Physics Week Part 3

Star Fox Explodes

Physics Week: Day 3
Smash Mansion

Early morning

Dumbass,

We're scrappin' on Hyrule Castle 64 today.

Your friend,

Falco

That was the crudely written sticky note Fox had found on the closet in his room today. Grabbing a cherry granola bar and a bottle of water, Fox headed down to the Stage Floor. He passed a few of the Smashers that had seen his confrontation with Krystal a few nights earlier. Olimar, Ratchet, Clank, and Sly Cooper all cast their glances downward as he walked by. The Belmonts clasped their hands in prayer and cast an empathetic utterance to their god. Each interaction saw Fox's chills grow stronger. He felt like a man being led to the gallows, the thing on the other end of the handcuffs being his guilty, remorseful heart, the executioners being his friends. Eventually, he got to the original interpretation of Hyrule Castle's door, but the experience in getting there felt out of body. As he rounded the corner, he heard the hushed, devious voices of Krystal and Wolf, hunched over the computer console that each stage had to determine game scenarios, items allowed, et al.

"We want gun weapons. It'll be nice to have Fox staring down a barrel of…any of these really. Especially the Dragoon, that was a favorite of mine as a spectator," Krystal snarled, licking her lips so audibly Fox heard it from across the room.

Wolf shrugged at this, "I've got my Stamina Battle demand, so you can do whatever you want."

"It isn't much of a demand. He won't have any excuse of taking too much damage and flying away."
"What about you bird? Any requests?"

"Nope,"

Fox's head snapped to a back wall of the room. Falco was there, arms crossed, lazily leaned against the all-white structure. It was unlike the blue bird to be this quiet.

Another chill up Fox's spine. The vulpine gulped quietly, but all three heads snapped to his direction now.

"Ah, the guest of honor has arrived!" shouted Wolf, spreading his arms wide and spinning in mock celebration, "You ready pup?"

"As I'll ever be," muttered Fox.

Krystal cackled, "Where's your usual bravado?"

"How can I have bravado when I have to do this?" snapped Fox.

"You act like you're the victim of a punishment undeserved," Krystal spat, "That makes the usual whining one gets when they crack the ego of the great Fox McCloud all the more annoying."

"I'm not whining about my punishment," Fox said as the white room began to morph into Hyrule Castle 64, "I'm whining about having to kick all of your butts."

Rules: Stamina 200 HP, 1 Stock. Items: Super Scope, Dragoon, Ray Gun, Staff, Steel Diver, Rage Blaster, Banana Gun, Daybreak. High

Stage: Hyrule Castle 64

Music: Death Mountain

3

Fox backed up against the ascending platforms as Falco and Krystal stood alongside each other on the opposite end of the stage

2

Wolf jumped to the bottom platform, ruffling Fox's head fur mockingly in the process.

1

Fox and Krystal bore their fangs at one another.

GO!

"I'm gonna sit back and watch. Y'all have your own issues to work out." Wolf said, lazily reclining on the platform, laying on his side.

"Thanks Wolf ole pal! Krystal, ladies first,"

Krystal nodded warily at the bird, unsheathing her staff, taking her first steps forward of the match…only for Falco's foot to land squarely on her jaw with a crescent kick. As Krystal collapsed into a heap, Fox and Wolf's jaws hung open, Fox's expression quickly changing into a devious smile as he and Falco stepped forward into a bro hug!

"Eheheheh, when you told me this is how you wanted me to react to the whole stalkin' thing, I wasn't sure they'd buy it."

The high pitched yet visceral sound of a Staff blast from full distance rang through the air, colliding with Fox's back. As Fox cursed out in pain, sinking to his knees, another blast rang out , but Falco saw it coming, shoving Fox aside and reflecting the blast back at Wolf, who had enough sense to roll off the platform.

"You…you slime! You…you allow this behavior!" snarled Wolf, his voice breaking with anger.

Falco shook his head, "Nah, me 'an Fox will deal with it in private, but boss man figured you might use the opportunity to turn us against each other. You'd use our bickering to trick me into helpin' you mess Fox up and, no matter how skeevy the guy is, he's still my best friend."

"Alright," seethed Wolf, striking a combat stance, "Come at me then. Take your lumps boy."

"With pleasure one-eye." Falco smirked, taking a combat stance of his own.

Falco leapt into the air, and just as he was on the descending arc of his jump, Wolf flew into the air with Wolf Flash, spiking Falco down. As the bird went limp, Wolf bolted after Fox, who had used Falco's distraction to crawl under the green tower structure on the lower end of the stage. As Wolf jumped in for the pounce, Fox spun from his belly to his back, revealing a Steel Diver obtained in the chaos. Wolf was quick enough to slap the odd gun away, raining down claw swipes, the first few of which McCloud blocked, until they began to slice at the bones in his wrists. Fox cried out in pain, breaking his block, which allowed Wolf to pummel him unprotected.

"What's the matter with you boy? Where's the ace pilot I used to know?" taunted Wolf, his eye bloodshot with anger.

Fox heard the familiar sound of a blast of fire from a Cernian staff, as the mix of fuel and air collided with Wolf's back. Wolf howled in pain, letting out a string of curses as a second one hit him, this time punctuated with a flying kick from Krystal. Wolf slumped off of Fox, to his right. Now it was Krystal who was reigning blows on Wolf. The space pirate was in his own mess of blood now, Krystal was glaring down at Wolf without emotion, "You miserable little prick. You remember our deal, he's mine," she stated, her voice flat.

Wolf chuckled, swallowing blood as he did, "If this was normal hatred, you wouldn't care about how he got iced, just that he did."

"Enough mind games O'Donnell."

"But do you know what I think?"

"Shut up,"

"I think you're just a girl with a crush." Wolf snarled, spitting blood into the air.

The glob of blood landed right on Krystal's cheek. Just as she drew back her staff, The Steel Diver rolled over to Krystal's side. She snapped over to where it had come from, to see Fox staggering his feet, "Use it."

Krystal nodded, grabbing the gun, and firing all ten of its missile blasted directly into Wolf's chest. The squadron leader let out one pained howl, his body blinking red as it went limp, before disappearing in a comedically colorful explosion.

WOLF HAS BEEN ELIMINATED

Krystal blinked, eyes wide with shock, only to be caught in a flying kick from Fox. Krystal rolled to her back as her ex jumped into the air, blocking his spinning downward kick with the bar of her staff. The blue fox heaved Fox off of her, rolling to her belly as he landed, firing an ice bolt at Fox, freezing him solid. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Falco taking to the air. She whipped around, freezing him with an ice bolt, and melting the ice with a subminimal fire bolt. The avian collapsed to the ground, his lungs hacking up all the water that had just been forced down his gullet.

"Ya know," wheezed Falco, "You ain't gonna be able to freeze people for this long in tournament."

Krystal's brow furrowed, "You idiot! I've spectated two of these tournaments, so obviously I know what freezing people is like. Why must you…what's the word for it, in your uncivilized tongue? Ah, it's mansplain, why you mansplain everything?"

Falco crossed his arms, "Not mansplainin' just sayin', watch your back."

Like something out of a horror film, the ice around Fox cracked, then shattering completely as the leader of the Star Fox team erupted from the ice, leaping into the air. A grenade manifested in Krystal's hand. She clicked the bright blue button in its center, its activation made clear with a royalty free beep. Throwing it into the air, her smirk turned to an open mouthed, surprised glare as Fox kicked it in midair back at her. Bringing up her shield as the armament exploded, she felt Falco encroaching on her. Whipping around to face him, she spun the staff, smacking Falco numerous times, following that up with a kick to the jaw, mirroring the one Falco had nailed her with at the beginning of the bout. Fox was running at her now. Vertically whacking his head with the staff, following that up with an uppercut blow with the front of her staff, two opposite horizontal slices across his chest, and now, the big slicing kick that ended a Cernian priestess' most basic kata.

Parry

The blow bounced off of Fox as he struck a defensive stance. Her concentration breaking for that millisecond was enough to allow Falco to sweep her legs. As the blue vulpine landed hard on her back, Fox drew his blaster, Falco scrambling to his feet to do the same.

"You really thought you could get me with that?" teased Fox, staggering some as he lost even more blood, "That's baby's first kata hot stuff. You told me that yourself."

"There's one thing I…forgot to tell you. Something that apparently needs explaining," Krystal huffed..

"And what's that?" Fox said, smirking.

Oooh, that smirk is so detestable, I'm going to enjoy this part hissed Krystal inwardly as she prepared her next move.

"Don't ever, ever, underestimate a Cernian!"

Slamming the dull end of her staff into the ground, the ground underneath them all quaked. The two Lylatians staggered, trying to find their footing among the now hostile stone ground.

"Boost!" Krystal shouted.

Taking her with it, the staff propelled itself into the air, the sharp end hitting Fox in the jaw. As Wolf had done earlier, Fox blinked red, exploding into nothingness as his body went limp.

FOX HAS BEEN ELIMINATED

Pivoting in the air, Krystal rained hellfire on a still stunned Falco. The weakened avian couldn't even react as he two went the way of Fox and Wolf after six consecutive fireballs to his blue feathered head.

KRYSTAL WINS!

Krystal found herself in the Smash Mansion courtyard the Smash Bros crosshair logo gaudily adorned in cobblestone on a sunny day. Turning her back to the camera drone, she simply sheathed her staff, putting it back in its holder on her back as the splash screen declared Krystal the victor. In a flash, she was teleported back to the auditorium over Hyrule Castle. She stood all alone. Assuming the other three had left as soon as the drones who cataloged the losers' clapping were out of sight, she sat cross-legged, in meditation sorting through the feelings in her heart.

Smash Mansion, Lobby

Fox and the others had split wordlessly, Falco and Wolf heading out to their respective rooms. McCloud on the other hand, found that spending some time outside often helped him clear his mind the best. Just as he was about to part the doors to the courtyard, he heard a familiar voice.

"Figured you'd be headed this way when Mario let me peak at the training logs."

Fox looked behind him, to see Luigi stood in front of one of the lounge chairs, arms crossed, a smug expression visible even with his trademark 'stache.

"Ah, I meant to look for you."

"Mario told me that-a too."

Fox raised an eyebrow, "What else did Mario tell you?" he asked in a wary tone.

Luigi's smug manor melted, his eyes wide and apologetic now, "N-nothing personal I assure you. Just that you'd be around to ask me for advice."

Fox nodded, slowly lifting his paw to rub his chin in thought, "How come…how come you never have to save Daisy?"

Luigi chuckled, "Because with the Tatanga thing, Mario did it as a favor to Peach, and I was in New Donk on vacation, visitin' old friends. That's the only time she's been in real danger though, cause she's a warrior all on her own. Bowser tried to capture her a few times, but apparently the ass kicking was so bad it was struck from all historical record."

Fox smiled, incredulous, "You can do that?"

Luigi nodded, "Trust me, I was just as confused when they told me, but if enough royals come to a mutual agreement, lotsa crazy stuff can happen."

Again, the captain nodded, "And…what would happen if you tried to intervene on her affairs?"

Luigi looked left, then right, over his shoulder in both directions, before stepping closer to Fox, speaking in a hushed whisper, "Listen, it ain't really none of my business but… I think the whole Mario, Peach, Bowser thing…gets everyone involved off. Everybody likes the roles they have in the relationship. But Daisy, she's my warrior princess, and if she needed my help, she'd let me know, in words or in gesture. If I did any of dat without her permission…she'd kick my ass and there'd be nothing I could do about it."

Fox nodded, smiling, "Thank you. That's all."

"R-Really?" Luigi stammered, "Oh thank the Seven Stars! Thought you'd actually need me to talk about romance!"

"Nah," said McCloud, with a shake of his head, "Just needed the unbiased advice of a friend in a stable relationship."

"Well good, because I'm no good at it."

"You're not telling me you aren't equipped to talk about romance, are you? That's bull Luigi! You and Daisy are two of the most romantic people I've ever met."

The man in green blushed, "I honestly kinda bumbled into it."

Fox slapped Luigi on the shoulder playfully, "That's what all the suave types say. Thanks pal."

"O-oh. No problem," Luigi said.

Fox waved behind him, not turning to look at Luigi as he passed through the doors of the mansion.