"Chapter 2: Protostar"
"Change of plans everybody," Techno says to the other two occupants in the living room. Both men look up from what they are doing, Phil looks up from his laptop while Wilbur looks up from his takeout menu and phone. They give Techno a surprised look, not expecting Techno to just randomly say that. Out of the three of them, Techno rarely made plans outside of the family.
"I've got somewhere to be tomorrow. So our client is going to have to wait on the flash drive." Techno adds before he starts to walk towards the kitchen. Wilbur drops the menu from how surprised he is by Techno's words. While Phil had tilted his head, confused. He was the only one who handles the clients so if he didn't finish the flash drive with all the information in it, it wasn't going to get done.
"Wait wait wait what? Techno you have plans tomorrow? What are you doing?" Wilbur tries to get more out of his quiet twin. Wilbur was easily the clingiest out of the group and Techno is pretty sure Wilbur would combust if he thought someone in the family was doing something dangerous alone.
Techno makes a noise in the back of his throat that sounds like a grunt. "It's…" he pauses, trying to think of the right term. "Personal matters that I can't avoid." He settles with being vague about his plans. Techno doesn't want his family to butt in on his problems and he didn't think it was a big deal. Plus he wouldn't hear the end of it from Phil who loves to coo whenever one of the twins did something soft-hearted. Techno wasn't soft-hearted. He was being forced to. That woman's ability trapped him into being a decent person for a few hours.
"Mate, is everything okay? You usually don't keep things from us?" Phil speaks up this time and Techno could feel the uncertainty in Phil's voice. Even the way Phil's tone thinned and strained lightly when he said the word mate, makes Techno's heart squeeze. Okay, maybe Techno was a bit soft for his family. They could easily bring out emotions in Techno that even he didn't know he could feel.
"Yeah. I just gotta go do something for an hour or so. I'll be back before you know it." Techno keeps his voice light and even in hopes that it calms his family's worries. "It's nothing violent anyways, stop worrying old man. You'll get more gray hairs." He teases Phil as he comes out of the kitchen with a raw potato in hand.
Phil rolls his eyes and mutters "oh you little shit" while Wilbur laughs and giggles from it all. "Old man Phil worried over his little fletchling son" Wilbur laughs more at his own joke since no one else is going to. Techno could tell that Wilbur is picturing Techno with hawk wings or something stupid instead of his tusks and pointy ears of a piglin hybrid.
Techno's ear flicks a little with fake annoyance. He doesn't want to give Wilbur anymore of an ego if he were to smile at the joke. Phil places both hands on Wilbur and starts to shake him roughly, as punishment for teasing him. "Ahhhh! Stop! My hair!" Wilbur whines as he laughs.
"I'm not old!" Phil yells, only fueling Wilbur's laughs more.
Techno rolls his eyes, "I'm going to my room" he informs them both as he leaves them to their roughhousing. As he closed his door, he could hear Phil laughing his ass off while Wilbur yells this time.
When morning comes Techno wakes up with a jolt, remembering what is meant to happen today. He gets up and gets dressed in his villain attire that's fully clean and patch up. He walks past Phil and an asleep Wilbur in the kitchen sitting at the counter with his head down. Phil mouths the word 'Twitter' and he immediately understands what Wilbur has been doing since he last saw him. He rolls his eyes and grabs an apple and leaves the penthouse with a mutter of goodbye to Phil. He climbs into his unsuspecting average car and heads out to the hospital.
Techno passes a Goodwill and remembers that the Make-A-Wish woman had mentioned that her kid liked stuffed animals. He turns into the Goodwill quickly and investigates the stuffed animals' section. He passes over an old pig with a royal getup but decides to go with a cow that has a red and white shirt on. He buys another smaller plushy of a spider and asks the nervous cashier if they have any boxes or bags for presents. The cashier quickly nods and pulls out a box from behind the register with trembling hands.
Techno grabs it and puts the plushies inside and closes it. He leaves the building and continues to head to the hospital.
Techno pulls up to the building and checks everything off in his mind. A gift, check, villain getup, check, sanity, not check. He heads in. Techno goes to the part of the hospital that he was instructed to go to, and waits. He looks to the left and sees the short pink-haired woman from before and moves over to her. He coughs getting her attention. She narrows her eyes at him and starts to list off things that Techno can't do. "You can not ask Tommy about his illness, his family, his usual residence. You can not threaten the staff or curse in front of Tommy, even though he curses." She huffs at the last comment.
Techno nods, committing the simple rules to memory. She relaxes when it's clear that Techno isn't going to do anything. "Sorry, I'm just protective of Tommy. He's just a great kid." She says before noticing that Techno is holding a box at his side. "Oh! Is that for him?" She asks lightly.
"Uh, yup. Stuffed animals." He says. Techno looks over the lady as she looks at the box and sees a name tag with Niki written on it. He notices small webbing on her hands and faint scales along her neck and eyes. Her ears seem to be longer and thinner at the end, almost like fins.
"That's good. I'm sure Tommy will like it" She warms up to him a bit. "Alright, time to meet the star of today," She says as she starts walking down the halls. He follows close behind Niki as she shows him where Tommy is situated.
Niki slowly pushed the hospital door open and smiled warmly. "Tommy, look who I found?" She turned towards Techno in the hallway and motioned for him to walk in.
With a mute sigh, Techno walks into the room and gets whiplash by a few things. First is the numerous machines surrounding a large hospital bed, Techno isn't sure what most of these machines did but he decides to ignore his curiosity. Secondly, he notices that every machine is in some way, wired or hooked up to the occupant of the red bed. Lastly, he finally lays eyes on the pale child with sky blue eyes and golden hair. Techno felt a wave of goosebumps rush over his body when he saw the enormously bright smile the kid held for him. Now don't get Techno wrong he's not soft or anything but the smile that this child held for him made Techno feel like he is the most important person that's ever stepped foot on this world. Like with a simple turn of his head Techno could have the world at his feet and this child knows it. This child waits for such a moment and believes in such a moment so strongly that Techno doesn't think he'll ever see anybody smile just as brightly as this kid does for him. Techno can feel his piglin instincts go haywire with the rush that this child is already giving him.
"Have you ever been stabbed by your own sword?!" Tommy shouts out his question before even introducing himself to Techno.
"Uhh no, not yet" Techno answers as he sits down in the chair next to the bed. He notices that Niki sits down in a chair across the room and opens a book as if she isn't listening in on the conversation. Techno figures she doesn't fully trust him with the child, but he doesn't mind.
"How long of a drop can you survive?!" Tommy shouts off another sudden question.
"Probably most reasonable heights since I can't die." Techno answers. His ability allows him to heal himself quickly enough that he can never die, so height wasn't a problem usually.
"What does that even mean?! I saw you fall from the huge Las Nevada building and went back to fighting but then I saw that you were kicked off a dumb like five-story high building and then had a limp?! Are you lying?!" Tommy was reciting fights that happened over a year ago and Techno frowned as he tried to fully remember such old fights.
"No no no my fight on the Slimeball Banking building, a six stories high building mind you, was against 404 and Awesomedude. Two heroes, one, took a lot of my energy before I was kicked off, and two kicked me off a building with a 537-pound machine with enough horsepower to knock down an entire building. All this while my fight on Las Nevada's was against Sapnap, who just covered the roof with lava so I had to jump down" Techno explains, forgetting that he's talking to a what? 14-year-old child. Now that Techno took a second to fully take in Tommy's appearance, he definitely notices more. The kid has what looks to be raccoon ears tucked away by his hair, along with two small red horns that just barely peaks above his hair. And when the kid talks, Techno could easily see sharp pointed teeth in his mouth. With the cherry on top, Techno sees his nails were a smoky black color and were filed down to a sharp point almost like claws. What a weird kid. Techno couldn't even begin to question what he was. But his thoughts and questions slip out of him when the kid starts talking again.
"Who the fuck uses pounds?! What are you?! A dirty American? Duh, hu look at me I'm a stupid American who uses fake measurements just to feel special duhhu God" Tommy yells just a bit too loud.
Tommy tries to go into another rant but before he starts, Techno reveals the box that was tucked at his side. He holds it out for Tommy to take.
"Here. I didn't know if you liked cows or spiders more so I got you both" Techno explains his weird thought process of gift buying when Tommy opens the box.
"And there isn't a bomb in here?" Tommy asks as he giggles a little. He takes out both stuffiness and sits them on his lap with such care.
"Heh?! Who do you take me for? Shout?" Techno acts as if he was offended by the implications but Tommy laughs more as if he couldn't care if Techno, a supervillain, is upset with him. Like this tiny fragile-looking child hasn't clocked that Techno is a threat to visibly everybody near him.
Tommy places a hand on the cow's head and smiles at Techno. "No, you're not a wrongen like Shout. At least you actually have a cool fighting suit. Shout just looks like an edgy teen that just went to Hot Topic!" Tommy yelled as he laughed at his own words. Even Techno chuckled light at their teasing of Techno's twin.
Techno easily slips into a light-hearted banter with this kid that he barely even notices when Niki leaves them alone in the room to enjoy themselves. Their topics range to and from the most random things that Techno can feel his head spinning in circles trying to keep up with this kid. At one point, Techno had to stop himself groaning when the kid tried to get Techno to say the word bitch by asking if there was another name for a dog. But man it was worth it when Techno had said puppy instead and causes the kid to eruptively laugh so hard that he struggles to breathe a few times. Techno could feel himself swell with pride at that moment. From then on, Techno took any chance he got to make the child laugh more.
"Blade, you should take me to a strip club when I get out of here!" Tommy shouts excitedly as if it is Christmas or something. His eyes beam with such joy that Techno can feel himself wanting to cover his own eyes from how bright it is.
"I will not. Your friend, Niki, would kick my butt if I even think about it." Techno answers with a thick monotone voice. He expects Tommy to retaliate or get angry with him but the kid just bursts out laughing again.
Somehow the hours passed so fast for them both that they only just noticed how long they were talking when Tommy yawns exhausted. Techno looks at his watch and sees that six whole hours have slipped out of his hands, taken by this kid. Tommy rubs his eyes in a futile attempt to combat his tiredness for a little while longer. This action tugs at Techno, reminding him of when Wilbur was little and would fight tooth and nail to stay up late with Techno.
"Tommy, go to sleep. You're yawning more than you're talking at this point." Techno explains as he gets up and grabs Tommy's red blanket from the foot of the bed and drapes it over the thin child's body. Tommy grumbles about how he isn't tired but he rubs his eyes and leans down on the bed fully. The stuffed animals in his arms loosely as Tommy drifts off to sleep, unbothered by the constant beeping and hum of machines around him.
"Goodnight" Techno mutters when Tommy's breathing evens out to a steady pace. And with that, Techno quietly leaves the hospital room and turns off the lights on his way out.
End Chapter notes
Heya! Guppy here! Wow, we finished this chapter quicker than we originally planned. We took two days off since I came down with a cold and Inonymous was busy with life. But we got this all done within a day? I think we're finally getting into the groove of things. We hope y'all enjoyed this chapter! Let us know your thoughts and theories in the comments!
pro·to·star
/ˈprōdəˌstär/
Learn to pronounce
nounASTRONOMY
a contracting mass of gas which represents an early stage in the formation of a star
We have a chill discord!
/9vbKuMSKTC