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A Starfox Adventures Parody

Chapter 6: To the GateKeeper

Sponsored by Ravenspellsoer

By Draconicon

With an escort of two Earthwalkers, Fox and Krystal were taken back to the Snowhorn Wastes. The company of the two larger dinosaurs meant that they were safer than they would otherwise be, and more than once, Fox noticed that Sharpklaw that were patrolling the roads and pathways through the low mountains retreated from the powerful figures that they rode on.

It was not the most comfortable ride, either, considering that they were rather different from anything that he had sat on before. Fox was used to the feeling of a machine under him, something that he had full control over. The feeling of riding something that rolled this way and that, which could turn and shift direction, stop and speed up without him telling it to do any such thing, was difficult for him to get used to.

The harder part, of course, was riding behind Krystal.

Every time that he looked away from the path and the lands around them, he found himself staring at her blue-furred ass. Sure, that loincloth kept him from staring right at her, or seeing the best parts, but...

Mmmph...

She'd said that she wasn't going to read his mind without permission, but he still tried to keep his thoughts somewhat respectable. No point in making things worse for the both of them. Yet, at the same time, it was hard not to imagine what it would be like to stare at her naked. All the time.

"Mmmph..."

"Yes, Fox?" Krystal asked, looking over her shoulder.

Grateful for the ridge and horns of his mount hiding his bulge, Fox slid forward a bit further just to bump himself against those hard scales, trying to kill his erection. He shook his head.

"Nothing. Just...thoughts."

"Mating thoughts again?"

"..."

"I did not read them. But they are written all over your face."

"It's hard to stay professional when you're around."

"I will take that as the compliment I am sure it is."

Something that most females wouldn't have done, he knew. Hell, if he'd done that with Katt or Fara, he was pretty sure that he would have been slapped with some sort of sexual harassment complaint. With Krystal, though? She seemed to just take it as it was, and then move forward.

She really was something.

They moved further and further up the mountain to the Snowhorn Wastes, and it didn't take long before the air started to bear down on them with a horrendous chill. Even he could feel it, and that was with the climate adjustors in his jacket and pants. His fur helped, too, and he knew that Krystal's would be doing something similar, but he couldn't imagine that the Cerinian was feeling that comfortable in the chilled air.

If she was bothered, though, she didn't show it. She just kept riding her escort in silence, occasionally reaching back for her staff to squeeze it before they continued on.

Shaking his head, Fox kept his eyes on the surrounds. Just because the Sharpklaw weren't willing to attack the Earthwalkers didn't mean that they wouldn't be willing to wait and ambush them as soon as the big guys were gone. He reached down to his belt, running his fingers along the edge of his blaster.

Don't miss, and no warning shots, he thought. You don't have the ammo for that.

They eventually reached the higher part of the mountains where even the big Earthwalkers didn't wish to go further. He was half-convinced that it was due to the cold, considering that they were shivering, too, and certainly not from fear. The dinosaurs had them dismount, and Fox groaned as they immediately turned to leave.

"That's it?" he asked.

"We carried you to the Wastes. That was the extent of our orders."

"And we have to find where Garunda Te is ourselves, huh?"

"Our orders were to take you here. There was nothing said of what we were to do after that."

Fox gritted his teeth, but he knew that there was no point in arguing. He'd been around enough soldiers to know a 'Jobsworth' when he saw one. More than their job's-worth, these ones. Above their paygrade to stick around. Orders didn't say to help, so why bother?

As the horned dinosaurs walked away, he turned back to Krystal. The blue-furred vixen was still bare-breasted and barefoot, her staff in hand and her fingers clenched tightly around it. He looked down, then blinked. The snow had melted in a circle around her.

"How -"

"My staff is capable of many things," she said, her voice more clipped and controlled than usual.

"...You're freezing, aren't you?"

"Quite."

"..."

"As much as I understand you staring at my nipples, I would like to find somewhere warmer. Quickly."

"Ah. Right. Sorry."

He looked away from those stiff pink tips, shaking his head as he looked at the path ahead. Night was falling, which meant that the cold was only going to get worse if they didn't find either Garunda Te or shelter in short order. Thankfully, there was only the one path forward, which meant that they didn't have to try and figure out what direction they had to go.

"Uh...this way."

She walked on his left, and he was surprised to find that her staff was already extending something over the pair of them as she held it aloft. There was some sort of energy that emerged from the tip, almost like an umbrella combined with a force field. He cocked his head to the side as he watched the snow hit it and vaporize.

He wasn't sure if it was tech or some sort of old thing that she had brought from her planet, some sort of mysticism like the telepathy that the Cerinians had, but whatever it was, it was useful. It kept the worst of the falling cold off of them, and the wind that cut through the darkening forest was minimized. Not completely finished off, but better than nothing.

As they walked along, she hissed every so often, and he started to learn that it was when she found some slightly deeper snow, snow that didn't melt right away with the power of her staff. It was...almost endearing, in a way, when she stepped into it and gasped so sharply. It was kind of cute.

He shook his head, keeping his eyes on the path and their surrounds, his ears flicking. There were other sounds following them that weren't so adorable, and he was sure that meant that the Sharpklaw were still trailing them. The fact that they hadn't yet struck probably didn't mean anything good, and he needed to be ready for when they did.

Krystal was in hell, though she kept the worst of her suffering off her face. She had known that they were coming back to the mountains, but as she had managed to survive it once, she had assumed that it would be alright the second time. She had been wrong.

Ah...ah...ah...

Her toes were sinking through snow that bit through her fur, little bits of ice stabbing upwards against her soles. None of it was sharp enough to break the skin, but it was like little implements of torture that were constantly teasing her feet and reminding her of her own stupidity. No sandals, no boots, no nothing to protect her down there, and...up above...

Her fur was keeping the absolute worst of the cold at bay, and the shield that her staff projected did a little bit more besides. She wasn't quite at risk of hypothermia, but she wasn't exactly feeling good, either. Particularly as the cold bit at her nipples, making them stand out against her fur that much more. She hadn't needed to be a mind-reader to know that Fox approved of the look, but she didn't particularly like the way that it stung so much to get them to this point.

That said...

She did look down at herself when Fox was looking behind them. The way that her nipples stood out, pink and obvious, was...kind of nice, she had to admit. She'd have to see if there was a way to get that look without having to go through this torture.

Eventually, the snowy path led them to one of the tunnels that cut through the mountain slopes. Being out of the falling snow helped, but she knew that she'd need more than that to feel any relief from the cold.

"Do you mind a short break, Fox?" she asked.

"How short?"

"Two minutes."

"...Okay."

He leaned against the tunnel wall, and she did the same. Rather than relax, however, she twisted her staff around, pointing the rounded, jeweled head towards the ground.

"What are you doing?"

"Making it more comfortable for the both of us."

Taking a deep breath, she brought her focus down on the gem, pulling at the power that was deep within the staff. The rest that she'd been forced to take in the cave, plus the meditation that she'd been able to get on the back of the Earthwalker, had allowed her to recharge it and herself. The fires within, as well as all the other little abilities that the staff had, had grown strong once more.

Burn.

And with that, a surge of flame leaped from the tip of her staff.

Fox jumped back, his eyes wide, but Krystal kept her attention on the end of her staff, slowly dragging it from side to side over the rocks. They heated up slowly, shedding the chill of the air, and soon it was filled with steam. The slight humidity in the cave was a nice change from the cold that ripped through her lungs.

As she dragged the fire outwards a bit, melting the snow so that it couldn't just creep back in, Fox moved from his side of the cave to hers. He looked down at the staff, then at her, and then back down.

"Just how much can that thing do?"

"More than you would expect," she muttered. "Please hold any further questions."

"Sure."

Still, it was nice to know that he respected her and her staff for this. She directed the flame for another minute, searing the ground until the heat was good and strong. Then, and only then, did she let the flame die. Stepping from cold stone to hot rock, she sighed as her feet finally felt like they were thawing out. Even as the undersides got a little bit damp, warmed through to the point of other reactions, she smiled.

"That's better."

"I'll say. It's almost like a sauna in here now."

"It won't last. The chill will take its course soon enough."

"Still. Bet that feels better."

"Fox. You have no idea."

"Heh...well, we better keep moving."

"Trouble?" she asked, her ears twitching.

"Maybe. Can you sense them?"

Krystal cocked her head to the side, and Fox shook his head, then nodded back the way that they'd come. Oh. Behind them. She cast her senses backwards, and then hissed through clenched teeth.

"What?"

"I can sense them, yes," she said. "At least a dozen. Runners have already been sent for more."

"Are they after us?"

"Probably. No. Yes, they are; after the 'fuzzies', as they are thinking of us."

"...Fuck."

"That may be what they plan to do, yes," she said, withdrawing her mental presence before she could confirm that. There was no need to take that further. "Let's keep moving, like you said."

"Yeah...let's..."

They walked down the tunnel. Then they ran. Krystal's grip on her staff grew stronger, and she did her best to avoid imagining what might lay behind them as well as what might lay ahead.

The tunnel crisscrossed the space under the mountain, but eventually, they found a crossroads. Unfortunately, it was a crossroads that was staffed by the same sort of giant bully-boy that Krystal had seen before, the one that had been very...pushy...about what he would need if they were going to be allowed through. She pursed her lips as they approached, already feeling the 'interest' pouring off of the bigger scaly figure.

"Hey. Get out of the way," Fox said, stepping in front of her. "We're on a mission."

"You pay me -"

"I said, out of the way."

The dinosaur looked rather surprised that he had been interrupted, but he definitely wasn't intimidated. As soon as Fox came close, he brought his spear down, blocking the way through the tunnel. Krystal read what was coming next in the dinosaur's mind, and she reached out, grabbing Fox by the tail. She yanked him back just before the big guy could swing the spear forward and catch her companion in the ribs.

A pity it didn't overbalance him, but it came close, at least.

"You pay me scarabs to pass...or..."

The big guy groped himself over his loincloth, and Krystal shook her head. Once had been...interesting, but she didn't think that they had time to go further than that this time. She glanced back down the tunnel. There was a feeling of pursuers coming their way, but they were still somewhat far off. Not far off enough to do that, though.

Fox grunted as he pulled his tail out of her hands, muttering his thanks. She nodded back.

"Do you think there's another way?" she asked.

"Doubt it. Mines aren't built with that many extra routes. Don't want to bring the whole mountain down on you, after all."

"True. Then I suppose we must go through him."

"Yeah, well, I'm not carrying any scarabs."

"And I do not wish to pay in...other ways."

He blinked, turning to look at her. His mouth hung open for a moment, his face a picture of befuddlement and more than a little outrage.

It was rather cute, she had to admit. Someone else being flustered and angry on her behalf did not happen often.

"No way. No way are you doing that."

"I agree. But we still have to find a way through."

"Yeah, well..." Fox looked back at him. "Two against one, right?"

"..." She smiled, gripping her staff that much tighter. "Yes. I believe it is."

"You with me?"

"Of course."

They walked back up to the big dinosaur, who had been watching her breasts and little else. He opened his mouth -

And both foxes punched him in the gut before he could even get the words out. He slumped forward, and they followed up with a perfectly synchronized uppercut. Hers was the better and the stronger, but Fox didn't do too badly for himself.

#

As they stepped over the unconscious, corrupt guard-dino, Fox shook his head. The very thought of Krystal on her knees, 'servicing' someone like that...oh, it got his blood boiling. Not because it was a bad image - as a matter of fact, the vixen doing just about anything was the opposite of that, and more than enough to get his dick hard - but because she'd had to do that before.

And that explained the look on the other guard-dino that they had come across before. The one that he'd needed to scare off with his blaster. The one that had probably just gotten himself off with Krystal.

Should have shot that one in the head, he thought. Maybe I'll do that next time I run into him...

They walked out of the tunnel, and they were back in the Wastes, alright, back where he had been trying to find Tricky the first time, where he'd gotten lost, and where he'd been...well, lucky wasn't the right word, but it was something like that.

"You know where we go from here?" he asked.

"I picked up where they were keeping Garunda Te, yes. The Earthwalker Queen had a picture in her head of it."

"Handy."

"It is a helpful skill."

He could imagine. The more time that he spent around Krystal, the more he realized that the telepathy she could do would have helped him out of more scrapes than he could imagine. The fact that she was so very good at it, too, helped him out. She was a mobile detection system, a translator, and so much more. She could do things that the tech that they had couldn't, and that meant that she was damn near invaluable down here.

And she's still freezing, he realized as she walked out of the tunnels and immediately hissed, catching her breath against the cold. The heat that she'd managed to fill the rock walls had faded, yes, but that had still been something against the overwhelming chill of the world outside.

Her feet crunched through the snow, and he shook his head.

"I'll take point. You tell me where to go."

"But -"

"You can walk in my bootprints. It'll be better than walking in the snow proper, right?"

"...That is a fair point. Thank you."

She pointed off to the right, and they made their way around the drifts and the thicker snow, leaving the tunnels behind them. His fingers twitched, wanting to pull his blaster free, but not wanting to give into the temptation to start shooting at shadows, either.

Thankfully, the few Sharpklaw that he had seen the last time that they were up in the Wastes were nowhere to be seen. He did his best not to think that they were probably coming up behind them instead, and forced himself to keep his focus on the road ahead. Every step he took was announced with a crunch of thick snow under his boots, and his eyes flicked through the darkening trees around him to try and pick out anything moving. It was dim enough that even shadows looked like people.

Eventually, they reached an archway that was barred by a large wooden barricade. He looked at it, and then back at Krystal.

"Looks like a prison to me."

"Yes...and it fits with the image that the Earthwalker Queen had in mind."

"Think you could break this?"

"Given time? Yes."

"Yeah, I don't think we have that."

Much as he didn't want to use ammo, he didn't want to be on this side of the gate for any longer that much more. He pulled his blaster from its holster.

"Your lightning caster?" she asked.

"Blaster. Watch."

He aimed at one of the anchor points at the top of the twenty-foot barricade and pulled the trigger. A bright red bolt shot from the barrel, and it cut through everything in its path. Wood, rope, even part of the stone archway that anchored the whole thing: against modern technology, the barricade was worthless.

Fire spread across the wood from that point, rapidly catching despite the freezing temperature and bits of snow here and there. Heated plasma didn't kid around, that was for sure. He shot the other anchor point, then holstered the weapon. The fire burned quickly, and the barricade went down a few seconds later. The fire kept burning, melting the snow in the area around the fallen wooden beams.

Krystal stared, her eyes wide at the destruction that his weapon had been responsible for. She looked down, then at him.

"I think my name for it is more appropriate."

"What, don't have that sort of option with your magic staff?"

"There are...options, but nothing so immediate or easy. This is the way that wars are fought where you are from?"

"Mostly, yes."

"...I imagine many of your warriors are very brave."

"Not so many as you'd think. You run in and you just try not to die."

"Is that so different from any warrior?" she asked, moving to step over the barricade. "Come, let's see this done."

They walked over the broken barricade, and it didn't take long to Garunda Te after that. Climbing a hill covered in yet more snow, they found ice a foot thick that laid between them and a wooly mammoth - a Snowhorn, Fox remembered - that was being kept inside. He looked up at them through the narrowest point, harrumphing through his trunk.

"You don't look like the Sharpklaw, but you're certainly not from around here. What do you want? To torture me more?"

"I'm Fox McCloud, and I'm looking for Garunda Te. Are you him?"

"I am he. What do you want from me?"

"Well, I'm guessing this isn't your home."

"Ha! Do I look like I'd live in a cave like this? The Sharpklaw imprisoned me here. They're trying to starve me into submission."

"...Doesn't sound like it's working," he said, looking over his shoulder at Krystal. She shook her head; it wasn't. "Any chance that you can bust out of there?"

"Not in my current state. They were keeping watch over me, ready to slay me the moment that I showed any rebellion. Now that I am too weak to break the ice on my own, they have left me here...waiting for me to submit..."

"Submit to what?"

"You really aren't from around here. Tell me, Fox. Who holds your loyalty?"

"Nobody on this planet, but for the moment, I'm working with the Earthwalker Queen."

Krystal slid closer to him, taking his hand. As she did, he heard her voice in his head, a little bit of support and information flowing from her to him.

He is scared of what might have happened to the world in his absence. He carries responsibility that he believes that he has failed in, and he is suspicious of everyone that is not of his tribe.

So he was looking for someone that might be able to help, but was at that point of being unsure if he could trust anyone else to do it right. When you got it wrong, you had a hard time seeing that other people could do it right. He shook his head, looking back down at the Snowhorn.

"I'm here to rescue you, regardless. The Queen said that I'd need to find you to fix the planet, and that's my main mission."

"An outsider, trying to fix the planet. What has this world come to?"

"It's in a whole lot of trouble, at the moment. And we've got a large squad chasing us, so if you can tell us how to get you out of there, that'd be great."

"..."

Food, Krystal said to him. He needs food. Quite the glutton, this one; he hasn't eaten for only two days, and he is already so weak that he cannot crack the ice.

"Two days?! That's it?"

"What is that? Who are you talking to? Is there -"

Crash.

Fox shook his head, reaching down for his blaster. Krystal gripped her staff all the tighter.

"I think we just lost our head start."

"I think you're right."

"You take right?"

"And you take the left."

They darted away from the hole at the same time that the Sharpklaw started pouring through the gap. Fox brought his blaster up and squeezed the trigger, dropping one, two, three of the dozen that were coming through. Then they started charging, and the fight got much more interesting.

Krystal swung her staff forward, bringing the jeweled tip to bear once more. Her focus ran down it, a sense of energy going from her fingers to the shaft of the staff, and then -

Shoom!

Shoom!

Two red shapes darted from the tip of her staff. They were not as swift or as potent as the things that Fox fired from his weapon, but they took two different Sharpklaw soldiers in the shoulders, spinning them about and knocking them off their feet. The scaly warriors paused, unsure which opponent to chase with five of their number knocked down already.

She solved that problem for them, charging right into their center mass, swinging her staff with targeted precision. She jabbed the thick end of the staff into the knee of one warrior, kicked her legs up so use his weight to pivot around him by pulling on her staff, and kicked another in the face. Bringing her staff down into his sternum as he fell, she both knocked him out and extended her spin, bringing the darkness of unconsciousness to two more with a quick spin and kick to the neck.

By the time that she landed on her feet again, hissing at the cold underfoot, the seven pursuers had already been knocked down to three. Four in one little move, from how tightly clustered they were.

The remaining three turned their attention on her with a vengeance, and she slammed the base of her staff into the ground. The shield came out of the top, blocking their blades as they tried to attack her, all while she was charging the staff for a new, powerful move.

She had it halfway ready when another blaster shot took one of the warriors down. The warriors turned, one getting punched in the face by a sword hilt, the other engaging with Fox. Krystal took the opening, wept the Sharpklaw's legs out from under him, and then brought her staff down with a harsh hit right to the forehead.

In the space of less than a minute, they had handled the attack. Fox shook his head, holstering his weapon again.

"How did you have any trouble out here again?" he asked.

"Cold. That was all."

"Apparently. Who the hell trained you?"

"I learned the way of the warrior with my people."

"...I'm surprised the Cerinians didn't have an empire of their own, if all their soldiers were that good," Fox muttered, shaking his head. "Come on. Let's find the big glutton some food so that he can get out of there."

"Yes. And then we can make a fire."

"Right...you're still freezing, aren't you?"

She gestured up and down her mostly-naked body, left with nothing but a loincloth. Just as before, she could feel Fox's thoughts buzzing away, and she deliberately kept from picking through them. She just let him blush and turn away, and then followed after him.

It was almost fun to play with his head that way.

It took them the better part of an hour to find the sort of food that Garunda Te needed, and she was thankful when they had managed to get it all sorted. He broke through the ice with ease, and the reinforcements of the Sharpklaw soldiers took one look at the massive Snowhorn, then turned tail and ran the other way. They were clearly not ready to fight against something that large.

When they had a fire going, and Krystal was finally able to settle down and start getting warm again, Garunda Te started explaining. She idly listened, using her telepathy to pick up the important points while Fox focused on interrogating him.

There was a long diatribe about the planet's difficulty in staying together, about something called Spellstones and how they were used to moderate and influence the planet itself so that it would actually hold together in the long term. There were statements about the growing power of General Scales and the Sharpklaw, how they had gone from nuisances on the border of the allied lands under the Earthwalkers to being a genuine danger.

She heard all of those things and stored them away, as well as the little bits and pieces that the Snowhorn didn't say about his daughter and how he felt secretly grateful to her for her 'betrayal' that allowed him to save face, by giving the General what he wanted to save their people, and how he was scared for her and them.

Yes, she heard those things, but her attention was diverted. Mostly by the feeling of Fox's chest against her head as she used him and it as a pillow, and the little buzzing feelings that she still got from him as she laid against him.

He is certainly...eager, she thought with no small amount of amusement. Every time he looks at me, he starts acting like this...

At first, she had passed it off to him just being a male and suffering from the same eager libido that all males had, but she'd noticed that it seemed stronger with her than anything else. Was he that focused on her?

Or did she appeal that much?

She ran her hands along her side as the fire burned before them, soaking up the heat through her feet and her legs, through her chest and every exposed bit of fur and skin. She could feel Fox staring at her as her hands rose to her breasts, and she smiled a bit, giving them a gentle flick along the nipples as they started to flatten finally, no longer drawn so hard by the cold around them.

He liked that, she felt. He definitely liked that.

The conversation shifted, and she pulled her attention back to it.

"...DarkIce Mines. That's the only place where Scales could keep it, now."

"Then we'll have to go there," Fox said. "What are the coordinates?"

"It would not help you. It is sealed away, but...I can open a gateway to it. It is a gift given to the GateKeepers, such as my family, and others in different tribes. We can open holes in the world to our homelands, to allow those we permit to enter our sacred places."

"...Sounds magical," Fox said, looking down at Krystal.

She shrugged. It might be, but she wouldn't know until she saw it. Fox shrugged back.

"I guess we don't have a choice. Open it up, and we'll fly there tomorrow."

The End

Summary: Fox and Krystal head to the Snowhorn Wastes, and soon find themselves at the mercy of the climate as they search for Garunda Te.

Tags: F/solo, cuddling, Fox McCloud, Krystal, Starfox Adventures, Rule 34, walkthrough, series, playthrough, nudity, barefoot, foot torture, fighting, fight, sharpklaw, breasts, erection, telepathy,