Over the next several days, the seven racers make their way through the cosmos, on their way to Cryton. One of the things they learn over the course of the trip is that Zoda does not sleep. He's being filled with so much adrenaline that he's able to stay at a high level without any breaks, like a phone that's always plugged in. Clash asks him about it, and he mentions how if the hose ever came unattached, he'd probably just die right there. But then again, he'd also have a massive hole in his head exposed, so he'd be a goner either way, and now he's just committed to it.
This makes everyone else on the ship really nervous as now this crazed gremlin man is just awake at night, prowling the halls, watching them sleep, maybe even plotting something nefarious. Jody's tempted to dart him when they go to bed, but that would probably cause more problems than it would solve, especially since Zoda's been on his best behavior lately. Even around Monique, he's trying not to stir the pot, and it seems to be paying off.
For a couple of hours every day, the gang heads to the war room, looks over the roster, and tries to come up with possible uses that Black Shadow would have for all of these people. And after a few long days of brainstorming, they've come up with a lot of good ideas, but there's one person that they've seemingly been avoiding. The Big Fish himself, the greatest racer alive, Captain Falcon. Maybe it's because they know he'll be incredibly hard to track down. Maybe it's because most of them don't want to imagine what someone as sadistic as Black Shadow would do with someone as capable as Falcon, but eventually they have to address him.
"OK, guys. We've put him off for long enough, and we're nearly to Cryton. What about Falcon?", James asks. The crew collectively sighs and puts their heads together.
"Well, part of the problem with him is that he keeps his life super secret", Jack says while twirling his laser pointer between his fingers, a skill he's gotten very good at over the last several days, "Nobody really knows what he's doing when he's not F-Zero racing, besides bounty hunting."
Jody snaps up to attention, "What if that's exactly what he's doing? F-Zero racing when the season rolls around, but also bounty hunting."
"Ok? So we just check bounty boards and see who he might be on the hunt for?", Zoda asks.
"No, I mean bounty hunting for Black Shadow, so he'd be hunting… us."
Everyone gets really quiet after that. Having the universe's greatest bounty hunter tracking you down would definitely add another handicap to this mission. Zoda's the first to say something, "I think it's for the best if we assume that Shadow's too dumb to think of that, and just assume that he's in a cage somewhere."
A couple hours later, they arrive in Cryton's solar system, and James slows the ship down, so as not to alert any long-range radar that the Don might have to their approach. "Alright guys, I think it's best if I land on Cryton alone and talk with Don Genie myself."
Jody responds, "Well, if you do that, it would probably be for the best if you're wearing some kind of microphone so that we can…"
"There is no chance I'm wearing a wire", James says bluntly. Jody looks at him rather annoyedly.
"Oh come on, we know how to hide these things so you won't get busted."
"Look Jody, you're not gonna like this, but I've worked with Don Genie before ("You're right, I don't like that"), and the way he's gotten to where he is today is by being ruthless and paranoid. The guy trusts no one without plenty of knowledge that they're worth trusting."
"And you gained that trust how exactly?"
"Not important. The point is that when, not if, he finds that wire, someone's gonna get shot, and it won't be the person whose idea it was to put it on me."
"Okay fine, then at least take one of us with you, so we can make sure everything's good, ya know?"
"You know what, Jody? That's a fantastic idea, let's take a look at our candidates. Contestant #1: Dr. Clash, would probably pee himself in the Don's presence. ("And I just don't want to go, for a more polite reason.") #2: Mighty Gazelle, would almost assuredly get pegged as a life-sized wire. ("I can be that if you need.") #3: Zoda, would definitely try to take over the entire planet with him. ("And you're gonna deny me that?") #4: Monique, uh… guy just doesn't like women, I don't know what to tell ya. #5: Jody, he likes cops even less than he likes women, so hard no. And finally there's Jack, and you couldn't pay me enough money to bring him with me."
Jody then gets a little idea with an accompanying smirk. "Well hey, let's not count Jack out just yet. ("What are you doing?") The guy's confident, not gonna be confused for a microphone, not evil, not a girl, sounds like he checks a lot of boxes. ("I'm not listening to this right now.") I think if you give him a good alibi, the guy could totally follow you in without setting off any alarms. What do you think, Jack?"
"Why do I get the feeling that I'm only being sent along to prove a point?"
"Couldn't tell ya. Still wanna go?"
"Well I mean yea, obviously, but still."
"Oh yea, you should totally send him", Zoda says, "that'd be hilarious."
Gazelle joins in, "Well, coming at this from a non-malicious perspective, it would probably be a good idea to get some time together to bond with Jack and resolve some of your underlying issues, like what happened with Clash and Jody."
"Gazelle, what the hell?", Clash asks in astonishment.
"It was a calculated risk that I feel will pay off."
"Gazelle, this isn't a trip to the soccer stadium where we can slam a couple drinks down, and go start a fight with a rival fan. This is a matter of life and death", James says back.
"Soooooo… a normal day at the office for you?", Jody asks, "Look, if you take Jack with you, I'll lay off the wire talk."
James takes a deep breath and looks at her with an annoyed scowl. "You're really not going to let up on this, are ya?"
"We need to know what the Don is saying, and until I know for sure that you aren't gonna do something really risky and dangerous, I need that verification."
"Alright fine, suit up Jack, we're going for a ride." Jack raises his arms in celebration as the two walk out of the room together, heading for the launch bay.
"Now, Clash. What was that earlier about issues we had?", Jody asks Clash.
After a little bit of prep time, James and Jack climb into the transport ship and strap in. "Isn't this the same ship Jody flew down to Porix in?", Jack asks, already prepared to ask him a ton of questions.
"It autopilots back to the Wyvern if the pilots aren't expected to fly it back", James says, already being able to tell that this'll be a long flight down to Cryton. "Look Jack, we've got a half-hour long flight down to the planet, and I really don't want to spend the entire time answering questions that can be solved with the user manual, so please try and keep it to a minimum. I'm sure you've got ways to keep yourself busy over that time."
"Um yea, sure. I've got my tablet on me, but I do have one question that I really need to know."
"Ok, shoot."
"What actually happened back in the space station? Everyone seems to be keeping that info away from me. Maybe they think I can't handle it or something like that, but it's really frustrating when people treat me like a child. Like, I'm 20 years old, not 12."
James sighs a little and nods. "Yea, I get that, sounds really uncool. OK, so you know how whenever a ship moves forward, it shoots a trail of fire and fumes out the back end. Those fires and fumes went into the loading bay of the space station. I could've avoided that by going to warp drive instead of a hyperdrive, but I intentionally did it that way to cripple their chances of retaliation."
"There's a difference between warp and hyper drives? Oh wait, is that another question? IS THAT ANOTHER QUESTION TOO?"
"It's… it's fine, don't worry. So, warp drive sends you forward by folding space-time around the ship and can go to top speed from a standstill, while hyperdrive just sends you forward with a big boom. Anyway, Jody and probably some of the others are upset with the fact that I endangered the lives of the workers on the space station, while my only real concern was just getting us all the heck out of there."
"Oh. I see. Do you know if the people on the ship are ok?"
"Not really, and I'm trying not to think about it too much. I was just trying to make sure we'd be ok. I know Jody said they're all innocent bystanders, and maybe they were. Or maybe they would all snap to attention and we'd have an armada raining laser fire on us. I didn't know, and I didn't want to find out."
Jack nods and mulls over what James says. "I see, thanks James. That couldn't've been easy."
James smiles a little and looks over to him. "You're uh, you're welcome. Just trying to keep the mission going, and not get you guys hurt. I may be in this for the money, but I do still care about getting everyone out in one piece."
There's a bit of an awkward silence as the two men try to understand how they're feeling. "So, how does a ship bend space-time like that?"
"Aaaaaaand question time is now over. How about instead of explaining the concepts of general relativity and quantum mechanics to someone who's clearly not ready to learn such things, how about we do something a little more exciting and little more important to the success of this mission, figuring out your new backstory."
"Oooooo, that does sound fun. Can I get a new name? Maybe something like Roger Danger or Frisk Lightning or *LOUD BUZZER SOUND*... What was that?"
"That is my way of saying 'no way, you're not going by a different name'. That would be a very bad idea, because in literally every room you walk into, people will be like 'oh hey, that's Jack Levin'."
"Well yea, but I could wear a disguise or something, you know. There's bound to be a costume store on the planet somewhere, right?"
"Still a bad idea, why would you even wanna wear a disguise so bad?"
"You ever think that I don't wanna be hounded by fans looking for autographs 25/7?"
"Literally never, I figured you loved that kind of thing."
"I mean, most of the time, yea, but I do wanna have some alone time sometimes. That's why I spend a lot of time on the Wyvern by myself."
"Well, I'm sure you'll be happy to know that these are definitely the kind of people who won't try and ask you for autographs. I think it would be much more believable for you to still go by your real name, not try to hide your identity in any way, and just say you're trying a new career path. Way harder to prove that that's not true."
"I'm not gonna lie, that does not sound as exciting as I was hoping it would."
"What part of this do you want to be exciting? Those are the times when someone might get shot or run over or something."
"I dunno, guess I just thought that that was a bigger part of your job."
"Sounds like we both had pretty big misconceptions about what the other's life is like."
"Yea, I guess so."
