Chapter Text
404 was free. Nothing but blue sky stretched above him, and the ground whizzed by, so far away below him. Him and Horizon, and nothing more.
He giggled anxiously. Was he actually getting away with this? Had his Caretakers actually been caught unawares by the sleek white plane he had built, bursting out of the shed he had built it in? For people that had loomed over him since he was three, the idea was laughable. And yet, here he was; four hours since take off and still no retaliation. Well, at least not from them. He'd been hailed by military force or something about ten minutes ago… something about flying too low over a civilian residential area, and not having authorization for the flight path. Whatever.
He snuggled down in his seat a little, hands tensing around the flight controls a little before relaxing. He didn't know where he was, let alone where he was going. But, as long as he was away from there…
Suddenly, a burst of harsh static touched his ears.
"Ah, there you are, 404." A voice said through the communication lines.
He jumped, and looked around. "Wh…. 101?!" He responded. "How…. how have you got a hold of my comm lines?!"
The voice chuckled unpleasantly. "Why, 404, I tapped your lines before you finished your little toy." It said. "I hope you didn't think that the Caretakers didn't notice what you were up to."
He growled. Too much to have hoped for, after all. "I wasn't as deluded as all that." He responded. "But they didn't make any moves to stop me." He drew in a deep breath, feeling his body start to tremble. "What do you want, 101?"
"I have been instructed to guide you home, 404." 101 told him. "Wouldn't do to have my dear little brother lost and alone."
"You're not my brother, and I'm not coming back."
"Rude." Was the response. "You misunderstand me, 404. I'm not asking you to turn your plane around. I am telling you to. Otherwise, the Caretakers have asked me to enact a rather harsh punishment on you."
404 swallowed. "Y-you can't do anything to me!" He declared, trying to keep the stutter out of his voice.
"Well, see, that's the thing, 404. I can. I major in computer science, remember? I bugged more than just your comm lines. I will send you hurtling towards the ground faster than you can blink unless you turn around right now."
The response was to gun the thrusters harder. "Like hell you will! I won't let you!" He shouted. "I'm not coming back!!"
There was a somewhat disappointed sigh from 101's side of the radio. "What a shame." He said. "You will be missed, little brother." And the radio cut out with another burst of static.
404 yelped as his plane suddenly went dark, and started to pitch downwards. He sprung at the controls, flipping switches and trying to do anything he could to get the engine power back on.
"No, no no no!! Damn it no! I am not letting you crash my plane!!" The engines flickered on for a moment, and his plummeting eased off a little, but only a little.
Whatever that wretched suck up 101 had done to his systems, his efforts were only delaying the inevitable. 404 looked up through the windshield. He was coming down over some buildings… this was not going to end well!!
He tried to get himself aloft for another moment, before deciding that he just couldn't salvage this.
He pulled off his seat belts, and started to prepare to jump ship. But in his hurry to get free of the safety harness of the pilot's seat, he tangled his long legs in them, and flopped to the floor, striking his nose against the non-slip matting and bringing tears to his eyes.
He gathered his wits as fast as his lightly shaken and heavily panicked mind would allow, and he gave his foot a little tug against the seatbelt. He looked back up through the windshield with a small whimper. He saw a flash of maroon, and then… Nothing.
~*~
Business was slow.
Black Hat wasn't in any danger of having to start scaling down his extravagance mind you, his finances were more than flush.
But he was finding the day to day an exercise in tedium. Even Demencia's antics were becoming just part of the static. He needed something new.
He had just finished up a very profitable consult with one of the city's local villains, when there was a loud roar from above. He had enough time to blink in surprise, before the roar became a CRASH, which rattled the very walls of the manor. Black Hat stumbled slightly.
"What the…?" He looked up. "DEMENCIA!" He snarled. "What did you DO?!"
There was a skittering sound, and his assistant burst into the room. "Black Hat!" She squealed. "What did you do?"
Black Hat huffed. "Whatever makes you think that it was my doing?"
She shrugged. "You're the only other one here. And it wasn't me."
"Hmm…" Black Hat mused, before looking up at the ceiling ponderously. "Let's go investigate, shall we?"
She nodded, and the two of them headed up through the Manor.
The attic level was mostly storage rooms and such. And one of these rooms, well, no, more like, four of these rooms, were completely destroyed. The culprit, it seemed, was the white aeroplane that had wedged itself into the top of their house.
"Huh." Black Hat mused, picking his way through the remnants of the top level, hands clasped behind his back.
"A plane!" Demencia squeaked. "A plane crash in our own home! Let's find what's left of the crew!" She giggled. "Maybe they're splattered on what's left of the walls!"
Black Hat wandered around to the cockpit area. He arched a brow, noticing a pool of blood on the floor by the nose of the craft. Getting closer, he found the source. Half hanging, half draped over the nose of the plane, through the shattered remains of the windshield, there was… a man.
Boy, really. He was unconscious, and bleeding from several large gashes in his face and body, and looked like he had at least six or seven broken bones. It was probably only the lack of fire and explosions that the human was still alive at all.
Black Hat pondered carefully. This unceremonious arrival was a nice distraction, but he didn't really appreciate the mess.
The human before him was dying, that much was certain; he could hear the gentle pitter of his heart starting to slow as it pumped more and more of his life blood out.
Black Hat extended a hand and took a single drop of the human's blood on a fingertip. He frowned. There was something…. Different about this human.
"Demencia!" Black Hat called to his assistant, licking the blood off his finger. The green haired girl looked over. "Prepare a room!" He announced. "I think I am going to invite our guest…. To stay."