HOME | DD

Description
Corneria City
Corneria Flight Academy
8:30 a.m.

Krystal looked over at Fox’s ship, just below her to the right. She was so close! It had taken weeks just to approach Fox like that. Every time she thought about him she started to blush and her heart beat a little faster. She was also worried about how Fox might react. She had seen how nervous he was when Tricky had mentioned getting things ready for a honeymoon. She was just about to ask when…

Her head turned to Falco’s ship and she glared at it for a while and was actually satisfied when she felt discomfort radiate from him. Falco’s voice emanated from the commlink, “Man that was weird. I just had this chill run down my spine.” Falco’s face appeared on the screen and looked around, “Yo! Fox, Slip! You guys sure the heat’s working in this thing?”

Fox and Slippy’s faces appeared in the middle and right screens, respectively.
“You should know of all people that we check these things everyday Falco.” Fox said.
“Did you turn it on yet?” Slippy asked teasingly.
“Why you little-“ Falco cried out indignantly.

And so on, Krystal sighed and tried to remember what settings to put her G-diffuser to, as they were about to enter the planet’s atmosphere. She had probably been flying with the team for about a year and a half now and she still didn’t know everything. Maybe that’s why she felt like such a huge burden to the team. Still, Falco (despite her hating him right now) had cheered her up by complimenting her flying skills lately. She managed to remember just as her Arwing was engulfed in the familiar halo of flame.

Fox tuned the outgoing commlink to the Flight Academy’s flight tower. And officer’s voice eventually came through, “I have connection. Go ahead.”
“This is team Starfox. Requesting permission to land.”
“Starfox eh? You guys here to see Colonel Peppy?”
“Yes sir.”
“He’s been talking about you guys a lot.”
“Really? Did he tell you about his close calls?”
“Oh yeah, pretty good detail too. Scary stuff. Anyway, permission granted.”
“Thank you sir.”
“Anything for Starfox.”
“Thanks again.”

Fox adjusted the G-diffuser to planet settings and aimed his ship towards the landing station. “Proceed to hangar A-26, Starfox team.” The officer instructed. Fox searched the large building and eventually saw a large metallic door lifting. He aimed the Arwing towards the door and gradually put on the brakes. He practically slowed it to a crawl and carefully placed his Arwing to the attachment device. The powerful magnet attracted the pole Fox had extended and locked it in. The machine brought him in and locked the space fighter in place. The others brought themselves in unison. Unbuckling quickly, Fox jumped out of the Arwing and waited for the others by the Academy doors.

“A bit excited aren’t ‘cha Fox?” Slippy asked, running up to him in his goofy half-hop, half-jog.
“Well we haven’t seen him ever since we went our separate ways after we destroyed the aparoid homeworld.” Fox replied defensively.
“Yeah, but he said he was going to retire didn’t he?” the toad asked, “What’s he doing still working?”
“Probably working as a trainer. Come on Slip, you should know that.” Falco pointed out, “Can we just go inside already?”

After asking for Peppy’s location, they made their way to the training modules. As they walked the halls, Fox couldn’t help but remember all the memories he had here. Krystal, having never seen the inside of this place, was content to hang back and peer inside some of the rooms and look all over the place, while rushing to keep up with the rest of the group. Fox reached the door, opened it, and smiled.

“I haven’t been in here in ages.” He said rather amazed he could still recall clearly what it had been like when he clambered into one of those things.

They all stood in silence for a moment watching some of the pods rock back and forth, spin, and flip to simulate a ship under fire or doing some aerial maneuver. The screens in front of each respective pod showed what each pilot was going through. Some of them looked like they were getting pounded.
Falco cast a critical eye on the poor performance of some of the pilots and asked sarcastically, “Hey Slippy, you sure you aren’t related to these guys?”
Slippy punched him in the gut. Cursing, Falco kneeled over clutching his gut. Krystal with her overwhelming maternal sense couldn’t help but discipline Slippy and comfort Falco.

Fox meanwhile, looked around for Peppy and found him up above in the control room, looking through the window attentively watching each screen making notes. The vulpine ran up the stairs and knocked on the door.

“Come on in, son. Door’s unlocked.” They heard Peppy’s tired voice say.

Fox and the others came in and gathered around the hare, as he was finishing up the test. He looked around at the screens, jotting down some notes quickly. He leaned over and grabbed the microphone and pressed a button, “Number 13, do a barrel roll!” Peppy commanded one of the trainees.
“You still saying that gramps?” Falco asked raising an eyebrow, “That used to annoy the hell outta me.”
Peppy chuckled, “Got through to ya though, didn’t it?”
“Yeah, although there were several times I wanted to strangle your furry ass.” Falco muttered under his breath. He failed to take into account of Peppy’s keen hearing despite the rabbit’s age.
“What was that?” the gray hare asked sharply without turning around.
“Nothin old man. You’re hearing things.” Falco replied quickly, obviously a bit startled.
“I thought so.” Peppy reached for the intercom button, “That’s it for today men, you’re dismissed.”
“So what’s with the invitation Peppy?” Slippy asked.
He stood and put his hands into his famous white lab coats pockets. “Well, considering how you guys don’t have the Great Fox anymore, you need some place to stay don’t ya?”
“Yea, I hated staying on that ship. It was so crowded.” Falco said a little annoyed.
“I had nothing to do.” Slippy piped up.
“Well, I didn’t mind sharing but…” Krystal trailed off.
“What do ya got in mind Peppy?” Fox asked.
“Well, I had the boys rebuild the headquarters and I thought I’d give you guys a tour of your new home.”
“Woah! Really?!” Slippy asked excitedly.
“Yep. You guys wanna see it?” Peppy replied, chuckling at Slippy’s enthusiasm.
“You bet. Lead the way.” Fox confirmed, patting Peppy on the back.

They made their way to Peppy’s car laughing and talking, passing a few lower ranked officers who saluted them and continued on their way. As the others piled in the vehicle, Fox fallen behind a bit so he could look at the city under repair. “At least it’ll be all right now,” he told himself. He hurried over to the car, still occupied with his thoughts and sat down right on Krystal’s lap.

There was an awkward moment of silence. He hadn’t even known Krystal was sitting in this seat. Now that he was this close to her, she seemed even more beautiful than before. Both of them let out a nervous laugh.

Fox got out of the car quickly, “Sorry Krystal. Didn’t know you were sitting there.”
The blue vixen blushed slightly, “No problem Fox.”

He walked over to the other side and got in. As they pulled out of the parking lot, Falco nudged him slightly with his elbow and smiled a bit. Fox rolled his eyes and looked out the window for the rest of the ride. It took somewhere around a half hour to get there. The headquarters was still in the same location, although it looked more like a vacation home. Fox didn’t mind, they barely used the place anyway; the Great Fox seemed more like a suitable headquarters.

The first thing he noticed was all their stuff was on the front lawn and there were a variety of vehicles by the garage. As soon as they parked, Falco pushed his way past Fox and immediately bee-lined it for the motorcycle. The rest got out and looked around. There were a lot of windows on the place; it appeared that the second floors outside walls were entirely made up of windows. There was a third floor, but Fox couldn’t see what it possibly could be. There were some trees nearby, not really far away from the bags. Besides, that the headquarters were in a completely open space.

Peppy took out a pocket watch and checked the time. “My goodness, is it that time already? I have a class soon so I’m going to have to go. Sorry I couldn’t show you guys around the place.” Peppy said quickly.
Fox waved him off, “Go ahead Peppy, we’ll be fine. I’m sure we’ve been in worse situations.”
Peppy laughed, “You got that right. Here are the keys, son. See ya!”
As Peppy drove away as the team picked up their belongings and walked up to the front door. Unlocking the door, Fox took hold of the handle and opened the door.