"Alright, Jack. Let's go over this one more time", James says as the ship lands just outside Don Genie's mansion, "Why are you with me?"
"I'm a Galaxy Dog in training, and this is my first in-the-field mission."
"Aaaaand…"
"And I'm wanting to experience the excitement of an intense mission to improve my decision-making skills."
"Aaaaaaaaaaand…"
"Ummmm, and we don't know any cops?"
"Perfect! We should be just fine, as long as you just remember those little rules", James says as they walk up to the gilded front gate. There doesn't seem to be anyone visible anywhere on the premises, which sets off a couple of red flags for James. "Strange, I called ahead, so there should be a butler or something here to greet us? Something's wrong here."
Suddenly, both men are hit from behind with freeze sticks, paralyzing their bodies. Then, they both get blinded with some bags over their heads, and are hauled inside the mansion. A gruff voice can be heard saying to spin the bodies, so as they're being led into the mansion, they're being disoriented so that they aren't able to tell in which direction they're being led. Jack can barely comprehend what's happening, and keeps trying to call out to James, but nothing comes out but a high-pitched grunt. They keep being spun and led through multiple corridors, up and down stairs. It feels as though some of this is superfluous, and just being done to further disorient them, but of course, there's no way to know for sure.
Finally, they're led through one last door and sat down in a pair of wooden chairs. The bags are lifted off their heads, and the two pilots find themselves in a dimly-lit room with a single light blinding them in the center. From the shadows behind the light, emerges a rotund man, almost perfectly spherical aside from his stocky limbs and large, gaudy jewels covering his fancy, white suit. He has a cane, but doesn't appear to be walking with any sort of limp, so he probably uses it as some kind of blunt weapon. Even without ever seeing this man before, Jack's instantly able to guess that this is the infamous Don Genie.
"Jaaaaames, my good man, it's been way too long since you've stopped by", Genie says in a thick Italian accent, being way too cordial for this sort of set-up. "Boys, boys, unfreeze Mr. McCloud here, he's all good in my book", he says as his henchmen hit him with the freeze stick again. His body shivers as his muscles finally begin working again, but he's able to orient himself rather quickly.
"Upped your security, I see", James says as he rubs his aching head.
"Hey, a man on the mountaintop can never be too careful. We've had a few miscreants try to do some spywork on the house, so we've had to take precautions. I know you're good. It's this runt I'm curious about", he says as he points to Jack. Even without being able to move his body, there's still obvious fear in Jack's eyes.
"Oh him, haha, yea he's my…", James says before he's cut off by the cane being pointed in his face.
"Now now there, James, let's let the man speak for himself", Genie says while nodding to one of the goons to unfreeze Jack. As he's given his mobility back, Genie walks up to him. Even though Jack's sitting down, Genie is looking at him eye-to-eye, due to how tall Jack is. "Alright Junior, tell me a bit about yourself."
Jack tries to say something, but he's freaking out. James does a few deep breaths, trying to get him to relax, but Genie mockingly does a few rapid, hyperventilating breaths to make Jack even more nervous.
"Hiiiiii, I'm Jack", he stammers out, almost looking like he's about to cry. "I'm not a cop."
James facepalms himself as a few of Genie's men let out some chuckles. "Gooooooood, that's very good, Jack. You're now one step closer to not being fed to my chickens", he says with a twisted smile and a dark laugh. "Look, I'd love to stay here all day and torment the fresh meat here, but I've got places to be, so I'll just talk to the boss. James, what the hell are you doing here?"
"Well, Don. We're actually looking for someone, and we heard that maybe you might know him."
"Oh, I don't know about that, James. We don't get a lotta company around here, and the ones we do get, we don't usually ask for their names", he says with a little chuckle.
"Antonio Guster."
The mood in the room instantly changes. The mile-wide smile he once sported disappears into a small dash, and his monocle nearly pops out of his head. "How do you know about him?", he asks in a low, menacing tone.
"Oh, you know I can't reveal my sources", James says before Genie gets right up in his face.
"No. No, you don't get to play that card, that's my schtick. There's only a handful of people who know about Antonio being here, and if you don't tell me where you got that name from, I'll just find out myself and a lot of people are gonna have a lotta bad days."
"Go ahead, and ask around, but I didn't get it from anyone you know."
Genie nods, putting a couple of pieces together. "Ahhhhh, I get ya now, working for the feds?", he says to James, saying that last word with a bit of extra venom.
"Only because they pay the best", James replies, surprising the heck out of Jack, who didn't expect him to break Rule #3, but figuring that the honesty rule trumps all.
Genie rolls his eyes and stomps around the room, "They don't pay better than me, I can guarantee that. I've made you a very rich man, McCloud, and you're still scumming around with those bozos? I thought you were a better man than that."
"Oh don't be like that, Don. You know I don't take on jobs that conflict with your operations. I know not to cross the boss. Remember that job on Giant that I tipped you off to?"
Don thinks for a second, deciding whether or not to believe him. James still seems calm and confident, while Jack is pretty sure the two of them are toast. "Look, Jim-Jam. I like you, you get work done and I can respect that. I guess I already let the cat outta the bag, so yes. I may know where Antonio is, but if I'm gonna tell you what I'm doing with him, you've gotta give me a little more to go on. Why should I trust you if you're in the Fed's back pocket?"
James nods, sighs, and spills his beans. "Me and Antonio, and Jack for that matter, all race in the F-Zero racing league together. A while back, Black Shadow brainwashed and captured a bunch of the racers and we're getting paid by the Feds to hunt the racers down and get them back. We got a tip from the Time Police ("Oh good, more cops, I love that") that we rescued Guster from Cryton. The Time Cops and the Feds aren't in cahoots, and they don't know I'm here. They're just expecting me to find them and bring them back, no questions asked, for a mountain of credits."
Don strokes his chin, and thinks back to when he and Shadow talked. "Mmmmm, so there were a lot of racers he took, you say? Did one of those racers happen to be… Samurai Goroh?"
"Yes sir, he did."
Genie violently throws his cane across the room, hitting one of his henchmen right in the head with it. Another one runs over and picks the cane up, bringing it back to him, now that he's gotten his rage out. "Ohohoho, Black Shadow, you've made a BIG MISTAKE!", he yells to himself. "Alright, James. Today's your lucky day. That little scumbag lied to me about capturing him, he said he was one of the ones who got away. I wanted Goroh, but had to settle for Guster, but if he had him the whole time… *deep breath* anyway…"
He looks over at James and Jack, and now he shoots them a sinister smile. "Alright guys, so you know those miscreants I mentioned earlier. Those guys are part of a group called the Sabaku No Ei, Goroh's goons. I was planning on getting Goroh to go back to his clan, and get them to leave peacefully, but I GUESS THAT COULDN'T HAPPEN. So instead, I got his arch-nemesis to lead a group of my men to push those goons off my planet once and for all. You two, you're gonna join that group, get those clowns outta here for good. And if you boys can do that for me, I'll give you Guster. He's supposed to go back to Shadow once I'm done with him, but um… plans change."
James knows he won't get a better deal than that from the Don. "I think we have a deal, sir", he says as he extends an arm out to Genie. He looks down at the hand, with a look of reluctance, but he shakes his hand with a scowl, seemingly hating the concept of handshaking.
"Now before you get too comfortable with that, this is me doing a favor for you. I'm giving you what you want, so I want you to do something else for me."
"Oh, ok. What did you have in mind?"
"Well, James", he says, putting an arm around his shoulder and pulling him in tight. "You know I'm a businessman, I've got a lot of money-making plates spinning at once, and I've had my eye on something that you know very well. I'm looking to start an F-Zero team."
"Oh. Really?", James says with a surprised tone, which gets a slightly offended look out of the Don.
"What? You think I can't compete in your fancy little racing league? That I'm too old or too big or something like that?"
"Compete? I thought you were just gonna back a driver or something? Do you have any racing experience?"
"I don't really see why that matters", he says with a strong scowl. "Anyway, I tried getting into contact with them once, but they wouldn't let me in. You know I don't like being told 'no', but I'm being a good boy, and not just hostilely taking over the company. But you're gonna be my voice on the inside. You vouch for me, and get me a spot in the next Grand Prix, and you and I are perfectly square", he says with a little grin.
This really is James's lucky day. Even if they do rescue every single racer, Shadow and Blood Falcon will almost assuredly not be welcomed back in the series, meaning there'll be at least a couple of openings in the field, one of which could be filled by the Don. "That… actually sounds like something I can do, I'll get that done for you."
"Don't let me down there, James. You know I don't like it when people over-promise me, just to get out of a tight spot."
"Oh I know, I know, Don. But no, I think I can really get you in."
Don smiles at James and nods to him. "Very good. Then I think we're done here. Boys, get these two outta here. I'm looking forward to hearing from you again."
The bags are then thrown back over their heads, they're hit with the freeze sticks again, and they're led out of the mansion, constantly being spun around and led in circles, so that they can't figure out where in the house the meeting took place. After a disorienting couple of minutes, they're thrown onto the pavement of the road leading to the gate, and tagged with the freeze sticks one more time to release its grip on their bodies. By the time the two are able to take the bags off of their heads, Genie's men have vanished and they're once again alone.
"Nice guy, that Genie", Jack says.
"Yep, what a sweetheart", James replies.
