Suggested listening: Oblivius by The Strokes
What mercy could one ask for
After being backed into a corner
All you do is turn a wild animal
Into something far worse
"Contact!"
Explosions rocked the Arwing. It lurched and turned and fired with a weight that made Wolf smile.
Fox is pretty good, isn't he?
Fox's face was frozen in a look of concentration and silent anger. Wolf blinked, taken aback by the fierce look on his face.
He looked so skittish on the ground, but up here…
Falco's voice rang over comms. "Foxy! It's so good to see you!" His face appeared as a cocky grin on Wolf's eyepiece.
"Sorry we're so late, over." Fox didn't break his rhythm as he spoke. He shot down Cornerian fighters with precision and efficiency that startled Wolf.
Like me in my glory days. Maybe I shouldn't have retired so early?
"Explain later, fight now." Falco's face disappeared and Fox snorted.
"What a birdbrain, huh?" Fox rolled his eyes. Wolf found a small grin on his face.
"Y- yeah." Fox did a U-turn and shot a bomb at a cluster of fighters. They all went up in a ball of plasma and antimatter, vaporized instantly.
"Peppy, how long will it take to plot a course out of here? Over." Fox asked.
"ROB can get it done in a few minutes, but these dang fighters are screwing up his sensors!"
Fox was silent for a moment as he started to avoid fire from another group of ships. They whizzed by the Arwing and shot up behind them.
"Alright boys, let's take care of the rest of these Cornerians! Over!"
Wolf bit his lip. "Fox, aren't you worried about casualties?"
"The guys are just drones." Fox spared a glance back at Wolf. "Since when did you care about the Cornerians?"
"Never have, never will." Wolf shrugged. "But I know you do."
"I've got no intention of hesitating for the real thing either." There was a glint in Fox's eye that unnerved Wolf.
Is this the same Fox as before? A shiver ran through Wolf's body.
Fox took out more fighters than Wolf could count without taking a lick of damage. He dropped another smart bomb on a group pursuing another Arwing, and they all vaporized without a sound.
"Thanks, dude! They almost had us." Wolf heard Bill sigh in relief.
"Watch yourself out there," Wolf replied with a smile.
Fox kept a steady beat of destroying ships and occasionally getting some off of his team's back, and sure enough, the enemy numbers dropped.
Peppy's face appeared in the eyepiece. "ROB is able to calculate a jump. Where are we headed?"
"Doesn't matter, just not here! Over!" Fox growled as a plasma bolt grazed the starboard wing. He hit the brakes and turned, firing in an arc until the offending ship was destroyed.
"ROB is looking at the abandoned Bolse Station; Jump takes ten hours!"
"Fox, I've got more incoming hostiles!" Slippy exclaimed. Wolf gripped his seat harder while he swallowed.
"Everyone retreat to the Great Fox and prepare for a subspace jump!"
Fox banked a hard right and boosted towards the Great Fox hangar entrance. He slowed the Arwing as he set it down on one of the electromagnetic launchers.
A moment later, four other Arwings flew into the hangar and set down. Wolf exhaled and slumped back into his seat.
He was safe.
"Everyone is accounted for, start the jump." Fox's voice was drained and quiet once more. He looked tired as he opened the cockpit.
Wolf tried to get up, but his legs still refused to work. "Fox?"
"Oh, right." Fox turned around and lifted Wolf up. Once he was situated around Fox's shoulders, Fox climbed down the Arwing and hit the metal floor with a clank.
"Hell of a day." Wolf sighed, wishing he had a beer bottle or two with him.
"Yeah."
"You guys are okay!" Wolf turned to see Slippy running towards them with a grin, a neutral Falco and Katt behind him.
"Alive, at least." Fox closed his eyes and scrunched his brows together.
"What happened to Wolf?" Slippy matched Fox's pace as they walked, his eyes scanning over Wolf.
Flashes of those monsters haunted his mind. He tried to think of anything else, but those unnatural things lurked at every corner, every thought.
"We… don't know." Fox glanced back at Wolf with a pain in his eyes. "He passed out, and when he woke up he couldn't move his legs."
Why does Fox sound so concerned? Why doesn't he hate me?
Slippy hummed and rubbed his chin. "Take him to the medbay for me please."
Fox stepped into the elevator, and everyone else crammed in beside him. Bill pressed the button for the second level, and the doors closed.
Wolf stared at the back of Krystal's head as thoughts formed in his mind. Was she reading everybody's thoughts? Prying into their darkest secrets without a care in the world?
A flash of anger shot through him. Sure, she apologized to him, but was it really genuine?
"Why are you guys so quiet?" Falco asked, his sharp tone slicing through the cloud of silence as he looked at Fox with crossed arms. "What happened?"
Fox replied with words that shook the small space. "We failed."
"You did?" Falco's voice went quiet as his arms dropped to his sides.
"No gains, dude. Nothing but hell down there." Bill looked to the floor. Wolf felt a weight settle in his gut as even Bill's attitude splintered.
The doors opened, and Slippy, Fox, and Bill exited. The others stayed in the elevator and continued upwards towards the bridge.
They walked down the halls to the medbay, where Fox set Wolf on a bed before sitting down on another next to it. Bill leaned on the wall with his hands shoved into his coat pockets.
"So you can't move your legs at all?" Slippy stood next to the bed with his hands on his hips.
Wolf shook his legs. "Can't even feel the damn things and I don't know why." The panic from before started to set back in. He took a few deep breaths and closed his eye.
"How did you pass out?"
Wolf scratched his head. "I had heard one of those things make a noise… and it all kinda hit me. I fell."
Slippy frowned at the mention of the monsters. "Remember anything else?"
"I had some weird dreams… and then I woke up and I couldn't move them." Wolf fell on the bed with a huff. He covered his head with his hands.
"Fox, what are these 'things?'" Slippy crossed his arms and looked at Fox.
Both Bill and Fox shuddered. "They were whatever caused the chaos on Corneria." He hugged himself. "Weird misshapen things made of this black oily stuff."
"Jeez, that's super creepy." Slippy rubbed his chin again. "Did you have any experiences with them, Wolf?"
"They took my team away. They almost killed me." Wolf's voice was barely above a whisper.
"That's horrible!" Slippy paced the length of the medbay for a minute with a sad look in his eyes.
"Now how could that correlate to- oh! I've got it!" He snapped his fingers before walking back to Wolf's side.
"What? What is it?" Wolf felt anticipation bubble in his chest.
"Your injury is probably psychosomatic."
Wolf blinked. "Psycho-what?"
"Psychosomatic. It's like your mind fabricating an injury that isn't real."
"Still not following." Wolf crossed his arms and cocked his head.
Slippy sighed. "There's something in your mind that's blocking you from using your legs. It must have happened when you passed out."
Something in Wolf collapsed. "Oh," he muttered as he stared down at his hands.
This happened because I'm weak.
Fox stood up and set his hand on Wolf's shoulder. "How can he treat it?"
"Find what the mental problem is, and work through it. I'm not a therapist, so I can't help with that. I'm really sorry."
Fox pressed a hand to his temple. "Do we have a wheelchair, at least?"
Slippy nodded. "One sec," he said before walking off to another section of the medbay.
Wolf looked at his weak, useless legs. He didn't know what to think anymore. Nothing was right, his reality was just… gone.
"Dude, it's gonna be alright." Bill smiled at Wolf and gave him a thumbs up. That smile was still shaky, and it didn't quite reach his eyes this time.
"How? I don't even know why this happened." Wolf balled his hands into fists.
"We can all figure this out. Together." Fox patted his back, an unreadable expression on his face.
I just can't figure you out, Fox McCloud.
"Got one!" Slippy came over with a wheelchair and handed them to Wolf.
Wolf swung his legs to dangle off the bed, but he caught Slippy staring at his metal boots. "What?"
"What's that black stuff on them?" Slippy crouched down and looked over the sole of the boot.
"I don't… oh. I think it's residue from those monsters." Wolf leaned down to look at the sticky substance smattered on his boots.
Slippy walked over to a row of cabinets and pulled out a flask and knife. He came back and crouched before scraping away at the goop. Little chunks of it fell into the flask as he collected the substance.
"I'll run some tests and see what this stuff is." Slippy used a rubber stopper to close the flask with the knife inside it.
Fox helped Wolf maneuver into the wheelchair, where he sat with a grunt. How humiliating!
"You can do that after the debriefing. Come on." Fox started walking out of the medbay while Bill wheeled Wolf, who grumbled but didn't protest.
They walked down the hall and got in the elevator. A moment later, they arrived at the bridge and walked out of the lift into it, where everyone else was already waiting. The view out of the window was of the stars blurring into lines that streaked across the glass.
All eyes locked on him for a moment before focusing on Fox.
"Fox!" Peppy exclaimed, a relieved look on his face. "What happened down there?"
Fox grimaced and shoved his hands into his pockets. He walked up to the front of the bridge and turned around to face everyone.
Fox cleared his throat and raised his chin. "We went down to the surface to search for what caused this crisis, and perhaps find Wolf's missing team. What we found instead was a collapsed city, two missing armies, and hordes of monsters."
He's got a solid speaking voice. Wolf nodded in approval. Gotta admit he's a good leader.
"Pepper and the Cornerian Army are against us and we have no idea what these things are or where Wolf's team is." Fox looked over everyone in the bridge. "But we cannot give up. We have to save this planet, and we will find those answers. We will find Wolf's team." Fox stared at Wolf as he finished his speech.
"But how are we gonna do this?" Falco asked, his arms crossed.
"Slippy can start work on analyzing the monsters." Fox looked at Slippy, who nodded.
"And us?" Katt asked.
"Get some rest." Fox yawned and rubbed his eyes as he spoke. "Get ready for the next fight."
Wolf hummed at those words. He didn't feel the slightest bit tired; if anything, he was more alert than usual. Ideas popped into his head as to what he could do to pass the time.
Krystal cleared her throat. "What happens after we get to Bolse?"
"I'm still working on it, and I'll get back to you all later." Fox sat in the captain's chair with a sigh. "That's it. You're all dismissed."
Wolf rolled next to Bill as thoughts of the dogfight against the Cornerians replayed itself in his head. "Hey, we're low on fighter capacity, aren't we?"
Bill nodded. "Yeah, how come?"
"Bolse has a few prototype ships from the Lylat Wars that we could use if they're still around."
"Course you'd know that." Bill grinned and punched him on the shoulder.
"You think they would help?" Wolf crossed his arms and looked up at Bill.
Bill gave him a thumbs up. "We need as much power as we can get, dude!"
"Sounds good."
"You should tell Fox about it!"
Wolf nodded before turning towards the captain's seat where Fox was rubbing his eyes. He rolled towards it and stopped in front of the chair.
"Fox, I've got an idea." Wolf tapped Fox's shoulder as he spoke.
Fox looked over at him with a raised eyebrow. "What's that?"
"I know how we can get extra firepower."
"How's that?"
"There should be some prototype Wolfens at Bolse. We can snag em when we get there and repair them!"
Fox crossed his arms and frowned. "How do you know about that?"
"I worked with the Venomians, remember?" Wolf scratched the back of his head and looked away.
"Right…"
"Uh, is that alright? Bill and I both wanna do it." Can't stop saying stupid shit can you Wolf?
"Sure, yeah." Fox yawned again and Wolf frowned.
"Get some rest, Fox. You need it more than me."
Fox nodded and got up before he started walking out of the bridge. Wolf shook his head.
Poor bastard is gonna work himself to death.
Wolf turned around to stare at the stars as they flashed by outside the window. Everything morphed into a chaotic sea of white and blue, which made Wolf relax. He stretched his arms out and rested them behind his head.
In the sea of tranquility, storm clouds started to form. Flashes of lightning shot through Wolf's mind, and thunder reverberated through his skull.
The thunder of his unanswered questions. Where were Panther and Leon? Why haven't they contacted him? Why was Fox showing him kindness?
Why was he so useless?
He wrapped the leather coat around him and sighed into it.
You're better than this. You don't need their help with every little thing. You'll get over this stupid block!
The stars felt painful to look at. He turned around and started wheeling out of the bridge. Down the quiet elevator and back into the lifeless halls where he stopped in front of the door to his room.
Escape from reality.
"Wolf."
He turned around to see Krystal walk up to him, her hair tied up in a messy ponytail. There were bags under her eyes as well.
"Yeah?" Wolf crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow.
She stopped in front of him and shoved her hands into the pockets of her coat. "I'm terribly sorry about everything." She closed her eyes and sighed.
"I won't make excuses, what I did was wrong. I didn't trust you and I thought you were out to get Fox and-"
Wolf held up a hand, and Krystal went silent. "Promise not to look in my mind anymore?"
Krystal nodded. "I promise."
"Then we're good." Wolf smiled and reached his hand out. Krystal shook it with a smile of her own.
"You should try to get to know everyone, by the way. You'll probably be here a while," Krystal remarked after they let go.
"Why would you want to talk to me?" Wolf snorted.
"You want to prove you can be trusted somehow, right?"
"Yeah, I suppose."
"Then you're gonna have to be the one to talk to them." She gave him a thumbs up as she walked away.
Wolf sighed. Easy for you to say.
He entered his room and rolled over to the bed. He hummed as he looked his situation over.
Just push yourself up there, Wolf. This isn't hard.
He set his hands on the bed and gripped the blankets as he slowly lifted himself out of the wheelchair and into the bed.
Somehow he made it up without falling. He took his boots and coat off and set them on the wheelchair before scrambling awkwardly into the covers.
Before he lay down, he took his PDA from his pocket and set an alarm for six hours ahead. Satisfied, he tossed it onto the nightstand.
He then reached to take his eyepatch off but felt only mangled flesh.
Right. It's gone.
Wolf sighed again before he rolled onto his side and shut his eye. Drowsiness overcame him and soon he fell asleep.
