Draven Cantina, Zoness

May 17th, 2611

2:00 AM

To say that it had been an odd week for Wolf O'Donnell would be a gross understatement. It had been chaotic, tiring, and above all else, mind boggling.

And he had thought that pale bounty hunter on Kew had been strange.

It had all started with the visitor from seven days ago.

The grey and white furred wolf had been jolted out of his sleep by the sounds of "INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT!"

Sitting up on his mattress on the floor, Wolf reached up to the vision lens that had replaced his long missing left eye and pressed a button that brought up a camera feed.

"What the hell?"

The intruder was one of the strangest looking beings Wolf had ever seen. It looked like a cross between a reptile and an insect, with an extremely thin body and limbs, clawed hands and feet, a pair of antennae protruding from it's head, and a curved snout that resembled that of a tapir. It was clothed in a black hooded robe with gold trim.

The being seemed to realize that it was being watched, for it fixed the security cam with an unblinking stare that Wolf found unsettling.

Snapping himself out of the daze, Wolf switched the feed off and picked up his communicator.

"Leon, Panther, get your asses down to the hanger!"

The lupine then got up, threw on a tank top, and grabbed his blaster. He set out for the hanger, making certain to clear every corner.

"I'm still down here, O'Donnell. I come in peace." said a somewhat high pitched and otherworldly voice.

Wolf stopped in his tracks, realizing that the voice had been in his head.

"What's with all the damn psychics nowadays?" he growled before pressing on.

Finally reaching the hanger, Wolf burst in and aimed his blaster at the intruder.

"Don't try anything, motherfucker."

The insectoid-esque creature turned it's head at the lupine, but otherwise, made no move to attack him.

"You are far more afraid of me than I am of you, Wolf O'Donnell. But as I said, I come in peace." it said in Wolf's mind, it's mouth never moving.

"You'll be leaving in pieces if you don't tell me what the hell you want."

"Only to deliver a message."

Wolf raised an eyebrow.

"A message huh? Well let's hear it than."

"On the morrow, you will be contacted by a rival who needs your help. You will deign to aid them. In seven days, a man will meet you at Draven Cantina. You will know him when you see him."

The creature locked eyes with Wolf.

"Beware the Necronomican, O'Donnell. Beware the Colour."

Those words echoed as the creature slowly turned transparent and disappeared from view, leaving only a bewildered Wolf.

"What the hell was that all about, Boss?"

The lupine turned to his teammates Leon Powalski and Panther Caruso.

"I...I...I."

Wolf took a breath.

"I don't know."

The rest of the day was spent making repairs to the decrepit old space station. Prior to the Aparoid War, there had been tons of hired thugs who did that kind of work. But after the attack on Sargasso Space Zone, most of them had been killed, fled, or been caught by the authorities. Thus, it fell to Wolf, Leon, and Panther to keep the station going when they were in between jobs.

That night, Wolf dreamed that he was looking down at a very old and tattered book. His surroundings were a stone room with several murals of strange looking creatures. Two were almost fish-like, another looked like a black humanoid with red eyes, and yet another looked like a mass of tentacles and mouths. Finally, there was a statue of a creature with a vaguely humanoid body, an octopus-like head with tentacles around the mouth area, and dragon-like wings. This, Wolf knew to be Cthulhu, a being said to dwell beneath Earth's Pacific Ocean.

The lupine's eyes drifted back down to the book.

"Beware the Necronomicon, O'Donnell"

In spite of the intruder's words echoing in his head, Wolf found his hand moving toward the book and turning the page.

He regretted it almost instantly.

Wolf was blinded by a flash of colour. Only this was no ordinary colour, in fact, it could only really be called a colour via analogy. When the lupine regained his vision, he was standing on a plain of fine, grey dust. All around were dead trees that were unnaturally tall and wide. They swayed wildly, even though there was no wind. In the distance, he saw two canine figures in shadow ahead of him. They both looked to be female. Wolf started towards them, but they never seemed to get closer. Then to his shock, they crumbled into dust. Two more figures appeared, also canine and feminine in appearance. They also crumbled into dust.

The lupine then collapsed face first into the dust, through no fault of his own. Catching a glimpse of his right hand. Wolf saw the fur falling out, leaving only pink flesh. To his horror, the flesh started to turn white. Finally, the hand, along with Wolf's arm, crumbled into the same grey dust that surrounded him.

"Beware the Colour."

Wolf woke up to the sounds of screaming. He briefly wondered where it was coming from before suddenly realizing that the screams belonged to him.

The lupine remained curled up in a fetal position, fearful to move. After a while, his hurried breaths slowed and he glanced about. Sure enough, he was lying on a mattress on the floor of an empty storeroom.

"Alright Wolf, get up. Just get up."

After willing himself to stand up, Wolf almost sank back down. He felt cold and nauseous, and his throat was very dry. While the nausea became tolerable, the addition of a tanktop and Wolf's signature coat and vest did not chase the chill away. Putting one of his hands under a heating vent, the lupine could feel hot air being blown out.

"Good, the heaters aren't broken."

Heading into the hallway, all Wolf could hear was the whirs and beeps of the station's numerous machines and computers. He was thankful for that, explaining why he had been screaming like a girl was one of the last conversations he wanted to have with Leon and Panther.

In the shower room down the hall, Wolf turned on the tap and gulped down the stream of cold water. While it relieved his dry throat, it also brought the nausea back. After waiting for it to pass, the lupine stripped off his clothes and got in the shower, turning it as hot as he could take it.

After finishing up and redressing, Wolf, feeling somewhat better, went to the kitchen and brewed himself a coffee. As he was going over what needed to be repaired around the station, the communicator sounded off. Wolf answered it and was greeted with the face of Fox McCloud.

"What the hell do you want, pup?"

"Hello to you too, Wolf."

The lupine tilted his head to the side.

"You still haven't answered my question, Fox."

The vulpine then proceeded to tell Wolf all about the captured pilots. Through the entire story, Wolf kept his face inscrutable, but within, he vividly recalled how the visitor had predicted this. The lupine took a sip of coffee and leaned forward.

"Sure pup, I'll help you rescue your flyboy friends. For the right price."

Fox seemed to consider that.

"We'll gladly pay whatever you ask."

"Good. And see if you can get us a full pardon."

The vulpine scratched the back of his head.

"I'll mention that to the general, but no promises."

And so, over the course of the next six days, Star Wolf planned out the rescue mission with Star Fox and the other mercenaries they had brought on board.

Now Wolf sat in Draven Cantina, awaiting the man the visitor had referred to.

"Bartender, another Saldera."

As the salamander bartender passed Wolf another bottle of beer, the doors to the cantina opened. The white noise of patrons talking died down and was replaced with whispers. Curious, the lupine looked over his shoulder and spotted a human male in the doorway. That on it's own wouldn't be out of the ordinary, but the fact that the man was wearing a black trenchcoat in a tropical climate was certainly very strange.

The human walked up to the bar and took the stool next to Wolf.

"Scotch on the rocks, if you please." he said in an accent Wolf couldn't place.

"You will know him when you see him."

With the visitor's words in mind, Wolf turned to the human.

"You looking for me?" he said, almost jokingly.

The human took a sip of scotch.

"On the contrary, Mr. O'Donnell, you're looking for me."

The lupine rolled his one good eye.

"Yeah, whatever. You mind telling me what this is all about?"

The brown haired human took another sip and reached into his coat pocket. He took out a folded piece of paper and placed it on the bar in front of Wolf.

"That, and to warn you that you are about to dive into something that could shatter your mind."

Wolf took a swig of beer and unfolded the paper. It looked like a map of some sort, with hieroglyphs that were unknown to the lupine. Where in the galaxy it was and what it led to was also a mystery to him.

The outlaw turned back to the human.

"Warn me, huh? About what exactly; The Colour? The Nercro-whatever? What is so scary about this little rescue mission?"

The stranger let out a sigh.

"It's going to take people like you to hold back the Old Ones."

"Great, I've got gibberish and a map I can't read. Real helpful."

The human finished his scotch and put some credit chips on the bar.

"A phantom can help you with the map." he said, and walked out the door.

Wolf let out a huff and pocketed the map.

He was about halfway through his fourth beer when he realized just what the stranger had meant when he had mentioned a phantom.