#This way is just easier I think. plus comms and shop all in the same spot!! | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

votederpycausemufins · 4 years ago

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I give you the final chapter of Summoning Family. It’s been a fun story, and while I have more ideas for it, there are other things I want to write. I mean, i got 114,984 words out of this thing! (so says ao3) I hope you enjoy, and read to the very end for something extra.

@petrichormeraki @helleborusangel

Grian smacked his alarm as it started to ring, making it shut up. He had been up late the night before getting everything ready. About a minute later, the alarm went off again and Grian groaned before shutting it off. The third time he sat up angrily and stared the clock down as he turned the alarm off. Why had past him set such an early alarm? They had done everything yesterday. Except get the cake. And decorate. And- okay they still had a lot to do.

Grian dragged himself out of bed and poured a bucket of water over his head to wake himself up. He then regretted that as he needed to dry his wings afterwards, but then he flew over to Mumbo’s base and barged into his bedroom.

“WAKE UP SLEEPYHEAD!” Grian shouted at the top of his lungs to wake Mumbo up, but was surprised when nothing happened. “Mumbo!” Grian then stomped over to the bed, only to find it empty. Confused, the avian started looking through the base, eventually finding the redstoner feeding it. “What are you already doing awake?”

Mumbo jumped a little before looking over. “I could ask you the same thing. At least for me I rigged up some redstone to make sure I got up at the right time. I’ve already gathered up some supplies and in making sure I’ve got everything ready, I actually remembered to feed this place.”

“Good for you. Do you need me to get anything else? I was going to pick up the cake. Do you think Tommy remembered the message on top when ordering it. Oh no, what if he didn’t and it doesn’t-”

“Calm down Grian. I’m barely keeping myself together as it is. If it doesn’t work out, I’m sure store bought will be fine as an emergency.”

“But this is his first birthday! And it wouldn’t be fair if he got a standard one while Jrum would get a fancy cake!”

“Grian, they can’t even eat cake.”

“You’re right! Why did I even bother wanting to get them a cake?!”

“For the guests who can eat cake.” Mumbo quickly answered before continuing. “Although there is the possibility of a mineral cake. If I get some lava I could theoretically- hang on.” And he put down a shulker box and started going through it. “Of course a diamond on top since it will probably just be a cupcake or something, though we don’t want to leave Jrum out. And I think I’ve still got a chisel in my ender chest.”

“Well, It looks like you’ve got something to do.” Grian responded, feeling much calmer now that it looked like they had a good plan in place. “So even if this cake doesn’t work out, we’ll still have something good. But I’m still going to see if I can pick up the one we ordered so I’m going to run and grab that.” Mumbo half nodded, giving a slight wave, too busy planning on a mineral cake for Grum.

Grian chuckled before making a portal and heading to the SMP. When he got to the other side, he pulled out a piece of paper. “Okay. Coordinates, coordinates… Ah, okay so the bakery is that way.” He turned in the direction of the coordinates and for a moment considered flying, but he remembered how close everything was and if he flew, he would probably pass it quickly.

It didn’t take long to actually reach the building, though Grian still double checked, even with the various signs of it being a bakery. Finally, he walked inside and went up to the counter, a bell ringing overhead as he opened the door. “I’ll be with you in a minute.” A voice from further in the building called and Grian just waited.

After about a minute and a half, a woman walked out and greeted Grian. “Hello there. Hoping to buy something or order?”

“Neither actually, I’m picking up an order. It should be under the name Tommy Innit but I’m the one picking it up.”

“Ah, yes! Tommy’s cake! I made sure to take special care of it!” The woman smiled and Grian narrowed his eyes slightly as it was a smile he was very familiar with, having used it plenty himself.

“Right, well did he remember to ask for a message to be written on top?” Grian asked, the woman shaking her head. “Right, I was worried about that. I hope it won’t be too much of a hassle to add that. I can pay extra if need be.”

“Hmm, yeah I can do that. What’s the message?”

“Well it’s… Here let me write it down just to be sure, I don’t want it wrong on such a special day.” The avian said before pulling a pen out and writing on his paper.

“Special… day?” The woman asked and Grian could hear the nervousness in her voice.

“Oh yes.” Grian couldn’t help but give a slight sly smile of his own. It looked like he’d have to get a store bought cake after all, but he wanted to see how this would go as he put the paper down. “It’s my kid’s first birthday. He’s… sort of adopted so while he’s not an infant, it’s still the first birthday he’s gotten to have so I’m making sure it’s perfect. So a simple

Happy Birthday Grum’ will do.”

The woman stared at the piece of paper like it had just shown up and killed her family as she watched. “Right… birthday party for a child. Hmm. I think I got the design a bit wrong. Let me get you a second one. I can always comp the other person for the delay.” And she went into the back again, leaving Grian smiling. This was probably another person who had it out for Tommy, so messing with her was proving to be fun.

Listening carefully, he could pick up the woman panickedly whispering to someone else. “Jack we fucked up, Tommy’s not eating the cake, he ordered it for someone else!”

“What? Who? Ranboo or Tubbo?”

“No! I don’t even know the person out there but apparently the cake is for the birthday of a previously orphaned child!”

“Oh shit!”

“Yeah! So now we need to find a way to quickly make a non-poisoned cake before this guy gets suspicious.”

“You passed that point a while ago.” Grian called out into the shop. “I’ve done my fair share of schemes and recognize a scheming smile when I see it.”

Grian couldn’t help but smile as there was complete silence before the woman slowly came back out of the shop. “Right, so I guess, I don’t really have a cake for you.”

“No it’s fine. You said it’s poisoned? Did you use poison as a substitute for milk?”

“Well…”

“So you put both in there. That’s going to make this much easier. It always depends on the person, but milk normally stops any poisons, so a cake like that will just make someone sick for a bit but not actually poison them. Maybe just cause some nausea. It’s an easy enough fix!”

“You’ve… poisoned cakes before?” The woman asked.

“I’ve done a lot of things I’m not proud of… but poison cakes are not one of them, that was hilarious. Just not when it’s people I care about, which is why I even know how to fix it. Essentially we just need some milk and some netherwart. I’m guessing you have that somewhere?”

“Uh, let me check.” She turned to yell behind her. “Jack do we have any netherwart?!”

“No, but I can grab some!”

“Hurry up!”

“Yeah I know!”

The woman turned back to Grian. “So… it might take a little bit.”

Grian just leaned on the counter. “Oh I’ve got time since I don’t need to pick up a new cake. How about you start with that message and we can talk. What’s your name?”

“Uh, Niki.” The woman nervously answered as she grabbed the poisoned cake.

“Well Niki, seems like you didn’t like my brother much. I’d like to know why that is if you don’t mind.”

“Alright team, let’s get this place built.” Scar said as he rubbed his hands together. “We’ve technically only got fifteen minutes, so let’s make it count. Plus I managed to get a good sale out of thi-”

“Can we just start building already man?” Ren spoke up, and Scar jokingly glared.

“Oh alright. Start building!” And Scar used some vex magic to set up a little bit of localized time displacement for some super fast build mode. Though he wanted to help out as well, someone needed to stop the spell if any certain robots wandered over. And of course the only one currently around to do that was Scar, so he had to stay outside of it. Having never actually been on the outside of the spell, he got distracted for a bit watching everything happen, which was perfectly fine. Neither of the bots made their way to Aqua Town, and even if they had, Jellie was keeping an eye on things.

As things were still being built, Mumbo arrived and set down shulker boxes. “Sorry I’m late. I was up early of course, and so was Grian, but we got talking and realized there was something we forgot, so then I got busy doing that.”

“Well don’t worry about that Mumbolio, the place isn’t completely built yet, so decorating is still yet to come. The kids are still with Tommy?”

“As far as I’m aware, yes. Hopefully if they’re awake, they’re not causing too much trouble. Do you think they’re upset about not being with us for breakfast?”

Scar thought it over. “Maybe they’re a little disappointed, but I’m sure they’re happy about knowing that you’re setting something up for Grum, even if they don’t know exactly what it is.”

“I guess you’re right.”

“Yeah! Though could you also check with Tommy? I want to make sure I probably don’t have to worry about stopping the bubble and possibly also put up something for cloaking.”

“Right! Yes let me do that.” And Mumbo fumbled just a little bit before getting his comm to message Tommy. He sent a message off and waited for a bit for Tommy to respond. When one didn’t immediately come in, he got a bit nervous, but a few more minutes calmed him. “Well, they’re either still asleep or busy, so that’s probably good.”

“Good to know! Unless something changes in the next, I want to say five or so minutes, we should be good.” Scar responded, Jellie giving and approving meow as she groomed herself at Scar’s side.

“Well then I’ll keep watching for a message.”

“Got it. So, what did you get for decorations?” Scar asked, peeking into a shulker box.

“Well, his favorite colors are red and light blue, so there’s a lot of streamers and balloons and what not in those colors. Also got it in a music theme since I wasn’t sure how to make a party theme out of building.”

“Oh, that sounds nice. And got any plans for Grum?”

“Fantasy themed since he’s always going out to your village to play plus he seems to really like stories with that theme.”

“Alright, I’ll start drawing up plans for that tonight.”

“That sounds alright. Grian already sent an order in to The Boomers so this plot can be cleared again.”

“Nah, it’s fine. Keep it up. Better to keep the history around.I can sell another plot of land for the next party.”

“Well that’s very kind of you.” Mumbo started. “But again, it’s already been paid for. Though I’m sure they would be willing to listen to the change of plans.”

“Well, I normally wouldn’t suggest it, but you might buy a plot of land from Bdubs and get it cheap but using what would have gone to The Boomers.”

“Hmm, I’ll discuss that with Grian when he gets back.” Mumbo glanced down at his communicator. “Ah, they’re awake now. Tommy gave them the old reliable of a bowl or redstone though Grum got his with quartz.”

“Oh yeah, we’ll definitely finish building before they show up.”

“Then I’ll start prepping the decorations.”

Grian waved to Niki and Jack beforing picking up the cake box. “Thanks for the cake! And if you want to try killing Tommy again, you’ll need to try something sneakier to get past me!” Grian smiled at the pair, who gave nervous ones back. As he left, they retreated further into the bakery. To do what, Grian didn’t care since he had other things to pick up. Or rather, he had people to pick up.

Grian flew up into the air and looked around before spotting a snowy town to the north. That was probably Snowchester, which was where he was trying to go anyway. From there, flying to the town was easy, but actually knowing which house to go to was a bit more difficult. He didn’t immediately see any signs saying who lived where, so Grian’s first idea was to just knock on every door. That is, until he saw a certain ziglin looking out the window of one of the houses.

When the child saw him, he immediately started bouncing and ran off further into the house. Grian walked over to the house and knocked on the door, waiting as he heard movement inside. A few moments later, the door opened. Ranboo stood there, Michael now clinging to his leg and looking up at Grian. “Hey! I’m here to start picking people up and to be honest, this is the only place I knew to find people right now.”

“Well, I sort of know where some people are, but I can check if Tubbo is awake enough to help out with that.”

“Sounds good to me.” Grian agreed, then followed Ranboo into the house. As he waited for Ranboo to get Tubbo, the avian watched as Michael showed off some of his toys. Grian smiled and set the cake down to look at what was being shared with him. He was especially happy at the plush chicken, parroting a few clucks which made Michael squeal in delight.

Before long, Ranboo returned with Tubbo, who still looked a little tired, but was still awake and dressed. “Hey, sorry. Guess I slept in a bit.”

“No, it’s perfectly fine. I nearly did the same after being so busy the other day. We’re not supposed to start until a bit after lunch, so I’m early anyway, but Tommy’s back home and I only really knew about this place since Grum remembered it. No clue where everyone else lives.”

“Well, who all are you after again?”

“Fundy, Puffy, Wilbur, Techno and my dad.” Grian answered. “To be honest, just messaging them all would probably work if you could do that. My comm is a mess right now.”

“What happened to it?”

“I have never. Ever. In my life. Hated a chicken like the one I apparently own now.”

Tubbo and Ranboo glanced at each other. “Do we want to know.”

Grian sighed. “Probably not. It’s a long story. All I know is it messed with some ribbons, and when I tried to stop it, it broke my comm.”

“Well, I’ll message Fundy and Puffy. Ranboo, can you message Phil? I’m sure he’ll be near Techno or Wilbur, so that should get two birds with one stone.”

“Um, I’m the only other avian, thank you very much.” Grian said jokingly before he laughed. “But yeah, that sounds good to me.”

Tubbo nodded and sent some messages, Ranboo doing the same. Before long, they had responses from everyone and the only person who needed to be picked up was Techno, who was still living out in the middle of nowhere. Grian begrudgingly picked him up, dropping him on the landing absolutely completely on accident.

“Alright, I’ve got the cake, I’ve got all of you, you guys got presents or cards if you wanted to bring them?” Grian asked, looking at everyone, glaring at Techno to try and will him to not say he forgot something. Fortunately, Ranboo was the only one to have forgotten anything, and even then, Tubbo had remembered it for him. “Okay, good.”

Grian opened up a portal and gestured to it. “Alright, this should take you right in front of town hall, I’ll be the last through and lead you once I’m on the other side with you. Got it? Good! Let’s go.”

One by one, everyone made their way through the portal, the one exception being Ranboo and Michael who went through at the same time. Grian double checked everyone successfully got through before picking up the cake and- jumping as a chicken showed up, poking its head through the portal.

“Oh come on. Go back through!” Grian tried shooing the chicken with a foot, his hands full with the cake. Instead of listening, it just hissed at him, coming all the way through and pecking at his feet. “Ow! Hey! If you don’t go through, I’m going to close the portal behind me and leave you stuck here!”

The chicken hissed again before jumping back through the portal, Grian following behind. He handed the cake off before closing the portal and taking it back.

“So, I’m guessing that’s the chicken you talked about before?” Tubbo piped up, making Grian nod.

“Yep. Now let’s just head to the building. Follow me.” And Grian started walking, doing his best to dodge the chicken that kept following him and almost tripping him. “Please, how did you even get here from the mansion?”

The chicken of course didn’t answer, but it did move closer to where Michael was, the child enamored by the bird, especially as it currently donned a shiny ribbon around its neck. Michael wriggled to be put down, but after Grian’s reaction to the chicken, Ranboo was hesitant to let the ziglin leave his arms.

It fortunately didn’t take too long to reach the newly built building, a number of hermits on scaffolding around the place hanging up decorations. “Wait, what are you all doing? This wasn’t part of the plan.”

Etho slid down a bit of scaffolding to get down to Grian. “Yeah, well it’s a special occasion. At least it’s not another war right? But where are we putting the presents? I’ve got mine ready.”

Grian just sighed as Etho held up ribbons floating in the shape of a box. “I thought I paid for that.”

“Yeah, you did. But the kids didn’t.” Etho said, and Grian could hear the smirk from behind the mask.

“Alright fine, but there better not be any walls around.” Grian rolled his eyes and started walking towards the door.

“Wait actually there’s-” And Grian crashed into a wall of glass in front of the entrance. Etho grabbed the cake away just in time that it didn’t get destroyed, and Grian just laid on the ground.

“There’s a wall.”

“Yeah there’s a wall.”

“I hate glass sometimes.”

No one was able to stop Phil before he did the same thing as Grian and walked face first into the wall of glass he couldn’t see.

“Ace of spades.” Jrum said as he set down the card. To his left, Tommy smiled and put down a card of his own.

“As if that would work.” He set down an uno card. “Plus four.”

“Hey! That’s not fair!”

Tommy shrugged. “Too bad, I had it in my hand.”

“Yeah, I think it’s a great choice.” Grum nodded. “Jolteon, I choose you.”

At the same time Tommy and Jrum groaned at the card. “What the fuck Grum, I thought you were out of evolution cards!”

“Because you always forget there are branch ones.” Grum said smugly. “So that makes it your turn Jrum.”

“Okay fine! I’ve got garudamon. That’s a third stage card which stops your jolteon.”

“No it doesn’t, you used queen of hearts to get Philomena in there, so it only counts as a stage two.”

“Dammit! I forgot!” Jrum groaned, but then gestured to Tommy to take his turn.

“I play vertical half fire, half gold!”

“You added a seven dragons card to your deck?!” Jrum stomped his foot. “Where did you even get one?”

“Someone on the SMP had it for some reason. Cost a whole diamond for it.”

“Yeah, because you suck at bluffing.” Grum spoke up as he stared at his hand of cards.

“I do not!” Tommy retorted, crossing his arms.

“Yes you do. Mini outrage crowbar.” Grum put down a card which would normally be about the fourth the size of normal cards, but all of the cards were in sleeves so their backs couldn’t be seen, making it a level playing field.

“Ugh, I guess I’m down a point.” Tommy rested his head in his hand. “Fine, what do you have Jrum?”

“Battle!” He slapped down a very generic looking card. “Rock paper scissors!” Tommy threw rock while both the bots did paper. “Aww, no one did scissors!”

“Oh thank fuck. I need to draw anyway.” And instead of playing a card, he drew two instead.

“Well then that means I can play Legacy. The Revere ring means I won’t lose points the next time someone tries to take them!”

“Then I get to win!” Jrum smiled, making Grum and Tommy both look at him in shock. “I’ve got the two and a half of hearts! Steal double points if they would be protected!”

“Noooooo!” Grum groaned. “My points!”

From there, everyone dissolved into laughter and then put their cards away. “Alright, well I guess while we were playing your dad messaged me. Sounds like it’s birthday time.”

From there, Grum and Jrum stopped smiling to look at each other for a moment. “Are you sure? I mean, technically it’s my birthday, but at the same time, it’s also past then.”

“Because of the whole time thing? I mean, I guess, but did you guys actually celebrate or anything?” Tommy asked, the bots shaking their heads. “Then yeah, it’s your birthday. Don’t fight it. Even if you want to argue, pretend you don’t because you’re just going to get free shit out of it.”

“Hmm… I do like free shit.” Grum nodded. “Alright, I’m in. Let’s go.”

Tommy smiled at how he had rubbed off on the bot before leading them towards Aquoo town. Before they even landed, they spotted the new building and headed straight there, landing in front of it. Jrum and Tommy were both excited, but Grum still looked a bit nervous about it all. “What if something happens?”

Tommy turned around and went back to Grum’s side. “Hey, nothing bad’s gonna happen. Everyone’s in one place, only death that might happen is from minigames, but I think everyone made sure to not make those. I mean, there’s even a regen beacon set up just in case. Iskall and Stress said they’re going to try and stay away just to be safe, so they’ve probably already dropped off presents.”

“Why? I messed up with making it so they couldn’t come.”

“Hey Grum, remember my beach party? How I was freaking out thinking people wouldn’t show up like with my first one?”

“Yeah.” Grum nodded.

“And how I had no reason to be? This is kinda like this. There’s no reason to freak out, it’s safe and everyone’s trying to make you happy. And it’s not like you’re the only one getting this treatment, or are you forgetting my birthday.”

Both of the bots giggled at their memories of that. “Okay, I guess you’re right.”

“Does this mean we can go inside now? I wanna sca- I mean, see who’s here!” Jrum said, bouncing a bit.

“Yeah, let’s go in.”

The party was extremely eventful. A number of minigames kept everyone occupied and everyone was sharing stories. A few motes of interest came up during the stories, such as the wars Hermitcraft had had as well as the fact that L’Manberg started because of a drug van more or less.

When it came time for cake, the one Niki had made was presented for the whole singing of happy birthday. They had a little trouble as Jellie decided she wanted to try and eat some of the cake while the candles were still lit, but Scar managed to pull her away.

With a bit of help from a piece of paper being used as a fan, Grum blew the candles out. As everyone was given slices of the cake, Mumbo set a special cupcake in front of Grum that he could eat. The redstoner was about to give another one which wasn’t quite as extravagant to Jrum, but in the bot’s few moments of thinking he was left out, he stole a piece of cake and tried smashing it against his screen, only for it to disappear. “Huh… I think we can eat actual food now.”

No one was too upset about Grum getting a slice of actual cake, mainly as they were too busy trying to wrap their heads around what happened. Though it was also since Grum was the guest of honor. Before long, all the cake was eaten, no one showing any signs of being poisoned. From there, a whole cart of presents was pulled over, Grum wide eyed at the amount there was stacked there.

Grum looked at all of them, trying to decide which to grab. His eyes caught Etho’s gift and he pulled it closer and undid the ribbon. “Oh yay. Glass. How thoughtful.” Grum thanked, everyone giving Etho a few eye rolls or glares. Following that, everyone watched as the bot stared Etho dead in the eyes and ate it, Grian Mumbo and Jrum being the only ones that knew he could do that. “I eat quartz, redstone and diamonds. Why is this such a surprise?”

“Well, I guess let’s do real presents now.” Tommy said, handing an actually wrapped present to Grum. “That’s mine. I think you’ll know what to do with it.”

Grum was confused for a second before opening the present, eyes lighting up at the contents. “A stylophone! Yes I know exactly what to do with this!” Grum turned the small instrument on and tested the scale before just a few notes. “Okay, I think we want… eight ten eight ten ten eight, seven nine seven six.” He tested out the keys, glad that it sounded right, then he inhaled loudly before quickly playing the notes.

As soon as he finished playing the notes, he, Tommy, Jrum, Tubbo and even Grian all shouted at the same time. “LET’S GO!” And the room was filled with an extremely bass boosted song for a few seconds. Fortunately, since Grian had known what was about to happen, he quickly used some Watcher magic to save the ears of everyone with advanced hearing, something that Ren was grateful for since he had already gone through this once before.

When Grum went for the next present, everything shifted a bit and out popped the head of a certain chicken from the middle of the pile of presents. “Wh- how did you get in there?!” Grian asked, trying to pull the chicken out. It just hissed and pecked at him when he tried, leaving him to pull away.

Grum tried next and it gave no resistance, so he patted the chicken. “Were you trying to be one of my birthday presents?” The chicken gave a single cluck. “Well then, I guess Kokatori is my chicken now.”

“It’s named what?” Phil asked.

“Apparently it’s name is Kokatori.” Grian answered. “That’s what I was told when he was given to me.”

“Huh. Good to know.”

Grum’s next present was from his brother, it being a number of various cards and a new set of card sleeves. After that was from Wilbur, which was a guitar perfect for Grum’s size. Techno had found some sort of journal to give as a present. Scar gave him a diamond statue, which was also packaged together with Bdubs’ gift of lots of bedsheets, which he said were for pillow forts and not just because he had plenty of spares. Beef’s was a voucher for a piano, mainly because he couldn’t wrap it.

There were plenty of presents after that, but once they were all unwrapped, Grian and Mumbo pulled out one more. “Alright, currently it’s just covered by blankets because we didn’t have wrapping paper to cover something this big.”

“What is it?” Grum asked, walking over to the giant present.

“Well, when building you two, there were some things we had to leave out, so this is a recreation of something we had to leave out of you.” Mumbo explained.

Grum grabbed the blanket covering the thing and pulled it off, revealing a redstone machine that he soon recognized. “My music making system! I can finally make the thing that’s been stuck in my head!”

Before anyone could stop him, Grum started messing with the machine, and before long, a music disc popped out. Tommy always had a jukebox on him in some form, so he put it down and they played the disc. “So, what’s it for?”

“Well, Dad said he wanted to make a minigame for the barge.” Grum started to explain.

“It’s a shopping experience. Not a minigame.” Grian complained, getting a few laughs.

“Yeah, anyway, he needed music for it, and I had an idea, and, well, now he’s got something for it!”

“Well thanks for that.” Grian said, taking the disc out again. “Uh, we can make copies, right?” Grum nodded. “Alright. Well, the next question is if you want to keep this here and we can change this place into a music studio for you, or if you want it at the mansion or the ruin.”

“Hmm, here works, but maybe keep it out of the way ‘cause I want to play more games with people!”

“Yeah, I’m sure everyone’s down with that.”

The presents were put aside and people either went back to games, or excused themselves if they had somewhere to be. Grian had to take Puffy back as well as Wilbur, and then Fundy left to go see Iskall, Grum being understanding that he wanted to be with someone who wasn’t there and he knew longer.

Though he didn’t officially leave, Phil still stepped outside to get away from the noise of the party. When it was quiet enough, he pulled out a communicator and flipped through the contacts, finally reaching one he hadn’t touched in a long time. He pressed the call button and held the comm to his ear, waiting as it rang.

“Yeah, hello?”

“Hey, it’s Phil.”

“Phil? Hey, haven’t heard from you in, what, how many years?”

“Who knows. Just, A lot has happened recently and-”

“Hey while I’d love to talk, I’m sort of running out of battery and I’m currently the prisoner to some pirates who hurt my dragon and got them to fly off. I can call you back when I can, but for now it’s got to be quick.”

“Finally found Xelqua, I’ve got grandkids, looks like there’s a spy here.”

“Haven’t killed the spy yet?”

“Yeah that’s an issue because one of the grandkids likes it and has it as a pet now.”

“Oh wonderful. Whose kid by the way?”

“Xel’s.”

“Huh, thought he’d still be in jail. I didn’t think he had any sort of bail.”

“Wait, what are you talking about? You knew where he was this whole time?!”

“I sent you letters. I mean, before I moved to Minecrack, I was still doing my tv series. I’m actually back to doing it, which is where I am right now.”

“So one of your letters actually said you knew where he was? Now I wish I had read them all. Why couldn’t you just text or call for something important?”

“Because you never know what a spy can get into with all those digital things. The one you’ve got could-”

“Could what? Hello? Paul? Are you there?” Phil sighed and put his comm away. “Right, guess the batter died. Guess that’s something I’ll have to look into.”

The sun wasn’t quite setting when the party officially ended, but it was getting late. Everyone headed home left, Though Ranboo and Tubbo stayed behind to let Michael and the bots have a sleepover. Grum was especially excited about it when Grian came back from taking everyone home and seeming a bit out of it.

“Does this mean we can have a cuddle pile?” Grum asked, getting a nod from Grian.

“Oh hell no. I’m too manly for cuddling.” Tommy tried to argue, but GRum went over to him and gave him big puppy eyes.

“Please? It’s still my birthday.”

“...Fuck you.” Tommy replied, failing to the eyes with a sigh. “Alright fine, but the couples better not get too lovey dovey and shit.”

“No promises.” Grian said, tiredly. “But speaking of, where’s Mumbo?”

“Daddy said he was putting all the presents in some shulker boxes.” Jrum answered. “Amd I gonna get as many presents as Grum did on my birthday?”

“Yup.” Grian answered. “Welp, now that we know where he is, time to go to the mansion.”

Instead of flying them there, Grian just used a bit of magic to teleport them to his nest platform, flopping down on the hay a moment later. Tommy went and got blankets since he knew where they were while Tubbo and Ranboo watched over the bots and Michael as they played. Kokatori had also been brought along and played with the kids, though any time Ranboo or Tubbo got too close to it, it hissed at them.

Eventually Tommy returned with blankets as well as Mumbo, who had returned and helped Tommy with the blankets. Before long, everyone was curled up in blankets or wings or arms. Tommy was the last to fall asleep, thinking about how it all started when he and Grian were hanging out here. Now, here they were, a few weeks later with more friends and closer together.

Tommy shifted a little to pull one of Grian’s wings over him as a blanket, then finally fell asleep, and everyone was quiet.

Except…

With everyone asleep, Kokatori carefully got out of Grum’s arms and hopped out of the nest. It opened its wings and let a communicator fall to the floor. Opening it up, it saw the most recent use: a phone call in the middle of the party. Just what they were after.

oh whoops, I’ve got a sequel planned.

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the-cowgirl-bookworm · 8 years ago

Text

Drunken Road Trips and Family Bonding

Chapter 5

Please Tell Us Why You Had to Hide Away For So Long

When Peter had shaken Yondu's shoulder early the next morning, saying he was going into town to pick up supplies, Yondu had sent him off with two rules before rolling over and going back to sleep. "Don't buy anything, yer still a Ravager idjit. And bring back some of what ever you Terrans got for booze, if yer gonna get soft again like last night I ain't goin' through it sober." Quill had rolled his eyes, pulling his Ravager coat over his shirt. It stood up to the elements, kept him warm, and had about fifty different pockets for stashing illegally obtained materials. Of course, not everything could fit in pockets, so he grabbed a collapsible repulsorlift and a Ravager tarp, modded to able to put up a decent camouflage.

While you couldn't count on Ravagers to have things like food or water on all their ships, they always had stealing supplies.

It was a ten mile trek to town, but it went quicker thanks to a few rocket boosted jumps. He stashed the lift at the edge of town, throwing the tarp over it, the camouflage activating as soon as it settled. The first thing Peter did was find a vending machine outside a gas station and shake loose a Coke. Even after twenty years, it still tasted the same. He tossed the can aside, jacked a full can, and set off farther into town. Ridgeton had always hovered between small town and small city, mom and pop stores right next to large sporting goods dealers. Peter approached one of those large sporting goods stores, the window displays stuffed full of hunting trophies.

It took him five seconds to jimmy the lock, then two to activate the jammer in his pocket. It would block any signals going out to security companies and render any security footage to mere static. Peter grabbed a cart, pulled out his earbuds, and set his Zune to play. He smiled, remembering how Yondu had shoved it into his hands before Stakar had come over to their ship, ready to welcome Yondu back after hearing about what he had done. Yondu had pressed the device into his hands, earbuds tangled around his fingers. "Saw ya lost yer Walkman. Found this at a junker's, she said everyone on Terra was usin' it." He'd hit the center button, the display lighting up. "We had a copy of yer music in the data banks, I transferred it for ya."

Peter had grasped it like a lifeline. "Well, not all of it. Ego smashed the second tape."

Yondu had snorted, shaking his head. "If you think we didn't scan and log every single thing in that little pack a yers," He just shook his head again. "It's all on there, plus about three hundred other songs."

Three hundred songs had left him speechless, as well as the fact that Yondu had actually done something kind for him without threatening to space him or eat him, when Stakar had grasped Yondu by the shoulders, making some proclamation about how Yondu had proven himself a true Ravager in the end, and if anyone wanted to dispute that, well, Stakar was one of the fastest draws in the galaxy and they were more than welcome to try.

Peter danced through the store, Mr. Blue Sky blasting in his ear drums, dragging a cart behind him. He threw in whatever he could find, high dollar fishing poles, hooks, line, enough camping supplies to last them a month. He made sure to grab two cans of bait, knowing Yondu might just eat a can of worms just because he was tired of fish. He even did his best to pick up gifts for everyone. For Drax, two massive serrated hunting knives. Gamora, a leather archery guard she could use to keep her sword hand from bleeding after getting blisters. As much as he wanted to, Rocket would probably not appreciate the stuffed raccoon, so he grabbed the little guy a collection of gun parts and candy. Turned out the raccoon had a sweet tooth, which they discovered after he had eaten every piece of Xandarian sugar puffs on the ship. Drax had almost strangled Rocket for that, stopped only by Gamora wanting to do it herself. He picked up a variety of animal plushes for Mantis, because God knows Ego hadn't given that girl enough things to hug in her life. Yondu was getting an absolutely adorable bobblehead of a mountain lion. Kraglin was getting a knife, the antler carved with a cool design. For Groot, a collection of these new fangled things called CD's that apparently held music. He thought Groot would really like one in particular, some band called Mouse Rat that sounded pretty good when he put it in a boom box.

For Nebula, well, he just picked her up some magazines. He didn't even really look at them as he dumped them in the cart. That was all the fishing stuff, but he would need more than that. He wanted enough Cokes to last him a life time, and enough ice cream that he could eat himself sick. Plus, what kind of camping didn't have s'mores? So before he pushed his ill gotten gains out of the shop, he opened the safe, which for someone used to cracking Kree lockboxes, was nothing. He pocketed the cash, then pushed his cart back to the repulsorlift. The futuristic wagon was pretty full, but he figured he could fit more in.

But the grocery stores wouldn't be open for hours, so Peter left everything under the tarp and made his way back into town. He figured he'd find someplace to hang until the stores opened up. He was figuring a stoop or a park, but then he saw something called an Internet cafe. There were already a few people headed in, sleepy eyed and groggy. He walked in, and the smell of coffee overcame him. Turns out you could get coffee pretty much anywhere nowadays, if the people in front of him were to be believed, but apparently this place was pretty good. He ordered a large, with enough creamer in it to make it more like a hot chocolate than a coffee. He listened in to a couple of guys as he waited for his coffee.

"I'm telling you, I saw a UFO last night. Came blasting down over my trailer, then set down in the forest somewhere."

"Jerry you got into your moonshine again, and we all know it. You were going on about chemtrails the last time, and you smelled like a damn still."

"Greg, I swear to God I wasn't drunk last night."

Chuckling and sipping his coffee, Peter made his way over to the row of computers set up against the wall. They were pretty primitive, no holograms but an actual glass display. He hadn't seen that since they landed on some planet that had yet to make contact with the Xandarians. Fortunately this Internet thing wasn't as hard to navigate as the Kree cyber service, which he'd have to have Kraglin crack for him once when Peter had his bounty tripled in Kree space after an incident with a Kree general's daughter that the general had blown completely out of proportion. Hell, the thing on this computer even opened up to something called a search engine. Of course, Peter being the smug self-absorbed asshole (Gamora's words, not his) that he was, he immediately searched his own name.

There were only a few results, but one caught Peter's eye, something from a cold case website. He clicked on it and started to read.

Twenty-five Years and Still Holding Out Hope

May 15th, 1988, was the worst day in Robert Quill's life. That night, his daughter Meredith passed away from an inoperable brain tumor and her son, Peter Jason Quill, disappeared. Robert contacted the police, but despite their efforts, they could not locate Peter. Now, twenty five years later, Robert has still not given up hope that Peter is out there somewhere. He invited our reporter to visit him, and we found his house filled with pictures of his children and grandchildren.

He keeps a picture of Meredith and Peter separate, set atop the mantle. It shows a beautiful brunette with an arm around a smiling five year old. Robert spoke briefly about his daughter, "She was always so loving. She loved that boy, even if his father didn't stick around. And he was a bit of a troublemaker, but he was a good boy."

Robert has searched for Peter ever since that day in 1988. He still hasn't given up hope. We have included a digitally aged picture of Peter Quill at the end of this article. We ask that our readers look for anyone matching this picture, and contact the tip line that Robert Quill has open.

There was a phone number listed at the bottom of the page, and Quill couldn't help but chuckle at the picture of "him". It looked nothing like him, rather chubby actually. But there was another picture farther up in the little article. His grandpa, standing by his fireplace and looking at the picture of Peter and his mom. Peter pursed his lips, then reached into his pocket, jotting down the phone number on his hand. There was nothing wrong with calling his Gramps and telling him he was still alive. He'd find a payphone after he got groceries, before he made his way back to their campsite.

He hung around the cafe for a bit, before heading out and finding himself in the midst of paradise. There was some new store here called Wal-Mart that was absolute heaven. Quill piled his cart there high with everything he could think of, spices, sweets, ice cream, marshmallows, a gross of Coke and twenty boxes of macaroni and cheese. He also found that movies were apparently on the same type of disc as music now. He grabbed everything he could recognize, Star Wars, the Princess Bride, Indiana Jones, and thinking of Yondu, a copy of Mary Poppins. It took most of the money he'd stolen, but he felt pretty good as he walked out of the store. There had to be some kind of tech on the ship that could read those weird discs, and he could finally show everyone what he had grown up with. But it turned out that finding food was easier than finding a payphone nowadays. Everyone seemed to have these somewhat bulky handheld comm units now, and when he'd asked a lady for a nearby payphone she had looked at him like he was crazy.

"Don't you have a cellphone?" She asked, already hurrying away.

Peter snorted. Did it look like he was carrying around a giant briefcase? It took him a little while to find someone who mentioned that there was an old payphone at the library. He pulled his cart in with him, dug out a couple quarters, and dialed the smudged number on his hand. It rang three times before going to a message machine, his grandfather speaking. "Hello, if you have any information relating to the disappearance of Peter Quill on May 15th, 1988, please leave your name, number and your information and we will get back to you."

There was a beep, Peter took a deep breath, and spoke. "Hi Gramps, it's me. Peter. Sorry I haven't called. Listen, I'm in Ridgeton, out at the lake you and me and mom would go to. I don't know how long I'll be here, a week, maybe? Anyway, I'm calling on a payphone, so I guess if you want, you can just come find me at the lake. So, um, bye." He hung up the phone, turning back to his cart. Even if his grandpa didn't come out, at least he'd know he was alive.

After he had made it back to his stash, he dumped everything into the repulsorlift, and set out on the much longer trip back.

#guardians of the galaxy #fanfiction #fanfic #peter quill #yondu udonta #drax the destroyer #gamora #nebula #groot #rocket racoon #mantis #kraglin #starlord

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starcitizenprivateer · 7 years ago

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On The Run, pt. 2

Part One of the story can be read here.

Alex leaned over the railing to look down at the sprawling plaza below. Streams of Banu flowed in and around the stalls and shops that crowded the marketplace. The near deafening noise was a constant presence. Sellers shouted proudly about their wares, shrewd traders loudly haggled over sips of sloma, while young runners darted about trying to lure potential customers back to their Souli’s Merchantman where the finest fuel cyclers or crog berries or whatever it was they happened to be selling was waiting for just the right buyer.

And even over all that noise Alex could still hear her stomach rumble.

It seemed the one thing that wasn’t for sale on the Bacchus flotilla was a decent breakfast. After a harrowing experience with a ‘Human Breakfast Special’ that had resulted in a shallow dish filled with sliced hot dogs and popcorn covered in what she could only describe as very thick orange juice, Alex had sworn off eating till she could get back to the few ready meals still safely tucked away inside the Belligerent Duck’s stores.

That would have to wait though. Pushing her hunger aside, Alex searched the crowds below for anything suspicious. Which, when you’re inside a Banu flotilla, is sort of like looking for uptight swegs when on Earth. More specifically, she was looking for any undercover Advocacy Agents or bounty hunters who had the gall to follow them into Banu territory.

Typically, the Advocacy would pursue a thief for a system, maybe two, before they called back their resources and left it to the Bounty Hunting Guild to chase the culprit down. It wasn’t that the Advocacy weren’t eager to see justice done, they just had more important things to spend their time and efforts on (like vicious outlaw gangs and crazed serial killers). It was why the Empire relied so heavily on the bounty system in the first place. Doubly so when the jurisdiction crossed into the Banu Protectorate. With a high enough price, you could have hundreds of bounty hunters searching for free and only have to pay the person who collected. It saved time and credits.

The Advocacy’s focus was on big fish, and Alex had worked hard at staying a medium fish at best.

Yet, her and Mas’ escape from Terra had proven to be anything but typical. Instead of having to deal with the normal gaggle of cocksure guilders fumbling all over themselves to get paid, the Advocacy had mobilized dozens of Agents across multiple systems in one of the biggest dragnets she had ever seen. Every jump point had been swarming. Plus, there had been the daily dispatches encouraging citizens to share information with the authorities. Why was it that law-abiding types were always so bored they couldn’t just mind their own damn business?

The Duck could barely stop to refuel without some good Samaritan recognizing them from the wanted posters plastered all over the spec. Mas had to work overtime blocking or delaying comms until they were away, and even then, they still had to fight their way free more times than was healthy. They had always pulled through, but only by the slimmest of margins. Their Mercury had the scars to prove it.

On top of that, Alex had been forced to call in just about every outstanding favor she had. In Pyro, a crew that owed them for a records wipe had agreed to tangle with the bounty hunters who had cornered them there. Though, to be honest, she suspected they would have done it for free with the amount of joy they seemed to take in the fight. In Tram, Alex not only had to wipe Old Mac’s debt clear to get him to help distract the Advos tailing them, but now they owed him a favor. And knowing the gummer, he was likely to milk it for all its worth. A problem for another day.

All in all, they had been pursued across seven systems and hadn’t been able to rest for a moment. Well, Mas barely slept on a good day so he seemed relatively unperturbed by the whole experience. In fact, having the chance to coordinate an intrusion on the Meridian Transit network in Garron had the hacker humming louder than she had ever heard him. And admittingly, Alex had laughed herself watching the hacked starliner routes stymy their pursuers. But that had been days ago. Now, here she was in Bacchus, tired, hungry, surrounded by a hive of Banu, and she could tell that her brain was far from firing with all thrusters.

Something about this job wasn’t adding up. Being paid to delete files at Behring instead of stealing them was strange enough, but now with the way the law had been after them? Even with a big player like Behring involved the response had been above and beyond. Alex felt like she was staring at a big red warning sign, but she was so exhausted she couldn’t read it.

What she really needed was about a month on Cassel with nothing to do but float, drink, flirt with Navy, and spend all her hard-earned credits.

Speaking of which, Alex brought up her mobi to check the time. Only a half hour until they met with Mr. Grouse and received the rest of their payment. Pushing herself up from the rail, she turned and headed towards the docking tube that connected Donosi Souli to the rest of the flotilla structure. Hopefully, Mas had been able to make progress on untangling the project data they had secretly downloaded from the lab.

A few steps behind, Mr. Grouse quietly followed.

To say that Donosi was Mas’ old Souli was a bit misleading, but it was easier for Alex to think of it that way. A programming guild, Donosi had been formed when the previous guild leader, Essosouli Olosso has died. Mas had used the turnover to buy his freedom, while most of the other guild members had joined Olosso’s heir Donosi when she established her ‘new’ Souli. So basically, all the same people working out of the same place, doing the same thing.

Fortunately, while Mas was no longer considered family, Essosouli Donosi was inclined to temporarily hire them both whenever they needed a place to lay low for a while. In exchange for Mas doing some work for them, he and Alex received the protection that being part of a powerful Souli brought, keeping would-be Bounty Hunters at bay thanks to the intricacies of Banu politics.

Alex arrived through the old airlock that marked where the Donosi’s ship connected to the flotilla. Not that it was much of a ship anymore. The thing hadn’t flown in decades and was so hemmed in on all side by other structures it was unclear if it could take off even if it had wanted to. Carefully stepping over thick cable bundles, she made her way inside. It was cluttered for sure, but compared to some of the other Souli she had visited, Donosi was neat and organized. Rather than the usual overflowing collection of odds and ends that most Banu seemed drawn to, the computer guild’s wealth was all in data. Racks and racks of drives of various makes and models lined the walls, some of them older than her. In the center of the room, several Banu half-reclined at terminals pouring over lines of code. Over the sound of typing, she could hear Mas happily humming to himself.

“Any luck, Mas?” asked Alex.

“Oh, yes. Much,” replied Mas with a wide smile. “We have confirmed that Project Stargazer is particularly worthless.”

Alex turned to see Essouli Donosi enter the room. You could always tell when Donosi was approaching because the dozens of mobiGlas that she wore clacked together as she walked. “Oh, yes,” said Donosi. “Complete garbage.”

That red warning sign in Alex’s head started flashing a little faster. “What do you mean? We got paid a fortune to wipe this stuff.”

Mas walked over to Alex with a datapad and gestured to the screen. “This is Project Stargazer.”

“Looks like a targeting reticule.”

“It is a targeting reticule. Part of a design that was supposed to help gunners recalibrate their weapons if the sighting was off during combat. The project was shelved last year when it was proven in tests to only be slightly more efficient than not using it.”

“The datapod you stored it on is worth more than this terrible information,” said Donosi. “Total refuse. Utter trash. No one would ever pay anything for such a thing as what you have brought.”

Alex’s stomach sank when she realized that Donosi was repeating herself. A sure sign that the Essosouli was negotiating. Part of the agreed upon price for the Souli’s protection had been the info they’d stolen and now it seemed that Donosi was no longer satisfied with that deal. This was not good news considering that both her and Mas were technically indentured to the guild currently.

“You can keep the datapod then,” replied Alex. “Let’s go, Mas.” She pulled on his arm, trying to get him to follow her.

“Mas, stay where you are,” said Donosi in a firm voice. “Your debt has not been cleared.”

Mas stopped and Alex found herself uselessly pulling on what might as well have been a brick wall.

“What are you doing? Let’s go.”

“I am sorry, Alex,” said Mas. “I cannot leave until Essosouli Donosi approves.”

“Are you serious?”

“I will not break a given bond. I am not like a Human.” With that, Mas winked at her.

Alex had been the one to teach Mas to wink and it had quickly proven to be a terrible idea. More than a few deals had gone south thanks to him winking when Alex was attempting to stretch the truth a bit. However, since none of the other Banu knew what winking meant, the skill might finally have payed off. Mas wanted her to find a way out of this.

“And what do you think our debt is?” asked Alex.

“A month of labor. Mas will gain access to some difficult locked drives we have acquired and you will clean.”

Even if they hadn’t needed to make their rendezvous, there was no universe that existed where Alex would have taken those terms. A headache began to grow behind her eyes. Like she didn’t have enough on her plate without becoming a Banu slave for a month. Actually, Alex thought, why am I having to deal with this?

“And I say there is no debt. You agreed to take the info on the datapod and that’s what you got. A deal’s a deal.”

“Information that is worthless.”

“Yeah, that sucks for you. Next time negotiate better.”

A smile broke across Donosi’s face. “Very well. You are free to go.”

“Oh,” Alex responded a bit taken aback by the sudden shift. Even though she lived with a Banu, she still could be surprised by how alien the aliens sometimes felt. “Thanks.”

“Come on, Alex,” said Mas, getting up from the terminal. “We don’t want to be late.”

Mas worked the star runner’s scanner as Alex guided the ship towards the rendezvous coordinates the courier had delivered to her a few days earlier.

The relative quiet of the Duck proved to be unnerving rather than the relief she had expected. And even though she should have been able to take a break from looking over her shoulder now that she was back aboard her own ship, Alex still felt on edge. Nothing about this job was sitting right. Why would Grouse want them to purge useless data? Why would the Advocacy be treating them like the Empire’s most wanted? Why did Grouse want to meet again rather than just sending the credits. Why couldn’t she figure out what the hell was going on?

“This is a trap, yes?” asked Mas, having similar thoughts.

“Yeah,” agreed Alex. “You want to forget the credits and bail?”

“It is a lot of credits.”

“It is so many credits.”

Mas thought for a beat. “We can always get more credits. I am a very good hacker and you are also good at things.”

“Yeah.” Though she was sad to be losing the money, a huge sense of relief came over her now that the decision had been made. “Where do you want to go? Spider? Maybe finally check out Kayfa?”

“Neither, I’m afraid,” said Mr. Grouse from behind them, the energy pistol in his hand trained at Mas’ head. “You will maintain your current course.”

Alex, cursing herself, swore that from now on she and Mas were going to search all the berths for stowaways before taking off.

“Let me guess, Advocacy are waiting for us at the rendezvous?” asked Alex.

“Correct, Ms. Dougan. You will be arrested, tried and convicted. Of course, there is a chance I will be forced to kill you both before then, but I would prefer not to.”

“You know we’ll tell them about you, right?”

“That has always been the plan. The only surprise was you managing to evade capture this long. I was certain they had you at the Davien jump point. It was most impressive when your Mercury gave them the slip once again.”

“Wait,” said Mas. “If you wanted the thieves arrested, then why did you hire us? Why not hire bad thieves?”

“The job needed to be successful. A lesser team would have been caught before deleting the project.”

“But the files were worthless!” protested Alex.

“Enough, Ms. Dougan. We should be arriving at the ambush any moment now.”

“What about Prairie Lightning Delta?

“What?”

A moment after she had uttered the phrase-key, the EMP rigged under the main console went off.

With a sickening lurch, the ship powered completely down.

Mr. Grouse, unprepared, tripped forward off balance. Mas, very prepared, slipped his knife from its sheath and slashed at their captor’s arm. The pistol dropped to the floor and Alex dove, recovering the weapon before Grouse could.

“An EMP. Clever,” said Grouse, breathing hard, the deep gouge on his arm dripping blood onto the floor.

“Mas’ gets full credit,” said Alex. “Now, if you don’t mind, why don’t you start explaining what in hell it is you’re up to.”

Before Grouse could respond, bright headlights suddenly shone into the cockpit. An Advocacy Vanguard flanked by two Banu Defenders was quickly approaching their ship. The Agents must have negotiated their way in with the Security Souli in this sector.

“I am afraid it’s too late,” said Grouse.

“Comm them and tell them we’ll kill you if you don’t stand down.”

“Why would they care about a corpse?” asked Grouse, reaching his fingers inside the wound on his arm.

“Mas! Stop him!” shouted Alex.

Mas reached out, but not fast enough.

“Your Empire thanks you for your service,” said Grouse as he used his fingers to sever his brachial artery. The trickle of blood turned into a gushing flood. Grouse collapsed to the floor unconscious.

Alex was certain that the memory of what Grouse had just done would hold the top spot for the most terrifying thing she’s ever seen for a long time to come. “Crap! Do you know first aid?”

“No.” said Mas, looking down at the body and its widening pool of blood. “Did we ever buy more medpens?”

“Crap. Crap. Crap. Help me get some pressure on him or something.”

It was then that the ship’s power kicked back on.

“—gent Duck. This is the UEE Advocacy. Prepare to be boarded.”

It seemed Alex and Mas had a choice. Either tend to Grouse before he died, or try to avoid capture. It was a very easy choice. “Mas, dump his body in the lock and strap in!”

Alex threw herself into the pilot seat and opened up the throttles to max. The Mercury burst to life and hurtled towards the Vanguard, rolling to bring their port side to the Advocacy’s ventral. The shields flared as the twin Sawbucks on the Vanguard’s turret scored a direct hit. They held for now, but a few more hits like that and the Duck would be done for.

A head to head fight wasn’t an option here. They were outclassed. Emergency escape maneuvers were the order of the day.

Gaining a bit of distance from the pursuers as they rushed to turn around and give chase, Alex quickly opened up the rear ramp and turned off the cargo grid.

“Mas, special delivery!”

Alex pulled hard on the controls and Mercury flew straight up, leaving the ten crates in their hold floating behind them. She grabbed the blackout helmet she kept nearby for just this moment and quickly slipped it on, giving all new meaning to the phrase ‘flying blind.’

Mas began counting down, “Three… two… one… “

Alex heart skipped a beat before she remembered that Banu counted down to zero.

“Zero!”

Behind them, a small new sun burst to life as the crates exploded. Or at least that’s what it looked like. Or would have looked like if Alex could see anything.

Each of the crates had contained the equivalent of a hundred flares. The ten crates combined was enough to overload any nearby sensors long enough for them to clear range. And forget trying to track them visually. Those poor pilots would be lucky if they got their vision back any time soon.

Alex pulled off the helmet and lined up a QT towards the Bacchus asteroid belt.

“If we are going to be on the run again,” said Mas. “I think I would like to go visit Leir.”

“Sure, Mas.” said Alex. “It’s your turn to pick anyway.”

Alex let out a deep sigh and for the moment tried to ignore the pool of blood at her feet by concentrating on flying.

No answers. No money. But for now at least, they had their freedom.

THE END.

#star citizen #squadron 42

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