Inheritance of Giants

Paranoid

"Stan, do you hear yourself sometimes?"

"Regularly, Ford. I listen to you, which is basically listening to a slightly smarter me," Stan responded with an obvious roll of his eyes.

"Don't listen to those two," Victor said with a sigh, helping Toga to her transformed feet. "I swear, Stan just had some of the weirdest thoughts and bets in the world."

"Okay, Stan, Ford, Victor, Martinez, you know the rules," one of the guards said in a tired but still slightly friendly tone. "Go ahead and put your bags in the truck and tell us the amount of fruit you got."

"Tony! I got eighty-five this time!"

"Been a long time since you've gotten that many," Tony the guard said, writing the number down. "Your knee is doing better, Stan?"

"How do you think I got so many?" Stan said with pride.

"If your record is to be believed, stealing," Tony said with a snort, making Stan sag.

"I haven't stolen anything for five years, Tony, come on," Stan muttered, stepping aside.

"Okay, Ford, let me guess here, if Stan got eighty-five rockfruit, you'd go like... ninety-seven?" Tony asked, pen in hand.

"Got it exactly, Tony," Ford said with a snort.

"You know, you can go to any number that isn't a prime number, Ford," Tony remarked with a small wheeze of laughter, writing said number down.

"I don't like those numbers," Ford grumbled, walking to Stan's side.

"And, okay, Victor! How many did you get this time?" Tony asked.

"I got seventy-four."

Tony's pen paused for a moment as he slowly looked up. "Are you... feeling okay, Victor? Do you need to visit the medbay?"

"I- no, sorry, it's a little less than normal, but I was helping one of the new guys, I think Barry was his name? Anyways, he had a panic attack on the field."

"Ah, well, that's our Victor for us," Tony said, writing down the rest of the numbers. "Just... please don't make a habit of it? The others here also need to learn to help as well."

"Okay, will do, Tony," Victor said, stepping aside.

"And, Martinez! How many today?"

"Hundred and two."

This time, the pen stopped as Tony looked up again. "Are you feeling alright, Martinez?"

"Yeah, just... having a bad day, Tony."

"I- you called me by my real name!" Tony said in surprise. "Uh, anyways, I recommend you get a check up by Doctor Leon. The people that have bad days are the ones who, uh... do not go out kindly. The smoke and all that, you know? Kind of... lethal. I- look, I know your Quirk, smoke-breather, negates this stuff, but still, I- I do recommend a check up, okay? I'll write a note for you."

"I..." Toga swallowed mentally. This could go horribly wrong very quickly. She could refuse here, but that might make her more suspicious. No, she needed to accept. Maybe when she takes the note, she can just not go to the medbay? Yeah, that may work! "I'll go to the medbay."

"Okay, cool, just remember it's two doors to the right and straight down the hall. I'll go ahead and call Leon on the radio for you."

Tony pulls a radio from his back pocket, saying, "Hey Leon, this is Tony, got a worker here, Martinez, who's having a bad day. Sending him your way."

["Understood,"] A heavy British accent responded with a sigh. ["Glad it's only one today."]

"Me too," Tony said, putting the radio away and nodding to Toga. "Alright, Martinez, you remember the directions? Just two doors to the right and straight through, okay? We're just making sure you're alright. We won't weep over dead folk, but you'll be missed."

"I see," Toga said, mentally screaming. This was just falling apart. Every step she took was two steps back. What could she do? X-rays are going to immediately expose her, what if they X-ray her?

"Yeah, we'll take you there, Martinez," Victor said, grabbing Stan and Ford's shoulders.

"But- but that new movie from the Pre-Quirk Era that was discovered, uh, what was- oh, Robo-Cop! That's on in like, fifteen minutes! I wanted to watch that!" Stan complained.

"Come on, Stan, this is Martinez we're talking about," Ford said, giving Stan a hard glare.

"... Fine," Stan grumbled, looking away.

~

To be Continued...