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THREE!
let's get some air
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It had been a few days since the team had been attacked by a monster at Harper Futuristics. Harris was definitely feeling the aftermath of his traumatizing near-death experience as he ended up taking out all of his emotions on Mark.
Right now, the team all sat around Harris in the robot's personal medical centre. They wanted to run some tests on Harris to see why he was acting weird.
"Hey, how you feeling?" Ryan asked Harris, after the machine had stopped scanning him.
"A little bit better." Harris reassured his teammates as he sat up from the bed.
"So, can you tell me exactly what happened?" Ryan asked Harris.
The conversation was then rudely interrupted by a scream and a loud crash. That was definitely the carefree renegade, Spyder Johnson. That boy always knew how to make an entrance.
"What was that?" Mark asked.
The older teen got up and went over to the door to check out what the sounds were from. The other (and non-injured) teens all followed his lead. The door opened to reveal a disheveled Spyder, who was sitting on the ground next to a machine that was smoking. Everyone gave him a weird look.
"What? Your text said get here ASAP, which I did, after I looked up asap." Spyder assured before he was helped up from the floor and pulled into the room.
"This better not be the mircothruster, I just fixed." Mark complained in annoyance when he picked up the object that was smoking. It was indeed the microthruster that the jock just fixed.
"I was testing it and guess what? It thrusted!" Spyder exclaimed. "And now it's busted." Mark held the thruster and it immediately split into two separate pieces, much to his dismay.
"Um, hey, congrats." Spyder awkwardly scratched the back of his head.
"So, you guys thought twice about bringing me on the team but you chose this train wreck right away?" Mark questioned in annoyance.
"I am standing right here." Spyder pointed out.
"Yeah, don't remind us." Hana shot back and Natalie hit her in the shoulder for her comment.
"I can fix this, ok? Just like I fixed my broken leg, didn't I? You remember that?" Spyder asked as he yanked the microthruster out of Mark's hands.
Ryan, Hana, Harris and Natalie all started chuckling as they recalled the memory of the boy trying to fix his broken leg in school. It was a complete and utter disaster that ended in a hospitalization.
"I remember you trying to fix your broken leg in shop class and you fainted and you had to be rushed to the hospital." Ryan explained.
"I have never seen so much blood in my life. I couldn't even sleep the next few nights because I was so horrified." Natalie reminded in fear as she didn't like the sight of the boy's blood.
"I actually enjoyed the sight of Spyder being in pain and then afterwards, I got a really good roast beef sandwich from the cafeteria." Hana exclaimed happily as she remembered her delicious sandwich. The only thing the girl thinks about is either others in pain or any delicious food she loves.
"Yeah, your surgery was crowdfunded." Harris pointed out.
"I still have the t-shirt." Ryan unbuttoned his plaid shirt to reveal the t-shirt that the two girls had designed to support Spyder's surgery.
"My room smelled like sharpies for a week." Natalie said in disgust at the remembrance of the smell.
Suddenly, Harris groaned in pain and everyone rushed back over to the boy's side. "You ok?" Spyder asked worryingly.
"No, I accidentally ate some of that stuff the monster is made of." Harris confirmed.
"Did it taste disgusting like cat food?" Spyder asked and Harris gave him a weird look.
"You were the one, who ate my cats food." Natalie said and Spyder quickly looked away in shame. There was once an incident where she had caught the boy actually having a taste of her cats food.
"Or awesome like dog food." Spyder quickly covered up and everyone gave him a weird look.
"But the monster ooze.....it's turning me into something not human. It does look like if I had a sample of that substance, I could reverse engineer an antidote." Harris explained.
"Great, we can cure you." Mark cheered.
"We can get you some more ooze. We just....." Ryan started to say but got quickly cut off by Harris's stomach growling.
"Uh, we'll just draw a new monster out by using Mech X4 as bait." Ryan finished.
"You know or we could just find that glowy orb thing from the first fight." Spyder added.
"Yeah, we can......Wait! What?" Ryan asked in confusion.
The boy then led the entire team back upstairs to the control centre and over to his desk. Spyder plopped down in his chair and everyone gathered around him to watch the video that he pulled up. It was a video of the team's last fight and it filmed by none other than his high school crush, Cassie Park.
"And then at the end, the robot just liquified that thing and I saw it first. If you share this, you must credit Cassie Park." She announced on screen.
They all watched as the robot destroyed the monster. Spyder stopped the video at a certain part before putting a white circle around the orb, so everyone could see what he was talking about.
"Ok, so, the whole monster turned into ooze, except for that object? It kinda looks like the monster's heart." Ryan pointed out.
"I watched this video and didn't notice that orb, how did you?" Harris asked Spyder in disbelief.
"Well, after the 100th viewing, you start to spot stuff. Like she has eighteen tiny wrinkles when she smiles, one for every month of the year." Spyder smiled as he daydreamed about Cassie.
"Pathetic." Natalie rolled her eyes in annoyance. She felt a pang of jealousy but didn't know why.
"I don't know what's sadder? The fact that you have no life, so you can view this video a hundred times or that you don't know there's only 12 months in a year." Hana mocked and Spyder glared at her.
"So, you saw this weird thing and didn't think to mention it?" Mark asked.
"Well, no, I did mention it just now. That counts, right?" Spyder asked nervously.
Everyone shook their heads in disagreement at the boy but Natalie, who was busy with investigating the location. She was the only one to pick up any other important information from the video.
"Hold on, guys. So, from the direction and the apparent speed, I'd say it landed somewhere in the woods near Golden Ridge." Natalie announced, typing in the location and it appeared on the screen.
"There still might be some ooze on it. We can use it to cure Harris." Ryan said happily.
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The team had finally made it to the robot and decided on searching around the forest for the orb. The team split into pairs with the two Walker brothers together, Harris with Spyder and Natalie was with Hana.
Harris was the first one to spot the orb. Everyone followed the boy over to it. A large trail of smoke fumigated off it and even some trees were burnt from the force of it hitting the ground like if the orb was a meteor from space. Ryan was the brave one enough to pick the smoking orb up and it was then brought back to the robot for investigation.
Harris was the one to lead the investigation to search for any reminiscent of monster ooze but he couldn't find anything of use. "Mud, dirt, twigs. The residual goop is all dried out, useless." He exclaimed in annoyance.
"Hey, hey, don't worry about it. We'll find more." Spyder tried to reassure but Harris glared at him.
"We wouldn't have to if we have gotten to it when you saw it. You know, you could not be you and try helping for once!" Harris exclaimed angrily, which caused his face to turn orange and his voice became a deeper octave than it usually was.
"I can help." Spyder mumbled sadly as he picked up the microthruster.
"I'm gonna go and fix this rocket and if you need me, I'll be....." Spyder started to say but was quickly got cut off by Harris.
"We won't! GO!" Harris shouted at him, causing Spyder to sadly look down before leaving.
This was the first time in a long time that anyone has seen Spyder look that upset. "What did I just say?" Harris asked in confusion as he turned back to his normal self.
"Exactly what were all thinking!" Mark exclaimed happily and everyone glared at him.
"Hey!" Ryan hit his brother in the shoulder.
"I don't mean that. That wasn't me talking. The ooze is causing all these outbursts. I can't control them." Harris apologized to the team, completely upset by hurting his own friend.
"Which is why we need to cure you. This thing can't help us at all?" Ryan asked, while gesturing to the monster heart that sat on the table.
Harris grabbed some tweezers and began picking through the heart for any ooze. "It looks like there's black dust here." He picked up some dust with his tweezers before placing it under the microscope.
Everyone gathered around Harris to get a closer at it. "Volcanic rock? The only volcano around here is Mount Harley." He questioned in confusion.
"Let's go check it out." Ryan suggested.
"But Spyder......" Harris said but got cut off by Ryan.
"Let's get you better. Seriously, he probably already forgot about it." Ryan reassured Harris.
"Just in case, Hana and I will go after him to see if he's ok and explain that it was just a misunderstanding." Natalie suggested.
"Yeah, that sounds like a great idea. See, Harris. Nat and Hana can deal with Spyder, while we cure you." Ryan pointed out.
"I guess that sounds like a good idea." Harris reluctantly agreed.
The girls both nodded in agreement before taking off to find their missing member. Everyone knew that the best people to cheer Spyder up when he's upset, is the two girls.
The three of them had been best friends since early elementary school. The girls were instantly gravitated towards him because of his caring personality. The three had been insufferable since and nothing could get in the way of their friendship.
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The two girls searched all over the city for Spyder and ended up finding him at school. This definitely confused them as the boy had explained on multiple occasions how much he despised the education system.
"Stupid friends don't think that I can help. I fixed this thing with duct tape, just like I fixed my leg." Spyder muttered to himself in annoyance as he pushed the mircothruster in a shopping cart.
"Hey, idiot." Hana called and Natalie immediately slapped her in the head.
Spyder instantly turned his head towards the girl as he could recognize the delinquent's voice from a mile away. "What do you guys want? Came here to tell me that I'm useless because Harris wasn't enough." He complained in annoyance.
"No, we came to see if you were ok." Natalie assured.
"Oh, I'm great. I'm doing so so fine. I'm good, really." Spyder lied poorly through his teeth.
The two girls could see right through it. "Spyder....." Natalie reached out to grab his hand and clasped it in hers. The two looked down at their hands before meeting each other's eyes with matching blushes.
Their moment was interrupted by another girl, who happened to be there. "Hey, kid! What are you doing here so late and what's in the cart?" A familiar voice asked and they turned to meet Cassie Parker.
"Oh, Cassie! What up, girl? How you livin?" Spyder asked with a flirty smirk, quickly pulling his hand away from the brunette girl.
The smirk that Spyder sent at Cassie, triggered a deep desire of jealousy right in Natalie's heart and she had no idea why.
"I'm living way out of your league." Cassie said, obviously picking up on the boy's terrible flirting and he just awkwardly scratched his head.
Cassie was instantly intrigued by the object in his cart. "That looks like it fell off Mech X4." She pointed out at the sight of the mircothruster.
"Wait, no! It's a rocket. I build it to....Uh, rocket this shopping cart across the lake and break Danny Rotzoll's cart record." Spyder nervously explained. Hana and Natalie immediately facepalmed.
"Never heard of him." Cassie said in disbelief as she wasn't believing the boy's lie.
"Of course not. I mean, the man doesn't even want you to know who he is. He tried to get across the lake but he didn't. But I will!" Spyder exclaimed.
"He's an idiot." Hana whispered to Natalie, who nodded in agreement.
"Does anyone else know you're doing this?" Cassie asked for her own information.
"Just you and Natalie and Hana." Spyder said.
"An exclusive. Haven't had one of those since the first Mech X4 fight. Great, I'll stream your stunt. Let's go!" Cassie exclaimed happily.
"Oh, oh, like right now? No, we gotta get back to our friends. Gotta hang out, girls and guys night...." Spyder lied awkwardly.
"Or you could do your dangerous and stupid thing you were planning on and hang out with me." Cassie suggested, knowing this would instantly get him to quickly agree.
"Yeah, yeah, that second one." Spyder nodded with a goofy grin. Natalie just rolled her eyes in annoyance as the jealous feeling returned again.
"Perfect." Cassie said happily before looking over at the two girls. She hadn't cared enough to remember that the two girls were present. "Oh, and you two can come too, I guess." She was unenthusiastic about their presence.
"Alright, let's go." Spyder pushed the cart forward and Cassie followed after the boy like a dog.
"I give you full permission to rip her head off if she gets annoying." Natalie allowed.
"With pleasure." Hana agreed.
The three girls had followed Spyder to the local lake. They all sat down at a bench as the boy set up his shopping cart to begin. Cassie also started asking Spyder some questions to get more information out of him but it just resulted in stupid explanations. "My thought is stop signs are merely suggestions. And maybe your guns were meant to bleed when you sneeze." Spyder finally finished rambling.
"The question was, how old are you." Cassie said in annoyance at the boy's rambling.
"And I think he needs to be taken to the dentist." Hana pointed out in disgust.
"He's refused ever since he was twelve because he had to get seven cavities filled and a root canal in one visit." Natalie explained with a shudder.
"Are you going to talk about your stunt or.....?" Cassie asked in confusion.
"Enough small talk, here. Come sit down with me right here. Come on." Spyder suggested and took Cassie's hand before sitting her down.
The jealous feeling immediately returned to Natalie but this time, it was quickly caught by her best friend. Hana could see that her face was turning red with anger. The girl was confused by this action but one look at Spyder's smiling face and she finally understood why Natalie was upset.
"Do you think this is a date?" Cassie questioned in disbelief at the boy's antics.
"No! No, no, no." Spyder denied before pulling a sandwich out from his pocket. "Now it is."
"No, it is not! The lake! Now!" Cassie demanded in annoyance at his stalling.
Spyder then decided on duct taping the mircothruster to the shopping cart as Cassie set her phone up to begin recording the boy. Natalie and Hana were just enjoying some lunch that they had decided to order. The two girls hadn't gotten so bored that they decided on ordering tacos. It was like a dinner and a show.
"Alright, the light is perfect. The wind is perfect. Let's do this." Cassie said happily as she had her phone set up properly to begin.
Spyder, Natalie and Hana's phone all suddenly went off, which made all of them pull it out of their pockets. All three of them received the same text from Ryan that the robot with and all of them inside, were all trapped in a volcano.
"Flag on the play. I gotta go." Spyder announced.
"What? Oh, no, you're not going anywhere. I've been listening to you ramble for hours." Cassie complained in annoyance.
"Well, that is some first world problem you have there." Natalie muttered under her breath.
"It's been like 15 minutes." Spyder pointed out.
"Well, it's felt like hours. Now are you going to jump the lake or not?" Cassie asked in annoyance.
"Friends come first, so hasta la later!" Spyder exclaimed before jumping right into the cart.
Cassie groaned in annoyance as the boy hit the button to rocket launch himself. "Eh, Spyder! Spyder! I do not get ditched by freshman!" She announced in frustration.
"She knows my name!" Spyder exclaimed happily as he sped through the forest.
"We should probably get back now." Natalie suggested and Hana nodded in agreement.
"No offence but that was pretty stupid of you to believe that Spyder was going to jump the lake. I've known him for almost 8 years and even I could see through that lie from a mile away but enough about me. We got some business to attend. See ya!" Hana exclaimed.
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It had finally been a few hours since the team almost fell apart because of Harris, who was hyped up on monster ooze. Natalie, Spyder and Hana all came to the rescue in time for the Walker brother, who ended up getting the robot stuck in a volcano.
Right now, the entire team was just sitting in the Med Bay. Harris had come up with an antidote to cure himself, which was basically just a concoction of whatever ingredients that were thrown together.
"That is the weirdest antidote ever. There's turkey grease, broccoli and monster ooze." Ryan said in disgust at Harris's enthusiasm to drink it.
"Ahh, gross man, broccoli." Spyder said in disgust.
"Out of all things in that antidote, you choose to be disgusted by broccoli." Natalie pointed out with a weird look.
"Yeah, broccoli isn't even that bad. You should try natto or chicken feet." Hana shuddered in disgust.
"Listen, Spyder. What I said back there...." Harris started to say but was instantly cut off by the boy.
"Man, it's already forgotten." Spyder assured.
"Thanks, dude, that's really cool of you." Harris said.
"We shouldn't have come down on you as hard as we did." Ryan said, also feeling bad.
"Yeah, I'm sorry." Natalie apologized, even though she never did anything to the boy.
"Yeah, me too. You deserve to be on the team. You really came through Spicer..uh, spiner, uh, something with a S?" Mark guessed as he put his hand on the boy's shoulder.
"I'll take it." Spyder nodded before hugging Mark.
"Help me." Mark begged as the teen didn't like hug. The rest of the team just stared at the pair with amused looks. "What the.....No." He quickly rejected before pushing Spyder away from him.
"Do you really not know his name?" Ryan asked his older brother in disbelief.
Harris drank the last of the antidote before giving the team a smile and they all cringed at the boy's enjoyment of the concoction. "That's gross." Ryan complained in disgust and everyone nodded in agreement.
"It's good though." Harris assured but he was definitely not fooling anybody.
★ 𝐋𝐔𝐂𝐈𝐃 𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌 ! spyder johnson ★
(© 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗲𝘆𝗲𝗼𝗻𝗯𝗶𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗱)