Here we begin the start of a new arc! The Star Fox arc! But perhaps there's more to it than meets the eyes?

Chapter 13
Entering Cornerian Air Space

All Neon saw at first was white light, and when it died down, she found herself standing on a grassy field, and not far ahead of her was a road leading into a city. Confused at what she saw, Neon took off her glasses, wiped it, rubbed her eyes, and then put it back on. It was still the same sight.

"Strange… I was sure I was entering the elevator heading for the surface just now…" she said with her fingers underneath her chin. "How did I end up here? Even if I were to assume that I rode the elevator to the surface, I don't remember seeing a sight like this… It looks more like I'm in the Ark…"

There was the sound of someone clearing his voice coming next to her. "Ahem…"

Neon turned around and saw Privaty standing there with her arms crossed. "Oh hey! Didn't notice you here, Privaty!" Neon said to her in surprise.

"Pay attention to your surroundings more, will you?" Privaty said to her in an annoyed tone. Neon got a better look at her surroundings and saw that they weren't the only two people present. Diesel, Elegg, and Jackal were present as well.

In addition to them, there were three other unfamiliar people. One was an anthropomorphic fox, the other a wolf, and the other a person covered in red and orange armor, so it was not possible to see his face. They looked as confused as the Nikke regarding their surroundings.

"What… What happened?" asked Diesel, looking around with a confused look. "I was doing checkup for the AZX. How did I end up here? What even is this place?"

"I was about to beat the final stage of BOOM for the 1,234th time when suddenly… How'd I get here?!" said Elegg in shock while looking around.

"Viper? Where are you? Where'd you go?" Jackal called out while looking left and right in confusion.

The wolf turned to the fox approached him in anger, saying, "Fox! What is the meaning of this? Why am I suddenly here on what I assume is the outskirts of Corneria City?!"

The fox got into a defensive stance and said, "I'm just as confused as you are, Wolf! I was with my team inside the Great Fox as well, and now I'm here all of a sudden!"

"You sure you have nothing to do with this?" the wolf asked him.

"Do I look like I have the ability to make something like this happen?" the fox said to him.

The Nikke were looking at the two humanoid animals bicker with each other with looks of confusion. "Those are some pretty realistic costumes! You'd think they are real animals!" observed Elegg.

"Why would anyone dress as animals at a time like this?" wondered Privaty.

The armored person then approached the Nikke and said in a feminine voice, "You girls… From what I can tell, you're all transported to this place suddenly, right?"

Neon nodded. "Yeah! I was with my squad, about to enter an elevator to go to the surface to investigate D-Wave when sudd… I mean… We were going to fight Raptures when suddenly we found ourselves here!"

The armored person touched the side of her helmet and said, "Adam, are you there?"

A male computerized voice was then heard coming from her helmet, saying, "I am here, Samus. I am aware of our current situation, but nothing in my database contains the answer to where we are. The nearest computer we have are handheld communication devices held by some of the people around you, but I refrained from looking into their networks without their permissions first."

The others turned to the armored person, and Neon said, "How come you're switching between a man's voice and a woman's voice...?"

"That was my A.I. assistant speaking," the armored person explained to her.

The fox walked up to the others and said, "So… I guess everyone here is pretty confused about what's happening, I guess…"

"It seems that we are in the same boat…" Diesel said to him.

"I'm Fox McCloud," the fox said to the Nikke. He then pointed at the wolf. "And that's Wolf over there. Better not get on his bad side, because he won't hesitate to slit your throat."

"Is that what you think of me?" the wolf named Wolf said in response, and then he smiled evilly. "Then you're right! I don't know who you folks are, and I'm in a bad mood currently, so you better not make things any worse!"

"Someone's in a bad mood…" commented Elegg, looking at Wolf.

"Heheh! There's something I like about him already!" said Jackal, observing Wolf with interest.

Privaty asked Fox, "Your name's Fox? Because you like foxes so much that you're even dressed up as one? Quite an obsession you have…"

Fox looked confused when he heard that. "Uh… But I am a fox… I'm not dressed up as a fox, assuming you think my face is a costume."

Privaty stared at him in silence for a few seconds and then said, "You're really in character, huh?"

Adam's voice then spoke out of the armored person's helmet. "Scan results indicate that the person before you is not human. While his biology are similar to humans, DNA results show that he is related to the vulpine family."

"So… a species that closely resembles foxes. Perhaps a highly evolved fox..." noted the armored person.

The Nikke turned to the armored person when Adam made his observation, and then they turned back to Fox. Privaty, now looking a bit freaked out, asked him, "You're… literally a fox…?"

Fox nodded. "Yep! Born one and have always been one! What species are you, by the way? You have a vague resemblance to apes, but there are still lots of differences…"

Question marks appeared all over Privaty's face as her face became confused and even a bit frightened. Instead of answering Fox's question, she said in slight panic, "How… How is a fox able to walk upright, wear clothes, and talk like humans…?! This… This can't be real, right? This must be a prank of some kind!"

The armored person then asked Fox, "What planet is this?"

Fox looked at her and replied, "This is Planet Corneria."

"Corneria? You mean… we're not on Earth…?" said Elegg in disbelief.

Fox shook his head. "Never heard of Earth, but you're not on that planet."

The Nikke were truly surprised to hear this now. "So we're not on Earth? We're on an alien planet? That sounds awesome!" said Neon in excitement. "I can't believe I'm on an alien planet looking at aliens that look like Earth animals!"

Meanwhile, Jackal was looking around and listening to everyone's conversation with a confused expression, though she was smiling regardless.

"You're from Earth?" the armored person asked the Nikke.

"Oh, you know Earth?" Elegg asked her

"I'm actually born on the planet K-2L, but the people there all originated from Earth," replied the armored person. "I've been to Earth a number of times for business reasons."

"What…? I've never heard of humans leaving Earth to live on other planets, much less there being habitable planets…!" said Diesel in disbelief. "You came to Earth before? Which manufacturer do you work for?"

"I'm not sure what you mean by manufacturer, by I'm a space adventurer who mainly answers to the Galactic Federation, but due to certain reasons, I'm currently not in a good relation with them…" replied the armored person.

"Galactic Federation? Sounds like a government organization of some kind, and one I've never heard of before…" said Privaty. "We've only heard of Central Government."

The armored person shook her head. "Never heard of it."

"This is getting all too confusing…" said Elegg while scratching her head. "We're on an alien planet currently, and now this person in a spacesuit that could be passed off as something out of BOOM is bringing up stuff that we've never learned in our history classes… What on earth is happening?!"

"I have to admit… I've never heard of Galactic Federation and Central Government either…" said Fox, looking confused.

"You folks sure you aren't high on alcohol and dreamed up all this?" asked Wolf with his arms crossed.

"We didn't make up anything!" Privaty said to him in anger. "We're lost and confused at what is happening! We were doing our business back in the Ark when I remember a bright light coming out of nowhere, and then we're here!"

"A bright light got you all? I was engulfed in bright light as well and then ended up here!" said Fox.

"Same here. A bright light appeared all around me without a warning, and the next thing I knew… You know the whole story…" said the armored person.

"Then we can conclude that this strange white light is what brought us all here, including me," said Wolf.

"So it transported us all to this alien planet…" said Diesel. "But what this armored person said still doesn't make sense… This Galactic Federation she brought up… None of us ever heard of it…"

"It would be wise that we all share with each other every information we know," suggested Adam. "We will then compare the information with each other and form a conclusion from them."

As they were currently on Corneria, Fox went first and told the others about some of the things from his past experiences. He explained that he is the leader of a mercenary group called Star Fox, which is considered one of the best and most famous mercenary teams in the galaxy. Their most notable feat was defeating an evil mad scientist named Andross, who created dangerous war machines and biological monstrosities to terrorize the galaxy.

"Wolf over here used to work for Andross," said Fox, pointing at Wolf.

The others looked at Wolf, who had a smug look on his face. "Because he pays well, and my team and I get to have some fun doing what we like most too!" he said, not feeling remorse for the crimes he committed. "Being able to fight my rival Fox was the best thing about it!"

"So you're a criminal…" said Diesel.

"I can also be your ally if you have something interesting enough for me to do!" Wolf told her.

Privaty had a look of anger and disgust on her face. "If this Andross person is as evil as Fox described, and you work for him, you ought to be in prison!"

"You got a problem with the way I live my life? What are you, some kind of envoy of justice?" Wolf asked her. "I don't need you lecturing me!"

"I know Wolf may sound like a terrible person, which I don't deny, but I have to admit that when push comes to shove, he can make a great ally," Fox said to Privaty. "His team once helped us fight off evil insect-like creatures known as Aparoids, and honestly, if it weren't for them, we probably would have never won the battle…"

"I'm not fond of those creepy crawlers getting all over the place, which is why we helped," said Wolf. "And for your info, I didn't really enjoyed working with you either!"

The Nikke explained about themselves next, about how Raptures took over their world and forced humanity to move underground to live in a massive city called the Ark. When they pointed out that they are Nikke, cyborgs with human brains, the armored person asked, "You're not human?"

The Nikke turned to her, and Privaty replied, "We used to be humans. All Nikke used to be humans who had their brains removed from their bodies to be put into synthetic bodies. We may look and act like humans, but there are still some differences about us that set us apart from humans, such as better strength and stamina.""

"You voluntarily sacrificed your original bodies for your current synthetic bodies?" Fox asked them in surprise.

"Some people intentionally became Nikke because they want to be stronger, while some did so because they were dying or had physically unfit bodies, so the only way to survive was to become Nikke," explained Diesel.

"Though there are also instances where people are punished for their crimes by becoming Nikke, since being machines, Nikke can be programmed to follow superiors' orders," added Elegg.

"This concept almost sounds like something Andross would do," said Wolf.

"Given what he did to himself, I wouldn't disagree…" said Fox in agreement.

"So you have been fighting these Rapture beings all your life?" the armored person asked the Nikke.

"Yeah, they've been a nuisance to humanity for a century already!" said Neon. "No matter how much of them we destroy, they keep on coming back endlessly! There's no end to them!"

"We only know that there is a Rapture Queen that guides them, but no one has ever seen her or even know where she is, so as long as she is still out there, I'm afraid the battle between humanity and Raptures will persist…" said Diesel in a somewhat sad tone.

"That's terrible… I can't imagine a war going on for a century…" said Fox, feeling bad for them.

"Not all of us have been fighting for that long though. Nikke can more or less live indefinitely as long as they have proper maintenance, but most of us here are created about a decade ago or more," Privaty told him.

Everyone then turned to the armored person, and Elegg asked her, "So… what about you? We don't know your name yet… Are you even human or not?"

The armored person replied, "My name is Samus Aran, and yes, I am human." She then removed her helmet, revealing an attractive woman underneath with long blonde hair tied into a ponytail.

"Huh, didn't expect you to be quite a looker!" commented Elegg. "With a suit of such a build, I expected you to be somewhat more muscular."

"This suit has several functions and enhances my physical capabilities several times," explained Samus as she put back on her helmet. "Not that I can't do anything without it, mind you, but I don't really have any reason go around without this suit."

"You said you're a space adventurer?" Fox asked her.

Samus nodded. "Yes. If there is anyone who needs help, I will offer my services free of charge. For the most part, I've been dealing with Space Pirates and have been a thorn on their sides for a long time already."

"Space Pirates?" asked Wolf, his interest piqued a bit.

"Space Pirates, menaces to the galaxy… Vile beings to know nothing about mercy and will not stop at anything to get what they want! They have slaughtered unspeakable numbers of innocent lives in their pursuit for power, but all those who came across me never lived to tell the tale!" said Samus, her temper increasing as she said that.

"Sounds like you really hate them…" commented Elegg.

"Because they caused the death my family and many people I know and love," replied Samus.

The others were shocked to hear this and also saddened, except for Wolf and Jackal. Wolf didn't look like he cared at all, while Jackal was still smiling like a clueless person.

"I'm sorry to hear that…" Diesel said to Samus in a sad tone. "It must be a very traumatizing for you to be reminded of such tragedy… I myself experienced the loss of someone dear to me too, so I understand how you feel..."

"It's all right… I put away my feelings long ago. I no longer fight for revenge, but the desire to protect everyone," Samus told her.

"I also experienced the loss of someone dear to me… My father…" said Fox, sounding sad. "It's because of this I became hardened with the resolve to fight for justice!"

"Your father was a fool, charging in without thinking clearly and therefore getting himself killed!" said Wolf without remorse. "If only he had been bright enough to see a traitor in his group, he never would have died!"

Even after hearing that, Fox didn't become angry but instead said, "Fool or not, his actions laid the foundation for future generations to take up his mantle and ultimately save the galaxy. His death was not in vain, and I will disappoint his spirit!"

Privaty turned to Wolf with a look of anger and said to him, "You have no shame, don't you? Mocking the death of people!"

"Like I said, I'm a villain, so that's just how I roll!" Wolf said to her.

Jackal finally spoke up. "I don't really understand anything that was said just now..."

Privaty stared at her and said, "You really are as dumb as they say, aren't you…?"

"I'm not dumb! I'm simply not very clever!" replied Jackal, sounding offended.

"How's that any different…?" said Privaty.

"So… what do we do now? We're on an alien planet, and something like this has never happened before…" said Diesel, sounding worried and nervous.

"Since this is my planet, I'll show you around," Fox told them. He then looked at the city up ahead. "First up, let's head over to Corneria City. I know that place like the back of my hand, so follow me!"

After the conversation was over, the group headed together towards Corneria City, the large advanced city before them. As they were closing in the place, Privaty asked Fox, "Is it all right for us to be carrying weapons around like this?"

"I'm sure it will be fine," Fox told her. "Corneria is known for having a strong military presence, and it's common to see soldiers wandering the place with weapons for security reasons, so I'm sure you lots having weapons with you can be easily passed off as similar people."

"Sounds quite like the Ark, where carrying weapons is considered a normal thing due to Nikke wandering around," said Diesel.

Elegg saw that some buildings had electric billboards on them, and then she smiled in a rather sinister way. Neon said to her, "You're going to install BOOM onto them, right? That would be hilarious!"

"Oh no, I'm not planning on doing that! It would be rude of me to do something like that in an alien world without permission…!" replied Elegg nervously, trying to look innocent.

"I know about that weird habit of yours. Don't do it!" Privaty said to Elegg.

Suddenly, Samus's power suit disappeared by turning into light particles. She was seen wearing a blue skintight bodysuit. The others looked at her in slight surprise, and Elegg asked, "Where'd your suit go?"

"Stored it away in case its appearance is too distracting for this place," Samus told everyone. "As for what happened to it, let's just say it's Chozo technology at work."

"Interesting! Judging by the light just now, I assume it has something to do with converting things into light particles," said Fox with interest.

"Oooh! That's very useful! With this tech, one can easily store and hide objects of any kind!" said Elegg with interest. "You've got to show us more of this tech!"

"When I feel like it," replied Samus.

The group continued on their way into the city. The Nikke took a good look around the place and were impressed to see advanced and towering skyscrapers all over the place. There were various vehicles, some running on wheels and some flying around in the air.

"Wow! This place is so awesome! I think it may be even more advanced than the Ark!" commented Neon in awe, and the other Nikke agreed.

The fox had a proud look on his face when he heard this and said, "That's Corneria City for you! It's the most advanced civilization in the Lylat System!"

"I'm more surprised to see that there is a bustling city up on the surface, and with a real sky!" said Privaty.

"We're not on our planet anymore, and not underground either," Elegg reminded her.

"True, but it's still very unreal…" said Privaty.

"True… Even if this is another planet, I am still having a hard time believing that I would be able to be in a bustling city on the surface that isn't under threat from anything," said Diesel. "Is this… what our surface world will be like when humanity finally wipes out Raptures and reclaim it?"

The folks looked around. There were anthropomorphic animals of various species walking around doing casual activities happily. There were also humans, but the sight of them made Fox surprised. "Huh…? Those are humans… The same species as you people, right?" he said curiously.

"We're Nikke," Neon reminded him.

"Well, I can confirm that they are indeed human like me," said Samus. "I thought you don't know what humans are because they don't exist in your galaxy?"

Fox nodded. "It's true… I've never seen or heard of humans until I met you people! Corneria shouldn't have humans! How come there are now?"

"Something must have happened while we were gone… I have an odd feeling about this…" observed Wolf.

Fox looked around the place and said, "And come to think of it… This place doesn't really look the same as before… I've been to this part of Corneria before, but the layout and placement of buildings… It looks different! Even a renovation shouldn't have resulted in such big changes!"

"You sure you're remembering your own home place correctly?" Neon asked him.

"Wait a minute… I need to check on something…" said Fox as he took out a phone. He contacted the name of a person called Falco and waited for a response, only to be told that the number he dialed didn't exist. "Strange… Falco shouldn't have changed his number…" He tried other names such as Slippy and Peppy, only to be told those numbers don't exist as well. "What… What is going on…?"

"I'm getting the same thing here," said Wolf, looking at his phone. "This damn thing is telling me the numbers of my team don't exist. What the hell?!"

"I'm not getting response from my friends too," said Neon, looking at her phone.

All the other Nikke said the same thing. They had tried to get in contact with people they know, but there were no responses. Jackal then said, "I'm bored… Is there anything fun to do and also anything to eat? And I wish Viper is here… Where'd she go?"

Wolf turned to her and asked, "What are you? A kid?"

Jackal turned to him with a smile and replied, "I'm a jackal!"

"She's cuckoo crazy," Neon told Wolf.

"And she used to be part of a terrorist group that made a huge mess out of the Ark," added Privaty, glaring at Jackal. "The leader was arrested, but Jackal and another member managed to escape. Can't believe that she ended up here with us…"

"Crow said there would be lots of fun things to do by destroying the Ark!" said Jackal happily.

"How can anyone ever find something like that fun…?" said Diesel in disbelief.

"Like I said, she's cuckoo crazy!" Neon told her.

"A wild card, huh? These kinds of people are usually the most unpredictable and also the most dangerous, because you'll never know when they're going to turn against you. I know a certain pig who can be compared to her!" said Wolf.

Elegg turned to Fox and asked him, "So… what are we going to do?"

"I still can't get in contact with my team… But I'm sure I can at least contact General Pepper," replied Fox. "He's the general of Corneria's military force, and we are in good terms. Let's go look for him."

Electricity was suddenly seen in the air, just outside of Corneria, from the direction where the group previously came from. A giant portal opened up in the air without a warning, and then a large amount of jets flew out of it. Everyone in Corneria City looked up in shock at the appearance of these jets that began flying all over the place.

"What… What are those?!" asked Privaty in shock.

"This doesn't look good, does it…?" asked a nervous Elegg, looking at both the jets and also the portal. "That portal screams an invasion of some kind…"

Fox's eyes widened in shock when he saw the design of those jets. "Those… Those are Venomian jets! Andross's army!"

"Andross is dead though, so this is probably Andrew's doing," Wolf reminded him.

The jets began firing laser beams all over the place, destroying buildings and causing destruction. Explosions happened all over the place, and debris rained down, while civilians screamed and ran for cover. Guards and soldiers patrolling the place immediately got busy, trying to help civilians flee and also fighting back against the enemies.

Fox and his group stood close to each other, looking around in shock and wondering what to do. "We have to help these people!" said Diesel, holding up her machine gun.

"Where do we even start?!" asked Elegg.

"Just shoot down those jets or something!" replied Privaty. She aimed her assault rifle at a random jet. This caught its pilot's attention, and the jet swooped down towards them while firing laser beams. Fox hurriedly jumped in front of Privaty, who was being aimed at, and held up a hexagon-shaped device that created a blue shield. The beams bounced back to the jet, setting it on fire and causing it to crash.

A monkey in a flight suit crawled out of the burning jet. He angrily glared at Fox and whipped out a laser gun at him, but before he could pull the trigger, Wolf took out a gun with a blade attached to its front end and shot him in the chest, killing him.

"Oooh! Does that mean I can beat up these people when I see them?" asked Jackal with interest after seeing that.

Elegg turned to Fox and asked him, "What was that you used just now? It's like a shield or something!"

"It's a reflector," replied Fox. "It's very handy for bouncing back enemy firepower. My teammate Slippy invented it after being inspired by barrel rolls our Arwings pull off for deflecting projectiles."

A broadcast went off, saying, "All units be prepared! It's has been confirmed that Corneria is under invasion by Andross's army! All civilians immediately evacuate!"

Another portal opened up close to the ground some distance away. The good guys turned their attention to it and got their weapons ready. Machines resembling spiders and crabs of various sizes came out of the portal, and the Nikke were shocked to see them.

"Raptures?!" gasped Privaty.

"Your world has Raptures as well?!" Neon asked Fox.

"No, this is the first time I'm seeing this!" replied an equally surprised Fox.

"Regardless of why they are here, let's destroy them now that they're here!" replied Elegg as she fired from her machine gun. She aimed and fired at the incoming Raptures, mostly aiming for their cores to destroy them almost instantly.

Noticing that they were under attack, the Raptures aimed their attacks at the group, causing them to scatter in various directions.

Samus got behind a car and readied her arm cannon before jumping out from above it to fire at the Raptures. She was able to take out most of them in just one hit, and when their projectiles were fired at her, she dodged them with swift movements while shooting back, destroying more and more of them.

Jackal was laughing maniacally as she fired from her rocket launcher at the Raptures. When projectiles were fired at her, she dodged them and then ran towards the Raptures who fired at her. Getting close to them, she used her rocket launcher like a baseball bat to smack them away one by one. She even jumped onto the back of a Rapture and bit the top part of its head. Her razor sharp teeth was able to break through its metal exterior and bite off a chunk of it.

Fox hid behind a car and looked up from it to fire from his laser gun at Raptures attacking him. However, his gun's firepower wasn't strong and failed to do anything to the Raptures, even when he shot their cores. The car he was hiding behind of suddenly burst into flames, blowing him away.

He fell to the pavement and got up while groaning in pain. Looking back, he saw Raptures approaching him, and just as one of them was going to shoot him, Wolf appeared in a flash and thrust the blade at the tip of his gun into the core of that Rapture before opening fire, hitting it at point blank and destroying it.

The other Raptures turned to him and fired, but a red force field appeared around Wolf's body, bouncing the shots back to their owners and stunning them. Wolf fired at the Raptures multiple times afterwards, damaging them and buying himself time to help Fox up. "Don't misunderstand this! If you have to die, it has to be by my hands! I will be disappointed if you die to something as insignificant as this!" Wolf said to him.

Fox smiled and said, "Right, I know you too well!"

The Nikke and Samus continued to shoot the Raptures, and as the number of the latter was slowly dwindling, Privaty asked, "Isn't there a leader around here?"

Samus heard this and said curiously, "Leader?"

"Yes, Raptures always come in groups, and each group is led by a leader that also serves as their power source," explained Privaty. "If the leader dies, the group it commands stops functioning completely. Raptures are hive minded entities."

"Then I doubt something as important as a leader would show itself so easily," said Samus. "It probably is hiding somewhere."

Shadows went over the good guys' heads, and when they looked up, they could see jets flying around, shooting at the Venomian jets. "It's the Cornerian air force!" pointed out Fox.

One of the Cornerian jets was taking out quite a number of Venomian jets by itself with ease, so much that its pilot cheered and boasted about his skill. However, a fireball struck his jet from the side, destroying it and killing him instantly.

The other Cornerian pilots looked and were shocked to see a purple winged creature resembling a cross between a dragon and a pterodactyl flying around. The winged creature flew around the sky, shooting fireballs from his mouth at the Cornerian jets and taking them out one by one. Those that managed to escape the fireballs were destroyed when the creature charged straight through them.

Neon was shock and in awe when she saw the winged creature. "Is that a dragon?!"

Samus, however, had her eyes widened in shock at the sight of this newcomer. "Ridley?!"

TO BE CONTINUED

As you can see, the Star Fox world has elements from the Metroid series. This is something that you will sometimes see in this story: several series merged into a single world. This is to make up for the fact that not every series will have its own story arc, but by merging them into a single world where their histories cross paths, I will be able to represent more series than just the number of worlds I have planned in mind.

I came up with the idea of Samus having Adam being in her power suit. Since her suit can scan for information, it must have a CPU of some kind, and an A.I. like Adam should probably be able to put himself into her power suit and communicate with her at all times. As for Samus' power suit disappearing, she did something like this in a cutscene in Zero Mission, so I figured it's a normal function it has.

With this in mind, please look forward to more "merged worlds" in the future!