F-Zero: Justice

Chapter 9: Sores and Aches

   It was homicide, and suicide. Homicide, because Jody had been murdered. Suicide, because Ace was making a big mistake by going after Zoda alone. The rest of his friends were working on locating him. Mrs. Arrow was currently trying to calm John Tanaka down. He was bawling his eyes out over Jody. "Why, WHY?!" Tanaka screamed. "I was supposed to protect her. How could I let this happen?" Mrs. Arrow had a box of tissues on standby, she was holding them out to the crying mechanic. "We understand your pain Tanaka," she said. "But can you help us? We have to find Ace Winters. He could be anywhere right now." John Tanaka sniffled a couple times, then got up and walked towards a computer. He began typing on it, searching for records of Ace. He even tried traffic cams. "Doesn't Galactic Space Federation Officers have tracking beacons on their machines?" Super Arrow asked. "They do, we activate them for emergency," Tanaka said. "But Ace must've disabled them, I've got nothing. But I do know he is not in Mute City." "He's a smart kid, he'll know how to disappear," Captain Falcon remarked. "Keep searching." Lily was equally as worried as everyone. She decided some coffee would probably soothe her. "Captain," she spoke. "Do you want coffee? We can take a break." Falcon nodded: "I could use a break." He turned to Tanaka and the Arrows. "Keep working on locating Ace." Captain Falcon and Lily Flyer headed to the break room. The room was empty, mostly because Falcon earlier instructed for the remaining officers to locate Ace.

   Lily poured herself a coffee, then made one for Captain Falcon. "Thank you," he said. "Can you tell me more about Jody?" she asked him. "I could tell you as much as I know," Falcon shrugged. "I met Jody on the F-ZERO X Grand Prix. She was a newcomer pilot. This was a while after the big accident." "I remember reading about that!" Lily said. "The accident before Jody even emerged in the racing world. There were plenty of rumors about it, some say Pico caused it." "Yes," Captain Falcon smiled. "Anyway, Jody was like every F-ZERO pilot when they start racing. Cocky and Determined. I was like that when I first started racing too. For some reason though, I knew there was more to her." "Did she win any of the F-ZERO X cups?" Lily asked. "No," Captain Falcon shook his head. "But I heard she was praised for her effort to enter and compete here. I was actually a Galactic Space Federation officer once. I left to pursue the career of bounty hunting." Lily still had more questions to ask the racing icon. "Did you always like her?" she said. There was a couple seconds of silence as Falcon thought of an answer. "Not at first," he said. "We viewed each other the same way, as rivals. But after F-ZERO X, she showed her true colors. She revealed that she was an admirable woman with a lot of pain, it reminded me of when I started. I could see then how much she matured."

   "I know how that feels," Lily Flyer assured him. "This hurts a lot, it's not easy losing someone you care about. Even if you feel like you did everything in your power to save them." Just like Lily could follow Captain Falcon's drift, the bounty hunter knew what she was talking about and who. "I don't know if he feels the same, but I have a plan to rescue him," she told him. "What is it?" The man asked her. "I'll tell you," the girl responded. "I'll also tell everyone else." Lily Flyer headed back to the main room with Captain Falcon following her. "Attention everyone!" she said. Everyone turned their eyes to her, she had their attention. Lily Flyer began to speak: "As you may know already, we have lost a friend. One of our own is in grave danger. He does not realize it, but he needs our help. We're not waging a war, we're simply rescuing." "Splendid!" Super Arrow beamed. "But how do we do it Lily?" "We have no choice but to split up," Lily Flyer answered. "We won't find him in time if we stay together and look. I'll go with Princia Ramode to Sector A. Mrs. Arrow will go with John Tanaka, and Captain Falcon with Super Arrow." "Okay," Captain Falcon stepped forward. "Seems reasonable. Let's move out!"

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   The Green Amazone screamed through Silence. Well, it wasn't only the machine. Ace was screaming pretty loudly. The only reason it was so loud was because Silence had no noise. He skidded to a stop in the middle of the road. He needed to find Zoda and fast. He figured that the others would try to find him and stop him from doing anything dumb. So he needed to make sure he didn't get caught. Wait, there was one planet he hadn't touched yet. Fire Field. The planet covered in Magma and fire. It was the perfect spot for a criminal like Zoda to hide. With no time to waste, he sped off to find Zoda.