Eddsworld! Alter Motives

Chapter Sixteen, "How To Not Reconcile"

Trigger Warnings!: MatPat, Swearing, A Bad Pun, Gore, Hairball, Mentions of Abuse, and Yelling

     “Let us go you cowards!”
     Tord was immediately jolted awake by the sound. He felt something tightly gripping his hands behind his back as he looked around.
     “Paul? What’s going on? What is the meaning of this?” He asked as he squinted into the dark.
     “You’re coming with us!” Tord heard a voice say behind him.
     Tord’s robotic eye started to get used to the darkness. The fire was out, and they were surrounded. Paul, Patryck, and Tom were tied together near a couple of Sorilan jeeps, Edd and Matt were being held by two other soldiers, and Ash was being pushed around rather roughly by a couple of men.
    “Wha-” Tord hesitated, “No! Leave them alone!”
    “You’re all coming!” The soldier holding Tord said, “Every single one of you are coming back to Sorilan.”
     Tord started to twist around his robotic arm, cutting the kidnapper's hand.
     “I won’t let you take us! I won’t let you take them!” He yelled.
     Tord continued to cut the soldier's hand, making her pull away in pain. Then, he kicked her to the ground and grabbed her gun. Tord pointed the gun at the soldier holding Paul, Patryck, and Tom.
     “Leave them alone!” Tord yelled, “Or else I’ll have to shoot!”
     The soldiers holding Ash put her in a wrist-lock and pressed one of their daggers to her neck.
     “Shoot them and we kill her,” One of them said.
     Tord looked to them in slight disbelief, “You would kill one of your own, just because Todd or Powell say so?”
     “She’s not one of us, not after the little stunt she pulled,” Another soldier growled.
     “I thought Sorilan wanted everyone to be equal,” Tord refuted, “I don’t think this is equal!”
     “It will be equal without people willing to betray Sorilan Headman. Now drop the gun, otherwise, she’s going down and the ginger will be up next,” The soldier holding Matt spat.
     Tord didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t let them hurt Matt or anyone else. He slowly put the gun down and kicked it away, putting his hands behind his hair.
     “Okay,” Tord sighed defeatedly, “You win.”
    Suddenly, the woman who was holding Tord struck him in the stomach. Tord held his chest and kneeled to the ground.
     “Serves you right, Red Leader,” She growled.
     Tom felt something spark up inside him. His eyes started to glow and smoke as he struggled more against the ropes, Paul looked over to Tom confused and slightly worried.
     “Tom… you doing ok?” He mumbled.
     Tom growled, “No! Stop! Get me out of here!”
     Just then, Tom began to grow, his arms and legs growing fur as his eyes merged into one. His teeth sharpened, and horns sprouted from his head. Paul and Patryck looked over confused and terrified.
     “Tom… what are you doing?” Patryck asked in shock.
     Tom grabbed at the ropes and pulled them, snapping them like rubber bands. He towered over most of the Sorilan men, drool dripping from his elongated teeth.
     “Leave. Them. Alone!” He snarled.
     The soldiers’ faces turned as white as paper as they pulled out their rifles. Tom grabbed one of the soldiers and ripped their head off. He swiped at a few more, knocking them to the ground. Paul and Patryck pulled the ropes off themselves and saw Tom fighting. 
     “Now’s our chance! You go get Edd and Matt, I’ll get Red!” Paul said as he grabbed one of the dead soldier’s guns.
    Patryck ran to Edd and Matt and began to untie them. Tom began mauling the soldiers, eating their body parts as blood splashed everywhere. 
     “Are you guys alright?” Patryck asked as the two men rubbed their wrists.
     “Yeah, we’re fine. A bit sore but alright,” Edd replied as he looked up at Tom in surprise, “Haven’t seen this in a while…”
     Tom stopped disfiguring soldiers. They were all dead. He licked his lips, cleaning the blood from his mouth. Then, he gagged. 
     “Something up Tom?” Matt asked.
     Tom started hacking and soon spit up a ball of damp clothes. Shoes, and bones. It smelled terrible and slowly sank into the ground. Patryck looked over to Edd and Matt confused.
     “How are you guys so nonchalant about this?” He questioned.
     “We’ve seen Tom like this before,” Edd explained, “Well, not the manslaughter, but the monster thing.”
     “Ah,” Patryck nodded.
     Meanwhile, Paul had rushed over to Tord and helped him up. 
     “Are you okay Red?” He asked.
     “Yeah, I’m fine,” Tord replied, “Thanks.”
     “You’re welcome,” Paul looked over to Tom with a bit of interest, “Did you happen to know about this?” 
     Tord shook his head as Tom reverted to his human form and replied, “Well, it all started when I got toxic snow sludge to the face.”
     Paul and Patryck looked at each other in confusion. Toxic sludge in London? That was rare, only a few cases were known of a toxic spill, mainly around the same place.
     “Hey Tom, where and when exactly did you interact with this stuff?” Patryck questioned hesitantly.
     “We were at home. It was… 2013? Yeah, 2013. Then barrels of toxic stuff fell from the sky, I guess from a plane? And then a monster made of snow came to life, and that’s when it hit me,” Tom described, “Why do you ask?”
     Paul scratched his neck, “We… might have something to do with that…” He admitted, “You see, we were delivering some toxic material to one of the bases for testing, and I kinda… crashed the plane.”
     “We were able to find most of the barrels, but one remained missing,” Patryck said, “That might have been the one you interacted with.”
     “Hmm,” Tom hummed, “Interesting.”
     “Wait a second,” Patryck realized, “If Tom got affected, then what about us? We were also near it.”
     Tord thought for a moment.
     “It is possible. I have been feeling… stranger than usual after that incident, with the whole climbing thing,” He pondered, looking over to Paul, “And you got those weird eating habits around that same time too…”
     “True… And then, the other day, Patryck fell asleep in the water,” he mentioned, “The weird part about it though; he was perfectly fine. No water up his nose or anything. I’m not sure why.”
     Tord pondered a bit more, then a weird theory came to his head.
     “Wait a minute, weren’t we visiting an animal sanctuary prior to getting on that plane?” He asked.
     “Yeah! We were,” Patryck replied, “Uhh… Wait… What about it?”
     “You guys were around certain animals a lot. Paul, you enjoyed the snakes greatly, when Patryck was hanging out in the water with the capybaras. What if that had something to do with the radiation?”
     “I mean it would make a bit of sense,” Patryck said, “Capybaras can sleep in the water, they eat mostly plants, and they have impeccable swimming. I have slept in water, I still eat meat but I mostly eat greens now, and my swimming has improved.”
     “I guess this must have really snaked past you guys huh?” Edd joked as he nudged Tord.
     “Oh! That reminds me, Paul, you were with snakes, and now, you’re eating a buttload of food one day and then none for the rest of the week. And also, you bit a soldier. Then you strangled Todd. I guess you got snake traits then,” Tord figured.
     “This is… quite a bit to take in Red,” Patryck said as he leaned against one of the jeeps.
     “That kinda makes sense for you Tom. I remember you were extra cuddly with Ringo before the incident with the Snogre,” Matt piped up.
     “Oh yeah,” Tom mumbled.
     Meanwhile, Ash was slowly getting up off the ground. Her neck was still bleeding, and she had gotten a black eye from one of the other soldiers, but she was alive. She looked over and saw Edd and the gang conversing. She sighed, stood up, and went over to her bag to start looking for the bandages. When she found some, she began to clean the blood from her neck.
     Then, Tord wondered, “So, if we all have these traits, then would that mean we could possibly transform like Tom did?”
     “I’m not sure, it could be a possibility,” Patryck replied.
     “I guess we’ll see in the future,” Paul sighed, “If we ever get to see one.”
     Patryck looked over at Paul with sympathy.
     “We’re going to get out of this, Paul. Trust me, we will have a future, all of us,” He encouraged.
     Paul sighed and chuckled, “Let’s hope we will.”
     Patryck smiled, putting his hand around Paul, but struggled for a second.
     “Heh, shorty,” Paul teased.
     “I’m not short, you’re a tree,” Patryck scoffed.
     “Suuurreee,” Paul grinned as he put his hand around Patryck, “Keep telling yourself that Pat.”
     Patryck pulled away and lightly punched Paul’s arm. Paul laughed as he ruffled Patryck’s hair. He rolled his eyes and smirked. 
     “Tree,” Patryck joked.
     “Short-ass,” Paul taunted.
     “Giraffe.”
     “Okay, enough you two,” Tord said, “We need to get back on track. We should probably try to get back on the road.”
     “Alright,” Paul agreed.
     Ash walked to the Jeep and got in the front seat. Paul and Tom looked at each other and booked it to the passenger’s seat. Tom ended up getting in first. Paul scoffed and entered the car. Tord sat next to Paul. Edd sat on Tord’s other side, while Matt and Patryck sat in the middle row.
     “Red, I have a question,” Paul said.
     “What is it, Paul?”
     “You… Know… How I feel about you. What do you think about me? Are you gonna be able to see me in the same way you did?” Paul slightly panicked.
     Tord sighed and looked at Paul.
     “Paul, nothing you could have said could’ve changed my opinion of you negatively. However what you told me was… surprising, to say the least,” He admitted, “I do love you, but not the same way I love Edd, Tom, and Matt. You’re like a brother to me, just like Pat, and I always stay by your side to fight to the end.”
     “I understand, Red,” Paul sighed.
     “However, I don’t want you to have to hide things from me, your leader, and I want you to be open with me. Understood?” Tord asked.
     “Yes, Red,” Paul replied.
     “Good, now brighten up buddy. We are going somewhere safe!” He smiled as he lightly punched Paul’s arm.
     Paul rubbed his arm.
     “Finally,” he smirked, “Do you think they’ll let us stay?”
     “I hope so, we don’t really have any other place to go…” Edd admitted.
     Tom turned around and brought up, “Well, we, or I guess, you are on semi-fine terms with the neighbours. They might let us in, but I don’t know about the others. They might just need a good convincing though, I don’t know.”
     “I could try to help. They don’t recognize me, they might be more sympathetic to a person who worked with Todd,” Ash suggested.
     “I mean, that could work,” Tom said.
     “We won’t know until we try,” Matt added.
     Ash pulled out of the truck stop and began to drive north to Eduardo’s house. Tom looked over to Ash and saw the bandages around her neck.
     “Hey, Ash? What’re those bandages about?” Tom asked as he rubbed his neck.
     “Let’s just say my former friends didn’t take to seeing me again positively,” She muttered.
     “What did they even do?!” Tom inquired, concerned.
     “I’m surprised you didn’t see, considering they were threatening Tord with me. To be fair you did flip out afterwards, so I don’t know if you would’ve remembered.”
     “Why didn’t you say anything?!”
     “Kinda hard to since you guys were chatting it up next to the cars,” She answered, ticked off.
     “Sorry about that,” Tom lamented.
     “It’s… it’s fine. Nothing you can change about it now.” She sighed.
     They continued to drive north. Matt was looking out of the window, Patryck was too, his head on Matt’s shoulder.
     Tord joked, “You two look kinda gay like that.”
     Matt scoffed, offended, “What?! Can we not physically interact? Jeez.”
     Tord snickered. Patryck sat back up.
     “No, you’re fine,” Matt said, holding out his arm.
     Patryck positioned his head back on Matt’s shoulder. Matt put his arm around him and they watched the scenery outside. 
     “Well to be bear, he is gay honey,” Edd smiled.
     Matt slowly turned his head to face him, an insane smile on his face.
     “Oh shit,” Edd snickered.
     “Do you want me to come back there?” Matt teased as he reached for his seatbelt.
     “Oh, you can fucking try!” Edd grinned.
     Matt was about to unbuckle himself.
     Then, Patryck groaned, “Mmmm... Matt… I’m tired…”
     Matt sighed and readjusted himself. 
     “Is that better?” He asked.
     Patryck nodded.
     “I’ll get you later, Edd,” Matt threatened.
     “I can’t wait,” Edd chuckled.
     Matt rolled his eyes and he looked out of the window, watching the hills pass by. He felt his eyes slowly start to close as he leaned against the window, slowly falling back asleep.
     “Definitely gay,” Tord agreed.
     “Yep.”
     Meanwhile…
     “You had to go be an asshole eh? Go figures. Here he comes! Eduardo, the rude-ass idiot,” Eduardo told himself.
     The young man was lying on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. It was just another day that sucked, but what really set him off was when Mark discussed taking apart… Jon’s room. They weren’t in their house anymore, ever since it got destroyed on the day of the… incident. But Eduardo did buy another house with three rooms and set up Jon’s room like it used to be. Mark told him he was acting slightly ridiculous, but he thought otherwise. He needed to be allowed to grieve, right?
     “I never should have made that wish. I should’ve kept my stupid mouth shut,” Eduardo scowled.
     Suddenly he heard a knock on his door.
     “Eddie?” He heard a softer, familiar voice ask.
     Eduardo sighed, “What is it, Mark?”
     “I know you’re upset, but can I come in?”
     “It’s too early for this…”
     “All the more reason I wanted to talk. Please?”
     “Mark.”
     “Eduardo!”
     “...Fine…”
     Eduardo heard his door handle turn, then turned over to see his familiar blonde roommate walk in.
     “How did you sleep, buddy?” It asked.
     “Barely.”
     “Eddie, you know you have to sleep right? We may not be able to get Jon off our minds, but we still have to take care of ourselves.”
     “You think I haven’t tried?” Eduardo mumbled.
     “Look, I’m sorry,” Mark atoned.
     Eduardo turned away from it and slightly scrunched up. Mark lightly touched his friend’s shoulder.
     “I miss him too buddy, I really do. I just don’t want to see you stuck on this,” Mark explained, “This isn’t healthy at all, and I hate to see you so down.”
     “I probably deserve it though,” Eduardo grimaced, “He did nothing and I was such a bitch to him! He never deserved that!”
    “Neither of us were angels to him, quite the opposite. But we need to move on…” Mark sighed, “We can’t stay caught up like this. I know this might sound stupid, but I don’t think Jon would want us living like this. Being down, depressed, not focusing on our lives and instead focusing on his and Todd’s…”
     “You’re right. I’m no good if I’m just sitting around and sulking all day,” Eduardo conveyed.
     “Tell you what, how about today we just focus on ourselves? Play a game of volleyball, order some food, just take a break to try and refill our batteries?” Mark suggested.
     “Sounds good,” Eduardo smirked.
     Suddenly they heard the doorbell ring.
     “Huh… did you order something?” Eduardo asked as he sat up on his bed, lightly brushing his socked feet against the floor.
     “No. Not this early at least,” Mark replied.
     They got up and walked to the door. Eduardo opened the door.
     “What do you-” Eduardo exclaimed, “Edd?!”
     “Hey Eduardo…” Edd awkwardly waved. 
     Eduardo was surprised. He didn’t expect Edd of all people to be standing at his door. He looked over to see a woman wearing a Sorilan uniform standing next to him.
     “What are you doing here? I thought you were wanted by the cops?” Mark inquired.
     “I am, but that’s not the problem,” Edd told him, “We need to stay here for a bit, can we?”
     “Wait, we? Who’s we? And who is the chick?” Eduardo asked, “Does this have something to do with Todd?”
     “A bit,” Tom explained, “Todd’s working for Sorilan, in which, spoiler alert! Is evil. Ash, which is the girl, used to work beside Todd, but she left and came with us due to Sorilan not being what she expected. Now, we’re trying to defeat Sorilan, which is evil… Also Todd’s evil and a total suck-up for a blonde guy for your information.”
     Mark’s face went from shock to anger, “What do you mean? Why should we believe that? Todd would never do that!” It yelled.
     “He would,” Tord countered, “He helped to put everyone in a Sorilan truck for interrogation, in which really hurts by the way!”
     Eduardo looked over and saw Tord. His blood began to boil.
     “You… You were the one with the crazy robot! You blew up my house!” Eduardo shouted, “You killed my best friend!”
     “I didn’t mean to! I wasn’t in the right mindset! Besides, didn’t you hate that guy?” Tord argued.
     “I didn’t hate them! He was my friend! Trust me, I regret every little thing I did to them!” Eduardo contended, tears starting to form in his eyes.
     “So do I. You think I don’t regret it every fucking day?!” Tord argued, “I never wanted to get anyone involved in this! Not you, not Edd, not Jon!”
     “Then why?! Why did you fire that rocket at us?!” Eduardo yelled.
     “Because Lochlan was watching! A Sorlian commander who would have taken my loved ones if I showed that I cared. The same one who is currently abusing your friend!” Tord rebuted.
     “What do you mean abusing Todd? He isn’t hurting him, right?” Mark asked.
     “Depends, if your friend is a masochist, that suck-up’s having the time of his life!” Paul interjected.
     Mark’s eye’s widened. He looked away in worry.
     “Look, Sorilan is not safe. We will only be here for a few days until Ash can get us a signal to another base,” Edd pleaded, “Please Eduardo.”
     “I…” Eduardo paused.
     “Please.”
     “...Fine,” he sighed, “Come in.”
     Edd walked inside, followed by Matt, Tom, Tord, Paul, Patryck, and Ash. Mark’s eyes widened as it saw all of them come in, and pulled Eduardo aside.
     “Eddie, are you crazy?” Mark stated, “We can’t have them stay here! For one there are too many of them!”
     “We can have them stay in the living room,” Eduardo suggested.
     “What if they are lying? Edd, Matt and Tom are already wanted by the police, what if they want to get us in trouble?”
     “I don’t think they’re gonna get us in anything. I just have this feeling they don’t.”
     “But if something was really going on, wouldn’t Todd have told us in his letters? He wouldn’t lie to us,” Mark argued.
     “They did say he was on Sorilan’s side and that he did nothing to help,” Eduardo deviated.
     “I just- I don’t think this is a good idea, especially with… him,” Mark motioned to Tord, who had his back turned to them.
     “Look, I don’t really like him either, but what else can we do about it?” Eduardo asked.
     “Not let him stay here!” Mark leaned against the wall, distressed.
     Eduardo looked away in guilt, and rubbed his arm.
     “Look, I know this isn’t what we expected. But I just have this feeling it’s the right thing to do. If I’m wrong, bash me all you want. But please, trust me on this choice okay?” Eduardo begged.
     Mark looked to the ground and sighed, “Alright… But I get to bash you if you’re wrong, correct?”
     “Yep, you can,” Eduardo smirked.
     “Then we have a deal, Eddie,” Mark grinned.
     “Okay Markee,” He smiled as he put his arm around it.
     Meanwhile, Tord was talking to Paul, Patryck, and Ash.
     “So how long will it be until you can try to contact the other base?” He inquired.
     “A few days, I need to make something to get the signal strong enough to reach it,” Ash explained.
     “I see. What will you need for this?” Tord asked.
     “Well, a computer system to connect my communicator to it. As for the signal maker itself, scrap metal, and lots of it. Luckily I brought some of my melding power tools when we left too, otherwise we would be in bigger trouble,” She listed off.
     “Alright,” Tord nodded.
     “I can do this myself, so you guys try to ease things up with our hosts, because even if Edd denies it,” She whispered, “I don’t think they like us.”
     “Mhm,” Tord hummed.
     Paul, Patryck, and Tord walked to the living room.
     Patryck suggested, “Do you have any games we could all play? I feel like it’d be better if we all did something together to get our minds off everything.”
     Eduardo thought for a second.
     “Well, we do have a volleyball net that the old houseowners left,” He said.
     “That sounds good,” Patryck smiled.
     They all made their way outside, except for Ash, who was staying inside taking apart a old microwave.
     “Okay, how are teams going to work?” Mark inquired.
     Patryck ordered, “So, Edd, Matt, Tom, and Red will be a team, while me, Paul, you and Eduardo will be the second.”
     “Sounds good to me,” Edd replied.
     “Me too,” Tom agreed.
     Eduardo then came back with an old volleyball.
     “This is from a while ago,” he states as he tossed the ball to Edd.
     Edd caught it and looked around. Then he saw his face drawn on the ball. It was really faded and smudged.
     “Uhhhhmmm…"
     “It was a different time!” Eduardo excused. “I don’t have any feelings about that now!”
     “It’s okay, let’s let bygones be bygones right?” Edd smiled as he tossed the ball in the air. 
     “Yup,” Eduardo replied.
     Everyone split into their teams.
     Tom asked, “Okay guys, we ready?”
      “Are we ready? Guys, are we ready?” Tord added, “ARE WE READY?!”
     Edd yelled, “YEAH WE’RE READY!”
     Matt said, “Yeah.”
     “ARE WE READY?!” Tom yelled.
     “We’re ready!’
     “Yeah...”
     “ARE YOU READY?”
     “YEAH, WE’RE READY!”
     “AHHHH!”
     “AHHHHHH!!!”
     “YEAH!”
     “AHHHHHHHHH!!!!” They all yelled.
     “Yeah we’re ready,” Edd said calmly.
     Patryck looked to Paul.
     He snickered, “And that’s the guy you have a crush on.”
     Paul had a goofy grin, “Of course!”
     “Now that everyone’s ready,” Matt smirked, “Let the games begin.”

Credits: To Thecheese159846