Part 2 of Making Up For Lost Time Star Fox Fan Fiction.

Part 1: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/19699935/
Part 3: (Coming Soon)

An Old Friend

The four us, comprised of Bill, two of his lower ranking subordinates, and myself arrived at the entrance the Cornerian Air Force main office. As I was lead to the front desk, a young rabbit woman in full uniform sat in an office chair casually staring down at her tablet as if it were more important than the current desk job she had. "Excuse me m'am," Bill said as he attempted to get the woman's attention. She sighed slightly in a minor annoyance and looked up meeting eyes with me. "Yes gentlemen, what can I help you with today?" she asked. It is crazy by the fact she didn't even realize who we were.

"I need to see General Peppy Hare! Is he in his office? A very urgent matter has come up and I need to discuss it with him right now!" Bill raised his voice in tone at the lady. It was apparent that he was slightly annoyed with the employee's demeanor toward us.

She sighed in minor annoyance and complied, albeit as slowly as possible. "What's your name?" she asked, "I'll also need to see your ID's to verify." Proceeding to reach into my back pocket, Bill motioned at me to stop. He would take care of this himself. "M'am. Look at me. I shall be as straight-forward as I can with you. You are in no position to be wasting my time here especially considering the fact that I am a high ranking Major," Bill explained, police badge out and in front of the woman's face. I watched in amusement. He was chewing this incompetent secretary's butt out.

"And right now I am in in dire need of speaking to another higher ranking officer that is one of the people that whether or not your ass will ever get promoted from a Lieutenant. So if you want to get far in the Air Force, I'd you'd do what's best for you right now and page General Hare in his office and let him know that his good friend Bill Gray is here to see him. Tell him that he brought an uh… old friend to see him too."

She didn't know how to react to this other than to just listen to Bill's command. And sure enough, a few minutes later the four of us in were riding in an elevator up to the top floor of the building. Looking down at the expansive cityscape below, the entire city appeared vastly different than to what it was last I had seen it. Air traffic was everywhere in vast numbers compared to the number of ground vehicles. Actual traffic lights hovered in the sky regulating intersections. This was very much a different city than before, and I had missed all of that time between. "It really has changed hasn't it?" I commented. Looking back over at Bill, he looked at me like if it was nothing. "I can't even imagine what you are feeling right now," he said back gazing out of the window.

"One day you wake up and technology has advanced so far ahead that it seems like just yesterday we were only the second generation of space and air traveling ships in existence," I muttered. "It seems like only yesterday Fox and I were kids playing with toy Airwings and dreaming of the day we could join the academy," He said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out an old model toy of an Airwing.

I looked at the small toy in awe. "That's the toy I got you and my son as a gift years ago. You've hung onto for all these years?" I asked.

He nodded and handed the tiny thing to me. "Yes, I did, however, this one isn't mine," he answered.

This confused me a bit. If this one wasn't his, then who's could that have been. There were only ever two of these made. I had specially ordered and them made as replicas of the Airwings that my crew had flown.

"What do you mean? How could you possibly have more than one. I had those made as gifts for you and-"

My mind instantly drifted to that of Fox caused me to stop mid-sentence. While I had the intentions of attempting to find my son, I assumed that Peppy would easily be able to tell me of his whereabouts. "Did something happen to him?" I questioned him. He looked away from me in silence, refusing to answer. A tenseness had started to grow inside all over my chest. No, not that feeling you have when you are having some sort of heartburn or acid reflux. It was the sensation of stress that you experience when you find out some sort of important news that could have devastating effects on your life and wellbeing as a whole. I looked over to the other officers standing to Bill's right and left. The looks on their faces all but confirmed that they were hiding some sort of horrible news. Bill took a deep breath and reached for the toy and placed it in my hand, closing my grip around the tiny plane. "Peppy will fill you in with the rest of the details. It would be best for him to tell you. I have no place in informing you," he explained.

I frowned, but realized that trying to beat the answer out of him would be nothing but a dead-end.

"Alright," I answered as we exited the elevator, finally having reached the top floor of the building. Bill lead me through a small lobby filled with the typical kind of stuff you'd expect to see in a waiting area to a large corporate or military office. He knocked on an open door to a secretary's room that lead to what I could assume to be Peppy's place of business. Catching her attention he greeted her saying, "Ms. Duskin. I'm here to see General Hare." The appropriately named secretary bird that was sitting at her desk busy shuffling papers looked up at us. She smiled at him rather happy to see Bill in front of her desk. "He is in his office, but next time please call in advance the next time you want to come visit him. That goes for you as well!" she called me out and noticing me for the first time.

"Wait a second. How could Fox McCloud be here when-" "All will be explained after I talk to General Hare," Bill cut her off before she could even have a chance to blurt out whatever it was that had happened. I scratched the back of my head nervously. Any suspicions about something bad happening to my son had all but been confirmed.

Bill turned and knocked the door on Peppy's office door. "Come on in!" an all too long-familiar, but older raspy sounding voice said.

"Here we go," I muttered under my breath, walking into the office behind Bill. I closed the door behind the two of us, with the two other officers staying back in the secretary's office to explain the situation that was happening. Sitting down on one of the nice leather chairs pulled up in front the very large and luxurious mahogany office desk, an older rabbit with graying fur on his face sat with his coffee in hand.

"After all these years, you've managed to return from the dead old friend. I must say it is good to see you again." The old rabbit said to me. While there was no telling the amount of questions that he had for me or what he was thinking about right now, I did know one thing for sure. He was glad to see me again. "Hello Peppy."