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Star Fox: Inertia

Chapter 11

by Tempo

~ ~ ~

After a candlelit lunch of canned spaghetti and creamed corn, Fox sat staring at his beautiful girlfriend. He knew her telepathy could only receive, not transmit, but somehow she radiated calm reassurance. Sure, the strawberry short cake tasted less like strawberry and more like a machine used to process strawberries, but the love he felt for her her was real.

Draining the last of a green apple soda, she reached for the plates. "Let me take care of those."

"No, no. Only one of us is dressed for dishes." He swept a paw toward his flight suit. "I've been meaning to clear the backlog. Can't take them over to the new ship dirty."

Her soft laugh echoed in the empty mess hall. "Quite right. I'll bright up some crates from the cargo bay." She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek ruff. "Be back soon, love." With that, she swayed out the door.

Fox swished his tail in pride. He had a pretty great girlfriend. Making her happy was totally worth getting covered in old food and dish soap. He pulled the sprayer nozzle down from its holder and began blasting his way through endless levels of dried-on food. The silence of the mess hall reassured him, almost as peaceful as the quiet of space. It was conducive to getting lost in contemplation, which helped him forget the drudgery of the task at paw. He started making a serious dent in the stacks of plates, cups, and bowls, while setting the flatware aside to soak.

Across the mess hall, his comm gauntlet blinked on the table. Not a second later, the caller must have hit the emergency channel because the mess hall's hologram projector clicked on. A purple triceratops flashed into being and leaned one side of his face to the camera with obvious enthusiasm. "Foxxxxxsssss!"

"Hello Tricky." The vulpine couldn't help but smile. "What's up?"

A majestic throne room sparkled behind him, even in the dark of night. Torchlight gleamed off ornate stained glass depictions of Tricky and his otherworldly helper, Fox McCloud. "Oh nothing. Just thought I'd call my friend on the radio. In space." He straightened with pride at using the exotic terminology. "Is space doing okay?"

"I guess?" The vulpine shrugged. "At least, the System we all live in is. Space is really big, Tricky."

"Sure, but you're really small. So, it sort of evens out, right?" He shook his massive head jovially, stamping in place. "Look, I'm sure you're doing lots of important space stuff..."

Fox looked down at the dirty dishes. "Yes."

"...but you should come to Sauria." His smile filled the screen.

"Why?" Fox's ears rose. "Is something wrong?"

"No! Everything's fine. But you should come anyway." He winked. "For a vacation." He winked again.

The red fox shook his head with a chuckle. Dinosaurs could be so weird. "Thanks, but we're busy overseeing the reconstruction of the Great Fox right now."

"Reconstruction? Wow!" The triceratops laughed. "I bet you went on a journey to gather all the pieces and now they're fitting back together with magic?"

Fox's muzzle worked through several expressions before he settled on bemusement. "Something like that?"

His dino friend beamed at the camera. "You should build it so I can ride on it this time."

"That sounds nice, actually." The vulpine smiled. "I'll see what we can do."

"And you'd better come here and measure me so you know I'll fit." He rocked his frilled head toward the surroundings.

"You really want us there." He eyed the screen. "Are you just trying get me and Krystal hitched?"

"Maybe..." Getting one massive blue eye quite close to the camera, he winked yet again. "Guess you'll have to come here and find out."

"Jeez Tricky." Fox rolled his eyes. "Why are you always trying to get us married?"

"Well, not every fox is a world-saving fox, right?" He sat back on heavy haunches and nodded professaurially. "And you said your dad was a world-saving fox too. That means it's genetic." He stamped a foot for emphasis. "Krystal obviously has those genes too, so we need you guys to have kids."

The vulpine's ears twitched up. "That's...a unique way of thinking about it."

"They don't call me 'Tricky' for nothing." His massive bulk rocked with pride. "So you'll come to Sauria? As guests of the crown."

The fighter pilot sighed and scrubbed another pan. What had Slippy burned onto this one? It'd hardened like plastic, but it was the color of cheese. "When we can get away."

"Okay, because it's really important." He resumed winking. "To come relax. As soon as possible." He gave a couple extra winks for emphasis.

Fox opened his muzzle to respond, but hesitated when he saw the dinosaur spin away so fast he jostled the camera with his tail.

A feminine voice called from offscreen: "Tricky? What are you doing here in the dark?"

"N-nothing!" The royal dino blushed a deeper shade of purple. "Just thinking about king stuff."

"Well, that's fortunate. Then you won't mind if I do this." She leaned in and rubbed her muzzle along his.

With a nervous chuckle, Tricky reciprocated the gesture. This went on for what felt like forever.

Fox felt awkward invading their privacy, but maybe Tricky could talk her into leaving so he could explain what he actually wanted.

Dinosaurs, it turned out, were easily distracted by making out. With the heavy clatter of triceratops beaks, they kissed sloppily.

Another female voice echoed from one side of the screen. "Are you guys starting without me?" Then she galloped into them both with a giggle.

The three ceratopsids crashed to the floor in a heap. Within moments, they were rolling around playfully, right in front of the camera. Fox wasn't much of a judge of saurian beauty, but he thought the two ladies must be quite lovely by EarthWalker standards. They looked...sturdy. The two female dinosaurs pinned him down and started nuzzling his colorful crest.

"Tricky?" Fox growled, heat rising in his ears. "Tricky, you left the comm on."

The dinosaurs didn't seem to hear his distress call. Not wearing any clothes in the first place, Tricky's approval of the two female dinosaurs' efforts became very...apparent. In short order, they started lavishing attention on the horny triceratops.

"Alright, that's more than I needed to see." Ears flat against his head, McCloud shook the water from his paws and ran over to the projector. His wet paw pads failed to trigger the off button. He tried wiping them on his spacesuit, but it didn't absorb any of the water. By the time he scrambled back to the kitchen and unpacked a couple boxes before finding hand towels, a sensual cry rattled his drying dishes all the way from Sauria. He made the mistake of looking back at the screen.

Now on his back, Tricky wiggled with joy at the attentions of the two female dinos, one of whom had moved to straddle his hips. The other began making creative use of his tail. The entire scene played out in holographic high-definition.

The kitchen door hissed open to admit Krystal. Her eyes flicked to the projector immediately."Huh." She tilted her head at the screen. "Before I lived on Sauria, I wouldn't have thought EarthWalkers were built for threesomes, but they make it work."

"I'm not watching that on purpose!" Trying to get back to the project, he tripped over a stray frying pan and nearly dropped his hand towel. "I swear!"

She laughed. "Fox, I could feel you getting flustered from the cargo bay." Her gaze flicked back to the erotic antics on-screen. "Why do you think I came back so suddenly?" She studied the participants. "I must say: those are good matches for Tricky. Not all EarthWalkers lineages are as adventurous."

Fumbling forward, he hit the off button. The holo-screen finally went dark.

The blue vixen looked faintly disappointed. "It's nice to see Tricky settling into being king."

"He's into something alright." He ran a paw down his face. "Jeez laweez, we need to teach that guy that comms have an off switch." Ears still hot, he tried to change the subject. "He wants our help with something. Or maybe just for us to have sex. I don't know."

"I'm fine with either of those." She cast him a sly glance. "Did he say what was the matter? Nothing too serious, I trust."

"I don't know. He said something weird about being 'guests of the crown.'" The red fox shrugged. "Whatever that means."

She cocked an eyebrow, graceful arms crossed. "It's a exemption in the Lylat-Saurian Treaty. It means we'd be allowed to use outside tech. Blasters, for example."

"That would explain why no one complained when we gunned down all those hopping mushrooms last time." He stroked his chin. "Or objected when we showed up in Arwings to blast robot bugs a couple years ago."

"I'll admit no one was keeping score at that point." The vixen nodded. "It also means we'd count as citizens of Sauria for most legal purposes."

"So he really could marry us..." Fox focused on wiping his paws with the towel.

"Would that be so bad?" She leaned across the counter with a growl of amusement.

Fox felt a rush of heat under his cheek ruffs. "Um, well, no, I guess not. Anyway, it can't be anything too serious. He kept dancing around the topic with typical Saurian daintiness."

"Ah yes." She smiled fondly. "They are a delightful people."

"Delightful, sure, but everything on their planet comes with a generous helping of nonsense."

"You can't handle anymore nonsense?"

He swooped back his ears with one paw. "Not at the moment."

"Hmm." Her emerald eyes shone at him. "Well, I might be able to think of something you could handle..." Her paw tugged his in the direction of their sleeping quarters with playful insistence and a simmering smile.

~ ~ ~

In their quarters on the station, Fox found it easier to unwind. Krystal nuzzling his nose as she groped at the bulge in his boxers helped. The sheets ran smooth against his naked pelt. His girlfriend, clad in supple lingerie, prowled atop him to smooth his whiskers with her delicate her paw pads. Then she diverted down to pull his underwear off his ankles. Soft paw pads cradled his cock, tugging down the sheath to expose his desire. The heavenly warmth of her tongue traced around his hardening shaft. As her elegant muzzle bobbed on his length, those teal eyes met his, aglow with risqué delight. Her paws toyed with his balls and massaged his sheath around where his know was destined to grow.

After she'd gotten him nice and hard, she crawled back up his body. Those silky blue paws rubbed from base to tip, pressing him to her slit. Her slender muzzle traced along his, teasing her whiskers between his. A playful yap echoed in the unfamiliar quarters as she bumped her nose to his.

He kissed her leisurely, catching a faint taste of his on flavor, knowing they had all the time in the world.

Then he saw something over her shoulder.

There, not a meter from the window, floated Wolf O'Donnell. He stood on the nose of his jagged-winged fighter, arms crossed over the chest of his flight suit. His predatory grin shone in the dimmed bedroom light.

"Ah!" Fox flailed backward on the bed and grabbed a blanket to cover himself.

Krystal rolled out of bed, grabbed her staff off the nightstand, extended it, and leveled it at Wolf in one fluid motion. Various other items scattered from the table: alarm clock, comm gauntlet, a small bottle of personal lubricant.

Wolf started talking, but no sound translated through the vacuum of space.

McCloud glanced to his lover.

She returned his gaze for an instant, body tense as steel under that silky lingerie. Her bare shoulders shrugged.

Atop his blood-red fighter craft, Wolf continued talking, still in utter silence. His cybernetic eye didn't provide good peripheral vision --Fox had taken advantage of that more than once in a dog fight-- but for the moment it meant only that he didn't notice their confused expressions.

As one, the foxes pointed to their ears until he bothered to look at them again.

Swearing silently, Wolf fumbled at the plastic backing on one side of the device and floated over to stick it on the window. For an instant, Fox thought it was some kind of explosive, but then he saw a blinking blue speaker icon. After a second, the icon glowed steadily. Wolf's voice rattled into the room: "Okay, can you hear me?"

"Keep pretending you can't." Krystal growled out the side of her muzzle. "Maybe he'll leave."

The lupine sneered. "I said: playtime's over, Star Fox." He propped fists on his hips and puffed up importantly. "I'm here to rescue you."

"Krystal, please tell me you're seeing this." The smaller male looked around the room, trying to buy time until he could somehow signal for station security.

"I think so." Her brow rose a centimeter. "I suppose it's possible we've both gone mad. Maybe something in the creamed corn?"

Fox edged off the bed, blanket wrapped around him for modesty. "You didn't sense him coming?"

Her tousled hair swung beside her muzzle. "I was a tad distracted, you may recall." She wiped her muzzle with the back of her dainty paw, but kept her weapon trained on O'Donnell.

"Your rescue is at hand, Fox. Come along peacefully. Or would you prefer I come in there and drag you out by the scruff?" His organic eye trained on Krystal. "Let's put the blaster staff down. Wouldn't want to startle me into vaporizing you by mistake, would we?" With one paw, he waggled some kind of remote fire control tablet, complete with targeting screen. The guns on his ship tracked to match the device's movements.

With a glance to her lover, the blue vixen collapsed the telescoping staff and set it on the deck plating. While below line-of-sight for the window, she knocked the comm gauntlet in front of her lover before rising.

McCloud tried not to be obvious about trying to turn the device on with his toe. "Did you come straight here after talking to me?"

The lupine gave a smug smile. "No, first I concocted my plan over a bottle of Papetoonian whiskey."

The red fox thought back to how fast he'd seen his rival drinking in the transmission. "Okay, so, about five minutes..."

"Now come away with me, pup. My fighter has room for two if we snuggle." His grin widened. "It doesn't have two safety harnesses, but I can get you pretty firmly attached."

"Ummmm...?" Fox looked at his lover. Definitely something wrong with that creamed corn. This had to be a hallucination. Then he looked back at the interloper. "Wolf, we've still never been in the same room."

The hardened mercenary woofed a laugh. "That's the only reason you're still wearing pants!"

"You can't be serious!" Krystal's ears shot up with offense. "Can't you see he's dating me?"

He regarded her coldly. "It doesn't count if you're dominating him with mind powers, space-witch."

"Wait." Her paw flipped, palm up, between them. "Doesn't count as dating? Or dominating?"

"Both." The lupine chuckled, throwing his head back. "I plan on dominating him the old-fashioned way: collar, leather vest, maybe one of those remote-controlled vibrate-y things."

Krystal flashed him a look of open disgust.

"Oh, get over yourself." He staggered a little on the nose of his ship. "Wolves dominate foxes. It's the natural order of things. Unlike using your psychic wiles to entice him. Hrmf!"

She crossed her arms. "If my power worked that way, wouldn't I have used it against you by now?"

He puffed up arrogantly. "I assume you have, but I'm too strong-willed for that."

"Hey!" Fox straightened, hiking up the sheet covering him. He glanced down and noticed his erection hadn't fully faded, so he didn't hike it quite so high. The breeze generated chilled his cock, which still poked hopefully from its sheath.

"Now pup, it's okay to not be as strong-willed as your alpha." The wolf unleashed a volley of chuckles glowing with smarmy confidence. "But don't worry about not knowing that yet. We'll get you whipped into shape."

Fox swallowed, trying to think of ways to stall as he continued pecking out letters on the comm gauntlet. "Literally?"

"Oh, you'll find out..." Wolf somehow leered at him with a cybernetic eye. "I'm sure you have at least a few virginities left."

The smaller male tilted his head. "I'm not sure I had 'a few' to start with..."

"Oh, you'd be surprised..." After a second's pause, he tapped on the glass. "If you think three inches of meteor-proof glass is enough to stop my erection, you're in for an education." He looked back and forth along the side of the space station. "Where's the nearest airlock? I'll collect you there."

"What are you even doing here?" The red fox kept typing, breaking his vow against expedient misspellings.

"Rescuing you! You're a great pilot, almost my equal." He puffed up his chest, almost floating free of the nose cone of his fighter. "Once you join Star Wolf, I'll make sure you get the credit you deserve. We have a good PR firm. Do you even have a PR firm? No wonder you couldn't land movie rights. You really need to get that ego under control, hero."

The red fox bit back his anger, but some leaked into his tone nonetheless. "My ego? You've gotta be kidding."

"Refusing to cash in doesn't help you save the world. That secondhand Navy carrier doesn't suit you." A twisted smile grew across his face like ivory vines. "I can think of something far better for you to dock with."

A small but bright stand of happiness shone within Fox: at least Wold didn't know about rebuilding the Great Fox. Just had to keep him talking. "How'd you get it in your head I'd be okay with this?"

The lupine fired a smarmy look down his long muzzle. "You're the one who called me, pup."

"I called you about the movie!" Fox finished toe-typing the message "ur chance to prove ur a better pilot than me is outside" and sent it to Falco.

"Right, the movie. I'm sorry about the movie. That...didn't go as planned." He gave a pained grimace, then curled his paw into a fist before himself. "We'll make a new one. The effects may not be as good, but the acting will be better."

"You can't be serious." McCloud tightened the blanket around his chest. "Even if I was cool with...all this, I can't stand by and let you make me a laughingstock with that terrible movie."

"You'll be blindfolded for most of its release window." His ears perked inside the space helmet. "Oh, I like that phrase 'release window'--get used to that." He reached back into the open cockpit and retrieved a stopwatch, which he waggled at Fox.

Krystal gestured to the stopwatch. "Why do you have that in your cockpit?"

O'Donnell's sultry growl filled the quarters. "There's another phrase you should get used to..."

Fox groaned and double-checked the text had been sent. "You're insane if you think I'll go along with this."

"Look, I know you're a delicate little thing." Wolf attempted to rub his brow, but was impeded by the space helmet. "You're probably still upset about me possibly being involved in the death of your father. But I think we can safely blame Pigma for betraying your father. Considering he went on to betray my team. And the Aparoids..." He dismissed the thought with a lash of his tail. "But, look, we'll compromise. You can call me daddy. But not in public or anything; I'm not a weirdo."

The vulpines shared a look of silent horror.

McCloud pinched the bridge of his nose. "Wolf, I know you don't have any respect for me..."

"Of course I respect you, Star Fox." With a pout, Wolf leaned forward until his helmet clunked against the window. "You're my only worthy opponent. If you're as nimble in the sack as you are in a spaceship we're going to have all kinds of fun." Staggering a little in zero-gravity, he managed to adhere his magnetic boots enough to the nosecone to face Krystal. "As for you, space-witch, no shame in losing to a superior opponent. I think it's pretty clear who's the alpha here."

The vixen furrowed her brow. "That is such an outdated concept--"

Laser fire blasted against the side of the station.

Wolf spun with a snarl, nearly tumbling from his craft. "What the heck?!"

Falco's Arwing swooped into view. He cawed victoriously over the comm channel. "Game over, pal!"

"Bested by a fox?" O'Donnell turned back to the window. "Impossible!"

"Hey!" In the cockpit, the avian's crest rose. "I'm the one who--"

"Surrender, Wolf." Fox tried to look tough wrapped up in a blanket. "We've got you now."

"Ah!" A vicious hiss cut through the channel's chatter. "But we are the ones who have you, impudent bird."

Two more Wolfen fighters swooped in and immediately locked onto Falco.

"Wow." A deep purr resonated through the radio as Panther surveyed the situation from his cockpit. "He's actually here."

"Of course he's here, you degenerate." Leon turned to his wingman. "I asked you 'What's the stupidest possible thing he could be doing?'"

The feline's eyes widened to whites in his dark-furred face. "Krystal, I see you dressed for the occasion. And Wolf made more progress with McCloud than I thought possible."

Fox tightened the bedsheets around himself. Krystal kicked her staff into the air and held it level with the spacecraft, defiant in her nudity.

Wolf took advantage of the distraction to hop into his own ship's cockpit and close the canopy. A split second later, drunk or not, he spun the ship around to target the lone Arwing.

The bird looked back and forth between the starfighters locked onto him. "Fox, what'd we do here?"

Fists clenched on the blankets around him, Fox tried to breathe. Not only to keep himself calm, but also because any one of the four fighters out there was likely to shoot through the window at any moment. He stood a better chance of surviving with oxygenated blood. Slowly, he backed Krystal toward the door. If his wingmate was half as good as he thought he was, maybe they could make it to their Arwings--

At that moment, about a hundred station security drones swarmed in. Each pointed a small blaster cannon at the three enemy craft.

Slippy's broad smile flashed onto the comm. "Hi guys! Sorry, it took me a few minutes to get the security control codes from my dad."

In a flare of boosted engines, the Star Wolf team rocketed away, dodging a hail of laser fire from the drones and Falco.

As he fled, O'Donnell's cocky grin winked onto the comm one last time. "You can only deny your feelings for so long, Fox."

Fox snatched the comm gauntlet from the deck and strangled it. "Has anyone ever told you you're completely insane?"

"They're usually moaning it." Wolf warped out of the system, followed by his team.

A moment of quiet shock passed through the foxes' quarters.

Falco's face popped up on the comm gauntlet, as he hovered his Arwing to face the window again. "Jeez, you oughta keep a closer eye on your boyfriend, Foxy."

McCloud shook his head. "Thanks for the save, Falco."

"Yeah, no sweat." He craned his beak to one side to stare into the room. "Hey Krystal, how's yer lingerie coverin' more than yer regular outfits?"

With a yowl of outrage at the entire Universe, the red fox shut the blinds, switched off the comm gauntlet, and huffed over to the bed.

"So..." With a roll of her eyes, Krystal slid in and slipped an arm around him. "...want to get involved in whatever nonsense Tricky wants us for?"

Still clutching the bedsheets around his naked body, Fox sighed perhaps the longest sigh of his life. "Yeah..."

~ ~ ~

The first Sunday of the new year and our Star Fox tale continues! I've always thought it was so bizarre that Wolf gets shipped with Fox, for reasons that should now be apparent. ; )

Edits: Slate, Eljot, CarlMinez, SillyNeko345, StarFox64, Pharrox

Art: abbystabby (Used with permission.)

Want to see more like this? Support me on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/Tempo

• Tempo