At the crash site, Krystal starts to slowly regain consciousness. Due to her airwing activating the emergency impact sheild for the cockpit window, she's unable to see where she landed. She slowly tries to move but gets a sudden sharp pain in her side, making her grunt in agony. She reaches in a compartment under her flight controls and takes out a stim shot, she then ejects it near her side wound; which only eases the pain mildly. Krystal then proceeds to get in contact with the rest of the team through her ships communications, "Fox team..does a-anyone copy..?" She says, but there was no response.
"F-fox team..do you copy?" She says again, but is only left with the same result. Krystal decides to give up and attempts to deactivate the the ships impact sheild. but to her dismay, the release mechanism was busted; therefore resulting in her having to open the entire cockpit window. When she flicks a switch, the window slowly opens. She holds her side and proceeds to get up, only to be grabbed by her neck from the right side of her ship and yanked onto the ground.
The sudden action causes her to get up immediately and see Kyru walk around her like a predator eying up prey, "Krystal, right? I heard alot about you, I wonder what kinda tricks I could make Mccloud do if he knew what I was capable of doing to you.." Kryu says in a playful tone. "Do all turric grunts get full of themselves when they get a lucky shot?" Krystal says as they both start to circle eachother, "Turric grunt? Thats cute. I'm more..loosely associated with them than anything, and I assure you..they are nothing like me" Kyru responds.
"I've dealt with bastards twice your size, so dont even think for a second that im afraid of you!" Krystal says angrily, Kyru looks away and does a subtle laugh while she pulls a medium sized blade from her back holster. "To be honest with you, thats a huge relief...I was afraid this would be too easy" She says before immediately charging at Krystal. Kyru then relentlessly attempts to strike her but Krystal dodges every swing. When Kyru goes for another strike, Krystal sees an opening and proceeds to dodge to her right while kneeing Kyru in her face simultaneously. She then proceeds to spin kick her with the same leg, not only causing Kyru to stagger backwards; but also causing her to hold her side wound in pain once more.
Kyru holds her head up and moves around her lower jaw with her free hand, "Aaatta girl, though from where I'm standing; it doesn't look like you can do that often.." she says with a smile. Krystal stops holding her hip wound and stands up straight, giving kyru an intimidating stare. "Why don't you run at me again and find out.." She says, Kryu then spits out blood from her mouth before charging at Krystal again.
Meanwhile on Corneria, General Pepper is currently in the main CDF watch tower in the middle of the city. As he over looks the city from the command center, one CDF soilder gets his attention. "Sir! Commander Brauns wanted to inform you that the starfox team was able to damage the weapon, however they retreated after one of their own got shot down" they say. "Retreated?" General Pepper questions, "the Commander was told it had to do with a fuel issue.." the soilder responds. Pepper looks down and shakes his head in regret.
"Dammit, I was afraid of that...does the commander know who was shot down specifically?" General Pepper asks, "No sir, should I tell the commander to have some units retrieve them?" the soilder questions. "No..all units will stay focused on destroying that weapon, the starfox team will come back to assist as soon as possible.." Pepper says, the CDF soilder nods before proceeding to contact the commander. General Pepper looks back out the window, he takes a deep breath before turning around walking away.
Back on planet Venom, Kyru and Krystal are still in a heated skirmish. Kyru dodges a strike from Krystal then proceeds to kick her in the chest, knocking her onto the nose of her airwing. Before Krystal could recover, Kyru rushes to hold her in place by her neck while jabbing the airwing with her blade; missing Krystal's head by inches. "Cmoon, don't slow down now! You're just startin' to peak my interest!" She says as she jabs the blade deeper into the airwing, Krystal headbutt's her then proceeds to pin her to the ground.
"You're delusional! I've seen how the turric treat their own, what makes you think they'll treat some gun for hire any different? All i see is another expendable prick!" Krystal says as she tightens her grip around Kyru's neck, "Oh? Looks like you should've been paying more attention!" Kyru struggles to say. As she reaches her hand out behind Krystal, an aggressive beeping is heard from her arm band. The blade that was stuck in the airwing then retracts to her hand. The moment Krystal turns to look behind her, the blade cuts the side of her face as it flies from behind her; making her jolt her head to the other side and grunt in pain.
Kyru moves her arm further back in order to catch the blade by the handle, she then flips the blade around and proceeds to jab the bottom of the handle in Krystal's side wound. When Kyru's arm band beeps twice, Krystal then receives a controlled shock long enough for Kyru to knock her onto the ground with a swift punch to the face. As Krystal holds her side and grit her teeth in pain, Kyru gets up from the ground and slowly walk towards her. "Ya know...Adryal wanted you as well as the other fucks from your little group alive, something about waitin for the right time to bring Mccloud to his knees" She says along with slight unnerving laughter.
"But you know what I think? I think...I'm startin to not give a FUCK what his plans are!" Kyru says as she kicks Krystal's side wound, making her yell in pain. Kyru uses her foot to roll Krystal on her back, she then gets on her knees and places herself on top of Krystal's stomach. "So now I'm thinkin...why don't I just kill you now? Start the party early and see just how much I can stir things up.." Kyru says in a calm yet intimidating tone. She then takes her blade and lightly brushes it from Krystal's upper abdomen to her chest.
"Dont you worry...Mccloud will join you soon enough!" Kyru says as she quickly raises her blade. Before she could peirce the blade through Krystal's chest, her armpad makes a sonar like sound. She brings her arm down and sees that she's being contacted by Adryal Strauss directly, she then taps on the pad twice and puts it closer to her face without taking her eyes off of Krystal. "Yes sir.." Kyru says in a slightly annoyed tone, "..I was informed one of the starfox members were shot down..who" Adryal questions in his usual cold tone.
"Krystal Fox, she survived the crash I have her restrained as we speak.." Kyru responds, Adryal thinks to himself for a bit before speaking again. "...I'm going to send you coordinates, take her there..Lithra will inform you further" he says before ending the transmission. Kyru puts her blade back in its holster as she looks at Krystal groaning in pain. "I would say you're lucky, but with what's coming...I'd say killing you now would've been the best option" She says.
Meanwhile, the starfox team arrives at the Great Fox. The moment they all land in the hanger, Fox disembark's his airwing faster than the other three. "Rob! Rob cmon we need to refuel asap!" Fox says as he frantically looks around, "Rob is still busted from the last mission Fox, just hold on a seco-" Peppy says before Fox cuts him off. "There's no time! Slippy, see if you can get into contact with Krystal. Let her know we'll get back as soon as possible.." Fox says as he grabs a fuel container nearby to refuel manually.
Peppy climbs down his cockpit ladder while Slippy tries to get in contact with Krystal. "I understand you want to get back as fast as possible, but we need to tread carefully! General Pepper can-" Peppy says, grabbing Fox's arm as he's walking to his ship. Fox aggressively turns around and cuts Peppy off mid sentence, "General Pepper is the reason why we're in this position in the first place! Sending us on another mission while we're already on course for Venom, only to find nothing but scavengers ready to pick us off!" He yells.
"Yes, General Pepper made a bad call; but it's not his fault. The only people that should be blamed for what happened to Krystal are the people givin' us hell on Venom" Peppy exclaims. "..Well maybe you're the one to blame too.." Fox says, Peppy looks at him in confusment. "..What're yall tryin' to say?" He asks, slightly worried of what Fox might be eluding to. "That turric girl had no reason to lie Peppy, if this really does have something to do with my father..where does that leave you?" Fox says.
"Again with this? Fox for God's sake I already told you-" Peppy says before Falco steps in, "Guys! Whatever this is right now ain't helpin' at all, let's just fuel up and get her back; we can discuss this shit after!" Falco says. Before anyone could respond, they all hear the hanger door open. They turn to it and see R.O.B badly damaged, struggling to walk towards them. "Unknown a-a-aircraft approach-ching hanger" He says in a distorted tone, Fox and the others turn around to see aircraft in question.
"Who the hell is..." Falco says, "Should we..be concerned at all?" Slippy questions. "Its only one ship, doesn't look like a turric one either..but that doesn't mean we should be any less cautious" Peppy responds, "...Slippy, disable the hanger sheild" Fox says as he drops the fuel container. "What? We're seriously just gonna let some random aircraft carrier land in here!?" Peppy questions, "if they wanted trouble, they wouldn't leave themselves vulnerable like that..Slippy?" Fox says.
Slippy nods then proceeds to disable the hanger sheild. As the ship flies through lands in the center, Falco pulls his blaster out of his holster and waits patiently; while Peppy does the same. The moment the cockpit window opens, both of them quickly aim at it. The four then see a masked individual with a green jacket jump down from the cockpit. As they turn around, they take off there mask; making the four notice that it's Solomon.
"You gotta be fuckin kiddin me.." Falco says with a mixture of anger and disbelief. "Falco..figured you'd be happier to see me" Solomon says in a sarcastic tone, "Oh you think you're funny huh?" Falco responds. "Bold of ya to casually show your face like the CDF ain't huntin' you down.." Peppy says, "I'm assuming you three are less stubborn than Falco, so maybe now I can explain myself thoroughly. Long story short, I was framed by one of my squad mates. He led our unit to an ambush they picked us off one by one..leaving me alive to take the blame for it" Solomon says.
"Surley you got some evidence to help your case?" Fox asks, "Aside from Falco still bein' alive after our little scrap..no. look..you guys have every right not to trust me, under these circumstances I wouldn't trust me either. But whatever these assholes are planning, it's gonna take alot more than the CDF to handle em if we don't find whoever's behind this shut it down asap" Solomon explains. The starfox team is silent for a brief moment, Fox and Peppy look at eachother shortly before looking back at Solomon.
"Alright..we'll handle the situation with you later, right now we gotta go back on Venom rescue one of ours" Fox says as he walks past Solomon to fuel his ship. "Then I'll tag along, can't go wrong with an extra set a' guns" Solomon says, "Fox there's no way in hell you're considering that right?" Falco questions as he Peppy holsters there guns. "Unless you wanna stay on the ship and babysit, that's the only option I see. Slippy, anything on Krystal?" Fox asks, "N-nothing, still static. I tried to see if her location is the same but even that's not wor-" slippy says before a large plasma shot flies in from outside the hanger. The shot hits the back of Solomon's ship, making one of the thrusters blow up; flipping the ship over the five and landing on its back near the entrance where R.O.B came from
As Solomon the others get knocked on the ground, Fox quickly turns on his back to see a turric ship slowly decloak as it enters the hanger. "Sonuva bitch! you led these assholes right to us!" Falco yells at Solomon as he helps Fox up, "You four are the only ones that know I'm here, I didn't lead shit!" Solomon responds as he gets up from the ground and backs up. As the ship lands in the spot where Solomon's was, the starfox team holds their ground and draws their weapon's.
The underbelly of the ship opens and turns into a slanted platform. "You must be pretty fuckin' stupid to think we won't shoot you the moment you step out of there!" Falco yells. The four see two individuals slowly walk down the platform, It only takes the starfox team a brief moment to notice Kyru holding Krystal by knife point. "Krystal..?" Fox says as he puts his gun down in complete disbelief. From his point of veiw, Krystal looks almost too weak to stand on her own. "So..this is the infamous starfox team, I'm glad we finally got an opportunity to meet face to face.." Kyru says as she slowly moves foward with Krystal a few more steps before coming to a complete stop.
She then sizes Fox up and proceeds to smile, "Especially the maaan of the hour..Mccloud, Im lookin forward to seeing how well you fare againts what Adryal has in store for you. Speaking of.." Kyru says as she shoves Krystal towards Fox, making him rush to grab her before she hit the ground. Kyru then takes her blaster and points it a Krystal, "A gift..from Adryal himself. You should thank him when ya can, if it were up to me..." Kyru says before making a finger gun with her other hand and pointing it to her head, she then proceeds to walk back to her ship while keeping her gun trained on Krystal.
"Just one good shot oldman.." Falco says under his breath, "Keep your finger, off that damn trigger.." Peppy responds without taking his eyes off Kyru. When kyru reaches her ships platform, she then gives one last good look at the six before doing a two finger salute. "I'll be seein' you all..very soon" She says. As she turns around and walks up the platform, the ship stars to hover. When the platform closes, the ship turns around and boosts out of the hanger. Fox looks down to see Krystal heavily bruised beaten, It doesn't take long for his mixed feeling of sorrow concern, to turn into pure anger.