Note: This story is the property of one Zell595. The AU that this is set in is property of Arlando, as are the characters of Shane, Mia, John, and all of his other original characters. The characters of the starfox games are all property of their respective owners.
Knuckle Down
A small trickle of light filtered into the dusty room. This caused a small yet significant amount of annoyance to a young jaguar that wanted nothing more than to stay in bed and get that few extra seconds of sleep. This was not to be though, and the jaguar's sleep was interrupted by one very rude mother.
"Cast! Get up! School starts in 30 minutes!" Meh. He was just now starting to allow a little bit of conciousness to invade his mind.
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"Rugger fugger mmph." Not exactly the most intelligible response I thought. I might as well get up, but I dont have to be happy about it. I got up and hastily threw on some clothes. Any type of cloth would do. This meant that a shirt was more than a little torn up as it went around my waste, but I in a bad mood anyway. Its criminal to wake someone up before 3 pm. Its not right. We teenager furs need our sleep!
"Cast! Get up now! School starts in 5 minutes! Your going to be late again!" What the hell!! I swear! I had only napped for an extra 5 minutes! Note to self: 5 minutes half asleep = 5x that. Arrgh. I launched my self down the stairs with my shirt barely on. I grabbed my book bag and what ever food was close enough to be launched into my mouth at high velocity. With this bit of morning energy I burst out of the door and ran like I was being chased by 5 humans and their guns. I saw kids still walking to school! Maybe I wouldnt be late! This knowledge spurred me on as I ran into the school gates. A couple of female furs giggled as they saw me pass by.
Zoness Public School loomed over me, monolithic in its infallible ability to make me late to arrive at it. Bah. I was inside the school now. At least I could make it to class on time. The classroom was right around the corner. I turned the corner at top speed.
WOOMPH.
"What the hell?!" I looked up and immediatly cursed myself. In front of me was Greg Payton, A Rat with a bad attitude on life. Now I was going to have to give up my lunch money again. Damnit, I had my lunch money for the week on me too. My musings were interrupted by the tall and muscular rat picked me up by my scruffy collar.
" Just where do you think your going little kitten?" That was his lil nick name for me. I sure as hell didnt like it, but there wasnt anything I could do about it.
"I was just on my way to class Greg." He sized me up, and much to my dismay, he brought out those familiar claws. If I didnt watch my self he'd end up cutting me with those. He always used those to persuade me too give up my money. I, however wasnt in the mood for it. I stamped on his foot as hard as I could. He let out a yelp of pain, and when he put his paw to his face, he forgot to retract his claws , and cut a long gash over his right eye. He screamed and ran out of the building. Damn. I hadnt meant to do that. Well, serve's him right.
I walked the corner into my class, and was promptly handed a detention. Damnit! Late Again!
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School let out and I winded may way to room 302: Purgatory as we liked to call it. I was joined on my way by my two best friends, Jason and Conte. Jason was a jovial chubby hound. He was prone to eating anything and everything that was around him. Conte was my other friend. She was a beautiful Panther, with the darkest fur I've ever seen in my life. Us three were best friends, although I would have liked to be more than a little friendly with Conte. She was adamant about us just remaining friends though.
"Now how did you two get detention?" I wouldnt know becuase we had different class schedules, although Conte and Jason did share health together.
"Well, Conte and I got caught pilfering Mr. Tobais' sandwich. We thought it would be funny to put hot sauce in it." Jason was also big on practical jokes.
"Actually, It was all Jason's idea. I just went along with it becuase he said the teacher was gonna mark me down as inattentive." That figured. Conte was a perfectionist if there ever was one. She was the only one among us that got straight A +'s. I settled for A's and the occasional B, while Jason was a C fur. We entered the room at that time, and our voices went to whispers.
"Hey Cast, have you heard about the human thats been hanging around?" This I was intrested in. The only human that had been around here was that other guy, the one who came with the black fox. They had hung around and preached about Fur and Human relations. Then they left to continue their mission.
"No, whats the word?" I asked.
"Nothing much," replied Conte."He's just been hanging around. We dont know what he's been doing here."
"Yeah, I heard that he's really big and tough. All the furs are scared of him." Jason said. I didnt know what to say. Well. I would keep clear of him.
"We better watch ourselves on the way home. You guys still gonna do the behind the pub shortcut? They say he hangs around the pub."
I thought about that for a while.
" Yeah, as long as Conte's up for it." Conte, not to be outdone, agreed.
"Cool. Jason you sure you wont be joining us today?" Jason had a dentist's appointment.
"Nah. I think I have a cavity. My tooth hurts like hell."
"Jason, you DO know that you eat approximatley 5000 pounds of sweets a day, right?" Jason was well used to this joshing.
"Yeah, I would go for 6000 but the cafeteria vender only can give a fur so much." This was followed by laughs, and then swift silence so the purgatory teacher wouldnt catch on.
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Conte and I were walking home, keeping an eye out for that bad old human. So far we hadnt seen anything. We were enjoying our walk a little more now that we were sure that no human was around. We would have smelled him.
" So, have you read the newest reading book yet? The reports due in 2 days." Conte asked.
"Well, to be honest, I've almost thought about reading it." Conte looked at me shocked. The new reading book was called "Being a Furry" by Mia. I really had read it, but I wanted to tug on her chain a lil bit.
"Im just joking Conte. Of course I've read it. It was a good book. We should really think about what it means to be a furry. Furry pride is important these days, with humans everywhere."
"What do you think about human's Cast?"
"Well.... I think that they have just as much right to be here as us, but I dont like it when they come onto places where we live and try to take over. Humans need to reevaluate themselves before they come and try to change us." Conte stood thinking about that. I continued walking. It wasnt right to be thinking about humans right now. I had more pressing stuff to worry about.
Conte jogged up to my back.
"Meanie, you should have waited for me. What If I had been in trouble or something?" I gave Conte my signiature sideways smile, then continued walking. We were in the alley by the pub now. We had to jump this fence, and it would lead to a forest, which would go to Conte's backyard.
"Cmon Conte, we're almost there!" I waited for Conte's reply, but shockingly there was none.
"Conte?" Cast turned around and stared. There was Greg, in all his anger and hatred, with a huge scar down his right eye.
"You little bastard. You did this to me!" I could see that there was no reasoning in Gregs face. His face was twisted with anger.
"Come here and I'll let her go. Get over here Cast!" I had no other option, he may be able to beat my ass, but I wasnt going to let Conte go down, by The Great Fox! I walked over to him. As I closed in he pushed Conte away. He grabbed my arm. I knew what was going to happen before he telegraphed it. His claws came out, and he slashed his right Index claw across my right in, much deeper than his own wound. I yelled in pain and he dropped me. As I fell down I felt his foot connect with my abdomen. My tail swished violently, mirroring my own pain.
I looked up, and motioned for Conte to run. She was standing there, a look of complete terror on her face. Then I saw something that horrified even me. I looked up and saw a huge monster of a human. He was standing behind Greg. He put his monstrous hand on Gregs shoulder, Greg paled right then. He turned around and faced down the biggest human he had ever seen. Even so Greg wasnt a small person, and he and the Human had only maybe an Inch height difference.
"Get your hands off me filthy human!" He flung the man's hand off his shoulder. Amazing, he looked as if he was going to fight the man! The man actually smiled! He was going to fight the fur! I thought for a second. He must have some concealed weapon, but the man simply threw off his cloak. He was remarlbly muscled, he had muscled in areas I didnt think humans had!. Then he did something amazing. He put up his hands, In a way I had never seen before.
"I'll get you damn servant of Andross!" He launched himself at the human, his claws unsheathed. The Human would be ripped to shreds! But the human wasnt, as the Rat tried to strike him, the human moved. He simply moved. It was liked the slash whiffed, hitting only air. Then lightning fast, one of the upraised ham hands shot out and hit Greg straight in the jaw. Greg stood there for a second. Then he fell down, his jaw in what looked to be a thousand pieces. The human put his hand's down. He was walking to where I was! He was going to the same thing to me!
"Are you okay young one?" The human said! Oh my god he's gonna... What?
"Uh...I'm ok..." The human picked up his cloak, and looked down at me. Then he smiled.
"Kid, that was a brave thing you did. But maybe next time you should learn how to fight first." I shakily stood up. I felt like saying something, but was interruped by an annoying thing called unconciouseness.