IX
Aboard the Great Fox
The Great Fox was a mid-grade aircraft carrier that transported the fighter ships of Team Star Fox. On the command deck, Fox McCloud gestured for Mario and Toad to take a seat along the edge of the large bay window that looked out on the starlit sky. Slippy, Star Fox's medic, escorted Luigi and Daisy to the med bay.
"Long way from the Citadel, Toad," said Fox. He stretched out his back before taking the captain's chair.
"Yep," said Toad, curtly. He took his backpack off and placed it at his feet. He kept his eyes on the bag, refusing to look at his rescuers.
"Care to tell us what you were doing out here?" asked Fox.
"Nope," was Toad's reply.
Toad's flippancy infuriated Falco, particularly since the two shared bad blood from years earlier. "We risked our necks coming out here for you and that's all you've got to say?"
"Thank you, Falco," said Fox with a wave of his paw in an effort to diffuse the situation. He worried about Falco's temper, which had the tendency to spiral without warning. Coupled with Toad's stubbornness, the conversation could quickly go nuclear. "My plucky lieutenant is right, Toad. We did you a solid. Now, I'd like to know why." He kept his tone even and considered in an attempt to coax a genuine response from the scoundrel.
"Can't."
McCloud drew in a deep breath and let it out in a long sigh. "And why can't you?" he said, feeling his jaw clench reflexively.
"Confidential business," replied Toad and it was then that he lifted his eyes to meet Fox's. "You know who I work for."
The med bay was small but fully featured with medical equipment, monitors, and three cots, one of which was now occupied by Daisy and Luigi. Slippy wore a lab coat that was once white but now a sweat-stained yellow. He cradled Daisy's dislocated arm in one hand and the other hand braced her shoulder.
"Just so ya know," he said, "this is gonna hurt mighty bad."
Daisy met Luigi's eyes and they held each other's gaze for a moment. She dropped her head to his shoulder and he squeezed her other hand. Without a second's hesitation, Slippy jerked the arm forward and up and it snapped back into the socket with a loud pop! She screamed and tears spurted from her eyes as if forced from their glands by the pain.
"Yup," said Slippy, cracking his knuckles. "It's gonna be awful sore for a few days. Let it rest, that's what you'll wanna do."
"Thanks, Slippy," said Daisy, rubbing her shoulder that was now flushed and hot. She saw the worry on Luigi's face and gave him a small smile to reassure him that she was okay. He let the tension out in a deep sigh. Daisy was his life, the only woman he had ever been with and he counted himself lucky to have her. The thought of something happening to her made his blood run cold.
"As for you," said the doctor to Luigi, "we don't have the equipment on the ship for a prosthetic. You'll have to make do for now until we get back to the citadel."
Back on the command deck, the conversation had died and the four sat in an uncomfortable silence when Peppy charged in. Peppy was the old hare who served as Fox's mentor and who absolutely refused to retire even though his better years were far behind him.
"We got a bogey on our tail," said the hare, pulling at his floppy ears.
Fox caught the vision of a Wolfen speeding past the bay window, its unmistakable fuchsia colored canopy glinting in the starlight. "Star Wolf," he said gravely.
"I knew it," said Falco, jumping to his feet. "We never should've come for your polka-dot ass." He jabbed a finger into Toad's mushroom head, which sprang back like Jello. Toad, for his part, only narrowed his eyes at the slight.
Fox grabbed Falco's hand and pulled it back. "Save it, Falco. Battle stations, now!"
They moved like a reflex. Like a well-trained muscle. Fox manned the command station. Falco pulled himself into the gunnery seat and Peppy operated the scanning station, which was as much as he was able to keep track of at his age. Moments later, Slippy, Daisy and Luigi entered the command deck through the large hydraulic door at the top of the higher platform that constituted the command station, which looked out onto the lower bridge.
"Sorry I'm late," said Slippy.
"Welcome aboard, Major Slippy," said Fox, not taking his eyes off the foredeck. Without another word, Slippy assumed his station at the thrusters and kicked the Great Fox into high speed. Two of the Wolfen starfighters flanked the aircraft carrier, with a third at the rear. The ships were operated by the renegade pirates of Team Star Wolf: Leon Powalski, Pigma, and Wolf O'Donnell.
"The hunt is on, boys!" said Wolf, and howled excitedly.
"Let's see how they handle our new ships," said Leon, the assassin, licking his scaly lips with his lizard tongue.
"Too bad Fox's dad isn't here to see him die," said Pigma, chuckling through the phlegm of his sinus infection. His hygiene was poor and he took even worse care of himself, which made him prone to sickness.
"Let's make this quick and clean. Trap em and scrap em," said Wolf and he spun his starfighter into a barrel roll releasing a volley of blaster fire. The shots collided with the rear shields.
On the Great Fox, the command deck shook violently from the impact. Warning alarms sounded and emergency lights turned the interior a deep and bloody red. Luigi and Daisy held each other for support and dropped to the floor to avoid being thrown from their feet.
"They're locked on to us!" shouted Peppy over the blaring alarms.
"Oh, come on," Fox growled. He tapped furiously on his command console to redirect the shields to the ship's rear.
"This really isn't my day," moaned Toad and he put his head between his knees.
"They've fired another volley," roared Peppy.
"What do I do?" hollered Slippy from the thruster station.
"Do a barrel roll!" said Peppy enthusiastically.
"No!" said Fox and Falco in unison.
"This is a class B aircraft carrier, you addled old fool," chirped Falco. "It would shear in half."
"Cluster Bombs, Mr. Lombardi," barked Fox.
"Yessir." With fast feathers, he released a barrage of cluster bombs, each one no bigger than a ping pong ball that exploded, the shrapnel catching the homing missiles and stopping them before reaching their mark.
Fox smiled at Falco, who threw him a salute in return. "You may return fire," said Fox. Falco redirected the T -H9 hyper laser cannons to one of the flanking ships. He pressed the big red button on the console and landed a direct hit on Leon's ship. The Wolfen starfighter spun out and rolled from the impact like a spinning top. It rolled towards and under the Great Fox and smashed directly into Pigma's starfighter. The two ships exploded in a ball of fire that lit up the sky before being swallowed back into the blackness of space.
The comms link flashed and Fox patched Wolf through, whose ears were blistered red with fury. "My team!" he howled. "You'll pay for this, Star Fox."
Fox smirked and gave his enemy a small mocking salute and shut down the console. "Nice shooting, Falco. Mr. Slippy, take us home."