to…apologize for slapping you earlier. I was angry and…"
Fox reached up and rubbed the spot where she'd hit him. It was still a little sore.
"You don't need to apologize," He said rubbing the back of his neck. "You were right, and I should have gone out to find you myself instead of allowing Siris to do it for me."
The next morning Kursed came to visit Siris in the medical bay.
"Wow," He said seeing her in her flight suit.
"Thank you," Kursed replied sitting on the edge of the bed.
"What are you doing?" She asked him.
"Research," Siris said. "On that Arwing, the prototype."
"Did you know Fox's Dad was involved in the design?"
"No," Kursed answered.
Siris showed her the screen and pointed at a list of names. Among them was James McCloud.
"Interesting, I have Fox's I.D.," She said holding the card out.
"How did you…?" Siris started to ask her. "Never mind, I don't want to know."
"What did you need it for?" Kursed asked.
"I plan on using it to steal that Arwing," Siris said.
"What?" Kursed asked him sharply, standing up.
"What's wrong?" Siris asked her.
"If you use Fox's I.D. to steal that ship he'll get blamed and…" Kursed said before stopping herself.
Siris looked at her, "I thought you hated Fox," He said.
"Well, no I don't hate him per say..." Kursed said rubbing her arm, trailing off.
"Doesn't matter," Siris said. "I think we'll need his help anyway."
"Fox, can you meet me in the Medical Bay. Siris wants to discuss something with us." Kursed said into the ship intercom.
A minute later Fox arrived in back in the Medical Bay.
"I may have a lead on who wants Kursed dead, and we need your help with something," Siris said to Fox.
"With what?" Fox said, folding his arms over his chest as he hovered by the door.
"We're gonna steal a prototype Arwing," Siris said bluntly, showing Fox a picture of the fighter on his tablet.
"You're gonna what now?" Fox asked unfolding his arms.
"We're gonna steal a prototype Arwing, and you are going to help us do it," Siris added smirking.
"That prototype cost billions of credits, I can't just let you walk into the Flight Academy and steal it," Fox said walking forward. "I doubt you could fly it anyway. I could barely handle it."
"You're gonna have to," Siris said. "That ship could lead us to who wants Kursed dead. Besides, and the way I see it, you owe me a ship."
"It doesn't matter," Fox said shaking his head. "You won't be able to get into the Academy with an I.D. anyway."
"You mean one of these?" Kursed asked holding out Fox's I.D. card.
"How did...when did you?" Fox stammered. Fox's mind flashed back to when Kursed kissed him in his room and groaned loudly.
"Oh, you gotta be kidding me…"
"If you don't want to help, I'm sure StarWolf will be more than happy to…" Siris said reaching for his communicator.
"Fine," Fox conceded not wanting the ship to fall into the hands of StarWolf. "We'll head back to Corneria."
"I'm going to live to regret this. I know I am," Fox mumbled as he engaged the slipspace drive to Corneria.
"Don't worry about it, you're helping Kursed," Siris said.
"And breaking about fifty laws at the same time," Fox muttered.
The remainder of the trip was silent. Siris suspected Fox was angry at him and Kursed for manipulating his feelings for her to get his I.D.
The Great Fox dropped out of slipspace, and the planet Corneria loomed in front of them. The large ship descended through the atmosphere and docked at the spaceport, drawing the usual crowd.
"Here we go," Fox said getting out of his chair.
The trio exited the Great Fox to see the usual crowd of animals gathered around the ship.
"Is it usually like this?" Siris asked eyeing the crowd wearily.
"Nah, this crowd is smaller than normal," Fox said waving to the crowd.
Fox seemed to be enjoying it, but Siris couldn't help but notice that Kursed was doing her best to keep her face hidden from view. To help her, Siris moved to block the camera's view of her.
"Thank you," She whispered to him as Fox continued down the ramp, oblivious.
The Trio hailed a cab and a few minutes later, arrived at the entrance to the Academy and were stopped by the guard standing outside.
"I.D. sir," The guard said.
"You know who I am," Fox said sounding irate, but held out his I.D. for the guard to check anyway.
"This is Siris, he's the new member of StarFox," Fox said. "He doesn't have his I.D. yet. I'll vouch for him."
The guard nodded and didn't question them any further and let them in. But held his hand out and stopped Kursed.
"You look familiar…" The guard said to her. "Do I know you from someplace?"
"She's my girlfriend, she's good," Siris, who was closer to her said.
"Fine," The Guard said letting Kursed pass as well. "But keep an eye on her."
"Cornerian security sure isn't what it used to be," She commented quietly as they caught up to Fox.
"That's the hanger there," Fox said pointing to a large hanger with no less than a half-dozen guards in front of it.
"Great, so how do we get inside?" Siris asked.
"I'll cause a distraction," Kursed said before quickly running off.
"Wait! What kind of...oh forget it!" Fox said as Kursed vanished with a flick of her tail.
A short while later alarms started blaring throughout the Academy.
"What did you do?" Fox asked into his communicator.
"Just go! You won't have much time!" Kursed said back.
Siris looked at the hanger and saw most of the guards had moved off.
"Let's go!" He said sprinting across the pavement towards the hanger.
He knocked out the guards
The doors to the hangar opened revealing the prototype Arwing to Fox and Siris. At first glance, the fighter looked similair to a regular Arwing. It was Fox who pointed out the main differences.
"The G-defusers are smaller," He said. "The wings, they're swept forward instead of back."
"Cool," Siris said walking up to the fighter, running his hand along the side.
"What are you doing?" Fox asked as Siris climbed into the open canopy and eased himself into the seat. Inside, the cockpit was slightly larger than a normal Arwing, there were a fw extra panels Siris didn't recognize.
"Careless of them to leave the canopy open like this, it's like leaving the keys in a hovercar," Siris commented as he started pressing buttons, starting the engines, closing the canopy.
As the powerful engines of the fighter kicked on Siris started humming a song as he pushed buttons, activating the ships different systems.
"Revving up the engine, listen to her howl tonight…"
"Stop that," Fox said back.
"What, it's a good song," Siris said back as the fighter started drifting out of the hanger.
Various voices came over the radio, yelling at Siris, he ignored them and continued out of the hanger.
"XPA-5 you do not have permission to take off, we have incoming aircraft!"
Siris ignored the voices yelling at him from the Air Traffic control tower and taxied out of the hanger.
"Security forces are on the way," Fox advised him.
"So deal with them," Siris said belting himself in.
"You mean kill them?" Fox asked.
"Yes!" Siris said back. "I'm a sitting duck on the ground like this."
"I can't," Fox said.
"Kursed?" Siris asked.
"On it," She responded.
"Hurry up," Siris said seeing Security forces running toward him as he taxied down the runway.
A blaster shot hit the canopy, making Siris yell and flinch back. The shot did little to no damage, another one hit the fuselage of the fighter jolting the fighter. Siris looked around and saw a Landmaster tank moving toward him ready to fire another shot. One more shot and he'd be done for.
"Fox! Do something about that tank!" Siris said over the radio.
"Like what?!" Fox asked. "All I brought is my blaster, not exactly useful against a land master.
"UGH, fine!" Siris grumbled as he began to activate the Arwings weapons systems.
"CANNONS ACTIVATED," The screen in front on him flashed, and a targeting retical appeared on the windscreen.
Siris turned the Arwing 90 degrees, pointing it at the tank and fired. The tank exploded in a fireball.
Once he was in the clear, he pushed the throttle as far forward as he could. Siris was pushed back into the seat as the fighter raced down the runway as fast as he dared, Siris pulled back on the control stick and shot nearly vertically into the sky.
"WHOA!" Siris yelled. As the G-defusers worked to eliminate the G-forces exerted on his body.
He needed to work fast, he knew air units would be deployed after him. The plan was to hide the fighter onboard the Great Fox. Where it could easily go unnoticed even if they did search the ship.
After a brief joyride around Corneria City, Siris landed in the hangar bay of the Great Fox.
"What a ride," He said jumping out of the cockpit. "I may not wanna give it back."
Fox frowned at him, his arms crossed over his chest.
He didn't say anything and led Siris up to the bridge. Where the others were waiting for him, Slippy looked like he was going to burst with excitement over the chance to examine the new Arwing.
"Go on," Fox said, and Slippy practically sprinted out of the bridge.
"Now, how is this fighter going to help us?" Fox asked.