Chapter 11: Results
Nightfall on the ship came slowly. Too slowly. Hammerface stared at the setting sun, not caring it was stinging his eyes to do so. Nosy sat next to him, ears flattened against his head as he watched the clouds begin to glow a bright orange in the fading light.
Things...didn't look so good. Nosy had zero idea why Clip had slipped up the way she did in the clearing, but Gantu had evidently seen it. And from that smirk he'd given Hammerface, Nosy knew he didn't plan on doing anything good with whatever he'd gotten from their interaction.
And then there were the other three. It was evident they were lost on all of this and didn't know what was going to be in store for them. And, of course, everyone was anxious for what was to come in regards to the tests being run...
"Hey, Hammerface? 033?"
No answer; Hammerface was still glued to the sun outside the window. Too much so-Nosy could hear odd, strained breaths coming from his friend. He grimaced, then shook Hammerface hard by the shoulder, causing him to let out a panicked gasp, "DON'T!"
"I will when I start hearing that of all things, quit staring at the sun and calm the hell down! We have to think about what we're gonna do, not melt our eyeballs out."
Hammerface hung his head, feeling his eyes burn as afterimages danced in his vision. "It's just...every single little detail about me-a-about us, about her-it's all at risk after what I saw today…"
"I know; we just...the only thing we can do from here on in is to be more careful about this…"
Nosy turned back to watch the last of the sun sink beneath the trees, leaving a brilliant orange and purple tint in the clouds above. Usually, sunsets on Earth were beautiful, but this one felt ominous; the purple quickly deepening to a hazy dark blue. He couldn't help but notice the stars seemed scarce tonight, most being blotted out by approaching mist and clouds. He felt a chill go up his spine at the sight and quickly looked back towards Hammerface.
"Wanna get away from here? You've been sitting a while now."
The gray experiment hesitated before giving a small nod to his friend, "Yeah, maybe it'll help…"
The final few rays of light were disappearing below the trees as Heat quietly huddled near the ship's entrance. Gantu had wanted to "talk" to him here-at least he guessed, he'd made the mock quotes as he did so...But given it was him who'd been the cause of the rushed and ruined plans today, he couldn't help but think the talk was more of an insult session.
His fears were soon answered as he heard the noise of fast-approaching footsteps. Heat winced as Gantu made his way to the door of the ship, a sour look on his face and his phone held fast in his hand. A call had come through and he suspected it was from Jumba given Gantu's reaction to it. A quick glare from the shark-like alien sent him backing off into a corner of the ship, Gantu slipping the phone into his pocket as he turned to face him.
"Well Heat, thanks for the events of today. I'm sure you're aware of our new rules for your phone-and the ship's, so I won't be going over them. I am, however, happy that something was found out in regards to the cloning, so I won't be losing my job for the time being. Which means your fat behind gets to eat."
He pressed the button to open the ship and stepped out, giving the thermal experiment a sneer as he turned back to close it. "I'll be back soon. Be glad your stupidity turned in your favor this time around."
"Asshole." Angel hissed from behind Heat, the two watching Gantu storm off into the forest. She'd come up fast behind him and while he couldn't see her, he could definitely sense the anger radiating off of her. "That was shitty even for him. Are you okay?"
Heat shook his head, tears welling up in his eyes. Gantu was right-this entire situation was because he hadn't been careful enough when talking to Sparky. Now things were going to get worse over here, even if they could get to the bottom of his blackouts and Plasmoid's migraines. And then...even if they did, what would Gantu do? Or Hamsterviel? How would he live with whatever was found with him, if at all…?
He felt a hand go to his shoulder and turned to Angel, wiping an eye as he did so. The prior anger he'd felt from her was gone, replaced by a worried stare, flattened ears and low-hanging antenna. Angel cast a quick glance towards the door of the ship and looked back to him, narrowing her eyes slightly.
"You know what Heat? Fuck those test results right now. Fuck 'em, okay? We need to eat and, and-" She gulped as she gave another quick look at the ship's door, "-And I think...we might not be able to soon. Y'know, if they're…" She trailed off, unable to say the word.
Heat slowly nodded, sniffling a little as he let Angel lead him to the kitchen. Experiments were scattered around the room; most were at the table, but others were eating on top of the counter and next to the fridge. Nosy was one of these, standing aside as Angel pulled the fridge open and grabbed a bowl of leftover pasta. He sighed as he looked both up and down, seeing their apparent exhaustion at the day's events.
"I know things are...messed up right now, but this is just...it's just one bad day we're having here, alright?" He said, folding his plastic plate in his hands as Heat took the bowl from Angel, "Whatever happens, I...I just wanna let you know I'm gonna try to help. All of us in the older series. Okay?"
"Okay...thanks Nosy." Heat said, "I just...I feel like I caused this-"
"You didn't cause shit." Plasmoid interrupted, marching up to the three experiments.
"But-"
"NO! You didn't do anything Heat; calling Sparky wasn't wrong, Gantu's in the wrong for keeping us here and not letting us call anyone, end of story." The plasma experiment snapped, stretching up on his front legs to stare the older in the face. Sadly, this didn't work on the blasting experiment; Heat felt his heart sink as he saw that-just like him and Angel-Plasmoid was exhausted. He just wasn't letting it show to the extent they were.
He hung his head, causing Plasmoid to get even more insistent.
"Heat, come on; you know I'm right on this. Quit blaming yourself because Gantu's a jackass."
"Okay, fine…"
"No, not fine! It's not your fault Heat, why can't you see that?"
"Plasmoid, that's enough." Hammerface's monotonous voice sounded out from the table, "It's been a long day, and it's not even over. Best we can do is deal with what's coming. Talking to Heat like this won't help."
"Right. We've all been through a lot today, no one'll be taking in information as well as they should." Nosy added, "There's not much we can do right now except eat. And something tells me we should finish up fast before he gets back." He gestured to Heat and Angel, "You guys, get that into the microwave, alright?" We'll cross the other bridge when it comes."
The sound of the ship's door opening came not only a few moments after Angel and Heat finished off the remainder of the spaghetti, being followed by slow, heavy footsteps. Hammerface looked up abruptly from his drink and glared in the direction of the noise, followed by Angel and Nosy.
"Right, we're gonna be...around if you need us, okay?" Hunkahunka asked, taking flight towards the hallway leading to the experiments' room along with Amnesio and Slimy, "Good luck with this…"
"Thanks, we'll call if we need you." Hammerface said, watching them head off into the darkness of the hall as Gantu approached the kitchen. Hammerface turned to the doorway...and was shocked to see Gantu, standing in it and looking as though he'd just watched something get hit by a space shuttle. His normally stern face was instead solemn, and his eyes almost looked misty, as though he was on the verge of crying. He quietly trudged into the room and placed a small stack of papers down on the table. The experiments who'd stayed-Hammerface, Felix, Angel, Heat, Thresher, Nosy, and Plasmoid-all gathered around them, surveying the final results of the lab.
Hammerface picked his up, scanning it. First quickly, then more carefully, then fearfully, his hands shaking as he read through the Turian characters on the paper. His stomach sank as he lowered it, looking up at Gantu for the first time in defeat.
"What...have you done?"
