Chapter 5.
Bad Company.
For a second, Miyu wondered if the crowd was meant for somebody else.
She coasted into the carrier hangar, watching the catwalks. Crew of all kinds and species crowded the hangar. Miyu could see the landing safety crew standing near the hangar's force field. She saw the wide grins on their faces, and the way dozens of crew craned their necks just to get a glimpse of her canopy.
Miyu knew that most of her squadron already heard about who she killed. She didn't know that news already reached the carrier, too.
She especially didn't know that she'd get a welcome like this.
Safety crew waved people away from her engines and kept people at bay until her fighter landed and her engine died down. Then, the throng moved in, climbing on her wings as soon as her canopy opened up. As soon as she undid her harness, arms reached in to grab her under her elbows and armpits to pull her up.
The moment she got pulled up high enough to stand, she heard it.
She heard one word, chanted, cheered, and howled into the air:
Mi-yu! Mi-yu! Mi-yu! Mi-yu!
Miyu felt a lump in her throat. Her eyes started to water. She had no idea what to say. She never expected a welcome like this.
Up to now, she didn't really know anybody here very well. She didn't feel much attachment, she didn't build any friendships, and she rarely kept track of names. She kept to herself most of her life, and she chose that on purpose.
But when she heard the crowd cheer her name, she felt something. Something she didn't know she wanted. And the moment she got it, she felt like she never knew anything so good.
The feeling overwhelmed her for a few heartbeats, and she just stood there, smiling, waving, but still looking down, ears flat, as though she wasn't sure she deserved it but didn't have the heart to correct anyone that said otherwise.
She felt happy.
McCoy and the arctic fox from before shouldered through the crowd, with Grant's towering frame following close after. The fox wore a wicked grin. McCoy had his helmet off and waved it as he walked through the crowd.
As people helped Miyu down from the cockpit, Grant and the fox shared a knowing look before Grant shook a large bottle.
"Hey, Total!" Grant's thumb pressed up on a cork, and the resounding bang that followed caught Miyu's attention almost before the spray of champagne hit her face.
"C'mon, you can't say no to champagne, Total!"
"Don't just get soaked, drink it!"
She smiled, even as she felt the stuff seep into the collar of her flight suit, and even as she felt some it fizzle inside the ear that got soaked first. Miyu didn't need to feel drunk to know she felt happy, but she obliged anyway. Reaching over for the bottle, she heard a half dozen voices let out a low howl that got louder and louder as she brought the rim to her muzzle and swallowed mostly bubbles.
By the time she finished the two mouthfuls still left in the bottle, the howl rose to a crescendo that rang in her ears. People jumped, thumped her on the back, grabbed her by the shoulder and shouted praise into her ears that she couldn't hear over the cheering. She was also pretty sure someone kissed her on the cheek.
She forgot about it a moment later when several paws pulled her up to sit on the shoulders of two taller pilots, Grant, and a wolf she didn't recognize. She didn't care. She enjoyed every moment.
The crowd parted to let someone through. Stepping towards Miyu, and stopping right before the two pilots holding her up, stood Jess. She looked haggard, and her exhausted expression convinced the two pilots, as well as the people immediately around them, to stop cheering. Miyu slid off their shoulders as the celebration started to die down. All eyes turned towards the flight lead and Miyu.
Then, she saw it. The slow upwards curl of a smile. As it grew bigger, Jess stepped forwards, grabbed Miyu by the arm, and raised it up high. The cheers started again, this time loud enough to deafen her for a few seconds.
"You might've just turned this around for us, Miyu. They kicked us from one end of the rock to the other, but you took him on anyways. Damn. Damn!" Jess pumped her fists and brought them up behind her ears with a big grin. The words came out with a laugh.
She looked relieved. And if she was right, Miyu might have just shattered the enemy squadron by killing their leader. That felt worth celebrating.
Someone tapped Jess on the shoulder and whispered into her ears. She stood straighter immediately, "Well they took their sweet time getting here."
From the other side of the hangar, the doors opened, and the tall ferret from before marched through, flanked by a troop of pilots in black flight suits. A large crocodile led the group in.
The crowd parted as they approached. The cheering died down. Jess' triumphant expression slowly faded as they got closer.
McCoy stepped forwards towards them, arms wide, and with a wider smile, "C'mon, fellas, you gotta admit, we've done a pretty good job so far by ourselves-"
A punch interrupted him. McCoy spun backwards, floored by the crocodile's fist. The sound of him hitting the floor caught the attention of the crowd nearest to him, and the shock reverberated through the crew. The cheering faded away, replaced by confused shouts and shocked questions as people near the back pushed their way towards the source of the ruckus.
"They weren't yours to kill!" The crocodile roared, jabbing a finger towards Miyu. The accusation echoed through the whole hangar, turning heads across the crowd
She froze. Maybe the jarring shift from a celebration to a brawl caused her to freeze. Maybe the sight of McCoy's dazed body on the floor stunned her. Maybe the fury behind the accusation gave her pause.
A few pilots broke away from the crowd and reached for McCoy's stunned body. A trio of Venomians rushed forwards and shoved them away. A helmet flew from the crowd, beaning a Venomian in the head. The Venomians rushed forwards in response, grabbing a helmetless pilot and dragging him out of the crowd.
The pilot, an ape, kicked, punched, and even bit at the paws that grabbed him. His fellow pilots rushed forward, slamming, often literally, into the Venomians dragging him away.
Similar fights broke out all along the space where the two groups met. McCoy already staggered up and joined the fray with a growl and raised fists. Grant got hit in the shoulder with a crowbar. He grabbed the crowbar, pried it out of the Venomian's paws with a swift jerk, and cracked him across the jaw with it.
Miyu's confusion at the crocodile's accusation faded away as she watched the melee unfold. She stepped forward, sighting the nearest Venomian, a she-wolf who was busy stomping on the chest of one of the safety crew, and pulled a fist back.
BANG.
The fights stalled. The people furthest from the sound looked around frantically for the source of the gunshot. A few accusations flew within the crowd. The ones nearest to it froze immediately as they saw the shooter.
The ferret held up a pistol, his eyes obscured by a set of sunglasses. He pulled the trigger again.
BANG.
The slug thrower's report echoed through the hangar as the groups stopped fighting. Venomians reached for their comrades still on the ground, glowering at the other pilots as they pulled them away. Pilots on the other side did the same, hissing insults and occasionally spitting at the Venomians.
The ferret stepped forwards, handing the pistol to the crocodile. He kept his eyes tilted upwards, facing no one in particular. "It has come to my attention that the people here did not understand my instructions."
He spoke with a quiet, level voice. He never raised it or lowered it. "Now, because of your mistake-"
"Hey, now!" All eyes turned towards Grant, who pointed at the ferret. "Where do you get off saying that?"
He strode forwards. "We did our jobs. Now they can't see us coming, and they lost the guy leading 'em-"
"-and you lost several fighters at the same time. Congratulations." The ferret kept the same tone as he spoke. He didn't even sound angry. Or even annoyed. His eyes still faced upwards.
Grant curled his lips. "Well, I guess it's pretty easy to make a call like that with no skin in the game, huh?"
Some of the crowd near Grant jeered at the ferret. A few Venomian pilots glanced uncertainly at the bigger crowd of pilots facing them and the ferret riling them up.
Grant kept egging the ferret. "C'mon. Can you actually fight, or do you let your goons do that for you?"
The ferret turned his head, slowly, towards Grant. He watched the space right above Grant's head as he took off his sunglasses.
The crocodile stepped forward, but the ferret shot him the lightest glance and an almost invisible shake of his head. The crocodile froze, then stepped back in place.
The ferret approached Grant, slowly. Grant stepped forwards with a self-assured smile. The crowd behind him started to cheer.
"Knock him flat, Grant!"
"Feed him his teeth!"
"Grab him by his pencil neck and spike him into the floor-"
Miyu listened as the jeers kept coming. The ferret met Grant's gaze as the towering pilot approached, fists raised. Then, Miyu saw it. A change in the ferret's posture that she almost missed.
The ferret stared directly at Grant.
Grant's ears twitched. He kept his smirk wide and his fists raised, and he still kept walking. He twitched his ears again when he got closer to the ferret, almost like something buzzed by them.
Right then, Miyu noticed something more. Grant's smirk started to fade. He kept blinking, and even rubbed his eyes with a fist.
The ferret just kept staring directly at him as Grant closed the distance.
Grant's smile vanished. He leaned forward into a lurching charge and took a wild swing at the ferret. His fist swung wide, and he staggered right past the ferret, looking around with a confused look and a blinking squint.
Miyu wondered if Grant drank too much champagne, then remembered that he never even drank from the bottle.
Turning back, Grant swiped again at the ferret, missing completely and sprawling on the floor. The ferret never budged from his spot, but his gaze always followed Grant, and always stared him in the eyes whenever Grant looked at him.
Grant staggered up, then fell to his knees, blinking, panting, and still twitching his ears. He swung his fist one more time at the ferret, but instead of landing a blow, his paw weakly grasped at the ferret's suit as he fell forwards, his face landing in the space between the ferret's shoes.
The only evidence that anything happened to the ferret was a set of light trailing marks where Grant's claws got caught on the suit.
The ferret looked down, assessing the unmoving body at his feet. He sighed, picking at a loose thread left behind by Grant's claws.
Shocked murmurs rippled through the crowd. Some near the back shouted questions, and many at the front just stared, often slack-jawed or with paws over their mouths.
The crocodile stepped forward, glancing at the body as he leaned down to talk to the ferret. The ferret replaced his sunglasses on his muzzle, and returned his gaze towards the ceiling. He spoke something to the crocodile before stepping across the body and towards the hallway.
Turning towards the crowd, the crocodile waved across the room. "Our benefactor is now in command of this ship. You already have your orders. As you were."
The crowd's murmurs rose to a low roar of confused shouts as the Venomians walked away. McCoy led a group towards Grant's motionless body and kneeled down by him, wide-eyed and reaching for his face. Miyu watched and felt a chill in her blood as she saw them lift Grant's head, and caught a glimpse of his eyes as they stared forwards, unmoving.
Dozens of questions took up her thoughts. The shock of how quickly everything changed left her speechless. By the time she could find something to say, the arctic fox beat her to it with a breathless whisper:
"What the fuck was that?"
An exhausted ape stood up, cracking his back with a press from both palms. A coat of pale dust covered his fingertips and the knees of his overalls. He wiped the sweat off his brow and frowned as the asteroid dust on his fingers formed a grime with his sweat.
He looked around for any more shattered glass or electrical cables left on the floor by the attack on the asteroid. He spotted a pile near one of the mercenaries' angular blue-and-white fighters, the one that had its canopy launch and crash into the ground nearby.
The ape picked up his broom, his dust pan, and his bucket filled with glass shards and broken cables. He walked over, silently thanking the maker that the canopy didn't shatter on the ground with the fallen tube lights from the ceiling.
He noticed a smear of dried blood on the fighter's wing, and a few drops on the floor. He felt a little bad thinking about the pilot, then pushed the thought out of his mind as he got to work picking up the largest pieces.
He reached down to pick up some of the larger pieces when he felt a rumble through the floor. He froze, feeling the hairs on his arms stand on end. He immediately looked out the hangar's mouth, expecting to see another bomber swooping in for an attack run.
Instead, he felt the ground give way under his left foot. Staggering to regain his balance, he watched, wide-eyed as the floor depressed in neat rectangular segments, forming a stairwell below.
He didn't even check to see where it led. He jogged to the end of the hangar, looking back warily at the new stairs in the ground before he turned a corner and started shouting for someone to come quick.
"Trainee!"
He snapped to attention the moment he heard the word. He stared straight forwards, arms at his sides, fingers curled slightly like his friend reminded him to.
He felt a chill through his exercise clothes. He didn't even need to look to know he wore the solid maroon ones with a Cornerian flag on the sleeve of the shirt and one on the side of the pants.
"Trainee!"
The same word again, more forceful this time. A part of him frantically wondered if he did something wrong. Would he make it worse by moving and maybe correcting his stance?
"TRAINEE!"
The voice came as a bellow by his ear. He started to shiver. He saw a tall badger step into view, wearing a dark maroon uniform and cap. He kept his gaze straight forwards.
The badger turned to him with a shout he could feel on his face.
"Trainee McCloud, are you paying attention?!"
He instinctively turned to face the badger. The badger just screamed louder, and Fox felt hot breath on his face.
"WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT? DID I TELL YOU TO LOOK AT ME?"
"No, Instructor!" The hoarse words left his mouth automatically. He snapped back to attention. His eyes focused on the tan wall behind the badger. He could see windows and the skies outside the-
"Trainee McCloud, can you tell me why you're here?"
His mind raced. A dozen questions and a dozen answers raced through it as he searched for the right response.
His gaze settled on the reflection in the window. He saw himself, in his exercise uniform, standing in front of row after row of others, all dressed in the same uniforms.
He saw himself two steps in front of them. He felt the shiver reach his chest now as he started to panic. What did he do? What happened?
"Trainee McCloud, hold out your paws."
He hesitated, then slowly brought up his arms, paws flat. They shook. He watched, wide-eyed as they kept shaking and he kept shivering.
"McCloud, why are your paws shaking?" The badger kept speaking in a raised voice, projecting it so it could echo through the room.
Fox tried to find an answer. He couldn't find an answer. He just watched his own paws shake and felt the shiver reach his heart.
"Trainee Antonov, step forward and hold out your paws. McCloud, watch him."
He looked to his side as a tiger stepped forward, easily a head and a half taller than he was. Antonov held out his paws. They held perfectly still.
Fox looked at his own, shaking paws, and felt sick. He didn't know why they kept shaking. They just kept shaking.
He felt something rise in his throat. He felt tears in his eyes. Why was he shaking? Why did he feel so cold? Why?
"Paws down. Look at me, McCloud."
He finally turned towards the badger. The badger leaned in, voice raised but level, "McCloud, give me one good reason why you belong in a fighter."
He tried to speak, but the words got stuck in his throat, somewhere behind the rising bubble of the breakfast he ate fifteen minutes ago. He wanted to puke. He wanted to cry.
"McCloud, with paws like those, I wouldn't even trust you to push a janitor's bucket. I will ask you again. Give me a good reason why you belong in a fighter."
He felt his lip quiver. He spoke, haltingly as he held back his breakfast, "I-I...I belong-"
"Bull. Shit."
He couldn't hold back the tears anymore. The bile reached the back of his throat, now, and he could feel the tears staining his fur. He stayed silent, shivering in place.
"I've seen enough. Get him out of here."
He felt a dozen paws grab him. The panic took over his whole body. He jerked his arm away as he felt a paw grab his shoulder. He kicked as someone grabbed him by the shoes.
The other trainees carried him backwards with a grip on each limb. Looking back, he could see two other trainees opening a large window. He felt his blood freeze as he kicked harder and threw a punch.
He felt his knuckles meet the sharp edge of someone's teeth. Someone cursed, and then another half dozen paws grabbed him and hauled him closer to the window.
For a moment, he gave up. He watched, dejected, as the window got closer and closer. He could see the clouds overhead. He could see the sky he'd never reach.
Right as the window looked an arm's length away, he clenched his teeth. His eyes still watered, he still felt the bile rising in his throat, and he felt one more thing, and he held onto that feeling.
He bit one of the trainees' arms. The tiger hissed a curse and briefly let go. He threw back his head and felt it connect with someone's nose. More paws let go of him. He thrashed, kicking with his legs and punching with his one free arm. For a few seconds, he felt something new.
For a brief, beautiful, shining moment, he felt like he could win.
He felt a new paw come down and grab his free arm, pulling it back with a jolt so strong and sudden he sincerely thought it broke. He looked up into the smouldering, furious eyes of the badger.
Another dozen paws grabbed him. He couldn't move anymore. He felt his back graze the lower edge of the window. He felt the air beneath him as he leaned back into open space.
His fingers grabbed the window's edge. More paws pried them off. He felt the paws let him go as more and more of him got outside the window.
He cried for them to stop as his knees made it past the edge.
He cried for help as he felt the wind whistle by his ears.
He cried for his dad as he fell.
He woke with a start, and immediately felt the sting of something buried in his forearm. He squinted through gummed eyes as the he tried to blink the world into focus. Looking over, he saw a clear tube snaking into a shaved spot on his forearm. He felt bedsheets running all the way down his bare back, past his thighs, and all the way down his legs. He slowly became aware that he wore nothing except a thin gown.
"Well, would you look at that,"
Fox stared into the warm faces of Ray and Peppy leaning over from their seats, looking at him from across the room. Looking around further he saw a handful of other beds, clusters of cylindrical medical equipment on wheels, some monitors craned over his head, and a set of wires that led out from under his gown. He felt them graze his fur as he tried to move.
Fox licked his chapped lips and tried to speak. The first sound out of his mouth sounded like a croak.
"Hey, hey. Easy. You still need to recover." Peppy kept a calm tone as he walked to the bedside.
Looking up, Fox saw what the tone tried to hide. Peppy looked haggard, with unkempt fur, bloodshot eyes, and a face creased with worry. Even then, he tried to smile.
At some point, though, the smile broke down, and Peppy let out a shaky breath. He seemed to collapse down onto Fox, but Fox felt the hare's arms gingerly wrap around him before the hare held him tight. He felt something wet between his ears, where the hare buried his eyes.
"My boy, my boy, my boy." Fox could feel the shaky whisper breathed into the fur on his head.
Ray stood, slowly, and nodded towards the door. "I'll fetch the nurse and spread the good news."
Fox cleared his throat, forcing out just enough air to make half the word "What?"
Peppy kept holding onto Fox. "We thought we lost you. We almost did."
Peppy slowly let go, then dragged a chair towards the side of the bed. "One of the things I remember hearing them say, something I'll never forget, was that your heartbeat was gone."
He turned to face Fox again, eyes still red, voice still weary. "For a few seconds, I thought they hauled off your corpse."
He coughed halfway through the last word, like he tried to laugh off how worried he was. Instead, Fox heard his still-shaky breath as he cleared his throat.
"Crew?" Fox spoke barely above a whisper. He didn't need to say any more for Peppy to understand.
"The team's okay. Slippy," Peppy shook his head "Slippy was distraught."
Peppy exhaled the word, like part of his soul escaped with it "He practically screamed himself hoarse for people to get to you. He was the one pushing down on your chest to keep the blood in. I'm pretty sure he saved you."
Fox smiled. Yeah. That sounded like Slippy. "Fal...co? ROB?"
Peppy sighed. "I think he mourned in his own way. He just shut down all comms and dove deeper into the fight after he heard what happened. When he came back, the first thing he asked was to see you," Peppy shrugged, "when he learned you were already in the hospital, he just asked for access to the hangar's cameras. From there, he got a recording of the pilot who did that to you."
He nodded downwards to Fox's chest. Fox remembered the moments leading up to him blacking out. More than anything, though, he remembered a face. A lynx in a dark violet flight suit. He remembered her expression, no hate, no anger, just a set jaw and a look like she fought to get that far.
Fox expected to feel something while remembering the person who almost killed him. Instead, he felt empty. Exhausted. The details of who tried to kill him felt no more or less important than the make and model of the ships that tried to shoot him down.
On some level, he knew he should've felt something about it, but the only other things he felt right now included a painkiller haze, a slowly-spreading headache, and a feeling like the tip of a god's finger pushed down on his whole body just enough to keep it sunk into the bed.
"As for ROB, well," Peppy scratched the back of his neck. "A torpedo hit a section of the Great Fox and vaporized most of him."
Peppy noticed Fox's jaw drop, and raised his paws. "He's good! Remember, his body's just hardware. All the stuff that makes ROB well, ROB, is backed up on the Great Fox. Plus, we still have his head, where we stored most of his memory, anyways. I wouldn't be too broken up about it, Fox."
Fox let his head rest on the pillow. On the one paw, he knew ROB wasn't sentient. No more or less alive than an average computer. He sometimes resembled sentience because of almost a decade's worth of custom programming. On the other, ROB was one of those connections Fox still had with the original team his dad led. Losing ROB would feel like losing even more of his dad. His heart sank at the thought.
Lifting an arm, he felt several wires and a tube brush his fur. All of them led from under his gown. He knew the wires led to his chest, but the moment he figured out where the tube led, he shot Peppy a cocked eyebrow.
Peppy looked back at him with a wry smile. "Catheter. You were out for a while."
Fox felt a weak scoff escape his muzzle as his head slumped back on the pillow. Out of all his adventures, this one took the cake.
At that moment, an ape nurse leaned into view from the hallway, joined by Falco. Ray walked in, too, keeping his distance from Falco. Falco didn't even look at him, and when Ray walked across his path, Falco almost looked like he made an effort to ignore him.
Before the nurse could say a single word, Falco strode past. "Y'know, there was a betting pool on what would happen to you."
Fox shot Falco something between a deadpan look and a half-smile. He tried to say two words but only got through with the second. "Won?"
"Nah. Didn't bet, just set up the pool." Falco landed right on the bed by Fox, leaning back. Fox's eyebrows shot up.
Falco noticed Fox's look, then shrugged. "I didn't bet against you, if that's what you're wondering. That'd make me a real prick. But betting for you felt like it would've jinxed it. So,"
Falco threw down a wad of bills. Fox recognized some Cornerian dollars on the top, but the rest formed a rainbow fan of the star system's currencies as the bills landed on the bed.
"That's the take I got for putting the pool together. As far as I'm concerned, that money's yours." Falco nodded his beak towards the money.
Peppy narrowed his eyes at the bird. The bird raised his wings in mock surrender, "Hey, now, old-timer, that pool was gonna happen no matter what I did. But," Falco tilted his head towards Fox, "This way, I can part money from every fool who made a bet on his life. Now that,"
Falco tapped a feather to his temple. "That's just a smart investment."
Peppy held his gaze for a second before he scoffed with a shake of his head. Even then, Fox still saw the slow smile appearing on Peppy's face.
Ray also narrowed his eyes at Falco, but stepped forwards with the nurse instead. The nurse smiled warmly at Fox, "Are you feeling okay? Is there anything you need?"
Fox finally got three words out of his own muzzle. "I'm good. Thanks."
The ape kept smiling, glanced at the money on the bed, then looked over the monitors and equipment nearby.
"Well, I'm just glad you're still with us, Fox." Ray spoke, sitting at the end of Fox's bed.
Peppy shot a wary look at Ray as he spoke. Fox almost missed it. "Those of us who were sheltered together prayed on behalf of those defending us, and when we heard about what happened, we said a prayer for you."
Fox looked back at the ape's tired eyes, and the wrinkled, warm smile. He felt lost for words. What could he say? He didn't really know their religions, and he only just met them. He wanted to say the right thing, something that could let them know that he wasn't sure he deserved it, and he wanted to say it in a way that didn't disrespect what they did.
He settled for saying something truthful. "I'm just...glad you're okay."
Fox swallowed halfway through the sentence. The nurse noticed, handing him a bottle of orange juice. "You scared a lot of us back there. I gotta say, you're the first person I've seen live through something like this. You're probably not the first overall, but still,"
The nurse pulled out a plastic bag about as wide as a thumb. Two warped metal shapes shone dully through the bag. He placed it into Fox's open paw. "Just in case you wanted a souvenir."
"Y'know, Fox, you were technically dead. No pulse. If we weren't here, you'd be in a coffin. So, did you see the other side?" Falco spoke with the familiar avian almost-smirk.
Fox just stared back at him. Most of what he remembered from his dream already melted away, but he remembered two things: falling down without stopping, and the feeling like he lost everything in the world.
He didn't want to answer Falco's question.
Falco, as though he sensed his joke fall flat, coughed awkwardly. "Well, you don't have to tell us. Some things oughta be surprises, you know?"
Fox swallowed again. Ray stepped forward to fill the awkward silence. "I think Fox just needs time to process what he's survived."
Ray shot a disapproving look at Falco. Falco shot a glare right back before turning away to face Fox. "So yeah, some stuff's happened."
Falco stressed the word with a sidelong look at Ray. "Slip and I are leading patrols just in case the pirates come back, Slippy's set up the sensor pod on the asteroid surface, and we got enough systems to make our short-range comms work across the board, but it looks like we're really on our own right now. There's also, uh, something more important,"
Falco gave Peppy a meaningful look. Peppy caught it, and ran a paw over his long ears, flattening them with a sigh. "There's more to the mission than we knew at the start."
Fox sensed the tension in the air as Falco and Peppy turned to Ray. The ape searched Fox's face for a moment, then bowed his head with a sigh so deep it seemed to make him smaller. "Fox, we have found something on this asteroid that we believe would interest you-"
"Oh, gimme a break," Falco leaned forwards off the bed with a disgusted snort. "You hid something from us. Something so big that I'm willing to bet that Fox getting shot was part of it, somehow,"
"I keep telling you, I did not know-" Ray looked back up at Falco, speaking with a shaky breath through his nose.
Fox watched as Ray wiped his brow. As the ape looked away from Falco, he swallowed, pursing his lips. "I-I did not know. As bizarre and beyond coincidence as it may seem, I had no idea that it was here."
"I think it would help if you told Fox what it is." Peppy spoke coolly, arms folded and with a look that Ray immediately met with bared teeth.
For a heartbeat, Ray looked ready to snarl a retort. Instead, he sighed slowly through his nose and turned to Fox. "Fox. While you were out, a passage opened inside the hangar floor. When we walked inside,"
Ray looked at Peppy. The hare stared back as Ray finished. "We found an Arwing inside the asteroid."
Author's notes:
I put a lot of effort into this one. It's the longest chapter so far, but I doubt that it'll be the longest one in the story.
I gotta say, coming back here after so many years feels different. I don't think Star Fox stories are as popular as they were a few years ago. That's not gonna stop me though. I have a hunch that more folks are gonna visit in the future, and when they do, I want to make sure they got something to read.
Now, the reviews:
Elarix: Good catch with the infirmary, I wanted to leave a hint that Fox would survive before making that chapter.
Vexed: Yeah, the story needed something to happen, and action felt like the best thing to keep folks interested. I'm really happy that the chapter was exciting, too.
Nail Strafer: Yeah, you make a fair point about character deaths. Also, looking back, I think that one perspective would have worked if it was just for Miyu's stunt onwards, but I felt like it was important to give the impression that it was a hectic fight, and that's why I set up the story like I did. I'm keeping what you said in mind, though. I'm still learning how to write well, and you might be right. I'll try your idea in the chapter I'm writing now.
Thanks again for reading, folks. I should have another chapter done soon.