Grown to Love

Chapter Eighteen

The Great Fox finally made it back to Corneria and within it, Peppy, R.O.B, Slippy, and Pigma. Peppy angrily stepped off The Great Fox and made his way to General Pepper's main office with R.O.B following close behind as he wheeled Pigma in a tied chair. The doors slammed open, startling General Pepper, and Peppy walked in. "Peppy?" Pepper Questioned. He walked around his desk and looked Peppy over, observing his body language and being able to see that he was angry and frustrated. "I'm expecting to hear that Star Fox has—" "Fox and Falco have disappeared." Peppy interrupted. "What? How so?" Peppy then grabbed the chair and pulled Pigma over. Pepper scowled at the pig and cleared his throat. "Pigma Dengar. I thought we told you never show your face here again." "I wasn't planning on coming back but I guess an old friend decided I could use a visit." Peppy then slapped Pigma across the head. "Tell him what you and your team did." Pigma sneered and remained silent. "Peppy what's going on?" Pepper Questioned as he glared at the overweight pig. "We were on our way back when out of nowhere, an enemy team came and attacked us. We got into combat and next thing I know, Fox is crashing to some unknown planet. We went after him but we were stopped by Pigma and another Venomian. Falco managed to get by but some other Venomian followed. Slippy and I managed to keep Pigma and the other away but eventually the other got by. We got Pigma and got him to talk but he hasn't said much. All he's mentioned is that he and his team were sent off to stop us. If anything, his team works for Andross." Pepper sighed and placed a hand on his chin. "We'll throw Pigma into our custody and we'll begin our questioning. In the mean time, I'll have a search team gather up and look for Fox and Falco." "What?" Peppy seemed shocked. "A search party will take too long. We need Fox and Falco now! Slippy and I can get in our arwings and—" "Peppy!" The General had raised his voice, having Peppy jump slightly. The General sighed. "We don't know who these two Venomians are. They could be well trained soldiers and if you two go there's a chance you might not stand a chance. Fox and Falco are well trained themselves, they can survive a few more days. If we start up a search team now we could find them quicker. Please, let me do my job with this and Pigma and you and Slippy return home." Peppy huffed But said nothing else. He turned around and made his way out with R.O.B following. "It just ain't right R.O.B. How can we just sit around and not do anything while Fox is off on some unknown planet with who knows what kind of enemy. I-I say we go and get Fox ourselves!" "General Pepper stated our orders to remain here while a search team is sent." R.O.B stated with the monotone robotic voice he had. Peppy sighed. "I know, I know. I just feel like we could be doing something. Let's just go get Slippy and head home I suppose. Not much we can do if Pepper decides to keep an eye on us." The two made way to the the Great Fox and met up with Slippy who was standing at the entrance. "So what did General Pepper say we do?" He Questioned as Peppy and R.O.B reached him. "Pepper wants us to stay here while he sends off a search team." Slippy blinked confusingly as he then followed Peppy. "Won't it take a while to assemble a search team though?" "Exactly what I was thinking but Pepper said that it's the best thing we can do. I don't like the idea of it but we can't really do anything. Our Arwings have trackers in them when in mint condition and if we were to try and go get Fox ourselves, the Cornerian army would see us before we got out of Corneria's atmosphere." Slippy snapped his fingers and caught up to Peppy with excitement. "If there's trackers in the Arwings, wouldn't it be easier to find Fox then?" "Yes Slippy But I just told you that the Arwing has to be in mint condition for them to be traceable and you and I both know that Fox had to have crashed as we lost signal with him as soon as he entered that unknown planet's atmosphere. Whether Falco crashed or not I'm not sure, we got too carried away in stopping Pigma and the other guy." "You think they'll be ok on that planet any longer then they've already been there?" Slippy asked with genuine concern in his voice. Peppy remained silent for the longest time as they walked. He let out a heavy sigh. "I can't say but I sure hope so."
Pigma sat in the chair he was cuffed to talking to himself as he looked at the mirror just ahead of him. "Sure is nice and cozy in here. I bet I'd enjoy my stay if these handcuffs were off." He grinned sarcastically at his own reflection. There was a beep that came from the two speakers in the corners of the room. "Come on Pigma. Just answer the question." A voice spoke through with annoyance. The beep went off again and the soldier behind the mic stood straight and sighed as he rubbed between his eyes. "General Pepper, how long must we keep up with this? This pig is a stubborn one." The General stood straight and kept his eyes on Pigma through the window. "For as a long as we need. We need to know who we're dealing with. Andross wouldn't just hire random Venomians to work for him. These other three have to have a specific set of skills that he learned about in order to get them to work for him. We have hundreds of criminal records here at headquarters. If he can spill the names we can see if we've any record on them, that way we'd get a better understanding on who we're working with." Pepper then moved the soldier away and pushed the small red button on the mic. The intercom speakers then beeped again, this time with General Pepper's voice coming through it. "Pigma, stop resisting. Tell us who your working with. It'll make this easier for both of us. You can't keep Andross's workmen a secret forever." Pigma smiled. "It's no issue having it a secret. I just don't want to hurt a poor old man's heart." Pepper sneered at Pigma's comment and stood straight up again. "Keep asking him questions. This may have to go on for a while longer. I have my suspicions but I want him to confirm them." He then made his way out of the room. The heavy metal door then shut hard behind him and he walked away.
The morning light began to break through the clouds. A ray of sun shone down into the cave and hit Leon on the face. He shaded his eyes with his hand as he slowly woke up. He looked behind him and found that Falco was still asleep. He smiled to himself and steadily got to his feet. He then snuck his way out of the cave and ran out further into the woods. Once he thought he was far enough, he slowed his speed to a walk. He then cane upon a stream. "I wonder..." he said aloud to himself. He then proceeded to follow it for quite a while. Further down the stream, Wolf splashed his face with the cold water. He dried his face off as he sighed heavily. He looked over his shoulder and smiled as he could barely see Fox in the cave. Suddenly, he was pulled up and away from the opening of the cave. With a growl, Wolf turned to see Leon who held his hand up to Wolf's mouth. Wolf's eyes widen and he shakes the hand away, stepping back as he pushes Leon away. "Leon?" "I've been looking all over for you. Thank goodness I finally found you. One of the members of Starfox had me stick with him but I snuck away." He took hold of Wolf's wrist and started walking, forcing Wolf to take a console of steps forward. Wolf pulled his hand away and flared at him. "Wait, Wait. You were looking for me with the help of one of the Starfox members? Who?" "That parrot Falco. He said that so long as I was with him I couldn't let you get Fox." Leon then silenced and thought for a brief moment. He leaned forward, getting slightly close to Wolf's face. "Say, where is Fox? Didn't Andross say that if we caught him we bring Fox to him?" He then stood straight and folded his arms; looking Wolf up and down. "Now that I'm looking at you, what exactly have you been doing while I've searched for you? Where's the rest of your uniform and where's the vulpine?" He squinted at Wolf. Wolf swallowed hard and pulled at his collar. "Time's different on this planet you know. I've been trying to survive. What's it to you? You know I've got survival instinct more then any of ya'. So what if I'm not in my uniform entirely. I need to remove weight to have better movement when trying to survive. And Fox? Well he's in the cave. I've got him right where I want him. Been like that after we crashed. That pup had no chance against me." Leon then started walking pass him and to the cave. "Then lets go get him and make our way out of here. Andross wanted this to be easy." Wolf quickly took hold of Leon's hand and pulled him back. "No!" Leon blinked confusingly. Wolf released his grip and cleared his throat. "I mean, he'll be resistant if he sees you. Let me go let him know what's going to happen that way it's easier to have him come with us. Stay here. That's an order." Leon folded his arms and sneered as he watched Wolf walk off. When he was out of sight, Wolf ran to the cave. Fox looked up slightly concerned. "Wolf?" Wolf places a finger over his lips. He walked over to Fox and pulled him away from the entry of the cave. "Leon's here. I just told him I've got you captured but I don't think he quite believes me. Leon's known to be suspicious and if he finds out I lied he might try something." Wolf got pulled to the floor and dragged away from Fox. Fox stepped back and looked up after watching Wolf be pulled away from him. Leon spun his knives in his hands as he released his tail's grip from Wolf's ankles. "You were never good at lying Wolf. Andross was kind of afraid of this happening. Luckily, he was prepared." Wolf got to his hands and knees and looked up at Leon. "What're you talking about?" Leon shrugged as he made his way to Fox, wielding his knives up. Fox stepped back and looked over his shoulder, seeing his blaster in the floor, then looked back at Leon. "I wouldn't think about that McCloud." Using his tail like he did to Wolf, Leon pulled Fox to the ground. He fell on his back hard and hit his head slightly. He held himself up with little strength; his vision becoming blurry as he looked up at Leon. Leon sighed. "Wolf, I've been working for Andross for a long time. When you crashed on Venom and we found out who you were, Andross had us look into your background. We knew a lot more about you then we told you. When Andross found out that you grew up with Fox, he knew you wouldn't want to hurt him if you were to ever remember who he was. During all that training he put you through and the intense "brainwashing", he put a small, you could say, code in your head in case of something like this." Wolf got to his feet and growled slightly. "You're telling me Andross knew something like this could happen? Bullshit. If anything, you're just trying to scare me." He stood straight up and pulled his fists up. "You can tell Andross I quit. I'm not doing this anymore. I'm going to get off this planet with Fox and go home like I wanted to years ago." Leon sighed. He dashed towards Wolf and slashed at him several times. Wolf blocked a few hits and took some of the slashes to the arms, having him get cut in the process. Fox got to his feet, leaning against the cave walls to stand and struggled to focus his vision but was able to see that Leon and Wolf were fighting. He couldn't really do anything else but watch the blurry mass of colors move back and forth. He could t quite stand for long and eventually fell to his knees. He placed a hand on his head and winced as his head throbbed. He watched as Wolf was brought back down to the floor. Leon pinned Wolf down with his foot and leaned forward. With his forearms bleeding and his breath taken away, Wolf looked up at Leon with anger. "Tsk tsk. You really are a soft one without all of Andross's hard work. He told me to do this only in necessary times but I feel like this is one of them. You're choosing to ignore him after all." "Leon cut this crap! Let me go!" Leon sighed. "Deprivation. Seven. Nation." Leon spoke with a loud and monotone voice, pausing a long time in between every word he said. Wolf's ear twitched. He shook his head and tried to pry Leon's foot away. "Leon! Get off!" Falco then slid to a hault as he came to the entrance of the cave. "Leon! You bastard!" His eyes then widened as he saw Wolf pinned under the chameleon and Fox in the floor then, nearly passed out. "What the hell?" Leon completely ignored Falco and continued on. "Twelve. Incantation." Falco ran pass Leon and Wolf and over to Fox. He helped him up and quickly dragged him out of the cave, not looking behind him to figure out what was happening. Fox grunted under his breath but Falco still over heard him. "Falco...Wolf...he..." "Not now Fox! I'm more concerned on your safety." Leon then smiled to himself as he watched the bird and vulpine slowly make their way further from the cave. He removed his leg from Wolf as he spoke once more. "Seventeen." Wolf breathes heavily as he got to his hands and knees. His ears twitched and he shook his head, remaining silent as he placed a hand on his head. He soon got to his feet and looked over his shoulder, seeing the blue and orange shapes fade away. "You let them get away." He spoke in a serious tone. He looked down at his hands and growled slightly. He walked over to the uniform that sat across from him. He proceeded to get fully dressed. He spun his blaster in his hand before placing it in his holster and he looked ahead as he placed the eyepatch back over his eye. "Where's Pigma and Andrew?" He looked over at Leon. With a sigh Leon responded. "I followed you down as you crashed with Fox. Pigma and Andrew were last seen by me still in battle with the other two from Starfox." "And the Wolfens?" "Damage on yours is unknown to me but I've got my radar still on. I can take you to mine and we can report back to Andross." "No. Andross wants Fox with us. We will not fail so easily." Wolf began to walk out from the cave. "Leon, I want that Wolfen within my possession and up and running before nightfall. Starfox will not beat Starwolf so easily."