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.
* * * * *
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.
You answered the question incorrectly. Try searching through
the fanfic again.
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.