I do not own Sym-Bionic Titan or any of the characters.

Messy Businees

Jet watched the goo monster explode, resting his arms on his bike's body just in front of the seat. They were on their way to school, but the other three had had to pull of into a back alley to hide while they activated Titan because a black goo monster slightly taller than Titan had appeared. Jet had been voted to stay out of it because he was making only slow progress with his Manus, and because a Manus was vastly too small to be helpful against such a large Mega Beast. He wasn't happy about it, but as far as defending Ilana went, he was almost useless, since all Mega Beasts were about Titan's size. He sighed as traffic began to move again and returned his hands to his bike's handlebars, also beginning to move again. He loved the bike. It looked no different from a Yamaha FZ6R, apparently a very high-end sport bike. With Octus's upgrades, it was able to go about fifty miles an hour faster than it was meant to, had an infinite power supply, and didn't need to have any of the Earth's primitive gas put in it. It was still about a hundred miles an hour slower than the speeders they used to ride, and also didn't hover above the ground, but it was good enough.

Jet parked his bike at the school, taking the keys out of it before heading inside. The day passed fairly quickly without incident. At least, for the first half. About thirty minutes before lunch, a deafening roar sounded outside. Jet froze midstride down the hallway and turned, looking up at hallway's windows near the ceiling just as black sludge began to run down them, coating them. He sighed, looking around at the students running around the hallway in a panic. Then, three of the windows shattered, goo flying in and splashing to the ground before forming into a half-dozen miniature versions of the goo monster, each one roughly Jet's height.

"Oh, wow!" he grinned. "You guys are so considerate forming monsters I can actually help with." He frowned as the monsters began to slide away across the floor, one forming something looking like Lance, and another forming something looking like Ilana. "Hey, Mutraddi!"

The blobs stopped and turned back, staring at him as he raised a hand and tapped his Manus watch. All of them roared instantly and charged. Jet sprinted forward, down the now otherwise deserted hallway, and leapt over the first few blobs, then slammed a kick into the last one, scattering it and allowing him to land safely. One of the blobs sent out a strand of itself like an arm and made a grab for him, but he spun around it, grabbing an abandoned backpack before swinging it around and slamming it into another blob, splattering it across the lockers to his left. Two of them leapt at him and he flipped into the air, kicking through both and splattering their heads, allowing the rest to splatter to the ground before landing on his feet. One of the remaining blobs roared as the others all reformed, and more blobs began to gather.

"Jet, can you hear me?" Octus's voice asked from his Manus watch.

"A little busy!" Jet said, spinning around a blob and windmill kicking the one behind it, splattering it before slamming the backpack he'd grabbed upward into another, turning it into a geyser of goo before spinning in a circle and splattering three more.

"The creatures will continue to reform unless they're hit with a focused blast of low frequency waves," Octus said. "Are there any students around you?"

"Don't know," Jet said, smashing a goo arm as it grabbed his left shoulder, shaking the excess goo off. "Can't check. Why?"

"I need them to text me so that I can turn their phones into weapons to deal with the creatures," Octus said.

"Well, you're going to have to find a way to tell them yourself," Jet said, splattering a creature, only for another to grab his back. "Shit!"

The creature whipped him over itself and hurled him into the lockers, then down the hallway, Jet losing the backpack he'd been using.

"I'll text you, too, if I can," Jet said, pushing himself up in time to jump over a creature, kicking another on the way down. "Let me know when you're ready, Newton."

Just as he spun, kicking several others, the PA system crackled to life and Ilana ordered everyone to text a specific number. He pulled his phone out with his free hand and sent a very short message, simply saying "Hurry up" before returning to splattering the creatures. He was glad no one else was around, especially Isabella. Especially when another goo creature caught him and began to whip him around and around the hallway. She'd be so disappointed in him. And he looked a mess. His face was turning pink as his body heated up from exertion, he was sweating, and his sweat-soaked hair was hanging down his forehead in spike-like locks to his eyebrows, making it messy and annoying, since it tickled his forehead. He hated his hair being wet. Finally, his phone chimed and began to vibrate, and the goo creature holding him instantly popped like a zit. He groaned in relief, then stood and held his phone out toward the creatures. A moment later, all of them burst, the goo falling to the ground before dissolving. He sighed, wiping sweat from his face before brushing his hair backward, most of it staying, except a single lock that hung down resolutely on the left side, just barely brushing his forehead, determined to annoy him. Then, after a few more minutes, the goo outside the windows had dissolved, only for Ilana to continue her instructions, apparently unaware that the fight was already over. She even began to sing instructions, calling it a "battle hymn".

"All due respect to the princess, but she's definitely not allowed on a battlefield outside of her armor when we get home," Jet sighed, shaking his head and grinning resignedly.

He sighed, heading for the cafeteria to see if there was any food he could swipe. As he walked, students began to reappear in the hallway, cheering and celebrating their success. Several even told Jet how amazing he'd been while fighting, and he thanked them but kept walking. Finally, he reached the cafeteria, only to groan. Most of the cooking equipment was smashed, and the food that had been prepared was splattered across the floor.

"Dammit," Jet sighed. "I'm starving."

"Well, I'm sure you'll survive until we get home," Ilana said from behind him.

"Maybe if you would eat breakfast, you wouldn't be so hungry by lunch," Lance smirked.

"Don't use logic on me," Jet said, following them toward their next class. "I don't appreciate your winning arguments."

Ilana and Lance both laughed. They sat through the rest of the school day before all leaving the city, Lance continuing to train Jet in the use of his Manus once they were outside the city and away from people.

Jet sighed, staring at the ring and bracelet on his bedside table. He hadn't originally been supposed to be the one to wear them. It had originally been planned that Lance would wear them, until Lance and another student at the Military Academy got into a fight and used Manus to do so, causing extensive damage to the school. Once that had happened, Isabella had been chosen to wear them, but had given them to him, as her best friend, in favor of her bracelets. It had worked out, as her bracelets were the better weapon, but in the end, he'd ended up with his by pure coincidence. And then, again by pure coincidence, he'd been the one sent to safety while she was left to die. He grit his teeth, rolling onto his back and staring at the ceiling. He had all the faith in the world in her ability to win a fight, but he'd seen how many Mutraddi Beast Soldiers there were. Even she would have had little chance of winning alone. And he hadn't even tried to save her. He'd just gotten in his ship and flown away.

He rolled over, away from the weapons, and glared at the wall. He was a coward. He had to be. Otherwise, he would have tried to save her. He would have fought beside her and waited for the next rift, when they could go together. If he wasn't a coward, he wouldn't have abandoned her.

He heard the door open and close and sat up, looking outside just as Lance and Ilana activated their armor, flying into the air before becoming Titan and taking off into the atmosphere. He sighed. What was he even doing here? They didn't need him. He was just extra baggage. He couldn't fight Mega Beasts, but their Titan could. He was worthless to them. But the Resistance did need him. They needed all the help they could get. But he'd abandoned them, too. He'd abandoned everyone. Isabella, Hobbs, James, Mark. Even Baron had joined the resistance, and he'd been withdrawn from the military academy after his fight with Lance. And yet, here Jet was, sitting in bed on a Saturday, watching the princess defend herself perfectly while he sat back and enjoyed the peacefulness of a planet that was only just learning that life on other planets existed.

He looked out the window again just as a Mutraddi rocket, one as long as three Titans and as wide as one, exploded in the air, Titan flying to the ground outside the city. He sighed, debating going to meet them, but instead lay back down in his bed. The rocket was destroyed. They'd be back soon. And sure enough, they were. Within fifteen minutes, they had returned, and with a plus one. He caught a glimpse of green as Ilana sprinted inside, so he jogged down to meet her, finding her holding what looked like a cartoonish baby octopus. It had green skin with horizontal purple ovals on top of its head and a bunch of short, stubby tentacles around the bottom.

"What is that?" Jet asked.

"Isn't he cute!?" Ilana squealed, holding him out for inspection. "He was in the rocket for some reason."

"Then it's dangerous," Jet said. "Also, is it even a he?"

Ilana shrugged. "I don't know, but we're keeping it."

Jet sighed, shaking his head. "I think that's a bad idea."

"Well, I didn't ask you," Ilana said. "We're keeping him."

Jet sighed. "Fine. Whatever."

He turned, walking back to his room and putting his ring and bracelet back on. He had a feeling he might need them. The thing was from Mutraad. There was no way it wasn't dangerous. Just as he stepped out of his room, Lance and Octus reiterated his opinion.

"NO! ! !" both shouted.

"We don't even know what that creature is!" Lance shouted.

"It came from Mutraad!" Octus snapped.

"For all we know, it could be a weapon!" Lance shouted.

"It could be dangerous!" Octus snapped.

"What's going on?" Lance asked.

"She wants to sleep with it," Lance said.

"No," Jet said flatly. "Besides the reasons they said, there's also the fact that the last thing we need is you accidentally rolling over on it and squishing it."

"I wouldn't!" Ilana shrieked in indignation.

"It's possible," Jet said. "Octus, make a cage for it."

Octus created one and Ilana put it in the cage before taking the cage to the kitchen for the night. Then, they all headed to bed. Jet lay in bed, unable to sleep without seeing the faces he'd left behind. Finally, after an hour of laying awake, he heard a cry like a choking dog that could only have come from the thing downstairs. He sighed, standing and walking down the stairs silently. With any luck, it would have mutated into some massive, horrible monster that he could take his frustration out on. However, what he found was not a monster. It was Lance playing with the thing. Tossing it, hugging it, rolling around with it.

"You're a tough little guy, aren't you?" Lance asked.

"Says the house's resident tough guy," Jet said.

Lance spun, eyes wide, and instantly began to scramble to find an excuse.

"It's fine," Jet said, walking over and stroking the thing's head. "Mutraddi or not, it's cute."

Lance sighed in relief and set it back in its cage. He headed to bed, and Jet frowned, staring at the thing.

"You don't seem evil," Jet said. "But Modula sent you to kill us." His frown deepened. "But why in a rocket?"

"I was wondering that myself," Octus said. "I need to examine it."

"Here," Jet said, holding out a scrap of skin the thing had shed when he petted it. "Best not to disect it until we know what we're dealing with."

Octus nodded, accepting the skin and heading back upstairs. Jet sat down at the table, watching the thing for an hour before finally passing out.

Jet swerved around the truck, twisting sharply on his bike's handlebars. Blue energy shine from the exhaust pipes as the engine roared and he shot after the creature. It wasn't a violent monster. However, it was a threat. the reason it was in a rocket was because it was the warhead. Its tiny, squishy body contained enough unstable energy to destroy a planet, and a solid enough impact, such as being run over, or the previous threat, before it escaped, being mauled by a dog, could set it off. And on top of that, the Earth's atmosphere was poisoning it, so they had a couple days at most to get it off the planet before there was no planet to get it off of. Finally, he caught the creature and tossed it into the air, Ilana catching it carefully and flying away with Octus and Lance. Jet flew along the highway after them before finally taking an exit and leaving the road behind, chasing them. When he found them, they were at an abandoned farm house, all the windows having been broken at some point. They were outside of it, and already discussing removing it from the planet.

"There has to be another way!" Ilana said.

Just then, the creature coughed before shrieking. A burst of its power left its mouth, blasting a huge trail through the ground before exploding through the farm house."Yup, it's gone," Jet said. "Get rid of it."

Lance nodded and Ilana's face contorted in pain before Octus formed the Titan. They picked up the creature and took off, forming wings as they flew. Jet sighed. He felt bad. Ilana was going to be heartbroken. And he felt bad for the creature, too. It was innocent. It just had the shit luck to be born a living bomb. He waited in silence as he watched the explosion. It was huge, beautiful, and unboubtedly going to leave Ilana crying. Finally, Titan returned and separated into the others before they all headed home. The next day, they went to an observatory and found the new formation of lights and radiation it had formed, naming it Tashy 497.

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