Star Fox: Next Gen

by ZombieAxeHero

In the distant future, Marcus McCloud follows in his father's footsteps and dedicates his life to fighting alongside his friends, pledging to rid the Lylat System of tyranny. When old enemies return, only they have the strength and courage to stop them. But blood feuds run deep, and an old rival of Marcus's father has a prodigy of his own. One who has made Marcus her top priority.

10. Red Hot Rumble

CHAPTER TEN

Red Hot Rumble

November 4th, 2053

McCloud's House

Because Chase still had yet to obtain the right moderator to translate the Saurian symbols, Marcus had decided to take the matter into his own hands. The previous night, he stayed up late searching through the Cornerian military files (to which he, being the leader of Star Fox, had access) for any information on General Scales or any other hostile life-form on Sauria. He had just typed the phrase "Sharpclaw Tribe" into the Search bar, when he fell asleep where he sat.

He didn't wake up again until 10:15 the next morning, when Fox came into Marcus' room and found his son drooling all over the desk.

"Sport, where you up all night searching through those files?" Fox asked.

Marcus rubbed his eyes before answering.

"Unfortunately. Dad, you remember General Scales, right?"

"General Scales…" Fox repeated. "Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time."

"But do you remember him?"

"Remember him? I watched him die right in front of me."

"Chase found something on Zoness that may relate back to General Scales. Can you tell me some stuff about him?"

"Well, Scales was the leader of the Sharpclaw dinosaur tribe. Everyone on Sauria, even a few members of his own tribe, hated him because he tried to rule the planet with an iron fist. Fact is he's the reason that Sauria broke apart when I was 26. He broke the seals in the two Force Point Temples and stole magical objects called Spellstones, causing the planet to fall apart. I ran into him looking for the Spellstones."

"Could he speak English?"

'No. Only the Thorntail Shopkeeper, the Warpstone and my old friend Tricky the Earthwalker can speak English on that planet. Everyone else speaks Saurian."

"Hmm…what happened to him?"

"I met him again when I went after the final Krazoa Spirit to save your mother. We were just about to fight each other when Andross' soul told Scales to give up the spirit…so he did…and he vanished."

"Just…vanished? No bones? No blood? No corpse?"

"Nope. Nothing."

Marcus thought for a second.

"Somethin' fishy is goin' on here." he said to himself.

It was literally impossible for someone to die and not leave behind a corpse. It was against the laws of physics. Then again, so are anthropomorphic animals, talking dinosaurs, and the Lylat System altogether.

"But honestly, you didn't need to stay up all night searching through that, did you?" Fox asked.

"…I guess not." Marcus replied. "Thing is Chase still doesn't have that moderator, and we need to get to the bottom of this before the whole galaxy erupts into a sway of terrorism."

Fox put a hand on his son's shoulder and smiled.

"I know you're just trying to be a good leader, but aren't you taking it a little too seriously? I did that in my day and made some pretty bad decisions if you know what I mean."

Marcus took a moment to ponder that, and then he smiled.

"Yeah, Dad, I guess you're right. I just can't stand seeing people getting hurt because of those god da…"

BEEP-BEEP-BEEP! His pager blared.

Marcus groaned.

"Of all the times!"

30 minutes later

"Whoa, hold the phone! We've gotta go WHERE?" asked Marcus

Peppy had contacted the Star Fox team from inside the Great Fox. He had just told them they had to go to Solar, one of the Lylat System's stars (The other one being Lylat, thus being where the system got its name)

"A Venomian nuclear base has been discovered there." Peppy said. "We need you to go down there and shut down the factory by any means necessary. I'm giving you authorization to detonate the base if necessary. Hare out."

Peppy's face disappeared from the screen.

"Didn't even bother asking for our opinion." Falco grumbled.

"He's the General." Chase said. "He doesn't care about or need our opinion."

"How does Gramps expect us to get down there without getting fried?" Anna whined. "That entire place is a flaming wasteland! We'll be burned to the bone before we even set foot in that base!"

Chase smirked.

"You really don't know the extent of my genius, do you, Anne?" he asked.

Anna glared at him.

"Would you be so kind as to mention what the hell you're talking about?"

"Well, it just so happens that I prepared for something like this. You remember that Thermal Suit we gave Mark? It has a backwards compatibility, so it can resist heat just as well as it can resist cold."

"OK." Marcus said. "Can you make three more of those before we get to Solar?"

"No need. I made them ages ago."

"Now THAT'S what I call thinking ahead. ROB, set course for Solar.

"Affirmative."

30 MORE minutes later

"Kids…I don't think we're gonna make it." Falco said with a tone of panic in his voice.

The team had arrived at Solar and Anna had marked the coordinates of the base on everybody's radar, but their ships were slowly taking damage from the intense heat.

"Ah, sweet Lord. Why did it have to be this?" Marcus groaned, his tongue hanging of mouth as he heavily panted.

"I think I'm gonna dehydrate before I make it." Chase whined.

Being a frog, Chase wasn't used to extreme heat. In fact, he hated heat altogether, making winter his favorite season. "Summer sucks, Christmas rules!" he always said.

"Don't fly too low! Your ship can't take it!" Anna warned.

"No promises." Chase replied meekly.

"Enough whining, guys!" Marcus said, snapping to attention. "We're not gonna get there and back if we keep whining about how we hate this place."

Even with the Thermal Suits on, each member of the Star Fox team was sweating bullets. Marcus had to strain his eyes to see through the bright light.

"Man, if Katt could see this bullcrap…" Falco grumbled.

A column of lava shot up out of the surface of the star.

"Watch out!" Anna screamed.

The team barrel-rolled out of the way to avoid getting pelted by the molten ore.

"Everybody keep an eye on your six!" Marcus shouted. "There's no telling when that'll happen again."

Everybody flew higher, away from the lava, but it didn't really seem to matter. Hundreds of volcanic rocks shot up at them.

"Shoot those things down, or we're gonna get smoked!" Anna hollered.

Lasers went flying as the team laid their thumbs on the cannon buttons and shot the meteors into pieces. Suddenly, Marcus ship shook.

"What the..." Marcus sputtered.

"What happened, Mark?" Chase asked. "Are you hit?"

Marcus looked up. An odd bird-like creature had landed on his ship. The Arwing was slowly being weighed down toward the lava.

"Hey! I ain't a tree! Get off me!" Marcus shouted at the bird.

He slammed his steering console all the way to the left and did a barrel roll. The bird fell off, but Marcus had done was make it angry, forcing it to chase after him.

"I ain't your buddy! Go away!" Marcus hollered.

He somersaulted over his pursuer and got around behind it.

"The hunter becomes the hunted." Anna said when Marcus shot the bird, sending it careening into the lava below.

"OK, what was that thing and why was it napping on my ship?" Marcus asked.

"I think that was an Aviara." Chase replied. "They live all over this place. They're constantly looking for things to land on and build their nests."

"And it looks like they've marked us as potential targets." Falco grumbled angrily.

More of the birds flew out of the fiery surface towards them, but to the team's surprise, the avian creatures opened their mouths and began firing lasers at them.

"These things are bio-engineered, too!" Chase shouted.

"Get a scan on one of 'em! We'll check it out when we get back." Marcus ordered.

"Don't you mean IF we get back?"

"That negativity is gonna come back and bite you in the ass one day." Anna grumbled.

Three Aviaras were chasing Falco, who barrel-rolled to deflect the lasers fired at him. Suddenly, a rather large Aviara swooped down and clawed the Sky Claw with its talons. When Falco tried to pull up, nothing happened.

"Falco, what are you doing? Those things are right behind you!" Anna screamed. "Pull up! Do a barrel roll! Do SOMETHING, for God's sake!"

"I can't!" Falco hollered back. "Something's wrong with the G-Diffuser!"

The G-Diffuser was what allowed the Arwing to repulse gravity and create the force of rise. It was easy to fix, but if Falco didn't do anything, he was screwed!

"Mark, get those guys off him!" Anna shrieked.

"I can't!" Marcus replied. "He's too far away!"

"Watch out!" Chase hollered. "There's more of them coming at you from the front!"

Falco was so focused on trying to repair his G-Diffuser that he had forgotten to watch where he was going.

Suddenly, a barrage of laser fire hit the Aviaras and sent them plummeting into the lava. Falco fixed the G-Diffuser and swerved away from the molten ore.

"Aha! Unjammed! Thanks, guys." Falco said.

"Uhh…that wasn't us." Marcus said nervously.

"Huh? Then who was it?"

Just then, a flatly-shaped ship flew down from the atmosphere and flew next to Falco.

"Hey, Lombardi!" a female voice called from inside the ship. "Remember me?"

Falco looked at the ship. He recognized both it and the playful voice. It was the Cat's Paw 2.

"Katt!" Falco cheered. "You're alive!"

Katt smiled from inside her ship.

"You guys need some help?" she asked.

"It would be much appreciated. Thanks." Marcus said.

"So you're Katt Monroe? Wow, I gotta say it's an honor to meet you." Anna said.

"Hey, don't start flattering me, sweetie. You've gotta watch your back." Katt replied.

"Incoming Aviaras…not that it's any surprise." Chase said.

Marcus established a comm link to the Great Fox.

"ROB, send us some bombs, will ya?"

"Location confirmed." ROB blared. "Sending supplies."

A few bombs landed in Marcus' artillery launcher.

"Ready…FIRE!" he shouted.

Everyone slammed on their bomb buttons. Five smart bombs flew through the air and collided with the swarm of Aviaras just as the five ships boosted away from them.

Katt looked behind her and saw two Aviaras following her.

"Ah, crap! I'm just not winning today." she grumbled.

Marcus noticed Katt's pursuers. He switched to Multi-Lock (which allowed him to lock onto more targets, although the shots were weaker.), locked onto them and downed them both.

"Take that, sucker!" Marcus cheered.

Katt smirked. "Beautiful! I could kiss you for that!"

Marcus blushed. From what he had heard about Katt, she was extremely beautiful (and not just for a 46-year old) and a bit of a badass. Whether or not those rumors were true, Marcus would find out.

"Uhh…you're welcome." he stammered.

"Look alive, guys! We're coming up on the base!" Chase said.

Marcus looked up. An enormous building with several tall smokestacks and rocket thrusters underneath it to keep it afloat was just 20 clicks away from them.

"OK, everyone. Initiate landing sequence!"

The five ships stopped over a large metal, platform, lowered themselves and made perfect touchdowns. The Star Fox team opened their cockpits and jumped down onto the platform. Katt hopped out after them. The team saw that she had her own Thermal Suit. When Chase got an eyeful of Katt, his mouth dropped open. Even for a forty-six year old feline, she seemed to be absolutely GLOWING with youth.

Anna took one look at Chase and scowled.

"Jeez, sometimes that guy is as dumb as a sack of peanuts." She grumbled.

Marcus slapped Chase across the face to snap him out of his trance.

"There's time for getting mesmerized by a hot chick later."

Marcus pulled out Krystal's staff and a laser blaster from his ship. Chase pulled out an M-16 machine gun, Anna a sniper rifle, Falco an AK-47 and Katt two full-auto pistols.

"According to the data I've collected about the base, there's 2 paths inside." Anna said. "One goes to the factory control room, though you'll have to get through an industrial area to get there. The other path goes to the base supercomputer."

"There may be some info in that computer that we can use." Marcus said. "Chase, you and Anna go in that direction. Falco, Katt and I will look for the main control unit."

"Got it!" everyone replied.

The Thermal Suits worked fairly well in terms of backwards compatibility, but everyone still had beads of sweat on their foreheads until they ran inside. Chase and Anna ran down the left corridor while Falco, Marcus and Katt took the right.

For the first few minutes, Marcus' squad didn't run into any problems. The hall was slightly longer and more crisscrossed than they expected, but stealth still remained a high priority, and a simple one at that. They stopped for a minute when Katt spoke up.

"So you're Fox McCloud's kid?" she asked Marcus.

Marcus turned to her.

"Well…yeah. But what's that got to do with anything?"

"I was just thinking you're not really like him, that's all."

"Not like him? What's that supposed to mean?"

"I mean you're not a complete dumbass."

Marcus was shocked.

"WHAT?"

Falco face-palmed himself.

"Here she goes again."

He should have warned Marcus that Katt hated Fox's guts. This simply because Fox had accidentally attacked a Venomian space cruiser that Katt and Falco's gang had stolen, causing Falco to get into a dogfight with him. Katt had been holding it over his head ever since.

"No offence, kid, but when it comes to intelligence, your dad is a wet match in a dark cave…if you'll excuse the metaphor."

Marcus couldn't stand it when people made fun of his parents. It literally made him want to tear something (or someone) to pieces. And right now, Katt was really ticking him off!

"And, honestly," Katt continued. "If you ask me, I think Krystal really would have been better o…"

Before Katt could finish her sentence, Marcus slammed his fist so hard against the metal wall that the floor trembled.

"SHUT UP!" he shouted. "My father is a great man! He's been saving your ass since before you knew who he was! And apparently you're too stuck-up to realize that my mom loved my dad like it was her life!"

Katt was literally taken aback by a sixteen year-old boy shouting at her. It made her feel awkward, but within three seconds of it settling in, it made her angry.

She frowned.

"Sheesh! No need to be so touchy, you whiny little prick!" she retorted.

"What did you say?" Marcus hollered.

"Hey, both of you!" Falco interrupted. "Knock it off! We're here to fight the bad guys, not each other! If you wanna make it out of here alive, we have to work together!"

Katt turned to Falco.

"Falco, I want to ask you something. If you had to decide between me and Star Fox, which would you take?"

Falco looked down at his feet. He had no idea what to say. If he said Katt, he'd be shunning the friends he had made by abandoning the Hot Rodders. But if he said Star Fox, he would break Katt's heart. Did she really mean that much to him?

After a few seconds of silence, Falco looked up. He had decided on his answer.

"Katt…you're gonna hate me for this…but I'd choose Star Fox."

"What?" Katt said in a shocked tone. "B..But..."

"Fox treated me like a real hero and a good friend. He didn't care if I was a vigilante. Ever since I left the Hot Rodders and met Fox, my life has taken a turn for the better. And besides, Mark's right. Fox is a great man."

Katt couldn't believe what she was hearing. Her best friend, Falco Lombardi, had rejected her.

"So…Isaac…Mouser…Rico…and me…we don't matter anymore?" Katt asked.

"Whoa, hang on!" Falco said. "I never said that!"

Suddenly, a trio of guards rounded the corner and caught sight of them.

"Intruder alert!" one of them shouted.

"Grrr! Should've saved our breaths." Marcus grumbled.

He unsheathed his staff, sprinted forward and bowled over the guards with his staff. Falco and Katt ran after him. The next room seemed to be the industrial area Anna had been talking about. Three large conveyor belts were carrying what looked an awful lot like atom bombs across the room. Several dangerous-looking machines were placing restraints on them. Worst of all, the room was filled with guards, all of whom were now running straight at Marcus, Katt and Falco.

"Hold those guys off while I get to the control unit!" Marcus ordered. "But for God's sake, watch your shot!"

Marcus dove over the first conveyor belt as the guards closed in around Katt and Falco, who immediately began fending them off with their fists. Falco loaded up his gun and began shooting it off at the Venomians. Katt still felt heartbroken knowing that Falco preferred Star Fox over her, but then she remembered that she now had to fight these goons to stay alive. So she did.

Marcus stepped onto the second conveyor belt. This one was moving along much faster than the other one. He had to sprint as quickly as he could to get over to the other side. Several snipers saw Marcus from their platforms and aimed their weapons at him. Marcus cart wheeled, back flipped and rolled away from the bullets zinging at him from nearly every angle.

Katt flipped over one guard, caught him with her legs and slammed him into the ground with a back flip. Falco used a sweep kick, then a roundhouse kick to the face to knock out the guard in front of him.

A guard with a chainsaw in his hands ran after Marcus, who in turn blocked the swing with his staff and landed a quick hit to the side of the Venomian's head. Finally, Marcus stepped onto the third conveyor belt, jumped on one of the atom bombs and used the Rocket Booster to propel himself toward the window which held in the control room.

He was going fast enough to smash right through the glass with relative ease.

"Alright!" Falco cheered. "He made it!"

Katt rolled her eyes.

"Yippee for him."

Marcus looked at the control unit's computer. Several oddly shaped thumbnails were on the screen.

"Chase, I'm at the unit. Talk to me." Marcus said into his comm.

No answer.

"Chase? Anna? If this is a joke, it's really not funny!"

Still no answer.

"Dammit! They must have turned their comms off."

That meant he had to figure out how to shut down the factory by himself! If there was one thing that Marcus was bad at besides stealth (which he had changed his mind about since the mission of Fichina), it was hacking into a computer. That was something he normally let Chase couldn't even figure out how to activate the self-destruct sequence!

Marcus was just about to try to figure out the username when he got a tingling sensation in the back of his head. His ESP (a.k.a. his sixth sense) was reacting.

A sixth sense was something that he had received genetically from Krystal. Her sixth sense was the ability to read the thoughts of the weak-minded. Marcus' sixth sense was predicting when something was going to happen BEFORE it did. However, his was limited. It only reacted when something was about to attack him.

Marcus unsheathed his staff and whipped around. A guard wielding a katana was advancing on him.

"Stay back, pal!" Marcus warned. "You don't know who you're dealing with!"

The Venomian smirked.

"You're gonna take me on with that metal stick?" he said in a gruff voice. "You must think I'm pretty damn stupid."

"I think ALL Venomians are stupid…stupid."

The Venomian swung his blade at Marcus' neck in a decapitation attempt. The young McCloud ducked under the weapon, brought his staff up, caught the goon between the legs and flipped him over his head. The evil soldier jumped to his feet and swung his weapon. Marcus blocked the blow with his staff and pushed him away, then thrust the weapon numerous times at the guard.

Falco spotted the guard attacking Marcus.

"Mark's in trouble!" he said.

Katt scowled. If there was one person she didn't care about, it was Marcus.

"So what?" she scoffed.

"SO WHAT?" Falco repeated.

Marcus threw a roundhouse kick to the Venomian's head. His opponent grabbed his ankle and spun him in a circle before punching him in the face.

"Next time, the old fool Hare should send REAL men, not a buncha good-for-nothing kids!" the guard mocked, raising his sword over his head.

Marcus rolled out of the way of the guard's next attack, He stood up in front of the main computer. The guard attempted to stab Marcus, who jumped out of the way just in time. The sword impaled the control unit.

The circuit board started sparking as the guard pulled his weapon back, and in seconds an alarm that blared through the whole base went off and the room was bathed in a red light.

"WARNING!" a computerized voice blared. "Self-destruct sequence initiated. Exterior deflector shield disabled. Five minutes until detonation. All personnel evacuate immediately."

Marcus glared at the guard.

"Way to go, dumbass!" he sarcastically shouted. "Now we're all screwed!"

The guard raised his sword over his head and was just about to bring it down on Marcus when a loud gunshot rang through the air. The guard went flying off his feet and lay on the ground. Dead.

Marcus looked back across the room. Falco holstered his smoking gun. Marcus gave him a thumbs-up. Suddenly, Chase's voice crackled on his comm.

"Hey! Can't you wait for us to actually ESCAPE before we blow the place to smithereens?" he shouted.

"Don't start jumping to conclusions! Did you get the data?"

"Yeah. I stored it on a flash drive."

"OK. We're all done. Let's evacuate immediately!"

Marcus jumped off the platform and landed feet-first on the ground. He took a flying leap over each conveyor belt as he quickly made his way back to the other side of the room.

"Let's get outta here!" he shouted to Falco and Katt.

The three ran through the shaking hallways. Just as they approached the entrance, Chase and Anna collided with them.

"Is everyone alright?" Chase asked.

"We won't be if we don't get outta here!" Falco screamed.

The team ran outside and toward their ships.

"Be careful!" Chase shouted. "The deflector shield's been deactivated! The lava can do damage to the base now!"

Right as he said that, a huge meteor shot up out of the lava and came crashing down on the platform, knocking all five of them to the ground. A loud unnerving crack went through the air. Falco, Chase, Anna and Marcus stood up. Marcus looked back. A piece of the platform was breaking off and was slowly tilting toward the lava. Katt's ship had already been submerged in the searing liquid, while Katt herself was precariously clinging to the ledge.

"KATT!" Falco shouted.

"Just go!" Katt shouted back. "Don't worry about me!"

Marcus looked at his ship, which was only 20 yards away, the he looked at Katt. If Marcus left Katt behind, she would die while he and his team would escape, but the guilt would be enough to make him wish he were dead. On the other hand, if he tried to save her, there was a big chance that they'd both die, but at least he would have the pride of trying.

He made up his mind. He ran back to Katt.

"What the hell are you doing, you idiot?" she screamed. "I said get out of here!"

Marcus grabbed her hand.

"A good soldier never leaves a man behind!"

Katt looked at Marcus.

"….he really is his father's son."

Marcus pulled Katt up away from the lava and they both broke into a run toward Marcus' Arwing. Marcus himself remotely opened the cockpit, and both he and Katt leaped inside. The hatch shut and everyone slammed on their boost pedals. The ships rose off what remained of the platform just as it fell into the lava below and sank out of sight.

When the team was about 2 kilometers away from the base, it exploded.

"Talk about mass destruction." Chase muttered.

"At least there's one less base to worry about." Anna remarked.

"Yeah. Now let's get our carcasses outta here before we melt!" Falco said.

10 minutes later

The Arwings glided into the hangar bay and ROB reset the locks on them. Everybody hopped out and walked to the command bridge. When they got there, Marcus turned on the hologram device, while Chase booted up his computer and readied to examine the data collected from the Aviaras.

"This is Marcus. Calling General Hare. Peppy, do you read me?" Marcus said.

Peppy's face appeared onscreen.

"General Hare here. What happened, Marcus?"

"The mission was a success. But there's something else: we found Katt Monroe…or rather, she found us."

"Katt Monroe? Of the Labrador unit?"

"Yes. She's right here with us." Marcus jerked his thumb back at Katt. "We're prepared to return her to Corneria."

"Is she the only Labrador militia there?"

"I'm afraid so. No other surviving militia seem to exist…at least, none that we know of."

"Well done, Marcus. Get home as quick as you can. Hare out."

Peppy's face vanished. Marcus walked over to Katt, who was sitting in a chair on the other side of the room.

"Are you sure you're OK?" he asked.

Katt looked at him.

"You saved my life…"

Marcus smiled.

"Of course I did. That's my job."

"….thank you so much."

Marcus scratched the back of his head.

"Ah, it was nothing."

"What do you mean nothing? I could have died. And now I feel like I've gotta repay you or suffer some ridiculous consequence. But frankly, I don't know how I'll be able to do it."

Anna, Chase and Falco looked up at Marcus, who turned and looked at Falco. Falco himself smiled and nodded. Marcus smiled and looked back at Katt.

"I think I have an idea that will benefit us all." he said to her.

Marcus reached into his pocket, then knelt down and pinned whatever he was holding to Katt's leather vest.

"Katt Monroe…for extreme bravery in the face of great peril and for assisting us in our mission…"

He drew his hand back. Katt gazed at the emblem attached to her vest with wide eyes. It was a running fox with wings. The Star Fox symbol.

Katt looked up at Marcus, who grinned and crossed his arms.

"You are now an honorary member of the Star Fox team." he said.

Katt's face lit up, then she sprang to her feet.

"WOOHOO! Hell yeah!" she cheered like a school-girl.

Katt had wanted to be in Star Fox ever since Falco joined the former one, mainly so she could be close to Falco himself and get in on the action that the Hot Rodders never could.

"ROB, prepare a fifth Arwing for Katt, would ya?" Marcus said.

"Confirmed. Construction will commence in 3 hours." ROB responded.

Falco walked over to the still-cheering Katt and put his hand on her shoulder.

She turned to him and blushed.

"Welcome to the team, Katt." Falco said, smiling.

A loud beep came from Chase's computer.

"Guys," he said "I think you should have a look at this."

Everyone gathered around Chase's computer. A few of the same symbols they found in the Gargantuan Eel's brain stem were onscreen.

"More Saurian symbols?" Marcus asked.

"There's gotta be someone on Sauria doing something." Anna said. "Did you get that translator mod yet, Chase?"

"Sorry, but finding that thing's gonna take some time." Chase said. "I'll try to get Dad to help me with it, but just remember, there's no sure way that's gonna help us. Besides, this data's only partially complete. We need more if we're gonna prove anything."

"Great." Falco grumbled. "That's means we've gotta fight ANOTHER one of those God forsaken beasts."

Chase turned off his screen.

"Hey, we barely made it out of there alive. And we DID strike a major blow to the Venomians. We're one step closer to winning this war."

Anna blew a puff of air from the corner of her mouth.

"Problem: it's always right when someone says that that something goes screwy."

Falco looked at Katt.

"Do you have a place to stay tonight?" he asked her.

Katt looked at him sheepishly.

"I…I'll find a place…eventually."

"You can come stay with me for a while if you want."

Katt blushed even more.

"You mean it?"

"Sure! I've got plenty of room. Thing is I live by myself and I don't usually have company over so I hope you don't mind…"

Falco stopped for a second when Katt got a devilish look on her face.

"…sleeping in the same room."

Katt giggled.

"Oh, I don't mind at all." she said salaciously.

Falco was starting to lose his balance as Katt leaned in toward him. Suddenly, ROB spoke up.

"Pardon my interruption," he said. "But perhaps we should focus on getting back to Corneria instead of attempting to seduce Falco."

Katt blushed. So did Falco.

Chase shrugged.

"He does that."

Falco rolled his eyes.

"Some things never change."

11:00 p.m.

Even though he wasn't surfing around the military files that night, Marcus was still thinking heavily about the situation while he slept. Just why was it that every time the team got a bio-engineer scan, it showed Saurian symbols? The dinosaurs of Sauria were very peaceful creatures, save for the carnivorous RedEye (called Tyrannosaurus Rex on Earth), but even the RedEye themselves were as idiotic as a pile of rocks, so only a fool would blame them for the incidents going on. And if General Scales was really dead, the Sharpclaw would no longer threaten the other dinosaur tribes.

Marcus' mind went blank when he heard a sliding noise. The glass door in his room that led out to the balcony had opened.

He thought he was just hearing things when he heard something else: his bed creaking. He also felt his bed get weighed down slightly, as though something other than him was lying in it.

He started to panic and his forehead started to sweat when he heard soft breathing near his ear. Someone was in his room, in his bed, right next to him! He was just about to snap his eyes open and scream for help when he felt something against his cheek…something warm, tender and slightly wet.

A pair of lips. He calmed down. The sweating stopped.

He could feel the person's light heartbeat against his chest and its soft hands around his shoulders. Marcus had no idea what was going on, but whatever it was…he didn't want it to end.

Suddenly, the person drew away and softly whispered in his ear.

"Sweet dreams."

The voice was quiet and stern, but at the same time gentle and caring. It wasn't dangerous, nor was it calming. Who was there? Why were they there? Why would they just come into his house, smooch his cheek, and whisper in his ear?

The bed creaked again, the weight was lifted, and the door slid shut. Marcus snapped his eyes open, sat up and looked around the room.

No one was there. He was all alone.

Had it just been a dream? No, of course not. He would have seen something if he had been dreaming.

He looked outside. The moon was full, the sky was clear and starry, not a cloud in sight.

Wait a minute…outside!

Marcus jumped out of bed, opened the door and walked out onto the balcony. All he saw were the lights of the city far below.

"Anybody there?" he called into the night.

No answer.

Marcus rolled his eyes.

"Now wasn't THAT the best dream I've ever had…" he groaned.

He stared out at the starry sky, completely unaware that up on the roof, six feet above him, a certain white-furred wolf was smiling down at him, the taste of his cheek still on her lips.

He hadn't been dreaming. But for now, he'd never know that. She whispered quietly…quiet enough that Marcus couldn't hear her.

"Reality and dreams are becoming the same."