This chapter is not as long as I would have LIKED, but I think it's still a decent length. I only hope that you agree with me. I also want to apologize in advance for the fact that I suck at writing battles.

Disclaimer: If I owned Star Fox, I wouldn't be in school right now.

LUCAS'S POV

Boy...I was bored as hell.

It had been a total of five days since we'd departed Bolse for the upper reaches of the Lylat System. Since then, Dr. Howler had insisted that all of us get in a workout every day, insisting that we needed to remain in shape for the inevitable battle on Zoness that we were all going to facing soon. At one point, she'd even gotten Falco to stop the ship in a place where we could all practice flying, because Zoness was a toxic waste planet. It wasn't a place that you could really walk, or run, on.

All in all, I, as well as the rest of the boys, were getting restless. I'd never gotten to know if I had ADHD or not (as far as I knew, just Asperger's), but I didn't view that question as important. After being cooped up on the Great Fox for as long as all of us had been, anyone would become as desperate to do something dangerous, or at least physically exhausting. That was just a fact of life. And, as much as Willow might be trying to hide it, I could tell that she was probably feeling exactly the same way.

Really, the last five days had tested us in a very different way than we had been tested over the last month since leaving Corneria. We weren't in danger, but we knew that we were going to be again soon. Since Zoness is on the hard route in Star Fox 64, I could only guess that this meant it would be more dangerous than Sector X or Titania, for instance, had been. And Titania had been no cakewalk.

In any case, the fact remained that we were only three hours from Zoness now, on the morning of March 2, 201Y. That was what Falco had said over the intercom, waking me up from my slumber. It was going to be time to kick some more Anglar ass, like we'd been doing for four weeks. Yes, that was what was going to happen today.

After getting up, getting dressed, and brushing my teeth, I debated what I was going to do before breakfast. Knowing that there was one person who was almost guaranteed to be up by now, I decided to go and visit him.

Jack always seemed to get up very early. He was always working on something or other within the ship. Whatever it was, he was working himself pretty hard, but Dr. Howler was making sure that he was eating enough.

On this particular morning, Jack was working in the engine room. The goal, he told me, was to upgrade the engine to the point that it could move us roughly 25% faster than it had currently been doing, reason being that the sooner we were able to defeat the Venomian forces, the better. We didn't want to give them too much time to attack Corneria, because that would only serve to weaken their efforts against the Anglars.

"That sounds like a pretty good idea, Jack" I told him.

"Why, thank you, Lucas" he responded. "It's definitely going to help us a lot. I'm installing the boosters right now, and I'd say that the upgrades will be ready, if not by the time we reach Zoness, definitely tomorrow, when we'll be at Sector Z".

The way he said it made it seem like he was absolutely positive that there would be a tomorrow for us. There were no guarantees right now. Not when you were a member of the Star Enfield team.

"You nervous for today's battle, Lucas?" Jack asked me.

I saw no point in avoiding it. "Yes, Jack, I am. Zoness is pretty dangerous, with all of those searchlights. Not to mention that the ocean is toxic from all the trash that's been dumped there over the years".

"We're going to get through this, Lucas. It can't be any harder than breaking Konstantin out must have been".

I thought about it. That had been pretty hard, yes. "I still don't see what this has to do with Zoness".

"We will figure it out. It's all going to work out. Now, I suggest that you get some breakfast, young man. I'm not the only one who's lost weight here".

He was right. After weighing myself on the scale, I noticed that I had dropped a couple of pounds. The stress must have been catching up to me. This war was not easy.

Later, I decided to visit with Cole. We had decided to "bro down" and have an honest discussion about what was going to go on today. I could tell that the usual pre-battle jitters were hanging heavily on both of us. But there was one thing besides that both of us had in common.

"You've played Star Fox 64, haven't you?" he asked me.

"Yeah, I've played it quite a lot. So have you, right?"

"That's right".

"You know, Zoness is one of my favorite levels in that game. I always loved trying to shoot down all of those searchlights, and the epic music...it's just awesome, isn't it?"

"Yeah" Cole replied.

We sat there in silence, not speaking for a while. Eventually, he said, "I think that it's time for us to get ready. Breakfast can't be too far from now, and if what Dr. Howler was saying is true, we'll want all of the preparation we can get. It's going to be one hell of a day".

Zoness is on the hard route of Star Fox 64. It used to be a tropical paradise. That was, until Andross came and dumped all sorts of toxic waste into the oceans. Now, the ocean is black streaked with jade green. Not a place to spend a holiday, especially if you're rich and can afford to go to the Caribbean or the Alps.

Searchlights are scattered throughout the ocean, and the beams are white until you are spotted by one, when they turn orange-red. If you do this, more enemies appear, and they make your life in the game a living hell. If you can make it through the level without that happening, the game allows you to go to Sector Z. If not, you will be fored to go to Macbeth.

In the game, this is also where Katt Monroe appears. However, as far as we knew, Katt was still on Corneria. With a personality somewhat similar to Dolores Umbridge, it was probably better that it stayed that way.

We touched down on top of a long, low building that was right on the beach. It really would have been quite a pleasant place to vacation back before it was completely trashed, but the past could not be changed. The future could be, however.

"I'm staying on board the ship for once" Dr. Howler said. "If one of you gets hurt and needs to be treated, ROB 64 can come out and collect that person. Plus, and I don't mean any offense with this, we can't let me get hurt. We really do need to be more careful, and it was quite stupid to have me taking part in the battles of Titania and Bolse".

None of us argued with that. Personally, I'd kind of been wondering about that myself. Why did we take such great risks by allowing Dr. Howler, potentially the most valuable member on our team of all, to join us in our life-threatening battles? We still needed her to bandage us up and stuff like that.

"Let's get going" Falco said. "We'll all get in our Arwings, and we'll fly low over the oceans of Zoness. Then, we'll kill the boss at the end, and we're one step closer to winning this war. You guys ready?"

IAN'S POV

I'd been getting better at flying ever since we had left Fichina. In spite of this, I wasn't fully confident in my abilities yet, and I suspected that I would never be. At least, not without a lot more practice.

As soon as we flew off of the building, I found myself having marginal difficulties in controlling the ship. I understood the basic principles of shifting the wheel, as well as your own weight, in the opposite direction as the one you wanted to go, but it wasn't the easiest to put into practice. I at least understood how to shoot the cannons.

The problem was really when I was close to the sea, say within fifteen feet or so. Whenever this happened, my Arwing would make plenty of weird jerking motions that made it feel like a roller coaster ride.

"Ian! Can you control your ship better? You almost rammed into me!" Konstantin shouted.

"I'm...trying!" I said through clenched teeth. It really wasn't easy.

"Everyone! Shut up!" Cole said. "We've got to focus on shooting down all of the searchlights!"

I looked around me and saw that he was right. Searchlights, with milky white beams, towered above the ocean, as much as twenty feet tall. I'd played the video game before, and I knew that it would be very difficult to hit all of them.

"You take the left ones, Lucas! I've got the right!" That was Willow speaking. The couple from Maine seemed to be working well as a team, and I was only wondering how long that was going to last. I could sense the tension between them even as she was saying that.

However, for now it was working, and Lucas got the left searchlights easily. Willow had a little bit more trouble with those on the right, but she did manage to shoot them all down, meaning that, at least for now, we didn't have to deal with all of the extra enemies.

The farther away from the starting point we got, however, the harder it became to hit all of the searchlights. To make matters worse, there was no shortage of enemies, either. In fact, when I approached too close to the ground, I was shocked by a-

"Sea serpent, Ian!" Falco shouted. "Get out of the way!"

I barely managed to avoid clipping a wing on the snakelike creature as I swerved to the left to keep myself from hitting it. I couldn't afford to daydream now. Not when so much was at stake.

We continued flying low over the water, until Cole shouted, "I think that's something new up ahead! Let's take it out!"

Once again, Cole McCallen was right. What looked like an enormous enemy tanker was lying right in front of us. It was so massive that there was just no possible way we were going to get around it.

I instantly detonated a smart bomb, but it didn't seem to do anything. Were bombs useless against this thing? I really hoped not, or else we were going to be in big trouble. We couldn't fail to take Zoness and succeed in taking Venom. It just wasn't going to work that way.

"Let me do this!" Falco shouted.

Falco aimed a bomb at the smokestack of the tanker. Sure enough, the whole thing crumbled as though it was made out of wet sand. Really, that was pretty weak for an enemy ship.

"There's a ruined beach up ahead, so let's regroup there and make sure that we're all okay" the avian said through our communicators.

We all slowed down on the accelerators and made our way down to the beach. It was easy to see which one he was talking about, because it was literally right in front of us. Charred palm trees lined the small island, ringed by a small beach of black sand which had probably used to be white.

We touched down, and then Falco got out of his ship, looking at all of us.

COLE'S POV

"I'm glad that we are all still alive" Falco said. "We just called this meeting to regroup and all that. How are you guys liking Zoness so far?"

"It's all right" I said, not wanting to sound like I hated this place. Granted, it was an enemy base, so I had every right to dislike it, but I felt that openly expressing my hatred of it would sound rude, so I didn't.

"It's pretty disgusting" Konstantin said. "And this is coming from a guy who was imprisoned by Xenos underneath the mountain in Corneria".

I didn't really know what the word Xenos meant, but if I took the root of the word I could probably guess what it was. Konstantin really was kind of an interesting person.

If you wanted to understand Konstantin Brockenbough, I had come to realize, you needed to realize what had happened to him. He had such a low view of the Cornerians due to the fact that he'd been living a very good life in Texas before this all happened. And it had been taken from him, and then he'd almost been executed. His anger might seem irrational, but it was really just righteous indignation at all of the situations he'd been in.

"I mean, I have really bad OCD, so...I'm not a fan of this environment" said Ian.

Lucas nodded, as though he agreed with everything Ian was saying. He said, "Yeah...not the biggest fan of this place either. But it's necessary for the war effort that we're here. We need to win this battle".

"I'm satisfied, now, that everyone here is alive and okay" Falco said. "Which means that it's time to get back in our ships. We can't stay here forever if we want to defeat the guardian of Zoness".

We all got back in our Arwings, preparing to have our lasers on hair-trigger for anything that came in our way.

We still had searchlights to contend with, so it was a good thing that we were always ready to shoot them down. We were, however, having some minor arguments about who was going to take which ones.

"You take the left, I've got the right!" I shouted at Ian.

"No, I'm already taking the right!" he yelled back in his very autistic voice. Honestly, that voice was starting to annoy me a little. I knew that it wasn't his fault, but still. He kind of reminded me of Slippy Toad. And trust me, that's not a complimentary comparison.

I barely avoided missing another searchlight as a result of my annoyance, but I was luckily able to get my ship back on track. I knew that if we were spotted, we would have a lot more enemies. Hopefully, we'd be able to go to Sector Z instead of Macbeth in real life, but I didn't want to risk that.

Unfortunately, we would end up risking that. Because, in my annoyance at the fact that Ian was unable to speak like I considered a normal human being, I just missed hitting another searchlight. As a result, a loud alarm noise rang out through the smoggy air.

"Did you-" Falco began.

"Yes, I missed a searchlight! What are you going to do, shoot me?" I asked a little bit defiantly.

Before Falco could respond, probably in the negative, the beams that the searchlights produced had turned from their milky white color to an orangish red. Or it was a reddish orange, maybe #E03500, also known as Harley Davidson Orange. I didn't know how I could identify the hex colors that easily, but I didn't really care at the moment either. Reason being, we were now facing a lot more enemies.

All sorts of butterfly-like enemies came out of the smoggy sky, seemingly out of nowhere. My lasers were once again on hair-trigger, so that I could shoot all of them down. After all, I'd gotten us into this mess, so I felt a moral responsibility to get us out of it. That was just the way it was.

Still, red-hot guilt was bubbling in my chest. I was the one who had just potentially sabotaged our mission. It might have been on accident, but that probably didn't change the others' opinion of it. I should have been more careful to hit all of the searchlights.

Even so, the fact that I was responsible sent more adrenaline coursing through my veins. I was able to pilot my ship a lot better, but I didn't focus on shooting the searchlights. There was no point, now that the Venomian forces would already know that we were there. Instead, I just focused on making sure that none of the enemies were able to shoot down our ships.

"Fuck you, Cole!" Konstantin shouted. I could tell that he didn't really hate me, just the fact that I'd been so careless. Which I didn't blame him for.

Lucas grunted, but I hoped that he wasn't too mad at me. Mistakes happen, but this was a pretty big one. It could potentially sink this whole thing.

"We've got to keep going, everyone" Falco said. "We can't let these enemies shoot us down, and the boss isn't too far ahead. Once we do that, we can head towards Sector Z. I don't think it works the same way this time around".

Of course, when Falco was done saying that, I noticed that there was an enemy on his tail. Wanting to make up for my costly mistake earlier, I used the boost to chase it before shooting the enemy down.

"Thanks, Cole!" Falco said.

"You're more than welcome" I said back.

It wasn't the easiest thing to stay in the air. The toxic sea was practically pulling you towards its depths, and I wondered if that was a result of the toxic waste that Andross and his army had dumped in here eleven years ago. I had to constantly be pushing the wheel back downwards, in order to keep my Arwing stable. I didn't want to drown in the green-and-black sea.

We kept on going, shooting down enemies wherever they came. I was getting the hang of this despite not having the most practice in the world. In fact, it was getting to a point that I felt like it was cancelling out some of the guilt I still felt for not hitting that searchlight, causing us to end up in this mess.

Eventually, we reached a spot where there were about twelve barrels in the water, spaced about fifty yards apart from each other. I kind of remembered these from the game, and I got the feeling that I was supposed to shoot them or something. After all, these would be enemies, right? That just made so much sense that it was practically undeniable for me.

"Don't shoot, Cole!" Falco cried.

Unfortunately, I understood too late. As soon as I shot one of the blades, there was an explosion that sent a column of fire into the air. I tried to avoid it, but it hit my ship pretty hard. Trying to right it, I realized that there was nothing I could do. This thing was going to make me fall into the water, where I would be at the mercy of whatever monsters were in its depths.

"No!" Jack shouted, but I barely heard him. My ship plummeted into the water, and everything went black. The last thing I remember is thinking about just how stupid I was.

JACK'S POV

Everything seemed to happen so fast. Cole was shooting at all of the enemies, no doubt to make up for missing the searchlight. However, it had ultimately backfired, his strategy of always having his fingers on the trigger.

Because, as soon as he had shot down the barrel, the pillar of fire that had come left no doubt in my mind that the barrels were explosives. Cole had just taken the bait, as his ship tumbled into the ocean.

"Don't worry!" Falco said loudly, in a tone that did not fit at all with his words. "ROB 64, our robot on the ship, is going to send his ship into maintenance. And, if he's severely injured, he'll be taken to med bay, where Dr. Howler is waiting for anyone who needs her services. It's going to be fine".

And yet, I had a feeling that it would not be. There was something ominous ahead of us, something in the air that my senses, honed from years of being in the military, could detect. Was this the guardian of Zoness?

Before I could speak, to say anything at all about it, an enemy tanker rose up from the ground. It was made of rusted red paint and what looked like scrap metal, probably from being in the toxic ocean for so long. A large spiked ball hung from the inside of a tube on the top of the submarine, and I could tell that it was about to go after us. There were two large exhaust vents on both sides of it, and two pipes reached up from the top like the horns of a bull.

Now, this thing was going to charge at us like a bull.

"Disrespectful little whelps!" shouted a voice on my intercom.

I could see a holographic image of a monkey with a head wrapped in a turban of bandages. For all the world, he looked like Dengar from Star Wars.

"I remember this guy!" Lucas said. "He can only be destroyed with bombs, but the exhaust pipes provide them if you shoot down the cannonballs!"

"I'll teach ye some respect!" yelled the commander of the submarine.

I was a little skeptical of Lucas's instructions. After all, I was the person qualified to do this, and yet this sixteen-year-old was giving me orders? Only the morality of the mission prevented me from striking him down right there.

Okay, not really. But still, it was quite annoying.

In any case, I shot a smart bomb at the left exhaust pipe. To my surprise, it worked, and the exhaust pipe sank into the toxic sea. The commander of the sub let out a few choice words before shooting cannonballs out of the remaining exhaust pipe.

Willow helped to shoot down the cannonballs and collected the bombs that it gave her. "I'm going to bomb the other exhaust pipe now!" she said.

"Adjust 10 degrees right! Fire!" shouted the monkey.

I was able to avoid the cannons, allowing Willow to fire the bomb that destroyed the second exhaust pipe.

Grunting in frustration, the monkey said, "Aarh! Drop the crane now!"

The mace struck Konstantin's ship, but only by a little bit. He didn't take nearly as much damage as Cole had, which was a good thing. We needed him to be all right, since he was a valuable member of our team.

After saying "Drop the crane now!", the submarine turned ninety degrees clockwise and lowered the crane. However, it was pretty easy for Ian and Konstantin's smart bombs to take it down.

After another quick yell of frustration, the submarine sank into the sea, just as quickly as it had come up. We'd done it. Zoness was pretty much ours.

Before we could celebrate, I knew that I had to make sure that another member of our team was all right. "ROB, what is the status of Cole McCallen? Is he all right?"

A robotic voice coming from the Great Fox said, "Cole McCallen's ship is in for repairs. Cole McCallen is in med bay".

"Good" Konstantin said. "He's all right".

"Let's get back to the ship, boys. I'm sure that we need to talk about how things went today" Falco said.

COLE'S POV

Every muscle in my body, every appendage, was aching as though it had been beaten by a gang back in Detroit. Believe me, that was something I had experienced before. It was a struggle to open my eyes.

Once I did manage to do so, I saw that I was in the med bay of the Great Fox. There were a surprisingly low number of bandages on me, meaning that I had relatively few scrapes, cuts, and bruises. That was a relief.

I saw that Falco and Dr. Howler were standing over me. The avian looked kind of smug, with an "I Told You So" expression on his face. The Bengal tiger, on the other hand, had her usual mother hen expression, like she was genuinely concerned about me. Which, based on what I knew about Dr. Howler, was most likely the case.

"How are you doing, Cole?" she asked me.

"It hurts a lot. I don't want to do that anytime soon...by which I mean, whatever I just did. What did just happen to me?"

"You shot at a barrel in the water, which was part of a trap sent by the Sarumarine. It exploded, causing you to crash. Your ship is in for repairs right now" Falco said.

"You're incredibly lucky, Cole" Dr. Howler said. "All you have is a minor concussion, a sprained ankle, and some bruising in your legs. While you were unconscious, I administered the same injection that I gave Lucas after he was shot, just a weaker version of the same drug".

"Why didn't you inject Lucas with it immediately? Or give me the stronger one?" I asked, a little bit angrily.

"The strong version of the drug can cause severe pain, which would have hurt quite a lot had you come to in the middle of it. It literally feels like your blood is boiling. Also, I only ever had one dose of that. They're very expensive, and they don't keep for very long".

"So...I'll get better pretty quickly, right?" I asked her.

Dr. Howler pursed her lips. "Yes, but you won't be able to take part in the battle of Sector Z tomorrow. I absolutely forbid it. Those legs need to rest, and you need to heal up. It's not good to have a concussed person be doing something so dangerous".

I tried to protest, but Dr. Howler said, "You know that we have your best interests at heart. We are kind of like the chaperones of the Star Enfield team during the war, and we will decide what is okay for you to do, and what is not. Do you understand me?"

I nodded.

"It's getting close to time for dinner" Falco said. "You can come, you'll need some nourishment to help heal from your wounds. Plus, the drug is going to start hurting if you don't eat, so it's best that you do. Cole, are you going to dine with us? We'll like you to participate in the strategy meeting".

I nodded again and smiled. "I thought you'd never ask".

We gathered around the dinner table. Lucas, Willow, Ian, Jack, and Konstantin looked no worse for the battle, so all eyes seemed to be on me as the only injured member of the group.

"So...how was the battle after I got taken back here?" I asked through a mouthful of my burger.

"Cole, don't talk with your mouth full" Jack said. My face turned red at being reprimanded like a little kid.

"Sorry" I said.

"We got the Sarumarine taken care of, and we have a team moving in to retake the enemy base" said Dr. Howler. "We really did a good job on Zoness; proud of you guys for that".

"Yeah" said Jack. "These kids did great".

"I'm not a kid anymore, I'm almost 20 years old" Konstantin said. "And the others are at least fifteen each. We're not kids, Jack".

"I know, but once you get to my age, you guys are kids in comparison".

"Whatever" Ian said. "I'm nineteen".

I was a little surprised by that. If Ian really was 19, he looked a little young for his age. But I suppose that didn't really matter too much.

"In any case", said Falco, "we're going to be heading to Sector Z tomorrow. Once we've gotten that sector back from the Venomian forces, we can head to Macbeth, and, after that, it's straight to Area 6. Then Venom. We really don't have too far to go".

"It feels like it's been forever since we left Corneria" Dr. Howler said, holding Falco's hand. They were sitting right next to each other.

"I know, Tigre, but it's just been four weeks. Can you believe that?"

I couldn't believe that Falco had just called Dr. Howler by her first name. It seemed like the two of them had gotten much closer together over the last few weeks. Was there something between them that I didn't know about?

I decided not to ask. It wasn't my top concern, after all.

What I was most pissed about was the fact that I couldn't take part in tomorrow's battle. But Dr. Howler was adamant about it, so that was just what was going to happen.

WILLOW'S POV

The next morning, we all got ready for yet another battle. The orange Z in the background of Sector Z was very much visible, and we were fully aware of what had given the sector its name. It didn't take a Sherlock Holmes to figure it out, after all.

As I got into my Arwing, I was only too aware of the absence of one Cole McCallen. Due to his concussion and bruises, Dr. Howler wasn't letting him take part in this battle. I was kind of glad he wasn't with us, to be honest. He wasn't going to be an asset today.

"Hey, guys...I think there's something on the horizon!" Ian said loudly.

"I think those are Copperhead missiles! Or, that is one of them" Falco replied.

In the game, the Copperhead missiles are sent by Andross to attack the Great Fox in Sector Z, the fifth level in the hard route. If you fail to defend the ship from the missiles, you are sent to Bolse and thus the bad ending of the game. I didn't know what would happen here, but it would make it very difficult to attack Venom if our ship was compromised.

"I'll take it!" I said.

I didn't know precisely why I volunteered. I suppose that I had just felt that I had sort of been in the background more than I liked to be. And I'm not a shy person, not by a long shot. I was determined to be one of the main people helping.

I flew towards the missile. It was long and thin, much like a candle on a birthday cake. In this case, the cake would have been the Great Fox, so this was one candle that you did not want to light a menorah with. This would probably burn up the whole synagogue.

"Get this Xeno off my tail!" Konstantin yelled.

"I'll get it!" Lucas said. "Willow, just focus on the missile for now!"

"What made you become so demanding all of a sudden?" I said, but I kept at it.

"Missile approaching. Distance 50" said the robotic voice of ROB 64.

"Oh, shut up" I said, taking the thing out with a smart bomb.

"Nice job, Willow" Lucas said through the communicator.

"There's no time to celebrate" Falco said. "Everyone, shoot down the enemies".

Ian, on the other hand, was the one who actually came up with a strategy. And it was a pretty good one, too.

"How about us boys work on the enemies, while you and Willow take down the missiles?"

Ian's idea worked like a charm. Even though it was only him, Lucas, and Konstantin shooting down the normal enemies, there were few enough of them that it didn't pose too much of a problem for the boys. This left me to shoot down the missiles, with Falco serving as backup in order to take some of the burden off of my shoulders.

"I fought the Copperhead missiles before, during the First Lylat War" Falco said. "They come in three waves. There's one missile first, then two, and then the last wave has three. They should be coming about now".

As if on cue, ROB 64 said, "Missiles 2 and 3 approaching".

"Okay, Willow. There's an enemy on your tail, but go for the missiles. I'll take care of it!"

There was an enemy on my tail? I didn't hear it, and, even though the Great Fox did allow you to see what was behind you, the ship must have blended in with the darkness of space. Or maybe the radiation made it invisible. I wasn't sure.

The two Copperhead missiles were a ways away from the Great Fox still, and moving pretty slowly. I wondered why the ship didn't just move. Maybe it wouldn't be fast enough, or the missiles would keep tailing it. Again, I didn't know.

I'd been saying that to myself a lot lately. I don't know.

I shot at the missile with everything I had, and it began to flash. After what felt like a hundred shots, but was probably something more like twenty or thirty, it exploded, removing it as a threat to the ship. As soon as I had shot that one down, I barely missed hitting the last one. It still took me a while to turn around, so I was really counting on Falco to get the other one in the second wave.

"Missile approaching. Distance 50" came the robotic voice of ROB 64.

"I'm heading for it, as soon as I help the boys with a couple of enemies" Falco said.

I felt a spark of irritation hit me. This was a pretty time-sensitive mission, so I really needed Falco to help me with the missiles now. I wasn't sure how long it would take for the missile to reach the Great Fox from Distance 50, and I hoped I wasn't about to find out.

Finally managing to turn around, I shot at the missile, but I only got a few of them in.

Elsewhere, I saw Falco shoot an enemy off of Ian's tail, and then he circled around to get closer to the missile. It was about time, because...

"Missile approaching. Distance 20".

Falco also missed the missile at first, but he turned around quickly and fired at the missile. Judging by the sheer amount of lasers coming from his ship, I could tell that he was most likely mashing the button with all of his might.

"Distance 10. Unable to evade".

My heart stopped, but Falco managed to get his last shot in at the very last second. I let out the breath that I had been holding.

"That was too close, Willow" Konstantin said.

"Don't blame me, blame Falco!" I said. "He's the one who insisted on going after the enemies on Ian's tail! That really wasn't a good idea, it almost got the Great Fox destroyed!"

Meanwhile, Lucas and Konstantin were both tag-teaming an enemy ship. I'd seen this ship before on Titania, and there was no question in my mind as to what it was. A Wolfen. Meaning that a member of Star Wolf was here.

"Fuck you, Wolf!" Konstantin shouted. The voice from inside the ship laughed. Our communications were all linked to one another, so we could hear everything that everyone else on our team was saying. Perhaps this also applied to enemies.

"I'm not Wolf O'Donnell" said a voice that I recognized as belonging to Leon Powalski. The chameleon was here too. Great.

"Well, I'm still going to kill you!" Konstantin said.

I tried to distract myself from that by focusing on the other task at hand. According to Falco, the last three missiles came in a single wave. That would mean...

"Missiles 4, 5, and 6 approaching" said ROB 64.

Looking out at the expanses of Sector Z, and avoiding the various chunks of debris that were present, I saw the three missiles, ready to set the Great Fox aflame. I couldn't let that happen. It had almost happened just a few minutes ago, after all.

Without thinking, I shot a smart bomb at the missiles. It actually did manage to destroy one of them, but the other two were still intact. Getting one of the three missiles was something, but it wouldn't be enough to protect the ship if we couldn't get the other two.

"I'll take them, Willow!" Falco said. He immediately swerved to get them. I tried to tell him that I wanted to work on the missiles as well, but he wasn't hearing any of it. Sighing in annoyance, I went to go after some of the other enemies.

A minute later, I heard the two explosions that meant that Falco had managed to finish off both of the other missiles.

"Did you get all of them? I asked him unnecessarily.

"Yeah! Let's just take down all of these enemy ships, and then we're going to be good!"

My heart leapt. All we had to do was get all of these bad guys, and then we would have won the battle of Sector Z.

As I looked around, however, I realized that this was kind of a tall order. The enemy ships were scattered all over the sector, and some of them were hidden right now by the spots of space junk floating around.

However, you should never underestimate the power of three teenage boys shooting at enemies. They had probably taken care of most of them in the two minutes it took for me to really enter the fray.

"We're almost done, Willow!" Lucas shouted in triumph. Really, he had reason to be glad. We just had Sector Z, and then we could go to Macbeth.

After a few more shots, and explosions of enemy ships, Falco announced that it was enough. "Let's go back to the docking bay, guys. We've gotten pretty much all of them".

Back on the Great Fox, Cole was very disappointed. "I wish I could've been a part of that battle! Sounds like it was fun".

Lucas shook his head. "Really, Cole, it was nothing spectacular. Just a few Copperhead missiles and enemy ships flying around. Plus, you weren't considered well enough. Dr. Howler, will Cole be allowed to take part on Macbeth?"

Dr. Howler nodded. "It depends on how he's feeling then, but I think that he will probably have made enough of a recovery by that point that it shouldn't be too much of a problem. We will reach Macbeth...when is it, Jack? What's our ETA?"

"About two days from now" Jack said. "It's March 3 right now, so March 5 is our estimated date of arrival. I don't know how long it will take to take Macbeth, since it's the main supply for the Anglar forces. It might be a pretty complicated situation there, so it's best that we give all of you guys briefings about it tomorrow, before we get there".

All right. We were going to go to Macbeth next. And, hopefully, it would be just as successful as the last two battles had been.

Again, the outline for this chapter made me think that it might be 9,000 words. It's not even seven thousand, at least at the time of me beginning this author's note. There were 35 items in my outline, which has produced a 9,000-word chapter before (Chapter 10 of Book 1).

In any case, I'm hoping that you guys review this chapter to tell me what you thought about it.