Me: OMFR! I can't believe this chapter took so long!
Ripred: You can thank marching band for that one.
Thaila: And writer's block. Most importantly, writer's block.
Me: Yeah...had no clue what I was going to do with this so with this chapter (which isn't canon w/SSE), I got writer's block, so if the ending part's not as good as usual that's because I was trying to finish up the chapter after writer's block, my computer crashing and marching band chaos. Sorry about just dropping off the face of the earth there...except if you're someone who goes to my school, then you see me every day!
Thaila: Like your friends!
Me: Yeah...don't know if that's a good thing for them...but whatever. Hopefully this thing'll get updated with greater frequency soon because marching band is ending! YAYZ! (although our show was epic this year) So Thaila, do the disclaimer please.
Thaila: Yeah...so, RipredIsAwesome does not own any of the characters mentioned in the story. If she did, she would be rich and not go to a school filled with rednecks. Also, for those who are StarFox junkies or play the game b/c she's never gotten her hands on any of the games, please don't freak out if Falco's gang doesn't match up to what it actually is. She just figured out that she got it wrong tonight but doesn't want to change it. If you've never played the StarFox games and/or don't care, then please enjoy the show.
Me: Yeah, I had a very fun time writing the made up gang...but anyway, to the story! (And a very merry unbirthday to everyone out there whose birthdays aren't today!)
Chapter 26
The Great Fox
The Great Fox lowered itself onto the ground and let out just one person. Diddy Kong watched in sheer wonder as the two people walked onto the tropical land below them. He was wolfish in appearance and Diddy recognized him immediately. That was Wolf O'Donnell, the leader of StarWolf and Fox's rival. What made Diddy wonder was why Wolf was in the Great Fox, if Wolf supposedly hated Fox so much. To him, it didn't make any sense. The two exchanged some words in a language Diddy didn't understand and then Wolf went over to Falco, took some Smash Coins and another type of currency Diddy couldn't recognize and put it in Falco's wing. Wolf muttered some words under his breath (possibly swear words? Diddy couldn't tell.) and then went back into the ship, along with another figure coming in. This one was also a male, but looked more like a hare and older than Wolf by at least ten years. He shook Fox's paw and said something very brightly towards Fox but once again, Diddy couldn't understand. Fox said something back in the same language back and left the hare looking slightly confused for a second, and then Falco (who was apparently part of the conversation) pointed towards Diddy Kong. Diddy realized this immediately and waved happily. All confusion left and the hare beckoned the monkey onto the ship. Diddy followed without question, Fox and Falco calmly coming in behind them.
"So, what was that all about?" Diddy asked curiously in the Smash Language.
"Wolf was updating us – well, updating me, I don't know about Falco – about a couple things and Peppy, he was the hare you saw, was telling me a couple things that aren't entirely important right now," Fox explained. Falco was grinning.
"I won a bet," he said simply, as if that explained everything. Fox rolled his eyes.
"Anything else?" he asked.
"Yeah…um…a couple friends are here," he added, now much quieter than before. They entered the main area of the ship (which almost looked relatively normal, a couple doors leading to the bedrooms and a door leading to the control room but the room they were in had things like couches and even a television) where a loud whistle was heard.
(Falco P.O.V)
"A couple friends? We're way more than just a couple pansy-ass friends Falco!" a falcon said. He looked older than the others – and he was – but not extremely. An eye patch covered his left eye. Falco's grin got bigger the second he saw the falcon.
"Rocky!" Falco exclaimed. "You made it!" The falcon's face cracked a smile.
"Hell yeah. Jonathon's here too, he's just getting some coffee. And so's Pantheress…just don't know where she went," Rocky explained. Fox looked at Falco and cocked an eyebrow.
"So these are your 'old friends' that you always talk about?" he asked. "The ones in your 'old gang'?"
"Of course! You wanted them here, didn't you?"
"Yeah."
"Well, there ya go. My old gang," Falco said. He looked at Diddy and sighed. "And you don't understand a word I just said, did you?" This last sentence was in the Smash Language. Diddy shook his head.
"Sorry to be a burden and all but…no I had no clue what you said," Diddy answered. Falco looked at Fox, who seemed to understand what Falco wanted as soon as they exchanged the look.
"Hey Diddy, why don't you meet the rest of the team while I try and figure out what we're doing exactly?" Fox offered. Diddy's face brightened and he agreed instantly, allowing Falco some alone time with his gang.
"So we're fighting against Andross?" Rocky asked as soon as they left.
"Well…um…er…kind of. Andross is part of it. There's quite a force we're fighting against in this war. You up for it?" Rocky grinned.
"Course. Peppy said he'd pay us for helpin' out too, since ya know, we don't exactly have too…" the falcon said, his voice trailing off. All of a sudden, a large dog – a German shepherd to be exact – walked in. Other than a scar going down his face diagonally and his clothing, he looked he'd be fairly rich. This was Jonathon, a member of the gang. Jonathon looked rich because he came from a rich family, one that had helped Andross. Jonathon originally joined the gang to rebel from his parents. Other than Rocky (who had taught Jonathon, Falco and Pantheress how to fly planes), Jonathon was the oldest member of the gang in terms of seniority. (Falco was surprisingly the youngest in seniority terms, joining one year after Pantheress.)
"Don't have to what?" Jonathon asked.
"Fight. But hey, it sure is fun whoopin' the assss of a bunch of sniveling wimps you sure deserve it," Rocky said. "Who's in this group anyways?…At least other than Andross, and we all know how much Jonny wants to beat him up!"
"Ganondorf…DeDeDe…Wario…Bowser…some Zant guy…and a bunch of others I doubt you've heard of," Falco said.
"Anyone else?"
"Um…Ridley."
"Ridley? Goddamnit Jonny, we gotta deal with Ridley!" Rocky exclaimed.
"Geez Rocky calm down. The last thing we need to do is get you worked up over something ridiculous," a new and feminine voice said. She was a panther and looked a look like Panther Caroso himself, but with female features rather than male. This was Panther's younger sister Pantheress. Falco always had a slight crush on her even though he never admitted it (denied constantly actually) and this was part of the reason that Panther hated Falco so much actually, but Panther never admitted this to be his reason why. But back to the story now.
"Pantheress!" Falco said happily when he saw Pantheress walk into the room.
"Falco you're actually here! When we showed up, Peppy said you left to go take care of something," she said, sitting down on a couch next to him.
"Yeah what were ya doing anyways?" Rocky asked curiously.
"Helpin' out Fox," Falco explained curtly.
"Ah, Fox. How's he doing anyways?" Pantheress asked.
"Good. Why don't you ask him yourself?"
"Well, I'm still trying to avoid Panther and you two just got back with that little chimp from the Tournament whose name I keep forgetting."
"Diddy Kong," Falco answered.
"That's it," Pantheress said. "You've certainly matured quite a bit since I last saw you. Ten years ago, you would've never helped someone."
"Didn't really do it willingly," Falco muttered.
"The fact that you did do it is impressive enough," Jonathon said. "But I think we need to focus on other things right now. Say…how exactly we're going to fit into all of this?" Falco shrugged.
"Truthfully, I have no fucking idea how. But I'm sure Fox does. He was the one who wanted you guys to come," the parrot answered truthfully. Pantheress rolled her eyes.
"And you're still just about as helpful as when I first met you," she said, sarcasm dripping from her voice. "I swear, we're going to get nowhere if we keep trying to ask you questions." Falco looked at Pantheress quizzically; she wasn't normally this negative towards him.
"Geez Pantheress," Falco said. "Is it that time of the month or something?" She rolled her eyes but didn't respond, causing a long awkward silence to follow. The only thing that broke this was Fox and Diddy Kong coming in, followed by Wolf O'Donnell and his crew. Shortly afterwards, Slippy, Peppy and Krystal filed in behind them.
"Well then, our caller to the fabled Smash Planet is here," Jonathon said, not unkindly, but with a touch of good natured sarcasm that no one seemed to catch. He looked at Fox. "Care to explain why we're here?" Fox smiled.
"That was what I was planning to do. Is everyone planning to listen? If you're not, you can continue with any conversations or stare downs you are having." Falco and Panther (who had been glaring at each other from the moment Panther walked into the room) suddenly ended without another word.
"Okay, great. Now, what I was planning to do was try and take down the Halberd. After the first attempt with just me, I've come to realize that I can't do this alone. So I'm calling on all of your help," Fox explained. "Falco, you're an expert at flying. And if you're not trying to make yourself seem modest for once in your life, you learned your maneuvering abilities from your gang?"
"Course!" Falco exclaimed. "Rocky taught everyone in the gang!"
"So you're saying everyone in the gang can fly extraordinarily well?"
"Yep! Of course I'm the best but ya know, we can't all be natural learners like me," Falco said with a smirk. Rocky groaned.
"Oh please, I've got more talent in my fucking beak than you have in your entire body," he said. Falco looked at his former teacher, ready to say a quick comeback when Pantheress clamped Falco's beak and Jonathon got Rocky's.
"Do shut up, will you? In case you noticed, your best friend here is telling us what's going on and you still can't shut your trap for five seconds," Pantheress growled. Falco inwardly rolled his eyes. It is that time of the month, he thought sourly. The worst thing he'd ever seen was Pantheress on her period because she had horrible mood swings. One minute they would be best friends and the next minute she couldn't even look at his face. It was bad.
Fox continued on with his explanation without even glancing at the scene Falco was making. He was used to this. Fox said, "Wolf, I know you have made your own team of expert flyers." Wolf snorted.
"Of course they are. They'd be fired or dead if they couldn't fly well," he said. Fox grinned.
"Perfect, that's just what we need then. So here's the plan. Falco and I will fly around the Island that's nearby here, find the platform that we saw Donkey Kong's trophy on and drop Diddy off there. The floating platform should show up on our radar and for God's sake, it's in visible sight as long as we're in the troposphere." Fox stopped talking in Cornerian and switched to the Smash Language.
"You okay flying with Falco in his Arwing, Diddy?" Fox asked. Diddy nodded eagerly but Falco's eyes widened in surprise. He tried to say something, but realized that Pantheress still had her paws around his beak so he couldn't protest. Instead, he sent a death glare at Fox, who just smirked back.
"As soon as we drop Diddy Kong off, Falco and I will send a message to the rest of you, and hopefully you'll all be in your respective planes and ready to go. When we send the message, we launch an attack on the Halberd. Hopefully with all of us, we can take the monster ship down. Peppy, if you can, please make sure R.O.B 64 is okay with keeping the Great Fox within sight of us, in case any of the Arwings go down. And maybe if you can, you can bring the mother ship over so they'll have a place to get fixed up quickly?" Peppy nodded.
"Of course. I'll go tell R.O.B now," he said and left the room. All was not said and done though, for Wolf walked over to where Fox was, ready to argue.
"Okay Foxey, this is a great plan, but I see some holes. First off, how are you certain that we'll meet up with the Halberd, this close to that Island?" Wolf asked.
"Well actually, I'm just taking some intelligent guesses based off of the work that I've heard. In fact, Slippy told me that the ship's radar has been giving off a strong signal where the floating island is. Is that right, Slippy?"
Yes, yes it is," Slippy answered quickly in his high pitched accent. "By the looks of it, most of it is consisted of an unknown energy source that our ship can't detect. I would have to assume these are the Shadow Bugs that the Subspace Creatures seem to be made up of. So it would be very safe to assume that the Halberd would be going there at some point for whatever reason." Wolf arched one his eyebrows suspiciously.
"Okay…but even then, what if the Halberd isn't going there?" he asked.
"It won't matter that much," Fox responded. "The Halberd is a big target. Last time we chased it, the thing wasn't even close to being in earshot and our radar could pick it up. So if it's not nearby the floating island, we'll be able to know. And if it doesn't show up," Fox smiled slightly, as if he knew he was going to win the argument already, "then I'll put you in command and we'll listen to your judgment, unless you already have an idea where to start. Is that okay with you, Wolf?"
Wolf, acting quite out of character, responded, "All right." Then he paused, as if a sudden thought hit him. "Actually Fox, do you think after you drop off Diddy, we could try nearby that icy mountain?" Now it was Fox's turn to raise his eyebrows in suspicion.
"What? Did you get hit with a sudden foresight?" he asked.
"Eh? No. I'm just being intelligent. I'm sure the enemy isn't stupid enough to go straight into our line of fire. I think it'll try and make a turn around the mountains so it'll be temporarily hidden from our own radar. If we go over there in just our Arwings and let the Great Fox stay behind for a while, we can hide much more effectively so we won't show up on their radar for the very same reason. That way, we can launch a surprise attack with our Arwings and Wolfens and then radio in for the Great Fox to launch the final blows," Wolf explained. Fox was silent for a bit, considering it. After a bit of silence, he pulled his paw out and Wolf shook it.
"That's not a bad plan," Fox admitted. "I think we should do this working together thing more often, we would be unstoppable."
"Yeah, well don't plan on it," Wolf said with what almost sounded like a tinge of regret in his voice. "We're destined to be rivals."
"Rivals," Fox pointed out quietly. "Not enemies." Wolf didn't respond to this comment for a while, thinking about it carefully. Although Wolf wouldn't admit it at first, Fox had a point. Especially seen more often than in the past, Fox and Wolf had rescued each other in a surprising amount of fights. And yet people still think I'm a bad person, Wolf thought bitterly. In the end though, it didn't seem to matter. People will think what they will; he just has to prove them wrong.
"So what are ya trying to get at, Fox?" Slippy asked, breaking Wolf's train of thought.
"I think our days of enemies should be over. Rivals, yes, I think the competition brings out the best fighters in us…and maybe the worst in Panther and Falco," Fox said, glancing over at the two. Although Falco's beak was still clamped, it was clear that he was glaring daggers at Panther. Panther also didn't say anything to Falco, but looked ready to murder them.
"Just ignore it," Wolf muttered quietly to Fox. "Panther just doesn't like Falco because we can all easily tell that Falco's got a thing for his sister."
"Okay, well anyway, Wolf, do you agree? That we need to stop being enemies and just be rivals?" Fox asked. Wolf nodded.
"I agree actually." He smirked, showing a couple of his sharp teeth. "Actually, you're one of the few people who actually I've ever met who inspires me to sharpen my claws every day. And hell, I've realized after this tournament that everyone needs someone like that to inspire them. So what the hell, we'll stop being enemies and simply just competitive rivals. But don't expect you're life to get any easier!"
"I wasn't expecting it to get any easier. In fact, just because we're not going to hate each other's guts give us no reason to stop trying to kill each other," Fox said.
"Good. Because remember this Fox: when this is over, it's still me who will kill you," Wolf said – although not as seriously as he normally does. Fox smiled.
"Of course it is," he said, followed by glancing at Diddy and an alarmed expression. "Shit! Falco we gotta hurry if we're going to catch that platform!" Fox ran out of the room in a mad dash (his shock shown by him slipping a bad word he says very rarely) and probably to the hanger. Pantheress let go of Falco's beak.
"Did you enjoy that?" Falco asked the feline. She smirked.
"Yes actually, it was very enjoyable."
"So you like the kinky stuff then?" Pantheress's expression went from smug satisfaction to a disgusted horror.
"Like you'd know. Now go help your friend then," Pantheress said. Falco's face mirrored Fox's when he realized they nearly forgot Diddy and he followed the vulpine shouting one thing:
"HOLD ON FOX! I'M COMIN'!" Pantheress just shook her head and laughed. Some men (or boys, she wasn't sure what Falco went under) just never changed.