Wander Over Yonder: The New Galaxy
Chapter Five: The Scouting Party
Hater has survived his first night with Wander. Let's see how his morning goes. Plus, we should be arriving at a planet soon.
Thanks to everyone who is reading and commenting on this story so far. We're going to have a lot of fun exploring the galaxy!
Feel free to comment and tell me how I'm doing. I love hearing them and it really motivates me to write. Wink!
Enjoy and see you at the bottom!
Wander had always been an early riser.
When he fell asleep at night he slept soundly. He rested and he dreamed. Sometimes he had thousands of adventures in one night, and when he awoke in the morning, he felt restored and energetic, and ready to make those adventures a reality or, more properly, to find some real adventures that were even more exciting and fantastical than his dreams.
There were no real days or nights in space. Wander was used to going by the clock of whatever planet he and Sylvia found to camp on. Sometimes those nights were too long or too short, but it tended to average out, and you got used to it when you traveled from planet to planet the way they did.
On a ship, it was different.
They were keeping to a set amount of 'day' and 'night' to allow the various aliens time to eat and sleep and help with running the ship. Of course, there did need to be some folks awake all the time to keep the ship going in the right direction and have an eye out for supernovas and meteor showers, so they had arranged for watches during the 'night' time. It was certainly gratifying to see everyone pitching in to help each other out. Wander really felt like the galaxy had come together in the face of Dominator, and he was glad to see it continuing even after the danger had passed.
Hater was still soundly asleep when Wander rose, one arm dangling out of the hammock. Wander gently repositioned him, tucked the blanket around him once more, then tip-toed out of the room and down to the galley to make breakfast.
He whistled as he flitted around, getting a big pot of porridge going, starting the coffee and cutting up an assortment of fruits to make a salad.
Early risers came trickling in after a while, Sylvia among them, and Wander chatted with his friends while he ate, before popping back into the kitchen to do some dishes, brushing off his best friend's offer to help. He knew Sylvia already had enough on her plate what with steering the ship, though he certainly appreciated the offer.
Next, Wander loaded up a tray with the different breakfast items, along with a bowl of Captain Tim's food, which Mr. Peepers had brought from the skull-ship, and headed back to the room to see if his buddy was awake yet.
Just as he got to the door to their room, already adjusting the dishes he was carrying so he could open it, Wander heard a heavy thud from inside, followed by the unmistakable sound of an angry skeleton overlord who had fallen out of his hammock, and decided to use some rather colourful language to complain about it. This was followed by a hissing and skittering, then an acid hole formed in one wall, smoking and glowing eerily in the dim corridor, and an irate-looking Captain Tim flashed out and down the hallway.
Wander chuckled fondly at the little guy then, remembering that Hater might be hurt, and was definitely upset, he hurriedly opened the door and entered, flicking on the lights as he did so.
Well, at least some of Hater had stayed in his hammock.
The green fabric was wrapped around Hater's legs several times, binding them together. He had probably fallen mostly out of the hammock and hit his skull on the floor, and was currently trying to push himself up with his arms, but seemed unable to free his legs from their binding.
Wander set the tray on their small wooden bench by the door and hurried over to help.
"Y'all right, buddy?" he enquired, moving to examine Hater's wrapped legs.
A growl emanated from below him. There was a crackle as electricity built around the overlord and he began to glow a bright green, getting brighter all the time. Suddenly there was a flash and the sound of tearing fabric as Hater burst out of the hammock. He hovered above the scorched floor for a moment, glowing and crackling, before the light faded and his feet found the wooden planks once again. He stood there panting for a moment, face still twisted into a dark glare as he stared at the remains of his foe.
"Soooooo, ya feel better?" Wander asked after a moment. The response he got really didn't bare repeating. Wander decided he might need to spend some time with his buddy talking about appropriate language. When he was feeling better of course.
"Oooooo! Look, Hater, there it is!"
The overlord peered over the ship's railing at the distant planet. Even from here, he could tell it was very different from how it used to be, back when he'd been trying to conquer it. Wander's flower seemed to have overgrown it completely, and even from this distance, he could see masses of huge leaves, flowers and vines winding their way across its surface.
"Hmph, doesn't look very high tech anymore, does it?" Peepers piped up disparagingly from his right side.
"That's true!" Wander leant on the railing next to the watchdog, giving him a friendly nudge with his elbow and not seeming to notice when Peepers flinched. "Guess tha technoheads'll have some work to do to get their planet back to the way they're used to. Sure is pretty though!"
"I suppose that's a matter of opinion." Peepers' voice seemed to indicate it wasn't.
Hater ignored both of them, still looking at the planet. It was wrapped all about with lush plant life, a burst of vibrant green against the blackness of space.
How had one tiny, worthless flower accomplished all of this? It seemed impossible. It was like a metaphor for Wander himself, though Hater really wasn't that familiar with metaphors. The nomad did something similar after all, traveling through the galaxy from planet to planet, spreading sunshine and twangy, hillbilly banjo music and hugs along the way, and generally messing up any infrastructure a conquering villain had set up. Impossible to destroy, and far more effective than his size and appearance would indicate. Just the thought of all of that would have made him furious half a year ago. He didn't feel angry now, just vaguely annoyed.
Hater glanced over at the nomad, taking in, as if for the first time, the oversized hat, skinny shoulders and spindly limbs, the messy orange fur and that stupid smile as he bounced excitedly on his heals and peered over the ship's railing.
Wander looked so fragile, so completely flarping harmless, though Hater knew he was anything but. It seemed there was nothing the furry freak couldn't accomplish; saving planets, stopping villains, terraforming an entire galaxy by accident.
Getting Lord Hater to stop hating him.
It wasn't something Hater wanted to admit to and, out loud, he wasn't planning to. He wasn't even sure when he'd made the realization. Probably some time after saving the galaxy, and before he'd woken up in their cabin to find himself in a fight with his hammock, a fight he'd won, he reminded himself.
Still, there it was. His hatred for Wander hadn't returned after Dominator's defeat, even with the annoyance of having to share a room with the little pest, and there didn't seem to be anything he could do about it.
He'd spent a long time thinking about everything last night, after Wander had fallen asleep, snoring softly and peacefully across the room from him. The nomad had never had trouble sleeping around Hater, never worried for a moment that the overlord could snuff out his life with barely a thought while he slept.
Hater had thought about that. He'd thought about how easy it would be to creep out of bed, provided he could figure out the stupid hammock, sneak across the room, stand over Wander's helpless form and destroy the hairy nuisance once and for all. He'd played the scenario over in his mind, trying to summon the enthusiasm his dreams of Wander's untimely death used to produce, but it wasn't there. Now, when he thought about destroying the nomad, waking him from his peaceful slumber and seeing his eyes, wide with fear for once in his miserable life before Hater's electricity zapped that life from him, he just felt cold inside.
After all, he'd finally seen Wander afraid, though it hadn't been of him, and it hadn't made Hater feel jealous or indignant that another villain had made Wander frightened. He hadn't thought about that at all. He hadn't really thought about anything. He'd just wanted it to stop. He'd wanted Wander not to be frightened anymore, to go back to being happy and annoying.
And afterward, even though he hadn't admitted it to himself, or even allowed himself to think too much about it, he'd known he no longer wanted Wander to be dead, to be gone. A galaxy without that frustrating ray of sunshine bumbling his way through it would feel…empty.
Surly there must be something wrong with him. That's what Peepers would say, what any other villain who'd run afoul of the frustrating orange toothpick would say.
And they'd probably be right.
He turned away from the railing, grumbling to himself under his breath to hopefully distract from all the uncomfortable thoughts bouncing around inside his skull. He noticed Wander waving happily to him out of the corner of his eye, and ignored it. He hated the absence of anger inside him when the nomad did something, when he talked or waved or even sang.
He hated not hating that stupid smile.
As he started down the stairs into the lower part of the ship, he became aware of Peepers next to him. Hater ignored his commander in much the same way, though he was pretty sure Peepers wanted to talk to him, probably about him cooking with Wander yesterday. At least Hater had an excuse for that incident already planned, though he wasn't really in the mood to be interrogated by his commander right now. There was too much going on inside his own head at the moment, and much of it was stuff he wasn't interested in sharing, especially with Peepers.
Pausing in one of the narrow, wooden hallways, Hater turned, glaring down at his commander, trying to communicate how completely fed up he was feeling at the moment.
It must have worked, because Peepers seemed to shrink into himself slightly before he straightened, giving Hater a sharp salute.
But he was still there.
"What?" Hater demanded irritably.
Peepers took a deep breath.
"Sir, I know you're dealing with some…distractions right now," the 'W' word went unsaid, for the moment, "and believe me; I get it. And I don't want to make things any more difficult, especially while we're stuck on this ship with a bunch of shiftless doo-gooders, but we do need to have an eye to the Plan." He pronounced it with a capital 'P.'
"The Plan?" Hater couldn't help feeling that he'd missed something.
"You know." Peepers gestured expansively with one hand, taking a moment to glance around the sparce corridor as if worried that someone might be listening. "For what to do after we wave 'good riddance' to this useless lot and fix the skull-ship?"
"Oh, right." His commander's plans for galactic domination. Hater wasn't quite ready to think that far ahead. His mind still seemed stuck in the past and his unfortunate present, dealing with everything that had happened and everything he'd realized lately. He tried to put some enthusiasm into his voice, but wasn't sure he succeeded. "You, uh, you want to talk about the Plan?"
"Well…not here." Peepers' pupil darted around guardedly once more. "But apparently a landing party is planning to do some recon on the planet to make sure it's safe. It's the perfect time to find a private place and do some strategizing."
Hater shrugged. He supposed they'd have to talk about that stuff sooner or later or, more accurately, Peepers would talk while Hater pretended to listen. The overlord wasn't particularly interested in traipsing across some wilderness while everyone else lazed around on the ship. Still, he was maybe a little curious to see the planet up close.
His day really hadn't had the best start. Maybe getting away from the ship, and the remains of his hammock, would help to get his mind off everything.
"Fine, I guess," he conceded with another glare. "So, uh, who's in this 'landing party' anyway?"
Technoiva was truly a sight to behold up close.
The tangle of vines, leaves, flowers and huge, dangling fruits reached as high as the ship, and to dock, they simply had to hook the anchor around a thick, green stalk that had come questing up higher than most. Far below them, the ground was just as overgrown, barely visible through the densely twining plant life.
There was no sign of the devastation from Dominator's drill, no visible mark where the planet had almost split in half. Yet the whole place looked nothing like it had a year ago, when it had been a busy city with lighted billboards, electric cars and mirrored, metal skyscrapers, and the technoheads were understandably a little hesitant to disembark. There were only a few of them who had made it to the secret Planet's shelter and were riding on the Star Nomad, and had been hoping that more of their people would find their way back to this planet eventually.
Currently, Technovia was beautiful and wild and strange, a riot of colour, waving in the wind, tangled and full of dark paths and tunnels through the greenery.
And it kind of gave Sylvia the creeps.
Wander was in love. The moment they walked down the ramp onto a thick branch of vine, he'd begun darting here and there, climbing higher to peer across the landscape, examining the leaves and twisting tendrils that were in reach, and even beginning to hum a song to himself as though he was itching to start playing his banjo.
Sylvia could tell she was going to have to keep her eyes glued to her buddy, especially once they got down on the forest floor.
Above her head, the ramp was being retracted, glowing gently purple as Jeff steadied it. The former conqueror had elected to stay back and keep the ship under control. Sylvia had heard his band was going to perform for the children on board to keep them entertained, and the zbornak suspected that quite a few adults were planning to attend as well.
Their own scouting party was rather nostalgic in a way; herself, Wander, Hater and Peepers. She wasn't sure why the two villains had decided to tag along, but had elected to let them, and not to worry. She'd already decided to give Hater at least a little leeway. Besides, they weren't going to try anything while they were still passengers on the Star Nomad. If any villainy were going to occur, she knew it would be after they'd fixed their ship and were mobile once again.
Then she'd worry about whether she had to go back to caving in watchdog heads.
Quite a few others had offered to join them, but Sylvia could tell she wasn't the only person feeling some amount of trepidation about the beautiful wilderness they'd docked beside, and she hadn't wanted to bring anyone who was frightened, since that could lead to trouble. Besides, a small scouting party made more sense to begin with. She and Wander had a lot of experience exploring strange planets and, she grudgingly had to admit, so did Hater and Peepers.
Once they had checked things out a little and determined what potential dangers they had to watch out for, then more people could disembark to explore, resupply, and give the technoheads a hand with finding a place to make a temporary home until they could unearth whatever remained of their infrastructure.
"C'mon, buddies, let's go!" Wander's voice quivered slightly, rising on the end in an almost shriek of excitement. Sylvia knew if they didn't set off soon, they'd probably lose him among the plants, not her favourite thing to have happen in unexplored territory.
"Alright, you heard him," she instructed, over the background noise of both Hater and Peepers insisting they weren't Wander's buddies. At this point, she tended to just tune them out when they started protesting. To get to the ground, they were going to have to do some climbing, so she snagged Wander from the branch above her head and plonked him pointedly on the vine next to her, just in case they had to move quickly. The two villains plodded some distance behind her as she headed towards the main stalk of the vine they were on. It was like a huge, green tree trunk, but wound about with leaves and little tendrils. Yellow buds as big as her head were everywhere, and Wander was already speculating about what the flowers would look like.
When she reached the 'trunk', Sylvia paused, examining it for the best way down. It wasn't perfectly straight, and the smaller vines wrapped around it seemed like they would provide decent handholds.
They started down, Wander peering down through the trees in anticipation as he climbed. She made sure to keep near him in case of accidents. Still, despite her strange feelings about the jungle and the dangers it might hold, Sylvia couldn't help the tingle of excitement down her own back. It had been a while since she and Wander had gotten to do any exploring. Dominator's threat had meant they'd been focused on saving people from her bots, hiding and watching the galaxy die around them. It had been a lot, and it was nice to have an honest to goodness adventure again, even with a couple of hangers on.
And who knew, the two of them might even come in handy if her instincts about this place proved true.
"Stupid jungle, stupid planet, stupid walking."
Hater looked up from his feet briefly, glancing ahead at his three 'companions.' He'd started to lag behind them almost as soon as they reached the forest floor, which was just stupid. If he'd been roped into this dumb expedition, he should at least be leading it. He quickened his pace, then immediately started to stumble on the uneven ground, and looked back down at his feet again hurriedly.
Uneven wasn't even the word. It was like every vine had specifically decided to trip him up, and had wound and slunk across the ground and into crevasses and holes, pushing up rocks, wrapping around the bases of other plants and stretching across any level ground he could see all to accomplish their nefarious purpose. And to make it worse, many of these obstructions were camouflaged by flowers, leaves and other low-lying ground cover.
Hater glanced up again, peering ahead in quick intervals and keeping most of his attention on picking his way across the forest floor. At least he was unlikely to lose sight of the aliens ahead of him. The black and red of Peepers' uniform, Sylvia's blue skin and pink-red crest, and of course the absolute eyesore of Wander's bright orange fur stood out against the green background like a warning sign, although this time when he looked at them, that orange splash seemed to be missing…
"Hiya, Hatey!"
"Gah!" Hater reared back from the smiling, orange, upside down face that was suddenly far too close to his own. Failing to find purchase on the rough ground, he found himself falling backward, landing heavily in a ditch full of leaves. Standing abruptly and brushing himself off, Hater attempted to glare down the fuzzy nomad, with his usual amount of success. "Wander! What do you think you're doing?" he demanded.
"Jus' checkin' in on ya, Hatey!" Wander swung himself right side up again on the branch he'd been hanging from, hat bobbing but staying on his head, then dropped down to join Hater on the ground. "Thought ya looked a little lonely back here," he elaborated.
"What are – I'm not lonely!" Hater could feel his cheekbones getting hot and told himself it was from anger. He clenched his hands. "And I wasn't having trouble keeping up, if that's what you're thinking. I'm just taking my time. You got a problem with that?"
"No, sir, not at all!" Wander still seemed like he was too close, smile impossibly wide as he looked up at the overlord. "It's real nice just to take yer time an' enjoy the journey once in a while, an' it's been too long since any of us have gotten a chance to do that!"
"Yeah, well…" Hater tried to keep his voice brusk, looking away from the nomad and out through the endless greenery. Now that his initial annoyance over the shock of Wander's appearance had faded, he was finding it hard to stay angry. Nor was he willing to admit that it was kind of nice not to be alone out here, even if that meant being with Wander. "Let's just start walking again, and catch up to Peepers and your zbornak."
"Sounds good!" Wander bounced out of the ditch, leaving Hater to struggle up after him. Once on relatively level ground again, the overlord paused. Wander seemed at a bit of a loss, peering this way and that, shading his eyes against the sun that filtered down through the canopy. "Hmmmm," he mused. "Any idea which way we were goin', buddy?"
"I'm not your…" Hater started, then cut himself off. Those patches of bright blue and black were nowhere to be seen. "You mean you don't know?" he accused.
"'Fraid not." Wander chuckled a little self-consciously. "There was an awful lot ta see an' I s'pose I wasn't really payin' attention. You?"
"Well, I did," Hater claimed emphatically and untruthfully. "Right up until a hyperactive furball decided to appear in front of me suddenly and knock me over!" He glared around at the trees for a moment, then sighed, kicking at one of the roots twisted about at his feet.
"Hmmmm, maybe we should call Syl or Mr. Peepers an' let 'em know we fell behind."
"We didn't 'fall behind,'" Hater insisted petulantly. "If anything, you knocked me behind. But fine," he agreed grudgingly. Turning away slightly, Hater tapped his glove to activate its communicator. Instead of the usual dial tone, there was only a faint, crackly sort of static. "That's weird." He held his hand up, moving it around but hearing no change. "There's something wrong with this stupid thing!" he groused.
"Now now, Hater. It's probably just all tha trees an' plants an' such." Wander came over as well, examining the glove as Hater shook his hand around. "Guess they're not so good at lettin' the signal through."
"That's stupid!" Hater snapped. "This planet is stupid! Let's just go back to the ship."
"Well…"
"Alright, I get it!" Hater didn't need Wander to finish. The dense foliage extended far above their heads, blocking out any sign of the Star Nomad or the tall vine it had been anchored to.
Sudden realization sunk in, and Hater had to resist the urge to scream. He was lost in this Grop forsaken jungle, lost with Wander.
Hater decided today was shaping up to be significantly worse than yesterday.
Hope you enjoyed!
I really wanted to explore the effect Wander's flower might have had on the planets it grew on. I have lots of ideas for that, and we will be exploring some of them on this planet. I hope our two groups enjoy their exploring. I'm sure they'll be fine, and Peepers and Sylvia will probably realize they lost their idiots soon enough, and Hater and Wander get to spend some quality time together.
Work is super busy right now, but I'm still updating when I can. We will see what wants to be written next.
See you next time!