Chapter 8: A Slightly Lighter Shade of Black

John was having a good morning. He had his coffee and the memories of last night with the one person he wished had never entered his life. Don't be mistaken though; he didn't see her as a bad influence, he just found it unfortunate that she was corrupted by him. Not that he was and entirely bad person his former way of life was… Less than suitable, for a vixen such as her. He sighed and pushed the thoughts from his head; this would not do. He could not dwell on the past… but he was afraid of hurting her again. Another preventable incident that was inevitable.

After driving to his job as his local high school's band director and parking in his spot; John walked calmly through the doors to clock in for his day. He sighed, he needed to speak with Krystal and find some way… to get her out of his life again and forever. He stopped at his class room's door and fiddled with the lock for a second before entering and turning the lights on. With that done he went to his office in the back of the room and at the top of the stairs that lead to the music departments practice facilities. He sat, once inside, and propped his feet up on the desk; he began to doze when his phone began to ring. Strange; no one ever called him, no need to ponder it though, he could simply ask the person who called once he picked up.

"Hello, this is John Stafford speaking," he paused as he heard the voice on the other end. "How can I be of assistance," he asked when the person on the line stopped speaking. Then he froze as the person on line spoke his name… His original name. "McCloud," he asked sitting back, he didn't get this far without having planned for this. "General Peppy, sir, I am sorry to inform you that I do not have anyone by the name of McCloud in any of my classes sir,"

"God Damn it, McCloud," said Peppy slamming a fist on his desk. "You know good and well that I ain't referring to anyone in your class," There was a pause.

Fox hit his cough button that came with the phone and sighed; he should have known that Peppy wouldn't take the bait. He then steeled his resolve and let go of the button.

"You think that I am the famous Fox McCloud," it was weird to refer to himself in the third person. "I would say that you were insane but I value my life, though, I must insist that you have the wrong person, General."

"Listen here Fox. If I have to come down there with an entire garrison and pull you kicking and screaming into this office and force you to come clean," There was a pause and Fox leaned forward waiting for him to continue but realized he would not.

"General Peppy," said Fox standing from his chair and walking in front of his desk. "I know that you and Mr. McCloud were close and I know that I may have a similar voice to his; but, I am not him. If you have seen me and, I am sure you have, then you know that; I am a black fox from the planet of Papetoon, I do not hold any such relation to the McCloud family, and I am mostly sure that you do not have anything to charge me with to hold me for any period of time," Fox smiled; got him. There was a sigh on the other end of the line.

"Fox," there was a very long pause. "You be better for the 'come to Jesus' meeting we are going to have when I get there," Fox opened his mouth to retort but was cut off by Peppy. "no, no; don't, we will discuss this when I get there, and don't go trying to skip town. I have the tracking number for that Arwing and am having every available scanner pointed at Papetoon to follow your every move. Now, have a good day John, Stafford," there was a loud click as the phone was slammed heavily down on its receiver. Fox sighed and set his phone down. How could all his hard work crumble when he was so close to his goal. He stepped over to one of his filing cabinets and clicked the lock shut. There was a soft beep as he pulled the top drawer out and typed on a key pad the was situated inside. There were several clicks and a whering; then suddenly a small metal disk appeared out of the floor and he stepped on it and stomped thrice. The floor gave way and fox lowered at a moderate pace into the bowels of the school.

The elevator came to a stop and the doors opened to reveal a bustling center of sleek consoles and formally dressed animals all shuffling about with papers and data pads. He sighed and stepped casually into the mass and moved fluidly through not once bumping into a single mammal. When he was through he stepped to a nearby door that had his name on it; opening the door and moving inside he drew the blinds and sat at his desk. He quickly drew the key board close to himself and typed his password into the concole's command structure. When he pressed the return key there were several lines of text that flew past the screen and then a window appeared with several contacts written on the program.

He clicked and dragged highlighting them all and entering a numbered code that opened a screen that was split into the exact number of separate squares as were on his contact list. One by one the screens lit up slightly to reveal the vague shape of faces.

"This is commander Foxtrot Otter X-ray," he paused for a moment to allow for the slight delay of the signals. "Execute order ninety-five, four-zero-four and Alpha, Uniform," he noticed the slightly taken looks of the shadow faces.

"Ay, Commander," they said and the screens went black. Fox leaned back in his chair and hit a button on his communicator that was attached to his wrist. Soon a male dog entered the room, he wore a uniform with three stripes on his shoulder. "Ah, Major," said Fox to the dog.

"You called commander," asked the dog shutting the door and walking over to stand in front of Fox's desk.

"Yes, major, I have," Fox sat up in his seat and became grave. "It has been brought to my attention that the Cornerian military is on to our actions and I would like for you to bring it quietly to the attention to the rest of the cadets," Fox brought his thumb and fore-finger to his eyes and rubbed them. "Pass the word, Major, order Alpha, Uniform is in affect as well as ninety-five and four-O-four," The dog paled slightly.

"Yes sir," said the dog saluting and walked stiffly from the door.