Escape the Darkness...
Chapter 2
"No"
"Aw, come on..."
"NO"
"But..."
"Absolutely NOT!"
Fox and Falco had arrived at the CAF HQ less than half an hour ago, and Falco was already arguing with General Peppy. "Just like old times" Fox thought to himself.
"Come on, Peppy." pleaded Falco.
Peppy turned toward Fox and said, "Will you please try to talk some sense into him."
"Peppy, look…" started Fox.
"Oh, not you too!" Peppy cut him off. "I thought that you of all people would be able to see that this little 'mission' of yours would be suicide!"
"Well, personally, I don't see what the big deal is!" snapped Falco.
At this, Peppy walked behind his desk and dug through the drawers until he found what he was looking for. He pulled out a holo-disk and dusted it off. Then he loaded it into the holo-disk player on his desk.
"Hopefully this will change your minds" he said.
Peppy pressed a button on his desk and the disk began to play. At first, the crackle of static filled the room. Then, Fox could make out voices. He recognized the first voice immediately.
"Hey, that's Wolf!" he blurted out.
Peppy shushed him, "Keep listening."
Fox then heard Leon Powalski, Wolf's second in command, speak out. "Guys...I think we should...", then nothing but static.
"What happened?" asked Falco.
"We don't know." replied Peppy flatly.
The recording continued. Soon, Fox heard Panther Caruso dissapear in the same manner as Leon. Then Wolf began to stuggle against an unseen enemy. Finally, with one last 'Help!' from Wolf, the recording ended.
"Those were the last known radio transmissions from Wolf's ship." Peppy said, breaking the eerie silence, "Wolf and his team have seemed to just slip out of existance".
Peppy then turned to Falco. "Well," he said. "Still want to go on this suicide mission?"
Fox could see from Falco's expression what was coming. "Well, if you ask me," said Falco, "This is even more reason to go investigate!"
"You are impossible!" yelled Peppy in exasperation.
"Oh come on!" continued Falco. "Think about it! Whatever happened to StarWolf could just as easily happen to other people on other planets. What if whatever or whoever attacked Wolf's team decides to pay Corneria a visit?"
"Then we will just have to deal with it when it gets here." replied Peppy.
"That's crazy!" snapped Falco. "By then, it'll be way too late!"
"Falco does have a point here, Peppy," Fox tried to reason with the General. "You know as well as I do how fast an unprepared planet can fall to invaders"
Peppy shook his head. He went to his desk, sat down in the chair behind it, and folded his hands on the desktop. Then he heaved a deep sigh before saying,
"I'm sorry, Fox. But as temporary General of the Cornerian Air Force and your friend, I just can't let you do this."
Later that evening, the team was in the living room again. Everthing had already been packed and loaded onto the Great Fox II.
"I'm sorry," said Falco, impatiently pacing back and forth in front of the large parlor window, "but I won't be able to sleep at night until I know what's out there and kick it's butt!" He shook his fist angrily at the sunset.
Fox stood up from the couch and walked over to the window. He stood there a few silent moments before turning and facing his friends with a detemined look on his face.
"Well then, I guess there's only one thing we can do." he said.
"And, that is...?" prompted Falco.
Fox smiled. "We sneak out!"
The sun had set behind the horizen and night had descended upon Corneria City. Construction was done for the day and the streets were empty...
...Well, almost empty.
About two blocks from the CAF hangar, four shadows could be seen flitting from building to building. A few minutes later, the shadows came to a stop in the bushes across the street from the hangar. The lead shadow kneeled down and picked up a rock from the ground.
"On my mark..." he said.
"Wait, Fox...what are?" came a voice from the back of the group.
"Not now, Slippy" said Fox. He carefully peered over the top of the bushes. Two guards were flanking the main entrance to the hangar. From the way they were slouching and shuffling their feet, Fox could tell that they would jump at any chance to leave their posts. Fox took advantage of this, and took aim at a metal trash recepticle a little ways down the road. He threw the rock as hard as he could at it and ducked back behind the bushes. A second later he was rewarded with a loud 'CLANG' and shouts from the guards as they hurried after the noise.
"Let's go!" said Fox, urgently. With that, the four members of StarFox slid over to the hangar entrance. Fox punched in a few numbers into the keypad on the door. Seconds later, they were safely inside the hangar. Fox heard the guards through the closed door as they returned to their posts.
"Probably just some lousy kids that snuck out."grumbled one of them.
"Man, I can't wait for this shift to be over!" replied the other.
Fox mad his way over to where the rest of his team was gathered in front of the Great Fox II. Fox pressed a series of buttons on his wrist communicator. and the hull entrance to the ship began to open as a walkway was lowered to where the team stood waiting.
"Okay guys," said Fox as the walkway landed at his feet, "This is it!"
Krystal walked up to him. and grabbed his arm. "Ooh, this is so exciting! I hope I packed enough supplies" she said.
Fox gave her a reassuring kiss on the cheek. "You did wonderfully." he replied. She beamed at him.
"HEY!" called Falco from the ship's entrance, "If you lovebirds are finished making your nest, I'd like to get going! Come on, already!"
Fox rolled his eyes at him, then followed Krystal up the walkway. The great engines on the starship revved loudly, and the walkway began to retract. Before it closed completely, Fox saw the two guards rush into the hangar.
"Oh crap!" yelled one guard, "Someone's stealing the Great Fox! Quick close the hangar doors! Come on! HURRY!" But it was too late. The Great Fox II had already cleared the doors and left the hangar.
"We really need better security" Fox remarked as the Great Fox II rose into the Cornerian night sky. As Fox began to walk through the familiar, yet strangely different, halls of his flagship, he let his thoughts wander.
I can't believe that it only took the CAF a year to build this ship! It doesn't seem that long ago that the original Great Fox, my father's ship, was destroyed by those Aparoids. If it hadn't been for Peppy, we would have never been to reach the queen and wipe out those filthy creatures for good. If he hadn't crashed what was left of the ship through the core's energy shield, we would still be fighting Aparoids outside their homeworld. I'm glad that General Pepper awarded him the Cornerian Medal of Honor...he really does deserve it...
Fox broke from his thoughts as he realized that he was already at the bridge. He pressed a button that was next to the bridge door. It slid open and Fox walked into the room. He took his place in the captain's chair that was located in between where Krystal and Falco were seated.
"How are we looking?" asked Fox.
"All systems are in working order, Fox!" chimed Slippy from the system and maitenence board below. "We're about to clear the atmosphere."
"Awesome!" said Fox. "Now we just have to worry about getting clearence for hyperspace."
"Hehe...not a problem!" said Falco, smugly. He reached into his uniform pocket and pulled out a holo-disk. "I swiped the data from the intergalactic highway database. All we have to do is upload this into the Great Fox." He gave the disk to ROB.
"Upload that into our into our mainframe." Falco told the robot.
"Affirmative" said ROB, "Uploading now"
After a few minutes, Slippy typed a few commands into the ships computer. A screen popped up on the large monitor in at the front of the bridge. "Sweet!" said Slippy after analyzing the screen. "With this program, we'll be updated every time a new clearence code is given. Not only that, but we'll also know what the next code the CAF will use. We have complete control of the Cornerian Intergalactic Highway System!"
"Nice work, Falco." Fox, "However, you do know that we'll have to give this back when return to Corneria."
"Yeah, yeah." grumbled Falco. "But let's have some fun with it while we can!"
The Great Fox II had now cleared the atmosphere and was making its way farther into space. Corneria was getting steadily smaller as team StarFox team took their first steps toward solving the mystery behind StarWolf's dissapearance.