[Thunder]

The sound of a female scream roused Flareo from his slumber.

With a groan, he rolled over in his bed and covered his ears, grumbling. Good god. Was it morning already? He was still so tired from last night's mission. He wanted to sleep for another hour or two. He kept his eyes shut and was ready to drift off into slumber again, but then he heard the sound of someone running towards his room. After that came a series of rapid knocks on his door and a panicked voice calling out for him.

"Brother! Flareo! Help! Something weird is going on!"

[Thunder]

At last, Flareo opened his bleary eyes. That was Glacier yelling, and he certainly couldn't ignore her cries for help. With great effort, he pushed himself up and out of his bed, sticking his feet in the slippers by his bedside before shuffling over to the door and opening it. His sister was standing there, looking quite shaken.

"What is it, sis?" he groaned, trying to keep thoughts of a freshly brewed pot of coffee out of his mind.

"I'm gray!" Glacier cried. "Everything's gray!"

As his eyes focused more, Flareo finally noticed that yes, everything was gray. His sister's normally white and blue fur was now white and silver. The hallway was gray, the door was gray, and his room was gray. Even his own paws, when he glanced down at them, were gray instead of the color of flames and ashes.

[Thunder]

Flareo blinked at Glacier, dumbfounded. "Huh, you're right," he said. "Everything is gray."

Glacier almost looked relieved. "Oh, so I'm not the only one who's seeing it? That's good to know. When I woke up, I thought I was going crazy or developed some kind of eye disease overnight. So if you also can't see any colors, does that mean...?"

The unspoken question was answered immediately. Another door just down the hallway opened up, and out popped Lumo, whose normally neon green pelt was just as gray as Flareo's and Glacier's now. He gave the siblings a nervous look. "Umm, guys? Where did all the colors go?" Lumo asked.

Flareo sighed. This was going to be a long day.

[Thunder]

Throughout the entire morning, the Super Wolf Headquarters kept getting phone calls from multitudes of freaked out citizens demanding the Super Wolves to do something about the lack of color. Every time they picked up the phone, though, the audio was heavily distorted by static. Eventually, after what felt like hundreds of dropped, unintelligible, and generally stressful calls, the leader of the group, Geyser, made the decision to unplug all the phones in the building.

"Geeze, finally," he sighed, as he yanked the final phone cord out of its power outlet. "I don't think I want to pick up a phone ever again."

Flareo, who was sipping his daily cup of coffee at last, tapped his foot impatiently. "Okay, but what are we going to do about this?" he growled. "The whole world is losing their mind out there. Clearly, this is something that's affecting the entire region. Maybe even the entire globe. What's our plan?"

[Thunder]

Geyser rubbed the back of his head. "Finding out who's behind all this would be one step," he replied. "We can go out and gather some information. Though, we may want to get Geysette's team in on this, too. It seems like we will need a lot of hands on deck."

At that moment, Flora emerged from the living room, holding the television remote in her paws. "Umm, guys?" she said. "I think...there is something on the news you should see."

Geyser and Flareo followed her into the living room. Glacier and Lumo were already there, staring at the TV screen intently. Blitz was there, too, reclining on the couch, eating some chips out of a bowl. They were watching the Evelon Global News Channel, which was covering what the reporter was calling the "color outage". Just like the phone calls, the news broadcast kept getting interrupted by static, and every so often the screen would flicker and distort ominously.

[Thunder]

"The....olor outage...eems to be...a...orldwide phenom...enon," the wavering image of the reporter said. Her voice kept fading in and out with each wave of static. "Howev...er, spots of color have been...iscovered...in isolated, small patch...es around the world. Re...earchers in the Desuna re...gion have stated that they...re able to use...a special kind of...kail to collec...bottle the colors. By doing this...ey believe that they...an gradually re...tore color to the...orld. They are as...ing for volunteers to hel...them find and bottle...olors. If you're in...rested, please...isit the Alliance...reach Center in Desuna."

And with that, the TV screen had a particularly violent distortion before it blinked off all on its own. Flora stared down at the remote she was holding and then looked around at everyone else. "I...I didn't touch anything," she squeaked.

[Thunder]

Blitz popped another chip in his mouth. "Well, you heard the broadcast," he said. "There's researchers in Desuna bottling up the colors or...something like that. And they say they can put the colors back in the world. I'm kinda confused though. What was that about a special type of kale? Is it edible?"

"I...don't think it's that kind of kale, Blitz," Geyser sighed. "Anyway, what was all that flickering and warping about?"

Flareo shrugged. "It's almost like it's almost Halloween," he grumbled.

"But honestly, that was pretty spooky," Lumo said, flattening his ears and curling his tail around himself in nervousness. "It's like the TV is haunted... And the phones were having problems too, you know? What exactly is going on?"

[Thunder]

Geyser crossed his arms. "Well, whatever is happening," he said, "we can't let it get to us. We're heroes. We have to face the problem, not run away from it. I think it'd be a good idea to talk to these scientists in Desuna. Maybe we can help them collect some colors. And while we're doing that, we can search for whatever may have caused this color outage."

"Yeah, and maybe we can try some of that special kale while we're there!" Blitz added.

Glacier put her palm to her face and shook her head. "For the last time, Blitz, it's probably not that kind of kale," she sighed.

Geyser interrupted with a light cough. "Anyway," he said, "I will contact Geysette and the other team and tell them to meet us there. Let's get ready to move out. We'll leave right around ten."

[Thunder]

Once preparations were complete, the team got a hold of their private jet and flew to Desuna. It was easy to reach the Alliance Outreach Center from the airport; due to the color outage, many shuttles were transporting willing volunteers to go help the researchers. They all boarded a shuttle and went off through the vast, flat plains of the region, a sea of gray where there once was green.

When they arrived at the center, there were already hundreds of people scrambling around. Some held bottles of color and strange devices. Others carried clipboards with notes. There were also odd, black and white reptilian creatures following around the people at the center. A few of these creatures had splashes of color in their scales.

[Thunder]

Geyser scanned the crowd for Geysette. Eventually, he saw a paw waving up over the heads of the crowd. When the sea of people parted, there was a female wolf who looked much like him hopping up and down. "Heyyy!" she called out. "Over here!"

The team headed towards Geysette. There were two others standing next to her, a tall and lanky, winged maned wolf and robot made in the shape of a wolf. Geyser embraced Geysette, hugging her tightly. Then, he took a step back, putting his paws on his hips. "It's good to see you sister!" he greeted. "And it's good to see you two as well, Ace and Sigma! But where are Pelagos, Shadow, and Bella?"

[Thunder]

"They already headed out," Geysette explained. "They're going to examine some areas at sea and on the coast. What about you all? Have you figured out where you want to help out, yet?"

Geyser shook his head. "No, we just got here and don't even really know what's going on. What should we do?"

"I heard they could use some help in the Slums," Ace chimed in. "Most of the volunteers here aren't really keen on traveling there with all the crime and shadiness and whatnot. But we aren't just any old volunteers, right?" He grinned and nudged Sigma, who didn't respond.

"There's been some reports of a weirdo disrupting the volunteer efforts at the Slums as well," Geysette added. "So I think going there would be worthwhile."