SHADES OF GRAY:

Now this story is well off the beaten track from the others on this page....
Bear with me though...there is a method to my madness, and all will be clear...eventually...::grins::
Disclaimer: Star fox and all releated characters belong to Nintendo while Boomer and company belongs to me. Enjoy!!!

The young dog worked her way through the vent shafts of Cornerian City's Courthouse toward her goal. She appeared to be in her late teens to early-twenties with a light brown and white coat with long brown ears that hung down to her chin, she also had dark blond hair that was pulled back in a high pony-tail. She wore a fitted black jumpsuit with dark belt outfitted with various tools and equipment. An insignia of the Cornerian Army was stitched onto the right shoulder, the rank of lieutenant was on the left. She also had a set of safety goggles that hung by an elastic strap around her neck. Through the walls and ducts that surrounded her she could faintly hear the demanding shouts of the fanatical escaped Venom soldier. He wasn't the problem she was concerned with, the bombs he and his fellows had cobbled together and had set somewhere in the building was her problem.

She sighed as the comlink head set she wore clicked in her ear and an irritated male voice asked in low tones, "Okay, who's brilliant idea was it to enter the building by the roof and go through the vents to find these things?"

"Mine." she muttered, "I don't believe you had any better ideas Don."

"You try to fit a shell through some of these spots Boomer." the irate turtle hissed back.

Boomer herself rolled her eyes, she and Don were the best mutions specialists in the Cornerian Army. Hence her nickname of "Boomer" among her friends and fellows, though her like of rock and roll music might have also had a hand in the nickname. As such she and Don were members of the same unit and worked together constantly, as predicted both themselves and their unit was called in on this job. A group of Venom soldiers was captured and brought to Corneria City by the Star Fox team for trial. Unfortunately they had escaped and were now holding several top floors of the courthouse hostage with several bombs and weapons secured from the armory where they were being held in the courthouse's lower levels. How, and why, they had gotten from the lower level to the top floors was still a mystery to Boomer, all they had to do was run out the main doors and they'd be halfway back to Venom by now. But no, they had to decide to take hostages and hold them for ransom with General Pepper, over half of the Cornerian City Police, and several SWAT teams surrounding the building just itching to blow Andross's flunkies into the next world. Though that plan went out the window when it was discovered that the soldiers had rigged the floors that they held with bombs and threatened to set them off if anybody tried to storm the building. Therefore General Pepper called in Boomer and Don's unit to try to find the bombs and defuse them so that they could take the soldiers.

After 20 minutes of discussing the ways to sneak into the building. Boomer had decided that jumping to the roof of the courthouse from a neighboring building and going through the vent shafts would be the best way to find and defuse the bombs without endangering the hostages inside. Don agreed. Until he actually saw the size of the shafts, being a turtle, maneuvering through tight turns in narrow places was not the easiest thing for somebody with a very immobile shell on his back. He was able to make it work.

Boomer peeked through a vent into a room and spotted one of the bombs. The Venom soldier stationed to watch it was outside the room guarding the door. That was a plus, it meant that they were not expecting them to come through the vent shafts. As she began to slowly unscrew the vent's cover a soft cursing came from Don. "Now what?" she whispered.

"I just figured out why these idiots didn't just walk out the door." Muttered Don. The two had split after entering the vents to cover more ground. He was looking into one of the main court rooms where several soldiers were guarding the hostages they had taken. One of them was none other than Commander Bill Gray himself. Best friend of Fox McCloud and one of the more important figures in the Cornerian Military. "Does the name Bill Gray mean anything to you?"

Boomer swallowed it meant more to her than Don knew. "Oh boy." She took a deep breath before continuing, "Get away from that room Don and contact General Pepper. Make sure that the heaven only knows how many SWAT teams don't storm the place before they know who's in here. How many hostages?"

Don backed away from the room's vent before answering. "Twelve total, including Gray. As far as we know all other civilians were able to get out. Right now they are talking with a negotiator over the phone, I think Pepper is gonna find out Bill Gray is here pretty quick."

"Tell him anyway." replied Boomer, "I gotta keep quiet, found one of the bombs and I'm gonna give it a look." She had finished removing the screen that covered the vent and was about to lower herself into the room.

"Careful." Don warned.

"That's my middle name." she quipped back. As she lowered herself into the room she glanced around. Looked like it was one of those small conference rooms used for lawyer to client discussions. The furniture was pushed aside to make room for the bomb that was sitting on the floor. Boomer swallowed, it wasn't the small portable bombs cobbled together as she anticipated. This sucker looked like a nova bomb that had been adapted for remote detonation. "What in Corneria was this thing doing in a small jail armory?" she whispered. The only bright side was that a nova bomb would be easier to disable that a cobble job. At least Boomer knew what she was dealing with here, she removed several tools from her belt and began to work.

A few floors above the room where Boomer worked to defuse the bomb Bill Gray was being held hostage. He came here to meet a few friends on one of his rare days off. Unfortunately he was on his way in as the soldiers were on their way out. To top it off Bill knew that several smuggled nova bombs were in the building to be used as evidence in another trial. His luck for the day was holding true and these guys found and set the darn things in at least four locations in the building.

"Great." he grumbled, "No com link, no weapons, eight armed Venom soldiers who would love to deliver me on a platter to Andross. Next time I have a day off I'm staying home."

"Are we going to die?" a mouse stenographer asked him.

"I'm sure General Pepper will do everything to be sure we get out of here alive." replied Bill in low tones, as to not get the attention of the edgy soldiers. As he reassured the other hostages around him he silently prayed that he wasn't lying.

"Who do they have in there!?!?!?!?!?" General Pepper was almost yelling into the comlink he carried. Pepper was stationed with the majority of the assorted police and military figures grouped around the courthouse. It was his idea not only to have Boomer and Don go in to disassemble the bombs but to scout out the layout of the floors where the Venom soldiers were stationed. Don's report did nothing to reassure Pepper.

"Commander Gray, sir." replied Don. "Boomer reported that she found one of the bombs and is currently working on it as we speak. As to her exact location I'm not to sure.""Damn." whispered Pepper, "Those blasted soldiers will keep Commander Gray no matter what we offer them. Keep your eye on that room Lieutenant, tell me any thing that goes on. Leave the bombs for your partner to work on."

Don sighed and replied, "Yes sir. I'll notify Boomer when she confirms that she's done with the bomb." After he was done talking he clicked off the com link and slowly crept back to the vent that peered into the main courtroom.

Boomer was silently working on the bomb. The safety goggles that were around her neck were now over her eyes and several small tools were in her hands as she quickly and carefully disabled the bomb. The mission had two parts, first was to disable the detonation device so the bomb could not be triggered by a remote somewhere else. Once that was done then came the hard part. Disabling the powerful nova bomb so it couldn't be triggered at all. All the remote detonator was a radio receiver that activated the real trigger located inside the bomb. Removing the actual trigger was tricky business, if you didn't do it right then you could wind up with a live bomb due to blow in less than thirty seconds.

She took deep steady breaths as she unscrewed the casing of the trigger and pulled the cover off to reveal the myriad of wires underneath. Next Boomer took a small pair of wire cutters and muttered, "Okay, the sequence is red, white, green, purple and black." as she snipped each colored wired in sequence. As she finished she sighed with relief, the bomb was now useless. She then began to put the casing of the trigger and the detonator back together so it would look like nobody had tampered with the bomb. As she finished she heard somebody about to enter the room. She quickly jumped back into the vent shaft and replaced the cover just as a soldier entered the room the check on the bomb. Boomer held her breath, the soldier looked around and reported the 'all clear' to his superior.

After he left Boomer heaved a sigh of relief as he left the room. She backed away from the vent and tapped her com, "Don?" she whispered, "You there?"

She heard a low growl over the com, "Yeah. I'm here, with the incredible urge to blast these guys into the next world."

"Your still by that room?" she asked.

"Pepper's orders." replied Don, "Want's me to gather info about what they are doing and the situation of the hostages. They just hung up with the negotiator, and they don't look happy. Better find those other bombs fast Boomer, these guys were already on edge, who knows what they'll do next."

"Gotcha. I'll work on it. Are they dropping any hints on how many bombs there are and where they are?" asked Boomer.

"Four total. One on each corner, one per floor on the top four floors." replied Don. "Is the first one down for the count?"

"Yeah. I got it, pass this on to General Pepper, these are not cobble jobs, they are nova bombs." She heard Don's swift intake of breath just before he replied. "Crap. If just one is set off..."

"We could kiss about five square blocks of Corneria City good-bye. I know, I know...I'll hurry. Gotta go." Boomer signed off and continued to make her way through the shafts. Little did Don know how high the stakes were from her perspective.

The next few hours were tense to say the least. As Boomer was working furiously to defuse the remaining three bombs, the negotiator was working equally as hard to get as many of the hostages out of danger as possible. As Boomer found the last bomb, she got word from Don. "All are out but Commander Gray and two judges. How are you doing?"

"Just found the last one." whispered Boomer, "Tell General Pepper he can began to enter the building in about 15 minutes."

"We may not have that long." replied Don. "The talks just broke down, and the trigger fingers are getting itchy."

"I'll go as fast as I can," swallowed Boomer, "Keep me informed, I'll let you know when it can't be detonated by remote at least." She quickly ended the conversation so she could concentrate fully on the bomb.

Meanwhile, Bill was completely on guard. Ever since the leader of this group had hung up with the soldiers outside things had gotten more aggressive. They wanted to take Bill and the two remaining judges being held hostage back to Venom, Pepper wouldn't hear of it. As such everything came to a stand still. Bill kept one eye on the remote detonator one of the soldiers held, silently praying that somebody had defused those bombs before anybody hit the switch.

Boomer breathed a sigh of relief as she tapped her com. "General? The last one is inactive, you can enter the building now." She then climbed back into the vent and made her way to the court room to see how Don was doing.

"Sir!" yelled one of the Venom soldiers, "The Cornerians are entering the building!" his voice was reaching panic.

The leader of this group edged toward the room's window to see several well armed SWAT teams enter through the front door of the courthouse. "Fools." he muttered under his breath, "Do they actually think we're bluffing? It will be a honor to destroy this building in the name of Andross!" With that he hit the button on the detonation switch he carried. Everybody held their breaths waiting for the explosion.

Nothing happened.

While the soldier was still in shock Bill acted. He tackled the Venom soldier in hopes of overpowering him. A short scuffle ensued, the Venom soldier fueled by anger and adrenaline quickly subdued Bill and held him from behind with his arm around Bill's neck. With his free hand he pulled a granade from behind his back and pulled the pin with his teeth.

"For Andross!" Bill heard the soldier's yell and closed his eyes waiting for the end.

Boomer found herself in a vent right behind the soldier just as he was about to let go of the granade's trigger. "No!" she screamed as she lunged out of the vent knocking the pair apart. Her momentum and the shockwave of the granade carried both herself and Bill away from the explosion and over a set of benches where they landed none too softly.

The whole courtroom was frozen in shock at the events that just occurred, after the explosion the remaining Venom soldiers began to move toward the groggy pair. Just as they are about to reach them the Cornerian police and soldiers burst into the room. The Venom soldiers, quickly accessing the situation, surrendered post haste.

Bill shook off his head which was covered with dust and debree from the explosion. The first thing he saw was a hand helping him up. "You okay?" a worried female voice asked.

"Yeah, thanks." he replied. He looked up at his rescuer, and did a double take. He knew her! "Beatrice?" he gasped.

Boomer swallowed, and was about to answer when General Pepper entered the room and provided a welcome distraction from Boomer's perspective. As Bill was talking to Pepper, Boomer quickly left the room. When Bill turned around, she was gone.

"Where'd she go?" he muttered.

"Who?" asked Pepper.

"The young woman who was just here. Blond?" asked Bill.

"Oh." replied the General, "That Commander Gray was one of the best mutions specialists we have. She was able to defuse all the bombs those soldiers planted here in record time. Her name is Lieutenant..."

"Beatrice Gray." finished Bill.

"How did you know? Have you two met?" asked General Pepper.

"You could say that," replied Bill, "she's my little sister."

Don was climbing out of the vent and nearly fell flat on his face when he heard Commander Gray's remark. He knew Boomer's last name was Gray, but he never dreamed that the two were related. They just acted so...different from each other. After giving some of his fellow teammates directions on where to find the bombs he left to try and find Boomer. After about searching for about a hour he finally found her in the transport they used to get from their base to the Court house.

"There you are." muttered Don, "Been looked all over for you Boomer, what's up?"

Boomer jerked her head up in surprise, she was lost in thought after seeing her brother. "Why did you look everywhere? I was right here." she vainly attempted humor. Don pulled a face before replying.

"I know you can do better than that Boomer, does your lack of humor have anything to do with the fact that Commander Gray is claiming to be your brother?"

Boomer swallowed, "He said that?" she squeaked.

"Straight to General Pepper." replied Don. "Care to fill me in? Like is Commander Gray your brother, and why haven't you told anybody about it?"

"You want the full story Don?" replied Boomer, "Get comfortable, it's a long story..."

Not all marriages have happy endings. Some couples for one reason or another decide to part ways, the reasons are various and too numerous to mention. For twelve years the Grays seemed to have a picture perfect life. High school sweet-hearts who married, like everybody thought they would. Small house near Corneria City, two children, Bill was the oldest at eleven years, good student, lots of friends, typical young boy. Beatrice, was ten years old, not as social as her brother, but twice as smart, could usually be found with her nose in a book instead of playing with her brother or friends.

This day found the normally happy brother and sister sitting miserably in a courtroom while a judge decided who they would live with. Their mother or their father, it had been almost a year since their parents decided to get a divorce. The reasons were not clear on why they decided to do this, but at this point the children didn't care. All they knew was that their lives would never be the same again.

They judge decided that in the best interest of the children, he gave permanent custody to their mom, and their dad would visit them on the weekends. Beatrice remembered how mad her father seemed as he left the room. It gave her a bad feeling that something was going to happen.

The months pass, Bill and Beatrice adjust. Life almost seems normal, both of their parents seem to be happier. Then one day their father announced that he was going on a week long camping trip and wanted to take the children with him. Mom was wary, but after some badgering by Bill and Beatrice, she relented. The day before dad was suppose to pick them up for the trip, Bill came down with a stomach ache. Beatrice was reluctant to go on the trip without her brother. That weird feeling she had gotten in the courtroom was back, but Bill urged her to go, saying that he would join them later when he got well.

Beatrice agreed and left with her father. Two days later Bill was better and his mother tried to contact the camping area where Beatrice and their father was to be. According to the camp's staff, they had never arrived, nor had any reservations been made for the camping trip. A search was organized, but no trace of either Beatrice or her father was found.

"...and that was the last I saw of her Fox." muttered Bill. When news of the hostage situation reached the Great Fox, Fox McCloud rushed back to Corneria City to see if he could help. By the time he got there the situation was under control, what alarmed Fox the most after seeing his friend was how shook up he looked. He had taken Bill to a nearby pizza place in hopes of getting him to talk about it. Fox was surprised to find out that it wasn't the soldiers that unnerved him, it was who had saved him.

"Are you sure it was your sister Bill?" Fox asked, "I mean, it's been years since she vanished."

"I wasn't sure at first, but when I asked Pepper about her he confirmed that her name was Beatrice Gray. I don'tthink that there are too many people in Corneria with that name that would book out of the room the second I saw her." muttered Bill.

"Okay." replied Fox, "If it is your sister, how come we didn't run into her at the Academy? I mean she would have been there about the last year or so in one of the classes behind us."

"She was there we just didn't know it at the time." Bill pulled a file from under his jacket, as he opened it he asked Fox. "Do you remember a Bridget Grayson?"

Fox pulled a face and muttered, "Do you remember the exploding pillow fiasco?"

Bill stifled a laugh.

Fox replied, "I'll take that as a 'Yes.'"

"What does the sight of you surrounded by feathers have to do with Bridget Grayson?"

"Who do you think caused the explosion???" grumbled Fox.

"Are you sure?" Bill replied.

"I could never prove it, but I'm sure it was her. She was friends with Mike Angel, the two of us were in a prank war..."

"Don't remind me, I got caught in the crossfire. Remember? So before I continue, why do you think it was Bridget instead of Mike who caused you pillow to explode?"

"To finally win the war I was able to trigger one of Mike's pranks on one of the teachers. He got found out and was watched so carefully he couldn't strike back. Little did I know that Bridget decided to pick up where Mike left off. She waited for a week to make sure I was off guard and rigged my pillow to explode just before room inspections. I couldn't find a trace of whatever she used to blow up the pillow, so I could never prove what happened."

Bill had given up trying to hold back the laughter. "I almost forgot about that. Anyway I found out something about Bridget, she never graduated from the Academy."

"What?!?!" stuttered Fox, "No way! She was one of the best of her class, no way would Pepper just let her drop out."

"Your right, Bridget Grayson for all intents and purposes disappeared from the Academy just before her final year. Then the name Beatrice Gray appears on the Academy's records, I think Bridget and Beatrice are one and the same."

"But why the name change? I can see why her name was changed, to hide her since your father was still wanted for kidnapping, but why change it back?"

Bill sighed, "During her final year in the Academy Beatrice turned eighteen. A legal adult by Cornerian law, therefore whatever sham Dad made her assume to protect himself she could dump then. I guess she was tired of living a lie."

"So how did she get by the officials?" asked Fox, "I mean how did she explain it? She couldn't just walk into the headmasters office and say 'Hey for the past few years I've been using an assumed name but I want to use my real one now.'"

"Better question Fox." replied Bill, "If they knew who she really was, why didn't anybody try to contact me or my Mother?"

"Well Bill," stated Fox, "I think there's only one way to answer that."

"Yeah," muttered Bill, "Find and talk to her."

After getting back to base, Boomer's team decided on some R&R after a job well done. On the way back to base Boomer had explained the whole story not just to Don, but to the rest of the group as well. After all they all were in the same class at the Academy, and were close friends even then. They were all surprised when not only were they assigned to the same division, but to the same unit and base as well. Boomer saw the logic to that, her unit tended to be trouble at times so they put them all in one place to keep and eye on them!

Another reason was they were the one's who helped her with the name change at the Academy. With their help it would have been allot trickier to get it past the officials. Officially Beatrice Gray was a transfer student, little did anybody know that her transfer grades were actually the grades she had earned as 'Bridget Grayson.' Another thing that had helped was that her father made her change her appearance, some hair and fur dye and Bridget was born, after she had it removed she was back to Beatrice. Which is why her brother and some of his friends never recognized the withdrawn brunette as Bill's sister. Don and Mike had figured out that something was wrong from the day they met her, and decided on the spot to 'adopt' her. Thanks to them the shy, withdrawn girl had gotten a serious backbone. It was enough to give her the courage to stand up to her father and tell Don and Mike the truth about herself, she did leave out the part about her brother though.

"I'll give my brother about two days to track me down." muttered Boomer, as she leaned against the wall of Alpha Base's rec center. Mike Angel was lining up a shot on the pool table, he missed and sighed.

"How do you know that he'll try?" replied Mike as the turtle stepped aside to let Boomer take a shot. "I mean it's been years..."

"He'll do it." stated Boomer, "If I was in his shoes, I would." She sank two balls with one shot and started to line up for another. She continued, "Off the subject, how'd the E-M Pulse test go?"

Alpha Base was not only a military base, but also a weapons developments facility, on numerous occasions Boomer's unit was asked to either assist or advise on various projects. As one of the top in her class, Boomer was usually chief supervisor or head of development on several projects. The latest project she was working on was a Electric-Magnetic Pulse Weapon, since all electronics emitted a small electric magnetic or E-M field a device that could emit a E-M pulse could become an effective weapon. Unfortunately, some problems developed.

"Uh, " stuttered Mike, "You want the good news or the bad news?" Boomer groaned as she sunk another ball.

"The Good." she stated.

"The Pulse functioned perfectly, it downed the drone with one shot at one quarter power."

Boomer grinned, "Okay! Now what's the bad news..."

"Feedback from the firing of the pulse wrecked the jet firing it.....again." scowled Mike.

Boomer's head hit the edge on the pool table, "My poor jet....." she whimpered.

"They decided not to use the Shockwave." replied Mike in a small voice.

"WHAT!" snapped Boomer. "Are they nuts?! How many pilots are going to get hurt before they figure out that the standard shields are not enough to protect a jet from the pulse?!"

"It was a last minute call Boomer," replied Mike, "Nothing I could do since both you and Don were in Corneria City today. The results you got were Greek to me so I couldn't give a good enough reason to use the Shockwave, other than your jet is built like a flying tank. Good part is after today nobody wants to have their jet used, but you. So the next test will be with the Shockwave."

Boomer's jet was mostly used for weapons testing and transport, it had only seen actual combat a few times. It had earned it's name for surviving several large explosions and the shockwaves caused by them. Boomer designed the rough specs for it while in the Academy, after being assigned to Alpha Base and going through about 10 jets during weapons testing she petitioned her superiors to have the Shockwave built. It had saved Alpha Base's standard jet fleet from taking a pounding. She sighed.

"That's good. When's the test?"

"In a week, one of the other facilities Pulse prototype is also ready for testing. The big-wigs want to test both at once and see who's is better." replied Mike.

Boomer grinned, "Nothing like a little friendly competition to get a product done better and cheaper. I'll start giving the Shockwave a run-down tomorrow." By then Boomer had sunk the last ball on the table. Mike's jaw dropped. "Good night." she stated as she left the room.

Bill Gray was in his room back on Katina, rummaging through old boxes of photos. "I know I kept it." he muttered to himself, "Where did I put that picture?"

After about a hour search he finally found a box marked 'Academy'. Five minutes of shuffling through the box he found what he sought. "Yes!" In his hand was a small snapshot of Fox McCloud covered with feathers. Fox never knew he took the picture, if he did Bill most likely would have been forced under threat of bodily harm to hand it over. He grinned, part one of his plan to meet his sister was going well. The next phase would have to wait until tomorrow at work.

The next day, Bill somehow fit a few minutes between the mounds of paperwork to locate exactly where his sister was stationed. The hunt was simple, he knew she had to based on Corneria, near Corneria City. That narrowed the search to about three bases. Some of the other soldiers that were there had stated that they were from Alpha Base. A quick computer search of the people stationed there soon reveled that one Lieutenant Beatrice Gray was currently stationed at Alpha Base as a Weapons and Munitions Specialist. Bill grinned. During his lunch break he had the photo of Fox copied and stuck the copy along with a short note in an envelope and had it sent to Lieutenant Gray at Alpha Base. All he could do now was wait, and hope.

The following day, Boomer spent most of her day like she spent yesterday, up to her elbows in the Shockwave's engine compartment. Yesterday she had spent most of the day checking the jet out from top to bottom and making space for installing the E-M Pulse weapon. Today, what was left of the last test-jet, was also in the bay and Boomer was removing the weapon from the crumpled jet and checking it out for any problems before installing it into the Shockwave.

As she was working Don came into the bay with a stack of letters, memos and orders for himself and Boomer. Yes they had desks, but since neither of them were there for any period of time, Don just grabbed their mail and took it down to where ever they were working. The repair bay had both jets, and several worktables. The smallest one was covered with papers, plans and sketches, a desktop computer was barely visible among the stacks and a chair was pulled up to it. It was Boomer's latest desk, neat she was not.

Another slightly larger table was Don's desk and didn't look much better. Less paper, more mechanics and tools were scattered about his. As he made his way to his desk he shuffled through the stack he carried. He tossed Boomer's on her chair and sat down at his desk. Boomer was at a third table and conducting tests on the Pulse. She didn't even notice Don coming into the bay.

Don sighed, "Mail Call!"

"Huh?" asked Boomer lifting her head up.

"You have mail." stated Don, pointing to her chair, "I would have put it on your desk except I was afraid it would be eaten."

Boomer scowled as she wiped her hands off on a rag and walked to her "desk", "As if you are any better Don." motioning with her head to his desk as she flipped through the stack of papers. Mostly requests for reports on what happened in the Courthouse, the status of the E-M Pulse and the formal orders for her to fly the Shockwave in the next test in a week. She finally came to an envelope that struck her as odd. In was Inter-base mail, which meant that the letter came from a different base, though not one on Corneria. She opened it and pulled out the contents, she then plopped down in her chair from shock.

"Oh crap." she squeaked.

"What?" asked Don.

"Somebody figured it out." she whispered.

"What?!" asked Don.

Boomer showed him the photo of Fox McCloud covered with feathers. "Oh man." swallowed Don, "Someone put Beatrice and Bridget together? Who?!"

Boomer scanned the note that came with the photo, and breathed a sigh of relief. "Bill did."

"That's good?" asked Don.

"I'm pretty sure he won't blow it. He probily knows that 'Bridget' wasn't my doing, he just wants to talk." Boomer bit her lip as she finished reading the note.

"Are you going to?" asked Don.

Boomer took a deep breath, "Yeah. I think it's about time Bill knew the truth."

Bill Gray was sitting on a bench in a small park in Corneria City. He had the day off, something about his previous day off not going as planned allowed him to have today off as well. The park was nearby where he and Beatrice had lived as children before their parents divorced, he thought it to be a good spot to meet Beatrice. He took another breath and checked his watch for the hundredth time, it was still 15 minutes before the time he asked Beatrice to meet him here. "Why am I so nervous?" he muttered, "It's my sister. That I haven't seen in about 10 years. Who for all I know might hate my guts.."

At the edge of the park, Boomer parked her motorcycle and pulled off her helmet. From her vantage point she spotted Bill sitting at a bench looking about as nervous as she felt. That made her feel a bit better, at least she wasn't the only one who felt this way. She took a deep breath and started to walk toward him.

Bill almost shot out of the bench when he heard somebody approach behind him, he whipped around to see who it was. It was the same girl he saw at the Courthouse, she was dressed in a pair of blue-jeans, T-shirt, and a denim jacket. "Hi Bill." she said.

"Beatrice?" Bill asked, she nodded. Before she could say anything else she found herself in a very through hug, which she tentivally returned. After they separated Beatrice cocked her head and asked, "Just a second..." She stooped down and grabbed two small rocks and hurled them with lighting fast precision toward a nearby bush. Twin 'Ow's' soon followed.

"All right Don and Mike!" she yelled at the bush, "You can go back to base now!" Bill stood there with a funny look on his face. "Adoptive big brothers." she explained, "They took me under their wings at the Academy and haven't let go since."

"Oh." chuckled Bill as he spotted to sheepish turtles climbing out of the bush, each holding a eye as they made their way out of the park. Beatrice rolled her eyes. As she turned to face him again the tense silence came once again. Bill finally broke the silence.

"Do you feel as nervous as I do?" he asked.

"Yes." she squeaked.

Both sighed and sat back down and Bill started the conversation again, "I guess the most logical place to start would be with what really happened when you left with Dad."

"Though I think you've already figured it out, I'll explain. We never went to the campground, we just vanished. He put me in a different school and created 'Bridget Grayson' and that was that. I tried to get away a few times, and that didn't work. They only chance I had to get out of there was when my grades were high enough for me to apply to the Academy. I did it behind Dad's back, so when the acceptance letter came I wasn't sure how he would react.."

"Since you made it to the Academy, I presume he was either thrilled or he didn't have a choice in the matter." stated Bill.

"Closer to the latter. When he went to see my teachers about it, they were all so thrilled that he couldn't object to myself going with out raising suspicion." Beatrice smiled, "I was hoping that would be the case. He moved us to a small out of the way community so nobody would give us a second look. Therefore applicants to the Academy were rare, and when I made it..."

Bill finished, "The whole community was busy congratulating Dad so if he forbade you to go, too many eyebrows would be raised. So then Bridget Grayson came, you must have known I was there, why didn't you try and contact me?"

"Though I was at the Academy, Dad still had a stranglehold on me. It wasn't until I met Don and Mike that I finally was able to stick up for myself, and you have already figured out that I changed my name back during my last year there. After I did that he vanished again, fearing that I would turn him. I decided to let him go, I could have tried to follow him and make him pay for his crime, but I didn't. He already stole enough of my life, I wasn't going give him any more of it. That doesn't mean that I won't turn him in if I ever come across him."

Bill had to agree with his sister there. Better leave the past in the past, and if he ever re-surfaces, then deal with it. "So after you graduated and had your name back, how come you didn't get in touch with me then?"

Beatrice rolled her eyes, "Chalk that up to a bit of selfishness on my part. By the time I got myself settled you were already a big name around a lower ranks. I'd rather be known for my own work than as Commander Gray's little sister, if you catch my meaning?"

"Okay, okay I get it!" Bill laughed, "I doubt that you pictured our eventual reunion as you saving me from a bomb."

"That was defiantly a surprise." agreed Beatrice, "I'm glad Don couldn't see my face, it would have been priceless when he told me that you were one of the hostages."

"Please don't remind me," asked Bill, "other than finding you it's a day I'd rather forget."

"Good point," replied Beatrice, "So now that we have semi-cleared the air now what?"

"How about a decent meal before we both have to get back our respective bases?" he asked.

As they walked out of the park Beatrice remarked, "What? Your not going to find a way to get me transferred to Katina?"

Bill grinned, "Give me some time."

Beatrice smirked, "I have to warn you, I'm a package deal. You want me, you've got to take my whole unit."

Bill closed his eyes, "Don't tell me. The terrors you were with at the Academy? They kept you all together? Why?"

"To better keep an eye on us of course!" replied Beatrice, laughing.

After they ate, Bill stated that he had to get back to Katina and Beatrice told him that she would keep in touch. As soon as she got back she was practically mugged by her team mates on what happened between herself and her brother.

"Everything okay?" asked Mike.

"Is he gonna spill the beans?" muttered Don.

"Yes," stated Boomer looking at Mike, "and no." looking at Don, "so please stop panicking."

Both gave a sigh of relief, Boomer gave a grin, "Though he did threaten to get me transferred to Katina....."

"What!!?!?!?!" they both exclaimed.

"Don't worry," stated Boomer, 'I told him that we were a package deal, if he took me he'd have to take everybody else in the group too."

Both sighed with relief, again.

"For some reason, that didn't bug him." She left both of them freaking as she went to get changed prior to doing some more work on the Shockwave. She wanted to run a few more checks on it's shields prior to the test in less five days.

Back on Katina, Bill found a report on his desk the next morning. It involved an E-M pulse weapon that was being developed on Katina, he remembered Beatrice talking about it yesterday. Seems the second development team was on Katina. As he reviewed the teams progress he noticed something odd. Though the report stated how effective the weapon was against enemy ships it said nothing on how the pulse effect the Cornerian ship using it. According to his sister that was it's greatest flaw, why didn't they say anything about it?

Time for some checking.

"Commander Gray! What a pleasant surprise!" exclaimed Sergeant Manson, the female terrier in charge of project, "How may I help you?"

"I'd like to ask a few questions about the E-M Pulse..." he began.

"What would you like to know?" she stated.

"I know the Pulse is made to disrupt electrical signals, what's to stop it from interfering with the electrical system of the ship using it?"

"Be assured Commander we are taking every step possible to protect our ships and our pilots." she answered neatly avoiding the question.

"What kind of steps?" he pressed.

After a hour of dodging his questions Bill decided to up the stakes a bit. "It seems everything is in order. I know that you have a scheduled test in a few days, have you selected a pilot yet?"

Sergeant Manson felt unconfortable, they were having problems with recruiting pilots due to the feedback from the pulse. She had told a few lies in order to keep support for the project alive. When her superiors had asked if the Pulse was ready for a one on one test with the Alpha Base's E-M Pulse whose team was being headed by Lt. Gray one of her chief rivals. Now she had less than a week to get a pilot and the pulse ready. "No one hasn't been selected yet, do you have any suggestions?"

"Actually I do," replied Bill, "myself."

"Are you crazy?!" yelled Boomer in to the vid phone at her brother, "If you are right Bill, you might have written yourself a one way ticket six feet under."

Bill sighed, "That's why I'm calling you Bea. I need to know what steps to take to avoid splatting myself across the test field." He took a deep breath before continuiting, "I know Sergeant Manson have been exaggerating the costs of her projects for years, but nobody has been able to prove it. If you hadn't told me about the problems you have had with it I would have never caught the holes in this report."

Boomer sighed, she had taken Bills' call in the repair bay where she was working on the Shockwave, she was not thrilled with she heard. "Okay, the best way I have found to protect a pilot from an E-M Pulse feedback or direct hit is to disconnect the ejection system from the electrical system and use the manual backup. Of course this has to be done prior to take off, and make sure the manual switch is accessible at all times."

"How long does it take to make the adjustments?" asked Bill.

"About an hour, any good mechanic can do it." Boomer sighed, she had a bad feeling about this.

"What do you want me to do?" squeaked Slippy. After talking to Beatrice he contacted the Great Fox, somehow he thought if he used one of Katina's mechanics for the adjustments Manson would hear about it. That was the last thing he needed, Slippy was one of the best mechanics he knew, and Fox was more than happy to loan Slippy's services.

"I need you to make some adjustments to the ejection system." he explained, "I'm hoping I don't need to use it, but I want to be prepared just in case. After he explained, Slippy went to work.

After Slippy finished and went back to the Great Fox, a crew came in a few hours later to install the E-M Pulse into the Gray One. The group was supervised by Sergeant Manson and her crew working on the pulse project. None of them noticed the adjustments to the ejection system.

Meanwhile Boomer was finishing the final adjustments to the Shockwave. After the final adjustments were made to the ship it was loaded onto transport to be taken to the testing areas for the flight tests tomorrow.

After both the Shockwave and the Gray One arrived at the test fields both ships were put under guard. No one would go near the jets prior to the pilots final checks prior to the flights tomorrow.

On the day of the test, saying that Lieutenant Beatrice Gray was a bit nervous would be like saying Andross was just slightly crazy. To put it bluntly she was scared out of her wits for her brother. If she could have gotten away with it she would have checked out her brother's jet herself, but in the interest of fair play she couldn't. With her rotten luck if something went wrong with the Gray One she would be blamed.

So all she could do was stand on the side lines as Manson talked the Generals and other military big-wigs into letting her proto-type up first. Boomer sighed and walked to where her brother was standing waiting for the order to go up.

"How are you feeling?" she asked.

"Better that you I'm guessing." Bill sighed, 'I'm guessing you got the same amount of sleep as I did?"

"Uh Huh." replied Boomer, "Did you get those adjustments done?"

"I had Slippy Toad from Star Fox do them. I also double checked it a few minutes ago, it's all taken care of." assured Bill. "If anything goes wrong, I'm covered."

The order came and Bill trotted off toward the strip where both the Gray One and the Shockwave stood ready. As he left Sergeant Manson strolled up to her.

"Ready to get showed up Gray?" she sneered.

Boomer took a deep breath, it wasn't Manson herself that she objected to, but her methods. In her mind the ends justified the means, a good policy unless you were playing with lives. Boomer admitted that she herself had a rep as a risktaker and show boater too, but she never tried anything without weighing all the risks, to herself, and to others.

"You are never going to believe this Manson," began Boomer, "but for once I'm hoping that what ever you installed in the Gray One actually works as planned with no mishaps."

"Why Beatrice," drawled Manson, "are you actually wishing me luck kin your own perverse way?""Not really," snapped Boomer, turning to face her, "that just happens to be my big brother in that jet up there and if anything happens to him because you once again cut a few corners in the safety department I'm going to take your so-called career apart piece by piece. Got it?"

Manson just swallowed as Boomer marched toward the control center so she could keep an eye on the test.

Up in the air it was so far so good. The drone Bill was suppose to shoot down was in his sights and the Gray One's systems already had a lock on. He carefully clicked on the Pulse and allowed it to charge. If what Bea told him was correct, and it should be, he shouldn't notice any feedback effect until after the pulse was discharged. As a final precausion he had attached the manual eject switch to the flight stick and had his thumb over it. The test was being conducted at low altitudes, he wouldn't have much time if something went wrong. He saw the pulse was charged and the target was in range, he then radioed the command post.

"Gray to base." came the message to the Base, "Everything's ready to go. Permission to fire?"

General Pepper nodded to the com-link operator, "Permission granted Commander. Fire at will." came the reply.

"Acknowledged." Bill replied and hit the fire button...

All heck broke loose.

The radar one minute showed both the drone and the Gray One on screen, the next just static. "What???" exclaimed Pepper. Boomer almost panicked but kept her head and lunged for one of the operators stations, after shoving him out of the way she began typing at his keypad at a furious pace. Don soon joined her. General Pepper turned toward Manson, 'What happened?" he asked the hyperventilating Sergeant. Loud swearing from the control area saved her from further questioning.

"Don," choked Boomer, "please tell me I'm not seeing what I think I'm seeing."

Pepper soon joined them, "What is it?" he asked, his voice terse.

"From what we can see here General, it appears that there is now a massive E-M field covering about a five mile area around where Commander Gray and the drone were. In theory the only thing that could cause that is if the proto-type pulse weapon that the Gray One is carrying exploded when it fired. The field should dissipate in a few hours but if it did explode and Commander Gray is injured..." Don's voice trailed off.

"There is nothing we can do since we can't send any help until the field dissipates, by then it could be too late." stated General Pepper.

"Wanna bet?" snapped Boomer, she was out of that chair and sprinting toward the Shockwave. General Pepper was about to order her to stop, when Don spoke up again.

"Sir, the main reason we chose the Shockwave for this experiment is that it's shields differ from the one's that most Cornerian ships have. We discovered in our test that it was resistant to the E-M Pulse, therefore it may be the only thing that can reach the Commander. I also think you know of the personal stake the Boomer has in this."

General Pepper nodded and silently wished Lieutenant Gray luck.

Boomer had the Shockwave in the air and speeding toward Bill's last location in record time. All the while she was praying that he was all right, that he ejected in time, that he landed okay, and that they'd both have a field-day ripping Manson a new one. As she approached the area her heart went straight to her throat, the Gray One was in horrible shape. The nose off the jet was a mangled mess, the cockpit was worse, and it had hit the ground hard. If Bill was in there when it crashed there was a slim chance her survived.

She forced back the tears that threatened to spill out to dip lower to better see the wreckage, on the second look she noticed the canopy was gone! The ejection system was activated and Bill's chances for survival went up a notch. She began to circle the area looking for her brother. She had to rely on visuals since none of her scanners could work in the field, then it hit her. The Shockwave was still airborne, that meant the shields worked, and the E-M Pulse would work on this jet too!!!!

She controlled her elation when she spotted the parachute, and turned her jet toward it to see if that's where her brother was.

The last thoughts Bill Gray had were of him hitting the fire button, and both the nose of his jet and half of his control panel going up in smoke. He vaguely remembered hitting the manual eject button before the world went black. He also thought he heard his sister calling him in the far distance.

"Bill!!" Boomer yelled as she sprinted toward the chair lying on it's side on the ground. No answer. Fighting panic she finally reached the chair. Bill was out cold, she quickly checked his pulse, steady and strong, the shock of the explosion, the ejection and the landing must have knocked him out. She carefully unbuckled him from the chair and laid him down, she then removed his helmet. Other that some scratched and cuts, he looked all right. She then check the rest of him. When she gingerly felt his left arm he woke up in a hurry.

"Yow!!" he snarled, "What happened?" he muttered in a groggy voice.

"In terms you can understand right now? The Gray One blew up." stated Boomer, "Other than a broken arm you appear to be okay."

"Bea?" he asked, "How did you get out here?"

"In the Shockwave." she replied, "Get comfortable, we are going to be here for a bit."

"Why?" he asked carefully sitting up."From what I can tell the proto-type exploded causing a E-M field for about five miles around here. Other than the Shockwave, there's no other way to get in or out of here. My jet is only a single flyer, no way I can cram somebody else in there.""Oh." replied Bill, slowly coming back to reality. "Then let's use our time constructively, like how make sure Manson never tries this again and if she does, she had to be in the pilot's chair."

Boomer grinned, "I'm willing to bet that General Pepper is grilling her as we speak and Don is showing the results of the Alpha Base's previous tests right now. No way she can state that she never saw this one coming.

Boomer was in the waiting area of Corneria Memorial, without realizing it she had fallen asleep on one of the couches. The combination of the lack of sleep from the night before and the trama of the day had finally caught up with her. She and Bill were in the middle of the testing field for about six hours. Bill's injuries were fairly light, a broken arm and a few scratches. He came out from getting his arm set and a cast put on to find his sister peacefully sleeping on one of those very unconfortable couches.

It was about three in the afternoon, and Bill was also ready to call it a day. As was wondering how either of them was going to get them both to Alpha Base a short distance away when Mike walking in solved that problem.

"Commander." stated Mike warily.

Bill inwardly groaned, at times he hated being a high ranking officer, "At ease." he replied, "I'm hoping you've been sent to take up back to Base."

Mike relaxed a bit, "Yes sir." he replied "General Pepper sent me to transport both of you back to Alpha Base. He also requested that you remain on Corneria until after the inquiry into Sergeant Manson's actions is finished." He then looked at the sleeping Boomer, 'Do you wish to wake her up sir?"

"If memory serves, waking up my sister can be hazardous to your health." Mike nodded vigorously, Bill continued "So I recommend that we let her sleep on the way back to base."

Boomer was in the repair bay working on her jet. She was carefully removing the E-M Pulse from the Shockwave and packing into the crate for storage. After the disastrous test the whole project was suspended and the only surviving prototype to be mothballed. The other one was almost completely destroyed along with half the Gray One. A formal hearing was held and Boomer asked to testify on what happened that day and her knowledge of the E-M Pulse Project.

That was about two weeks ago.

Bill had recovered, and after the first week if the inquiry was bouncing between his duties as Commander on Katina and appearing as part of the inquiry. Boomer had to admit that if there was a bright side to this whole mess it was the fact that she and her brother were spending more time together, giving the long separated siblings plenty of time to catch up.

Don was strolling toward the repair bay with the daily mail when he spotted Commander Gray ahead of him. Don smiled, looks like he better take a detour and let Boomer's brother tell her the news.

Bill entered the repair bay and winced at the loud rock and roll music coming from the CD player on a counter. Bea's taste in music was one of the things he could never understand, but that was her. He strolled toward the player and had a sense of glee as he hit the stop button and the racket stopped in mid-lyric. Boomer looked up to see what was up and spotted her brother in full dress uniform over the player.

"You enjoy d that." she snickered. He grinned, "For that I should hug you and get lots of grease stains on that nice clean uniform of yours."

"You want to get transferred to Fortuna?" he threatened back.

"Damn." she stated, "Rank does have it's pluses." As she wiped off her hands her asked, "How'd it go today."

Bill knew she was referring to the inquiry, "The ruling came in, despite all her high place contacts in the military, Manson went down hard. Dishonorable discharge on this incident, plus a full investigation on some of the cover-ups of the past."

Boomer breathed a sigh of relief, "It's over." she sighed "All that's left is to put the Pulse in cold storage."

"I guess." replied Bill, "I'm going Back to Katina tomorrow, are you sure you don't want a transfer?"

"I'm sure." replied Boomer, "My place is here, and besides we can visit each other."

"You can visit me." corrected Bill, "It'll be a few weeks before I can fly again with the Gray One totaled."

Boomer grinned. Bill looked nervous. "What did you do?" he asked warily.

"Nothing you won't like." walking toward a draped form on the other side of the bay, Bill presumed it was one of the earlier wrecked test jets. "I've had to fill up my free time some how..." she explained as she grabbed the sheet, "Don't ask how I got it after it was used as evidence. Let's just say I had to call in a few old debts."

The sheet came off revealing the completely repaired Gray One. Bill's mouth dropped open, "Bea." he finally said, "You could give Slippy a run for his money."

She shrugged, "I had a little help from Don and Mike, now do you wish to get the kinks out of your jet or spend the rest of you day in that stuffy uniform?"

"Race you to the Great Fox?" he asked.

"You do realize that would mean the two of us playing hookie for the rest of the day?" she asked.

Bill nodded, "By the time you close up the Shockwave and get geared up, I'll have it cleared. Deal?"

"Deal!" replied Boomer

An hour later Mike and Don watched the two jets blast off. Mike remarked "Hard to believe that they are related."

"Not really,' replied Don, "They're just different shades of Gray."

Mike groaned at the horrid pun as they went off back to the Base.

The end.

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