The Star Fox team spent the next few days tracking Pigma down, finally tracing him to somewhere in the Sargasso Space Zone, a known hideout for Lylat's most wanted criminals and gang members.

"Curse you, Pigma! Why'd you run to such a vile place?" Peppy groaned.

No sooner had the words left his mouth, a transmission request came in from a nearby space station.

A simian thug with an attitude as bad as his fashion sense appeared on the screen and he launched into an angry tirade.

"Don't you idiots know this is part of Lord O'Donnell's territory?!"

Fox's body suddenly froze at the name.

'Lord O'Donnell...Wolf. Don't tell me he's...'

"Hey! Who let you in?" Falco screamed back.

Once again reining in his emotions, Fox slipped effortlessly back into "leader mode."

"This is the Star Fox team! We're here for a hog named Pigma! We don't want trouble!"

"We don't know about no Pigma or any other fool," the thug lied. "And now we know you're Star Fox, you ain't going nowhere! C'mon, you lazy scum! Let's skin this fox and his whole crew! Get more guys up here! Come on!"

The transmission was cut from there.

Before anyone had time to respond to what just took place, a soft blip disrupted the silence, alerting Slippy to an incoming message of his on his personal communicator.

After taking in its contents, his eyes went as wide as dinner plates.

"Hey! I got a message from my dad! It's about the Core Memory that Pigma nabbed! He says it might contain the location of the Aparoid homeworld! We gotta get it back, no matter what!"

"Gateway initiation detected. Enemy forces increasing," R.O.B called from his station.

Fox just pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.

'It's just one thing after another, huh?'

"Even if we pound them, this will just become a war of attrition. Gotta do something about those transfer gateways."

After another pause, Fox addressed his team.

"Ok, Slippy and I will wipeout the transfer gateways in the hideout."

Slippy looked a little shocked, but kept quiet.

"Understood," Peppy said. "Falco and Krystal, deal with those battleships outside!"

"Got it!" Falco whooped. "Leave space to us!"

"Be careful, Fox." Krystal whispered.

"Ah... you too, Krystal," he stammered back. The team then prepared to sortie with the enemy.

As Slippy and Fox boarded their Arwings and prepped for takeoff, the younger pilot opened a private comm link between them.

"Hey Fox."

"Yeah, buddy? What's up?"

"I was just wondering... Why'd you pick me?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, you could have picked Krystal to come with you on this mission, or even Falco... So, why me?"

"I picked you because, in order to minimize the number of casualties, we may need to hack into their computers and that is your area of expertise, right?"

"Yeah..."

"Besides, Falco isn't always the best team player and Krystal..." he genuinely faltered for a bit before he said, "You're just the best toad for the job."

"Thanks, Fox!" he said, cheerfully. Satisfied, he cut the comm link and the two prepped for launch.

'This is Lord O'Donnell's territory... Lord O'Donnell...O'Donnell...'

'Wolf...'

It had been quite some time since that name crossed Fox's mind.

Leader of the criminal team known as Star Wolf and one of the galaxy's most feared criminals.

Over the years, the two leaders have been at odds with each other; each encounter more volatile than the last.

As he prepped his Arwing for launch, he hoped with every fiber of his being that he'd be able to avoid running into the lupine larcenist.

'Since when has my luck been that good?'

The operation got off to a quick start.

Taking out the few criminals who'd come to meet them at the gate was an easy enough task. However, once their numbers began to increase, it became harder and harder to get away with just injuring blows instead of lethal ones.

Being the excellent marksman that he was, Fox fired directly at either their weapons or a limb, any non-vital area of the body.

His goal was to incapacitate them, find Pigma and get out of there as quickly as possible.

Not hearing anything from his teammate who'd docked on the opposite side of the space station, he rushed over to rendezvous with him.

To his surprise, the young warrior was doing quite well on his own. While he wasn't fast by any means, his jumping skills were unmatched, making him a difficult target and giving him quite the advantage.

Thanks to his recent progress in his hand-to-hand combat training, his blaster wasn't even removed from its holster.

Without saying a word, Fox carried on to the higher levels of the station and with only a bit of difficulty took out the last of the transfer devices.

Given that most of the criminals were now subdued or too injured to fight, Fox was sure he'd be able to get some information out of them. That is until...

"Fox! Star Wolf has been detected and they're heading this way!" Falco shouted through the comm link.

"What are you idiots up to now?" Wolf chided his men.

'Great. Just what I needed. Couldn't have things actually go according to plan for once.' Fox gripes the second he hears that rage-laced timbre that belongs to none other than Wolf O'Donnell.

"Lord O'Donnell!" one of the ruffians near him exclaimed as a Wolfen became visible from the space station window.

"We didn't come here to fight with Wolf and his team," he yelled back into the comm, hoping to diffuse the situation.

"That's easy to say after all you've done!" Wolf responded. "You're on my turf now, Fox! Watch... your... step!"

"We're just here for Pigma, OK? Shut your traps and hand him over!"

"Pigma? Don't know anything about Pigma… But there is one thing… I'm owed an apology, and I will have it!"

'An apology?! Is he for real?!' Fox thought as he raced back to his Arwing.

"Enough small talk! Let's settle this, Fox!"

"It's unavoidable. Repel Wolf and his team with your Arwing."

"Got it. Slippy, you're in charge of gaining control of the hideout!"

"Understood! Leave it to me, Fox!"

Fox reached his Arwing and launched immediately.

Within seconds, he caught sight of them.

Leon Powalski

The rumored new member, Panther Caroso

And none other than Wolf O'Donnell, himself.

'Why do we keep having to go through this, Wolf?'

"Don't mess with me, Fox!" Wolf growled though the comm link.

"I think I'll skin you alive before I cook you!" Leon cackled.

"Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Panther Caroso and all who see my rose meet death!" the new pilot bragged gesturing to the gaudy rose painted across the side of his ship.

With that, the fight began.

Arwings, Wolfens and enemy ships all zoomed around blasting each other and taking each other out one by one. The team had made quick work of disabling Leon and Panther's weapons but the fight between Wolf and Fox was just heating up.

'Of course, he and his stupid team just had to randomly show up, now of all times.' Wolf bitterly thought to himself.

'I mean, what's he even doing barging in and attacking us?! Wait! He mentioned something about looking for Pigma, didn't he? Does he know...? If he does, why is he blasting us? That's not how this is supposed to go! Once he knew the truth, he was supposed to...I dunno, come to make peace or apologize or something. That's what goodie goodies like him do, right? Whatever the case, I can't afford to lose face in front of the men. If he wants to do it this way, fine by me.'

"Go down!" Wolf yelled, frustrated with unable to get an advantage on Fox. He'd tried sneaking up on the vulpine while he was distracted with trying to save his pathetic teammates, but as loathe as he was to admit it, Fox had only gotten better since their time at the Academy.

'If this keeps up, I won't be able to get away with just damaging his ship. I swear if he was anyone else, he'd be dead by now,' Wolf thought to himself as he let another opportunity to kill his rival go by.

'This is exactly what I wanted to avoid!' Fox cursed to himself as he engaged Wolf in one-on-one combat.

He'd had multiple opportunities to blast him out of the sky, but always hesitated, looking for a chance to instead disable his engines or weapons. Because despite everything, for some reason Fox couldn't bring himself to kill Wolf.

The two were trapped in a violent dance as they lit up space with laser blasts and minor explosions. Neither one willing to give an inch.

"You've gotten soft, Pup," Wolf teased.

And there it was.

The nickname that triggered so many different emotions in Fox.

Energized by these emotions, he began flying in different patterns than before, completely throwing Wolf off. With a few quick and well-aimed shots, he was able to disable Wolf's weapons without doing too much damage to his ship.

"Nice going, Fox!" Peppy cheered. "That's the end of our operation."

"That's enough for now, Fox," Wolf gruffly said, his pride clearly wounded.

Fox, on the other hand was having trouble calming himself down.

"Enough of this, Wolf! Just hand over Pigma already!" he yelled.

"Pigma's no longer part of Star Wolf." The criminal leader stated matter-of-factly. "And if he'd shown his hide here, my men would have driven him out."

"Then, where did Pigma go?" Krystal pondered. "We tracked him as far as here but..."

A sudden wolf whistle brought her thoughts to a complete halt.

"Ahh, the lovely Krystal, words do you no justice. I'm Panther Caroso, here's to us."

"Who's this idiot?!" Falco exclaimed, disturbed by the big cat's mannerisms.

"Quiet, bird." He bit back.

"What was that?!"

"Forget him!" Krystal shouted. "Just tell us where Pigma is!"

"How can I resist such beauty? I believe the comm record will point you towards Fichina."

"You talk too much," Wolf groaned. "Panther... Leon! Let's go. Remember this, Fox. Star Wolf will take you down one day," he promised and with that his team sped away.

Fox just slammed his fists on his control panel.

After a few deep, calming breaths, he flatly said, "Come on team, we're heading to Fichina."