Chapter 10: Clouded Thoughts
(Cornerian Academy)
A young vulpine dashed down the hallways of the Cornerian Academy, his footsteps echoing ahead of him. He held his schedule up, his eyes scanning the page for the correct information. They quickly found it, leading him down yet another hallway. The fluorescent lights watched the vulpine as he made his way down the abandoned halls, stopping in front of a lone classroom.
Room 203.
The vulpine pushed the door open…
(Jatrian Sky)
Fox and the others sped their Arwings over the many grasslands of Jatria, giving no thought to the marvelous scenery that expanded below them. Fox's mind raced as he contemplated his next move.
DAMN HIM!!! Even when we defeat him, we fail to stop his plans! AAH!!! What could Nordon have planned to use that cargo truck for!?
Fox was so engrossed in these thoughts that he failed to notice the face of a blue vixen appear upon his wrist communicator.
"Fox? Fox, please calm down. We'll stop them! We're here to help you! We saved Jatria. Come on, Fox, listen to me!" the vixen cried out.
"Yeah, Foxy, listen to her. Here she is, looking at the bright side, and all you can do is stare out the window!" Katt said, her face coming onto the communicator as well.
"Uh, yeah. Thanks guys. I just…need time to think…" Fox said, taking a deep breath.
"Ok, Fox. Just remember, you're here with us. If you need anything, we're here for you. You're not alone." Krystal said solemnly.
"Thanks, Krystal."
(Jatria's Orbit)
The Arwings pulled out into the void of space. Fox's Arwing steadily pulled ahead, the others beginning to fall behind.
"Hey, Fox, mind waiting up for the rest of us?" Falco asked sarcastically.
"What? Oh. Sorry." Fox said, letting his Arwing slowly drift back among the others.
Peppy's face suddenly appeared on everybody's communicators.
"Hey, gang. Back so soon?" Peppy asked, a grin on his face.
"No time, Peppy. Open the docking bay doors." Fox said anxiously.
"Whoa, ok. Hang on a sec." Peppy said, shocked at Fox's cold words.
The Arwings approached the Great Fox, quickly pulling in to the docking bay. Fox jumped out of his Arwing and rushed to the inner areas of the Great Fox, leaving the rest of the team behind.
"This sure is making him crazy, isn't it?" Falco asked the others.
"He's worrying me." Krystal said with a tinge of sorrow.
"Hey, don't worry about it." Katt reassured Krystal with a smile. "He may act all tense at times, but his intentions are always true. His moral compass is always pointing north. Sometimes, a little too north…"
"Come on. We're falling behind enough as it is. If he gets any farther ahead, he'll already be at Corneria by the time we get up to the bridge." Falco said, holding the door open for everyone else again, letting it close behind him.
(The Bridge)
Fox quickly moved around the bridge, typing different commands into several keyboards. ROB managed to keep up with his commands, but Peppy had a little more trouble.
"Do we know where that cargo ship is!?" Fox asked, nearly yelling aloud.
"Um, wait, uh, here it is! It just used the Orbital Gate. It's entering Corneria's atmosphere now." Peppy said, struggling to keep up with Fox's demands.
"Ugh, come on!" Fox said aloud.
Fox finished his work with the keyboards and took his seat by the time the others entered the room. He typed in several more commands on the keyboard on his armrest. A holographic message appeared, showing the Cornerian Emblem. After a second, the face of General Pepper showed up.
"General Pepper here. Ah, Fox! I received word from the soldiers of Jatria! They said that you had located the problems there. I take it you were able to resolve them…" General Pepper started.
"Yessir, General Pepper." Fox said hurriedly. "But there's something I need to tell you about. The leader of the attacks here, he uses some sort of device to take control of the people around here. We have reason to believe that he sent some of those devices to Corneria…" Fox explained.
"Oh. Well, what do you advise we do?" General Pepper asked.
"We've been tracking the cargo ship as it left Jatria. Can you locate it? It just recently entered Cornerian airspace." Fox nearly pleaded. ROB transferred the information over to the General.
"Hang on a moment. Aggh, it's no good. There's too much traffic here. It'll be a little bit before we can track it. Get back here as soon as possible. We'll charge the Orbital Gate. It'll be ready within the hour! Pepper, out!" the General said, his hologram disappearing.
"ROB, estimated time until Orbital Gate appears!" Fox demanded.
"Estimated time 34 minutes, 53 seconds." the robot whirred.
"Everybody, get ready! I want to be able to run off the Great Fox when we get to Corneria!" Fox ordered.
"Yessir!" Falco mocked, saluting.
The team rushed down to their rooms, not wanting to give Fox a reason to explode. Katt, already being packed, waited in the living area. Peppy made his way down to the living area as well. He took a seat at the table. Katt walked over to him, concerned about the absence of his usual cheery disposition.
"Hey, Peppy, you okay?" she asked.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. Don't worry yourself." Peppy avoided.
"Come on, Peppy, you can tell me." Katt said, taking a seat across from him. He thought to himself for a moment, then sighed.
"It's just that…Fox's father would act like this, too. He would always get like that whenever a mission started to get personal. It's just bringing back old memories…" Peppy said, his eyes lost in the past.
"It's ok, Peppy. We'll sort all of this out. We'll get whatever those things are and destroy them! You can count on us. Then Fox'll be back to normal, kay?" she asked with a convincing smile.
"Alright. So are you already packed? You don't want Fox to lecture you. He's had too much experience with me lecturing him." Peppy joked.
"Yeah, I'm packed. Didn't have much time to unpack…" Katt said slowly, her thoughts going back to the night before they reached Jatria.
"You don't say. Well, in any case, the team will probably come back here any second. I'm sure Fox already formulated a plan for you guys to follow." Peppy said with a smile. "Just like James. Only now, I don't have anything to do…"
"Why don't you make us a fancy celebratory dinner. That way it'll be ready by the time we get back and we can all enjoy our success." Katt suggested.
"Perfect! I'll get right on it!" Peppy jumped up, rushing into the kitchen.
Katt went back to take a seat on the couch, the door to the living area opening. Fox walked in immediately, sliding his backpack off from his arms. He took a seat at the table, tapping his fingers on the table impatiently.
"Where are they!? I told them to be ready! We'll never get things done at this pace!" Fox cursed aloud.
"Hey, Fox. Calm down." Katt told him across the room. "We've still got a good twenty minutes at least before we can even use the Gate. We got time."
"NO! We don't!!!" Fox burst out, standing up from his seat. "That scum is planning something! They set their plan in motion before we even knew what was going on! You think we still have time!? Corneria could be in flames by the time we get there!!!"
Katt was about to respond when the living area doors opened again, revealing the rest of the team.
"Hey, Fox! Hey, Katt! We're here!" Slippy said with a large grin. He then noticed the tension hanging in the air. "Is something wrong?" Slippy asked tentatively.
"No. Now everybody come here. I'll brief you on my plan." Fox said, his rage cooling down to a murmur of what it once was. A tinge of anger, however, could be heard behind each word.
"Oh, come on, Fox. What's so difficult about this? We get down there, we find that cargo, and we smash it. One-two-three." Falco said, nonchalant.
"You think it's that easy!? Well, it isn't!!! Now sit down and pay attention!!!" Fox nearly yelled, his voice echoing off the walls.
"Hey, Fox! We're your teammates! Back off! We know you want to protect everyone, but you're going to have to simmer down first!" Falco shot back.
"Yes, Fox. You've been acting strangely ever since we left Jatria…" Krystal added. "You're not yourself."
Fox only stared at them. He took a breath and sat down. He pressed a couple of buttons, bringing up a diagram of the space around Corneria. An image representing the Great Fox sat in a chunk of space.
"We'll leave the Great Fox by Arwing, and head down towards here." Fox said, indicating a point on Corneria's surface. " The Great Fox will go to the Hangars in the meantime. The General got the information about the cargo ship, it went through Montoya Shipping. We'll go down to the surface and question those at Montoya. Once we get our answers, we'll track down the ship from there."
"Ok, Fox." Krystal said. "We'll always be here to help you."
A metallic voice cracked onto the loudspeakers.
"Orbital Gate opening. Prepare for jump to Corneria." the voice clanged.
"Let's go." Fox said.
(Room 203)
The young vulpine walked into the room, surprised to see only one other person sitting in the room. He walked over and sat down next to him.
"Hi." the vulpine said.
"Hi." the tadpole said back.
"I'm Fox, Fox McCloud." the vulpine started, holding his hand out.
"I'm Slippy, Sli-wait. Did you say, McCloud? You mean like Mr. James McCloud is your father?" the tadpole asked, shocked.
"Yeah…" Fox said, looking down. Slippy noticed his unease about that topic, so he quickly changed the topic.
"So, I'm Slippy Toad!" he yelled out awkwardly. He held out a short, underdeveloped hand.
"But you're not a toad…" Fox mentioned, taking the small hand in his.
"Not yet, I'll grow into it." Slippy explained.
"Oh, ok. So uh, where's the rest of the class?" Fox asked, moving on.
"This is it so far. Everybody else has decided to take this whole week off. But, my dad told me to come here anyway. He wants me to make sure I get an education from the beginning, right from the first day!"
"So where's the teacher then?"
"In the teacher's lounge. He's been there for the past thirty minutes." Slippy said, looking down at a small device in his hands.
"How do you know?" Fox asked.
"This." Slippy said, holding up the device in his hands. "It's a tracking device, I put it on the teacher to test it out."
"Where'd you get it?"
"I made it. I've been good with these types of things. It just takes a long time. When my arms get longer, I'll be able to work faster."
"Wow." Fox managed to say, looking down at the device. The little dot on the screen started to move.
"Looks like he's heading towards the main office. I guess we'll have to wait a little longer."
As the two looked down at the screen, the door to the room opened again.
"Come on, Falco! We're here!" a feminine voice said. A cat and a bird walked in, surprised to see only two people in the classroom, with no teacher. "This is…Cornerian History, right?"
"Yeah. The teacher's at the main office right now, though." Slippy explained.
"Oh, ok then." the feline said with a smile. She pulled on the avian's hand. "Come on, Falco, let's get a seat!"
The avian allowed himself to be dragged to the next pair of seats next to Slippy and Fox. The four sat there for a couple of minutes. Fox and Slippy continued to watch the tracker, Falco and Katt talking amongst themselves. Katt broke the silence between the groups after a while.
"This isn't much fun. Hey, you, fox-boy, what do you have after this class?" Katt asked over Falco's head.
"Huh, me?" Fox asked, breaking away from the tracker. "Uh, let's see… Mechanics."
Katt pulled out her own schedule, taking Falco's out of his pocket as well.
"Room 117?" Katt asked.
"Yeah."
"Well, it looks like we're going to be in the same classes then. I'm Katt Monroe. How 'bout you fox-boy?" Katt asked.
"I'm Fox, Fox McCloud." Fox said in response. Falco's eyes widened as he heard his name. He turned, noticing the StarFox emblem resting on the vulpine's uniform.
"Wait, you mean McCloud, the mercenary?" Falco asked. "The one why everyone else is acting all sad and everything!?"
"Yeah, my father was James McCloud. Why?"
"I got a question for you, then!" Falco said, his voice gaining intensity with each word. "What makes your father so important!? Why is it the world is so upset for his death when soldiers go into battle against Andross everyday and die pointlessly!?"
Katt and Slippy stared up at Falco, only able to watch.
"What!? What are you talking about!?" Fox asked, feeling defensive.
"Why is it that people only notice what's going on around them when your father dies!? They don't care when it's other people's parents, other people's families! What makes your family so special!?" Falco yelled, tears forming in his eyes.
"I-I don't…" Fox stammered.
"You don't know!? Or is it you don't care!? Well, you want to know something? I'm glad your father died!" Falco screamed. He ran out the room, flinging the door open as he ran out.
"Falco, wait!" Katt pleaded, running into the hallway after him.
Fox fell down into his seat, his eyes staring blankly into oblivion.
(Cornerian Atmosphere)
The team walked down the cold metallic hallways of the Great Fox in total silence. No one wanted to say a thing, lest Fox's temper go sour once again. They walked into the docking bay, the tint of green light ever present in the room echoing out into the void of space. Fox mechanically entered his Arwing, the others following suit. Fox was the first one to talk when they entered space.
"Everyone ready?" Fox asked coldly.
"Yeah, set to go." Falco replied just as coldly, avoiding looking at the communicator.
"Good, let's go then." Fox stated, his Arwing boosting down to Corneria. The others followed him towards surface. Peppy's face appeared on the communicator as they rushed down through the atmosphere.
"I'll take the Great Fox to the hangars, then. See you all when you finish." Peppy said solemnly. The link disconnected, the Great Fox slowly turning, facing a point on the planet's surface. The large ship boosted with surprising speed down towards the planet.
"This ends now." Fox said to himself, his attention returning to the mission. The Arwings broke through the atmosphere and settled in the air.
(Cornerian Sky)
The Arwings ripped through the sky, Cornerian ocean rushing beneath them as they sped past. The city of Corneria sat in front of the Arwings, growing ever closer, only a bright speck on the horizon. The team, however, remained ever silent. This silence left Fox alone with his thoughts. He stared down at the ocean, watching the endless waves speed by.
Maybe I am too irrational…I don't know. Krystal and Falco are right, though. If I'm going to take care of this, I'll need help from the rest of them. And I'm going to have to settle down for that to happen. I just want to keep everyone safe. People don't deserve this type of pain. No one should have to feel what I felt…
Fox broke away from his thoughts, staring down at the expanse of ocean for only a second more. He turned on the communicator.
"Everyone, I have something to say. I'm-I'm sorry for how I acted before." Fox stammered out.
"Eh, it's ok, Foxy. We're here for ya. Remember that." Falco said, a grin back on his face. "It's good to have ya back, fur pile."
"Yeah, Fox. We want to stop these guys as much as you do!" Slippy enthusiastically said in his seat.
"You know it! These guys are going down!" Katt added as well.
"Thanks everyone. I can't do this alone. I'm going to need all the help I can get." Fox responded to all of them.
"Yes, Fox. Remember, we'll always be here for you." Krystal quietly uttered. Fox barely heard it. He smiled down at her image on the communicator. As he looked down, however, he saw a glint in the ocean. He pulled to the side as a laser shot out of the ocean.
"Evasive maneuvers!!! They've set up an ambush!!!" Fox ordered.
As Fox and the others separated, several ships popped out of the ocean. Fox boosted, turning his Arwing around to face the oncoming attackers.
"It looks like they expected us to come after that cargo ship!" Fox said to the others, heading towards the ships. Three ships out of the fifteen started heading for Fox.
"Yeah. I guess we should appreciate their welcoming party. I mean, they went through all of the trouble of setting it up." Falco laughed, a large grin still sitting on his face. He shot several lasers out, two of which clipped the wing of one fighter, leaving smoking marks where it came into contact.
Fox made a beeline for the center of the dogfight. The three fighters concentrated on him fired their lasers. Fox weaved between them. He merely watched as the red beams passed overhead, like pieces of decorative ribbons soaring through the sky. One laser managed to find a route to the Arwing. Fox watched it as it came close, then used a barrel roll to deflect it. Fox looked forward as the world spun around him, the sky and the ocean switching places every second. When he saw the glint of the laser enter the ocean, he shot out lasers of his own. Two of the opposing ships crashed down into the ocean. He passed the third one, unable to aim his laser fast enough. He executed a U-turn, in hopes of being able to catch it. The pilot, however, saw this coming, and boosted below Fox's Arwing, flying out into open air.
"This is taking too long!" Fox said after several minutes. "The city will be under their control by the time we finish this!"
"Go, then, Fox! We can handle ourselves here! Head for that shipping company! Don't worry, we'll catch up!" Falco said, spiraling upwards to shake off an enemy.
"Are you sure?"
"GO!"
With that, Fox boosted off, taking down one more foe as he sped towards the city. Falco sighed as he looked down at his radar: Nine left. He merely glanced at the fleeting figure of Fox's Arwing, then returned to the task at hand.
"LET'S DO THIS BULLSHIT!!!" Falco roared, rushing off into battle.
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Author's Notes: HOLY CRAP!!! Sorry folks. It's a loooooong story. So I'll start from the beginning. My laptop had been experiencing battery problems for a while now. And by battery problems, I mean like, at times, the battery would stop receiving energy from the power cord. And when I tried plugging it back in, it wouldn't read. So, after a while, if I didn't get the connection set back up, the computer would shut down entirely, because, well, it wouldn't have energy. And getting the connection back up was a total BITCH! Seriously, about 30 minutes to an hour of wiggling the cord, hoping the little orange light on the laptop would hold. So, about a week or two ago, I sent the computer back to the company to fix this little problem. I forgot, however, to send myself an email containing the 3/4 of this chapter that I had already typed up. I only got my computer back three days ago. And, being a sentimentalist, I didn't feel like re-doing most of this chapter on my sister's laptop, because I feel that I had captured a gist of the emotion in what was already written, and that if I accidentally left a part out in my re-write, the impact of it wouldn't be as great. So I apologize for the wait. I do hope, though, that you enjoy the revelations present in this chapter. Fox has PMS and Falco had it when he was like 6. But, that aside, I enjoyed writing that little paragraph about Fox's dogfight. BARREL ROLL!!!!! That's ELA writing skills at work! Oh well. Now that my computer's back, I'll get back to writing this here fanfic. Thank you to those that will continue reading this despite my absence. Oh, and I apologize if anyone was offended by that last bit of indecency in the last sentence. If anyone has seen the G-Man squad on Youtube, you'll know why I needed to put that in. I just had to have that in there. Now for reviews!
Reviews:
There was an influx of reviews this time! That's kind of why I had 3/4 of this chapter done before I sent my computer in. I wanted to get all of these in! Arrgh. Oh well. Here they are now!
-paranoidsocialclub 2008-12-07 . chapter 9
Wow... I can't wait for the next chapter to see what the new idea is. You ended with a cliffhanger, which will now drive me insane waiting for the update... but I'll live. The fight scene was amazing, and very well detailed.
Happy writing!
~PSC~ (one of the last surviving Male gamers and fanfiction writers)
Well, here we are gentlemen. And by gentlemen, I mean basically you and me since male gamers/fanfiction writers are of a dying breed apparently. Who knew? Thank you for the constant encouragement. This is half the reason I write. The encouragement of fans is always refreshing and having a die-hard such as yourself really makes me proud. Seriously sorry for the long wait. If you haven't entered a mental institution from waiting since you wrote that comment, I can't even imagine what could've happened during that long expanse of time when I stopped all together. The new idea isn't present in this chapter, but I promise, it'll come up soon, possibly. And, by the way, I love that cliffhanger. I wanted to see how people would respond with that, haha. But again, thank you for your continued devotion to this story.
-theXbeat08 2008-12-07 . chapter 9
This fic is so good. I feel bad for not reviewing yet, but I've been reading from the beginning. You had me hooked on this story from the first chapter, which was awesome. The whole story just sort of rolled from there, all going really nicely. Just one thing: WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? It's getting really intense! Keep it up!
Good luck,
theXbeat08
Thank you for the compliment. I was waiting for a review from you. I saw that you were one of the first people to favorite this story. Second, to be exact. I really appreciate having another loyal fan added to the roster. Hope you enjoy this chapter as well. Don't worry, it'll all unfold soon, I think. To be frank, even I'm not quite sure what's going to happen next. I didn't even plan that dogfight at the end, it just kind of popped up when I was writing. Just goes to show how this story can change a simple "Go from point A to point B" piece into an epic battle. So here's to continuing, thank you for your devotion as well.
-GamerJay 2008-12-07 . chapter 9
Superb plot, razor sharp dialogue and near-heart stopping action. What more could I describe which makes this fic an excellent read?
You just need to work on your spelling, and we'll have a winner on our hands.
Keep up the good work. :-)
Thank you for the compliments as well. Heart stopping, huh? I like the sound of that. Just one question, and I really don't want to sound uppity. Just, what spelling errors, specifically? I'd get right on them, it's just that, I didn't notice any…If you could point out a couple when you next review, it'd be greatly appreciated. That's the beauty of this system. I want to make this fic as near perfect as possible, and any mistakes should be rectified as soon as possible. I await your response and hope you continue to enjoy this story.
-notfromearth7 2008-12-08 . chapter 8
No overuse of quotation tags, good job. The only thing I could've asked for was a longer battle scene, but that's just me.
Good job!
notfromearth7 2008-12-10 . chapter 9
This is an excellent story! I mean really, this is good. It rivals most of the new stories on this site.
Thank you for continued devotion as well! That gives me a grand total of about three loyal fans. Yeah, I kinda rushed that battle scene in chapter 8. Even though I wrote it a seemingly long time ago, I still remember why it was so short. Like this chapter, I wrote it at around 4 A.M., and I wanted to finish that chapter as soon as possible, since I was so tired. But don't worry, there'll be plenty of more battles to come. In the meantime, I hope this dogfight will appease you. And thank you very much for the compliments. I really enjoy writing this. Starfox 64 was the first game I had, if I exclude Pokémon Red. So I have this special devotion to this fanfic. I think that's why it is the way it is. Hope you enjoy the chapters to come!