Outskirts of Taktar, Sangheillos
Krystal waited patiently as Slippy typed away on his data pad.
"Alright, I've looped their security footage and disabled the pressure sensors around the perimeter." said the amphibian.
The cobalt vixen looked about the group, which consisted of herself, Slippy, Amanda, Fara, and Adrian.
"Remember guys, we're here to rescue Bill and the others. We need to avoid a confrontation at all costs. The guards could very well end up killing the prisoners."
Everyone else nodded in response and began moving through the woods towards the complex. Krystal reached out with her telepathy in an effort to locate the pilots. Soon enough, she picked up on their thought patterns.
"They're in the west wing of the complex." the vixen told the others mentally as they reached the edge of the woods and gazed upon the prison complex.
"Right." Adrian whispered as he scoped the perimeter out with a pair of binoculars.
After a few minutes of watching the patrolling guards and taking note of the watchtowers, the rust-coloured vulpine noted "We'll have an opening in…"
"A few minutes." Krystal finished.
The group waited for a quartet of guards to go around the side of the building before leaving cover and running in a crouch up to the energy fence. Slippy activated a rectangular device, causing an orb-shaped object to float into the energy beam.
As an opening was created, Krystal sensed Amanda thinking "Here goes nothing."
The cobalt vixen scanned with her telepathy, sensing that none of the guards had spotted them as of yet. Her eyes fell onto a door across from them.
"Let's move."
The mercenaries dashed up to the door. Krystal once again reached out and sensed that no silent alarms had been tripped.
"This is going better than expected." she mused.
Slippy was able to hotwire the door fairly quickly. Within the facility's drab grey halls, Krystal used her telepathy to find a route that had the least amount of guards.
"This way." she signalled to the others.
The mercenaries headed up the hall, Krystal taking point, Slippy and Amanda watching their flanks, and Fara and Adrian covering the rear. They had to pause near a junction after Krystal sensed a trio of guards.
Thankfully, they went in the opposite direction and the group was able to press on. Krystal sensed that they were coming upon the cell where Bill and the other pilots were being held.
Cautiously peering around the corner, the cobalt vixen saw two Elite guards standing in front of an energy barrier.
When she communicated as much to the others via telepathy, Fara mentally replied "What are we gonna do?"
"I'm going to try something."
Krystal shut her eyes and concentrated on the guard's thought patterns. She conjured up the words "Shift change." in her head and then telepathically projected them into the guard's minds.
A few tense seconds passed, and Krystal began to wonder if her plan had succeeded.
Suddenly, she heard "That time already?"
Then a response. "So it is."
There was the sound of boots clomping on the metal floor as the guards walked away. While they were waiting for them to get out of earshot, Amanda whispered "What did you do?"
Glancing over her shoulder, Krystal replied "I made them think their shift was over."
Once Krystal was certain that the guard's were out of earshot, she signalled for the others to follow her. As the group approached the cell, which had a red energy barrier that served as bars, a certain canine looked up at them and then did a double take.
Before Bill could open his mouth, Krystal put a finger to her lips, signaling him to keep his voice down.
"Well ain't you a sight for sore eyes." the husky whispered when the group got closer.
While Slippy set to work disabling the barrier, Krystal remarked "Don't thank us yet, Bill. We still need to escape."
"Right." the canine replied and then met Fara's gaze.
"Long time, no see."
"We can catch up later, Bill."
Krystal in the meantime, took stock of the Lylatian pilots. There were six, including Bill. They all bore bruises and cuts, and the vixen sensed that two of them wouldn't be able to walk on their own.
Krystal felt anger and rage rising within, but kept a lid on it. They were here for a rescue mission, not to start another war.
Slippy meanwhile, managed to deactivate the force field. While two of the pilots helped their comrades, Amanda and Fara handed their sidearms to Bill and a raccoon named Morane.
"C'mon, let's get out of here."
But before they could get moving, Krystal felt a terrible headache. She couldn't pinpoint exactly what the problem was, but she sensed that the others were in trouble.
"What's the matter, Krystal?"
Seeing Slippy's concerned expression, the cobalt vixen replied "Something terrible is happening."
Just as soon as she said that, klaxons began blaring.
"LOCKDOWN INITIATED! LOCKDOWN INITIATED!"
"We need to move." Krystal told the others.
The group took off down the corridor, their pace hindered by the injured pilots. Thanks to Krystal's telepathy, they were able to avoid running into any guards, though the cobalt vixen knew that wouldn't last forever.
Sensing a potential escape route, Krystal held up a hand and signalled the others to halt.
"I've found a way out. Cover me."
While everyone else took up positions, Krystal charged up the jewelled end of her staff and then did a two-handed swing towards the wall. There was a massive shockwave, and the metal plating was sent flying outwards.
Seeing that a hole had been created in the wall, Bill ran to exit, only for Krystal to put an arm out and stop him.
"There's two guard towers with a clear line of fire. I'll handle this."
"Whatever you say." the husky replied.
Krystal once again charged up her staff and leapt out the hole she had made. The vixen brought her weapon down to the ground in a quake slam. The attack sent out a shockwave that kicked up dirt, toppled the guard towers, and disabled the energy barrier.
"Perfect." the cobalt vixen thought as she took cover in the wreckage of one of the towers.
"Get the injured into the woods. We'll cover you."
From there, she had Slippy, Amanda, and Bill join her, while also directing Fara, Adrian, and Morane to the other downed tower.
As she suspected, the guards were moving on their position. Krystal popped out from cover and shot two fireballs from her staff at an Elite guard. The first took down his energy shields and the second dropped him in a spray of purple blood.
The others also helped, with Bill taking down another guard's shields with a charged blaster shot and Amanda finishing him off. Slippy meanwhile, hurled a grenade and took out a group of Elites.
In the case of Fara, Adrian, and Morane, they were holding their own, but couldn't help,
but notice the guards were continuing to press their attack.
"They're sure as hell bold." the raccoon said to the rust-coloured vulpine.
Adrian was about to reply when he saw a Druid tank drive into view, it's cannon pointed right at the trio.
No wonder the guards were getting bold.
Fara was shocked; they hadn't expected to encounter armour on this mission and therefore hadn't brought rocket launchers or any other anti-tank equipment.
The Fennec was even more shocked when Krystal stepped out in front of them.
"Are you crazy?!" Fara exclaimed.
"Maybe."
Fara squeezed her eyes shut as the cannon boomed. To her surprise, there was a whooshing sound. Opening her eyes back up, the Fennec saw that a large, white barrier was completely blocking them off from the enemy troops.
"What the?"
While she had been told that Krystal could generate energy barriers with her staff, Fara had understood that they were small in scale.
"Good going, Krystal." she heard Slippy shout.
"I'm not done yet." the cobalt vixen replied.
Krystal raised her staff and the barrier began being drawn into it, the jewelled end glowing brighter and brighter. Eventually, the cobalt vixen pointed her staff at the Druid tank.
"Take this."
In a bright flash of light, a white beam was fired from Krystal's staff. Upon impacting, the beam punched right through. The tank ended up exploding in a huge fireball that sent the turret flying upwards and took out most of the advancing guards.
Turning to her stunned companions, Krystal said "Come on, let's get out of here."
They needed no further prompting and quickly followed her into the woods.
Several hours later
The group waited anxiously as a Phantom drop ship flew over the woods, searchlights playing across the brush. To their relief, it passed over without incident. All eyes turned to Krystal.
"Well, what's our next move?" Bill whispered.
Krystal met his gaze.
"We wait for the search parties to get a little further away. In the meantime, there's something I need to tell you guys."
The cobalt vixen took a breath and looked around the group.
"The Elites were tipped off about us wanting to steal that artifact. They've captured Fox and Kronos."
A chill seemed to descend over the group. Slippy looked mortified and Fara first looked shocked and then angered. In both cases, their spouses set a reassuring hand on their shoulder.
Bill, meanwhile, looked mad enough that he would take on the entire Sangheilli Army. Krystal sensed that there would be no dissuading him from partaking in a rescue.
"Bill." she said calmly, but firmly. "I want to get them back as badly as you, but we can't go into this blind. We need a plan."
The cobalt vixen cast another look around the group.
"Phantom's group is in trouble too, but I can't pinpoint just what that is."
"So what do we do?" asked Slippy.
"I'm going to try and locate Fox, Kronos, and Radoven's thought patterns."
With that, Krystal put a hand to her temple and closed her eyes. To her surprise, she could feel Radoven's presence some distance away. Finding Fox and Kronos took longer, but the vixen eventually picked out their consciences within Taktar.
Having located them, Krystal mentally said "Hey guys."
She immediately sensed their surprise. Fox was the first to respond.
"Krystal? Oh baby, you have no idea how good it is to hear your voice right now."
"Oh, I've got some idea." the vixen snarked.
Kronos was the next to speak up.
"You must be close if you can sense us."
"I'm not." Krystal replied. "But don't worry guys, we'll find a way to get you out of there."
Krystal then turned her attention to Radoven.
"You shouldn't have left them."
"The headquarters was on lockdown. There was no way I could get to them without getting captured or killed."
The cobalt vixen let out a frustrated huff.
"I'm still annoyed with you, Radoven. You could have….."
All of a sudden, Krystal felt a sharp headache. There was a new presence that was even closer than her friends.
An evil presence.
"Hmh Hmh heh heh, hello there Krystal."
Removing her hand from her temple, Krystal turned to the others. Bill asked the question that was on their minds.
"What's up?"
Taking a breath, the vixen explained "There's something evil in these woods."
Everyone's eyes widened. Glancing around them, Krystal added "Get back to the ship."
"But Krystal…"
"No buts, Slippy. This is something I have to do alone."
The others must have realized that arguing was pointless, because they soon began to leave. Fara glanced at Krystal over her shoulder.
"Good luck."
"Thank you."
The cobalt vixen turned around and began heading the other way, staff at the ready and telepathy on high alert. She stopped within a clearing and assumed a combat stance.
"You cloak your presence well, Kursed. But I sense you all the same."
Out of the corner of her eye, Krystal saw a dark shape fall from a tree. The being that walked out of the bushes had, as Kaden had explained, a spot on resemblance to Krystal, purple hair and red eyes aside.
"Well, hello me." Kursed taunted and curled her muzzle back into a sadistic smile.
"We are nothing alike, Kursed." Krystal retorted.
The evil clone responded by extending her claws and assuming a combat stance. After a brief staredown, Kursed leapt towards Krystal and brought her claws down in an overhand swing. The Star Fox member quickly brought up her staff and blocked the attack.
"Like it or not, Krystal, we are the same flesh and blood."
Krystal quickly delivered a kick to her doppelgänger's midsection, causing Kursed to stagger backwards.
"That may be true, Kursed. But you are just a clone under the command of Baphomet and his minions."
Krystal punctuated that by shooting a fireball towards Kursed. The purple-haired vixen reacted by doing a combat roll out of the way and then taking aim and firing her blaster at Krystal.
Thinking quickly, the cobalt vixen threw up a barrier and blocked the shots. Drawing her own blaster, Krystal deactivated the barrier and fired a shot that knocked her evil doppelgänger's weapon from her hand.
Kursed seemed shocked at first, but soon regained her sadistic smile.
"Not bad, Krystal. But it's gonna take more than a good aim to bring me down."
"I wouldn't be so certain, Kursed."
Krystal fired another laser at Kursed, only for a black mist to envelop the clone.
"Heh ha ha hah. Two can play at that game, Krystal."
Kursed extended her right arm outwards and opened her hand. Some of the mist began to swirl around the hand, eventually forming into a staff much like Krystal's.
But whereas Krystal's was gold coloured and had a purple gem, Kursed's staff was obsidian coloured and had a blood red gem.
The doppelgänger twirled her weapon in her hands.
"Well, I dare say that the playing field has been evened."
Krystal holstered her blaster and narrowed her eyes at that statement.
"Hardly. You may have been created from my genes, but you did not spend years training with that weapon, making it a part of you. You don't stand a chance."
Kursed assumed a combat stance.
"Wanna bet?"
The two vixens stared each other down briefly, before Kursed launched herself towards Krystal. The latter quickly brought up her staff and blocked the attack. From there, the cobalt vixen and her doppelgänger exchanged a series of strikes, both of them blocking and parrying each other's attacks.
Eventually, Krystal jumped back from Kursed attempting to disembowel her with the sharp end of her staff, and brought her own weapon down in a quake slam. The action staggered Kursed, giving Krystal an opportunity to move in and deliver a running kick that knocked the clone down.
"See what I mean, Kursed. You're sloppy. A person with actual training would have seen that coming."
The doppelgänger quickly stuck the sharp end of her staff into the ground and did a rocket boost upwards. While flying upwards, Kursed extended her claws and tried to slash at Krystal, only for the cobalt vixen to parry the blows.
Kursed landed in a crouch behind Krystal and swept her staff along the ground. The cobalt vixen simply jumped over it and did an overhand swing that was blocked by Kursed.
"Don't be so cocky, Krystal. I can do everything that you can do. And then some."
The evil clone snapped her fingers and disappeared in an orange light.
Krystal kept her staff at the ready and closed her eyes. She slowed her breathing and scanned with her telepathy for where Kursed would reappear. The vixen soon sensed a disturbance behind her and to the left.
And higher up.
Krystal threw up a barrier as three purple fireballs flew towards her. As the projectiles impacted against the shield, the cobalt vixen was able to locate her doppelgänger perched in the trees.
"It's going to take more than that to defeat me, Kursed."
The evil clone scowled and then leapt from the tree. Sensing that Kursed was about to do a quake slam, Krystal did a rocket boost and leapt into the air just as Kursed landed.
As she flipped through the air, Krystal sensed that Kursed was using telekinesis to hurl rocks that the quake slam had kicked up at her and quickly threw up another barrier.
Smashing her way through the improvised missiles, Krystal performed a quake slam of her own. Kursed simply stood her ground and threw up a barrier of fire around her. Unphased by the attack, the doppelgänger grinned.
"See, Krystal. I can learn from experience."
The purple haired vixen then drew the barrier into her staff and shot a fire beam at Krystal, who reacted by firing an ice beam. The two beams met, and both vixens attempted to overpower their opponent.
Cackling wickedly, Kursed remarked "After I gut you, I'm gonna take on your appearance and kill your little boyfriend and everyone else you love!"
Krystal grunted from the effort of keeping Kursed's fire beam from overpowering her ice beam.
"She's trying to get under my skin."
"Oh please, Kursed." the cobalt vixen retorted. "Don't you know that you can never truly replace the original. Besides, my friends are smart enough to know the difference."
Krystal shut her eyes and poured more of her strength into her beam attack. Slowly but surely, Kursed's beam was pushed back. Realizing that she would soon be turned into a block of ice, the evil clone broke off her attack and rolled out of the way.
Fixing Krystal with a hateful glare, Kursed hissed "Even if you best me, you'll never defeat my masters!"
Krystal simply shook her head.
"Sorry Kursed, but everything has a weakness, including you! Your masters might seem invincible, but me and my team will be able to defeat them and finally kill them. They will pay for everything they've done, including all the torture that they have put me and my loved ones through!"
The two vulpines stared each other down before charging and engaging in combat. After exchanging blows, Krystal began to force Kursed onto the defensive. The doppelgänger backed away, her desperation becoming more evident by the minute.
Finally, Kursed flipped her staff around in her hands and swung the sharp end towards Krystal's throat, intending to decapitate her.
"Big mistake!"
Krystal leaned back, evading the attack, and then did a two-handed swing to her clone's midsection. Kursed was knocked backwards onto the ground and her staff was sent flying from her hands.
Before her doppelgänger could recover, Krystal ran over and drove the sharp end of her staff into Kursed's abdomen. The purple haired vixen howled in pain and wrapped her hands around the weapon in a desperate attempt to pull it out of her.
As Kursed began coughing up blood, Krystal removed her staff and pointed the jewelled end at her clone's head.
"My…. masters." she choked out. "I've failed you."
"They'll be joining you soon, Kursed."
Krystal suddenly detected a stray thought.
"Sauria."
Focusing back to reality, the cobalt vixen shot a particularly large fireball at Kursed's head, spraying the clearing with blood and brain matter. Pausing to take a breath, Krystal detected a presence in her mind. A demonic presence.
"YOU MAY HAVE BESTED MY SERVANT, MORTAL, BUT YOU WILL NOT VANQUISH ME SO EASILY."
Krystal took note of how strained Baphomet's son sounded.
"If I didn't know better, Chermaya, I'd say you sound rather winded. And you think we can't beat you?"
"IT MATTERS LITTLE, GIRL. YOU WILL ALL DIE, AND YOUR SOULS WILL BE OURS."
"Not if I have anything to say about it."
Krystal sent out a wave of pain through her mind and was satisfied to hear the demon's screams.
Feeling Chermaya leave her mind, Krystal turned away from the corpse and began walking back to the ship. All the way there, she thought about what she had learned.
"Sauria? Maybe the answer to finally beating these bastards for good lies there."
After several minutes, the vixen picked up the thought patterns of her friends. A heated argument was taking place between Radoven, Bill, Slippy, and Fara, with Adrian and Amanda trying and failing to break it up.
Letting out a huff, Krystal pressed onwards, soon coming upon the clearing where they had hidden Adrian and Fara's ship.
Shaking her head, the vixen called out to her friends.
"That's enough!"
As they all turned to her, Krystal fixed her gaze on Radoven.
"As angry as I am at you for leaving them, I also realize that you didn't have much of a choice."
She turned to the others.
"Arguing is not going to help Fox and Kronos. Now, Radoven has a backup plan, so we should at least hear him out."
The group listened as Radoven cleared his throat.
"Yeah, I've got a plan. Only thing is, I'm not sure you're gonna like it."
He reached into his backpack and pulled out several pairs of handcuffs.
Bill and Slippy's eyes widened, but they soon regained their resolve.
"Anything for Fox." said the toad.
"You got that right." chimed in the canine.
Sauria
A makeshift camp in the shape of an inverted pentagram sprawled throughout Moon Mountain Pass. Underneath flapping banners with the same symbol, demons and cultists moved about, either performing tasks assigned to them or sitting around campfires cooking and eating their meals or simply chatting. There were even a few card and dice games going on.
Ron Hayward crushed his empty beer can and tossed it over his shoulder. Since joining up with Baphomet's cult, the hyena had new prosthetics in place of his missing fingers and a digital lens for his missing right eye.
Reaching into the cooler next to him, Hayward grabbed a fresh can and opened it. He looked around the group he had been assigned to, which included the five men who had recruited him in Corneria City and two others.
Jerome Jones, Hayward already knew from his criminal past. In the case of the others, the German Shepard was known as Richard Varner, the crocodile was Roy Watkins, the jackal was Charles Warren, and the other human was Garth Woods.
As for the other two, one was a Savrian by the name of Volg Kozan. His species was canine in appearance, but had only a single eye. Owing to the natural darkness of their homeworld, they had excellent sight and hearing.
The other cultist was Ozric Manyard, a Minotaur. As the name would suggest, he was an anthropomorphic bull. Both him and Kozan were former Xenosian intelligence agents.
Suddenly, a deafening roar pierced the air and grabbed the attention of everyone in the camp. All eyes turned to a cave in the far corner.
"That doesn't sound good." the hyena stated.
"It isn't." replied Varner.
The group's attention was soon drawn to a figure that they all knew to be a demonified Koopa. The turtle-like creature took a massive bite out of the leg of a local creature that had been caught and cooked by the cultists, and then threw the rest to a pack of Hellhounds. He then headed towards the cave.
"I'm glad that's not me." said Warren.
"No argument here." Woods replied.
"If The Master's that stirred up, then it must be really bad." Watkins put in.
Jones, Kozan, and Manyard in the meantime, returned to their card game.
"Alright, let's see em." the human said and layed down his cards.
As it turned out, Kozan had the best hand.
"Looks like I win today, boys. Pay up."
As he passed some credits over, Manyard snarked "We all know you fucking cheated, Volg."
Within the cave, the creature that had once been known as Doug Grissom soon came upon a figure seated upon a throne. Though it was difficult to see in the torchlight, he knew that the being was Lord Baphomet.
The Demon Lord was shorter and had far less muscle mass than he had prior to his third battle with Fox McCloud. He regarded his servant with blood red eyes.
"KURSED HAS FAILED."
Doug raised an eyebrow.
"Troubling, my master. But we can simply clone her again."
Baphomet shook his horned head.
"NO, WE CANNOT. THE SAMPLE HAS DISAPPEARED."
Doug's eyes widened.
"Impossible."
"THE CERINIAN'S POWERS HAVE GROWN EXPONENTIALLY, PERHAPS EVEN MORE THAN SHE REALIZES."
The Demon Lord drummed his clawed fingers on his throne.
"WE MUST ACCELERATE OUR PLANS. GO, FIND THE RESTING PLACE OF THE FORMER SHARPCLAW LEADER. HE SHALL BE OUR GUIDE TO UNLOCKING THE SECRET OF SAURIA."
Doug bowed before his master.
"It shall be done, my lord."