StarFox Fan Fiction ❯ The Shards of a Broken Krystal ❯ Giving Chase ( Chapter 6 )

Disclaimer: Surprise. I don't own the Star Fox series or any of its characters. I do, however, own the story. Keep that in mind before you steal it.

 

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The Shards of a Broken Krystal - by Staindgrey

 

Chapter VI - Giving Chase

 

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The long, branching leaves of the archaic trees hung like silhouettes against the faint, white light of the full moon above. Sauria was one of the few planets in Lylat to have a moon, and it was a beautiful sight to behold for any onlooker. The outlines of the primitive leaves gave an eerie yet exotic feel to the springs below which bubbled almost automatically day and night. The pond was a translucent green with spots of steam rising above it like fog in the dead of night. The only light besides that of a dim moon came from three forlorn flames atop torch sticks. They had been lit only a few moments ago by one of the villager Thorntails by using his rock hard beak to grind across the wick and snap a spark or two to ignite it. The accommodation was set for the visitor, and the crickets nearby sang in orchestrated fashion as if to greet the mystic vixen. The Thorntail slowly trudged out from the small clearing of trees and back onto the grassy plain outside with a smile crossing her rocky features.

 

“Kxoho oei we, Mujj Krystal,” the Thorntail said in a delighted feminine voice. “Hocup. Odzeo oeih dawxk!”

 

Krystal, after spending the day mingling amongst old friends and new faces within the Hollow, had grown accustomed to the Saurian language, and could make out the kind Nodosaurus's words as There you go, Miss Krystal. Relax. Enjoy your night! The blue vixen gave a small nod and a big smile in return. “Kxudbj, Mutum.” She then embraced the dinosaur's scaly neck in an evident display of affection, then contracted her arms and lifted up her small knapsack and leopard skin towel and walked into the unlit clearing. Where or how the Thorntails were able to find leopard skin, the vulpine hadn't the slightest clue, but she was grateful for the towel nonetheless, not to mention the exclusive use of their hot spring. The Thorntails were truly the most hospitable bunch on the face of the planet, which, as silently ashamed as she was to admit it, was why Krystal had chosen to land here for the time being, rather than the Earthwalkers' or Cloudrunners' domains. Plus, the hot springs were always nice.

 

Krystal found a dry log along the right side of the spring and sauntered over to it, softly placing her sack on top of it and draping her exotic towel overtop of it. Then, after a quick check around the area, she began to undress. Her telepathic abilities were telling her that there was no one around besides the elder Thorntail that was already on her way back to her home for the night, but her womanly instincts still caused her to take a look around for any peeping toms before baring it all out. First, she removed the three golden rings that kept her enormously bushy tail at bay and placed them neatly on the opposite side of the log from her sack. She then slid off her gauntlets and followed with her sandals and shin guards. She laid them all on the same side of the log as the rings, then continued removing the rest of her clothing. After once again taking a precautious look around her, she made her way to the front of the small body of water and placed the toes of her foot in to check its temperature. She didn't really need to, as the mass of bubbles and steam was evidence enough of the heat, but she still wanted to know just how hot it was before she just dove in. After a small shudder passed through her body at the water's sensation, a smile made its way across her velvety furred cheeks as she placed the bottom half of her leg up to her knee inside. It was practically boiling, just the way she liked it. Once the tread of her foot felt the slanting ground beneath, she lowered her other leg in to follow, placing both feet firmly against the ground and slowly waling her way it. She loved the feel of the blistering hot water overcoming her, wrapping her in a steamy liquid sensation that sent shivers through her skin beneath her soaking fur. As she at last fell all the way in, save the tips of her shoulders and up, she gave a small purr of enchantment and closed her eyes to the world around her. Her imagination filled in the gaps as she pictured the hot water taking her in and soothing her every muscle like a full body massage. The feeling also relaxed her mind, and she once again felt at ease, something she hadn't felt for quite some time.

 

After a short fraction of eternity, her mind began to wander. First she thought of simply that day. She had met practically all the Thorntails in the village in a few short hours; they truly were a friendly people that loved the sight of visitors. It was like she was some sort of celebrity for the day, and she really didn't mind it too much. Being a normal young woman, she loved the attention, but she still much preferred the solitude of her in her hot spring for the moment. She once again sighed contently as she felt a small lot of bubbles brush up against her back, adding to the rubdown sentiment that she was receiving. She needed this; she really needed this. But still, she couldn't help but wish that a certain someone was there with her...

 

“Fox...” she whispered to herself. She hated feeling like a lost little girl, but sometimes she just couldn't help it. Her feelings for him at times would wash her over like a tidal wave, whether she wanted them to or not. Those times were even harder to avoid when she was alone like she was now. The memory of his smiling face made her lips do the same- both corners of her lips stretched back almost as far as they could along her muzzle into a hearty smile of her own. She then erupted into a giggle as she pictured his cute, boyish grin when he became embarrassed- even though he was now twenty-eight, he still had the heart and charisma of a child. She loved the way he fell for every tease she shot at him, though she was hoping that eventually he would take advantage of them... He almost did. They were so close. What went so horribly wrong...?

 

Her ears began to droop at the thought of his visibly broken temper, when he could barely bear to look at her after the mission on Corneria. When he hardly glanced at her for the next three days... He was tearing her heart in two, only to smash it with those words that hacked her like a chainsaw, “...then I don't want you to be a part of my life.” She couldn't take the thought of that situation any longer, but as hard as she tried to shake the image from her head, it remained like a pesky itch that couldn't be scratched out. Her relaxing night at the spring was beginning to deteriorate before her, but she wasn't about to simply roll over and let that happen. She closed her eyes and tried to focus on the warm sensation enveloping her dainty body, the lovely humming of all the nearby crickets, the faint, shimmering glow of the three red torches through her closed eyes, the... approaching person in distress??

 

Krystal's eyes shot open as she felt the presence of someone drawing near. She could feel their heart racing, but her heart seemed to double its speed within the completely nude vixen's body. As she turned to face the incoming intruder with an arm placed tightly against her exposed breasts, she heard the rumble of a galloping Styracosaurus- Prince Tricky.

 

“Kryst- Whoa!!” The Earthwalker Prince slammed to a stop as he cleared the wall of trees that separated the small hot spring from the rest of Thorntail Hollow. A blush overcame his scaly cheeks as he turned away from the submerged blue vixen who had disgust painted all over her face. “Ah, geeze, I'm sorry! I'm really sorry!”

 

“Tricky, what do you want?” Her reply was blunt and slightly agitated. Her sapphire orbs were penetrating and menacing, the death glare that only a woman could give; those orbs weren't the ones that Tricky was wanting to pay attention to, however.

 

“Uh, well, um... I was in the neighborhood, over by Snowhorn Wastes, when I heard that an Arwing had landed here this morning. I, er... thought it might be you or Fox and came over to say hey!” He was trying really hard to keep his eyes locked with hers and nothing else. He couldn't help but be a little distracted while he spoke, however.

 

“Hey,” she said with a small hint of sarcasm. “Tricky, can you give me a moment to get dressed? Then we can talk.”

 

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“Wow,” was all that escaped Bill's mouth as he beheld the enigma that was James McCloud. “I thought you were dead.” His voice was husky with a bit of a twain added in, giving him the appearance of a rebellious adolescent.

 

“Nah, only halfway,” was James's derisive remark. He followed it up with his usual fatherly laugh and patted Bill on the back.

 

“But how'd you escape Venom?” The same thought had been on Fox's mind, but the abrupt intrusion of Star Wolf had put his questions on hold. Both younger pilots looked intently at the graying fox between them as they walked in a line down the chrome corridor towards the lounging area.

 

“That'll be a conversation for later,” James said nonchalantly, “Right now, I'm in need for some major R&R. You boys are just lucky you're still young!” Bill gave a small snigger at James's answer, but Fox wasn't so easy on him. He stared at his father with the determined eyes of a dog on the hunt for a fox; an elder, mercenary fox.

 

“Why can't you just tell us now?” he shot unsympathetically. “You've been gone for well over a decade and all this time everyone thought you were dead. Why does it have to wait?”

 

James's pace slowed for an instant as he gawked at his son through his thick sunglasses following his outburst. He regained his charisma only an instant after, however, and his grin returned with flying colors across his muzzle. “Well, if it's really that important to you...” He hesitated for a moment, only to add dramatic effect. Fox only became more agitated. “Alright. Here's the scoop. As you both already know, General Pepper sent my team to Venom to investigate Andross's workings in the area. It was only meant to be a routine surveillance mission- get in there, find what you need, get out. But Pigma, that dirty swine, turned traitor on me and Peppy.” His voice was turning into a growl now as he continued, the memories flooding back into his mind as if they had just happened.

 

“He sold out against us, saying that our honest mercenary work wasn't making him enough money. For the sake of a huge bounty on my head, he had informed Andross that we were on our way. Once we came to Venom's surface, we were ambushed by the gorilla's newly acquired Star Wolf team. Now, had it been three on three, we would've kicked their sorry butts right out of the sky. But then, Pigma started firing on me. I had no idea what was going on, and before I knew it, my shields were down and I was getting pelted on from all sides.”

 

“Well, we know that much,” Bill shyly interrupted, “but how'd you survive?”

 

James remained in his serious tone, his cocky grin now seeming to be but a faint and distant memory. “Well, before I was actually shot down, the group split into sets of two, Wolf and Pigma going for me, Oikonni and Leon going after Peppy.” He now began to use hand motions to reenact the scenario, like a grandfather telling a story. “Before they were able to shoot me down, I swooped in behind the two on Peppy's tail and fired my last nova bomb in between them. It detonated on Andrew's left wing, which wasn't too far from Leon's ship. That knocked `em both out of the way and left Andrew worthless since he could barely fly.

 

“Well, Leon was pissed and I still had Wolf and that double-crosser on my tail, but Peppy was getting home safe. After that, I couldn't do much more than move around like a frantic, headless chicken before they finally brought me down. They did, and my Arwing crashed against the planet and exploded.”

 

“You survived the explosion?” Fox asked, following the role of an enthusiastically listening grandchild as they continued to walk.

 

“Yeah, somehow. The explosion itself only took out the back end of my ship, but the cockpit stayed in one piece. Star Wolf let me be, thinking I could die that easily, and went to collect their bounty for my death. I got out and tried to contact Corneria, but the toxic atmosphere of Venom cut off my transmission. I was alone. I wandered around that hell of a desert for a good day or two till I finally found one of their bases hidden along the edge of a valley. I snuck inside and tried to steal one of their fighters to escape, but apparently Andross knew I was coming...”

 

“What happened?” Bill inquired, urging the old man on.

 

“He was waiting for me in the docking bay. He was a hell of a lot bigger than I expected, and he later told me that it was all due to his own molecular regeneration he had induced on himself. The man was a genius to pull that off, but he was mad.”

 

“A huge gorilla head with floating hands...” Fox reminisced out loud. James simply nodded.

 

“Yeah. Though it didn't go completely according to plan, since he didn't have his whole body, he was still way too much for me. Luckily, Pigma had left his Arwing in that exact port, so I could at least fight him in the air. But... He was too much. He grabbed my Arwing right out of the sky and pried me out, then took me back to his hidden laboratory on the other side of the planet.”

 

“What'd he do to you there?” Fox and Bill both had a habit of asking questions that were already bound to get answered, but at least they were guiding the old fox along the path they wanted him to follow. They were getting their long-awaited answers at last. Bill was intrigued just because it was a normal, hero survival story, but it meant so much more to Fox. He looked up to his father; he saw him as the perfect soldier, the undeniable hero that he had always wanted to be. Now, he was alive, and he wanted to hear every detail of his daring escape.

 

“Oooohh, nasty stuff... He tried to experiment things on me, using different bio weapons and such against me only to cure me right before death. I wasn't actually a testee for anything; he already knew they worked. He just wanted to torment me with every sort of pain possible, all `cause I stole the one he loved...”

 

“Mom?” Fox spoke hesitantly. He was once again rewarded with a nod.

 

“Mhmm... Vixy Reinard, the most beautiful woman I'd ever laid eyes on. But, she chose me over him, and that sealed her fate. Andross tried to boot me with a car bomb so he could have her to himself, but that morning Vixy took the car instead, since I wasn't even home.” His gloved hands clenched tightly into fists as the memories of his beloved flooded back into his mind. “If I had only been there... If I hadn't been a mercenary up in space, I could've saved her...”

 

“Dad, there's no way you could've known that,” Fox said in a comforting tone as he laid a paw on his father's shoulder. “You were only doing your job.”

 

“Yeah, but then I should've taken her onboard the Great Fox with me. I thought she'd be in danger if she was with me, but, as it turned out, she was in more danger by being away from me. I just couldn't save her...”

 

The words shot through Fox like a bullet through the heart. He suddenly stopped, both of his feet planted firmly onto the ground like the roots of a tree. Thoughts of Krystal in danger on Sauria overcame him, as his ghostly expression showed. He began to imagine her being trampled by a stampede of dinosaurs, crying out his name... But he wouldn't be there. He wouldn't be there to save her.

 

“Dude, you okay?” Bill asked unprofessionally as he had also stopped to glance back at Fox. He and James were both staring directly at him, only about a meter ahead but also completely stopped. “You look like you've just seen a ghost.” The line was rather cliché, but Fox felt like he just had. His transfixed eyes once again began to waver as he found the dumbfounded expressions of Bill and his father's faces, then turned back in the direction from which they had come.

 

“I've got to get to Sauria,” he said softly. His voice was determined, but hushed, like he was just beginning to realize something. Bill had a quizzical look painted on his face, while James was simply trying to figure his own son out.

 

“But, your guys' Arwings aren't ready yet. We've still got a few more hours-” Before he could finish his sentence, the younger McCloud broke out in a full sprint down the long passageway they had come through, leaving without so much as a goodbye or thanks for his old friend or long-lost father. “Hey! Where are you going?!”

 

“I've gotta get to Sauria!” He repeated, not glancing back over his shoulder. The boy had either gone mad or was in a real rush for something important. Bill decided he'd gone mad. James, however, started to follow his son's footsteps.

 

“Girl problems,” he reassured Bill as he began running after the fox trotting ahead. “Wait for me, Fox!” And, with that, they were both gone, and Bill still didn't have the slightest clue what was going on.

 

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Krystal came out of her comfortable hot spring spot, now fully clothed, ferociously toweling her still sodden tail as she walked. Tricky heard the light pat of her footsteps as she approached and turned to greet her, hoping she wasn't mad. The glimmer in her dazzling beacons-for-eyes proved that she wasn't. As she removed the leopard skin drapery from her tail, she placed the sustaining rings onto the thick mass of baby blue fur one by one until they were back in their normal places. It was still incredibly dark out, but the number of torches that lit up Thorntail Hollow gave her and Tricky enough light to fairly see each other. Tricky beamed at Krystal as she sauntered up with her usual grace, and she returned with a heartwarming smile of her own.

 

“Sorry `bout that back there...” Tricky said with a hint of regret in his energetic tone. Krystal waved it off with a dainty blue paw.

 

“Don't worry about it. You didn't mean to.” As she came to his side, she and the oversized Earthwalker began walking back into the heart of Thorntail Hollow. He was a large, four-legged dinosaur with a purplish-pink shade of scaly, rock hard skin and a golden yellow underside. His tail extended far out behind him, wagging about like a happy dog ready to receive a treat. His nose extended into a decent-sized white horn curving upwards, and his boney forehead flattened out into a curve of its own above his large, playful green eyes. Krystal gave him a look-over as she tried to remember back when he was even smaller than she, yet it was rather difficult to fathom with him being a full-grown adult now. “I see you've really improved on your Cornerian,” Krystal applauded.

 

“Yeah, I've really been boning up on it in sessions,” he replied shyly. “I wanna be able to talk to you guys without using any translators and stuff... Well, other than you, of course,” he added.

 

“Ak'j uchawxk,” Krystal replied in his native language, bringing a chuckle out of both her and her large friend.

 

Tricky broke the laughter with the question he'd been wanting to ask from the start, “Where's Fox? I thought you two were coming here for your honeymoon?” He was expecting laughter to follow, but something else came instead. The prince could immediately feel the awkward silence that followed his question, and, after seeing Krystal's normally glistening eyes fall into a dead stare towards the ground, he knew he'd said the wrong thing. “Oh... I'm sorry...”

 

“Don't be,” Krystal said with a counterfeit smile, “We're just having some problems, that's all. I needed to come home for a little while.” Those words sounded so strange to her, and yet they came from her own mouth. I needed to come... home... She knew this wasn't her home; her home had been destroyed, and she had abandoned her new home for the time-being. Was this truly her new home? She shook off the thought as quickly as it had come, then wasted no time in changing the subject. She could sense some sort of agony within the Earthwalker Prince's mind. “Tricky, what's wrong? You came running to me earlier like you needed something.”

 

“Oh, right...” Tricky fell back into a state of apparent agony as he looked away from Krystal for a moment. When his gaze returned, his eyes lost their playfulness altogether. “Dad said that some of the Sharpclaw are trying to make a return, the ones still loyal to General Scales's ideals. But they aren't dumb enough to try and split the planet apart again, no way. Instead, they're trying to revive Scales with the Krazoa Spirits, kinda like how that jerk Andross came back...”

 

“Scales?” Krystal repeated as if for confirmation. She received a slow nod. “Well, have they released the Krazoa Spirits yet?”

 

“Just one. It's weird. When we heard that they were trying to release the Krazoa Spirits, we went straight to the Krazoa Palace to see if they were all gone. Only one was; the other six were still safe in their shrines.”

 

Krystal's face scrunched in thought as she tried to figure out to some degree what the Sharpclaw were doing, but she silently dismissed it as them being thick-headed as usual. The Sharpclaw weren't exactly the brightest bunch; they were just strong, humanoid dinosaur meatheads. “Which Spirit was missing?”

 

“We weren't able to tell where it went, but the Sharpclaw gang was last seen heading through Moon Mountain Pass just this morning. I was on my way there when I heard about the Arwing, and, well, here I am.” He chortled a tad under his breath, but continued, “Dad's gonna be on his way tomorrow with an entire squad of the best Earthwalker fighters, but I wanted to go ahead make sure that they were still there. I don't think they're gonna be there for long before they start packing up and moving again.”

 

“You're right,” Krystal agreed. “Well, we can still make it there before daybreak; it's not that far.”

 

Tricky nodded violently, making himself look like a bobble head in an off-road vehicle. “Yeah, yeah! A couple hours at worst.” He then stopped and lowered his front legs so that his jaw was skimming the waving grass below. “Hop on!”

 

Krystal was about to say something of a modest tone, but how could she dare refuse such as offer? A free ride on the back of royalty- it couldn't get too much better than that. Besides, she could rest a little more before she got into any sort of Sharpclaw bashing. Making sure her items, including her new towel, were secure in her little knapsack, she swung the bag over her shoulder and hopped onto Tricky's tree-trunk-thick neck and straddled without any opposition, then felt herself be carried gently upward as he lifted his head back to its original position. She grabbed onto the Styracosaurus's boney forehead for support as he began trudging forward, picking up speed as he went.

 

“Here we go!” the young Earthwalker said excitedly as his walk became a gallop through the dead of night. Krystal laughed at his boyish enthusiasm as they raced forward, and, for a moment, she had completely forgotten about her past experiences in the safe livings of Great Fox...

 

Meanwhile, nearby, two glowing, golden orbs followed the duo's motions from behind a crowd of bushes. The dark figure to whom the piercing orbs belonged licked his lips menacingly as he watched. “Run, run, little foxy... You'll soon be all mine.”

 

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