Chapter 11
Sam told him to go home after that interaction. Tommy agreed, figuring he would be busy trying to deal with the aliens. He told Charlie all about it, and swore him to secrecy. Then when his brother went to work, he grabbed his new suit and went out.
The next day, he woke up with more excitement for school than he’d felt in a very long time. He got up early and left early, and by the time he got to school his friends had already met with the principal to get last-minute things sorted out. He met them at the front doors.
“I don’t want to be here.” Tubbo groaned, doing a terrible job of hiding his smile.
“It’s just school, big man, you’ll be fine.” Tommy told him.
“We told the principal that you’d show us around so she didn’t get a stranger to do it.” Ranboo said, his hands clenching and unclenching the hem of his shirt.
Tommy raised an eyebrow at him. “You look uncomfortable.”
“That’s because I am.” Ranboo said. “I don’t like people. Especially a bunch of American teenagers.”
“That’s fair.” Tommy snorted. “It’s alright, you don’t have to talk to them. Come on.”
After taking a look at their schedules, he showed them to all the classes they’d be going to. A good portion of their classes were the same, with all of the core classes together, and only a few minor differences in electives. He introduced them to all his teachers. They both had to use different names to be able to keep their identities. Toby and Randy. Tommy didn’t like saying them out loud, it felt weird on his tongue. When school actually started for the day, things went pretty smoothly.
He knew people were looking at him. Here he was, the kid who never talked to anyone but the teachers, walking into class with two new kids and snickering with them. He knew people were surprised. That was okay. Class was suddenly a lot brighter. For once, he was louder than Flash, able to block his stupid comments out entirely with his own conversation. He sat with them at lunch, the three of them in their own little world at the end of an otherwise empty table, and they talked about things like murderous aliens and where the best place in the school for a hideout would be in a zombie apocalypse. When he got to the one class that he didn’t have with either of them, he was in a fairly good mood. Then when school ended, they sat on the front steps of the school while they waited for a certain person to show up.
Punz wrinkled his nose at Tommy when the extra child climbed into his back seat. “Hey Punz, we should go get ice cream.” Tubbo suggested, leaning into the front.
“Absolutely not.” Punz scoffed, pushing his face back.
“But why though?” Tubbo pouted, leaning back.
“Because I don’t want ice cream.”
“Yeah, but I do.”
“Unfortunate that I’m the one driving, then, isn’t it?”
Tubbo only stuck his tongue out. “You’re boring.”
Punz met his gaze in the rear view mirror, and pushed a button. A screen slid up the middle, separating them. “’Ay, what the hell?” Tommy scoffed.
“Yeah, they do that.” Ranboo told him.
Tommy was fully aware, they did that to him when they were driving to the Stark tower after Sam recruited him. “It’s rather rude, innit?”
“Innit.” Tubbo mocked.
Tommy wrinkled his nose at him. “If you were a real English person, you would say it, too.” He sniffed. Tubbo just elbowed him.
He was yanked out of the car the second they pulled up to the tower, quickly followed by Ranboo. They were in the elevator before Punz had even turned the car off. When they stepped back out of it, though, they were met with an… Interesting scene.
“What are you doing?” Ranboo asked, raising an eyebrow. The alien, Callahan, was knelt on the floor, his hands braced against the ground. Twisting brown branches were grown out of his skin, starting at his elbows. They grew out just a little, touching the ground, then curled up, twisting to circle around the base of a pot. Inside the pot was a wilted, dead-looking plant, and across from it was Skeppy, staring intently.
“He’s reviving my plant.” Skeppy grinned.
“That thing’s dead.” Tommy deadpanned, moving next to him.
Callahan shook his head, his expression of concentration never wavering. “Not yet, it’s not.” Skeppy told him.
“Are you a plant-killer, Skeppy?” Tubbo asked him.
Skeppy scoffed. “No. It was plant-slaughter, at best. I am… Not good with living tissue. That’s Ponk’s thing.”
“It’s not that hard to take care of a plant. You just water it.” Tommy deadpanned.
Callahan laughed silently. Skeppy shot him a glare. “No, it’s not that easy. You have to fertilize it, and keep the pH good enough for the plants. You have to have the right atmosphere.”
“I think you created a bad atmosphere by being a bitch.” Tommy retorted.
“You’re a bitch.” Skeppy shot back.
“And you’re a child.” Sam deadpanned, walking towards them after coming from absolutely nowhere.
Tommy laughed, pointing. “Sam called you a child!”
“I’m thinking that extends to you, too.” Sam raised an eyebrow. Tommy’s face dropped into a scowl. Sam tried to hold back his smile, but failed, merely laughing at him. “You want to get started, then, kid?”
“Hold on.” Tubbo grabbed his arm, staring at the plant.
Tommy followed his gaze. Small pinpricks of yellow light appeared from the dirt; some crawled up the stem of the plant, others floated up into the leaves. They seemed to breath life into the plant, lifting its leaves as they shined and disappeared into the veins. Some of the colour returned to the yellowed leaves, the brown crinkled ones falling off and disappearing into the dirt.
“Yeahhh!” Skeppy cheered. “Look at it! That’s a happy plant.” He scooped it up out of the branches, holding it up to admire it.
Callahan smiled, shaking his head and jerking his arms out of the branches as he stood. He held up his hands, signing.
“Uhhh… Translation, Friday?” Skeppy asked, raising an eyebrow at the ceiling.
“’You’re not going to try to kill it again, are you?’” Friday said.
“Oh, I mean, I’ll try not to.” Skeppy giggled, tucking the plant into his side.
Callahan nodded at him, smirking. He waved his hand over the roots, and they grew up from the broken points, small roots shooting out. Callahan let them attach to his hand, and they climbed up his arm, removing themselves from the floor and disappearing into his sleeves. He met each of the individual gazes staring at him, and waved, disappearing himself.
“That was cool.” Ranboo commented.
Tubbo leaned in to look at Skeppy’s plant. “It’s all green and shit now! That’s sick as hell!”
Tommy snorted, shaking his head. He turned to Sam, saying, “Yes, let’s.”
Sam smiled at him. “Come on. I want to show you my suits.”
Bad watched his friend, concern occupying his mind. The other was staring at the table, chewing slowly. He hadn’t had a reaction to the food – or the conversations around him – since the meal had started. Bad had enough of keeping his questions to himself. “Are you okay?” He asked quietly. “This is the first time you’ve had Earth food in a long time, and you haven’t really even noticed yet.”
Sapnap’s eyes moved onto him, losing their distant look. He paused in his chewing, and sighed through his nose, swallowing. “I don’t know. I’m… Thinking.”
“About?” Bad prompted gently.
“Fundy.” He admitted, exhaling heavily. Bad nodded, giving him time to continue. “I just… What are we going to do? We don’t have a plan yet. He has a ship, and a gun, and time to get more weapons. He could destroy the city if he wanted to, at the very least. I don’t want to hurt anybody just because he hates me.”
Bad nodded again, pausing. “Well, we have pretty good resources right now. We can figure it out.”
“We’re running out of time, though.”
“Alright, so let’s think about it right now.” Bad suggested. “Your main worry is him hurting people?”
“My main worry is him hurting me, but that’s my second worry, yeah.” Sapnap nodded.
“Okay. So, we go somewhere without any people around.” Bad said. “There are a lot of unpopulated spots on this planet.”
Sapnap snorted. “So, what, am I supposed to go sit in a field somewhere until he finds me?”
Antfrost, who had been apparently listening to most of the exchange, leaned over. “We could send him your coordinates, once we’re prepared, so we can stay prepared. You know how to contact him, right?”
Sapnap considered, then nodded slowly. “Yeah, I do. That could work a lot better.”
Bad wrinkled his nose. “I don’t like that idea.”
“He’s going to find me anyway.” Sapnap reminded, raising an eyebrow.
“I know that. But what if he gets suspicious?”
“We could make it look like we were trying to contact someone else.” Ant suggested.
“Who?” Bad asked.
Ant shrugged. “Does it matter? He doesn’t know who our contacts are. We could make someone up, and he wouldn’t know.”
“I like that idea.” Sapnap nodded, looking a little less tense. “Sam mentioned a team he has. I don’t want anybody to come rushing in at him when he gets here. I don’t want them to hurt him.”
“He’s trying to hurt you,” Ant said. “How are we going to get him without anyone else helping?”
“I’m going to get him,” Sapnap corrected. “I want to try to talk to him first.”
“Talk to him?” Bad echoed, his brows furrowed.
“You’re going to try to reason with the guy trying to murder you?” Ant asked incredulously.
Sapnap was quiet for a second. “Yes.” He said. “I think he’s just hurting.”
“I think he is hurting. You.” Ant retorted.
“Bad wanted to kill me, too.” Sapnap reminded. Bad frowned. “I reasoned with him.”
“I was angry.” Bad said quietly.
“So is he.” Sapnap said.
“We’re not going to just let you go alone. You almost died last time, even with Callahan there.” Ant said.
“I don’t want to be alone.” Sapnap said. “But I want you to let me try with him first, at least. You can step in, if you need to. And I want Sam to bring his team, too, just in case. But we’re not killing him, and we’re not hurting him if we don’t have to.”
Bad nodded after a moment. “Alright. But we’re not going to let you get killed, either.”
“Well I should fuckin' hope not.” Sapnap snorted.
“Hey! Language.” Bad made a face at him.
“Aw, come on, Bad, I'm wounded.” Sapnap pouted. “Couldn't you give me a pass?”
“No.”
“I feel like you don't love me any more.” Sapnap stuck out his bottom lip.
Bad went to protest, but was interrupted by Sam coming up behind him. “How electric-based was the ship Fundy took?” He asked, resting his hand on the back of Sapnap's chair.
“It was all electrical, as far as I'm aware.” Sapnap answered. “It wasn't a super big or fancy ship, four-person, maybe. So it shouldn't have anything special.”
“What about the weaponry he has?” Sam asked.
“None of it was too special, even the gun was tech-based, I'm pretty sure. I have no idea about anything he's added, though.”
Sam nodded. “I have someone who can help a lot, then.” He said, then left again.
“I told him we had a better plan.” Ant said.
“Cryptic thing to say, though.” Sapnap raised an eyebrow. He stuck a forkful of food into his mouth. “Well, shit, this is really good.”
When the meal was over, Sam told Skeppy and the twins that it was their turn to do the dishes. “I have things to do, though! Tubbo's magic, can't he do them without me?” The former complained.
“I can't clean dishes with magic, dipshit.” Tubbo snorted. “I've tried. I drop stuff.”
“Both of us know you're not going to sleep tonight, you'll have time for your ‘things to do' later.” Sam snorted.
Bad had been lingering, listening. “I could help.” He offered. “It would go faster.”
Skeppy had been about to protest, but regarded him, and shut his mouth. “Alright.” He said.
Sam glanced between them, and sighed, shrugging. “Only if you want to, Bad.” He said.
“I want to.” Bad confirmed. Sam nodded, disappearing.
“You two can wash the silverware.” Skeppy said, slightly bossy, pointing.
“You got it, boss man.” Tubbo winked, and turned to lunge at the forks.
“You know how to do this, alien?” Skeppy asked Bad, raising an eyebrow.
“Yeah, I do. I wash the dishes on the ship.” Bad nodded.
“Good.”
Bad got started, grabbing a plate. He worked quietly. Skeppy side-eyed him, and he sent a few questioning glances before the other finally spoke up. “What species are you?” Skeppy said suddenly. “You don’t mind me asking that, right? Sam told me not to, but he's not here right now.”
“No, I don't mind.” Bad smiled. “I don't really know. No one else I've met knows, either. The people I grew up with told me they found me in a wreckage of metal that had landed near their tribe. I think it was an escape pod, and I somehow landed on the planet Kylos. I don't know if I am part of a species, I could be a creation, like someone I know, or if I'm just… Something else.”
“Damn.” Skeppy said, eyebrows raised.
Bad smiled softly. “Yeah.” He agreed. “I've had a lot of people offer me money to let them show me off. As a weird species they found, I guess. Even more have just tried to take me.”
“That's… Not fun.” Skeppy commented. “I assume you kicked their asses?”
“Language.” Bad made a face at him. “But yes.”
“’Language'?” Skeppy raised an eyebrow. “You sound like Phil.”
“I'm telling him you said that,” Tubbo sung amid sounds of him wrestling Ranboo for a towel.
“Yeah, whatever.” Skeppy rolled his eyes. “How solid is your skin? How do you hold things?”
“Um… Depends.” Bad said. “I’m always a little- uh, whispy? I can control it a little. I wear gloves most of the time though, to help.” He lifted his hands, tapping his fingers to his palms to gesture at the gray gloves he was wearing.
“Is there a reason you're always swathed in clothes?” Skeppy questioned.
Bad shrugged. “I like it better. Plus, the less skin people can see, the less they question.”
“That's fair.” Skeppy nodded. He prompted, “Show me? If you want.”
Bad set down the plate he was working on, and tugged off one of his gloves. He held up his hand, palm-out.
Skeppy glanced at him, and reached out a finger. His fingertip moved through the foggy blurriness senselessly, and hit Bad's solid hand. “Oh, that's weird.” He breathed. When he moved his fingers through the weird black wispiness, it wasn't affected, remaining unmoving. When he took his hand away to merely look, Bad shifted his focus, and the wispiness increased, becoming less tangible and more shapeless. Then it decreased again, this time forming an almost completely solid hand, that caught some of the light so Skeppy could actually see the fold wrinkles in his palm. Bad relaxed again, and his skin returned to how it was originally, and he slid his glove back on.
“There's not a lot of things I can do with that. I just drop things, mostly.” Bad smiled.
“Well, I think it's cool.” Skeppy grinned back.
Bad's smile stiffened a little. “What about you? What's with the sparkly thingies in your hair?” He asked, glancing away.
Skeppy ran his fingers through his hair, ruffling it and making small shinies drop and tinkle onto the ground. “Uh… So, I'm a chemist, right? I'm also a rock dude. I love rocks, gems, stones, minerals, they’re all cool as hell. You're not supposed to mix the two like I did. And you’re definitely not supposed to add radiation into the mix.” He shrugged. “Had an incident one day. Lots of radiation involved. Boom, rock monster. My body…. Changes, sometimes, but it only happens when I get really upset. I grow gems in weird places. The roots of my hair start forming them all of the time, if I don't brush them off they get really big. My nails are a mix of the regular keratin and a harder stone.” He held his nails up, the light bouncing off of them and making them sheen beautifully. “My bones are harder. My teeth, too.”
Bad nodded, interest sparked in his eyes. “What kind of stone?”
“I'm not sure. Nothing I've ever heard of.” Skeppy shrugged. “It's akin to diamond. I have no idea what it is, there's no existing material on Earth that's any similar. I think the bond with my carbon tissue makes it unique? That's what Ponk said, anyway.”
Bad hummed. “Have you ever tried to use them?”
“I'm going to guess you’re asking if I've made weapons out of them,” Skeppy said. “No, I haven't. I've tried, but the stone doesn't melt. The big chunks of it don't carve, I've broken any tool I've tried and even the jewelers I took them to couldn't figure it out. I think Sam's trying to develop a gun that can shoot out the little pieces, like a BB gun? But way deadlier. It hasn't happened yet, though.”
Bad opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by Tubbo slamming into the counter between the two of them. Red magic caused the cabinet above them to fly open, and he shoved a bowl into its place. “Hah! I win!” Tubbo said triumphantly.
“No you don't.” Ranboo said smugly, waving a fork in the air. He turned into a blur, having the silverware drawer open and the fork in its place within two seconds before Tubbo could yank the piece out of his hand. Bad jumped at the sudden movement, while Skeppy was unfazed.
“Shit!” Tubbo growled, slamming his fist on the counter.
“Language.” Bad said, frowning.
“You're not my dad.” Tubbo sniffed, drawing away from the counter.
Skeppy giggled at Bad's expression. “Your name is Bad, right?” He asked. The other nodded. “Well, I'm Skeppy.”
“Yeah, I've heard.” Bad said, tipping his head.
“I'm introducing myself, properly. It's polite. It means we’re friends now.” Skeppy told him.
“Oh.” Bad said, his throat closing off. He blinked, taking a breath. “Alright.”
Skeppy smiled at him, turning away. “I'm going back down to my lab. You can come, if you want.”
Bad stood for a second, unmoving. Then he found himself following.