Decisions

Chapter Two

By Nicholas Yudichak

Before I begin, I'd like to apologize for the wait. Life gets in the way all the time, doesn't it? Oh, I'd also like to thank "V-Starfox", "Artistic Tuba ", and "Lilgstryker" for the reviews.

And to Artistic Tuba – Thanks for constructive criticism. I'll look through the first chapter again and see if I can fix all of the errors. I guess I missed them.

Thanks! Hope you enjoy the chapter.

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Fox's hand made its way to his side where his holstered blaster was strapped onto his belt.

He looked over to CCE officer. The officer had picked up a COM on his desk and was punching in a code. He turned toward the general standing to his left. Fox's eyes met Pepper's, Fox's hinting toward something. Fox's eyes didn't show fear or surprise as much as they did knowledge. The general had seen it many times before and knew that Fox had some sort of trump card. The General's neutral face turned to a smile as Fox discreetly pointed to his holster housing the weapon. He always knew Fox never went anywhere unarmed.

Fox began to ponder if he should wait before drawing his weapon or if he should end this threat now. After a few seconds of thought, Fox rendered a verdict:

His hand flew to his gun and he drew the weapon from the holster. He pointed it toward the officer.

The officer, hearing the noise, looked up to see the barrel of Fox's blaster aimed right at his face.

Fox couldn't help but grin. He knew the officer wasn't expecting that and, as his father had told him, surprise is your greatest weapon.

The officer dropped the COM, it making a crashing noise as it landed on his desk.

"Ah – I see." The officer started "I thought you'd make this hard"

Fox's grin turned neutral. Maybe this wasn't as much as much of a surprise as he thought it was. Was he expecting this? Did he know he had a gun?

Millions of questions and "what ifs" raced through Fox's mind as he kept the blaster focused on the officer. There was a tense pause as the officer just stared at him.

Then, the officer began to reach for something. Fox didn't know what it was, but he wasn't about to wait to find out.

A string of powerful laser flew out of the barrel of Fox's blaster and hit the man directly in the chest. He dropped to his desk, bleeding. The man screamed and grabbed his wound, which had begun bleeding out of control.

Fox was a good shot, after all.

"So…" the officer started, gasping for breath "you just think (cough) that if you….blast away one…person (cough)…you'll save the day?"

Fox looked at him, puzzled.

"Typical behavior, Fox." The officer added.

As he finished that last word, he leaned over to the side of the desk and hit a button on the wall. Fox's eyes lit up.

"Good luck (cough)…you're going to need it" The officer choked out.

After that, the officer slumped over his desk, no longer breathing.

For a few seconds, all was quiet. Fox's mind was at a stand-still. He still had no idea what was going on. Fox turned to the general.

"So…what now?" General Pepper asked.

Fox just looked at him. He couldn't help but think "How should I know?"

"I don't know" Fox started "but…"

Before Fox could finish his statement, an incredibly loud siren began erupting from a small black box on the back wall of the room.

Fox couldn't say he was surprised. He could say he was pissed off, though.

"Oh, great." Fox said quietly.

Not that you could hear anything over the air-raid like siren.

"Come on – let's go!" Fox screamed and pointed toward the door.

General Pepper and Fox both opened the larger than life door and went back into the hallway that they all had walked down only a few moments before. They started down the catacomb-like hallways until they heard the sound of people moving around. They followed the noise and, sure enough, exited into the lobby.

"Fox!" Falco yelled "What's going on?"

Fox wished he could answer that, but he really had no idea.

"I don't know." Fox screamed back.

Fox looked around the lobby. It was different than when they were there earlier.

People – that was it. All of the CCE officers guarding various areas weren't there anymore. Fox couldn't tell if that was good or bad.

He assumed, though, because of how today was going that it was bad.

Accompanying the ear-splitting siren blaring in the background were, in the lobby at least, flashing red lights strewn all about the walls.

"Come on, guys – let's get out of here." Fox said and started for the door.

"And be prepared for anything"

They all started for the automatic front doors. As soon as they got within a certain vicinity, the doors opened and revealed what was waiting for them.

Fox lost count at around 35 men, all armed.

"Wonderful" Fox thought. "This day just keep getting better"

All at once, the officers began at the team. Instantly, Fox and Falco went in front of Slippy and Peppy and Pepper, those three being unarmed.

Fox fired two shots, taking out one of the officers and wounding another. Falco followed suit and fired at an incoming officer and hit him square in the heart.

The officers didn't hesitate to return fire. With automatic weapons, they simple held down the trigger and pointed in the team's general vicinity.

A bullet just barely missed grazing Falco's arm.

"Shit!" Falco said, unintentionally.

Fox looked over in his direction.

"Are you all right?" He said, while continuing to fire at the oncoming officers.

Falco just nodded and went back to firing.

Fox realized that they were heavily out matched. They only had two pistols that would run out soon. Then, they would be 5 unarmed against 35 (well, 33) armed.

Distracted by his thinking, Fox didn't see the officer take aim directly at Peppy's head. Fox snapped out of it and saw at the last minute as the officer pulled on the trigger.

"NO!" He yelled.

Fox jumped in front of Peppy and took the bullet directly in the chest. He fell to the ground with a grunt.

"Fox!" Peppy yelled and kneeled down next to him. He lifted up his arm and felt near his wrist. He felt a very weak –thump-….-thump-.

He sighed – Fox was alive.

"You son of a bitch!" Falco yelled and fired 5 shots directly at the officer who had shot at Peppy.

The officer dodged the first 3 shots but the last two hit him dead in the head. He dropped, his gun making a thud as it hit the snow.

Falco knelt down next to Fox.

"Is he alive?" Falco asked

"Yes, but just barely – we've got to get the hell out of here." Peppy replied

A bullet zinged past them, causing them all to duck.

"Look – Falco, you're the fastest one of all of us. You get back to the Great Fox and get one of the Arwings. That way, at least we'll have a chance." Peppy planned.

"What? I'm not just gonna leave you guys here!" Falco replied "What about F…?"

"Just do it, Falco – we have no other choice!" Pepper screamed.

Falco hesitated for a moment and, then, he turned and began to run for the path back to the Great Fox, picking off various CCE officers shooting at him along the way.

Peppy watched Falco run off until his figure disappeared behind a corner.

Then, his vision fell upon all of the armed officers coming for them.

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Well, there you are. Sorry it took so long. I'm working on a lot of other projects, plus I just got over being really sick so excuse this taking a few…weeks, I think. I don't really think this chapter was as good as the first, but I just wanted to give it to you guys finally.

Thanks a lot for reading!