Chapter 14.
You Got Another Thing Comin'
Fox,
It is good to hear from you again. I was worried we'd lose contact with each other, considering what we're currently embroiled in. I've probably met more government men in the last few weeks than I have in all my life.
I am saddened to say that the news hasn't been good. The formal investigation is still ongoing, and you probably know about the arrests by know. Most are people I only vaguely remember as administrators and financial advisors, and there are mercifully few people in that crowd I'd consider close friends.
What troubles me is the circumstances. One of the people mentioned as an important suspect was a chief donor for our retreat. Prior to his disappearance, he was one of the loudest voices that advocated moving our retreat to the asteroid near Venom. In addition to that, he also pushed the hardest to hire you. I do not think the man your friends described in the final battle was there by coincidence.
I think you recognize his face. It is a difficult one to forget or look away from.
Miyu cocked an ear as the subway speakers chimed. 7th and Mitchellsville. She flicked an ear and leaned back again.
In two or three stops, she'd reach her destination: Huang-Mueller Air-and-Starport. Space Dynamics already transferred her fighter to one of their hangars, and she'd stay at the security barracks until her orders arrived. Within 15 minutes of getting them, she'd be out the door and on her way. Another chime. Central Station. One more stop.
Her blood felt electric. She had a mission, now. Even if it was a standard guard-this-thing-with-these-people-helping-you kind of job, it was a mission. She'd have a regular paycheck. One last chime.
Hearing the train screech to a halt, she put a foot through the doors before they even finished opening, and as she walked, another canine walked behind her.
"Uh, excuse me?"
Miyu bristled a little, but still turned to face the canine following her. The face that met her gaze came from under a hoodie. Freezing at first, she narrowed her eyes until the man spoke again.
"Total, it's me."
He threw back the hoodie, and a haggard swift fox looked at her through eyes ringed with dark circles. Miyu blinked, as though that would help her understand what she was seeing.
"I look that bad, huh?"
Miyu glanced at him again as she brought two cups of hot chocolate to their table. He looked exhausted. His back hunched forward, even as he drank hungrily.
"I saw you, and I wondered if I should talk to you at all." Wiping his lip with a thumb, he huffed an awkward laugh. "I came here for the job offer with Space Dynamics, and as I talk to the front desk, I learn the positions are filled."
He gestured at Miyu's new Space Dynamics flight suit. Her ears flattened, and she found a moment to study her paws on the table. Just a short while ago she was in the same position he was in now.
"I'm...sorry, McCoy." She shook her head. She had no idea what else to say. This was already uncomfortable, and she secretly wished for it to end. McCoy reminded her too much of that asteroid, and even though she felt bad, she wanted to just put it behind her.
The next words out of his mouth caught her attention right away. "Is there anything you could do...to help me get a job with Space Dynamics?"
Miyu met his gaze, ears flattened. The fox raised his paws, "It's-it's a lot to ask, but I'm kind of struggling, here."
She stared, jaw open, as she searched for the right words to say. He must've noticed, because he winced at her expression and looked down before she even said a word. "Yeah, yeah. Sorry. That was a stupid thing to ask."
He raised his drink with a small, grateful smile, "I...appreciate this, though."
"No problem." Miyu answered a little too fast. Some of the awkwardness melted away, but she knew she'd only really feel better once the conversation ended.
"I just think that things could've gone better for us, you know?" The fox stared at the surface of his drink.
The lynx stared back wordlessly as McCoy drained the styrofoam cup. Pulling the cup away from his lips and setting it down on the table again, he frowned, hard. "That whole mission was a disaster. Those assholes didn't help, either. You know the ones."
Miyu met his gaze, and a twinge of anger resurfaced in her mind. The words left her muzzle without her even thinking about them. "Star Fox."
The swift fox pointed at her with a single finger as he still held his cup. "Some days, I wish we could've just shot them down. You know, after they let us go. Just stick it to 'em for what they did. To us."
Miyu's gaze clouded with memories, and she felt her claws dig into the mesh of the table surface.
"That whole 'we're-just-here-to-help' act got under your skin, right?" She looked up as McCoy pointed at her expression. "It wasn't just me?"
"No, no it wasn't." Miyu unclenched her jaw. "But, I just want to forget that whole thing. I want to bury it. Move on."
She started to stand, and it looked like McCoy took the hint. "Well, I'm glad we could talk, still."
The fox put out a paw, and Miyu only hesitated for a sliver or a second before taking it, shaking it, and wishing McCoy good luck.
"Hah! Good luck for us would be if we got another chance to fight Star Fox, am I right?"
Miyu answered with a smile, but said nothing else. She just wanted to forget the name and everything stuck with it.
Fox watched as the ground slowly rose to meet the Great Fox. Small figures scurried across the ground, waving bright batons to guide the ship down. He saw all this from the open doors of the ship's hangar, where he wore his old flight suit, his red scarf, and his white jacket.
He held onto the side of the ship as it landed, and stepped out into the crisp air as Space Dynamics crew walked forwards to meet him. He froze, but only for a second, as he watched a fennec fox walk towards the ship. She waved as machines towed forward a fighter craft that looked older than Peppy was, and followed with the familiar T-shaped hull of a surplus Cornerian fighter.
The fennec offered a one-armed hug. Fox took it with only a little hesitation. "Miss Aveline! It's been a while."
"It's good to see you too, Fox!" The slim fennec adjusted her glasses after pulling away from the hug. I haven't seen you since...for years!"
She redirected her sentence halfway through. Fox almost stopped himself from asking the question on his mind, raising his voice over the sound of the passing machines. "How's Fara doing?"
"Good! She's doing good! She's head of our test pilot program, and she was in charge of the new models we're coming up with!" She changed the subject quickly. "I'll still need you to sign these,"
She brought up a clipboard and a pen, and as Fox picked them up, she continued. "You still have room on your ship for our personnel, correct?"
"We got the room. Is escorting the freighter all we need to do?" He clicked the pen before returning it, and caught a glimpse of two approaching figures. His face froze when he saw them, and one figure froze when she saw him too.
"That's correct! They don't have the G-diffusers on them yet, those will be with Beltino." She looked up and caught Fox's new expression, then turned her head in the same direction.
Standing there, a lynx carrying a duffel bag and a backpack stared back at him. Full seconds passed before the feline swore something under her breath, then kept walking towards the ship.
As she moved right past him, Fox turned his head to follow her as she walked up the Great Fox's ramp. The fennec shot her, then him, a look. "Do you know each other?"
"We've met." Fox blinked as she disappeared into the ship.
Moments later, a snow-white spaniel trailed the feline before walking up to Fox, extending a paw as she adjusted her sunglasses. "Hello, I'm Fay Spaniel, you must be Fox McClou-"
Before she could finish, a single curse rang out from the Great Fox's hangar followed by the clang of metal. Fox felt his ears flatten as he knew he had an extra, blue-colored job to deal with.
"-the next one's going for your head, bitch." Fox caught the tail end of the line as he stepped aboard. The lynx already dropped most of her gear on the floor and stood, bristling, a full step to the side with her fangs bared. Fox spotted a wrench on the floor, still rattling from the force of a throw, almost right behind where she stood.
The feline's fur bristled as her paws curled into fists. Falco looked unfazed as he swung a hammer with one wing, squaring his shoulders before he caught Fox's gaze.
Falco pointed at the lynx with the head of the hammer. "Are you seeing this? I'm not the only one who thinks this, right?"
He waved the hammer near his own head. The cat narrowed her eyes, but said nothing, keeping her eyes on the hammer until Fox stepped between them. "Falco, stop-"
"Don't Falco, me Fox." The bird raised his hammer at the feline again. "You remember what she did to you, right? Made you a corpse for a full ten minutes."
"...and then she helped us with the Venomians." Fox finished, slowly and uncertainly, like he was trying to remind himself why he was defending her. He looked over his shoulder, suddenly remembering that Falco was right, too.
The silence lasted for several seconds before Fox cleared his throat. "You're really part of the Space Dynamics team?"
The feline curled her lip before she grabbed her jacket and flashed the logo on the front. She didn't look happy about this, either. Fox relaxed, a little, and motioned for Falco to lower the hammer. He didn't budge.
"Don't be stupid, Fox. She technically did kill you-"
"-I know!" Fox snapped. "But, hell, Falco. We need the money. You get that, right?"
Falco didn't move for the longest second before he let the hammer slide down in his grip. He turned away with a scoff. "Whatever. Friggin' moron."
Fox bristled at the insult, but decided to let it go. Falco needed to cool off. It would help him, and it would mean the mission would go on without a hitch. As he watched the lynx, he remembered her name...
Fox. Fox McCloud. The name resurfaced, uninvited, the moment she walked down the hallway. She adjusted her duffel bag and kept walking, pushing away the name and the memories stuck to it. The idea that she should quit briefly flickered across her mind.
But if she walled away, where would she go?
Miyu flicked her ears and looked around. Passing the ship's galley, and a room filled with couches and a television, she frowned. Where the hell did they have the crew quarters? She never worked with a crew this small, and she had the feeling that she'd be running into them often. She drew in a sharp breath at that thought, and as she stopped at a hallway intersection, she took in her surroundings.
Looking around let you know the ship had seen better days. Some of the lights didn't turn on. And one flickered near the end of the hallway. Bundles of cables lay duct-taped to the corners of each hallway, and some wall sections gave way to sudden, square holes where the plating was missing. Peering in, she could see the wires...
"Looking for your room?"
Miyu's ears instantly cocked towards the familiar voice. Standing across from her, arms behind his back and wearing the same uniform as Fox, stood a familiar hare. She narrowed her eyes as she fished in her mind for a name.
"Peppy Hare, if you were wondering," The hare nodded, quietly. "And if you wanted to know where your quarters would be, they're one deck down."
Miyu glanced at him with narrowed eyes before turning back towards the hallway. "Y'know, if you need help, all you need to do is ask."
She bristled at the invitation, but let her fur flatten a little before walking away. "I'll handle it."
Miyu didn't even turn to face him when he added, quietly. "The ladder's the other way."
She froze mid-step, took a sharp breath, and turned around to walk right past the hare, ignoring what she was sure was a smug grin.
With every rung down the ladder, Miyu spent a moment of time cursing her luck, Space Dynamics, Star Fox, and also herself. Somehow everything had managed to come back together and put her right here, working with the crew that kicked the living daylights out of her old team, humiliating them by confronting them with the fact that they worked for self-serving employers on a mission to kill countless people.
Coming across a door, she stepped in, glanced at the large black tarp on the wall, and guessed that this would be where they'd put their guests. It made sense. The bird hated her, and the hare's friendly demeanor still felt tinged with mockery. So yeah, it made sense that they'd dump her right into their worst room.
Miyu threw her bag onto the bed, and she let her paws slide down her face as she remembered the asteroid. And now, she thought, looking around, she was stuck working with the people who reminded her of her failure.
She walked right into it.
That thought echoed in her mind as she leaned forward, folding her arms over her head as she leaned against the wall. She sighed with a curse that lasted the entire breath.
"You're in the wrong room."
Miyu lifted her head, not remembering this voice. A green frog in yellow coveralls stood outside the door, pointing one arm at her as his other one rested on the doorframe.
She squinted at the frog, confused. She didn't remember this one.
The frog frowned harder, "Yours is two doors down."
Miyu blinked as he shot her a glare and walked away. As he left, a brief memory flickered in her mind. One of a frog in yellow coveralls running for the alarm on a hangar wall.
Well, she thought, bumping her head against the wall again, that explained the frog's frosty reception. She already knew the bird hated her the moment he saw her on the asteroid, and that hateful look refreshed itself in her mind when she saw him in the hangar. After what happened there, she knew she'd be sleeping with a weapon under her pillow.
The hare wasn't openly hostile. He was even a little polite. Maybe it was sincere, but she wasn't sure. Maybe he hated her too, but was too civil to show it on the job.
And the fox...
Miyu sighed, leaning back up and taking her bag off the bed. She pushed all of it out of her mind. The job came first. Focusing on it would push the bad memories away and keep her busy enough to ignore the crew. It would help her look past the fact that she was now on the same boat as a fox she tried to kill, a bird who tried to give her a concussion, a frog that looked at her like she was gum stuck under a chair, and a hare that deep down, she knew, wouldn't be sad to see her go. She was stuck here, right in the middle of it, and she wasn't sure where else to go.
Walking down the hall, Miyu set her jaw and took a deep breath. She refocused on her job. She'd make it through this. She's been through worse, and she knew that for a fact.
"You have a bunk next door to your friend-"
"I'm sorry, I don't know her." Fay adjusted her purse, her backpack, and a luggage large enough to need to turn sideways to pass through the doors.
"Lucky you." Falco chimed in from across the galley hall. He didn't even turn to face Fox and Fay as they walked in.
Fox reached for her luggage. "I could help with that-"
The dog looked towards Fox and flashed a quick smile, "That's very nice of you to offer, but I'm okay. Thank you, though!"
Fox glanced at the luggage big enough to hide two people in. "You sure?"
The dog pulled the bag sideways and flinched as she bumped it into a sharp corner. Looking back towards him, she sighed. "No, no. I'm sure."
Fay glanced towards the dead lights in the corridor. "How-how old is this ship?"
"I've had it since my dad went missing, years ago." Fox stopped at the ladder, and tried to figure out how to get the luggage through. "I'll get to the bottom first, and you can pass it down."
She didn't protest this time. "And how long did he have it?"
Fox eyed the luggage warily as it descended slowly, an inch at a time. By the time he held it up with his paws to ease it down, he answered. "Almost thirty years."
"Ahh, ok. I was just wondering because most multi-deck vessels have an elevator these days. You ever thought about putting one in?" She talked as she came down the ladder.
Fox blinked, watching the dog haul her bags again. "Yeah, but at this point, most of our money goes into maintenance."
Facing her, he caught her staring at his jacket. The dog turned away, but kept glancing all the way to her room.
"There's a wall socket, Slippy can give you passwords for any connections you need, and we'll be running some introductions and plan meetings after we take off. Also, mind where you step, we have a robot head rolling around and we don't want anyone stepping on him," He trailed off as the dog dropped her backpack on her bed and came back with a lighter.
"This is driving me up a wall. Hold still." She flicked the lighter a few times before getting a teardrop of flame on the tip.
Fox instantly took a step back, but Fay already grabbed his jacket. "Whoa, wh-"
She leaned in, squinting at the seams and holding the lighter to a frayed string at the jacket's front pocket. "Wait. I'm just cleaning this up."
He watched as the dog burned away the string, leaving a charred stump that she scratched away with a claw tip. "There! All done. It looked really unprofessional."
Cocking her head to the side, she eyed the rest of Fox's jacket. She didn't look like she was done.
He held up a paw to stop her, "I, appreciate, that," He paused several times as his brain scrambled to find words to answer someone who abruptly set his clothes on fire.
"Yeah, no problem. Just. Keep that in mind," She slid the lighter into a pocket and gestured at his jacket with both paws. "You could look a lot more professional. When people look at you, they notice stuff like that."
Fox answered with a slow nod and an awkward smile that disappeared the moment he left the room.
"So, Fox, what do you think of our new guests?" Peppy leaned over the edge of the ladder as Fox climbed up. Fox didn't need to see his face to know the hare wore a wry smile.
"Honestly, Peppy, I'd rather think about how we're gonna get this job done," Fox climbed off the ladder, "Have we contacted the freighter we're escorting?"
"Slippy's already on the horn with them, and we're set to take off in about an hour," Peppy scratched his neck idly as he walked the halls with Fox, "That lynx is...something."
"She looks like she'll put up with us. She held up her end of the deal at the asteroid, so I don't think she's going to try anything. That said, I don't like having the person that killed me just two doors away, so we should probably keep an eye on her. I'm gonna lock the armory, just in case." They reached the neck of the Great Fox, right where chunks of the neck were bitten away and replaced with a makeshift tube.
The tube itself, a windowed, ribbed cylinder fitted so that it would fill the missing section of the neck, looked noticeably more fragile than the rest of the ship. Fox noted that every time he walked through and looked out the window. Peppy glanced over his shoulder.
"I don't like having her here, either, Fox. But she doesn't look like she wants revenge. She looks like she just wants to ignore us. Besides," The hare cracked a wry smile behind his buck teeth, "It almost seems a little funny, now that enough time's passed."
Fox blinked, "I thought you'd be angrier at her."
"I was. But it's been a while already, and like you said, she helped us. I don't think it'll help if we pull a Falco and try giving a Space Dynamics employee a concussion. Plus," He leaned in, conspiratorially, "Have you seen her shoulders? If she throws a punch, it's probably gonna spin whoever it hits."
Fox narrowed his eyes with a slow, slightly bewildered smile. "Out of everything you see, the first things you look at are her shoulders?"
Peppy bowed his head forward and shot back with a tiniest hint of a smile. "What? Were you looking somewhere else?"
The red fox met his gaze, scoffed, and passed a paw over his face with a sigh. "Peppy..."
The hare answered with a smile and a pat on Fox's back. "C'mon, lets get to the bridge. We can figure out what to do when the team's together."
When they reached the bridge, Slippy was already in his chair, spinning idly. He lifted his cap to scratch his head, "Well, we're ready for takeoff. The freighter will meet us up there."
He turned to face Fox with a tired look. "I gotta say, Fox, I really don't like this. She tried to kill you-"
"Believe me, I know. I've heard that too many already," Fox rubbed his eyes, "We just need to get the mission done and over with, and then she'll be a temporary problem-"
"We could always make her even more temporary," Falco's voice interrupted the discussion. "Airlocks can solve problems-"
Falco shut his beak the moment door opened. Every face turned to see a cocker spaniel stride through the door and stand straight in front of Fox with a Space Dynamics jacket. "So, where do I start?"
Fox half expected her to light his jacket on fire again, but he rooted himself to the spot as he pointed with an open palm towards Slippy. The dog stood at half a head taller than him, now that she wasn't hunched under the weight of any bags. He changed his tone, standing a little straighter and speaking a little louder. "You're right on time. We're going to take off soon. Like our mission orders said, we're escorting a freighter to Beltino's lab. It's simple, but the cargo's just important enough to warrant extra guards. Our job is to make sure it gets there. We shouldn't run into any trouble, but that's not something I like to bank on-"
The doors opened one more time.
Miyu felt every gaze on her the moment she walked in. Her fur tingled, but again, she found a spot to stare at on the wall, and kept her eyes locked onto it as she looked for a seat. That way, she could ignore the glares.
The fox didn't let the pause last longer than a second, "-so we're going to do some drills as we leave secure space."
After a brief glance around the bridge, she couldn't see any seats nearby. With that, she put her paws behind her back, leaned against the wall, and stared out the window. Sometimes she met the gazes of people there, but she mostly looked around while she kept her ears cocked towards the speaker.
Now the the hare spoke, "We need to make sure that we can work together as smoothly as possible."
The hare didn't even look at her when he said it, but deep down, Miyu knew who he aimed that comment at. She flicked an ear in response before she caught sight of something else outside the window.
With a long look at the Great Fox, a swift fox strode towards a small, one-seater cargo freighter. She recognized him right away. McCoy threw another look over his shoulder as he climbed into his cockpit.
For a moment, their eyes met. McCoy froze in place for a few seconds before getting his ship started with a new sense of urgency. As Miyu watched him take off, she half-heard the rest of the speech.
"-so each of you can access the schedule. I'll be putting a paper copy on the wall in the galley and the hangar, just in case. We don't have an official lights-out time on this boat, but we usually turn the lights off around twenty-three hundred when we get back to our rooms. If you have questions, don't be afraid to ask."
The cocker spaniel's paw shot up immediately. Fox nodded towards her, "Yeah, go ahead."
"Who's in charge here?" She wagged a finger across the Star Fox team.
"On paper, we make decisions as a group since we all own the ship, but," Peppy looked across at Fox, "Our friend Fox here is who you should talk to when we make our plans. Just treat him as the captain."
Her paw went up again. Miyu narrowed her eyes. This time, there was a small pause before Fox waved for her to go ahead.
She dropped her paw behind her back again. "This is more of a comment than a question. I think we could benefit from introductions, just so we know who's who."
"Sounds fair," Fox stepped forwards, "I'm Fox McCloud. I fly as a mercenary, usually for the Cornerian military. I did some work during the Lylat Wars, and this team was my dad's before I joined it."
"What happened to your dad?" Fay cocked her head to the side.
Fox's face darkened for half a second before he answered, slowly. "He disappeared while fighting the Venomians."
Miyu frowned thoughtfully. That answer was just vague enough to have some wiggle room.
As Fox stepped back, the hare walked forwards, pointing at his own chest with two curled paws. "I'm Peppy Hare. I worked with Fox's father, James, and I fly with the team. That's the official job. Unofficially, think of me as the XO."
Slippy leaned up in his chair, "I'm the mechanic. But I also manage the ship's network, systems, and other stuff. ROB over there helps me out."
He pointed at the floor towards a discarded droid's head on a nearby counter. Until now, she thought it was an ornament and almost jumped when its vocoder trilled some words. "Think of me as an assistant. Please watch where you step around me."
All heads turned to Falco. He rested his crossed wings on the back of a chair, and lifted his head up. He met Miyu's gaze and didn't break eye contact until he started. "...Falco Lombardi. I look after our gear, and I put warheads on foreheads for the team. I don't do much else."
Miyu narrowed her eyes as she remembered someone else use that same phrase. Before she could think of anything else, Fay stepped forward and put both paws behind her back. "Fay Spaniel. I have experience in management, accounting, aerospace engineering, and electrical engineering. I led a local chapter of Macbeth's air defense militia in a supervising capacity, I can hit targets at 100 meters with a handgun, I'm registered to fly with A, B, C and E flight licenses and have over 500 flight hours registered with the militia-"
"How many for combat flights?" Falco interrupted.
Fay didn't answer for a full three seconds before answering with a cleared throat. "...none."
The edges of Falco's beak curled upwards in a near-smile. Miyu suppressed her own smile as she watched Fay get knocked down a peg.
"...But I'm more than qualified for whatever you need me to do here." Fay finished with a huff.
"We don't doubt your resume, Miss Spaniel. We can definitely use those skills for this mission." Fox then turned towards Miyu. So did Fay, looking over her shoulder. Slippy turned his chair fully to face her. Falco raised his head off the chair again, and Peppy cleared his throat quietly.
Miyu's ears flattened. It didn't last longer than a heartbeat before she flicked them back up. "Miyu Lynx. I'm also a mercenary pilot."
She stopped there, meeting every gaze and uncomfortably lingering on Falco's as the silence dragged on. Fox nodded, "Alright, then."
Facing the assembled group, he clapped his paws together, "We take off in about a half hour. Make sure your gear's stowed and you're ready for our first training sessions together in the simulators-"
Miyu caught a glimpse through the window of McCoy's ship flying off ahead of them. For a second, she wondered what she would do after this job ended, leaving her in the same position as McCoy.
She didn't want to think about it.
"Alright, folks, sit tight. We'll be in orbit in a few." Fox clicked off the intercom with a knuckle. Leaning back, he let the Great Fox take them into the sky, its autopilot guiding its nose into a course that would take them to Beltino's laboratory within a few weeks. Slippy sat right beside him, overseeing some of the readouts from the Great Fox. His breath left him as a slow hiss between his lips as he thought about his situation.
Slippy interrupted his thoughts with a huff, "Man, that cat."
"What's up?" Fox flicked an ear towards his friend as he rested his heels on the chair beside him.
"Are you sure you're okay with this?" Slippy glanced at him once before redirecting his gaze towards the control panel, "I don't know how I feel about the dog. She's kind of pushy, but the cat..."
The frog let out a laugh that felt more like a shuddering sigh. Fox knew what he meant as the frog shook his head. "I know, what happened was a while ago, and she helped us, and she's probably not gonna risk her job over a grudge, but..."
He took his cap off with a slow shake of his head before letting it rest on his knee, "...I still don't like it. At all."
"I know, Slip. But it'll just be a few weeks. Then she'll be gone, and we can move on." Fox reached between his ankles towards the cooler and pulled it back. He gestured towards the frog with a can about as cold as a fridge's outside door with a gesture that said want one? The frog replied by cupping his hands together before Fox underhanded a grape soda towards him.
"Besides, I just...want to move on. Everything about that was weird, and I want to leave it behind." Fox stared into empty space for a while before he cracked the purple can open. A brief memory of the hologram's warning flashed through his mind, and he pushed it away again. Dark threats that might happen, bleak futures that could come to pass, and the chance that Andross only planted that seed of doubt in his mind just to screw with him. The fear that his refusal to let Venom die could lead to something worse stood balanced with the gnawing feeling that maybe he worried over nothing. Again. Like he usually did.
An alarm blatted at him through the screen, a banner with red emergency chevrons across its surface. Fox's eyebrows shot up as he exchanged a glance with Slippy. He leaned forward to accept the incoming recorded message and a portrait of a swift fox trying his best to look calm maximized to fill the screen. The haggard tan vulpine's jaw quivered as he threw rapid glances outside his cockpit. A wireframe diagram of his small freighter appeared beside him, complete with technical readouts.
"This...is a general distress call from Luke McCoy of the Kilroy Express. I've...popped three reactor seals, I'm venting coolant, and my controls are not responding. My...my reactor emergency shutoff's not kicking in. I cannot eject and I can't access my emergency hardsuit. This message repeats. S-Send help."
Fox's paw already sprung to the control panel. "That call came from nearby,"
A beat passed before Slippy answered.
"If he can't eject his reactor or shut it off, and he's bleeding coolant then," the frog already stood as he disengaged the autopilot, "...he's gonna be cooked alive. What's the timestamp on that message?"
"Thirty seconds ago," Fox already opened the ship's comms. "Heads-up folks. We're answering a distress call. There's a small freighter having its reactor melt on its pilot, and it looks like we're the only ship nearby. We're taking a short detour-"
A portrait opened almost immediately, and a cheetah in a loose blue flight suit answered with the name XO Harris, Mirandan Causeway bannered beneath it. "McCloud, this is Harris, the XO of the Mirandan, we're on a tight schedule. Can you confirm that there are no other vessels in the area that have answered the hail?"
Fox scowled before he remembered the cheetah could see him, too. He tried his best even expression. He decided that he wouldn't get along with the XO of the Mirandan.
"This is McCloud," he said it with the most even, calm tone he could muster, "and I can confirm that we're the only vessels in the area. We're not letting this hail go. I'm pretty sure we'd be violating some laws if we didn't answer it."
He added the last bit just to see what the XO's response would be. He got a shrug instead. "Acknowledged, McCloud. Just sticking to the rules, here. We'll be on standby until you pick up the passenger. Harris out."
The portrait minimized barely a second before Slippy answered. "Yeesh. Cold."
Fox let his scowl fade as he tried to wrap his mind around someone being that casual about prioritizing a distress call. He shook his head, tapping in a new heading for the Great Fox as the doors behind him opened. The dog, Fay, was the first one in, with Miyu quietly walking to the window after her.
"Was he attacked?" Fay leaned over Fox's shoulder.
Fox flicked an ear in response. "Didn't say so. But we should have folks on standby with their fighters. We need to get the guy out of there without letting him get cooked alive-"
Fay interjected immediately with a paw pointed directly at a diagram of the small freighter. "We should sync up our airlocks, then. That way's the fastest."
Fox reacted to her snap assessment of the situation with a glance before looking at Slippy for confirmation. The frog opened his mouth, trailed off with a sigh and shrugged. "That's...pretty much our best option. That reactor's having an overheat problem. If its emergency shutoffs are dead, it'll keep going until something important melts, then it'll just stop working. That doesn't sound bad until you figure out that it'll melt you personally before that happens."
Fox already stood before Slippy even finished. "Let's get into position to sync up, then. Slippy, get the Great Fox ready to link up with the freighter. Fay, this was your idea. You want to help me set this up?"
"I'll help."
Miyu spoke before anyone even turned to face her. Fox blinked as he met her gaze coolly. "Fine. We need first aid on standby. Can you do that?"
"Yeah, yeah." She already turned away with a jog before Fox could even tell her where the kit was. Peppy and Falco brushed by her as the bird shot her a venomous glare. She looked like she ignored it as she disappeared down the hall.
Fox didn't notice the blaster pistol in Falco's grip until the falcon brought up a battery in his other wing. He licked a wingtip and rubbed down the contact point before slotting it in and getting a two-note electronic trill from the blaster's grip. He saw Fox's expression and shrugged, "Y'know. Just in case."
Fox didn't argue with him as he walked down the hall. He mentally went through the entire list of things he needed done for this to work. He'd need to communicate with the passenger as they approached and coordinated. Peppy would be in an Arwing in case of an attack; he would join Fay, Miyu, and Falco to meet the passenger. They needed to be ready in case he came out injured or in a panic. Probably both.
Miyu pulled the first aid kit off the wall as dozens of thoughts jostled each other in her head. What happened to McCoy? Why was he here? How did they end up running into each other again?
She tucked the first aid kit under her arm as she weighed the odds of all this happening at once. It bothered her, distracting her as she walked back towards the airlock.
Miyu didn't care too much about McCoy. His visit earlier dredged up ugly memories she spent weeks putting out of her mind. But him showing up now, at this exact time, while she was on the Star Fox team's ship, felt wrong. Even now as she walked to the airlock, a sensation of cold seeped into the underside of her heart, near her core. Something felt off, and she knew it.
Part of her wanted to find a spot on the ship as far away as possible from McCoy, but avoiding him wouldn't make the unease go away. She needed to know what happened, even if it all ended up being a coincidence.
Fay crossed her path and turned towards the same direction she walked in without ever meeting her gaze. The white dog kept her distance down the hall all the way to the airlock. Fox stood by one of the intercom panels as he spoke, "We're almost there. Hang on."
Miyu recognized the hoarse voice answering immediately. "I'm...I'm ready."
The red fox nodded towards the first aid kit with a bottle of water in one paw. "Alright, we're all set. Get ready, he sounds bad."
He peered through the airlock right as Falco showed up, pistol holstered. He met Miyu's gaze for a full second and she stared him down for just as long before the ship jolted lightly, and Fay spoke up. "Alright, we're locked in. I'm equalizing the pressure."
"Speed it up...a little, maybe?" The tinny voice swallowed with a murmured curse.
"Annnnnnd. We're good." Miyu watched through the door's window slits as a figure stumbled through from the other side and fell to his knees, keeling over as the door behind him shut.
Fox gripped a red handle on the door, pulling it up. The airlock hissed open as he walked in, with Falco right behind him.
Together, they came out holding the swift fox between them, his arms over their shoulders. The swift fox twitched forwards, breathing heavily, jerking one arm so Falco jerked forwards with it. He abruptly let go of both people holding him up as he slid to his knees on the floor between them. They eased him down as Fox put a paw on his head.
The swift fox opened his eyes to see the red fox above him, and Miyu caught a glimpse of an unreadable expression on his face before a smile creeped along his muzzle. "Took your sweet time coming to get me, h-huh?"
The words dripped with acid. Fox just unscrewed the bottle and brought it to the swift fox's lips. The swift fox crushed the plastic bottle in his paw as he emptied half of it into his face and down the front of his flight suit. He put his head under it and let the rest pour over his face.
"God...it hurts just to think." McCoy's head drunkenly bowed forwards, and his gaze refocused to settle on Miyu with the same slow, creeping grin. "Well. Fancy meeting you here again."
"Hold on, what?" Falco instantly narrowed his eyes at her. "You know this guy?"
"I'm-I'm surprised none of you know me!" The fox staggered up, bowing forwards a little with the same grin cracked across his features.
Fox's ears flattened as he stared at McCoy's face. McCoy turned towards him, keeping the same look, the one where he smiled to show almost all his teeth. "I was one of those people you arrested on the asteroid. But we came together in the end, didn't we?"
The recognition flickered in Fox's eyes for a second before McCoy swept one paw across the room as his other shook droplets onto the floor. "All water under the bridge now, though, right?"
"You've got heat stroke." Fox said it forcefully, in a tone you'd hear from a bartender cutting someone off. "You need water and a place to cool off-"
The swift fox staggered forwards and held himself up against the wall when he noticed Falco's wing right by his gun holster. "Hey, now, y'all came prepared."
"Back off, guy. We're not friends." Falco didn't budge.
The swift fox stopped staggering a little, then leaned forwards a little. "Sorry, sorry. Near-death experience and, and all that."
He rubbed his throat. "Cold water sounds good right now."
Fox shot Miyu a look and spoke coolly, "Miyu, you and Falco take him to the galley and help him get settled. Slippy and I'll figure out what to do with his ship-"
"Nah, nah, they'll just gouge me for repairs if I bring it back. I'll just make an insurance claim on it." McCoy waved him off as he followed Miyu towards the galley. "I'll figure it out later."
Miyu looked over her shoulder to see Fox and Falco exchange a look. The bird shrugged, said something she couldn't make out, and the fox just walked off.
"Man," The swift fox landed on the seat hard enough to make the frame rattle. "I'm just glad I see a friendly face, here."
It took Miyu a second to realize he meant her. She coughed awkwardly. "Don't mention it."
Swift let his smile fall open, winced as he looked up at the light, then held his head up as his elbows rested on the table. The door hissed open again as Falco walked in. The bird opened his beak like he was about to say something with a cold look towards the fox, but instead, he watched the fox breathe heavily for a few seconds before turning away. He reached the fridge and lifted a can of frozen lime juice from the freezer before returning to the fox. The fox didn't even need to be told to put it to his forehead before he let out a shuddering, happy sigh as he pressed the frost-covered label to his brow.
"Just keep it there, buddy. You'll cool off." Falco patted the fox on the shoulder as McCoy lifted a paw with a short nod.
"So, what happened?" Falco sat across from Miyu and McCoy.
The fox shook his head, never taking the can away from his forehead. "What can I say? Venomian ships aren't worth crap. I'm pretty sure one of the coolant seals just popped off, and when it did, it got hot enough to pop off more of them. Heated up enough of the systems for them to just...stop."
The fox held up a paw and spread the fingers on it as he finished. "Before I even figured out I had one alarm, I had five. Before I could do anything, my flight controls stopped responding."
"Didn't catch that in maintenance?" Falco said it without breaking eye contact with the fox. "Helluva thing to miss. Weak coolant seals."
The fox raised his paw again. "I don't trust Venomian engineers, man. They cut corners all the damn time."
The answer seemed to satisfy the bird. Falco stood, patted the fox on the shoulder, shot a look at Miyu that said look-after-him-if-he-gets-worse-I'm-blaming-you.
Miyu narrowed her eyes back as the bird walked away. When he left earshot, the fox murmured. "Helluva thing."
She chose her next words carefully. After mulling them over, she finally asked the question that crowded out all the others.
"Were you following...us?" She didn't get an answer for several heartbeats before the fox lifted the can and stared back.
"I'm just trying to survive, here." He offered a shrug and a sigh that lasted the whole sentence. "I don't know where to go."
Miyu narrowed her eyes. McCoy read her expression, stood with a groan, and kept his head a little low. "I'm just gonna rest, Total. Plus, I need to use the john."
She watched, not saying anything as he walked off. Before he reached the hallway corner, he lifted his head. "One thing,"
The smile cracked across his muzzle again, "I got, uh, an idea. For us asteroid survivors. I wanna let you in on it." His smile faltered as he brought the can to his brow again. "But, later. Right now, I need a minute."
He walked away towards the restroom as Miyu sat there, staring. She leaned back and let her head hit the wall with a sigh. She had enough on her plate already, and now McCoy suggested adding more to it.
Standing up, she felt heavier. Like McCoy's new idea weighed her down along with all her other doubts. It didn't help that she didn't know what it meant, and it didn't help that he never gave her a clear answer to her question.
The intercom crackled again. "Alright folks, we're on the move again. We're leaving McCoy's ship behind and heading towards Beltino's lab. We're back on schedule and we'll get there in a few weeks."
Miyu's ears flicked at the word weeks, and she gritted her teeth. She'd have to deal with McCoy, the dog, and the Star Fox team for weeks before she could get another break.
She set her jaw. Fine, then. She'll find a way through it. She always did.
This chapter took a while, but I think it's worth it. I don't have much else to say about it, besides just feeling good it's done. Anyways, time for some reviews:
Elarix: I really wanted to bring both Miyu and Fay aboard for this story. I also feel pretty good about how I set up their personalities, here. They contrast against each other in a way that makes their conversations stand out, and that's part of my bigger goal of making this a character-driven story. That entire scene with the interviewer was about giving Fay a strong first impression, and to have Miyu stand next to her as a contrast with her own strong personality.
Funny thing: I thought about having Fara be that interviewer, but I changed my mind. Now she's just another fennec fox who happens to know Fara Phoenix.
The hedgehog's dilemma is something I didn't know about, but it's a pretty good comparison. One of the things I loved about the old Squadron was how much I leaned into the ideas of isolation and loneliness because I think those are good themes for the struggling Star Fox team. It added to the overall melancholy tone and it was a tone I think I was pretty good at, so I brought it back for this story, too.
As for the coyote, that was a mistake on my part. I forgot the species of one of the characters, and I got it wrong. That was supposed to be a swift fox, not a coyote.
NadaYNadie: I worked hard on giving Fay a strong first impression. We didn't get a strong impression of Miyu until a few chapters in at the start, so I'm glad she and Fay have a good contrast going. Their personalities are supposed to clash, and they did here.
Nail Strafer: I worked hard on the setup and payoff for chapter 13. Like you said, sometimes the right response is to get angry. Falco could've died. At the same time, Fox feels responsible, so when the anger's gone, he's left with uncomfortable realizations that he has to reckon with. In the end, a friend helps him through them. It was good character development in a single chapter, and I like that. I want to make sure I can pull something like that off again. When it comes to the ferret's power, you gave me a lot to think about. For now, though, this second arc is on my mind the most, and I'm glad you think it's a good start. As for the review responses, I'll just make them shorter from now on.