"PEPPY!" A certain hare's ear drums were nearly perforated as an overly excited voice boomed from the other end of his telephone receiver. "WE NEED YOUR HELP!"
"Hey, youngsters! I'm not deaf yet!" he yelled back. However, the only reply he got was the noise of some sort of verbal fight in the distance. A few moments later, Slippy's voice came back, a little more contained this time in terms of volume. However, he spoke so fast that Peppy had a bit of trouble understanding it all.
"Hey, Peppy! It's Slippy. Falco's here too. Merry Christmas! Please help us! Gotta make Fox dinner. Stores close in forty minutes. We can't go. Please go to the supermarket! To buy stuff! Get something tasty! It has to be ready to eat! Come to my place after. Thanks Peppy! Knew we could count on you!" And before the hare could reply, the line went shut.
"Young people these days," he muttered.
Sighing, Peppy crawled out from under his warm covers where he had been napping. He changed into something presentable, including his favorite flannel shirt, then hurried out of his house and jumped into the car to lend the youngsters a hand.
"Okay… so how is this going to work, genius?" Falco stared at Slippy, who in turn was staring at the messy pile of old boxes that he had pulled out from deep within his closet. They contained numerous Christmas ornaments and lights from yesteryear, which hadn't been touched in the longest of times. After all, the team's Christmas festivities usually took place at Fox's place, with Fox's tree and Fox's decorations.
"Uhh… we decorate the tree?" the toad replied in a somewhat unsure voice. The duo now had their eyes turned to an old, beaten-up pine tree which Slippy had propped up on the corner of the room. Fallen-off pine needles were scattered all across the floor below the tree, and there almost seemed to be more on the floor than on the actual tree. It was not a very tall tree either, about as tall as Falco.
"Man, and I thought that was for firewood."
"I'll get a stepladder! We could also take out the ornaments and sort them into piles. Then we'll hang them up. Simple, right?" While saying this, Slippy upturned one of the boxes, dumping out all of the contents which clattered and rolled against the floor. Out came an explosive cloud of dust as well. Falco knit his brows, turned his head and waved his wings, but it was of no use. Both of them erupted into a fit of violent coughing.
"These decorations –cough– are –cough– BROKEN, Slippy!"
"Not – cough– ALL of them!" With his webbed fingers, Slippy picked a few ornaments that had escaped unscathed and pushed them to the side. These included a small star made of yellow plastic, a gold orb-shaped ornament, and a foam heart covered in a thick layer of red glitter that was now shedding on his hand. All of them were somewhat cheap-looking, as a matter of fact. Slippy pointed to the little plastic yellow star.
"Hey! We could put this on the top of the tree or something! I'll set it aside."
Then, before Falco could react, Slippy got up and dumped out the contents of yet another box, sending another enormous cloud of dust into the air.
This was going to be a long night, Falco thought to himself while fanning his wings in front of his face and spluttering.
Peppy Hare was the father figure of Star Fox, after all, and so he took his task of grocery shopping greatly to heart. He wasn't quite sure exactly what Slippy had wanted – and when he called back, the line was occupied. Thus, he had to do with what he had. On his way to the supermarket that was normally five minutes away, he was stuck in an excruciating traffic that lengthened the drive to twenty minutes.
Once Peppy arrived at the supermarket, there was a bit of trouble afoot… or rather, apaw. It was extremely crowded, because many other fellow citizens were doing their own groceries last-minute. Peppy pushed through the enormous crowd of shoppers, including a family consisting of a young rabbit couple and their three children. Peppy accidentally stumbled and nearly knocked over the youngest child, a small rabbit girl of about four or five years old dressed in a frilly red-and-white dress with a Christmas tree design printed on the front.
"Excuse me," he began to say, putting out his right arm out to help steady her. But his apology was cut short when the girl suddenly turned, grabbed his hand, and bit his extended index finger.
"OWEEEEHHH!" Peppy yelped very, very loudly in pain, and the girl ran off giggling in a blur of red-and-white frills.
"COTTONTAIL!" the father rabbit yelled, tossing the large bag of tomatoes in his hands to the floor and chasing after her. He disappeared into the crowd of shoppers. Behind him, the tomatoes rolled out of the plastic bag and scattered across the floor.
The two older rabbit children, twin boys of no more than six or seven who were wearing matching red shirts also with glittery Christmas tree designs, looked on at the scene. One of them yelled, "Tag! I'm IT!" The two then proceeded to run after their father and younger sister, crying out in excited laughter. On their way they bumped into an old terrier who lost his balance and dropped all the oranges that he had been gathering in his paws. Oranges and tomatoes were now everywhere across the supermarket floor.
The mother of the family, a tired-looking rabbit whose makeup was beginning to smear, turned slowly and set her eyes on Peppy, who all this time had not stopped clutching his right index finger and moaning. She cast him a look of pure hatred, conveying to him through her gaze that he was completely and entirely to blame for the mess, and then walked away.
"Tarnation!" Peppy thought. And he would have yelled it out loud too, if only his finger weren't in pain and swelling up, and there weren't dozens of shoppers around already with their heads turned to stare at him.
But the shoppers' heads then turned the other way, to a new source of screeching. The mother rabbit had just stepped, spiked heel first, into a tomato.