Word Woman looked over the damage around her. some decrotive pillars now brittle cheese, broken fountain, whole place smelled of rotten aged laundry. yhea this was ok damage. definitely not the worst Two brains could have done..but knowing one of this bit of rubble was the stuffed animal of a little girl the scientist intended to hit? It almost would have been the worst damage hes ever done. Word Woman frowned, kicking the pebbles as she stood over Two Brains and hoisted the rat man over her shoulder. She looked over at the side where Tobey was trying to shoo off Scoops best he could, and Scoops doing the best he could by not leaving him alone.

"Scoops for the last time, no" "Tobey i respect your privac but Come On! This is huge!" "so youve said 10 times already" "look. just one quick word. please? do me a solid here" "no"

Word Woman rolled her eyes, taking a second to remember where she was when Tobey left 'Becky', before take off. Tobey taking a moment to watch as she flew through the air, villian in hand yet again. Biting the inside of his mouth lost in though for a moment, until Scoops slowlyly came into his vision, massive camera in hand and a cheeky smile.

"...ugh"

Once in the sky, the warm summer air, the relaxing touch of a sunset with breezing wind that dragged out the salty air of the ocean not too far off from Fair City...

It Felt, nice. but it didn't feel nice. it hardly feels nice anymore. Word Woman frowned to herself and shook her head.

focus.

She remained steadfast as she zoomed across the sky with Twobrains and his limbs just tossing about as she hit almost sonic boom levels of speed. Eventually finding herself deep inside the wildlife sanctuary zone, not stopping until she was deep in the forest, gated and fenced off by an old fence long forgotten, she went down, concealed within the trees and the foliage, was her secret hideout. The Lexicon Spaceship rested in a deep crater that was surrounded by sharp, terrorfying thorny fines, they coiled and and blocked almost all the animals from ever reaching the ship, over the years nature has attempted to claim the alien ship with vines and foliage that grew aside from the vines, but nothing a little yard work on her part she couldn't handle. Give Becky an hour of peace and she could have the entire place look brand new in no time. Just too bad that those hours are used elsewhere nowadays. Landing on the lush grass she worked so hard on, Word Woman made her way into the ship, walking pass the playground room, the ping-pong, even the library, and headed straight for the one new room she added since she was a child. The timer room. It was risky to make, and took years of borrowing books from Tobey on robotics and advanced science, but after many many tries. She had built a room ment to totally suspend a person in a moment of time for up to 24 hours. In cases of emergency, injury, storing time bombs, Villian containment, finals, what have you. The basics. Word Woman set down her arch nemesis, Twobrains still out cold slid to his side and the metal bars almost landed to the floor with a loud thud but were suspended in face. Word Woman rested her hand on a blue panel next to the door way, it beeped happily and red metal bars rose up from the bottom and met matching bars that came from the top perfectly.

"well someone took their lesson on procrastination to the extream," The narrator chuckled, Word Girl just gave a soft smile "...you really think there's a way to help him?"

"...I ALWAYS thought there was a way...I just never thought it would get this bad before i finally actually made the attempt"

Becky tightened her fists in a ball, looking at the fallen man behind bars. "its been 7 years now. You think there's enough of him left to save?-" "he was my Friend, narrator" Becky snapped "...i have to Try. I can't just let him keep spiraling. not after today. not after what he almost did"

...

..

"I want you to succeed in this as much as you do Becky.." The narrator gently said, "but I have to warn you. Things might not be as peachy as youd hope they be by the end of this"

"...how so?"

"...I dont know"

Becky frowned, shrugging "right... vauge as ever"

"..."

"its still nice of you to atleast remind me to keep a realistic view on this" Becky rubbed her face " cant say it doesbt make me mad though"

the narrator scoffed "oh yes that assures me plenty" Word Woman laughed.

"anyway. DTB is taken care of..you going to get back to your date with Tobey?"

Word Woman rolled her eyes "seriously?"

"Oh what you can't blame me for asking"

Word Woman sighed and turned herself around to go back out, walking passed her childhood de-stressors as she did "honestly is it so weird that we are Just friends doing an erran?"

"...for a number of reasons I'm not going to awnser that"

"mhm" Becky shook her head and blasted off. Leaving her ship, and two brains in safe hands of her hard work. Now free of the burden of having to avoid breaking the sound barrier for someone elses safety, Becky zipped across the rose sky so fast it was hardly noticed until she made a hard stop before reaching the ball, the loud boom of her stopping so suddenly made several close by parked cars of the parking lot start to go off. Becky winced, she still needs practice on that she noted and zipped to the front of the mall where she had parked her car, ducking behind it immediately so she can transform back into Becky in peace and slowly merged herself with a crowd of people waiting outside the mall as a news cast team was making their usual daily word woman fight of the day as a clean up crew was already arriving on sight. Becky had to be honest, she felt more sorry for them then anyone else in the city, for now Becky raised her head over the crowd.

Where was Tobey? More to that where was Scoops? the two should have been out of the department store by now. Becky focus for a moment, shuffling through the murmuring voices of praise for the heroine and others trying to get on the news to "look one more shot, i have the flash off this time" "oh for the love of cybernetics- NO" There they are..seriously? "there still insiiide" Becky groaned, shoving pass the crowd and eventually pushing pass the front and towards the mall entry way "h-hey!" "ma'am your not suppose to go in yet" Becky just pretended not to hear that as she marched through the doors and eventually to the center of the mall. Becky tried to hold in a laugh. Through some act of godly persuasion Scoops had managed to get Tobey to pose like a knight with a sword in his hand..only instead of a sword it was the metal pipe he used to wack Two brains with earlier, Scoops scuttling around the boy genius like a crab with a treat as he took pictures grinning behind his camera. No doubt trying to hold back a laugh and barely managing to do that.

Snap

"ok okay..one more" Tobey frowned, taking the pipe off the ground and holding it with both hands ready to swing at Scoops "oh ill give you one more" Scoops braced himself as he saw Tobey bring his arms down to swing, much to both boys surprise the collision never happened, Tobey looked at his empty hands then to the floor to look for where the missing pipe was, he felt a light tap on the back of his head.

"You leave me behind for what an hour and your already slipping into murder? Your not selling yourself on being able to be left to your own devices very well Tobey" Becky chuckled as Tobey spun around, Scoops looking relieved let out a chuckle he had been holding in since she left as word woman.

Tobey looked at her a moment then shook his head "you were suppose to be outside" Becky shoved the metal rod into Tobeys face "and you were suppose to be outside too, not posing the rubble" "to be fair," Scoops laughed out raising his hand "that's a bit on me, i made him stay for pictures..." Scoops eyes flicked between Becky and Tobey and a smirk spread on his face "hey Becky, Tobey's actually the hero of the day, pretty neat huh?" he patted Tobey roughly on the shoulder, unlike Tobey had actually gained muscle, so much like when Omar patted him Tobey was practically pushed down by the weight of the friendly pat as Scoops layered on the praise

"full 3 years since his name has been in my paper, and how its going to be front and center as a good guy"

Tobey furrowed his eyebrows "w- oh now wait a second i didn't agree to anything of the sor-"

"arent you proud of him Becky? Hes come a pretty long way since he was a kid" Scoops grinned as he watched Becky's face drop, Tobey's lips paused where they were and the blonde slowly looked over at Becky.

"clever" the narrator commented quietly in an impressed tone.

there was a small elipse of silence, Tobey's eyebrows raised, looking like he was hanging on Beckys words, "uh..-well.i..." Becky cleared her throat "i-"

"HEY" barked a gravely voice in a gas mask, making the three jump "Get the fuck out you damn kids! we need to clean this shit up"

There behind them already at work was a whole clean up crew in green biohazard suits, the one single man with a yellow stripe going down his suit was the one who seemed to bark at the teenagers. Scoops was quick to take his leave, "gone" he said hastily, throwing Becky a thumbs up as he hurried away when she looked back at him. Then to Tobey- who now looked like one more word away from the dark side again. Tobey just stared daggers at the portly cleaning worker and Becky just slightly pushed him forward clicking her tounge "im feeling less sorry for them" she muttered as Tobey began picking up his own feet and almost sounded like he was stomping the whole way "as am i"

Before leaving, the two made a detour to go up the second floor and retrieve the fallen bags from their exploration of the mall earlier, taking a bit of extra time to look around for the dnd figurine that was sadly launched in the air aswell. Wasn't a long search but by the time the two walked out the door the sky was already a closing dusk blue and purple, the parking lot lights lit up the world around them and showed the handful of cars left parked. Becky fidgeted with the bags in her hands as they walked back, she was so tired. This whole day felt like a week crammed into one, finding Tobey, meeting his dad, this whole make over shopping trip, two brains. All in a day? She shook her head, she just got in contact with Tobey again but seems as though she needs to organize her time once again, maybe a calander? No too obvious. Phone? No what if a new tech villian shows up. Ugh she has to figure out how to schedule herself out soon or..

"-otsford...Becky" Tobeys voice firmly called her back to reality, they were at her car and Tobey had set down the bags he carried onto the hood of her car, and gingerly shook her shoulder "you alright?" He asked

Becky took a moment to collect herself as she was already instinctively nodding, "course I am, why wouldn't I be?" Tober gave her a deadpanned look "well for starters you zoned out there and I was having a rather lovely conversation with you. Truely inspiring" Becky rolled her eyes "uh huh" she chuckled "sure it was."

Tobey looked down at her, taking a moment to try and analyze her voice a bit and then looked further down "mind if I looked at your legs?" Becky looked at him like he just spoke an alien language, he shook his head and pointed "their still bleeding you pervert"

Becky frowned crossing her arms "I am not a perve-"

"oh save it. Just...let me?" He asked again.

Tobey did not move an inch from his standing, waiting for permission or dismissal from his friend before even breaking eye didn't say much, her mind now who knows where as she gave a sigh and nodded, guestering for him to do so in a very 'fine if your going to keep asking' sort of manner. Tobey looked pleased but still looking rather serious as he bent down, tossing his lab coat behind him as he leaned close to Becky's legs. They were scrapped, a few pieces of glass still remained in the cuts actually which only seemed to alarm the boy, making him reach for Becky's legs and examine the cuts more

"Botsford you seriously didn't feel this?" Becky was stiff but looked up to the sky

"uh...n...actually yhea I did, I do," she sighed "I think I just don't feel it as much right now cus I'm still on an adrenalin high from two brains"

Becky felt a hard fingertips on her skin then sharp small prick in her legs, she looked down to see Tobey carefully using tweezers to take out the little glass shards that he could see, Becky hadn't noticed it before but it seems like he had a small pocket first aid kit out open on his lap, first act he got to do was take out the glass from her legs.

"Since when do you carry around a first aid kit?"

Tobey laughed "actually I started carrying it around I think last year?" He questioned, mumbling to himself to see if he had the dates right and nodded, positive now as he took out more glass "last year. Yhea. It was about the time Scoops tried to help Violet out with her sewing and kept cutting his hands"

Becky raised a brow, that was so long ago she barely remembered it "you started to carry that around because of Scoops?"

Tobey shook his head 'no', moving to Beckys other leg "wrong, I started to carry it around because of you lovely assistant. All the metal and the fire and the electricity we work around? Did you really think of me to be so careless to not have a few things incase of an emergency?...no I keep this around because Scoops helping Violet in something she's experienced in and getting hurt made me realize I was doing you an injustice by not having precautions set up incase you have a similar fate.." he put down the tweezers, muttered an apology and had a travel sized bottle of alcohol out, dapping it onto a cloth from the kit he gently dabbed Beckys cuts, tensing a bit as he heard her wince from the pain, he tried to move as quickly as he could in cleaning

"apologies" he muttered. Tobey breathed for a moment "someone from the Barrage helped me arrange to have more medical supplies on hand incase of any work place emergency at anytime. So this is in my pocket, while a more diverse first aid satchel is back in the lab" "Junkyard"

Tobey shot her a look "..couldn't resist could you?" Becky shook her head no, and Tobey hung his exhausted, Becky laughed at Tobeys kiddishly sour expression as he took out a small roll of bandages. Last thing from the kit and began to gently move his hands around her legs, his finger tips felt hard. No doubt from years of calluses built up from working with his robots and small wires, but they still felt rather gentle dispite that,

"sorry...but I do think that is very sweet and considerate of you Tobey" she smiled, the genuine pride in her voice made Tobeys face grow a smile as he worked on her next leg "Ah as nice as hearing you say that is Botsford, just wait until you see that my bandage work leaves much to be desired..." Becky softly chuckled at that.

"If that's the case, then how about this?" She asked.

Becky leaned down and gently pecked the top of Tobey's hair, close to dead center of where his hair parted. His hair smelled like motor oil funny enough. Underneath the coffee scent of the fancy shampoo and conditioner and god knows what else that the stylists used on his head, fighting through that was the smell of Motor oil. Funny she spent all this time with him and can recognize the brand by the smell but couldn't give you the name of the brand, just who the scent reminded her of. "I am very proud of you for coming as far as you have Tobey..I really am" she said in a very hushed voice and leaned back up so her back was to the passenger side door.

Tobey was totally frozen, his hands didn't move, his body didn't move. But thanks to her super hearing Becky 100% could tell Tobeys heartrate was moving a 100 miles per hour while his body stood still, Becky smirked a bit, don't know why it felt so pleasing to see the Robot boy so stunned like he was. But she was.

"Don't think too much on that Tobey, it's a special thing for today cus you acted pretty heroic today," she ruffled his new fluffy hair "acted like such a white knight"

Tobey groaned "I am n- " he cleared his throat and coughed hysterically for a bit, surprising himself as he fell immediately into his American accent then switched back to his British one "i am not a dog, Botsford" Tobey frowned, and finished up bandaging up Becky's leg hastily "im thinking nothing off it anyway"

"theeeen why aren't you looking up?" Tobey immediately looked up then right back down

"there I looked"

yea and so did Becky. His face was so damn red, Becky gave a soft laugh

"now why did you look up? I thought you said you weren't a dog so whyd you do what I said?"

"no reason.."

Becky chuckled, and stopped when she felt Tobey let go of her leg "done" he said sheepishly look down frowning, pushing his glasses up, "honestly Botsford, you play dirty. I don't even get to pick my reward?" Becky hummed for a moment, moving her leg to have a feel for the bandages "nope" she popped up, smirking as she again ruffled his hair but this time to put it back into place "come on, its getting late we should get home" "...right" Tobey sighed. With that Becky picked up the bags that were left on the car and walked around to the drivers seat. Hearing soft and repeating

thunk

thunk

thunk

Becky looked down at the bags to see if anything was being tossed around, but shrugged when she saw the bottles and clothes were all perfectly fine and hopped into her car. Tobey meanwhile was on the other side of her car, still knelt on the ground, hitting his head on the car door, one hand full of the items used to patch Becky up and the other on the handle of the door, right beside where he was hitting his forehead against the clunky old school car.

'you'

thunk

'are'

thunk

'a moron'

thunk

Tobey whined a bit, it was a bit hard to tell if he was happy or in anguish, or even possibly both from the look on his face. It didn't matter much, soon as he was able to open the door he flung himself to his seat, buckled up and looked out the window. Soon as the car started Tobey's hand flew up and flicked on the radio, thankful to whatever god had mercy on him and decided to allow casual pop punk to fill the car. Tobey himself did care for it much, but glancing at the reflection in the glass, he could see Becky silently nodding and bopping her head to the song that came on...'damn this woman,' Tobey clentched his jaw 'just acts like nothing happened. What in the world is she made of?' kept his eyes glued on the window as he saw streetlight after streetlight pass them by. The occasional gaps in silence where somewhat awkward, but nothing the next song on the radio playing couldn't fix. Atleast until they pulled up to the Botsford residences street and Becky lowered teh volume of the radio.

"when we get in dad is probably going to ask you if you need a ride home...i dont know how things are, at your place," Becky sighed "and i dont want to over step, but I'm saying this right now, if you dont want to go home tonight just let me know and i can think of a reason to rope you into staying.." Tobey shrunk into his shoulders a little, seeming tense and slowly looked at Becky. Becky shrugged "or if you really do wanna go home, that's fine too.." she pulled the car into her drive way. Tobey softly sighed through his nose, trying to make as little notise as possible as he nodded "that's appreciated Becky...but i really should get home and check on my mother" Becky gave a nod of understanding. She was about to leave then a thought dawned on her, making Becky turn to look at Tobey.

"oh, one more thing Tobey"

"hm?-"

Becky punched him in the side just between his ribs as hard as she physically could a normal person while holding back, knocking the air out of the unsuspecting noodle boy and having him double over in pain holding his side while letting small squeeks of pain escape his throat.

"you Better not pretend me and everyone else who has been trying to contact you for the past month dont exist again, is that understood?" She asked. Tobey didn't respond, barely giving a nod as he still let small squeeks out like a small mouse caught by its tail. Becky nodded with a huff and exited the car. Handful of bags in hand leaving Tobey to carry the singular suit bag as he fumbled for the door.

Tobey heard hum of a chuckling throat from above and groaned more "you realize she will literally be the death of you at the rate your going right?" Tobey growled, and hissed as he opened his door

"shut...up"

WHOOOOOOOOO CHAPTER 10 BABYYYYY. Ah i love this, at this rate i will have a consistent upload of new chapters even if i take breaks and stop writing for weeks :D I know its a bit jarring having to go from nearly daily uploads to onces a week but trust me i think its worth it. For now i hope yall enjoyed chapter 10. I did not think i would be this driven to writing a fanfic ever in my life but damn its fun. The more i write the more i get a better feel for these two and their personalities, same goes for all the side characters and their motivations.

Anyway, on to writing chapter 11! :3 see you guys next week.