It was another long night.
A night of tossing, turning, groaning. Remembering.
Aside from the soft snores emitting from the man currently in his bed, all was silent within the shadowed room. Only soft twinkles from the stars outside the window provided the light for within. But even the stars would not be enough to drive away the darkness that haunted the Ranger's mind and room. It still lingered, a leech sucking him dry of any happiness in his dreams.
No. Space Ranger Ty Parsec's dreams were drowning with despair and fear.
And hope was slowly fading away into nothingness...
It was the night. He ran.
He ran through a field of trees...his breath frantic...his heart racing...he just kept looking forward, not back...
He had to get out of there, away from the thing that was chasing him.
He knew that it was catching up with him, he had to find a safe place to hide and quick. He needed to get away from this thing! Suddenly-
He didn't hear it anymore.
He wanted to stop and see why he didn't hear it, but he knew he couldn't. If he checked it out, he might have been attacked.
The human ran, ran until he reached a metal bunker in the ground. He smiled hopefully, he was going to get away, away from-
Then all of a sudden-SLAM! He felt something heavy come up behind him and shove him to the ground. He didn't have to look to see what it was, but he looked anyway.
The creature was the Wirewolf, grinning down at him with a sinister sneer on its face. It prepared to strike. The claws came down at him and slashed at his face.
The human screamed in pain, only to have his screams fade out.
A deathly and high gasp as Ty shot up straight in his bed with eyes wide open! Breathing in and out, in and out, rapidly, rapidly. Sweat dripped down his head as he tried to calm down after the distressing dream-no, NIGHTMARE-he had. The perspiration becoming too much, he wiped most of it off with a hand before he ran the same hand through his disheveled hair.
One deep breath in before he looked up at around his room.
Another nightmare for the books. The fourth time he had that particular one. Craters... why wouldn't it just leave him alone?
Feeling the frustration boil in his blood, he threw his bare body back against the warm bed, the remnants of sweat soaking in the mattress. His heavy breathing was the only sound in the entire room. Chest moving up and down at an uneven pace, he urged himself to relax.
Easy, Parsec, easy. It was over... for now.
But how long would the shaky moment of tranquility last?
The moment of tranquility only lasted for what seemed to be seconds for Ty.
A loud buzz filled Ty's ears to drop an unpleasant weight into his head. He had to slam his palms against his ears to drown out that horrible noise and turn onto his side in the sheets and away from the noise to get a sense of peace and quiet.
That blasted alarm clock...
He groaned as he turned to face it, intending to smash the alarm button off. Blindly patting around the table to locate the infernal contraption, he finally felt the smooth surface of the alarm. Once he felt its rectangular shape and found a small and round bump on it, he pressed down on it a few times. It took a matter of minutes before he was finally able to shut up the piece of junk.
What a relief.
But to the poor Ranger's unsurprising disgust, he knew the relief would not last long. He eventually would have to get up for another day at work, protecting the galaxy. Today was the day the leader of the Space Ranger Corps, Commander Nebula, was to fill him in on his assignment. Well, him AND a partner, but regardless. Either it would be a risky yet exciting mission to save some planet from some overwhelmingly large threat, or it would be something as mediocre as moderating Tanker Alley, with all of those buoys to keep out enemy ships from plunging into Capital Planet's atmosphere. Normally, he'd care about the contents behind the assignments, as any Ranger would, but today...
He cared little about his assignments.
Right now, he just wanted to stay in bed to rest and rid himself of this slightly hungover feeling. Maybe also sleep off the pain that came with it...
A loud knock, a noise louder than the alarm clock, demolished those plans.
"TY! You up yet?"
He groaned under his breath. HIM?
"Oh, no... "
"What was that, Ty?"
Sighing and quietly cursing at himself, he cleared his throat and replied to the bellowing voice behind the door, "Uh, nothing, Buzz. I'll be right out. Just give me about ten more minutes to get ready." Better to hide his nightmare from his friend now.
'Buzz' cheerfully acknowledged, "Alright, buddy! I'll wait up for you."
Ty nodded even though he knew Buzz wouldn't see it. Well...
Guess he had to go to work.
With another sigh, one of tired resignation this time, he shoved the covers off himself before he stepped out of bed. He then stood and stretched as much as he could to wake up his body before heading off into the bathroom to clean himself up and get ready for another long day.
His face clean of any debris, his hair maintained into a pompadour, and his white and green Enviro-Suit polished up, Ty stood in front of his door before taking a deep breath. Time to face another day in the galaxy again. He turned the knob to unlock the door...
And there on the opposite side of his threshold, leaning against the wall with arms crossed and whistling a happy tune, was his pal, Buzz Lightyear, also clad in the standard Space Ranger uniform.
His friend perked up and widely grinned when Ty marched out the door. "Morning, Ty, you ready to roll out?"
How badly had Ty wanted to say no. Oh, he was very tempted to say no so that he could go back to bed to sleep off the lingering bits of his nightmare and rising headache. But instead, he held his tongue of contempt and put on an upside-down frown. With an attempt to seem casual, he greeted, "Hey, Buzz. I'm about as ready as I'll ever be."
Buzz's grin couldn't get any more wider. "Well then, buddy. Let's go get 'em!" Buzz issued a friendly slap to Ty's back, nearly tipping the Ranger over. But he managed to keep his balance intact. However, that didn't mean Ty wasn't allowed to slightly grimace at Buzz's chipper attitude.
Normally, he would have smiled and appreciated his friend's attitude, but today? Fat chance!
And so, Ty sluggishly trailed behind a few steps after Buzz into the Docking Bay, where they were to meet up with Nebula.
He was in for a loooong day, wasn't he?