Us Against the World

Chapter 7- Broken Trash Panda and a Lack of Sparkles

Okay so my binder came and I am now a flat box of Queerios and quite happy so... here is some angst i guess? idk i cant write fluff. On with the story!

But first... 83 READS? THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

TW/CWs: Blood, Police, Jail, Severe burns, Anxiety, Panic attack

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"No no no no no no no no no no no no. This cannot be fucking happening. No no no no no no no. We're a team we're a team. No no no no no no no no," Tubbo paces back and forth, pulling at his hair and muttering to himself.

After a few minutes he manages to sit himself back down and spins around in his chair. Ranboo always told him that making plotty fingers can boost your confidence, so Tubbo spins, looking for all the world like some juvenile super villain, "Okay, okay. Gotta get them back gotta get em back. How am I gonna get them back?"

"First things first, bee boi," the lonely boy's mutters to himself, using the nickname Tommy gave him years ago, "Gotta find em. Gotta find em," Tubbo stops his spinning and turns to his laptop with renewed determination.

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Ranboo sits up with a gasp, immediately wincing at the movement. His entire body is covered in angry red burns, though he can only see the ones on his hands and feet.

"Ender!" his code name is hissed by a vary familiar voice from somewhere beside him. Blinking, Ranboo spends a few seconds figuring out where the hell he is.

A cell. The ender hybrid is in a cell. Concrete blocks and thick metal bars on all sides; the one on his right separates him from Tommy.

"T- Coon. You're alive!" Ranboo's relief at seeing his friend alive and relatively uninjured nearly causes him to blurt out Tommy's real name. However, the blood matting the younger's hair is concerning, but he seems functional at least.

"Yeah, yeah. You okay?"

Ranboo shifts uncomfortably, trying to find the position that is the least painful for him, "It's just some burns, nothing I'm not used to."

Giving the older an unimpressed scowl at their words, Tommy asks, "How bad?"

Ranboo's silent grimace makes Tommy's anger flare up. They hurt his friend! His brother. He's gonna stab someone... Just wait till he gets his fucking hands on a fucking gun...

Hold up...

Tommy examines Ranboo closely trying to figure out what's different, before telling him, "Your little sparkle-things are gone."

"Yeah..." Ranboo looks down at his own hands with worry. Usually there are five or so little particles swirling around him, but right now there's none. Suddenly the taller boy jerks his head over to look at Tommy, scaring him slightly, "Wait Coon c'mere."

"Wot?"

Ranboo urgently sticks his hand between the bars separating them. Tommy looks at it confused until he realizes the Ranboo wants him to try to trash-panda away his powers.

"But you hate it when I..." the looks Ranboo gives Tommy shuts him up, and the blonde take the older boy's hand and...

Nothing happens.

"Nothing?" Ranboo asks, already knowing the answer- the last time Tommy took his powers it felt like this cold, tingly feeling was rushing to Tommy's hand.

Tommy nods, a shell shocked look on his face.

"Jeezus."

"We're fucked."

Ranboo bobs his head, his nervousness at losing his powers starting to get to him. The ender hybrid starts to glitch, as whatever is blocking his powers battles with his panic. Purple particles appear and disappear randomly around him.

Tiny patches of something that resembles TV static appear around the room and Ranboo himself glitches in and out of existence. This glitching causes the teenager to panic more, which increases his power malfunction to the point where he has no proper physical form anymore.

Tommy yells for help as the place where Ranboo was curled up becomes nothing but glitchy shadow. The shadow that is Ranboo is only slightly darker then the fifty-odd other Ranboo shadow-glitches all around the room.

Several officers run in but are unable to do anything because, well, the teenager no longer has a proper physical form. A single police officer rushes out and returns with a very confused Wilbur.

When he sees what's happening, Wilbur immediately motions for an officer to unlock the cell door, which someone does. The siren hurries over to the glitchy shadow of the curled-up kid.

"Calm down."

The siren-song of Wilbur's voice manages to break through Ender's panic. Wilbur puts a hand on the teen's shoulder as the particles and glitching stop.

For a brief moment, the lanky teen looks up at Wilbur with the fear of a small child looking for comfort. It's quickly replaced by recognition and angry terror. Before Wilbur can say anything – not that he knows what to say – Ender's pulled away from him and scooted to the far corner of the cell, closest to the other kid.

Glaring at Wilbur, the blonde raccoon kid- Tommy, his names Tommy, hurriedly wipes the other's tears off their face.

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