"Fox?... Fox?..."
A voice, male, brought Fox slowly back, though at first he wasn't sure who it was. His mind felt scrambled.
"Dad?" There came a slight laugh.
"Half right, little brother." Fox opened his eyes to see Skye kneeling over him, his pristine white fur disheveled and stained red above his right eye where blood spilled from a gash. The younger McCloud groaned, putting a hand to his head.
"What happened?" he asked, looking around. He saw Falco, a bit ruffled but no worse for wear, gently slapping Slippy's face in an attempt to bring him around. Peppy was sitting in a chair, cradling a swollen left arm. And Krystal was laying next to Fox, eyes closed.
"She's fine," Peppy quickly said, seeing panic dart across Fox's face. "Just unconscious, like we all were. Even R.O.B. was knocked offline." Indeed, Krystal stirred, and her eyes opened.
"Ow... my head..." Skye moved to kneel next to her, and examined her head and checked her eyes.
"You don't seem to have a concussion, nor do you, Fox. But just to be sure, I think none of us should sleep for the next twelve hours." Slippy also came to, and slowly everyone got up and oriented themselves.
"You okay, Peppy?" Fox asked, concerned.
"I think my arm's broken, or at least fractured. I was under a chair when I came to, and hurts pretty bad." Skye righted his chair and checked the computer.
"Seems to be working fine now," he reported.
"Slippy, what's the condition of the ship?"
"Computer says no damage, except for things inside getting knocked around."
"Where the fell are we?" Falco, looking out the bridge's window, asked angrily. Which was understandable. He was scared, they all were, and that's just how Falco delt with fear: he got mad.
"Checking," replied Slippy as they all looked out.
They saw a myriad of stars, and a decent-sized planet below. It was beautiful, all green and blue and brown, looking very natural. White clouds swirled in the atmosphere.
"Pretty place," commented Fox with a flick of his tail.
"It is," agreed Krystal. "There's something familiar about it, though."
"There is," agreed Peppy. "I - it's like I've seen it before. But I know I'd remember it." Slippy suddenly yelped.
"Guys, according to the computer, that's Corneria!"
"What?" Fox turned around. "Are you sure?'
"It's the exact coordinates for Corneria. I have them memorized."
"No way," Falco said. "The computer must be bugged from all that jarring."
"Then how do you explain Cape Crescent?" asked Skye in a trembling voice, pointing. Sure enough, all saw the creasent moon shaped cape that was a popular hangout for teens in the summer.
"Coincidence?" suggested Krystal hopefully. Fox, meanwhile, had his gaze on the stars in the area. He abruptly shuddered.
"Fox?" asked Peppy.
"It's Corneria, all right. There's the Hunter constellation." He pointed at the roughly shaped archer constellation. "It's in the right place and everything.
"So what happened to Corneria?" Falco asked. "Everyone just decide to pack up and leave?"
"Maybe," Slippy spoke up slowly, "we entered some sort of time warp, something like that. Maybe that's Corneria a long time ago." Skye cliked around on the computer.
"Hmm... Ah, bingo! Cornerian natural history..." He paused. "Not sure on that one, Slippy. The map I'm looking at isn't a prefect match, but then again it's drawn off of guesswork and theory. If we went back in time, though, we'd be in a prehistoric era, by the fact that Argent Lake isn't on the planet below, but is my the time primative Cornerians appeared. Archeologists claim this as fact because they've found clay water jugs near the lake, but yet have found fossilized plant like at the lake bottom that pre-dates the jugs." Krystal tipped her head suddenly.
"I - I sense... someone." Everyone lookeed at her. "A mind... somehow familiar... calling for help."
"Calling for help?" echoed Fox.
"Familiar?" echoed Peppy. Krystal nodded, studying the planet.
"It's - it's somewhere there, in that forest rigght in front of us."
"There's a pretty large field nearby," Fox observed. "Lets land the Great Fox there. No telling what or who is down there, and the ship's more secure than just out Arwings."
"We need to hurry," Krystal implored as they took their places and began to descend. "Whoever's down there, they're badly hurt.
"I think they might be dying!"