The Atlantis Expedition

Chapter Fourteen: What A Wonderful World

When Bad Cop reached the deck, he was greeted with the sight of Benny waist-deep under his dash, a pile of burnt circuitry built up on one side. Business was standing on one wing leaning into the open canopy, his suitcase full of spare parts open on the passenger seat. He seemed to be observing Benny, and having a conversation with him. Bad Cop didn't care to know what it was about, instead wandering over to where Emmet, Unikitty, and Metalbeard had apparently been trying to figure out how to recreate both of their stolen keys. Lucy had come to sit beside Emmet, listening intently as she got caught up.

Unikitty had Business' phone, and was flipping between the photos he had captured of the arcane formulas. "I think I actually can replicate that," she was saying. "If I'm understanding these right, these are the formulas for the enchantments on those keys. It's complicated stuff, though, so it might take me a while to get it right."

"Even for someone as experienced as you?" Lucy teased.

"Pfft, I'm not that old."

"Didn't say you were old. Inquisitive, on the other hand..."

"...Is this one of those 'curiosity killed the cat' jokes?"

"Wow, I didn't know you told jokes!"

Bad Cop chuckled, gaining their attention. "I'll take the blame for that," he said as Lucy blushed.

"Huh?"

"I was just in his head helping him with something," Lucy explained, looking embarrassed. "Sometimes... when you're inside someone else's head, some of their traits rub off on you. In this case, I apparently picked up on Bad Cop's penchant for bad jokes. It'll wear off in a bit," she assured Emmet. There was a sudden clang! and a snarled curse from the vicinity of the spaceship. "...And apparently Benny picked up on his grumpiness." Unikitty started giggling uncontrollably.

"Oh dear... I better go make sure he's okay." She bounced to her feet and trotted over, giggling harder at the weirded-out look on Business' face. "Don't worry, he'll be fine in a few more minutes." She climbed up to peer inside the cockpit. "Benny-Ben?"

"What?" he groused back at her, clearly put out by something.

"You're scaring Busy, bestie. Put the soldering gun down and come take a breather."

"But I'm almost done..." the astronaut whined in response.

"You're pulling a Bad Cop and it's freaking people out."

"...What?" He finally appeared from under the dash, giving her a confused look. "What do you mean?"

"Apparently he rubbed off on you a bit while you were in his head. Lucy's over there cracking jokes, too. Now come on, come take a break til everything's back to normal again."

"Lucy's telling jokes? And I'm missing it?" He pouted.

"Not if you agree to taking a break!" Unikitty sang, and bounced back to the others. Business followed her, intrigued at the premise of Lucy making puns. Benny huffed and put his tools away, climbing out to join them.

"Lucy, why didn't you tell me something like this might happen?"

"Umm. Honestly? I kind of forgot," she admitted, looking sheepish. "But it's not dangerous! Or permanent. And it doesn't always happen either, in fact it's not until an irresistible opportunity arises that you even know it did anyway. Like Unikitty setting herself up for a joke. Or you getting frustrated with fixing your spaceship."

"At any rate, I think we did manage to get the keys figured out." Emmet gestured to the two exact replicas sitting on the deck between them. "Unikitty just needs to practice the enchantments, and then we're set."