Chapter Text
Tommy rounded the corner, freezing as he found the barrel of a gun staring at him in the face. His day really wasn’t going as well as he’d hoped.
It had been fine when he got up. He had a new bounty to get to, some people who had stolen a bunch of Redstone (seriously, who did that?). It was only two people, so he’d expected for it to be easy.
What he had not expected was to be faced by a masked person with glowing purple antenna sticking out of his hood and a thin tail that split in two somewhere near the middle peeking from behind his back, holding a gun.
“Woah,” Tommy said, holding his hands up and taking a step back. He adjusted his wings to hold them tighter to his back so the person couldn't shoot them. “Hi. Who are you?”
“Foxglove,” the masked person said shortly. He said it like Tommy should know him, so Tommy thought for a moment, trying to find the name in his memory.
“Never heard of you,” Tommy said, turning a blank.
“Really?” Foxglove asked, antennae flicking.
“Yeah,” Tommy said. “Shouldn’t you be a fox hybrid?”
“Shut up,” Foxglove said. “I didn’t choose my name. Aren’t you the Chicken?”
“That’s not my name!” Tommy shouted, throwing his hands in the air and ruffling his wings. “My name is Tommy!”
“Do you just go around telling everyone your name, you idiot?” Foxglove hissed, tail flicking. “Is this your first day or something?”
“No,” Tommy said, crossing his arms and tucking his wings back in. “I just really hate being called the Chicken. So what my wings are white? They’re not chicken wings! They’re Avian wings! There are very distinct differences!”
“And I’m not a fox. Yet here we are,” Foxglove said, shrugging. His grip on his gun was unwavering.
“Speaking of which, what are you doing?” Tommy asked. “And could one of those things be moving that gun away from my face?”
“I’m collecting a bounty,” Foxglove said, pointedly not moving the gun. “What are you doing?”
“Coincidentally, the same thing,” Tommy said, spreading his wings a bit. “But I’m pretty sure I was here first, so-”
“That’s not how this works,” Foxglove said. “I’m the one holding a gun.”
“Well guess what?” Tommy asked, unhooking his gun from his belt. It only shot darts, but Foxglove didn’t have to know that. “I’ve got one too.”
“I can guarantee you that I am a better shot than you are,” Foxglove said, looking unimpressed. “You’re what, fourteen?”
“Excuse you, I’m fifteen,” Tommy said, raising his wings slightly.
Foxglove blinked. “You really are an idiot.”
“My age doesn’t mean anything,” Tommy said dismissively.
“That doesn’t mean you should go around shouting it,” Foxglove said. He shook his head, turning away. “Whatever. I’m not here to tell you how to bounty hunt.”
“Hey, where are you going?” Tommy asked, trailing after as Foxglobe started walking.
“To finish the bounty,” Foxglove said.
“This is my bounty,” Tommy said. “I called dibs.”
Foxglove slowly spun around, staring at Tommy. “Do you think I care about dibs?”
“Everyone’s gotta care about dibs,” Tommy said, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world, because of course it was. “They’re sacred. There’s no denying the dibs.”
“I could not care less about what you have to say,” Foxglove said. Tommy didn't miss the way his grip tightened on his gun handle. “Try stopping me, I dare you.”
“Don’t think I won’t,” Tommy said loudly. “I won’t even need my gun!”
“Won’t you?” Foxglove asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Nope,” Tommy said. He slipped his gun back in its place, walking towards the other bounty hunter. He put his gun away too, which was what Tommy had been hoping for. Tommy was obviously a big man and could totally take someone with a gun, but he would prefer to not get shot. That would really derail his plans of winning the fight.
Tommy swung at Foxglove, who stepped away. He tried to punch back, but Tommy deflected it. They exchanged blows for a few minutes silently. Foxglove was a good fighter, but he hadn’t been professionally trained. Tommy hadn’t either, not technically, but Techno had been.
Eventually, they fell to a standstill, staring at each other on opposite ends of the hallway.
“Aren't you new to bounty hunting?” Foxglove asked.
“I’ve been at it a couple of months,” Tommy said, shrugging.
“Who trained you?” Foxglove asked, squinting suspiciously. “Someone as new as you can’t fight that well.”
“That’s a secret for me to know and you to never find out,” Tommy said, grinning. He froze as sounds echoed from the other half of the ship. As quiet as their fighting had been, their argument before had still been quite loud.
Foxglove pulled out his gun, silently creeping further down his end of the corridor. Tommy went the opposite direction, walking as quickly and quietly as he could. He wasn’t about to let someone else, especially not this fox-wanna be, steal a bounty from right under his nose.
Tommy rounded the corner, nearly running straight into someone. He was shorter than Tommy, with mousy brown hair, a red sweater, and brightly colored parrot wings on his back.
“Who are you?” the person asked, wings ruffling instantly.
“I’m Tommy,” Tommy said, keeping his own wings carefully calm at his back. “Who are you?”
“Grian,” the person said, glancing Tommy up and down. “What are you doing on my ship?”
“You stole some stuff, didn’t you?” Tommy asked. Grian was silent for a moment.
“You can’t prove anything.”
“They had security camera footage.”
“Dang it.”
“Yeah,” Tommy said, grinning. “Should've been more careful. Do you want to come peacefully, or am I going to have to knock you out?”
Grian sighed, pulling his wings in. “We’ll go peacefully. Let me just go find Mumb-” Grian was cut off as a gunshot sounded from the other side of the ship. Grian’s eyes widened instantly and he took off running. Tommy trailed after him, hoping that Foxglove hadn’t killed the other one. That was going to make Grian so angry. From the way he was holding his wings, he was already stressed out of his mind.
Tommy rounded a corner a second after Grian, taking in the scene as fast as possible. A man with a mustache was sitting on the floor, clutching a bleeding arm. Foxglove was standing over him, holding his gun at Grian. His eyes were trained on Tommy, though.
“Mumbo!” Grian shouted, wings fluffed to nearly double their size. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Mumbo said through gritted teeth.
“What was that for?” Grian demanded, stepping towards Foxglove. “We were going to come peacefully! I was just talking to your partner over there, you didn’t-”
“Not partners,” Foxglove interrupted, tail flicking. “Get on the ground.”
“I’m not just going to-” Foxglove shot Grian’s leg and sent him to the ground, much to Tommy’s shock. He was slightly surprised that he hadn’t just shot Tommy when they first met, if he was this trigger happy.
“So, uh, what’s the plan here?” Tommy asked, slowly reaching for the gun on his belt. He was at a disadvantage here. He still had to draw his gun, while all Foxglove had to do was pull the trigger.
“You’re going to leave, and I’m going to turn in my bounty,” Foxglove said, tail flicking again. “Bye.”
“I’m not just going to give up like that,” Tommy said, crossing his arms. “Especially when you could kill them as soon as I leave.”
“Wait, what?” Grian asked. He was obviously in pain, but the bullet hadn’t hit anywhere that was too bad. He’d survive. Tommy couldn’t say the same if he left Foxglove was alone.
“I’m not going to kill them,” Foxglove said, rolling his eyes. “They were wanted alive.”
“Then why’d you shoot them?” Tommy asked.
“Because shooting them isn’t killing them,” Foxglove said. “It just makes it easier to move them. You, on the other hand…”
Tommy took a tentative step back. “You wouldn’t kill a teenager, right? I told you I was fifteen.”
“I literally could not care less about how old you are,” Foxglove said, finger inching towards the trigger.
“Well, uh, listen, you don’t have to-” Tommy bolted down the hall, taking the first turn he saw. He slowed for a second, listening for following footsteps, but he only heard Foxglove’s distant voice muttering something. Tommy let out a quiet breath of relief. He felt bad about leaving the two redstone thieves to Foxglove, but he valued his own life over theirs.
Besides, it seemed like Foxglove was a good bounty hunter. He wouldn’t kill people wanted alive for no reason. Tommy just had to hope they wouldn’t give him a reason.
Tommy started down the hallway, trying to figure out which way it was to his ship. He’d gotten turned around in the twisting corridors. So turned around, in fact, that Foxglove’s voice seemed to be getting louder.
He rounded the corner, surprised to see Foxglove standing there with Grian and Mumbo. They were handcuffed. Tommy was tempted to go try to fight Foxglove, but was slightly smarter than that.
Tommy tried to creep away before Foxglove saw him, but it was too late for that.
Foxglove sighed and his tail flicked. “You’re really annoying.”
“You know, a lot of people say that,” Tommy said, pausing in his escape. “But really-”
“Shut up,” Foxglove said.
“I will if you let me go,” Tommy said. Foxglove glared at him. He walked closer and Tommy raised his fists, prepared for another fight.
Instead, Foxglove surprised him for the second time that day. He raised his hand, hitting Tommy in the head with the butt of his gun.
Tommy’s vision turned black as he fell to the ground.
:*¨༺ ★ ༻¨*:·.
It really should’ve been an in and out. It was a relatively simple mission too- just some random redstone dealers being a relative nuisance to… whoever hired Purpled the night before, he wasn’t really sure- but either way, it shouldn’t have gotten that complicated.
And then he got lost.
Because apparently no one could make a half decent blueprint of some random building in this galaxy anymore.
On top of getting lost, he was hearing footsteps coming towards him with increasingly worrying speed.
Purpled pulled his gun out of his hollister with well practiced movements, pointing it directly in the line of where the person would come by from around the corner.
His antanae twitched slightly when the stranger turned the bend, running almost straight into the barrel of his gun.
“Woah,” the guy said, holding his hands up and taking a step away from the gun which- to be fair, was a relatively smart move.
The person itself was dressed in a white space suit with red accents, with curly blond hair barely covering his eyes and white wings pressed tightly against his back-
Hold on.
Was that-
“Hi. Who are you?” the kid asked and Purpled did a double take, looking the blond up and down.
Purpled could’ve sworn this was the Chicken kid that the last guy he’d turned in for a bounty was complaining about.
“Foxglove,” Purpled said curtly, the name easily falling off his tongue. He hadn’t been super pleased when he’d first gotten it, but it had grown on him over the years.
The kid -Chicken? Seriously? Out of everything in the galaxy, his name was Chicken?- furrowed his brow and looked Purpled up and down.
“Never heard of you,” the kid said honestly.
“Really?”
“Yeah,” Chicken repeated, nodding a bit to himself. “Shouldn’t you be a fox hybrid?”
The entire conversation was honestly quite awkward for Purpled. People usually didn’t insult him to his face with a gun pointed at their head.
“Shut up,” Purpled said, feeling the slightest bit offended. “I didn’t choose my name, dimwit. Aren’t you the Chicken?”
The kid threw his hands up in the air with an exasperated expression plastered across his face. “That’s not my name!” Purpled's gaze darted around slightly at just how loud Chicken-he was going to use the name out of spite now- was being. “My name is Tommy!”
Purpled suppressed a grin under his mask. It almost sounded as stupid as Chicken. Really wasn’t an upgrade in his opinion.
“Do you just go around telling everyone your name, you idiot?” Purpled hissed, his volume changing almost instantly as he tried to make up for the yelling Tommy had been doing a moment ago. “Is this your first day or something?”
“No,” Tommy crossed his arms. He looked like he was throwing a fit honestly. “I just really hate being called The Chicken. So what if my wings are white?” Purpled watched as The Chicken’s wings fluffed up irritatedly almost on cue. “They’re not chicken wings! They’re Avian wings! There are distinct differences!”
Purpled raised an eyebrow.
“And I’m not a fox. Yet here we are,” He deadpanned, waving the gun slightly and gesturing to the white building walls that surrounded them.
“Speaking of which, what are you doing?” Tommy asked. “And could one of those things be moving that gun away from my face?”
“I’m collecting my bounty,” Purpled answered like it was obvious. It really should’ve been, honestly- Foxglove was a well-known name by now. “What are you doing?”
“Coincidentally, the same thing,” Tommy responded. Purpled had to stop himself from pistol whipping the child with the plasma gun. “But I’m pretty sure I was here first, so-“
He was, in fact, not there first. Purpled had been there for hours. He’d just been…. misguided.
Yeah.
That.
Not lost.
Not at all.
“That’s not how this works,” Purpled said instead. “I’m the one holding the gun.” He lifted his gun a little higher to make sure that Chicken there could see it.
Who knows, his eyesight might be terrible or something.
“Well guess what?” Tommy said, and it sounded like a question but it was said more like a statement as he- slowly, it was incredibly slow, Purpled could’ve shot him by now- pulled his own gun from his belt.
“I’ve got one too.”
It didn’t even look like a proper gun. It looked like one of those fake dart ones that kids carried around to play with-
“I can guarantee you that I am a better shot than you are,” Purpled deadpanned, if only to make the kid feel better. He really was holding a dart gun like it would do anything relatively damaging. “You’re what, fourteen?”
“Excuse you, I’m fifteen,” Tommy said, looking extremely offended.
Purpled blinked.
“You really are an idiot.”
“My age doesn’t mean anything,” Tommy said with a little wave of his fake gun. Purpled should be glad it wasn’t real, he probably would’ve accidentally shot it by now.
“That doesn’t mean you should go around shouting it,” Purpled said pointedly. He shook his head a little, turning away from the blond kid.
“Whatever. I’m not here to tell you how to bounty hunt.” Purpled began to walk away when he heard Tommy’s footsteps mirror his own.
“Hey, where are you going?” he asked. He sort of sounded like a lost puppy, to be honest. It was getting annoying.
“To finish the bounty,” Purpled responded, his tail twitching behind him.
“This is my bounty,” Tommy proclaimed- again, too loudly for the good of either of them. “I called dibs.”
Purpled stopped dead in his tracks.
Slowly, he turned his head back towards Tommy.
“Does it look like I care about your dibs?” he asked with the most incredulous tone he could physically make.
Tommy shrugged.
“Everyone’s gotta care about the dibs,” Tommy said. “They’re sacred. There’s no denying the dibs.”
Purpled spun on his heels away from the child.
He tucked his gun back into its spot.
“I could not care less about what you have to say.” Purpled said coldly. “Try to stop me. I dare you.”
“Don’t think I won’t,” Tommy responded. “I won't even need my gun!” It still held that tiny bit of childish tinge to it.
Purpled hated it for all the wrong reasons.
“Won’t you?’ Purpled asked. There was a bitter taste on his tongue now.
“Nope,” Tommy said and Purpled watched from the corner of his eye as the blond slipped his own gun into its place.
And then Tommy swung at him.
If Purpled was being honest, he hadn’t really been expecting it. He didn’t think the kid had it in him.
Purpled took a step back. It was simple enough to dodge, and he returned the hit- not with as much force as he could’ve, he was holding back- and Tommy blocked him.
Huh.
Purpled tried again and the two of them exchanged blows for a few minutes, Purpled growing increasingly frustrated with each dodge and block.
He had never been really trained professionally- just a few things from here and there- but he could tell that Tommy hadn’t been either.
At some point, they’d stopped, ending on opposite ends of the hallway breathing a bit too heavily for comfort.
“Didn’t you said you were new to bounty hunting?” Purpled asked and he couldn’t quite stop the bitter tone from slipping into his words.
Tommy shrugged. “I’ve been at it a couple months,” He said.
“Who trained you?” Purpled took a step closer, caution lining his figure. “Someone as new as you shouldn’t be able to fight that well.”
Tommy grinned.
“That's a secret for me to know and you to never find out.”
Purpled opened his mouth to retort something but quickly cut himself off with the sharp footsteps that echoed through the walls.
His jaw clicked shut as he slipped further down his side of the corridor, eyes darting to every possible situation there could be, his tail curling around his leg over and over again.
Purpled turned a corner and spotted a man with a mustache stalking in his direction. With a crossbow.
Its probably one of those fancy rich ones too, and Purpled guaranteed that the guy was probably who he was trying to get. He just radiated ‘I do petty crime and get money off of it’ energy, which-
To be fair, Purpled was a bounty hunter so he couldn’t say much.
The Mustache Man made a little yelping sound when he saw Purpled and raised his crossbow. Purpled took it as his cue to duck as the projectile came flying his way.
His tail whipped around as Purpled raised his gun and shot the man in the arm with scary accuracy. His hand didn’t shake as Mustache Man made a pained noise and fell to the floor, clutching his arm.
It was incredibly dramatic- Purpled didn’t actually hurt him a lot or anything. It was his fault for shooting him first. It was just a little bit of blood, honestly.
He felt the vibrations thundering through the floor before he heard it, his antennae tilting towards the other end of the hallway where he’d come from.
Purpled turned to face it- he kicked the crossbow a good bit away from Mustache just in case- his gaze hardening on the people in front of him.
There was a man in a red sweater with parrot coloured wings- Purpled immediately tilted his gun towards him; he was definitely the other target. Parrot wings were hard to come by on this planet- and Tommy from earlier.
“Mumbo!” The parrot shouted looking at the Mustache Man with…amazing amounts of concern, honestly. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Mustache- his name was Mumbo, Purpled refused to call him that, what was with people and having stupid names these days?
“What was that for?” The Parrot demanded, taking a step towards him. Purpled’s tail flicked slightly. “We were going to come peacefully! I was just talking to our partner over there, you didn’t-”
“Not partners,” Purpled cut him off, glaring at Tommy’s direction. This was taking far too long already. “Get on the ground.”
“I’m not just going to-” Purpled lowered his weapon, aiming at the outward part of the avian hybrid’s shin.
The gunshot echoed through the room and he fell to the floor dramatically as well. Purpled could see why they were partners. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Tommy’s face split into one of shock, even as he tried to cover it up with a more neutral expression.
“So, uh, what's the plan here?” Tommy asked slowly, his eyes still darting to the two people on the floor making obnoxious pained noises as he reached for his gun.
“You’re going to leave ,” Purpled said pointedly, “and I’m going to turn in my bounty.”
He turned away from Tommy, moving towards Mustache and Parrot.
“I’m not just going to give up like that,” Tommy said, crossing his arms stubbornly again. “Especially when you could kill them as soon as I leave.” The entire ordeal was like having to deal with a child.
Purpled was getting sick of it, honestly.
"Wait, what?” Parrot man asked- with so much pain in his voice, Purpled could tell that he’d clearly never been shot before- and Purpled rolled his eyes as he kicked him slightly higher than the bullet wound on his leg. He’d survive. Mostly.
“I’m not going to kill them,” Purpled said irritatedly. His antannae twitched at his annoyance. “They’re wanted alive.”
“Then why’d you shoot them?”
Why did he ask so many questions?
“Because shooting them isn’t killing them. It just makes them easier to move,” Purpled said, glancing back at Tommy.
“You, on the other hand…”
Tommy took a step back, his eyes darting to the exit. “You wouldn’t kill a teenager right?” He tried forcing out a nervous laugh. “I told you I was fifteen.”
“I literally could not care less about how old you are,” Purpled snapped.
“Well, uh, listen, you don’t have to-” Tommy cut himself off, turning around and running the opposite direction as fast as he could.
It was- odd.
“And he’s off,” Purpled muttered under his breath, pulling the handcuffs off his waist as he walked towards Mustache and Parrot.
It was relatively simple, considering both of them were scared out of their wits and mostly terrified that Purpled was going to murder them.
Which- he wouldn’t. They were being dramatic.
And then Tommy showed up again. Because he couldn’t mind his own business.
Purpled spotted him from the corner of his eye, watching as he desperately tried to backtrack his steps.
He sighed, his tail flicking irritatedly. “You’re really annoying.”
“You know, a lot of people say that,” Tommy said a bit thoughtfully. “But really-”
“Shut up.” Purpled snapped. He had reached the end of his patience. He glared at Tommy, stepping closer to him.
Tommy raised his fists like he was ready for another fight, but Purpled didn’t feel like taking his chances.
In one easy move, he raised his hand- the one with the gun, mind you- and brought the end of it down hard on Tommy’s head.
Purpled watched with a vaguely bored expression and Tommy crumpled to the floor unconscious. He stared at the blond on the linoleum for a few seconds before turning back to his targets.
They looked… rightfully terrified.
“So!” Purpled clapped his hands a bit dramatically, grinning behind his mask. “Who’s next?”