Travis scrambled to get his apartment clean.
"Ah, carp! Why didn't she say anything, she's literally outside of my freaking house!"
"Seems like you're in a pickle, old friend." Billy chuckled, as he materialized on the couch. "And who's this, "she" you speak of?"
"I thought I told you to GET OUT OF MY HOUSE." Travis snapped.
"I did scram, but I'm back now." Billy replied, stuffing his mouth with snacks from the open box of cheez-its.
"Well, for future notice, I meant for you to leave forever. And, like, never come back?"
"Oh, why would I do that?"
"Because I said so. And I was ranked Gamma Captain, Lieutenant."
Billy scowled.
"So you bring THAT up, eh? I guess I could bring myself to stay a few more hours."
A knock on the door caught both of their attention.
"My, my, looks like your GF is here. You two gonna make out or what?"
"Shut up, Billy. And get out of my house, while you're at it. Besides, we aren't exactly at that status yet."
"Oh, is that so? Or are you chicken?" Billy teased.
"Or are you a degenerate to society? What are you even getting out of bullying me?" Travis shot back.
"Complete satisfaction. Watching you get frustrated is EASILY the most fun I've had in years! Three, to be precise!" Said Billy, ending with a laugh.
"I'm about to get complete satisfaction out of throwing you out of here."
Someone knocked on the door. Travis cursed again, under his breath, before glaring at Billy.
"At least disappear until she's gone? I'm pretty sure she'll kill YOU on sight too!"
Billy smirked. "Fine. Besides, I'm already dead anyway, it's not like-"
"Shut up and disappear NOW, thank you!" Travis hurried, before swinging open the door.
"Hi, Travis!" 3 greeted, cheerily. Her face switched to a concerned gaze as she looked behind him. "Who were you talking to, just then?"
Travis smiled, sheepishly.
"I was just yelling at my… mother's urn. It's nothing, really."
"You're telling your mother's urn to disappear?"
Travis blanched.
"Uhh… yes…?"
"Well, I guess it worked, I don't see an urn in there!" 3 laughed as she went inside.
Travis shook the surprise off his face and followed 3.
"Why are you here, anyway?"
3 sat down on the sofa. As Travis went to sit down as well, a little voice whispered in his ear.
"Damn, she's hot, ain't she?"
Travis swatted by his ear.
"What are you doing?!"
An invisible Billy floated around Travis's head.
"Oh, nothing important- hey, should I possess you?"
"Don't you freaking-"
A cold presence entered Travis's lungs.
"Hi! I'm in your thoughts!"
Travis scowled and tried his best to ignore Billy, though that began quite difficult.
"Travis. So, what's your new wife's name, eh?"
Why do you want to know?
Billy left Travis's mind for a second. A chilling presence left his body.
"Alright, fine. I'll leave you alone. You're no fun." Billy huffed.
Travis squinted.
Where the hell is he going?
3 shivered for a second.
"Sorry, I just got a chill… Your house is cold."
Travis blanched.
OH NO!
"S-so hey, how's your MVP job going, with the drive thing?" Travis sputtered.
"Oh, so-so. We lost the kid we needed, but I think we're making delightful progress, getting him back…" 3's gaze on Travis grew vacant. "Ahah… something about you today just seems different."
"H-how so?" Travis felt himself sweating.
Shit, shit, she's gonna realize Billy's in my house and I'm gonna die! She's gonna beat me to a pulp-
3 shrugged.
"Must have gotten a tan, or something."
Travis sighed, then panicked again as 3 plucked a familiar pair of glasses off the shelf.
"What's THIS?" 3 fiddled with the glasses.
"Those are Gamma glasses I used. I only ever used them for night vision. There was a loyalty function. They were used to brainwash other people to either shut them up or temporarily-"
"Do they still work?" 3 beamed, creepily.
Travis squinted, a growing suspicion in his gut. Despite his suspicions, he nodded. "Yeah. I think they'll- NO WHAT ARE YOU DOING-"
3 shoved the glasses onto her face and they began to glow a bright green color. Billy popped up beside Travis.
"What did you make her do?!" Travis scolded.
"I didn't make her do anything, she did that by herself! All I said was to look at them, and she did!" Billy protested, flailing his arms.
3 looked up at Travis, then noticed Billy. She lunged at Billy, going straight through his intangible body and smacking the wall.
Travis whirled to face 3.
"Voice command, activate." He demanded. 3 snapped upright.
Billy's jaw dropped.
"We had those at Gamma?! Where, I never got to use one of those!"
"You had to be of higher rank to get these. And-"
The glasses shorted and 3 fell to the ground.
"Huh. Didn't last very long, huh?" Billy chuckled.
"Oww…" 3 groaned as she pulled the glasses off of her face. "Man, that hurt. Why would you own a pair of killer glasses?!"
Billy vanished after Travis swatted him off.
"It was a Gamma memento. I couldn't ditch the really cool-looking glasses."
"I think I broke them." 3 tossed away the glasses and got to her feet.
Travis sat back down, trying to calm himself. 3 sat beside him, shortly after.
"I might show up later at the weird base thing you guys got going on and help." Travis thought aloud, "Might."
3 gave Travis a strange side-glance.
"Do you ever regret joining Gamma?"
"Sometimes, sometimes not. I wouldn't be this cool without having joined them first. But also, I killed a lot of people because of this."
3 smirked.
"Gimme a secret. Something you never told anybody before. It'll be safe with me, promise."
Travis squinted, but continued anyway.
"I make it seem like I killed a bunch of people. I can only confirm thirteen. The rest are probably alive."
"You make thirteen seem like a small number."
Travis shrugged.
"In some cases, it is. Not in this one."
They sat in silence for a second, before 3 broke it.
"Can I say my fantastic secret now?"
"Sure."
"I-uhh… I've been thinking. I meant to tell you this a long time ago, but.. I…"
Travis smirked.
"What? If it's stupid, I laugh. That's the worst I can do to you. Besides, I bet it doesn't even amount to mine. It's probably something stu-"
"I love you!" 3 choked on air. "There! I said it!"
Travis sat there, dumbstruck.
How the hell did I not read that with the damn telepathy?! STUPID!
"Daaaaaaaaaamn…" Billy whispered behind Travis, causing Travis to quickly glare in his direction. "I-it wasn't me!"
"I- I know it's not really the-uhh… best time for this major confession…"
Travis quickly snapped out of his trance.
"No, no, it's the…" Travis paused, "No, it's a very bad time to say that."
"T-that's fine." 3 wrung her hands. "I just needed to get that off my chest. I wanted to say that for so long… you just make me ecstatic."
Cute. Travis thought, as he tried to conjure up a reply.
"I can't explain this… amazing feeling I get when you're around. I want to feel this way forever." 3 grabbed Travis's hands. "Please. I don't know what else I'll do besides be an annoying side character if I don't at least have this."
Travis smiled, half-heartedly.
"I… well… this is definitely a turn of events, but… I don't think we should do this right now. Not while we're in the middle of something. We're both far too busy to commit to something important to both of us."
3's face went straight as she remained silent. Finally, she spoke.
"I… I understand." She shook herself off, then a smile returned to her face. "Yeah. Maybe I'm being too hasty about this. Yeah, that's it! We'll finish our quest, you'll hit the gym, and we'll try again in a few months!"
Travis squinted. "Hit the gym…?"
Billy silently snickered behind Travis.
"Fat."
3 bound Travis in a tight hug.
"See ya later, friend!"
As Travis watched 3 leave, Billy came back into tangibility.
"You two should kiss." Said Billy, bluntly.
"Yeah. We should… Also leave please."
Billy scowled.
"Fine. You're no fun."
Safe Zone…
Marco jerked awake as she heard a sound outside. Alph, sound asleep, didn't stir.
Marco decided to investigate the noise. She grabbed her axe and approached the door.
Footsteps approached the door. Before they reached the door, Marco swung it open and drew the axe.
Cleats threw up his hands.
"Woah, woah, sister! It's just me!"
"How'd you find us?" Marco asked, not letting down the axe.
"Okay. You aren't Einstein. You live in the only abandoned rubble for miles. I came to check on the little guy. He isn't dead, right?"
Marco put down the axe. "Yeah, he's alive. But barely. Poor thing can't even walk without tumbling to the ground."
Cleats walked in and saw Alph.
"Yeesh…" He exclaimed.
"Hey. It ain't as bad as it was before." Marco sighed, "He was really bad a few days ago. Luckily, he hasn't exploded yet."
"Yet?"
Marco chuckled. "Oops. That was Arris. If she didn't die in the blast, she would have exploded."
"Why was-"
"Because she had an aptitude too strong. We were both gonna explode. I was actually gonna learn how it felt to die." Marco stopped herself. "Crap. Caught myself monologuing again. Anyway, have a seat, take a breather, whatever. Nothing really big is going on right now, and I don't think anybody's gonna just pop in-"
Both of them watched Shallows sneak in through the front door.
He halted as he saw them watching him.
"Shoot… Hi. I'm here. I just thought I'd pop in. Say hi, you know."
Nobody spoke for a few minutes.
"Alright. Fine. I came here because of the drive. I can't rest until the drive is safe… is the drive safe?"
"You should be asking yourself, "Am I safe?" But yes. The drive is safe." Cleats responded.
"Oh, thank goodness-"
Marco grabbed Shallows by the neck.
"Now get out."
"Wait, I haven't explained what I need to do yet!" Shallows coughed.
Marco dropped him.
"You have one minute. Thirty seconds if it's not interesting."
"I have to destroy that drive. It's the devil, I swear it is! And we can't let the blue boy here keep it! I've seen this outcome before, I know what he's gonna do with it if they keep it. They'll just screw everything over!"
Marco squinted. "You've seen it before? How so?"
"I'm from the future. That satisfy you?"
"Plenty." Cleats confirmed.
Shallows turned to Alph.
"They can't get that drive. It's too much of a risk."
Cleats shrugged.
"Fine. If you want it destroyed so bad, it's right here." Cleats pulled the huge bag off of his back to reveal the smaller, compact form of the drive. It was about the size of a microwave.
"PUT THAT AWAY!" Shallows snapped, a bit too loudly.
Alph leaned up.
"Oh, good morning- HOLY-"
"Woah, kid, I'm with you!" Shallows protested, "Until you become dead weight, then I'm throwing you out!"
"Okay, why am I supposed to not break your spine? If you're gonna be on our side, you're not gonna throw anyone out." Marco demanded. "And you go back to sleep."
"I can also make very good homemade cookies." Shallows added.
"Well, congratulations, you are a part of the crew!" Cleats rushed, "I'd KILL for some freaking cookies right now!"
"Cookies? Can I have some?" Begged Alph.
"No, your blood sugar is too high and you might explode."
"Will everything make him explode?" Cleats mumbled, to which Marco gave a melancholic nod. "Christ…"
Alph stood and stumbled over to the drive.
"We have the drive again? We have to get it to my teammates-"
"No, we do not." Shallows interjected. "You don't know what they'll do with that thing. We have to destroy it."
"What if," Marco put in, "hypothetically, we gave it to them anyway, but also stayed with them?"
"So we'd keep tabs on them?" Cleats queried.
"Exactly. They can't pull anything stupid if you know what that thing is capable of." Marco sighed. "We're going to have to use your portal-"
Cleats raised a hand.
"No. It'll fluctuate the frequency on it's own. We'll go straight to the void. I have an idea. We'll have to fix my ship, then we could ride there on our own… but there's only one person who actually knows how to fix one…"
"Who?! We're running out of time before somebody finds us!" Marco rushed.
Cleats sighed and paced around the room.
"We're going to have to find Mick."
Well, looks like we know what we're doing next chapter.
You might not see me for a while. Trust me, I'm working on it. The MVPs has lore now. Before, I just spammed small background bits, but this time... maybe they aren't just game characters...