The tone sounded.
The doors slowly opened and an endless line of students crowded the hallway, a feeling of dark dread about them.
First period was over.
This is usually considered as one of the worst things that can happen in the schoolday, not because first period is so great, but because you come to the realization that you've barely started.
"You know your life would be just a tad bit better if you wouldn't carry everything you own in that." Craig looked concerned as Sora tried to stuff another book in her already overflowing pack. "Do you ever use your locker!"
"Nah. I like to keep it clean."
"Says the girl who saves any sock lint that sticks to her footpaws."
"So let's talk about your bad habits then. For one,you nibble on your ears like they're cobs of corn." Sora looked at him judgementally.
"And I don't constantly whine about massive back pain." Craig nodded.
"Nope." Sora thwacked him in the head, her staff already at her side. "Not your back anyway."
"Ah, look at them. They're so cute!" The type of girl who says things like that passed by them.
"You see!" Craig rubbed his head. "You're not helping either of us with that! People already think we're practically married anyway."
Sora looked at him carefully.
"So about the pre-nuptal agreement..."
"SORA!" Craig reeled back as if he were about to break himself in two. Joy and utter despair were tearing his mind apart, he didn't know how to react, maybe if it wasn't the middle of the beggining of the day, he could think clearer. Yeah clearer becuase---
"Sarcasam. We disucssed that, remember? Joking. Just joking." Sora destroyed his train of thought, straining herself as she picked up the bag.
No one knew what was exactly in her pack. She was never quite acdemically inclined and her books just seemed to dispear and reappear as the need came. The papers were another mystery. She wasn't the type to pass notes and she never copied anything down in class. According to some of the more popular theories, the papers were actually detailed plans on a massive counterfit operation. Another said they were just wrapping to conceal the ball and chain she drug around.
The smallest and closest school of thought, consited of those who knew Sora.
The papers were just totally blank, and it wasn't worth asking why they were there because you probably didn't want to know anyway.
"Where's Tails?" Craig regained his composure. "Usually he'd be quoting Tolstoy or something about now wouldn't he?"
"Is he trying to fly over the crowd again?" Sora looked up, the backpack nearly crashing her to the ground.
"He got a hold of a bunch of Meora-Ka's old tapes a few days ago. I think he's been spending some time listening to them." Craig finally started to break away from the lockers and head to the next class. "Listen, Captain Eterna's teaching Advanced Stratgey today and I need to..."
He didn't get it out before the next tone pierced his ears.
"What's wrong with a nice bell?" Sora yelled over the noise. "It's calm, it's to the point, and it doesn't sound like the walls are caving in."
"Oh shut up!" Craig yelled back. "It's supposed to be good for us!"
"Says the same adults that invented lead paint..." Sora grumbled dejectedly under her breath as she ran to her next class.
---
"Hell," A middle aged human, a rough goatee growing on his chin, walked into the rec room with several folders under his arm. "Is this it?" He looked from left to right, panning the scene out in his head.
"You mean to tell me," He began again. "That this "huge uprising" you were all talking about is a couple of cats and a mutated fox cub?"
Salah smiled at him. "Good to have you back Vale. We couldn't do without your foreboding sense of doom."
Brent sank into the couch. "I thought I was filling that hole rather nicely."
"No, you have this lighthearted version of doom. You enjoy it too much." Salah corrected him and turned back to Vale. "So as you can see things haven't changed much."
"Wouldn't want 'em different." The man shrugged and looked at Tails. "So you're the kid Kar's been whining about? No offense, you don't seem like much."
Tails looked at him with a blank face. "Neither do you."
"I'm not." Vale stared at him some more.
"Uh..." Brent looked from one face to the other. "What the heck...?"
"I like this kid." Vale's experssion didn't change.
"Thanks." Tails also remained as stoic.
"Let's start..." Salah tried to add some life to the conversation. Hell, just any life to the room would be welcome at this point. "So, mind closing the whole O-Zero thing up once and for all? I mean what happened?"
"Stuff." Vale turned to face her.
"...Yeah..." Salah nodded slowly. "We know that much..."
"Do you? Then why are you asking me?"
"What I meant," Salah began to grind her fangs. "Was if you had any idea of the 'stuff' that happened."
"Why bother with details? For that matter why bother with this thing at all? Can't you just kill Karastil and get this mess over with already?"
Salah slowly raised a paw and let several claws out. "Shut up. What happened?"
"Better." Vale nodded as if in approval. and dropped his stuff on the nerby table."Karastil wanted to do several things at once. One, cover up the continued devolpment of the experiment, two cover up May's death, and finally, get the Banelan brothers out of the way."
"What did they have to do with anything?" Tails raised an eyebrow. "I never quite got how they fit into it."
"Kar's scared of the past. He's scared of his friends, he's scared of what happened. Axen, Meora, Michael, Juro, Taraku, Kaze...everyone he's gone after was a high ranking offical in Advance Wing with him.
"So he's just after the soldiers." Salah sat down at the small table next to Tails. "He doesn't want the people he served with to oppose him..."
"Because they all came through the same conditions he did. The only ones who saw the same things." Vale closed his eyes for a second. "Whatever they were, they obviously influenced his philisophy."
"Which would be.." Tails let the half-question hang in the air.
"He's sick of it." The scientist opened his eyes again. "Sick of war, sick of this extreme-individualism, sick of division, fighting, what passes for socitey...this world without bouandries is a world without morality. He wants to reverse that. He wants to recreate the superpowers."
"So what, he wants to conquer the region? He won't get very far." Tails tried to pin the idea down.
"Who said he was doing it through the military?" Vale looked at the kit. "People are the key. You don't even have to be rich, just buy off the most important ones and the rest fall like domi--"
"Rephrase that please." Brent looked at him from the couch.
"Uh..." Vale blinked.
"Fall like false teeth tied to a blender." Salah threw a pencil at him.
"Okay. Sorry. Keep going." Brent waved his permission as the pencil hit him in the head.
"So anyway..." Vale shook his head a bit trying to regain a sense of sanity. "O-Zero was all an elaborate ploy. Creating the "true" killer. No one would ask any questions about a 'failed' experiment. So he used a close tie with the Banelans..."
"Mason." Salah mentioned simply.
"Yeah, him. He used a close tie with the Banelans to lure them out there, catch them in some sort of explosion, and pass the whole thing off as 'Darnit. Well these sacrifices have to be made you know.' But see, it turns out Mason was the first and only person Karastil ever met that just wouldn't be paid off. Either he's greedy, or he just can't stand the thought of killing the two people who put him up here."
"Wait. You're saying Michael p---" Brent started
Salah hushed him. "We can save that for some flashback or something. Keep going Rich."
Vale shrugged again. "That's it for O-Zero. Taraku ended up getting sliced into ribbons by some of Kar's goons, and the whole thing made legends out of the Banelan brothers."
"Here's one." Tails looked up at him. "You worked with Meora-Ka on the entire project from start till finish, right?"
"Yeah."m
"So how'd you pull it off thirty years before anyone started mapping a genome?" Tails narrowed his eyes.
Vale stared at him intensly. "You just pieced everything together. Really wanna know?" He reached for the stack of papers.
Salah stopped him. "You know what would make it better? If you very slowly took that knife out of that thing," She nodded to one of the manillia folders. "And forget any ideas about being the clever assasin."
Vale's hand hovered over the folder. "I could still do it you know."
"You'd only get one of us. You'd be dead in 30 seconds regardless. I don't think you're getting paid that much." Brent merely raised a paw from the couch, not letting his head come into focus.
"Actually, I'm getting paid more. The risk would definitely be worth it." Vale moved his hand slowly away from the folder. "But I like the idea of watching everything blow up in Karastil's face." A sneer terrible enough to frighten the entire population of Scandanavia appeared on his face.
"Wait. You're going to kill me?" Tails started to rise from the chair, shock just kicking in.
"Was."
"Why not them?" Tails gestured to the two cats. "Okay, that didn't sound right, no offense guys, but why me!"
"Not just you. The rabbit and Miss Sora also. These two aren't the focus."
"It's so nice to know that the goal you've been pursuing all your life doesn't even concern you. What'ya mean they're the focus?" Brent slowly got off the couch and started walking towards the table.
"I don't know." Vale conceeded and turned to Tails. "It's probably all just revenge for messing up his plans. Watch where you step."
Tails nodded. "But uh...he'll be going after you too."
"He doesn't watch the watchers. Trust me, I'll be safer then you think."
"One last thing." Brent looked solemnley at the folder.
"What?" The man didn't turn around as a bauble appeared in front of him.
"What made you think you could throw a knife. You're not that fast."
"Wanted to try it." Vale shrugged one final time, and stepped into the bauble, dispearring with it.
"He took the folder." Salah gave a small whine and pounded on the table.
"Oh stop being so overdramtic. We'll wade through all the crap soon enough." Brent waved her off. "Hey Tails, you've got your classes cancelled for today. Ever play 5 consecutive hours of Wing Commander 3?"
"Never got to play it. Any good?"
"It has Mark Hamill..."
"Eh..."
"...With a moustache."
"I'm in!" Tails bolted up.
"Whatever. I'm going to sit her and complain for six hours." Salah grumbled only pairtally sarcastic. "Do either of you realise we just risked our lifes for practically nothing? He took the folder!" She tried to appeal to them.
"So what? Things'll work out." Brent looked at her and shook his head.
"Or maybe they won't and we'll all suffer." Tails offered.
The two sentences hung in the air and bounced off each other.
"Wait. Why are you being so cynical? I mean, c'mon you of all people should know about dramatic device by now." Brent started.
Fwit.
"There's no reason to be optomistic about things lately is there? We nearly got killed. Don't be niave." Tails countered.
Fwit.
"So what, now you're going angst/goth like on me? Show some spirit."
"Show some sense."
FWOOM! Idealogical fire broke out.
"I'm showing some sense, by showing you it's not that bad, you've got off easy so far!"
"Oh yeah, like the constant attempts on my life have really been a cakewalk."
"I always won the cakewalks Prower. Came home with half of the darn thing once."
"Right, and probably made yourself sick on it."
Salah leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes.
For some odd reason, this was relaxing to her.
---
Craig walked out the classroom, notebook in hand, and No.2 pencil jammed neatly in the binding. Despite the fact he didn't care much for the stratgies Axen practiced, he valued the theory the guy preached. Somewhat similiar to Malin's with a dash of Paul Crayshen and a helping of Tevy Lateri. Split into multiples, keep the fighting in narrow areas as much as possible, and don't be afraid to pick up a gun if all else fails. He wondered for a second why if Axen had all these grand plans, the Captain just pereferred to rush straight on. Was he dependant on individual strength rather then collective? Maybe it dated as far back when the entire style was foun---
"Uh, excuse me?" Craig offered weakly as he stared at a man in his way. Human, about middle age he'd guess.
"Here." The human reached inside the large manillia folder under his arm and handed him something. "That's all you get from me, understand?"
"Thanks?" Craig looked up still confused.
"You're welcome." The human turned around and then moved his head to face Craig for a moment. "Tell your Mom her pastrimi is terrbile."
"Lord knows it. You went there? She's running a deli out of our house for crying out---" Craig didn't get to finish as the man walked off.
He looked down at the object again.
Oh pink-eye. He dropped the notebook and stared at it.
It was the same photograph he had found in the textbook a few months ago. Axen, Michael and Meora walking...somewhere. He couldn't place it then, now he could.
History had to be playing a joke. There was no doubting the similitary. Sure the people were different but for all practical purposes...
It was him, Tails and Sora.
---
He was still mulling about at lunch.
"Hey man, you alright?" Tails sat down looking at him.
"Y-yeah."
"No you're not."
"I'm fine."
"You got hit with the sweet potato cassrole 5 minutes ago. You should've spooned it off your face into a bowl by now."
"Egh..."
"Let me remind you, sweet potato cassarole..." Tails pronnounced the three words slowly. "Okay, you're not drooling, about to explode or leaping over tables to get to the counter. What's wrong?"
Craig pushed the photograph towards him.
Tails looked down.
"Nice photo...Meora-Ka kinda stands out doesn't she?"
"You don't see it?" Craig looked up at him, asking in the most deadpan voice possible.
"You mean the Captain's serious need of dandruff shampoo? Yeah."
"Screw it." Craig took the photo back.
A horrific crashing sound came from behind the counters followed by several shouts.
"Get her!"
"Hey stop!"
"She took the pan. The whole freakin' pan!"
Sora bolted off, a glass pan full of orange goop raised abover her head. "It's mine, get it? Now be thankful I didn't nab the maple syrup too!"
She finally reached the table the other two were at, setting it down with a bit of ceremony. "You owe me for this ear-boy!" She gave a feroicious noogie on Craig's head. "Huh? Huh? What'ya think?"
Craig looked up at her. "You're my friend. I don't want you to die."
"Uh...you know a thanks would work too." Sora backed up from him.
He turned towards Tails. "If she ever did, would we fight about it for the rest of our lives and constantly blame ourselves?"
"...You ate all that spoiled broccili again didn't you?" The kitsune looked concerned.
"C'mon just enjoy this stuff." Sora lifted up a spoon covered in the cassarole. "Ya know what I had to do to get this? I had to..."
"I'm not hungry Sora." Craig sighed, got up, and walked away.
"...fight off the rabid...hairnet men..." Sora finished slowly.
"What's wrong with you?" Tails sighed.
"He hates me doesn't he?"
"What?" Tails started to laugh. "What happened in there, get beaned in the head with a laddle?"
"I put him through hell. I always thought he just put up with it 'cause we were friends and all...I thought..." Sora put the spoon down letting it crash into the glass pan.
"Oh geez. Listen, the only person who knows you better then me is him, and even if he is being reflectively depressed, he's still loyal." Tails tried to reassure her. "I saw what was in that photo too. I just think it'd be healthier to ignore it."
"What photo? It's not from that time when we stuffed you into the dryer is it?"
"I REALLY want to forget that, my back didn't go back to normal for weeks."
"Hey, it got you invited to the annual kickball game."
"I was second base."
"You're both very ungrateful. I give and give and give and what do I get in return?"
"Dedicated lackeys who worship the ground you walk on?" Tails offered.
"But there are only two of you..." Sora whined.
"You know what? Just sit down and enjoy the cassarole. I think life just ignored you in favor of Craig."
"About due time I had a break." Sora stuck a spoon in the pan, flicking mush in her eye.
---
"It's just creepy, ya know? You think 'I'm never gonna end up like those jerks.' and then it just hits you. History shouldn't repeat. It's too depressing." Craig sighed. "I don't want to be like that. I know all three of us are stronger than..." He blinked. "Why," He pointed with a paw. "Are you about to hit me with a houseplant?"
"I dunno." Gil shrugged. "I'm bored."
Zen smacked him upside the head. "He came to us for some consoling spittlenose. You can hit him with the plant after he feels better."
"All right." Gil sighed putting the base of the pot down.
"So you got freaked out by this thing because you think it's running parellell?" Zen turned the conversation back on course.
Craig nodded. "I just don't want to end up like they did. Captain Eterna and Michael-Ka aren't exactly on the best of terms and Meora's..."
Zen shrugged. "You got it two ways here. You can either shrug your shoulders, take what life throws at ya and Gil'll hit ya with the plant, or you can mull about it, become a recluse, and Gil'll hit ya with the plant."
"I hate you both. Very, very much."
"Right." Gil picked up the base again. "All done here?"
Craig very slowly took the plant of Gil's paws and threw it both the brothers, leaving the room as quickly as possible.
Zen wiped some topsoil off his headfur. "Why'd you let him take it?"
"Geez, I never thought he'd..."
"Defend himself?"
"No." Gil blinked a bit still shocked. "He's changing. It's weird...it's like...like..."
"He's maturing, and you're starting to think that you should too?"
"No, like I need to step things up a bit. I'm gonna need a trashcan, a baseball cap, and several festive blankets..."
Zen sighed. "Get out of the room."
"This is my dorm. Yours is right down the hall."
"Don't go in there either." Zen pushed him out and slammed the door shut.
---
"I don't care." Sharpear yawned.
"You're my Ka Master. You're supposed to." Craig tried showing him the photo again/
"You know what I do care about? You, making a position in the Battle Royale. We got two weeks. That's it."
"I don't care."
"You're my student, you're supposed to."
"You know what I do care about? Not turning into some kind of pawn for some sick warlord."
"For God's sake! You're not Axen or Mike alright! And I sincercely doubt you are the reincarnation of Meora. Just relax, it's a dumb photo! You don't want your friendship to break up! DON'T LET IT." Sharpear finally exploded at him.
"That's just the point! Do I have a freakin' choice?"
"It's history okay? Yeah it affects you but you don't have to repeat it. Just step outside of the stupid box." Sharpear suddenly swung his staff at him.
Craig blocked, both weapons meeting with a clang. "But that's just it. I can't just step out..."
"Then climb out." Sharpear swung again at the rabbit's head.
Craig rolled to one side and slashed out at Sharpear's legs. "You don't get it! I'm gonna fail no matter how hard I try. You can't deny history!"
Sharpear skipped over the staff, almost giving the image of an Irish dancer in the proccess. "Who the hell said you were part of history! Face it. You, me, we didn't even make the footnotes. If anything, we're the fineprint in the copywright notice. That's just how it is for some people. We don't got a purpose."
"But that's just wastefull! What's the point to it all if there's no reason?" Craig swung up at his teachers chin.
The blow connected, momentairly disorienting the dog. "Alright..." He shrug it off and started attacking Craig again. "So if you think there is a reason, what've ya got?"
"I don't have a clue." Craig held off again, moving into a more defensive position, the staff now close to his chest.
"What's the best thing you got so far?" Sharpear threw him off with his weight, breaking the defense and nearly impaling him in the process. "What keeps you living?"
Craig lifted himself up and dug in again, the staff still in the same position. "I got stuff I wanna do. I got people I wanna hang out with..."
Sharpear threw his weight into it again.
Flipping directly up using the staff as a base, Craig's oversized feet crashed into Sharpear's face, pushing the massive canine back and sending his staff spiraling.
"It's not that big of an issue really." Craig shrugged a bit, teetering from exhasution. "I just wanna rewrite history. Not become part of it."
"Hell." Sharpear fell flat on the grass. "The whole philisophical fighting thing? Bad idea. Sure it looked cool on paper, but...hell." He repeated again.
"Uh, you alright?"
"I don't know. How does a sycamore feel after being choked to death by a cauliflour stem?"
"What?"
"I was trying to avoid the elephant/mouse thing. Hell." Sharpear spat out the word a third time. "Just let me lie here for a few seconds."
"I'm going...back inside now." Craig backed up.
"Just shut up...shut up..." Sharpear continued to mull in disbelief.
---
Craig walked back inside the building still confused as to what was going on.
"Hey." Tails noticed him in the hallway and caught up.
"Hey."
"Over it?"
"Over it."
"Fine with me." Tails smiled. "Wanna go up to the library and make fun of Heidegger. Unanswerable question my tail...s" He added the 's' as an afterthought.
"Eh...No. I don't." Craig thought for a second. "Let's just find Sora and see if we can get anything to...holy crap and a half did I turn down a whole freakin' pan of sweet potato cassarole!"
"I warned her it wasn't going to pretty, but Sora ate the whole thing. She's got a stoma---"
"Oh, I'm going to do something bad to her. Rest assured." Craig gritted his teeth and then shook it off. "But for now let's just get her, go to the cafteria and then...I don't know we'll see what happens from there."
"Aw, is someone finally accepting life for what it is?"
"Shut your mouth Prower. I've just decided I can handle a few more slugs to the gut, that's all."
Tails punched him in the stomach.
"I was speaking figurat---tavat." Craig managed to get out holding his stomach.
"Yeah. I know." Tails smiled.
He barely saw the footpaw make contact with his face.
RETROSPECTIVE
Or how I learned to stop procrastinating, sit down and type
Yeah, long time, not enough updates, live with it.
Okay now that that's out of the way...
This chapter came out strange. Really strange. I had no intention of this focusing on Craig whatsoever, but somehow, it just did.
Now when I look at it, it seems like Craig has actually become the most dynamic character in the story. Looking back I can actually trace him opening up more to Tails and Sora, foregoing the bland personality for some sort of edge underneath the blandness. I still haven't figured out what it is, but he's starting to seem more real to me then he has in the past.
Hey look, Vale is a human! And he's not (that) evil! Wonderfull.
So...yeah. Wing Commander III has Mark Hamil with a moustache. Nobody cares because Orgin's gone now and any hope for the series to continue is dead in the water.
Yet another reason why I hate EA.