Chapter XIV
	The Great Fox lumbered past the sandy desert planet of Titania,
with Slippy now safely in tow. In fact, he was sleeping at the moment,
waiting for another call into battle. Fox paced back and forth, near the
vidscreen, as General Pepper was scheduled to call any second. Finally,
the screen flickered, and the General's brown-furred face came through the
fuzz. "Fox!" he exclaimed.
	"Present! What's the news, General? How did the battle at Zoness
go?"
	"Very well, I'm pleased to say. We've taken the base at length,
but I don't expect them to leave us alone. We'll probably have another few
scrimages before this war is over."
	"That's good news. What's our next mission?"
	Pepper rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "We need your team to take
out the Defense Post, Bolse. That satelite is going to cause us trouble
unless we get rid of it. The last hurrah of Andross' forces, so to speak."
	Fox nodded. "Yes, I know what you mean. That post is one of
Andross' strongholds."
	"There isn't a whole lot of information I could give you that you
don't already know, so I'll leave you to prepare for the mission." General
Pepper's face scrambled back into fuzz.
	Fox turned around to face Falco and Peppy. Peppy saw the look in
his face, and sighed heavily. "Don't worry about me, Fox. I'll be okay.
Let's get ready to rumble!" He headed off to his room to prepare for the
fight.
	Fox looked over at Falco. "I don't know if he'll make it through
this, Falco. One of the most traumatic things that happened in his life,
losing my father, happened at Bolse. I don't want to make him go if he
doesn't feel up to it."
	Falco met Fox's gaze. "I understand. We'll be able to pull it off
with just you, Slippy, and myself, anyway, right?"
	Peppy sat in his chair next to his cot, thinking. He really didn't
have time to think if he wanted to be a part of this battle, but the
subject matter of his thoughts didn't allow him to put it off. He closed
his eyes for a second, and the whole scene played before him once again.
James was dashing down the hallway with Peppy, and then flying out of the
Defense Post. As if it was all at once, James was gone again. Peppy just
couldn't believe it. Not James; he was too good for something like this.
He couldn't have died in such a disgraceful manner. The scene replayed for
a fourth time, and the images were beginning to speed up. First a picture
of James, then the starfighters were flying out of the Defense Post once
again, and James's ship getting blown up or sucked down a black hole. Once
again, the past ran through his mind in a blaze of memories, leaving Peppy
the unwilling receiver of the revived pain and in state of deep thought.
He was so engrossed in his thoughts that he didn't see Fox and Falco
standing by the door, watching him as he rocked his chair, eyes closed and
hands trembling. Falco bidded Fox hurry, and Fox nodded a slow decision,
and pulled the door shut behing the two of them as they left. "Sorry, Pep.
Don't take this personally," he said as he activated the lock for the
door.
	Several minutes later, the three remaining members of the Star Fox
Team had started their Arwings, and were preparing to launch out of the
Great Fox toward the Bolse Defense Post. Fox revved the fusion engine once
more as the hatch was opened. "This one's for you, Peppy!" he muttered
under his breath.
	The person wearing gloves had landed safely by means of a cloaking
device, very near the capitol building in a very bad excuse for a forest.
He leapt out of his hidden craft, and dashed through the trees to see the
building. Somehow, he'd have to make it to the capitol before the bear had
a chance to finish his mission.
	The bear, himself, was just entering Cornerian atmosphere and
preparing to meet the Cornerian World Leader. He looked in a mirror as the
crew was preparing for landing and rehearsed the moment he was to greet
the tiger. A handshake was all the introducing they would need for the
reporters, who were already swarming around the spaceport, waiting for the
perfect shot of the new Macbethan World Leader. This was a moment in
Cornerian history. That evening, an ambassador's banquet was to be held,
and then a new treaty would be arrived upon by the World Leaders and their
advisors. The ship had landed and reporters were already running towards
the ship, oblivious to the fact that other spacecraft needed the room that
they were using. The bear, dressed in utmost best business suit, stepped
out onto the lowering platform, surrounded by his guards, smiled, and
waved to the machine gun-like chatter of the cameras. Questions were
richocheting everywhere, and the bear was enjoying every second of it,
although he didn't make any comments. He was herded into a very
dressed-up, very expensive-looking car, and they drove off to the capitol
building, leaving the reporters scrambling to get to their cars.
	Peppy was still sitting in the rocking chair beside his bed,
rocking. His eyes closed, the same scene of James getting sucked into the
black hole or being blown up kept showing itself. Images were moving
faster than Peppy could imagine, and he couldn't do anything to slow them
down. "It was all my fault. I could have saved him," he muttered. He
winced as the scene played itself out again.
	Fox, Falco, and Slippy were coming upon the Defense Post at a high
speed, ready to dismantle the satelite piece by piece if they had to.
Slippy fell behind Fox as they shifted into three-ship form. "I think the
easiest way for us to destroy this thing would be to get them to expose
the core to restore energy, and then destroy it!"
	Fox looked to Slippy. "Can we do it?"
	"I think so." The three Arwings came upon the top half of the huge
satelite. "It looks like the core is being protected by a force field!"
	Falco started looking for the source, when he felt his ship shake.
"Huh? Oh, man, more enemies! Fox! You find the source of the shield and
blast it. We'll cover you!"
	Fox looked at the huge domed shield, and then followed an electric
beam running from it to a huge pillar on one side of it. "It's these
pillars!" He charged his lasers as he started for it and blasted the
entire top off of the pillar. The beam was shorted immeadiately.
	Slippy was chasing one of the small ships as they rounded the
force field, ducking under and shooting over the electric beams. He saw
Fox up ahead, and that the guard ship was turning towards him. "Oh, no you
don't!" He lined up the smaller ship in his sights, and shot several large
blasts at it. The little ship simply reflected the blasts towards Slippy.
"Huh?!" He dodged and tried again. The ship moved a little bit to stablize
after being hit, but once again reflected the shots, a force field
flashing around it. "Fox! Hurry up with the force field! The ships are
covered by it, too!"
	Fox hit his boosters to rocket himself to the next pillar. "Three
to go, Slip! I'm going as fast as I can!"
	The tiger was taking the bear on a tour of the entire capitol,
leading to the Cornerian Space Control Center. The tiger pointed out the
extremely technologically advanced equipment they used for battle, and
told him about the battles they had won because of the upper hand in
equipment. The cheetah came up to the group, and the tiger felt he had to
introduce him. "Macbethan World Leader, this is our head technichian here
in the CSCC." The tiger was hoping that the cheetah hadn't forgotten his
manners.
	He wasn't dissapointed. The cheetah went to one knee. "I am
honored, sir." The bear smiled, obviously pleased. The group contined on,
leaving the cheetah with General Pepper. The cheetah waited until they
were out of the range of hearing, and then confided in Pepper, "I don't
like him."
	General Pepper agreed, "That seems to be the general attitude
towards him. There's just something about him that many of us don't like.
We just can't place what it is," he paused, the admonished, "But, please,
do remember to play as if you like him. We need to get this treaty
signed."
	The cheetah looked back over at Pepper. "Yeah, that's all we need.
Macbeth would be all over us, and Andross would just come along and take
us both!"
	"Exactly my point. So, just keep your cool, okay?"
	"What?" The cheetah looked over at the general with a wry smile.
"Have I been known to cause trouble?"
	"Just remember that you're a tech, and not a spy, hmm?"
	"Sure thing, General." The cheetah crossed his arms and rested
against him computer. "Sure thing."
	"Almost... there!!" Fox spun his ship, and turned away from the
last pillar, just having blasted the top off of it. "That should do it!
The shield should be dissolving soon!" The shield dissolved very quickly,
to reveal a large space port on the top on the satelite.
	Slippy pulled a large arc, and turned back towards the port. "I
hope we can get them to expose the core soon, here, Fox!"
	Falco flew near to the port, and then boosted away. "Oh, man, Fox!
It looks like we've got company!" As if on cue, small starfighters began
to erupt out of the port, eager to fight and ready to win.
	Fox charged right into battle, launching lasers at every
opportunity. "Just try to keep moving! We don't need any crashes right
now! Just stay out of their sights!"
	Peppy continued rocking, muttering, "I could have done something.
I could have saved James." The images in his head shot through faster and
faster. Something in his head, however, shortly calmed him down. "No," he
said to himself, "there was nothing I could do! James had even ordered me
out of there so that I wouldn't be next on the list!" The scenes strangely
slowed for several seconds, and then sped back up with, "But I could have
turned around, and saved him!" His resolve was becoming firm, however. "I
was not able to do anything for him! I would have given my life, but I
couldn't!" His mind was racing, fighting against itself. "I could have
rammed Pigma's ship or something. I could have---" "NO!!!" Peppy jumped up
from his chair, he was in such emotion. He said slowly and deliberatly,
"It was not my fault!!!", and fell back into his chair, mentally
exhausted. The images in his head had slowed to a crawl, and Peppy decided
to watch them one last time before heading out to the docking bay. Fox
must have waited quite a long time for him to come out of his room. Peppy
saw the two familiar ships, James' and his own, just barely get out of the
docking bay, flying away from Bolse, Peppy missing his laser cannons. He
saw Pigma take off right behind them, ready to destroy them both, but
intent on one. James flew perfect evasive moves, but Pigma must have had a
computer on board or something to allow him to keep up with James. Pigma
could never fly that well. Peppy sighed as they got nearer to the black
hole.. wait a second. Peppy thought for a few seconds, contemplating the
black hole. It couldn't have been a black hole. If it were, Bolse, Venom
and everything for lightyears would have been sucked in. He studied the
picture in his memory. He had seen such a thing before, but now that he
thought about it, it looked much more familiar. In fact, he was sure he
had seen the like of it not long ago. The swirled design and distorted
view of the things behind it were a dead giveaway. Peppy smiled, "I've got
to tell Fox!"
	The person wearing gloves was hiding in an air shaft, working on a
portable computer, changing the guard on the tiger. His change would have
to be quick and precise. He inserted a disk, and instantly made a false
history for himself in the army. Now, if they checked their computers,
he'd be there. Just another dedicated citizen doing his duty to protect
the World Leader. He inserted his name in the World Leader's personal
guard for the next few days, at least as long as the bear was there.
	Later, when the personal guard took their break, one of the guards
found that he'd been given an unexpected holiday. Overjoyed, he gloated it
to his friends, and then got home. Shortly after, a smartly dressed,
young-looking fox wearing sunglasses joined the personal guard.
	Peppy tried opening his door, but finding it locked, resorted to
ramming into it with his shoulder. He looked around, trying to find
something to open the door with. He spotted his hand laser.
	The fighters were coming out of the Bolse Defense Post faster than
Fox, Falco, or Slippy could destroy them, but they were doing very well at
staying out of reach of the fighter's lasers. Only one or two of the
fighters had even taken a shot yet. Falco pulled into a very tight u-turn,
and shot a fighter away from Fox. "Thanks," Fox admitted.
	"No problem," Falco said as he smiled.
	Peppy was running down the corridor that led to the hangars, not
stopping to instruct the robots to clean up the very large hole in his
door. They'd find it soon. He slipped his hand laser into its holdster,
and then dashed past ROB. He started up the Arwing's engines from outside
the hangars with a computer, and hopped in as the computer taxied it out
to the bay doors. The Arwing powered up, the fusion engines heating the
room to a high temperature, and a pink glow lit the room from the blaze
propelling the craft. "Don't worry about me, Fox," Peppy said to himself
as he strapped himself and did final checks, "I'm going to be all right!"
He hit the ignition button on the console, and rocketed out of the Great
Fox.
	The action was speeding up to a fever pitch when Peppy arrived on
the scene. Fox was the first to notice. "Peppy! What are you doing here?!"
	"I'm here to help you out. Don't complain when you're offered
help, Fox," Peppy looked for Fox, didn't see him, but went on anyway. "I
have some things to tell you."
	"Can it wait?"
	"You might not want it to, but they can. Let's clear this place
out!" Peppy started locking on and shooting the smaller ships as fast as
he could, making a considerable dent in the enemies just as he was
arriving.
	Fox rallied to Peppy's side, and began blasting any of the ones
that Peppy missed. "You heard him, guys! Let's take 'em all out!"
	The cheetah tapped into his computer terminal, typing his password
with utmost care. He bypassed screens of text, looking for the
communications controls. He started up several blockers, so that no one
could tell he was there. He stopped on one screen, and reviewed the
information he had been given. Marked on the screen was the suite that the
bear was to be staying in, so the cheetah ran a program to open the
vidscreen channel in the bear's room. When the channel opened, he checked
any transmissions that had been made. Once or twice to the service for
foodstuffs, one call back to Macbeth for politcal updates, and one
unmarked call, in which it seemed that the vidscreen had simply been
turned on for half an hour, channel open. The cheetah checked his
schedule, and found himself right. The bear had been present in the room
when that vidscreen transmission was made. The cheetah looked around, to
be sure that no one was watching, and started a bug program to find out
where these calls were being made to, if the bear dared another
transmission. He also implemented a program to find out where the first
call had been made to.  He smiled with satisfaction at his computer
screen, and then logged off.
	The new fox in the personal guard was being careful to watch every
move the bear made. Throughout the entire day, the bear had done his best
to act friendly towards the tiger and the rest of the group, but the fox
knew what he was really up to. He had to figure out what the bear was
going to do, before the bear did it. And that was the one thing he hadn't
done yet.
	Andross watched contentedly as a monitor displayed the actions of
the Star Fox Team. He watched as his forces were being blasted away ship
by ship on the top of the huge defense post. His huge hand depressed a
button on his desk, opening a channel to the officer. "Now," he said,
"expose the core. I want them to be done with this and head on to our
ambush."
	"Sir? We keep many troops and ships on the Defense Post!"
	"They are worth it to destroy these four who have destroyed so
many!"
	The officer rested his head in his hands, "Yes, sir."
	Peppy turned in a wide circle to escape one more of the small
ships, and noticed a large structure coming out of the port. "Ah, I think
I see the core over there!"
	Falco dropped his target and spun towards the block-like tower.
"Let's take it out and get out of here!"
	Slippy knew what to do. "Blast the energy panels on the sides!" He
shot one of the yellowish panels, and as it exploded, was returned with a
few blasts of laser. "Hey!" he cried as he spun out of the way of the
lasers, "this thing has a defense system!" The ruined panel continued to
shoot large laser beams in disgust, not caring who or what it hit.
	Fox made a very long turn, giving himself plenty of time to shoot
away at the core from a distance. With his precise aiming, three more of
the energy panels showed their disgust at being tagged as well. "We're on
a roll, guys! Keep it up!"
	The fox watched carefully as the bear took his seat at the
ambassador's banquet that evening, seeing if there were signs of any
concealed weapons in the bear's clothing. He didn't see any, but that
didn't mean that they weren't there. The rest of the night went well, and
the banquet was a complete success. The treaty was the next order of
business. The fox attentively stood guard while the crowd was moving in
all directions; he realized that a moment like this would be the perfect
opportunity, with all of the confusion. People were pushing and shoving to
get to see the two World Leaders together, and most wanted pictures.
Reporters still swarmed the area, even though most of them had gotten
their story, and were simply waiting for the new treaty to be signed. The
tiger watched as all of the people who had been invited to the banquet
filed out of the room, then turned, and said to the remaining group, "We
have come together to join our planets in an alliance, free from another,
yet working together. Let us begin our task." He donned his small,
wire-rimmed glasses, and began recognizing the people present from his own
board of council, and then the bear's. Then, after putting the paper with
the names on it on the table, he removed the glasses, and looked at each
person at each table. This was promising to be a very interesting council.
The fox agreed.
	The cheetah sat down at his computer, noticing the fact of how
chilly the room was. After booting it up, he checked his bug. There were
no new calls, but that really didn't surprise him. The bear really
wouldn't have had time to make any calls anyway. He might as well see if
his tracer had turned up with anything. When he started it, he blinked.
His tracer hadn't simply returned without any information, it had been
rejected without any information. "Someone's trying to keep me from
getting to where that call wenr to!" His mouth cracked into a smile. "Let
them try!" he said as he started typing furiously.
	Peppy spun his ship around and shot down another of the tiny
fighters, then took out another energy panel, adding its laser fire to the
already crowded space. By now, the lasers from the core were shooting in
all directions. "Let's hurry up and take out that core! Every minute that
we spend here is another minute that Andross can use to prepare for us!"
	Falco blasted his ship to the edge of the satelite and did a
u-turn. "Take this!"he challenged as he practiced his sharp shooting. Two
more of the panels fell into disrepair as laser fire tore them apart. The
added lasers made fighting even harder in the heat of battle.
	Slippy did a somersault and took out a group of three ships as
they tried to chase Fox. "I'll take these guys! You go after the core!"
	"Thanks, Slippy! I owe you one!" Fox said as he made another
sweeping turn and shot out two more of the panels. "Just a few left!"
	The tiger smiled as he replaced his glasses to read the terms of
the agreement that the two councils had finally decided upon. All of
Corneria's prime objectives had been met in that treaty, but the bear
seemed uneasy as he looked over the items. "Is there something wrong?" the
tiger asked in his most businesslike voice.
	"There is one thing that still lacks from this treaty," the bear
said as he turned towards his board of council, "and that is protection."
	"Protection? Look, perhaps you missed it," the tiger pointed out
towards the papers as he said it, "it's in the third point, somewhere on
the fourth page, I believe."
	"No, no," the bear stated sadly, even as he scanned the fourth
page for what he was looking for. "I am talking of protection in war. You
must remember that this treaty is being during one of the greatest wars of
all time. In the course of war, people get killed. It's not pretty, but
that's the way it is. Much of the time, it is the influential people who
are aimed for. We must face the fact that at any time, one of Andross'
forces could perhaps assassinate any one of us. We must prepare for such a
case! I move, that we should make another item, in which, in the case that
one of the World Leaders, or any other leader is assassinated, the leader
of the other planet will take control of both until a new and more
suitable leader is found!"
	The bear looked as his council, most of whom were sporting
thoughtful looks. A rabbit stood, who was wearing the Macbethan General's
uniform. "I second the motion."
	A lizard on the end stood as well. That would make the motion
ratified by the Macbethan council. It was now up to the Cornerian council
to either agree or not, and make agruments accordingly. The small bird,
who was sitting in the middle of the table, stood nervously fingering her
necklace, and chirped up, "I agree with the motion."
	A bright orange cat near to the tiger stood as well. "I second
it."
	The tiger looked at his council, "You would deem it wise then, to
agree with this movement?" Most of the people at the table nodded, some
nodding vigorously. "Very well, then," the tiger sighed as he gathered up
the papers of other trial treaties and squared them up, "We will add such
an item to the treaty. Is there anything else that we would add to this
final version of the treaty?" This time, no one moved to signal the tiger.
"Then it is done." He looked at the nearby scribe who was preparing the
treaties. "Add as I dictate, please." The tiger scratched his head once,
and then began dictating the terms of the new agreement.
	Slippy pulled out of a spin in time to avoid slamming into the
core itself. "Watch out! They're trying to take our wings off!" He found
Peppy, and stayed closer to him.
	Peppy slid in beside Slippy, and they began shooting at everything
that came near them. "Hurry up and explode!" Peppy urged the core as he
shot another square off of it.
	Fox was preparing to shoot down one more square as he felt his
right wing tugging at him. He turned around to see the problem. Laser fire
was cutting down on his wing, and it was taking heavy damage. "Get away
from me!" Fox yelled at the ship chasing him. He did a somersault, but the
other ship had seen it coming, and hit the brakes to wait for Fox to come
down. Fox started to barrel-roll to deflect the shots, but the ship behind
him continued to shoot, undaunted. Fox dodged to the left, and then made a
tight turn to the right, circling close to the hexagonal core, and the
ship followed. "These ships must be run by computers," Fox complained into
his com, "because I can't lose this thing! Help me out, here!"
	Almost instantly, the ship dissappeared from view as Falco shot
behind him. "Thanks, Falco! You'll never miss a chance to have one up on
me, will you?"
	"Not if I can help it!" Falco said as he laughed. He banked
sharply to the left, and shot out one more of the panels. "Let's hurry up
and get this done!" He went back to the edge of the satelite for another
shot, but some of the ships began to chase him. He was trying to lose the
ships when he called, "Oh, man! I can't shake this guy!"
	Peppy flew past, and shot Falco's pursuer down before slowing,
turning, and shooting at another of the panels. The shots missed by a few
inches, and Peppy's ship took heavy damage from the lasers spewing out of
the core. He boosted out of the mess, meeting up with Fox. Fox spun to the
left to get around Peppy, and shot the panel that Peppy had been aiming
at. He went to the right to move around the core itself, but his ship
suddenly shook violently, a flash igniting the right side of the Arwing.
Fox looked out of the cockpit, and saw the problem. "Oh, man! I've lost a
wing! This is not good!" He looked back and saw the ship that had slammed
into his to take the wing off still bouncing along the surface of the
satelite, sparking, and then exploding. "These things are turning
kamikaze! Keep an eye out!" He looked back at the ripped wing, and
complained, "I'm going to have to go in for repairs before we go on to
Venom." He did a barrel roll with the wing that was left, and turned back
towards the core. He could feel the drag that the missing wing was making,
but that was okay, as long as he could fly. Just a few more panels, and he
was out of there.
	The cheetah was still working on finding out where the call had
gone through to, but he was meeting with little success. Whoever had
blocked the information was very good. If the cheetah hadn't been a
professional hacker, he would have never gotten near it. But near it, he
was, except for a few large hurdles to get over. He continued to tap away
at the keyboard and mutter passwords to himself as he typed. It would be
hard to find this out, but if it was this hard to find, it would have to
be good information. The cheetah rubbed his hand in the fur on his face,
straining his mind for another trick to use against this roadblock. So
far, no special trick, no learned maneuver had worked on any front, but
there had to be a weak link somewhere. He went on, trying everything he
knew. Something was going to have to work soon; the cheetah's patience was
wearing thin. He furrowed his eyebrows as he heard the door of Pepper's
office open with its familiar speaking noise, and then footsteps coming
his way. The cheetah quickly put the computer to sleep, and then got under
his desk, hoping that whoever it was that had come in would leave soon.
	"Hello?"a timid voice asked in the dark. "Is anyone here?" When
there was no response, the voice still sounded agitated. The person seemed
to hear the humming of the computer just before it shut down. The cheetah
heard the footsteps come near the room. He hurried from his hiding spot to
behind the door, hoping to get the jump on whoever or whatever was coming
in.
	The cheetah tensed as the doorknob squeaked a warning to him, and
then stopped breathing when the person entered the room. In the light that
was allowed in the almost pitch black room, the cheetah could make out a
short, barely overweight shadow, but he wasn't sure. The door swung shut,
as was the custom for all of the spring-loaded doors in the CSCC, but it
didn't latch, which, for years, had been a custom for the aging doors as
well. The cheetah stepped up behind the person, who was standing quite
still, inspecting the room. The cheetah's hand cocked back, and he
delivered a good blow to the back of the person's neck. "Aiya!!" It was
followed by another blow, and a third. Suddenly, as the fourth was about
to land, the cheetah felt his arm being grabbed, and he felt himself
soaring through the darkness, landing against the wall. He tried to get
up, but his back was beginning to hurt, now. The shadow rushed over to the
lightswitch, and flipped on the lights, making both himself and the
cheetah cringe at the glow of the bright lights. The cheetah was the first
to recognize the other. "The captain!" The cat smiled in relief, and then
helped the cheetah up.
	"I'm terribly sorry. I didn't realize that it was you who was in
here," the cat apologized.
	The cheetah streched his back, just now feeling how badly he had
been thrown. "Oh, man," he groaned as he sat down in his chair, still
rubbing his back. "That's going to sting in the morning," he looked over
at the cat, "Where have you been all day?"
	The cat looked around, as if searching for listeners, and then
continued, "I have waited for a time that I thought it was safe to talk
about, and someone whom I thought was safe to talk to."
	The cheetah leaned forward, still trying to get the kink out of
his back. "Do you think I'm safe?" Then he released a short growl as his
back popped.
	The cat smiled. "Of course. If you aren't, I can always throw you
again."
	The cheetah mock laughed, "Very funny. What is is you want to tell
me?" Another pop, and a concurrent growl.
	"I know who that bear really is," the cat said as his face became
serious, "and I know what he's up to!"
	"You mean you've known all this time, and you didn't tell any of
us?"
	"Then you know, as well?"
	"I have a guess or two."
	"Try me."
	The cheetah leaned back in his chair, now. A third pop forced a
growl out of his mouth, and then he said, "I would think that he's some
kind of secret agent from Venom, on a mission to sabeotage our government,
giving Corneria over to Andross."
	The cat started, "You're closer than you realize." The cat didn't
realize it, but under his fur, the blood drained from the cheetah's face.
	A reporting armadillo waited for the red light on top of the
camera to turn on. As the red light beeped, he began his intro, "Today is
a historic moment in interplantary peace. A new treaty is being signed
today, that will seal Corneria and Macbeth in war against Venom, as well
as bring the two planets closer in trade, technology, and weaponry." In
the background, the tiger was reading the final treaty to himself,
preparing to sign it underneath of the bear's neat signature. Finally, he
placed the papers on the table, and added his name with his best
handwriting. The new treaty was effective immediately.
	The tiger stood, ready to leave and go to bed. His personal guard
instantly swarmed around him, protecting him from the danger that had,
apparently, never shown its face. The fox was extrememly puzzled that
nothing had happened, but he was ready to accept that. As long as the
bear's plan had not gone through, he would be pleased enough. Suddenly,
however, the bear approached, his personal guard seperating the two
leaders. "I know you have had a long evening, as have I, but I was
wondering if you would like to come back to my suite to relax. I would
enjoy some company, as I usually have none."
	To the tiger, it seemed that he was exhausted, but he himself
would care for some time to simply relax with some company, so he decided
to humor the foreigner. "Yes, I believe I would like that. Guards, let's
change plans slightly."
	The fox suddenly realized what was going on. "We'll change plans,
all right," he thought to himself, "to the bear's plans."
	The cat was looking over the cheetah's shoulder as the cheetah
made one last attempt at finding the source of the vidscreen call earlier
that day. "I can always get this far and then, there!" he pointed an
accusing finger at the screen, as a denial page rejected his request with
relish.
	The cat growled at the computer, but encouraged the cheetah, "Keep
trying! You've got to break through that code!"
	The cheetah continued to type, but it was to no avail yet. He
slammed his fist down on the desktop. "Just let me in! Just for one
minute!" He tried several different techinques, and finally, the denial
page cleared, and the tracer flew freely to the source. The cheetah
gasped, even though he had been expecting it. "Venom!"
	The cat smiled at the breakthrough, "And look! I think that's the
symbol for a replay, isn't it?"
	The cheetah was ecstatic, "It sure is! Let me download this to our
computers, so that we won't have to go through all of this again,
especially if it happens to accidentally 'disappear'." He clicked the
pointing device, and entire half-hour call from Vemon to Corneria had been
copied to the CSCC computers and had backup copies in the cheetah's
personal computer. "Let's see, then, what our foreign friend is up to." He
routed the playback to a nearby vidscreen, and the two watched as the
playback started with a shady, but unmistakable shot of Emperor Andross.
"This is going to be good," the cheetah assured the cat.
	Fox was still fighting his broken wing when another one of the
ships decided to try to take the other one off. Fox swerved away in time
to save the other wing, and he dove towards the surface to avoid yet
another attacker. "They're getting harder to get away from!"
	Slippy pulled away from another one of the fighters, and almost
ran right into the core itself. After a severe beating of laser from the
core, he backed off, and shot at one more of the squares.
	Falco made a wide turn, and shot at as many panels as possible,
but only destroying the one that Slippy had injured. "This is taking too
long! We need to huury up, or Andross is going to have enough time to get
away!"
	As Falco spoke, Andross was boarding a ship that was to orbit the
planet until the attack on Venom was over. He watched as the small machine
that ran his master invention was loaded onto the ship. He was pleased
with himself, no doubt about it. The Star Fox Team? What were they to him
and his millions of minions? Simply four more ships to shoot down, no more
than the rest. He summoned one of his generals. "Are the ships that we so
recently "borrowed" from the Macbethans in place?"
	"Yes, sir."
	"Are they awaiting my signal?"
	"Not one of them would move without it, sir."
	"Good. You are dismissed." The general knelt to the ground,
reverenced the huge simian emperor, and then left the room. Andross looked
at his masterpiece, the machine sitting in the middle of the room, with
headpiece and gloves neatly set on hangers, waiting to be used. This was
going to be the quickest rout he had ever seen.
	Fox feigned to the left, and lost one of the fighters. He rolled
right, and pulled off several shots on the core. "Just a few more panels!"
	Falco pulled out of a somersault, and raked the core with his
laser, but he missed all of the panels. He spun his ship around after he
had passed the core, and shot again, but missed this time as well.
	Slippy made a wide turn, following the same moves that Falco had
done only minutes before. He fired several long-range shots, but found
that he couldn't seem to hit the last few core panels, either.
	Peppy watched as they all continued to miss the panels. Finally,
he followed Slippy in another wide turn, and braked to a crawl. "You've
had this coming for ten years," he muttered to the satelite, "and I've
finally gotten a chance to pay it back." Peppy loaded a bomb, and prepared
to fire it. "It's time! Everyone, clear!" He fired the bomb into space,
and then turned away from the core. "Let's go, guys! This is going to be
no small explosion!"
	Slippy spun his ship, and hit the boosters, seconds ahead Fox and
Falco. "Hurry up, you two! We've got to get out of range before this thing
goes!!"
	The bomb slammed directly in between the last two panels, and they
shattered with a flaming resonance. The core, with all of the energy
panels gone, began breaking up. The nuclear material would become quite
dangerous soon. Fox jammed his boosters, as did Falco, "Hurry, come on,
come on! Speed it up!"
	The group looked back, only for a moment, to see the core
beginning to physically disassemble, and the area around it beginning to
light up with a nuclear glow. Then for a second, all was quiet. The group
looked back once again to see a huge explosion rocket from the core to the
entire satelite, shattering it into the building materials and blasting
them off into deep space, never to be seen again. Fox took his few seconds
to react, and then moved to four-ship formation. "All aircraft, report!"
he was wanting to get this over with as fast as possible.
	Falco started out, "I think that was the biggest explosion that
I've ever seen."
	Slippy, as well, was amamzed. "Wow," was all he could say.
	Peppy remained quiet for several second. Finally, he spoke. "The
justice has finally come."
	All Fox could do was nod. The four sat in space for several
minutes, and then Fox looked ahead at the planet Venom, grossly surrounded
by it poisonous gas clouds, true to the planet's name. He looked at his
broken wing, and then back to the planet. "You'll have to wait," he said.
"It's coming down to one last battle, and I'm going to be in perfect
health for it. Guys, let's head back to the Great Fox for repairs, and
then, it will be time." The four ships boosted themselves back to the
lumbering Great Fox, ready for the rest.
	The cheetah pressed the button to shut down the screen, after
about half of the playback was over. "I've seen enough! We've got to stop
that bear!" The two of the them ran out of the CSCC, and towards the
banquet hall, where they hoped to find the tiger. No luck. The cheetah
stopped a guard. "Hey, where did the World Leader go?"
	The guard seemed to strain his memory, and then said, "I think he
said something about going back to that bear's room for company or
something. I can't be sure."
	The cheetah and the cat exchanged glances, and then they were
running off again, the cat lagging behind. The cheetah got to the
elevator, first, and slammed the button impatiently. The cat came up
behind him, and began wheezing from the run. "I'm not used to prolonged
exercise like this."
	The cheetah scowled at the elevator door, wishing it would open.
"Get used to it, and fast, too. I have a feeling this bear is not going to
be happy that we're crashing his party." The door opened, and the cheetah
grabbed the cat's arm, dragging him into the elevator. "You can catch your
breath on the way up. Let's go!"
	The fox and the rest of the personal guard sat outside the door to
the bear's suite, on the tiger's orders. The bear's personal guard also
sat with them, but the fox figured that they were there to keep people out
while the bear was doing his work, most likely. The fox tried to think of
a reason for him to go inside, even if it was just to make sure that the
tiger was still alive. He stood, to stretch his legs. No matter what,
there was going to be quite a bit of action in some amount of time. A few
of the guards heard the familiar sound of the elevator door opening, but
most of them were simply trying to stay awake. Personal guard duty was
hard work. The fox looked up as a cheetah and a cat came around the
corner, both with determined looks on their faces. As soon as the two came
near to the door, the bear's guards got up to block the door.
	The cheetah stopped in front of the five guards, who were dressed
in the traditional burgundy color of the Macbethan army. "Let us pass," he
ordered.
	The two guards directly in front of the door refused to budge,
both with their hands on their holdsters. The fox had his reason, "Let
these two through!"
	One of the guards stammered, "The World Leaders do not wish to be
disturbed!"
	The cat inched forward, "We have an urgent message for them!"
	Inside the sound-proof room, the bear and the tiger were having no
indication of the commotion outside, but were playing a friendly game of
cards. The tiger was winning with flying colors, but the bear was having
his share of wins, too. At that moment, the tiger laid down his cards, and
watched carefully as the bear laid his down on the opposite side of the
table. The tiger had won again, and he laughed to show his victory. The
bear appearance began to visibly change, and he rose to his feet. "We have
played enough!"
	The tiger, not realizing what the bear meant, said inbetween short
laughs, "No, no. We've only begun the game! Let us continue!"
	In responce, the bear reached down on his leg, and whipped out a
rather large knife. "The game is over, prey!" The bear stood, posing in a
threatening stance on one side of the table.
	The blood drained from the tiger's face as he saw the edge of the
blade. He'd been quite stupid to fall into a trap like this. The bear
continued to study his expression, but the tiger was trying to comprehend
what was happening. The tiger studied the bear as well. The bear could
probably kill quite easily if he wanted to, and that he definatley wanted.
He guessed that the bear outweighed him by quite a bit, and the bear was
somewhat taller than he was, as well. Even with the instincts of a tiger,
the bear had the advantage in this fight. He edged his hands under the
table, got a grip on the two legs of the table nearest him, and hoped that
the bear wouldn't notice.
	"Let us pass, guards!" the cat was becoming quite angry, and was
not afraid to show it.
	"You will need a pass!" one of the guards announced triumphantly.
	"Baloney!" yelled the fox.
	The group stood silent for a second, and then the head Macbethan
guard seemed to accept the idea that the other guard had thought of. "Do
you have passes, gentlemen?"
	"If they can lie," the cheetah thought to himself. Then he reached
back and grabbed his wallet. "Yeah, I've got a pass." He opened his wallet
to reveal the his pass to the CSCC, picture and all. It had a small part
on it about it only being a pass to the CSCC, but the cheetah held his
wallet so as to cover that part with his finger. He looked at the cat,
"Captain, don't you have a pass like this one?" He held the wallet towards
the cat, pointing out how he held his finger to cover up that part of it.
	The cat whipped out his wallet, mimicking the cheetah's idea.
"Yes, I do." He showed his pass, as well.
	The fox was impressed. "Good thinking," he thought to himself.
Then he turned to the Macbethan guards, "Now, can they pass? They've met
your requirments!" The fox, himself, knew that the passes were fake, but
if it worked to get them in that room, he was going to go for it.
	The head guard struggled for a second, then stammered, "They do
not wish to be disturbed!" When the group of Cornerian guards began to
move over towards him, he snapped. He whipped out his hand laser, and held
it in the air. That was all the excuse the fox needed. With a war cry, he
dove into the head guard's stomach, forcing him to drop his hand laser at
the cheetah's feet.
	The cheetah snatched up the hand laser, and brought it to shoulder
level. Even as he undid the lock, the Macbethans were already aiming with
their hand lasers. He stuck his hands into the air, still holding onto the
hand laser. The Cornerian guards were slower about getting their lasers
drawn, but when the Macbethans had drawn theirs, the Cornerians' attention
was brought up.
	The fox wrestled with the head guard, trying to get him into a
position in which he could put handcuffs on him, so he could help the
cheetah. The guard rolled on his side, and threw the fox against the wall.
The fox smashed against the fall, and the cheetah couldn't help but cringe
from the looks of it. The head guard dove at the fox while he was still
dazed, lying on the ground. The fox looked up just as the guard was about
to land on him, hands outstretched to the fox's throat. The fox caught the
guard's hands, and stuck his foot in the guard's stomach, launching him
over the fox's head. The guard flew over the fox, and knocked over one of
the other guards.
	As the head guard landed on one of the four guards and the other
three guards took a worried look at the fallen Macbethans, the cheetah saw
his chance. He brought down the gun, and hoped his aim was right. The
pinkish laser shot from the cheetah's laser, and blasted the laser out of
one of the other guard's hands. The remaining two guards holding lasers
aimed directly for the cheetah, and then dropped the weapons as they
realized that the Cornerian guards were aiming all four of their lasers at
those two.
	The tiger placed his foot up underneath the bridge of the table,
and then launched the table into the bear, hoping it would knock him out.
The bear hadn't seen the move coming, and the table knocked him against
the wall, and then trapped him against a dresser. With his free hand, he
gripped the table's edge, and rolled it off of him, in time to see the
tiger dashing into the next room. He leapt up and followed his target,
hoping to get it overwith as soon as possible. The tiger stood in the
room, holding a long, somewhat skinny piece of the wood that had been
stacked up for the fireplace. The bear charged, and slashed at the tiger,
ducking underneath the stick. His blade caught the tiger's shirt, but
missed his skin. The tiger brought the stick down hard on top of the
bear's backbone, knocking the bear to the ground spread eagle. The tiger
tried to dash across the room to the intercom to call in the guards
outside, but the bear caught his foot, smashing the tiger to the ground as
well. The bear lifted the tiger with one hand, and threw him against the
wall. The tiger felt the blow to an extreme degree. He could barely move,
his back had been hurt so badly. The bear, himself, was still staggering
around a little, but he had found his knife, and started walking back
towards his quarry. The tiger looked frantically for something to guard
himself with, his eyes landing on the stick that he had used earlier. He
waited until the bear stood directly overtop of him, poised with the knife
and ready to strike. The tiger pushed himself away from the wall, and
directly into the bear's legs, knocking him over as he did it. While the
bear was getting up, he dashed for the stick, and picked it up just in
time to block another slash from the knife. The tiger held that stick
still, hoping to keep the knife where it was for the moment. "So," he
queried inbetween gasps, "who put you up to this? Andross?"
	The bear slowed down, himself, realizing that the tiger was on his
way down. "The same. Wasn't our plan wonderful?" The bear brought the
knife down again, and the tiger tried to use the stick to block it again,
but the knife cut right through the stick, dropping a small, hacked piece
of wood on the floor. The knife came down again, but this time, the stick
caught it.
	The tiger dared not take the time to replay the events in his
mind, so acted the idiot. "What plan?"
	The bear almost seemed insulted. "It was easily done. I took over
Macbeth, which, no offense to your Macbethan friends, is not very hard to
do, these days. I become the World Leader, and accuse you of helping the
enemy, requiring us to renew our treaty." The stick was chopped again, as
the knife passed through another layer.
	The stick survived one more cut, and held the knife there for a
second, for the tiger to say, "I still don't see what you gain by that."
	The bear was enraged. "I come as a leader wanting peace, and we
design a new treaty. In the treaty, I make sure that there's a item that
forfeits the planet to me, and in the end, Andross, if you meet an
untimely demise. After the treaty is active, I get you alone, and kill
you. After you're dead, no one will prosecute, because the moment you die,
this planet is ruled by Andross." The bear hacked away at the stick, proud
of what he had accomplished. "Why did you not see it before? Are you
stupid as well as a terrible fighter?" The knife flew again, and this
time, it got stuck in a knot in the wood.
	The tiger saw his chance, and whipped the stick towards himself.
The knife ripped out of the bear's hand, and stuck into the wall. The bear
tried to charge the tiger while the tiger was grabbing the knife out of
the wall, but stopped when he found his own knife pointed at his throat,
held by the tiger. "No, I'm not," the tiger responded to his question, "I
just wanted a full confession."
	At that moment, the door flew open, and the three forms of the
cheetah, the cat, and the fox dashed into the room, ready to help the
tiger take on the bear, and the four Cornerian guards soon followed them
in. The bear realized that he had been defeated. "It seems the gang's all
here," he mused, his eyes taking in the scene of seven hand lasers all
trained on his chest. Holding in a roar that would have shaken the grounds
of the capitol, he looked back at the tiger, still holding the knife at
the bear's throat. "It seems I am lost."
	The tiger, himself refusing to roar, instead returned the bear's
spiteful gaze. "Take him away." The four guards were instantly on top of
the bear, handcuffing him, and leading him to where he could meet the rest
of his group, which, incidentally, was in the closest jail.
	The cheetah and the cat remained in the room with the tiger, as
the tiger slowly realized what exactly had happened that night. He sat
down, and almost passed out. The cheetah and the cat helped him up,
disregarding the orders to never touch the World Leader, for safety
reasons. As the cheetah looked over at the cat, he didn't think the
Cornerian World Leader would mind. The three of them headed towards the
tiger's home, quietly trying to forget what had happened just a minute or
two before.
	No one realized that the fox had not been seen since the bear had
been caught. He was with the cheetah, or was it the cat, or did he go with
the bear, and doesn't he have an uncanny resemblence to someone we know?
The other four guards had millions of explanations for the disappearance
of the strange fox, but none of them could remember who it was that he
looked like.  Oh, well, maybe he just went with the group of guards who
had escorted the former Macbethan World Leader to the jail, and got
reassigned.
	If they had been outside that night, and near the small excuse for
a forest that the fox had landed in earlier, they would have seen what
appeared to be a small ship flying up through the sky, although they still
wouldn't have noticed that a fox wearing gloves and his trademark
sunglasses was riding inside.