Before I start this chapter, I just want to begin by thanking you guys for all the support on this story. With 2000 views and counting, I'm really excited to see how it all turns out in the end, and it's all because of you guys. Thanks.
-ThatWinchieGuy
Darkness. All he saw was darkness. Was he dreaming? He blinked his eyes. Open and close. Open and close. Darkness. He could feel his hands fumbling around in the dark, grabbing at nothing. Was he dead? His lungs were near collapsing as he coughed and heaved on the ground. He was on the ground, right?
"Falco?" He shouted. He remembered. The jump, the explosions, the silence.
"Fox!" A garbled voice answered. He could tell the voice was somewhere nearby and not inside of his head.
"Am I hurt?" He asked. He couldn't tell for himself, as a numbing sensation overcame his body.
"You should be fine." Falco panted. He could tell that Falco was dragging something, and that something was probably him.
"Fox, I need you to look at my eyes." Falco said.
"I can't see." He replied plainly. The darkness was now replaced by a hazy mist, swirling in front of his pupils.
"Shit..." Falco murmured.
"Am I hurt?" He asked again, not liking the tone in his friend's voice.
"Fox, can you breathe in for me?" Falco asked, now farther away. He could hear something rustling in the distance, like an animal running through the plants. He obeyed and sucked in air calmly, his muscles quivering.
"Alright, now breathe out, nice and easy, Fox." Falco said. Once again, he followed his instructions and let out a shaky breath. He felt as though his esophagus was going to close in on itself any minute now.
"In and out, that's it." Falco said, his voice slightly panicked. The avian began walking through what sounded like sand towards him. He continued breathing carefully, unsure of the future.
"Here, Fox, drink." Falco held his feathered hands up to his mouth. He swallowed the water offered to him cautiously; cool, refreshing water. Color began forming before him. Blobs and blurry figures meshed together like an abstract piece.
"Good, good. Keep breathing." Falco said. He could see the blue mass of his friend beside him, but he could not yet make out the details of his form.
"Am I hurt?" He persisted, his vision shifting down to his hands, which were opened in his lap. He sat there trying to adjust his vision.
"You went into shock due to the force of the landing, but you're okay now. Can you see?" Falco asked, his voice slowing to it's usual, calm tone.
"Sort of. It's blurry but I can see you. I'll be fine." Fox said, his eyes focusing in on the lines in his palms.
"Can you walk?"
"I don't know, you've got to give me a minute." Fox mumbled, checking himself over. He didn't feel any pain.
"We've got to move under the treeline before those fighters get back and radar the area." Falco said, pulling Fox to his feet. The vulpine's knees buckled as he was dragged through the sand, legs dangling loosely from his hips. Falco pulled the two of them into the jungle, where the clicks and croaks of amphibians and insects surrounded them. Whilst this happened, Fox began recalling the events leading up to his embarrassing crash landing.
"We should've just taken a cruiser." Fox said.
"Wolf could have been using their information to find you. We wouldn't want him tailing us here so I didn't even suggest the idea." Falco replied.
"Maybe that's why I immediately fell for the plan of leaping out of fighters at six hundred miles an hour."
"Because going into shock is better than getting shot, really."
"We could've just snuck onto the plane." Fox pointed out.
"You know how the security is on those things, and based on our last mission I'm not so sure subtlety is our strong suit." Falco joked.
"That's true."
"According to my phone's map- and it is a sort of shitty map, mind you- we're on the Island of Atlantid, which has Atlantid City on it, which is where Slippy is." Falco said proudly.
"How far's the city?" Fox asked, still struggling to stand on his own.
It's not too far, actually. About 20 miles to the south."
"20 miles is a short distance for you now?" Fox complained.
"Look, I tried to land us as close as I could without getting shot down by anti air guns, okay? Besides, it should only take us a few hours, and we're close to a road. It'll be fine, trust me." Falco said, picking up his pace.
…...
The rain poured down as two weary travelers pressed on into the storm. They trudged up a hill alongside the highway, which cut directly through the jungle, so that the limbs of trees stretched out over the road and shaded the cars. Currently, the rumble of engines was replaced by the soft splashing of rain onto the soaked asphalt. The howling of the wind as it pushed its way past the travelers, threatening to knock them to the ground. A crack of thunder that made way for a flash of lightning.
"How much further?" Fox shouted over nature to make his voice heard, even though his companion was only a few feet away from him.
"Not too far! Should only be two or three miles! We would be able to see the city if it wasn't raining!" Falco replied, his voice lost in the wind.
"You said that an hour ago!" Fox said, clearly not happy with the way things were going. At this point, it seemed as though being chased by Wolf's assassins would've been two times better than this.
"So the weather didn't hold up, I'm sorry I can't control it, Fox! Jeez, would you just shut up and focus on getting there quicker? I don't like this either, and your bitching isn't helping anything!"
"Let's not forget this was your idea in the first place! If you would've just evaded them, we wouldn't be in this mess!"
"Don't pull that shit on me, Fox, because you went along with it. We're here now, so shut up and deal with it." Falco shrugged the vulpine away, picking up his pace to combat the storm.
Fox quickly calmed down. He and Falco's fights were always built on sand and not on stone; they never lasted, and usually never had any fallout. The rain helped. To Fox, dangerous situations had always been somewhat soothing. It just felt right.
"Fox, look!" Falco shouted, his arm springing up to point into the sky. There, a dim blue light blinked on every few seconds. Civilization. "Shouldn't be far now!" Falco said, bringing his already-quickened pace to a near jog. Fox's shorter legs struggled to keep up.
Minutes passed by, and the duo began passing various suburban buildings that were nestled next to the highway. Fox pondered what living there must be like, having a jungle in your backyard... Then again, to the people of Aquas, that was normal. He wondered what Slippy's new-found home looked like. He'd always enjoyed a smaller dwelling, but his tastes might have matured as he grew. For all he knew, Slippy's house could be bigger than the one the vulpine had spent his childhood in. That would be quite impressive.
Aquas' cities were normally walled off, in order to prevent the intrusion of wildlife. After some time, the animals of the jungle stopped caring about whether or not people lived there. For a few years, there was an epidemic of poison-dart frogs, which began coming into people's homes. So, the walls went up, and Atlantid was no exception to the norm. Fox and Falco reached the large, glassy surface of the wall and immediately ran for the opening in it. The two of them sat down on one of the many benches underneath the wall, which separated two completely different worlds.
As they sat there, finally free from the clutches of nature, something dawned on Fox. Another thing they may have overlooked in their "perfect" plan to find Slippy.
"Uhm...Falco?" He asked.
"Yeah?" Falco replied, attempting to dry himself by patting on his clothes.
"Uh...do we know where Slippy lives?" Fox sat there, hands folded across his lap.
"We're there, idiot." Falco said, now frowning because yet another one of his ideas was going south.
"No, but where EXACTLY he lives?"
Falco thought for a second before his eyes widened in shock.
"We don't, do we?" Fox asked. Even in the dark, the look on Falco's face was still visible. It would probably stick with the vulpine for a while; it was comical, but it wasn't, really.
The avian switched back to his normal, collected mask.
"No... no, I don't think so. But last time I talked to him, he did mention something about downtown." Falco replied meekly.
"We could call him."
"Yeah, we could, but I feel like it'd be too weird. 'Hey buddy, how've you been, what's your address again?' I think it'd be better if we just sort of showed up there." Falco said, still trying to stick to his stupid plan which Fox was now regretting agreeing to.
"Falco, he's really not going to mind." Fox reasoned.
"Yeah, but still... it'll be awkward."
"I'm calling him. We're not messing up again." The vulpine joked.
"Okay, but let's get somewhere safer and spend the night there first." Falco jumped up and began meandering out towards the city, hesitant to let himself step back out into the rain.
"Why, so you can look up where he lives on the internet?"
"No...yes." Falco's head hung from his neck. Fox lifted himself up from the bench and patted his friend on the back before stepping out into the rain.
"Come on, let's go find a hotel."
…...
Fox awoke to the sweet sound of macaws shrieking in the distance. A single ray of sunshine cracked through the blinds of the hotel room, landing on his eye. Fox slid out of the plush covers of the bed and walked over to the window to get a better view of the city. He pulled open the blinds and was greeted by the sight of the harbor, which spanned all along the south side of the city's limits. Based on Falco's snooping the night before, Slippy was somewhere out of sight, to the north. Even so, sometimes a mission was more about the means rather than the end. And this view was certainly helping back that up; odd-shaped ships lurching into the air, nets flying into the water, people wandering between various market stalls set up on the docks. Fox played with the idea of heading down there and finding something to eat; Falco, as usual, probably wouldn't be up for a few hours. Krystal had always enjoyed fish...
Fox threw on his now-dry leather jacket and headed down to the lobby. It was what you would expect from the average hotel; a modern interior with granite flooring, a polished oak wood desk, carpeted hallways and sitting areas here and there. Fox wasn't particularly interested in it.
The night before didn't hold many chances to observe the city he was in, so Fox took this opportunity to do so. As he walked through the door and into the morning sun, he was greeted by the sight of the north side of the city, which was the complete opposite of the south side. Skyscrapers reached into the air in across the street, and people jostled each other through the sidewalks. Realizing that he was in the way, Fox followed the throng of people heading south towards the docks.
The city felt like Corneria City, only more humid and compact. There was about the same amount of people living here as there were in Corneria, but Atlantid had far less land, so it was far more dense than Corneria. Truth be told, Fox didn't like it very much, but it would suffice.
Fox's boots plodded through the damp back alleys leading to the wharf. Apartment buildings surrounded him and blocked his view. People stood on balconies, wondering who this strange outsider strolling though their backyard was.
After reaching the docks, Fox ducked into a small cafe. An ornate red sign with gold trim hung above the door. It read:
The Lone Wolf Cafe
Fox thought how about how fitting the name was, given his current situation.
Waiting inside was an average setting; a few small tables lay off to the right, and a coffee bar to the left. A hostess' stand stood between the two areas. The walls were painted red, like the sign outside. A large window gave customers a magnificent view of the ocean.
Fox nodded to the hostess and indicated that he was headed to the bar. He had never been much of a morning person, really, but he was even less of a breakfast person. He rarely ate in the mornings, but usually sustained himself with a daily dose of caffeine, like many people.
"Hey hun, what can I get ya'?" The bartender said. She was a toad, like many denizens of Aquas. Fox had never really found toads attractive himself, but others may have ventured to call her that at some point.
"Coffee, black. Thanks." Fox replied bluntly. He'd been forced to grow a taste for black coffee while living in his old apartment, since he usually couldn't afford sugar.
"Never seen your pretty face 'round here, hun. What brings you to the city?" The bartender asked, turning around to pour out Fox's coffee.
"Just traveling through on business." Fox said.
The bartender came around and set the coffee mug on the bar.
"Hey, aren't you that mercenary guy? McClad, or somethin'?" She asked.
"It's McCloud. And yeah, that's me." Fox replied.
"Well, it's an honor, Mr. McCloud. My sister once saw your ships flying around when she was on a plane. Gee, that must've been around... twenty years ago, I reckon."
Fox finished his coffee while making idle chit-chat with the bartender. Afterwords, he returned to the hotel, to find Falco still asleep. Fox shook him by the shoulders to wake him up. Following a series of disgruntled questions and sloppy conversation, the Star Fox team headed out to bring back their expert engineer.