Heroes and Humanity

Part 2: Humanity and Heroes

The Beginning - Chapter 02

Originally Written: Friday May 22, 2015 210AM to 325AM and Friday, May 22, 2015 to Saturday May 23, 2015 308PM to 1238AM

Song: One Ok Rock – The beginning

…..

What worried him more? That a dream with a bad end continued occurring, or that there was some possibility of the dream with a bad end not being a dream? Albedo couldn't decide between the two. However, as he ran down the streets of Bellwood, full of deserted cars and empty houses, he wished to hell that this experience never kicked off with Ultimate Echo Echo ever again.

The alien was relentless with it's sound based attacks. Albedo touched his bleeding ears and he stumbled along, fighting nausea, and a growing inability to keep his balance. He gasped, taking deep overexerted breaths, though he could not even hear himself do so. He leaned his back against a building covering his mouth with a damp, bloody hand. He closed his eyes, focusing on the gentle wind caressing him on this cold, still night.

'No whispers tonight,' he thought, a stronger disappointment with realizing that than the fact he would get his shit kicked in his night because he couldn't keep his dream dinner in his stomach.

The To'Kustar's large shadow loomed over much of Bellwood, providing Albedo with the most useless cover in existence. He slid down the building's side, shaking, his breathing speeding up with every moment that passed, working to ease his nausea, but only increasing it.

He focused on the silence, losing himself in it, even as Lodestar stood in front of him, levitating a large steel bar in front of him,

'I just want to wake up.' He repeated in his thoughts. A mantra that would come true if he just said it enough times.

He couldn't hear the whisper in the wind, the one that convinced him to move the very first time. The voice he couldn't put a face to, but recognized all the same. He stared at Lodestar, as the alien directed the bar with his arm.

Albedo woke with a gasp, curled up on the floor of the mostly empty room. His head pounded loudly, drums against his skull directing his neurons and pain receptors to work in overdrive. He wrapped his arms around his head, as though he were holding a piece of technology he didn't want a single soul to tear from his pale fingers.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. His heart jumped with relief, as he realized he had not lost his hearing as a result of his dream. He sighed and opened his eyes. He stared at the pale green wall just a bit away from him.

He tapped his fingers against his head, a dull amusement, numbing his body as he realized that at the moment, where he was was a bit too loud. Someone was shuffling with plastic back of some kind, and the bag was trying out for auditions to who knows what, but it was probably a 'What's the loudest household inanimate object' contest.

"It's not helping at all." He heard Hugh speak softly. "I-I'm surprised he even t-took that nap."

"I don't have any ideas..." Swamps sounded, downtrodden.

Albedo rolled over, so he was on his back. He looked up at the ceiling, also this odd pea green color. At least it wasn't bright or neon green he supposed. Any random thought to distract his mind from his head, and the residual images of Lodestar bashing his head in. He yawned and then scowled.

"I think we should give a bit." Fridge floated through the air as he headed towards the door. "We should give him some time to adjust. It's only been a day."

He watched Swamps and Hugh look at each other as Fridge left, carrying a bag of garbage. 'They think I can't hear them…' Albedo ran a hand through his hair. He sat up and caught Hugh's eyes. His red jacket pooled on his lap. Hugh stared at him with a look he couldn't recognize. Then the male got up and walked over to a small group of bags sitting in the far corner of the pea green room.

"Hugh?" Swamp turned around. In the process the methanosian caught a glimpse of Albedo. "Holy!" Swamps stared at him wide eyed.

"What?" Albedo scowled. "Forgot what it's like to see an awake human?"

"No no!" Swamps held out his hands, "Your, the thing humans have on the side of their heads!"

"Ears?" Albedo raised an eyebrow, and touched a hand to one of his ears. His fingers brushed against rough, dry material on his ears. Instinctively he scratched at it and winced. He felt a small bit of liquid pool on his ear. He held his hand in front of his face, and stared at the dried blood underneath his fingernails and the small bit of fresh blood on his fingers.

"They are all scratched up! What were you doing over there!?"

A numbing chill that started from his center and spread out, ran through him. He ignored Swamps, his heart beating hard his chest. He clenched his teeth and shut his eyes.

Albedo felt Hugh's calloused hands touch his shoulder. He pushed the vaxasaurian away with a shove, though his small homo sapien stature didn't do much against the twelve foot alien. Albedo glared at his glasses wearing friend.

"Y-you could get an infection." Hugh held up a first aid kit designed for humans. "At least l-let me help get off the blood.

"I don't require your assistance." Albedo snatched the material from Hugh and stood. He stumbled off to the bathroom. A single look in the mirror over the skin and with a hand quickly growing clamming and arms suited for a person with quick reflexes, the kit flew into the mirror, shattering it, and sending shards of glass, gauze, alcohol pads, cotton balls and other medical equipment into the sink.

Albedo stared at a broken shard still attached to the mirror frame. His arms hung limp at his sides. His head pounded so strongly in his mind, he wasn't sure if he was even seeing straight. He looked at Hugh for a moment, as the male stood next to him. Swamps stood behind Hugh shaking his head.

He looked back into the mirror at his red eyes. White hair fell sloppily on his head and over his forehead.

"What happened?" Fridge's worried voice questioned hastily.

Albedo ignored his surroundings to sit on the floor, leaned up against the wall, with his back pressed against one of those long shabby heaters that lined the lower walls of rooms. In front of him, Hugh silently moved to clean up the mess Albedo had caused. Albedo looked in front of himself, focus shifting from item to item.

"You know how you're always saying without prison and law enforcement, the universe would be in shambles?" Swamps spoke up in a mocking tone.

"Yes?" Fridge asked with a raspy confused voice.

"You ever think that they're the ones turning nice guys' lives upside down? Putting the universe in shambles?"

Albedo closed his eyes and rested his head on his knees. A part of him wished his dream had damaged his eyes and not his ears instead.

…..

Albedo looked at Hugh, the vaxasaurian's overbearing frame towering over him without meaning to. At some point one of his companions had moved him from the bathroom, back to the main room. He held in a yawn, his heavy eyes somehow weighing his whole head down.

"D-do you want t-to talk about it?" Hugh questioned, glancing down at the small, to him, rectangle in his hands.

Albedo looked at him with dull eyes. Then he returned to staring at no particular spot on the floor. At least it wasn't pea green in color.

"I-I figured not, b-but it was worth a short." He placed the device in Albedo's lap, "We found your stuff before we went to get you."

"Hm..." Albedo looked down at the D-Terminal sitting on his lap. Months of use, sending emails and texts had dulled it's shine. Still he gently brushed some dust off of it.

"W-we even found the bag!"

Albedo looked at Hugh who smiled brightly. He smiled the barest of a smile, the corners of his lips turning up as though they were part of a turning road slowly being constructed on a too small budget. "Appreciated."

"You're welcome." Hugh fixed his glasses.

Albedo did not mind Hugh sitting next to him as he quickly worked through checking his email and text messages. "I shouldn't have any new ones?" He scratched an itchy spot on his head.

"W-we p-pooled our money to pay your bill while you were away." Hugh puffed out his chest proudly.

"Hm." Albedo ran a finger across the screen quickly skimming through messages. "Reliable." He could feel the energy radiating off of Hugh's grin without even looking at him to know he was smiling.

He sent a message to the person least likely to freak out at him showing up again. Then he sent another to the second least likely.

Concentration on his latest dream slowly faded from his mind as he snorted at Ryo's reply. They both knew he had disappeared for much longer than a little bit. He snorted at his own reply. Predisposed with important business, his backside. He wished sitting in prison could even count as important business. No, it was mainly staying away from the lesser hooligans who dare think they were worthy enough to have his expertise on their side. Ignoring guards who believed him less than trash only deemed itself just a slight bit more entertaining.

He flipped screens to his newest message. "Time differences. Right." He shook his head at Jeri's reply: 'Send that message again when I'm awake.'

He shifted on his backside, turning so his back faced Hugh's side. He leaned against the taller male, as he sent messages to and from Ryo. If Ryo had any knowledge that he was supposed to be serving a prison sentence, he did not make it known. Considering the security he set up on all D-Terminals shared among the Tamers and himself, the Plumbers or any government securities on Earth wouldn't be able to hack into them either. More depressing matters plagued his mind at any rate, running through his brain like a runaway train.

Hugh murmured odd math proofs to himself, odd to anyone not interested in math, in the geeky sense, as Albedo and he were. He rolled his eyes, listening to Hugh attempt to speak each proof with some resemblance of a beat. However, music was not Hugh's forte. Neither was it Albedo's, but the gray haired male knew Hugh sounded ridiculous, despite the circumstances.

He focused on Ryo's last message: 'Welcome back, my friend.'

Friends with a plumber. He was not sure how to describe the calm and uneasiness that such a thought brought to him. He put down his D-Terminal and rubbed his sweaty palms on his jeans. He gingerly ran a finger over his ear, and then the other one. Fingers gently brushed over the barest unnatural lines littering the skin covering the cartilage.

Hugh had started helping to clean his accidentally self-inflicted wounds, but he still had issues properly gauging the frailty of a human. Swamps tried next, but Albedo punched him after a few moments of ridiculous rambling and jokes that only made sense to a methanosian. Fridge had been gentle, and if he noticed Albedo pointedly ignoring him and avoiding his gaze, he had not commented. The cool Necrofriggian's hands had eased the burning of the alcohol and the itchiness from the developing scabs.

"I-I have to get up, Albedo." Hugh spoke, voice a few notches above a whisper. Albedo stiffened despite the attempt to not startle him. "Swamps will have my hide if I s-skip doing the d-dishes again."

"Hmph." Albedo shifted so he leaned up against the pea green wall. He watched Hugh move to the alcove of the room featuring a small sink, stove and fridge, surrounding a small square table lacking proper chairs. A trio of milk crates surrounded the table like bored guards outside a castle's gates during a time of peace.

He watched Hugh wash plastic plates, bowls and cups, and, from the way that poor spoon bent in Hugh's burly reptilian hands, shoddy metal utensils.

Hugh sighed, "Y-you can't get g-good at not breaking anything i-if you don't touch anything." The male lowered his head for a moment, before resuming his chore.

Albedo knew from the experience, that if you put Hugh in front of something electronic or dealing with computers, the male was a different person, skilled enough to upset the function of Plumber Containment prison cells and assist Albedo with building equipment as though he were born to do it.

For Albedo, Hugh was a brand new actual experience compared to other vaxasaurians he had come across. Like humans, he supposed, they came in different flavors from 'Don't want to associate with them' stupid to 'Passable enough to send to another planet as a representative of their species' tolerable.

Albedo stood and walked across the room, passing his makeshift bed made of sheets and some pillows, a simple mattress for the few times he could remember Swamps actually coming inside to sleep, and a bar connected to the ceiling for Fridge, who liked sleeping upside down for reasons that only looked like how long he could hang upside before nausea kicked in to him.

He sat on a cardboard box next to the window and then frowned. He looked out the window. "Not a sky to be seen. No clouds, no sun, no rain." He pressed a hand to the window. "That's why it's called UnderTown." He supposed. He pressed the side of his face against the window and sighed. He took a deep breath, boredom slowly taking over the experience, "Barely rains in Bellwood." He continued.

Something knocked on the window he leaned up against. He promptly tumbled off the box in a heap. He glanced at Hugh staring at him in wonder. He shifted to his knees and looked out the window. Swamps waved at him, grinning. Behind him Fridge shook his head. Albedo grinned devilishly when Fridge smacked the back of Swamps' head.

"Hooligans." He watched the two head to the door. He brushed off his clothes and stood again, seating himself on the box once more soon after.

Swamps set a bag of groceries on the table. He pulled out a carton of juice and a sturdy, carefully covered in plastic plant, still in a pot. He pushed the plant so it was closer to the window.

"If there's one thing I hate about Bellwood, it's their ridiculous happy go lucky attitudes." He stood up straight. He took off another bag hanging from around his waist, and carefully set a couple of ID masks on the table. "Don't get me wrong, sometimes it's good to know someone isn't bothered by a single thing, but everyday is just too much." He held his hands out to the sides. "Drives me nuts."

"You can't blame the humans for that." Fridge spoke, closing the refrigerator. He crumpled the now empty bag in his hands. "They are only as knowledgeable as the information their technology allows them to detect and the speed at which their brains can comprehend and come to terms with the new information." He threw the crumpled bag into the garbage can as though he were making a basketball shot.

"I don't mean the humans." Swamps turned around and leaned his hands on the table, partially sitting on it. "I'm talking about the aliens." He pointed a plant finger at Fridge, "The ones who have no excuse to not know crazies like Vilgax and the Incurseans exist."

"Faulty argument." Fridge spoke up.

"H-he's got a point." Hugh dried the last plate with a rag.

"If we all worried about such things all the time, we'd drive ourselves insane." Fridge looked at Hugh and Swamps. "A good part of why they're on Earth is those two reasons alone, as odd as it sounds. From my experience at least." He shrugged his shoulders.

"No no." Swamps held his arms out directly in front of him, "I don't mean they gotta drive themselves nuts with concern, just that they should be concerned, like, some of the time, at least, ya know? They all smile going about their business like they forgot they live in the same place Vilgax takes a shot at every other month looking for a fight with..."

Hugh and Fridge glared at Swamps, who shrugged his shoulders, smiling a small nervous lopsided smile.

Albedo looked at the trio. He rolled his eyes and huffed loudly. "Ben Tennyson." The trio looked at him. "Oh look at that. I never would have guessed that a person such as myself wouldn't break or explode or something equally preposterous from hearing or saying the name Ben Tennyson."

They smiled sheepishly. Swamps held his hands up in defense.

"Do not cease your enlightening conversation on my watch." Albedo looked back out the window, looking for something other than neon lights flashing in the distance to look at.

"These guys don't worry at all. Ever. Drives me nuts." Swamps continued with a frown.

Fridge stared at him, wide-eyed and holding out an arm in his general direction. Hugh laughed, snorted a little bit.

"Stuck in their super happy, nothing's wrong mode. Ignoring reality altogether."

"Then I'm sure you wouldn't mind if they all joined the plumbers." Fridge replied, voice full of snark.

"Methuselah's Grace, no!" Swamps shouted leaning forward. "They mean well, but some of 'em got sticks shoved so far up their backsides the stick comes out as the nonsense they say!"

Albedo leaned up against the window, an amused smirk on his face.

"It's like listening to a politician speak. You can't tell me their treatment of inmates is all top notch either."

Fridge lowered his head.

"There's no amount of 'They mean well' that could excuse that nonsense."

"There's a balance that must be achieved in all everyone and everything does." Albedo spoke just loud enough to be heard. "Perhaps the real thing everyone should focus on is finding that point or whatever other nonsense sounds like something Jen would say." He resumed looking out the window, watching a Nemuina float on by carrying a tiny package.

Hugh looked at Swamps and Fridge. The duo returned the look confused, and oddly silenced. Hugh pointed to Albedo. Fridge narrowed his eyes in thought, and Swamps shrugged his shoulders. Hugh smiled brightly, as though an idea came to him.

"No." Fridge whispered. "Your ideas are insane. I'm not breaking into another prison."

"Your ideas are kinda out there..." Swamps shifted his eyes back and forth.

Hugh continued smiling innocently, even going so far as to cross his arms behind his back. Fridge slumped his shoulders in defeat.

Swamps shrugged his shoulders again, "Hit me with it. Not physically though. Just stop smiling all creepy-like."

Hugh continued, the smile turning into a grin and pumped an arm in success. "I've got m-my best idea yet."