Yo, all again. I haven't updated this story in a while, so here you get a
semi-larger than normal chapter. I'll be updating a bit more often than
that two-month thing, cause I'm getting to a really good part.
Chapter 20: Off To A Bad Re-Start
Pandimonium, and yet Danielle was nowhere to be found. Fox nor Peppy could report back to Pelaufin until they found Danielle, because, as Falco once put it, 'He's got a nose for treason. It's false most of the time, though.'
The current location of Danielle was undisclosed to all but Sean, who found her near a riverbed in the forest to the south. She was fiddling around with oddly shaped fungi that was on the ground. "Danielle!" Sean pleaded to her, "We have a crisis on our hands! Stop playing with the mushrooms and get back to camp!"
"Coming," Danielle said with only minimal attention. She was stil looking at the spore she found. Unlike many wild mushrooms, it had a thick trunk, and it's hood was white with large green spots. She couldn't pinpoint how she remembered this, like it was from a game. Well, she remembered the game, but she didn't see how. . .
"Hurry up!" Sean impatiently yelled again.
"Alright." Danielle pocketed the fungus and, leaving that train of thought, proceeded to the clearing.
Danielle or not, the situation wasn't in the least bit resolved. All parties were still in the very akward stage of being at war with each other without really trying. Each side pacting to try and end this, they reboarded their ships and headed out.
It would still be some time until reentry into the Great Fox. Danielle reread her pilot profile, trying to trace any memory whatsoever out of it. It seemed that she remembered, but the memories were witheld for some reason. Perhaps this place wasn't real, only a dream. . .
Now we're back to the dream. This can't be a dream. . . but this isn't reality. . . it can't be reality because reality isn't so coincidental, so preplanned, so. . . obvious.
Meanwhile, back at the Hunter Space Station. . .
"Captain Sean." Hagges spoke distantly when the crew landed back on board, "About this war-"
"You can count on me, sir!" Sean yelled, and straightened up immidiatelly.
"It's not that," Hagges eyed him mysteriously, "You know some of there people, do you?"
"Me, sir, why. . ."
"We do keep cameras mounted in the ships, in case anyone ever turns on us."
"Me, sir? A Turncoat? Please, they're not even remotely our species. . ."
"Then why is there a tone of worry in your voice?"
"First Leiutenant Danielle! Front and center!" General Pelaufin was mortally peeved off at something.
"Yes, sir?"
"I have evedence here that you've been fraternizing with the enemy." He held up a small mini-disc, probably for video recording. "A few hours ago, you had one of the enemies come into your Arwing."
"You don't understand, General. . ."
"AND You've been acessing all sorts of files about the ship, and the Arwing2, not to mention yours and other's personal files. Have you been selling our secrets?"
"No! You have it all wrong. . ."
"SECURITY!" Pelaufin yelled, at which two leopards in green uniforms came up and grabbed Danielle. "NO!" she yelled, "I've done nothing wrong!"
"We'll see about that. . ." Pelaufin sneered, "When you spend. . . No. . ." He turned to the side a seconed, as it seemed an idea was coming to his small little head, "No. . . I have a better idea." He turned to Danielle once more, "You'll be testing the new Arwing2 on the front line!"
"What!" Danielle said as an exclaimation more than a question, as the guards in green dragged her towards the docking bay, kicking and screaming.
"And remember!" Pelaufin yelled back, "Deserters will be shot on sight!"
"So it stands." Hagges paced a pit, "And the solution is this: You ride out into the front lines. If you can fire at the enemy, I'll believe you. If not, well, deserters will be shot on sight."
"So I assume I'm getting my crew and ship back?"
"Oh, no no no. . . nothing of the sort." the Admiral said, "You'll be riding an Pilfer 2-66."
"Admiral!" Rock, who was standing behind Sean listening, "That's suicide! And Pilfer is only used as a scout ship. . ."
"That's bad, right?" Sean asked.
"Most definitely!" Rock almost yelled.
"Ah. Then you want to kill be anyway?" Sean asked the Admiral, "Tell me, do you recall at all YOU CHANGING MY RANK JUST TO SATISFY YOUR-" At which Sean was clubbed over the head by a security officer. "That happens all to much. . ." Sean said before he passed out.
"Gaston!" Danielle yelled at the wolf, passing him by in the hall, "This is all your fault!"
"My fault? How is this. . . " To which he was suddenly kicked between the legs by on of Danielle's strong kicks. "That's for, 'us'!"
Gaston tried to say something, but was too busy mulling over in pain to do so. "Officer down. . ." He finally made out, but Danielle was too far down the hall to hear it.
At this point in time, two things happen at once, both of which happen exactly at the same time and are entirely, yet humorously, coincidental. The Space Station and the Great Fox both send their Suicide missioners out, at which they approaced each other at the same time on the battlefield. The arwing and the Pilfer, looking amazingly like a rounded A- Wing, both see each other at the same time, and even with the rest of the fleets behind them, Sean and Danielle, both pilots, had to veer off each other's direct course.
Also at the same time, in different ships, Pelaufin and Hagges muttered to themselves, "I knew it."
"Open fire on captain Sean!" Hagges yelled throught the communications room, "He's on their side!"
Sean himself heard this announcement, and was already dodging fire from other ships. From every ship, save Danielle's. He had to do something fast, such as contact Danielle, and quickly. But how? He couldn't change his radio wavelength to Danielle's when he didn't know what it was! Or did he? . . . he remembered from a few days ago. . .
"Danielle!" I called. "Here's a hypothetical question. If we were ever stranded on a deserted island together. . . no. . . maybe if were were on different desert islands, and we each had a communicator radio, what frequency would you be on?"
"Sean, you silly," Danielle jested back at me, "Where do you come up with these things?"
"Just answer." I replied.
"Oh. . . I don't know. . . Aha! 99.9 FM."
"Why?"
"Cause it's that long till we can get married."
"And after we marry?"
"the AM stations, for 'After Marraige', although it would be a little hard during the early day. . . I swear, why do you come up with these?"
"Just routine worst-possible scenario situations."
"That's it!" Sean said, changing the frequency of his intercom to 99.9 FM. He waited. . . nothing. Did she forget? Sean started to panic. Of course, she had only thought of it as a silly game. . . just a silly-
No! Sean thought, That's not the Danielle I know! Sean thought about it for a few seconds.
And thought. What could it be?
And it struck him: Not so much the frequency, but the implication behind it!
He changed the frequency. . . 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 91, 90. . .
"Sean, can you hear me? Come in! Please!"
"Danielle!" Sean gasped into his reciver.
"Sean!" Danielle exclaimed back in half surprise, "You remembered!"
"Course I remembered. That's what all the worst case scenario stuff was about."
"Now that we have contact, what are we supposed to do?"
"I don't know. . . Why. . . wait. . ."
By now, both ships were out of range of the rest of the battlefield, and both sides almost forgot about them.
"Danielle, you got rid of surveylence?"
"That's the first thing I did. Did such a thurough job I would be surprised if they could find me again."
"Same here. Now what we need is to. . ."
"Find that girl! Now!" General Pelaufin yelled at his sergents in the war room.
"Sir, be serious, she's not woth the trouble it is to find her! There IS a war going on, you know."
Pelaufin came up close to the officer, "I wouldn't care if the universe was ending. That girl is a traitor, and I do not handle traitors lightly. DO YOU COPY?!?"
"He must really have something against her." One of the sergents whispered to the other.
Pelaufin heard this, however. "Do you find something about this that's not worth bringing to my attention?"
"Sir, it's just. . ."
"General!" A captain said out loud, "We have something on the radar, but there's no radio contact. There's no onboard visual contact either."
"Get an outside visual, for crying out loud!"
The Captain typed a few keys into the computer, "It's an Arwing2, sir. One of ours."
Pelaufin looked at the viewscreen. "It's Danielle. Open fire."
"But sir, They could just be having mechanical difficulties. . ."
"I said OPEN FIRE!"
"Open fire." The captain said reluctantly into the speaker to the cannon operating room.
Six seconds, and the Arwing was no more than space junk.
"Captain," Pelaufin said with a tone of triumph in his voice, "Remind me to send a letter of apology to Danielle's parents."
At the same time, call to the only guard at the docking bay. "State your request." The guard spoke throught the comlink to the airlock.
"We have mechanical difficulties." Said the voice through the other end, "Open the gates."
The guard typed in something on the keypad. "I can't get a visual on your ship."
"That's one of the problems."
"Alright. I'm opening the doors."
The airlock closed, then the bay doors opened up. "You may proceed."
"Good." A voice came from the doors. "You may bring your hands up, so that no one will get hurt." Sean and Danielle both stepped out at the same time, aiming their laser guns at the hangar guard.
"Nice job, you two." The guard said, back turned to the control panel, "And to think you pulled it of without our help."
"Fox?"
"Correct." Fox said, "We might as well not even bothered with the fighting."
"The fighting?"
"All the fighters are just doing fancy tricks out there for just a show to General Pelaufin. Enough of them can dodge fire without doing any real damage. And I must say It was impressive how you tricked the General into thinking you're dead. How did you do it?"
"That was my doing." Sean said, "The Pilfer 2-66 has a mid-flight capability that allows you to transfer passengers between most any ship."
"You don't sound like yourelf when you say that."
"Funny thing is, it was on a note pinned to my chair."
"So. . ." Danielle said, "What's the big plan you have going? We were going to take the ship by force."
"I've already done that. Just through politics." Fox said, "There's not a soul on this ship in a lower ranking than me that won't heed my orders over Pelaufins. Namely, replacing me as a pilot to confuse the General."
"So what do we do?"
"First. . ." Fox turned to the intercom, "I need a general state of pandimonium." He flipped the switch to the war room com, "I'm afraid we have some problems. The security cameras are out of wack. Could you send down matinence?"
"Where is security?!?" Pelaufin screamed at his officers, "Where's the rest of security?"
"We don't know sir. . . First matenence didn't report back, so squad after squad was going down to check after them and none returned."
"Sir! The fleet is breaking formation!" the Captain said, checking the positioning systems.
"What? Who ordered this?"
A voice popped up over the intercom. "Guess whoooo. . ."
"What. . . FOX?!? So YOU have been the traitor all along!"
"Au contraire. We've all been 'traitors' as you put it."
"How then. . ."
"We never wanted this war, Pelaufin. I think it's high time to send peace negotiations. Besides, this mutainy has been put off for far too long. . ." He said with a distant tone.
"Never!"
"Wrong again." Out from the war room door stepped a tall blue falcon, and alongside him, a short frog.
"Falco? Slippy!"
"Finally correct about something, General." Flaco and Slippy both had guns aimed in the general direction of the room, "This is our ship now. Now everyone is going to stand up and raise their hands above their heads. . ."
The officers all stood up, raising their hands. "Good." Slippy said, "N-n-now if-f you'll all j-just follow. . ."
"Hold it. . ." said Falco, looking around the room, "Where's Pelaufin?"
"This can't be. . . " Pelaufin said to himself running down the escape route, "There's no possible way I can lose my power. . ."
"Going somewhere?" the shadow of Danielle stepped up, blocking the path to the escape pods. The rest of the mutainees were running down the hall after them, lead by Sean.
Pelaufin grinned a wicked smile, "Nice trick, making me think you were dead, so you and your friend could sneak aboard. I suppose you think it's all over now, don't you? I'll return someday, in a more powerful position than before. And I'll have you all thrown in prison for mutainy!"
"And how will you do that, when there's no way out for you?" Danielle spoke with authority.
"My dear girl, It's one of the glaringly obvious reasons I can't lose."
Danielle glanced down, at Pelaufin's laser pistol, pointed at her chest.
And he fired.
----
ooh! A cliffhanger! Of course, if you paid attention through the entire thing, you'd know what happens next. Until then, Ciao!
Chapter 20: Off To A Bad Re-Start
Pandimonium, and yet Danielle was nowhere to be found. Fox nor Peppy could report back to Pelaufin until they found Danielle, because, as Falco once put it, 'He's got a nose for treason. It's false most of the time, though.'
The current location of Danielle was undisclosed to all but Sean, who found her near a riverbed in the forest to the south. She was fiddling around with oddly shaped fungi that was on the ground. "Danielle!" Sean pleaded to her, "We have a crisis on our hands! Stop playing with the mushrooms and get back to camp!"
"Coming," Danielle said with only minimal attention. She was stil looking at the spore she found. Unlike many wild mushrooms, it had a thick trunk, and it's hood was white with large green spots. She couldn't pinpoint how she remembered this, like it was from a game. Well, she remembered the game, but she didn't see how. . .
"Hurry up!" Sean impatiently yelled again.
"Alright." Danielle pocketed the fungus and, leaving that train of thought, proceeded to the clearing.
Danielle or not, the situation wasn't in the least bit resolved. All parties were still in the very akward stage of being at war with each other without really trying. Each side pacting to try and end this, they reboarded their ships and headed out.
It would still be some time until reentry into the Great Fox. Danielle reread her pilot profile, trying to trace any memory whatsoever out of it. It seemed that she remembered, but the memories were witheld for some reason. Perhaps this place wasn't real, only a dream. . .
Now we're back to the dream. This can't be a dream. . . but this isn't reality. . . it can't be reality because reality isn't so coincidental, so preplanned, so. . . obvious.
Meanwhile, back at the Hunter Space Station. . .
"Captain Sean." Hagges spoke distantly when the crew landed back on board, "About this war-"
"You can count on me, sir!" Sean yelled, and straightened up immidiatelly.
"It's not that," Hagges eyed him mysteriously, "You know some of there people, do you?"
"Me, sir, why. . ."
"We do keep cameras mounted in the ships, in case anyone ever turns on us."
"Me, sir? A Turncoat? Please, they're not even remotely our species. . ."
"Then why is there a tone of worry in your voice?"
"First Leiutenant Danielle! Front and center!" General Pelaufin was mortally peeved off at something.
"Yes, sir?"
"I have evedence here that you've been fraternizing with the enemy." He held up a small mini-disc, probably for video recording. "A few hours ago, you had one of the enemies come into your Arwing."
"You don't understand, General. . ."
"AND You've been acessing all sorts of files about the ship, and the Arwing2, not to mention yours and other's personal files. Have you been selling our secrets?"
"No! You have it all wrong. . ."
"SECURITY!" Pelaufin yelled, at which two leopards in green uniforms came up and grabbed Danielle. "NO!" she yelled, "I've done nothing wrong!"
"We'll see about that. . ." Pelaufin sneered, "When you spend. . . No. . ." He turned to the side a seconed, as it seemed an idea was coming to his small little head, "No. . . I have a better idea." He turned to Danielle once more, "You'll be testing the new Arwing2 on the front line!"
"What!" Danielle said as an exclaimation more than a question, as the guards in green dragged her towards the docking bay, kicking and screaming.
"And remember!" Pelaufin yelled back, "Deserters will be shot on sight!"
"So it stands." Hagges paced a pit, "And the solution is this: You ride out into the front lines. If you can fire at the enemy, I'll believe you. If not, well, deserters will be shot on sight."
"So I assume I'm getting my crew and ship back?"
"Oh, no no no. . . nothing of the sort." the Admiral said, "You'll be riding an Pilfer 2-66."
"Admiral!" Rock, who was standing behind Sean listening, "That's suicide! And Pilfer is only used as a scout ship. . ."
"That's bad, right?" Sean asked.
"Most definitely!" Rock almost yelled.
"Ah. Then you want to kill be anyway?" Sean asked the Admiral, "Tell me, do you recall at all YOU CHANGING MY RANK JUST TO SATISFY YOUR-" At which Sean was clubbed over the head by a security officer. "That happens all to much. . ." Sean said before he passed out.
"Gaston!" Danielle yelled at the wolf, passing him by in the hall, "This is all your fault!"
"My fault? How is this. . . " To which he was suddenly kicked between the legs by on of Danielle's strong kicks. "That's for, 'us'!"
Gaston tried to say something, but was too busy mulling over in pain to do so. "Officer down. . ." He finally made out, but Danielle was too far down the hall to hear it.
At this point in time, two things happen at once, both of which happen exactly at the same time and are entirely, yet humorously, coincidental. The Space Station and the Great Fox both send their Suicide missioners out, at which they approaced each other at the same time on the battlefield. The arwing and the Pilfer, looking amazingly like a rounded A- Wing, both see each other at the same time, and even with the rest of the fleets behind them, Sean and Danielle, both pilots, had to veer off each other's direct course.
Also at the same time, in different ships, Pelaufin and Hagges muttered to themselves, "I knew it."
"Open fire on captain Sean!" Hagges yelled throught the communications room, "He's on their side!"
Sean himself heard this announcement, and was already dodging fire from other ships. From every ship, save Danielle's. He had to do something fast, such as contact Danielle, and quickly. But how? He couldn't change his radio wavelength to Danielle's when he didn't know what it was! Or did he? . . . he remembered from a few days ago. . .
"Danielle!" I called. "Here's a hypothetical question. If we were ever stranded on a deserted island together. . . no. . . maybe if were were on different desert islands, and we each had a communicator radio, what frequency would you be on?"
"Sean, you silly," Danielle jested back at me, "Where do you come up with these things?"
"Just answer." I replied.
"Oh. . . I don't know. . . Aha! 99.9 FM."
"Why?"
"Cause it's that long till we can get married."
"And after we marry?"
"the AM stations, for 'After Marraige', although it would be a little hard during the early day. . . I swear, why do you come up with these?"
"Just routine worst-possible scenario situations."
"That's it!" Sean said, changing the frequency of his intercom to 99.9 FM. He waited. . . nothing. Did she forget? Sean started to panic. Of course, she had only thought of it as a silly game. . . just a silly-
No! Sean thought, That's not the Danielle I know! Sean thought about it for a few seconds.
And thought. What could it be?
And it struck him: Not so much the frequency, but the implication behind it!
He changed the frequency. . . 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 91, 90. . .
"Sean, can you hear me? Come in! Please!"
"Danielle!" Sean gasped into his reciver.
"Sean!" Danielle exclaimed back in half surprise, "You remembered!"
"Course I remembered. That's what all the worst case scenario stuff was about."
"Now that we have contact, what are we supposed to do?"
"I don't know. . . Why. . . wait. . ."
By now, both ships were out of range of the rest of the battlefield, and both sides almost forgot about them.
"Danielle, you got rid of surveylence?"
"That's the first thing I did. Did such a thurough job I would be surprised if they could find me again."
"Same here. Now what we need is to. . ."
"Find that girl! Now!" General Pelaufin yelled at his sergents in the war room.
"Sir, be serious, she's not woth the trouble it is to find her! There IS a war going on, you know."
Pelaufin came up close to the officer, "I wouldn't care if the universe was ending. That girl is a traitor, and I do not handle traitors lightly. DO YOU COPY?!?"
"He must really have something against her." One of the sergents whispered to the other.
Pelaufin heard this, however. "Do you find something about this that's not worth bringing to my attention?"
"Sir, it's just. . ."
"General!" A captain said out loud, "We have something on the radar, but there's no radio contact. There's no onboard visual contact either."
"Get an outside visual, for crying out loud!"
The Captain typed a few keys into the computer, "It's an Arwing2, sir. One of ours."
Pelaufin looked at the viewscreen. "It's Danielle. Open fire."
"But sir, They could just be having mechanical difficulties. . ."
"I said OPEN FIRE!"
"Open fire." The captain said reluctantly into the speaker to the cannon operating room.
Six seconds, and the Arwing was no more than space junk.
"Captain," Pelaufin said with a tone of triumph in his voice, "Remind me to send a letter of apology to Danielle's parents."
At the same time, call to the only guard at the docking bay. "State your request." The guard spoke throught the comlink to the airlock.
"We have mechanical difficulties." Said the voice through the other end, "Open the gates."
The guard typed in something on the keypad. "I can't get a visual on your ship."
"That's one of the problems."
"Alright. I'm opening the doors."
The airlock closed, then the bay doors opened up. "You may proceed."
"Good." A voice came from the doors. "You may bring your hands up, so that no one will get hurt." Sean and Danielle both stepped out at the same time, aiming their laser guns at the hangar guard.
"Nice job, you two." The guard said, back turned to the control panel, "And to think you pulled it of without our help."
"Fox?"
"Correct." Fox said, "We might as well not even bothered with the fighting."
"The fighting?"
"All the fighters are just doing fancy tricks out there for just a show to General Pelaufin. Enough of them can dodge fire without doing any real damage. And I must say It was impressive how you tricked the General into thinking you're dead. How did you do it?"
"That was my doing." Sean said, "The Pilfer 2-66 has a mid-flight capability that allows you to transfer passengers between most any ship."
"You don't sound like yourelf when you say that."
"Funny thing is, it was on a note pinned to my chair."
"So. . ." Danielle said, "What's the big plan you have going? We were going to take the ship by force."
"I've already done that. Just through politics." Fox said, "There's not a soul on this ship in a lower ranking than me that won't heed my orders over Pelaufins. Namely, replacing me as a pilot to confuse the General."
"So what do we do?"
"First. . ." Fox turned to the intercom, "I need a general state of pandimonium." He flipped the switch to the war room com, "I'm afraid we have some problems. The security cameras are out of wack. Could you send down matinence?"
"Where is security?!?" Pelaufin screamed at his officers, "Where's the rest of security?"
"We don't know sir. . . First matenence didn't report back, so squad after squad was going down to check after them and none returned."
"Sir! The fleet is breaking formation!" the Captain said, checking the positioning systems.
"What? Who ordered this?"
A voice popped up over the intercom. "Guess whoooo. . ."
"What. . . FOX?!? So YOU have been the traitor all along!"
"Au contraire. We've all been 'traitors' as you put it."
"How then. . ."
"We never wanted this war, Pelaufin. I think it's high time to send peace negotiations. Besides, this mutainy has been put off for far too long. . ." He said with a distant tone.
"Never!"
"Wrong again." Out from the war room door stepped a tall blue falcon, and alongside him, a short frog.
"Falco? Slippy!"
"Finally correct about something, General." Flaco and Slippy both had guns aimed in the general direction of the room, "This is our ship now. Now everyone is going to stand up and raise their hands above their heads. . ."
The officers all stood up, raising their hands. "Good." Slippy said, "N-n-now if-f you'll all j-just follow. . ."
"Hold it. . ." said Falco, looking around the room, "Where's Pelaufin?"
"This can't be. . . " Pelaufin said to himself running down the escape route, "There's no possible way I can lose my power. . ."
"Going somewhere?" the shadow of Danielle stepped up, blocking the path to the escape pods. The rest of the mutainees were running down the hall after them, lead by Sean.
Pelaufin grinned a wicked smile, "Nice trick, making me think you were dead, so you and your friend could sneak aboard. I suppose you think it's all over now, don't you? I'll return someday, in a more powerful position than before. And I'll have you all thrown in prison for mutainy!"
"And how will you do that, when there's no way out for you?" Danielle spoke with authority.
"My dear girl, It's one of the glaringly obvious reasons I can't lose."
Danielle glanced down, at Pelaufin's laser pistol, pointed at her chest.
And he fired.
----
ooh! A cliffhanger! Of course, if you paid attention through the entire thing, you'd know what happens next. Until then, Ciao!