Chapter 9: The Final Frontier of Love
"Yes Matthews, I understand. Under the circumstances I suppose and I can be somewhat lenient, seeing as the job was done successfully regardless of the procedures in between." Gaignun said in a screen that hovered over the Elsa crew. They contained their cheerful dispositions and remained looking grim and despondent as the captain had told the to.
"That's mighty grateful of ya. Hammer still has some emotional pain to sort out." Matthews said, eyeing Hammer, who happened to always be in the pathway of his large boot. As though acting on note cards, Hammer threw in head down into his arms with a mournful cry.
"Yes...but you should know that, considering the large debt you owe, I can only let you on vacation for so long..." Gaignun arched his eyebrows and scratched his chin, "...but seeing as the crew is in mental distress, I suppose a week would do."
"Thanks again, sir. It's nice to know I work for such a kindly employer." Matthews said, his hat in his hands in a sort of pathetic act of gratitude. The screen disappeared.
In a sudden roar, the crew jumped up with cries of celebration. Matthews threw his hat down on the floor as hard as he could, throwing his arms up in a sort of victory ritual. Meanwhile Hammer and Tony did a dance around each other, holding their arms akimbo and skipping in circles.
"Where are we going?" chaos intervened. The other stopped their carousing and looked at him. Then, Hammer and Tony looked at Matthews.
"What! Who the hell cares, where ever we go is better than staying on this ship staring at your ugly mugs all day." Matthews said, crossing his arms. Hammer and Tony then looked towards chaos. Looking, expecting, and not saying a thing.
"Well..." chaos began, "We could go to the Greenhouse Colony and have a picnic." "Are you kidding?" Hammer said, a frightened edge to his voice, "Where that guy with a coffin is? No way!" "Okay then, how about...Wandern Point on Stenesa? You know, the one blossoming planet in the Seite System." chaos said, a smile now on his lips of the thoughts.
"What's with you and plant covered planets? What about a big city where there are hot babes and fresh fellas." Tony added in.
"No one wants to look at 'fresh fellas', Tony. Except maybe chaos." Hammer said. Ignoring the comment, chaos went on.
"If you want a big city we could go to Second Miltia. That or Murlock City." chaos seemed brimming with ideas, although he studied up just for the occasion. Matthews scratched his head in thought.
"Well...you all can fight about it. I'll be in the cafe." And with that, the captain left the room. There was a pause of silence, then a burst of conversation. It was mostly chaos suggesting Wandern point, Tony suggesting Murlock City, and Hammer suggesting none of the above.
"Arguing is getting us nowhere." chaos said finally, "we're going to have to do a chance game to see who wins. Drawing straws, drawing cards out of a hat, or something."
"Okay, I can agree on that. There's a box in the hangar with hay straws, we can do it that way." Hammer said. Tony and chaos nodded in agreement and followed him to the hangar.
"Here it is. It was leftovers from a shipment to Ariadne. All we have to do is..." Hammer began saying, sifting through the box full of hay. Hammer was interrupted though, by a close by guttural yowl. The crew ceased any movement or words as they listened in. Again the ghostly mutter echoed off the walls.
"What...t-the hell?" Tony said, backing up into a tight circle of Hammer and chaos. The sound echoed again, sounding a bit closer.
"That sounds familiar..." chaos said quietly.
"I-i-i-is it a gn-gn-gn-gn-gn-gnosis?" Hammer trembled, grasping onto Tony's arm as though he was save him.
As the crew searched the room with threatened eyes, claws dug into Tony's shoulder grasping onto it with great weight. Tony screamed in terror and shocked sudden-ness as he reached to bat the claw away, as a natural reflex.
"GNOSIS! GET IT OFF!" Tony yelled. As a surprised reaction, Hammer and chaos screamed as loud as they could as well, it seemed like the end for the crew. In a panic, Tony fell over on the ground, feeling the talons on his back.
"NO! I'M TOO SEXY TO DIE LIKE THIS!" Tony cried, recoiling on the floor. But he heard chaos and Hammer's screams of horror halt as they stared at him. Then Hammer began laughing hysterically.
Feeling that the weight was generally balanced upon four small feet on his back, Tony took great effort and reaching his arms behind himself and feeling the monstrosity on his behind. It was fluffy.
Grabbing the fiend, Tony sat up and looked at what was in his hands. It was a fluffy gray tabby kitten, so incredibly small and young that it's existence mocked Tony's masculinity. Hammer's roars of laughed seemed unending as Tony's face grew beat red.
"H-hey, it jumped on me, how wuz I supposed ta..." Tony began. Then, infuriated he just walked away. Seeing as Hammer was blinded by his consistent hysterics, only chaos followed him.
"That small little kitten sure likes you." chaos said, following Tony upstairs.
"Don't remind me!" Tony said painfully as he looked at the adorable fluff ball in his hand, purring like a motorboat, "I could never get babes with this thing around. Cat are so needy, then they just leave you for nothing."
"It sounds like you've had a bad experience with a cat before?" chaos said, as a statement moreover than a question.
"Nah, I had a cat once. But...obviously he's not here anymore so bug off about it." Tony shoved the cotton ball of love into chaos' hands and ran out the elevator.
Chaos looked at the little treasure. It seemed despondent and wasn't purring as loud.
"I guess Tony's a regular cat person." chaos said smiling. Just then, hammer came up in the elevator.
"Hey, let me see Elephant." Hammer said. Chaos looked at Hammer questioningly.
"There's no elephant here, Hammer." chaos said politely.
"No...the kitten. His fluff makes him look fat and gray. Like an elephant. So his name is Elephant." Hammer said, putting out his arms.
"Like that extinct animal? You have weird tastes, Hammer." chaos said, handing the kitten to him. The kitten hissed at Hammer.
"I don't think he likes being called fat."
"Nonsense, he'll love me. Come here, Elephant!" Hammer grabbed for the kitten, but it leaped out of his grasp and darted away like a flash of silver lightning.
"Ah crap!" Hammer exclaimed, chasing it until it was out of sight, "If the captain sees a cat's on the ship, he's flip and kill us all!" "I'm not sure he would kill us, but he would most certainly raise his voice at us." chaos said quietly. Hammer sighed and looked around.
"What's on the ship that cats like? We have to lure him in!" Hammer said, "Set a trap!" "The cat likes Tony..."chaos suggested. Hammer chuckled.
"No, no...best leave the scare-dy cats out of this cat chase." Hammer said.
"In that case...catnip, cat food, mice, fish..." chaos said, "I'm not very sure." "We don't have that kind of stuff on our ship!" Hammer said, "We'll have to be crafty!"
Tony was in his room looking through some internet sites for the hottest cities in the galaxy. It was really boring and lonely if you could imagine. He heard little footsteps on the floor and heard a playful meow as the cat jump up on Tony's bed and began his purr motor. Tony sighed.
"I'm in a bad mood. Leave me alone." Tony said to it strictly, as though it were a child. The cat rubbed it's head against Tony's arms and snuggled up to his chest.
"Go play with someone else, I'm busy." Tony said angrily. He picked up the cat and put him beside his bed. Just then, the automatic door flew open. Hammer and chaos were at the door.
"There's Elephant!" hammer yelled.
"I told you he liked Tony." chaos said. At the sound of Hammer's voice the cat flew away again, under Hammer's feet.
"He's getting away! Get that Elephant!" Hammer said, a bug catching net in his hands.
"What's going on!" Tony yelled in confusion.
"Elephant's on the loose and we gotta catch him!" Hammer said.
"Dude...elephants don't exist. besides, if there was an elephant here, it wouldn't be that hard to catch." Tony said confused, yet amused. Hammer sighed.
"It's the name of the cat. Elephant." Hammer said. Tony stood up suddenly.
"What! That's a stupid name, no wonder he ran away." Tony said in the cat's defense. Hammer growled.
"What's wrong with it, extinct animals are cool!" Hammer said, pointing his finger. Tony rolled his eyes.
"Elephants were so stupid and useless that they HAD to be wiped out of existence. What do you think, chaos? What would you name him?" Tony said, "You'd never call a cat Elephant, would you?"
"Well..." started chaos, obviously thinking deep about it, "I think I would call him Feather. Since his fur feels like feathers and he sort of white-gray." Tony looked at them both with slanted eyes.
"Man, you guys suck at naming cats. Mean...really. They're gonna have to be called this their whole lives." Tony said, as though he was talking to children that didn't understand a concept he was trying to teach. Hammer got furious.
"Oh ya, Mr. Naming Master, what would you call him?" Hammer voiced, without really caring about the answer.
Seeming as though he had already thought about it, Tony breathed in a big breath of air, huffing his chest out and placing his arms on his hips.
"Troy." Tony said. Hammer and chaos didn't speak for a moment in confusion.
"Well that's cute...why would you name him Troy?" chaos asked.
"Because," Tony said with a charismatic grin, "Troy wasn't built in a day." "That's Rome you idiot! I don't care what it's name is, let's just get it before the captain sees!" Hammer said, picking up his net again.
"Come here, Elephant!" hammer said, coaxing on the kitten that was backed into the corner.
"Don't be afraid, Feather." chaos said calmly, outstretching his hand.
"Hey Troy, I didn't mean what i said back there, I want to play with you now." Tony said, sitting down and slapping his thighs as though to motion his to sit on his lap. The kitten looked at Hammer and then Tony and didn't seem to want to move.
"Hammer, could you leave for a moment? Your giant net may be scaring the kitten." chaos said. Hammer looked at chaos with anger in his soul and slinked away, muttering something about how he never gets anything, Tony always gets it.
"Tony, is there anything you'd like to get out in the open?" chaos asked. Tony looked at him like he was crazy.
"Uhh...I've never liked you hair?" Tony said questioningly.
"No, not to me...to Troy." chaos said, "Now that Hammer is gone." Tony looked at the shivering ball of fluff and sighed deeply, looking to chaos and then back at it.
"I used to have a cat when I was real little. He was my best friend and the only thing I could really love that loved me back. The he...just went away. He coulda died, been stolen, forgotten me, anything. It got me pissed, and I hated cats after that. I didn't know how stupid it was to blame him when I didn't know wut happened. Then I hated myself. So I guess I don't know what I'm feeling, but it's nothing I'd want to say in front of the boys. Besides chaos." Tony said. The kitten crept closer, looking attentive yet purring loudly. Tony opened his arms.
"Come on ya bag of bones, I don't wanna get fired." Tony said in a blatant, bored tone, "I'm gone with this feeling crap." The kitten purred as it leaped onto Tony's lap and Tony grabbed him up.
"What do we do with the fugitive?" Tony said to chaos.
"We can throw him overboard into space." chaos said.
"WHAT! NO!" Tony yelled. He paused, then grimace, "Oh...I hate you."
"Captain?" chaos walked into the cafe with hammer and Tony slinking behind him.
"Whaddya want, chaos?" Matthews said, downing some sort of alcoholic drink. Chaos was pushed forward by the other two.
"Well...we found...a peculiar object onboard and well...we were wondering if wee could keep it." chaos said timidly. Matthews took a big gulp and wiped his mouth.
"Peculiar? What the hell are you talking about?" Matthew roared. Tony stepped forward, the kitten outstretched in his arms.
"Uhh...Troy here. He was in the hangar." "Whatever. As long as it's free." Matthews said. The crew was stunned. having expected being yelled at, they were cut slack, "Now did you decide where we're going next week?"
"Uhh...about that..."
"Troy was SO not built in a day."
AN: There. A new chapter. HA! hahahahahahahahHAHAHAHAHAHAHA haha Showed you! I've had this idea for a little bit and I finally wrote it. yay! It's pretty long compared to the other chapters I think. I hope people enjoyed it. PLEEEASE review, I really love reviews. They make me happy and sometimes they make be break out into showtunes. That's how much your consent matters to me. sparkly eyes