Trivial Insufficiency

by Nicholas Tanski

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Well, here we go again with another one-shot. I know I haven't really written anything on this site for a while and, for that, I apologize. I'm really busy writing-wise right now, so I have the feeling updates are going to be few and far between, but…anyway…

On with the reason you clicked the link in the first place!

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Shouting. That's what it was. You could have called it yelling, screaming, or even bellowing. But, Peppy settled on "shouting". He had plenty of time to come to this conclusion, mind you. He had been listening to it for the past hour or so. At first, he just ignored it like he always did when Fox and Falco fought. But, as much as you try and as much as you pretend it doesn't bother you, there's only so much you can take before you need to do something before you kill hundreds of people in your vicinity without even knowing you've done so. Peppy couldn't take it anymore; he had to do something. He really needed sleep. He was meeting with an old friend the next morning to catch up and reminisce and whatnot, and his thoughts got cloudy if he didn't get at least 6 hours of sleep. Silently swearing to himself, he tossed the covers off of him, feeling the cool air greet him as he left the comforting warmth of the covers behind. Almost out of habit, he glanced at the clock: 3:21 AM. Peppy almost had to literally double take and I mean, really, how many times do you do that in real life? This meant two things: If he went to sleep at that moment, he would get 5 hours of sleep tops. As you already know, this was simply not enough. He had already missed his "dead-line". The other thing this meant was that Fox and Falco were going to catch hell for this. He briefly wondered if Slippy was asleep, but then dismissed it. Of course he was – Slippy could sleep through anything.

Using only the light coming from the window and the blinking lights of the various electronic gizmos in his bedroom, Peppy found his way out, grabbing his robe from where it hung on the closet door as he passed. Walking down the hallway, tying his robe as he went, he could hear the shouting getting louder. He could only make out a few swears here and there and the occasional word but it was all muffled, as if it was passing through a filter before reaching him. Whatever it was, they were both angry. Peppy had never heard it this bad; something really had to be wrong. As Peppy rounded the corner into the kitchen, he caught the end of a sentence.

"…your fuckin' childhood!"

It was Falco. He put amazing emphasis on the work "fucking", as if it was a sword he was using to put the final blow into his enemy's heart. Peppy almost stopped in his tracks at how angry he sounded. He sounded like someone who was about to kill; like someone who had been pushed to a dangerous place. He entered the kitchen, his feet making small smacking noises on the tiled floor.

"Hey, hey – what is going on in here; I can hear you throughout the entire ship!"

At seeing Peppy enter, Falco held up his hands as if in an action of surrender and began to exit through the back. Fox watched him leave silently, although anyone watching could tell that on the inside, he was steaming with anger. There was a short pause, before Fox got up and headed out of the kitchen through the way Peppy came, headed for the "living room". Peppy watched him leave with his hands extended in a questioning manner, then went after him.

"Fox, what's going on?"

Peppy followed Fox into the aforementioned room.

"Not now, Peppy."

Fox sat down in a chair and stared forward. Peppy stood right in front of him.

"Fox, please – tell me what happened. I've…never heard you this angry…"

Fox tried to look away, but Peppy knew him too well for that. Eventually, after a few seconds of trying, Fox gave up realizing that Peppy would not take no for an answer. He never did, come to think of it.

"All right…all right…"

Fox inhaled and exhaled sharply, as if what he was about to say had great weight.

"…so…I was thinking about Fromażjó…"

Peppy didn't know the specifics of the argument, but felt like he already had a PhD on this subject. Fromażjó was the name of a Venomian city. Only five weeks before, Falco and Fox had been captured by enemy forces and were sent to the PoW site in the aforementioned city. There, their captors demanded they reveal Starfox and Cornerian Military secrets, so they can better plot their downfall. When they refused, they were tortured. The torture only lasted a few days, but it was torture nonetheless. Fox didn't say a single word, but Falco was a different story. He didn't give away any vital or harmful information, but Fox could tell he was starting to break after 3 or 4 days. He even said one or two things, but Fox couldn't tell what they were and Falco has yet to disclose it. He only said they were "nothing important", those being the only two words he's said regarding the matter.

Fox continued…

"…and I know I talked to you about this, but…I just…I just am having trouble trusting him now…"

"And that's what you told him?"

"Y-yeah…and I…I asked…"

Peppy nodded, as if telling Fox to continue.

"…I asked how he was different than Pigma…"

Peppy tried to not let his eyes show too much surprise. That was quite a comment. Quite a comment indeed.

"And what did he say?"

"He told me I was just rehashing paranoia from my childhood, from when my father…"

Fox trailed off, which was fine with Peppy – he knew the rest. When Fox paused, signifying he was done, Peppy sighed heavily as if about to say something.

"You know, Fox…I don't think I ever told you this, but…I used to know this guy: Łiko – Ed Łiko. We couldn't pronounce his real name, so we just called him Ed"

Fox believed this, judging by the way Peppy mispronounced his surname as well, but Fox kept it to himself.

"As you could tell by the name, he was a Venomian traitor who joined us during the first conflict with Venom. Now, this was early in the conflict so nobody trusted this guy. Nobody. No one would relay information to him, they wouldn't talk to him, they wouldn't have anything to do with him. He only listened to his orders and did what he was told. Now, I have to admit that I'm not one to judge people but I kind of fell into the same category as everyone else – I never got closer than necessary to him."

By this point, Fox was intently watching, the conflict with Falco almost completely forgotten.

"Your father was the only one that would go near him. He was the only one that didn't avoid him like the plague. So, Jimmy and I started hanging out with this guy. When we could, the three of us would just sit there and talk for hours."

Peppy looked into space, reminiscing.

"Everyone looked at us like we were crazy, and all sorts of people would come up to us and tell us how he was going to kill us all, and how we should stay away if we valued our lives. So, after a while, he got this mission to guide a Cornerian Military ship to destroy a base on Venom. And, of course, everyone just came pouring into the higher-up's offices, telling them what a horrible idea it was. But, they just told them he was a good soldier who did what he was told. Didn't stop them, of course."

"So, finally, Ed commands this ship to Corneria and knocks out the base easy as nothing. Completely textbook. But, as he was guiding it back home, a surprise ambush took the ship by storm. I guess they must have known we were after that base, because the reports say that there were hundreds of Venomian units out there that day. So finally, this guy that everyone was saying was a threat to Corneria and how he was going to take us all down with him kills every single last one of the enemy ships with nothing but the ship's main laser. The Head of the Department of Defense came down from his post in Northern Corneria just to shake this guys hand. They say there was no way that even the greatest Military pilots could have done that."

"So…I guess I'm just trying to say that you can't just base your opinion of someone on one single event. People are more complex than that…you have to give them another chance before you decide what they're like."

It was Fox's turn to look away in thought.

"Do you get what I'm saying?"

"Yeah…yeah, I guess I do…"

A third voice rung out from nowhere.

"How is it that you have a story for everything, old man?"

The two turned to see Falco, standing in the doorway.

"Didn't anyone tell you not to listen in?" Fox said with a grin.

Peppy chuckled, then glanced at the wall clock. It was almost 4 AM. He sighed.

"Well, if you two are done making noise and trying to kill one another, I'd like to get some sleep."

"Night" Falco said, with a nod.

"Good night, Pep."

"Good night" Peppy said while getting up.

As he started walking for his bedroom (shutting his door this time), he kicked himself for forgetting a large portion of the story. No matter – he could just ask Ed himself when he sees him tomorrow morning.

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And, that's the end. I have no idea where that story came from; I just suddenly felt the need to write a Starfox one-shot. Go figure. Well, thank you very much for reading and I hope you liked it. Fell free to review with comments, questions, criticism, et cetera.

Thanks for reading!

(July 2, 2008)