Ten years. Ten years is what I've waited for the moment I'm biking towards right now. Dodging vehicle after vehicle, getting some horns honked and some birds flipped at me, but I couldn't care. As I got downtown, biking through the busy and clogged streets that split the concrete jungle in so many pieces, I could only think to myself, "...I can't wait...I can't wait...I can't wait!"
In a moment of distraction, I almost rear end a taxi, shifting my bicyle to the side quick enough to avoid it. I wasn't wearing a helmet, which was not only dangerous, but also illegal. Still, I never had any Cornerian police after me for it. Sometimes I'd ride right past them and they'd just yell at me to put a helmet on. Should I have listened to them? Absolutely. But I love the thrill so much more. The thrill of defying death when riding past each car, turning each lane and going downhill.
Downtown is so nice to look at. Looking forward, all you see are gray and black slim cars but when you look up, it's something else entirely. Big, colourful holograms that screamed capitalism at you. All the brands that you've seen over and over again since you've been born. Powerbox Soda, Winston's Chocolate Bars, Tyrex Automobiles and so much more. First, there were billboards. Then, screen displays. And now, this. It truly brought more life into the otherwise dull, boring look of our high-rise buildings. Always gray or white, never another single splash of color.
Finally, I was near the event. Dakota Stewarts Convention Center, with a convenient bicycle parking rack right next to it.
Sometimes I felt like I was the only that still rode a bike in this city. The rack was completely empty, so my bike was a fine temporary addition to it. It was simple, you just placed your tire in one of the available spaces in the rack and immediatelly, it'd be locked in place. I give out my name to the little console right next to the spot and there we go. Every hour with the bike there, I'd be charged more and more credits straight from my bank account. When I'd want it back, I'd just have to put my thumb against the screen so it can analyse my fingerprints.
Having myself be charged at least fifty credits per hour was always a bitter thing, but I'd rather have this than getting my bike stolen and needing to take public transportation for the next six months. I'm not making that mistake again.
A huge line was right in front of the Dakota Stewarts Convention Center, which was expected considering the type of event they were holding. Even still, I expected this line to be just a little longer. It barely would cross a block or two like when a blockbuster movie would come out on theaters. Perhaps it's the effect ten years of absence has done on people. To this city, Star Fox aren't really their heroes anymore.
I got my spot in the line after running up to it, standing just behind a couple made of two lynxes, one talking to another. I'm not a fan of eavesdropping, but I didn't have much else to hear besides horns, tire screeches and whatever weird hissing sound was coming from the nearby manhole, with a lot of smoke to back it up too. Probably some busted pipe.
"Ten years, hun!" The female lynx said to the other one, "I'm so excited! Last I saw them, I were a little girl."
"Yeah, you've told me." The male responded, quite bitterly, no expression in his voice, "...I wish I could share that excitement."
"Oh, come on, Dave, smile a little. These guys saved Corneria more than once. You probably wouldn't be here if it weren't for them."
"...If I ask you to talk about them more often with me, will we stop having like, one conversation per week?"
Ouch. That's where I stopped listening. The line moved forward a little. It seemed to shuffle forward every five minutes or so. Mix that with the increasing cold wheather and at least thirty-nine people in this line and soon you'd get quite a bunch of angry complaints being thrown at the single security guard and the guy taking the tickets.
"What's the hold-up?!"
"I'm freezing my whiskers off here, hurry it up!"
"We're gonna miss Star Fox and it's gonna be your fault!"
"Did anyone see my daughter? Where'd my daughter go?! Cheryl?!"
All the noise combined with the car horns and some loud rap being played in a nearby alleyway weren't making things any comfortable.
Then, some arguing started with the poor security guard. Some guy began pushing him and the guard pushed back. In the span of five seconds, the two were on the ground, wrestling each other for that nightstick. This certainly wasn't going to do the line any favors.
I rolled my eyes and rubbed my temples, frustration growing within me. Then, I turned my head to the left. In-between me and an alleyway just beside the convention center, was a fence that could be easily climbed over. There was a window further into it that could give me a shortcut...
No, not today. Too risky and there's already a bunch of people behind me, frustrated as much as I am. Better just wait this scuffle out. To hell with it, if they end up telling everyone to go away and cancel the event, I'll take that window and find the Star Fox team myself if I have to.
The crazy dude was eventually subdued and the police arrived to take him away. The receptionist seemed to notice the line was growing further annoyed and decided to hurry things up. He'd take tickets without reading and checking ID now, just stuffing it into his front pocket and sending him in. The security guard wasn't frisking anyone anymore either. Dangerous, but, hey, it made things quicker.
When it was my turn, I just handed him my ticket and walked right in. The change of atmosphere from a gray, cold city to a warm, beige on the walls and brown on the floor convention center was immediate, with all the noise outside immediatelly being drowned out. A stage was set up in front for the Star Fox team to get up onto, a large table with several chairs behind it, with the banner "WELCOME BACK STAR FOX!" being displayed above. Multiple chairs were spread around in front, with guard rails separating those chairs from the stage.
I just looked for the empty seat closest to me. I got to sit in the far right of the middle row, right next to a mom with a baby next to me and a man completely asleep in front, snoring loudly. Just great.
And then, came ten minutes of waiting. I could pull my phone out right there, check for messages, play a game, anything, but I tend to feel uncomfortable messing with it in public. Just that paranoid feeling of thinking someone will be looking over your shoulder and watch your personal life displayed through a small screen. So, it was ten minutes of looking around.
The convention center was old and didn't seem to be touched up often. It was clean and polished, but the walls had plenty of cracks in them and the floor was pretty creaky. The usual for such an old building. Still, I was expecting more for the return of the Star Fox team. I was expecting a lot more for sure. Hell, the way they wanted to keep the crowd's temperature cool enough to be comfortable was with several small fans around the room. The complaints I heard from people around me proved that their cheapness definitely wasn't helping the cause.
And then, when I was just about to follow the same stigma as the guy in front, a woman stepped on stage. A cute looking cheetah.
"Hello, hello!" She yelled into the microphone. The crowd was taken rather by surprise, some getting startled and jumping from their seats, "How is everyone doing?!"
The few cheers and the overwhelming silence quite summed it up. I didn't cheer, but not due to my current discomfort, but simply because I was too shy to.
"Who's ready for the return of the heroic Star Fox team after ten years?!"
That one got a few more cheers, some guy to my left yelling "YEAH!" at the top of his lungs. I could feel the excitement growing within me, getting a smile out of me. Ten years for this. Sitting in a hot, big old room with about a hundred other people, but all to see my heroes return.
"I know you all waited a long time for this! You're all very tired and you've been complaining, trust us, we know." She let out a little giggle, "But if you lovely folks could wait just a little more, the Star Fox team will be here shortly..."
As expected, the crowd quickly turned to a bunch of boos and complaints. I crossed my arms and rested back, sighing angrily. What, were they fixing up the convention center? That's the only thing they could be doing in this dump to delay things further.
Then, what were boos turned to pure cheers. I looked up to the stage away and I could spot this blue, feathered frame right behind the cheetah girl. He steps beside her and simply yanks the microphone right off her hand.
"Enough waiting!" That familiar voice shouted. People went wild, crazy. That voice, live, after listening to it only in recordings, videos and documentaries. Finally, my ears could experience it coming right from the man himself, right before me. Falco Lombardi, "Let me show you how it's done, girl." He cleared his throat, then, ran across the stage, "HOW'S EVERYONE DOIIIIINNGGG?!"
Ten years. In retrospective, it may look like a small amount of time, but, man, I mean, that phony singer Jared Winston was still popular back then, politics weren't at such a high, games looked so much worse than the ones from nowadays...and to think I thought that waterfall of blood from that game Hellhole was the best liquid physics were ever going to get in video games. Heh.
I was so different back then too. Nine years old, still having some of my innocence in me, not having seen the worst of Corneria City's rotten side yet, as it was pretty much non-existant back then. That changed over the years. I grew progressively more and more cynical, but my hope for some things, like Star Fox's return, never died down. Is there hope in me that this city will go back to what it used to be?
Yes, there is. My idols are right before me, right now. I already feel like a child again.
"That's what I like to see!" Falco shouted as the crowd lost their mind. Fox stepped onto the stage, followed by Slippy and Peppy. The crowd just kept cheering, non-stop, never running out of breath. Fox gave us all two thumbs up, Slippy waved and Peppy just smiled.
Slowly, one by one, they sat down at their respective spots at the table. Their mics were already set up before them, one for each.
"Wow, heh..." Fox laughed, "...Seems like we have a lot of catching up to do, huh?"
The crowd laughed, me included.
"Man, last I saw some of you guys, I'm pretty sure some of you were still little kids! I hope I still have that same young look of always." Fox continued.
Now that I noticed, some of them definitely looked a bit older. Peppy always looked old, but the fur on his face had quite grown into a majestic big moustache. Fox had a little chin beard rowing out, not too long, but definitely noticeable. Falco didn't look all that different, but I noticed a scar descending down his left eyebrow, though his eye seemed unharmed. On closer inspection, it looked quite similar to the one Wolf had on his blind eye. Slippy looked exactly the same, not having grown even an inch taller.
Star Wolf are something I'd rather barely touch on. When I were younger, I remember seeing them as Star Fox's biggest enemies and therefore, my biggest enemies. But they made up by the time I were sixteen. Then, Star Wolf betrayed Star Fox and did something that makes my guts twist just from the mere thought of it. I don't want to talk about it, because I know none of the Star Fox members would want me, or anyone else, to do so.
The cheetah girl got her microphone back from Falco after he had his seat. She sat just to the left of Fox, at the left end of the table, "Gee, guys, it's been such a long time since we last saw you four! Before we start with the questions, let's start with some introductions! You know, just in case our fans haven't forgotten which one is which."
Laughs echoed around the room.
"This one is Fox McCloud!" She pointed her hand to him, Fox waving his hand to the crowd with a grin, "The one next to him is Falco Lombardi!" He stood up, waving both hands at the crowd, showing off as usual, before sitting back down, "The one over there is Slippy!" There was a brief pause, Slippy waiting for her to give the crowd his full name, "Slippy...Uh, Slippy-"
"Slippy Toad." He responded to her in a calm, but definitely stern voice.
"Slippy Toad!" Finally, he got to greet the crowd with a single, somewhat awkward wave, "And finally, Peppy Hare!"
Peppy just at there, writing something on his notepad, until Slippy gave him a bump with his elbow. Initially confused, Peppy waved at the crowd with his pencil in hand, but with somewhat of a startled look on his face.
It didn't matter, though. For each individual member, the crowd cheered, and I cheered along with them. Ten years. A decade.
And finally, they were here. The Star Fox team.
"Alright, alright, alright!" The cheetah exclaimed, "And now that we had our minds refreshed, we finally come to the moment we've all been waiting for! The long awaited Star Fox QnA!" She stood up from her chair, "And now that my job of introducing you all to this moment is finished, I no longer have any reason to be here anymore!"
And just like that, she dropped her microphone onto the table and walked off.
Huh. Okay, then.
Fox cleared his throat, putting his mouth up to his microphone, "Alright, friends! Just raise your hand and ask away to your heart's content! Just please save the more personal and explicit ones, okay?"
Within two seconds, the whole room had their hands raised.
"...Oh boy..." Fox's eyebrows jumped, "...This'll be a long day."