Chapter Text
Dream Team High School Reunion???
6th of August, '22
It might sound surprising based on the situation, but Tommy actually hated hide and seek as a kid. Always the first one to be found, sometimes even coming out of his hiding spot voluntarily if his legs were too cramped up, or just because of boredom. He never imagined that he'd be playing a (potentially) lethal version of the game, with an alien spaceship as the turf. If only his younger self could see how far he'd come- literally.
It wasn't all bad, he guessed, although his calves, and shoulders, and neck hurt, and he hadn't gotten a good nights sleep in however long he'd been been hiding up in the vents. It was better than hanging out with Dream, at least, he preferred NOT knowing what the Aliens were saying.
Speaking of the Aliens, he could see them through the vents grate, the three of them in a deep conversation. Well, two of them were talking, the other was silent, and just nodded along.
The one sat on the stool seemed to be the head of the ship, and was also the one that Tommy saved (at least he thought he saved- he was never sure what that was about). And with their back turned to Tommy, he could see the aliens immense, black wings. They were almost like a crows wings only much slicker, and with a distinct, non Earthly quality about them. Apart from their colossal wings, the alien sported loose black and green robes, and a large hat, hiding its eyes from view.
The second most talkative alien was definitely an odd one. For one, the thing had no skeletal structure, or even visible bones to speak of, it was just a blob of pulpy, translucent flesh. When the alien moved or talked its soft form wobbled, reminding Tommy of a jellyfish, or maybe one of those slime-filled stress toys. The only item of clothing they seemed to be wearing was a chunky yellow tube. It would have had a resemblance to grandpa jumpers, if it had any sleeves, or a neckline.
And finally, there was the last alien. This one was one that Tommy definitely does not want to get into a fight with. Their bulging, iron-strong muscles were practically bursting out of their pink skin, which was decorated in all manner of gold jewellery. From thick rings on their stocky fingers, to delicate chains hanging from their tusk, the alien was glittering with all things golden. Under the shining accessories, they wore a surprisingly plain white blouse, and black trousers, with the great swells of muscle clear to see.
The chatter stopped, and suddenly Tommy became very aware of how loud his breathing was. What would they do if they found him there, huddled in the vent? He'd be too slow to crawl away, and there was absolutely no way that Tommy was winning in a fight in the big pink one. And oh my god they were getting up from their chars now. What if he's found! What would he do?
OK, now was not the time to think about things like that. And besides, it's not like the aliens were actively looking for him; in fact, the winged one was the only one showing any interest at all. Well, if sitting in front of a vent for hours with a plate of food(?) could even be called that. Thinking about it, Tommy realised that maybe these aliens weren't out to get him. Maybe they just wanted him off of their ship, or at least out of their vents.
Ugh. Now he just felt like an asshole.
But even so, how could he trust people he doesn't know, doesn't share anything in common with, to not just get rid of him at the first chance they get? He knew that if he was in their shoes, and a little mouse or spider had found shelter in his room, he would not hesitate to kick it out, so why was this any different?
Thinking like that was no use to him either. He could only camp out in these vents for so long, and his, well, everything, was really starting to hurt. He would have to leave the vents one way or another. Come out of his own free will, or dragged out.
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The light cruiser was spacious, fully staffed, and an overall nice change of pace to the dingy research ship Dream had previously been working on. The bridge of the ship buzzed quietly with conversation as the transfer of both physical equipment and mounds of data were swiftly moved from ship to ship, and as Dream waited to meet with the captain.
Sapnap, a blaze from the nether system, and an old friend of Dream back from his academy days just so happened to be the captain of the cruiser assigned to him. And even more of a coincidence, his good friend George-not-Found was just recently transferred to head of communications aboard the very same ship. It seemed that the stars had aligned, and a reunion was in order.
Speaking of reunions, the door to the bridge opened with a polite swoosh, and Sapnap floated into the room.
What blazes lacked in physical bodies, they made up for in their firey passion and wit. Sapnap was a good example of this. His floating, burning body lit up the room with warm light, contrasting the cool colours of the many control boards, and the dimmed strip lights hanging from the ceiling. As he moves, the gaseous body of the blaze swirled, and stirred, becoming hypnotic if you stare for too long.
"DREAM!"
"SAPNAP"
The greeting was warm, and while they didn't hug (for obvious reasons) the pair were still happy to see each-other.
"So, how's the research life been treating you?" The blaze asked, taking in how much his friend had changed over the years. "You're studying different species, right? The last rumour I heard was that you'd just discovered life on a new planet."
Dream chuckled at his friends speculation. "We discovered planet 5-1-18-20-8 almost a full solar rotation ago."
"Well, news does travel slowly around here."
"And the Emperor himself put me in charge of researching any intelligent life we find." Dream said, proudly. "So we went to the planet, the native humans call it 'Earth', we found out all we needed to know, and headed back to civilised space."
Sapnap smiled, well, it was more of a smirk "But somethings clearly gone wrong, because if all was well you'd be giving a debrief to the Emperor personally, not running around the outskirts of society here with me."
"You're right. As my research ship docked at the station, the sample Human I was carrying to Keres prime escaped! they're surprisingly slippery Humans, for how dumb they are."
"And so now, I'm guessing, we need to somehow track this human down, keeping in mind that it could be anywhere this side of the border by now, and recapture it." Although Sapnap's tone was lighthearted, Dream could tell it wasn't going to be easy tracking down his lost human. They were on a time crunch too; it was only a matter of time before the Emperor grew impatient.
"Well, our job has just been made a lot easier, because I've just found a lead." A voice from behind cut in.
"George!" Dream said, "It's good to see you after all this time!"
The Kinokian smiled at seeing his old friend, and said "Dream, long time no see! How have you been?"
"I could be better, could be worse." Dream said, replying to the man. "But what about you?"
"Oh, well after graduating from the academy I joined the navy as an officer, and eventually got into comms." George said. "From there I bounced from ship to ship, until I wound up stuck with Sapnap."
"More like I got stuck with you!" Sapnap said, before the three of them laughed together.
"But back to the lead I found on your missing human." George said "Around two standard planetary rotations ago, this security footage was taken from one of our prison ships." The kinokian pulled a tablet, displaying a slightly blurry holo-image of what appeared to be a figure with blonde hair on its head in an airlock, along with several others."We think that the human must have caught a ride on a random ship, which is why you couldn't find it on the station."
Dream, frowning, said "Well what's it doing breaking people out of jail, and who are these criminals it's with anyways?"
George tapped the tablet, and the screen flickered to a new slide, this time showing the mugshot of an avian. "This is Philza Minecraft, the prisoner who was broken out of the transport. He's associated with a small scale criminal group called the sleepy boys incorporated."The slide changed again to show three wanted bulletins. "These guys, while small, are the real deal. They're wanted on any and every charge possible; murder, theft of Imperium property, terrorism, assisting revolutionary groups, vandalism. Everything."
Dream looked at the three men pictured. So these were the people the Human was hiding with. They didn't look like much, but all of them had pretty big bounties on their heads. He straightened himself up and said "We'll find this gang, retrieve the human and lock them all up. They can't have gone far with how much time has passed, so I want every station and base on the lookout for ships that meet their description. They can't hide forever, and when we find them, we'll crush them.
that human may have gotten away from him once, but Dream would not make the mistake of underestimating it again.