A/N: Just a quick little note this time. I've decided to lower the ages of all of the characters by four since the time of this first going up. So, at first Fox was 32 in this, but now he'll be 28. This is here just to make the overall flow of this seem better in the future. Sorry for making a core change three chapters in, but I felt like this would be for the better.

Thanks for all of the reviews, and hopefully this chapter will provide a few answers, and maybe even a few laughs too. Hope y'all enjoy.

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Chapter III — Live

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Kirsty Hawkshaw — "Face to Face" [Seba Remix]

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Bathed only in the yellowing glow of a desk lamp precariously perched on the very edge of the small, heavy oaken desk, a notepad covered with almost indistinguishable notes sat off to the side of the lamp's elliptical center of illumination. Hastily written words that disregarded the notepad's printed lines were smothered all over the page, some written in pencil, black pen, and even red pen in some occasions, but all of them had one common characteristic. Somehow, someway, and sometime in the future, they would be important.

Cluttering the already diminutive work space the desk provided were balls of crumpled paper, pens without ink, pencils that had been inadvertently snapped in half, and enough pencil eraser shavings to fill a small bucket. Yet, there was a sense of organization to the cluttered desk. All of the paper wads were neatly piled up on the leftmost portion of the desk, with some of them inadvertently falling out of the pile and onto the dark crimson carpet. All of the used up pens were compiled into an old white coffee mug that had a crack running from the top of the handle all the way down to the base, rendering the mug useless when it came to its intended use. Another broken mug, a black one this time, sat next to the other mug, this one filled with new pens that had yet to see the paper. Finally, piled up by the desk lamp sat the shattered pencils, each one with their own story of what frustrations they had to endure before snapping.

The office the desk and its contents resided in indeed felt like an author's paradise. Bookshelves lined the walls not occupied by the presence of windows overlooking the spacious backyard the home in and of itself possessed, nor did they take up the space where the glass door and accompanying glass walls connected the office with the hallway that intersected it. From said door, the desk was pushed up against the left wall, where the two tall arched windows looked to the outside, and the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves covered the back and right walls in respect to the unused wall space. Aside from the desk lamp's light and the light that would seep through the tall, gothic-like windows in the daytime hours, the room would be completely dark, giving the room a very sophisticated feel. Like now: it was the evening hours, so the room had a very dark and ominous feel with how the warm colors interacted with the lackluster amount of light.

In an upholstered office chair a few feet away from the desk sat a slender and beautiful red vixen, clothed in a white, woolen sweater with a silk black skirt topping her outfit off. Her legs were crossed as her light sapphire eyes gazed into the novel she had become infatuated with ever since she picked it up. With her long, bushy tail limply laying over her lap, strategically covering up what normally would be exposed if she crossed her legs in the manner that she did with what her attire consisted of, the vixen let the words printed on the page flow through her eyes and into her head, processing every little detail of the engrossing novel.

Yet, as soon as she got to a particular part of the novel, she gasped, shoved her ribbon bookmark into the page, and then quickly wheeled over to her desk. She immediately grabbed one of her working pens and jotted down about ten or so words of notes onto her already cluttered notebook page, not worrying about if it was legible at her current moment. As soon as her outburst was over, she sighed and reopened her book to where she left off, but stopped when she heard a soft chuckle sound off from the doorway.

"I always find it amusing when you get your little burst of inspiration," a male voice said with a vague tone of friendly teasing. She looked up, seeing a muscularly balanced red vulpine leaning on the glass doorway with a sly smirk creasing his cream furred muzzle. Ignoring the fact that he had just finished working out, apparent with the lack of clothing he had and the horrid scent that traveled up to her nose, the vixen smirked back at him and jokingly stuck her tongue out at him, accompanied with a near silent giggle that slipped out of her snort, slender muzzle.

"You know how my memory is anymore," she replied, folding her book back up. "Plus, I'm at a critical part of my own book, so I can't afford to forget something that might be important."

"Working on another best-seller, eh Vixy?" the vulpine smiled, flicking his tail in apparent interest. "What'cha got up your sleeve now?"

"Third installment to the Shield series," Vixy answered, turning back to her notepad. "Should be the last one to that series if I plan this right."

"Thinking about killing anyone off yet?"

Vixy giggled as she pointed at one of the sections of messy handwriting covering the paper. "Way ahead of you, James. But, I don't know who yet. I don't know if I want to be evil and kill one of the original characters from the very first book, or if I want to take out one of the fan favorites."

James laughed and stepped through the doorway, shutting the glass door behind him. "I think Bryan should get the stick."

"No, everyone wants him dead," Vixy explained, resting her elbows back on her desk. "I want to kill someone that nobody will expect."

"Remind me not to take your comments out of context," James chuckled again, grabbing the back of Vixy's chair and looking over her shoulder down at her mess of notes.

"I'm leaning towards Farkas, but I don't want this book to get a negative reaction if I kill her," Vixy nearly lamented, crossing off her name from a section she marked "targets," which only added to James' argument not to take things out of context. "It's probably going to be either Ian, Rawls, or—"

"No, don't kill off Rawls; he's my favorite character," James whined, shaking her chair for good measure.

"That settles it then," Vixy cooed, circling the name over and over again with her pen.

"Aww, baby, please," James pleaded, spinning the chair around so that Vixy was facing him.

"I've made up my mind," Vixy smugly smirked, tossing the pen behind her so that it clattered back down on the desk. "Say goodbye to Ra— ah!"

Without warning, James scooped the vixen out of the seat and held her close to his chest like an oversized baby, while Vixy squealed and whined, flailing her arms and legs to try to break free.

"Ah, James, don't do that!" she yipped, unable to control her laughter as the male vulpine carried her out of the office and down the hallway, nearly stumbling through the archway that connected the hall with the main room. In one graceful motion, James tossed Vixy onto the couch pressed against the far wall, and before she could escape he landed right on top of her, pinning her down by her wrists.

Vixy squirmed with all of her power, but couldn't manage to push the heavier fox off. However, she did find an alternative, using the tip of her tail to tickle James' hind paw, and using that as a momentary distraction she slipped out of his grasp, sliding out onto the carpeted floor as if she became a liquid right then and there. Yet, that only made it worse as James was right there to jump back on top of her, straddling the base of her tail as he pinned her arms to the floor again.

"Can't get out of this, can ya?" James teased, playfully gnawing on Vixy's huge fennec-like ear.

"Fine," she moaned in submission, patting her tail against the ground. "I'll kill someone else if you get off."

"Promise?" James asked smoothly, tickling the inside of her ear with his breath.

"Yes, James," Vixy grunted, relieving inadvertent pressure by twisting her arms around. "I promise."

Satisfied with her answer, James pecked her on the cheek before lifting himself up, then proceeding to outstretch his paw and help Vixy up as well.

"You act like a little kid sometimes, you know that?" Vixy smirked, straightening out her outfit.

"What's life without a little bit of fun?" James' witty comment replied, prompting Vixy to roll her eyes with a slight snicker.

"I shouldn't have expected you to say anything different," Vixy sighed, sitting down on the couch. "Now, go take a shower, smelly. I could barely breathe with you on me."

"Care to join?" James unconsciously asked.

"Maybe later," Vixy answered with a yawn. "I'm not really in the mood today."

"Fair enough," James nodded, winking at the vixen. "I'll be quick, then. Maybe we can watch a movie after?"

"Don't you think it's getting late though?" Vixy said, unable to withhold yet another yawn.

"True," the vulpine shrugged his head.

"I'll think about it," she smiled, gesturing him away. "Now, go."

James finally obliged and slipped away, disappearing into the hallway. With the room to herself, Vixy sighed and seemingly melted into the couch, laying her head on the headrest. She dug her hind claws into the upholstery just a bit as she picked up the remote lying on the end table behind her, then proceeded to power on the TV hanging from the wall over the fireplace.

Moments later, the local news channel popped on the plasma display. Vixy subconsciously reached for the remote to change the channel, but stopped in her tracks as she saw the screen. Little did she know that she had stumbled into the middle of a late night talk show with a handsome young leopard, who was talking to his guest: a similarly sized red wolf dressed in a very tidy suit and tie. Immediately interested, the vixen set the remote down as the applause at the site of the recording quieted down.

"So, Senator Muzzin," the leopard started, setting down his mug. "I understand that you have some interesting topics that you are going to bring up around the time of this year's election. Would you care to elaborate?"

Senator Victor Muzzin let a sly smirk crease his narrow muzzle as he crossed his right ankle overtop his left knee, folding his paws in his lap. "I really don't wish to spoil premature ideas," he answered truthfully, licking his chops—a usual sign of either an uncorrected juvenile habit or an unprofessional expression of various (usually negative or sadistically comforting) emotions. "I'd hate for an opposing candidate to take them for his or herself. It's a corrupted world nowadays, Yan."

The leopard, Yan, nodded his head and glanced down at his papers for a split second before continuing, "So, what is your stance on your position in the upcoming election? You've been running campaigns for a few months now, yet you still can't seem to break the top five in early voting approval rates. Is there a distinct reason for this lack of support early on?"

"As far as I'm concerned it has nothing to do with what I am doing," Muzzin replied, a slight scowl appearing on his face. "I hate to point fingers at my people, but I do fear that it's my own people that decided not to support me in my endeavors. It is rather unfortunate—I'm trying to stay on their side, after all—but there's only so much I can do."

"Is there a specific reason the people seem to not put their trust in you?"

"I could name a few, not just one," the red wolf commented, slicking back his long, greasy hair behind his ears for the umpteenth time in the interview. "Now, this is a talk show, not a political debate, so I'll spare the potential rant I may accidentally give off, but in short, I believe it is fear that deters them. Truthfully, I don't have anyone to blame for that. It is Lylatian nature after all. Psychology, if you will."

"And how do you think you can combat that?" Yan asked, genuinely interested.

"Simple; fight psychology with psychology," he answered, licking the sides of his muzzle once more. "In order for someone to gain appeal, they first need to do something to appeal to their target audience. In contrast, if you do something drastic that won't appeal to the audience, you'll fall through the cracks. I've found myself in the middle. There are my devout supporters that love the positive changes I've done on Macbeth, but, of course, there are those that oppose and say that the methods I've conceived on my homeworld will not transfer over to a largely populated planet such as Corneria, let alone the entirety of the LHC as is."

Yan hummed in approval. "So, do you think that this Prime Minister campaign of yours is just an experiment to see if colonial policies can be enacted for the entire LHC?"

"I wouldn't dare limit my visions to a mere experiment," Muzzin spat, suddenly becoming very offended. "I did not spend six years as Senator of Macbeth, rebuilding that planet from the ground up, just to throw away my methods for a few minutes of fame. No, I wouldn't do that. Rather, I want to spread my word, since most people aren't even acquainted with Macbeth, let alone do they know what laws and policies I've enacted that have changed that planet for the better. They don't know what happened to Macbeth ever since I took office. Do you, by chance, know of my reputation and résumé?"

"I'm sorry, I don't, Mr. Senator," Yan awkwardly answered.

"Pity," the lupine huffed, licking his lips once more. "I'd be willing to share it if you agree to become aware of my political background in your spare time, Mr. Carris."

"Oh, uh, okay," the leopard hastily agreed.

Vixy sighed and shook her head. "Jeez, this Muzzin guy is a dick… …Wait, wasn't he the guy that lost that years back…?"

Muzzin repositioned himself on his seat, once again licking his muzzle in an almost greedy and self-pleasured manner. "I could go on and on all night about what I've done that has positively evolved Macbeth to more than just an industrial outpost. I'll limit it to just a few, mainly to expand on what I think will particularly benefit Corneria and her colonies. After all, what good is it to enact a law that is irrelevant to the situation at hand? Hell, it's like authorizing mandatory secondary school while there's a war going on, no?"

Yan gulped, obvious to the fact that Muzzin just blatantly took a shot at the current Prime Minister and what he did. Nevertheless, Muzzin lost no steam in his side of the story as he continued, "Anyway, one thing that benefitted Macbeth was the passing of a governmental reconstruction law. Macbeth, as you all should be aware of, is small in terms of population numbers, but all seem to gather around main hubs. That upsets district balance, which was hurting growth because the minority became the majority in voting because of how the districts were split. Now, keep in mind, Macbeth still had the same style of voting as Corneria, where it is necessary to achieve a majority vote in all civilian district voting and, moreover, the population as a whole, in order for a legislative bill to be completely approved. Don't get me wrong, it's a great system, if it's balanced evenly to prevent bias. Macbeth was getting nowhere because of this unbalanced distribution. So, instead of relocating people to reestablish that balance—which would create more problems, because that would be forcing people out of their own homes—I decided to scrap the district idea entirely. No representatives from districts, no uneven division of voter power, and most of all, no bias."

"So you scrapped the old representative and civilian voting style of government—"

"And replaced it with a singular executive and a team of advisors," Muzzin finished for him, "I.E: me and the legislative congress. That way we can limit the civilian influence to a noteworthy guideline, if you will."

Yan cocked his eyebrow. "So, a dictatorship?"

"Anything but that," Muzzin scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Only ignorant people believe I run a dictatorship on Macbeth. If I ran a dictatorship, I wouldn't be running for the Prime Minister's seat. I would stay where I still had the authority, instead of trying to claim a seat where you're overshadowed by the people that choose you, which is more counterproductive than anything."

Muzzin unfolded his legs and sat forward, using his right paw to motion different gestures as he spoke. "You know, that brings me to one of my main topics, as a matter of fact. Have you ever seen the stories on the news or in the paper that depict a governmental official putting an idea in the works? Those almost always get a lot of support within the LHC legislature, which means that it goes to the overall voting phase. That's what we had on Macbeth, and in case you've forgotten since I've said it last, that style of voting really screwed the system over, because a lot of good laws would be shot down. That's what I want to change. I want to get rid of the biased appeal of the citizens, and have that power stay with the people in power, because they actually know what they're talking about, instead of the population that would only approve of laws that would provide immediate benefits."

Vixy shook her head at the screen. "Idiot. That's really gonna screw everything up."

Yan looked just about as skeptical as Vixy did. "Do you really think that this idea of government will thrive on a planet with a much bigger population and a much broader range of opportunities?"

"I actually believe it will flourish in this environment," Muzzin responded, slathering his tongue along the sides of his muzzle. "In my personal opinion, the district system is even more flawed here than it was on Macbeth. The districts are so large here that they can only support a single economic class within its boundaries. The legislatures before me believed that this would better improve the economic stability of this Coalition, and indeed it did, but they failed to realize that doing this not only screwed up the districts' unbiased voter majority, but they also disrupted our growth as a system united. Have you noticed that—ever since that economic law was put into effect that designated people of a certain socioeconomic class to a particular district—the rich districts of the planet have become richer, while the slums just fell deeper into the cracks? It upset the equal balance of wealth, therefore doing the opposite of its intention, being that it furthered the class boundaries that I, and many others, believed that we had finally removed at the turn of the century. And since the wealthy areas hold that voter majority, the law cannot be repealed."

Muzzin just snorted and shook his head after regaining his breath, clenching and unclenching his paw. "Sorry, my blood pressure tends to spike when I talk about these things. Anyway, as I was saying, my main goal is to reform this blatantly obvious corrupted democratic system we have, and transform it into a government that will continue to thrive in adapting situations as it once has. No more of this "the people always have the right way" mentality. If they did, we wouldn't be in the situation we are in."

"Don't you think that maybe downgrading the voters and criticizing them in the manner expressed here is a bit counterintuitive for your intention?" Yan asked.

"It's always about the voters," Muzzin said with mock enthusiasm. "Always about them when it comes to the future. They assume they know what's best because they live in these situations for their entire lives. I hate to say it, but they're wrong. And if they think I'm being critical of their decisions, then I'm sorry, but they're a bunch of ignorant hypocrites. All I have to say is that I hope they're anticipating what horrors are to come if they elect someone that continues to do what is driving this Coalition into the dirt."

Yan turned to face the camera. "Powerful words from an aspiring Minister. Senator Victor Muzzin everyone. Victor, thank you for coming on tonight."

As the applause exploded from the lave audience, the red wolf stood up and shook the leopard's paw, smiling and licking his muzzle. "It was my pleasure to attend."

After Muzzin retracted his paw and haphazardly waved to the crowd off-camera, the host continued, "Okay, we're going to go to a quick commercial break, but stay tuned! Up next is the lead singer from Rising Horizons, Tim Sykes, talking about their upcoming album The Black Spirit. Don't go away!"

"Ugh, of course they only bring on garbage bands to these kinds of shows," Vixy muttered under her breath, changing the channel as soon as the commercial wave hit. As soon as she got comfortable, the phone sitting in the kitchen started ringing.

Vixy moaned in protest. "You've got to be kidding me! If this is some credit card scam I'm going to give them a piece of my mind!"

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Now with actual clothes instead of his robe, Fox emerged from the bathroom in the hallway and walked into the living room. Adam sat on the couch with a handheld tablet, completely focused as he scrolled through his screen with Patrik looking over his shoulder. On the other couch sat Sheila, occupying herself by brushing her extremely lengthy and voluminous light cinnamon locks with her hairbrush. He saw Wolf out of the corner of his eye talking with Leon and Natalia, and decided to try and join in on the conversation, only for Sheila to hiss to get his attention, waving her open paw in his direction. Internally rolling his eyes, Fox nodded his head and approached her.

"No, see, here's what you did wrong," Patrik said, pointing at the blue jay's screen. "You wrote a string in the wrong location, so when you get to here, it automatically goes way back to here instead of continuing on."

"Is that really all it was?" Adam asked, tilting the tablet around. "I thought your servers could find a loophole to avoid one string of faulty code."

"Well, if the servers weren't apologizing for your shit codebase, it probably could."

"Ok, well," Adam blurted out, standing up off of the couch. "My codebase could handle the server traffic, fuck your mother, take a video of it, upload it, and even that video wouldn't buffer."

A taunting, sarcastic sounding laugh left the malamute's muzzle. "I would love to see you try, bub."

Ignoring the bickering between the two, Fox sat down on the open cushion next to the husky, crossing his legs as he got comfortable. As soon as he did, however, Sheila immediately scooted up to him to the point where the air he was breathing started swimming in her hair.

"So, Fox," she started, her tail wagging wildly. "What do you think about joining us? I'm positive you're psyched to get started."

Fox sighed and shrugged. "This isn't anything like I've ever done before. I've always done combat missions, not the full field of strategic mercenary work."

"I'm sure you can get the hang of it," the husky smiled, wrapping an arm around the vulpine, to which he scrunched his neck in slightly as if to try to escape her grasp. "I'm really happy that you said yes, by the way. I'm excited to get to work with someone of your skill."

"Oh, thanks," Fox said distantly, looking around to try to get out of Sheila's lavender smelling hair.

"All right, gentle ladies and ugly bastards, listen up," Wolf announced firmly, stepping out of the kitchen with Leon and Natalia in tow. "Because Adam's garbage codebase shit the bed, we've got to switch to plan B."

"Oh, sure, blame the programmer," the blue jay muttered bitterly, assuming a pouting face.

"What were you even trying to do with that small search engine you brought with you?" Fox asked.

"Well, it was supposed to slip right into the CDF's mainframe," Wolf answered, tossing a particularly nasty glare to the avian, who scoffed in disbelief and frustration, pointing and flailing his wings at the malamute smugly smirking next to him. "We can't do something of this magnitude with every single eye in the sky staring back down at us."

"Basically, we were trying to wipe our names," Patrik added, crossing his arms as he slouched on the couch. "Diplomatic merc work requires a lot of interplanetary travel, so we can meet up with our next ally. Our identity is our only enemy when it comes to that. Wipe our names from the archives, and our list of prices on our heads and our red flags get wiped too. A clean slate will get you anywhere in this system."

Wolf nodded. "And since we've got a faulty system that would take another painstakingly long week to rewrite to get us into that archive, we've got to switch to our only alternative. I hate to say it, but we're gonna have to risk getting caught to meet up with an ally to do it for us."

Adam groaned loudly. "Wolf, I don't mean to sound dickish, but I can easily have the codebase rewritten in four days if you'd just be patient."

"And it would take two days, if that, to get it done MY way," Wolf retorted. "Time isn't in surplus here, Kajær. The sooner we can get our names wiped, the sooner we can start operating without being stuck under the radar, the sooner we can start causing chaos to lead Muzzin straight into that lead chair, and then the sooner we get that huge payoff. It's all in direct correlation here."

"I'd love to hear what brilliant idea you have that might be better than waiting until I've got it redone," Adam remarked scornfully.

"For one, I can't trust if your rewritten code won't shit everyone's pants when we try to use it," Wolf countered. "For two, I believe you fail to realize that we have one of the best hackers on the market on our side, and would definitely help us if we gave him a chunk of that reward money."

"I find it funny that you are all too willing to dish out money we don't have yet," Patrik remarked, his tone of voice completely contrasting his topic of discussion. Continuing in his blank voice, he said, "Pretty soon we won't have enough of that value to split between us."

"Hey, if we don't get this done, we don't have anything to split," Wolf shot back. "A job like this needs to have a surplus of alternative options so that if one goes down the drain, we've got another one to go to. This job isn't a "do it when you feel like it" kinda thing, it's a "fucking do it now or we don't get paid" job. So, that being said, shut up so I can tell you what we're gonna do now."

Wolf walked over and snatched the tablet out of Adam's wings, who—as a joke—continued to hold them out in front of his chest as if he was holding an imaginary tablet instead. Sheila seemed to be the only one that found the avian's gesture funny, but as soon as her little giggle fit simmered down, Wolf started speaking again.

"So, before I begin, and since I've got everyone in the same room, I'd officially like to welcome Fox McCloud into Star Wolf," he announced, followed by a round of near silent applause, aside from a little loud outburst from the husky sitting next to the vulpine in question. Rolling his eyes, Wolf continued, "He'll be an invaluable addition, I'm sure. Just know, runt… you cross me or any of my teammates, I will fucking skin you alive. Understood?"

Uncharacteristically, Fox gulped before nodding in agreement.

"Great," Wolf said with mock gratitude. "Okay. Now, pup, I'm actually not very sorry in the slightest, but I'm gonna need you right away."

Fox cocked and eyebrow. "Already?"

"Believe me, I wouldn't say anything if I wasn't desperate," Wolf explained, shaking his head at the sound of what just slipped through his teeth. "I need you to get in contact with your cousin."

"I'm sorry?"

Wolf slapped his paw against his forehead. "Catsuit vixen?"

"Wait, Scarlet?" Fox about balked. "Why? Are you serious?"

"As a hear—"

"A heart attack, I know," Fox interrupted, removing himself from the husky's friendly grasp to stand up. "For one, she's my third cousin, thank you; and for two, why?"

"She's working for a big merc company in the CDF, no?"

"Not anymore," Fox corrected. "She's an independent merc now."

Wolf's eyes slowly shut as a long breath of air left his nose. "Well, shit. That really puts a wrench in my plans."

"For the third time now, why?" Fox asked, starting to get impatient.

"Scarlet worked with Dahlstrom and Kajær for a few months," Wolf answered, pointing a clawed thumb in the two mercenaries' direction. "They wiped out a drug lord's entire archive and exposed his hideout in less than four hours. They mentioned working with a gay little arctic fox that completely put those two's coding and technology to shame. Completely wiped out any sort of network security that gang had."

"Vince Stazac?" Fox blurted out. "He was the fox, right?

"You know him?"

"My father is friends with him. They were good friends back when they worked for the CDF."

Wolf smirked and lifted his eyebrow a few times. "Good friends?"

Fox groaned. "Okay, yeah, I know, Vince had—er, still has, I think—a thing for my dad. It's old news."

"I just found it funny, sorry," Wolf said, fighting through laughter.

"What do you need with him anyway?"

"To do what they couldn't," Wolf answered, shooting another glare at the two on the couch. Adam scoffed and outstretched his wings as if to say "why are you always blaming me?" while Patrik just blew it off and slouched even further. "Vince can wipe our names like that," he added, snapping his fingers for good measure.

Fox shrugged his head with an indifferent, yet affirming expression. "Well, he definitely could. And since he's pretty close to me, I don't think he'd have an issue wiping our names. But Vince I don't think—"

"Good," Wolf grunted in approval, staring back at his tablet. "So we don't really need Scarlet then."

"Wait, no," Fox interjected, holding out his hand to stop him. "If we're dragging Vince into this, we're gonna need her at least once."

Wolf again cocked his brow. "You serious, pup?"

"As a heart attack," Fox responded, smirking as Wolf rolled his eyes. "Vince is the best in the business, as you said, but he's also a paranoid little guy. Scarlet and a few other notable mercs are his protection, because people like us are trying to use him. If we want to get Vinny, Scarlet is our only way of getting a hold of him."

"And how are you gonna get in contact with her without planting a bug in our equipment?" Patrik questioned. "If Stazac is as important as he is, he's gonna have tracing lines all over his and his protection's equipment. If you call her and tell her what you need him to do, we won't get out of this city without a target on our back, let alone out of this planet."

"Which is why I have a better alternative," Fox answered, pulling out his phone. "Trust me, I know what I'm doing."

"Better get the gear packed up now, fellas," Wolf remarked. "McCloud's gonna get us all busted."

Fox shook his head and stepped over to the front door, imputing a string of digits into his phone as he secluded himself in the corner of the room. He held it to his muzzle and ear respectfully, waiting for the dial tone to fade away into a familiar voice. It did after a while, but it wasn't who he had first anticipated.

"Hello, this is the McCloud household; Vixy speaking."

"Mom?" Fox blurted out, getting a few of the Star Wolf members to turn and look at him with questioning stares.

"FOXIE!" Vixy squealed, distorting the call quality somewhat. "Oh my goodness it's so great to hear your voice again! You're still alive!"

"Yeah, I missed you too," Fox chuckled awkwardly, waving his paw in his teammates' direction to dismiss them. "I'm sorry, I know I should have called earlier, but I've just been busy."

"Hah! You, busy?" Vixy balked humorously. "Okay, I may be old, but I can't remember the last time you were actually busy. Come on Fox, be reasonable here."

"Okay, okay, sorry," Fox responded, his ears drooping. "I'll explain later, but right now, I need you to do a big favor for me, okay?"

"Depends," Vixy huffed. "If you pay us a visit soon, I'll do it."

"Sure, yeah, that sounds good," Fox said with mock interest.

"Promise?"

"Yes, mom, I promise," Fox started to get a bit impatient. "Okay, hear me out. I need you or dad to get in contact with Scarlet for me."

"Scarlet?" Vixy scoffed. "Sweetie, as far as I know you haven't spoken a single word to her in ten years. Why do you need to talk to her all of a sudden?"

Fox hesitated, struggling to think of an appropriate response. To his dismay, that moment of hesitation allowed his mother to begin a potential onslaught of inferences.

"Wait, are you two dating?"

"No, mom," Fox groaned. "I just need to set up a meeting with her."

"So you two are dating!"

"Mom!" Fox yipped.

"Oh, I'm sorry, sweetie, I don't mean to gossip," Vixy giggled innocently. "I've always felt like you and Scarlet were perfect for each other."

As if, Fox thought to himself. "No, it's just a get-together. …I mean as friends!"

"Sure," Vixy giggled again. "Say it all you want, but I'm still shipping you two."

"Can't you just put dad on the phone," Fox moaned.

"Can't; he's in the shower now. Is it something I could help with?"

"Well, I can't get a hold of Scar because she's in that high protection field. Her phone is blocked, even for me. Dad is the only one that could get her for me."

Wolf smirked at him from the kitchen archway at how easy it looked to wind around the truth to make the meeting seem so innocent. Fox nodded and poked his thumb skyward, prompting the lupine to nod and disappear into the kitchen behind him.

"Oh, shoot, I forgot about that," Vixy mumbled. "I'm sorry Fox, I didn't mean to tease you like that."

"It's okay," Fox assured. "So, can dad do it?"

"I don't see why he wouldn't," his mother answered. "He's the same way as me, ya know? He wants to see you and Scarlet hitch up—"

"I already have a girlfriend," Fox blurted out to stop her from going off on a tangent, but immediately slapped his forehead in regret because he just made it that much worse.

"Oh my goodness, you do?!" Vixy squealed. "Aww, I'm so proud of you! What's her name?"

Fox internally swore to himself, frantically searching for an answer. His eyes flew all over the room in a desperate plea for a quick answer, but then realized out of the corner of his eye that Sheila was staring back. She obviously overheard, and when Fox finally made eye contact, she mouthed the words "trust me," and pointed at herself.

Fox shook his head.

Sheila curled her eyebrows down and pointed directly at her chest.

Again, Fox shook his head.

"You still there Fox?"

Sheila about growled and poked her exposed midriff. "Say it or we're screwed!" she whispered almost silently.

Begrudgingly, the vulpine rolled his eyes and sighed into the receiver. "Her name's Sheila. She moved in across the street from me a few months ago."

"That's such an adorable name!" Vixy said happily. "Is she cute?"

Fox spared a glance in the husky's direction and said, "Yeah..." At that, Sheila giggled and attempted to cover her blush.

"Wait, I didn't even need to ask because I know that all vixens are cute," Vixy said, a bit of pride evident in her tone.

"Well, she's a husky, actually," Fox said hesitantly, biting his lip in apparent nervousness.

"Oh?" the vixen nearly stammered, evidently feeling the sensation of her train of thought being thrown off the rails. "Really? That's… odd."

"How so?" Fox asked right back, wondering why his mother would say that.

"Aren't huskies really high maintenance?" Vixy inquired. "Like, don't they usually need a lot of attention? And they're usually super affectionate too, right?"

"You can say that again," Fox muttered, sparing another glance in the light copper husky's direction. "But, I'm happy, and that's all that matters, right?"

"Well, I guess so," she answered truthfully. "You should introduce us, Fox. Your father and I would love to meet her."

"Ah, gee, well, I—"

"And if I have to I'll pay for an extra flight ticket to bring her with you when you come to Corneria to meet with Scarlet, then I'll do it."

"Actually, I've already made plans," Fox interjected. "We're gonna get our own flight. She works for a big contracting company, so she gets free flights to wherever she needs to go."

"Well that's convenient," Vixy said happily. "Anyway, I'll let your father know that you want to set up a meeting with Scarlet. Hey, maybe we can take out two things on our agendas by setting this up for all of us!"

Fox's smile immediately faded away. "Wait, what?"

"Oh, yeah, this is gonna be great!" the vixen exclaimed. "Your father and I are going to Corneria City's CHL game tomorrow night, and I know how much you loved going to those games, so I'll buy you and Sheila tickets, and have your father arrange for Scarlet to attend too!"

Fox flushed under his fur. "Wait, whoa, whoa—"

"Don't worry about buying your tickets, I'll cover for you," Fox's mother continued in a bubbly voice. "Just make sure that you and Sheila can get here in time for the game. I'll send your ticket info over an email as soon as I can get them."

"Mom, hold on," Fox pleaded, but his pleas fell on deaf ears.

"I can't wait to see you and your girl, sweetie! I'll see you then! Bye!"

Before Fox could interject, his phone went silent. With a long, drawn out sigh of defeat, his ears pinned against the back of his head as he forced himself into the kitchen. He unceremoniously tossed his phone onto the table, the clattering catching the attention of everyone inside the small kitchen area.

"Enjoy talking to your mom?" Natalia remarked teasingly.

"I don't want to talk about it," Fox grumbled, burying himself into his arms after he sat down.

"What'd you do?" Leon questioned. "You didn't blow our cover, did you?"

"No, but I'm pretty sure I just made this meet-up with Scarlet all but possible," Fox said, muffled by his arms. "Hope you guys are in for making a plan C."

"Depends," Wolf grunted. "How bad did you screw us over?"

Fox looked up and grinned sheepishly. "I hope you guys want to go see the Corneria City Majors play tomorrow, because that's where we have to go."

"A fucking CHL game?!" Wolf barked. "Are you serious?!"

"As—"

"Don't you even fucking say it," Wolf interrupted, visibly irritated. "How are we supposed to fly under the radar when we're going straight into Corneria's capital, and going to a public rink that has upwards of a hundred thousand fans!"

"Blame my mother," Fox mumbled.

"Son of a bitch!" Wolf howled, slamming his balled paw into the kitchen table.

"Mom is not a bitch!" Fox shouted back.

"Boys!" Natalia shouted, stopping both of the bickering canines. "This isn't all bad, all right? We do what we do best; we improvise. Now, Fox, what exactly is going on?"

"My father is going to get Scarlet to go to the game tomorrow night," Fox started, settling back down into his seat. "I… kinda made my mom believe that Sheila was my girlfriend, and she's going to get the both of us tickets."

"You what?" Wolf growled.

"Easy," Natalia breathed, setting a paw on his chest. "Anything else?"

"Well, if we were planning all of you to go, we need to get all of you tickets so that we keep that target off of us," Fox continued. "Plus we need to worry about getting there—"

"Don't worry, we've got our carrier," Leon piped in. "And there are plenty of places to land on Corneria without getting the feds on us right away. Call them trustworthy allies."

"And McCloud's got that nice little truck in his garage," Patrik added. "It's probably got, what, seventy-two hours of charge on it?"

"Seventy-five," Fox corrected.

"I don't care!" Wolf suddenly broke in. "This is too much to risk on just the setup of this job!"

"We really don't have another option," Fox admitted. "We—I hope—have Scarlet ready for a meetup, and once we get to her, we can get to Vince."

"And what makes you so sure she'll agree to this?" the lupine inquired.

"Believe me, you don't know Scarlet," Fox smirked knowingly. "Before her ongoing independent stint, she worked undercover in the darker part of merc work. She was a damn good assassin. Plus, Vince wiped her name too, so she's got a clean slate with him. If he can clear Scar, he'll clear us. And, like I said, Vince is a good family friend, and so is Scarlet."

Wolf sighed and grabbed at the bridge of his muzzle. "And you're sure this'll work?"

"Well, no," Fox answered slowly. "But, it's worth a shot. This game is our best bet. We won't get to Scar any other way."

"Fine," Wolf grunted, suddenly pointing at Fox. "But you're paying for the tickets."

"Are you kidding me?" Fox moaned. "They're almost a thousand credits apiece!"

"That's not my problem," Wolf smirked. "It's your fault that your mom picked a hot team. Didn't they win the Archie Cup last year?"

"Are you talking about the Majors?!" Sheila suddenly yipped, intruding on the conversation in the most boisterous of ways. "Oh my goodness, they're, like, my favorite hockey team! Are we going to their game?!"

Wolf sighed. "Sheila, you're such a bandwagoner."

"A what?"

It was Fox's turn to sigh. "Someone who follows a team only because they're doing well."

"I am not!" Sheila yipped, stamping her foot to emphasize her point. "They have been my favorite team for years! I've even got a jersey!"

"Of?" Fox asked.

Wolf suddenly started glaring at her. "I swear if you say either Sidney Kane or Patrick Crosby, I'm—"

"No," Sheila interrupted. "I've got the goalie, Henrik Price."

"Wow, of course," Wolf rolled his eyes.

"All right, okay, that's enough of that," Natalia interjected. "Fox, can you get the tickets?"

"Yeah, but—"

"Great, and can you get us a place to stay?"

Fox looked down at the floor. "Well, my brother lives in a nice apartment downtown. I don't think he'll have any problems with us staying—"

"Wait, hold up," Wolf interrupted yet again. "You have a brother?"

"Yeah…" Fox said slowly, as if to jog the lupine's memory.

"Who?"

"I never mentioned Todd to you?"

Wolf immediately scoffed. "Your family is so unoriginal with names."

"You're one to talk."

"Yeah, whatever," Wolf grumbled. "He younger than you?"

"Yeah, by four years. He's twenty-four."

"He married?"

Fox couldn't help but smirk. "Yeah, actually."

Wolf immediately barked out a taunting laugh. "Wow, way to get one-upped by your younger bro, runt. Guess my nickname for you can stay."

"Well—"

"I bet she's cute too," Wolf said tauntingly, crossing his arms. "Is she?"

Fox smiled back with a smug, knowing smirk, crossing his legs with an attitude of self-pleasure. "He is adorable."

Wolf's smirk immediately dropped off of his muzzle. "Huh?"

The vulpine imploded with laughter at the lupine's expression of shock. "Who's got a one-up now?!" Fox questioned, choking through laughter.

"Wait," Wolf grunted, grabbing his forehead again. "Is your brother—"

"Yes, Wolf," Fox sighed, still chuckling to himself somewhat. "My brother is gay. Got a problem with that?"

"If I have to stay at his house, yeah!" Wolf moaned. "That's just disgusting."

"Nobody wants to hear your polarized opinion," Leon interjected. "If this is the best we have to do, then so be it. I've got no complaints."

"This actually might work," Adam remarked. "I can get behind this."

"I second that," Patrik added.

"Count me in," Sheila said happily. "If I get to be Foxie's date for this, then I'm totally up for this."

"Sheila, that was only to keep my parents from getting suspicious," Fox corrected. "Sorry, but that's all it was."

"Plus you're mine," Wolf added. "You're in my debt."

Sheila's ears drooped. "I know…"

Fox shook his head in Wolf's direction, then gave a wink to Sheila that the lupine didn't see. The husky let out a small grin in response.

"All right, since you all are so adamant about doing this, then let's do it," Wolf grunted, tossing a look in Fox's direction. "Grab your shit and let's hit it. Oh, and we are taking your truck. We can't fit everyone in mine."

"As long as I'm driving," Fox remarked.

"Fair enough," the lupine nodded. "Just follow me then. Our carrier is sitting comfy at an allied airfield, and we can get to Corneria in a day."

"Oh, by the way, you never told me you finally bought a carrier," Fox commented. "What is it?"

Wolf let a smirk crease his muzzle.

"You'll find out soon enough."

[҉]

P.S: Elarix, sorry, but this was so much easier to write than what I have to still do. I'm busy tonight, but I promise I'll have that last part ready by tomorrow. If I don't, you have permission to... ...force me to do something, I don't know. ...Maybe saying that was a bad idea...

*Oh, almost forgot. Had to come back on and put this on real quick. Many thinks to K.S. Reynard for allowing me to use Scarlet. I'm sure most of you are aware of who she is by now, but if not, check out K.S's stories and check her out. Thanks again, bud! :)