StarFox: HailFire
Corruption
Chapter 2: Team HailFire
Just outside the training hall, Demian and Kaiser were heading outside. Demian was staring blankly at the floor with his arm folded together over his chest. Every step he took was slow and almost silent. His expression was blank and empty. It was as if he was thinking about something. It was as if he was in his own little world. Not aware of his surroundings. An internal growl came from him which made Kaiser turn his head to look at him.
“Hey…” Kaiser said to him as he reached to put his hand on his shoulder. “You did well.”
“I doubt it,” Demian replied, shaking off the raccoon's hand away from his shoulder. “I don’t need your pity.”
“It is not pity, my friend. You did do well.”
“Peh…sure I did…”
The two reached the automatic doors and headed outside where many cadets, soldiers, officers, and others from the Cornerian military were seen. It was around the afternoon and the sky was a bright blue with few clouds in the sky. Several were grouped together in conversation at a few circular tables. Few others were training their martial arts with each other or using their blasters while others watched. Demian lifted his head up and narrowed his eyes at them. He caught eye of a tan colored wolf with brown hair just above his shoulders a far enough distance from all the crowds. The other wolf was a year younger than Demian. He wore a navy blue trench coat, black pants, and brown boots. His eyes were an eerie silver. He had a distant look on his face as if he were being left out on everything and wanted to die.
Demian and Kaiser approached him in a normal pace. Demian rolled his eyes while Kaiser gave out a sympathetic expression when they stopped walking in front of him. Ricky didn’t look at them and seemed to just stand there as if he were a bored to death statue.
“What’s wrong with you, Ricky?” Demian said in a low voice. “You look as if you’re having a worse time than I am.”
Ricky looked at the two and sighed as he slowly slipped his hands into his pockets. He didn’t respond for a moment until he shook his head at the black wolf and golden raccoon.
“It’s…nothing,” he replied blankly, lying. He was thinking about an Arctic wolf he had a deep crush on and was disheartened due to the fact that he got tongue tied when he tried to talk to her earlier.
“Come
on, Ricky Desolate,” Demian snapped, using Ricky’s epithetical name.
“There’s always something up with you! The thing is, that you seem to forget
about it while we’re around you.”
Kaiser tilted his head to one side in pity at the two, quickly glancing over at the crowd watching a trainee and pilot who were sparring. One was a male frilled neck lizard whereas the other was a female raccoon with white and gray fur and blue eyes. Her hair was a shiny white streaked with faint traces of brown and blond on the tips and tied behind her back in a braid. He began to blush from the sight of her, but it couldn’t be seen under his fur. Every movement she made astonished him with suppressed delight.
“Look, you two,” he started to say as he looked back at his two wolf companions. “Xetak and Lana are training over there. Why don’t we watch them? It might make you two feel better.”
“I’m game for it,” Demian began to grin mockingly. “You probably just want to watch your girlfriend.”
Kaiser stared at him with a highly flustered look on his face as he waved his hands in front of him and shook his head hard as if to deny what was said. Ricky simply let out a weak laugh at the sight. Demian continued to grin, feeling alittle better.
“Refuse to believe it if that is what you desire,” he said as he turned towards the crowd. “Nevertheless, you two are absolutely mad for each other. You should ask her out.”
“I’ll think about it,” Kaiser mumbled as he and Ricky followed him.
“You better or I’ll ask her out for you and arrange everything.”
Lana delivered a spinning kick towards Xetak’s chest before seeing Kaiser in the crowd by the corner of her eye. Xetak was hit sharply and clutched his side and attempted to whip his tail out at her clumsily while she was distracted, but his attack did not connect in the way he wanted. She was able to catch his tail and swung him to the concrete floor. He winced as he skidded painfully.
“You need to bring up your defense,” she said to him. “You’re too slow when you attack. You’re too predictable. Try again.”
Xetak flimsily lifted himself off the ground. He let out a groan and the frilled flaps around his neck drooped and folded down. He wasn’t too happy about the training she was giving him, but he wanted to improve. Bringing up enough nerve, he began to charge towards Lana. She stood there in waiting with a calm smile on her face. In a split second, he was about to take a swing with his claws, but stopped and leaped into the air. The wing-like flaps around his neck spread out as he let out a short yell. Bringing one leg towards the white raccoon in attempts to kick her, he failed again and was pinned to the ground once he missed his target. He stared straight at her then turned his head to one side.
“Better,” Lana said as she rested a foot lightly onto his chest. “Yet you’re still not keeping your defense up. Keep practicing.”
“Ugh…yes, Lana…” Xetak sighed out.
"Alright!" Lana exclaimed as she held one arm high. "Show's over. Leave and get on with your lives."
Those who were watching turned and walked away, listening to Lana. After they all left, Demian, Kaiser, and Ricky went over to the two. Lana stepped away from Xetak to stand beside Kaiser. Ricky reached out one hand to help Xetak back onto his feet while Demian smirked at the two raccoons.
“Good show there, Lana,” Demian said as he glanced over at Xetak. “Still training him? Looks like he still needs some work.”
“My piloting skills have gotten better at least,” the teenage lizard mumbled. “I just can’t fight hand to hand…”
“Maybe you and I could train sometime,” Ricky suggested. “I’m not all that good in combat myself. If I ever went into the simulator with Demian and Kaiser here, I wouldn’t last for more than a minute.”
Demian looked downward and cursed under his breath from Ricky’s remark. “I’m not all that good.”
“Are you kidding me?” Kaiser said in an oddly shy tone, finding himself holding Lana’s hand all of a sudden. “…if that Chimera was set to go after me, I would have slipped into the canyons.”
“Hah…cute,” Demian smirked at the two. They drew their hands away from each other then shrugged at him hesitantly.
Abruptly, announcements could be heard throughout the whole academy. The five jerked their heads to look at one set of speakers that were placed on a pole. The announcement seemed to be implying to them.
“Attention,” a gruff voice echoed on the PA. “This is General Pepper speaking. I would like to see the following at my office: Kaiser Rosutsu, Demian Kezlat, Lana Celvie, and Ricky Delvaunt. I am aware that only one of you is carrying a communicator with you currently, so I am saying this through the PA system. I am going to assign you a mission, team Hail Fire, so report to me immediately. I would also like to see the cadet, Xetak Kizalen, with the four of you. That is all for now. Pepper, over and out.”
Once the announcements ended, everyone looked at Demian. He muttered and shook his head. “I’m the one with the communicator…guess he didn’t know that we were all in the same location.”
“He probably does not realize that we are almost always together at this time of day,” Kaiser added.
“He even called me…?” Xetak seemed puzzled and ecstatic at the same time. He became silent for a second then shook his head and turned to the others. “Hey…who is the leader of the Hail Fire team?”
Both Ricky and Lana responded at the same time to answer him. Ricky addressed to Demian, yet Lana directed to Kaiser. The two looked at each other for a second following an uncertain switch of answers, following another, and another. Xetak stared at them in a perplexed manner while the two who were assumed to be the leader just stood there silently. Kaiser smiled nervously and Demian began to grit his teeth angrily.
“Hahaha…hah. Really,” Kaiser tensely said, finally. He was unsure of what to say and didn’t want the pointing to continue. “Demian is the leader.”
“What?!” Demian jolted his head to gape at him. “You say that even though you are the best ranked in our team?!”
“You’re better at leading,” a shrug came from the raccoon with his response. “We both have our highs, I guess.”
The two began to insulted themselves which hushed down the other three. The four who were in the team never did think about a leader. Kaiser was an all around pilot in all focuses, Demian was the best in offense and speed, Ricky had his ways with tricks and manipulating his opponents in flight, and Lana was known to be the best at navigating. The remaining two in the team who weren’t arguing soon after began to join in on the argument and many others from the Cornerian force began to stare at them then begun whispered among themselves.
Xetak found himself clamping his claws to both sides of his head. He began to whine at them, but they didn’t seem to notice. The Hail Fire team looked at if they were going to pull each other’s fur out until a voice came from Demian’s communicator. The four settled down slowly and stood away from each other with their backs turned and arms crossed.
“Hello? Hello?! Brother!” an anxious voice was heard from the communicator. “You there, Demian? Can you hear me?”
Demian lifted his wrist and saw a miniature image of a wolf almost identical to him, yet he looked somewhat younger than him with longer silver hair tied behind his back and a pair of goggles over his eyes. He was wearing a normal pair of blue jeans and a forest green shirt under an oil covered apron.
“Yeah, yeah…I hear you loud and clear, kid,” Demian said in a sarcastic tone. “What is it, Demitri?”
“I heard the message earlier when I was working on a new aircraft design. Sounds great! I wonder what you’ll be doing. I heard that the reward is quite hefty too.”
“Oh no,” Kaiser gawked, “How long have we been quarrelling here?”
“Precisely twenty-four minutes and thirty-eight seconds and counting,” Lana answered.
“What?!” Ricky yelped, beginning to run in one direction. “We better get going now!”
The three other members of the Hail Fire team including Xetak and Demitri stood there until they all bellowed in panic. Demitri’s image disappeared from Demian’s communicator and then they all trailed after Ricky like a stampede of frightened sheep, pushing each other in attempts to be ahead and finally pulling Ricky in the struggle with them until they reached the building doors.