Bandit woke up the next morning not feeling like himself. On top of his pained shoulder, he was shivering violently and he felt weak and achy.
Probably just getting a cold after the water yesterday he reckoned. Nothing to keep me from mining.
When he joined the others on planet U, Jet was the first person he saw.
"Good morning, Jet," Bandit bade lowly.
Jet turned to him. and a look of concern crossed her face.
"Bandit, are you feeling okay? You're pale," she asked.
"It's not serious," Bandit assured her.
"Bandit, if you're not feeling well you should take some time off, serious or not," Jet said.
"There's no need Jet. I'm okay," Bandit told her.
Jet looked like she would have argued further is Docs hadn't shown up followed by sparks.
"Sorry we're late," Doc's apologized, "I needed to check on Axle and Sparks insisted on coming."
"How's he doing?" Jet of pain, but.
"He's in a lot of pain, but the worst is over," Docs replied "Sparks' invention is really useful."
"Thanks Docs!" Sparks beamed.
"Enough chit chat. Let's get started," Bandit said, "The sooner we get more power crystals, the sooner we'll be on our way home."
The others agreed and got to work.
Bandit soon found he had another problem. The cut on his shoulder was down to muscle level making it difficult to use a pickaxe. He looked around the mining area frantically for a way around this. His eyes fell on the cart truck used to ferry crystals from the mines to the oxygen purifier where they would be teleported to the LMS by Chief.
"Axel won't be driving for a while," Bandit said casually, "I'll take on driving the cart truck until he's back on his feet."
"Fine with me," said Docs.
Bandit nodded and got into the driver's seat waiting.
He quickly decided he did not like this job. Much of it was sitting around. It was pretty boring.
No wonder Axel comes up with so many bad jokes, he thought to himself.
Bandit suddenly felt a chill again and began to shiver violently.
Why am I so cold? he wondered to himself, we're closer to the lava monster area than the ice monster area.
"Bandit!"
Bandit suddenly realized Sparks was calling his name.
"Uh…yeah Sparks?" he asked.
"The truck is full. You need to drive the power crystals back before we can mine anymore," Sparks answered.
"Right…Sorry, I guess I spaced out," Bandit apologized turning on the vehicle.
"Bandit, are you okay? You're shaking." Docs asked sounding concerned.
"Just thinking about what happened yesterday. That water was cold!" Bandit replied.
Sparks started to climb up towards him in the vehicle.
"Are you sure, Bandit? You don't look so-YIKES!"
Sparks' hand found the lever and the cart on the back of the truck tilted spilling all the crystals they had just collected.
"Oops…" Sparks said sheepishly.
"Oops indeed," Bandit said angrily, "Get down now!"
Sparks did as he was told, and Bandit followed.
"Listen, all of you! I'm okay! I don't want any of you making assumptions about my health, especially if this is going to be the result!" he declared angrily, pointing to the power crystals, "We have a job to do here. I don't want our chances of getting home ruined because some people can't collect a few power crystals."
The others nodded and began picking up the power crystals with Bandit's help. Once the cart was full again Bandit drove back to the purifier and sent the crystals on their way.
None of the others spoke much to Bandit for the rest of the day and none of them inquired about his health.
Bandit preferred it this way. Hard work by as much of the team as possible, that was the best way to get any job done. Axle was too badly hurt to continue, fine. Bandit could accept that. But the others had no excuse, and in his mind, nor did Bandit himself.