What a Super Bowl game! I didn't watch it, but the Patriots really came from behind to win it! Considering we are geographically closer to Boston, and winning the Super Bowl puts my parents in a better mood, this is a good thing for me.

And here is Chapter 4. It might not be as long as the last one, but I still think it is okay. I see people like theotherpianist (who submitted Taysom for Lorax), who has a story with 24 chapters and 212,537 words. Using my long division skills, I can see that:

192,000 8,000 words

19,200 800 words

1,337 55 words or so

So that's 8,855 words per chapter. I only have a handful of chapters that are longer than that. Well done, theotherpianist. As for this story, I would like to have at least 5,500 words per chapter on average, but we will see.

For the question, I'll use one from AskReddit. It's about what it's like to be autistic.

SnowLucario answers: It's really tough to say, given that I have never been non-autistic. I've had it since I was two, it's just part of me. I talk OBSESSIVELY about my own interests, to the point of dominating a conversation. I'm not nonverbal or suicidal, although my voice, if you've seen it on my YouTube channel, can be very childish-sounding.

Disclaimer: I don't have any money of my own. Therefore, I don't own Star Fox. It kind of sucks, but that's the way it goes.

In any case, let's get to the story!

LUCAS'S POV

"Did you hear that?" I asked Willow.

"I sure did".

Someone from behind us had said, out loud, that we were a couple. I didn't know who it was, but I wasn't happy with them. For all I knew, it might have been...

"Dr. Howler?" I asked, turning around.

The Bengal tiger's face turned slightly pink from its usual white. "I didn't mean to embarrass you guys. There's no one else around. Besides, who cares if you're dating or not?"

"I think more people than you'd think, Tigre Howler" Willow said sternly, as if the roles were reversed with her as the doctor and the Bengal tiger as her patient.

"I would rather not be referred to by my first name, if that's fine" the doctor said.

She waited until Willow seemed to have calmed down a bit before she said, "Look, are you going to forgive me or not? I really do think that there was no one else. I also didn't think you would hear me".

"That's no excuse for that, though" I said.

"Look, I'm sorry. I just hope that you can understand what I was thinking in that moment".

"I understand perfectly well" I said. "You wanted to embarrass us in front of everybody else".

"You'll forgive her, right, Lucas?" Willow asked me.

I didn't know what to say. I mean, she really hadn't meant to embarrass us. And, besides, I owed her my life, and so, no doubt, did many other students. She deserved to be forgiven.

"I forgive you" I said.

"Thanks" Dr. Howler said. "I was hoping that you would. I really do think you make a good couple, though".

"Why are you here right now?" Willow asked the doctor.

"I'm heading to the hospital wing at the moment. I'm wanted there in order to become more acquainted with their medical facilities. Besides, there are some wounded people to treat. Do you want to come?"

Willow looked at me, probably wondering what I was going to say.

"What time is it?" I asked.

"It's sixteen hundred hours, or four o'clock for you Earth folks" Dr. Howler replied, checking her watch. "Come! I'll show you guys around, and I think you'll find it pretty interesting. After all, eventually you will have to learn how to treat wounds and other things like that. Even though we might no longer be at the Grey Clouds Flight Academy, these skills are no less important".

"I guess we should go, then" Willow said.

I looked down at my feet, more than five feet from my eyes (my full height being 6 feet, 2 inches). I wondered what we would find in the hospital wing that Dr. Howler was going to show us, and what the patient who needed treating was there for.

I'm not really that squeamish around blood, I'm not one to faint when getting shots. However, I was not in the mood to see someone whose brains were spilling all over the bedsheets at the moment. Would that be what we were shown?

Dr. Howler led us down the hallway with those red Swiss crosses used to symbolize medicine. This led to the hospital wing, and she let us inside.

The hospital wing was not like the rest of the base. For instance, there were cabinets of bandages and things everywhere, as well as cots with IV stands. But the most important difference was that, except for the walls, ceiling, and floor (covered in a light dusting of snow), nothing was made of ice. I suppose that Fichina is so iced over the whole time that it's even safe to build the infirmary out of ice. However, I could see why the intravenous bags, for instance, were not made of ice. That would be wildly inconvenient.

"Dr. Howler...here's the patient" an elephant doctor said, pointing to a bed on the other side of the room.

"Thank you, Dr. Tuskland" the Bengal tiger said. She headed on over to the bedside of a patient who obviously had an injured leg. It was propped up on tons of pillows, and the collie looked in severe pain. I had never broken any bones before, and I would not want to have it happen to me.

"Yes, there is a fracture there" Dr. Howler said. Then, turning to Willow and myself, she said, "I think you guys should leave the room while I set his broken leg. That's not going to be pleasant to be around, trust me".

Willow looked like she might be about to protest, but I managed to convince her that it might be best to follow the doctor's orders. After all, everything Dr. Howler had said or done so far had been to help us.

We continued exploring until dinnertime, when we were instructed to go to the cafeteria. There, we were each delivered our individual meals and sat with our group, where we discussed more about the state of the war.

"It seems pretty tense right now" Falco said. "Of course, from when we were on Corneria, I was pretty much aware of it the whole time. However, it's very important for us to be doing whatever we can. Don't you agree, Dr. Howler?"

"I definitely do" the Bengal tiger said, biting into her meatball sub. "Right now, treating the wounded here is what my job is".

"How much longer do you think we're going to stay here?" Will asked.

"That depends on a lot of things" Mrs. Hooter said. "For instance, how safe we feel here. If the Cornerians came for Konstantin, we might have to leave".

"Where would we go?" Cole asked.

"That's a good question" Falco responded. "I think we'd have to head further east to Sector X. Of course, "east" is kind of a meaningless word when you're in the middle of space. But anywhere we can help. After all, our number one goal is still to get Konstantin pardoned, if that can even be accomplished".

"Personally", Konstantin said, "I'm fine with being pardoned. Let's do whatever we can with the war effort, and if it means me getting pardoned, so much the better".

That was a big change from the Konstantin I had known for the last several weeks. That Konstantin would not have wanted to help the Lylat System with their war effort at all. Now, he seemed to be a little more willing. I didn't know why that was, but I decided not to ask.

COLE'S POV

I woke up the next morning feeling a little anxious. Yeah, I was currently safe, and it had been a week since we'd left Corneria. We no longer had to worry about saving a death row prisoner.

However, the fact remained that we would have to leave this place eventually. We couldn't stay here forever, and that was an important thing to realize. I got the feeling that, at some point, we would have to make a quick getaway from this place, just like what happened with the Echo Base in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. We didn't want that to happen, but it just might be unavoidable.

In any case, that was neither here nor there. I had to get on with my day as normally as possible, and worry about the future in, well, the future. Cross bridges when you come to them, that's my philosophy.

I got out of bed and was tattooed with my schedule for the day. I saw, when I looked at my arm, that my first commitment was to Potions. That was just great, because I didn't really know if I wanted magic and technology to mix like that. I mean, I'd read the Harry Potter books, and always figured that it would be cool to go to Hogwarts. However, I also didn't know if I'd like being taught Potions by Severus Snape.

During breakfast, I asked around to see who had Potions with me. As it turned out, Konstantin did.

I was looking forward to this. Assuming the instruction was not too intensive, this could be a bonding experience between myself and the Texan boy. It could.

"You looking forward to Potions?" I asked Konstantin.

"Dude, if Harry Potter was real, I would have loved Potions, it would've been my favorite subject. Let's get to this!"

Passing by Lucas and Willow, who were noticeably holding hands, we headed in the direction that our GPS's told us to go...down into the basement of the place.

Of course, the entire base was underground, which meant that there technically was no basement here, but I'm digressing. In any case, it was somewhat ominous to enter the tunnels that were a darker blue than the others. This should not have scared me, considering that I'm no stranger to dark places. However, there was just something about this place that made me decide that I didn't like being down here.

The Potions master at this base seemed to be some kind of German Shepherd. He stood at the front of the room, and was waiting for us along with a group of roughly twenty other students.

"Take your seats, McCallen and Brockenbough" the German Shepherd said. "I am Master Ruff, and I am the Potions instructor here?"

Is that seriously his name? I thought, looking over at Konstantin as if we were capable of telepathy.

"On Aquas", Master Ruff began, "there are many different plants that can be used to make fuel for the Arwings. Here they are, right in front of you. Normally, I would have you get them from the supply cabinet, but in this case I will just hand them to you, because that's just who I am this week".

He continued. "Using the metal bowls in front of you, you are going to make Arwing fuel. The instructions will be on the SMARTBoard in front of you".

As he said the last sentence, he pressed a button on a remote, and a twelve-point list of instructions on how to make Arwing fuel popped up. It looked pretty complicated to me.

"All right, class!" Master Ruff said. "It's time to get to work! You have an hour and a half".

We were working on our own, and we were not permitted to ask each other for help. Despite this, I felt like I could get a good enough grip on potion-making thanks to the instructions on the board.

I assessed the first line of the instructions:

1. Place the sacul root in the bowl. Stir five times clockwise, then eight times counterclockwise. Repeat for ten times, meaning that once you are done with your stirring, you will have made a total of 130 revolutions.

I searched among the roots for the one labelled as SACUL ROOT. It was purple in color and slightly shriveled up, which made sense, given that it probably grew underwater due to the fact that the planet of Aquas really was just water.

I placed it in the bowl and stirred five times clockwise. Then, I stirred eight times counterclockwise, just like it told me to.

Eventually, I had made a purple paste roughly the consistency of ketchup. Of course, the fuel was far from complete.

2. Using the sink, measure out about a quart of water. Pour it into the bowl and stir counterclockwise until the whole potion is generally liquid.

I had to wait my turn at the sink, but once I had gotten there, it was not difficult to get the water and pour it all in. The stirring took a little longer than I expected, though. It wasn't too surprising, given that I had to break up some of the purple paste. Once that was done, though, the purple liquid was easy to achieve.

3. Crush the eloc beans until they create an orange juice. Then, pour the juice into the bowl. It should turn roughly #CCFF99 if you're doing it right.

Next to the hex code was a picture of a circle that was that color. Looking at what was in front of me, I found the eloc bean. I was starting to get suspicious as to why they were naming all of these plants this way, but I dismissed it.

The eloc beans were brown, but the juice was a bright orange. I collected as much of it as I could and poured it into the bowl. It wasn't the color described, which is a very light green. This was a more lime green color, more solidly green, but it was still green, and better than it being, for instance, red.

4. Add two drops of red food coloring and stir until the whole potion turns navy blue.

This color scheme was making no sense. There was no way that orange mixed with purple could create green. I mean, this went against everything you would learn in elementary-school art class, and yet here it was. This potion was defying the laws of logic.

Konstantin seemed to be having trouble. He must have done something wrong, because the potion was not even green or blue at all. Instead, it was an orange color similar to that of the Golden Gate Bridge. In addition to that, there was smoke billowing out of the top.

I wasn't allowed to help him or anything. I didn't know if Mr. Ruff would be, well, rough, but I didn't want to risk it, and I wished that Konstantin didn't have to, either.

Anyway...back to the instructions. My potion, since it wasn't the proper green, had changed into a color blue more similar to cyan than navy. I hoped that I could get things back on track.

5. Put in five ekim grapes and crush the potion. Be careful not to splash it all over your body, because this can be a very corrosive substance.

And it went on and on like this. At a certain point, I had to wonder why there were so many plants with names that were our own spelled backwards. Was it just a coincidence? It would have to be a pretty crazy one, that's for sure.

Once our potions were done, Mr. Ruff went on over to mine first.

"A good job overall, McCallen, although I think it should be gamboge rather than that bright yellow. As for you, Brockenbough...that is a very poor job, and I expected better of you. That is useless for Arwing fuel. To be fair, so is yours, McCallen. But a good first go".

After that, we were dismissed to go to our next thing. For me, it was Arwing Mechanics.

It was not Slippy Toad who taught it this time. No, it was what looked like Slippy's father teaching it. As far as I knew, Slippy was still back on Corneria. Maybe he had something to do with the manhunt for Konstantin, although they of course would not find the Texan youth on the planet.

"I am Beltino Toad, the father of Slippy Toad. I will be teaching you how to fix the engine of an Arwing today".

Beltino sounded like he was croaking a bit, which was understandable given his obvious age. He walked with a cane, but he could still hopefully teach this class. It really would be helpful to know what to do in case of an emergency when the Arwings weren't working. Given that we might be heading back to the Great Fox any day now, it would really be good information to have.

"First, take your screwdriver and unscrew the top off...".

The class wasn't too interesting. Then again, I had always been more interested in breaking things rather than fixing them. Even now, this was kind of coming into play. Really, there isn't too much to say about it.

At lunch, Lucas seemed fairly interested in Potions, or rather what we had learned there.

"It's pretty cool that there is a sacul root. I mean, that's pretty clearly my first name spelled backwards!" He was chuckling as he said this.

"I know" Konstantin said. "Is that a coincidence, though?"

"I'm not a hundred percent sure that it's a coincidence or not, although I'm leaning more towards the latter" I said. "It is a little bit suspicious, but why would it be anything to worry about?

KONSTANTIN'S POV

Ever since that night when I had been freed from my underground cell, nightmares had plagued me just about every night. Even before getting taken to Corneria, I had been no stranger to them. Now, though, I was becoming a stranger to not having nightmares. And they were invariably about the prison, or the events before or after that, including that fateful drive on the Bastrop County highway.

I wanted something else. Be it a nightmare or not, I wanted to dream of something else for a change.

As I settled into my icy bed on the evening of February 10, the universe delivered on my wish.

This was a classic case of "be careful what you wish for". Because, unfortunately, it was a nightmare.

I found myself on a desert. I felt quite a bit heavier than usual, and it wasn't like the Sahara Desert, with the sun. The very air here was quite hot, and it felt toxic somehow. Breathing in and out, I could barely get a deep breath in. It was also difficult to catch my breath from walking, I realized.

Beyond that, however, it was dark. This really did look like a place of death and destruction if I'd ever seen one. And I'd been hundreds of feet below the summit of a mountain. If anyone should be the expert of places like this, it was me.

I saw what looked like some kind of temple in front of me, made out of gamboge-colored stone, similar to the color of some of the sand all over the place here. I felt a presence inside there, something malevolent. I knew that everything inside of me was telling my feet not to take me inside the temple. Especially considering that I'm not religious, you'd think that I would avoid this place at all costs.

However, I felt the urge to go inside the temple. I got the feeling that there was something there that I needed to know about, and that I'd likely regret it if I didn't go in. By the way, I was aware the whole time that it was a dream, but I still felt that it was dangerous.

It's much like rock climbing when you're wearing a harness. You might not fall to the ground and die, but you could still be afraid of heights.

In any case, I entered the temple, not knowing what I would find there. I had, however, figured one thing out:

I was on the planet Venom, which was one of the most dangerous planets to be on, had this not been a dream. At that moment, I was very glad that this was just a dream.

I entered the temple, and immediately I felt myself lift off the floor. I sure as hell hoped that I couldn't be seen like this, because it would have been fairly embarrassing. I was just floating, thirty feet off the floor of the temple, ten feet from the ceiling, and I didn't know what was about to happen.

"You're late, Wolf" said a gruff voice.

A gray lupine walked in. With a chill running down my spine, I realized that this was Wolf O'Donnell, the hand-to-hand combat instructor from the Grey Clouds Flight Academy. That fucker had been the sole reason that I was convicted. He'd managed to convince enough jurors to convict me that I was the culprit.

And now he'd turned.

"Sorry" the lupine said. "The Wolfen had a couple of difficulties getting here. It can be fixed here, Panther, right?"

"Yeah" the creature known as Panther said. "There's a docking bay right back there. Can you fly it there?"

"I will...after we're done with our little chat" Wolf replied.

Another chill ran down my spine. I had a feeling that, whatever their little chat was about, it was nothing that was in my interest.

"What do you think of this new team?" Wolf asked Panther. "Star Enfield? They were students at the Grey Clouds Flight Academy for about seven weeks...then they ran away with an escaped prisoner. None of this had to happen, and yet it did just because of them!"

I had never heard of the Star Enfield team, but I had a good idea of who that was supposed to be. And I was the escaped prisoner they were talking about. At the time, I had just wanted to die, but at this point I was glad to be living. I was glad that this was only a dream, because that brain in the corner looked pretty ominous.

"Andross is rising" Panther said, pointing to the brain. "Another few months, and he will be complete. If they think that the Anglars are a threat, they ain't seen nothing yet!"

"You didn't answer my question" Wolf said indignantly. "What do you think of Star Enfield? A team, led by Lucas Enfield, that are working to defeat the Anglar forces?"

"Who is this Lucas Enfield person?" Panther asked the lupine. "He sounds like some big military dude".

"He's actually only sixteen years old, and is originally from a small town called Swanville, Maine in the human dimension. He's been on a mission before, to try to defuse the bomb that we planted underneath the glacier. And I tampered with the simulator, causing him to pass out, because I really did see potential in the kid".

I hadn't been at the school, but Lucas had told me about both of those occasions. He'd been spun so much in the flight simulator that he'd passed out. He'd been trapped under the ice thanks to the avalanche for a good fifteen hours before being rescued and revived by Dr. Howler.

As for the name Star Enfield, I'd never called it that, and neither had anyone else. We were really just a ragtag group of teenagers, along with a Bengal tiger, an owl archer, and Falco Lombardi with us.

"The group consists of Enfield, Willow Foster, Michael Kirk, William Wexford, Cole McCallen, Tigre Howler, Athena Hooter, and Falco Lombardi. And don't forget Konstantin Brockenbough. He's the escaped prisoner".

"That Willow girls sounds like she might be hot" Panther said.

"That doesn't matter right now, you imbecile!" Wolf shouted, banging his fist on the table, nearly knocking the jar containing the brain over. "What does matter, is that this threat be eliminated. I doubt we could get all of them in one go. They're at the military base in Fichina, for crying out loud! That place has defenses up the wazoo".

"So who do we kill?" Panther asked the lupine. "Not Willow, I would hope".

"I think it's an easy choice" Wolf responded. "Kill Enfield. Cut off the head of the snake. If we can do that, we'll significantly reduce group morale for sure. They'll be less of a threat, and we can get rid of the rest of them more easily".

"How would we kill the boy? He'll probably be shadowed by tons of others".

"Simple" Wolf said. "I know where there's a warp from here to Fichina. I could get there within a week, and perform the kill. It's quite easy, I've got my blaster. Shoot him in the heart, he's dead, no ifs, ands, or buts. The lasers are pretty effective".

"And then, Andross rises" Panther said. "And then, we rule Lylat. Sounds great, right?"

"Yep. And that kid can be a fast runner, he's got such long legs. Tie him to a chair?"

"Sure. And then maybe I can get Willow for myself".

I screamed; I couldn't help myself. I was glad those two couldn't notice me, because I found myself plummeting downwards, towards the floor...

...and into my own bed.

I sat up, my face covered in sweat. It wasn't the same sweat that I'd had in the prison cell, and eventually stopped producing through sheer dehydration.

This was a cold sweat, and it wasn't from working out or anything like that. I knew, without question, that my dream had been real. Wolf O'Donnell and Panther Caroso were plotting to kill Lucas Enfield. Cut off the head of the snake, as it were.

And I knew, without any shadow of a doubt, that I needed to tell Lucas about this.

MRS. ENFIELD'S POV

My eyes opened in the morning. I might no longer have my son, but at least I was with my husband, and we were safe for now. We were hugging each other the whole time we were asleep, which was about typical for us. We loved each other a lot, but we had also loved our son.

"It gets harder and harder to get up every morning" my husband, Ken, said. "I just can't stop thinking about...things. Things that we've already done. Things that might still happen".

"February sixteenth, in the year 201Y. Yeah, things are not going too well for us, are they?"

"You can say that again, Leyla" Ken said. He looked at me with a sober expression.

"I'm regretting it, Ken. I'm regretting selling Lucas over to those people. Who knows where he is now? But we had to do it. It was five hundred thousand dollars. And, not only that, but that man...our town wasn't going to fare well, let's say that much".

Two months ago, a man had come and put a gun up to my head. He'd told me that unless I sold my son to the Grey Clouds Flight Academy on Corneria, he was going to kill the whole town. In rural Maine, we're very protective of our neighbors. We love our neighbors, even though ours is the least religious state in the nation.

And he'd offered us a sum of half a million dollars. For us, that was the difference between losing our home and not losing our home. Given that it was one life, that might not even be sacrificed, for over a thousand people not dying, the choice was obvious, even if it did hurt a lot to willingly sell your own son to another planet's military academy.

"I have a bad feeling, Ken. I feel that Lucas is in trouble".

My husband patted me on the back once again. "It's probably nothing, Leyla".

I haven't been getting as many views as I would have liked, only 179 right now.

Yes, I did feel the need to explain what happened with the Enfields, and why they sold their son. I felt that I needed more expansion on that, and the chapter would have been too short otherwise. As for the mechanic things...I didn't find it too interesting. Even so, this chapter was a little shorter than I wanted it to be.

I hope you enjoy the next chapter, which is likely to be much longer, probably the longest chapter in the story thus far. EDIT: It is.

One last thing: My mother is forcing me to take piano lessons. However, I may put up a cover of Surrender by Billy Talent (the song from Chapter 2) on my YouTube channel under the same name once I actually manage to learn it.