SURVIVAL:
Disclaimer! Star Fox and all related charaters belong to Nintendo, Mariko belongs to me, you can borrow her, but you'll have to ask real nice...
Mariko woke up about two hours before the rest of her team, as usual. Habits of a life time were hard to break, she always woke up early. Falco swore she must be insane, as always Mariko stated that if he didn't stay up so late, he could wake up earlier. That got a cushion from the rec center tossed at her.
She yawned and stretched and climbed out of bed, and stretched out her slim frame. Mariko was a white furred rabbit with jet black hair, she also had dark eyes and a bright red tattoo over her right eye. The two slashes marked her as a Knight, one was over her eyebrow the other seemed to go through her eye itself making a 'T' shape. Knights at one time numbered in the hundreds, serving and protecting others with their special skills. They controlled the energy that made up life itself, most were good, some were not. Those few had spelled doom for the rest. For the past century all Knights had been systematically hunted down so there were only a hundred or so left. Mariko sighed, as she got ready for her day her mind drifted back to how she joined the team.
It had been almost a year since she helped the Star Fox team in that bar brawl with the Star Wolf team, what started out as a two week trip, became a rather unusual invitation to join. On a whim Peppy had taken her out in what the rest of the team called 'The Trainer'
The Trainer was a two seated arwing used for flight lessons, most of the time it sat unused in the hanger bay, Peppy occasionally took it out the keep it running. While he was working on it Mariko came into the bay and a conversation about the sleek jet began. Just for fun Peppy asked if she would mind a ride. She accepted. After a few minutes of zipping about the Great Fox, Mariko asked if she could try and fly it. Peppy agreed. The second she took control of the plane, Mari felt something. She didn't know what, but all she knew was that she could fly this thing.
That was lesson one. Like Fox when he was at the academy, Peppy found out that Mariko had a natural knack for flying, and he encouraged it. Fox found out about the lessons later, and decided to play a little prank and post a little test to their guest. Five minutes after Peppy and Mariko took off in the Trainer, he followed in his own arwing.
Mariko and Peppy were completely taken off guard as Fox's low powered lasers shot across the trainer's nose, and his arwing zipped over their heard.
Mariko flipped on her comlink, "Road Hog!" she snapped.
Fox snickered, "Let's see how well Peppy taught you."
"Uh Fox that may not be a good idea..." muttered Peppy.
Mariko interrupted "Is that a challenge Mr. McCloud?"
His answer was another shot across he nose. "That's it!!" She snapped, and whipped the arwing into a tight turn.
"Oh boy." groaned Peppy.
Mariko knew she didn't have a snowball's chance on Solar of out fighting Fox in open space, so she's have to out think him. She spied a fair sized astroid field a short distance away and a plan formed. She banked hard and gave the jet a boost, shooting past a surprised Fox, then a quick flip and got behind him. She shot off a few low powered lasers and tagged him.
"Tag!" she called into the comlink, "You're it Fox!" She punched her arwing's speed up and made a bee-line for the astroid field.
"Lucky shot." he snapped back and took after her.
Peppy figured out where she was going, he just covered his eyes and muttered, "Tell me when it's over."
Fox fully expected Mariko to slack up on her speed when she entered the field, then he'd tag her and it'll be over. No such luck. "Uh Mariko?" he muttered.
"Yes."
"Do you know where you're going."
"Yes."
"Shouldn't you slow down?"
"No." she replied, "I can handle it. Can you?" Mariko could almost hear Fox bristle. She glanced behind her and spotted his arwing as it picked up speed. "Gotcha." she muttered.
What made Mariko a natural at flying was her 'knack' as Peppy put it that came with being a Knight. Knights could do just about anything they put their minds to, so with some basic instruction and a few lessons Mariko's skill as a pilot increased with each lesson. Also Knights had a sixth-sense about their surroundings, so Mariko could tell where things were before she came up to them, like this astroid field.
Translation, she had the advantage here. Fox would have to use his radar, she didn't. Ten minutes in to the field later Mariko zipped behind a large one and waited. Fox didn't zip by, "Uh oh." she muttered, and gunned it just before his lasers struck.
"Damn." muttered Fox as the trainer vanished again. "How in the heck are you doing that?!"
"Doing what?" came the reply over the comlink.
"Disappearing into this maze."
"Easy." she replied, "You emotions are over-riding your common sense."
"What." Fox was seriously confused.
"Think about it. I purposely irk you, get you into a situation that I can control. Now I ask you would you normally go head first into an astroid field at full speed? Or did you follow me because I made a slight about your skills as a pilot?"
Peppy laughed, "She's got a point Fox."
After the two ships made it back to the Great Fox, Fox was badgered by the rest of the team to let her join. It didn't take much.
So now here she was, now considered a full member of the Star Fox team on her way for her daily work out. As usual for this hour of the day, all was quiet, the rest of the team was still sleeping. She wore her typical work-out attire, loose pants, tank top and soft slippers, all black. She mostly wore black or red, it worked with her coloring. After a few stretches she began her full work out. Like all Knights she was an expert paw to paw combat fighter, and worked out every day to keep her skills sharp, she competed two katas a day, one with her sword and one with out. A kata was a series of planed moves that simulated combat, and looked like an elaborate dance to a casual observer. The first one was with out her weapon, after that was completed she picked up her practice sword and began her second. All Knights used a type of sword called and arcane saber, it could cut through any thing, to prevent damage to the ship, Mari used a wooden practice sword for her work-outs.
By the time she was done and heading back to her room for a shower before breakfast the rest of team was waking up. Fox was the first and stepping out into the hallway as she walked by, "Morning!" she called.
Fox rubbed his eyes, "Falco is right. You must be insane. Remind me again, what time do you wake up?"
"About two hours before you do." she replied, "And speaking of Falco isn't it his turn to cook breakfast?"
Fox nodded, "I'm just about to remind him."
"Need a phaser?" she asked. Fox chuckled as she disappeared into her room. Five minutes later a loud crash notified everybody that Falco was awake and not happy about it.
Thirty minutes after that the team began to drift into the mess area. Falco was already cooking, Fox was helping and Peppy walked in with Mariko, Slippy was last. All were in the usual fight suits. Normally Mariko wore normal attire for a Knight, loose fitting jumpsuit, tabard over that and a long black cloak. Looked good, but ever try and fit a cloak into a cockpit? So soon after learning to fly she switched to a black flight suit and a red leather jacket, it was allot more comfortable. The normal breakfast conversation was interrupted by a loud page from the bridge.
"Team report to the bridge at once!" ROB64's voice boomed over the intercom system.
As the team raced toward the bridge, Mariko covered her ears from the louder than normal page, "All right, who forgot to turn down the intercom's volume this morning."
Normally they turned up the volume so that it would wake them up at night, and turned it down to normal levels in the morning. "Oops." muttered Slippy as the team made it way to the bridge. Fox was first and ROB64 informed them of an incoming message from General Pepper.
"Morning General! What's up?' asked Fox as Pepper's face appeared on the video monitor.
Pepper sighed, "As you well know a new planet has been discovered on the edge of the Lylat system. A few months ago several Cornerian scientists built a small orbiting space station over the planet to better study it. Overall it's a mixture of swamp and jungle and uninhabited, two weeks ago a Venom patroller was spotted, a small squadron was sent to investigate and discovered a Venom base established on the surface. It wasn't very big so the situation was taken care of." Pepper took a deep breath before continuing, "Until now, Andross has sent two squadrons and the StarWolf Team to re-take the base and destroy or capture the science station."
"Whatever is on that planet Andross wants it bad." muttered Fox, "I take it you want us to assist the station?"
Pepper nodded, then grinned, "The planet is close by to Katina so I've requested the Bulldog Unit to also send reinforcements to the station." Fox's best friend Bill Gray, was the commander of the Bulldog Unit, Fox grinned at the idea of working with his best friend from the academy again.
"No problem Sir. We should be there in a few hours." After the monitor switched off Fox turned to his team, "Well, I think you know what to do." The group scattered to prepare for the battle ahead.
Wolf O'Donnell was having a good day. Sitting in the pilot seat of his WolvenII, shooting down any Cornerian Fighter dumb enough to challenge him, Bill Gray currently in his sights. The best part? No Star Fox in sight, until Leon spoke over the comlink,
"Andrew, you owe me 30 credits."
"Wha..."
"Guess who decided to crash our party?"
"And I was having such a good day..." growled Wolf.
"No way Leon." answered Andrew, "I count five ships, not four, can't be Star Fox."
Wolf swore, and snapped at Andrew, "If you occasionally read the surveillance reports you would know that Fox recently got a new pilot." He rolled his eyes in exasperation, "Well Bill here is getting kinda boring so, let's kick some Star Fox tail!"
The hoots and hollers followed as the four WolvenII jets speeded toward the new arrivals to the battlefield.
The five arwings made there way to the site of the dog-fight, Mariko remarked "I'm gonna take a stab at this. Are those four red and black ships making a bee-line for us the notorious Star Wolf's WolvenII's?"
"Unfortunately" growled Falco.
Fox broke in, "Mari, break off and give Bill an assist. Unlike Wolf I still believe in fair fights." His reasoning was sound. Mariko was flying the trainer until a regular arwing could be built, due to it's slightly bigger size and weight, it didn't perform as well as the others. Another reason was that though she had been in dog-fights before, she hadn't faced pilots the caliber of Star Wolf yet.
"No problem, just holler if you need help." with that she banked her arwing away from the others and zipped to where Bill Gray was taking a pounding. Over the comlink she heard the curses and taunts as the two rival teams engaged.
Bill Gray was in serious trouble, a cocky Venom pilot decided to pick up where Wolf left off. That pilot soon regretted it as he was blasted into the next world. Bill sighed with relief, "Thanks."
"No problem." Mariko answered, "Bill Gray I presume?"
"That's me. Mariko, the newest member of Star Fox I presume?"
"Yep." she answered, "Shall we keep these fleas off of the base's back while the rest of Star Fox kicks Star Wolf into next week?"
Bill answered by sending a few more Venom pilots to meet their maker.
Less than ten minutes later Mariko heard Slippy's yelp over her comlink, "I'm monkey food if I don't leave!" He was trying to make it for the Great Fox for repairs, but Andrew was still on his tail. Mariko swore and raced toward her teammate. Andrew had Slippy in his sights and was about to fire a lethal shot when Wolf broke in over the comlink.
"Andrew watch your tail!" he snarled. Too late as a full powered laser blast rocked Andrew's ship.
"Hey! Ape face!" snarled Mariko, "Why don't you pick on somebody your own size?" Fox had told her about Andrew, Andross's nephew. All bark, not much bite, but a good pilot none the less. She couldn't understand Andrew's loud and irate response, but she got the gist as he beelined to attack her. He looped behind her and tried to stick a bomb up her tailpipe. Mari dodged easily, now she was mad! She whipped around and was at full speed pointed right at him and showed no signs of slowing down.
"Your crazy!" gasped Andrew.
'That's what everybody keeps telling me." she drawled, at the last second she dipped under his WolvenII and let loose with her lasers on the ships underbelly, just as he arched up to avoid the collision. She then u-turned and kept on his tail while letting him have it with her lasers.
Less than five minutes later he was yelling, "Somebody get this witch off my tail!"
Unfortunately the rest of Star Wolf was not doing much better, Fox and Wolf were evenly matched, as usual. Falco was dogging Leon, and Peppy was finishing off Pigma.
"Who needs a hand?" Peppy asked as Pigma limped off to lick his wounds.
"HEELLPPP!!!!!" screeched Andrew as he zipped in front of Peppy with Mariko in hot pursuit.
"Since Mari has things under control, how about helping me send this lizard into the next world?' grumbled Falco as Leon got behind him again. Peppy obliged and soon Leon was raining curses on their heads.
Wolf was not happy, Wolf was royally hacked. "All right!" he snarled, "Let's just change the tune of this party!" As he looped by the science station, filled with innocent scientists he launched a nova bomb. Fox cursed a blue streak and tore after it hoping to detonate it before it reached the station.
"Can't let you do that Fox!" Mocked Wolf as he lined up a shot on his most hated rival.
Mariko had just finished off Andrew and was the closest to where Wolf was. "Keep going Fox!" she snapped into the comlink link, "I'll cover you!" She locked onto Wolf's ship and prayed. Wolf saw his console flash with warnings of a lock on just before a laser blast knocked off his aim. His lasers missed Fox, but hit the bomb and it blew up with out hurting anybody.
Mariko laughed and stated, "Nice shot Wolfie!"
Wolf O'Donnell roared in anger and whipped toward Mariko lasers blazing. Mariko swallowed, "Maybe that crack wasn't such a good idea.." as she turned tail and made a beeline for the planet below, hoping for a nice mountain to plow Wolf into.
Fox was about to lend a hand to Mariko when an mayday from Bill stopped him, Star Wolf may be about wrapped up, but there were still plenty of Venom fighters buzzing around. He swore, Mari was a good pilot hopefully she could keep Wolf at bay long enough to get some help. He swallowed and raced to where his friend was in trouble.
Mariko buzzed through the clouds dodging Wolf's lasers as she went. "Jeez, Wolfie can't you take a joke?"
"DON'T CALL ME WOLFIE!!!" came the irate response over her comlink.
"Ohhhhh," replied Mariko, "Okay I won't call you that...umm, how about Cyclops?"
"AARRRGGG!!!!" came another angry response as several shots clipped her wing.
As Mariko dodged more laser shots by doing a few barrel rolls, she peered at the planets surface below. No mountains, lots of tall trees, but no mountains. Time for plan 'B', gain some altitude and hope one of her teammates was available for an assist, or Wolf's jet running out of fuel, or some other odd miracle to get the seriously hacked off Wolf O'Donnell off her tail. As zipped through some clouds she noticed a few dark ones ahead, the looked odd, kinda glittery. Both she and Wolf noticed why in about three minutes, a large green splat across Mariko's canopy caused her to pull a face.
"Ewwww!!" she remarked, then it hit her. That was a insect of some type, the whole damn cloud was an insect swarm! As more insects hit the arwing, the engine began to strain. "Damn bugs are fouling up the engine!" she snarled. Thinking fast she extended her wings to all-range mode for some control over her failing jet, and then shut down the engines before they over heated or worse. By now the whole canopy was covered with splattered bugs, zero visibility. Fighting panic she took a deep breath and attempted to glide the arwing to the ground.
In and old manual on flight she came across a technique for land a plane with a dead engine. It worked on the principle of hot air rising and cold air sinking, when the two came together they formed spirals in the air. The trick was to find a downward spiral and follow it down to the ground. As she crossed her fingers she moved the rapidly descending into wide circle hopping the extended wings caught the right currents.
Wolf wasn't as quick as Mariko and his engine blew as it clogged with the swarm of flying insects. Before he knew it the ground was coming up fast, in a desperate pull on the stick he was able to lift the nose of the jet up before impact. The WolvenII hit the ground hard and rammed through several trees before coming to a stop.
Mariko's plan was working, once she got low enough she took a risk and popped the canopy, she did want to see where she was landing. Mariko's luck was holding there was a small clearing in the dense jungle, as she turned her arwing toward it she prayed that both herself and the jet survived the experience. Though she hit the ground hard, it was a semi-controlled landing. Once the jarring landing was over, Mariko took note of her surroundings.
First thing she noticed was the weather, hot and sticky, if the humidity was any higher she'd need an umbrella. This was to be expected since she appeared to be in the only clear spot in miles of dense jungle. When Mariko looked at the edge of the clearing the jungle beyond seemed to be as dark and as creepy as a cave. Some of the trees themselves must have reached at least a mile in height. Mariko sighed, and reached behind her seat, every pilot with any common sense kept a stash of supplies there just in case. She pulled out the black leather backpack and checked it's contents. Food rations, bottles of water, her phaser, an emergency blanket, a compass, first aid kit, a utility knife, and a flare gun. Part of her training as a Knight included a week in the mountains alone with only a knife and her wits, so roughing it wasn't a problem. She climbed out of the arwing to better access the damage.
She took one look and groaned, "Fox is gonna kill me!" The entire outside of the once silver gray jet was now brown and green with splattered bugs it was almost unrecognizable as an arwing. Upon further inspection revealed that the jet wasn't as bad as it looked. The only major problem was the fried insects that were clogging up the engine, as for the engine itself what damage was done couldn't be found until it was removed and disassembled to be cleaned. Hopefully it would be minimal. She sighed, the once Venom, now Cornerian controlled base was in this area if her displays could be trusted before she crashed. Some where to the east of here if memory served.
"Better start hiking," muttered Mariko, "I really don't want to see what this place is like after dark." She shifted her backpack into a more comfortable position on her back and headed into the jungle.
Wolf O'Donnell came around to feel something wet on his head. Jerking his head up he quickly felt the top of his head for injuries. His hand came back not coated with blood, but with something green and slimey.
"Oh Gross!" he yelled. The covering of dead insects was so thick on his jet that it was dripping in through the busted canopy. After wiping off his hands he accessed the situation. His jet was a wreck, he didn't need to get out to see that. He was on an unknown world that was controlled by the enemy. He raised his eye upward and yelled, "Why me!" He didn't expect and answer as he tried to climb out of what was once a WolvenII. White hot pain shot up through his right leg and straight to his brain, he yelped in both frustration and pain. After it subsided into a dull throb Wolf took a deep breath and muttered, "Damn, must have busted it in the crash." He carefully tried to move his other leg, no pain. He signed with relief and continued to move it, and found out that it was trapped by a piece of the wrecked jet.
Mariko was hiking through the jungle when the loud and creative swearing reached her ears. She perked up, hoping it was another downed Cornerian pilot she hurried toward the source. As she walked she heard an odd chittering around her, at first she ignored it, until it seemed to get closer. She paused to remove her jacket and stuff it in her backpack, it was getting a bit too hot. As she put her pack back on and rolled up her sleeves the chittering was getting closer and louder. Without warning something flew out of a bush and headed right for her.
"What in the world!" yelped Mariko as she ducked. Whatever it was flew over her head and seemed to pause a few yards away. Mariko whipped around to see what almost hit her, her jaw promptly hit the ground.
"By the powers that be, what the heck are you?!" She was staring at what appeared to a nasty looking wasp that was about the size of a chair. As it looked at her Mariko could have sworn that it looked.....hungry. More chittering came from behind her, she glanced around to spot at least 5 more hovering around her. "Oh boy." she muttered.
Mariko accessed the situation, if these wasps were anything like normal wasps, then if she remained still they should fly off. Just in case she began to reach for her saber that hung from her belt. Good thing too, for it was almost in her hand when one of them let out a loud series of chitters and chatters at zipped toward her, the others followed it's lead. Mariko extended the blade on her saber and lashed out at the 'leader' cutting it in half. Almost immediately the other five rushed to attack the fallen one, seemly devouring it. Mariko ran as fast as she could, as soon as she could no longer hear the horrid chittering she leaned against a tree to catch her breath. "Note to self, recommend to General Pepper that this planet may not be the best addition the Cornerian System due to giant carnivorous insects." Keeping her saber in her hand she continued toward the noises she heard earlier had come from.
After spending the last ten minutes trying to free his good leg, Wolf was almost ready to give up. He toyed with the idea of trying to cut through the metal trapping his leg using his phaser, but that would risk blowing his leg off, the last thing he needed was a broken leg and a shot leg. "And it was starting out to be such a good day.." he grumbled, "If I ever get my paws on that new Star Fox pilot I'm gonna rip her limb from limb!." At that precise moment Mariko entered the newly formed clearing made by Wolf's crashed ship. She rolled her eyes heaven ward and sighed. Wolf's head whipped around at the noise, and he raised an eyebrow.
"Who the heck are you?" he stated. Judging from the flight suit, she had to be a pilot, and a very attractive one at that. She wasn't in either a Cornerian or a Venom Uniform so maybe she was a freelance pilot. Hopefully he could talk her into helping him out, her answer squashed that idea.
Mariko grinned, of all the people she had to plow into on this crazy world she would run into Wolf O'Donnell. It was shaping out to be one of those days, oh well better get this over with. "Oh, we've already met Wolfie."
"AAARRGGG!!!!" snarled Wolf and tried to jump out of the cockpit to ring her neck. His broken leg promptly reminded him that trying to jump anywhere was not a great idea. With a yelp of pain he sat back and whipped out his phaser fully intending to blast the little witch's head off. Instead his phaser flew out of his hand across the clearing and into her hand and was pointing it at him. He finally noticed the tattoo over her right eye.
"A Knight?! Fox hired a blasted Knight!?" He tossed his hands up in frustration, "Go on, shoot me, get it over with."
Mariko raised her eyebrow with amusement, she completely took him of guard as she tossed his phaser back at him. "Lucky for you I'm not that kind of Knight." She began to pick her way through the wreckage toward him.
"Oh so your gonna hack my head off instead." he hissed motioning to the saber she was carrying.
She rolled her eyes, "Where do people get these ideas about Knights!" By then she was standing on what was left of the wing and was staring him straight in his eye. "No I'm not going to chop of you head. I'm going to get you out of that jet, drag you to the nearest base and turn you over to the authorities. Happy?" she snapped.
"I'd rather have my head chopped off." he snarled.
She shook her head, "Well judging from the yell you gave earlier I presume that your injured in some way."
"For your information one leg is broken and the other is stuck. So why don't you cut the crap about worrying about my well being and leave me to rot!"
"Unfortunately for me, I'm not that kind of Knight. It's my duty to assist those in trouble and at this particular time that rather broad statement applies to you." As she peered into the cockpit, she continued, "So which is broken and which is stuck?" She looked up to see his phaser pointed at her nose. She sighed, "Here we go again." With a motion quicker than his eye could follow she hit his wrist hard forcing him to release the gun and once again it was in her hand pointed at him.
Mariko was just starting to lose her temper, "Look O'Donnell you have two choices. One cooperate with me and you might get out of this alive. Or two hack me off royally so I will leave you here and I guarantee that you will die. If not by starvation or thirst, by the local wildlife."
They stared at each other for a few silent minutes, Wolf finally answered. "The right leg is broken the left is trapped."
Mariko handed his phaser back, "Keep your eye open. If you here a chittering tell me, that's what I ran into earlier and I don't want a repeat experience."
"Right." muttered Wolf, Mariko activated her saber, "What are you going to do with that?"
"I'm going to cut through your ship to free your leg, " she grinned before continuing, "or do you prefer that I cut your leg off?"
"Be sure just to cut the ship." he muttered, as she began to cut through the metal he asked "How about a name?"
"Mari."
"That's it? No last name, no impressive title, no rank?"
"Yep, that's it. No need for anything else, surprised?"
"Yeah, how am I supposed to notify your next of kin when I finally shoot you down?" he raised an eyebrow.
"You won't." came the blunt answer. "Other Knights will know of my passing and take care of things upon my behalf." By then she had finished cutting through the side of the cockpit. "Okay, give it a good kick it should fall out."
Wolf promptly did so and a large panel fell off, he sighed with relief as he slid out of the cockpit being careful not to jar his broken leg anymore than he had to. It was hurting like hell but at least he wasn't stuck anymore. Mari sighed and stated "Let's have a look at that leg."
Wolf looked wary as he sat himself down near his downed jet, "Knights are rumored to be the best paw to paw combat fighters in the system and able to kill with their bare paws. You mean to tell me your healers to boot?"
"Consider us Furries-Of-All-Trades." without warning she grabbed Wolf's broken leg and with one quick motion reset the bone.
After he stopped yelling with pain he glared at her with his one good eye. "You could have warned me!" he snapped.
Mariko was grinning as she replied. "Then you would have been tense bracing for the pain and it wouldn't have set right." By then she was making a make-shift cast from pieces of wood. After she was done he slowly got to his feet using another piece of wood as a crutch.
"Got any supplies?" she asked.
"Behind my seat." he growled. He tried hopping around a bit to get used to the crutch. Mari reached behind his seat and grabbed the sack stashed there.
"Found it." she replied and tossed it toward him. In one motion he caught it and sling it over his shoulder using his free hand. "Ladies first." he stated motioning to the jungle ahead with a wolfish grin. Mariko sighed and walked into the jungle with Wolf O'Donnell behind her.
Meanwhile Fox McCloud was rolling through the jungle in the LandMaster. Scouting above by air was faster, but because the jungle was so thick, it wasn't very efficient for searching the area. It took about 30-40 minutes to finish off the rest of the Venom forces above the planet. Fox was about to dive down and search for Mariko since neither she or Wolf had made a reappearance. He was stopped by a call from the science station.
"Entering the atmosphere from there may not be a good idea." stated the raccoon scientist.
"Why not?" replied Fox
"In the course of studying this world we have observed that there are large swarms of insects traveling throughout the skies. If a jet were to fly through such a cloud of insects..."
"It would damage the jet." finished Fox. "Did you pick up two jets approaching the planet about 30 minutes ago?"
"Yes we did." replied the scientist, "I'm sorry to say that both jets disappeared from our radar about 10 minutes after they entered the atmosphere. We're assuming that they flew into a swarm and crashed on the surface."
Fox swore and pounded on his console in frustration. If this guy was right Mariko had crashed on that planet at least 30 minutes ago, along with Wolf O'Donnell. This was not good. He took a deep breath, and spoke to the scientist again. "Where can we get down to the planet's surface?"
After a moments silence, the scientist replied with a set of coordinates, then continued "The jungle that covers most of the world is very thick and dense, I'm not sure an air search would be effective."
Fox grinned, "Oh I think I have something that will help. Hey Slippy!"
"Yeah Fox." came the high pitched reply.
"How's the LandMaster?"
Sure enough an hour later the LandMaster was rolling it's way through the jungle while Peppy, Slippy, and Falco were scouting above for any clue to where Mariko had crashed. Unfortunately it was a great deal tougher than they thought, but they kept up the search. Mariko might be counting on them.
Mariko was not having fun. She and Wolf were back to back with about a dozen of the huge wasps she saw earlier surrounding them. Wolf had his phaser in his free hand while Mariko had a phaser in one hand and her saber in the other.
"You know I thought you were joking when you said 'giant wasp'." muttered Wolf eyeing the giant insects hovering in front of him.
"Well I wasn't," hissed Mariko, never taking her eyes of the wasps in front of her. "and no they don't act like normal wasps. The last time I dealt with them one chittered out the wasp equivalent of a battle cry and attacked."
"So how'd you get out of it?"
"I killed the one that attacked me and the others attacked and ate it. While they were dining I ran."
Wolf swallowed, "Great, just what my day needs, carnivorous insects." The words were barely out of his mouth when three of the wasps gave out what Mari called a 'battle cry' and charged at them. Wolf shot one and a few of the others attacked it Mari killed the other two with one swipe of her saber, the rest attacked the fallen. While they were distracted Mariko and Wolf ran for it.
Mariko was wondering how Wolf was keeping up, then she realized that becoming dinner for a bunch of insects was a great motivation to forget your pain. As she glanced ahead she spotted a small ravine right in her path. "Yipe!" she yelped as she hit the brakes, she then sighed with relief as she stopped just at the edge without going over. Wolf on the other hand was looking over his shoulder at the time and didn't see that Mari had stopped until he plowed into her and both were falling head over tails into the ravine.
On the way down Mariko head hit a rock and was out cold. Wolf on the other hand was wide awake and mad as all get out. Suddenly they stopped falling, yet they didn't hit ground. "What the...?" muttered Wolf. Whatever they landed on had some give to it, like a trampoline, and it was sticky. A scary thought came to Wolf, his eye grew wide as he realized that he was sitting on a giant spider web.
"Oh no, oh crap.." he muttered glancing around for his phaser and hoping that the maker of this web was not at home. "Note to self," he muttered spotting his phaser and grabbing it, "tell Andross that the only use Venom could have for this planet is to dispose of enemies." As he sat there a thought came to him, Where the hell was Mari? He glanced around and spotting an unmoving form a few yards away from him. As he got a closer look he noticed several spiders, about the size of a basketball each, crawling over the form.
Wolf shuddered as most were building a cocoon around the form, one was on top about to bite, it finally hit Wolf what, or more appropriately, who the form was, it was Mari. A quick shot from his phaser canceled the plans of the one wanting a snack. "Hey!" he snapped at the scattering spiders, "If anybody is gonna knock her off, it's gonna be me!"
About five minutes later Mariko was coming around, it hurt to open her eyes and her head was throbbing. She tried to move but it felt like she was tied down to something, or glued down. "Is this your idea of a twisted joke O'Donnell!" snarled Mariko in a strained voice. It hurt to talk too, with her luck she had a concussion on top of everything else.
"I claim to be twisted, sick, demented, evil, and not an all around nice guy, but even I have my limits." He was finally able to get to her, trying to crawl across a spider's web with a broken leg was more of a challenge than he thought. When he got there he tried to pull some of the webbing off of her, it was too strong for him to break. He pulled out his dagger and started cutting it off instead. "Hang on." he muttered.
"I must be dreaming," muttered Mariko, "no way is anybody going to believe that Wolf O'Donnell is trying to help me."
"I want you alive so I can shoot you down later!" he snapped.
"That's something to look forward to." She shook her head and swore as her vision blurred. By then Wolf had cut away most of webbing and Mariko was able to free herself. She spotted her saber nearby and grabbed it. As she looked around she muttered, "Please tell me I'm not on a giant spider web."
"Sorry." growled Wolf, "but look on the bright side the only spiders I've seen are the size of basketballs, could be worse. Maybe this is a colony of some type." No sooner were the words out of his mouth the web began to quake. Mariko looked up to see a spider about the size of a car making for them.
"You and your big mouth!" snarled Mariko and then promptly joined him in swearing at their predicament. Wolf fired a phaser shot at the creature, it dodged.
"The only thing worse than a giant spider, is a smart giant spider." snapped Wolf as he fired a few more shots, none of them hitting.
"I have an idea." muttered Mariko as she activated her saber.
"I'm open to any idea you might have at the moment." snapped Wolf.
"Start cutting the web"
"You are crazy! Did you hit your head on the way down!!??" yelled Wolf, the giant spider was getting closer.
"Yes, as a matter of fact I did!" she snapped, "Now which you think we'd have a better chance of surviving, a fall or that spider?" Wolf took a deep breath and nodded, both cut through the web around them and fell through the newly made hole, leaving a frustrated spider behind them.
Fox McCloud finally found a clearing in the jungle, as he rolled the LandMaster to a stop he decided to peek out for a bit of fresh air and a look around. Peppy had radioed him five minutes ago telling him about the clearing and that there might be something there.
"Can't tell from here Fox." The older rabbit replied, "could be a downed jet but I can't identify it."
"I'll check it from here, keep looking we're near the area where Mariko and Wolf went down, and watch out for those bugs."
As Fox climbed out of the LandMaster the heat was oppressive. Not the type of weather for anybody with fur, but he brightened as he spotted a downed jet. It wasn't identifiable at first, but as he jogged closer he could barely make out the red orange Star Fox symbol on the tail under all the dead bugs. He ran to check the cockpit, no Mariko, but her supply pack was missing and there was one set of foot prints leading into the jungle.
He gave out a whoop of joy and paged the others, "Fox to Team, I found Mariko's arwing. She's not here but she left a trail I can follow. Slippy, get back to the Great Fox and get the trainer back aboard ship for repairs."
Falco broke in. "Bad news Fox."
Fox was back into the LandMaster by now, "What's wrong Falco?"
"I'm hovering about a mile east of your position, there's another downed jet here, it appears to be Wolf O'Donnell's WolvenII. Or what's left of it....."
Fox swore, "Blast it that's the direction Mari's trail is going in! Can you tell what happened?"
"No," replied Falco, "but if I know Mariko, she's most likely dragging O'Donnell by his scruff to the base. It's about 2-3 miles east of my position."
Fox laughed remembering how Mariko took care of Wolf the first time they met in that bar fight. "Good point. Now I almost feel sorry for Wolf, especially if he tries anything with her."
Mariko came around on the jungle floor, her head was throbbing, her vision was blurry and to top it off a few of her ribs seemed to be broken. Through it all she had to look on the bright side, she was still alive. She tried to move her arms and it finally hit her groggy brain that they were tied behind her back.
"Ah, our lovely guest is awake." stated one voice, it seemed familiar to her.
"Good." snarled another voice, "This is for my ship witch!" The statement was followed by a swift kick in the ribs, which promptly rolled her onto her back in pain. Mariko's mind finally registered who was around her. The first voice belonged to Leon, the second Andrew.
"Just what I needed." she croaked, "The complete set of Star Wolf." As she talked she was working on her ropes. Simple knots, weak rope it would be undone in about two minutes.
Wolf finally spoke, "So you were going to turn me in?" he laughed, "Let's see what Andross is going to do with you when I toss your broken body at his feet!"
Andrew cracked his knuckles, "Me first." starting toward her.
She was almost free, just a few more seconds. Under normal conditions she would have been able to handle all four of them, but not with a concussion, and several broken ribs. Escape was a high priority. She slowly got to her feet ready to fend off the hacked off Andrew as best she can.
"Oh by the way." stated Wolf, "thanks for the memento." waving her saber. "It'll look good in my collection."
Mariko came unglued. Never taunt or threaten a Knight with their saber, it tended to piss them off. With a nasty snarl she freed her hands and a surge of anger and adrenaline fired three high powered kicks at the advancing Andrew. The first at his stomach, the second at his chest, the last at his head. He fell back down for the count, she then lunged for Wolf dodging the stunned Leon and Pigma with ease.
Wolf didn't have a chance, thanks to his broken leg moving fast was not an option. His chances for fighting off the hacked off Knight went from slim to none as she grabbed her saber with one hand and his dagger with the other. Since both of her hands were full she gave a hard kick to his broken leg. When his head cleared from the pain he found his dagger in her hand at his neck. Since he kept it razor sharp Wolf decided real quick to stop fighting her.
"Since you no longer require my assistance O'Donnell," Mariko hissed into his ear, "you no longer apply to that rather broad definition I told you about earlier. So if you have any common sense in that fuzzy head of yours you will cooperate of spend the last few seconds of you miserable so-called-life watching yourself bleed to death from your own dagger!"
The rest of the Star Wolf Team was edging around the two of them trying to figure out how to get Wolf out of this mess. With the exception of Leon, they didn't like Wolf much, but that didn't mean that they wanted to explain to Andross how they let this Knight kill him right in front of their eyes. "Give up! There is no way for you to escape!" hissed Leon.
"True," stated Mariko, then she grinned ferally "but the first one of you to make a move will get a close up view of the last moments of Wolf O'Donnell's life. I may be captured, but Andross is going to have to place a want ad for a new pilot, or maybe several depending on his mood when you tell him what happened. Your choice of course."
After weighing the options, Leon came to a decision, "Let him go and your free to go."
"WHAT!" yelled Pigma, Andrew, and Wolf in shock.
Wolf continued, "You expect me to let her go after what she has put me through today??!!" Mariko held the dagger a little bit closer to his neck, drawing a bit of blood, he swallowed "Though I could agree to that....given the current conditions."
"Smart Wolfie." stated Mariko, she then addressed Leon, "Why are all of my instincts telling me not to trust you as far as could throw you?"
"A smart warrior always trusts their instincts." Leon gave her a sinister grin, "You have a concussion at the very least, and the adrenaline rush cannot last for much longer. We can wait." Pigma and Andrew copied Leon's grin.
"Oh crap." Mariko muttered. Leon was right, damn it all, well if she was going to be captured she wasn't going without a fight. As she planned her next move she felt a soft rumbling under her feet, it felt like it was getting closer. As it dawned on her what it was it was Mariko's turn to grin. "Actually, you guys can't wait."
The three of them looked confused. Wolf spotted what Mari was referring to as it came out of the jungle and into view and swallowed. Mariko smiled sweetly and stated, "Star Wolf, LandMaster. LandMaster, Star Wolf."
The Star Wolf team whipped around to see a stylized tank, with the Star Fox symbol painted on it's side, roll toward them with it's large cannon fully charged and aimed right at them. "Hi guys!" stated Fox over the speakers, "I'll give you 30 seconds to surrender..."
Fox never got to finish his sentence as the entire Star Wolf team ran away and disappeared into the jungle. Wolf ran with them, Mariko let him go as her vision was blurring again. As he ran Mariko called, "Hey Wolfie! Thanks for the memento!" waving his dagger. A snarl was all she got in response.
After they were out of sight Fox climbed out of the LandMaster and ran toward her mugging her when he reached her. Mariko let him despite her broken ribs, she was that glad to see him, "Can I pass out now?" she asked him.
He nodded, and she promptly blacked out in his arms.
Several hours later Mariko slowly came around in the medical area of the Great Fox. Her ribs felt fine but she still had a slight head ache. As she opened her eyes she saw four worried faces looking down at her. "Just what I need," she muttered, "an audience."
"Yeah." stated Falco, "She's fine."
"Care to explain to us how you wound up fending off the entire Star Wolf team in the middle of that jungle." asked Peppy.
Mariko sighed, "It's a long story." The group got comfortable as Mariko told them everything that happened form the time she flew into the cloud of bugs to when Fox found her in the LandMaster. They were all laughing at Star Wolf's expense by the time she finished.
"I told you Wolf would regret messing with her." Stated Falco between bouts of laughter.
"May the Gods help me next time we meet." chuckled Mariko. As she glanced around she asked, "Where's my stuff?"
"Here." replied Fox pointing to a chair by the bed. Mariko rummaged through it until she spotted Wolf's dagger. She grinned. "Yep," she muttered, "may the Gods help me."
A short time later Mariko was in her room, she placed Wolf's dagger on a shelf by her dresser. As she laid down to take a short nap she gave the dagger a glance and chuckled to herself at how miserable Wolf O'Donnell was right now. That last kick she gave his leg almost, if not completely, shattered the bone. He'd be grounded for a few weeks at least, she chuckled and muttered before falling asleep, "Pleasant Dreams Wolfie."
On Venom, Wolf O'Donnell was furious. Currently he was sitting on his bed with his right leg in a cast, it had taken surgery and several pins to reset the shattered bone. Despite their best efforts, the doctors had told him that he would always have a slight limp do to the severity of the injury. To top it off he wouldn't be able to fly for at least four to six weeks. As he fumed he made a vow, "We'll meet again you little witch," he growled, "either in the skies or on the ground, and next time I'll have the last laugh."