Cowboy Star Fox

By Wolf O'Donnell

WARNING: This fanfic will contain swearing, graphic scenes of death and violence and the use of British-English Spelling and Grammar. If any of these things offend you or if you are underaged, please do not read any further. Upon reading any word or letter in this file, you hereby agree to forfeit all your rights to sue me and that I cannot be held liable for any psychological or physical damage caused by the contents of this fanfic. Star Fox and all related characters (including me) are copyrighted by Nintendo. Scales, Dinosaur Planet and all related characters are copyrighted by Rare. The Gospel Army, Dr. Jerome Kano, the Sekai Foundation and all related characters and places are copyrighted by me.

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Epilogue A: Real Indication

Fox looked down at his drink, as he sat at the bar. He sighed miserably. With the destruction of the Gospel Army and the Lylat Syndicate, the Star Fox Team was now just as obsolete as it had ever been. On the plus side, he had helped prevent a virus from spreading, one that would have made everyone just like Andross. On the other hand, however, he was bored and the Team had nothing to do except looking out for hardened convicts.
It was back to being a bounty hunter, scouring the Lylat System for the scum of the Galaxy and handing them over to the police for rich pickings. An unstable source of income, but no more unstable than when they had been mercenaries during the Lylat War. Of course, then, they were always sure of having a job no matter what.
He glanced sideways to see the other people that frequented this bar, before downing the tenth pint of beer that night. 'Damn stuff's weaker than Slippy', he thought to himself, still not feeling the intoxicating effects of the alcohol.
"I thought I'd find you here, buddy," said a familiar voice from behind Fox, as a blue-feathered avian sat down beside him. "So, you thought you could come here and get the bounty all for yourself, huh?"
A smile spread across Fox's muzzle. Well, there was one thing he knew and that was that he would always have a friend.
"Nah, you know I wouldn't have done that," he said in reply to Falco's question. He looked behind him at the bar and saw his empty glass and the several others that surrounded it. Hadn't anyone bothered to remove those? "You want me to buy something while we're waiting?"
For a while, Falco didn't reply. It was as if he lost in thought.
"Yeah, you can buy me a pint," replied Falco with a nod of his head. The avian then waited a while and Fox ordered his drink. "So, is it true?"
"What?" asked Fox curiously.
"The beer, is it weaker than Slippy on tranquilisers?" asked Falco. He had heard of the Government's meddling, which had led to all alcoholic drinks being 0.0001% alcohol and 99% anything else they could chuck in there.
Fox exhaled deeply at the mention of it.
"It tastes like sugar water," he told Falco, as the bartender put the avian's drink down near the avian. "Go on, try it yourself." Moments later, he found that a Peregrine Falcon sputtering was one of the most funniest things he had ever seen. "Falco, you should have seen yourself!"
"I'd rather not," replied Falco angrily. "Man, that stuff's vile!" He looked back at Fox, expecting a grin on the vulpine's face but he saw nothing. The furry features were devoid of any expression. "Say, Fox, you okay? Fox?" He got no reply from Fox, as if the vulpine was far, far away. Falco waved a feathered wing in front of Fox. "Hey, Fox! Corneria to Fox, anybody home?"

So I'm goin' down this street
and I'm tryin' not to smile
'cause the street is where I'm goin'
And the curb is at the side
By the sewer
where the rain goes down
Like this girl I once knew
'cause the sewer is so hollow
and the yell!
could last forever

"Huh? Sorry, you say something?" asked Fox.
Falco looked at the vulpine with a worried expression on his face.
"Yeah, you feeling okay, buddy?" he asked his vulpine friend.
"I'm fine, Falco, replied Fox with a smile on his face. "Say, Falc', you don't mind staying out here and looking out for the bounty do you?" asked Fox, as he rose from his seat. "It's just I have to heed the call of nature."
"No, go ahead," said Falco.
Fox nodded in thanks and made his way past all the drunks in the bar. How they had managed to get drunk, he didn't know, but they were drunk. 'They're probably drinking anti-freeze on the side,' he thought to himself, as he made his way through into the men's room. He found it completely empty and without even thinking, he locked himself in completely and made his way over to the mirrors hanging over the sinks.

Like the night my girl went away
Gone off in a world filled with stuff
Lights start changin'
And there's wires in the air
And the asphalt, man,
is all around me
And I look down
and my shoes are so far away from me
Man, I can't believe it
I got a real indication
Of a laugh comin' on
I got a real indication
of a laugh comin' on

The place was one of those dingy affairs, covered in grime; it was the sort you usually found dead bodies in.
Still, that didn't deter Fox. He walked over to one of the sinks and peered into the mirror just to look at himself. It had been ages since he had really looked at himself and got to know himself a little better. Fox looked into the mirror and saw himself staring back at himself with ten times more intensity that he put in. Perhaps they were distorting mirrors, but Fox severely doubted that.

That old wind
is howling like a cold steel train
Girl has left me
Not comin' back again
Got rusted bullet holes in the Dodge
And a heartburn like a solar flare

That got Fox thinking. Was the person looking back at him from the mirror really him? Who was he really? Silence. There was nothing but silence.
His thoughts caught up with him and Fox began to think about what the A-Types had said. Was his father really responsible for the release of the virus into the Cornerian cities? Were the thousands of deaths due to the virus, really because of his father? And if that was true? What did that make him? What did that make Fox McCloud? The son of the man that had inadvertently killed thousands?
"No, I'm not that," Fox told himself. "I am the Son of James McCloud, a hero."
Fox looked more intently at himself within the mirror. As he continued to look, he swore that it was not him that looked back but his father.
"Trust your instincts," Fox found himself saying. "Never give up." And it sounded as if his father had just said those words, not him. "Dad, I won't fail you," he told the older fox that looked back at him from the mirror. "I promise that I won't fail you," promised Fox again. "I'll make you proud."

The grass by the house is dry, man
And a horsefly
buzzes, buzzes, buzzes!
by the big mistake in the distance, man
I see myself start to smile
I got a real indication
of a laugh comin' on

He turned the tap and watched the water fall down into the basin of the sink and swirl down the drain. There was something tantalising about the sparkling of the water. Fox grabbed both sides of the sink and lowered his head. He looked down and saw the water swirling away. It was clear and pure, more pure than anything the bar would ever serve and yet Fox didn't really think about how strange that was.
All that he could see was the water swirling away, draining away like the last vestiges of his childhood innocence when his parents were taken away from him, like... like something... something that Fox couldn't quite put his finger on. Then all that disappeared, like the water that swirled down into the drain.
And with a strength that far surpassed him, he rammed his head into the mirror, cracking it. Blood trickled down his forehead, as he began to laugh.
"Trust your instincts," he chuckled to himself, mocking the very words that he had said earlier. "Trust your instincts. Trust your instincts." He laughed out louder now, as he looked into the cracked mirror; and if he saw Andross staring back at him, he did not notice or at least, he did not care. "Trust your instincts," he laughed out much louder than ever in a more spiteful tone of voice than before. "Trust your instincts!"
And Andross laughed with him. And from then on, Andross would walk with Fox and if anybody noticed, they would go the same way as Kano did.
And in the end there was Andross, and Andross was with Fox, and Andross was Fox. Where there had once been one, now there were two.

Now you must die.

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P.S. The lyrics featured in this epilogue are from David Lynch's A Real Indication, music by Angelo Badalamenti and Thought Gang, vocals by Angelo Badalamenti.