Chapter One

Return

Life's waiting to begin...

Angels and Airwaves - "The Adventure"

A loud buzz was the first thing that rang in his ears.

"Ah dammit…" He mumbled as he threw his paw over his back, trying to reach for the alarm. Instead, he was merely successful at knocking it down. "Fuck!" He turned over and sat up on the bed. Wolf O'Donnell's eye twitched as he rubbed it before placing his eye patch over his empty socket. The lupine took the ringing clock and pressed the top before putting it back into its former place. He shot another glance at it, trying to look at the time.

"Whoa, eleven?! Talk about sleeping in…" He tried to force himself into a more attentive state of consciousness, repeatedly shaking his head. Since his return to the skies, he was usually known to be the early riser of the group. That would not be the case today. "Hmm, Fox is gonna kill me." He thought aloud. He didn't mean for it to sound bitter, more so humorous. His new leader had been fairly lenient with stuff like that since it happened far and few between. There was no need to try and be discreet and make it look like he was awake the whole time.

"Okay, lets get to work…" He took off his patch , which made him feel a bit stupid for putting it on in the first place, and headed into his personal bathroom, on the opposite side of his bed. From there, he showered, brushed his teeth, styled his hair to look like his usual faux-hawk, and got into his black jumpsuit with a Star Fox insignia on his left side.

"Alright…" He mouthed. The lupine tried to think if he had forgotten something, but dismissed it having felt as though he was ready.

The lounge was surprisingly busy for this time. Usually, the team would be at the bridge, making preparations for an attack. However since there was no planned assignments for the day, everyone was congregating in there. Compared to its predecessor, the Great Fox III seemed to be a lot more roomier and welcoming. Sure, there was that metallic look for the walls and floors, but in the end, a larger ship seems to make things more open and less claustrophobic, and with the arrival of Wolf and Panther a year ago, it was obvious that there would need to be a larger ship.

Fox was in the most surprising of positions; slumbering on the couch. A bowl of extremely soggy cereal stood at his feet, not even touched by him. Over the past week, he seemed to be suffering from some sort of sleeping problem which is not uncommon in this business. When it was time to head out for a mission, you wouldn't know that he was having these issues, but when inside the Great Fox III, this was what he usually did.

On the other side of the room was the green frog, Slippy. He was completely immersed in the news on the television in front of him, as was his usual hobby. The guy loved current events as of late, they seemed to be the only thing that he could find some sort of interest in while relaxing. What he looked forward to the most was when they would report of the latest inventions that boggled even his own mind. He would try and rack his brain to think of something better, like a competition of sorts.

In the center of the lounge was Falco, Peppy, and Panther, sitting at a small makeshift table that looked like a giant spool. They were passing out cards and setting them down in a pile, not even having a single glance at them. Whatever game they were playing was a rather competitive one because it every few seconds there would be a loud smack and some obscenities that followed.

While everyone wasn't working, they still had their suits on so they would be ready at any given moment. A common occurrence for the team as of late, with no major assignments being brought to their attention. For the Star Fox team, it was a fairly laid back job. It was these kinds of days that they both loved and hated.

Wolf had stumbled in after catching the sound of the television, when he found nobody on the bridge, he assumed they would be somewhere below decks. It was exactly where he expected them. His presence wasn't immediately noticed, with everyone in the middle of their own thing. However, with a less than subtle cough, he was able to get Slippy's attention. He motioned to the lupine to come his way, which he obeyed and sat on the couch.

"Well somebody must've gotten some good shut-eye eh?" He smirked.

"Well at least I can keep it secret." Wolf nodded as he discreetly pointed over to Fox, still slumbering, they chuckled in unison. "So anything new happening?"

The frog looked back at the TV before he went back to Wolf. "Not really. Besides, if anything was happening, the general would have called us." The metaphorical light in Wolf's head flicked on.

"That's what I forgot to do!" He exclaimed. "I'll be back in a little while." He ran out of the lounge and down the hall, jarring Fox awake. The vulpine looked pissed, because moments before, he was in his own little dream world doing God knows what (or in his case, who).

" God dammit, what just happened?" He growled at everyone.

"I think Wolf went to go call Serena." Slippy replied. When the words came out, Falco threw his cards down on the table in a mild fit of rage.

"Man, I'm sick of him calling her all the damn time!" The avian screamed, it all seemed like blind anger to the others. They looked at him just dumbfounded.

"Umm, Falco…is there a problem?" Peppy said as he rubbed his temple.

In reality, Falco didn't seem to like Wolf suddenly. When they became friends two years ago, everything was fine. However, now he just seemed pissed at him for no particular reason. Was he jealous of the new friendship with Fox? He immediately dismissed the idea, he wasn't going soft any time soon. After some quick pondering, he came to the conclusion that he just simply didn't trust him. Who was he really calling? Was he even calling anyone? These questions and more flooded his head. He felt that there was something else up his sleeve and he was going to find out ASAP. The same went with Panther, but he was more occupied with Wolf.

"No." He sighed. "I just had a moment. I need to go." He stood up, nodded at everyone, and calmly walked to his quarters.

Wolf was now in his room, setting up a camera facing his bed. Serena didn't answer the phone so he decided to send her a video message instead. He set a five second delay to get himself in position and pressed record. After sprinting to the bed, he began to talk, thus assuming the delay had passed.

" Hey Serena, it's me again. I'm doing fine up here, space is space…kind of quiet, yet at the same time very beautiful. You can't see it from here," He pointed to something out of frame. "But out the window right now, we're passing a large supernova remnant. It's scary, but still spellbinding in it's own way. The vibrant colors that radiate off of them for some reason remind me of you." He let put an awkward laugh. "I wish you could come up here one day, I know that you don't support what I do but it doesn't have to be during assignments. Think about it okay?" He waved at the camera for a moment. "I love you Serena, I'll talk to you soon."

CLICK!