Fox and Sunset stood over the body of General Scales, staring down at the once proud, powerful warlord. The silence hung in the air for a time...until Sunset broke it. "Does that seem anti-climactic to you, too, Dad?" she asked curiously.
"I know exactly what you mean, but I'm not surprised," Fox pointed out. "We know there's something pretending to be a Krazoa Spirit that tried to manipulate us with Krystal's voice. I wouldn't be surprised if it was pulling General Scales' strings, too. We know we'll have to face whoever that is, too...and they want all the Spirits gathered." He shrugged his shoulders. "To be perfectly honest, I'm surprised whoever it was even let Scales fight us, instead of just making him give up the Spirit."
"They probably would have if it was just you," Sunset pointed out thoughtfully. "But I don't think they want to tip their hand until I'm less of an unknown variable. You and I have both pulled out tricks no one could have predicted this mission."
"That makes sense," Fox agreed. "Which means they're not going to make their move until we release this spirit and free Krystal." He frowned thoughtfully, trying to plan a way to deal with that.
"Then when he does, we're gonna punch him in the schnoz!" Sunset insisted eagerly, thrusting her fists out one after the other.
Fox couldn't help but chuckle. "That we will," he murmured warmly, ruffling her mane as they were warped back out.
The last point to release the Krazoa Spirit was directly in front of the warp pad, opposite the one where Fox released the first Spirit he'd collected. Approaching it, he knelt to release the Spirit from his body, watching it infuse itself into the Temple. As he saw it appear in the air around Krystal's crystal prison, he rushed up the ramp to see what could be done to help her. To his surprise, the Spirits were swarming around the crystal, closer and closer...
"No!" Fox and Sunset both screamed out in anger, throwing their hands up.
Flame and lightning lashed through the air, surrounding the crystal as the Spirits slammed into the barrier...absorbing it and flying over to a massive statue of a Krazoa. The machine surrounding the crystal collapsed, and the crystal vanished, leaving Krystal dropping. Before she'd even opened her eyes, Fox had zapped forward on lightning and caught her, pulling her to safety before she could fall through the hole she'd been suspended above into the depths of the Temple.
"Fox...?" she murmured in shock, reaching up towards his face...only to jerk back as lightning danced over his fur. "W-when did you get elemental magic?"
Fox chuckled as he made his magic subside. "There's a lot we need to catch you up on," he murmured softly.
"But I was only gone two days!" Krystal countered insistently.
"Four, actually, with the time we spent here," Fox corrected dryly with a wry smirk. "And with this group, that can be quite a long time..."
A wicked cackle echoed over the Temple as the stone head of the statue slowly floated into the air. "I am reborn!" a familiar voice declared triumphantly. "The mighty Krazoa God!" A familiar wicked laugh echoed.
"Andross!" Fox gasped out in shock. "But I killed you!"
"Indeed you did, Fox McCloud!" Andross laughed wickedly. "But I always knew that was a possibility, and had prepared accordingly. Before you ever reached Venom, I used the dark magics I discovered in the rubble of Cerinia - the very magic I destroyed that planet to acquire - to sever pieces of my soul, to ensure I would survive beyond death, each one preserved so that should I fall, I would be drawn to them, infuse them, and rise again!"
"You!" Krystal snarled venomously as she seized her staff and prepared for battle. "You destroyed my home!"
"Wield all the magic you like!" Andross laughed as he floated up into the air, before turning around to reveal his own face on the back of the statue head. "But you are nothing compared to the power of the Krazoa that is now my own! General Scales has served me well...and his destruction of the culture of the Sharpclaws has served me as well! The meteorite impact and mutation of that race into their present form was the will of the Krazoa, that there would be a species that could stop their power from being awakened and misused, since they did not draw power from the Spirits or planet for their magic! And anyone who had a chance of severing this bond is now no more!" Andross laughed anew. "So kneel, all those who would stand before me!"
"Yo, monkey face!" another familiar voice called out aggressively. "Heads up!"
Andross spun towards the sky. "Wha-?" he began to scream, only for an Ar-Wing to dive into his open mouth...and come out the back of the statue head as the entire thing dissolved, the six Krazoa Spirits dispersing as they swirled over the Temple.
"...what?" Fox and Krystal gasped out in shock.
"Uncle Birdy!" Sunset called out into her communicator. "You're back! How'd you do that?"
"Aw, come on!" Falco complained. "Do you have to call me that, Sunset?"
Sunset grinned wickedly. "Okay, Uncle Fucker-"
"Uncle Birdy it is," Falco groaned ruefully, making Sunset giggle.
"I dunno," Fox spoke up with a grin. "You really fucked up Andross' plan. How'd you do that anyway, Falco?"
"Tink has all the projects General Scales ever initiated in her head," Falco explained readily. "One of them was supposed to be a way to extract his own soul from his body, leaving it as a vessel to store the Krazoa Spirits in so that they could be combined and he could get an ultimate form like what Andross just made. Problem is, anything with magic in it wouldn't work with the device, since it'd screw up interactions with the Spirits. And...it just so happens I took one of the old Ar-Wings Slippy never got around to updating with the magitech based off Sunset's powers!"
"No!" Andross' voice suddenly screamed out angrily...though somehow tiny and high-pitched. "How? How is it possible one of the techno-shamans survived General Scales' rapacious endeavors with her mind intact? Impossible! I will not be so cheaply cheated of my victory! You will rue the day-"
"Oh, shut up!" Falco snapped out. "So yeah, now we've got an evil dictator in a bottle. Come on and get back up to the Great Fox. It looks like the Spirits are getting to work on the planet."
Chuckling, Fox and Sunset pulled Krystal towards their Ar-Wing. Krystal, for her part, looked really confused. "Tink?"
"Like I said, a lot to catch up on," Fox offered teasingly as Sunset held both their hands joyfully.
Well, that was even more anti-climatic.
THATS U-N-C-L-E! FUCK YOU! UNCLE FUCKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER! Suck my balls
It had be done
If he did this with several important artifacts totaling up to seven, I will be just a bit annoyed.
Okay, Falco gets points for using such a unique method of disrupting Andross's plans. I can't wait to see how the team reunion goes and what happens to Tink.
8985662
I was thinking the exact same thing.
The idea of Andross being trapped in a bottle is hilarious, but something felt off about this chapter.
Oh, hullo Tom Marvolo Riddle
Nice work Tink and Falco.
So is Krystal going to be more upset that
A) she missed a family adventure
B) wasn't able to watch Fox realise his magic
C) missed Sunsets first crush reaction
Either way she'll have fun playing with Andross in a bottle to make up for it
8985695
reminds me of a story I read wherein Voldy pissed off GlaDos and wound up as a Potato. XD
Yay!
I am so looking forward to this adventure's denouement.
8985842
I thought that referenced, "Is your great aunt an A.I.?!"
No Andross, you are not Voldemort and you cannot have horcruxes all over the place.
Great. Another Voldermort/Xehanort gambit. :ajbemused.:
THANK YOU.
I wonder if there's a market for that.
8985898
I would buy one and shake it up a lot lol
8985842
Any idea what it's name was I want to read it
well that was anti-climactic I was really hoping for a battle between andross and fox again maybe even Sunset could contribute in some way
Guess Andross has a lot of bottled up feelings now.
8985986
like devilhorn said "Is your great aunt an A.I.?!" you can find it on fanfiction.net and its a Harry Potter X Portal cross over
8985983
You know, i've heard that an imp in a bottle grants you unlimited wishes
Falco can sell Andros to Shabunga!
Evil monkey in a bottle,
-peices sold separately, some assembly required.-
8986019
SANS!
And Mama Krystal's back in play! Screw you, Andross!
8986073
unfortunately we have a chimp in a bottle instead
8985787
Well Slippy did record “C”. She will probably be upset that she just missed it in person.
I love how Falco just flies in, steals the kill and leaves.
LOL HEH HEH NICE CHAPTER MATE LOVED IT.
You pulled a Voldemort.
Well, that was easy.
8986019
Well, not only bottled up feelings. It was a bit of a jarring loss, if you will. He's in quite the pickle now.
I'm surprised nobody chided-
Can we put that ape in a paint shaker for an hour? Please?
Upon hearing this, somewhere in the multiverse, Frieza said, "Oh, that makes two."
8985695
8985662
remember that there is still a piece of andross on the great fox just waiting to live again
So, is there going to be bit where Fox pulls Krystal off to the side and asks if she knew that Dino planet was a super weapon whose' sole purpose was to kill Sunny?
8986682
Maybe that's how he got to dinosaur planet. I mean it has been 8 years aprox since Andross got inside the great fox in an arwing, same arwing that might have been the first to land on the planet, that's at least 5 years of planning and preparation for that exact attack on a planetary scale thanks to him corrupting general scales thoughts ..at leasts that's my assumption
8986538
Sausage maker.
8990426
But the shaker would be more fun. You can leave him in it for hours and not have to clean up the mess.
8991188
We empty the bits into a Aperture Science Incinerator.
Wait, Andross is still ALIVE, even after the statue was obliterated?!?! How?!
It’s too bad we traded one anticlimax for another in this story.