Falco Lombardi rolled over in his bed, the sheets wrapping into a knot around his legs. He had awoken too early again. Squinting through the darkness, he read the display on the alarm clock. The glowing numbers red two something o'clock.
"No use trying to get back to sleep. Shit!" the avian muttered to himself. Pulling on his Avian Football League T-Shirt and a pair of ragged jeans, Falco wandered out into the corridor of Great Fox. He felt the hum through the hull as he ambled to the galley for a snack. It's not like there was much else he could do.
Reaching the correct door, he lethargically pushed it open, his hands a bit stiff from his slumber. Groping around in darkness, he scrabbled at the wall for the light switch. Finding it, he flicked it up stiffly with his thumb. The lights winked on, glowing white on the racked pots and pans and stainless steel appliances.
Falco fumbled around, still half-asleep, searching the refrigerator for some food that didn't need cooking. He was too exhausted for that (the exception being the microwave.) He shuffled about inside, knocking the occasional item to the floor, and cursing softly to himself. Finally finding something, a leftover baked potato, he grabbed the butter and went to the microwave.
After hitting the "reheat" button, he stooped wearily in front of the lit door, and when the oven finally beeped, he removed his snack and slumped into a galley stool that was pulled up to the island in the middle. There, he clumsily pulled at the skin, slopping butter about, until he just dozed off on the counter.
The next morning, Fox entered the galley to prepare breakfast for the team. He almost burst into hysterical laughter when he saw Falco, potato bits and globs of butter all over his beak and the feathers on the side of his head. He went about his business, giggling all the time, and then opened the com link to call the guys to breakfast. They came, already awake and dressed, and lost it. Slippy nearly burst into tears laughing, and Peppy slumped to the ground and pounded the floor.
This roused Falco, and he rose from the stool, a little less exhausted than that night, noticed the butter dripping down his beak and exclaimed, "SHIT!" and proceeded to the bathroom, almost blushing.
Regaining their senses, the three gathered around the island, Slippy wiping up the mess, and munched down the scrambled eggs and bacon. Slippy kept laughing, though, and spilled his drink all down his shirt, nearly toppling the stool. Recovering, he got another paper towel and cleaned up once more, then went back to his room to retrieve a new shirt.
Falco returned while Slippy was gone. "So, you wanna try that again?" asked Fox. "Oh, shut up," returned Falco, a grin on his beak. "Don't make me remind you," the bird added, "about the Lax incident." "The what?" Peppy inquired. Falco perked up. "One time, me and Fox flew down to Lax to pick up a spare part. Before we had gone, Fox had slept with three women and dozed off with his head in the toilet." Fox blushed. "Did that really happen?" asked the rabbit. "Um…depends…" Fox replied. Slippy then returned and broke up the gossip.
Fox set down a plate for Falco too, and they resumed eating. Falco finished first, and left the room. "Thanks man," said he and he punched Fox in the shoulder on the way out. "Where's he off to in such a hurry?" questioned Slippy. "His G-diffuser's still catching a little. He noticed during our test flight. It sure is a relief not to have to fly in combat anymore." "Don't let Falco hear you say that, Fox," Peppy joked. "Never," said Fox with a smirk.
The rest finished their meal, almost at the same time, and Slippy and Fox proceeded to the hangar to join Falco. Peppy went off to do some checks on their emergency battle plan.
The two jogged down the hallway, Slippy tripping on a loose cable and landing on his face. "You okay, Slip?" Fox hurriedly asked. "Yeah, but I tripped on this stupid wire. He glanced down to his foot. There was the troublesome cable, but with a very low profile. "I guess I'm just clumsy." grinned the frog.
A little farther down, Fox and Slippy reached the hangar. Tapping the airlock release, the door slid open, they entered, and the other door opened. There was Falco, lying on the Arwing gantry, scraping something out of the G-diffuser generator pipe.
"Eeew. What's that stuff?" asked Fox, sticking his tongue out. "I don't know," responded Falco, "smelly for one." "Looks like mud or grease," said Slippy, and proceeded to kneel down on the gantry to look inside the pipe.
He couldn't see the maintenance light.
"Hey, Falco, crank that thing up, will ya?"
"Gotcha Slip." and the avian climbed into the cockpit and flicked on the G-diffuser.
"Damn. It's gone from catching to stalling." he said, slamming his fist onto the glowing panel before him.
"Don't worry, just throttle up." Slippy commanded. Falco did this, the hum turning to a buzz, then a rumble, then an outright roar.
"Slip! It's overloading." Falco warned. Slippy paid no attention, only pulling at the gunk with a hook. The G-diffuser roared louder, and suddenly there was a bang and the machine promptly died. Slippy lie on the gantry, mud all over his face and the metal grating.
"Pppht. Yuck. This is mud, and it smells!" yelled Slippy. He proceeded to go to the sink, but thought better and just wiped at it with a towel.
"What I want to know," said Fox, "is how mud got in a G-diffuser." He looked a Falco suspiciously. "I must've brushed the ground during our last strafing run on Venom or something." Falco shot back, a little insulted.
"Guys, I'm going to have to dismantle the G-diffuser to get all that mud out. That probably includes circuitry. I need some cleaning tools and a screwdriver and wrench." Slippy ordered.
"All right." said Fox, and proceeded to go after the required tools. When it came to machines, there was no arguing with Slippy. Fox returned a moment later, a box of cleaning tools and a screwdriver and wrench. '
"Thanks, Fox." Slippy said, popping open the cleaning tools' box.
"Everything okay?" asked Peppy, entering. "I heard a bang."
"Just my stupid G-diffuser," said Falco "full of mud." meanwhile Slippy had gotten the maintenance panel off and was pulling out machinery, all of it clogged with mud.
"Dang it!" he said, releasing an energizer connection.
"This is why it stalled!" Slippy yelped, " The starter and the energizer are all mudded up." He slid out a green glowing motherboard from the panel. The plastic circuit was dripping with brown muddy water.
"Crap! The motherboard's fused. I need a new one."
"Got it," said Falco, and he jumped out of the cockpit and hurried to circuitry storage. He didn't return. The others began to worry.
"That's it. What's he up to now?" yelled Fox, and ran off in search of Falco. He found him, sprawled out in the corridor, holding his head.
"Arrrrgh! It hurts!" screeched Falco.
"What's the matter?" Fox quickly inquired, worried.
"My head…Shit! My head…Oh fuck!"
"Hold up, just a second." Fox quickly comforted, and punched in a com link to Peppy back in the hangar.
"Peppy, come in," shouted the vulpine, "Falco's havin' trouble!"
"Right away!" responded Peppy, and the screen flicked off. Peppy arrived in the middle of Falco's seizure.
Thrusting his arm toward the medical cabinet in sickbay, Peppy commanded, "Get me a sedative!" Fox did as instructed, and Peppy injected the clear vial of liquid into Falco's arm. He stopped shaking and Fox wiped away the foam on his beak.
"Is he gonna be okay?" Fox quickly demanded.
"As far as I can tell, yes," responded Peppy, and he checked the avian's pulse. Suddenly he noticed Fox staring at the wall, completely spaced out.
"You okay? Fox??" asked Peppy. Fox snapped back.
"Oh…yeah…" and he started to look queasy.
"Fox?" demanded Peppy. Suddenly, the com link screen behind him came to life. It was Slippy.
"I got the G-diffuser fixed. Hey, what's wrong with them?" Slippy said in a flustered tone.
"I don't know," Peppy responded, "but you'd better get down here quick!"
"All right!"
Slippy was there within a minute, and he immediately noticed Fox sitting on the floor, legs crossed, intently looking at the wall as if the very secret of life itself was written there. Falco just lay immobile on the table.
Slippy waved a hand in front of Fox's face.
"Hey, hello, anybody home," he said sarcastically.
"Knock that off!" commanded Peppy, worried. Slippy stopped immediately.
"So what happened?" inquired the young toad.
"I don't know, Fox found Falco laying in the hall, and then he zoned out while he was in here."
"Wow. That's creepy. Can we snap them out of it?"
"I don't know, Slip, Falco was having a seizure, so I gave him a tranquilizer, but apparently it didn't work.