Chapter 12: Haunting Visions
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Fox continued to look down from the edge of the escarpment that he stood on. The steep
hills rolling into the valley of the once beautiful tropical city now tragically laid in a
wasteland of desolation.
"Falco is probably right...there can't be anyone alive here..."
Distraught and dismayed, Fox slowly started to step backwards when a small set of beeps
caught his attention.
Bill who was intently looking into his PDA, pulled off his sunglasses with a quick swipe
of his paw.
"I've got something here...a life sign. It's weak...about 50 meters that way," spoke Bill
with a renewed sense of confidence while he pointed his hand down towards the
smoldering city.
Without word, Fox hopped and slid down the edge of the hill before getting up and
trotting down the rest of the way as the incline evened out. Brushing himself off a bit, he
pulled out his PDA, flipping it open with a quick motion of his wrist.
"I've got a reading too, it seems to be coming from that pile of debris over there, c'mon
guys I'm going to need your help."
Falco grumbled a bit while struggling down the incline as did Bill. Once they reached the
bottom Fox was already tossing away pieces of marble stone and sheet metal that were
covering what looked to be the remains of an old bunker and apartment condominium.
"They could be anywhere in this area..." mumbled Fox as he continued to throw debris
off the mounds of rubble that filled the area around them. "Hello?! Is anyone alive
here!?"
Falco broke off from the two and clamored over a few debris mounds, pulling out his
PDA, before getting a couple of meters away from Fox and Bill. He lifted his wing to
cover his beak from the choking soot and dust in the air while pulling pieces of debris
away from the pile he was standing on. Suddenly a glimmer of light caught his eye.
Looking down wide eyed Falco found what appeared to be a hatch bolted into the ground,
as though it were a door to a cellar of some sort. Without hesitation he tried to pull it
open, but it was searing hot, burning his feathers with a hiss. His PDA beeped wildly
indicating his proximity to life. With even more frustration he kicked at the door before it
fractured in a bit and then broke away completely with a loud clang.
The hatch opened up to a set of stairs leading almost vertically into a dark cellar that was
only a few meters wide. His eyes searched around until they caught a gritty dust colored
puff of fur crumpled up in the corner.
"Jesus!" Falco shouted as he hopped down the stairs into the dust coated cellar. "Hey
lady, can you hear me?! Are you alright?!"
The figure struggled around a bit, before turning over. The sight of pink fur caught
Falco's eye in an instant drawing a gasp from his beak.
"O...oh...what happened?" groaned the dilapidated heap of dirt encrusted pink fur.
"KATT?! Christ is that you?!"
Falco quickly kneeled over her and brushed the dust out of her hair frantically.
"Katt, look at me, it's me Falco! Say something!"
"No...I've...I didn't make it...I've died..."
Falco darted his eyes around, in the cellar there were two other bodies, a mouse and a
beaver which both appeared to have passed away earlier before he had gotten there. Their
fur color was hard to make out since they were covered in ash and dirt. Their bodies,
broken and lying on the floor in mangled positions as though their deaths were completely
out of their control. Half of the beaver's body hair appeared to have been burned off
completely exposing bloody scarred tissue. Falco's attention quickly darted
back to Katt who was becoming more incoherent with each passing moment.
"Oh...Falco...tell me...how did...you die here too?"
"You're not dead Katt! You're alive dammit!...Fox, Bill! Get over here!" shouted Falco
popping his head out of the cellar's hatch into the hazy outside air.
Both of them stopped what they were doing, tossing aside the debris they held in their
hands while rushing towards the opening Falco was in.
"What, what is it?!"
"I found what we were looking for and you're never gonna believe who it is."
Fox and Bill peered into the hatch seeing Falco holding Katt in his arms. She was semi-
conscious, the only movement being her tail twitching around in the dusty air.
"You're right...I don't believe it," scoffed Fox brushing the dirt from his gloves while
staring in shock.
"We have to get her to the Great Fox, she looks pretty hurt. I don't know how she
survived at all, this cellar looks like some sort of bomb shelter. There's two other bodies
down there, both dead," spoke Falco raising his voice over the wind which began to blow
fiercely over the scarred terrain and mounds of debris.
"Fox McCloud to the Great Fox, come in."
"Slippy here, what is it?"
"Falco has found Katt Monroe in the capital city; he's going back to the ship with her.
She's going to need immediate medical attention so see what you can do." Fox paused for
a moment glancing at Bill and Falco before turning around out of their view,
"Also...um...how is Wolf doing?" he uttered softly.
"He's still out cold, I'm monitoring the malignant chemicals in his brain however, and
they appear to be deteriorating at a steady rate. I'd say he could be at normal condition
within the next two hours."
"That's good, I'll be arriving shortly soon, Fox out."
Folding the PDA into his flight jacket, Fox turned around swiftly to find Falco already
clamoring up the hill to his arwing, carrying Katt. Bill however was sitting on a mound of
debris lighting up a cigarette next to Fox.
"How's Wolf?" he said as he pulled the cigarette away from his lips puffing smoke through
his nostrils which mixed with the hazy air seamlessly.
"Yea...I was just asking how he was, what's wrong with that?"
"Oh...nothing at all." Bill turned his head away hiding a smirk from behind his
sunglasses. Holding the cigarette between his lips, he got up as Falco's arwing shot off
into the sky with a rumbling bang.
"Listen, I'm going to go to Macbeth with my squadron, I have a plan that I think could
stop Pepper from taking over Lylat for good."
"That's fairly wishful thinking Bill..."
"Well, you're not required to come."
"Dammit, I didn't mean it like that. Listen Bill...before anything else happens, I want to
apologize about what I said on the bridge before. Nothing is hopeless here. Nothing is
pointless. In history, every struggle, every cause...they all had a chance because they all
had hope. We have to fight to keep that hope alive Bill, but when that dies...it will all be
lost."
Bill paused for a moment, tossing the cigarette to the ground, "I know," he said adding a
smile to his words. Adjusting his shades and jacket a bit, Bill brushed past Fox towards
his fighter, "We'll keep that hope alive wont we Fox?"
*************************************************************
"Slippy what's the prognosis on Katt?" spoke Falco in a deeply concerned tone, peering
onto the medibed that she rested on next to Wolf's.
"She's going to be just fine, just some smoke inhalation and a cracked bone in her tail."
The blue avian sighed in relief before glancing at Slippy who was smiling at him.
"What are you smirking at slime ball?"
"Oh...nothing! Nothing at all! Do you want to talk to her now? I'm just about to wake
her," spoke the upbeat amphibian while prepping a needle in his hand.
"Uh, yea sure go ahead."
Falco watched intently as Slippy inserted the needle in Katt's arm, after a moment the
grungy pink feline stirred a bit before opening her eyes looking up at the ceiling. She
blinked for a few moments, stretching her paws out, and then looked over at Falco who
was now standing at her side. Her expression immediately changed to shock as she jerked
her head up.
"Falco! What...Where am I?!"
"Relax Katt, you're on the Great Fox."
"Jesus Christ, you don't just pluck a girl from her home, what are you some sort of
deranged Romeo?!"
"Home?! I found you in a cellar barely alive!"
Katt paused for a moment, resting her head back down and looking up at the ceiling again,
"Well...my memory is a bit fuzzy right now...all I remember is walking along the
sidewalk, I had just heard about Prime Minister Troikas' death, we knew Pepper was
coming...Yes it's all coming back to me now. Oh then there was this bright flash. A white
light covered over everything blinding me...but something changed...I just remember a loud
deafening sound, someone grabbing me and throwing me down some stairs...then just
silence...and now..." Katt's words drifted off for a moment gazing into the florescent
lights above her before her expression indicated a snap back to reality.
"I...I guess I'm here now."
"Listen, Pepper attacked Zoness City with some sort of beam weapon. We're still
searching, but right now you're one of the only survivors we've found."
"What?! Can I go back home? I have to get some stuff from my apartment, things, belongings..."
Slippy lowered his head before walking away slowly as Falco glanced downward towards
the floor, "I'm afraid that the destruction was total...there is nothing left standing on the
capital island."
Without word Katt turned her head to the side, "My home...my life...my career. Why
has this happened? Why...What would Pepper want with us? There was no point in
this," she spoke softly but with a hint of anger in her voice.
"I don't know Katt...we just don't know..." Falco looked away for a moment. He
couldn't bear to see the pain in Katt's face.
"Career?...What kind of career?"
"Well, it's been a while since I last saw your blue tail in these parts, but I settled down on
Zoness after the clean-up, and opened up my own shop."
"Oh really, and was this shop entirely legal?"
Katt belted out one short laugh before squinting her eyes, "Oh yea, like you guys are
saints or something!"
The hyperlift door opened as Fox staggered out covered in brown dirt and gray dust.
"Bill and I found a few more survivors in the debris, his squadron is taking them to
Macbeth, which is where we'll be headed to shortly also."
Katt propped herself into an upright position smirking a bit while brushing the fur on her
arm, "Well Fox McCloud, it's a wonderful treat seeing you again."
"As it is to see you. I was fairly stunned to see you alive down there, but then again you've
suprised me with your versatility in the past before."
"What can I say Fox, I do what I can," added Katt with a wink.
Falco chuckled while giving the pink ruffled ball of fur a playful punch in the arm.
"Fox...help me."
The orange vulpine's ears propped up as he heard what sounded like a whisper...it sounded
exactly like Wolf's voice. The tone is one he would have recognized anywhere, even in his
thoughts, but this time it sounded desperate.
"Quiet...did anyone else here that?"
"Hear what?"
"Shhh...where's Wolf?"
Slippy turned around and leaned against the medibed that the gray wolf was laying upon.
"Uh...Wolf's right here."
Fox glared at Wolf, while slowly approaching him. It was as though a magnetic force was pulling
him towards the bed. As he reached the edge of the medibed, Fox leaned over. He could see that Wolf
was definitely asleep, his chest heaving up and down slowly in a peaceful slumber.
Katt turned her head towards Falco who was sitting on the bed next to her, "What's
gotten into Fox...wait a minute Wolf? As in Wolf O'Donnell?! What the hell is he
doing..."
"Quiet!" shouted Fox in a hushed whisper.
Almost out of subconscious motivation, Fox reached his hand out slowly towards Wolf in
silence. His paw inching closer to the lupine's head with each passing second. As his hand
pressed against the side of Wolf's face, a horrifying roar resonated through Fox's head
causing him to jerk backwards, and fly into the wall behind him.
"Lylat Lylat is is mine mine Fox Fox!!" howled the echoing voice in his head as Fox felt
his own claws dig into his chest.
He clenched his eyes shut only to see a terrifyingly grotesque face. It was a visage he had
prayed he would never see again in his life. The large cranium, gray hairs, deep set eyes,
the ape ridges on his forehead.
"NO!!!" shouted Fox causing Katt to fall off her bed screaming in reflex. Falco fell
backwards, tumbling onto the floor screeching with Katt.
Immediately Wolf shot up howling in unison with the calamity that was ensuing in the
room. Peppy and Slippy frantically tried to hold down Wolf while Katt hid behind Falco. All
this happening as Fox crumpled against the wall, twitching spasmodically, his paws covered in
blood from his chest.
*************************************************************
*One hour later*
"A psychic attack?" spoke Falco softly looking at Peppy and Slippy from across the table
in disbelief.
"Yes, judging from the medical analysis of both Fox and Wolf, we have to say that some
major telepathic influence was at work during the situation that occurred an hour ago in
sick bay."
"Can you tell where it came from?" asked Katt chastely, trying not to sound naive in her
words.
"No we can't, but maybe Fox can tell us what it was he saw exactly that prompted his
outburst."
Fox who was standing in the shadows at the far end of the room, looking out the window,
turned around slowly,
"I heard Wolf calling for my help."
"And that made you scream, and throw yourself against a wall?" spoke Falco as he tilted his
head in annoyance.
"No..."
The disgruntled bird paused for a moment glancing at Katt and Peppy,
"Ok, well we'd be entertained if you told us what it was perhaps."
Fox took a deep breath while rubbing the bandages on his chest, his demeanor changed towards
fear as he looked out into the stars. Eventually he turned around and stared directly into
Falco's eyes with such strong prominence that even the blue avian was taken back.
"I saw Andross."
Peppy and Slippy gasped in unison at Fox's words while a dark silence continued to
pervade the room.
"...Are you sure?"
"I'm positive."
Peppy shook his head almost in a frantic rush for answers, "It could have just been some
sort of synaptic reflex, I mean we don't know what kind of influences are at work here it
could just..."
"No...it was more than just his face, his voice too...I heard it."
A frightened look overcame Katt's face. She was all too familiar with Andross' history in
the Lylat System, and it was a history that she wanted to avoid ever crossing paths with.
"What do you think this means?"
Fox sighed and adjusted his jacket a bit before approaching the table while becoming more
relaxed.
"Honestly...I don't know, it could mean anything."
Slippy arched his head up, still looking down at the table in contemplative thought,
"First off...Andross is dead...however, assuming he were alive, could it be that he might
be planning to take advantage of Pepper's recent radicalism to gain a foothold in the
Lylat system?"
"Wait wait wait, this is ridiculous," scoffed Falco. "We are drawing so many conclusions
on just one vision that Fox had, albeit a rather fuzzy one. How do you know this isn't just
some memory that was triggered by...by stress or something?"
"You're right...I don't know," replied Fox. "But I feel that we should sleep with both
eyes open tonight. One looking out for Pepper's insanity, the other watching for our old dear
friend Andross."
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(Hmmm...chapter 13 is approaching *smiles*)
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Fox continued to look down from the edge of the escarpment that he stood on. The steep
hills rolling into the valley of the once beautiful tropical city now tragically laid in a
wasteland of desolation.
"Falco is probably right...there can't be anyone alive here..."
Distraught and dismayed, Fox slowly started to step backwards when a small set of beeps
caught his attention.
Bill who was intently looking into his PDA, pulled off his sunglasses with a quick swipe
of his paw.
"I've got something here...a life sign. It's weak...about 50 meters that way," spoke Bill
with a renewed sense of confidence while he pointed his hand down towards the
smoldering city.
Without word, Fox hopped and slid down the edge of the hill before getting up and
trotting down the rest of the way as the incline evened out. Brushing himself off a bit, he
pulled out his PDA, flipping it open with a quick motion of his wrist.
"I've got a reading too, it seems to be coming from that pile of debris over there, c'mon
guys I'm going to need your help."
Falco grumbled a bit while struggling down the incline as did Bill. Once they reached the
bottom Fox was already tossing away pieces of marble stone and sheet metal that were
covering what looked to be the remains of an old bunker and apartment condominium.
"They could be anywhere in this area..." mumbled Fox as he continued to throw debris
off the mounds of rubble that filled the area around them. "Hello?! Is anyone alive
here!?"
Falco broke off from the two and clamored over a few debris mounds, pulling out his
PDA, before getting a couple of meters away from Fox and Bill. He lifted his wing to
cover his beak from the choking soot and dust in the air while pulling pieces of debris
away from the pile he was standing on. Suddenly a glimmer of light caught his eye.
Looking down wide eyed Falco found what appeared to be a hatch bolted into the ground,
as though it were a door to a cellar of some sort. Without hesitation he tried to pull it
open, but it was searing hot, burning his feathers with a hiss. His PDA beeped wildly
indicating his proximity to life. With even more frustration he kicked at the door before it
fractured in a bit and then broke away completely with a loud clang.
The hatch opened up to a set of stairs leading almost vertically into a dark cellar that was
only a few meters wide. His eyes searched around until they caught a gritty dust colored
puff of fur crumpled up in the corner.
"Jesus!" Falco shouted as he hopped down the stairs into the dust coated cellar. "Hey
lady, can you hear me?! Are you alright?!"
The figure struggled around a bit, before turning over. The sight of pink fur caught
Falco's eye in an instant drawing a gasp from his beak.
"O...oh...what happened?" groaned the dilapidated heap of dirt encrusted pink fur.
"KATT?! Christ is that you?!"
Falco quickly kneeled over her and brushed the dust out of her hair frantically.
"Katt, look at me, it's me Falco! Say something!"
"No...I've...I didn't make it...I've died..."
Falco darted his eyes around, in the cellar there were two other bodies, a mouse and a
beaver which both appeared to have passed away earlier before he had gotten there. Their
fur color was hard to make out since they were covered in ash and dirt. Their bodies,
broken and lying on the floor in mangled positions as though their deaths were completely
out of their control. Half of the beaver's body hair appeared to have been burned off
completely exposing bloody scarred tissue. Falco's attention quickly darted
back to Katt who was becoming more incoherent with each passing moment.
"Oh...Falco...tell me...how did...you die here too?"
"You're not dead Katt! You're alive dammit!...Fox, Bill! Get over here!" shouted Falco
popping his head out of the cellar's hatch into the hazy outside air.
Both of them stopped what they were doing, tossing aside the debris they held in their
hands while rushing towards the opening Falco was in.
"What, what is it?!"
"I found what we were looking for and you're never gonna believe who it is."
Fox and Bill peered into the hatch seeing Falco holding Katt in his arms. She was semi-
conscious, the only movement being her tail twitching around in the dusty air.
"You're right...I don't believe it," scoffed Fox brushing the dirt from his gloves while
staring in shock.
"We have to get her to the Great Fox, she looks pretty hurt. I don't know how she
survived at all, this cellar looks like some sort of bomb shelter. There's two other bodies
down there, both dead," spoke Falco raising his voice over the wind which began to blow
fiercely over the scarred terrain and mounds of debris.
"Fox McCloud to the Great Fox, come in."
"Slippy here, what is it?"
"Falco has found Katt Monroe in the capital city; he's going back to the ship with her.
She's going to need immediate medical attention so see what you can do." Fox paused for
a moment glancing at Bill and Falco before turning around out of their view,
"Also...um...how is Wolf doing?" he uttered softly.
"He's still out cold, I'm monitoring the malignant chemicals in his brain however, and
they appear to be deteriorating at a steady rate. I'd say he could be at normal condition
within the next two hours."
"That's good, I'll be arriving shortly soon, Fox out."
Folding the PDA into his flight jacket, Fox turned around swiftly to find Falco already
clamoring up the hill to his arwing, carrying Katt. Bill however was sitting on a mound of
debris lighting up a cigarette next to Fox.
"How's Wolf?" he said as he pulled the cigarette away from his lips puffing smoke through
his nostrils which mixed with the hazy air seamlessly.
"Yea...I was just asking how he was, what's wrong with that?"
"Oh...nothing at all." Bill turned his head away hiding a smirk from behind his
sunglasses. Holding the cigarette between his lips, he got up as Falco's arwing shot off
into the sky with a rumbling bang.
"Listen, I'm going to go to Macbeth with my squadron, I have a plan that I think could
stop Pepper from taking over Lylat for good."
"That's fairly wishful thinking Bill..."
"Well, you're not required to come."
"Dammit, I didn't mean it like that. Listen Bill...before anything else happens, I want to
apologize about what I said on the bridge before. Nothing is hopeless here. Nothing is
pointless. In history, every struggle, every cause...they all had a chance because they all
had hope. We have to fight to keep that hope alive Bill, but when that dies...it will all be
lost."
Bill paused for a moment, tossing the cigarette to the ground, "I know," he said adding a
smile to his words. Adjusting his shades and jacket a bit, Bill brushed past Fox towards
his fighter, "We'll keep that hope alive wont we Fox?"
*************************************************************
"Slippy what's the prognosis on Katt?" spoke Falco in a deeply concerned tone, peering
onto the medibed that she rested on next to Wolf's.
"She's going to be just fine, just some smoke inhalation and a cracked bone in her tail."
The blue avian sighed in relief before glancing at Slippy who was smiling at him.
"What are you smirking at slime ball?"
"Oh...nothing! Nothing at all! Do you want to talk to her now? I'm just about to wake
her," spoke the upbeat amphibian while prepping a needle in his hand.
"Uh, yea sure go ahead."
Falco watched intently as Slippy inserted the needle in Katt's arm, after a moment the
grungy pink feline stirred a bit before opening her eyes looking up at the ceiling. She
blinked for a few moments, stretching her paws out, and then looked over at Falco who
was now standing at her side. Her expression immediately changed to shock as she jerked
her head up.
"Falco! What...Where am I?!"
"Relax Katt, you're on the Great Fox."
"Jesus Christ, you don't just pluck a girl from her home, what are you some sort of
deranged Romeo?!"
"Home?! I found you in a cellar barely alive!"
Katt paused for a moment, resting her head back down and looking up at the ceiling again,
"Well...my memory is a bit fuzzy right now...all I remember is walking along the
sidewalk, I had just heard about Prime Minister Troikas' death, we knew Pepper was
coming...Yes it's all coming back to me now. Oh then there was this bright flash. A white
light covered over everything blinding me...but something changed...I just remember a loud
deafening sound, someone grabbing me and throwing me down some stairs...then just
silence...and now..." Katt's words drifted off for a moment gazing into the florescent
lights above her before her expression indicated a snap back to reality.
"I...I guess I'm here now."
"Listen, Pepper attacked Zoness City with some sort of beam weapon. We're still
searching, but right now you're one of the only survivors we've found."
"What?! Can I go back home? I have to get some stuff from my apartment, things, belongings..."
Slippy lowered his head before walking away slowly as Falco glanced downward towards
the floor, "I'm afraid that the destruction was total...there is nothing left standing on the
capital island."
Without word Katt turned her head to the side, "My home...my life...my career. Why
has this happened? Why...What would Pepper want with us? There was no point in
this," she spoke softly but with a hint of anger in her voice.
"I don't know Katt...we just don't know..." Falco looked away for a moment. He
couldn't bear to see the pain in Katt's face.
"Career?...What kind of career?"
"Well, it's been a while since I last saw your blue tail in these parts, but I settled down on
Zoness after the clean-up, and opened up my own shop."
"Oh really, and was this shop entirely legal?"
Katt belted out one short laugh before squinting her eyes, "Oh yea, like you guys are
saints or something!"
The hyperlift door opened as Fox staggered out covered in brown dirt and gray dust.
"Bill and I found a few more survivors in the debris, his squadron is taking them to
Macbeth, which is where we'll be headed to shortly also."
Katt propped herself into an upright position smirking a bit while brushing the fur on her
arm, "Well Fox McCloud, it's a wonderful treat seeing you again."
"As it is to see you. I was fairly stunned to see you alive down there, but then again you've
suprised me with your versatility in the past before."
"What can I say Fox, I do what I can," added Katt with a wink.
Falco chuckled while giving the pink ruffled ball of fur a playful punch in the arm.
"Fox...help me."
The orange vulpine's ears propped up as he heard what sounded like a whisper...it sounded
exactly like Wolf's voice. The tone is one he would have recognized anywhere, even in his
thoughts, but this time it sounded desperate.
"Quiet...did anyone else here that?"
"Hear what?"
"Shhh...where's Wolf?"
Slippy turned around and leaned against the medibed that the gray wolf was laying upon.
"Uh...Wolf's right here."
Fox glared at Wolf, while slowly approaching him. It was as though a magnetic force was pulling
him towards the bed. As he reached the edge of the medibed, Fox leaned over. He could see that Wolf
was definitely asleep, his chest heaving up and down slowly in a peaceful slumber.
Katt turned her head towards Falco who was sitting on the bed next to her, "What's
gotten into Fox...wait a minute Wolf? As in Wolf O'Donnell?! What the hell is he
doing..."
"Quiet!" shouted Fox in a hushed whisper.
Almost out of subconscious motivation, Fox reached his hand out slowly towards Wolf in
silence. His paw inching closer to the lupine's head with each passing second. As his hand
pressed against the side of Wolf's face, a horrifying roar resonated through Fox's head
causing him to jerk backwards, and fly into the wall behind him.
"Lylat Lylat is is mine mine Fox Fox!!" howled the echoing voice in his head as Fox felt
his own claws dig into his chest.
He clenched his eyes shut only to see a terrifyingly grotesque face. It was a visage he had
prayed he would never see again in his life. The large cranium, gray hairs, deep set eyes,
the ape ridges on his forehead.
"NO!!!" shouted Fox causing Katt to fall off her bed screaming in reflex. Falco fell
backwards, tumbling onto the floor screeching with Katt.
Immediately Wolf shot up howling in unison with the calamity that was ensuing in the
room. Peppy and Slippy frantically tried to hold down Wolf while Katt hid behind Falco. All
this happening as Fox crumpled against the wall, twitching spasmodically, his paws covered in
blood from his chest.
*************************************************************
*One hour later*
"A psychic attack?" spoke Falco softly looking at Peppy and Slippy from across the table
in disbelief.
"Yes, judging from the medical analysis of both Fox and Wolf, we have to say that some
major telepathic influence was at work during the situation that occurred an hour ago in
sick bay."
"Can you tell where it came from?" asked Katt chastely, trying not to sound naive in her
words.
"No we can't, but maybe Fox can tell us what it was he saw exactly that prompted his
outburst."
Fox who was standing in the shadows at the far end of the room, looking out the window,
turned around slowly,
"I heard Wolf calling for my help."
"And that made you scream, and throw yourself against a wall?" spoke Falco as he tilted his
head in annoyance.
"No..."
The disgruntled bird paused for a moment glancing at Katt and Peppy,
"Ok, well we'd be entertained if you told us what it was perhaps."
Fox took a deep breath while rubbing the bandages on his chest, his demeanor changed towards
fear as he looked out into the stars. Eventually he turned around and stared directly into
Falco's eyes with such strong prominence that even the blue avian was taken back.
"I saw Andross."
Peppy and Slippy gasped in unison at Fox's words while a dark silence continued to
pervade the room.
"...Are you sure?"
"I'm positive."
Peppy shook his head almost in a frantic rush for answers, "It could have just been some
sort of synaptic reflex, I mean we don't know what kind of influences are at work here it
could just..."
"No...it was more than just his face, his voice too...I heard it."
A frightened look overcame Katt's face. She was all too familiar with Andross' history in
the Lylat System, and it was a history that she wanted to avoid ever crossing paths with.
"What do you think this means?"
Fox sighed and adjusted his jacket a bit before approaching the table while becoming more
relaxed.
"Honestly...I don't know, it could mean anything."
Slippy arched his head up, still looking down at the table in contemplative thought,
"First off...Andross is dead...however, assuming he were alive, could it be that he might
be planning to take advantage of Pepper's recent radicalism to gain a foothold in the
Lylat system?"
"Wait wait wait, this is ridiculous," scoffed Falco. "We are drawing so many conclusions
on just one vision that Fox had, albeit a rather fuzzy one. How do you know this isn't just
some memory that was triggered by...by stress or something?"
"You're right...I don't know," replied Fox. "But I feel that we should sleep with both
eyes open tonight. One looking out for Pepper's insanity, the other watching for our old dear
friend Andross."
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(Hmmm...chapter 13 is approaching *smiles*)