Chapter Two

"So, this is Zoness," Peppy said as they landed on an island buzzing with night life. He was trying to intercut the awkwardness as Andrew took a shady-sounding call on his comm. link. Pigma kept insisting in a hushed voice that Andrew was cool. James rolled his eyes. Andrew clicked off his comm. link with a flourish. "Okay, let's roll," he said.

They got out of the cruiser, the ground nearly reverberating beneath their feet from the music that was coming from the club. James lifted his shades to take in the bright, flashing lights. Andrew eyed him suspiciously. "What's with the sunglasses?"

"Why not?"

"Because it's fucking night time outside. It's, you know, already dark. What the hell does somebody need sunglasses in space for? To block out the utter blackness?" he smirked. "Unless…are you a dusthead?"

"Am I a dusthead?" He looked back and forth at Peppy and Pigma. "Am I a dusthead? This fucking guy…"

"James, it's cool. Be cool," advised Peppy.

"Hey man, it's cool. I don't judge," Andrew shrugged. "I was just saying…"

"He wears those sunglasses all the time because he wants to look like a permanent douchebag," Pigma said.

"There's this guy I gotta meet inside. I'll meet you cats back over at the bar." Andrew gave a whistle and a finger snap, then went inside.

Pigma turned to James. "What was that all about? Look, don't ruin tonight, alright? This is meant to be fun, not business. General Pepper didn't order you to come out tonight and throw a bachelor blowout for your best pal Peppy, so loosen up."

"What was that all about? Pigma, he accused me of being a freakin' stardust addict. Now I don't wanna say I don't like that guy, but I think it's safe to say the pot was calling the kettle black. I didn't sign on for that kind of shit."

"James, he just wanted to make sure you're cool. You are cool, right?" Pigma stared at him intently.

James sighed. "Yeah. I'm cool. It's cool."

"Come on guys. Forget about it," Peppy said. "A round of shots will do us all some good right now."

"As long as it's not that girly shit you like, make sure you get us a man's shot," snorted Pigma.

They slammed one, two, three rounds of pricey house liquor. Andrew finally rejoined them during the third shot. The bar was a neon tropical island oasis setting. Females of various species danced on neon platforms, dressed in skimpy primitive clothing. The men watched them as they sipped their beers. James was eyeing an attractive vulpine dancer in particular. She made eye contact and invited James to dance with her up on the platform. James had enough alcohol to loosen him up enough to dance with the sexy vulpine and a sultry panther on the deck. Pigma licked his lips and nudged Peppy.

"The laws in Zoness are different than Corneria. I heard you can take the girl with you if you want. You know what I'm saying, Peppy?"

"No way," Peppy said. "I'm good."

"I'm just saying, what happens in Zoness, stays in Zoness."

"It's not happening in Zoness."

"C'mon, just a dance with them then. Live a little. You're not married yet. If you won't, well, the rest of us aren't spoken for." He glanced at James as he rejoined the group.

Andrew interrupted them by knocking on the bar and shouting, "Shee-OTS!" at the bartender, circling his finger to indicate the group. He picked up his comm. link after downing the shot, and mumbled a few words into it. Pigma had wandered off towards the dancers. He clicked it off and snapped his fingers. "We gotta go. You can take one of those to go if you want." He pointed at the dancers.

"Why? This place is pretty cool, why not just hang here?" asked James.

Andrew looked at James as if he were an idiot. "Because. I booked us a suite at the Seaside Palace. The party will come to us. Check in time is now." He walked quickly out of the club.

James looked at Peppy incredulously. "Well, let's just roll with it," he said with a shrug. He waved for Pigma to come back over.

"Okay Pigma, I'm with James on this. Seriously, what's with this guy?" Peppy asked.

"What's with you guys? Tonight's about good times. Andrew is hooking us up."

"What is he hooking us up with, Pigma? Drugs? Illegal arms? That guy is clearly dealing something and I don't wanna get dragged into it. I'm getting married in a few days. I'm not going to jail with this guy."

"Listen, if you guys want to have an awesomely legendary night, then you're going to get your asses in that cruiser and we're going to roll down to Seaside Palace and have ourselves a flippin' good time, alright? Or you can try to call up ROB on that busted up P.O.S. Tank Fox and see if you can get that rusted lump of scrapheap to pick your asses up and spend the rest of the night chugging piss beer and playing beer knuckles. So what's it gonna be?" Pigma stormed out of the club.

"What the…whose friend is he?" James asked. "Ours, or that jerk Andrew's?"

"I gotta bad feeling about this James."

"Me too. That's why we're going to the hotel. We can't let something happen to Pigma, you know?"

Peppy nodded. "For sure."

They went over to where the cruiser was parked and climbed in. Pigma smirked and nodded at them. "Okay, León. To the Seaside Palace."

León nodded. "Seaside Palace. That's a swanky little place, I hear."

James noticed that the pilot had a thick, almost fake sounding accent. He vaguely wondered if maybe it made León feel more in the character of a private pilot.

Sure enough, the Seaside Palace was a high rise, swank looking hotel with beachfront property. They strolled into the hotel, through the extravagant lobby, and into an impressive suite with an amazing view of the Zoness ocean.

"Check out the hot tub," Peppy said, gaping at the enormous bath tub that was more like a swimming pool. James was too busy turning on the floor to ceiling television set. Pigma was checking out the fully stocked bar. Andrew walked over to the glass table in the living room and set down a briefcase.

"Who's ready to get this party started?" he asked, unsnapping the latches of the case. He tipped it and was just about to dump the contents onto the glass top when he was interrupted by a knock at the door.

A secretive grin spread over Pigma's face. "Hold off on that for a minute, Andrew. Somebody very special is here…"