As Jack, James, and Monique enter the cockpit of the Big Wyvern, the young singer lets out a long whistle. "Wooooow, James. This ship is amazing", he says as he looks around in awe of what he's seeing. He's never been in a flagship like this, and he can't help but look around the cockpit. James slaps his hand away from one of the displays, and sits in the big, comfy chair in the middle, overlooking the giant bay window that occupies the entire wall in front of them.
He picks up a tablet and searches for the contract for this job that he knows is waiting for him. "Hey, where's everyone else?", Jack wonders out loud. James isn't paying attention to Jack's question, which seems to annoy Monique.
"They all have some other stuff to do. We're all gonna reconvene once we know the details of the contract", she says to him, which gets a modest nod out of him, but he's still looking all over the cabin like an awestruck child visiting a planetarium for the first time.
"Alright, here it is", James says, pulling it up on a big screen opposite the window. "Dear James McCloud, Slappy Frog, Poppy Possum, and Jay Heisman of the Galaxy Dogs. We're requesting to contract you to pursue Black Shadow, Blood Falcon, and his troops to rescue an currently undetermined number of F-Zero pilots (somewhere between 16 and 21), and bring them safely back to their home planet or parent company. You will be rewarded 250,000,000 space credits for every individual pilot who is brought back to their home planet safely and 100,000,000 space credits for every individual pilot who'll need serious medical attention upon their return. You'll also be…"
James looks up and sees Jack about to touch another switch. He takes a little ball of energy from his command chair and hucks it at him, beaning him right in the head with it. "Quit messing with my ship, Levin!", he barks out to him. Jack looks surprised and turns to Monique, but even though she's a bit annoyed at James's bias against Jack, she just shakes her head at him, as if to say "seriously, stop touching his stuff", leaving him to just sit in the chair with his legs dangling, trying to listen to James without getting into trouble.
James continues, "you'll also be credited a budget of one billion space credits, independent of the prior rewards! Holy moly, this is the best contract I've ever gotten. And any expenses past one billion but up to 1.5 billion space credits will be reimbursed for half of its cost. Uh, blah, blah, blah, formality, formality, thick legal-ese. Signed, the Earth branch of the Galactic Space Federation. Whew, not to sound too excited in front of two people who're grieving about people they care about being taken, but I might be able to retire from this contract, and I'm really excited about that."
"It's ok, James. You're not gonna hurt my feelings", Mrs. Arrow replies, to which James starts fist-pumping in his chair, not really caring about hurting Jack's feelings.
"Wait a minute, you get a quarter of a billion space credits for every healthy racer you save? Do we count?", Jack asks.
James's eyes shoot wide open and he turns over to Jack. "You just became my new best friend."
Meanwhile, in the repair bay, Dr. Clash is finally able to get to some real equipment, and finish the patchwork job he did on Gazelle's arm. There's an air of uncertainty between the two, who just had a front row seat to a choke-out between two of the people who are expected to work together to save their fellow racers.
"Do you think we actually have a chance here?", Clash asks Gazelle as he's replacing some of the busted tubes in his shoulder.
"I don't know, Doc. This whole situation just feels so crazy, but I don't feel great about our chances. There's just too many conflicting personalities. Jack and James, Zoda and Monique, you and Jody…"
"Wait, what?", asks Clash, "I don't have any issue with Jody?"
"Doc, your body temperature increases by half a degree when you talk to her, and to a lesser extent, Monique."
The doctor is flustered, and tries to form his next words carefully. "Look, it's not like that, Jody's nearly young enough to be my granddaughter. I've just always had problems talking to women, even in a platonic or professional sense. They can feel very intimidating at times, you know?"
Gazelle shrugs his working shoulder and tries to sympathize with him, but is finding it difficult. "I mean, I guess they can be, but Jody and Monique are definitely not what I'd call intimidating, at least when you don't insult them to their faces like Zoda did. Is it a matter of feeling like you need to impress them?"
"I don't know, I've never put a lot of effort into understanding it. I just ignored it largely, and just tried to keep myself out of those situations."
"Well, Doc, we're going to be hanging out with them for a long time to come, so you might want to get that sorted out. Maybe just find chances to talk to them about stuff that interests you and see if they're receptive?"
"You know, this feels like the kind of thing that a 56-year old man shouldn't have to learn. It's rather embarrassing, but I'll try. You're a good man, Gazelle."
"Thanks Doc, it's been a while since anyone's said that."
Meanwhile (again), Jody walks into James's personal office (with his permission). His office is a bit of a pigsty, with bottles and dehydrated food wrappers all over. She moves a couple wrappers out of the way, puts on the headset, and presses a few buttons on his long-range communicator.
The screen turns on, and at first, there's no one on the other end of the line. A gruff voice can be heard just out of frame. "This better be important, Garcia. I've gotta be somewhere in ten min…", the older man stops talking in his tracks as he sees who's on the other end of the line. "Jody! You're ok!", he says with more enthusiasm than he sounds like he's given for anything in years.
"Hello, Commander Atchwa. I'm ok, and currently onboard James McCloud's flagship, the Big Wyvern, somewhere in the Sharkfin Galaxy."
The commander looks pleasantly surprised by that statement. "You're on McCloud's ship? Not the Starfox guy, the Galaxy Dog one?"
"Yes sir. He picked me and several of the other racers up from the track and the ground level after the Black Shadow situation. All of us are planning on banding together to help him get the racers back."
"Wait, really? Doesn't McCloud have other people for that?"
"They're apparently busy with another mission. Besides, we all have reasons to go out and find them. Speaking of, does anyone know the whereabouts of Captain Tanaka?"
"I figured he was with you. He hasn't reached out to us, so if he's not with you, I don't have anything for you about him." She lightly slams her fist down in frustration from still not knowing about her partner's whereabouts. "What about those other pilots you mentioned?", Atchwa asks. "We do need to get the word out to whatever family members we can to let them know their loved ones are at least not captured."
"Oh, yes sir. It's me, McCloud, Mighty Gazelle, Jack Levin, Monique Arrow, Dr. Theodore Clash… and Zoda."
That last name makes Atchwa's eyes go wide. "Zoda's actually accompanying you? We're working on an arrest warrant for him, but we haven't got it to stick yet. Has he shown any signs of hostility?"
"He's been sassy for a bit, and Monique nearly choked him out, but other than that, he's been relatively quiet. McCloud seems to think having someone like Zoda around would be handy to do 'dirty work'. I'll keep an eye on him to make sure he isn't plotting or anything, but any time he spends with us is time he isn't spending doing actual crimes."
"Understood, we'll work on getting that warrant passed. As soon as he stops being useful enough to keep around, let us know and we'll pounce on him if we can. Also, since you're already there, I'm designating you as the official GSF officer of the mission. Make sure whatever these people do stays above board, and you have authorization to make arrests, if you have sufficient grounds. Other than that, just try to keep the peace with the other racers, and maybe even try to get Zoda on your friendly side. I need to get going for now, but I'd like to get regular check-ins with you about your progress, and if Zoda's demeanor begins changing. It's good to see you're alright, Jody."
"Thank you, Commander, Summer out." As Jody exhales and tries to collect herself from the conservation with her boss, James's voice comes over the intercom.
"Attention all racers… no Jack, you can't do the announcement. All racers, please come to the war room on the fourth level of the ship, so that we can discuss our next plan." Jody nods to herself before the intercom comes on again.
"Thank you!", Jack says in his best McCloud accent, with the sound of James getting annoyed in the background. Jody chuckles a little and heads off to the fourth level.
Back at the warp gate, Jermi gets his next customer. He casually looks up and sees a pitch black ship, with a man in a red racers suit and a purple helmet at the helm. Suddenly, several troops storm into his toll booth and pin him down, with Black Shadow himself following them inside. He strolls up to Jermi's seat, like he already owns the place. "A few hours ago, you got a passenger in here, driving a big spacebus. You're going to tell me where he went."
Jermi's eyes are as big as dinner plates as he stammers out. "Th-th-the Cat's Eye Cluster, you can check for yourself, sir."
"Oh really? Pull it up then, if you'd be so kind."
Jermi goes to his computer, and pulls up the prior gates he's opened. Right there, just below the Sharkfin Galaxy is the Cat's Eye Cluster, right there in black text font. Shadow pats Jermi on the shoulder, hard enough to nearly knock him out of his seat. "Very good, *checks his name*, Jermi. And here I was worried you wouldn't cooperate. Open the gate to the Cat's Eye Cluster and we'll be on our way."
"Y-yes sir. Right away, don't-don't even worry about the toll."
Shadow smiles at him and heads out, letting Jermi exhale and open the gate for Shadow. The gate opens up, and Shadow and company fly on through to their incorrect destination. Once the Shadow crew go through the gate, Jermi smiles slyly, and lifts up his communicator to his wrist.
"Hey McCloud. Those guys came by. I sent them somewhere else, but they saw all the gates I opened. Once they figure it out, they might get to your location, but I tried to buy you guys some time. Good luck out there."
