StarFox Fan Fiction ❯ Star Fox Recruits ❯ Out of This Dimension, AGAIN!! ( Chapter 17 )

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

 

For months we had struggled to keep one step ahead of Andross' forces, and prevent them from doing anymore damage to the Lylat system…

 

Our battles took us to other planets… across many sectors… Even though unexplored areas, and hostile worlds…

 

All the enemies we fought seemed to grow stronger and stronger every one of them we faced after another. Sometimes it even looked as though we were finally going to be finished… but every time we somehow managed to destroy the machine… mess up the robot's plans… and make Andross really lose his temper.

 

So far we were unbeatable… but we were also growing very agitated as to how long we could keep going like this. There had to be some way to put Andross himself out of commission, and stop his evil plans for good, but the only way to even try that was to head for Venom… the most dangerous planet in the whole system.

 

Just thinking about going anywhere within parsecs of it made people nearly die of heart-attacks…

 

Slippy and Peppy had tried every single theory they had about producing protective shields that would guard us and our vehicles against Venom's pollution, but all methods had failed miserably…

 

So far… there was little we could do except remain on standby and thwart Andross diabolical schemes whenever one such as came up.

 

As for Andross… after so many plains being thwarted, he still never gave up. He was almost willing to do anything to power up and store energy in that container in the floor for whatever he was planning to use it…

 

Today however he was just blowing off steam and shooting skeet with his powers and scrap-heaps. “PULL…!” he thundered. His minions catapulted the scrap-heap high into the air allowing Andross to shoot at it with his built in blasters.

 

Then he slumped back into his throne, and rubbed his brow. “Somehow I've got to find a way to gain more energy.” he mumbled to himself, but he honestly didn't know what to do anymore. All his master creations were destroyed, and no matter how he tried to perfect them, the Star-fox team, and my X-team always made a fool of him.

 

There had to be a way he could gather energy, and not draw attention. Just then… one of his robot minions begged to have a word. “Can't you see I'm trying to think…?” Andross grunted.

 

“But, but Excellency…” the minion cried, “I just thought you'd be interested in seeing what our spy-scopes have picked up...”

 

He handed Andross a small map of the Lylat-System, and as he got a good look at the planets, and they seemed to be falling into strange positions in their orbit around Solar. Andross remembered studying this in his histories of the Lylat-System… and as he calculated Venom's position, the layer of the pollution, and the other interesting things that would happen soon…

 

“Yes… yes… Heh, heh, heh… it's perfect.” he sniggered. He finally had a plan… one that was guaranteed to get him the energy he needed, and his enemies would never suspect a thing. “In the meantime… there is still more destruction to be done…”

 

…

 

As the days went by, he launched more and more assaults against the system, and it was Star-Fox and the X-team to action. “Three attacks in two days…?” Fox growled. “Andross must really be losing it…”

 

“You're telling me…” I said. “I may be an action type of guy…but this is just nuts.”

 

Still… we faced off against many different enemies. Now there were only three left. The three enemy ships began to retreat. “Hey they're trying get away.” Falco sneered.

 

“Not if we have anything to say about it…” said Erin. The rest of the team agreed, and we boosted our Arwings deep into space, with the Great-Fox lagging behind us again…

 

Suddenly, the warning alert sounded. Peppy did the calculations, “Uh-Oh… it can't be…” he cried.

 

“Peppy…? What's the matter?” Slippy asked, but suddenly he could see for himself. There out in the blackness was that strange bird-machine… the one that sent Fox out of this dimensions once before, and it looked as though it was planning to do it again…

 

“Fox… Fox come in…!” cried Slippy.

 

…

 

Unfortunately all of our radios were suffering interference with the boosters still at full throttle, and Slippy's speech was garbled by the static for any of us to understand anything at all…

 

“Slippy… Slippy come in!” Fox said. “Slippy, I can't understand you.”

 

Finally the radio gave out, “The signal's lost.” said Krystal. “I can't get a sound out of it.”

 

“It's all right…. We'll blow-up these baddies and then find out what he wants.” Donny said. “That has got to be the best thing I've heard in weeks.” Falco joked.

 

We continued to chase after the three remaining enemy ships, unaware of the trouble that lurked up ahead…

 

As we continued to chase after the ships, we learned that they had lasers facing backwards that they could fire at us, even while they were thrusting forward… the hard way… as we each got hit. Our ships jolted hard, and each of us groaned as we were rocked about.

 

“Man… it looks like these guys want to play rough.” snapped Donny.

 

“Let's get them…!” I shouted, and the chase continued.

 

As we zoomed further and further ahead, something caught Fox's attention. There, up ahead, he could see a strange bird-like machine. The same one that sent him--

 

“Guys…! Guys…!” he called. “Pull back… quick…!”

 

The rest of us were confused, “Why…?” I asked “What's the ma-- AAH…!” we all shielded our eyes and the bird began to flash a very bright light at our ships. “What's going on?” cried Erin.

 

“I'm dreaming! Come on Falco, boy… wake up!”

 

Our screams seemed to echo as we felt ourselves being pulled into a strange vortex… and the Great-Fox lost contact with us. “Oh, no…! Not again?” cried Slippy.

 

Even Peppy was outraged by this, “There's nothing we can do about it Slippy except hope that they can make it out of there like Fox did the last time.”

 

…

 

All of us had been separated in the warp, and were now divided into groups of two, and all of us had blacked-out. I struggled to wake myself up. “Aww… man, what hit me?” I wondered.

 

As my eyes began to see clearly again, I wasn't sure if they really were back to normal as what I saw nearly made me want to hurl. This place… it was… almost indescribable. The blackness of space was gone, and replaced with a dark shade of violet.

 

The stars were shimmering brighter than ever… and there were smiling faces in the appearance of planets, each a different color and size in the distance. What made it worse… was the entire place itself was waving about as if I were a drunk-man looking through a campfire. I could barley keep myself together.

 

Then suddenly I could see something else up ahead… it was another Arwing, and I could see who was in the cockpit. “Fox…” he was lying unconscious with his body draped over the steering controls, “FOX…!” I called, but he didn't respond. That's when I realized of course he couldn't hear me though the cockpits…

 

I flew my ship in closer and then tried the communicators. “Fox… hey Fox. Wake up!” he finally stirred awake. “Huh…? Mykan…?”

 

Meanwhile…

 

The girls were just waking up themselves and realizing, “Uh, Krystal… something tells me we're not in Kansas anymore.” Erin said.

 

Although Krystal didn't understand what Kansas was, but she knew what Erin meant, “What is this place…?” she wondered. “And where are the others…?”

 

Erin gasped when she realized that the whole team wasn't together. “We've got to try and find them…” she suggested, built then realizing how large this dimension was, “Uh… that is… wherever they may be…”

 

Meanwhile…

 

Falco and Donny had already recovered, but still couldn't believe what they were seeing. “Hey…! This doesn't look like the dark reaches of space.” Donny complained. “I mean… where's all the blackness gone?”

 

Falco sighed irritably, “You idiot!” he grunted. “All your screaming and bracing there out my excellent eagle sense of direction.”

 

“Eagle sense…? Ha!” snarled Donny, “Ego-sense is more like it to me… but that still doesn't matter, or gets us out of here. Wherever here is…”

 

They tried to contact the rest of the team…

 

…

 

But just like me, I couldn't reach anyone expect for Fox, who seemed to be the only one who knew more about this place than any of us…

 

He told me once long ago, he ran across that Robot-bird and was transported into this dimension, and the very interference from all the distortion outside was what was making it impossible for us to contact the others from long distances, which was why only he and I could speak to each other… as long as we stayed close by.

 

The only thing was… he couldn't remember just how he escaped from this place the last time… it was just too long ago. “But one thing I know… we got to find the others. Maybe then we figure out how to get out of here.”

 

I agreed with him, and at least our other instruments were functioning properly, and our radar scans showed several green dots indicating the position of the others… but before we could set off, something hit me from behind. “Hey! Fox… watch what you're doing!” I called to him.

 

“What? What the heck are you talking about?” Fox asked.

 

“What do you mean?” I asked back, “Didn't you just shoot at me?”

 

Fox shook his head, and then suddenly we both got hit. “Look!” I cried out as I pointed behind at several machine-droids. Including one of the three we were chasing before. They were coming after us on full throttle. “Let's move!” snapped Fox, and we moved or ships out of the line of fire.

 

As soon as we got out far enough, we looped round and began the assault. The smaller droids were shot down easily, but the one we were changing before was still being sneaky… and it could also send us messages…

 

I read what he had to tell us, “He says… “So you like to play games, huh?”

 

“Play games…? Well I'm sure not having any fun.” said Fox, and he began to fire his lasers to try and hit it, but the machine evaded his every blast, and escaped unharmed, even I was having a hard time going after it. “Man… this guy really mean's business.” I groaned.

 

Then another message appeared on our radar screens, “You think you can escape here… you can't even beat me as the first step.”

 

“The first step…?” Fox asked. “What's he mean by that?”

 

“I don't know… but I think I have an idea how to get him.” I said, and then I began to speak to him in Saurian so that the droid wouldn't be able to understand, and Fox could use his translator to understand me.

 

As soon as I finished speaking, we lined up; with Fox at the front and I from behind. We began to charge straight towards the droid from both end, and then waited for the last minute… and just as we hoped; the droid flew upwards in an attempt to dodge us again. “Get it!” I cried and we both shot a nova bomb upwards… this time there was no escape for the droid as it got caught in the explosions...

 

KAPOW!

 

It was destroyed. “All right…!”

 

“We got it!”

 

Suddenly… outside, the waving energy around us seemed to stop flowing, and everything seemed to be clear as it should be, and not only that… but a little bit of the scenery began to fade slightly, and we could see through to the Lylat-System.

 

Fox and I suddenly began to realize what that droid mean by, “The First Step”

 

Just then, our communicators beeped. “Fox…? Mykan…?”

 

It was the rest of the crew. “Are you boys alright…?” asked Krystal.

 

“Don't worry… we're okay.” Fox answered, “And we found a way to get out of this dimension.”

 

Everyone's eye slit up, and I explained to them, “The droids that we were chasing before are somewhere in this dimension. In order to escape we have to find and destroy all of them.”

 

“Well let's get a move on… Falco said, “This place is making me sick as it is.”

 

For, actually agreeing with Falco, we all sprinted off to locate the other two droids. We found them… and they were determined to avenge the destruction of their fallen comrade that Fox and I shot down.

 

“All right team… split into groups of three.” Fox suggested. We all agreed… Falco, Fox and I would take the one on the right, and the others would take the left. “Get them!” and all our ships began to soar, tumble about as if you were watching a soccer-match.

 

These ships proved to be even slicker than the one Fox and I faced, and we couldn't shoot our nova-bombs this time… not at the risk of hitting one of our teammates. Not to mention they still had their rear-lasers, which made it so they could actually try and hit two targets with one shot.

 

“Dude… this isn't working!” cried Donny.

 

“Tell me something I don't know.” snapped Erin.

 

Finally, we were all boxed in together. Both the droids on either side of our group, and charging right for us. “Uh oh… think fast Mykan…!” I muttered to myself, and then I realized… “Guys… listen to what I say… don't question me.” I told the team.

 

After I explained the plain… We waited, “Steady! Wait for it!” I said. The others were growing tense, and frightened, “NOW…!” and we all yanked, and pushed on our controls. Some of us sped upwards, and some of us sped down… and the two droids crashed into each other…

 

KAPOW!

 

KABOOM!

 

They both were destroyed… and the dimension began to fade much more. “Well thinking Mykan.” Krystal complimented.

 

I smirked at her, “Hey… never underestimate the X-team. We've been through pretty much everything.”

 

Suddenly, the dimension stopped fading, and our own dimension was almost completely in view again, but that was as far as it went. “Hey… what's happening?” asked Falco. “I thought you said this would get us out of here…”

 

“I-- I don't understand…” Fox said, confused himself.

 

Suddenly, our Arwing radar's detected, “Warning! Incoming Enemy… Warning! Incoming Enemy…”

 

We all looked up, down… and everywhere around. “Look…!” cried Erin as she motioned us to look out into the distance at a huge slot machine that was coming right at us. “That… that machine!” cried Fox. “I thought I destroyed it years ago…”

 

That's what he thought, but it was back now… “I always wanted to play slots…” Donny said sounding nervous, “But I think those slots want to play us!”

 

I could see Donny was about to pull his on his triggers, “Donny… wait, no!” I called to him, but he already fired at the machine, which didn't actually harm it, but caused its lever to go down and spin the tumblers.

 

“What's happening…?” Erin asked.

 

The tumblers began to slow down; first a Star… then a Bar… and lastly, Andross. The hairs on Fox's neck stood up, “Donny… get away from there!” he practically screamed.

 

“Huh…?” Donny looked back at the machine just in time to see it fire missiles right towards him, “YIKES…!” and he sped out of the way, allowing Krystal and Erin to shoot down the bombs.

 

The machine then reset itself, “Fox… how we destroy that thing?” I asked.

 

Fox explained that we had to continue to spin the tumblers until we managed to get all lucky sevens. Only then would the machine be destroyed, and we'd all be released from the dimension…

 

“But watch out…” he warned us, “If even one of those tumblers lands on Andross, be ready for an assault.”

 

Falco sighed, “This is going to take a while…” he said hinting that stubborn slot machines only produced random combinations. So the best thing we did was take turns… a few of us lined our ships up respectfully to take turns spinning the tumblers, and the rest of us remained on standby to blast any missiles if someone would get Andross' face.

 

Then we'd switch positions in vice-versa, but still… Falco was right… this was boring. We tried so many times that I lost count of how-many turns we had taken. Even being able to sometimes freeze the tumblers so they wouldn't spin didn't help as much.

 

Some of us were struggling to keep ourselves awake, and keeping in mind that we were fighting to get back to our own dimension. Finally Falco couldn't stand it anymore. “That's it! I've had it…! I am going to try and bust this thing wide open!” and he fired his rockets heading right for the machine. “Falco…!” called Fox, but Falco didn't turn around…

 

He continued to ram into the slot-machine with his Arwing, putting lots of dents in both it and the machine.

 

And by mistake he had shot the lever with his lasers just as he rammed into it, and all the tumblers landed on lucky-7s. “Wow… it worked.” Falco said with a wide-eyed expression.

 

The machine began to break-up and Falco sped away just in time.

 

KAPOW! The machine exploded, which caused another white flash, and then… ZAP! The dimension was gone, and we could see the Great-Fox. “We made it…!” I cried, and the whole team broke out into a cheer.

 

The communicators then began to beep, which spoiled the moment. “Fox… it's Peppy. Are you guys alright?”

 

Fox answered back, “We're alright Peppy… but I think for now we just want to come aboard and hit the hay.” He joked at the fact that some of us were still bored from spending that long against the slot-machine…

 

As for the dimension itself… all we had to do was stay away from the bird-like machine until we could work out what it was all about… and we'd steer clear of that place all together.

 

Still… even though the mission was successful, we still hadn't noticed that the planets were slowly but surely still gathering in their odd positions…