Wolf 2

By Tune4Toons

It took me a while to wake up this morning. First time I've been in a bed and not have to pull for my blaster in the same second at the sign of danger. I had it anyways for safe measures, and by the force of habit too.

As for right now, the first thing I do is get my priorities set straight. It's a tournament, after all. The place itself is pretty big. I end up getting lost in the first little while trekking through the white halls. Still, Leon and Panther are nowhere to be found. This is ridiculous. I just want this to be over and done with as soon as possible.

I lean against the wall behind me. It doesn't seem like a bad idea to scope out the competition. That hand must be watching everyone.

His house, his rules.

The first thing that passes me is a guy in blue armour. His hair has a matching shade of colour. A human, I think they're called. Weird creatures, those ones. Never actually seen one 'till now though. Another person (or thing) walks by, this time being no less than three feet tall. A mini cape is wrapped around his body. He soon glares at me, and instead of his face, I see his mask. Through its little slots, glowing red eyes flash to blue. Damn. A short stack, but it looks like I'm gonna have to watch out for that one. Down the end of the hall, an orange full-metal figure stands there, leaning against the wall, probably scanning through the competition as well the same way I do through that helmet's visor. Has the stillness of a robot, standing idle there like that.

A couple of human kids run passed me, chasing each other everywhere the way brats usually would. The hand brought kids too? That's pretty warped. He's really making things pretty interesting around here. See if any of the fighters are weak to the fact that they gotta fight 'dem lil squirts. I couldn't care less. They're here for a reason too.

This place seems more like a circus rink if I didn't know any better. Full of freaks of all sizes, I swear—

At the opposite end of the hall, I see a fat red furless talking with that cocky birdbrain and McCloud…wait a minute…!

I blink several times. Nope, not hallucinating. That is him! What in Lylat is that pup doing here?

"Someone you know. Someone you find pleasure in brawling."

Someone I know, that sneaky bastard. Both the pup and the birdbrain to boot, while you're at it. The cons just keep adding up.

…No… Not a con… An advantage… This is land combat, not air. I have the leverage here. Not only that, I'm getting paid for this. Don't forget that this is a tournament. That means there's gotta be a prize. I'm certain there is one, so whatever it is, I'm going after it.

You better watch yourself, pup, 'cause I'm coming after you too.

First thing's first though. Find my way to the arena.

I remember hearing something about a portal earlier. Something about it being underground or something like that. Or was that the training facility? I'm not sure… Too tired that time. I push myself off the wall and walk down the hall away from McCloud. I'll deal with him in the arena. I wind through the thin corridors, passing many other strange fighters; an alien thing with a glass helmet, a flat 2D shadow, some lady with pointy ears. Down the stairs I go. Then from another hall comes another group of freaks. There are way more humans than I thought—

My eye catches the sight of a blue jackal walking away from the crowd. Oh, that's good; looks like this place isn't completely a messed-up circus. But the majority of the competition is still human. Guess that just makes me the freak, then.

I find my was to the entrance of this place: a room with doorways at every side around me, and a large arched gateway where a set of double doors tower above everything. Nothing too special besides it being big. My paws shoot for the knob, only to hear a click before it can fully turn. Figures. Of course the Hand would lock it. Can't let his toys escape, now can he?

I wonder how Powalski and Caruso are holding up. The dept we have has been giving us a hard time for a while, but money's the least of our concerns now.

I turn and decide to go look for the arena, heading over to where a hall splits into two separate ones. Walking towards the one on the right, I hear a few more people coming up behind me, talking amongst themselves.

"Where's the arena again?" An annoying voice says. Ugh. Head's hurting from even listening.

"It's down the hall near the kitchen, right?" Another child. Great. More kids.

Then a woman's voice says, "Go down to your left here and you'll find two rooms. Ones for assistants and the other is for fighters. The billboard and match-ups should be there too."

Oh, left… Going down the left, the trio pass by me. One purple and thin human, a blond boy in blue, and a female in green. The hall itself gets darker the farther you travel, coming to an eventual path of lights, brightening the way. The smell of iron lingers near… Air pressure's dropping… Am I going farther underground, or am I just imagining things?

Here we go… We finally arrive at those doors. Oh, perfect. They're labelled. How convenient—in different languages too, while you're at it. Damn, the smell's getting to me. Strong. Relaxing. Familiar.

The scent of battle.

Anticipation rises.

I shove my way through towards the door with the "Smashers" nameplate on it. Then I find myself in a small room; seats are attached to the side of the walls. Just twenty feet away from me is a round metal platform.

Teleporter. Has to be.

Scanning the room, it looks like there's no control box anywhere. The platform doesn't appear to be activated yet. So no point on staying. I turn around to push the open. Click. It didn't budge. Great. Looks like I really am stuck in his little game.

Then I hear a buzz to my left. Spinning back around, a screen lowers down from the ceiling. A roulette of images pops up on the monitor into a menu, filling in every slot of space. It draws me in, and I find myself scrolling through the pictures without realising. A nice touch screen. Doesn't hurt to figure out how the system works.

Just above it is what seems like a list, an empty one at that. Match-ups… Huh. So it hasn't started yet.

An image of space soon catches my eye on the menu below. Lylat Cruise, or so the label says. Heh. Who knew? Nostalgia hits hard. Two touches and the photo expands. Then a hum filled the room; the platform lights up in blue.

"Enter," it says on the message of the screen. A small clock is displayed on the top.

I swallowed a bit. My claw reaches for my blaster by instinct. If my guess is right, this should take me outside. The tap of my boots echoes in the room as I walk towards it. Then I step into the portal, and a blinding flash overtakes me…

And soon enough, peaks of black cut through the white. Space stations stay afloat like how spinning tops spin upright, slight tilt. Glancing below, the platform crumbles beneath me, and I fall onto the roof of a wide-span fighter with a sharp thud.

Wait… Space… How am I still breathing? Damn, can't believe I didn't catch on sooner. It's just a hologram. …But if it's a hologram, then is this the arena?

"They will be able to enjoy themselves in the stands…"

What stands? The stage is floating in the middle of space! Wherever the seats are, the design made a pretty damn-good job of hiding it.

The comm in my ear buzzes. By habit, I put a claw to my ear— Wait a minute…buzzing? I turn it on.

"Who—?"

"Panther, it's your turn to contact him."

"Leon, we've been at this for hours. We should just take a break—"

"If we take a break, we might miss the signal. We've been moving in this ship for ages!"

Guess those two are alright. Do they even realise the comm's on…?

"Guys—"

"Considering it's almost been 24 hours, I didn't think we're gonna be able to contact him."

"…Guys—"

"You haven't been with Star Wolf long enough to know, Caruso. We've been through situations way worse than this before—"

"GUYS!"

They decide to shut up. Finally! Glad to know they haven't killed each other yet.

I sigh. "Where are you two? A ship?"

"Boss!" Leon says. "I knew we were gonna be able to find you eventually. Where are you at?"

"A simulator, it seems. Currently on top of a cruiser right now."

"A simulator? That can't be right…" Panther says.

"And why not?"

"Because we can see you above us right now."

What? A quick look below me, and I see nothing but metal. This entire platform is made up of the hull. At the moment, it looks like we've been cruising through the asteroid belt at Meteo. I remember being here once…

I hear some shuffling in the background before Panther comes back on. "Oh, I found the nameplate earlier. The ship we're on is called the Pleiades. A lovely ship. Leon's been piloting it for a while."

"Piloting? But we're in a simulator."

"That's why we're not sure if it— Leon, watch out!"

The ship jerks to the right, and I stumble from the sudden turn. Fired lasers fly pass the wing of the Pleiades. I grab onto the ledge and hang on. I watch a Cornerian fighter fire away at a couple of Venom pilots.

Pzzt. I hear a small buzz within earshot, and I turn to get a good glimpse of it. You gotta be kidding me… A boxy camera twists left and right, nailed onto the front of the cruiser looking back. It stares straight at me. Wide lens. Perfect view of the arena.

"Nice to see you," Leon says. "Mind explaining what happened, boss?"

"We're at the arena. The tournament hasn't stared yet, though."

"I heard about that," Panther says. "Got to see a couple of fine furless prowling around."

I sigh. "I'll be sure to get this over and done with as soon as possible. Probably get the dept paid off while we're at it. The pup's going down, whether he likes it or not."

Leon gasps. "Oooh, he's here too? The birdbrain's around too. Things are getting interesting. Can't wait to see you shred the competition to bits, ripping out their flesh 'till they scream."

"All the fights should definitely be starting tomorrow. Once Star Fox is out of the way, the rest should be a breeze—"

A blast inturupts me, shaking the Pleiades and knowing me off balance. I catch the faint sound of alarms, seeing smoke rise from the left hull of the cruiser.

"Leon, get us outta here now!"

"Right, boss."

The ship shakes. Then he brings the ship into hyper speed, zooming through a bright blue portal. Seconds later, we're brought over the Corneria's atmosphere. The blue waters of the planet breeze under us. The new silence is calming, only left with the hum of the engine—

Beep. What was that? Beep. Just now. Beep. There it is again.

Beep, beep, beep. It keeps echoing in the area.

"Boss, you leaving already?" Leon asked.

"What are you talking about?"

Panther sighs. "The time's almost up."

"Someone explain to me—"

Beep. Beep. Then a countdown follows. "Five, four, three, two—"

"See ya around boss. Knock'em dead!"

"Hey, I'm not done with you yet—!"

"—one, TIME!" And a bright white flash overtakes me before I can say anymore. I shield my good eye. In the matter of seconds, my feet drop onto tile, and my eye opens. My vision clears up as a swirl of blue form into walls and lights.

Looks like I'm back in the waiting room.

Powalski and Caruso: check. Are the match-ups posted yet? The tournament's supposed to start soon anyway, so it should be by now. Turning around, I see the teleporter sitting there the same way as before. Not sure if that was the arena or training room, but it seems like that Hand is investing a lot in all of this.

My eye soon glances over to the left. What's different about the room is that the list on the monitor is filled this time. Scrolling down, I find my name plus the name of my opponent.

Huh. Interesting. I mentally take note of the name.

Walking to the entrance, the door in front of me finally clicks open as it's pushed. Glad to see it's not locked anymore. I walk through, claws in my pockets. My eye closes. The scent of iron still lingers in the hallway air.

Time to see what this tournament has in store for me.

Tune4Toons: That, my friends, is the end of that. Thank you so much for reading! Let's not forget the rest of the authors who contributed as well. Be sure to send them some cheers too~

Aaaand, how 'bout a HUGE round of applause for CEObrainz for organizing this? All of this wouldn't be possible without his initiation to start it, and for being able to get through a "bombardment" of questions at the start (whoops :P). So how 'bout that? Woohoo! *pops confetti*

Stay tuned for more works from everyone here. Cheers! And happy readings!