Delirium Trigger
I'd like to note that as I write this I am in general feeling depressed, and listening to a beautiful but sad song, i.e. The Light and the Glass, by Coheed and Cambria. Forgive me if this chapter is… melancholy. But, well, it's not a happy story anyway.
And the ground starts parting through the silence as you woke up the deadCoheed and Cambria: The Faint of Hearts
Chapter 2"Wake up, asshole."
Those words drifted through the creamy blur that was Fox's vision. Shapes with fuzzy edges coalesced and evanesced in his eyes. For a minute, Fox desperately searched his memory, his first thought being that he was severely high and that Krystal was going to kill him.
Then the sharp toe of Falco's boot knocked on the door of Fox's consciousness. The inhabitant turned the knob grouchily and listened to the boot rattle off a list of reasons why he should really be up and running. He closed the door again.
Falco gave an exasperated grunt and shoved his rear talon into Fox's stomach. Fox doubled up into a sitting position, coughing for a moment and glaring daggers at Falco. "All right… what's going on?"
Falco gestured with his blaster at the door, which Fox's memory struggled to identify. "It found a way out."
It? What was it? Wasn't that Krys's room? What was…
No. Oh, fcking Venom.
Fox got up in a hurry and looked around, digging into his tongue with his sharper teeth to keep himself awake and focused. "How?"
ROB, who was carrying a now unconscious Krystal in his metallic arms, took over the explanation. "My visual data receptors have reported that the aparoid bears a strong resemblance to Peppy Hare."
Slippy spoke without looking around from the panel he was doing something Fox didn't understand to. "The aparoid worked like a virus—a bacteriophage. It injected samples of its DNA into some of Peppy's cells. That lay dormant for a long time, but every time Peppy's cells reproduced the offspring contained parts of the aparoid's structure. Eventually something triggered the cells to start coding based on the aparoid DNA. The cells using it formed the structure of a baby queen—that's the only reason I could think of it's alive, since the other aparoid hive mind was dead."
Fox nodded impatiently. "I remember my biology classes," he lied with a straight face. "What does this have to do with looking like Peppy?"
"Well… remember, the cells were originally Peppy's. So I suppose there was an error somewhere—maybe all the heat Peppy was surrounded by when the aparoids attacked caused some damage to the genetic structure. Anyway, the cells that created the aparoid also had the… programming… to make the structure, in some ways at least, resemble Peppy."
Fox allowed this to settle in and guessed the implications. "So it used a voiceprint to try and unlock the door?"
Falco nodded, gesturing to unmistakable scorch marks around the doorframe. "We had to force it back in and seal the door shut. The only way to deal was to delete Peppy's voiceprint from ROB's memory."
Fox took a deep breath, allowing himself to close his eyes. Say goodbye, old friend. His last link to his father…gone.
"You all right, Fox?" Falco had a rare tone of worry in his voice. Clearly, no one wanted the leader to black out again.
Fox opened his eyes, looking with renewed venom at the door and imagining the creature behind it. "Yeah, I'm good."
In truth, his mind was wandering back to the very last time he and Peppy had spoken of James McCloud.
It was a little while after Fox's mostly solo affair on the planet Sauria. Fox had confessed his admittedly fairly obvious feelings for Krystal to Peppy…
"Do you think she's the kind of girl… you know…"
Peppy looked sideways at Fox. "The kind of girl your dad would've liked?"
Fox nodded, resting his chin in his paws. Speaking about James was still painful, even to Peppy. Especially to Peppy in a way—Fox almost felt jealous at times that Peppy had been there when James died, as Fox could still do nothing.
Peppy gave the sigh that old men give when they are finally asked to impart the sage advice they have been cultivating since they could be known as old men. "Well, Fox, if I know James… and I did, believe you me… I think he would have thought Krystal was great. You and she seem to fit in a way. Kinda like a jigsaw puzzle, if you get my meaning. But you know, even if she wasn't, James believed in your decisions. He saw himself in you, Fox. He knew one day you would grow up to be a fox who could make his own important decisions, and he would have trusted you as he trusted himself."
Fox let his brain absorb this. So basically, his father would have approved of Krystal no matter what.
"It's your own decision to make, Fox." Peppy stood up and began to clear his tray. Before he left the mess room, he looked back over his shoulder. "But don't always feel as if James is glaring over your shoulder. If he is watching with you, it's not with malice. It's with pride."
Fox faded back into reality. The other three were all watching at him. ROB's metallic visage was, as always, impassive. Slippy looked concerned.
In Falco's face… was it possible? Did he show a measure of pity? Fox looked directly into Falco's eyes, and with a look the blue avian gave him the respect that one gives to a fellow soldier fallen on a battlefield. The respect that comes with understanding, that comes with the situation. The fortunes of war.
The moment passed slowly. Falco looked away to the door and Fox slowly walked off to the medical quarters, where Krystal had been delivered.
Inside a sterilized room that had been abandoned in the heat of the moment, Peppy's feeble heart pumped a measure of blood through his veins. The hare almost choked on his breath as it suddenly jerked back into existence.
He was acutely, horribly aware of his condition. None of his limbs would move at his bidding. He was trapped inside the torture chamber of his mind. Help, he needed help…
"ROB," he croaked. "Help."
The ship computer, a small arm of ROB's consciousness, answered. "Voiceprint unidentified."
Damn! Peppy cleared his throat as best he could, willing himself not to feel the ravages of death waiting with baited breath at his feet. "Peppy Hare speaking. Assistance to medical wing."
"Voiceprint unidentified."
Peppy coughed. His lungs forced the motion with difficulty and a ruptured vein pumped a trickle of blood into his otherwise dry throat. The plasma spluttered sickeningly out of Peppy's mouth and dribbled down his neck.
Was that how he had been treated on the Great Fox II? Had his shipmates already forgotten so utterly and completely about him that they had cleared his data from ROB's memory for an extra megabyte of space?
They forgot me. They forgot me. They forgot me…
Such were Peppy Hare's final thoughts. Death gently wet its fingers and pinched out the flame of Peppy's life. The body of the last member of the first Star Fox settled onto its stainless steel grave as his soul sought consolation with his old, betrayed shipmate.
Not much going on in this chapter, I know. I tried! I admit, I rushed this one a bit because I'm leaving home for a week starting tomorrow, and then back to school for Lord knows how long, and I'll have even less chance to write. I hope you people appreciate it.
Peace.
KSSE