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Mission No. 27

Sector Y
Bolse Station Fallout

"…Allies"

Σ-γ

Fox and Peppy carried Slippy to the rec room, where they propped him up on a couch. By this point in time, Slippy had grown conscious again and had regained control of his bulbous eyes, which he used to glance back and forth between his two teammates. His jaw lulled open, threatening to drool.

Fox stood over him, wringing his hands. "Uh… you okay, Slippy?"

The frog finally swallowed and managed to gurgle out, "Paaaaaaain…"

He winced. "S-sorry about that…"

Nurse ROB rolled into the room, carrying a syringe of muscle stimulants to counteract the stun bolt. Slippy's eyes lazily lowered to watch as ROB set the needle against his leathery skin, unable to even wince as he injected it. When ROB backed away, Fox sat next to Slippy and rubbed his arms apologetically to help the blood circulate again. Over time, Slippy regained more control of his motor functions; he worked his jaw, swiveled his neck, and rolled his shoulders.

"How did you guys even find me? I've had the Great Fox running in stealth mode since I reached Venom days ago."

Peppy leaned back on his couch. "I'll let Slip answer that one."

Fox slowly turned back to Slippy. He glared at him with his hands on his hips, and the amphibian began to squirm in his seat.

"Slip, you didn't."

"I'm sorry, Fox!" he blurted out.

"I should have known you'd trace my subspace link! And you led Peppy straight to me, knowing full well what he intended to do?!"

"It was better that we found you instead of the Cornerians!" Slippy argued. "He said you'd gone off your rocker! And, well, I was concerned about you, too…"

"Slip was just doing what I asked, Fox. Please don't blame him," Peppy begged.

Fox sighed, moving on to massage Slippy's other arm. "Yeah, I guess I understand. Thanks for being worried, Slip."

The frog chuckled sheepishly. "I guess this kinda makes up for it, huh?"

Fox rubbed his smooth head. "Yeah—now we're even! …So if you're here, does that mean you decoded the message I sent? And did you ever get a lead on the girl in that picture?"

Slippy opened his mouth excitedly to respond, but the glow in his eyes faded when he noticed Peppy glaring.

"I… I did Fox, but—"

"But what? Tell me! All these questions have been driving me crazy!"

Peppy crossed his arms. "I'm sorry Fox, but we can't tell you that. I don't want to encourage you anymore on this wild goose-chase of yours. The more you go down the rabbit hole, the more you'll act like an unhinged, paranoid conspiracy theorist."

Fox's expression soured. "Really? Again with my mental state? I'm not manic or anything like that, Peppy. I think I did what any normal person would have done given the circumstances."

"A normal person would have returned that research subject back where she belongs."

Now Fox was getting really mad. He clenched his fists, forgetting about Slippy. "She's not just some 'research subject!' She's a girl, Peppy—a Lylatian, like you or me. And her name is Krystal!"

Peppy wiped his forehead, smoothing his ears down anxiously before they sprang back up. "Oh dear, he's even given her a name…" he mumbled to himself. "Well, I think it's about time you let us meet this… passenger of yours. Since we're discussing her future, I think she should have some input, hmm?"

"Damn right," Fox grunted.

The hare looked at him expectantly. "Well, would you take us to her?"

"Sure. Right away—"

But as Peppy began to rise from his seat, Fox caught himself. He suddenly imagined Peppy finding the Cerinian clothed in nothing but his shirt, and jumping to some Mrs. de Pon-level conclusions. So Fox beat the old hare off the couch and pushed him back down.

"Er, I've got a better idea! How 'bout you wait here with Slippy, and I'll bring her to meet you?"

Slippy looked down at his limp legs. "Well, I ain't goin' nowhere."

The rabbit raised an eyebrow.

"Alright—but we'll be waiting…"

As soon as Fox left the rec room, he bolted off down the hallway.

"ROB, can you get a fix on Krystal for me? This is an emergency!"

"Yes Fox, I will scan the ship."

While ROB performed a quick search, Fox took the time to duck into Krystal's room. He grabbed a pair of Fara's underwear and some sweatpants from the closet, then sprinted back out of the cabin—only to run smack into Sanitation ROB.

"Fox, I have picked up movement in storage closet C."

"Phew, that must be her. Follow me!"

Fox sprinted down the halls of the Great Fox while ROB tried to keep pace on his treads. A minute later they arrived at the storage closet and stepped inside, closing the door behind them.

"Krystal!" Fox exclaimed. "There you are! You had me worried—"

The words caught in his throat as he balked at the scene before him. Krystal—along with most of the cardboard boxes, crates, ammo, and food items in the closet—floated lazily in mid-air. Her eyes widened when she saw him, and she hid something shiny behind her back.

"O-oh—Hic!—F-Foxssssu!"

She began to squirm, trying to get herself upright again, but no matter how far she stretched her legs, her toes couldn't reach the floor.

"What in the—?!" Fox exclaimed. When he started to rise off the ground too, he instinctively grabbed onto ROB's head module to keep from floating off. "What's going on here?!"

Krystal sniffed; her jumbled thoughts came to him as if slurred. 'It wasn't me,' she thought. 'I didn't do it! I didn't hurt him…'

Tears were streaming from her eyes, but as soon as they left her cheeks they lifted off, levitating like little glass stars around her face. Sometimes they even reached escape velocity and left her orbit altogether.

"Krystal, what's wrong? Why are you crying? What did you do?"

She shook her head, inadvertently flinging tears in every direction and causing her body to go into a slight spin. 'I didn't do anything!'

"ROB!" Fox shouted in his ear, "turn the artificial gravity back on, quick!"

"Artificial gravity is on and working properly," ROB informed him, trying not to be annoyed as Fox strangled him for dear life.

The todd looked with wide eyes at Krystal. "Then, that means… you're doing this?"

The Cerinian floated past, as if propelled by her tears. She clutched an incriminating beer can-upside down. 'I told you, I didn't do anything! Please just go away. D-don't see me like this. I want to be alone…'

She cracked open the beer can, releasing a spray of amber foam into the closet. The particles flew off in every direction like rocket-ship exhaust, propelling the vixen backwards. For a second she seemed to forget whatever she was crying about and enjoyed her miniature, beer-propelled space odyssey. Her tail raised the hem of her shirt in back and began to wag furiously. She seemed entranced by the levitating food and crates surrounding her, giggling with delight as cans of beer and soup spun in infinite circles when she playfully swatted them.

Fox's eyebrows lifted when he noticed the rather dopey expression on her face, and the skin beneath her cheek-fur glowing a telltale red. When he realized what had happened, his expression darkened, and he slapped a paw over his face.

"Oh no. She found Falco's beer stash! Why'd it have to be now of all times?"

He cringed when Krystal slurped up more of the discharged beer, the amber spheres of which continued to float and jiggle in mid-air.

"Krystal!" he snapped. "I told you not to drink that stuff!"

Momentarily "brought down to earth," Krystal's expression grew serious, and she sniffed. 'I'm just doing what I saw you doing when you were sad…'

ROB pivoted his head to look at Fox, but since the todd was clutching it he merely rotated around the robot's body along with it. "You did set a bad example, Fox."

The todd cursed himself for letting the girl find him in his drunken state the other day.

"Alright, that's enough for you! Peppy's gonna make some seriously bad assumptions about me if he finds you like this, so for god's sake cooperate!"

Fox positioned himself perpendicular to ROB so that he was parallel to the floor. He crouched on the robot's chest, then pushed off with his legs and sailed through the closet. His aim was superb, and he managed to tackle Krystal right out of the air. The vixen cried out in shock, then squealed in delight as the two went sailing through the storage room together. She held Fox's hands and they both spread out under centrifugal force, performing a mid-air dance.

"Krystal, stop it! Shh, shhhh! Now's not the time for this!" But Fox's words fell on deaf ears; try as he might, he couldn't stop her from laughing.

When they struck the far wall and bounced off, Fox used the chance to grab a tighter hold of Krystal. Straddling her torso with his legs so that they didn't drift apart, Fox spun her upside down like a ship's helm. With better access to her legs, he attempted to slip the pair of panties over them, which was difficult because she kept kicking her feet.

"Hold still, dammit!"

Krystal only giggled louder and took it as a challenge. Fox continued to wrestle with her in midair to get the underwear on, but all of his efforts proved futile. He soon found himself in a tug-of-war as the vixen hooked her foot through the panties and tried to pull them away. Fox managed to wrench them free of her foot again, but the article flew out of his hands and sailed through the air towards the door.

Fox's blood ran cold when he heard the hydraulics hiss, and he saw none other than Peppy standing on the other side of the hatch.

The hare stormed in, bellowing, "Just what in tarnation's going—?!"

Words failed Peppy as the pair of panties slowly drifted by his face. When the underwear eclipse passed, Fox was greeted with his godfather's bewildered expression. His jaw hung open as he stared at the todd grappling with a drunken, half-naked vixen in zero-G.

"Honestly Fox, I have never been so disappointed in you!"

Peppy's ears pointed ramrod straight as they stood outside the storage closet. He crossed his arms and leaned back so that he appeared to be looking down at Fox past his nose—though in reality he was several inches shorter. "I can't believe you would take advantage of an innocent girl like this! First you get her drunk, then you tear the clothes off her!"

Fox clasped his hands and pleaded with an anguished expression, still holding Krystal's underwear. "Unk, you have to believe me! I was trying to put clothes on her! She has no conception of modesty or other cultural—would you stop looking at me like that!? It's the truth!"

"Really, Fox? Trying to put clothes back on her? How gullible do you think I am? Just because I'm older doesn't mean I'm an idiot."

"Peppy, please! Krystal was basically raised in a lab—"

Peppy held up a paw. "Now-now, enough of that nonsense. What a load of horse-feathers. If you won't do it, I better go in there and help her get dressed myself."

The rabbit rolled up his sleeves and snatched the pair of underwear Fox was nervously wringing in his hands.

"Uh, Peppy, do you really think you should go in there by yourself? She's basically naked, you know."

The hare glared at Fox. "I've been a happily married man with a daughter of my own, Fox. You are the hormonal young teenager who can't keep it in his pants. I think the choice is obvious."

Peppy cracked his knuckles and marched into the storage room, the very image of determination. Fox called in after him, "Good luck; you'll need it!" but Peppy curtly shut the door in his face.

Sanitation ROB joined Fox to wait outside the door. "I hope Peppy knows what he's doing."

A noisy raucous ensued, punctuated by crashing crates, horrendous weights thumping against the walls, Krystal's yips, and the hare's stifled yelps. After a few seconds of relative silence, the door opened and Peppy marched back out.

"Did you manage to…" but Fox trailed off when he saw the pair of panties stuck over his head, one floppy ear poking through a leghole.

The hare growled.

"Don't. Say. Another. Word."

Once Peppy confirmed Fox's honesty with ROB, his anger subsided, and he apologized for assuming the worst—though he still remained a little suspicious. While Slippy shook off the rest of his paralysis, Fox took care of Krystal. He pulled out all the usual stops Fara used when she had to treat him: he gave her hangover pills, something to snack on, and coffee—though he skipped the cold shower, given how little Peppy still trusted him.

An hour later found Fox, Peppy, and Slippy in the living room like good old times, each of them seated on one of the three couches. Krystal sat cross-legged next to Fox, munching on a bag of pretzel snacks and sipping (heavily-sweetened) coffee while she studied their two new guests. Now that her drunkenness had worn off, Fox was able to convince her to wear some underwear and one of the skirts Fara had left behind—but every so often she would still grimace and clutch her head.

'You didn't tell me that stuff would give me a headache,' she complained, rubbing her temples.

Fox glanced sideways at her, but tried to hide it. 'Hey, I told you not to drink it. I hoped you wouldn't need a reason why.'

'But I don't learn anything that way!'

'Well, maybe some lessons are best taught the hard way…'

Krystal glared at him, then winced and rubbed her forehead again.

"Well Fox, you've got a lot of explaining to do." Peppy crossed his arms. "Anything to say for yourself?"

Fox turned his attention back to the hare, frowning. 'Look, Krystal was in danger, and I saved her. If you saw what it was like in the labs, you would have done the same thing.'

Peppy and Slippy continued to stare at Fox expectantly.

'The conditions there were horrible!' he went on. 'They were keeping her in cryosleep—for a whole year after the fall!'

The hare and frog just glanced at each other, raising their eyebrows. The silence was only broken by Krystal as she munched on her salty pretzels.

Fox narrowed his eyes. 'So, what, you're just gonna sit there and give me the silent treatment? Or do you not have an answer to that?'

Peppy scratched under his chin. "Er, Fox, you gonna say something, or just keep starin' at us like that?"

'What the hell are you talking about? Answer me, dammit—' But he slapped a paw over his face when he realized the problem. "Ugh, I can't believe I just did that…"

His teammates exchanged another confused glance. "D-did what?" Slippy asked.

"Nothing. Just… forget it. Zoned out a bit." He pointed at Peppy. "But I want you to know, I still think I'm doing the right thing. I didn't want everything to go the way it did, but unfortunately it ended up this way, and that's the way it has to be."

Peppy's eyes narrowed. "And just what do you intend to do with… 'Krystal'?"

"I'm going to find her home—and take her there."

The rabbit's whiskers twitched. "Well, maybe what Slippy discovered about that fox girl you sent will change your mind."

Liza! he remembered. "Well? Were you able to find her?"

"Couldn't find a hair from her tail," Slippy croaked. "I matched her face against every social media database I could crawl, but nothing came up. Even searching for different fur tones didn't turn up anything. There's not a trace of her on socials, or the rest of the internet. In short, either that girl leads a pretty closeted life…"

Peppy smirked. "…Or she doesn't exist at all."

A chill raced along Fox's arms. "What do you mean?"

"Take a look at this." Slippy pulled up the image Fox sent on his phone. He flipped the device around and held it out for Fox to see; even Krystal craned her neck to catch a glimpse.

It was just as he remembered taking it: the white-furred vixen's profile as she dried off. She stood beside the deck railing, gazing out over the waves while totally oblivious to Fox's camera.

'She look familiar?' Fox asked when he noticed Krystal peering over his shoulder.

The vixen shook her head slowly. 'No. At least, I don't think so…"

"Notice anything… off about this image?" Slippy asked.

Fox pursed his lips and studied the photo harder. "No, nothing jumps out at me."

"It's tricky to spot, but the photo you sent isn't even legit," he continued. "It was edited."

Fox snorted. "Bullshit! I remember taking that picture myself! This is exactly what she looked like in person."

"Oh, that's your deck alright—but 'Liza' was edited in afterwards."

"But she was there! I didn't imagine it! I remember talking with her—feeling her!"

"All I'm basing my conclusion off is the file you sent. Look here—" He zoomed in on the photo, nearly to where Fox could see the individual pixels making it up. "See the fur on her shoulder?"

Fox shrugged, searching for anything off about her white coat. "Yeah. It's a bit fuzzy, but that's just the camera—"

"It's not."

He swiped, scrolling down to show Fox the guardrail Liza had dried off beside. "Compare the clarity of her fur to the railing, or anything else at the same depth. It's noticeably less detailed. It's like she was pasted in or something." He jumped back to Liza. "What's more, there's these weird, larger splotches in her fur. At first I mistook them for compression artifacts, which would definitely mean she was edited in, but it doesn't match apeg or any other compression algorithm I've seen. They're like tiny imperfections: scuffed brushstrokes on a painting, or something. They're not blocky like you'd expect."

Fox blinked when he saw what Slippy was talking about. He whistled. "You're right. Almost like the crust you see in a dream. But… I just don't understand how I missed this. It may have been dark, but it was brighter when I met her inside, and I got pretty close to her."

Peppy raised an eyebrow. "And just how close did you get to here?"

Fox swallowed nervously, bit thankfully Slippy came to his rescue.

"Doesn't matter how close you were; the naked eye can't pick up on this. I mean, I'm zoomed in pretty far here, and you would've had to be looking for it to see it. All I can come up with was that she was edited in afterwards, or she was using a hologram more advanced than anything even the military has."

The todd accepted the phone from Slippy and furrowed his brow. He shook his head slowly; he just couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"Well now are you convinced?" Peppy said with an 'I-told-you-so' aura. "Someone is leading you along. The photo of your mother was just the beginning—the carrot on the stick. What they were really after was Cerinian 28 here. Everything that's happened was meant to get her out of that lab. I wouldn't be surprised if their next request was to meet up with you somewheres so they could take her from you—that is, if they aren't tracking you down already."

Fox had no defense. He remained silent, a hand covering his mouth as he stared at Liza's "imperfections."

"Given the circumstances, I'd say your only course of action is to return that girl as soon as possible. Get her back to safety before whoever's looking for her—and I guarantee they ain't got her best interests in mind—finds you first. Beg for Pepper's mercy and Space Dynamics' forgiveness. Maybe you'll get off lightly. It'll be the best for 28—er, Krystal—too."

Krystal bristled in her seat, catching the hare use the term "28," even if he quickly corrected it.

Fox handed the phone back. He sighed and wrung his paws. "That doesn't change the fact that someone out there is trying to get their hands on her—or any Cerinian, really. And for some reason they thought I was the best person to do it rather than bribing a Space Dynamics' scientist. If I just hand Krystal back over, the trail goes dead."

Peppy's eyes widened. "Fox, you're not considering meeting them, are you?"

"If I was tricked into freeing Krystal—and I still think it was the right thing to do—I want to clear my name."

"B-but you have nothing to go on! Just forget this whole matter while you still have the chance."

"Actually, we may have a clue after all," Slippy piped up.

Fox swung his head around to face him. "What is it, Slip?"

The frog opened his mouth to speak, but hesitated when he noticed Peppy glaring daggers at him.

"Slippy…" the hare warned.

He glanced back and forth between his teammates, torn between pleasing Peppy or Fox.

"S-sorry Peppy, he needs to know."

Slippy opened the other message Fox had sent. While he showed Fox his findings, the hare sank back into the couch and rubbed his face.

"The message you sent me yesterday? It wasn't encrypted at all. The first three numbers weren't code for anything; they were coordinates."

Fox laughed. "That's not possible; they're too big to be coordinates. Lylatian coords are only on the scale of light minutes; these would have to be… I dunno, lightyears."

"That's because they are."

"Pfffft! That's not any use. The farthest planet in the Lylat System is only a fraction of this distance from the sun. The position these indicate would have to be in an entirely different… system…"

Slippy worked on his phone while Fox became lost in thought. "As for the fourth string of characters, well…" he flipped his device back around to Fox, which displayed a new image. "It was actually an image file."

Fox launched to his feet when he saw the image. It was a photo of a planet—the planet: a familiar blue sphere streaked with pinks and purples.

Krystal's eyes widened, and she grabbed his wrist. 'Fox! Isn't that…!'

"That's it," he gasped. "That's the planet from the dream!"

The hare's ears perked. "You… dreamed about it?"

"Literally last night. It's almost exactly what we saw in our dreams."

Peppy held his head in his hands and muttered a quick prayer. "We are so screwed…"

Slippy gulped, not knowing what to think. Suddenly, he felt a lot more reluctant about his decision to tell Fox. All the same, it was too late to back out now.

"The coordinates point 10 lightyears away. It's the closest star system to Lylat, often considered her sister: the Lilith System."

"Then that's where Krystal's from!" Fox exclaimed. "But, no one's ever been there… have they? It's too far away. Even at warp speed, it would take ten years to cross that distance."

They looked at Peppy expectantly, the hare finally meeting their eyes in turn. He looked like he felt sick.

"I'm begging you Fox," he said quietly, "you've seen enough. Forget what you've seen while you still can."

The todd's eyes narrowed. "What do you know about the Lilith System?" he asked firmly. "For that matter, what do you know about the Cerinians?"

The hare wrung his hands. "We… Corneria… made contact with Cerinia fifty years ago."

"Cerinia?" Fox locked eyes with Krystal, but she merely shook her head slowly, not recognizing it.

"The only habitable planet in the Lilith System. It's home to a race of vulpine subspecies, of which Krystal is obviously a descendent. Your mother's work on the Cerinia project often brought her to their homeplanet. Your father and I ran escort missions for Vixy and the rest of the scientists—and that's how your parents met. In fact, it's how myself and Vivian met; she was another scientist working on the project."

"You mean, Corneria made contact with an alien species and didn't tell anyone?"

"You have to understand, they were still in a cold war with Eladard and Macbeth. They wanted sole access to Cerinia and any technological advancements they might possess beyond our own. They also didn't want to have the public scrambling all over them, going hysterical over the discovery of an alien species, so… they kept it a secret."

"Then, I can take Krystal back there?" Fox scooted to the edge of his seat. "They'll protect her from Corneria and Space Dynamics?"

Peppy's nose twitched. "If you're thinking of taking her there, I wouldn't advise it. Though only a few have even heard its name, Cerinia is internally classified by Corneria as a class-1 Forbidden Planet."

Fox snorted. "Pffft, come on, even higher than Venom? The place where we exile our worst criminals? The planet filled with poisonous atmosphere, acid oceans, and live volcanoes? It looks more beautiful than any planet in Lylat!"

"All I know is, eleven years ago—around the time the Sector Z nebula appeared—we stopped escorting Vixy and the other scientists to Cerinia, and all access to the planet was cut off. As far as I know, no one from Lylat has traveled there since. They certainly didn't need your dad and I to take Vixy and Vivian there anymore. I can only assume something terribly awful happened between our nations. Fox, you don't want to go there! Now return Space Dynamics' property while you still can!"

"Can't you hear how messed up that sounds?" Fox shot back. "How can a Lylatian be someone else's property?"

"Because she's not Lylatian! She's something else entirely. She has no parents or family, and as a former research subject of Venom, she is now in the care of General Dynamics. They know what's best for her, Fox! What if she needs certain injections or a drug to stay alive? What if she has violent spells where she has to be contained?"

"What if she's a link to my mom?" Fox countered in a flat voice.

Peppy lowered his volume. "Fox, I warned you about keeping your nose out of places it don't belong."

"But she knows my mom, Peppy! I've seen her memories! She helped Krystal years ago, when she was just a child! It raises even more questions, like why was my mom researching alongside Andross, and what does Krystal have to do with it all? Don't you understand, she's our only link! Don't you want answers about Vivian, too?"

"Fox!" Peppy nearly shouted, "don't you dare bring her into this!"

"I don't care! Like it or not, she's involved. I don't know about you, but I want answers!"

"I don't need any answers, Fox. I have enough to satisfy me. And if you knew what was best for you, you'd be satisfied with them, too!"

"Well unlike you, I'm not going to roll over and play dead here!"

'Fox…'

He felt Krystal gently lay her paw on his back, and he turned to see her looking at him with concern. It wasn't until now that he slowed down enough to realize he was breathing heavily, and his heart was pounding in his chest from arguing—but at once her soft touch and quiet thoughts calmed him down, dispelling the tightness he felt.

Fox held his head in his hands. He cursed himself for getting into yet another shouting match with his uncle—especially in front of Krystal.

"Look, Peppy, I'm sorry, but you have to understand where I'm coming from. What I did down there on Venom—freeing Krystal—that one little act of kindness was better and more worthwhile than anything I've done during the entire Lylat War. All I knew how to do was kill, Peppy. I shot down ship after ship. I put horrible bioweapons out of their misery, and I avenged my parents by killing you-know-who. I hardly ever saved a life without taking one first in order to do so. But now I have. Don't you see, Peppy? I laid my life down for her! I did something with my own hands, for someone I can reach out to and touch."

He turned to look at Krystal, and she met his gaze with wide eyes. "If there's anyone I can help, it's her. She doesn't belong in a lab. I'm convinced her home is out there somewhere, and I'm going to make sure she gets there."

Fox's impassioned rant seemed to get to Peppy on an emotional level. He wrung his paws and stared at the floor, trying to think up some way to argue with Fox, but… he couldn't.

"Fox… are you sure about this?" his godfather warned. "Once you escape to Cerinia, there's no going back. You'll be counted as a traitor if you flee, and Corneria will imprison you for sure if they ever get their hands on you. Are you really prepared to throw everything away? The most successful PMC in Lylat, your career as a pilot, and the admiration billions of people hold for you? Not to mention…" He swallowed. "We may never see you again."

When Krystal read the meaning of his words from Fox's mind, she looked at the todd in surprise, suddenly afraid. She knew he was risking a lot by merely letting her stay on his ship, but she didn't know the true extent of what he'd have to give up to help her. Now she felt worried about his ultimate decision, wondering if he'd backtrack.

But Fox clasped her hands in his. "I made a promise to her, Peppy. I said I'd help find her home, and I still intend to. If that means leaving Lylat behind…" he gulped. "So be it."

Krystal felt overwhelmed with emotion, in disbelief at what Fox had just promised. She threw her arms around his torso and hugged him, not caring that his friends were watching—but still too embarrassed to try speaking out loud in front of them.

'Thank you, Fox. Thank you so much…'

Fox pulled her close and returned Krystal's hug, closing his eyes. They held the embrace for some time as Slippy and Peppy looked on, then separated to see their reaction.

It looked like the hare's stone-cold heart was slowly melting. He glanced between Fox and Krystal as they sat together on the couch, holding hands. Sighing, he shook his head and muttered, "Like father, like son…"

He sat quietly for a moment, wringing his hands. Then, surprising them, he suddenly raised his voice again.

"The Orbital Gate."

Fox blinked. "What? What about it?"

"It's the only way to Cerinia. Whenever we had to escort the scientists there, Beltino opened a temporary gate—yes, even at a distance of ten lightyears. If you want to take Krystal back, we'll have to breach it somehow."

Fox scratched his ear, beginning to smile at his uncle. "I'm sorry, did I hear you say, we?"

"Damn right I did! Who do you think I am? Some hard-ass, heartless old man? I know love when I see it. I have a daughter like Krystal, and I'll be damned if I let the poor girl rot in some stuffy laboratory."

"That's the Peppy I know!" Slippy cried.

"Then, you really mean it? You'll help us?"

"Of course I will! If your heart's set on this, I won't stand in your way. But I pray to god you know what you're doing…" He crossed his arms and closed his eyes, bowing his head pensively. "First, however, we're gonna need our full force to make it happen."

Fox's eyebrows lifted. "You mean Falco? Why isn't he here with you now?"

Peppy smirked. "This might surprise you, but when he heard you went off alone to Venom, he tried to follow you."

The todd snorted and shook his head. "I should've known how much he really cared… Well, any idea where the blue buzzard is now?"

Peppy nodded. "Undoubtedly up to no good…"