Fighting The Tide

Chapter Two: The Entrance


Can Hater get to the ring of invincibility before the other villains? Can he propose to Wander the way he's planned? Will Sylvia cave his face in if he tries anything? And, most importantly, when will Dominator get here?

Hater is facing off against what he assumes is a rival for Wander's affections, while Wander has decided to step in. Where are Peepers and Sylvia right now? Probably starting to get worried.

I'm glad everyone liked the beginning of the third installment for this series. And a few at least saw Hater's plan coming! Thanks to those who gave me feedback on the chapter. I'm always especially nervous when I'm doing a chapter based on an episode of the show, especially one this important!

See you at the bottom!


Wander pulled himself up on the stone ledge just as the front row of beefeaters was sent flying. Hater really must have been upset at Sourdough. His buddy was wreathed in green light, electricity arcing off him to strike at the ground and anything in reach.

"Hold on, buddies!" he called. "We don't have ta fight!"

Hater turned at his voice.

"Wander!" he exclaimed, the green glow around him fizzling out with his concentration. "This is perfect! Hold on, let me get…" he was cut off by a gloved fist smashing into his jaw, dislodging it so it hung loose on one side. Hater reattached it with a growl, eyes going back to his opponents.

"Back off, Sandwich!" he snarled "You're not going anywhere near that ring!"

As the skeleton threw himself back into the fight, Wander paused, watching worriedly. Hater and Sourdough both appeared pretty focused on attacking each other, and he wasn't quite sure how to redirect their attention. Then again, they were also pretty focused on that ring…

Wander made a leap and caught the next ledge in the set of stone 'stairs,' pulling himself up until he was standing on it, in full view of the combatants.

"Hey Hatey!" he called, poking his cheeks with his fingers to emphasize his goofy smile. "I'm gonna go get that ring of invincibility and use it to make everyone in the galaxy best friends!" He batted his eyelashes, before turning slightly and preparing to run. "Betcha can't catch me!" he sang.

The fighters froze, beefeaters scattered in various places on the ground, Sourdough flinching backward on the plate he was sitting on, and Hater, claw raised, ready to zap the sandwich with crackling electricity.

"Get him!" Sourdough snarled, and the beefeaters turned away from Hater, some pushing themselves up from the ground where they had been thrown. Their single-minded focus was now solely on Wander. He noted this carefully, ready to bounce up the stone ledges as soon as they got closer, but most of his attention was still on his boyfriend.

Hater seemed to think for a moment, and then his eyes narrowed, bony jaw setting with determination.

"Oh no you're not!" he yelled. "I'm getting to it first!" He charged forward, pushing through the beefeaters that were in his way, heading straight for Wander.

Perfect!

Wander went darting upwards, jumping to catch the ledges above him and scrambling quickly, staying just ahead of the skeleton lord and Sourdough's minions. At least now they were in more familiar territory. He wasn't sure what he was going to do when he actually reached the ring. He'd just have to see when he got there. At least Hater being focused on him meant the overlord wasn't getting too entangled in fighting other villains.

He just hoped Hater wouldn't be too disappointed if he didn't get the ring for whatever plan he and Mr. Peepers had in mind. Wander supposed he'd just have to make it up to his buddy later, once things had calmed down.

He gave a rueful glance out over the battlefield. That was going to take a lot of calming down.

In the mean time, he kept climbing.


"Come on, buddy, where are you?"

Sylvia tore through the battlefield, dodging stray lasers and flying henchmen. It hadn't even been five minutes before Wander had forgotten his promise and gone running into danger, and worse, she hadn't even seen him go. Now she had to find him before one of the many villains who would like revenge on the little nomad for something or other.

"You!" The zbornak skidded abruptly to a stop, eyes focusing on the small, angry figure in front of her. Peepers did not look happy. He was quivering with rage, eye narrowed and practically twitching in his distraction. "Of course, you two annoyances just had to show up. Couldn't you have found a baby with a lost rattle or an ant carrying a really big leaf or something to help today instead?"

"You're one to talk!" Sylvia snapped. "You and that idiot boss are the cause of all of this! I knew Hater was self-sabotaging, but announcing your plans to go after an all-powerful artifact to an entire galaxy of villains is a new threshold, even for him."

"Well, it certainly worked on Wander!" Peepers narrowed his eye, fists clenched around the blaster he wasn't quite pointing at her. "He was just compelled to show up and ruin everything. If you'd managed to keep him away, I might have been able to convince Lord Hater to give this whole stupid thing up!" He froze, sudden panicked gaze sweeping across Sylvia. He looked to the left, then the right. "Wait, where is he?"

"Flab Drassit, that's what I'm trying to find out!" The reminder that her buddy was out there somewhere in all this chaos sent anxiety trickling through her. "He must have gone after Hater. I would have been perfectly happy leaving you jerks here to destroy each other, or at least sneaking around until we could get the ring to safety, but he just couldn't stay away, not once he knew so many people would be targeting the bonehead."

"Oh no!" Peepers dragged his hands down his sclera. "We have to stop them! We can't let them reach the ring, not while they're together!"

"What? Why not?" Sudden worry clenched at Sylvia's insides. She'd mostly stopped worrying that Hater was going to start trying to destroy Wander again, but the Peepers' panic brought those dormant fears back to life, even while she wondered distantly why the watchdog would care to warn her in that case. "What's Hater planning to do with the ring?"

Peepers lowered his hands, eye narrowing further as he peered at her in a searching way. She noticed distantly that he looked beyond stressed, the white of his eye vaguely pink and an air of nervous tension to the way he was standing on the rocky ground.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures, I suppose." He whispered finally, so quietly Sylvia barely heard him over the fighting around them. Peepers sighed; eye crinkling briefly as though he were thinking of something unpleasant. "Fine, I'll tell you, and maybe together we'll be able to stop him."

Sylvia frowned, but remained silent. Maybe it would be better to give the optic nerd a chance to explain this time. He was clearly agitated and it honestly seemed like he needed someone to hear him out. But if this turned out to be a trap or something, she was sending him flying and going back to her search. No one was hurting her buddy while she was here; she was going to make sure of that.


Hater pulled himself awkwardly onto the next ledge behind Wander, scrambling to keep up the pace.

He couldn't seem to catch the nomad, no matter how hard he tried. At least Wander wasn't managing to leave him behind. In fact, sometimes it seemed like the nomad was waiting for him when he encountered some difficult terrain and started to lose ground, though that was probably just his imagination.

The evil sandwich and his minions were nowhere to be seen, far behind them somewhere now. There were lots of villains who had already reached the upper ledges when they got here, and Hater felt like he couldn't go three steps without having to zap someone or fight his way through a whole group of guys. Sourdough had gotten headed off by a bunch of clunky robots and was probably still fighting them, which was a relief. Hater didn't want the sandwich anywhere near that ring, not now that he'd figured out what he was up to. He didn't think Wander would have agreed if Sourdough asked the nomad to marry him, but he wasn't about to take the risk.

He was a little worried about his plan. It was important that he be the first to reach the ring. That was the whole point. He had to look impressive and powerful so that Wander would swoon before his awesome might and be thoroughly bowled over by his strength and commanding presence. Then when Hater proposed, the nomad would be so impressed that he'd have to say 'yes.' Wander reaching the ring first would be a big problem, since Hater would then have to chase after him to get it back, which usually turned into a huge mess. He couldn't exactly impress Wander if he couldn't even catch the little pest.

Still, he continued after the nomad as fast as he could go, climbing onto the rock ledges, then running when the terrain became flatter and more stable. Villains who tried to get in their way were blasted to the side. He had no time for any of , he didn't know who else on this stupid rock might have the same objective he did. If Major Threat and Sourdough were in love with Wander, there was no telling who else the little nomad had gotten to. He had to keep ahead of any competition. Once he reached the ring and actually managed to put his plan into action, they wouldn't stand a chance.

Suddenly, Hater felt something slick under his foot and he lost his balance, slipping all over the place on an effort to remain upright as he skidded over dozens of banana peels.

He distantly noticed that Wander was facing off against that weird banana villain, and felt a twinge of jealousy when he remembered that the nomad viewed this villain as a bigger threat than him, but he was too focused on his own plight to pay much attention to any of that. He didn't even notice when a massive shadow fell over the whole of the planetoid as a new ship interposed itself between them and the nearest sun.


Dominator.

Things always got a little worrying when Dominator showed up.

With Screwball taken care of for the moment, Wander's gaze trailed up to the huge, red and black ship that was now hovering above them. Almost everyone on their little planetoid seemed to be watching it too, with the exception of Hater who was still slipping this way and that on the doctor's leftover banana peels.

Dominator was someone Wander found himself slightly discouraged by. She was just so gosh darn hard to figure out. It was like she'd put a wall up between her and everyone else in the galaxy and she never let a hint of personality slip through. The only clues he'd gotten about her had happened just recently when he'd been coming back from shopping and happened to orble by one of her ship's windows while she wasn't wearing her suit. And even then, she hadn't exactly given him much to go on.

And that unfamiliarity left him feeling a little wary, especially where Hater was concerned. Wander knew his boyfriend viewed Dominator as one of his biggest rivals for galactic supremacy, and the last time the skeleton lord had faced off against her in single combat, it hadn't exactly gone so well for his buddy. Wander still thought Dominator could be friends with everyone eventually, but now wasn't really the best time for him to work on that.

The nomad clasped his hands, thumbs twiddling as he thought, gaging different strategies in his mind.

He probably wasn't going to be able to convince Hater to leave the ring and retreat; he'd known that from the beginning. And once his buddy realized Dominator was here, there was no way he was going to pass up an opportunity to challenge her in front of all the other villains. Wander really didn't want any more fighting today. There were already lots of aliens who were badly injured on the rocks below him. That meant his best strategy was probably the one he'd already been employing; get the ring and get Hater to chase him, then lead him away from everyone else, Dominator included. If she got to the ring first, there was sure to be more violence, and Wander knew his buddy would be right in the middle of it.

Unfortunately, that was when Dominator decided to make her landing, barrelling into the planetoid and sending a shockwave that threw whole groups of villains and minions into the air.

Wander was momentarily distracted as the black cube of darkness was thrown upward, landing at the uppermost point of the rock formations, right next to the ring. He watched as the cube tapped futilely at the ring, trying to pick it up and becoming more frustrated and desperate as it realized it was unable to claim the artifact. Wander felt his heart constrict inside him when the cube finally gave up and floated sadly away. The poor guy! He'd really have to go and see if the cube was alright once he had a little breathing space.

But for now, Wander was going to have to act fast.

"Come on, Hatey!"

Turning back to Hater, the nomad's hands flew to his mouth in sudden concern. His buddy appeared to have taken a nasty blow when Dominator landed, and was slumped on the ground among the banana peels.

"Hatey?" Wander knelt down beside the skeleton, cradling his skull gently and patting one cheekbone. "Come on!" he encouraged. "Don't you wanna claim that ring and become the Greatest in the Galaxy?" No reaction. Hmmm. "Hey, Hater! I'm gonna tell everyone in the galaxy how we're boyfriends! Don't ya wanna stop me?" Nothing. Wander whimpered slightly, watching Dominator rising steadily up past the stunned villains. They were running out of time.

Wander peered back down at the limp overlord. If he didn't do something soon, Dominator was going to get the ring of invincibility and he was pretty sure that wasn't the best idea, but he couldn't leave Hater here when half the galaxy's villains were specifically targeting him.

The nomad bit his lip, considering. There was something he hadn't tried. He knew Hater could be a little shy, so this wasn't something he would normally do without being sure it was welcome, but they didn't have a lot of time. Hopefully Hatey wouldn't mind.

Placing one hand on Hater's shoulder, Wander leaned down towards the unconscious skeleton, lips slightly pursed as he closed his eyes.


Hater felt like he was floating, the sounds around him muted and echoing. His mind seemed to be slowly drifting upward towards wakefulness when he felt something soft touch his lips and smelled that familiar, sweet, earthy scent.

He opened his eyes to find Wander crouching over him, pulling back to smile a little sheepishly. The sounds of battle around them came back into focus.

For a moment, Hater had trouble remembering what had just happened and a blissful, peaceful thought floated through him. Had he won? Had his plan worked? Was that why Wander was kissing him on the battlefield?

That thought fled in the next instant, as his gaze moved beyond Wander's hat and smiling face, and up to the crag of rock above them where the ring still glittered. And flying up towards it, closer every second, was the armored figure of…

"Dominator!" Hater snarled, sitting up so fast Wander pulled away from him in surprise. "I hate that guy!" he yelled.

He didn't stop to think about why Dominator was going after the ring. Surely, he couldn't be interested in Wander as well. He barely knew the nomad from what Hater had seen. Instead, he acted, launching himself up off the rock he'd been lying on with a burst of power and zooming upward to land on the topmost platform, facing off with the armored villain, the ring sparkling between them.

He didn't register the sound of Wander climbing onto the platform behind him. All his focus was on finally getting to the ring, and on showing Lord Dominator who he'd been messing with.

"Lord Dominator."

"Lord Hater."

This was where he finally proved he was the Greatest in the Galaxy, and that upstart, two-bit villain who'd dared to encroach on his territory and hurt his boyfriend, was going to realize it.


"Wait, Hater's going to what?"

"That's what I said!"

"Okay, hold on, back up!" Sylvia rubbed her temples with both hands before looking narrowly back at Peepers. "I know Hater is…" she waved one hand, diplomatic words failing her, "…an idiot, but seriously? They've had like three dates, if we're being generous. Where did this even come from?"

Peepers winced as though just thinking about the events was causing him pain.

"We met this…guy; this former villain, and he said that…it sounded like Wander might have…"

"Ah." Sylvia was pretty sure she had an idea where this was going. "Wander reformed him?" she asked, not without some smugness.

"…Maybe." Peepers didn't sound particularly happy at her guess. "But then Lord Hater started thinking about things, and he decided the two of them might have been…" he trailed off for a moment, before adding in an almost inaudible whisper "…involved."

"Huh." That part, Sylvia hadn't seen coming. She had a hard time imagining her buddy being romantically involved with anyone. Grop, she was still having trouble imagining it while it was happening right in front of her. But could she imagine Hater blowing things out of proportion, getting jealous and leaping to a questionable conclusion? Absolutely. "So, his solution to all of that was to ask Wander to marry him?"

Another painful pause.

"Technically, yes. And you're going to help me stop him!"

"Do you think Hater's actually going to do it?" Because, being honest here, Sylvia could definitely see Hater planning out something like this in a moment of panic, and then getting cold feet about the whole thing once it was actually happening.

"We can't afford to take that risk. Do you think Wander would say 'no'?"

Sylvia grimaced. She had really been trying to let Wander handle his relationship with Hater by himself, once it became clear the skeleton was no longer planning that relationship to end with Wander's untimely demise, but she had just barely been able to accept that the two of them were going out. Thoughts of what could happen if Hater was allowed to pop the question swirled a clear warning through her head.

"He might, but…"

"But he's completely obsessed with Hater?" Peepers finished for her.

"He's totally obsessed!" Sylvia burst out. It was kind of a relief to finally say it to out loud. "Like, I know he's Wander; he loves everyone, but Hater? I can't pry him away from the guy." She glared down at Peepers. "You know you only captured him half of the time because he snuck away to visit his buddy."

"Well, Hater's just as obsessed!" Peepers sounded a little relieved as well. It was like the two of them had been thinking about this for ages and could finally share it with somebody. "Half of those times we captured him were because he demanded we leave in the middle of an invasion just because he heard the little freak was nearby. And every time he shows up, it's like I'm not even there!"

"And he doesn't listen, even when it's dangerous and I warn him to stay close, he just goes running off the moment he sees him…"

"…And leaves me to go chasing after him as he follows his obsession right off a cliff…"

"…And doesn't notice the danger even when it's right on top of him!"

Sylvia paused for a moment; eyes locked on Peepers as he stared back at her. For the first time, they saw completely eye to eye.

"We can't let Hater ask him!" Peepers concluded.

"And we can't let Wander answer!" Sylvia agreed.

Just then, a loud boom shuddered through the whole planetoid, and both turned their gazes upward to the highest rock ledge where a tornado of green lightning battled with a cyclone of burning lava. Below them, clinging to the bottom of the rock, Wander was just visible, trying to climb back to the top while his feet scrabbled for purchase on the stone.

Sylvia exchanged a glance with the watchdog. Nothing needed to be said as Peepers hopped into her saddle and she started running towards that distant peek. Both of their friends were in danger, so figuring out everything else would have to wait.

And in the midst of that raging battlefield and the confusing mess that was Wander's relationship with Hater, Sylvia found it was kind of nice to have an ally, even if the ally was Commander Peepers.


Thanks for reading!

This chapter took a little while to get out. Sorry about that! There was a lot going on and I got a little stuck figuring it all out, so I had to write some other stories for a while there. It ended up a little shorter than normal while we set some things in motion. Next one should be a doozy.

There was quite a lot of POV changes in this one. We darted around between a lot of characters. I hope it wasn't confusing. I felt like there were a lot of things that needed to happen.

I hope Sylvia and Peepers' final scene came out well. I wanted to get a similar feel to their fight turned agreement in The Battle Royale, but I didn't feel like it made sense for them to actually be fighting. Wander and Hater dating have kind of made them unwilling allies already, though I'm sure they will have some conflicts later in the story. Both of them think an engagement is a bad idea.

I hope you like what I came up with!

Next update should be for The New Galaxy, but I will hopefully be updating this story after that. We will see how the writing goes.

See you next time!