My very first Wander Over Yonder fic, so some OOCness is bound to be expected in some places. Enjoy!
Wander Over Yonder (c) Craig McCracken
Sylvia wasn't altogether fond of parties. She didn't really hate them, but she would much prefer to just lie on a beach with a cold drink in her hand, listening to the waves rolling in. If there wasn't any karaoke involved, she would most likely pass up the opportunity. Or she would've, had she not felt obligated to never leave her best friend's side unless it was absolutely necessary.
The furball in question was currently showing off his skills on the dance floor. His scrawny limbs were moving in ways, which the inhabitants of this planet, judging from their faces, hadn't seen before.
A few of them were trying to do him after, but even after closely observing his steps, they didn't know which leg to stand on. Understandable, as their particular race had five legs. She should feel horrible for laughing, but by grop if it wasn't hilarious!
Even if she didn't like parties that much, she had to admit that she was having a bit of fun. And even if she wasn't, then Wander was, which was the most important part.
All fun things must come to an end, though. Knowing their luck, she really should've seen it coming.
"Hey, who decided to throw a party without inviting me?!"
Sylvia sighed and pinched her snout right between the eyes. Out of all the people, it just had to be him.
From what little she could see of Awesome's face in the doorway, he looked rather miffed. With a snap of his fingers, his Fist Fighters entered with lasers in hand and then started to hold some of the partygoers at gunpoint. Or laserpoint, as it were. Whichever.
She assumed the only reason why she wasn't already a target for one of the many fist-faced goons was because she was standing close to one of the walls, partially covered by shadows and therefore difficult to spot at first glance.
People started screaming, but they dared not move out of fear of getting shot.
'As usual,' she thought, rolling up her non-existant sleeves. 'It's up to me and Wander to make sure that these nuts don't harm anyone.' She looked over to where she had last seen her friend, only to find that he was gone. She panicked. Where could he be?! She made to look for him before helping the party-goers, hoping to go about it stealthily.
Before she could even take a step further into the shadows, she noticed that Awesome was looking straight at her. The frown, which had covered his face when he entered, was now replaced with a toothy grin. Oh, perfect! All of his attention was now on her. She couldn't believe her luck.
He moved towards her in a fashion which she could only assume to be dancing, although it looked more like a fish wriggling on land (hah!). Really, falling down the stairs would've been more graceful.
"Hey, Becs~," he said, wriggling his eyebrows in what he thought to be an endearing manner. "Had I known you'd be here, I would've dressed for the occasion."
Sylvia resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Flipping her hand in a dismissive and sassy way, she said with a disinterested tone, "You can't handle this."
This didn't discourage Awesome in the least. He just grabbed her hand and began stroking its backside; Sylvia thought she was going to get sick. "You keep saying that, but you don't mean it." He leaned towards her, evidently in an attempt to kiss her.
Not too keen on the idea herself, she leant backwards as far as she was allowed in the limited space between her and the wall. Seeing the way she reacted, Awesome opted not to continue with this approach.
'Well,' she thought, 'this guy at least doesn't threaten to destroy the planet.'
"You know, this party's pretty lame anyway. Whatcha say we blow this joint and paint the town red tonight?"
She could just feel the bile rising up her throat. "Depends."
"Depends on what?"
"On if you by painting the town red mean having fun or actually painting the town red with the tears and blood of its poor denizens by blowing up the planet in one of your planet-destroying parties. Oh wait, no it doesn't. I'll say no either way."
She allowed herself to smile a little because she knew he'd soon give up. For a bad guy, he was a remarkably good sport about her reject-
"What if I promise not to blow up the planet? In exchange you'll have to go on a date with me."
Huh? Well, he was very uncharacteristically stubborn tonight.
"I already told you, I'm not interested in spending any time with you - alone or otherwise."
"Oh, but we won't be alone; it'll be you, me, these guys," he then started flexing his muscles, "and...these girls." With a suggestive wriggle of his eyebrows, he grabbed both of her hands and held them up to kiss them.
She was just about ready to throw up and had long since lost her patience with him. Before his lips even met scaly skin, she ripped them out of his grip and sent him the meanest glare she could muster. "Listen, pal! You keep my ladies out of this or you'll soon find your face well-acquainted with them! Second, if you don't soon get it through your thick skull that I'm not interested in you, you'll find your face well-acquainted with them! Third, if you don't leave right now-"
"I'll find my face well-acquainted with them?" the slight shakiness in his voice told her that she was getting to him.
She smirked at this, "Worse."
His posture suddenly changed, his cocky smile back in place. "Oh, Becs~," he said condescendingly, shaking his head as if disappointed.
The change in attitude took her by surprise; she had not seen that coming. "What?"
"You seem to be forgetting who's in charge here."
To accentuate his point, she was met with at least a dozen laser guns to the face. Oh, right. The Fist Fighters. How could she forget?
Out of the blue, a pair of orange, hairy arms wrapped around Awesome's waist from behind, accompanied by a very familiar voice. "Emperor Awesome! Long time, no see, huh? How have ya been?"
Sylvia hadn't even seen him move up to them, and by the looks of it, neither had Awesome. He jumped in surprise and started reaching behind him frantically. "Get off me, you freak!" When that didn't work, he just opted to grab the offending arms and unwound them from his waist.
Wander didn't seem the least bit hurt from the small scene which had just played out, much to the relief of Sylvia. Awesome, on the other hand, was furious.
"How come you guys didn't stop him?!" he yelled at his Fist Fighters, voice sounding prepubescent from anger.
The Fist Fighters themselves seemed just as confused; apparently, they hadn't seen Wander, either.
Seeing that he wasn't getting anywhere, Awesome just sighed in frustration.
"So, now that you have us here at your complete mercy," except that they really weren't; she could see at least 23 ways to get through those Fist Fighters, 17 of which involved using her fists, "what are you planning? Force me to date you through blackmail?"
"Nah," Awesome said rather dismissively. "Dating's no fun if the girl ain't willing. No, this party sucks majorly, so I think I'll pump it up and make it a party, the likes of which this planet's never seen!"
Sylvia paled at this, "A planet-ending party...?"
"You betcha, baby. And when I'm done, you and your weird little friend are coming with me back to my ship. That'll show Hatey who's the greatest."
With a snap of his fingers, even more lasers were pointed at Wander and Sylvia. They were then forced to move forwards to the centre of the room.
"Grop," the smile which had been plastered on Wander's face was now gone, replaced with a worried frown. "Those things look mighty dangerous, fellahs. Here, let me help ya with that."
He then grabbed hold of the laser gun immediately in front of him, and tugged it towards himself. The Fist Fighter holding the laser in question, however, wasn't willing to let go of his weapon.
Not caring for her own safety, Sylvia reached towards the weapon herself in an attempt to assist Wander in this rather deadly game of tug of war. Next thing she knew, the laser was accidentally fired and hit the spotlight immediately above them.
With a cracking noise the supports gave way and the entire thing came crashing down. All of the Fist Fighters panicked, and ran in all directions. Sylvia was thrown out of the way before she could even grab hold of Wander.
Wander just stood there; he was so shocked from what was happening that he didn't get to move out of the way before he was enveloped by the spotlight.
The following screaming shook Sylvia to her core.
She tore herself away from Awesome, and ran straight towards the spot where her friend had been standing mere seconds earlier. She tried lifting the spotlight, but her distressed state of mind made her frantic. Normally, she would've been able lift something like this, no problem, but she simply couldn't focus enough of her strength to fully get the fridging thing out of the way.
Awesome just stared at her, feeling ever so lost and distraught by her growing panic. Coming to the conclusion that this was partially his fault, he decided to help her out.
She didn't acknowledge his presence when he suddenly stood beside her. He himself was much too focused on their current task to pretend to get offended.
With their combined strength, they managed to lift the spotlight and push it out of the way. The sight that met them broke Sylvia's heart into a thousand pieces.
Physically, Wander had been worse; much, much worse. No, that was not what scared her. He was just lying there, curled up on himself, and weeping into his hands.
She sat down beside him, but dared not even touch him. Too afraid of what might happen. Too afraid that he might break into pieces.
A numb kind of sadness seemed to fill her mind, but it was slowly being replaced by anger.
"Get out," she whispered.
"Um, what?" Awesome looked confused, which only fuelled her rage further.
"Get out before I do something I won't regret later!"
All sorts of emotions seemed to cross Awesome's features; confusion, fear, sadness, regret, and lastly, anger. That last one seemed faked, though. He let out a half-hearted "hmph!".
"Okay, but not because you told me to." He then ordered his Fist Fighters to return to his ship. "See if I invite you to my next party, Becs..." With that, he was gone.
Wander's weeping had quieted down a great deal and he finally removed his hands from his face. "S-Sylvia?"
She was on him immediately. "I'm right here, buddy." His next words broke her heart further, which she had thought to be impossible.
"Where? I can't see..."
She immediately looked towards the broken spotlight. Glass from the outer protection lay in pieces everywhere. The bulb itself, though, was perfectly intact and was still lit. Realization hit her hard; he had been directly faced with a who-flarping-cares-how-many-watts lightbulb, and had gone blind as a result.
"...W-Wander, I..."
"Excuse me..." the voice was so quiet that Sylvia barely heard it.
Turning towards the voice, she was faced with the partygoers. Oh yeah, they were still here.
"Your friend seems quite hurt," one of them, the same one as before, spoke up.
Sylvia bit her lip as to not throw out a sarcastic remark. It wouldn't be fair, as they, too, were afraid and had been held at laserpoint throughout the entire ordeal.
"I could drive you and your friend to the nearest hospital."
Sylvia perked up at this. 'A hospital, thank grop!' Not all planets had hospitals, and she had feared that it might have been necessary for her to go look for the hospital planet. Been there before, never going back there again, ugh.
"Yes! Thanks! That would be...much appreciated."
"Not a problem! You sort of did save us back there," the little guy said (or was it girl? Sylvia could never tell with these creatures), already heading outside towards his/her/its car.
Sylvia carefully picked Wander up. He had grown awfully quiet, and just seemed to be looking around with his now dull, green eyes. "Come on, buddy. You'll be all right. I'm sure it's not permanent."