hey gang! i tried so hard to get this out before may ended and yet here i am! This is actually a two-parter! i wanted to write about tony the alien and then it sort of turned into a heist plot but that plot will start next chapter. i dont have the next chapter done but i want to get this out to u guys so i can stop rushing myself! anyway did yall vote on apples poll? im excited for both tbh! uhm but what im most excited for is what i believe will be the end of the main series! anyways thanks so much for reading! Please comment it mean a lot to me and i hope you all have a wonderful pride month :-
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T'Nii liked to think of himself as a very rational being.
Thought of himself as a pillar of maturity in his friend group, someone who, even at his young age, knew right from illegal and when the authorities were going to be patrolling and where. He turned in his schoolwork on time, only got into fights every once in a while (winning, of course), and was generally an easy going guy. Sure, he'd nicked a tree once or twice, and failed his driver's test once, but everyone goes through 'growing pains', as his mother would call it, besides, he'd passed the second time. So yeah, T'Nii was certain that a little joyride across the stars was completely fine, and that nothing would go wrong.
The smoldering mess that was his ride begged to differ.
Honestly, it really wasn't his fault! See, T'Nii had had a rough day at school, with exam preparation and the constant weight of his eternal rival, Yun'e, on his back it was a wonder he'd made it out of the hallways without punching that smug jerk right in the face. But, he did, and he was quite proud of that fact. So, when he got home, he'd grabbed the keys to his family's old junker ship and set the coordinates to anywhere. A few of his friends had done something similar before, saying it was super relaxing and easy, to 'Just pick a solar system and hit auto-pilot! Watch the stars go by and chill out, you'll be back before dinner!' And that was what T'Nii had done! He punched in the first string of coordinates that came to mind, then he sat back and listened to the newest Warp 9 album.
That was a mistake, he would soon come to realize.
Now, T'Nii was very tired from all the learning and forced cohabitation with the likes of Yun'e and his gang of idiots, and so, if he fell asleep, that wasn't his fault! The album was just so mellow and the lead singer's voice was so smooth that he couldn't keep his eyes open. If they had been open, he would have noticed the auto-pilot glitching out, something it did frequently during family trips to neighboring planets, and he would have stopped the ship from cruising past the pretty nebula he'd been aiming for and right on to the next solar system, and then one more after that. Eventually, his parents' ship stalled right over a little blue planet and tried to make an emergency landing. Of course, then the engine spluttered out causing the anti-gravity beacon to die right alongside it, sending T'Nii and his new album rocketing towards the planet's surprisingly rocky surface.
So yeah, T'Nii had a very rude awakening from his nap, with blaring sirens and flashing lights startling him into action. He barely had time to grab his communicator before abandoning the vessel altogether. It was a rough landing, the air was dusty and the newfound gravity pulled at his knee joints in a rather uncomfortable manner, but T'Nii had everything he needed to survive (though Jerin was going to kill him for destroying the music player she leant him). Other than that though, T'Nii was fine.
Well, as fine as absolutely dead as soon as his parents found out could be.
For a while, T'Nii just…stood there. Staring in utter disbelief and a dawning sense of terror at what was his parents' ship, and trying desperately to find the best possible way to break it to them. It was useless though, every scenario just ended with him having to get a job at a sunglasses shack in a shopping center. T'Nii shuddered, the beings that worked there always looked so dead inside… What was he going to do?
He couldn't waste away selling subpar eyewear for the rest of his life; he had parties to attend!
Eventually, a flashing light and the sound of approaching footsteps tore T'Nii's attention away from his death warrant. On any planet, driving a crater into someone's property was kind of a dick move and so, T'Nii decided the best place to be was anywhere but the scene of the crime. Stumbling into the strangely uniform rows of greenish somethings, he pulled out his, newly cracked, communicator and pulled up the Planet Index. The app itself was something all mobile devices came with pre-installed, and the interfacing was outdated by at least a few generations. Nonetheless, T'Nii had never been more grateful for an app that he was unable to delete. After an agonizingly long loading period, Planet Index opened and asked for permission to scan the immediate area. His communicator quietly flashed a low purple in a circle around him, before pulling up a distressingly blank profile.
Planet: 'Earth' (732.42981), Galaxy: 'Milky Way' (4367.29), Level of Contact: None.
Residents of Earth are not a part of the Greater Galactic World, but are on track for FIrst Contact within the next three centuries. An interestingly diverse planet with multiple, volatile, biomes and large, dangerous, swaths of water covering most of the planet's surface. The dominant species, 'Humans', vary in shape, size, color, and, most surprisingly, language and culture. Do not engage any aspect of this planet. The flora and fauna are incredibly hostile, regularly injuring and killing the dominant species even to this day.
For more information on Planet Earth, please proceed to our interactive website for Pre-Contact Civilizations.
T'Nii stared down at his comm until the screen dimmed and then blackened altogether. Of all the planets, he had to crashland on an incredibly hostile, Pre-Contact one. What did he do to deserve this? He was going to get arrested for this! And he'd left his ship in a smoking heap for any one of the planet's primitive species to blow themselves up with. Slowly T'Nii sat down, the dusty ground softening the hollow thud his backside made, and stared up at the night sky.
Unfamiliar constellations and star systems stared back down at him, apathetic to his situation.
Well, at least the people of this world were too primitive to be able to call galactic authorities on him for trespassing. Of course, that also meant that there was no way he was going to be able to get off this planet until his parents track his comm and mount a rescue and retrieval mission. T'Nii knocked his head against the wiry surface of the food behind him. At least he thought it was some type of food, everything here was harsh even the grass that grew beside him was scratching him with every sway of the wind.
Behind him the sound of whatever language this part of the planet spoke (and wasn't that crazy, they hadn't even unified under a common language yet!) was being shouted out. He could see the light was moving around erratically and T'Nii cursed quietly; he could already hear them rummaging around in it, hopefully they were too primitive to make anything of the sustainable metal and would just leave it be.
"Woah, lookie here! It fixed itself!"
T'Nii wasn't sure what exactly the Human had said, but when he chanced a glance through the stalks of whatever, he saw an incredibly tall being pulling apart a hunk of the hull and marveling at its regenerative abilities. T'Nii's eyes widened, that thing, the Human, was terrifying to look at! It was a strange color with small, beady eyes, and a weird bump in the middle of its face above a…gaping hole? He shuddered at the sight of it, something was terribly off about these Humans, and T'Nii knew he didn't want to be found, if only to save him the nausea of looking at them. Eventually the Human wandered off, and T'Nii began to succumb to his own exhaustion. Luckily the planet had a similar atmosphere to his own, and the slight hum of the creatures around him lulled him into a fitful sleep.
When he woke up the next day, sore and uncomfortably hot under the alien sun, he crept back to his ship only to find it hadn't even begun its regen process and was sitting there uselessly, waiting to be scavenged by those freaky Humans. After another age of staring at the wreckage and willing it to fix itself, T'Nii began to wander around the area, scanning whatever strange item caught his eye. This is how he learned the terms 'corn' and 'cattle', and when he'd scanned one too many items that didn't have a definition the app asked him if he'd like to become an admin of the Earth page. To which T'Nii responded with a resounding yes.
His parents were going to be so impressed with his contributions to science, they probably wouldn't even punish him!
So the next few days were filled with T'Nii going around in circles, taking pictures and describing every plant, animal and weather phenomenon he experienced. Generally ignoring the title section, or putting in simple descriptors for when he got his hands on a non-hostile Human who would be willing to rattle off all the names for him. Speaking of, the Human who's food and animal shelter he crashed his ship on was becoming less and less interested in the remains. Meaning the ship was finally starting to regenerate, and T'Nii was finally able to breathe, though, the fact that he couldn't exactly move the process along was incredibly frustrating.
Serk, the name he'd given the Human after giving up on understanding the faint conversations he had with others like him, moved around the debris of his ship under some grass two days after discovering it. Apparently, regenerative metal wasn't as interesting as his cattle beasts and his corn crops. T'Nii shook his head at Serk from his temporary home, a mass of soft grass and some stolen fabrics from Serk's house, before continuing his exploration of the planet. Humans were fascinating but exceedingly primitive it seemed.
Well, at least he thought they were exceedingly primitive. Now though, he's not so sure. Serk had left his abode early in the morning, T'Nii had thought nothing off it, figuring he had simply wandered off to do a Human activity that required supplies or more Humans. And when he'd seen not one, but two Humanoid figures wandering towards his crash site, he groaned at having to deal with another sun cycle of lying in wait. Hopefully this one would lose interest quicker than Serk had, and leave just as quickly.
As the two Humans approached the sight, Serk with his darker fur and this new Human with a lighter coloring stopped to speak in their language. The new Human began to speak louder and faster after Serk showed it a piece of the scrap metal, jumping up and down and pointing at the sky. A sinking feeling began to snake its way through T'Nii's nervous system at that, surely this Human couldn't have deduced it was extraterrestrial?
Eventually both Humans wandered off towards the house, and T'Nii let out a breath of relief. It's not like he was worried about these backwater people doing him harm! He was a member of the Galactic Planetary Federation, he had rights! It was just that that new Human was more trouble than it was worth. This one seemed like it had more of a social life, and T'Nii really didn't want to have a mind wiping event on his permanent record.
Employers were so annoying about that type of stuff.
As day turned to night, and T'Nii began to creep towards the scattered pieces of his ship, Serk's door creaked open. He quickly scrambled back into the bushes, ignoring the way its sharp bits scratched at his skin. It was the new Human. T'Nii let out a huff of irritation, of course it would decide to take a late night stroll just as T'Nii was about to make the leap from moving the tiny bits closer to heaving the hull out of its mud encased hole. He sat back on his heels, opting to simply wait out the Human.
Of course, that was when the Human wandered towards the ship. It crouched down near a decently sized crater, the one that the hull was stuck in. T'Nii cursed silently. Great! Now the Human was going to tamper with the only piece of intact machinery! This was going to set him back days! Then the Human did something…unsettling.
It gripped a section of the hull and wrenched it apart.
Immediately a deep sense of terror overcame T'Nii. That metal, while malleable, is meant to endure the intense pressure of almost any gravitational pull! It was designed to take the brunt of meteorite showers, ship collisions, and the burning fire of reentering a planet's atmosphere. The Human muttered out something, then crushed the hull flat, waiting silently for it to straighten itself out. Then it pulled out a primitive PADD and wrote something down, before repeating the action.
That sharp ear settled deep in the pit of his digestive sack, and roiled around whenever the new Human pulled at the scavenged scrap of metal. Serk too had spent a good amount of time playing with the malleable metal, but his actions had been that of a curious creature that could never understand the science behind it; this Human, though, with its eyes that seemed to glow in the dark and footsteps that shook the ground, was staring just a bit too intently.
T'Nii was starting to feel like he should've taken the risk (and galactic fine) in the beginning of this whole escapade and just held poor Serk hostage and manually fixed the ship. It was like this planet had decided he'd overstayed his welcome and was now punishing him by keeping this intensing and frankly frightening Human near the wreck at all times.
Slowly, as the night turned to day and back again, T'Nii began to notice some uncomfortable differences between Serk and this new Human. One was that the Human had yet to sleep, and T'Nii knew that Humans needed to rest their bodies for a good chunk of the night so that they could operate at full capacity. This one, though, just continued to stretch and slash and pull at the metal, his creepy eyes wide and unblinking. The second thing, the one that made T'Nii back himself further into the forest than he had since that first night, was the fact that the new Human would sometimes cock its head to the side, standing in absolute stillness, breathing deeply before snapping its head in T'Nii's direction, its piercing stare scanning the foliage for–for him.
This thing wasn't Human.
T'Nii had that abrupt realization on the second day that the Creature was on Serk's Ranch. It certainly looked Human, and interacted with Serk like a Human, but there was something incredibly off about it. It knew too much, sensed T'Nii even if it couldn't find him, and was discreetly pulling the tiniest bit of his ship's hull apart and setting it in one of its hidden clothing holders. Nothing anybody would miss, not the Human's in dark clothing or, even T'Nii himself if he hadn't watched as the Creature warped the metal in its hands until it couldn't attach itself back to its original shape.
Eventually, the Humans that came to steal his ride left and with them went the Creature masquerading as Human. And, as distraught at being stuck on Earth until they invented Warp Technology or the Galactic Forces were dispatched to scour even backwater planets for him, T'Nii couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. The Creature was gone and so was the danger of it discovering him and, well T'Nii wasn't exactly sure what it would do. It was seemingly friendly, always bearing its teeth in the way Humans liked and making that loud, breathy sound he'd only heard happy Humans make. But that was when it was blending it, masking itself with their mundanity and ignorance. Who knows what it would've done to a sentient being like T'Nii, especially since he knew that the Creature was not what it seemed.
EIther way, T'Nii hoped he wouldn't run into it, or any of its kind, for a good long while. The way things were now, it was looking like he and Serk were going to become more than acquaintances. He spent the next night, burrowed under his stolen blankets, thinking of all the ways he could reveal himself to Serk without him pulling out that loud metal blaster. It looked like a painful death, much less clean than the regular ray gun deaths he'd seen on TV. T'Nii shook himself away from those thoughts, Serk was a fine Human, even if he did bring a bunch of strangers and that Creature to T'Nii's ship. He couldn't blame him though, if T'Nii had found Serk's grounded ship all torn to pieces he probably would've called the authorities (though, probably the museum curator before the government).
The planet's sun woke him bright and early, its far off heat bringing back memories of T'Nii's off-months spent with his relatives on Mak 12-13, and he felt a pang of homesickness stronger than he'd had since the first night's shock wore off. The ground beneath him was cool and the winged animals were making their high pitched noises, T'Nii guessed Serk would have been up for a while by now, and figured he shouldn't put off the inevitable. Pushing himself out of his makeshift bed, he meandered towards the part of the crop area he knew Serk was going to wander around for the day. He crept up as quietly as he could until he was just out of sight from the Human, took a deep breath to calm his pounding pumper and stepped into the light.
Well, he would've, if he hadn't caught sight of the Creature from yesterday.
Shoving himself to the ground and out of sight, T'Nii crawled his way nearer the Creature, who was hunched into himself and muttering quietly, "Whatever…that was so not a weather balloon."
T'Nii watched as the Creature sniffled, some water dripping from its eyes, before steeling himself. He was about to make a very bad decision, in fact this might be the worst decision he could make, but T'Nii was realizing, as he turned away from Serk and walked closer and closer to the Creature, he wasn't a very rational being at all.
He set his hand on the Creature, and barely had time to regret it before it turned to meet his eyes.
The Creature opened its speaking hole, its eyes, the color of this planet's sky, widened and T'Nii could feel its body tense up under his touch. That feeling of fear quickly shifted from background noise to and intense terror clogging at his throat and locking his knees in place. The Creature startled, and as it moved into what must have been the beginning of some type of attack, T'Nii struck.
His hand slammed into the plane between the creature's unnatural eyes and the fuzzy top of its skull. Immediately his mind was overwhelmed with the immensity of this Creature's life, its very thoughts and core morals being flashed behind T'Nii's eyes. It was almost painful and he knew he was correct to assume this Creature, America, was not Human; it–he lived too long and seemed indifferent to the finality of death he knew most creatures on this planet feared. T'Nii felt himself fall deeper and deeper into America's memories, an uninvited witness to harsh winters and blazing summers, to meals with America's father or his brother and an observer to his conflicts with them both. Then as quickly as it had begun T'Nii cut the connection. They fell away from each other, exhausted at what had just occurred, and, in Alfred's case no doubt, incredibly confused.
"Alright, I don't know what the hell that was, but you've got ten seconds to start talking or you're in for a world of pain, Gray Man!" America shouted, already looming over T'Nii's prone form.
"Yes, it worked!" T'Nii whispered. He'd never performed a meld like that, actually he hadn't ever performed one. He'd flunked out of the class that taught it, saying that he'd have no use since he wasn't interested in Pre-Contact civilizations. Above him America moved to snatch him up from the ground, "Ah! America, I am called T'Nii! I am a, uh, alien–yes that's the word–and I need your help!" He shouted, flinching away from the raised fist ready to smash his face in.
America stopped short, his mouth dropping open, before a huge smile took over his face, "A real life alien!" America dropped him, spinning on his heel and jumping up and down before snapping his attention back to T'Nii. "You said you needed help!? Are you stranded here!? Do you need my expertise on humanity and all its quirks to help you blend in so you can stop an invasion from happening!?"
America's face was getting uncomfortably close with every word, "Hm, kind of." T'Nii said, pushing America's face away, "There's no invasion, but I do need your help getting my ship off the ground. Oh!" He pulled out his comm, which somehow hadn't fully broken during his, thankfully brief, altercation with America, and opened Planet Index, "And if you could maybe tell me the names of all of these things too." He shoved the device into America's hands before he began to pick his way back to his hideout.
"WOWIE! What is this thing?" America said, his eyes wide as the device flashed picture after picture of Earthling Flora and Fauna.
"It's a comm unit 173X, and all you have to do is type in–oh." To his surprise America was already typing away on the holoscreen, barely even watching where T'Nii was leading him.
"Tony, this is sweet! I can't wait to rub it in Tex's face that I got to meet a real live alien and he missed it for being so doll dizzy!"
A partially obscured face flashed in T'Nii's mind at the mention of Tex, America's brother and sole confidant, "Yeah, he's a real dizzy doll, huh?" He said as they both finally made it back to relative safety. T'Nii sat down, and reluctantly pulled out his favorite blanket for America to sit on next to him.
America plopped down on the ground without a thought, "Doll dizzy, means he's girl crazy; has been ever since he got bacl. Personally, I don't get it. All they ever wanna do is kiss, which is just–yucky." He said, still not looking up from the screen.
T'Nii didn't exactly agree with that. He, for one, quite enjoyed knocking foreheads with anybody he found interesting enough. But, America didn't need to know that, and besides, T'Nii had seen Serk kiss another Human. It was a pretty grotesque sight, and if he could go the rest of this forced vacation without seeing it again, it would be too soon. "Anyway, America–"
"Al." T'Nii blinked, as America finally looked up from the comm, "Name's Alfred, but you can call me Al. All my friends do." He shrugged before turning back to whichever article he was titling.
T'Nii felt his insides go a little warm at that, though he'd never admit it, "Oh. Well, Al, I was wondering if you could take me to where those Human's in black took the remains of my ship?"
Alfred froze at that, and an ice of dread went through T'Nii, "Oh, that's right…" He hissed out, putting the comm down entirely, "Yeah, that thing's gone, ace."
"Gone, what do you mean gone?"
"I mean my Boss told them to pick it up." Al said, his face scrunched up, "Told me your ship was just a weather balloon to get me to stop , and if he's trying to lie to me about wha'ts going on…" He trailed off, glancing around the area and leaning in close to T'Nii's face, "It's going one place and one place only…Groom Lake."
T'Nii raised an eye ridge, "Groom Lake?"
"Or Homey Airport. I just thought Groom Lake was the spookier name." Alfred smiled, moving away from T'Nii's face, "It's gonna be a top secret facility in a couple years. The paperwork hasn't gone through yet, but my Boss signed off on its acquisition just last month. Something about him wanting the space to test out experimental weapons and aircrafts." Alfred leaned back on his hands, looking up at the clear sky, "Course that's not for a while now, and they don't want me messing around where they can't keep an eye on me."
"So that's it?" T'Nii snapped. He was going to be stuck on this planet for years waiting for this Not-Human to get permission to see the remains of his gutted ship? T'Nii wanted to scream, but didn't want to risk upsetting Alfred, even if they were friends that Creature still set him on edge.
Alfred glanced back at him, "Well, I didn't say that." A dangerous grin spread across his face, "I just wanted you to know how difficult this mission's gonna be, soldier." At T'Nii's questioning look Alfred sat all the way up and slung his arm around T'Nii's shoulders, "Tony, I'm going to let you in on a little secret of mine. I got a lotta time on my hands now that the war effort's through," Alfred leaned in close, that grin still in place, "and I've been itching for an adventure like this one."
Looking at Alfred, his white teeth glinting in the sunlight, T'Nii felt like this was the beginning of something that would shake both of their worlds.
Texas Jones was not an easy man to stun.
He'd seen it all; life, death, rebirth, his sister during an earthquake-nami, there wasn't much left for him to experience that could truly catch him off guard. As he watched his brother open the backseat of their brand new Ford Super DeLuxe and a little…creature stepped out onto the pavement, Texas realized there was still a lot to see.
Allie was chattin up a storm and the–the Duende or Alux or whatever it was, seemed to respond in tune. They strolled casually up to where Tex was sitting on their porch, and then, when Alfred finished laughing at whatever joke it had said, turned to look expectantly at Tex. Tex glanced back and forth between the two, and found himself staring into the soulless red eyes of the Duende for far too long.
Eventually his manners kicked in, and Tex held out his hand to it, hoping to the Lord above that he'd remembered to clip his fingernails (fingers were such a pain to grow back), and introduced himself stiffly, "Nice to meet you…sir?" The Duende's hand was cold and scaly and it took all of Tex's willpower not to flinch away from its touch, "Name's Texas Jones, Al's brother but–you probably know that, huh?" He tried to smile at it, but as the silence stretched on and on it became more of a pained grimace than anything else. Then the Duende's grip tightened, pulling him closer before it lifted its free hand and slammed it into his forehead.
A bright light exploded between his eyes, and it felt like his brain was being sucked through his eyeballs, like his skull was being split open by a dull pickaxe, it felt like a poorly done mind meld. Mind meld? What was that? And how did he know if one was done poorly? Another shock of pain ran from his head to his fingertips, and the question was lost in a sea of flashing images, a far off planet, a rocketship like the Ares in A Martian Odyssey, and…a herd of longhorns?
As quickly as it began, it ended, and Tex was left breathless and blinking in the porchlight. He glanced up at Al as soon as the nausea passed, "Al. Explain."
His brother had the decency to give out a sheepish laugh, "We thought this would be the easiest way to get you up to speed?"
Tex let out a sigh, "You thought letting an alien connect his mind to mine, without telling me, was the best way to explain the situation?" He sent a withering glare at Alfred. Honestly, if he'd just said, 'I got an alien in our backseat, wanna meet 'im?'' Tex would've shot out of his chair like the rapture itself was upon them.
Alfred pursed his lips, "Yes?"
Texas closed his eyes, shaking his head softly, "Next time something like this happens, just tell me out right." Alfred quickly nodded his head, before steering the alien through their door and into their house.
Tex had no choice but to follow them, stopping to switch the lock and turn off the porchlight, before making his way into the sitting room. Al was kneeling near the cleared off coffee table, scribbling frantically over a slew of blank papers, and the alien was sprawled out on their couch, lazily glancing around their space and fiddling with marble. Texas set his hat down, fell into his La-Z-Boy, and prepared himself for whatever insanity was about to happen, "Alright, what're we stealin'?"
"Tony needs his ship back." Alfred answered without looking up from the schematics he was drawing up.
Texas turned to the alien, "Your name really Tony?" He whispered.
Tony turned his eyes on Tex, dropping the marble and sitting up, "You think I'd let him call me something that wasn't my name, pendejo?"
His voice was surprisingly high and Tex would've commented on it and his lack of mouth, but getting called a dumbass in Spanish by an alien who hadn't been on Earth more than a month took precedence, "What'd you just call me, cabrón?
"I believe I called you 'friend'?" Tony responded, his head tilting to the side, "I'm sorry, the new language is still trying to permeate. I didn't offend you, did I?" He asked, just a bit too innocently. Asked like Tex does when he insults someone in English and then plays the 'mi English eso mal' card, just to piss them off further.
Tex huffed out a laugh, "Oh, you and I are gonna get on like a house on fire. Might wanna work on your delivery, though. People here can tell when you're being a right bastard."
Tony let out his own snort, though Tex wasn't how he managed to make the noise, before pulling what looked like a compact walkie talkie, and tossing it at him, "I need you to go through all those articles and type in their Spanish names underneath the English ones, also do either of you happen to have a lithium battery on you? I heard this planet has a surplus."
"Wha–?" Tex muttered as the walkie talkie lit up, its black face glowing a faint purple, and shooting out a light that expanded into a translucent keyboard. The walkie talkie then began slowly filtering through pictures of birds and grass and little critters found out in the Western states, each one with their English name and a short description in a strange looking blocky language Tex couldn't decipher. He could hear the other two talking, and he probably should listen, but Tex couldn't bring himself to look away from the device. It was incredibly advanced, something he knew wouldn't be possible on this planet for decades. And that was if they were lucky! The pictures were in crisp, clear technicolor, and seemed to move as the text slowly scrolled by. Texas was completely entranced and his fingers itched to pull it apart bit by bit and then put it back together. Slowly he reached out towards the keyboard of light, erasing where Al had typed in 'rabbit' and replacing it with 'hare', when a set of gray fingers landed on his shoulder.
Texas let out a sharp yell, clamping his hand on the enemy's behind him and throwing him over his shoulder. The sound of metal shells hitting the ground had him ducking for cover, but not before dragging the enemy's prone form with him, using his superior strength to keep his struggling to a minimum. He could hear one of his own yelling his name, but finding out where the enemy came from was more important. And now there were arms around his shoulders pulling him away from his hostage, they were strong, stronger than him and that meant they were a real threat, meant that he needed to get away, needed to fight, needed to–
"TEX! TEXAS! STAND DOWN, SOLDIER!"
Tex took in a sharp breath, his vision coming back to him in sharp, painful focus. He was in his home, not some God forsaken island. His brother was wrapped around his body, keeping his arms flush between Tex's back and Al's front, and there was glass everywhere. The coffee table had been shattered, and Tony was cowering away from him, peeking from behind the couch with terrified, red eyes, and a blue-green bruise forming on one of his hands.
Texas felt sick.
He slid himself from Alfred's grip, whispering his thanks, before carefully crawling over to where Tony was hiding, ignoring the shards of glass embedded in his hands and arms, "Hey, Tony. I'm real sorry. I been having real bad episodes since I came back from the Pacific Theater." He held out a bleeding hand, trying desperately to look as unthreatening as possible, "Shell shock's one hell of a drug." He tried to smile at him, "I'm real sorry for losing my composure, and for hurtin' you…" Tony uncurled from his position, looking down at the red blood oozing out of the cuts in his hand, before nodding and placing his hand in Tex's. They both stood up, and slid out from behind the couch.
Allie was dutifully sweeping up the remains of their coffee table, and salvaging the crumpled schematics that had survived his latest freak out, "Why don't you two move into the kitchen. I'll be there in a second." He said, squinting at a ripped piece of paper.
Texas nodded, and led Tony into their newly refurbished kitchen. The government had given them a significantly larger stipend after the victory in Japan, and Al had gone a bit crazy when he realized they could replace their old and broken ice box with a fancy new refrigerator. When he'd finally decided on a model, he realized it didn't match the rest of the kitchen, so then Texas had been tasked with repainting the walls, adding new trim, and lugging the thing in when Alfred had a UN meeting the week it arrived at their home.
He motioned for Tony to sit down at their old fashioned table, one of the only things from the previous kitchen to make it through Al's in-depth selection process, and pulled out three bottles of coca-cola and flopped into his own chair. He slid one over to Tony, popped open the cap of his own then took a deep swig of it. Ah, that'll calm the nerves almost as good as beer. He needed to be firing on all cylinders tonight though, and he was getting sick of being drunk all the time.
He glanced up at Tony, who was staring at the bottle like it was a foreign conc–oh, "Hey, Tony? Can you, uh, ya know?" He made a drinking motion with his hand.
Tony sent him a flat stare, "Yes, I can drink. It's one of the only biological constants in the universe, as far as we know."
"'Course. I knew that…"
He then used the edge of the table to open the cap then put it near the bottom of his face and tipped backwards. The soda disappeared and Texas tried not to stare.
Luckily Alfred walked in a moment later, saving Tex from trying to understand how Tony does anything without a mouth, "Alright, men." He announced from his seat at the head of the table, "We've had our fun, but the rest of the night is going to be strictly business. Tony here has enlisted the help of the Jones boys in securing his spaceship from a top secret government facility." Alfred slammed the crinkled schematics down on the table, "Edwards AFB, out in Arizona, is the target's destination, and we're going to be infiltrating and repossessing said spacecraft."
Tex leaned over, trying to see around Alfred's fat hand, "Edwards AFB? Al, are you outta your mind?" He asked, "That place is being completely reshaped! Why would they take something so advanced to the middle of a desert construction site?"
"Because, dear brother," Alfred said, a glint in his eye, "they have nowhere else to put it." He threaded his fingers across his face, "It's the only place we shouldn't know about. 'Cept, of course, me and the intern walking those papers to the mailroom happened to collide, resulting in me catching a glimpse of that shiny new deed."
Tex rolled his eyes, "Alright, we get it. You been brushing up on your spy skills. Get to the point, boss."
Alfred huffed, "You never let me tell stories how I like."
"'Cause your stories go on for hours."
"It's called setting the scene!"
"It's called knowing when to shut your trap!"
"HOW ABOUT I–"
Tony let out a sharp laugh, throwing his head back, "As funny as this is, I need my ride back this century, yeah?" He took another sip of his soda, "Also this is crazy good, so I'm gonna need a bunch more of these for the trip home."
Texas blinked at the alien, who had somehow gotten up and grabbed himself another cola bottle during his and Allie's shouting match, before noticing just how close he was to Alfred's face. He gave Al one more glare before sitting back down, "Right." He gestured at Alfred's schematics, "Continue."
Alfred started at that, before diving into the plan. And they continued like that into the night. Shooting down Alfred's more extravagant ideas, the ones involving improv and backstories, and arguing whether or not they were going to take their new car or old one. On one hand the old car was recognizable as theirs and if a single agent reported it their Boss would know immediately that they'd meddled where they shouldn't have. On the other hand, Texas had just finished waxing the DeLuxe.
Texas never got what he wanted.
