Pawblo's Story (Final Space AU)

Chapter 9: Speaking Up

The three of us stood in the room, waiting for KVN to come back.

It was pretty quiet, so I just decided to break the silence.

"Well, this sucks."

Avocato turns around and responds."Tell me about it."

"We all lived this, so it's not really a thing to talk about."

The room went quiet and soon Quinn spoke up.

"Hey, Pawblo. What did you do for a living?"

I didn't really want to talk about that part. But there was nothing left to do, so there. "I was on Tera Con Prime, just...holding out the best I could."

"What about family?"

"They abandoned me at age 4."

Quinn rested her hand on my shoulder. "Pawblo, I'm so sorry."

"Don't be. It wasn't their fault. Maybe they didn't have the money to care for me."

I felt like the whole galaxy was watching me. Even Avocato.

"I stayed in an abandoned building, all my life. I saved up credits. Got jobs whenever I could. And one day I was even considering becoming a bounty hunter, but I kept pushing the idea away, until now."

I soon felt two tears stream down my cheek. "I'm just glad to be here with you all, ya know?"

This resulted in Avocato wrapping his arms around me and hugging me. "We're glad to have you too, Pawblo."

I looked back into Avocato's eyes. He......cared for me.

"Thanks. I needed that."

I stood silent for a bit until I spoke up.

"Avocato? C-can I tell you something?

"Anything, Pawblo."

"I........I lo.."

We were then interrupted by a laser coming from somewhere, and it's the door.

Quinn ran to the vent. "KVN, HURRY!!!"

The three S.A.M.E.S bots came into the room, and they started trying to grab us.

I see Avocato struggling. I quickly grabbed the bot and slammed it against the opposite wall. "Back off!"

The robot fought back and soon tackled me to the ground. I tried to reach for my pistol but at this point it was too late.

I was about to die, saving Avocato AGAIN.......

.....when the robot stopped struggling.

All the S.A.M.E.S bots' eyes stopped glowing red, now glowing their usual white color.

"Booting back up. Systems are now independent from the Infinity Guard network."

The S.A.M.E.S all went back to doing what they were doing, and we were just astounded at what happened.

We headed for the deck, where KVN was alive (sadly), his robot arm almost completely detached.

"Yeah, I did it!"

"You actually did it!"

"Gary is gonna flip about this."

"Systems now reactivated. Hello."

"Nice to have you back, H.U.E."

"Nice to be back."

I then get snapped into reality. "Wait. Where IS Gary?"

Quinn and Avocato soon have a realization face forming on both of their faces.

"Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but we're still in extreme danger."

"Danger of what exactly, H.U.E?", I asked.

"Those dickheads from the Infinity Guard have found us, and Gary is not responding."

I check the radar and see an Infinity Guard cruiser and two Hawks approaching us.

"Where the hell is Gary?"

"We sent him to a burning star to mine fuel from it to power the engine, but he hasn't contacted us."

Oh crap.

Avocato runs to the comms center and holds up the mic.

"Gary! Gary, are you there? We need you to get back to the ship pronto!"

I look outside, and see the star explode.

"The star has gone supernova and the Infinity Guard is about to board us! We have to leave!"

"No, we wait for Gary."

I nodded in agreement.

Quinn looks at us with a stressed face and soon nods. "Alright. We wait."

We then hear Gary's screaming through the intercom, as he and Mooncake are flying through debris and land flat onto the landing pad inside the ship.

"Lightfold the ship, H.U.E!", we heard Gary yell.

The ship soon revved up, and we escaped the Infinity Guard.

I soon felt a snap of pain from my wound.

"Pawblo, you okay?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine, don't worry about it."

"I think you should rest, Pawblo. You might feel better in the morning."

"I'm telling you, Quinn, I'm (ah!) fine."

"Pawblo."

I giver her a look, and then glance at Avocato, giving me this weird look. I think that's his worried face.

"Fine, I'm going to bed."

"There you go. Get some rest, man."

"Thanks, Avocato."

As I head to my room, I think back to earlier.

Was Avocato really blushing?

Does he.....does he know?

The thoughts kept circling through my mind as I drifted off to sleep in my room.