Decisions
By Nicholas Yudichak
With one strong blow, Fox was sent flying back a good 10 feet before landing on the cold, unforgiving, metallic ground. By now, he was a bloody mess and had lost a substantial amount of the red liquid dripping from his mouth and arm. He found it cosmically funny that the small cut still remained on his left hand – it had remained there the whole day.
The figure responsible for Fox's injuries crept closer. Fox didn't really care at this point – he knew what would come next. He just lay there, slightly happier now:
He would soon be able to see his father again. He would be able to once again join him and fall into his arms, tears of joy streaming from his eyes.
He was...ready. He calmly awaited the usual routine. There would be a slick comment uttered by the figure, a pause, and then he would be greeted with the darkness of death.
Only this time...he wouldn't try to stop it.
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It was Friday, the eighth of January. Things had finally calmed down from the New Year's celebration had by the entire population of Corneria City.
It was a cold day. Freezing was more like it. It had been a cold fall, and the temperatures only continued to drop as the days grew shorter.
Fox was sitting in the main room of the Great Fox. It was hovering above Corneria, awaiting clearance from the flight controllers back down on the planet. There had been some problems with people carrying illegal cargo lately, so they implemented some new guidelines. This caused a dramatic public outcry, but the illegal activities ceased. Three busts were made, and then no one dared to attempt it.
Fox sat on the couch, watching the news awaiting the word from Peppy, who was on the main bridge, on the clearance. They were close enough to the planet to receive a local station's signal, and Fox was enjoying seeing the footage of the less-than-exciting news that had occurred that day. They had the usual filler stories, and then went to the weather forecast.
"Wow." Fox uttered, unintentionally when he saw the forecasts.
The temperature was not only going to drop into the negatives, but they were predicting close to 14.2 inches of snow. They didn't say if the snow would come all at once, or if it was a total but still, that's a lot of snow.
He heard the all-familiar static fill the com-line of the ship. Peppy's voice projected through the metal unit in the back of the room.
"Fox – they said they're denying us permission to take off."
"What? Why not?"
"I don't know – that's all they said. We have to land."
"Damn it" Fox said quietly.
Fox didn't get it – the Great Fox was a military vessel. Why weren't they allowing passage?
Reluctantly, Fox helped guide the gigantic ship back down to the planet surface, a Corneria City Exportation (CCE) Officer guiding the ship where to go.
After completely landing on the ground, lightly covered in a snow dusting, Fox opened the main bay door which let in a cold breeze. A few seconds after doing so, a CCE officer stepped through the door and looked to Fox who was the only one in the main room at the time.
"Mr. McCloud?" The officer asked.
"Yes."
The officer handed him a yellow copy sheet of paper. It was a search warrant.
"A search warrant?" Fox queried.
"Yeah – we'll need you and all of the others on this vessel to be in the main building – first one on your right down this road – in no more than a half an hour."
"What? Why?"
There was a pause.
"Sir, just get to the main building"
The officer turned to leave.
"Hold on – I have a right to know why you're searching this ship." Fox protested.
The officer grabbed his breast-pocket radio.
"Suspect from Lot B18 becoming aggressive." He mumbled into it.
"What? All I said was..."
He stepped closer to the officer, still talking. The officer pulled out a can of mace from his belt and sprayed in Fox's direction. Fox jumped back, the peppery bite of the spray attacking his eyes.
"Ah – shit!" He yelled, through a few coughs "What the hell are you doing?!"
"Get to the building, sir" the officer said and, putting the can back on his belt, walked away.
Fox continued to swear, stumbling backwards into the wall. Grasping his eyes closed, he began to wheeze as the spray moved to his throat. As Fox was struggling, the door that leads to the bridge opened, and Falco stepped out.
"Whoa – what the hell's wrong with you?" Falco said, going over to him.
"Ah – some (cough) asshole CCE sprayed me with pepper spray."
"Jesus, man, what did you do?"
"I didn't (cough) do a god-damned thing"
"Come on – we've got to wash that stuff out of your eyes". Falco said, beginning to guide Fox out the door and into the bathroom, where he ran some water. Fox held his head under the flow, feeling the bulk of the stinging sensation leave his face. His breathing regulated.
"So, the guy just maced you? What'd he say?"
"He told me we had to get to the main building. He handed me a search warrant."
"A search warrant?"
"Yeah."
Fox backed away from the flow of water. His eyes gently opened, still feeling a bit of sting remaining. They twitched closed off and on. Fox shut off the water.
"When I asked why, he maced me"
Falco gave a confused look.
"What the hell's goin' on around here?" Falco asked rhetorically.
Both of them exited the bathroom, Fox drying off with a near towel. Falco went to the bridge to tell everyone else what had happened. Fox went back to the main room and picked up something – his gun. He fixed it in a holster which he hid behind his shirt. He walked over to the door, waiting for the others. Soon afterwards, Falco, Peppy, and Slippy waltzed into the main room through the bridge door.
"Fox, are you all right?" Peppy asked, going up to him.
"I'm fine, Pep." He replied, wiping off a last bit of water from his forehead.
"There must be some misunderstanding – General Pepper shall hear of this." Peppy announced.
"Well, we'd better get to that building or we'll get another crazy officer comin' over here" Slippy remarks.
"Yeah – let's get this over with" Falco says, heading for the door.
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The interior of the building looked nothing like the exterior, the outer part giving the facade of a welcome-center like building. What it looked like, quite frankly, was a police station. Everything was heavily guarded by a CCE holding a fully-automatic weapon. As they walked through the halls toward a room to which they were guided to by a clerk at the front desk, Fox looked into the faces of every one of the guarding CCEs. They weren't emotionless, but they did look detached from everything. They seemed a little too focused. Finally, after a few long hallways, they made to the room marked "C-4". Fox opened the heavy wooden door, it creaking the entire way back. The opened doorway revealed something to the effect of an interrogation room. There was a big table in the center, two chairs on one side, and one chair on the other side. An officer was sitting on the side with one chair.
"Uh...are we in the right place?" Fox asked, not understanding why they were sent to an interrogation room.
The officer nodded slightly. "Sit." He said to Fox.
The entire team started for the chairs. The officer raised a hand.
"Just the fox" he said.
The rest of the team stopped and a pause followed.
"The rest of you – go back to the lobby."
After another long pause, the rest of the team slowly made their way back through the hallways, the door closing with a loud crack. Yet another pause.
"Look..." Fox started "I'd like to know why we are all here, I mean...
Fox couldn't find words to describe what he wanted to know. He wanted to know so much – why they stopped them, why he got maced in the face, why he was brought to this interrogation room...
Just what the hell was going on? Oh, that's it.
"What the hell is going on?" Fox finally came up with.
"Mr. McCloud, we have reports here that show high levels of illegal contraband being exported out of this port..." The officer started.
A pause – Fox waited to hear the rest.
"...and?" Fox asked, after getting no more of the story.
"The data shows that the ships used had almost a third of their ship's weight in said cargo…" Again, the officer stopped short of completely finishing the phrase.
Fox was beginning to become annoyed.
"What, already?" He asked, annoyed.
"Sir…" the officer started.
But, as the officer was saying something, Fox caught a noise coming through the halls. It sounded like someone coming down the hall, at a quickened pace. Just as the noise grew clearer, the door flew open and General Pepper along with a body guard came in the door.
"General" Fox said, caught off guard.
Pepper turned to the officer.
"Just what are you doing here? I ought to arrest all of you!"
The general turned to Fox.
"Are you all right, Fox?"
"Fine, General". He replied.
With everyone busy looking elsewhere, the officer took out his handgun from his interior holster and pointed at the General's body guard. With a little pressure on the trigger, a bullet sliced through the head of the armed body-guard. The noise rang through the room and echoed into the halls.
Fox and the General look in the officer's direction.
"What the fuck…?" Fox posed out loud.
"You two – get over there" the officer said, motioning the gun to the wall with his trigger hand.
"NOW!"
A pause. Then, Fox and the general slowly did as they were told.
Then, Fox remembered something:
His gun
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Well, there you go. It's a little bit of a slow start, but there it is…
Hope you liked it, and watch for chapter two coming soon.
Thanks.