Chapter 5

Fox yawned as he walked down the corridors of the Great Fox II, with a cup of coffee in hand, red scarf around the neck, and silver jacket over the shoulders. He needed it all to help ward off the cold. Fox kept the ship's temperature down while everyone slept to save money. He'd jumped back in bed after ordering R.O.B. to take them to Corneria, but he just couldn't go back to sleep while worrying about Slippy's father. Since it was close to his normal wake up time anyway, he decided to just go to the bridge and start the day. Fox took a sip on his cup of coffee as he approached it.

The bridge's door whooshed open. Ahead, Fox spotted R.O.B. in his usual spot near the front viewing port, plugged into the navigational system. The vulpine sighed, watching the robot guiding the Great Fox II along its way. He found it depressing to walk in here each morning with just R.O.B. for company. While faithful servants, robots just didn't make adequate substitutes for a full crew of flesh-and-blood friends. He'd never quite gotten used to being on this ship just with Slippy around.

A sneeze interrupted his train of thought. Fox's ear rotated towards the sound, picking it up coming from the communications station. Since another control station blocked the view, Fox walked past his commander's chair and spotted Slippy sitting there by the radio. In addition to wearing a thick coat, Slippy kept a large blanket draped over his shoulders and a cooling thermos of coffee sitting nearby. Slippy glanced back at Fox, looking bleary-eyed, and turned back to the radio.

"How long you been here?" Fox asked.

"Ever since R.O.B. woke me up…" Slippy sighed, pulling the blanket tighter round himself. "Couldn't sleep. Couldn't stop thinking about Dad."

"I couldn't sleep either, actually. I'm real worried about your dad too."

"That's why I came in here…" the toad paused to sip from the thermos. "I want to know right away if Peppy's got any news."

"Has Peppy called?"

"Not much." Slippy shook his head. "He called about three hours ago. Dad's stable, but he's not awake yet."

"Well…that's good isn't it?" Fox smiled, placing a hand on Slippy's shoulder. "Least you know he's going to be OK."

"I know…but…" Slippy sniffled, turning teary eyed towards the vulpine. "I don't understand. Why would someone shoot my dad? Why?" The toad grabbed the lapels of Fox's jacket. "Why Fox? Peppy said there were even some bombs that went off!"

Fox raised his eyebrows. "Bombs? Terrorists?"

"P-Peppy doesn't know yet." Slippy rubbed tears away from his eyes. "I just…I really want to know. I want to know why they shot my dad too."

The vulpine found himself at a loss for words. This reminded him of how his mother Vixy died so many years ago at Sapphire City. Andross's lab used to be there, when he still worked for the Cornerian government. He was building some sort of prototype bomb in his lab, according to investigators. But one day, Andross accidentally triggered a chain reaction that would detonate it. Andross knew it was going to go off, but instead of warning people he just flew away from the city to save his own skin, the selfish bastard. Vixy happened to be in town that day on a shopping trip, and she was completely vaporized by the blast, along with the entire rest of the town. Absolutely nothing remained of Sapphire City now, except for a crater.

The universe could be so cruel sometimes, Fox reflected, as he looked out the window. To hurt your loved ones or just kill them outright, out of the blue like that. Made you feel like you were just the universe's chew toy.

Fox shook his head. "I want to know too, Slippy. But I think we'll just have to wait until we get there." He took a closer look through the viewport, spotting a curious object. The sapphire sphere of Corneria could be seen on the forward viewport now, looking like a shining gem in space. Smiling, Fox pointed at it. "Look, it's only a little bit farther now."

Fox spared a glance at Slippy, but the toad still looked anxious, as he wrung part of the blanket in his hands. No, wait. Not anxiousness. A hint of anger. Rage. The toad wrung that blanket like he was strangling somebody's neck, eyes narrowed at the approaching planet.

Fox stepped in closer, looking down at him. "Slippy, are you all right?"

The toad released the blanket, glancing over at Fox with a confused look, blinking rapidly. "Uh…yeah," he stammered.

Fox doubted that. However, he put it out of his mind for now, as he looked through the front viewport. Corneria grew larger at a rapid pace. Soon, they entered the atmosphere and the Corneria City Space Navy Base came into view far below, the sunrise bathing everything in orange. Even from here, Fox saw the devastation wreaked by the terrorists, or whoever did this. Smoke clouds drifted up from the rubble of destroyed buildings. The control tower looked like a burnt out matchstick, the concrete and metal at the top scorched black by a tremendous explosion. Emergency vehicles and personnel scurried about, covering much of the tarmac.

Who did all of this? Rogue remnants of Andross's army? Star Fox routed most of what was left of that crew at Fortuna two years ago. But Corneria didn't have the man power to hold the entire Lylat System, especially after the Aparoid invasion wiped out most of their fleet not long after the Fortuna incident. Fox would not be surprised if pockets of Androssian resistance still held out here and there. But slipping into a Cornerian base, shooting people, and setting off bombs? If it was them, they sure were getting bold now. Fox supposed he would get actual answers from Peppy though, so he decided to not dwell on it too much. He took his seat in the commander's chair and buckled in for the landing. Within minutes, R.O.B. piloted the Great Fox II to hover just above the concrete.

But even before the ship fully set down, Slippy jumped out of his chair and rushed towards the door.

Fox raised up a hand. "Hey Slippy—"

But he went out the door like a shot. Fox rushed after Slippy, surprised at how fast the toad moved. In another time, the vulpine thought this would have been funny, considering he usually walked in front whenever his team walked anywhere. Even before Fox could catch up, Slippy already opened an exit door. Orange sunlight poured into the ship through the hatchway. Slippy ducked under the door, not waiting for it to open all the way.

Fox followed after him onto the exit ramp, the blazing orange sunlight filling his vision as he stepped out into the open air. He raised up a hand to shield his eyes. He spotted the silhouette of a jeep at the bottom of the ramp, with someone short and a little portly standing next to it. Tall ears sprung out of the stranger's head. More details began to come into focus, including glasses and an impressive moustache.

"Peppy?" Slippy called out. "Is that you?"

Fox took a closer look. Sure enough, it was him. Peppy allowed himself a small smile. He wore a scarlet uniform with gold embroidery. It shone in the morning light, making Peppy himself appear to glow. Fox sure hadn't expected clothes like that. Did that mean…?

"You're a general now?" Fox caught up to Slippy at last, both of them stopping next to Peppy.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Slippy looked Peppy up and down, eyes wide in amazement.

"Well…" Peppy shrugged, the smile fading away. "I only just got promoted a couple days ago. I wanted it to be a surprise the next time we met, but then all of…this…happened." He cast a sorrowful look at the destroyed control tower and the other clouds of smoke in the distance. Soldiers picked through the debris, calling out and looking for survivors.

"Shame you couldn't have told us under better circumstances." Fox sighed, as he observed the destruction.

"Slippy," Peppy turned back to the toad, smiling. "Your father woke up a couple hours ago. He'll need some crutches for a while, but he should make a full recovery. We'll go see him now."

The relief felt palpable, not only to Slippy but even Fox himself. Slippy seemed to physically straighten up at the news, like someone took a big weight off of his shoulders. The toad rubbed his teary eyes, letting out a small smile. "Oh, that's great. Thank you…thank you so much Peppy!" Slippy wrapped his webbed hands around Peppy.

While surprised by the maneuver, Peppy just laughed and rubbed the top of Slippy's head. "Hey…just doing my job here. I'm sorry I couldn't tell you sooner. We had a lot of questions for Beltino after he woke up."

"What do you mean by that?" Slippy looked up, pulling away from Peppy.

"Beltino wasn't just an unlucky bystander." Peppy paused to adjust his glasses, narrowing his eyes. "It was Wolf O'Donnell, and he was after Beltino specifically."

Fox's jaw dropped. He didn't see that coming. "Wolf snuck in here?!"

Slippy looked just as surprised. "What did he want my dad for? Why'd he shoot him?"

"It's a long story." Peppy turned towards the jeep, waving for Fox and Slippy to follow. "But I suppose I can tell you it while we're on the way."

The three of them piled in, with Peppy taking the driver's seat, Slippy riding shotgun, and Fox getting in back. Before long they went on their way, Peppy taking it slow as he maneuvered through the personnel and vehicles going every which way. In spite of the situation, Fox couldn't help but point something out.

"So you're a general now, but they don't give you a driver?" Fox grinned, as he leaned on the jeep's roll bar.

"Oh, I just wanted the exercise," Peppy smiled, pushing on the brake and changing gears to go round a ninety degree turn. "Seriously though, I don't mind driving myself. And besides, it frees up another pair of hands to help with the cleanup."

"Why did Wolf shoot my dad?" Slippy sounded angry enough to break something, as he held onto his hand rest as they cleared the sharp turn, clenching it hard enough for the veins to be visible under the slimy skin.

Peppy gave Slippy a funny look at the tone, but started talking anyway. "Wolf needed Beltino's security access to the vault network beneath the base. There was one particular case Wolf wanted to steal. Beltino tried to escape, but Wolf shot him before he could get away."

"Wolf really did that?" Slippy's eyes widened. "After everything he did to help us fight the Aparoids? I thought he was a good guy now…"

"I hoped the same too, Slippy." A sad look crossed Fox's face. He felt more disappointed than angry. Sure, expecting Wolf to just quit being a criminal was unrealistic, but Fox realized he'd held onto that hope regardless. He respected the lupine for making sacrifices during the Aparoid Invasion to save Lylat. How sad that his rival went back to his old ways. Turning to Peppy, Fox asked, "So how did Wolf get in here? Heck, how'd he get out?"

Peppy looked as though he didn't want to talk about that. Fox could see the hare shrinking down in his seat. "Uh…well…"

Recognizing the embarrassment, Fox smiled and pat him on the shoulder. "Peppy, it's okay. You just got this job, and no one saw this coming. How could you know this would happen?"

Peppy spared Fox a glance in the rearview mirror. "Well…okay. I guess I can fill you in." He straightened up in the driver's seat. "Wolf had some outside help for his heist. Seems he hired a computer hacker to help him break in. We have an extensive surveillance network watching our vaults. There are cameras, guards, biometric scanners…you name it we've got it. But that hacker disabled most of that, and replaced our camera feeds with pre-recorded, looping footage of empty hallways and rooms. We had no idea we were blind. Wolf shot the guards watching the vault door and walked right on in."

"How did my dad get away?" Slippy asked. "You said Wolf shot him before he could escape."

"Aaaaah…" Peppy smiled. "Beltino…he's smart, but I never knew he could think on his feet so fast. He tricked Wolf into letting him use one of the terminals down in the vaults. Beltino entered his password wrong three times on purpose. When you do that, your account gets locked and an alert email gets sent to our base's IT techs. They'll see the account and where you tried to log in at.

"So think about this from IT's perspective: they get an email about someone trying to log into a computer in a highly secret, classified area. It's in the middle of the night, long after most people have gone home. And the account is Beltino's, one of our highest profile users. That's going to raise some eyebrows. So the techs called the guards at the vault entrance to see what was going on. When the dead guards at the vault entrance couldn't answer, the tech team sounded the alarm."

"Those dead soldiers…" Slippy trailed off, shaking his head. "But way to go Dad. If he hadn't done that…"

"I know. Beltino would have died, the bombs would have gone off, and we wouldn't have figured out what happened until long after it was all over."

Something about this story didn't add up to Fox though. "Why didn't Wolf kill Beltino?"

"Oh, you won't believe this. I almost can't believe what I'm about to say, but Wolf himself saved Beltino from dying."

"What the heck?!" Fox's jaw dropped.

Peppy told them about how Wolf and his cronies disguised themselves as soldiers, used the injured Beltino to walk right past all the soldiers investigating the alarm, gave him over to the medic, and then slipped away. Then Peppy told them about Bill chasing Wolf into the Meteo asteroid field, only for Wolf to escape through one of the warp portals in the area.

To Fox, it all sounded like such an amazing tale. If what Wolf did was the plot of a spy movie or something, Fox probably would have loved watching it. Alas, this was real life. Also, Fox found himself most curious about one conspicuously-missing detail. "So…if you don't mind me asking, what was in the case?"

"We don't know." Peppy didn't elaborate any further, sounding somewhat embarrassed by mentioning it.

Fox cocked his head, looking dumbfounded at the statement. "You don't know? But that's your case, and your vaults!" Fox knew the Cornerian government could be inept at times with how often they needed Star Fox's help (not that he was complaining too much), but this took the cake.

Peppy sighed. "Well…the vaults have a system for tracking cases as they move from one vault to the next, but the hacker's meddling disabled that."

Fox stroked his chin, holding onto the overhead roll bar with his other hand. "So do you have a backup plan for how to find out what he stole?"

"Yes. A very low tech one…" The hare took a deep breath. "We get a list of what was in the vault. Then we physically note every case one by one until we find a case number that's missing…"

That sure didn't sound fun to Fox. "So how many cases are in the vault?"

"Eight hundred, twenty three thousand, and two..." Peppy sounded tired just from saying the words. "It's going to take us at least a couple days to find out what went missing, even with a hundred-plus people working round the clock on it."

"Daaaaaamn…" Fox drawled, his big mouth accenting it. "Glad I'm not doing that."

"Well…" Peppy chuckled. "You can still help out, if you want."

Fox laughed it off. "No thanks. Needle in a haystack there, Peppy."

"Oh no," Peppy grinned, shaking his head before he looked Fox in the eye in the rearview mirror's reflection. "I meant something else. We could help each other here. How would you like to get paid to bring that case back, Fox?"

The talk of money got Fox's attention, drawing his pointed ears erect and hanging onto Peppy's every word. "Well, color me interested then." While he wasn't sure how he'd fight Star Wolf with just Slippy at his side, he decided he'd listen to the details and see if something could be worked out.

Peppy nodded in satisfaction. "All right. We can talk about it after Slippy sees his dad."

Fox held on to the roll bar as the jeep turned another corner, the base's hospital coming into view. If it didn't have the red cross and "HOSPITAL" on the front you'd probably think it was an ordinary white office building. However, this place was important to Fox. Back when his father James worked for the Cornerian military, he used this hospital for all of his medical needs since it was free to soldiers and their family. So, when his mom went into labor twenty seven years ago, this was where they went. Thus, this hospital became Fox's birthplace.

They pulled up at the front door. After a quick elevator ride and a stroll down the hallway, they found themselves at the door to Beltino's room. Slippy went in first, with Fox following behind. The vulpine braced himself for what he was about to see, after what Peppy had described about the injuries.

But Beltino looked much better than expected. The elder toad sat upright in his bed, a mound of pillows behind him. Aside from the bandages covering the blaster wounds and the hit on his head, Beltino looked pretty good. He watched TV on the overhead monitor, but turned to look as Peppy, Fox, and Slippy walked in.

Beltino beamed a huge smile as the three of them entered. "Well, come on in boys! Don't be shy!" He waved his uninjured arm for them to come over.

"Dad, you're okay!" Slippy rushed over and hugged his father.

"Ow!" Beltino clenched his jaw. Slippy released him. In his excitement, Slippy aggravated his dad's wounds. In spite of the pain and clutching at the bandages, Beltino still managed a smile. "My my son…your grip's getting stronger all the time."

"I'm just…really happy you're okay," Slippy bawled, shedding a tear.

"How are you doing on the Star Fox team?" Beltino beamed and put an arm around Slippy's shoulder. "Do you like your new mothership?"

"Well, it's not as good as the old one." Slippy shot a disapproving glance at Fox. The vulpine looked away as his ears drew backwards. "But we're making do with what we've got."

"Hope things get better for you soon. So son, you want to hear about the projects and inventions I've been working on lately?"

"Sure!"

They talked on and on about various things. What the Star Fox team was up to these days, how things were going with the rest of the Toad family, and so forth. Fox couldn't help but feel a little jealous about Slippy still having a living father, but he also felt ashamed at himself for having those kinds of thoughts. He decided to leave them to their conversation, and sat down on a nearby couch along with Peppy.

"It's hard to believe how happy they are, considering what brought us here," Fox whispered, aside to Peppy.

"I know Fox." Peppy smiled.

The Toads talked for another half an hour. Fox figured Slippy deserved all the time he wanted, so he occupied himself by watching the TV.

After an indeterminate amount of time, Fox's ears rotated towards the door. He thought he heard something out in the hall. He couldn't place the sound exactly, but it didn't sound normal. Fox turned his head towards the door. Was it his imagination, or did the noise sound like shouting? Whatever it was, the noise kept getting louder as it approached the room. Even Beltino and Slippy, absorbed in their conversation, turned to look. And now Fox thought he recognized one of the voices.

"Goddamn it! I'm a friend of Slippy! Let me through!" the voice called out.

"No! I told you! You can't come in here! You don't have authorization!"

"Screw your authorization! Just let Fox or Slippy know I'm here and—"

"Falco?" Fox poked his head out into the hallway.

Sure enough, he saw the blue avian standing there in a crimson red flight suit, attempting to get a mutt soldier to leave him alone, And yet the soldier continued to dog after him, pun intended.

When Falco spotted Fox, the avian just laughed and shook his head. "Can you believe these guys? They all know who I am, but they kept saying on the radio I had to turn back." He gestured to the soldier, before changing his tone to that of a mocking imitation. "'Oh no you can't land! Only the Great Fox II has authorization to land! Only the Great Fox II!' Crazy!"

"You're lucky you didn't get shot down, you SOB!" the mutt kept jumping in front of Falco, trying to bar his progress by holding his laser rifle like a barrier. "You may be a war hero but there's rules and—"

Peppy soon joined them out in the hall, looking a little amused at the incident himself. "Soldier, it's okay. You heard it straight from me. It's okay that Falco's here."

The soldier looked back, spotting Peppy in the doorway with his grand general's outfit. The grunt's demeanor changed on the spot. Spinning around to face Peppy, he shouldered his rifle on his strap and saluted. "Yes General Peppy. Sorry for the mess." Spinning on his heel, he marched back down the hallway, out of sight.

Falco dusted himself off, muttering under his breath. Once he'd finished that, he turned back to Fox and Peppy, beaming a huge smile. "Hey Foxie! Long time no see!" The avian threw out a hand, which Fox shook with a smile.

The bird then turned his attention to the hare. "And Peppy…wow! Never expected to see you wearing that! Looks like you're doing well for yourself!" Peppy smiled, accepting Falco's second handshake.

"Falco?" Slippy stepped into the hall, wide eyed. "You came here too?"

"Of course, Slippy!" Falco chuckled, as if it shouldn't have been a surprised. "Your dad got shot for crying out loud. And I heard the Great Fox II was on the way here, so I thought I'd come along and see how you're all doing."

"It's just that…well…" Slippy looked down at the floor, cupping his hands.

"I called you names?" Falco stepped over, pulling Slippy's chin up so they faced each other. "Made fun of you? Look…in the end, we're still friends. We help each other when we're down, right?"

"I…I guess so…" Slippy sniffled.

"How is your dad doing?" Falco took a step back, giving Slippy some space.

"He'll be fine." Slippy cast a glance back at the door to his father's room, faintly smiling. "So I'm feeling a lot better now. You want to come visit him?"

"Of course." Falco put a hand on Slippy's shoulder, leading him back to Beltino's room. "Why else would I come all this way?"

Fox moved to follow Falco and Slippy back in, but Peppy put a hand on Fox's shoulder. He turned around, giving Peppy a curious look.

"We'll catch up with you in a minute," Peppy called out to Falco and Slippy.

"Okay," Falco waved back, as the bird and toad disappeared into Beltino's room.

Meanwhile, the hare looked at Fox and then nodded towards an open doorway nearby, leading into an empty patient's room. Raising an eyebrow, Fox followed him in. After he walked in, Peppy closed the door and locked it.

"I'd like to talk privately about your mission. Getting back the case, you know."

Ah, maybe that explained the need for privacy, Fox thought. "Okay, go ahead."

Peppy took a seat on the side of an empty bed. "You're sure you want to go after it?"

While he really needed the money, Fox had mixed feelings about it. "I'd like to, but I'm sure you know we're short-staffed right now." He took a seat on a small padded couch, across from Peppy. "Slippy and me, alone against the Star Wolf squadron and whatever else Wolf's got? I don't like those odds." Fox wouldn't admit it, but he'd rather take Star Wolf alone than bring only Slippy along. At least then he could focus one hundred percent on the dogfighting instead of protecting Slippy.

"I know, and that's partially my fault too." Peppy sighed, folded his arms. "But I don't mind loaning you some of my pilots to help out." He glanced at the door. Falco spoke so loud the voice could be heard even from here. "Actually, if you can convince Falco to come with you, that'd be even better. Not many of my pilots could match his skill."

"Falco?" Fox looked at the door. That birdbrain bragged a lot, but he could sure back it up. Reliability was another matter though... "It'd be great with him at my back, but you know him. He's a free spirit and pretty much does whatever he wants. I'm just afraid he might bail on us in the middle of the mission."

"Falco did come all the way out here, for Slippy of all people." Peppy paused to listen to Falco's voice, then chuckled. "Also, once he knows about what Wolf did, I bet he'll be begging you for a chance to get back at Star Wolf."

Fox thought about that for a moment, and then realized Peppy might be onto something. "Hmm…maybe you're right. Before he left, Falco always complained about how bored he was."

"See? I bet he left you because he wasn't having any fun. I bet he'd love to get mixed up in a job like this."

Peppy had a good point. Fighting Star Wolf? Avenging a friend's father? What more excitement and motivation did one need? Fox smiled. "Yeah…sounds like something he'd love."

"Exactly."

Fox shrugged. "Well, I'll see what I can do. But none of this will matter if you don't know where Wolf is. I think you mentioned that Bill chased him into the Meteo asteroid field, but he got away through a warp portal?"

Peppy nodded. "He did. But Bill identified that warp portal. It goes to Fortuna."

"Do you know if Wolf's still around Fortuna?" Fox leaned forward.

"Afraid not." Peppy shook his head. "The Cornerian Navy doesn't have much of a presence over there right now. With how much we lost in the Aparoid war, we've had to pull back to defending only our core territories. Fortuna was a low priority planet, since it's mostly just small settlements here and there in the jungle. I hate to say it, but Wolf sure did pick a good place to run to."

"Yeah…and on top of that, what if Wolf is smart enough to have another ship waiting for him on Fortuna, one we don't know about? He ditches the stolen shuttle, blows it up, and then flies away in the other ship to throw us off his trail. I could see him doing that."

Peppy chewed his lip upon hearing that. It looked like that hadn't crossed his mind. "Well, if you take the job…I'd just go to Fortuna anyway. I've already got the navy moving in to set up a dragnet, but it's going to take some time. If we spot Wolf or learn anything, we'll let you know. It's the best we can do right now."

Fox nodded. He had another question he wanted answered. "Now the case… I wanted to ask about it again. Is there anything hazardous in it? Is it explosive or nuclear or anything?"

Peppy's eyes went wide at the mention of explosives. "Oh, heavens no, thank goodness." He shook his head quickly. "Definitely not explosive, at least. The specific vault Wolf broke into doesn't contain anything like that. We know that much. It's also something small, because the case was small enough for Wolf to slip into a backpack. But I'd be very careful with that case once you get your hands on it. We'll work hard on figuring out what's in it, and then we'll pass the info along to you once we find out."

The suspiciously specific denial of it being explosives triggered a lot of other unpleasant thoughts in Fox's mind. He decided to press more. "Well, if it's not a bomb, what else might it be then? I mean…I'd kind of like to know Peppy, considering it's going to be on my mothership."

Peppy fidgeted on the bed, looking uncomfortable at the line of questioning. "I'm not at liberty to say. The contents of that vault are supposed to be a secret, after all. If I told you about everything that's stored in that vault, it could jeopardize planetary security."

"Peppy, you can trust me." Fox reached out to put a hand on Peppy's leg. "You raised me after my dad disappeared."

"I know Fox, but rules are rules." The hare looked torn, glancing at Fox and then glancing off to the side to avoid the vulpine's gaze. "I'm not a mercenary anymore, so I've got to follow them now. It's just the price I pay for a steady government paycheck."

That was a good point, although it was small comfort considering who still had to handle the case. "Can't you bend the rules a bit, just for me?"

"No, I can't." Peppy shook his head. "As much as I want to, I can't."

Fox's shoulders sagged as he let out a sigh, feeling defeated.

Peppy didn't like Fox's look either, but suddenly his ears shot up. "Say, I just had an idea. You can give us a call once you've got the case and we'll take it off your hands. You won't have to transport it at all, you'll get the job done fast, and you'll get paid fast. How about that?"

Well…there was no telling how far away the Cornerian Navy would be when they got the case, but potentially not needing to take the case onto the Great Fox II and getting paid faster sounded appealing. "Okay. I think that sounds fair."

"Okay, good." Peppy clasped his palms together. "So you think you'll do the job?"

"Maybe…" Fox hesitated, as he thought about something. "…but Falco only makes three pilots, assuming he takes the job. Do you think you could lend me at least one pilot?"

"Oh, of course." Peppy smiled. "I had a list drawn up and everything."

"Like who?"

"I thought about bringing Bill Grey here, but he told me he was too busy on Katina to come help."

That was too bad, Fox thought. He would have liked to catch up with Bill, since they hadn't seen each other much since the Lylat Wars. "Okay then. Who else?"

Peppy's phone buzzed on him before he could reply. "Sorry," he whispered, pulling it out of his pocket. The hare's eyes widened at something on the phone's screen. "Oh, looks like she's in the building now." He started typing in a text.

Fox raised an eyebrow. "She?"

"Oh, yes." Peppy nodded, as he kept typing away. "In fact you've met her before. Why don't we go out in the hallway to meet her? She's almost up here."

Fox blinked. "Right now?" And who was this mysterious woman anyway?

"Of course Fox. Don't tell me you still get shy around women."

Fox rolled his eyes at that. Meanwhile, Peppy chuckled and nodded, unlocking the door. He waved for Fox to walk outside. As he went into the hall, Fox could hear footsteps approaching from the left. He turned to look, seeing someone he never expected to see in a million years. A fennec fox strode down the hall, identifiable by the huge pointed ears, pointed muzzle, and orange fur. She wore a dark violet jumpsuit with a Cornerian Navy flight jacket over it. It was Fara Phoenix, his old girlfriend from his school days.

"Fox," she smiled, extending a hand. "Been a long time, hasn't it?"

"Yeah…." Fox took her hand slowly, still feeling surprised by the encounter. "We haven't seen each other since I was in the Cornerian Flight Academy."

Even though he'd put the failed relationship behind him a long time ago, this felt awkward to Fox. But Fara looked happy to see him in any case, so perhaps she'd put the whole thing behind her as well.

"So…Fara. What are you up to these days?"

"Oh, quite a bit." She brushed a hand through the fur on the side of her face. "Working for the Cornerian Navy's done well for me. I'm their chief test pilot now, and flight lead of Violet Squadron. Getting paid a really handsome salary for my dream job is icing on the cake, too."

"Sounds like you're doing pretty good." Fox maintained a blank look.

Fara nodded, an enthusiastic smile on her face. "Definitely. How about you?"

Fox went quiet, feeling a little embarrassed. "Uh…okay I guess."

He wouldn't admit it, but he felt jealous of Fara's stable career right now. Leaving the PMC business and joining the Cornerian military always made for a tempting choice in desperate times like this, but Fox liked the freedom of doing his own thing too much. He doubted he could function well in the military's rigid command structure. It was the same reason his father decided to leave the Cornerian military himself.

PMC work pays a lot better too son, his father had said. Fox scoffed at that thought. It was great being the hero of Lylat and avenging his father and all, but sometimes Fox wondered if he made a mistake when he destroyed Andross and his army. The Lylat Wars left Corneria as the only superpower in the Lylat System. That meant peace, and that also meant little business for Star Fox. Were it not for the Saurian Crisis and the Aparoid invasion, he would have been forced to disband Star Fox years ago.

"So, you're going to go after that case Wolf stole?" Fara asked. "Peppy said you had room for one more, at least." She giggled.

He felt a bit put off by the teasing, but kept talking. "Yeah…we do."

"Well, think you'd want to bring me along? It's sad about what happened here, but I wouldn't mind getting away from Corneria for a while."

"Oh yeah, sure." He chuckled as he realized something. "You know, I knew I'd get you into the mercenary lifestyle one day."

Fara smiled back, flashing her teeth. "Haha, I guess so."

Back when they dated in their academy days, Fara wanted to work for the Cornerian government. Meanwhile, Fox wanted to follow his father's path into mercenary work. That got them fighting quite a bit. In the end, Fox decided that keeping Star Fox intact was the most important thing to him, and they went their separate ways. Maybe since both of them valued their careers more than the relationship, the relationship wasn't meant to be anyway. Perhaps that's why he hadn't thought much of her for years. Come to think of it, maybe that was also why he felt a little more relaxed with Fara compared to Krystal. Both of them were more focused on professional rather than romantic matters.

At that moment, Falco stepped out into the hall, probably hearing the talking. His eyes flared open when he spotted Fara, accented by the red outlines around them. "Whoa…Fara, didn't expect to see you here!"

"That's exactly what I thought." Fox laughed.

Fara chuckled, turning to Falco. "Life been good to you too? Haven't really seen you since that motorcycle accident took you out of the academy…"

Falco's mood deflated instantly, his face slouching into a frown. "Do you have to bring that up? I'd like to forget about it."

Fara rolled her eyes. "Was it all that bad though? You had that rich friend of yours buy you a fighter, and then you got to be a mercenary like you wanted to. You were free as a…" Fara paused. "Well…free as a bird." She smirked.

Falco rolled his eyes as the joke.

Fox remembered that night Falco had his accident, ended up in the hospital, and got kicked out of the academy, all within just a few hours. While everything turned out okay in the end, it was not a pleasant memory at the time. "That guy who bought you that fighter…" Fox said. "He wasn't really a friend, was he?"

Falco shook his head. "No…we just met that day. He wanted to race me through the city, but then I wrecked my bike during the race. He almost ran me over."

"What was his name again?" Fox asked, crossing his arms.

"Giichi. He was that little yellow cat guy."

"I still can't believe he bought you a fighter." Fox shook his head.

"I know right?" Falco looked over to Fox, still looking amazed as he remembered that night. "The money he gave me… I needed a couple of years of hard work to earn that amount."

"Where does that cat get that sort of cash?" Fox chuckled. "I sure would like to know what his family does for a living. How can you get so rich that you just spend all that money and then act like it's nothing?"

"I'd sure like to know too!" Falco laughed. "Wish I'd asked him now."

"So what is Giichi up to these days?" Fara asked, reentering the conversation.

"No clue." Falco shook his head. "We talked a couple times on Lifebook after that, but it didn't last long since I had to leave Corneria to go work for Katt's dad. That kept me really busy. I think the last thing Giichi told me was that he was going for a computer science degree at the Cornerian Technical Institute. It always bothered me though. What would he need that for? You'd think he'd be set for life already."

"Well…" Fara shrugged. "Some people just get bored sitting around doing nothing. Maybe he just wanted to occupy his time with something."

"But going to school? Why not go surfing? Or on a big space cruise around Lylat?"

"He wanted to learn just for the sake of learning?" Fara shrugged again. "It's not unheard of. You could've probably learned from his example."

"Meh…" Falco rolled his eyes. "I just can't imagine going to school simply for fun. Anyway Fox…" He turned back to the vulpine. "Slippy and his dad told me about what happened here. I wanna come with you. I wanna help pay Wolf back for what he's done."

Fox raised his eyes. Well, that was easy. "I don't mind, but I need you to stick with us the whole mission. Can you do that?"

"Of course I will!" he laughed. "How could you ever doubt me?"

Oh, other than the fact you've already abandoned Star Fox twice before? Fox wanted to say that, but didn't think it would endear Falco to stick with him this time. "You promise? With pretty pink ice cream, whip cream, and cherry on top?"

"And with sprinkles and chocolate sauce!" Falco pointed a finger up in the air.

Fox laughed. Well…how could he not believe someone with that kind of enthusiasm? Falco always got this pumped before missions where he did his best flying, so Fox had a good feeling this time. "Okay. I'll let you back on the team."

"Great!" Falco did a fist pump.

"Oh, and Fara's coming with us by the way."

Falco's jaw dropped, turning to her. "Whoa, you serious?"

"Sure am Falco," Fara laughed, crossing her arms. "So how about it? Think you and your self-taught flying can keep up with me and my years of proper training?"

"Oh, you've got a deal, girl!" Falco did another fist pump, turning to her. "Flying as a mercenary on the ass ends of the galaxy is way harder than your cushy job here. You gotta get good fast or you die."

Fox smiled as well. The jabs felt friendly rather than competitive, so he wasn't too bothered with the pair taking shots at each other. He felt good about the cohesiveness of his new team so far. However, he noted Slippy hadn't come out of the room yet. While Fara and Falco talked to each other, Fox pushed past into the hospital room. Slippy still sat near his father, the two of them having an amicable, animated conversation about hydraulics, or thrusters, or something like that. Fox couldn't tell exactly what.

"Hey Slippy…" Fox said as he approached.

The two toads turned towards him. Slippy said, "Oh, hey Fox! We almost forgot you were here. Where'd you go?"

"Peppy just wanted to tell me more about our new job."

"Yeah…" Slippy nodded. "I mentioned it to Falco and he said he wanted to come too. You all right with that?"

"Definitely. I bet we'll need his help. Fara's coming along too. You remember her from the academy?"

"Yeah…" Slippy blinked. "Really? She's coming along too? Didn't you used to be girlfriend/boyfriend?"

"Used to… We went our separate ways." He gestured towards the door. "She's actually out in the hall right now."

"Wow, first Falco and then Fara." Slippy smiled. "Kinda feels like a school reunion, almost?"

"I know. Anyway Slippy, you should ready to leave. I'm gonna tell Peppy we're ready, and then we need to get out of here. Wolf's got a head start on us, and the longer we're here the further he gets away."

Slippy sniffled. "Okay Fox…I understand." He turned back to his father.

"Glad to know you're OK dad." Slippy hugged his father one last time, before breaking the embrace.

"I'll be fine son." Beltino beamed another smile, and gave his son a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "Just go do what you have to do."

"I will Dad. I'll go get Wolf for you too."

"If you find him, give him hell, Slip."

Fox stopped and spun his head back around, gazing back at Beltino. His face whitened underneath the fur.

Slippy too leaned back away in surprise, as if his father had literally struck him with those words. "D-Dad…" Slippy stammered, as he leaned back in closer. "That's the first time I've ever heard you swear."

"I know Slippy," Beltino pat his son on the shoulder. However, his brows furrowed up over his eyes. "Nothing else feels adequate for how I feel. That's the first time someone's tried to kill me personally, and I want Wolf to pay for it."

"I don't think you're the only one who's got that feeling, Dad. He shouldn't get away with this." Slippy's voice also had uncharacteristic venom to it, as he clenched a hand around one of the bed posts. Fox found it unnerving coming from the normally sweet-natured Slippy.

"That's good Slip." Beltino smiled back. However, he appeared to sense the underlying anger too. "Just remember to come back alive too, all right? That's the important thing."

"I will Dad." Slippy gave his father one more hug, before walking to the door with the others. He turned around one last time.

"Goodbye son!" Beltino called out.

"Bye dad!"

A/N: I feel like this chapter could have been better, but I've been stuck on it for a month now. This was a very hard chapter for me to write, since I had a ton of exposition to drop and I also had to write it in a way to keep it entertaining. I will admit though, the last bit with Falco and Fara was a lot of fun to write and I got it done within two nights. The rest of the chapter took most of the month, even though this chapter was already written in my first draft of Hazardous Contents from a year and a half ago.

I made a huge amount of changes to my old text. The first scene in the Great Fox II is totally new. So is the part where Falco and Fara arrive to accompany Star Fox. Also, in my old draft it was Bill Grey and Fara going with Fox and Slippy. However, as I wrote Star Fox's part in this story, I realized I honestly had no idea what I wanted to do with Bill on the Star Fox team. He was just kinda…there. That's why I decided to invent an excuse for Falco to rejoin the team, since I have a much better handle on Falco's personality and I think he's a much more fun character to write. Plus it gives me the chance to do interesting call backs to Just Gotta Ride, as you can see. It probably won't be the last time I do that.

Now I know it's been a while since we've seen what's going on with Wolf, and I'm sorry about that. However, we will be seeing how he's doing in the next chapter. Just you wait. I'm already 1.5K words in on that one :)