-Hey guys, here´s another chapter, hope you enjoy. And dont forget to review :)-
"It has to… it has to…" Dudley heard his own voice mumbling words that he couldn´t make sense of. What would work? Where was he anyway? Everything seemed so calm around him. Like he was trapped in a bubble of silence. Was he dead?
No, no that was sure, he wasn´t dead. He was alive, the throbbing pain in his leg that slowly got stronger reminded him. Pain in his leg? From where he got that? And why was he so thirsty. His throat felt so dry that probably a tumbleweed was rolling over it.
Also, his hunger grew. Still he pondered, where he was until the realization hit him like a hammer to the face. All what happened during their hijack was back immediately and, like a key igniting a motor, these memories kicked the conscious back into his body. Covered in sweat he sat up realizing that he was at the back bench of the truck with Snaptrap next to him who turned almost startled towards him.
"Oh gosh… I thought you were out for good." The rat said and sounded a little relieved saying these words. "I mean your friend meant we shouldn´t worry but…"
"How long was I out?" Dudley croaked out of his water needy swollen throat.
"First of all…" Snaptrap handed him a bottle of water which he gulped down eagerly. "You were sleeping for almost the whole journey… we´ll be back home any minute."
"Ah, you´re awake again!" Powers yawned from the passenger seat. "Finally."
"Glad to see you too…" Dudley mumbled and his attention moved to his leg that still hurt quite much. Groaning he leaned forward and checked it closely finding a leg that wasn´t in a fine condition but much better than he remembered when he looked at it the last time.
Dudley was more than thankful in that moment that his blood was filled with an army of tiny robots that mended everything they could. If Dudley had to estimate, from all the other injuries he had over his career, he would say that without any further medical support he would be fit for action in about two to three days.
There should be nothing to worry about his state but what about Tammy? His tensed and hurting muscles turned his head to Snaptrap´s side where he tended the bunny.
"How is…"
Snaptrap answered his question with a short "Bad" without looking up from her.
"She is stable." Explained Powers and drank a voluminous gulp from a plastic bottle. He seemed quite well for someone who received a radiation dose that could induce much more than a head splitting headache.
Probably most of the headaches he had had worn off during the time Dudley had been unconscious. "I gave her something that would at least stabilize her until were back at the base." Powers caught the concern Dudley had to vent with a placating move of his hand and added. "I talked with the base, Isaac looked up the medical data we took from you when we rescued you back then. He was able to calculate a dose that would fit for her."
"That was dangerous…" Dudley sat up a little to look out of the window. They were already entering the cave system that lead to the bunker. In a few moments they would pass the so called 'air lock' and then park the truck.
"She would be dead if we hadn´t done it." Powers said and turned back towards the windshield. "Ah, home sweet home."
The cavern that was the 'air lock' was filled with people. It seemed that everybody wanted to see if the train heist was really a success or if the things that people told each other were just rumors. As they stopped the truck Dudley could see two guys, a fox and a cat, holding a stretcher.
They didn´t look like paramedics, on the contrary, the fox looked like he would rather break bones than fix them and the cat had the dead eyes that Dudley would associate with a grave digger. But in these times nothing looked like it should look anymore anyway, so he wasn´t concerned about them not having the qualification.
An also calming factor was that next to the pair stood Isaac who looked impatiently at the truck. In the moment the door opened the fox and the cat jumped to the truck and got Tammy out of the truck and on the stretcher. The two of them didn´t handle her the way a paramedic would but they definitely tried not to worsen her state.
"Nothing to look at people, please, a bit decency." Isaac called to the crowd as he marched next to the hastily walking paramedics out of the room. No one of them followed them, Dudley didn´t know if that was because of piety or because they were afraid of Isaac. Dudley didn´t want to imagine what he had done to poor Keswick while they were gone.
After Tammy the next one who got out of the truck was Powers. He walked a few steps towards the crowd before remembering. "I need a translator…"
For a little moment but quick he pointed at Daisy and said. "Miss Daisy, would you be so kindly?"
The dog nodded and jumped out of her seat quickly taking her place next to him.
"Dear citizens of…" Powers stopped for a second and then looked pensively at Daisy. "It was Petropolis, right?"
"Right." She nodded.
"Dear citizens of Petropolis, our journey was a success even though we had to bewail a few injuries. The good Isaac will try to tend these, as good as he can, but I am very confident that his undertaking has the same success as ours." He patiently waited until Daisy had translated and the murmur that moved through the crowd had abated.
"Unfortunately, we have to kindly ask you to leave this cave now, because we stole some devices from the enemy that are quite hazardous. So for your own safety I want you to leave again…" Powers waited again but then quickly added. "Oh and please tell the chief, Kitty and Mrs. Puppy that they can stay. Thank you, Daisy."
The dog translated the last part and the crowd started to dissolve. Just the three and the rest of the truck crew stayed in the room.
"I think it´s time for us to get out too." Snaptrap said and helped Dudley with exiting the truck.
"I´m surprised that you have not shown any attempts to leave the truck earlier, I mean you loved being in the middle of the attention back then."
"What should I say? The year long fight for survival is a humbling experience." The rat smiled friendly.
It was an honest smile, a smile Dudley didn´t know from his former enemy. It was weird but at the same time it was interesting, it seemed just to need an apocalypse to reintegrate a criminal from Snaptraps caliber back into the society.
"Humility suits you." Dudley laughed and immediately regretted it feeling the muscles in his chest contracting painfully.
"Oh my, Dudley!" Peg immediately ran towards him but luckily Powers could catch her. He said something she couldn´t understand and she looked confused at him.
"He said that the last thing I needed right now would be more force from outside so he ask you to calm down a bit." Translated Dudley swiftly though his eyes weren´t on his mother in this moment. Was Kitty looking worried? Yes! Yes she definitely looked worried. Dudley´s heart did a little dance of joy as he realized that.
"Captains!" René entered the room waving at them happily. "Glad to see you alive!"
"Well, what else do you expected?" Asked Powers grinning as he had walked to him. As the engineer had reached Powers he handed him the little box that would translate their words before walking to Dudley.
"Damn, you look fucked up." René laughed. "What happened?"
"Wait Dudley!" Powers said and then activated the device. "Now, go on."
"I don´t know" admitted Dudley and limped with Snaptrap´s help closer to the others. "I just remember the looting, then me and Sly fighting over this lizard from the stasis pod and then explosions."
"I think as soon as they realized something was off they simply started using artillery..."
"But wouldn´t that have endangered their own men?" The chief, who was sitting on Kitty´s head, said skeptically.
"I think they have expected them to be dead after not receiving any signs of life for a while." Powers shrugged.
"Still, wouldn´t have been easier to just send a recon drone instead of shooting?"
"Well, I have a theory concerning that…" The captain turned to the loading area of the truck and walked to the back of it. "It´s easier to explain this visually but I think they were afraid someone would get this..." he opened the back doors of the truck revealing, besides lots and lots of scrap from the train, some more and some less ominously glowing, the body of a lizard that was calmly breathing.
"WHY DID YOU BROUGHT ONE OF THESE THINGS HERE!" The chief immediately roared and Kitty jumped back drawing her gun at it.
"Yes Sly, please explain." Dudley put his hands on his hips and grinned triumphantly at Powers. It somehow felt like a relief to finally hear another voice of reason.
Powers looked at Dudley for a second, then over to Dudley´s mother who imitated this pose. Though imitation was the wrong word in this context, she probably invented this stance. For a short visible moment, Powers fought down a giggle and said.
"For interrogation purposes."
"Interrogation purposes?" Kitty hissed angrily and stepped closer again. "You can´t talk with these monsters!"
"We will, because we have to…" Powers bluntly said and gestured to René to help him lift the lizard up. "We have no information about the whole organization we´re up against. There are to many gaps, I think this boy here can fill them." The both men lifted the lizard up and dragged it towards the little gathering. "We got to be as opportunistic as possible. Every lost chance is a nail into our coffin." Powers now turned to Dudley. "You know that I´m right."
The dog growled as they slowly dragged the body away but then he sighed. Powers was right, he knew that this was a necessary evil. "Sly you… cunt." He whispered to himself. At least that was what he hoped.
"Dudley, watch your tone!" Peg exclaimed disgusted by his choice of words.
"I better go take a look at this interrogation." The chief said to Kitty before jumping of her head and making his way away from them.
"Kitty, can we talk?" Dudley immediately said before his mother, that was already approaching him, could nip all his chances in the bud.
Kitty seemed unsure for a second but then gave him a soft nod.
"Hey Dudley, do you still…" Snaptrap said as Dudley was steal leaning against him until now.
"Oh, sorry man, thanks a lot." He let go of Snaptrap and limped behind Kitty into the empty conference room that looked now a little more like he was used it from one of the ships he has served on.
At least a little more punk version of it. The room was fully lit with a soft blue light and from the rough stone walls a lot of holo emitter panels hung down illuminating a doughnut shaped table with a lot of comfortable chairs around it.
"René outdid himself." Chuckled Dudley as he sat down on the closest chair. "That should be nice for a temporary HQ."
"I still don´t know where he wants with this." Kitty said and sat down on the other side of the table.
"He´s going for the style they have on the new battle cruiser… but he´s not quite there."
"Well, looks more like far far away." Kitty said tonelessly. "What do you want to talk about Dudley?"
"Look, I despise these lizard things as much as you do. And I´d wish we had left that thing in that train in the middle of the enemy fire but…" he gave a long-winded sigh and said with through gritted teeth. "I guess Powers have some idea by doing what he does."
"How can you be so sure?!" She asked and stood up banging her fists on the table. "What if he got some kind of tracking device? What if they wanted us to take him here so that he can rat us out or kill the chief or Keswick or.. or.. Nick! Have you considered that your son could be in danger?! No of course you didn´t! You always jump into action no matter how dangerous it is or how stupid the plan is!"
Looked at Kitty for a moment before he stood up and limped around the table to her. She still stood there and watched him stumbling to her and then finally sit down on a seat next to her.
"Kitty…" he said and looked at her with tired eyes. "I´m as old as 20 of you together, do you think I had survived that long if I hadn´t had a good idea of the danger that I´m getting myself into?"
"That´s not the point!" She huffed.
"I know, and I know what the point is, but right now we can´t allow us to sit at home and do nothing." He took one of her hands and as she stopped clenching it into a fist he also took her other hand. "I wouldn´t take those risks if they weren´t necessary… I really changed Kitty."
Kitty sat back down onto her chair and sighed. "You say that but then again you go and rob a train and get killed almost."
"We needed these resources, and this was the easiest way." He said and looked into her eyes smiling softly. "But I promise to keep myself in the background for a bit okay?"
"That´s at least something…" Kitty looked down on her lap and pondered while Dudley just held her hands enjoying having her close so much that he didn´t feel the pain in his leg anymore.
"Dudley, can you do me a favor?" Kitty asked and now looked him in the eyes again.
"Of course, anything." He replied immediately. He would have done anything for her in that moment. He had probably set himself on fire if she had asked for it.
"You need to talk with Nick… he´s so angry lately. He was already before you came but now he is just unbearable." She freed her hands from Dudley´s soft embrace and laid them on her lap. "I don´t know what to do anymore, Rob also has no idea but… but maybe you can do something."
Dudley´s features winced as Kitty mentioned Rob. For a second, he thought he felt something like romantic mood. But now this was dead. Kitty hit it over the head with a shovel and this shovel was called Rob.
"I can try." Said Dudley and now leaned back a little in his chair. "After all I wanted to talk with him a little more… we haven´t had the chance yet."
"Thank you." Kitty smiled and, much to Dudley´s surprise, hugged him tightly.
"N..No need!" He meant taken aback but quickly wrapped her hands around her. Again, he felt the romantic mood coming up. Again, he thought something more could happen between them in that moment. But again, it was the shovel that destroyed his hopes cruelly.
"Kitty are you…" Rob had opened the door and was cut short by what he saw in this room. "Oh am I interrupting you two here?!" he asked aggressively.
Kitty broke the hug startled and looked to Rob. "No… no were are done." She quickly stood up and walked to Rob who kissed her possessively.
During the kiss, that was longer than the politeness mandated, Rob had his eyes almost entirely at Dudley who drilled his fingers into the armrests on his chair.
"Will you help me get dinner ready?" He asked her as they broke the kiss. "You´ll be surprised how much we have to eat tonight."
The wolf laid his arm around her and without deigning another look at Dudley they left the room.
Dudley´s blood boiled as he looked after them and was already planning how to kill Rob and make it look like an accident.
"You did quite good." The tick said as she entered the room. She took a chair, put it into a corner of the room and sat onto. Her face showed a sly smirk as she leaned back on the chair.
"Am I bugged or something?" Dudley asked angrily as he stood up.
"No, but I have my ways and means." She chuckled amusedly. "Anyway, good work."
"Kate… did you see what I see?" Dudley started pacing around completely ignoring his broken leg. But right now, he was too angry to just sit around. "Did you see that guy massaging her tonsils?"
"I saw that." She grinned. "But also, you were able to get a hug out of the conversation and… wasn´t she too reluctant to touch you a few days ago?"
Dudley stopped pacing and stared at her flabbergasted. "How do you even know that?! That was a conversation between just the two of us!"
"Oh you know me I…"
"Don´t give me that crap!" Dudley ran to her and build himself up in front of her. "Tell me how you know that."
"Dudley…" she rolled her eyes smiling. "You know I won´t do that… And now stop that."
Dudley groaned and left the room now even more angry. But the Tick didn´t give up. He had walked just a few meters on the hallway as she jogged after him.
"I think she still have feelings for you." She called to him and Dudley stopped for a moment before keeping on walking. The tick giggled and kept following him. "I mean she tries to deny it, she even tries to suppress them but they are still there…"
"Kate…" Dudley stopped walking again and took a deep breath. "Don´t you have something else to do?"
"What are you my boss? I mean you can´t be seriously want me to ignore what is going on between you and work again." She laughed while Dudley just stayed silent with his back turned to her.
It took Dudley quiet some time and patients to wait in silence long enough so that she said.
"Fine fine… I go. But mark my words, you´re on a good way, don´t screw up now." And with these final words she spun on her heels and walked away.
"Finally…" He took a deep breath which he exhaled with a painful hiss. Though the reemerging pain in his leg was quite irritating, it wasn´t as irritating as seeing Rob sticking his tongue into Kitty. The rage boiled in his stomach and his teeth were pressed so hard onto each other that they almost started cracking.
"Oh Dudley!" He heard the voice from his mother down the hallway accompanied by Meternagel who grinned widely. Dudley swallowed down as much of his anger as he could and turned to the two of them who approached him.
Immediately his mother threw her arms around him and hugged him as tight as she could. Dudley could remember that her hugs were more brutal back then. Maybe it was her age? He tried to remember how old his mother was when he left.
44? 45? Plus the 16 years that passed she must be about 60 right now. Dudley´s eyes widened he realized it. Age wasn´t really a topic for him while living among the humans. During the first 1000 years of their lives they just celebrate ever 10th birthday. And after that they just celebrate every 100th birthday. But his people had microscopic lifespan in comparison.
"Mom… uhm, weird question, how old are you?" Dudley asked and his mother looked confused at him.
"Dudley, you should know that!" Peg said and looked a little insulted at him.
"I was away quite some time." Dudley said a little embarrassed.
"Well…" Peg stepped back from her son and said. "That´s not a question you ask a lady but… I´m 61."
"Aww, she´s still a baby!" giggled Meternagel amusedly.
"What did he say?" Peg asked and looked at her tall companion.
"John, your device." Dudley gestured at Meternagel´s face to switch on the translator.
"I don´t have one…" Meternagel shrugged grinning. "We have just a few of them and Powers says the others have priority."
"So you´re walking around with my mother talking with my mother not understanding a word while she talks to you without you being able to answer." Dudley summarized and looked a little dumbfounded at the pilot.
"Yep, I enjoy her company." Meternagel giggled cheerfully.
"…okay." Dudley said and looked back to his mother. "He just amused how young you are."
"Oh you old charmer." Peg giggled and gave Meternagel a nudge in his side.
Dudley couldn´t put into words how disturbing this weird relationship between his mother and Meternagel was and how even more disturbing the fantasies that this spawned.
"I… uhm… mom, do you know where Nick is?" Dudley said shaking his head trying to push the thoughts away.
"Oh sweety, finally!" Peg laughed happily and hugged Dudley again. "We´re finally growing together as a family!" She broke the hug and kissed his cheek.
"Yes… right…So where is he?"
"He´s where the other kids 'hang around'." Peg said it like every grandmother would say these words, what made her sound even older than she was. "Just go down the hallway sweety and then left."
"Thanks mom…" he an gave her a little kiss on the cheek. "I better go and see him right now."
"Yes! Hurry honey!" Peg smiled happily.
Dudley waved her mother goodbye and gave her and Meternagel a long look as they walked away from him. A last time he shivered before he limped towards the place Nick should be.
This was still disturbing, at least his anger was gone now. The weird images of Meternagel and his mother superseded the things he saw between Rob and Kitty.
The place where the kids 'hung around' looked sad and decayed like all the other places in and around the bunker.
It was an old storage room, about half as big as a classroom and filled with high shelves that once were home to probably lots of emergency rations but now was just a place where the dust built up. Dudley stepped into the room and could smell the teenage angst in the air, literally and figuratively. The air ventilation system seemed to have failed in this part of the complex.
As he limped his first step into the room all the children´s eyes were pinned on him.
"Hey there." He said and looked into the group. There were about twelve teenager ranging from ages from 12 to about 17 years in the room.
"What do you want?!" the rude voice of a young black bulldog, about 16 years old, barked at him. He was quite short for his age but nevertheless quite muscular. He wore a pair of old ripped jeans and a white tank top.
"I´m sorry, I didn´t want to interrupt your get together here, I just…"
"Then fuck off!" The dog yelled angrily.
"Oh shut up!" a female dog, about Dudley´s height, snapped at her foul mouthed friend and then turned to Dudley. She had a light brown fur and looked quite pretty, at least in Dudley´s opinion.
"Please excuse him… He´s… kind of an idiot…" She sighed and shook her head.
"It´s okay, no hard feelings." Dudley quickly said. "As I said, I´m not here to interrupt, I´m just searching for Nick."
"You mean the half br…" A female rat was about to say as cat rammed his elbow into her side.
"He´s his father." He whispered.
"The what?" Dudley wanted to know but the female dog with the brown fur took back the lead of the conversation.
"Nick usually doesn´t spent time with us… he´s in the room down the hallway to the left." She explained and Dudley nodded.
"Thank you…" He offered her his hand for a handshake. "uhm… Sorry I don´t know your name."
She looked a while at his hand like she was afraid to shake it.
But then the courage seemed to get the better of her and she grabbed his hand "Annabel."
"Thank you Annabel…" He nodded. "I guess I´ll see you around."
Dudley didn´t want to spend more time in this sad room with these youngsters.
He immediately left after the little awkward handshake and followed Annabel´s directions arriving at the door of a tiny little room that just accommodated a boiler. Dudley knocked at the door and immediately a voice shouted "Leave me alone you jerks."
Dudley opened the door and looked into his son´s eyes that first looked angry at him then confused then angry again.
"What do you want here?!" He asked harshly.
"I wanted to talk to you…" Dudley replied sheepishly and entered the room without giving Nick the chance to go away. "Just talking… really."
"Yeah whatever." Nick huffed and leaned back against the wall. "Do your talking and then go away."
"You know we don´t have to talk…" Dudley said calmly.
"Aha…" Nick said and closed his eyes.
Dudley looked at him for a while then also did the same what Nick did. He sat down, leaned against the wall and closed his eyes.
They sit there for an hour in silence and Dudley quite enjoyed this little bit of silence. He had time to think and straighten out some thoughts in the meantime. After everything that happened lately it was nice to finally have a moment of piece that stopped the ever whirling vortex of events. A short moment in the eye of the storm.
But finally, after another 20 minutes it was Dudley who threw himself into the hurricane by breaking the silence. After all the wish to talk with his son was greater than his wish for silence.
"So this is how you spend your day?" Dudley asked and opened his eyes. "Just sitting here and doing nothing?"
"Do you have a problem with that?" Nick asked immediately aggressive.
"Aren´t you bored out of your mind?" the elder dog grinned a little and gave Nick a little nudge that made him growl.
"Why does this concern you?" Nick kept growling and turned to his father.
"Well, I want to be straight with you, besides wanting to meet you, your mom asked me to talk to you." Dudley said and stood up.
"Figures." Growled the boy and averted his gaze from his father.
"Oh come on, this isn´t just because of her. I mean you´re my son and I don´t know you at all!" Dudley walked to the door and opened it to the hallway. "Let´s get to know each other! Come with me."
"Just leave." Nick said. "You´re not my father, I don´t need a father."
Dudley had somehow anticipated a sentence like that from Nick, but it hit him more than he had expected. It made him sad but it wouldn´t make him stop trying.
"Well, bad luck, you won´t get rid off me so easy." Dudley looked at his son who now stood up and walked to him. Angrily he tried to push Dudley out of the doorframe. But a swift move to the side and a soft pull on Nick´s clothes made the boy stumble out of the room.
"As I said, it won´t be so easy." Dudley now grinned saying it, it was inadvertently from Dudley´s side and it fueled Nick´s rage. This time the boy ran head first towards him like an angry bull but again Dudley evaded his son´s attacks with a step to the side like a bored torero.
But Nick had anticipated Dudley´s move and grabbed the elder dog´s clothes trying to bring him to the ground. It had almost worked if Dudley hadn´t had about five centuries of fighting experience. He grabbed both of the boys hands and used his strength to keep him close to him.
"So you want to brawl?" He asked and looked into two emerald green angry eyes. "Fine, but if we do it we do it right."
"What do you mean by that?!" Growled Nick and still tried to push or pull Dudley to the ground.
The old dog looked sternly at him and said dead serious. "You want to beat me up? Kick my teeth in? Fine. But when we do it, we do it right."
"What are you talking about?!" Nick now looked confused and let go of his dad.
"Come with me, I´ll show you." He said and turned away from Nick. He started limping down the hallways. He was sure Nick followed him. The boy was so full of hate and anger he would take the chance he had given him.
He would give the boy at least chance for some kind of catharsis, even though this wouldn´t be nice for both of them. Dudley opened the door to a room that was just filled with scrap parts that hadn´t found another use yet. The metal parts were all orderly put into crates that reduced the area of this fairly sized room to a zone that was just 3 by 4 meters big.
The whole room emitted an eerie atmosphere that was amplified by the only light source, which was a blank bulb that hang on it´s wire from the high ceiling.
"Perfect." Dudley walked to one corner of the little area and saw his expectations being fulfilled as his son walked into the corner on the opposite side of him.
"You can´t be serious!" Nick said looking around confused and even a little scared.
"Why not? You want that, don´t you?" Dudley took a very close look at Nick now. The boy first looked surprised at him and then, as he fully realized the situation, hateful again.
"Let´s do this." Nick got his fists up and got into a fighting stance that immediately told Dudley that this was probably his first fight.
Dudley simply rubbed his hands in expectation and waited for his son´s first move. It was a bold move which would have even surprised Dudley if it wasn´t so poorly and slow executed.
Nick simply tried to jump with both of his hands into Dudley´s face. He evaded this attack by ducking down what made the boy hit his both fists into the hard wooden crate. With a hard push, that had no intention to do harm, he pushed the boy away from him.
"You have to do better." Dudley said coldly and Nick screamed as he heard that.
"Fuck you!" The boy tried to land a hit onto his chest, but Dudley simply caught it with his hand. The same he did with his other hand. Holding both of Nick´s hands he pushed the boy away once again.
"Try harder." Dudley said and Nick replied with a kick that, due to no training, was just hip high. But this kick would have actually arrived at the still hurt leg of the old dog and probably send him into a pain delirium if he hadn´t blocked it with his hand. This time Dudley didn´t reply with a remark which seemed to aggravate Nick´s anger even more.
"Fuck you! FUCK YOU!" yelled Nick and just started hitting Dudley blindly. "I HATE YOU THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT! YOU RUINED EVERYTHING!"
'We´re getting to the core' Dudley thought while carefully blocking every unaimed hit that rushed to him.
"YOU LEFT ME! YOU HURT MOM! THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT YOU ARE A TERRIBLE FATHER!" Nick screamed and panted more and more losing stamina with every word and every hit. "YOU… ARE… THE… Reason… for… everything… bad… that… happened… to… us…" The last words Nick just whimpered and tears ran over his face.
The swings got weaker and weaker and soon they were so soft that Dudley just let them happen. In the end the boy just tripped over exhausted and fell into his father´s arms.
"I´m sorry." Whispered Dudley as the boy simply started crying on his chest. "I promise you that things will change. I promise I will change… and be here for you."
The two of them stood there for quite a while just hugging each other not knowing that someone had watched the two of them and left quickly and gleefully giggling.
