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First it was a ringing in his ears, and then a sharp pain through his head. He struggled to open his eyes. Everything hurt so badly.
"...ommy? Can you hear me?"
He groaned and tried to shift, only to have blinding pain shoot up his right arm.
What had happened?
"Toms, you're really hurt right now. I need you to wake up and stay awake, okay?"
He winced in pain, all he wanted was it to go away. If he went back to sleep it wouldn't hurt anymore. His eyes started to drift shut.
"No! No, come on Tommy. You gotta wake up. You're going to be alright."
It was excruciating to try to open his eyes, but he opened them just a crack. He could just barely make out his brother looking down at him.
"Yes! Just like that! Come on Toms, you're doing so well!"
"...Wil...bur?"
"Yes, it's me sunshine. You're okay. You're going to be okay. You have a pretty bad head wound, and from the way you're moving, it seems like your arm's broken also."
Tommy winced again, moving his good hand up to brush against his head. It came away bright red, and he almost passed out again.
"Come on, we have to get you to the med room."
Tommy groaned as he tried to pull himself up into a sitting position. He whined wordlessly and held his good hand out to Wilbur, who gently walked over and helped him slide up the wall.
"You're doing so good, now, we need to get to the med room. You remember where that is right?"
Tommy nodded slowly. Why would he need to know where the room was? Wilbur would guide him there. It... was because he had a concussion. Wilbur was obviously trying to make sure he didn't have permanent brain damage.
"Y...yeah. It's... where are we?"
"We're in the west wing, your room is back that way," Wilbur pointed at the left wall, "and the lounge is off that way," he pointed to the right wall. "We're in records right now, do you remember that?"
Tommy looked around. Honestly... it was a total mess. Shelves of holo disks were toppled and strewn all over the ground. The main console looked to be damaged heavily and as he looked down, he could see the small cabinet that he must have fallen into.
This was the records room but...
"Med room. We need to go, you're still bleeding."
Tommy winced as he stumbled over to the desk in the center of the room, taking a silver holo disk from the console and shoving it in his pocket. It was the most important thing on the ship currently, and Dad would kill him if he lost it.
Tommy glanced over to Wilbur, gently reaching for the older. Wilbur smiled and took his good hand gently as they walked slowly towards the doorway.
The first thing he noticed upon stepping into the hall was that the main lights were off, leaving only the emergency power lights to dimly light the hallway.
The other thing was that the ship was a wreck. Decorations and artwork that they had spent months hanging up was strewn across the floor. Broken glass was everywhere, and he could see structural damage in the walls. Something bad happened.
"...Wilbur?"
Wilbur glanced down, "Yes, Toms?
Tommy bit his lip, "Are... are Dad and Tech okay?"
"They're okay. You're okay. Getting you help is what's important right now."
"...why aren't you hurt more?"
Wilbur gave him an odd look at that, "Do you want me to be hurt more?"
"No! I just... I'm hurt really bad, and the ship looks awful."
"The personal shields must have protected us from most of the damage. Yours must have cracked when you hit the cabinet."
Tommy glanced down at his belt to see that the small blue disk was, in fact, cracked.
That made sense then.
They walked down the hallways, the ship seeming eerily quiet. They weren't moving through space anymore. They turned down another hallway, and then stopped at the door to the med-bay which was currently shut.
Wilbur frowned, "The door's shut and it seems like the emergency power's out here. We don't have a way of opening that, especially not with your bad arm."
"Can't you open it?"
Wilbur chuckled, "With my noodle arms? You know Tech and Dad were the only ones that could open them without the hydraulic systems."
"Can't we g—"
Tommy gasped as the whole ship seemed to shudder, the motion throwing him to the floor. Unbearable pain shot up his arm, and he blacked out for a few seconds. When he opened his eyes again, Wilbur was next to him, trying to coax him up again.
He whined, "...orry. i'hurts s' bad."
"I know sunshine, but you're going to be okay, alright? I promise. We've got to open this door. Can you think of anything?"
Tommy weakly chuckled, "'m dying and you want me to... open the door?"
Wilbur sighed sadly, "Sorry, I'm panicking. You always were really creative, and I was hoping your brain could help mine."
"...shield."
"What?"
"...shield generators, mine's cracked. If we jam it into the door panel..."
Wilbur's eyes lit up, "The shock from the core rupturing completely might be enough to open it!"
Tommy reached his good hand down to his belt, unclipping the shield generator and holding it out to Wilbur. Wilbur instead walked over and helped Tommy shakily stand up, moving them slowly over to the panel.
"...why?"
"You can do this Toms, we're almost there."
With a deep breath, Tommy thrust his good hand out into the panel, snapping the small disk against the metal. He braced himself as a spark exploded from the panel, and the door shot open.
Wilbur beamed, "Good job Toms, I'm so proud of you! Now, we need to get your head wound to stop bleeding first. You remember how to do that?"
Tommy whined. Wasn't he done? Wilbur should be the one taking care of him now. They were in the med room now, why wasn't Wilbur taking over?
"I know Tommy, you're doing so well. We need to get something to clean the wound with."
Groaning, Tommy scooted himself along the wall, doing his best to avoid the supplies that were strewn all over the floor.
"The potion cabinet, there should still be some that haven't been shattered."
Tommy came across the potion cabinet, and gently pried it open. He was relieved to find that Wilbur was right, only a few of the bottles had shattered in the... impact? Attack? He still wasn't sure what had happened.
"Health for the initial cleaning, regen for the wrap, remember?"
He gently removed a bright glimmering pink potion, and a red potion from the cabinet, then shuffled over to the drawer he knew had bandages in it. He glanced over to Wilbur, who gave him an encouraging nod.
Why the fuck wasn't he helping more? The prick.
"I know you can do this. You need to find something clean to pour the potions on."
Tommy sighed as he grabbed a cloth off of the table and inspected it, deeming it clean. He poured some of the red potion on the cloth, and reached up to his wound, gently dabbing it. He winced as pain flared across his skull, but it was quickly replaced with a gentle numbing as the healing potion started to take effect.
He grabbed a different cloth and ripped it in half using his body and the counter. He folded it as best as be could with one hand, then drenched it in the pink potion. He squeezed the cloth, enough that it was no longer sopping, and then pressed it to his head. He tilted his head to keep the cloth on it as he grabbed a roll of bandages, doing his best to wrap the bandage around his head to keep the cloth secured to the wound. It was rough with nothing but one hand and his teeth, but he managed.
Once he was sure the bandage would hold, he turned to Wilbur, who nodded, "Good, now your arm. There should be a sling somewhere in the cabinets. You won't be able to set the bone, but it should keep it from getting worse."
He dug through a few of the cupboards, finally finding a sling. He slipped his bad arm into it, then secured it around his neck. Pain flared through his arm as he moved it, but it let up once it was securely in the sling. He had no idea the extent of the damage, but this was the best he could do for now.
"Good. Now Dad keeps vials of diluted weakness for pain relief in that top cabinet, you remember?"
He opened the top cabinet, quickly locating the tiny vial of a grey potion. He took a deep breath and downed it, wincing slightly at the taste. He always hated weakness potions, even that diluted. He sighed in relief as the pain started to ebb away. It wasn't a permanent solution, but it was all he had right now. He then chugged the rest of the pink potion, and a warm, fizzy feeling spread throughout his body. Hopefully between the weakness potion keeping the pain down, and the regeneration potion, his body would be able to heal.
"I'm really proud of you. I will never stop being proud of you Toms."
He proudly turned around, ready to chastise Wilbur for not helping him more, but he was gone.
"Wil? Hey Wilbur, where'd you go?"
Panic started to take hold as Tommy shuffled closer to the door.
"Wil, this isn't funny!"
He poked his head out the door, only to come face to face with Techno.
"Tech!" Tommy exclaimed as he practically launched himself at the other.
Steady arms wrapped around him, but he could have sworn the hug wasn't as warm as it normally was.
Techno looked a bit worse for wear, but nothing compared to Tommy. Wilbur must have been right, the personal shield generators must have protected them from the majority of whatever happened.
"You doin' okay? Head all patched up good?"
Tommy nodded, a bit faster now that he wasn't in excruciating pain anymore.
"Did you see where Wil went?"
"He went to go check on Dad. He's fine."
Tommy let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. Wil was okay. Techno was okay. Dad was okay.
They were okay.
Techno sighed, "The ship took some heavy damages. With the extent of the ship, it's pretty clear that the main bridge consoles probably have been almost completely destroyed."
Tommy frowned, "So we're stuck?"
"More or less, except... remember how Dad was teachin' you about the emergency console in the engine room?"
Tommy nodded, "He never finished, but I think I remember, you can activate the essential parts of the ship like comms there, right? Is that where Wil and Dad are?"
"Dad's up on the bridge trying to get the ship to move. I don't want you goin' anywhere near there though."
Tommy scrunched his eyebrows, "Why not? Maybe I could hel—"
Techno gave him a stern look as he knelt down next to him, "Promise me, Theseus. Promise me you won't go up there."
Tommy stopped talking almost immediately. He swallowed heavily and then gave a small nod.
"Words Theseus, I need to hear you say it."
"I promise I won't go to the bridge."
"Good. Now look," he pointed down the hallway, "the route to the emergency console is sealed off, you remember what that means?"
"Either an air-lock instability or intruders."
"You remember how to know the difference?"
Tommy paused for a moment, thinking, "The emergency lights on the door will be red if it's air-lock, and yellow if it's an intruder."
Techno smiled as he stood and gently ruffled Tommy's hair, being very careful to avoid his injury.
"You remember the way?"
Tommy nodded, taking off down the hallway towards the center of the ship.
He didn't really know how to describe it. His whole family was acting... weird. He supposed it was probably because they were in crisis mode, but even then, things felt a bit off. He sighed, gently shaking those thoughts from his head. He had to get to the engine room and divert power manually to the bridge so that his dad could call for help. That was his job right now.
The closer they got the center of the ship, the more Tommy started to notice the damage. It was strange, he would have assumed the parts of the ship farther from the center would have more damage, but... if they were attacked, it would make sense to aim for engines, weapons, and generators, which were all towards the center of the ship.
Tommy stepped gently over broken floorboards, and around pipes that were sticking out of the wall. He was still in pain, but he was pushing through it almost purely on the drugs and adrenaline.
He came to the sealed door that led down to the lower floor and paused. The LCD was lit up with a yellow light. Intruders then.
Tommy turned to Techno, expecting him to step in front of him and defend him like always. Instead, he gave a nod to something down the hallway.
As Tommy walked over, he found a metal pipe on the ground that was just large enough to hurt, but not large enough to be cumbersome. His left arm was always his weaker arm, but Techno had trained him for scenarios just like this. He had complained at the time, because why would he ever need to fight one-handed with his non-dominant arm, but now he was so grateful for the stern assurances that it was important.
When he returned to Techno, he found the other armed similarly. The older gave an inquisitive look to Tommy, a silent question the younger knew well.
'Are you ready?'
Tommy nodded, stepping up and pressing his palm against the panel. Unlike the med-bay door, this door was still connected to emergency power, and slid open.
Nothing jumped them when the door opened, so Tommy crept inside, Techno right behind him covering his flank.
They crept through the halls, Tommy on high alert, trusting Techno to alert him if something approached from behind.
Tommy felt Techno tense, and he spun around, the two of them changing positions as Tommy's metal pipe connected with the baton of his attacker with a deafening clang.
Arachnids. Fuck.
That explained why the ship was so destroyed. If they had gotten too close to a nest without realizing—
The arachnid quickly separated Tommy from Techno, who ended up further down the hallway, presumably dealing with more intruders.
Tommy feigned right to try to throw his attacker off, but the combination of extra eyes, limbs, and the fact that they weren't injured was rough to deal with. The arachnid lunged, and Tommy parried with another clang of metal.
"So, there was a survivor after all. How unfortunate for you."
Tommy growled, teeth bared, "Your plan failed, we're all alive, and you're not going to be very soon."
"Brave words for being all alone. Tell us where the disk is and we'll spare you."
The disk...? Tommy thought for a moment as the two slowly circled each other. Finally, it clicked. The disk that they were sent to transfer from Essempi to Kinoko. It had all the plans for the imperial fleet on it. The empire didn't trust that data link waves wouldn't be intercepted, so they sent the holo disk the old-fashioned way.
Seems like they still got intercepted.
"Fat fucking chance."
Spotting an opening, Tommy quickly lunged forward, trying to knock the arachnid off balance. Turns out, it's a lot harder to off-balance a creature with six legs on the ground then it was with two.
The two traded blows back and forth, Tommy doing his best to protect his injuries while still remaining as offensive as possible. If he saw an opportunity, he took it.
The arachnid quickly found Tommy's weaknesses, using his slower reaction speed from the weakness potion and his injuries against him.
Just when Tommy was beginning to tire, he noticed that they had slowly been moving down the hall, and that there was a pipe sticking out of the wall near the floor. Keeping the arachnid focused on blocking his hits, Tommy started advancing.
Back they went, the arachnid easily deflecting all of Tommy's attacks without even trying hard.
It chuckled, the sharp clicks and clacks of it's speech grating on Tommy's ears, "Is that the best that you've got, human?"
Tommy smirked, "Nah, this is though."
Tommy lunged at the arachnid, who stepped back to create more distance, stumbling over the exposed pipe in the process. The arachnid hit the ground with a thud, and Tommy immediately followed the motion with his pipe, piercing the creature in the chest, then quickly removing it.
Once he was sure that the arachnid had stopped breathing, Tommy continued down the hallway, his pipe dripping with the sickly, green ooze that was arachnid blood.
As he reached the end of the hallway, he found Techno with two other arachnids, both laying on the ground, dead. They appeared to not have any marks on them, so Tommy raised an eyebrow at Techno.
"They electrocuted themselves trying to get through the door," he nodded towards the door at the end of the hallway that was sealed shut.
Right, they had probably been trying to deactivate the seal from this side by messing with the current.
Tommy walked up to the door, placing his palm on the panel next to the door. A faint green light scanned him, and then the door clicked open, sliding out of the way.
Tommy smiled at Techno, who nodded, walking up to walk shoulder to shoulder with the younger.
"You've gotten a lot better you know? I don't tell you enough how proud I am of you."
Tommy smiled softly, his face flushing at the praise. "What can I say? I learned from the best."
The two of them reached the doorway to the engine room, and Techno's hand came up to rest gently on Tommy's shoulder.
"I'm going to go up to the bridge to help Wil. Promise me you won't follow me."
Tommy looked up, fear on his features, "You're leaving me alone?"
A pained look flashed over Techno's face for a brief second before he schooled it back into a neutral expression, "I would never leave you; you know that. You're safe here, and Wilbur and Dad will need my help."
Tommy nodded, a frown set firmly on his features, "Okay then. Be careful yeah?"
"I'm so proud of you Tommy."
Tommy squeezed his eyes shut as the hand retracted from his shoulder. After a few beats, he spun around to throw himself at Techno, but the older was gone.
Forcing out a ragged breath, Tommy turned back towards the engine room, pressing his hand to the panel. After a few seconds, the lock clicked and the door slid open, revealing... a lot more damage than he was expecting.
It looked like quite a few of the circuits had been blown out from the electrical force of the arachnid blasters. He winced; he didn't have to be an electrical specialist to know that this wasn't good.
He stepped over a few wires that were snapping with electricity, moving quickly to deactivate the circuits leading to them to prevent more damage. He poked his head under the center console in the room, assessing the damages and what he would need to fix it. He slid back out, and his eyes met another pair of blue eyes.
He flinched hard as his father tried to calm him, "Easy Tommy, it's just me."
Tears sprung to his eyes as Tommy launched himself at his father, being careful to avoid his injured arm. The two embraced each other before Phil pushed back slightly, taking in Tommy's injuries.
"Are you okay? Oh Prime, you look so battered."
Tommy laughed wetly, "I'm okay Dad, really I'm fine. Wilbur helped me patch myself up, and then Techno helped me deal with the rest of the arachnids. We're safe now."
Phil smiled, "That's good. I'm so proud of you boys."
"Where are Wil and Tech? They said they were going to help you on the bridge."
Phil nodded, "Wilbur's working on fixing the communications module, but it's... more than a bit fried. The best chance is probably fixing this one, so I came down to check out the damage."
Tommy nodded, pointing to two specific circuits. "I believe these are what's keeping it from working, and then if I rewire the antennae, provided it's not completely shot, we should be able to send out a distress signal."
Phil nodded, "I agree with that diagnosis. You're becoming quite the little engineer."
Tommy beamed, crawling out from under the console to grab the tools that he needed. It was a bit rough trying to find things, since they weren't meticulously organized anymore, but he eventually found the soldering iron and the wires he needed to rewire the circuits.
Phil nodded at him, "Okay, so you're going to have to connect pin A6 to B3 on the other, and then C3 to A9. Think you can handle that?"
Tommy chuckled, "Honestly thought it would be harder. You've given me worse exercises."
Phil laughed, "Hey, if you practice the worst, you'll never be caught off guard."
And wasn't that the truth?
With the wires soldered, Tommy slid back out from underneath the console and turned the power on. Most of the console didn't light up, but the section that was meant for communications blinked to life.
"Look at that Dad, I did it!"
Phil smiled, reaching down to ruffle his hair, "That you did."
"Okay, now we have to send a signal. You're the captain so you should do it right?"
The ship shuddered violently again, and Tommy shrieked as he scrambled to grab onto something.
"What's happening?"
"The integrity of the ship has been compromised, so it's probably being torn apart by the outside."
Tommy looked up at his father, his eyes wide, "What... what do we do?"
"You need to call for help. Now."
"But shouldn't you—"
"Now, Tommy."
Tommy nodded, pulling himself up to the console with his good arm. He typed in the ship's emergency code, then pressed the button that activated the distress call.
"Mayday, this is Tommy Innit of the ship E.S.S SBI. Our ship has been compromised and we're quickly being torn apart. There are four inhabitants on the ship, please send immediate aid!"
Phil nodded, "Again."
Tommy slammed his hand into the button again, repeating his message a second time.
Then a third.
Then a fourth.
Then a fifth.
Finally, he broke down sobbing, his body trembling almost as much as the frequent tremors that were shaking the ship.
No one was coming for them.
They were going to die.
"Dad, I need to go to the bridge. I need to see Wilbur and Techno. If we're going to die, I want to be together."
He turned to leave, but Phil firmly grabbed his shoulder.
"You can't go to the bridge."
"Yes. I can. And I'm going to!" Tommy screamed, still sobbing, "I want to see my brothers!"
A static crackle filled the room, "…S. Nightmare. Are you still there?"
Nightmare. That was the Essempi fleet's biggest airship.
Tommy launched for the button, pressing it with all the force he could muster. "Please! Please we're here!"
"Tommy, you're going to be alright. We've locked onto your ship, and are going to bring you onboard. How many people—"
"Four! There are four of us. Me, my two brothers and our father."
There was silence on the other side of the line for a few seconds, when the voice returned, it sounded slightly more strained, "Understood, Tommy we're going to beam you aboard our ship alright? Do you have something you can hold onto?"
"Y...yeah. I'm good."
"Okay, hang tight."
There was another rumbling, but this one was different. After a few seconds, the ship settled, and Tommy could tell that he was safely inside the bigger spaceship. He sighed, sliding down the wall to the floor.
It was over. He was alive.
No, they were alive.
Speaking of...
His head shot up, but the room was empty.
"Dad?" he called out, but there was no response.
"Phil!"
Still nothing.
From far away he could hear footsteps and voices.
They must have found his family.
"Help! I'm back here!" he called out.
The footsteps got closer. A head poked through the door, it was the Nightmare's navigator, 404. George.
His eyes widened as he saw Tommy, instantly calling out to the others.
Tommy smiled as George got closer, but he couldn't tell what he was saying.
All he cared about was that they were safe.
Everything went black.
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A soft humming filled the air. Sweet and calming.
Tommy whined, pressing closer to the sound. The humming stopped briefly, and a hand came up to card through his curls.
"We're so proud of you Tommy. We're never going to stop being proud of you. You're so brave. We love you so much. Always keep being yourself okay sunshine?"
He felt another hand in his hair, and another.
He hummed as he felt the familiar hug of his family.
They were going to be okay.
。·:*:·ﾟ★,。·:*:·ﾟ☆。·:*:·ﾟ★,。·:*:·ﾟ☆
Tommy groaned as he opened his eyes, the bright white of the Nightmare's med-bay lights practically blinding him.
"Oh. You're awake."
Tommy turned his head to see a woman. She had long, white, curly hair, with iridescent tips. "You've been out for a couple of hours. Your injuries were pretty severe. How are you feeling?"
"...m' brothers?"
Her face fell.
"Tommy, I—"
He was much more awake now.
"Where are they? You got them out right? They weren't hurt too badly, I saw that much."
Her lips pursed. She opened her mouth a few times, clearly struggling to find what to say.
"Tommy... I'm so sorry but your family didn't make it."
Ice rushed through his veins.
"...what?"
"Tommy, the other occupants of the ship have been dead for at least a day, if not two. We recovered their bodies from the bridge of the ship. It looks like they were killed in the initial attack."
Tommy's world shattered.
"That's not true. That's not true they were there! They helped me!"
She rested a hand gently on his.
"Sometimes when the brain is in a severely traumatic situation... if it's just trying to survive, it brings to life things to help protect itself. Your family that you saw was your brain trying it’s very best to keep you alive. They were never really there."
Tommy shook with sobs, "No... no you're lying. You have to be lying."
She shook her head, "Tommy I'm not, I'm so sorry."
Tommy screamed. Guttural and raw. Something so full of grief that he didn't know if he would ever recover.
He was alive.
He was alone.