Besides being left in the dark about the reasons of being led places, I was told quite a lot about Star Fox's main line of work. Mercenaries who actually question their employer's intentions, I'm surprised they get work. The main reason people like to hire mercenaries is because they never stop to ask why they have to do that one task. But then I guess these days people prefer the types to not be traitorous because of payment amounts. At least I won't have to look forward to fighting my sister during a battle, unless it was one between Lylat and the United Galaxies.
"I'm going to run ahead and keep Peppy from getting a heart attack. They're easy to have at his age, I guess"
Fox left Liz and I alone on the muddy path. As he ran some mud managed to accidentally splash all the three of us. At least he does it unintentionally unlike a certain annoying sister…
"Well 'en Nothe! How've ya been?" Lizabeth ignored the rain and mud on her.
The rain started to pour more heavily than before. Convenient. Now I have an excuse to not speak to her. Huh, first time I was glad the spring rain came through this jungle, planet…the name should make complete sense by now.
"Just walk me there already" I whispered so she couldn't hear me.
Thankfully Liz dropped her question to continue on the path. I now must wonder if she'd try asking again when we got to whatever ship Star Fox has. What does this Great Fox…two…look like? It must be some broken down old thing considering Liz has been on it. She shouldn't be allowed on nice things considering how she treated the floors back at the Patrolmen Apartments.
I wish I could see Fox up ahead so I might follow him rather than Liz and get indoors quick. No, he legged it fast out of my view a long time ago. Despite walking at a faster pace along the unused path of mud, I was nowhere near any openings or clearings that a ship could-
"Dude! Wrong direction, sheesh!"
Liz's stomping was the most hearable thing for light-years (miles just doesn't cut it). As I turned to my left I took my comments back on how run-down the Great Fox 2 must've been; it seemed just taken off the assembly line. But…why did mercenaries have such a big ship? Not to forget one with laser cannons. That seemed expensive compared to what they had to have been earning yearly.
I followed Lizabeth while staring at the ship in amazement. She was allowed to walk around on this? They must really not care if she messes it up.
"Move your feet!"
Her patience gave in and rudely grabbed me by the collar. She pulled me all the way into the wide-open hangar bay that impressed me further. Inside there were five single-pilot fighters of Lylat design; Arwings. I may not have been familiar with what a Lylatian looks like, but I have gotten plenty of glances at their technology. It still is cool, as my two friends would put it, how they've figured how to launch over five ships in the same bay.
Not that the United Galaxies haven't tried or gotten close to that seemingly minor accomplishment. In the past, and present, there have been one too many incidents where too many singular ships tried taking off at the same time. All I'm going to say to describe how that ended was…well…major difficulty in putting out some serious fires.
"Hey Slippy!" Liz shouted above.
The Arwings where parked above us, held aloft by some mechanism on the ceiling and that was attached to a guiding rail to launch the Arwings. The access to them was a catwalk also above us. I was trying to decide if Lizabeth was calling to the blue falcon, who had a red jumpsuit with a silver jacket and boots. It could've been that human girl sitting next to him on that Arwing; she had some "western boots" on with a red short-skirt, green tank top, and a blue jean jacket on. I think the only normal thing about her whole outfit had to be her black hair she lazily tied back.
"Hey, Slippy!" Lizabeth called out again.
I was wrong on the first guesses. A frog covered nearly all over in oil, maybe, poked out from one of the Arwings next to the girl and Falcon. The frog, Slippy I take it, didn't have the silver jacket, but he had a yellow jumpsuit. The only way I could determine that was because it was such a bright color compared to the oil partially covering it.
"Yeah?" Slippy wiped some of the oil from his cheeks.
"Ya won the bet Slip'!"
Lizabeth stuck a hand into her jacket's pockets to take a silver coin out. Had she seriously betted money? What was it about anyway? This I must know.
"I…won?" Slippy put a white and red hat on his head as he crept to the edge of the catwalk.
"Uh-huh! Here!"
She flicked it into the air sending it high up. Slippy came to a late realization of flying money when it started to fly back down. He reached out to catch it at the cost of one valuable thing; balance. The catwalk had no rails on it to Slippy's disadvantage. That meant he fell down from a tall height exactly a few steps in front of me.
From habit, I went over to his side to see if he was alive. Surprisingly he was completely fine despite the fall. Lizabeth didn't seem shocked about it like I; she was busy glaring at the falcon laughing his head off at Slippy.
"Ha, ha, ha! So that's why you're named Slippy! It makes sense now!"
The human girl looked down at us with both embarrassment and worry. I don't think she was finding it funny like her companion.
"Are you all right Slip'?"
I looked away from her to the stairs leading up. Descending them not too far away was a hare and very obviously old. He had and orange jumpsuit with a white long coat, silver boots, black gloves, and glasses. He looked to Slippy, who got up to his feet on his own.
"I'm fine Peppy" Slippy mumbled.
He walked past Peppy with a face of shame. Peppy's presence didn't stop the falcon's laughing, but Slippy leaving did.
"Falco you should be doing something else," Peppy turned to Liz, "what happened?"
Lizabeth cleared her throat.
"Well, he won the bet. I made a bad choice of throwing what he won up so he-"
She was cut off by his hand telling her to stop. He must've gotten the rest.
"Is this something I should expect often?" I unintentionally scared the daylights out of the old hare.
He hadn't noticed me until now? Weird, I'm the one to be spotted first usually. Must be his age catching up to him, had he considered retirement?
"This is Nothe?"
"Yeah…"
Peppy stared at me for a while, I found it creepy. I didn't let that opinion show, part of my training taught me not to show negativity.
"I'll take him up, mind checking on Slippy?"
Lizabeth held her thumb up then ran off, to my joy. Peppy broke away from looking at me to give a strict glare at Falco above. Immediately he got up to run off, the girl following behind.
"This way, be glad Falco isn't in charge of leading you around"
From what I've seen, yes, I'm glad.
Fox had informed all of us about Lizabeth's brother's arrival. From what I could hear from her, it was a surprise he would come with us. After the information, we just went around to normal business. The others were. I waited outside the elevator doors for Peppy to come.
I could pick up a pattern of someone lost in thought coming my way with none other than a friend's constant thoughts of worry. He was coming this way as wished. First Slippy and Lizabeth came by, I must be doing long-distance reading again.
"Hey Krystal!" Lizabeth waved.
She missed the elevator because of it. Slippy had beaten her in to it to take off, he suffered a major embarrassment. No reading had to be done for that.
"Uh…I'll be going on the stairs"
Lizabeth then took off to find the emergency stairs we had. We never use them for casual purposes, rather an emergency obviously. We do take the idea of power outage in mind. I do hope we never have that problem, the stairs are very lengthy. And unlabeled.
Fox should consider having floor numbers on those stairs. Why we don't have them there in the first place was always my question.
"Watch for the wall!" I warned our guest.
He was following Peppy close behind while zoning out. I would place him as being a man of seriousness if not for the mud splattered across his dark green uniform. Besides the dirt he had it in regulation as he kept mentally reciting in the back of his head. Collar folded, sleeves unwrinkled, brown boots unscuffed, etcetera.
"Huh?" he snapped into reality.
Nothe Christaphor, a man taking all his military training seriously, zoning out and almost crashing into a wall. How…intriguing…if that may be the right word.
"So what are you doing down here Krystal?" Peppy focused on my presence, not Nothe's.
"Fox was just called by General Pepper and wanted it to be private"
Peppy sighed then crossed his arms to start thinking. He wanted to take Nothe up there before we left. Good thing we had a back-up plan for such an event.
"Why don't you go to Slippy's room and stay with him for a little while?" Peppy suggested.
He didn't explain where that was to our confused guest before leaving. Fortunate for him, I was able to take him there since I had no work to do.
"This way"
Okay so Falco really got to Slippy today. I mean Slippy's working on disassembling that blaster I broke yesterday! He never stops Arwing repairs to do that unless, well…today. Yep, now how to crack Falco's skull today…
"Lizabeth!"
Oh, here comes Krystal! Wait…had I told Nothe about Krystal being a…? Nah, I bet he was required to learn about Cerinians. But then again he was surprised to see Fox. Well I'm doomed when Peppy finds out I left out that info!
"Hey Krystal! And…Nothe…oh for-!"
"Fox has the bridge occupied, and Peppy wanted him to stay here until the meeting's done"
I gave Nothe my warning eye; warning him to keep his mouth shut while he was in his room I mean! Believe it or not Nothe has a big problem with shutting his mouth when provoked on somethin'. He goes on and on and on and-
"Slippy doesn't seem to mind your brother"
Ah, well he better!
"How do you know-?"
"Welp, onwards we go! Oy Slippy!"
I could hear him putting tools down in the room. Wait, you thought I was in his room, didn't ya? Another thing left out. Shoot.
"Go ahead!"
All I had to hear the lock click to know he unlocked the door and went back to work. He had a habit of that to get stuff done quicker. Then again, he might not actually be sure of Nothe, and Slippy just might want this to be over with.
"Heya, so let's just ignore him, 'kay?" I pointed to Nothe as we both entered Slippy's room.
"Okay"
I'm gonna get a lecture on how rude that was, I just know my brother. Seriously, he should just leave the lecturing for drill sergeants and Peppy.
"Anyhow Slip', why do ya think Fox has been talking with Pepper more often?"
Slippy shrugged as he stared down to his desk. I kept one eye watching my brother as he went to sulking by the now-closed door. Arms crossed 'n all.
"We've been busy these days haven't we?"
"Yeah, I don't get what's getting good ol' Pepper on edge. The war's been over for a year or so" I really don't know.
I can only imagine one event, but that wouldn't freak out that old hound as much as it appears to be.
"But, if Reina were here-"
"Dude, never bring her up in case Falco's around"
"Who?"
You just had to join in at that point, Nothe?
"Reina Lanskey, you don't know the name?"
Oh no, Slip. Don't tell him! He needs to figure out on his own!
"I'm afraid not"
Slippy turned his entire chair around to face Nothe. I…guess he likes him now?
"She was an assassin-"
Starting there isn't the greatest of ideas, dude!
"And friends with Falco! Reina helped us out in that war, but…she disappeared at the end"
Besides hearing the assassin part, Nothe seemed curious about Rein'.
"What happened? A fight between you guys?"
"Nah," I gotta interfere, "we shouldn't openly discuss it like this in case Falco or Lindsay come along, or both"
"Lindsay?"
Can't he figure out the only person who he didn't hear declared? Brothers…
"The girl with Falco, he's been watching her since Reina asked that of him. Someone had to watch her little sister for her"
Does he get it now? I mean, Slippy made it real obvious.
"I see then"
I'll just leave it at "maybe".
"How about we talk about something else? Like…uh…anime!"
"Please no, Liz. I've heard enough from Chris"
I forgot Chris! That bilingual dude, now I want to forget again. He loves to flirt with girls in "French" or maybe "Italian". Whatever the heck that is. Most of the time I swear he makes the words up. How do I guess that?
I was one of those "victims" up 'til he heard I was Nothe's sis.
"Whatever the General's wanting with Fox, it better be about that assistance we were told about! I'm crossing my fingers for Bill"
"I hope it is Bill! He's awesome!"
"I know dude! Hey think he'll probably be up for another battle when we get there?"
"I hope; I'm getting better!"
Nothe cleared his throat and silenced us. He does realize our place our rules, right?
"We haven't left yet, correct? If you can quit the fangirling, then I won't run off"
Gee break the fun will you? I swear…
"If you run off you're going to get in some serious trou-"
I shushed Slippy to avert us getting in trouble. He was gonna cause us more issues for saying why he was here!
"Liz, what will I get in trouble for?"
Oh Krystal! Please come and get me outta this problem!
"W-wait I got the wrong thing! H-ha ha…? Y-yeah…?"
Oh gosh, Slippy's really turning into a deep blush! Gah! Why must it be me and Slippy to suffer?!
"It's time to launch"
Oh my soft-toned savoir! Thank you for saving me from the demon named Nothe!
"Finally!" Slippy and I shouted and fled the room.
Lindsay oughtta lead him. She'd be too shy to initiate Nothe's horrible judgement.