Chapter 8

"What the hell do you mean, 'we have a problem?" Fox demanded, "Why hasn't my dad came back yet or tried to get word out about the mission if things are going to take longer?" The fox was starting to remember his nightmares. Are they coming true, or is this just some cruel joke? Fox's mind screamed trying to make since of what might be happening.

"Well, they are out of range so any statues update is out of the question. But that's not why I called you here so late at night and why it couldn't wait until morning. We received a very choppy transmission from Peppy, he said he was near Katina and that his ship has suffered critical damage. He started to say something else but a loud banging sound drowned him out then his comms died. We are not sure as to what happened to him or even if he is alive for that matter. With that being said, we are not even sure if the other are alive either. I hate to bring bad news to you, but Peppy did mention you. We don't know what he said because his comms were seriously screwed up to say the lest. That's why I called you. I have my guys looking to see if they can find him."

"How long has it bin since Peppy last contacted you? And why is it taking so long to find anything out?" Fox demanded still shaken up about his most recent nightmare and the situation at hand. Pepper sighed, then lowered his head.

"It's bin twenty minutes since we lost contact, my boys have bin working hard to find something anything out. I even woke the commanding officer at the Katina base to see if they could aide us in our search." Pepper explained, he paused for a second to look at his computer screen to see if there was any changes. "Even with the added help, there really isn't much we can do but hope and pray that we find something out of place on the scanners and cross our fingers and hope that Peppy is still alive when we do find him." Just then the general's comms buzzed in.

"General! We found him! Judging from his trajectory, he will crash into the city. Holographices are trying to determine exactly where but he is still too far off to be accurate." The soldier informed.

"About time. Good work! Keep me updated as he gets closer. Let me know if it seems like he is flying and not drifting. That would be a big clue to say that he isn't dead." General Pepper instructed. "Also, get the rescue team assembled and ready to move at a moments notice."

"Yes, sir!" Then the comms buzzed again and the soldier was gone. Fox started pacing around, his mind was full. He was scared to hear what Peppy had to tell him. But deep down Fox felt what was going on, like something was telling him. He just didn't want to hear it or believe it.

Before Fox realized it, he was nearly asleep in one of the chairs in the general's waiting area. He blinked rapidly trying to stay awake but he was loosing the fight with sleep. He was until he Pepper flung the doors open, hitting Fox's right arm hard. Jumping in both surprise and pain, Fox shouted "What the Hell, Pepper?!"

"Peppy is nearing Corneria, holographices have determined that he will be crashing somewhere in the city. At this point we are unsure if Peppy knows this." Pepper said. "I need you to stay here, I'm going with the rescue team. I'll contact you if I need you for anything." Fox stood there with a blank expression and holding his right arm. Fox looked to the nearest clock and seen that it was about 2:26 in the morning. He stretched out and sat back into his chair, and he tried to make since of things. After a few minutes he went into the general's office, it was far more comfortable then the waiting area. The vulpine paced back and forth. Seconds swiftly turned to minutes, then just as quickly they turned to hours. Just was Fox was about to sprawl out on the general's soft carpeted floor, the comms buzzed throughout the entire base. "Fox, General Pepper said they see Peppy's ship faintly. He is entering the atmosphere. And his trajectory has changed. Peppy is trying to aim for the park."

Shortly after Fox was informed about Peppy, the base's sirens went off signaling that an object was on a collision course for the city. It was quickly silenced since they already knew what the object was. Fox peeked out the window and seen the brilliant light of Peppy's ship as it streaked through the atmosphere. Then he watched as Peppy jerked his fighter to the direction of the large park near the center of the city.

Peppy gritted his teeth as he yanked on his unresponsive controls, "Come on you bitch! To the lake dammit!" His target was nearing and his controls where failing. But he was sure enough that he was going to hit the water. Better the lake then the pavement, he thought with a light chuckle. His warning sirens where blaring and his ship was so badly damaged that his extended fuel cell was cracked. With the cracked fuel cell, it started to leak but it wasn't noticeable until he tried to contact General Pepper to tell him about what happened. The leak and the damage to the rest of the ship caused a small explosion which completely destroyed his comms and crippled just about every sensor he had installed. Along with that, the damage didn't stop there, it spread to the controls and his weapons where completely useless. At this point he would have bin better off flying a duck taped cardboard boat then his ship at this sorry state its in.

After a few long seconds of fighting with the failing controls, he had his ship aimed just the right spot so he would hit the lake instead of the surface. Just when he was ready for the impact with the lake, another explosion erupted from the underbelly near where his Nova bombs would have bin stored. If he had a Nova left, that would have bin it for him. "Holy shit I'm glad I used that last Nova before I skedaddled out of there!" Peppy said with a huge sigh of relief, but his relief was cut short once he seen that the explosion knocked him in line with the ground.

"SHIT!" He screamed as he pulled on the controls.

The ship slowly responded to Peppy's despite attempt at gaining control. "It's going to be photo finish." Peppy grunted, expecting to slam into the ground but hoping he would land into the water.

The ship was now a flying smoldering mess, but it was at just the right angle that if Peppy did hit the ground, he wouldn't explode on contact. But he still tried his damnedest to ensure that he was going to make it into the water. But he was too close to the ground and going too fast to do do much to fix it.

Peppy slammed into the lake's shore, ripping off his left wing entirely and causing the right wing to fold up and such an odd way that it didn't resemble a wing anymore. The force of the ship hitting the ground caused him to bounce slightly. It rocketed the ship up and since the left wing was gone and the right was all but gone, Peppy started to roll over to the right and the ship twisted as well. He slammed into the water which tore the right wing mostly off. The force of hitting the water caused Peppy's restraints to fail and he was thrown about inside the cockpit. His face slammed hard against the console, rendering him unconscious. But as Peppy's consciousness faded, he could hear sirens.

Peppy awoke after a wile, he wasn't sure how much time passed. He blinked his surroundings into focus and realized that he was in the hospital but the first thing he noticed was that he was only able to see out of one eye and his head felt like there was jackhammers going to town in his head and on the right side of his face. Groggily, he sat up, shortly after he wished he hadn't. "God, feels like I drank half the booze in the city." He muttered aloud to himself.

"Then crashed your ship into the park, don't forget that." A voice said, Peppy flinched slightly not expecting someone to be there. He glanced to see General Pepper and Fox standing in the doorway. "So I take it you feel like your hung over?" Pepper said, avoiding the obvious question. He nodded slightly.

"If that isn't the understatement of all time, then I don't know what is." Peppy replied, "So I'm guessing your wanting to know what happened, right?" Fox lowered his head slightly. "I take that as a yes. Well we ended up walking into a trap. If it wasn't for James, I wouldn't be here right now."

"Andross knew we where coming. He mentioned that in his little back and forth with James. We didn't know anything well that was until Pigma busted out in laughter. After James and I was on our last leg, so to speak, he openly admitted to divulging everything to Andross. Our plan of attack, somethings that even I didn't know about, and the weaknesses of mine and James' ships!" Peppy paused to take a breather. He held his head for a moment before continuing again. "We where so outnumbered it, James didn't like it. And that's something, you know as well as I that James like a good challenge but this was a slaughter. We stood next to no chance to this. We fought as hard as we could, the last thing James said to me before the fight was to tell you, Fox, he said that he loves you and that he will always be watching over you." Peppy paused once more to let the information soak in. Fox had a blank expression on his face, he was unsure if this was all just one big joke at his expense or if he was having another nightmare.

"So what happened to my father?" Fox said finally, breaking the silence that enveloped the room. "What happened?!" He demanded once it clicked that this wasn't a joke.

"Okay, don't yell. I'm getting to that. We'll we took out as many as we could. I was able to shoot down Pigma after the main part of the battle subsided but he survived, the crash at least. He punched out just before he crashed, but James activated a secrete system he had up his sleeve for a very long time. The computer said something about a Seeker system was activated. And it had a fair amount of the ships left, targeted and Andross' base was targeted and locked in. I have no clue what that meant but it sounded like his last resort weapon. He explained it saying that it was an active targeting system or something like that. And before you say it, he already explained that he wasn't using Nova bombs. He was using the miniature tactical nukes you ordered him to dispose of years ago. I thought he took them and disposed of them accordingly but I guess he didn't. He also explained that they where retrofitted with the same active targeting as the Seeker system, a fail safe in case he was killed in action after he launched them. Andross challenged James, saying that if he faced him one on one that he would let me go, of course I refused but James told me to leave. I knew that I wasn't able to help much more, I was planning on punching it with James right after he launched but he used himself to spare me. He left his comms on, by mistake I would assume. So I heard the entire fight and it wasn't pretty. He was being thrashed about by some giant mechanical monstrosity." Peppy started tearing up, he was remembering the sounds of his dearest friend fighting to save others knowing that he was going to die in the process. "I told him to launch the missiles just before I was out of range. I wasn't able to get a response but I was answered by the detonation of several nuclear ordnance. I think that was the start of my ship's major problems was when I was hit with the shock wave." Peppy chocked up before he could finish his story but he got out the important things. Fox fell to his knees in tears, shacking his head.

"No! No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!" He screamed in agony. "I...he wouldn't...No!" General Pepper placed his hand on the grieving fox's shoulder, but Fox jerked away violently quickly jumping to his feet. Backing up until he hit the wall.

"Fox, your dad died to save us all. He died a hero." General Pepper said trying to calm Fox down. But it wasn't working.

"No! He wouldn't leave me alone!" Tears running down his face he pulled himself away from the wall, then sprinted out of the hospital wing where Peppy was at. He ran as fast as he could until he was out of the hospital and away from anyone and everyone. Once he gathered his wits, he found himself in a wooded area. He wasn't sure where exactly but he was alone. He went to the nearest tree and leaned hard against it then slid down onto the ground and continued to cry. After a good half an hour, he looked up to the tree that provided the moral support for the time, then the vision of Andross started to take shape in the bark.

"Ahahaha!" Andross snorted. "I killed your wimp of a father and your next, little cry baby! I just hope your able to put up more of a fight then that bitch you called a father!"

Fox screamed in pure hatred and hit the tree with all of his might. "YOU'RE FUCKING DEAD! JUST YOU WAIT YOU FAT FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT, I'LL KILL YOU SO FUCKING SLOW THAT YOU'LL BEG ME TO END IT QUICKLY! I'LL CUT YOUR FAT UGLY FUCKING HEAD OFF!" He continued to punch the tree with every ounce of his strength. He ended up busting off the bark and exposing the clean wood, but it didn't stay clean, it soon got a red tint to it as Fox's knuckles started bleeding. Pain shot through his hands, but the enraged vulpine didn't care. He was staring at his worst enemy and was trying to kill it. "GAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" He continued to scream.

"Is that the best you have to offer?" Andross taunted. "If that is, then I have nothing to worry about." Fox's eyes where turning red with the pure malice and rage. The pain subsided when the tree finally started to crack. After pummeling the tree for an hour, the tree finally gave away and fell over. But Fox wasn't done. He was still enraged but once the tree gave away, the pain in his hands hit hard. He dropped to a knee, still upset about Andross and his father leaving him alone. He ripped off a piece of his shirt and wrapped it around his hands to stop the bleeding. He went to his house, it wasn't home any longer. As the very old saying went, 'home is where the heart is' but his heart died by the hands of Andross. Once he got back, he went where his father used to hide the liquor and pored a glass to drown the memories and to dull the pain in his hands.

Weeks went by and no one really seen much of Fox. Peppy stopped over to check on him, but Fox never answered the door. Luckily Peppy knew where James hid the spare key, he went in and seen the house was completely untouched, save for the kitchen and Fox's room. They where trashed beyond belief. Bottles everywhere, general trash thrown about, there was a steak knife stuck in the wall, with several fist sized holes around it.

"Must have seen him again." Peppy said aloud to himself. He knew about the tree incident, he was able to catch Fox shortly after and questioned him about it. Fox didn't really answer but just kinda nod and grunt. Peppy followed Fox once to see what he was doing and where he would go. He found that Fox had bin raiding the nearest liquor store from time to time and when he wasn't going there he would go the local gym and beat the sand out of the heavy bags. So far he has ruined 6 different bags. During the time at the gym, Fox would put on a face, acting as if things are okay.

Fox played the part so well that he even made friends with Falco. But the rage was so radiant that it caused them not to hang out that much except at the gym. But that sat fine with Fox's new lifestyle. A few more weeks passed before Fox realized what he has bin doing isn't working any more. As the memories came back, he was desperate for them to go away again. He started wondering around for a bar with loud music and hard booze to drown the pain and memories. But even after as much time has past every place Fox went too was either closed for respect of James' death or they wouldn't allow any noise above a standard talking tone. Fox attempted to be at one of those bars and seen five people thrown out for getting too loud. He promptly left after that.

Fox wondered aimlessly down the dark streets of the underside of Corneria. He was looking for a bar to drown his anger towards his father, and his sorrow for being alone. "Why!?" Fox cried out, slamming his fist against a steel dumpster. He slumped down to a knee almost in tears. "Why did you leave me?" The vulpine said between silent sobs. He quickly composed himself when he heard the sounds of several distant footfalls advancing in his direction. It didn't take long for the creatures to get to where Fox was at. They looked at him then snickered to each other.

"Get out of here, bum!" The eldest looking male otter sneered, then his two female companions giggled. Then the fourth follower of this little group, and quite possible the dumbest, poked Fox in his chest.

"Ya! Trash like you is why this city is starting to rot!" The younger looking black bear said. Fox widened his feet as the bear poked him. The two females giggled at Fox's situation, then added their own jeering expressions to the mix.

"Touch me again and I'll rip your arm off." Fox said softly. The group that radiated stupidity, just laughed at his threat.

"Really? You think I'm scared of gutter trash like you?" Then he proceeded to poke Fox again, but the vulpine grabbed his hand and twisted sharply. Fox heard a satisfying crunching sound as three of the bones in his hand and wrist snapped. Then Fox yanked the broken wrist up, snapping another bone, he placed the back of the bear's hand on plushly with his forearm. The bear was screaming and cussing up a storm all the while. "You fucking broke my fucking hand!"

"I'm not done yet." Fox declared darkly. He let go for a brief moment. The bear grabbed his wrist and began to cry. Fox then swung his left leg up as hard as he could, kicking the bear in the face. Using the momentum he did a back-flip and used his right leg to break the bear's forearm. As Fox landed he back-flipped away from the group then adjusted his collar and left them to their thoughts. The last thing Fox heard them say was, "Who the fuck was that and where the fuck did he learn to do that shit?!"

Ten minuted passed since the stupid group bothered Fox. He knew it wasn't a smart idea to go into this particular establishment but he didn't care. Let them try something, he thought. This place was more a night club then a bar. And it has a bad reputation for a hang out for criminals and thugs alike. But that wasn't Fox's main thought, it was a place that still serve and still had loud music playing. Those two things are what Fox was looking for.

The place was brightly light with a mix of light red and flashing strobe lights. The song that was blaring was in another language that Fox didn't recognize but the beat was a little uplifting.

Author's note: the song that's playing in the bar . The song is Bad Apple! from the Touhou Project and part of the lyrics are listed here

"Nagareteku toki no naka de demo kedarusa ga hora guruguru mawatte
Watashi kara hanareru kokoro mo mienai wa sou shiranai" was some of the song that was playing.

Fox had no idea what was playing or what it meant but he liked the beat with it. He weaved his way through the crowd of dancing creatures and found an empty seat at the bar. Fox motioned for the bartender and ordered a hard drink. A few seconds later, Fox had his drink and was about ready for a fill up. The music wasn't as loud at the bar, but it was still loud enough to keep his mind quiet. Fox picked up his glass and slashed the brown liquor around. He gulped it down then motioned for another. He got his drink and downed it once more, slowly feeling the memories slide away and the pain slipping to a dull nuisance.

As Fox drank himself back into his slump, a seemingly drunk tiger in a black duster coat with black cargo jeans and black kind of worn combat boots on sat in the recently vacated seat next to Fox. He tried to make small talk but Fox wasn't really in the talking mood.

"Say buddy, how's the drinks tonight?" The tiger asked with a slight slur in his speech. Fox shrugged his shoulders. "Ya, I figured that. The way your pounding them down, they must not be doing their job." Then to the bartender, "Barkeep, get me a double of what my friend's having. And one more for him." The bartender nodded and slid down the drinks. "Cheers." They drank in silence for a few minutes after that. But once more the tiger sparked up a conversation with the now intoxicated vulpine. "Say buddy, you look an awful lot like the gent who died recently. Say what was his name again? James McCloud, I think it was." Fox slammed his glass down on the bar, nearly shattering the cup. The others around him jumped slightly, but quickly returned to their own business.

"What did you say about James McCloud?!" Fox demanded as he slowly turned to face the tiger. The tiger finished his drink then faced Fox. That's when Fox noticed a nasty looking scar going down through the center of the tiger's right eye. The tiger's dark brown hair blocked most of the view to his forehead. Fox's eyes flashed with rage, mostly drunk rage. The tiger stood up and looked at Fox, he could see the blind anger in his eyes and he knew what it meant.

"I didn't say anything bad about him, I just said you look a lot like him. Maybe even closer to that son he had, but he looked cleaner and more tamed looking fur. You look a little feral to be his son." Being drunk, Fox mistook that as an insult and got even angrier.

"Alright! Let's go! Right now, you and me!" Fox said as he took a fighting stance that couldn't defend him from a wet paper bag. The bartender seen what was about to go down.

"Take it outside!" He said as he pointed to the door. Fox went to the door constantly looking behind him to make sure the tiger was following him. Once they where outside the bar, fox tried to continue with the fight. The tiger looked at him.

"You don't want to be doing that, you're no match for me sober let alone as drunk as you are now. If your still willing to do this, then so be it." He warned taking his own stance, his lifted his right arm up over his head slightly in a curved angle, with his finger locked and pointed out. His left arm angled the same way but it was pointed down and level almost to his waist. His stance was a little wider then his shoulders and he bent his knees slightly and pointed his left foot towards Fox and left his right pointed normally to keep from loosing his balance. "This is your last warning, after this I will beat the hell out of you and you'll never know what hit you." He advised once he was finished taking his stance.

Fox started to make his way towards the tiger but was stopped by a blue falcon and an older hare. "Let me go! I have to beat this fucking tiger for what he said!" He hollered as he was pulled away.

Author's note: I'm currently working on Chapter 9 right now, I have lost the drive (so to speak) and i'm doing my best to get the juices flowing again (once more so to speak). Things aren't ok so if your willing to wait, i'll do my best to make it up. and as always if you have any ideas or suggestions or noticed any spelling errors or wrong word usages, please let me know. Thanks for taking the time to read this xD

SC-SafeCracker 10/04/2013