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[img]https://i.postimg.cc/L5r26P82/Star-Fox-Final.png[/img]

[color=5edaf6]Level:[/color] 6 (15 -> 16 -> 8/60) (-8)
[color=5edaf6]Location:[/color] Sandswept Sky - Temple of Khamoon
[color=5edaf6]Word Count:[/color] 657 (+1 EXP)
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Relieved (though barely showing it), Fox stood as Robin came to, the truth doubtlessly returning to him through recollective visions of the recent past. He left to safe assumption that the tactician knew, in part, what was really going on, and made nothing of his requests for forgiveness for prior actions taken against them, for which the Seekers--those of them who could make such calls--were ready to pardon him for any and all of it. They couldn’t, however, say the same for the local authorities, surely driven by their own as of yet unspoken agenda/s. A glance back to the adjourning lieutenants served as a poignant reminder of what they had gotten themselves caught up in, why they had elected to, and that they weren’t yet done with it.

[color=5edaf6]“We’ll catch you up on everything later,”[/color] Fox calmly, quietly assured as he drew out another Friend Heart to fulfill Robin’s heartfelt request. [color=5edaf6]“Right now, things are about to get a little more complicated,”[/color] he added, tossing up the Heart and rattling off three Blaster shots in tight enough succession to sound like one (as a force of habit, mostly), splitting it between the remaining fallen and injured in need to drift down onto them. [color=5edaf6]“We’ll need you to bear with us a little longer.”[/color] He didn’t know how to tell them that they were under arrest, or how he planned on getting them out of custody before day’s end.

As the Grimleal acolytes began rolling in to collect the defeated Resistance members, Fox half expected them to put up some kind of fight rather than going quietly, mentally preparing himself accordingly, but saw in them instead a somewhat surprising absence of wherewithal left to so much as resist detainment. Even refreshed and physically able to hazard such a bout, many of them were left without so much as a clue as to how they ended up where they did or why, and with no common cause (farcical or not) remaining between them to unite under, most had little will left to do much else besides submit themselves to the law apparent for crimes they vaguely remember committing. Yellow Team (and company) would have to come up with some kind of plan on which to act soon if they remained intent on not leaving them to a likely unjust fate when they could serve a better cause--a REAL one. Fox hoped only that his fellow Smash Brother could trust him in the meantime.

The hard [i]real[/i] part was soon to come, but for now, their end of the action had concluded. Fox took the idle moment to check on the other half of their team…

[color=5edaf6]“Necronomicon, report!”[/color]

…

[color=5edaf6]“Necronomicon… Come in! What’s your status?”[/color]

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Upon seeing sunlight once more, little time was wasted on handing out suggested directives and directions for each half of the escort party, for they had little time to spare, if radio silence indicated anything. Fox was well ahead of Primrose’s suggestion, and had simply to say, [color=5edaf6]“They’re not responding. We need to hurry.”[/color] As much as he felt compelled would have liked to rush in a reinforcement effort himself, he couldn’t help echoing Band and Goldlewis’ skepticism, and felt responsible for seeing to Robin and his company’s safety (and potentially emancipation), given how much he had invested himself in it already. It was a harder decision for him than he made it look, but he trusted the team to be able to take care of each other, independent of him, certainly. Nodding affirmation to Big Band proposal, he turned to Primrose, Panther and Skull, and asked them, sincerely, [color=5edaf6]“Can you take it from here?”[/color] Less was this a provisional appointment of leadership responsibility, as if there was any honest or official chain of command to acknowledge or respect, than a show of faith by Fox that he trusted them to look out for one another and come back as a full team.