The Bad Batch: One Shot Collection

Febuwhump Day Twenty Six: "Help Them"

Author's Note: Don't think I've ever seen aftermath of this episode somehow. xP

~ Amina Gila

Hunter is used to seeing his brothers hurt. He's used to being hurt, and he never liked it, but he never saw anything wrong with it, either. They're soldiers. It happens. Omega doesn't see it that way, though.

Tech is scanning Echo over to make sure he wasn't hurt in their capture. Hunter himself is... still sore. Very sore, and his head is throbbing. He made it through the mission, but his arm is still burning from where the electrowhip wrapped around it, and from when he and Tech got electrocuted unconscious by that – whatever its name is. Doesn't really matter.

(They whipped Wrecker. It was – it wasn't bad, but Hunter still feels sick when he remembers that, when he remembers hearing him and Echo scream.)

("Stow it, already," Crosshair's voice hisses in his mind, "You got shot. It happens all the time.")

(Shut up, Hunter hisses back at it.)

(That doesn't make it easier.)

But Echo is... tricky when it comes to mechanical anything and electricity. His parts need charging, and minor electric surges will be drawn right to them. It might sting him a little, but it just gives them a power boost.

But – but major ones could short circuit his entire nervous system, and that's not to mention how his electronics could give out. He could die from something like that.

"How is he?" Hunter asks finally. He's twirling his knife absently, because it helps, and he needs something to focus on. Badly.

"The burns are present, but there is no significant damage," Tech replies, and Hunter catches Omega staring up at them, eyes wide and worried.

"But he will need to rest."

"From... what?" Omega asks, biting her lip. She looks worried, and Hunter realizes for the first time that she's never seen them injured before. Well, Wrecker was shot on Kamino, and Hunter nearly died on that moon not long ago, but that doesn't mean she's used to it. Not like they are. She's not used to... violence. "What's wrong?"

"We were injured on the mission," Hunter admits, because he has to tell her something. "It wasn't major." His head is throbbing. It feels like his skull is cracking in half inside out. Electricity can't do that, can it?

Omega's expression is still worried.

"I would suggest the same for you," Tech replies, "I will not ask how your arm sustained such severe electrical burns –" Oops? Well, it worked, and after what they did to Wrecker, Hunter had been so, so angry he genuinely hadn't even cared that it hurt. He just wanted to hurt them. They hurt Wrecker. "But with how easily overstimulated you are when it comes to electricity, I would recommend resting."

"How long?" Hunter asks, even if it feels like more of a joke. Really. He never has time to sleep.

"You are more aware of how this operates than I am," he points out, "Considering you have experienced this before."

Ugh.

Omega's staring up at him, wide-eyed. She looks horrified, and Hunter... gets it, because he's feels sick whenever one of his brothers are hurt, but this is different. For Hunter, it's... just a thing that happens, but Omega looks... appalled.

He watches her, admittedly uncomfortably, because he doesn't know what to tell her. Really – even this is way over his head. "Don't have that kind of time," Hunter points out, "I'll be fine."