Ch.2
A Call
Nathan painfully made his way to his bed, every muscle in his body was burning and pleading with him not to move any more. The Dog slowly and painfully made his way to his bed in the Ragthorn's barracks, without a second thought he plopped down onto the bed. The beds were not all that soft and comfortable, however after the hard day Skinner put him through, the bed felt like it was made for a King.
"I cannot believe the hell he put us through." He whined, Lucy slowly made her way to a chair by the window, she had a large ice bag tapped around her thigh.
"I think I pulled a muscle." She said as she sat down in the chair, a long sigh leaving her mouth as her body started to relax.
"I think I pulled every muscle in my body." Stout said as he leaned up against the wall, "No one was ever meant to run a total of fifteen miles in one day, and those exercises...Good God, I'm surprised I'm still alive." He said and slowly slid down the wall and onto the floor. Suddenly Leana came jogging into the room.
"I don't know what you're all whining about, I thought it was easy. I bet I could even go on a few more miles." She cheerfully boasted, everyone turned their gaze to the white Lioness and gave her a questionable look.
"Leana if all of us were as physically built as you, I'm sure we all could go on a few more miles…How the hell did you get so big anyway?" Nathan asked, Leana shrugged her shoulders while still jogging in place.
"Genetics I guess…" Leana paused and quickly scanned the room, she discovered they were one person short, "Where's Josh?"
"He's in the communication lounge, talking with Krystal I think." Lucy replied, at hearing this Nathan's ears flickered and the Dog quickly sat up ignoring the burning, aching pain of his muscles.
"Hey Lu, just who is this Krystal chick that he talks to every week?" He asked, Lucy looked up at him and halted her action of rubbing her soar calf muscle.
"Krystal is his girlfriend, you know that already." She said and went back to massaging her calf. Nathan made his way to the edge of the bed and dangled his legs over the side.
"Yeah I know, but like who is she exactly? What does she do for example?" Lucy continued to rub her soar muscles, not fully paying attention she spoke out.
"She's a Star Fox member." Nathan's face took on a look of utter disbelieve.
"Really? No shit?" He asked, Lucy nodded.
"Yip." She replied. On the other side of the room Leana started to grin and turned her attention to Stout.
"Told you it was the same Krystal." Leana said to her Swine team mate, Stout looked up at her and nodded in response.
"That you did." Leana then held out her hand, Stout looked at it and then back to Leana. His ears slightly lowered.
"Aw come on...I didn't think you were serious." He said, Leana chuckled a little.
"Pay up little man, a bets a bet." Stout lowered his head in defeat and reached into his pocket and pulled out a candy bar. He sadly looked into Leana's bright yellow eyes.
"But I only have two left..." He wasn't able to finish as Leana swiped it out of his hand.
"Now you only have one left." She said with a snicker and started to eat the candy bar as she walked out of the room. Nathan slowly stood from his bed and walked over to Lucy and sat down on the chairs armrest.
"Wow...I had no idea Josh's Krystal and Star Fox Krystal was the same chick...Tell you what, I've always had a crush on her." He said, Lucy grinned.
"Don't let Josh hear you say that...I can tell he's the jealous type."
"Well, he can keep Krystal...I've got my sight on someone much prettier." He said and eyed Lucy with a gentle smile, Lucy rolled her eyes. She knew it was only a matter of time before Nathan confronted her about wanting to date her. The constant flirting and besides Josh she was the one he spent the most time with. To her the idea of being with someone of a deferent species seemed kind of gross, she didn't care if others did it, she just didn't want to do it herself.
"Oh Nate...It seems you've picked the one girl in the whole galaxy who prefers to date her own kind." Nathan frowned a little.
"You...You mean...Leana wont date me?" He asked, Lucy's ears flickered and she looked up at Nathan.
"Leana?"
"Yeah...Who'd you think I was talking about?" He asked with a serious look. A bunch of jumbled up words began to leave Lucy's mouth as she tried to comprehend the situation. "Did...Did you think I was talking about...You?" Lucy's cheeks started to get warm.
"W-what...N-NO...Of course not." She nervously chuckled.
"Ha, awkward." Stout said to himself and turned to leave the room, leaving the now flustered and Confused Hare and uncomfortable Dog Alone.
"Sending call." Appeared in green on the terminal's black screen, the human gently knocked his fingers against the metal tables in a rhythm that matched a tone he had heard long ago. Krystal had sung it once while she showered in the bathroom, he couldn't quite remember the name of the song but he knew how it went. When ever he had the rare chance of not having to do anything he would usually hum, whistle, or tap the song. Josh looked at a clock in his booth, the communication lounge was a large room filled with thirty private booths where people could talk in private to whoever it is they wanted to call. Each booth had a clock so you knew what time it was and how long you had for each call, which was five minutes before the call would abruptly end. Most of his free time was spent here in the same booth for the past nine weeks.
"Call connected." Flashed on the screen.
"About time." He said and leaned forward from his seat. The Terminal's black screen suddenly pixelated and showed an older looking Human man wearing nice clothes. The older man smiled.
"Grant, well this is a most welcomed surprise." Ryan spoke, Josh smiled back.
"Just wanted to check in and see how the Ambassador of Earth is doing." He replied. Ryan shrugged his shoulders a bit.
"Well, its certainly not the most exciting job in the world. It feels like I have a meeting every four hours." He said and started to rub his temples, Josh grinned a little. After the Human Gorton War ended he himself was the Ambassador of Earth for five months before he went to the Academy, every day he was at some type of meeting to discuss Earth joining the Lylat system, and as you would expect at meetings discussing power, nothing got done. Humans kept demanding more of Lylat's technology before Earth even officially joined the system. The Lylat's Galactic council was getting just as annoyed at the humans as Josh was. It really wasn't until Ryan started attending the meetings that he knocked some sense into the power hungry ass holes. Once Ryan started taking charge Earth finally became a part of the Lylat system.
"Don't remind me, I had a splitting head ache every day...And I'm pretty sure I got two ulcers as well." He joked, "So how do you like living on a different planet?" Ryan ended up having to move to Corneria after he officially became the Ambassador of Earth, from what Josh knew Ryan ended getting a nice set up.
"Its not bad, I've heard a lot of stories about Corneria. Its nice to actually see it and all." Suddenly Ryan started to look a little sad, Josh could see it in his eyes.
"Are you okay Ryan?" This wasn't the first time the older man looked really depressed, in fact when ever they spoke he could tell that Ryan wanted to tell him something, but he never brought anything up.
"I'm fine, just a little home sick and...Well, today is my eldest son's birthday." Josh raised a brow.
"Shouldn't you be happy instead of depressed then?"
"Its...Its a long story Josh...One I really don't want to tell just yet."
"Alright, sorry I asked." he said
"No its fine...Its just hard to talk about."
"Is...Is he okay?" Josh asked, Ryan nodded.
"Yeah...Well as far as I know...I haven't seen him in years. I haven't seen any of my children in years...But listen to me ramble on...How have you been?" He asked, Josh gave Ryan a questionable look. Josh knew better than to try to force an answer out of the older man, he'd talk about it when he was ready to and not a second before.
"It's good, tomorrow is the first day of the last week. We have one more Aerial test and then that's it. Graduation and then I can move on with my life."
"Do you still plan on joining Fox and his team?" Josh nodded.
"Yeah, its the whole reason I'm going through the Academy. Fox wanted me to come here before he'd make me a member of Star Fox. Not really sure why they couldn't teach me everything I needed to know, its actually not that hard to fly one of these Star Ship thingies. But I really shouldn't be complaining though, he's giving me a chance to do something more with my life than recording recruitment videos and going to God awful places just to record battles and show people how shity places are." Josh paused for a second, "Going to different planets, helping people, flying Space ships for God sake...That's a better life than what I had." And it's all thanks to Fox and Krystal, Krystal opened his eyes and showed him all the possibilities that lied beyond his planet, and Fox was helping him to reach for those possibilities. No one in his whole life had ever done something like that for him.
"Well it sounds like your mind is pretty set on this, I hope everything goes just as you hope it will...I truly mean that Grant." Ryan spoke and spawned a gentle caring smile, Josh did the same.
"I'm pretty lucky to have you as a friend Ryan, I really am. I'd never in a millions years thought that having a few drinks with a Col. would lead to friendship. But I'm glad it did."
"Me to." Ryan replied, suddenly it sounded like a door opened from Ryan's position.
"Mr. Ambassador, its time for the 6:35 meeting." A female called out, Ryan sighed and rolled his eyes before turning his attention back to the screen.
"Like I said, every four hours...Thanks Jane, I'll be there in just a moment." He said and the sound of a door closing was heard, Ryan sighed again and looked back at the screen, "Well it was swell receiving your call Grant, I'm afraid our chat has to end here. Ambassador work and all that, until next time." He said and then suddenly the screen went back and the words.
"Call ended." Appeared on the screen, Josh leaned back in his seat and started to rub his neck before looking at the clock. "6:35 P.M" Josh looked back at the terminal and started to type in the number for his next call.
"Sending Call." It took a few moments but eventually the call went through. The screen however was still black.
"Hey." A female voice called out. Josh gently smiled.
"Hey Krystal, It's me...I think there's something wrong with the transmission..."
"This is Krystal, you know what to do." She said and suddenly there was a beep sound. Josh raised a brow.
"An answering machine? Really? Oh ah hey Blue its me...I ah...Just wanted to check in real quick. I guess your out...Obviously your out, otherwise I would be talking to you and not an answering machine...I just wanted to let you know that I'm doing good, tomorrow is the start of my tenth week and after that I graduate finally...And then we can go flying like I promised we would. Ah Lucy wanted me to say hi for her, and ah...I ah...I don't know what to say to be honest...Just that I miss you , a lot. Ever since we said good by at the Academy...I've felt like a part of me was lost and...I...I just really miss you Blue, well I got to go...Tomorrow we're heading to Fortuna for our last Aerial test, I want to get as much rest as I can before we leave...Bye." He said and ended the call. The human could feel his heart throbbing in pain, if he didn't do something to keep himself distracted he would only hurt even more.
Nathan aimed the practice Plasma Rifle at the blue holo graphic target, He eased his breathing and pulled the trigger. Being that it was a practice Plasma Rifle it of course didn't fire actual rounds, it did however have the same recoil as an actual Plasma Rifle, as well as a laser that would go off every time he pulled the trigger, if the laser touched anywhere on a holo target it counted as a hit. After Nathan pulled the trigger the simulated recoil kicked in, the blue holo target's head was highlighted red, meaning that's where the target got hit. He smiled to himself and lowered the gun. Ever since that awkward moment with Lucy the Dog wanted to be by himself for a few moments. Luckily the shooting rang was empty, It wasn't that he didn't like Lucy, in fact he liked her a lot. He just liked Leana more, not to mention the fact that she was a good two feet taller than him really turned him on for some reason. The only bad thing was that he had no idea if she even remotely felt the same way about him. She did laugh at all his jokes, that surely meant something right?
Suddenly the sound of someone approaching pulled him out of his thoughts. He turned his gaze to find Josh pulling a practice gun from the counters slots, he made his way to the stall next to Nathan and activated some holo targets. He aimed the practice Pulse Rifle at some holo targets and took a deep breath and then started to fire at each of the targets that appeared at impressive speed. Ten holo targets destroyed all within five seconds. Josh turned to look at Nathan.
"Wanna little friendly competition?" He asked, Nathan thought about it for a second and figured why not.
"Sure." He said. Josh turned his attention to the controls on his stall as did Nathan, they both set up twenty targets to appear. Next a holo counter used to keep score appeared in both of their stalls. The two men aimed their weapons and waited for the targets to appear. There was a soft 'ding' sound and then a few targets appeared. Josh quickly aimed his gun at one target that was to the far left and quickly pulled the trigger, the center of its chest was highlighted red and then the target disappeared. Quickly moving his weapon to another target the human fired his gun highlighting the target's head.
Nathan had just brought down another target, he wasn't sure if it was his fifth or four target. His mind was only focused on hitting as many targets as he could. A target appeared near the center of the room, he quickly aimed his gun to fire. However just before he could pull the trigger its chest highlighted in red, Nathan softly grunted at his stolen point and focused on the next target that appeared. Despite the stressful situation of trying to get more points than his friend, Nathan was actually having a good time and soon forgot all about that awkward situation with Lucy.
Josh however wasn't exactly enjoying himself like he knew he should be, his mind was focused too much on Krystal. Maybe if she was there to answer his call he wouldn't be feeling so empty inside. His emotional state was so disrupted that he didn't even relies that he had stopped firing his weapon. Grunting in frustration at himself he quickly shook his head and continued to fire his weapon.
Once all forty targets were destroyed the two men checked their holo counter. Josh had gotten 17 points while Nathan got the last 23. Nathan began to give the human a questionable look, never had anyone out scored the Human. Nathan was smart enough to know he didn't get a lucky break back there. After setting the practice Rifle back in its slot he made his way over to his leader.
"So...What happened?" He asked, Josh turned his gaze to his team mate and raised a brow.
"What do you mean?"
"I won." He replied, Josh turned his gaze to the holo counter.
"Seems you did, what of it?" Josh asked and placed his practice Rifle back in its slot, Nathan gave Josh a sympathetic look.
"Come on, you're my friend...Since when have you never been able to talk to me?" He asked, Josh stared the Dog in his blue eyes and sighed, Josh normally preferred to talk to Lucy about him and Krystal as the Rabbit and Vixen are close friends as well. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to get Nathan's perspective on the situation.
"I told you how I ended up meeting Krystal and coming to Lylat right?" He asked, Nathan nodded his head, "Before she came into my life it was...Shit, I had a cheating girlfriend who I wanted to marry, a shity boss who liked nothing more than to get under my skin, I was depressed a lot. Then one day here comes Krystal, she all but landed in my lap. Krystal was there for me when my life got really bad, I came to depend on her...Since she came into my, life until the Academy we had spent just about every waking hour in each others company, now I barely see her. I go to sleep without her, and every morning when I wake up, before I open my eyes, for the tiniest moment I hope that she's laying down next to me. But when I open my eyes all that I see is an empty spot in my bed. It feels like the most important part of my life is gone now." He spoke and leaned up against the wall of his stall.
"Wow...That's deep man, well shouldn't you be happy that tomorrow is our last week? Seven short days and then you get to be with her again right?" The human turned his gaze to the Dog and slowly shook his head.
"They may seem like short days to you, but its not to me Nate. Every day the days and nights get longer and longer, until it seems that a month has passed before the next day begins." Nathan crossed his arms over his chest and sighed.
"Wow, you must really love her." He said, the Human gave his friend a gentle smile.
"Till the day I die...Well what about you Nate? What's bugging you?" He asked, Nathan shrugged his shoulders.
"What makes you think something is bugging me?" He asked.
"Well, the only time I've seen you in the shooting range is when Skinner orders us to be here, or your upset about something." Nathan rolled his eyes.
"I'm not upset, I just wanted to get away from Lucy."
"Why?"
"We ah...Had a bit of an awkward moment a little bit ago." The Dog said and started to look uncomfortable, Josh raised a brow.
"Did she walk in on you masturbating again?" He asked, Nathan's eyes went wide.
"W-What!? S-She told you about that?" He asked and looked completely shocked, Josh started to nervously scratch the back of his head.
"Well...She might have mentioned it one day." Josh noticed how completely embarrassed the Dog looked, "She only told me, and I haven't told anyone I swear." Nathan sighed really loud and lowered his head.
"I hope no one else finds out about this...Any way, no she didn't catch me doing...You know. I told her I liked a girl and she thought I was talking about her." He paused.
"And you weren't?" The human asked, Nathan shook his head.
"I was actually talking about Leana." Josh had a confused look on his face when he heard that.
"Really? You do spend a lot of time with Lucy, and you do flirt a lot with her. I can see why she would think you were talking about her, what did you tell her?"
"I told her that I was talking about Leana, everything got awkward and then she left to go somewhere." He said and started to look a little down, "I hope I didn't hurt her feelings." Josh started to pat Nathan on the shoulder.
"I'm sure she'll be fine, but you should talk to her about it when you get the chance...What time is it?" He asked and looked over at one of the clocks on the wall "7:05 P.M" "Well, I'm going to go get something to eat, then take a shower and head to bed."
"Alright, see you later." Nathan said and made his way back to his stall and pulled out the practice Rifle and began setting up targets. Josh shook his head and started to walk out of the room.
'Those two are totally gonna end up together, I just know it.' He thought.
And there you go, first two chapters. Next week will be a flashback chapter.
Hope you guys like it, please review and let me know what you think.
