Still Into You: Alpha Betas (OC x Buck)

Chapter Nine: One of Us is Getting Cancelled - Part One

Is time even real anymore?

A lot has changed in the past eighteen months: Buck and I confessed our feelings for each other and agreed to give the relationship a try. A year and six months later, we are still going strong.
Unfortunately, not all was well. Allison fired us, took away our mansion, and Eddie straight-up pulled my dad and disappeared. So now we were forced to live in an apartment complex complete with nearly run-down wallpaper reminiscent of our mansion.
In the kitchen, Mason had just finished cooking our bagel bites.

"Jesus, Mason, what is taking so long?" Buck complained.
"You can not rush bagel bites, Buck," Mason replied, walking over to us.
"That is the entire point of bagel bites, Mason."
Buck grabbed one and popped it straight into his mouth. Almost immediately, his cheeks flamed up, and his eyes produced rivers of tears. He started swearing and screaming in pain whilst insulting Mason.
"Once again, you can not rush bagel bites," Mason snarked, finally sitting down.

We heard beeping coming from the door, and then—
BOOM!
The door exploded, and there stood Allison. We were silent until Tommy spoke, "Oh hey, Allison."
"Are you guys kidding?" She said, gritting her teeth, "The entire CIA has been calling you for hours."
"Oh yeah, sorry. I lost my phone," Tommy said nervously.
"It's in your hand!"
Tommy looked at his phone. "Oh, there it is."
I rolled my eyes. "What do you want, Allison?" I growled.
"We have a big problem. Four days ago, a rogue coder entered the CIA mainframe, and he--"
Before she could finish, we interrupted her with a bunch of nopes.
"We are going to have to stop you right there," Buck said.
"Uh, what do you mean?"
"Allison, come on," Mason said, "Are we young to pretend the last eighteen months did not happen?"
"You want to talk about COVID?" She scoffed.
"Ew, no," Tommy said.
"I would rather get COVID than talk about COVID."
"Then what is it?"
Tommy stood up and pointed at Allison, "You replaced us with Bravo Team!"
"Took away our mansion!" Mason spoke up.
"You printed out my nude drawings and showed them to all of the CIA!" I yelled.
"Gave us erectile dysfunction!"
We all stopped and stared at Buck, who put his head down in shame. I pecked his cheek and whispered, "I still love you."
"Fine. I screwed you, okay. And now I am here, tail between my legs because every team I tried to replace you with has failed. And--"
"You are wasting your breath, Allison," Buck interrupted, "We have moved on."
"To what?" She asked, taking one good look at the room as a sky-blue sheet covering the window peeled off, shattering some glass.

"I am glad you asked. Spunk~" Buck gestured to the TV as it beeped and turned on, revealing our blue AI friend with rectangle-framed glasses and tidy hair.
"Spunk is live, baby!"
"What the hell is a Spunk?" Allison inquired, unimpressed.
"After you took away our stuff, we got ourselves a new AI," Mason explained.
"He is just as capable as Stephen but way cooler," Tommy added.
"And a lot less grabby," I muttered.
Spunk showed a picture of Stephen before drawing an X on it and eating it.
"God, does he look like that on purpose?"
"Yikes!" Spunk said enthusiastically, "What do you say we bang a quick U-turn from Bummer Town, huh?"
"Spunk, give Allison a little taste of what we have been up to."
"On it!"
The lights dimmed, and colourful lasers flashed along with an air horn and energetic music.

"Welcome, Allison, to the apartment of a group formerly known as Alpha Team. Since your cold-blooded back-stabbing a mere eighteen months ago, the guys - and girl - have been busy.
"Finally free from the CIA's bullshit, Tommy converted his passion for emerging digital markets into a TikTok channel where he teaches his rabid fan base how to buy and sell things that don't exist.

A video of Tommy popped up from TikTok as he yelled about all the things you can buy and sell.
"Crypto, NFTs, Blockchain."

I crossed my arms and growled at Tommy. Ever since Tommy started investing in digital currencies, we have been on some pretty rock grounds. As a failed artist, the mere concept of NFTs destroyed what little remaining hope I had for humanity. We would get into a fuck-ton of arguments about it, and every time Mason and Buck would have to split us up.

"Mason took his talents to the world of YouTube streaming where he plays for a rapidly growing audience."

Spunk showed us a clip of Mason thanking someone for a donation.
"Ah, thank you, 69-With-My-Cousin. Ugh."

"Buck leveraged his natural charm to start a bustling OnlyFans where supporters pay top dollar for his hyper-current-social commentary."

Spunk then showed Buck in a luxurious bed with heart pillows, laughing about someone.
"Christ on a bike, do not get me started on him. He is only a gob shite."
He then showed his feet, and people started donating their hospital bills.

"Hang on," Allison said, "But I thought you were dating--"
"Oh, no need to worry. Jackie permitted me!"
I nodded happily. I know it may seem weird for your boyfriend to start an OnlyFans, but when he suggested the idea to us, I explicitly told him, Bucky, sweetheart, as long as you only give people tasteful nudes, go for it.
"Look, Allison, his grippers may belong to the Internet, but the rest of him--" I grabbed him by the sweater and pulled him close to my face, "--belongs to me."
I dragged my finger down from his chest and made a seductive purring sound, causing him to blush hard and chuckle nervously.
Everyone groaned, with Mason commenting, "cut it out, dumbasses."

"And speaking of Jackie, she has been busy taking art commissions from her followers, especially NSFW furry art."
"You did not need to specify, Spunk," I gritted my teeth.

Spunk ignored me and showed a clip of me talking to a commissioner.
"Listen, I-Love-Kids95, I know it is my job to heed your weird fantasies through the media of art, but I hardly think that [REDACTED] is something you would be willing to brag about to sane people."

"What used to be a military unit following the corrupt orders of the CIA is now a group of friends following their hearts. And they are happier than ever."
As Spunk wrapped up his presentation, the lasers turned off, and the lights were standard again.

Allison shook her head and groaned.
"Look, as individuals, you guys are the biggest assholes in the universe."
"Why thank you," Mason replied.
"Do you wanna be the pot or the kettle?" I asked sarcastically.
"But together, you are Alpha Team. And Alpha Team is special. So I am asking you to come back together because the world needs you for one last mission, and-- Wait, where is Eddie?"

"Spunk?" Mason said.
"Eddie was so emotionally destroyed by your treachery, that he disappeared on a vision quest to find his purpose. No one has heard from him since."

"You have not talked to Eddie in eighteen months?"
"We worry about him every day," Mason said quietly.
"But it was his choice to leave," Buck said, "and respecting that is what this is all about."
"Go figure, it's almost like he does not take rejection well."
"So we don't have fancy cars, a mansion."
"--Or a sexually functioning penis," Buck said as he held up a bottle of pills.
"--Or any basic human decency," I said.
"But we are finally doing what we want, and it is worth more than anything." Tommy grabbed onto us, and we all smiled at each other.

Allison threw in the towel.
"Well, if you ever change your mind--"
Mason cut her off.
"We will never take orders from you again. Alpha Team is dead!"
"Just like your loveless marriage!" I added.
"Eat shit, Allison!" Buck yelled as we gave each other a high-five.
Allison put her head down in shame and started to leave, not without looking back and leaving for good.