Chapter 10
Tommy pushed open the door to his apartment. “Charlie!” He yelled, dumping his stuff by the door.
“Yeah?” Charlie’s head popped out of a doorway.
“Oh, hey. Sam Stark is going to call you from a weird number and I need you to not answer him like you usually answer weird numbers. Okay?”
“What- What do you mean Sam Stark is going to call me? Why?” Charlie moved into the room, his expression confused.
“That’s Wilbur’s boss, apparently. He wants me to go do shit for him. He’ll explain it to you, as long as you don’t answer him like he’s a scammer.”
“What, you don’t want me to ask him if he’s hidden the body yet?” Charlie grinned.
“Absolutely do not do that.” Tommy deadpanned.
Charlie laughed, sitting on the counter next to him. “Did you meet him? Why’s he calling me?”
“Because I told him to.” Tommy sighed. “I don’t know. He didn’t offer me a job, he offered me ‘enrichment’. He thinks I’m smart. He said he wants to build on that.”
“That’s… Interesting.” Charlie said. “What did you tell him?”
“I told him to talk to you first.”
Charlie gave him a weird look. “What? Why? You should have just said yes, you don’t need my permission to work for Sam Stark, dude.”
“Yeah, I know, I knew you would say yes. I just panicked. I needed time to think.”
Charlie frowned. “To think? Why?”
Tommy was silent for a second, stepping towards the counter. Charlie shifted, and Tommy lifted himself to sit next to him. “I don’t know.” He sighed. “I… Sam fucking Stark just told me I was smart. He was impressed enough by me and my brain to ask me himself to enrich me. School is easy for me, too easy, it’s boring. You know that. He told me he wants to challenge me. Sam Stark noticed that and asked me to come in to ask if he could challenge me. Do you know how bat-shit crazy that is? Why me, specifically? He only knows of me because I did something at work for his employees. Do you know what else he asked me? He wants me to work on shit for the Avengers. New gear, it sounds like. That is bat-shit fucking crazy. I just… I don’t know. That’s a lot. I’m doing a lot of stuff already. I don’t know if I want to say yes.”
Charlie was quiet, nodding as he thought. “I think… That it would be good for you. You should be challenged. I can’t do that myself. If we tried anything else, you wouldn’t have any time to be a teenager. But this would replace your job now, right? And you’d be getting paid more. This will look great to any future employers, too. You’re getting paid to be able to get paid, basically.”
“Yeah. Yeah, I know. I don’t know why I’m being weird.” Tommy sighed.
“Hey, it’s okay to be hesitant. This sounds like a lot, and definitely for you. You’re a kid, and it’s a big leap from working at a tailor’s to working at the Stark tower for the Avengers. You still have time to think about it. I think you should say yes, do it, but it’s your decision, okay? If you tell me you don’t want to, I’ll tell Stark no. You don’t need a reason.”
“Okay.” Tommy breathed, nodding. “Okay.”
Charlie smiled at him. “Let’s eat dinner, yeah?”
“Hell yes, good idea.” Tommy grinned, hopping off the counter.
Charlie got the call before he had to go to work. Tommy told him to say yes.
He didn’t go out that night, not immediately. The suit that Sam had given him had sat above him in the tiles of his ceiling since he’d gotten it. He hadn’t decided to look it over yet, but when Charlie went to work, he tugged it back out to scan over its code.
He lay the suit upside-down over his bed, bringing his computer to sit next to it, as well as a cord to connect the two. He opened the back, and plugged the cord into the suit, then plugged the other end into his computer. Code opened on his screen, rapidly displaying different complicated lines. While he waited for everything to show up, he looked over the suit closely for any trackers. If there were any, he assumed there would already be some sort of government head showing up at his front door, so it was highly unlikely there was since it hadn’t happened yet. He just wanted to make sure. His search found nothing. So he turned to the coding.
Everything was looking fine. Something called the “Baby Monitor Protocol” had been disabled. He didn’t want to know what that was, so he didn’t look into it. Another thing caught his eye, the “Training Wheels Protocol”. It was enabled. And there was a note, addressing him directly.
A comment in the code was written beneath the protocol title. I want to give full access of the suit to you, but I can only do that if you’re directly working for me. Until then, don’t change this code. You have access to the AI I’ve installed, but if you change any of the code, I will be notified and the deal is off. The AI does not and will not answer to me unless you touch the code. So as long as you leave it as is, the suit is yours and I have no access to it :).
Tommy did look through this protocol. A lot of things were disabled. He didn’t really need any of them, but he still scowled. His own suit wasn’t even fully accessible to him, and he couldn’t change it. It didn’t really violate the deal, though. The deal was just that Sam would take everything that could give his identity away off, and he’d done that, so Tommy couldn’t really complain. He had the suit still, and it’s not like he would need whatever Insta-Kill was for his neighborhoodly Spider-Manning. He was interested in whatever AI was there, though.
After he finished scanning over the rest of the code, he unhooked the suit, and pulled it on, making sure the curtains over his window were drawn. And God it felt good to be in the suit again. As soon as he pulled the mask over his head, though, things got trippy.
Different modes flashed across his vision. Something with heat sensors, his coordinates, boxes with text he couldn’t read. “Woah!” He exclaimed, looking around wildly.
“Good evening, Spider-Man.” A smooth, feminine voice with an American accent said in his ear.
“What the fuck? Are you the AI?” Tommy asked, his eyes narrowed.
“Yes, I am.” The voice answered. “I was put in place by Sam Stark for your use.”
Tommy blinked. He really had an AI. “Oh, that’s sick. What’s your name, then?”
“I do not have one currently.”
“Oh, well that’s a problem.” Tommy scoffed. “Uh, you don’t have any connection to Mr. Stark, right?”
“No, my contact with Sam Stark is currently blocked.”
“What could un-block it?”
“The block would fall if any of the suit’s code was changed. And an exception would be made for me to bypass the block if you asked me to contact him.”
“Alright.” Tommy nodded to himself. “And you’re not connected to anyone else, right? Just me?”
“Until you ask otherwise, that is correct.”
“Sick.” Tommy climbed up the wall absentmindedly. “Well, if you’re my AI, then I need something to call you.”
“You can call me whatever you like.”
“Really? Sweet.” Tommy checked the web-shooters on the suit to see if they were still full. Sam didn’t know he could shoot his own webs yet, which he thought was hilarious. The cartridges were the same ones he’d put in there last time. “Okay, what about Karen?”
“I will respond to Karen from now on.”
Tommy grinned. “Awesome. This is so goddamn cool. Alright, Karen, I’m going to patrol. I’m gonna take the suit off for now, I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
He took the suit off, just throwing his shirt and pants on and stuffing his suit into his backpack before climbing out the fire escape. When he found somewhere good to change, he set out, back in the suit.
“Hey Karen?”
“Yes, Spider-Man?”
“If I did my weird electric thingy in the suit, would it fuck everything up?”
“If you did not control it to not affect the suit, yes.”
“Oh. Well that’s a problem.”
“Yes, I can imagine.”
<Wilbur> you should come in today so we can give you a tour
<Tommy> when
<Wilbur> sometime today, preferably
<Tommy> prick
<Tommy> I’m just going to show up without warning now
<Wilbur> good
He did end up giving a warning, if only to have someone walk him past security. Punz led him from the front door to the floors above, seeming a lot less cold than he did the day before. Tommy still declined to talk to them, as he was slightly intimidated, though he would never admit that.
Friday asked what floor they wanted to go to. Punz told her. “You’ll get permissions to ask for these floors tomorrow. For now, only me and the Avengers have access to them.” They said to Tommy. He just nodded.
When the doors opened, Wilbur greeted them. “Hi.” He grinned.
“Hi.” Tommy raised an eyebrow. “Where’s Sam?”
“In his labs. Come on.” Wilbur gestured, walking away. Tommy jumped to follow, Punz reluctantly trailing behind.
AC-DC music blasted Tommy’s ears as soon as they entered the labs. Wilbur picked something small up from one of the very cluttered tables and chucked it at the figure of Sam, whose focus was entirely diverted to the thing in front of him that he was working on. It hit his neck directly, and he jumped, bringing his hand up as he turned to give Wilbur a scathing look. “Why. Why? That wasn’t necessary.”
“You don’t answer to anything else.” Wilbur grinned.
Sam’s gaze shifted to Tommy, and he paused. “Oh, hi, Tommy. What- What are you doing here…?”
“I literally sent you a message an hour ago that I was going to tell him that you wanted to show him around.” Wilbur rolled his eyes.
“You did?” Sam tapped his watch. “Oh. You did.”
“I rest my case.” Wilbur huffed, crossing his arms.
Sam made a face at him, then ignored him. “C’mere, Tommy.” He waved him over.
Tommy glanced at Wilbur, and moved to Sam’s side. He leaned back, looking at Tommy. “What’s going on here?” He asked, gesturing.
A stand-alone fingerless Iron Man glove lay on the table, some of the metal plates removed with wires sticking out and the repulsor completely exposed. “I have no goddamn idea.” He said. Sam raised an eyebrow, so he looked a little closer. “Uhhh… Well, the wires aren’t attached yet. And the repulsor doesn’t look very stable. I’d say you’re installing it.”
Sam nodded. “Yeah, I am. I made one of these a while ago, they’re for the road when I can’t bring my whole suit. Emergency, whatever. It proved useful a while ago, so I wanted to make some backups. This is my third.”
“That’s sick.” Tommy said, leaning down to look at it closer. “It’s gotta compact, right? You’re a compact-y man.”
“Yeah. It’s supposed to start out as a watch.” Sam said. “I’m not quite there yet.”
“Why fingerless, though? Isn’t that less protection?” Tommy asked.
“I want it to be as light as possible. And it’s more offensive than defensive.” Sam told him, pushing back his stool to stand. “I’ll show you how it works tomorrow. Today, you’re here for a tour.” He threw his arms out, making a sweeping gesture about the room. “This is my lab. I’m aware that it’s… Unorganized, but I promise I know where everything is. That’s Dum-E.” Sam pointed to a little robot across the room. The robot waved at him.
“Why’d you name it that?” Tommy raised an eyebrow.
“I did not name it. Ponk named it.” Sam corrected, smiling a little. “I have no idea why. Come with me, I’ll show you the upper floors.”
“What? You didn’t say you were going to do that.” Punz narrowed his eyes.
“Relax, man. The kid’s not a spy. It’s fine.” Sam said, brushing past him back toward the elevator.
“Are you a spy?” Wilbur asked him as he trailed behind.
“No.” Tommy scoffed. “I am a great liar, but not good enough to fool the Tower’s head of security.”
Punz shot him a look, unconvinced. “Whatever, you’re the boss. I’m staying with you, though.”
“I wouldn’t ask you to leave.” Sam said smoothly, stepping into the elevator. “Friday, could you take us up to the other labs, please?”
“Of course, boss.” Friday answered, the elevator moving.
“Please don’t touch anything, Wilbur.” Sam said as he stepped out onto a different floor and opened a door.
“I would never.” Wilbur grinned, looking around at all the equipment and chemicals and things that scattered the room.
Tommy recognized this mess way better than Sam’s stuff. It was mostly chemistry, with some weird specimens on display, liquids bubbling just like a TV show, and in the center of it all was a guy in a lab coat, sitting in a wheelie chair. As he spun around to grab something, Tommy caught a glimpse of his face before he spun back around. Now that he had the context of a chemistry lab, he could put a name to the face; Zak Banner.
“Skeppy.” Sam called to him.
He jolted a little, turning his head. His eyes ran over the four. “One second. Hey, uh, stand back in case this splatters so you don’t get horribly disfigured, yeah?”
Tommy took a step back, craning his neck to see what he was doing. “This is Zak Banner, if you didn’t know that, he’ll tell you to call him Skeppy if you say that though. He’s our resident mad scientist.”
“Fuck you, Sam!” Skeppy called over his shoulder. Tommy watched him carefully squeeze exactly three drops of a clear liquid from a dropper into a separate, steaming murky mixture, and watched him wait for the reaction. The murkiness cleared, and you could see the bubbles raise through the liquid. “Hah! It worked!” He stood, grinning. He turned the heat down, turning toward them.
“That was sick, what the hell are you doing?” Tommy asked him. He’d never quite seen that reaction before.
“I’m trying to make a chemical that will help the healing process.” Skeppy told him, his eyes alight with giddiness. “It’s supposed to be an organic based spray-on that will encourage the cells to multiply and repair themselves faster, to help speed-heal. I’ve been trying to modify the formula we already have for humans for a few days, now. This is my latest version.”
“Modify it?” Tommy echoed. “Why?”
“There’s an alien who we want to heal. He’s part human, part something else. I had to change the proteins a little to match his cell designs.”
“That’s awesome.” Tommy told him.
“Are you going to test it?” Sam asked.
“Uh, yeah,” Skeppy nodded.
“Do it now.” Sam told him.
“Test it how?” Tommy asked him.
“We took a sample of the cells. I just have to spray it with the solution, and they should multiply. Without any defects this time.” Skeppy said, moving things around. The liquid had cooled off rather quickly, and he moved it to a clean spray-nozzled bottle.
“Can I watch?” Tommy asked eagerly. Skeppy shot a look at Sam, who nodded.
“Yeah, sure.” Skeppy said, pulling up a microscope. He ran a hand through his hair, and tiny shimmering specks fell out and onto the floor. Looking down, Tommy saw light reflect off tiny sand-sized bits of blue gemstone. The action seemed thoughtless, and Skeppy didn’t seem to react to the shiny that rained down in front of him for a second. He pulled out an already-prepared slide, and slot it into the microscope. He zoomed in until he was satisfied, then tapped the side of the microscope. A holographic of some strange-looking cells projected above it. Skeppy grinned at him, taking the spray bottle. He spritzed the slide with the liquid inside. Tommy stepped back, watching the cells.
They began to multiply within seconds. With nothing attached to them, they didn’t have anything to tell what needed repaired, so they stopped once the number had doubled. “Woah.” Tommy gaped.
“It works! Hell yeah!” Skeppy raised his arms in triumph.
“Did you do that all by yourself?” Tommy asked him. He knew Skeppy was a genius, but to do that in the very few days that had passed since Tommy’d led a group of aliens to the Stark tower, on his own, would be damn impressive.
“Oh, no, not really. Ponk helped a lot, he’s better with organic material that me.” Skeppy told him.
Tommy nodded. That was a bit more of a realistic feat. “That’s sick.”
“I have to take this to the medical wing.” Skeppy breathed, looking at Sam.
“That’s Tommy, by the way.” Sam said, amused, but nodded at him.
“Tommy, got it. Uh, I’ll see you later!” Skeppy waved, tearing off his goggles and running towards the elevator with the bottle in hand.
Tommy watched him leave. “That was… Abrupt.” He commented.
“Yeah.” Sam laughed. “Anyway, this is where the chemistry takes place. Skeppy is the one who uses it the most.”
“The only one who uses it.” Punz snorted.
“I would use it too, if you let me.” Wilbur sniffed.
“No. I don’t want you to freeze any of my doors.” Sam told him.
“It was a safe door, and I was stealing from an old rich guy because I had no money. Now I have one paying me to exist, why would I want to steal from him?” Wilbur retorted.
“Yeah, well for that comment, you’re definitely not getting access.”
“What do you mean?” Wilbur protested.
“Pretty sure you just called him old, big man.” Tommy snorted.
Wilbur opened his mouth to retort, but Sam cut him off. “Alright, moving on.” He said, moving back to the elevator. “To the common floor, please, Friday.”
When they stepped back out again, Tommy was met with a wide-open space and a lot of windows. A big flatscreen TV was embedded in the wall to the left of the windows in front of a space that was lowered into the floor, a couch circling the side. A red-enveloped pen suddenly came streaking from behind said couch. Sam caught it before it could hit him.
“Really, Tubbo?” He deadpanned.
Tubbo’s grinning face popped up over the back of the couch. His expression changed when he saw Tommy, into excitement. “Tommy! I didn’t know you were going to be here today!” He scrambled over the back to join his side.
“I’m just showing him around. Where’s everyone else?” Sam asked.
Tubbo shrugged. “I’m the only one here, at the moment. Ranboo’s in his room, I think. The old men are in the training room, Phil’s beating up sand again. I don’t know where anyone else is.”
Sam nodded. “Hey Friday, where are Niki and Q?”
“Niki is not currently in the building. Quackity is on the balcony.”
“Of course he is.” Sam sighed. “Can you ask him to get in here? And Phil?”
“Yes, boss.”
“What a queen.” Tommy murmured to himself.
“So you accepted the job.” Tubbo said.
“Yeah, I did.”
“Hell yeah. Punz is gonna pick us up from school, and you’re coming with.” Tubbo told him.
“Woah, woah. Says who?” Punz cut in.
“Says me.” Tubbo told him.
“I can walk. I have legs.” Tommy snorted.
“No you don’t.” Tubbo smiled.
“Oh, no, please do not make that face at me ever again.” Tommy told him. That smile was too nefarious for his liking.
He heard footsteps behind him, and turned. Hawkeye sauntered towards them, grinning. “Sam, please tell me you didn’t pick up another homeless kid.”
Tubbo scoffed, offended. “We weren’t homeless!”
“Sure.” The other raised an eyebrow.
“Uh, no, he has a home. This is Tommy.” Sam introduced.
“Hi.” Hawkeye nodded at him.
“Hey.” Tommy said.
“He’s gonna help around the tower.” Sam said.
“Oh. Cool. Well I’m Quackity, most call me Q.”
“That’s an interesting name.” Tommy commented.
“Thanks.” Quackity grinned.
Tommy heard the elevator door open, and turned again. The Captain stepped out, followed by Techno. The latter hung behind, leaning on the wall and watching as the former stepped toward them.
“What’s going on…?” The Captain asked, his gaze landing on Tommy. He was intimidating, he wasn’t going to lie, and Tommy glanced away for a second before remembering he was currently a Normal Civilian.
“This is Tommy.” Sam repeated.
The other’s face changed into curiosity, and he turned, looking back at Techno. “This is the kid?” He asked, turning back.
“This is the kid.” Wilbur grinned at him.
“Oh. Well, nice to meet you, mate. I’m Phil.”
“Nice to meet you too, Phil.” Tommy smiled, a glimmer in his eye. He leaned to wave at Techno. The man just quirked an eyebrow at him.
“He’s going to be up here a lot, so, you know, make peace with that.” Sam told them.
“Oh yeah? What do you do?” Quackity asked.
“Science.” Tommy answered, biting back the urge to respond ‘drugs’. “I’m a chemist.”
“Are you a chemist like Skeppy’s a chemist, or are you a chemist like you make cocaine and heroin?”
“For legal reasons, I’m going to have to say just the first one.” Tommy smirked. It seemed they were on the same wavelengths after all.
“All chemists know how to make drugs.” Wilbur scoffed.
“That’s… Not really good.” Phil said.
“And you’re old.” Wilbur shot back.
“Okay, guys, please.” Sam interrupted. “I just wanted you to meet him. I’m showing him around.”
“Boss, the alien is showing rapidly improving vitals.” Friday cut in.
Sam paused. “Well, shit. You told Ponk first?”
“I did. He’s on his way.”
Sam turned, making a beeline for the elevator. “Take me down, then.”
Tommy started after him. “I want to come.” He said.
Sam glanced back at him. “I’m not sure if that’s a good idea.”
“Why? I’ll be quiet, it’s not like I’m going to purposefully overwhelm him. And if he’s aggressive or whatever, you’re Sam Stark, you’ll handle it.”
“Solid logic.” Techno commented, watching them.
Sam sighed. “Alright, fine. The rest of you, stay here.”
“Saaaaaaam.” Tubbo whined.
Sam shot him a look, stepping into the elevator. Tommy hopped in after, the doors shut and the elevator dropped a few floors.
Once they stepped off again, Sam rushed very professionally towards a room. The floor looked a lot like a hospital, with light blue walls and long corridors. “Why’s it so big in here?” Tommy asked, keeping pace.
“Prepared for an emergency.” Sam answered, pushing open a door. Seven different people occupied the room, though the area was rather spacious, so there wasn’t a room problem. The four aliens Tommy had escorted the other day stood to the side, murmuring amongst themselves. “What’s going on?” Sam asked, joining Skeppy and Ponk at the side of the bed with the human alien laying on it.
“I have no idea, I just got here.” Ponk said.
Sam turned to Skeppy. “I used the spray, and it worked. The big wounds that haven’t been healing on their own started patching up, and now his vitals are being funky. Look, his heart rate’s going up, a lot.” Skeppy explained, pointing.
A glance at the heart monitor showed that his heart rate was going up. The lines on the screen flashed rapidly, much faster than normal. Tommy could hear his breathing, and it was sharp and quick. It was like listening to someone panic. Sapnap’s eyes moved behind their lids, swinging around wildly. “Hold on, lean back for a minute.” Ponk said, stepping away himself. Skeppy followed.
Sapnap shot up, screaming. It turned into the word, “No!” at the end.
He immediately groaned, clenching his fists and looking down at his bandaged arms. Bad stepped up to put a gentle hand on his shoulder before he could panic. “Hey, it’s okay, you’re fine.” He assured, his eyes alight with concern.
The other flinched a little at the contact, looking up. His eyes lit with recognition. He leaned around Bad, searching faces until he found Callahan’s. His shoulders loosened, relief flashing across his face before it was pulled into a hard expression. “Where are we?” He asked curtly, scanning the rest of the room. His scathing gaze swiveled over a dude and a kid, a guy with sparkling hair and a white coat, and another with a weird coloured arm.
“We brought you to Earth.” Bad told him, his brows knit together. He didn’t remove his hand. “We didn’t know where else to go. You weren’t waking up.”
“Earth?” Sapnap echoed, blinking and looking around again. His expression involuntarily relaxed, like he was trying to process.
“Yeah. We came to the Stark Tower. We figured it was the best way to help with your… I don’t know, your other half, as well as the human half.” Bad explained.
“We’re in Stark Tower?” Sapnap hissed, leaning forward a little.
“Alright, back up.” Ponk cut in. He started peppering him with questions, mostly to make sure he didn’t have any hidden injuries and that he wasn’t going to pass out again anytime soon.
“Tell us what happened, man.” Antfrost prodded as soon as Ponk stepped away for a second.
“We found you on an empty planet looking like death, and Callahan doesn’t remember anything before sending us a help signal. What the fuck happened?” Velvet asked.
“You don’t remember?” Sapnap turned his head sharply to look at Callahan, and winced at the sudden movement. The other shook his head. “Well, fuck.” He muttered. He looked down, twisting his mouth. “Get this needle outta me.”
Ponk took out the IV, figuring he could probably sustain himself, at least at the moment. Sapnap kicked off the blankets of the bed, crossing his legs even though it hurt to move. “Alright, well this starts a while ago. You remember when we were contacted by the Sovereign?”
They all nodded, but Sapnap was more focused on Callahan’s agreement. “Okay, good. I got a message from them. I told you they wanted me for a mission, and I took Callahan with me.”
“Yeah, we remember.” Velvet said carefully.
“I know you do, this is for Sparkly’s benefit.” Sapnap said, throwing a thumb at Skeppy. “Well, they wanted us to defend something for them. They have some very powerful batteries, Anulax batteries, they’re worth like thousands of units apiece. Anyway, this giant space-beast has been coming to try to eat them for a while, so they wanted it gone.
“I took a different ship, and me and Callahan went to the Sovereign. We get there, they show us to the batteries, we wait for it to show up. The sky tears apart and out comes this giant fucking monster, pulling itself through the air with huge tentacles. We kill it, because we’re cool like that. You still following, Callahan?”
His friend nodded, signing. Antfrost repeated his words out-loud. “Yeah. He remembers slicing its stomach open.”
“Good.” Sapnap smirked. “So we killed it, and we go to the Sovereign’s big pretentious golden ball to meet with their leader to get payment. She was kind of hot, not gonna lie-”
“Sapnap, please. No one wants to hear this.” Bad huffed.
“What kind of payment? It must have been a lot, right? They’re people of gold.” Velvet said.
“They didn’t offer money.” Sapnap said, sighing. “They’re very delicate people. They get insulted very easily. Knowing me, I didn’t trust myself to not get shot the second I opened my mouth. I only agreed to do the job because they said they had my brother.”
“What?” Velvet said sharply.
“You mean, like, the brother who is constantly trying to kill you? That brother?” Ant asked.
Sapnap nodded. “Yup. That brother. I only have one.”
“Why? Why would you do that?” Bad asked him incredulously.
“He has a bounty on him on Xandar.” Sapnap told him.
“Why didn’t you just ask them for units, instead of trying to transport someone who wants to kill you?” Antfrost asked.
“They weren’t offering units. They were offering him.”
“How did he even end up there?” Velvet asked.
“He was trying to steal batteries.” Sapnap said. “They would have killed him if I didn’t take him.”
“Good.” Velvet snorted. Sapnap shot him a dirty look.
“Callahan doesn’t remember that.” Ant said, glancing at his friend.
Sapnap nodded. “Okay. Well, we were having engine issues. I jumped to the nearest planet with a breathable atmosphere so I could fix it. Y’know, one of those batteries would have been helpful, and I was incredibly tempted to steal one, but I didn’t want to get chased by a bunch of metal men, right? Anyway, we land. Fundy breaks out of the cuffs. He tries to kill me. Callahan tried to help, and I think I saw Fundy whack him over the head with the gun he took from the ship. Yeah, that’s what put the gaping wound in my stomach.” He lifted his shirt, looking at the patchy, healing skin that was spread out across his torso. “I don’t remember anything after that. I thought he was actually going to kill me.”
“Callahan sent us a signal after that.” Bad filled in.
Callahan nodded, signing. “He had a headache when he got up. He saw you getting your ass kicked, and went back to the ship to hit the signal.” Antfrost said.
“When we got there, the other ship bolted as soon as they saw us.” Velvet said.
“Why didn’t the big wounds heal on their own?” Skeppy asked, reminding the five that there were other people in the room.
“The gun was weird. It wasn’t plasma-based, it was something else.” Sapnap shook his head. “That’s probably why.”
Velvet furrowed his brow. “Okay, so your murderous brother is in the galaxy somewhere with his own spaceship and a weird gun that doesn’t let wounds heal on their own. What the fuck are we going to do about that?”
Sapnap’s breathing picked up a little. “I don’t know. He’s going to find me eventually, and he’s going to come here and he’s going to do whatever he can to kill me.”
Sam shot a look at Ponk. “He can’t leave Earth yet, he’s not healed. We can’t just spray him down, the rapid healing would cause too many health problems for him to deal with right now.” Ponk said. “If he moves too much he’s going to hurt himself.”
Sapnap stared at him. “Alright, who the hell are you?”
“Ponk Rhodes.”
Sapnap shot a look at the other three. “I’m Skeppy.” Sparkly hair said.
“I’m Tommy.” The kid grinned.
“Sam Stark.”
Sapnap made a weird face. “You’re Sam Stark?”
“Yeah.” Sam raised an eyebrow.
“I thought you’d be… Older. And more nerdy looking.” Sapnap told him.
Sam rolled his eyes. “Alright, so Ponk says you can’t leave the planet until you heal. How much time do we have until your brother finds you?”
“Not very long. Within the next few days.” Sapnap said.
“Okay. Well I don’t really want any more aliens killing anybody. What can we do about it? I have a whole team of people who can help.” Sam asked.
“I think… We have to capture him again.” Sapnap said.
“Okay.” Sam said slowly. “How do we do that?”
The other was quiet for a second. “We let him come to us.”