Chapter 25: Something is Off…

The big group of guys walked off with Fox, Samus, and Adam in cuffs. They couldn't fight against the men for the reason of proving themselves friendly. No one brought up hiding from sight to not be carried away. Just something Slippy always knew well; hiding. The whole time he hid from the big soldiers and waited until they left.

During the time of the Ridley battle, he'd chosen to hide from the giant-vicious dragon ignoring the fact that everyone was in search of him. Slippy didn't care; he didn't want to be dragon dinner as Ridley had planned to make of him. He still had many things to repair before being eaten and also a few wills that he should've made a very long time ago. By the time the threat of being dinner was cleared Slippy had to be afraid of the new guys. Just the thought of being taken away by gunpoint was scary enough; what if they "accidentally" shot him?

"Urg, look at that mess. Can't believe we have to clean that later…" a search soldier commented to himself.

He looked at the mess around lazily and decided that no one could be hiding in the debris. He was so wrong. Once the soldier left the room it was empty for one particular person; Slippy. Slippy emerged from the pile of wall remains he made just for hiding and searched around frantically for any other life in the room. No one else.

He attempted to call Falco to check on his other friends but no response came back. Slippy moved on to call Krystal, then Falco again, and finally Anthony. None of them answered. What happened to them? Did they get taken away just like the others?

"Slippy? Where's everyone else?" a frantic Madeline called over comm.

At least someone was still up. At least Slippy wasn't the only one to avoid capture.

"I only know that some guys came in to arrest Fox, Samus, and Adam. The others couldn't have been arrested too right?"

"Fox was down there?! Why would he be there?!" good to see Peppy was fine too.

"How am I supposed to know? Shouldn't you have an idea?"

"We had to stop talking to the team since they were attempting to track us through our conversations. When we were able to talk again through some complicated means their radio was silent. How'd you avoid these men by the way?"

"…I was… hiding"

"You were what?!"

"Dude, chill, Slippy just try to keep doing what you're doing and we'll figure something out. There's got to be something we all can do"

Something wasn't right. These idiots kept dragging everyone to this guy's office despite Falco's efforts to actually be nice. Krystal didn't talk; she feared what these guys were up to. Anthony tried to smile and tell a joke to one of the guards to remind them who he was; it had no effect.

"No really sir, that's one sick hat you got! Makes me want one you know!" Falco's sentence was so out-of-place for him.

"And that's why we don't say 'Good Luck' in the theatre business. Funny right?" the guard hid his laugh too well.

"…Isn't there a fourth amendment here?" looking through memories was such a pain, but this guy's memorization of something called the Bill of Rights had to mean something.

"We do have a warrant from the general. This is legal, for us"

Krystal said nothing else as the guards continued to drag them through the halls. The other two didn't have anything to be quiet about obviously. Anthony and Falco finally went quiet when Samus, Adam, and Fox were dragged into their hallway. They all went silent to fool these guys that they were the only other ones. It wouldn't be a good idea to let some random guys know that there were others they didn't pick up.

"You people better talk when the general arrives!" one guard yelled as the group approached General Howe's office.

They were all pushed, very rudely, into the room before the general walked in and past them. It was some major insult to just casually past while someone else was shoved.

"Of all people I wanted to see in this room, I certainly didn't want to see our best bounty hunter involved in this crime! Why would you betray the Federation in such a way miss Samus Aran? Your father would be ashamed of his daughter's actions most certainly…" Howe's insults deepened further.

"What crime? No living being here attempted murder; we all helped you!" Falco was ending his nice act only because of this guy.

"We all made sure not to hurt your people when we were fending off the threat. Every one of us made sure to not hit anyone and I'm certain that no one was harmed by our hand" Krystal took a better approach than Falco.

"I do believe we are allowed to hear our crime, correct?" Anthony took his advantage of citizenship.

"This fox here broke into Federation headquarters and ran off with our valuable information and we can prove that the getaway vehicle was registered the same way as his!" Howe's rage came out of nowhere.

Fox had no idea what he was talking about. He didn't even know where the heck these humans would put a capital yet they assume he's involved? Man what morons these people were.

"You have an issue there sir. You see, I've been talking to these folks for quite some time and they have no way to learn any type of robbery. When I went to visit them at least a few months ago there was a criminal on the loose they were after. This criminal spends his time looking like my friend here to be a step ahead of us. Wouldn't surprise me if that's your guy" Samus quickly made a story up to save their hides. Howe half-believed it.

"Young miss right here, may I politely ask for a description of this criminal?" Howe stood in front of Krystal. He couldn't intimidate her that way though.

"He's a vicious killer and crook whose last noted crime was slicing an innocent soldier's neck and taking off with his ship. If he's licensed the same way as us then we've found our guy" everyone shivered; that was dark for Krystal.

"Really now? Is this why you come out with no representation?"

"They are the representation, Howe sir. Their government trusted them to handle the customs over here and we're to help them if it gets confusing" Anthony backed them up.

"Yeah, and helping you fools out is part of the package" Falco didn't get smacked for that in the first time in history.

"Calling a important military figure a 'fool' mustn't be part of it; that is unless you're commonly rude" one of the guards talked out of place and receiving an evil glare from the general.

Falco was just lucky that all of his friends were cuffed or there would've been some serious whack up-side the head right about then. His common language just ruined their small chance of freedom. Weren't there any days when he could realize that?

"You better hope that this story of yours can be backed up by tomorrow. That and you better hope we find Madeline Bergman too, I believe she was in custody of the two of you right?" Star Fox didn't know about the custody part. How're they going to figure how to get through that?

"You won't find her with us" Fox calmly lied to Howe.

"Excuse me? May I believe that you have some reason to say that?"

"In trade for them to help us, Miss Bergman has to be with one of our guys to help in this situation. It's not part of a hostage plan though; that gets too messy too quickly"

Howe appeared upset. Why would a general be so angry about learning that one of people is safe? This wasn't right at all for both sides of the argument.