'Sup? It's SnowLucario, A.K.A. a 16-year-old loser with autism spectrum disorder who has enough free time to write fanfiction but not date. Go figure. Welcome to the sequel to Wing And A Scare!

Decided to jump the gun and put this out early. I couldn't wait, and I'm already on Chapter 6, so why not?

Before you read this, I HIGHLY recommend you read that story first, because I don't want you to spoil yourself, and to understand this story more, you might want to know what happened in the last one. There will obviously be many references to events in WAAS. It will start about two days after the end of that story. I'm hoping that many of those who followed the last story closely will also read this one.

Most of the story will still be in the POVs of Lucas, Willow, Cole, Konstantin, and/or Dr. Howler. I may introduce new characters/scenarios if I get suggestions, but I'll likely be several chapters ahead throughout the story. So be mindful of that.

BirkaranDaBBLover asks: Do you have any brothers or sisters?

SnowLucario answers: I have an elder brother who is on his gap year in Alberta, and a younger sister who is two grades below me. I'm in tenth grade,

In any case, happy reading, and please don't forget to review!

Hello. If you have listened to my previous recording, as many hours as it took you to do so, you will already know of the events that have gone on in my life. It's not like I asked for any of them to happen, but I was forced to use the hand I was dealt to make the best of my situation.

Let me start with the basics. My name is Lucas Zantry Enfield, and I am sixteen years old. Until about two months before this story starts, I was a student at Swanville High School, in a small town in central Maine where nothing ever happens. I wanted something to happen that wasn't just dull, not just boring. I'd probably end up working some boring office job, taking the same route as my dad.

But, one evening, something very much out of the ordinary happened. As much as I had wanted something weird to happen, it wasn't a good kind of weird.

I was at my school's Holiday Ball with my date, Willow Foster. We had had a wonderful evening, during which we had been crowned king and queen of the ball. However, there were still other surprises to be had that night.

On the way back from the ball, my girlfriend pushed me into the snow. I was wondering what was going on, when I saw her collapse to the ground, unconscious. As it turned out, it was the doing of a tranquilizer dart, because I was soon hit by one and that was the last thing I remember.

When we woke up, we were in an enormous helicopter, in the skies above Corneria. I couldn't believe that I had been thrust into one of the worlds in a video game I enjoyed playing. It seemed unreal, and yet it was very much so.

When we reached the ground, we were taken in different directions and told about our new situation. We were going to be students at the flight academy here, the Grey Clouds Flight Academy, named after Bill Grey and Fox McCloud, two of the founders. Here, we would learn how to help in the war effort.

Eventually, I was told that, due to my height of six feet, two inches, I might pass out when I went in the flight simulator. If that was the case, I would have to undergo a medical procedure called a tilt-table test, during which I would be strapped to a table and tipped back and forth to see if I passed out.

I did pass out, but it was because someone else (we didn't know who at the time) tampered with the flight simulator so that it would be as crazy as possible, literally spinning me into unconsciousness. Luckily, the test came back negative, meaning that I didn't have any heart problems.

I also attended many classes, while eating some of the best food I had ever had. It was one crazy day after another, and I kept having what seemed to be mysterious brushes with death. Really, only one, but there was much speculation that I might be in danger. At one point, a glacier I was on exploded, and I was caught in an avalanche, unconscious for eighteen hours from hypothermia. If not for my buddy Cole, I might still be entombed in an icy crypt.

Eventually, the Anglar forces, an alien race we were fighting against, attacked the Grey Clouds Flight Academy. We were forced to evacuate the school and relocate to a location high up in the mountains. For betraying our location, a new student, Konstantin Brockenbough, was held under suspicion of being suspicious of such. Eventually, he was convicted and sentenced to death.

After several days of plotting, we were able to get Konstantin out of there and into the Great Fox. Dr. Howler, the school's matron, attended to him. He was fine, other than needing to be rehydrated and fed from several days of little to no food or water and absolutely brutal conditions in the holding cell.

In the end, we took to the sky, ending our time on the planet Corneria. And that is also where this story ends and the next one begins. Like the last one, this is also on a recording.

I hope you enjoy it, and please try not to hate me for any dumb decisions I may have made.

LUCAS'S POV

The Great Fox's intercom crackled, and I braced myself for an announcement. It had to be something important, or else now would not have been the time for it. Was the ship under attack? Were we passing through enemy territory? What was Dr. Howler going to say over the loudspeaker?

Whatever it was, I hoped that it wouldn't result in a very bumpy ride. I wasn't particularly susceptible to motion sickness, but I had just eaten lunch, and I didn't want it to end up bouncing around in my stomach. That would not be pleasant.

"Hello. This is Dr. Howler speaking, here to let you know that we are going to be heading into the asteroid field of Meteo in about five minutes. It's important to be vigilant, but don't worry. It's unlikely that we will face a serious problem. If the field gets too thick to navigate through, we'll let you know".

"Meteo, huh?" Cole asked. "I wonder if we'll be able to grab some meteors to add to our collections back at home".

I could have pointed out any number of things to him. First and foremost, we didn't have homes. Second of all, these meteors were massive. A few were the size of my fist, but many of them were the size of houses. If the Great Fox ran into too many, we could clip a wing. And, being that the closest planet with any repair facilities at all was Fichina, it wasn't like we were just going to be able to get it fixed.

It had been two days since Konstantin had woken up in the med bay of the Great Fox. Since then, we had continued traveling through space, aware of the fact that it was a full five days until we would reach Fichina. There was apparently an army base there where we could be put up for a while. There, we could help with the war effort, which was important for two reasons.

One, because we just wanted to help the Lylat System win the war against the Anglars. The other motivation was a little more selfish. There was a hope that, if we did enough to help the Cornerians in their war efforts, we would be able to get Konstantin pardoned. After all, he'd done nothing wrong, other than flipping off the Cornerian flag and singing a song he had, at the time, thought was patriotic towards the United States. He'd gotten a detention for that, but it would end up serving as circumstantial evidence in his trial.

Dr. Howler, now that Konstantin was no longer in the med bay, had gone into the business of navigating. Since she had a sharp mind for this, she would remain there until one of us needed to be patched up again. Then, she would go back to bandages and needles. Now, she was working with buttons and levers. One of her famous catchphrases, used after the first time I'd passed out, was "I hope I won't see you again", or something to that effect.

If she had seen reason to be worried about us entering the asteroid belt, that was obviously a cause for concern. However, I just had to trust that they would be able to handle it.

With that, I decided to look for the others.

The other students were all in the rec room, and I was able to take stock once again of who was present.

Mike Kirk was a shy boy from New York City. He seemed like a stereotypical nerd, but there was no denying that he had played a role, however small, in rescuing Konstantin. There had been a time when we had suspected him of tampering with the flight simulators, but we had begun trusting him again at some point. I'm not entirely sure where the tipping point was, but I was glad to have him on board. The more numbers we had, the better.

Will Wexford was an African-American boy from Louisiana. He was not a very good swimmer, but I still didn't know very much about him, other than the fact that he had good martial arts skills. Maybe he was from an area with a very high crime rate, which was why he had had to learn to defend himself. Besides that, he was pretty friendly.

Cole McCallen was probably the one I was closest to here, simply because he had been close to me for quite a while. He'd dug me out of the glacial ice three weeks ago. Beyond that, though, he was a good guy. He had been a juvenile delinquent back in Detroit, where he'd grown up, but he had definitely changed into a loyal friend since I had met him. I could only hope that he would stay loyal to us, but there was no reason to suppose that he wouldn't. After all, he had done his part in the rescue mission, and his story, despite one thinking it should have made me suspicious of him, made me trust him even more for being so open about it.

Ian was also present. Previously known as Seventy-Four, we hadn't learned much about him, including what he really looked like, due to the fact that he wore a gas mask all the time. Since the rescue mission, he had dispensed with it. I still wanted to ask him if he was autistic, because his voice was what made me wonder. I myself have Asperger's syndrome, so I would be one to notice this. Thus far, I didn't know too much else about him.

And, finally, Konstantin Brockenbough. I had so many jumbled thoughts about him that it's difficult to put into words.

Since we had rescued him from that mountain cell, he had begun to regain his strength. His ankles and wrists were still bandaged, as was his arm, where an IV had been inserted. He still wasn't fully recovered physically, and it would probably take even longer for him to get a hundred percent mentally. His DON'T MESS WITH TEXAS T-shirt was a little looser than usual, and he was wearing a new pair of glasses, his old ones having been confiscated by the guards.

The only absent student was Willow Foster, who had lived in Maine with me, and was even dating me. She was the one who had been with me from the very beginning of this mess, before we had been sent into this alternate dimension through no decision of our own.

Right now, Willow was helping the doctor and the pilot navigate. Who knew where Mrs. Hooter, the archery teacher, was right now?

That was my team. I could only hope that things would go well for us from here on out, because there was no guarantee about that.

"Hey, Lucas" Cole said. "We were just talking about Fichina. What do you think it's like?"

"I've heard it's pretty cold" I said. "We'll probably need to get some very warm jackets, and I don't know if there are any of them in the Great Fox. I sure as hell hope so, though".

"I'm from the bayou, guys" Will said in his strongest possible Southern accent. "I'm not used to cold temperatures, and I'm glad I didn't go on that mission to defuse the bomb".

We all laughed at his accent, including Will himself. Our friendship had progressed to that point in the last two months, so he didn't get mad about this. I was grateful for that, because the closer we were to each other, the better we would make this whole situation for all of us. After all, who knew how long we would be stuck together?

"But, seriously, guys, it's going to be freezing there" I said. "I sure hope that the base is warm, or else we're going to be in trouble".

"I know" Konstantin said. "But if we don't like the temperature there, it doesn't matter. It's the only safe place for me".

Since Konstantin was technically an escaped prisoner, he couldn't go back to Corneria. If he did, it would be a one-way ticket to the stage in front of a firing squad.

The closest army base was Fichina. There, we hoped, he would be okay, and they wouldn't betray him to the Cornerian army.

"I think that we can get through this, though" Mike said. "Personally, I am optimistic that we can find a home there, at least for a while".

"I'm not" Konstantin said. "The Fichinans are probably no better than the Cornerians. If they weren't our only chance at safety, I'd just kill them all".

None of us were surprised by this. Aside from everything else, Konstantin had a hair-trigger temper when it came to anything related to Corneria. He hated the people who had stolen his college life back in Texas away from him. Even if it was ultimately for the best, which I was still not entirely convinced of, I could agree with him that this was unjust. He should have at least been able to know what he was signing up for.

Right now, though, we were in space, desperately hoping that we would be able to find a secure place to stay at the Fichina army base. You would think that things couldn't get much worse at the moment, right?

Wrong.

Thirty seconds after Konstantin had said his statement about wanting to kill the Fichinans, the ship's alarm bells rang.

WILLOW'S POV

I was spending my afternoon of February 4, 201Y in the control room of the Great Fox. I had volunteered to help Falco and Dr. Howler navigate through the asteroid belt, which was going to be difficult and dangerous for sure.

Mrs. Hooter was not with us. She was probably doing target practice, since the owl always seemed to have a bow and arrow pointing at something or someone.

"I'm going to ring the alarm bells" Dr. Howler said. "There are too many meteors, and we'll need everyone to help navigate. It might create some confusion, but they all need to be on guard".

"What could happen if we hit one?" I asked the Bengal tiger. Yes, our ship's doctor was a Bengal tiger. Don't judge.

"We'd probably take a significant amount of damage to whatever part of the ship got hit. If we clip a wing, though, we're screwed. That almost happened one time in Sector Z, back during the First Lylat War" Falco said.

"What happened?" I asked. I hadn't played all the video games Lucas had, so I would not have been aware of this.

"Six Copperhead missiles came right for the Great Fox, and we had to go out and shoot down all of them. Hopefully, that doesn't happen this time. However, there are a lot of meteors here".

I looked out and, sure enough, the sky was swarming with huge rocks. In space, it was difficult to gauge distances, but I could tell that it would be a tight fit for many of them.

"I'm about to ring them! Cover your ears!" Dr. Howler shouted before pressing a bright yellow button.

I wasn't prepared.

Imagine the loudest smoke alarm you've ever heard. Now, imagine that sound magnified ten times and played to sound more like a siren. Imagine that there's actual weight to the sound, enough to knock you off your feet.

Okay. You've got a pretty good idea of what the Great Fox's alarm bells sound like.

Indeed, I was knocked off my feet onto the ground. Dr. Howler, being the protective mother hen that she often was, ran to make sure I was okay. Even she had had to hold onto the console as my eardrums exploded, or at least I thought they would.

"Go get the others, Falco" Dr. Howler said. "They'll need to be briefed on what is going on right now, so that they can help us. Will you do that?"

"Right on!" Falco said.

He left the room, very efficient this time. Yesterday, Lucas had told me that when the Anglar race was attacking the school, Falco was in his room listening to the song "I'm Too Sexy" by Right Said Fred. That had made me laugh like crazy. Even now, I could still put myself in that position, where I could just make my emotions that I was feeling absolute hilarity.

"How dangerous is the asteroid belt?" I asked Dr. Howler.

"It's very risky, because the Great Fox is pretty big, and there can be as little as twenty feet between all these meteors. While our cannons are somewhat effective, we'll need someone to go out in one of the Arwings in order to get rid of some of the smaller ones. This will help us with our safe passage through".

"Still three days to Fichina?"

"I think that's the course we're taking, yes. At this rate, three days sounds about right. Let's just hope that Meteo doesn't kill us".

Right after that, Falco came in, with Cole, Will, Mike, Lucas, Ian, and Konstantin behind him. The oldest boy there was still walking with a bit of a limp, which wasn't surprising. Konstantin had just been through the worst of the worst; being on death row in an underground prison, chained to the walls with little food and no water. How he was still alive was beyond me.

"What's going on right now?" Will asked.

"We're heading through the asteroid belt" Dr. Howler told him. "We need everyone to help navigating through the worst of it. Once we're clear of all the asteroids, it's three more days to the base at Fichina".

I sighed in frustration. It should have been easy to get to Fichina. It would be a straight five-day shot for the ice planet under most circumstances. But the asteroid belt still stood in our way, and there was no way of knowing what enemies might be lying in wait for us.

"I'll do it" Falco said. "You want me to go out and clear a path through the meteors? Because I can do that, you know. I'm a pilot, you know what I mean?"

"Yeah, Falco!" Lucas cheered.

"Let's put it to a vote" Dr. Howler said. "All in favor of Falco going out in the Arwing, raise your hands!"

Six of the seven of us did. The only abstention was Ian. I didn't ask him why he wasn't in favor of it, but it didn't matter.

"Okay, guys!" Falco said. "I'm going to get us through this!"

FALCO'S POV

The Great Fox had four decks.

The top deck held the control room, the dining room, med bay, and the common room that was right next to med bay. The next deck held the cabins that those who weren't spending the night in med bay slept. The third deck held the rec room and the gym. And the bottom deck was for the hangar and the long hallway leading towards it.

I could have taken the elevator, but all of the decks were connected by staircases. It might be kind of a maze to make your way around, but it was still possible if you knew the place. And the fact was, I did. I knew the Great Fox like I knew the back of my own hand. Or, rather, wing.

Once I got down to the bottom level, I ran down the hallway. I knew that the Great Fox would stay still as long as it needed to in order for me to help them through, but this would take a lot of cooperation between myself and Dr. Howler.

Dr. Howler...over the last two days, I'd taught her how to pilot the ship, once Konstantin had been released from med bay and things had gone back to normal. Of course, going on mercenary missions like this was just normal for me. I did it all the time, because it kept food on the table, and we hadn't gotten too much from the war. When all was said and done, in fact, only a sum of $65,536, which was only enough for me for a year, given the fact that I lived in a large apartment in Corneria.

After that, things had gone relatively back to normal once again for me. But right now, we were harboring an escaped prisoner, and I had no doubt that if we were caught the consequences would be disastrous. Right now, though, the chief problem facing us was definitely the asteroid belt, Meteo.

Finally, I reached the hangar bay of the Great Fox. We had four Arwings completely ready to be flown in.

That first mission to defeat Andross, it had been myself, Fox McCloud, Peppy Hare, and Slippy Toad. We'd all worked together, and then gone our separate ways. All of us but Peppy had ended up teaching at the Grey Clouds Flight Academy, except Fox would once again end up doing his own thing.

Fox McCloud had come back to Corneria for a mission that the students were undertaking; to defuse a bomb planted hundreds of feet beneath a glacier. He'd ended up paying the price, with only Lucas Enfield coming out worse off than him. But Lucas was with us now, so it was all okay.

Well, not really. We still had to deal with the meteor storm.

An Arwing is a personal spacecraft known for its extremely advanced technology. With its G-diffuser system, it can suspend itself in midair against the pull of gravity. It's also equipped with lasers, smart bombs, and the ability to perform barrel rolls. (Yes, I know that it's technically an aileron roll, but still).

I strapped myself into the cockpit and turned on the communication system.

"Yeah, Dr. Howler. I'm out right now, and I'll help shoot down the meteors now. I'll show you which ones I'm going to!"

"Good, Falco. Make sure to detonate smart bombs galore. I know you only have...what, nine, so use them wisely!"

I almost laughed at that. That was something that Peppy would have said.

In any case, I got in front of the Great Fox's control room window and looked around for any meteorites that I would need to blow up to clear the path. I knew that it was to my advantage to use the bombs, because it would create a large three-dimensional starburst of white light, giving a hint as to where I was. In the darkness of space, it's easy to miss a small target.

I did a barrel roll before seeing a swarm of meteorites, at which I detonated a smart bomb. The light gave Dr. Howler an indication as to where I was, and what path she should take.

"Shoot down those enemies!" the Bengal tiger shouted.

I hadn't noticed them, but there were several combat droids hanging onto a ledge, which were shooting lasers at me. I charged my lasers to lock onto them, and then I got them all down in one shot.

"You're good at this, Falco!" Dr. Howler said.

Thanks for the compliment, I thought, but I couldn't afford to let myself get distracted. This was dangerous stuff here.

I exploded another meteor, and then another, while continuing to give Dr. Howler instructions on how to get through the asteroid belt. Weaving through the enemies and shooting them down, it was quieter than I would have expected.

The whole time, I managed to get the Great Fox through all right. We didn't clip any wings along the way, nor did we run into any other problems.

"What's going on right now?" I asked through the communication system.

Dr. Howler said, "It's going on fine. We're glad that you're helping us through this region. I hope that we're getting close to the end".

"Me too" I said.

As it turned out, we were not close to the end at all.

Continuing through empty space, I came across many more meteors. Blasting through all of them, I could occasionally catch a glimpse of what was true empty space. However, it was soon obstructed by views of more meteors, and it started to make me feel almost as though I was never going to get us through all of this.

Still, though, there was something that had kept me going. During our first attempt at defeating Andross, the one that had ended with a battle against a robot, we had gone through Meteo. We'd all managed to scrape through with our Arwings intact. All I had to do was survive this alone.

It took several hours to navigate through the asteroid belt. I fought more enemies, but for the most part there were not nearly as many of them as there were during the First Lylat War.

"Are we just about through?" I asked. I was starting to get a bit tired. Sweat was beginning to form, because piloting an Arwing was actually fairly tiring. You had to shift your weight a lot, so you would perspire eventually. It was just a matter of time, really.

"I think so. Just one more swarm of meteors to get through. You think you can do it?"

"Yeah".

I shot my last smart bomb into the storm right there, and they all dissipated.

"Great! Now you can come back in. I think that's it!"

I sure as hell hoped that she was correct about that. Because, if not, we might be in big trouble.

LUCAS'S POV

Falco eventually came back into the control room, drenched in sweat from the task of getting all of the meteors out of the way. He looked tired but relieved, and I could only hope that he and Dr. Howler were right.

"So we're all clear of the asteroid field?" I asked.

"Yep!" Falco said. "It's just three more days to Fichina, and then we'll see what happens next".

I didn't like the sound of those last few words. It shouldn't have bothered me too much, considering that I'd lived with uncertainty for the better part of two months now, and so far I had managed to stay alive. We'd even rescued Konstantin, a death row prisoner.

Now, though, I felt like we were all alone in this galaxy. In an alternate dimension.

"We really did come close to getting hit" Falco said. "I used up all of our smart bombs".

"That's okay" Dr. Howler said. "We can get more in Fichina".

I sighed. So much seemed to hinge on us getting to Fichina safely. What was going to go on once we were there, though, was anyone's guess.

Still, though, there was no denying one thing...

I was on the adventure of a lifetime.

And there is the first chapter of American Mercenaries! I hope you enjoyed it, and please don't forget to review! It means the world to me, it really does.

The upload schedule for this will be every five days. Like I said at the top, I am most likely going to be far ahead of what you are reading. The next chapter will thus be posted on January 31, the third on February 5, and so on. Depending on how many chapters there end up being, I might end up posting the last one on my 17th birthday, which would be awesome.

This is the longest chapter to be the first chapter of any of my stories. It clocks in at a little bit over five thousand words. With a 5K opening chapter, I'm aiming for at least that much for the average chapter in the story. I feel like defying the stereotype of writers who do very short chapters.

I'm glad that I have written the first chapter. Talkingbirdguy once told me that the last chapter is the second hardest, with the first being the hardest. I'm hoping that his sage advice turns out to be, well, sage.

And yes, this is going to be a trilogy. At the point of writing this author's note, I am quite far along (on Chapter 6, in fact, like I said), and will likely be even farther ahead on the third story.

I highly appreciate reviews, because they help me know what I am doing right and what I am doing wrong.

SnowLucario out.