The drive to UTA had been shorter than usual, purely due to Natasha's maniac driving. The situation was an emergency so Bucky had resisted complaint but the entire time they were zipping down the highway; she had been clinging on for dear life. Owsla had seemed to enjoy it however. She had been laughing in the backseat, giggling in joy every time they bumped into something and went flying. Jamie wasn't sure how they had made it to the college without being arrested or even alive for that matter. The important thing though was that they had and were currently at UTA's science labs.

"Theodore!" Natasha pounded at the lab door. Through it's window, they could see him standing over an array of test tubes and chemicals. "Theodore, open up!"

Finally he turned around. The sight if him was a relief for their cause... and a cause of worry all of it's own. His lab coat was wrinkled, his was face smudged in... smoke(?); hair singed, eyes wild and tired, with various papers and notebooks everywhere. You didn't need the classification system to identify him as a hot did open the door though.

""Nat!" he exclaimed in a baby voice. "Why didn't you tell me you were coming to visit?"

Natasha was too focused on trying to breathe to reply. Her brother was squeezing her insides out, locked in one of his infamous hugs. Finally, when he let go, Natasha was able to annoyedly reply.

"I did... five million times. And you would know that if you ever bothered to check your phone." she said, arms folded in irritation.

"Oh... hi Bucky!" Theodore failed to let his sister's words phase him as he hugged her girlfriend. He hugged her tightly until Natasha got annoyed (which didn't take very long) and separated the two. Only for him to move on to Owsla. "I don't know you, but here's a hug for you too..."

"The alien looked a little shocked but hugged him back happily nonetheless. Now that the hug fest was finally over however, it was down to the first order of business... cleaning up the hot mess before them so he would at least em style="box-sizing: border-box;"blend in/em as a functional homosapien with the rest of them.

"Theodore," Nat sighed, holding her brother by the shoulders to look at him seriously.

"Yeesss?" he replied in true dork fashion, a ridiculous grin on his singed face.

"How long has it been since you've brushed your teeth or hair, taken a shower, eaten a good meal or done the laundry?"

"Umm," Theodore took a long time to think about it. "I don't know, what day is it?"

"Theodore!" Natasha scolded. Said person visibly cringed. However, the semi-red head had already expected this. Although technically she was his little sister, she had always been the big sister in the relationship; she was always getting her brother out if trouble and helping him. Knowing him so well, she had come fully prepared. Taking a bar of soap from her backpack, she handed it to him. "Use the safety shower."

""But-"

"Go! And give me your lab coat!"/p

Resigned to Natasha's directions, Theodore handed over his lab coat, grabbed the soap bar, and went to go find the safety showers.

"Don't drop it!" Bucky called after him, laughing. Referring of course to the bar of soap in his hand.

Theodore turned to give the blonde a 'really!' look before leaving. Natasha meanwhile struggled to contain a childish giggle and maintain her serious demeanor.

"Bucky, here's ten bucks , please go find him something decent to eat, please?" Natasha begged her girlfriend, handing her the bill in her wallet.

Bucky glanced at Owsla. She didn't want to leave her girlfriend alone with the suspicious blue thing. Yet, looking at Nat's pleading face, she couldn't say no. "Alright," the blonde conceded. "...be careful." she muttered quietly before leaving.

"I've been in science labs before," Natasha sulked as her girlfriend left. Turning to Owsla, she continued. "I have other hygiene necessities right here, go lay them all out on the lab table over there while I clean his lab coat. Afterwords, we can put it in the fume hood to dry out and hopefully remove some of the stench.

Sonny and Joel in the meantime were on their own adventure. An adventure that had currently lead to Sonny and Joel covered in blood as the Mau5 bandaged his best friend's arm.

Earlier...

"Alright man, I got the keys let's-" Joel stopped, seeing Sonny still starring at the door despondently. Natasha and Jamie had left with Owsla a few minutes ago and he hadn't moved away from the door since. Joel clapped him on the shoulder, effectively snapping him out of his zone as the goblin jumped at the sudden contact. "Come on. The sooner we get there and get it moved the sooner we can go catch up with the others."

Sonny gave an affirmative nod, "Right." but still made no effort to move.

Taking his best friend by the shoulders, he pushed him insistently down the hallway towards the garage. The two of them had decided to take Laurie's family van because there would be plenty of room to put the pod in the back of it. Glumly Sonny allowed to be pushed away from the front door, down the hallway, through the laundry room to the garage.

"I'll call my Dad to make sure they leave it alone until we get there." he said.

Joel nodded, having pushed the goblin all the way to the passenger's door of the van he walked around to the driver's side. "Good thinking. Do you want me to call Roadhog to meet us there?"

As they got into the car, Sonny gave Joel a childish pout. "Since when did you and Roadhog start becoming such good buddies?"

"Since you started acting weird and I needed to know what was going on." Joel said, backing out of the driveway.

"I'm not a kid." the goblin pouted.

"No, but you have a kid now. Would you have even told me if I hadn't flown down here? Just like you never told me about Charmaine?"

"I couldn't tell you over the phone Joel, you're little 'mini-me' said so." grabbing his phone, Sonny dialed the number for his Dad's phone number, effectively ignoring any further comment from the Mau5 next to him. Sonny didn't need this shit from Joel right now, he had other things to worry about.

Joel on the other hand just continued driving. He thought he was pretty entitled to the chip on his shoulder. Best friends were supposed tell each other about major events in their life; last time he checked; adopting a kid was pretty fucking major. Not to mention it em style="box-sizing: border-box;"apparently /eminvolved him if Owsla's insistence on calling him 'Dad' continued. Inwardly he sighed; he shouldn't be mad though. Sonny was trying his best, I mean, he was a mom now and that wasn't easy. Joel laughed to himself. His own mom had had a hard enough time keeping up with him when he was young; he wished Sonny good luck with his own teenager. Stealing a glance at the mom in question, he tapped the steering wheel anxiously. He couldn't deny he was worried about the raven-haired man. Sonny really loved his daughter and it surprised the Mau5. She had only landed here, what was it? Two days ago? Yet he cared so much already. The mau5 shook his head. This was how idiots got hurt, they attach themselves emotionally to people too easily. I mean what if Owsla- Joel shook his head. Nope. He wasn't going to think about it. First things first- the pod.

"YOU WHAT!"

Joel jumped in his seat at the sudden shriek next to him. He looked at his best friend with wide eyes. Just what the hell was he screaming about?

Sonny ran his hand through his hair as he listened to whatever was being said to him over the phone. "No I heard you... well where is it now?" By Sonny's increased breathing, he guessed it wasn't the answer he wanted to hear. "Well when do they come by?" There was a pause before Sonny's eyes searched frantically for the dashboard clock. Finding it, he looked at Joel with wild eyes. "STEP ON IT JOEL!"

And Joel sure as hell wasn't about to argue. He sped down Holland Road at a speed that would put drag racers to shame... well if drag racers raced minivans that is. Joel swerved past another driver, leaving them in the dust before risking a glance at his friend. "What the hell is going on?"

"Annie got the neighbors to help her put the pod on the curb!"

Joel frowned. "Ok? She just moved it right? No big deal."

"TODAY'S TRASH DAY JOEL!"

"And suddenly Sonny's urgency made sense. If the garbage man got to the pod before they did... it would be completely destroyed. Joel stepped on the gas pedal without hesitation. The Barnes' neighborhood was the last left turn on the street, right next to the train tracks at the end of Holland Road. Swerving immensely, Joel made a smooth drift that eased the force of the fast turn on them both. Immediately taking another drifting turn on the first right (only one house length down) and back to the left to fly down the street where the house was about halfway down.

"JOEL!"

"I see it Sonny."

Straight ahead was a green garbage truck, filthy and disgusting and undoubtedly smelly. They were too far away to see if it had passed their house yet but they were quickly approaching.

"Joel! We're gonna crash!" Sonny yelped, a panicked arm reaching out to grab the mau5's shoulder.

"No we're not..."

The next seconds of Sonny's life seemed to slow down, yet pass twice as fast. He felt the slam of the breaks as Joel jerked the steering wheel all the way to the left. The horn on the garbage truck was loud but he couldn't hear it over the pounding of his own heart. The van skidded sideways down the road as it braked, anxiety increasing with every foot closer they came to the truck in front of them. Finally they came to a stop not five feet away from crashing into the green monstrosity before them. Immediately, Sonny's seat belt was off and he was running out the door towards the garbage truck.

"Sonny, wait!"

But Sonny didn't seem to hear him as he ran off. "Damn it Sonny!" Joel struggled with his seat belt for a moment before chasing after his best friend. "Wait!"

"The garbage men had already started yelling at Sonny who had disappeared out of sight behind the garbage truck.

"Are you crazy man? You're gonna get killed! You can't go in there!" One of the men shouted.

Joel didn't fully understand what the man had meant until he made it to the back of the garbage truck. There, in the truck, standing among the piles of trash, was Sonny. And right behind him was the door. The huge door that crushed all the trash together with hundreds of pounds of force. The huge door that could kill him.

"SONNY!" Joel screamed.

"Joel! I found-"

CRUNCH

Joel couldn't make out any more of his words, blocked by the huge metal door that came down upon him. Or maybe the words had stopped all together. That door was crushing him to death in there.

The realization hit him harder than any garbage truck ever could.

"STOP!" Was that voice his? He couldn't tell. "STOP IT NOW! PLEASE!" Was he begging? Of their own accord, his feet pounded against the pavement to confront the driver. "STOP THE VEHICLE!"

The driver was a little porky, smelling of cheap cigarettes and bad cologne. He dragged his gaze over to Joel, an irritated look on his weathered features. "I can't just stop this rig 'cause you-"

"MY BEST FRIEND IS BEING CRUSHED TO DEATH IN THERE STOP IT NOW GOD DAMNIT!"

"Son," the 'clearly superior' garbage man looked down on him. " I've had enough of your jokes now move your vehicle out of the way."

Joke? He thought this was all some sort of SICK JOKE? "YOU THINK I'D-"

"Boss!" One of the garbage runners interrupted him. "Mios dios! There's a man in there!" when the driver didn't move an inch, the runner continued, "Do you want lawsuits boss?"

The driver gave the man a hard look before reaching over to the controls to turn it off. For Joel, the flick of a switch had never been slower. The sounds of the truck powering down did little to calm ears as he ran back to the crushing trap of death machine. When the death door finally opened, Joel climbed in without hesitation. The other garbage man seemed like he wanted to protest but he could go fuck himself.

Where was Sonny? Where had he gone? He refused to except that the goblin may be gone for real this time.

"Sonny! Sonny! Come on man, this isn't funny!" Joel blinked, feeling an unfamiliar moisture coming to his eyes. "AHH!"

Out of frustration, Joel began flinging garbage bags out of the way, digging desperately through the piles of black plastic. Finally he heard a faint whine.

"Sonny?" The mau5 looked around in panic. Where had the sound come from? Had he just imagined it? No, there is was again! Where was that muffled sound coming from? And then he saw it. A glimpse of a shiny, metal-like material. On instinct, he lunged for it and began digging it out of the rubbish around it.

""Nnnggh"

"He hadn't imagined it! The sound was coming from here! When he had finally gotten the object uncovered, he starred at it confused. Just what the hell was he looking at?

"Uuuhg"

He heard the sound again. It was definitely coming from inside. What the hell was in there? And where the fuck was Sonny? The object was a curious egg shape with strange patterns made with glowing green lines on the surface. Could this be Owsla's pod? What they had come for in the first place? He looked out, back towards the street and realized for the first time they were past the Barnes household... which meant the pod was somewhere in the back of this garbage truck. He looked back at the curious object. This had to be it. The mau5 reached out to touch it and as soon as his palm made contact with the surface, he heard the hiss of air as it unsealed. Touch sensitive. Nice.

Joel readied himself in case something jumped out at him; he had heard some living, breathing thing in there hadn't he? But his stance released as he saw just what living breathing thing was inside.

"Sonny!"

"Nnnggh..." he groaned.

He was completely curled in on himself to fit inside the small pod. Crammed in there, he was laying in a ball on his left side. Joel was sure that for the first time in his life, Sonny was thankful he was so short and small.

"You okay man?" Joel's anxiety began thumping wildly in his chest.

Sonny only groaned in response. "It hurts..." he mumbled.

"Well of course it hurts you idiot! Come on, lets get you out of here..." intent on getting Sonny out of the cramped pod and the smelly garbage truck, he grabbed his right arm and pulled.

Immediately Sonny cried out in pain. "Ah!"

Joel stopped. "Sonny? Sonny what's wrong?" that's when he noticed the blood, the sticky red mess seeping into Sonny's black shirt.

"Hey! What's going in in there?"

"Get out! You're putting us behind schedule!"

Shouts from outside barraged his ears. Fuck those guys and their stupid schedule! His best friend was hurt. "Call the-" Joel bit his lip. No, he couldn't do that. No one was supposed to know Sonny was here or that the Barnes were his biological parents. No one was supposed to know Jamie was his biological sister either. But if Sonny was admitted to the hospital, the press would find out.

"If you don't get out, I sure as hell will call, I'll call the police!"

"Even worse. Damn, what was he supposed to do? First things first, got to get Sonny out of here. Putting one arm under his knees and one around his shoulders, Joel carefully extracted the semi-conscious body of his best friend from the cramped space of the pod.

Carrying his limp form, Joel made his way out of the truck. Then, sitting on the edge of the truck back with Sonny in his lap, slid off instead of passing the goblin to one of the other men around him. Ain't none of these motherfuckers going to touch his best friend. They were all unworthy sons of bitches that had done nothing to help him. Even when he had told the driver to shut down the truck he continued to argue, allowing Sonny to be crushed even longer than necessary.

Laying him down on the sidewalk, Joel began to inspect the damage. Sonny was obviously out of it as he allowed his head to loll, body completely limp. But where was that blood coming from? Joel glanced at his body and he didn't have to look far. The entire left side of Sonny's body was scratched up with... glass? Glass shards and bits were embedded in the cuts. The entire time Sonny had been in that pod, he had been laying in a bed of glass. Luckily for him, much of the glass had been very small so much of the damage was small cuts and scrapes, some superficial tears on his jeans. But, there had been a few bigger pieces that had stuck to the flesh in his arm, left exposed by the lack of clothing on his arms, unlike the skinny jeans covering the entirety of his legs.

Joel knew some basic first aid but this entire situation had left him in chock. He couldn't think. What the hell should he do? And the people around him weren't helping at all. The presence of the garbage men just hindered his thoughts. He had to do something before they called the police or the ambulance, and, and-

"Joel."

Joel's head snapped to focus on his best friend. The voice was dazed and hoarse but purposeful as he determinedly reached out with a bloody hand to grab Joel's shirt. "Get the pod."

"But you-"

"I'll be fine for a while, it's mostly superficial."

Joel just nodded. He didn't want to leave Sonny's side in this fragile state but he knew his friend didn't care about that. he was here for the pod. All the injuries he sustained getting it was insignificant. "Ok."

He had to get the pod so that he could make the garbage truck and it's men leave. Moving quickly, Joel climbed back into the garbage truck against the protests of the men around him. Then he rolled out the alien egg pod. It was surprisingly light for it's size but there was no way Joel would be able to lift it; it was still too heavy for that. Joel didn't bother being gentle as he rolled it out of the truck and onto the ground. If the pod could survive a compacting by a garbage truck it could survive a fall from the back of it. After pushing the pod off the truck, Joel hurried over to the ban that was still blocking the street. Once the vehicle had been moved and the garbage truck had gone, he hurried back to his friend. "Sonny... Sonny stay with me."

"Joel I'm fine, it's just... I feel nauseous... I'm gonna hurl."

"No, no, no, hold on..." Joel didn't want Sonny to throw up laying down, thats how people chocked to death on their own vomit (he had gotten drunk often enough to know). He felt bad moving him but he slowly turned Sonny on his side and almost immediately he was barfing. Joel let Sonny empty his stomach while he grabbed his phone. He dialed the number and waited anxiously as it rang on and on. He was almost scared no one would pick up when finally a gruff voice said, "Joel?"

"Roadhog? I need help. Sonny's hurt and what do I do?"

"Where are you?"

Joel looked around. They were about three doors down from the Barnes family house. "Outside on the sidewalk near the Barnes house."

"I'm on my way."

"Don't hang up!"Joel jumped in a slight panic. "Sonny is really hurt, what do I do?"

"What kind of hurt?" Roadhog replied, voice calm as usual.

"Well currently he's vomiting. He seems to be bordering unconscious and his arm-"

"Did he hit his head on something?" Roadhog asked.

"Huh?"

"He could have a concussion." The hog explained.

God. Of course. Why didn't he think about that? "Yeah it's possible, how do I check for that?"

"You need a flashlight to check and see if his pupils are dilating properly."

Joel shook his head. He knew that! So why did he ask? His brain was not thinking clearly. "I don't have one."

" I have one in my car, we can check when I get there."

"Ok but um, what do I do about his wounds." How much did he want to bet he knew this too?

"Wounds?"

"Yeah he scratched up pretty bad, he fell on some glass."

"How deep are the cuts?"

"Uh..." Joel glanced over Sonny's form. "Most of them are harmless but he's got a few shards in his arm that look pretty bad."

"You didn't think to mention this before the concussion?" Roadhog asked monotonously.

"Shut up! What do I do?"

"You need to take the shards out and disinfect the wound. Do you have any water on you?"

"Let me check the van." Putting his phone on speaker, Joel ran to the mini-van. He rummaged desperately for a stray bottle of water. The mau5 was relieved to find one only to realize it was empty. His search only yielded a half-full bottle of sprite. Sighing, he held the phone in his hand. "No. No water."

"Alright well the next best thing to use is urine."

"WHAT!" Joel shouted into the phone.

"Yeah just pee on the wound, it's standard emergency procedure." Roadhog said without a waver in his voice.

"I am NOT about to PISS on Sonny's arm!"

"Do you want it to get infected?"

"I'll just use the soda I found." Joel reasoned.

Roadhog's voice came ringing back, calm as always but lanced in disapproval. "You can't use soda to disinfect a wound."

"Well it's his own damn fault! He's the one who climbed into a garbage truck! I don't care, I'm not about to piss on his arm!" Setting the phone down on the sidewalk, he began taking the shards out of Sonny's arm. The goblin squeezed his eyes shut as he did, but otherwise stayed silent. Then, unscrewing the cap of the sprite bottle, poured it over the length of the wound. Sonny hissed and tried to move, but the Mau5 held him down until all the suds had run off his skin.

"Now what do I do?" Joel asked, dabbing lightly at the wound his shirt.

"Assuming you don't have anything to stitch him up with, you need to bandage it tightly."

"Stitch him up?" Joel asked it like he had no idea what Roadhog meant, but he did. He seemed particularly dumb in this situation and it was starting to piss him off.

"Yeah, needle and thread... didn't you ever take a home-ec class?"

"I failed home-ec and not from a lack of tying"

"Sonny's going to die." Joel could em style="box-sizing: border-box;"hear /em the face palm in his voice.

"No he won't! Just... ok, uh... bandages." Joel looked around like bandages would magically appear. "I don't have any."

"Rip up your shirt then."

"My shirt? Oh my shirt." Yeah that's always what they do in the movies right? How hard could it be? Taking off his shirt, he tried to rip it apart without success. The movies had lied by defying physics again. "I can't rip my t-shirt, it's not ripping."

"Do you have any scissors? Or something sharp?"

"No I don't have scissors Roadhog! I'm in the damn middle of the road!"

"Find something sharp then."

Where the hell was he supposed to find-oh. The glass shards he had taken out of Sonny's arm! Those were sharp. Taking one particularly jagged piece, he ripped the cloth of his t-shirt into strips and got to work.

He was using those strips to tightly bandage Sonny's arm when he heard a car door slam behind him some minutes later. Tying his work into a knot, he turned to see Roadhog; and he had never been so relieved to see that man's face. Wordlessly, Roadhog checked Sonny's condition, a flashlight in his hand to check on the possible concussion.

"He's definitely got a concussion... Sonny?"

Sonny groaned. "I feel ok... but my arm hurts... and everything is dizzy and... yeah."

Roadhog's facial expression didn't change as he checked on the cuts all along Sonny's arm. "He should be alright. he need proper first aid, stitches included and don't let him sleep for more than two hours straight; you need to make he doesn't slip into a coma or get worse. Ibuprofen for the pain and don't let him drink either, it slows recovery."

Joel nodded. He knew most of that but this whole ordeal had made him lose his own brain so he was glad Roadhog had told him before he had to ask. "sonny and I have to hurry somewhere so I need you to do something for him." Roadhog only raised an eyebrow curiously so Joel continued. "That object over there." he pointed to the pod he had left in the road. "We need it to be stored in a secure location with the highest discretion you can manage."

Roadhog nodded. "Alright, I'll text you the storage information later," Walking away, Roadhog pulled out his phone. "Tim? yeah, I need your help with something..."

Joel on the other hand picked up Sonny again to put him in the car. Sonny blinked at him dazed, obviously still a little out of it. "I can... walk." He protested.

"Shut up." was the mau5's only reply. He was perfectly capable of taking care of the little goblin. He would have to stop somewhere and get a shirt for himself, proper bandages (and disinfectant), water, and ibuprofen. Perhaps an icepack. Sonny could get some proper medical care at the college right? He could survive until they got there. Sonny was semi-conscious but disoriented and obviously in a lot of pain, although he was refusing to whine about it. 'You idiot'

Joel set Sonny down in the passenger's seat before reclining the seat so he could lay down.

Sonny shut his eyes tiredly. "Thanks Joel..." He muttered.

Without thinking, Joel kissed the top of the idiot's forehead. Immediately, he jumped away ready to spout off excuses but he didn't have to, the small man had already fallen asleep.

On the other side of town Theodore was freshly showered and dressed; nails clipped, hair brushed, deodorant on, his personal hygiene was taken care of. Currently, he was wolfing down a foot-long sandwich from subway, spicy Italian on Italian herbs and cheese, his favorite.

"Now then," Natasha began. "There's a more urgent reason for our visit today."

"I figured..." Theodore swallowed the bite in his mouth currently muffling his words. "What's up?"

"I need you to take look at Owsla here." Natasha said, putting an arm around her to bring the alien to his attention.

Theodore nodded politely at her. "Nice to meet you Owsla..." looking back at his sister he continued. "You're not setting me up on a blind date are you?"

Natasha rolled her eyes. She was not that clique. "No, she's an alien and we need you help keeping her alive."