Author's Note: Hello, everyone, and welcome to my first Star Fox Fan Fic. I've wanted to write one for some time, and at the beginning of 2023, I told myself to go for it as I want to be more creative and follow my hobbies. I'm not a great writer and will stumble and make mistakes. So constructive criticism is welcomed. Also, to inform you, this story takes place after Command the Kursed route. In terms of rating, this will be a soft M rating. You have been warned.
"This must be it," thought Kursed as she looked upon the abandoned building. The building was an abandoned manufacturing robotics factory decommissioned after the Lylat wars. She was on the hunt for her latest target, bringing her to the planet Kew's manufacturing section. A planet far out in the Lylat system.
When she came upon the facility, she saw it was colored dark and gray and only illuminated by the bright full moon in the night sky. Patches of rust were present, made by years of deterioration. The parking lot was littered with broken bottles, probably caused by drunkards who hung around. The building measured about three stories tall and was lifeless. One could only imagine the personnel that once worked here. Kursed went towards the entrance to find it locked, so she looked for another entryway. She looked around the back of the facility to see an open door, probably realizing that was how her target got inside.
Upon entering the building, all she saw was unmaintained machinery and workstations, all illuminated by the moon shining through the windows except for dark shadows here and there. Luckily for her, she did have a flashlight attached to her blaster. Kursed swept her light across the facility to look for signs of her target. She found none but did find something that got her curious. On a worktable near her laid an unpowered, unfinished bronze-colored robot. Its design reminded her of the robot that made its home among the hull of the Great Fox, a carrier that belonged to the mercenary group known as Star Fox. At the mention of the group's name, she stopped thinking about it before it brought up some bad memories, "Now is not the time for that." She muttered to herself. Kursed left the worktable and continued with her search.
At the corner of the room, a working camera that was out of view followed her movement and streamed what she was doing to whoever was watching. On the other end of the broadcast on a screen, a figure watched Kursed navigate herself through the facility, "Well, what do we have here?"
As she crept inside the building, all she could hear was the sound of her footsteps echoing throughout the facility, "Where are you?" she thought to herself. From what she saw, the factory was giant, and searching for who she was looking for would take a while. Kursed closed her eyes and tapped into her telepathy to sense any presence not her own to aid in her search. After a short while, she opened her eyes to find nothing. She snorted in annoyance when she sensed no one and wondered how she would find her target.
As if the universe were giving her a sign, she heard creaking metal coming from above her. Her ears flicked toward the noise, and she looked up. "Upstairs." Kursed looked around and found a set of stairs leading to the upper levels of the building.
As she set her black boots on the stairs, they creaked from the weight of her body and the passage of time but still climbed, nonetheless. Upon reaching the second level, a locked door blocked her entry. Upon inspection, Kursed saw that it required a key card, as indicated by the access pad next to the door. With no other choice, she decided to check the third floor, and by luck, access was given to her by an open hallway with different rooms, but what got her attention was the one room at the end of the hallway. She could see the door was open slightly, and light peeked out. If she had to guess, that was where her target was. With her blaster in hand, she strolled down the hall, making as little noise as possible while keeping her wits about her. Kursed peeked through the door's crack as she reached the door.
Through the crack, she saw what looked like a large testing room. On both sides of the room were four sets of robots like the ones she saw downstairs, except they were completed models. However, the light source got her attention, and it belonged to a lit-up computer monitor blocked by a humanoid figure standing in front of it with his back facing her. Judging from his build, the figure was a man dressed in a black undersuit covered in titanium and bronze-colored armor.
The man was known as Zero, the target she had been hunting. There wasn't much in terms of information. Still, the only thing anyone knew about him was that he appeared in the system about a year ago and made a name for himself by taking down a couple of criminal organizations. She had been tracking him for weeks, and he somehow managed to give her the slip whenever she was close to getting him. Soon, all her hard work paid off now that she got him cornered in this factory.
"There you are." She gripped her blaster tightly and pushed the door slightly so as not to alert the target of her presence. Kursed put away her blaster and then grabbed a stun grenade and an electric baton attached to her belt. Kursed flicked her wrist, and the baton extended. She pulled the pin and threw the stun grenade into the room. A moment later, a loud bang and bright light filled the room. With lightning speed, Kursed ran into the room and, with a lunge, thrust the baton at her target to immobilize him. However, the baton did not connect with his body. Instead, she went through him and stabbed the computer.
"What the hell?" Kursed asked herself in disbelief. She pulled out her baton and looked back at Zero, still standing where he was, showing no reaction to what had just happened. She approached him slowly with her baton and touched him with her other hand. Her hand went through him like he was a ghost, and as she did, his body started to flicker and disappear. Kursed looked shocked at what had happened, but a voice spoke up before she could figure out what was happening.
"You missed." A voice said from behind her.
With lighting reflexes, Kursed turned around and drew her weapon at the source of the voice. To her utter surprise, Zero stood before her, looking at her with his titanium helmet and dark red visor shaped like a T.
Zero tilted his head. "Let me guess. You're a bounty hunter after the price on my head?" He asked in a mocking tone.
As he spoke, Zero was observing her. In front of him stood what he saw was not a bounty hunter but what he thought was a stripper with her tight brown pants and bra. He also noticed her beige short-sleeved jacket. What got his attention, however, was the color of her fur. Unlike most foxes with orange and white pattern fur patterns, hers was blue, maybe azure, but he strays it was not like anyone would have a hang-up of her fur color, and if they did, there was something wrong with them mentally. Plus, there was her long purple hair that she had.
"Well, aren't you observant?" Kursed asked in a sarcastic tone to match his earlier remark. She swung her weapon at his head. Unfortunately, like last time, her swing went through him. "How?"
"Hologram."' He answered.
Kursed looked at him with confusion. Zero then pointed a finger to one of the pillars in the room to show what he was talking about. She looked up and saw what he was pointing at. Attached to the pillar was a working holoprojector. Kursed clicked her tongue in frustration. Her target was never here, which explained why she couldn't sense him before with her abilities. He must also hack the facility's systems if he's talking to her through a hologram and could be long gone from here.
Seeing she would be wasting her time engaging further, she turned back to the door she entered through to continue her pursuit of Zero. Suddenly, thick metal gates descended upon the windows and the door she entered, blocking her exit. She looked back to Zero as if she knew he was the cause of this.
"What's the hurry? Thought we could chat a little," asked Zero.
"Remove this gate now." Demanded Kursed with a growl.
"Can't do that." Was his response.
"Because?"
" Because I'm not going to release a bounty hunter trying to get me, " Zero said, rolling his head and looking away from her.
"Afraid I'll get you like I almost did in Janyay?"
Zero looked back at her with confusion, indicated by the tilt of his head, until she pointed to her right shoulder, signifying for him to look at his shoulder. He looked to his right shoulder pad to locate the black scorch mark and understand what she was trying to say. "Oh, that was you?" he asked. I was wondering who shot me. Good. Though now that I got a look at you, I got to say I'm not impressed."
She expected this. All her targets initially underestimated her, but that is how she wanted it. It makes it easier for her to take them down, and Zero will be no different. "Do you trap every bounty hunter that comes after you?" She asked.
"Not really; most are just killed on-site when they refuse my offer."
"Offer?"
"Yes, an offer. You stop pursuing me, and you get to keep your life doing whatever scum like you do." He offered with a voice coated with discontent. " Besides, it's not like you'll ever catch me."
Kursed raised an eyebrow at his blatant cockiness. "Cocky, aren't we?"
He shrugged, "Gotta break the monotony sometimes." Zero looked at the vixen again and studied her from the flicking of her ears to the slowly swishing tail, then back to her green eyes trained on him. He guessed she was waiting for him to make a move. Zero sighed mentally. He thought about trying to talk her out of trying to get his bounty like he did with the others, but they always turned him down. He knew she was going to say no but wanted to try. "Any chance I can talk you out of trying to get my bounty?"
"With a bounty of 250,000 thousand credits? I don't think so."
Zero clicked his tongue at another stubborn bounty hunter he couldn't convince. "Fine, if we're going to do this, can you tell me your name?" He asked the vixen.
She stared at him for his odd request but decided to humor him. "It's Kursed," she said. What happened next completely caught her off guard.
Zero went quiet, then came what sounded like stifled giggles trying to escape from his mouth to full-blown laughter. "...Pffffttthahaha! What kind of name is that? Did you pick that when you were an edgy middle schooler?"
Kursed was at a loss for words. Never has she come across a situation like this before. Most people who hear her name quake with fear, yet this guy was laughing his ass off as if he listened to the funniest joke ever.
"Like, girl, it's bad enough you are dressed like you want your boyfriend to tie you up and humiliate you in the bedroom. But KURSED?! Ha-ha! That sounds like something an angsty teenager would name themselves to sound edgy!" Zero howled as he grabbed his sides and knelt, trying to steady himself from the amount of laughter he was having.
Okay, now she was getting angry. Zero was making a fool out of her. Being underestimated is one thing, but being made fun of because of her name is not something she would let sly. "Quit your laughing. This isn't funny!" she demanded.
Zero stopped laughing to catch his breath. "You're right; it's not funny; it's hilarious!" he said, returning to laughing.
Kursed felt her left eye twitch with annoyance, or was it anger? Maybe it was both, and she didn't care. All she wanted was for this Buffon to stop laughing. Every chuckle that came out of his helmet was making her blood boil in rage.
A few minutes later, Zero's laughter died down. "You done?" Kursed asked him.
Zero took a deep breath and calmed himself. "Phew, yeah, I'm done. Thanks, by the way, I needed that."
"I'm glad to see you're enjoying all of this." She said snarkily, "Once I get out of here, you won't find me so amusing."
" Wow, really laying it thick there with the edginess. Unfortunately, that's not going to happen." Zero said as he crossed his hands behind him while secretly pressing a button with a thumb on a device attached to his gauntlet.
"And why is that?" Kursed asked.
" Because of the bombs I just activated."
"Excused me?!" Kursed yelled, "Bombs?!"
"Yeah, I placed some bombs in the building before you came," Zero said. "I hacked the charges and set them to blow. Though I would have loved them to blow you to pieces right now, unfortunately, there was a safety measure on them that I couldn't bypass. So, you get to count down the minutes till your demise, which would be in seven minutes." He said it appeared as a project of numbers counting down. "But don't worry, you won't be alone."
Before Kursed could ask, her ears picked up a mechanical noise, and she felt a sudden force rush from her right side belonging to a robotic arm. Said arm caused her to drop her blaster and crash into a pile of boxes. Recovering quickly from the sudden attack, she looked in the direction she was launched and identified her assailant. What she saw was one of the robots she had seen earlier when entering the room. Behind it were the rest of the robots, but they were now moving toward her with the intent to kill. Kursed looked back at Zero, who stood with his arms behind his back.
" Yeah, I also hacked them, have fun."
Kursed looked back at the robots only to find one with its arms raised, ready to crush her. She dodged and rolled from it before it struck her. Its fists hit the floor, leaving cracks where she once was. Upon seeing the cracked floor, Kursed thought getting hit by them was a bad idea. She raised her arm to fire her blaster only to find it gone. "Damn," she cursed, realizing that she must have dropped it when the robot sent her flying. Lucky for Kursed, her blaster was not the only weapon she carried. Going for her right thigh, she unsheathed the monomolecular combat knife, held the knife in one hand with the stun baton in the other, and got into a combat stance. As she got ready to fight, Kursed studied her opponents and noticed three things she gleaned from interacting with the machines. First, they were strong, as evidenced by being thrown by them and destroying the floor. Second, these robots were not built for combat, and third, the most essential info: these robots were slow.
"They may have strength, but I got agility and speed," Thought the vixen as she got ready for battle. She crouched with her ears flattened and dashed towards the nearest robot. The first robot saw her coming and let loose a haymaker aimed at her head. It hit nothing as Kursed bent her knees to dodge the punch. She got back up to plunge her stun baton into its neck, stunned from the shock to its system. Kursed then stabbed it with her knife, rendering it inoperable as its monomolecular blade cut through its wires and circuits like it was paper. As the robot crumbled to the floor, Kursed turned to the other robots coming her way. "One down." She muttered to herself.
One robot lounged at her to tackle her to the ground, only to fail as Kursed sidestepped it. She didn't have time to breathe as she noticed another one taking a swing at her from the corner of her eye. Thankfully, it was slow enough for Kursed to dodge at the last second and respond with a leg sweep, causing the robot to fall to the ground. The second it hit the floor, Kursed plunged her baton down through its fragile red visor with great force. The electricity coursed through the baton into the machine's circuitry, overloading its system, and the robot stopped moving.
Before she could prepare for her next move, one of the robots took advantage of her occupied attention and tackled her to the ground. As they hit the floor, Kursed lost her grip on her baton as it flew out of her reach. The mechanical being pinned her down with one of its arms and reared its other one, ready to strike through her head. "Shit!" She cursed aloud. As it brought its fist down, she quickly creaked her neck sideways to avoid the hit, leaving a spiderweb of cracks from the impact. With a quick reaction, Kursed jammed her knife into the robot's arm joint to disable it, then finished it off by stabbing the blade deep into its head through its delicate visor. The robot then started to spazz out and flail its arm erratically due to its damaged components. Kursed kicked it off her to gain some distance from it as it fell. Seeing that the machine was still kicking and couldn't retrieve her knife, she ended it with a long lead pipe she just picked up. She lifted it above her head with all her strength and brought it down like a hammer, hitting her knife like a nail on a piece of wood. Metal being dented could be heard as she kept hitting it, and the knife went deeper into its head. She only stopped when it stopped moving.
Kursed let go of the pipe, which made a loud clang when it hit the floor. Kursed panted for air at the amount of physical exertion she had to put out to kill these worker robots. She thought it would be easy, but these things put up more of a fight than she thought. As she picked herself up from the floor, the sound of servos and gears made her ears perk up at attention. Kursed looked toward the sound of the noise to find it belonged to the robot who had tried to lunge at her earlier, dashing towards her. She tried to retrieve her knife from the recently slain robot, only to find that she couldn't. She tried with all her strength to get it out but wouldn't budge an inch. She realized that hitting it with the pipe wedged it deep in the robot's head. Kursed had started to panic a little until an object caught her attention at the corner of her eye. She smirked and grabbed at it. As the robot approached her Kursed, she brought up her dropped blaster and pulled the trigger. With perfect aim, a bolt of energy soared through the room and hit the robotic head, causing it to explode like a firecracker. The stump that was once its head sparked a few electric sparks like confetti and fell back to the ground.
Kursed lowered her weapons and took deep breaths to calm her body from the adrenaline pumping from her body. When she felt good and ready, Kursed holstered her blaster, retrieved her knife, and rose from the floor. As she got up, the sound of hands clapping together was heard, and that only belonged to the other occupant in the room.
"Well done, you managed to impress me a little." Zero mocked between claps, " You managed to defeat those worker bots with a few minutes to spare. Not bad."
Kursed quietly growled, "Enjoy what sense of safety you feel right now because I'm coming for you and paying you back for the robots."
"You mean if you get out of here?" Zero corrected. Well, this has been a lovely meeting. It's too bad we couldn't part on better terms. Enjoy the four minutes you have left. Bye." He finished as he cut the link and disappeared, leaving the bounty huntress to her fate.
"I swear when I get out here and find you, I will make you regret this!" She yelled.
Elsewhere on top of the roof of an abandoned building not too far from the factory, Zero watched the factory he left Kursed in through binoculars and counted down. "Three, two, one." As he counted the last second, the factory exploded in a great flame, lighting the night sky and sending pieces everywhere.
Zero put down the binoculars and watched the plume of smoke rising. "Goodbye Miss Bounty Hunter. Can't say that I'll miss you." He spoke.
Zero turned his heels and made his way toward a door that led downstairs to the building. As he was leaving the building, he stopped as a nagging feeling was telling him to check for a body. He told himself that she couldn't have survived that explosion, but the feeling would not leave him be. He decided to check the scene to quell his paranoia until a call notification appeared in his helmet's HUD. He read the notification in bold letters that said KISSASS and rolled his eyes in annoyance. "This guy."
He tapped the device on his arm and spoke to the helmet's built-in receiver. "What do you want?'
"Where the hell are you?" a voice asked harshly. "Your handler told me he lost track of you a few hours ago."
Zero sighed with vexation. "I was taking care of another bounty hunter that came after me."
"A bounty hunter, huh?" a short pause came from the voice. "I'm guessing that explosion just now was your doing?"
"Maybe," replied Zero.
An irritated grumble could be heard, "Whatever, I only called because Mr. Tyler is asking for your presence now."
Zero exhaled through his nose in discontent, " Tell him I'm on my way."
"Don't keep us waiting." Said the voice, and the call disconnected. Zero tapped the floor with his foot and turned around, heading to the destination he needed to be. Before leaving the area, he took one last look at the flaming aftermath of his trap. When he felt he had enough of the scenery and convinced himself that Kursed was dead, he left.