Okay, so I would just like to say a few things.

Right now, I hope to have three more flight students submitted by PM, but if you do submit an OC, I expect you to review consistently and tell me if you like the way I am portraying them.

Also, one thing to say is that I just saw Lorax hit 3,724 views. The square root of that number is 62. I just thought that was pretty cool.

Enjoy the chapter, and please don't forget to review!

WILLOW'S POV

Uhhh...man, this hurts. I wish I could just die or something, so that I could stop feeling this pain. It's the worst headache I've ever had in my life.

Those were my first thoughs as I began to come out of the fog of the tranquilizer. I didn't remember, at first, what had been going on, but then it came back. I'd been on a date with Lucas Enfield, and I'd seen him walk with me back from the school's Christmas ball. And then, I had seen it.

A large chopper with what looked like a flying pig on its hind legs was coming straight for us. I had no doubt in my mind, somehow knew that they were coming for us. I'd shoved Lucas into the snow, and then gotten down after him. I felt something pierce my leg, and that was the last thing that I remembered.

Now, it stood to reason, once I began to be able to think more clearly, that we were in the back of said helicopter. Which, by the way, looked a hell of a lot more spacious on the inside than on the outside. It looked like a private jet, the type that only extremely rich people owned. The floor was covered in wall-to-wall carpeting, beige and extending from one side of the room to the other. On the wall, the same red logo that I had last seen before getting knocked out with the dart was present. Once again, I wondered what that was.

Maybe Lucas would know...should I ask him? Is he awake?

My eyes scanned the room, and then I realized that I was overthinking this. Lucas was right next to me, but he wasn't moving. He was still unconscious from the dart, not having woken up yet. I figured that this meant I had to approach the situation on my own.

Looking around, I saw that something was clipped to my finger. Was that to measure something? The amount of oxygen in my blood or something, right? I was no doctor, but I knew at least that much, to know what the equipment would be used for. I also noticed that there was a heart monitor attached to my wrist. There had to be, since there was a machine next to where I was lying that seemed to be measuring my heart rate.

So, if these people were aiming to kill us, they probably would have done so already. It made no sense to hook us up to all of these monitors, making sure we were alive, and then killing us later when we least expected it. In other words, we probably were not going to be murdered by these people. They had some motive for keeping us alive.

That begged the question, however: why?

I tried to puzzle this together, and yet I found myself thinking about my family. My mother, who was only 33 years old, would be left alone to care for my younger siblings, my sister Olive and my brother August (aged 5 and 3, respectively). My father had died the previous year, and my mom had remarried a man named Kyle. While it is true that I did not care particularly much for Kyle, the fact remained that he was my stepfather, and as such I should respect him. Which I did, but not as much as my mother probably wanted me to.

In any case, I was thrown from my musings by the voice of the pilot on the intercom.

Lucas was jolted awake as a result of the crackling. He looked over at me, confused as to what was going on. I didn't have any more answers than he did, but that wasn't saying much, considering we were both pretty clueless.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to announce that we are going to be landing in Corneria City soon, within the next thirty minutes. Be sure to keep your seatbelt securely fastened and do not walk along the aisle. We will be landing shortly".

"Wait...Corneria?" Lucas asked.

"Sssshhh!" I hissed at my boyfriend. "Pretend to still be asleep!"

Lucas didn't get it at first, but then I quickly explained why. If something more was going on than we were aware of, they might become suspicious of us if we were awake. We didn't know how much time it had been since being shot with those tranquilizer darts, but probably enough time that we could get here, wherever here was.

After about five minutes of feigning unconsciousness, however, no guards had come to check if we were awake or not.

"Hey, Willow" Lucas said.

"Yeah?"

"I think that I'm going to go over to the window, see what I can see" he said.

I tried to stand up, but realized that I couldn't. Whatever had been in those darts was making me feel quite dizzy right now, and I couldn't rise higher than four feet, out of my full height of five feet and five inches tall. There was no way I was making it more than a meter or two away, let alone the full ten meters to the window.

"I'll do it" Lucas said.

Before I could protest, saying that there was no way he would be able to if I couldn't, he stood up, leaning heavily on the wall for support. He managed to make his way over to the window of the aircraft. Then, he looked back at me with an expression that seemed to combine equal parts wonder and worry.

"Willow, you should check this out!" he exclaimed.

I tried once again to stand up, but this time I was successful. Leaning on the wall, I managed to grab Lucas's hand and stagger over to the window. What I saw outside was too beautiful, and yet terrifying at the same time, to put into words.

If you have ever watched a science fiction movie, you might picture a vortex of many colors as being a rift between dimensions. This was what was outside the window right now, and I almost fell backwards when I saw the sheer expanse of it all.

For as far as I could see, there were lots of patches of black, permeating everything like smoke, or when you close your eyes after looking at something bright for a long period of time. And yet, moving between them, there were many other colors as well. Scarlet and purple and lime green were frequently mixed with blue, orange, and yellow. But black was the overall theme here, and it must have covered about sixty percent of the area outside the window, if you could even call it that.

I couldn't tell if the other side was one mile away or twenty. I couldn't tell if we were twenty feet above the bottom, or twenty thousand. This seemed to warp your sense of distance, not making it easy to gauge distances by looking. All I knew was, it was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen.

Looking farther to the right, I could see that the black was receding, to be replaced by the other colors. A minty green color was being intermixed with navy blue, making the whole place look like some of the coastal parts of Maine, especially the islands in the central and eastern parts of the coast. And then, I realized that this ethereal reality, or whatever it was, seemed to be changing altogether.

Suddenly, the landscape looked a whole lot more real.

A seaside city was visible on the ground, more magnificent than even New York City. Then again, for someone from a town as small as Swanville, Maine, anything even remotely like Boston was spectacular. This was several light-years beyond Boston. The sea was steel blue, the same color as Lucas's eyes.

The city was also surrounded by green plains in two directions, giving way to iron gray mountains, some of them capped in snow (in fact, those that were capped in snow were also covered in snow in the lower elevations). All in all, it was a very beautiful landscape.

As we passed through what seemed to be some kind of protective bubble, something seemed to light up in Lucas's eyes.

"I know what this is".

LUCAS'S POV

I was so sure of where we were, now, that I would have bet my life's savings on it, even though I had never had much money of my own. The logo on the helicopter, the landscape, the psychedelic landscape we had just passed through...all signs pointed to it.

This was either a very skilled replica of Corneria from the Star Fox games, or it was actually the governing planet of the Lylat system itself. I had always figured that the latter was fictional, but I was having second thoughts about that assumption now. Maybe video game worlds were real!

Although, I did still have a few questions about that. Hopefully they would be answered sooner or later, because I didn't know what was going on.

And then, we went into a nosedive. I fell to the ground, hard. So did Willow. The deck swayed like a ship in an extremely truculent storm, and we tried to clutch onto something on the floor, anything to avoid the personal gravity of Lucas Enfield being shifted ninety degrees.

Suddenly, Willow gasped very loudly, and I realized that we were indeed beginning to slide like pucks on a hockey rink, or marbles on a table maze. I tried to slow our fall (and shut her up), but she couldn't help it. Later, I knew that it wouldn't have mattered if she had gasped or not, because once they landed they would be able to tell that both of us had regained consciousness.

The good news was, no guards seemed to be coming for us, probably because the floor was steeper than a double-black diamond ski slope. The bad news was, the pitch of the floor did not decrease at all.

"The good news is, we're landing. The bad news is, we're crash-landing" Willow said in a joking tone.

Even in this scenario, it made me laugh, even if only a little bit. It was a good feeling to recall funny lines from Pixar movies every once in a while.

Unfortunately, it seemed that at this rate we really were going to have a crash landing. It definitely seemed possible, based on the immense speed at which we seemed to be travelling.

We went at this pitch, as well as pace, for what felt like an eternity, but in reality was probably only for a minute or two. We had been farther above Corneria City than I had realized.

Finally, I felt an enormous impact, which resulted in Willow and I flying into the air.

I landed, painfully, on the wall. Then, I slid to the floor, not having broken anything, but it hurt nonetheless. It wasn't as though I had a concussion or anything like that, either. It was just very painful, and the same thing seemed to happen to Willow.

Just after we both landed on the floor, a short but muscular man with fiery red hair, who must have been the pilot, came through the doorway. Appearing about 25 years old, he looked at both of us as if we were dogs that had just pissed on the carpet rather than two sixteen-year-old Mainers who had been kidnapped for no reason.

Deciding that we needed to be treated with a little more respect than that, the man cleared his throat and began speaking.

"Good morning, Willow Foster. Good morning, Lucas Enfield. You probably wonder what's going on".

We both nodded.

"Well, as soon as this chopper is checked out, you will each be taken into the building here, where you will be told more. Let me just say, though, that I am not a molester or anything like that. My name is Logan, and I'm the pilot of chopper #AD1930. Pleased to meet you".

With those words, his demeanor changed in a very measurable way. He didn't look so antagonistic anymore; on the contrary, he looked downright friendly, not like he was super pissed at us.

"Thanks, Logan" we both said in unison. Because, really, what else could we say?

After determining that everything was all right with the chopper, including but not limited to the blades, the altimeter, and everything else that you could imagine (I guess this place really cared about the quality of their flying vehicles), we were both separated and led off in opposite directions, by different guards.

Well, I don't know if "guard" is the right word. Maybe "instructor" would be a better term for my state of mind with regards to these people.

Even so, I felt very bothered to be separated from Willow for as long as I was. It really was torture, considering that we also had no idea what was going to happen to us. Were we going to be executed as spies? Sold into slavery? Made to chop off our legs and become pilots?

I didn't know, and neither did Willow. There was no way of telling what might come down, now.

Small town life really was predictable, especially compared to what was happening right now. It could be the most crazy thing I had ever done in my life. In fact, I already had discovered that we were in Corneria. This was just one mind-blowing event after another, thus far.

The airfield had been half a mile long, and we'd landed right in the middle of it. Since Willow and I were led off in opposite directions, each of us had a quarter of a mile to walk with only our guards for company. I wasn't too eager to make conversation with them for fear of saying something that would anger them, and I knew that these were not people whose bad side you wanted to get on.

In Maine, the temperature had been in the twenties during the day and even colder at night. Now, however, it seemed to be a very comfortable day, perhaps sixty or seventy degrees.

Suddenly, my guard, a tall, stern woman with short black hair, handed me a pair of glasses.

"Put these on, Mr. Enfield. You're going to see things as they really are, once you have done that".

I was a little skeptical, but then I remembered this woman's generally harsh demeanor, and I decided that I had better do what she wanted me to. And so, I put on the glasses.

Immediately, I was assaulted by an array of numbers all around me. It didn't look like anything that I had ever seen in my small New England backwater.

NAME: LUCAS ZANTRY ENFIELD

PLACE OF ORIGIN: SWANVILLE, WALDO COUNTY, MAINE, USA, HUMAN DIMENSION

AGE: 16

BIRTHDAY: JUNE 12, 200R

HEIGHT: 6'2"

WEIGHT: 165 POUNDS

EYE COLOR: STEEL BLUE

HAIR COLOR: LIGHT BROWN

STATUS: NEW-READY FOR PROCESSING

"Wow!" I exclaimed.

"I know" the guard said. "And there's more, too. Just look up at the area above the square". As she was saying this, she gestured up to the sky above the airstrip, where I saw yet more numbers and words.

CORNERIA CITY-GREY FOX ACADEMY AIRSTRIP

TIME OF DAY: 07:23:49 AND COUNTING

DATE: DECEMBER 13, 201X

TEMPERATURE: 64 DEGREES

This confirmed much of what I had already basically figured out to be true. I really was in Corneria. And my guard really did mean business. Chances were, this wasn't a dream.

I was led into a building by the side of the airstrip. It was a two-story warehouse, with stairs leading up to the top from the inside. After a desk on the right, where I guessed that my guard would be sitting at right now had she not been escorting me right now, there was a door leading down a short hallway.

I wasn't foolish enough to ask what we were doing here. All signs pointed towards something having to do with Star Fox, but I knew that I couldn't jump to conclusions about this just yet.

Finally, we reached what appeared to be some kind of office, with a gray desk surrounded by intricate red-and-gold carpeting on the walls and floor. It looked like Bill Gates's or Donald Trump's home office, not what appeared to be some kind of secretary.

The guard sat me down in front of the desk, and then she sat in a swivel chair right behind it. It reminded me of an elementary school principal's office. That would definitely be the way I felt right now, except that I wasn't aware of what, if anything, I had done wrong.

"So, Lucas Enfield", the guard/secretary said, now sounding far more like a school principal than a drill sergeant, "you are probably wondering why you are here".

I nodded. "That's an understatement".

"Well, it's really quite simple, young master Enfield. You see, the Lylat System is under threat from an alien species known as the Anglars".

"Oh, like in Star Fox Command" I said.

The secretary frowned. "I do not know what 'Star Fox Command' is. I only know what is going on in Corneria right now, and the great threat that the Anglar Empire poses to our very city, our very way of life. It may not look so, Mr. Enfield, but we are fighting a losing battle here".

"Okay, but where do I fit into all of this?" I asked, a little more cynically than I meant it.

"It's really quite simple, Mr. Enfield. We need more members of our military force. Since not enough people in the furry universe are-"

"Wait, hold up here" I said. "The furry universe. There are furries in my universe, the only one that has been proven to exist. They're people who like to dress up as animals, because...well, just because".

"No, Mr. Enfield. The people here are real furries. They're actually walking, talking versions of what you humans call animals.

Now that I noticed, the secretary was no longer looking like a normal woman. Instead, she morphed into a tall purple cat, with large ears. I was amazed that I hadn't seen this before, but maybe it was some kind of magic trick, like Animagi from the Harry Potter books.

"As I was saying, Mr. Enfield...you're not going to be happy to hear this, but due to a shortage of soldiers, we've been forced to take young men and women like yourself from the human universe to use as soldiers here. It doesn't matter if you want to or not, you need to. Forget your family, Lucas Enfield. We are your family now".

I tried to take all of that in. It was difficult to accept that I might never see my family again, but I guess that that was just what happened. That didn't mean that I had to be happy about all of this, though. On the contrary, knowing the reason for what was happening, and more specifically, what was happening, did serve to make me angrier at the situation.

"I have one more question..." I said.

"Fire away" the secretary/cat/guard said.

"Who are you again? I feel like I have seen you from somewhere before. Maybe Star Fox 64?"

"Again", the secretary said, "I do not know what this 'Star Fox 64' is, but it is not pertinent to this discussion. As to who I am, you won't have heard of me if you have indeed never been to Corneria. My name is Katt Monroe".

Katt led me into what looked like the inside of a very high-tech medical tent from a nuclear war movie. There was a shower, scale, and height board, and I had a feeling I knew what was coming next.

She made me take a five-minute decontamination shower (which was extremely awkward being in a place that she could see me easily), and then I was given my clothes back, which had been thoroughly washed. Actually, they weren't my clothes at all. They seemed to be some sort of school uniform, with purple shirt and turquoise pants. It seemed like an odd color scheme for a military academy, but I was going to take it.

"There are different levels of clothing students at this academy wear based on their skill level. Purple and turquoise is the lowest. These clothes have been tailor-made for your height of six feet and two inches, and your weight of a hundred and sixty-five pounds. Is this information correct, Lucas Enfield?"

"Yes" I responded, because it really was unnecessary when those words had been shown right in front of my face.

Katt then continued to ask me more questions, such as my shoe size, if I had any food allergies, any health problems that ran in my family, among others. When I was starting to believe it would never end, she asked me to change into the purple-and-turquoise outfit. I was again arrested at just how unmilitary it looked on me.

"Well, Lucas, that is just about all. I do have a little bit of bad news for you, however, before you head off to breakfast with your new classmates".

"Yes?" I asked. "What is it? What bad news do you have to give me?"

Katt looked very sober as she said the following.

"You are very tall for a pilot. Due to being exposed to heavy G-forces, pilots can lose consciousness if they don't get the blood to their brains. Your long legs might make you faster on the ground, but they also make you more likely to faint, which is very bad in the midst of combat".

I didn't really like the word combat, but I decided that that was not the most important thing for me to worry about right now. "What does that mean?" I asked.

I had yearned for something extraordinary. However, sometimes it was important to be careful what you wished for.

"It means, Mr. Enfield, that you may have to lose your legs".

I updated this on Tuesday, but I finished it on Sunday night. I am on Chapter 4 right now, so there is that. I'm at 160 views on this now. I hope you appreciated the Legend reference.

I would still like a PM or two for additional flight students, though. Those really make my day.

Also, I will be having a question at the end of most chapters from here on out. At the end of the next chapter, I will post my own answer and the next question. I expect you to answer in your reviews, if that is okay.

QOTC (Question Of The Chapter): Where are you from?

SnowLucario out.