The morning after gifting Dominator soup, Wander awoke feeling satisfied. Knowing he was able to help Dominator even if a little bit was the highlight of that day and the thought that he might be able to turn Dominator good even if a little bit put a major spring in his step.
"Good morning Syl" Wander whispers towards a still-sleeping Sylvia before walking away a good distance. "Good morning sun!" Wander bellowed the local star's way. "Good morning morning air!" he says after taking a deep, refreshing breath. He then turns intending to wish Dominator a good morning only to find one of Dominator's Dombots, one of the larger ones classified as a 'Knight', staring him down menacingly.
"Hello" Wander greets.
"Come with me if you want to live" the Dombot announces in its robotic voice.
Heeding the bot's order, Wander follows the Dombot back to where Dominator was taking shelter and ultimately before Dominator herself who was still in tattered clothes and still seated in what remained of her throne.
"Good morning Dominator! Hope you had a great night's sleep!" Wander greets happily.
"An excellent sleep thanks to you" Dominator confirms. "It's all thanks to you. The soup you made hit all the right spots! I never knew how helpful a ff- a ffriend could be!"
-=episode title=-
THE NEW FRIEND
-=episode title=-
"Oh Dominator! You've made me so so happy!" Wander sung.
"Ya can call me Dee if you want. And I'm happy hearing that you're happy" Dominator responds. "And all this happiness is making me famished. How's about you fix us up some breakfast, fff-ffriend?"
"Right away pal!" Wander says looking around frantically. "Where's your kitchen?"
"Don't really have one anymore" Dominator explains. "Come to think of it, I don't think I ever had one to begin with. Ordered a lot of delivery. Whatever the case, all I have left now are ruins" she says indicating the ruins around them both.
"Not to worry. I'll build you one!" Wander said pulling out several tools out of his hat. "Be right back."
Wander began very frantic construction work on a new kitchen not far away from Dominator's makeshift workshop. Underneath the loud sounds of hammer blows, wood sawing, and frequent drilling, a devious grin stretched across Dominator's face.
"Shut! Up! This is just too easy!" Dominator thought watching Wander hard at work. "This little orange idiot is doing all this for me! Doing it all because he thinks he can turn me around and make me good. Oh I cannot wait to see the look on his face the instant I show him his efforts were all in vain! On the contrary, his moronic charity will fuel my comeback! Fuel the rebuilding of my ship and army! Oh what delicious, ironic tragedy awaits!"
"Wander! Buddy! What are you doing!?" suddenly came Sylvia's voice from the kitchen-in-the-making.
"Just building Dominator a kitchen for when she needs to cook" Wander answers. "I was gonna cook her breakfast right after."
"A kitchen!? I don't think she's even the cooking type!" Sylvia says as Dominator enters.
"The Zbornak friend! Better be careful with this one, she could foil my plans" Dominator thought to herself. "Is there a problem here?" the green villainess directs at Sylvia upon entering the room.
"Yes! You've got my buddy building you a kitchen!" Sylvia answers. "What sort of con are you running here!?"
"No con. Wander is my ff-ffriend and he's building me a kitchen" Dominator defends.
"Buddy, is this true?" Sylvia asks Wander.
"Yep!" Wander confirms. "It never hurts to help!"
"You didn't inadvertently build her some weapons did you?" Sylvia asks looking and probing around the room.
"Nope!" Wander said certain.
"Alright... But I'm going to be keeping a sharp pair of eyes on you" Sylvia tells Dominator. "You better be on your best behavior or else you'll be making friends with Lady Haymaker and the Duchess of Whaling" she says indicating her fists.
"You want a piece of me, Zbornak!?" Dominator asks squaring up, her fiery and icy fists ready for trouble.
"I'll take a piece if I have to!" Sylvia responds, her knuckles cracking, both getting up close face-to-face.
"Stop! Stop it you two!" Wander objects as Dominator and Sylvia stare each other down. "We are going to have a nice and pleasant breakfast and I will have neither of you ruin any of that! Understand!?"
"Sure thing pal" Sylvia agrees.
"Ugh. Whatever" Dominator says rolling her eyes.
Shortly after, Dominator and Sylvia are seated at a breakfast table built by Wander himself. Serving as host, Wander dressed himself impeccably as a French waiter, hair combed neatly and a fake mustache adorning his face.
"Mesdemoiselles! Le breakfast is ready!" Wander announces holding up a large, silver serving tray with dome covering.
"Why are you talking like that?" Sylvia asks.
"Just trying to build atmosphere" Wander answers. He sets the tray down on the table and lifts the dome covering. "Impeccably-mixed egg plant scramble with fried potato bits infused with lightly-heated diced tomato for moisture and garlic salt seasoning for extra flavor of course. To help us deliver our scramble, we have perfectly toasted whole grain bread in addition to neatly parted avocado slices to adorn our toast. For refreshment, freshly-squeezed orange-pomegranate blend in lovely wine glasses."
Dominator hated Wander's dumb outfit and manner of speaking but it was impossible for her to deny how delicious the dish smelled much like how excellent Wander's soup smelled. Her mouth watering once more, Dominator was ready to dig in.
"Mademoiselle, like this" Wander says distributing a portion of the egg plant scramble atop a piece of toast before placing avocado slices atop that. "See?"
Dominator, not usually one to listen to others, decides to trust Wander's word considering his previous culinary expertise.
All it took was a single bite of the toast-scramble-avocado combo and Dominator was entranced.
"Buddy! This is excellent! You've really outdone yourself this time!" Sylvia praised while eating her share.
"Merci Syl! Glad you liked it!" Wander responds. "What about you Dominator?"
Dominator, her eyes closed as though in deep meditation, does not answer at first. She simply allows the breakfast dish to dance with her every taste bud.
"Do you think she likes it?" Wander whispers Sylvia's way.
"Yeah, sure, whatever" was Sylvia's disinterested reply.
Dominator returns from her trance-like state to find Sylvia looking at her stoically and Wander looking at her with nothing but smiles.
"So? Do you love it?" Wander asks.
"...It's not bad..." Dominator answers.
"She loves it!" Wander exclaims happily.
"She could have said much worse so maybe she does?" Sylvia speculates with surprise.
"Don't get too full of yourself! I've had better" Dominator lies not wanting to compliment supposed foes.
"Rude!" Sylvia objects.
"It's okay Sylvia. Dominator, I'll take that as a compliment" Wander says.
Dominator would have expressed annoyance at Wander's overly positive outlook but she had taken another bite of her breakfast so she was too much in taste bud bliss to bother.
Once breakfast was done, Dominator sat in front of an empty plate she was tempted to lick clean. Such a move would be too unbecoming she thought.
"Here you are" Wander said while offering Dominator a slice of bread. "Like this" he then says using a slice of his own to mop up residual egg scramble juices on his plate.
Seeing Wander and Sylvia doing it made Dominator less uncomfortable about wiping her own plate clean. Bread soaked with scramble juices was her reward.
"Would you like seconds?" Wander asks the green villainess and she turns slightly pink.
"...S-sure... But o-only because you asked" Dominator answers trying to hide some embarrassment and Wander happily places more scramble on her plate.
"Going for seconds huh?" Sylvia says eager to rub it in. "Thought you hated it."
"Don't go thinking anything about it" Dominator says coldly. "Villains get hungry too."
"Of course they do" Sylvia says just as frigidly.
"So Dominator, what do you like doing on your free time?" Wander asks.
"Besides destroying planet after planet" Sylvia cuts in.
"Well, besides destroying planet after planet" Dominator responds, "I like to make recordings of all the destruction wrought by my Domship and Dombots! Love watching it all go down again and again! Relive fond memories, you know?"
"Uuuh, right" Wander says not too impressed. "Well, I recently got into collecting stamps from across the galaxy" he says pulling out a binder from his hat. "They come in all sorts of shapes and sizes and colors! Check it out!"
"Uh-huh" Dominator emits disinterested.
"As for me, I like punching villains in the face" Sylvia says.
"I'm sure you do, Zbornak" Dominator says finishing up her second helping of breakfast.
"Oh my goodness! I just remembered! A brand new episode of our show's about to start!" Wander suddenly let out.
"My Grop, you're right! Bust out the television!" Sylvia requests prompting Wander to pull a television out of his hat.
"It's The Galaxy's Funniest Home Videos!" the television broadcasted once flicked on.
"We're right on time for the intro sequence!" Wander praises.
"Y-you guys watch this show too?" Dominator asks surprised.
"We try to catch as many episodes as we can but helping folks around the galaxy can be very time-consuming" Sylvia answers.
"There's nothing like laughing at life's little mishaps" Wander explains. "Best of all is no one is seriously hurt in these videos so we can all look back and have a good, clean chuckle when all is said and done!"
Dominator came close to explaining how she loved watching total idiots make complete fools of themselves on intergalactic television but the show was already underway with people slipping on banana peels, soaked pet dogs shaking dry indoors, and bicyclists losing their balance.
"Bahahahahahaha!" Wander and Sylvia burst out in unison.
At first, Dominator had her hand up to her mouth trying to stop herself from joining in on the laughter. She considered Sylvia and Wander her enemies thus she had to limit her fraternization. Unfortunately for her, no one was immune to humor. It was not long before Sylvia's and Wander's infectious laughter and the show's content got to the green villainess.
"Bahahahahahahahahaha!" the three now laugh together after someone trips and falls into a puddle, pies are thrown at unsuspecting faces, and pants get ripped apart to reveal dotted underwear.
"We'll be right back after this commercial break!" the television broadcasts.
"Oh man! The surfer losing his swim trunks! Hard to live that one down! Hahahahaha!" Sylvia said wiping away a tear.
"And that poor commuter getting his car splashed with mud right after washing it! I'm in stitches!" Wander adds.
"My favorites were the foul-mouthed parrots! Where do I get me some of those!?" Dominator wonders. "Hahahahaha!"
Once the laughter died down, there was a brief and awkward silence, a silence during which Dominator stared at the other two and they back at her. The three were, for a little while, getting along well. In addition, Dominator had never recalled enjoying any show as much as she was now. There was something about enjoying it with other people rather than watching it alone that made it many more times enjoyable, delicious food in her belly serving as the cherry on top.
"Okay, gonna go do something else now. Bye!" Dominator said suddenly leaving for her workshop.
"What's gotten into her?" Sylvia asked watching Dominator leave their side. She then looks at Wander who had an immense smile plastered on his face. "What's gotten into you?"
"Sylvia! We're reaching her!" an overjoyed Wander almost wanted to sing to the galaxy.
Back in her makeshift workshop, Dominator returned to her work of reviving her Dombot armies and getting a start on fixing her Domship.
"...Not sure I'll have enough..." Dominator mumbles to herself while soldering away at a Dombot.
She then hears a gentle tapping at the door. She does not immediately respond prompting the door to slowly open up and for Wander to peek in.
"Hello Dominator, the show's not over. Let's watch the rest of it" Wander said. "C'mon buddy!"
"No thanks. I have work to do" Dominator said.
"Are you sure?" Wander asked.
"Yeah, I'm sure" Dominator was quick to respond.
Wander could sense Dominator was building a sort of invisible wall of sorts between herself and him.
"Uh-oh, I'm losing her! Gotta think of something" Wander thought urgently. "Oh, how's about we go on a hike? Bet there's some really nice sights waiting for us to see! What do you say?"
"A hike?" Dominator asked.
"Yeah, a hike" Wander repeats. "Nature is always beautiful to behold!"
"My bot army's gonna need raw material. Scoping this planet out isn't such a bad idea" Dominator thought to herself. "O-okay, that sounds like a good idea. Let's do it."
"Great! I'll get things ready!" Wander says before rushing off.
With conniving expression, Dominator was not far behind.
Author's note: Chapter two done! Gonna try to release chapters weekly but no promises.
Please read and review, thanks!
