"Alright guys, lets start off." Bryan said, sitting on the arm of a chair. "First up, threats have been filtering in to some of those who helped out with the Darkness incident. One of which was carried out on Wolf O'Donnell. So, from here on out, we're on high alert. We'll be pulling lots of VIP duty and security details, so keep your weapons clean and operational."
His serious face disappeared and a grin took its place.
"So, with business out of the way - what are our plans for Christmas?"
"Well… I figured we could be out on our own from Christmas eve, and we'd spend the day in Christmas day… of course so long as we don't get any call outs." Jackie offered.
"Alright… so we just hang out with whoever on Christmas eve… anyone got someone in mind?"
"Well obviously, I'm going to want to take Krystal out, and I'm sure Falco and Katt will be going out."
"Me and Bill were going to go out to dinner as well." Mei said.
"I was going to go out with a friend I met at the Diner." Jackie stated, her voice drifting slightly.
"I was going to hit the bar. Never was one for the holidays." Dean admitted, shrugging off any feeling what-so-ever.
"Five bucks says that Bryan and Brea are going to go out." Mei chuckled.
Brea semi-glared at Mei while Bryan just laughed. "And? So what if we are?"
Mei just grinned at him.
"Alright… oh, final thing. For Christmas we'll need to make a morning run to the hospital for Lindsay. Last I heard, Wolf wants her to spend Christmas here and further more until he gets out of the hospital, she'll be our responsibility."
"That's fine. Why don't Fox and Krystal take her?" Katt asked, looking at the couple.
"That's fine, we'll take her around seven. Speaking of kids, anyone want to chip in? We should get the poor girl a present."
"Yah, I will. She deserves something." Bryan said.
"I'll chip in too." Brea added.
"Count me and Mei in."
"I'll donate. And I'll make sure Falco does too."
"I'll donate." Dean added, reaching for his wallet. Slippy tossed in his credits as well.
"Hey guys, what time is it?" Brea suddenly asked, feeling tired.
"It about one in the morning." Katt said, looking over her shoulder at the clock.
"It was that late shift we pulled that set us off." Brea said. "Plus we just got the kids to lay down for bed no more than an hour ago. They're going to be tired for school."
"Well hold on." Fox said, turning on the news. "No they won't - looks like school is canceled for the rest of the week. Damn, this snow is really coming down hard. It won't be long to they declare a state of emergency and shut down the roads."
"I almost forgot!" Bryan suddenly shouted. "Uh… we're going to have some month long visitors." He was testing the water, hoping it would hold no deadly sharks.
"What kind of visitors?" Mei asked, eyeing him suspiciously.
"The kind that will follow our every move with cameras and stuff."
"Bryan." Mei growled. "Absolutely not!"
"We don't have a choice. Besides, we've been promised a nice big budget if we can pull this off. So - everyone on their best behavior."
"What do we have to do to get the budget?" Brea asked.
"Well, not much. They'll ask us a few questions and we'll have to sit in a booth at least once a day, just to either let off some steam or whatnot. Use it as you please."
"Well… it doesn't sound too bad…" Jackie said, looking around the room to see if the others shared her feelings. Mei herself was looking something fierce.
"I don't like it… but if it brings in good cash…" She sighed, moving to stand. "I'm going up to bed."
"Night." A few of the chorused to her, just getting a wave on her way out of the room.
"It sounds worse than it is… they'll be here in four days, so lets not screw this up, ok?"
He received collective nods, before heading up the stairs himself.
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"Are our plans set?"
"Yes, my lord. But… it seems we already have a problem."
"Oh, and what is that?"
"Well… its just that Wolf didn't die."
The first voice seemed to sigh.
"Well… we are still learning. With Akita out of the way, we have time."
"Are you sure, sir? I mean… we all know Akita planned every move he ever made, and look what happened! They still got him!
"Akita was a fool! He didn't have as many loyal people as we do. We will not fail."
"I must beg to differ, sir! The risks are just too great! Couldn't we attack somewhere else?"
"I will do no such thing! We will attack Corneria!"
"If you say so, sir. But I would like to go on record to say that I still believe that we are missing something."
"Alright, Ryo. What are we missing?"
"Well… Akita was a trained military member. He trained his people the way he was trained in the Corneria military! He spent as much time as he could reading up on DCTU's tactics and moves. Their families and friends! Even their pets! He read up on Star Fox and its members! Everything! We have yet to even begin such research! We are not ready!"
"But the prophecy-"
"I am well aware of the prophecy, sir! But even they require preparation and research!"
"I see… alright, assemble a team to do their homework, got it?"
"As you wish, sir."
"And Ryo?"
"Yes?"
"I will kill you if you screw this up."
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Bryan groaned, sitting up. Something loud had just gone off somewhere in the house. It didn't sound like a door, or even a gunshot. But it was loud!
Minding his safety as well as the others, he didn't grab his sidearm, walking into the dark hallway. He looked up, catching the glint off of Katt's eyes. "You heard that too?" He whispered, knowing she would hear him.
"Yah, where did it come from?" She whispered back, crossing the way to meet him.
"I don't know." He said, feeling one of her paws hit his back.
"I'm not armed." She whispered, hanging close to the wall.
"It's alright, I've got mine." He said, padding down the hallway.
"Well check the kids first." He said, moving to James' room, pushing on the door slightly. It slid open easily, allowing him to poke his head in and see that the kid was sound asleep.
"Man, kid don't wake for nothing." Bryan whispered low, shutting the door.
Next they tried the guest room that Lindsay was staying in. Bryan checked the knob.
"It's locked." He said, pressing an ear to the door.
"Someone's moving around in there." He whispered again. He felt Katt leave him for a moment, returning soon enough.
"Here." She said, handing him a flashlight. He positioned it with his non-dominant hand, making sure he was still able to fire. Katt had a flashlight of her own, but still no weapon.
"Think you can pick it?" He asked. "Really don't wanna breach unless we have to."
Katt check her claws. "I'm on it." She said, setting to work. After only a moment they heard a small click. "Got it."
Bryan nodded, motioning for her to back up, he hit the knob, opening the door fast and hard - no doubt waking the entire house up now.
First thing he saw was Lindsay hiding under the bed. Katt followed him in, grabbing her and ushering her out of the room. Just in time for Fox to come in with his blaster.
"What's going on?" He asked, holding it at his side, seeing Bryan clicking his safety back on.
Bryan shut the open window, noticing the scratch marks on the outside.
"Someone was in the house."
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"Hold still, dear." Katt said, holding on to Lindsay's arm while Mei applied some medicine to the gash on the arm, before treating a claw mark on her face.
"Man, he went right for her." She said quietly.
Meanwhile up stairs, the boys were hard at work.
"Alright, lets make this as secure as we can." Falco said, taking some tools to the window. Bryan had climbed onto the roof and was installing some motion sensing lights and cameras.
"He won't be getting back in here."
Bill and Slippy were cleaning up the mess that had been made in the attack, and Fox was bringing up some locks and security devices.
A few of the new devices would detect if the windows were open and turn on one of the cameras in the area, while setting off an alert if a window was broken.
"Don't even patchwork it, completely redo it." He told Falco.
"What? Replace the window?"
"Yup, if they broke it once, it'll be weak. Just replace it. I've got one in the truck."
"I got it."
Seeing Falco remove the window, Bryan grasped the ledge of the house, swinging off the roof and into the room, landing on the bed.
"Kind of fun." He admitted. "Alright, lights and security installed. I'm going to finish the rest of the wiring downstairs."
Downstairs, he went out to the truck, picking up the projection set, he walked it into the armory. "This is the most secure place in the entire house. Best place to set up the network." He said, setting to work on plugging all the cameras in a checking them.
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Still cradling the small child in her arms, Mei was sitting on the couch.
"It's alright, he won't be coming back." She was reassuring her.
"Alright, me and the guys replaced the window, set up some cameras and motion sensor lights. I set up the recorder in the armory so no one can get to it if they don't have the pass code. One of the cameras is right outside her window and I've got two covering the hallway. And a few more around the complex. They're also linked to the base. All of the windows in the house and on a shield. They shouldn't break, but if they do, an alert will be set off. And finally, the cameras are running a face recognizing program linked the MDB. If anyone with a record or suspected or even under investigation gets in the view of a camera, we'll all get an alert. It will also recognize anyone from the local police or military as well." He added, sitting down next to her.
"Now, how is she feeling?"
Mei hugged the small child close. "Poor girl is scared shitless. Whoever it was gave her a good beating. It was almost as if they didn't expect her to be there, and when she was, they didn't know what to do."
"I'm troubled by the fact that they even attempted to break into here."
"Me too." Jackie admitted, rubbing her eyes before handing a cup of coffee over to Mei, returning to the kitchen for a moment.
"Alright well… alarm is set, everything is working. I've checked all your wiring. We're rigged up tighter than the military compound itself. I'm going back to bed guys." Slippy stated with a surprising few amounts of stuttering.
"Night Slip." Mei called over her shoulder. Jackie returned with another cup, holding this one out to Lindsay. "Here babe. Trust me, it'll let you relax."
She took the cup, taking a sip. "Is it good? It helps me relax before we go to work." Jackie stated.
Mei set Lindsay down on the couch, standing up and letting Jackie take a seat.
"Care to show me where these Cameras are?"
"Yah, this way."
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"Is she alright?" Wolf asked, looking up at the ceiling, instead of turning his head towards Fox.
"She's safe Wolf. Bryan and Katt rescued her."
"Is that bastard dead?"
"No Wolf, he must of heard them picking the lock and took off."
"I'm trusting you Fox… don't let anything happen to her. She's all I got."
"Don't worry Wolf. There is more than ten of us to look out for her at any one time. She's safe. We revamped security at the house last night. Even reset the access codes to the armory and front door. No one is getting in who shouldn't. Trust me."
"Alright, pup. You convinced me."
"Besides, you should see Mei, Katt, and Jackie. They are spending the entire day with her today. And last night? After words they stayed in her room all night, didn't budge at all! We've got her covered Wolf."
"That's good to know."
Fox sighed for a moment. "Look… doctor says that you won't be going much of anywhere until after New Years."
"I know that… I'm not worried either, just look after my girl." He reminded Fox again.
"You care a lot about her."
"I already said it pup, she's all I got. If anything happened to her, I don't know what I would do."
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"… news network hasn't ratted off anything their sources may have given them yet. But, I have been able to find out that Akita had five apprentices. Were killed during the M-TAC raid on his base, and two more left the regime after his death, claiming they no longer wanted anything to do with terrorist actions. We've got both of them tagged so we know where they are and what they are up to. The fifth one… well, we lost track of him during the warehouse raid. We don't know where he is - so he'd be your final suspect."
Dracous was reading off information to them over the car's projection screen. Bryan and Brea sat out front of a drive-thru restaurant, eating away while he gave them information.
"Anything else?" Brea asked.
"Yah, now that you mention it. We've been intercepting some strange messages lately from an unknown broadcasting location somewhere out in Zoness. We haven't decoded it yet, but we are working on it. We'll let you know what we find. Now, CFFL completely stripped Wolf's car down to the frame. Nothing else was tampered with, just his brakes. They were able to trace all the letters we've found so far to a single printer. We tried to contact the owner, only to find he had been murdered in his home and the thing stolen. We found this symbol painted on the wall."
In his place appeared the symbol. It was a tall, triangle-like shape with a "V" on top of it.
"INDB has yet to be able to place it with a known group. Though we are all aware of the striking resemblance to the symbol on the floor of Darkness 2. Only difference is that "V" and the fact that the original one was a five pointed star with the symbol in the center. All I got for you guys."
"Good job… Hey, Dracous - where is the Darkness 2 now?"
"Uh… CATFS has it impounded. They place to transfer it to CFFL within the week."
"Alright, make sure they run through it. See what we can find."
"Copy that. Hey, don't forget to swing by the labs you two - its lonely working on stuff by myself with Brea around."
"Thought you were getting an intern?" Brea continued.
"I did… he's a ditz… shoot - gotta go. Good luck."
His image disappeared before DCTU flashed on the screen and the image faded back into the projector.
Bryan sighed. "Alright… who would be our leading informant on Akita's crew?" Bryan asked, tossing his trash into the bag they had pulled the food from.
"Well… Wolf only know one aspect of it. Tom got his punishment last year… All we got left is Teresa."
"Right, and she is?"
"Playing tonight at the Civic Center."
"Bingo."
"Bryan… tons of screaming fans… think she'll have the time?"
"Show doesn't start for another four hours. Lets get moving."
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"…and no one can help me now. Fear I shall not, even in my darkest hour, even when I can't see you around me." The singer on the stage stopped abruptly with a growl as the band stopped when they realized she was aggravated. "Damn it. I'm just really off tonight."
"I thought it was good!" Someone called from the darkened area of the large room. All the house lights turned on and a women dressed in a sharp suit strode towards the two.
"How did you get in here? This is a closed session! Security!"
Teresa's eye widened as she gripped the edge of the stage, jumping down.
"Whoa! Whoa! It's alright Maria, they're old friends." She said, jogging up to the group.
Marie - Bryan guessed the manager - gave Teresa a one-sided glace before scoffing and walking off.
"Hey guys!" Teresa welcomed each with a hug.
"I don't know what you mean about being off. It sounded nice to me." Brea said, looking up at the stage before back to Teresa.
"I dunno… it just doesn't sound like it should to me. Something's off."
Bryan just smiled. "I know the feeling."
"So, we've been playing phone tag for some time. Looks like you guys are busy." The singer started, one of her paws rested on her hip as she bent one lag, playing it more than casual.
"I know, between all the accidents we've seen because of the weather and everything - we haven't had time for much." Brea stated, grinning slightly.
"Well you know that the VIP box is always open to you and your friends for free. You guys saved me, it really is the least I can do. But… I take it your not here on a social matter."
"Well, that's just it Teresa. I really would hate to do this to you, and… if you are uncomfortable, then you don't have to but… we need to talk some business." Bryan said, post-sigh.
"Anything for you guys."
"Alright… seen this symbol before?" Brea asked, holding up a small disk - from it came the same symbol Dracous had shown them.
Teresa took a deep breath. "It's a symbol used for one of my brother's apprentices. A "V"?" Well… I remember her. Many of my brother's men thought he was a she because of her ruthlessness but… I know better. Her name is Aramov, and that is her symbol. She would have had an "A" for hers, but - Adriana had already taken it. So, Akita let her choose. She choose "V". Not sure why."
"Know where we can find her?" Brea asked, when Bryan when for his phone.
"I know where she is. There is a General named Aramov, Pepper told me she was supposed to give us a report about those letters he received. Now I know why we never got them." He said, dialing his number.
"General? Listen, I need you to detain General Aramov."
"Sorry… she just left for good. Turned in her resignation today."
"Damn it." Bryan hissed, shutting his phone.
"I take it we missed her."
"By a long shot."
"Hey, listen guys. I need to get back up there and practice… mind sitting around for a minute?"
"Uh… sure thing, Teresa."
"Thanks guys." She called, jogging back towards the stage, jumping back up on it.
"Hey, guys, any requests?" She said over the microphone. Both of them just shrugged.
"How about 'With Open Arms'?" Brea called back loudly.
"You got it." She turned around, putting a paw over the microphone before turning back around.
Over the ocean so blue
I call, waiting out the storm
Someone never listens to me
Now he's lost somewhere in the distant blue
But even with my heart in shambles I know better than to cry
A female background singer joined her for the chorus. +
When he returns - I'll be ready for him
With open arms so wide
No one will stop us
No on can stop us
What will I do when he
Returns after so long
I think I'll breakdown and cry
For the first time in eons
Bridge
The ship became to the target of the storm
I found out two weeks later
My love is to return no more
But still I hold out hope
Maybe I'm too stupid to realize
that no one is returning for me
+ Still I wait out by the
lighthouse on the rocks
waiting for the ship's golden light
even as the morning light's brush across my face
I still stay on the stranded beach
No one holds hope for my love to return
But they are all fools
I still believe in ever after even if life doesn't last that long
And I know - I will see you again in death
Solo
The lighthouse on the rocks is where I stand
Forever in eternity
I won't move never ever
Even when the rocks are tossed
I will stand here without wavering
Until the ship returns
No one knows how long I will wait for all time
But still I hold out hope - knowing full well I'm just love's fool
Bryan thought the song was over when the band pulled a bridging move, jumping quickly into the next song. This one slower.
Dear friends, so long
I'll be with you always
Even when you cannot see me, I remain
The trips, we've seen, I know too well
I've played the fool to long, now I leave
to find a better life
somewhere where I belong
But I will remain, right here - in your heart
Believe me when I leave you pillow kisses
Open eyes I see deep within your heart
Believe me when I leave you pillow kisses
Open eyes I see deep within your heart
Years, later - you still remember me
I haven't faded from your mind
Deep in the forest, I will hide
Completely bathed in light - yet in darkness
I find myself without a guiding light to bind
Myself to the world, I know
Find me where we used to share those kisses
Open eyes I see inside of your heart
Find me where we used to share those kisses
Open eyes I see inside of your heart
Guitar Solo
even in the darkness I still can hide
even in the light
Bridge
Find me in the light
I'm lost within the dark
Far away, from you
I call into the night
Find me in the light, I know
I'm still lost in the dark
Far away, from you
I call into the night
Even when I'm lost without you I still call
Far away, into the night
I can call so far away
La la la la la la la
La la la la la la la
La la LA la la
la la la la la la la la
na na la la la la la
la la la la la la la
na na LA la la
na na la la la la la
na na la la la la la
na na la la la la la
na na LA la la
na na la la la… la…
The band played an ending before Bryan and Brea both gave their applause.
"You guys really think it was good? I still feel off about it."
"You're being your own worst critic. It was great!" Brea called back, Bryan nodded his approval.
"Thanks you guys. I've probably kept you too long, please, be on your way! We've got lots of work to do."
Both nodded, waving their goodbyes as the band began its next song.
"She's really good." Brea said to Bryan.
"Oh yah. We have to come for the real thing.
A/N: Hit a little bit of a block for this chapter only because what I wanted to do I wanted to have its own chapter. And to clear any confusing there might be:
CFFL: (C)orneria (F)ederal (F)orensics (L)abs
CATFS: (C)orneria bureau of (A)lcohol (T)obacco (F)irearms and space travel (S)hips
M-TAC: (M)ilitary (T)actical (A)ssault (C)oordination
INDB: (I)neter-planet (N)aval Identification (D)ata(B)ase
The songs in here were written+ by a band I'm in called Shinjitsu no Uta
(Yes, after the DAI song)
With Open Arms is an original by us.
Forever Waiting is half by us. It really was meant to be an English cover for Do As Infinity's Yesterday & Today - but it ended up being a crossbreed. If you listen to the song while reading off the lyrics you'll see what I mean.
See you guys next time.