I swung open the door to my apartment, the soothing air of the air-conditioned room rushed to my face, I entered my room to be greeted by my cat, Cat, who was a pure black tom cat, he purred as he rubbed against my leg,

""Hey puss," I greeted, "miss me?" Cat sat and stared into my eyes, I gave him a scratch behind the ear and went to the bathroom for a shower. After my shower I changed into some loose clothing, which was a welcome change from my heavy, bulky flight suit that I was forced to wear as I did my daily patrol of the skies, I sank into my leather recliner and turned on my TV, Cat making himself comfy on my lap as I did, nothing overly interesting was on so I left it on Family Guy, it was amazing how they kept the show alive for seven hundred years. About ten minutes into my viewing it was interrupted by the networks logo, a deep voice spoke shortly afterwards,

"We interrupt this broadcast for an important news bulletin."

"Great." I sighed and sunk further into the chair, much to Cat's irritation, he dug his claws into my leg, letting me know he was in charge, a blond lady, dressed in a suit was sitting behind a desk with a backdrop of a city behind her,

"A satellite that was sent into space in the late 21st century with details about humanity and the location of Earth and the Milky Way has landed back onto the soil of earth this morning with another craft attached to it, scientists from around the world are attempting to figure out the use of craft. Is this the first sign of alien life? We will keep you updated when more news arises." I was slightly amazed, this topic did not really capture my attention as I was not one to believe rumors without proof, but I had a certain friend who did, I grabbed my phone in an attempt to put my phone off the hook before he called, but I was too late, the phone rung its loud tune, I let out an irritated sigh and looked at the caller ID, there was the name "Josh" next to a picture of his grinning face, I hesitated to answer, knowing he would babble on about the satellite and other stuff I didn't fully understand, I answered,

"Hey Josh, how are you?" I greeted in a semi-sarcastic voice,

"Hey were you just watching Family Guy?" he asked,

"No I was eating nails, of course I was!" slightly aggressively, he knows that there was nothing else on that I would watch,

"So I presume you saw that report?"

"Yeah, it doesn't really bother me."

"What! How can it not bother you?! We first signs of alien life and it don't bother you?! You should be fascinated because…" I listened to Josh babble on, not taking in anything he lectured, I didn't hang up because he was a good friend, he finally stopped lecturing me about how I should feel towards that satellite, I took the opportunity to change the subject before he could find something else to babble about,

"So anything interesting happen down at the labs today?" I asked, Josh was a scientist at the same military compound I worked at, which had its benefits at times,

"Same old stuff." Josh replied, he is not one who is enthusiastic about his work, "You?"

"Well, my patrol made me have to fly all over the place, which is quite fun." I replied, I was a pilot for the military and had to patrol different areas for about 9 hours a day,

"No confrontations then I take it." Assumed Josh,

"Nope, not at all."

"Then all that training in aerial combat has gone to waste then." When I was a recruit I worked extremely hard to set the highest aerial combat score ever, but I never need to use it with Earth being one community now.

"Well I am glad all is well, I will see you later on then?" I asked

"Yep sure, see you later." He replied, I hung up and let out a sigh of relief, Cat gave me humored look,

"What are you looking at puss?" Cat's only response was letting out a loud meow.

I arrived home after another eventless patrol and did my usual routine, as always there was nothing on TV, I decided to give my girlfriend Janice a call, I picked up my phone and entered her number, as I waited patiently for her to pick up,

"Hello?" she answered in that sweet voice I had grown to admire,

"Hey, hello Janice, how are you doing?"

"Fine, you?"

"Good, hey I was wondering if you had plans for tonight."

"Nope, none at all, why?"

"I was wondering if you wanted to go down to the movies and see that movie you wanted to see?"

"Sure, I will meet you there at seven?"

"Right, see you there."

"Bye."

She hung up, something that couples would argue over who was going to do it first.

I arrived at the movies half an hour early to get the tickets, but Janice had already done

it, to my surprise she hugged me from behind, I turned around to see he long brown hair, she released me and handed me a ticket, she was wearing a red silk dress with patterns stitched up the side,

"Are you ready?" she asked,

"Ready when you are." I answered, trying to sound cool, I actually wasn't ready to watch the two and a half hour chick flick, but if she enjoyed it, then it would be worth it.

We entered the cinema and took a seat one row from the back, she took my hand and I closed it gently around hers, we had a while to wait for the movie to start, so I decided to grab some food,

"I'll be back in a second; I am just going to grab some stuff." I whispered, she nodded as I made my way to the candy bar. I returned with a box of popcorn and two drinks, struggling to carry all of it, I staggered up the stairs, and returned to my seat, I took a sigh of relief as I sat down, I handed Janice her drink, which she accepted, I sat back in the comfy chair and waited for the movie to start so I could get it over and done with.

I looked at my watch, five to seven, I let out a frustrated sigh, I was not known for my patience. I waited and I saw a familiar figure walk up the stairs, I frowned in anger as I saw Jake, a man who I had known since high school, and they were not good memories, he always found some way of taking almost everything away from me, and quite recently he had tried taking Janice away from me as well. Much to my anger he sat right next to Janice and started talking to her in a smooth voice,

"Hey there Janice, how nice to see you here." Janice smiled in reply but took no notice, he continued making crude remarks at her, I made nothing of it, I knew she wasn't going to put up with his remarks if she had heard enough, he continued flirting with her until the lights of the cinema went down and the massive screen lit up and started the movie. I fell asleep halfway through the movie, thankfully Janice didn't see, or I would have gotten a serving, I awoke from my slumber when I heard a bang, I looked around trying to find what made the noise, I figured out that a car bomb had gone off in the movie, killing the boyfriend of the main character. When the credits started rolling the room lit up, I got up and stretched, Janice followed, but so did Jake, I glared at him as he followed us. We managed to get to her car, which Jake walked past to his own car, I waved goodbye to Janice as she drove us, followed by Jake, and I made my way to my own car and drove home.

***

It was ten at night when I got home, Cat didn't welcome me as he wasn't going to get off my bed for anything, I sat down at my computer and logged onto my e-mail account, I got an offer to win a trip to where ever I wanted, delete, a message from my internet provider, delete, there was one from Josh, the subject read: "Did you see the news?!" I opened it, the message read:

"Hey there,

I presume you were out with Janice tonight so I thought I may as well provide you with a link to the report.

Josh."

I clicked on the link which brought up a white page with some writing on it,

"Today scientists working on the satellite that crashed into the Earth with our own satellite had managed to unlock its exterior to reveal inside a communication device which military leaders used to communicate with what was to be believed a hare/human hybrid, also known as a 'furry' creature, details of the conversation is classified at this time but we will report any news we get on this report."

I immediately regarded this as bogus; there was no life other then that on Earth as far as I was concerned. I closed the laptop and made my way to my bed, as I laid down on my bed I awoke Cat, who wasn't too happy about it as he growled at me as me made his way onto the other side of the bed.

***

I walked up to Janice's door, planning on surprising her with the golden necklace I brought weeks ago, I approached the door, before I knocked I heard giggling on the other side of the door, knowing that she kept a spare key under her doormat I opened the locked door and crept up to where the noise was coming from, I approached the door to her bedroom, I heard two voices, one was Janice's and the other was familiar but I couldn't pick it out, a rather loud giggle was heard followed by the second voice asking,

"How do you like that?" that was all I needed to hear, I opened the door slightly to see Janice and Jake in her bed, Jake noticed me, he jumped out of the bed and ran to the door, attempting to slam it shut, I was too fast I kicked the door open and in a blind rage tackled Jake and landed blow after blow onto his face, Janice screamed and yelled at me in an attempt to get me to go, I ignored her, I landed one more blow to his nose, breaking it, blood gushed out of his nose, Jake was now howling in pain, I got up, I saw the blood on my hands, I felt no remorse for my actions, I glared at Janice before making my way out to my car.

I made it inside my apartment, I knew that Janice would have called the cops and when my name was entered into their system, I would have the military police onto me, I called Josh on my mobile phone while grabbing clothing and the remaining food in my cupboard, he answered,

"I heard what happened." He started is a slightly angry voice,

"Heard what happened?" I asked, I thought Janice must have called him and told him what happened,

"Look I don't want to be friends or contacted by criminals like you." He yelled,

"Criminal?"

"Goodbye Reece."

"Josh!" I yelled, but he hung up, Jake had done everything he said he would, he had taken everything from me, I knew there was only one way out of this, I had to fake my own death, but how?

***

I was parked in a parking bay at the local shopping center; I needed to grab some items to alter my appearance so I wouldn't be recognized after my 'death'. I put on my hat and sunglasses and entered the shopping center. I entered a hair stylist's store and brought several cans of blue hair coloring, next I made my way to an optometrist where I brought contact lenses that I could use to change my eye color to blue from brown, that was all I needed at that point in time. Now I needed to buy some gas containers from the gas station, by the time I got all the required ingredients I had lost around a thousand dollars. It was time to put my plan into operation.

I drove down Oak Mont Drive which was along the side of a cliff, all my supplies were in a bag on my back, I came to the road that lead straight off the cliff which was blocked by signs and gates, I simply moved the objects out of the way and returned to my car, I took a deep breath, I left my door open, ready to bail out, I sped up to very high speeds, just before my car went over I rolled out of my car, slamming into a boulder, I swore loudly as my back cracked into a bad position, my pain quickly turned to satisfaction as I heard a massive explosion, I crawled over to the edge of the cliff, unable to walk due to my back, I couldn't see very much but I could see that the car was completely torn apart and in flames, anything inside the car would have gotten disintegrated, I slowly made it to my feet, 'What now?' I thought to myself.

A year passed since my 'death', I joined an underground group of criminals who robbed convenience stores, I never took part in any of the robberies as I was morally against it, I took up the alias of 'Scythe' during my time in the group. After another robbery, the gang returned to the base with stashes of cash, food and some fuel to put into our home made space cruiser, little did they know that they were being followed, the military broke down the door and began to tackle and handcuff members of the group, I hid behind the ship, fuelling it up as I did, I noticed a familiar soldier, Jake, as much as I would have loved to kill him right there and then I remained hidden so I wouldn't get caught by the other soldiers, I thought I was completely hidden but Jake saw me and recognized me through my disguise,

"Hey boys!" he yelled, "There is that guy who we thought was dead, Reece!" I swore quietly, I forced open the cockpit widow and got into the ship, activating the engines as I closed the window, shots were fired at the ship in an attempt to stop me, they failed, I flew right past the guards and headed for space knowing that there was nothing for me on Earth now that my alias was discovered.

***

A week passed since my discovery, I now drifted through space at a very high speed, unable to go in any other direction because I was out of fuel. I opened a packet of chips, eating them one by one, as I ate I noticed several dots appear on the radar, they were coming straight for me, 'Oh crap I am screwed.' I thought to myself, I heard a voice over the radio,

"You are now entering Lylat territory," it stated, "identify yourself or prepare to be shot down." I looked franticly for the speaker to answer, I couldn't find it, "This is your final warning, identify yourself or be shot down." I swore as I searched, I couldn't find it, I swore again, "We are now engaging your craft." I now repeatedly swore as I saw several green and white craft engage, one of them shot my craft causing electricity to flow through the craft and my body, knocking me unconscious.