Chapter 2

Flashes of several images ranging from normal to severely strange was all that the young fox seen, like he was caught between the dream world and the waking world with his eyes contently blinking without his control. He kept getting glimpses of a dream world that he hasn't thought about since before his mother died, it was the world of the Moreinumean people. But it wasn't like anything he had seen before. It was in random images and flashes. But Fox kept getting one single image from the cluster of random sights that was plaguing him, and that image was of a tiger with, what he thought with all the flashes, was a piece of armor that covered his entire right hand up to his elbow, but only the right. The tiger seemed to try to speak to Fox, but there was no sound. He was just mouthing words. Then Fox caught a vision of his father.

"Come on, son! Wake up!" Jame called to his son. Fox wasn't really able to see what was going on but he heard things semi-OK in this state he was in. Fox was quickly pulled back to the vision of the tiger with the armored right hand again. It looked like the tiger was trying to pull Fox to his feet but then the image flashed to that of his father. The images kept fighting over control of Fox's senses. Then something foul smelling quickly roused Fox out of this fight between the dream world and the real world.

"W...what?" Fox groaned. Then he realized that he wasn't dead. He wasn't even injured. Fox checked his chest once more to make sure he wasn't dead. "Whats going on?! I was shot three times in the chest! How am I still alive?!" Fox cried, then he caught sight of his father. "Dad!"

He got up as fact as his groggy body would allow and hugged his father with every ounce of strength that he could muster, then he looked up bitterly to the older fox. "How is it that you're still alive?! How is it that I'm alive?!" Fox shouted at his dad. James sighed and scratched the back of his head, then he pushed the fur back down.

"Well, remember when I told you that I had a special scenario for you to play out? Well that was it and I must say you did a wonderful job! I'm sorry but if I warned you about it before hand this test would have lost its sense of realism. Then the whole test and everything we worked so hard at doing would have bin for nothing. Now let me introduce the attackers. First up if the one you nearly broke his arm." James waved his arm to the red-tailed hawk that had a bandage around his beak and an ice pack on his right elbow.

" I'm Herald. I'm lucky that I have trick elbows or you might have really broken it. But I must say that even with those trick joints, that really did hurt." The hawk said with a lighthearted smile.

"That's something coming from him. I sparred with him once way before StarFox; I tried that same move and it didn't phase him." James added, then smiled to Fox. The young fox was still dazed and disoriented with what had just happened. "OK, before we move on to the next member, I'll let you know that you were never in any real danger. I had Marv take your blaster because you had lethal ammo loaded. He gave you a stun gun of his own design. He made it look as if it was a real deal weapon. I needed you to think that this was a real attack and that your life was really in danger. Take it from me, you can train all you want but training is way different then the real thing. In training, if you screw up you can start over, but in real battle or in a real life or death situation you make the same mistake, it will cost you more then a point. It'll cost you your life." James instructed.

Fox listened to it as best he could. He was still feeling the effects of the stun guns. His mind was everywhere and nowhere all at the same time. But there was one thing that kept in his mind. And that was… "You were really hit when it first started?" Fox asked slightly lest groggy.

James nodded, "Yes I was, instinctively everyone knows the difference between a fake hit and a real hit. It don't matter what type of weapon that was used. I told them to amp up the power of the first shots so it would make it look like it was a lethal hit. Normally a stun round would knock someone out for about ten to fifteen minutes, but with the added power it cut the knock out time down to five minutes. I also instructed Marv that once he seen me go down to set the surveillance cameras to follow you and the closest attacker to you." Fox jumped in before James could finish.

"But I watched you, you didn't move a mussel after you was shot. How was you able to watch me?"

James pulled out the sunglasses he was wearing at the time of the exercise, then he took off the ones he had on. Then he held them out so Fox could inspect them. "Notice anything different?"

"The ones you didn't have on just now are bigger."

James took the ones he was wearing and put them back on and motioned for Fox to put the other ones on. Fox did so obediently, then the older fox motioned for Marv to switch the camera view again. Marv nodded and flipped a switch and Fox watched as he was able to see himself standing in front of his father. He wasn't able to see anything else but the images that was in the lenses of the glasses he had on. James motioned to Marv once more, then the images faded away. "Now you understand. I never took my eye off you. And I seen every move you made and, as I said before, you did great." Fox took the glasses off and handed them to his father. "Now lets move on to the next one." James said as he pointed out to a younger looking white wolf. He was sporting a bandage on his nose and the side of his face and holding an ice pack on his stomach. He waved nicely once he realized that he was being pointed to.

"Nice hit, any harder you might have broken a rib or two. Maybe sometime in the future we should get together and have a friendly sparring match. What do ya say?"

"I'll have to think it over, right now I don't feel right." Fox said wearily. James smiled and placed his arm around Fox's shoulders. Then something popped into Fox's still somewhat scattered mind, the knife. "Dad, you said I was in no danger here, but he pulled a knife and held it to my throat, I know a fake knife and that was no fake."

"Ya, I guess your right." James admitted. "Toss me your blade." The wolf did just a he was told. He pulled his knife from its sheath and tossed it to James. James then handed it to Fox. Fox looked it over and seen that it was real alright but it was so dull that it couldn't even cut wet paper. It had a near flat edge, Fox felt a little silly now that he knew it was so dull. "They are using training gear, the very same gear they would use at the Academy to pull stunts like this. Everything has to look and feel real or the meaning behind exercise is lost." James stated, taking the knife back from Fox and tossing it back to the wolf.

"Now lastly we come to the prick who I remember telling if a shot presented itself to only shot you once. But he doesn't need an introduction, you already know him." James said as he pointed behind Fox towards Peppy. Peppy looked around him like he didn't know what was going on.

Fox's jaw dropped. "Really Peppy, you had to shoot me three times?!"

"Your crazy if you think that I'm going to let you beat on me or break something. A good soldier can read his opponents from afar. James I'm surprised that you didn't see it, but in his state one stun round wasn't going to take him down, and you yourself wanted this to look as real as it could. But I think that the point was made and I think we successfully shook up Fox." Peppy said with a laugh. Then he walked over and gave him a quick hug, "Nice to see you again, hows the chest?"

Fox punched Peppy hard in the chest, "Felling about like that."

James couldn't help but laugh at that, then he walked over to wolf and the hawk. He handed them some money and shook their hands and thanked them for their help. He walked out with Peppy and Fox but before he left the range, he did the same complicated hand shake with Marv and thanked him for letting this training exercise to be held there.

"Any time, James. I still owe you for saving my skin all those years ago. You name it, its yours."

"Take care of yourself, Marv. I got a world of hurt coming to me once Fox starts feeling better." James said with a laugh, he walked out and met up with Fox and Peppy. "Anyone hungry?"

"Sure. I always get hungry after shooting a good friend in the chest." Peppy said with a snicker then playfully pushed on Fox. The threesome left the gun range and got something quick to eat. But before they could enjoy the meal, both James and Peppy's special StarFox alert device went off, signaling that the general needed to see them at once.

"Great!" James announced sarcastically, "Always when I'm eating!" James scarfed his food and got a bag for Fox's leftovers. Then they sped back to James' house and dropped Fox off. "I'll be home after we find out what Pepper wants. Take it easy, I know your still felling the effects so don't over do it. I'll be back soon." James said as he pulled out the driveway and left for the Cornerian Military Base.