CHAPTER THREE

A New Enemy

Sector Y Combat Zone

Hundreds upon hundreds of Cornerian military ships raced through the cold and airless space, firing at the strange and twisted-looking ships that had suddenly appeared on their weekly scouting of Sector Y. None of them had ever seen anything like these ships…in fact, they could barely call them ships, because they could see what appeared to be glowing red eyes and a cavernous mouth filled with razor sharp teeth on each one. They were pulsing, shady, humanoid, and they were all over the radar!

"Commander, there's no end in sight!" a soldier shouted into his comm. "We should retreat!"

"Don't you dare start acting like a coward now, you fool!" the commander yelled back. "All ships stand fast and attack whenever you have the chance!"

What chance that would be was something they were all thinking. Whatever these things were, they were far too fast to lock on to, let alone just rapidly fire at. Every chance the bugs got, they grabbed onto the back of a ship and started chewing away at its exterior, trying to get to the soldier inside and forcing them to barrel roll to narrowly escape being devoured.

Then came even more trouble: what seemed like a huge starship (though it also had a cavernous mouth lined with teeth) slowly and menacingly came through some warped and twisted hole in space.

"Good God, what in the name all that is holy is THAT?!" one of the soldiers said in panic.

The ship suddenly fired a gigantic laser from its mouth, and down went everything that was in the way.

"Damn it! This ain't good!"

"Ahh! We're all gonna die!"

Then one of the soldiers checked his radar. Five dots were quickly approaching them from behind.

"Commander, we've got five unidentified aircrafts coming from the south."

"Bogies?"

"Unconfirmed, sir."

Commander Dane stepped to his communicator and spoke through it.

"Unidentified aircrafts, this is Commander Dane of the Cornerian Army's Retriever unit. You are in a hostile warzone. Walk identification, and proceed back the way you came."

The response wasn't what he was expecting, but it was certainly what he had been praying to happen for a good while.

"Hey, is that anyway to talk to your reinforcements?" Marcus said with a smirk.

"Thank the stars!" the flagship's pilot said.

The team jettisoned into the combat zone and flew alongside the Cornerian flagship for a moment.

"Looks like we're not too late, then!" Commander Dane said. "We've got no idea who or what these things are, but they're tearing us apart out here."

"Not to worry, sir." Marcus replied. "We'll try to help as best we can."

"Good. First thing you can do is head after the enemy flagship. And hurry! It's getting ready to retreat!"

Marcus nodded and pushed the steering control forward.

"All ships, avoid the armada's fire! Let's head after that flagship!"

"Let's keep it real and send these freaks straight to the freakin' morgue!" Tyler whooped from the back of Chase's Arwing."

"Don't start getting cocky, little bro." Chase responded. "This isn't as easy as it looks."

"That's one way of putting it considering you've already got one of them on your tail!" Coyote yelled.

Chase looked behind him, and Coyote hadn't been lying. One of the hideous creatures was chasing after him, snapping its jaws as soon as one the wings came close to its mouth.

"What are you waiting for?!" Tyler yelled. "Do a loop!"

"Hey, no backseat driving!" Chase replied, though he performed the loop and fired on the creature just the same.

Coyote swiftly piloted her ship under, over, and between a number of the creatures, barrel-rolling if they came to close and locking onto one that was about to start attacking of the military ships again.

"Bad doggy! Drop the ship! It's not a chew toy, and this is coming from someone who actually is a dog!" she said before blasting the creature into oblivion. "Scott, you're not bothering Al up there, are you?"

"You kiddin'?" Damalgo asked. "This kid's a blast! He already knows how to pilot us around!"

"Wait a minute…you're letting my three-year old brother pilot the Great Fox?! Are you mental?!"

"What's wrong?" Scott asked. "This is easy! Watch! Starboard cannon lock on and fire!"

The cannon on one of the Great Fox's wings fired, downing several of the enemy ships in one clean go. The team could do nothing but look at the destruction in wonder.

"Yeah. Great design, Chase." Peter scoffed. "The thing's so simple that a three-year old kid can drive it."
"That's a good thing…right?"

"No. That means that now we look like old farts compared to him by making it out to look hard when it really isn't!"

"Actually I taught him everything that's to know about this thing." said Damalgo. "The ship's not simple. The kid's just a fast learner."

"Could have said that earlier…"

"Heads up, everybody!" Anna hollered. "That thing's dropping anchor again!"

The team swerved out of the way as another gigantic beam came firing at them. The flagship was still quite a ways away and was proceeding quickly out of the area.

"Come on, guys, pick it up!" Damalgo said sternly. "That thing ain't gonna down itself!"

"Yeah, we wish." Marcus mumbled.

The team slammed down on their boost pedals, making sure to swerve out of the way of any projectiles and fire back upon the attackers, barrel-rolling whenever one of the projectiles got too close. Chase took the time to utilize the camera mounted on top of his ship to take a snapshot of one of the ships when it got close enough. It popped up on the screen, and he was a little unnerved by what he saw.

"Damn, he ugly!" he muttered. "But…wait a second, this thing doesn't look like any ship I've ever seen."

"Gee, ya think?" Coyote shot back. "That would be why they've got mouths!"

"Hey, come on. That ship General Scales had in Adventures was entirely mechanical and it had a…"

"No! Stop! No breaking the fourth wall with me around! We weren't born then so we have no idea what we're talking about, got it?"
"Alright, alright. Jesus…"

"Anne! You've got some of those blokes on your six!" Peter yelled.

"Y'know that's something that's always bugged me." Anna started. "Why do you guys just tell me that there's goons behind me instead of doing something about it?!"

"Because that would defy all logic of the entire Star Fox series."

"Hey, what did I just say about breaking the fourth wall?!" Coyote growled.

Chase switched on his Multi-Lock and fired away, downing the two creatures chasing after Anna.

"…I would make some witty comment, but SOMEBODY is gonna find a way to contradict it." he said.

"Why, yes, I would!" Tyler mocked. "Thank you for your acknowledgement."

Chase barrel-rolled the ship and nearly knocked poor Tyler's brains out.

"You were saying?" he smirked.

"…carry on…good Lord."

The flagship fired another beam, this time right at the Great Fox.
"Activate blast shield!" Scott demanded.

A transparent aura generated around the ship, shielding it from the blast but still jostling it…and forcing ROB to let out an R2-D2 style shriek.

"Watch your feet, kid!" Damalgo exclaimed, catching Scott as he stumbled to the ground. "This thing ain't 100% stable out here in space.

Then ROB spoke up and slightly unnerved the young O'Donnell.

"Any contact with the chamber floor will result in an unsatisfactory mark on your official testing record…followed by death."

"Switch off, ROB."

"Hey, laser lips! Ya mama was a snow blower! PFFFFFFT!"

"My mom was an anthropomorphic dinosaur, and I have incredibly sharp teeth, not lasers. Switch off."
"I'll be back."

"Not looking forward to it."

"Commander, they've sent that satellite right towards us!" one of the men of the Army's flagship barked in a worried tone.

"Are you one of the gunners?"

"Uh…yes, sir."

"Then you shouldn't be looking at me!"

The Army's flagship fired on the satellite that had been sent hurtling towards them, but to no avail. The lasers just deflected off of the frame.

"What the…try the second artillery!"

Out came the ship's bombs, which exploded but did no damage.

"Shit. Swerve us around it!"

"There isn't enough time, sir! We're not gonna be able to…"

"Commander." Marcus said. "Let me handle this."

Marcus released the steering console and closed his eyes, sitting up in his seat in a Buddhist-like way with his hands out in front of him.

"Reach out with your mind." he said to himself in a monotone voice. "Picture your goal and grasp it…NOW!"

He snapped his eyes open and shoved his hands forward. The satellite immediately screeched to a halt just in front of the Army's flagship. Marcus furrowed his brow and clenched his teeth before slowly and steadily smashing his hands together. Right before everyone's eyes, the satellite collapsed in on itself, and once that was finished with it, Marcus let out a loud cry before throwing it back at the enemy flagship. The ship itself simply blasted another beam to completely obliterate the satellite, but the Army was nonetheless relieved.

"That's gotta be the most epic thing I've ever seen in my life." one of the soldiers commented.

"Thank you, folks. I'm in Lylat all week…actually the rest of my life, but you get the idea." Marcus said smugly.

"Got somethin' on radar, guys." Anna said in alert. "It's dead ahead and…Mark, there's something on you!"

Marcus was about to barrel-roll and shake it off, but then he got a strange cold feeling…a feeling that felt dreadfully familiar. And then Peter had to go and say…

"It looks like…a woman!"

Nervously and slowly, Marcus looked up through his windshield. Squatting there on the top of his ship and looking down with an evil grin was someone he had hoped he'd never see again but knew it was inevitable.

"And how are we this afternoon?" Kursed asked before vanishing into thin air.

"Hey, where'd it go?!" Chase demanded. "I was about to blast it off of you, too."

Marcus lowered his gaze again and gritted his teeth.

"That would've probably been the worst thing you could do, buddy."

"Huh?"

Marcus looked over at the Iron Maiden. Coyote was looking at him with a look of distress. She knew exactly what he had meant, and she was wise enough to stay quiet about the issue.

He had known that this was going to happen. He knew that the Seal of Spirits wouldn't hold Kursed back forever. He knew that she was a lot smarter and stronger than he thought. So why did he feel so bewildered by seeing her for the first time in three years? All of a sudden, all the spiritual training he went through meant absolutely nothing and made him feel like he was going soil his pants any second.

But he still had a dogfight to worry about, so he shook the bad thoughts out. That was the problem that he had back when Kursed's attacks were a bit more common: every time it happened, he was in a bad mood for the rest of the day until he got home to see his mother. That may sound weird, but considering Krystal was Kursed's clone and she was the polar opposite in terms of nature, it actually made some sense.

"We're entering the defense area, everybody!" Coyote said. "Get your hardcore dodging skills ready!"

"We'll follow you guys in!" one of the younger female soldiers said. "Don't you worry about a thing!"

Peter's thoughts on the situation flew out when he heard that particular voice. It gave him a moderate feeling of nostalgia for a second before he realized just who this woman was.

"Susan Keller?!" he asked in surprise.

The soldier sat confused for a moment as to how this man knew her name, but then she processed Peter's voice and came up with the answer.

"Peter Dengar?!"

"Hold up. You two know each other?" Anna asked.

"Of course! Susan's the girl I rescued from those snot-nosed little punks a few years back!" Peter replied enthusiastically.

Go back and read Next Gen, Chapter 23 if you're asking yourself "What the fuck is he talking about?!"

"God, it's so great to see you again!" Susan chirped. "Hey, you wanna go get something to eat after this so we can catch up on old times?"
"Sounds great, mate!" Peter beamed. "Man, you must be one hell of a pilot to get in the Army at only twenty."

"Yes, that would be later, but this is now, and now we're trying to blow up a friggin' flagship. Or have you already forgotten." Anna barked

"Alright, alright, kill the moment, sheesh…"

The team and Army swerved around the various constructions of the defense area. The strange creatures still had no intentions of letting them get away, but perhaps hostility came at the cost of no common sense or good reflexes since getting them to chase daredevil girls Coyote and Anna and crash headlong into the structures was easier than it looked.

"There's a reason your mom and dad taught you to look both ways before crossing the street!" Chase laughed back at them.

"They don't have a mom or a dad, smart guy." Coyote smirked.

"And that's the reason I'd prefer not to crack jokes with you around. You're always sure to ruin it."

"I oughta be gettin' paid for it at this rate."

"Looks like we're closing in on this son of a gun. Get ready, folks!" Marcus ordered.

The flagship slowed to a stop, now having simple no place to flee anymore since the ships had chased it through a tunnel and into an odd ring shaped chamber. There was no way out than the way it had already come, and it slowly turned around to face its attackers.

"All ships prepare to fire on my mark!" Commander Dane instructed.

Off went a tingling sensation in the back of Marcus' head and he looked up suddenly with a look of alert.

"Hold that order, sir! That ship's up to something!"

The mouth on the ship let out a loud roar before its hull seemed to steadily shift around. The rocket thrusters at the back gradually moved around to the bottom, and the bottom seemed to morph itself into two long structures with joints on proper places. The area where the mouth was shifted upward and extended on a metallic stalk of sorts, and out of the sides came two structures that looked unmistakably like a pair of arms. As if that wasn't enough, several cannons sprouted on its shoulder, and one of its hands had a huge blade on the end.

"Oh, fuck my uncle…" Marcus said in nervous awe. "...heh. I'm just kiddin'. I don't have an uncle."

"Well, we've gotta give the terrorist leader credit for that at least." Tyler remarked.

"Care to elaborate?"

"Simple: it's a giant mech! Giant mechs are freakin' awesome!"

The "freakin' awesome" mech as Tyler quoted punched at the first ship that made the stupid decision of coming too close, and that unfortunately had been Coyote.

"Not so awesome now that it's nearly punched a hole in my ship, is it?"

"Nope. It's even more awesome!" Tyler laughed.

"Yeah, well screw you, too!"

The mech roared and aimed the cannon on its arm, firing out a long beam of energy that scraped against the wall, leaving a huge singe. Any of the pilots that had been close enough felt the intense heat radiating off of it before dive-bombing at the mech and searching for a possible weak point.

"Enemy shield analyzed. Coming up on your screens now." Chase said after hitting the last few buttons.

"Delete data." Tyler said.

The enemy's shield gauge vanished from everyone's screens the moment Tyler had spoken.

"Very funny, little bro." Chase sighed. "Recalculate shield gauge."

"Delete data."

"Shut up! Recalcu…"

"Delete data."

Chase halted his Arwing suddenly, forcing Tyler's head to shoot forward and slam into the back of the seat. As if that wasn't enough, Chase whipped out a roll of masking tape that he for some reason had lying on his ship's floor, then took of one of his socks. Finally, he stuffed the sock into Tyler's mouth and wrapped as much tape around the young Toad's head as he could. Tyler furrowed his brow and angrily bucked around in the seat, but to no avail.

"And that takes care of that. Recalculate shield gauge."

The shield gauge finally reappeared on everyone's screens.

"Anne, what have you got for us?" Marcus demanded.

"Can't seem to find any kind of weak spot." Anna replied. "Someone'll have to act as bait so I can wheel around him and look for one."

"Already on it. Pete! Let's head on in!"

"Right behind you, mate!" Peter replied.

The Arwing III and the Outbacker dove in towards the mech, which used it shoulder cannons as an attempt to blast its attackers away. The two of them swerved back and forth, avoiding and deflecting the projectiles with barrel-rolls, loops, turning their ships on their sides, or firing their own shots. Anna meanwhile flew all around it, trying to find any sort of spot that could be a weak point. Susan seemed to want to be of some help, as she was swerving around the mech as well. Thankfully, she spotted a strange opening on one of the shoulders, but right as she saw it, several of the strange creatures from before began jetting out of it.

"Guys!" she yelled. "I think I've find the weak point…downside is that weak spot's puking out bogies!"

"Yep, there's one on this side, too!" Anna put in. "The sooner we get rid of these openings, the better!"

"Gotcha!" Marcus said. "Alright, team. Chase, Anne, and Pete, you flank right. Coyote and I'll flank left!"

"Reds Five, Three and One follow Marcus!" Commander Dane ordered. "Reds Two, Four, and Six follow Anna!"

"Yes, sir!" said Susan before breaking off to follow Peter.

The first wave of bogies coming from the left headed straight for Marcus, who simply charged up a blast and launched it at them full speed. As soon as few of them got too close, he swerved away and looped to get them in front of him before blasting them to Kingdom Come with a smart bomb before barrel-rolling to send another one careening into a wall.

"And that's why personal space is best left without any violation."

"We've got bogies attacking the Great Fox!" Damalgo hollered. "We can't get them off us!"

"Activate repulsing shield! Fifty meter range!" Scott ordered.

Out came a large pulse of energy from the Great Fox's hull, completely annihilating any of the bogies that had landed on it or had been quickly approaching it. This amazed everyone even further that he even knew the Great Fox had that kind of function.

"Don't start questioning me about it!" Scott yelled. "You've still got that huge monster to worry about!"

"Kid ain't kiddin' when he's saying that thing's a monster. Look at the chompers on him!" Chase remarked.

"Let's not worry about how impressive or intimidating the thing looks and just kill it before this whole situation gets out of control!" Anna responded.

Shooting off to the right, Chase managed to get a clear line of fire into the opening on the shoulder, but then Tyler started speaking in muffled screams.

"Tmms gmms bmmhmm us!"

"What's that? Can't hear you over the sound of sweet revenge."

Tyler furrowed his brow in an irritated way before grabbing the tape with his hands and tearing off before spitting the sock out of his mouth.

"EEEEE-YOW!...I said there's some goons behind us, you retard!"

"Oh…why didn't you say so?!"

"…I hate you. I really do."

Anna immediately dove in with her Multi-Lock and blasted the four creatures behind Chase into oblivion.

"You could say I'm one of those friends with benefits." she smirked.

"I guess I can always count on you, huh?"

"Never mind that! Finish this sucker off!"

Chase slammed the button over his head, and with a loud "It's away!", a smart bomb came surging out of the Slip Strap's cannon and down the opening until it exploded within. The mech let out a loud roar of seemingly pain, and the bombed arm fell off of it, floating aimlessly in the anti-gravitated air. It looked at its attackers angrily and swung at them with the energy blade on its remaining arm, firing small missiles at them to boot.

"Oh, sure. As if the projectiles worked the first time!" Peter mocked.

"One of 'em is working now, I'm afraid!" Susan yelled. "Gimme some help over here!"

"Me and my big mouth, eh?"

As Peter shot away to help Susan, Marcus and Coyote shot towards the second opening on the other arm. The mech fired its remaining shoulder cannons at the two, trying its hardest to keep them from damaging it further, and that only made them more frustrated with it.

"I'm starting to think this guy's bark is a lot worse than his bite." Marcus growled.

"No kiddin'. Makes me wish this was a crossover with Transformers so Optimus Prime could run in and tear this thing limb from…God damn it, now I'M doing it!"

"Ain't that a bitch."

The two swerved off in different directions to dodge any of the oncoming missiles before they both launched a smart bomb into the opening. Off came the other arm and out came another roar before the now armless mech turned toward its attackers as a buildup of energy occurred in its maw.

"INCOMING!" Marcus hollered before jerking the steering console to the right.

Out came another massive beam singeing the wall, and unfortunately slicing off one of Susan's wings when she got too close.

"Son of a bitch!" she growled. "Who does this guy think he is, slicing off an innocent lady's wing off like that? I'll tell you what it makes him: one rude shithead!"

"Easy, lady!" Chase replied. "We've got kids around here, y'know?"

Peter quickly swerved up in front of her and opened up his cargo hold. Out dropped a wing repair droid that immediately latched onto Susan's ship and began its work. Within moments, a new wing had been generated.

"And that takes care of that." Peter said smugly.

"Phew. Thanks, Pete. Now you and I should DEFINITELY go out for a drink sometime."

"Why, Miss Keller, I do believe you're trying to seduce me."

"Pay attention, Keller!" Commander Dane barked. "That robot isn't going to destroy itself!"

"Yes, sir! Sorry, sir!"

"Anne, you got another weak point for us?" Marcus asked.

"Let's see…wait…you see that glowing spot underneath his chest plates?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Get those plates off and fire at will! And do it quick! I'm detecting a lot of internal energy buildup!"

"Gotcha. Chase! Coyote! Follow me!"

The three swerved back towards the mech, dodging what little remained of the creatures.

"Let's head to Mach 4 speed in three…two…one!"

They each flipped a switch on their dashboards, causing their ships to rocket forward faster than the eye could see. In one swift motion, the plates on the mech's chest were sent spiralling away. The mech made one growl as all of the ships swerved in front of it, opening its mouth frighteningly wide and showing off a noticeable ray of energy.

"He's getting ready to drop a huge anchor on us!" Marcus yelled. "Commander?"
"Not much else to do, Marcus. All ships, focus all your power to your main guns."

Everyone flicked a few switches in their ships, and once someone yelled "Guns are set!" and the mech was about to rain hell on them…

"FIRE!"

Out came hundreds upon hundreds of charged shots surging into the mech's chest, sending it hurtling into the wall with a loud roar. As soon as it struck the hard metal, everything else attached to it fell away before letting off a loud explosion.

"Hell yeah!" one of the younger soldiers cheered.

"And that's what ya get for touchin' that!" Coyote mocked.

Marcus smiled at all the cheering going on. Even Commander Dane gave a satisfied smile, but something glowing in the floating wreckage caught Marcus' eye. He wasn't sure what it was, but he nevertheless piloted his ship towards it, severely confusing the rest of the team.

Once he had gotten close enough, Marcus could see that it was a glowing orb of…something. He had no idea what this thing was, but he noticed a cold feeling sweep over him as he had come close. That could only mean one thing, and that confirmed it as he opened his cargo hold and stowed the orb inside.

"It's time now, Marcus." Kursed mocked. "Time to let the party begin."

Marcus sighed and ran his fingers through the fur on his head.

"I know." he said aloud.

"You know what?" asked Chase.

"You don't wanna know."

"What if we DO wanna know?" asked Anna.

"You don't."

"…,yeah, but what if we do?" asked Peter.

"You don't. End of story."

"But what if we…" Coyote started.

"Done! It's over! End the damn chapter, narrator guy!"

And here we have it. The first mission of a new story. Sorry it took so long, but like I've said before, building a story from the ground up instead of having it ready to go isn't an easy roadblock to overcome, but whatever. I got it done.

I recently decided that I'd supply you guys with a soundtrack that you could listen to if you decide to reread some of the story. If you'd like to input your own songs into some particular moments, that's cool, but here's what I think should be in there so far. I'll be updating the soundtrack as more of these music moments present themselves, so be sure to take a look every once in a while. And with that, I'm out.

SOUNDTRACK SO FAR

Krystal's nightmare - "Parabola" by Mer (original song by Tool)

Marcus versus Coyote (friendly) - "Name of the Game" by The Crystal Method

...and that's it. Not much to work with for now.