FSE

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Being stuck down here was so boring for the alligator. No blaster in hand, no starfighter to fly--nothing. All Lance had was the knife in his pocket, and as much as he wanted to use it, he knew that attacking any of Andrew's soldiers would put the entire base on alert. There was nothing the red beast could do but wait, and Lance wasn't a very patient reptile. He looked out the window and could see airship hangar B-3 still brightly lit and teem with activity, even though it was pitch-black outside. Lance scratched his scalp and wondered if his teammates had gotten enough Intel yet. He knew he was supposed to be sneaking around and finding information on his own, but Lance wasn't known for being a chatterbox. As the gator looked out the warehouse's window, his earholes were deafened by the sound of a bombastic pig shouting orders at a brute gorilla. The red alligator turned and faced the two, snorting when he saw Pigma Dengar talking to the giant ape in his blue and green flight suit. For a while now, the pig's words were nothing more than background noise. But now the red gator was finding it harder and harder to ignore the two beasts as they talked.

"Now don't screw this job up! Hahahahaaaaa, Oikonny's paying me a lotta money for helpin' him! You know what you gotta do?"

The gorilla blinked. "I pilot the Golras and blow stuff up."

Pigma did one of his exaggerated, obnoxious laughs again, his belly shaking slightly as he amused himself. "That's it, Gryloc! Simple right?"

The gorilla nodded. "We're heading out now. Shouldn't be long before we reach our target."

"My target, Gryloc! _I_was the one who figured out what place to attack! You and your apes are just carrying out the order, nothing more! But if it hadn't been for me, you apes would still be here, sitting on your fat rumps twiddling your thumbs! Remember that, Gryloc!"

"Sure," the gorilla responded, even though he clearly wanted to bash Pigma's face in. "I'll notify you when we begin the attack."

"Good! Now move out! The emperor doesn't like to wait!"

Lance watched as the burly gorilla put on a helmet that matched his flight suit and began to walk away, his huge feet thudding against the floor with each step he took. The gorilla stepped outside into the muggy green fog still hovering in the atmosphere and shut the door. Pigma laughed to himself and snorted as he started to walk away. But just as he was about to, he spotted the red alligator staring at him with his dark brown eyes and his trademark scowl.

"I don't remember Andrew payin' us to do nothin' but stand around! Hehaharr, but if he does, then sign me up for it!"

Lance sniffed and rubbed his chin. "I believe that standing would be too difficult for you. Now, if Oikonny was paying us to simmer in our own effluent, then you'd definitely become rich doing that."

Pigma walked over to the red gator and snorted, getting so close to him that his belly was almost pressed against Lance's red and black flight suit.

"Don't take that tone with me. Now that I'm here, Oikonny made me his chief advisor, like his second in command! And as his second in command, my job is to relay all his information over to you slobs and slackers!"

Lance flared his nostrils and blinked, but he didn't say anything just yet.

"Now, while Gryloc and his team are carrying out their attack, you and your...err, light bugs or whatever your stupid squadron is called will head over to Sector Z! If we're gonna hit the Cornerian forces hard, we need to figure out what they're planning next! And since the Bloodcats failed to find the information we need and alerted the forces in that area, your team will without a doubt come under heavy fire! Hah, doubt your team will make it back alive!"

Lance flared his nostrils again and growled subtly. "Forgive me if I'm wrong, but did you just call me a slob and a slacker just a minute ago?"

Pigma laughed again. "Isn't that what you are?"

"No. That's what you are."

Pigma growled and scowled. "Now you listen--"

"Shut up. Who do you think you are? Or rather, what do you think you are? A killer? A competent pilot? A fighter?"

Lance shook his head as he looked down at the shorter pig. "No, that's what I am, Pigma. But you on the other hand...you're just a pig. Swine. Filth. A lowly fly buzzing around a predator's pile of fecal matter."

Pigma began to shout as he grabbed Lance's flight suit and tried to shake him. "Do you have any idea who you're talking to?! Do you know what I could do--"

Pigma squealed in a shrill voice and let go of Lance's outfit. He suddenly felt a horrible pain in his groin, as though something were slowly crushing it. The pig looked down and noticed that Lance had reached forward and grasped his crotch with his right hand. The alligator growled as he applied more pressure, causing Pigma to whine and pant. Lance started to walk forward, causing the pink pig to slowly move back.

"Coward. Prey. Swine. Pig. That's what you are, Pigma. A lowly, fat, slobby pig."

Pigma shouted when he bumped into a wall and noticed he couldn't walk backwards anymore. Lance was still grasping his groin, and now he was standing so close to him that Pigma could feel his hot breath on his face.

"What do pigs do, Pigma? They eat, sleep, squeal, and release waste. Nothing more. You pigs roll around in your own filth. You eat sludge that bugs wouldn't go near. You eat and you eat and you eat, and you don't care how fat you become. But you see, people like me...we're predators. We eat creatures like you, Pigma. And all you pigs can do to defend yourself is squeal and run away, hope we don't catch you. But you're prey, Pigma. And we predators will always catch you."

Lance let go of Pigma's groin, causing the pink creature to exhale with relief and groan as he lowered his hands and started to rub his groin, hoping he could soothe his nether region. Despite how much Lance just embarrassed him, Pigma still couldn't help but chuckle.

"You...you forgot one thing! If you kill me, what will Andrew do to you? Huh?! If-if you kill me, Oikonny will retaliate and slaughter your whole squadron! Hehe, so face it: you can't touch me!"

"Of course I can't. Not yet. You're not fat enough."

Pigma looked at Lance with confusion. "What?"

The red alligator blinked. "You're swine, Pigma. What more do I need to say?"

The two creatures stared at each other in an awkward silence before Lance blinked and started to walk away.

"You have a nice day."

Pigma watched the red beast walk away calmly, while the swine was left standing against the wall, still wincing in pain after being grabbed so hard.

---

Viper hissed as he looked around the massive computer lab. The snake could see all the talented criminals busy clacking away on their laptops or tuning some of the CPUs that other soldiers in Andrew's army didn't know how to use. The lab didn't seem special at all: four gray walls with posters and holo-images of potential targets on them, several rolling chairs for the analysts to sit in, over two-dozen CPUs complete with keyboards, monitors and mice, and other monitors used for whenever someone wanted to watch a regular news or television program. A lot of the people in the room seemed ordinary, and a few of them even wore casual clothing. But the snake knew better. As smart and technical as these people seemed, Viper was aware that any one of them could cause a blackout in a city with a push of a button. He knew any of them could drain a person's bank account while pretending to be an accountant. And he knew that they could hack into a star cruiser's weapons system and cause it to misfire, killing hundreds. The snake hissed again and grinned, enjoying the sound of all the hackers typing on their keyboards or laptops. Viper saw a mandrill typing furiously on his laptop and crept behind him slowly. Then he quickly smacked him in the back of his neck, causing the primate to shout.

"What the heck, Swallows?!"

The snake hissed. "Just wanted to make sure I got your attention."

"You could've easily said 'hello' like any normal person would!"

"Everytime I say hi to you, you respond by belching and telling me to go screw myself. Figured I'd try ssssomething different today!"

"Well, I'm busy right now. Go bother Laddon; he's not doing anything important."

Viper shrugged. "If you say so."

The coral snake walked away from the mandrill, while the primate grumbled to himself and rubbed the back of his neck slowly. Viper looked amongst the hackers and spotted a chimpanzee wearing plain clothing and leaning back in his computer chair. He was only wearing a jean jacket with a green shirt underneath, along with standard blue jeans. The chimp scratched his face and sighed as he stared at all the numbers popping up on his laptop screen. Viper kicked his chair and grinned.

"Sssslacking off, Donald?"

The chimp shrugged. "Just waitin', and waitin'...and waitin'."

"On what? Looks to me like you're just sssstealing more code."

Donald shook his head. "I'm trying to break through Katina's firewalls. If Gryloc intends on deploying Golras there, then we need to figure out a way to shut down a sector of the planet's communications. If--"

The laptop beeped and the numbers stopped scrolling. An error message popped up on the screen, and Laddon shouted in frustration and started to jam his fingers on his laptop again.

"Dang it! They caught it; I have to start over again!" Donald huffed. "I've been sitting in this chair all night. You have any idea what it feels like for your butt to get sore? My butt, Viper."

"Aww, you want me to get on my knees and kiss it for you?"

"I'm not opposed to the idea."

Viper changed the subject. "So how are you breaching the firewall?"

"Just trying to break it down, how else?"

Viper chuckled. "You idiot. Use a worm or a Trojan!"

Donald blinked and looked up at the snake with a smirk. "I thought you were supposed to be the smart one on your team? You have any idea how old school worms are? I may as well try to hack into Katina's emergency communications system using one of those stupid porn ads!"

Viper hissed. "It is becausssse it's a Trojan that you will be able to get through. Why break down the wall from the outside? Whoever's behind that wall's just gonna come out and shoot you in the face. But if you disguise yourself, sneak past the wall without anyone noticing, perhapssss you could find this wall's weak points and strike when necessary."

"Still...a Trojan? They'll spot that a mile away."

"So make a Trojan for that Trojan. Better yet, make a worm _and_a Trojan. Attack the firewall again, and then unleash the Trojan at the same time. They'll spend so much time focusing on the worm--"

"That they'll ignore the Trojan entirely. Gosh, why the heck didn't I think of that before?"

"Because I'm smarter than you!"

Viper hissed and laughed in the chimp's face. Donald let out a mock laugh before he sniffed and resumed typing.

"Very funny, Swallows. I don't know how you know about all this technology stuff anyway. You don't seem like the...well, the techy kind of person."

Viper hissed. "It'ssss the princcciple, Laddon! That's what intrigues me! Hacking is a special talent, Donald. There's...there's something glorious about causing so much damage with a simple laptop. Train crashes, the theft of millions, compromising a corporations server room and destroying the whole company! And not a single person will know who did it or why until it's too late. It's...it's like assassination, Donald."

The chimp scoffed as he glanced up at the snake again. "Assassination?"

The mandrill Viper bumped into earlier started to cough and sweat, his throat feeling very sore.

"Assassination, Donald. Sure, anyone can walk up and bash someone's head in. Anyone can walk into a bar and shoot everyone in sight. But assassinating someone? That takes special skill; that takes heart."

The mandrill got up from his chair and started to slowly walk towards the door, his throat still hurting as he tried to stop himself from coughing.

"You all right there, Cohaan?"

"I don't need a babysitter! Just leave me alone while I head to the bathroom!"

Viper kept talking as the mandrill had his coughing fit. "Imagine walking down the street, only for some stranger to sssstab you in the torso. And before you even know who did it, you're on the ground bleeding out. Imagine eating dinner and feeling some sort of bee sting in your chest, only to look down and realize someone just shot you through the window. Hehe, or hiding in someone's home and waiting for someone to tuck their child in, only for you to tell them that monsters do hide in the closet..."

Donald blinked as he looked at Viper, then heard someone violently vomiting. He glanced over to his left and scowled when he saw Cohaan throw up all over the floor, the chunky yellow bile splattering in various directions. Other hackers shouted with disgust after seeing the mandrill vomit, but Cohaan ignored them all and wheezed as he dragged his feet out the room, stomping his way through his own puke. It wasn't until the mandrill got outside that he collapsed to the floor and started convulsing.

"Uh, Cohaan?"

"What the heck's wrong with him?!"

A few hackers rushed outside to see the mandrill shaking and gagging uncontrollably. Viper stared as the scene unfolded and held out a hand, as if to show off his handiwork.

"Magnificent, isn't it?"

"...What'd you do to him?"

Viper hissed. "An assassin never reveals his secrets!"

Donald glanced at the snake's arms and hands and realized that he must've poisoned Cohaan somehow. "Um...back up."

"Why? It's not as though anyone liked Cohaan! Even you once ssssaid no one would miss him if the CDF shot him to piecessss!"

"Just..." Donald sighed and rubbed his eyes. "Let me work on this Trojan; you...you have fun assassinating or whatever."

"Whatever you say!"

As Viper began to walk away, Donald noticed the puddle of bile still on the floor and grimaced.

"You're cleaning that up!" the chimp shouted.

"No, I'm not."

Viper Swallows walked out of the computer lab, smirking to himself as he walked past the hackers trying to revive Cohaan. But the snake's poison had already taken effect, and Viper knew he wouldn't be seeing him ever again.

---

The Fireflies all met up in their personal quarters after obtaining all the information they needed. No one ever bothered them unless they absolutely had to. It was the same for most mercenary pilots; they all had their personal aircraft carriers or living quarters to retreat to where no one invaded their privacy. Most of the soldiers had a cramped room no bigger than a dorm, and anywhere between two and six soldiers had to sleep in the rooms that had nothing short of a few bunk beds, a dresser, and a closet. But aces like the Fireflies got to stay in areas almost designed like hotel rooms. Their quarters had bunk beds too, but they were more spacious. They had their own bathroom with a shower, their own kitchen area to fix food at, and even a TV should any of the aces get bored. But despite the comfortable accommodations, nothing changed the fact that the aces were stuck on one of the most polluted planets in the galaxy, or that they were currently allied with an emperor who could kill them the second they're deemed invaluable.

"So everything is running smoothly?" asked Damien.

Leo nodded. "There's been a few hiccups here and there, nothing major. Obviously we didn't anticipate the death of the Devil Dogs so soon, and the Bloodcats' failure is only going to make our mission in Sector Z harder."

Viper hissed and grinned. "Don't you mean more fun?"

"I mean harder, Viper. We still don't know how they've improved their defenses. The last thing we need is to walk straight into a blender."

"Relax! We're gonna have a few soldiers assisting ussss. If things get rough, we'll use 'em as cannon fodder! Unless that's too dishonorable for you."

The brown lion scowled as the coral snake laughed at him. "Shut up. Just because you don't have standards doesn't mean I shouldn't either."

The snake hissed again. "What about you, Sally? Still stuck in that love triangle of yours?"

"I'm not--" The lemur stopped herself and huffed as the reptile laughed at her. "Targin and I are just friends. I know it sounds hard, but I can befriend someone who's male without worrying about him trying to get into my pants."

"Unfortunately, we can't say the same about Stoney," Lance butted in.

Sally rolled her eyes. "What is it with you and the two of us dating? We both like each other a lot, we relate to each other, we talk--what's wrong with any of that?"

"The problem is that you're acting like some slutty high school girl. Stoney is the muscle-bound college senior who can't even count the number of women he's slept with. He's taking advantage of you; he doesn't care about you. He's a man, Sally. And he only cares about one thing: your pussy."

Sally looked at the red alligator standing to her left and did nothing at first. But then she found her right hand turning into a fist, and she found her fist rushing straight for Lance's big snout. Then she heard a loud slap, as if someone beat her to the punch. But she looked at her hand and noticed that Lance had grabbed her entire fist in the palm of his left hand. Sally tried to wedge her fist away, but then she noticed that her fist was starting to hurt and that she couldn't move. Lance was slowly tightening his hand, applying more pressure to the lemur's fist. Sally panted a few times and grunted as she tried to remove her hand again, to no avail.

"Predictable. You're starting to get sloppy now. I've noticed it during dogfights too. If you can't even stop yourself from being cliche on the ground, how long do you think it'll take before our enemies notice it? Hmph, wouldn't be surprised if you're the first one of us to get shot down."

"Let go of her!" snarled Leo.

The red alligator flicked his eyes over at the lion gritting his teeth and making a fist with his right hand. He looked at Sally again before finally freeing her, causing the lemur to huff and breathe heavily as she rubbed her agonizing hand.

"Don't act like you're not getting sloppy either, Leo. You let your honor cloud your judgment all the time."

"My honor is what keeps me from turning into a monster. If I have no honor, then what does that make me?"

"A smart lion who is willing to do what's necessary in order to win. It's not about honor or pride, Leo. It never is, never will be."

"Sometimes doing the smart thing isn't honorable."

"And sometimes doing the honorable thing isn't smart."

Leo growled and took a step towards the alligator. It wasn't until the coyote interrupted the two that everything finally stopped.

"That's enough everyone! We're supposed to be out there fighting them, not each other. I can understand what you're saying, Lance--"

"Exactly. We don't need any of these distractions or petty rules about honor getting in the way of our mission."

"--but until I see any evidence that what Leo and Sally are going through is affecting their goals, I honestly don't care what any of you do."

Damien suddenly blinked as he looked over at Viper, who was sitting on the couch with his bare feet planted on the table. He hissed loudly as he grinned at the coyote.

"Don't look at me. I haven't done anything to pissss any of you off lately!"

"So you didn't poison a hacker in the computer lab?"

The coral snake chuckled. "You know about that, eh?"

"Now how's it gonna look if Oikonny finds out what you did? Anything between access restrictions to executions could happen to you--to all of us--since you killed that mandrill."

"Oh, come on! Everyone hated him anyway! What's one hacker--"

"Shut your mouth. Unless I say so, we're not killing anyone else in Andrew's army. If he gets too suspicious, it'll ruin our plans entirely. Are we all clear on that?"

The snake huffed and took his feet off the table. "Yeah, yeah, sure."

Damien resumed addressing the rest of his team. "If Andrew wants us to invade a base in Sector Z, then that's what we'll do. So for now, everyone keep a low profile and do anything Oikonny or any of his cronies ask of us. Keep spying on everyone and prying for information; obviously Sally has her 'friend' Targin she can go to, and I'm sure the rest of you have your own 'informants' who can reveal their own share of secrets."

Leo and Sally both looked at the tall alligator with angry glares on their faces while Viper just hissed. The coyote looked at his dysfunctional team and blinked.

"If no one else has anything left to say, then let's get ready. Won't be long now before they need us."

---

Falco was sitting alone in the barely-lit room, glad that he finally had some time to himself. Fox and Krystal were out running their own errands, and Slippy was in the mess hall eating with Star Dog. The bird thought he'd be out bragging about how he took down the Devil Dogs and "inspiring" CDF soldiers to be like him when they gained the experience. Instead, he was sitting on the floor beside his mattress, holding a lighter in one hand, and a photo in the other. Falco looked at the photo again and blinked. It was nothing special, just an old picture of Falco standing beside Katt, grinning like an idiot. Katt was standing in front of her newly designed Cat's Paw, and the two of them decided to snap a picture of the ship in all its glory as they stood together. It didn't mean much at the time; Falco was just doing it to get in the photo and to please his friend. But now, Falco couldn't help but look at the photo and feel pain in his chest. He didn't know why he was feeling it; he didn't even know why he still had the photo. He just happened to stumble upon it while he was looking through his belongings shortly after Star Fox came back from Katina.

Falco scoffed and shook his head. It was just some stupid photo. Nothing more, nothing less. Katt was dead; it's not like she'd care anyway. So why should he? The blue bird opened up the lighter and flicked the wheel a few times. An orange spark came out, and the flame seemed to light a section of the room. Falco stared at the flame, and then looked at the photo. He hesitated as the photo rested in his left hand. But this was no time for thinking; he needed to go ahead and get it over with. So Falco lifted the photo and held it over the flame. He could see the corner of it just inches away from the fire. All he had to do was lower it just a little more. But as he began to lower, Falco looked at the photo again and froze. He just sat there and stared blankly at the image, breathing heavily. Just do it, Falco told himself. It's just some stupid photo! It won't matter what I do with it anyway. She's dead. The bird was just about to burn the photo when he repeated himself in his mind again. She's dead.

Falco kept looking at the "pointless" image in his hand before he suddenly closed the lighter, extinguishing the flame. The falcon dropped the lighter, held the photo in both hands, and looked at it. The pain in his chest tightened and his eyes became warm and watery. The bird closed his eyes for a while and let out a tired sigh. He slowly shook his head and let out a soft moan that almost sounded like a sob. He grasped the photo tightly and pressed it against his chest, almost as if he were hugging it. He wanted the photo to be warmer, fleshier, to carry Katt's scent. But he didn't have Katt anymore. All he had was this "useless" photo of her and him that he couldn't burn or tear to bits for one reason or another. The bird was almost on the verge of crying when he heard someone knocking on the room door.

"Uh, Falco? Why's the door locked?"

Someone else on the other side of the door snickered. "Why do you think it's locked, Slip?"

Falco blinked and sniffled. He quickly wiped his beak and exhaled before he folded up the photo and stuffed it into his pocket. Falco heard someone knock on the door again and quickly stood up, wiping his eyes and blinking away any tears that had started to form. Falco headed over to the automatic sliding metal door and pressed a button beside it that unlocked it. Two seconds later, the door whooshed open, revealing Slippy and Rex.

"Hey, Falco! Hehe, we weren't interrupting anything, were we?" asked the tan bulldog.

"Just my sleep cycle," he lied. "What is it?"

Falco didn't even need to ask. He looked down at Slippy's hands and noticed he was holding a pizza box. "Well, we were in the mess hall when we noticed that someone bought a bunch of pizzas for us! So we were wondering if you'd like to, y'know, have lunch with us!"

The blue falcon noticed how odd the situation seemed and glanced over at the shirtless bulldog and his big belly and smile. Falco blinked before looking at the pizza box again.

"I'm not all that hungry."

"Aw, c'mon, Falco! It's meat-lovers! Now when was the last time you ate a meat-lovers pizza?"

"Like I said, Volcano, I'm not all that hungry right now. But thanks anyway."

Volcano and Slippy paused for a moment, hoping they'd be able to cajole Falco into eating with them so they could finally sit down and chat for a while. The tan bulldog blinked before he slowly lifted up a brown bag.

"I've got dipping sticks."

Falco huffed and rolled his eyes.

---

The blue falcon was sitting down at the table across from Volcano and Slippy, chewing on one of the dipping sticks the bulldog said he had in the bag. The mess hall was busy, but it wasn't too raucous, so the trio was still able to talk to each other without having to shout over the din. Rex was noisily smacking on a thick slice of the meat-lovers pizza, savoring the flavor of all the ham and sausage and pepperoni. He wiped some of the drool off his mouth before he swallowed hard and took another bite. Falco finished eating the rest of his dipping stick before he grabbed another from the container they were in.

"So..." started Slippy.

"So," said Falco bluntly.

"You, uh, you been doing good?"

Falco shrugged before he took his dipping stick and dunked part of it in marinara sauce. "Yeah, I'm good."

"That's...that's good. Being good is good!"

Falco raised an eyebrow. "Yeeeaaahhh..." said the bird awkwardly.

"Yep!" said Rex with his mouth full.

A long silence followed afterwards. All the trio could hear besides everyone in the background talking were the sounds of them chewing, slurping, and smacking on all the food. Rex was paying more attention to the food he was eating, chomping on all the thick slices of pizza and tasting all the succulent, meaty toppings. Falco chomped on the dipping stick in his hand before he glanced over at Slippy. The frog flicked his eyes up at him before he quickly lowered them and resumed eating his pizza. Falco stared at the green frog for a while, still wondering if either of them would say anything to break the silence. Slippy flicked his eyes up at Falco again before quickly looking away. But the bird noticed it again. There was no need to ask if something was wrong; he could feel the tension in the air already. Falco growled deeply before he shoved the rest of the dipping stick into his beak.

"So what are we gonna do about the Fireflies if they show up again?" asked Slippy.

The bird shrugged. "Don't know."

"Just take us along with you," said Volcano with his mouth full. The bulldog swallowed hard before he resumed talking. "The eight of us took out the Devil Dogs just fine. Maybe we'll scare 'em if we have numbers on our side. 'Sides, they're gonna be worried now, knowing they're gonna be fighting a Star Fox member who killed three Devil Dogs by himself!"

"Still, there's just something about these guys that really worries me. The Devil Dogs were tough, sure, but the Fireflies?" Slippy shook his head. "There's just something sinister about them I can't understand yet."

"Why am I here?" Falco abruptly asked.

Rex blinked and chuckled. "Cause you want these delicious dipping sticks!"

"No, besides that," said Falco, looking directly at Slippy. "Is there something you wanna ask me? Something you need to tell me?"

Slippy swallowed the chewed up pizza in his mouth and laughed nervously. "Like what? We just wanted to have lunch with you, that's all. You've been...distant lately. And kind of moody."

"Let me rephrase: do you think I'm an invalid? Hmm? Do you think I'm incompetent, that I'm losing my touch, that I'm 'upset' over what happened to Katt?"

"No! I'm-I'm not saying that at all, Falco! You just seem...well...different lately."

"And you thought pizza would make everything okay. 'Hey, Falco, I know your friend is dead, but let me make you feel better with some greasy, meat-coated, unhealthy food.'"

Rex sighed. "See, Slip? You should've gotten him the salad wraps."

"And what about you, Volcano? Do you think I'm having 'issues' right now?"

Rex stammered. "Well, I-I just, you know, I don't think you're...but you are kind of...uh..."

The bulldog grabbed a dipping stick, dipped it in ranch dressing, and then took a huge bite out of it. He decided to answer Falco while he was busy chewing, talking and spitting bits of food on the table and making hand gestures to suggest that Falco was perfectly fine. Then Rex swallowed hard and exhaled as he finished.

"...so yeah, that's what I think."

"You didn't answer."

Rex blinked and paused. He didn't know what words to say, so he stuffed the rest of the dipping stick into his mouth again and talked with his mouth full. Rex repeated the same gesture, mumbling and talking with his mouth full as opposed to answering Falco clearly. He swallowed hard again and finished talking.

"And that's my answer!"

"I still didn't hear you."

Rex paused. "Oh. Well then...what I was saying..."

Rex stopped. He was about to take out another dipping stick, but when he felt around the container they were in, there was nothing. Volcano looked at the container and frowned when he realized all the dipping sticks were gone. Then he looked up at Falco and realized the bird was still staring at him with that scowl on his face. Volcano inhaled sharply and scratched the back of his head. The shirtless canine stood up as he held his plump gut.

"Ergh, guess I ate too much pizza too fast! I, err...I'm gonna go take a dump real quick. See you guys in a few minutes!"

Volcano walked away from the table as he headed towards the lavatory, holding his belly and pretending that he was suffering from bowel issues. Falco watched the dog walk away before he turned and looked at Slippy instead.

"You haven't answered yet either."

"Well, it's not that I think you're an invalid, but maybe..."

Slippy started to put a slice of pizza in his mouth. Falco immediately slapped it out his hand, which led to it landing on the floor with a faint splat. Slippy sighed and set his hands down on the table.

"I'm serious, Falco. I don't think you're an invalid."

"But?"

"...But there is something wrong with you. I'm worried. Fox is worried, Krystal's worried--we're all worried buddy. Everytime Fox tries to talk to you, you clam up or you get defensive. You keep acting like you're fine when you know you're not."

"I am fine," Falco stated.

"No, you're--" Slippy huffed. "Katt's dead, all right? You're angry and you're sad--"

"You don't know how I'm feeling."

"Yes, I do! You think I haven't lost any friends? What about Fox and Krystal? Heck, even Doogan and his team have lost people before. But they got past it. They didn't hold onto it forever and they certainly didn't try to act like it didn't happen!"

"I know what happened to Katt."

"I know you know. But you're not...reacting to it. You haven't been crying or-or talking to anybody about how you feel or even throwing a temper tantrum and breaking stuff."

"Who says I haven't been crying?"

Slippy stopped talking and stared at Falco. The bird realized what he just said and his eyes grew wide. He silently cursed himself, knowing he wasn't watching his words.

"Falco..."

"I'm fine," Falco snapped.

"No, you're not."

"I'm fine!"

"No, you're not!"

Falco slammed his right fist down on the table, almost knocking over Slippy's drink and startling him. Falco exhaled harshly as he kept staring at the frog.

"You know what, Slip? You're right! I'm not fine! I'm annoyed! I'm very annoyed with you and everyone else on this team!"

Slippy whimpered quietly. "Calm down. Wh-what did we do?"

"I'm annoyed at the way you're treating me! You guys coddle me, treat me like I'm 'special,' treat me like I need some kind of assistance or personal help! Do I look crippled?! Do I look mentally impaired?! Do I look like I'm a baby?! I'm a grown man, Slippy!"

"I-I know that--" Slippy said, his voice crackling slightly.

"No, you don't! I didn't ask for anyone on this team to help me! Stop acting like you'll accidentally insult me because of what you say! Stop acting like I need to be constantly coddled! I'm not some...some _thing_you need to be cautious around! I can still fight! I can still fly! I lost a friend, Slippy! I didn't lose my mind or my skills as a mercenary! So stop treating me like some toddler that you need to pamper, stop looking at me like I'm some terminally-ill cancer patient and just leave me alone!"

Now Slippy was the one who was trying not to cry. His eyes were watery and the frog couldn't help but whimper and whine as he looked at his friend. He really did want to help Falco, but he wasn't going to get hurt himself in the process of doing so. The frog didn't know what to say or do anymore. Falco was a time bomb that was going to go off any day now. And with the way he was acting, the bomb was gonna explode sooner than later. Before either of them could say anymore, the intercom for the mess hall suddenly came on.

"Star Fox, Star Dog, you're needed in the Core ASAP. General Pepper needs to see you."

Falco sighed after the dog on the intercom stopped talking. He quickly stood up from the table and scoffed.

"C'mon, let's go. Unless you think I'm too moody and incompetent to speak to the general."

Slippy didn't respond. He remained seated as Falco stomped out the mess hall angrily. Shortly after Falco left, Rex reappeared from the restroom and gradually approached the table Slippy was sitting at.

"Is he gone yet?"

Slippy shut his eyes and let out a shaky breath. "Yes."

The bulldog sighed. "Good. That whole conversation was getting a bit...you all right, Slip?"

Slippy rubbed his eyes with his left arm and smiled slightly.

"Don't worry, buddy...I'll be okay," he lied.