Chapter Text
Before Catboy could shove his foot deeper into his mouth , someone enter ed the room. He didn’t recognize them, but Chainsaw did.
“Crash, my man! Come to join us?”
Crash looked at the faces in the room, his thick eyebrows furrowed, a scowl hidden behind his beard.
“I need to borrow Catboy . ”
Catboy hesitated nervously as he stood up .
“Uh, okay,” Catboy looked back to Adam, Skylar, and Chainsaw. “Later, you three.”
And with that Crash led him out the door, through a cramped hallway, to a smaller lounge in the lab , where the Commander was waiting. Catboy stopped in his tracks, but before he could even scoff, Crash spoke.
“You two are gonna make up, or at the very least fake being made up enough around Adam. He's had a crazy hard time and he deserves better than you two bickering over crap from before he went missing!”
Catboy huffed and crossed his arms.
“ Only if fireball over here keeps his powers in check . ”
The other two men looked at Catboy like he had grown a second head. They were dumbfounded.
“ What are you two looking at me like that for? You know what I’m friggin’ talking about. Duh, so you don’t catch me on fire again?”
The Commander blinked, genuinely surprised.
“My... powers? I - Catboy, I haven't had any powers for over a decade.”
Catboy choked on his next words in shock. Eyes wide, staring at the Commander, then Crash, looking for the truth in their expressions.
“You - what, I… what happened?”
“I didn't want to hurt anyone close to me like… what happened to you, ever again. So… I had Monty take them away.”
“ Why didn’t you tell me? ”
M CBC scoffed and his eyes narrowed.
“I did! I wrote you a letter and everything. Did you not get it?”
Catboy paused in thought for a second , and then - the color drained from his face .
“I got it, but I assumed it was some… BS, non-apology. So I shredded it without reading it.”
The Bat Commander looked at Catboy, and Catboy looked at the Bat Commander. Blinking at each other.
Then a chuckle rose from Crash, building into raucous guffaws , soon joined by the laughter of the other two. The oddity of the situation hit them all at once , and their laughter filled the room, releasing years of anger, guilt, and hostility.
The giggles died down, and Catboy wiped his eyes, before putting his hand out to the Bat Commander - he decided to call a truce with a handshake.
“Listen. I'm… sorry for acting immature. And I forgive you for what happened.”
C ommander s niffled, and smiled.
“I'm sorry for those third degree burns. And I forgive you for calling me Zippo.”
Crash grinned ear-to-ear underneath his beard, proud he had completed his mission.
“ Alright! We’re all buddies again! ”
W ith th at, the three went back to laughing, feeling lighter this time. Happier.
Meanwhile, a few doors down from the Commander’s and Catboy’s heart-to-heart, Chainsaw, Skillsawz, and Prince Adam sat around in awkward silence, all wondering when Catboy would come back. Listening to the clock tick.
Adam braved to break the suffocating silence.
“ So… if you don’t mind me asking - what happened to your hand?”
Chainsaw looked down to his prosthetic limb. He’d had the seamless replacement for so long that he often forgot it wasn’t his first hand, save for the occasional phantom pain , or the times he replaced this prosthetic for his cool arm-chainsaw.
“Surprisingly, I didn't lose it in battle. I just had a bad slip while woodworking. The prosthetic is pretty great, though.”
Adam looked on, as his old friend flexed his robotic hand .
“ When did you lose it?”
Chainsaw looked up in thought. The clock ticked on.
“Um. 06’. I left the Bats after that. In 07’ I got this nifty prosthetic robot hand that allowed me to play guitar again. ‘Round 08’ I got warped up with some uh… Cynotians. You remember them? Supernova. Anyway - I joined their band for a year or two, and then ended up rooming with Catboy after that.”
Adam nodded . More clock ticking.
“How much did Monty tell you? About me.”
“A little. But he was very vague.”
Adam frowned. Tick, tick, tick.
“ So did he tell you M brainwashed me into being Silver skull ? ”
The silence filled with shock - Chainsaw’s eyes looked ready to exit their sockets .
“He - he did not. But I guess that explains the... bandages.”
Chainsaw went quiet , just staring at Adam . He didn’t know what else to say. Time moved like glue. Skylar broke the devastating silence.
“It's uh, it’s to cover his brain control device scars. Monty had to remove it from his skull.”
Adam forced a weak smile toward Chainsaw’s horrified face.
“I actually just woke up from the surgery . ”
Skylar glanced from Chainsaw to Adam.
“ Were you out that entire time ? ”
“ No, I was conscious when they checked up on me a couple times - I was awake for like 5 minutes each time, only to roll back afterwards … ”
Tick, tick, tick.
The quiet was broken by the shhhf of the hallway door and Ricky’s excited footsteps.
“Hey guys! Dinner’s ready, we’re having spaghetti, and guess who just stopped bickering?”
All three faces lit up at once, bright like Christmas trees.
The dinner was simple, but smelled amazing. The table was set for 10, fit for different diets - 8 plates for pasta, a solar car battery set near the end of the table, and, in the midst of the pasta sea, a big jug of water for Adam. Everyone served themselves up and got down to their seats. There was menial chat as everyone began to chow down - except for Adam, who glanced over his old and new family, and started a conversation.
“I'm surprised I wasn't presumed dead with how long I was gone . ”
The table grew silent as the Bats slowly stopped eating, shared looks at each other, then all stared at MCBC, who they decided to be the one to tell Adam.
“Actually, uh… you were. You know that one orange tree behind the lab you always read under? Well… we buried most of your stuff and one of your uniforms in a casket down there. As you know-”
Adam sighed , and the Bat Commander waved his arms around in a strained shrug.
“Aquabanian tradition … ”
Ricky blurted out an idea before the next awkward silence had a chance to ooze into the air .
“Hey, we should totally have a Anti-Funeral now.”
Everyone straightened up in their seats with that thought.
“Okay - we gotta dig up the casket . ”
“ It's probably more of a time capsule at this point - ”
“ What all did we put in there?”
“We’ll all need to dress as loudly as possible!”
“I've still got my Getup from the Cal State Fullerton show -”
“ Even the floaty?”
“ Even the floaty!”
“Oh god, that thing was gaudy…”
The pasta dinner was full of gleeful laughter, stories - plans. The Aquabats and crew were having a good time, something they’d been missing out on for so long. Adam smiled to himself as he watched his friends cry with laughter, share tales of different adventures, goof around like old times. The pain and terror Adam had been through - everything The Aquabats had been through for each other - subsided in the wake of this single moment they came together.
After all , they were family, and they were all overdue for a reunion.