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All he had to do was stand there and listen to the monkey ramble. Sooner or later, he'd shut up. That's what he was hoping for anyway. But everytime the coyote was in the monkey's presence, he always seemed to be bombarded by his employer's overzealous, exaggerated behavior. Damien blinked and scratched his face, still clad in his yellow and orange flight suit and eager to go on his next mission.

"Are you absolutely sure?!"

"Yes, Oikonny. All four of the Devil Dogs are gone. I'd provide you with proof, but I'm not sure how comfortable you are when it comes to looking at charred body parts."

Andrew responded by shouting and shoving his beverage against the wall. Damien didn't even flinch as he watched the glass shatter and the fluids splash onto the carpet. Andrew's office wasn't exactly the cleanest area on the base, in large part because blueprints and maps and sketches were laid out across tables and the floor. Oikonny started to breathe heavily and growled, standing up from his chair as he began to create a fist.

"THAT BLASTED FOX!!"

"Calm down."

"Don't tell me to calm down, Burns!"

Damien shut his mouth. The grayish-brown coyote knew that the monkey would inevitably burn himself out. He started pacing back and forth, rambling to himself.

"My plans are just getting started, and I've already lost one of my elite squadrons! How long will it be before they take out the Mackerel squadron, or the Buzzsaws, or even your precious Fireflies?!"

Burns flared his nostrils and blinked, but his expression was still emotionless. "I assure you, my squadron will not fail. We've already bested Star Fox in combat before."

Oikonny scoffed. "Lucky shot! But Star Fox is smart! They'll figure out a way around your attacks!"

"No, they won't."

Oikonny shouted again and kicked his desk for no reason, leaving a dent in it after slamming his boot against it. The pink monkey sighed heavily as he leaned against the desk and rubbed his head.

"How much time?"

"Until what?"

"Until the weapon's finished! The longer it takes, the more time the CCC will have to find us!"

"Shouldn't this be something to discuss with your own lieutenants?"

Oikonny snorted and scowled at the coyote. Damien shrugged.

"A week, maybe two."

"That's too long! By then the...wait, Golras!"

"What about it?"

Oikonny moved away from the table and grinned widely. "Hehehe, that's right...we finished building the Golras just the other day! We've tested it and...yes, this can work out."

Damien raised an eyebrow when he saw Andrew rubbed the white hair on his chin with his metal fingers. He muttered to himself a few times before he looked at the coyote with a different, friendlier expression.

"You're right; I should be discussing this matter with my own soldiers! You worry about your own team for now; relay all the information you know about the CCC to the other aces. With the Devil Dogs gone, we'll be needing them all soon!"

"What about the weapon you were asking about? Didn't you--"

"Distraction, Burns! Distraction! I don't care what you or any of the aces do! You distract them all long enough until this weapon is finished. I'll figure out what to do afterwards. But I assure you, this project of mine will change the tide of future battles before they even start!"

Damien shrugged. "All right then. We'll strike other military installations around the Lylat System. That's bound to draw out the CDF and some of the CCC soldiers."

"So get going and do it! I'm not paying you to just stand around here!"

The coyote nodded slowly. "Yes...Emperor."

Oikonny liked the way that sounded, being addressed as an Emperor. The monkey grinned and watched as the coyote walked out of his office. Seconds later, the door opened up again, and a thick brown gorilla with a robotic left arm stepped into Oikonny's office.

"You wanted to see me after Burns left?"

Oikonny nodded. "Find our mutual friend for me. I need to see him as soon as possible..."

---

The light brown lion was leaning against the counter chewing slowly. Most of the other mercenaries in the break room were still busy chatting about all their recent missions, their epic tales about all their deadly dogfights against the Cornerian enemy. The lion bit into his sandwich again and chewed as the team sitting by the drink machine laughed and talked voluminously.

"And then they all ran away like cowards! Hehehe, once that refinery burst into flames, that was it! They all left!"

A spotted hyena finished gulping down his can of beer and sighed. "Y'know how those Cornerian scum act! If Star Fox ain't protecting them, they wuss out! A firecracker could scare those punks if they didn't know what direction it was coming from!"

"Shame you and yore team weren't there, Leo," said a female grey hawk with an accent.

Leo smirked and shrugged. "We're mercenaries, not magicians. Can't pop up in every battle, much as we want to."

The bird shoveled more food into her beak before the arctic fox sitting across from the spotted hyena chewed on a forkful of vegetables and croutons from his salad.

"So, err...who's gonna call Carmine's sister?"

Leo sighed heavily and leaned against the counter as he chewed more of his sandwich. "Maybe I'll do it tomorrow."

The spotted hyena sniffed. "And, uh, what exactly do you plan on saying? 'Hey honey! Your brother didn't work at a factory on Macbeth. He was really a bloodthirsty mercenary who killed several CDF pilots for a living. Also, his head got crushed, so, y'know, he's kinda...sorta...well, dead. See you tomorrow!'"

The hawk and fox scowled as they stared at the nasty grin on the hyena's face.

"That's not funny, Grissel. How'd you feel if it were yore mum who had to hear the bad news?"

"My mom is dead. Had some cancer thing a while back. I dunno; I forgot."

The white fox rubbed his muzzle. "You seem rather okay with that."

"Of course I am, Tanner! We're mercenaries; we're not supposed to have families. They're just a liability. If we're being hunted by the enemy and they can't find us, you wanna know what they're gonna do?"

The grey hawk huffed. "Go after our families."

"Exactly, Sanders! Go after our families!"

Grissel grinned. "But I ain't got no family now! Means I got nothing to lose! Means there's no liabilities hanging over my head!"

Leo blinked. "You sound like Lance."

Grissel scoffed. "Pfft! You kidding me? It's not like I cut up people for a living! And I sound nothing like Lance! This is Lance, okay? 'Hello guys. How are you doing today. I am a robot. Pass me the motor oil. Oh look, I just won a game. Victory for me. I am ecstatic. Now if you will excuse me, I must take this plug out of my anus and power down for the night.'"

Grissel created a faint noise that sounded like a machine whirring as it slowly shut itself off. The hyena lowered his head and his arms became limp, as though he were actually sleeping. Then he abruptly sprang awake and giggled after his crude impersonation.

"See? Now that's Lance!"

"No, it's not. You forgot to say, 'Someone has insulted me. I shall vivisect you now while you're still conscious.' Because I'm sure if Lance were here, that is exactly what he'd do to you."

The hyena scratched his head. "What's vivisect mean?"

Tanner sighed as he stood up from his chair. "Let's get going. Andrew wants us to hit those container ships on Zoness. Last thing we need is the Cornerian army obtaining more vehicles to destroy us."

Sanders and Grissel stood up as well. "Yeah, we'll get some sleep once we return. Make sure you don't touch the wonton wraps; those are mine."

"No one gives a rat's anus about your stupid wonton wraps!"

"And no one cares about your annoying, shrill voice, yet you jabber away to the point where we're deaf."

Grissel snickered. "Everybody loves my voice, Tanner!"

The three teammates tossed their trash away and left the break room, leaving Leo to open up the fridge so he could take out a beer. He shoveled the rest of his sandwich into his mouth and sat down at the empty table. Just as the lion opened up the can of the carbonated beverage, an ocelot walked into the break room and approached the drink machine. Leo glanced over at the spotted feline who grumbled as he stood by the machine. Instead of digging into the pockets of his navy blue flight suit, he started to kick the machine several times, creating echoing clanging sounds within the break room. Leo drank more of his beverage before he heard the ocelot growling with frustration.

"They work better if you have coins to put in them."

"Shut up, King," said the ocelot, with a thick Hispanic accent. "I'm not in the mood right now."

"What happened?"

The ocelot punched the machine this time. "The surveillance mission in Sector Z didn't go as planned...we got caught by star cruisers, lost a bunch of men."

Leo frowned. "Dang...you the only one who made it?"

The ocelot grabbed the machine, preparing to shake it. "No, Cassir and Thompson made it too, but that's it. So now Corneria is aware that we're planning on doing something there, and Andrew's not sending me on anymore stealth missions. All I wanna do right now is drink my Diet Fib, and go to sleep."

The ocelot snarled as he began to rock the machine back and forth, hoping one of the drinks would finally fall.

"Just pay for the drink already! Or get something out the fridge!"

The spotted feline stopped rocking the machine. "No. All it does is chew up my dollar, and I end up having to do all this anyway. And there's no Diet Fib in the fridge, last time I checked."

Leo King shook his head. "So what are you and the Bloodcats gonna do now? Still haven't found a new member since April died, and after your failure in Sector Z, I doubt Oikonny will have you do anything else important."

The ocelot sighed. "We'll probably just patrol around the planet for now, or head to Titania looking for anything we can use to help build those bioweapons."

King finished his drink and gulped hard as he stood up. "You'll figure something out, Gael. Just make sure you don't irritate Oikonny too much, or you'll spend the rest of your life being talked to death."

Gael chuckled. "I gotcha. See you later then."

"See ya."

Leo tossed his empty can in the trash and walked out of the break room, leaving Gael to continue messing with the drink machine. He started to walk down the building's corridor, occasionally glancing out the windows at all the activity going on outside. Several primates were outside, exercising or doing drills as they prepared themselves for the next attack against Cornerian forces. It wasn't foggy right now, but some of the soldiers still wore gasmasks due to the planet's harsh conditions. Further along the region, Leo could see a lot of activity going on near one of the base's bunkers. A humongous truck with a huge tarp covering the cargo on the back was slowly moving along the ground, transporting some kind of clandestine entity inside. Leo wasn't sure what was inside, but he usually didn't ask questions unless he needed to. All he cared about was getting paid, and making sure that his team was safe, and right now they were. The lion observed the giant truck for a moment before he turned away and started to walk down the hall. He was so distracted by the mysterious truck that he failed to notice the giant shark that was also walking in the corridor. Leo grunted as he bumped into the hulking frame and looked up at the creature.

"Sorry, my bad," he quickly said.

Leo started to walk away, but the shark had a quick temper. He growled deeply and slowly turned around.

"Get back here," he snarled in his deep voice.

Leo shut his eyes and huffed. He really didn't feel like dealing with this shark today. Nevertheless, he turned around and walked back over to him.

"What?"

Most people would've been intimated by the light green tiger shark with black stripes on his back. He was shirtless, the enormous bulges around his arms, chest, thighs and legs exposed and dripping with sweat. All he wore were dark blue nylon shorts; Leo figured he was about to head to the gym to work out for a little while. Like most sharks, he had a thick dorsal fin on the back of his neck, and his tail fin was massive. His brown eyes seemed to glow, no matter what room he was in, which made it all the more uncomfortable for anyone to make eye contact with him.

"You were in my way."

The lion blinked and folded his arms. "I apologized, did I not?"

The shark stepped so close to Leo that he could almost feel his chiseled abs. Leo had to look up at the strong, burly, eight-foot-tall shark as he stared down at him.

"We've been through this, Leo. Stay the heck outta my way."

"It was just an accident," growled the lion.

The giant shark lifted his oversized right hand and pressed his index finger against Leo's chest.

"They called me 'Truck' back on my college football team. You wanna know why? Cause everyone who saw me runnin' towards 'em was smart enough to get outta my way. That's what happens when you see a truck, Leo. You get out the way. Y'see, you're just a fly, Leo. And when a fly sees a truck, it flies out the way. Or else it's gonna go splat all over the windshield."

Truck lowered his head so his snout was almost touching Leo's muzzle. "Do you wanna go splat, Leo?"

"Take your finger off my chest," the lion snarled.

"What if I don't wanna take it off?"

The two beasts stared at each other for a while, with the shark still keeping his index finger stuck on Leo's chest. The shark taunted Leo when he poked him twice, at which point the lion quickly swatted Truck's massive hand away. In the time it took to blink, Truck took his other hand and grabbed Leo's throat. He didn't squeeze hard, but his grip was firm enough to let Leo know that he could kill him right here and now just by applying more pressure.

"Do you really want this to go any further?"

Even as Truck threatened to choke him, Leo couldn't help but grin. "What if...what if I'm not a fly? What if I'm really just a frightened predator you've backed into a corner? Hehe, you of all people should know how vicious predators get when you force 'em into a corner."

Truck blinked and let go of Leo's neck. The lion laughed to himself as he grinned and stared at the bloodthirsty creature.

"S'what I thought. You wanna kill me right here and now, all because I bumped into you, go right ahead. But I promise you that I'll be able to claw out your eyeballs and bite your throat out long before I die."

Truck blinked and stared at the shorter, not-as-burly lion. Sure, Truck was bigger and tougher, but Leo was quicker, and he still knew how to defend himself. The last thing Truck needed was to lose his eyesight, so he slowly changed his mind, turned around, and silently walked away. Leo turned around as well and sighed as he walked away from Truck. For a brief moment, he wished that the shark's squadron had died on Katina instead of the Devil Dogs. At least Truck had no family, so Leo wouldn't have to worry about telling an estranged sister that his younger brother was dead.

---

The mercenaries needed to blow off some steam somehow. If they couldn't do it by exercising in their barracks or personal quarters, or by heading on a mission and channeling their fury onto the enemy, then that just left the base's gym. The giant gymnasium used to only be for Oikonny's troops, and they would train there day and night as they slowly became advanced fighters and perfected their close-quarters-combat skills. But as time passed, and the number of Oikonny's mercenary aces grew, the monkey decided to let them have the entire gym to themselves. If the mercs weren't in the gym playing sports with one another, they were most likely meeting with each other to go over battle plans. Those not going over battle plans were inside the weightlifting room, which was built within the same building and just down one of the gym's corridors. Some of the mercenaries were in there now, working up a sweat as they punched heavy bags or timed themselves to see how many times they could punch a speed bag in a minute. Others were exercising their muscles, grunting or panting as they did pull-ups, push-ups, curls, squats, or simply worked out their arms as they bench pressed or lifted dumbbells.

Somewhere in the middle of the weightlifting room, two lemurs were busy exercising together. Both of them were clad in tank-tops and sweat pants, and the female one was on the floor doing sit-ups while the male one held her feet down. The female lemur grunted while the male one couldn't stop wagging his long striped tail.

"C'mon, Sally, tell me what it was like!"

Sally grunted again as she did one more sit-up, on the verge of collapsing after doing so many in a row. "I told you," Sally grunted again, "was nothin' special."

Sally exhaled and took her hands off the back of her head, her chest rising and falling as she started to catch her breath.

"All right, I'm done for now. Anyone using the dumbbells?"

The male ring-tailed lemur stood up and observed the brown bull who was busy performing squats beside the dumbbells, but the dumbbells themselves weren't being used.

"Nah, got 'em all to ourselves!"

The ring-tailed lemurs stood up and approached the heavy equipment, glad that they didn't have to worry about getting into a petty argument with any of the other aces. They each grabbed the dumbbells they wanted and started to perform bicep curls.

"So, about the dogfight? How can you say it was 'nothin' special'?"

"Because it wasn't. I'll admit that they put up a great fight, but in the end, Star Fox was just 'good,' not fantastic like us Fireflies are."

The male lemur frowned. "Oh, so now you're better than the rest of us?"

Sally smirked. "Maybe."

The male lemur sat down on a bench and paused before doing some more curls. "Didn't you say your team killed one of them?"

"I don't think she was a member of Star Fox. She didn't have the same kind of ship. Probably just a friend who wanted to help out. And Lance was the one who shot her down, not me or Leo or Damien or Viper."

The male lemur scoffed. "Figures. That gator would shoot down a dust particle if it could scream before it died."

Sally sighed. "I wasn't even happy that we won. If I'm being honest, I was disappointed. I thought Star Fox would be better than that. Their leader single-handedly took out Andross and shot down Star Wolf--twice!"

"Not to mention all those superweapons and bioweapons his team destroyed," the male lemur added.

Sally lowered the dumbbells and rubbed some of the sweat off her forehead. "Oh well. Maybe next time will be different. Or maybe our squadron will face an enemy that's much more advanced in dogfighting."

"I think you're being a little harsh on 'em babe. They did kill the Devil Dogs."

Sally rubbed her chin. "Yeah...come to think of it, they did. Heh, maybe our next fight against 'em will be different."

"Maybe."

Sally finished curling her muscles and set the dumbbells back into their original areas before she resumed talking to the male lemur. But before another word could come out, a rap song she was no fan of started to fill the weightlifting room. The male lemur started to laugh hysterically when he saw the exasperated look on Sally's face. The lemur shut her eyes and smacked the palm of her hand against her forehead.

"Are you serious, Myllik?! Out of all the songs you could play right now, you decide to turn on 'Kick the Rock!' at full volume?!"

Myllik was the odd-looking yellow primate hanging upside-down from one of the pull-up bars and performing inverted sit-ups. After the monkey did three quick sit-ups, he grunted and flipped off the bar, landing on the floor with a hard thud. The monkey turned around and laughed as he approached the lemurs. It was easy to recognize the primate from afar, with his short blue Mohawk, his red fingerless gloves, and his sleeveless brown cargo vest and shorts.

"C'mon, Sally! Everyone an' their mother loves rap!" said the monkey.

"This is not rap! This is a song with an amazing jazz beat that's completely butchered by ridiculous lyrics about some red echidna that secretly wants to have sex with a bat!"

"But that's what makes it so catchy honey! _Anyone_can rap to this beat as bad as this guy by pulling lyrics outta their butt and still make it sound awesome!" said the male lemur.

"I seriously doubt that."

The male lemur grinned and chuckled. "Watch me."

Sally's eyes grew wide. "Stoney, please--"

It was already too late. The male lemur started rapping.

"STRIPED LEMURS!! We're stuck here liftin' weights! Reekin' of musk ain't gonna help us get no dates! Venom's stank an' sad, it makes us all real bad, huh! Yeah Sal-leh, she sexy like a dol-leh! A smooth-furred fighter, she's a real nas-teh biter, what! She shakes her butt everytime she strut! That's why I gotta go and tend to mah needs! Strokin' mah stick until I spray all that seed, yeah, yeah!"

Sally's entire head was red with embarrassment. All she could do was slowly close her eyes and cover her face with her hands as Stoney made a fool of himself in front of all the other muscle-bound mercenaries. Quite a few of them were snickering now or watching the humiliating spectacle take place, hoping they'd be able to remember the lyrics before they left.

"I got one, I got one--let me get the next verse!"

Stoney chuckled. "Take it away, Myllik!"

Now the monkey was rapping, and with his slightly throaty, higher-pitched voice, he made even Stoney's terrible rap sound good.

"Stoney Goodwin's gonna walk up an' tap dat fat--"

"MYLLIK!!"

Myllik ignored Sally and kept going.

"Yo, what's wrong, no sense of class? He marks his tail with those fluids that are fetid! What's he doing now? He's ready to plow! When he gets her, he's gonna show her his big jewels! There she is! It's time to get busy! Five minutes or less, it's time to make the big ol' bet! By the aftermath, everything's gon' be so wet!"

Some of the mercenaries began to laugh out loud. Sally sat down on one of the benches, her entire body practically red with embarrassment. Myllik was on the floor laughing hysterically with tears coming out of his eyes, while Stoney couldn't stop howling with laughter after seeing the predicament Sally found herself in.

"Aw, c'mon babe! I'm just messing with ya!" said Stoney.

"This is not funny," growled Sally as she took her hands away and looked at Stoney.

"You know you wanna laugh!"

Stoney pointed at Sally's face as she slowly turned her head away. She was trying to stay mad at the lemur, but there was something about his adorable face and somewhat adolescent attitude that she found attractive and cute about him.

"Ah! See?! You're startin' to laugh!"

"I am not!" said the lemur, even though she was already chuckling and smiling.

Sally usually didn't stay mad at Stoney for long, although this had been the first time he and Myllik embarrassed her like this. Everyone else in the weightlifting room either looked away from Stoney, Myllik and Sally as they chuckled softly, or they ignored them altogether and focused more on working out, instead of on the noise the lemur was making.

"Just...don't make any more raps that lewd again."

"If you say so," said the lemur with a wide grin.

"I'm serious. Last thing we need to do is offend the people we're supposed to be working with cause of your mouth."

"Oh my gosh, I am so sorry! I sure hope no one throws a temper-tantrum over the words that came out of our mouths!" joked Myllik.

Stoney shook his head. "Who cares if what we did was offensive? It was supposed to be. I'm not gonna sit here all day twiddling my thumbs with worry over how someone will respond to what just happened. If people throw a fit over a rap me and Myllik performed that we pulled out of our anuses, then oh well. Pretty sure we got more important things to do in life than complain about something we saw or heard that was offensive or gross. Like, y'know, the fact that we're mercenaries who get paid to cause mayhem and blow stuff up."

"I guess," responded Sally.

The three creatures didn't talk much afterwards and spent more time working out and exercising. Granted, Sally still blushed a few times whenever someone eyeballed her or Stoney and grinned cheekily. But she'd get over it, and hopefully everyone would forget what just happened in a week or less. As Stoney was about to head over to the bench press, two very large sharks walked into the weightlifting room. One of them was Truck, who immediately headed for the heavy bag and started to punch it without warning. The other shark, a tan tiger shark with dark brown stripes on his back, slowly headed over to the bench beside the dumbbells and sat down, causing the structure to creak. Like Truck, the shark was one of the tallest creatures in the room, and he had a menacing look in his chilling blue eyes. He was still wearing his flight suit, which was mostly yellow with black stripes here and there.

"WHEW! They had me stuck in that hangar all day! I'm about ready to keel over!"

"Hehe, if only you were here a few minutes ago," snickered Stoney.

"What'd I miss?"

"Just me dying of shame, that's all," mumbled Sally.

The shark smirked as he bent down and started to grab his right boot. "Stoney showed off his rapping skills again, didn't he?"

"If you could call it a 'skill,' then yes."

Myllik stared at the tiger shark as he lifted his right foot and started to slowly take off his black boot. The primate backed away, already aware of the impending danger his nose was about to be in. The shark grunted as he took off his boot without undoing the laces, exposing his sweaty sock and the oversized foot the sock was covering. The shark sighed with relief and wiggled his toes before he tossed his boot aside and started to take off the other one. Stoney and Sally were frowning and plugging their noses.

"You could at least change your socks before taking your boots off in front of us!"

"Stop whining. This whole room stinks of feet and sweat; I'm pretty dang sure mine aren't the only ones you smell."

That much was true. Most of the people in the room--Stoney, Myllik, and Sally included--were shoeless. Some of them were barefooted and had their smooth or sweaty soles pressed against the floor. The tan shark grunted as he wiggled his left boot and eventually got it off, exposing his other large, socked foot. The shark tossed his left boot beside the other one and exhaled as he set his foot down. The shark leaned backwards and relaxed as he let his feet air out, curling and wiggling his toes as he did so.

"Ahhh, that's better."

Myllik rubbed his nose with his arm and coughed a few times. "Not from where we're standing!"

Sally blinked. "So...embarrassing raps and fetid feet aside, why were you in the hangar? Oikonny giving your squadron new orders?"

"The Mackerels don't answer to nobody, Sally! S'why I was in the hangar to begin with; I was snoopin' 'round, tryin' to find out what everyone else was up to."

Stoney, Sally and Myllik ignored the odor of the shark's feet and started to take him seriously. "What d'you find out?" asked the yellow primate.

The tan shark smirked. "That's fer me to know, and you three to find out!"

Stoney scowled. "Hornet..."

"All right, all right. I heard they want us to disrupt all of Corneria's supply convoys and military outposts. The last thing we need is them trying to make their own superweapons against us. Not sure why Oikonny doesn't want his own troops to handle that, but whatever. He even wants my team on Aquas so we can destroy some of their oil rigs and medical ships."

"It's gotta be a distraction for something bigger. While we're drawing away all their attention on one planet, Andrew can use his entire force to strike a key installation on another planet clear across the Lylat System," suggested Sally.

"I suppose so. Had ta spend most of my time helpin' that windbag Targin fix some of those ships since he was annoyed with me standin' around doing nothing."

"Did he tell you anything?" asked Stoney.

"He was more than happy to share a few farts with me. That's about it."

Sally sighed. "I'll go talk to him. Targin likes me; he'll probably open up to me the second we see each other."

Stoney blinked and looked at Sally. "What makes him so special?"

"He doesn't humiliate me in front of everyone by rapping about his libido in front of his girlfriend, for starters," said Sally sternly.

Hornet laughed. "So that's what I missed."

Myllik snickered. "Sure he doesn't like you for, err...other reasons?"

Sally looked at the yellow monkey and scowled. "I know it's hard to believe, but not everyone on this base is a pervert who spends all his free time drooling over any piece of eye-candy he sees. Get over yourself, Myllik."

Stoney shrugged. "Maybe you're right. Still, don't get too comfortable with that guy. I don't trust him."

"You don't trust anyone 'cept for Sally an' Myllik," Hornet pointed out.

"Which is why I'm still alive today."

"Don't worry guys. I'll be careful. With the way you guys talk about him, it sounds like the worst thing he could do is suffocate me with his gas."

"Do ya have any idea how embarrassing it would be to die that way?"

Sally smirked. "No more embarrassing than suffocating from the smell of your feet, Hornet. Or dying because your boyfriend sang--"

"We get it, Sally! Geez..." shouted Stoney.

---

Airship hangar B-3 was one of the busiest hangars on the base. Hundreds of workers of all different species were inside building or repairing starfighters, amongst other things. The hangar itself was wide and long--long enough for someone to construct a heavily armored star cruiser, or even a small aircraft carrier. But this particular hangar was used only for regular starfighters, unless Andrew said otherwise. The hangar was painted yellow on the outside, and the architect of the building looked like a wide 3D horseshoe composed of two very thick doors. The doors were almost always open due to how hot it was inside, even with several fans on. And since both regular and ace starfighters would come into the hangar to get patched up or scrapped if they were too damaged, that meant the hangar was crowded with aircrafts as well as the many mechanics and scientists working on them. One gorilla was shouting at his team of monkeys to work faster, since his starfighter needed to be finished by tomorrow. Another one was getting berated for making a plane's engine worse, not better. Somewhere away from all the chaos was a small hush house. The scientists in there spent most of their time testing newly-built engines before deciding whether or not they should be put to use.

And somewhere in the middle of all this was a female lemur in her flight suit, blinking and occasionally coughing as the acrid smell of burning metal or smoke filled her lungs. She started to walk through the massive crowd of workers, but it was impossible to find Targin in this mess, even if he did stand out pretty well. Sally found the nearest repairman she could find--a German Shepherd with two metal arms--and tugged on his coveralls.

"Yeah, what is it?"

"Where's Targin?"

The Shepherd gestured to the right with his head. "Over by the fan, inspecting one of the starfighters. Wouldn't bother him; he's in one of his moods again."

Sally smiled. "I think I'll manage."

The German Shepherd wasn't too concerned over what might happen to Sally, so he continued working. After the dog pointed out the way, the lemur managed to find Targin in only a few minutes. She started to walk up to him and paused when she saw a rather unpleasant view of the green gator. He was on his knees and sitting on the heels of his socked feet. The creature was leaning forward, and his brown shorts were sagging so much that Sally could see his blue boxers with red polka dots on them. The only reason why she couldn't see the crack of his butt was because his thick green tail was blocking it. Sally shook her head and chuckled before she walked behind the reptile and acknowledged him.

"You gonna sit there and show off your dirty boxers all day or what?"

Targin was so surprised to hear that familiar voice that he jerked his head up and banged it against the starfighter. He shouted after hearing the loud clang and rubbed his head, grumbling. Then he carefully ducked, moved backwards, stood up, and turned around to face the lemur. The moment he saw her, his face lit up and he smiled.

"Sally Stripes!"

The lemur smiled again. "Nice to see--"

"C'mere and give ol' Targin a hug!"

Sally frowned and tried to back away as the alligator approached her. He laughed heartily as he spread his arms wide and embraced the lemur to the point where he lifted her off the floor. Sally grunted as the gator wrapped her in a bear hug, still laughing joyfully as he nearly crushed every bone in her body. Sally grunted a few times as she tried to break free, in large part because her nose was pressed against his stained white tank-top and she couldn't handle his odor. But eventually, the alligator put her down and stopped laughing.

"Thanks, Targin," muttered Sally.

The alligator chuckled. "No need for us to stand here with all this racket going on! Let's head into my office and talk more there!"

The lemur nodded, and she followed the alligator to the small building within the hangar that looked like a light green construction trailer. Sally glanced over at the reptile's large buttocks and noticed that his shorts were still sagging. He reached behind and scratched his rump before he finally pulled up his brown shorts with one hand, although part of his boxers was still showing. While the sight was disgusting, she was just glad the alligator didn't cut a huge one in front of her by the time they reached the trailer. Targin opened up the door and stepped inside, kicking aside some of the trash he left on the floor.

"Come on in! Just watch where you step," he warned.

Sally stepped into the trailer and shut the door. She immediately grimaced and tried not to cough as the stench of the trailer hit her with full force. Clearly Targin hadn't cleaned the place up in a while, judging by all the beer cans lying on the floor and some of the overflowing trash cans and stains on the carpet, window, table and walls. None of it was helped by the fact that the trailer was humid, or that there was a fat, sweaty gator inside who desperately needed a shower. Targin moved some of the trash off his couch and sat down with a loud huff, rubbing his chubby light green belly that bulged past the waistband of his shorts.

"Take a seat, Sally! Hehe, it's not like the chairs are gonna bite ya! ...Well, that spider over there might."

The lemur sat on the cleanest chair across from the big-gutted alligator. He scratched his plump gut again as it gurgled and churned quietly. Then Targin sighed as he placed both of his feet on the table, showing off his dirty socks--one of which had a hole in it, revealing his right big toe.

"Err, are you living in here?"

"Kinda. Oikonny wants us all to speed up our repairs so we can help out on all his 'top-secret' projects and stuff. I barely have enough time to leave the base, so I figured, what the heck! If I'm gonna spend all day and night here, I may as well make my trailer a bit more comfortable!"

The alligator laughed again before he rubbed his snout and sniffed.

"So what brings you here, Sal? Came to chat about your obnoxious boyfriend, or maybe you need some more flight parts?"

"Maybe I just wanted to sniff your stinky feet," she joked.

Targin laughed heartily, to the point where a small amount of spit flew out of his mouth and his large belly jiggled. "They're right here if you wanna give 'em a whiff!"

Sally looked down at Targin's plump feet that were covered in what used to be clean white socks. The reptile grinned as he wiggled his toes, almost as if he were expecting Sally to lean forward and breathe in the stench.

"I'll pass...but I do need something from you. Some more information."

Targin chuckled. "See, that's why I like you, Sally: you get right to the point! None of this beat-around-the-bush nonsense. Still, I'm gonna need more than that. What exactly do you wanna know?"

"Hornet told me most of the aces are supposed to be attacking small-time military installations. I guess we're providing a distraction, but a distraction from what?"

Targin shrugged. "How should I know? I'm just a mechanic who fixes starships!"

The alligator smirked shortly afterwards and lowered his voice. "A mechanic who has ears. ...Well, earholes. These pilots and scientists; they jabber on and on and on, whining about their planes not flying right, about how lumpy the seats are, about being too hot, getting queasy--PAH! Half of these apes couldn't survive growing up on this planet like I did!"

Sally lowered her voice too. "So what'd you find out?"

"Oikonny's planning something big. I don't know what it is; maybe another bioweapon. I could've sworn I heard something about a shark or...I dunno, some giant fish maybe?"

"So it's a marine-type bioweapon."

"Most likely."

"That makes sense. Hornet told me that his team is going to be sent to Aquas to destroy a few oil rigs, medical ships, maybe tankers as well, that kind of stuff. Perhaps Oikonny needs the bioweapon deployed there. If he's got a weapon that devastating, the Cornerian forces won't set foot on that planet anymore."

Sally was about to continue when she heard Targin's stomach growl deeply. The alligator shut his eyes and groaned as he rubbed his big belly, which gurgled audibly again. Sally stared at the reptile with an annoyed glare in her eyes.

"Ergh...that's the last time I eat all that liver smothered in chili."

"...You ate liver drenched with chili?"

"Don't knock it 'til you try it."

Sally huffed. "Should I go ahead and open a window?"

"C'mon, Sal! You really think I would be so crass as to pass gas in front of a lady?"

"Absolutely."

Targin laughed again. "Trust me; nothing's coming out the back door! ...Not intentionally, anyway."

"...Mkay then," said Sally reluctantly. "Anyway, what about the other mercenaries? They say anything?"

"The Buzzsaws are calling in some old friends, so expect another squadron to join us. Uh...I think the Trojans are teaming up with Harrison's tank squadron to see if they can assault a compound on Fichina. And I heard Tanner mention Zoness...who knows, maybe something's going on there too."

"All right."

Targin took off his blue cap and scratched his scalp. "Come to think of it, there is this one weird thing going on...Oikonny and Damien keep telling me to order barrels of acid. I'm not sure why, but I got the room for it, so I may as well."

"What the heck would Oikonny need acid for?"

Targin shrugged again. "Beats me."

Sally wasn't sure what to make of the situation. Flammable fluids or bombs would be understandable, but acid? From what it sounded like, Oikonny planned on deploying a bioweapon on Aquas and having the creature pollute the entire planet with acid. But that didn't make sense; the planet was completely flooded. The only people stationed there were soldiers or anyone taking refuge in the small towns and facilities Corneria built on the surface of the water. The lemur wasn't sure what to make of it.

"Okay...I'll keep that in mind. Thanks, Targin."

The alligator took his feet off the table. "Oh, no, no, no, no! We've been doing this for quite a while now, Sally! We talk, you ask for a favor, and I give it to you!"

Targin laughed evilly as he grinned and scratched his crotch. "I think it's time for you to pay me back."

Sally looked at the gator with wide eyes. Targin wasn't really attractive, and he was gross. The cleanest bit of clothing on his body was his blue cap. He didn't shower, he rarely washed his clothes, he ate food that was unsanitary, and more than enough people have brought up his gas issues. The last thing Sally wanted was to mate with him.

"Well...err, I'm, uh, I'm not sure if I could do...that."

"What, have sex with me?"

"...If you wanna be blunt about it."

"I'm not saying that at all!"

"Then why were you scratching yourself down there?"

Targin blinked. "Because it itches, Sally."

Sally calmed down. "Oh."

"'Sides, you ain't my type anyway!"

The lemur smirked. "What, a mammal?"

Targin grinned. "No, female."

Sally eyes grew wide. "Oh. ...Well then. Learn something new every day."

"Indeed we do! I bet you also didn't know that I haven't washed these socks in two years!"

Sally grimaced. "That's...ugh, can you just tell me what that favor is you want me to do?"

"I'll think of something later. But it could be anything! Maybe I'll ask you to give me a back massage. Or a foot massage; haven't had one of those in a while! Or perhaps I'll order you to execute someone for me. Hehehe...we'll see."

The lemur and alligator stood up and began to walk towards the door. "Just know that I may ask for more help from you before I do this favor."

Targin laughed. "I tell you classified stuff all the time! What more could you possibly want me to do?!"

Sally turned her head away and scowled. "You could start brushing your teeth, for one."

"Not a chance, Sal! I enjoy having personal space, and not showering or brushing my teeth is gonna help me keep it."

"I guess so," said Sally.

Even if his reasons did have some logic behind them, that didn't change the fact that the reptile had poor hygiene. Sally opened up the trailer door and was immediately greeted to the din going on within the airship hangar.

"I'll see you later, Targin!"

"See ya! And don't forget what I said: you owe me!"

The lemur smirked at the gator and wagged her tail before she turned around and walked away. She knew she'd have to pay back Targin for all the help he's given her, but that wasn't her highest priority. Right now she needed to figure out when and where Oikonny's next attack would take place.

---

The monkey was starting to get irritated. The other creature sitting in his office was constantly snorting and laughing, babbling on about how wealthy he was going to become. After a while, Oikonny slammed his metal fist down on his desk and shouted.

"For the last time, will you help me or not?!"

"Heh har har! Course I'll help you, old friend! So long as you pay me in advance!"

Oikonny stared at his "friend's" cocky smirk and scowled. "I'll pay you after."

"Before!"

"After."

"No, no...before!"

"I said after!"

The creature put his hands behind his head and laughed to himself. "Heh hahaaaaa! Only one way this is gonna go monkey-boy! Agree to pay me now, or I'm outta here!"

Andrew rubbed the white hair around his chin. "How 'bout, uh...I pay you half now, half after the job's done?"

The creature shook his head. "Ain't gonna fly with me!"

"How 'bout I pay you half now, half later, and I'll make sure my guards don't slice open that fat stomach of yours while you're still breathing?!"

Oikonny's "friend" snorted and laughed as he put his arms down. "All right, fine then! So tell me, whatcha want me to do?"

"I need you to find a heavily populated target for me to attack. A town, a convoy--anything! Just make sure that when this attack occurs, the casualties will be high and most of the casualties will be civilians. And make sure that the area you choose for the attack is so important that it'll draw out the military."

"Hmm...you want me to help you kill dozens of innocent people, hundreds even!"

"Yes, Pigma, that is exactly what I want you to do."

The pink pig snorted and frowned. "That's despicable! It's unforgiveable, sadistic, and above all, wrong! I can't believe how far you've fallen, Andrew! Killing hundreds of innocents? That's the most abhorrent thing you could ask me to do!"

Oikonny didn't get angry. He didn't even say anything because he knew Pigma, and he knew precisely what the swine would say next. Pigma laughed to himself before he leaned forward and grinned.

"I'm in!"