Torpor
by Dr Rever
Disclaimer: I still don't own Star Fox, though I am taking legal action to try to claim them as my own. I don't think I'm winning so far, but I am optimistic. The other characters are still copyright to me.
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Chapter 2 - New Blood
Slippy was
surprised at the massive turnout for the Star Fox team auditions. The
line was thousands long and flooding the streets, and the police had
to be called to keep order. Quite a few applicants were there for the
sole reason that Krystal was wearing a provocative, revealing outfit
that day. With Fox out of the way, this might be their lucky chance!
This is not to say that ALL of them came simply because of female sex
appeal, of course. Obviously, some applicants were more attracted to
Falco Lombardi, who was still single. Falco flashed some poses he
picked up from his days as a porn star to please the crowd, standing
on the stage opposite of Krystal. In between, the hired dancers were
doing the Cam-Cam.
"Attention, citizens!" Slippy spoke to the crowd, with the
aid of a megaphone. "Everyone will be examined one at a time,
according to the order of numbers on your application ticket. If you
are not chosen today, do not, uh, be worried! We will keep your
application on file, and... we might call you if we have any new
openings. Which I hope does not happen... but, uh... okay, applicant
number 1, please enter the booth."
Slippy slipped under the small tent's curtain and took his seat
behind a table, as the police squad allowed the first lucky
contestant through. The weasel was a tall, young man who slouched a
lot while confidently wearing a variety of goth clothing. He did his
best to keep up his angsted facial expression, despite how excited he
was at the prospect of joining the Star Fox team.
Slippy held up a clipboard and began jotting down notes. "First
things first. Your name? Tell me who you are and why you want to
join."
"Errr... I'm Marcus Coveney, 17 years old."
"Yes, go on. What can you do for us?"
"Well, I always wanted to be famous," Marcus said as he
reached a hand into his jeans pockets to scratch an itch.
"How long have you had pilot training?"
"Since I was 12 years old," Marcus lied.
Slippy beamed ecstatically, "You're hired!" He went back
outside and spoke into the megaphone again, "Hello everybody!
Applications are temporarily closed. Bye, go home. Don't call us;
we'll call you."
The crowd murmured in confusion. A female red wolf in a leotard,
standing second in line, protested directly to Slippy. "You
haven't even interviewed the rest of us! Don't we get a fair
chance?!"
Slippy shrugged. "No. You don't. Seeya next time." With
that, he pulled Marcus by the sleeve to the private Star Fox limo, so
he could be properly introduced to Krystal and Falco on their way
back to the Great Fox. The police opened fire on the crowd with
rubber bullets, not because of any riot or anything, but just out of
spite and to relieve the boredom. It took a few seconds for them to
realize that they didn't have rubber bullets in the first place, and
were firing lead into the skulls of the Star Fox applicants, but they
were already into the swing of things and just couldn't stop. They
ran out of ammo shortly before eliminating half the crowd, so they
generously allowed the survivors to make their retreat.
---
Wolf returned to
the secret Star Wolf headquarters, a cheap apartment in the trashy
part of Corneria City, feeling exhausted and dejected after a long
day. The living room was a mess, and he really wished Panther and
Leon would clean up a little during the many hours he was out instead
of continuing to play video games non-stop. He navigated through the
piles of junk and dirty laundry to reach the kitchen and get a drink.
The others still
hadn't noticed him coming in yet. "There, there! Roll over the
elephant!"
"I can't, it's too big!"
"Then go back up the hill and--"
"A-hem," Wolf knocked his fist against the table.
"Ah! Wolfie-kun, you're back!" Leon turned around and
skipped over to greet his friend. He was wearing a short, blue
mini-skirt today. Something left behind by his old girlfriend, a
teenage tigress, but he still found it fashionable.
"I was recruiting, in case you had forgotten," Wolf
grumbled.
"Oh,
that's right. How'd it go? Did you find someone?" Leon kneeled
down and offered to massage Wolf's feet before getting kicked in the
face.
"Fuck
it all. Not a single person stopped by the booth. No one!"
Panther called
out, not looking away from his game, "You did hire the saucy
pole dancers like I told you to, right?"
Wolf rolled his eyes and responded in a nasal, sarcastic tone, "Yes,
I hired the stupid whores. Brilliant waste of money, rose-boy. I'm so
listening to your bright ideas next time."
Leon rubbed the bruise on his cheek. "Star Fox also had their
auditions today, and they got all the attention. It was just bad
timing," he said.
"Did you hear? They had the cops open fire on innocent people!
It was a real massacre," Panther said.
Wolf sneered. "And yet, the public still adores and worships
them. Buncha ignorant, slobbering cocksuckers."
"Well, they did win that battle. Andrea's invasion began today,
and Star Fox is already getting a head start on the action. We can't
start building up a reputation for saving the day, if we don't have a
fourth member!"
Wolf leaned back in his chair. "We're not gonna lose. We'll find
somebody!"
Leon suddenly got an idea. "Hey, what about your twin sister?
Star O'Donnell! Didn't you say she's good at everything?"
Wolf narrowed
his eye. "Do not speak that name in front of me."
"She once saved our lives! And she's a better pilot than even
you! Star's your own sister, we can trust her!" Leon said.
Wolf fumed. "She
is no longer any sister of mine! I will not be humiliated again! Mom
always liked her better!"
---
Fox could do
little inside his brain jar but watch the battle unfold from the
bridge of the Great Fox. Peppy and ROB occupied themselves by
shouting out unnecessary advice to the team every five seconds. Peppy
was starting to senile and losing his short-term memory, and he would
repeat the same piece of advice several times in a row. This didn't
bother the pilots, since Slippy had programmed their communicators to
filter out Peppy's rambling. Fox, however, still had to suffer
through it, in person.
The enemy mothership was approaching Corneria City, so it was up to
the Star Fox pilots to intercept it before it destroyed anything.
With the help of a few Cornerian Military units, in horribly
underpowered jets, they fought the Imperial mothership and its fleet
of aircraft in the airspace above a mountain range.
Marcus was surprised at how quickly he picked up on piloting the
arwing. He hadn't even driven a car before, yet he seemed to have a
natural talent for dogfighting. He had already scored more kills than
Slippy, Krystal, and Falco combined, and earning much respect from
his wingmen. I'll get in Krystal's pants in no time, he
thought in amazement at his own hidden skill.
Slippy took another hit, but there was no one he could yell to for
help this time. As the leader, he was swamped with doing multiple
tasks at once. Analyzing the enemy's shield power while trying to
out-run squadrons of ships was one thing, but now he had to
coordinate his teammates' attack as well. And it wouldn't look good
to beg for help as the leader. Time was running out; the mothership
had already reached the city, and it was charging up its super
cannons. Suddenly, Slippy saw just what the team needed to win this.
"The
glowing, flashing panel on the underside! It's the weak spot! Guys,
aim for that thing!"
The Imperial admiral controlling the mothership decided to taunt them
over the communication lines. "Ha ha ha. You're too late, Star
Fuck-ups!" The beam cannon on the underside released a powerful
blast of energy, instantly vaporizing several city blocks. Within
seconds, the beam shut itself off, and all that was left were ashes
where there once were buildings.
Marcus couldn't believe what he was seeing. He snapped. "NOOOOOO!!
MY PARENTS LIVED THERE! YOU KILLED THEM! I WON'T FORGIVE YOU FOR
THIS!!" His arwing veered away from the battle and charged
directly at the mothership. His twin lasers firing ahead of him at
rapid pace, he flew at top speed towards the weak spot panel on the
underside. Before any of his teammates realized what was happening
and could talk him out of it, he was already pressing the button to
launch a volley of nova bombs. "DIIIIE!! EEEYYAAAAAAGGHHH!!"
The nova bombs
were completely off-target, and exploded harmlessly on the surface,
completely missing the weak point. His ship collided into the
triple-reinforced, impervious space armour on the hull, only a meter
away from the glowing panel, and the arwing instantly crumbled into a
fireball that killed Marcus. His suicidal attack didn't do any damage
at all. The mothership continued with its attack as if it hadn't even
noticed anything. The fully charged beam cannon fired again, wiping
out a few skyscrapers.
Krystal groaned, "What the fuck was that? Slippy, we're going to
need a replacement built for that arwing."
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