In case people are wondering why Samus referred to herself as a space adventurer in the previous chapter rather than a bounty hunter, that's because the former is what Nintendo of Japan considers her to be. They do not see her as someone who fights for fame and wealth, but for the sake of doing good without asking anything in return, for the most part. They see her more as an adventurer who explores unknown regions and eliminates threats before they are a danger to other people. The reason Nintendo of Japan referred to her as a bounty hunter is simply because they thought that term sounds cool, but as far as the Japanese side of things are concerned, Samus is not a bounty hunter in the traditional sense but an adventurer with a heart of gold.
Chapter 14
Enter Star Fox
The creature resembling a cross between a dragon and a pterodactyl that Samus referred to as Ridley continued to take down the Cornerian jets in the sky with fireballs and his fast speed. Everyone watched in shock from below the streets at the monster wreaking havoc up in the sky.
"What is Ridley doing here?!" said Samus in disbelief.
"Who is he?" Fox asked her.
"He's the captain of the Space Pirates! He killed my mother in front of me!" said Samus in anger.
"That's horrible!" gasped Diesel.
Ridley was able to take out all the jets in the sky, and looking down, he saw the good guys down below as well as some other Cornerian soldiers. Seeing new targets, the Space Pirate captain swooped down onto the pavement below and landed with a stomp. He stood up tall and let out a roar in an attempt to intimidate the good guys.
"Quite a monster he is, huh?" commented Wolf, not to daunted by his appearance.
Samus angrily ran towards Ridley with her arm cannon pointed at him and shouted, "Ridley! You're behind this?! What are you doing here?!"
Without saying anything in response, Ridley shot a fireball at her, but she jumped over it and towards him, firing green energy blasts rapidly and blasting him in various parts of the body. Ridley held one wing in front of himself for protection while stepping back. Samus landed in front of him and ran up closer before firing at his chest at a close range, blasting him backwards.
Ridley came to a skidding stop, and though there were burnt marks on his body, he appeared to be in a good condition. Samus ran towards him again, firing nonstop. The winged beast took the blasts while continuing to shoot fire from his mouth at her and also swung his extendable spear-like tail at her that she dodged by jumping around swiftly.
He eventually took flight into the air slightly and attacked her using the same method from there, and she continued to dodge his attacks while fighting back. All the while, the others watched the two fight, wondering whether or not they should interfere.
But Jackal didn't share the same mindset. Ridley was too busy paying attention to attacking Samus that he was caught off guard by Jackal jumping onto his back and chomping down on his wing hard. Everyone was surprised by her action, and Samus stopped attacking as well. "Jackal?!" she called out in shock.
"Jackal?! What are you doing?!" Privaty yelled at her.
Ridley cried in pain and tried to shake Jackal off, but she held on tight, not letting go her mouth grip on his wing. "Get off!" he shouted. Ridley slammed that wing against a building wall, broke into it, and flew forward, tearing through it and scraping Jackal against it.
Ridley then flew higher into the air, and that was when Jackal let go of him. While in the air, Jackal pointed her rocket launcher at Ridley and fired right at his face. "Haha! Take that!" she laughed. However, Ridley recovered from the blast almost immediately and extended his tail at her at a fast speed, impaling her through the abdomen.
"Jackal!" gasped everyone except Wolf.
Ridley swung his tail to shake off Jackal, who fell onto the pavement hard. Lying on the pavement, she cried in pain with her hands over the wound on her body. "It… It hurts!"
Elegg and Fox ran up to her to try to calm her down. "Don't move around too much! You'll lose blood faster this way!" Elegg said to her, but Jackal kept on crying and kicking.
Ridley landed on a large sign that bent a bit from his weight and said, "Annoying pests! Who do you think you are? Coming against me?" He then glared at Samus, who glared back at him. "And why do you act like you have something against me? Who are you?"
"What are you talking about?! It's me, Samus Aran, the Space Pirate's worst enemy!" she angrily replied.
Ridley narrowed his eyes and replied, "I have never heard of that name! But then, I never bother to remember the name of people I killed or ruined the lives of! You're probably just one of the millions of people out there who hold a grudge against me because of the things I did to them! You're just an insignificant insect wanting revenge, but you will never achieve it! All those who tried to get payback against me met their ends, and it will be the same for you!"
Samus was confused to hear what he said. They have met and fought each other several times, and yet he was talking like this was their first meeting. "What are you talking about?! Do you have memory loss or something?!" she asked in anger and surprise.
Ridley was going to say something, but then he saw a large spaceship in the sky. The others noticed this and looked up as well. "What is that? More enemies?" asked Privaty.
Fox looked closely for a few seconds and then realized what it is. "It's the Great Fox! Team Star Fox's mothership!"
The giant spaceship known as the Great Fox was flying high up in Corneria's atmosphere. It stopped moving and hovered in place, while jet fighters flew out of a hatch at the lower front part of it. When the Cornerian soldiers saw this, they began cheering. "It's Star Fox! Hooray!"
The jets began flying around and shooting down all the Venomian jets as well as airborne Raptures.
"Wow! They're good!" commented Neon.
"Those are Arwings! Star Fox's biggest pride!" boasted Fox. "I'm glad my allies showed up at the right time!"
"Grrrr! More annoying pests!" said Ridley in anger before flying into the sky to go after them.
"Ridley! Don't run!" Samus shouted at him. She fired at him, but he dodged the shot and ignored her to continue heading for the Arwings.
One of the Arwings was piloted by a blue pheasant. He looked at the purple monster as the latter began flying after him. "The pirate's big daddy is here!" said the pheasant.
On his control panel, a frog showed up on a small screen. "Don't get too cocky, Falco!" said the frog in a high-pitched voice. "Ridley is no pushover! There's a reason he's so widely fear and also so high on the wanted list!"
"Ha! You underestimate me! I'm going to show him who's the better one with wings today!" replied the pheasant named Falco with confidence.
Ridley shot fireballs at Falco, but the latter moved his Arwing higher and made a u-turn to get behind him before shooting him from behind. Ridley grunted in pain from getting shot and then got out of the way. Flying to the side of Falco, he shot more fireballs at him, but the latter was able to dodge them swiftly with skillful jet maneuvers.
Ridley was then shot from the other side. He turned see another Arwing, and when he took note of the person inside the cockpit, he growled in anger. "You!" He then changed his target to that Arwing, which flew off with him in tow.
"Hey! He was mine!" Falco said to that pilot in anger.
Down below, the good guys watched the Arwings battle Ridley, and the Cornerian soldiers were cheering in excitement at the former.
Meanwhile, Jackal was still crying in pain on the pavement with the hole on her body. Diesel and Elegg were bent down next to her, wondering what to do. Two Cornerian soldiers who are anthropomorphic dogs came over to them and looked at Jackal with shocked expressions. "Is she all right?" asked one of them.
"Is she a cyborg?!" asked the other one when he noticed mechanical components in her wound.
Elegg nodded. "Yes, she is! She needs help now! I don't know how long she can hold on like this!"
One of the dogs turned on his codec to contact for help. After saying who he is and his current location, he said, "We have a civilian who appears to be a cyborg here in dire need of emergency! Come over here quick!"
"Large Rapture incoming!" shouted a voice coming from the distance. Everyone looked in the direction the shouting came from and saw some soldiers fleeing in their direction.
A large Rapture appeared from the around the corner, sporting two yellow light bulbs on its sides. Privaty widened her eyes in surprise and said, "It's a Lord-class Rapture, Doctor!"
"He must be the leader of the Raptures here!" said Neon. "All we have to do is destroy it, and then the others will go kaput!"
Everyone got his or her weapons ready as the Lord-class Rapture Doctor came in their direction. Before it could do anything, however, an Arwing swooped down from the air and fired at its body rapidly, pushing it back. The Arwing swooped back up a bit into the air and went behind Doctor, who turned around to face it. The Arwing then came closer to the ground and grew a pair of legs that allowed it stand. "The Arwing's walker form!" said Fox in surprise. "I wonder who is piloting it?"
Doctor fired several electric balls out of the light bulbs on its sides at the Arwing. The Arwing swiftly dodged the incoming projectiles while running towards the Rapture and shooting it. It blasted the Rapture all over the body as it drew close to it and then jumped behind it to continue shooting from there. The Arwing then lunged at Doctor as the latter turned around and kicked it in the core hard, pushing the whole thing backwards.
"Cool!" said Neon in awe.
"Whoever is piloting that sure has skills!" commented an impressed Fox.
The Arwing turned to their direction and said in a feminine voice, "Civilians, get out of here! This place is too dangerous for you to be here!"
"Huh? Whose voice is that?" wondered Fox. He recalled Krystal being the only female member in the team, but that voice didn't sound like hers.
Doctor recovered from the kick and approached the Arwing walker. Its light bulbs grew brighter and brighter as they began generating electricity, and then they fired powerful electric blasts in their direction. The pilot of the Arwing was going to move her ride out of the way, but realizing that doing so would cause the attack to hit the people close to her, she instead positioned the Arwing sideways so that it was able to use most of its body to protect them from the incoming electric blast.
The electric blasts struck the Arwing, damaging it and also threatening to knock it over, but the Arwing planted its feet against the pavement firmly. The others backed away with looks of shock on their faces as the Arwing protected them from the attack, and it was at this moment Fox was able to get a glimpse of who was inside the cockpit. It was a human woman, much to his surprise.
"Wait… Isn't that…?" said Diesel when she noticed the woman in the cockpit as well.
Before she could get a better look, the Arwing stood back up properly after Doctor's attack ended. The Arwing began its retaliation, running towards Doctor while firing laser beams at it nonstop. Doctor took steps back from each shot, and when the Arwing was close, it leaped up slightly and kicked it in the body with its legs. The Arwing then fired a disk-shaped bomb with a letter B in the center of it at the Rapture. When the bomb struck the Rapture, a massive explosion was created.
KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The powerful explosion not only blew up the Lord-class Rapture entirely, it also wrecked the building walls around it. The good guys were almost blown away by the shockwave of the explosion too. Neon had a look of awe and eyes full of sparkle when she saw the explosion. She said in excitement loudly, "What an awesome firepower!"
With Doctor destroyed, all the smaller Raptures that were still wandering around the city immediately stopped functioning and collapsed, and the soldiers fighting them cheered in excitement, knowing that someone took care of the leader.
The Arwing approached the good guys and opened its cockpit. The human woman inside came out and approached them. When the Nikke saw her, they were surprised at who she is. "Delta?!" they said.
"Yes, that's me," said the woman in response with a nod.
"You know her?" Fox asked the Nikke.
"She's a Nikke like us!" replied Neon. "She got transported to this planet as well?"
"Delta, why are you riding that thing?" Privaty asked her. "When did you get here?"
A question mark appeared over Delta's head. "I am a member of Star Fox, so obviously I pilot my own Arwing."
"Since when are you part of Star Fox?! You're part of the squad The Scouts!" Privaty told her. "Why are you suddenly acting and talking like you're part of this team of alien animals as if you're with them for long time already?!"
Hearing what Privaty said only confused Delta more. "I'm afraid I have no idea what you're talking about… I've been part of Star Fox for a long time already and never part of any team." Her eyes then shifted over to Jackal, who was still lying on the pavement. Shocked, she rushed over to her and observed her wound. "She seems to be in a serious condition! Take her onto my Arwing! I can take her to the Great Fox for treatment immediately!"
Even though the others have a lot of questions regarding why Delta was in Star Fox, they decided to save that for later, as saving Jackal's life was more important currently.
Up in the air, the Arwings were still engaged in a fierce combat against the Venomian jets as well as airborne Raptures. Ridley was chasing the same Arwing that attacked him through the sky in a farther away location.
Krystal, a blue-colored fox, was piloting one of the Arwings. She moved around with skill to dodge attacks fired at her and took out her enemies. Looking around and seeing more Raptures, she said, "There are too many Raptures! We need to find and destroy the leader! Anyone got a pinpoint on its location yet?"
A robot appeared on a small screen on her control deck and said, "Delta has reported that the Lord-class Rapture is defeated. Land-based Raptures are all destroyed."
"If the airborne ones are still active, that means there's a second leader in charge of the aerial ones!" deduced Krystal.
Slippy's image suddenly appeared on the screen, and he said in panic, "Everyone! I found the leader, and he's after meeeeeeee!"
Falco and Krystal used their Arwings' radars to locate Slippy some distance away, and flying after him was a flying machine somewhat resembling a whale. It was flying after Slippy and shooting energy blasts at him that he was desperately dodging.
"That's gotta be the one!" said Falco.
"Lord-class Rapture Cocytus… All right! Let's take it down!" said Krystal.
BGM: Boss 3 (Star Fox Assault)
Falco and Krystal flew towards Cocytus while firing their laser beams at it nonstop. This grabbed the attention of the flying Rapture, so it stopped going after Slippy and turned to them instead, making out a bellowing sound in the process. Energy projectiles were fired at the two. Krystal flew out of the way, while Falco did a barrel roll with his Arwing to deflect the projectiles, some of them going back to the Rapture and hitting it.
Krystal flew towards Cocytus from the side and pelted it with laser beams rapidly, and she made sure to flew up and out of the way before she rammed into the Rapture. Falco did the same thing, blasting the Rapture rapidly and moving away before he collided with it.
Cocytus bellow loudly before firing energy shots from its body in every direction, trying to hit them. In response, Krystal and Falco performed barrel rolls using their Arwings to deflect anything that was about to hit them.
After the barrage of projectiles were over, Falco flew towards Cocytus while shooting at it. The Rapture suddenly disappeared in a flash of light, much to Falco's surprise. Cocytus reappeared using the same method behind Falco and charge at his Arwing with its mouth wide open. Seeing on his radar that it was behind him, Falco sped up his Arwing and boosted ahead fast to avoid getting chomped on by the Rapture.
"You're still decades too early to sneak up on me like this!" said Falco as he u-turned into the air and fired at Cocytus from above in an upside-down position.
Cocytus disappeared again and reappeared some distance away. As Falco and Krystal flew towards the Rapture, several smaller Raptures appeared in between then them and started attacking the duo. Falco and Krystal blasted their way through the army of Raptures and either dodged or deflected anything fired at them.
Krystal's Arwing was shot at one point, causing it to shake. While her Arwing was still operational, she lost a bit of focus from what happened and panicked to get things under control. Some Raptures were ahead of her, ready to fire at her, and she was in danger of crashing into them as well.
However, those Raptures were blown away from the side. "I got them!" exclaimed Slippy happily, the person who rescued Krystal.
"Thanks for the help, Slippy!" said Krystal. Having calmed down a bit, she pressed on ahead towards Cocytus. Seeing more Raptures gathering in front of their leader to defend it, Krystal didn't hesitate to fire a smart bomb. The small bomb unleashed a large explosion that blew all those Raptures to bits.
Krystal passed through the explosion unharmed and fired rapidly at Cocytus, who fired back at her. She did a barrel roll once before flying out of the way. Cocytus turned to her and was going to give chase, only to be distracted by beams fired at it from another direction. Turning to that direction, Cocytus saw Falco flying at him and firing a smart bomb at it.
"Eat this, sucker!" shouted the pheasant.
The bomb went right into the Rapture's mouth and blew up, blasting away a large portion of its front part. However, even with a portion of its body blown away, Cocytus did not fall down right away and struggled to stay airborne.
"All right! Let's give him all we've got!" Falco said loudly to his comrades.
"Got it!" said Krystal and Slippy simultaneously.
All three animals flew towards what was left of Cocytus and fired at it rapidly until it finally blew up.
KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
BGM Ends
"Yippeeeee! We did it!" exclaimed Slippy.
"Great teamwork, everyone!" said Krystal happily.
"Heh! I'm the one who made all this possible in the first place!" boasted Falco arrogantly.
With the destruction of Cocytus, the remaining airborne Raptures stopped functioning, and they fell towards the ground below and blew up. Seeing this, the Cornerian army and civilians who happened to witness all this cheered in excitement and praised Star Fox for saving the day.
All the while, Ridley was still fighting his mysterious opponent. He also saw Cocytus's destruction and said in anger, "Useless junk!" He then turned to the Arwing attacking him and said, "You pest! I'll be sure to get rid of you this time!"
A portal then appeared close to him, and a deep, echoing voice came out of it, saying, "Ridley! That is enough! Return at once! This is the last time the portal can be opened for now, so come back! We will come up with a new plan!"
Ridley looked at the portal and growled in frustration. He looked at the Arwing, which was flying towards him, for a few seconds before hurrying through the portal. The Arwing tried to shoot beams into the portal, but it disappeared before they can reach it.
"They got away," said the person piloting the Arwing in a masculine voice.
A hare appeared on the screen on his cockpit and said, "Good work! The rest of your team managed to deal with the Raptures and the Venomian forces. Corneria City is saved now! Come back to the Great Fox and get your Arwing checked! Also, Delta brought back someone in need of medical attention. She's a cyborg!"
"Oh really? Just like herself!" said the mysterious pilot with interest. "Also, land the Great Fox at the base. I think it's due time for a proper checkout and rest."
"Roger that," said the hare.
The giant mothership known as the Great Fox slowly and carefully made its landing on a large empty lot designed for parking large machines like it. Several soldiers were at the place, watching the spaceship land. Most notable among them was a dog dressed like a military general.
Meanwhile, the Nikke, Fox, Wolf, and Samus were being transported in a truck towards where the Great Fox is. They had been told that the general of Corneria's military force, General Pepper wanted to meet them after he heard about their efforts in fighting against the enemies.
"Tsk! Why do I have to come along?" said Wolf in frustration in anger. "You know I'm not supposed to be here!"
"You did help fend off the enemies," Diesel told him. "I think you deserve some praise for that!"
"You know this is just a trap to lure me in and arrest me!" said Wolf. "I might as well just jump out of here right now!"
Meanwhile, Fox had a confused look on his face. He said to Wolf, "You found it strange, didn't you? These soldiers… They didn't recognize me at all! I am supposed to be a famous around here, yet none of them know who I am!"
"I'll admit that this is indeed strange," replied Wolf. "After all the stuff you've been through to save their asses all the time, you'd think everyone and their mothers would've know your face already."
"And then there's the case of that woman named Delta being part of my team… I don't remember recruiting her…" said Fox. He then looked at the Nikke and asked them, "You said she is one of you, right?"
Privaty nodded. "Yes, Delta is part of the Nikke squad The Scouts. They are mainly in charge of reconnaissance and routing out paths in new territories. We are just as surprised as you that she is part of your team and doesn't even recognize us. This makes no sense… Did she get mind wiped?"
"Mind wiped?" said Samus curiously.
"We Nikke have a component inside us called NIMPH, which controls our memories," Privaty explains to her. "It allows commands to be inputted into us so that we cannot disobey them, and as our memories are stored in there, clearing it will erase our memories and effectively make us new people."
"Not exactly, since we still retain our personalities," clarified Elegg. "I'm a gamer through and through, so no memory wiping will ever change that aspect of me!"
"Sounds like something that can be abused by others… I don't like it…" said a rather displeased Samus.
"It's necessary in order to punish Nikke that disobeyed orders or went rogue. By resetting their memories, they can be trained from scratch and not make the same mistakes again," said Privaty.
"We're here," said the truck driver.
The group got out of the truck and found themselves in the same lot that the Great Fox had landed in. They looked at the spaceship and saw several people there. Among them were Falco, Slippy, Krystal, Delta, and another fox, who was talking with the military general dog.
Fox was surprised to see another fox in the group. The group approached them, and as they drew close, the Star Fox members turned around to see them. The dog saw them as well and said, "Ah, you must be the people I heard about who were seen fighting the Venomian forces in the streets!"
The fox standing among them turned around, revealing a face with sunglasses on it. When Fox saw him, he mouth fell wide open, while his entire body trembled nonstop. "Fa… Fa… Father…?!" he stammered.
Even Wolf was surprised to see him. "What the?! James McCloud?! What is he doing here still alive?!"
The fox with shades named James was confused at Fox's expression. "Is something the matter?"
"And did you just call our leader your father?" Falco asked Fox.
Krystal looked at James with a surprised look and said, "You have a son?!"
Rather than being surprised or even panicking, James put his hand underneath his chin and said, "Hmmm… Not that I know of… I have no memories of being with any woman either…"
Fox tried to maintain his composure as he went up to James and said to him, "Father, it's me! Your son, Fox!" He then looked at the people who were supposed to be his teammates. "Falco! Krystal! Slippy! What is going on?! Why is my father alive and leading the team?!"
However, those three had confused looks on their faces. "Um… Do we know you?" Slippy asked him.
"Is your head all right?" Falco asked him.
"No offense, but your behavior is… odd…" said a rather freaked out Krystal.
"What…? What are you talking about…?! I'm your team leader, Fox! How did you all forget about me?!" said Fox in disbelief.
"Is something the matter? You seem lost and confused…" the general dog said to Fox.
Fox turned to him and said, "General Pepper! Please tell me you know who I am!" However, the response he got was the same as the others, much to his dismay and confusion.
The Nikke, Samus, and Wolf were confused by what was happening as well. "This is getting really strange…" commented Elegg.
"Did Fox's friends all lost their memories or something?" wondered Neon.
"It's like Delta when we talked to her earlier…" said Diesel. "What is happening…?"
While everyone was trying to figure out what happened, James placed his hand on Fox's shoulder and said to him while pointing with the thumb of his other hand at the Great Fox, "How about we head over in there and talk over this properly?"
Falco seemingly objected. "You're telling a complete stranger to come inside the Great Fox! For all we know, these people may be enemies sent to spy on us!"
"They helped save Corneria City, and that's all the proof I need they are on our side," James told him. "Furthermore, they have a friend on board our ship, right? I'm sure they'll want to see her."
The Nikke then remembered that Jackal was supposedly taken on board the Great Fox by Delta to have her wound treated. "Jackal! Is she all right?" asked a concerned Diesel.
"Why don't you come see for yourself?" James told her. He then turned to General Pepper and said to him, "If you don't mind, we can postpone our conversation for another time. I wish to attend to our new friends here at the moment."
General Pepper nodded. "Take your time! We can talk about our battle plans when you're ready!"
TO BE CONTINUED
Surprise! James is alive and well in this world, and leading Star Fox! Surely it must be quite a shock for Fox to see his father in the flesh, even if... Actually, we still don't know what on earth is happening, so who knows if he is the actual James McCloud he knows? And then there's Delta being part of Star Fox...