Chapter 15: The Get-Together
A/N: I know this took a little longer, but I got busy again as a lot of video games are having Halloween events 'n stuff (and no, no Halloween special this time. Maybe a Christmas one in December if I feel like it, but I don't like Christmas as much as Halloween so don't count on it) Not just that, though, I was busy with other things as well.
At least this chapter is longer, right?
I waited for what seemed like an eternity, but couldn't have been more than a couple of hours.
As I did so, my mind was running rampant as usual, thinking about all the recent events that have transpired.
Learning of the Multiverse's looming demise. The kid getting hospitalized. Me creating my first portal. Meeting Julia and discovering that I wasn't the only one who was brought from Earth to this kind of world.
It was a lot to take in. I really must have grown stronger over my adventures with the kid, because I knew my past self wouldn't have been able to take any of it.
Another thing to thank the kid for. And the Traveller, for bringing me here in the first place.
Although, I just found it unfair that this all had to happen in such a short period of time. And the kid getting sick right after her birthday? Why?!
Heck, I was a foreign entity to this planet, too! Shouldn't I have gotten ill as well? Or was it because I was from another universe? But then shouldn't the badges not work on me?
It was just chaos.
Eventually, I couldn't take the waiting and thinking any longer and beamed down to the hospital. I checked in, and they led me through the hospital back to the room where I last saw the kid.
"She's been up for a while now," One of the doctors said, "Must be a light sleeper."
I shook my head.
"Trust me, she isn't," I denied, "It's probably because she's sick. Can I go in?"
They nodded.
I knocked on the door and entered, eager to see how she was doing.
She looked less pale, although she was still noticeably pale, and she didn't look extremely miserable, but she still looked exhausted. She gave me a tired smile.
Well, recovery wouldn't be instant. I was over the moon that she already was beginning to recover.
"Morning, kid," I greeted, "You look better."
"I'm feeling a bit better," She said, "But I'm so tired... I barely even have the energy to move."
"Having trouble sleeping?" I asked.
She shook her head.
"Well, you won't be back to normal instantly," I said, "How are the doctors treating you?"
"Good, I guess," She said, a twinge of unhappiness in her voice, "They talk to me, make sure I have what I need and whatever."
"Well, that's good. What's wrong?" I asked.
She frowned.
"I just liked it better when you were taking care of me," She sighed.
I felt a warmth in my chest, and walked over to her. I put my hand on her shoulder.
"I did, too, kid. I did, too," I said, "But you know this is for the best."
"Yeah, I know," She muttered, "But still..."
"Yeah, I get it," I assured her, "But back to the topic at hand, though, do you have anything to do? A television to watch?"
She adopted a smart-aleck grin and pointed at the wall behind me, where a television was mounted to the wall and turned on, showing the weather.
"Oh."
I turned back to her, scratching my head.
"Not sure how I missed that... but that's good," I said awkwardly.
She let out a slight giggle.
Oh, that was a sound I'd missed hearing.
... Which was followed by a few coughs.
She looked up at me and smiled.
"Last night, you said you'd bring our friends," She said, "You weren't lying, were you?"
I facepalmed.
"I completely forgot," I grumbled, "Tell you what, I'll go find everyone and bring 'em here right now. Sound good?"
Her smile widened, and she stared up at the ceiling before closing her eyes.
"Yeah... it does," She said.
I walked over to the door.
"I'll be back in... uhh... an hour at most," I said, "I won't let you down, kid."
She lightly waved with her free hand.
With that, I left and returned to the spaceship.
I quickly rummaged around for a pen and paper to write down everyone to find and how to go about doing this.
The plan was obvious: I'd find everyone one by one and bring them to the ship, and when we were all assembled I'd beam us all down to the hospital so we could go in.
As for who to find... well, that was kinda obvious too.
Cooking Cat and Moustache Girl, obviously. Moustache Girl was like her best friend at this point.
Conductor and Grooves, also obvious. She was their star, after all.
Snatcher... eh, I'd at least ask him and see what he says.
I then thought about the Captain, but he was never a big fan of us and we didn't even know where he was.
My thoughts then drifted to Empress, but I shook that thought away immediately. She was a freaking sociopath.
And that left one area left, and one person: Zena.
Hm. It seemed blatantly obvious at first to tell her and bring her along, because she adored the kid, but... it seemed fair to assume that she wasn't very accustomed to the modern world, considering that she'd lived isolated for a thousand fricking years!
Showing her even the hospital would probably stun her. Let alone the spaceship.
Not to mention the possibility of something happening between her and Snatcher...
... But if she found out that she wasn't told, I knew it would hurt her. A lot. After all she'd done for us, especially so soon after meeting us, I didn't want to do that.
What to do...
I mentally said 'screw it' and wrote her name down on the piece of paper. Anything that would happen would happen in the spaceship, anyway.
I put the paper in my pocket, then cracked my knuckles.
Where to begin...?
Ah, it only seemed fair to go in the order we first visited.
First stop: Mafia Town.
When I beamed down and began walking around, I sensed something different about the place. It was a BIG change, yet subtle enough that I couldn't put my finger on it-
Nevermind, it clicked.
It was cleaner.
Graffiti was gone, random junk throughout the place was cleaned up, things that were broken before were now fixed-including the fountain-it was quite something.
I shook my head. Gawking over the new and improved Mafia Town could wait: I had people to find.
It was still early in the morning, so I reckoned they'd be at their home... now I just needed to find it, cause I didn't remember where exactly it was... at least I remembered what it looked like?
Fortunately, it didn't take much roaming around to get there/
I knocked on the door, and heard a faint "I'll get it!" from the other side.
The door opened, and Moustache Girl was standing there.
"Oh, hey!" She greeted, "Wanna come in?"
"I guess?" I muttered.
"Who is it?" Cooking Cat asked.
"It's just me," I said.
She stepped out of the way and I walked in.
Cooking Cat walked in from the kitchen and smiled.
"Hello, dear," She said, "We weren't expecting to see you again so soon."
I scratched my head.
"What brings you here today?" She asked.
"Well..." I said, "Hat Kid is sick."
"Sick?" They both questioned, Moustache Girl audibly louder.
"Quite sick. I had to take her to the hospital yesterday," I explained, "But she's feeling a bit better today, so I promised her I'd bring all our friends to visit her."
They took in this information with unreadable expressions.
"How'd she get so sick so fast?" Cooking Cat asked.
"I don't really know," I muttered, "Maybe it's some strange illness, maybe her body isn't used to fighting disease, I'd have to ask the hospital staff, and I'm not even sure if they know."
"That's... not fair!" Moustache Girl pouted.
"Life never is," I sighed, "But you'll go visit her, right?"
"Of course!" They both exclaimed.
I smiled.
"I figured. I'll take you two to the ship, then I'll need you to wait while I get the others," I said.
"Alright! Just don't take too long, or I'm gonna start messing with things!" Moustache Girl joked.
I chuckled as we walked outside.
"Mess with anything you like as long as it ain't a Time Piece," I said, then teleported us up.
Moustache Girl ran out into the main hub and sat down in front of the window, while Cooking Cat stayed in the kitchen.
"I'll be back soon," I said as I ran into the Machine Room and beamed myself down to Dead Bird Studio.
I walked in and talked to the receptionist for what seemed to be the thousandth time. As per usual, he called the directors down and I sat waiting.
They came quickly.
"Eh, ye got better quickly, didn't ye-" Conductor said, "... lass?"
"She's not here," I said, "Just me."
"Why not?!" Conductor asked, "She can't still be sick, can she?"
"He wouldn't just leave her on her own, darling," DJ Grooves interjected.
"Eh... true..." Conductor muttered, "But why isn't she with ya, then?"
"Well, DJ's right," I muttered, "She's still sick. It was worse than I expected, I had to take her to the hospital last night."
"Oh, my..." DJ Grooves gasped.
"Did the medicine not work at all?!" Conductor scoffed.
"I have no idea," I grumbled, "But, there's a good thing. I visited her today, and she was feeling a bit better. Better enough, in fact, that she can have visitors."
"Ahh! That makes sense," He chuckled, "Don't go scarin' me like that, ya peck neck!"
I laughed and shrugged.
"I'll take you both up to the ship for now... if you're not busy," I stated.
"We're never busy for you two, darlings," DJ Grooves declared.
"Ye got that right, Grooves! Enough yappin' and let's get movin'!" Conductor shouted.
I smiled as we left the building, and I... wait.
Moustache Girl was there. They probably didn't know...
"Before we go..." I said, "There are a couple people already waiting in the spaceship. I'm grabbing all of our friends. But one of them is someone that I know you both have grudges against."
They gave eachother confused looks.
"Remember when the planet was turned to magma?" I asked.
They both adopted grim looks.
"Remember who did it?"
Their grim looks turned into spite, and they nodded again.
"Well, time has passed. Long story short, she deeply regrets her actions and just wants to start over again. So when we go up there, you will both treat her like a normal person. She's just as scared of you as you are of her. Got it?" I explained firmly.
Conductor opened his mouth to say something, but I glared at him.
"She is just a little girl. One who has been through more hardship than both of you combined. Give her a break. Or I'll leave you both behind," I growled.
They were both silent.
"Well, if you say so, darling," DJ Grooves said awkwardly, "I may not like her, but if we can make peace with eachother, given our past, then we can make peace with her. Right, Conductor?"
Conductor was silent.
"... I'll try," He muttered in defeat.
I smirked.
"Good. Let's get going."
I brought the three of us up, and they walked out into the main hub.
Moustache Girl turned to see who showed up, and when she saw who it was, I could see fear in her eyes.
I got between them, knelt down and smiled reassuringly at her.
"Relax. I talked to them. They understand now," I said, "They won't hurt you."
"Are you sure about that?" She asked quietly.
"Positive. And if they do, they'll regret it," I stated, loud enough that I knew the directors could hear.
She sighed.
"Alright... I'll believe you, I guess," She muttered, clearly unconvinced.
"It will be fine. Trust me," I assured her.
She sighed and nodded.
Satisfied, I walked over to the door to the kid's bedroom, and looked back into the main hub.
I wanted to make absolutely sure nothing stupid was going to happen.
I was surprised to see DJ Grooves sit down to her and start talking after a few minutes. Even more surprised to see Moustache Girl not ignore him or leave... although she did seem just as surprised as me.
I watched DJ Grooves call Conductor over, who reluctantly did so. Eventually, the three seemed to be having a normal, nice conversation, and I gradually saw all concern in Moustache Girl's eyes disappear.
I grinned.
Now that seemed like a job well done.
Without further ado, I entered the bedroom and teleported down to Subcon Forest.
Snatcher was reading in his tree as he usually liked to do, and I walked up to him.
He didn't even look at me before saying:
"What do you want?"
"Remember how the kid got sick?" I asked.
"Mhm. About that-are you two ready to get back to work?" He muttered.
I shook my head.
"Nope, the opposite. I had to take her to the hospital," I said.
He raised an eyebrow.
"I don't know if I should be more surprised or irritated," He grumbled, "Anyway, what does this have to do with me?"
"The kid would probably be happy if you dropped by to see her," I explained.
"And exactly why would I care about her happiness, huh?"
"She'd probably recover faster if she's happier. Well, I'm pretty sure that's how minds work, anyway," I stated.
"Who knows, maybe, just maybe you're right. But either way, do I not seem like a busy specter to you?" He scoffed.
"Well, you seem to have enough time to sit down and read a book," I countered with a smirk.
He glared at me with a look of sheer unamusement. I responded by crossing my arms.
He let out an exasperated sigh.
"Fine, but only to shut you up. However, I'm at a very intriguing part of this book and I'm not putting it down now for anything," He stated.
"Well, that's better than nothing," I thought aloud, "I guess I'll be back later."
He shook his head and muttered something under his breath.
After that, I just left.
I was expecting him to refuse vigorously, but... that actually wasn't much resistance. Maybe he was feeling too lazy.
Back at the ship, I walked out into the main hall, seeing that everyone was still getting along decently well.
"Nobody come?" Cooking Cat asked.
"He wants to visit later, because of a stupid book," I muttered.
"Weird," Moustache Girl muttered, "Who is that person, anyway?"
"Ehh... might be better if you didn't know," I replied, walking over to the door to the Engine room, "Well, I'll be back soon. Then we can go."
"About time," I heard Moustache Girl grumble.
I navigated over to the telescope and beamed down to Alpine Skyline.
Given what time it was, I wasn't entirely sure where Zena was going to be, but I reckoned it'd just be best to assume she was out and about and look for her.
Yeah, it didn't take long to find her... although she wasn't exactly where I thought she would be.
For some reason, she was standing all the way up at the peak of the Goat Village, eyes closed and a serene expression on her face.
I was completely confused at what she was doing. She couldn't be sleeping, not only because of where she was, but she was standing. What the peck?
It didn't really seem like a good time to bother her, because she seemed completely enveloped in what she was doing... but I didn't exactly have a choice.
"Hello?" I called.
Her eyes opened and she looked down with a smile before waving.
"Uh... are you busy?" I asked.
"Not really," She answered.
She then jumped down in front of me, elegantly landing on her feet.
I was impressed, that was a big drop. Yet she made it seem like nothing.
"Out of curiosity... what were you doing up there?" I asked.
"Oh, I was just meditating. A clear mind is essential for what I do," She explained.
"Oh," I muttered, feeling mildly stupid at how obvious it seemed now, "Makes sense."
"What did you need?" She asked.
"Well... the kid is sick," I explained.
Her typical look of whimsical joy faltered.
"Oh... that's a shame," She said, "How sick?"
"I had to take her to the hospital last night," I explained.
"Ah... hospital... that's a medical place, right?" She asked sheepishly.
"Yeah, it is," I confirmed.
"Ah, good, at least I know something about the outside world. It's hard to keep up when you live so isolated for so long," She explained, "Even when I travel, which I only do when I sense something elsewhere in the world, I don't learn much. Sorry about that."
I shook my head.
"You don't need to apologize. You're doing the best you can," I assured her, "Anyway, she's feeling slightly better now, enough so that she can see visitors. I'm sure she'd be over the moon if you came to see her."
"Oh, of course I'll go see her! I have to!" She exclaimed.
I smirked.
"I thought so," I chuckled, "I do have to say though... you may see a lot of things that will blow your mind. If you have anything to ask or say, just quietly tell me."
She chuckled.
"What's the matter? Are you worried I'll embarrass you?" She joked.
"Yep, totally, I can't have my image ruined in public, it'd be awful!" I joked back.
We both laughed.
"Are there any others coming to see her?" She asked.
"Yeah, there's four others friends of ours that are waiting for me to get back to go see her," I explained.
Her look brightened.
"Ah, wonderful! I love meeting new people... I don't get to very often," She said.
I nodded.
"Shall we go?" I asked.
She nodded in response.
"Alrighty then."
I teleported us back to the ship.
"Welcome to the ship: our humble home in space," I proclaimed.
She didn't reply.
She was too busy looking around in awe. She seemed mostly amused by the giant engine... couldn't really blame her, it was the biggest thing in the room.
I merely smirked and watched her in amusement.
She saw me watching her and chuckled.
"Well, you were right, my mind is blown," She said, "I've never seen anything like this before, ever."
"The hospital shouldn't be as big of a shock," I said.
"You said we're in space right now... but that can't be right, how could you get something so big into the sky?" She asked.
I pointed at the engine.
"That thing gives the ship the oomph it needs to go basically anywhere," I explained, "And it runs on Time Pieces, special fuel powerful enough to manipulate time if mishandled."
"Huh... I really do have a lot to learn about the world," She thought aloud, "Surely you'll show me once she's well?"
I nodded.
"Don't see any reason why not," I said, "I'm sure the kid would love to, as well."
Her resulting smile was brighter than the sun.
She then shook her head.
"Ah, well, as much as I love talking with you, we shouldn't keep your friends waiting any longer," She said.
"Right. Follow me, and prepare for one of the most amazing sights you'll ever see," I stated, thinking about the amazing view of the planet in the main hub.
I hooked over to the other side of the room, then a thought crossed my mind: how would she get over? She didn't have a hookshot...
I looked down at her standing there and scratched my head.
"Uh..."
She then laughed and walked over to the wall under where I was standing, and what she did next made my jaw drop.
She... she just... climbed the wall!
I... Wh-... H-...
"My, my, how the tables have turned. Now you're the one who's mindblown!"
"Wh-I... how?" I mumbled
"That's a secret," She taunted, a smirk on her face.
I shook my head in bewilderment.
"Woman, you're crazy," I declared.
She just laughed.
"Let's go..." I muttered
She continued to laugh as we jumped down and walked to the main hub.
It wouldn't be much longer now. I couldn't wait to see the look on the kid's face when she saw who all came to see her.
A/N: Well, there it is. Not fully sure what I'm gonna do with the next chapter. Well, I know what I'm gonna do for the start of the chapter, but that's it. I'm sure I'll figure it out, though.
There weren't any reviews left this time, so no end-of-chapter chatting this time.
Anyway, hope y'all enjoyed, and have a very spooky day...
or evening... or night... or whatever... you get it.
