Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Alright, Go! Go! Go!” Tobi signaled Hank and Sanford to run for shelter. Their paintball guns in hand, paintballs flying through the air and exploding on contact whenever they hit something solid. The three soon huddled for shelter behind what felt like a wall.

This was how they spent their summers, in the mountains far from Nevada. In a state called Wyoming. They spent their days practicing paintball with other boys their age. They often spent hours in the woods, running and shooting each other with little beads of rubber filled with paint. It was like they were training for something big.
“Hank, where’s Deimos?” The shorter boy asked the taller kid as they hid behind a wall of paint covered logs.

Before hank could answer, a playful shout rang out in the forest. “YAHOOOO!” The shortest boy ran through the battle ground, catching both the enemy team and his ally team off guard.

“Does that answer your question?” Hank asked, looking at Sanford, his brown eyes glaring at the boy’s mask.

“Yeah… Thanks hank.”

“What the hell is Deimos doing?!” Tobi hissed.

Deimos rushed into the enemy team, and immediately taking out the opposing team, with a big grin on his face. When he had eliminated his opponents, he turned to look at his team only to be shot in the chest with an ally bullet. “Ow! What the hell, hank?!” Deimos shouted.

Hank looked up from his Sniper Paintball gun. “That’s for not listening to the plan, Deimos.” Hank said.

“Well ya’ shouldn’t have shot me!”

“Deimos…” Sanford said, as the boys all put their guns on lock mode and removing their masks. The other three boys then walked up to Deimos and said softly. “Look, Dei, we work together as a team. You, Me, Hank, Tobi, we work together as one!”

“Tch! You guys were taking too long to attack!” Deimos scoffed.

“Because we had a plan, Deimos!” Tobi hissed.

“’Plan’ my ass!”

“Deimos…. If we were to go out in war, we can’t just run in the middle of the battle field.” Hank started. “For one thing, real bullets do a lot more than to cause welts and bruises…”

Hank didn’t leave much room for the others to talk, before he continued. “If this was a real battle, I would have killed you.” Hank gestured to the lovely blotch of red paint on Deimos’s paintball armor.

“That was a chest shot. So what? People survive chest wounds, riiiiiiight ‘Doc’?” Deimos asked, looking at Tobi with a smug grin.

Tobi sighed, as he hated the nickname Deimos spewed out at him. “The mortality rate for gunshot wounds to the chest varies from a 14.3% to a 36.8%.”
Deimos turned his head to the side and gave Tobi the silliest excuse for a confused look. “Huh???”

“14.3 to 36.8 percent of people die from gunshot wounds to the chest, Deimos!” Tobi hissed.

“Okay! Okay! I get it, doc!”

“Obviously you don’t…”

Deimos’ and Tobi’s bickering were soon interrupted by the opposing team as they walked up to Deimos and all congratulated him. “Hey kid, you’re pretty good.”

“Wha-” Deimos quietly asked himself

“Yeah! You’re pretty fast!” another kid piped up

“Good game!” one more said.

Deimos didn’t know how to feel. He was being yelled at by his team mates yet his opponents were all complementing him for how good he was. Soon, their celebration was broken by Sanford as he said, with a smile. “Hey, we should head back up to the cabin. Mawmaw should have supper ready for us.”

“Alright!” Deimos shouted, excited and filled with glee. “Your Grandma makes some damn good supper!”

Hank and Tobi both nodded, as Deimos looked at the other boys and waved good-bye “See ya’ guys later! Next year maybe?”

“How about tomorrow?” The leader of the others asked.

“No… We have to head back home tomorrow.” Tobi replied.

“Oh… Where do you live?”

“Nevada….”

“Oh… wow... well see ya.”

The boys soon said their goodbyes as Hank and the other three left the painted forest…

###

“GO! GO! GO!” Doc shouted as the men rushed passed a barrage of bullets. One by one, the men were taking out grunts swiftly. Blood covered the walls… Hank pulled out his dragon blade as he slashed through grunts like paper; Sanford used his hook and slammed the sharp blade into the heads of the grunts. Doc was skillful as he took his VSS Vintorez and quietly shot down many grunts as he could. That was if Deimos wasn’t in the way, going wild with his pistol.

Doc really didn’t want to shoot Deimos, but every time he would get a chance to shoot, Deimos would get in the way. He didn’t want to hurt Deimos.

He didn’t want to see anyone on his team to get hurt. However, Hank looked like he was badly injured, with bullet holes littering his body. Hank never showed pain nor did he ever act like he was suffering. Did the bastard even feel pain? Sanford had a nasty bruise on his chest from a grunt shoving a tonfa into his abs. That probably hurt like hell. But Sanford said that it was fine. Deimos, however, haven’t received a single wound from today’s raid. Not yet at least. They Deimos pranced around in front of Doc’s line of sight; he feared that he would shoot Deimos.

Doc readied his gun at a grunt that was entering the room, waited for a second for Deimos before pulling the trigger.

Just then… Deimos blindly jumped in front of the bullet, his back towards doc.

“DEIMOS, DAMNIT! LOOK OUT!” Doc shouted… but it was too late… the bullet had entered through Deimos’ right shoulder blade, doc wasn’t sure if the bullet had exited or not.

Shit! Shit! Shit!

Deimos collapsed on the floor… Panic filled both Sanford and Doc. While Hank cared, he was too focused on bashing heads into the concrete and seeing the color red. The grunt that Doc tried to kill was dead by the time Deimos was no longer in Doc’s sights… Deimos might have killed it.

It was an accident… an accident that could kill Deimos. Doc rushed to Deimos. “Deimos, damnit! Don’t you dare die on me!” Doc hissed as he rushed to Deimos.

“Doc… I’m sorry…” Deimos said, weakly. Shit! What damages did Doc do to Deimos?!

###

Raid was a success… minus the fact that Deimos is under intense surgery…

Time… Time was the worst enemy for a doctor… even if he wasn’t one.

Sanford and Hank both waited in front of a door that said “2B’s lab.”

Doc’s lab…

Sanford had his bruise treated by Hank. While he wasn’t as skilled as Doc, Hank learned some tricks from their parents… As for Hank, he didn’t give a damn about his injuries. He was fine. Did pain even bother the bastard?

The door opened up, surprising Sanford and Hank. Doc came out. “How is Deimos?!” Sanford asked.

“He’s going to make it. That damn bastard is lucky that I didn’t server any nerves or anything.”

“Tobi… It’s not your fault.” Hank said, trying to comfort Doc.

Heh… Tobi… He hasn’t heard that name in ages. It was either 2B or Doc…

“I’m Sorry, Sanford… I didn’t mea-”

“No… Like Hank said, it wasn’t your fault Doc.”

“….Should Deimos is at fault here?”

Doc and Sanford turned their attentions to the big brute. Sanford gave hank a look of confusion. “What do you mean, Hank?”

“Deimos has been dancing around like a moron… he got himself shot by Doc… So It isn’t Doc’s fault… does that make it Deimos’ fault then?”

Silence…

“No… No one is at fault here.” Doc finally replied. Doc turned to Sanford and said with a nod. “You can both see him if you like.” He said.
Sanford nodded as both he and Hank walked into the door. Deimos sat in the bed, fully awake; his wound was hidden by bandages.

“Hey, little bro.” Sanford said his voice shaky.

“I fucked up big time, haven’t I, San.” Deimos asked, staring at his hands.

“No, Dei. It was only an accident.”

Deimos looked up at Sanford and Hank, the taller man nodded. “Deimos… War is not like a game of paintball.”

Deimos started laughing. “Pffffft! Where did Paintball come from, Hank?!”

“Remember when we were kids, and you would rush out and start shooting the other kids at close range?"

“Yeah. I also remember the time you shot me!”

“Yeah… And do you remember what I told you back then?”

Deimos paused for a moment. “Shit… I do…” Deimos was upset. “I fucked up badly…”

“No, Deimos… We both messed up.” 2B said, walking in. His mask was off, revealing his scars on his face… Scars he didn’t want to talk about.

“I heard you yell at me… but I should have stayed back with you doc… We had a plan… and I fucked up. I…”

Sanford gave Deimos a hug, as he said softly. “No one messed up… No one is to blame. We forgive you, Deimos.”

“I’m sorry…” Deimos croaked, trying not to cry. Doc walked towards Deimos and hugged him.

“I’m sorry too, Deimos…”

For the hell of it, Hank joined in the sappy group hug... But on that day, the group of friends had learned a valuable lesson…

A lesson.... that may one day save their lives.

Chapter Text

[Past]
Cold… Dark… Tobi was only five years old when he was left alone in that underground bunker. Its original purpose was a tornado shelter… But right now… it was a safe place to hide Tobi.

“We’ll be back soon.” His parents comforted him. But Tobi pleaded his parents not to leave him.

“Please… Don’t leave me…” He pleaded. No matter how hard he pleaded, his parents only kissed the top of his forehead, brushing away his black hair.

“Tobi… We have to go… Be a good boy… okay?” His Mother said.

“Please! Don’t go!” The door to the bunker was shut…

It felt like days since Tobi was left alone… Alone… Tobi had nothing better to do than to talk to his imaginary friends.

Colorful creatures, that only the mind of a lonely five year can come up with, surrounded him, or so did he thought. He talked to himself in this lonely bunker… “They said they be back. Hey, I said they be back… Mommy and Daddy won’t lie to me… They not gone… Are they…?”

Tobi curled up in a dark corner as he started to cry. He was lonely, scared, hungry, and alone… Alone…

###

Hours must have flown by… maybe days…. Tobi was awakened by the door to the bunker opening. He tried to move, but hunger was affecting him. He was too hungry to move…

He heard unfamiliar voices talking to each other.

“We have a child in here!” A male voice shouted.

Tobi stayed still, staring at the cursed wall of the bunker. He was curled up, cold, hungry, weak… He didn’t want to talk… not now.

“Son, can you get up?” A soft voice called out. Tobi didn’t respond.

“Is he dead?” A worried woman’s voice asked.

Tobi felt a hand gently touch his shoulder. As a surprised response, he jumped and gasped. “W-who are you?!” He asked as he looked at the man.

“Relax, son. I’m not going to hurt you.” The man replied softly, knelt next to Tobi. “What is your name?” The man asked.

“Tobi…” Tobi replied. He was starting to black out again, as his vision was fuzzing away. He heard the man say his name… “Matt…” Matt was the man’s name…

###

Tobi woke up in a strange room. He was warm, he still felt terrible but… the five year old boy franticly looked around the room to see a boy, his age, sitting next to him. “Mr. Matt! Tobi is awake!” The boy said, excitedly.

“Where… Where am I?” Tobi croaked.

A man walked over to Tobi, a soft smile relaxed the boy. “You’re in a hospital, Tobi.” The man replied, before turning to the other boy. “Sanford, go see if your parents or the Wimbletons need any help.”

“Okay!” the boy said, sliding off his seat and running out of the room. The man gave a smile before turning to Tobi.

“How are you feeling, Tobi?” The man asked. His relaxed expression kept Tobi at peace.

“Hungry… But… much better… I’m no longer lonely… Mr…?”

“Matt. I’m Matt Medic.” The man introduced himself. He got up, walked over to a cabinet and pulled out a small cookie, before walking back to Tobi and handing him the cookie.

“Here. It’s not much, but it should help with your hunger.”

“Thank you, Mr. Medic…” Tobi said, quietly.

Matt chuckled lightly “You can call me Matt, its fine.”

“Thank you, Matt.” Tobi said, as he ate his cookie before looking at the situation he was in. A needle was in his wrist. The needle was secured with some medical tape that had cats on it. He was then looked around only to see Matt to be the only adult in the room. There was another kid in the room, but he was leaning against the wall, asleep. “Matt… where is my mom and dad?”

The smile that one thought was permanently stuck on Matt’s face slowly faded away. “Your parents… We couldn’t find them. We don’t even know who they are…” Matt wasn’t sure how to explain what happened to his parents.

“Are my parents… gone forever?”

“…I’m afraid so…”

Tobi was about to cry. Tears fell down his eyes. “Will I get new parents?”

“We will have you with someone else… Yes…” Matt said, his voice saddened. He looked at the tall boy in the corner. “You’ll be living with the Wimbletons. Over there is their only son, Hank.”

“Hank…?” Tobi asked, as he looked at Hank.

Hank replied with a mumble. “whutyouwant…”

Matt glared at Hank. “Hank, your parents promised to take care of this boy. This is your new brother, Hank.”

Hank’s eyes flew open as jumped off the wall. “Wait… I have a brother?!” Hank’s brown eyes met with Tobi’s green eyes.

Matt smiled. “Yes, Hank. His name is Tobi. You better be nice to him.”

“Tobi…” Hank said, as he walked up to the small boy on the medical bed. Hank gave a friendly smile as he went to shake hands. “I’m 6 years old… how old are you?” The tall boy
asked. Hank didn’t look six. He looked like he was ten!

“Five… Five years old.” Tobi felt comfort after meeting his new big brother.

Hank…

###[Present Time]###

Hank and his team of men scoured a small town that was raided by the Agency. Doc hated this. Bad memories flooded his mind. Memories of being an orphan after the Agency raided his town. How he met Hank and Sanford. Even if the meeting was brief with Sanford.

They were looking for any supplies for themselves. The Agency usually took anything that was useful for themselves. But never did they get food, only medical supplies. The group, however, took anything.

“Yo! There’s a bunker here!” Deimos called out.

2B hated that word… Bunker… But… there could be something useful in that bunker. 2B walked up to Deimos as he nodded. “Open the bunker… Let’s see if there’s anything in there.”

Deimos gave a toothy grin, as he pulled open the bunker door. The sound of a gunshot was heard, which startled everyone.

Deimos dodged a bullet… literally.

Inside the bunker were three kids. Two boys and a girl. The older boy was pointing a 9mm handgun, pointing it at the entrance of the bunker, his hands shaking. The younger boy was sitting next to the girl, while the girl was curled up in the corner…

2B’s heart sank into his stomach. A scene that was so familiar to 2b.

“W-who are you?!” The boy with the gun said, growling.

“Woah! Woah! Woah! Relax! We’re not going to hurt you!” Deimos said, panicked. “We’re here to help you! Just put the gun down and no one gets hurt!”

“How the hell do we know you’re not with the agency?!” The boy said.

2B had to say something. With a sigh, he walked closer to the boy. He remembered how Matt sounded and as much effort as he give, he tried to replicate Matt’s soft voice. “We’re against them. Don’t worry. My name is 2BDamned, and this is my friend, Deimos… What your guy’s name?”

“I’m Jason.” The boy with the gun said, as he lowered it. “Behind me is my brother, Keith, and sister, Resee.”

“Jason… Can I see Resee?” 2B asked, softly. He had to make a different in these children’s lives. Just like what Matt did.

Jason nodded as he moved out of 2B’s way. 2B crawled into the small bunker and lightly touched Resee’s shoulder, startling her.

“Relax, Resee, I’m not going to hurt you.” 2B said.

Deimos could not believe this. As harsh and cold 2B is, this was the first time he’s seen 2B be soft. It was almost cute. Where did this soft side come from?

2B finished examining Resee before turning to Jason. “She’ll need to go to the hospital…” He then looked at Deimos and forgot to sound snappy. “Deimos, can you alert Hank and Sanford about the children?”

“Alright… ‘Dad’” Deimos said, winking as he gave a toothy grin and running off.

###

It had been forever since Hank and Sanford had seen the soft side of 2B, as the doctor-not-doctor took care of the little girl at the abandoned hospital. An IV in the girl’s wrist, secured with some medical tape with cats on them. Hank chose the medical tape for 2B.

“This is like the time we first met, little brother.” Hank said.

“Heh. Yeah, Hank. Matt was the reason I wanted to study medicine.” 2B replied

Hank and 2B were alone with the little girl. Sanford and Deimos were in another room with the two other boys.

“I see… Hey, Tobi… do you think their parents are dead?” Hank asked.

“I’m afraid so, Hank.” 2B replied.

“Should we take care of them?”

“Hank, we can’t even take care of ourselves… We can’t feed three extra mouths… We should keep them under our care for a few days… Maybe train the older boy into fighting… and then…”

“We let them go out on their own?” Hank asked, trying to understand 2B’s plan.

“Yes, Hank. We let them go out on their own.”

“That’s cruel…”

“This world is cruel, Hank.”

“…I know…”

Hank walked up to 2B and gave him a back hug. Hank might be older than 2BDamned, but he sure acted like his little brother.

“I’m sorry it has to be like this, Hank…”

Chapter Text

Grey walls… old stasis tubes lined the walls…

Sanford and Deimos cautiously walked through the cloning lab.

The cloning lab. Oh how Sanford hated these places. He met Deimos in a cloning lab… it was actually this particular cloning lab, that they’re currently investigating, is where Sanford and Deimos first met.

“Hey, San.” Deimos called out, as he carefully looked at each tube, some contained grunts that never woke up and were just left there to rot.

“Yeah, Dei?”

“If you hadn’t found me, do you think…? I would end up like these guys?” Deimos asked, as he stopped at one of the tubes. A braindead grunt floated in light blue fluid. There was a monitor on the glass of the jar that read all of the grunt’s vitals, including brain performances. Deimos then looked over at Sanford, who was across the room, giving Deimos the silent treatment. “Or… do you think they would’ve treated me like they did back when I was a teen soldier for them…”

Sanford tried not to get emotional over that hell. “Dei...” Sanford walked up next to Deimos and hugged him tightly from behind. “…I think they might have, little bro.” Sanford replied. His throat was tight.

“Damn…” Deimos didn’t sound emotional at all. He then looked up at Sanford. “Well. I’m glad you found me.” He said.
Those words made Sanford want to cry.

Ten… Sanford was Ten years old when he met Deimos… and how he met Deimos made Sanford both upset and angry. Back then, Sanford was just a curious kid. He didn’t know better… but now… that ‘raid’ on this cloning facility made him realize… he did the right thing.

“Hey, San…”

“Yeah, Dei?”

“Since there’s no ass for us to kick… can you tell me how we met… again? It’s my favorite story to hear you tell...”

“Well…”

“What?! What do you mean we can’t go out?” Sanford shouted on his walkie-talkie. He was talking to Toby and Hank.

“I mean, Sanford, we can’t- Hank can’t go out. He’s caught some sort of illness.” Toby’s voice squeaked over the radio, followed by that familiar beep of the signal to talk.

“So… what about you? Can you join?”

Toby’s radio came on… his sigh was heard. “Sanford… I’m scared…”

“Scared?! How old are you?! Nine?!”

“Eleven…” Toby sighed again

“And you’re afraid of going and checking out a lab?!”

Toby’s radio came on once again. “Sanford… did you hear what the other kids said?! The Auditor is one scary man.”

“Yeah… and?”

“Sanford… either we do this later, like next week, or you can prove that you have the will to do such a task.”

“Okay! I can prove that! I can prove that I’m braver than you, chicken!”

Sanford wasn’t expecting any retaliation from the other boy, until he heard a sickly gruff voice coming from Toby’s radio. “Listen here, Sanford. You call Toby a chicken again and I’ll shove you into a chicken suit and make you dance the chicken dance.”

Crap… Toby is right next to Hank. “R-right… Okay, over and out…”

Sanford sighed as he put his radio onto the charging deck on his nightstand. He then looked at the clock next to the charging station. 7:59 pm. He should be asleep by now. But Sanford couldn’t sleep. Not when there’s an Agency lab right next to them.

The Agency… they basically control Nevada. No one knows why they’re called that… Are they some evil organization who wants to take over the world? Surely they’re like Team Rocket from pokemon. Rumor on the playground is that the Agency kidnaps children and murders their parents.

Worse of all, some of these rumors are true. Sanford once overheard a conversation between his parents that Toby’s real parents were probably murdered by the Agency. Which means Toby was an orphan before being accepted into the Wimbleton’s home. Sanford wanted to ask Toby about his parents… but every time he tried, Hank would give him the glare. That stupid glare that, if looks could kill, Sanford would not only be dead, but would be sent to someplace worse than hell.

Sanford got off his bed and turned off his bedroom lights before gathering up a hip pouch full of necessary tools he needed to explore the Agency Lab. He then opened his window and proceeded to climb out of it. He had a rope ladder that he, Hank, and Toby built so that they can safely exit their rooms.

His feet eventually made contact with the ground and he looked at the house next to his. Hank and Toby’s house… The two induvial in question were staring at him, both giving him a thumbs ups and a toothy grin.

Cowards.

Sanford processed to trek to the lab, which was in the outskirts of town. Upon reaching it, he saw the chain-link fence that wrapped around the building, along with barbed wires on top to prevent people from climbing on the fence. However, Sanford found a weakness in their barricade, as he found a hole big enough for him to crawl under. After succeeding in breaking through their fence, Sanford ran into the building through an open door that was not guarded by grey skinned men.

The building had dull grey walls; the place was practically dead and empty. Sanford took a deep breath as he traversed through the corridors. He felt like this was a bad idea… but he wanted to prove to Hank and Toby that he wasn’t a chicken. Not like those two. His heart was pounding out of his chest. He was so nervous, that even his own breathing scared him at times.

Sanford eventually came across a large room that had large, liquid filled containers lining the sides of the rooms. In each container was a figure, grey skinned, each with short white hair, their eyes were closed so Sanford didn’t know what color their eyes were. On each figure were about ten thick wires on every part of their body. The strangest thing about them was that they were wearing short pants, almost like boxers… but they didn’t show any signs of being wet…

Sanford walked up to one and his eyes widened as he saw a short boy, about his age, floating in that container. Without giving any second thought, he placed his hand on the glass container.

Bad move, Sanford.

The liquid in the container suddenly started draining, scaring Sanford, as he jumped back. For a second, he sworn he heard a man laugh at what was happening. But it might have been his imagination. Sanford’s eyes were glued at the large tube that was releasing the boy from his tube, as the wires disconnected themselves from the boy. Eventually the boy was lying on the bottom of the tube, the glass lowered into some hidden compartment.

This boy was not like the others in the tubes, for he had light colored skin, almost a pasty white, with short dark brown hair. When the boy had woken up and opened his eyes, they were a very light blue.

The boy mumbled as he slowly sat up. The boy’s eyes met with Sanford’s eyes, before the boy got up off the floor and walked up to Sanford, who was on the floor, shaking with fear.

Sanford was scared out of his skin. He did something that he shouldn’t of done. But the boy didn’t seem to show any hate, resentment or malice towards Sanford’s actions.
The boys’ short staring contest was soon interrupted by someone walking into the room; his body was made out of black flames. Oh crap! It’s the Auditor! “What are you two doing in here?” He hissed.

“I… uhm…” Sanford tried to compose himself. Oh he was so nervous. “I was just… curious…”

“Well?! Is your curiosity fed now?!” The Auditor asked Sanford. Before the boy could reply, the man continued “Your curiosity could have killed you! You could of released a dangerous criminal! You’re fucking lucky you only released a runt!” Sanford was speechless at this point. “Though it was funny to see you act all scared.” The Auditor…chuckled?!

“I-I’m sorry!” Sanford scrambled to stand up. “I’m so sorry sir!” Sanford apologized.

The boy watched quietly, as he stood by Sanford’s side. The Auditor looked at Sanford then at the runt of the child before looking at Sanford. His flames seemed to have died down a little as he relaxed. “Children are curious… What’s your name, boy?”

“S-Sanford…”

“Sanford…” The auditor chuckled. “I’ll tell you what, Sanford. You keep the runt. But…” The Auditor’s flames started to rise up again, as he seemed to get angry. “If I see you set foot in this building again, you and or that runt, I’ll kill the both of you.” Sanford tensed up as he was about to cry. He nodded, shaking badly. The Auditor relaxed a bit again. Before Sanford could walk off, the Auditor stopped him. “Hold on, Sanford. Let me give your new friend some clothes. It’s awfully chilly out there, isn’t it?”

Is the Auditor… actually being nice? This was startling to Sanford as he heard bad things about the Auditor. Sanford took the hand of the boy and walked up to the Auditor, as the flaming man led the two boys down to a room filled with boxes. “So… Sanford, do you have a name for your new friend?” The Auditor asked, as he shifted through the boxes.

“Uhm… Deimos…?” Sanford said, with not a lot of confidence, as he looked at the boy. The boy seemed to like the name as his eyes lit up a bit. Sanford noticed that the boy didn’t talk at all.

“Deimos… heh, fitting name for the kid.” The Auditor said, before his eyes lit up in excitement. “Ah here we go.” Pulling out of the box was a small white t-shirt, big enough for Deimos. He handed Deimos the shirt and said to the quiet grunt. “Try it on, Deimos.”

“Thank you, sir.” Deimos finally spoke, his voice sounded cold, and almost robotic. Without hesitation, Deimos put on the shirt. The shirt was a perfect fit for Deimos.

The Auditor looked at the two boys and said, in a demanding tone. “I’ll show you two the exit… follow me.”

Without hesitation, Deimos followed the Auditor. It took a second for Sanford to register what the Auditor said. He quickly followed Deimos and the Auditor out of the building. Once they were outside the gate of the building Auditor glared at the boys and hissed “Remember, don’t you boys come back!”

And the gate was slammed shut.

Sanford was still shaking, his heart was pounding, he was sweating bullets… and the thing that made him almost jump out of his skin was Deimos suddenly hugging Sanford’s arm. “Sanford… Thank you.”

“For…. What?”

“Getting me out of there… weren’t support to leave… But… I rather not be in there anymore.” Deimos said, his voice slowly breaking out of the dull robotic tone.

Sanford took Deimos by the wrist and said, softly. “Come on, let’s go home… to my house”

Sanford and Deimos soon reached the house where Sanford lived… Sanford had one problem… how he was going to tell his parents about Deimos. He was supposed be in bed hours ago… But he was out and about... he had an idea.

He remembered reading a very controversial book called To Kill A Mocking Bird. He remembered about the character Dill, and how he ran away from home. He vaguely remembered the excuse that Dill gave to Atticus.

Sanford looked at Deimos and said “Hey, Deimos, tomorrow morning, my parents are going to ask why you’re in my room. Just tell them that you ran away from home because they chained you up to the wall.”

Deimos gave Sanford a confused look. “Why do you want me to say that?!”

“Because I’m not supposed to be up at this hour!” Sanford said.

“So tell them the truth!”

“Do you want us to get into trouble?!”

“No… I just don’t want to lie… I don’t want you to get hurt”

Sanford paused, giving Deimos a confused look “What?!”

“Back at the lab… I used to hear other children like me lie… and when they lied… they got hurt… I don’t want you hurt”

Sanford was now confused. “What… what are you talking about?!”

“…Don’t your parents hurt you when you get into trouble?”

“No…. They yell at me.” Sanford was confused but broken. He finally sighed. “Deimos… lets go…” He said, climbing up the rope ladder. Deimos nodded as he followed Sanford lead.

When the boys entered Sanford’s room, through the window, Sanford looked at Deimos, as he crawled into his bed.

“I guess we’ll have to share a bed, Deimos. I don’t have a bunk bed…”

“I don’t mind, Sanford.” Deimos said, as he also crawled into the bed. It was a bit awkward, but they managed to sleep on the far edges of the twin size bed…

“Good night, Deimos.”

“Good night, Sanford.”

Now in the bed of their pickup, with a large amount of supplies beside them and them laying on their backs, Sanford and Deimos were snuggling up close to each other (because cuddles is for lovers, snuggles is what families do.) Deimos’ head laid in Sanford’s chest, as they watched the stars in the sky, both sharing a laugh as Deimos asked “Hey, do you remember what we told your mom and dad?!”

“Yeah. ‘Oh, Good morning ma, morning, pa! Meet Deimos. He lost his parents, so I let him sleep in my bed.’ Oh that was embarrassing!” Sanford said, with a smile.

“But hey! They adopted me! And I’m glad they did.” Deimos laughed.

“Hey, Dei… There’s something that’s been bugging me about what you said when we were little.” Sanford said, his voice softening up.

“Yeah…?”

“The children you were referring to… were they clones like you?” Sanford asked

Deimos took a deep shaky breath. “Actually, no… They were abducted children that the Agency had kidnapped. All of them lost their parents… “ Deimos shifted his position, so that he was on his left side, his ear right up against Sanford’s chest. “While I couldn’t see in that Stasis tube… I still could hear everything… From the kidnapped child soldiers… the older grunts… and even when we first met you, your own foots steps woke me up…” Deimos took another shaky breath, burying his ear into Sanford’s chest. “I’m glad you found me, Ford.”

Sanford wrapped his arms around Deimos, gingerly. “I’m glad I found you to, Dei…”

It felt like an eternity… just the two brothers comforting each other… That moment was short lived, however, their truck radio went off from 2BDamned radioing them in. “Sanford, Deimos, do you two read me? Over.”

Sanford and Deimos both got up and climbed out of the bed of the truck. Sanford grabbed the radio from the open driver side window and turned it in. “We hear you loud and clear, Doc.”

“Did you guys find the supplies?” 2B asked.

“Yep! We have a bunch!”

“Then what’s taking you two so long?! Hurry back to base!” 2B snapped before turning off the coms.

That was Doc for ya.

“Come on, Dei. Let’s go home.”

“Alright, San!”

Chapter Text

Hank J Wimbleton, your ordinary seven year old child… Nothing extraordinary about Hank. His parents are on the run from the Agency. His family have been on the run for who-knows-how-long! All he knows is that he and his parents are always running from some guy called “The Auditor”

Their current residency is an abandoned hospital. They reside with others in the building, though their stories aren’t all important? Well.. not all of them. The newest kid, Toby, was found by Dr. Matt, and some other people Hank doesn’t care about.

Children… that’s all the “search teams” find. Children. Some as old as Hank, who is seven, sometimes even older. And then there were the young ones, as young as four year old Sanford. All sweet children, especially Sanford.

’Heh. He’s such a mama’s boy’ Hank often thought to himself when he sees Sanford following his mother like a puppy. It was often cute.

It was a grey day, or what it felt like a grey day to Hank. He didn’t feel like talking to the other kids. Not that he often did. It was a miracle that he spoke more than two sentences when he met Toby. So what's different about today? That was something Hank didn’t know himself. All he knew is that he felt terrible.

“HAAANK! HAAAANK!!” Sanford’s voice rang out from the lobby. It didn’t look too shabby, for an abandoned hospital. The hospital looked to be abandoned for a few weeks. But that didn’t matter to Hank. For him and the other kids, it was their place to hang out. Not that Hank liked to hang out with the others. Sanford was the only kid Hank tolerated.

“Hey… San…” Hank spoke, his voice was gruff and scratchy, which wasn’t normal for him. “What’s up, Kiddo?”

“Hank! Today is a good day to be outside! Ma’ said so!” The smaller kid said, jumping up and down. “We should play soldiers outside!”

Hank smiled, the smile felt fake, but he was trying so hard to give a genuine smile. He then nodded, looking at Sanford in the eyes. “Alright, Sanford…”

“I’ll ask the others if they want to play!”

“Okay…”

Sanford quickly ran around, asking the other kids around to play with them. Hank watched as he slowly backed up to the front doors. His head was throbbing in pain. Finally Sanford had returned to Hank, a gaggle of children followed him. Hank nodded and pushed the door open. All of the children scurried outside excitedly. Hank and Sanford followed the group last.

“Alright! Listen up!” Sanford called out, catching the attention of the other children “We have teams! The good guys and the bad guys!” He then turned to Hank “do you want to be a good guy or bad guy?”

Hank looked at Sanford and shrugged. “I really don’t care, San.”

“Okay! Hank is a good guy! I’m a bad guy! Everyone! Choose your leader!” Sanford shouted.

It was entertaining to see children run around, circling their leaders, especially to Hank. It was really amusing to see at least one kid just stand around totally lost and confused. Eventually the children got organized, and Sanford shouted his last command. “Everyone! Scatter!”

The laughter and shouts of the kids really brought life to the entrance of the hospital. It was hard to make out the chatters, but Sanford’s booming voice shouted out. “ALRIGHT! BEGIN!” That's when the real clamor and playful screams of the children brought a smile on the faces of the adults helping those in recovery.

Hank stood by a tree, giving a glance at one of the hospital windows. He could see the familiar face staring at them… Toby was watching them play. Hank took his pretend gun, which was a big stick, and started to pretend to shoot the other kids… “Bang.” He shouted, dodging the other kid’s “gunfire.”

That was until he was face to face with Sanford. “BANG!” Sanford excitedly shouted. But Hank didn’t even bother to dodge. He didn’t sit on the ground when Sanford shouted “GOT YOU, HANK! I GOT YOU!”

Hank stood there… dizzy… His breathing was not normal… It was fast and it was was hard for him to breathe... He felt like the surrounding area was spinning. He could barely make out Sanford’s adorable voice. “H….k?” What was happening… He felt bad… worse than before… he felt a sudden pressure on his entire body… like someone shoved him on the ground… oh how he felt terrible… Maybe he shouldn’t have played with Sanford today.

“Hank?” Sanford asked. He noticed Hank wasn’t moving at all. He just stood there, until… He face-planted into the cement. “HANK!?” Sanford cried out.

The other kids swarmed around Sanford as he ran into the hospital, shouting something.

The other kids were confused, as to why Sanford just left Hank laying on the ground. Until Sanford came back out with some of the adults, like his parents, Hank’s parents, and Matt, just to name a few.

“What happened?!” Hank’s father asked the other kids.

They didn’t know. All they knew was Hank was laying on the ground.

Sanford, however, told everyone what happened. “Hank! Hank and I… we… were only playin’ soldiers. I ‘shot’ Hank. I won… but he didn’t sit down. He fell… I… did… I?”

Matt, who was tending to Hank, looked up at Sanford as he said softly. “It's not your fault, Sanford. Hank is sick.”

“Hank is sick?” Sanford asked, surprised.

“Yes. But don’t worry, Sanford. We’ll make him feel better.”

“So Hank won’t be sick anymore?”

Matt chuckled, “Yes, so he won’t be sick anymore.”

Hank woke up in a familiar room, he was drenched in sweat, he felt like he was in an oven, he was very tired and he felt like he was hit by a heavy door. He croaked out. “Sanford?” He sounded terrible.

“You’re awake, Hank.” A familiar voice spoke out. Hank looked towards the voice to see Matt, who was sitting by Hank's bedside. "How do you feel?"

"Terrible."

"Is there any way you can explain how you feel?"

“...Like one of the kids had slammed the door in my face…” Hank croaked. “Matt… what’s happening?”

Matt chose his words carefully. “Hank, you’re sick.”

“Big words please?”

A sigh from the doctor “Your body is fighting against an infection…”

Hank knew what that meant, he’s been around the doctors for a long time. Understand complex terms, so simple childish words like “your sick” make no sense to him. Some might say he’s not smart because of this, but he’s not completely stupid.

“Where are the others?” Hank asked, mainly concerned for Sanford.

“They’re in the lobby with Amanda. Even Sanford is there” Matt said, knowing that Hank cared for Sanford. “He wanted to be in here with you, but I told him no.”

“I don’t mind if Sanford is in here with me.”

“No, I don’t know if this is contagious or not, Hank.” Matt said, soft but stern. “For now, Hank. Just rest up.”

Hank nodded as he closed his eyes. But he couldn’t help but think of Sanford… but the blanket of peace dragged him to sleep.

Pain woke him up… pain in his lungs is what woke him up. He couldn’t breathe. It hurts to breathe. He tried to scream. He tried to shout for someone… anyone. The only thing he could do was lay in the bed. This was it… he was dying.

Black spots started to enter his vision until he heard someone rush up to him. “Hank?!” They called out. No response… “I NEED A DOCTOR TO COME HERE QUICK! HANK IS NOT BREATHING!”

’I guess this is it…’ Hank thought to himself. ’I’m sorry Sanford… This is goodbye… even though I don’t get to see you… I love you like a little brother, Sanford…’

Chapter Text

“Hank! Hank!”

These were the first words that greeted him to the world of the living, as he slowly opened his eyes. He saw fuzzy figures staring at him. He couldn’t see their expressions… He heard a familiar beeping noise of the EKG, in the distance. It was probably measuring his heart rate. He tried to talk but nothing came out.

“Hank, squeeze my hand if you can hear my voice!” A familiar voice called out. Hank did so, slowly though. He didn’t realize he was holding someone’s hand. He looks at the man next to him. A soft expression was hidden behind thick shades and a big fuzzy beard. This man is Jedidiah Christoff.

His chest felt numb. He couldn’t feel a thing in his chest. He didn’t notice at first but he couldn’t feel his neck. Hank wanted to know what was happening and yet… he couldn’t speak… couldn’t talk… For the first time in his life, he was truly scared.

He was never scared, even when his family was running from the Agency. He never showed fear, even to himself. He was often the perfect fearless leader, albeit sometimes a little dumb. But this… this was the first time he was scared.

His vision was now clearer as he could identify everyone in the room; Dr. Jedidiah Christof, Dr. Hofnarr, Matt Medic, his mother, Bellator Wimbleton, and his father, Mord Wimbleton…

“How is he?” He heard his father call out.

“He’s stable… for now…” Matt replied, his voice soft and worried.

’What’s going on?! Dr. Jedidiah?! Tell me! What’s going on!’ Hank thought, hoping his thoughts would get to Dr. Christoff’s mind.

Finally, the question that was on his mind was asked. “What… what exactly happened?” Bellator asked

Matt sighed, a sound of frustration in his voice. “I… I made a mistake… I misdiagnosed him… I thought it was just a simple cold… I didn’t realize it was something worse!”

“What. is. Wrong. With. Our. Son?!” Mord said slowly, as if Matt was dumb himself.

“Epiglottitis. A condition where the cartilage, which covers the windpipe swells, and blocks the flow of air into the lungs. Its fatal if not treated.”

Epiglottitis?! Hank has never heard of it. He has heard of many illnesses… but never Epiglottitis...
“Will our son survive?!” Bellator asked.

“We’re doing everything we can to keep your son alive!” Jebidah said.

“And shoving a tube down our son's throat is something that is keeping our son alive?!” The worried father asked.

“Do you WANT your son to breathe?!” Hofnarr snapped.

“Hofnarr…” Jebidah softly spoke to the frustrated doctor.

“Mr. and Mrs. Wimbleton, I promise you, we’re doing all we can to keep your son alive!” Matt said.

No… no! This can’t be happening! He’s… He’s worse than sick. Hank shuffled as he tightly gripped Jebidah’s hand. The older man looked down at Hank “Hank? Are you okay?” he asked.

He was scared. He was terrified. He didn’t want to die. His heart rate was speeding up as he was panicking. It was evident with the EKG picking up the rapid rhythm of Hank’s heart, which caught everyone’s attention.

“Doctors, what is going on?!” Bellator asked, worried.

“He’s having a panic attack…” Hofnarr said, as Jebidah stayed by Hank’s side and gave his hand a comforting squeeze. “Hank, it’s alright! Don’t’ worry.” Jebidah said softly, to Hank.

Hofnarr glared at Hank’s parents and yelled at them, having a hunch that they were the aggressors and the probable cause to Hank’s panic attack “Get out!”

Mord and Bellator both gave Hofnarr a confused look “Wha-” Mord snarled. He was about to throw fists when Matt stepped into the argument, drilling a point into their minds. “You two need to get out! We can’t take care of him if you two are bickering with us.”

“But-” Bellator was about to argue.

”GET OUT NOW!” Hofnarr shouted, an unfamiliar air of anger circled around Hofnarr when he shouted at them.

The two worried parents finally complied as they left the room. Jebidah turned back to Hank and spoke to him, trying to comfort him “Hank! Hank! It’s okay. Don’t worry. We’re here!”

Hank was still shaking, his brown eyes showed terror and fear. He was very scared. He can’t talk, he might die… His heart was racing at this point… He was only seconds away from a heart-attack.

Hofnarr spoke up, looking at Matt. “Is there anyone in this hospital that Hank is close to?!”

“He’s very close to Sanford.” Matt replied. He then pieced together his plan. “If you’re going to get Sanford, he’s usually in the lobby, drawing pictures, Hofnarr.”

Hofnarr quickly ran out of the room, giving a funny thumbs up as he left.

Jebidah noticed Hank was calming down but was still on the verge of a panic attack. Jeb was doing his best to try to calm down. “Hank, I need you to relax… you’re going to be alright.”

Hank tried to talk again but it hurt to speak, even if the tube was not down his throat, it hurt to talk.

“HAAAANK!” A familiar voice screeched as little Sanford ran into the room, Hofnarr shouting at Sanford.

“SANFORD! WAIT!” Hofnarr shouted as he rushed into the room, exhausted...

Hank recognized Sanford’s voice as he started to calm down. Hank looked at the little rascal, who was wearing a durag that was way too big for him and the small round glasses. Hank let go of Jebidah’s hand and went to reach out for Sanford. He tried to speak, but couldn’t… So he tried something Hofnarr taught him.

He made strange shapes with his fingers, signing ’S-A-M...T...M...N-F-O-R-D.’ He botched the sign for D, as he forgot which fingers he needed to curl, accidentally flipping Sanford off while making his D.

“What is he saying, Hofnarr?!” Jebidah asked.

“He’s just signing Sanford’s name.” Hofnarr wheezed. Sanford really exhausted Hofnarr…

Jeb gave his partner a hilarious skeptical look. “Did you really run up the stairs?”

“yeah…” Hofnarr panted, pausing as he caught his breath “The kid is too fast for me. For having short legs, the little bugger is quick!”

Matt gave a chuckle as he walked up to Hofnarr, Jeb following the man. They watched as Sanford and Hank interacted with each other. Hank ran his fingers under Sanford’s durag, gingerly.

“Hank, are you okay?” Sanford asked, worried about his best friend.

Hank took his other hand, which has an IV needle in his wrist which was protected by medical tape with cats (Hofnarr knew Hank likes cats.) Hank ran his hand over his throat, which Sanford noticed the tube in Hank’s mouth.

“Doctors.. What is that tube in Hank’s mouth?” Sanford asked.

“That tube is helping him get better.” Matt explained.

“Will Hank be better tomorrow?” Sanford asked.

This question pained the doctors, but they kept a smile up for Sanford. “Sanford, son…” Jebidah said as he walked up to Sanford and knelt next to him. “Sanford, we’re not sure when Hank will get better… but if it’s okay with you, your parents, Hank, and his parents, you can sleep in the same room with Hank.”

Sanford’s eyes got big as he excitedly looked at Hank. “YES!” He excitedly shouted. He then looked at Hank as he gave a nod. Sanford excitedly ran off to look for the other adults.

Matt turned to Jebidah and smiled “You are one smart man.”

“That’s what patience will do to ya, Matt.”

Chapter Text

The next day when Sanford woke up, Hank no longer had the tube in his mouth and instead had a mask to help him breathe. Hank still wasn’t able to talk, due to the illness, but that didn’t stop Sanford from talking to Hank.

Dr. Hofnarr decided to teach both Hank and Sanford some sign language, which made conversations between the boys interesting, when you’re only listening to Sanford’s adorable babble.

Hank’s recovery was quick, all thanks to the doctors and Sanford by his side. Hank was soon able to talk again, which made Sanford very excited.

“Hank! How do you feel?” Sanford asked excitedly. He knew that the doctors weren’t in the same room with the boys, because they had other patients to tend to.

“Better…” Hank said, his voice sounded rough and terrible, mostly from not being used.

Sanford gave his best friend a big bear hug, which was rough but lovingly.

“ow.. Sanford… you’re squishing me.” Hank said, surprised.

“I know. But I love you.”

“Sanford… that sounds sappy… but I love you too.”

“You’re the only person who pays attention to me…” Sanford then let go of Hank and sighed, looking at Hank’s wrist with the cat-patterned medical tape. “I really don’t want you to have a brother.”

“I’ll still play with you… even with Toby. We can all play together.”
“Really?” Sanford piped up.

“Yeah. I’ll play with you both. We’re all the same age…” Hank paused, before rubbing his fingers together “well… sort of…”

Sanford laughs “Hank! You’re way older than me!”

Hank decided to test Sanford’s smarts by giving him a math question. “Sanford, what is seven minus four?”

“Uh… Two?”

“Close…”

“THREE!” Sanford jumped up and down.

Hank smiled “That’s right.”

“You’re three years older than me!” Sanford said, still happy about giving the right answer.

“You’ll understand when you get older…”

Just then, Sanford’s mother, Lyta, came into the room. A soft smile was on her face. “Sanford, Hun, it’s time for bed.” She said softly to her son.

“Awww. Okay…” Sanford said, sounding disappointed. He turned to Hank and smiled. “See ya, Hank!” Before walking up to his mother. Lyta looked at Hank and smiled, being nice to the ill boy.

“Good night, Hank… rest up, okay?”

“Right… Good night, Sanford, Miss Lyta…”

It has been two days since Hank regained his voice… He noticed yesterday that Sanford didn’t show up at all. Was Sanford sick too? Was Hank’s illness contagious that he gave it to Sanford? All these questions in his mind made him worry about the little guy.

Hank laid in his bed, worrying about Sanford… Sanford always stayed by Hank’s side and never left it. It was the most loyal thing Hank has ever experienced.

The door to his room opened and a familiar and adorable voice squeaked out. “Hey, Hank, sorry about yesterday!” Sanford walked into the room, Lyta following him. A plate, that was covered up by tin foil rested in her hands.

“Hank, I’m sorry for Sanford’s absence.” Lyta kindly apologized, as she and Sanford walked up to Hank’s bedside. “He and I spent all day making something for you.”

“What is it?” Hank asked, as he sat up and watched Lyta put the plate down on the table next to him.

“Cookies!” Sanford said, excitedly. Lyta looked at Sanford

“Sanford! It was supposed to be a surprise!” Lyta softly scolded him. He wasn’t really in trouble, but it was sad when someone ruins a surprise.
“oh. Not cookies.” Sanford playfully lied.

Hank chuckled lightly as he undid the tinfoil. His brown eyes widened when he saw the cookies. They weren’t just ordinary cookies, they were kitty-cat shaped cookies. Hank’s hands began to shake in excitement. “Sanford! These are adorable!” Hank said, excited.

“I made you something else!” Sanford said, as he pulled out a neatly folded paper out of the back pocket of his pants. He handed Hank the piece of paper, which Hank took and opened it up. It was… well… to have a creative imagination, a drawing of a person with brown spots on their legs. Their “eyes” were brown, and they had brown hair coming out of the top of their head. Next to the four-year-old-drawn person was what appeared to be an orange kitty. On the corner of the drawing, Sanford had attempted to write “GIT WEL, FOR HANK FORM SANFORD!” underneath that was a clean, legible handwriting that copied what Sanford wrote, but said “Get well, For Hank, From Sanford.”

“Is this… me and a cat?” Hank asked, as he ran his fingers over the drawing.

“Yeah! You love kitty cats, so we made you lots and lots of kitty cats!” Sanford said, excited.

Hank was ready to cry from being overwhelmed with gifts from his best friend. He hugged Sanford tightly and said, hiccupping. “Sanford… You’re the best.”

“Thanks!” Sanford replied, hugging back.

Hank J. Wimbleton, the 6”5 giant of a man. A man that is feared by the Agency. However, Hank is a softy whenever he was alone, which was often a rare sight to see. Not many wonder what Hank does when he’s not killing grunts. Is he killing more grunts? Is he killing lions at abandoned zoos? Does he go into cities, that often left in ruin and is often ran by brutes, the homeless, and weird cannibalistic people?
Well to answer that question; no. He doesn’t like to kill without reason. This might sound odd for someone who punched the daylights out of someone, who playing the chicken dance on a boom box too loud. Actually… Hank tried to ask the guy to turn it down, but was punched in the face. It didn’t matter now. The guy was dead.

Hank was in his room, at the place they call home, going through his desk and cleaning out any un-necessary things, when he came across an old photo, which was framed, of the last time he, his family, and everyone he knew were at the hospital.

That hospital… they called it base. A home. a safe place from the Agency… When the Agency called a truce on the chase, the Wimbletons and everyone else started looking for houses to live in and created a community… until more political drama happened. Hank didn’t care.

As Hank examined the photo, he noticed the back of the photo frame was loose. Curious, he took off the photo frame back and noticed a folded piece of paper. Hank took the paper out of the frame to open it. It was the drawing Sanford made for him when they were kids… when Hank was severally ill. The first time, and only few times, Hank was truly scared. He took the drawing, and placed it in the pocket of his jacket, got up and left his room.

Hank didn’t have to look for Sanford for too long, as he found the shorter man in the living room, hogging the very worn out couch and watching a show Deimos hooked him up with, on their TV.

“Sanford.” Hank’s gruff voice called out, scaring the younger man and making him jump a bit.

“Jeez, man! You scared the shit outta me!” Sanford shouted, as he paused his show. “What’s up Hank? Doc got a mission for us?”

“No, but I have something for you.” Hank said, as he walked up next to Sanford. Sanford sat up and made a spot for Hank to sit at.

“What’s up?” Sanford asked, offering Hank to sit down in sign language, which Hank did so. He sat next to Sanford and pulled out the neatly folded drawing and handed it to Sanford.

“Remember this, Sanford?” Hank asked.

Sanford unfolded the drawing and his green eyes widen at the scribble that was on the paper. “Y-yeah! I… I made this for you.”

A whistle startled Sanford followed by the cackle of a familiar smoker. “You drew that, ford?” Deimos asked.

“Yeah… back when I four years old.” Sanford said, sounding embarrassed.

Deimos read the note quietly to himself. “’Git Wel...’ Oh! Get Well!” Deimos turned to Hank and smirked. “What were you ill with?”

“Epiglottitis…” Hank replied, no emotion in his voice.”

“Epi-whata-lotis?” Deimos was really confused. “Are you still speaking English, Hank? I don’t understand you.”

The fourth member of their team spoke up as he walked up behind the group. “Epiglottitis. It’s when the tissue protecting the windpipe becomes inflamed.” Deimos looked at the resident “Doctor”, giving him a confused look. Doc sighed as he looked at Sanford “Sanford… Do you know what I’m talking about?”

“Yeah. It’s a bad infection. You pretty much can’t breathe.”

It soon clicked with Deimos. “OOOOHHH I see!” He turned to Hank and smirked “You must have felt like shit then?”

“Worse.”

“Why not if you tell us what happened.”

“No… Sanford already knows what happened…”

Sanford looked at Hank, his green eyes piercing through his black tea-shades. “Hank, do you really want me to tell him? I mean…”

“…Why not if we tell them both what happened… together… We all are like brothers, are we not?”

Sanford smiled and nodded. “Alright… I’ll tell them my side of the story first. Deal?”

“Deal…”

Chapter Text

This was a dumb idea…

Why did Toby agree to this? Why did Toby agreed to any ideas Hank, Sanford, and Deimos had?

This was a bad idea… Camping outside of town…in Nevada…at night…

Tobi thought that they were too young to be camping alone at night… They were all in their teens. Toby was fifteen… Sanford was fourteen, Deimos was thirteen and Hank… the oldest… He was seventeen… Still, four unsupervised teen-aged boys in the middle of the Nevadan desert… Hey! At least they came well prepared.

Tobi kept an eye on their campfire, while Deimos was telling some lame story he heard online.

“I’ve heard stories about a creepy tall man in these parts of Nevada!” Deimos said, in a creepy voice, a grin on his face that revealed his sharp tooth. “The man stalks people around! Looking for his next victim”

“…Maybe he’s just lost and follows people around just to go home…” Hank replied. “If I was a lost man in Nevada, I would just follow people around until I find someone I know.” That was very logical of Hank.

“Naw, Hank. You don’t understand” Deimos said, looking at the taller teen. “This man… is a murder! Didn’t you hear what happened with that girl in Wisconsin?”

“Deimos, there is no such thing as Slender man!” Sanford snapped, giving his little brother a swift yet gentle hit in the head.

“Ow!” Deimos cried out, softly, before laughing.

Toby got up and started to walk over to where they had placed their tents. “I’m going to get some shut eye.” When Toby stopped at his tent, he glared at Deimos. “By the way, Deimos,” His voice sounded harsh. “If I see you trying to be like this ‘Slender-person,’ I assure you that we will be taking a trip to the hospital in the middle of the night.” Toby hissed.

Deimos laughed as the boys all said in unison, as their friend, brother for Hank, crawled into his tent. “Good night, Toby.”

Toby slept peacefully in his sleeping bag. Or he was peacefully asleep until an unpleasant feeling woke him up. Toby’s eyes slowly fluttered open as he looked around. He sat up and looked around in his tent. He couldn’t see the light of the campfire flickering against the tent’s cloth walls. The others must have fallen asleep in their tents. Toby grabbed his glasses and placed them on his face, before reaching for the flashlight and knife next to him.

He then slowly crawled out of the tent, the feeling not going away. He shined his flashlight around the place that they called “Camp.” He got up from the dusty ground and looked around, his heart racing in his chest. Toby was not the adventurous type. He was often reserved and quiet. He liked making computer programs and what not.

What really spooked him was when he heard boots crunching on the ground not far from the other’s tents. He immediately turned on his heels and pointed the flashlight towards the direction of the sound. He gasped as he saw a fleeting figure running from the tents.

“OH DAMNIT FUCKING DEIMOS! IF THAT’S YOU, I’M-” Toby cussed out, as he started to dart past the other’s tents

“What… what the hell did I do this time?” A sleepy voice murmured from behind Toby, interrupting his series of threats...

Toby jumped as his pointed his flashlight at Deimos’ tent, as it whizzed past Sanford’s tent and accidently waking Sanford up

“Hey, man, ever heard of flashlight courtesy?” Sanford said as He and Deimos crawled out of their tents.

“What’s going on?” Hank asked, as he was the last one to crawl out of his tent. He didn’t sound tired at all.

“Who… What... “ Toby was confused, as he pointed his flashlight back towards where he saw the figure earlier.

“Dude, I was joking! Sanford is right! There is no such thing as Slender man!” Deimos shouted, as the boys had a talk over a relit campfire.

“I saw what I saw…” Toby said, as he leaned up against Hank’s chest. Hank, Sanford and Deimos sat on a log near the campfire while Hank held Toby close to his chest. Toby continued, a little quieter than before. “I saw a man walk up to our tents.”

Deimos huffed as he looked away. “I think you were hallucinating!” Deimos shouted. He was frustrated at Toby, and honestly, the feeling of being tired wasn’t helping any. “You just wanted to pull our legs, you sick bastard!”

Hank shot Deimos a very serious death glare, which made the younger boy quickly deflate. Hank then spoke up for his younger brother “Toby is not the type to pull pranks like these, Deimos...”

“Maybe someone saw our tents… and just wanted to make sure we were okay.” Sanford said.

“Why would someone run off after being spotted?” Hank asked.

“Maybe its ra-” Deimos started, before having brown eyes, which looked red, glare at him. “aahhh… never mind.”

Hank grinned “That’s what I thought.” He got up, still holding Toby “Everyone, just get some shut eye, and we’ll figure this out tomorrow.”

The others agreed, as Sanford put out their campfire, and Hank carried Toby into his tent, knowing that Toby was fast asleep.

It wasn’t long after Toby woke up again in the middle of the night. He heard some men talking. He sat up, slightly, waking up his older brother.

“Toby? What’s wrong?” Hank whispered.

“Shh… Hank, do you hear that?”

Both boys quiet down as they could hear the voices a lot more audible.

“Why the hell didn’t you shoot the damn kid?!” A very angry voice whispered.

“Did you forget what the Auditor said?” A second voice replied.

“Tch. Don’t give me that bullshit again.” The first voice started to sound like they were mocking someone “’dunt hurt the boys who are seventeen years old. They make great soldiers!’ bullshit! Why the fuck did we exhaust our scientists to make so many soldiers then?!”

Hank growled softly as he grabbed the pistol under his pillow and got up. “Wait here, Tobias.” Hank said,

Hank got out of the tent and shouted “DON’T MOVE OR I’LL BLOW YOUR FUCKING BRAINS OUT!”

Toby curled up as he hated it when Hank did that. But it got worse when gunfire rang out in the quiet air, followed by the second voice shouting “DON’T SHOOT ME! DON’T SHOOT ME! I-I-I’LL GIVE YOU ANYTHING! MONEY, FOOD, WATER!”

“THEN GIVE US OUR FUCKING PEACE AND QUIET AND GET THE HELL AWAY FROM US!” Hank demanded. “AND DON’T TELL THOSE BASTARDS WHAT KILLED YOUR FRIEND!”

Toby crawled out of the tent and turned on his flash light to see a man, with grey skin and white hair, running from the campsite. Beside Sanford’s tent was a dead man, bullet wound to the head.

“Hank… why did you…?”

Hank interrupted Toby as he put his gun away. “He was from the agency… The same Agency that killed your parents…”

“…My parents…” Toby looked down. “My parents were killed…?”

“Mom and Dad never told you?” Hank asked. As Sanford and Deimos scrambled out of their tent, both scared as hell.

“What the fuck happened?!” Deimos asked, as he looked at Hank. “Dude! Did you just-?”

“I’m sure that other guy won’t tell the higher ups what happened.”

Seventeen year old children… they were planning on kidnapping Hank.

Hank turned to head back into his tent before he looked at the others. “Tomorrow… I’m running away from this hell hole… and going to Colorado Springs.”

“Why Colorado?” Sanford asked, curious.

“Because the place is nice.” Hank replied as he crawled back into his tent.

“Good night.” the others replied as they went to get some sleep.

2BDamned stood in the doorframe of the kitchen door of the base they call home, a handgun rested in his hands. “Damn agency…” He muttered as he stomped on the skull of the grunt. “You bastards never learn, do you.” He sneered as he dragged the body a little bit more into the door before putting the gun on the kitchen table and dragging the body in. 2B sighed as he examined the dead grunt.
“Perfect.” He said, as he picked up the dead man.

2B took the dead grunt down to his lab, grabbing his gun off the kitchen table on the way, and before he could reach his lab, to start on any sick procedures on the dead intruder, 2B was scared half to death by Deimos jumping from behind a corner. “BOO!”

Out of pure fear, Doc pointed his gun, which was still in his hand, and fired it at Deimos’s direction, which the asshole had hid behind his corner again.

“JEEZ-FUCKING-LOUISE, DOC!” Deimos called out. “CHILL OUT WOULD YA?!”

Doc sighed as he put the gun in its holster on his hip. He opened the door to his lab and sneered “Deimos, unless you want to be pulled out of purgatory, I recommend you don’t pull shit like this again!”

Hank and Sanford were out on a mission, while Deimos had to stay behind with Doc due to a severe injure on the kid’s leg. During a recent mission, Deimos’ leg was broken from Deimos being slammed into the floor by a mag agent. It was painful, but he was lucky that it was only his leg that was broken and nothing else.

“Oh come on, Doc! I’ve always wanted to do that!” Deimos shouted, as he hobbled into the lab. “I didn’t get the chance to many years ago! Sooo Why not do it now?” He giggled.

Doc sighed as he shot Deimos a glare, as he had placed the dead grunt on an operating table. “Listen, scaring people is usually cute… but only when there’s not a fucking dead agent in my arms.” He gestured to the dead man, who had a bullet wound to the head.

“So what? What else is there to do?” Deimos whined. “Being injured and staying at base sucks balls, man!”

“Well maybe” 2B sighed, as he stood next to the operating table, looking over the dead grunt once more before turning to Deimos. He gave another sigh “you can check my radio and see if Sanford or Hank called in…”

Deimos grinned “Alright!” He said, excitedly. He quickly hobbled over to the desk where 2B kept his electronics. He sat in the swirly chair and picked up the headset and placed it over his head, covering his blondish-brown hair. “Yes!” He said, still excited. “They called in! And they found supplies!”

“Perfect.” 2B smiled, under his mask, as he started to perform the cruel experiment on his dead patient.
 

Chapter Text

It was quiet in their makeshift base…

2BDamned worked quietly on some gruesome experiments on dead grunt (we don’t talk about what he’s doing.)

Deimos sat at 2B’s desk, bouncing his not-injured leg up and down. The room was dead silent until they received an urgent radio signal. Deimos took the signal in through the headphones

“Hey, Brobid, what’s up—oh okay. Anything for you, bro ;)” Deimos joked around, as he flipped some switches to change the audio output from the headphones to the speaker. “You’re live, San!”

“Hey, guys…. Uh… shit… how do I explain this…” Sanford’s voice rang out on the radio’s speakers.

2B, having finishing up his gruesome experiment, took off the bloody surgical gloves and apron and walked over to his desk, with Deimos giving the Doc a look of sheer confusion and anger. “What’s going on out there?!” 2B snapped into the microphone.

”….there’s a brush fire slowly creeping towards the base” Hank’s monotone voice spoke, making the room colder than it was before.

“wait…WHAT?!” Deimos shouted. “HANK?! ARE YOU SHITTING US RIGHT NOW?! WE CAN’T HANDLE A FUCKING FIRE! WE’RE FUCKING KILLERS, NOT-”

2B calmly interrupted the angry young hacker. “How far is the fire?”

”About 17 miles from your location, 2B.” Hank calmly stated ”And it’s creeping very slowly.”

Deimos felt a rage build up in his chest, as he grumbled to himself “Was this fire caused by the Agency?”

”If it is, Deimos, this is a shitty way of getting us out of hiding.” Sanford replied.

The radio communication went silent between the four men, until Doc spoke up. “Sanford, Hank, find anything you guys can use to take down the fire with; dirt, water, sand… do whatever you can to smother those flames.”

“Doc! We don’t know if we have enough bottles of water to-” Sanford started, but Hank stopped Sanford’s thoughts.

“Sanford, Wait. We don’t know if these bottles of water are safe for us to drink. While it is a good idea to save up on rations, we can’t trust this water yet.”

Doc then had an idea. “Hank, I have some unsafe water that I keep for emergencies like these.” Doc then grumbled something out of earshot of the radio. “Though… I mostly keep these in case one of you morons set the damn base on fire.”

Deimos stood up when his leg ached in pain. “Ngh… Hey, Doc, I can go deliver those bottles of water to Hank and San.” He said, his tone of voice told Doc that Deimos was struggling with pain really badly.

“No, Deimos. You need to rest up your leg.” Doc scolded Deimos, before turning back to the radio. “Sanford, Hank, can you two keep the fire contained?”

“Yeah… and Doc… If you need me to… I can come by and gather those waters…” Hank replied.

“We’ll see. Over and out.” Doc ended the transmission, before hustling away.

“Where ya going, Doc?” Deimos asked, confused.

“I’m going to gather everything we need in case we do need to evacuate.” 2B replied, as he stood at the doorway of his lab, looking at the injured Deimos, before rushing off.

Hank and Sanford were doing everything they can to stop the fire from spreading. They were doing everything they can to protect the ones they love… the last remaining members of their families, which they knew were alive.

Everything seemed to be going as planned, when a small gust of wind picked up the fires and spread it to some more dead brush. “Shit!” Sanford cussed, as he noticed the dead tree that was burning.

Just as they thought things were getting worse, the Agency showed up, with four black trucks rolling up to the scene. Hank and Sanford stopped what they were doing with the fires to give death glares at the Agency. As soon as the doors opened, they both dropped whatever they were using to smother the flames to pull out their weapons.

“Now I recon ya’ boys hold yer fire… though you’re not doing a good job of putting it out.” A familiar voice rang out from the driver side door of the first truck. When the door of the truck was closed, a familiar figure stood in front of the men, his hazel eyes met with the eyes of Sanford and Hank.

“Sheriff!” Sanford shouted, as he pulled out his meat hook.

“Now hang on, I’m not ‘ere to start a ruckus. I’m ‘ere to help you fellas stop that fire.” The sheriff replied.

“And how do you know that you’re not going to kill us?” Hank replied, very suspicious of the Sheriff.

“If ya want to waste yer precious time looking through our trucks to see that we came unarmed, be our guest.”

Sanford was about to take the bait when Hank stopped him. “Wait, Sanford.” He then looked at the Sheriff. “We trust you for now, but if you try any funny business, I won’t hesitate to snap your neck.” Hank said, his voice bitter and cold.

The Sheriff nodded, as he looked at the men and nodded, as he gave some form of signal. Sanford and Hank thought that this was the wrong move… but in fact… it wasn’t. When the agents stepped out of the vehicles, they weren’t armed with guns or weapons that would harm Hank and Sanford, instead, they were armed with equipment made for fighting the fire.

The sheriff walked over to Hank and Sanford, with three extra fire extinguishers. “Here, I figured you’d be out here… So I brought out three extra… Where’s the little one?”

“…At home, getting ready to bail.” Hank replied dryly.

Deimos limped out onto the balcony of their base, noticing 2B out in the front yard watering down the ground with some of the unsafe water. “What are you doing, Doc?!” Deimos shouted, unintentionally startling the older man.

“I’m wetting the ground so that it would be slower for the fire to burn around the base.” 2B shouted at Deimos. “Can you see the fires?”

Deimos looked out in the horizon, seeing only smoke from afar. “No, Doc!”

“Good!” 2B shouted, as he finished pouring out the water onto the ground, before looking at Deimos again. “Let’s go inside, Deimos.”

Deimos nodded as he started to walk back into the base when he heard a loud audible snap in his leg. Now it should be noted that Deimos didn’t use crutches because he thought they were a hassle, but now he wished he used them. He fell onto the ground with a loud thud and shouted in pain. “DOC!”

Chapter Text

Doc walked into the building that he and his friends all called home… or a base… which ever suited the name of the building. He walked into the living room, awaiting for the younger one when he heard the Deimos’ voice from afar, calling out his name.

“DOC!”

‘Was he in pain, or did he see the flames.’ Doc thought to himself, as he started to walk to the balcony door.

“DOC!!” Deimos’ shout was more urgent than usual.

“SHIT!” Doc murmured to himself as he ran to the balcony. When he swung the door open, he saw Deimos on the ground struggling to get up, his leg looking more like shit than usual. “Deimos! What the hell happened?!”

“…I walked…” Deimos said, a bit snippy. “I was walking when I heard a snap in my leg.”

2B walked up to Deimos and picked him up, dragging the injured man’s arm over his shoulder. “Damnit Deimos… That’s not good!”

It was a battle between about fifteen men and one small blaze… how hard could that be?

Unfortunately for the men, the blazes kept getting bigger and bigger, as they started to move towards an abandoned agency building.

“Way need tuh split up an tackle thus far. ” Sheriff said.

The group spit up with Hank and Sanford handling the fire near their truck when the both of them ran out of fluids in the fire extinguisher. “SHIT!” Sanford shouted, as he threw the large red can into the flames. Upon contact with the flames, the extinguisher exploded, releasing the last of the foam onto the flames, and smothering it.

“Sanford! Whut thuh hell is yawl doin'?!” The sheriff shouted, after hearing the fire extinguisher exploding.

“I don’t know…” Sanford said, staring at the exploded extinguisher. Soon, his eyes lit up “but I got an idea.” Sanford looked around at the men who were staring at him.. “Everyone! Follow my lead!”

2BDamned placed Deimos on the uncomfortable medical bed in his lab, as Deimos was cracking jokes like usual. “Damn, I guess we got a break?” Deimos nervously laughed.

“Quiet, Deimos.” 2B snapped, as he checked Deimos’ leg for any noticeable signs of it being broken again.

“Well, doc? How does it look?”

2BDamned sighed “You certainly made your injury worse.” 2B said, as he went to get some bandages to patch up Deimos’ leg

“WHAT?!” Deimos shouted, as he tried to stand up but shrieked. 2B spun around to see Deimos scooting back up on the bed. “Deimos, you little girl, you’re not supposed to stand on your leg.”

Deimos blushed as he glared at 2B “Are you calling me a wuss?”

“I’m calling you a little girl because you sound like a little girl.” 2B said. 2B found the bandages and some metal rods and walked back at the grumpy Deimos

“I do not!” Deimos grumbled.

“You do too, Deimos.” 2B chuckled. “Deimos, I need you to move your legs onto the bed.”

Deimos nodded as he struggled to get his legs up onto the rough medical bed. Thankfully, 2BDamned helped move his legs. 2BDamned then placed the metal rods next to Deimos’ injured leg and wrapped the bandages around his leg and the rods.

“What ya’ doin’ doc?”

“Making a splint. I don’t have time to check to see if you really broke your leg.” 2B replied.

“…Damn… the fire… We should radio in and check on Hank and Ford.” Deimos said, as he watched 2B’s swift hands wrap the bandages around on his leg.

“They’re probably too busy to reply to coms…” 2B replied dryly.

“Yeah… I hope they’re fine…”

“Yawl want us tuh thow thuh far extinguishers into thuh far? Is yawl out uh chur mind, Sanford?” The Sheriff gave Sanford a glance of confusion.

Without giving a second thought, Hank threw his fire extinguisher into the fire and it exploded, the white foam flying out of the broken canister and smothering the surrounding flames. “…It’s a good plan. Let’s do it.” Hank said.

The Sheriff glanced at Hank before nodding towards his men. “Yawl heard them both! Thow chur Far extinguishers into thuh far...” The Sheriff said, with a tone of uncertainty.

With hesitation, some of Sheriff’s men threw the fire extinguishers into the fire. By some cliché miracle, the fire extinguishers exploded and put out the fire. The rest put the fire out that had crawled its way to the dead trees.

“Wayul, Sanford, Ahl bay as darned as uh barkin' squirrel in Alaska! Ah kaynt bleeve thet actually worked! Ah kaynt bleeve chur plan worked!” The sheriff complemented Sanford.

Sanford looked at the extinguished flames as he uttered the words “I can’t believe that my plan worked either…”

Hank quietly walked back to their truck and grabbed the radio that was in their truck.

Deimos laid in that damn bed… bored as hell. “Damnit! I hate being a sitting duck!” Deimos complained loudly.

“Well, if you didn’t fuck up in your last mission and used the damn crut-”

“OH! So it’s my fucking fault for getting injured?! Its MY fucking fault that a fucking MAG agent tossed me around like a fucking ball?!” Deimos shouted, cutting 2B off.

“Yes!” 2B shouted at Deimos.

“Toby, Deimos, I got good news.” Hank’s cold steel voice spoke out through the radio, interrupting the men. 2B Walked up to his desk and picked up his radio. “What is it, Hank?”

“The fire… we put it out… Sanford and I will return home soon.” Hank replied.

“Thank goodness!” Deimos shouted.

“That’s good Hank. Now, if you excuse me, I need to prep for surgery, Hank.” 2B’s voice went cold.

“WAIT! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU GOING TO DO?!” Deimos asked, in a panic.

“I’m going to fix that damn leg of yours, Deimos.” 2B snapped.

“Alright, have fun, Toby.” Hank said, before cutting the transmission out.

Sanford, having finally freeing himself from the Sheriff’s yapping, had met Hank back at their truck, who was leaning against the passenger side of the truck because he was bored. “Hey, Hank. Did you let Doc and Dei know the situation?”

Hank nodded as he pushed himself off the truck “Mhm.”

Sanford opened the driver side door of the truck and looked at Hank. “How are they holding up at home?”

“2B said that he needed to preform surgery on Deimos leg. It sounded like it wasn’t planned beforehand.” Hank said, as he climbed into the truck. Sanford copied hank’s movements

“Oh damn…” Sanford sighed, as he started the truck. “I guess Dei is badly injured?”

“Toby didn’t tell me much.” Hank said, leaning back in his seat. He took off his mask to reveal his badly scarred lower jaw. His jaw looked like it had dealt with hell more than the rest of his body. Hank sighed as he looked out the window, enjoying the view of Nevada. “I’m sure Deimos will be fine. Just because Toby isn’t a licensed doctor doesn’t mean he doesn’t know how to do his job. Trust me, Sanford, he’s a damn good doctor… look at what he has done for us.” Hank said, trying to comfort Sanford.

“I know… but…” Sanford tightened his grip on the steering wheel. “I can’t help but feel like he could have saved your parents…”

Hank sat up, as he removed his goggles, letting Sanford know that what he is about to say is going to get serious. He looked at Sanford, his tone of voice getting bitter and stern “Sanford… There was nothing any one of us could do for my parents. The agency killed them… Just like they did with Toby’s parents. There was nothing you, me, Deimos, or Toby could do… It was just fate that lead them to get killed.” Hank then replaced his goggles back on his face and leaned back into his seat. His voice returned to that cold monotone voice Sanford was used to by now. “Now shut up and drive. And don’t tell anyone about our conversation.”

Sanford nodded as continued to drive back to the base.

2B finished the last stitches in Deimos’ leg, looking up at his nervous patient. “Stay the fuck off that leg and use your damn crutches, Deimos!” 2B snapped

“Okay… fucking Sheash!” Deimos said, as he laid on the bed. The two were surprised when they heard the front door open and close, followed by Sanford’s voice calling out “We’re here, guys!”

Deimos shouted, as 2B started to wrap Deimos’ leg with a bandage. “WE’RE STILL IN THE LAB!”

The smell of smoke filled the halls as Hank and Sanford walked in. it was obvious that Hank was wearing his mask and goggles, due to the grey smoke on his face. Sanford, however, was covered in the stuff. Especially since he never wore a shirt. Deimos laughed out loud at the appearance of the two. “Damn, you two looked like you climbed out of hell!”

“Fuck you too, Deimos.” Hank quickly replied back as he walked up to 2B.

“Heh, well, Dei, this is what happens when we suddenly have to fight a fire.” Sanford said, as he walked up to his brother’s side.

“Well, tell me all about it!” Deimos said, excitedly.

“Heh… alright.” Sanford started to tell Deimos all about their day.

Chapter Text

The hospital lobby was lively as ever as children happily played with each other. Hank J Wimbleton, the oldest of the kids watched over the younger ones as they were content with each other. Beside Hank was Sanford and Toby, as Toby watched the others behind Hank. Sanford happily sat on the floor drawing scribbles with crayons while humming to himself.

It was almost a peaceful, to hear kids playing with each other… Until the hospital doors opened, and came in a man covered head to toe in flames, and grey skinned men followed behind the man. When all the kids looked up to see who had enter, immediately one girl screamed bloody murder “BAD GUY!!!!!!!!”

Hank’s hand met with his face as he shook his head. “And… here comes trouble.” Hank muttered to himself.

The adults came rushing into the lobby of their base, concerned. Only to be met with the man covered in flames.

“Auditor…” Mord muttered, as he stepped up to the man

“Wimbleton…” The man replied with a gaze that could break even the strongest wall. His voice was deep and made some of the children shutter with fear.

Hank stared into the eyes, of the man, as Hank showed anything but fear. He wanted to protect Toby and Sanford… His brothers… or what felt like his brothers. The man looked back at Mord as the man grumbled. “What do you want, Auditor?”

“I want… a truce on our little game… Wimbleton.” The auditor hissed.

Mord looked at the agents before looking at the Auditor. “What do you mean?”

The Auditor sighed as he started to walk towards one side of the lobby, away from where the kids are. “I’ll make sure that you and your…. Bunch…. Are safe… as long as all male boys in Nevada join the Agency when they turn 17.”

This enraged Mord. “ARE YOU SERIOUS?!” Mord screamed. “YOU WALKED INTO OUR SANCTUARY, AWAY FROM YOUR…” He paused as he heard the whimpering of the children. He looked at Bellator and the other adults said, roughly, while sighing. “Bellator, You and the other adults get the children back into their rooms…. I have some matters to speak with this gentleman.” He turned to the Auditor, a relaxed smile on Auditor’s flaming face.

The woman nodded as she gathered the kids. “Come on, everyone… let’s go upstairs…”

All the kids, except for Hank, Sanford, and Toby followed. They seemed to have been forgotten… it was okay though because they remained quiet. The Auditor noticed the three remaining boys but payed no attention to them as he walked over to a chair and sit down. “Wimbleton, have a seat… lets discuss this like men, shall we?”

Mord sat far from him, still enraged. “I will not sell my children to your nasty agency! They’re too young!”

“Children? Heh… you have more than one child?”

“All of these children are like my children! Children who you killed their parents!” Mord shouted, unaware of the young audience that was watching.

“…Alright… Then if that’s the case… I’ll just destroy this building… children and everything.” The Auditor said as he got up. He started to walk towards Hank and the others, which alerted Mord that Hank was watching. “Starting with…” The Auditor continued, as he scanned over Sanford, who was now behind Hank, hugging his left leg, and Toby, hugging Hank’s right leg. “This one.” He grabbed Toby by the head, which resulted in a startled yelp.

“NO!” Mord shouted again. Watching as the Auditor’s hands turned into claws…. Claws that slowly drew themselves to Toby’s neck… but only stopped when Mord commanded him to. “STOP! I’LL GIVE YOU A DEAL!” Mord shouted, as he was standing straight up, panting in fear. “When all of the males from our clan turn seventeen, then they can join you…” Mord said.

The Auditor smirked as he put Toby down and turned to Mord. “Wise choice, Mord…” He looked back at Toby, Hank and Sanford, as he addressed the boys. “I’ll see you boys soon…”

With that, the Auditor walked away, the men following him out. When the Auditor left, Mord ran to Hank and the other two. “Hank! Why did you boys not follow your mother when she told you to follow her?!”

Sanford was quick to reply, as he looked unfazed. “We want to maked sure you were okay, Mr. Wimbleton.”

Mord sighed as he picked both Sanford and Toby “I’m fine, Sanford… Toby, did he hurt you?”

Toby shook his head no as he leaned into Mord’s chest. “I’m tired… You hurt my head.”

Mord chuckled as he looked at Hank. All Hank replied with was “Good job dad…”

It had been years since Hank and his friends left that hospital. Hank sat down on his worn out couch, watching TV with Sanford, who was actually asleep in his chair. Everything was calm, until his old cell phone went off in his pocket. Curious, Hank took out the old cell phone to see that someone had texted him.

He wasn’t sure about the phone number. But it certainly was not a Nevadan number. The first three digits were 307…

307…. That was the area code for Wyoming. Who in Wyoming has his new phone number?

Hank checked the text… “Hello, Is this Hank J Wimbleton? Signed Medic.”

Medic… Medic… Matt Medic?

Hank replied the text, a bit cautiously. “Who is this?”

As soon as he hit send, he got an immediate response “I’m Matt Medic’s daughter, Rachel Medic.”

Ahhh. Matt’s offspring. Hank smiled under his mask as he had a new texting buddy. He introduced himself and once they got acquainted with each other, Hank felt happy that he made a new friend…. Rachel Medic. 

Chapter Text

It’s been weeks since Hank left Nevada to go to Colorado. His parents, while they’re worried, know that their biological son is safe, thanks to connections they have from the hospital. Right now, they’ve been taking care of Toby, as he is soon turning seventeen, which his birthday is a week before Hank’s.

It had been lonely in the house. Yeah, Sanford and Deimos do show up at his house to hang out with the young man. But he often had his head buried in medical books, watching what little medical tv shows he can watch, and even practice some stitching up on some of Hank’s old plush animals.

Occasionally, unfamiliar people would show up at the house and have discussions that often lasted for hours. He was often sent away when the conversions deemed important. But there was one particular day that Toby was asked to stay in the living room, until asked to leave.

Toby sat in the living room, on a nice leather couch, listening to his parent’s conversation with someone in the hall. Toby glanced at his wrists, which were coated in scars from someone who improperly placed an IV tube in his wrists. He gently rubbed his scars with his fingers. He was soon ripped from his thoughts as his parents came back into the room, a tall man wearing a black leather vest, a blue plaid shirt, nice jeans, cowboy boots and that fancy cowboy hat. Behind the man was a kid Toby’s size, though a mirror image of the tall man.

“Howdy, Toby Wimbleton.” The tall man greeted Toby.

“Howdy.” Toby mimicked his greeting.

“Toby, this here is Deputy Harrison. The Deputy brought his son, Jessie, with him.” Toby’s father introduced the tall man.

“Hello…” Toby said, as the boy walked up to him.

Before another word was spoken, Toby’s mother dismissed the boys “Toby, why not show Jessie your room.”

Toby nodded as he slid off the couch and gave Jessie a wave of his hand, indicating for Jessie to follow him, before walking off to his room. What Toby didn’t know was how fast the kid was.

Once the boys reached the large bedroom, which Toby usually hides in, Jessie was the first to break silence. His southern accent made it hard for Toby to understand Jessie, which it annoyed him, but he tolerated, trying his best to understand him. “So, yore Toby Wimbleton? Ahv heard so much bout yawl!”

“Oh yeah?” Toby asked, as he pulled out two chairs, and offered Jessie to sit in one.

Jessie nodded as he sat in the chair, he looked at Toby. “Yep! Yore such uh scardy cat. Yore always hidin' behind Hank” He then gave a cruel laugh “Ah bet thet few two weren't brothers, yawl two would totally bay lesbians!”

Toby growled as he got up and grabbed a torn shark plushy off his desk, a needle and thread in his other hand. He took a look at the torn fin of the shark and began to stitch it up “No, we would just be in a platonic relationship. Something like an adoption but without all of the legal stuff.”

Jessie huffed before looking at the handy work that Toby was doing, watching the needle pierce the fabric of the shark. The needle was going in and out of the fabric of the shark. The cowboy finally asked Toby “Whut is yawl doin'?”

“I’m fixing up an old toy that belonged to Hank.”

“Why?”

“Well, because I like to feel like I’m being a doctor.”

Jessie, confused what Toby meant, looked around his room to see his bookshelves covered in books related to medical stuff. He even had some papers that were scripts from his favorite medical movies. “Yawl wonna bay uh doctor?!” Toby hummed in a positive response. Jessie started to laugh. “Whut uh joke! Doctors is weak! Bein' uh man uh thuh law izza true man!” He teased.

Toby stopped his patch work and glared up at the mini-sheriff, a scary glare pierced through his glasses as Jessie gave another laugh. “What did you say?!”

“Ah sayud, bein' uh doctor iz weak! Few want true power, yawl should bay uh cop! Besides, bein' uh doctor iz fahwar gay an queers.” Jessie repeated himself.

In a rage, Toby shot up…

The peaceful conversation that the adults were having seemed to be wonderful, as Harrison made a joke about how you horses and cars are both stubborn (or something along the line. I don’t know cowboy jokes.)

The peace that the house held was soon interrupted by the loud screaming followed by Toby shouting “YOU BASTARD! TAKE THOSE WORDS BACK!”

The three adults jumped up and darted to the room that Toby and Jessie were having a fist fight, their chairs laid on the floor on their backs, a plushy, looking even more than before. Jessie was on top of Toby, landing punches that seemed unfair in a fair fist fight. Harrison was the first to peel the boys away from each other. “Jessie! What the hell happened?!” the deputy shouted at his son.

“Hay started it! Hay started thuh fist fite!”

“ONLY BECAUSE YOU SAID BEING A DOCTOR WAS FOR GAY PEOPLE!” Toby shouted, as he sobbed, standing up and staying with his parents.

“JESSIE! WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU ABOUT BEING JUDGEMENTAL OVER THE OTHERS?!” Harrison then looked at the other boy, who looked like he was in bad shape. He then instructed the Wimbletons. “You should treat those wounds, they look bad.”

The Wimbletons nodded as they guided Toby down to the bathroom to clean him up and treat any cuts that Jessie caused.

It was 2B’s job to help any stranglers who often wander into his lab. He was never a doctor, but he gladly filled the role as one. He was used to patching up Sanford, Deimos and Hank, when the morons often got themselves into trouble.

But this this time, his patient was someone who he thought he’d never take care of. The Sheriff was brought into his lab with the help of some of his men. The Sheriff looked like he went through shit, as his skin was burnt and he had bad lacerations that might have been caused by a MAG or even a G0L3M.

It didn’t matter now how he got his wounds. What mattered now was that he took care of his patient. He guided the man to the hospital bed, his men helping Sheriff up as 2B slipped on his rubber gloves. The first thing the Sheriff said to his men was “Go back tuh thuh base. Ahl radio yawl guys wheyun thuh doctor releases may frum his care.” He sounded like he was hurting badly. With a confusing glance, his men nodded and left the Sheriff with 2BDamned.

“That is if you live to radio them in.” 2B hissed, as he examined his patient.

“Whut? Is yawl plannin' on killin' may?” Sheriff asked, as 2B’s eyes stared at the burns, his mask hiding the Doctor’s surprise and smug grin.

“I just might.” He said, as he grabbed a syringe.

This was a bad move on Sheriff’s part. He shouldn’t of trusted someone who tried to kill him with a shark plushy years ago. He winced as the non-doctor inserted the syringe into Sheriff’s arm and released the liquid from the glass tube.

The Sheriff started to feel sleepy as the last thing he saw was 2B’s red glasses glow within the soft light of the room…

It had been days since the loud scuffle in his room. Toby’s wounds weren’t severe, but he did have one heck of a black eye and a large scar on his right cheek from the Jessie’s nails. However, it didn’t bother Toby as Sanford and Deimos thought that the wounds looked cool.

Toby was taking a walk with Deimos and Sanford, around the little town that they lived in. Deimos was talking about a new show he watched and he was obsessing over the main character of the show, calling him ‘Clone Dad.’

Deimos’ rambling was soon cut short with someone clearing their throat followed with “Toby? Ah need tuh tawk tuh yawl.”

The trio realized that the voice came from behind them as they turned to look at Jessie. He was holding a book in his arms, his eyes shimmered with an apologetic look. “Toby... Ahm sorry fahwar startin' thus fist fite. Mah dad gave may uh good butt-chewin', an tode may thet doctors is actually more important than cops. Ah didn't know thet yawl guys actually help paypul... Ah thought yawl wuz tryin' tuh bay lahk girls an-”

Toby shook his head. “It’s alright, Jessie. I’m sorry for drawing the first punch.”

“Naw, yawl had uh valid reason tuh beat may up. But, Ah rilly walloped on yawl, didn't I?”

Toby softly chuckled. “You did.”

Deimos and Sanford remained quiet…that was until Deimos got a little nosey. “What’s with the book?”

Jessie looked down in his arms and then held the book out. “Hare, Toby. Ah bought yawl uh book, Ah hope yawl lahk it.”

Toby took the book and looked at it, seeing the cover, recognizing it as a children’s story, Franklin Goes to The Hospital.

Toby’s eyes widened as he smiled and took the book. “Thank you.”

The day was almost over, as the four boys all hung out. They talked about various stuff, and even read the book five times. But before they parted off, Jessie gave them a warning “Yawl guys should leave Nevada soon. Thuh Agency iz startin' tuh kidnap young boys, again, an use them in thur kid army.”

Dread set in Toby’s chest as the three of them nodded. “Thanks…” Toby said.

But Deimos piped up “I’M TOTALLY JOINING THEIR ARMY TO KICK THEIR NUTS UP TO THEIR CHESTS!” He shouted like an excited kid.

Laughter burst through the group as they discussed their possible roles if they joined the Agency.

They all decided on one role for Toby.

A doctor…

The perfect doctor for the agency.

The Sheriff woke up, feeling refreshed and new. He felt like himself before… well… Nevada went to hell. He didn’t realize he needed sleep so badly.

“How was your nap?” 2B’s cold voice broke the silence.

“Toby? How long dja put may under fahwar?” Sheriff’s voice growled, as he sat up to look at the man sitting next to him, still wearing the same grey garments he wore when he was first brought in, minus the rubber gloves.

“Well… It was supposed to knock you out for about an hour.” 2B said, shrugging. “But since you haven’t sleep in- what I assume was- weeks, you’ve been out for three days.” 2B shifted his gaze into Sheriff’s eyes, barring an emotion that radiated with annoyance. “So tell me, Jessie. When was the last time you’ve properly slept?!”

The Sheriff gulped as his voice shook with fear. “Thuh last tahm Ah had uh full night's rest wuz... uh year ago...”

“And how many hours of sleep do you normally get?” 2B asked, as he now had his tablet and was jotting some notes down in that thing.

“bout an air tuh two airs uh sleep.”

2B paused as he gave Sheriff a look of surprised. “How… how the hell are you not dead from exhaustion?!” The men stared at each other before they both laughed, knowing that it’s Nevada. And in this hell? Sleep is rare.

Chapter Text

Hey guys, Omega here! I'm sorry for not updating lately. I've been pretty with life. I've been playing alot of Garry's mod, pokemon, and working on other fics. So yeah!

I've also been digging through old boxes. I found two laptops while doing my cleanings.

I do want to say, my cats have been helping me with my fics. I even mentioned one of them in my fan fics. Heres the baby, Willow.

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/876645584025583697/915848045386670110/20211007_004904.jpg

I do want to mention that everyone is humanoid in this AU! I'll get my tail in gear here soon and work on chapter 12!

I can't wait to dive into the life at the Agency for the boys, while Hank is in Colorado.

Edit: how do I image????

Chapter Text

The Agency. Deimos remembers when he, Sanford, and 2B were all part of that hell group. Their dissent was the reason they were in this hell. Their older brother, Hank, was the reason that they left. Screw the “Good soldiers follow orders” mentality. True brothers don’t leave each other’s sides.

Deimos watched as Sanford unforgivingly rammed his hook into one of Phobos’ clone brothers.

Brothers… that’s the word Phobos tried to use on Deimos… Yeah. He and Phobos might have been created in the same lab. But Sanford has been a better brother to Deimos than that asshat.

Heh… asshat… that’s whole speech Sanford screamed at Phobos rung through Deimos’ head, like a tape that was stuck on repeat.

“PHOBOS! YOU’RE A FUCKING ASSHAT TO THE AGENCY! YOU’RE AN ASSHAT TO YOUR ‘FAMILY’! YOU’RE AN ASSHAT TO YOUR SO CALLED BROTHER! AND YOURE ESPECAILLY AN ASSHAT TO EVERYONE ELSE, WHO SACRIFIED THEMSELVES TO THE FUCKING ZEDS!”

Deimos nearly forgot where he was when Hank called out to Deimos, scaring the clone.

“Deimos…” Hank’s voice was scary when you weren’t expecting it. Deimos jumped slightly, looking up at Hank.

“Oh, hey, big bro. what’s up, Man?”

“You’re sweating… are you sick?” Hank pointed out, as he reached out to touch Deimo’s forehead, which was caked with blood, sweat, and dirt… granted, all three boys haven’t returned to their base in three days.

“I’m fine, Hank! I’m fine!” Deimos explained, as he backed away from Hank slightly. Deimos didn’t feel fine this time, but he had a mission to do. Brothers stick together, right? He didn’t want to fail his older brothers. “Just… heh… just reliving some shitty memories, man.”

Sanford eventually regrouped with Hank and Deimos, a grin on his face. “Place is now officially dead.” He joked, before looking at Hank, trying to see his brown eyes through his thick red goggles. “Hank, what’s up?”

Hank turned around and started walking back to their truck, Sanford and Deimos hesitantly following him. A thought crossed his mind… that thought came out through his mouth. “Sanford… Deimos… tell me about your time at the Agency. When you two became my enemies.”

“Oh come on, Man. That was for about… half a… year…” Deimos started to sweat even more. “Fuck…”

Sanford laughed as they arrived to the truck. Hank climbed into the backseat, with Sanford getting in the driver’s side, Deimos climbing into the passenger side. “Sure, Hank. A story will beat the hour long drive home.”

####[PAST]####
Sanford, Deimos, and Toby weren’t too eager to sign up to join the agency. Hank was gone to Colorado. Hank was gone… from Nevada. Wish they were in Wyoming…

“Hey Sanny, did you know Wyoming has wind speeds of around 40-50 MPH.”

“Deimos, focus!”

Nervous. That’s what they were. They weren’t ready to join the fucking agency. Not if they kept clowning around like this. Sanford, Deimos and Toby were standing around, waiting in a long line amongst other boys who were waiting to join the agency...

The agency… the same Agency that created Deimos… the same agency who played Cat and Mouse with the Wimbletons for years… the same agency who murdered Toby’s parents.

The Wimbletons made a truce to the agency. All boys who reach a certain age, who lives in Nevada, HAVE to go join the Agency, the A.A.H.W…. No one knew what the A.A.H.W. stood for, so everyone called them the Agency.

###

Hours must have passed because the boys were now in… nah… to tell you, fellow reader, the truth is that the Author hates writer’s block and is just throwing out word diarrhea on Microsoft Wo- wait… I’m not allowed to break the fourth wall? Well…. Have a convent time skip where we see our main characters getting acquainted with everyone. Enjoy!

###

The boys walked into the large building, their eyes widened at the lack of any characteristics. It was like all of the color was stripped from the building. Grey… a dull, boring grey. It looked like it came from an old noir film. While they stood still, staring at the grey, dull walls, the world around them kept moving, much quicker than it felt

“Toby? Sanford? Is that you?” A familiar soft voice called out, snapping the boys out of their trance.

All three boys looked towards to the men, when Deimos shouted “JEEEEEEEBUS CHRIII-”

The man, with a holy looking face, chuckled as he walked over, ignoring Deimos’ awkward moment. “Sanford, Toby, how are you boys?”

“Good. How about you, Dr. Christoff?” Toby asked, with a slight nod.

“I’m doing swell. So, who’s this young man?” Jebidah asked, as he turned his attention to Deimos.

“Dr. Christoff, this is Deimos, my adopted little brother. Deimos, this is Dr. Jebidah Christoff.” Sanford introduced the two.

Before Jebidah could properly greet Deimos, Deimos blurted out “OH MY LANDS! YOU LOOK LIKE JESUS CHRIST!” (Dear church friends… if you are reading this, please do not kill me. Sincerely, OmegaReploid)
Time felt like it just froze indefinitely amongst the four, before Jebidah gave out a loud laugh, followed by a maniacal laughter from behind him. The person sounded like an evil clown just laughing. “Holy buckets, Jebby! You look like the big JC!” the person behind him laughed.

Jebidah turned to look at the man behind him, a slightly short man, wearing square-framed glasses and a hairline that I have no idea on how to explain.

“Oh, Hofnarr!” Jebidah chuckled as he turned to look at the young men standing before them, Hofnarr now standing slightly so that the others can see him. “Deimos, this is Dr. Hofnarr. Hofnarr, this is-”

Hofnarr gave a slight nervous chuckle “Y-yeah. I know. He’s erm… Phobos’ erm….” Hofnarr gently pawed at Jebidah’s coat and went to turn him away from the group. “Jebby, I need to confess something to you later, okay?”

“Hey, is the guy okay?” Deimos blurred out, startling Hofnarr. Hofnarr jumped up and looked at Deimos, giving him a condescending smile.

“Everything is alright, my boy!” Hofnarr said, sounding positive. Jebidah shook his head as he mouthed the words ‘it’s not, but I have everything under control.’

Sanford and Toby chuckled as they both tapped Deimos on the shoulder, and told the two estranged doctors. “Well, we’re off to explore the facility some more.”

Jebidah nodded before he looked up. “Oh, isn’t Toby signed up as a medical staff though?” Toby gave Jebidah a confused look as the saint doctor continued. “Toby, you need to come with us.”

Hofnarr added in “Oh and you need a better name than Toby. Some of the agents doesn’t like using real names for the doctors.”

Toby nodded, as he walked towards the two men. “If I need a nickname then, it’ll be 2BDamned.”

“To Be Damned?” Deimos cackled. “Sounds silly!”

“I’ll be damned to get away from your lame-ass” 2B sneered at Deimos, as he turned to follow the fleeting doctors to the medical section.

###

The rest of the day was uneventful, asides for a few interesting introductions. The following night was interesting, however. It was an unwritten rule that at night, the new guys had to check the MAG agents before heading off to bed. Sanford and Deimos weren’t prepared for the madness that was about to ensue.

They entered the large containment area where the MAGS were held. They were all asleep, resting peacefully in very large beds. Deimos smirked as he nudged Sanford. “Hey san, how big do you think they are?” Deimos whispered

“I’m estimating that they’re about twenty feet tall.”

“I’m not talking about their height that is visible. I’m talking about the height that is hidden… down there!”

Sanford sighed as he grumbled and quietly checked each MAG agent, being careful not to wake them up. “Grow up, Deimos.” He quietly hissed.

Everything seemed to be going as plan, until one of the MAG Agents, a V2, abruptly woke up from its slumber, in a violent rage, waking up the other mag agents.

“Oh great! Our fooling around woke up the bears!” Deimos hissed, as he and Sanford made a quick break to the door, until the two was gently scooped up by another MAG Agent. “HEY! LET ME GO!” Deimos cried out

“Little men… Torture protects you.” The giant Mag said as he backed up to the corner of the room, followed by the other non-violent agents. They seemed to be used by this. “Little men… It’s okay…. Its only Albtraum having night-terrors again… it’s not your fault.” The beast slowly spoke out.

“Wait, MAG agents can have names?!” Deimos stupidly asked, not even questioning that the one that was holding him was even speaking to him.

“Just like you, little men… I’m Torture….” The MAG slowly introduced himself.

“I’m Sanford, Mr. Torture sir. And that’s my little brother, Deimos.”

“Deimos… like Phobos’ lost brother…” Torture grumbled. “I hope Deimos is better than our leader.”

Phobos… that was the second time he heard that guy’s name… who was he…

###

Days have gone by… week… months… The trio had finally met the legendary Phobos, who seemed to be an asshole from the start. Deimos and Sanford even re-met the Auditor, which the conversation was pleasant. However, the trio started hating the work they were doing. 2BDamned had constructed a meeting between him, Sanford, Deimos, Jebidah and Hofnarr. The meeting was about-

“We need to get the hell out of this fucking hell hole!” 2B announced, slamming his fist on his desk. “And we need to work together.”

“And how are we supposed to get out?” Sanford asked, confused.

“We would need a diversion to get you three out first.” Jebidah wisely spoke out. “Deimos, Sanford… you two need to die in battle.”

“WHAT?!” Sanford and Deimos shouted in unison.

“But not really. We’re just gonna incapacitate you two and ditch you in the middle of nowhere.” Hofnarr stated.

2B nodded as he opened his drawer and handed a bottle of pills to the brothers. “Take two of these pills before going out to the next recon mission. They’re designed to make you two weak, temporarily.”

Sanford took the pills and nodded. “Thanks, Doc!”

2B nodded before giving an uncomfortable look towards the men. “Sanford, Deimos, I made contact with Hank. Once the other agents abandon you two, Hank will come and grab you guys.”

“How will Hank find us and how will you know that we’re with Hank?” Deimos asked.

“I’m glad you asked that question, dumbass.” a sneer came from a device on 2B’s desk. Sanford and Deimos looked down to see an old flip-phone on 2B’s desk, reading an unfamiliar phone number.

“Hank?” Sanford asked.

“Glad someone recognized my shitty voice on this shitty cellular device.” Hank coughed out “Damn illness got the best of me, again! Hank sneered.

“When’s your boy’s next mission?” Hofnarr asked Sanford and Deimos.

“Next week.”

“Great, I’ll get prepared for then.”

The meeting quickly ended and Sanford and Deimos quickly returned to their quarters. When the boys entered in, one of the grunts piped up. “Deimos, director Phobos wishes to talk to you in his quarters.”

“Huh? Wonder what the little shit wants?” Deimos asked. Deimos quietly complied, unaware that Sanford was following him.

###

Deimos walked into the nice room that belonged to Phobos. Deimos quietly swallowed a lump in his throat as Phobos stared out the window.

“Deimos… little brother… you fucking traitor!” Phobos started out as he turned to face the younger man, who stood like a stiff stick “You fucking abandoned me years ago!” Phobos continued.

“What… what is this all about?” Deimos asked, confused.

“You know why! YOU ABAONDED ME YEARS AGO FOR SOME SNUB NAMED SANFORD!” Phobos yelled, as he slammed his fists on the table. Deimos glared at Phobos, his blue eyes glared at Phobos’ red cyclops eye.

“That’s why you’re pissy at me? Over a choice I couldn’t make?”

“YOU MADE THE FUCKING CHOICE! YOU TOLD THE AUDITOR THAT YOU WANTED TO PROTECT SANFORD!” Deimos went to open his mouth but Phobos continued. “NO! SHUT IT! WHATEVER YOU’RE GOING TO SAY, I DON’T WANT TO HEAR IT!” Deimos snarled as he messed with his fingers, making a motion like he’s striking a lighter. He continued listening to Phobos’ banter. “DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY FUCKING YEARS I SPENT WONDERING IF YOU WERE FUCKING DEAD, DEIMOS?! I THOUGHT THE WIMBLETONS FUCKING KILLED YOU!”

Deimos saw his opportunity to speak as he quickly blurted out “Did good ol’ Audi not tell you?”

“Excuse me?”

“Did Auditor not tell you that I was safe and sound? Or did he tell you and you had your head shoved way up your ass that you only created this fantasy of me being dead?” That was probably not the wisest thing to say, but Deimos didn’t care. Deimos only wanted out of this verbal harassment. Deimos looked up into Phobos’ eye, seeing anger, confusion and regret swirl in that one eye of his. Deimos swallowed a lump in his throat and continued, sounding very calm. “Auditor knew that me going with Sanford was the safest thing for me. You know why? You… me… we’re both defectives in the higher ups eyes. Auditor told me all this. He knew that they were gonna turn the both of us into…” Deimos trailed off, as he waved his hands at Phobos. “This…”

Phobos realized his biggest mistake… yelling at Deimos… no… it’s not his biggest mistake. The anger that was almost gone came back as Phobos slammed on the desk, louder than before, scaring Deimos. “THAT’S… THAT’S A FUCKING LIE AND YOU KNOW IT!”

Before Phobos could yell at Deimos for a second time, Sanford busted through the doors, the Auditor behind him. Sanford was pissed that Phobos, yelling at Phobos. “IS THIS HOW YOU TREAT FAMILY?!”

Phobos’ eye widen as he took a step back. “E-excuse me, Sanford?”

Sanford was so angry that he couldn’t think straight. He just blurt out. “PHOBOS! YOU’RE A FUCKING ASSHAT TO THE AGENCY! YOU’RE AN ASSHAT TO YOUR ‘FAMILY’! YOU’RE AN ASSHAT TO YOUR SO CALLED BROTHER! AND YOURE ESPECAILLY AN ASSHAT TO EVERYONE ELSE, WHO SACRIFIED THEMSELVES TO THE FUCKING ZEDS!”

Sanford felt a hand on his shoulder, as the Auditor said in a soft tone. “Sanford, relax. Let me handle this. You and Deimos may return to your quarters.”

Sanford nodded as he walked up to Deimos and grabbed his hand. The two young men left the room.

Chapter Text

2B had been planning his escape from this damn agency. He has been for months. Sanford and Deimos had already escaped… So why hasn’t 2B? He knew that Sanford and Deimos were often sent out to scout for their worst nemesis forgotten brother. So it would be no surprise if they were listed as dead.

However, 2BDamned can’t leave… because if he was listed as dead, and was seen wandering around the labs, that would raise suspicion. Maybe if he poisoned the cafeteria with tetrodotoxin, but where the hell could he find blowfishes in the agency?! It’s not like the medical units, like him, have the freedom to leave the building at ease.

“Dr. 2BDamned?” A grunt asked the medic, as the grunt arrived into 2B’s station. “Can you help my friend?”

2B looked up from his desk, noticing two young cloned grunts, one of them looking really beaten up. 2B sighed as he got up and quietly directed the injured grunt onto the bed. “What happened to you two?”

The first grunt shivered “Out of control MAG agent V2. Bloke here tried to kill V3 but-”

2B nodded, as he checked the injuries on the injured grunt. He took out a bandage and started patching up the injured grunt. “Mags…” He then started a blood transfusion on the injured grunt. That’s when a thought crossed his mind. “I hate to change the subject on you boys, but do you think the doctor’s rooms need something more…”

He glanced around the barren room. It was white… big, white, boring medical room. The injured grunt squeaked out. “Something like Dr. Hoffnar’s room!”

2B smiled and nodded “Yes, I was thinking of getting a fish tank. I’ve enjoyed the thought of having fishes.”

The grunt’s eyes both lit up. “Doctor! That’s a great idea! An aquarium! With lots of fish!” They both shouted in unison.

2B nodded, as he thought to himself ‘Bingo, now, if I can convince these two to go retrieve such items-’ however, his thoughts were interrupted.

“When Bloke gets better, we can run into the nearby city and raid the local pet store for you, doctor.”

2B nodded, with a soft smile gracing his face. “Thank you.”

H̵͎̔̌ͅę̸̙͖̹̤͝ ̵̣̹̒̎̋̃̓s̴̨̘̟̰̫̐͂̇̂̅̓̌h̷̰͛͐̓̔̕̕o̸̖͍̣̥͓̭̗̓̈́̒u̴̺̱̳̤̇͌̍͋̐̎l̷̡͖͖̠͓̺̉̔̚͜ḑ̷̛̙̯̯̜̼̬͋͐̕ ̴̜͋̍̀͐͒̍̿o̸̗̲̯͎̍͛f̸̢͍̯͕̱͚̈̾ͅ ̵̡̘̣̩͇͒͒k̴̨̼͇̬͎͖͚͆̍̏n̷̛͉͙̊̎ŏ̴̲̪̃͆̽̊͝͠w̵̡̨̘͈̭̙͑̓̄̚n̷̗̾̅

Later that day, in the lounge, 2BDamned was talking to Dr. Christoff and Dr. Hoffnar, over a cup of coffee, telling them about his idea. “I was thinking… Maybe I should decorate my room like you two did.” He said, voicing his innocent idea. “I was thinking of… having an aquarium.”

The older, wiser doctor gave 2B a nod of agreement. “I think that fits you well, Toby. Out of all of the children, you seemed to enjoy going to the rivers.”

Dr. Hoffnar expressed his opinion with a laugh and a story. “Excellent idea, Toby! Y’ know, when we went out to that river, you would always attempt to catch the fishes with an old Easter basket.” Dr. Hoffnar then gave out an extremely loud belly laugh. “What happened to the days when you were just a wee little lad, huh, Toby?”

The men all shared a good laugh, until their tablets chirped. Dr. Christoff checked his and sighed. “Sorry, Toby… Hoffnar and I have to evaluate a MAG Agent. Good luck with your fishy dream!” He said with a smile and a soft chuckle.

H̴̗̓́e̵̺̬͓̐ ̴̖͍̹̖͕̭̥͊̇̏̍̕s̶͉̞̰̈́̚͝h̶̡̿͂ô̸̰̱̭̰̄̐u̸̗͇͑͘͝͝l̸̝̳͎̹̗͘̕ͅd̵̫͙̘̻̾̈́͒̈́͊͑̽͜ ̵̻̪̲͎̫̉̍͆͠ǒ̸͕͇̯̐̎̍͠͠f̷̨̭͔͛̅̓̄̾͌͝ ̵̠͔̺̪̈́ķ̸͖̜̳̪̆̓̉̍͒̇n̶̯͝͝ͅờ̴̬̤͙̊̒͠͝ẃ̷̢͈̒͘ṅ̷̢̦̻̘̭̝̯̇ ̵̢̢̺̬̈́̅͐t̴̹̱͒̌̚h̵͚̐̆͝i̶͕̠̅̽s̴̢̩̳͛̎͋̅͝ͅ ̸͖͙͕̖̤͚̏̀ŵ̷̢͇͍̜̔̈̈́ą̶͓̯͓̈͠s̸̥̘͇̐ ̴̛͎̰͉̫̠̙̠̉̋̒͆͘a̷͖̯̱̯̝̘̒̅͠͠͝ ̷̧͍̲̖͎̩̱͗̎́̅̐̌b̸̲͚̪͈̖̩̞̑̃͆̈̂̔a̷̜̯͕̘̳̽͐̀̾̾͌͠d̶̟͈̗͕̫͕̆̎̓͑̀̌̈́ ̵͕͎͕̫͇͐̎͆̽̈́̈p̸͖̤̞̪̯̉̄̓̈́́̇͠l̵̡͕̦̞͇͕̙̇͗̔͘a̷̗̖͔̱͉͕̤͆̎̓͋͠n̶̥̬̊͐.̸̛̣̜̩͈͈̆̽̏

Days later, the two grunts came into 2B’s office. The two grunts, named Bloke and Holm, came into 2BDamned’s office, a sheepish smile on their face. “Doctor.” They addressed the man, who was lost in thought. “Doctor 2B.” They said,

2B looked up, his mind returning to reality. “Hm?” He asked, before realizing who it was. “Ah! Bloke, Holm. Come in.” He said, with a kind personality. The two grunts came in, holding something in their hands. When 2b realized what it was, his eyes widened. “Oh, you boys did not just-”

The boys came in holding an empty aquarium, with others behind them carrying various boxes. Bloke spoke up. “We wanted to get you a thank you gift.”

2B ran to the boys and helped them set up the aquarium. Once the tank was all set up, the last grunt came in with bags of confused fish. From Betas to the breed 2B desperately needed; Pufferfish. “Boys! Thank you!” 2B said, with genuine thankfulness… what those grunts didn’t know was that they were helping the dissenter… dissent

i̷͉̞͚̍̂͊͛̽̍t̸̢̜̳̀̑͝ ̵͈̂b̶̢̪̳͚͙͂u̶̩̬͙̼̓͑̕͠ŗ̴̢͍͙̪͉̂n̷̲̪̜̈̈́͘͝s̶͙̊͑̽̉!̴͍̯̉̅̔̃͗͊͘ ̶͍̝̹͓̖͒͐̿̌͠͝p̵̢̤̣̞̗̗͇̅̿̿͑̓l̶̢̮̔͂̓̅̿̍̄ë̵͔͖̞̝͖͝a̷̖̓̽̎̆̌̚͠s̵̤̯͖͒ĕ̷̡͉̖̰̮͚̾̃̀̄͊!̷̡̦͕̏̆̇͂̀͘ ̵̝̲̒́͊s̷̟̻̣͖̅̌̕ͅt̷͓͂͆̊̋̔̈́ŏ̸̫͈̃̌͊̆̕p̷̜͋!̸̛̛͚̏͑͆͆͘ ̷̢̡̪̹̹̓̀̊̑̚͝į̶̛̈́̆̾̆̽t̴̨̠̍͒̉́̏͝͝ ̶̛̯̅̈̍̈̕͠b̶̧̩͔̰̻̖̽͜u̵͖̹͖̔r̶͕̀̌̃̎n̸̘͓͎͈̫͌̉̄͂̈͋̑s̴̢̜͎͇̬͍̎̾̈́̔͘!̷̳͗̅̆͘

Days have passed since 2B has gotten his fish. He told his two trusted friends his plans. His true plans… Dr. Hofnarr and Dr. Christoff agreed to help 2B with his plans; extracting blowfish poison from his goldfish… and replacing some of their IVs with the poison. He even took a step further and injected some of the blood bags with poison…

2B’s first two victims of his cruel experiment were Bloke and Holm… Bloke was injured by yet another MAG, and lost lots of blood… and was in shock. Honestly, 2B felt bad connecting the poison-filled IV and blood bags into his
patients… but it had to be done.

“What happened this time, Holm?” Holm was equally shocked as Bloke. The poor grunt could barely speak. He gestured to Holm to sit on the stool next to his desk, as he took out a vial with the poison and said softly in a voice that hid betrayal and sadness together. “Holm, I’m going to inject this medicine into your arm… it should calm you down so you can tell me what exactly happened.” Holm nodded, shakily. 2B took a deep breath as he injected the poison into Holm’s arm.

Immediately, Holm collapsed into 2B’s arm. 2B caught Holm and checked the pulse in his neck… no pulse… arms… no pulse… heart beat…. Absent…. Holm… Holm was dead. 2B sighed as he carefully took out the needle and discarded it in the proper bin. He then placed Holm on a bed and checked Bloke’s pulse…. None… heartbeat… absent… Just like Holm.
t̵͕̥̗͍̻͗͘h̴̻̞̹̋͒̑ë̸̢̺̤̤́̄̊̔͝͝ͅy̷̯͖̜̙̞̍̒̇̈͊̑͝ ̶̪̰̼̮̖̓̈́̋̊͒̽͜w̷͖̝̦̩̩͇̭̎͋̔͌é̴̯r̵̘̱̼͎̘̹̈̎́͐͘ē̴͈̖̘̦͖̑͛͘͝ ̴͔̯͍̣̪͗t̶̘̬̫̎̐̈́̎ẃ̷͓̥̹̼̇̿͊̈́ȯ̴̦͖̩̘̼̠͊̓̂͂͘ ̵̰̮̲̌͑ỉ̶̛̛͉̻̯̖̳̃̇́n̶̙̯͐͗͋n̵̨̪̲̓̌̈́̇̚o̷͈͕̪͙̤̎̍̈́̅̌͒c̴̛̝̟͇̫͋̐́̒̕ḛ̶̛͙̺̈́̒͋͑̾̚n̶͙̳͖̑͘t̴͉̎́̒̊͑̅̽ ̷͎͉̀̓͗̊̔̃s̴̫͉͚̗̹̉̈́̾̏o̸͈̮͍͓̤͗̐̕͜ŭ̷̧̝̖̭̾̄̓̕ļ̵͖͙͎̈́̆͂š̴͙̤̅̋ ̸͙̓̉̈w̸̰̱͖͙̉̿́͂͠h̷̯̭̦͉̔ȯ̵̹̭̱͓̝̻̓̋͝ ̷̠͎̩̿̇͌͑͝͝ͅd̵͉̖͎͝ĩ̸̜̿͝d̸͉̲̭͍̏̋̀̎͛n̶̛̝̣̺̅'̵̠̍ţ̴̛̠͙̣̪̙̏̄̔ ̸̬͈̎̕͠ḋ̸̻̊̉̃̈́́͜͠ȇ̴̦̖̥̘̜͆̋̉̈͝͝s̸̡̛͙͎̩̦̱̓ę̸̟̫̗͉̈́͛͐̐̈́͝r̵͈͖̲͍̟͚͂̾̆͜͝v̸̧͖̪̦̬̋͋̿̕ė̸͙̩͛ ̷̨͉̩̳̖̆͛͌͑̾̚͝t̶̲̑̑̇ǫ̸̱̖̝̓̅̏͆͐̈̕ ̴͈̞͎̏̀̆̿̐̋̚ḑ̴̉̓̏͝ǐ̵̧̮̄e̶̘͇̞̖̝̔͊̑.̶̠̳͙̫̯̪̓̿͑͌̈́̈́̕

2B wanted to cry. But this was part of his plan to dissent.

y̶̢̜̱̝͌o̶̮͍͐͘̚͝ű̸̜̬͔̱̻̫̎ ̶͕͔̻̘̮̐̇̑ĉ̶̢̛̲̯̘̇́͒͊̚ą̶̭͔͈̘̃͘n̵͕̰͇̬͈̮̒̐̉͐̔̽ ̴̛̺̳̃̄͛̕ͅj̷̧̳̹́̉͜ų̷̢̝̯͓̺͐̄s̶͙̘̼̾̆̒t̵̡̟̥̬͕̺̠̆̒̄̓͂ ̸̻̩͖̠̘͗r̷̨̮̃̈́͝e̸̝͕̥͍͙̫̿ͅv̸̻̹̏͘͜ī̸̛̞̲̭͋͆v̸̧͎̼̠͕̫̎̓ę̷̘̣̖̖̬̜̔̓̎͐͂ ̶̩͕̪̞̹̆̊́ẗ̵̲̮̰̦̯́̿̉͝͝h̶̲̯̻͌̈̅̑͊̊ē̵̢̦̈́̋m̴͉̭̦̗̯̙̃͂̓͠.̸̳̅͑̑̊̎͑.̵͈͙̎̈́̈́̊̔͠͝.̶̩̥͔̦͙͕̼́̄͝ ̴̘̬͕̭̤̘̽͛̋͛̉͝͝R̸̛̘͖̻̰͍̘̆͑ī̸̛̜̟͍̭̖g̶̺̱͇̤̙̫̓͝h̴͂̐̀̅͒̎͜t̷͎̘̱̰̙̔̓̾ ̴̢̧̲̳̍͗͛̿͜͝Ţ̵͎͓̩̗̟͆͑́̋͝o̷̧̯̫͚͇͓͑̕ͅb̵̠̜̖̜̼̀̄̓͜ȳ̸̠̲͖̐̿̄̒́͝?̴̡̙̗̞̜̦̾͒

The news of the two dead grunts reached the ears of Phobos and Auditor, the two in charge of the agency. However, The Auditor dismissed it as a case of late timing. The poison was, of course, not detected right away. That was the one thing 2B was thankful for. However, 2B discovered that when he revived the grunts in his other top secret experiments; they had no memory of being poisoned. He also discovered their new-found abilities… poison… something similar to Deimos’ pyro skills.

2B helped the boys escape the Agency and told them to find a safe place to settle… just like how he did with Sanford and Deimos.

He still needs a way out….

I̴̫͌̎͑͆̄t̸̤̘͑͛s̷͔̟̚ ̸̣͌̃̽̎̋̎̕o̷̧̨̦͈͗̂̑͑̈̄͘ͅń̴̹͍͇̭̘̺̼̃̔̂l̷̼̀̒̄̚ÿ̷̨̭͎̮͓̋̆ ̵̨̞̱̲̞́̇̈́̏͝a̷̰̔̇͋̐ͅ ̶̩̫̼͆̏̈́͋m̷̺̞͙͌â̸̦͒̄t̷͖͓͋̓̑̑̏̈́t̵̥͘e̶̮̺͔͚͋r̸͕̔̂̀͂͛͝ ̵̗̙͖̥̫̭̯̂̄̐͂͋̕o̴̧̳̗̟͙̺͘f̴̧̮̔̎̊͠͝ ̵͕̽t̵͖̣̖͕͋̔̇͘͘ͅͅi̴̗̫͍̙̗͎̔̋̎͋̕͠m̵̹͉̈̊̊̃̚͠ë̸͉̥͂̿͋͛̔͛.̵̳̩͘.̷̥̮͔̠̅̌͑̿̉.̴͙̪̦͚͎͐͗̄ ̸̬̪̤̻̙̗̜̅͐͋̒̔̄̕B̵͍̖̻͎̌͆̎̊ȇ̴̫̞̏̊̒͘͠ͅf̴͎̊̕͜o̸̬͉͇͔̣̘̐͛͆͛r̶͇̣̖̓̓e̷͉̼͔̤̽̎̐͝ ̶̢̛̣͍̮̤̲̳̆̾̇͗͝I̶̢̨͚̘̣͕̕͜ ̶̘͖̥̯̫͠h̶̡̫̭̤̙̪͚̐͛̀̉̈͝a̴̧̘͓̺͘v̷̰̹̟̔̃̎̾̓ē̶̤̱͓̣͚̇͜ ̸̱́ͅt̵̬̻͔̣̬͚̀̐͗̾ơ̴̙̜̺̟̫̞͖͊̾ ̵̨͖̦̓̃̈́̈͛͝f̶̨̣̫͇͕̼̹̈̔͠a̴̰̤͚̮̒͊͝c̷̰̙͒̌̄͂̄̅ȩ̸̦̭͕̦̤̣̃͒̽̀̃̕͠ ̸̱̎̋ṯ̷̢̝̦̻̓̾̓̋̃́h̷̥̪͍̳̟͌͆̍̐̄͠ẹ̷͒̓̉̓͊̚ ̶̠̹̝̠̏͌̃̌̔J̵͓̜̼̥̥̈͗̋̄͝u̵̡͍̣͈̇̎̚d̵͔̟̮̫͌g̴̬̪̰͂̀͛͑̒͊͠e̸̢̹̤̦͒͌̐͆̄͝m̸͓̼̟̹͙̠̓e̴̝̽̃̎́͗͝ņ̵̗̖̼͓̮̋͛̉t̵̳͙͓͈̦̄̽́̽̽̍.̵̨̱̯̞̭͐͑̊͒̎

Months have passed and many have died under 2B’s care. The Agency’s higher-ups have noticed this and decided to do something about it.

While 2B was in his office, caring for his fishes, he heard a knock on his door. To which appropriately shouted. “Come in.”

ỷ̶͕̪͍o̶͖͑͐͊u̶͓̬͊͗̄̽͘ ̵̭̖͓̈̏̐̈s̷͚̏h̴̢̡̨̛̼̣͉̉̽͠ǫ̸̝̬͔̱̟̐͜ư̷̱̑̍͊̓̆̏l̶̬̞̔̿̽͑ḍ̷̪͙̐͑͗͝n̶̨̺͓͔̓͗'̵̫̄͂̈͘t̶̤̜̫̣̂͌͑̏̚ͅ ̷̢̪̝͎͑́̔̕o̵̟͚̦̘̻̥͓͒̉̕f̸̡̧̢̃̓ ̸͔͎͎̖̼̭̾̆͝d̴̡̬̞̜͛͛̀̾̾͘ǫ̴̺͓͔͎̈́͠͝n̶̂̋͑̈́͘͠ͅę̶̢͕͉̫͐̓͊̊̇ ̶̞̥̟̦̞̈́t̸̛̯̝͉͗̑̿͜ḩ̵̳̟̲͍̣̃̈́́̓͒͝ȁ̷͍̂̋t̴̢̛͖͉̹̲͍ͅ.̴̥̫̹̩̺̠̰̈̑͐͌

When 2BDamned turned around, his eyes widened. “D-director Phobos, sir.” 2B swallowed a lump in his throat as he said in a professional manner. “What can I do for you, sir?”

“Toby Wimbleton, adopted brother of Hank J Wimbleton.” Phobos addressed 2B. His red eye glared into 2B’s eyes. “I want to talk to you in my office. It’s nothing too serious. Just a little ‘chat’.”

Something about this was unsettling to 2B.

t̵̢̻͉̩͕̞͑͋̌͊̾́ḧ̸̡̠͈̯̐̍̒̒͜i̶̢͖͙̥͔͂̄̚s̷̜̫̯̃̓ ̷͈̦͆̔̇i̷̢̳̻̣̦͇̣̾̈́͛̊̓̓̒s̵̱̪̘̼̐͛͘ ̷͖̪͔̋̌̇͌͐͋̏a̶̡̟͕͇̘͋̀̒͒͝ ̵̧̭̻͈̿͗͝g̵̛̼̮͇̘̯̈́̽̍͘ͅŗ̷̲̰̞̩̳̏̑͑͌a̶̗͇̼͗̉̂͘͝v̵̛̥͎͙̱̇͌̌̏ȩ̸̳̗̯̜͖̫̋̐̿ ̷͚̹̘̝͘͝m̴̩̮̳̝̐̍̋̂̕̚̚ī̴̡̤͚̥͉̠̯͊s̸̨̬̦͔̹̮̰͛͒̕t̷̝͕̠͚̥͚̉͆̈́̚a̸̝͔͗̏͆̍̀̾k̵̨̰̹͍̰̿ȩ̴̢̨͎̳̭͙̓̓͝,̵̞̰̲͇̙̠̟͊͒͊ ̵͔͚̥̑̃͛͂̚T̶͍͖͗o̶̢̼̦͛̀̃͂͠b̴̗̤̲͚̞͉́ȳ̴̗̫̇̈́͊.̶̙̘̖̖̣̎̍͐̇͝

Phobos led 2BDamned into his office. “Please, doctor. Take a seat.” Phobos beckoned the doctor into a chair, which 2B did so. Phobos then wandered over to a window that overlooked Nexus city, his hands behind his back. 2B knew what was happening. There was no use in hiding the reason behind this meeting. “Tell me doctor, why are my men dying under your care?” Phobos asked.

“They’re being brought in too late. Shock gets the best of these men. Especially when dealing with such hellish demons such as the MAG agents.”

Phobos glanced towards 2B as he hummed. “Interesting. I don’t recall my MAG agents having the ability to poison anyone… which was found in some of my men’s blood streams.”

T̶̥̏h̷̗̿i̸̘̿s̷̗̅ ̷̧͝i̶̛̻s̶̺͒ ̶̭̊o̵̠͌ṇ̸̀ľ̵͓ỹ̷̩ ̷͔l̵͎͛ị̶̌k̸̤̒ĕ̷̪ ̶̖͐ạ̸̌ ̷̬̊g̴͙͂ḁ̴̔m̷̻̋e̴͕̿ ̶̦̓ȍ̵̡f̵̯͘ ̷̛͍c̸̡̉ẖ̴̛ĕ̷͖s̴̨̅ș̶̉.̵̘͐ ̸͎͝c̴͚̓h̴̨̅o̶̝̐o̸̦̾s̶͎̈́e̶͍͑ ̵̼͋y̴̠̓o̶̞̔u̵̖͗r̷̗̊ ̴̪̕m̷̼̚ŏ̴̹ṿ̴͗ẹ̷̕ ̷̣̓ẉ̵̔i̷̱͆š̴͜ẻ̴ͅl̷͚͘y̶̙͝,̴̜̓ ̴̠̕T̴̠͐o̸̱͗b̶͎̎y̵̻̍.̶͕̄

“What kind of poison?” 2B asked. He knew damn well about the poison. However, he didn’t expect to see Phobos to know what kind of poison it was.

“It came from a Tetraodontidae. Which is strange since Nevada doesn’t house any wild Tetraodontidae…” Phobos then turned around and looked at 2B straight in the eyes. “So obviously it came from a pet.”

2B showed no signs of breaking. No tell-tell signs of him secretly admitting that he was the one poisoning the IV bags and Blood Bags that resided in his office. 2B shrugged and said “It could have been Dr. Crackpot who’s been spiking my supplies. That bastard hates me more than anything.”

Ó̶͇n̶͚͈̣̥̤̑̾͘͝͠ę̸̡̖̯͓̹͇̄͌ ̷̛̛̺͚̲̲͕͂̽̏͘w̶͍̙̩̖̗̪̿r̶̛̹̖̜̜͛̔ò̵͕͕͇̖̰̣̹͔n̷̡̥̯̥̥̅̽̿g̶͕͎̹̞̻̜̗̪̍̃̍́̃ ̶̺͎̐̑̀̓̒̄m̵̻͈͎͓̩̏ơ̵̬̫̟̘̤͔̬̈̿́̄͌̊̏v̸̡̮̟̆̋͌́̐͆̎̚e̶̡̺̋̉ ̴̡̞̖̤͙̖̜͙̓c̷̡̡̩̼̿̓͜͝o̷͙̘̼͓͔̎̈́̚ͅu̵̻̜̙̟̝̬̱̇̽͘l̷͎̻̳͔̋̈́͝ḑ̵̢͉̼̘̥̍͋̈̊͂͒̓̆͜ͅ ̷͚̫͈͖͈̐̊̄̽͐k̷͕̳̬͈̫̬̟͆̅͑͐i̷̧̥̳͚̲͎̋͗̑̍̅̇̊l̶͇͙͎̫̪̭͊̂̈̎l̸̟͈̣̤̰͙̍̕̕ͅ ̶͇͚͆͌̌͆̔̕͝y̸̲̼̱̜̱̩̰͇͐̄̈́ö̷̬̳̼̳̺̲́̃͘ṵ̸͒̔͊̈́

2B could tell Phobos didn’t bite into that lie. “Interesting… seeing how Dr. Crackpot has been working on modifying our MAG agents.” Phobos walked closer to 2BDamned, getting quite fed up with 2B’s little game of secrets. “So, tell me again, Wimbleton. Who poisoned the blood bags.”

2B gave another smirk. “Who cares. You’re going to kill me anyways. I’ll take that secret to the grave if I have to.”

Phobos returned the smirk to 2B as he seemed to accept that answer… “Interesting…”

I̶̯̘̥͇̥̓̓̊͊t̴̨̛͚̔̊̒̑̆̍͐s̶̢̭̠̱͇̗͒̈́̋ͅ ̶̢͈̖̬̽͂̆͜o̵̘͋͛̎̾v̷̧̼̲̞͈͔͝ͅe̸̠͖̎̄̓̒r̵̻̒̆̾̉̈́͋͝.̷̹͉̻̠̘̦̗͋̈́.̸̢̨̹̳͍̃͛̌.̷̞̙͚̀̿̃̋͛

Phobos was now directly standing in front of 2BDamned, with 2B getting a close look at Phobos' scars on his face. Phobos chuckled slightly. “So, Toby… you like my scars?”

“Hides your ugly side damn well.” Toby snapped.

Phobos looked shocked as he acted hurt. “Oh? You’re calling me ugly?” That shock expression quickly returned to a look of smugness. “In that case…”

Phobos summoned a knife in his hand, and grabbed 2BDamned by the chin, while placing a knee over 2B’s hands. “What was that children’s rhyme? ‘Liar, Liar, pants on fire?’ Well… I may have a new rhyme.” Phobos gouged the left side of 2BDamned’s face with the knife, tearing away flesh and muscle to reveal his molars. Of course, he couldn’t do this quietly. 2BDamned screamed bloody murder…

“Liar~… Liar~… Mouth~… on fire~….” Phobos’ tone was mocking him… mocking the lies 2BDamned spoke of. “I know the truth, Toby. You used your pet fish as a way to poison my men. But tell me, Toby… why?”

Phobos expected an answer from 2B after shredding his left cheek. However, 2B didn’t give up the truth to Phobos. He hissed weakly “Go fuck yourself.”

“My… my… is that how you talk to Dr. Christoff and Dr. Hoffnar?” Phobos cooed, as he turned 2B’s head, readying the knife. “I’ll ask one more time. Why. Did. You. Poison. My. men?”

“Burn in hell.” 2B hissed back.

Phobos shrugged, as he performed the same action that he did on 2B’s left. 2B, only was letting out pained screams. Phobos watched as his blade removed flesh and replaced it with nothingness. His hidden teeth now revealed to the world. He was having so much fun torturing 2B, until he felt himself forcibly removed from 2B. Phobos was now on the floor, knife still in hand. His stomach throbbed in pain. When he returned to reality, he looked up to see 2BDamned glaring straight at him, standing straight up. 2B’s Blood was all over his white lab clothes and the nice chair that he was sitting on.

It was then that 2B mocked Phobos. “And I thought you were a man of humanity, cleanliness and order… shame…” 2B weakly hissed before leaving the room. 2B stopped at the door and turned slightly. “It was a pleasure talking to you, Director Sir.”

Į̷̠̯̣̺͗̓̿̌̃̌̇t̴̪̣̘̺͆̂̾͋͝ ̵͎̤̪̣͒̊̅̚b̵͚̯͓̭͍͍͋̾͐̂͌ŭ̴͔̟̲̋̈́r̸̨̰̫̒͗͂̇̐̒͝n̴̨̢͎̤̯̪͇̓̎͒̓s̸̼̰̻͔̎̂̌ͅͅ

2B entered the hall where Phobos’ and Auditor’s offices were. Blood continued to drip out of his mouth… the adrenaline in 2B’s system quickly died down as 2B collapsed in front of the door… his face, drenched with tears and blood. He started to fade out…

It burns… it burns….

2B shot straight up. His mouth was burning even worse than before. The feeling of his mouth on fire woke him from his slumber, as he jolted out of bed and ran to the bathroom of his room.

“FUCK!” 2B shouted to himself, as he looked at himself in the mirror. “They fucking reopened again!” He muttered to himself. 2B sighed as he cleaned his wounds carefully. He hadn’t been paying to his surroundings, so when he looked back up in the mirror, there was a man standing behind him. His red eyes shimmered in the dim bathroom light. Of course, 2B freaked out, spinning around him and shouting. “JEEEEEEEEEEESUUUUUSS…. loves me….” A moment of awkward silence until 2B hissed out “Fuck, Hank! What the hell?!”

“What happened to your face, Toby?” Hank asked, as he walked closer to his little brother, who was getting medicine from the mirror shelf. “Who or what did this to you?”

“It’s in the past, Wimbleton.” 2B hissed, as he started to dab some medicine on his wounds. “You’ve already killed them…. They’re dead.”

Hank glared as he watched his little brother struggle, before taking the cotton swabs, which 2B was using to place the medicine on, and did it for him. “Phobos did this…? Why didn’t you tell me this? Why didn’t you show me your scars?”

2B sighed as he shook. “This is going to sound childish and stupid, hank… but… I honestly thought you were going to hate me.”

“I don’t hate you, Toby.” Hank immediately admits. “Only maniacal men hate their brothers.”

“Only maniacal men cause hell in Nevada too.” 2B remarked, which received a soft chuckle from Hank. Hank finished up treating 2B’s wounds and put away the stuff for 2B.

“Toby… You should get some rest.” Hank said, as he took Toby’s hand.

“Alright… Hank…. I will.”

####[PAST]####

2BDamned woke up, his head throbbing in pain, a transfusion was made on him. 2B looked up to see a black shadowy figure standing a bit from him. The area didn’t seem to click in 2B’s head, nor the person. 2B slowly sat up and groaned in pain, which the figure spoke out to him.

“How do you feel, Toby?” The voice, male, called out softly.

Oh, shiz- “Fine, Director Auditor…” 2B replied. Even in waking, 2B tried to stay calm.

Red eyes laid on 2B’s weak figure, as the Auditor walked over. “You don’t look fine. Tell me, Wimbleton… what happened?”

Aw shit… here we go again… more questions. “Phobos attacked me…” 2B weakly spoke out. His mouth hurt… and somehow… the Auditor knew.

The Auditor's eyes narrowed. “Over you attempting to dissent…” He sighed as he gently placed a hand on 2B’s face. “I have nothing against you dissenting, Toby Wimbleton, however… if you ever need to escape… don’t be afraid to tell me.” The auditor let go of 2B’s face and started to pace around the small medical facility, which was hidden behind the Auditor's office. “If I could… I would too leave this fucking nightmare… and be a real scientist… and create cures for illness that have not yet gotten a cure… Not some… mad scientist who creates monsters for a living.” It was obvious that the Auditor was pissed about his current situation. He turned to 2B and gave the man a sorrowful look. “Listen, Toby… I know all about you. I know who you are… and who your parents were…. However-”

During the Auditor's explanation, Phobos started to pound on the door to the Auditor's office. Auditor looked at 2B then back at the entrance to the medical bay. “Wait here, Toby… You’re still too weak to move.”

And like that, the Auditor left Toby alone…

So many questions swam in Toby’s mind… Why was the Auditor helping? Who is the Auditor… who… who is he

Chapter Text

What did he do wrong? What went wrong? Where did it go wrong? Jebidah could feel the heavy breathing of that… monster... on the skin of his neck. That green-skinned freak… That… monster that was supposed to be his friend. It was that damn potion. Hofnarr was trying to turn himself into a cat-girl, of all things, but instead turned into… this damn monster.

“Jeeeeeeeeeeebbbbbbbbbbbyyyyyyyyyyyy.” The monster lowly grumbled. “I feeeeeeeeel weeeeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrdddddd.”

Why was the monster not attacking him? Jebidah slowly gazed into the eyes of the monster. What he expected to see was not what he saw. He assumed he was going to see anger, hatred, malice… but instead… he saw fear…

“Hoffnar?” He whispered as he slowly sat up. He was lying on the floor of his make-shift lab.

“Jeeeeeebbbbbbyyyyy… whaaaaaaat haaaaaaaaaapppppppppppeeeennnneeed?” Hofnarr asked, as he moved away from the man.

The event came back to Jebidah like a movie to a naïve child, thinking that the scenes were so real. One would think that movies weren’t made with a script. But he had to tell his friend the truth.

“You…” He choked back the thoughts to lie. He told him everything. “You were trying to turn yourself into a cat girl…”

###Moments before###
“OH JEEEEEEEEEBBBBBBBYYY! I’VE FINNALLY DONE IT!” Hofnarr called out to his friend as the wild man-child ran to Jebidah’s make-shift lab, holding a beaker of a hideous green looking fluid.

Looking up from his work, Jebidah’s eyes widen as he asked his pal in a tone of voice that shared the same concern as his thoughts. “Hofnarr… what in the Sam-hill is that?”

Hoffnar excitedly shook as he rambled, gradually raising his voice as he spoke “ThispotionissUPPOSEDTOMAKEANYONEWHODIRINKSITINTOREAL! LIFE! CAT! GIRLS! ”

Oh boy… this obsession for cat girls again? Jebidah sighed as he took off his shades and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Hofnarr, I’ve told you this once and I’ll tell you again… there is no such thing as cat girls.” Bad move, Jebidah.

Hofnarr looked at Jebidah then at his potion and gave the older scientist a grin. “Wanna test that theory, Jebby?” Hofnarr teased.

Jebidah sighed as he went back to his project; creating a source of power for one person to use on themselves. “Do whatever you want, Hofnarr.” Jebidah huffed, before trying to spit out a warning. “But-” It was too late. Hofnarr excitedly drank the liquid from the beaker (as the beaker had no cork. Also, it didn’t have an odor, thank moons.)

Jebidah looked over, shocked and shouted, as he started to make a mad-dash to his friend “HOFNARR, N-” but he couldn’t stop Hofnarr. The transformation was too quick to stop, as his skin turned green, his hair grew out to look like a clown’s hair, and was red… He, Hofnarr, looked like a clown Zed.

The monster darted to the incoming scientist and punched him in the gut, causing Jebidah to fall back and black out.

###Later###

“And… that’s what happened, Hofnarr.” Jebidah said with a sigh.

Hoffnar looked at Jebidah up and down before plopping into Jebidah’s lap like a cat. “Hofffnarrrr might not be Cat-Girl, but Hoffffnaaaaaaar can be CAT-ZED!”

Jebidah chuckle as he patted Hofnarr on the head. “Do you want me to give you a pet-name then?”

“Tricky! Because Hofnarr…. Caused tricky mess.”

Jebidah nodded before looking at ‘Tricky’ and pondering to himself. ‘Interesting. His mannerism and thought process has changed. As well as his speaking pattern… is the potion slowly changing his mental faculties?” Jebidah then watched as Tricky curled up like a cat and started to snooze. He couldn’t help but smile at Tricky’s animal-like personality… but he really needed to use the lavatory.

“*Sigh*… This is awkward…”

Chapter Text

The memories of the agency swirled around Deimos like the heatwave that he was experiencing, as Sanford finished up his side of the story to Hank. Deimos felt like shit. He just wanted to take a long cool shower. They weren’t far from their base.

“Hey, Sanny? Can I please turn the temperature down lower?” Deimos’ asked, his voice starting to sound terrible. He cleared his throat, thinking that it was just some flem caught in his chest.

Hank, however, knew something was wrong, as he spoke quickly, before Sanford could. “Deimos, you’ve asked that question about five-”

(San) “Six”

“-Six times already. It’s already at 20˚(f). Are you you’re feeling okay?”

Deimos hesitated on answering Hank. He knew that he couldn’t lie to Hank. The last time someone lied to Hank, it ended up in a bloody nose and a very uncomfortable wedgie that couldn’t be fixed unless the other person tore their clothes up (Hank had taken a safety pin and pinned their underwear to their shirt.) Deimos sighed as he said “It’s hot as hell. The drive there was long as hell. I’m sweating like hell- OH SHIT! I’M IN HELL!” Of course, Deimos couldn’t help but bypass the question without joking around. “AND YOU GUYS ARE MY HELLMATES!”

Sanford snickered at Deimos’ joke, as Hank glared at Deimos. “Listen here, you little shit!” Hank growled, as he leaned to the front seats to glare harder at Deimos. This, however, caused an eruption of laughter to get louder in the truck.

But Deimos’ laugher soon turned into a wheezing cough and then gasping for air. The laughter immediately stopped as Hank shouted “STOP THE CAR AND CALL TOBY!”

Deimos couldn’t keep his eyes open any longer as the panic shouts, car lurching in a halt, and other noises started to fade.

Deimos had awoken to a familiar scene. Blood stained the grey ceiling, with dimly lit lights. His whole body was burning. He felt like he was in hell. His breathing was hard to control, his body continued to sweat, and his body refused to move, even if he tried to force it. He even tried to call out for Sanford and Hank, but there was no vocal noise coming out of his mouth. Just a raspy breath of air.

Just then, he felt the Doc’s hand on his wrist, as 2BDamned muttered something under his mask. Deimos was hopeful that if he could just move his hand, or even squeeze it. But that hope slipped away like 2B’s hand away from Deimos’ wrist.

“Toby! Nooooo!” Deimos whined to himself in his thoughts. He then had a thought, a plan to show 2B that he was still alive. He just had to wait until the perfect moment.

That was when Deimos hatched his plan; when 2B shined that damn light into his eyes, Deimos instinctively winced and whined. He tried to speak, but couldn’t as raspy air left his mouth.

“Yes, Deimos, I know you’re alive and awake. Quit squirming so I can get your vitals.” 2B hissed, as he turned Deimos’ head back over to him so he can check his eyes.

The next question Deimos asked himself was “How did Doc know this?” but that wasn’t answered as 2B Mumbled “How the fuck did you go on a mission with a fever edging at 105 and not fucking die?!”

Deimos thought about it. Maybe it was his pyro-abilities? Maybe it was the fact that he hadn’t shower in three days. Whatever the reason, Deimos just felt terrible.

“You’re lucky Hank and Sanford called me, or else you wouldn’t have made it.” 2B continued, as he tapped on his tablet, writing down numbers, and information. He continued. “Deimos, is there any way you can communicate with me?”

Deimos tried again to move his body, but he could only move his head in small movements. With that, Deimos shook his head no.

“Can you move at all?” another headshake of no.

“Only your head?” Toby asked. Before Deimos could shake his head yes, 2B interrupted him “Wait, don’t answer that. I don’t want you to fuck up your neck.”

Deimos let out another wheezy breath, as he could barely breathe. He couldn’t move, he could barely feel his body at this point. It felt like someone had chopped off his head. He couldn’t talk… everything is going to shit and he can’t do anything about it.

“Don’t worry, Deimos. We’ll figure something out. For now, you need to try to rest.”

Deimos hated that one command. ‘Rest.’ Deimos had so much energy that he could power up ten cities. Deimos wanted to run around the room so many times that even 2B could be tired before Deimos is. However, rest does sound good. Deimos felt so tired that his eyes started to flutter shut.

Which 2B quickly got to work on the blood samples he took from Deimos. He carefully examined the blood sample through a microscope only to see that there was wrong with the blood sample… very wrong. The red blood cells looked like they had been eaten by something. The white blood cells were, however, gone. That’s when 2B saw it… an unknown cell destroying a stray white blood cell.

Without hesitation, 2BDamned called for the help of Jebidah Christoff and Hoffnar.

“I am familiar with this.” Jebidah Christoff said, calmly, as he looked at the sick boy. “It’s a parasite designed to kill off clones like Deimos.”

“And only clones.” Hoffnar added. (It should be noted that they have created a temporary cure for Hoffnar’s “tricky” problem.) “If a human like us are infected, we will get sick for about a week, but it’s not as severe as Deimos.”

“Is there a cure?” 2B asked, sounding worried.

Jebidah gave 2B a sad look and shook his head no. “Not that we know of… but there is a way to save him… but it’s risky.”

2B looked at Deimos, who looked even worse than before, then back at the two elder doctors and nodded. “I’m willing to take any risk to save Deimos.”

“Alright. In the main Nexus building, in the laboratory sector, there is an anti-parasitic medication. It was still in the works when Phobos showed similar signs one day, but was soon discovered that his immune system was fucked up.”

Hoffnar chimed in “If I recalled correctly, we were about to give the first prototype a go when we found out the news.”

“Correct, Old Friend.” Jebidah confirmed Hoffnar’s assumption.

Just then, Hank walked in with Sanford. “Then we’re going to get it. To save our little brother!” Sanford nodded.

“Hold it right there, little cowboy!” Hoffnar addressed hank. He then walked up to the taller kid- erm- adult and patted his shoulder. “You see, Hanky old chap, you need an ID to get into the laboratory.” Hoffnar then wrapped his arm around Hank, annoying the murder. “It so happens that papa Hoffnar here has the key~” He bragged, pulling out his Nexus ID. “Meaning that I have higher access to the inaccessible places that good old Toby couldn’t get to~”

Hank, having enough of Hoffnar’s fooling around and touchy touchy moments, shoved Hoffnar off of him and snarled. “Touch me again and Toby will have to bring you up from purgatory and you won’t go to this Nexus building with Sanford and I.”

Jebidah walked up to Hank and handed him his ID. “Here, incase Hoffnar does piss you off, you can use my ID. Hoffnar and I have the same clearance ID.”

Hank nodded then turned to Sanford, to see that he had already rushed to the truck.

At the entrance to Nexus agency, the three men got out of the truck and stared at the building, Hank growling “So this is the prison you were at.”

Sanford nodded, as he used his Soldier ID to get into the building, before turning to Hank and Hoffnar. Though, Hoffnar was no longer there, and instead, Tricky stood in Hoffnar’s place, putting an empty vial in his pocket and summoning his trademark stop sign in his hand. “LeT’S KICK SOME FUCKING ASS!”

“Remember, Clown, we’re here to get some anti-parasitic medicine for Deimos. We’re not going to cause a massive blood bath.” Hank softly reminded Tricky.

“CLoWN KNOWS! CLOWN BEHAVES!”

The men nodded as they entered the building and immediately were attacked with a bullet storm. That didn’t stop them from fighting however. Tricky sliced and bashed various grunts, Soldats, and other small enemies that stood in his way, Sanford doing the same with his hook. Hank took the lead with his gun and inserted lead into the skulls of his enemies. The grey walls soon stained red, as the men ran towards the laboratories.

Upon reaching the laboratories, they encountered a scared human, who was huddled against a wall. Hank felt fire within his stomach as he was angry that they would recruit humans at a time like this. Hank gave the human, female, his hand and said in a low voice. “Who are you?”

The human, confused, looked at Hank. “H-huh?”

“Your name… what is your name?”

“I’m… Crystal.”

“Crystal…. Do you know where the Lab sector is?” Hank asked, his voice deep and terrifying.

Crystal shook her head no, then cowered in fear when she saw Tricky and Sanford walk up behind Hank. Hank, being the kind hearted monster he is, said. “It’s okay, We’re human, like you. We’re not going to hurt you. We’re just looking for a certain type of medicine.”

Crystal nodded as she stood up. “The lab sector is over here. Our medicine, however, can only be unlocked with those with higher ID Clearance.” She said, as she used her ID card to unlock the door. She then turned to the men. “With your Zed friend’s strength, he might be able to bust through the door.”

“ArrRE YOU CALLING TRICKY FAT?!” Tricky shouted, in anger.

“N-no, sir! I’m just calling you strong!” Crystal then looked at Hank and regained her confidence. “By the way, sir, I’m a fox dragon, not a human.” She then winked, revealing her fox tail and dragon wings, before letting them disappear and walking away.

Out of confusion, Sanford looked at Hank and asked “Was that the author’s love of fantasy showing through?!”

Hank shrugged, but Tricky bonked Sanford in the head with his stop sign. “BAD SANFORD! NO FOURTH WALL BREAKING!” Tricky then paused then looked at Sanford. “THOUGH, THAT WOMAN MIGHT BE THE AUTHOR’S FRIEND!”

The men shrugged to each other then walked into the Lab Sector. Hank mumbled softly to himself “Note to self; remind me to remind the author to not include fantasy in her works… that just makes shit weird…”

2B worked tirelessly to make sure Deimos was still alive. He couldn’t give up on Deimos, not after the years of friendship they’ve acquired. Yes, 2B could revive Deimos, but… he was afraid. 2B was afraid that the next time he would retrieve Deimos from Purgatory, it won’t be pretty. He’s afraid…

Deimos had already flat lined once while the men were away. Thankfully, 2B and Jebidah had revived Deimos, but 2B had already forgotten about Jebidah helping. 2B looked up at the clock, it ticking away the minutes that it took for Hank and the others to retrieve the cure. But 2B was soon startled by a relaxing hand on his shoulder.

“Toby, it’ll be alright.” Jebidah said, with a soft relaxing tone in his voice. 2B forgot that Jebidah was also helping to keep Deimos alive with the Halo, the source of unlimited power. Or one would think that the Halo was the source of unlimited power. 2B could tell that Jebidah was running low on that power. That power that is helping keep Deimos alive.

“How long can you rest until we need that power again?” 2B asked, concerned for Jebidah’s strength.

“About thirty minutes.”

“Then rest. I’ll make sure that Deimos won’t flat line again.” 2B said, as he walked closer to Deimos.

“Are you sure?” Jebidah asked, unsure of 2B’s plan.

“You will need your energy and strength to keep Deimos alive.” 2B said calmly, turning back to Jebidah. “Your power is our only hope on keeping Deimos alive if he flat lines again. You won’t be able to save him if you use up all of it.”

Jebidah looked at 2B before sighing and stopping his powers. However, the worst thing happened, as Deimos immediately flat lined.

Chaos ensued as Jebidah immediately used his powers once again to save Deimos, which was a close call. “The parasite has already destroyed his blood vessels! I can’t release him from my powers now.”

2B growled as he looked like he was ready to punch something.

After searching for quite some time, the men finally found the medicine they needed to save Deimos. However, their process was halted when Phobos walked up towards them. “So, you’re the rats who were killing my men.”

“Phobos!” Sanford shouted. “I thought Hank killed you?!”

“Oh, I have my ways of coming back from the dead. Which speaking of; I’m back from the dead, baby!”

Silence filled the room when Tricky grumbled. “YOU BAD AT MAKING UNDEAD ENTRANCE! DEIMOS IS BETTER!”

Phobos smirked as he looked at Tricky. “Deimos is better, you say? Let me tell you, Clown, the only thing Deimos is better at doing than I am is being ten feet underground.” Phobos started to pace at the entrance. “Say, why are you trying to save a little traitor? Is it because you’re family? You love each other? You only care about each other?” Sanford snarled as he placed his hand on his hook as Phobos continued his long, boring monologue. “Deimos doesn’t deserve to be saved. He doesn’t deserve you. He deserves ME! He belongs to ME!”

Hank finally growled. “You’re a fucking asshole. You don’t deserve Deimos. Do you know why?” Before Phobos could open his mouth, Hank answered. “You don’t love him. You don’t show kindness to him. Hell, I think YOU poisoned Deimos.”

Phobos smirked at Hank’s final guess. “I had you three kidnapped and infected with the parasite. I held you three hostages for about a day. I was shocked to see that the parasite didn’t immediately work on Deimos, but now that I see you three looking for the cure, I guess the parasite worked and is slowly killing off Deimos.”

“YOU ARE MORE ROTTEN THAN THE DEAD CLONE EMBERYOS THAT FAILED TO DEVOLP!” Tricky roared. Without giving second thought, Tricky swiftly ran across the room and went to kick Phobos but was immediately flung back by the director.

“Don’t you dare touch me with your slimy gross body, Zed.” Phobos warned, before looking at the other two “Who wants to fight me next?!”

“I do.” A soft voice hissed, like fire, behind Phobos. Phobos turned around and a black, fiery hand grabbed his face and quickly rendered Phobos unconious. The man dropped Phobos and looked at Hank and Sanford.

“Director Auditor.” Sanford addressed, a look of fear was hidden behind his tea-shades. The Auditor, however, gave no aura of hostility but rather, hospitably. He calmly walked over to Tricky and helped the Clown Zed up, healing his wounds, without saying a word. He finally turned to Sanford and Hank and said, with a sound of urgency in his voice. “Go, now. Deimos needs you.”

The men nodded as they raced out of the building, noticing the lack of opposing grunts in the area. When they reached the truck, Tricky glowed and turned back into Hoffnar, yet, he wasn’t sore at all. Swiftly, the three men got in the truck, with the anti-parasitic medicine in Hank’s hand.

Jebidah was very exhausted, he was close to passing out from all the magic he has used on Deimos. 2B feared the worse, when the door opened and the three men walked in, Hank holding the needed vial. Without exchanging words, Hank silently gave 2B the vial, and 2B quickly got to work injecting the vial into Deimos’ system. He then gave it a second, while holding his brother’s hand before looking at Jebidah and saying. “You may stop now.”

“Toby, what if he-”

“It’s okay. You may stop now.”
Jebidah nodded, hesitantly as he released Deimos from the magic hold. The air was thick as everyone excpected the worse thing to happen. The machines on Deimos didn’t make any awful alarm noises, just the steady beep that it had been making when Jebidah was using his magic. Deimos didn’t move but, somehow, everyone knew that Deimos… was still alive.

Hoffnar finally broke the long wordless silence as he placed his hands on both Sanford and Hank’s shoulders. “Give it some time, old chaps. Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

“KEEP YOUR FUCKING HANDS OF ME, OLD MAN!” Hank hissed as he jolted out of Hoffnar’s grasp and stumbled into Jebidah. He quickly turned around and looked at the other doctor’s glasses. “Ah! I’m sorry, Doctor Christoff.”

Jebidah softly chuckled as he gently replied. “It’s alright, Hank. And Hoffnar is right, you boys need some rest.” Then, Jebidah turned to 2B and smiled. “Even you, Toby.”

The three men nodded as they silently left the room, leaving Hoffnar and Jebidah Christoff alone in the room with Deimos.

Hoffnar looked at his old friend and said, with an annoyed grumble “Phobos has figured out how to revive himself. I’ve also discovered something that the boys don’t know about.” He said, as he pulled out a folder and handed it to Jebidah.

“These are-“

“Research notes on your halo. Phobos wants to use the Halo to control not only Nevada, not only the whole united states, and hell, not even the whole North American continent!”

Jebidah’s eyes narrowed as he growled. “He wants to control the whole world?! What kind of mad man is he?!”

Hoffnar sighed. “I don’t know, but we need to stay low from now on, Jebby.”

Jebidah sighed as well. “I know… Hoffnar, promise me this. Promise me, that if we join Hank and them that you won’t tell anyone of these boys our true reason for joining.”

Hoffnar nodded in agreement. “Right, for all they know is that we’re joining to help them out, right?”

“Correct…”

Hank and his two brothers all slept peacefully on the couch, sleeping away their fears about Deimos. It was until Jebidah woke them all up, with a soft tone. “Hank, Toby, Sanford. Wake up, boys.”

“hnmmmph…” Hank and 2B both grumbled. Sanford had something else to say, though.

“No… you can’t eat Cad Bane’s hat. That’s too much fiber for you.”

Sanford’s reply to Jebidah’s soft wakeup call made the older man chuckle softly. He knew that Sanford was a sleep talker, he always was. Jebidah walked closer to the boys and called for them again. “Hank, Sanford, Toby. Wake up, I have some wonderful news for you boys.”

Hank grumbled as he opened one eye. “What is it, Dr. Christoff?”

“It’s Deimos, he’s awake.” Jebidah said with a soft smile. That immediately woke up the boys, as Hank sprung up, shoving 2B and Sanford off of him and crashing onto the floor.

“Ow! Damnit Hank!” 2B growled, as he got up the floor, Sanford following him with his own comment. “What’s going on, Hank?!”

Hank didn’t take a second to reply to Sanford as he darted to the little office that severed as their medical room.

When Hank rushed in, he had startled Hoffnar and Deimos. “Oh! Hank, old boy! Don’t know you know how to knock?!” Hoffnar shouted.

“It’s okay, Dr. Hoffnar.” Deimos spoke out, his voice somewhat raspy but better than before. “Hank! I’m sorry for lying to you earlier. I-”

“Deimos!” Sanford shouted as he shoved past Hank, receiving a growl from the taller brother, and hugged Deimos. “Deimos!” Sanford cried again, as he hugged his brother tightly.

“Ow. Hi, Fordy. I missed you too.” Deimos said with a smile.

2B was the last one in the room, with Jebidah following him. “Deimos, How do you feel?” 2B asked.

“Never better, Doc.” Deimos said, sounding excited.

All of the medical equipment 2B had placed on Deimos had been removed, aside for a few IV drips. Everybody knew from their hard work that Deimos was okay.

As for Hoffnar and Jebidah? Well.. they asked to join the boys small team. And it worked… as long as Hoffnar will stop touching Hank.

Chapter Text

Oh, Hello there. Sorry for not uploading again recently. Writers Block has gotten me pretty badly. So yay. I will be continuing the story.

I do have some wonderful news. A friend of mine asked me to write a comic based off of Then and Now. So I am working on said comic verson. This comic verson will have a few changes, such as tie-ins to The Flames of Anger will soon die out, and just extra stuff that will make more sense to the lore. I've also skipped chapter one completely and went straight to chapter 2; The Bitter Medicine of the Past, which is Flame of Anger's chapter one; Mizu No Naka. If you want to see the comic series, I've been uploading the comics on a few small discord servers, which I can't get the link to due to my Libary banning Discord. But if you want to DM me, my username is OmegaReploid#7906.

I am working on the next chapter of Then and Now, which features one of my favorite characters to poke fun at. All because he sounds like Waluigi in Madness Project Nexus. And because you can punch the snot out of. (yay)

That's all for now. Stay fresh.

Chapter Text

Maniacal, uncontrolled laugher filled the halls that lead to Dr. Crackpot’s office. Those were the sounds that often made the scientists feel a sense of unease. Just those cursed, unhuman laughter sounds. Some thought that Dr. Crackpot was creating a beast clone, just to spite Dr. Hoffnar, while others thought he was experimenting with the S-3LFS. Though, the later was more the correct answer.

Inside Dr. Crackpot’s lab was an uncontrollable grunt strapped to a table, trying to squirm its way out of its restraints, and on its face was the S-3LF machine. Crackpot quickly typed on his tablet, the results of his latest experiment- the S-3LFS consuming products made from Mind-altering plants.

“It seems that the S-3LF mixed with a Jimsonweed isn’t a good combination after all.” Crackpot thought to himself, as he finished up his work, before chuckling to himself “Though, consuming the Jimsonweed isn’t a good idea at all.” He walked up to the tied-up grunt, who was no longer laughing and now screaming in terror while violently thrashing around, and injected it with a strong anesthetic. Soon, the violent tremors of the grunt’s body went limp, no more sounds came from the grunt’s mouth, except for breathing.

Satisfied with his work, Dr. Crackpot called it a day and cleaned up his laboratory, calling medical assistance to deal with the grunt. He grinned under his mask, with an evil grin so big it made him look like the Grinch. “They are going to have fun dealing with that grunt when he wakes up.” Crackpot cackled under his breath.

###

Dr. Crackpot was sitting at one of the lounge tables, drinking a cup of Kopi Luwak¹ while reading the newest reports on some of the experimental MAG agents. (¹which is Coffee that was pooped out by an Asian Palm Civet, which is some sort of Asian tree cat??? But it is basically poop coffee.)

Dr. Crackpot was soon pulled out of his thoughts when he heard that Wimbleton kid talking to Jebidah Christoff and Hofnarr… Something about poison, fish, and supplies. Whatever that kid was talking about, Crackpot knew that it wasn’t good. He quietly got up from the uncomfortable metal chair, his shit coffee in one hand and tablet in the other, and returned to his lab to continue more experiments.

When he had returned to his lab, he had received a nasty note from the medical staff that read:

“𝒟𝑒𝒶𝓇 𝒟𝑜𝒸𝓉𝑜𝓇 𝒞𝓇𝒶𝒸𝓀𝓅𝑜𝓉,
𝒫𝓁𝑒𝒶𝓈𝑒 𝓆𝓊𝒾𝓉 𝑔𝒾𝓋𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝑔𝓇𝓊𝓃𝓉𝓈 𝓇𝒶𝓃𝒹𝑜𝓂 𝓊𝓃𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌𝓃 𝒹𝓇𝓊𝑔𝓈 𝓌𝒽𝒾𝓁𝑒 𝓊𝓈𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒮-𝟥𝐿𝐹 𝓂𝒶𝒸𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑒𝓈. 𝒯𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝒾𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓉𝓌𝑒𝓃𝓉𝒾𝑒𝓉𝒽 𝑔𝓇𝓊𝓃𝓉 𝓌𝑒 𝒽𝒶𝒹 𝓉𝑜 𝓉𝓇𝒶𝓃𝓆𝓊𝒾𝓁𝒾𝓏𝑒 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓅𝓊𝓉 𝓊𝓃𝒹𝑒𝓇 𝐼𝓃𝓉𝑒𝓃𝓈𝒾𝓋𝑒 𝒸𝒶𝓇𝑒. 𝐼𝒻 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒹𝑜 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝑜𝓃𝑒 𝓁𝒶𝓈𝓉 𝓉𝒾𝓂𝑒, 𝓌𝑒 𝓌𝒾𝓁𝓁 𝒷𝑒 𝓇𝑒𝓅𝑜𝓇𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓉𝑜 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒽𝒾𝑔𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝓊𝓅𝓈.
𝒮𝒾𝑔𝓃𝑒𝒹, 𝑀𝑒𝒹𝒾𝒸𝒶𝓁 𝒮𝓉𝒶𝒻𝒻.”

“Well then.” Crackpot hissed, as he crumpled up his note and tossed it in the trash. “It’s not my fault that those incompetent bastards don’t know what to do.” Frustrated with his co-workers, Crackpot sat at his desk, plotting some evil scheme, when he remembered. Mag Agents… Toby Wimbleton… He was going to get that punk fired. With a laugh that sounds like Wario’s, Dr. Crackpot got up from his chair and left the room.

###

Oh what a success! What a Success! After being told the great news that he was going to work with the MAG agents, Crackpot happily skipped back to his lab. He didn’t care if the others thought he was crazier than Hoffnar, he was just happy to get his evil revenge on the medical team. ‘Those bastards stick their nose in everything.’ Crackpot thought to himself as he reached his labs.

When Crackpot entered his lab, he walked over to his “meth” lab (it wasn’t just marijuana he was growing. There were other mind-altering plants as well) and grabbed some cannabis. He quickly looked around before comedicily stuffing the plants in the tip of his mask and awkwardly walked off.

“It won’t be long till Director Phobos kills Wimbleton.” Crackpot said, happy for himself. “Good bye Wimperton!”

###[Present]###

The sewers were never a safe place to hang around. Even the local children knew that. But that didn’t stop the woman clad in all black. She was not armed with any guns and relied on two katanas that rested on her hip. Zeds were ripped to shreds by the woman’s swords, as she rushed through the sewers. Her attire wasn’t really suited for sewer fights either, as she only wore black with a metal platted mask covering her face. There were slits in the mask for her to see, but not enough space for her opponents to see her face. It was the perfect covering from Zed slime and whatnot.

Not only did Zeds lurk in the sewers, but an occult did too. They called themselves “Sons of the Waters.” Crackheads is what they really are. The woman continued slashing down Zeds until she saw a person dressed in white with a plague doctor mask.

“State your name and your reasoning for being here!” the man in white said.

“I’m here to see Crackpot.” The woman said, drawing her katana and pointing it at the person. “And it’s important…”

“What is your name!” the man shouted, getting frustrated at the woman. The woman stared him down as she got into a battle position. “My name… Call me Spirit-Fire.” She said, having a feel of the air. The man looked at her over and pulled out a knife. “YOU AREN’T WELCOME HERE!”

The woman glared down her opponent as he ran towards her, before being impaled by her katana. Fresh blood drenched the blade, as the man went limp and not moving. The woman gently pushed the now identified cult member off of her blade and watched him go splat on the ground.

She looked up towards the entrance to where the occult was and continued with her mission. Her blade slashing through Zeds like they were paper, blood covering both her “armor” and sword. She continued like this until she heard the singing from the “Sons of the Waters.” Worshiping an idol with their leader, Crackpot, leading the singing.

The singing wasn’t that great to Spirit Fire’s ears, as she winced and shook her head. She grabbed a grenade that was hidden in a pocket on her pants, and rolled it towards the Sons of the Waters before taking cover.

The singing that Spirit Fire can only compare to as “a cat, in heat, attempting to mate with a blender mixed with nails on a chalk board” was silenced, as she used a sleep grenade on the congregation. (She saw that their masks really didn’t protect them from any gas.)

Spirit Fire looked back in the room to see Crackpot looking angry. “HANK! I KNOW THAT’S YOU! SHOW YOUR BUTT-UGLY FACE, WIMPERTON!”

The woman took a deep breath as she clutched onto her swords and darted out to her arena. To Crackpot’s surprise, that was not Hank J Wimbleton, but rather a small girl. “YOU… YOU’RE NOT HANK!”

“You’re right, I’m not!” The woman replied. She was about to continue when Dr. Crackpot started laughing, before jumping off of his platform and landed in front of Spirit Fire’s face, sniffing her. “You have that Wimbleton smell though. It’s very faint but you smell like Hank!”

Spirit Fire glared at Crackpot as he continued sniffing her before jumping a ways back. He spun around and summoned a sword and a gun, cackling manically. “LET US FIGHT! And I’ll see if you’re as good as Wimperton!”

The woman nodded as she held her twin katanas carefully in her hands. Crackpot started firing wildly at her, trying to shoot the woman, but was shocked to see her ninja-like movements. Spirit Fire soon crossed her blades and rammed into Crackpot, not killing him but effectively pinning him to the wall.

Dr. Crackpot yelled at the woman, angrily. “HEY, YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO KILL ME!”

Spirit Fire backed away from Crackpot, blades in her hands, and returned her blades back to their sheath. “Sorry. Killing without reason isn’t my style.” She said. “Though, I will gladly take your plant farm as victor of this battle.” She said, staring at Crackpot.

“WHAT- BUT- I!”

Spirit Flame placed her hand on her blade and growled. “The farm…”

Crackpot deflated and got up, quietly leading her to where he was growing plants.

###

Exiting the sewer was a literal breath of fresh air for Spirit Fire, as she continued to follow the mad scientist. A green house in an abandoned sector of Nexus City was housing many types of cannabis, mind-altering plants, and a unique plant that is often hard to find. This was what Spirit Fire was looking for. She turned to Dr. Crackpot and gave an evil smile. “Thank you, Crackpot.”

With reflexes quicker than a cat’s Spirit Fire stabbed Crackpot in the neck with a syringe and watch him go limp. “Now that I know where I can plant herbs and such, and it’s near my base, you are no longer any use to me.” She quietly dragged crackpot back to the sew hole they crawled out of and dumped Crackpot’s unconscious body back into the sewer. She walked back to the green house and removed her mask, revealing her short, brown hair and crystal blue eyes. “Now… Time to help my new friend… And see if the rumors are true.”

The woman then looked up to the Nevada skies and sighed. “Hank, if you’re still here… please answer me…”

Chapter Text

Let me get this out of the way... I'm sorry for not working on Then and Now. I have been busy with other works... but thanks to people, the other works will never be posted... For this is not the chapter I wanted to write... I am sad to say that I will not be posting any more fanfics on AO3 any longer. I won't be sharing my works in fear of my works and original characters being stolen. I have detected time, energy, sleepless nights, just for everything to be stolen by shameless ai bros. If you wish to see my works, please message me. I can no longer do the things I loved and enjoyed without my stress and anxieties going up. Its wrong. all wrong. the ai things, and everything.

If you are reading this anywhere else than discord or AO3, this is stolen. I'm sorry. I can't keep going on, having to look over my shoulder, and feared google searches to see my blood, sweat and tears just ripped away from me. You don't need a database to house many fanfics. you are not the original writers, these are not your works, and the ocs that are placed into many fanfics are not yours. I do not give permission to use anyone that I own.

this was not the chapter I wanted to write...

I'm sorry... and thank you all... for the good times, the laughs, the positive messages, everything. Thank you all.