~ 𝓓𝓪𝓷𝓰𝓮𝓻𝓸𝓾𝓼 💞 𝓡𝓸𝓶𝓪𝓷𝓬𝓮 ~

[Part 2] [All Aboard!]

The clock chimed, as it's hands pointed no further than twelve o' clock. Xavier rolled over in his bed opening one eye, looking over at his colleague from across the room, Caroline. He grinned, watching her snore. Her floppy ears wiggled every time she breathed out. Xavier yawned, rolling back over, glancing at his calendar. He grabbed the marker stuck in the spiral holding up the calendar's pages, and crossed out October 23rd. "Today's the day." The rat mouthed. He promptly fell right back asleep.. for what felt like merely 5 seconds. He was woken up by a hard gut punch. His eyes shot open violently. "OW! What the fu—" Xavier quickly tossed and turned to see Brett, staring petulantly back at him as he interrupted "God, you slumber like a sloth." Xavier glared the owl dead in the eyes "What the hell is your problem?" He mumbled, rubbing his eye, simultaneously clutching his stomach. "Being surrounded by total dimwits." Brett scoffed, fixing his glasses as he walked out the door of the dorm. The rat sighed, getting out of bed. He did not need this at seven in the morning. He grabbed himself a fresh pair of clothes, and headed towards the shower house. I'm not going to type about the birds and bees, so don't get your hopes up. After doing so, he went and got himself a mug of coffee. Black coffee, to be precise. Xavier stood by the machine, drinking his coffee as one of his crewmates stopped by. "Hey, 'One-ear'. How you doin'?" He asked. Xavier chuckled "Okay. How bout' you, Auschwitz?" Xavier slyly shot back. "H-Hey man, words can hurt!" The squirrel said in a sad tone as he prepared his latte. Xavier had always liked his squirrel friend, Ash. "So, how'd you sl—" Ash attempted to ask a question, but was stopped by his walkie-talkie "Hey, Ash, come in. Professor Dixie wants you to do something for him." The device boomed. Ash picked it up, speaking into it "I'll be up there in just a bit." He replied. "It's not urgent, so you're good." The walkie talkie replied. Ash sighed "Can I get a break man?" He snickered, slightly annoyed. Xavier watched Ash finish his drink, and leave. "See you later, Ash!" He waved "You too." Ash said with out skipping a beat. Xavier checked his watch. It read nine forty-seven. "Chore time.. Yay." Xavier frowned, walking down the hall and out of the cafeteria. He knew the power cables had been acting up, so he went to go check there first. After a bit, he closed the power box. Everything was in perfect condition. Electricity is weird, man. The rat went to the janitor's closet, as he was the unlucky one to have to do the mopping and floor scrubbing today. On his depressed, yet merry way, he ran into someone "Oh, hey Fran." He waved at the toucan "I'd love to talk, but I gotta go. Sorry!" Fran yelled, flapping his wings as he ran down the hall. "Jeez. Everybody's a lot more busy than usual..". He opened the closet door, and grabbed cleaning supplies out of it, then closed the door behind him. He walked the hall back to the cafeteria. He saw Caroline and Brett chatting. It was obvious Brett had a huge crush on Caroline. Everyone did, for some reason. Well, not everyone, but some. Xavier did for sure. He entered the cafeteria, and got to mopping. Fran entered, holding a box of what appeared to be tons of canned energy drinks. "Restocking?" Xavier asked "Restocking." Fran confirmed. "Everyone's quite busy today, don't you think?" Fran asked. "Yeah. We're supposed to be boarding at like.. two thirty, right?" Xavier thought out loud. "Yeah. We still have like almost five hours!" Fran exclaimed, refilling the monster drinks. Footsteps echoed through the hall as somebody walked into the cafeteria. They sat down on one of the barstools "Brett said something about it being somebody's birthday day. Someone important, I guess." The cat mumbled "Hey Hazel." Fran greeted the cat, stocking the last few drinks into the machine, turned around. Hazel looked at the menu. Fran grabbed the box he had emptied, and headed it back to the storage room. Xavier was almost done scrubbing the floors clean. Hazel sighed, and stood up. The cat left, popping her fingers. Xavier glared up at her. He never had much to say to her, and she probably thought the same. The rat finished scrubbing the floor and headed back to the closet with the supplies. He checked his watch. It read one sixteen "Oh shoot, I better get going." He said, running back to his dorm. He started getting things ready, because he and his team had little time before they left the face of the earth. Xavier had gotten his suit and sat in his room for a little bit. He was excited and scared. He never thought he'd be making it into space. Caroline walked in, walking over to her side of the dorm. She grabbed some papers. "Hey" she said. "Hi." She sat on her bunk, sorting through them. She noticed Xavier bouncing his leg "..What's up with you?" She asked. "Um.. Space?" He replied "You know, the place that *we* are going. We're gonna make the news!" Caroline laughed "Yeah, for maybe a week." Xavier looked down at the floor "So? Fame is Fame." Caroline smirked "So? A year is a year. Remember, we're gonna be up there for a good few years." She said, looking at a space poster on the wall. "I mean, it won't be too long.. probably like 7 years at most!" Xavier argued back "What's three-hundred-sixty-five times seven?" Caroline blurted. Xavier went quiet not long after. "That's what I thought." Caroline finished. "I rest my case.". The rat sighed "It'll still be kinda fun though." He muttered. "Can't argue with that." Caroline agreed. "Well, we should get going." The dog added, getting up. She adjusted the collar on her spacesuit. The light refracted off her bright yellow suit. The big black letters spelling the word 'Goldie' reflected. "I'll go get my suit on." Xavier replied heading over to his suit stand. He put on the suit, piece by piece. The maroon of his suit glowing so beautifully. He adored it. "Okay, let's go." He said through his helmet, muffled. "You—You can take that helmet off." Caroline said, giving him a funny look. "Shh.. It's for effect." Xavier said putting his finger over the glass of his helmet. Afterwards, they made their way to the outside, where the rocket would be launched. Lord knows the amount of people in the crowds. The crew walked down the red carpet towards the spaceship. Xavier took off his helmet, all slo-mo-like. Caroline immediately looked away from him out of embarrassment. Cheering filled the air, alongside the sound of cameras clicking. Xavier smiled to cover up the knot in his stomach. Brett yelled "Ladies! Calm down!". The cheers seemed to get louder..? Fran ran up behind the crew nearly dropping his helmet "S-Sorry! I'm late!". Professor Dixie stood close to the ship's entrance. The ship was huge, bigger than any before. Dixie began to give a speech about the ship, what was in it, what their goal was and what the team was contributing to 'furmanity'(Idk?). There was applause shortly after. Xavier, of course, didn't listen like the others. He already knew how the ship worked, as it was some kind of wet dream to him. He loved it. Dixie finally finished his speech.

/_\ The Future is Now /_\

The crew shortly boarded the ship. Since you can't be right next to a launching rocket, of course, the spectators spread before the rocket launched. "I'm so hyped!!!" Fran screeched "You ain't gotta yell, man." Ash turned him down. "Sorry—" Fran apologized but was quickly interrupted "Can you two shut up already? You're giving me a headache!" Brett yelled, annoyed. "Sorry.." Fran apologized again. "We ready?" Xavier asked. "Slow down, tiger. We gotta wait a while before we can get this thing off the ground." Caroline requested. "Alright then." The rat replied. Hazel cleared her throat. "So.. how's Janice, Cleo?" Hazel asked Cleo, who was also a female cat who wasn't introduced earlier. "She's in better condition than before, for sure. She seems be dealing with the cancer pretty well!" Cleo answered. "Red, how we doing?" Xavier asked, looking at the red chipmunk. She was passed out. "Somebody slap her awake, please.." He sighed. A otter slapped her awake "Ah- oW!" Red groaned, drool running down her chin. "Why so hard..?" She asked "Because you're sleepin' on the job.." The otter said with a death glare. After about 20 minutes, the crew was ready. "We're about to launch, everyone find a seat. Now." Ash said, over the intercom. Everybody was strapped in, ready to head to space.

"3....2....1...."

"Blast Off!"