Fortunan orbit

Two Arwings soared above the jungle planet, their pilots keeping one eye on the scanners and another on the vastness of space.

Fara let out a huff and leaned back in her seat. This was the second day that she and Krystal had patrolled Fortunan space and by the look of things, it was going to be as uneventful as the first.

Partly out of boredom, partly out of curiosity, the fennec keyed her comm and watched as Krystal's face appeared on her viewscreen.

"I don't mean to pry, but how is it that you ended up in Star Fox?"

The cobalt vixen smiled before replying, "It's no bother at all."

Rolling her shoulders, Krystal continued, "After Venom destroyed Cerinia, I ended up stranded on Sauria. Long story short, I tried helping during the crisis, but ended up imprisoned and saved by Fox."

Krystal paused as a smile crept onto her muzzle.

"I figured the best way to repay him would be to join the team. The rest, you might say, is history."

Fara nodded and was about to respond when she was interrupted by an incoming call. Answering it resulted in Peppy replacing Krystal on the screen.

"Peppy, what's up?" the fennec asked upon seeing the lepus' concerned expression.

"We've got a bit of a situation on Corneria. Bomb threats are being called in all over the planet and supposedly, Cad Bane wants to go on the evening news and present a manifesto."

Both Fara and Krystal arrived at the same conclusion; Bane and Star Wolf were trying to stretch them thin.

"We'll keep an eye on things out here. Krystal out."

Sargasso Station

"So let me get this straight," Bane said as he crossed his arms, "Corneria's got her military mobilized and you want me to go to their capital? Into the gundark's nest?"

Wolf flashed a toothy grin at the Duros.

"Think about it, Bane," the lupine nonchalantly replied, "It's the one place where they'll least be expecting you to show up."

Bane let out a huff and glanced over at Algy, who was currently seated at a workstation typing away on a terminal. The sportive lemur had put his own personal touch on the space with a pair of stickers, one of which read, 'Complaining about my smoking may be hazardous to your health!' while the other read, 'You whining about my masculinity is toxic!'

"Alright, there goes another one," the primate said with a cackle as he sent off another anonymous bomb threat.

Walking behind his seat, Bane hooked his thumbs onto his belt.

"So, Shorty," said the Duros, "How do you plan on luring McCloud and Lombardi to me?"

"Easy," Algy replied as he brought up a few lines of text on the screen.

"In their eyes, they're gonna be meeting Miss Monroe. But of course…."

"They're gonna find me instead," Bane finished while grinning wickedly.

Corneria City

Fox briefly glanced at Falco out of the corner of his eye before turning his attention back to the evening rush hour in the Cornerian capital.

"You gonna tell me what's up?"

Shaking his head, the pheasant replied, "Something felt off about Katt's message."

Fox nodded as he headed towards an off ramp.

"Think this could be a trap?"

"Maybe. And if it is, what are we gonna do?"

A sly grin crept onto Fox's muzzle.

"The same thing we always do, Falco. We spring the trap."

"I like the way you think, Foxy," Falco said with a chuckle.

Fox drove for a little longer before pulling over near an alleyway. Getting out, the vulpine stretched his arms and legs before opening the back door and retrieving their two jet packs.

"You think he'd be crazy enough to try and sneak past the fleet?" Falco asked as Fox handed him a propulsion device.

"Wouldn't surprise me," the vulpine replied as he finished with the jet pack's harness.

From there, the two mercenaries went into the alley, soon entering a backlot. Three minutes passed before the duo heard the approach of footsteps.

"Katt?" Falco called out.

The lack of a response set the mercenaries on edge. Both of them moved their hands closer to their blasters. Meanwhile, the footsteps got closer until a figure stepped into the light.

"Bane," Fox growled while narrowing his eyes.

Ignoring the vulpine, the alien gunslinger fixed his gaze on Falco, a smug grin playing out across his features.

"I wouldn't be counting on your little pink friend to show up any time soon. I paid her a visit. You should've never tried to get her involved in this."

Falco didn't answer, though he was visibly quaking with rage.

"Don't worry, Lombardi," Bane taunted, "I didn't kill her. Just gave her a stern warning."

"Doesn't matter, Bane," Fox interjected, "While you were busy bragging, I opened a line with the CDF. There's no way you're getting off this planet."

If Bane was perturbed, he gave no sign. Instead, he simply stated, "Now that you mention it, a lot of people in the underworld are very upset that you put their antiques dealer behind bars."

Fox and Falco kept staring the alien down as he added, "Rumour is, they're offering a million credits a head for you lot."

(The Bossk Man's recommended listening: Corneria from Star Fox SNES)

Bane then swept back his duster while Fox and Falco started to draw their weapons. But the Duros proved to be just a little faster, quickly getting out his blasters and opening fire, forcing the mercenaries into cover.

Fox did a combat roll behind a dumpster while Falco dove behind a pair of metal barrels. Bane kept up his suppressing fire while backing away.

Hearing the whoosh of the bounty hunter's rocket boots activating, Fox and Falco exchanged a look and then fired up their jet packs.

Bane thought he was in the clear until a stun blast cracked past him. Throwing a glance over his shoulder, the Duros saw Fox and Falco flying after him.

"Ain't you smart?" Bane thought as he rotated to face them.

Fox and Falco jinked and weaved to dodge Bane's return fire and retaliated with stun blasts, though the bounty hunter proved just as agile as them.

Flying up over the edge of a roof, Bane deactivated his thrusters and broke into a sprint, Fox and Falco doing the same behind him.

The Duros turned briefly and fired some shots at his pursuers, though all of them went wild. Looking forward again, Bane saw the edge of the roof and a smaller building only a few feet away.

Jumping the gap, Bane did a roll upon landing and then turned around, opening fire and forcing Fox and Falco to duck for cover.

Taking off again, Bane led the two Star Fox members through a twisting maze of buildings. Try as they might, Fox and Falco soon lost sight of the alien.

"Where'd he go?" Fox said while keeping his head on a swivel.

"Don't know. Maybe he committed suicide," Falco snarked.

Fox shot an annoyed glare at his second in command and was about to retort. But it died on his lips when he spotted a pair of red lights behind the avian.

No, not lights. Eyes, along with a glint of silver.

"Falco! Behind you!"

Falco moved to evade, but Bane had already taken the shot. The bolt zipped through the air and sliced through some vital components of the pheasant's jet pack.

Feeling his propulsion device jerk him to the left, Falco desperately looked around and spotted a balcony railing that he quickly grabbed hold of.

Throwing a glance over his shoulder, the pheasant saw Bane start flying away and Fox glancing between the alien and him.

"Keep after him, Foxy! I'll catch up!"

Nodding towards his second in command, Fox took off after the gunslinger. The two of them weaved around and between buildings before catching sight of a freight train moving along a suspended rail in the distance.

Knowing that he was up against the clock, Bane flew towards the train, Fox in hot pursuit.

The Duros once again rotated himself in midair and took several potshots at his pursuer, forcing him to take cover behind a TV tower.

Smiling, Bane continued his flight towards the train, eventually landing on top of a boxcar. Checking his wristcom, the Duros saw that Todo was almost finished scanning the planet.

"Todo, as soon as you're done, get down here."

"Will do, Mr. Bane."

Glancing up, Bane saw Fox land a couple of cars back and start charging towards him. The Duros took a shot at the vulpine, but missed.

As Fox jumped to the boxcar in between them, Bane took aim again and fired. This time, the laser struck Fox in the shoulder causing him to snap back and tumble off of the train.

Smiling, the Duros holstered his weapon and began scanning the skies for CDF vehicles.

"That'll teach him."

Unknown to the bounty hunter, his shot had only struck Fox's shoulder armor, leaving a scorch mark where the team logo had been.

Flying beside the train and out of Bane's view, the vulpine weighed his options. Even though he had the element of surprise, Fox knew that stunning Bane on top of a train car could risk him falling onto the track and either being electrocuted or burned up by the grav lifts.

"Gonna have to get up close and personal again."

With that in mind, Fox pulled up and set his sights on the alien before boosting towards him.

Bane turned around, right in time to catch a boot to the chest that knocked him onto his back.

Landing on the boxcar, Fox aimed his blaster at the outlaw.

"It's over, Bane!" the vulpine growled, "You can either walk in with me or I can carry you in."

The Duros responded by sweeping his foot up and kicking Fox's blaster out of his hand, sending it flying off the boxcar.

Springing to his feet, Bane drew his blaster, wholly intending to cut down his pursuer, but Fox was one step ahead, charging forward in a low sprint and tackling the bounty hunter.

Losing his grip on his blaster, Bane attempted to draw his other one, only to get punched in the face by Fox and lose that weapon as well.

Taking a couple of more punches, Bane reached out to grab the vulpine, only for Fox to stand up and back away.

Rising to his feet, Bane spat a glob of green-coloured blood onto the boxcar.

"You're a fast learner, kid. I'll give ya that," Bane growled before lifting his right arm and activating his flamethrower.

Unlike on Aquas, Fox anticipated the maneuver and activated his jet pack, flying over the stream of flames before it reached him. He then jetted towards the bounty hunter before he could aim upwards and landed behind him.

From there, Fox slapped on a chokehold, the height difference between him and Bane meaning that the vulpine had to jump up and clap his arms around the Duros' throat while also wrapping his legs around the alien's waist.

Bane grunted as he tried to shake the vulpine off, finally resorting to throwing himself backwards, the force of the fall causing Fox to break his grip on the Duros.

The two combatants quickly stood and began throwing punches and kicks, Fox always making a point of backing out of Bane's reach now and again to avoid being grabbed and stunned.

Both mercenaries continued their exchange, Fox giving Bane a cut on the side of his head with a roundhouse kick. The Duros would repay the favor with a right hook that left the vulpine with a bloody nose.

As he staggered back from the hit, Fox caught sight of a rapidly approaching cliff face and realized that they must be coming up to a tunnel. Bane followed his gaze and came to the same conclusion.

Knowing that there likely wouldn't be much room in the tunnel, both guns for hire activated their propulsion devices and took to the air.

After a brief staredown, Fox jetted towards Bane, who remained hovering in place. At the last second, the Duros jinked to the right and let the vulpine zip past him. While Fox still had his back turned, Bane lifted up his left arm and flicked his wrist, quickly repeating the process with his right.

What the bounty hunter had done was fire a pair of wrist-mounted darts at his enemy. The first one merely grazed Fox's arm, but the second buried itself in his jet pack.

The crackling of sparks reached Fox's ears and the vulpine now found himself slowly starting to descend. Throwing a glance over his shoulder, Fox saw the damage done to his jetpack and the jetstreams getting smaller.

"Shit!"

Higher up, Bane cracked a smile.

"You'll be seeing your parents soon, McCloud," the Duros called down and gave the same two fingered salute as he had on Aquas.

Fox barely had time to shoot a glare at the alien before his jetpack finally shorted out and he started to plummet towards the ocean. At first, the vulpine desperately tried to restart the device, to no avail.

Just as he was about to resign himself to joining his mother and father in the afterlife, Fox's green eyes caught sight of a red ship below him, one that seemed to be angling down in order to match his descent.

Quickly recognizing the ship as the Cat's Paw, Fox angled himself towards the fighter until he was close enough to grab hold of the fuselage. After taking a moment to breathe a sigh of relief, the vulpine brought up his wristcom.

"Thanks Katt."

Throwing Fox a smile through her cockpit, the pink feline replied, "No trouble, hon."

Higher up, Bane narrowed his eyes and growled, "Blasted girl,"

The Duros' grimace turned into a smile as he heard a familiar sound behind him and glanced over his shoulder to see the Xanadu Blood decloaking.

"Perfect," the bounty hunter said as he flew over, settling himself in the pilot's seat after Todo opened the cockpit.

Witnessing this, Fox spoke into his wristcom, "Keep her steady, Katt. I've got an idea."

"You sure you know what you're doing, hon?"

"I hope so," the vulpine muttered to himself before contacting the Great Fox II.

"ROB, I need a plasma cannon, ASAP!"

"Location confirmed, sending supplies," Star Fox's mechanical caretaker droned.

Fox watched as a transparent blue beam engulfed the Cat's Paw and a rapid fire plasma cannon was lowered down to him. If there was one thing that could be said about the Great Fox II, it's transporter was far more reliable than its predecessor.

Seeing Bane's fighter diving towards them, Fox quickly hefted the weapon onto his shoulder and fired a steady stream of plasma towards the craft, forcing it to break off its attack run.

Within the Xanadu Blood's cockpit, Todo shook his head in shock.

"That McCloud is a bold one!"

"Indeed he is," Bane reluctantly conceded, "Reminds me of Skywalker."

Smiling, the Duros flipped the switch for the cloaking device.

"Let's make this a bit more interesting."

Watching the fighter disappear, Fox ran through both the dogfight over Eladard and him and Krystal nearly being strafed on Aquas. On both occasions, Bane had always decloaked before opening fire.

With that, Fox slung the plasma cannon across his back and brought up his wristcom.

"Katt, he can't fire while he's cloaked. I think he'll come from below."

"You sure about that?"

"It's what I'd do," Fox replied as he layed on his belly and held onto the fuselage.

The vulpine was soon proven right as a red dot appeared below Katt's location on her radar. The pink feline quickly banked her fighter to the left, though her shields still took a few hits. Once the Cat's Paw had straightened out again, Fox stood back up, unslung the plasma cannon, and took aim, making a point of firing ahead of the alien's starfighter.

The vulpine's aim proved true as a pair of high-powered plasma bolts struck the top of the Xanadu Blood while it was banking for another attack run. Hearing a shrill beep from his console, Bane glanced towards it and narrowed his eyes.

"Blast!" growled the Duros, "That kriffing little hairball took out the cloaking device!"

To further compound the problem, Bane spotted several hostile signatures approaching at a high speed.

"We'll have to finish this later," he said before pulling a u-turn and boosting away from his pursuers.

Back down on the Cat's Paw, Fox lowered the plasma cannon and answered his wristcom.

"Nice going, Foxy," Falco said, "Now let me and the cavalry handle him."

As the pheasant's Arwing and several Cornerian Bottlenose fighters flew past, Katt pouted, "I'm fine, by the way."

There was a pause on Falco's end before he replied, "Well, ain't that swell,"

Shaking her head, Katt glanced at Fox through the canopy.

"I guess this makes us square for Titania."

"Sure does," Fox replied before slinging the plasma cannon.

Elsewhere, Falco pushed his Arwing engine to the limit in order to catch up to Bane. Soon catching the green starfighter in his sights, the avian opened fire, only for his quarry to jink out of the way.

"You're gonna pay for what you did to her," Falco growled as he continued to chase the bounty hunter out of Corneria's atmosphere.

"If I didn't know better, Lombardi, I'd say that you and the girl were more than old business partners," Bane taunted.

Falco fired again, this time managing to nail the Xanadu Blood. Feeling the ship shake, Todo exclaimed, "We can't take many more like that!"

"Shut up, Todo."

Looking ahead, Bane saw Corneria's stratosphere give way to the blackness of space. There was also a CDF cruiser bearing down on him. Undeterred, the Duros began making the preparations to jump to lightspeed, even as his console started to beep.

"Mr. Bane, that ship is firing a tractor beam!"

"Shut up, Todo," Bane growled.

"But if we're captured, they'll probably dismantle me!"

"SHUT UP, TODO!"

Reluctantly, the techno-service droid obeyed his master, even as the shrill beep of a target lock sounded from the console. In spite of that, a devilish grin crossed Bane's features.

"Not today, birdbrain," he murmured before punching the throttle and watching the stars become streaks.

As the Xanadu Blood zoomed off into hyperspace, Falco deactivated his homing laser and then slammed his fist on the console.

"Fuck!"

The avian's anger was only compounded when his Arwing shook from being caught in the cruiser's tractor beam.

"Damn you, Bane!"