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Description
It had been hours since Hater and Wander began their long walk in the underground canal. Wander had spent the time talking about his adventures with Sylvia while Hater tried to remember which direction they were going. Although Hater knew of the canals, he had only glanced at the map of the passageways. For all he knew, Hater could have been leading them farther into the maze of canals.

Finally, Hater stopped and threw his arms in the air in frustration. “ARGH! THAT’S IT! I GIVE UP! WE’RE NEVER GOING TO FIND OUR WAY OUT!” Wander watched silently as Hater plopped into a sitting position and leaned against the wall. Hater muttered angrily to himself. “I’m so stupid thinking we’d have a chance of getting out.”

Wander stepped into his field of vision and to his surprise, the nomad reached forward and patted him on the back. “It’ll be alright, Hater. I know the chances seem bleak, but if we give up now we’ll never know if we can make it. Plus, I can’t give up.” Wander looked up at the roof above. “Sylvia is up there worrying about where I am right about now. I can’t keep her worrying like that. Not when I can still do something about it.” Wander looked back at Hater, who was taken back by the determination in the nomad’s eyes. “And, somehow, I’m going to convince you to stop your invasion.”

Hater stood up and loomed over him threateningly. “And how are you going to do that?”

Wander’s expression remained the same. “I don’t know yet, but I’ll find a way for sur-!” He was cut off as Hater caught him by the throat and slammed Wander into the wall and pinned him there holding a green-lightning tipped finger just inches from the nomad’s face.

“Are you willing to die for those pathetic creatures? WELL?!” Hater roared, yet, Wander could hear a tinge of confusion in the skeleton’s booming voice. “Why is it so important for you to help them?”

And again, to Hater’s bafflement, Wander smiled. “Well, it’s this feeling that starts down in my left toe, rises up through my gutty works, makes my heart all warm and toasty, floats up past the dangly thing in my mouth…” Wander opened his mouth to show.

“Uvula.” Hater corrected.

“And ends at the top of my head!” Wander finished with one of his biggest smiles. “The feeling is so good, I can’t help but help people!”

“Well, news-flash, I DON’T HELP PEOPLE. AND I’M CERTAINLY NOT GOING TO HELP YOU!”

“Have you ever tried helping, Hater?” Wander asked, his voice filled with honesty. “You never know, you might get the feeling too and like it!” Wander stiffened as Hater’s grip tightened and grew a bit afraid. The green-lightning drew ever so closer to Wander’s fur. Then Wander turned his attention to something behind Hater and raised his shackled hands and pointed. “HATER LOOK OUT!” Hater turned just in time to see large blue tentacles shoot out of the water and grab them both and drag them into the water.

Wander was quick enough to draw in a big gulp of air before water crashed down all around him. He opened his eyes to see only darkness. Hater’s hand was still at his neck but was loosing it’s grip rather quickly. Wander grabbed hold of Hater’s gloved hand as something pulled them through the canal water. Wander felt his hat come off, but couldn’t reach back to catch it without losing Hater. And as much as he loved his hat, Wander wouldn’t forget what was more important.

As for Hater, he hadn’t thought to take a breath before being dragged under. His mistake. As if water wasn’t hard enough to move through, but even though Hater was a skeleton, he still need air to move properly as well as remain conscious. Whatever had a hold of his foot thrashed him about against the canal walls. It wasn’t long before Hater was seeing orange and black spots at the corners of his vision. But something kept him awake, and that something was holding his hand. Hater made the effort and looked and squinted passed the water to see….Wander!

What is he doing?! Hater thought. The nomad seemed to be waiting for something. When whatever it was thrashed them against the stone wall, Wander quickly found a large space between the stones and stuck his foot in it. Suddenly, they stopped as the water beast tried to pull, but Wander had his foot lodged in the space good and strong. Eventually, the beast’s grasp on Hater slipped and Hater, who was running on pure will-power at this point, grabbed Wander and swam up. Both of them took a big gulp of air and quickly scrambled back onto the walkway.

Not taking chances, Hater blasted two bolts of green-lightning into the water, setting it to boiling. A roar echoed throughout the canals and then silence. Hater fell down on his back beside Wander and for the next couple of minutes they both lay down in silence as they regained their breath.

Hater looked over at Wander, who had suddenly looked at him. Wander smiled. Hater blushed and looked away, but not before glancing down at Wander’s foot, which looked like it was twisted the wrong way.

“Uh, is your foot supposed to be doing that?” Hater asked.

Wander raised his head to look before resting his head back down. “I don’t think so.”

"Have you ever tried helping, Hater?" Wander’s words echoed in Hater’s skull. “You’re definitely not going to be able to walk on that.”

“No, no. It’s fine.” Wander, using the wall as support, wobbled to the non-twisted foot and put some pressure on the twisted one. Hater could tell when someone was in pain, being all too familiar with it, and he could tell Wander was trying very hard not to show it. The nomad bit back a cry but couldn’t hold back his tears. He looked up at Hater and somehow managed to give a shaky smile. “See? Nothing to worry abou-!” Hater grabbed Wander by the arm, the nomad flinched expecting to get hurt or threatened, instead the skeleton picked Wander up and cradled him in his arms before going to the waters edge and plucking out Wander’s hat.

“Here.” Hater muttered, shaking off some of the water before plopping it onto Wander’s head. He paused before breaking out the shackles on the nomad’s wrists. Wander looked up at Hater, almost confused. “What?”

Wander smiled, weakly, and chuckled. “I just knew there was some good in you.”

Hater blushed, his cheek bones burned a florescent green. “What?! Don’t be ridiculous! Your still my prisoner, therefore my responsibility. Besides, I still have Awesome to stop and then I’ll take that zbornak friend of your prisoner since….” Hater turned his face away from Wander. “…she’s probably worried about you.”

Wander leaned up and wrapped his arms around Hater’s neck as he gave him a hug. Hater froze in utter surprise. The hug was warm and pleasant, despite both of them being sopping wet. Hater was used to feeling bitter cold or raging fire, but, this….this was simply warm. He felt himself close to hugging Wander back but stopped himself. “Thanks, Hater.” Wander mumbled.

“S-HUT UP!” Hater boomed, still blushing like mad as Wander snuggled back into his arms. “Let’s just get out of here. Okay?”

“Fine by me.” Wander gave a toothy smile. “After all, I got a big strong guy like you to protect me, what could go wrong?”

“I’m not always going to be around to lug around your weight!” Hater was beginning to think this what it was like to be Sylvia. But, he found himself able to push his frustration aside as he began to walk down the walkway.

…..

Back on Emperor Awesome’s battle cruiser, Emperor Awesome kicked out his feet as he sat impatiently in his chair. He never understood why bad guys would always sit in hard metal chairs, it’s so uncomfortable. So Awesome had his chair made with a pink cushion seat with diamonds on the edges to give it some style.

For most of the invasion, Awesome had been pretty patient. But the battle between his fist-fighters and the watchdogs had been going on for about an hour and still there was still no sign of Lord Hater. What taking him so long? The dude has absolutely no manners.

Awesome got up from his chair and went over to the window. Jeez, Hater better show up soon. Awesome didn’t see the point of invading a planet if there wasn’t anything left to invade. But, now that he got his brain whirring and kicking, Awesome realized that there had been no reports of civilian causalities.

He know he shouldn’t judge by looks, heck he was a walking, talking man shark, but the planet didn’t look to be the kind that knew war. So, he doubted the civilians just avoided the battle on their own. Someone had to be helping them….

One of the fist-fighters ran through the doors. “Emperor Awesome! We caught some zbornak helping civilians out of town.” Ah! Perfect timing. Awesome waited as they dragged a blue, female zbornak in on chains. And, whoa, was she a fighter! Even now, she was still kicking and punching. When, she noticed Awesome, she growled and stomped her foot angrily.

“Now, before you go an get angry at me,” Sylvia said. “I was only getting civilians away from the battle until a patrol of your goons jumped me! So, what I did was purely self-defense and the defense of innocent civilian.”

Awesome raised a hand. “Whoa, calm down there, girlfriend. I have no problem with you looking out for the little dudes.” Sylvia looked at him in surprise. “In fact, I’m not interested in keeping prisoners so I’m willing to let you off the hook if you answer some questions for me.”

“What questions?” Sylvia demanded.

Awesome smiled. “I’m curious as to why your orange buddy ain’t around. But, I’m even more curious as to where Lord Hater is.”

Sylvia shook her head. “I tried asking around the best I got was that Wander got dragged off the president’s castle…”

“Looks more fitting to a king and queen, to me.”

“I agree. Anyway, apparently Hater had taken over the castle and was waiting there when Wander got dragged in. Then you came in firing your laser canons causing the castle to collapse!” She shot Awesome an angry glare.

Okay, now that would explain a few things. Awesome took a moment to think. He highly doubted that a collapsing castle could kill Lord Hater. Awesome looked out the window down at the rubble that remained of the castle. Something seemed off to him. He had noticed it when first coming here. For miles around, Awesome couldn’t see a single body of water.

“The planets a complete desert.” Awesome noted.

“What in glorn’s name does that have to do with anything?!”

“Where do the civilians get their water from?” Awesome thought for a while and turned to leave the room, though not before ordering Sylvia’s chains removed. Sylvia followed the Emperor doubtfully as they entered the main bridge. “I want a scan of the planet’s underground. Are there any sort of tunnels at all?”

“Yes, sir.” One of the fist-fighters answered as the scan results came up on a computer screen. “The planet uses an underground canal system to transport water from city to city.”

“What about entryways? Does it say of there being one below the castle?” Sylvia looked at Awesome questioningly.

“What are you getting at?” Sylvia wondered.

“Yes, Emperor Awesome. Scans show of there being an entryway to the canals through the castle.”

Awesome snapped his fingers. “That’s where they are.” He turned to leave the bridge.

“How can he be sure that they found the entryway to the canals?” Sylvia asked.

The man-shark turned to her slightly, looking at her from the corner of his eye. “Come on, I don’t know much about your orange buddy, but if I know Hatey, he won’t die easy. He may act like a child, but the dudes got some determination that I envy.”

Sylvia sighed. “I know what you mean. Wander is exactly the same way when it comes to helping people.”

“Funny how two completely different dudes have at least something in common, huh?” Awesome laughed. “Come on, let’s go get ‘em. I need to settle my unfinished fight with Hater and you need to find your orange-buddy. I’ll even give you a ride.” He held the door open for her.

Sylvia smiled. “You’re not bad Awesome. I’ll take you up on that offer.” But just as she was about to pass him she leaned in close and stuck a fist in his face. “But, if I find out that you’re tricking me in some way you can bet I beat the conniving snot out of you!”

Awesome simply smiled. “I never caught your name.”

“Sylvia.” She smiled as she passed through the doors.

“Sylvia, huh?” Awesome repeated as he followed. “I’ll be sure to remember that.”

Description
It had been hours since Hater and Wander began their long walk in the underground canal. Wander had spent the time talking about his adventures with Sylvia while Hater tried to remember which direction they were going. Although Hater knew of the canals, he had only glanced at the map of the passageways. For all he knew, Hater could have been leading them farther into the maze of canals.

Finally, Hater stopped and threw his arms in the air in frustration. “ARGH! THAT’S IT! I GIVE UP! WE’RE NEVER GOING TO FIND OUR WAY OUT!” Wander watched silently as Hater plopped into a sitting position and leaned against the wall. Hater muttered angrily to himself. “I’m so stupid thinking we’d have a chance of getting out.”

Wander stepped into his field of vision and to his surprise, the nomad reached forward and patted him on the back. “It’ll be alright, Hater. I know the chances seem bleak, but if we give up now we’ll never know if we can make it. Plus, I can’t give up.” Wander looked up at the roof above. “Sylvia is up there worrying about where I am right about now. I can’t keep her worrying like that. Not when I can still do something about it.” Wander looked back at Hater, who was taken back by the determination in the nomad’s eyes. “And, somehow, I’m going to convince you to stop your invasion.”

Hater stood up and loomed over him threateningly. “And how are you going to do that?”

Wander’s expression remained the same. “I don’t know yet, but I’ll find a way for sur-!” He was cut off as Hater caught him by the throat and slammed Wander into the wall and pinned him there holding a green-lightning tipped finger just inches from the nomad’s face.

“Are you willing to die for those pathetic creatures? WELL?!” Hater roared, yet, Wander could hear a tinge of confusion in the skeleton’s booming voice. “Why is it so important for you to help them?”

And again, to Hater’s bafflement, Wander smiled. “Well, it’s this feeling that starts down in my left toe, rises up through my gutty works, makes my heart all warm and toasty, floats up past the dangly thing in my mouth…” Wander opened his mouth to show.

“Uvula.” Hater corrected.

“And ends at the top of my head!” Wander finished with one of his biggest smiles. “The feeling is so good, I can’t help but help people!”

“Well, news-flash, I DON’T HELP PEOPLE. AND I’M CERTAINLY NOT GOING TO HELP YOU!”

“Have you ever tried helping, Hater?” Wander asked, his voice filled with honesty. “You never know, you might get the feeling too and like it!” Wander stiffened as Hater’s grip tightened and grew a bit afraid. The green-lightning drew ever so closer to Wander’s fur. Then Wander turned his attention to something behind Hater and raised his shackled hands and pointed. “HATER LOOK OUT!” Hater turned just in time to see large blue tentacles shoot out of the water and grab them both and drag them into the water.

Wander was quick enough to draw in a big gulp of air before water crashed down all around him. He opened his eyes to see only darkness. Hater’s hand was still at his neck but was loosing it’s grip rather quickly. Wander grabbed hold of Hater’s gloved hand as something pulled them through the canal water. Wander felt his hat come off, but couldn’t reach back to catch it without losing Hater. And as much as he loved his hat, Wander wouldn’t forget what was more important.

As for Hater, he hadn’t thought to take a breath before being dragged under. His mistake. As if water wasn’t hard enough to move through, but even though Hater was a skeleton, he still need air to move properly as well as remain conscious. Whatever had a hold of his foot thrashed him about against the canal walls. It wasn’t long before Hater was seeing orange and black spots at the corners of his vision. But something kept him awake, and that something was holding his hand. Hater made the effort and looked and squinted passed the water to see….Wander!

What is he doing?! Hater thought. The nomad seemed to be waiting for something. When whatever it was thrashed them against the stone wall, Wander quickly found a large space between the stones and stuck his foot in it. Suddenly, they stopped as the water beast tried to pull, but Wander had his foot lodged in the space good and strong. Eventually, the beast’s grasp on Hater slipped and Hater, who was running on pure will-power at this point, grabbed Wander and swam up. Both of them took a big gulp of air and quickly scrambled back onto the walkway.

Not taking chances, Hater blasted two bolts of green-lightning into the water, setting it to boiling. A roar echoed throughout the canals and then silence. Hater fell down on his back beside Wander and for the next couple of minutes they both lay down in silence as they regained their breath.

Hater looked over at Wander, who had suddenly looked at him. Wander smiled. Hater blushed and looked away, but not before glancing down at Wander’s foot, which looked like it was twisted the wrong way.

“Uh, is your foot supposed to be doing that?” Hater asked.

Wander raised his head to look before resting his head back down. “I don’t think so.”

"Have you ever tried helping, Hater?" Wander’s words echoed in Hater’s skull. “You’re definitely not going to be able to walk on that.”

“No, no. It’s fine.” Wander, using the wall as support, wobbled to the non-twisted foot and put some pressure on the twisted one. Hater could tell when someone was in pain, being all too familiar with it, and he could tell Wander was trying very hard not to show it. The nomad bit back a cry but couldn’t hold back his tears. He looked up at Hater and somehow managed to give a shaky smile. “See? Nothing to worry abou-!” Hater grabbed Wander by the arm, the nomad flinched expecting to get hurt or threatened, instead the skeleton picked Wander up and cradled him in his arms before going to the waters edge and plucking out Wander’s hat.

“Here.” Hater muttered, shaking off some of the water before plopping it onto Wander’s head. He paused before breaking out the shackles on the nomad’s wrists. Wander looked up at Hater, almost confused. “What?”

Wander smiled, weakly, and chuckled. “I just knew there was some good in you.”

Hater blushed, his cheek bones burned a florescent green. “What?! Don’t be ridiculous! Your still my prisoner, therefore my responsibility. Besides, I still have Awesome to stop and then I’ll take that zbornak friend of your prisoner since….” Hater turned his face away from Wander. “…she’s probably worried about you.”

Wander leaned up and wrapped his arms around Hater’s neck as he gave him a hug. Hater froze in utter surprise. The hug was warm and pleasant, despite both of them being sopping wet. Hater was used to feeling bitter cold or raging fire, but, this….this was simply warm. He felt himself close to hugging Wander back but stopped himself. “Thanks, Hater.” Wander mumbled.

“S-HUT UP!” Hater boomed, still blushing like mad as Wander snuggled back into his arms. “Let’s just get out of here. Okay?”

“Fine by me.” Wander gave a toothy smile. “After all, I got a big strong guy like you to protect me, what could go wrong?”

“I’m not always going to be around to lug around your weight!” Hater was beginning to think this what it was like to be Sylvia. But, he found himself able to push his frustration aside as he began to walk down the walkway.

…..

Back on Emperor Awesome’s battle cruiser, Emperor Awesome kicked out his feet as he sat impatiently in his chair. He never understood why bad guys would always sit in hard metal chairs, it’s so uncomfortable. So Awesome had his chair made with a pink cushion seat with diamonds on the edges to give it some style.

For most of the invasion, Awesome had been pretty patient. But the battle between his fist-fighters and the watchdogs had been going on for about an hour and still there was still no sign of Lord Hater. What taking him so long? The dude has absolutely no manners.

Awesome got up from his chair and went over to the window. Jeez, Hater better show up soon. Awesome didn’t see the point of invading a planet if there wasn’t anything left to invade. But, now that he got his brain whirring and kicking, Awesome realized that there had been no reports of civilian causalities.

He know he shouldn’t judge by looks, heck he was a walking, talking man shark, but the planet didn’t look to be the kind that knew war. So, he doubted the civilians just avoided the battle on their own. Someone had to be helping them….

One of the fist-fighters ran through the doors. “Emperor Awesome! We caught some zbornak helping civilians out of town.” Ah! Perfect timing. Awesome waited as they dragged a blue, female zbornak in on chains. And, whoa, was she a fighter! Even now, she was still kicking and punching. When, she noticed Awesome, she growled and stomped her foot angrily.

“Now, before you go an get angry at me,” Sylvia said. “I was only getting civilians away from the battle until a patrol of your goons jumped me! So, what I did was purely self-defense and the defense of innocent civilian.”

Awesome raised a hand. “Whoa, calm down there, girlfriend. I have no problem with you looking out for the little dudes.” Sylvia looked at him in surprise. “In fact, I’m not interested in keeping prisoners so I’m willing to let you off the hook if you answer some questions for me.”

“What questions?” Sylvia demanded.

Awesome smiled. “I’m curious as to why your orange buddy ain’t around. But, I’m even more curious as to where Lord Hater is.”

Sylvia shook her head. “I tried asking around the best I got was that Wander got dragged off the president’s castle…”

“Looks more fitting to a king and queen, to me.”

“I agree. Anyway, apparently Hater had taken over the castle and was waiting there when Wander got dragged in. Then you came in firing your laser canons causing the castle to collapse!” She shot Awesome an angry glare.

Okay, now that would explain a few things. Awesome took a moment to think. He highly doubted that a collapsing castle could kill Lord Hater. Awesome looked out the window down at the rubble that remained of the castle. Something seemed off to him. He had noticed it when first coming here. For miles around, Awesome couldn’t see a single body of water.

“The planets a complete desert.” Awesome noted.

“What in glorn’s name does that have to do with anything?!”

“Where do the civilians get their water from?” Awesome thought for a while and turned to leave the room, though not before ordering Sylvia’s chains removed. Sylvia followed the Emperor doubtfully as they entered the main bridge. “I want a scan of the planet’s underground. Are there any sort of tunnels at all?”

“Yes, sir.” One of the fist-fighters answered as the scan results came up on a computer screen. “The planet uses an underground canal system to transport water from city to city.”

“What about entryways? Does it say of there being one below the castle?” Sylvia looked at Awesome questioningly.

“What are you getting at?” Sylvia wondered.

“Yes, Emperor Awesome. Scans show of there being an entryway to the canals through the castle.”

Awesome snapped his fingers. “That’s where they are.” He turned to leave the bridge.

“How can he be sure that they found the entryway to the canals?” Sylvia asked.

The man-shark turned to her slightly, looking at her from the corner of his eye. “Come on, I don’t know much about your orange buddy, but if I know Hatey, he won’t die easy. He may act like a child, but the dudes got some determination that I envy.”

Sylvia sighed. “I know what you mean. Wander is exactly the same way when it comes to helping people.”

“Funny how two completely different dudes have at least something in common, huh?” Awesome laughed. “Come on, let’s go get ‘em. I need to settle my unfinished fight with Hater and you need to find your orange-buddy. I’ll even give you a ride.” He held the door open for her.

Sylvia smiled. “You’re not bad Awesome. I’ll take you up on that offer.” But just as she was about to pass him she leaned in close and stuck a fist in his face. “But, if I find out that you’re tricking me in some way you can bet I beat the conniving snot out of you!”

Awesome simply smiled. “I never caught your name.”

“Sylvia.” She smiled as she passed through the doors.

“Sylvia, huh?” Awesome repeated as he followed. “I’ll be sure to remember that.”