Starfox: Lisen's Wrath

He passed a hand over the door latch and took a step back, watching the
metal doors mould back. Then he glided into the room with his cape spread
behind him. He gazed around the dark room at the little glowing orbs
scattered around the walls. He reached out to a large green orb, his
hand passing through like vapour. Immediately, the orb enlarged and
segmented from the wall. One side of the orb became flat, to show
little symbols on the side of it. He lifted a gnarled finger and poked
a symbol. The other symbols disappeared and the selected symbol enlarged.
Now more symbols appeared. He glanced over all of them, until he found
the one he wanted. He poked the symbol.
Now the orb cleared and a hologram of a reptilian creature appeared,
along with lines of information. The machines voice speech booted up,
reciting a few stats about the page:
'Name: Thraktor Nessai Khar''lissen. Age: 256 suncycles. Class: Mexnavien,
occupying Zhek system. Thraktor was banished from Zhek system 72 suncycles
before following a long line of minor, medium and major classes of
unpermitted action. From sources of machine data of Thraktor's fleet,
he found galaxy HQ31254, devising plans of denomination. Local name of
galaxy HQ31254: Lylat System'
'Status of Thraktor?' He rasped.
'Deceased. Self detonation to murder enemy, died of resulting injuries.
Less than 2 percent of remaining organic matter in existence.'
But rather than regret, he was more intrigued to find out more.
'Enemy leader?'
'Fox McCloud'
So, he thought, the enemy had a name. He wouldn't forget that as long as he
lived. Now he turned around and marched out of the room. He proceeded down
the corridor to a much larger set of doors. He patiently stood in front of
them, allowing them to mould away. 
Inside of the room was an enormous curved window showing a small fleet of
fighters in formation- the shape of a piercing arrow. In the middle of
the room, perched in an arc of tiny orbs lifted from the ground, was a
cone- shaped seat.
'Navos.' 
The chair swivelled around, and Navos stood up and crossed an arm over
his chest. His other three arms folded behind him, under his long
metallic wings. As far as a Mexnavien was, Navos was a squat and
skinny example. But his speciality was maneuverability, and was well
endorsed with ergonomic armour.
'Enough with the greetings, sibling.' He calmly remarked. Navos remained
standing but dropped his arms to his sides. 'It seems that the search
for our brother has finally proven without vein. He came to here, and
this is his resting place, for now.' He gestured to a small collection
of planets that appeared as they jumped out of hyperspace.
'Do you want me to dispatch a search party to scout for any hostile
life, Ynoxyn?' Navos inquired but Ynoxyn just gave him a stern, cold look.
Navos quickly kept quiet.
'Navos, you know full well that there are hostile entities in this system.
I have a report of them from Thraktor's machine. If I know him well
enough, he would have used brute force to wring his way. I decide to
do differently, to take a different route'
'What do you propose to do?' Navos asked.
'Just keep here for now. We shall launch Lisen immediately...' There was a
glint in his eye, as if he knew more than anyone else...

'Hey, Fox! Another group in Zone 546!'
'Copy Falco, I'm heading there!' Fox replied. Great, more aftermath.
Fox banked and turned in a wide arc in the air, narrowly missing a
comms tower. This was getting to be a real pain, all of these little
aircraft. It was only a year ago that these fighters were amassed
in Thraktor's alien fleet. Fortunately they were rid of him, but the
surviving aliens formed clusters which wrecked their own mischief
as they flew around the Lylat System. They weren't necessarily threatening,
but the ground defences in most planets were inadequate to cope, which
meant that the Starfox team had more of a handful on call for 24 hours.
Falco and Slippy were tied up in a frantic dogfight. Three fighters
were chasing after an arwing, spraying random shots towards it,
although he managed to dodge them all. Nevertheless, the movements were
of someone under stress. 'It's about time you got here!' Slippy said
fretfully 'Help me!'
'Quit worrying, Slip' Fox said replied. He flew in to intersect the
three fighters. Falco, who was coming in the other way, had the same
intention as well.
Slippy's ship zipped past Fox's view, and following after was a fighter.
Suddenly, it exploded in a splash of light, flames and debris. The biggest 
segment spiralled to the ground and hit the ground with a muffled impact
in a cloud of dust.
Fox looked up- and saw Falco flying directly towards him. Fox barrel
rolled out of the way. 'Watch where your flying!' Falco yelled on the
microphone.
'Same to you, skyhog!' Fox said back to him. 
But he didn't have time to hurl abuse at him, he had to deal with the
remaining two fighters. So Fox veered to his left and orientated on the
other craft. Slippy was still stuck with them in tow. 
Fox boosted a few times ahead to catch up to them, and started firing
rounds at them. One shot was lucky enough to clip a spidery wing. The
wing disappeared in a short and sharp explosion. A rattle of metallic
flakes rained on Fox's screen, and the pilot was swaying left to right.
Suddenly, it flipped and banked down to the ground, and similarly exploded.
Now there was only one to go. But this one was aware of it's new
attacker, and rolled to the right. 
'Slippy, go back to base, I'll deal with this one' Fox explained to Slippy.
'Thanks, Fox', and with that he turned and headed away. So Fox only had to
worry about getting this guy and he could relax. 
But this one was a stubborn flyer, for he turned with Fox's every movement,
switching sides and never appearing still in front of him. Fox was
getting dizzy with all of the blurry movement, but he coped. Fox opted
for the lucky couple of shots in it's direction, but it was hopeless- he
was just too frantic. He would have to keep track of him more steadily. 
The fighter quickly veered to the right, presenting Fox with the view of
the side of a building, zooming up to him. Fox followed suit like the
fighter. In the fright, the fighter was adjusting to his direction, and
flying straight. Fox had him where he wanted him.
And then, inexplicably, he exploded. The detonation made Fox squint to
make it out, but there was no sign of the fighter. He had been destroyed-
but how? He didn't fire at him.
Then another object appeared in the sky. It was like a flat, arrowlike
plane, bulging in the center, and was very shiny. In fact, it seemed to  
be made of gold. Gold? That would be too heavy! But the plane flew
alongside him, albeit above so that, tantalisingly, Fox couldn't see the
cockpit.
'Don't shoot friend' A reassuring voice called on the com. The face,
annoyingly, was blanked out- he couldn't see anything. 'I'm an old
friend of your father's. Meet back at the base.' Then with a flick of
it's wing, he zoomed off to the horizon.
A friend of his father? He couldn't believe it. He thought that Peppy was
one of his only true friends, him and- ugh!- Pigma, who betrayed him and 
got his father killed by Andross... no, was it by Thraktor? He didn't know 
now, but Thraktor was keen to have him believe it was him who sealed
his father's doom. He did have his father's sunglasses- he never left
anywhere without them.
But he's let his thoughts wander. He thought about that mystery pilot.
Who could he be? Or she? Actually, it must have been a he, he could
tell by his voice. Whether or not, there wasn't anybody else who he knew
like that. Nobody had a ship even gold- plated, let alone that shape. But
he must be a friend, for he helped destroy that fighter. He was eager
to get back to base and find out who the mystery pilot could be. So without
any more consoltainment, he turned around and headed for base.

Fox climbed out of his Arwing. Immediately little droids trundled up to
the craft, checking it with infra- red devices for any problems.
Fortunately, there were none, and the droids cleared off, somewhat
disappointedly.  Fox looked out of the hangar onto the surrounding
landscape. Evening was approaching, and the golden sun eased below the
horizon, shrouding the land with darkness. Lights all over the city (what
was left of it, after both Andross and Thraktor's minions) lit up,
producing an almost chequered pattern over the buildings in the darkness.
Fox gazed across the entire hangar, at the other planes flying in and
having numerous checks over them. 
And there, over in the far corner of the hangar, was a flat, round, golden
ship. The mystery pilot was here! But he was nowhere to be seen. Not that
he could recognise him if he was by it. 
Fox couldn't hold his temptation any more, so he started to march
across the hangar- only to be stopped by a muscled brute. 'Hey! Keep
behind the safety lines!'
'Oh, sorry.' Just as well he had reminded him. He might have been hit by
a landing craft while blundering across the hangar, or worse. So he took
a few steps backwards and followed the safe way around all of the
ships and finally came to the golden craft.


Fox carefully walked around the side of the ship. It was sleek, with
semicircular wings protruding from either side of a cylindrical fuselage.
Semicircular? Fox thought they were straight, meeting at the front of
the ship. He must have been mistaken. Fox took a closer look at the metal
the ship was made from. It seemed like gold, until Fox noticed a blue
finish to the surface. Gold certainly wasn't like that. Around the back,
the rear of each wing was rimmed with small rocket boosters, with two
large central ones. Underneath each wing, a line of impressive-looking
weaponry was waiting poised to destroy some impending target. Fox  
recognised a few of them to be turbo, rapid- fire, flame- balls, and even
twin Nova Bomb launchers. That certainly put the Arwing to shame! He 
certainly wouldn't want to get on the pilots bad side.
'I see your inspecting my ship, friend!' Someone called. It sounded like
the same voice who radioed in to him.
Fox anxiously stared up and glanced around. He saw his team-mates coming
out of a door, Slippy, Falco, Peppy and..... 
And someone else. He was a large, round feline, with a reflective suit
on, and a jolly look on his face. He strode up to Fox and slapped him on
his back. 'Glad you like it, I built it myself. Old Gertrude and I have
gone through a lot together'.
'Gertrude?' Slippy asked, confused.
He looked back to Slippy. 'Well, it's the wife who suggested the name. I
wanted to name it 'Death from above', but she wouldn't have any of it.'
He returned to Fox, who stood up rigidly. 'Oh, but we haven't introduced
ourselves. The name's Lionheart. Chaz Lionheart.'
'Fox McCloud' Fox shook Chaz's hand, being jerked by the flick of his hand. 
'Hey Fox. You didn't say anything about having help from old Chaz here.'
Falco called. He had a sneering look on his face. 
'Hang on, Falco, I only just got back!' Fox replied. Stupid featherbrain.
'Oh, don't let him get to you. He's only jealous because you're leader.'
Chaz reassured him. Falco kept silent. 'Besides, he's not as good as you
anyway, or your father. He was a good friend.'
'I was meaning to ask you about that. How did you become associated with
my father? He never spoke of you.'
'That's because I was on secret service then' Chaz explained. 'I was a
spy. If he even breathed about me to anyone, he would have been killed.
There was no way he could risk telling anyone about me, even his old
son.' He scruffed Fox's hair about. Actually that wasn't hard for him,
since he was a whole foot taller than Fox.
'But now I've been given parole from my job, I can relax for a while. All
of the other spies have done the same as well. I could tell you about
some of them if you want.'
'Uh, sure.' Fox was a bit dumbstruck for no particular reason. 'Let me
take you to my quarters, and get you one as well.'
'Good, because I'm tired. And where's the mess hall? I'm starving!' Chaz
and Fox walked out of the hangar down the corridor, together. People
could hear Chaz's laugh from the other end of the hangar.
'I don't trust him.' Peppy mentioned after a while.
'Why not?' Slippy asked. 'He's on our side, and he said himself he was a
friend of Fox's dad.'
'Well that's just the point' Peppy exclaimed 'I knew James better than
anyone else. He never said anything about this Chaz.'
'Didn't you just hear him?' Falco said. 'He would have been killed if he
said anything.'
'But he knew he could trust me. He told me about many other secrets of
his career. He would have said something, but he didn't. I smell a rat'
At that point, two rodents who walked behind him huffed and marched
toward a different direction in a temper.
'Hey Jo, he didn't mean you!' Falco called to the rodents. 'Sheesh, they
take everything so literally!'.

Peppy walked into Fox's quarters. There was Chaz sat beside him with his
wallet open and the photographs in view.
'And that was one of my oldest friends, Jon Berole. His was an
interesting story. When he first arrived, nobody wanted to know anything
about him. As such he decided to grab attention by tackling the most
difficult of situations, but nobody came to believe him. After a grievous
time for him, he managed to convince the spies commander, who was only
known as 'Hyaena', that he was an underrated man and deserved more
attention. So after that, he was one of their more respected members.
Unfortunately, he wasn't able to be on parole, so still remains at their
group as one of their longest lasting members.'
'Wow.' Fox remarked, like a little schoolchild looking up to his father.
'Now I've told you about these things, I'm afraid I'll have to kill you.'
Chaz mentioned.  Fox gasped, but then Chaz broke out into laughter. Fox
joined in a little hesitantly.
Peppy coughed to grab attention. 'Hello Peppy' Fox said.
'Fox, you're needed down at the debriefing room. It's urgent.' Peppy
waited at the door with his arms crossed. Fox stood up and walked out of
the door, Chaz followed him, who got a cold stare from Peppy.
After walking down the dimly lit corridor, they opened a door into a
rather small debriefing room. Pepper was sat at a table covered with
print-offs. He didn't notice all of the people sitting down to wait for
his orders.
He sighed and stared up after a few minutes. 'Oh' he exclaimed. 'You were
quick in getting here.' Then he looked at Chaz. 'I don't believe I've had
the pleasure of meeting you face- to- face. The name's Pepper.' He held
his hand out to Chaz. Chaz sternly accepted the greeting and shook his
hand. 'Chaz Lionheart, at your service.' He replied. 'Your new recruit.'
'Recruit?' Fox inquired. 'You said you took a break from your ....'
'My normal job.' Chaz said quickly. 'Well that is one thing I didn't
quite make clear. I haven't been given a parole, I have been transferred
to the Cornerian Army, Special Forces.'
'That is true. I had a look at his CV account and found him an acceptable
pilot. In fact, he may one day become a member of the Starfox team.'
Peppy groaned. This was getting worse all the time! 
'So is that what you wanted us here for then?' Fox asked. 'Just to inform
that Chaz is going to be one of us?
'There is more, Fox.' He should have expected that coming, because it did
all of the time. 'Early this morning, reliable information has warned me
of a relatively small army of ships planning base on the farthest side of
Zoness, around here'. A map of the surface of Zoness lighted up on his
table as Pepper proceeded to take all of the paper off his table.
Afterwards, he reached for a pointer in his breast pocket and pointed at
a ring of islands. Fox had never seen these islands before, certainly not
when he had ever gone there.
Pepper looked at Fox, receiving his look of confusion. 'These island are
relatively new. In fact, they're of a combination of sedimentary and
metamorphic rock, with traces of salt crystals.'
'So?' Slippy asked.
'Any new islands, which would have been formed during the last 36 hours,
would have been made of igneous rock- solidified molten rock, from an
underwater volcano. Metamorphic is only found several thousand miles
under the planet's surface. In other words, these islands were not
created naturally.' That caught everyone's attention. How can an island
be created in less than two days? There simply wasn't the technology to
do it.
'Also, spies have a witness account of the craft at the site. They are of
the same class as of those of Thraktor's armies.'
'Oh brother!' Falco muttered.
But Chaz looked confused. 'I don't get it. Who's this, Thraktar?' 
'That's Thraktor.' Fox corrected. 'It's a long story to tell, but
basically, an alien leader launched an attack on our System. He's dead
now, but his fighters are still fighting a war that has long ended.'
'How do you know the war has ended between them?'
'What do you mean by that?'
'I mean, aren't you concerned that they might have a new leader to fight
for them? Just as a queen bee has a replacement for when she dies, there
might be a new leader for these aliens when the first leader dies.' 
Pepper looked aghast. 'You might be right' he exclaimed, rather sadly. 'I
should have known.'
Peppy still wasn't convinced, though. 'How did you become such an expert
at tactical discretion?'
Chaz simply looked back at him with his most serious look possible.
'Trust me, I know these things.' Peppy kept silent, but wasn't any more
settled.
'But that's not the point. I suggest that you head to this area
immediately and find out what the devil's going on. Oh, and for his
introductory mission, Chaz is to be included with your team. Okay, you
are now dismissed' Pepper now bent down to pick up his papers and carried
on working on them. 
Fox, Falco, Slippy, Pepper and Chaz hurriedly headed to their docked
aircrafts in the hangar bay. The Great Fox, having had it's wing
destroyed, needed a long and precarious repair time. A year later, and it
was nearly finished, but unusable for transport at the moment. 
Fox climbed into his cockpit. A clang confirmed his release from the
restrainer, and started the warm up of his engine. As he fell out of the
hangar entirely and saw the landscape below, he boosted ahead and set to
circle the main control tower.
A few minutes later, the rest of the team, and Chaz, were all in the sky.
'Okay, guys, prepare for warp jump to Zoness!' Fox called on his com to
the other pilots. An assortment of beeps, revs and confirmations were
being received on Fox's com before they were prepared and radioed their
G- Diffusers ready for jumping. Fox tipped the craft's nose into the air
in the general direction of Zoness, and went to warp speed. Numerous
streaks of light whizzed past his ship and gave the illusion of him
passing through a massive tunnel. The ship shook nervously feeling as
though it would fall apart.
But after a few seconds, the lights disappeared and Fox found himself
facing an ominous green planet, the light side facing towards them. The
surface was a murky dull green colour, caused by pollutants beforehand.
Breaking the monotony of the colouring were a ring of little white specks
visible from outer space. These were the newly formed islands. 
'Okay, intercept all aircraft!' Fox informed the other ships. Chaz, for
some reason, seemed to be darting around the Arwings and eventually
zipped towards the islands.
'Chaz, come back here!' Peppy yelled yelled on his microphone. But his
intercom was blacked out- nobody could communicate with him. 
'Looks like newboy is a little enthusiastic for his first mission.' Falco
mocked. Fox kept quiet and carried on flying towards the islands.
As they headed in, Fox's ship seemed to thump. This was a sign of it
passing through Zoness' atmosphere. He ignored it, as he was used to it
after the many times he's flown from planet to planet.
Through many cloud covers, they arrived at the surface. It was a murky
green coloured ocean, bobbing the seacrafts up and down gently. There,
nestled among some islands, was the base.
It was a squat building, braced with spines potruding from every space
possible. The roof of the building was flat and clear, possibly a runway
for the aircraft. The place itself was charcoal black. The
characteristics of Thraktor's type, all right.
Suddenly, the air filled with aircraft, zipping out of holes on the base.
Little fighters, robot snakes, and another type they hadn't seen before-
it was basically crab- like, with metal pincers that glinted evilly, but
floated on the surface of the water on buoys rather than having legs.
They raised their arms, facing the Arwings.
Then the Arwings split up. Fox launched a Nova Bomb immediately at the
water. A muted explosion was followed by a monstrous wave. Some of the
crab- fighters were destroyed, and the rest floated backwards towards the
base.  But now he had a problem. The waves, which were still moving,
caused the crab fighters to move around awkwardly. They orientated onto
Fox, and straightened their arms. 
Suddenly, an arm extended frighteningly outwards towards Fox and snapped
at him. Their reach was extroadinarily far, more dangerously to the Arwings. 
'It's got me!' Slippy exclaimed, as a crab- fighter held it in it's
grasp. A current was flowing up the arm of the pincer, and causing
Slippy's Arwing to rattle.
A snake fighter was coming in towards Slippy, it's mouth opened almost
gleefully. Fox flew around Slippy and crossed over it, firing. It
detonated before Fox reached it, as his Arwing flew through the
explosion. Then he turned around and fired at the outstretched arm
holding Slippy.  The arm didn't sever, but lost it's grip on Slippy. He
flew away quickly.
'I made it! Thanks Fox.'
'It's okay.' Fox replied.
Meanwhile, Peppy and Falco were being attacked by the other fighters and
snake- fighters. Chains of snakes were circling Peppy, their tail guns
aiming inwards.  Falco, however, was doing fine. He chased after a couple
of fighters, guns ablazing. A fighter was clipped on the wing, and it
spiralled out of control. It plopped into the sea harmlessly. The other
two fighters split up and flew in seperate way.
Falco went after a lone fighter. It flew past Peppy and into one of the
snakes. The explosion forced Falco's ship away to the right, and the
other snakes lost their coordination and split up.
Unfortunately, the other snakes reorientated- right on Falco's tail.
'Crud!' Falco swore.
Peppy was behind the snakes and fired onto them. None of the snakes were
hit, but most cautiously backed away, leaving a single snake dogging Falco. 
He attempted to somersault to behing him, but it merely followed suit,
forming a loop in the air with it's long sinuous body. 'I can't shake him,
he's too determined!' Falco shouted, swerving to avoid a stray laser
shooting past him.
Peppy came to help him as he helped him before. He intercepted the snake
as they both flew by, shooting. The snake made squiggly patterns in the
sky, parts of the body swerving over and under each shot, and still
chased Falco.
Fox, after dispatching a load of fighters, came to chase after the snake.
He scored a direct hit on the things backside, destroying it in a chain
of explosions along his body, leading up to the head which didn't
explode, but dropped into the sea and plopped in, churning out black smoke.
And thus the team continued to whittle the enemy fleet down to less than
it started with. The wave of crabs on the ocean surface continued to
grasp for any low- flying craft. Slippy, in spur- of- the- moment
reaction, fired upon a claw which misjudged and tretched out front of it,
it's claws clamping together with a clang. The claw was destroyed, and a
ripple of backcharge down the arm detonated the crab itself, a shard of
it's metal shell spinning past Falco. They finally found the weakness for
these new vehicles.
'Well doen, Slippy!' Fox cheered. 
'Uh, thanks'
Then Fox realised something. 'Hey, has anyone seen Chaz?'
'Nah, must've chickened out.'
So they managed to reduce the fleet, after time, to a mere shadow of
itself. The last fleeting fighters flew into the base.
But as Fox watched the last fighter fly into a hole in the base, he
spotted something on the roof of the base. Or rather, someone. It was a
robot fighter on the roof, slightly small for their type. His cockpit
stared upwards into the sky, his shoulders pinned back. Fox decided to
fly past to investigate. Flying in, he saw the cockpit of the robot watch
him.
Fox got a better look. It was a person- he had mistaken him for a robot.
Now he saw why, for this person was covered with metal additions and
weaponary. He seemed to have four arms, the lower two smaller than the
upper. He had two metallic potrusions from his back, each with a jet
engine on the end. His eyes were bulbous and swollen, red slits
representing his pupils. Stretches of skin reached over his mouth. 
Fox must have been flying too close to him, as he lashed out to his
fuselage with his right hand, ending in a flattened scythe. His Arwing
shook with the force, a piece of the underside gouged out. Fortunately,
he wasn't hurt physically, but a chunk of his shield guage was depleted.
He should have been more careful.
A message radioed into his com. The beings face appeared on the screen.
'Nawqqhkkkktch pppptyy fass!' 
Fox was about to query, but realised his translator was slower on new
languages. The translation would always follow afterwards, until it got
used to it. 'Don't try anything like that again, creature!' It hissed.
Fox inwardly aggreed; he should stay as far away from this being as
possible, in fact.
Then the creature stood upright, and fire billowed out of the jets on its
wings. Upwards he slowly rised, until he was level with the circling
Arwings, then the jets weakened and he hovered in the air. He held his
left upper arm out, and on it Fox saw a heavy- looking metallic gun on
the very end, where his hand should have been. 
He fired a couple of shots. Flaming pieces of rock flew out of his gun,
passing by Peppy's ship and leaving black streaks across the Arwing's
hull.
'Peppy, are you okay?' Fox called worriedly.
'Just about, but my Arwing's heatin' up. Even if it misses it can hurt
us!' Because, as Fox knew, an increase of heat depletes the Arwings
shields, weakening them.
Then they split up again and headed outwards. The creature's jets
swiveled back and blasted him forwards, and he chased after Falco. 'He's
after me!' Falco cried. 'Somebody do somethin' with that freak!' 
Fox followed the creature and fired upon it. As the laser bolts reached
it, he held his right arm out- the one he hit Fox with. The laser's
impact was reflected off the scythe- straight back to Fox. 'Yikes!' He
yelped as he barrel rolled out of the way.
Another message appeared on his com. 'Awqmmurrr nnnnedddgyth pppzz
Allmney!' The creature rasped. Followed by the translation, quicker this
time; 'Navos Khar''lissen is quicker than the creature after me! He can't
catch me out!'
NAVOS Khar''lissen?
But he didn't have enough time for that. He was about to kill his..
partner. So Fox veered over to Navos' left side, where his scythe- hand
couldn't reach. He tried again, testing it with a couple of lasers- and
they too, were reflected back. On a closer look, he saw one of Navos'
smaller arms held upright, brandishing a smaller scythe. His reactions
were too quick for him to surprise him.
But, after having noticed Fox shooting at him, he hovered to a halt and
quickly spun around in the air to face him. He lashed out for him as he
came close, and lopped the tip of his right wing off, too small to cause
flight problems, but still annoyed Fox. He should pay more attention!
As he flew away, however, he heard a clang. His Arwing was going a
fraction slower, as if something was weighing him down. He looked behind-
and saw Navos, with his lower right arm held out, and the metallic arm
clinging onto the back of his Arwing. Did he have something against him
or something?
But then he noticed something. His arm was getting shorter. He was being
dragged towards the Arwing! 'Biyugnooop Zzzzzzheehee!' He called on the
com. 'Coming to get you! Slice your head off! Kheee hee hee hee!' The
translator followed.
Fox had to get him off. He swayed side to side, lashing Navos about
behind him, but he was still onto him. He hit the airbrakes, and Navos
carried on going forwards. Then his arm went taut, and he bumped onto the
Arwing- right on the glass of Fox's cockpit. He shook his head, realising
what had happened, and stared at Fox's face in the cockpit. Fear struck
Fox at that time, watching this horrendous face stare at him. The red
slits of his eyes narrowed, and the holes of his mout seemed to curve
into a smile.
Then he turned away, staring beyond Fox outside the Arwing. Fox looked
into that direction as well, and saw a glint in the sky.
But Fox, noticing Navos' distraction, tried to take the advantage. He
barrel rolled, which jerked Navos out of his view, although he could feel
a drag on his Arwing. Navos' lower right arm was still attached to his
Arwing, although Navos him self was twisting in the air and couldn't
orientate properly to latch on the Arwing. He was still attached to him
though.
Then he heard a blast behind him. His speed resumed normal speed. He
looked behind him, and saw a piece of Navos' arm still attached to him.
The rest was missing. A circular ship flew downwards behind him, glinting
gold.
'Chaz!' He exclaimed. 'You're back!'
'Sorry 'bout that earlier.' he apologised. 'I went to check the rest of
the area out, then heard distant gunfire. I came to help out- just in
time, it seems.'
Fox U- Turned in the air to face behind him, to see where Navos was. He
had disappeared. He was nowhere to be seen. 'Where is it?' He asked
everyone.
'I didn't see. He must have gone.'
'Let's not waste this opportunity.' Falco added. 'Let's blow this base
and head home.'
Fox flew to the base and headed to a latch in the side. He loaded a Nova
Bomb in the funnel of the gun, while keeping straight. 
He launched the bomb, a little glowing orb floating into the latch in the
side. He raised the nose of his Arwing and flew upwards.
The base was blown sky high. Huge chunks of the place flew upwards,
threatening to knock Fox out of the air. The surrounding area was
instentaniously lighted with a bright glow, and a huge wave rolled
outwards from the base.
After the impact, all that was left was a few submerged parts of the
islands. The airborn shrapnel fell downwards into the sea, plopping into
it and floating downwards below the surface. 
Another job done, Fox thought. But there was more to it than the base, so
it seemed. That craeture had said it's name was Navos Khar''lissen; it
was feasible that it was a relation of Thraktor's. Certainly, it couldn't
be a coincidence, as their enemy air craft were similar in design to his.
And that battle was a relatively brief encounter. Knowing their kind,
that would be just the start of it. Indeed, he had disappeared out of
view, and probably flewn away to some secret place in which they would
have a bigger and much more brutal fight. Whatever, their kind was back,
and wouldn't go without a scrap.
But that wasn't all. Chaz had gone before the fight started, and appeared
at a coincidentally good time. His first reaction was of thankfulness;
without him, Navos would have probably eaten his brains (actually, Fox
thought, he couldn't have done that anyway, with the straps of skin over
his mouth. Possibly suck his brains, but not chomping.).
But now he had time to think about it, there seemed to be more to it than
that. Chaz had come and was the only one to frighten the being. Also,
facing downwards, he should have seen Navos fly away, or drown, or even
teleport. Chaz had said he had seen nothing when Fox asked him. Maybe....
No, he can't think like that. He had conversations with him earlier,
discussed with him about his friends, his family, his life. Not even a
spy would go through that much detail just to lure the team into a false
sense of security. And, to confuse it even more, he had said he was a spy. 
Then he thought of his father, and Pigma Dengar, his old 'friend'. He
seemed to be friendly on the surface, until he betrayed him and got him
captured by Andross and slain by Thraktor.
He'll have to settle the matter at base, so they quickly exited the scene
and headed towards Corneria.

'WHAT' Pepper exclaimed.
'That's right, Sargent Pepper, Navos Khar''lissen.' Fox said. The paper
on his desk flew off at the draught of his billowing voice. Pepper was
both shocked and furious at the same time. 'Are you sure you heard right?
A Khar''lissen, here, in this galaxy?'

'That's right.' Fox repeated. 'What's more, he was not spotted shortly
after attacking me.' Fox exchanged a glance with Chaz, who was sitting on
the other end of the semicircle of pilots in the room, facing Pepper's
desk. 'You should call out a search party to find any suspicious areas of
attack, for any fighters.'
'Fox, I'm the General around here, I give out the orders' He leaned back
in his leather seat. 'But you're right.' he agreed. 'I'll send it out
immediately.' He turned to his com. and asked for search parties to
proceed to areas around Corneria. He noticed the Starfox team still in
the room. 'Well? What are you doing still here? You've got business to
do. You have an identification to describe to analysis.'
Fox and the others marched out of the room and gathered outside of the
Briefing Room. 'I'll meet up with you later. I've got this thing to do now.'
'Where shall we meet?' Slippy asked.
'Mess hall.' Falco suggested. They all nodded in agreement. 
Then Chaz added. 'I might be late, I've got important business to do as
well.' With that, he walked down the corridor and around the corner. 
Peppy watched him suspiciously. 'Pepper, what's wrong with you' Fox queried.
'Yeah, you've been like that since Lionbar-'
'Lionheart.'
'Whatever.' Falco agreed crossly. 'You've been like that since he
arrived. Cool down, will ya?'
'Okay, maybe I should' He sighed heavily. Then he walked in a different
direction. Falco and Slippy followed behind.
Fox headed to the analysis room for the identification. This was a
relatively slow process where pilots with important visual information
were reported there to describe it as well as they can. Obviously, Fox
and his team had visited there a few times, most often when they were
nearing Venom during the Lylat Wars. He had also been when Thraktor was
attacking and had to describe him to the boffins. Now it was another
slimy alien, and this was the worst yet. Oh well, he could try at least.
Then, if he had time, he could approach Chaz and thank him personally.
Despite having a long talk to him before, he didn't thank him for when he
rescued him the first time. Now he had two favours to offer him, and he
would see to repay them one day. So, he decided, he could at least thank
him, for it's a start.
He reached the analysis room. It was a small, bright white room, with
slide doors set in the sides of the room. A sweet little vixen walked up
to him as he entered the room. 'Hello, Fox. Long time no see.'
'Hi, Claudia.' Fox said, watching her walk up to him.
'Let's see..' She looked down onto her wrist, where a holographic screen
appeared. A list of names appeared along her wrist, and Fox recognised
his name along there. 'Okay, down in that door, regular room.' She turned
and pointed at a door in the right hand side of the room. Fox went to the
door and pressed the com. 
'State name.' The machine prompted.
'Fox McCloud. Here to describe about..'
'That'll do.' The machine quickly replied. 'Go see Dr. Kaod.' The doors
slid apart and lead to another plain corridor with doors down the left
wall. On the right was a long window giving a slendorous view of
Corneria, which poured light into the corridor.


Fox walked down the corridor to the fifth door, and walked in. It was a
small, dark room, with a hunchbacked pelican sat on the other side of the
room, his wide, dilated eyes watching Fox. 'Hello, Fox. Please sit down.'
Fox did so, on a seat facing towards him. 'So, who is it today we're
identifying today?'
'It's another alien, Navos Khar''lissen.'
'That last name rings a bell. Is he a relation of Thraktors?'
'Exactly.'
Dr. Kaod sighed. 'Looks like trouble afoot, but we're not here to worry
about that. Let's start the analysis.' Up out of the floor raised a
pedestal with a flat surface. On Kaod's side was switches, buttons,
levers and joysticks, and an LCD screen. He flicked a switch when the
pedestal finished rising, and a large holographic blob appeared between them.
'Eyes?'
'They were large and pitch black.' Now two big bulges appeared on the
blob, turning black. 'There were red slits in the eyes for it's pupils,
presumably.' He shrugged. A thin red line appeared in each black eye.
'No, they're more fatter than that. Like cat's eyes.' They enlarged
slightly, looking like little red flames in the black eyes. 'Mouth?'
This would be harder to describe. 'It seemed large...' A gaping mouth
appeared on the blob, with no teeth. It looked like a freaky frog.
'...but it had strands of skin passing over the mouth.' Little strips
grew across the giant hole, and it looked like a mesh. It was shaping up
to look more like him. Indeed, Kaod grimaced as the face slowly rotated
to face him.
But they still had a long way to go....

Two hours later, they had finished the identification. It didn't look
perfect, but Fox didn't have the patience to stay any longer. It was
simply too tedious! But now, he could go to Chaz and thank him for what
he did earlier, so he headed to his quarters. 
As he went to press on his com, he heard talking. Very faint, but from
behind the door. He recognized Chaz's voice, but there were three peoples
voices. He put his ear up to the door, and listened carefully.
'Don't speak so loud, they might hear you.'
'..... Another thing, they're getting suspicious of your exit out of the
fight.' Chaz added.
'Navos' a voice rasped. 'You're more trouble than you're worth.'
'I never agreed to be the one who would act up and be shot by him.'
Another voice retorted.' Now I've lost my grappling hook arm.'
That sounded like....... Navos!
Oh no! If Fox was right on his first reaction, then Chaz has been working
for the enemy! He was a spy, for an alien attack fleet. That's why he
didn't say he saw Navos disappear, he was covering up for him!
'You are doing...... well' The first rasping voice said, a deeper and
more mature voice, although he had to strain to hear the difference.
'Operation Lisen is going fine. Soon my dreams will come true.'
'You may have more trouble coming your way. They're sending a scout party
out to search for you lot. Or rather, Navos.' Fox heard someone huffing
inside. He mirthed. Even in this unexpected disaster, Fox recognised
humor when he heard it.
'Let them come. I'll be ready.' With that, Fox heard a high- pitched
bleep, and footsteps. Chaz had finished his briefing, and heading out of
the door. Fox jumped back from the door a few feet.
When the door opened, Fox pretended he had walked down the corridor. 'Ah,
Chaz. I was coming to see you. Where have you been? We've been waiting
for you.'
'I was just... getting myself ready.' Chaz said, awkwardly. He glanced
around, his eyes darting around.
'Never mind. Come, let's eat.'

Falco walked up to the canteen to gather himself some food. 'What mush
are ya serving up today?' He asked. 
'Broth.' The kitchen staff said bluntly.
'Not more broth! When's the real stuff going to come in?'
'Hurry up. Falco!' Slippy called impatiently. 'I'm starving. I could eat
a horse!'
Falco held his tray out. A brown mess was slopped into his plate,
spilling over the rim and nearly burning his hands. He turned and
muttered something incomprehensible. The broth was only the first of it,
Fox thought. There was the drink they always serve, called Vita. It was
pescribed that all pilots drink the stuff, because it contained
hormone-prompting chemicals, or something. But it was foul- it smelled
like cat sick, and tasted like it as well.
Falco walked along, tray in hand, and sat next to Peppy at their own
table. It was reserved for them especially, because they were important
people, although that did'nt necessarily mean much. It was simply a table
that didn't wobble and had the least varnished scratched off. Stil, it
was an honor, albeit a minor one.
'Well' Peppy declared. 'A toast. To our well being, and for surviving
another battle this morning.' They all held their little plastic cups of
Vita up, then lowered them and drank. After it was finished, all of the
people on the table were grimacing and making strange faces, Slippy was
hacking over the side of the table. Not only was it bad tasting, it was
potent!
Chaz, witnessing the whole ordeal, pushed his plastic cup away from him.
All of the Starfox team were shovelling broth into their mouths to
nullify the bad taste. At least the broth only looked like puke- it
actually tasted quite nice.
Then Fox noticed Chaz, watching everyone. He straightened up and wiped
his mouth. 'Sorry about that, Chaz. It's the stuff they serve us.'
'Quite alright.' Chaz replied.
Then, the siren called. Every pilot in that room looked up and stared
around. 'Emergency! Emergency! All aircraft personell to Debriefing Room
6.' Pepper's voice boomed across the room. 'This is not a drill. Repeat;
this is not a drill.'
With that, all of the people in the mess hall stood up and jogged out of
the door. A general group of people were winding their way into two large
open doors, leading into a grand hall of a room. Debriefing Room 6: The
largest debriefing room.
Everyone found seats to sit in, and the shouting of people settled to a
murmering. Fox was with Peppy, Falco and Chaz (Chaz being on the opposite
side of Fox to Peppy). Slippy must have been caught in the confusion of
the crowd, as he was sitting near the back of the room. Fox looked around
and spied him. Slippy waved back at him. Fox smiled, then turned around
and faced the stage.
After a while, Pepper walked onto the stage. Somehow, deja vu struck Fox,
though he couldn't understand why.
'My fellow Cornerians.' He called. 'Evil has struck the Lylat System once
more.' Fox heard someone moan behind him. 'When we gathered here one year
ago, we came to fight a powerful alien race, lead by Thraktor. We won,
fortunately, but little did we suspect that we were being carefully
probed by none other than a Navos Khar''lissen- Thraktor's brother.' He
moved to the side, and a holographic image appeared. It was the one Fox
went to compile with Dr. Kaod earlier. 'Upon sending a scout party out,
we have found an interplanetary base in only one place, among the Meteors
of Meteo.' Another hologram appeared, and a target appeared near little
green specks. 'Navos himself is here. There is only one mission objective
during this battle; Kill All. Nothing should be left alive or dead. That
is all. Go to your ships. Good luck.' He briskly marched off the stage to
the side. Everyone walked out of the doors and to the hangars. 
The Starfox team (and Chaz) went to the Great Fox, only they decided to
leave it here, on Corneria; it would be too much hassle to take it into
the heat of the battle. So they got into their Arwings and other assorted
aircraft and launched off into the atmosphere. Passing through cool cloud
covers, they finally reached space, out of Corneria's orbit.
Chaz's ship darted in front of them all. He definitely couldn't trust
him, now he knew his secret, but he would play along. 'I know of
something Pepper didn't cover' Chaz claimed. 'It's near Katina. It's
another base. We should hurry and get there before the battle commences.'
His ship flashed, and streaked ahead, disappearing from sight. 
Falco huffed. 'We'll have to go get him.' He zoomed off into warp speed,
following him. Peppy and Slippy were orientating, readying to jump to
warp speed. 
'No, wait!' Fox yelled. 'It's a trap! he's fake, he's....' but his words
trailed off as he saw them both zoom off. He had no choice but to follow
them.

He travelled through the blinding blue tube, consisting of streaks of
light which characterised the warp jump. He reached Katina, so he slowed
down- only to be presented with an astonishing view. A large, round ship
had Peppy, Falco and Slippy held in beams. Chaz and Navos were circling
around them. Navos had a wider chest, suggesting his breathing
co-ordination had been tampered with. 'Stupid Lylat fool!' Navos taunted,
hoveing in front of Fox. Chaz simply kept silent.
Fox decided to try and avoid the same fate as that of his teammates,
zipping past Navos and firing at the large cruiser. It glimmered with the
absorption, and hovered normally, intact and working. It was shielded!
If he couldn't hurt the ship, he could at least keep them off and try to
call for backup. He switched his com on, and set it to the widest radius.
'Emergency! Emergency! Backup to Katina. It is a hoax. Repeat, it is a
hoax. Real enemy at Katina...' At that point, his Arwing jolted. He hit
his nose onto the com screen, bruising it. A trickle of blood was flowing
out, so he sniffed.
He looked back- and saw Navos, on his ship, grasping the ship from the
back, grinning again. He rolled, in an attempt to shake him off, but he
was anchored with three arms and two legs. 
Maybe he could burn him off with his thrusters. So he boosted forward,
which caused the largest flames, and fired a couple of twin flames out
behind him. Although he couldn't theoretically burn him, because of the
vacuum of space, the temperature radiated could cook him.
Except it couldn't even do that. He was only at the back of the cockpit,
not hanging over the rear. So the jets passed by him unscathed.
Now, his wings were angling. His Arwing was jolted forward, and was
floating towards the ship. Navos was angling him and flying him to where
he wanted! Fox twisted the controls and angle to the side, but Navos was
fighting back on his controls with more powrful boosts. He couldn't even
move anywhere.
So he was captured by the enemy, and couldn't do a thing about it. After
a brief moment he was strapped in a tractor beam with his four teammates.
'Sorry.' Peppy said apologetically. Fox couldn't blame him, as it wasn't
his fault. In fact, if he listened to him in the first place, they
wouldn't be here in the first place. Chaz had betrayed them, exactly the
same way his father had been betrayed 11 years ago. 
But, maybe Chaz wasn't that mean. Fox couldn't work out how he had made a
pact with the aliens; from what he heard, Thraktor was the only one who
made a deal with a Lylatian, and ended up turning against him. In fact,
he would have killed Andross if they hadn't already done so. So the
aliens aren't up to much for deals, whether true to their word or not. So
Chaz couldn't have been bribed.
Or could he have been? He thought of trying to plead with him. Well, why
not? His com was open. 'Chaz!' Fox wailed. 'Why did you do it?'
Chaz kept silent for a while, then jolted his head. 'I am to serve only
one person. Ynoxyn.' He turned his com off.
Ynoxyn? Did he mean that there was another person in on the act? He
thought it was merely Navos who was leading.
'Hey, what's that?' Slippy inquired. 'Up there, coming out of the ship.'
Fox looked up. A tiny ship was flying out of the mothership, so small he
would have missed it without Slippy telling him. It darted out of the
mothership and flew to an empty space in the vacuum outside. It fired a
lilac laser into free space, emitting a high pitched squeek.
Then there was something strange happening. The vision outside was
wobbling, gyrating and twisting, as if it was a giant sheet of paper and
someone was holding the edges and moving it around. Then the vision
shrunk and was sucked into a tiny pinhole. The pinhole was swirling,
little cracks of lightning flying out. Most were centering on the little
craft, but were not harming it.
What could that be? As Fox stared at it, it was slowly, slowly enlarging.
It seemed, on the whole, to be a black hole, but the size and the fact
that they weren't being sucked in dismissed that idea. It must be some
type of portal. To where, Fox wondered.


But he had to concentrate on one thing; getting out of their predicament.
Maybe their backup would arrive. But when there weren't many people close
by, the radio call travelled slowly, meaning that they would get it too
late- whatever happened.
But the only other person here was Chaz, who quickly implied that he 
wouldn't be much help. Actually, Fox thought, there was something
different about him now, the way his talking was motionless, and the way
he jolted his head back. As if-
As if he was hypnotised. He wasn't really an enemy, he was just being
used by the aliens. If he was broken from that trance, he would be free,
and able to help them get free. But how? How do you break the hypnotic
trance of a person under the control of an alien (or two?) If he could
convince him that he was actually a good guy, he could break free. Maybe,
just maybe, he could remind him of his past and his friends, his family,
he might remember memories of his past.
Assuming that what he told him was the truth....
Fox decided to go for it. 'Chaz.' He started. Do you remember what you
were telling me before, back at base?' He could see Chaz's face on the
com, tight-lipped and ignorant of Fox. This would be hard. 'When you were
talking to me at the base, and you told me about your life, you mentioned
your family.' His face sill kept stone lifeless. 'And your wife, and
children.'
Now Fox saw his face twitch. He was listening, alright, but trying to
ignore him. 'And Jay, your favourite. You talked about playing with him
in your back yard, and he tripped, and hurt his knee, and cried. You had
to rub it better, and he hugged you and said that he loved you.' Now his
face had turned to the com, although his eyes were still staring
outwards, unblinking.
'And your friend, Jon Berole, your most trustful member. The one who you
admired, because he had a strong will, a good nature, and an acs pilot.
You wanted to be like him, and, you know what, you ARE like him. In fact,
you're better than him. You're a real friend. To your friends, to your
family, to yourself.'
Now Chaz's face brightened, and he smiled. He was more lively than
before, and his eyes twinkled. 'You're right. My family.'
'And all of that, which you have sought to look after, will be doomed if
you continue to work for the aliens. They don't want to preserve life.
They don't even care about life. They will kill everyone, now do
something fast!'
Now Chaz scowled, and turned his com off. His golden ship glinted as he
darted to the mothership and fired two small charges. They hit the ship
with explosive impact, blowing a chunk out of it. The tractor beam broke,
freeing the Arwings. 'Were free!' Slippy cried.
Navos, who was watching the black hole growing, turned around to check on
the prisoners- and was presented with the view of Chaz, zooming towards
him. The collision sent Navos spinning backwards, but he turned his
boosters on to keep level. The Arwings were flying into all directions.
He did a double- take. 'The prisoners have escaped! Chaz, kill them!'
'No' Chaz called sternly. His ship was circling him menacingly. 'I'm no
longer under your power, so stuff it!' He mad an obscene gesture with his
hand, which Fox missed. Not that his com to him was on anyway.
Navos' face swelled with anger. The reds of his eyes glowed and burned
brightly. He acellerated towards Chaz, who dodged him at the last minute.
Navos continued in the same direction. He turned his brakes on again, but
Slippy was flying up to him, firing.  The wings, unfortunately were
reflective, but he hit him once in the back and forced him forwards
again. But, to the nature of the aliens, it didn't hurt him seriously.
He swung his gun around and aimed it at Slippy. A blast soared past him,
exploding inwardly behind him. 'Yeowl!' Slippy yelled. 
Now Fox flew towards him, with his guns flaring. Another shot hit him in
the side of his helmet, cracking it. Navos turned to face it, his face
distorted to that of shock and horror. He turned and watched Fox fly by.
His lower left arm held out and the arm shot out to him. But Fox was
ready- he rolled to the side, and the pincers clasped at nothing. 
Then, Chaz came to him from a distance. 'Keep away from Navos!' He yelled
to everyone. They all did so, leaving Navos writhering as his helmet was
cracking. 
Two small red pierces of light flew out of his ship, hitting Navos, but
not exploding. The lights disappeared, and Fox only saw two small things
protruding from him. Navos stared down at his chest, then looked up, with
fright.
Chaz sneered, coming to him.
Before he even had time to react, Navos exploded. The things were
probably timed mines, or something. A cloud of ash with metal scrapings
flew outwards. A few bits of him were still intact, his arm swirling as
it floated meanlessly into space.
But then, the small ship which was circling the portal flew to the team,
and past them. A hook was being lowered from it, which snared a piece of
his remains.
'The small ship' Peppy exclaimed. 'I forgot all about it!'
When the arm was contracted, the ship flew away. Fox U- Turned to follow
him. But he was too fast, ahead of him- and flying into the portal!
'Fox! No, don't do it!' But it was too late. He was heading into the
portal, with the mysterious ship.

Fox found himself in a strange, plaid- coloured place, the blackness of
space replaced with a swirling dull grey clouding. There was no space
dust here at all, being completely vacuumous. The ship was nowhere to be
seen.
Then, out of the swirling air, a glowing orb appeared. As Fox approached
it, he saw a being inside it. He was wearing a deep red cloak, tied
firmly around his neck. His chin was potruding out grotesquely, with
teeth sticking out from his lower jaw. Thin knobbly horns sprouted from
his pebble-like forehead. His body was wretched and hagged. 
'Let me guess; you are Ynoxyn.' Fox murmured on his com, unsure whether
he would retreive his message.
Ynoxyn's eyes narrowed. 'You are mildly intellectual for your breed.' He
said sagely. 'That I am. I trust you knew my brother.' 
'Thraktor?'
'Him indeed. You should recall him. It was you who killed him.' He
floated higher to stand at eyelevel to him. 'I thank you for that. Now
Lisen is complete.'
'Your operation is finished!' Fox protested. 'Our armies are intercepting
your battlefleet, and I have you trapped. There is no Lisen!'
Ynoxyn broke out into laughter. Thunder struck behind him, and his
metallic laugh echoed around the place. 'FAR FROM IT, YOU FOOL!!!' He
lifted his arms from underneath his robe. He had Navos' arm in his grasp.
'I, AM, LISEN!!!!!!!!' Fox looked perplexed.


The arm glowed, then he glowed. Bolts of lightning struck from him to
surrounding clouds of mist. A gale force wind swirled around him, blowing
his cape out from behind him. Then he floated backwards, into the mist.
And disappeared. It quietened, the last remains of the echoed laughter
fading away.
Fox couldn't see anyone or anything. Suppose he got killed during the
transformation?
Then the mist in front darkened. A black object appeared ahead, looming
closer. As it darkened, two red orbs of glowing light appeared. Then, a
humongous head appeared, with no facial features, other than two large
glowing red eyes. The surroundings turned a deep green, making all the
mist seem like noxous gas. The head stared at Fox, not blinking, with no
pupils, nothing. Just all he could see. The skin of the creature wasn't
totally opaque; he could see the swirling mists behind him. He seemed to
be made of a liquid of some sort.
Then a large, three-clawed hand lashed out of the mist, and a second on
the right-hand side. This reminded Fox of his encounter he had with
Andross, being very similar.
Then, a third hand appeared. Then a fourth. Then a fifth. Then a sixth.
All sprouting from one formless blob in the centre of all the parts of
it's anatomy. The blob trailed off into a little smoky tail, still coverd
by the green gas behind him. The thing itself was monumental; it must be
at least a thousand foot high.
'LL-LL-II-II-II-II-SS-SS-SS-SS-SS-EE-EE-NN-NN-NN!' An eerie voice
whispered from somewhere.  The creatures head jolted back, arms facing
Fox, claws twitching with anticipation. Fox knew he couldn't get out of
this without a fight, but would he survive?
There's only one way to find out.
Lisen threw a gross hand at him, bashing his ship to the side.
Fortunately, there wasn't anything to crash into, but the impact was
immense. His Arwing spun wildly out of control, and Fox had trouble
righting it to face him. 
But he had disappeared. Fox couldn't see him. He flew forward to see if
he was mistaken, but he was not. A hand reached out of the mist, grabbing
Fox. Lightning shot through his ship, and passing even to him. It was an
immense pain, but he couldn't do anything. He fired at the hand, but the
shots passed staright through and disappeared into the mist.
After a while, the hand let go and pulled into the mist. Two more hands
lunged at him, but he just dodged them. But he couldn't keep up with this
forever, especially not if he couldn't hurt the thing. A third, which
appeared from behind him, clipped his ship, spinning his nose upwards. 
If he couldn't hurt him, he shouldn't be a sitting target to the arms. So
he kept boosting at intervals, and the arms had difficulty catching him.
He tried again to shoot at any that appeared in the way, but without
prevail- they all passed staright through the aparrant flesh of th
creature and dissipated behind.
The arms disappeared, and the head loomed out. The face stretched
grotesquely, it's mouth ripping out of it's skin, sending little pieces
of it around the place. Because he was mostly vapour though, they passed
through Fox and out behind him.
A jet of pure heat soared out of it's mouth, almost roasting Fox. Even as
he was escaping, he felt the heat behind him. Lisen watched Fox flying
away, his heat breath following. Fox flew away from him, dodging left and
right so as not to be roasted, then U- Turned, to face Lisen. The foul
creature closed his mouth, which morphed back to the original shape. 
But Fox saw his eyes glowing. What now? But before he had a chance to
attack, Fox tried once more to attack him. He fired more lasers, which
still passed through him, once again.
Now his eyes flashed, and large lasers flew out. It clipped the tip of
Fox's right wing- and shattered it, completely. Now Fox was crippled, and
Lisen was as strong as ever. Fox saw his shield gauge at a dangerously
low level, his warning siren flashing belatedly. Fox was less confident
of  the outcome of this fight. He couldn't hurt Lisen, and he was almost
dead. And nobody was here to help him this time.
So there was no way he could win this outcome. But he couldn't give up.
So this time, he flew towards the eyes- a part that he hasn't tried
firing at. So he leashed a couple of shots at it. But alas, they just
passed through like normally. But he blinked with the initial confusion
of being fired at in that part. His eyes stayed normal, but his body
momentarily flashed. Then he consumed fighting. A hand glowed, and he
flung his hand towards Fox. A massive fireball was heading towards Fox,
too fast for him to avoid.
The rest happened in slow motion. This wasn't how Fox was planning to
spend his last few seconds of his life. He never imagined that he would
be killed in a submersive limbo, possibly light years from his friends
and planets, murdered by an immortal being of supreme evil. As the
fireball almost engulfed him, he saw a vision of himself as a young cub,
with his mother holding him, then it flashed to him going to college,
then flight academy, and him in his home, spending time with his father.
Blinding light completely covered him. He couldn't see any more.
Father.....

Black. Darkness. He couldn't see anything. He tried to move, but couldn't
feel anything. He decided to stay still for a moment. He started getting
a vision of a pure white place, the floor covered in a sheet of fog. His
vision was cut off, so he couldn't see anything further than a few feet.
But rather than feeling dismayed, he was relaxed, and comfortable. He
looked around to see if there was anyone else around. But nobody was here.
Fox stood there, his head hanging low.
'Fox.' A voice called to him.
Fox looked up. He recognised that voice. A warm, gentle, assuritive
voice. But he couldn't see anyone. His heart was beating.
'Fox.' the voice called out again.
'Father?' Fox replied, hopefully.
Then he could see someone walking from the distance. It was a thin, well
built, handsome fox, darker in fur colour than Fox. He was wearing
shades, which glinted angellically.
'Father!' Fox called. He ran up to him and hugged him. Fox noticed he was
crying.
'I missed you so much, my son.'
Then Fox drew back and stared at him in the face. He was so pleased that
he was here, at last, with his father.
'No, not quite, Fox.' He said, sadly. It was as though he had read his
mind. 'Your business is not finished.'
'What do you mean?' Fox asked. 'I'm here, forever, with you.'
'Not yet, my son.' He explained.'The evil was not expected.'
'What do you mean?'
'Ynoxyn has been possessed by Lisen, their form of the devil. This was
not planned in the history of time. With nobody to stop him, all life is
done for. If he escapes the black hole, your friends will be killed, as
will everyone else.'
Fox stared at him, blankly. 
'You will be guided by the light to stop him. It is your duty to stop all
evil. You are given another chance with life, to stop all evil. Only
then, can you rest, and we'll be together, forever.'
'But there's so much I want to ask you.' He protested.
'There is no time. You must stop Lisen. I will guide you, but you must
defeat him.'
'But...' But before he could say anymore, he was floating away from him,
and James disappeared in the mist. Then the vision stopped.

And before he knew it, he was in his ship, behind Lisen. He looked at his
control panel, and notice his shield guage had been restored to full. He
looked at his wings. Not only were they repaired, they also had little
orbs of glowing light on either side.  He seemd prepared.
Lisen's eyes twitched, noticing a new presence in the vicinity. He turned
around- and seemed shocked to find Fox again. Never mind. He can kill him
again, as he did before.
He lashed an arm out at him- and it passed through him, unharmed. He had
a look of surprise on his face. Fox could swear he saw Lisen's eyes
widen. He tried again, but he couldn't hurt him.
Fox tried to fire at him again, but he noticed his lasers were bright
white and glimmering. They hit Lisen's arm, which glowed white then
disappeared. Lisen was even more surprised, as he had only five arms
left. He opened his mouth again to try and roast Fox again, but his energy
was absorbed by Fox's ship and into his fuel. The lights on his panel
glowed appreciatively with the extra power.
Now Fox smiled. The tables were turned now, and he could hurt him.
Payback time.
Another arm reached out for him, lightning bolts flashing from it. Fox
fired at it, where it glowed white and disappeared. Suddenly, all of
Lisen's arms disappeared. He was learning not to use his arms as weapons.
But while he was starting to make an impact on him, he wasn't any weaker.
There must have been a way to stop him for good.
'The eyes.' Fox heard a voice whispered in his head. Fox looked around to
see if there was anyone, but he couldn't see a single person.
'The eyes, Fox' It was the voice again. It was his father speaking.
'Thanks father.' Fox murmured.
Now he charged to him. His eyes were glowing again, ready to fire his
lasers again. Fox fired his beams at the eyes.
The light spread across his eyes, which were shrivelling at an alarming
rate. Lisen's arms were grasping for his eye, but they were still
shrivelling. His eye sockets where glowing white. His mouth was
distorting and twisting painfully. The whole place was rumbling. Lisen
roared, which gew louder as the glow from his eyes spread to his face,
then his neck, then the arms, then the rest of him, then enveloped the
surrounding green swirling mist.

Slippy watched the swirling portal with fear, afraid that something might
appear from it. The others were probably feeling the same too. Chaz,
Falco and Peppy were darting around the large round ship, firing at it
and taking small chunks out of it. From what he could see, it was
probably already defunct, and wouldn't take long to be destroyed.
Slippy was right. Falco landed a laser in the engine, and the thing blew
in a small yellow fireball. After that, little explosions reached along
the ship, blowing more chunks out of it, then the entire thing exploded.
Shrapnel flew out in all direstions, and Slippy had to dodge all the bits
flying out. But they had more or less won. Now all of the other craft
were heading to the portal, circling it. 'Seen anything yet Slippy?'
Peppy asked.
'No. What might have happened to him?'
'Hope the jerk hasn't gotten into any... hey! What's happeneing to the
portal?' Falco's ship was facing the portal, ready to attack if need be.
Slippy looked at the portal. It was glowing from inside, the swirls of
green gas inside turning slowly white. Beams of light were radiated from
the thing itself. Then it flashed- and it was gone. All that was left was
a small, slightly shaken Arwing.
'Fox! You made it!' Peppy cried happily.
'Congratulations!' Chaz remarked. 'You've saved the galaxy again!'
Fox smiled back to them on the com. 'Thanks guys.' But he was strangly
unfulfilled. He had completed his mission, and doubtless so have the
Cornerians in Meteo. But there was something else. It was to do with his
father, James McCloud. He had seen him, and been with him for a wonderful
few minutes, but that wasn't enough. There was so much he wanted to ask.
He wanted to know how he had really died, whether it was Andross,
Thraktor, or both. Or neither. They had never found his body, so couldn't
even give him a decent burial. He felt deeply unfulfilled.
'All that will come. In time.' James called to him.
Fox looked around. To his left, a small, primitive Arwing was flying
besides him.
'Father?' he breathed.
'Yes, Fox. I have assissted you in your job. I can finally rest in peace
now.' His Arwing tipped, and he flew away from him. His arwing faded
slowly out, and disappeared into space.
Then, Fox noticed something. His com information button was flashing. He
pressed it, and up popped a stream of lines of co- ordinates for
somewhere outside Venom. Then it clicked. Fox knew what these were for....

Fox was heading into deep space, on a mission.  When he returned to base,
he found out that there was no base at all at Meteo, just a fleet of
enemies. They were dispatched easily, but they noticed that Starfox had
gone from the battle field, so waited. When they arrived, they were
relieved, and returned to base. After another congratulation from Pepper,
followed by a special three- course banquet (washed down with, of course,
Vita) he had gone to his ship and flown off.
His com flashed. Chaz's face appeared. 'Fox, where are you going?' He
asked.
'I'm going to Venom. To find something.' Fox's lips were pressed together
firmly.
'I understand.' Chaz replied. There was another thing Fox had found out.
Although Chaz Lionheart had been a spy for Titania, and encountered all
of those things he told him about, he wasn't a close friend of James, his
father. In fact, he had never heard of him. It was a sour note, but was
obviously a memory implanted into his head by Ynoxyn, so he forgave him.
He reached Venom. It was much more cleaner, as the noxious fumes were
cleaned away from the atmosphere, but the surface was still sickingly
green. As Fox approached, space junk was floating past him, from tiny
ships to large space bases, all floating ghostly quiet. Nobody had been
in this part of space for at least a year, so none had bothered to clean
up the mess.
A single, tiny ship caught Fox's eye, for some obscure reason. It was
floating slowly around, similar to every other piece. 
Fox flew closer to it, and saw it in more detail. It was badly rusting,
falling apart in some places, and silent. It had the markings of an old,
Cornerian ship. No, it was more like....
An Arwing. James McCloud's old ship. He had found what he was looking
for. He didn't want to look too closely, lest he saw his father inside,
and became sick. But he had brought a grappling hook attached to his
back, which he would use to tow the ship back.
He turned around and activated his hook. It fired out and clung ont the
ship. The string went taut, and he tugged the ship, which followed. He
would have to go slowly for this.

Slippy was looking for the others. The sky was a brilliant blue, with a
few wispy clouds on the horizon. He ran to the cemetery, and spotted
Peppy, Chaz and Falco.
'Hey guys!' Slippy called.
Peppy stared at him, and beckoned him with his hand. Slippy silently
walked up and reached the gang. Peppy gestured to a nearby tree, and
SLippy stared.
Fox, standing below the tree, dark from the shade of the Elm, stared down
in silence. A long thin mound of fine brown dirt was headed by a
headstone, with the words 'JAMES MCCLOUD' embellished across it. His eyes
were stinging with tears, way overdue for his sorrow for his father.
He bent down, and layed down a pair of dark glasses on his headstone.
They shone from the evening sun, lowering below the horizon. 'To my dear,
dear father.' Fox whispered. 'Whom I will always remember.' He stood
upright again, and closed his eyes. He thought about his father more, how
he had been kind and helpful to him even after his death, from the
Andross to the Lisen encounter only a couple of days ago. A normal person
wouldn't have gone through so much trouble, but this was no ordinary
person. He was James McCloud, Fox McCloud's father. May he rest in peace.
A distant siren sounded. Fox looked up wiping tears from his eyes. The
others stared too.
'Come on, team. We've got work to do.' He jogged out of the cemetery and
ran to base, followed by the others. Chaz, being a friend, followed too.
They still had a long trek ahead of them.


The end
By Sovan Jedi.