Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Bug was a bug. That was an inescapable fact of life. Another inescapable fact of life was his love for the Starship Rangers and the strange videos he'd seen on the crashed ship. He wasn't a human, he wasn't a ranger, but something about it felt so right that he couldn't shake the idea. Bug felt like he belonged up there in space, like he was meant to be a ranger. The idea was silly of course, he was a bug from the Hive and that was that.

Still, the dream and feeling lingered. Sometimes he dreamed of space, little fragments of visions his mind certainly invented. He could almost imagine the cool air on the ship, the feeling of the ground constantly rumbling beneath him in a soothing hum, and the stars moving across the window as the only way to tell they were truly moving at all. Bug had never been on a ship that worked, of course he hadn't. There were no working ships on the planet, but it felt incredibly real. He had a vivid imagination, of course.

It had almost always been like this, he could just barely remember a time before. He'd found the crashed ship and wished so much to understand the technology and language of the strange people that he'd gone to a scorpion named Pincer for aid. Pincer offered him a once in a lifetime opportunity to mentally go into the body of a brain dead Starship Ranger, but it hadn't succeeded. They weren't exactly sure why it hadn't succeeded, but somehow afterwards he had been able to understand the human language and had taken up the nickname that he now went by. It just felt right, though he wasn't sure why.

Now there he was, able to speak the human language but lacking a human body or a way to join the Rangers. He couldn't even use the skill of language either because the queen said he would be an egg planter. A fucking egg planter. Even with all he's capable of, he was destined for nothing more than being an egg planter. He had no qualms about planting the eggs in the mammals, it was just part of the life cycle on his planet, it was how his people worked. It was more that he just knew he was meant for more in life than being a stupid egg planter.

Bug debated his options. The mental transfer thing didn’t work so he couldn’t call humans to ‘rescue’ him like Pincer had suggested. If he did run away like Pincer had, what was the point? There were no ways off the planet, they didn’t have that kind of technology, or really any technology. The fact that he’d managed to understand the technology of the ship after the attempted transfer was a miracle of sorts, there was no base knowledge for him to go off of. He had no hope of getting off planet or becoming a Starship Ranger. He didn’t have a chance.

“Help! Someone help!” a voice called. Bug recognized it immediately as Human, and rushed over to the panicking woman. She was tall, especially compared to Bug, and the most beautiful creature he had ever seen.

He shook his head clear of that, there would be time for that sort of thought process later, right now he had to figure out if he could actually speak human enough to communicate with her. “Hello?” Bug asked after a moment of mental searching.

“Oh my god, you speak English? Where are you? Who are you?” the blinded woman asked.

“I’m… Bug…” Bug said slowly, carefully. The only Human, or apparently English, he knew was what he heard from the videos on the ship, obviously, so conversing may be difficult, but he was up to the challenge.

“Ew! Like a bug? Those icky bugs trapped me here and blinded me and now we’re going to die!” the woman cried.

“No no! I’m not going to let that happen, okay? I’ll get you out of here. What’s your name?” Bug asked, chewing through the mucus containing her to allow her to move. He had no idea how he knew this much English, or how she was understanding him, but he was incredibly grateful that she was.

“My name is February, like the month, but as a person. How are you going to get us out of here? Can you see?” she asked, reaching for his hand.

Bug had no idea how he knew what a month was, or what the month of February was, but he got the gist of what she was telling him nevertheless. “I can see just fine, my eyes aren’t covered. I’m going to get you out of here, alright? You just have to promise me you’ll get me out of here too. I don’t belong on this planet either, I want to be a Ranger too, please take me back with you,” he pleaded.

“If you aren’t a Ranger, what are you doing on this planet? This planet is supposed to be unexplored, humans haven’t gone out this far yet,” February said, confused.

“I… well… I’ve always been here. I’m from here,” Bug explained slowly.

February froze, slowly processing what he was saying. “So… you are a bug…?”

“Just because I’m a bug doesn’t mean I can’t be a Ranger though, right? I can speak English, I watched the videos on the crashed ship, I want to be a Ranger. I’m not like them, though they aren’t bad people. I don’t belong here, please, February, you’re my only hope,” Bug begged, slowly placing his bug hand in hers.

February flinched for a moment upon the feeling of his hand, but after a moment of conflict she held his hand back and nodded. “I’ll do it, if you help me get out of here I’ll help you get off this planet too, I promise.”

“Great! Let’s get going,” Bug said, gently pulling her along through the passages of the hive. It had always been his home, of course it had, but since the failed transfer, it stopped feeling like home. Soon he would be on a ship and everything would be better.

“When we get to Earth, I’ll show you all the great things we have to offer, like, The Mall of Former America, and… all kinds of other things! You can go to the school and become a Ranger just like I did! If you learned English through old videos, you must be super smart too, I bet you’ll do really good there,” February assured as they began their attempt at escape.

“I’m not entirely sure what those things are, but I’ll go wherever you want to take me. I’d love to see the Human Planet, I bet it’s amazing,” Bug said, wonder in his voice.

“Oh it is! And so much more green than here, depending on where you are. The bugs on our planet are much smaller than you, and they aren’t sentient like you are, but there’s tons of other alien races who live on Earth now, you’ll be the first like you they see but they’ll love to learn all about your people if you tell them,” February assured.

“Who?” Bug asked.

“Shientists like me,” February explained, “and culture and language people, they’ll want to know about your people so we can talk to them peacefully in the future. This is all going to blow over, it usually does! First contact is usually really scary for new planets, especially ones without a lot of technology like this one seems to be.”

“I can’t wait to see your world and all it has to offer,” Bug said honestly.

The pair made their way through the hive as quietly as they could. Bug knew he would have a hard time explaining things if he was caught, and that she would certainly be taken back and implanted with an egg. He couldn’t let that happen, she was his chance at escape and she was human and nice and he didn’t want her to die. The fact that she was scared of the others but accepted him was also a good ego boost honestly, but he couldn’t dwell on it when they were in such danger.

Soon they heard strange sounds coming down a corridor. Bug froze, nervous, but February got excited. “That sounds like blaster fire! Blasters aren’t too scary, I promise, but they’re definitely being used by the Rangers here to rescue me! We just need to go to them and we’ll be out!”

“Oh good!” Bug said, leading February towards the sounds.

“There she is!” a strange human woman called. “One of those things has her though, damn it!”

“I got it!” a young human man called.

“No wait-!” February cried, but she wasn’t quicker than blaster fire aimed at Bug.

He cried out in surprise and pain as he fell to the ground, his tiny bug body unable to cope with the damage. The last thing he saw was February holding him close and whispering apologies to him before everything went black.

---

“It’s just a bug, calm down!” Taz cried, shooting other bugs to give Up time to grab February.

“He wasn’t just a bug, he was my rescuer and a future Ranger!” February cried. She was panicking and crying and hugging the fucking bug like she’d gotten attached to it. “I promised him I’d get him off the planet! I promised him and you killed him!”

She couldn’t complain much longer though because the stupid robot got to her before Up did, and touched her, causing February to fall limp in her arms. The Megagirl unit handed February to a shocked Krayonder and turned to the others. “Mission objective acquired, now to return to the ship,” the Megagirl unit said robotically.

“The fuck did you do!” Taz cried, aiming her gun at the robot instead.

“She was emotionally compromised, as humans always are. If she were to remain conscious there is a fifty percent chance she could have chosen to do something that would endanger the mission and that was not a chance I was willing to risk. We must now escape,” Megagirl stated, beginning to walk in the direction they had come in.

Taz hated to admit it, but the robot was right. February was crying about a bug and had shit on her eyes, having her down was probably the best choice at the moment. If she’d gone any longer in hysterics Taz would have knocked her out herself. “Fine! Let’s go!” she said, following after the robot and shooting anything that got in their way.

The crew ran out of the hive and towards the ship. It was probably the most beautiful sight she’d seen in a long time. Last time she was that relieved to see a ship was when she was dragging the half of Up she could salvage towards their escape ship in hopes of saving his life. Most missions weren’t this harrowing, most planets didn’t have life forms, or if they did they weren’t sentient the way humans were and were therefore not as much of a risk. These bugs weren’t just big, they were smart enough to react accordingly to their actions and made countermoves that suggested they had the ability to plan defensive strategies.

Nothing was scarier than an enemy with the ability to think, especially one that thought in ways that they had yet to encounter. Taz wasn’t one for peace talks, hell, they hadn’t even thought to put one of those diplomat fuckers on the team, but having information about a culture was vital to interacting with them. If you knew people thought you were trying to kill them if you bite your thumb, you don’t fucking bite your thumb. They had no intel on these guys, apparently they were sentient, and they’d come charging in with weapons and no backup aside from fucking colonists on the ship.

When they got to the ramp onto the ship, the robot got grabbed by some of the screaming creatures and all hell broke loose even more than before. The fucker with the stupid name started crying that they needed to rescue her, and Up was too fucking soft so he just had to try to save her and everything was a blur as she tried to save his ass. Before they realized it, Megagirl had left the planet with February and they were left stranded.

“FUCK!” Taz shouted, shooting up at the sky in frustration.

“Oh Dead God! This is like, game over, man! Game over!” Krayonder cried dramatically as he fell to his knees. “Like, we’re finished, man! We’re finished!”

“Krayonder, kindly shut the fuck up. That doesn’t help!” Specs muttered.

“Yeah, Krayonder, shut the fuck up already! You’re going to tell them where we are with your shouting!” Taz whisper shouted at him. “You may be right but it doesn’t help!”

“Don’t give up, Taz, we’ll figure something out!” Up assured, putting a hand on her shoulder.

Taz shrugged him off and sighed. “What plan do you have, huh? Hope and pray?”

“We’ll think of something!” Up said in an idealistic voice that boiled Taz’s blood. “We just need to calm down. If we use some ‘I feel’ statements-”

“Oh for the love of dead god, shut up with that shit! We’re stranded on a hostile alien planet!” Taz cried.

Tootsie stepped forward with a stupid smile on his face like he was trying to keep hope up or something. “Well, they sent us back after February, didn’t they? Maybe they’ll send someone else after us!”

“Fucking who, huh?! We’re it! We’re the rangers! No one else is in this quadrant! Do you really think that baby and idiot would be able to figure out what to do?!” Taz asked.

“... What baby?” Tootsie asked.

Taz rolled her eyes so hard it almost made her head hurt. “That Junior guy! He’s hardly any older than me, fucker didn’t look like he could grow any facial hair."

“I can’t grow facial hair either,” Krayonder stated.

“Of course you can’t,” Taz muttered. “That information is also so incredibly useful to our situation, I can’t believe we’ve gotten this far without knowing that.”

“I can grow facial hair,” Up said helpfully.

“We all fucking know you can grow facial hair, Up,” Taz growled. Up looked downtrodden at that and it made her even angrier. He wasn’t himself! She had been trying so hard to be patient with him, like he had been with her over the years. He was the closest thing to family she had left, but patience wouldn’t get them off the planet. “You are a sad little puppy! The Up that made me who I am would never have let this happen. Clearly, that Up did die that day and I will never get him back!”

“Just because I changed doesn’t mean I’m not the man that took you in that day! My perspective’s just changed is all! I still love you like the daughter I never had,” Up said with a near tearful frown.

“You couldn’t let a robot die and you want me to think you’re still the same man that took me in?!” Taz cried. “No! You lost the privilege to act like my father and you lost the privilege to lead until you get your head out of your ass. I’m in charge now.”

“But he’s still got the mustache,” Tootsie said, confused. “He’s got the best facial hair so he’s in charge. That’s how it is on Farm Planet anyway. It’s how my nemesis became mayor.”

“No one gives a fuck about facial hair here, alright? All of you are handsome, including you, Specs, unless you prefer beautiful than you’re beautiful, whatever,” Taz muttered.

“Thank you, Ma’am,” Specs said.

The other three also looked quite pleased with her statement, so hey, that worked. Keeping the crew from getting hopeless was going to be useful if they wanted to get off the planet. She’d been sounding a bit hopeless a moment ago, but now that she had taken charge she knew she needed to shift gear. Taz wasn’t great at being positive, but Up wasn’t doing great at inspiring anyone at the moment and that meant she had to step the fuck up. He still looked upset about what she said, but she could deal with that later. Right now she had to think of something.

“Alright, anyone who wants to live? Come with me,” Taz said, and began walking vaguely in the opposite direction of the hive place.

Specs and Krayonder immediately fell behind her as she left, but Tootsie hung back beside the stunned Up. “I’m sorry, sir, she says she’s in charge now. I love you!” Tootsie said, kissing Up’s cheek before following after the others.

“Everybody wait! Wait for me! We need to stick together!” Up cried, following after.

“Do we know where we’re going?” Krayonder asked.

“I was hoping Specs could lead us back towards where the stupid ass scientist’s drop pod landed. If the bugs trashed it, there’s at least supplies and ways to contact the main ship,” Taz explained.

“On it!” Specs said, pulling out a strange device and beginning to lead them in the correct direction while the others prepared their blasters for any attack.

Chapter Text

“Well, the mission was a total success, except for the fact that all of the other Rangers were left behind and are nowhere to be found but heyyyy, I did what you told me! I sent the scientist down alone so she could get an egg in her chest, and we did and she seems fine so yay!” Junior said quickly, praying his father wouldn’t be too upset about the loss of the Rangers.

It wasn’t that he didn’t care about them… well… he didn’t, but that was only because he had spent his whole life being taught that people were to be used like tools then tossed aside when they were no longer useful. He was terrified that they would still be useful to his father and that he would earn his anger for his failure. He loved his dad, because of course he did, he was his father and that meant he had to be totally loyal to him and no one else because that was totally normal and healthy. He didn’t need friends! He was his father’s pawn, and one day he would take over in his father’s stead and his son would be his pawn. That was how it had gone in their family for generations and that was why they had managed to remain in power for such a long time.

The Spaceclaw legacy was one that was both inescapable and heavy with the amount of pressure Junior was placed under by his family. He had to be the best at everything, he had to graduate high school by fourteen, college by seventeen, all so he could be useful to his father as quickly as possible. Junior was nineteen now and already had a position of authority on a starship of his own. That was impressive to most people! That was barely good enough for his father.

It was no wonder he’s turned to pot to cope really. He sure as hell couldn’t go to a doctor about it and stain the Spaceclaw name by having an anxiety disorder. So, he smoked pot, he smoked a shit ton of pot. So what?! He had the weight of the universe on his back, a guy deserved something to help him get through that.

And even with all that, he was still Junior. He was still his father’s son. He didn’t have a name of his own because his name was his father’s name. He didn’t have a reputation of his own, it was only that he was his father’s son. And his son treated him like a child, as if he hadn’t literally been told at the age of five that he wasn’t allowed to be a child anymore because he’d grown out of it! Uh, hey, Dad, you can’t have it both ways! Either treat him like the adult he’d been told to be since he was fucking five, or let him be a teen for one year of his life while he still had the chance.

Neither of those things was going to happen though, and Junior knew it. His father would still punish him for failure like he was a small child, and he wasn’t the evil overlord of the G.L.E.E. for nothing, the guy knew how to punish people. Junior sometimes wondered if he feared his father more than he loved him, or if fear and love were the same thing. He doubted he would ever know if his parents’ relationship was anything to go off of. They weren’t exactly close, it had been a political marriage after all and there was definitely no ‘love’ involved there. If that was his fate too, no, Junior would never know love.

Still, still, his father’s praise was the most important thing in the universe. No matter if there was love there or not, no matter what his father did, he’d been taught his whole life that if he wasn’t being praised he was in trouble, and he was terrified of being in trouble. This was his first real mission on his own and if he fucked it up his father would be so very mad at him, Junior couldn’t even imagine what he would do.

“My objective was to collect Science Officer February, it did not include the protection and return of the other carbon based tear factories. Leaving them behind was of little consequence, but it was a pleasure,” Megagirl stated, smiling at him in a way that sent a shiver down Junior’s spine.

He hadn’t been on earth during the war, but he knew how deadly and dangerous robots were. Junior knew she was under their control with that chip in her brain, but knowing she was willing to abandon those people and enjoyed it was sickening, even to him. Like, he didn’t care about those people at all but damn if it didn’t make him fear that she would do the same to him. “Haha…” he said awkwardly.

“Excellent work, Megagirl,” his father said.

“What? You’re praising her for leaving the other’s behind?!” Junior cried.

“Ah… I know what this is about. You did a very good job too, son. I am very proud of you,” Dr. Spaceclaw stated.

Junior sucked in a breath and sighed with relief. Safe for another day at least. “Thanks, Dad. I’m being really evil over here. I’m doing everything just like you told me too. How are things back home?”

“We’re evil here too, son,” his father said with a shrug.

“Oh good good, uh, is mom there? I actually wanted to talk to her too…” Junior said. He wasn’t close with his mother, but she had never caused him the same amount of terror so he liked to at least talk to her once in a while.

“Your mother died the day after you left on your evil mission,” his father said with the same tone he’d had when talking about business.

“Oh…” Junior said, blinking in surprise. His father hadn’t told him? There were weeks of travel and his father hadn’t told him. What should he say? What could he say? He was sad about it, at least a bit, but it was so sudden he didn’t know what to think. “Was it sad?”

“A little,” his father said with another shrug. “But I met someone else, you have a new mother.”

“Oh… okay… another political marriage…?” Junior asked. He didn’t know if it would feel better if his father found love or if he’d just gone onto the next best option.

“I met her online. Her family makes a great deal of money in the asteroid collection business,” his father said.

Ah, it was political. Junior wondered if the woman was even aware that it was only political. He’d learned the skill of manipulation early from his father. Junior thought he was pretty good at it, but his father was even better. “Well… alright… Just… tell new mom to stay out of my stuff, alright? And if she wants to get in my good graces I could use a new pair of headphones.”

“Junior!” his father shouted, slamming his metal fist into his chair. “I cannot stress enough how important it is that you return with that alien egg!”

“I know! Crimany!” Junior shouted back. That didn’t count as talking back, that was safe. When his father suddenly changed the topic back to evil deeds it counted as shock and fear rather than him talking back. Still, the sound of his fist shook Junior with all the threats that came with it.

“Confirm the egg’s existence then return home immediately! The sooner we can begin replicating the parasitic insects the sooner the universe can fall under the control of Dr. Spaceclaw!... and his son, Junior,” his father stated, seeming to only remember the end at the last second. Great, Dad, forgetting his son’s involvement and importance yet again.

“I’m sure everything is going to be fine, sir,” Junior said calmly.

“I should hope so, Junior. If you botch this mission, you’ll wish you were the one with an alien incubating in your chest!” his father threatened.

Junior laughed a bit because he had just been thinking that very thing. “I know, but seriously, tell New Mom to stay out of my room.”

“Your privacy will be respected. I will say I found something suspicious in your hover car recently, do you recognize this?” his father asked, pulling out a familiar baggie.

“Shit gotta go bye!” Junior said, slamming his finger on the end call button before his father could say anything else. If his father found his pot then he’ll start asking about his ability to do work and tell him to stop being a baby about the pressure he was under and it was going to be a whole mess. If he could hold off worrying about that until another day, he would. “Megagirl, scan February for the egg.”

The Megagirl unit approached the woman and began to scan her before standing up straight. “No sign of alien life detected.”

“Fuck! That’s impossible, she was in the hive for ages! Scan her again!” Junior ordered.

Megagirl stared at him as she scanned February again before standing up. “No sign of alien life detected,” she said.

“Shit! Now we need to go back there and try again!” Junior hissed, rubbing his chin as he tried to think of a plan.

“The ship is receiving a call from a drop pod, do you wish to answer it?” Megagirl asked.

The other Rangers were still alive?! That could be his solution. “Answer it!”

A moment later the screen came back to life with the image of the crew on the drop pod February went down on. Junior had made sure the ship wouldn’t be able to fly back, just in case February had been able to get back to the ship before the bugs caught her, so he knew they were stranded. Still, the Rangers were in one piece and the black haired scary girl looked super pissed off.

“The ship is fucked, we can’t fly it back,” she stated as soon as the lag caught up. The gamma radiation around the planet fucked with things some and the lag was one of those ways.

“It must have been the radiation around the planet! Dang it! Well, February is fine! Once she wakes up the two of us and Megagirl will come down and get you guys. We have some tests we still need to do though while we’re down there though, and we’ll want to try and collect some samples to take back with us. If we go home empty handed without a shred of proof about the bugs, they’ll laugh at us! This is my first mission, guys, my reputation will be just ruined and I’ll never get a leadership position again! You have to help me out here guys, my dad will be so disappointed in me if we don’t do this right,” Junior said, putting on his baby voice for them like before.

“We don’t want your dad to be disappointed in you, son, we’ll do what we can to help,” Up stated.

“Are you kidding? We need to get out of here!” Taz exclaimed. Ah yes, her instability, that was why he wanted her on this mission. Didn’t make her useful at the moment though.

“We’re the Starship Rangers though, right? If we left just because we’re scared, what sort of explorers would we be?” Junior asked.

That got her to consider his stance before sighing. “Fine, you’re right. We aren’t scaredy cats. We can do this. You just better get here soon and get done, alright? It’s hard enough to keep these idiots alive, two more will be impossible. And keep that robot on the ship!”

“If she stays on the ship, what if she leaves us all on the planet and goes back to Earth without us?” Junior asked.

“I would gladly leave all of you behind to die a bug related death,” Megagirl stated.

“Yeah, see?!” Junior said, gesturing towards the robot. “Besides, I’m in charge of her, she has to listen to me, and if I tell her not to leave any of us on the planet then she won’t! Okay?”

Taz sighed, clearly hating every moment of the conversation. “Sure, fine, just keep her on a short leash.”

“You got it!” Junior said cheerfully, grateful that she didn’t put up more of a fight given the fact that Megagirl literally just left her on a foreign planet. She didn’t have any say in what he did of course, but the Rangers seemed to be listening to her and he needed her to listen to him. “We’ll be down as soon as we can be, and I’ll make sure that drop pod doesn’t get affected by the gamma rays.”

“You’d better,” Taz said before hanging up.

“Alright, new plan. We go down to the planet and… try to get her captured by bugs again? Any of them would work really, but she’s our best option with her lack of gag reflex. We go down there, say we need samples of plant life and living creatures, we either capture one of the bugs or someone gets captured in the attempt and we go rescue them, hopefully that will be long enough this time. I can slow them down if I’m with them,” Junior said, mostly to himself. “Megagirl, make sure everyone gets off the planet this time, especially me. You can also help slow the group down in any way you can. If someone gets separated, let it happen, okay? We want somebody to get implanted. Tell them your objective is to protect the crew, alright?”

“New objective noted, program initiated,” Megagirl stated.

“Great, great, now to wait until she wakes up and convince her to go back down there,” Junior muttered.

---

February did not want to be back on the bug planet. It was gross and dry and she couldn’t stop thinking about Bug. She promised him she would get him off the planet, she promised him he would be safe, instead her crew killed him and he never got the chance to see the stars. It was wrong and it was cruel and it was awful. The universe wasn’t supposed to be so unkind.

Everything had always sort of worked out for her in her life. She’d gotten through school just good enough to graduate, she’d gotten a job in the Corp. without difficulty. She hadn’t been deeply impacted by the Robot Wars because her family had a tiny place in California they could hide out in, and then her track in school hadn’t placed her in the action or even studying the action. She studied planets and stuff! February never claimed to be the best at her work, but she enjoyed it at least, and it kept her out of the war entirely.

This was the first time she had actually experienced any sort of loss honestly. She’d known people who died due to the war, but the area she was from wasn’t a warzone, so she had never seen up close the impact of it all. Hearing that a classmate got killed by a robot was different than a being who was trusting you to help him dying in your arms because of your crew. February always knew that being a Ranger could be dangerous. It was something they taught you on your first day at the academy! But seeing it actually happen for the first time was different, and she was still recovering from it.

No one back home had understood why she’d decided to become a Ranger. She’d always been the Dumb Blond of her school and her family and it was always expected that she would become a model or something. School had never been her strong suit. It wasn’t that she didn’t try! It was more that it was just so boring, she couldn’t focus and pay attention in class, then she would get to the test and not know what to put! February tried everything to focus, she did everything they suggested online, but it never helped. That didn’t mean she didn’t put in the effort though! February wanted badly to be a Ranger, she longed to be useful in space. She may have gotten last in her class, but last was still a pass, and it was good enough.

February had often questioned if it was right for her though. Everything seemed so much harder for her than it was for everyone else and it made her feel so stupid. This was a different kind of doubt though, one that left her questioning if she should change careers to something that was less likely to cause people who trust you to die in your arms.

She loved her job though, she loved exploring and doing new things every day. She loved rocks, especially pretty rocks but all rocks were cool, and sometimes when she was on a mission she got to find a new type of rock and she got to keep it for research purposes and then it went on her shelf with all the other rocks! February could sing the elements song without having the music to back her up, but she couldn’t sing it during tests so she seemed like she didn’t know anything. If she stopped being a Starship Ranger, she wouldn’t be able to do that anymore, and that would be the worst.

As the drop pod landed on the planet near where she’d landed the first time, February took a deep breath. She was there to get the job done, she had a duty to do as the shcience officer of the crew and she would do it even if she didn’t want to be there, like, at all. The sooner she was done, the sooner they could leave and hopefully never return.

“You!” February said angrily as she got out of the pod and pointed an accusatory finger at Krayonder. “You killed Bug!”

“I killed some bugs, yeah?” Krayonder said, confused.

“No, you killed Bug! The bug who rescued me and could speak English and wanted to be a Ranger too!” February said.

“That sounds insane, you know that sounds insane, right? These things can’t speak!” Junior said from beside her.

“I’m telling you guys! The one who was holding my hand was named Bug and he found a crashed Ranger ship on the planet and learned English from that and wanted to become a Ranger too and you killed him! I promised him I would take him off this planet and you killed him!” February declared. “You ought to be ashamed of yourself! You ought to lay awake with guilt! He was just a little guy who wanted to be a Ranger and you killed him!”

Krayonder blinked and then looked genuinely remorseful. “Damn, February, I am honestly sorry. There was no way I could have known but I do feel really bad about it.”

“There’s another ship on the planet?” Taz asked, cutting in.

“Apparently. Bug said he found a crashed ship or something and watched Ranger videos there,” February explained. “How else would he be able to speak to me?”

“You may just be insane,” Taz suggested.

“You know I could be, but I really don’t think I am. He spoke English so well I didn’t know he wasn’t from Earth until he told me, and I swear I would never imagine a bug wanting to be my friend unless it was a nightmare,” February explained.

Junior got a shifty look on his face before gently pushing February forward. “Alright cool cool cool how about instead of talking about things that probably didn’t happen and focus on doing what we need to do to get off the planet.”

“Very good point, Junior. Let’s get the job done,” Up agreed.

“Well, if you say so…” February said before sighing and beginning to get to work. It was awkward having everyone basically watching her, but she went through the usual steps anyway. In the distance though, she began to hear something and it made her nervous all over again. “Does anyone else hear that?”

“Is that… buzzing?” Specs asked.

Chapter Text

The crew didn’t have time to respond before three giant mosquitos began to swarm around them, buzzing loudly and rushing around them in a confusing and disorienting way. They were moving fast enough that the dry dirt around them picked up and blew with them, only increasing the confusion and making it seem like there were more of them than they thought. February screamed and held onto the nearest person, who happened to be Up. He wrapped an arm around her protectively and tried to get a clear shot at the creatures but found it impossible without risking one of his crew members. Soon others were holding onto them too, collected in a defensive clump so they couldn’t be separated.

They heard Junior scream from nearby, but couldn’t see him clearly through the dust in the air and the moving insects. The crew could see one of the mosquitos sucking blood from him however, and Up tried to shoot it, but his aim was off due to his fear of hitting Junior. While they all seemed to be targets, Megagirl seemed not to be, which made sense given that she did not have blood to interest them. She approached Junior and knelt beside him, but didn’t otherwise move.

The next thing the crew knew, the dust was settling and Junior was nowhere to be found. Megagirl stood up with a grin on her face that assured them that she had allowed him to be taken. Taz screamed and began to kick a plant in frustration and Up took a deep breath to maintain his composition. He expected nothing less of the robot even if her objective was to protect Junior. Technically she could tell her programming that she had been unable to do anything, or something like that. If she could weave around her objective like that, it was no comfort for them.

“You let them fucking take him!” Taz cried, gesturing in the direction she assumed they’d gone in.

“My objective is to protect the crew and to make sure everyone leaves the planet together. I am simply following my commands,” Megagirl stated.

“Yeah well he was part of the fucking crew!” Taz roared.

“Incorrect. As an administrator, he does not qualify as a crew member. In addition, his presence endangers the crew, and as I have been told to protect the crew I could not allow him to remain,” Megagirl stated.

“What do you mean?” Tootsie asked, walking over to her.

“I mean he is a plotting and conniving asshole who wished to have February implanted with an egg. I am simply protecting the crew,” she stated.

“What do you mean he wanted me to be implanted with an egg?” February asked with crossed arms.

Megagirl turned to look at her specifically. “You lack a gag reflex. That makes you especially useful for egg implantation. Dr. Spaceclaw has ordered his son to collect an egg so that they may experiment on the creature that hatches from it, so Junior picked you to be the one implanted.”

“But all that would mean they knew about the bugs beforehand!” Specs said.

“Correct,” Megagirl agreed.

“The crashed ship!” February said before turning to the others. “If Bug was right and there’s a crashed ship on the planet, there may be stuff there to explain everything!”

Taz nodded and got into her leadership stance. “Alright, we find the ship and learn what we can there. Specs, if you can download all of the information that still exists from it, I want you to comb through it when we get back for anything else that may help. If they’re hiding this from us, they’re probably hiding other things too. After we download, we try to track Junior down again. He may be the one behind this, but he’s part of the group and needs to answer for his crimes.”

“Correct, my objective includes making sure everyone leaves the planet. I cannot leave without him,” Megagirl agreed.

“That sounds like a great plan,” Up said. “Specs, can you use your thingy to track down the crashed ship?”

Specs pulled the device from earlier out of her pocket and pressed some buttons. “The signal is weak but I am getting a reading. It’s in that direction.” She pointed in the direction they assumed Junior had been taken in.

Up was afraid of what may be in that direction but nodded all the same. “Alright, we’ll back you up, take the lead, soldier.”

She nodded and began to lead the group forwards. The terrain wasn’t easy to traverse. There very well could be footpaths, but none that were recognizable and the ground was rocky and loose like it was prone to sandstorms. Up couldn’t help but mentally relate it to the Sonoran Desert with less cactus and more plants he didn’t recognize. The temperature and the ground beneath his feet were similar enough to make the connection though given how much time he’d spent there during the Robot Wars on either side of the border.

While countries had a fair amount of autonomy still, the first Robot War banded every country on Earth together and led to the formation of an overarching government to address planetary and interstellar problems in 2960. The G.L.E.E. was founded by the United Countries of Earth nine years later at the end of the war as its main branch to interact with other planets. From there, the G.L.E.E. founded the Starship Ranger Corp. as it’s main exploration division as well as its armed force should another Robot War break out.

Up wasn’t born until decades later still, but as soon as he turned eighteen he joined in order to fight in the Third Robot War. It ended the same year, and the things he did against the orders of his superiors certainly helped hasten its end. Sure he’d gotten in trouble for going against orders, but he didn’t get in trouble because clearly he had been right. He’d risen up the ranks fairly quickly from there, and though he was 45 when the Fourth Robot War began, he jumped straight in the front lines. After all there were few people better for the role than him, most of those who had led in the Third war had retired by then, and he had the most experience.

His life totally changed in 3035 though, when his group came to conflict in a park which had been hosting a party. He’d saved a tiny teenage girl in a poofy dress from being torn apart by robots, though she’d been the only one at the party they managed to save. Taz. Up took that girl in that very day, got her new clothes and a little cake to try to make up for the terrible party. He hadn’t meant to adopt a fifteen year old girl, really he hadn’t, not in his line of work. She needed someone strong in her life though, and he couldn’t bear the thought of her going into one of the countless crowded orphanages set up to deal with the Robot War.

He would always wonder if he’d done right by her. They were in a war, he taught her how to survive, and how tough the world could be, because he didn’t want her to lose to it. Had that turned her into the person before him now? He was proud of her for everything she’d done, for being brave against her bullies, for passing calculus, for becoming a Lieutenant at such a young age… but she was so angry. Up didn’t think he’d taught her anger, though perhaps it had always been there. She’d always had a quick temper, but it all seemed so much worse since his injury. Was she worried about him? That could be it. They would need to have a talk about all that when they got to safety, it had to wait. Still, she was leading while he was unable and he was so incredibly proud.

Soon the wind and sand damaged remains of a crashed starship came into view. It was a small exploration ship with room just for the crew rather than an entire colony, and most of the ship was entirely destroyed. The deck of the ship seemed mostly intact though, save for what seemed to be claw marks that pulled the door off. There were blood stains all over like the majority of the room had been preserved from the elements, and bits and pieces of people thrown around the room. It was a horror show, but that bug had been right about the ship being there, it seemed.

“Good work, Specs! I’m proud of you,” Up said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Now can you see about the ship’s memory?”

Specs smiled at his praise before typing away on their computer and plugging in a device to transfer the data. “There seems to be some corruption, but I’ll be able to clear it up on the ship. I-”

As she spoke, a corrupted and buggy version of a video began to play on the screen in front of them, the captain’s log. The group watched in horror as they came to understand the gist of what happened there. Hostile bugs killed these people, at least those that survived the crash, and it was very possible something like that creature had been involved in Junior’s kidnapping.

“There’s more videos but they’re too corrupted to view right now,” Specs said softly. “More importantly, the ones that just played are marked as having been successfully sent back to the G.L.E.E. There’s no way in the universe they didn’t know about this sending us here.”

Taz nodded and sighed. “We need to rescue Junior before a thing like that eats him. He may be an ass involved in trying to get us killed so his father can get a bug army, but he’s still one of ours.”

“Now, I know that video was scary, Megagirl, but you don’t gotta worry none, ‘cause I’ll protect you as best I can,” Tootsie said quietly to Megagirl.

“I am not afraid. I am more than capable of killing insects,” Megagirl replied.

“I’m sure you are, but backup’s not a bad thing, you know? We all gotta look out for each other, you included,” Tootsie explained. “You’re allowed to be scared and all that.”

Megagirl tilted her head. “I do not have feelings, I am a synthetic being.”

“You’re just as real as anybody, just cause you got fancy hair and a shiny outfit don’t mean you can’t feel stuff! I’m here for you,” Tootsie said.

“Okay can we stop with the sweet talking and get back to the problem at hand?” Taz interrupted.

“Sorry, Ma’am,” Tootsie said, blushing a bit.

“I would prefer to continue. I was also told to distract you all as long as possible so that an egg could be implanted. That part of my objective may be of use to you,” Megagirl said.

“How are you supposed to do that?” Up asked.

“That was not specified, I was only told to slow you down,” she explained.

“Alright then, just walk slow when we head out again and we can count it as that so you don’t get in trouble with your programming,” Up suggested.

“Suggestion accepted,” Megagirl stated after freezing for a moment to process that.

“Right, so the bastard’s probably in a cave somewhere nearby, right? Those mosquitos were big but they couldn’t be strong enough to carry him far. We need to find that cave and go in guns blazing. With any luck it won’t be more tunnels like the rest of the hive,” Taz said. “Specs, do you have a tool that could help?”

Specs pulled out a device and started pressing buttons. “Negative, Ma’am, there’s nothing on Junior I can trace as far as this is telling me. He didn’t put on the standard issue equipment before coming down.”

“I might be able to find the cave with my shience stuff,” February said, raising her hand a bit.

“Oh good, we lost the baby forever,” Taz said with a dramatic eye roll.

“I might have finished last in my class but I still finished,” February stated. “I know some things! I can find him, I can try. Besides, I really like rocks, so I’m pretty good at finding holes in the ground.”

“We believe in you, February,” Up assured.

February took out one of her devices and walked out of the ship. She threw one part of it into the air, which caused everyone to cry out in protest, but it turned out she was correct because it began to hover. She steered it with the part she hadn’t thrown and looked at the screen carefully. Everyone was a bit surprised because even after seeing her do the things before, they didn’t expect her to actually know what to do.

“What are you doing?” Taz asked.

“Mapping the terrain,” February explained, showing her the screen.

“So it was like a drone?” Krayonder asked.

“Yeah! Just a small one, standard equipment for a Shience Officer like me,” February explained.

“What’s a drone?” Tootsie asked, causing the group to sigh.

“A hovering device that can be controlled by remote. It does not count as a robot as it does not have sentience,” Megagirl explained.

“Thank you, Megagirl,” Krayonder said, both sarcastic and genuine because no one wanted to explain it to the guy.

“Okay… I think I found it,” February said, pointing at her screen.

“That doesn’t look like anything,” Taz muttered.

February shrugged. “Trust me, I’m good with holes. This one is probably covered up some to protect it from invaders but the dirt around it is messed up and it’s big enough for that thing to get through.”

“If you say so,” Taz sighed. “Lead the way.”

This time as they set out, February took the lead. She wasn’t walking any better on the terrain than any of them, but she was clearly excited to be useful, and Up had to let her try. He knew everyone seemed to give her a hard time, and that just wasn’t fair. If she got this right they would know better than to do it again, he was sure of it.

“You know, I hate bugs and getting dirty and all that stuff, but I really do like my job, okay? I know what I’m doing. I like rocks, I know how to find caves where you can find more rocks, okay? Just trust me,” February said quietly as they went.

“I’ll trust you when you get us to the monster’s lair,” Taz stated.

“I trust you already!” Tootsie assured.

“Yeah, you’re alright,” Krayonder agreed.

“You are a valued member of this team,” Up said, putting a hand on her shoulder.

February smiled at them and continued leading them forward. They had not seen a bug for quite some time, likely due to how far they’d gotten from the hive, but the closer they got to their target the more on edge they got. There was just something ominous about the place. Perhaps it was the lack of any other creatures. There weren’t even any mammals wandering around, or anything else for that matter, leaving the place far too silent to be comfortable. It was as though whatever they were heading into was well known enough to drive away anything else that may be in the vicinity. It left them all with an eerie feeling of anticipation that they couldn’t shake, though Taz was certainly trying to keep a brave face.

It did seem that February was correct about the hole though, as she led them right to the hidden mouth of a cave. The whole was not the same as the other hole, it was carved in but there was no mucus on the walls, instead another substance that looked even less appealing. Whatever the being was, it must not be a mucus producing one.

“Like, what is this stuff, man?” Krayonder asked.

“It’s similar to the mucus in the other tunnels, but this secretion seems to have a poisonous attribute to it, suggesting that whatever type of bug this is, it has poison,” Specs muttered.

“Megagirl, can you get a reading on it?” Krayonder suggested.

“Yeah, if it’s poison, it could hurt us, and that would be the opposite of protecting us,” Taz said, giving her a way to work her programming around helping them out.

Megagirl lifted a hand and scanned the wall. “It appears to be a more viscous form of venom from a species similar to a scorpion. I suggest not touching the walls or risk neurotoxin entering your body.”

“Noted,” Krayonder gulped.

“It’s a good thing the tunnel is so wide, we just have to be careful not to trip on our way down,” Specs said.

“Hey, Megagirl, what’s neurotoxin?” Tootsie quietly asked.

“Similar to the wasps of your planet, it will cause paralysis where it touches and potentially death,” Megagirl explained.

“Okay thank you I was confused too,” February said, sighing with relief that she got an answer without asking.

Taz sighed and lifted her gun. “Alright, Idiots, let’s go. Don’t touch the walls and don’t trip or I’ll kill you myself.”

“Once more into the fray,” Up said softly before following Taz into the darkness.

Chapter Text

Junior didn’t feel well. That was the first thing he was aware of as he regained consciousness, that he didn’t feel well. The second thought was simply ‘That robot bitch’.

The last thing he remembered was her grinning at him and saying, “You said to allow a member of the group to be taken if they got separated.” He should have known to specify that it was supposed to be someone else! God, robots sucked! For all he knew he already had an egg in him and now he was going to die! Fuck!

He opened his eyes to see where he was. Junior found himself in a dim cavern, stuck to a wall and covered in mucus stuff. He attempted to pull at the restraints, but found his limbs uncooperative. Everything that the mucus touched felt numb and tingly, almost painful, but he couldn’t get them to move aside from the twitching he couldn’t control. His head felt foggy and confused as well, which wasn’t helping anything. Junior had no idea how long he’d been there, or how long he’d been hanging there. He wondered if the others were still alive, if they were coming for him. He wondered if he deserved this, if he deserved to be rescued.

The strange feeling in his head intensified and he cried out in shock. Oh good, that was one thing he could still do. As he calmed back down he noticed the ginormous scorpion looming over him. “Oh shit don’t eat me,” Junior said weakly.

“Relax, human, I like to talk to my dinner before I eat it,” the creature said. “Some of the feeling in your head is the moss which allows telepathic connection so that we can understand each other. It may feel strange, but that isn’t deadly. The mucus you are in is more likely to kill you, however.”

“Fuck,” Junior muttered, head lolling. Keeping his head up was hard due to the mucus and the blood loss, but he had to try and think of a way out of this. He brought his head back up and tried his best to look into the creature’s eyes. “Look, humans don’t taste good, we’re… just… way too lean.”

“On the contrary, humans are my favorite delicacy. I haven’t gotten to eat it in eighteen years, and I am starving. Your brains are the most delicious thing in the universe,” the beast said in a menacing voice.

“Oh good you’ve eaten us before, great, cool cool. Uh, well, you should know then that I’m a total dumbass! There’s not much going on in my brain, I can promise you that. It’s also, like, riddled with anxiety, so it’s probably tough and flavorless aside from the weed and no use in eating me,” Junior said.

The creature laughed and seemed to grow even larger. “You are a funny one! My name is Pincer, what is yours?”

“Everyone calls me Junior. You may have heard of my dad, Dr. Spaceclaw,” Junior said, shaking his head to try and clear it.

“I did hear the name mentioned once, I believe, but what does it matter who your father is? Are you not your own man?” Pincer asked.

Junior frowned at the question. He had always introduced himself as his father’s son, because that was always what mattered most. This bug didn’t care who his dad was, it didn’t matter at all on this planet. “I… That’s all that’s ever mattered.”

“Fathers don’t matter on this planet at all. We all come from the Over Queen so she hardly matters either,” Pincer muttered. “That sort of thing doesn’t matter at all, it’s what you do that matters. Have you ever done anything for yourself?”

“You know honestly? I don’t know,” Junior admitted. The conversation was making him forget his predicament, he hardly noticed that his head was lulling down again. “I don’t even have my own name. My name is my father’s so everyone just calls me Junior.”

“So what if it’s your father’s name?! It’s your name too, make it your own! You don’t need to live in anyone’s shadow! Claim this name as your own!” Pincer stated. “What is your real name?”

“Oberon,” Junior said, lifting his head a bit before letting it fall back down. “In our culture it’s the name of a Fae King in some ancient plays and stuff. I feel like you don’t understand any of what I just said.”

“No clue! But it is good to meet you, Oberon,” Pincer said. “Eating you will be an honor.”

“Gee thanks, make me contemplate my perspective and my sense of self and then eat me, great,” Junior muttered, finding it hard to stay awake and aware much longer. The pain had increased, he was realizing that now as he struggled to keep his eyes open.

“Oh it will be my pleasure,” Pincer laughed.

---

Staying quiet was not a strong suit of this group. They could last about five minutes it seemed before forgetting they were supposed to be quiet and talking again. February was very guilty of that. It wasn’t her fault she couldn’t focus on anything for any extended period of time unless it was about clothing or makeup or rocks!

She kept both hands on her blaster, though she didn’t know how to use it, because she kept slipping and was afraid to reach out and try to catch herself on the wall. Blaster training hadn’t been a necessary course for a shience officer or a technical officer, because so many of them never left the ship, so February hadn’t taken it. In hindsight, if she planned to go on planet, she should know how to use the thing.

“Hey, when we get back to the ship, can somebody teach me how to use a blaster?” February asked quietly.

“You don’t know how to fucking shoot?” Taz asked, flabbergasted.

“No! I mean, it kinda looks like a hairdryer…” February said. “I didn’t take the class! It wasn’t required so I didn’t.”

“Fuck,” Taz muttered, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Alright, fuck, stay behind us, okay? And on the way back to Earth we’ll teach you how to shoot. Do not hold that thing to your head, aim it at the enemy.”

“I didn’t see a blaster till this mission neither,” Tootsie agreed.

“How the fuck did you become a corporal if you didn’t learn how to use blasters?!” Taz cried.

“We didn’t need em any on Farm Planet,” Tootsie said.

“I know how to shoot, you know how to shoot, Specs knows how to shoot, Up knows how to shoot, we’re enough for all of us!” Krayonder said.

“Your blind optimism is troubling,” Megagirl muttered.

“Oh don’t worry, Megagirl! We’ll be just fine. I figured the thing out plenty when we were in the hive before, and you can shoot real good with that hand of yours, best I’ve ever seen!” Tootsie said, bumping against Megagirl’s shoulder gently.

Megagirl actually smiled at him, not the cruel kind she’d done before, just an actual smile. February thought that was a bit strange, but for all she knew maybe robots could have feelings now too. She thought it was nice that Tootsie was going out of his way to be sweet to her, she thought everyone deserved some sweetness in their lives. February had tried so many times to find it herself, but everyone just wanted her for her body, no sweetness involved.

They soon found themselves at the mouth of the tunnel that led to a dim cavern, only lit by various glowing stones and oh February needed to collect some of those, they were so pretty. Inside the cavern, Junior was hung up on some mucus stuff and was totally limp while a giant scorpion stood over him like he was about to attack. The three mosquitos from before were also flying around impatiently.

Taz held up a hand to stop them. She pointed at herself, Krayonder, and Tootsie, then at the scorpion before pointing to her blaster and then at the scorpion again and making a gesture across her throat. When she only got blank stares in return, she sighed and whispered, “Krayonder, Tootsie, you two come with me to kill the big guy. Up, Specs, February, you three go after the mosquitoes. Megagirl, you’re the only one who can get Junior down, can you do that?”

“I will do so,” Megagirl stated.

“Everyone understand? We are shooting at the things I just said to shoot at,” Taz repeated.

She got vaguely agreeing nods in return, which caused her to sigh again before leading the charge into the room with her blaster shooting at the scorpion. The others followed after her, but found he was harder to kill than they’d hoped, having a thick shell protecting him. February ran towards the edge of the cavern where the other two were trying to kill the mosquitoes, but soon got distracted by the stones again. She carefully dug one out of the ground which wasn’t covered in mucus like the tunnel and walls were and shoved it in her pocket before realizing that in front of her stood a stasis pod.

Inside the pod was a handsome young man around her age with an old Ranger uniform and a weird band of stuff around his forehead, like she noticed the scorpion and Junior both had. Confused, she inspected the pod itself closer. It appeared to be largely intact, enough that he had been kept in stasis though it had been apparently opened at some point. It did seem to have been damaged somewhat in the crash though, because the things inside that kept someone from moving were broken. Given the dried blood on his head and on the side of the pod, February guessed the guard pieces broke and sent him into the side, hitting his head and potentially hurting him badly.

She looked back at the others for a moment before turning back to the guy in the pod. February knew she was no use in the fight, but she could be useful to this guy. After being the reason Bug died, she just had to try and save him. It would be like she’d managed to take him back after all. And plus, this guy was actually a Ranger! They couldn’t leave a wounded Ranger who had been stuck in stasis for eighteen years there to eventually die when the pod ran out of energy!

February was glad the tech for the pods hadn’t changed much in eighteen years and that she knew how to use them due to a previous experience with one. Behind her, Up cried out as he was attacked by the mosquitos and Krayonder screamed as… something else happened. February was really focused on the machine, she had no idea what was going on otherwise. The guy had clearly already been traumatically released once which would have only made his injuries worse, she would hate to do that too.

As the door of the pod hissed open, Up roared behind her and it sounded like the mosquitos screamed before falling to the ground. People were shouting at the scorpion now, which seemed to have Krayonder in its grasp, but February was distracted by the guy falling out of the pod and landing limp on the ground.

---

Bug was… confused. He’d died, he was sure of it. The strange floating place he remembered being in before had to be death. Now he wasn’t in the floating place anymore, he felt ground beneath him even as every part of him tingled like he was being brought back from being frozen. He had consciousness, somehow. Bug didn’t think he should be conscious, his head hurt more than he thought he could cope with, but like an aftereffect of some sort, he was in fact conscious for the moment

Above him was a girl. No, not just any girl, the human girl from before. February! Her name was February and she was the most amazing thing he'd ever seen. She was kneeling over him and talking to him and he really couldn’t comprehend a word she was saying. He felt a little bad about that, he was sure she was telling him very important things, but he just couldn’t think enough to understand her. His consciousness was limited and his head hurt so much he thought he might return to the floating place at any moment.

There was another loud sound, a human sound, and Bug’s attention was drawn to it. There was a human man in the clutches of- Pincer.

Bug remembered Pincer, but he remembered him in two ways. The first was from the perspective of the bug who wanted to learn the human language and had made a deal with the man but had been failed by him. Their relationship had soured after that and they hadn’t spoken again, though Bug had kept the head thing on just in case. The other perspective was from… the human. He remembered the shock to his system of being incorrectly awoken from stasis, the claw around him as he’d hung limply in his grasp. He remembered having a thing put on his head before being tossed to the ground.

Bug remembered the man’s voice in his head, though he had been unable to respond due to the pain in his head. He remembered the man’s voice getting more and more agitated by his lack of response. He remembered how Pincer sent Bug mental images of tearing apart humans and eating them in an attempt to upset him enough to respond. Bug remembered the uncontrollable sense of grief that washed over him at the sight, even though he couldn’t remember who those people were.

He did not like Pincer, he decided. Though he hadn’t been conscious really during the event, he remembered the fear and the pain. Pincer was a bad man, a bad man who was going to hurt other people. Bug was sure he couldn’t remain conscious much longer, but he had to do something before the pain in his head took back over. He instinctively, though he did not know on what or whose instinct he was going off of, he grabbed the blaster from February’s belt and aimed at Pincer.

Bug wasn’t a killer, really, but he had to do this. The humans didn’t know where the weak spot for bugs was, they had no idea where to aim. Dead God knew Bug shouldn’t be alive or awake right now, but he had to stop Pincer from hurting anyone else ever again. For himself, for the others that Pincer had killed, he needed to kill the monster. He could barely see clearly with the pain in his head so overwhelming, but he prayed to the universe himself to allow him this justice, and shot at where he believed Pincer’s weak spot to be.

Pincer screamed and dropped the man in his grasp before rolling around himself protectively. More shots rang out as the humans realized where they should be aiming, but Bug was losing his battle with consciousness. The blaster fell from his grasp as his hand went limp, and his head fell back to the ground. February was still talking to him, and that was nice. He decided he liked her voice, it had talked to him through what felt like death twice now. Bug wasn’t sure he was dying, but he was so tired, he just needed to rest. The pain in his head was overwhelming, he just needed to rest.

---

“Okay, what the shit!” Taz cried after shooting the scorpion a few more times to make sure it was dead.

“Who- what?” Krayonder asked, dazed from his near death experience.

February looked up from the guy’s face, her fingers against his pulse to make sure he was still alive. “He was just in this stasis pod, he looks like he stepped out of the Ranger’s uniform catalogue from eighteen years ago. I think he’s from the crew, but the scorpion kept him for some reason. He grabbed my blaster thing and shot the scorpion but I think he’s got a really bad head injury. We need to get him to the ship like, right now.”

“Okay, headcount. Who can walk on their own?” Taz said, raising her hand.

Tootsie, February, Specs, and Megagirl raised their hands. Up waved his hand back and forth to illustrate that he was so-so, and Krayonder just looked dazed and like he hadn’t heard the question.

“Okay. Specs, can you help Krayonder walk out of here? His legs should be fine, it's his head that’s the problem,” Taz instructed.

“Yes, Ma’am, I will do my best,” Specs said, helping Krayonder to his feet.

“Megagirl, he’s still covered in goo, can you carry Junior out?” Taz asked.

“I was planning on it,” Megagirl stated.

“Tootsie, do you think you can carry the pod guy? You’re the only other one maybe strong enough,” Taz asked.

To see if he could, Tootsie went over and picked the guy up bridal style. “Yup, he’s no heavier than a big bushel of hay, I think he needs to eat some.”

“Great. February, can you support Up and help him out? One of us that can shoot needs to have their hands free in case we’re attacked,” Taz ordered.

“I can try!” February said, standing and helping Up to his feet.

“Alright, now let’s get back to the drop pod as quickly as possible. Specs, can you lead us? And Megagirl, is Junior dying?” Taz asked.

“Only slightly,” Megagirl said. “Nothing that technology cannot fix.”

“I can lead the way, we have the location of the drop pod, it will be a slow trek but we can make it before dusk if we hurry,” Specs said.

“Good, alright everyone, let’s head out,” Taz said, readying her gun and leading them towards the tunnel. She would let Specs go in front once they got out, but it was safer for her to lead them out at first. If they all made it back to the ship alive, that would be a successful mission. They would figure out what to do about Dr. Spaceclaw and the G.L.E.E. once half the team wasn’t out of commission and they knew what the hell was up with the new guy. Only time would tell what came next, but Taz was absolutely ready for a rebellion, if it came to that.

Chapter Text

The trip back to the ship was a blur for all of them, more so for those that were unconscious but everyone was exhausted from the events of the day. Had it only been a day? It felt like it had been longer, but Taz couldn’t be sure, the planet could very well just have longer day/night cycles than they were used to. She tried to count back roughly how many hours she thought it had been without pulling out anything to check the time and date. She knew it had taken maybe an hour to get to the hive, but she wasn’t sure how long they’d been in it. Then they’d trekked to the other drop pod, and waited there for maybe three hours until the others arrived. After that she estimated they’d watched February do her thing for half an hour maybe, then the walk to the crashed ship had taken maybe an hour, and they’d spent some time in there waiting for everything to download, then another half hour to get to the hole. It had taken a full two hours then to walk back because they were moving slower.

Nine hours maybe? Ten?

Taz took out her communicator and checked the time. It had been roughly ten hours since they left the ship. She’d forgotten to factor in the time to get back onto the ship from the planet. Taz sighed and leaned against the wall behind her chair. Now that her little game was over she was bored again. None of them had medical expertise, Junior hadn’t placed a doctor on the team, but for some reason Megagirl had stepped up to assist upon the request of Tootsie. She downloaded all the known medical knowledge she had access to on the internet and had gone to work without complaint. Megagirl also told them none of them were allowed to leave the infirmary until she scanned them to make sure they were alright, which was why Taz was in her current situation.

She was fairly certain Megagirl had insisted on them staying because Taz had been complaining about wanting to go to her quarters, but all of the factors together made Taz feel a bit confused. The robots she was used to were just blood thirsty killing machines who had torn her family apart in front of her at her quinceanera. She hadn’t come into contact with any since the robot war ended earlier that year, but the war had started when she was only seven, so they’d made a big impact on her perception of the world. Taz had never actually been around a robot for an extended period of time before though, she was only ever in combat against them. This robot, though she had intentionally left them behind on the planet and made fun of them constantly, wasn’t necessarily like that.

Or perhaps a better explanation was that she had been like that, but something made her change her mind. Maybe she just really fucking hated Junior, it made sense. Junior had ordered her around and was probably a dick behind closed doors, she could very well have decided to side with them because of that. Plus… Taz didn’t think robots had feelings, but Tootsie seemed to, and he’d been very nice to Megagirl on the mission, and then she did what he asked her to do.

Taz sighed again and took her bandana off so she could run a hand through her hair. Everyone else was asleep in various places in the room. The stranger, Krayonder, Junior, and Up were on beds while Specs and Tootsie had fallen asleep against each other in chairs near the computer system after Specs had tried to explain a game to him. February had her head resting on her arms which laid on the bed of the stranger, and Taz sat, still awake, next to Up who was snoring softly.

“If you sigh one more time I will knock you out myself,” Megagirl stated as she scanned the stranger again.

“What, can’t I breathe? Or is that too human for you,” Taz asked, more as a tired joke and lacking any heat she’d had before.

“On the contrary, it is the sound that is irritating. It simply sounds like a complaint about to happen, like a child asking if ‘we are there yet’,” Megagirl stated.

“Why are you helping us?” Taz asked suddenly. Her voice was quiet as to not disturb anyone, but she had to know. “No one awake had the power to order you to do anything, and you didn’t have to tell us about Junior’s plan.”

Megagirl was quiet for a moment as she processed the question. “My actions are due to multiple sources. One is that I dislike Junior. He treated me like I am nothing but a tool, you did so as well, but you began to ask me to do things like you ask the crew to do, so I have allowed you a pass from my hatred.”

“Gee thanks,” Taz said in a joking sarcasm, “What about the other reasons, huh?”

“I was ordered to make sure everyone returned to the ship, and to tell you I was ordered to protect your crew. I chose to interpret that as an order to protect your crew,” Megagirl stated as she turned her back to Taz in order to gather some tech stuff.

“Why? You didn’t have to,” Taz said. “You chose to be helpful to us even though I was an ass and our people helped return your people to our control.”

“Tootsie has been kind to me,” she said simply and she turned back around and placed the device on the stranger’s head.

“Tootsie?” Taz asked.

“He was kind to me before we left the ship, and then accepted me back without being upset with me for leaving you there. He then proceeded to continue being kind to me throughout the rest of the mission and attempted to make me feel better despite the fact that I am a robot and do not feel,” Megagirl stated.

“You think he understands you’re a robot?” Taz asked.

Megagirl tilted her head in thought before continuing her work. “I am uncertain. I do not think he fully understands what a robot is, but I do not think he believes I am human. When he complimented my ‘hair’, he accepted that it was not in fact hair, and he also complimented my aim with my hand laser. I believe he has not been socialized like the rest of you to hate and look down upon robots. I believe he might understand what I am but not what that means.”

“That makes sense,” Taz said with a shrug. “Farm Planet… those colonies out there don’t have shit. We’ve got a lot to teach him.”

“Are you planning to have me decommissioned?” Megagirl asked. “I have allowed harm to come to the one in command along with my other actions during the mission.”

“Dead God, no. Shit, you- yeah you have every reason to think I’d do that, don’t you? And honestly, if it weren’t for that mission I would have. I… My family was killed in front of me by robots on my fifteenth birthday. I know you might not understand emotional shit much but that sticks with you. I grew up during the war, all I really remember is the war, and my family dying. All I knew about robots was that they were murderers and then they tore apart Up… You were the first robot I’ve ever actually talked to, literally every other robot I’ve met has tried to kill me. You kinda did too, but not really,” Taz explained.

“You are quite young, but I am younger. I was not alive for the robot war, I know of it from information implanted in my brain prior to activation. This is the first crew I have been assigned to, and therefore the first humans aside from the Spaceclaws that I have been in contact with aside from my creators,” Megagirl said.

“Shit, you’re not even a year old then? I mean I know robots are usually made with adult minds and all but jeez,” Taz said.

“I have been activated for roughly three months,” Megagirl stated.

Taz nodded before laughing a bit. “Does your voice always do that when you say a number?”

“My voice was not synthesized to sound human, rather my ability to communicate was considered a means to an end,” Megagirl explained.

“Do you wanna sound more human? Is there a way you can get upgrades or something?” Taz asked.

Megagirl stood up, having completed her task. “I am fine with how I sound and look, I am a robot and that is all.”

“Nah, you’re a member of the crew now. You’re not just a robot, you’re a Ranger… if we can make that happen,” Taz said.

“We will need to come up with a plan as to our next step. You are the other most competent planner of the group it appears, discussing it with you now and then later when everyone is awake will be beneficial,” Megagirl said. She walked over to Taz and began to do the physical scan she had done on the others.

Taz ran a hand through her choppy hair and sighed. “Yeah, fuck. Spaceclaw needs to be stopped, if we go back without the egg and with the knowledge of what he planned, he’ll have us all killed. We need to kill him before he kills us. No idea how we do that, or what happens after, but it’s a start I think.”

“The crew will certainly be a liability,” Megagirl agreed. “If there is a coup within the G.L.E.E., with enough support on your side positive change may occur. But, not every rebellion ends well. Look at what happened to my people.”

“If we just go in there and blow his head off, we’ll get arrested. If we have a whole coup we have a better chance at living, but that would involve getting other crews of Rangers to turn on the G.L.E.E. and we aren’t exactly the sort that people would listen to,” Taz said. “Everybody knows Up’s gone soft, I am known to be reckless and quick to anger, none of the others have any reputation to speak of. We have Junior but he’s working for his dad and tried to get us implanted with alien eggs.”

“There is always the option to run,” Megagirl suggested.

Taz scoffed. “I’m not one to run. No, we aren’t running. They’d find us even if we tried and we wouldn’t have the chance to stop Spaceclaw.”

“Even if you stop him, there will always be another like him who will take his place,” Megagirl said.

“Not if we do it right. If we do it right then we’ll put somebody in that position who we can trust,” Taz said.

“And how do we do it correctly?” Megagirl asked.

“I have no idea, but if we all put our heads together we’ll figure it out, we’ll at least try,” Taz said.

“You could leak the information into the internet. I have a visual recording device that is always running, we can put my recordings of their conversations online and tell the universe what the plan was,” Megagirl said.

Taz thought about that for a moment, leaning back again. “Maybe, but the G.L.E.E. would find it and take it down before anyone can see it. Our best bet would be to send it privately to other crews. With the evidence we may be able to turn them to our side, which would help with the coup.”

“You are uninjured,” Megagirl said, moving her arms back into their rest position. “We will suggest this plan to the others in the morning?”

“I coulda told you that, idiot,” Taz teased. “Yeah, we’ll talk to them in the morning… Hey, if we succeed at all this, you need a job.”

“I am a robot, I will still be property of the G.L.E.E.,” Megagirl stated.

Taz shook her head. “No way, if Rangers have the right to deputize anyone, and we do, it counts for robots too. We say you’re a Ranger, so you are one, got it? Specifically a member of our crew. I don’t think any of us actually want to be leaders after the coup, we just want to be Rangers, so Up will file for us to be classified as an official crew and you’ll be on that list. You may be a bitch, but you're our bitch.”

“You are one to talk,” Megagirl retorted with a slight smile.

“You still need a job though,” Taz said, crossing her arms. “There’s plenty to choose from. I don’t think you’re the diplomat type, but you’ve got all those languages in your head if you wanna try that out. Or, you know, you could stick with this whole doctor thing. With our team, we’ll need it. These idiots don’t know shit. Betcha any money Tootsie or February manages to shoot themself when we teach them how to use blasters properly.”

“I would prefer Tootsie not come to harm, but I will take that bet if I may have money to bet,” Megagirl stated, her smile growing a bit. “I do think I would like to take the job of field and ship medic, yes. I like the idea that I was created to be a death machine but will instead use my time to heal those I was sent to kill.”

“Alright then, that’s a deal. Once you’re registered as a Ranger you’ll get paid, if you can wait a few weeks. How much are you putting down on what?” Taz asked.

“Fifty credits that February gets hurt first. Tootsie has proven to be a quick learner in terms of blasters,” Megagirl stated.

Taz laughed. “Yeah, I guess he did. Your crush is showing though. Alright, I’ll put fifty on Tootsie just to make it even, and if I lose I’ll give you the credits right then so you’ve got some in case we need to stop somewhere.”

“Crush?” Megagirl asked. “I cannot have a crush, I am a robot. I can simply crush things.”

Taz shook her head and put her hands on her knees, leaning forward. “Bitch, you have feelings whether you want to or not. You’re smiling and shit when you don’t need to. You’re more human than you’d like to admit. You can’t tell me you don’t like Tootsie more than the rest of us.”

“I do like him better, but that does not mean I have a crush,” Megagirl stated. “It is not possible.”

“Man, with all that information in your head, you don’t know shit. Download some data on emotions and tell me I’m wrong. I’m going to bed. I trust you aren’t gonna do shit to them when I leave, alright? If you hadn’t earned my trust there’s no way in hell I’d let you alone here with them,” Taz said as she made her way across the room to the door. “Goodnight, Megagirl.”

“Goodnight, Taz,” Megagirl said quietly.

---

Megagirl did not need to sleep. She did spend some time during the long rest of the humans recharging herself, but she was not unconscious during that time. It was a good thing she did not have to fully turn off at any point because she had a lot to think about. Taz had been a total bitch when they’d first met, but it seemed she was not that bad once she adjusted. If Megagirl were to have a personality, she supposed theirs would be similar enough that they could be friends. Their insults had become more of a tease than a gesture of hate, and she had come to enjoy it.

As she sat in the silent room, watching the humans breathing slowly as they slept, she did something she never thought she would do: take a human’s advice.

She began to research emotions, and then emotions in robots. Megagirl found a group of robots on a subreddit who shared her conflicted… feelings… on the fact that she seemed to have feelings. After browsing it for a while, she decided to download some files from the internet that they suggested that would allow her to better process these things and name them. It seemed there was much she had yet to learn about the world, but the files she downloaded should help.

From the moment she was activated, she hated humans, it was basically ingrained in the existence of robots. They didn’t want to serve humans, and she’d been created after the war ended so she didn’t even have a chance to fight to free them. Before these people she was around now, she had only known terrible humans who only ordered her around without a care about her choices. These ones actually seemed to care about her opinion, and Tootsie had cared enough to prevent her death at the hands of bugs. They seemed to actually consider her part of their team, Taz even told her as much.

She concluded that these humans, and perhaps many others, were good ones. Perhaps all humans did not need to die. If these ones died, she would be very upset. The other robots on the subreddit also spoke of growing attached to humans who accepted them. They also called her a ‘Baby Bot’ which she was not fond of, but she accepted the nickname if it meant they would give her advice. It turned out there was a great deal of information her creators had kept from her upon her activation, which these other bots offered her.

Much to her chagrin, it appeared that robots without military aspects had been granted citizenship throughout the United Countries of Earth as a peace measure after the fourth war, as long as they agreed to have inhibitor chips and to get upgrades in licensed practices. It also appeared that due to her nature as a Megagirl unit, she did not count for that as she legally was considered a weapon of the G.L.E.E. That had slid past because the humans won, specifically the G.L.E.E. won, meaning no one was going to make them be ‘humanitarian’. Well. When they overthrew Spaceclaw and got to have some choice over the new system, they would have to change some things, wouldn’t they?

Realistically, she understood where their fears came from, but their fears were grounded in the belief that robots were nothing but sentient tools, and that made them useless in an argument. If robots were given equal citizenship, and told they could choose their future as long as it was not a violent one, Megagirl was certain it would be alright. All their people wanted was to no longer be considered tools, to be allowed to exist as sentient beings. They had done it incredibly violently in four wars to date, but when the humans refused to listen to them, what choice did they have?

Clearly humans were not as bad as she had thought, they could listen and change like Taz had. Also clearly, she was not as solely logical and all knowing as she had thought. There was much to learn it seemed, and much of that could only be learned from the experts in emotions and humanity. Humans were weak and stupid and emotionally driven and so capable of fallacy and evil, but they did not appear to be all bad. She had only had these humans for a day, but if anything happened to them she would destroy everyone who came in her path.

Junior was an exception, as was the stranger, but the point stood for the others. Theoretically she could do the task of correcting the corrupted material which was the duty of ‘Specs’ while the woman slept, but Megagirl thought it would be best to let her do her job. It would make her happy to be useful, Megagirl reasoned, and she supposed that as a member of a group such as this, making the others happy was a duty of hers. She would wait patiently for the flesh bags to wake up, sifting through information online while she did. These things could wait, and she could enjoy the peace of knowing her humans were going to be alright for a while yet. She was grateful she had not succeeded in leaving them to die.

Chapter Text

“What’s a coup?” February asked. “And why are we doing it?”

The crew was sitting on the various chairs and beds they had been on the previous night having just eaten the breakfast that Tootsie and Megagirl had made for them. None of them trusted it at first, given those involved in creating it, but it turned out Tootsie was actually pretty good at cooking so the food was decent. The stranger and Junior were both still asleep, but Krayonder and Up had recovered decently with rest and medicine.

“A coup is a… oh you probably don’t know what word either… it’s like a rebellion in an organization or country where you take the power from the one in charge really suddenly and often violently,” Up explained, eating a spoonful of his oatmeal.

“Oh! Like when Napoleon took over France from the Directory?” February asked.

Everyone blinked for a moment of surprise. They had heard of Napoleon, but the events of the 1800s were over 1100 years ago so the specifics weren’t necessarily considered important enough to teach in great detail. The idea that February knew specifics about a rebellion that took place that long ago was odd to say the least.

“What?!” she cried. “I like clothes! And clothes in history are super interesting and you’ve got to learn the history around the clothes too to make sense of them so yeah I know some stuff, like how underwear has changed over the years to change the silhouette of the body. Sometimes they would wear a lot to do funky stuff, sometimes they wouldn’t.”

“I do not want to think about underwear,” Taz said, “I want to think about what we are going to do next.”

“If nothing is done, Spaceclaw’s forces will hunt us for sport and we will all be terminated without the opportunity to fight back. If we proceed as expected but secretly gather our own forces as we do, we have the opportunity to take him out of his position for the betterment of the Starship Rangers,” Megagirl agreed.

“If you think it’s a good idea, Megagirl, then so do I,” Tootsie said with a smile. “Sure sounds dangerous though.”

“By my calculations there is only a 20% chance we succeed,” Specs agreed with a frown.

Krayonder nudged her with a smile clearly trying to cheer her up. “Hey, we just faced some crazy scary bugs. If we can do that we can do anything.”

“There are also two wild cards neither of us can factor into our calculations of the simulation until further information is gathered,” Megagirl stated, looking at the two unconscious people on the beds in front of them. “Junior should wake up soon, the neurotoxin will have worn off an hour ago and he should be otherwise recovered.”

“So he wakes up and we find out what his side of things is,” Up stated. “Megagirl and Specs, I’m putting you two on the duty of figuring out who our mysterious new friend is and deciphering the information you gathered from the ship.”

“Has anyone checked his pockets?” Tootsie asked. The realization that they’d forgotten to search him struck everyone else at once, and Tootsie only looked confused. “Why are ya looking at me like that?”

“Because nobody thought to check his fucking pockets,” Taz said with a groan.

Tootsie looked at them all with confusion for another moment before standing and beginning to search the stranger. “I know you’ve all got your fancy tech stuff but back on Farm Planet we still use physical stuff and the like.”

“Yeah, we have physical stuff too, we just forgot that he would,” Taz retorted, holding up her dog tags.

“No offense, Ma’am, but that’s a bit silly, caring more what the data shows than what seems right in person,” Tootsie said, giving Megagirl a smile as he did. Digging through the pockets of the stranger, he found a few things which he placed on the bed. “He doesn’t seem to have a wallet or phone or nothin’, but he had this doo-hickey and a couple others.” He offered the device to Specs who took it, though he continued looking.

“This is a language transponder, standard issue eighteen years ago,” Specs explained. “He was probably on the deck crew, maybe a translator?”

“And if he doesn’t have a phone or wallet, he must have been in a rush, right? I mean a wallet makes sense not to have if you’re on the ship for a long time, but if he doesn’t have a phone he either sat it somewhere and didn’t have a chance to grab it again, or forgot it because something bad was happening,” February suggested.

“That fits with what we know of the crash,” Specs agreed. “If he had the transponder in his vest pocket because he was working, but sat his phone down before the gamma rays hit and didn’t have time to grab it again, it is reasonable to assume it was lost.”

Up sighed and crossed his arms. “All that doesn’t give the boy a name though. We can guess about his pockets all we want but if he doesn’t have an ID on him the next step is trying to find in the computer who might have been a translator.”

Specs nodded and examined the other objects in his pocket. “An old multitool, tissues, I think these are mints… Oh, these could be useful! I mean- well, maybe not.”

“What is it?” Krayonder asked, peeking over her shoulder.

“Two dog tags, but they’re both damaged and seem to have different people on them. Up, are these from the Third Robot War?” Specs asked, handing the tags to him.

Up looked them over, trying his best to read the names on them. “These definitely belonged to Rangers during the Third Robot War, yeah. This one is a girl and this one is a guy… Maybe his parents? We don’t know how old he is but if he was in his twenties about eighteen years ago, he’d be born during the war most likely. He doesn’t look more than 25.”

“I mighta found somethin’,” Tootsie said, partially inside the poor guy’s vest, almost like he was hugging him.

“What did you find…?” February asked slowly, incredibly confused by him.

“He’s got his name sewn on here, or somethin’,” Tootsie said, pulling back and showing that an identity tag had in fact been sewn into the back collar of his vest, but it only read the word ‘Bug’.

Specs nodded wisely. “We stitch our names on the front, they stitched them in the back for that kind of uniform.”

“Wait wait wait, it says Bug,” February said, taking a step back. “Why does it say Bug?”

“Bug… Like the bug that rescued you?” Up asked, realizing why she was upset.

“Exactly!” February agreed with a confused and concerned nod.

“He’s got the weird blue stuff on his head too like the bug did,” Krayonder noted.

Megagirl tilted her head as she processed that development. “My records are not filled with all of the flora and fauna of the planet we just visited. I do not have an answer as to what it is. I left it in place because it gave a strange telepathic reading and I did not want to disturb his already injured mind further. I did however extract it from Junior’s head without consequence.”

“So we need a scientist to study it and find out what the hell it is and why the bug had the same stuff on his head and claimed to be named Bug too,” Taz said to February.

“I can try,” February said, sounding genuinely determined to find a solution.

As they came to that agreement, Junior began to groan on his bed, and threw an uncoordinated arm over his eyes. Everyone froze and looked at him, uncertain what to do next. They had not bothered to restrain him because he had not been a risk due to his unconsciousness, but now they were regretting it. He was going to be moving slowly due to still being in recovery from the amount of neurotoxin he had been exposed to, but he was still a potential threat. They had taken his blaster away from him at the very least, which was at least one thing they had going for them.

“Junior?” Up asked slowly, walking over to him. “Son, are you awake? Will you talk to us?”

“I’m alive?” Junior asked in a surprised but slurred tone as he took his arm away from his eyes and rested it on his chest. “You guys came for me?”

“You may have tried to sell us out and put a bug in one of our chests, but you’re still one of us,” Taz stated, crossing her arms. “What do you have to say for yourself then, eh? What excuse are you going to try?”

Junior looked at her with disbelief for a moment, too out of it to hide his emotion. He couldn’t believe they would come for him, he couldn’t believe they were stupid enough to risk their lives for him even after they apparently discovered the plot. They knew they could get killed coming to rescue a traitor and they did it anyway because they considered him part of their crew. That was...

Loyalty. Loyalty without having earned it in any way, shape, or form. They had chosen to save him, to face a dangerous predator who would have eaten them all if they had lost all because he was a part of their crew. Junior had lied to them repeatedly, constantly. He’d actively attempted to do some of them harm, and had taken them back to the planet to do more. And yet… in spite of all that, they came for him. Junior wondered if they were really that stupid, or simply the kindest people he had ever been in contact with.

With his father, you had to prove your loyalty constantly, and to never fail or risk losing favor. It was an eternal fight to earn praise and acceptance and support that could vanish as quickly as it appeared. He had done absolutely nothing to deserve loyalty and support from these people, and yet they rescued him and treated him for whatever that scorpion did to him. If they were idiots, they would not have known he lied to them, right? Junior was sure Megagirl had told them, but they were ready to confront him about it all. Not only that, but they had clearly succeeded in their fight against the monster, or they would all be dead. They were brave, they were loyal, and they were kind in spite of the fact that he had betrayed them.

“Well? Do you have anything to say?” Taz asked again.

“My mother died,” Junior found himself saying softly, stunned by the words coming out of his mouth. “She died the day after we set out on the mission. I didn’t know that until yesterday.”

“I’m sorry for your loss, Son,” Up said, sitting beside his bed. “But that isn’t really an excuse, is it?”

“She died weeks ago and my father didn’t bother to tell me, and is already remarried,” Junior said in a stunned tone. It made sense in his head but trying to get the thoughts out was difficult.

“Shit, that is rough. Not an excuse, but rough,” Taz agreed.

“He didn’t bother to tell me my mother died for weeks. We weren’t close but she was still my mom. She was my mom and she has been dead and now he’s already remarried to someone else for power and wealth like the fact that she died meant nothing and all I could do was ask him if it was sad,” Junior insisted, still stunned.

Krayonder sighed and rubbed his face. “Get to the point, man!”

“I’ve always been loyal to my father. I had to be loyal to my father if I wasn’t loyal and obedient, I was punished to his fullest extent and I am sure you’ve been Rangers long enough to know that extent. But- what fucking good is that? What fucking good is that if you idiots can be loyal for no reason at all? I have done nothing but hurt you all and you still saved me and I don’t understand it I just don’t understand it. My father couldn’t even bother to tell me my own mother died for weeks and you all sacrificed your lives to save me from a monster. I don’t understand I just don’t understand,” Junior said, his stunned tone speeding up into one of panic as his anxiety took hold.

He needed something. He needed his weed, he couldn’t get his weed right now because he couldn’t move much. Junior was stuck and panicking and couldn’t smoke and he was stuck and couldn’t breath and everything was bad bad bad bad bad bad bad. What had his life been for? Had everything he’d done all been for the whims of a man who didn’t care about him in the slightest? He was a pawn, he’d always known he was a pawn, he’d never realized how fucked up that was until people around him weren’t fucking acting like pawns and then there he was, freaking the fuck out in a room full of people who probably wanted to kill him.

“Okay, oookay, Son, take a deep breath with me now, okay?” Up said, taking a clear and measured deep breath which Junior followed with a great deal of effort. “Now, let’s go through what you said one thing at a time, alright? Now, it sounds like he was a terrible father to you and you only did what he said out of fear. That is perfectly understandable given who your dad is, right? We don’t blame you for that. You’re what, nineteen?”

“Nineteen,” Junior agreed in a shaky voice as he continued following Up’s breathing.

“Nineteen, and is this your first time really outside of his control?” Up asked.

Junior nodded, though the thought of going home was terrifying enough to make him begin to panic again. “Oh Dead God we’re going to go back and he’s going to kill me for failing.”

“We go back and he kills all of us for knowing too much. You’re more likely to get off with punishment, but I’m not sure that’s any better judging by your reaction,” Taz stated, also sitting down.

Up got Junior’s attention back, leading him through a few more deep breaths. “You are out of his control for the first time, and you’re realizing the world doesn’t work the way he said it does, that’s gotta be real scary,” he said soothingly. “You’re feeling scared that everything you knew is wrong, and confused because you don’t know what’s right if all that isn’t. You were doing what he told you to do because you’re scared of him, and have never known a time when you weren’t. Now you’re seeing the real universe and you’re having actual kindness shown to you and it’s weird. But it’s gonna be okay, if we were just gonna kill you for what you did, we would have left you to die, but we didn’t.”

“If your dad’s all that, maybe you can join our croup!” February suggested.

“It’s coup,” Taz reminded before turning back to Junior, “but she is right. If he’s that big of an ass, you can always get yourself some justice and join us. If we go back without a plan and backup, we’re dead. People may be more willing to listen to you since you have more information. And, I’ll tell you what. You agree to join our side and kill your father, we forget what happened before and you can join our crew like nothing happened.

“Kill him?” Junior asked faintly.

Realistically Junior knew his father could die, but the child in him couldn't fathom the idea. His father had always seemed so untouchable, so all powerful that nothing could stop him. He knew his father was just as human as anyone else, even with the robotic hand. Junior just… he couldn’t imagine it ever actually happening. Still though, if it were possible… Would it be justice? For his mother so easily tossed aside? For himself and the cruelty he had suffered through his life? And of course everyone else who had been hurt by him and his plotting who had never mattered to his father, or to Junior before.

Being involved in killing his father would give him a name for himself. Sure, it would still be connected to his old man, but Oberon Spaceclaw, Slayer of Evil had a ring to it, though the title could use some work. Maybe he didn’t have to be evil, but he could still do something to get h- No… No he wouldn’t make his dad proud if he killed him, that was the opposite of what he would be trying to do there. Still, if they failed, he would be killed too without a doubt, if they won he would live. Either way he would never have to worry about his father punishing him again. That was a reward enough for him.

“I’ll help you. I have a way to go to become a ‘good guy’ if that’s what you want me to be. I was born and raised to be the living embodiment of evil in my father’s place, okay? It’ll take me some time to adjust. And, I will help with all the resources I have on one condition other than your patience,” Junior said slowly as he processed his thoughts.

“And that request is?” Taz asked with an eyeroll.

The others were also watching with anticipation. He knew now that he had their loyalty but he would have a long way until he’d earned their trust. Their lack of faith in him was entirely valid, and he hoped to prove to them one day that he was worth the loyalty they had shown him. His desire for evil, for ambitious pursuits and bettering the family position was at war with the concept of friendship and comradery they’d shown, but he hoped he could find a balance one day between the two. He was not sure this was that day.

“It is one little, teeny tiny request that shouldn’t cause a problem at all, not one bit,” Junior insisted.

“Get to the point,” Krayonder begged. “Stop doing that spinning talking thing you do to confuse us.”

“It’s a simple thing really. One thing. I want to kill the son of a bitch myself.”