Sloan took one quick look at her reflection in a puddle before stepping into a bar called the Bleeding Rose. She had heard that Wolf and his team mates frequented this bar, so it was the best place to look for information on them.

Besides a quick scan of the bar, she kept her eyes down. Most people in a bar like this one weren't the kind who wanted to be recognized. The music was loud enough so you couldn't eavesdrop on a conversation, but not to loud that you couldn't have one at all. She took a seat at a free barstool, the only free stool, next to a wolf with pale blue eyes that were glazed over with alcohol. She wondered what he had seen that was so terrible that he needed to drown it like that. The bartender, a skunk, tall and handsome, came over to her.

"What's yer' poison?" he asked.

"Aquas Blue," she answered. It had always been her favourite, and was more of a cooler than hard liquor.

"Seem a little young," the wolf muttered, his voice was hardly slurred at all from his drinking. Maybe his eyes always had that glazed look.

"Come on, bud," the avian next to him said, his voice slurred horribly. He wasn't holding his liquor as well as his partner, avians rarely did. "Leave the kid alone."

"Man, shu' up. I am sick, of these dumps. I am sick of shitty hotels, and shitty bars. Jus' once, I wanna' know what the good life is like," the wolf growled. Sloan laughed darkly.

"You an' me both, man," Sloan assured him. He stared into her eyes. They were so piercing, she wanted to look away, but looking away would be a sign of insecurity and weakness.

"Yeah?" He laughed too. "Yeah. So, what brings you here, anyways?" Sloan reached for the drink that the bartender had just placed at her elbow. She took a long swallow and watched the multi-shade, blue mixture swirl around the glass.

"My freedom. That's what."

"From who?" Sloan's face hardened.

"You ever heard of the Warden?" The wolf looked at her with eyes that seemed sympathetic, but the look soon disappeared. She was glad. She was sick of sympathetic looks, when in the end, no one really did anything.

"Yeah, I've heard. You're a prisoner of Sector Y," he said. Sloan nodded. He knew all about them. Heck, he had probably hunted a few orphans that had somehow escaped from the Warden's iron grasp. The Sector Y Institute for the Parentally Challenged was run by a man called Alex Warren, but everyone knew him as the Warden, although she had seen some of his rats call him "Mr. Warren, Sir." "Thank you, Mr. Warren, sir. Of course, Mr. Warren, sir." Sloan had spent her entire life in Sector Y, and now she had decided that she either had to escape him, or die.

"I'm looking for information on Star Wolf. I'm told he's looking for a new crew member. The job may be my only chance to get free."

"You're awful young to hit the cockpit, and a gang of mercenary pirates isn't the usual job for a kid you're age. What are you, fifteen, sixteen on the outside?"

"It's the only thing I can do, flying. If I just run, he'll use government funds to buy a bounty hunter to get me back. You can't just run real fast and hope real hard," she told him, ignoring the question of her age. The wolf looked at her, seeming to wrestle with something inside of him.

"The first tryout is exactly a week from now and they go for seven days. Be at Sargasso Space station bright and early." Sloan's dark brown eyes widened.

"You think…?"

"If you can fly, you have a chance."

She sat out another hour or two on that barstool, finishing her drink and listening to the casual talk of the two friends. She eventually said goodbye and got up to leave. The wolf grabbed her arm.

"My name is Roe Morgan. If you don't get in, I may be able to get you into a cockpit. It won't be the same, but it'll be work." Sloan nodded.

"Thanks, but I've got a bit of money. If I don't get picked, Lylat will never see me again."

"Damn shame," the avian muttered into his drink. Roe released Sloan's arm and gave her once last piece of advice before she left the Bleeding Rose.

"Clean up your slang. Wolf hates that shit." Sloan nodded her thanks and left, following the bright lights that would lead her to Corneria City's main street and civilized society, a place she had never really fit into anyways. She looked carefully around the desolate stretch of road she had emerged at, noticing only a young couple out on a late night stroll and a single car moving down the deserted street, before moving into the blazing light of a streetlamp.

Usually, she didn't like the light of streetlamps, they made her feel like she was on trial for simply being her, or on display at some kind of freak show for everyone to see and be amazed with, but tonight, she had to. She couldn't look like she was hiding. She had forgotten to check in with one of the Marshals and she was now about thirty minutes past curfew. She shivered and flipped the collar on her black leather jacket. The shiver wasn't entirely from the cold.

"Funny seeing you here," snarled a voice from behind her. Somehow, they always managed to come from behind. She whipped around and found herself standing inches away from a dragon. And she was angry.

"Marshal Green!" Sloan said, trying to look and sound surprised and completely stupid. A believable act, since Green thought every child on the station was an idiot. A fatal oversight on her part.

"You are far past curfew, and you didn't even have the good sense to check in, we were about to send the police out after you!"

So nice to know someone is looking out for my wellbeing. Sloan thought sarcastically.

"I-I can explain, ma'am," Sloan stammered, fiddling with her jacket and looking down at her well used sneakers, wishing most of her fear was only pretend.

"I'm sure you can, and I'm also sure Mr. Warren will be very interested in hearing it." Green grabbed her arm and proceeded to half drag her down the street. Struggled to keep up, tripping over herself in an attempt to keep from falling flat on her face.

As she was forcefully taken to the transport that would take her and the others back to Sector Y, she saw a bright red star that, even in all the hours spent stargazing, she had never seen before. It was glowing so bright, she could even pick it out from the red-orange colour of Sector Z. she wondered if maybe it was Sargasso space station, lighting her way to a whole new life, one devoid of Sector Y, and the Warden.