Chapter 6: One Sided War

Ozzy woke up to his alarm about an hour before he was supposed to get picked up. He rolled over and looked at his phone to see a good morning text from Lucy, and got out of bed. He was only wearing his underwear as he was too tired to change into pajamas before going to bed the night before. On his dresser was a small cylindrical object, a flash drive, and the communication device he used last night. Ozzy walked to the dresser and grabbed the communication device. He carefully dialed the long number sequence, 1920011823151206. He held the device up to his ear.

"Hey, it's me... Yeah I just woke up... Anyways I wanna run through what I'm supposed to do with this thing." Ozzy picked up the cylinder and examined it. "Ok...Anywhere?...Shouldn't be too hard... Now I also have this flash drive, what am I supposed to do with that?... Ok...That's gonna be much harder, I'm not sure if I'll get an opportunity to...Oh, ok. I'll try, but no promises... Thanks...Ok, I gotta get ready... Alright, see ya." Ozzy hung up the device and put it back on his dresser. The otter walked to the bathroom and turned the shower on. Waiting for the water to warm up, he stared at himself in the mirror. He looked at himself like he couldn't tell if he was disgusted or proud of what he saw. Today was going to be a risk, and things could go badly if he messes up. Ozzy walked to the shower and felt the water to see if it was hot enough. Deciding that it was, Ozzy pulled off his underwear and stepped into the shower. The water hitting his back released some tension within him as he washed himself. Ozzy has been known to take incredibly long showers, but today he had to make it shorter.

Peppy, Lucy and the StarFox team were piled into Peppy's SUV. Peppy drove, Fox rode passenger, Lucy sat in one of the middle seats, and Falco and Slippy sat in the very back.

"You sure about this Fox? I mean, we just met the guy." Asked Falco, from the back seats.

"Lucy, do you trust him?" Fox asked her.

Lucy hesitated before answering. "I do." she said.

"Then I do too." Fox replied. "Besides, what is he gonna do?"

"I don't know, touch something he shouldn't."

"He's eighteen, not eight."

"Whatever, guess it'll be fine." Falco shrugged. The bird pulled his phone out of his pocket to pass the time. Slippy watched what he was doing on his phone, which irritated him. They rode in silence until reaching Ozzy's house. Ozzy lived in a small ranch house in one of the many suburban areas surrounding Corneria City. The neighborhood he lived in was a mixed bag. Some houses looked nice, others did not. Ozzy's house was located on a cul-de-sac. The Mann home looked nice, but the house next to it looked rundown, like nobody has lived in it for years. Peppy parked the car in front of the house.

"I'll tell him we're here." Lucy stated. She opened up the messages on her phone and quickly typed "hey we're out front." Almost immediately, she received a text from Ozzy. "I'll be right out." After about a minute, the front door to the house opened and the small otter stepped out. He was sporting a plain black hoodie and a pair of dark blue jeans. Ozzy looked at the car, smiled, and shut the door behind him. He walked down the driveway and towards the car. Peppy unlocked the doors just as Ozzy approached. Ozzy opened up one of the back doors.

"Hey guys." Ozzy spoke with comfort in his voice, knowing that they all liked him. Ozzy was greeted by everyone and he took one of the middle seats, next to Lucy. The car ride took them through the heart of Corneria City, and to the Southern edge of it, where the military facilities were located. Just before they arrived, Peppy looked back at Ozzy.

"You brought your driver's license, right? They're going to need an I.D of everyone here." Peppy asked, praying to the stars above that Ozzy did.

"Yeah, I did. They just need an I.D right? We're not gonna have to go through anything else?" Ozzy asked, letting a little nervousness show.

"No. Why? You hidin' something?" Peppy asked, in a joking way.

"What? No. I just... that stuff makes me nervous, that's all." Ozzy was relieved to hear that they would avoid searches and metal detectors. As the car pulled up to the security checkpoint, Peppy gathered everyone's I.D's and handed them over to the checkpoint officer. The officer looked over each, before handing them back to Peppy. The bar was raised and Peppy drove into the airfield. Peppy drove the car around one of the hangars, and immediately the Great Fox came into view. Ozzy's little eyes widened at the sight. Peppy parked the car in one of the lots close to the ship and everyone got out. Ozzy was astonished by what he was seeing. Yeah, he had seen it before, but never this close. It was a lot larger than he thought. Fox looked over at him and noticed Ozzy's expression.

"Big, huh?" Fox asked.

"It's huge." Was all that could escape Ozzy's mouth. Fox held up his wrist and activated a button on his gauntlet panel. The Great Fox made a few noises before a large ramp jutted out from it and lowered down to ground level.

"Eh, it could use a fresh coat of paint. It's seen a lot." Fox spoke.

"It doesn't matter if the beacon is dull, as long as it still shines, sending it's message to all who see it." Ozzy said.

Fox looked at the otter, impressed by what he just said. "Where'd you find that quote?"

Ozzy smiled and pointed to his head. "In here." He answered. The ramp reached the ground and a door at the top opened up. Fox looked up at his ship and then back at Ozzy.

"You might be too young to remember, but this thing used to belong to my father. When he died it wasn't really used until I graduated flight academy. After that I got to use it just as my dad did." A lump formed in Fox's throat as he delivered that last sentence. Ozzy looked up at him and spoke quietly.

"I remember Fox. You're only like six years older than me. That was a dark day for Corneria. I know you're making him proud, though." Ozzy said, making Fox smile.

"Thank you Ozzy." Fox said and began walking up the ramp, everyone else following behind him. Lucy and Ozzy held hands as they ascended the ramp and entered the ship.

The door opened into a little entrance hall. The inside looked a lot more pristine than the outside, with it's white walls and floors. ROB 64 was the reason it looked so nice. Fox walked a little ahead of the rest of the group and turned around.

"Alright, where to?" He asked.

"I say let's see all the normal things, make our way to the bridge, and finally end at the hangar bay." Peppy suggested. Everyone seemed to agree with that idea, and they all looked to Ozzy to see if he agreed.

"Sounds good to me." Ozzy smiled. Just as Fox was about to lead everyone down the left of the hallway, something approached from the right.

"WELCOME ABOARD STARFOX." ROB 64 said. The robot turned to Ozzy. "WARNING, UNIDENTIFIED PERSON ON BOARD."

"WHOA WHOA WHOA, ROB its okay, he's a friend. We're just giving him a tour." Fox spoke to ease the situation. The robot approached the otter.

"SCANNING SUBJECT." ROB began projecting a scanning beam onto Ozzy, who was startled by the beam hitting his face. The scan lasted a few seconds before ROB retracted the beam. "SCANNING COMPLETE. SUBJECT IDENTIFIED: OZZY PETER MANN. WOULD YOU LIKE FOR ME TO ADD SUBJECT TO THE DATABASE AND CONTACTS LIST?" The robot asked as he turned to Fox.

"Yes. Thank you ROB." Fox responded. ROB 64 added Ozzy to the StarFox's database, as an ally. The robot finished his task and turned around and went back down the hallway. "Sorry about that Ozzy. Hope he didn't startle you too much."

Ozzy let out a breath. "No it's okay Fox. I just wasn't expecting that." Lucy walked up to him and held his hand.

"Your middle name is Peter?" She asked, knowing the answer. Lucy had to suppress laughter.

"Yeah yeah, just don't use it." Ozzy replied, trying not to sound too embarrassed. "Thanks for exposing me, ROB!" Ozzy jokingly shook his fist while looking down the hallway, which made everyone laugh.

Fox began to lead the rest through the ship, showing Ozzy the different rooms the Great Fox had, such as the cafeteria, rec room and gym. Each of these rooms had a abundance of amenities and probably costed a fortune. Luckily, their work payed handsomely, which was necessary as maintaining this ship was costly. After going through those rooms, they went into Slippy's workshop. The workshop was messy, filled with many of the frog's projects that he had been tinkering with. Tools, components, and cans of soda were lying all over the place. Peppy scolded him for the state of the room.

At one point the group ended up in the brig, which was not at all like the average prison cell. Instead, it was a large pentagonal white room with a seat in the middle. On one of the walls was a large mirror, obviously it was one-way mirror. On the other side was a small control room with speaker functions and monitors. Fox explained that they haven't used the holding cell in a long time, and even the it rarely saw use. He also said that he doubted they would use it again since the war was over. The group exited the brig and walked through the hallways where the bedrooms were located, but didn't go into any of them. All that was left were the bridge and hangar. But before they continued, Ozzy spoke up.

"Hey um, before we move on, can you tell me where the bathrooms are? Sorry."

"No you're fine." Fox said and pointed up the hallway. "Take a left there and it should be the first door on your left."

"Okay thanks, I'll be right back." Ozzy walked up the the hall and disappeared around the corner. Everyone stood around and waited for him to return.

"Lucy? Your boyfriend is the perfect guy. We were talking earlier about how my dad used to own this ship and he said that I was making him proud." Fox said.

"Really? That's so sweet. He has a way with words, I love him for that." Lucy replied. The fact that everyone seemed to like him made her smile. After a few moments Ozzy returned from the bathroom, eager to keep going. They lead him to the bridge. From the large windows at the front, you could see the high-rises of Corneria City and the mountains beyond. The room was filled with many different control stations, one for each member and a spot for ROB 64. In the center of the room was a large platform that had a screen rising up from the back end while a control system was at the front end.

"So this is the bridge. As you an see this is where we control the ship and other things." Fox said. " Also Ozzy, try not to touch anything okay?"

"Yeah of course. I don't want to mess anything up." Ozzy said.

"Hey Slip, why don't you show Ozzy how the comms stuff works? That stuff's pretty cool."

"Um yeah, sure Fox. Come here Ozzy." Ozzy followed Slippy to the control center on the front of the platform. Ozzy stared down at the the numerous buttons and lights on the panel.

"Jeez, this looks complicated."

"Yeah it can be. But here, if you turn this on, the contacts list comes up." Slippy pressed a button and the screen lit up with a list of people he could call. "So then you use these to navigate to who you want, select their name and you can choose if you just want audio or if you want a video call." Slippy stared up at the screen while using the buttons to select Fox's name from the list. He pressed the button and called Fox and turned the video settings on. Fox's comms device rang. He pulled it out from his pocket and attached it to his wrist panel before answering it. Fox's face appeared on the screen and the vulpine gave a goofy smile.

"Now what if you wanted to call someone who wasn't on the contacts list?" Ozzy asked.

"To do that you can either type in a number here, or use this to search for nearby devices. This way we can see any outgoing calls near us and even intercept them if we want. Like to talk with our enemies before blowing them up." Slippy answered.

"Now could anyone else be able to do the same to this system?" Ozzy asked, putting his hands in his pocket.

"No. They'd either have to get access from here or hack it remotely, but the system is encrypted and protected by a firewall so I doubt that would ever happen." Slippy responded. Slippy looked back up at the screen and stared at Fox, but Ozzy kept looking at buttons and ports. "Okay Fox, I'm gonna let you go." Slippy said and pressed a button to end the call. Ozzy put his hand back into his pockets and he and Slippy returned to the group. They continued showing Ozzy the controls to the ship's navigation and defenses. After a few minutes, they left the bridge. All that was left was the hangar.

The doors to the hangar opened and Ozzy's eyes widened at the sight. It was a massive room high ceilings and the blue glow from the energy field filled the room with a slight blue aura. In it housed the four Arwings belonging to each member, parked in designated spots. Even Peppy's was still there, though it had not been used. Along the walls were fueling and maintenance spots.

"Stars above. This is pretty awesome!" Ozzy exclaimed. The little otter had the face of a child on their birthday. Fox let him get up close to his Arwing and even touch it. Ozzy rubbed his hand along the smooth steel and retracted his hand back into his pockets. As he did so, he mouthed something to himself. He looked back over at Fox. "What's it like being in one of these?"

"Its...well there's nothing else like it." Fox answered. "Maybe sometime in the future I'll let you sit in the back and go for a fly. Not today though, sorry. They need to get fueled up and stuff."

"I understand." Ozzy took one last look at the Arwings before they left the hangar. They finished up the tour and left the Great Fox. Peppy dropped the otter off at his home and they said their goodbyes.

Ozzy walked into his house and shut the door behind him. His face immediately changed from his signature smile to a serious, business-like face. His family approached him, ready to ask him questions about the tour, but as they did Ozzy pulled out his second communication device ad held it to his ear to indicate he needed to make a call. The otter quickly made his way to his bedroom and shut the door behind him before dialing the same number sequence as he did this morning, 1920011823151206. He held it up to his ear and waited for the other end to pick up.

"It's done." Ozzy spoke as the person he was calling answered. "Yes...both of them... Don't worry, as long as none of them look into the toilet tank, it'll remain hidden. Now as for the flash drive, I got it in while the frog wasn't looking. Can you see it on your end?... Very good. How much are they offering for this?... Ten million!? Are we going to do it?... No that makes sense, why sell one thing when we have a source of things to sell... This is a triumphant day. We are playing chess, and those bastards don't even know a game is being played! I say this is a reason to celebrate!... I know, I know, I'm getting a little ahead of myself...Can we meet up after a success or two? Play some poker?... Yes, again, you guys were the one's who taught me how to play it... So what if I usually win, it's still fun isn't it?... Awesome, I'm looking forward to it... Okay, I'll see you sometime soon hopefully." Ozzy ended the call and relaxed his shoulders. It had indeed been a successful day. The tide of a one-sided war had been changed.

A/N: I wonder if any of you can figure out the code. This story is about to get a lot more interesting. Any reviews are appreciated. Thanks for reading:)