Thanks to Big Bosskman 92 , Exewon, and Wendigo for ideas for this story

Corneria, AeroSpace Dynamics HQ, Corneria City

It was just another average day for the McCould family.
Fox was dressed in his formal attire for his meeting with the current head of the company, Fara Phoenix; his old flame and former member of Star Fox.
Fox had been in talks with Fara, with input from Slippy, about kick-starting a new research initiative into improving the company's aircraft. Modeled after Star Fox's trademark Arwing, of course.
It was not just himself on the trip, as his family accompanied him; his wife, Krystal, was wearing her blue dress. On her hip, she held their two-year-old son Marcus, who was wearing a simple blue shirt and grey pants. In Krystal's other arm was their son's supply bag.
"How long do you think this will take, Fox? Marcus is getting restless." Krystal noted, looking down at her squirming child in her arms.
The vulpine shrugged. "Ten minutes, to a half hour tops. Probably," he shrugged.
"Do they at least have some kind of playroom we could take him to?" Krystal inquired, weary as her son picked at her ears.
Fox shrugged. "Well, there was, but Fara had said it was 'out of order' earlier on the phone call. Something about needing more durable windows and play mats. Not sure what that means."
The tired blue vixen hung her head low in exhaustion as her son continued to poke at her.
The family continued their walk through the office building's lavish hallways, composed of fancy pearl-white steel walls and red carpet. Some attendants directed them further along until they made it to their destination: Fara Phoenix's office.
The vulpine family walked into the office, which was located on the fourth floor of the building.
Inside, Fox took note of the surroundings: the north office window had a lovely view of the it city. Around the periphery of the room were display cases full of various spacecraft models, including those used by the Corneria Defense Force ànd Star Fox.
In the center of the room was a desk, full of papers, personal photos, and a computer on top. Seated at the desk was, of course, Fara, a lighter colored fennec vixen in a business white dress and pants. She looked up from her computer when the McCloud family entered the room and smiled.
"Aw, Fox, Krystal. It's good to see you ."
Fara walked over and shook their hands, cooing at Marcus. "And how is the little one doing?"
Krystal sighed and sat the rambunctious kit down, holding his hand. "Oh, he's fine. Has too much energy, though." The Cerinian fox noted, keeping an iron grip on her son.
Fara chuckled. "Well, he can always play in here, once we get down to business, " she noted, during the closed door. "Sorry, the day care is still closed for improvements; too many escapees due to faulty doors it turned out."
The weary parents smiled sheepishly at that. That's when an idea crossed Fara's mind.
"Oh, but why don't I take him off your hands a moment? You look like you could use a break." She offered.
"He didn't sleep through the night and squirmed most of the way up the steps. That would be nice." Fox noted, before getting elbowed by Krystal. "Which is to say, yes please," he corrected himself.
Fara chuckled and reached out for Marcus, who was picked up by his mother and handed off to Fara. Placing him on her hip, the fennec fox smiled at him.
"Oh, look at you, so adorable. Like a little blueberry. " Fara joked, eliciting a giggle out of the child."
"Yeah!" Marcus said. His parents smiled at him as they both took a seat.
Fara carried the fox kit over to the display case, in which smaller models of a variety of ships were on display.
The Cornerian Aircraft Carrier, The CDF Bottlenose fighters from the Lylat Wars, the previous models of the Arwing, and even a Wolfen.
"And you see these, my little blue friend, are some of our finest ships. Your mommy and daddy even flew in this one." Fara told Marcus, gesturing towards the Arwing as the little fox looked on in awe. "I was actually a part of that team once too. "She told him.
She went on to show Marcus some more of the aircraft on display, telling the curious little kit more about the various aircraft models on display. All the while, his parents rested a bit and regrouped themselves mentally for the meeting.
Unbeknownst to either Fara or the McCloud family, the little blue kit had only gotten more inquisitive….


After another ten minutes or so, Fara's little tour of her office was done, and she saw Fox and Krystal had regrouped themselves enough to start talking.
She walked back over and approached the pair, who were standing up.
"Thank you for doing that, Fara." Krystal said, as she was handed back her son and set him down on the ground. This time, taking his hand again.
Fara smiled. "It's not a problem, I enjoy it actually. Reminds me of when I bring my kids to the office. Now then, if all's good, let's get down to business.
Fox nodded. "Sure, I believe we're ready.
Fara nodded and signaled the couple over to her desk to show them a few schematics. "Alright, so here we have the designs for the latest generation of Arwing-inspired flight craft." She began, telling the adult McClouds all about the program.
While his parents, looked over the files, Marcus begun to get bored, which his mother noted.
"Uh, Fara, Marcus still seems a bit bored," Krystal noted.
Fara stopped and looked up from her schematic on her computer screen. " He can play around in here for a bit if he wants. The door is closed, so he should be fine."
Krystal thanked her for that and looked to her son. "Okay sweetie, mommy and daddy need just one minute. Why not play a second?" she insisted to him. .
Marcus smiled as his mother loosened the grip from his distracted mother's hand while this happened and started walking over the models on display, wishing he could play with them.
The kit began spinning around and otherwise running to burn his pent-up energy. This went on for just a few minutes. He was about to return to his parents when something diverted his attention from them.
The door opening to the room, courtesy of a hound dog employee in a dress material bringing more papers and coffee to Fara's desk, caught Marcus' eye. The adults started looking over at the employee, rather than the kit.
Too young to know any better and awed at the prospect of adventure, the toddler slipped out the door before anyone could notice, thanks to their focus being diverted away from the door.


The group was just finishing looking over the computer when Krystal thought to glance around the room to check on her son.
Only to find he was not there...
"Uh, where is Marcus?" Krystal asked, worried.
Fox looked panicked. "Uh, I thought you were watching him."
Everyone in the room was overcome with a feeling of dread. They all immediately started searching across the room, before their eyes landed on the still-opened door.
Fara glared.
"I should have told that interim to keep the door shut… that coffee was good though. "
Catching unamused looks from the parents, Fara refocused on the task. "Rights, well, he could not have gotten far." She tried, heading for the door.
The blue vixen exclaimed, practically dashing out the door. "Can't believe we were so neglectful."
"Oh lord, I hope he doesn't get hurt," Fox added as he followed in behind Krystal.
Fara reached into her right sleeve and rolled them up to access her communicator.
"Don't worry, I'll notify the staff to search for him, but let's go. He'll be down the hall most likely."


Meanwhile

The mischievous fox kit had already made it quite far into the facility; he had wandered well past the hallways leading to Fara's office. The toddler was endlessly curious about his new environment; so many rooms to explore and play in! The tour with Fara had gotten his curiosity up, and the prospect of adventuring was always enticing to the kit; and this was the best outlook his little mind could come up with.
Stopping for a second, the kit noticed a door cracked open to his left. Curiosity got the better of him, and he entered the room.
The room was an office but had various electronics around, including monitors and computers situated on desks set in the center. On the northern wall was a large window that overlooked the outside. In the east of the room, behind a glass wall with a door to its side, was a whole bunch of wires and cables hooked up to a central processor.
Of note to the child from the view window, visible was a larger aircraft maintenance facility, where various people were working on things from aircraft, to different types of parts for them. Marcus had ended up in the back of the office building, which connected to their aircraft facilities, albeit not from the fourth floor. Not too interested in this, Marcus saw the nearest chair and managed to climb on top of it. Spinning around, he saw the computer nearest to the chair was open to some sort of program demonstrating complex calculations and the diagram of an Arwing-like fighter, albeit a bit narrow and with four sets of wings compared to Star Fox's dual-winged model.
Marcus was so intrigued by the diagram he failed to notice a grey wolf woman, wearing glasses, a white buttoned shirt and black skirt, walking into the room, glancing at an eye pad. She has a cup of coffee in one of her hands.
"Okay, I'm almost there, you can do it, Amara. It's been six hours of complex math equations and simulations. You've had your break, your battery is recharged. Just got to type a few more things and you can give it to Mrs. Phoenix and get that promotion," she seemed to talk to herself, almost as if trying to boost her morale. She had bags under her eyes and sounded exhausted.
Naturally, to her dismay, when she looked up from her pad, she gasped in surprise when she saw the toddler sitting on her chair.
"What the? A kit?" she muttered. Marcus smiled up at her innocently, as the flustered wolf tried to think. "How just leave their child unattended like that? How did he get here?" she added, before noticing the kit looking up at her curiously. The wolfess decided she would have to put those questions on hold.
"Um, hi there, little one. Whatcha doing here alone? Is your momma nearby?" she asked, in a calm, friendly tone. She approached the toddler slowly and made herself look as un-intimidating as possible…
But not fast enough to stop Marcus from messing with her computer. Marcus started playing around on the keyboard, to which the flustered woman attempted to stop. She rushed over, muttering "no" to herself repeatedly.
She scooped up the toddler and contained him in one arm, while looking over the damage to her projects. Amara's heart rate shot up as she realized her precise calculations had been thrown out of whack. She was about a half second from wailing in agony…
Until she noticed the child had hit "save" about half a dozen times prior. And then she recalled she backed up her work to the cloud and a hard drive before getting coffee…
"Oh, thank goodness." The wolf muttered. Marcus was quick to remind her of his presence as he started playing with her ears. The amused wolf smiled at him.
"Cheeky little thing, aren't we?" She said, playfully poking at his jest, eliciting a laugh out of the toddler. "Well, best try to find your parents."
She got up and headed over to the nearby intercom, situated next to a desk.
As the adult wolf attempted to get the intercom working, the child started fidgeting a lot, much to her frustration.
The intercom rang, and she punched in the number for Fara Phoenix.
As his fidgeting got worse, she sat the child down in a nearby chair, hoping like mad her boss would pick up.


Further down the hall

Krystal and Fox were searching frantically through yet another office for their toddler; it was the fourth room they searched as a matter of fact. They had searched under desks, in drawers, on top of things; practically everywhere they could.
The blue vixen's ears dropped as she finished checking under a table. "Marcus, sweetie, where are you?" The panicked mother pondered out loud.
Her husband nearby just shit another drawer, in frustration.
"Um, Marcus, where did you go?" Fox muttered.
Fear and anxiety were running amok through both the McClouds. Krystal did not have to even use her telepathy to know Fox was feeling the same worry and guilt she did; guilt over not supervising their son better.
Krystal did her best to power through it as she walked over to Fox.
She knew they were doing what they could. Krystal could sense Marcus somewhere nearby still, but could not exactly pinpoint him with her telepathy; the child's mind was too all over the place and unfocused. Fara had contacted the building's security team and ordered them to sweep the whole fourth floor, while Fara herself was searching through other nearby offices
But it was of little comfort to Krystal; she needed to find her son.
The vixen was broken from her pondering when Fox put his hand on her shoulder.
"No sign of him?" He asked. Krystal shook her head.
"I can't believe how neglectful I was; I should have been watching him." She insisted.
Fox sighed. "We both share the blame, not just you. I should have paid more attention too."
"You were busy with the negotiations." She reminded him.
Fox shrugged. "Still no excuse." He insisted.
Krysral could sense his thoughts; he felt like a failure of a parent sane as her.
The truth was that both of them were just winging it this far. Neither was good with kids; Krystal had gotten pregnant unexpectedly over two years ago. Neither was prepared for the endless needs of a child and the responsibilities of being a parent…
"Maybe he's elsewhere?" Fox suggested. "I know it's hard, but we can't give up. We still need to find our son; we can feel bad later. It won't help us," he insisted.
Krystal nodded
Before they could move, Fara burst into the room.
"Good news, we found him; one of the workers has him in the server room office," Fara said, holding out her arm and showing them her wrist-mounted communicator.
"Mr and Mrs McCloud? " a female voice came.
Krystal enthusiastically chimed in. "You found our son?! Thank you! Is he okay?"
Amara chuckled a bit. "Oh yes, he's fine. I never would have thought I'd help find the child of the legendary Fox McCloud." She noted.
Fox blushed. "Well, you have our undying thanks; is he safe? Any injuries or trouble?"
"He's okay, no harm. He played on my computer, but I backed up the work. He's here on a chair-wait!"
Everyone in the room felt a blanket of worry wash over them at that.
"Mrs Phoenix, he left the chair while I wasn't looking; he's going for the main server breaker! Oh goodness, why did into hold him?" She called.
Fara started sweating nervously. "Just try to wrangle him, we're on our way," Fara told her, hanging up.
"Come on, I know where they are," Fara stated, bolting out of the room followed by Fox and Krystal.


They were down the hall in about a minute. Bursting into the office, the group of foxes saw Marcus attempting to work with the router behind a wall of glass. They noticed the panicking wolf attempting to pry the door open. A quick glance to the side of the wall and Fox noted a panel in the wall that had fallen out of place. Just big enough for Marcus to crawl through.
"Oh, lord.." Fara muttered as she saw the child playing with the wires.
The frantic wolf attempted to talk to her boss. "Mrs Phoenix, I am so sorry, I-"
"Just forget the apology. It's okay." Fara responded, reaching into her coat and pulling out a bunch of keys, heading to the door. "Okay, let's see here, which one we it…" she muttered, flipping through keys.
Marcus's parents stuck their faces in the glass. Relieved, of course, to see their son was okay but worried at what might come next…
"Marcus, sweetie, don't touch that wire- "Krystal tried.
Too late, as Marcus yanked a wire out of the router.
"And there goes the Wi-Fi," Fara muttered, still flipping through her keys. "At least he hasn't…"
And then Marcus yanked another yellow wire.
"And there goes the internal server," Fara grumbled. Her search for the keys grew more frantic.
Then another wire was pulled out. Fox and Krystal just watched in utter disbelief.
"And our cloud backup server…" Fara muttered. "Might as well take out the lights/"
Then the whole facility went dark for a few seconds. Fara growled.
"Yeah, sure, why not? Hold on…" she started typing something into her wrist device. "Really hope nothing too severe happened…" she muttered. After a few seconds, the lights flickered back on, albeit a bit more dimly. "There, backup generators worked like charm. Why did I even hook up our lights to the WiFi router?" Fara mumbled.
Finally, she found her key and opened the door, scooping up the toddler and handing him to his mother. Krystal hugged her child tightly, and Fox joined the embrace. There was no hint of anger or frustration between the pair, only relief.
Meanwhile, Fara started plugging stuff back into the router, a half-amused, half-frustrated look on her face.. After that was done, she walked out of the router room, locked the door, and addressed her employee.
"Good job finding the kid and keeping him contained in this room; better this than him runnin' off." She insisted. "Our data has numerous reset points saved every minute, we'll be fine. The Wi-Fi will and server will reset in a few minutes; meet me in my office later once you are done with your calculations." Fara noted.
"Yes, ma'am," Amara replied as she grabbed her laptop.
Fara looked at Fox and Krystal.
"I am gonna assess the damages, make sure nothing really bad happened. Meet me in my office in a free minute. Oh, and note to self: I gotta go submit a request to maintenance to get that panel fixed," she added.
She walked out soon after, while the wolf looked at the McClouds.
"It's a pleasure to meet you both, but I have to go finish my work. I think I will be getting more coffee first…" she noted.
"Of course. Thanks for finding our son, Miss…?"
"Amara Wolven." She said, shaking Fox then Krystal's hands.
Both thanked her again, and she departed the room, leaving the McClouds alone. The two parents breathed a shared sigh of relief. And looked to their son.
"Quite the little adventurer it seems." Krystal joked, setting her son down on the ground but holding his hand firmly.
Fox chuckled. "I think he gets it from you." He jested, patting his son on the head.
Both adults felt immense relief at finding their son again, Krystal could tell. If he were older, they would be lecturing him, but he was a bit too young to fully understand, so they opted to take it in stride.
"Well, now that that's over with, at least things can get any worse, right?" Krystal joked
Just then, Fox and Krystal heard an all too familiar grunting sound. Only two late did they look down and notice why that was; their son had a concentrated look on his face. After he was done, he looked back up at his parents innocently.
Krystal's ears drooped, as well as Fox's. Krystal set out to get the spare diapers and changing mat from the bag. After a day of chaos, she should not have been surprised.
"What else is new?" The vixen thought, as she laid her son out on a table after setting down the mat. Taking a deep breath, she and Fox prepared for their least favorite parenting task…


Half an hour later in Fara's office
After Marcus had been changed, the McClouds returned to Fara's office. Marcus sat on his mother's lap, sucking on a pacifier and playing with some keys while his parents were seated in front of Fara's desk again. Fara had been filling out something on the computer.
"Alright, and we should be just about…done," Fara noted, as she apparently finished her task on the computer. She turned on the monitor for Fox and his wife to see.
On it were the finalized terms and conditions for the Arwing research program on a written doc, waiting for Fox's approval. After looking over the terms and conditions, Fox signed off on it electronically.
"And presto, the project can begin. I'll handle the rest from here." Fara noted, her serious "business demeanor" fading into a sly and mischievous smirk. "Now then, about your little one here…"
Fox and Krystal both blushed in embarrassment as the vixen spoke.
"Well, he nearly did a number on the building; throughout our servers, our wifi, our lights. Caused a few of the engineers to lose a couple hours of work and jacked with some of our business presentation and tours to certain members of staff and clients, " she noted, sarcastically.
"We really blundered today…" Fox muttered. "It's my fault, I should have supervised him better."
"I share the blame too, I should not have looked away from him." Krystal chimed in. "We'll cover any damages that happened during the lights going out."
Fara shook her head and laughed. "Oh, take it easy, I am just yanking your chain. Little kids wander off all the time. This is a normal thing; it happens to everyone at some point. Don't beat yourselves up, just learn from it. We'll get the server ànd everything back online in no time, plus I have hard copies of all our vital data backed up to interns' hard drives ànd the like. It's just a minor set back" she insisted. Shifting subjects, she looked at the toddler.
"You're all good to go, but before you do, I've got a surprise for little blue berry." Fara chuckled, to the McCloud's confusion. Fara reached under her desk and brought out a small box, like a leftover from some office supplies. She set it on he table.
"Open it," she implored them.
Fox reached over and opened the box. Inside, she found a toy Arwing model and a note. He pulled them out and showed them to Krystal, both foxes looking at Fara's confusion.
Fara smirked. It's a gift for Marcus. Go on, read the note," she insisted.
Fox held it up and did so. It read: "To Marcus McCloud: You have proven your skills at infiltration and espionage. Consider this in invitations to work for Aerospace Dynamics, after turning 18."
Both parents looked up at her, half amused.
"Really?" Fox jested.
Fara smirked. "I mean, for someone still in diapers, he knows his espionage tactics. If he knocked out the server and data on one of our rivals, Aerospace would have a huge head start on whatever competition is going on."
The three adults shared a good-natured laugh.
"I kid, kid. Just gotta give Fox a hard time. I'd never do such corrupt actions." She assures them.
Krystal could sense Fox knew her well enough to trust her and appreciate her humor; the fact that Krystal could sense the sincerity in her mind made the blue vixen do the same.
Fara gestured toward the toy. "In all seriousness, I wanted him to have this. Don't worry, it's foam and we rounded out the pointy ends, but true to the real thing otherwise."
Fox picked up ànd inspected it. True to her word, there was not a single pointy end for Marcus to poke himself on, vastly unlike the real model. Content that it was safe, Fox gave it to his son, who enthusiastically started playing with it.
Both of his parents smiled at their child, and looked to Fara. "Thank you." Both of the adult foxes stated.
Fara smiled warmly at them. "No problem; now the meetings have adjourned. Thanks for visiting and approving the Arwing program by the way. It was a pleasure doing business with you," she said, shaking Fox's hand.
Fara wished them a good day and luck with their son, while Fox and Krystal got up and wished her a good day as well. With that, the McClouds began making their way out of the building.
Within minutes, they were in the main lobby.
Krystal and Fox took a second to catch their breaths; since becoming parents, incidents like this were a bit more common than intended. Marcus had proven to be an inquisitive little kit, always trying to wander off and get into trouble. It was exhausting to the pair, and they didn't know how they kept their head on straight at times.
But when they looked to their son, in his mother's arms, playing with the new toy Fara gave him, Fox and Krystal could not help but smile.
Fox wrapped his arm around Krystal and brought her in for a kiss, which she reciprocated.
"It was a crazy day… but he's more than worth it." Krystal insisted, looking fondly at her son.
"Couldn't agree more," Fox added.
Taking his wife by her free hand, Fox and Krystal finally left the building, glad everything worked out and more than anything, that their son was here with them.