Star Fox: Darkness Rising (COMPLETED)

[Kursed]

keep it coming,.

[Guest Julius Quasar]

LOVE IT! :yes:

[rainfyre66]

Chapter 11

“Bowman, wait! Think about this for a minute!” Peppy said desperately.

Bowman shook his head. “Good luck, General Hare.” He saluted and signed off.

“Darn it, Dash!” Peppy shouted at the blank screen, even though it was no use. He angrily picked up his comm. link to get a hold of Fox. “Fox, do you copy?”

“Affirmative, General Hare.”

“I don’t understand what the heck has been going on, but now Colonel Grey, Lucy, and Bowman are all headed for Beljar, and you sent Falco into what’s probably a trap! What were you thinking, Fox?”

“Kursed was in trouble…”

“Dang it Fox! That was no reason to go and endanger the mission! Now you’ve put the lives of everybody else on the line, including my daughter’s! Kursed is an important link, but you shouldn’t have just abandoned everyone at Kale! We could have set up a plan instead walking right into a trap.”

“Look, I’m sorry, alright…” Fox started to say, but Peppy wasn’t done.

“Your father would have never done anything so stupid or selfish! I defended you these past years that everyone was telling me you’d gone off the deep end and ran your team into the ground, because I thought you were still capable of being a good leader. You had to prove me wrong, didn’t you Fox?”

Fox didn’t say anything for a minute, and just as Peppy was wondering if he shut off his comm. link on him, he said, “You’re right Peppy. I’ll make it up to you. To everyone. If I could turn around and go back to Kale or go after Falco, I would, but I have no ship.”

Peppy sighed. “Back up should be to Kale by now, and Bill and Lucy are on their way as well.”

“And Bowman?”

“He thinks he can find Professor Andorf, that is why he is heading to Beljar. He thinks you’re right, Fox, that it’s another descendent of Andross. I don’t have time to get into it right now. We have to get a hold of Falco and stop him…”

*

Katt was struggling to keep her ship steady. It was suffering some damage, but no way could she retire to the Falcon. They were all struggling. It was getting harder to stay focused on telling the bad guys from the natives in ground combat, and to keep the natives from suffering any casualties. She dodged out of the way from a strange, bat-like bird that was shooting lasers from its mechanical beak. “Scout, can you back up the group by the lake?” she called, backing up a group of her own.

“I’m on it,” he said wearily.

“It’s never-ending,” groaned Miyu, firing her laser relentlessly.

“Don’t give up, I can see the CDF now!” Faye cried as a fleet of ships came into view.

“Argh! It’s on me! I can’t shake it off!” One of the flying mecha-creatures had hooked its talons on Hawkeye’s wing and was pecking fiercely at his ship, damaging the exterior to get at its inner workings.

“I’m coming for you, hon!” Katt turned her ship to aim at the offensive bird, but it was blasted away by someone else’s fire.

“I’ve got you covered, Katt!” She heard another female voice say, but it didn’t sound like Faye or Miyu. She got a new flash of hope for the team.

“Lucy! Is that really you?”

“Yes, Bill and I are here to help you guys since Fox and Falco left.”

“Thanks, darling! And remind me to kill those two if we survive this.”

*

Kursed listened carefully and heard Wolf’s footsteps approaching the storage compartment. When she thought his hand was on the latch, she kicked the top of the lid as hard as she could, flinging it open and knocking Wolf from the top of his ship. She hopped up, her legs were wobbly from being cramped up, but it never felt so good to stand and breathe in the cool air. She looked down at Wolf.

“You little b— ” the last word of his sentence was muffled as he put his hands up to his muzzle to wipe his bloody nose. Panther and Jackal hopped up onto the Wolfen to grab her. She knocked Jackal away, but Panther was stronger and stood his ground. He wrapped his arms around her but she kicked and thrashed. She bit into his hand as hard as she could. He let out a yelp of pain and dropped her. She rolled out of the way and slowly stood up, then tried to back away with as much dignity as she could muster with her hands and legs still securely bound.

“You can’t go very far like that,” Leon pointed out. It was an unnecessary comment, thought Kursed, but she couldn’t exactly argue with him. Not yet, that is. She glared at Jackal.

“Hey new guy, you’re going to have to be tougher than that if you want to survive,” she said coldly. He growled and lunged at her, but Wolf held him back.

“Jackal! Trust me, I want to rip her to shreds right now as much as you do, but if we want our reward, she has to be in tact!”

Kursed casually looked around to try and figure out where she was, and to see if there was anything lying around that she could use as a weapon or to cut her ties at least. All she could tell was that she appeared to be in an ordinary hangar bay. Not much help at all. She looked back at them. “So, Star Wolf, it’s all about the money again is it?”

“Who do you think you’re kidding Kursed? It’s always been about the money. Pigma offers far more than that old fool Peppy Hare ever did.”

“But you’ll just be the public enemy again, you know. You’re traitors, they’ll be sure to put a huge bounty on all of your heads,” she bared her teeth, “and I’ll be sure to the one who gets it.”

Wolf smirked, blood from his nose still smeared into his fur. “I don’t think so, Cookie. We were tired of being Corneria’s go-to guys anyway. Besides, if Pigma has his way, Lylat will be in his control soon.”

“No!” Kursed shouted, swinging her bound fists at Wolf. She made a direct hit to his bionic eye.

“Stupid move!” hissed Leon, pouncing her. He pulled out his blaster and pointed it at her face. She swung again, knocking it out his hand. The blaster went off as it bounced along the ground, narrowly missing Jackal.

“That’s it!” Jackal shouted, diving at her and pinning her arms over her head, painfully twisting them. She yelled and bucked her knees, striking Leon right where it hurt.

“You can’t hurt me, remember? ‘I’m supposed to be undamaged’!” she said mockingly.

“I don’t care anymore. I think I’ll just get more pleasure if I just kill you now,” Leon croaked. Panther came and stood over her, his blaster drawn. “That’s enough out of you,” he said. “This is set for stun, but how about you make it easier  on yourself and stop putting up a fight?”

“Over my dead body!”

At the word “body”, Panther instinctively looked her up and down. “You are still beautiful, as always,” he couldn’t help saying.

“Oh godda—knock it off, Panther!” snarled Wolf, his hand still over his eye. He stumbled over to Kursed, a small vial in his hand. He shoved it under her nose before she could react. She was out cold in a matter of seconds. Wolf looked at his team mates- one whose hand was bleeding, one was limping, one was still doubled over on the ground, and he himself had damage to his eye, everything looked scrambled out of it. He had to admit, he was impressed with her skill. It was a damn shame she hadn’t stayed with Star Wolf. “Alright boys, pull it together!” he snapped. “Let’s get a move on.”

Panther nudged Kursed gently with his boot. “She put up a good fight, didn’t she?”

“I told you to cut the crap, Panther. She’s not worth your feelings. Let’s get her to the holding cell while she sleeps it off.”

*

Fox had spent what felt like hours trying to contact Falco and trying to figure out what the heck Star Wolf had done to Kursed’s ship. If he could just get it working again…

“Fox! We did it! We’re coming for you now!” Katt called over the comm. link. He was flooded with relief, but he also felt guilty. They had really suffered during that mission because of him, and might have lost one of their leaders because of him.

With a purr, the engine of Kursed’s ship came to life. At least one thing was starting to go right for him. He was doing a systems check as the Falcon and two other ships flew in. He squinted and recognized the other two ships as Bill’s and Lucy’s.

“Slip, pull the Falcon up to the landing deck. I’m going to load my ship, and then Kursed’s ship. I can use hers while mine is being fixed.”

“Um…and she doesn’t mind?” Miyu asked. Somehow Kursed had not given Miyu the impression that she would be so generous with her ship.

“Star Wolf has her. Let me load my ships and I’ll explain everything.”

“Aren’t you glad we took the Falcon instead of the Great Fox? It can hold all of our ships,” Miyu said, Fox’s words taking a moment to sink in. “Wait a minute, Star Wolf?”

“Yes, I told you, I’ll explain everything in a minute. Bill, Lucy, you better load your ships too. You’ll want to hear this. And…thank you for coming after us,” he added.

There was a pause. “No problem, Fox,” Bill finally said.

Fox climbed out of the ship and looked down at all his team mates. They all were there except for Falco, worn out looking but okay, no thanks to him.

“First of all, I want to say I’m sorry for not being the leader I should have been,” Fox’s eyes met Lucy’s and she gave him a small smile, encouraging him. “Not only today, but for a long time now. Star Fox was once a real success, and I know General Hare would have given anything to have us work for him instead of Wolf and the rest of those two-faced losers. I want to prove that Star Fox can be that team again- it already has two great members who could do so much better than me,” he gestured to Miyu and Hawkeye, then turned to the members of Star Falco. “Sometimes I think you guys would be better off if you joined Star Falco.”

“No way. We are a team, Fox, all of us,” Miyu said. Hawkeye nodded. “But it is about time you got it together,” she added with a grin.

“At least Star Fox still has a leader. What happened to Falco?” Katt asked.

Fox shifted uncomfortably. “About that…look, Star Wolf and Pigma set us up. They faked their own death and went after Kursed, and knew I’d follow them into a trap.”

“Kursed?” Katt furrowed her brow. “What do they want with her?”

“I’m not sure, I think Peppy knows. I couldn’t follow them in my ship, so Falco went after them, and now I can’t make contact with him.”

The team was silent. “I’m sure Falco will be just fine,” Katt said stiffly. Fox put his hand on her shoulder.

“Katt, you did a great job out there on Kale. Falco will be proud.” He looked back at the others. “I know Kale was a rough time, but we can’t afford to rest right now. We find Falco, we find Bowman…”

“Dash? What do you mean, ‘find Bowman’?” Katt looked up in alarm. Fox had forgotten about Star Falco’s closeness with Bowman- he’d actually been a founding member of Star Falco and had flown with them for a year before deciding to focus on his campaign to restore Venom, and had worked with them on several occasions since.

“Peppy says that Bowman thinks Professor Andorf is after him because he’s another relative of Andross.”

Scout rubbed his head. “Things are getting really crazy.”

“So, Professor Andorf is definitely in on Pigma’s plan then,” Faye said thoughtfully. “Is Prime Minister Bowman sure he is in Beljar with Pigma?”

Fox shrugged. “You’re guess is as good as mine, Faye. He’s probably on Evola too.” He clapped his hands together authoritatively. “Alright team, let’s get ready to find Falco…”

“Guys, I’m heading towards the landing bay!” Falco called out from the voice com.

“Falco! You’re okay! What happened?”

“You guys won’t believe it, I was tracking those idiots to Evola, when I lost sight of them. Either they took some sort of top secret back entrance into there or they blew past the planet all together.”

“You don’t think they’re letting Kursed escape, do you? Panther did care for her, after all,” Slippy asked.

Fox narrowed his eyes. “Star Wolf only cares about themselves, Panther included. They wouldn’t go so far if they were going to let her get away.”

“So anyway,” Falco said impatiently. “I was circling Evola when that giant Phoenix thing started to come at me. It looks as fierce as the diagrams made it out to be. I outflew it, of course.”

“Glad you made it out of there cocky as ever,” Fox grumbled. “Falco, pull in your ship and we’ll rest for a bit before heading to Evola. We’ll run scans on the planet to try and pin down the location of the secret entrance. Slippy, maybe you can get ROB up and running to work on the ships?”

“I’ll help,” said Hawkeye.

“I’ll start on the ships right now,” added Lucy.

“You guys are the best,” said Slippy.

“Sounds like a plan. I’m pulling in now,” said Falco. “We better make sure we’re ready, because I was spotted, and I’m pretty sure they’re on to us and won’t make getting into Evola that easy this time.”

*

“Master Pigma!” Captain Reptilian burst through the door of Pigma’s private chamber. Pigma had been dozing off on his large, ridiculously throne-like chair, and jumped awake with a loud snort.

“This better be good, Reptilian,” he grumbled. “Is Star Wolf here with Kursed yet? I’m getting impatient!”

Captain Reptilian cleared his throat. “Star Wolf was spotted, sir, but they didn’t come to Evola. They went right past us, but we couldn’t trace their exact destination. They’ve disappeared somewhere between our system and Lylat.”

Pigma’s breathing was a raspy hum as he tried to control his anger. “You morons!” he finally exploded. “How could you let them get away with my valuable prize?”

“We tried tracking them, but they must have used some sort of cloaking device. And listen to this- we also spotted a rogue ship tailing them, from the Star Fox and Star Falco teams.”

“Did you get them at least?’

Reptilian swallowed a lump in his throat. “No sir. We deployed the Phoenix, but he- or she- was able to get away.”

Pigma knocked Reptilian to the ground. “They’ll be back! I want all my fleets at the ready, got it, you slimy pile of Dodora dung?! The only reason I won’t kill you now is because I have other business to deal with! So what are you waiting for- go, NOW!” Captain Reptilian saluted and scrambled out the door. Pigma grabbed his comm. link with his oily mechanical hand.

“Come in, Professor!”

“What is it now, Pigma?”

“I told you not to trust Star Wolf, those lousy wannabe do-gooders! They’ve escaped with Kursed!”

“They haven’t escaped, they have brought her to me. You make sure to take care of Fox and his friends.”

“What do you mean?! Where are you?! The deal was Star Wolf would deliver her here to me and you! Star Wolf doesn’t deserve to live! I don’t know what you’re up to Andorf, but NOBODY double-crosses Pigma Dengar and gets away with it. Not even you!”

“You know all about double-crossed deals, don’t you? Trusting someone is always a gamble. The difference is, I hold my cards close to my chest while you throw yours all over the table. I’m on to you, Piggy.” Pigma did not hear Professor Andorf click off his comm. link, as he was too busy squealing and grunting in an unintelligible rage.

[Kursed]

I knew kursed would be ticked off.

[Guest Julius Quasar]

Whoa!

Great chapter, I love how Kursed f**ked up Star Wolf...I wish she could've telepathically erased Star Wolf's minds, that would've been funny xD

[rainfyre66]

Thanks for your support, guys! But I'm actually not pleased with how this chapter turned out, might have to go back and do a lot of fine tuning with it (or maybe I'll just make my next chapter much better since I've been pressed for time with this story as it is)

[Kursed]

Thanks for your support, guys! But I'm actually not pleased with how this chapter turned out, might have to go back and do a lot of fine tuning with it (or maybe I'll just make my next chapter much better since I've been pressed for time with this story as it is)

varied lenth Chapters make a story unique..... if that's why you don't like it.

[Guest Julius Quasar]

varied length Chapters make a story unique.....

I agree!  Great job, rainfyre66

*Madame Vulpine stabs a Hoo-Doo doll of Wolf O' Donnell, using a ceremonial dagger*

[rainfyre66]

     

ARRRRGGGHH!

This should be me posting Chapter 12 and 13, but looks like it's not happening tonight! Soon, very soon, like hopefully tomorrow. It is written...

[Guest Julius Quasar]

     

ARRRRGGGHH!

This should be me posting Chapter 12 and 13, but looks like it's not happening tonight! Soon, very soon, like hopefully tomorrow. It is written...

Don't worry, it'll come to you...

(and I look forward to it)

[rainfyre66]

Chapter Twelve

Falco climbed out of his ship and swaggered towards the team. “Man, some day, huh?” he said. “I can’t wait to see the stupid look on Pigma’s face when we get to Evola.” He unzipped his flight jacket and flung it over his shoulder, finally taking some notice of the new faces aboard the ship. “Bill? Lucy? Wow, what are you guys doing here?”

“We’re here to help,” Lucy said simply. Falco looked over at Katt and grinned. “So Katt, how was it without me? Did you miss me?”

Katt had looked so relieved that she might cry since Falco had returned. She slowly walked towards him and reached out her hand to his face. Fox thought for sure that she was going to kiss him, but then…

SMACK!

She slapped him across the face, and then began pummeling him with her fists. “Don’t you ever abandon the team like that again, got it?! We could have died out there because of you! You could have died out there, and you act like it’s no big deal, you big stupid…hothead! Why don’t you take your ego and stuff it, and use your brain for once! You make me so- I could just- UGH!” she shoved him, and then stomped off to the females’ dorm.

Falco looked stricken, then coolly ran his hands through the feathers on his head. “What’s with her?” he scoffed.

Miyu shrugged. “You’re an idiot?” she suggested. The others shook their heads and went back to what they were doing. Falco looked over at Fox and Slippy. “What?” he asked.

They exchanged a look. Fox snickered and threw his hands up in the air. “If you don’t know, I’m not gonna be the one to tell you, Falco.”

“Whatever,” he muttered, tossing his jacket on a seat. He went over to the music pod and clicked it on. He turned the song that was on up and smirked, then walked towards the females’ dorm and shouted, “Hey Katt, that song you love is on!” Katt did not respond. Fox imagined the only response Falco would get from her right now would be some kind of rude gesture.

Faye was busying herself in the kitchen unit, working on what would probably end up as a delicious meal. “Faye, don’t worry about that, go rest!” said Fox. “If you’re hungry, I can make you something.”

Slippy laughed. “You do not want that, Faye! Have you heard about Fox’s cooking?”

“We have pre-made packets of soup,” Fox said indignantly. “You just worry about fixing ROB.”

“We’ll need our strength for Evola. Besides, this will help me relax, and I’m starved! I’m sure you all are,” she said. “And I’ve heard Falco’s horror stories. You almost set the Great Fox on fire trying to make spaghetti?”

“He’s exaggerating!”

Slippy mouthed “no” and shook his head. Even Fox couldn’t help laughing. He looked around at his team mates. Somehow, the tension had seemed to fade between them all as they prepared for the greater cause. No one was resting. Lucy and Hawkeye were working on the ships, Slippy was working on ROB as well as assisting with the ships. Falco was bringing up information on Evola while Scout and Miyu were studying diagrams of the Phoenix. Bill was on a video transmission with Peppy. Even Katt had cooled off and came back out, helping wherever she was needed.

Fox smiled proudly at his team, his friends. Even Falco- it was unspoken but known that they’d recovered their friendship. He couldn’t think of a group of friends he’d rather be fighting this battle with. He went over to where Bill was standing to help fill in Peppy on their next plan of attack.

*

Dash Bowman was trying to stay focused on his ship’s flight path, but the pressure building up in his head was too intense. He instinctively shut his eyes.

No! No! I will not let you in! he yelled silently, trying to force the evil out of his head, fighting off images of a humongous fiery bird, a flotilla of war ships, of Fox’s old love passed out in a detention cell, and of Professor Andorf himself, a wiry and dark eyed baboon, standing by the base of an enormous polygonal orb, and of secret plans. The only good thing about these visions were he was given a vision of where to find him, of important information. He tried to connect with General Hare and his own army, but there was no response, all his communications were dead.

“You will not have me!” Bowman screamed. “You will not have Lylat. This legacy ends now! I AM NOT LIKE YOU OR ANDROSS!”

He repeated this over and over in his head, fighting off whatever forces Professor Andorf used to tap into his brain. He would show them, good could triumph over evil. He had fought too long and too hard to overcome the shadow cast by his ancestry, to rebuild the planet his own grandfather had turned into a wasteland, to surrender to evil that easily. He was Dash Bowman, bringer of peace, but would fight to the death to keep the evil from taking over him.

*

Star Fox and Star Falco headed into the fray, followed by the Falcon with the CDF behind.

“Get ready, I see the armada now,” said Fox.

“Gee, a fleet of enemy battleships. What a surprise,” Falco said sarcastically.

“Exactly. Okay team, split up. I want to take out as many of the small fighters as you can before going for the large ships. You got us covered up there, Colonel Grey and Slippy?”

“You know it!” Bill was helping man the Falcon, as it was easier to direct the CDF from there, but was prepared to jump onto the battle at a moment’s notice.

“Okay, here-we-GO!” said Fox, boosting towards the action. He was flying in Kursed’s ship. He’d been a little uncertain about using an unfamiliar ship in such a large battle, but he’d adjusted to it as easily as a new pair of boots. As expected, they were greeted with small enemy fighters upon approaching the armada.

“Let’s take ‘em out!” said Scout. The team split off, fending off the ships that buzzed around them like an annoying swarm of flies.

“I’d like to personally welcome you, Star Fox and Star Falco,” an unfamiliar voice, not unlike nails on a metal surface, came over the voice com. Fox held his breath. Perhaps it was the elusive Professor Andorf…

“I am Captain Reptilian, personal assistant to Master Pigma Dengar!”

Or not. Fox rolled his eyes at the mindless tool.

“Surrender now, or prepare to die!” Reptilian screeched.

“Funny, we were about to tell you the same thing,” Falco snapped.

The larger battleships went into motion, moving much more slowly than the small fighters, but with a much stronger firepower. “Slippy, try to find the location of Captain Reptilian’s ship,” said Fox. It could be any one of the large battleships or freighters, but if they could take out the Captain’s ship the others might retreat, or at least it might make tearing through the blockade that much easier.

“I’ll run the scans now!”

“The small fighters are being deployed from the freighters, if we take those down first it’ll be easier to fight them off,” suggested Lucy.

“Miyu and Scout, you two stay on the smaller ships,” ordered Fox, since they were the sharpest shots of the team. “Faye, Katt, Hawkeye- you keep on those battleships. Falco, Lucy, and I will check out those freighters.”

“Who’s going to check out that missile?” Slippy cried out. “Incoming!”

One of the ships had deployed a large missile. Lucy turned her ship and headed towards it, firing away.

“Ahh! It’s casing is too strong!” she cried, looping around it. “I don’t know if I have the firepower to take it out in time!”

“Allow me!” said Bill, firing the lasers of the Falcon. “Steer clear, Lucy!”

A few blasts from the Falcon and the missile was gone.

“Bill! There’s another one heading for behind the Falcon!” cried Katt. She and Lucy blasted towards the second missile.

“Wait! Be careful, you might not have enough firepower!” shouted Fox.

“Give us a second we can turn this thing around!” assured Slippy. Lucy and Katt shot away at the missile as the Falcon attempted to veer out of its way. What if the girls couldn’t get it in time? Fox headed towards them. Suddenly, he saw what looked like a third set of lasers firing at the missile. He wondered who it was, he thought the last he’d seen, everyone else was occupied. The missile blew up, and once the blast cleared, Fox could make out the shape of the ship…Wolf O’Donnell’s Wolfen?

What was Star Wolf up to now? Why did they just help them?

“Hey, what are you doing, flying my ship?” a woman’s voice said indignantly. “Fox, is that you?”

“Kursed? Yes, it’s me…are you alright? Is Star Wolf with you?”

“I’m fine. I have a lot to tell you all, I know where the real enemy is, and I have the weapons plans you should have gotten in Brea. You see to it you keep my ship in tact, alright? Wolf should be so lucky I don’t let his Wolfen accidentally on purpose get destroyed out here.”

*

Star Wolf entered the detention unit. No doubt Kursed would be conscious by now, and soon it would be time to hand her over to the Professor. They went over to holding cell SFX64, where Kursed sat with a downright ugly glare on her face. They stood over her, grinning at her imprisonment. Panther unlocked the door and it slid open. “No false moves,” warned Leon.

“He’ll only kill you, you know,” she said through gritted teeth. “Pigma always wanted you dead, and now that he has what he wants, he’s going to kill you before you can even get a glance at your precious reward.”

Wolf dismissed this news with a wave of his hand. “Do you really think we’re stupid enough to trust Pigma? We know Pigma is no mastermind, he’s somebody’s pawn. He’s ruthless, sure, and downright devious, but intelligent enough for something like this? No. And we’ve known Pigma longer than you to know he would not pass up any opportunity to keep a reward for himself. That’s why we delivered you straight to the source.”

She stood up. “What are you talking about? You said you were turning me over to Pigma.”

“Lying is part of the trade. You’ll find out soon enough, when we hand you over to him. Meanwhile, your old friends are wasting their time going after the wrong enemy.”

Kursed shut her eyes. “I will help them,” she said. “I can do it from this cell, you know. In the meantime, they took the plans on Brea that you were after. They have some of the answers on their side.”

“Do they now?” Wolf grinned, pulling a small disk key out from his vest. It was looped around his neck on a small chain.

“What are those?” she asked.

“The real technical readouts. The ones that Fox and his team think they got are missing one vital piece of information.” He dangled it in front of her face before jerking it back up out of her reach.

Kursed’s eyes became slits. She leapt forward without warning and tackled Wolf, clawing at his throat. Leon, Panther, and Jackal tried to pull her off, but she was able to knock them away in her fury. She had grabbed one of their blasters from their holster, and pressing it between Wolf’s eyes, she ripped the chain from his neck and grabbed Wolf’s blaster as well, flipping both settings to ion blast. They were coming at her, she wished she had time to kill all of them, but instead crossed her arms and fired the blasters at the walls.  The ion beams ricocheted off of them, bouncing dangerously down the corridor. They dove to the ground to dodge them. This gave Kursed the time to take off out of the unit.

Star Wolf took off after her shortly after, but that slight delay had given Kursed just enough of a head start. They came to the hangar bay just in time to see the Wolfen taking off.

“My ship?! She took my ship!” Wolf shouted angrily.

Panther shrugged. “But she took the bait.”

“But why didn’t she take your ship? She used to fly it all the time! And it has a freakin’ flower on it, for Pete’s sake!”

“You’re sure she’ll be back?” asked Jackal, still not pleased with letting a captor get away even though that was how it was planned.

“Of course she will. Now that she and her friends will know about the true danger, they’ll jump right into playing hero of the day,” said Leon. “It’s like we’re giving Andorf everything he wants on a silver platter.”

Wolf was still staring at the port. “So help me, if she gets ONE scratch on my Wolfen…”

*

Bowman did not see the Wolfen blast by him as he approached the frozen tundra moon of Bludo. He was too distracted by the head-splitting pain that intensified the closer he got to the moon. By the time he’d located base, his vision was nothing more than a blur of fuzzy dots, and his head felt as if it was going to implode on itself. He didn’t even know how he was able to pull into the docking bay. He hadn’t even climbed all the way down from his ship when he completely blacked out, falling and landing dully on the floor of the hangar.

*

The battle was intense, but going well given the circumstances.

“Fox, I got the location of Captain Reptilian’s ship. I’m sending you the information now,” said Slippy.

Fox watched as the coordinates came up on the computer read out screen. “Falco, let’s go!” he said, heading towards the ship. To his surprise, the remaining ships had ceased fire and were slowly moving away. Not turning away, necessarily. Fox doubted Captain Reptilian would retreat now.

“Everybody, watch out! I have a feeling they’re deploying that Phoenix!” called Falco. “I hope you all looked at those readouts carefully, because this is supposed to be one tough- ”

[Guest Julius Quasar]

ALL RIGHT!!! PAYBACK TIME! GOOD FOR KURSED!

Todd: "Good going, kid!"

Lola: "Brava, darling..."

[Kursed]

Tigress:I doubt Kursed would let anyone keep her prisoner..*Twirling Prision bar*

[rainfyre66]

`Chapter Thirteen

“Where is it, Falco?” asked Fox, searching for the Galactic Phoenix. He looked at his radar. Something was coming up from behind.

“Bill! Your men! Warn them…” Kursed’s cry was cut out by a call from the CDF. “What is that? We’re hit!” The transmission was cut off by a burst of static. Fox turned his ship and sped toward the blast. An enormous hybrid of bird of prey and machine flew through the fire as if it was nothing, breathing fire of its own.

Fox fired at the Phoenix. His lasers didn’t even seem to phase it. He narrowly dodged a stream of white hot fire.

“Hang on buddy, we’re coming!” said Falco. “He’ll have to get through us before he takes another one of Corneria’s or Venom’s men!”

“That might not be so hard- our firepower isn’t making a scratch!” said Scout.

“I’m going to try a bomb,” said Katt. She flew up close to the bird and dropped a bomb onto it. The Phoenix let out a piercing screech and rammed itself into her ship, sending her spinning into an enemy fighter.

“Katt! Are you alright?” shouted Falco.

“I-I don’t know.” Katt sounded extremely rattled.

“Get back to the Falcon, stat! Next time, don’t do something so stupid!” he snapped.

“Wait Falco, I think she’s onto something,” said Bill. “From the Falcon, it looked like that might have done some damage.”

“It’s hard to tell, its armor regenerates quickly,” said Kursed. “You, Badger, watch out!”

Scout looped around a fiery blast. “I’m going to use a bomb,” he said. “Watch carefully from up there and see if it does anything.” He zoomed underneath the Phoenix and looped around, dropping a bomb on it and speeding away. The Phoenix let out another screech and charged ahead, spraying fire from its beak. This time though, it missed the Venomian ship it was charging towards and smashed into one of the enemy battleships.

“That definitely does something to it,” reported Slippy. “But I don’t think bombs are fast enough to keep it from recharging.”

An idea came to Fox. “Kursed, does your ship carry bombs?”

“Of course, just hit the red release switch on the left hand controls- wait a minute Fox, what are you doing?”

“I have an idea.”

“I gathered that. What’s your idea?”

“I need you guys to back me. I got to get up close to this thing,” he dove his ship downward and swooped it back up quickly, capturing the attention of the Phoenix as he planned. “Fox, be careful!” Kursed shouted. When Fox estimated that the Phoenix would be opening its mouth to release fire, Fox quickly deployed two bombs, confident that his idea worked.

The bombs flew into the bird’s gaping jaws and down its throat. Fox backed off to be out of range of its fiery breath, if this backfired.

The Phoenix stopped moving, and then suddenly exploded, the loud boom drowning out its deafening shriek. Its armor shattered in several directions, shrapnel flying.

“Everybody blast it, before it can repair itself!” he shouted over the noise. They fired their ship lasers and bombs at it, trying to scatter the debris in as many directions as possible.

“Fox, look, the ships are retreating! Including the captain’s ship!” called Hawkeye. Captain Reptilian had taken this opportunity to start retreating his ships.

“Quick, let’s go after him!” said Falco, speeding away. Fox followed.

“Captain Reptilian, we will give you a choice- either turn yourself over now and we will hold you under arrest until your army puts you on trial for treason, or we will be forced to take you down,” Bill said.

“You’ll get neither from me! Master Pigma, I’ll need your back up in the orbital.”

Fox and Falco took out the gun turrets on Reptilian’s ship and then dipped beneath it, near a loading port. “Reptilian, this is your last chance,” said Fox. “Either go with Colonel Grey and be given even a small chance of release, or we will deploy bombs into your ship now.”

“Master Pigma, do you come in? Our ships are retreating and they’ve taken out my firepower. I have little choice unless you help me get rid of these fleas!”

“What’ll it be, Reptilian?” Falco said, his patience gone.

“I am loyal to my master! Men, enough talk, take out this scum. Fire!”

Wordlessly, Fox and Falco aimed and tossed a set of bombs up into the loading port of the ship, and then boosted out of the way. The last thing they heard from him over the voice com was, “They really have bombs! No! Wait, I’ve changed my mi-” before the explosion took over the ship.

“Some personal assistant. He’s got about as much loyalty as Pigma. They were perfect for each other,” said Miyu.

Fox laughed over the voice com. “That’s one of the great things about you Miyu, blunt but truthful,” he said.

“We don’t have much time,” Kursed said curtly, interrupting them.

“Right! Slippy, Colonel Grey, see if you can find a remote point for us to do any last minute repairs. Katt’s ship is pretty bad. We’ll need everybody in top shape,” said Falco.

“Remote? That’ll be pretty tough, this is a highly populated metropolitan planet,” Slippy pointed out.

“Also, try to pinpoint exactly where Pigma is located,” added Fox. “Before we try to find this secret moon base, we should still try to recover General Felini and find out more about those secret plans.”

*

“Master Pigma, they’ve destroyed the Phoenix!” Captain Reptilian’s panicked voice came over Pigma’s comm. link.

“What do you mean, they’ve destroyed my Phoenix? It’s supposed to be nearly impossible!”

“They found a way!”

“That’s the best answer you can give me- ‘they found a way’? I should let them destroy you!” Pigma shouted, slamming the comm. link down. He had nothing more to say to Captain Reptilian, but didn’t click off the comm. link. He wanted to hear the useless twit get the reward of his failure. Pigma listened to Reptilian’s cries for help, and then the burst of static that signified an explosion.

“That’s what that idiot gets! Letting himself get taken out by Star Fox and Star Falco,” he mumbled. But he had overheard some of the battle conversations in his transmissions with Reptilian. Kursed for whatever reason had joined up with them, in Wolf’s ship if he wasn’t mistaken. Now, that was rich! The best part was, he knew they’d be well on their way to Pigma. People always called Pigma greedy because of his fondness for money, but Star Fox was greedy for heroism. He notified his men to keep an eye out for the Star Fox teams, and to NOT attack them if spotted. If Kursed had broken free from Star Wolf, then chances were she’d been at Professor Andorf’s secret location. He’d just kill off Fox and his pals himself when they came for him, and force Kursed to take him to Andorf. Pigma laughed and shook his head. While Professor Andorf making Pigma a living weapon worked out well for Pigma himself, the so-called genius Andorf would realize what a stupid move that was.

*

“You guys are doing great, and you must thank Kursed for the valuable information she’s provided us, and for risking her life to bring us this information!” said Peppy excitedly from the video transmission.

“Have you been able to contact Dash yet and tell him about Andorf’s base?” asked Falco.

Peppy frowned. “No, I have not gotten any response from him.”

He forced a smile in Bill’s direction. “And Colonel Grey, you did a phenomenal job out there in the field. Why, I could see you being general some day!” Peppy winked.

“General Hare, I wish I could agree, but I lost a ship out there…so many men lost. I feel like I should have prevented that,” said Bill.

Peppy became serious. “Yes, rest their noble souls. I don’t mean this in a heartless way, but Colonel Grey, even the greatest generals can’t prevent every casualty. You are not to blame.”

Fox decided to give Peppy and Bill a moment alone. By now, Peppy had been filled in on everything with Kursed. Peppy had also agreed that it was necessary to rescue General Felini from Pigma, as they were having trouble unscrambling this code key. Besides, Fox had a feeling that Peppy really just wanted to see Pigma get taken down.

Fox looked over at Lucy, who was watching Bill closely and looking very concerned. She blushed and looked away when she realized Fox caught her. Could it be…he had seen the way Bill had looked her too. He smiled to himself. Love was in the air, he thought, glancing over at Kursed. Well, with some people anyway.

Since boarding the Falcon, Kursed had been standing around rather awkwardly. No one was quite sure what to say to her, besides thanking her for her help. She came over to him, looking uncertain. Fox studied her. She wasn’t the unrecognizable bounty hunter with cold, mask-like exterior he had seen previously, but she wasn’t the same Krystal he’d known and loved either, exactly.

“You were good out there, Fox,” she said finally.

The confusion and anger that had built up over the years suddenly exploded. “Kursed, what the hell is this? You can’t just try to screw us over and then waltz back around like you’re our ally without some kind of explanation.”

Miyu and Faye had been nearby and discreetly moved away when the heard Fox’s outburst. Kursed sighed. “I was in Brea on business. I didn’t know Star Wolf had turned over or that you would be there…”

“You know I don’t just mean recently, Kursed. Everything. You betrayed us, then you run out on Star Wolf and become a bounty hunter. A killer.”

“I’m not a murderer! What I do is no different than you- they’ve done something to deserve it. It would take a long time to explain everything, Fox,” she said. “So here’s the quick version- you hurt me…”

“I just didn’t want you to get hurt. If anything happened to you…”

“Shh, Fox, I know, just listen to me! You know how hard it is to think clearly with a broken heart…and I liked to think I was helping Star Wolf by being with them, and they ended up helping me, in their own backwards way. Sometimes, things happen that make a person want to change, and they helped me make it. But I couldn’t take what I’d become in everyone’s eyes, maybe because they were right- it was a horrible thing to betray you, and I didn’t want to face the truth about myself. So I ran away from myself, so to speak, and created a new life and identity to get away from it.”

Fox didn’t say anything for a long time, he didn’t know what to say. It’s not like what she just said made everything suddenly okay. “So why did you come back for us now?”

She looked down at her palms. “You still came back for me on Jericho. Why did you come back, Fox?”

Again, Fox wasn’t sure how to respond. Finally, in a low voice he said, “I used to dream about you, you know.”

“Really? Good dreams, or bad dreams?” She inched closer to him, so they were almost touching.

“Confusing,” he said, instinctively leaning closer…

“Fox! I think I found Pigma, he and General Felini are located in the city of Polis!” Slippy came running over excitedly, waving the coordinates. He noticed the closeness between Fox and Kursed. “Oh…oh my, sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

“What? Oh- it’s nothing!” they both said jumping away as they realized their closeness. “We were just talking,” Fox said defensively. Slippy smiled and shook his head, walking away. That nothing looked like it had been about to be something.

*

One of the last things Dash Bowman could remember was falling into utter blackness, first plummeting through a nightmarish clash of visions and feeling as if his insides were being ripped apart as he saw his friends and allies dying. He tried to scream as if that would release the demon, but nothing came out. He heard the voice of Professor Andorf over him. “It’s in your blood, you can’t fight it. You can’t fight me. You are mine!” He gave a raspy, insane giggle. Bowman surrendered, the pain inside of his head had flooded his body had made him too weak to fight anymore. The darkness had won, it had taken over. All was lost…

[Guest Julius Quasar]

Wow...awesome story!

I hope Krystal rejoins them...

Great job!

[rainfyre66]

*Apparently, this chapter is too long to put in one post, so I have to break this chapter up into two parts. Lame!*

Chapter Fourteen

Evola was a bustling planet of indeterminate terrain, as most of its surface consisted of sprawling cityscapes. Perhaps it had once been a more appealing place to live before Pigma’s arrival, but now its cities were wastelands of pollution, decrepit buildings and monorail lines, and vandalism. Pigma’s men and mind-controlled Beljar soldiers patrolled the streets, arresting and terrorizing cititzens. Star Fox and Star Falco’s ships weaved through the skyscrapers and crumbling structures of the city Polis.

“Scans indicate he should be in the Polis capitol building,” said Fox.

“I expected a little more security than this,” said Falco. No one had even attempted to stop them upon their arrival.

“He must know we’re coming, and wants us to come to him. I guess we’re worth something to him,” said Kursed. They had to agree when they not only landed their ships at the capitol building with no issue, but also entered the building with minimum difficulty. Fox turned to Kursed. “Kursed, is there any way you can sense if General Felini is with Pigma?”

“I don’t know, I’ll try,” she shut her eyes and concentrated. “I don’t think so,” she said after a moment. “If he is somewhere nearby, I imagine he is probably being held in a prisoner ward somewhere.”

“Hang on a second, follow me,” said Faye. They followed her to an abandoned office. “I noticed it was unlocked when we passed by it,” she said, hitting a button that made the door slide open. It was an ordinary office, but Faye pointed to the computer on the desk. “I’m sure this must have some sort of internal directory,” she said. “Miyu, you can probably hack into the program.”

“Good thinking,” said Katt. “Better hurry, though.”

Miyu quickly went over and studied the computer, then began to hack into the system. “There! I think I found him,” she said after a minute. “There’s a prison unit located on the second sublevel…he’s in block 1997 in Sector 7G.”

“What about Pigma?” asked Fox. “Any idea on where we can find him?”

“If I had to guess…probably in the highest level, marked as ‘classified’,” she said drily.

Falco snorted. “Classified, my –”

“We’ll need to split up,” Fox cut him off. “Half of us will go and release General Felini, and take him back to the Falcon to help decode the file, the second party will go after Pigma.”

“But won’t that be dangerous, Fox?” asked Faye.

“Not necessarily. Kursed, I want you, Lucy, Hawkeye, and Faye to go after Felini. Me, Falco, Miyu, Scout, and Katt will go after Pigma.”

“I don’t know Fox,” said Kursed. “I think I should swap with Miyu...or Scout. I’ve run into Pigma before, after all.”

Fox had to smirk. Was Kursed jealous? “Kursed, Pigma is looking for you, it’s less risky if you don’t go running head on to him. Besides, I think your skills will be needed in raiding the prison unit, and you’re the one with the plans.”

Kursed didn’t respond, but glared at him. “Listen, Fox, you’re not my leader…” she started to say, but Lucy smiled and put her arm around her. “Come on Kursed, from what you told us about beating the snot out of Star Wolf not once, but twice, I doubt those prison guards will stand a chance.”

“If there are any guards,” said Scout. “You think they’d be after us by now. It’s too quiet, it’s making me a little nervous.”

“Only one way to find out. Let’s go team! Keep all comm. links on,” said Fox. The teams prepared to part ways.

Kursed was suddenly overcome with a strange feeling. A bad feeling. She wasn’t sure what it was, but…

“Good luck!” said Fox. The teams went on the move, Fox following Miyu.

“Fox! Wait,” called Kursed. He turned around.

“What is it, Kursed?” he asked, sounding slightly irritated.

She went over, trying to take in what could very well be one last look at him, and then kissed him gently.

Fox stepped back, looking stunned but pleased. “What was that for?”

She sighed. “For luck,” she said. “I just had a feeling- a bad one.”

“What is it?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know…I’m still having trouble with my perception and feelings, it’s been so long.”

He put a reassuring hand on her arm. “You did great calling me over to Jericho. I could feel what you were feeling, I knew what you needed…I thought I may have even heard your voice. Maybe you’re on to something. If you feel like anything is going to happen, or there’s trouble, just do that again, okay?”

She nodded. “I will. But I have to tell you Fox…I’m not sure what it means yet, but it feels almost like…one of us might not make it.”

*

“Well, Star Wolf, where is she now?” Professor Andorf’s pitch black eyes bored through Wolf. Wolf returned the intense gaze with confidence.

“She’s off to collect Star Fox. She’ll bring Fox to you, and besides Kursed, you can have your revenge on Fox McCloud, just like you’ve always wanted.”

“I see…what makes you so certain she’ll return here?”

“Fox can’t resist an opportunity to rid the galaxy of another one of Andross’s brethren, and Kursed will follow because one, she’ll want answers, and two, she still loves Fox.”

“We are giving you more than you asked for,” said Leon. “We are giving you Kursed, and Star Fox and Star Falco.”

“If you’re asking for a larger reward, I’ll have to see if this plan works as you assume it will,” Professor Andorf cocked his head at them. “You may have just let them slip through your fingers. There is still also the chance that Pigma could take them all down.”

Wolf snorted. “You overestimate Pigma.”

“Perhaps you overestimate yourselves,” Professor Andorf snapped. “Don’t overstep your bounds just to try and get more than you were hired for. You are to follow my orders. I already have the power to make things go my way, more power than you realize.”

Wolf nodded briskly. “Yes, there is a lot about you that we realize, we do not underestimate your powers.”

Professor Andorf whirled around and marched out of the hangar bay. “You bring her straight to me when she arrives,” he said, not bothering to turn his head to look back at them as he said this.

*

Kursed, Lucy, Hawkeye, and Faye approached the prison ward. “Freeze!” ordered a vacant-eyed hound dog. “You are not authorized to be on this level!”

Faye and Hawkeye drew their blasters, but Kursed stopped them. She shut her eyes and focused on the guard. His own mind was reading as a series of impulses, his own brain activity dulled by them. This had to be the mind control. She tried to read him through the interference. He was weak-willed, perhaps, but still of a good nature. She concentrated on that and began to feel it more strongly…but the impulses became too distracting, and that finally broke the connection between their minds.

“If you don’t…state your business…I must…” the guard sounded confused and fumbled with his blaster. Lucy stunned him.

“Kursed, what did you do?” she asked. “For a second he looked, well, not like one of Pigma’s brainwashed slaves. And he looked confused, like he had no idea where he was or what he was doing. Almost like you broke through the mind-control.”

“Really,” Kursed thought about this. “I tried to read his thoughts, but mostly I got interference. Something Fox said earlier got me thinking…if I try to read their thoughts, perhaps I can send out thoughts of my own to the people that are being brainwashed by Pigma or Andorf or whoever it is, and counteract it. I think it might have worked.”

Faye nodded but nudged them ahead. “It’s a great thought, and keep it in mind, but right now we need to keep moving. More guards will probably be coming.”

“Right,” said Lucy. They moved forward, quickly but carefully. The prison unit was like a maze, they made sure to carefully track their steps. “When we pulled the cell block code from the computer, we probably should have pulled the map information as well,” Hawkeye pointed out.

The girls looked at each other, embarrassed by the obvious oversight. “Well, you should have mentioned that when we were at the computer,” Faye replied.

Hawkeye snickered. “I think Miyu is starting to rub off on you.”

“Sector 7G- we’re in the right area. Cell block 1997should be down this way,” Lucy pointed them in the right direction. They reached cell 1997 and Kursed entered the code to unlock the door. It slid open, revealing a run down and defeated looking tom cat laying against wall and staring at the ceiling. General Felini’s head slowly looked towards the door.

“You tell Pigma…I don’t have anything else to give him…I have nothing,” he said weakly. Lucy and Kursed moved into the cell while Faye and Hawkeye covered the entrance. Lucy knelt beside him.

“General Felini, I am Lucy Hare, daughter of Cornerian General Peppy Hare. I am here with teams Star Fox and Star Falco. We are here to rescue you, and we need your help in return. The plans that were intercepted from Brea were not the original files that were put in the computer system. Our brave ally, Kursed,” she gestured to her, “was able to obtain the true copy, but we are having trouble decoding it.”

“The plans? The plans have been intercepted…”

“Yes Felini, by us. I have taken them from Star Wolf, they were the ones who took the true plans, to try and prevent Star Fox from succeeding. And now we must hurry up and get out of here before- ”

Kursed was cut off a by a loud siren. “Colonel Grey, be ready with the Falcon at the exterior of the capitol building,” Lucy called into her comm. link. “We have the General now, but an alarm has been tripped. I don’t know how much longer they’ll let us get away with this.”

[rainfyre66]

Chapter 14 Cont'd

Fox, Falco, Katt, Scout, and Miyu were taking an elevator up to the capitol building’s top level. Scout was beginning to look very edgy. “Really, this is just weird how no one is coming after us,” he grumbled.

“Calm down, Scout,” Katt said in a low voice. She was used to him getting worked up whenever he got suspicious of something. Fox was nervous himself, he didn’t like how Pigma was making this seem almost too easy either. Pigma wasn’t the smartest guy in the galaxy, but he was ruthless when it came to getting something that benefitted him. Just ask Fox’s father. With that thought, Fox was filled with a renewed anger towards Pigma. He was ready for him. Falco looked over at Fox and nodded. “I can’t wait to give that walking scrap heap what he deserves!” he said, understanding how Fox felt.

They found themselves on the top level, in a sprawling, high tech room. Fox rolled his eyes as Pigma rose from a chair that was obviously meant to look like some sort of throne. Falco wondered who Pigma thought he was kidding. He had been restored roughly to the size he had been before the Aparoid infestation, perhaps a bit bulkier due to the fact that he was still mostly machine. They held their blasters at the ready.

“Fox McCloud, Falco Lombardi, long time no see,” he drawled. “Now where is Kursed? I know she is with you.”

“What does it matter?” said Fox. “She’s worth more to us than she’ll ever be worth to you.”

“That’s sweet Fox, but I doubt that. She’s got a good price on her head. Even if Andorf doesn’t want her anymore, there’s plenty of other people in the galaxy that want her dead,” he looked at Katt. “Or, how about I take this cute little kitty? Even if you don’t read minds, I’m sure you’re good at something.” He licked his lips and reached for her. Katt yelped as his cold, greasy hands wrapped around her arm.

“Don’t you dare touch her!” Falco yelled, firing at him with his blaster. Pigma laughed, but before he could attack Falco, Kursed’s voice came over Fox’s comm. link. “Fox, we have the General but somebody tripped the security alarm. We’re being pursued. The Falcon is waiting for us out front, we’ll be taking Felini directly to it to start on the codes.”

“Who set the alarms?” growled Pigma. “There was supposed to be no attacks unless I said so!” He picked up his own comm. link. “Sergeant LeMur, why is the security alert going off in the prisoner unit?”

“It’s Bassett, Master! It’s almost like he’s gone crazy, he says he doesn’t know why or how he did it!”

“I have to do everything myself!” he slung his comm. link to the floor. He glared at Fox. “As much fun as it would be to kill you right now, Kursed is more valuable.” He hit a button and a large hatch in the roof slid open. Suddenly, his shape began to shift.

“Stand back!” Fox shouted as Pigma’s mechanical body began to expand.

“Get to your ships!” Falco ordered as Pigma transformed into an enormous, hulking robot that could easily crush the team like ants. They had just barely made it out of the room and into the elevator as the blast from Pigma’s jets demolished the top floor of the capitol building.

*

Kursed, Lucy, Faye, Hawkeye, and General Felini ran through the maze-like prison ward. Or rather, Lucy and Faye dragged Felini along as they ran while Kursed and Hawkeye held off their pursuers

“What is that?!” called Bill from the comm. link. “There’s been some sort of explosion from the top floor! I think…what the…”

“Bill! What’s going on?” said Lucy desperately.

“Pigma has left the building!”

“Fox! No! They have to be…” Kursed desperately tried calling for Fox, but there was no answer.

“We have to keep moving,” Hawkeye advised. They managed to make their way out of the ward and into the elevator, still being pursued by guards. They fought their way to the ground level and ran towards the Falcon, where they boarded with General Felini. “We must go back to the landing bay and get our ships,” said Faye, as the giant pig mech in the sky caught sight of them.

“Hurry!” urged Slippy as Pigma prepared to fire at them. As they lowered the ship to the landing bay, Kursed was flooded with relief as Fox’s voice came over. “Kursed! Are you guys okay?”

“Fox, oh thank God, I heard there was an explosion, and then you didn’t answer your comm. link, I thought…”

“We’re fine, we’re about to reach the landing bay to get our ships and go after that slimeball.”

They reached the landing bay at the same time. Kursed couldn’t help herself, she ran over to Fox, embracing him. She was relieved, yet still couldn’t shake that awful feeling. He hugged her back quickly, then stepped away. A powerful blast from Pigma blew away part of the docking bay, they dove to the ground for cover. “Let’s go!” he said, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek before hopping into his ship.

They raced after Pigma, speeding and weaving between buildings. Pigma, however, took out anything that got in his way. Part of it may have been due the enormity of his structure, but it was also due in part to his lack of regard for anyone other than himself.

“Come on, lead the way!” he cackled. “I want you to take me to Professor Andorf!”

“You’ll have to kill me before I tell you anything!” said Kursed.

Pigma snarled and fired a blast in their direction. “Don’t be stupid! You can’t beat me! I’m giving you the chance to live!”

Kursed hesitated, then headed towards the atmosphere.

“What is she doing?” Miyu said in a panic. Was Kursed about to betray them again?

“Let’s follow her,” said Fox. He had a feeling he knew what she was up to.

*

On the Falcon, Lucy and General Felini were on a video transmission with Peppy. Now that Felini had been given some water and a nourishment capsule, he became a bit more alert. He waited for the plans to load up, then frowned as the encrypted file came up. “I have never seen this code before,” he said, trying to decipher it. “Ms. Hare, do you have the other file?” She handed it to him. He studied it, then put it in the drive. “That’s what I thought,” he said as he skimmed through the older readouts. “These are the ones that my intelligence team and I intercepted and planted in the computer.”

“So what are these, then?”

He looked at the other file carefully. “These are almost the same alright, but it’s a larger file, it must have additional information, that they didn’t want us to see. Someone must have known we were coming for them and altered and swapped out the plans.”

“That’s what we thought,” said Lucy, gritting her teeth. “Damn Star Wolf.”

Felini pointed at Lucy’s comm. link. “Do you mind if I borrow that?” he asked. “I will contact my intelligence team, perhaps we can still decode it.”

*

They were back in the Evola orbital, Kursed trying to stall for time, hoping that would give Felini the time he needed to decode the final readouts, the ones she hoped gave a key to Pigma’s weakness.

“So the stories are true then, Kursed. You really have become a cold-hearted bitch, willing to let Fox die to save your own skin,” Pigma said with delight. “No wonder Professor Andorf thinks you’ll be the perfect weapon for him…or for me!”

“You shouldn’t believe everything you hear, Pigma, or believe that I would let Fox die to help YOU!” she turned her ship to face him and fired. The rest of the team emerged from the atmosphere, ready to take Pigma down.

“Take me to Professor Andorf, or all of your friends will die!” Pigma screamed.

“If we go down, we’re taking you with us!” replied Falco.

Their ships swarmed around Pigma, firing at him and dodging his hits. His strong firepower and size were the perfect combination with his natural ruthlessness. Pigma was merciless, firing with a devil-may-care pace and swinging at ships with his giant arms to bat them away. One arm struck Miyu, destroying her wing and causing massive damage, forcing her to go back to the Falcon.

At least she didn’t die out there, Fox couldn’t help thinking, remembering Kursed’s ominious feeling. He fired with a mad fury at Pigma.

“Lucy, any luck with encrypting those files?” asked Kursed. “I don’t know how much longer we can hold him.” Scout had also had to return to the Falcon after he got a direct hit from one of  Pigma’s shots.

“We’re trying to Kursed, but these aren’t the files he intercepted. They were given the wrong files in the first place.”

She cursed Star Wolf under her breath. She dodged a stray blast and focused on Pigma, trying to search in him for a weak point.

“Hang on guys, I just saw something, I think I got it!” Falco’s excited voice broke her concentration. “Back off, Fox, let me through.”

“Falco! Wait! Don’t get cocky!” said Katt. Falco, of course, didn’t listen.

Pigma laughed, swinging his massive arm down at Fox. Fox readied himself for the heavy impact, but instead felt a collision from the side, flinging his ship away from Pigma. “Falco, watch it, what are you- ” Fox said.

“I’m not letting you take another McCloud, you bastard!” Falco yelled at Pigma, looping underneath his arm.

“Then I’ll just have you!”

Pigma’s giant mechanical hands wrapped around Falco’s ship. “Too late Pig- I gotcha!” was the last thing that Fox heard Falco say over the voice com. Falco fired and there was a burst of flame on his chest. Pigma let out a squeal and suddenly stopped in action and began to slowly spin, smoke and fire beginning to emit from him. Katt cheered.

“Back off guys, he’s gonna blow!” called Scout.

“Hurry up Falco, get out of there!” shouted Fox. Falco was still trapped in Pigma’s grasp, struggling to break free. Fox and Katt fired at Pigma’s hands, hoping to blow them loose.

“Fox, Katt, come on!” Miyu yelled. Fox barely jetted out of the way in time as Pigma exploded into a ball of raging fire.

“No!” Katt let out an anguished scream that ripped Fox’s heart in two. He turned his ship, he didn’t care that the intensity from the brightness of the explosion burned his eyes, he watched intently, unblinking. He was waiting for Falco to come bursting out of the chaos, making some corny wise crack about Pigma’s bacon being cooked or something. Falco had always come back for his team. But the fire was slowly burning itself out and there was no sign of him. But just maybe…

“Kursed,” Fox asked. “Do you think…did Falco make it out of there?”

Kursed was silent for a moment. “I’m sorry, Fox,” she said regretfully.

The last glimmer of hope inside of Fox burned out with the fire. He turned his ship to the Falcon. He wasn’t sure whether the stinging and blurring of his vision was from staring at the explosion or from tears threatening to escape, but it didn’t matter. Falco Lombardi was gone.

[Guest Julius Quasar]

Oh my God...great story...I hope he's okay... O_o

[Kursed]

:Today we honor a great pilot and a great Friend I honestly never really trusted him ,but I do now.... he gave his life so that all of lylat may live...

*Crying*

(Sorry had to do the speech thing... I like it keep going.

[Guest Julius Quasar]

:Today we honor a great pilot and a great Friend I honestly never really trusted him ,but I do now.... he gave his life so that all of lylat may live...

*Crying*

(Sorry had to do the speech thing... I like it keep going.

Madame Vulpine: "Now, now, darlings...he might very well be unconscious..."

[Sector-T]

I've only read chapter 1 so I'll be there soon.

[rainfyre66]

Chapter Fifteen

Fox could recall only one other time he felt like this- completely numb. It was when Peppy had told him of his father’s death. He’d been too young to remember much of when his mother died. It had also hurt when Krystal left him, but this was different. At least he knew that she was alive and out there somewhere. Just like whenever Falco left the team for awhile, Fox had known he was out there somewhere, and would probably be back, except when they had their falling out. But even that was different.

Fox had insisted that he be the one to give Peppy the news. What he really wanted was to talk to Peppy. Peppy knew what it was like to lose his best friend. James McCloud had been Peppy’s best friend when Pigma handed them over to Andross, and Peppy had been the only one who made it out alive, he hadn’t been able to save his best friend from death either. But Fox couldn’t do it, even if he was able to get the words out, now was not the time.

There was a definite somberness in the air, but like all wars, the fight could not be put on hold to mourn the loss of a soldier. Not only that, there was the mysterious disappearance of Dash Bowman to worry about. They had not received any signal from him and feared he’d been captured by Professor Andorf. The team pressed on, traveling to Professor Andorf’s hideout on Bludo, and readying their ships. Slippy was holding back sniffles as he worked on ROB. Fox looked and saw Katt, staring blankly out a window. If there was anyone who felt worse than him right now, it was probably her.

Fox went over to Katt and squeezed her hand. “Listen Katt,” he said softly. “Falco loved you, you know that, right? Even if he never said it or admitted it to himself, he did love you. I could tell.” He wasn’t just saying it to be kind, it was the truth.

“Fox is right,” Kursed said from behind them. They turned around. “You don’t even have to be a telepath to know he did,” she added with a small smile.

Katt lowered her head and nodded, her jaw clenched. “I know. I just want to be alone,” she said, and walked away.

“She’ll be okay, I hope,” said Fox, not feeling so sure. “She’s strong.”

Kursed nodded. “Are you okay, Fox?”

Fox let out a shaky breath. “I just can’t believe it…it’s so stupid, I wasted all this time being mad at him, when it was all my fault, really.”

“No, it wasn’t, Fox…”

“I ruined my friendship, I ruined everything with you, my team…”

Kursed grabbed his hands. “Fox, listen to me. Sometimes, things happen for a reason. It’s part of nature, and just like nature, you can either let changes destroy you, or learn to adapt.”

“You’re amazing, you know that?” he said.

Kursed blushed. “I was giving some old cliché advice. It’s not even my quote.”

“But you’re right,” he said. They turned and watched the team at work. Their talk turned to idle chatter about the upcoming endeavor and their team mates. They watched as Miyu tried to help General Felini with the codes to the readouts.

“She’s very skilled, isn’t she?” Kursed nodded her head towards Miyu. Fox nodded, watching her.

“Oh yeah, she was a professional hacker in her younger days, which comes in real handy, and she’s a real sharp shot,” Fox was oblivious to the expression on Kursed’s face. “Her problem is she doesn’t have much self-discipline. She’s kind of a big mouth and-”

“So have you and Miyu ever…” Kursed couldn’t help herself.

Fox jerked his head over in surprise. “What?! No. Never even considered it.”

“Really?” she asked, sliding towards him

“Really. I don’t look at her that way, she’s like a little sister to me. She’s the kid sister I never had.” He wrapped his arms around her waist. He knew she wanted him to kiss her, but he couldn’t bring himself to, for reasons that had nothing to do with her. She seemed to understand. He rested his face on her shoulder for awhile. “It’s always been you, Krystal,” he murmured.

She gently pushed him back a few inches. “My name is Kursed,” she reminded him, kindly but firmly.

“Sorry…Kursed.” They were silent for a few moments.

“You don’t have to be Kursed anymore, you know,” Fox said. “I would let you join Star Fox.”

“Oh, really? You’ll let me?” Kursed narrowed her eyes. “You’ll let Kursed join Star Fox, but not Krystal? Or do you mean you’ll only let me join Star Fox if I become Krystal again?”

“I just mean, the bounty hunter business, you wouldn’t have to do it anymore.”

“It’s not that easy, Fox,” she snapped. “It’s how I make a living for myself, and I’m constantly in danger because there are plenty of people who would like to get my head for themselves. I can’t stay in one place for very long. I couldn’t endanger everybody else.”

“We’d protect you, and if you weren’t killing anyone, then other people wouldn’t want you dead…”

“Stop acting like I’m some cold-blooded killer! The people I go after deserve it!”

Fox stepped back. He didn’t mean to make it worse, but he couldn’t control the anger that was boiling over. “They deserve it because you get money for it? Pigma got paid for turning my father over to Andross, does that mean my father deserved to die? Did Falco deserve to die?”

The cold mask fell over her face. “I know you’re upset about Falco, but don’t you ever compare me to Pigma or Andross again.”

“People I care about have died because of people like you! People that will kill for money!”

“So what do you do, Fox? Did General Pepper pay you to deliver a big bouquet of ‘Let’s be friends’ flowers to Andross and the Aparoids?” she said.

“That’s different and you know it! You don’t know what it’s like to lose your friends and family-” He didn’t realize what he was saying until it was too late.

“You’re absolutely right, Fox. I have no idea, even after I lost my family, my friends, my home, and everything I ever knew on Cerinia! Tell you what, since I’m so ignorant of your feelings, since I’m too horrible of a person to have around, I’ll go take care of Star Wolf and Professor Andorf myself. I’m sure me being a killer and all will come in handy!” She stormed off, grabbing her belongings. Without a word to anyone else, she hollered over her shoulder, “I’ll be back only to get my ship,” before she hopped into the Wolfen and blasted into space.

Fox let her go.

*

Professor Andorf was ready for them. He slid on a pair of black gloves, wriggling his fingers up to the tips. Angry as he was with Star Wolf for their reckless plotting, he knew they were probably right that it would work. He did not bother to send out brain frequencies to them, they would pursue Professor Andorf on their own accord. Destroying Fox McCloud so soon had not been in the original plan, but he was pleased about the opportunity to destroy the next generation of the McClouds sooner than expected. Just as his own family’s generations had been destroyed or ostracized, except for that blood traitor Dash Bowman, who was determined to deny any loyalty to what it meant to be a descendent of Andross. But Bowman was under his control now. And soon, Kursed would be too.

Professor Andorf was not worried about Kursed or Star Fox, his powers exceeded theirs greatly. It had been Dash Bowman that held him back, and Kursed was to help him finish breaking the link between their minds and their blood. Then she would become his next weapon, tapping into the minds of others and weakening them, giving Andorf information so he could better control them. Between Kursed and the Core Brain, Andorf had the means to become more powerful than Andross had ever been. Though Andross had mastered his science of weaponry and touched on telekinetics, he never quite mastered the latter. But Andorf had mastered both of them, yet his base was not heavily guarded. Should there be an intruder, either he could easily manipulate their minds or the objects around them to stop them. The Core Brain was able to maintain the frequency of Professor Andorf’s mind control throughout the galaxy, and the closer one got to it the stronger the frequency the harder it was for even the strong minded to fight it. And should anyone attempt to destroy it…

He smiled to himself, imagining Fox McCloud thinking he could come in here to save the day, only to meet the same fate as his father, James. An urgent message came in over the voice transmitter. So Pigma was dead. Professor Andorf felt no pity. He’d had it coming. Yet, as he heard the news that ace pilot Falco Lombardi had also gone down with Pigma in the combat, something did not sit right with him about these events. His smile faded into a frown that distorted his face into an even more grotesque mask. Perhaps it was because he wanted to finally come out of the shadows and prove his power by killing them himself.

Beeps from the radar screen caused his evil grin to return. Kursed was approaching the base now, and from the looks of it, Star Fox wasn’t too far behind her. He picked up his comm. link and informed Star Wolf of the news. How lucky they were…

*

“Fox! We got it!” Miyu cried excitedly. Even she knew that it was best not to ask Fox what Kursed storming out of the Falcon was all about, it had seemed a bit personal. Besides, they had finally cracked the code to the plans, and right now that was top priority.

The team crowded around to look at the screen. Miyu enlarged it so they could all see clearly. At first the layouts were basically the same, but Fox noticed a small difference. “These ones are missing the Professor Andorf signature. He must have added his signature to the decoy file because he wanted to be discovered.”

“Well, he must have known Pigma wouldn’t be a loyal ally when it came down to it,” Scout pointed out. “He probably wanted to make sure we knew who the real genius was.”

“Yeah, it never seemed right to me that Pigma suddenly had such technically advanced skills,” Fox agreed. They reached a new screen with plans they had never seen before- Pigma Dengar. “Speak of the devil,” Fox said, reading the diagrams of the pig-mecha bio-weapon. He still couldn’t believe that the greedy bottomfeeder who was once a Star Fox member with his father had become such a mechanic monstrosity over the years.

Katt pointed to an area on the chest of the diagram. “See right here? It looks like this area right here houses the main ciruit board that kept him alive, Falco must have gotten it exposed during the fight.”

Fox had been able to forget about the emptiness in his heart for a couple of minutes, but Katt’s remark brought it flooding back- not just about Falco, but now Kursed too. She and Fox exchanged a look of mutual sadness, yet both knew they had to be strong for the teams’ sake. They went to the next diagram- it was of an enormous, polygonal orb called the Core Brain that housed Professor Andorf’s telekinetic powers and used energy to keep the force constantly running so those under the influence could be controlled at all times.

“How will we destroy this thing?” asked Faye. “Look at its destruction defense reaction.”

“A black hole effect? How can such a thing be possible on an artificial core?” Scout asked incredulously.

Lucy was studying the Core’s plans. “Professor Andorf takes after Andross alright. He is one insanely brilliant scientist. I remember reading about how Andross had experimented with creating artificial black hole reactions. It looks as if Professor Andorf has figured out the formula. Having the physical properties from telekinetic brain waves certainly helps the effects as well.”

Lucy continued to try and explain the science behind Andorf’s method in hopes of helping the team figuring out a way to destroy it without destroying themselves, but Fox didn’t hear a word of it. All he could think of was Kursed, flying off alone to take down Star Wolf and Professor Andorf. She had no idea that if she destroyed Andorf’s main weapon, that she would be sucked into an inescapable black hole, maybe even taking Bowman with her. He was sure that Star Wolf knew of the reaction and would gladly let her go at it. His bitterness and grief subsided. No way would he risk losing another person so close to him. He stood up and ran over to his ship.

“Fox, what are you doing?” cried Bill in exasperation.

“I’m sorry Bill, but I’m heading to Bludo now. Follow me, we have to get there quickly. Kursed is on her way to fight them alone, and she has no idea that destroying Andorf’s power will kill her, and maybe Prime Minister Bowman, as well.”

*

Kursed flew towards Bludo. The cold drabness of the tundra moon fit her mood. She refused to acknowledge the pain in her heart from leaving Fox yet again. It was his fault, he had driven her to do it. She refused to wonder why he hadn't tried to stop her, if he really wanted her to leave. Besides, hadn’t she learned that distracting herself with the emotions and feelings of herself and others only complicated things and made it difficult to carry out her duties? She tried to shut off her mind, yet a stray thought trailed in- Dash Bowman is somewhere here on this base. She sensed him. How could she neglect such an important factor in this mission? She would have to rescue him as well. She closed her eyes to gage his condition, then let out a sharp gasp as pain flooded her head and a darkness stung her eyes. All is lost…

No. Dash Bowman couldn’t be dead too. She gripped the controls of the Wolfen. She had to shut off her mind again, this time because the physical pain had been too much to bear. She would just have to rely on strength and natural instinct alone to fight this.

She landed the Wolfen in the hangar bay and climbed out of the ship, her blaster drawn. She had found it odd and unsettling earlier that there had been almost no security on Andorf’s main base. He was confident in his power. Perhaps she could try to infiltrate his mind, as she did with the prison guard on Evola earlier. She shut her eyes to try and pick up on his life form.

She fell to the ground heavily as a large wolf pounced her from behind. Wolf O’Donnell licked his lips eagerly as Panther, Leon, and Jackal held her down. Wolf lay on top of her, his breath hot on her face. “Welcome back, Cookie…”

[rainfyre66]

Chapter 15 is complete, only 4 more chapters to go! (I know, it's a long story, right?)  Hopefully I don't give up now, I'm so close! Stupid lack of time to work on it like I want to (not completely happy with this chapter either, seems sloppier than I wanted it to be. Sorry.  )

[rainfyre66]

*This chapter has to be split into two parts because of the length again  *

Chapter Sixteen- PART ONE

This was not how Peppy wanted to end his run as General. He had never imagined his last run to be one that cost a planetary system their hero with Dash Bowman, and also an old friend with Falco Lombardi. Any triumph of destroying Pigma Dengar had been squelched by their losses. Peppy feared that Fox would not be able to keep control of his leadership, he had not looked well when he contacted Peppy for the debriefing. Not that Peppy could blame him. In all his years, Fox had yet to lose a team member in battle, and in spite of all their sparring, he knew Falco had truly been Fox’s best friend.

The calls were coming fast and furious as information leaked out. Was Pigma really destroyed? Was it true that Falco Lombardi had died in that combat? Why did Colonel Grey walk away from his general training to jump into battle, and where was Venom’s Prime Minister? Peppy redirected most of these calls to other representatives. He knew it was not wise to brood during a crisis, but he felt like a failure, and it had all began with trusting Star Wolf, whom he only agreed to trust in the first place because Krystal had been part of their team. Cornerian authorities had since placed a large reward for anyone who could turn over Star Wolf to them.

Peppy heard a voice, but surely it had come from his own mind. It was a voice that was assuring him all was not lost. The war was still being fought, but good could still prevail. Lives could still be saved. Peppy took comfort in the voice, yet worried about how the stress was taking a toll on him, much like it did to Bowman. After all, the voice that had spoken to him was somebody who had been dead for nearly 20 years. It was the voice of James McCloud.

*

General Felini boarded the charter ship that would be taking him back to Evola. Bill prepared to follow in his own. Bill would be protecting and accompanying Felini and would begin helping the CDF troops and remaining Beljar soldiers in clean-up missions.

Lucy watched anxiously as Bill climbed into his ship. Bill himself cast a long look back at her, smiling and saluting at her. “Be safe out there, Lucy. I need you to come back in one piece.” He waved at the rest of the team. “All of you, take care of yourselves.” With that, he closed the cockpit and exited the Falcon. The others also boarded their ships to follow Fox.

“It’s always good to see Bill,” Slippy remarked. ROB nodded his head, without even the slightest creak in his joints. Slippy had finally gotten ROB up to full power, all new parts seemed to go, so he could help pilot the Falcon with Slippy as they came closer to Bludo.

“You said it, Slip. He’s going to make a great general. Just like your father, Lucy,” Fox said over the voice com. Suddenly something flew over the tops of their ships and slammed into the Falcon.

“What was that?” asked Fox, looking at his radar screen. “It looked like an asteroid hit us.”

“I know, but the coordinates don’t show any asteroid fields in Bludo’s surrounding sectors,” Slippy replied, struggling to find the source of the impact. The ship was shook again.

“We are approaching Bludo,” said ROB. “Incoming asteroid.”

“That’s no asteroid!” said Hawkeye as Bludo slowly came into view. “Look, I see chunks missing from there.”

Fox watched closely as the moon seemed to remove a chunk of rock from itself and hurl it at their ship. ROB took it out with a laser.

“Does Bludo have a history of being an ustable planetoid?” asked Faye.

“I don’t think so,” said Fox. “I have a feeling that this is telekinetics at work.”

Katt shuddered. “That’s some strong telekinetic power.”

“Everybody, be ready, it’s not lasers and missles we’re going up against, this is going to be much harder…”

*

Kursed found herself in a pitch dark room, bound to a chair. She growled to herself. Star Wolf thought they’d gotten the best of her, but she’d show them. She was struggling to break free of her bonds when a light came on, hurting her eyes. She was in a sterile looking, circular room that held nothing but the chair she was in and a what looked like an operating table that was covered by a sheet.

The door to the room slid open. Star Wolf entered, followed by a tall and wiry baboon in a long lab coat. As she looked at him more carefully, she realized that not only was he fairly young, but he in fact was not actually a baboon, but was wearing grotesque paint on his face to make it look like one. Could this be the elusive Professor Andorf? She met his pitch black eyes and felt a throbbing in her head. She shut her eyes and her mind, forcing any thought force out of her head. Yes, this had to be him.

“Well, well, well,” his voice was high and raspy. “The infamous bounty hunter, Kursed. We meet at last. Pleased to make your acquaintance, I am Professor Andorf.” He held out a mocking hand for her to shake, smirking at her arms bound behind her. “I am very excited by your presence. Here, this might make you feel more at ease.” With barely a wave of his hand, the ties lashed away from her arms and legs. The friction from the action burned her, but she restrained herself from wincing or rubbing her arms where it had hurt. Instead, she put it towards her rage and lashed towards him and Star Wolf.

She flew back, sliding on her bottom. It was like an invisible force had shoved her to the ground. Professor Andorf nodded. “That wasn’t wise, though understandable. You are afraid, but I can assure you I have no intentions of hurting you.”

“Why do you think I’ll help you?” she asked through gritted teeth.

“Because you’ll have no other choice,” he answered calmly.

“Where is Prime Minister Bowman?” she demanded.

“You don’t need to worry about him,” he said. “Dash Bowman is under my control for now, safely secured and tucked away.”

Kursed decided to try a different tactic. She stared at him and then closed her eyes, determined to enter his mind.

“Aaahhh!” Kursed crumbled to the ground as a piercing pain stabbed into her head. She curled up and laid her head on the cool metal floor, as if that would stop the agonizing waves from reaching her head. Professor Andorf giggled humorlessly.

“Nice try, nice try indeed. But do you really think that it would be that easy to get in here?” He pointed to his head. “In time, my dear, I’ll let you in. We’ll be allies very soon here. That’s quite a talent you have. Not very many people who truly have the power of telepathy out there. Just as there are few out there with the power of telekinesis, and even fewer who have learned to apply their knowledge and power to it, as my ancestors did. My grandfather, for instance, the great Emperor Andross. Perhaps you’ve heard of him?” He asked the last question with antagonizing sarcasm.

“Andross is your grandfather? So you are related to Bowman…”

Professor Andorf crossed his arms and furrowed his brow. “Relative is such a loose term. Dash Bowman is a blood traitor, he has betrayed his own roots, he is ashamed of the legacy before him. One shouldn’t feel shame for their family history, especially one as strong as ours!”

“Andross was a monster!” Kursed screamed. “Bowman is right to be ashamed! He is a good person, unlike you and the rest who have given in to their demons and gone bad!”

Andorf shook his head. “Regardless, we’re getting off subject. Emperor Andross never thought to seek out those with other powers, to combine them to be the ultimate power in ruling the galaxy. Brains will always triumph over brawn, something my little pawn Pigma never quite realized.”

“I never understood, why Pigma? Why not just come after Lylat yourself?”

Andorf snorted. “I know that you are not so simple minded to have not figured that out. If you’re trying to stall me, don’t worry, you are not keeping me from anything that I’m not ready for. So I will explain, if you must know. For years, I studied science on this uncharted moon in secret, experimenting, creating, honing my telekinetic powers. When I came across the remains of Pigma Dengar, I knew I would eventually have the abilities to rebuild him, resurrect him, so to speak. Pigma is known for his ignorant greediness, and I knew if I played my cards right, I could convince he and others that he could be a threat to the galaxy, and test the true powers of my Core Brain. It’d be stupid to try such an experiment on Lylat first, so I chose Beljar, and I knew if I had a distress call sent out to Corneria, Lylat would come gunning to the rescue. I figured I’d let Pigma have his fun and make some damage before he was surely destroyed, and while Lylat would be busy patting themselves on the back, I would move in on them. I must admit, I’m surprised that I was found out sooner than expected,” he glanced at Star Wolf. “But no worries. Things are going as planned, if not better that planned.”

“So why do you need me, and Dash Bowman?”

“Very well, you will be working closely with me and I am going to need your help ensuring Dash stays under my control, so I will explain. Surely you have figured out I have telekinesis of extraordinary power, so strong I can manipulate peoples’ thoughts and actions. Whereas, you can really get into peoples’ minds, see their thoughts and memories, their feelings, foresee danger and find their weaknesses. Together we will be partners, ruling the galaxy with our joined powers.”

“But why bring Dash into this? He has never sought out to hurt you,”

“You didn’t let me finish. Dash is a threat to our legacy! Not only does he settle for mediocrity, but he is trying bring me down! I used to wonder if he ever even realized what he was doing, our minds have some sort of connection that I think he refuses to see, as it may make him less good than he strives to be, and as long as his mind exists, my full power cannot be realized. Our minds cannot co-exist. I would kill him myself, but I fear that it may lessen my own personal mind power, if the power is truly shared with him. So I have simply put his mind under my control for now, and I also need you to help me break the bond between Dash and I for good, to find the answers, and find a way of killing him that does not put my mind at risk.”

Kursed attempted again to enter his mind, and again let out a scream as she was met with a strong wave of pain. She shut out her mind, imagining she was pushing the pain back at him.

Amazingly, Professor Andorf flinched and staggered back a few steps. His black eyes widened, and suddenly Kursed was met with a brief flash of Andorf’s mind, but almost as soon as she saw it, it was gone, replaced again with antagonizing throbs.

“You are a fighter, Kursed. I like that, I like that. But if you are going to enter my mind, it will be on my terms.” Professor Andorf’s comm. link beeped and he held it up to his ear. He grinned, and then turned to Star Wolf. “Well Star Wolf, I must say that was some excellent thinking on your part. Star Fox is approaching Bludo as we speak. You truly deserve your rich reward.”

Andorf waved his hand and the sheet whisked away from the operating table, revealing an assortment of weapons- knives, guns, and detonators. The blasters and weapons that Star Wolf had on themselves seemed to float out of their holding places and landed on the operating table with the other weapons. Andorf waved his other hand and sets of bonds flew over to them and wrapped tightly around their wrists as their arms were forced behind their back. An invisible force pushed them to their knees.

Professor Andorf slid open the door and turned to them. “I’m sorry Star Wolf, but I can’t trust you any more than I could trust Pigma. Lylat will surely capture you and try you for treason, and you know far too much now. In the meantime, I will go take care of Star Fox, and Kursed, I encourage you to use whatever means you so desire to dispose of Star Wolf. You will know where to find me when you are finished with them.” With that, he glided out of the room. The door shut behind him, leaving only Kursed and a defenseless Star Wolf at her mercy.

[rainfyre66]

Chapter 16, PART 2

Fox and his team dodged and weaved their way through the hurtling chunks of planet. The Falcon took out as many of the chunks as it could. As they flew to the surface of Bludo, the icy grains of the ground swirled up as if caught in a violent windstorm, shielding most of their vision.

“I can’t see a thing!” whined Miyu. “How are we going to find the base?”

“Pay attention to your radar screen,” said Fox.

“Oh yeah…I would have thought of that, you know.”

“The base isn’t much farther,” said Faye. “According to my radar, we’re coming up on it.”

“Something’s happening to my radar!” cried Hawkeye after a few moments. “It’s getting some sort of interference.”

“Mine too!” cried Miyu desperately. “All my systems are failing.”

Fox’s own systems slowly started going. “Everybody, hold on! Andorf is causing interference with our ships. We’re almost there, just try to make it to the base!”

Fox soon realized that wouldn’t be a problem. It was as if they were being pulled by a tractor beam into the moon base. Andorf was using his power to pull them into his clutches, and trying to take their defenses. Fox’s ship, despite the fact that its power was completely dead, glided into the hangar bay of the base and landed neatly as though he’d landed it naturally.

Fox knew he needed to get out of his cockpit, but that display of power had taken his breath away. Not even Andross had been that confident in his power to literally pull Star Fox to his lair. He hoped that Kursed was safe, and that Dash Bowman was still alive here somewhere. He braced himself for whatever force met them next and climbed out of his ship. The others  followed suit, all equally shaken by the experience.

“We should just surrender now, Fox. That was too much…he has too much power,” said Scout. “Even our weapons probably won’t help.”

“Don’t talk like that, Scout. We’ll never surrender. If we go down, we go down fighting,” said Fox. “We’ll stay together, and look for Kursed. I have a feeling her telepathy is key to our survival.”

“I hope you’re right,” Scout grumbled.

“If we want to find Kursed, I have a feeling he has her located near the Core Brain. He’ll want to keep her telepathy at bay, and I think he knows he’ll have to be near a close proximity of the core to control a strong mind like hers,” said Lucy. “Which means we ALL have to be careful. We are all strongly susceptible to falling under his mind control, if he tries to use it against us.”

They all looked at each other nervously. They hadn’t thought of that, that one of their team mates could turn on them if they fell under Andorf’s control.

“If that happens, set your gun for stun. We will not lose another team member, got it?” said Katt.

“Absolutely. If I get that dead eye thing going on, don’t hesitate to stun me,” said Miyu.

They walked out of the hangar, blasters drawn. The paranoia in the air was heavy. Fox and Lucy moved cautiously side by side. Now was probably not the appropriate time, but Fox couldn’t help asking, in case he didn’t get the chance to ask the question later.

“You know, Lucy…I’ve been thinking…would you like to try joining Star Fox again? Or maybe even Star Falco now that they’re…down a member? You were always a strong team mate, and either team would be lucky to have you. You’ve been a great help to us.”

Lucy smiled, but shook her head no. “I’m sorry Fox. But my heart lies in the CDF.”

“Listen, Lucy, if it’s because of how it was a few years ago, I can swear that it’ll be different this time.”

“It’s not that, Fox. I know my father would be thrilled if I joined up with your team again, but I like what I do now. I like knowing that I am helping Corneria keep a strong and secure army, and want to make sure the right decisions are made. Besides, with Bill soon taking over as General, he’ll need somebody to assist him and help him get situated.”

Fox nodded. He had to smile. He should have known that it was because of Bill, not the past, that really made Lucy want to stay with the CDF. Not that Lucy didn’t love her job or do it well, but he had a feeling she also enjoyed working closely with Bill.

“You know Fox,” Lucy said hesitantly. “Father always wanted you to take over for him. He always believed in you, and thought you would make an even better general than he did. I know Bill would let you step into the position over him-”

“No, Lucy. I could never do that. Bill earned that title, and he’s loyally served the in the CDF all this time. That’s what Corneria needs. I’ll be happy to help him whenever he needs it, but I’m not cut out for being a general.” He grinned. “Remember, Star Fox does things their own way!”

“How could I forget?” Lucy smiled. “I know Father will understand that.”

Suddenly, they were interrupted as a great explosion rocked the floor under their feet.

“Kursed!” cried Fox instinctively. Suppose she had attempted to destroy the Core Brain? He took off down a long hall, something was pulling him in that direction. Was Kursed sending him another mental call for help?

“Fox, slow down!” cried Katt, taking off after him. The rest of them followed, unaware that several guards draped in black were following them. They also did not see another group slip by them, climbing into ships and blasting out into space.

*

Kursed looked down at the wide array of weapons on the table, trying not to feel pleased by the possibilities that they held. She picked them up, fingering them and inspecting them. Something in the back of her mind pulsed, oh how she would enjoy finally getting her revenge on Star Wolf, those two-faced bastards, after all they put her through. The question was, did she want to make it slow and painful, or something quick yet obliterating? She picked up Wolf’s own blaster and twirled it in her hand, grinning at him.

Wolf and the rest of his team returned her stare calmly. “If you want to hear us beg for mercy, you’ll never get that from us,” he said. “We are not afraid to die.”

She aimed it between his eyes. “Are you sure about that, Wolf?”

Wolf blinked, but nodded confidently. “Just one last request. All I ask is that you look at your enemy. Really look at them, know your enemies.”

Kursed lowered the blaster and looked at Star Wolf. As much as she loathed them this moment, there was another part of her that nagged at her. There was a time that Star Wolf had been like a family to her. A dysfunctional family, for sure, but still people that were there for her nevertheless, helping her in their own way that they knew. She purposely avoided looking at Panther. That would be the hardest, she knew. No. She could not be weak. The past didn’t matter. Star Wolf had chosen the path of betrayal and deceit, and now they would pay their price. She eyed the weapons again, then looked again at Star Wolf.

Look at your enemy…know your enemies. That had to mean something, Wolf wouldn’t be so cryptic for no reason. Perhaps he was withholding one last bit of information from her, and was hoping that she’d just go ahead and kill them first without taking the bait. She would not be so rash. She stared into the eyes of Star Wolf, all of them- Wolf, Panther, Leon, even Jackal. Her eyes locked on Wolf’s. After a few moments, she shut her eyes. Finally, she walked over to the lab table and picked up a knife. She went behind Panther and raised her knife, cutting his bonds free, then did the same for the others, Wolf last. She went and picked up a detonator from the table and walked toward the door.

“Go,” she said in a low voice. “Run now while he is distracted, and hide yourselves somewhere in the galaxy where you won’t be found for awhile.”

“Kursed,” Panther started to say, but she shook her head.

“Just go,” she said, opening the door and flipping a switch on the detonator.