Kellenburg, Papetoon
Peppy brought the mug up to his lips and drained the rest of his second cup of coffee that morning. Standing up from his chair at the kitchen island, the lepus went to refill his mug. Beside him, Dale raised an eyebrow.
"You have much more of that, Peps, and you're gonna be hoppin' all over the place."
Looking over his shoulder, Peppy shot the vulpine with an annoyed glare, causing him to put up his hands in a placating gesture.
"Look, I get it, you're anxious. I would be too if…."
Dale was interrupted by a chiming from his laptop. Clicking on the message, the rust-coloured fox let out a grunt of curiosity.
"What is it?" Peppy asked, forgetting about his coffee.
Turning to the hare, Dale replied, "Get everyone else down here, I might have something."
…
The smell of sausage and eggs cooking roused Wolf and Panther from their slumber. After breakfast, Nikos spread an old paper map across the table.
Tracing his finger along the map in the direction that Wolf and Panther had walked to his cabin, Nikos stopped over an area marked Darkwood Valley.
"Unless I miss my guess, this is the spot where the Remnant have set up their base," the armadillo mused, "Makes sense, there's no population centers for miles."
The former Venomian General put his hand on his chin.
"What Kalman would want here is beyond me. Something's not adding up."
"Doesn't matter," Wolf interjected, "We need to call this in."
"And get in touch with our teammates," Panther added.
Nodding, Nikos pointed to a city that was called Cleburne.
"We'll make the call from there. If we leave soon, we can be there by tomorrow morning."
"Why not go here? It's closer." Wolf said while pointing at another city.
"Drummond is where me and my parents settled after we fled Venom," Dash put in, "There's too much chance of somebody there recognizing me."
Wolf glanced over at Panther, who gave a small nod.
"Alright, let's get going."
…..
"Alright Dale, what have you got for us?" Fox asked while crossing his arms.
"Well Foxy," the older vulpine replied while pressing some keys on his laptop, "It ain't much, but I think it could help. This was taken in town."
An image of two men in a supermarket was projected into the room, followed by Dale stating, "According to facial recognition, these two fellas work for the Zimmerman brothers."
The vulpine then tapped a key, bringing up mugshots and rap sheets of the two men. Fox put his hand on his chin in thought.
The Zimmermans had long been suspected as Imperial sympathizers, but by the time the Corneria City Police Department had gotten all the proper warrants, the brothers, along with a good chunk of their employees, had pulled up stakes and moved to Eladard, far beyond the reach of the authorities.
"Great, but how does this tie in with Clegg?" Miyu asked.
"Well," Dale replied, "I did a little digging, and it turns out that the Zimmermans are frequent customers of Clegg. Stands to reason that he might be calling in some favors."
The rust-coloured vulpine then tapped some more keys and brought up two more images that were also in supermarkets and also featured Zimmerman employees.
"I'll admit, Clegg's tryin' to be smart, but he didn't count on you havin' an ex-Planetary cop in the family, did he, Foxy?"
Fox shook his head and let out a chuckle before bringing his attention back to the screenshots and taking note of their locations.
"They seem to be random about where they're going shopping."
"Odds are, they're tossing up a credit chip and seeing where it lands on a map," Falco piped up.
"If you don't know where you're gonna be going, neither will anyone else," Katt put in.
"If I didn't know better, I'd say you two were speaking from experience," Dale said in a snarky tone.
That prompted a snort from Falco and a chuckle from Katt.
"Yeah, you were definitely a cop, old timer," the avian thought to himself.
…..
Fox had made the decision to split the team up into small groups to case the supermarkets in the area. Currently on their way to check out the Squiggly Piggy in Kellenburg were Adrian, Fara, Krystal, and Peppy. The rust-coloured vulpine was driving the off-roader while the fennec was in the passenger's seat and the cobalt vixen and the leporine rode in the back.
"Oh, this one's a classic," Adrian remarked while reaching out and turning up the volume.
(The Bosskman's recommended listening: 24 Hours At A Time by The Marshall Tucker Band)
Fara ended up rolling her eyes and snarking, "This was old when we were kids."
"Ah, sometimes the oldies are the best," the tod shot back.
For her part, Krystal put a hand over her mouth while suppressing a giggle. Ever since arriving on Papetoon, the vixen had quickly picked up on the mutual attraction between Adrian and Fara, something that at least for the former, had been brewing for years.
The vixen's mood was tempered as she felt a more worried set of thoughts emanating from next to her. Glancing to her left, Krystal saw Peppy gazing out the window, his index and middle fingers massaging his temple.
With a frown creasing her muzzle, Krystal cautiously reached out and set her hand on the hare's shoulder, causing him to turn his attention to her.
"We'll get her back, Peppy. I promise."
"I hope so, Krystal," the lepus replied.
The next few minutes passed in silence before Adrian pulled into the Squiggly Piggy's parking lot. Even before the vulpine had stopped his off-roader, Krystal began to sense thought patterns from some unsavory individuals.
"Guys," she mentally signaled to the others, "There's four Zimmerman men headed into the store."
Adrian, who was still getting used to Krystal's telepathy, opened his mouth to speak, but quickly closed it.
"What do you wanna do?" he signaled back.
"We'll follow them in. With any luck, they'll know where Clegg and his gang are keeping Lucy."
With that, the quartet got out of the off-roader and set off towards the supermarket, all of them keeping their eyes on the Zimmerman thugs.
Upon passing through the automatic sliding doors, the four criminals split up, each going to a different section of the Squiggly Piggy. This forced the mercenaries to split up as well.
Fara followed one of them, a razorback hog, into the frozen foods section, where he began filling a cart full of TV Dinners, earning himself some curious looks from the local shoppers. Fara meanwhile, positioned herself at a freezer on the other side of the aisle, enabling her to watch her target's reflection in the glass.
The razorback dropped a final frozen meal into his cart and then started wheeling it out of the aisle. Fara watched him walking away while pretending to look at what was in the freezer. Suddenly, the fennec saw the hog pull out his blaster and fire it into the air, causing the store to descend into chaos as panicked shoppers began trying to make for the exits.
"Shit, he must've noticed me!" Fara thought as she drew her weapon and gave chase.
(The Bosskman's recommended listening: Call Me The Breeze by Lynyrd Skynyrd)
The gunfire and subsequent pandemonium resulted in the caracal that Adrian had been tailing whipping around and spotting him. The wildcat pulled his blaster and fired, forcing the vulpine into cover.
Hearing the gangster take off in another direction, Adrian peeked out from cover and saw the felid running away and a stack of soup cans nearby, along with an abandoned shopping cart.
"Well, here goes nothing," the rust-coloured tod thought as he bolted out and grabbed hold of the cart. Putting as much strength and speed into it as he possibly could, Adrian shoved the cart towards the stack of cans.
The vulpine cracked a smile as the cart slammed into the cans and sent them falling to the floor.
"Clean up in Aisle One!" Adrian called out as the caracal gangster slipped on the cans and crashed to the floor face first.
The wildcat tried to get back up, only to find himself staring down two blaster barrels, both belonging to store employees. Adrian let out a chuckle as he walked over and stared down at the crook with a shit-eating grin.
"Ain't you ever heard the old saying, buddy? Point a gun at someone on Papetoon, and you're gonna find ten more pointed right back at you."
Meanwhile, in the fresh fruit section of the Squiggly Piggy, Peppy ducked down as his quarry, an ermine, opened fire on him with a Zonessian Phantom machine pistol that had been hidden under his jacket.
The leporine grit his teeth as the mustelid banged away at his cover before he noticed an apple on the floor and got an idea.
Peppy set his weapon to stun and waited until the gangster had to reload before picking up the apple and throwing it to the side.
Smirking as his enemy fired in the direction of the noise, Peppy stood from cover and put the ermine down with a stun blast.
"Oldest trick in the book."
Elsewhere, in the Piggy's seafood section, Krystal threw up a barrier with her staff as the man she was tailing, an aardvark, whipped around and shot at her with his blaster.
The mammal then turned tail and ran, the cobalt vixen soon following in hot pursuit.
"You're not getting away that easy!"
Krystal stuck the sharp end of her staff into the floor and activated the rocket booster, which sent her flying up and over the gangster.
As she landed in front of him, the aardvark brought up his weapon, but Krystal was already on the move. The vixen moved in and swung her staff in a horizontal strike, sending the mammal crashing through a lobster tank.
Keeping her staff at the ready, Krystal walked over and kicked the aardvark's blaster out of reach before stating, "On behalf of the Cornerian Republic, I'm placing you under arrest."
…..
"Lucky we had Krystal with us," Adrian explained to his father, "We wouldn't have known those guys from a hole in the wall. Say, did I mention that the guy Fara was chasing ran himself into the back of a delivery truck?"
Dale crossed his arms and let out a huff. He was clearly not amused by his son's story.
"Lucky Star Fox is famous," the older tod dryly replied, "Cause if they weren't, the store owners would be pressin' charges."
Rolling his eyes, Adrian glanced over towards the dining room table, where the Star Fox team and their allies were currently gathered. Searches of the crooks' commlinks, along with a scan of their minds by Krystal, had finally given the mercenaries a lead on Clegg.
"A saw mill makes sense," Fox mused while resting his chin on his hand, "Well away from any prying eyes. Not to mention that logging season isn't for another couple of months, so nobody's going to be around the place."
With that in mind, the vulpine typed a message to ROB on his wristcom. After receiving a reply, Fox glanced around at his friends.
"Gear up, team. We're going in there and we're bringing Lucy home."
…..
Beneath a sign that read Sayer Milling Group in big red letters, Carlo Galtieri and Pete Beauregard stood and smoked cigarettes.
"The men we sent out should have been back by now," Carlo remarked while throwing a glance at the dirt road that led to the mill.
Pete nodded and checked the time on his wristcom.
"An hour late is one thing. Four hours is another."
The Rottweiler took one last drag on his cigarette before dropping it to the ground and crushing it under his boot. Turning away from the salamander, Pete walked back towards the mill, exchanging some nods with the Zimmerman men standing guard.
Upon entering the building, the sounds of a foreign tongue entered the dog's ears, along with the more distant sound of a grinding stone. Glancing to his left, Pete saw Alexei in conversation with the Kolovs.
"Can't those putzes speak some fucking Basic?"
Pete turned around and glared at the felid behind him.
"Why don't you go and ask em that? I guarantee that you'll end up with more than just black eyes and broken teeth."
Walking away with a huff, Pete shook his head and thought, "I am so Goddamn sick of these numpties acting like little tough guys."
The Rottweiler walked through the mill, following the sounds of the grinding stone before he finally found his leader seated on a crate, sharpening his axe. After Pete loudly cleared his throat, Clegg fixed his gaze on him.
"What is it?"
"The guys we sent shopping haven't come back, Boss."
Upon hearing that, Clegg set aside the axe and the grinding stone before putting a hand on his chin in contemplation.
"The chip landed on Kellenburg," the iguana-crocodile hybrid murmured, "McCloud has family there."
The lizard stood up from the crate.
"Pete, get everyone ready. Star Fox are probably on their way right now."
"Whatever you say, Boss."
With that, the lizard turned and walked away, ascending a staircase before arriving at an office overlooking the production floor. Within was Lucy, currently tied to a chair and gagged.
After dismissing the two Zimmerman thugs with a cock of his head, Clegg opened a nearby fridge and took out a bottle of water. Unscrewing the cap, the reptile walked over to the doe and pulled down her gag.
"Careful. Wouldn't want you to choke," Clegg taunted as Lucy sipped from the bottle in his hand.
After the lizard pulled the drink away, the pink doe fixed the hybrid with a glare.
"I heard you talking down there," Lucy growled while narrowing her eyes, "You're all dead men!"
Clegg simply chuckled before pulling the cloth back up over the hare's mouth.
"I seriously doubt that, little girl. Your old man and his pals are gonna make me and the boys very rich."
The reptile's lips skinned back from his teeth in a wicked smile.
"A million a head! Gah hah hah hah hah haa!"