Post by Master of Darkness on Jan 3, 2009 19:48:08 GMT
As the double doors closed behind him, the lone figure cut a long shadow into the path before him. At the end of this path was a throne, surrounded by many men - and some women - in white robing, all around the sides of this rocky room. At the foot of this throne were two men, one with greyish hair that swept down to his ears, and had a foxy look about his eyes. The second was a coloured man, and the most prominent feature were his sunglasses; something you'd consider useless in this dark place. They wrapped about his head cleanly and his dreads swooped down in a flowing motion.
Sitting in the grand throne made of marble and lined in fine silks sat who appeared to be the leader of this group. His eyes were sunken back into his head a little, a sure sign of once having needed to wear spectacles. His brown hair was swept back across his head, and his posture was that of a relaxed man. One arm was laid upon one arm of the throne, whilst the other was propping his head up.
The lone figure continued his long walk down this path until roughly halfway into the room, where he stopped. He folded his leather-padded armed and tapped a booted foot upon the floor a couple of times, taking this all in.
"I requested a private audience," he eventually said out loud, his rough voice carrying surprisingly well around the large cavernous expanse. "Who are these clowns? Are they your equivalent of dancing girls?"
He snorted a quick laugh out, bowing his head down slightly. He wasn't impressed by this.
"Many apologies," came the reply from the man in the throne, "but these are all my subordinates, and ones that care very deeply."
A twinkle appeared in the leader's eye as he looked across to try and establish eye contact with the newcomer, still shrouded in the darkness. "I tried to remove them, but they're worried about outsiders. Especially those not of this world."
Puffing out his hairy chest, a louder and more menacing laugh came back at the human. "And you think this course of action a prudent one?" he asked, wary now of all the many pairs of eyes watching him closely.
"I disagree with the lack of privacy," came an agreement, "alas if I were to forcefully remove my subordinates then I'd have a problem. And so would you... Shall we cut to the chase? Or would you prefer we adjourn and have a drink?" the leader smiled as he said this, playing the situation as carefully and calmly as possible.
The loner made a single step forwards, bringing a booted foot and a demin-covered leg into a beam of light. Almost instantly the noise of swords being drawn could be heard echoing everywhere.
Instantly the leader waved a hand. "Please everyone," he smiled, "I believe he is about to say something. Am I wrong... Wolf?"
Another step brought Wolf into the light properly, no longer hiding in darkness. He yawned a little, revealing a set of brilliantly aggressive and sharp teeth and a devilishly flickering tongue. One eye was covered up by an eyepatch, and around his head sat a headset, whereupon he could communicate with his team at any given time. His biker jacket shone a little in the dim light, and his boots crunched as he set them down onto the floor, crushing any small lumps of gravel beneath.
"I see you are indeed a man of little time, so I shall get to the point." He snarled a little at this, clearly angered at the man's lack of respect for his position on this world. "I wish to get home - my team, wishes to get home. It's quite simple," he said, licking his lips with anticipation of what he was about to say.
"You have people here that need feeding, right? Help me and my crew get home. In return I shall grant you as many souls as you require."
A glint appeared in the man's eye, and he tried to hide his smile by repositioning the hand he was leaning on.
"Aizen-sama!" called out the coloured man. "Are you really considering this act of injustice? For the sake of peace, I cannot allow this!"
"Ah think about it this way, Tousen-kun," the fox-eyed man said, not altering his posture or direction of sight. "You'll have a new world on which to exert your version of justice, y'know?"
Wolf looked up at Aizen and smiled.
To understand this story better, we should go across our galaxy and into another, and more specifically the Lylat system. Whilst freed from the clutches of the tyranny of Andross, the small and plucky planet known as Corneria still suffers the attacks of his minions; the separate lords who obeyed his cause have become smaller thorns in the side of the Cornerian army. Whilst sometimes fighting each other, sometimes these smaller forces will join up to assault Corneria once more. The Aparoid thread was no more, but if people like Oikinny still lived, there would always be trouble for the Cornerian fleets.
And in these hours of crisis, Fox McCloud and his Star Fox team step up to the plate, ready to battle evil once more.
As it happened, right now was a time of peace. Most of the evil in the galaxy had been purged, and so there'd be a small amount of time before it came back to haunt them. Andross had done a good job of sowing the seeds of darkness, that much was certain. He might have passed, but his legacy lived on.
Right now in Corneria City's space port, Fox and Slippy were on Fox's Arwing trying to improve the pick-up of various battle readouts - currently they were working on a new system for the laser that could accurately pick out an enemy's weak point, rather than just locking and firing.
The main problem with this new system was the fact it kept trying to home in on the pilot, who was usually hidden away through many layers of severely reinforced plastics and glasses. And they wanted to aim for something that merely disabled an enemy craft rather than obliterate the pilot within.
"Try avoiding life signs, Slip," Fox called out as he toyed with the HUD in the cockpit once again.
"Okay Fox, try that," the amphibian called out as he tinkered with a laptop perched on the left wing of the Arwing. He was altering the parameters of the coding; something Beltino had taught him recently. "Give it a whirl!"
Tapping a couple more controls, Fox glanced towards the skies. "Alright Falco, stop playing and help out here will you?"
Above their heads, Falco was having fun with the latest modifications to his G-Diffuser System. He was easily the most aggressive to his fighter and as such his plane required... personalising... to keep up with him. If it were anyone else he'd have been told to alter his flying style, but because he was considered an elite: one of the best, he was given what he wanted until it worked.
And flying high in the Cornerian capital, Falco Lombardi was zipping in and out of skyscrapers and under and over roads, giving the people of the rebuilt city something to look at and enjoy.
Plus his beak was plastered in an almighty grin. He'd not smiled in a long time.
"Not a chance, Foxey," he called out over the radio. "Don't want to go making it too easy on you, what if this were combat?"
"Falco..." he sighed, glancing at Slippy who was rolling his eyes. "At least let us check it, then we'll try a combat simulation."
"Yeah, now you're talking!" the bird whooped, looping the loop before bringing the Arwing down in a flashy manner, slamming the air brakes on in as dramatic a fashion as possible.
Smiling, Fox nodded at Slippy as he folded the canopy down. "Go play with the Wolfen for a bit," he said as he waited for the toad to unplug and climb down before firing up the single seated plane's engines.
Falco rocked his Arwing from side to side, wingtips almost touching the ground. "Bet you can't beat me now, Fox!"
Overlooking the entire scene, Peppy stood in the bridge of the Great Fox and smiled. It was good to see the team spirit looking so healthy. ROB was sitting down ensuring the ship's own repairs and upgrades were going according to schedule. The old girl was virtually destroyed by the Aparoids and nearly took O'Hare and ROB with it. As it happened they managed to salvage enough of the old ship to put back together, and within a couple of days it would soon be time to rechristen the reborn warship.
*dee-deet* *dee-deet*
Frowning at the intrusion, Peppy merely nodded towards the robot, who connected the call. The communications array had been installed a month ago and it was working fine... even so, Peppy didn't need to turn towards the holo-projector to see who was calling him.
"Wolf isn't coming back, is he Pepper?"
"It isn't like it's his fault, O'Hare."
Peppy turned to face General Pepper, the old war hound looking especially beat up after the last great war. "Time hasn't been kind to you, has it sir?"
"Insolence in the ranks? I won't tolerate it!"
"I'm a general too, you realise... Why did you call?" Peppy muttered, glaring at the dog. He had been enjoying himself, and Pepper calling Great Fox directly meant only one thing: he wanted something.
Pepper sighed; he knew he owed Peppy a great debt. And now he felt the rabbit was being rude, but reasoned he probably had good reason to be.
"You know we hired Star Wolf to sweep up the remnants of whatever was in the Lybari sector. What you don't know is that we authorised use of the Gate to save him a twelve hour journey for him and his team. He and the other three went through-"
"Star Wolf totals three - Wolf, Leon and Panther. You said 'other three' - is there a fourth member of the team?" Peppy asked, now rather concerned that his new allies might be getting back into their old ways. As he spoke he made his way closer to the hologram, leaning on a table once close enough to consider enough.
"That's not important right now."
"YES IT IS!" Peppy roared, slamming a hand down onto the metal surface. "You're calling because you want your newest addition to the Cornerian Army returned safe and sound. If there are four members, I want to be able to brief my squad on what they're getting into! Must you be so selfish all the time, you foolish dog?"
"They're still mercenaries, but they are also equipped with a new technology, something to rival the stealth tech that has been recently used against us."
"You're ignoring me."
"We called it Ghost-Tech. As you know when a Cornerian - or anyone in the Lylat system - passes away they become a ghost. This new technology allows us to see them, communicate with them, and alter our own physical presence temporarily to become one.
"Because of this tech being active when they went through the gate, the time/space barriers in place on them altered with the time/space parameters the gate plays with... the gate is currently down and they went to a system nowhere near our precious Lylat. They're lost and need retrieving."
Peppy took off his glasses, and placed both hands on the counter in front. "Who is the fourth member, General Pepper?"
"We don't know. What we do know is they are a ghost, that's why Wolf had the new tech. We gave him the volatile and experimental toys, and in exchange for him and his boys being Cornerian guinea pigs and clearing Lybari, he requested a fourth Wolfen. We weren't idiots, we knew that this ship may one day be used against us."
"But you gave in, and let him have his way. Why didn't you trust us with this one, Pepper?"
"Because Star Wolf has contacts in the ghost realms. If he can interact with them easier, we can gain the benefits.
"If you start giving him tech that he can copy, he can make all ghosts physical - if you look at it that way," Peppy ranted, "and before you know it Wolf will access to weapons of mass destruction all over again! He's a time bomb waiting to go off!"
It was now Pepper's turn to snap.
"Why can't you get over it? It's because of your petty prejudices that Star Wolf were even selected! They helped out and put their fur on the line against the Aparoids, and have helped our cause ever since! They're HELPING US, Peppy! Why can't you see that you're being narrow-minded about their presence? GET OVER IT!"
A pause for some thought and consideration.
"It was because of one of their members that James died," Peppy said quietly, cutting the transmission. He placed a hand on his head and closed his eyes, shaking his head slightly.
"No wonder the Aparoids got him..." he quietly uttered, before looking up to see Krystal leaning in the doorway, not daring to make eye contact with him.
"How much did you hear?" the old rabbit asked, still keeping his voice low.
"Enough," came the simple answer. "I detected rising levels of stress and tension, so I decided to see if I could help... can I?"
Wiping a solitary tear from his eye, Peppy turned to look out through the window, watching as Fox and Falco played innocently amongst the landmarks of Corneria City.
"Get in touch with Beltino. We need this ghosting technology, and a working gate if we're going to retrieve Star Wolf. They helped us, now it's time to repay the debt. I'll tell Fox and the others tonight in a general briefing."
Krystal nodded before walking away, taking time to note that there seemed to be some confusion over his motive for going after them.
High in the skies of Corneria, the pair of Arwings hovered in mid-air whilst Fox checked a few more details.
"Falco, is your G-Diffuser working okay?" he asked as he made final adjustments to his own.
"Sure is, Fox!" came the reply over the radio, Lombardi's Arwing twitching with excitement. "It feels better in atmo, for sure!"
Fox smiled, that was one less thing for him to worry about. He knew he could trust Falco with an Arwing, and also knew that when the guy was moving like this, that he was truly happy and in his element.
Training was going to be interesting against an in-form bird.
"Okay, let's break to a distance of 1 kilometer so the new scanner can be checked properly, then we'll run a combat sim to give your new G-Diffuser map a workout to remember.
"You? Give me a workout?" Falco laughed, performing a barrel roll as he floated in mid-air. "You won't even last five minutes!"
"Wanna bet, Falco?"
"Eh, why not Foxy? What're you wagering?"
Fox paused for a second - Falco was actually going to bet against him. "Are you serious?" he asked eventually as he looked up from his control console towards the bird.
"Well, I've got a pretty sweet pad over on Macbeth," came the comeback. "I'll let you have a week in there, so long as you put up Krystal for a date!"
"WHAT?" Fox burst out, extremely surprised and slightly annoyed all at once. "What interest do you have in Krystal?"
"None whatsoever, Foxy," the bird hollered back, "but if you want a week in that condo of mine, you're gonna have to match the stakes."
Fox nodded; that place of Falco's was pretty much a bachelor pad for the next century. Well, not so much a pad than a complete building block filled with toys. Just one floor was filled with computer gadgetry, for example.
Of course, Fox had also wanted the chance to even visit overnight but Falco was insistent; no visitors for longer than an hour, and all breakages to be paid for.
Then there was the whole Falco-wanting-a-date-with-Krystal thing... he couldn't let that happen!
Fox shook his head before frowning, putting some distance between them immediately.
"Okay Falco, here we go. I'll test the new system in a combat situation. Inside of five minutes, I'll have gotten a lock on and killed you. If I win, your condo is mine for a week, all expenses paid. All. and if I lose-"
"I get Krystal's cute hinee for a night, Foxy!"
Fox gritted his teeth. "Here we go!" he cried out, boosting forwards with the wings folded back, closing the gap to his team mate's Arwing.
Falco meanwhile laughed; Fox had fallen into his little play beautifully.
"You might be a worthy opponent now you've got a motive, Fox," he murmured as he broke away up and to the right, passing Fox overhead before immediately pulling a 180 and attempting to follow his leader.
This could get interesting, he thought as Fox's rear booster came into his sights before Fox slammed on the brakes, looping overhead and around, flipping a number of times in the air to confuse Falco's radar systems a little more.
Fox snarled; that bird was not getting Krystal!
Wrapping a feathered hand around the levers in front of him, Falco wrenched them back whilst simultaneously slamming his feet to the ground, pushing the pedals there fully to the floor to activate the airbrakes. He immediately then lifted off the brakes whilst throwing the levers forwards, rocking his chair slightly to allow him a little extra movement in his upper limbs.
Outside the craft, what was going on was simply awe-inspiring. Falco had repeated Fox's little move except without so many flips; he wanted to remain in control of his craft at all times. He simply cut thrust and lifted up slightly, allowing an updraft he'd felt to pick his Arwing up and hold it in the air, the craft seemingly floating back gently before the afterburner poured speed back wholeheartedly into the small vessel, Falco setting off in pursuit of his rival, Fox McCloud.
"Only one way to win this fight, Foxy!" the static cracked in, ringing around the cockpit of Fox's Arwing. Barely ten seconds had passed and already this game of cat and mouse was in Falco's favour.
"Your job's to evade me, Falco!" Fox called out, diving down and around then back up, trying to catch Falco out in a spiralling movement.
"I am, in a manner of speaking," Falco replied. Fox snarled, this wasn't going too well. He knew all to well what game Falco was playing: Cat And Mouse.
And the only way to win was not to be the mouse.
"Fine, if that's the way we're going to be playing...." Fox muttered off-radio, as he made a small adjustment to his G-diffuser before slamming the Arwing into a full throttle boost forwards and down, straight towards the Cornerian capital's skyscraper complex.
Having not been caught out by the spiral, Falco was rather amused to see Fox darting off.
"I am not falling for that," he laughed to himself. "I can just sit here for anther few minutes and let him sit there. He's wasting time..."
Falco rocked his ship; he was feeling cocky.
Meanwhile Fox was checking his radar, to see if Falco was pursuing... Falco's transponder was getting further and further away - soon he'd be out of visual.
"He took the bait," Fox smirked before momentarily cranking up the power to the diffuser and throwing his precious craft into the tightest possible 180, launching his Arwing straight back at Falco.
As he reapproached Falco, he noticed that the bird was still sitting on the spot; looking up, he could see the rival ship just tipping its wings gently as Falco clearly hasn't anticipated Fox to do what he had.
The bird was feeling pretty good about himself. He started to turn his ship back towards the Great Fox, having celebrated his victory already by being so cocky. Sighing, he started to plan his big date with Krystal - wouldn't Fox be pissed about that!
Before he could punch for home however, Falco noticed a beeping on the radar - a radar lock; looking up Fox was storming in on an approach, with a weapons lock.
"That's not right," he murmured as he looked over the radar screen once more, looking at the two dots visible. The one furthest away was Fox, but the mysterious second one?
Fox was now in a much better mood. "WELL, Falco," he called out, "one minute and thirty! We'll discuss the-"
He had no time for anything else. A second or two after the second blip had appeared on Falco's radar, a humongous burst of light appeared in front of him stretched out in a thin line, before fading very quickly to black. "WOAH!" he cried out as he slammed the brakes on.
The black object now began to open up from its original simple line and was vast, and looked like a long stretched out pile of building blocks... and was pitch black. Utterly black.
"Fox, you alright?" a concerned Falco asked curiously, wondering himself what was going on. The two Arwings sat either side of this black vastness, and both were at a loss as to where it had come from, what it was, or anything else to do with it.
"Yeah Falco, I'm fine," Fox replied eventually, allowing a slight breeze to drift his Arwing slightly rightwards, the thing still looking identical as he floated over. "I'm checking the instruments now... no energy readings either coming or going... no mass apparently... it's just... there, Falco."
Fox continued to study this for a while longer. "Falco, head directly to Peppy and report this to him, no doubt he's monitoring this whole situation anyway. Then I want you both to make a joint statement to the old wardog."
"Jeez Louise, why Pepper?" Falco frowned, his craft still slightly pointing to the safety net of Great Fox. "He'll just take charge of the situation again; I say we're good enough to go it alone!"
"Falco," Fox started, biting his tongue a little, "we don't know what we're dealing with. We might need the Fleet on this one, and there is the fact he pays the bills, after all."
"The fleet?" came a surprised outburst. "You think this is that bad?"
Fox looked over the black hole in the sky carefully, also taking some care to word his next sentence properly.
"It could just be something random that will go away, it could be something worse than the Aparoids. I don't want to take that chance, Falco. Get back to the Great Fox, I'll follow you once I've made an analysis."
"Don't go getting yourself killed then, Foxy!" the bird called out as he peeled off. "You've got a week in an apartment to claim, don't forget."
With that, Falco hit the afterburner and was gone.
Fox was now alone with the black massless object.
And boy, did he feel anxious right now.
Sitting in the grand throne made of marble and lined in fine silks sat who appeared to be the leader of this group. His eyes were sunken back into his head a little, a sure sign of once having needed to wear spectacles. His brown hair was swept back across his head, and his posture was that of a relaxed man. One arm was laid upon one arm of the throne, whilst the other was propping his head up.
The lone figure continued his long walk down this path until roughly halfway into the room, where he stopped. He folded his leather-padded armed and tapped a booted foot upon the floor a couple of times, taking this all in.
"I requested a private audience," he eventually said out loud, his rough voice carrying surprisingly well around the large cavernous expanse. "Who are these clowns? Are they your equivalent of dancing girls?"
He snorted a quick laugh out, bowing his head down slightly. He wasn't impressed by this.
"Many apologies," came the reply from the man in the throne, "but these are all my subordinates, and ones that care very deeply."
A twinkle appeared in the leader's eye as he looked across to try and establish eye contact with the newcomer, still shrouded in the darkness. "I tried to remove them, but they're worried about outsiders. Especially those not of this world."
Puffing out his hairy chest, a louder and more menacing laugh came back at the human. "And you think this course of action a prudent one?" he asked, wary now of all the many pairs of eyes watching him closely.
"I disagree with the lack of privacy," came an agreement, "alas if I were to forcefully remove my subordinates then I'd have a problem. And so would you... Shall we cut to the chase? Or would you prefer we adjourn and have a drink?" the leader smiled as he said this, playing the situation as carefully and calmly as possible.
The loner made a single step forwards, bringing a booted foot and a demin-covered leg into a beam of light. Almost instantly the noise of swords being drawn could be heard echoing everywhere.
Instantly the leader waved a hand. "Please everyone," he smiled, "I believe he is about to say something. Am I wrong... Wolf?"
Another step brought Wolf into the light properly, no longer hiding in darkness. He yawned a little, revealing a set of brilliantly aggressive and sharp teeth and a devilishly flickering tongue. One eye was covered up by an eyepatch, and around his head sat a headset, whereupon he could communicate with his team at any given time. His biker jacket shone a little in the dim light, and his boots crunched as he set them down onto the floor, crushing any small lumps of gravel beneath.
"I see you are indeed a man of little time, so I shall get to the point." He snarled a little at this, clearly angered at the man's lack of respect for his position on this world. "I wish to get home - my team, wishes to get home. It's quite simple," he said, licking his lips with anticipation of what he was about to say.
"You have people here that need feeding, right? Help me and my crew get home. In return I shall grant you as many souls as you require."
A glint appeared in the man's eye, and he tried to hide his smile by repositioning the hand he was leaning on.
"Aizen-sama!" called out the coloured man. "Are you really considering this act of injustice? For the sake of peace, I cannot allow this!"
"Ah think about it this way, Tousen-kun," the fox-eyed man said, not altering his posture or direction of sight. "You'll have a new world on which to exert your version of justice, y'know?"
Wolf looked up at Aizen and smiled.
To understand this story better, we should go across our galaxy and into another, and more specifically the Lylat system. Whilst freed from the clutches of the tyranny of Andross, the small and plucky planet known as Corneria still suffers the attacks of his minions; the separate lords who obeyed his cause have become smaller thorns in the side of the Cornerian army. Whilst sometimes fighting each other, sometimes these smaller forces will join up to assault Corneria once more. The Aparoid thread was no more, but if people like Oikinny still lived, there would always be trouble for the Cornerian fleets.
And in these hours of crisis, Fox McCloud and his Star Fox team step up to the plate, ready to battle evil once more.
As it happened, right now was a time of peace. Most of the evil in the galaxy had been purged, and so there'd be a small amount of time before it came back to haunt them. Andross had done a good job of sowing the seeds of darkness, that much was certain. He might have passed, but his legacy lived on.
Right now in Corneria City's space port, Fox and Slippy were on Fox's Arwing trying to improve the pick-up of various battle readouts - currently they were working on a new system for the laser that could accurately pick out an enemy's weak point, rather than just locking and firing.
The main problem with this new system was the fact it kept trying to home in on the pilot, who was usually hidden away through many layers of severely reinforced plastics and glasses. And they wanted to aim for something that merely disabled an enemy craft rather than obliterate the pilot within.
"Try avoiding life signs, Slip," Fox called out as he toyed with the HUD in the cockpit once again.
"Okay Fox, try that," the amphibian called out as he tinkered with a laptop perched on the left wing of the Arwing. He was altering the parameters of the coding; something Beltino had taught him recently. "Give it a whirl!"
Tapping a couple more controls, Fox glanced towards the skies. "Alright Falco, stop playing and help out here will you?"
Above their heads, Falco was having fun with the latest modifications to his G-Diffuser System. He was easily the most aggressive to his fighter and as such his plane required... personalising... to keep up with him. If it were anyone else he'd have been told to alter his flying style, but because he was considered an elite: one of the best, he was given what he wanted until it worked.
And flying high in the Cornerian capital, Falco Lombardi was zipping in and out of skyscrapers and under and over roads, giving the people of the rebuilt city something to look at and enjoy.
Plus his beak was plastered in an almighty grin. He'd not smiled in a long time.
"Not a chance, Foxey," he called out over the radio. "Don't want to go making it too easy on you, what if this were combat?"
"Falco..." he sighed, glancing at Slippy who was rolling his eyes. "At least let us check it, then we'll try a combat simulation."
"Yeah, now you're talking!" the bird whooped, looping the loop before bringing the Arwing down in a flashy manner, slamming the air brakes on in as dramatic a fashion as possible.
Smiling, Fox nodded at Slippy as he folded the canopy down. "Go play with the Wolfen for a bit," he said as he waited for the toad to unplug and climb down before firing up the single seated plane's engines.
Falco rocked his Arwing from side to side, wingtips almost touching the ground. "Bet you can't beat me now, Fox!"
Overlooking the entire scene, Peppy stood in the bridge of the Great Fox and smiled. It was good to see the team spirit looking so healthy. ROB was sitting down ensuring the ship's own repairs and upgrades were going according to schedule. The old girl was virtually destroyed by the Aparoids and nearly took O'Hare and ROB with it. As it happened they managed to salvage enough of the old ship to put back together, and within a couple of days it would soon be time to rechristen the reborn warship.
*dee-deet* *dee-deet*
Frowning at the intrusion, Peppy merely nodded towards the robot, who connected the call. The communications array had been installed a month ago and it was working fine... even so, Peppy didn't need to turn towards the holo-projector to see who was calling him.
"Wolf isn't coming back, is he Pepper?"
"It isn't like it's his fault, O'Hare."
Peppy turned to face General Pepper, the old war hound looking especially beat up after the last great war. "Time hasn't been kind to you, has it sir?"
"Insolence in the ranks? I won't tolerate it!"
"I'm a general too, you realise... Why did you call?" Peppy muttered, glaring at the dog. He had been enjoying himself, and Pepper calling Great Fox directly meant only one thing: he wanted something.
Pepper sighed; he knew he owed Peppy a great debt. And now he felt the rabbit was being rude, but reasoned he probably had good reason to be.
"You know we hired Star Wolf to sweep up the remnants of whatever was in the Lybari sector. What you don't know is that we authorised use of the Gate to save him a twelve hour journey for him and his team. He and the other three went through-"
"Star Wolf totals three - Wolf, Leon and Panther. You said 'other three' - is there a fourth member of the team?" Peppy asked, now rather concerned that his new allies might be getting back into their old ways. As he spoke he made his way closer to the hologram, leaning on a table once close enough to consider enough.
"That's not important right now."
"YES IT IS!" Peppy roared, slamming a hand down onto the metal surface. "You're calling because you want your newest addition to the Cornerian Army returned safe and sound. If there are four members, I want to be able to brief my squad on what they're getting into! Must you be so selfish all the time, you foolish dog?"
"They're still mercenaries, but they are also equipped with a new technology, something to rival the stealth tech that has been recently used against us."
"You're ignoring me."
"We called it Ghost-Tech. As you know when a Cornerian - or anyone in the Lylat system - passes away they become a ghost. This new technology allows us to see them, communicate with them, and alter our own physical presence temporarily to become one.
"Because of this tech being active when they went through the gate, the time/space barriers in place on them altered with the time/space parameters the gate plays with... the gate is currently down and they went to a system nowhere near our precious Lylat. They're lost and need retrieving."
Peppy took off his glasses, and placed both hands on the counter in front. "Who is the fourth member, General Pepper?"
"We don't know. What we do know is they are a ghost, that's why Wolf had the new tech. We gave him the volatile and experimental toys, and in exchange for him and his boys being Cornerian guinea pigs and clearing Lybari, he requested a fourth Wolfen. We weren't idiots, we knew that this ship may one day be used against us."
"But you gave in, and let him have his way. Why didn't you trust us with this one, Pepper?"
"Because Star Wolf has contacts in the ghost realms. If he can interact with them easier, we can gain the benefits.
"If you start giving him tech that he can copy, he can make all ghosts physical - if you look at it that way," Peppy ranted, "and before you know it Wolf will access to weapons of mass destruction all over again! He's a time bomb waiting to go off!"
It was now Pepper's turn to snap.
"Why can't you get over it? It's because of your petty prejudices that Star Wolf were even selected! They helped out and put their fur on the line against the Aparoids, and have helped our cause ever since! They're HELPING US, Peppy! Why can't you see that you're being narrow-minded about their presence? GET OVER IT!"
A pause for some thought and consideration.
"It was because of one of their members that James died," Peppy said quietly, cutting the transmission. He placed a hand on his head and closed his eyes, shaking his head slightly.
"No wonder the Aparoids got him..." he quietly uttered, before looking up to see Krystal leaning in the doorway, not daring to make eye contact with him.
"How much did you hear?" the old rabbit asked, still keeping his voice low.
"Enough," came the simple answer. "I detected rising levels of stress and tension, so I decided to see if I could help... can I?"
Wiping a solitary tear from his eye, Peppy turned to look out through the window, watching as Fox and Falco played innocently amongst the landmarks of Corneria City.
"Get in touch with Beltino. We need this ghosting technology, and a working gate if we're going to retrieve Star Wolf. They helped us, now it's time to repay the debt. I'll tell Fox and the others tonight in a general briefing."
Krystal nodded before walking away, taking time to note that there seemed to be some confusion over his motive for going after them.
High in the skies of Corneria, the pair of Arwings hovered in mid-air whilst Fox checked a few more details.
"Falco, is your G-Diffuser working okay?" he asked as he made final adjustments to his own.
"Sure is, Fox!" came the reply over the radio, Lombardi's Arwing twitching with excitement. "It feels better in atmo, for sure!"
Fox smiled, that was one less thing for him to worry about. He knew he could trust Falco with an Arwing, and also knew that when the guy was moving like this, that he was truly happy and in his element.
Training was going to be interesting against an in-form bird.
"Okay, let's break to a distance of 1 kilometer so the new scanner can be checked properly, then we'll run a combat sim to give your new G-Diffuser map a workout to remember.
"You? Give me a workout?" Falco laughed, performing a barrel roll as he floated in mid-air. "You won't even last five minutes!"
"Wanna bet, Falco?"
"Eh, why not Foxy? What're you wagering?"
Fox paused for a second - Falco was actually going to bet against him. "Are you serious?" he asked eventually as he looked up from his control console towards the bird.
"Well, I've got a pretty sweet pad over on Macbeth," came the comeback. "I'll let you have a week in there, so long as you put up Krystal for a date!"
"WHAT?" Fox burst out, extremely surprised and slightly annoyed all at once. "What interest do you have in Krystal?"
"None whatsoever, Foxy," the bird hollered back, "but if you want a week in that condo of mine, you're gonna have to match the stakes."
Fox nodded; that place of Falco's was pretty much a bachelor pad for the next century. Well, not so much a pad than a complete building block filled with toys. Just one floor was filled with computer gadgetry, for example.
Of course, Fox had also wanted the chance to even visit overnight but Falco was insistent; no visitors for longer than an hour, and all breakages to be paid for.
Then there was the whole Falco-wanting-a-date-with-Krystal thing... he couldn't let that happen!
Fox shook his head before frowning, putting some distance between them immediately.
"Okay Falco, here we go. I'll test the new system in a combat situation. Inside of five minutes, I'll have gotten a lock on and killed you. If I win, your condo is mine for a week, all expenses paid. All. and if I lose-"
"I get Krystal's cute hinee for a night, Foxy!"
Fox gritted his teeth. "Here we go!" he cried out, boosting forwards with the wings folded back, closing the gap to his team mate's Arwing.
Falco meanwhile laughed; Fox had fallen into his little play beautifully.
"You might be a worthy opponent now you've got a motive, Fox," he murmured as he broke away up and to the right, passing Fox overhead before immediately pulling a 180 and attempting to follow his leader.
This could get interesting, he thought as Fox's rear booster came into his sights before Fox slammed on the brakes, looping overhead and around, flipping a number of times in the air to confuse Falco's radar systems a little more.
Fox snarled; that bird was not getting Krystal!
Wrapping a feathered hand around the levers in front of him, Falco wrenched them back whilst simultaneously slamming his feet to the ground, pushing the pedals there fully to the floor to activate the airbrakes. He immediately then lifted off the brakes whilst throwing the levers forwards, rocking his chair slightly to allow him a little extra movement in his upper limbs.
Outside the craft, what was going on was simply awe-inspiring. Falco had repeated Fox's little move except without so many flips; he wanted to remain in control of his craft at all times. He simply cut thrust and lifted up slightly, allowing an updraft he'd felt to pick his Arwing up and hold it in the air, the craft seemingly floating back gently before the afterburner poured speed back wholeheartedly into the small vessel, Falco setting off in pursuit of his rival, Fox McCloud.
"Only one way to win this fight, Foxy!" the static cracked in, ringing around the cockpit of Fox's Arwing. Barely ten seconds had passed and already this game of cat and mouse was in Falco's favour.
"Your job's to evade me, Falco!" Fox called out, diving down and around then back up, trying to catch Falco out in a spiralling movement.
"I am, in a manner of speaking," Falco replied. Fox snarled, this wasn't going too well. He knew all to well what game Falco was playing: Cat And Mouse.
And the only way to win was not to be the mouse.
"Fine, if that's the way we're going to be playing...." Fox muttered off-radio, as he made a small adjustment to his G-diffuser before slamming the Arwing into a full throttle boost forwards and down, straight towards the Cornerian capital's skyscraper complex.
Having not been caught out by the spiral, Falco was rather amused to see Fox darting off.
"I am not falling for that," he laughed to himself. "I can just sit here for anther few minutes and let him sit there. He's wasting time..."
Falco rocked his ship; he was feeling cocky.
Meanwhile Fox was checking his radar, to see if Falco was pursuing... Falco's transponder was getting further and further away - soon he'd be out of visual.
"He took the bait," Fox smirked before momentarily cranking up the power to the diffuser and throwing his precious craft into the tightest possible 180, launching his Arwing straight back at Falco.
As he reapproached Falco, he noticed that the bird was still sitting on the spot; looking up, he could see the rival ship just tipping its wings gently as Falco clearly hasn't anticipated Fox to do what he had.
The bird was feeling pretty good about himself. He started to turn his ship back towards the Great Fox, having celebrated his victory already by being so cocky. Sighing, he started to plan his big date with Krystal - wouldn't Fox be pissed about that!
Before he could punch for home however, Falco noticed a beeping on the radar - a radar lock; looking up Fox was storming in on an approach, with a weapons lock.
"That's not right," he murmured as he looked over the radar screen once more, looking at the two dots visible. The one furthest away was Fox, but the mysterious second one?
Fox was now in a much better mood. "WELL, Falco," he called out, "one minute and thirty! We'll discuss the-"
He had no time for anything else. A second or two after the second blip had appeared on Falco's radar, a humongous burst of light appeared in front of him stretched out in a thin line, before fading very quickly to black. "WOAH!" he cried out as he slammed the brakes on.
The black object now began to open up from its original simple line and was vast, and looked like a long stretched out pile of building blocks... and was pitch black. Utterly black.
"Fox, you alright?" a concerned Falco asked curiously, wondering himself what was going on. The two Arwings sat either side of this black vastness, and both were at a loss as to where it had come from, what it was, or anything else to do with it.
"Yeah Falco, I'm fine," Fox replied eventually, allowing a slight breeze to drift his Arwing slightly rightwards, the thing still looking identical as he floated over. "I'm checking the instruments now... no energy readings either coming or going... no mass apparently... it's just... there, Falco."
Fox continued to study this for a while longer. "Falco, head directly to Peppy and report this to him, no doubt he's monitoring this whole situation anyway. Then I want you both to make a joint statement to the old wardog."
"Jeez Louise, why Pepper?" Falco frowned, his craft still slightly pointing to the safety net of Great Fox. "He'll just take charge of the situation again; I say we're good enough to go it alone!"
"Falco," Fox started, biting his tongue a little, "we don't know what we're dealing with. We might need the Fleet on this one, and there is the fact he pays the bills, after all."
"The fleet?" came a surprised outburst. "You think this is that bad?"
Fox looked over the black hole in the sky carefully, also taking some care to word his next sentence properly.
"It could just be something random that will go away, it could be something worse than the Aparoids. I don't want to take that chance, Falco. Get back to the Great Fox, I'll follow you once I've made an analysis."
"Don't go getting yourself killed then, Foxy!" the bird called out as he peeled off. "You've got a week in an apartment to claim, don't forget."
With that, Falco hit the afterburner and was gone.
Fox was now alone with the black massless object.
And boy, did he feel anxious right now.