Chapter 01 How to win an unwinnable war

Quanktumspirit: "I adopted this tale from one good friend of mine on FF: VibeQuake. I hope I'll do well in it. Thank you VibeQuake for a good start."

"Why couldn't I have just swum from Australia to America?" Perry grumbled, glaring out the window of the plane at the white clouds below him. "Or better yet, why couldn't I have just stayed in Australia?"

He looked down at his phone, which was displaying the last selfie that he and his best friend Natasha the Fennec Fox had taken at the airport. He smiled sadly as he saw her beaming face.

The dingo sitting next to him glanced over at the photo. "Girlfriend?" she asked.

Perry snorted through his nose, "Of sorts."

He glanced at the dingo, who was now staring out the window. "Are you leaving anyone behind?"

"No," she sighed. "I'm an orphan. My parents and my brother were killed when I was a baby."

"Mine too," Perry sighed. "Was yours a twin brother?"

"No. Mine was older." She gave a smirk. "No matter. I'm eight years old now and it happened when I was two months old. I've always been on my own."

"Same with me," Perry said. "I'm Perry."

"Mavis," said the dingo. "Are you... OWCA?"

Perry nodded, "I'm going to America for the OWCA training, yeah. I'm guessing you are too."

"Yeah," Mavis sighed. "Its gonna be tough, but I'm up for it."

Perry grinned, "Can we be friends?"

Mavis's eyebrows raised. "Sure, if you want. Why: do you not know anyone here?"

Perry shook his head. "Do you?"

"I know one guy back there: Kane." Mavis jerked her paw towards the back of the plane. "I think he's a kangaroo. He chatted with me in the line on the way onto the plane, so I guess we're friends."

She paused. "He's kinda cute, actually."

"Did you know that twenty-nine percent of planes crash at some point on their journey?" asked a thick Australian voice from behind them.

They both turned round in their seats to see a male koala standing up on his seat, peering over theirs.

"Really?" Perry gasped, now quite nervous.

"No, not really." the koala grinned. "Did you know that seventy-five percent of statistics are made up?"

"Haha," Mavis said dryly. "Leave us alone."

"I heard you guys talking about friends," the koala said. "Can I be your friend?"

"No," Mavis replied, turning away and opening a magazine.

"I'll be your friend," Perry said, wanting to make as many friends as possible. "I'm Perry, and this is Mavis."

"Why'd you tell him my name?" groaned Mavis.

"I'm Leo," the koala said. "I do engineering."

"You make and fix machines?" Perry was impressed. "Have you made anything cool?"

"I made this," Leo said, holding up a gun-shaped thing. "It's a laser pistol. Fires short laser blasts and never has to be recharged or reloaded or anything."

"That is supremely cool," Perry stated, awed. "Can I hold it?"

"Sure." Leo handed the gun to Perry.

"It's so light," breathed Perry, weighing it in his hands. He held it as if he were about to fire it. "And the trigger's so easy to pull, too."

Mavis immediately snatched the gun away from Perry and threw it over her shoulder. Leo caught it.

"Alright, Mr Itchy Trigger Finger," she said. "Let's not blow a hole in the plane, okay?"

"Don't call me Mr Itchy Trigger Finger."

"Too late. That's your nickname from now on, 'kay?"

Perry rolled his eyes. "Greaaaat."

"All cabin crew prepare for landing," said the voice of the pilot over the loudspeakers.

"Here we go," Perry said.

He glanced over at Mavis and found the dingo tightly clutching the arms of her seat, claws digging in.

"Hate landings," she muttered.

"Planes crash all the time," muttered a female voice from across the aisle. "I think I heard a grinding noise."

"Oh God!" shrieked Mavis, squeezing her eyes shut.

"That's just the wheels coming out," Perry said, though he was hoping he was right. He glanced across the aisle and saw a Tasmanian Devil sitting completely straight in her chair.

"Uh…" Perry frowned. "Are you okay?"

"He isn't," the Tasmanian Devil said without looking around.

Two seconds later, Leo let out a shriek.

"What the hell-?!" screeched Mavis.

"Sorry," Leo said, grinning sheepishly. "I shot myself in the finger with my laser gun."

Perry stared, terrified, at the Tasmanian Devil. "H-how did you…?"

The Tasmanian Devil smiled without turning around. "My name is Quincy. Nice to meet you, Perry."

"Nice to meet you too, I'm Perry. Wait…how on Earth do you know my name?" Perry asked, astonished.

"My curse," she replied. "I see things three seconds before they happen. Don't tell anyone, though. It'll ruin the creepy vibe I have going on."

"I still think you're creepy," volunteered Perry.

Quincy smiled. "Bless you."

Perry sneezed suddenly. Wiping his bill with his handkerchief, he grinned at Quincy. "Yeah, you're still creepy."

The plane suddenly gave a lurch as it landed. Mavis nearly tore a hole right through the arm of the seat, but she seemed okay to Perry when the plane finally came to a stop.

As everyone walked off the plane, Perry looked around the airstrip. It was clearly privately owned -probably by OWCA- and there were perhaps three other planes on the airfield, all doing various things.

The members of staff who had accompanied the group- Rob Rosenthal...? Was that his name?- stood upon the stairs after everyone had disembarked and shouted through a megaphone.

"Alright, everyone! Get into pairs, please."

Perry looked around for Mavis, but she had already sidled over to a brown kangaroo whom Perry assumed was this Kane that Mavis had mentioned. Trying not to feel hurt, he looked for Leo and Quincy, but they had paired with each other. Frantically looking around once more, he laid eyes on a small shaking Chihuahua who had no partner. Just as he was about to go over there, the Chihuahua caught his eye and hurried over to him.

"Can I be your partner?" he asked pleadingly.

Perry sighed in relief. "I was going to ask you the same thing."

The Chihuahua beamed, "That's good, then! I'm Pinky!"

"Perry!" said the platypus, shaking paws with the Chihuahua. "You don't sound Australian if you'll pardon my saying so."

"Oh, I got on the plane during that stopover in Mexico," Pinky replied. "I'm Mexican."

"Oh... then your English is very good," Perry said, feeling embarrassed that he hadn't noticed Pinky's rather thick Mexican accent.

"Gracias," Pinky grinned. "So you're Australian?"

Perry grinned back and tipped an imaginary hat.

"G'day, she'll be apples, and all that jazz," he said, exaggerating his Australian accent.

Pinky giggled. "I think we will be very good friends, Perry."

Quanktumspirit: "Please review. I hope I will do good with this tale. Any suggestions, tips, tricks, any characters you want to see a lot of, or little? Review away to let me know."