Krystal crouched beside Fox as blaster rounds flashed past their shelters. It seemed as if she and her wingman were outnumbered almost fifty to two, and the volleys of shots fired at them seemed relentless. The marksmen that ambushed them were not Corneirans; they were Oikonny's soldiers. They must have taken control of the base before Krystal and Fox reached it. Even more worrying, Falco and the rest of the Star Fox team were nowhere to be found. Krystal couldn't detect a trace of their mental activity as she scanned the area with her telepathic powers.

"We're sitting ducks out here," Fox called out through the noise of rapid gunfire. "They'll surround us if we don't do something."

Krystal approached the edge of the building she was hiding behind so that she could get a glimpse at their attackers. "Got any bright ideas?" She poked her head out from her shelter, risking a glance at her enemy and retreating immediately as a laser whizzed over her head.

Observing her inventory, all the vixen had to work with were her blaster, staff, and several grenades. Fox had the same, except for her magical staff. Krystal pulled a grenade off her belt and began charging it. "At least we can slow them down," she sighed as she hurled it in the air, over their shelter and into the mass of gunners firing from the Katina Outpost rooftops.

Fox threw a grenade to follow it. Both exploded with a blast and several of the monkey gunners fell from the rooftop, thrown off by the detonation. Another volley of grenades followed, leaving hardly a dent in the number of shooters firing at the pair of foxes.

"Well that was great," Krystal retrieved her blaster from her hip. "Several down, dozens more to go."

"Let's get cracking then," Fox wielded his blaster and the duo began firing shots back into the enemy swarm, flashing out from behind their cover and retreating repeatedly.

As a barrage of plasma rounds flew past Krystal, she burst from her hiding place and began firing at the nearest snipers. She took one out with a shot to the chest and then hid around the corner of the structure that Fox was crouched behind. She waited again for several shots and then repeated the process, taking out another nearby gunner.

"This is hopeless, Fox! There are way too many of them!"

"Hold tight, we can do this!" Just as Fox's reply came, the massive army of Venomian soldiers ceased fire. Several moments passed on in silence, and Krystal risked a peek out from behind her shelter.

A new figure had appeared on the rooftops with the monkey gunmen. The pilot strode out from the heart of the outpost, his footsteps echoing like the sound of thunder as he paced toward the edge to view his sheltering prey. Silence persisted and not a single soldier moved while the pilot's metallic boots clanged against the roof of the base.

Whoever this new enemy was, Krystal knew that it wasn't Oikonny. He was a fox with dark colored fur, tall and strong in appearance. He was armored with a metal chest plate covering his black space suit and two laser swords attached to a belt at his waist. He wielded a large red rocket launcher in his hands and a grey helmet covered the back of his head, connected to a visor that veiled his eyes. The Androssian soldiers turned to await his orders, as if he was their leader.

"That's not Oikonny!" Fox whispered. "Who is he?"

Krystal said nothing in reply, staring at her new foe in bewilderment.

The newcomer raised his rocket launcher and positioned it so that Krystal was staring down the barrel. With a gasp, she barely rolled to cover behind her building in time as a missile burst from the launcher and exploded into the ground where she had been crouched.

Without warning, a second missile was fired toward the other end of the building that Fox was hiding behind. He had to sprint for the center to avoid the blast radius as the rocket hit the ground. Missiles continued firing rapidly at both ends of the makeshift shelter as Fox and Krystal cowered behind its center, just out of range.

There is no end to this, the vixen thought as she crouched behind their last line of defense. Eventually the enemy will spread around us until we have no shelter left. This guy on the rooftop is simply toying with us, trying to get inside our heads. What do we do? Where are Falco and the others?

Suddenly, Krystal decided that she wouldn't stand for cowering any longer. She had one weapon left; her magical staff was still strapped to her back, and she sheathed her blaster so that she could wield it instead.

As she stood up and braced herself to turn and fight, Fox grabbed her by the shoulder. "What are you doing? You're going to get yourself killed! We need a plan!"

Krystal closed her eyes, bracing herself to let the full power of her staff lead her into battle against the masses. "No I'm not, Fox. It's going to take more than an ambush to keep us down, just wait and see." She broke her friend's grip on her and raced into the clearing before he could say anything more to stop her. Before the mysterious fox pilot fired another missile, he raised his arm and silently signaled for his troops to commence fire toward her.

Blaster rounds and lasers began streaming from the rooftops, aimed for the lone vixen as she drew her staff and extended it to full length. "Alright, let's see what you can do!" She focused her staff's energy and created a dark, purple barrier of magical energy in front of her as the rain of gunfire approached. As the rounds glanced off the shield, they reflected back to their sources and dozens of monkey soldiers were hit by their own gunfire. Many of them fell from the base and collapsed to the ground, but others managed to avoid the returning fire, leaving their positions in an effort to escape.

The fox leading the Venomian soldiers flinched and ordered another volley. Many of his warriors hesitated, but some of them were brave enough to fire again.

Krystal thrust her staff into the ground and summoned another dark shield of energy, reflecting the volley back again and causing chaos among the gunners lining the rooftop. The vixen read thoughts of fear and confusion among all that witnessed her staff's power, including Fox. What is this power? She read from the question in his thoughts, knowing that there would be some explaining to do if they survived the ambush.

"Attack!" The leader of Andross' army finally issued a vocal command and his troops began streaming from the base, leaping down and running on foot toward Krystal. He then readied his launcher and fired a missile directly at her.

Instead of dodging the rocket, Krystal created another shield and reflected it. The projectile hurled itself back at the rocketeer, who rolled sideways off the rooftop and disappeared from sight. The swarm of monkeys that had ambushed her were nearly halved in number, but charged on foot toward her while she stood alone in the center of the clearing.

Krystal braced herself to fight as Fox appeared from his hiding place, blaster drawn as he stood back to back with her. He said nothing, but his thoughts were racing as the army neared. "Now the real battle begins!" Krystal declared as she began unleashing fire blasts from her staff's tip. The fireballs collided with several monkeys and stopped them in their tracks.

Fox fired several rounds from his blaster and led the charge against half of the army that had grouped to face him. Krystal sprinted away in the opposite direction and raced toward the other half of the remaining army. The clearing soon burst into a chaotic battlefield, two against many as Krystal and Fox fought for their lives.

As the vixen neared her first enemies, she scanned their thought patterns in a heartbeat while the world seemed to slow to a stop. The first attacker will swing with his laser sword. A volley of blaster rounds will follow from a group nearby. Then another monkey will come close and try to stab me from behind. Several more shots will follow, which I can use to repel the next several incoming blows. After that, I can begin to take the offensive. Time began to move forward, and the soldiers facing Krystal began to act on their initial thoughts.

A yellow laser sword flashed at head level. Krystal ducked under the glimmering blade and swept her leg underneath her attacker, sweeping him off his feet where she finished him with a blast of ice to the chest. Before the next round of incoming blaster shots reached her, she created a dark energy shield with her staff to block them, reflecting them back at their shooters.

Krystal knew where the next laser sword would land, so she sidestepped it and grabbed the arm of her attacker while he was still behind her. She then pulled him closer and thrust her elbow into his chest. While the ape was winded, the she-fox spun to face him and kicked him backward while reflecting several more blaster shots with her staff.

A monkey soldier charged her from the side, but Krystal was ready to counterattack. She sprinted toward him, thrusting her staff into the ground and pushing off while she threw her legs at him. Instead of kicking her enemy, the vixen wrapped her legs around his neck and tumbled to the ground head first, where she rolled and flipped the monkey over her.

I wonder how Fox is doing, Krystal thought and scanned the surrounding area for her friend. He was near the side of the main building, holding his own against a swarm of enemies. He didn't have a shield or telepathic abilities, making this fight much harder despite his excellent marksmanship and combat skills. He was nearly swarmed with enemies, so Krystal used her staff's rocket boost to launch herself into the air so that she could land beside him.

As waves of blaster fire came at them, Krystal created a reflector while Fox shot through from behind it, taking down the closest enemies. Then she retrieved her own blaster while shielding and assisted Fox in shooting down more enemies from behind the barrier. Her right arm began to sting where General Scales had slashed her, but she kept it raised and continued to fire at the enemy hordes.

The Venomian soldiers began to approach, close enough to render Krystal's shield ineffective to their melee attacks. At once the vixen released the barrier and shot a blast of fire at the nearest monkey, throwing him backward into the crowd. A sword swipe came in her direction, but she parried it with her staff and kicked her enemy's kneecap. The ape collapsed to the ground with agony as his knee popped out of place and Krystal stepped over him.

Another monkey jumped for her, but she lowered her body and tossed the furious soldier over her shoulder, into the flying fist of Fox. "Thanks," she murmured. "How are you holding up?"

"I'm fine, what about you?" he asked as she repelled blaster shots from the rooftop. A single shot came from behind her friend, and she rolled toward it and reflected it back into the chest of its shooter.

"It is becoming difficult to fight the enemies on the ground and the enemies shooting from above. Can you take out the snipers?"

Fox nodded in reply. "Of course, as long as you can handle yourself down here."

Krystal was unsure of his plan until he suddenly vanished, leaving her alone on the ground repelling gunfire. Clever Fox; he brought a stealth suit with him, she grinned. He had activated the small cloaking device and became invisible to the Venomian soldiers so that he could sneak up onto the rooftop with them. Krystal could still sense his thought patterns, detecting that he was on his way up one of the ramps leading to the top of the outpost.

Switching her focus, she realized that an enemy was coming to attack her pointblank. As the monkey came close, she ran toward him. The she-fox raised her staff to strike, but as she detected the monkey's thought to block, she changed her attack altogether. Instead, Krystal flipped herself backward with a backflip and kicked her enemy to the ground. Immediately sensing snipers on the roof, the vixen cartwheeled over the dazed monkey at her feet and began a series of backward handsprings to avoid the rapid laser fire. Finally she landed with a spin, reflecting the last shot at a marksman that neared her with a shield created by her staff.

Just in time, a wail sounded from above as a monkey was tossed over the edge of the rooftop. All the marksmen stared in astonishment as suddenly, the second enemy lining the wall jerked his body several times and fell to join the first. Fox must have been up on the roof, disrupting the enemies while they couldn't see him.

After witnessing their comrades in distress from the invisible assailant, many of the Venomian soldiers dismounted the rooftop and fled in fear. Finally, the tide of the battle on Katina was starting to turn in Krystal and Fox's favor, until machine gun rounds began soaring through the air from the base rooftop.

Krystal jumped and dodged in a series of complex rotations, barely avoiding the volley even after knowing the timing and location of the shots. The fox pilot leading the Androssian soldiers had returned, this time wielding a machine gun instead of his rocket launcher. Another series of rounds exploded from his gun, this time being reflected by a barrier that Krystal created with her staff.

As the bullets returned to their source, the mysterious fox pilot flipped off the rooftop across from Fox and ran toward Krystal. He continued to fire rounds from the gun in his left hand while he drew one of his laser swords with his right. As he neared the vixen and her dark purple barrier, he lunged with his sword.

Krystal parried the attack with her staff and shot a fire blast from its tip, but the Venomian leader foresaw this counterattack and tilted his head to the side to avoid the fireball. Then he began to run circles around her, firing from his left hand as he ran. Krystal was forced to bend her shield around her body in a full circle before he lunged again, sword tip aiming to pierce her shoulder. Krystal read the move in his mind and countered with a kick to the chest, forcing her enemy to drop his gun and miss his strike.

Immediately, the fox leaped toward her again, twisting his body sideways in the air so that he could kick Krystal in the face. She blocked the first kick and a second followed, stopping once the pilot's leg was caught in the vixen's right hand. In the same instant as the thought entered his mind, an opening in the fox's boot appeared and a small knife shot from it. The vixen didn't read the thought in enough time to fully evade and was sliced across the cheek by the knife's edge.

She jumped backward in pain as blood started to drip from the cut she received. He's so fast! I can barely read his moves, and even when I do, some are unavoidable! Already her enemy was preparing another attack as he drew a second laser sword from a sheath at his waist.

"Krystal!" Fox shouted with anger and concern. He was still on the rooftop, taking out the last of the snipers when he realized that she was hurt. He drew his blaster from his hip and began firing at the swordsman in front of Krystal as he leaped down from the building.

The nameless pilot turned and headed for him, blocking all of his blaster shots with his laser swords and Krystal soon realized that Fox was in over his head. Just as the pilot prepared to strike, she hurled her staff in the air shouting, "Fox, catch!"

The leader of the Star Fox team caught the staff and summoned a veil of white light to surround him as the two swords swung. They glanced off the shield and after a moment of tension, the attacker was thrown backward with a pulse of magical energy. Fox twirled Krystal's staff behind his back and lunged at his foe. His attack was blocked, but he propelled himself into the air with a rocket boost and landed behind his enemy with a ground quake, throwing him off balance toward the outpost walls.

Krystal fled the battlefield temporarily and sheltered behind a ramp leading to the top of the base. She crouched in the dirt, leaving Fox to fight on his own while wiping blood from her cheek. Fox knows what he is doing, she thought as she watched her friend fight bravely for his life. He knows my staff and how to fight with most of its powers. Now that the vixen stopped fighting, her right arm began to sting from the wound she had received earlier. She knew that she had to help Fox, however, and only rested for a moment before proceeding up the ramp to launch a well-timed stealth attack from above.

Fox and the Venomian leader continued to fight in the middle of the clearing, trading even blows with each other as she raced along the top of the northern bridge. The pilot threw one of his swords at Fox and then followed it with a dashing lunge. Fox parried the thrown sword away and dodged the second attack, unleashing fire from his staff and scorching his enemy's arm. His space suit sleeve caught fire for several moments until it was quickly shaken out.

Using this opportunity to strike back, Fox jumped and threw a kick at his enemy, landing his heel into the pilot's face. Then he used a rocket boost to leap over him, swinging his staff like a sword as he soared directly above his enemy.

The Venomian blocked by swinging his one remaining sword over his head, but as Fox landed he released a wave of ice from his staff. The ice chilled the core of the laser sword and the hilt sparked several times before exploding in the fox's hand.

This was Krystal's chance to launch her attack; she leaped from the bridge behind her enemy and slammed her blaster into the back of his helmet with a crack. Her foe became discombobulated for a moment and she landed a backward kick with ease.

Fox shot a glance from ahead of her and she read a plan in his mind. While the Venomian leader was forced backward slightly, Krystal jumped and spun toward him. In the same instant, Fox hurled her staff like a javelin toward her. As she landed, she caught it in her hands and thrust it into the shoulder of her enemy with a burst of speed, just beneath his chest plate.

Pain flooded from the fox in waves as he staggered backward and ripped the sharp tip from his body. Blood pulsed from the wound, and he fell to the ground on one knee, head lowered in defeat. He didn't lift his head or say a word as Krystal approached him, retrieving her staff from the ground and pointing the tip to his head.

"Where are Falco and the others?" She interrogated. "Who are you, and who sent you to attack us?"

Silence followed for several moments until the pilot lifted his head with a laugh. "They aren't here, you fool. Soon, you won't be either!"

"What do you mean?" Fox countered as he approached. It seemed as if all of the Venomian soldiers in the area fled, leaving the three alone in the center of the clearing inside the outpost walls. "Where is Falco?" He repeated.

Still, the wounded pilot continued to laugh as a maniacal grin formed on his face. "Why don't you take a look for yourselves, then," he addressed the first question, gazing at the sky behind Krystal.

She spun around and spotted a small, dark projectile soaring through the air toward them. As it approached the outpost, it grew larger and picked up speed. "Fox, it's a missile! And it is heading straight for us!" She turned toward the enemy she had defeated and realized that while she and Fox turned their backs on him, he had vanished. A small trail of blood followed where he had run but faded in the distance behind the base.

Krystal flinched. He's gone in just an instant! How is that even possible, we had him!

With the missile just seconds away and no time to think, Krystal darted toward Fox, thrusting her staff into the ground and creating a veil of white light to surround them. She didn't know if she had the strength to shield them from such a massive explosion but had to try; there was no other way to survive the blast. Krystal braced herself as the missile struck her barrier and exploded in a flash of light. Forced to shut her eyes at the blinding glow, the vixen held her grip as tight as she possibly could and willed her shield to stand firm.

Risking a glance around her, Krystal opened her eyes and watched as the bomb's explosion radius enclosed them and widened outside her shield, engulfing most of the Katina Outpost. Her muscles ached with the strain of repelling the blast and she started to feel weak, as if she was losing her grip. Horror grasped her as she realized that her shield was starting to reduce in size.

"Fox, help me!" Krystal cried and he raced to her, gripping her staff and using his own power to strengthen the shield. Their combined strength was enough to expand the light veil outward again, forcing the crimson blast away. Krystal didn't know how long she had to hold steady, channeling all of the physical strength she had into her staff until finally, the explosion outside faded away and the clear skies of Katina appeared once again.

When the dust cleared, Krystal released her shield and fell to her knees. There, she dropped her staff and gazed at what was left of the outpost building, withered to debris and ruin as a result of the blast. Her eyelids began to force themselves shut, and the she-fox felt numb to everything around her as her body began to shut down with exhaustion. With a sudden jerk, she collapsed onto the ground and everything went black.

* * *

When Krystal returned to consciousness, she opened her eyes slightly and felt as if she was being carried. Someone's arms wrapped around her back and legs, while her arms were wrapped around her carrier's neck. The vixen looked up and realized that it was Fox, but lacked the strength to ask what was happening. "Fox..." was all that came from her mouth and her eyes shut again.

Her head spun with questions and her body felt weak with exhaustion. Who had attacked them at the Katina Outpost and why? Whoever it was claimed that the rest of the Star Fox team wasn't even there. Krystal was unsure if she should believe him or not, even though her telepathic abilities told her that he was telling the truth. If they were not being held hostage by the Venomians controlling the base, where were they? A Cornerian soldier reported that they needed help, but could he have been mistaken? Krystal was in such a rush to help her friends that she didn't stop to read the Cornerian's thought patterns at all.

Her body experienced a sudden jolt and she felt that she was positioned over Fox's shoulder as they ascended upward. Her eyes opened again briefly and she found that she was being lifted off the ground into an Arwing. Fox strapped her into the seat and squeezed himself in front of her as the cockpit closed with Krystal's eyes. How did we end up getting ambushed at the Katina Outpost? She thought. From what I knew, the outpost was still controlled by the Cornerian Army... Something about the situation puzzled the vixen as she sat, dazed, in Fox's ship. It was as if the Cornerians were completely uninformed that their base had fallen into enemy hands.

As they flew, Krystal's mind focused on the mysterious pilot leading Oikonny's forces. Whoever he is, he must have some reason to try to kill us. But why? I don't think that I've ever met this pilot, but something about him seems almost familiar... He had a missile sent that practically destroyed the outpost just to kill us. He must have known we were coming and had the attack planned, but why are we so valuable that he'd risk destroying the base just to end us? As the vixen pondered these thoughts, she felt tiredness slowly pull her back into unconsciousness and she drifted away again.

* * *

Krystal opened her eyes to find enormous green toad eyes staring into hers. She blinked, and the bulging round eyes blinked back at her. The vixen almost jumped from where she lay, startled, and the toad backed away with a frantic hop. Krystal was confused until she realized that she was sleeping in her bed in The Great Fox, with many of her friends surrounding her. It was Slippy who had surprised her, joined by Fox, Falco, Katt, and Lucy, who were all gathered877 around her.

"What happened?" Krystal sighed as she attempted to sit upright. Her head throbbed in pain and her muscles ached. She felt as if she could barely stand and didn't even try to leave her bed. She glanced at Fox, concern showing in his eyes. "How long have I been out?"

"About seven days," Falco replied from his seat beside him. "You missed everything; we tracked Oikonny down, captured him, and ended the war with Andross' forces."

The vixen gasped in shock. Was she really asleep that long?

"Falco, that's just cruel," Slippy shot the bird an irritated look. He turned to face Krystal and croaked, "We didn't catch Oikonny yet, and you have only been asleep several hours since Fox brought you back. He said that he wanted to tell us about what happened, but was waiting for you to wake up. He has hardly left your side since you both returned."

Fox began to blush. "Well, uh... I just wanted to make sure you were alright, that's all..." He scratched his head awkwardly and asked, "How are you feeling? Do you feel well enough that we can tell everyone what happened?"

Krystal's head spun as she tried to recall the events leading up to the point when she passed out. She thought back to the mysterious pilot leading Oikonny's army and the fight they had with him. She remembered a missile bombing the Katina Outpost, and how she shielded Fox and herself from the blast, barely escaping the explosion that decimated the base.

"Yes, I think so," Krystal responded, shifting herself in her bed and realizing that her right cheek stung mildly. She reached a gloved hand up to her face and felt a thin bandage stretching across the wound she received from the Venomian leader. The sleeve on her right arm was pulled back, revealing stitches that must have been recently mended after returning to The Great Fox. "I must have passed out after using so much energy shielding us from the blast... How did I get back here? What happened to my Arwing?" The vixen asked. Everything after the explosion seemed like a blur to her.

"It is safe, resting in the hangar bay," Fox calmed her. "I carried you most of the way and we flew together in my ship. Falco and I returned for yours later, after I was sure that you were well taken care of."

"Well of course she was," Lucy winked. "We made sure she was comfortable for you, and see, here she is and she's doing fine."

Krystal smiled back at Peppy's daughter. Even though they didn't know each other well, she felt a strong bond forming between them. Maybe it was just the fact that it was nice to have another female pilot aboard The Great Fox... she wasn't sure exactly why.

"Well now that we've all played catch up, what's going on?" Falco sighed impatiently. "Oikonny and the rest of Andross' army are waiting on the outskirts of Fichina, and we are just sitting in here wasting time!"

"Oikonny? You know where he is hiding?" Krystal must have missed something while she was asleep. Apparently Falco and the others tracked him down!

"We can get to that later," Fox turned his attention to her. "What we have to say is important, and might have a serious impact on the future of Oikonny's war with Corneria. When we went to visit Beltino, we came searching for information involving the aparoid attack on Fortuna to try to identify the cause of Oikonny's survival. Strangely, all of Beltino's data on the aparoid attacks was locked down and we were unable view it. Even Beltino's access to this information was unauthorized."

Suddenly the room grew quiet. Krystal scanned the area with her telepathic senses and realized that everyone was interested and curious as to what Fox had to say.

"Soon after our failed attempts, a Cornerian soldier reported that you, Falco, sent a distress signal from planet Katina. We rushed to our Arwings immediately to help, but where were you?" Fox interrogated his friend as if it was his fault for the miscommunication, but Krystal sensed that there was something darker at work.

"That's crazy, Fox," the bird narrowed his eyes. "We tried to contact you and report that we located Oikonny on Fichina, but something was wrong with the communications link, so we contacted the Cornerian Army instead. A soldier ensured us that you would receive the message, so we began a course for Fichina. We waited a long time for you to return, longer than we thought necessary, but we had to leave Corneria. Oikonny will only stay in one place for so long."

"Wait, so the Cornerian Pilot lied to you?" Lucy accused. "And what happened when you arrived on Katina?"

Krystal paused, recalling the ambush that awaited them on the planet. "We were attacked," she murmured as she stared straight ahead of her, reliving the attack in her mind once again. "An entire army of Andross' Venomian soldiers waited for us to land and ambushed us. We were outnumbered and outgunned some dozen to one. We barely survived." She reached into the belt at her waist and retrieved her staff, breathing a sigh of relief that it was not left behind on Katina. She looked it up and down and thanked it for saving her life. There was no way that she and Fox would have survived without this magical weapon. The Krazoa Spirits were right that it would help her greatly.

"That's not all," Fox added, disrupting her thoughts. "The soldier leading the army was not Oikonny. It was some pilot that I have never seen before. Whoever he is, he wanted only one thing."

The others gathered in Krystal's room hesitated with anticipation, waiting for Fox to finish.

"Krystal and me; dead." Silence persisted as Fox gazed around the room, eyeing his comrades with a dark expression. "We defeated his army and forced his surrender, until a missile strike headed straight for the base. Krystal shielded us from the blast with all of her strength, but the base was left in ruins. Fortunately, the missile destroyed the communications jammers in the area and I was able to contact you immediately following. Then I flew back here."

Katt finally spoke up from where she stood, leaning against one of the corners in Krystal's room. "So you are saying that a Cornerian soldier almost sent you to your deaths?"

"I'm not sure, Katt," Krystal replied. "But I sense darkness approaching. Andross' army may have another leader, the Cornerian military is in question, and someone wants us dead... Whatever happens on Fichina, we must all proceed with extreme caution."