Chapter 11: Passing By

(Corneria City)

Fox landed his Arwing on top of the landing pad on one of the lower buildings. He jumped out, rushing for the door to the leading inside the building. He rushed down the staircase, only to be confronted by a dressed-up Labrador escorted by two, very large, security guards at the bottom.

"This is a private enterprise building! What the hell are you doing landing atop our offices!?" the Lab barked out angrily.

Fox merely pulled out the StarFox emblem, flashing it to the Lab and the guards.

"This is a matter of Cornerian safety! I trust you'll keep my Arwing in prime condition while I'm away?" Fox played. The expression of anger upon the Lab's face instantly melted into one of humility.

"Why, of course Mr. McCloud." the Lab bowed.

"Hey, while you're at it, you mind cleaning it up? I got into a little scuffle on the way here. I could also use some fuel cells as well. You know how high their prices are nowadays."

"Of course." The Lab said, clapping his hands together, a mock grin on his face. "You two! Get to work on Mr. McCloud's ship right away!" the Lab commanded.

The two guards only grunted as they retreated back into the building. Fox then proceeded with running down to the lower floor of the building. He jogged past many rooms, each containing an animal at work, either on the phone or a computer or some other type of apparatus, unaware that he was even in the building. He took the stairs down to the bottom floor, not wanting to be slowed down by the elevator. He burst out the door, into the streets. He looked at the radar upon his communicator. Montoya shipping was four blocks away. Fox sprinted down the sidewalk, weaving through the many animals that wandered the street during the day. He looked down at his communicator again. 1:03 sat upon the screen in big, red numbers.

What's taking the rest of them so long!? I hope leaving them alone was ok…

(Cornerian Sea)

Falco boosted after a ship, lining up his targeting reticule with the back of the enemy. He waited until the orange glow of the enemy G-Diffusor was lined up perfectly, then fired three shots. Each one of them connected, and the ship crashed down into the ocean.

"Haha. These guys are hardly worth the effort." Falco smiled to himself.

"AAAH!!! H-HELP!!!" a voice called on the communicator. Falco looked out his cockpit. Slippy had the remaining three enemies chasing after him. He boosted away, only to have the enemies boost right after him. "GET THEM OFF!!!!"

"Damn it, Slippy! Can't you handle anything on your own!?" Falco yelled out, aggravated.

"C'mon, Falco. We don't have time for this. Let's just finish off these guys and get back to Fox!" Katt said over the communicator.

Katt, Falco, and Krystal then proceeded to chase after the enemies. It took only a couple of seconds to take them out, the three ships all grouped together. When the last ship crashed into the ocean, Falco slowed his Arwing down.

"We go after Fox, now?" he asked aloud.

"Yep." Katt smiled back to him.

The group then started boosting towards the city.

(Cornerian Streets)

Fox continued running down the streets, dodging the multitudes of people as they went about the city.

One block left. Only one left. C'mon! Why are there so many people out today!?

After a minute, he stood outside the Montoya Shipping Company. He dashed inside. Large bulldogs could be seen walking the hallways inside the building, carrying large packages with ease. Fox avoided two of them as they proceeded to the loading dock. He went right up to the receptionist, a female porcupine. He ran up to her desk, nearly out of breath. He took a couple of deep breaths to steady himself before he started.

"I need to talk with the owner here! It's very serious!" Fox pleaded with the receptionist.

"I'm sorry, sir, Mr. Montoya isn't accepting anyone at the moment. I could take a mes-"

Fox didn't have time. He took out the StarFox Emblem again, basically shoving it into the porcupine's face.

"Very serious." Fox repeated.

"Up the stairs, last door on the left." the porcupine stammered out.

"Thank you." Fox panted, running up the staircase.

(Above Corneria City)

The group looked down at the city streets, switching between looking at the building tops, to checking their radars.

"Anything?" Krystal asked, looking at the radar for any sign of Fox.

"THERE, THERE HE IS!!! FOUND HIM, FOUND HIM!!!" Slippy said enthusiastically. In a manner of moments, all of the radars picked up the signal from Fox's Arwing. They all boosted down towards the building that it sat upon.

Falco looked out the cockpit as he landed. Two large animals were standing beside Fox's Arwing. He jumped out as the Arwing finished its landing sequence, rushing over to the large animals.

"What do you think you're doing!?!?" Falco called out, suspicious of the two large animals. The two animals merely glanced at each other. Then, the one closer to Falco picked him up, his large hands clamping on Falco's arms, preventing him from doing anything other than wriggle around in the air.

"HEY! LET GO OF ME!!!" Falco commanded. The animal started walking towards the door leading inside the building.

"HEY, what're you doing with him!?!?" Katt demanded, chasing after the large brute. The second animal picked her up in the same manner as the first one, following him towards the door. Krystal and Slippy just walked after them, not wanting to be captured as well.

When the animals neared the door, it opened. A Labrador in a suit walked out to greet them.

"Why is it that animals have a need to land on my building!?" the Lab asked aloud.

"WHAT'S THIS ARWING DOING HERE!?!?" Falco spat out, still struggling with his captor.

"What're you doing landing on my building!?" the Lab asked back.

"We're following our leader, sir. We just saw his Arwing landed here, so we landed ourselves." Krystal explained. "We didn't know we weren't allowed to land here."

"Well, you aren't! This is my business! I'm going to kindly ask you to leave!" the Lab said.

"Sorry bud, can't do that!" Falco said. He swung his legs back and forth. When he was as close to horizontal as his range of motion would allow, he drove his legs downward, right into the large animal's chest. The animal grunted as he was thrust back. Falco landed on his feet, making a break for the door.

"STOP THEM!!!" the Lab roared.

"Why are you trying to stop Team StarFox, you idiot!?" Falco called back.

"Wait, you're also part of StarFox?" the Lab asked.

"Yes, didn't you hear Krystal before!? We're following our leader here!!!" Falco said angrily, heading away from the door to confront the Lab. He took out his StarFox Emblem and shoved it into the Lab's face. "SEE!?"

"Oh, well. Yes, then. Mr. McCloud landed here as well, as you can see. He rushed past us, totally disregarding the fact that this is MY Private Enterprise." the Lab explained.

"So what's Stumpy and Lumpy doing to his Arwing then!?" Falco continued.

"He told us to clean it for him! He's quite aggravating. I mean, the nerve-"

"I want my Arwing to glitter so brightly, it blinds other pilots. Thanks, Grumpy." Falco leaned in closely, patting the Lab on the head. He then walked over to the rest of team.

"Hey, Stumpy, I'd appreciate it if you'd put the lady down, now." Falco told the guard sternly. The large animal first looked to the Lab. The Lab nodded. The guard then put Katt down.

"Thanks, Falco." Katt said, brushing herself off.

"Yeah, yeah. Slippy, how far away is this Montoya Company?" Falco continued.

"Four blocks down the street." Slippy quickly checked.

"Let's go!" Falco said, rushing to the open door. The rest of the team followed. They rushed past the Lab, Falco smiling and waving, Katt winking at him, as they went by. They closed the door behind them and proceeded through the building.

"I hate Team Starfox…" the Lab grunted, picking up a washcloth, heading towards Falco's Arwing.

(Montoya Shipping, President's Office)

Fox nearly burst into the President's office. Inside, sat three animals. A husky and an iguana sat in front of a large desk, with a large Greyhound sitting in front of them, behind the desk. Fox connected the dots, running up to the Greyhound behind the desk. He took his emblem out before he could say anything.

"Team StarFox. This is very important. I need the shipping records for a ship that came through." Fox said immediately. The Greyhound took a moment for all of this information to register, then pushed away from his desk.

"What ship is it that you have in mind?" the Greyhound asked with a thick Spanish accent.

"A cargo ship from Jatria that came in today, about an hour or two ago." Fox panted.

"Ah, yes. I remember that one." The Greyhound said, looking through the bottom drawer of his desk. "The driver acted quite strange."

"Strange? Strange how?" Fox asked.

"Well, he just seemed…distant. Ah, here we are!" the Greyhound said, pulling a file out of his desk. "That has all the information you'll need. It has everything from the license plate to how many fuel cells it had when it got here, and everything in between."

"Thank you very much, Mr. Montoya." Fox said, backing out of the room.

"Of course, Mr. McCloud." Montoya said as Fox closed the door.

Fox looked down at the enveloped files in his arm. On the front of the envelope was the Company logo, a Rapier with a shield in front of it. A banner around the weapons had the Company's logo: "Hello, this is Montoya Shipping. We kill the competition. Prepare for service."

Fox disregarded this, taking the files out of the envelope. He took out a photo of the driver, a Doberman, Patrick Henson. A Jatrian local, never left Jatria until today. Fox continued flipping through the files until he found the page of cargo items. He read the list to himself.

A lamp, a desk, two drawers, a couch, three armchairs. What? It sounds like he's moving!

Fox continued flipping through the rest of the pages, skipping over everything until he found the destination list. He looked down the list, it basically created a dotted line cutting through the city.

Looks like they're going to take control of the city from the inside out.

"Bye, Mr. McCloud." the receptionist called out to Fox as he left.

"Yes, thank you." Fox called back.

He rushed out onto the sidewalk, following the list of addresses.

(Cornerian Streets)

"How much farther away is this building, Slips?" Falco asked, nearly shoving people out of the way now, giving up on weaving through them.

"It's that brown building right there." Slippy said, pointing to a building past three others.

"Come on, let's go!" Falco said, rushing the rest of the way. The rest of the team rushed after him.

Falco burst into the building, going up to the receptionist.

"Did a fox come rushing in here before?" Falco asked.

"You mean Mr. McCloud from Team StarFox?" the receptionist asked in return.

"Yes! Him! So he did come by here!?" Falco asked again as the rest of the team entered the building.

"Yes, he did come in here. He seemed really jumpy, like you are. He went up to Mr. Montoya's office, then left about a twelve minutes ago." the receptionist explained.

"Do you know where he went?" Katt asked in Falco's place.

"No, he walked out looking at one of our envelopes, I assume that he was looking at addresses."

"Would anyone else in here know where he would've gone?" Krystal asked now.

"You mean that fox?" an iguana coming down the stairs asked. "He said something about a cargo ship."

"Yeah, we know that." Falco said impatiently.

"Well, we keep a spare file of every record in here. Mr. Montoya should be able to help you guys out." a husky walking behind the iguana said.

"Thank you." Katt said. "Let's go up, then."

"Wait, you can't go up the-" the receptionist started.

Falco pulled out his emblem.

"We're the rest of the team, thank you for your time." Falco said, going up the stairs. The rest of the team followed him.

(Montoya's Office)

Falco walked into the President's office. He didn't bother putting the StarFox Emblem away, so he just pinned it to his jacket. That way, everyone would know he's in the team.

"Mr. Montoya. We have need of some information of yours." Katt said promptly.

"Ah, yes. I knew something like this was coming." the Greyhound said. He put another envelope on top of his desk, and pushed it over to Falco.

"You knew we were coming?" Falco asked, slightly suspicious.

"Of course. Where would Mr. McCloud be without his team? I found it slightly odd that he'd come alone, so I figured that you, his team, would be coming here shortly after. Good Luck, Team StarFox." Montoya said with a grin.

"Thank you, sir." Krystal said as they started leaving the room.

"No problem."

The team opened the files, and went down the stairs.

"Bye guys." the receptionist said with a smirk.

"Bye!" Slippy said as Falco dragged him out by his collar.

"So let's see, here's the addresses." Falco said as they left the building. He pulled out a sheet of paper indicating all the places the cargo ship would stop. "Where would Fox go first?"

"Probably to the closest stop. This one. 164 Consin Street. Shall we?" Katt asked, letting Falco go in front her.

"Yeah, let's get this over with." Falco said, determination in his eyes.

The receptionist watched the team walk down the street, out of sight. She continued typing upon her computer, taking a deep sigh as she did. Down the hall, from the receptionists desk, sat the loading dock. The receptionist failed to notice that a pair of cloaked figures were hiding out inside the loading dock. They stirred when they saw Team StarFox walk by the open doors of the loading dock. When the team turned the corner, the two figures dashed out onto the sidewalk. They sidled alongside the building's wall, keeping to the shadows. Slowly, they crept forward. They followed the team, determined to carry out their mission. They kept back, ducking from shadow to shadow, waiting for their chance to strike…

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Author's Notes: All right! I'm back in the saddle! Feels good to be writing this again. So, looks like we got a game of connect the multiple, scattered dots. I kind of enjoyed that part with the Labrador. Also, anyone notice the book/movie reference I made? Anybody that does gets a cookie! Now for reviews.

Reviews:

-paranoidsocialclub 2008-12-29 . chapter 10

Well, I survived. Nice dogfight, by the way. superfluous detail as always... not that it's a bad thing. That sounds like something Falco would say. Anyway, great chapter.

~PSC~

in an attempt to be like panther,PSC will speak in 3'rd person all day

Sweet. I didn't put another guy in a mental institution! Dodged another lawsuit there. Phew. You're really on the ball here with this story, huh? One day after I get back and you already have a review up! Now that's dedication. And yeah, Falco is probably the only guy I could imagine saying that. Everyone else seems much more proper. Well, here's to another chapter!

-Mr. Starfox Fan 2008-12-29 . chapter 10

I'm noticing a lack of Starwolf and Bill Grey. Not that this review is relevant to anything... I'm just noticing a lack of wolf. By the way, huge fan of your story...

Wolf could be a member of the terrorist organization... No. I'll stop now before I start to shove my ideas down your throat.

Don't worry. I plan on having StarWolf and Bill come up in later chapters. I'm gonna get the whole smorgasbord in here, excluding Fay and Mira and all of them. As I said in an earlier review, I started with StarFox 64. I didn't even know they existed before. But yeah, I plan on getting everyone in there. Thanks for being a noted fan. Don't worry, I got an idea for Wolf, sort of. It'll come up eventually. And I don't mind having ideas shoved down my throat, so far, I don't have enough people doing it. I only had one other idea from a fan so far. So yeah, go ahead and shove, it tells me that people are anxiously awaiting the next chapter!

-Days of the phoenix 2008-12-29 . chapter 10

Well, this was a really nice chapter. Sorry for the lack of reviews, I'm busy with stuff.
Sorry about the computer, though.

Thanks for the compliment. Don't worry about the reviews, as long as I get at least one per chapter, I'm fine. And seeing as I'm building a loyal fanbase, that shouldn't be too hard. And thank you for worrying about my computer, don't worry, it's doing fine now as far as I know. If it blows up or something, I'll be sure to put that up on my profile when I get access to another computer. Here's to another chapter!