• "Ah, nice to see you again, James," General Pepper said genially.
    "It's nice to see you again too, sir, but I believe you called me here."
    James Mcloud was a well built, serious pilot of team Star Fox. After all, he had a reputation of being the finest pilot and having the best of the best. Though not for long, with the way Fox and his team is learning, he thought with a smile. "So sir, what have you called us for?"
    By "we" he had meant his fellow teammates and friends, Peppy Hare and Pigma Dengar. Peppy was a "trusty reliable ol' hare", as he himself often said. Pigma occasionally gave him doubts, but he always put it out of his mind.
    "Ah yes." The general's cordial face darkened. "Things have been happening around planet Venom."
    "Well strange as in how, sir?" This was Peppy.
    "There's been activity there, very strange activity. You remember Andross, I presume?"
    "Yes, the rich- I mean evil scientist that used to work for us? I remember." That was Pigma who had spoken. James didn't like how he had started off his sentence. Then again, that's Pigma for you.
    "I believe, as well as many others, that he is up to something. And it's obviously not good."
    "Nothing's ever going on that's good with that lying, evil-"
    "Peppy," James warned. "Easy. We all feel the same way about him."
    Peppy was usually a calm and gentle hare, but talking about Andross could really get his old ticker worked up.
    "Anyways, I want you to investigate Planet Venom, and see what he's doing. Get some information on what he's planning. And James, be careful."
    "I'm sure we've got this one." James replied coolly.
    "There is a reward for this, is there?" Pigma asked greedily.
    "Pigma! We're doing this for the service of Corneria! That's a reward enough, protecting your own planet!" Peppy snapped.
    "No time to argue, boys, we got a mission to complete." James put his black shades over his green eyes and put his ray gun in his belt. Peppy straightened his coat, but Pigma was acting strange, muttering about a reward. "Drop it, Pigma. Now let's go, team Star Fox!"

    Boarding their sleek Arwings, the crew launched out of the Great Fox, and into space, on a course to planet Venom As they flew, Peppy asked, "So James, how's the youngster doing? Keeping up with training?"
    "Peppy my old friend, he's passed every test with more than perfect scores."
    James saw Peppy chuckle on the screen. "He looks like you in your younger days. I swear James, one day he's going to whup us into shape."
    He's got his mother's talent as well as my own, and teammates of pure gold, James thought.
    "Aren't we getting somewhere?" Pigma asked impatiently. "These Arwings are meant to go faster than your speed already."
    "You usually don't act so excited about missions, Pigma. Most of the time you're the one that lags behind." Indeed, Pigma never showed the battle fervor that James or Peppy felt in the midst of open fire.
    "Well- uh- I just think this mission will be different than most."
    "If you insist," Peppy answered. But he stopped as Venom loomed ahead.
    "Not far now, boys. Now, remember: Keep all ears open, and if they're firing at you-"
    "Do a barrel roll," Peppy finished. "Trust me James, I'd be doing barrel rolls in my sleep-"
    Suddenly, Jame's Arwing was hit by a laser.
    "All right, they've spotted us! Let's lock and load!" Looking over his shades, he repeated, "Lock, and load."
    The rain of lasers fired down upon them. James and Peppy were dodging, diving, and swooping everywhere, hitting each ship they fired at, and never missing. One second an enemy ship would be shooting, the next second it would be spiraling down Venom's barren desolate wasteland. Both James and Peppy went up into the air, then crossing over each other in a barreling dive, shot at the line of ships that would be firing. But something was missing.
    "Peppy, where's Pigma?!" James barked.
    "I don't know, I was firing at the enemies, then his transmission line went dead!"
    James checked the panels. Peppy was there, looking as wild as he did in battle, but Pigma's was nothing but static. And then Pigma appeared.
    With three other faces.
    A grey and white wolf's face appeared, with jagged fur patterns. The other panels were occupied by an angry monkey's face, and a cold mechanical chameleon.
    "Well well well. It's so nice to see you on the field of battle, James," the wolf replied casually, as if they were friends.
    "Wolf," James spat. "I should have known you would have been in this."
    "Did you know Dengar had also betrayed you?" the chameleon, named Leon, answered.
    James could not believe it. "Pigma?! I thought you were a team member of Star Fox!"
    "If I wasn't so tied up with enemies right now, I'd be shooting down your Arwing right now!" Peppy shouted.
    "I wanted a reward, not honor. And Andross is paying me, in cold, hard cash," Pigma replied gleefully.
    "Andross is always generous in those who serve him." That would have been Andrew, nephew of Andross.
    "C'mon James, we have to make it out of here now! Before-"
    "No."
    Something in James voice stopped him.
    "Peppy, we both can't get out of here alive. There's too many."
    "James, what the heck are you saying?!"
    "I'm going to hold them off. Peppy, you have to do this!"
    "You have to be crazy, James, you have a son!!"
    It pained James that Peppy said that. "I know, Peppy... I know. But you need to get out of here. It'd be a living death for me to have lost a friend trying to save my own life."
    "Forget it James, I'm not-"
    "Peppy, I'm ordering you as your captain, now GET OUT OF HERE BEFORE WE BOTH DIE!" James roared.
    Peppy reluctantly but obediently turned his ship. Staring at the transmission screen, he said, "What should I tell Fox?"
    "Tell him... Tell him to take over Star Fox for me... And that he's just as good a pilot as I, and that I'm proud of him."
    James disconnected the transmission. "Now then," he said, "I'll go down fighting, or I won't go down at all... We'll never know...."