When he woke, Abel found himself on the Great Fox. He suddenly remembered the past day's events. He activated his suit's non-critical systems. The time said 2 AM, but he knew better to trust it in a different part of the universe. He assumed he had woken because of his dream. He hated reliving the battles. He didn't even remember most of them. It was best not to.
He glanced around the room. He suddenly remembered the arrangements made by the blue fox he had met. He was in the blue bird's quarters, while the gray one was with the clumsy frog. He had found it difficult to sleep, due his companion's nocturnal mumbling. At first it was about something made of gold. Then he started on about hitting somebody with it.
He had tried his best to ignore it, and found his suit had a mute function. The crew on this ship was quite odd. He didn't feel like waiting until a reasonable hour to eat, so he rose from his prone position on the floor and walked around the ship. He tried to be as quiet as he could in fear of repeating yesterday's unfortunate cereal incident. Red Dawn suddenly activated and spoke to him through his helmet. "Up quite early aren't we?" The AI spoke with a smug tone, as if he expected it.
"If you weren't a chip I'd throttle you." The irritated commando spoke to his less-than-agreeable companion.
"And if you weren't an ass I'd be friends with you." The rather arrogant intelligence replied.
Their argument was cut short by the appearance of the dining area. Abel found a set and wiped away the pile of ash on the table, forgotten with the arrival of himself and the other one.
He leafed through the cabinets and found something that looked edible. He was surprised that the room looked so much like a kitchen that could be found on Earth. He took another look at the box and noticed all the letters looked like gibberish. He groaned to himself saying, "How am I supposed to know what this even says?"
"I hope it has the same flavor as your attitude: horrible" His digital antagonist chimed in.
This was going to be a bad day, and he knew it. He pulled off his helmet to eat. Revealing raven-colored hair, hanging down almost to his eyes, a hawkish nose, sea-green eyes, and rather pale complexion.
He took a bite of what appeared to be run-of-the-mill cereal, and found it only tasted mediocre. However, he was hungry, having eaten only rations for about a week beforehand. After polishing off a bowl-full of the stuff, he decided to try and go back to sleep. It was much easier after he put on his helmet and keyed up the mute sequence.
He fell asleep within minutes. Only to be woken by the wound of an alarm going off. Instantly, all of the doors unlocked and opened, leaving everybody exposed to the might of a ship-wide wake-up alarm.
The mute function was very well designed. He didn't hear a thing, and so slept like a rock.
About fifteen minutes later the whole crew was assembled, plus Rain. Fox was doing roll call when he found he was missing one. "Odd." The russet vulpine though to himself "I though Falco would have woken him." He asked Falco about that very thing and found Falco was unable to wake him.
In about thirty seconds the whole crew was crammed into Falco's room. They all bunched together, giving Abel ample space to just lie there like a dead man. "He's not, dead, is he?" Slippy asked in an incredibly uncertain voice.
"No, I don't think so…" Fox replied, even more uncertain than Slippy
As a test, Falco picked up a wad of paper from his desk and threw it at the sleeping human. "Proximity alert!" his suit informed him. His eyes flashed open and he rolled off of his gut and reached out for the object. The paper was halfway across the room by the time he was ready. He grabbed the crumpled mess, and was quite prepared to throw it back at the blue falcon, but instead strode up to him and jabbed him with his suit-clad index finger in the falcon's shoulder.
"Guess he wasn't dead." Fox commented dryly.
"I'm beginning to like this guy." Rain said with a smirk on his drowsy face, much to his avian associate's dismay.
Abel stalked off to some unknown area of the ship while the other members of the crew and their additional passenger commented on his performance.
The crew slowly filed out over the course of the next five minutes. Krystal however, went looking for Abel rather than go to her station. She found him on the flight deck, leaning against the far right-hand wall, watching the Arwings, or perhaps studying them?
She called out to him, "What are doing here?"
"Seeing what the this ship has to offer." The dark soldier answered. He took some time to think while she crossed over to him. He hadn't really introduced himself had he?
When she reached him, he held out his hand and said in the overly synthesized voice provided to him, "We didn't really get to know each other, I'm Abel." She stared at his outstretched hand as she listened to his words.
After a few moments he withdrew his hand. A voice filtered out of his helmet "It's proper Terran custom to shake another's hand in greeting." In response, Abel tore off his helmet and proceeded to punt it across the room. Krystal wondered if that was some kind of gesture among friends in this "Terran" place they came from. She looked at his face and realized she hadn't actually seen it.
The strangest part of his face was his eyes. His eyes were the green of the sea, but dark, piercing, and seemingly infinite. They seemed to capture another's gaze and hold it for however long he wanted. They-
His asking, "Was there something you wanted, or did you just want to stare at my face?" cut her reverie short.
She struggled to choke out a reply as he stood there with a solemn face, awaiting her reply. "I- No- I just wanted to- just wanted to-" Suddenly a smirk appeared on his otherwise emotionless face. He wasn't laughing at her distress, but he was enjoying it too much.
"Relax," he said in a light tone, "I was joking, I know you wanted to find out more about me, you said so in your diary."
She was shocked at his knowledge, had he hacked the ship's cameras? Or been sneaking throughout the ship? But instead she asked as calmly as she could manage at this point, "How do you know I have one?"
He replied after flexing his hands a little. "Easy, you just told me." He said in a matter-of-fact tone.
"That is IT!" She said angrily. "You, me, in the ring, now." She was not taking this jerk's remarks anymore, kinship or not.
"Would you like me to beat you with, or without the suit?" He replied arrogantly.
"I know your tricks, without that stupid thing."
"If I didn't know better I'd say you wanted me out of more than the suit" came the ever-more infuriating reply.
Krystal grabbed his forearm to make sure he wouldn't get away from his due beating. Then she set off at a jog, forcing him to do the same.
After about thirty seconds of jogging and a thirty second elevator ride, they arrived at the recreation deck, which at current was unoccupied except for Peppy, who was in the process of baking something.
After a quick three minutes of preparation, the two were ready. Abel wore a customary green guest outfit, complete with hand wraps.
Krystal wore a deep red that offset her fur's natural color. And Abel had to admit to himself, she looked good in red.
Abel fought aggressively, making attack after attack to keep her off balance, but he underestimated Cornerians, not to mention he fought rather like a blind and desperate old man.
She balanced her knee on his chest, while pinning his arms to the mat. She got very close to his face, trying to unnerve him.
She leaned next to his ear, and breathed out very quietly to the rather injured man, "I don't think you'll ever understand us. And just to be clear, keep those comments to yourself, or this WILL happen again."
He just looked up at her with what she though was an inquisitive look. Then he said slowly and calmly, "That was a test. We used to use it to know whom we could trust. I normally don't act like that. Now if you don't mind I'd like to breathe." She glanced down at his chest before letting out a surprised "Oh" and standing.
But now she began to wonder as he rose, "Why had she reacted so oddly? She wasn't like that."
"What the hell?" Abel wondered as he rose. "I don't fight like that. And I sure as hell don't test people like that." He made a quick realization as he thought about what some scientists had told him many years back. He recalled a few words, "Side effects. Mental deterioration. Barbarism. Short term." But he hadn't been there. He would have remembered better. He must have heard it from somewhere.
He left the room quickly and without another word. He headed for the hangar. He found the helmet among some broken tools in a heap of trash. "Just my luck." He said to the entity inside the helm. "When I want you scrapped, I need you." He picked up the helmet and put it on. He then looked down and noticed he was still in the green training gear from the match. He made his way back to the locker rooms, thankfully nobody was there. He put his suit back on and sat down on a bench. It was time to get some answers. He said "Command 34 override shutdown protocol. Activate AI Red Dawn."
The voice filled his ears, "You didn't have to do that I was just-"
"Cut the crap." The killer interrupted. "I want to know about the words 'mental deterioration' 'short term' 'barbarism' and what they have to do with me."
The response was drowned out by the docking alarm and Fox saying over the intercom, "Everybody, this is Fox, we've arrived at Corneria City, General Pepper has sent an escort aboard to deal with the extra passenger." Abel groaned as he heard footsteps coming down the hall.