Now, as his smuggler friend already established to their unwelcome guests, Ed sucked at planning steady traps and ambushes, or "games" as both of them called it. In fact, Ed sucked at planning as a whole. Unlike Lurv, he liked everything in the plan to pack a punch, he liked to do planning on the fly (part of which was literal) and do some erratic decisions in them that stereotypically a child might think to make.
However, Ed stands by some of his more favorite ideas to the point where he'd have a days-long quarrel with his partner, and if Ed was lucky that Lurv's too fed up on one of those days, Lurv'd just allow him to do them. With Ed not being aware that Lurv's actually doing that just to humiliate him later and improvise on his own.
Ed and Lurv's list of ideas:
Ed:
- The VENOM cheerleader guards.
- Brandie guarding Verdant Apex's half.
Lurv:
-The marble hallucination (ruined by Ed)
-The gravel bags
But Ed was no complete fool, he knew how to fly a spacecraft better than his companion, so much so that when his erratic nature poured itself into his dogfighting style, he was attacking like a rabid dog on crack. But when he started his journey into being a pilot, he wasn't as boastful as he'd later become, in fact, he was quite the worried self-acclaimed-doofus.
One'd ask: "When the hell would someone start boasting after being a worried self-acclaimed-doofus?"; Well, after 2 years of running through your lucks and disregarding wingmen's instructions and pulling off surprise jump-scare-y stunts in the air on instructors and making them spill their coffee on their uniforms as a result, you'd get pretty cocky and self-absorbed about yourself, especially if you're fully committed to the rule of an ambitious emperor who keeps pumping out chaos over the system he's trying to take over. In fact, if you were in his shoes with all of that "experience", you might even start to boast that you'd kick your emperor's nephew's ass and replace him in the team of space pirates he's a part of. (At least before you get fired and replaced by a muscular rose-loving lovesick dark cat who tries to pick up any girl he ever sees).
However, if your moral compass is too strong to follow scummy dictated crap from giant disembodied heads with disembodied hands, and, even with all the cockiness and arrogance still in place, still actually listen to your wingmen or your pals when they offer something sensical, you'd neither become a total erratic crazy idiot, nor become completely looked down on by your peers.
And ultimately, if you follow that recipe, and condense it into a tall bird, you'll get Falco Lombardi.
* * *
Just outside the Flying Galleon, a rainstorm arrived on the primal scene...
Falco Lombardi, having followed Fox and just flew past the Flying Galleon's side (And seeing some fleeting weird-looking green outlined silhouette of a dino in the cracks of that side, causing him to think: "What the frick was that?") was now observing this withered-looking wooden structure.
"The hell? Who's the freaking squat building a cabin next to this thing?" Thought Falco. "And why the hell is Fox going there?"
After Fox left, Falco, somewhat concerned about where Fox was headed to, talked Slippy into giving him a brief on the whole thing. (He tried to not pick on the toad and be nice to him for this, he already gave them that slightly amusing R&R idea).
As Falco hovered his Arwing around the wooden structure, a spacecraft slightly bigger than his Arwing took off the ground next to the wooden structure and faced him.
"Well, well... lost in this thunderstorm, eh birdie?" Ed spoke through his comms.
"Ed... heh, this ape's way slimmer and uglier in action." Falco thought as he glanced on the small analysis Slippy sent him on his little monitor. "Just the way I like these damn monkeys."
"Just a quick visit to knock your slim ass down in it, slim Jim monkey!" Falco remarked, smirking.
"Heh, your arrogant bird beak won't be knocking anything but your own ass!" Said Ed, magnifying his own ego above Falco's even more.
"Enemy shield analyzed!" Slippy announced through Falco's comm.
Ed suddenly attempted to charge into Falco's Arwing, but not before the latter narrowly dodged it with a somersault due to the pouring rain. "Geez Lou-freaking-ese! Is this guy for real?" He audibly exclaimed in surprise.
Falco then did a u-turn to face the ape's spacecraft and fired as much as laser shots as he could out of his Arwing, before the spacecraft suddenly charged again. The Arwing managed to dodge it again, this time by attempting to charge back at a declining level (His boost and brake gauge ran out for that moment).
The ape's spacecraft released a huge metal rod out of its front and started to charge up green electricity around it... then shot out a piercing continuous laser that travelled in a circle to follow the Arwing and destroy it.
Falco, even though he started sweating due to the force he was applying for the arwing to dodge it circularly, smirked and actually started becoming more impressed with Ed's erratic techniques, "Heh, wow, finally! these monkeys gave me a goddamn challenge!" he said, smirking with his beak sides closed together.
Three-quarter way through the circle the laser-shooting spacecraft was making, Falco did another somersault to dodge it. He then did a quick turn towards the spacecraft and threw a bomb, which damaged the spacecraft's upper left wing.
"Goddamnit!" said Ed grumpily with his teeth closed.
The bomb damaged the spacecraft's fuel gauge, which made a small warning sign flash on Ed's screen. But as he looked at it, he saw with the corner of his eye in his small mirror another Arwing right behind him, charging a shot.
That's when the ape gathered all the force he could muster and did a somersault, the ape dodged the shot!
"Doggonnit!" Slippy, the laser shot's firer, exclaimed. Which was shortly accompanied by Falco's Arwing flying beside his. The blue bird looked at his toad companion, smirking as if he was about to laugh.
"You've really got to swear more, tadpole. That sounded goofy as hell!" Falco said smugly.
"Falco! Are you alright?" Slippy said, disregarding Falco's use of his least favorite nickname.
"Don't you worry about me, Slips. I'm all good." Falco said nonchalantly, as he always does with that very statement.
"Phew..." Slippy then tried to apply Falco's advice: "After that laser, I really thought you were fu-"
"Woah there, Slippy. Tricky's on board." Said Fox as he joined them in the skies, bringing Tricky with him on the Arwing.
"Oh! Uh... Hi Fox! Um... hi Tricky, sorry for what I sai-"
Falco snorted, then Slippy was interrupted by an excitedly yelling Tricky on the comms: "It's fine Slippy! I just torched a bad guy! He's now really fuc-"
"Tricky!" Fox interrupted again, Slippy couldn't help but giggle a bit at this, and Tricky make a slight whimper of dismay. "I thought you wouldn't treat me like a kid anymore..." The little dino ultimately thought.
Despite Fox being aware Slippy'd follow him after he helped him (he saw Slippy's Arwing take off shortly after he did from his mirror), he was surprised to see Falco joining in. Which, after their conflict earlier that day, warmed his heart to see his friend's loyalty.
"Wait, Tricky, you said you torched a bad guy?!" Slippy inquired excitedly, Tricky almost swearing and Fox's cutoff caught him off guard of the main sub-sentence.
"Heck yeah I did!" Confirmed Tricky, who reluctantly used 'Heck' to avoid another Fox cutoff.
"Eh, I'd have to see it to believe it." Falco said sarcastically, but got a bit uneasy a second after he said this, he thought he noticed something...
Fox stated: "Oh, Believe me he did, Falco. He freaking burst his flames on-"
"FOX! BEHIND YOU!" Yelled Falco. Ed was about 6 SM right behind Fox's arwing.
Fox's eyes widened into saucers in a fracture of a second, then right before he got a piercing green laser through his chest he managed to somersault out of its way and right behind Ed's spacecraft, where he opened fire on his own laser shots.
"Goddamn it! Goddamn you, Fox! And that damn bird!" Ed exclaimed angerly as he tried to maneuver his way out of Fox's shots when his green continuous laser was still firing.
"Name's Falco, toothpick monkey!" Falco flew in his direction while saying (actually, almost bragging) that, barrel rolling his way back after separating from the formation. That's when he shot his second to last bomb from his Arwing at him, destroying his spacecraft even further.
Slippy did the same, coming back from the other direction, his bomb hit was less critical.
Ed's spacecraft was now 90% destroyed, he thought desperately about what his next move would be before his emperor's arch nemeses could finish him off... Time was ticking. He had his time to think, or as much time as he thought there was. His eyesight quickly hovered on the three pilots, Slippy... then Falco... then Fox, at which a huge fit of anger had risen up, his subconscious was now looking at the secret actual first goal he ever set his eyes on when he decided to leave Venom: Making as much money as possible.
It inadvertently sounded poetic, because... also secretly, he was one of those few who did admire Pigma Dengar, and he thought it'd be even more fulfilling to him to kill James McCloud's freaking son in a worse manner.
It took him only six seconds to tighten his parachute further and decide to do the fiercest charge the remainder of his spacecraft could muster, he could never let himself think he'd lose, he could never let this opportunity pass.
But then...
BLAAAAAAAM!
The slim opportunistic erratic ape was struck simultaneously by three bombs fired spontaneously by each pilot. The impact of the explosion rocked the Arwings back a little bit. And the ape's spacecraft slowly went down in the heavy rain, burning to ashes, crashing against the soil of the planet.
Slippy was horrified yet awestruck, he never thought he'd see such a chaotic coincidental simultaneous firing before. Falco was just as awestruck, but he was more on the impressed side. Fox was more shocked about the close call that almost ended his own life. The three took a few moments to calm down and let their huge sudden bomb attack sink in.
"F...Falco! Slippy! A... Are you two okay?" Fox said alarmingly, breaking the silence.
After taking a few seconds to regain focus and breath, Falco replied: "I'm okay, you alright out there, Fox?" Falco tried to make it sound like it was nothing in the name of bragging but failed and ended up sounding a bit astonished.
Fox thoughtfully looked at Falco through his Arwing windshield as he flew back next to him and said with a tone of gratitude: "Th... thanks for saving my life, Falco, second time in a row..."
"Aw, it's fine, dude. We'll save you as many times it'll take." Falco smirked and winked through his windshield at Fox.
"And I'll be there no matter how many times you two screw up." Slippy added cheekily as he flew alongside them.
The other two chuckled embarrassingly with a still-showing-shock touch on their tone at that remark, while he thought: "That was probably the third one in like... two days?". He then followed with the two's chuckling, but at his own thought instead of his remark.
* * *
Back on the Flying Galleon, As Lurv was cuffed and guided along with a knocked-out Brandie to Krystal's arwing by Krystal herself, with RedFoot and FireFoot following (Lurv provided by force from RedFoot and FireFoot the directions to get back to the top of the ship again), he saw Ed's spacecraft falling to the ground in flames. He felt just a touch of pitiful sadness to see his partner go, but that pitiful sadness went away fast like a fleeting shadow, replaced by bitterness. He quickly figured out what Ed was actually trying to do, and he was a bit thankful he didn't succeed.
"Idiot." He murmured. The three heard that and couldn't help but feel disgusted.