Family (Sequel to Connected)

Christmas Spirit

"I hope Schneep is okay wherever Marvin sent him."

Jack paced aimlessly down the halls of the radio station, the Irishman doing his best to ignore the zombie corpses lying everywhere on the floor.

"You think he's back at his own dimension?" Chase spoke up optimistically, the male bouncing a tennis ball against the wall and grabbing it out of the air as it flew back towards him.

"Why would Marvin send Schneep anywhere else?" The Jim dressed in red chimed in helpfully.

Jameson jogged up to Jack and signed something to him, the mute seeming excited about something.

"He's saying that Jackaboy-Man is awake and starting to recuperate." Chase translated with a grin.

"Lets go see him!" Jack declared, following Jameson with Chase and the Jim twins trailing behind him.

Jackaboy-Man was lying on a cot in a sound recording room, the hero's eyes closed and his chest rising and falling with shallow breaths.

"Hey, how're you doing?" Jack asked gently as he entered the room, the others hovering outside of the door.

Jackboy-Man's eyes fluttered open and focused on Jack, a weak smile lighting up the injured hero's face.

"Feels just like another Friday night for me." Jackaboy-Man answered jokingly as he tried to sit up, wincing in pain.

"Stop moving, you'll reopen the wound." Chase interjected in a scolding tone, the hero rolling his eyes as he let his head fall back onto the pillow.

"Has Marvin come back with Schneep yet?" Jackaboy-Man questioned as he let out a long breath.

"No, neither of them have come back yet." Jack told him grimly, earning a concerned frown from the hero.

"I'm sure they're fine. Marvin's probably just cooling off in his dimension and Schneep is working in his." Chase assured Jackaboy-Man.

Jackaboy-Man didn't answer as he closed his eyes, his breathing becoming gradually slower than before.

"We should let him rest." The blue clad Jim twin advised as he walked away, Chase, Jameson, and the other Jim twin hesitantly following suite.

As Jack started to follow them, he was surprised to feel Jackaboy-Man gently grab his arm to stop him.

"What's up?" Jack prompted as he turned to face Jackaboy-Man, his eyes shining with doubt and fear.

"I...I was trying to stop a burglar from stealing this lady's purse, but-"

Jackboy-Man broke off with a grimace, the hero's gaze drifting to the wound in his chest that was wrapped with bandages.

"I failed. I got spotted and shot before I could stop them. Brave Blue was there thankfully, so he helped her out." Jackaboy-Man finished in a rush.

"But, I can't help but wonder...should I keep being a hero, or is Brave Blue ready to tackle it all?" Jackaboy-Man admitted quietly.

"You're human, not perfect. Everyone makes mistakes, even heroes. I know Brave Blue is doing fine and I'm sure he'd be devastated to hear you being so unsure about yourself." Jack replied.

"You're right. Thanks Jack." Jackaboy-Man murmured sleepily as he closed his eyes once more, his expression looking much more peaceful than before.

Jack quietly crept out of the room and went looking for the others, only to run into an unexpected visitor.

"Did you miss me?"

Jack opened his mouth to cry for help, only to be cut off by Dark as he charged towards the Irishman and clamped a hand over his mouth.

"Where is Anti?" Dark growled in an impatient tone as Chase, Jameson, and the Jim twins ran down the hall towards where Dark's voice was emanating from.

"Let Jack go!" Chase yelled angrily as he raised his gun, hesitating since Jack was too close to Dark.

"Just give me what I want, then I'll leave you all alone." Dark demanded, his pitch black eyes flashing with irritation.

"What the hell do you want from us that you can't get yourself?" The red Jim twin cut in with his arms folded across his chest.

"I want to know where Anti is." Dark replied calmly, the others exchanging wary glances.

"Anti isn't in your dimension?" Chase spoke up worriedly, the dark haired demon nodding in reply as he released Jack.

"Why don't we work together to find him?" Dark suggested as Jack scrambled back towards his friends.

"How the hell did you even get here?" Jack interrupted, his gaze landing on the wand in Dark's hand.

"Wait-"

Chase fired his gun at Dark while Jameson created a knife in his hand, the dark haired demon barely dodging the shot before Jack shoved him against the wall.

"What did you do to Marvin?!" Jack screamed in Dark's face, his body shaking with rage as he raised his fist over his head to punch Dark in the face.

Instead of retaliating like Jack expected him to, Dark flinched and braced himself for the impact, causing Jack to freeze with a confused frown.

"Wilford, Schneep, and Marvin are in the demon dimension, and Marvin's badly wounded." Dark blurted.

Jack lowered his fist as he absorbed the new information, Chase running up to the Irishman with Jameson alongside him.

"Marvin's hurt and Schneep and Wilford is trapped, we gotta get to him in the demon dimension." Jack informed the pair.

"Anyone know how the hell to use this thing?" Dark spoke up, holding up Marvin's wand.

Everyone shook their head, Jameson carefully taking the wand from Dark so he could examine it.

The mute gave it an experimental wave, but the only thing that changed was that the tip of the wand weakly glowed green for a moment.

"There's gotta be a way that they can get themselves out of there, right?" The blue clad Jim twin suggested.

"Well, they're going to have to figure a way to get out of there themselves if we can't get this wand to work." Chase muttered bitterly.

"C'mon guys, we just gotta have some PMA." Jack spoke up cheerfully to lighten up the tension in the atmosphere.

None of the others shared his optimism as Jameson fiddled with the wand, none of their gazes able to meet Jack's.