Chapter 2
Fox stood on the bridge, staring out the window at the planet where he first met Krystal. The planet brought back memories, good and bad. But for the most part Fox looked back pleasantly on his time on Sauria. He remembered all the dinosaurs he had saved, and all the ones he needed to fight. He remembered the King and Queen of the Earthwalkers, and their son Prince Tricky. Speaking of the bad; Tricky wasn't the best partner for a long journey. Fox could swear he heard Tricky's voice for a long time after he left Sauria that kind of thing seems to stick with a person. But mostly he thought of Krystal, the way he met her, how he saved her… "Man, this place looks so much better all in one piece, Nothing in danger... tranquil."
Other than Rob's typing, the bridge was totally silent. Even Falco, who was not big on silence, was trapped in thought as they approached dinosaur planet. The tension on the GreatFox was temporarily broken by the peace of silence. Robs monotone voice broke the silence. "We have engaged in orbit around Sauria, descent in the arwings is now safe."
Fox was broken from his reverie and turned his attention back to the present. "So, is everyone ready?" Fox asked looking expectantly around at his group of mercenaries.
"We've been ready." Falco said with a scowl. "It's just this piece of junk took forever to get here." Falco was of course referring to the Greatfox, which, was the product of a much smaller wallet than could normally produce such a large ship.
"Well alright then, let's get to the arwings." Fox said, picking up his bags and heading for the docking bay along with the rest of the team. They reached the docking bay in no time, having had the path practically burned into their memory along with a sense of urgency that would always accompany the walk. Fox rolled his bag up the metal floor of the docking bay to his arwing. Fox stared at his arwing happily. Fox viewed it as his companion, the beautiful yet deadly fighter would help him in combat, and if he flew right, the ship would come out okay. It was a sort of symbiotic relationship he shared with it. But today the arwing would have a different purpose.
"Hey Foxie did you plan on leaving our bags here? Cause in case you hadn't noticed there ain't a lot of room in these Arwings." Falco took what everyone else was thinking and put it into his own words. "These things are not luxury cruisers!"
Fox looked the arwing up and down, in truth, he hadn't thought about that. "Uh…," Fox trailed off, scratching the back of his head. "I guess we could bring them into the cockpit with us."
Falco shook his head, obviously unhappy with Fox's idea. The arwings weren't meant to carry much cargo other than their riders. "Fine, lets just get down there."
Fox tossed his bag up into the arwing, and then climbed in himself. "Now where the heck am I going to put this?" Fox struggled to get the bag in a space where it wouldn't be a burden. "Wow this is a real pain." Fox finally moved the bag into place, lying horizontally on his lap. "Well that was real fun!" Fox started his routine check of the arwings key systems. "Communications are all good. G-diffuser system output is green." Fox said to himself more than anyone else. "Rob, open the hangar doors."
"Affirmative, Hangar bay doors open."
Five arwings burst from the underside of the Greatfox, leaving a bright purple streak behind. The arwings were very graceful in flight and Falco decided to do a couple barrel roll maneuvers. "Yeah, feels good getting back in the cockpit!" Falco seemed most at home inside an arwing.
"Hey Fox, where exactly are we landing anyway?" Slippy asked, over the arwings communication system.
"I guess Thorntail hollow is as good a place as any." Fox replied, remembering the open field he landed in last time.
"Where do you think Tricky will be, Fox?" Krystal asked, thinking fondly of the young Earthwalker.
"Hopefully nowhere near us" was Fox's first thought, but he didn't let that come out. "I'm pretty sure he'll be in the walled city, that's where the king should be at least. Well now that I think about it he'll probably be out playing somewhere."
"Now Fox, he's probably grown up a lot, since we last saw him. I bet he is much more mature now. Besides you're acting as if having fun is a bad thing."
"Fox you and Krystal go on ahead and look for Tricky and the rest of us will take care of setting up camp." Peppy said, obviously happy with the idea. He always tried to give Fox and Krystal a wide berth, hoping they could be alone together as much as possible.
"Are you sure Peppy? I wouldn't like to think we'd be leaving you three to do all the work." Krystal said, somewhat reluctant to accept the gracious offer.
"Its fine, you two go, we don't need the whole team to get the campsite ready. I'm pretty sure three highly trained pilots can tackle a campsite." Peppy said with a joking but more firm tone.
"Well, it looks like we can't get out of it." Fox said with a chuckle. "I hope everyone's going to have fun helping Peppy set up the tent. So sorry we're going to have to miss it. I never quite understood why we never got a newer type of shelter than a tent. Well I guess roughing it is the way to go anyway."
"Laugh it up Foxie, when you get back, we'll put your lazy tail to work." Falco said, with his trademark smirk. Falco meant it too, he was planning on working Fox hard when he got back. Setting up the tent was nowhere near the end of the road.
"Brace yourselves; we're heading into the atmosphere." Fox said, as the arwings were enveloped in fire, a slight turbulence bumping them around in their cockpits.
"We'll see you two back at camp, be back before nine." Peppy laughed, as the two groups of arwings split up.
Fox watched as the planet below came into focus. Shapeless green lumps transforming into trees and shrubs, he was even able to see some of the local Cloudrunners. 'I can't believe Peppy sometimes.'
"I thought what he did was very nice." Krystal commented on Foxs thoughts.
"You know however many times you read my mind; it will never cease to amaze me." Fox said shaking his head. "But yeah it was pretty cool of him; at least we won't need to work now."
"Well, that's not a very good attitude for a leader to have." Krystal said, pretending to be critical of the way Fox acted.
"Yeah, yeah," Fox said, feigning an air of indifference. "Just get ready to land."
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"I am so Bored." Tricky whined. "There's nothing to do here. Why doesn't anything good ever happen?" Tricky started to walk in circles around the center of the walled city. "Nothing ever happens here. Wait, what's that?" Tricky looked upward to the source of the noise. "Oh, Sweet it's Fox!" Tricky ran toward the area they landed in, but instead of going down the path, he went around the back. ''Fox is going to be so happy to see me!''
Fox looked around at Saurias, lush, beautiful plant life. "It's pretty hard to believe the aparoids were ever here. It doesn't look like they left a very big mark on the planet."
"Yes, it seems Sauria was able to recover very quickly from the aparoid attack." Krystal said, also enjoying the pleasant scenery that surrounded the two.
A rustle in the grass in front of them caused Fox's ears to perk. "Did you hear that?" Fox pulled out his blaster, and aimed at the bushes. "I think it might be-" Fox was cut off, by Tricky tackling him from behind.
"Yeah you fell for it Fox, I got you. I threw a rock over there and snuck up behind you! I win!" Krystal couldn't help but laugh at the sight of an energetic Tricky pinning Fox, and Fox struggling underneath Tricky's weight.
"Yeah you got me Tricky, Now get off!"
"Aww, alright." Tricky whined, letting Fox out from underneath him. "Hi'ya Krystal!"
"Hello, Tricky." Krystal said pleasantly, while still trying to control herself, as a fit of giggles threatened to overtake her.
"So, what are you guys doing here?" Tricky asked, looking from Fox to Krystal and back again. "Oh, yeah I told you to come back for your honeymoon. That must be why you're here!"
Fox had figured this would come up, but even so he was really glad he had fur to hide the blushing that was going on. "Tricky, I told you not to say that again!" Fox took a secretive look over to see how Krystal reacted. Krystal just gave him a smile and Fox looked back at Tricky even more embarrassed.
"Well then, what are you doing here?" Tricky asked expectantly. Looking back and forth between the two, completely convinced that his was the correct explanation.
"We're just here on vacation, the whole team." Fox said looking exasperated.
Tricky looked at Fox with a look that screamed "Yeah right", but acted as if he believed him "Alright where is everyone else?" Tricky asked Fox with the obvious thought that he would have to prove it.
At this point, Krystal decided it would be best to change the subject. "Tricky, how have things been as leader here?"
Trickys face lit up. "It's been great, except sometimes I get really bored."
"I can't imagine ever getting bored here," Krystal said looking around. "It looks like there are a lot of things to do here."
"Hey, that gives me an idea." Tricky said doing a little hop, and causing the ground to shake. "Let's go for a walk, you guys can ride on my back."
"That sounds good," Krystal said, amused at how easily excitable Tricky was. "Where are we going?"
"It can be a surprise, hop on. And let's go!"
