Chapter Text
“Oh no… You’ve got to be kriffing kidding me,” D’bi muttered as the guards carried in a small, fleshy being. It looked like a--
“D’bi!” N’muri hissed from her cell. “That’s an Obl'vatrro!”
“I can see that,” D’bi growled back, already putting distance between himself and the monster those spiteful guards just put in his cell.
“How did they get their hands on one?” Oboro questioned. “Their solar system is off-limits.”
“I don’t kriffing care how! It’s here now!” D’bi snapped.
The guard stopped on their way out to laugh condescending. “We dosed it with Verazide. It’s not waking up for a while. But you’ll save us the trouble of feeding it when it does.”
When his cell closed again and the guard’s laughter quieted with distance, D’bi turned his attention to the Obl'vatrro. He only recognized it as one because he didn’t recognize it as anything else. That and the dark blue clothing that covered everything but its hands, feet, and head. The few that had been spotted during routine checks to make sure they stayed in their solar system always wore blue, full-body suits according to reports.
Seeing one up close, it had no scales or feathers. There was long fur on the very top of their head but nowhere else as far as he could see. Fleshy. Just skin. No natural defenses.
It was curled into a ball sort of shape as it slept, but he could see its hands and feet. No claws. Frankly, its long, dull fingers looked useless. It was hard to see it as the species that single-handedly slaughtered an invading race. The Dresqill had been a planet of conquerors that plagued the solar system, colonizing planets and enslaving their inhabitants.
Until Oblivion. Or Terra, as it was later renamed by the Council. The Dresquill ventured into the distant solar system only to send back frenzied reports and distress signals. It's unclear if they were left to die on that planet or if they were simply exterminated before help could arrive, but the reports they sent were saved and served as a warning to avoid Oblivion.
Obl'vatrros had been described in those reports as sturdy creatures who could be found in any of the extreme climate zones on the planet’s surface. They were incredibly violent, supposedly wearing pieces of the Dresquills they killed. And the Dresquill reports had even claimed that their weapons barely slowed them down.
The scouts who had gone to the edge of the Oblivion solar system eventually reported that the Obl'vatrros had been seen in abominations of Dresquill ships, likely cannibalized and incorporated with whatever technology Oblivion might have. They were trying to venture out into space and the Council was terrified of what could happen if they left their solar system.
These tales did not fit the creature in front of him. Its pale blue fur and even paler skin made it seem soft. Harmless. It looked helpless. And if that was false, then it was a delg good lure. He would have fallen for it if he hadn’t been trained to be more cautious.
But observations would have to wait because now it was moving.
“That is not good,” N’muri gasped as the Obl'vatrro made a rumbling sound and shifted onto its hands and knees. It was awake and it was getting up. That should not be possible with Verazide. That sedative should have kept it out cold for at least a cycle.
“N’m, tell Sho’to I love him,” D’bi whispered.
Kats’ki scoffed next to N’muri. “It doesn’t even look capable of hurting you. What’s the big deal?”
“That’s a Terran,” Oboro clarified, using their Council-decided name. Obl'vatrro was just a name left over from legends. Many felt it was more befitting such a monstrous creature.
“The things that wiped out the Dresquill?” Kats’ki asked in disbelief.
D’bi tuned them out to watch the Obl'vatrro. He would fight it if he needed to but if he could avoid aggravating it, that’d be preferable. No one knew if they were mindlessly violent, triggered by something specific, or maybe even territorial. But if he was going to make it home to his little brother, he better figure it out fast.
The Obl'vatrro shook its head lightly, long fur swaying around its face. It was disoriented. That might be good for him. Then it was sitting up, contorting its legs underneath it in a way that couldn’t possibly be comfortable. Suddenly vibrant red eyes were on him.
He breathed a sigh of relief when the Obl'vatrro ignored him to scan its surroundings. Its eyes stopped for a moment on each of the other cells’ inhabitants, many shying away from its gaze. Then it let out a huff of air and stood. It was still small, but taller than expected. Apparently, it was capable of folding itself down to a third of its actual size. Deceptive.
It went straight for the cell wall. D’bi tensed, expecting the same intense electrocution anyone else here would experience. But the Obl'vatrro only shook slightly as it tried to squeeze itself through the bars. Rather than hurt, it just seemed annoyed when its torso proved too wide to fit. So the bit about weapons not affecting it was probably true. He was so dead.
Things were not looking good for H’zashi but he had to stay positive for the sake of his students. Granted one was missing but Kats’ki was their best fighter. It's possible that he was just isolated somewhere else because of his race’s ability to secrete explosive material from their skin.
It had been an exploratory flight for the school. These students were close to graduation and it was not their first mostly independent flight. H’zashi was only there to chaperone and grade them. It was well within their usual depth of training. Until they crossed paths with two rouge ships flown by traffickers. Criminals generally weren’t brave enough to get that close to the school.
The smaller pair of ships trapped them and shot them down on a smaller, unoccupied moon. Their ship was stormed while they were still recovering from the crash. The traffickers that took them had been well prepared to restrain and overpower each of them, leading him to believe that this was a targeted attack.
They were all injected with a sedative once on the smaller ships and they’d woken up here. Och’ko was in the same cell as him while E’jirou and Denki were in a nearby cell. He couldn’t see or even hear Kats’ki in the cell block so he was probably being held somewhere else. Or… he could be dead, in a worst-case scenario.
Och’ko had befriended the youngling that also occupied their cell. The three students he had eyes on didn’t seem to be too badly injured and he’d sent a distress signal to his mate. They just needed to wait for help at this point. They would be fine.
But he spoke too soon. A guard entered the empty cell that shared a wall with his, carrying something blue, green, and limp. The guard caught the curious stares of several of the prisoners and smirked, dropping it onto the floor in a heap. “Bet none of you have ever seen a Terran before.” Quiet gasps and hushed murmurs permeated the silence. “I suggest you all be on your best behavior. Otherwise, we’ll feed you to it.”
H’zashi swallowed nervously, looking over at the creature which had already curled into a ball. He could hardly make out any features but it didn’t look dangerous. Perhaps it was just a youngling? It was tiny . Younglings were always much safer than their grown counterparts.
The guard left laughing and the Terran didn’t move. Poor thing must have been sedated. H’zashi relaxed again, knowing it should be a while before it woke up. It had taken him a cycle and he was quite a bit bigger than that little creature. It might take a few cycles to wake.
Once again, he spoke too soon. It was only a quarter of a cycle later that the Terran started moving. It looked around first, appearing disoriented. Eventually, it spotted H’zashi and he froze, puffing up his feathers. Its eyes were green and huge. Och’ko shifted nervously next to him and those green eyes snapped over to her. Did it track movement?
It lost interest and looked around again, its face scrunching up the more it did. A quiet whine helped H’zashi realize that it was distressed. Before he could really worry if it being agitated would be a concern, it laid back down and curled into an even tighter ball than before.
It didn’t sleep, green eyes peering around every so often, but it seemed really sad. Though, if it was a youngling, that made sense. It may have been taken from its parent.
With that in mind, he realized they might be in more danger than he initially thought. He had no idea how big these things got. These traffickers took a youngling of one of the most restricted, dangerous species out there and now a parent could be hunting them down.
Hopefully, they’d be rescued before it could find its youngling.
Notes:
Kriff = fuck
Delg = damn
Obl'vatrro = Oblivion TerrorSo anyway... the two humans are Shigaraki (Tenko) and Izuku if that wasn't clear.
They are in separate cell blocks so they can't see each other at all right now.
Shiggy is 20, Izuku is 15. They are bio brothers in this.
Chapter Text
Visuals Going Forward:
The humans wear suits like this. Izuku stole Tenko's spare.
Dabi (Scalqon) and Hizashi (Quz'ail, but yellow and green)
Denki and Keigo are the same as Hizashi with different colors.
The main guards we're seeing for now.
We will see the other character's alien looks later.
This is just what Shiggy and Izu have pointed out so far.
Ignoring the uncomfortable buzzing, Tenko kept trying to squeeze through the bars of the cell he’d woken up in. That thing in the other corner hadn’t attacked him yet but he wasn’t gonna wait for it to do something either. It looked like a damn dragon except its body was a little more humanoid than how dragons usually look in books and video games.
There were plenty of other creatures, aliens he figured, but they were in other cells so he ignored them for now. His priority was finding his brother. The little shit snuck onto his ship, hiding in the cargo hold meant for the asteroid samples he was sent to gather. What should have been a simple two-week trip was turning into a fever dream space adventure.
Humanity knew about aliens. They assumed there were more out there other than the ones that invaded Earth a couple of decades ago. It's just that none had ever shown up and they never spotted any. Their technology was limited, even with what they reverse-engineered and repurposed from the invading aliens humanity fought off. They couldn’t go far into space.
So Tenko had no fucking clue how he ended up in some kind of alien prison.
With a frustrated growl, he tugged himself loose from the bars. He wasn’t going to fit. The dragon was going to eat him and who knew what would happen to his brother.
The dragon was just staring at him when he glanced back. It almost looked… afraid? It was hard to tell with the reptilian face but it seemed wary of him. All of the creatures here did, actually. Some stared back at him, unblinking, while others turned away as soon as he made eye contact. They were scared of him? Was it because they hadn’t seen a human?
Well, if they were scared of him, they probably wouldn’t eat him. Probably.
Something walked by the cell, wearing some sort of armor. Another alien. It paused to watch him for a moment. “Where’s my brother?” he dared to ask.
The armored alien made some sort of gurgling noise that might have been laughter. Then it called out in a pattern. Speech. This was its language. It didn’t sound like something he could replicate easily. If Izuku were here, he could probably figure it out in time. His brother was clever, having already picked up English and Korean before he even got to high school. He was planning on learning Spanish next but maybe he’d learn Alien now. If he was here.
Another armored alien joined the first and spoke back before they both made that gurgling sound. He narrowed his eyes. They were laughing at him, weren’t they? Assholes.
They left and he returned to the corner of the cell furthest from the dragon. It looked like he was going to be stuck here for a while and he didn’t want to stand the whole time. He sat down and settled in for the wait. If he was patient, an opportunity to escape would arrive eventually.
It had to if he was going to find Izuku and get them home.
“I’m gonna try to talk to it,” H’zashi decided.
“Are you crazy?” Denki squawked from the next cell. “That is a murder creature!”
“It looks like a youngling,” H’zashi argued. “Younglings are harmless in any species. Besides… Look at it! It looks so sad!”
“It is in another cell,” Och’ko pointed out.
“Yeah, see?” H’zashi huffed. “It's perfectly safe. He’s in an electrified cell.”
“I don’t know…” E’jirou said warily.
“I’m gonna do it,” H’zashi reiterated. He moved a little closer to the bars separating his cell from the Terran’s. He can speak to it in Standard, the language that nearly everyone knows, and calm it down. Then if the parent gets here before they’re rescued, maybe the youngling will vouch for them. Maybe. “Hey, um, young Terran. Are you hurt over there?”
The Terran looked at him, eyes nearly blocked by the green fur on his head at this angle, but it didn’t respond. It stayed curled in its ball and watched him, seemingly tracking each movement.
“How did you get here?” H’zashi tried next. There was no understanding in those eyes.
“I don’t think it speaks Standard,” Och’ko whispered.
“That’s okay. There are always other ways to communicate,” H’zashi replied cheerfully. If it doesn't know a common language, there is always charades!
Sneaking onto his brother’s ship had been a bad idea. But then again, if he hadn’t, Tenko would be in alien jail all by himself. He kind of was, if he was alive, since Izuku couldn’t see him in any of the other cells. Maybe there was another floor. Hopefully, there was another floor.
Getting asteroid samples, of course, involved going into asteroid fields. But the flight path stuck to the edge. It was supposed to be safe. Tenko had gone before and returned safely. And yet, for some reason, the asteroids shifted. Their ship was pushed deeper in than was safe. Each hit from stray asteroids pushed them further off course.
Tenko did his best to pilot around them, focusing on avoiding them rather than where they were going. And then they were out of the asteroid field in one piece! Just… on the wrong side. With a damaged engine. They were stuck there for maybe a day, floating aimlessly, until an unfamiliar ship arrived. Unfamiliar and unfriendly.
Their ship was opened and they passed out from lack of oxygen before anything else. They were probably drugged though since Izuku woke up feeling like he did that one time after his tonsillectomy. His neck hurt too, like when he got a vaccine. Injected sedative most likely.
He woke up in a cell, alone. There were other aliens in neighboring cells, but not in his. That was probably a good thing. He was much smaller than them. Most of them seemed to have claws or sharp teeth. Like the predators back home on Earth. Meaning they could probably eat him. Imagine being trapped in a cage with a lion. No, thank you…
Whatever they drugged him with made him feel a little dizzy and nauseous so he laid back down. He did not whimper . He was just… unwell. Yes. That was it. He wasn’t scared because he was in space jail with predators and lost his brother. He was just feeling a bit sick.
Every now and then, he’d look at the aliens in the other cells. They were interesting to look at and he was curious. There were aliens that walked outside his cell too. They were armor, so they were probably some sort of guard. He tried to commit how often they passed to memory. It would be helpful later to know their patrol schedule. Because obviously, he was going to escape.
The staring from nearly every other being here was unnerving. It felt like hours before most of them seemed to lose interest in him. Now the aliens in the next cells seemed to be arguing amongst themselves. The bird-looking alien with golden feathers tinged with green at the very tips kept looking at Izuku. Then abruptly, it stood and approached the bars between them.
An unfamiliar warbling came from the bird alien. It didn’t try to reach through the bars but it was making direct eye contact with him. It shifted after a moment, bringing its hands together to fiddle with its claws. Was it nervous? It made noise again and Izuku noticed a pattern as well as a questioning lilt to its tone. This is a language. It was asking him a question.
Another alien said something and the bird alien replied with a bright tone. Then it turned its attention back to Izuku. It pointed at him and then drew a circle in the air. Izuku shifted to sit up so that he could see better, keeping his knees pulled up to his chest for comfort. The bird alien repeated the motions of pointing and drawing a circle.
Was it asking what planet he’s from? That seemed possible based on the context. “Earth.”
The aliens all froze when he spoke. The bird alien recovered first. It put a hand to its chest. “-- ---- -- H’zashi.” Izuku frowned at the unfamiliar language. “H’zashi,” it repeated while patting its chest.
“Hisashee?” Izuku copied poorly. It was hard to produce the same sounds.
“H’zashi.”
“Hizashee?”
“H’zashi.”
“Hizashi?”
“H’zashi.”
“H’zashi?”
The bird alien made a chirping sound. “H’zashi!” Then it pointed to Izuku. Did it want his name?
“Izuku,” he offered.
“Z’ku?”
“Izuku.”
“Iz’ku?”
“Izuku.”
“Izuku?”
“Yeah. Izuku,” he confirmed with a nod. They had names, now what?
The bird alien repeated the pointing and drawing a circle motions, this time adding a gesture to the cage around them. They were back to square one. The charades repeated a few more times before the bird alien realized he wasn’t getting it and changed them. He appreciated the effort despite the obvious communication barrier. If he learned to talk to them, maybe they could help him find his brother and escape.
Notes:
Hizashi is trying to ask how Izuku got there/got away from his home.
It's not working so well... :)
Chapter 3: Rule 3 - Won't Eat Nutrition Pellets
Notes:
Important units to know while reading:
Cycle - half of a day
Lunar Cycle - nighttime
Solar Cycle - daytime
Rotation - a full day (includes 1 solar and 1 lunar cycle)
Lunar Rotation - a month
Solar Rotation - a year
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
More Aliens Visuals:
Ustriks - Nemuri & Oboro
Nem is indigo, dark purple, and black. Oboro is blue, light blue, and white.
Stratix (Ochako, but pink, white, grey, black) & Kairqell (Kirishima, red and black)
Birds like Hizashi: Denki is yellow and black, Keigo is red and black
After it failed to escape and got mocked by the guards, the Obl'vatrro just sat in a corner. D’bi had worried that the guards would rile it up, but it seemed content to sit there, all folded up. It kept an eye on him and the guards whenever they walked by. There was something calculating in its gaze and D’bi could admit he was a little uneasy, wondering what it was planning.
“At least it isn’t agitated enough to attack,” N’muri pointed out optimistically.
“Yeah, you might be fine in there,” Oboro agreed. “It could attack based on proximity since it doesn’t seem bothered yet. Just don’t get closer?”
“Oh, sure. I’ll just stay in this corner forever and everything will be starshine and giggles,” D’bi huffed in annoyance.
“It really doesn’t look that dangerous,” Kats’ki insisted quietly.
The Obl'vatrro was watching them now, so they stopped talking. Eventually, the lights on the ship started to dim, signaling a lunar cycle. A time for sleep for most beings. D’bi carefully shifted to lay down, gaining the attention of the Obl'vatrro, but it didn’t attack. The thought of sleeping around this thing was nerve-wracking. But he couldn’t stay awake forever.
It stayed upright, watching the other prisoners and D’bi with noticeable curiosity. Terror settled like a hard stone in his stomach when he realized it might be nocturnal. It was only observed in a few intelligent species, reserved mostly for lower beings. Predators that hunt only during lunar cycles and the prey they hunt that forage during that time.
The time might be why he hasn’t been eaten yet. It could attack as he sleeps.
He took longer to fall asleep with that terrifying thought in his mind. But eventually, exhaustion won out and he drifted off into a fitful sleep. He woke up with the returning lights signaling the solar cycle, thankful that he wasn’t eaten in his sleep. The Obl'vatrro was still sitting nearby, awake and alert. It didn’t sleep and it didn’t look like it would now.
Since nocturnal beings usually sleep during the solar cycle, he was left unsure of if it was actually nocturnal. Maybe it just didn’t like to sleep in unfamiliar spaces?
“It didn’t move all night as far as I could tell,” Oboro told him. The Ustrik had trouble sleeping ever since an accident a few solar rotations ago. His tail was damaged, causing chronic pain, and though he tried to hide it, D’bi and N’muri knew he had nightmares too.
“Fantastic,” D’bi muttered sarcastically. Yet another unpredictable thing about it.
The Obl'vatrro jolted slightly when a handful of guards stomped down the cell blocks to pass out trays of food and water. When a pair came to his cell they looked surprised. “Huh, it didn’t kill you. How’d you manage that?”
D’bi just shrugged and the guard narrowed their eyes in suspicion. They opened the door and slid two trays of food closer to the Obl'vatrro. Then they rolled two bottles of water over to it as well. He hoped they’d choke on their food later for this kriffing stunt. “Good luck getting your food now,” the other one laughed. “Since you’ve tamed it, it shouldn’t be hard for you.”
The cell door locked again, leaving him with the dangerous creature that now held power over his food. Now what? The Obl'vatrro pulled one of the trays closer and picked up one of the nutrient pellets. It smelled the pellet, scrunched up its face, and put it back. Next, it grabbed one of the bottles of water and opened it. It had no problem drinking that.
After drinking almost a third of its water, the Obl'vatrro stood up. It carried one of the trays to the middle of the cell and went back for the second one and the other water bottle. It pushed them a bit closer to D’bi’s side before returning to its corner.
Slowly, D’bi retrieved both trays and the water and brought them back to his corner. The Obl'vatrro hadn’t moved while he’d done it, just watched him calmly. If it wasn’t going to eat, D’bi wasn’t going to argue with getting extra food. He was a little worried about what would happen later if it continued to refuse food though. It was calm now but it wasn’t starving yet.
He wasn’t sure what he’d do once it was.
Communicating with the presumed youngling was proving difficult but they had gotten names out of the way. H’zashi hadn’t been able to figure out how the Terran, Izuku, got out of its solar system but he gave up on that for now. He had managed to ask if it was hurt by pointing to it and overexaggerating a fake injury. If it actually understood, it indicated that its neck hurt.
An injured youngling with parents possibly on the way. Yay.
Izuku came closer to the bars separating them and H’zashi panicked when it tried to touch them. He motioned repeatedly for it to back up. It seemed confused but listened, sitting a short distance away. Och’ko gave the charades a try, feigning touching a bar and being electrocuted. Izuku seemed to understand, eyes widening as it murmured something unintelligible.
The lunar cycle came, announced by dimming lights, but Izuku didn’t seem to sleep. H’zashi fell asleep watching the youngling and wondering if it would lay down to rest eventually. Izuku seemed to still be wide awake the next solar cycle. It was a little concerning.
Soon enough, guards came with food and water. The youngling stood up fully for the first time. It was contorting its body way more than H’zashi originally thought. It was still small compared to himself or Ocha’ko or anyone really, but it was also unexpected. The ability to fold itself up that small would make it adept at stealth. It could hide anywhere.
The guard seemed just as spooked by Izuku standing as Izuku was by the guard coming into his space. The tray of nutrition pellets and water were dropped very close to the door and very far away from the youngling. Izuku continued to stand there tensely even after the door shut.
“It’s food and water,” H’zashi assured Izuku. “You can, um…”
His own cell opened as another guard dropped off food and water for him and his cellmates. He went to grab a tray and a bottle, returning to Izuku after to show it. He held up a pellet. “This is for eating. Food,” H’zashi explained before popping it into his mouth. Izuku perked up at that. “It's not very tasty but it's filling and has all the nutrients life forms need.”
The youngling hesitantly went to retrieve its own food and water. It was about to eat a pellet when it stopped and sniffed it instead. It looked back at H’zashi and he ate another pellet to show it was fine. “Food,” he said again.
Izuku attempted to repeat the word but didn’t get it quite right. It took several tries, going back and forth between them before Izuku managed it. “Food,” it garbled quietly. A little off but understandable. He made sure to clap to let them know they got it right.
It responded by baring its teeth at him, which made several of the beings in the surrounding cells gasp in shock. He couldn’t help that his own feathers puffed up in defensive fear. That action would normally be a threat display but Izuku’s immediate confusion toward everyone’s reaction made him think it hadn’t been meant that way.
Forcing his feathers to relax, H’zashi just held up another pellet and repeated ‘food’ before eating it. Then he motioned for Izuku to eat from its own tray. He did not expect the youngling to toss a pellet through the bars onto his tray with terrifying accuracy. “No, you eat it,” H’zashi insisted, pointing at the Terran. “Izuku food. Food for Izuku.”
Izuku’s mouth moved similarly to before but without the teeth as it tossed another pellet onto H’zashi’s tray. He tried to stop it from continuing but Izuku didn’t listen. “It's free food. Let it squander its chances,” an older being huffed. “It's better for everyone on this ship if it starves to death. That thing isn’t meant to be out of its solar system.”
“It didn’t ask to be taken prisoner by traffickers any more than you did,” H’zashi snapped in defense of the youngling.
“Yeah. And it hasn’t even done anything remotely threatening,” E’jirou added.
“Except the threat display,” Denki pointed out.
“I don’t think it meant it like that,” Och’ko argued. “It looked confused when everyone reacted badly.”
“Izuku, stop that,” H’zashi pleaded when the youngling threw another pellet onto his tray. He hid his tray behind a wing to block it from doing that again.
“Well, now you’ve angered it. Way to go,” the rude, old one mocked as Izuku’s eyes narrowed.
The Terran just changed its trajectory, now aiming for Och’ko’s tray. She squeaked in surprise when it hit its mark. Impressive aim, given that her tray was quite a bit further away than H’zashi’s. It only had a few more to throw, getting all of them on her tray, before it was out of nutrition pellets. Izuku bared its teeth again and opened the water bottle.
The bottle was sniffed before it took a few desperate gulps. At least it would drink the water.
Notes:
Hizashi: *valiantly trying to keep Izuku from starving*
Izuku: *is not going to eat the food lumps that smell like poison*Izuku: *smiles*
Denki: Did you see that? It threatened us!It's not explained since we aren't getting a human POV for a bit, but these pellets don't just smell unappetizing. They smell like actual poison. If you've ever smelled black mold on food, I'd compare it to that. (sharp, metallic, rancid, not something you consume ever)
And no, they are not safe for humans. It wouldn't kill them. Just makes them sick.
Chapter Text
After the whole food issue, Och’ko and H’zashi kept trying to communicate with the Terran. Izuku had picked up the word ‘water’ a little faster than ‘food.’ Och’ko managed to teach it her own name along with E’jirou’s, Denki’s, and the other youngling, Eri. They pointedly ignored the rude, old one who kept saying they were wasting their time.
“It does so much better when there’s something physical to show them as we say the words,” Och’ko noted. “If only we had some way to draw things.”
“Since you idiots are such bleeding hearts, why not use some of that blood?” the old one snarked. H’zashi shot him a glare for the comment. Although, if infections or blood loss weren’t a concern, he might have actually tried it.
Charades was ineffective since they couldn’t be sure it was actually interpreting the correct meaning. Communication barriers were such a pain.
“Maybe, if we’re gonna treat the Terran like an intelligent being, we should stop calling them an it,” E’jirou suggested, ignoring the old one. “It feels really rude to me, you know?”
“That’s true,” H’zashi agreed. “It, uh, they are clearly displaying behaviors consistent with higher life forms even if there is a difference in language. They even were able to give us their name.”
The old one scoffed but they all ignored him. The guards came and took the empty trays, though Izuku had been oddly defensive of theirs and the guard sent in to get it decided it wasn’t worth their time to fight a Terran for a dish. The youngling had seemed quite proud of themselves and placed the tray in a corner with their half-empty water bottle.
H’zashi tucked away the fact that Terrans probably have possessive or hoarding behaviors for later. They kept working on teaching Izuku with charades and by the next lunar cycle, they had learned yes, no, pain, feather, wing, claws, eyes, nose, feet, and tail. Yes, they resorted to working with body parts they had but there wasn’t much else in the cell with them.
When they learned ‘claws,’ Izuku showed off their own. They were short and blunt. They didn’t seem effective for defense but the important thing was that Izuku understood the word.
As they settled in for the lunar cycle, H’zashi tried to get Izuku to lay down and sleep. They laid down but he’s sure they just did that to humor him. They still didn’t seem tired. Did they not sleep ever? Were they just too nervous to sleep? He worried until he fell asleep himself.
He woke up abruptly to a blaring alarm. “H’zashi? What’s happening?” Och’ko asked, holding Eri close.
“I don’t know,” H’zashi replied. E’jirou and Denki seemed safe in their cell. He checked on Izuku next. Their cell was empty. “Izuku? Izuku where are you?”
Nearby prisoners started voicing worry at the absence of the Terran. “Did he get out or did they take him?” Denki questioned.
“He couldn’t have gotten out. The bars would have electrocuted him,” E’jirou pointed out.
The cell block remained in a state of confusion and fear, the alarms staying on until a team of five guards came. They all watched as they carried the Terran to their cell. Izuku was struggling and screeching. H’zashi was a little proud that they shouted ‘no’ a few times. The guards threw them into their cell roughly and once Izuku rolled to face him, H’zashi could see that they had been muzzled.
“What happened?” H’zashi demanded while Izuku writhed on the floor, holding their head in their hands.
“The delg thing escaped and bit someone. That monster looks harmless but it's not,” the guard sneered, already closing and locking the door to Izuku’s cell. The guards left quickly and the alarms turned off shortly after. Izuku went limp as soon as the sound stopped.
“Izuku?” H’zashi questioned. “Are you okay? Are you in pain?”
“Are you serious right now? It attacked someone,” the old one growled as Izuku sat up.
“Shut up!” H’zashi shouted. He felt bad when Izuku flinched. Okay, so, Terrans were sensitive to sound. He could work with that. “Izuku, youngling? Is there pain? Izuku pain?”
Izuku reached for the straps holding the muzzle on. “They’re going to hurt themselves,” E’jirou warned, having been stuck in one of those once. Before he was rescued by the school.
“Izuku, stop,” H’zashi warned, being careful to keep his voice gentle. He was ignored. Instead, he got to see Izuku easily unlock the straps and slip the muzzle off. That shouldn’t be possible. Especially without being able to see what you’re doing.
Now uncovered, H'zashi could see that the muzzle had cut up the sides of Izuku’s face. There was also a wound near the fur on top of their head like they had been hit with something blunt. Lastly, there was blood around their mouth, proving that they did bite someone.
The Terran glared at the muzzle for a little bit before adding it to the stash in the corner. A tray, a muzzle, and a water bottle. Definitely some sort of hoarding behavior.
“Is the monster okay?” Eri asked quietly, speaking for the first time since she gave her name.
Izuku stayed in the corner with their little hoard and curled up in a ball. Their face was leaking water now, which was concerning, but he couldn’t do anything from a separate cell. He felt a little relief when they closed their eyes and seemed to finally sleep. “I don’t know,” H’zashi admitted. “But we’ll be here for them if they aren’t.”
The alarm that woke him up was obnoxious but the information he got from it was invaluable. D’bi watched, intrigued, as the Obl'vatrro writhed on the floor. It held its hands over its head, or more likely, its ears. It was extremely agitated but was nearly immobile because of the sound.
If it finally decides to attack him, screaming at it might keep it from getting closer.
“It really hates that alarm,” N'muri commented as it started shoving its face into the ground.
“Noise is an effective deterrent,” D’bi nodded in agreement. He almost felt bad since the Obl'vatrro seemed to be in a lot of pain. It's not like it had actually done anything to him yet. It even gave him both their servings of nutrition pellets. But he didn’t know how to help anyway.
Eventually, the alarm stopped and the Obl'vatrro calmed down. It didn’t move, lying sprawled out at its full size instead of curling up like it usually did. Its breathing seemed a little off and there was water on its face. It took D’bi a moment to realize the liquid was coming from its eyes. There was a race that could secrete poison from glands below its eyes but this wasn’t quite the same. Was it poison or was it a sign of injury?
The Obl'vatrro passed out shortly after the alarm turned off. At least it was sleeping.
Shaking his head D’bi laid back down to get some more sleep. The lunar cycle wasn’t over and this whole fiasco woke him up from a perfectly good dream.
Once again, the Terran gave away its food and added the tray to its growing hoard. The guards were upset that Izuku had gotten the muzzle off but none of them wanted to go into his cell to do anything about it. H’zashi tried to ask how Izuku had gotten out but they didn’t understand.
Around the middle of the cycle, the guards returned with another prisoner. One H’zashi recognized. “Since you want to cause trouble, you can go straight in with the Terran,” a guard sneered. “It has a taste for blood. Bit one of my colleagues last night.”
Izuku was up and standing defensively near their hoard. As soon as the guard was out of sight, H’zashi called out for his mate. “A’zawa! You came!”
A’zawa huffed affectionately, getting as close to the bars as he could without getting electrocuted. “Of course, I came. But I got caught. They have a pretty big operation going here.”
“That’s fine. We’ll figure something out,” H’zashi said soothingly. “But can you do me a little favor since you’re in there?”
“What?” A’zawa asked, confusion in his voice.
“I need you to check on the Terran. Their name is Izuku and they were hurt last night,” H’zashi told him. “The guards muzzled them. They got it off but their face was bleeding.”
His mate didn’t bother to hide his surprise. “The Terran? Also known as the Obl'vatrro from the Oblivion planet? The species that singlehandedly wiped out conquerors no one else could stop? You want me to interact with it?
“I am pretty sure they’re a youngling. And we’ve been teaching them Standard,” H’zashi explained. “Izuku is intelligent, they just speak a different language. Please, just make sure the cuts aren’t too deep.”
With a tired sigh, A’zawa looked over at the Terran. Izuku tensed when they noticed his gaze.
Notes:
If only they had like... dirt or something. To draw in.
Or paper and pencil.
Too bad they don't.The rude, old one is just a random oc character. They aren't anyone in canon.
Shiggy @ the alarm: WTF IS THIS????
Hizashi: check on the dangerous creature
Aizawa: haha. funny joke.This paragraph from Izuku's POV in chapter 2:
He woke up in a cell, alone. There were other aliens in neighboring cells, but not in his. That was probably a good thing. He was much smaller than them. Most of them seemed to have claws or sharp teeth. Like the predators back home on Earth. Meaning they could probably eat him. >>Imagine being trapped in a cage with a lion. No, thank you…<<...It's funny because Aizawa's a giant cat. Like a lion. :D
Foreshadowing! :D
Chapter 5: Rule 5 - High Electrical Resistance
Chapter Text
It went against everything he knew to approach the Terran but his mate asked him to. He would die for H’zashi without question. Apparently, that might be today.
The Terran shrunk down as he approached, contorting itself into a smaller shape. Was it coiling up for an attack or was this purely a defensive move? He kept up his approach, keeping an eye on its body language in case it attacked. Instead of attacking though, it squeaked and fell over.
This was the ruthless creature that struck terror into the Council?
“Izuku, it’s okay. No pain,” H’zashi reassured from his cell. The little thing was shaking by the time A’zawa got close enough to grab its face. Gently, so that it wouldn’t bite. His fingers weren’t as dexterous as H’zashi’s or E’jirou’s but they were enough. The Terran didn’t react aside from squeezing its eyes shut as he turned its head to inspect the cuts.
“They’re all shallow,” A’zawa reported. He brought his face closer to see if it smelled of infection yet and that turned out to be a mistake. The Terran shoved him away with unexpected strength and bolted toward H’zashi, moving with more speed than A’zawa would have expected from it.
He thought it would stop just before the bars but it didn’t. He and H’zashi both panicked when it reached out to grab one. H’zashi started flailing his wings and telling it ‘no’ and ‘pain’ repeatedly but it wasn’t deterred. The Terran started shoving itself through the bars.
None of the signs of electrocution came though. No muscle spasms or burning flesh. There was a slight whining from the Terran but it didn’t seem to be in pain. It only lasted a few blinks before it successfully wiggled and pulled itself through into H’zashi’s cell. The other occupants backed up quickly, aside from H’zashi, Och’ko, and a kit holding Och’ko’s leg.
“Well… Now we know how they got out,” H’zashi muttered, not hesitating to reach out and hold the Terran. It tensed for a few blinks before melting into the embrace. H’zashi gently ran a hand over the green fur on its head. “You’re okay, Izuku. That’s A’zawa. He’s my mate. He would never hurt you.”
He might if it ever hurt his mate or their students. But of course, H’zashi would be the one to bond with a restricted and dangerous species. His mate always had a soft spot for kits. That’s why he became a teacher and later convinced A’zawa to become one too.
“When you’re done petting it, it needs to come back to this cell,” A’zawa warned. “You said it already escaped once. Eventually, the guards will figure it out and find a way to keep it from getting out again. If we keep this secret, we can break everyone out when the time is right.”
H’zashi looked conflicted but agreed. He brought the Terran back to the bars and pointed at A’zawa. “That’s A’zawa, okay? A’zawa.”
“Aizwa,” the Terran repeated, surprising him. Sure H’zashi said it was learning but he hadn’t realized that meant it was speaking too.
“A’zawa.”
“Aizawa?”
“A’zawa.”
“A’zawa?”
“Yes, good!” H’zashi praised. “A’zawa. No pain.”
The Terran seemed uncertain as H’zashi pushed him forward. It gave in though, slipping back through the bars. It still didn’t seem comfortable with A’zawa, retreating back toward a small pile of random things. But now that A’zawa knew it could slip out like that, he would help teach it Standard. If they could communicate with it, they could convince it to help them escape.
The aliens slept a lot. To be fair, Izuku knew that planetary rotations differed on each planet. A day on Jupiter was only 10 hours while a day on Mercury was 1,408 hours. Humans evolved to sleep at night just because of the lack of light before electricity. These aliens simply evolved to follow a shorter day than humans. It made perfect sense to him.
While they were sleeping, again , he got bored and decided to inspect his cell. The pink and black alien that reminded him of a dragonfly had conveyed ‘electrified cell’ pretty well with its charades. They had electric fences on Earth. He wasn’t sure the technology was used in prisons like this though. Either way, he should get a closer look. See if there’s a dead spot.
He braced himself for pain, or to possibly be blown back, and reached a single finger out to poke a bar. His finger only buzzed with a prickle of electricity. Pressing his whole hand to the bar, the sensation spread but stayed minor. It kind of felt like Tenko’s TENS unit. His brother had a bit of chronic pain from his flying and space adventures. The little machine helped.
Tenko had let him use it once when he sprained his ankle. It used ‘low-level currents’ to relieve pain. Why did it hurt the aliens here? There are critters, like the electric eel, that are built with more electrical resistance. Maybe the aliens’ electrical resistance is just really, really low.
It didn’t really matter. What mattered was the fact that he might be able to fit through the bars now that electrocution wasn’t a concern. And he did if he went sideways and shimmied. Looking around, no one else was awake to witness that. He considered getting the nice aliens out but he didn’t have keys. Maybe he’d find keys while looking for his brother.
He did not find keys and he did not find his brother. There were lots of cells in sets of 10 or so, lined up to create a series of hallways. It kind of reminded him of an animal shelter he went to once. After the cells, there was a room that seemed to be full of guards judging by the voices coming out of it. Probably some kind of breakroom with a large window overlooking the cells.
Apparently, no one was paying attention to the window since he slipped right past. Beyond that was a hallway with more doors. What they were, he wasn’t sure since most were locked and he couldn’t read the signs on the doors. At the end of that hallway was a giant set of double doors. There weren’t any handles to open it so it was probably mechanical.
“Stupid spaceship tech,” Izuku muttered, kicking the door in frustration. He looked up at the wall next to it for a button or something. “What now?”
A shout came from behind him and he turned to see one of the guards in the hallway. They pressed something affixed to their hip and an alarm went off. It was painfully loud and made his head ring immediately. Several more guards approached and he tried to run while holding his hands over his ears. There was nowhere to go though. He wound up cornered.
One of them tried to pull his hands away from his head but that only made the alarm louder. He turned his head and closed his teeth on the hand that was making the alarm worse. The alien started shrieking and something hit him in the head, pushing him away. His stomach rolled when he felt scaly skin tear away in his teeth. Grimacing, he spit it out.
They ganged up on him after that to restrain him and force something onto his head. Suddenly he was being carried and after being thrown, he found himself back in his cell. The alarm was still going and it was unbearable. When it finally turned off, he let himself go limp.
H’zashi was trying to talk to him but his ears were ringing. Another alien started talking. It sounded like it was arguing with H’zashi. He sat up and felt the thing on his face. Some sort of muzzle? Right, because he bit someone. Reaching behind his head, he felt along the straps until he came to some sort of twisting buckle. It was easy to get off, at least.
He put the muzzle in his corner of ‘potentially useful things’ and curled into a ball next to his stuff. His new headache drove tears down his cheeks. He was ready to sleep now.
The next morning, he gave away the strange food chunks that smelled more like toxins than any edible material he’s ever encountered. H’zashi seemed distressed that Izuku wasn’t eating but he didn’t want to risk poisoning himself.
Removing his muzzle upset the guards but he didn’t care. He was starting to gather that they were just as scared of him as the other prisoners. He was still trying to figure out why.
H’zashi kept talking to him, trying to ask something, but their communication was still stunted. Learning words was slow with no physical objects to name and differing body language. The aliens didn’t particularly like it when he smiled, for example.
Later that day, the guards came back. This time they had another alien and they were bringing it to his cell. His earlier thoughts have come back to bite him in the ass because they were carrying a black lion alien. Because even space has irony.
Aizawa looks like this but all black.
Also, this is Eri. But silver fur, white skin, and red eyes/flowers.
Chapter Text
Bakugou (Scokien) and Toga (Vresten)
Izuku stood tensed and ready to run as the giant, feline alien was pushed into his cell. It glanced at him briefly but focused on H’zashi. The bird-like alien called out for the cat-like one. More irony… Because cats and birds… Anyway… The new alien approached the bars to talk to H’zashi. They talked back and forth for a bit. Izuku perked up when he heard his name.
A moment later he heard it a second time and then the cat turned to look at him. He tensed in fear. When the cat alien started walking toward him, he shrunk down. Maybe if he looked small and unthreatening, it would leave him alone. Too soon, it was within reach. A small squeak of terror escaped him and he fell over, trying to back up.
“Izuku, --- ----. No pain,” H’zashi said from its cell. Was it saying that the cat would kill him painlessly? He trembled when the cat grabbed his face, claws pressing into his skin but not hurting him. This seemed more like it was toying with him than giving him a quick and painless death. He squeezed his eyes shut while it turned his face one way and then the other.
It said something and suddenly its breath was ghosting over his face. He didn’t want to be eaten! He pushed at it and was surprised when the wall of fur and muscle actually moved back. Then he bolted toward H’zashi’s cell. H’zashi had been nice so far so it probably wouldn’t eat him. Right?
“No! Pain! Izuku, pain! No!” H’zashi shouted as Izuku reached for the bars. As far as it knew, the bars were dangerous so its reaction made sense. Still, he shimmied through the bars until he was safely away from the cat alien. H’zashi said something quietly before grabbing Izuku.
He tensed again, not expecting to be grabbed, but then he realized it was holding him like a hug. Relaxing against H’zashi, he decided he might be a little touch starved. He’d been stressed and on edge ever since he woke up here and the claws now gently tugging through his hair were comforting. It couldn’t last though, and H’zashi started pushing Izuku back toward his cell.
H’zashi taught him the new alien’s name. It turned out they knew each other. A’zawa. H’zashi repeated ‘no pain’ and pushed him even closer to his cell. It wanted him to go back for some reason. But maybe ‘no pain’ didn’t mean ‘painless death’ in this case. Maybe he meant that A’zawa wouldn’t hurt him. Hopefully. Taking the chance, he returned to his cell.
The new alien didn’t approach him this time. Izuku headed over to his corner with his stuff. A’zawa still made him nervous, even with H’zashi’s assumed reassurances.
The Obl'vatrro still wasn’t eating. D’bi was not worried.
…Okay. Maybe a little. It had already gone three rotations without food. He tried to refuse the third tray of nutrition pellets the human pushed at him, but it wouldn’t touch them even when he left it there. A guard wound up taking it when they came to collect the trays.
It barely moved, only occasionally getting up to inspect the cells. It didn’t fit through the bars but it was still trying to get out. It tried the door as if it could break the lock or something. Then he woke up one night to see it on the kriffing ceiling like something out of nightmares. Apparently, it could climb the bars with ease and checked up there for an escape route.
“It hasn’t hurt you yet, so maybe it's tame?” N’muri suggested.
“Or it could be a calmer variation,” Oboro said next. “Like a version that evolved alongside the Obl'vatrros but it isn’t as violent.”
“Or it's luring you into a false sense of security. That’s what I would do,” a Vresten purred. D’bi looked at her and pointedly ignored Keigo, the idiot that shared her cell. The idiot that got him captured by the traffickers. Keigo didn’t react. He knew he fucked up.
“It is deceptive about its size,” N’muri agreed. “What’s your name?”
“Me? I’m H’miko,” the Vresten replied. “That thing’s behavior is odd but some of it reminds me of my people. I’d guess that it relies on stealth, trapping, and evasion tactics. It’s probably smarter than you think too.”
“If it’s so smart, why would it refuse food,” D’bi scoffed.
H’miko looked at the Obl'vatrro appraisingly. “If it’s not eating, it has a reason. That reason is just unknown to us.”
“Sure…” D’bi huffed, uncertain. Maybe it was just fasting so it could eat him easier.
A’zawa narrowed his eyes when the Terran poured its nutrition pellets onto his tray. It carried the now empty tray back to its corner. “Not again,” H’zashi sighed.
“What?” A’zawa asked, looking between his mate and the Terran.
“Izuku hasn’t eaten once since they got here,” H’zashi informed him. “I’m getting worried.”
“Maybe Terrans don’t eat as much?” A’zawa suggested.
“It’s been three rotations,” H’zashi countered. That was a long time. Even on planets where the rotations took significantly longer than the standard measurement adopted by the Council, the inhabitants just ate more meals per rotation.
Eyeing the Terran in its corner, fiddling with its hoard, he came to a conclusion. “I’m gonna have to force-feed the galaxy’s most dangerous creature.”
“Stop calling them a creature,” H’zashi huffed. “They’ve proven to be beings like us. And don’t call them ‘it’ anymore. Okay?”
That was… fair. “Fine. But that doesn’t change the fact that they are dangerous. Next to nothing is actually known about them. Their communication, their instincts, their customs. If I offend them or trigger a defensive instinct, I’m kriffed.”
“There are younglings present,” H’zashi frowned, glancing over at Eri. “And I think not shoving food down Izuku’s throat is an obvious ‘do not attempt.’ Just make sure they understand that it's food and that they need to eat some. Do some charades. They know the word ‘food.’”
“Fine,” A’zawa relented. He pushed his tray forward so that he could move a little closer to the Terran. They noticed almost immediately and turned to watch him. He looked back at H’zashi and his mate just nodded encouragingly. Very slowly, he moved a little closer.
He held out a nutrition pellet. “Food. This is food.”
“No,” the Terran responded quickly.
“It’s food,” A’zawa insisted, before eating one to show the Terran that it was edible.
“A’zawa food.” His heart dropped. They thought he was food? “No Izuku food.”
A’zawa really hoped the Terran just meant that the pellets were for him. “It’s food for Izuku too. They gave us two trays. Two food. Food for A’zawa, food for Izuku.”
The Terran shook their head. “A’zawa food. No Izuku food. Izuku food no A’zawa food. A’zawa food pain Izuku.” They then snatched a pellet and mimed eating it before pretending to choke and die. Gruesome, but it got the point across. They were doing well enough with their limited vocabulary. He could admit it was a little impressive.
“I think our food is poisonous to them, H’zashi,” he told his mate.
“What?” H’zashi squawked. “But those are designed to suit every species despite varying nutritional needs.”
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s like an allergy?” A’zawa guessed. “Even if the nutrients would work, there could be an ingredient that they can’t have.”
“If they don’t eat, they’ll starve!” H’zashi exclaimed, ruffling his feathers in worry.
“We can ask the guards for something else for them, but since they intended for them to eat me, I don’t think they’ll be accommodating…” A’zawa mulled over aloud.
“Izuku hasn’t eaten you despite obviously being hungry, so maybe we can argue that they would die if they don’t find something else for them to eat,” Och’ko proposed. “A Terran is probably incredibly valuable to traffickers. They’d be stupid to let them die.”
“Sounds like a plan,” A’zawa agreed, looking toward the hallway the guards usually came from. “I’ll ask the next time they come by.”
While they waited, he ate his own food and shared Izuku’s portion with the others. He watched the Terran as they picked up the muzzle and started tearing it apart with unexpected care. They weren’t just tearing it apart to be destructive. He couldn’t tell what they intended to do but he could tell they had some sort of plan for the pieces.
The wires of the cage that fit over the mouth were carefully pried apart. It shouldn’t have been as easy as the Terran made it look since the wires were welded together, and yet… The muzzle was torn apart into individual pieces. The Terran even took the time to straighten them out.
Terrans were known for cannibalizing the Dresquill’s ships and weapons. Perhaps their lack of natural defenses forced them to become adept at creating tools. If that was the case, was Izuku making weapons right now?
Just what was this odd being up to?
Notes:
Misunderstandings :D
Tenko crawling on the ceiling and accidentally terrorizing Dabi.
Their current rotation is short enough that they eat one meal a day. Snacks optional.
Aizawa being mildly horrified that Izuku can fake his death convincingly.
Izuku has come up with a plan for his hoard items. :D
What will he make?
Chapter 7: Rule 7 - They're Smart and Strong
Chapter Text
“You need to bring other food for the Terran. It can’t eat the nutrition pellets,” A’zawa told the next passing guard.
“It’s meant to eat you, Ael'ied,” the guard scoffed.
“Well, it’s not eating me and I doubt your higher-ups would be very happy if a Terran starved to death on your watch,” A’zawa sneered. “The only Terran seen outside the Oblivion galaxy and you let it waste away because you were too lazy to ensure they had sustenance that wouldn’t poison them. That would go over really well, wouldn’t it?”
“That’s not the only Terran,” the guard replied offhandedly, though they seemed to be considering A’zawa’s words. “I’ll bring something tomorrow if it still hasn’t eaten you.”
“What do you mean they aren’t the only Terran?” A’zawa demanded, only to be ignored as the guard left. He let out a huff of irritation. Looking over at the Terran, they had hidden whatever they were working on with their hoard. It looked like a haphazard pile of junk again.
He approached the Terran slowly, hoping they would be opposed to learning more words. They eyed him warily but didn’t react other than to say, “No pain.”
“No pain,” A’zawa agreed. The Terran relaxed a bit at the confirmation.
Settling in front of the Terran, with a bit of space between them, A’zawa took a claw to the floor. He drew a simple rendition of a planet. The Terran scrunched themselves up a bit at the sound of his claws on the metal floor. Understandable. It was an uncomfortable sound.
“Planet. A’zawa planet is named Ael’lea,” A’zawa explained in as few words as possible. The Terran blinked up at him blankly before looking at the drawing again. “Planet,” A’zawa repeated.
The Terran grabbed one of the wires from their hoard and mimicked A’zawa, drawing something into the floor. Terra. A’zawa could recognize it. Pictures had been taken by remote-manned ships of all the planets in that system. Terra was the only one with lifeforms.
“ Earth, ” the Terran said once it had finished. Like their name, Izuku, the word sounded unfamiliar and difficult to replicate. It started drawing again, this time ending up with a crude map of their solar system. They pointed to each of the planets. “Planet Mercury , planet Venus , planet Earth , planet Mars , planet Jupiter , planet Saturn , planet Uranus , planet Neptune .”
Even if the names were unfamiliar, it was clear that the Terran picked up the word ‘planet’ without a problem. A’zawa pointed to Terra on their map. “Planet Terra. Izuku from Terra.”
Their face scrunched up again. It didn’t seem aggressive so A’zawa continued. “A’zawa from planet Ael’lea.”
“Ael’lea…” Izuku repeated quietly. “H’zashi from planet Ael’lea?”
This kit picked up the language really well. Were all Terrans like this? He pushed down the swell of pride he abruptly felt for the clever little kit that his mate imprinted on. “No. H’zashi from planet Teyama.”
“Denki from planet Teyama?” Izuku asked. Denki squawked in alarm from his cell, clearly not expecting to be mentioned.
“Yes!” H’zashi chirped from his own cell. “Denki is from Teyama! Oh, A’zawa, they’re so smart! You see? I knew it!”
They froze when Izuku mimicked H’zashi’s happy chirp perfectly. A’zawa couldn’t even do that.
“Oh, kriff. That’s creepy,” another prisoner muttered. Mimicry of vocalizations unique to a species was… usually a trait of a predator. A way to lure prey by tricking them into thinking one of their own is out there. But Izuku wasn’t just mimicking Standard. They used it to ask their own questions. But given how different their own language sounded, this skill was probably how they were able to pronounce Standard so quickly.
A’zawa ignored the other prisoner and tried to force his fear-risen fur down. The Terran seemed to understand that they scared everyone. A’zawa tried to distract them with more pictures and words. He drew a simple single-pilot ship. “Ship. For travel. Ship.”
“Ssship,” Izuku tried. A’zawa went over it with them until they got it. He was able to teach them several more words before they seemed to grow agitated. The lights were dimming anyway as they neared the lunar cycle, so he ended their lessons for now.
The Terran returned their attention to their hoard. A’zawa curled up to sleep and watched them for a bit. They were taking the wires and scratching lines down the trays. He wasn’t sure what the point of that would be. He fell asleep before he could find out.
The first change in the Obl'vatrro occurred during their 4th shared mealtime. For some reason, the guards had brought something new for the Obl'vatrro, having apparently given up on it eating either the pellets or D’bi. He still got pellets on his tray but there were small amounts of different fresh foods on the Obl'vatrro’s tray.
He briefly considered taking it but the way the Obl'vatrro eyed it with interest made him pretty sure it might fight him for it. It retrieved the tray after D’bi got his and then it sat down and inspected the new foods. A fruit was picked up first, though D’bi had been sure it would go for the meat. It sniffed, licked, then ate the fruit, pausing between the first two actions.
The process was repeated on a second fruit but it failed the lick test. It picked up an aquatic vegetable next that failed the sniff test. Smelling and tasting the foods seemed very important to the Obl'vatrro as it worked its way through the tray. Of all the little bits of different foods, two fresh fruits, a dried fruit, a root vegetable, and a piece of dried meat were accepted. The raw meat wasn’t even picked up and neither were the Loquats. But D’bi didn’t care for those either.
Finished, the Obl'vatrro pushed the tray of rejected options across the cell. When it fled back to its corner, D’bi went to get it. He handed off what he didn’t like to Kats’ki and Oboro.
The second change in the Obl'vatrro occurred midway through the solar cycle. Three guards came to their cell, one pointing their electric baton at the Obl'vatrro and the other two advancing toward D’bi. “Get up, prisoner,” one ordered. He couldn’t back up, surrounded by an electrified cell. But fighting them wouldn’t end well either. Their weapons discharged nearly the same voltage as the cell. One hit would seriously injure him and even kill other species.
He stood slowly, not seeing a safe way out other than compliance. Each guard grabbed one of his arms to drag him out. He had only managed a few stumbling steps after their harsh pulls when the third guard screamed, sudden and desperate.
Looking over, he saw their arm firmly lodged in the Obl'vatrro’s teeth as they beat it once, twice, three times with the baton. It bit down harder, the guard’s skin squishing down unnaturally as if the bone had melted away. On the fourth swing, the Obl'vatrro grabbed the weapon and turned it, jabbing it into the guard’s chest. They seized with the electricity, their body jerking and pulling their arm from the Obl'vatrro’s mouth. Only half of the limb stayed in its jaws.
The guard it attacked fell limply to the floor, probably dead, and the partial arm followed a moment later when the Obl'vatrro spit it out. It gave the limb a look similar to the one it gave the rejected foods earlier in the day. Disgust, most likely. Then its gaze moved to D’bi and the other two guards. The guards dropped him to hold up their weapons defensively.
Circling the cell, the Obl'vatrro made its way over to them. The selfish cowards left D’bi there and tried to leave the cell without turning their backs to the predator. One bent to pick up the corpse of their co-worker, leaving the arm in their haste.
D’bi tried not to draw attention to himself as the Obl'vatrro finally settled within reaching distance of him. It was armed now even if it clearly didn’t need the weapon. The cell door shut and locked with a condemning click. He was trapped here with it now.
A sudden clatter had him flinching and snapping his eyes shut. He didn’t want to watch it eat him. The Obl'vatrro made a huffing sound above him before soft footsteps indicated that it had left. He opened his eyes slowly, finding the electric baton in front of him and the Obl'vatrro heading back to its usual corner. It seemed agitated as it used the last of its water to rinse out its mouth, spitting blood-tinged water out on the floor.
“It protected you…” N’muri whispered in awe as the Obl'vatrro wiped the blood off its face, staining the arm of its garment green. “And you have a weapon now.”
“Yeah…” D’bi replied, looking back at the electrified baton. “Maybe that thing isn’t so bad after all.”
“Except it totally took that guard’s arm off. How strong do you think it is?” Oboro asked.
“Doesn’t matter if it’s on our side,” Kats’ki pointed out.
Notes:
Underlined italics are "Human" btw.
(Japanese, English, doesn't matter. Just human for ease.)
I think I need to go back and edit the one or two times 'human' was spoken.
They're just in italics right now.Izuku just building his vocabulary and making stuff.
Shiggy... well... not so much.Fun fact: Loquats would be like slugs. Or something similar.
Guards: *try to take D'bi*
Shiggy: Fuck you, that's my emotional support dragon.Shiggy: eewww wtf!?!?! WHy is it SquiShy?!?!?!
Because Shiggy's jaw muscles exude more pressure than that alien's density could withstand.
Chapter Text
By the time A’zawa woke up, the Terran had cut a few of their collected trays into strips. When they noticed him tiredly watching them, they dropped the strips. “A’zawa! Happy awake!”
A’zawa couldn’t help the amused rumble that escaped him after hearing the Terran’s patchwork greeting built from their limited vocabulary. “Have a pleasant first-light,” he corrected. “Happy awake is have a pleasant first-light.”
A full sentence was harder for them, but the Terran managed it after a few slow repetitions. “Happy asleep?” they asked.
“Have a pleasant half-light,” A’zawa told them. They picked that up quicker since only one word was different. When the others began to stir only a little later, the Terran was very happy to show off their new phrase. H’zashi chirped with glee and, of course, the Terran mimicked him.
As promised, the guard brought different food for the Terran at mealtime. There were small amounts of several different foods on the tray. A simple way of determining what the Terran would eat in the least amount of time possible. “Izuku, food,” A’zawa prompted. Once the Terran was seated within reach of him, he pointed to a vegetable, saying the name of it.
The Terran picked it up and sniffed it before scrunching up their face. That made sense for a predator but he’d hoped it could learn to like plant-based foods. After they put the vegetable back, A’zawa pointed out a piece of raw meat. They didn’t seem very impressed when they tried to pick it up. Apparently ‘touch’ was a test food could fail since the meat was dropped quickly.
He was quietly pleased when they picked up a piece of fruit on their own. A’zawa made sure to say the name of it. They sniffed it and apparently it passed. Then they licked it, another test that it passed. They ate it with a humming sound that he would guess indicated contentment. He was starting to doubt the predator theory when a second fruit passed their tests.
It came back when they accepted some dried meat. An omnivore then. Was the meat from before rejected due to what kind it was or because it was raw? It would be important to know. If Terrans just didn’t eat raw meat, maybe that meant it wouldn’t mindlessly hunt and eat other beings. At least not until it had the means to cook what it caught. Definitely an important distinction.
After a dried fruit and a root vegetable, everything else was rejected. A’zawa and H’zashi split the fresher foods up between their students and the other kit. The Terran took their tray once it was empty and added it to their hoard. “I’m just glad they finally ate,” H’zashi said quietly as he watched the Terran work on their unidentified project. “I was getting really worried.”
“They didn’t seem to be getting sick, so it was probably fine,” A’zawa dismissed.
“You don’t know that. We don’t really know anything about them,” H’zashi huffed.
His mate had a point.
“So uh…” D’bi tried, flinching when the Obl'vatrro looked up at him. Its eyes were red like Kats’ki’s. Maybe a little darker around the edges, a second color bleeding into them. Was that typical for its species?
“This is stupid,” D’bi whispered to his companions in the other cells.
“No, no, it’s fine! We want it on our side,” N’muri whispered back.
“It doesn’t even talk,” D’bi complained.
“Just try,” Oboro encouraged him.
“Do you have a name?” D’bi asked the Obl'vatrro, knowing full well it didn’t understand him. “I’m D’bi. That’s my name.”
The Obl'vatrro just stared at him, so he put his hand on his chest. “D’bi. I am D’bi.”
He repeated this a few more times before the Obl'vatrro mimicked his motions, patting its own chest. “Tenko.”
“Ooh, that’s progress!” N’muri exclaimed. “Maybe it understands charades?”
“I don’t care. All we need to do is figure out how to ask it not to hurt us,” D’bi replied. “Maybe form an alliance. If not, at least a truce. We aren’t going to befriend it.”
“We could keep it as a pet,” Kats’ki grinned. “Sic it on the guards.”
D’bi sighed tiredly. He just wanted to get home safely.
“How old are you?” H’zashi asked. “Like um, how many solar rotations?”
Izuku tilted their head in confusion. “ Earth rotation different. Don’t know.”
“Infant, juvenile, adolescent, or adult,” his mate interjected, scratching something into the floor. A crude drawing of the life cycles most species went through.
Eyeing it for a moment, Izuku pointed to the third drawing. “More big than smaller.”
“So about our age?” Och’ko inferred, understandably surprised. Izuku was tiny compared to all of them. They were only a little bigger than Eri. “What about male or female? Which are you?”
“Who carries your younglings, or infants,” H’zashi clarified. Although, there were a few species where males carried, or both did, or a third sex was present… Or more. This was just the most common reproduction model. A starting point for basic information.
“Infants? The babies? ” Izuku pointed at the infant in A’zawa’s drawing.
“Yes! Who grows the younglings?” H’zashi prompted. “A’zawa can’t you draw something else.”
“No,” A’zawa replied flatly. Apparently, the Terran had the same idea as H’zashi though. Izuku scratched at the floor with one of their wires, drawing a very round Terran and tiny Terran youngling in what should be their abdomen. So they carried live young.
“Yes, that’s a female. The mother,” H’zashi chirped. “Which are you? Female, the mother, or male?”
Izuku muttered something to themselves in the Terran language before answering. “Male.”
“Are you the only species on Terra?” H’zashi asked next.
A few more cycles passed, with the guards bringing fruits and dried meat for Izuku. A’zawa and the others kept teaching the kit Standard. He, as they learned, was doing incredibly well with the language. The trays in their hoard and the strips they had made started to disappear. A’zawa asked about them but the Terran wouldn’t tell him. That or he lacked the words.
Either way, when guards approached the cells sooner than they normally would, it put all of them on edge. “Some of you will be transferred for sale,” one of them announced as the rest stood in pairs outside certain cells. “You can cooperate or you can be tranquilized.”
A’zawa growled as a pair of guards entered his cell. They wouldn’t be taking his, er, the kit away from him. He promised H’zashi he’d help take care of Izuku.
An invading guard raised a tranquilizer, pointing it at him. “You’re both going. Don’t make this hard. We can’t keep feeding it special food and we certainly don’t need someone like you here either. You’re just the inconvenience that broke onto our ship.”
Growling again, he took a step forward, prepared to fight, even if it was a pointless battle. The guard sighed and moved forward to tranquilize him. Before he got the chance to pounce, they jolted, stumbling back. Vibrant, green blood spilled onto the floor from their throat, where a piece of metal now jutted out of them.
They fell forward, presumably dead, and Shouta could see metal sticking out from the back of their neck too. It had gone clean through, severing their spinal cord. Decapitation without actually losing their head. Both A’zawa and the remaining guard turned to Izuku who stood there, twirling one of those metal strips between his dexterous fingers. Well, shit…
Izuku shifted his eyes from the metal he was spinning to the remaining guard and bared his teeth. It was far more threatening now than the way he usually did it. “Pain? Pain sleep?”
Somehow that was more terrifying than if the Terran had access to any multitude of violent words. The other guard backed up, leaving their colleague and shutting the cell door. They pulled out a communicator to request gear and backup. “We’re going to have to tranquilize the Terran from outside the cell. Bring something more long-range.”
Backup arrived. When they tried to shoot the kit, A’zawa leaped in front of him, blocking the bullet. He had a minute or two before it would kick in. H’zashi chirped anxiously in his own cell as A’zawa growled again. “That’s my fucking cat!” Izuku screamed at the guards in Terran, before throwing the metal they held through the bars with pinpoint accuracy.
Another guard fell and the guards tried to sedate Izuku again but A’zawa blocked that one too, swatting it down with a paw. Another piece of metal glinted overhead as A’zawa stumbled on his paws, the drug starting to disrupt his sense of balance. He swatted down two more bullets and Izuku took out another guard. When he finally went down, Izuku jumped over him.
Before A’zawa was fully pulled into that drugged sleep, he saw Izuku take five bullets and keep going , downing three more guards with his metal strips and bizarre throwing accuracy. He was still going strong when A’zawa closed his eyes and he feared he’d overdose before he’d stop.
Notes:
Feeding the Terran and educating the Terran! :D
Progress with D'bi's crew and their Terran.
Alien Birds and Bees Talk: Lite Version
Izuku muttered something to themselves in the Terran language before answering. “Male.”
^^^ Izuku was wondering if they had a concept of gender vs sex like humans and how well that actually translates between their languages.Aizawa: Where are your things going?
Izuku, in Terran: Pockets!! :DIzuku: Pain? :D Pain sleep? :D Sleep forever??? :D
The Guards: wtf RETREAT!!! D:Just to clarify, Aizawa only got shot and dosed once.
The first time he wasn't close enough to just swat it down so he got hit.Me, writing this chapter: Izuku can kill someone. As a little treat :)
Chapter Text
H’zashi watched in horror as Izuku was struck with dart after dart while he slaughtered the guards outside his cell. Many were starting to take cover or use each other as shields. After ten tranquilizers, Izuku started missing his targets. He only let two fall before he stopped, probably not wanting to waste his ammo. He shook his head, stumbling slightly.
The guards didn’t want to take any chances, so they shot him again. And again. And again.
It took 13 regular doses of sedative to finally take down a Terran. And Izuku was still an adolescent. His kind could potentially get bigger. How much would it take to stop an adult Terran?
Izuku fell against A’zawa, disappearing from H’zashi’s view, his green hair peeking out from just above A’zawa’s black fur. A guard gave the order to restrain Izuku and remove the two inhabitants from the cell.
When H’zashi’s cell door opened, he chose to cooperate so that he could go with.
Space jail was stupid.
After failing to get out, Tenko had just waited for something. Anything. He memorized how often the guards walked by. He painstakingly counted the seconds when he realized there was an actual schedule. Five hours of light and five hours of dark. Assuming he didn’t screw up his counting at any point.
The alien wardens brought food and water. Their food smelled like this one time that he lost a muffin under his bed for about a year and it grew black mold. So yeah, he refused to eat it.
There was that one time when an alarm had gone off for some reason. That had been somewhat interesting. It fucking hurt. His dragon roommate didn’t seem as bothered, behaving how Tenko probably would at a fire alarm back home. But to him? It was unbearable. It drove him to tears and he ultimately passed out. It hadn’t happened again since.
He tried to find a way out, looking for loose bars and checking out the locks. One night, he even climbed the bars while his dragon roommate was asleep to see if there was a way out from the top. There wasn’t. One of the creepy snake people nearby watched him at night. Tenko stuck his tongue out at them when they hissed at him after he climbed up. Stupid snake…
Eventually, his captors figured out he wouldn’t eat the mold food, and they brought something else. He avoided what didn’t smell or taste right, hoping for the best of the things he did eat. Raw, purple meat? Questionable. Some kind of pink and orange slugs? Absolutely not. The things that were likely fruit were fine. He liked the almost carrot. And they had jerky.
The rest of it, he gave to his dragon roommate as a peace offering.
At one point, some of the wardens came in, like they usually do, only this time they tried to take the alien dragon. When the dragon started struggling, Tenko decided that helping them might earn him some kind of favor with it. So he attacked the guard that had tried to keep him back.
Aliens are… really fucking squishy. Their weapons didn’t really phase him, but it killed one when he snatched it and used it against them. As it fell, its arm tore off. It was disgusting. It tasted disgusting. These fuckers were fragile. That changed some things. He could hurt them and escape to find Izuku.
He might need help though, so he armed the dragon. It was also a second peace offering.
Unfortunately, his plans were ruined. His captors drugged him and took the weapon from his dragon roommate while he was unconscious. They left the dragon with him though. Maybe he earned the dragon somehow?
As annoying as his plans being foiled was, it was also a little funny because they all seemed shocked by how much of their sedatives it took to knock him out.
They didn’t open the cell door anymore. Food and water were delivered through the bars, pushed by sticks. He tried to grab the sticks but they pulled back as soon as he started to approach. It was starting to piss him off. Maybe next time he’ll take more than an arm.
He wouldn’t get the chance though. Not on this ship.
No, the next time they’d open the door, they’d drug him first. Clever bastards.
A’zawa woke up with familiar claws tugging through his fur in a soothing motion. He rumbled quietly at the gesture. “Welcome back,” H’zashi said softly. “They moved us.”
Abruptly, he remembered he was not at home. He infiltrated a trafficker ship and got captured because he underestimated their numbers. Opening his eyes and looking around, he could see that he was now in a large cell with H’zashi and their students. A small, but dense body was pressed into his side. Izuku. Oboro and N’muri, D’bi and Keigo, and even Kats’ki were here.
There were a few unfamiliar beings too, and Eri was tucked against Och’ko. There was a second cage across a wide path with even more prisoners. A few spectators and some of their guards stood on the path between the two cages. They were in a merchant tent. This was a black market operation, always moving from distant planet to distant planet.
“There’s a second Terran,” H’zashi warned. “Oboro said it took 17 tranquilizer darts to sedate it. Izuku took 13. We’ve been swapping very different stories about our Terrans.”
“How different?” A’zawa asked although he was glaring at the spectators who eyed them.
“They said theirs doesn’t talk. They don’t move much, but can apparently climb the cell bars and hang out on the ceiling.” A’zawa shivered at the horrifying thought. “They don’t hoard anything. They tore the arm off a guard and took multiple hits from a stun baton without being phased in the slightest. They haven’t gotten to interact with them much other than that.”
The stun baton made sense with how Izuku reacted to the electrified bars. Izuku could probably climb too. “Is anything the same?”
“They won’t eat the food pellets, the alarm hurt them, they hardly sleep, and they’re fiercely protective of their cellmate,” H’zashi answered swiftly. “D’bi suggested that it might be a territorial behavior if they both were like that.”
Searching for the second Terran, A’zawa found them across the cell, unconscious and given a wide berth by the other cell inhabitants. Unlike their Terran, they had pale blue fur atop their head and it was much longer than Izuku’s. It also seemed to be a different texture. They appeared larger than Izuku but it was hard to tell with both of them curled up. They wore the same blue garments as Izuku. Oh, and they were waking up. Kriffing fantastic.
17 kriffing doses of sedatives and it was already getting up. What are Terrans made of?
A’zawa curled his tail around Izuku protectively as the other Terran sluggishly shifted and sat up, shaking their head and taking in their surroundings. Their eyes were red but seemed off somehow. It took him a second to realize the drug was still affecting them. Good. That should make it easier to fight them if they attack.
Their eyes locked on Izuku and they slowly got up. Standing at their full height, they were definitely larger than Izuku. He was willing to bet they were heavier too.
When the Terran started to approach him, he curled his tail tighter around Izuku and growled. The Terran's red eyes became wider for just a second before narrowing. Something Izuku did when he was upset or frustrated. A bigger Terran and they were angry. Great.
He squeezed Izuku tighter than he meant to while pulling him impossibly closer, trying to hide him under his fur. That bit of pressure was enough to rouse their Terran. Izuku started wiggling, trying to sit up, but A’zawa didn’t want to let him go just yet.
“Izuku?” the other Terran spoke, naming his. Izuku froze under his hold for a moment before lurching up with the same strength he’d shown once a while back. It freed him and he scrambled to his feet. A’zawa got up too, not sure what was about to happen.
Izuku’s eyes started leaking water, alarming everyone except the other Terran. “Tenko!”
“Izuku, careful!” H’zashi called when their kit-- the kit --ran away from them toward the other Terran. A’zawa tensed, bracing for a fight. Izuku attacked the other Terran, except the other Terran caught him in a hold similar to the embraces H’zashi uses to show affection. They were just squeezing a little harder than H’zashi would.
“ I thought the worst, you little brat. ” The other Terran rumbled at Izuku, rubbing the side of their face on his green fur.
Izuku just responded by pressing his own face closer to the other Terran’s chest, like he was trying to burrow into them. “Oh… Do you think that’s his parent?” H’zashi whispered.
“Maybe but… I thought adult Terrans were supposed to be bigger,” A’zawa whispered back.
This is their height difference in this story.
Notes:
We haven't heard from Tenko in a while :D
Tenko stuck his tongue out at them when they hissed at him after he climbed up.
Stupid snake…
Aizawa, after meeting Tenko: How are /you/ the adult Terran?Aizawa, holding Izuku: This is /my/ baby.
The brothers have been reunited!
.....At a black market where aliens (people) are sold for numerous reasons.
Not ideal, but hey! They're together!
Chapter 10: Rule 10 - They Can Change Colors
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
“Izuku, are you okay?” H’zashi asked hesitantly. “Is the other Terran okay?”
Izuku turned to H’zashi and grinned. “We are okay! This is Tenko!”
“What the hell? Did you just talk to it?” Tenko frowned, looking between them.
“H’zashi is one of the aliens I made friends with. He taught me their language,” Izuku told him.
“Of course, you’d pick it up that quickly,” Tenko scoffed.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Did you want to be stranded in an unfamiliar region of space and unable to communicate with the locals?” Izuku quipped.
“No…”
Tenko conceded.
“I am lucky the language nerd snuck onto my ship before I got stranded. Even if you should have been home with mom studying for a history test.”
“Oh shit, I missed my history test,” Izuku muttered in quiet realization.
A dragon-looking alien said something in a tone of disbelief. Izuku only picked up pieces. The aliens he had been with were usually careful to stick to words he knew around him.
“Izuku, is this Terran your mother?” Och’ko asked suddenly.
“What?!” Izuku squawked, startled by the question.
“What did they say?” Tenko whispered.
“They asked if you’re my mother,” Izuku whispered back, feeling his face grow warmer by the second.
Tenko, being the asshole he was, burst out laughing.
“I can’t believe it's such a chatterbox,” D’bi muttered in disbelief. “It sat in our cell in silence for cycles. Sure, it spoke once but it didn’t say much anyway.”
“Terrans don’t know Standard,” H’zashi pointed out. “It’s probably uncomfortable for them to talk when they can’t be understood or understand any responses.”
D’bi let out a hum of agreement. “Izuku, is this Terran your mother?” Och’ko asked.
“What!?” Izuku squeaked loudly. H’zashi would almost say he looked embarrassed.
The other Terran whispered in their language and Izuku whispered back. Whatever was said made the other Terran start wheezing. Izuku began to turn an alarming shade of red. Was that meant to be a show of aggression like those with color-changing scales? “Why are you changing colors?” A’zawa demanded, on edge by the display.
Somehow Izuku turned even redder. “I am… Uh, I have feelings,” Izuku replied. “ Humans can be colors. Most colors are for feelings.”
“You change colors based on your emotions?” H’zashi questioned. Izuku pulled his shoulders up to his ears, seemingly at a loss for how to explain this part of Terran biology. Perhaps someday when his vocabulary was larger, they’d figure it out. He changed the subject for now. “If this Terran isn’t your mother, then what are they?”
“We have a mother together,” Izuku explained.
“Siblings!” H’zashi exclaimed. “You’re siblings? You have the same mother?”
“Littermates. Then is that one still an adolescent as well?” A’zawa asked.
“Tenko is an adult. More smaller than bigger,” Izuku offered.
“Just recently became an adult then? A new adult?” H’zashi guessed. Izuku seemed to agree with that. So this Tenko probably still wasn’t as large as a human could get. In most species, adults kept growing for at least a couple of solar rotations. Sometimes many solar rotations, depending on the planet and species.
“This is educational and all,” a Vestren interrupted suddenly. “But we are currently on sale in a black market. I feel like that is a more pressing concern than the relation of the two Obl'vatrro.”
“Sale? Black market?” Izuku repeated, eyeing her with the same intensity A’zawa usually received when he taught the hatchling new words. If it was meant to be a display of curiosity, it was oddly aggressive.
“On sale means that you can trade or buy it,” H’zashi tried to explain. “Like if I gave you two foods for your water. An exchange.” Izuku nodded, seeming to understand. “And a black market is illegal. Bad. Like the guards.”
“Basically, they want to sell us like pets,” the Vestren continued. “With two hard-to-drug and apparently destructive beings here, I think we stand a chance of escaping.”
“Out?” Izuku asked, pointing to the bars.
“Yeah, we want out,” the Vestren confirmed.
“Pain sleep the guards?” Izuku questioned, looking a little too excited.
“He means ‘kill’ when he says that,” Aizawa clarified at her confused glance.
“Oh, yes,” she purred. “Please, ‘pain sleep’ the guards. That will definitely help.”
The other Terran muttered something to Izuku that had the hatchling launching into a really long and fast reply. H’zashi wasn’t sure he was even breathing at this point. It was when Izuku gestured to the bars that he realized the hatchling was just translating the conversation up til now for his sibling. Maybe they could work on teaching Tenko Standard soon.
“Izuku was able to fit through the bars on the ship,” A’zawa offered as the group discussed escape plans. “The electricity doesn’t hurt or even bother him.”
“These bars look to be about the same width apart,” Och’ko pointed out.
“Both the Obl'vatrros are resistant to electricity,” D’bi reiterated. “So if they intercept any attacks with the stun batons and take them, they could arm us pretty quickly.”
“We still need to avoid getting drugged,” E’jirou reminded them. “And this market will be filled with more than just the guards. Any of them could aid the guards and be a serious threat to us.”
“Not to mention, we need a way off this planet once we do escape,” Kats’ki added.
“Will you help us too?” someone outside of their group asked.
“We’re H.E.R.O.s,” H’zashi revealed. Hazard Emergency Response Operatives. The people tasked with apprehending criminals and turning them over to the Council for sentencing. “We’ll actually prioritize as many of you as we can over ourselves.”
“If you’re H.E.R.O.s, how the hell are you getting trafficked? There’s an awful lot of you.”
“We weren’t all together initially. And several here are still students,” H’zashi admitted.
“I was alone when I was captured,” A’zawa said.
“It was just me and Keigo when the idiot got us captured,” D’bi grumbled.
“But they made a mistake bringing all these H.E.R.O.s together like this,” N’muri spoke up, coiling her tail in excitement. She was always a bit of a sadist when it came to stopping criminals. “They’ll struggle to fight all of us. Especially with Terrans on our side.”
“H.E.R.O.s?” Izuku repeated after tugging on H’zashi’s feathers to get his attention.
“Ah, that’s… harder to explain I think. I’ll tell you later,” H’zashi promised apologetically.
“Hey, Izuku. Do you still have those things you threw at the guards?” E’jirou asked.
“My knives?” Izuku tilted his head at an angle.
“What knives?” Tenko’s attention snapped to Izuku. The hatchling turned pink.
“Oh, uh, I made knives. You know out of the lunch trays?” Izuku’s shoulders reached his ears again. It looked like a nervous response based on the context around it.
“Of course, you made fucking knives, you absolute gremlin.” Tenko seemed upset. “Mom should have never let you hang out with Mei. Look what she’s done to you. A stab happy brat.”
“Yeah, well. I have weapons in a dangerous space adventure thanks to everything Mei taught me! What do you have, Ten-chan?” Izuku bared his teeth at his sibling but this time it actually seemed like it was done in anger.
“I told you not to call me that!” A snapped response was all the warning they got before Tenko lunged for Izuku and tried to strangle him by wrapping one of its long limbs around Izuku’s neck.
Everyone jumped back except for H’zashi, A’zawa, and the Vestren. A’zawa growled and stepped forward to help the hatchling, hesitating a short distance away. He obviously didn’t know if he could take the older Terran in a fight.
“I’m okay!” Izuku gasped as he struggled. “No hurt!”
H’zashi had a hard time believing that until Izuku twisted out of the other Terran’s grasp and knocked them over. They flailed on the floor but Izuku sat on their abdomen before they could get up. Then Izuku hissed something at them. “Stop it. You’re going to scare everyone.”
Tenko shifted until he was looking directly at A’zawa. His mate’s fur was puffed up in agitation and fear. The older Terran went limp. “All right. Wouldn’t want to piss off the kitty you found.”
“No hurt!” Izuku said again, looking up at everyone. “Only practice.”
“Practice…?” Denki questioned nervously.
“Play fighting,” Kats’ki guessed. “Hatchlings do that in my species. Caretakers will usually participate even if they don’t need to learn the skills like hatchlings do.”
A’zawa smoothed down his fur but didn’t take his eyes off the Terrans.
The older Terran broke the tense silence first. “So… Knives?”
“Oh, yeah!” Izuku’s whole mouth opened in a way similar to his ‘happy’ teeth baring. Suddenly his hands disappeared into his clothing. Moments later they were pulling out more of the metal strips they had thrown at the guards. They repeated this several times, creating a small pile.
“Damn, Izu.” The other Terran reached for one without displacing Izuku from his perch on his sibling’s abdomen, turning it over to inspect it.
“Where were those?” D’bi asked with a grimace. “Inside him?”
Izuku looked straight at D’bi and bared his teeth again. “Pockets!”
Notes:
Pink human = hurt, embarrassed, hot, or angry
Red human = extra hurt, embarrassed, hot, or angry
Blue human = frozen
Purple human = hurt or extra frozen
Yellow human = Jaundiced
Green human = sick
Black human = necrotic tissueWhat other colors can we be in regard to emotions/illness? Did I miss any?
Reminder that the Vestren is Toga
So basically what happened was ~
Izuku: *jumps straight to murder as an option*
Toga: We're gonna be great friends >:)Tenko & Izuku: *fight, as siblings do*
1/2 the Aliens: oh god! oh no! what do we do? can we even stop them?
the other 1/2: so will the winner eat us then? is that what's happening?Everyone: *horrified and anxious about the random deathworlder fight*
Kats'ki: I recognize that shit. My people do that too. #violentspeciesclub
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Calisto112 on Chapter 1 Mon 25 Apr 2022 06:53AM UTC
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Lemini on Chapter 1 Fri 06 May 2022 09:12AM UTC
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Chelly_cat (Eternally_Lost_in_Sorrow) on Chapter 1 Tue 02 May 2023 03:48PM UTC
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etc204 on Chapter 1 Sun 26 Nov 2023 12:46AM UTC
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xNekox on Chapter 1 Fri 26 Jul 2024 06:34PM UTC
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GigaChadess8170 on Chapter 1 Sat 12 Oct 2024 03:46AM UTC
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GemmaRose on Chapter 1 Tue 15 Oct 2024 11:04PM UTC
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Arnim on Chapter 1 Tue 18 Feb 2025 08:23PM UTC
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