A/N: Man, it's getting to be worse than Office Space at work. They've got spyware on the computers now, that monitor everything you do, every click you make, every keystroke you make and analyze every time you copy something that is sent to the virtual clipboard. They also deleted AIM and Open Office from the work computer...which sucked because I had to re-add all my words to the dictionary so the spell checks wouldn't take forever. Then they took a screen shot of my "program files" and left it in my "documents" section. I doctored it so the files in question were deleted and replaced by winzip8 and I changed AIM to like a windows update folder, lol. Then I resaved the screen shot photograph... but not before changing the date and time on my computer so that it doesn't look like I modified it later. In their eye.
Also, all my stories and stuff that I work on at work were put in a folder called DRIVER UPDATES. I did this back in september and they left that folder alone. So nothing was lost... but I've archived everything by emailing it to myself... I do that anyhow with the latest chapter... i email it to myself every night and play that game to keep myself safe. Until I get a driver for windows98 that allows me to use my USB JumpDrive, I've gotta do it that way. :(
They can't keep a writer down, buwahahaha. I disabled the client that monitors my keystrokes, clicks and clipboard. I'll restart it before I leave and re-deactivate it in the morning heh heh. No one spies on ME! Sorry this author's note is so long today... I kinda rushed this chapter so that I could get the story back on track... so it's a little short since I had no time, today. The next one will be really good, though. In fact, the next one will be really neat and different as well. I think you'll ALL like it. It'll be as romantic as chapter 7 and yet, it will be as sci-fi as I can make it! So get ready...
I'm starting to dislike some of my work here. Just becasuse I've been rushing to get it done for all the requests. I like the oracle though. If you haven't read Krystal's conversation with the oracle about her future, it's in chapter '12', of REFLECTIONS OF KRYSTAL. I'd added it a few days ago, during the re-write. It kicks tail, really. One reader said he was moved, almost to tears by it :)
That's pretty Pro! But it's been difficult churning out everything I wanna do without getting way off topic. ... I'm saving some of those ideas for other stories that aren't part of the Reflections Serries. (The third one will start right as the new StarFox comes out for The Revolution, so it won't be out for a while) I've got this idea where Krystal loses all her memories and Katt and Panther get into some sort of feline-family-fued for Falco. (that's some alliteration!) I'll be working on that after this. Also, I'm about to put up a new chapter for Similar Paths Taken, which is one of my most unique conceptual ideas, if you ask me... I mean really, Fox McCloud Junior and his GF, Fara Phoenixfrom the Snes/Comic universe get thrown into the universe where Mercenary Fox McCloud, son of James, and his GF Krystal both live? Then I get really wild in/around chapter 8... so if you haven't read it, well.. I've got 3 other stories besides Reflections of Krystal and Reflections of the Future.. plenty for you guys to catch pu on...
There's a good reason why I bounce back and forth from story to story...
See, boys and girls, I have spurts of hot ideas then I run into the Writers Block of Doom. And people's is like "YO YO FO'REAAAAAL, you got dat chappie yet?" hehe. Well, anyway… Here it is! I'm sorry I haven't been around for a few days. First I mashed up two fingers on my left hand (not pro!), then I get a sinus infection while I was out of town over night. I took so much stuff that I not only dried up my nose, I think I might just turn totally to dust (I mixed Tylenol Allergy Complete with Allegra and Singular, because alone, each of the three did nothing for my nose… and after 2 hours, I added another, and after 2 more hours, I added the third until suddenly, no more nose problems. The next day, I reversed the order thinking it was the last thing I may have taken.. nope… it required all 3 again. Lol. Last night, I just took the Tylenol and no problems so I probably beat it into complete submission.). Then, I spent some time with my oldest son (age 5), and read him two children's books and spent some time with him: totally Pro.
Anyway, we're going to see Krystal learn how to ride something as complicated as a motorcycle in this chapter… It will not be graceful the first time without a teacher, with a heavy metal machine that's nearly all engine but with the added weight of a gun on the front… It's not going to be easy and she's not going to make it look graceful at first. I was inspired by a photograph done by some dude named "Powree" of Krystal on a blue motorcycle… it was only a COINCIDENCE that a 600 pound Harley totally owned me on Sunday. Anyway, back to the story!
-kit
C H A P T E R ten
The machine weighed far more than she did. She straddled the bike and quickly realized that it was a heavy, almost cumbersome machine. She placed her left foot on the bar, trying to determine how the gears worked with the clutch. She couldn't actually find the clutch at first. Following a cable coming out of the left handle bar, she realized that it disappeared into the engine casing. It didn't take more than a few moments for the girl to figure out that tapping it a few times would run through the gears, lifting up on it with her toe would pull the gears back through the numbers and that Neutral was between first and second, because the little "N" that flashed on the dash when she played with it.
The clutch and that would surely take some getting used to. She wasn't yet sure what the peddle beneath her right foot was used for so she eased into it. There was a light hiss for the rear tire and she decided it was part of the brakes.
"No time like now to learn a new skill," She decided to herself. Kicking the ignition bar, the bike rumbled to life but it wasn't as loud as she thought it would be. It had a throaty growl to it but in truth, it was not as consuming in volume as she would have previously assumed. Some how, the bike's engine was only about as loud as plain conversation, if not just a few decibels more.
Tapping her left foot, the bike went into first gear and she released the clutch slowly. It began to roll forward and she eased the right handle bar to give it a bit of gas. Releasing the rest of the clutch too quickly, the bike immediately jumped forward which surprised her. Before she realized it, the engine stalled and she had no time to acclimate her mind and paws with where the braking system was. Her head lowered to the right handle bar and when she glanced back up, she braced for the impact with two more machines that were off to the side, out of service.
At the last possible moment, Krystal turned the bike to the right, hard. The heavy machine tipped to the left and she tumbled over. The bike came to rest over her leg and she hit her elbow on the ground. The vixen came to realize that shorts and a t-shirt with vest was a poor choice of clothes for such a machine. Something with padded sleeves and pant legs would have been a better choice.
She attempted to lift the bike in this position but her efforts were futile. After a moment of struggling, she wiggled out from beneath it, then lifted the machine back upon its wheels. "MY aren't you a cumbersome beast," groused the azure furred fox with a distasteful kick at the machine. "All right, you and I are going to have an understanding," She announced to the bike. Once it was back on two wheels, she eased her leg back over it, ignoring the pain of her scraped knee and elbow.
Her second attempt on the motorcycle began with putting the bike into neutral. She walked it back from the other machines, which were now sandwiched together and scraped up. She turned the handle bars and put it back into first, trying to let off the clutch more slowly this time. The bike idled up to what first seemed like a formidable speed. She finally had the clutch all the way open and the machine took her from one end of the massive room to the other in no time.
The problem came when it was time to stop the bike. She hit the front brakes and lowered her feet to the ground, trying to keep the bike stable when coming to a stop. Once it came to a stop, she realized that the balance was difficult to keep at low speeds and the weight carried her over again, once more pinning her leg beneath the metallic beast.
She quickly realized that there was a fine line between graceful, refined elegance and whatever it was that she was doing. Unceremoniously upon the floor once more; this time, the bike had flopped over and smashed her paw between the handle bar and the ground. She flinched, recoiling her paw in pain but didn't let out a single sound.
From the pain of the bike's flat ended handle bar that practically crushed her paw, she literally shoved the machine off of herself in disgust. Her adrenaline was the only thing that allowed her that ability and she immediately felt overheated. Rolling onto her back, she lay there a moment, with her head besides the machine, just letting her body relax. She'd seen this machine used before on the Cinemas that Fox and his team were occasionally fond of, and actors made the metal beast look simple.
"You're a nasty brute, aren't you?" She mused in that classier, drawn out dialect that was slightly more refined sounding than the way Fox and his crew spoke. (A/N: Think British, remember?) It was only a few minutes before that odd junkie feeling of the adrenaline faded. Her paw was beginning to hurt now and she lifted it up, in front of her muzzle, noticing the crooked pinky and swelling ring finger. "Blast," she muttered. She couldn't let the infernal metal beast beat her. She sat up and took it by the handle bars. "You keep me up and I won't keep wrecking you," she told it before standing up and hefting the bike back upon two wheels.
"One more time," She promised herself as well as the machine. She eased her body back over the bike then started it again. Since it was still in first gear she had held in the clutch, then let it out smoothly. The Bike took off and she held on tightly. Her next trick was to learn body English, in an attempt to move with and against the bike when making turns. It was more natural and logical to do so but with little experience, she was taking it slow.
Upon approach to one of the large doors at the other end of the room, a light flashed on the dash and the door opened. She didn't feel ready to head into the next section yet and continued to circle the first room a few times, getting used to the feel before making the attempt to leave this momentary sanctuary. This temporary Elysium had its use but she had to find Fox. Giving it a little throttle, the bike rolled forward. She stole a glance down to the bar by her foot and tapped it, shifting into second gear. The bike idled lower but smoothly accelerated through the next hallway. And now she was off, to finally look for her mate.
Once she got the hang of it, the feel of the machine was fairly simple. The hardest part was knowing when to change gears and making sure she remembered to hold in the clutch before tapping the gear peddle on the side. She dropped into third, but wasn't driving in a complete hurry. Krystal wanted only one thing… to find Fox. Mastering this bike was second on her list, rightfully so.
Her heart almost jumped out of her chest when a holographic field opened up directly in front of her muzzle. The holographic targeting reticule seemed to lock onto something up ahead, that she couldn't see yet. A trigger beneath her right thumb began to flash.
Krystal blinked twice, still zipping down the hall, switching into 4th gear. She finally mashed down the button and to her astonishment, the motorcycle shuttered and a plasmatic bolt of energy lanced out from the front. She squinted to watch the projectile disappear into the distance. Without warning, there was an orangish flash in the distance. As she grew closer to it, she realized there was a gun emplacement in the ceiling that had been destroyed.
Her jaw dropped in amazement but a smile quickly became evident. If she could manage to master the machine, with an easy offensive system to operate, the bike would become worth the effort for her to invest time learning.
Two more targets caused the holo-projection grid to appear above the dash once more, directly in front of her nose. She could actually see the room, looking through the floating grid, the way the bike's computer saw the room. Up ahead, there were two targets on approach and she was heading right for them.
Once more, the trigger under her thumb on the right handlebar began to flash and she pressed it. Again, a plasmatic flash erupted from the cannon on the front end. But this time, it split into two separate objects, veering left and right simultaneously. Krystal's eyes widened, seeing both flashing energy masses made contact with their targets, slamming into both at nearly the same time.
A terrific flash occurred and yet the holographic projection displayed the hallway in a wire-based, texture-less polygonal image with a dark background, to keep her attention from the bright burst of fiery explosion that she was passing through before she could think otherwise.
After passing the two targets, she glanced over her shoulder quickly then shook her head in disbelief. Krystal had managed to destroy two robotic sentries. The strangest part of the entire situation was the fact that this base seemed to lack robotic sentries up to this point. All the enemies she'd seen until now, minus the man in the lab coat, were corpse monsters like the others.
She was, however, glad for small favors which started with having found that bike.
The light on the dashboard from earlier began to flash again. Up ahead, the double doors leading into the next hallway swished open. Her eyes widened, seeing that the flooring was under construction. She didn't have time to act and braced herself for the damaged flooring. The pot holes and horizontal lines shook her hard as she went over them.
She had to learn body english that would keep her from loosing traction. She eased up, standing on the pegs, keeping the bike from toppling over by easing away from the direction that the bike started to lean. Her heart was racing and her eyes were wide, looking ahead to anticipate every movement that she would have to make next.
Her knuckles were white beneath her fur, gripping the handlebars so tightly. That's when her heart went into her throat. Her mind reeled to come to terms with what caused her body to react in such a way and that's when it hit her, there were laser bolts dashing passed the bike and hitting the ground on either side. She instinctively leaned away from one of the shots, moving the bike to the left and narrowly avoiding it's wrath.
She couldn't seem to get the bike to accelerate any faster and squinted her eyes for a moment to think of how to approach this logically. It was a gamble to put her attention elsewhere but logically it was the best way to figure out a plan.
She reached her left index and middle finger out, closing in on the clutch until it touched the handle bar. She then put the bike into third gear, thinking that if she could slow down, cause the tailing enemy to slow down, then speed back up, she'd have a better chance of trying to lose it.
That wasn't the case however. To her delight, putting the bike into third gear actually caused the bike to jump forward, redlining it towards 6,000 RPM as soon as the clutch was re-released. The bike shook violently over the bumps and cracked concrete but using her body to lean and absorb the shock by standing up a little, on the pegs, she was able to manage getting through it.
The doors at the end of the hallway swished open and she was through it so quickly she didn't know what to do. A small warning light began to blink on the dash, demanding for her to shift back into 4th gear. She blinked, then pulled the clutch back in, tapping the gear peddle once more. The noisy engine sound dropped back into what the bike felt was more comfortable and her rapid rate of acceleration tapered off into a constant rate of velocity.
It was then that she realized the two small mirrors on either side, above the handlebars. She squinted at them in the dark yellow emergency lights that dimly illuminated the hallway and realized that she was still being chased. Her eyes went back to the path before her and her heart stopped. There was a drop and she was racing towards it so quickly she'd never be able to stop in time.
There was a feeling of weightlessness. Her bangs lifted, her tail lifted and her vest ruffled, filled with air at the incredible rate of descention. She wanted more than anything to close her eyes but her body wouldn't allow her that comfort. The fall seemed to last forever. It was incredibly slow paced and out of the corner of her eye, an orange light flashed on her dashboard. There was a beeping sound but it was distant, dull and muddled sounding with the slowing of time around her.
She lived every millisecond as if it was over three full seconds. The wheels rotated beneath the bike and there was pitch darkness all around her. How long was this fall? How deep was this drop? Would the concussion kill her? Would the shocks take it? Would the tires burst? Would the gas tank beneath her seat rupture and blow her into oblivion?
The closer the ground became, the more rapid the orange light flashed. Her mind had become disoriented and distance and time and space all seemed foreign. The ground rushed up to meet her and the tires took the landing gracefully, causing a dull murmur of grunting shocks. The drop wasn't quite as far as she thought it was... time sped back up and the churning back wheel caused the bike to move forward again.
Quite suddenly, her mind fell into the zone of focal perfection. Her attempt at logic and thinking disappeared and her mind shifted to become the audience of her body's actions. She watched through her soft sea green eyes as her body ran on instincts now. She had no control over herself, she could only watch and be amazed.
Her paw pulled in on the clutch once more, dropping down to second with a double tug of her toe on the clutch bar. The bike jumped forward, increasing in speed as reddish orange bolts of plasmatic energy fell like raindrops around her. She eased her body to the left, leaning the bike into the direction, then leaned back, to keep it from tipping over at this speed, so that she could nimbly avoid the lethal shower. The motorcycle danced between the raindrops, narrowly avoiding each one.
She went into third, releasing the clutch once more and eased into the handlebar, leaning the bike to the side. Everything in her body was working together now. She shifted her body to the left, placing her right butt cheek up on the edge of the seat, while leaning the bike so hard to the right that the foot peg was grinding against the concrete.
She took the corner, heading into the next hallway with such incredible grace that one would have thought she'd been riding her entire life. Forcing the bike's weight back to a perfectly vertical position was far more challenging, but she stood up on the pegs, to get the balance corrected. She then dropped back into fourth gear, glancing over her shoulder just in time to see the flying sentry droid slam into the wall, not taking the corner quite as quickly as she had.
It didn't explode, but instead, ricocheted off the wall and dropped altitude, bouncing off the floor a few times before flopping to a stop. The malfunctioning bot simply lay there in silence. She put her eyes back on the corridor in front of her, following her instincts. They were leading her to Fox, on the other end of the base, in detention block "F-9".
Andrew narrowed his gaze, clinching his fists. There were only precious hours before his Uncle would be ready to wake up. If the little blue fox was still on the loose, he was going to have problems. Turning back to one of his officers, he gave the nod of an order.
"Where is she now?" He asked, trying to keep his voice down, keeping a relaxed air about himself. He was in no position to be a leader if he couldn't maintain some sort of calm and he was trying his best, but it was difficult. He was so very excitable and it annoyed him.
"Sir, she's in sector F-6, heading for McCloud's location," replied the marmoset in a gruff voice.
"It interests me in knowing how she can sense and find him so easily. I'm curious," Andrew said, tapping his fingers on the arm rests of his chair. "Can they speak to each other telepathically? Do they have that ability?"
"I don't know sir," Said the chimp in modest moderation.
"I want to find out, let's play with our guests," Andrew chuckled softly. "Take her down."
"As you wish," came the monkey's harsh-toned reply. The marmoset pressed a key on the controls and both he and Andrew watched the view screen with a great amount of interest.
Krystal's bike was becoming a fabulous second love. She was learning the physics of the machine but keeping it in motion was far easier than controlling it in extremely low speeds. She glanced behind herself and the latest pair of attack droids had disappeared, breaking off the chase.
"Hmm," She mused aloud, "that's odd. I thought for sure they weren't going to give up." Without further warning, an orange bubble engulfed the bike and a large net dashed across the hallway, springing into action. Her eyes widened, quickly dropping to glance at her dashboard.
All the displays and readouts on the dash had dropped to 'zero' and deactivated. The bike was just beginning to decelerate at the moment it plowed into the net, throwing her from it abruptly. She was stuck to the net as if it were made of super adhesive fly paper, which was cushioned enough to absorb her impact without injuring her. The bike was stuck to the net just beneath her.
She struggled, upside down, with her head just inches from the handle bar and her feet up in the air. Her tail was half-way wrapped around her waist and she couldn't move at all. The orange glowing bubble that surrounded the bike now dissipated and left her in the dark gloom.
"It's an EMAB, little vixen girl," Came a voice over the public announcement system. "Yes," it continued. It was obviously Andrew Oikonni's gloating voice. "It stands for, Electro Magnetic Atmosphere Bubble. We have special emitters inside every hallway of this base. I could have stopped you at any time," He explained, adding, "So I've shut down the little toy you've found; don't worry, it's not a pulse that would render it useless, I just caused it to stall out and now I'm going to conduct an experiment with you and Fox McCloud while we wait for Uncle Andross to wake up. Don't worry, my little obsession with having you guys assassinate the Prime Minister is over! I've got a new little game to play!" With that, the PA system grew silent.
"If you think you can stop me from finding Fox, you're mistaken! I will be coming for you next, Oikonni!" She called out to the silence. "But if you think you've beaten me, you're about to find out that..." A droid floated around the corner, into the hallway she was in. She paused, mid sentence, watching it approach, then come to a stop. It hovered in front of her and a small apparatus came out from the top of it, on an extended metal arm of some sort. It was no bigger than 2 feet long by a foot high, round and somewhat similar to the floating sentries that patrolled the Cloud Runner fortress back on Sauria a few years ago.
A small rounded tip on the apparatus began to radiate with incandescence, growing brighter and brighter until she had to squint her eyes. Then a beam was emitted from the tip and she quickly lost consciousness. Once she was rendered unconscious two arms came out from either side of the machine and took her by the ankles, pulling her off the net. Her tail drooped along her spine, hanging just beyond her ears, dragging against the floor as the bot carried her back towards the Lab.
A/N: Oooo, what does Andrew have in store for our protagonist! You'll just have to wait a day or two to find out! MUWAHAHAHAHA ahem.