Someone Stole Sandor's Shoes!

[Arminius H O Fiddywinks]

"Alright, alright, we're all in?" asked Sandor, looking behind him. "We're okay? We're cool?" He turned his sight over to Teresa. "We're good! Hit it!" Teresa nodded, and slammed her foot down on the gas pedal, and the van began speeding away.

"Woo!" she uttered.

[Shmibli7]

Kosovo sat thinking about where they would be going next. Sandor was sporadic and so was his girlfriend.

"Alright,  Kolocsai." He said. "Where are we gonna antagonize next?"

[SF Redd]

"Yeah, do you have any leads on where your... uh... shoes are?" Korr asked as Sholt glanced at what looked like a police officer.

"Or are we just chasing ghosts?" Sholt added to the question.

[Arminius H O Fiddywinks]

"I have no clue where we should go!" announced Sandor. He turned to the other passengers. "But it's going to be an adventure nevertheless!" He grinned.

 

~~~

 

Iosif was suddenly called by the same person who hired him to steal Sadnor's shoes. He answered his cell phone. "Hello?" he said.

"Go to the Cathedral of St. Stelian," ordered the voice. Now, the Cathedral of St. Stelian was the largest Zalmoxian place of worship on the planet, and one of the oldest, built three hundred years ago. It is so old, it is primarily constructed out of not concrete, but stone and marble. Iosif took a few minutes to walk to a nearby Metro station. He descended the staircase built in the sidewalk and went into the clean Metro, where the bright LED lights and neon signs advertising various products could be found. Some newsstands and other small vendors have set up shop in the Metro station. Iosif capitalized on this capitalism, and bought a Sarsi, a popular Nutrian Zonessian beverage that has swept across Corneria, for only 3 credits. He unscrewed the cap and drank a sip, and closed the bottle once again. He used his Metro card to gain access to the train, which was due to arrive in a few minutes. Iosif once again descended a staircase to a platform. Iosif sat down on an empty blue bench with small barriers between the seats. A disheveled tiger shark in a cheap business suit waited impatiently for the train, pacing back and forth on the platform.

A few minutes passed before the train arrived. Iosif got up, sipping once again from his Sarsi bottle. The impatient shark stepped onto the train, and sat down. Iosif sat down a few rows down from the shark. However, before the train departed this stop for the next one, which was conveniently placed in front of the cathedral, Iosif spotted two shady-looking Vlachs board the train. One had dark green scales, had a raggedy brown leather jacket, a white shirt, dirty jeans, and brown boots. The other had dark red scales, wore sunglasses, a gray hoodie, worn jeans, and scuffed black sneakers. As the train approached the stop, they approached the shark in the suit.

"Give us your money, prost," said the Vlach with the leather jacket, who we will now call LJ. Meanwhile, the Vlach wearing the sunglasses, who we will now call Shades, took out a switchblade, and pushed a button that revealed the razor sharp blade. The shark was startled, and edged back in his seat. "Come on, prost, give us your creds!" Iosif stood up and walked towards the menacing duo.

"Hey, guys, leave the dude alone, okay?" he attempted to persuade. Shades scoffed at Iosif.

"Get out of our way, frate, we don't want to hurt you," Shades said, trying to shoo away Iosif. His attempts failed miserably.

"Listen, amic, I can tell by your accents that you two are straight off the ship," said Iosif. It is true that these two Vlachs had thick Vlach accents. Iosif, however, had a Cornerian accent: seemingly plain.

"Pici, you will bleed if you keep annoying us!" warned Shades, who now approached Iosif with his switchblade. Iosif reacted, thrusting his still almost full Sarsi bottle at Shades's crotch, plunging him into paralyzing pain. Shades groaned as he fell to his knees. Meanwhile, LJ lunged at Iosif in retaliation. Iosif responded by jabbing LJ's left eye with the bottled tip of the bottle, which threw LJ into debilitating pain and wreaked his left eye. LJ stumbled back onto the seat next to the shark, who was shocked and confused. He jumped up out of his seat and backed away very quickly. Iosif returned to Shades, and roundhouse kicked him unconscious. LJ continued to cry out in pain, grasping his destroyed eye. The train stopped at the aptly named St. Stelian stop.

"Let's get out of here!" said Iosif. The shark nodded in compliance. They ran out of the train and back to the surface. They panted as they reached the surface, and stopped at the base of the stopped at the base of the cathedral. Then, the shark began to speak.

"I knew I picked the right man for the job," he said. Iosif took a sip of his Sarsi before speaking.

"Wait... You're the guy who paid me 100,000 creds to steal Sandor's shoes?" inquired Iosif. The shark nodded with a smile on his face.

"My name's Mike," said Michael.

"Mike..." Iosif transferred the Sarsi bottle between his hands. "Why did you want this guy's shoes stolen?"

"For my employers," answered Michael.

"Your... employers?" questioned Iosif.

"I won't say any more than that," said Michael. Iosif scoffed.

"So, why the Hell are we here?" wondered Iosif, looking around.

"Because, I want to pay you to monitor Sandor," said Michael. Iosif shook his head and sighed.

"How much?" asked Iosif.

"Same as before: 100,000." Iosif nodded before answering.

"Fine." The two shook hands. Michael left Iosif standing in front of the cathedral.

 

[Shmibli7]

"Sounds fine." The Venomian wolf said as he relaxed in his seat.

From the back, Solomon grumbled something along the lines of never being around so much hostility in his life but kept low, not wanting to stir up any more of the dreaded ill-will that had been displayed by his friends, the newcomers, and Teresa.

[SF Redd]

"Hm, I guess this is going to take a while." Sholt mentioned to Korr.

"That's alright, as long as the pay is good." Korr replied as he leaned back and closed his eyes. Not sleeping, rather, enjoying the music playing from the earphones he just put on. Sholt merely stayed aware of everything around him.

[Shmibli7]

As the car continued it's journey, Solomon lay back in his seat. This adventure was the most obscure he had ever partaken in. The fact the firearms had been drawn and mercenaries had been hired over a pair of shoes puzzled the Saurian. Why did Sandor care for them so?  

"Konefrun." He said to Kosovo in his native tongue. "Al  benosev seinon." 

Kosovo laughed at this. It was their equivalent of "This is getting old."

[SF Redd]

Korr realised that he and his brother hand gotten off on a bad foot with everyone, so wanted to break the tension. "Hey, Saurian, uh... nxasx... aj 0eih... duma?" He asked in broken Saurian. His brother merely looked at him with a confused expression.

[Shmibli7]

The Saurian looked quzzically at Korr for a few moments, then smiled as he realized what he was asking. 

"Solomon Muralł." He said. "And, while I appreciate the attempt, vhaodt,  you do not need to speak my tongue to converse with me. Unlike these two..." He said, gesturing to Kimber and Kosovo,  "I have little to do with my upbringing. I no longer consider myself Sharpclaw." 

[SF Redd]

Despite not knowing what Solomon had called him, Korr smiled. "I heard that Sauria has had a lot of development since the Saurian crisis." He Commented. "What's it like there? I've always been fascinated by the place, but have never had the chance to go there."

[Shmibli7]

"Crisis? We have a crisis on Sauria every day of the week." He said, chuckling. "But I assume you mean the time our entire planet was in chaos. Yes, we have developed some in the aftermath of it. Seems we needed to modernize a bit to keep up with planets like this one."

"Depending on where you go," he added, "It is beautiful. So many diverse ecosystems somehow perfectly tuned as to not conflict with each other. I spent most of my life there along the southern coast, although, I don't reccomend you go there unless you prefer random violence."

[SF Redd]

"Random violence?" Korr echoed. "I was under the impression that after Andross was defeated and he couldn't aid them, the Sharpclaws and other violent tribes no longer had the strength to be of any threat."

[Shmibli7]

"What you must realize," Solomon said, "Is that Sauria is a world steeped in tradition... And tradition kills. Yes, Andross is ousted but civility was rather fragile the last time I was there."

"The problems we had after the crisis, as you put it, were with the traditionalists and the progressives. A short bush war erupted taking some five hundred Saurian with it when the two groups decided to prove their points through force. Eventually, though, the progressives won and the modernization of Sauria began."

"We still have some tension after that conflict and social prejudice is still at a high. Don't even get me started on the Earthwalkers and Cloudrunners, poor fools."

"As for the random violence, I meant only the southern coast. It was a Sharpclaw settlement. Now that they have little power, they fight themselves as opposed to conquering others."

[SF Redd]

"That's horrible!" Korr said sympathetically. "Is that why you left the planet? I can't say I've met many Saurians before. They tend to want to stay on their own planet."

[Shmibli7]

"Ooux. " He said.  "That is why. I am not a violent person. I told the leadership of my tribe that I wished to be an apothecary for their army, which they refused. I was then disbanded from my tribe. I decided to come here to study medicine." 

"Look where that got me..."

[SF Redd]

"Have you managed to get far in the medical field?" Korr asked, genuinely curious.

Sholt leaned back as his eyes wandered around the entirety of the vehicle. He never did understand just how or why Korr always tried to get into conversations with people he didn't know. By Sholt's logic, it would be better to just stick to oneself in situations such as these.

[Shmibli7]

"I am studying to become a trauma specialist at the moment, however, my understanding of field medicine is second to none. Rest assured, I can patch someone from, really, anything." Solomon said.

"Now, if you don't mind my asking, I'd like to know a bit about yourself if we're going to be under Sandor's employment for a good while. Do not worry, I will not ask about your wartime experiences. I know it is a subject not worth talking about."

[SF Redd]

Sholt gave Korr a look, as if to say 'Say no!', however Korr new he was just being overly careful.

"Yeah, sure! What would you like to know?" Korr asked with a smile.

[Shmibli7]

"Anything you would not mind telling." He said, smiling friendly. 

[SF Redd]

"Well, as we said earlier, were from MacBeth." Korr started. "We grew up in a small house and were a working family. After the war, we didn't know what to do. We kept the weapons we had and sold what was left of our house, and used the money to get a small ship, barely big enough for the two of us. We had some experience and got trained, and became mercenaries. We managed to get a bigger mothership and a couple of old fighters, with the money we made." He told. "Not a whole lot to tell after that. During the Aparoid war we held down Zoness and then MacBeth as best we could. There hasn't been many jobs since then. People know who we are, but would rather hire Star Fox. I can't really blame them, though. Compared to Star Fox, we've got no experience and bad equipment." He explained. "Well, we've got good personal weaponry and equipment, but that's not the case for in the sky or space."

[Arminius H O Fiddywinks]

Sandor's ears twitched as they tuned into the conversation between Korr and Solomon. Meanwhile, both he and Teresa also scanned the street for possible enemies.

"They're getting along better than I expected," Teresa said in a low voice to Sandor. Sandor nodded.

 

~~~

 

Iosif walked to the cathedral's parking garage, behind the place of worship. He entered as the attendant, a short, burly snake, glanced at him and nodded. Iosif continued up until he happened upon a gray sedan. He briefly searched the area until he found the keys underneath a trash can. Iosif unlocked the doors and went inside. He sat down and closed the door, and turned on the car. Iosif exited the garage in his sedan. The tracking device he placed on Sandor covertly as he brushed aside him at the bar still remained undetected on Sandor's belt. He placed a GPS device on the dashboard, and had it configured to Sandor's location. He drove towards the blip on the radar.

[Shmibli7]

"I see..." Solomon said. "Though, I believe Star Fox is getting past their prime."

He glanced over at Kosovo and Kimber. "They have a small bit of experience with them... However, I wouldn't ask them about it. They're notorious liars." He added.

"Hey!" Kosovo said, punching Solomon's shoulder lightly. "That's just Kimber!"

[SF Redd]

"Ha, we wish!" Korr laughed. "Fox McCloud is only a few years younger than us!"

"Don't get him wrong, we have had quite a lot of experience." Sholt spoke finally.

"Yeah, however we aren't the ones known for defeating Andross and  the Aparoids almost single handedly!" Korr chuckled. "But it's fine! We don't mind it, but recently demand for mercenary jobs has been low, which is why we've been so tight for funds lately. We get by, at least, so it's not all bad". Given the brothers' situation, Korr was surprisingly upbeat.

[Shmibli7]

"Well, mercenary work is hard to come by these days." Solomon replied. "The two big names usually attract the most attention." He said, referencing StarFox and StarWolf. 

"Not many in the market for Venomian mercenaries, either. Tension and whatnot... Kimber won't shut up about it."

[SF Redd]

"Maybe that's our problem. We're not a brand. Maybe we need a catchy name and a logo!" Korr chuckled again. "Right now people just call us the Dithis brothers."

"I think I'll pass on that one, bro!" Sholt quickly Shot the idea down. "I don't think being a brand is quite our style."

As Korr hid his muzzle and discretely pointed to Sholt, he looked at Solomon and not-so-discreetly whispered, "What a buzzkill, that guy, huh?!", with a grin.

Sholt couldn't help but chuckle a bit "Hey, I'm no buzzkill!" He said as he shoved Korr's arm. Korr laughed and shoved him back.