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[] Arc 1 []

The Hunting Party
ʳᵉᵈᵘˣ

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Chapter 6

Drawbar

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A/N: I have a poll posted on my (still incomplete) profile regarding the content you all are comfortable seeing in this story. Be warned; as some choices in that poll will result in me upping the rating. So, another friendly reminder to follow the story so that you don't miss an update.

I've been very happy with the positive reception and the engagement this story has gotten, and I'm very glad that you guys are as excited about this story as I am. I told myself I'll update more frequently as this next college semester starts, so look forward to those! For now, please enjoy! Don't forget that your reviews mean the world to me, and I'd love to see your input!

-Sheppard

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Breakfast the next morning came early for Fox and friends. In the dining hall of the hotel, the bloated Star Fox team began to huddle around a few tables to get to discussing today's plan of attack, while getting some much-needed nourishment in the process. Being as it was a little past 8 in the morning, almost everyone had a cup of coffee on-hand as they started filling the table.

To nobody's surprise, Fox and Fara sat beside each other. Krystal eyed this with more subdued contempt, but for fear of letting that awful taste return, she expressed no hesitation in sitting beside Falco on the other side of the table. Fox, thinking better of this weird development, started the conversation off strong.

"So, Slip, how's the weather?"

"Rain," Slippy replied. "Rain forever. But there's no lightning, so we should be okay if you don't mind getting wet."

Miyu took a sip of her coffee. "I don't like rain. It's gross, cold, and it gets everywhere."

"The rain's gonna mess up my outfit," Fara grumbled.

"Well, hey, the sooner we get this done, the sooner we'll get to go back inside."

Remi's fake hearty laugh stopped Fox from explaining further. "You don't seem to know how this works," she began, double-fisting two heaping plates of food. Four toasted bagels equating to eight different surfaces for eight different spreads filled one plate, while the other held a pyramid of assorted donuts, a heaping pile of scrambled eggs, and a double-digit stack of bacon strips. Fara looked at the plates with disgust as the Cerinian sat at the "head" of the table, knowing she wouldn't be able to eat that much in a week, let alone one sitting.

Falco narrowed his eyes. "Do tell, o' black hole of food."

"Do you want the simple answer, or the answer that inflates the word count?"

"Surprise me."

The Cerinian's sharp canines punctured one of her donuts. "So I had my big epiphany on the toilet this morning. Is that the right way to use it? Oh anyway; so… …what if I told you guys that we're wasting our time here?"

The collective sounds of knives and forks hitting plate answered her.

"But I mean," she continued. "We're not, either. We shouldn't be here, but we should, you know? Does that make sense?"

"It's too early for this," Falco mumbled.

"So what exactly are you saying?" Fox took the lead. "Are we wasting our time or no?"

"Well, I can't answer that," Remi shrugged. "Like, we don't have anything to gain immediately, but we don't have anywhere else we need to be. The Cerinians are off doing crazier stuff all over the system and we're sitting here trying to chase down a Paladin that has objectively no substantial bearing in the overall mission."

She wolfed down a bagel. "But what's dumb is that we need to be here, otherwise we'd be doing nothing. So, like…" she hesitated, trying to think of words to say. "We're just wasting time."

"We're wasting time…" Fox started slow. "…by being in the place we need to be in… but we should be somewhere else?"

Remi poked at him with her fork. "Yes."

"That really doesn't make sense."

"Sure it does," Remi explained. "So we're here because a Paladin is in the area. I know that much. But we don't have anything to gain by taking down a single Paladin. The Alphas are who we must deal with, but we don't know where they are. That's why I say that we should be somewhere else… but we also need to be here, because this Paladin is all we have."

Fara blinked.

"What I'm saying is that this is just a giant distraction to buy time for the Alphas for whatever the heck they wanna do. They know that we're trying to track them down, but don't know how. Instead of us searching for the Alphas in the void of space and possibly stumbling upon wherever their base of operations is, we're given a Paladin to chase and preoccupy ourselves with. It's a distraction."

"Then why are we bothering with the Paladin?" asked Fox.

"This Paladin may tell us where we need to look. This is probably unlikely, but it's better than doing nothing."

"So we're falling for the distraction?"

"Head over heels."

Fox shook his head and took a sip of coffee.

Skeptical, Miyu piped up, "So this is really all for nothing?"

"Hey, not nothing," Remi said into one of her bagels. "And don't push what kinds of phrases we can say; we're already in some hot water for this arc."

"What do we need to do?" Fay asked. "Miyu and I want to help as best we can."

"I think I have an idea," Fox started. "Since we don't know where the Paladin is, we should—"

"Yet," Remi interjected with a face full of bacon. "You forgot the yet."

"Let Foxy finish," Fara snipped back. "And you shouldn't interrupt people; especially with your mouth full."

Remi laughed. "Did I put my knife on the right side of the plate?" she teased, while Fara replied with a scoff.

"Anyway," interjected the vulpine. "Miyu, Fay; since you two know the area the best, I'll have Slippy join you in combing the city. Slip, mark down every area you see some sort of anomaly come up on your instruments."

"Will do," Slippy smiled.

Fox turned to Krystal. "Krys; I want you to go with Remi. You two should try to track down the Paladin. Remi; if you're saying you can feel that Paladin in the city, try to find him. Just do what you can."

Krystal just nodded along. "Okay."

"Falco, Fara, and I will wander around downtown," he concluded. "We'll talk with people in the area, see if they have any info to tell. Any little bit is important since we really don't have any to start with. Is that clear to everyone?"

Everyone around the table gave a definitive nod.

"Great," Fox grinned. "As soon as we finish up breakfast, we'll get going."

"It'll take a while for her to finish," Fara commented at Remi. The vixen in reply set down her fork with an audible clang.

"At least I look like I eat," she shot back, hiding behind her donut pyramid. "And I need my food; don't rush me."

"To be honest, you really don't look like you eat either," Miyu shrugged. Remi narrowed her eyes and kept eating.

Fara scoffed. "You think I got this body by not eating? Hon, it takes a lot more than that."

Remi snickered to herself. "Well seeing as I just met you, my initial thoughts were that you paid for that body, but that just seems silly."

Fara's ear fluttered. "There are some things money can't buy."

"You're telling me," Remi laughed into a bagel. "I'd buy a little compassion; enough to share of course."

"Fox," Fara whined.

"Remi, seriously," Fox took the notion, suddenly assuming his leadership voice. "Lay off it just a bit."

"She started it."

"And I'm ending it," grunted Fox. "I'm not having this job compromised by bickering, especially from you."

Remi set down her fork again. "I didn't do anything; I was just joking around."

"Words can hurt," Fara snipped. Fox's expression told the Cerinian that he wasn't going to intervene in her favor, so she merely rolled her eyes and continued to eat away at her plates.

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There was an eerie, indescribable aura of uncertainty befalling Naval Bay's downtown plaza. Stark reminders of why the team had to visit surrounded them as they took in their surroundings. Fox had already gone over the available shops in the area as per his plan, yet he still couldn't avoid looking around after each talk with a local. What used to be a massive tourist hub full of life and diversity more resembled a military capital fallen after a quick, one-sided battle. Fox had seen enough of those in his day, yet it didn't make the feeling any better. He felt sick, powerless, and antsy.

"Only one person did this," Fox breathed under the cover of rain. He was referencing the teams of building inspectors covering busted windows and bolted doors with caution tape and boards. Skyscrapers designed to withstand storms that frequently found home in the sea just to their east were rendered uninhabitable. Visible cracks could be seen in their foundations, and even the slightest gusts of wind from the ongoing storm would make them sway and crack further.

"Any word on Remi?" Falco asked.

"I told her to meet back up here," Fox replied with eyes still skyward. Falco had to pull the vulpine out of the way of a streetsweeper, which crept along the sidewalk, scrubbing the grime away and sweeping up glass fragments still leftover.

"Fox," Falco grunted. "C'mon dude."

"Sorry," he replied insincerely and shortly. "There's just so much here… So much damage from what we know almost nothing about…"

Falco looked around, but didn't get the same visceral reaction Fox had. He could count on one hand how many panes of glass weren't shattered or cracked. The sidewalks held deep gashes from what he could only reason that cars or heavy objects fell back down to the ground. The only lights from the city square he could see were from construction vehicles; the flashing yellow lights glancing off the damp streets. While the sky above wasn't as dark, the feeling of being down here felt overshadowed by something bigger… something they didn't know enough about.

There were areas that they couldn't get to because of the damage, so Fox, Falco, and Fara went to seek cover in a small café on the edge of the plaza. What windows the little place had been boarded up, but the owner must've hastily scribbled "we're still open!" with paint on the boards. Inside wasn't much better of a story than outside; hardly any patrons, and some employees were working on cleaning the damage up. Even so, the team managed to grab some lunch here.

Part of Fox was happy that the windows were boarded up so that he didn't have to look outside. He absently ate his sandwich, staying quiet while staring at odd things. Falco and Fara's mutual dislike of each other let the trio eat in almost complete silence. It took quite a while before Slippy, Miyu, and Fay met them at their table.

"Anything, Slip?" Falco asked.

"Nothing," he admitted. "And we looked everywhere. My range covered the whole city!"

"Not even a blip," added Miyu.

"I was beginning to think that my machines were broken…" Slippy looked down. "Sorry guys, I got nothing."

"Neither do we," Fox replied distantly. "Did either of you guys see Remi or Krystal?"

"Nope," Fay answered.

"I didn't see them," Miyu shrugged. "They might still be looking."

"Looking for what?" Fara scoffed. "This is starting to become silly and pointless. We don't even know what we're looking for!"

"Even I'm losing faith," Fox muttered. "But I can't just leave. Not yet."

"Why?" asked Miyu.

"Ol Foxy was looking around too much," Falco explained to the trio. "I think it's getting to him."

"Well yeah!" Fay interjected. "There's so much damage! So many people got hurt! Of course it will get to ya!"

Falco just sighed. "Anyway… the sooner we get this done, the better. I've got a bad feeling about this place."

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Unbeknownst to her, Krystal walked behind Remi with similar awe to Fox's, in that she was sickened by the damage and mortified knowing a single person did this. What made it worse was that they weren't close to the main plaza at all, which was supposedly the epicenter of the giant anomaly. Walking around gridlocked streets and packed sidewalks did little to mask the carnage seen block after block. Having never seen anything like this before, she clung to Remi for added safety and comfort.

Fearful of being in public when her appearance was so deviant from everyone else's—only amplified by what the ongoing situation was—all that the vixen revealed was her cuffed tail and the tapered end of her muzzle. She justified her seclusion by staying relatively dry in the rain, which hadn't let up since this morning and showed no signs of stopping.

Remi, however, was less ashamed of her appearance, and not in an extreme way. She looked like she belonged on a ranch out in rural Corneria with her red and black plaid shirt, but also showed her urban appeal with a sleeveless vest and tight, black pants. They were Cerinian; of course their taste in fashion didn't reflect the society they were in. Regardless, they didn't draw an unbearable number of eyes, which was their intention. They simply walked around the areas that they could in hopes that one or the other would be struck with brilliance.

"Fox is in a café at the plaza," Krystal told her younger counterpart.

"Tell him we'll meet in a few," Remi replied. She stopped, looked around for a handful of seconds, then kept walking. When this repeated a few more times, Krystal grew curious.

"Find something?"

"His presence is growing stronger," said Remi. "Which way am I going?"

Krystal checked her phone screen. "Towards the main plaza."

"Where Fox is?"

"Yes. You don't think—"

"He's not aware of us," Remi quickly added. "Most of his mental capacity is focused on something that I can't quite distinguish… He doesn't know we're here, but he will if he sees us."

"How do you know?"

Remi chuckled sheepishly. "Well, to be fair I don't know if that's true. Just an educated guess. Technically I'm not lying. Just misinformed."

Krystal started rubbing her wrists. Faint thoughts from those she passed by were beginning to pile on, but she stayed calm and collected behind Remi. She did feel a bit safer knowing that her staff was collapsed and hidden in her heavy coat, but that odd feeling of being perpetually watched—a feeling she's always known but merely suppressed—still felt stronger than ever now.

It took quite a bit for the two vixens to get back to the city square, but when they did, they were greeted by Fox and the rest of the team. Fox asked for their information, to which Remi relayed her findings and explained what she was going after. Without much to add in her favor, Fox obliged with her request and allowed her to see the carnage at the city's plaza for herself.

She stopped after walking a few feet, taking note of a few street performers hiding under the overhang of the surrounding buildings. Soon after, she looked at her feet, then back in front of her. "He's extremely close," she commented, again combing over her surroundings with a low yellow glow in her eyes.

"You're sure?" Falco questioned.

"No."

The bird slapped his forehead. "Then why did—"

"Can you shush a second?" Remi shoved a paw in his face. "I need… to concentrate…"

"Why?"

"Because… I think he knows."

"He?"

"The cockwaffle we've been stalking, numb-nuts," Remi sneered.

"…cockwaffle?"

"Please stop talking, Falco," breathed Remi. "I can almost—"

"Oh for crying out loud; can we just go home?" Fara whined, standing under an overhang to get out of the rain. A street performer with a guitar looked at the vixen for a moment, nearly ogling her for a split-second before resuming his song.

Fox tried to interject, "Fara, wait—"

"We haven't found anything, and we're wasting out time in the rain," moaned the vixen. "This is so dumb and all of you know it."

"That's exactly what he wants us to do," Remi retorted. "I'm not giving up… He's getting closer…"

"So when we finally find this guy, he'll just kill us since he was the one that did this," Fara huffed. "I'll take my chances elsewhere. Come on, Fox; let's get out of here."

"Hold on," Fox stood his ground. "Just relax a bit, okay?" Fara would have argued more, but Fox stopped her with a quick kiss. She still wasn't satisfied, opting to glare daggers at the Cerinian.

"Let me think for a bit," Remi insisted.

"No," Fara defiantly argued. "Listen; I've had enough of this weather, this mission, and this self-righteous teenager. Just admit you don't know what you're doing so we can leave!"

Remi just laughed at her. "I do know what I'm doing, as a matter of fact."

"Sure doesn't look that way."

Fox shook his head. "Remi, maybe she's got a point. We really haven't found much, and—"

"Shut your trap for one second," Remi groaned. "I can't concentrate with both of you whining."

"Oh so it's my fault again?" shot Fara. "Is there something you don't like about me or something? I try to be nice and cooperate with you but you all have some sort of ego-trip that—"

"Ego-trip?" Remi balked sarcastically. "Need I remind you of the first things you said to us when you forced yourself into this team?"

"Unbelievable!" Fara yipped, immediately tugging on Fox's arm. "Do you hear this? Fox, do something!"

"Listen, Remi, I—"

"Oh don't you get on her case," grunted Remi. "Just shut up a second, I think I—"

"And yet another excuse to get away from facing facts," snipped Fara.

"Can you let me do my job?"

"I could ask you the same thing!"

"Your job—for all I care—can be to…" she trailed off and looked right into Fara's eyes, instantly skeptical.

"Oh, please, finish your thought," Fara egged on maliciously, unable to sound any more fake and sarcastic. "I can wait."

Remi blinked a few times, yet still did not break her stare on the fennec. Starting to feel slightly uncomfortable—which Remi definitely noticed—Fara broke eye contact and looked at Fox as if to ask him for help. When the vulpine tried, Remi's eyes finally erupted into that odd, glowing yellow.

"You're not fooling me you little twerp."

Remi then snatched the guitar out of the street performer's hands. Before Fox could protest, she whipped the guitar behind her head by its neck, and struck down on Fara's head with enough force to scatter an avalanche of splinters. Fara immediately fell to the ground in a heap without another word. Startled and scared, the bystanders around them backed away from the incident, while a few others went to check on the injured vixen.

Fox snapped, abruptly grabbing Remi's ear and damn near pulling it off as he yanked her away. The vixen whined in protest, but he couldn't care less. "Remi!" he snarled, fire burning in his eyes that came awfully close to intimidating Remi. "Why did you do that?!" He pushed the Cerinian and knelt near Fara. "Oh no, Fara, are you okay?"

Still holding the severed neck of the guitar, Remi snarled back, "Don't chastise me! That isn't Fara!"

"Like hell it isn't!" retorted Fox, totally irate. "You're just pissy that she had a point and you were just mad! You know what; I've had enough of your crazy, immature behavior! I ought to send you back to Peppy for doing this, so he can throw you in an asylum!"

"Like that would work," scoffed Remi.

Fox tended to Fara more. "Oh my gosh… Fara, please let me know you're okay."

"I'm fine," a voice behind him spoke. Fox bolted up to come face to face with…

Fara?

Fox's jaw fell to the ground. "Wait…"

"I just had to use the restroom at the café," Fara explained with a smile. "You guys left without me. Must not have heard me, no?" Her smile quickly faded when she saw the numerous eyes staring back at her. "What? What did I do? What happened?"

Wide-eyed, Fox looked down at the unconscious Fara, then back to the other Fara, then back down to the prone and possibly dead Fara, then back at the confused Fara. "Wait… you're… not…"

Fox froze in place as the steady rainfall stopped instantly. Raindrops on their way down suddenly became frozen in time, suspended in mid-air. He turned around just in time to see the vixen Remi had just clobbered shed a dense cloud of dust. The crowd gathered around them backed away further as the cloud spread out. When the dust thinned, standing in its wake was a gold-plated canine with navy blue fur and traditional tribal garb; gaining two feet, adding well over a hundred pounds, and swapping genders from his previous alteration. The umbrella the vixen was holding transformed into a staff nearly twice the size of Krystal's, glowing brightly as if a star became trapped in the crowning jewel. Thanks to Remi, blood leaked from an open gash on the navy canine's head and created a crimson river between his glowing violet eyes.

To the convoy's surprise, the canine cracked a small grin.

"You have not lost a step, Remilia," he growled, his gritty voice ghostly and outlandish, yet still strong and intimidating. "Unfortunately for you and your friends, you have made a grave mistake. Finding me proves that your skills have not dulled over the years, but next to me, you are pathetic."

"Shut up," snapped Remi, boasting her own glowing eyes. She stepped forward in the group, assuming the lead role while defiantly holding her ground. Her expression held no fear. "You brought this on yourself. All of you have."

The Cerinian barked out a laugh. "Amusing. You think you can defy the Alphas. They warned myself and the other Paladins of deserters like you. Traitors that foolishly defy their ideals. Previous brothers and sisters lost to the void of ignorance. Your immoral attachment to this corrupt world has left you lost and broken like everyone else."

"No, you have," argued Remi, a smirk appearing on her face. "I recognize you, Karyu. You're the one. You tried to kill me on Cerinia. You're the one that broke me."

"You broke yourself, Remilia; the moment you defected from the Alphas' plan," the Paladin Karyu shot back. "I only followed through with the Alphas' demands to have you killed. You were lucky I had a shred of compassion and refused to slaughter a child as you were then. It was a shame you had to rebel like this. The Alphas had high hopes for you."

"You and the Alphas are disgusting, self-righteous, sadistic dreamers," Remi hacked. "And that's saying something coming from me."

Karyu shook his head. "You are just like the rest of them. Indoctrinated by misleading tangibles. Such a fall from grace from a young, promising Cerinian. How did your youthful daydreams corrupt you so?"

He didn't let Remi reply, opting to shake his head and regrip his staff. "I digress. As much as it goes against my moral compass, it is a shame I did not kill you sooner; the pain of seeing you so misled cuts deep. A shame I do not pity thee now when I did years ago."

"The thing is…" Remi began, shifting her feet. "You really wish you could have killed me sooner, because the way you destroyed my mind… I'm more dangerous than you could ever expect. Unlike the other people you slaughtered on Cerinia, you can't control my mind… not when even I can't control it sometimes. Your confidence is baseless. You're powerless against me."

"That may be so," the Paladin chuckled, tapping the ground with his staff. At that moment, the raindrops suspended in the air parted between himself and Remi. Remi assumed a fighting stance, but Karyu did not antagonize. "But without your friends, you cannot stand a chance of fighting back."

Karyu tapped the ground once more, and aside from Krystal, everyone surrounding them suddenly cast their gaze straight up into the overcast; their eyes going completely white before glowing a pale blue. Remi looked back to see Fox, Falco, and the others completely stiff and blank, completely taken over by the power of his staff.

She turned back to him and snarled, "Leave my friends out of this. You want me, not them."

"They will not be harmed," assured Karyu, though his glowing eyes screamed that he couldn't be trusted with anything. "I am ensuring that they will not stop me from finishing the job I started. You are a danger to yourself, Remilia. As much as you are blind to it and reluctant to change it, you are a danger to yourself, the Cerinians, and the Alpha's grand vision of a perfect world. A perfect world devoid of dreamers like you that are so easily tainted by the foul odor of sin. Should I somehow fail to apprehend you… a culture shock will be in your future, sooner than you realize."

Remi looked over her shoulder to Krystal. While she seemed hesitant, the glow in Remi's eyes seemed to calm her down. She simply nodded. Turning to look at Karyu again, Remi just giggled…

A psychotic, otherworldly aura lacing her voice.