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It took me three months to write this chapter and there's no yiff? Sorry, I was planning to make this chapter a hell of a lot longer, but I thought breaking the story up would motivate me a little more to start spitting out chapters. And with the ending of this one, I have a little more flexible freedom to play around with the plot where I need it to be before releasing the next chapter.

Apologies for this chapter being a little lame, but I swear, the action will come soon. I mean, just look at the title.

[Title inspired from Hecate and Kitsune²'s Countdown to Mayhem (Can be found on the Mungyodance Extend Album)]

~~~~~~~

[Chapter 7 - Countdown to Mayhem]

The moment my cell phone had hit the ground, Reno had awoken to question the situation.

"Hey, love, what's going on...?" he asked. His question flew straight over my head as I failed to pay attention to him at all. I fell to my knees. I punched the ground below me.

"FUCK!!" I continued to punch the ground, ready make my fist turn into a bloody pulp. Reno quickly got up and grabbed my fist stopping me.

"God dammit, Rei! What the hell happened?!" Reno yelled at me. I was sobbing my eyes out. I couldn't protect him. Instead, I let what I feared happen.

"Spike... My father..." I cried out. I screamed at the top of my lungs in frustration.

"What? How?"

"I don't know!! How the hell did he find out where I was!?"

"C'mon, we gotta go back to your place. Your father must've left something behind."

I regained my composure. "You're right... Let's go..."

We tossed our clothes back on and we ran back to my place. We stood in the hallway looking at the door.

"Hmm... No forced entry. C'mon, Reno." I said to him. He nodded back to me. I opened the door. The TV was blaring and Spike was sitting on the couch, casually lounging as if nothing actually happened.

"Spike?!" I said in complete shock.

"Oh, Rei, what's up?" he said back nonchalantly.

"What's up? WHAT'S UP?!" I was furious at him. "Here I am freaking out in a hotel room after having amazing sex with a man I love and you can only sit there and say to me, 'What's up'?! What the fuck is your problem?!"

"Too much information, but what are you talking about?"

I made my way in front of him and whipped out my cell phone out and showed him my recent calls list.

"So my name is on there. What of it?"

"You called me saying that you needed help. Something about Dad as well."

"Oh, shit. My cell phone must've went off again when I fell asleep. I was so pooped after classes that I just jumped into bed without even changing. I must've had that nightmare again..."

"Nightmare?"

"Yeah... I've been getting these nightmares recently about a huge group of people attacking us... Not an alien attack like the Aparoids or the Claxan problem that the Cornerian Defense Force is trying to handle with Ryan, but being attacked by some very normal people with some very deadly weapons. I know... It sounds ridiculous, right?"

"Not at all, Spike. Maybe it's a premonition or something." Reno said out of nowhere. "I'm already aware of how much of a problem they are on other planets. It's only a matter of time until something drastic happens."

"As right as it may sound, I just hope it doesn't happen."

"I doubt it will though, but just I'm just worried about your Spike." I went over to him and gave him a hug from behind where he was sitting and kissed him on the head. "You're my only brother, Spike. Only God knows how I'm gonna react if something happens to you."

"You'd probably let your natural wolven instincts take over and just completely block out everyone else."

"... You know me too well, Spike."

"You haven't changed a bit, Rei. You're still as predictable as ever. You're probably gonna ask if it's alright for Reno to stay with us."

"..." Am I that predictable?!

"The answer is yes, by the way. Go have a ball."

I gave Spike another kiss on head and then took Reno into my room.

We stripped out clothes off and just lied there naked in my bed cuddling each other. We had our fun for the night and we were trying to settle in. I couldn't reach that point to sleep and Reno noticed it as well.

"Something wrong, babe?" he asked me.

I sighed. "Ugh, I can't help but think about what both of you said."

"About Spike's dream and how that might be premonition?"

"Yeah, what happens if what he dreamt about really came true. What happens if my dad really does do something horrible to him?"

"well, think about it this way. If he's with the Yakuza, he wouldn't strike without them being marked by the emblem. What are the odds that it would actually happen?"

"Eh, knowing my luck, Reno, pretty damn good."

"... You're such a fucking pessimist, Rei." He leaned over and kissed me on the lips. "Now go to bed."

"As long as you're hugging me in your warm arms all night."

"That I can do." Reno's arms wrapped around me. I liked this feeling. This feeling of companionship. Along with my brother, I could finally feel a sense of happiness. Something I haven't felt in a really long time...

~~~~~

"Reiji..." said a soft, soothing voice. It sounded like a voice I was familiar with... But a female voice?

"Reiji..." the voice said again. I opened my eyes to find myself lying in a bed in a completely white room. It felt like I was in purgatory or something. It was like I had just died and gone this was my final place before I would completely go.

But that was impossible, I couldn't have possibly died... Could I.

I looked around the room to see a familiar face sitting on the side of my bed. A face that had almost been long forgotten. A face I haven't seen for almost 15 years.

"Mom...?" I said quietly. I felt that rush of embarrassment as if I had just said the wrong answer to something.

"My, my, Reiji... How you've grown..." she replied back. It WAS my mother. I could help myself, I hugged her.

"Mom..." I nuzzled my face onto her chest. I was like a child all over again. "Your fur... It's as soft as I can remember... This can't possibly be real."

"Believe what you want," she said. "But I come with a message for you."

"A message...? About what?"

"It's your father."

"But," I was completely baffled. "How do you know what's going on?"

"The angels are always watching, Reiji."

I could only sit there in silence.

"Listen carefully, I don't have much time left. Meriako's dream was more than just a dream. Something will happen to him tonight."

"What's gonna happen?"

"Reiji, just at all costs, please protect Meriako. The Yakuza is going to make a move on Corneria."

"But how will I know?"

"Just trust yourself, Reiji. You'll know when someone close to you is in danger. I must go now..."

"Mom... Don't leave me..." She walked up off the bed and into the white abyss. I chased after her. "Mom... Don't..."

~~~~~

I suddenly crashed onto the floor. I was back in my apartment. I was back in my room.

"Shit," I said to myself in my naked glory. "What time is it?"

10:15 am

"Phew... I still have time." I got myself up off the floor to find that Reno was gone.

I ran outside of my room to find him cooking in the kitchen.

"Dammit, Reno... Babe, don't scare me like that."

"What?" He looked at me like I was a crazy wolf. "What did I do?"

"... Oh, nothing. I'm just worrying myself too much." I walked over to him. He with only a pair of boxers on and he looked to be cooking some breakfast for. I kissed him on the lips.

"So where's Spike?" I asked him.

"He left early. Something about a wilderness training weekend at the academy."

"Oh yeah, I remember that." I sat down at the table awaiting his creating. "Although compared to the other students that weekend, I didn't get much action. I suppose this is what you get for being a ranged fighter. Doesn't mean I can't kick someone's ass though. These muscles aren't used only to attract people."

"You should show me some of your moves then." Reno said to me slyly as he served a well presented breakfast of french toast, eggs, and bacon.

"Didn't I already show you all of them in bed last night?"

"Not those moves, silly. I mean, show me how you fight. I didn't come back here just to get my virginity taken away by you. Remember that I came here to investigate the Lylat Yakuza?"

"I haven't forgotten that at all. It's too important of a matter to just ignore." I took a bite of the fluffy eggs on the plate. As soon as the eggs hit my tongue, I just froze.

"What's wrong? My cooking that bad?"

It was actually the opposite. This was probably one of the most superb eggs I had ever tasted. Such a simple recipe, but done in such a way it's like I had never eaten eggs before in my life. As stupid as it may sound, I finally felt happiness in the form of breakfast... Something I haven't felt in a while since my cooking isn't all that great.

I can cook, but not make amazing gourmet meals like Reno could.

"It's wonderful. That's something I'm serious about as well, babe."

"Thanks." He went over to me and kissed me on the cheek.

"Hey, why don't we head off to the Academy today?" I proposed. "I'm sure we could catch Spike and his class before they head off."

"Sounds like a plan."

Time quickly passed as breakfast dwindled down into nothingness. I dressed in a form fitting black short sleeve shirt and some loose cut jeans. I still wore the same boots from my regular military outfit. I strapped the holster on to my waist and I was ready to go.

Reno also wore a nice form fitting vest, but it was to match the Katina colors. He wore a white form fitting shirt and a green zip-up vest. He also wore a pair of green/brown/black camo cargo pants to match. I'd have to say myself that we reminds me of a certain dog we know who graduated from the Cornerian Flight Academy.

The two of us made our way over to the military academy. We could see military buses lined up outside the academy ready to depart whenever the students were ready. As we made our way inside, we saw Team Star Fox in the lobby trying to arrange the hectic commotion that was going on inside.

"Fox!" I yelled. I waved over to him. Despite the noise, I was actually surprised that he had heard my voice and in return, looked back over to me and waved back. He then motioned me to come over to him as well.

"Preparing for the student outing?" I asked as I approached him.

"Yeah, it's been pretty crazy here all day." Fox replied. "Falco's starting to lose his cool though."

"Hmm...?" I asked him.

"He got the 12-14 year old age group."

"Ah..." The 12-14 year old age group... They were the worst to teach how to use blasters. For safety, we give them blasters that don't hurt anyone when they're shot at and because of this, they don't take the lessons seriously. Some do, but it's pretty bad for the most part. They also have a problem listening to authority, which is why I'm not surprised Falco was losing his cool. I looked around the huge lobby of the school. "Hey, Fox... Where's Falco anyway?"

"Towards the back of the lobby." It was easy to miss him since there were so many people in the lobby as well as bags containing equipment and student posessions.

"Thanks, I'll go track him down... Wouldn't want him to be beating up a student, now would we?"

"Good point. Thanks, Vincent."

"No problem." I was just about to walk away when I realized that I hadn't introduced Reno to him at all. "Oh, Fox. Have you met-"

"Mr. Reno Kusagari." He said cutting me off. "I've heard a lot about you from Bill."

"Really now? I just do my job on Katina. I don't think I've done anything stellar at all."

"You single handedly led the Husky Unit to victory in the last skirmish with the Katina Division of the Yakuza. You pretty much have them on lock down there. Having you around makes Katina that much safer. Why do you think we called you down here anyway?"

"I thought you wanted me to investigate..." Suddenly his voice became really soft almost to whisper.

"That also." Fox replied. "If we want anyone to lead our investigation on..." It suddenly turned into a whisper again. "... Then it's you. We need all the help we could get around this time. The Claxian Invasion isn't helping much either."

I was growing slightly pissed off about them whispering. I knew who they were talking about, but I wasn't quite ready to reveal to anyone that I was his son. They might get the wrong idea about me. You know, the whole "the child bears the sins of the father" kind of deal.

"I'll leave you two alone for a while..." I quietly sneaked off without them noticing me.

I quickly found Falco after I went through a crowd of students.

"Falco!" I yelled to him.

"WHAT!?" He yelled back. It looked like he was ready to pop a vein in his head.

"Whoa... Chill, Falco. It's just me..." I said to him with my hands up in the air ready to surrender.

"Aw, sorry about that... These little shits are giving me such a headache. For kids their age, I would've figured they would know better. Apparently not." He sighed as he was ready to jump back into the inferno.

"Let me handle this, Falco. I've dealt with some of them before." I stopped Falco in his tracks and went ahead of him to deal with the rowdy students.

"STUDENTS, ATTENTION~!!" I howled at the top of my lungs. Some of the kids recognized me having that I taught them how to shoot a blaster. Those were the ones standing at attention. I could hear whispers from the rebellious ones asking the attentive kids why they were acting that way.

"What the hell are you doing? Are you gonna let him push you around like that?" I heard one kid say.

"Dude, you don't wanna mess around with Mr. Kiba." Another student said.

"Yeah, he's one of the most accurate shots in all of Corneria. I wouldn't want to be standing at the other end of the room causing trouble with him in the room."

"Why? He doesn't look all that scary." The same rebellious kid replied back to the two obedient students. In a flash, I dashed behind the group of kids and crept up behind the rebellious one.

"Now I know you're not giving Mr. Lombardi trouble here... Are you, kid?" I asked him.

"Gah!" He was startled that I was suddenly behind him. "Uh... I wasn't giving him a hard time..."

What a load of bullshit that was.

"You better be careful. I know that I haven't seen you in one of my blaster classes and it's a requirement to pass the class to graduate from the academy. If you want to see the end of this training and graduate with your friends, I would highly recommend listening to your teachers. You wouldn't want your students acting like this when you start teaching sessions here, now would you?"

"Uh... No, Sir... No, I wouldn't Mr. Kiba, Sir."

"Now, stop giving Mr. Lombardi here a hard time and listen to him. He's a nice guy when you get to know him."

"Sir, yes, Sir!" he said. The other rebellious students overheard my conversation above the noise and fell in line with obedient ones.

"Falco, they're all yours." I said to him.

"Thanks a lot, Vincent." he said. He was ready for roll call and ready to get his class underway for the training trip.

"Oh, by the way." I turned back to Falco. "You have any idea where my brother is?"

"He's in room 2-A with Bill. He was the smart one who decided to let his students meet up in a classroom."

"Thanks, Falco. I'll see you later."

I dashed back to where Fox was to see that he and Reno were just finishing up their conversation.

"Hey, I found out where my brother was." I said to Reno. "Care to join me?"

"Sure." He quickly turned back to Fox "It was a pleasure talking to you, Fox." He shook his hand from there.

"Likewise, I'm hoping your transfer over here to Corneria will help in our stop to the Corneria Yakuza and possibly all around the Lylat System."

We split from Fox and made our way upstairs to the empty hallways of the second floor. Apparently almost all the groups had asked all their students to meet in the lobby. We walked into the designated classroom that Falco had mentioned. There were a bunch of students there and there I saw Spike sitting towards the back of the room minding his own business while the other students went off and mingled amongst each other.

"Bill!" I said getting the attention of the dog minding the class.

"Hey, Vincent, what's up?" The dog asked.

"Just here to see my brother before he heads off to the training trip. Are you gonna be their instructor?"

"Nah, unfortunately, I can't make the trip this year. We got a stand-in to help out with the trip this year." Bill looked over my shoulder. "Speak of the devil, there he is now."

In walked a muscular German Shepard, probably about 6 feet tall. "Bill..." he said in a rather gruff tone.

"Vincent, Reno, this is Diego Kazama."

There was something about him. Something about him that I just couldn't trust.

"..." I growled at him shaking his hand. "You better watch yourself, Diego."

"You should watch your own back as well, Kiba." He let go of my hand and start to attend to the class. He had a bunch of arm bands that the students would wear to notify that he was part of their group. I walked over to Spike along with Reno.

"Spike, please be careful... I don't trust this guy..." I whispered to him.

"Rei, he's my Field Training teacher, he wouldn't harm a fly." He replied. "Just trust me on this one... I'll be fine."

"Ugh... I hope your right... Have fun, alright?" I gave Spike a hug and made my way out of the room. "Bill, Diego, I'll be seeing you around."

"Later, Vincent. Later, Reno." said Bill. The German Shepard didn't even respond to me.

We made our way out of the room. I elbowed Reno in the stomach.

"Ow! Love?! What was that for?!"

"Sorry..." I sighed. "Something is just really rubbing me the wrong way about him."

"Who? Diego? Something rubs me the wrong way about him also, but you don't see me elbowing you in the stomach!"

"We gotta go on this trip..."

"What?!"

"Yes, Reno. We gotta go on this trip somehow. Spike isn't safe, and my intuition as a brother should know this."

"Then why don't you just ask Fox?"

"That would be a novel idea."

"You go ahead and ask him. I gotta catch my breath from you elbowing me."

I guess I hit him harder than I though. I motioned over to Reno and kissed him on the forehead. I then dashed over back to the lobby to find Fox.

The students were still lingering around the lobby, but everything looked more in control than it was when we got here. Fox was still in the same spot. I ran back over to him.

"Oh, Vin, what's up?" Fox asked me as he scribbled down something on his clipboard.

"The trip..." I said. "You must let me and Reno go on it."

"What?" he said to me with the most snarled look on his face. "At this short notice? That's impossible, I can't let that happen."

"Fox, you gotta let me go on this... It's about my brother..."

"I'm sure he'll be fine, Diego is one of the top officers we got here. He'll be under the best protection this school can offer."

"But that's the thing! It seems like he's planning something bigger."

"Like what?"

"Like... He might be working for the Yakuza?"

"That's absurd, Vincent. We've done background checks on everyone going on these trips, there's no record of activity from him with the Yakuza."

"Please, Fox... You have to let me go on this trip..."

"..." Fox grumbled. "... Fine, it seems like Falco needs help with his group anyway. I'll assign both of you to him, but you better get some development out of this, you won't hear the end of this from me."

"Deal. Thank you so much, Fox. You won't regret this."

"You have an hour to get ready. Be back here at 1600 hours."

I ran off to grab Reno who had just recovered from my strike. I started to drag him out of the door.

"First, you elbow me, now you're trying to dislocate my arm? Rei, what the hell are you trying to do to me?" Reno yelled at me as he was being dragged along the ground.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! But we're in! Fox put us in Falco's group! We gotta get ready!"

"What? You actually got us in?"

"No time to chat, babe! We gotta go!"

[An hour later...]

We arrive back at the Academy. It looked like the students were finally loading on to the bus, we saw Falco's group file into the bus. After they all loaded themselves in, Falco gave a huge sigh. He looked exhausted.

"Beat already, Falco?" I said approaching him. "The weekend is still young."

"Ugh, Vincent, Reno... You're here." He replied. "These kids have been giving me hell since you gave them that speech. Seriously, you only just graduated. How in the hell do you do it?"

"We all know that my brother and I are the best shots in all of Corneria. If there's one thing you shouldn't challenge against us, it's our aim. On a stationary target, we rarely ever miss our mark. The kids realize that we could be scoping them out at any minute, so in other words, they watch their back. And in turn, they don't mess with us. The less they mess with us, the friendlier we are to them."

Falco sighed. "Well, I'll be teaching them close range combat during this session. I know you're a long range fighter, but do you know how to fight at all?"

"Do I know how to fight?" I gave Falco the craziest look. "Do I know how to fight? You think this body is for nothing? I decided to develop in an odd style that not many people use these days. I decided to take advantage of my foot speed from my years of playing Step Step Revolution and use it towards fighting. In short, I've practiced under the Grieve Edge style."

Reno and Falco both looked at me weird.

"Grieve Edge, Vin?" Reno asked.

I tapped a tiny button on the side of my right boot and did the same on my left. An S-shaped blade emerged from the front of my boots and a hook style blade from the back.

"Literally, I kick ass and take names. I never had a good punch. Even with these arms of mine, I never could get them as powerful, so I focused solely on my legs."

"Interesting style you got there, Vincent. Maybe some of the students would be interested in that style as well. I'm sure they'd want blades in their shoes as well."

"I suppose, but it's not gonna be easy for them. I'll be giving them a workout from hell if they decide to follow through with it."

"I'm sure that's a risk they'll be willing to take. Let's get outta here. We're pretty much the last bus to leave."

"Sure."

We entered the bus to a loud sound wave of pre-teen chattering. We suddenly fell on deaf ears when the students saw both me and Reno. The bus was so silent that we could hear the whispers of the boys and girls from there.

"Fuck, what's Mr. Kiba doing here?" I heard one of the delinquent kids say.

"Mr. Kiba is soooooo hot... I swear one day, I'm gonna marry him." One of the girls said. Sorry, I'm taken.

"Whatever, he's mine. You could take his cute dragon friend over there. Mr. Tall, Dark, and Handsome."

I elbowed Reno. He was getting some looks from the students as well.

The three of us sat down as the loud sound wave turned into a normal level chatter. This was going to be an interesting weekend.