Volume I: Forged

Chapter 14: I Protect My Own

It was supposed to be easy.

There wasn't supposed to be any problems.

Someone's life was on the line. A lot of lives were on the line. A lot of futures were on the line.

Phil bit his lip, pacing. The forest brush kicked up under his feet. An owl hooted in a nearby tree, as if asking why he was here at this time of night.

He paced all that night.

Nobody ever came.

...

"Who has the list?" Bad called, shooting down the stairs, tying his cloak as he went. He nearly ran over Minx, who gave him a colorful curse as he took off out of her arm and shouting range.

"I memorized it!" Dream answered back from the kitchen.

"I want the list!" Bad corrected, entering the kitchen. Dream, perched on the counter where he was deliberately told not to sit, scowled and passed Bad the paper their mother had written up for them.

"Who's all supposed to be going?" Sapnap asked, securing his bandana. His hair was getting longer, and he was trying to hide it so Kristin—who seemed to have a vendetta against mullets—wouldn't cut it.

"The Dream Team, me, and Techno," Bad said, going over the list.

"Yes!" George said, pumping his fist. "I knew it would stick!"

"Hallelujah," Dream said dryly, fixing his ax so it was hidden under his cloak.

"Then where's Techno?" Sapnap asked.

...

Techno sighed, wondering how they were supposed to buy anything without any money. He swore the only reason his brothers still had heads was because they were attached.

He paused, with his fist about to rap on his parents' door, when he heard voices.

For some odd reason, Techno hesitated. He had never eavesdropped on his parents before, but an odd feeling rippled in his gut at the tone of his father's voice.

"—didn't even show up," Phil was saying.

"It's been a week—" Kristin sounded worried. There were footsteps, heavy ones. Phil was pacing.

"I know."

The dread in those two words made Techno very uneasy.

"If he gets in the wrong hands, we're gonna have a lot of issues," Phil sighed heavily.

"Isn't he—?"

"Directly." Phil interrupted whatever Kristin was about to say. "They're trying to track down the other as we speak."

Techno was so royally confused—he didn't like it.

"If they don't show up tonight, I'm going to have to go look for him," Phil said, and Techno really didn't like the sound of that.

Techno decided he'd heard enough. He knocked on the door. "Hey Mum?"

There was a moment of silence, some footsteps, then Kristin opened the door. "Yes, sweet?"

Techno noted how Phil was sitting on the armchair, appearing to read a book.

"You forgot to give us money for the groceries," Techno said, pretending he hadn't heard a single thing.

"I left in on the counter next to the refrigerator," Kristin said patiently. "In the satchel."

"Yes, ma'am." Techno bumped his forehead against his mother's, then waved at his father before scampering down the stairs.