Canis Lupus
Prologue
Breaking Benjamin - "Intro"
"To live is to suffer, but to survive is to find meaning in the suffering." - Friedrich Nietzsche
Corneria City, population: 6,473,902 according to the latest census. Corneria City is the largest metropolis in the Lylat System, with a size so massive, that it can be seen from the confines of outer space. It's unique octagonal layout that is split into four "rings" makes finding a specific location fairly easy, but still a hassle to get to in traffic with the inflow of roughly a hundred thousand tourists daily.
The innermost ring contains the cities elite, the Cornerian Government. While not your traditional nine-to-five type of job, it can still be very tedious as the numerous conflicts that occur between all of the planets in the Lylat System; the planetary system that Corneria resides in , are brought up here as the majority (estimates say 85%, give or take three to five percent) of the entire Lylatian population live on Corneria.
The second and third ring is what many would consider to be the Downtown section of the city. The difference between those two sections is that the second is a place where the big time conglomerates build their towers, which have an uncanny feel to them, as they appear to simply look down on the city as if they were the creators. The third ring is more subdued, still holding a few major landmarks, but for the most part, is filled with luxury apartments that remain below forty floors and smaller scale businesses.
The fourth ring contains most of the residential features of the city. The state of these neighborhoods is vastly different depending on the area. Most of the lower quality ghetto's and suburbs are located in the east, while the highest caliber homes are situated along the Cornerian coastlines that streak across the southern tip of the city, with a little bit of everything in between in the northern and western quadrants. Small businesses and shopping centers are also scattered throughout.
In the northern section of this fourth ring, there lay a medium sized flat level home. It's a simple white building with a black shingled roof, and a small patio that housed the front entrance. A very typical suburbia-esque abode. Oddly enough, there has not been a single occupant living in this house for three years. Perhaps it was due to the history of the past residents, which consisted of a family of two. The first was a middle aged Grey Wolf by the name of Verne O'Donnell. This single parent worked as a mechanic for a fairly profitable Angus & Co. Auto Repair, located in an industrial park southeast of his home. However, with recent times, business had not been as successful, and the organization was facing layoffs, leading Verne to worry about his own future. With the paycheck he was getting, he was barely able to pay bills and his mortgage that he owed for quite some time, and left him with very little money to support himself. The situation had begun to do a number on Verne, leaving him very drained and paranoid that he could be the next to get the axe.
It was not just his future that worried him the most, but rather the future of his son. Wolf O'Donnell was an average soon to be high school graduate of seventeen years. He was a strong youth, but otherwise, didn't exactly have any traits that made him stand out amongst his peers. He was as good a kid as anyone else in the neighborhood, with a fairly outgoing personality, but he wasn't perfect. After taking up smoking a year prior, Wolf had been trying to quit, limiting himself to no more than four a week. Regardless of the risks involved, it seemed to speak to him in a way. It was his adrenaline rush. Perhaps he had taken up smoking because his mind was in the same state of turmoil as his fathers? With his graduation date approaching, he had looked toward the future, which he had hoped would be at the Cornerian Flight Academy, if not for the financial pressure...
While Wolf himself didn't consider himself to be one of the most popular people in his area, he had two people he knew that he could depend on no matter what the problem was. The first was Jenna Harrington, a lovely-young red wolf who was the same age as Wolf. They'd known eachother for six years, three of which had been spent in a more than friendly relationship. Wolf saw Jenna as a very understanding, down-to-earth individual, who seemed to have a knack at bringing out the best in those that knew her. In return, she found Wolf's relaxed nature and honesty to be appealing. Whenever Jenna was in his presence, Wolf would feel so much better, even when he was in his darkest of days. After all, it was how they had met eachother in the first place. When she was around him, his mind would drift away to somewhere outside of the confines of reality, and into a more peaceful world. While the two had shared strong feelings for eachother, the thought of sex had never seemed to enter their minds; it was something they simply did not bother to think about as they seemed to share the mindset of "when it happens, it happens"...
On the flip side of the coin was Wolf's best friend that he had known since his childhood, Leon Powalski. This eighteen year old lizard was someone you really can't put a finger on who or what he was. Leon had a rebel-mentality that clearly showed when around Wolf. Even though he had no real evidence to prove it, he was fairly sure that Leon did some type of illicit drugs, due to his constant motor tic's. Although he had known him for such a long time, Leon was still a very mysterious person to him. He'd never been to his home (which he said is in the eastern boroughs) and he had no idea what he did for a living since dropping out of school at age sixteen, and a runaway a year later. It never really came up since the two either hung out around the city or at his place, and Wolf thought it may have been for the best since some of the areas in eastern Corneria City could be a bad place to end up alone if you took a wrong turn.
Despite the setbacks, Wolf's life was good, if not normal by any means, however, the young lupine would soon learn that life can be cruel, and could twist and mold even the most stalward heart into something completely unrecognizable.
It all started with a picture...