//------------------------------// // Adventure: Pulling the Strings // Story: My Own Wings // by Tatsurou //------------------------------// 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.