CHAPTER 4: LOSING TOUCH

Samus seemed to know the planet near inside and out as she led Fox and Slippy back to their similar landing grounds. Not once did she have to stop and consider whether a door or direction was the right one. Fox noted this and began to wonder what sort of connection this rogue had with the planet to know it so well. No doubt they had been here before. Was he in the middle of a scam artists' scheme?

They made it back to their ships easily enough, taking less traveled paths that Samus knew. These paths were littered only with peaceful native creatures that could be dangerous, but only when threatened. Once they reached the landing space, Slippy branched off from Samus and Fox to his own ship while the other two went for Fox's Arwing.

"Alright," Fox said casually, gesturing with a hand. "Time to make like a magician." Samus, without a word or two of response, lifted her arm cannon and tapped a panel on it. With a disorienting quiver of space the ship appeared next to where they stood. Fox gave an inaudible breath of relief. He had his ship available-now all he had to do was get up into the wide-open blackness of space and ditch the walking metal biped. "Good. Now just give me a minute and we'll head out." Samus nodded.

Fox turned and headed over to where Slippy was collecting his precious tools and belongings from the half sunken ship. Truthfully, he looked a little forlorn about it.

"Don't worry about it, Slip. Once we get your ship back to the Great Fox I'm sure it can be fixed up," he assured his friend. Glancing back at where Samus was he saw she was busy with her own ship and looked back to Slippy, leaning in to speak quietly. "I'm going to tow the ship back. But we're going to have to do some special maneuvering to lose our savior here."

"Why exactly do you wanna ditch him anyway?" Slippy asked, personally assuming this metal clad knight was a male. Voice tones alone meant nothing to him---after all, he had one of the squeakiest voices in the world and he was still male. "He helped us out back there and just got us out here with less trouble than we would have had."

"There's too much fishy about all this, Slip," Fox replied. "We wander into a strange area, get attacked, and suddenly this hero appears at just the right time? Not to mention he knows way too much about the planet for my liking. Who's to say that he doesn't just wait for people to fall into this trap and then make his money off of forcing them to use his services?"

"I guess it is a little weird that he was right nearby. But still, he DID help us out."

"Ah, forget that. We could have eventually helped ourselves out no trouble. There's too many awkward ends here, Slip. For all we know he could have been bio-engineering those creepy little energy suckers."

"You're just angry because he cloaked your ship. It really made sense, though, you know. Natives CAN steal foreign technology," Slippy replied, nodding. Fox flattened his ears down at this and frowned, saying nothing. "Besides," Slippy continued. "He's interesting. I mean, that armor is awesome. It's like nothing I've ever seen.it lets him move so fast! That and I wouldn't mind getting a good look at that ship of his."

"Your priorities are a little weird sometimes, buddy," Fox said finally. Slippy shrugged.

"I'll pay him if you don't want to. I mean, I think it's worth it."

"No!" Fox said, a little louder than he meant to. His ears perked and he looked to see if Samus had heard. She was sitting atop her hovering ship, looking in their direction in a thoughtful, waiting position. Fox looked back to Slippy. "We don't pay for services, we GET PAID for services. You nor I have the extra funds to be shoveling out to some stranger. You know we haven't had a new job in a while. Our funds are starting to wane."

"I guess so. I just don't like being terribly ungrateful.."

"Right. You just want to learn more about that ship, don't you.." The phrase was a statement rather than a question. It was Slippy's turn to look a little sour. Touche`.

"We'll do whatever you want, Fox. You're the leader," he finally said with a frustrated sigh, hoisting up his things to bounce them over to Fox's cargo panel in his Arwing. Fox followed, satisfied with that, and went to retrieve his tow cables from the ship.

Rounding to the back near the thrusters, he opened a panel and pulled out a couple claw like structures. Taking them over to the back of Slippy's ship that wasn't submerged in water, he hooked them onto two thin cylindars over a couple rear indentations. Once hooked, he went back to his ship and powered it up. With power flowing freely, the connectors jumped to life and a bluish shock of energy ran between his ship and his comrade's.

"I hate riding dual..," Slippy complained as he squished in behind Fox's seat. He'd only had to do this once before when they were short of ships. It wasn't terribly pleasant, and he hoped it would be a short ride. (This reference actually happened in the old Nintendo Power Starfox Comics ( Fara and Fox snatched the Arwings and so they were short one ship. Slippy had to ride with Peppy.)

"I'll follow you out," Samus said, rising to head for the entrance to her own ship.

"Yeah!" Fox yelled out as she lowered into it. ".right." Once off the ground, the Arwing lifted Slippy's ship out of the water. The energy transmitted to the ship gave it enough charge to fly behind Fox's, so as not to be just a hunk of dead weight.

"My poor baby," Slippy pouted, watching it drip water. A signal arose on Fox's panel and he tapped the controls to open communication. Samus' helmeted visage looked in at him as the viewscreen popped up.

"I'm ready when you are, fuzzy."

"Don't call me that!" Fox replied and then instantly calmed himself. "My NAME is Fox McCloud."

"Samus Aran. Pleasure," she replied. "Lead the way, Fuzzums." Fox flattened his ears at this and decided to just let it go. He wouldn't have to deal with it much longer anyway. Closing the communication, he began to head up into the outer atmosphere.

"Aran. That name sounds kinda familiar. Recognize it from anythin', Fox?" Slippy asked casually.

"No," Fox said bluntly. He wasn't sure really. Remembering names was the last thing he was thinking of at the moment.

Breaking into the star studded blackness of space, Fox glanced around to make sure he knew where Samus was. Her ship was easy enough to spot, being a giant hunk of orange in the middle of pitch black. Turning his ship in the direction of his own system, he began to pilot along, Samus following him not too far behind. It was going to take some skillful piloting to lose this one, he thought, and he was just the one to do it.

Now, Fox had for a moment considered that MAYBE he shouldn't be so tight about his money.. MAYBE he was overreacting about having to pay someone else to help him out. But damnit, if there was anything that got to him it was being treated like a kid-an inferior. There was just no forgiving that sometimes.

Now as he piloted along, he made sure to make a few sharp turns, awkward dips, and maneuvers around asteroid filled areas. He had hoped that some of these sporadic movements and obstacles would discourage the hunter behind him and make them drop back and forget their promise of a fee. Sadly... it wasn't working.

"He's still there," Slippy said.

"I know.," Fox said under his breath. It was time for some serious thinking. If he couldn't lose her by mere fancy flying. then perhaps he could blind her so he had a better chance of getting a head start. His ears twitched a bit as he pondered his options. There wasn't much on board that he could use for that purpose.. A thought occurred to him then. The power cables trailing behind him holding Slippy's ship could easily scramble a ship's visability abilities if they struck it head on. They were a constant flow of energy. Disengaging them often sent out a spurt of erratic flow, which led to extra safety measures when handling them. It was common knowledge that the towing ship had to be powered down for at least 20 minutes before you could safely unhook the cables.

A smirk crawled over his lips and his hand wandered over the controls on his main panel. Slippy watched him.

"Fox, what are you.?"

"Hold on, Slip. This could be kind of bumpy." With one or two hits of switches, one of the cables holding the frog's ship broke loose. The energy comprised "wire" whirled and gave a crack, somewhat like a recoiling whip. This sent out a shockwave of released energy that crashed into the front of Samus' trailing ship.

"Fox!" Slippy exclaimed. Fox ignored this and glanced back quickly to make sure Samus' ship had indeed been hit, and then he floored it.

He sped along for quite a ways until he hit the "border" of the Lylat system, where he slowed and finally looked back. He smiled fangily-no Samus. She hadn't been able to follow. Slippy began to berate him for throwing his ship around so carelessly, but Fox took it and reassured him everything would be fine. .. It was all good now.

* * * * * *

Samus calmly waited for her ship's systems to clear of the energy build up. Through the visor of her helmet she stared blandly out into space as it flickered into view again. She had seen this coming a mile or more away. Anyone with half a wit would have known that Fox had been trying to lose them from his awkward flying patterns. The fact that the cable broke could have been a fluke.. It COULD have been caused from his jerking around..but she seriously doubted it.

Still, she had no reason to be upset. She would get her well-earned pay regardless.

When she was sure the ship's systems were entirely free of build up, she pulled up a window. Typing in a couple minor details, Samus opened up a tracking window. The starred map was as still as the universe it represented, all save the small blinking dot heading through the Lylat system.

Samus smiled to herself. Her intuitions had served her well yet again. After all..what kind of cloaking system didn't totally hook into a ship's interface anyway?