Urgh.
Uuuuurgh...
This freaking story. Urgh. Why did I even name it that? I hit a wall with it. I was halfway through being done with the fifth chapter. The courageous, brave scientist armed with nothing but a machine gun and a pipe wrench, was about to tango with the biggest monster he had seen yet. A big, red ferocious one-eyed mutant panther, its size being of a truck. He was trapped in a small office, the big panther trying to reach inside, trying to crush the scientist with its hand. There was no way out, it seemed like he was doomed...
How the hell is he supposed to get out of this?
Great, looks like I've written myself into a dead-end. I saved the project and closed it for now. My eyes were so tired. My head was spinning. It was two in the morning. I had to go to sleep.
I crashed into bed on my back. Within seconds, it was lights out for me.
I woke up to the sound of my PDA going off on my desk. It took me a moment to sit up, place my feet down on the floor and stand up. Picking up my PDA, I'd see that my beloved sister was calling me.
"Yeah?" I answered, placing the PDA up to my ear.
"Where are you, dude? I've been calling you for the past hour. Are you at the docks already?!"
Oh damn it! I had completely forgotten about...well, that. It was like my mind had chosen to obscure this event from it. I had been starting to regret it ever since I told her all about it. But now...now it was too late.
"No, no, I'm...back at home. Be there in ten." I said, hanging up. Just what the hell was I thinking? What the hell am I gonna do now? Grab a blaster, go down to the docks and then shoot whoever tries to stop us from breaking into Corneria City's most famous TV presenter? God, I was dumb. I just wanted to go back to bed and sleep the day off already, go to work next morning and return to normalcy.
But now it was too late for that. Grumbling, I stepped out of my room. I quickly did my morning chores before heading downstairs.
Grandpa was there. Just...staring at his clock as always. I rushed to the door, grabbing the door handle.
"Where are you and your sister going?"
I froze up. I completely, completely froze up.
I thought my ears were playing tricks on me.
I thought I had finally snapped and lost my mind.
But no. For the first time, in two years...grandpa finally said something to me.
I turned around, facing him. He was exactly the way he were before, staring at that clock. Ticking. Tocking. Counting the seconds left in his life. In a way, I felt like it were counting mine too.
"We...We're going to hang out with some friends." I responded. Grandpa Jones did not react. He did not move. But he spoke, again.
"Be careful. Something big comes your way." He spoke. I had almost forgotten what his voice sounds like.
"...How do you know?" I asked.
"It's time for you to become a man and her to become a woman." He, then, finally would look at me, "You will change. Change in your lives is coming."
We stared at each other, it felt like an hour, but it were nothing but a minute. Grandpa returned his gaze to the clock. And I stepped outside, shutting the door behind me.
Today was gonna be one of those days.
I chose to walk instead of riding my bike. Thornberry Street was close enough and I knew where Lady Fay's Flower Shop was. Fay was a sweet dog. She was drafted into the Cornerian Army and was a combat veteran. She had a daughter named Trix who was only a year younger than me. We had a thing going for a while a couple of months ago, but we ended up splitting up. On good terms though, at least.
And speaking of her, guess who I saw when I walked up to Fay's flower shop? Not just my sister Tara but Trix herself, both chatting with each other. They took note of me and waved me over. Tara opened her arms.
"There he is," She said, looking over to me, "Took the scenic route, huh?"
"Something like that." I responded, giving her a fist bump. Then, I looked over to Trix. We smiled at each other and waved. Not much else besides that. After that, she just went into the flower shop. Part of me couldn't help but wonder if it was because of my presence.
"So, where's your guy?" I asked Tara.
"Went to go get something. Should be here in..." Before she could finish, we heard a car horn behind me. Turning around, I'd find myself staring in pure awe, as this blue Wutana Melbrook pulls up right in front of us. Wutana was responsible for some of the most luxurious cars in the entire city. Having a Melbrook...well, it was no easy task at all. It was a four-door sedan, a fly catcher on the hood, vent over the roof, spoiler on the back and powder-coated steel rims.
My first thought was, 'This is one awesome car'. But then, my second thought was, '...This is going to bring a lot of attention'.
Before I could vocalize my thoughts however, the door would open. Out, stepped out this tall horse with a white and brown coat. He wore a black leather jacket, white undershirt, stupidly tight jeans and white kicks. Walking over to me, I kept my eyes up to his the entire time. Compared to that panther, this guy...this guy didn't scare me so much. Maybe my protective fraternal instincts spoke louder than my fear, but this guy was dating my sister. I couldn't look weak in front of him.
"What's up?" He extended me his hand, grinning. Dude's voice sounded like he had set his vocal chords on fire in the past. Definitely the result of years upon years of smoking expensive cigars, judging by his breath. I'd grab that hand, giving him a firm handshake, "Name's Leo! You must be Chase, huh?"
"That's right." I nodded as I looked up to him, "You must be my sister's boyfriend." I crossed my arms, taking a moment to look over to her.
"That's right. Your sister is just the most adorable thing, isn't she?"
"Oh, shut up!" Tara covered her face as she blushed. I remained stoic.
"Hm, well, I heard you two have been up to...stuff, for like, a few months now?" I asked. He smirked, waving his hand dismissively.
"You don't know the half of it, bud." He gave me a snide grin.
"Yeah, well...Look, I don't know and I don't care right now. All I know is that I gotta get into a warehouse down at the docks."
"Oh, that won't be a problem at all, pal!" With that, he pulls out a freaking machine gun from his back pocket and cocks it. Shivers go up my spine.
"Whoah, whoah, whoah, put that away, dude, we're in public!" I said, eyes wide, tail curling between my legs, why did everybody in this crazy ass city always have a problem with keeping their guns in their pants?! "Come on man, that won't be neccessary. Put that away!" I requested. Leo grinned, resting that thing over his shoulder and putting his hand on his hip, probably feeling like the baddest dude in all of Corneria. From my educated and scared shitless perspective, the only thing he looked like was a maniac with a gun, "Look, I just gotta get into that warehouse while you two watch my back. Nobody has to get shot."
"He's just messing with ya," Tara would say as she bumped me with her elbow, "Babe, put the gun away." At least he'd listen to her, putting that thing back where it came from, the back of his pants. Seemed like a popular spot to stuff guns in, so mentally, I took notes. Tara would look at me, "Me and Leo did some scouting on the port while you were asleep. You said red warehouse, right? There's a stairwell on the behind that leads to a second floor office. You could start there?"
"Wait, you two scouted the port?" I asked, frowning my eyebrows.
"You sleep long as hell, boyo." Leo would say, "No worries, though...Tara kept me company." He winked to me. Goofy prick.
"Look, let's just get this thing started." I pointed to the car. Soon enough, with all of us inside, the roar of that engine would fill the streets. With Tara in the passenger seat and Leo, or 'Mr. Goodnight' as he was called, in the driver's seat, and me in the back strapped to an invisible booster seat because I sure as hell felt like a little kid in that car, we began driving down to the docks.
By the time we got close, Leo parked the car in an alleyway. Stepping out of that car felt like freedom. It smelled like a hundred different brands of cigarettes in there and a hundred different more of liquor. One second more and I think I would've painted those leather seats with a fresh new coat of puke.
"Alright, so what're we doing?" Leo asked, slamming his car door shut, subtlety being a rarity these days, "We going in headfirst? That sucker in the guard booth looks like he's dying to see some action!"
"We're not doing any of that!" I told him, "I know a hole through the security fence, just this way." I waved them over to follow me, wandering in the direction of the hole I had used the other day, "Come on, this way."
"Hole, huh? Oh yeah, I loooove going in holes." Leo laughed, Tara gasped.
"Leo! Jeez, dude, that's my brother!" She said, her face going red. The horse just laughed. Clearly he wasn't taking the situation seriously. I was getting pretty sick of him already.
If you thought it was awkward to bike through the docks with some workers giving you weird looks, it was even more awkward with these two. While I walked ahead leading the way, everytime I looked back to them, Leo was always doing something with Tara, both of them laughing, bringing everyone's attention to us. Things like tickling her sides or groping at her. I would've appreciated if they had saved all that for later when I wasn't present, but, hell, it seemed like I was the only one taking that entire situation seriously.
Then again...what the hell was I doing? I should be leaving this to the police, or, well, the Star Fox team themselves. Whatever that guy said, I'm sure that they're more than well-equipped to defend themselves for whatever's coming their way. They're professional mercs. They saved Corneria from the Aparoids. They saved Lylat from Andross! What the blazes was I doing here? I could barely kill a fly. I felt like an ant poking at a hornet's nest. But it was too late now. I was in this for good. I was gonna show those two behind me how much this whole 'secret mission' I was on meant to me.
When I got to the hole in the fence, I was surprised to see it still there, still intact. Security was weak around here, but wow, I didn't know it was this weak. I pulled the fence apart, "Ladies first." Leo said, slapping Tara on the rear. Every passing second, this man tested my nerves. Was he like this with her all the time or was it just because I was there? To him, I was probably just a little kid who didn't know any better, thinking he was hot shit breaking into a place where security barely gave a damn in the first place...
Tara went first. Leo went right after and I went last.
"Alright, spec ops, where's the red warehouse?" Leo asked, putting his hand on my shoulder. I pointed east.
"Right over there, by the yellow crane." I said, then I paused myself, "Wait, I thought you guys scouted this place?"
"Oh, uh, we were...busy." Tara said, winking at Leo, "We probably saw the wrong warehouse, hah."
"I was looking somewhere else myself." Leo said, simply walking ahead, putting his hand on her cheek. She responds by pressing herself up to him, "Could you blame me?"
"Not at all, big boy. Not at all." She responds. And before I could get a word in, Leo presses Tara up to the containers and begins making out with her.
What the shit.
I simply stormed past them, heading to the red warehouse myself. If they won't take me seriously and will only see this as an opportunity to have a 'dangerous date' or whatever they had in mind, then let them. I'm taking the reigns now.
Walking over to the red warehouses, there was no white truck around, so that panther probably wasn't around, but I had to be careful anyway. Staircase behind the warehouse, huh? Let's check that out then, if they were looking at the right one.
Rounding around the warehouse, I made sure to be aware of my surroundings. Go around the back...and well, would you look at that, they were right! A metal staircase led right up to the second floor, where a white door with a glass window were. So they did do at least the bare minimum of scouting. Slowly, I made my way up to the steps and crouched down behind the door. Peering in, it looked like it was clear, the office inside was empty. I could see a big desk, a computer and a few filing cabinets, as well as a door that led out the room. I twisted the door knob to make my way in...and, nope, it was locked.
Well, that put a big spanner in the works. What'd I expect ? That they were just gonna leave the door open for me, a big red carpet down the steps with a huge banner on top saying 'WELCOME CHASE!'?
Well, now what? I looked around, seeing if there were any other options. That was when I spotted a window, just a few meters to the right of the door I tried opening. One problem though, the window had no catwalk underneath. If I were gonna try to reach for it, I'd be risking falling down and probably busting my skull open. The window itself, however, was open.
It was either this or going back to Leo and Tara and seeing if any of them knew how to lockpick. From my first impressions of 'Mr. Goodnight', I assumed he'd probably just shoot the lock of this door open.
I decided to go with my idea.
"Easy, Chase..." I said as I stepped onto the railing of the catwalk. I could hear it creaking under my feet. That thing was rusty, it probably hadn't been maintained for months. It could collapse at any moment. The mere thought of that was giving me cold feet.
I was starting to have second thoughts. But what was I to do? Wuss out and ask Leo for a ride back home? No, no way. I had to prove myself. It was time to become a man. By jumping from the railing toward the window and grabbing onto the windowsill.
And I leaped.
"W-WHAT THE HELL AM I DOIIINNGGGG?!" I yelled as I desperately grabbed and clung to that windowsill with my life. I was risking at least a 25 foot tall drop! Using my feet, I could lift myself up into the window, crawling myself up and into the window, not even thinking about it, just doing it before my palms sweated too much.
Once inside, I landed on my back. The cold, hard floor of an office, empty just like the other one, never felt so good, "Oh man...oh, my stars, I...I'm never doing that again..." I said, running my hands down my face. I could feel the sweat under my fur.
I sat up, analysing my surroundings. It was an office, much like the other one, but just as empty. I'd grab onto the office chair to help myself back up onto my feet. A computer was turned on, the home screen at show. I was quick to lean over and inspect what was on the desktop. It looked like they had a window minimized on their browser. Quickly clicking the icon on the taskbar, I would be led to somebody's StarMail account.
I scanned over the e-mails, reading their subject matter, most of them seemed like standard work stuff related to the importation of what seemed to mostly be studio equipment, undoubtedly for Bale Domino's TV show. Other mail was mostly spam. Genitalia enlargement pills and the like, nothing unexpected there.
Until...a strange e-mail caught my eye. Its subject line was...interestingly vague.
'They Are Coming', was the subject line. Opening it up, a couple of paragraphs were shown, all very short.
'They are coming. The QnA happens next week. I left a note in your desk telling you what to do and what to say.
Go there, say what you have and come back. Be loud and clear, I want Fox to hear it word for word. Don't tell anyone else about this or I will have your tail for lunch.
And please, do wear something fancy for once.
Your friend,
Eldon.'
A cold chill ran down my spine. Looks like I had found the dingo's office.
And to speak of the devil...the door suddenly opened and the man walked right in, drinking a cup of water, wearing only a white shirt with a black tie, a pair of black suit pants and dress shoes. Once he saw me, his ears perked up and his eyes shrunk.
We stared at each other. We looked into each other's eyes, waiting for anyone to make a move first. It was like a duel in a Smiling Joe comic book, on the very last issue, where he and McMann, wearing space suits, had a blaster duel at the very top of McMann's space aircraft carrier.
The dingo took a step back. I lunged forward. He tried to run into the hall and call for help but I was faster, I jumped and tackled him to the ground. I wrapped my arms around his neck and brought him up to his knees, then I pulled him into his room, where I kicked the office door shut.
I slammed him into a filing cabinet, causing it to collapse against all the others like a domino effect. I, then, put my hands around his neck, holding him down, "What's going on around here, huh? Who are you and what do you want with Star Fox?"
"I-I don't know what you're talking about!" He croaked. I squeezed his neck just a little harder.
"I read your e-mails. Who is Eldon?!" I was doing my best to sound hard right now, trying to do my best imitation of Iguana Trevor from Corneria Vice, but I probably sounded wimpish, if not even more scared than that guy were, "Answer me!"
"I can't tell you!" He said, coughing, "You don't know what you're messing with!"
"No, I really don't. But I'm going to find out." I responded, easing up the grip a little, "You said something yesterday that made the whole team leave. What was it? What did it mean?"
"Y-You were at the QnA?" His eyes finally opened wide, looking up to me, "Wait...you're that weird guy from the QnA!"
I dunno what it was about it, but something about the way he worded that sentence sparked something in me. I took my frustrations out on him by slamming him against the toppled metal cabinet, "Don't call me that! Answer the question!"
"G-Go to...g-go to hell, you fanboy! If I tell you, they'll kill me! And they'll kill you too!"
With convenient timing, I heard a PDA starting to ring. It was the dingo's PDA. I reached into his pocket, pulling it out for him.
"Hey! H-Hey, don't answer that, kid! Don't!"
Huh. A call from Bale Domino himself. I answered, holding the guy's throat shut so he wouldn't speak.
"Gary, is that script ready yet? They'll be here in two days." Came over the loudspeaker, both of us heard it.
I didn't know how to respond. Let the guy talk? Or talk myself? I definitely didn't sound like him. But I had an idea. Setting the PDA down, I looked at the dingo, 'Gary'.
"Should I tell your boss?"
"N-No!" He muttered out, "L-Let me talk to him, please!"
"You better not screw me over." It was a dumb move, trusting him like that, but I took his PDA straight over to his mouth, letting the grip loose.
"B-Boss! Boss! Hey, hey boss!" He spoke, his fake enthusiasm was a little funny to watch, "Uh...the script will be done by tonight! You have my word on it!"
"Good. Everything should go smoothly, then. Fox won't know what hit him."
So many riddles. Why couldn't anybody be clear in this city?!
I had enough, I demanded answers.
"Listen here, you cologne-wearing, unfunny one-dimensional rich bastard, what the hell are you planning?!"
That.
Was a screw-up.
"N-No!" Gary yelled.
There was a brief, moment of silence, and then, a sigh from the other end of the line, "...Well, looks like we're gonna have to retire another employee. As for you, friend. I have access to every CCTV footage across the city. I'll find out who you are. Start running."
And then he hung up.
I was frozen in place. My blood ran cold.
What the hell did I just do?
"You idiot! You dense, boneheaded idiot! You got us both killed! Oh my stars!" Gary finally managed to break free from my grip, crawling away from me. I couldn't move. My whole body was weak. I was staring off into the wall ahead of me. My spine was cold. My stomach sank, "Do you have any idea what you just did?! Any idea at all?! They're coming for us! They're gonna kill us and they'll splatter us across the galaxy! You moron! You brainless asswipe!"
It all made sense now. Eldon. Donel. O'Donnell.
Oh no.