Chapter 70
One week later
It was all falling into place. Krystal's dad had more or less given the future team his own blessing, approving of their idea in full. Things are looking up for the team, they had only a few weeks left in their high school career, April was upon them. Time was running short, sure they would be spending a long time together as a team, but the days of low responsibilities were disappearing. It was time to kill two birds with one stone, do some sort of preparation training as well as have fun.
"I got it!" Falco snapped his fingers while he and Krystal sat in their first class.
"What? You've got what?"
"Well since we've been talking about doing something kinda new before we're done here, why don't we go paintballing? It can even be some kinda training for the team."
"I've never been, it sounds fun. What all is it like?"
"Me, Fox, and Slippy went when we were younger. It was cool, but I heard they really kicked it into second gear lately. Not sure entirely, but we'll have to ask Fox and Slippy what they think. I'm sure they'll like it." Krystal nodded along, this would be something new for her.
She stood outside the main office waiting for Fox before lunch, as she usually did. The vixen's thoughts were rambling in her mind about what paintballing might have in store for them, she had heard of it before but never watched any nor had she ever played. A familiar presence approached her, bringing her back to reality.
"Something on your mind?" He smiled as he squeezed her hand.
"Falco thinks we should go paintballing, and I agree with him." Fox's eyes widened, as did his smile.
"Paintballing? It's been so long since we've been, that'll be great. Might be a little difficult with only four of us, but maybe other people will be there."
"I'm sure we'll figure something out, we can go Saturday. That gives us two more days to plan." Krystal was right, they still had time to plan accordingly.
"Hey Wolf." The two foxes sat down with their lupine companion, since it wasn't long before they left the high school they figured now would be an optimal time to tell him of their plans concerning their future.
"Space mercenaries huh? Sounds like something you oughta enjoy. Been thinking of doing something like that myself. Me, Panther, Leon, school stuff like this is something we ain't cut out for." Both of the foxes were sad to hear things not working out for Wolf, but they weren't terribly surprised.
"You know, since you wanna be space mercenaries and all, you could come paintballing with us this weekend. We thought it might be hard to paintball with just four of us, but you guys could come too." Krystal was the first to speak up. Her kindness knew no bounds, she was glad to invite Wolf and his friends to come paintballing with them, despite her history with Panther. Both Fox and Wolf were shocked to hear this, for the very reason of Panther being mentioned.
"You sure about that girly? I'm certain you aren't a fan of Panther."
"Like I said before, that's something that's behind me." Fox was glad and proud that Krystal was indeed becoming the mature young woman she believed herself to be. She stuck true to her word and indeed was showing her maturity.
"Why not? Ain't got anything else to do, I'll let Panther and Leon know."
"So then wait, it'll be four against three if we pit ourselves against each other, doesn't that seem a little unfair?" Wolf laughed at Krystal's observation. "What's the matter? Think we aren't capable?" Krystal huffed and laughed at his retort.
"I know, we can ask dad to come. I know he'll want to. That way we can have even teams." Wolf and Krystal both nodded along with the idea, the more the merrier right?
"I mean, they seem okay now. So why not? Plus it'll be more people." Slippy was on board with the idea, Falco was a little stubborn about it but ultimately agreed with it. "Great, so we can get it going on Saturday. This'll be fun." Everyone agreed on that, without hesitation. Once he had taken Krystal home, Fox headed for his own home to request his father's presence at the paintballing on Saturday.
"You're inviting me? How humbling of you. Yeah absolutely, I'll be glad to come." James remembered the fun that came from paintballing, he had been with the boys when they were younger and the memories were hard for him to forget. Taking the boys in their young teens to the paintballing facility was one of his favorite days, he wondered now how much had changed.
Two days later, Saturday.
"All of a sudden I feel kinda like a kid again." Fox sounded a little embarrassed, sitting in the back of his dad's car.
"Why's that?"
"Because I feel like I'm a kid who can't drive, asking his dad to take him and his girlfriend somewhere." James laughed, he can see that scenario in his mind. As they approached Krystal's house Fox unbuckled and jumped out, rushing towards the door. Shortly after reaching it did the sapphire beauty emerge from the door with him and they returned to the car.
"Hey Krystal, how's it going today?"
"Hi Mr- hi James, I've been good so far. Today should be a lot of fun!" All three of them smiled, knowing the truth in it and hardly being able to handle their excitement.
"It's been so long since Fox and I went paintballing, I wonder what's changed about the facility?" The question was on both Fox and James' minds, it wasn't on Krystal's. Like she said, she's never been, so she has no expectations or predictions to make on the experience. After a bit of a drive, they arrived at the facility.
"Wow, this place is bigger than I remember." James nodded to his son as they got out of the car.
"It's bigger than I remember too, must've been some upgrade they got."
'They had an upgrade?' Krystal's thoughts were perplexed. The facility was huge, at least the size of a football field, and it's been upgraded? This was way larger than she had expected. They walked inside, noticing a few familiar cars outside. As they all walked in they were greeted by Slippy and Wolf's crew.
"Hey Wolf, fellas." Fox waved as they walked into the front reception area.
"Hey there." Leon and Panther both seemed to look away, almost not caring at the presence of their new company.
"So, you three are the lot I'll be teaming with today. Nice to meet you kids."
"So you're James McCloud huh? Heard about you." Wolf extended a hand for a handshake, James gladly accepting it.
"Heard about me before?"
"Heard that you're some kinda pilot. I've wanted to become a pilot myself."
"That's a good trade to pick, flying is in no short demand around here."
While James and Wolf began discussing the piloting business, Slippy beckoned Fox over to him. "I've been talking to them since they got here." Slippy whispered to the vulpine. "They seem alright I guess, but are you sure that Krystal should be around-" Fox stopped him by raising a hand, signaling him to do so.
"She's a big girl, don't you worry about her." Krystal wasn't deaf, but there was nothing she needed to say. She walked over to join them, happy to see how enthused Wolf and James were, talking all about piloting. A few minutes later did Falco arrive, raring to go. The eight of them approached the counter to register for everything they needed. After paying their fee, they were led to what looked like a type of armory.
"Hi everyone, my name's Joe and I'll be walking you through everything." He looked to be in his mid 20s, a wolf. "This is what we call the armory, the way we do things is pretty simple." He handed everyone something that looked like a small calculator. "Everyone gets $7000, everything you see here has a price on it. You just spend the $7000 on what you want for the game, simple as that. When you're satisfied with what you have or you run out of money just hand me back the device and we'll wait for everyone else. Oh and if you aren't a weapons expert just ask me, I know what all of these are based off of. They just hold paintballs, they only look like the real deal." Joe chuckled a little bit, almost forgetting the small safety measure of reassuring everyone that the guns are only paintball guns.
The eight of them quickly began to browse the rather vast selection of goodies laid out in front of them. "Wow, there's so much stuff." Krystal said to no one in particular, everyone was just as amazed as her.
"Oh wait, hold on everyone!" Joe's voice caught their attention. "I assume you'll be in teams, so go ahead and group up so you can strategize and whatnot. Also the way this works is that we have an arena that can simulate different areas to fight in." As James took his spot with Wolf and his crew, he asked a question.
"Simulate? You mean like a virtual reality?"
"Sort of, except a little bit more realistic. One of our more popular simulations is the jungle. The trees, leaves, ground, everything you'd expect from a jungle is 100% real." Everyone was wow'd by this. What an incredible experience, and not too shabby of an upgrade either.
"What we'll do after you select your weapons is everyone will get some body armor, a helmet, and a radio. The armor will calculate how much paint is on your body, when you reach a threshold you'll be out and you'll have to take a seat on the bench nearby. The helmet will be more sensitive to paint, so the more shots you take to the head, the closer you'll be to elimination. It won't hurt a bit if you get hit in the head though, I tested that myself." The whole system was well done, so it sounded like they would all be having their paintball warfare in a jungle setting.
"Any other questions, just give a holler." Everyone went back to their browsing as Joe floated around, prepared to offer any assistance that might be needed. Krystal looked around at all the tables in the armory as she realized something; she's never shot a gun before. She walked over to Slippy, she knew he would have all the information she needed.
"Hey, Slippy. I've uh…never shot a gun before. What should I get?" The frog was more than happy to help her on the technical matter. "I mean I've watched you guys play games and it looks simple, but I just watched. I don't know any names." Slippy pondered on what she should try, something basic of course.
"Here, hold this one. It's a standard SMG, the recoil on it is low and it fires fast. It just isn't really accurate at long range." Krystal picked up the small gun, it wasn't even much bigger than her hand. "And it's cheap, so you can buy one or two more guns if you want. I recommend buying a small handgun too. Or you could try a standard rifle too." She decided to take his suggestion, buying this SMG left her at $5700, still plenty left.
She browsed over the smaller handguns, there weren't quite as many of those available but they all looked interesting. The vixen picked up one that had a rather long barrel on it, for something of its size it was rather heavy too. "You sure about that one? That's a Desert Eagle, it's kinda big." She looked over at Falco, despite his choice of words she could tell that he was being genuine. She smirked at him as she grabbed the holster off of the table, strapped it on her leg and slid the handgun in.
"Suit yourself, just know that thing has some kick to it. You can use mine later on if you wanna trade." Krystal smiled at his concern and continued to browse, $4700 left.
"Hey, Slippy." The frog turned his attention away from the table and made his way over towards Krystal.
"What do you think I should get now? I still have $4700 left, I have this one, the Desert Eagle, what should I get next?" The frog scratched his chin as he thought. He turned left and right looking for one more addition. "Here, one of these." He directed her over to the table with various rifles, this was a larger selection.
"Try a bolt action, they have a little kick to them, but you have to cock this bolt every time you shoot so the kick doesn't make a huge deal when it comes to aiming. Plus they have a really long accurate range." Krystal looked at the huge arsenal of rifles.
"This one right here is more of a beginner rifle." She picked up the one that he pointed at, it was rather light. It felt comfortable in her hands so she went with it. Krystal looked at her calculator after taking the standard bolt action, she still had $1200 left. She walked over to Fox, who was still browsing himself.
"Hey, what'd you pick?" She took her chosen arms off of the straps that held them to show what she had chosen. "Slippy helped me pick these, what do you think?" Fox gave them a once over, they were all standard except for the Desert Eagle. "I'd say you chose well. Except for the Desert Eagle, but we can trade later if you want." Slightly annoyed, but at the same time humored, the Desert Eagle comment was almost identical to Falco's.
"What are you picking? I still have $1200." "That's great, you can still get some utility goodies with that. I'm thinking…" Fox's thoughts trailed as he looked over the selection. "These for sure, these are my favorite." He strapped on the handgun holsters as he picked up the twin handguns, giving them a quick spin and sliding them into the two holsters. 'Those look cool.' Krystal thought to herself as Fox continued looking. "Definitely this right here, this'll probably be all I need." Fox picked a model 19 bullpup rifle.
"It's got some good range and firepower to it, could be a little bit more accurate but it's kind of a two in one." He smiled at her whilst strapping it to his back. "So what are Falco and Slippy getting?"
"Why don't we go find out?" The two foxes joined their two friends, inquiring on what should be bought now.
"I have my standard pump action shotgun, might just come in handy. On the flip side of that I've got a semi-automatic sniper. Shouldn't be too big of a problem if I get into a mid-range battle." Slippy had a gleeful smile on his face, carrying the weapons that were his clear favorites.
"You know me, got my standard handgun, SMG and standard scoped automatic rifle." Falco's grin was as present as ever. "Now with our leftover funds we can get some goodies, let's go check it out." The crew followed Fox over to the table closest to the exit, Krystal was wondering what "goodies" meant.
"Paint grenades, mostly." It's as though he knew what she was thinking. "Pull the pin, throw em, then an explosion of paint. Simple as that." Krystal went ahead and picked one up, no harm in giving it a go since she had plenty left over.
"What's that over there?" She pointed to something hanging up on the wall. "That's a ghillie suit, it's some really cool camouflage. Go ahead, give it a go." Falco beckoned her towards it. "I guess it could come in handy since I'm, you know, blue." She had a happy smile on her face, her friends laughing along with her.
While everyone was finishing up, James was just now starting to buy.
"Hm, this'll do."
He picked up merely a standard civilian handgun with a suppressor on it.
"Look old man, I know you're good, but come on." Wolf was practically begging him to get something else, but James refused. He turned his head towards his son and friends, the sight of Krystal in a ghillie suit instantly causing him to laugh. "Alright, everyone's set up and ready to go. Here are the armor sets and the helmets. Radios are over here. Strap everything on and we can lock and load!" Joe sounded a bit more excited now.
He led them down to the arena, telling one team to take their place at the other end of the football field sized arena. Wolf's team took the opposite side gladly. Shortly after reaching the opposite side did Joe's voice come over the intercom. "Alright everyone, ready to rock and roll?" He could see everyone nodding, from the skybox he was sitting in. Shortly after signaling him did the landscape change, they were all in a vast jungle.
"Wow, incredible." Even Slippy marveled at the extremely crisp simulation. They heard the leaves and stick crunch beneath their feet, the trees could be climbed, the humidity.
"They really outdid themselves huh? I like it." Falco isn't one to be impressed, but this time he certainly was.
"So I suppose the best way to do this is to stick close, but not together. You guys get it?" Fox was already starting a battle plan. "Falco you stay in the middle area close to me. Slippy, you take the front."
"And me? What should I do?" Fox grinned.
"You've got a ghillie suit, really all you have to do is lay down somewhere on your stomach. And use your sniper rifle." Krystal's face had an annoyed grin on it.
"Are you serious? I can't do that."
"Why not?"
"Hello?" She pointed right at her chest, Fox's face heated up a little, and not because of the sudden humidity.
"Oh um…right. Well just crawl around and stay close to the ground. And stay quiet, so long as you're quiet you're practically invisible in that thing. Even if you are, you know, blue." He gave her a small wink as the smile returned to his face.
"Hello? Earth to Fox?" Falco poked him on the side of his head, it clearly bothered Fox as he turned his head over towards his other two friends.
"We have a job to do, remember?" Fox shook his head and exited his small trance, it was time for business to pick up. They heard a starting signal and they were off.
"Can you guys hear me?" Fox tried out the radio system.
"Yeah yeah, I hear you."
"Loud and clear."
"All of you sound great."
"Good, let's try and stick to the plan. Oh and Krystal, just do your own thing really. Like I said, you're practically invisible." She nodded along and just crawled through all of the rough of the jungle.
"Did you say she has a ghillie suit?"
"That's what I said."
There was a bit of a groan coming from Wolf when James relayed the information to him.
"Great, she'll pretty much be invisible. Good thing she's new to this." Wolf shook his head as the four of them took off towards the center of the arena.
"Target in sight." James confirmed over the radio.
"Who is it? What's he got?" James' eyes focused, barely visible but he could see Slippy.
"Looks to me like a semi-auto SR and a…shotgun? Ah, I see now." Perhaps putting his father on the opposite side was a mistake chosen by Fox. With only one person being seen, James had nearly deduced their plan already.
"It's Slippy, him carrying a shotgun must mean that he's at the front of the line. So then the other three must be a ways back, not a bad plan."
"Alright old man, so what do you think we should do?" Leon's voice hissed on the radio.
"Paint him to kingdom come, what else do you think?" James leaned out of his bush just slightly as he took aim with his suppressed handgun.
As he leaned his arms out of the bush did he hear a loud noise and quickly fell backwards out of the bush, scrambling down the hill behind him. "What? What happened?" He heard Wolf's frustrated tone come over the radio.
"Krystal, she saw me before I got a clean shot. I don't know where she is, couldn't see her and I couldn't exactly tell where she shot from." Wolf groaned again as he took cover behind a tree.
"Fox, I saw your dad. He was hiding in a bush and it looked like he was aiming at someone. We may be found out."
"Who was he aiming at?" Krystal looked around , Fox and Falco weren't far ahead of her, she was farther to their side rather than in front of them. "I guess Slippy, he looked more towards the west than towards either of you two."
"No problem, they still don't know where either of us are. Slip, think you can head more off to the side?"
"You got it." Slippy slowly crawled his way off to the side, out of the slight clearing. He stood up and crouch-walked his way nearly out of sight.
"I doubt you boys will find anything in that clearing now, might as well head out of there and more into the jungle."
"Old man's got a point." Wolf agreed with James and they split up even more and headed off. Wolf was with Panther when he pointed up at what was in front of them.
"Look, that would give an advantageous boon." Panther was right, a large hill would give them a bit more view of the surrounding land, and the jungle cat had a good scope on his rifle. They made their way up the back side of the hill, hoping that none of their opponents saw them.
"So what now Fox?"
"Why are you asking me?"
"Well you will be the leader of the team." Fox grumbled at both of Slippy's remarks. Fox looked around, they weren't making much progress now.
"Head up that hill, with your rifle it should be an advantageous spot. And if you hear anyone coming up the hill you can blow them away with your shotgun."
"Copy that, I'm headed up there." The frog picked up his shotgun and headed towards the hill, hearing the crunch of leaves nearby. "I think someone may be he-AHHHHHHH!" Slippy's radio was cut off, hearing maniacal laughter almost as much as his scream.
"Slippy? Come in! Do you hear us?" The sound of the intercom answered Fox's question.
"Slippy has been eliminated."
"I suppose that answers that." Krystal's response was a more welcome sound than the surprised yell from Slippy.
"Okay, we need a new pl-"
"Fox hang on a second." Falco hushed him as he crouched behind a tree.
"Falco, what is-"
"Shhh, I think I hear one." Silence, that's what Falco needed. He peeked his head around the corner of his tree, seeing a large rock across from his, about 8 feet.
"I've got one." He said over the radio, as he lowered his SMG, reaching for his belt. Falco pulled the pin on his paint grenade and lobbed it over to the right side of the rock. Just as he guessed, it exploded and Leon popped out from behind the rock with no shortage of paint on himself. Falco quickly popped out with his SMG and fired as fast as he could at the chameleon.
"Okay! Okay! I SUBMIT!" Even though he was clearly covered in more than enough paint, the avian didn't stop until he heard Leon verbally submit.
"Good for nothing little… you just got lucky." Falco grinned as he pointed off towards the exit for Leon.
"Got one, took care of Leon."
"That's great, now we just need Wolf, Panther, and Fox's dad. Any sign of them?" Falco shook his head even though his teammates couldn't see it.
"None, not entirely- hey whoa!" Falco's communication was interrupted as he was blasted once in the head with a paintball and once in the shoulder before he dropped his SMG and dove for cover.
"What happened?"
"Sorry Krystal, Fox's dad nearly got me. I didn't even hear him or those shots he took at me. I think he only missed one, man I didn't even hear those shots." Fox moved closer to Falco's position.
"Where do you think he went?"
"He's north of me, that's for sure. But that's all I know." Falco wiped the paint off of the visor of his helmet so he could see better. "I'm not gonna last much longer if he keeps on me like that. I need some help." Slowly but surely, Krystal had crawled across the side of the clearing, close to where she first saw James. She got up and ran across the clearing, closer to Falco's position.
"I see him!"
"Shhh, don't yell Krystal. Just take him out will ya?" James' ears twitched as he heard Krystal say that and moved just in time to not take a headshot, the paintball hit him in the shoulder, still leaving a sizable amount of paint on his torso.
"Not bad." He said, to no one in particular.
"What's the matter old man?"
"Nothing, Wolf. Krystal got a hit on me but I'm still in the game."
"I think they're onto us." Panther was right, Leon had just been eliminated, and Krystal just found James. He was quick to run away, despite the risk of being hit again. He got away safely, knowing that at least he wouldn't endanger his two teammates.
"Alright Panther, this spot is all yours, I'm going down there, no sense in two of us being up here." Panther nodded as Wolf got up and made his way down the hill. He looked around, nothing of interest. Then he got an idea, he looked around to make sure there was indeed no one around him. He quickly scaled the tree nearby him and got in the thick of the branches.
"I'm in position in a tree, I'll be ready to surprise anyone who comes by."
"Excellent choice." James commended Wolf for his tactical prowess, there was plenty of evidence for it. The passing minutes seemed like hours to all of them, they all had an expansive knowledge of tactical stealth.
"Falco, what's your position?"
"I'm at the foot of the hill, I think someone's up there."
"Great, so that'll need to be our last target. Everyone will know where we are if we fire off shots up there. Krystal?"
"I'm watching you from the northeast." He looked over towards the northeast, he couldn't see her.
"Excellent hiding spot, I can't even see you." She giggled a little bit at his compliment as he wandered around aimlessly.
"Hey, Fox I don't think you should-" It was too late, as Fox turned his head to hear the branches snapping he saw Wolf hanging from the tree.
"See you later pup."
He laughed as he landed three clean shots onto Fox's helmet, more than plenty to eliminate the vulpine. As Wolf hung there upside down laughing did his laugh become silence.
He heard the noise, and turned to meet where it came from. Right between his eyes, Krystal planted a clean shot that was certain to eliminate him. Paint covered his helmet, and even seeped onto Fox. Wolf fell out of the tree and landed right next to Fox, and the intercom secured their elimination.
"That's some woman you got there."Fox laughed as they stood up and walked off.
"Nice shot Krystal, now there are only two left."
"So then, Fox's dad and Panther?"
"Right, and I'm sure that one is left on the hill, got any ideas?" Krystal thought for a moment, then she had it.
"I've got it, how about you throw a grenade up there then rush? I'll stay down here in case James rushes up there to help. Surely the grenade will rouse Panther and you can surprise him." Sounds good to me, whenever you're ready." Krystal positioned herself by a tree near the foot of the hill as she pulled a few more leaves near her.
"I'm ready, go right ahead." Falco quickly pulled the pin on his grenade and threw it to the top of the hill. After about three seconds he ran as fast as he could, the paint exploded and as he reached the top he saw Panther covered in paint. The bird unloaded on Panther to ensure his elimination, the intercom relayed the information of his elimination.
"Got him! Worked like a charm, now we just need to get- wait a minute!"
"Falco? What's wrong?" There was another explosion of paint.
'What? Another grenade? But I thought he only had one left?' The intercom announced Falco's elimination.
"But how?" She whispered aloud. 'That means that Fox's dad must have heard me. But how could he-"She stopped her thoughts, sensing something else.
"Don't move, young lady." She knew he was behind her, but how did he know where she was? With this ghillie suit she was practically invisible, just like everyone said.
"Ugh, I surrender." Krystal's elimination was announced over the intercom, as well as the victory going to Wolf's team.
"It was your smell." James told her as he helped her stand up.
"The ghillie suit worked wonders, I couldn't see you. But then I smelled you, you smell a lot nicer than these boys."
"Ugh, I can't believe that was the reason." James laughed as they walked towards the rest of the teenagers.
"Aside from you smelling like you were on a date, that was all well done. You're pretty good." She was thankful to have his approval, his approval meant even more than Fox's in this case.
"Nice try Krystal." Falco put a hand on her shoulder.
"Yeah, don't worry about it, we'll get em next time. Maybe then I won't be eliminated so fast." Slippy's humor made her crack a smile, a much needed smile of relief.
They played again and again, for hours on hours. Trading victories and losses, some close, some not as much. It was all some much needed fun and relief for all of them.
"Well guys it was fun, see all of you later."
All of them waved goodbye to each other as Fox, Krystal, and James piled into his car and left for the night.
Fox waved goodbye to Krystal as he left her doorstep, no longer having to say goodbye at her window.
He looked up at the night sky and smiled.
Hope the entertainment and writing quality proved well on this, these little action chapters are pretty fun to write and hopefully they're fun to read too. So within the next week I'm gonna start my previously mentioned, "Starfox Adventures, Locked and Loaded" Which if you remember, is the way SFA should've been. Fox brings his gun, Krystal isn't captured, and the team up happens. Within the next week I'll post the first chapter of that. So if you're interested in that then please check it out, see you guys :D
