④ Roommates and Mad Scientists ④

In the well-appointed waiting room in the Gaia Corporation-owned Skallis hospital, Peppy, Slippy, and Falco sat and waited for news related to Fox. While Falco stared at the spiritless propaganda being blasted through the telescreen on the wall ahead of him and the rest of the team, Peppy thumbed through a lawn and garden magazine that someone had left on the glass end table to the left of his seat.

"Funny – I don't think I've seen a single lawn or garden in this whole place. It's a concrete jungle here," Peppy chuckled to himself as he studied an expert's opinion on pruning rose bushes.

To his right, Slippy held the detached main panel of his wrist communicator in his hands and scrolled through a smattering of medical sites that he hoped would give him some idea of what to expect from Fox's procedure. The horrid mental image of Fox's battered, bloodstained body being loaded into the Great Fox on a medical cart still horrified him. Worse yet, the vulpine's legs had not survived the explosion intact; and based on the latest information from the ER, prosthetic replacements would be necessary if Fox ever wanted to walk again. While Slippy saw nothing jarring about prosthetic limbs, the recollection of Fox's story about Scarlet's reconstruction unnerved him. He knew that Fox had sustained numerous injuries while on Cerinia, and this most recent incident amounted to his third major medical issue in two weeks. Although he refused to say it to either of his counterparts, he feared that Fox would not last much longer at the current rate. As it was, he had been declared near death after suffering the effects of the blast inside the Asgard complex.

The noise from the telescreen on the wall continued, with a clearly deceptive female raccoon news anchor declaring that the Skallisian republic was not in any way affiliated with Salvatore Pietro's mob family. Knowing the truth based on what Fox had told him about his last visit to the dystopian planet, Peppy looked at Slippy out of the corner of his eye and whispered, "It's a good thing we don't live here."

"I know. This place is creeping me out. I can't wait to get out of here," Slippy replied, quietly enough so that the four other patrons in the waiting room could not hear him.

Noticing a white-coated lupine doctor emerging from the hall to his left, Falco nudged Slippy and said, "Hey – this might be our chance."

"What do you mean, Falco?" Slippy asked.

"I mean that they might be finished with Fox," Falco explained.

Frowning, Slippy replied, "Falco, you know that Fox will have to stay here at least a week, right? There's no way he's just going to walk out of the hospital after an explosion like the one back at Asgard."

Falco frowned and slouched forward in his chair with his hands holding his head up. "Damn it."

While Falco sulked, the lupine doctor approached the trio and told Peppy, "We've finished the procedure. Your friend needed both legs replaced below the knees, and he also lost his right eye to some shrapnel. We replaced it with a synthetic substitute, but don't worry – it will look natural if you give him a few weeks to get acclimated to it. He also lost an amount of blood that would normally be fatal. It's an absolute miracle that he's still alive. If you want to see him, we've moved him to room 1220."

"Thanks," Peppy replied. "Can you take us to him?"

"Certainly."

A brief walk through a series of hallways and a ride up to the twelfth floor in one of the hospital's elevators brought Peppy, Slippy, and Falco to the door of Fox's temporary living quarters. Pulling down on the door handle, the lupine doctor turned to the three behind him and warned them, "Be careful with him. He's still not fully himself yet."

Peppy nodded in silent agreement and stepped into the room, followed by his two teammates. Fox lay on a white medical bed with his head propped up by two pillows. IV tubes flowed into his arms, while a number of nearby monitoring devices kept a close watch on his vital signs. Considering that the lights were off, Peppy expected Fox to be asleep, but to his surprise, he spoke up the instant that his friends entered the room.

"Hey guys. Are you alright?"

"I should ask the same thing about you," Peppy replied, using a borderline gruff tone of voice that stemmed from his deep concern about Fox's condition.

Fox sighed. "Why lie? I feel terrible. This fake eye is killing me. Not literally, but you get the idea."

"The doctor said you'd get used to it eventually," said Peppy.

"I'm sure. The same could probably be said about my legs, too."

Slippy came to Fox's bedside and commented, "You know, you're going to be a cyborg soon at this rate."

His comment had not been meant to be taken seriously, but Fox felt as if it had. Memories of Scarlet's reconstructed body flashed through his mind, with her unnatural perfection and odd behavior patterns causing his breathing to quicken. The quiet beeping of the heart rate monitor off to the side of his bed increased to match the tempo of his heart, after which Slippy realized that his comment had not gone over well.

"Sorry about that, Fox."

Fox reached out his hand and grabbed Slippy's arm. "No offense taken, Slip. I'll just have to be more careful next time."

Standing in the center of the room, Falco remarked, "Yeah, maybe you should avoid trusting your instincts and going into dead end service hallways that also happen to be rigged to blow."

Fox raised his eyebrows. "You don't have to rub it in, Falco. I know what I did. I should have known better. I knew there were Cerinians in the building, and I should have known that they would try to get into my mind."

Peppy's oversized rabbit ears twitched as he asked, "Well, it seems like you saw something. What was it? Is it anything that we can report to General Pepper?"

A look of concern appeared on Fox's face. "The Demiurge's troops want to know where their battleship is. If they find out, who knows what they'll do. When Falco and I were in the complex, it looked like they had cleared out all the weapons, too."

Scratching his mustache, Peppy grumbled, "Where would they take all of them, though? We don't even know what they want."

"If they're anything like the Demiurge, we already know what they want," Fox replied.

"What? Gematria?"

"I don't know about that, but we know who they are. When you get back to the Great Fox, tell General Pepper about them. He'll have a better idea about what to do with them than we will."

Peppy nodded. At the same time, Slippy's communicator chirped. Fumbling in an attempt to silence the ringer, he muttered, "Not now, Dad."

While Slippy shook his head and clipped his communicator back into its wrist mount, Peppy looked to Fox and asked, "Should I let Krystal know about what happened to you?"

Fox's expression dropped. For several seconds, he stared at Peppy before he replied, "No. She doesn't need to hear any more bad news. You can tell her if she asks about me, but otherwise, don't say anything to her."

"I understand. If I were you, I'm not sure I'd want her to know, either. Listen, Fox – we're not going to abandon you, but this planet is not a good place for us to stay. I think you'll be fine in this hospital, but we're going to head back to the Great Fox for the time being."

"So, you're not going to abandon me, but…" Fox joked.

Peppy returned an awkward nod. "Well, kind of. We've got some things to talk to General Pepper about, and we're going to need to resupply if we want to make it back to Corneria."

"Yeah, yeah. Go ahead and take care of it," Fox groused. "I'm not going to be going anywhere for a little while. If my condition improves enough for me to get out of here early, I'll be the first to let you know. I don't want to be stuck on this planet any more than you do. By the way, do you know what happened to Felix? I would have thought I'd have run into him at some point. This is his hospital, after all."

Peppy crossed his arms and looked away for a moment. "Um…I saw something on the news about his funeral being held today."

Fox's eyes widened in disbelief. "What happened to him?"

"According to the news broadcast, he killed himself. He was found in his office two weeks ago with a gun in his hand and a hole in his skull."

With a gravelly voice, Fox replied, "So that's why he forwarded all of his money to me. I was wondering about that."

A long pause broke out in the hospital room until Peppy said, "We'll leave you to yourself now, Fox. As soon as you're ready to leave, give me a call."

"Sure thing, Peppy. Hopefully this won't happen again."

"It had better not, Fox. I've lost too many friends and loved ones already. I don't want to lose you, too."


- § -


Krystal hated Corneria City. It was not as if she hadn't already vented about her frustrations to Fox, but the longer she lived in the metropolis, the more she grew to dislike it. Every day after leaving her evening job as a martial arts instructor at a downtown gym, she passed a cosmetics shop built into the corner of a sprawling downtown mall that contained more than eighty stores despite only occupying a space of four blocks. Each day, the temptation to walk through the shop's sliding glass doors, buy several cans of fur dye, and slather herself with it in her apartment grew stronger. Her telepathy refused to stay quiet when a passing person ogled her, especially after she left the gym wearing a tight-fitting tank top and athletic pants. She knew that her blue fur acted as the catalyst for her unwanted attention – not surprising, as she had not seen a single Cerinian in the city of over ten million people.

Walking with her head down in a useless attempt to avoid having to look at anyone, she pushed open the door to her gym and began her twenty minute trek back to her apartment. As was her custom, she planned to stop at a coffee shop that marked the halfway point of her trip. Today however, she felt compelled to spend her money on fur dye rather than an overpriced decaf latte.

"I'll make that decision when I get there," she thought.

Two vulpine cyclists raced past her in the bike lane on the road to the right of the sidewalk and gawked at her, causing her to shudder and lose her focus to the point of nearly wandering into an active intersection and being struck by a car. Suddenly regaining her composure, she stopped at the extreme edge of the sidewalk and took a deep breath. The fact that her standing on the street corner created a distraction for the traffic irritated her to no end; and when four drivers stared at her while making right turns, she cursed under her breath in Cerinian. She tried to ignore the numerous pedestrians around her at the crosswalk, knowing that all of their eyes were on her. After what seemed like an eternity, the traffic signal allowed her to cross the street and separate from the swarm of people around her.

A quarter mile walk through the city's largest consumer center brought Krystal to the front doors of the intimate coffee shop, where the simplistic title "East Corneria Coffee Co." overlooked the street below from its perch above the glass-covered side of the large building that housed it. Still looking downwards and trying to ignore the occasional awkward glance, she stepped into the building and raised her eyes. She preferred to visit the coffee shop immediately following work because very few patrons frequented the establishment in the early evening when most people were eating dinner. Still, a small number of people occupied their seats inside. Thankfully, few of them paid much attention to Krystal as she entered the shop.

As her athletic shoes touched the worn wooden floorboards inside the coffee shop, she caught a glimpse of something blue out of the corner of her eye. Her telepathy alerted her to the presence of a familiar set of thought patterns, causing her to look up and lock eyes with another Cerinian vixen sitting at a table in the extreme corner of the room, reading through what looked like a university textbook. Even though she wore a loose-fitting – albeit short – dress with a blue pansy print, it was obvious that she had been physically endowed in ways that Krystal could only dream of. Her blue hair fell to her shoulders and curled at the end, accenting her exotic orange irises that glared at Krystal with shock and bewilderment.

"Oh no – of all people to run into, why did it have to be her?"

Her eyes alone were enough to give her identity away to Krystal, who recognized her as Hyacinth's daughter Lilac. She was slightly younger than Krystal, but only by a margin of two months, even though she looked and acted much more mature than that.

Krystal knew that there would be no escaping a conversation with her, as the two of them had been close friends during their childhoods on Cerinia, before the High Council claimed Krystal and interned her in the Temple for her order's requisite philosophical and combat training. For a moment, she felt a surge of agony as the memory of killing Hyacinth plagued her mind. Krystal knew that Lilac would be unable to pick up on it due to her weaker telepathy compared to her own, but she realized that she needed to avoid looking alarmed in order to avoid the younger vixen's probing thoughts that, while less developed than hers, could still dig up thoughts and memories if given enough openings.

After ordering a cup of coffee, she nervously made her way to the back corner of the shop where Lilac sat. While Krystal pulled her chair out and sat down, Lilac exclaimed, "Krystal! What are you doing here?"

"I live here now," Krystal replied, hoping that her childhood friend would be content with the short version of her story. "You know that I always wanted to get away and have an adventure somewhere else."

Lilac smiled, setting Krystal at ease without realizing it. "So did I. Looks like we got what we wanted, then. How do you like Corneria City?"

Krystal tried to look upbeat, but her disgust for her surroundings showed. "I really don't like it. I'm always the center of attention, and I hate having everyone staring at me – especially the men. I can't imagine that it's any better for you with a rack like yours."

Lilac briefly looked downwards and then chuckled, "I don't really mind it, actually. If anything, it makes getting dates that much easier."

Scowling, Krystal replied, "You really take after your mother, don't you?"

"What can I say? She has a way of leaving a mark on people," Lilac grinned. "But before you call me a skank, you should know that I always let them off the hook before things get…well, you know."

Krystal rolled her eyes. "Well, good for you."

"Seriously though," Lilac continued, "There's something else that I need to talk to you about. I'm really in trouble right now, but I can't trust anyone enough to help me."

Krystal's eyes widened as the conversation took a sudden serious twist. "What's wrong?"

Collecting herself yet failing to avoid looking afraid, Lilac explained, "When my mom sent me to Corneria and helped me enroll at Central Cornerian University, she told me that she would pay for me to take classes by sending me money every month for school and living costs. Well, I haven't gotten anything for the last two weeks. I've tried calling my mom on Cerinia, but she won't answer. I don't know what's going on. I don't have the money to pay for my apartment, and they're about to kick me out." By this point, she looked ready to burst into tears. "Is there anything you can do to help me? Can I stay with you until this gets cleared up?"

A tear slipped out of Krystal's eye; and although Lilac thought that her friend had shed it out of sympathy for her, it was her guilt from killing Hyacinth and assisting in the destruction of Cerinia that caused her to cry.

"I have to help her. After what I did to Hyacinth, it's all I can do to make things right."

Placing her hand on Lilac's, Krystal said, "I don't have much room in my apartment, but you can stay with me if you don't mind sharing a bed. There just isn't going to be enough room for your furniture. Don't worry – I'll help you do something with it."

With misty eyes, Lilac replied, "Thank you. I don't mind sharing a bed. In fact, I always wanted someone to curl up with at night."

"I thought you had your dates for that."

Lilac sighed and shook her head. "No. All I want is someone to hold. They always wanted something more than that. That's actually the only thing that bothers me about the men in this place. All they can think about is mating, it seems."

"I knew I wasn't the only one who thought that," Krystal replied. "Anyway, I think sharing a room with you will help me hate this place a little less. At least there's someone around here that I can relate to now."

"It is a little different than Cerinia," said Lilac, understating what she knew to be a colossal difference in cultures and customs. "If you're able to take me in, I assume that you're not seeing anybody right now, right?"

Krystal sighed. "Kind of. I'm friends with a fox named Fox. We used to be closer, but I don't think he's interested in me anymore. He visited me yesterday, but it definitely didn't make things any better."

A sudden, fearful thought entered her mind, causing her to consider that possibility that Fox could potentially take a liking to Lilac and abandon her if the chance presented itself. She knew that Fox had an affinity for blue-furred Cerinian vixens, and encountering one without a tragic, murderous past would likely come across to him as being substantially more desirable than her. Shielding her thoughts from Lilac, she mused, "No…Fox is better than that. He wouldn't just abandon me after all he's done to help me."

"Is something wrong? What's on your mind, Krystal?" Lilac asked, looking at her childhood friend with a pair of concerned, orange eyes.

"It's nothing. Really – there's nothing be worried about," Krystal replied, shaking her head.

With the evening slowly fading into night, the two vixens abandoned the coffee shop and trudged back to Krystal's apartment. Although Krystal felt that she had concealed her memories and worries from her friend, Lilac thought differently. In her mind, she knew that Krystal was suppressing something. She could not figure out what it was, and she dared not ask her with her living situation hanging in the balance; but she had the feeling that Krystal Taero was holding back information that had the potential to tear her world apart.


- § -


In spite of Fox being stuck in the Gaia Corporation's Skallisian hospital, Peppy, Slippy, and Falco felt thrilled to finally return to the safety of the Great Fox. After launching from the District 7 spaceport, Peppy positioned the ship in a geosynchronous orbit with the planet between an ancient, derelict satellite and the hull of a ruined battleship. Starborne trash surrounded the planet on almost every side, with pieces of rubbish creating a thin, undefined ring around the planet near its equator. All three pilots knew that they would be forced to remain in orbit until Fox was cleared to leave the hospital, but being trapped in orbit on a well-furnished warship was infinitely better than being trapped on the black planet below.

With their Arwings secured inside the hangar and the ship's engines shut off, the team – minus Fox – made their way back to their respective crew quarters with the exception of Peppy, who walked to the ship's bridge where he intended to report Fox's findings to General Pepper. While Falco returned to his newly-refurnished room that would not be organized for much longer, Slippy shuffled into the ship's recreation room, which contained a ping pong table, a black couch, a video game system connected to an enormous flatscreen television, and the most eye-searing lime green wall paint in existence.

Seating himself on the left side of the couch, Slippy unclipped his wrist communicator from its mount and cycled through his contacts until he reached the one labeled '(Dad) Beltino Toad.' He pressed the call button and waited three seconds for the call to connect before his father's familiar, eccentric voice crept out of the small device's speakers. "Hello? This is Beltino."

"Hey Dad, this is Slippy. Sorry I missed your call earlier. You caught me at a bad time."

"I apologize for that, although I completely understand why you didn't pick up," Beltino replied. "Before I say anything else, is Fox anywhere nearby? He might want to hear about what I have to tell you."

Slippy groaned. "Um…that's why I missed your call. He's in the hospital right now. Someone detonated a bomb in Asgard Industries, and he got caught in it."

"My goodness – I hope he's alright."

"He'll live," said Slippy. "Although I'm getting a bit worried about him. He's been taking a lot of hits lately."

"In that case, maybe he isn't the best choice for what I and General Pepper have in mind."

"Why is that? And why are you working with General Pepper? You're not even in the same field of work."

"In this case I am," Beltino explained. "It deals with the information we've managed to retrieve from the Demiurge's body that was found in the bridge of the Cerinian flagship after it was brought back to Corneria. Based on what I and my researchers have been able to dig up, the metallic compounds in the Demiurge's body can only be found on one planet that we know of."

Slippy objected. "That's interesting, but how does that lead you to anything useful?"

"Because the number of scientists who are capable of completing a procedure that the Demiurge would have undergone is smaller than the number of fingers on my left hand. The intricacies that went into constructing his cybernetic body are far too complex for even my own mind to understand. Not only that, but I have been able to confirm that one such scientist is based on the same planet that the materials in the Demiurge's body originated from. Since the materials do not have any particular advantage over metals found on Corneria or other planets, it is my belief that they were simply chosen due to convenience and availability."

"It makes sense now. Come to think of it, Fox had a friend during his last job who was reconstructed by someone," Slippy replied.

Beltino's voice took on an emphatic property. "That might have been him. Do you know what he looked like?"

"Sorry Dad, but no. I don't even think Fox knows that. Who are you looking for, anyway?"

"Put your phone on its speaker projector mode," Beltino requested.

Following his father's instructions, Slippy engaged the aforementioned communication mode. Seconds later, two holographic images of two different individuals materialized in the air above his communicator. On the left, an image of a highly unattractive, short, bespectacled mole wearing a poorly-fitted suit hovered in front of his eyes. Slippy noted that the color of the hologram did not seem as vivid as usual, leading him to believe that the rendering had been based off an old photograph. The image on the right belonged to a hulking creature with a lupine build and gray fur. Like the mole, he wore spectacles, although his possessed a modern rectangular shape as opposed to the mole's antiquated circular frames. A long, white lab coat reached to his knees; and despite its ability to disguise the form of its wearer, it failed to hide the giant's prodigious physique, which looked like it could have exceeded seven feet in height.

"What is that…thing? Why are you showing me both of these at the same time?" asked Slippy.

"This might be the man we're looking for – both of them. I know it sounds ludicrous, but just hear me out."

Slippy scratched his head. "Okay…"

"This is the strangest part of it all," Beltino began. "Both of these people have the exact same name. Normally that wouldn't be too strange, but these two aren't named Steve Jones, if you get what I mean. Both of their names are Voltimure Reige. Now, I did a popularity search of the last two hundred years for that name, and it's so rare that them having the same name means that the huge wolf-person either thinks he's the mole's spiritual successor, so to speak, or that they are somehow the same person."

"Well, what did the mole do, then?"

Beltino paused and collected himself, then answered, "Yes, indeed – well, the mole was the mastermind behind many of the artificial intelligence units that are used throughout the Lylat System today. It could be said that your robot on the Great Fox is his work. Not only that, but he created his first prototypes over a hundred years ago, back when Corneria's space program was still a fledgling operation. He was ahead of his time, that's for sure. I knew Andross before he was exiled to Venom, and I'm not the only one who'll tell you that he idolized Dr. Reige, even though Andross was only in elementary school when Reige disappeared."

"Disappeared? Why?"

"There was…" Beltino paused. "There was an incident involving an extremely advanced A.I. unit that Reige intended to end his career with. Unlike the other A.I.'s which respond to mass numbers of pre-programmed default settings and logical arguments, Reige intended for this one to be able to both think and feel for itself. His colleagues thought it was a fatal idea, and it turned out that they were right. The A.I. went rampant and nearly destroyed the bulk of Central Corneria's technological infrastructure. Less than a week after the incident, Reige vanished, taking all of his files, notes, and projects with him. I guess he got what he wanted. His last project did end his career, after all."

"So this guy was the Andross before Andross, basically," Slippy suggested.

"Yes, but at least Reige had the sense to pack up and leave after his catastrophic experiment. Andross just couldn't leave well enough alone."

"Well, yeah. So, what makes you think that they could be the same person? If he was an expert on artificial intelligence, couldn't this huge wolf just be an A.I. that thinks it's him?"

"It could be anything, son," Beltino replied. "However, the only thing that matters is that we find out if he had anything to do with the Demiurge's reconstruction. If he doesn't, Pepper and I would like to know if he has any ideas about the person who did. Since Fox has experience with the Demiurge, I thought it would be best if he and you traveled to the planet Zharon to look for him."

"Zharon? I haven't heard of that one."

"It's the planet closest to Ichtos – the central power in the Faulian System that you're in right now. It's largely a jungle planet considered by many to be the Cerinia that you can actually visit, since…well…Cerinia doesn't exist anymore. Don't say anything about that, though. The government is trying to keep that information hidden for as long as possible."

"I figured they would. It wouldn't do anyone any good to know about it," Slippy replied. "Still, you know it's going to come out eventually."

"Yes – we all know it's inevitable, but it'll be less shocking if enough time passes before people find out. Anyway, there is one…er…major issue with what General Pepper and I have proposed for you and Fox to do."

"And that would be…?"

Beltino cleared his throat and elaborated, "The planet is being overrun by an insectoid species known as the Aparoids. I assume you've heard of them, correct?"

"Fox's friend had some problems with them," Slippy replied.

"Then it looks like I won't need to explain anything about them to you. The problem is that for some reason, their normally placid species has centralized and is creating bizarre, dangerous mutations that are threatening the future of the planet. In fact, it's so bad that the planet's governments have come together and signed an emergency evacuation order. That planet's civilization is about to be wiped off the map, and all our evidence shows that Dr. Reige is still on the planet for some reason. General Pepper doesn't have the time to do the politics that would allow him to send soldiers to the planet to extract Reige simply because there's almost no time left. Since you're so close to the planet, you may be the only option left. If we lose him, we may lose key information about the Demiurge."

"Dad, I think you're complicating things too much. Can't we just call him and ask him about these things?"

Uneasily, Beltino answered, "I'm afraid not. This man is a recluse. The only information about his whereabouts that we've been able to pull up has come from people who've seen him recently. It matches up with the personality of the Voltimure Reige who worked on Corneria. He was almost impossible to talk to unless you could find him and were willing to meet with him in person. I'm sorry, Slippy, but you're going to have to find a way to get an audience with him."

Slippy frowned. "I'd do it, but if Fox needs to go with me, then I really need to wait until he's ready to leave the hospital. If this guy is as touchy as I think he'll be, then I definitely don't want to bring Falco along. I don't want to go alone, though."

"You may have to. But, if Fox is going to be ready in two days or less, by all means bring him with you. Oh – and one more thing."

Slippy narrowed his eyes. "You're really pushing it this time, Dad."

"It's important, I swear. General Pepper wanted me to warn you that the space surrounding Zharon is where a dangerous mercenary group named Specter is believed to keep their base. Chances are that if you go, they will be watching you. Please, just avoid making them mad, and they'll probably leave you alone."

"Good to know," Slippy muttered.

"If you have any questions, you can call me later. I've got to get back to work now, so I'll talk to you some other time."

"Goodbye, Dad," Slippy replied, closing the call and staring at the two holographic figures that still hovered above his communicator.

"It just keeps getting weirder. I'm not sure I like where this is going."


AUTHOR'S NOTE(S):

Anyone who read the Iridium Chronicle should probably know what to expect next, although there will be some significant changes compared to that story. If anyone was wondering what role Lilac will play in this story, I don't really have an answer for you, but I can tell you that the prospect of her sharing a room with Krystal is already causing Krystal's grief to redline.

Well, by this point, some of the plot points are going to be downright unintelligible if you haven't read The Oasis. I'm not going to dissuade you from continuing (I want views, after all), but unless you're willing to keep reading without knowing anything about some of these characters and locations, you're going to want to have prior knowledge of The Oasis. This is a sequel, after all.