This chapter is dedicated to Jan. Thanks for being there and keeping me on
track through the good, the bad, the rambling, and the idiotic fantasizing.
By the way, the conversation about Houston vs. Atlanta was very intriguing.
Chapter 3: A Forgotten Lylat
Back outside of the Malevolos, the two mercenary teams were captured in a fierce duel. Black had matched up with Seco, Shadow with Gannon, and Demon with Elliot. Both sides weren't giving way much, at least, not until the message came in from Majin that Ethan was dead. Somehow the members of his team found out, and they felt there was no point in fighting any longer. They attempted to indicate surrender, but it was much too late.
The Death Spirit mercenary team was vaporized in five minutes. Black, heart heavy, returned to the Attou knowing he'd killed that day, so he felt like he needed to go to his quarters and write, something that he could immerse himself in. However, he needed to monitor Majin's activity aboard the Malevolos.
As Black sat aboard the bridge, he got a beep from Majin on his communicator. "Black, I'm detecting other life forms aboard the ship. I might as well investigate before we vaporize this thing. Who knows? It could lead to more information on this new system."
'Or' Black thought, 'it could be what we've been looking for itself. I pray it is.'
Majin stood in front of the door marked Cargo Bay and slowly began to turn the spherical knob. 'Whatever I'm detecting is in there, be it good or evil.' He crept in, utilizing his assassin's stealth. The room was enormous, truth be told, but Majin could detect exactly where the life forms were.
The room was filled with thousands of boxes, and the lights were dim. But there, behind a crate in the middle of the room were the four creatures that the report had described. Sitting there were a humanoid fox, hare, toad, and avian.
Majin adjusted his turtle-shell rim glasses. Was he seeing correctly? Yet the report had confirmed the appearance of these exact creatures. There was something about the fox, however, that made him remember something. A deep secret that had been locked away for years. They seemed to be circled around a certain point, and they didn't notice Majin's arrival. So he, heart pounding, stepped into view of the four with his hands in the air to indicate peace.
The avian was the first to speak. "Who the hell are you? A lackey of that guy who seemed to love torturing Fox?"
"I come in peace," Majin said. "I just want to know who you are. The people who originally owned this ship are dead."
Now it was the hare's turn to speak. "Well, apparently you humans haven't come into contact with people like us before. We are from another galaxy. I wish we could have met under better circumstances, but when our carrier was hijacked by those people, they captured us. "They thought we were some sort of biological weapons experiment so they locked us in here and tortured our leader, Fox McCloud." McCloud. A lightning bolt lanced through Majin's mind. He knew that fox. "He's badly hurt and needs medical attention."
"Well, I'm no doctor, but some of my inventions might help him. I doubt this ship has any kind of useful medical equipment, but if we were to take him back to my carrier, I could fix him up." Majin hid his shock by pretending to be generally interested in the well-being of Fox, but a matrix of thoughts raced through his mind.
"Thank you," said the toad, speaking for the first time.
"By the way what's your name?" asked the hare.
"Six Majin, but call me Majin. I know, I know, it sounds strange, but we mercenaries have aliases that we go by." Yet again, Majin attempted to distract himself from the shadows of his mind, but he just couldn't.
"You're a mercenary, too?" questioned the avian with a glint in his eye that Majin couldn't help but notice.
"Yes, I am. Now we'll have more time to talk once we get back to the ship. I'll take Fox with me. I think that you three should be able to find some means of transportation here, but I need to leave now."
The hare slowly lifted Fox and Majin took him. 'These people must be very desperate if they're placing all their trust in me,' Majin thought as he carried the limp vulpine to his Six-Assei. Fox was scarred and bruised and bleeding in several places, and most of his jacket was torn. Feeling sorry for the fox, Majin took off his flight jacket and wrapped it around him. It would be a while before he could reveal his secret to anyone but Fox. First, Black and the others would have to be gone. The first priority was to tell Fox everything on the Attou.
He laid the vulpine in the back compartment of his Six-Assei, and started up the ship of his creation. As he flew the short distance back to the Attou, Majin began a long process of remembering everything that he'd forgotten.
Majin's train of thought was interrupted by his arrival at the Attou. He sneaked through the docking bay, passed the bridge, and entered the ship's small sick bay. After standing Fox up in a small cylindrical tube that cleansed him of all infection and germs, Majin walked over to a rack and put on a long white coat. He also took a small, white, metal square that looked like a bomb detonator from his pocket. Fox's condition wasn't too bad; he just looked nasty. Apparently, Ethan wasn't a very good torturer. After walking over a dresser and removing some clothes that he thought Fox might be able to wear, Majin rested his hands on the counter and waited for Fox to regain consciousness.
After about fifteen minutes, Fox opened his eyes. Majin was extremely happy that Black didn't realize he had returned, and Fox was finally up. Fox's groggy voice finally said something.
"What. . .where am I? Who are you? Am I dead?" Fox stared at Majin, eyes barely open.
"Well, it looks like you're finally awake. Fox, I know you've been through a lot lately, but I need to show you something important.
"Wait, how do you know my name?"
"I rescued you from the ship you were on. Your friends are coming soon. But please, listen to me. Do you remember a long time ago on Corneria when you had a friend next door?" Despite the fact that he wanted to ask Majin so many questions, Fox decided to answer his questions because he was so weak.
"Yes, I remember. His name was Adam something."
"Good, you remember. Do you remember what happened to him?"
"Yeah, he was gonna go to the Cornerian Flight Academy, but then he was abducted by Andross."
"Yes, that's right. Adam James McCall was abducted by Andross. But today, he stands before you. I am he." Majin with a smile opened the metal square, which was incidentally a box. He pressed a button and then with a flash of light, before Fox's eyes, stood a platinum fox wearing a black shirt and tan cargo pants. Fox was stupefied.
"Adam! It's really you! I can't believe it! Dad told me you were dead when he made raids on Venom." Fox tried to run to him, but Adam held his hand up to stop him.
"That was because he didn't realize that Andross had sent me in a space capsule to Earth, a planet in this system, after turning me into a human. Basically, when I crashed on Earth, I got amnesia. Andross had given me the means to turn myself back into a fox; I just couldn't remember. Some Japanese people abducted me, thinking I was some escaped person from a facility and brought me to a prison. There, I spent three years being tortured for no apparent reason until I escaped when I was thirteen. Anyway, my seeing you jogged my memory." Fox smiled and looked at his former friend.
"I still can't believe it's really you," he said with a smile that forgot his injuries.
"So, how's everybody back home? How is James?"
"Adam, he's dead. Andross killed him," Fox said in the tone he spoke in when he talked about something he didn't like to remember.
"Bastard," spat Adam. "Wolf O'Donnell?"
"Joined Andross and leads a mercenary team."
"Damn," said Adam. "So much happened in seven years. How about Bill Grey? Dead, tortured, an enemy?"
"No," said Fox. "He joined the Cornerian military and leads a unit on Katina."
"That's good. It's just strange, I remember when Wolf and Bill and you and I were dreaming of starting our own mercenary team. Funny how things were distorted so quickly. But such is life in a war-torn galaxy."
"True," said Fox, head bowed. This came so much as a surprise to Fox. He had been on a surveillance mission and suddenly he met an old friend who he thought was lost to him forever.
"So, how did you end up here?"
"Well, me and my team, which I now lead, were on a surveillance mission because General Pepper had detected some strange activity out here. We were attempting to contact that carrier, when the people aboard it hijacked our ship, the Great Fox, captured us, and tortured me, also for no apparent reason."
"People here are so demented," said Adam, shaking his head. "Shall we leave here and return to Lylat now?"
"Yeah."
"Basically, for no one to suspect our leaving, I'll make a hologram of myself walk around this ship and perform my daily activities," Adam said, pressing a button on a console. "As long as no one engages in physical contact with me, which I assure you they won't, my stupid teammates will never know."
"Well, let's go to the docking bay and we'll get out of here. My other teammates probably just got here anyway. But we'll have to be discreet. I think if any of your teammates found us they'd have every army in this galaxy on us."
Point taken. Let's go." The two left the room, Fox holding on to Adam because of his injuries. Walking down familiar halls, Adam realized this was the last time he'd be in them. 'Oh, well,' he thought to himself 'I never liked it here anyway.'
They reached the docking bay without alarm. With the addition of three ships, the docking bay looked cramped, and Adam worried that possibly Black had noticed. However, he knew Black well enough to know that he'd confine himself to his quarters for days after a battle.
It appeared that indeed, the rest of the Star Fox team had arrived on the Attou. "Hey, who're you?" the avian asked, pointing at Adam.
"Er, I guess you could call me the true form of the guy who saved you out there. Name's Adam McCall."
"Alright," said Fox, walking up behind Adam. "This is Slippy," he said, pointing to the toad. "Peppy," he said, pointing to the hare. "And Falco," finally pointing to the avian.
"Hey, wait," said Peppy, a look of confused nostalgia coming to his gray face. "Adam McCall. You were at James's house a lot when I stopped by to see him."
"Yeah," said Adam thoughtfully. "I do remember you." Then, out of the corner of his mouth he added, "Old timer."
"I heard that."
"Heard what?" Adam asked with mock sadness, then added again, "Fogey."
"Enough with the old jokes!" Peppy yelled with a strange anger that Fox himself was startled by.
"Fine, fine." Adam said, taken aback by Peppy's outburst. "Why don't we all just go back to Corneria to Fox's. . .er . . .apartment?"
"Yeah, I have one," said Fox, with a proud tone that in reality, didn't say much.
"The flight back to Corneria is four days long," said Slippy, in a robotic tone. Then, in a more caring voice he said "Who will Fox go with? There aren't enough ships, unless he steals one of theirs, which they can track."
"He'll go with me," said Adam, waving off the impending threat. "My ship doubles as a CTV." Everyone in the room looked baffled by Adam's statement, save for of course, Slippy, the techie.
"CTV," he said happily, finding a brief moment in which to be in his element. "Civilian Transport Vehicle."
A brief "Oh" chorused through the room, and everyone went off to their ships. Fox followed Adam to the cockpit of his ship before saying, "Um, Adam, I don't think there's going to be any room for me, despite it being a CTV." Adam answered with a quick smile, a reach into his pocket, and a thrust of his thumb on a button. Then, in a whirl of metallic transformation, sat a much larger ship that looked much less combat-oriented. "Better?" he asked.
"Much," said Fox quickly. In the manner of a chauffer, Adam opened the door to the cockpit, allowing Fox to step in.
"Now," began Adam. "As Slippy said, the flight is a bit of a long haul. Due to its transformation into a CTV, there's basically a studio apartment behind the cockpit. Make yourself comfortable, take a shower, eat something, do whatever. I'll be back in about an hour after I've gotten the autopilot in order."
"Ok. See ya later." With that, Fox went back to take a much-needed shower as Adam sat down in the cockpit. He pulled the thrusters and set out behind Peppy's ship. And off he went to Lylat, this time a Lylat that was real, not a collaboration of memories.
Chapter 3: A Forgotten Lylat
Back outside of the Malevolos, the two mercenary teams were captured in a fierce duel. Black had matched up with Seco, Shadow with Gannon, and Demon with Elliot. Both sides weren't giving way much, at least, not until the message came in from Majin that Ethan was dead. Somehow the members of his team found out, and they felt there was no point in fighting any longer. They attempted to indicate surrender, but it was much too late.
The Death Spirit mercenary team was vaporized in five minutes. Black, heart heavy, returned to the Attou knowing he'd killed that day, so he felt like he needed to go to his quarters and write, something that he could immerse himself in. However, he needed to monitor Majin's activity aboard the Malevolos.
As Black sat aboard the bridge, he got a beep from Majin on his communicator. "Black, I'm detecting other life forms aboard the ship. I might as well investigate before we vaporize this thing. Who knows? It could lead to more information on this new system."
'Or' Black thought, 'it could be what we've been looking for itself. I pray it is.'
Majin stood in front of the door marked Cargo Bay and slowly began to turn the spherical knob. 'Whatever I'm detecting is in there, be it good or evil.' He crept in, utilizing his assassin's stealth. The room was enormous, truth be told, but Majin could detect exactly where the life forms were.
The room was filled with thousands of boxes, and the lights were dim. But there, behind a crate in the middle of the room were the four creatures that the report had described. Sitting there were a humanoid fox, hare, toad, and avian.
Majin adjusted his turtle-shell rim glasses. Was he seeing correctly? Yet the report had confirmed the appearance of these exact creatures. There was something about the fox, however, that made him remember something. A deep secret that had been locked away for years. They seemed to be circled around a certain point, and they didn't notice Majin's arrival. So he, heart pounding, stepped into view of the four with his hands in the air to indicate peace.
The avian was the first to speak. "Who the hell are you? A lackey of that guy who seemed to love torturing Fox?"
"I come in peace," Majin said. "I just want to know who you are. The people who originally owned this ship are dead."
Now it was the hare's turn to speak. "Well, apparently you humans haven't come into contact with people like us before. We are from another galaxy. I wish we could have met under better circumstances, but when our carrier was hijacked by those people, they captured us. "They thought we were some sort of biological weapons experiment so they locked us in here and tortured our leader, Fox McCloud." McCloud. A lightning bolt lanced through Majin's mind. He knew that fox. "He's badly hurt and needs medical attention."
"Well, I'm no doctor, but some of my inventions might help him. I doubt this ship has any kind of useful medical equipment, but if we were to take him back to my carrier, I could fix him up." Majin hid his shock by pretending to be generally interested in the well-being of Fox, but a matrix of thoughts raced through his mind.
"Thank you," said the toad, speaking for the first time.
"By the way what's your name?" asked the hare.
"Six Majin, but call me Majin. I know, I know, it sounds strange, but we mercenaries have aliases that we go by." Yet again, Majin attempted to distract himself from the shadows of his mind, but he just couldn't.
"You're a mercenary, too?" questioned the avian with a glint in his eye that Majin couldn't help but notice.
"Yes, I am. Now we'll have more time to talk once we get back to the ship. I'll take Fox with me. I think that you three should be able to find some means of transportation here, but I need to leave now."
The hare slowly lifted Fox and Majin took him. 'These people must be very desperate if they're placing all their trust in me,' Majin thought as he carried the limp vulpine to his Six-Assei. Fox was scarred and bruised and bleeding in several places, and most of his jacket was torn. Feeling sorry for the fox, Majin took off his flight jacket and wrapped it around him. It would be a while before he could reveal his secret to anyone but Fox. First, Black and the others would have to be gone. The first priority was to tell Fox everything on the Attou.
He laid the vulpine in the back compartment of his Six-Assei, and started up the ship of his creation. As he flew the short distance back to the Attou, Majin began a long process of remembering everything that he'd forgotten.
Majin's train of thought was interrupted by his arrival at the Attou. He sneaked through the docking bay, passed the bridge, and entered the ship's small sick bay. After standing Fox up in a small cylindrical tube that cleansed him of all infection and germs, Majin walked over to a rack and put on a long white coat. He also took a small, white, metal square that looked like a bomb detonator from his pocket. Fox's condition wasn't too bad; he just looked nasty. Apparently, Ethan wasn't a very good torturer. After walking over a dresser and removing some clothes that he thought Fox might be able to wear, Majin rested his hands on the counter and waited for Fox to regain consciousness.
After about fifteen minutes, Fox opened his eyes. Majin was extremely happy that Black didn't realize he had returned, and Fox was finally up. Fox's groggy voice finally said something.
"What. . .where am I? Who are you? Am I dead?" Fox stared at Majin, eyes barely open.
"Well, it looks like you're finally awake. Fox, I know you've been through a lot lately, but I need to show you something important.
"Wait, how do you know my name?"
"I rescued you from the ship you were on. Your friends are coming soon. But please, listen to me. Do you remember a long time ago on Corneria when you had a friend next door?" Despite the fact that he wanted to ask Majin so many questions, Fox decided to answer his questions because he was so weak.
"Yes, I remember. His name was Adam something."
"Good, you remember. Do you remember what happened to him?"
"Yeah, he was gonna go to the Cornerian Flight Academy, but then he was abducted by Andross."
"Yes, that's right. Adam James McCall was abducted by Andross. But today, he stands before you. I am he." Majin with a smile opened the metal square, which was incidentally a box. He pressed a button and then with a flash of light, before Fox's eyes, stood a platinum fox wearing a black shirt and tan cargo pants. Fox was stupefied.
"Adam! It's really you! I can't believe it! Dad told me you were dead when he made raids on Venom." Fox tried to run to him, but Adam held his hand up to stop him.
"That was because he didn't realize that Andross had sent me in a space capsule to Earth, a planet in this system, after turning me into a human. Basically, when I crashed on Earth, I got amnesia. Andross had given me the means to turn myself back into a fox; I just couldn't remember. Some Japanese people abducted me, thinking I was some escaped person from a facility and brought me to a prison. There, I spent three years being tortured for no apparent reason until I escaped when I was thirteen. Anyway, my seeing you jogged my memory." Fox smiled and looked at his former friend.
"I still can't believe it's really you," he said with a smile that forgot his injuries.
"So, how's everybody back home? How is James?"
"Adam, he's dead. Andross killed him," Fox said in the tone he spoke in when he talked about something he didn't like to remember.
"Bastard," spat Adam. "Wolf O'Donnell?"
"Joined Andross and leads a mercenary team."
"Damn," said Adam. "So much happened in seven years. How about Bill Grey? Dead, tortured, an enemy?"
"No," said Fox. "He joined the Cornerian military and leads a unit on Katina."
"That's good. It's just strange, I remember when Wolf and Bill and you and I were dreaming of starting our own mercenary team. Funny how things were distorted so quickly. But such is life in a war-torn galaxy."
"True," said Fox, head bowed. This came so much as a surprise to Fox. He had been on a surveillance mission and suddenly he met an old friend who he thought was lost to him forever.
"So, how did you end up here?"
"Well, me and my team, which I now lead, were on a surveillance mission because General Pepper had detected some strange activity out here. We were attempting to contact that carrier, when the people aboard it hijacked our ship, the Great Fox, captured us, and tortured me, also for no apparent reason."
"People here are so demented," said Adam, shaking his head. "Shall we leave here and return to Lylat now?"
"Yeah."
"Basically, for no one to suspect our leaving, I'll make a hologram of myself walk around this ship and perform my daily activities," Adam said, pressing a button on a console. "As long as no one engages in physical contact with me, which I assure you they won't, my stupid teammates will never know."
"Well, let's go to the docking bay and we'll get out of here. My other teammates probably just got here anyway. But we'll have to be discreet. I think if any of your teammates found us they'd have every army in this galaxy on us."
Point taken. Let's go." The two left the room, Fox holding on to Adam because of his injuries. Walking down familiar halls, Adam realized this was the last time he'd be in them. 'Oh, well,' he thought to himself 'I never liked it here anyway.'
They reached the docking bay without alarm. With the addition of three ships, the docking bay looked cramped, and Adam worried that possibly Black had noticed. However, he knew Black well enough to know that he'd confine himself to his quarters for days after a battle.
It appeared that indeed, the rest of the Star Fox team had arrived on the Attou. "Hey, who're you?" the avian asked, pointing at Adam.
"Er, I guess you could call me the true form of the guy who saved you out there. Name's Adam McCall."
"Alright," said Fox, walking up behind Adam. "This is Slippy," he said, pointing to the toad. "Peppy," he said, pointing to the hare. "And Falco," finally pointing to the avian.
"Hey, wait," said Peppy, a look of confused nostalgia coming to his gray face. "Adam McCall. You were at James's house a lot when I stopped by to see him."
"Yeah," said Adam thoughtfully. "I do remember you." Then, out of the corner of his mouth he added, "Old timer."
"I heard that."
"Heard what?" Adam asked with mock sadness, then added again, "Fogey."
"Enough with the old jokes!" Peppy yelled with a strange anger that Fox himself was startled by.
"Fine, fine." Adam said, taken aback by Peppy's outburst. "Why don't we all just go back to Corneria to Fox's. . .er . . .apartment?"
"Yeah, I have one," said Fox, with a proud tone that in reality, didn't say much.
"The flight back to Corneria is four days long," said Slippy, in a robotic tone. Then, in a more caring voice he said "Who will Fox go with? There aren't enough ships, unless he steals one of theirs, which they can track."
"He'll go with me," said Adam, waving off the impending threat. "My ship doubles as a CTV." Everyone in the room looked baffled by Adam's statement, save for of course, Slippy, the techie.
"CTV," he said happily, finding a brief moment in which to be in his element. "Civilian Transport Vehicle."
A brief "Oh" chorused through the room, and everyone went off to their ships. Fox followed Adam to the cockpit of his ship before saying, "Um, Adam, I don't think there's going to be any room for me, despite it being a CTV." Adam answered with a quick smile, a reach into his pocket, and a thrust of his thumb on a button. Then, in a whirl of metallic transformation, sat a much larger ship that looked much less combat-oriented. "Better?" he asked.
"Much," said Fox quickly. In the manner of a chauffer, Adam opened the door to the cockpit, allowing Fox to step in.
"Now," began Adam. "As Slippy said, the flight is a bit of a long haul. Due to its transformation into a CTV, there's basically a studio apartment behind the cockpit. Make yourself comfortable, take a shower, eat something, do whatever. I'll be back in about an hour after I've gotten the autopilot in order."
"Ok. See ya later." With that, Fox went back to take a much-needed shower as Adam sat down in the cockpit. He pulled the thrusters and set out behind Peppy's ship. And off he went to Lylat, this time a Lylat that was real, not a collaboration of memories.