Well That's Not Good

Chapter 7 - Defying Reasonable Reactions in Robbery

Seto paces. Purple light fades from his fingertips, smoke following him. The black char on the wall stands out violently against the white. He stops as the wall begins to shift, tiles usually invisible turning and bringing back the brilliant clean white. He raises his hands, flames sputtering to life as he throws fireballs against the wall desperately, clinging to the faint hope that perhaps he could break it.

Smoke fades.

The charred wall shifts. 

Seto drops to his knees in exhaustion. 

Time had gotten away from him. No windows, no clock, and paranoia make him feel as if he's been in the room for years, but perhaps simply minutes. He had tried scratching into the floor, but the room simply shifted. His head pounds, violet clouding his vision. Seto allows himself to slide down, lying flat on the floor. Without the energy to support it, his crown clatters to the ground. It rolls across the floor, spinning like a coin, and finally settling. Seto lets out a heavy sigh, looking up at the white ceiling blankly. 

"This is ridiculous. I didn't even do anything," he mutters. The silence is deafening.
"I didn't even do anything!" he repeats. Silence continues.
"Well... I guess I did save those spaceship parts. But who wouldn't?" 
"And made some weird crazy shit, but I kept it safe, and I documented it, so it's science!"
"I helped Lox that time he fell into a pond. That's something. That took a lot of rice." 

Seto continues on, talking until his mouth is dry. He talks until his eyes are too heavy to stare up at the blinding room any longer. He talks until he stops, laying on his back on the floor of an empty cell, exhausted. In the silence, Seto talks himself to sleep. 

"Are we there yet?" 
"I don't know, Sky." 
"Okay! ...hey True?"
"Mmhm."
"Are we there yet?" 
"We don't know where we're going, Sky."
"Right! Right." Lox and True make eye contact through the rearview mirror. True sighs. 

The second day had gone by without a hitch. It had gone so smoothly, in fact, they True had wondered if they had lost the trail, only to find himself driving through a large cloud of flying bioluminescent jellyfish. A quick skim of Seto's book showed they were harmless, and resulted in a lovely evening. Sky had taken up driving, allowing True to sleep. Now, after switching off once again to let Sky sleep, he was having trouble with patience. 

"Hey, once we find Seto, are we going to have to make the whole drive back?" Sky asks. True sighs, flipping on his flashers and pulling over. he shuts off the car and turns around. 

"Alright, alright, it get it. We can take a break. We probably need it, too. Out." Sky smiles, opening his door and trying to jump out just to be yanked back by his seatbelt. True winces. 

"Um. Buddy. You gotta-"
"I got it! Yes!" The seatbelt clicks and Sky takes off. True sighs and leans back in his seat. Lox reaches forward and ruffles his hair.
"You need to get out, too. I'll refuel the car while you walk," he says. True nods.
"Right. Thanks. This isn't really what I thought of when I pictured a rescue mission." Lox laughs. "No, it's not that flashy. C'mon, get up." 

The weather is wonderful. The sun shines just warm enough to even out the chill in the afternoon air. Sky found some old welding goggles of True's under the seat and now is sporting them quite fashionably, looking around. True smiles. His rest spot of choice is a meadow, a line of trees in the distance. Sky disappears into the plants only to appear moments later with a grin on his face and flower petals gracing his hair. True laughs, knowing full well that those petals will be around the house for weeks on end. It's almost worth it after seeing Sky's smile. 

"Having fun?" he calls. Sky nods, hair bouncing. 
"Yeah! I found holes in the ground! Maybe it's a snake! Or a rabbit!" he calls. Sky's joy is infectious, and True walks over to join his investigation.
"Hm. I don't know. Once we find him, maybe Seto can help us figure-" He's cut off by a new voice behind him.
"It's a rabbit. Don't move." 

True's heart stops. He feels something cold and sharp press against the back of his neck. He glances at Sky, catching a glimpse of a second blade. 

"Thanks, I was curious..." Sky mutters. True almost wants to laugh.
"Shh. What are you doing here." True shrugs. The blade behind him nicks his back.
"We're just passing through. We've been driving for days, there's not a fence or anything, we didn't mean to do anything," he tries to explain. He had shooed people off his farm before, he could sympathize if this was someone's land.
"Mmhm. Empty your pockets." True sighs.
"Listen man, we're just passing through. We're kinda on a mission, a friend is in a tough spot. And this isn't the nicest place to rob someone."
"Actually," Sky adds, "I think it's a nice spot, it's just sad that you have to ruin it!"
"You idiots owe me," Lox sighs, walking up behind the thief and smacking him over the head. He falls to the ground with a thud, unconscious. True looks up to Lox, who offers the two of them a hand up. 

True looks down at the knocked out thief. He appears to be wearing a dirty white shirt, with curly brown hair and some sort of fur vest over it. Carefully, True picks up the knives off the ground. 

"I guess that ends our break," he sighs, "I hope we don't see this guy again. C'mon, let's go, if he has anyone with him, I don't want to meet them, too." 
"Maybe they can tell us what flower this is!" Sky chimes, ever the optimist. Lox rolls his eyes. 
"Flower or no flower, I just saved your asses for the second time this week. You're welcome."

True laughs and puts an arm around Lox as Sky runs up on the other side to put the flower on the android's head. Despite the near robbery, the rough situation, and the looming hopeless feeling, they could almost convince themselves that everything could be okay.