Alternative Kursed

Alternative Kursed (canonically known simply as Kursed) is a version of Krystal form an alternate dimension. Her life mirrored that of Krystal, up until she visited the planet Kew while on a bounty hunting mission following the events in Star Fox Command. While there, she was captured by the Kew Hunters and subjected to various forms of telepathic and psychological torture (this fate nearly befalls Krystal in Reflections of Regret, but is averted by the timely arrival of the Star Fox team). She eventually managed to escape from her captors and avenged herself upon them by murdering them all. Afterward, she returned to the Lylat System and encountered Fox McCloud, and ended up murdering him and the other Star Fox members as well. She then went on to launch a brutal war against the Lylat System as a whole under the mistaken impression that she needed to avenge herself on the inhabitants for scorning her, using her telepathic abilities to make her a highly formidable adversary. The war left several planets in Lylat uninhabitable and Sauria completely destroyed. It wasn't until the Cornerian Defense Force was able to entrap her flagship and attack it with a Gravity Weapon that she was finally defeated. This wasn't the end for Kursed however, as instead of destroying her ship and killing her, it instead sent her into an alternate dimension. Upon arrival, she found herself on Fichina, which was still habitable and populated, much to Kursed's confusion. She promptly set about setting the capitol city ablaze, though showed some degree of mercy in that she allowed the population of the city to evacuate. It was here that Kursed had a chance encounter with Bliss O'Donnell, during which Kursed stated her belief that there were no men left that she felt were worthy to be her mate, though at the same time she strongly rejected the idea of lesbianism suggested by Bliss. In response to the attack on Fichina, a new version of the Star Fox team, comprised of Marcus McCloud, Violet Lombardi, Fara Phoenix, and Crimson O'Donnell was dispatched to respond to the incident. When the team encountered her, there was some confusion as Kursed resembled Marcus' mother Krystal, whom was believed to have been killed along with the other original Star Fox members when Dr. Andross Oikonny attacked them with a gravity weapon of his own. Once the confusion was resolved, Kursed attempted to coerce Marcus into joining her by using her powers to reveal to Marcus that Violet had failed to tell him she had bore him a son (Marcus being unable to tell this due to his own abilities being less-developed at the time). When Marcus refused to join Kursed, the two engaged each other in a fierce battle using Cerinian Staffs, Marcus eventually defeating Kursed when he impaled her with her own staff. Kursed then forced Marcus to finish her off; using her illusory powers to trick him into thinking she was making Crimson commit suicide, the deception enraging Marcus to the point where he fatally shot her point-blank with a blaster. It was a hollow victory however, as the sight of the woman who looked nearly identical to his mother dying in his arms left Marcus psychologically traumatized for a long period of time afterwards. Kursed would once again cheat death when Dash Bowman utilized advanced genetic reconstruction to repair the wounds to her body. He would then strike a bargain with her wherein she would become a key figure in his military force following his coup d'etat that resulted in him gaining political control of Venom from Andrew Oikonny. Unknown to Dash however was the fact that Kursed had her own agenda; the restoration of the Cerinian race in the Lylat System. To achieve this goal, she intended to wipe out the Cornerian populations on Corneria and Katina and remake the planets as she saw fit. Another key part of her plan would be to gain a sample of genetic material, submitted willingly or unwillingly, from Marcus McCloud and then use it to impregnate herself so that she could act as an 'Eve' for her race. Her plans are presently in jeopardy however as her efforts to excavate an ancient Krazoan terraforming device unintentionally resulted in Anezka Vacek being awakened, the threat posed by the powerful, malevolent Krazoan hybrid forcing Kursed and Krystal to set aside their differences and join forces against her. During this alliance, Kursed had a candid conversation with Krystal, wherein she even expressed remorse for killing Fox in her dimension, after having witnessed how things had worked out with Fox and Krystal. She also went on to teach Marcus how to create illusions the way she did.

Abilities

In addition to the telepathic abilities displayed by Krystal in the Reflections series, Kursed has also developed several unique abilites. One of these includes using her telepathy to project mental images into the mind of another person, effectively causing them to hallucinate and believe what they are witnessing is indeed real. The only characters known to be able to resist this ability are other Cerinians, such as Krystal and Marcus, who use their own abilities to see through the illusion and render it useless. In Reflections of Marcus McCloud, she was shown to have developed telekinetic abilities, allowing her to move objects including other characters and even herself. At one point in the story she uses this ability to enable her and Panther Caroso to 'fly' out of a mine shaft to escape a subterranean nuclear blast on Sauria, though the two ended up falling back to the ground and crash-landing in an avalanche triggered by the blast when her concentration faltered and she was unable to sustain the levitation.