Chapter Three: Danny Boy
Bad Cop woke the next morning feeling… not exactly well rested, but more rested than he had all week. He showered and dressed before making his way to the kitchen for some coffee, and nearly sat on his guest before he recognized the blue-clad figure sprawled out on his couch, snoring away. He stared for a long minute, trying to wrap his as of yet uncaffeinated brain around this development. Had Benny really stayed all night, just to make sure he'd be okay?
He shook his head, unable to make heads or tails of the strange man, before the beeping of his coffee maker called him away. The noise pulled a snort from the astronaut, who then sat up, blinking blearily at his unfamiliar surroundings.
"…This isn't my apartment," he observed.
"No kidding," came Bad Cop's gruff voice, and Benny jumped, whirling to face him. "Coffee?" the cop offered.
"Ah, no thanks," Benny declined, grinning sheepishly. "Caffeine and I get on a little too well, you know?"
"…No, I don't," Bad Cop said at length, "But I'll take your word for it." He took a sip from the steaming mug himself. Benny blinked up at him as he realized something.
"You're not in uniform."
"How astute of you." When Benny pouted at him, he continued with, "Decided to take your advice."
"Oh!" The spaceman lit up like the sun. "Well that's good! I hope it helps." He patted his thighs, looking around the quiet apartment as Bad Cop drank more of his coffee. The silence was starting to get to him, and while words and comfort had come easily to him the night before, it just felt awkward now. "I guess I'll get out of your hair now, I mean you gotta pack and stuff and I'll just be in the way." He bounced to his feet, grinning. "Have fun on your vacation!" he burbled, and before Bad Cop could utter so much as a word, Benny had shown himself out. The cop could only stare after him and shake his head. Just when he thought he was starting to get the astronaut figured out…
Bad Cop pulled his cell phone out, hitting the speed dial number for his parents' house, feeling anxiety soaring the longer the phone rang. What would he say to them? Where would he even start? It had been so long since he and Good had really spoken to their parents, keeping their conversations brief and courteous, just enough to keep them from worrying while also keeping them safe from Business' schemes.
It hurt, to hear how surprised and thrilled they were that he'd actually called for once, and he felt like the worst son in the world for it. But he pushed himself through the conversation, telling them everything he'd told Benny the night before. His Mum let out a sob when her fears were confirmed, that Alastar truly was dead. They both remained silent as he continued talking, about what their job truly was, about how Business punished them when they failed to capture a Master Builder, that being forced to Kragle them had been their punishment for The Special escaping with the Piece of Resistance. That he'd been too weak to protect his brother, that Alastar was the strong one, for defying Business and standing up for what he knew was right, even at the cost of his life.
"Oh, sweetheart," his mother crooned into the phone, tone both sad and soothing, "come home."
He nearly lost his composure at those two words, relief flooding him that he still had a home to come to. "Yes, Mummy," he choked out, and they hung up. He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths to get his wild emotions under control. It was harder, without Alastar's neutrality there to keep him grounded. He busied himself with packing, and it was only as he was locking his door that he realized the only vehicle he had now was his motorcycle. He glanced down at his suitcase, and gave a resigned sigh. Looked like he'd be taking a taxi.
Bad Cop stepped over to Benny's apartment, hoping he hadn't left yet, and knocked. "Just a moment!" came a shout from some distance, and a few seconds later the door opened. "Oh, you're still here!"
"Just on my way out, actually. Wanted to ask if you'd mind getting my mail while I'm gone."
"Sure, not a problem." He glanced down at the suitcase. "…Want a ride? I don't have anywhere I have to be for a while yet, it won't be a problem, and it'd sure beat trying to wrestle that thing onto your bike."
Tension he hadn't even realized was there bled out of him. "Thank you, Ben. I really wasn't looking forward to trying public transportation."
"Not a problem," Benny repeated, grinning. Bad Cop was thoroughly unsurprised to find himself led to a spaceship, though at least this one was considerably smaller than the battleship Benny had built on Takos Tuesday. He threw his luggage in and climbed into the passenger side, making sure his seatbelt was fastened. He'd seen how Benny flew the last one, and though the astronaut was considerably less excited now, he wasn't taking any chances.
But Benny was a reasonable flyer this time, merely bouncing slightly in his seat and singing "spaceship, spaceship~" under his breath. He followed Bad Cop's directions out into the country, and touched down in the field just past his parents' driveway. "Aww, what a cute little place!" Benny cooed. "This is where you grew up?"
"Yes."
"Aww, lookit you, little country boy!"
"Like you have any room to talk, cowboy?" Benny snickered.
"Oh, hey! Give me your phone!"
Bad Cop startled at the sudden demand. "What?"
"How are you supposed to keep in touch if you don't have my phone number?"
"…Again, what?" But he handed it over without further protest, and watched in amazement as Benny expertly navigated its system. The astronaut caught his look.
"Dude, I'm not stupid. I spent twenty-some years in stasis, and another five on the run. Not very conducive to keeping up with technological development, but it doesn't mean I can't learn this new stuff. Emmet showed me a few tricks the other day."
"Oh." Benny typed away for several minutes, tongue poking out in concentration, then handed the phone over with a proud grin.
"There, that should be everyone now! And I have yours too!" He proceeded to enter it into his own phone. Bad Cop reached for his suitcase and climbed out of the spaceship. His parents were standing in the open doorway waiting for him. He glanced back just in time to see Benny waving goodbye, and the canopy closed once more, the small craft lifting off to return to the city. Then his attention was back on his parents as his mother wrapped her thin arms around him, crooning comfort to him, and he couldn't hold back the tears anymore.
His first week back was rough. When he wasn't catching up on much needed sleep, he was trying to help his parents around the house, only to be shooed away. "I've been making this on my own for years, dear, I'll be just fine."
"I know, Mum, but if I don't have something to do, I may just lose what's left of my mind."
"Why don't you go work in your shop, then?"
That gave him pause. He'd completely forgotten about it. "It's still there?"
She looked up at him, expression inscrutable. "Of course it is, dear. President Business never even realized it was there, he left it untouched." When he uprooted our house to torment you was left unsaid, but he knew what she meant. It was the one thing about the dual-born twins that Business had never found out, no matter how deeply he pried into their background.
He gave her a small smile and a kiss on the cheek. "Thanks, Mum."
"Anytime, sweetie. Now get out of my hair so I can finish this pie."
The shop in question was hidden in the woods at the edge of their property, dug out of a hill. They'd spent so much time there as kids, slowly carving a proper shop out of the dirt. Their parents had been so supportive of them when they'd discovered their talents, supplying them with tools and materials. The ceiling was just barely tall enough for him to stand without bumping his head against it, and he smiled faintly at the memory of having to dig the floor deeper several times to accommodate their continuously growing height.
The spiders had moved in and taken over in their absence, and he sighed when he saw the collection of cobwebs and insect corpses littering the space. He'd be cleaning up this disaster for a while before he could even think of a project to start.
Bad Cop was still in the process of hunting down the broom and dust pan when his phone began to ring. He frowned, wondering who would possibly be calling him- his parents knew he'd be gone for hours when he was out here, and they generally didn't bother him. Caller ID told him it was Benny. "…Hello?"
"Hey, B!" Benny greeted, sounding cheerful as ever. "Haven't heard a peep from you all week, and we were starting to wonder about you!"
"We?"
"Oh, me and Emmet and Lucy and Metalbeard and Unikitty."
"Oh."
"So what's up? Doing any better?"
"I feel lazy," Bad Cop deadpanned. "I've barely been doing anything other than sleep, it's really getting irritating."
Benny laughed at how put out he sounded. "I'm sure it is," he teased. "Hey, you might wanna turn on the news, I think you'll be interested in what's about to go on air."
Bad Cop glanced at the ancient television sitting on the work bench, and wondered if it would even still function with the sheer amount of dust it had to be holding now. "Hang on," he said before setting the phone down, and turning the tv set upside-down to empty it of yet more dead bugs and dust. Satisfied that there was nothing else to shake out of it, he set it back down and gave the power switch an experimental flick. By some miracle, it still functioned. "Huh. Look at that." The picture was staticky and full of snow though, and it took him several minutes of messing with the antenna on the hilltop to get a clear picture. "Still there, Ben?"
"Sure am! What happened?"
"Had to go fix the antenna."
A moment of stunned silence. "You still use an antenna?"
"…I'm in the, ah, clubhouse we built as a kid. Haven't touched this place in years."
"You have a clubhouse? Oh that's precious," Benny snickered.
"Shut up, Ben. It was the one place we could go and just be us without having to worry about the other kids harassing us for being different." He looked around the place. "Made a lot of fond memories here…"
"Sorry, man, I didn't mean to be a jerk about it." Benny sounded contrite, or at least like he was pouting. "I gotta say though, you do sound like you're doing a little better now."
"I guess." He flicked through the stations until he found the news, brushing off the stool before sitting on it. "How are things in Bricksburg? It hasn't fallen apart in my absence, has it?"
"Nah. Not yet, anyway. Things were starting to get a little tense between the Master Builders and the city folk again, so Unikitty took them to rebuild Cloud Cuckooland." Bad Cop winced at that, but kept silent. "It's just the four of us here now. Oh! And Busy made Emmet his… I guess you could call him an advisor? I'm not really sure what Sirius said to him to get him to agree to it, but I guess it's a good thing he's acknowledging his shortcomings and trying to fix them. He's already made a couple good suggestions- one was keeping the four of us here to get people used to having Master Builders around without feeling overwhelmed by us, and the other- gosh, I'm so excited for this one! Busy's going to fund a school for Master Builders! Emmet's working on the plans for it now, and Lucy and I are gonna be teachers!"
Well, that was definitely interesting news. "Sounds great, Ben."
"Oh, it's starting! I'll let you go now, just wanted to check in. Bye!"
"Bye, Ben." He set his phone down, eyes glued to the television. President Business was making some sort of announcement, it seemed. He was flanked by human police officers for once, rather than his robots, and a flock of reporters clamored before him, holding up recorders to catch his speech. To anyone else, he appeared calm and collected, but to Bad Cop's trained eye, he could see the man was pale, nerves likely making him feel ill, and it piqued his curiosity. What was it Business had to announce that was making him so nervous?
The answer was that the man was finally making a formal apology for what he'd done. Bad Cop wanted to believe that his boss was feeling ill because he had to make an apology, but he couldn't convince himself of it. He knew Business well enough to know when the man was acting, and when he was sincere, and right now he was displaying all the signs of being sincere.
It was depressing, the thought that Emmet had been able to reach him in five minutes, when Good Cop and Bad Cop hadn't been capable of it in over eight years. He supposed the young man was made The Special for a reason, made-up prophecy be damned. Emmet just had a quality to him that Bad Cop simply could not name.
Business continued, saying he would be stepping down as President of the World and giving the realms the freedom to rule themselves once more. Octan Corporation would also be facing a drastic downsizing, as it released its monopoly on so many markets. He also mentioned the school Benny had told him about and was so excited for, and Bad Cop hummed thoughtfully to himself. It seemed President Business truly was trying to turn over a new leaf and make amends.
He snarled to himself and snapped the television off. It didn't matter how many good intentions Business had, it didn't matter how many of the wrongs he committed he tried to make right, none of it was going to bring his brother back. He shoved himself away from the bench and roughly grabbed the broom, attacking the cobwebs on the ceiling with a vengeance. If this place was the only thing he had left of Alastar, he would make darn sure it was pristine.
