Wolfpack Core - Chapter 4 - And So It Begins...
#4 of Wolfpack Core
_Ahead of time, I hope I don't confuse anyone with constant transitions between Vincent/Reiji and Spike/Mach. ;_;
I'll try to make this transaction as seamless as possible.
If it makes it any less confusing. Out of dialogue, I'll be referencing Spike as Spike. In dialogue with other characters, he'll be called Mach.
This is a rather boring chapter on my end since it's pretty much getting Spike familiar with the Academy and the main people associated with it._
Also, copyright information for this chapter:
**Star Fox belongs to Nintendo
Characters in The Star Fox Chronicles belong to their respective owners and players.**
~~~~~
[Wolfpack Core - Chapter 4 - And so it begins...]
*bzzt* *bzzt*
I moaned hearing a vibration go off in the distance.
*bzzt* *bzzt*
I checked the clock again.
12:05 PM
*bzzt* *bzzt*
I looked over at Spike. Our members have since then retreated back into our sheaths and we were both lying naked together on the bed. He was fast asleep with a smile on his face.
*bzzt *bzzt*
"What the fuck...?!" I moaned into the pillow. I got up out of my bed in my naked glory and grabbed my cell phone atop the dresser. I read who was calling me.
"Falco Lombardi - ***-***-****"
I'm not that mean to reveal his phone number, but apparently it must be some sort of big deal. I hit the answer key on my phone.
"...Hello?" I asked in a drowsy tone.
"WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU, VINCENT?!" Falco yelled through the phone. It was loud enough to wake up Spike.
"Ugh... I had a long day yesterday... It was important... I must've overslept." I said back to him as my eyes grew heavy and began to shut.
"I DON'T GIVE A DAMN, YOU MADE ME DO THAT LOUSY DEMONSTRATION FOR THE HALFWITS YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO TEACH. GET YOUR BUTT OVER HERE." Falco was obviously angry that he had to do something that I told him I would cover for the other day.
"Fine... I'll be there in 30 minutes." I said back to him.
"You better." he said back to me.
*click*
I moaned walking back to the bed eventually crashing back down into bed. I caught Spike looking at me with my face flat on the pillow.
"What's going on, Rei?" he asked me.
"Pharco wamfs me to go to the Acaehmy." I said muffling my words in to the pillow. "I really dohn wanna go."
I felt a stinging sensation travel from my butt up to my spine as Spike slapped it with force. My body jumped up.
"Gah!" I yelled. "What was that for?!"
"You have a job to do and you better go and do it! Do you think Pop's business ran on its own?"
I sluggishly got up from bed and put on my uniform. I slid on some form fitting stretch fabric boxers, a form fitting black shirt, a pair of khaki slacks, as well as a track jacket with both the Cornerian Flight Academy logo on my near my left shoulder on the sleeve as well as a Gangrel symbol on the right shoulder on the sleeve as well. I slipped into some standard black military boots.
"You coming with me, Spike? We gotta get you registered at the academy." I wrapped by a belt around my waist that had my blaster holster attached to it.
"Yeah, yeah..." He got up out of bed and began making his towards the living room where his backpack full of clothes was. As he passed towards me, I couldn't help but notice his well muscled ass. I took a swing at it and gave it a nice hard slap.
Spike jumped up in shock of the slap. He turned back at me and just laughed. He then continued on into the living room.
Moments later, he was ready and dressed in a navy blue t-shirt, black cargo pants and some regular sneakers that looked like Earth's Adidas Sambas. He also had a belt that housed his dual blasters. I looked at the two blasters he took with him to discover that he had taken the ones I had given him. Before placing them in the holsters, he spun the two blasters on his index finger at high speed and slapped the two blasters on the opposite side of what hand they were in their correct positions.
"What the hell was that all about, Mr. Fancy Pants?" I asked Spike.
"When you have nothing better to do at the range, you tend to do a lot of pointless things to kill time. That would be one of them." He made his way over to the door where I was standing.
"Before we go," I said to him as we made our way out. "I never told any one at the Academy that I had a brother. If anyone asks, you were on Katina staying with a distant relative, got it?"
"Got it." he said back. We were ready to head over there. Before we made our way over to the Academy we had taken the time to stop by city hall and get his name legally changed. With the certificate in hand, we finally made it to the epicenter of all the action. The Cornerian Flight Academy.
The huge glass doors in the lobby flung open as we walked in. There we found Fox and Falco chatting. I knew Falco was there ready to beat me up for not showing up.
"About damn time you got here, Vincent." Falco said to me in a stern manner. "You're lucky I like you too damn much to be mad at you. You're off the hook this time."
All I could do is chuckle at him. I knew that both Fox and Falco were wondering who was with me.
"Oh, Fox, Falco. I'd like you to meet my younger brother, Mach." I said to the two Star Fox members.
"Your brother?" Fox asked. "You never mentioned to us that you had a brother, Vincent."
"Well... You see..." I began to say.
"I was staying with some relatives on Katina. They develop blasters there for the Katina Defense Force, so while I was there I learned how to use them as well. I guess you could say I'm as good as Vincent here. Since I had heard that he recently graduated from here, he asked me to move in with him so I could register here and become part of the Cornerian Defense Force."
I looked over to Spike. Damn, he knows how to bullshit his way out of a situation.
"Heh, another expert marksman." said Falco. He took out his blaster and spun it around his finger and pointed it at Spike's head. "I'd like to see how good you are, Mach."
Spike didn't flinch at all. In a flash, he grabbed Falco's wrist and pulled it past him jerking the avian forward. He then swept his foot behind Falco tripping him from behind and as he fell, using his right hand took the blaster straight out of his hand and pointed it at his head as he lay with his back on the floor.
The whole lobby went silent and just stared at what just happened. Falco Lombardi, an elite member of Star Fox, just got taken down by someone who wasn't even registered at the Academy yet.
"Good enough for you, Mr. Lombardi?" Spike said to him. He moved the blaster away from his head and helped Falco up with his free hand. I could only think, 'What the hell did Pop teach him these past three years?'
"You got lucky, kid. Gotta watch my back. I'm not gonna go easy on your next time." Falco said. He shook Spike's hand formally introducing himself. Fox did the same.
"I wouldn't expect any less of you." Spike replied.
"Sorry that we gotta cut this conversation short, you guys. Gotta get him registered here so he could start taking classes here." I said to him. I was actually anxious for him to meet everyone here at the Academy.
"No problem. Bill, Fara, and Krystal should be in the registry office right now actually. I'll tell them you're on your way there." said Fox.
"Thanks, Fox. I'll see you guys later."
"It was nice meeting you two." Spike said to the Star Fox members.
"Later. It was nice meeting you too, Mach." said Falco.
We made our way through the lobby to lengthy hallway to the registry office for new student. The three people that Fox had mentioned were right there talking.
"Oh, Vincent," said Bill. "Fox mentioned you were dropping by."
"Yeah, I'm here to register my brother for classes at the Academy." I said to the dog.
"Brother?" Bill asked.
"Yeah, this is my brother, Mach." I said to the three.
"It's nice to meet you all. Vincent has said a lot of great things about all of you."
"Oh, really?" Krystal said. "What has he said about all of us?"
Oh shit, I never actually said anything to Spike about them. What the hell is he trying to do? Get me killed for my credibility?!
"Mr. Grey, if you're work on Katina hasn't been helpful enough to all of us there, you've also managed to help my brother with his piloting skills since that seems to be his weak point."
Huh? Since when did he know that I was bad at piloting arwings? Bill did help me out several times to help out with piloting when Falco didn't have the chance to, but I was just baffled at how he knew this.
"Ms. Phoenix, I've heard about how amazing of a medic you are here at the Academy. You've managed to help my older brother here whenever his blaster accidents get the best of him. I've heard of several episodes where his blaster overheated and you've had to treat him for minor burns on his hand."
HUH? When did he find out about those? That only started happening when I first got to the academy. How did he know about this?!
"And Ms. Krystal, you've managed to do the impossible. I've tried helping him control his anger for years. Being his brother, it's hard to contain him when he goes ballistic. You know how to dig deep into the depths of his mind to help him deal with those issues."
_ HUH?! _ HOW DID HE KNOW ABOUT THIS?!
"So I guess that Vincent has been saying nice things about us. It would be a shame if you were just bullshitting us to get on our good side." Bill said to Spike smiling at him and shaking his hand.
"Come with me, Mach. We'll get you registered and stuff so you could start here tomorrow." said Krystal.
"Alright." Without hesitation he followed Krystal into the backroom. I decided to wait outside the office for Spike.
I was just completely baffled on how Spike would know all this information. Unless he was actually here, he wouldn't have been able to find out about any of this. It was the only possible way that he could've known about this.
I sat along the wall trapped deeply in thought.
"Vincent..."
I heard a voice go off, but I ignored it as I was trapped too deep in my thoughts.
"Vincent..."
Ugh, this is reminding me of my cell phone. Why won't people leave me alone when I need the chance?
"Vincent!"
I jerked my head up and just yelled, "WHAT?!"
I looked up to find a human staring down at me with a cat standing by his side. It was Ryan and Tri.
"Oh, sorry, I was caught in my own world there for a moment." I apologized to the two the human and the cat.
"Ah, no problem." Ryan said. "What brings you to this side of the building?"
"I could be asking you the same thing."
"We're just passing through. We're about to grab lunch with the others if you wanna join us."
"That would be nice. I'm just waiting up for someone."
"Who might that be?" asked Tri.
Spike emerged from the door. "I'm done, Vincent."
Spike... He's just full of surprises... His timing is impeccable.
"Guys, I'd like you to meet my brother, Mach."
"Since when do you have a brother?" Ryan asked.
"Well, he was off on Katina for sometime. He just came back the other day." I explained to them. "Oh, and Mach, this is Tri Gunner and-"
"The famous Ryan Lewis." Spike said interrupting me. "You've made quite a name for yourself around Corneria."
He's been heard outside of the academy as well? That's news to me.
"Oh?" Ryan asked. "What have you heard?"
"That you appeared out of nowhere and managed to join Star Fox in such a short amount of time." he replied. "It's an honor to meet you."
Spike shook hands with both Ryan and Tri.
"Hey, Mach, we were just about to grab some lunch in the cafeteria, wanna come with?" I asked him.
"Sure. I'm starving."
The four of us went down to the busy cafeteria of the school. The hustle and bustle of students and graduates alike could be heard throughout the room. We could see the group sitting at the far end of the cafeteria. They managed to nab the tables with the view of the city panning around the multiple windows lined against the wall. We made our way over to the huge group of people.
"Hey, Vincent! About time you got to the academy! We thought you wouldn't make it!" a cheerful Nordic said to me.
"Probably because one has had too much fun in one night and became a lazy ass." Nevelamas said glaring at me. He always seemed to know what was going on with me. I could only give a light chuckle back.
"So who's the new guy?" asked Balze.
"Oh, sorry, this is my brother, Mach." I said to them. They quickly grew quiet and looked back at me.
In perfect unison, they all said, "You have a brother?"
I chucked again, "Yeah... Sorry I never mentioned it." I brought Spike over into the front of the three of us. I took a deep breath and pointed at Nordic.
"Mach, this is Nordic, Kuro, Robert, Nev, DJ, Lucian, Adair, Trevor, Kayrin, Kenji, Red, 8, and Balze." I said to him pointing at each person.
"It's nice to meet all of you." he said.
"Come sit down with us, Mach." said Red. Mach looked up to me.
"It's fine, I'll be right back... I just need to use the bathroom." That was a complete lie. Spike knew way too much. I needed to know what was going on. He made his way over to the table where everyone was welcoming him with open arms.
I sighed as I walked away from the group and made the long walk over to the main doors and sat down on the steps leading up to the front door. I took out my cell phone and browsed for Pop's number.
*ring* *ring*
"Hello, Cornerian Academy Shooting Range, this is Aiden speaking, how may I help you?" Pop said in a painfully cheery voice.
"Hey, Pop, it's Rei."
"Oh, good. I thought I would've had to keep up this horribly cheesiness even longer. What's up? You sound troubled."
"Yeah, Spike knows a little too much."
"Too much about what?"
"About everyone here at the academy!" I exclaimed. "About the Star Fox members, the human, and about some of my more embarrassing moments here. How in the world does he know all this?"
Silence fell over the phone.
"What, Pop?! Is this something that you can't tell me either?"
"We knew you were at the Academy... Me and Spike... We both knew."
"What?" So in my attempt to escape everything, I was being watched over? What the hell?
"We both knew that you were at the Academy, but we also knew there was a greater reason to why you never came back. We didn't want to jump in on you. We wanted to wait until you were ready."
"... So you couldn't trust me being out on my own." I was upset that Pop didn't trust me to be out on my own.
"You're all that Spike has left. If we didn't watch over you, we couldn't take that risk of losing you. You've gotten in more than enough fights at the academy, enough to get you kicked out."
I wasn't the easiest person to get along with when I first got here. In my first year at the academy, I was prone to getting into a lot of fights since I wanted to be alone. I didn't want to get close to anyone in fear that they might do something to me like my father did. I know I wasn't all that close to him, but I just didn't want to set myself up for disappointment. For most of my time at the academy, I was literally a lone wolf and kept to myself most of time.
It wasn't until recently that I even decided to open up in the first place. I was paired up with Nevlamas for the exam and it was the first time in a while where I really felt like I was part of something. In the course of that day, I manage to make fifteen new friends and each of them I would fight for to the ends of the Lylat Galaxy for. I'm sure they would do the same as well.
"... I see your point, Pop. Thanks for clearing that up for me." I said to him in a relaxed tone over to the phone.
"We were just looking out for you, Rei. I knew this was important for you, so I did everything in my power as well to help you out everyway I could."
"... Thanks, Pop. I'll talk to you later."
"No problem. I'm always here for you to talk to. Call back soon."
"Love ya." I smiled as I hung up the phone. That cleared up the mystery of how Spike knew everything. He literally witnessed everything that I went through in my career here.
I quickly returned to the cafeteria where everyone was still there making my brother feel welcome.
"About time you got back, Vincent! What were you doing in there? Jacking off?" yelled Ryan.
"Very funny," I said to them, "They bothering you, Mach?"
"Nah, we love the little guy." said DJ.
"But I can't shake the feeling that I've seen him somewhere before..." Kenji said glaring at Spike. All he could do is chuckle back at him. "I can't put my finger on it."
I looked at my cell phone clock. It was 5:43 PM. Jeez, it was that late already.
"Hey, Mach, we gotta go. I'll see you guys tomorrow." I said to everyone. Mach jumped up from his chair and followed me out of the cafeteria.
We made our way outside of the academy and began walking back to our apartment.
"So, Spike..." I said to him, "You trying to be my guardian angel?"
"Whadya mean?" he asked nonchalantly.
"You knew too much for your own good. Pop told me that you were here from time to time doing jobs for the shooting range."
"..." He didn't want to talk about it.
"I knew you were just worried for me. I thank you for that." I pulled him over and kissed him on the head.
"Rei... It just sucked not having you around... I just wanted you to be around even if I couldn't directly be with you."
I hugged my brother with my one arm holding him close to me as we continued to make our way back home.
We finally reached our apartment. We both kicked our shoes off and I made my way over to my laptop and he made his way over to the TV. It felt like old times again where we would just be doing our own thing in the same room, just enjoying our company.
However, our short time of relaxation was short lived.
*knock, knock, knock*
"I got it." Spike said. He made his way over to the door and opened it.
"Hey, is Reiji here?" a voice said.
Spike turned over to me. "Hey, Rei, do you know who this large bulking figure is?"
I looked up from my spot on the computer to see who was at the door.
"No way..."