Chapter 3

The third day of school and halfway through first block was slow. Fox was working on his mathwork when Krystal pulled on his arm and asked him for some help.

" Hey no problem. See all you have to do here is carry this number and-" Fox was interrupted by his phone ringing. He slapped a device on his wrist and pulled out a headset with a microphone attatched and began listening to something. After it finished He looked over at the teacher and nodded. The teacher knew what it meant and she walked and took Fox's things and put them behind her desk.

He kneeled down to eye level with Krystal and told her, "Sorry Krystal but I've got some business to take care of right now. If I don't make it back I've asked one of my old friends to sit with you at lunch so you won't be alone, sometime I'll explain all of this."

He opened the door and looked at her one more time, smiled, then walked out. As soon as he walked out he took off down the hall for the front lobby. He arrived at the lobby, and soon after Bill did too, then Falco, and lastly Slippy. " Sure hope this didn't crash a date with your girlfriend" Falco said with a sly smirk. Fox ignored it as they all dashed out to his convertible and blasted off downtown.

They went down to the city docking bay and dashed inside, the lady at the counter instantly knew who they were and let them in as fast as possible. They met up with James and his comrade, Peppy.

"Gentlemen, we've been contacted to survey the mountains about 10 miles north of the city, real simple. There have been reports of strange activity out there so they called us to check it out. If we're attacked we have the right to shoot anyone down, like I said it's real simple." They all nodded in agreement.

It had been at least 2 months since all the boys came on a mission together. They all ran down the bay and jumped into their arwings, after about 5 minutes of prep, they all shot out towards the mountains. "If anything suspicious is seen, contact me or peppy and we'll investigate on foot, same goes if there's anything that shoots at you,understood?" "yes sir!" All the boys said simultaneously.

Fox privately contacted james, the troubled vulpine asked his dad, "Hey dad, will we make it back to school before lunch?" "well son I actually don't know, it depends on whether or not we find any activity. If we find little to none we'll make it back in time, don't worry you'll see Krystal." The younger vulpine saw his father smirk on the communication screen and he smirked back as they all flew off.

They flew around the mountain area for at least 45 minutes. Nothing had happened, just as James was about to tell everyone to throw in the towel, six ships descended from the clouds firing at everyone! Slippy contacted everyone frantically saying "Guys! We're under attack!" Falco looked a little annoyed and said "No dip froggie boy!"

Fox was being tailed by one of them, but was under no pressure. The aim of his enemy was lousy and wobbly, he simply did an inverted somersault, diving towards the ground and circling back up behind his enemy and shooting them down before they even realized. " It's good to be back!" He said over communicator with great vigor. "the sky belongs to me" Falco said with a smirk,downing his own enemy. " Children, please." James told them all doing an expected move. One by one the enemy fell, and after 20 more minutes of patrol the team figure it was done for the day and they headed back to Corneria city.

They all docked and headed back to Fox's convertible. James stopped Fox telling him "I've ordered some pizza and drinks for you all when you get back to school" Fox smiled to his father thanking him and they went off to school again. They blasted off towards the school blaring their favorite music laughing hard recollecting in the mission.

Back at the school, Krystal sat down at the usual table hearing her stomach rumble, 'Gee, I guess today was a bad day to forget lunch money, maybe if Fox is here he'll share some of his food, he's really nice like that.' She thought to herself. Just as she finished her thought did a beagle walk up to her with some pizzas and drinks asking her, "Excuse me miss, but is Fox McCloud here today?"She looked puzzled, "Uh well he was here, but he didn't say if he was gonna be back for lunch." Krystal could feel her stomach rumble a little more when she saw the pizzas.

"Hey!" A familiar voice shouted, "Don't you worry, I'm late but I'm here!" She turned to see Fox running over to where she and the beagle were. "Phew, just in time. Here man, let me take those off your hands." He grabbed the pizzas and drink, setting them down on the table, then took out his wallet.

"hey dude, these are already paid for." The beagle told him. "I know, don't worry." Fox said as he handed the beagle a 5 credit chip. The beagle walked off happily and Fox turned to Krystal. "shall we?" He asked her.

"you know it's a good thing that you got us pizza, I forgot my lunch money today." Fox shrugged his shoulders, "teamwork" he held up his hand for a high five and krystal returned it. Just after that Lucy walked up and noticed Fox. "hey Fox!" She said cheerfully. She looked over at Krystal and paused. She covered her mouth with a hand for a little bit then let it down saying, "Oh my gosh, you are so pretty! You must be Krystal, it's nice to meet you! I'm Lucy"

Krystal blushed a little from Lucy's compliment and said " Thanks Lucy, it's great to meet you too!" The two girls got along well and Lucy noticed the pizzas and drinks and looked at Fox as he said "That's how we do it around here" Just as he finished saying that did the other guys walk up, notice the pizzas, and simultaneously say " AWWWWW YEAAHHHH!"

They all had a great lunch pouring each other sodas and mixing them together and talking and making friends. Krystal pulled on Fox's arm and asked "Fox can you tell me why you had to leave earlier?" " I want to, but some other time, don't worry about it" He said with a toothy smile. The vixen was overcome with curiosity and thought to herself, 'is he trying to hide something? Am I falling into the wrong crowd? No way, they seem nice but…. No that's not right, they're perfectly fine.' She just felt there was no way they could be bad people.