First Contact

by hyperbolicnebula

Summary:

Black Hole finds a planet in the void and decides to approach it, to the dismay of almost everyone.

Chapter 1: From the Void

Notes:

I feel like I've already read all the Black Hole content on this website, so I made an AO3 account to write my own fics and hopefully fulfill everyone else's Black Hole obsessions. I'll try my best to stay consistent, but I can't promise anything. My writing is in dire need of improvement, so any critique would be greatly appreciated!

As countless universes appeared and disappeared almost instantaneously, Black Hole rested idly, watching the small bursts of energy like fireworks sparkling across the night sky.

But one remained.

The universes had completely random laws of physics, most rendering them incapable of existing for more than a small flash.

But every once in a while…

Like monkeys at a typewriter…

The laws of physics derived by sheer random chance…

Can create a masterpiece.

A complex orchestra of parts, everything intricately placed together in perfect harmony, emerging from chaos.

As the universe expanded, Black Hole stared at the mass of dust and light, for never, in his eternal life, had a universe lasted for longer than a second.

 

Billions of years passed, and the 'Chosen Universe' grew more complex and vibrant, as the forces of nature formed stars and galaxies out of simple particles.

After only observing the ball of space for its entire existence, Black Hole decided to enter the vast cosmos for the first time and explore all it had to offer.

The moment he immersed himself in the sphere, he felt something completely novel. He could sense energy and matter flowing all around him, which heavily contrasted with the perfect vacuum beyond the edge of space.

His hand swept through galaxy filaments like spider silk, and he felt the individual galaxies like grains of sand.

As he shrunk down even more and entered a random galaxy out of billions, he saw the stars swirl around him in a spiral and even found one of his kind in the center.

He descended into a location along one of the spiral arms and began flying through the many stars around him, admiring the calmness and beauty of it all. Almost nothing was moving on such short timescales.

Almost.

 

Suddenly, he detected some radio waves originating from a place very close by. He couldn’t tell what it meant but was sure it wasn’t from a natural source. As he flew closer to the origin, he saw a star system in the distance, with millions of bodies orbiting the central star.

Out of the eight planets in the system, one immediately stood out.

The dark side of the planet was covered in millions of pinpricks, glowing a bright white and yellow.

It was emitting light.

Notes:

Prologue done! Sorry for the short chapter, I don't really know how often I want to post updates, and since I have severe indecisiveness, I'll make you decide!

How often should I post new chapters, and how long should those chapters be?

Chapter 2: Rays of Darkness

Summary:

Remote works at NASA but better

Notes:

There's absolutely no mention of Black Hole in this chapter... or is there?

“This is a lot less exciting than I expected…” Remote mumbled as she sat before a computer, repeatedly clicking the same mouse button while slowly withering away.

A few weeks prior, she had gotten an internship offer at the Goiky Aeronautics and Space Administration, and as this was her dream job, she accepted in a heartbeat.

When she arrived at the large grey and white building, she was greeted by Golf Ball, the manager of the entire facility.

“Welcome! You must be Remote, you’re going to have so much fun here!”

 

As Remote thought back to this first encounter, she couldn’t help but strongly disagree.

The first task Golf Ball gave her was filtering images taken by their telescopes, discarding all the uninteresting ones. Little did she know, there were thousands of telescopes, all around and outside the world, working around the clock.

She didn’t know why there were so many images of completely empty space, the telescopes must be really bad at their job.

As she slowly spiralled into insanity, she kept herself motivated by imagining a few years in the future, when she would be the one ordering other people around.

 

After several hours, she got a lunch break and made her way to the cafeteria, and saw some other employees in her department.

“Hi! My name is Tennis Ball! I’m Golf Ball’s assistant. Are you new here?”

“Oh, hello! My name is Remote, I’m taking an internship here.”

“Cool! Are you learning new stuff and having fun?”

“Well, all I’ve done is scan the database for interesting images, to no avail.”

“Aw, that’s okay! I’m sure you’ll find something cool eventually!”

“Yeah, hopefully,” she chuckled.

“Anyways, I’m gonna go eat lunch now, hope you enjoy the rest of your day!”

“You too!” she replied, going back to finishing her lunch.

 

Once her break ended, she was back to clicking on black squares, until the final hour of her first day eventually came.

As she was recharged from the thought of going home, her focus increased dramatically, and she was going through the database a lot faster than before. Until suddenly…

She remembered all those astronomy books she had read as a kid, long before she had learnt anything about the subject in school.

The image she had just clicked contained something very much resembling a celestial body she had read tons about, all those years ago.

“A black hole?”

Notes:

The Remote/TB conversation is character development it's not filler I have no idea what you're talking about

Chapter 3: Code Black

Summary:

Golf Ball finds out about Remote's discovery and nearly dies

Notes:

I promise Black Hole will be the main character soon, I just need to introduce him in a really epic way first

The seconds lengthened, as Remote stared, frozen in shock, at the monitor. There was no mistaking that dark void, surrounded by a ring of fire. But she still had a hard time believing it.

As far as she knew, the closest black hole was thousands of light-years from Earth, far enough to pose no danger for the foreseeable future. But here one was, floating near the outskirts of their star system.

“Hey, Remote!”

She was pulled out of her trance by Golf Ball’s voice, who had suddenly appeared beside her.

“Just checking to see how you were doing, did you enjoy your first-”

Her eyes glanced over to Remote’s computer, she had seen it too.

 

After a brief episode of paralysis and almost passing out, Golf Ball managed to compose herself and nearly dragged Remote to her office, where she made what seemed like hundreds of phone calls to various news stations all around the world.

Apparently, Golf Ball has access to everyone’s phone number, Remote thought.

“So, Remote,” Golf Ball said, after she ended the last phone call, “I assume you know what that was we just saw?”

“Uh, A black hole,” she replied apprehensively.

“Correct, and this is what we in the business refer to as ‘a problem’.”

Remote simply nodded.

“Since you were the one who technically made the discovery, how would you like to help me explain to the world what’s going on?”

“Well, I don’t really know that much yet, I don’t think I’ll be able to explain much.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll do most of the talking, I just want you to be there to take the credit, after all, this is a pretty big thing you found.”

 

Remote pondered this offer in her head. While she didn’t have much experience in public speaking, there was always a first time for everything, and it would be pretty cool to announce to the world that she discovered a new celestial body. Maybe they could name it after her, that is if the Earth still existed in a few weeks.

“Sure, I would love to!” she said after deliberate consideration.

“Great! Just come to the facility at around six tomorrow, and I’ll be near the front entrance waiting for you. You should probably get off work a bit earlier today, I have no idea what you must be feeling right now. Get a lot of sleep tonight, tomorrow might be the biggest day of your life!”

“Oh, thank you! I’ll see you tomorrow then!” Remote said, with an air of relief in her voice.

“Good night!”

 

As Remote made her way back home, she felt a sense of dread. What did her discovery mean for the world?

Sure, the black hole was still several light-years away from them, but the way it suddenly appeared like that next to them seemed to suggest it didn’t conform to the laws of physics, which was a terrifying thought. Who was to say it didn’t consume the planet in the next hour?

She didn’t know how she managed it, but the moment she got back home, she got in her bed without even eating and fell asleep within minutes.

Tomorrow was going to be a wild ride.

Notes:

This chapter was just 536 words of yapping, writing a good plotline is so hard :(

Also, GB fans, please tell me if I wrote her in character, I don't have that deep of an insight into her personality

Chapter 4: Ever Encroaching

Summary:

Remote goes to the second day of her internship on no food and sleep-deprived

Notes:

Over 100 hits in 3 days, you guys are amazing!

Remote was still half-asleep as she walked to the GASA facility, having woken up two hours earlier than usual and having left on an empty stomach. Why she had to be there at six in the morning was anyone’s guess.

As promised, Golf Ball was waiting for her in the main lobby. The moment she entered, Golf Ball jumped from her seat and went to greet her.

“Hey, Remote! Had a good night’s rest?”

“I guess, though I had to wake up a lot earlier today,” she replied, proving her statement true with a yawn.

“Oh, right, I just wanted to go over a few things before we got interviewed, and they start in an hour.”

Remote’s stomach grumbled loudly.

“Didn’t you… have breakfast?” Golf Ball asked concernedly.

“Nope. I didn’t have dinner last night either.”

“Oh, wow. Well, in that case, do you want to have some breakfast before we start?

“I would love to,” Remote responded gratefully.

After being revived over a meal consisting of only the most extravagant space food, buttered toast and eggs, Remote was feeling a lot better and more energized.

“Alright,” Golf Ball said after the two of them entered her office. “I’ll help you out as much as I can, just talk when you feel like it and say whatever you’re thinking about, and you’ll do great!”

“Thanks,” Remote replied, feeling slightly better at her words.

“Before we leave, let’s just quickly check the status of the black hole, one more time.”

So they went to the image processing faculty and tried to find more images of the elusive sphere.

‘There!” Remote exclaimed, after a few minutes.”It’s…”

There it was, in all its terrifying glory, the glowing ring of death surrounding an invisible void.

“Wait, why is there…”

There was a gap in the Kuiper Belt.

 

Having seen the black hole travel over a light-year overnight, Remote and Golf Ball were now positively alarmed that there was a physics-defying, reality-bending black hole in the Solar System.

Wasting no more time, they rushed out of the facility and headed to the news station.

“Alright… are you ready?” Golf Ball asked once they had finally arrived.

“I think so…” Remote replied.

She was feeling nervous and excited at the same time, but most importantly, she was determined to tell the whole world about what she had found.

Notes:

I did some "research", and it turns out most people don't like short and frequent chapters very much. So I want to know your opinion, what's your preferred chapter length and time between updates?

Chapter 5: Last Stand

Summary:

Remote goes on the news and forgets her friends can see her

Notes:

I woke up today to 3 new comments, I feel so happy right now :)

Pen was going back to his dorm after the most mind-numbing lecture in his life. As he walked across campus, he tried to remember anything he had heard from the past three hours, but his mind was drawing a complete blank.

“I’m so gonna fail this class,” he muttered dejectedly.

The instant he opened the door to his dorm, he saw his roommate and childhood friend, Tree, bounding towards him, looking rather panicked.

“Pen!” he shouted, “Come over here, I’ve got something to show you!”

“What is it?”

“They said on the news that a black hole entered the Solar System!”

“...A what?”

Tree, thinking that Pen’s intelligence couldn’t fall any lower, sighed as Pen demonstrated his incredible ability to constantly prove Tree wrong.

“A black hole, you know, those dark circles that they show in space documentaries absorbing stars.”

“Oh, yeah!” Pen exclaimed as something clicked in his brain. “...Wait, that’s not good.”

“What an astute observation, Sherlock,” Tree remarked.

“Hey!” Pen protested.

“Come look at this,” Tree had opened his laptop and found the stream of the news station.

“ What can you tell us about this discovery? ” asked the news anchor.

“ Well, ” began Golf Ball, “the black hole has been exhibiting some very anomalous behaviour since we first observed it last night… ”

“Wait, isn’t that-”

“Yep, that’s Remote.”

“But it’s only her second day! Why did they pick her to join Golf Ball?”

“No idea. But it looks like she’s having a good time.”

“I’m gonna call her later.”

 

After Remote had finished the last interview, she felt an enormous wave of relief wash over her. It was over, everyone had congratulated her on the discovery and said she did great during the interviews, she had finally gotten the message out there.

But would it do any good? Unless they came up with a way to defend against a literal black hole, there was nothing humanity could do except wait for their impending doom. In which case, It might have been better to keep quiet about the whole situation, and let everyone continue living in bliss until their final moments.

Her train of thought was interrupted by Golf Ball announcing their return.

“Wow, lunch has already started, you should go take your break now.”

She and Remote parted ways as the latter walked into the cafeteria, ready to unwind a bit after a very eventful morning.

Right after she had finished her lunch, she got a call from Pen.

“Hey, Pen!” she exclaimed, excited to see her friends. “And Tree!” as Pen brought his phone out to bring Tree into frame.

“Had a fun morning?” Pen asked with a grin on his face.

“Uh, I gue- You two were watching on the news, weren’t you?”

“Yep! Don’t worry, you did great!”

“Agreed,” chimed in Tree.

“Thanks, guys,” Remote smiled.

“Can you believe that Pen didn’t know what a black hole was until I told him?”

“I most definitely can,” Remote replied teasingly.

“I knew what it was, I just… kinda forgot!” Pen rebutted unsuccessfully.

“You’ve just proven our point,” Tree said, looking extremely smug.

“Anyways,” Pen said, trying to change the subject, “Remote, tell us more about how you found it!”

“Well, the first thing Golf Ball made me do yesterday was just look at telescope images, and filter out all the empty space, which, turns out there’s a lot of…”

As Remote kept talking with Tree sometimes joining in, Pen felt his brain cells deteriorating as their conversation flew over his head. This intense pain and suffering lasted for almost half an hour before Remote finally had to go.

“Alright, my lunch break is over now, I gotta go.”

“Are you free to come over to our place tonight!” Tree asked hopefully.

“Yeah, I think I can-”

“Are you guys just gonna talk about nerd stuff again?” Pen interrupted.

Tree just stared at him.

“Yes.”

“...This definitely feels like bullying.”

“You make me play basketball with you, this is my revenge.”

“Alright, well,” Remote said, “I’ll let you two argue in peace. See you later!”

“Bye!” they both exclaimed, pausing their argument for a split second as Remote hung up the call.

 

Remote walked back to her computer and got to work. At least she had something interesting to work on now, even if that something in question was an existential threat that would potentially spell the end for humanity.

After looking for more pictures of the black hole, she found the most recent one, from only a few minutes ago.

It had passed the orbit of Jupiter, but surprisingly the outer planets seemed to be fine, even the ones that had made very close encounters with its event horizon. It was as if the singularity’s gravity was disabled, or strongly weakened.

Even more curiously, the black hole seemed to be headed directly towards Earth, as if it knew that was the only planet hosting life. It was turning to avoid all of the other planets, then returned to its initial trajectory.

She tried to push the black hole to the back of her mind and began working on her other tasks.

When the end of the day came, she left the building and walked over to Pen and Tree’s dorm.

Tree made them dinner, as he was the only one who could cook without burning down the kitchen, and Remote explained her new findings to them while they ate.

They lost track of the time in their discussion and it was past midnight before Remote realized she had stayed up far too late.

Pen and Tree saw her out of their dorm and immediately after decided to go to bed as well.

Pen fell asleep almost immediately, completely unconcerned by the potential apocalypse in their near future. But Tree was a completely different story.

Remote had shown them pictures of the black hole earlier, and Tree couldn’t help but feel awed at its sheer scale.

Stars dwarfed by its shadow, interplanetary distances travelled in mere seconds.

How could they possibly stop it, if it were going for the Earth?

The black hole seemingly had teleportation abilities, and could probably absorb their entire planet tonight if it wanted.

Maybe, Tree thought, as he slowly dozed off to sleep, that wouldn’t be the worst fate in the world.

Notes:

I'm going to start making the chapters longer, starting with this one for no particular reason...

Chapter 6: The Singularity

Summary:

Humanity's last invention comes a little earlier than expected

Notes:

No one noticed the word count was 2763 last chapter :(

Before getting too close to the planet, Black Hole paused to observe the surface. He saw the scattered dots of light more closely now, varying in density across different areas.

The land was covered in various geometric shapes, squares and rectangles bunched together, encased in thin lines.

Solid grey masses, rising above the natural greenery around them.

Strangely, there seemed to be constant movement on the surface, as small multicoloured dots formed neat little rows, flowing across the lines.

Then he heard them.

What he assumed were living beings, using a complex system of sounds to communicate with each other.

In the few seconds it took him to process and learn their language, he marvelled at the brilliance of these ‘humans’.

When this universe first came into existence, he couldn’t have possibly imagined that the mess of fundamental forces and quantum strings randomly assigned to it would somehow give rise to beings that were alive, and, by the looks of their language, aware of their own existence.

At this point, he half-wanted to interact with the humans and see what they were like, now that he could communicate with them. He hoped to learn more about them and see how advanced they really were.

As he couldn’t make any sound in space, he decided to send the written forms of the words as radio waves, which he knew they could use.

There was not much else to do, so he went ahead and emitted a series of radio waves, which washed over the planet.

“ Hello? ”

 

After she got home from Pen and Tree’s dorm, Remote went straight to bed and woke up after a short rest the next morning, grateful that there was still solid ground beneath her to stand on.

Once she landed in the familiar chair next to her computer and turned it on, she expected to see that all the telescopes had been absorbed by the black hole. What she got instead was a ping from the radio dish, signalling that a strong radio wave had been recorded just an hour ago.

She opened the recording and heard random periods of noise and silence. Having memorized how to convert between binary and text for fun a few years ago, she instantly recognized it and tried to decode it.

“‘Hello?’”

So whoever sent the message could speak English, she thought. So she decided to check where the signal came from.

It was right where the black hole was last seen.

 

Black Hole wasn’t expecting a response for a while, but he sensed a signal coming back toward him after only about an hour.

“ Hello. Who are you? ”

“ My name is Black Hole. ”

“ Are you a real black hole? ”

“ I don’t have a physical form, but I can shapeshift between many things. ”

Black Hole then revealed his full body, a dark, humanoid figure floating in space.

Remote saw the black hole suddenly turn into a human and was rightfully completely stupefied.

“ What are your intentions? ” she asked, deciding to ignore what she had just seen.

“ I wanted to learn about this planet. It’s the only one I’ve ever seen to host life. ”

She sat in silence after decoding this message. This… being had just answered one of life’s biggest questions in a single sentence.

“ How many planets have you seen? ”

“ That might take a while to explain. Would you mind if I visited your planet? I promise I’ll be very careful not to destroy anything. ”

She paused. This entity seemed quite benevolent, but who knows what could happen, were she to refuse?

She felt like there was only one answer to give.

“ Sure. ”

 

As Black Hole walked across Yoyle City, he heard snatches of conversation of people nervously talking about a black hole that was coming towards Earth.

He felt guilty for leading people into thinking the apocalypse was coming but hoped that their fears would be quelled when the skies were clear again.

He walked up to a building labelled ‘GASA’ and waited near the entrance. Whoever he had talked to told him to come to this exact spot, where he would finally meet a human for the very first time.

Once Remote’s most successful day was over, she left the building and started walking across the field.

“Over here!” he yelled.

Remote paused and glanced over to where the voice came from.

She saw the same figure that was in space just a few hours ago sitting down on a bench, waving at her.

She excitedly ran towards him, feeling that her life was about to change forever.

 

After a brief introduction, where Black Hole explained how he came across Earth and finally learnt Remote’s name, Remote asked him if he wanted to meet her friends.

“Sure, that would be great!” Black Hole smiled at the prospect of meeting more humans.

So they walked over to Pen and Tree’s place and Black Hole mentally prepared himself for the oncoming encounter.

“Maybe I should explain everything to them first, just so they don’t… call the police on you or something,” Remote explained.

“Good idea,” Black Hole replied, walking over to the side.

Remote knocked on the door, and it opened a few moments later.

“Remote!” Pen exclaimed, “How’s it going?”

“I’m doing great, turns out the world isn’t gonna end anytime soon!”

“Really? That’s great!” Pen paused. “Wait, what?”

“You know the black hole that was gonna destroy the Earth? It’s not actually a black hole.”

“Hold on, I’m getting very confused,” Pen turned his head back towards the living room.

“TREE!”

“Coming,” a faint voice replied.

Tree appeared a few seconds later next to Pen.

“Oh, Remote! How are you?”

“I was trying to explain something to Pen-”

“That’s not a very good idea. Try me instead.”

“Alright, so you know the black hole we talked about yesterday? It’s not actually a black hole.”

“Right, so you’re telling me you scared everyone out of their wits because you were bad at your job.”

“Well, it was a black hole, but then it transformed into a human and came down to Earth.

“...Do you seriously expect me to believe th-”

“Then I talked with him and brought him over here with me,” finished Remote, leaving Tree in stunned disbelief.

Slowly, Tree peered around the doorframe and saw someone standing next to Remote, listening to the conversation.

“Uh, hi!” Black Hole waved awkwardly at Tree.

“See?” Remote smirked.

“This is one of those times I’m actually glad you proved me wrong,” said Tree, recovering from his shock.

“He’s a really nice guy, and we’re friends now!”

“Cool!” Pen said. “Seems useful.”

“Pen!” Tree scolded. “What is wrong with you?”

“I mean, am I wrong though?”

“...Why are you like this?”

“Anyways,” Remote interrupted, annoyed at her friends’ constant bickering, “Why don’t we go inside and familiarize Black Hole with our world?”

“Great idea,” said Tree quickly, relieved for an excuse to stop arguing with Pen. ”Come on in!”

“Let’s go!” Remote said to Black Hole.

“Alright!” he said eagerly. He was very grateful that at least a few people had already accepted him into their world, albeit somewhat surprised considering they all thought he was going to destroy the world just a few days ago.

It was incredible that, in this random corner of the universe, on a tiny rock floating through space, there was an entire society of beings, just living their lives, blissfully unaware of everything outside their little bubble but still trying to expand towards the stars.

They were struggling for now, but…

Perhaps he could change that.

Notes:

There's a fine line between making a story scientifically accurate and sounding like a nerd... And I am struggling to find it

Chapter 7: Feeling New

Summary:

Pen and Tree invite a supernatural being into their home

Notes:

Very chill chapter today, I'll probably add some action into the story later on because I get to make Black Hole look really cool

“...So, I decided to see where it came from and found this place! And I’m so glad I did.”

After everyone went inside, they sat on the couch and tried to find out as much as they could about Black Hole. He was more than happy to divulge his life story with them, as this was his first chance to do so.

As Black Hole spoke, Tree found himself slipping away from the conversation. He noticed how relaxing Black Hole’s voice was. Warm and gentle, like a crackling bonfire in the cold, desolate tundra.

Lost in his thoughts, Tree felt as though all his worries were melting away…

“...Alright, Tree?”

Tree’s mind suddenly snapped back to reality.

“W-what?” he said dazedly.

“I said , you should start cooking dinner now,” Pen repeated.

“Oh… right. Wait, Black Hole, have you ever eaten anything before?”

“Uh, I don’t think so, but I’d love to try!” Black Hole answered.

“Wow, so this will be your first time trying food,” Remote pointed out.

“So no pressure,” Pen said to Tree.

“No, it’s fine, I’ll enjoy anything you make!” Black Hole reassured.

“Yeah, but I still want to give a good first impression,” Tree said. “I feel like I’m representing our entire planet right now.”

“Hey, Tree, you should make pizza!” Pen suggested. “The best of the best!”

“...I know you’re only saying that so you can get me to make you pizza… But you do have a point, so sure.”

“Let’s go!” Pen celebrated.

As Tree stood up and walked to the kitchen, the rest of his friends came with him and sat down at the dining table, with the exception of Black Hole.

“Hey, Tree? Could I… watch?” he asked.

“Yeah, sure. I could teach you some things about cooking if you want.”

“Really? Thanks!”

While Tree was walking through the process of making pizza with Black Hole, Remote and Pen were complaining about how hard their classes were and cursing their professors for assigning them way too much homework.

“By the way, how’s your internship been going?” Pen asked.

“I’ve mostly just been tracking the black hole for the past few days.”

“What?” Black Hole asked from the kitchen.

“Not you, Black Hole, I was talking about the inanimate object.”

“Oh, okay!” Black Hole’s attention returned to Tree’s cooking.

“Anyways,” Remote continued, “It’s the only thing I’ve been working on so far, but at least it’s interesting.”

“And you got to go on the news on your second day!” Pen added.

“Yeah, that was pretty cool, I guess.”

“Also, now that you know we’re safe from black holes for now, are you gonna make a second statement on the news to calm everyone down?”

“Oh, right… I haven’t really thought about that yet. I’ll probably ask Golf Ball tomorrow.”

“It’s done!” Tree announced, as he took the pizza out of the oven and placed it on the table.

“Wow, it looks so good,” Black Hole said in amazement. “Just an hour ago it looked like a ball of mush.”

“That is the power of the oven, my friend.” Tree said, sitting down at the table.

Pen had already grabbed the pizza cutter and was slicing up the pizza into somewhat even slices.

‘You guys have a pizza cutter?” Remote asked.

“Yeah, we got one just for him,” Tree said, pointing at Pen. “Honestly, I’m a bit surprised he hasn’t become morbidly obese yet.”

“That’s because I work out, unlike you!” Pen retorted.

“Touché.”

Pen had already grabbed a slice and started eating, while Black Hole was still very confused about what he was supposed to do.

He tried following what Pen was doing but ended up absorbing the whole slice in one go.

“Did you mean to do that?” Tree asked, while everyone else was laughing.

“Well, no, but I still think I tasted something,” Black Hole responded.

“Maybe try actually eating it this time. Like this,” Tree took a bite of his slice.

Black Hole tried again, focusing very hard on not absorbing the food. This time, he successfully took a bite and felt a cascade of flavours in his mouth.

“Do you like it?” Tree asked Black Hole. Everyone else waited expectedly.

“Yeah, it tastes great! Kinda surprising that mixing a bunch of random foods together can make something this good.”

“What can I say? I’m a master chef.”

“Tree, you made pizza . Not exactly the hardest dish in the world,” Pen countered.

“Hey, at least he likes it,” said Tree, pointing at Black Hole.

“Yeah, I think you’re a great chef,” said Black Hole, proving Tree’s point.

“What do you think of eating in general? Did you like the experience?”

“It was definitely an interesting feeling. I might need a while to get used to it, but it was pretty cool.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you get used to it real fast.”

“I don’t know what you mean by that, but sure.”

“Alright, I’m probably gonna go to bed soon,” said Remote. “Nice meeting you, Black Hole!”

“You too!” Black Hole replied.

As Remote stood up, everyone walked with her to the door.

“By the way, Black Hole, do you have a place to stay?” asked Tree.

“Um, I was actually gonna go back to space until tomorrow morning.”

“Alright, well, just remember you’re always welcome here if you ever want to stay on Earth.”

“Sure, thanks!”

After they all exchanged goodbyes, Remote walked back to her own dorm and Black Hole flew up into the stars.

As he got further away, he saw the blue marble shrink more and more, before disappearing in the Sun’s light.

He had just had the best day in his life, felt more emotion than every other day combined, and made some new friends that (at least he hoped) liked him a lot.

There was still a lot he had to learn about Earth, but as he flew through the cosmos, there was one thing he knew for sure.

He wasn’t alone anymore.

Notes:

I have no idea how to write romantic relationships so pretend they're all just close friends

Chapter 8: Not as It Seems

Summary:

Pen and Tree introduce Black Hole to earthly forms of entertainment

Notes:

Sorry for the late chapter! I was surprisingly busy today

“Bye, have fun!” Tree yelled, as Pen headed off to his class. He complained about that class every day, but surprisingly hadn’t skipped any days at all.

As Tree was generally a night owl, he liked his classes to be in the afternoon, which meant he had no one to talk to in the morning. No one except…

He heard a sudden knocking on the door, and went over to open it. He thought, or maybe hoped, that he knew who it was.

“Hi, Tree! Are you busy right now?”

“Black Hole! Pen actually just left for class, so I have nothing to do, for now at least.”

“Yeah, I saw him sprinting across campus outside,” Black Hole laughed.

“He does that almost every day, you’ll get used to it eventually,” Tree assured. “Anyways, do you want to come in?”

“Yeah, sure!”

They walked into the living room and Black Hole sat down on the couch, while Tree grabbed two controllers and handed one to Black Hole.

“Alright, this is going to take a bit of explaining, but basically, we’re going to play a game on the TV,” Tree said, while booting up the console.

“Sounds fun!”

“Let’s see… do you want to play Mario Kart? Pen made us get it because he said ‘it would be fun’, but he’s actually a really good player and constantly makes me play with him so he can feel smarter than me.”

“I have no idea how to play, but sure.”

As Black Hole learnt the controls, he was quickly improving, until eventually he was getting first place by a large margin every time.

“Wow, you’re really good at this!” Tree said surprisedly. “Maybe I should make the bots harder.”

After setting them to the maximum difficulty, Tree was now getting left in the dust, but Black Hole was still winning every time.

“...I’m very confused right now,” Tree said, mystified at Black Hole’s incredible skill.

“Me too, I’ve just been following the rules you taught me.”

“And it’s working really well!”

Suddenly, the door burst open, and Pen walked into the living room looking utterly perplexed.

“Ugh, my brain is so fried right now,” he said exhaustedly. “Oh, hi, Black Hole!”

“I’ve just been teaching him some Mario Kart, since it’s apparently your favourite game,” Tree said.

“Oh, I wanna play! I think I deserve a break right now, don’t you?”

“Alright, you can play Black Hole, I’ll just watch,” Tree smiled mischievously.

“Sorry, Black Hole, but since Tree is too scared to play me, I’m gonna have to beat you instead,” Pen said arrogantly.

“It’s fine!” Black Hole said, as they started a new round.

After a few minutes, the race ended. Pen got second place, but Black Hole got…

“FIRST? How did you-”

“What did you say about having to beat him?” Tree grinned.

“...You knew he was gonna win, didn’t you?”

“Maybe…”

“Whatever. I still can’t believe how good you are, Black Hole.”

“Yeah, I’m a bit confused too,” Black Hole said.

“Anyways, Pen,” Tree said, “Are you feeling hungry? I could make lunch right now.”

“Yeah, I am. That class drained the life out of me.”

Tree walked over to the kitchen and started cooking.

“Come on, Black Hole,” Pen said, “I want a rematch.”

“You’re not gonna beat him!” Tree said from the other room.

By the time lunch was ready, Tree’s prediction had come true. They had played dozens of rounds, and Pen got humiliated every single time.

“Alright, Pen,” Tree said, “Since I’m starting to feel a little bad for you, I’ll let you guys stop before you embarrass yourself even more.”

“Yay, food!” Pen ran over to the dining table.

“By the way, Black Hole, thank you so much for putting Pen in his place. You don’t know how annoying it was with him bragging about how good he was every day.”

“Hey, at least I’m still better than you.”

“That’s not particularly impressive, considering I only play the game when you make me.”

After lunch, Tree had classes of his own, so he got ready to leave and left Black Hole with Pen.

“Good luck, Black Hole, hope you make it out alive.”

“Hey!” Pen said, “I’m not that bad!”

“I’m pretty sure you are, anyways, bye!”

“Bye, Tree!” Black Hole said.

Tree left and Pen shut the door.

“Alright, what should we do…?” he asked himself.

“I saw some people playing something on the way here, it looked pretty fun,” Black Hole suggested.

“Oh yeah, we could play basketball! Although, since you’re over a foot taller than me, I might lose pretty badly.”

“I don’t even know how to play, so I think you’re good.”

Alright, let me go get my basketball, and then we can head out.”

After arriving at the court, Pen taught Black Hole some basic rules.

“...You got all that?” he asked.

“I think so,” Black Hole replied.

“Here, I’ll let you start, because I’m such a nice guy.”

Once the first round started, Pen went up to Black Hole, trying his best to defend, but Black Hole didn’t even move, instead taking a shot from his starting location.

“What are you d-” Pen turned around to watch the shot, and momentarily went silent as the ball swished into the basket.

“Okay, how did you do that?”

“Math, I guess? I don’t really know,” Black Hole said, as he passed the ball to Pen.

The rest of the game was, unsurprisingly, extremely one-sided. Black Hole let Pen score a few points out of pity, but he still won by a landslide.

After the last round, which Pen lost spectacularly, they heard a voice from the side of the court.

“Good job, Pen!” Tree shouted. “You did great!”

Pen immediately ran towards Tree, so Black Hole went to get the ball and then followed him.

“I don’t know what you wanted me to do, he scored twenty half-court shots in a row,” Pen said.

“I know, I’m just glad someone’s here to humble you whenever your ego gets too large,” Tree said, smiling at Black Hole.”

“Yeah, I guess it’s good for me, but that doesn’t mean I like it.”

“Anyways, you probably used up all your energy on that game, let’s go home and eat.”

As they walked back, Pen was trying to convince Tree to make pizza again, but Black Hole stayed behind them, silently looking at the sky.

The stars had already appeared, although most were obscured by light pollution.

It was a completely clear night. But still, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off.

Where did the Moon go?

Notes:

Now might be a good time to mention I've completely run out of ideas and have no idea what I'm doing

(also Nintendo please don't sue me)

Chapter 9: Imminent Collision

Summary:

Something's off with the sky, but (almost) no one notices

Notes:

I've been writing a lot of random shenanigans recently, so this chapter is to balance that...

As Black Hole stared into the night, he saw the Moon gradually reappear, as if watching an eclipse.

“Black Hole? Are you alright?” Tree asked, looking back.

“Look at the moon,” Black Hole responded, pointing into the sky.

As the Moon slowly shone brighter, whatever was covering it faded into space, completely invisible against the night sky.

“Wow, that looks cool,” Pen said.

“I don’t think that’s normal…”

“It’s probably nothing, just relax.”
Once they got home, Tree made dinner, which, to Pen’s annoyance, was something very healthy and disgusting.

Pen and Tree were planning on having an early night today to make up for any lost sleep in the past week, so Black Hole left them and shot off into space, still feeling uneasy about the sudden eclipse.

 

Remote had almost finished her shift when, as luck would have it, she saw an asteroid about to collide with the Moon. How it got so close to them without anyone noticing, she had no idea, but she decided that it wasn’t her problem and sent the image to the relevant department.

A few moments later, however, another image popped up, showing that the asteroid had missed and flown in front of the Moon. But the thing that really stood out was its size. It was casting a shadow on almost the entire surface, completely covering the Moon in darkness.

Hoping that this wouldn’t lead to another potential catastrophe, she submitted all the images and left for the night.

Maybe, she thought, she should tell Pen and Tree about what she found, after all, it worked last time, and this way at least some other people would know about it.

She went and knocked on their door, and a few moments later Tree appeared from behind the doorway.

“Hey, Remote! What’ve you been up to today?”

“Well, I’ve just been looking at telescope images for the whole day again, and would it surprise you to hear that there’s another potentially world-ending object near the Earth?”

“Somewhat, but, go ahead.”

“So, just a few minutes ago I saw an asteroid about to hit the Moon, but it missed and went in front of the Moon, and now we don’t know where it is.”

“Wait,” Pen had suddenly appeared in the doorway. “Don’t you remember Black Hole saying something about the Moon getting dimmer?” he asked Tree.

“I do, actually, thanks for reminding me,” Tree replied.

“Black Hole was with you?” Remote asked.

“Yeah, he kinda just hangs around and keeps us company whenever we’re bored,” Pen said, with a look of realization on his face.

“Wait!” he said. “Black Hole could stop the asteroid!”

“Really?” Tree laughed. “I highly doubt that.”

“Think about it! He’s from space, he’s probably strong enough to carry an asteroid-”

“I think you’re seriously underestimating how massive a big piece of rock is.”

“A big piece of rock almost as large as the Moon,” Remote added.

“Whatever, I still believe in him,” Pen said, looking up at the sky, trying to detect any movement.

“Come on, Black Hole,” he whispered hopefully. “Save the world.”

 

Having searched in the general vicinity of the Moon, Black Hole was quite sure that whatever was blocking it had long since disappeared. Hoping that nothing bad would happen while he was gone, he ventured off into deep space and returned to the primordial nothingness that was his home.

Unfortunately for him, his newfound friends couldn’t accompany him all day, so every night he had to find other ways to pass the time, like drowning himself in his own thoughts.

It was strange how humans spent over a third of their lives unconscious, simply lying down for hours at a time. Although they probably needed some downtime to recharge their bodies every day, it was still a shame how they couldn’t spend all of the insignificant amount of time they were given on productive tasks…

As the hours passed by, Black Hole’s mind began to wander. Although he had already lived for several eternities with little to no issue, the sudden presence of people to interact with left him feeling unstimulated after only a few hours without them. It was fascinating, how one takes their privileges for granted, until they’re suddenly stripped away.

Peering into the cosmic sphere beside him, he could sense that his friends were just waking up, returning from their quick glimpse into the nothingness of death.

Entering the universe and flying towards the blue marble, he couldn’t tell where it was coming from, but he had a feeling that…

Something was terribly wrong.

 

As Remote walked along the empty sidewalk, she saw the moon, shining brightly in broad daylight. Except, it seemed to be several times larger than usual. As she turned around and saw the real Moon where it was supposed to be, she realized that the large sphere in front of her was the planet-sized asteroid that she had seen on the telescopes yesterday.

And this time, it was coming straight for Earth.

Accepting the fact that nothing normal could happen in her life, she simply hoped it would miraculously disappear and proceeded to ignore it.

While walking through the halls of the GASA facility, she saw Golf Ball shouting at some people in the mission control center.

“Did you complete the final check? Good, prepare for launch!”

It seemed as though they were planning on redirecting the asteroid with rockets. While Remote was glad some effort was being made to ensure the planet didn’t get hit, she didn’t think there was much hope of doing anything to the giant asteroid headed their way.

As she thought back to her conversation with Pen and Tree yesterday, she remembered Pen’s unrealistic optimism that they would all be saved by Black Hole at the last moment, right before the asteroid struck.

She didn’t believe him in the slightest, after all, there was a high chance Black Hole wasn’t even in their universe, as he’d probably be waiting for daybreak, when all his friends would wake up.

And here the asteroid was, mere hours from impacting the Earth. At this point, it would take a miracle for them to have any chance of surviving.

But sometimes, miracles can happen, right when they need to.

Notes:

I love ending chapters with deep, philosophical quotes that I came up with in 3 minutes :D

Chapter 10: Glimmer of Hope

Summary:

When things seem grim, there's always a chance it'll get better

Notes:

We've hit Chapter 10! I have no clue how long I want to make this story, I might just keep posting indefinitely

As Golf Ball watched the rockets launch, she looked up at where they were going and felt a sense of dread. The asteroid was getting larger by the second and was already taking up a considerable amount of the sky.

Given that the rockets launched were supposed to be used to redirect asteroids the size of a small mountain, she was somehow rather skeptical of their ability to have any effect on the second moon hurtling towards their planet. But she wasn’t one to give up when something seemed hard, and she was going to do all that she could to prevent disaster, even if it had an infinitesimally small chance of working.

As she looked around the room, she saw Remote standing by the door, watching their efforts unfold.

“Hey, Remote!” Golf Ball beckoned her over.

“Hi,” Remote said, entering the room and walking through the maze of control panels. “Are you trying to redirect the asteroid?”

“Yes, we are! And I wanted to thank you for giving us an early warning yesterday, that really helped us prepare some defences.”

“...When did you get here today?”

“I didn’t even leave yesterday, I stayed here all night preparing the rockets for launch.

“Wow, that’s a lot of commitment.”

“It had to be done, for us to even have a chance of making it through this alive.”

“Yeah…”

As Remote watched the cameras following the rockets as they blasted off into space, she couldn’t help but feel that their efforts would all be in vain. Granted, they had already survived an encounter with the deadliest celestial body in the universe, but that seemed like dumb luck more than anything else and it was rather unlikely they would somehow pull off the same feat again, especially only a few days after the first one.

“Hey, Golf Ball?” Remote asked. “Do you think we’ll make it through?”

“To be honest, I don’t like our chances very much, but that doesn’t mean we have to give up, right? We might as well give it all we’ve got and hope for the best.” Golf Ball smiled.

“Yep, might as well…”

 

Somewhere, deep in his very being, Black Hole felt that his friends urgently needed help. He didn’t dwell on how he could tell, instead flying at the speed of darkness towards Earth. Without a beam of radio waves guiding him and the added time pressure, it took him a lot longer to find the tiny planet than usual.

After finally finding the correct star system, he focused his gaze on the Earth, and, to his horror, saw what seemed like a second moon barreling towards the exact place where his friends lived. Cursing his stupidity for not seeing a giant rock right next to them the day before, he sped up in panic and desperately tried to get back to the Earth before the asteroid did.

As he approached closer, he saw what appeared to be tiny missiles flying towards the asteroid. He realized that they were rockets, getting ready to land on the surface presumably with the intention of directing the asteroid’s trajectory away from the Earth.

He found it inspiring, watching the humans’ fruitless attempts at accomplishing an insurmountable goal. Despite being faced with the very likely prospect of complete annihilation, they still found a way to fight back, and increase their chance of survival, even if only by the smallest amount.

 

Once the rockets landed and activated their engines, Remote and Golf Ball watched eagerly, desperately hoping that their last chance of stopping the asteroid would work.

“...Is it working?” Remote asked nervously.

“I don’t think so, nothing’s moving,” Golf Ball replied, hope visibly draining out of her face.

As the rockets turned their engines up to maximum throttle, still, the asteroid’s path remained as straight as can be. Golf Ball, accepting their fate, completely relaxed and looked away from the screens.

“Well, at least we tried our best. And even if the asteroid didn’t get us, the black hole certainly would’ve. Speaking of, where did it even go?”

At her words, Remote remembered. Black Hole! He could still save them, no matter how unlikely that was.

“We… might still have a chance…” She said.

“W-what?” Golf Ball said in disbelief. “What are you talking about?”

At that moment, the asteroid suddenly stopped getting closer and instead changed direction entirely and started backing away from the planet at incredible speeds.

“What’s happening?” Golf Ball asked in shock, as her gaze followed Remote’s to the main screen.

Inside Remote, her heart leapt in excitement as her (or maybe Pen’s) hopes and dreams manifested themselves into reality.

And to think I used to believe this amazing, wonderful person would cause the end of humanity, she thought, as all of her previous assumptions about Black Hole were instantly proven wrong in the best way possible.

“Black Hole… isn’t a real black hole,” she finished, having taken Golf Ball on a rollercoaster of emotions and leaving her more confused than ever.

As the asteroid retreated further away, it was slowly ripped up into pieces until eventually, all that was left of their potential killer was a fine stream of particles, which disappeared into eternal darkness.

Through the bright sunlight refracting in the atmosphere, they could make out a slightly opaque face, staring directly at them and looking very relieved. It gradually got smaller until becoming invisible in the clear, sunny sky.

“Are you saying… that was-”

“Yeah, that’s Black Hole. The person, not the celestial object.”

“...Can we meet him?”

 

Although he technically didn’t have one, Black Hole still thought his heart was going to beat out of his chest. If he had arrived just a bit later, he very likely wouldn’t have been in time to stop the asteroid and would have been responsible for the destruction of the only intelligent lifeforms to have ever existed across reality.

He realized, with a pang, that he also destroyed the rockets that the humans sent, which probably weren’t very cheap to make.

Why did he always find a way to mess things up? If he had just arrived quicker, or better yet, spotted the asteroid yesterday, he could have prevented the disaster before it even became one.

He probably should apologize to everyone, especially the people that Remote works for, since he did pulverize and absorb several of their rockets.

Paying no attention to his surroundings, he didn’t even notice that he was already right where he wanted to be. Although, he would soon get pulled back to the world around him.

“Hey, Black Hole!”

Notes:

I've just noticed this story has some subscriptions, so to the 3 people who decided to subscribe, I'm sorry for spamming your email with daily updates

Chapter 11: Unconcealed

Summary:

The asteroid's gone, but there's still one more otherworldly threat to deal with

Notes:

Now that Black Hole has saved the entire world, will he finally gain more self-confidence? Just wait and see...

Black Hole looked up and saw Remote running towards him, with someone else following her.

“Hi, Remote! And-”

“My name is Golf Ball, I’m the manager at this facility. And you must be Black Hole?”

“Yeah. Nice to meet you!”

“Likewise. Remote here has already told me a lot about you, and from what she said, you seem like a nice person.”

“Oh, thank you,” Black Hole laughed nervously. She was speaking with a lot more formality than anyone else he’d met so far and seemed to be a rather important person.

Remote, sensing Black Hole’s discomfort, hastened to spark a conversation.

“Hey, Black Hole, how did you even know to come so quickly? I didn’t even see you until you were right next to us.”

“Well, I don’t really know. I just had a feeling that my friends were in danger, so I rushed over here and saw the asteroid right next to the Earth.”

“Wait, Pen and Tree told me you saw it last night, right?”

“I didn’t actually see it, but I saw the Moon getting dimmer and thought that was a bit strange. So I looked around the Moon for anything that could’ve been blocking it, and I didn’t see anything.”

“You don’t have any idea where it went?” Golf Ball asked.

“Nope.” Black Hole sighed. “If only I could’ve found it yesterday, then you wouldn’t have needed to send your rockets. Sorry for… destroying them, by the way.”

Black Hole is too nice, Remote thought. He had just prevented an extinction-level event and all he could do was apologize for the comparatively insignificant amount of collateral damage that he’d caused.

“Hey, it’s okay. You saved the world! We don’t blame you at all. Right, Golf Ball?” Remote asked for confirmation.

“Well, I wish the rockets didn’t get destroyed, but I’m glad everyone’s safe.”

“I don’t even think we need them anymore. Black Hole’s probably better at stopping asteroids than anything we could ever build, right?”

“It’s still probably better to be able to protect yourself, just in case I’m not there,” Black Hole said.

“Hey, I’ve got an idea. Would you ever consider living here on Earth permanently?” Remote asked hopefully.

“Well, I thought that it would be inconvenient for Pen and Tree, so I’ve been leaving every night to not disrupt them too much.”

“...Have you asked them?”

“Uh, no.”

Remote rolled her eyes, amazed at how clueless Black Hole could be sometimes.

“Well, there you go! Go ask them later today, I’m sure they would love it.”

“Yeah, sure, I’ll do that.”

“Also, Black Hole,” Golf Ball interrupted, “there’s still one more thing I wanted to ask you.”

“Yeah?”

“A few days ago, we told everyone that a black hole was coming towards the Earth and could potentially destroy it. Now that the threat is gone, I was planning on going back with Remote to inform everyone, because a lot of people are still very worried.

“So, would you be okay with revealing that you’re on the planet, or would you rather we come up with a reason for the sudden disappearance? Naturally, I would be inclined to tell the truth, but I understand that you might be uncomfortable with that and I don’t think it would be in our best interest to upset you.”

Black Hole thought about how people might react if they knew he was on the planet. They weren’t exactly the most accepting towards his kind, and it might cause some unwanted backlash. But he could hopefully show everyone that he wasn’t as dangerous as they had perceived, and if that didn’t work, he could always just leave the planet and maybe still be able to see his friends from time to time.

“I’m fine with either one, I think you should tell everyone whatever you think would be best for them.”

“I appreciate your openness. In that case, we will be telling the truth, and hopefully, the public won’t be blinded by fear and will be able to see you for who you really are.”

“Yeah, I hope so too…”

“Alright, I must contact the news stations now, it was a pleasure meeting you, and I hope to see you again soon. Goodbye!” Golf Ball started walking back towards the building. “Let’s go, Remote!”

“I’ll be at Pen and Tree’s once I’m done, see you there.” Remote winked, before running off after Golf Ball.

 

“ I told you ,” Pen said, overjoyed that he could finally claim that he was smarter than Tree.

“Yeah, alright. Congratulations on being right for the first time in your life.” Tree sighed. His life was probably going to be absolutely miserable from now on, or at least until Pen forgot about the whole thing. He was definitely going to have a word with Black Hole later.

“All you had to do,” Pen gloated, “was believe in him.”

“Well, sorry for having a rational mind that can do critical thinking.”

“Just be honest, you completely underestimated him, and now you feel like an absolute dunce.”

“I do admit that I may have perhaps ever so slightly underestimated him, but that’s what any normal person would think, including Remote.”

“Oh, right! She got it wrong too! This is my proudest moment, I’m finally the smartest one in my friend group for once.”

“‘Smartest’ might not be the right word, I would say ‘luckiest’.”

“Hey! Just give me this one time… please?”

“I don’t really want to, but fine, I guess you deserve it.”

While Pen was celebrating his small victory, there was a knocking on the door, and Tree, actually hearing it, went to go open it.

“Hi, Tree! Are you busy right now?” asked Black Hole.

“No, you can come in.”

“Wow, Pen seems pretty excited,” Black Hole observed, looking into the living room.

“Yeah, we’ll explain everything to you later.”

As Black Hole walked into the room, Pen instantly started jumping towards him, overwhelming Black Hole a bit.

“Hey, Pen. Are you okay?” he asked confusedly.

“Yeah! I’m doing fantastic!” Pen responded, acting like a small child on a sugar rush.

“I’m… a bit scared right now.”

“Hey, guys!” Tree said, looking at the TV, “Remote’s on the news again!”

Notes:

I've been slandering Pen so hard for the last few chapters, but now he can finally get back at Tree

Chapter 12: Sheep in Wolf's Clothing

Summary:

Remote goes on the news for the second time in a week

Notes:

This fic is now 10K words long! According to a random source I found online, it would take 40 minutes to read that much

“ After tracking it for several days, we detected a strong signal of radio waves being emitted from its general location, which, after decoding, became a binary string corresponding to English words ,” Remote said on the TV.

“Say, how did you even learn English that fast anyway?” Tree asked Black Hole.

“I kinda just… watched everyone talk and do stuff for a while, and it just came to me.”

“Wow, I wish I could learn stuff that easily,” Pen said enviously.

“Well, I’ve been alive for quite a while, that probably makes it easier.”

As they watched Remote on the news, she told the whole story of how Black Hole had arrived on Earth, and how he prevented the end of the world not even two days later.

“ Contrary to how black holes are often portrayed, he’s actually a very kind and gentle person who wants nothing more than to help us as best as he can. ”

Black Hole’s heart melted at her words. “She’s so sweet,” he said appreciatively.

“I mean, she’s not wrong though. You’re letting people like Pen take advantage of you,” Tree said.

“Hey!” Pen protested, “I’ve treated him with nothing but respect! …Well, maybe a few times I might’ve-”

“Alright, whatever you say.”

Golf Ball made her closing statement, assuring everyone that they were all safe now and that there was no reason to worry anymore. Once the interview was over, Tree turned off the TV and sat back down.

“Wow, she’s pretty good at public speaking,” Tree said.

“Yeah, I wish I had as much confidence as her,” Black Hole said, still thinking about what she had said about him.

“She didn’t like it much when we were younger, I guess it’s just natural talent.”

“Hey, remember when she used to ask to go to the washroom right before it was our turn to present?” said Pen fondly.

“Oh, yeah, and it worked surprisingly well too.”

As Pen and Tree reminisced about their antics at school, Black Hole looked at the clock and tried to decipher the time, although he had no idea what any of the numbers meant. Eventually, he completely gave up and just assumed it was around the middle of the day.

“Hey, have you guys had breakfast yet?” he asked.

“No, we were too worried about the end of the world to do anything, so we just went outside to watch the asteroid fall closer and closer.” Tree said.

“And then,” Pen added, “You showed up and saved everyone, while Tree completely underestimated you, and didn’t believe it would happen when I predicted it last night!”

“In my defence, it was a very big rock.”

“Still doesn’t change the fact that I am now objectively better than you in every way possible.”

“ Anyways ,” Tree said, eager to get away from the current conversation topic, “should I make breakfast then?”

“Well,” Black Hole interrupted, “I was maybe thinking that… since Tree has been cooking so much lately, I could make breakfast this time? I promise I won’t burn down the kitchen.”

“If it were any other person, I would’ve said no, but I wholeheartedly trust you. So, go ahead, show me what you’ve learnt. I’ll be right here if you need me.”

After watching Tree cook breakfast a grand total of one time, Black Hole felt he had learnt all he needed and got to work, trying to show his appreciation of Tree teaching how to cook in the form of a meal.

“Wow, Pen, he’s been on this planet for two days and has already cooked more meals than you.”

“I’ve made a sandwich before, that counts, right?”

“The fact that you had to ask me whether putting some pieces of food on top of each other counts as cooking is honestly a bit sad.”

“Hey, we all have our strengths and weaknesses, that’s what friends are for, filling in for our weak spots.”

“You seem to have an awful lot of weaknesses, though.”

After quickly and efficiently dealing with Pen, Tree looked over at the kitchen, and saw Black Hole not doing much better than he’d hoped. How someone could mess up scrambled eggs, he didn’t know, but Black Hole was accomplishing the task very well.

At least he’s probably better than Pen, Tree thought.

“Hey, Black Hole, how’s the cooking going?”

“Honestly, I feel like whatever you do is some sort of black magic, I can’t get it to look good no matter what I do.”

“It’s alright, cooking’s hard, I wasn’t expecting much anyway.”

When Black Hole was almost done cooking, there was a knock on the door and Remote appeared, having just gotten back from the GASA facility.

“Golf Ball told me that I finished sorting through all the images they had, so I could leave if I wanted.”

As she looked towards the kitchen, she saw Black Hole trying his very hardest to plate the food nicely, then bringing everything to the dining table.

“Why did you let him cook this time?” She asked curiously.

“He said he wanted to give me a break, so he offered to cook instead. I’ve taught him some things, so I think the food should be edible.”

As Black Hole hastened to grab another plate for Remote, Tree walked up to the table and inspected the food.

“Black Hole, did you season anything?” he asked.

“ Oh … I thought I was forgetting something… Where are the salt and pepper shakers again?”

“They’re in this cupboard,” Tree said, as he brought them to the table.

“Is it good?” Black Hole asked eagerly, as they all started eating.

“It’s not bad ,” Pen said, “My general advice is, the more salt you add, the better it tastes.”

“And this is why you should never cook anything in your life,” Tree said.

As Tree took a bite, he was somewhat impressed by the quality of the food. He was expecting something barely edible, but he thought the flavour was pretty decent.

“Y’know what, this is really good, considering you’ve only watched me make it once.”

As they ate and chatted, the conversation eventually turned to Remote’s interview.

“I didn’t know you were so good at public speaking,” Tree said, “and when you said all those great things about Black Hole, he was so happy.”

“That was so nice of you, Remote,” Black Hole added.

“I was just trying to tell the truth.” Remote smiled. “Hopefully, everyone will get over their fears and judge you based on your own personality, rather than what they already thought about black holes.”

“Yeah… hopefully.”

Notes:

I love how we've all collectively agreed that Black Hole can't cook to save his life

Chapter 13: Opposition

Summary:

Some people aren't very happy about the decisions being made...

Notes:

There's a lot of dialogue in this chapter... oops

After a long morning of soul-draining classes, Fanny was finally free to go home and do nothing for the rest of the day. The past few days had been very stressful, having received a mountain of homework from every class, and it didn’t help that the universe apparently wanted their planet gone and sent a black hole into the Solar System.

As she opened the door to her dorm, she saw her roommate on the couch, watching TV.

“Hey, Lightning!” she said, excited to finally have someone to talk to.

“Oh, hi, Fanny! How’s your day been?”

“Some boring old classes, same as usual.”

“Hey, maybe you should try enjoying your classes, instead of hating on them all the time.”

“...You know that’s way easier said than done.”

“Not if you actually try.”

Behind Lightning, the TV channel had switched scenes, now playing an interview of some kind.

As Fanny watched it for a bit, she thought one of the people on screen seemed awfully familiar…

“Hey, look, on the TV. Isn’t that Remote?”

Lightning turned around, and, to his surprise, saw their old classmate on the news, next to Golf Ball.

“Wow, does she work at GASA now or something? This is her second time on the news this week.”

“Maybe. We haven’t been keeping up with our old school friends recently, huh?”

Lightning turned up the volume and they listened to Remote excitedly.

After a few minutes, they had figured out what was going on, and were unsurprisingly relieved that there was no longer the threat of extinction constantly looming over them. But then…

“ After some conversation, the black hole transformed into a human and descended to Earth, where he’s been living ever since. ”

“ What ?” Fanny yelled. “How could they let a black hole on our planet? Right after they thought it was going to destroy us!”

“Well, they said it turned into a human, somehow, so he should be safer now,” Lightning said.

“But we don’t even know its intentions! What if it just suddenly turned back and absorbed the entire world-”

“Be quiet, Remote’s saying something else,” Lightning interrupted, bringing their attention back to the screen.

“ If anyone still has worries about a potentially dangerous being living on our planet, you’ll be relieved to know that he actually stopped the asteroid impact this morning, and saved us from extinction. ”

“So that’s what happened!” Lightning said.

“Wait, what?” Fanny asked surprisedly.

“Didn’t you see? There was a big circle that appeared in the sky this morning and it kept on getting bigger until eventually it just vanished.”

“Seriously? I always miss everything because of class…”

“You’re lucky you didn’t notice anything. It was really scary, watching a giant sphere in the sky slowly getting closer… Anyways, I was really confused when I went back outside to check up on it and it suddenly wasn’t there.”

Fanny ran over the possibilities in her head. If this sentient black hole really did save them from a planet-ending asteroid, maybe it did just want to protect them. But-

“What if it destroyed the asteroid just because it felt like it? It probably doesn’t even care about us at all-”

“Fanny, why don’t you trust him?” Lightning sighed. “From what Remote said, he seems like a really nice guy, and if Remote likes him, then that’s good enough for me.”

“I just feel like… everyone’s become a bit too relaxed, way too fast. Remember a few days ago, when we were all worried about the end of the world? Now we’re suddenly letting the cause of all our worries live on our planet, and no one’s concerned about it.”

“I don’t think they would welcome him with open arms without a good reason, they probably thought he was just a great person and decided it’d be fine. Plus, if he wanted to destroy the world, he could’ve done so all this time, but he decides to save us instead. I think we’ll be fine for a while, especially if he decides to keep protecting us from other threats.”

Although she was far from convinced, Fanny hoped that Lightning would be right, and tried to take her mind off the matter for the time being.

“I guess you’re right… Anyways, wanna go get lunch?”

 

“Hey, Black Hole… are you alright?” Tree asked.

After finishing breakfast, they had all started engaging in conversation, but Black Hole was sat to one side, staring off into deep space.

“Well, I’ve been thinking… All that stuff Remote said about me, isn’t really true…”

“ What ? Yes it is!”

“I haven’t really done anything that nice to anyone, I barely arrived in time to stop the asteroid impact, and I’m too shy to say anything most of the time. I don’t even know why Remote and Golf Ball let me stay on Earth, they really had no reason to.”

As Black Hole spoke, Tree felt more and more sorry for him. After everything that he had done for them, after saving their entire planet, he still felt like he wasn’t good enough.

It was unfair, how the worst people always felt like they were the greatest, when there were gems like Black Hole, so kind and selfless, and paying dearly for it.

All Tree knew was that, if there was any justice in the world, Black Hole should never have to be unhappy. He was too gentle, and too pure, to be suffering from his emotions, and Tree was going to make sure of that.

“Hey… don’t say that about yourself. I’m so glad I have you in my life, and I’m sure Pen and Remote feel the same. You make everyone’s day so much better just by being there, and that’s something only you can do, Black Hole.”

Black Hole smiled slightly at Tree’s words, a part of him still refusing to believe them.

“...Really?”

“Really. Honestly, I don’t think we deserve to have you in our lives. We’re just some random creatures, on a tiny rock floating in space, and I’m honoured that, out of the uncountably many planets in the uncountably many universes that you’ve created, we’re the first one you’ve tried interacting with.”

Black Hole’s mood slowly got better, and he felt warm inside as Tree continued.

“I’m so happy I got to meet you.”

“...Me too.”

Notes:

Yay, new characters! I might slowly add more as the story continues, we'll see

Chapter 14: Mundanely Novel

Summary:

Black Hole gets amazed by a door

Notes:

I just realized AO3 hasn't been formatting italics properly this whole time, and I had to manually fix each chapter :(

If you want the full experience, you can go back and read from chapter 5, and there will be italics now (although it doesn't really make a difference)

“Thanks, Tree, I feel a lot better now,” Black Hole said.

“As it should be. You don’t deserve to ever be sad.”

Black Hole laughed appreciatively as his heart warmed at Tree’s words.

“Anyways,” Tree continued, “should we go join Pen and Remote?”

“Yeah, sure,”

Pen and Remote were on the couch, chatting away as they waited for their friends.

“Oh, hey, guys! What were you doing?” Pen said, as Tree and Black Hole walked into the room.

“That is none of your business, Pen,” Tree said.

“Wow, okay, chill. Anyways, should we do something right now?”

“Oh, let’s go shopping!” Remote suggested. “I’m running low on… basically everything, and I want to get some new stuff for my dorm. Also, It’s a new experience for Black Hole!”

“Sounds fun!” Black Hole sounded intrigued.

There were so many things to do here, Black Hole thought. He had so much more to learn about this wonderful planet…

“As much as I’m against the idea of letting Pen roam free in the store, I guess we do need to buy some things,” Tree said.

“Don’t worry, Black Hole will be able to keep him under control,” Remote assured.

“...I don’t think I like that idea, but whatever, let’s go!” Pen said, running to the door.

“By the way, I might need you to stop Pen from doing anything dumb, because I think he might be a bit scared of you,” Tree said to Black Hole, winking at him.

“I heard that!” Pen yelled from outside the door.

They walked to the store, Remote and Tree mentally running through their shopping list, Pen devising a plan to get them to buy him completely unnecessary items, and Black Hole just going along for the ride, not having a clue what was happening.

“Alright, we’re here!” Pen said, leading the group into the store.

“Woah, that’s so cool…” Black Hole said, watching the door slide open as Pen approached.

Tree and Remote had to refrain from bursting out laughing. “I’ve never seen anyone in such awe at an automatic door ,” Tree said.

“Hey, I probably know a lot more than you did when you were one week old.”

“You are older than our entire universe , don’t pull that card on me.”

Tree took Black Hole’s silence as a sign of concession, and watched as he stared in wonder at the door closing behind them.

Before they walked into the food section, Tree walked over to Pen and gave him a warning with as much authority as he could muster.

“If you try anything, Pen , I’ll have Black Hole make your life a living hell.”

“U-Uh… Sir, yes sir!” Pen gave a mock salute.

Black Hole and Remote laughed, watching Pen look nervously at someone over a head shorter.

“I think I found his weakness,” Tree said to them.

“It’s fine, I’ll find a way around your evil methods eventually…” Pen said ominously.

Remote started grabbing fruits and vegetables and put them into her cart, while Pen was looking at her disgustedly.

“Why would you willingly eat broccoli? I only do it because Tree makes me.”

“Because it’s good for you, and I actually care about my health,” Remote replied.

“Did you hear that, Pen?” Tree asked, while also sneaking some produce into their cart.

“I still don’t think it’s worth it to subject your taste buds to such torture just for some vitamins.”

“...If you ever live alone, I don’t think you’ll make it for long.”

“Which is why I have you!”

Tree and Remote continued filling up their carts, as Black Hole followed behind them, looking at all the cool stuff around him.

“Black Hole, what do you find so wonderful about some random vegetables?” Tree asked.

“I just think it’s cool how you can go to a place and get whatever you want, seems like a smart way of distributing things.”

“Trust me, it’s not.”

While Tree wasn’t looking, Pen tried to sneak a big bag of chips into the cart. However, it was unfortunately very visible and obvious.

“Pen, I’m not blind, you know,” Tree said, turning around and seeing Pen’s pathetic attempt at camouflaging the bag.

“What are you talking about?”

Tree lifted the giant bag out of the cart and put it back on the shelf.

“Oh… That thing,” Pen said.

“Anyways,” Tree continued, turning back to Black Hole, “see these bits of paper? This is what we use to buy stuff. The numbers here represent the value, same with the numbers on the price tags. And you use a lot of math that Pen can’t do to figure out how much you pay.”

“I can do it, I’m just… a bit slower!” Pen said, looking at all the tempting food that he couldn’t buy.

After visiting the other sections of the store and making a few impulse purchases, they walked to the front and got in a line.

When they got to the front, they saw the cashier, who Remote recognized immediately.

“Liy?”

“Oh, Remote! I forgot you went to this college too!”

“She was in a lot of my classes in high school,” Remote explained to the others.

“Oh yeah, I remember her,” Tree said, trying to retrieve his old memories.

“Pen and Tree, right?” Liy asked them.

“Yep.”

“And who’s that behind you?”

“That’s Black Hole,” Remote replied.

The name sounded very familiar, so Liy racked her brain trying to remember where she had heard it from.

“The person you talked about on the news?” she asked, finally thinking of something.

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“Alright, well, it was nice catching up with you guys, see you around!” Liy said, as she finished packing up all their stuff.

“Bye, Liy!” they all said, before leaving the store.

“You sure know a lot of people, Remote,” Black Hole pointed out.

“Well, this isn’t a very large town, I feel like everyone here went to the same school.”

“Yeah, it really helps build our sense of community,” Tree agreed.

They went back home in silence, walking through the darkness, only illuminated by sparsely placed street lights.

Suddenly, a panicked scream pierced the night.

Notes:

If you hate cliffhangers, I'm sorry they're fun to write

The next chapter will be interesting, that's all I'm gonna say

Chapter 15: Unwanted Saviour

Summary:

Someone isn't preventing death very well...

Notes:

I had to change the age rating because of this chapter, so...

CW: Very small amount of violence, probably fine for most people though!

“W-what was that?” Pen asked, looking startled.

“I don’t know…” Tree said, trying to find the source of the noise with the limited light available.

“Black Hole, what are you doing?” Remote asked, as she watched him sprint away from them.

“Be right back!” he said, continuing to run further away.

“Wait, don’t-”

But he had already disappeared into the night.

“Do you think someone’s hurt?” Pen asked, looking towards where Black Hole went.

“Maybe. Let’s follow him, and see what’s going on.” Tree suggested.

They walked in the same direction as Black Hole, cautiously looking out for even the slightest movement or sound. They were feeling rather vulnerable, and not being able to see most of their surroundings certainly didn’t help.

“...Why does it feel like we’re in a horror game?”

“Pen, you’re not helping right now,” Tree said.

After a while, they faintly heard Black Hole’s voice, and looked around a corner to see him talking to someone, with a third person standing behind, visibly shaking.

“Is everything okay?” Black Hole asked.

“That’s none of your business, get lost!”

“I just wanted to make sure everyone was safe-”

“Does it look like I care?”

Black Hole started getting a bit annoyed. Why was this person being so aggressive? And who was he hiding behind him?

Despite feeling that he was just going to get himself into more trouble, Black Hole kept talking, still trying to keep a calm demeanor.

“Well, preferably, no one should be getting hurt, right?”

“If you don’t want to get hurt, I suggest you start running, before it’s too late.”

Black Hole watched as the man raised his arm, and pointed a metal stick towards him.

So not all mortals are so nice, he thought. He had been calling them humans out of respect the whole time, but he thought whoever was standing in front of him somehow didn’t deserve it.

“Don’t think I’m gonna use it, huh?” the man continued, after Black Hole stood there silently for several seconds. “Well, I’m gonna give you ‘til the count of three to get outta here, if you know what’s good for you. One…”

Behind the corner, Black Hole’s friends were all silently chuckling, knowing that this poor man’s fate had already been unknowingly sealed.

“Too bad Black Hole’s a nice guy,” Pen said disappointedly.

“That makes it even better,” Tree said.

“Two …”

Black Hole looked at the tiny thing in the man’s hand. He didn’t know how it was supposed to even hurt a human, let alone do anything to him.

“Three!”

A loud sound burst from the weapon, followed by a small piece of metal, which Black Hole caught in his hand.

“How was this supposed to hurt me?” Black Hole laughed, as he stood, frozen in shock.

While he thought Black Hole’s guard was down, he shot at Black Hole five more times in quick succession, all aimed at different parts of his body. While Black Hole didn’t catch them this time, they all disappeared the moment they touched him, as if he had simply absorbed them.

“Got any more things to throw at me?” Black Hole asked calmly, although striking intense fear into everyone around him.

Now being scared for his very life, the man decided that he wasn’t going to deal with his opponent, and instead ran off, picking up the person behind him and carrying him away.

“Hey! Let me go!” she yelled angrily.

As she said that, Black Hole’s friends all thought the voice sounded eerily familiar.

“Was that-”

“Fanny ?” they whispered intensely.

After only a few paces, Fanny suddenly felt the man’s grip on her completely vanish, and she quickly freed herself.

“I hate you!” she yelled, running away as fast as possible.

As she looked back at the man, she saw that he had been completely frozen, in midair, no less.

“Hey!” he said angrily, “What did you do to me?”

“I admire your bravery,” Black Hole said mockingly, “but it probably wasn’t the best idea to attack someone else right after seeing your pathetic weapons do absolutely nothing against me.”

Black Hole brought him closer, until they were face to face.

“Luckily for you, I’m a nice guy, so I’ll let you off easy this time. But if you ever try anything again… trust me, I’ll know.”

Suddenly, he was gone.

“W-what happened to him?” Fanny asked.

“Oh, I sent him to the police department, they’ll hopefully take care of him.”

Tree was the first one there. “Fanny! You’re safe!”

“Tree ?” she asked, a bit confused.

Pen and Remote appeared behind him.

“What happened?”

“I was just taking a walk to help me relax, and someone suddenly attacked me, so I screamed. A few seconds later, he showed up and saved me!” Fanny turned towards Black Hole.

“Thank you so much, I don’t know what would’ve happened if you didn’t show up.”

“It’s okay, you’re fine now,” Black Hole said, trying to comfort her.

“At the start, I was really scared for you, because I saw that he had a gun. How did you stop it that easily?”

“Oh, that’s what it’s called. I…”

But Fanny was already connecting the pieces in her head. No human could’ve caught a bullet in their bare hand, and she distinctly remembered seeing something about a non-human being on the news…

“Are you Black Hole?”

“What? Oh, yeah, I am.”

In that moment, Fanny broke down.

Though Black Hole didn’t know it, she had been constantly berating him in her head, thinking that he shouldn’t come anywhere near them for fear of potential malevolent intentions. She thought that there was no chance that such a being could be civilized enough to interact with them.

But, in a split second, everything changed. The fact that the being that she had so adamantly disliked for the past few days was in fact her saviour was causing intense guilt to course through her body. She had always been rather closed off, not one to trust very easily. But perhaps, just this once, she could make an exception.

“I’m… s-sorry.”

Notes:

This chapter was a bit hard to write, I can't write people who aren't happy 24/7

If you think this chapter was too much, please let me know! I don't want to stop anyone from reading this fic because they feel uncomfortable

Chapter 16: Bridges Rebuilt

Summary:

Everyone agrees Black Hole's way too nice for his own good

Notes:

I tried keeping everyone in character but I don't think it worked

“Hey, you’re okay, everything’s fine,” Black Hole said gently.

“No it’s not!” Fanny replied, calming down slightly.

“...You wanna tell me what’s wrong?”

“I… was wrong about you.”

Black Hole, feeling that he knew where she was going, refrained from saying anything, and waited for her to continue.

“When I first heard Remote talking about you on the news, I thought you were too dangerous and unpredictable, and I got mad at them for thinking that letting you on to our planet was a good idea.”

“Fanny-”

“I know what you’re going to say, because you’re too kind and pure, but I don’t deserve your forgiveness, and honestly, it would probably make me feel worse, knowing that I’m taking advantage of your personality.

“I hate myself…”

Black Hole desperately wanted to comfort her, to tell her that everything was going to be okay. He felt terrible when anyone had to suffer because of him, regardless of whether he had caused it.

“Listen, you’re not the only one who thought that. The whole world was panicking for the past few days, and I don’t blame them at all. In fact, I was scared, too. One wrong move, and I could’ve caused some pretty devastating things to happen. So, you were completely justified in thinking that. And there’s no need to apologize, right now, the best thing you can do for me is to forget about this whole thing, because I don’t want you to be stressed out because of me, and it would make me so happy if I knew that I made your day just a tiny bit better.” Black Hole smiled warmly at Fanny.

Fanny, unable to resist his wholesomeness, returned the smile, feeling she couldn’t help but listen to every word he said.

“Thanks for… being so kind and understanding,” she said.

“Anything for my friends,” Black Hole said brightly. “Assuming you want to be friends.”

“Of course I do! I don’t know if I’ve ever met such a wonderful person in my life!”

“Aw, thanks!” Black Hole laughed, still not used to receiving so many compliments.

“Hey, we’re just glad you’re okay,” Tree said, as they all huddled together for a group hug.

“Black Hole, come join us! You’ll be fine!”

“Uh, alright…”

For such a cold and emotionless celestial body, Tree thought, the living counterpart sure was warm and cozy.

In the dead of night, they stood there, embracing each other, just relieved that nobody was hurt, and everything was alright.

“Everyone, thank you so much,” Fanny said, once they broke apart. “Especially you, Black Hole.”

“I’m just trying my best to help out,” Black Hole said, appreciating all the praise he was receiving.

“Well, I’m probably gonna go home now and tell Lightning everything that happened,” Fanny said, noticing how late it was now.

“Oh, you’re living with Lightning? Tell him we said hi!” Remote said.

“He’ll probably want to talk to you, Black Hole. He’s always been saying you’re a great guy and wasn’t worried at all, and he was definitely right about that.

“Alright, I’ll mostly be with them if he ever wants to see me,” Black Hole said, pointing to his friends.

 

After saying goodbye to everyone, Fanny walked back to her dorm, having been shaken by the sudden encounter but now feeling a lot more relaxed, thanks to her friends.

As she opened the door, Lightning, who had started getting a bit worried, gave a shout of delight and pranced to the door.

“Fanny!” he shouted relievedly. “What happened?”

“That’s… gonna take a lot of explaining, but basically, I almost got mugged, but someone saved me.

“You what ?”

“Don’t worry, I’m completely fine, nothing happened to me. Although the same can’t be said about the mugger,” Fanny said with a satisfied grin.

“...I’m very lost right now, please clarify.”

Before Fanny started explaining the situation in more detail, they went inside and sat down first.

“Alright, so, someone attacked me, I screamed, and a few seconds later Black Hole showed up and started talking to the guy.”

“Wait, really? He lives here?

“Apparently. Pen, Tree and Remote were there too, they were watching from around a corner, so I guess Black Hole’s living with them.”

“Wow, that’s so lucky.”

“I didn’t know it was Black Hole yet, so I got really scared when the guy pulled out a gun, but I don’t think Black Hole even knew what it was.”

Lightning imagined the scene in his head, and couldn’t help but laugh. Sometimes, being clueless helps quite a bit.

“I bet he got real scared when his bullets did nothing.”

“Wow, how did you know? Anyways, after, he just gave up on Black Hole and tried running away, carrying me with him.”

“Oh no! How could you have possibly escaped from that ?”

“I’ll give you one guess-”

“Was it Black Hole?”

“It was Black Hole.”

“See, I bet you really regret hating him with a burning passion for the past few days now.”

“Hey, I’m gonna get to that later! Anyways, Black Hole froze him in place, which let me escape, and then did telekinesis on him and brought him closer so they were right next to each other.

“Then he said something, I forgot what exactly. And he’s usually really nice, but when he’s angry, it’s so terrifying…”

Lightning made a mental note to never get on Black Hole’s bad side, although he supposed it would be almost impossible to do accidentally.

“After he said all that, he teleported the guy to the police, so hopefully he won’t be back for a while,” Fanny finished, thankfully with a happy ending.

“Wow, I don’t know if you’re super lucky or unlucky…”

“Probably both. After, Black Hole and I had a chat and he said he forgives me for everything, he’s such a sweet person.”

“Well, I’m glad you don’t hate him anymore.”

“I don’t have any reason to.”

“Really? That’s a first.”

“There’s really nothing to hate about him. He’s just so amazing…”

“Alright, Fanny, you should probably get to bed before you start having feelings, y’know.”

“Hey! We’re friends, okay? But, yes, I do need to sleep, I’m way too tired right now.”

As it was already almost midnight, they hastened to go to bed. Fanny, thinking about what a day she had just had, found it hard to fall asleep. But, eventually, they were both lost in their dreams, ready for whatever the world threw at them tomorrow.

Notes:

The ending probably isn't foreshadowing, I'm completely out of ideas

Chapter 17: Step by Step

Summary:

Pen comes home with some friends

Notes:

If the last few chapters made you depressed here's a happy one! :D

“Black Hole…”

Following his sudden return to consciousness, he saw Tree standing next to him, repeatedly calling his name.

“Hey!” Tree smiled, seeing that Black Hole had opened his eyes. “How are you feeling?”

“Ugh… I don’t know…” Black Hole said groggily, trying to remember what had just happened to him.

After Remote had reminded him to ask Pen and Tree whether he could live with them last night, he followed her suggestion and asked them the moment they got home.

“Sure, that would be great! I imagine it was probably pretty boring, wherever you spent the night before,” Tree said.

“Oh, you have no idea, it’s just a dark void with a tiny sphere of space.”

Tree then tried explaining the concept of sleeping to Black Hole, who seemed to be very confused by it.

“Why would you just… stop thinking for a third of your life?” he asked.

“Well, humans are really fragile creatures, and if we don’t recharge our body every day then it’ll stop working.”

“Seems inconvenient.”

“It feels really good, though. You just get to relax for a few hours. I don’t know if you’ll be able to sleep, but we can try.”

“Should we get another bed, then?” Pen asked.

Black Hole didn’t expect them to start offering to buy him stuff the moment he started living with them, and didn’t want to be too much of a burden.

“N-no, it’s okay, I can just… sleep in the air.”

“Are you sure? It’s a lot more comfortable in a bed,” Tree offered.

“It’s fine, I’ll just imagine myself in a bed, and it’ll feel the same.”

“...I’m not even going to question how that works, but, if you insist, I guess.”

After Pen and Tree went to their rooms for the night, Black Hole lay down on an invisible mattress of air, and tried to let go of all his thoughts and feelings. Eventually, he dozed off, and had a real rest, for the first time in his life.

 

As memories from the previous night flooded back to him, he realized where he was and floated back to the ground.

“Did you actually sleep on an invisible bed?” Tree asked.

“No, I slept on an imaginary bed. Big difference.”

“Well, did you like it?”

Black Hole thought about this question for a while. Although it didn’t have much of an effect on him, he could see why humans liked it so much.

“I can’t say I didn’t, but I don’t really feel different from last night.”

“I guess you don’t actually need to sleep, so it wouldn’t be that useful.”

“Yeah. It felt nice and warm in the blankets, though.”

“The blankets that you imagined.”

“Yes.”

“...Alright, well, as long as you enjoyed it, that’s good enough for me.”

Black Hole looked around the room, noticing that someone was missing.

“Where’s Pen?”

“Oh, he’s in class. You slept for a pretty long time, it’s almost noon.”

“Really? Sorry about that.”

“It’s fine, I haven’t got anything planned today anyway. Speaking of, do you want to do anything while we’re waiting for Pen?”

“Uh…”

Black Hole felt like he had barely scratched the surface of what this world had to offer, so he decided to suggest something that he knew Tree liked.

“Why don’t we cook lunch? So Pen can eat right when he gets back.”

“Great idea! Alright, you can cook, I’ll just help you a bit.”

“I don’t know if that’s the best idea…”

“Nah, you’ll do great! I believe in you!”

He then proceeded to guide Black Hole through every step of the recipe, chuckling uncontrollably as Black Hole frantically tried to figure out what he was supposed to do.

While Black Hole was having a mini panic attack, Pen arrived home, bringing some friends with him.

“Why do I need a thermometer to cook meat?” he heard Black Hole shout from the kitchen.

“Looks like he’s kinda busy right now.” Pen laughed.

“Has reality-bending powers but can’t cook,” Lightning said.

“Hey, Black Hole! You doing alright?” Pen asked, walking into the kitchen.

“He’s a bit lacking in experience, but he’s getting there,” Tree said.

“I saw Fanny and Lightning while going to class this morning, and Lightning said he wanted to meet Black Hole, so I brought them back with me.”

Black Hole had barely heard his name being said, but he was too focused, and instead ignored it.

“Black Hole, did you even see who just came in?”

“Huh?” Black Hole looked up. “Oh, hi!”

“My name’s Lightning, I’m friends with Fanny. Nice to meet you!”

“Oh, you too!” Black Hole replied, trying to speed up a bit. “Hey, Tree, can I have more of… everything?”

“Already got it,” Tree said, dropping more ingredients on the counter.

Once Black Hole had made five questionably looking burgers, Tree tried fixing them up a bit, then put them onto plates.

“I know they don’t look the best, but they’ll probably taste fine, he followed all the steps pretty well,” Tree assured everyone.

“They don’t actually look that bad,” Pen said.

“That’s because Tree fixed up my mess,” Black Hole said.

Once they had all finished eating the surprisingly good burgers, Lightning initiated a conversation with Black Hole.

“So, Fanny told me how you beat up some guy last night.”

“He was asking for it, he attacked me first. And I didn’t physically touch, or injure him, so I don’t think it counts.”

“I don’t think you should’ve let him off that easily,” Fanny said, her anger flaring at the thought of her attacker.

“Well, I don’t think the police would’ve liked that very much.”

“Not like they can do anything about it,” Pen muttered quietly.

“Pen!” Tree said, “Don’t encourage him to commit crimes!”

Fanny and Lightning chuckled lightly.

“I’m just saying, if he wanted to-”

“Alright, that’s enough from you, thank you very much,” Tree interrupted before Pen could continue.

“Anyways, I just wanted to thank you for saving Fanny,” Lightning said to Black Hole. “She’s not the type of person to easily comply with anyone, so I don’t want to know what would’ve happened if you didn’t show up.”

“Well, you’re not wrong, I guess…” Fanny grumbled.

“Just trying my best to help,” Black Hole said. “Humans are so sweet, I feel like I have to protect everyone.”

“Have I ever mentioned how lucky we are?” Lightning said.

“Yeah, we managed to get the nicest being in the universe on our side,” Tree added.

“Aw, thanks, you guys,” Black Hole said.

He didn’t know how everyone always managed to make him feel so good, and he knew he probably didn’t deserve it, but he still appreciated it nonetheless.

He couldn’t possibly repay his friends enough for being so kind, he loved them so much and they meant the world to him.

Though he knew this bliss couldn’t last forever, that all good things must to an end, he refused to believe that one day, he would eventually have to say goodbye.

All he could do was spend as much time with them as he could, and make memories that would outlast their species, and the rest of existence.

Notes:

If you feel like this story's crawling at a snail's pace right now, yeah you're probably right

Chapter 18: Away From Home

Summary:

Black Hole takes his friends somewhere new

Notes:

I'm planning something very big soon... just you wait

After what seemed like several hours of chatting and hanging around, they heard a knock on the door and Tree went to open it to reveal Remote, having just come home.

“Oh, hey, Fanny and Lightning!” she said, spotting them sitting with the rest of her friends.

“Remote!” Lightning said. “Are you famous now or something? You’ve been on the news twice!”

“Well, Golf Ball keeps asking me to go with her, so I just come along. Speaking of Golf Ball, she offered me a job today! She said I was doing better than a lot of people working there, so I could skip of few weeks of the internship.”

Everyone congratulated her, with a mix of light applause and encouraging messages.

“Does that mean you’re gonna be an astronaut and go to space?” Pen asked.

“No. That would be cool, but it always seemed too risky for me. I’m working in astrobiology, so, studying life in space.”

“So you’re looking for aliens?”

“Uh… yeah, sure.”

“Cool!”

They’re even looking for other lifeforms, Black Hole thought. He didn’t see any other signs of intelligent life on his way here, but given the sheer vastness of space, it wouldn’t be surprising if there were countless more civilizations out there.

After Remote explained a lot of stuff to everyone and answered all their questions, it was already rather late in the day, and Fanny and Lightning figured they should probably go home and have dinner.

“Feel free to drop by anytime!” Tree said.

“Alright, thanks! And Remote, congrats on your new job!” Lightning said, walking out the door with Fanny.

Once they were gone, Tree closed the door and walked back towards the living room.

“I guess I should probably make dinner too, then.”

“Oh, yes, great idea,” Pen said eagerly.

“Black Hole, want to help?”

“Yes, please!”

“He’s improving really fast, isn’t he?” Remote asked. “Sooner or later he’s going to be better than Tree.”

“Yeah,” Pen agreed. “Anyways, tell me about your whole… looking for aliens thing…”

As Pen listened to Remote and became ever-increasingly more confused, Tree and Black Hole almost finished making an entire meal.

“Wow, you’re getting a lot better at this! I guess practice does make perfect,” Tree said, looking impressed at Black Hole’s attempt to follow his instructions.

“Thanks!” Black Hole said, feeling somewhat proud of himself.

After they had finished making dinner, Pen and Remote came over to review their creation. Although Pen didn’t like the taste much, the others all thought it was pretty good.

“It’s still pretty early,” Tree said, once they had all finished eating. “Is there anything you guys want to do?”

“Hey, Remote?” Black Hole asked. “Didn’t you say earlier that you thought going to space would be cool?”

“Uh, yeah, I think I did. Why?”

“Well… I could bring you guys up to space…”

“I knew you were going to say that…” Tree muttered.

“Wait, really? That would be awesome!” Pen said, feeling extremely excited at the prospect of getting a tour of the universe.

When Remote said that earlier, she wasn’t expecting to actually be able to go to space just a few hours later, though it did seem like a pretty fun experience.

“I… don’t think humans can handle being in space for very long, though,” Remote said.

“It’s okay, I’ll make sure you guys are completely fine,” Black Hole assured.

“How could you not trust him? Tree asked Remote.

“I do, it’s just… you’re sure you know what you’re doing, right?” she asked Black Hole.

“Yes. I promise I won’t let any of you get hurt.”

Having successfully convinced Remote that everything was going to be alright, they all got ready to go on the trip of a lifetime.

“I just need to make sure everyone can survive up there, and, if you guys don’t mind, could I shrink you down so I can hold you in my hand? Just so no one gets lost.”

“Sure, go ahead!” Tree said.

A few moments later, Pen, Tree, and Remote were safely in Black Hole’s hand, and he got ready to take off.

“Alright, everyone ready? Let’s go!”

Black Hole shot into the sky, as his friends were launched into his hand from the acceleration.

“Wow, Black Hole’s hand is so soft and warm,” Tree said. “I want to just… fall asleep,” he finished, letting out a yawn.

“Yeah, good luck falling asleep while moving at the speed of light,” Pen said.

“We’re moving way faster than that,” Remote said, looking out into space and seeing the planets fly by.

Eventually, they started decelerating, and Black Hole opened his hand.
“Can you still see the Earth?” he asked.

“Nope. I think we’ve already left the Solar System,” Remote said.

“That was fast,” Tree said surprisedly.

As they ventured further into deep space, the stars became blurs on the dark background and flew away into the distance.

“Wow, your galaxy looks so amazing,” Black Hole said, staring down in awe.

They all looked down and saw two shimmering spirals, intertwined with each other. It was hard to imagine that each arm was made up of billions of stars, just like theirs.

“That looks so cool, I’m gonna take some pictures,” Pen said.

“Oh yeah, that reminds me,” Remote said, pulling out her phone as well, “I’m sure Golf Ball would love some pictures of cool things in space.”

“Why am I not surprised you two both brought your phones?”

“You’re just jealous that you can’t take any cool pictures,” Pen bragged.

“It’s okay, Tree. I gave you your phone,” Black Hole said.

Tree felt his phone suddenly appear in his pockets.

“Oh, uh, thanks,” he said awkwardly, with Pen and Remote both smiling at him.

“Alright, anywhere else you guys want to go?”

“Yes, I’m not gonna miss this opportunity,” Remote said.

“We could always just come back, but sure.”

After Remote had sent them to what seemed like every corner of the universe to try and study everything up close, Black Hole flew them back to the tiny planet they called home.

“So, did you guys have fun?” Black Hole asked, returning them to normal size.

“Yeah, that was actually really useful, thanks!” Remote said, her phone full of otherworldly photos. “Anyways, I’m gonna go home now, I want to show these to Golf Ball tomorrow morning. Bye, everyone!”

Once Remote left, Pen looked at the time.

“Come on, why do I always sleep so late? I need to get more.”

“Sorry about that,” Black Hole said sheepishly.

“No, it’s not your fault. If anything, blame Remote. Alright, I need to fall asleep really quick, good night everyone!” He said, walking into his room.

“Are you okay with sleeping in the air again?” Tree asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Good night, Tree!”

Once Tree turned off the lights and left, Black Hole was alone, just him and his thoughts.

He was glad to be able to give everyone a good time, and Remote seemed particularly happy about being able to explore the stars.

If what she said was true, the photos that she took would’ve been impossible to get without him.

And if he kept on helping them, who knows how far they could advance?

Notes:

I hate writing the end of the day because it's just everyone saying "Good night!" and then leaving

Chapter 19: Deal With the Angel

Summary:

Golf Ball gets a bit too excited about going to space

Notes:

It's really hard to include all the characters in one chapter, so if you're a fan of a specific character (besides Black Hole), I'm sorry if I forget about them for a while

Golf Ball had arrived in her office very early that morning, hoping to get some of her tasks done before everyone else started bothering her. Unfortunately, someone clearly had the same idea, for it hadn’t even been an hour since she arrived before she heard a knock on her door.

“Come in,” she said, slightly disgruntled at being interrupted during her supposed free time. As the door opened and revealed who it was, however, her annoyance quickly dissipated as the door opened and revealed who was behind it.

“Remote! What can I do for you?”

“Sorry for bothering you, but I have something I thought you might want to see.”

She pulled out her phone and showed Golf Ball the pictures she had taken the previous night.

“Woah, how did you get these?” Golf Ball asked, staring at the various celestial objects displayed on the screen.

“Black Hole took me and some friends up to space last night, and I thought it would be a good opportunity to observe some things up-close.”

Golf Ball didn’t know how they managed to survive in space, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to, but her curiosity got the best of her.

“How did you even survive up there?”

“I have no idea. Black Hole just said we’d be fine, and we all trusted him.”

“Fair enough. Could you send all of those pictures to me?”

“Alright, sure.”

Black Hole took them up to space with no protection, and went all over the universe in just a few hours, Golf Ball thought. He would be really useful if he was helping out…

“Also, if it’s okay with him, could I speak with Black Hole?”

“Alright, I can go bring him here later.”

“Thank you.”

 

As Remote walked to her computer to send her pictures to Golf Ball, she thought about how useful Black Hole could be, helping their team. He could teleport everything instantaneously, anywhere in the universe. Maybe that’s what was holding them back all this time.

Once she finished transferring the files over, she checked the time and saw that there was still half an hour before she was supposed to start working. If she was quick, she could go back to campus and get Black Hole.

After a few minutes, she arrived at the door to Pen and Tree’s dorm and knocked, hoping that they weren’t still sleeping. A few moments later, Tree opened the door.

“Oh, hey, Remote! Don’t you have work today?”

“Hi, Remote!” She heard Black Hole say faintly from another room.

“Yeah, but, it hasn’t started yet, and Golf Ball said she wanted to talk to Black Hole, so I just decided to come ask while I still had time.”

“Golf Ball?” Black Hole asked, appearing behind Tree. “Isn’t she that person we met-”

“Yeah, that’s her.”

“She’s kinda intimidating, bit too professional for me,” Black Hole said, seeming rather nervous.

Remote chuckled, not knowing why Black Hole was scared of Golf Ball of all people.

“It’s fine, she was really nice last time, remember? Anyways, do you want to come?”

Black Hole looked at Tree.

“Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine,” Tree assured.

“Alright, sure, I guess,” Black Hole decided, walking out the door and following Remote to her workplace.

“Bye, guys! Have fun!” Tree shouted as they walked out of sight.

 

“Why did Golf Ball want to see me?” Black Hole asked, as they walked to the facility.

“Well, I showed her the pictures I took last night and after she saw them, she wanted me to get you. She probably wants you to help them get more pictures.”

“Oh, right, that’d be cool!”

Once they arrived, they walked up to Golf Ball’s office, and Remote knocked on the door.

“Come in,” Golf Ball said monotonously. She was getting rather tired of everyone coming to see her for every minute problem that they encountered.

When Remote entered the room, her attentiveness increased dramatically, eager to hear what news she had brought.

“I got Black Hole,” she said, as Black Hole walked up beside her.

“Great! Thank you, Remote!” Golf Ball said excitedly, finally being able to do something productive with her day. “Would you like to stay with us while we talk? I know he’s your friend, and you probably need a bit of a break, with how hard you’ve been working…”

“Uh, sure, thank you!”

“So, Black Hole, I just have a few questions for you, okay?” Golf Ball asked.

“Alright.” Black Hole nodded.

“Last night, you took some of your friends into space, right?”

“Yeah.”

“How did you make sure they would survive up there?”

Black Hole tried to remember, but he couldn’t figure out exactly what he had done. All he knew was that he wanted them to be safe, and that seemed to work.

“I’m not exactly sure, I think I just made them unable to be injured.”

“And how did you travel across the whole universe in just a few hours?”

“I made time stop while I was travelling, and I was also travelling a lot faster than light.”

“Could you teleport anywhere in the universe instantaneously, while taking other stuff with you?”

“Uh, yeah, probably…”

“Alright, well, as you may already know, we’ve been having some trouble travelling to any other stars, due to speed and time limitations. If you would like, could you perhaps help us reach other star systems? Only if you’re willing to, of course.”

Black Hole had been entertaining this thought for a while now. He thought that the humans seemed to want to explore the universe quite eagerly, and he was happy to help them expand their horizons. He had been thinking of offering to help them for a while now, but his job was just made a lot easier.

“Sure, I’d love to!”

Golf Ball had a silent celebration over her triumph, seeing great things ahead in humanity’s future. Remote, too, was excited to see them advance further along the technological path.

Although it was her job, she still didn’t know whether there were other creatures like them, trying to break the final frontier.

All she hoped was that if they ever met other lifeforms from some distant planet, they would make it through the encounter alive.

Notes:

Foreshadowing? I have no idea what you're talking about

Chapter 20: Preemptive Measures

Summary:

Remote's first day at work goes way too well

Notes:

Late chapter again, my bad :/

“Hey, I have to start work now, can you walk back home by yourself?” Remote asked Black Hole once they left Golf Ball’s office.

“Oh, sure, have fun at work!”

Black Hole watched Remote walk away before leaving the building and going back to Pen and Tree’s dorm.

He knocked on the door and Tree opened it a while later, carrying a spatula in his hand. Black Hole smelled the aroma of eggs and toast coming from inside and heard the sizzling of oil in the pan.

“Hey, did you make breakfast without me?” he asked teasingly.

“Oh, no, sorry! I didn’t know you wanted to help me, I just wanted to make you-”

Black Hole laughed. “It’s okay, Tree. I was joking, thanks for making breakfast!”

“Gotta go real quick!” Tree said as he ran back into the kitchen, trying to prevent everything from burning.

Black Hole followed him inside and saw him piling a mountain of food onto some plates.

“Wow, this looks great, thanks, Tree!”

After they finished eating breakfast, Tree asked, “So what did Golf Ball want to talk to you about?”

“She wanted me to help them send missions to space, because Remote told her that we went to space yesterday and she thought I could do that with more things.”

“Oh, yeah, that would help us a lot. Hey, how do you feel about everyone using you for their own needs? Must be a bit annoying, huh?”

“No, not at all! I love seeing everyone become so happy when I help them, it makes me feel really good! As long as they’re nice about it, I guess.”

“Alright, well, just remember, if anyone asks you to do something, only do it if you want to, because there’s literally nothing anyone could do to get you to do something you don’t like.”

“Yeah… thanks.”

“I just don’t want you to get pushed around by people taking advantage of your kindness, because they don’t deserve it.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t. Did you see what I did to that guy a few days ago?”

Tree laughed. “Yeah, good point.”

For the next few hours, they sat there, chatting away, waiting for Pen to come back.

 

After leaving Golf Ball’s office and parting ways with Black Hole, Remote went back to her computer and tried to get accustomed to her new job. It was a lot less tedious than what she was doing before, but now she had to actually use her brain to get any work done, which, although she excelled at thinking, would probably take quite a heavy toll on her at the end of the day.

Golf Ball had asked her to help plan the upcoming mission to Mars, because she was, as she later found out, the only astrobiologist in the entire facility. She felt sad that no one cared about the field, but at least now she could represent everyone else who had the same appreciation for the subject.

While she didn’t think that they would find any signs of life on the mission, as they had already sent many rovers to check for them to no avail, maybe they could find some if they looked themselves.

She spent the next few hours cycling through her tasks, trying to keep her brain from frying. Just before she was about to leave, she checked the satellite dish records one more time for any signals.

 

Once Pen had finished all of his classes, he ran into Fanny and Lightning again, and offered to bring them back home with him. Once they arrived, Pen opened the door and they all went in.

“Hi!” Black Hole said, waving at them.

“Hey, guys,” Tree said, “I assume you want me to make lunch?” He asked Pen.

“That’s right!”

Tree got up and walked into the kitchen, with Black Hole following behind him.

“Thanks, Tree!” Pen said.

After Tree and Black Hole made lunch and everyone finished eating, they all went to hang around in the living room.

“Hey, Black Hole, Remote texted me something about Golf Ball wanting to see you this morning, what was that all about?” Pen asked.

“Oh, yeah, she wanted me to help them get to other planets and stars, since I can just teleport there with everything.”

“Wow, that sounds cool!” Lightning said.

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Do you know when you’re gonna start?” Pen asked.

Black Hole thought back to his conversation with Golf Ball. She hadn’t given a specific date but she hinted at it being soon.

“Dunno, probably in a few days.”

“That’s really nice of you, Black Hole!” Fanny said.

Yeah, I mean… thanks.”

After a few hours of talking, someone knocked on the door and Pen went to open it.

“Hey, Remote’s here!” he told everyone, letting Remote into the room.

“Hi, Remote! How was your first day of work?” Tree asked.

“A lot harder than before. But at least I’m not bored out of my mind now.”

“Did you do anything interesting?”

“Well, I saw the satellite dish receiving a weird signal from some random direction, it seemed like a pulsar, but I’m not sure.”

“Really?” Tree said, “That’s very interesting-”

“Alright, Tree, we get it, please don’t give another speech on why you think some random thing no one cares about is cool,” Pen said, wanting to avoid extreme boredom.

“Hey, I care about them,” Remote countered.

“See? A woman of culture,” Tree said.

“...Stop being so smart, you two,” Pen said grumpily.

“Are they always like this?” Lightning asked Black Hole.

“Yeah, you get used to it after a while…” Black Hole whispered back.

“Anyways, are you sure it was a pulsar? It would be pretty cool if you found extraterrestrial life on your first day,” Tree asked.

“Well, I do have a track record of always being the one to first see major events from space, huh? I can’t be sure, but it’s always been some random celestial body in the past, so it probably is this time too.”

Suddenly, everything went dark as the lights turned off, along with everything else around them.

Notes:

Yay cliffhangers! They're so fun

Chapter 21: Fatal Error

Summary:

Physics is a double-edged sword...

Notes:

What's 9+10?

Now being illuminated only by the small amount of natural light outside coming through the windows, everyone (except Black Hole) figured that a power outage had just happened. Pen, not knowing what to do, pulled out his phone to find something online that would help them fix it.

“Guys, my phone’s not working,” he said anxiously, pressing all the buttons on the side hoping that it would do something.

“Mine isn’t either,” Remote said, with an ever-increasing sense of dread that something much worse had happened.

Everyone was understandably very confused, and quite worried. They were all fine, yet it seemed like everything around them wasn’t.

“Did anyone else feel that?” Black Hole asked, shaking slightly. “It was like a wave of energy washed over me.”

“Wait, seriously? That’s not good…” Tree said, connecting the dots in his head.

“Really? I didn’t know that, thanks for telling me,” Pen said, trying to hide his fear but failing miserably.

“Pen! This isn’t the time for jokes!” Tree said, “I think we just got hit by an EMP.”

 

One moment, Golf Ball was in her office, minding her own business. The next, all the lights turned off, her laptop shut down, and her coffee maker’s screen went entirely blank.

“What…?”

She walked out the door into the hallway and saw that everything was dark, with the entire row of lights all turned off. Running from room to room and checking to see whether everyone was okay, she saw that they were all as confused as she was, if not more.

The sun was already starting to descend beyond the horizon, darkening the building with every passing second. With the tiny bit of light that she had, she navigated around the facility, checking in with everyone and trying to figure out what had happened.

“Did anything happen to you?” she asked multiple people in the various rooms.

“I’m fine, but all the lights suddenly turned off, and all the computers in here stopped working,” one of them responded.

As the pieces slowly clicked into place in Golf Ball’s brain, she ran to the announcement room and got on the loudspeaker.

“Attention, it appears that our electronic devices have been disabled by an EMP attack. Although no one has been injured, there has been widespread damage to all electric circuits in the facility. We are trying to fix this issue, and we urge you to remain calm. ”

Though it wasn’t exactly true that she was attempting to fix the problem in any way, hopefully, they could understand that recovering completely fried electronics wasn’t the easiest task.

She sighed, knowing that she was going to be in for a very long night.

 

Pen started panicking quite a bit at Tree’s words. Though he didn’t know exactly what Tree was talking about, he had only ever heard the term in the science-fiction movies that Tree had forced him to watch in an attempt to “civilize” him.

“Isn’t that, like, the big laser thing that different planets shoot at each other?”

“...I have no idea what you’re talking about, and no it’s not, we’re not in a movie,” Tree replied, trying to calm Pen down.

“Is it dangerous?”

“Well, not to humans. It’s basically a big wave of electricity that tries to overload all the electric things with current so they can’t function anymore.”

Pen, realizing what this meant, had a quick, impulsive thought.

“Wait, so my phone-”

“That should be the least of your worries right now!” Fanny scolded. “How do we know who even sent it in the first place? What if that was just the first strike, before they start actually attacking us?”

“Yeah, that’s really concerning…” Tree agreed.

Remote realized with a jolt that Golf Ball was probably still in the GASA building, stuck in the dark with thousands of broken computers.

“Hey, why don’t we go to GASA?” Remote suggested. “We can go see Golf Ball and try to figure out what’s going on! You never know, it could’ve come from space…”

“Oh, yeah, good idea! Hey, Black Hole, can you teleport us into the building?”

“Well, I don’t know if we’re allowed in there,” Black Hole said nervously.

“Just bring us right outside, I’ll go in!” Remote said impatiently.

“A-alright, if you say so…”

A moment later, they were all standing outside on the grass next to the towering building that Remote immediately started running towards.

“Wow, I’ve always wanted to go to this place,” Lightning said, staring up at the many windows lining the walls.

“Yeah, Remote is so lucky to get to work here,” Pen said enviously.

 

As Remote hurriedly ran down hallways and peered into rooms, looking for Golf Ball, she nearly ran into her target while turning a corner.

“Woah! Remote, be careful!” Golf Ball said, narrowly avoiding a collision. “Are you okay? Why are you here?”

“Do you know what caused the EMP?”

“No, it caught me by surprise as much as anyone. I’m still trying to undo the damage, but it seems like pretty much everything got disabled, and I’m starting to think that it won’t be possible to fix anything.”

‘Alright, well, I brought my friends here to check what happened, they’re outside right now, do you give them permission to come in?”

“Sure. I mean, it’s not like the security system still works…”

“Thank you! I’ll go get them!” Remote said, running down the stairs with a lot less regard for her safety than usual.

Sprinting out of the door, she saw her friends on the lawn, waiting for her to come back.

“Guys, Golf Ball said you can come in!” she said breathlessly. “Alright, Black Hole, take us up.”

They all appeared in a hallway, catching Golf Ball, who happened to be standing right next to them, very much by surprise.

“Oh, sorry, Golf Ball, I didn’t mean to startle you,” Black Hole said.

“It’s fine.”

“So, should we go to the telescopes? They still work, right?” Remote asked.

“Yeah, I think so. I’ll go too.”

“Alright, here we go…’ Black Hole said, bringing them to the top of a building, where the telescopes were lined up, waiting for them.

As everyone ran towards them and started scanning the sky for a potential location of origin of the EMP, Black Hole stayed back, searching with his eyes.

“Uh, guys? I don’t think you need the telescopes anymore…”

Notes:

21 (I'm sorry)

Chapter 22: Ultimatum

Summary:

No one realizes what's happening until it's too late

Notes:

Black Hole feels some interesting emotions this chapter...

Everyone removed their eyes from the telescopes, wondering what Black Hole could’ve possibly been talking about, and saw a cluster of bright dots in the night sky, outshining everything else around them.

“Remember that asteroid from a few days ago? I think it brought some friends,” Pen joked nervously.

“Pen, will you please stop,” Tree said.

“Wait, Golf Ball, remember the signal that the satellite dish picked up a few hours ago?” Remote asked.

“Yes, it appears that we have found the source…”

“...Which is?” Pen asked confusedly.

As the swarm came ever closer, the individual dots became distinguishable as perfect, metallic spheres, with a seemingly featureless surface.

“Whatever those things are,” Remote said, pointing at the incoming objects.

“Maybe they sent the EMP at us?” Tree speculated.

“In that case, I don’t think this will end well…”

“What, are you saying those are alien spaceships coming to take us out?” Pen asked, hoping for a negative answer that never came.

“Huh, I thought that was going to work,” he continued, as everyone simply stared at him. “Well, what now?”

“Normally, I would just give up hope and accept my fate, but…” Tree turned towards Black Hole.

Immediately, everyone knew what Tree meant. Everyone except Black Hole, that is.

“W-why are you staring at me?” he asked.

“Have you even been listening?”

“Uh, a bit?”

Tree mentally facepalmed. If he had any idea what was going on in Black Hole’s head…

He pointed at the sky. “Do you know what those things are?”

“They look like… space pods?”

“Wow, I guess you can see even better than we can. Anyways, now we know for sure that it’s aliens, great!”

“Why has everything in space been coming our way recently?” Lightning complained, “The universe clearly doesn’t like us very much.”

“Hey, Black Hole was a gift from the heavens, okay?” Tree said defensively. “He’s already saved our planet once, be grateful.”

“And he’ll do it again!” Pen added. “You will, right?”

“I mean… I could go check on them, make sure they’re not doing anything bad.”

“Well, I don’t think they would just take out our entire electrical grid for any benign reasons, but I guess it doesn’t hurt to check.”

As they talked, the unknown alien race continued slowly advancing, now starting to take up a large majority of the sky.

“Alright, see you guys later. If I make it back alive, I guess,” Black Hole said anxiously, watching the mass of space pods slowly creep towards the planet.

“There is no world in which you convince me that you could possibly die from a few little spheres.”

“Haven’t you noticed that you guys tend to say stuff like that, only to be completely proven wrong later?”

“Yeah, but you’ll be fine, I trust you. Now go beat some aliens for us.”

With that, Black Hole flew off into the night, ready to fight for the humans’ survival, no matter how long it took.

“He’ll be alright,” Tree said, desperately hoping for his prediction to come true. Although he had never seen Black Hole pushed to his limits, he figured now would be as good a time as any.

“I really hope you’re right, or else I don’t think we’ll make it either,” Pen said. He had watched enough alien invasion movies to know that they should be fine. But, as they were constantly reminded, life wasn’t a movie, and things don’t work out a lot of the time.

Watching the space pods descend upon them felt even worse than watching an asteroid fall from the sky. At least they knew the asteroid wasn’t trying to kill them. Meanwhile, who knew why the aliens decided to come for them in particular, or what they were planning to do?

As they all started slowing down right above their atmosphere, Another ship slowly came into view. It was several times larger than all the others, although similar in shape, and it had several indents all over its surface, seemingly to hold the pods when they were not in use.

With their full force in position, the aliens began to speak.

 

Black Hole flew invisibly behind the fleet, trying to ensure they didn’t get too close to the planet. As he reached the back, he heard the largest ship start emitting sound.

“We have noticed that you are trying to travel between the stars. This poses an unacceptable risk to our civilization. So, we offer you a deal. Cease all plans of interstellar travel and stay within the confines of your star system. Or, we will have no choice but to eliminate you before you become a greater threat. ”

Feeling a protective anger bubbling inside him, it took all of his willpower to remain calm. He had promised himself that he would under no circumstances make the first strike, but he didn’t like risking the planet’s potential destruction.

He sensed his friends beam back a message, refusing to comply. He felt warmth spread through his body. If there was one thing that he knew about humans, it was that they never gave up.

Evidently, the aliens had not planned for this, as they took quite a while to make their next move. Black Hole could hear them talking inside the ship, discussing whether it would really be worth the resources to blow up a whole planet. Luckily, they would very soon not have to decide anymore.

“Very well then. In that case, we will have to take you out of the picture. ”

Remote and Golf Ball were already sending back their reply. They were intentionally trying to be as insufferable as possible in an attempt to provoke the aliens even more. After all, there was no greater satisfaction than beating an enemy right before they won.

Black Hole, also having felt the message, silently chuckled, able to sense the aliens’ frustration.

“Your bravery is admirable, but you must understand that this is not a battle you can win. There is no one that can save you from complete annihilation. ”

“Oh, really? Maybe you should look behind you.”

Notes:

I bet you can't guess who said the final line!

Chapter 23: Desperate Times

Summary:

Black Hole gets pushed to his "limits"

Notes:

If you find any plot holes, please kindly remove them from your long-term memory. Thank you for your cooperation!

The shockwave from the sound blasted into the ships, causing their formation to break for a moment, before they rebuilt it, having no clue what just happened. Thankfully, the Earth was unharmed, but sound waves still washed over the planet at abnormally fast speeds, letting everyone hear what was going on up in space loud and clear.

As the aliens looked outside their back windows, they saw one of the humans towering over them, casting a shadow over their entire fleet.

“Oh? It appears someone has come to save their species.” The aliens shifted their attention behind them.

“I’m not the same species as them, they’re still my friends, and I can’t let you destroy them.”

“Unfortunately for you, we can’t allow that. So, if you continue to align yourself with the humans, you will have to be taken care of as well.”

Black Hole thought about where these attackers came from, and why they were here. They, like the humans, had spontaneously come into existence one day and continued to evolve in some faraway land. And, like the humans, they eventually got bored of their home and wanted to expand outwards to develop their civilization even further.

He had come to appreciate just how precious life really was, having spent so many years in the dark, with no one but himself. It was so unimaginably rare, but when life appeared, it was like a beacon in the void, filling the gaps in his heart with light and warmth.

Was he really going to wipe out all those countless beings, just for expanding their empire?

“I don’t want to have to hurt you, so I’ll let you leave right now, and we won’t have to fight. I highly value your lives, and I hope you do too.”

“You’re quite a confident one, aren’t you? What makes you think you could defeat us?”

Well, if they don’t back down, Black Hole thought, he was probably going to have to cause some casualties to resolve the conflict. And, as a pacifist, he hated how that was often the only viable solution.

“I blew away your whole army by talking, so I don’t think you could survive actually making physical contact with me. But if you’re not convinced, then I guess there’s nothing I can do to stop you from attacking me.”

The aliens weighed the odds, some strongly considered aborting the mission and going back home, but they decided that they would first at least try to fight, then leave if the battle wasn’t going their way.

“Then let us dance.”

 

Being able to hear every word that was being said, the people of Earth were all rather frightened by the exchange happening above them. Although, they had all already gone through too many “world-ending” disasters to be suitably concerned by the situation.

Meanwhile, in a random observatory on top of the world, six people stood, looking up into the heavens, nervously anticipating what was going to happen next. They alone knew exactly what was happening, and understood what was at stake in that very moment.

“What if the aliens realize they can’t win, and just start shooting us, trying to take us down with them?” Pen asked, doing what he does best and planting intrusive thoughts into everyone’s mind.

“Black Hole will protect us,” Tree replied, smiling. “We just have to trust, right?”

“I dunno…” Lightning said worriedly, “These aliens seem pretty strong, are you sure Black Hole can deal with them?”

“I believe that if Black Hole tries to, he can do anything he wants,” Tree reassured.

 

Having committed to the violent approach, the aliens prepared to strike. They were going to take out the meddlesome human in one hit, before focusing their efforts on the planet in front of them. However, things didn’t go according to plan, as the aptly named “Laser of Destruction” that they fired simply flew into him, with no effect.

Becoming quite perturbed by the insignificant damage done by the superweapon which was usually capable of vaporizing entire stars, they forced themselves to continue attacking, vainly hoping that eventually, just maybe, one of their shots would somehow manage to take down this beast that they had unwittingly provoked.

In an instant, the space pods, as one, all transformed into war machines. Without delay, they started firing at Black Hole, each laser carrying enough destructive power to wipe out humanity several times over. Yet, the moment they came near his body, they all disappeared, as if never fired at all.

Although he didn’t appreciate being attacked with a sea of deadly light beams, he was grateful that he was at least able to distract the aliens from what they were originally here to do, and he felt a lot safer knowing that the Earth hopefully wasn’t going to be under fire anytime soon.

Meanwhile, down on Earth, there were crowds in the streets, gazing up in awe, and watching the pure chaos unfolding before them.

“Wow, that looks really cool,” Pen said, staring at the ring of light surrounding Black Hole.

“I wonder how they’re not hitting each other…” Tree said.

“It seems like Black Hole isn’t fighting back, as expected,” Remote said, with a hint of admiration in her voice.

Black Hole was debating with himself, trying to justify wiping out an entire army of living beings. Although he didn’t think it was a very morally sound solution, he soon found himself left with no other choice. Between all the beams of light and tiny spaceships, he saw a small portion stop attacking him and turn towards the Earth, undoubtedly getting ready to destroy the home of everyone he knew and loved.

“Think I wouldn’t notice you going for my friends, huh?” he said, causing the aliens to panic quite a bit, as they had assumed that he wouldn’t figure out their plan.

“I wasn’t going to start attacking you so soon, but you’ve crossed a line, and I can’t let you get away with that.”

Filled with a burning determination to protect his friends, Black Hole swept his hand across the sky, feeling thousands of tiny spaceships get instantly obliterated on his skin. He noticed that the attacks on his body had decreased drastically, and saw that a large majority of the swarm was gone, leaving a gaping hole in the middle.

The few that survived kept shooting, not having processed what had just happened yet. However, as they looked out of their windows and saw the emptiness of space, the realization slowly dawned on them.

They had really messed up.

Notes:

I have no idea how I've managed to drag out this encounter for so long

Chapter 24: Space Repellent

Summary:

The remaining aliens are a bit scared

Notes:

Writer's block hits like a supermassive black hole...

“Wow, that was-”

“So cool!” Pen said, interrupting Tree.

“Guess we’ll be pretty safe for the time being,” Remote said.

“Yeah, unless they come back with more spaceships or something…” Lightning said, watching the few remaining ships stop firing and freeze in place, likely unsure of what they were supposed to do.

Sensing that they were in imminent danger, their fight-or-flight response activated. And since fighting was very much out of the question, that left them with only one option if they wanted to avoid joining their fallen comrades.

Everyone silently agreeing on leaving the area as fast as possible, they turned their ships back into space pods and turned their engine to full power, running for their lives.

Before they could even get up to speed, however, a giant wall appeared in front of them and they had to quickly decelerate to avoid colliding into it.

“Hey, I didn’t say you could leave yet.” Black Hole laughed, trapping the remaining swarm between his hands. “Don’t worry, I’m not gonna hurt you. At least, not for now.”

As the void around the aliens disappeared and they saw their home star, shining along with the countless others in the distance, they just stayed in place, knowing that there was nothing they could do anyway.

“First of all, I’m sorry for everyone you lost. I wanted to resolve everything peacefully without hurting anyone, but saw some of your spaceships turning towards the Earth and I panicked a bit. Anyway, since you stopped attacking, I guess I can let you live. Go back to whoever sent you on this mission and tell them to never come back, because it won’t end well for them.”

After some hesitation, the aliens apprehensively flew into the distance, until they could no longer see the star system they had just left. What was going to happen to them once they got back home, they didn’t want to know.

Relieved that nothing worse had happened, Black Hole returned to his normal size and flew back down to Earth.

As he found the place he had left them, he saw his friends on the observation deck, all cheering his name.

“Thanks, everyone,” he said, appreciative of their support.

“Do you know where they went?” Pen asked, once everyone had calmed down a bit.

Black Hole tried locating the space pods, and found them about to land on a planet in a star system similar to Earth’s, a few hundred light-years away.

“Yeah, they got back to their planet. It’s over there somewhere.” He pointed in the general direction of the star system.

“We should pay them a visit sometime,” Remote said, grinning evilly.

“Hey, don’t get all cocky just because we ‘beat’ them,” Tree warned, “We’re still probably nothing compared to them and the only reason we didn’t get destroyed is because of Black Hole.”

“He would be with us, right?”

“Well, I don’t think he would like being there just to scare everyone into submission, right?” he asked Black Hole.

“Y-yeah, I don’t think we should do that…” Black Hole responded, grateful that Tree was advocating for him.

“Hey, should we go back inside to talk about stuff?” Lightning asked, “It’s getting kinda c-cold.”

“Yeah, it’s the dead of night right now,” Fanny agreed.

They walked back into the main building and saw the main corridor, completely covered in darkness with no end in sight.

“Right… I may have forgotten about the power issue…” Golf Ball said, knowing that she wasn’t going to have a fun time tomorrow.

“Wait, I might be able to…” Black Hole tried to fix the electronics, and a few seconds later, power returned to every device around the world. The hallway flickered, and was illuminated with light once more.

“Woah, how did you do that?” Pen asked amazedly.

“I just reverted everything to its original state.”

“...I’m not even going to start to question how that works,” Tree said, accepting the fact that Black Hole could do whatever he wanted.

Golf Ball, having just resigned herself to an incredibly onerous day tomorrow, nearly jumped in delight as light returned to the building.

“Thank you so much, you do know how much time that just saved me,” Golf Ball said to Black Hole, feeling like a massive weight had just been lifted from her shoulders.

“Oh, no problem!” Black Hole chuckled nervously.

“Well, it’s already pretty late, you should all go home now. I’m going to close everything up. I appreciate you all coming to help, have a good night!”

“Good night, Golf Ball! See you tomorrow!” Remote said.

Once they left the facility, they started walking back to the campus to settle in for the night.

“Wow, Black Hole, I didn’t know you could be so scary when you were angry,” Tree said.

“I’m not that scary, am I?”

“You literally wiped out an entire fleet of advanced alien spaceships, I don’t think anyone will want to mess with you any time soon,” Pen said admiringly.

“Good point.” Black Hole laughed. “I still feel a bit bad for doing that. It wasn’t exactly a fair fight…”

“If you didn’t help us, it wouldn’t have been a fair fight either,” Tree pointed out. “Plus, they tried blasting you with lasers, you were just defending.”

“Yeah, they had it coming. Anyone who attacks you doesn’t deserve your kindness,” Fanny said.

“I… don’t know if I agree with that,” Black Hole said.

“Once again, you’ve proven how unbelievably nice you are,” Tree said, “It’s part of what makes you such an amazing person.”

“Aw, thanks, Tree.”

After arriving on campus and bidding each other goodnight, they all split up and went to their respective dorms. Once Pen, Tree and Black Hole walked into their dorm, Pen announced that he was going to bed and left.

“Well, it looks like you’ve saved the world again,” Tree said to Black Hole.

“No, you guys helped too…”

“Come on, stop doing that and give yourself some credit for once, you deserve it.”

“I don’t- alright, fine.”

“Hey, you’re amazing, alright? Just remember that. Goodnight, Black Hole.”

“G-goodnight…”

Tree left the room as well, turning off the lights and letting Black Hole have a nice rest. In the darkness, he lay there repeating Tree’s words back to himself, wishing he could believe them.

He had just saved the world.

He was amazing.

Notes:

Black Hole needs some support, poor guy

Chapter 25: Be Yourself

Summary:

Tree and Black Hole go on an adventure

Notes:

I was going to keep writing this story into the foreseeable future, but I don't think I'm creative enough for that, so don't expect this story to go on forever

“Good morning, Black Hole! How did you sleep?” Tree walked into the living room.

“I’m still trying to get used to it but… it was fine,” Black Hole said, still a bit tired from having just woken up. “By the way, I just wanted to thank you for talking with me last night, it really helped me feel better.”

“No problem. You were looking a bit down, so I figured you could use someone to help you.”

While they were talking, Pen ran into the living room wearing a backpack and looking frantic.

“Good morning, guys! I gotta get to class, see you later!” he said, not even glancing at them before running out of the dorm.

“I love having afternoon classes,” Tree said relaxedly.

“Was he going to bed this late before I showed up?” Black Hole asked.

“Well… no, but don’t worry, it’s not your fault.”

Black Hole looked around guiltily, knowing that Tree was only saying that to make him feel better.

“Black Hole, stop blaming everything on yourself, alright?” Tree said, noticing Black Hole’s expression change. “It’s not healthy for you and will only make you feel worse.”

“I know, but… I keep coming up with reasons for why everything is my fault, so no one else gets blamed.”

“Right, and I appreciate you looking out for others. But if you only care about others and not yourself… nothing good will come from that.”

“Yeah, I guess… I’m really lucky I have you helping me through everything…” Black Hole chuckled.

“Soon, I hope you’ll be able to help yourself, and do whatever you want to do, instead of just doing whatever you’re told.”

Black Hole didn’t like the sound of that, and felt nervous just thinking about it. He (luckily for the world) was never one to like controlling a situation, instead preferring to spectate as events unfolded. Sure, he could’ve made countless universes and filled them all with thriving civilizations to interact with whenever he got bored, but he didn’t feel it would be very ethical to bring an entire group of sentient beings into existence just to occupy his time.

It was part of the reason why he was so excited to see the universe he was currently in develop life naturally, with no outside intervention. Everything around him was the product of an eternity of trial and error and a stroke of luck, which he hadn’t contributed to at all.

He admired the people who could lead an entire group of people, and make sure everything was running smoothly. It seemed to come so naturally to them, but he was sure he could never have the confidence to order himself around, much less other people.

“Why? I’ve been doing pretty well so far, listening to everyone else.”

“If you gain the confidence to just be yourself, trust me, your life will be so much better.”

“Tree, you know I’m not that kind of person…”

“I’m not expecting that much right now! You’ll get there eventually, I believe in you.”

“...I guess I can try.”

“Great! Alright, so, do you want to do something? It gets a bit boring without Pen.”

There sure was a lot to do around here, Black Hole thought. Every time he walked outside, he saw fascinating places all around him. Admittedly, they were probably all quite mundane to his friends, but he was still rather clueless when it came to most things about the planet and his curiosity was often piqued by random things he saw while outside.

However, he felt that the city was rather loud and chaotic, and he was in the mood for some peace and quiet, away from everything. And where could it possibly be quieter than…

“Yeah, sure. How about we go to space?”

“Oh, yeah, that would be fun!”

A few minutes later, they were in space, flying past stars and watching everything zoom across their field of view.

“Hey, I was just wondering, how are we not experiencing time dilation when going this fast?” Tree asked.

“I just… made time slower for us, so it matched up with everyone else.”

“That’s weird, I don’t feel anything different.”

“Yeah, you shouldn’t, everything should feel normal, except we’re going a bit faster than usual.”

Perhaps it wasn’t just a bit faster, Tree thought, as they flew through entire galaxies in just a few seconds. It was only now, when he was watching all those dots of light fly past them in complete silence, that he could truly appreciate how vast and wondrous space was. There was an entire dimension out there, that they hadn’t even set foot in.

“You got to live out here the whole time? I don’t know why you didn’t like it, space seems great,” Tree said.

“Not here, exactly, the place that I stayed was a lot more boring. I can show you… if you want.”

Tree’s interest increased by a lot. He couldn’t possibly imagine what Black Hole’s home looked like, but now he didn’t have to.

“Wow, really? Sounds exciting!”

“Trust me, it’s not. Alright, well, get ready…”

What Tree experienced next, he couldn’t even comprehend. All he knew was that a few moments later, he was floating in a dark, endless void with Black Hole, who was gazing into a small sphere containing countless little strands of light.

“Are you okay? I don’t know if leaving the confines of reality would make you feel very good.”

“Yeah, I’m fine… So this is your home, huh?”

“Yep. It’s also home to everything else that exists. See that over there? That’s where we came from.”

“Wow…” Tree stared into the sphere, making out the galaxy filaments, stretching across the surface.

“Hey, maybe don’t go near that… Because, you know, if you touch it…”

“Right, that would be pretty bad,” Tree said, stepping away from the ball of light and silently wondering how Black Hole managed to avoid accidentally destroying it for so many years.

Tree continued silently looking at his universe, thinking about how insignificant his life was. He knew that the Earth was small, but he had just gained a new appreciation for how much there was out there.

No matter how great he was and how much he achieved in his life, in the end, he and everyone he knew were all living in a beach ball sized sphere, floating in a void of eternal darkness.

Notes:

Tree seems like the type of person to randomly get existential crises

Chapter 26: One Small Step

Summary:

Humans conquer the final frontier... again

Notes:

AO3 went down 2 minutes before I finished the chapter... :(

Black Hole watched Tree stand there, frozen, staring into the universe, unsure of when he was going to stop.

“Hey, Tree? Everything alright?” Black Hole laughed.

Tree turned around, suddenly realizing what he was doing.

“Yeah, I just… lost myself.”

“If it was the only thing you had to look at for thirteen billion years, trust me, you would never want to see it again.”

“Why didn’t you visit our universe until just a few weeks ago? Not that I’m complaining, I’m so honoured that out of all the times you could’ve picked, you landed on our planet during my lifetime.”

“I just felt like it on that particular day, I don’t really know. Maybe it was luck.”

“Yeah…”

Lost in thought, Tree went still again, until he suddenly felt something vibrating in his pocket. He took out his phone and saw a message from Pen.

“Hold on, how am I still receiving messages outside of the universe?”

“I figured you guys really like using your phones, so I just made them work wherever so you can use them in space, and apparently outside of space too.”

“ I don’t use it that much, but I could definitely see Pen enjoying that a lot. Speaking of Pen, he’s a bit concerned that we’ve just seemingly disappeared off the face of the planet.”

“Right… I forgot time was still running at the same speed for us. We should probably go back then.”

“Yeah, I can’t believe it’s already been a few hours.”

Reentering the universe and crossing a large chunk of space in just a few seconds, they arrived outside their dorm, where Pen was somewhat worriedly looking for them. Tree opened the door and shouted Pen’s name, which Pen responded to by loudly cheering and running into the living room.

“Where were you guys? I leave for three hours and you just disappear like that?”

“Sorry, we forgot about the time,” Black Hole said.

“We may have left the universe for a while…” Tree said smugly.

“Hey, you guys were out doing cool stuff without me? No fair!”

“Not our fault you thought it would be a good idea to force yourself to wake up at seven to learn stuff.”

“Don’t worry, I can take you up there too sometime, if you want,” Black Hole said, watching Pen grumble in disappointment.

“Yay! Thanks!”

Tree sighed. He wasn’t sure why Pen was constantly acting like a toddler, but it wasn’t fun to deal with for so many years.

After a quick lunch, they were trying to decide what they were going to do next, when Remote came by and asked for Black Hole to come with her.

“They’re ready for the mission.”

“The… Oh, right, that thing,” Black Hole said.

“Can I watch?” Pen asked eagerly.

“It won’t be that interesting, but sure,” Remote said.

“Alright, let’s go!”

Tree sighed. He would’ve loved to go, but, of course, his classes were at the most inconvenient time possible.

“Have fun watching nothing, Pen,” Tree said.

“You’re just jealous!” Pen said, being the first one running out of the door.

“Bye, Tree, have fun doing… whatever you were gonna do!” Black Hole said, as he and Remote followed Pen out.

“You too, bye!”

Remote led them to the launchpad, where Golf Ball had told her to bring them.

“I can’t believe we’re doing this, this is the biggest advancement in space exploration since the invention of the rocket.”

“How did we explore space without rockets?” Pen asked confusedly.

“Exactly.”

After a bit of walking, they arrived at the launchpad. There was something on it, which looked eerily like the one of spaceships that they had seen last night.

“Hello, everyone!” Golf Ball said, walking over to greet them. “Do you like the new design? We took a bit of ‘inspiration’ from the aliens, because their ships were very efficient and I thought we could learn a thing or two.”

“...Where are the engines?” Pen asked, examining the spacecraft.

“Right beside you!”

Pen looked at Black Hole standing next to him. “Oh, right…”

“Is everything ready, Golf Ball?” Remote asked.

“Yep! Ready when you are, Black Hole! By the way,” Golf Ball handed him a radio device, “use this to communicate with us. Can you give it instantaneous transmission?”

“Yeah… I think so,” Black Hole said. “There, now it should work.”

“Let’s start then!”

Black Hole went up to the ship and prepared for takeoff.

“Wait, can I do the countdown thing?” Pen asked.

“Why are you like this…” Remote sighed.

“Ten… nine…”

“I don’t even know if he can hear you.”

But Black Hole heard him, loud and clear. He was very confused as to what Pen was counting for, but decided to wait it out.

“Two… one… Liftoff!”

That was weird, Black Hole thought, but he nonetheless followed Pen’s command and shot into the air, carrying the spaceship with him. Everyone on the ground cheered as they disappeared into the distance, plunging humans deeper into the depths of space.

“Just go towards Mars,” Golf Ball said through her radio. “You know where Mars is, right?”

“Yeah, I see it just up ahead,” Black Hole replied.

“Great! Once you’re there, just look for that place that I told you about and land them down very gently.”

“Alright, I’ll tell you when I’m there.”

A bit later, Black Hole’s voice came through the radio again.

“I landed by the big mountain you were talking about, can they come out now?”

“If they’re wearing their spacesuits,” Golf Ball replied.

Black Hole told everyone that it was safe to exit and they all stepped out, one by one, onto the Martian soil for the first time.

He watched everyone jumping around, exploring the landscape and doing science stuff that he assumed would be useful.

Golf Ball had told him that he should stay for a while, just in case something happened right after they arrived. So, to pass the time, he looked around, trying to make some discoveries of his own.

He sat down on the surface and stared at the soil beneath him, looking at the smooth piles that the sand formed.

He could’ve sworn he saw something move.

Notes:

It was just the wind, nothing's wrong (maybe)

Chapter 27: Secret of Life

Summary:

Black Hole comes back to Earth with a surprise

Notes:

My upload schedule is probably going to be very messed up for the next few days, I've been really busy lately, sorry :(

Somewhere, between the grains of sand, he saw some tiny particles scuttling across the land.

He was sure that the humans couldn’t see them, and even he wasn’t quite sure what they were, but he still thought it was fascinating enough to warrant further investigation, so he conjured up a container and put some sand inside, making something somewhat resembling a terrarium. Maybe Remote could figure out what was happening.

Standing up and looking around, he saw the astronauts in the distance, trying to find a good spot to set up their base camp. They had packed a lot, bringing building supplies, food and water, and a vast array of seeds that they were presumably going to try to plant.

“Hey, Black Hole! How are they getting along?” Golf Ball asked.

“I think they’re… farming? They built a glass dome and put some dirt inside it.”

“If they’ve started settling down already, you can come home.”

“Alright, I’ll see you in a bit then.”

Black Hole went over to the newly established Martian colony and told everyone that he was leaving, then flew into space, locating the Earth and flying towards it.

 

Touching down on the launchpad, Black Hole saw his friends in the distance, cheering his name. He didn’t realize how important it was to them, but he had just brought humanity further into space than ever before, and it probably wouldn’t be the last time, either.

“Yay! You did it!” Pen grinned, running to Black Hole with his long legs.

“It was mainly the astronauts, they came really prepared. I think they’re gonna stay on Mars for a while.”

“They only brought enough food to stay for around a week, but who knows, maybe they’ll grow more.”

Black Hole suddenly remembered the weird bit of sand that he saw on the surface, and he pulled out his container, hoping that they would know what it was.

“By the way, I thought I saw something moving in the sand, so I brought it back here. Do any of you know what this is?”

Remote looked into the container, thinking that she would probably recognize any signs of life. “...That just looks like sand to me.”

“It was really small, I don’t think humans can see it.”

“Oh, I have some microscopes in my lab, we could use them to take a look!”

Black Hole put the container back in his pocket and they walked into Remote’s department, hoping to be able to see what Black Hole was talking about.

On the way to the lab, Pen felt his phone vibrate and, being the person that he was, instinctually pulled it out to check, to see several messages from Tree.

“How long does it take to watch Black Hole fly into space? It’s been four hours.”

Pen smiled. Finally, he wasn’t the one that was missing out on all the cool stuff.

“He already came back, I’m just following the others because they think they might have found aliens on Mars,” he texted back, grinning widely.

After a few minutes, they arrived at the lab, and Remote hurriedly grabbed a microscope, eager to find more life thriving in the cosmos.

“Golf Ball? Can Tree visit us? He said he wants to see the aliens that we found,” Pen asked on behalf of Tree.

“I don’t know what you’ve been telling Tree, we don’t even know if there’s anything besides sand in that jar yet,” Remote said.

“Hey, I’m pretty sure I saw something,” Black Hole said.

“Yeah, Tree can come. At this point, all of you have helped me out so much that I should probably just give you access to the whole building,” Golf Ball said to Pen.

“I don’t know if letting Pen roam free in the most important cosmological building in the world is a very good idea…” Remote looked suspiciously at Pen.

“Sorry, Pen, but I’m gonna have to agree.” Black Hole laughed.

Pen went slightly red. He didn’t know if he could stand the shame of being made fun of by Black Hole of all people.

“Hey! I’m a responsible adult!”

“Sure you are,” Remote said. “Anyways, Black Hole, could I have that jar now? I got everything going.”

While Remote was looking into the microscope, trying to find any sign of something unusual, Pen received another text from Tree, saying that he was right outside the building that they were in.

“Tree’s here, can I go let him in?”

“Sure, I’ll come with you, just so you don’t get lost,” Golf Ball said.

“That’s a great idea,” Remote said.

Pen and Golf Ball left, leaving Black Hole to silently watch Remote stare into the lens of a microscope.

“I haven’t found anything in here,” Remote said after a few minutes. “Where did you see the movement? Was it just on the surface?”

“Yeah, I was sitting down on the ground and saw it, pretty clearly, by the way.”

“I know you would never lie to me, so I’ll believe you, but it’s not at all easy to find.”

Remote went back to staring into the Martian soil for any sign of movement, not even noticing Pen and Golf Ball returning with Tree.

“Wow, Remote seems pretty focused,” Tree said.

“Hey, Remote, do you want me to come over? I can maybe help you find it,” Black Hole offered.

Remote nodded, and Black Hole walked over to the microscope.

“It’s right on the surface, look up a bit more,” Black Hole guided her.

Remote stayed silent for a few seconds, before…

“Wait, I think that’s it!”

“You found it? Good job, Remote!” Golf Ball said. “What do you see?”

“It… just looks like a bunch of dots, maybe it’s a type of bacteria.”

“Is it an alien?” Pen asked.

“I don’t know if ‘alien’ is the right word for it, but yeah, I think it is…”

Everyone in the room went silent to absorb the information. They had finally found life on other planets. Granted, it wasn’t their first time encountering extraterrestrial life, and the argument could be made that it wasn’t even a human who made the discovery, but they were still excited nonetheless.

Where were the aliens? They had found the answer.

Notes:

I know aliens are probably a horribly overused trope, but... I'll try turning it into something fresh

Chapter 28: Out of Hand

Summary:

Remote finds something to do her job on

Notes:

Another very chill chapter! Unless...?

“...You guys don’t seem nearly as impressed as you should be,” Pen said after a few moments of silence.

“You have the maturity of a five-year-old, I don’t think you would be the best benchmark for measuring that,” Tree said.

“And you have the height of a five-year-old,” Pen said, dealing a knockout blow to Tree.

Remote kept looking into the jar, trying to find more of the small creatures.

“How am I supposed to study them? They’re surrounded by mountains of sand.”

“Sorry…” Black Hole said guiltily.

“No, it’s fine, I just thought I could isolate them.”

Black Hole fell silent for a while, and he thought of one way that he could help.

“Maybe I could absorb the sand?”

“Wouldn’t that get rid of the bacteria as well?” 

“I’ll… try to be careful.”

Remote hesitated, unsure how that was even possible.

“I say go for it!” Golf Ball said. “What’s the worst that could happen?”

“Probably something pretty bad, but sure, go ahead, Black Hole,” Remote said.

Black Hole opened the jar and all of the sand floated out, flying into his hand before disappearing. At the bottom of the jar, there was a small pile of grey particles, seeming rather agitated that they had suddenly been transported into a completely different environment.

“Wow, I’m surprised that worked so well,” Remote said.

“Oh no, they look mad…” Black Hole said, slightly regretting his actions.

 “Eh, it’s probably fine. Anyways, I can finally study them!”

Taking the jar from Black Hole, Remote poured everything into a petri dish to keep for later, knowing that she had just advanced her field by a large amount. Maybe she would get called to do another interview.

“I’m gonna have a lot to do today, if you’re leaving, I’ll see you guys later!” she said to her friends. “By the way, thanks for the help, Black Hole! I feel like you did most of the work and I just took the results.”

“It’s your job, you deserve it.” Black Hole smiled.

“Have fun with your new subjects!” Tree said.

“Wow, you make me sound like a mad scientist,” Remote said, waving everyone goodbye. “Alright, see you, then!”

They all left, leaving Remote and Golf Ball in the lab. Having just witnessed yet another scientific breakthrough, they decided to go to Pen and Tree’s dorm, hoping that they would finally be able to relax for a while.

“Why do I feel like there’s been so much stuff coming from space lately?” Pen asked, as they were walking back.

“I don’t know, ask this guy,” Tree said, pointing at Black Hole.

“Are you saying that I’m making everything happen?” Black Hole asked.

“It does seem oddly suspicious…”

Black Hole wasn’t sure what was making everything come for this random planet in the middle of nowhere, but he assumed he probably had something to do with it.

“I have been helping you guys get into space, and we were planning on visiting other stars, so maybe the aliens came to stop you before you became an interstellar civilization.”

“Yeah, and we’re pretty hard to miss now, with such an intense source of power radiating from our planet.”

“Wow, real smooth,” Pen said.

“They probably knew you existed before,” Black Hole said, completely oblivious to Tree’s words.

After arriving back home, they thought about what they should do, while Remote was still at work.

“I guess I should probably make dinner for when Remote comes back, seeing as I’ve become everyone’s personal chef at this point,” Tree said, walking into the kitchen.

“Have I ever mentioned how much I appreciate you cooking for us?” Pen sat down on the couch.

“Yeah, several times. You could probably learn how to cook with all the time that you spent thanking me.”

“Nah, I’m good, that’s way too hard for me.”

“Hey, If I can learn it decently well, then you can too,” Black Hole said.

Pen groaned. “I guess I’ll watch… a bit.”

He got up and walked to the kitchen at a leisurely pace, mumbling how there was a reason why people invented restaurants and fast food.

“Since you were so considerate today and decided to join us, I’ll make you pizza again,” Tree said.

“Really? Great!”

“But, you’ll be helping out with most of the steps, and I know you can do it, because Black Hole’s already done it, and he didn’t know what food was a few weeks ago.

“See, the thing is, he’s actually smart and can properly use his brain, whereas I have a tendency to do some pretty unintelligent things.”

Tree handed him an apron. “If you just listen to me, everything will be fine.”

“Listening to you was the last thing that I wanted to do, but I guess I kinda have to.”

While Tree was teaching Pen what the difference between salt and flour was, Black Hole used the time to get all the ingredients, mostly remembering where everything was by rote.

“Black Hole, what are the potatoes for?” Tree asked, turning towards the counter.

“For the sauce… right?”

“No, those are tomatoes, good try though.”

Maybe he wasn’t perfect, but he had still improved a lot since first arriving on Earth.

After an hour of chaos in which Pen demonstrated his remarkable skill of misinterpreting Tree’s instructions multiple times, they had finally finished assembling the pizza and were now just waiting for it to finish cooking in the oven.

They were hoping that Remote would be back before they finished, but the minutes passed and no one showed up at the door. Once dinner was ready, all they could do was wait.

They thought that she would have been back by now, but she was still nowhere to be seen and they didn’t hear anything from her until a while later, when Tree received an incoming call from her. Feeling concerned by her long period of radio silence, Tree anxiously picked up to find out what was going on.

“Hey, there’s a bit of a problem here and I don’t think I can go home, so it would be great if you guys could come over and save my life real quick.”

Notes:

Remote's fine, don't worry about her

Chapter 29: Solution Not Found

Summary:

Remote's life gets put in mortal peril, but she doesn't seem to mind

Notes:

I had some ideas for this chapter that would probably require me to change the age rating again, but I realized I probably shouldn't use them

For a few moments, they didn't respond, standing there in silence, until Tree eventually spoke up.

“I’m sorry, what?”

“Turns out the bacteria really like multiplying, and I’m pretty sure they're corrosive, half of the room’s gone already. Anyways, I’d really appreciate some help right now, before this building disappears. See you soon!”

Remote hung up, leaving them confused and very scared.

“How did she sound so calm the whole time?” Pen asked.

Before anyone could answer, Black Hole swept them both up, trying to get to Remote as fast as possible. “We don’t have any time, let’s go!”

 

After spontaneously disappearing from their home, they appeared next to Remote’s lab. Rather, what was left of it.

“Hey, thanks for coming!” Remote shouted, inching away from the solid mass of grey slowly creeping towards the exit.

“What happened here?” Pen asked.

“I may have accidentally spilt some of the bacteria onto the table, and a few seconds later it was gone, and the bacteria started going for me. I’m trying to not get decomposed right now, but I’m worried they’ll spread into the rest of the building.”

“Don’t you have anything that can stop them? Like… a disinfectant spray or something?” Tree asked.

“I don’t have anything that could do any damage to them right now, they’ve multiplied way too much. But, I figured Black Hole could make for a pretty good exterminator, right?”

She looked at Black Hole expectantly, who instantly realized what she was trying to get him to do and didn’t look forward to it one bit.

“I don’t know…” Black Hole said, staring at the expanding grey mass. “They’ll probably just grow back anything I damage. And, I don’t want to make them more mad than they already are.”

“They’re probably not that strong, it’s only because there’s a lot of them. Once you get rid of a bit, I’m sure the rest will get weaker.”

“If you say so… ”

He hesitantly entered the infected room as Remote ran out, taking extra care to hover far away from the floor and walls, to make sure that the now room-sized mass of bacteria couldn’t get him.

“You got this, Black Hole!” Remote shouted from a safe distance, very far away.

Looking down and seeing the floor completely covered in bacteria, he shot a beam of light at them, silently hating what he was doing. To his surprise, they were virtually unaffected and now began spreading faster, confirming Black Hole’s fears.

“Oh, that’s probably not good…” he muttered.

“Hey, are you sure these things are living?” he asked Remote, flying into the hall for a moment.

“Yeah, I’m pretty certain they are. Why?”

“They’re not dying.”

“...Maybe try something else?”

Following Remote’s suggestion, he reentered the room and tried to simply will the bacteria to disappear. This got rid of a good chunk on the sides of the room, exposing the wreckage of what used to be a perfectly good wall. However, this short victory hadn’t even lasted a few seconds before the gap was filled once more, erasing any evidence of ever having been damaged.

“Ugh, how is this the thing that defeats me?” He threw his hands up in exasperation.

He thought of one last thing he could do, and although he didn’t want to resort to it, his other options were very quickly being ruled out.

“Remote? There’s one way I could stop them, but I don’t think you’ll like it much…”

“As long as it doesn’t involve anyone dying, I’m okay with it.”

“If I… delete the room from existence, I think that would also probably get rid of the bacteria, but then you won’t have a room.”

“That’s fine, safety first! Plus, we can always build a new one. You’ll help, won’t you?”

“Yeah, sure… In that case, I guess I should do it then.”

A moment later, the large opening in the wall closed up, and there was no sign that anything had ever been there besides a small plate with the room name on it.

“...Did it work?” Pen asked nervously.

“Wait, check outside,” Remote said.

“There’s nothing, the room got completely removed. I’m hoping this building’s strong enough to withstand having a hole in it,’ Black Hole assured.

“Maybe you could fill it with something for the time being? So the floors above it don’t collapse?”

The hollow gap on the other side of the wall suddenly filled up with cement, returning the rest of the building mostly back to normal.

“Everything should be good now. But, wow, those bacteria were really tough. I had to resort to my last option to defeat them.”

“I’m sure it wasn’t your only other option,” Tree said. “I know you, and you have your ways of doing things that I’ll never understand.”

“It’s not that complicated, most of the time I can solve any problem by simply getting rid of it.”

“Probably not very fun to do though, huh?”

“Yeah, you got that right.”

 

After Remote quickly went up to Golf Ball’s office to explain what had happened to her. When she returned, she told them that Golf Ball was completely speechless throughout her story and had almost passed out from shock by the end.

Everyone feeling very drained after the series of events that had just happened, they decided to all go back home and get some well-deserved sleep.

“Wait, before you go, we actually made dinner for you today, because we thought you’d have been back a few hours ago. So, do you want to stay at our place for a bit? It’s the first time Pen’s ever tried cooking!” Tree asked Remote.

“Really? Good job, Pen! I’m so proud of you! Alright, let’s see how you did.”

As they walked to Pen and Tree’s dorm, there was one person who did not join the conversation. Black Hole had barely spoken since they left, instead opting to simply stare into the night, a favourite activity of his when there was something bothering him.

Tree was right, he was the reason everything in space was out to get them, he had caused all these problems for everyone.

He had already had a very close call, and that was against some microscopic organisms that were barely even alive. What if, in the future, some other alien species came along that he was unable to defend against?

What would he do then?

Notes:

Everyone ended up safe! Well, except for the bacteria that stopped existing...

Chapter 30: Rematerialization

Summary:

After the bacteria almost destroyed the whole facility, everyone remembered they were originally from Mars

Notes:

I sure hope no one noticed that an entire room went missing...

Black Hole lay with his eyes shut on a mattress of air, having finally woken up without needing Tree shouting at him. The trouble was, he looked up at the clock on the wall and saw that it was five in the morning, meaning that it would be several hours before anyone woke up. He knew that he probably wouldn’t be able to fall asleep, so he contented himself with reliving last night’s memories in his head.

After arriving back home, Remote joined them for dinner before heading off for the night, and Pen spent the rest of the night in his room studying, claiming that he was on the verge of failing the course. This left Tree and Black Hole with each other, so they just chatted away into the night.

Deep in thought, he barely noticed that Pen had got up and left, and as he was still feigning sleep, Pen didn’t bother him either. It was only when he saw Tree staring at him from the hall that he finally got up.

“Is the air actually comfortable to you?” Tree asked, seeing that Black Hole had woken up.

“Yeah, it just feels like a normal mattress.”

Tree walked over to him and waved his hand through the area Black Hole was just floating on, and, to his surprise, felt a soft texture, exactly like a regular bed.

“Wow, that feels weird…”

Tree yawned, still feeling a bit tired from having just woken up.

“Hey, are you okay?” Black Hole asked caringly. “You should go back to sleep if you’re still tired.”

“N-no, I’m fine. Anything you want to do today?”

“I was thinking that I should probably go help Remote fix her lab, because I kinda replaced it with a block of cement.”

“Sure, I don’t have anything better to do, so why not?”

 

Hoping that Remote wasn’t stopped from doing any work with her lab gone, Tree called her as they started walking towards the facility.

“Hey, is it okay if we come over to your lab to fix it?” Tree said into his phone.

“Yeah, that would be great! I’ve had to explain to a lot of people how an entire room just suddenly went missing.”

“Okay, we’ll see you in a bit!”

Tree hung up the phone, and looked at Black Hole. “It would seem strange, wouldn’t it? Just a random sign on the wall.”

“Yeah, I didn’t want to have to do that, but it was the only thing I could think of at the time.”

They arrived outside the building and saw Remote running to greet them, looking relieved that she could finally get her lab repaired.

“Hey, thanks for coming! Everyone’s been asking me a lot of questions, it’s been a pretty chaotic morning.”

“Sorry, I don’t think I should’ve done so much damage to the building…” Black Hole said.

“I think you actually saved the building from getting damaged even more! If the bacteria escaped my room, who knows what could’ve happened? And it’s fine the way it is right now since nothing’s in danger of collapsing, but I would like my lab back, so it would be great if you could help!”

They walked up to the floor that the lab used to be, and saw the lone sign hanging on the wall.

“You can bring it back to normal, right?” Remote asked Black Hole.

“As long as I remember what it looked like, which I think I do.”

Black Hole projected the image in his mind onto reality, replacing the solid block of cement with a passable recreation of the lab.

“That was a lot easier than I expected,” Tree said.

“Wow, that’s amazing!” Remote said joyously. “I think it looks even better than before!”

“Glad you like it.” Black Hole smiled.

“Now I can finally do work in here!”

“Hey, Remote!” a faint voice said, coming down the stairs. “Oh, you got the lab fixed, that’s great!” Golf Ball came into view, looking at the newly created room.

“I didn’t do anything, Black Hole did all of the work.”

“In that case, thank you, Black Hole! I thought we were going to have to call the safety inspectors, you saved us a lot of trouble.”

Black Hole awkwardly accepted her gratitude, before going silent again very quickly.

“Anyways, Remote, I wanted to ask whether you wanted to do some more interviews with me, since we have technically found life on other planets.”

“Of course! I’d love to!”

“And Black Hole, maybe you could join us as well? I think you were the one who actually found the bacteria on Mars.”

Seeing that Black Hole had become visibly more uncomfortable, Remote jumped in to help smooth out the situation.

“Black Hole isn’t that great with talking to people, I don’t think he’d like it very much.”

“Oh, that’s fine, I’ll see you two later then.” Golf Ball said to Tree and Black Hole. “Remote, if you’re ready, let’s go!”

“Good luck, we’ll be watching!” Tree said.

“Thanks, bye!” Remote said back, walking away towards Golf Ball’s office.

Golf Ball opened the door to let Remote in, who entered the room and sat down. Once Golf Ball had settled in as well, she started talking, explaining what was going to happen, though in far less detail than the previous two times, as Remote had gained a lot of experience already.

“Do you have any idea why the bacteria suddenly started multiplying?” Golf Ball asked.

“No, but I have some theories. Maybe the table had resources that they could use to multiply? I’m not sure.”

“Maybe just don’t make it sound too scary, we don’t want to scare everyone again, I think we’ve done that plenty enough times already.”

Remote laughed. “Yeah, that’s true.”

“Alright, I think we’re ready. Shall we start now?”

“Yeah, let’s go.”

They left the building and walked towards the broadcasting station, ready to shock the world with some more groundbreaking news. Remote followed behind, thinking about how lucky she was to be able to do all this cool stuff.

And it was all because of Black Hole.

She remembered that her friends would be listening to every word she said, cheering her on, even though she couldn’t hear them. With that thought in mind, she waited in a side room, about to appear on the news… again.

Notes:

Maybe Remote will become famous someday, who knows?

Chapter 31: Green Light

Summary:

The astronauts on Mars enjoy their lives for a few seconds

Notes:

Remote is so good at public speaking, wish I could be like her

“I think it’s starting!” Black Hole called Tree over to the TV.

He was intently watching the screen, waiting for their friend to appear. After a few minutes, he heard something about some GASA representatives going to deliver some exciting news.

Tree walked into the room, sitting down next to Black Hole.

While they watched Remote talk away, going through everything that had happened since the extraterrestrial life was found, Pen walked in, having just returned from his classes.

“Hey, what are you guys watching?” he asked.

“Remote’s on the news again, she’s telling everyone about the life on Mars that she found,” Tree said.

“You mean the life that Black Hole found?”

“Yeah, but he didn’t want to be credited, you know him…”

“I just feel like Remote’s a more fitting person to receive the praise for discovering an alien species, that’s all,” Black Hole said.

“That, and you’re way too down-to-earth.”

“No I’m not…”

Remote seemed a lot more comfortable in front of the cameras than last time, and Golf Ball barely needed to guide her along. She mainly stayed silent, watching Remote talk to everyone like she had been doing it all her life.

All too soon, the interview concluded, so Tree turned off the TV and got ready to go to class, leaving Pen and Black Hole alone in the dorm.

“Remote’s really good at public speaking,” Black Hole said.

“I know, right? She seems like a natural, could’ve fooled me if I hadn’t gone to school with her for thirteen years.”

“Yeah, that was a great interview, I wonder what she’s doing now…”

 

Walking out of the broadcasting station amid a shower of praise and celebration, Remote and Golf Ball headed back to the facility, ready to resume their work.

“Hey, I’ve just remembered something,” Golf Ball said. “Didn’t you say that the bacteria were all over Mars? What if one of the people on the mission found them?”

“Oh, you’re right, that’s not good. Hopefully, no one’s been attacked.”

“They attack humans?” Golf Ball worriedly.

“They might, I don’t know… Maybe we should send Black Hole to check on them, make sure everyone’s doing alright?”

“Yeah, that’s probably a good idea. You can meet me by the launchpad once you’ve got him.”

After waving goodbye to Golf Ball, Remote headed towards campus to see her friends, slightly hoping that they could give her feedback on how she did on the news.

Once she knocked on the door, she saw Pen open it a few moments later, smiling at the sight of her.

“Hey, Remote! Nice job, you did great!”

“Thanks! Do you know where Black Hole is?”

“He’s in the kitchen, he wanted to cook something for Tree when he got back. I’ll go get him real quick…”

Pen walked into the kitchen Remote heard him tell Black Hole to come to the front door.

“But, the water… it’s gonna boil over,” Black Hole protested.

“Just take it off the heat or something, I need you to come over here.”

“Alright…”

Pen led Black Hole to the door, who, to his delight, saw Remote standing there.

“Hi! Good job on the interview! You’ve gotten so much better!”

“Thanks! Anyways, sorry for interrupting your cooking, but could you come with me to GASA? There’s something Golf Ball wants you to do.”

“Pen, can you finish cooking the meal while I’m gone? It shouldn’t be that hard, I’m pretty sure.”

“Ugh, I guess, but don’t blame me when I end up setting the kitchen on fire.”

“Please don’t, Tree probably wouldn’t like that very much…”

Black Hole went outside and followed Remote, leaving Pen as the only person left in the dorm and hoping that the building wouldn’t be engulfed in flames when they came back.

“Bye, good luck with cooking!” Black Hole said, closing the door behind him and starting his walk to the facility with Remote.

“You remember those people that you brought to Mars a few days ago?” Remote asked. “We don’t know if they’re very safe, with deadly bacteria roaming around the planet. So Golf Ball wanted you to go check up on them, make sure they’re fine.”

“Okay, I can do that.”

Remote took him to where Golf Ball was supposed to be waiting, and saw her a bit later, pushing a very large crate across the launchpad.

“Hey, do you want some help with that?” Black Hole offered.

“Oh, you’re here, great!” Golf Ball breathed heavily. “Can you take this with you when you go to visit them? I don’t want them running out of supplies…”

“Alright, I’ll see you in a bit, then.”

Black Hole levitated the crate in front of him and flew up into the sky before disappearing from view.

“Where do you think the bacteria came from?” Golf Ball looked up into the sky, contemplating whether they had always been there, or had very recently come into existence.

“What do you mean? They just… developed on Mars, right?”

“I don’t know, I feel like our rovers would have detected something if they had been there this whole time…”

Remote had her doubts, but it wasn’t that hard to believe that some lifeforms just spontaneously appeared on Mars, considering that she had seen stuff happen in the very recent past that was a lot weirder than this.

“Maybe what Black Hole found was a one-off thing, they might not be very fit for the environment. I just hope they don’t cause us any more problems…”

 

While randomly floating through space and looking around, Black Hole saw the Red Planet up ahead and flew straight towards it.

He vaguely remembered where he had set down the astronauts the first time he came, so he closed in on the location, looking out for any sign of the humans.

After a while of searching, he saw some traces of white on the otherwise completely red surface, and started his descent.

Once he got close enough to distinguish his surroundings, he tried looking around for any humans, to inform them of his arrival. However, as he approached closer, he was met not with cheers of gratitude, but instead loud, panicked screams.

He wasn’t that scary, was he? They had seemed completely fine with him last time, so he had no clue why they were suddenly so terrified.

Looking around for a bit longer, he realized that it wasn’t him they were scared of. He didn’t see anything in his vicinity, but he still had a feeling that something wasn’t quite right.

Notes:

Imagine the astronauts completely forget that there's a sentient black hole helping them get between planets and get scared when they see a random person appear by their base

Chapter 32: Gone for Good

Summary:

Black Hole shows up at the perfect time

Notes:

Wow, 1 month anniversary and 1,000 hits on the same day!

“W-what is that?”

“Not sure, seems dangerous.”

While tending to the plants outside their base, Pie and Marker saw a large grey mound on the ground, slowly spreading and heading in their general direction.

“Maybe we should tell the others?”

“Sure, you can do that.”

Marker ran off into the main base, hoping that someone, anyone, could tell him what to do, because Pie certainly wasn’t.

Calling everyone outside, he led them to where he was earlier with Pie and showed the ever-expanding blemish on the ground, which was getting dangerously close to the plants.

“What happened to the ground?”

“That can’t be good…”

Everyone was apprehensively watching it slowly advance closer, unsure what was happening. They were all trying their best to remain calm, except for Pie, who didn’t need to put in any effort.

They were doing a good job, too, that was until all of their plants got consumed, along with the garden bed.

This caused a lot of panic and screaming, as everyone started backing away rather quickly out of fear for their lives.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” they heard someone ask from around their base.

Looking behind the building, they saw a vaguely familiar person, carrying a crate hopefully full of supplies.

“Oh, it’s Black Hole!” Marker said, recognizing him from a few days earlier.

“Hi,” Black Hole said, smiling back at Marker. “Why did I hear everyone screaming?”

“We saw a grey… thing expanding on the ground, and it ate all of our plants, which made a lot of people start running away.”

“Wasn’t even that scary,” Pie said.

Black Hole instantly knew what Marker was talking about, but why did they start spreading? They had been on Mars for a while now, and nothing happened. It seemed strange that they would suddenly decide to start spreading, right when the humans arrived.

“I have food for you in here,” he said, gesturing with the crate, “but… did it get anything else?”

“Not yet, but if it keeps getting bigger it’ll reach our base soon,” Marker said.

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen.”

Black Hole flew back towards the bacteria, ready to exterminate even more of their kind. Everyone else watched nervously, hoping that he could save them again, as he had always done before.

Learning his lesson from last time, Black Hole didn’t mess around, trying as hard as he could to get rid of them. He used all of his willpower to completely erase them from reality, making sure they didn’t come back.

“...Are they gone?” Marker asked, having just watched an entire patch of land get vaporized.

“Sure seems like it,” Pie replied.

“I hope they don’t come back, but if they do, just beam a message back down to Earth, I’ll come over to help. I’ll also check up on you every now and then and bring you more supplies,” Black Hole said, dropping the crate next to them.

“By the way, can you bring our garden back?”

“Oh, sure. What were you growing in it?”

Pie thought long and hard about it, but she couldn’t for the life of her remember anything. She simply had not dedicated enough brainpower to recall what she was doing earlier.

“Uh…”

“Oh, I know!” Marker said helpfully.

Black Hole tried recreating the garden as best as he could, filling it up with plants with Marker’s direction. After a few finishing touches, everyone was quite satisfied with it.

“Thanks for the help! Bye!” Marker said.

“Bye, see you soon!” Black Hole waved, slowly ascending into the sky.

Pie and Marker walked back to the gardens and everyone else, relieved that everything had pretty much gone back to normal, returned to the base to continue their routine activities, hoping that the peace would remain.

 

Black Hole flew back towards the Sun, looking for the pale blue dot in the middle of space. After everything that had happened recently, he just wanted some time to have fun and relax with his friends.

He saw Remote and Golf Ball watching him from the window, looking ecstatic to see him finally return.

“Finally, you’re back! What took you so long?” Remote asked, as Black Hole phased through the wall into the room.

“Sorry, I had to deal with more of the bacteria, they invaded the colony and destroyed the garden.”

“What?” Remote said. “I thought they only did that on Earth!”

“Yeah, I don’t know why they only just started, they’ve probably existed for a while now.”

Remote was very confused, she had never heard of any species behaving like this, especially one from another planet.

“Anyways, I’m pretty sure I completely wiped them out, so they hopefully shouldn’t be back anytime soon.”

“Good job! Thank you for all your help on the mission, you’ve really gone above and beyond!”

“Oh, yeah… Thank you,” Black Hole said sheepishly.

Golf Ball checked the time, noticing that it was already the end of Remote’s shift.

“I don’t think there’s anything left to do, so you’re free to go, Remote. I’ll see you tomorrow!”

“Thank you, have a good night!” Remote replied.

Remote took Black Hole along with her, packing up her belongings before walking back home.

“How was it on Mars?” she asked Black Hole.

“It was fun, the astronauts were all pretty nice and I got to help them build a new garden.”

“You really like helping other people, huh?”

“Yeah, and there’s nothing wrong with that.”

“I never said there was!”

There was still a fair bit of time until nightfall, so Remote decided to stay with her friends for a bit before going home. She walked back with Black Hole and they were greeted by Pen, who told them that Tree was busy making dinner at the moment.

Attracted by the appetizing smell coming from the kitchen, they went in and saw Tree managing multiple pots and pans at once, seemingly having grown several extra hands.

“Hi! What did you two get up to today?”

Remote sat down at the table, eagerly waiting for the meal. “Oh, we’ve got plenty to talk about.”

Notes:

New characters! I don't know if they'll end up playing a major role, but they'll definitely appear more

Chapter 33: Origins

Summary:

Pen peer pressures everyone else... somehow

Notes:

Wow, my upload schedule is so messed up...

I don't have any buffer chapters, which means whenever I take too long to write a chapter (which is every time), I have to release it late too. Hopefully I'll fix it soon, but in the meantime, sorry for the inconsistent release times!

“...You do realize how insane you sound right now, right?”

Tree was listening to Remote and Black Hole rambling on about everything that had happened that afternoon, trying to trust what they were saying, but instinctually finding it too hard to believe.

“Yeah, but is it really that surprising after everything else you’ve seen him do?” Remote asked.

“What, do you just expect me to believe he melted the floor?”

“Are you doubting me?” Black Hole teased.

“W-what? No, not at all… I was just thinking that you don’t seem like the kind of person to cause that much destruction.”

“For the record, everything ended up completely fine, and I don’t like to, but sometimes I don’t have much of a choice.”

He didn’t want to, but knowing that it was Black Hole, he was forced to believe what they were saying, regardless of how outlandish it sounded.

As they continued talking to Tree in his semiconscious state, he found himself rather intrigued by the strange timing of this “attack”. Surely the simple single-celled organisms couldn’t have possibly known anything about their surroundings, much less find resource-rich locations to gravitate towards?

From his limited knowledge of microbiology, he knew that most bacteria only had one goal coded into them, which was to make as many copies of themselves as physically possible. They were probably blindly spreading around and managed to find an extra source of nutrients through sheer luck.

“It seems a bit weird how they just so happen to go straight for the one place with humans on the entire planet, doesn’t it?”

“We’re just lucky Black Hole was there when it happened,” Remote said.

After a short pause, Pen took the opportunity and spoke up.

“Hey, guys? Not to be rude, but I kinda stopped paying attention a while ago… and I finished my plate already.”

“Maybe if you actually tried contributing to the conversation, you would find it more engaging,” Tree said.

“First of all, your conversations are harder to understand than my lecture, and even if I knew what you were talking about, my brain still wouldn’t have enough energy to talk about it for more than ten seconds.”

“Well, since we’ve all finished eating at this point, perhaps we could do something before bed, it’s not that late yet.”

Pen suddenly remembered something from a few days ago, and instantly had a suggestion.

“Oh, I know! Black Hole, you said you were gonna bring us back to space a few days ago, right?”

“Did I? Probably…”

“So… can we go?”

“I’m fine with that, I don’t know about them though…” Black Hole pointed at Tree and Remote.

They looked at each other, both resigned to the fact that Pen was not going to let them rest unless they agreed.

“Alright, Pen, you win this round,’ Tree said begrudgingly.

“Yeah! Let’s go!”

As per Pen’s request, a few minutes later they were out of the dorm, safely and comfortably sat in Black Hole’s hand, and ready to go to space.

“Hey, Tree, not feeling so special now, are we?” Pen mocked.

“Why do you care so much? It’s not like I was actively bragging about how much more space I’ve seen than you…”

“I still feel like I’ve accomplished something with this.”

“Enjoy your victory, then.”

Outside, they heard Black Hole talking, warning them about the extreme acceleration that they were about to experience.

“I’m gonna start going now, are you all ready?”

He heard some faint sounds coming from his hand, so he took it as a yes and flew up past the sky, returning to his home turf.

“I forgot how beautiful space was,” Remote said, staring out into the void.

After traversing the galaxy for a while, Pen saw something outside that he seemed quite excited about.

“Wait, look back there! Is that… a black hole?”

“Yes, every galaxy has one in its center, this one is in the center of our galaxy,” Tree said.

“Really? There’s even more? Hey, Black Hole, are you related to any of them?”

“Depends on what you mean by ‘related’. I don’t think it’s possible for black holes to come from the same place, but we’re all very similar, if that counts.”

Tree slowly took in his words. Where did Black Hole even come from, anyway? Tree had simply assumed that he had always been there, as his lifespan was so inconceivably longer than anything else in existence.

“By the way, do you know where you came from? Or when?”

“...I don’t actually know. I can’t possibly imagine a time before I existed, maybe because the concept of time wouldn’t have been a thing yet, but I imagine that probably nothing would’ve existed back then.”

“Wait, you created time?”

“Sorry, it’s been so long since all of that happened, I kinda forgot, but yeah, I’m pretty sure.”

Tree couldn’t stop himself from chuckling a bit. Trust Black Hole to make a casual comment about having sewn the very fabric of reality and then immediately move past it.

“I can’t even begin to imagine how that would’ve worked, but it sounds really cool,” Remote added.

“You guys all think it was so much fun doing everything back then, but it was just an empty void, it’s not exactly going to keep you occupied for multiple eternities…”

“Yeah, I don’t think I could possibly stand being alone with nothing around me for… however long you’ve been alive,” Pen said.

Everyone went silent as they watched the black hole rotate at amazing speeds, ripping apart entire stars and absorbing them into its accretion disk.

“Wow, am I glad you haven’t decided to do that to us yet,” Tree said to Black Hole.

“I don’t have a reason to, you guys have all been really nice so far, so I think I’d rather keep you around, for now, at least.”

“Sorry, what was that last part?”

“If you do something bad enough, I’m gonna have to stop you, mainly if it’s to protect others.”

“I highly doubt we could do anything that would make Black Hole mad enough to do that…’ Remote said.

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean you have to test it,” Black Hole said, hoping they had a sense of self-preservation that would dissuade them from trying anything.

As he floated around for longer, all of his friends had gone silent, to the point where he had almost forgotten they were in his hand. Looking inside, he saw that they were all lying down very still, breathing slowly with their eyes closed.

He felt guilty for keeping them up so late, and he really didn’t want to disturb what little sleep they had left. So, feeling like he was in for a long night, he tried making them as comfortable as he could and floated there for the entire night, hoping that they were having sweet dreams.

Notes:

We got some Black Hole lore this chapter

Chapter 34: Beyond the Veil

Summary:

Black Hole is forced to watch everyone else sleep while being paralyzed

Notes:

Not a lot of stuff happening in this chapter, mainly just talking

Black Hole had to exercise an extreme amount of self-restraint to not make any sudden movements that would wake everyone up. He decided that the safest option was to stay very still for the whole night, so that’s what he did, imitating all of the celestial objects around him and stopping all of his movement. He was very miserable the whole time, but he tended to care about his friends a lot more than himself, so this sacrifice was completely worth it in his eyes.

Every once in a while, he would look down at his hand and watch his friends sleeping soundly without a care in the world, and his heart would melt from how sweet they looked. He was so lucky to have met every single one of them, and they had made him the happiest he’d been for his entire life.

He didn’t know how long it had been since they fell asleep, but eventually, they all started waking up one by one.

Having just regained consciousness a few moments ago, they all had no idea where they were, until suddenly remembering what they were doing while still awake.

“Good morning, Black Hole,” Tree said sleepily, stifling a yawn. “Wait, did we all fall asleep in your hand?”

“Yeah. How was it? Did you have a good rest?”

“Wow, I feel so good after that,” Pen said, stretching comfortably while lying down.

“I know, right? That might’ve been the best night’s sleep I’ve ever gotten,” Remote agreed. “Your hand is so soft and warm…’ She looked up at Black Hole.

“Sorry for keeping you up so late, but I’m glad you all slept well,” Black Hole said quietly.

Tree noticed that Black Hole was looking somewhat drained, and he checked up on him to make sure he was okay.

“Hey, Black Hole? You look pretty tired, are you feeling alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, don’t worry.”

“Did you get any sleep at all during the night?”

“No… I was trying to not move my hand so you guys wouldn’t wake up.”

Hearing this, they all felt bad for Black Hole. He had willingly kept himself up the whole night just to make their lives a little bit better. Tree appreciated the decision a lot, but he still hoped that Black Hole could look after himself a little more.

“Thank you so much for being so nice to us, but it’s ultimately your decision, and if you feel like you want to sleep, then go ahead, don’t worry about us.”

“I don’t know, I feel like I wouldn’t really like being left in the cold void of space for the whole night without anything to sleep on…” Pen said.

“You’re really not helping, you know?”

“Sleep isn’t that important for me, you guys need it a lot more than I do. Plus, it’s my fault for keeping you in space for so long, I should’ve known you were going to fall asleep from exhaustion,” Black Hole said.

“I guess so, but… I just don’t want you doing anything bad to yourself just for our sake, okay? You may not like to hear it, but you’re infinitely more important than any of us, so you should make sure you’re completely fine before helping us.”

Black Hole wanted to protest, but he knew Tree wasn’t going to let him disagree, so he simply conceded and promised Tree that he would look out for himself more in the future, which made Tree a lot happier and put a big smile on his face.

“Hey, there’s still a lot of time before my classes start,” Pen said, checking the time on his phone. “Black Hole, could you take us to wherever you took Tree last time? Your… home, or something like that.”

Remote looked up, her interest piqued. “Ooh, sounds exciting! I’ve never thought about where you would’ve lived for all those years.”

“I don’t know why you guys think I lived in a fancy house, it’s just an empty void, there’s nothing to do there,” Black Hole said, lowering their expectations to a reasonable level.

“Still, we’ll probably think it’s really cool. you lived there, so it already has that going for it. And I think it’s outside of the universe, which is a place that no one has ever or will ever visit, unless you let them,” Pen said.

“Tree liked it a lot, so maybe you will too, but I just don’t get what’s so special about literally nothing.”

They slowly approached the edge of space, Black Hole able to see the outside world on the horizon. Although he loved living on Earth a lot more than the featureless vacuum he used to call home, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of attachment to it after having spent so much time there.

“Alright, everyone, get ready, it might feel a little unpleasant…’ he warned, about to cross the barrier.

They all warped through space and ended up in an abyss, completely surrounded by darkness except for the small sphere of light that they had just exited.

“This is my home, hope you weren’t expecting much…” Black Hole said, changing them back to their normal size.

“Don’t worry, it’s just as amazing as I thought it’d be,” Pen said.

“By the way, please don’t touch that,” Black Hole said, seeing that Remote had gotten a bit too close to the universe for him to feel entirely safe. “You’ll probably end up destroying a few billion galaxies…”

Remote jumped backwards, having been appropriately scared by his words.

“Wow, really?” Pen said in a suspiciously happy tone.

“Don’t even try,” Tree warned.

“I wasn’t going to!” Pen raised his arms.

Meanwhile, Remote was just looking around, seeing if she could find anything in the endless void.

“Is there really nothing else here?” she asked Black Hole.

“Not that I know of. There might be something else that I just haven’t found yet, but it seems like there’s nothing except for this universe.”

Remote looked into the distance, wondering how far the vast expanse stretched. Even if it wasn’t infinite, it might as well have been. It looked unimaginably large, especially when compared to them.

She already knew that the universe was so much bigger than them, but she felt even smaller knowing that beyond their reality, there was an empty blanket of nothingness, extending to infinity.

Notes:

Watching one of those size comparison videos was always a fun way to end the night :D

Chapter 35: For the Better

Summary:

Tree and Black Hole have a heartfelt conversation on their world

Notes:

Really great "character developement" in this chapter!

“See? This isn’t a boring place, they love it,” Tree said to Black Hole.

“It’s pretty cool for about ten minutes, and then you start wanting to leave.”

Pen and Remote were both too mesmerized to hear them, and were just staring at the sparkling lights before them until Black Hole eventually spoke up.

“Hey, aren’t you two bored yet?”

“No, I could watch this for days, it’s so entrancing…” Remote said.

“Sorry, but, I think we should probably head back now, Pen still has classes to go to, and I don’t think he would want us to stay here without him.”

“Why do you care about him?” Tree smirked slightly at Pen.

“Because he’s nice, unlike you!” Pen said.

Remote and Black Hole both laughed, knowing that watching their everyday antics would never get old.

“Fine, since Black Hole said so, we can go home…” Tree said.

Pen let out a stifled laugh, which Black Hole didn’t seem to hear as he got ready to send everyone back. “You guys ready? Maybe take one last look at this place, or don’t, there’s not much to see.”

They approached the sphere of light in the center and were transported into it, once again surrounded by the little dots of light that they were gazing down upon just a moment ago.

 

After a short voyage across the stars, they returned to the familiar planet where they first took off the previous night. It was the first time any of them could say that they had spent the night outside of the Earth.

“I’m actually early somehow, that’s weird, I thought we spent a lot more time out there,” Pen said, relieved that he still had ages before his classes began.

“Guess Black Hole just has better time management than you,” Tree said.

“I haven’t even been late that much! It’s only when I go to bed too late and oversleep-”

“That might be my fault, sorry…” Black Hole said.

“Nah, you’re fine, I’m the one making the decision to stay up all night.”

After packing up, Pen left the dorm, and Remote decided to go as well, mysteriously saying that Golf Ball had given her a very special assignment to do. Tree and Black Hole, having been left at home with nothing to do, spent the morning chatting and playing games, as was usual when they were bored.

“How do you manage to make everyone around you feel so much happier, every time, without fail?” Tree said admiringly.

“I don’t really try that much, just… be nice? It shouldn’t be very hard.”

“You say that, but it’s a lot harder for us to do that when most humans only focus on themselves and only do things that directly benefit them, even at the expense of others.”

Black Hole silently felt that Tree had a point, but he wasn’t going to let that quell his love for humanity.

“No, you all are really nice! I could see a very small minority not… being so kind, but mostly I think everyone’s able to be nice to each other pretty well!”

“Oh, you pure, innocent soul. You haven’t even seen a fraction of what we can do to the people we don’t like. If you knew, you’d probably want to leave this place and never come back.”

The thought of leaving all of his friends forever slightly terrified him, he had grown so fond of them and he didn’t know what he would do if they weren’t in his life anymore.

“All I know is, I’ll never leave you guys, no matter what happens. I’ll be with you forever, through whatever life throws at us.”

“You’ll have to at some point. Unlike us, when you say forever, you literally mean forever. And I don’t think it’s possible for you to truly never leave our side.”

“Thinking about this is making me sad, can we go back?”

“Sure, so, as I was saying, there are some pretty bad people out there. I don’t think anyone can say that they’ve never been mean before. Humans were just designed that way, because I don’t think they had time to be nice to anyone back then when they were all busy fighting for their lives.”

It was a shame that they couldn’t just change their brains to act in a certain way, Black Hole thought. Considering that it was their brain, they should’ve been able to tailor it to their own preference, but it seemed as though the brain controlled the person, and not the other way around.

“I feel like a lot of people aren’t even trying, though. Even when they fully have the capability to be nice, they decide not to.”

“Yeah, humans are like that, I’ve just learnt to accept it, and I suggest you do too. I highly doubt you’ll be able to change how people behave, unless you use some particularly heavy persuasion…”

“If you’re trying to get me to threaten everyone into being nicer, no, I’m not doing that.”

“Ah, well, it was worth a shot.”

Watching Tree slowly lose hope in his species saddened Black Hole, but he hoped he could prove Tree wrong in the future, showing that deep down, everyone could be a great person. But if nobody wanted to, then that was their choice, and there was nothing he could do about it, at least without making himself feel like an evil monster.

“I really hope you’re wrong about everyone, it would be so sad to watch your civilization collapse from the inside, without anyone else even coming after you.”

“I just know that as long as we have you… we’ll all be fine, and maybe everyone will listen to you and we’ll get the perfect utopia you were asking for, wouldn’t that be great?”

“Heh, yeah. We can only hope…”

Though he knew that there was realistically nothing he could change, Black Hole still felt responsible for helping everyone fix their society. He felt bad that Tree, such a nice and caring person, had to live through so much conflict caused by such insignificant issues.

He had already made a decent start with his friends, but he knew that it would be a lot tougher to get everyone else to follow suit.

Notes:

This is a good time to remind everyone that this story is not set in the real world, it just looks extremely similar, they have nothing to do with each other

Chapter 36: Not Too Soft

Summary:

Black Hole gets overloaded by a massive stream of words

Notes:

Sorry for the short chapter! I wrote really slowly today, I don't know why. And I don't think I wrote this chapter that well, because not much happens

Tree and Black Hole continued talking to pass the time, although having moved to slightly lighter topics, to make them feel better after the depressing spiral that they had gone through.

“Are you feeling okay?” Tree asked. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to get deep and philosophical…”

“It’s fine, I can handle it.” Black Hole laughed. “If anything, it just made me appreciate being able to talk with you more.”

“Seriously, why are you so sweet?”

After a few hours, Pen showed up at the door and walked with Fanny and Lightning right behind him.

“Hey, guys! Miss me?” Pen said.

“Not particularly, but we’re glad you brought Fanny and Lightning here,” Tree replied.

“Wow, he is ruthless,” Lightning said.”

“Yeah, but only to me for some reason, maybe he’s just jealous,” Pen retaliated.

Sensing a lot more banter on the horizon, Black Hole tried getting away by going over to Fanny and Lightning to talk with them.

“How have you been doing? I haven’t seen you in a while.”

“We’ve just been having classes, nothing too special. We did see Remote on the news again, what happened to the ‘aliens’?” Fanny asked.

“Oh, that reminds me,” Lightning interrupted, “remember the actual aliens that showed up a few days before that? We had to live in complete darkness for the whole night!”

Fanny remembered what he was talking about, having tried to push away the bad memories of that day.

“Please don’t remind me, that really wasn’t fun… At least nothing that bad happened, though."

“Yeah, of course Black Hole shows up at the perfect moment and saves everyone again. That was so cool, you know that, right?”

Black Hole, in an excellent display of his personality, tried his very best to not take any credit, but nobody was buying it and he eventually had to give in.

“You make it seem like a bad thing…” Lightning said.

“I know it’s not, but I feel like other people deserve some appreciation too, they helped me out a lot.”

“Come on, we all know what’s going on. Why don’t you like getting any praise? I would’ve thought it would make you feel great about yourself,” Fanny said.

“It does, but…” Black Hole dropped his voice to a near whisper. “I just don’t like being the center of attention,” he admitted.

None of them were expecting anything near that kind of response, and they both felt guilty for pushing Black Hole out of his comfort zone.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t realize-”

“It’s fine,” Black Hole said to Lightning. “I know it’s weird of me, but I would rather just be off to the side, without everyone telling me how great I am for doing something that didn’t take any effort at all.”

“No, I completely get it! Some people just don’t like being with so many people, nothing wrong with that.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. It would be cool if you become more confident in the future, but if you don’t, trust me, no one will blame you. I’m sure everyone will love you all the same.”

Black Hole felt his whole body relax after hearing that. He had tried forcing himself to be more proud and confident, but he always ended up losing his nerve and shrinking away.

“Thank you, both of you. You’re all so nice to me, and I honestly don’t know what I did to deserve such amazing friends.”

“Maybe it’s because you’re just a great person in general,” Tree said, joining the conversation. “It would be unfair if you met someone mean to you. They would probably try to take advantage of how nice you are and use you to do whatever they wanted.”

“I’m glad none of you are like that, I would definitely start mindlessly listening to them, no questions asked. I feel like I’m too weak-minded to refuse anything anyone says.”

Tree shot an accusing look at Pen, who stared back. “Hey! What did I do?”

“Considering you have the emotional intelligence of a piece of dry wood, I’d say you’ve done quite a bit.”

“Pen hasn’t done anything wrong! Has he?” Black Hole said, slightly doubting himself.

“I know he probably doesn’t mean to, but he’s gotten used to how nice and caring you are and he’s been making you help him with a lot of stuff.”

Black Hole realized that did happen quite a lot, but he didn’t mind at all. In fact, it felt great helping out Pen and seeing him so happy.

“Yeah, but I like helping him and it makes me feel good!”

“See?” Pen said. “I’m actually making Black Hole happier by doing that, you can’t blame me now!”

“As long as you know when you should say no, you’ll be fine,” Tree said to Black Hole. “You’re in charge of yourself, not anyone else.”

Black Hole wished that he could just live his life doing what he liked most, but it seemed reality had other plans. He knew that he was acting like a small child, but that still didn’t stop him from believing…

Why did the world have to be so cruel?

Notes:

This is the closest thing Black Hole has to therapy

Chapter 37: Unnatural Selection

Summary:

Remote finds the opposite of what she was looking for

Notes:

I feel like a lot of the stuff in the story is just repeated from before, so whenever you see something that's already happened, maybe just pretend it's the first time appearing

“Is anyone hungry?” Tree asked after the conversation had died down a bit. “I could make some food.”

“Really? Thanks!” Lightning said.

“No problem.” Tree smiled. “At least you’re being nice about it, unlike someone I could mention…”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Pen said.

Tree headed over to the kitchen and started cooking up a feast, not that he didn’t usually try to make high-quality food, but he placed a higher importance on it this time around. Black Hole followed him around while he was cooking, watching him closely and sometimes helping out when instructed.

Having completely lost track of time while mindlessly talking away, the others were quite surprised when Remote suddenly appeared at the front door, illuminated by the orange glow of the sunset behind her.

“Remote! How’s it going?” Pen said, walking over to greet her. “Wait, how did you even get in our dorm?”

“Tree gave me a key so he didn’t have to let me in every time. I’m not sure whether he’s allowed to do that, but he said it’s on him if something happens.”

Remote heard a lot of sounds coming from the kitchen, so she assumed Tree was making a pretty good-tasting dinner.

“What’s Tree making?” she asked.

“I don’t know, he just said he was going to make some food, and then he went to the kitchen with Black Hole. They’ve been there for almost an hour already.”

“Good food takes time, I’m sure it’ll be worth the wait.”

Not having much to do, Remote tried occupying everyone by telling them what she did at work, talking about all sorts of discoveries she had made. Pen was bored out of his mind, but Fanny and Lightning seemed rather interested.

Once the food was finally done and they all went over to the dining table, Remote retold everything she had said to Tree and Black Hole, who were also fascinated by her stories.

“I was studying the bacteria that used to live on Mars, and I don’t think they’re actually ‘alive’, because their behaviour was very unnatural and I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t have been able to follow such a precise pattern if they were living beings.”

“What, so you’re saying they’re… artificially created?” Tree asked.

“Not completely sure yet, but the evidence definitely points towards it.”

Black Hole thought back to all of his encounters with the grey pile of what looked like a large chunk of mold, now with the knowledge that it was all just some kind of synthetic goo.

“I guess I feel a bit less bad for destroying so many of them now…” Black Hole said.

“So we didn’t find any new aliens?” Pen asked.

“Yes, I just told you a few minutes ago,” Remote said exasperatedly.

“Aw, it would’ve been pretty cool, too.”

Remote highly doubted that he knew the impact that an alien civilization on Mars would have on their planet, even with all of the movies that he had watched about them.

“It might be cool to you, but I think it’s best if we’re left alone for now.”

“By the way, have you told Golf Ball about any of this yet?” Tree asked.

“No, it was already getting late when I realized, funny how I always make the world-changing discoveries right before my shift ends, huh? Anyways, I was planning on telling her later today, but I wanted to come home first. I know this isn’t really my home, but it sure does feel like it."

“I appreciate that you care more about us than your dream job, but I feel like you should’ve told someone about your suspicions before you left.”

“It’s fine, not like a few hours’ difference will matter that much. Plus, I get to eat this amazing food, fresh off the stove.”

Tree smiled, greatly appreciating the compliment and feeling that all the time he had spent on cooking was very much worth it.

After everyone’s plate was clear, Remote announced that she was going to go back to her workplace to inform Golf Ball of her theory and offered to take everyone with her.

“You’ve all met Golf Ball, right? She’s really nice, and it’ll probably be fun there. Does everyone want to go?”

“Yeah! I wanna see more space stuff!” Lightning said.

“Exactly what I was thinking,” Pen agreed.

The rest of them were dragged, almost physically, into the trip by their friends, so in a short while, they all walked outside through the door (which Remote locked for the very first time) and to the facility, silently hoping that Remote was proven wrong, as the thought of artificial robots from space was somehow more terrifying than living beings.

Golf Ball seemed to be alright with them entering the building even without a single reason, so Remote hoped that they would all be allowed in. Luckily, they all made it through the front doors and were now on their way to Golf Ball’s office.

While walking up the sets of stairs, Remote made a quick detour to her lab so she could grab any pictures that could help her share her findings. After climbing to the very top of the massive building, they arrived at Golf Ball’s office and decided to all casually stroll in, hoping that they wouldn’t be a problem.

“Hello, Remote, I see you’ve brought your friends!” Golf Ball greeted. “What did you want to talk to me about?” 

“It’s about something I found today at work… do you remember that bacteria that I accidentally freed which destroyed a chunk of the building?”

“How could I forget? That incident still haunts me to this day, I don’t know what I would’ve done without Black Hole.”

“I did some research on them, and I thought that from the few samples we have of them living, they don’t seem to act like any type of natural biology. They look very unnatural and artificial.”

This took Golf Ball completely by surprise, she had no idea how it was even possible to create such intricate little creatures, but it had apparently already been done.

It just goes to show how primitive humanity was, still, even after so many millennia of technological advancement.

Notes:

All of this will eventually lead up to something, you'll see...

Chapter 38: Under Siege

Summary:

Remote wants more things to experiment on

Notes:

TPOT 13 came out! No spoilers, but I think Black Hole was really good this episode!

“How did you even find more of the bacteria?” Golf Ball asked Remote.

“I didn’t, I just studied what we saw from them before.”

“Do you know where any of them are?”

“As far as I know, they got completely wiped out by Black Hole, so there’s probably none left.”

Golf Ball was slightly disappointed that they didn’t have a chance to take a closer look at the bacteria, but at least she felt safer with them gone.

“Did you need them for something? I just assumed you wanted them gone…” Black Hole said.

“I did, thanks for your help! Though it would’ve been nice if I could’ve neutralized a few of them to do more research on.”

“Wait, you said they come from Mars, right? Surely we could just go back and get more for you? Golf Ball suggested.

“I think they were only in that one area where the astronauts landed, so they’re probably all gone.”

Black Hole knew that he hadn’t left a single one alive, but he didn’t feel like they would be gone for long.

“I could go check… if you want,” he said. “Or if there’s anything you want me to send to the base, I could do that too.”

“Yeah, I did, actually. We were planning to start a small terraforming project so the astronauts didn’t have to wear their spacesuits all the time. I’ve got all the stuff ready to go, so could you just bring everything up to Mars, please? And you can check whether there’s any more bacteria while you’re at it.”

“Sure!”

Golf Ball led him out of her office and into a warehouse filled with several boxes containing various building materials and other supplies. Not wanting to move everything manually, she figured she could just get Black Hole to take it directly from where it was made and save her a lot of time.

“Wow, that’s a lot of stuff,” Black Hole said, looking around him at the endless sea of boxes.

“You can carry all of it, right?”

Black Hole felt that the sheer amount of boxes would be too much to handle and he would end up causing at least two of them to collide with each other, but he thought that he could at least give it a try.

“Yeah… I think.”

“Great! I’ll let you grab everything, I probably won’t be able to do much.”

Once Black Hole got everything floating around him, he went outside and headed into space, his friends watching him from an office window.

“He’s carrying so much stuff!” Remote said.

“Wow, and I thought I was strong…” Pen said, feeling very inferior.

“Don’t worry, he’s not the type of person to brag about it,” Tree said.

They all looked up into the sky, watching Black Hole slowly ascend, being orbited by a swarm of boxes.

After a few minutes, Golf Ball returned to her office and started talking to Black Hole through her radio.

“I’m on the surface near the colony, but I don’t see any sign of the bacteria.”

“That’s fine, you can just go drop everything off then.”

“Alright, I’ll talk to you later.”

 

Black Hole had looked all over the ground but all he had found were rocks and sand. Feeling sad that he had let down Remote, he tried moving past it and went next to the base to drop off everything Golf Ball had given him.

“Hi, Black Hole!” Marker said, opening the doors to let him in, “How are you?”

“I’m great, thanks! Have you seen anything else interesting lately?”

“Nope. Thankfully, whatever that thing was from a few days ago didn’t come back, so we’ve been able to get a lot done!”

He was grateful that they weren’t being attacked anymore, but he still didn’t feel too good about Remote’s chances of getting anything to study.

“Nice! What have you made so far?”

Lots of stuff! A big mine, that lab over there… Oh, you should come see our garden, it looks a lot better now!”

After Black Hole dropped off all of the boxes, Marker brought him into a glass building filled with plots of dirt, which was a massive improvement over the small patch of farmland they had last time. Black Hole was rather excited about everything, staring at all the cool plants around him, filled with joy and wonder.

“Pie? What are you doing here?” Marker asked, nearly walking into her.

“Hello, everyone. I wanted to relax for a bit, and I thought this would be a nice place to do it. Everything here is so calming, and the plants make the air a lot cleaner.”

“Cool! I just wanted to show Black Hole what we’ve done to the gardens, we’ll go now, if you want.”

“I should probably leave too, I’ve spent a while in here already.”

They walked back to the base and saw a pile of boxes near the entrance, which reminded Black Hole why he was there.

“Oh yeah, Golf Ball said you were going to do a… terraforming project? Here’s everything you should need.”

“Right, I remember that! Thanks, this is really helpful!” Marker said.

Marker ran over to the boxes and started opening them and taking all of the contents out. “Come on, Pie, let’s start building!”

Black Hole looked at how many boxes they had to get through, and he guessed that it would probably take them quite a while, which seemed about right considering they were trying to transform part of a planet.

“I think that’s everything, so I’m gonna go now. Good luck with… whatever you’re building!” Black Hole said, starting to fly away.

“Bye, Black Hole! Thanks for everything!”

“See you,” Pie said.

Black Hole flew through the atmosphere and ended up in space, now having the entire planet in his view.

He looked down at the surface and saw the colony he had just left, so large, yet so small, a dash of colour on the otherwise solid red surface. But upon further inspection, he noticed that something on the planet seemed a little different.

There was something surrounding the base.

Notes:

Black Hole isn't blind, he just didn't notice it earlier! Or maybe he is...

Chapter 39: Scorched Earth

Summary:

Mars gets turned into a battlefield

Notes:

If you haven't figured out what keeps attacking the colony, don't worry, it will be revealed soon...

“You’ve got to be kidding me…” Black Hole said, turning around and going straight back towards the surface of Mars.

He very much hoped his eyes were tricking him, but he could clearly see the massive ring slowly closing in on the colony, and he highly doubted it was for a good reason.

 

Pie and Marker were working in the base, trying to figure out Golf Ball’s blueprints and looking for materials in the mountain of boxes.

“Hey, what’s that thing outside?” Marker asked.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw quite a lot of grey through the window covering the entire sky, which greatly intimidated him.

“Hm, I don’t know.”

Marker thought Pie seemed a bit too relaxed for what they were seeing outside, so he knew he was going to have to deal with it himself, if he even could.

Stepping outside, he thought he had heard something beside him and looked around to see Black Hole landing, not long after he had left.

“Black Hole! You need to help us, there’s something-”

“Yeah, I saw, that’s why I came back.”

“Do you know what it is?”

“Remember those bacteria from a few days ago? I think there’s more of them.”

Marker looked up at the massive wall surrounding them. It did seem pretty similar…

“Will we be fine?”

“Hopefully…”

They were supposedly all gone, but here they were, doing as well as ever. It seemed like no matter how many times Black Hole blasted them into oblivion, they kept coming back with a stronger vengeance.

“You can do it, I believe in you!” Marker said.

“Alright… be back in a bit.”

Flying directly towards the ring of death, Black Hole charged himself up and got ready to defend the base. He could see them getting closer with every passing moment and decided to strike before they got the chance to damage anything.

Suddenly, several grey tendrils reached out from the mass and pulled him in, until he was completely engulfed. Having let his guard down, he had allowed himself to be swept directly into the storm.

“Oh, come on!”

Trying to escape but still feeling himself restrained by seemingly invisible forces, he started getting desperate and created an explosion around him, which created a small opening which allowed him to at least escape the chaos.

Flying high above the ground so he was out of reach, he fired shot after shot into the swirling clouds, slowly chipping away at their numbers. However, this was nowhere near fast enough, and in the time that he had been trapped, they had gotten very close to the base. He hoped he wouldn’t have had to resort to it, but the time had come for something drastic. But before he did anything, he remembered to grab a few of them to give to Remote once he got back to Earth.

“Alright, you clearly haven’t gotten the message, so maybe I should remind you why you shouldn’t have come back…”

Black Hole shot a beam of energy directly at them, and it arced around the ring, destroying everything in its path. After the destruction subsided, all that remained was a ring of burnt land where the bacteria had gotten to and the dust of a few vaporized rocks, scattered to the four winds.

“Heh, that felt pretty good…”

“You did it!” he heard Marker shout from below.

As he floated back to the ground, Marker’s voice got clearer, and he sounded, needless to say, very excited.

“That was so cool!” Marker said.

“Welp, I’m glad that’s over with,” Pie said, appearing next to them.

“Is everything okay?” Black Hole asked.

“Yeah, they didn’t even get close!” Marker replied.

Black Hole looked around and saw that everything looked the same, with the exception of the ring of fire that surrounded them.

“Sorry about all the destruction I caused, by the way… I didn’t really know how else to defeat them."

“That’s fine! It’s not that bad, we can work around it.”

“Alright, if there’s nothing else, I’m gonna go now. I’ve already taken a lot longer than expected.”

Marker silently wanted him to stay, he liked hanging out with Black Hole and felt really good around him. He knew Black Hole had other stuff to be doing, though, so he pushed those thoughts aside and said goodbye to Black Hole and watched him fly off into the distance, hoping he could come back soon.

 

Black Hole felt slightly unnerved after his last encounter, not comfortable with how close the fight was. He wasn’t used to being under the control of something else, but that was simply a consequence of assuming a lesser form.

He was now more convinced than ever that Remote’s prediction was right, and the “bacteria” that had been showing up every time weren’t actually living beings. Hopefully, she could learn more about them once he gave her the sample.

Feeling the most relieved he had ever been to return to Earth, he stopped next to Golf Ball’s office and knocked on the door, wanting more than anything to see his friends.

“Hello, Black Hole!” Golf Ball said. “How was it?”

“I gave them everything, but then more of the… things came.” Black Hole said. “By the way, I got you some more of them.” he handed the container to Remote.

“Oh, thanks!”

Remote took it, excited to finally be able to continue studying their elusive properties.

“Maybe put it in a safer place this time, I don’t want the building to almost collapse again.”

“Yeah, good idea.” Remote laughed.

She had to come up with a safer procedure for handling those things, she thought. It was way too risky at the moment.

“Anyways, we saw you defend the base against them, that was… impressive, to say the least,” Golf Ball said to Black Hole.

“You did? How?”

“We have rovers on Mars, you know.” Golf Ball grinned. “And their cameras still work.”

“Oh, right… I’m surprised they didn’t get destroyed by anything.”

“They were very far away, did you think we’d leave them anywhere near the place you usually stay?”

Black Hole stared guiltily, not sure if he was being reprimanded. “Uh…”

“Not that I don’t trust you, of course, but you do tend to destroy anything in your path whenever you’re fighting, so it’s probably safer to keep it well away from the action.”

“Yeah… sorry about that.”

“I didn’t say it was a bad thing! As long as it’s not targeted towards us.”

Black Hole didn’t realize how risky it was for anything to be around him, especially if he was destroying things left and right.

Maybe he was good at getting rid of aliens that got in his way, but the same was true for everything else as well.

He was going to have to be a lot more careful, lest he accidentally destroy something a lot more valuable than a few rovers.

Notes:

Black Hole's trying to prevent death, he's so sweet :)

Chapter 40: Sentience

Summary:

Remote discovers more about their universe that she wished she hadn't

Notes:

Things are starting to heat up...

Having gotten more to study, Remote dashed into her lab, everyone else following close behind. With some luck, she would finally be able to uncover the mystery of the weird organisms that had been terrorizing the astronauts on Mars for the past few days.

She hoped that it wouldn’t take too long to come to a conclusion, as it was already quite late and she didn’t want to keep her friends waiting overnight.

“You guys don’t have to stay if you don’t want to, by the way, it’s getting pretty late. I could always just tell you everything tomorrow,” she said.

“Nah, watching this is a lot more exciting than classes,” Pen said.

Tree laughed. “Your sleep schedule’s already completely ruined, I don’t think this will make much of a difference.”

Seeing a unanimous decision to stay and watch, she walked over to a table and started working. “Alright, don’t say I didn’t warn you,” she said, mainly to those who had to be up early the next morning.

Very carefully, she transferred a drop of the grey substance onto a petri dish and slid it under the microscope.

“I’m a bit scared, what if it breaks out and starts incinerating everything again?” she said, trying as hard as she could to prevent that from happening.

“It’ll be fine,” Black Hole assured. “You’re being careful, right?”

“Yeah, but-”

“Besides, I’m right here if things start going south.”

Feeling marginally more relaxed, Remote went back to her microscope and started zooming in. Everyone else waited in silence, hoping that she could finally figure out what it was that they had been looking at the whole time.

“I… think I see something? It just looks like a bunch of spheres packed together, but they don’t really look like anything.”

“Really? That’s disappointing,” Lightning said. “Do you have any more ideas?”

“Yeah… maybe.”

Her microscope couldn’t look any closer, but she thought she knew someone who could.

“Black Hole, could you come over here? Maybe you’ll be able to see better than this microscope.”

“I dunno, that thing looks pretty good at its job, but… I’ll try.”

He walked over to Remote and took a very close look, trying to find any features in the homogenous ooze.

“I don’t know, looks pretty smooth to me…”

“Try looking at each cell one by one,” Remote suggested.

Black Hole tried focusing on each individual dot, until eventually…

“Hey… I think I see something,” he said, holding it up to the light to get a better view.

“Really? Nice! What is it?”

“I don’t know, it looks weird.”

He didn’t recall ever having seen that pattern before and he didn’t think it was something that anyone else would know about, but he decided he should probably get Remote’s thoughts, just in case.

“Maybe try looking at it again through your microscope? I made the lens more powerful.”

Remote wasn’t too sure that was even possible, but she took his word for it and had another look, trying to find whatever Black Hole was seeing.

She saw that Black Hole was right, everything was a lot clearer and she could zoom in even further. Peering into one of the cells, she could barely make out something inside it.

“Is that… a circuit board?”

Everyone looked rather stunned at this announcement, besides Black Hole, who had no idea what Remote was talking about.

“...What’s that?”

“It’s something used in a lot of electronic devices to hold the wires together,” Remote explained.

“Oh…” Black Hole slowly connected the dots and gradually started realizing what was going on. “So-”

“Yeah, they’re not even alive.”

Remote had already predicted something like this a few days ago, but it still didn’t prepare them for the shock of finding out that they were being attacked by something that was specifically programmed to do so.

“If they’re mechanical beings, then who created them?” Tree asked.

“I don’t know,” Fanny said, “but whoever it was, I really don’t like them.”

“Maybe it was just an accident? They might’ve lost track of their little robots and left them on Mars,” Lightning said.

“As much as I want to believe that’s what happened, I think they knew exactly what they were doing,” Remote said, looking at the nanobots once more.

Tree checked the time, as it was now pitch black outside, and he saw that it was already well past Pen’s usual bedtime, which he was slightly concerned about.

“I know everyone’s very scared and confused right now, but maybe we should go to sleep and talk about this tomorrow…”

“Yeah, good idea, maybe it’ll help me take my mind off things,” Remote agreed.

After saying goodbye to Golf Ball, who was going to stay for a bit longer to close everything up, everyone else left the building and walked back to campus together.

“Seriously, I feel like the whole universe is out to get us as of late,” Pen said.

“I don’t think anyone else would take too kindly to us becoming a spacefaring civilization, they probably want to get rid of all the potential competition while they still can,” Tree guessed.

“Wow, whatever aliens are out there are really mean,” Lightning said.

Once they got back to campus, everyone parted ways and went back to their homes, hoping to relax a little after all the revelations that day.

Pen, Tree, and Black Hole, much to their relief, returned to their dorm, and they all got ready for bed, not wasting a minute.

“Hey, just wanted to check in, how do you feel?” Tree asked Black Hole.

“I’m fine, thanks. I don’t really know how to feel about the whole artificial life thing, but at least now we know.”

“It’ll be alright, remember how easily you destroyed them? I’m sure you won’t have any problem with them if they ever come back.”

“Hopefully, but I feel like they’re getting stronger and I don’t know what they could do in the future.”

“We don’t have to worry about that right now, I just want you to forget about everything and try to sleep, alright? Good night, Black Hole,” Tree said, walking out of the living and leaving Black Hole.

“Good night…”

Notes:

I keep forgetting that certain characters are in a scene and not giving them any lines, maybe there's too many

Chapter 41: In the Ground

Summary:

Something appears to have happened to the Earth...

Notes:

The past few chapters have all been part of the same arc, by the way

Black Hole awoke very abruptly early next morning, having almost been shaken out of the air by an unknown force.

“What… was that?” he said, looking around the room. Nothing seemed particularly out of the ordinary, besides the fact that everything seemed to be moving around ever so slightly.

“Black Hole, what are you doing?” Tree stumbled out of his room. “It’s the middle of the night…”

“I didn’t do anything! It woke me up too!”

Tree was a bit annoyed that his sleep had been interrupted, but he had no idea what had caused it, so there wasn’t much he could do.

“Whatever, I’m going back to bed.”

Black Hole didn’t know how well Tree slept for the rest of the night, but he personally couldn’t have possibly imagined falling back asleep after all that commotion, especially when the night was already almost over.

A while later, Pen and Tree both came out of their rooms, Tree having woken up a lot earlier than usual.

“Oh, weird seeing you up so early,” Pen said.

“I couldn’t really sleep that well after being woken up at five in the morning.”

“Wait, what woke you up?”

“...Did you not feel it?”

At this point, it was clear that neither of them had any intention to go back to bed, so Black Hole decided to get up as well.

“Everything started shaking slightly a couple of hours ago, woke me and Tree up. I don’t know what happened,” he said.

“Like an earthquake?” Pen asked.

“A… what?”

“An earthquake is when the Earth’s surface starts moving around,” Tree explained. “It might’ve been, but I think they usually last quite a bit longer, don’t they?”

“I didn’t feel anything, so I wouldn’t know,” Pen said.

He had no clue what either of them were talking about, as he had somehow managed to sleep through everything and completely ignore what was happening all around him.

“You’re so sleep-deprived, how deeply do you sleep?” Tree asked concernedly.

“Dunno, I’ll be fine, don’t worry. Anyways, I should probably get going now, see you in a bit!”

After Pen left, Tree and Black Hole immediately started contemplating what they should do.

“Maybe we could go outside? I wanna see if anything else got affected by the shaking earlier,” Black Hole suggested.

“Sure, why not?”

The moment they stepped onto the pavement, something seemed off. Instead of being mostly flat, the terrain was now rough and bumpy, and the floor even split open in some places.

“Do you know what happened to everything?” Black Hole asked.

“I think the floor started shaking too, and didn’t quite get back to its original location.”

“Wow, seems pretty serious.”

“Not really, this is minimal damage compared to some other earthquakes that have happened.”

Not wanting to imagine what a stronger earthquake would’ve looked like, Black Hole looked around and saw the GASA building looming in the distance.

“Hey, why don’t we go check up with Remote? See if she knew what happened?”

“Yeah, good idea!”

Once they arrived at the facility, they saw that everything around it seemed a little deformed, but the building itself still seemed relatively intact. Hopefully, the same could be said for the interior.

Remote, as they expected, was working in her lab, and she put everything down and walked over excitedly at the sight of them.

“Hi! How’s it going?”

“We’re doing great! Thanks for-”

“It’s been pretty bad,” Tree interrupted. “We got woken up really early by some random shaking this morning.”

“Yeah, I think I felt that too, but I didn’t pay that much attention and went back to sleep.”

Remote looked out of a window and saw the small cracks on the road, which seemed a bit too dangerous to be left alone.

“Doesn’t look too good, but I don’t think it should cause that much damage,” she said.

After talking for a little longer, Remote saw someone else show up at her door.

“Hey, Remote?” Golf Ball said. “Oh, Black Hole, you’re already here, that’s great! I was just going to ask Remote to go get you. Anyways, would you mind making another quick trip to Mars?”

“Uh, sure. Anything you want me to bring?”

“Yeah, I just remembered that I didn’t give them any power generators, so they can’t even start terraforming yet.”

She handed Black Hole a small box, at least compared to the previous packages, and told him that everything was in there.

“I know it seems a little small, but that’s what makes it so much better!”

“Alright, then, see you,” Black Hole said to everyone, as he left the room and headed for Mars.

 

With his luck, he presumed another disaster would’ve struck the base while he was gone, whether from random chance or a calculated attack.

Venturing across the vacuum of space, he started zoning out a little, losing track of his surroundings and mindlessly travelling roughly towards his destination.

That is, until he flew directly into something, sending it flying away into the distance.

Notes:

This felt like a good place to end it, so another short chapter today, sorry

Chapter 42: Rat in Space

Summary:

Black Hole gets to be nice to more people

Notes:

Black Hole really needs therapy

“Huh? Wait, no, come back!” Black Hole flew after the object, sensing where it had gone.

“I’m so sorry, are you okay?” he asked, once he had finally found it.

Meanwhile, inside, something, or rather someone, looked around confusedly, wondering why their ship had suddenly been knocked off course. Though after hearing that voice, the answer became obvious.

It seemed unfair that Black Hole had decided to take a trip to space on the one day that they had been assigned to return to this wretched place, and, truth be told, they weren’t quite sure why they had to be so focused on this random planet in the middle of nowhere that had, for now, done nothing wrong.

They would’ve loved to continue diving into their thoughts, but there were unfortunately more pressing matters at hand. Looking outside, they saw that Black Hole had grabbed their ship and was now inspecting it, presumably trying to figure out what it was. They had been ordered to immediately start attacking if they ever saw Black Hole, but somehow, they felt that would most likely not end well for them. Instead, they had to be as peaceful as possible and hope that, by some miracle, they would be able to survive the encounter.

They figured it wasn’t long before Black Hole realized what he was looking at, so they decided to take action, desperately hoping that it would work.

“Hello, Black Hole. Do you remember me?” they said, projecting their voice through the speakers.

“Uh… I don’t think so, sorry.”

They paused, unsure of whether they should continue. “...I was part of that fleet of aliens that came over and attacked the Earth.”

“Oh, I remember now,” Black Hole said, unsure how to feel.

“I’ll understand if you hate me now, but… I didn’t want an attack. In fact, most of us were only there because we were forced to.”

Black Hole felt a wave of remorse wash over him, as he remembered all those lives he had ended without a second thought that day. There were probably so many people who didn’t even want to be there, but still got taken out all the same.

“I’m so sorry… I didn’t know, I wouldn’t have-”

“No, it’s not your fault, I know you were just trying to protect your friends, we completely deserved it. I still count myself lucky to have survived that day, but I still sometimes think about what would’ve happened if I’d been positioned just a bit closer to the center…”

“Still, there were so many innocent people that I wrongfully killed just because I was too scared to do anything else, and now I’m deeply regretting it.”

When they first arrived back in the Solar System, they did not expect that they would be comforting the enemy a few hours later, but Black Hole seemed so sad and miserable that they couldn’t help but feel bad for him.

“You did what was right for you, and that’s all that matters.”

“Thanks… it feels weird, hearing you speak so gently.”

“Yeah, it’s not really normal. Just don’t tell anyone, I don’t want to know what they would do to me if they found out I was having this conversation with you. They specifically told me to immediately start attacking if I ever ran into you.”

“Well, I’m glad you didn’t. What were you doing here, anyway?”

“Oh, uh…” They hesitated, feeling that answering the question could potentially lead to some unwanted consequences. However, they felt that they would be fine, seeing as though Black Hole was one of the nicest beings he had ever come across.

“Please don’t get mad at me for this… but I had to plant some of our nanobots into the Earth’s surface, because everyone was annoyed that the ones we sent to Mars got dealt with so easily.”

Black Hole suddenly realized something, as the pieces clicked into place in his mind.

“So that’s what was causing the earthquakes?”

“Yeah, it was supposed to do that, but I don’t think they made it strong enough, thankfully.”

“I guess I should work on getting rid of them, then.”

“So… you’re not mad at me?”

Black Hole could hear the hopeful tone in their speech, silently wishing that he was going to spare them. And, of course, he was more than happy to, considering this particular alien seemed to want nothing to do with his home world.

“Of course not, I know you mean well, and everything that you’ve been doing hasn’t even been your choice.”

He heard an audible gasp of excitement. “Thank you so much!”

“Maybe you can try convincing some of your friends to stop listening to your leaders when you get home. And if you ever come back, please try not to hurt anything or anyone, that would be great, thanks!”

“Wait, so you’re letting me go? Just like that?”

“Yep, go right ahead! Also, sorry for crashing into you earlier, I didn’t realize you were there.”

The alien was rather surprised that Black Hole seemed to be happy to let them off without any repercussions, but they decided to take the offer and not ask too many questions.

“It’s fine, I wasn’t supposed to anywhere near here in the first place, so you couldn’t have known to look out for me.”

“Oh, and one last thing,” Black Hole added, right before the ship started speeding away.

The alien looked back curiously, having hastily cut all the engines on their ship.

“What’s your name?” Black Hole asked.

“We… don’t really have those, everyone just gets assigned a number at birth, and that’s how we differentiate each other.”

“Really? That seems depressing… Maybe I’ll be able to recognize you from looks next time.”

“Yeah, hopefully. I guess I’ll get going now, good luck with stopping the nanobots that I placed…”

“Bye, see you soon!”

Black Hole watched the spaceship slowly fade into the distance, heading back to its home planet. As he stared off into space, he felt strangely good about himself.

He had just made a new friend.

Notes:

"What gender is the alien?"

"No."

Chapter 43: Keep Dreaming

Summary:

Marker goes back to being a kid

Notes:

I know a lot of the chapters have been shorter than usual, I just don't have enough energy to write as much, sorry

Feeling uplifted by the successful interaction, Black Hole continued with his mission, a lot more confident that nothing was going to go wrong this time.

As he approached his destination, he saw the sprawling network of grey lines slowly come into view. It had barely even been a few weeks since the first human stepped foot on the planet, and yet they had managed to build an entire city in that time.

“Hey, Black Hole!” Marker said, having spotted him descending from the sky.

“Hi, how’s everything going? Have you done anything cool lately?”

“Yeah, we’ve built some more houses!” Marker pointed to a grid of buildings in the distance. “We were also planning on adding some more public locations, so that this place would seem like a real city.”

Black Hole looked around, noticing all the new stuff that had been added since he had last checked.

“Wow, you’ve made a lot of progress.”

“Most of it wasn’t that hard, and it’s a lot easier when there isn’t an alien species trying to tear everything down every few days.”

“Right, I just remembered, they’re not actually living beings, they’re all just some nanobots that a more advanced alien civilization made, which I think they were trying to take us out with.”

“...What?”

Black Hole explained what he had learnt over the past few days, trying to convince Marker that the whole time, they were being attacked by some glorified computer chips.

“...So I talked to the alien for a bit, and I think we’re friends now!”

“I hope they stop sending killer robots to attack us now, it’s been so great without them. Look at all this stuff we’ve built!”

“Oh, that reminds me…” Black Hole took out the power generator that he was supposed to have given Marker a while ago. “Golf Ball wanted to give you this, she said you haven’t been getting enough power lately.”

“Yeah, we haven’t, I don’t even know how we’ve managed this long.”

Marker grabbed the generator and placed it into what looked like a solid box of wires and switches, and almost immediately, the lights seemed a lot brighter.

“That’s much better, don’t you think?” Marker looked around at all of the buildings, each one looking better than ever.

Black Hole stared at the skyline, thinking that it was starting to look a lot like his home on Earth.

“Yeah, hope the generator helps!”

“By the way,” Marker had a sudden thought. “Do you remember saying that the nanobots were made by someone else? How did they know to put them on Mars?:

“I think they’re doing all this to discourage you guys from exploring the universe, and they knew you were going to visit Mars soon, so they decided to try getting rid of all the astronauts.”

Marker’s smile slowly disappeared, as he repeated Black Hole’s words back to himself. Ever since he learnt about space, he had always wanted to be an astronaut. Now that his dream had finally been fulfilled, he realized just how risky his job was.

“Why do they have to target us? We didn’t do anything wrong!”

“I know, it’s really messed up, but hopefully they’ll stop soon. I’ll be so happy if that one alien that I talked to somehow manages to get their entire civilization to start being friendly towards us.”

Although they both knew that nothing was ever that easy, they still wanted to simply be left alone, and allowed to explore in their tiny pocket of the universe.

“Black Hole…” Marker began, unsure of what to say. “Do you think that we could ever completely visit the entire galaxy? All of those stars, each with so many planets…”

“I think you can do anything, as long as you put your mind to it. That’s something I’ve learnt about humans, they’re very good at getting what they want.”

Marker laughed. “Yeah, I guess we are. I think it would be a lot of fun, just travelling between different planets, seeing what’s out there… I hope we’ll be able to do that in the future.”

“I’m sure you will.”

After chatting for a while longer, Pie called Marker back to help with something, so he said goodbye to Black Hole and retreated into their base. Black Hole decided to go back to Earth, assuming that there was nothing else he had to do.

The trip back was a lot less eventful, as he didn’t come into contact with anything, merely passing through the mostly empty space between planets.

And then, right in front of him, he saw it. The Earth, looking (thankfully) very undamaged.

He was going to have quite the story for his friends once he saw them…

Notes:

Black Hole's friends are probably used to him leaving for way longer than he's supposed to at this point

Chapter 44: Hidden Depths

Summary:

Remote finds one more surprise waiting for her

Notes:

I don't know what to put here, so... hope you're having a nice day!

“Where did they all go…?”

Black Hole walked around each room, looking for any trace of his friends. It seemed as though they had all decided to go home and leave him behind.

After checking random rooms in the building for a bit longer, he gave up and went outside, hoping that he could find Tree and Pen back in their dorm.

However, right as he was about to leave, he noticed some construction vehicles in the distance, digging a massive crater in the ground. And, what was more, all of his friends were there, hard at work.

“Hey, I’m back!” he said, floating over to the center of the pit. “Uh… By the way, what are you guys doing?”

“Black Hole! Sorry for just leaving like that, we got a bit bored of waiting and thought we could do something in the meantime,” Tree said. “We wanted to figure out what was causing all that shaking and we thought it was probably coming from underground, so we made this big hole to check.”

“Sorry, I just figured that out. It was the nanobots… that were sent by those aliens that tried to destroy the planet a while ago.”

Everyone stopped what they were doing at these words. Some sighed in frustration, having just wasted several hours of their life digging a hole in the Earth, but they were all glad to have finally at least gotten an answer to everything.

“Really? They never stop trying, do they?”

“Yeah, I don’t think they like us very much anymore, considering the last time we met they failed to get rid of us and got most of their army killed,” Remote said.

“Does that mean they’ll just keep sending more forever?” Tree asked.

“I don’t think so, I bumped into one of them on the way to Mars and they seemed pretty friendly. They said that they didn’t support what their civilization was doing, so hopefully they can make everyone stop and make peace with us.” Black Hole’s voice lightened.

“As much as I want that to happen, I’m sorry, but there’s no way they’ll just suddenly decide to leave us alone after everything that we’ve done to them.”

Black Hole wanted to believe that the aliens would eventually come to their senses and stop attacking them, but he didn’t know what he had to do to help them get there.

“Hey, I think I found-”

While Remote was still talking, a large stream of grey emerged from the ground and surrounded Remote, all programmed with one goal in mind. Black Hole was the only one who realized the danger of the situation, so he tried defusing it before someone got hurt.

“Remote! Are you okay?” Tree ran over to where she used to be, a bit too slow.

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure she is,” Black Hole assured.

Being careful not to cause any damage to Remote, Black Hole burnt away small chunks of nanobots at a time, slowly chipping away at the mound. Pen became visible again after a few minutes, having miraculously not been hurt at all.

“Hey, I think we found the source…” Remote laughed weakly, trying to make light of the situation.

“Did you absolutely make sure you got everything?” Tree asked Black Hole.

“Yeah, I don’t see where else they could be,” Black Hole said, looking around the walls of the pit,

Having solved one mystery, they, or rather Remote, started working on another one.

“I’ve been trying to figure out how these nanobots work, because they seem pretty useful and they would be really nice to have on our side,” she said.

Tree and Black Hole had gotten what they were there for, so they decided to go back home, realizing that they still had to tell Pen what they had found.

“Alright, I’ll see you two later, bye!” Remote said, as they left her lab and started descending the stairs that lead out of the building.

 

After a short walk, they arrived at the front door to their dorm and Tree opened it, hoping that Pen wouldn’t be too upset with them for going out to do cool things while he was in class.

“Hey, where have you been? You guys keep disappearing and I have to wait for you to do anything,” Pen said.

“We wanted to figure out where the ‘earthquake’ came from, so we went to GASA to see if anyone there would know,” Tree explained, though perhaps not very thoroughly.

Pen seemed adequately satisfied with the response, so he didn’t ask anything about it again, at least until they were all sat down at the dining table, enjoying the lunch that Tree had made.

“By the way, what new stuff did you learn at GASA? Did you figure out what was causing the earthquake?” Pen asked.

“Yes, actually,” Tree said. “It was the nanobots that were sent to our planet.”

Notes:

Uh oh, Pen's gonna be shook after this

Chapter 45: Released Feelings

Summary:

Pen and Black Hole go outside and get some fresh air

Notes:

Whenever Tree leaves, chaos ensues

Pen stared confusedly, what Tree had just said having gone right over his head.

“The… what?”

Tree looked at him in disbelief. “You were there when we found out, how do you not know?”

“Oh! The alien things?”

“We know they’re not aliens now, but yeah, they were planted into the ground and caused it to shake.”

“Come on! Why do they keep trying to kill us? We haven’t done anything!”

Tree glanced at Black Hole, silently asking him how best to break the news to Pen.

“They were programmed to, weren’t they?”

“Wait, they were?”

“...Yes, they’re robots, that’s how they work.”

Although Pen had already known this, he hadn’t thought particularly hard about the potential consequences this would have.

“But why were they after us?”

“Let’s just say that whoever created them doesn’t like us very much.”

“...You’re not being very helpful right now.”

Black Hole gestured to Tree, encouraging him to keep talking.

“They were sent by the aliens that came to our planet one day and tried to destroy everything, and since their plan didn’t work, they’re trying something else.”

“Yeah, I expected as much.”

“Really? I thought you’d have a more intense reaction, as you usually do when anything bad happens.”

“I’ve already seen so much at this point that nothing surprises me anymore.”

Black Hole shuffled slightly, feeling that he was probably to blame for that.

“Don’t think I didn’t see that, Black Hole,” Tree said.

“What? Oh, I wasn’t talking about you, Black Hole. I mean, I kinda was, but that’s not a bad thing,” Pen said.

“It’s okay, I don’t even know how you guys have managed to deal with me for so long, I thought everyone would’ve kicked me off the planet by now,” Black Hole replied.

“What? No, I think you’re great, and everyone else probably does too! Besides, even if we did try to make you leave, would that really have done anything?”

“Yeah, of course! I would’ve listened to you, that’s probably what I do best.”

Though Pen and Tree didn’t want to agree, they found that it was rather hard not to.

“Anyways, about the aliens, what’s happening with them? What are they going to do next?” Pen asked, bringing the conversation back on track.

“I’m not sure, Black Hole’s been getting rid of the nanobots pretty easily, so I doubt they’d try that again. Hopefully, they decide to just leave us alone, but that seems unlikely,” Tree said.

‘If they try hurting you guys again, I’ll make sure they really regret it,’ Black Hole said.

Pen and Tree laughed. “You sound so cool when you say that,” Pen said.

“See? You should try being like that more, it’ll be a lot better,” Tree suggested.

“I don’t know, it still feels so unnecessarily arrogant to say stuff like that,” Black Hole said, fidgeting with his hands.

“As long as you can back up your claims, you can say whatever you want.”

Black Hole didn’t agree with that idea very much, he thought that just because he was stronger than everyone around him didn’t mean he had the right to be such a nuisance about it.

“I just don’t think it matters very much, and probably no one would care anyway.”

“Considering you’re the only reason humanity has barely survived extinction on two separate occasions, I feel like quite a few people would. Plus, I think it’s great that you’re using your power to protect us, and I’m sure everyone else does too.”

“Yeah, you’ve saved us more times than I can count at this point,” Pen said.

As they talked about whatever the aliens were trying to do (and tried boosting Black Hole’s self-confidence), the minutes slowly ticked by until Tree realized that he had to go to class soon.

“Ugh, they’re always interrupting whatever I’m doing. Alright, see you later, then.”

“Bye, Tree! Hope you have fun!” Black Hole said.

Black Hole was so sweet, Tree thought. He was always wishing the best for people, which was one of the only reasons Tree hadn’t gotten bored to death in his classes yet.

Once Tree had left, Pen immediately started getting bored, wishing that he had someone to endlessly argue with.

“Why don’t you just try relaxing for a bit?” Black Hole suggested. “You’ve been looking a bit tense lately.”

“Yeah, all of my classes have been way harder lately, I don’t know why.”

“Do you want to go for a walk? Just to relax a bit.”

“I guess… Sure, let’s do it.”

 

They went to their local park and strolled around the perimeter a few times, taking in the beautiful scenery and feeling the cool wind blowing around them. Trying to gauge how Pen was feeling, Black Hole tried to make casual conversation.

“Are you having a good time? It’s nice and peaceful out here, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, I feel a lot more relaxed now. This worked surprisingly well. Thanks for… helping me out, I really appreciate it,” Pen said sincerely.

They kept walking and chatting about random topics, until they suddenly heard a familiar voice behind them.

“Pen! Black Hole! How are you doing?”

Notes:

Pen could really benefit from touching some grass

Chapter 46: Overloaded

Summary:

Pen finds out what it's like to be a college student

Notes:

If anyone's wondering how I come up with chapter titles, yeah, me too

Turning around, Pen and Black Hole saw Lightning towards them, with Fanny slowly walking along behind him.

“Woah! Maybe calm down a little?” Black Hole said, stepping to the side to avoid being run into by Lightning.

“Oh, sorry, I was just excited to see you,” Lightning said sheepishly.

After a small pause, Fanny caught up to Lightning and the others. “Hey, guys! Looks like we had the same idea, huh?”

“Blame Black Hole for making me go outside,” Pen said.

“Hey, it’s doing you a lot of good,” Black Hole said.

“Wow, Pen,” Lightning said, “Black Hole’s more responsible than you?”

“Yeah, obviously,” Pen said.

Pen wasn’t ashamed to admit this, after all, Black Hole was probably the most mature person in their friend group, and everyone else would probably agree.

“I thought Pen could’ve used a break, he’s been pretty stressed lately,” Black Hole said modestly.

“Oh yeah, I’ve seen him silently panicking during our classes, he has no idea what we’re learning.” Lightning laughed.

Pen gave Lightning an annoyed look. “No comment.”

They spent the next few hours walking around the park, Pen and Black Hole talking about all the discoveries Remote had made while Fanny and Lightning were constantly in shock from the supernatural phenomena that had happened concerningly close to their campus.

“Every time I find out about something new coming from space, I wonder how we’re even still alive,” Fanny said.

“I think that’s because Black Hole’s just really good at protecting us,” Pen replied.

“...I guess I can’t argue with that,” Black Hole said.

Once they had nearly exhausted all the available topics to talk about, they walked back to the opening of the park and said goodbye to each other, going their separate ways.

 

“See? That was fun, wasn’t it? We even got to see Fanny and Lightning!” Black Hole said.

“I never said it wasn’t!”

“I could tell you weren’t so sure at the start…”

When they got home, Black Hole noticed that Tree wasn’t back yet, so he had an idea.

“Hey, let’s make dinner for Tree, I’m sure he’d like that!”

“Really? You think we’re gonna make something that’ll impress him? You might be alright at cooking, but I’d probably light the water on fire or something.”

“Don’t worry, it’ll be fine. Plus, you’re with me, remember?”

“No offence, but I probably wouldn’t trust you to make anything that good.”

“I’m sure Tree would appreciate anything edible, the bar isn’t very high for us.”

Pen decided to agree on the condition that Black Hole did most of the work. He wasn’t in the mood to do anything and he probably didn’t know how to do most of the steps anyway.

“Why are you reading ancient hieroglyphics?” Pen stared at the cookbook, completely lost.

“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking when I first started, you’ll get used to it eventually, it’s honestly not that hard.”

“Easy for you to say,” Pen mumbled.

After barely managing to keep everything from collapsing, Black Hole finished making the meal, with some help from Pen.

They were a bit surprised that Tree hadn’t come back yet, as he usually did by then. Right when they were starting to get a bit concerned, the front door opened. A few moments later, they saw Tree come into the kitchen, followed by Remote.

“Wow, you already made dinner? That makes my life so much easier, thanks!”

“Where have you been? We were getting worried…” Black Hole said.

“Oh, sorry about that. I ran into Remote while walking home and she wanted to make a quick trip to the store, so I decided to come along.”

Remote held her hands up. “It was entirely his decision, by the way. I had nothing to do with it.”

“Yeah, I don’t doubt that,” Pen said.

Tree and Remote sat down at the table, and they took a bite of the food, not knowing what to expect.

“I’m sorry, but I’m unable to believe Pen made this,” Tree said, having been pleasantly surprised.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Pen protested.

“I did most of it, he just helped a bit,” Black Hole said.

“Hey, you weren’t supposed to tell them that!”

“They would’ve figured it out anyway.”

Everyone laughed, watching Pen open his mouth in shock.

“There is no way Black Hole just said that,” he said.

“Trust me, he can be ruthless when he wants to,” Tree said.

Once they had finished eating, they went over to the living room and struck up a conversation.

“Hey, Remote, what did you do at work today?” Tree asked.

“Oh no, not this again,” Pen muttered.

“Not much, although I did notice something flying near the edge of the Solar System on the satellite images that looked like it came from deep space, that was pretty weird,” Remote replied.

“The last time you saw something like that, it turned out to be a sentient humanoid black hole from another dimension, so it really could be anything,” Tree said.

Black Hole looked around guiltily, thinking that he had an idea of who they were talking about.

“I hope it’s not a real black hole this time. Could you even defend us against another black hole?” Remote asked Black Hole.

“Yeah, probably. They’re not even alive, so it’s not like they could fight back…”

“That’s good to hear. Whenever you feel confident about something, that probably means it’s right.”

They talked for a bit longer before Remote checked the time and decided it was time for her to go home. She wished everyone a good night and left, walking back to her dorm and hoping to get a good night’s sleep.

Pen’s workload was getting alarmingly high, so he decided to stay up to reduce it to a manageable amount. Tree and Black Hole both tried convincing him against this, but he was quite resolute on the matter.

Tree decided to go to bed, but Black Hole, feeling bad for Pen, decided to stay with him to offer emotional and mental support. Pen worked late into the night, trying very hard not to listen to Black Hole and stop for the night. Eventually, he fell asleep at his desk, having reached his limit.

Black Hole knew that this was his only chance to get Pen to sleep, so he carefully lifted Pen into the air and sent him into his bed, whispering a short “good night”. Black Hole hoped that Pen wouldn’t be too mad at him the next morning, but he knew Pen needed this. Turning off the lights and gently closing the door to Pen’s room, Black Hole quietly walked back to the living room and fell asleep.

Notes:

This is definitely something I don't relate with, I've never had to stay up the whole night before :D

Chapter 47: Unwelcome

Summary:

Something might be in the Solar System, but no one can see it

Notes:

I know this story is starting to get repetitive, but it'll go somewhere eventually

“W-what… happened?”

Pen suddenly remembered that he was supposed to be doing homework, but he instead found himself in his bedroom, comfortably covered in blankets.

Now that he was nice and warm, he didn’t want to get out of bed and face the cool morning air waiting for him just outside. His classes had other plans, however, so a few minutes later he found himself stumbling around the dorm, half-asleep.

Walking into the living room, he saw Black Hole floating in the air with a slight grin on his face. “Good morning, Pen! How was your sleep?”

“...I know what you did was helping me and will probably be better for my health, but that doesn’t stop me from being annoyed at you.”

“What are you talking about? I didn’t do anything…”

Even if Pen believed that he could’ve been randomly teleported into his bed without outside interference, Black Hole’s face said all he needed to know.

“You’re a really bad liar, you know?”

“Fine, you got me, I was trying to stop you from getting sleep-deprived, happy?”

“You could’ve woken me up and asked me.”

“There’s no way you would’ve agreed to that, besides, you looked so comfortable when you were sleeping, I didn’t want to disturb you. Sorry if I messed up your grades or anything…”

Looking into Black Hole’s pure, sparkling eyes, Pen found it very hard to stay mad at him for long. He was simply trying to help the best he could, and he was doing a great job, too.

“It’s fine, I know you were just looking out for me,” Pen said softly.

“Tell you what, I’ll help you study later today, okay? You’ll get everything done, I believe in you!”

“That would be great, thanks!”

Pen still had quite a few things to do before class, so he wandered off and came back a few minutes later, ready to go.

“Don’t forget your promise…” he said.

“Yep, I won’t.”

Once Pen had left, Black Hole tried cleaning everything up like he saw Tree doing a few times. He found it strangely relaxing and he figured it would probably save Tree quite a bit of time.

A while later, Tree woke up and saw that everything seemed a lot cleaner and more shiny than before. There wasn’t a chance that Pen had done this, so that only left one other person.

“Black Hole, did you do any cleaning while I was asleep?”

“Yeah, I was kinda bored and I thought I could help out with whatever you were doing before, looked pretty fun.”

“Really? You find cleaning fun? I never knew that about you.”

“It’s probably a bit easier for me because I can do this…”

Black Hole brought his hand up to the ceiling and absorbed everything on it, leaving it completely spotless.

“Okay, I’ve never thought about it much, but that’s such a useful ability to have.”

“Yeah, I haven’t really used it much before, because it’s supposed to be used for tearing up planets and stars, and I didn’t want to accidentally destroy the Earth. I think I’ve gotten better at controlling it, though.”

“Wow, you cleaned the entire place? I guess I don’t have to do anything then, thanks!”

To return the favour, Tree offered to cook breakfast for both of them, so he got to work while Black Hole watched, repeatedly thanking him for his kindness.

As always, Black Hole loved the food, wondering how Tree was so skilled at making things taste good.

“You just sprinkle on a bunch of seasonings and stuff, it’s not that much harder,” Tree said.

“No, I do that and it still doesn’t work, I think you’re just better at cooking.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll get there eventually…”

After finishing the meal, they spent the rest of their morning relaxing in the living room, having not much else to do.

In due time, of course, Pen would come back, and they would have to do some more work. But for now, they were quite content sitting on the couch, mindlessly talking away.

 

“Hey, Remote, could you follow me real quick?”

Remote looked up from her computer and saw Golf Ball approaching her. “Sure,” she said, standing up.

Golf Ball led her into the office and opened her laptop, showing a series of images.

“You found this grey blob in one of the images yesterday, correct?” she asked.

“Yeah, I’m not sure if it’s an actual object, though.”

“It probably is, I tracked it for a while after that and saw it enter the Solar System, but it seemingly vanished shortly after that,” Golf Ball said, flipping through the images.

“Could it have been, say, a random bit of light?”

“I can’t be sure right now, but it did seem pretty solid, so I don’t think so.”

Remote looked at the images closer, but couldn’t make out anything, only seeing a small grey blemish on the otherwise pitch-black background.

“And you haven’t seen it since it disappeared?” she asked.

“Nope. I have no idea what could’ve caused it to do that, but we haven’t been able to detect it since last night.”

There was a high chance that this was intentional, but the question was, who was doing it, and what was their purpose?

Even since they had almost gotten their world destroyed by a black hole, Remote was a lot more wary of anything in space entering their general vicinity, thinking that it was probably best if whatever was out there kept a safe distance from them. Add to that the multiple existential threats they had faced already, and her concern seemed very understandable.

Hopefully, it would turn out to be a stray comet or some other piece of rock, but that wasn’t very likely. After all, most comets probably didn’t have the ability to become invisible at will.

Remote couldn’t stay nervous for long, though, because it was still her job to figure out if anything alive was in that image. Although she hoped that the answer would be no, she felt like she already knew what was about to happen, as if it already did.

Notes:

Any guesses on what the mystery object is?

Chapter 48: Return Trip

Summary:

Black Hole breaks his promise to Pen the same day he made it

Notes:

The chapters have been shorter recently because I haven't had much time to write. I hopefully won't have to skip a day, but if I do, I'll try to make it up as soon as I can

“Hey, Remote! How was your morning?” Golf Ball walked into the cafeteria where Remote was sitting, eating lunch.

“It was alright, I just did some more research in my lab. Although I am still a bit worried about that random thing floating around the Solar System that suddenly disappeared.”

“Yeah, let’s just hope that doesn’t end up being our problem. Anyways, after you’re done eating, could you quickly go get Black Hole for me, please? I need his help with something.”

Remote agreed, so half an hour later, she left the building and walked back home, wondering what Golf Ball had planned this time.

Knocking on the door, she heard footsteps inside and Tree opened it not long after.

“Hi, Remote! Let me guess, you need Black Hole for something?”

“Uh… yeah! Good job!”

“I don’t know why else you would visit us while you’re working… Anyways, he’s helping Pen study right now, I’ll go get him.”

Tree walked into Pen’s room and saw him frantically scribbling random lines on his homework assignments, barely resembling legible text.

“Hey, Black Hole? Are you busy right now?”

“Well…” he stared at Pen, silently asking for his permission to leave.

Pen didn’t want to be left alone, but he also knew that not letting Black Hole leave wouldn’t be very nice, so he decided against it.

“If you have to, I guess… I think I should be fine.”

“Alright, I’m not busy, then,” Black Hole said to Tree.

“Great! Follow me, Remote’s waiting for you at the door.”

“Bye, Black Hole!” Pen said. “See you later!”

“See you! I’m sorry I couldn’t stay longer, maybe when I come back later tonight we can keep going.”

Black Hole got up and walked to the door with Tree, giving one last wave to Pen.

“There you are!” Remote said. “Let’s go to GASA, Golf Ball said she wanted you to help her with something. Tree, do you want to come along?”

“Nah, Pen already seems lonely enough, I don’t want to leave him all by himself.”

“Alright, we’ll be back in a bit, hopefully it doesn’t take that long.”

Once they left, Tree closed the door behind them and went back to Pen’s room, to see how he was doing.

 

“So… what did Golf Ball want me to do?” Black Hole asked.

“She hasn’t told me yet, guess we’ll find out together.”

They arrived at the building and knocked on the door to Golf Ball’s office, hoping that she’d be in there. After a few moments of complete silence, she appeared from behind a wall and walked down the hallway towards them.

“Oh, you’re back!” she said, stopping next to them. “Black Hole, I think we should be good to bring the astronauts on Mars back now, they’ve pretty much finished all of their missions. Could you please go do that real quick? Assuming they’re ready to leave, of course.”

“Sure!”

Golf Ball led them onto the launchpad, where he got ready for takeoff. Of course, he could’ve done it from anywhere, but he was already used to taking off from that location.

“Are you ready? Good luck!” Golf Ball said.

Black Hole flew into the sky, feeling a bit more nervous than usual for some reason. He had already made the exact same trip several times before, but the thought that he would be taking everyone back this time made him uneasy.

On the way there, he ran into some stray asteroids heading in the general direction of the Earth, so he thought he’d better take care of those before they hit their planet and he redirected them back towards the asteroid belt.

He faintly saw his destination in the distance, a dim red patch of light zooming around its orbit. Nothing seemed too out of the ordinary so far, so he could be quite confident that everyone was fine. Approaching closer to the planet, he saw a small patch of green that strongly reminded him of the Earth, and he flew down towards it.

Everyone was still inside the base and they seemed to be idly hanging with not much to do, so Black Hole amplified his voice slightly to get their attention.

“Hey, it’s Black Hole. Are you all ready to go home?”

They all paused and looked at him through the window, seeming quite excited to finally be heading back. One by one, they walked out onto the grassy terrain and stood next to him, waiting to leave their Martian abode. Through the crowd, he didn’t even notice that one of them was about to run right into him.

“Black Hole! You’re back!”

Notes:

They're finally coming back! Don't worry, this isn't the last you'll see of them

Chapter 49: Sneak Attack

Summary:

The trip back from Mars doesn't go as smoothly as planned

Notes:

Some of the chapter names are literally just spoilers, aren't they? Maybe don't read too deeply into them

“Hey, Marker!” Black Hole smiled, as Marker ran up to him and gave him a hug. “You ready to go home?”

“Yeah! I can’t wait! Not that I don’t like it here, but I’m starting to miss Earth.”

Black Hole projected his voice into the crowd and told everyone to pack everything up into the ship, and they all hastened to follow his instructions.

Once everyone had boarded the ships and the colony was completely deserted, they left the ground and started floating upwards. Although no one would be back at the base for quite a long time, they hoped that it had been built resiliently enough to withstand whatever the outside world threw at it for the time being.

“We’re finally going back, Pie! Aren’t you excited?” Marker asked.

“Not really, I don’t feel much of a difference between the two planets.”

“But don’t you miss the Earth?”

“We had Golf Ball to talk to, that was basically like being back on Earth.”

Having once again failed to elicit any form of emotional response from Pie, Marker turned towards the window and stared outside into the vacuum of space, trying to simply relax with no other distractions.

After a very quick ride, considering the distance travelled, they could see the Earth in the distance, steadily getting closer. However, one quick glance at the surface was enough to know that something seemed different from usual.

“Uh… does anyone else see that?” Marker asked nervously, pointing outside.

The rest of them were rather curious and walked over to the window to see what Marker was pointing at. As they all slowly got a look at their home planet, everyone started talking amongst themselves, trying to figure out what that big grey thing hovering over their city was.

Outside the ship, although Black Hole hadn’t said anything about it yet, he noticed something wrong with the Earth up ahead as well and, needless to say, it didn’t help with his stress levels in the slightest. All he could think about was the possibility of something bad happening while he was away and unable to prevent it. He sped up a bit, trying to get back to his friends and everyone else faster.

“Hey, everyone, do you see that thing up ahead? It might end up being a problem, so if it is, I’ll have to leave you out in space for a bit while I go deal with it. I’ll come back to get you as soon as I can, though, don’t worry,” he said.

This caused everyone inside the ship to start panicking even more. If Black Hole thought that they had a problem, then it was probably quite serious. As they approached closer to the mysterious object, however, they were slowly understanding why Black Hole had seemed so concerned. Unbeknownst to them, however, the situation was far worse on the surface.

 

“Remote! What’s going on out there?” Golf Ball asked, sprinting back into her office.

“It seems that we’ve found those mysterious objects from earlier.”

The streets outside looked like they had been hit by every single natural disaster simultaneously, slowly becoming more damaged as time went on. And up in the skies, blasting pure energy down into the ground, were some very familiar spaceships.

“Wait… haven’t we seen those before?”

“We sure have, They’ve tried destroying our planet once already… seems like they’re back for round two. I don’t know why they don’t try the same thing as last time and get on with it already, but I guess it’s just their sick sense of humour.”

“Hey, let’s just go get Black… oh…”

“Yeah, there’s a reason they decided that now would be a good time to attack. Unfortunately for us, they’re not completely idiotic.”

With their only form of defence gone and probably not coming back for a while, all they could do was watch the chaos going on outside and hope that they didn’t get hit by an incoming laser.

Remote stood up and looked down at the destruction happening below them.

“For now, let’s just focus on staying alive.”

 

Pen was in his room, unbelievably bored, but forced to keep reading his dull textbook. He had assumed that Black Hole would’ve been back by now, as whatever he was doing supposedly wasn’t supposed to take very long, but Tree had for class several hours ago and was probably almost back already, and Black Hole was still nowhere to be seen.

Eventually, the door creaked open, and Pen heard Tree’s panicked voice.

“Pen! Come out here!”

Wondering what Tree could’ve possibly wanted to show him that was so terrifying, Pen slowly got up from his chair and walked over to the front door, looking at Tree.

“Are you okay? What happened to-”

He shifted his gaze outside, seeing the massive crater that used to be a field.

Notes:

Yay! More cliffhangers! Who knows what'll happen next? (It's pretty predictable at this point)

Chapter 50: System Failure

Summary:

Black Hole talking causes some unexpected side effects

Notes:

Chapter 50! I can't believe we've come this far already. I don't want to set any specific dates yet, but I can say that we're almost halfway done with this fic! Don't worry, I'll keep posting after this fic is over, I've still got so many more ideas about Black Hole to share!

Not having expected anything of the sort, Pen gasped audibly and seemed to be frozen in shock.

“Wow, you’ve been really focused on your homework, huh?” Tree walked into the dorm and closed the door behind him.

“I had to run all the way back here while there were beams of light raining down around me, you have no idea how scary that was,” Tree said shakily.

“Wait, but what happened? I didn’t notice anything going on outside…”

“You don’t notice that much in general. I didn’t get a close look at them, but I think there were an entire swarm of spaceships in the sky, blasting lasers into the ground.”

It took a moment, but Pen eventually figured out what Tree was referring to.

“You mean… those aliens?”

“Exactly, it seems like they’re back, and of course they come after us right when Black Hole’s on a different planet.”

“How could they know? Have they been tracking us?”

“Probably, who knows what they’re capable of.”

As the weather outside resembled a meteor shower, Pen and Tree thought it would probably be best for them to wait it out inside, although if one of the lasers hit their building, there wasn’t much for them to do.

The minutes passed by, seeming like hours to everyone on the ground, with no end in sight to the continual destruction of their city. No matter how much they wished for Black Hole to come back and save them, he was on an entirely different planet, and he was completely unaware of anything going on back home.

Tree and Pen had managed to survive for almost half an hour, although they had no idea how they had done it. Right as they were considering what they would do when their building inevitably got hit, they heard a loud, booming voice seemingly coming from the walls of the dorm, almost bursting their eardrums.

“I thought I told you not to come back?”

 

The aliens were having the time of their lives, finally able to avenge their fallen warriors and finish the mission they were supposed to do a long time ago. Though they could’ve vaporized the entire planet in an instant, there was something so fulfilling about watching everyone run for cover, trying to hide from their beams of pure energy.

Inside the main ship, floating high above everything else, the leaders of the mission were sitting back and watching the carnage unfold, praising themselves for their intelligence.

“See, I told you we were stronger than them! Just had to get that pesky thing out of the way first.”

“Yep! I know we could do it, and it’s so easy too.”

Unfortunately for them, since they were the highest up and closest to space, they were hit at full force by the shockwave created by the sound. Their ship having been completely disabled, all they could do was panic and scream as they were sent hurtling into the ground, having no control against the immense pressure waves pushing them downwards.

Plummeting out of the sky, they shot past the rest of the fleet below them and saw a horde of ships all following them down. A few moments later, they hit the ground with a deafening crunch, which would’ve instantly flattened their ship had it not been designed to withstand the most extreme of situations. While they were still processing what had just happened, pieces of metal were falling from the sky outside, landing all around them with the force of a falling asteroid.

“What… was that?”

“Oh, no, I think he’s back…”

While they weren’t at all pleased with the sudden arrival, the same couldn’t be said for everyone else. Upon hearing the voice in the sky, every human collectively started cheering, knowing that they were saved.

“Hey, Tree, did you hear who that was?” Pen smiled.

“I sure did!"

“And we thought he wasn’t coming back!”

“How very wrong we were…”

Black Hole looked down at the pile of metal on the ground, lowering his voice so he didn’t deafen anyone even more.

“I’ll admit it, you caught me off guard this time. You’re pretty smart for knowing not to attack while I’m around. Unfortunately for you, it seems you’re still not smart enough to put your emotions aside, and I thank you for that, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have gotten back in time.”

The aliens cursed their own stupidity, realizing that Black Hole had a point.

“You’ve somehow managed to not hit a single human, I’m not sure if that was intentional or not, but either way, you’ve saved me a lot of work.

“I know I’ve already said that I would make you regret it if you ever came back, but since you’re all so incredibly bad at your job and I feel a bit bad, I’ll give you one last chance. If you still think you could possibly attack the Earth and get away with it, maybe you do deserve what’s coming.”

Suddenly, all the ships left the ground and started flying higher into the sky, fully functional again. Very relieved, but still scared for their lives, the aliens decided not to hang around much longer and promptly took off into the sunset, hopefully never to be seen again.

Everything was still very heavily damaged, so Black Hole tried preventing any further damage by putting out all the fires before going back up to space to pick up the astronauts he’d left behind.

“Black Hole! What happened?” Marker asked. “We just saw a bunch of spaceships fly past us!

“I’ll explain later, just know that the Earth is safe for now. Let’s get back home, alright?”

Black Hole brought the very confused and still somewhat concerned astronauts back to the surface, where they landed on the launchpad to some intense cheering from Remote and Golf Ball.

“You came just at the right time!’ Remote said. “Well, maybe a little earlier would’ve been better, but I’m not complaining.”

“We were all hoping that you would save us, and you did!” Golf Ball said.

“Yeah, that was pretty lucky…” Black Hole breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that everyone was somehow completely fine.

Once all the astronauts had safely planted both of their feet back on the Earth, Black Hole left them and went about fixing all the damage that had been done, trying to return the city to its former glory.

Notes:

Wow, who could've expected that ending? (I don't want to make anyone too sad with this fic, so probably nothing that bad will happen in the entire story)

Chapter 51: Damage Control

Summary:

Everything in the city is in a shambles, but hopefully not for long

Notes:

I'm going to be pretty busy tomorrow, so please don't be sad if I don't post, but I hopefully will be able to! :)

“I think that should be it…”

“Wow, it looks amazing! Are you sure you reverted everything back to what it was like before? Because it looks even better!”

Black Hole, accompanied by Remote, had set off into the streets, trying to undo all the destruction that the aliens had caused. Remote was mainly there to support him and make sure he wasn’t alone, but she did help remind Black Hole what he was supposed to be fixing when he forgot what something looked like.

In less than an hour, Black Hole was able to restore the entire city, and in Remote’s eyes, even improve it. As Remote still had to work for a bit longer, Black Hole parted ways with her after a short conversation with Golf Ball, in which she profusely thanked him for all of his help, and walked back home, eager to check up on Pen and Tree.

“Hey, Black Hole!” Tree said, opening the door to let Black Hole in. “So, how was it?”

“How was… what?”

“Y’know… completely disabling an entire fleet of alien spaceships just by talking?”

“Oh… yeah, that felt pretty nice, especially after they thought they had come up with such a great plan.”

The whole time during the exchange between Black Hole and the aliens, Tree had been outside, watching with Pen. It felt great watching their friend single-handedly stop all of the invaders, and Tree was so proud of him for standing up to them to protect his world.

“Also, the whole knocking the spaceships out of the air thing was pretty cool, but could you maybe tone it down a bit next time? We were surrounded by thick walls and you still almost made us deaf.

“Wait, really? I didn't think I was that loud…”

“Seriously? Your voice had enough force to send an entire fleet of spaceships slamming into the ground, I’m surprised our ears didn't get damaged more.”

“I'm sorry… I didn't realize-”

“It's fine, just remember that humans are very fragile and you should probably try to be more gentle in the future.”

Black Hole paused, shifting around uncomfortably as he mentally berated himself for being so careless.

“Hey, I told you, it’s fine. No one got hurt from it, and you actually saved a lot of people from getting hurt instead, so don't beat yourself up for it. Let's just go inside, alright? I'm sure Pen would love to see you.”

“Okay…”

They went over to Pen’s room, where he was surrounded by sheets of paper, slowly working through his assignments. He wasn't making much progress, as he still had adrenaline coursing through his veins from the intense rollercoaster of emotions that he'd just been on.

“Pen, look who I have here,” Tree said, pushing Black Hole into view.

“Black Hole! That was so cool! Seriously, how do you do that kind of stuff so casually?”

Feeling very overwhelmed by the shower of compliments, Black Hole simply stood there awkwardly, trying to think of an adequate response.

“I-I don't know…?”

“Come on, why do you go all quiet in front of me? Are you more scared of me than an entire army of aliens?”

“Your personality's… a bit much, I can't really handle it.”

“Couldn't agree more,” Tree said.

Pen tried lowering his energy level a bit, which was quite hard for him considering everything he had just seen.

“Sorry, I'm just a bit excited after watching you destroy those aliens.”

“But… I didn't?” Black Hole said.

“As usual, Black Hole’s being overly nice for no reason whatsoever,” Tree commented.

“I feel like that would've been a bit of an overreaction, they didn't even harm anyone. Plus, being aggressive back to them probably wouldn't solve anything, it would just make them angrier and they'll try even harder to destroy the planet.”

“They can’t attack us if they're all dead, you know?”

Black Hole had strongly considered following them back to their home planet to wreak havoc on it many times in the past, but he had decided against it every time.

“Yeah, but it doesn't feel right, doing that. It’s not really fair for them if I just decide that they don't get to exist anymore…”

“‘Not really fair’? They tried blowing up our planet, how is that fair?”

“I know you guys don't like them very much, but as long as they keep to themselves from now on, there's no reason to go after them.”

Tree wanted to object, but he knew that he probably couldn’t change Black Hole’s mind, especially since he was trying to convince Black Hole to wipe out an entire alien species.

“We just have to hope they actually keep to themselves, then.”

Since it was already almost dark outside, Tree decided to start making dinner, which Pen seemed pretty happy about. Black Hole went to help as well, trying to unwind a bit after the stressful experience he’d just had.

Midway through the cooking process, Remote showed up, coming back from work feeling very exhausted.

“We had to finish designing the entire mission,” she told Pen. “Golf Ball wants us to get going soon, and they still have to get everything ready, am I glad I don’t have to help with that.”

“Yeah, that’s cool, but did you see the aliens that showed up this afternoon?”

“...Uh, yeah, I think everyone did.”

“That’s cool, just checking.”

They kept talking about the past few hours, the memories still fresh in their minds. After making dinner, Tree and Black Hole returned to the living room to call them over and they started eating, Pen especially.

“Hey, Pen? Are you alright?” Tree asked.

“No, I haven’t eaten for the whole day, I really need this.”

“If I don’t cook you anything, will you just starve?”

“Probably, so I hope you don’t do that.”

After they were all feeling very full, they decided that it was probably time to go to sleep. Walking into the moonlight, Remote said goodbye to everyone and headed back to her dorm. Black Hole thought Pen and Tree were going to bed as well, but they said that they needed to do something first and walked into Tree’s room, wishing Black Hole a good night.

He didn’t fall asleep very easily that night, as his head was full of thoughts about those aliens, and what they were even trying to accomplish.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out that they wanted the humans gone, but as to why they wanted that so badly, he didn’t have a clue.

Notes:

Pen and Tree scheming... what could they be up to?

Chapter 52: In Broad Daylight

Summary:

Everyone gets a break from classes

Notes:

Sorry for missing yesterday! I'll post two chapters tomorrow to make it up :)

Black Hole awoke the next morning to Pen and Tree on the couch staring at him, seemingly waiting for this to happen. He didn’t know what time it was, for them both to be up at the same time, but he got even more confused once he checked the clock.

“Pen, shouldn’t you be in class?” he said, slowly turning his body the right way up.

“Wait, haven’t we told you yet?”

Tree shook his head. “For two days every week, everyone basically gets the day off, and they don’t have to do anything,” Pen continued.

“Oh, that’s nice,” Black Hole said. “So you two don’t have any classes today?”

“Nope. And Remote doesn’t have to work either. In fact, she should be here soon…”

Black Hole stared at both of them looking very happy, and he had no idea what was going on.

“I’m really confused right now, what are you guys smiling about?”

“Should we tell him?” Pen asked.

“Nah, you’ll find out later,” Tree said, grinning at Black Hole.

“Really? You’re gonna do that to me? Alright then…”

They waited for a bit longer, Black Hole wondering what they could possibly have planned for the day and feeling excited to find out.

“Oh, Remote’s here!” Tree said, having heard a knock on the door a few minutes later. He went to open it and Remote walked in, carrying a rather large and colourful bag. Behind her, Fanny and Lightning were there too, following her in.

“Hey! You guys ready?” Remote walked over to them.

“To do what?” Black Hole asked.

“Hah, nice try, they told me to keep it a surprise,” she said, pointing at Pen and Tree.

Black Hole had a disappointed look on his face, not enjoying being left in the dark.

“Am I the only person who doesn’t know what’s going on?”

“Yep!” Pen said. “Please don’t hate us too much, we thought it’d be a fun surprise.”

“I don’t, I’m just mildly annoyed.”

Pen and Tree went to their respective rooms and came back a few moments later, ready to go.

“Since it’s not that far, I was thinking maybe we could walk there. It’s a really nice day today, and Pen definitely needs the exercise,” Tree said.

“You can’t be talking, when’s the last time you did anything physically intensive?” Pen retorted.

“…Last night?”

Pen paused, thinking about what to say next.

“Look, everyone else seems pretty happy about walking, so you should too, alright?” Tree tried convincing Pen.

“Fine…”

They quickly checked that they had brought everything before heading out, walking to the mystery location that Black Hole still knew nothing about.

 

“Don't worry, I'm sure you'll have fun there,” Tree assured him.

“Okay, but… why are we going towards the water?”

“You'll see.” Tree winked.

After a short walk, the landscape changed completely as they arrived in a desert of sand, with water endlessly stretching out into the distance.

“We’re here!” Pen announced, running towards the water.

“Uh… I still don't know where we are,” Black Hole said.

He looked over the horizon, seeing nothing but the calm tides of the ocean going all the way out.

“This is a beach, it’s where the land and ocean meet,” Tree explained. “And people like to come here a lot to have fun and relax, so I thought we could visit today when everyone was free.”

“Is there anything else in that direction?” Black Hole pointed towards the sea.

“There is, but it’s probably really far away, the oceans take up a lot of the Earth’s surface.”

“Oh, so that’s why there’s so much blue on the Earth?”

“Exactly.”

Black Hole slowly approached the water, watching the waves softly crashing onto the sand, moving the shoreline back and forth. In the distance, he saw Pen and Lightning in the sea, splashing water everywhere and creating large ripples on the surface.

“Wow, they look like they’re having fun,” he commented.

“See? I told you it would be great,” Tree said.

“I don’t know, it’s just a lot of water, doesn’t seem like there’s much to do here.”

“Oh, really?”

Black Hole followed Tree’s gaze and turned around, seeing Fanny and Remote running around, passing a colourful striped ball to each other.

“...I assume this is something else you guys do regularly for fun?”

Tree shook his head. “Some people do it a lot, but not us, as you can probably tell.”

“No, I can’t, actually.”

“Trust me, we’re all terrible at it.”

Tree and Black Hole walked over to them, watching them struggle to keep the ball in the air for more than a few seconds at a time.

“Hey, guys!” Remote said, feeling very exhausted. “You wanna come play? Just to warn you, I’m very good.”

“Didn’t you used to take volleyball lessons when you were younger but then you quit because you said it was too hard?”

“You didn’t have to say that, Tree.”

“Alright, since you’re so good, I’ll play with you, to drag you down.”

They had all gotten in their positions when Remote realized that Black Hole didn’t know what they were doing, so she quickly explained the rules to him.

“I think I get it now, sounds fun!” Black Hole said, vaguely understanding the main objective of the game.

The instant they started playing, it was apparent Black Hole had quite a large advantage. He wasn’t intentionally doing it, but every time he touched the ball, he sent it flying into the ground at incomprehensible speeds, making Tree and Fanny lose before they even realized what had happened.

“Hey, didn’t you say you were good at this game?” Tree asked Remote.

“I’m still a human, though,” Remote complained.

“Maybe I should go a bit easier…” Black Hole said.

After a few more rounds, most of which Fanny and Black Hole still won, they decided to settle down and relax for a while. Black Hole flew into the air and went to look for Pen and Lightning, hoping they hadn’t gone too far out.

He found them swimming along the shore, now racing each other and frantically trying to propel themselves forward.

“Hey, don’t go too far from land, okay?” he shouted.

“Right, sorry!” Pen yelled back, turning around and heading back to the shore with Lightning.

Watching them slowly make their way back to land was rather depressing, so Black Hole flew down and picked them up, bringing them back to shore a lot faster than if they had swam.

“Oh, thanks!” Lightning said.

He saw all their belongings in the middle of the beach and flew over, dropping off Pen and Lightning.

“Hey, wait a minute…” Pen looked around, a sense of dread slowly creeping up on him.

“Where is everyone?”

Notes:

Good question, Pen! They're all hiding in the sand!

Chapter 53: Secret Mission

Summary:

Black Hole looks for his missing friends

Notes:

Tw: more slight violence, because I love reusing ideas

It was as though all of their friends had simply vanished, leaving behind everything they had brought. Black Hole floated around the area, trying to find them, but they were nowhere in sight.

“How did they get so far? I wasn’t gone for that long, was I?”

“A lot can happen in three minutes,” Lightning pointed out.

Black Hole landed next to them, trying to think straight, but his mind was all over the place, filled with anxious thoughts.

“Wait, I could call Tree!” Pen said excitedly, pulling out his phone.

As the phone rang, they waited in anticipation, hoping for a response. Several rings later, the call was forwarded to voicemail, to the disappointment of everyone.

“Now what?” Pen asked, sounding defeated.

“Black Hole, do you have any tricks up your sleeves this time?” Lightning asked.

“Um… I could try locating them, then we would know where they are, at least.”

“Sure, do that!”

Concentrating hard, Black Hole closed his eyes and tried to see his friends. Suddenly, a scene flashed into his mind.

“They’re… in a truck? And there’s something wrapped around their hands…”

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.” Pen sighed.

“What? What’s wrong?”

“Well…” Pen hesitated, trying to explain it to the best of his ability. “Some people took them and are now driving them to who knows where.”

Black Hole didn’t know why anyone would want to do that, but he figured it was probably a cause for concern.

“Should we maybe… go check on them?”

“Normally, I would be too scared and just call the police, but I don’t think anything bad will happen to us while we’re with you.”

“You’re putting a lot of faith in my abilities…”

“Come on, you took out an entire army of aliens, some random humans should be no match for you!”

“I agree, you’ll do great!” Lightning said.

Filled with encouragement and determination, Black Hole set off with Pen and Lightning, flying high above the clouds to avoid detection and going as fast as he could towards his friends, hoping that he would be in time to save them.

While he was in the air, he noticed that the kidnappers had stopped next to a random building and were now dragging his friends into it.

“Okay… they left the truck and they’re going into a building.” Black Hole described the visions in his head.

“Ha! All those movies that I watched will finally be useful! I told Tree they were educational…” Pen said.

“What should I do?”

“Go in there and blast them to pieces!”

Black Hole looked a bit alarmed at his suggestion, hoping he wouldn’t end up having to resort to that.

“...Maybe we could go with a more peaceful approach?”

“Fine, you go do your Mr. Nice Guy thing and we’ll see how it goes.”

Once the coast was clear, Black Hole descended onto the ground right next to the truck and followed the kidnappers inside into a small, dark room.

“I think I heard something down there,” Lightning whispered, pointing down a flight of stairs.

“Alright, I’m gonna turn us invisible first, just in case,” Black Hole said.

A moment later, Black Hole announced that the kidnappers would now no longer be able to see them. They didn’t notice anything different about themselves, so they had to trust him. Sneaking down the stairs, they ended up in the basement, watching a horrifying scene play out before them.

When Black Hole saw them, it took all his willpower not to gasp. His friends were tied together in the middle of the room, seemingly unable to move. Off to the side, there was a group of people, looking very excited about something.

“We’re gonna be rich!” one of them said.

“You guys ready?” another asked.

The others all nodded in agreement.

A few seconds later, Pen felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, as well as blast his ringtone very loudly, reverberating around the room. Although another phone was playing sound at the same time, Pen’s phone could still be heard very clearly, which confused the kidnappers very much.

“Did anyone hear that?”

“Yeah, that’s weird…”

They scattered around the room, looking for any possible sources of the sound. But, as Black Hole made absolutely sure that they were completely invisible to the kidnappers, they were never going to find anything.

Black Hole looked at the chair in the middle of the room restraining his friends, wondering how to get them out of the situation. As they stared back at him, he realized that they could see him as well.

“Hey, what are you guys looking at?” one of the kidnappers turned around and saw them staring at the wall.

“Oh! Uh…” Tree hesitated.

“I want you to tell me right now, or else…”

He took out a gun and pointed it at Tree’s head, waiting in dead silence.

“You don’t need to ask.”

Notes:

Is everyone confused? Good!

Chapter 54: Negotiations

Summary:

Everyone keeps underestimating Black Hole

Notes:

Tw: slight violence, same as last chapter

The kidnappers jumped, as three new people suddenly appeared behind them. As if things couldn’t be any worse, they all seemed very familiar to one of them.

“What do you think you’re doing? Get out! Now!” his friend said, completely unaware of what he was facing.

“Hm, maybe if you released my friends…” Black Hole said.

He snorted. “As if! Why should I listen to you?”

Black Hole paused, thinking of a compelling argument. “I can’t force you to listen to me… but it would probably be in your best interest to do so.”

“Yeah, he’s right, maybe we should just give up…” one of them said, having experienced Black Hole’s power firsthand and wishing he never had to again.

“What are you saying? We did all this work just for you to quit at the last moment?”

“I didn’t expect him to show up,” he said, pointing at Black Hole.

Everyone else seemed to be in favour of getting rid of the unwanted intruders and moving on, but one of them seemed very afraid of getting on their bad side.

“Trust me, you’ll really regret it if you don’t listen…”

“Wait, aren’t they the people we tried to call? One of their phones rang when we called them.”

“Yeah, they’re all friends with each other.”

“But how did they even find out where we were?”

Everyone went silent, trying to figure out what this meant.

“I told you, you really don’t want to mess with them.”

They all looked at Black Hole, who stared back, trying to seem casual but still coming off as rather intimidating.

After a long silence, one of them eventually spoke up. “You know what? I’m tired of this, let’s just get rid of them.”

He fired multiple shots at Black Hole, ignoring his friend’s warnings to leave them alone. As such, Black Hole felt he was justified in retaliating in self-defence, flinging him against a wall and immobilizing him.

Everyone else started panicking, having just watched this mysterious entity knock out one of their friends without even touching him. Except one, of course, who already knew what was about to happen right before it did.

“Now do you see why I wanted to surrender?”

“Yeah, on second thought, that seems like a great idea.”

“I didn’t want to do that, but he could’ve hurt someone otherwise,” Black Hole said.

No one said a word, afraid of what this being could do to them.

“So… could you let my friends go, please?” Black Hole continued.

They all agreed almost immediately, mostly out of fear but somewhat because of how nice he was acting, even though one of them had just made an attempt on his life.

Once they had finished, Tree, Fanny, and Remote were freed from the chair, feeling very exhausted and relieved.

“Wait a minute…” Pen said, as they were about to leave. “I recognize you! Weren’t you the guy who tried to attack Black Hole before?” he asked the one who he had seen before.

“Uh, yeah, that’s me.”

“Didn’t you get sent to the police?”

“Yeah, but I escaped and found some friends to help me enact my revenge.”

Everyone slowly figured out what was going on, all the pieces coming together. “So you knew what we were up against this whole time?” one of them asked.

“Yeah, that’s why I tried to do everything without getting him involved,” he said, pointing at Black Hole. “Didn’t work though, did it?”

“I don’t know how you thought I wouldn’t have found out at some point, I’m with my friends almost all the time. Anyways, I’m gonna have to send you guys to the police now, I hope you’ll learn your lesson this time,” Black Hole said, specifically to the repeat offender.

“Wait-”

Before he could finish his sentence, he, along with everyone else, was already gone, hopefully receiving a well-deserved punishment.

“...Thanks, Black Hole,” Tree said, breaking the silence.

“Oh, yeah, no problem,” Black Hole said. “I’m sorry for leaving you guys for so long.”

“Here he goes again…” Remote muttered.

“You don’t have to make everything your fault, you know full well you did nothing wrong,” Tree scolded.

“But-”

“Don’t blame yourself for this, you were obviously the biggest help to us, alright? End of discussion.”

Having been forced to feel slightly better about himself, Black Hole led everyone back upstairs and out of the building, into the sunny streets.

“Oh, I’ve just realized, all our stuff’s been laying there at the beach this whole time…” Tree said.

“You think someone’s gonna try to steal a few towels and a volleyball?” Pen asked doubfully.

“It’s happened before, you know?”

“If you want to get back faster, I can fly you guys over,” Black Hole offered.

 

Zooming back to the beach, they saw that, somehow, none of their belongings had been stolen.

“See? I told you it’d be fine,” Pen said.

“Yeah, whatever,” Tree mumbled.

Since it was still rather early in the afternoon, they decided to spend a bit more time at the beach, now more alert for any potential threats.

After a few more enjoyable hours at the beach, in which thankfully nothing bad happened, they packed up and walked back home, just grateful to still be alive at that moment.

Notes:

We are running through story arcs way too fast, I can't come up with any ideas

Chapter 55: Fatal Flaw

Summary:

Tree notices Black Hole's not feeling so great

Notes:

Happy spooky month everyone! The countdown begins...

“You can’t say it hasn’t been an interesting day so far…” Pen said, collapsing onto the couch after they had finally gotten back home.

“I don’t even know how we managed to survive that, I was so scared the entire time,” Remote said.

“Yeah, but once Black Hole showed up, I knew everything was going to be fine,” Tree said, staring up into Black Hole’s eyes.

Trying to avoid Tree’s gaze, Black Hole shyly looked at the floor, muttering a quiet “thank you” to Tree.

“What’s wrong, Black Hole? Something bothering you?” Tree noticed that Black Hole seemed a bit more down than usual.

“No, I’m fine,” Black Hole said quickly. “I was just worried for you guys, and I’m glad you’re all safe.”

Despite his best efforts to mask his emotions, Tree could still tell that he wasn’t feeling very good. But, as all of their friends were still around, he didn’t push the subject.

For the next few hours, everyone sat around, trying to make the most of the little free time they had. They opted to simply play a few games in the dorm, figuring that they probably shouldn’t tempt fate by going outside again.

After everyone had started getting bored, Tree left to go make dinner, guessing that they all would’ve wanted something to eat after a long and eventful day.

“Can I help?” Black Hole asked.

“Sure,” Tree said. “You guys can go do whatever you want, we’ll probably be done in around an hour.”

“I dunno, I kinda just want to watch,” Lightning said.

“Yeah, there’s not that much else to do,” Fanny agreed.

Having exhausted most of their other options, they all followed Tree and Black Hole into the kitchen, chatting with each other while waiting for dinner to be made.

By the time they had all finished eating, it was already nighttime, and the only light outside was from other students gathered together, partying into the night.

“Alright, we’re gonna go home now. Thanks for the meal, good night!” Lightning said, walking outside with Fanny.

Remote hung around for a bit longer, mindlessly conversing with them, before she too headed back home for the night.

Tree, figuring that now was as good a time as any, went up to Black Hole, who was standing very still next to a window, and confronted him about his feelings.

“Hey, how are you feeling?” Tree asked, putting a hand on Black Hole’s arm.

Black Hole didn’t say anything at first, instead just turning around and staring at Tree.

“It’s okay, everyone else is gone now, it’s just us two. You can tell me, right?”

“...Yeah, I guess.”

“Great! Alright, I know you weren’t feeling that great earlier today, so I just want you to tell me what’s on your mind, okay?”

Although he completely trusted Tree, Black Hole still didn’t know what he wanted to say, or how he was supposed to say it.

“I… I just don’t know what I’m supposed to do, it feels like no matter what I try, everything always turns out badly.”

Tree, not having expected such a deep issue, was momentarily stunned, before eventually thinking of a response.

“Look, you can’t always get the perfect outcome, exactly how you want it,” he said, immediately knowing what Black Hole was referring to. “I know you have limitless power or whatever, but sometimes it’s impossible to make everyone happy, that’s just how humans are. If you’re trying to protect someone, you’ll have to end up stopping their attackers somehow, and nothing will have any effect on them unless you render them physically unable to keep attacking.”

“But… couldn’t I convince them to resolve things peacefully?”

“Haven’t you seen what they’re like? They’re not going to listen to you, unless you make them, of course, but I don’t think you’d like taking away people’s free will very much.”

“Why can’t people just listen? It would be so much better for them!”

Tree looked at him sympathetically, understanding his frustration. Black Hole, being the perfect being that he was, didn’t have all the flaws that had plagued humanity for so long, but he still had the misfortune of being exposed to the true nature of humans on multiple occasions. Yet, despite all the pain and suffering their species had caused him, he had chosen to stay by their side through everything and help them through all of their problems.

“I’m sorry, I know you think humans are evil, which I actually agree with. Honestly, I don’t know why you haven’t decided to just get rid of us yet, we really don’t deserve your kindness, but I appreciate it.”

“I’m not gonna base my perception of your entire species on a few people, that seems like something only you guys would do.”

Tree laughed. “Fair enough. I’m glad you’re so nice, you’re so much better than any human possibly could be. You’re probably the only being that I would trust to wield so much power.”

“Aw, that’s so sweet!” Black Hole felt all his worries melt away as his heart warmed up. “Thank you, that means a lot to me.”

“So, will you stop feeling so bad about yourself now, and start appreciating yourself for who you are, instead of who you could be?”

“Well, no promises, but I’ll try my best!”

“Maybe you could start now. Before you go to sleep tonight, think of a few things that make you so great, and I’ll check in with you tomorrow morning, alright? Good night!”

“Good night, Tree.”

Once Tree had left the room, Black Hole lay there silently in the dark, trying to find anything good to say about himself. It was exceedingly hard, but by the time he was nearly asleep, he felt that he had come up with a few good ones.

Later that night, he drifted off, repeating the same few words of encouragement that Tree had taught him to himself, trying as hard as he could to sincerely believe them.

Notes:

Good job Black Hole, you got this!

Chapter 56: Seize the Day

Summary:

Everyone has too much free time on their hands and they don't know what to do

Notes:

The story's been very action-packed lately, here's a slower chapter to relax everyone

Not knowing exactly when or how he fell asleep, Black Hole woke up the next morning very disoriented, before looking around and seeing Tree staring at him from the couch.

“Oh, h-hey Tree, good morning…” Black Hole said, stretching out his limbs in midair.

“Good morning to you too! Did you sleep well?”

“Uh… I think so, I don't remember that much from last night.”

Black Hole slowly rotated himself the right way up and floated back down to the floor.

“You didn't forget what I asked you to do last night, did you?”

“The… right, that thing.”

“Well? Did you do it?”

Although he had come up with a few ideas right before he had fallen asleep last night, he wasn't particularly proud of them and didn't think they were very worthy of being shared.

“Maybe…”

“Great! If you want to, you can share them with me whenever you want, alright? I'm looking forward to it!”

“Yeah, sure,” Black Hole said uncertainly.

In the time that it took for Tree and Black Hole to finish talking with each other, Pen had already woken up and was eagerly waiting for Tree to make him some food.

“Hey, Tree! When are you gonna make breakfast? I'm starving!”

“Wow, so thoughtful and considerate of you, can't you just wait a bit?

“Pen’s got a point, it is getting pretty late,” Black Hole said. “Should we make a start on breakfast?”

“Alright, since Pen won't stop nagging me about it.”

As they didn't have much to do that day, Tree and Black Hole spent a lot more time and effort making breakfast than usual, and they tried making a new recipe together.

“Oh, I bet he would like this,” Tree said.

The cooking process went about as well as they expected, with both of them wandering around the kitchen having no clue what they were supposed to do, though Tree did try guiding them in the right direction.

“I don't know why you thought this would be a good idea, we should've just stuck to the classics.”

“Nah, everything's completely under control, we'll be fine!”

As it turned out, the food wasn't entirely terrible, and it was good enough for Pen, who was ready to eat anything put in front of him at that point.

“I didn't have high hopes, but you didn't do too bad!” Pen said, digging in like he had been starving for days.

“Tree did most of the work, he made it actually somewhat edible,” Black Hole said.

“Hey, don’t say that, self-confidence, remember?” Tree reminded him.

“Do you disagree?”

Tree paused, feeling that he should probably just tell the truth.

“Well… no, but-”

“Exactly.”

“I’ve been cooking my whole life, you’ve barely been on this planet for a month, of course I’ll have more experience with it, but you’re really good as well, considering you didn’t know what food was a few weeks ago.”

Pen laughed. “Yeah, and Tree loves bringing that fact up whenever I think a bit too highly of myself.”

“It’s surprisingly effective, too.”

After their appetites had been satisfied, they tried looking for ways to fill the completely empty day ahead of them. Pen, still very behind on his classwork, decided to finally catch up and finish his assignments.

“If you want to come, Black Hole, you can, but it’s probably gonna be really boring again and I think you’d much rather just talk with Tree for a few hours.”

“I don’t care how I feel about it, I just want to be there to support you,” Black Hole said.

“Aw, thanks! Well, let’s go then! If Tree lets you, of course.”

“I wouldn’t suggest it, but if you want to help him, then I can’t really stop you from doing that, so go ahead,” Tree said.

Pen and Black Hole left the room, leaving Tree to occupy his time alone. Since Pen was doing his homework, he figured he might as well do the same, after all, life was always less stressful with all those assignments out of the way.

For several hours, there was silence all around the dorm, only interrupted by the occasional question or verbalized thought.

Pen looked at his pile of homework in relief, realizing that he only had one worksheet left. Filled with motivation from the thought that there was only one sheet of paper between him and freedom, he sped through the page and finished it in record time, screaming out in excitement as he wrote the last few letters.

“Wow, you’re pretty happy, huh? Let’s just hope Tree’s not doing anything too demanding…” Black Hole said, flinching slightly at the sudden outburst.

“Hey, are you two okay?” Tree asked, peeking his head into Pen’s room.

“I’m more than okay!” Pen said.

“Yeah, Pen’s just finished all his homework, he’s a bit excited,” Black Hole said.

While Pen was celebrating, Black Hole left the room, leaving Pen to express his feelings however he wanted. Walking into the living room, he saw Tree sitting down, seemingly waiting for him.

“Hey, Black Hole. You want to talk for a bit?”

“Uh, sure! About what?”

“I think you know.”

Notes:

Black Hole character development next chapter? So exciting!

Chapter 57: What Doesn't Kill You

Summary:

Tree tries guiding Black Hole through life

Notes:

Quick question: Does everyone like the chapters with a lot of talking more, or the chapters with a lot of action more? I'm not really sure what a good balance is, I've been going mostly based on vibes lately

“Oh, right… I remember.”

Black Hole knew that Tree was just trying to help him and it would be beneficial for him in the long run, but that didn’t stop him from wanting to curl up into a ball and disappear at that moment.

“Come on, Black Hole, you’ve done so much for us, there’s no reason for you to keep quiet about it.” Tree put an arm around Black Hole, trying to get him to open up a little.

“I know, but… I don’t really care that much about all of them, I was just trying to help everyone as much as I could, I don’t think it’s that big of a deal.”

“But to actively try to avoid talking about it? I don’t know, that seems like pretty unhealthy behaviour to me.”

Although he didn’t want to admit it, Black Hole wasn’t a fan of getting so much praise and attention. For countless eons, he didn’t have anyone to talk with, much less receive compliments from. As the only life he had ever known before was simply observing the universes that sprung up around him, he was perfectly content with staying on the sidelines, far away from the center of attention.

“I don’t want people to appreciate me for everything that I’ve done, I just hope that I can make everyone’s day just a little bit better.”

“And you’re doing a great job of that, I’d say. But why shouldn’t we be thanking you for that? Seems like a nice thing you’re doing.”

“You can, but you don’t have to make such a big deal out of it, and I don’t want to either, it just makes me seem like an awful person.”

“Well, Pen does it all the time, he loves bragging about himself. And you still think he’s a great guy, right?”

Black Hole laughed. “Yeah, I admire him for having the courage to say stuff like that, I could never.”

“That’s why we’re here, so you can change that! Trust me, once you start having more self-confidence, everyone will think you’re a lot cooler. Not that you need it, of course, but it would probably be nice, right?”

Black Hole thought about what that would be like, getting even more support from all sides. It sounded great in theory, but he knew that he probably wouldn’t be able to handle it and would collapse from the pressure very quickly.

“Is that really necessary, though? No offence, but why do humans care about such trivial things like that so much?”

“Probably something that helped our ancestors survive back then, I’m not really sure. But anyways, even if you don’t care about the love and support, you would still be a lot happier if you just accepted who you are and stopped trying to change yourself.”

Out of everything that Tree had said in their interaction, Black Hole felt that he resonated the most with that last point. He didn’t even care about the validation, but he kept trying to make himself as useful as possible to everyone around him, just so he could feel like he was making a positive difference in the world.

“I’m sorry… I just feel like I’m really obsessed with helping everyone, it makes me feel emotions that I’d never felt before.”

Tree paused, having finally realized why Black Hole was always trying his very hardest to help everyone around him.

“So you like helping people… because it makes you feel good?”

“I just like seeing everyone around me be as happy as they can, and giving others a hand definitely helps with that.”

“Wow, I’d never even thought of that before, you’ve never gotten a chance to make someone’s day before? I feel a little bad about that…”

“It’s fine, I’ve started a new chapter in my life, and I’m trying to leave all those memories in the past.”

Though it was the longest part of his life by far, Black Hole felt that he hadn’t truly started “living” until he came down to Earth, and was finally able to interact with another living, conscious being. He didn’t think it was so miserable back then, but ever since he’d been living with friends who care about him and actively try making him feel better, he didn’t know how he’d managed to stay sane all that time up there.

“Alright, I appreciate you telling me everything, but I still want you to try to push yourself a little, okay? Just take a few steps outside of your comfort zone, it’ll be fine.”

“Yeah, thank you for pushing me to keep improving, I have no idea where I would be without you, I’d probably still be a nervous wreck who just avoids talking to everyone…”

“No problem! You’ve been doing such a great job, I’m so proud of you. I just want you to do this one thing for me, please?”

Black Hole knew that Tree wouldn’t force him if he didn’t want to, but that’s exactly why he decided to in the end, he felt safe in Tree’s presence.

“Let’s do it.”

Notes:

Seriously, get canon Black Hole some therapy already, he desperately needs it

Chapter 58: Makes You Stronger

Summary:

Black Hole is always improving...

Notes:

It's character development time!

Trying to open up and share all his feelings with Tree, Black Hole simply talked, not having a care in the world about anything anymore. Once he started, he felt that it was oddly peaceful for him, and he found it hard to stop. And the more he spoke, the more Tree’s smile grew wider.

“So, can you think of any reason why you shouldn’t be constantly hating yourself? I think there’s a lot of them…”

“Yeah, I guess… protecting the Earth from everything coming after it, that was pretty cool, like when the aliens showed up…”

As Black Hole continued monologuing, Tree listened intently, a skill that he was already not bad at usually, but he found that he seemed extra focused today.

Once Tree felt reasonably satisfied with Black Hole’s growth for one day, he figured he should probably wrap up the conversation soon to spare Black Hole the pain of having to keep talking for another hour.

“Great job, I can definitely tell you’ve improved a ton! Alright, what have we learnt today?”

“...That I have a lot of good qualities too and I shouldn’t keep focusing on my weaknesses?”

“Wow, I honestly wasn’t expecting such a nice answer, yeah, that’s right!”

Black Hole looked rather proud of himself, having managed to impress even Tree.

“I’m not saying you have to go around being like this all the time, you can still be your normal self, but try to treat yourself like just another one of your friends, okay? Don’t be so mean to yourself, you don’t deserve it.” Tree smiled.

Looking back, Black Hole didn’t think it was that bad of an experience. If anything, it did actually seem to help somewhat, as he was a bit less shy next to other people, and his voice was now clearly audible most of the time.

While they were talking, they had almost forgotten that Pen was still in his room, finally able to enjoy his free time. So, it took them by surprise when they passed by the door and heard Pen shouting from inside.

“Hey, you guys almost done? It’s been forever…”

“Oh, sorry for not giving you my attention every hour of every day, I didn’t know you needed me to take care of you for everything you do,” Tree said.

“What were you even talking about that was so important it had to take up two hours of all our lives?”

“I really don’t think that’s any of your business.”

Black Hole leaned close to Tree, whispering into his ear.

“You can tell him if you want, it doesn’t matter that much to me.”

Tree gracefully recovered the conversation, smoothly going back to the previous topic.

“But if you must know, I was just trying to get Black Hole to believe in himself more, his self-esteem hasn’t been very high recently.”

“Oh, that’s nice!” Pen said, turning towards Black Hole. “So you talk more confidently around people now?”

“I wouldn’t say that, I guess I just don’t see myself in such a negative light anymore,” Black Hole answered.

“Nice, really happy for you, but is there any chance you two could start making dinner soon? Some food would be nice right about now.”

Tree sighed, somehow not believing that Pen was deliberately trying to annoy them. Maybe it was just his true intellectual abilities shining through once more.

Since Tree had just been put in a good mood, he didn’t object as much as he normally would’ve, instead simply going over to the kitchen and began cooking, with the help of Black Hole, of course, who seemed a lot more relaxed than he had been in a while.

Although he would never admit it, the random activities Tree had made Black Hole do earlier were surprisingly effective, and he could feel a large portion of his stress fade away as he slowly forgot his old ways and replaced them with a new perspective on himself. When he wasn’t eternally feeling guilty for every minor thing he’d ever done, he was actually quite fond of himself.

Pen, deciding that he’d rather not join in on whatever Tree and Black Hole were trying to do, stayed in the living room and heard someone knock on the door a while later.

“Hey! How’s it going?” he asked, opening the door and welcoming Remote in.

“I haven’t done much, I’m still mentally recovering from yesterday, that was rough.”

“Yeah, that was an unfortunate thing to happen to us, the one time we decide to do anything outside. By the way, do you want to go to the kitchen? I think Tree and Black Hole are almost done making dinner.”

Remote looked in the direction Pen was pointing, and a delicious aroma came from the kitchen, filling up the dorm.

“Wow, smells good. I’m assuming you didn’t want to help them?”

“Alright, first of all, I don’t think they want me either, and even if they did, I would still have no idea how to cook anything.”

“We’ll see about that…”

She walked into the kitchen with Pen following her, and they both sat down at the dining table.

“Hey, Tree and Black Hole? Do you like it when Pen cooks with you?” she asked.

Black Hole smiled. “Yeah! I think he’s really fun to do stuff with!”

“Even though he’s not the best at cooking, it’s still nice to have someone else helping, I guess,” Tree said.

Remote smirked at Pen, having irrefutably proven her point.

“Fine, whatever,” Pen said, looking rather annoyed in general.

“You should cook with them sometime!” Remote suggested. “It’d be fun!”

“Alright, I’ll look into that, thanks for your input.”

Tree and Black Hole chuckled a bit, knowing full well Pen was unlikely to ever join them in cooking, much less of his own accord.

One very quick meal later, they were facing the end of the weekend, having to go back to their regular schedules the next morning. Remote went home early to get a good night’s rest before she had to wake up very early for work. Pen, having finally finished all of his classwork, was able to get some very much-needed quality sleep for once.

“So… did you learn a lot today?” Black Hole heard Tree ask him, right before he was about to go to bed.

“Yeah, I guess so. Thanks for spending so much time with me, by the way. I really appreciate you making such an effort to help me do… whatever it is you wanted me to do.”

“No problem, I don’t think anyone should have to internally fight with themselves over who they are, so I’m glad I could help you with that. Hope you have a relaxing rest of your night, see you tomorrow!”

“You too,” Black Hole said quietly, giving Tree a slight wave as he left the room.

Though he didn’t know exactly how useful everything they had done would be in the future, he was still going to try his best to remember it, and all he knew was that he would forever be grateful to Tree for never abandoning him as a lost cause, and always sticking with him, through everything that had come their way.

Notes:

Just a reminder that Tree and Black Hole's relationship is entirely platonic, they're just really close friends

Chapter 59: Back to the Start

Summary:

Remote goes back to work once the weekend is over

Notes:

Sorry for the short chapter, it's already very late by the time I finish this. I'll try to post a few longer ones to balance it

Black Hole woke abruptly the next morning, hearing Pen shuffling across the room.

“Good morning, Pen…” he said sleepily.

“Oh, did I wake you up? Sorry.”

“No, it’s fine, I’m a light sleeper, and technically I don’t even need to sleep, it just feels nice. Anyways, have a good time in class!”

“Alright, see you…”

Pen left the dorm, returning the room to its dark and quiet state, perfect for sleeping in. But before Black Hole could fall back asleep, he heard Tree waking up in the other room and figured he might as well get up too, because he would probably not be getting any more sleep.

Now that the weekend was over, Remote was going back to work and he figured Golf Ball would probably send her to visit at some point and fetch him to help with some project. Truth be told, he was enjoying watching them venture further out into space, and he couldn’t wait to see what they had planned for the future.

“Hey! Did you have a fun weekend?” Tree asked, having finally gotten up from bed.

“Other than you guys getting kidnapped, yeah, it was pretty fun.”

“We really need you looking after us all the time, huh? Can’t go five minutes without getting into a bad situation.”

Black Hole laughed. “To be fair, from what I’ve heard, they had been planning that for a while, and they were just waiting for the perfect moment to strike.”

“And you’ve thwarted them a second time now. We should be careful, you probably just made them even angrier.”

“Don’t worry, no one will hurt you without getting through me first.”

“Wow, you always have the coolest one-liners. I bet Pen would love to be here right now.”

“Yeah, hope he’s doing better in classes, he seemed pretty excited about finishing all his work.”

“I’m sure he’s fine. Plus, if he isn’t, he’ll always have you to help him out…”

 

Despite having had a lot more free time, Remote was very glad when the weekend finally ended and she could get back to doing her job. She was very bored once she had exhausted most of her available options and she preferred having a set list of stuff to do anyway.

That morning, she had gone back to looking at pictures and trying to find anything even slightly visible. Unsurprisingly, she hadn’t seen anything noteworthy yet, though she felt it was better if it stayed that way, considering the outcomes of the last few times she saw something in space.

“I wonder if there’s any other life around, and hopefully they don’t try to destroy us on sight…” she thought to herself, walking back to her computer after finishing lunch.

While the hours slowly ticked by, she continued staring into her monitor, her eyes peeled for any noticeable objects in the images. Right when she was on the brink of dozing off from the monotony of the task, she saw something that instantly shook her awake.

Although she could’ve just flagged the image and moved on, she decided to report it straight to Golf Ball, as she felt this was a rather big deal and deserved everyone’s full attention, and it was also a good excuse to take a break from scrolling through pictures for hours at a time.

“Enter,” Golf Ball said from inside her room, once she had knocked on the door.

She saw Remote walk in, which made her more attentive and intrigued her somewhat, wondering what interesting new things Remote had found this time.

“Hello, Remote! How are you?”

“Well, I think I could be better, look at this image one of the satellites took.”

She showed Golf Ball the image in question on her phone, eliciting quite a strong emotional response.

“What is that? It looks like…” Golf Ball gasped. “An asteroid swarm?”

Notes:

New plot arc let's go!

Chapter 60: Oddly Familiar

Summary:

Remote tells a few more people about their impending doom

Notes:

It seems the Earth is just a magnet for big rocks from space

“It’s coming right for us… right?” Golf Ball asked nervously, hoping in vain that the answer would be no.

“We can’t be sure until we get more data, but it’s probably safe to assume so,” Remote said gloomily.

Golf Ball sighed, barely being perturbed by the same kind of stuff happening repeatedly. “Great, as if we didn’t already have enough problems, now we have to worry about more asteroids coming towards the Earth.”

“Yeah, we’ve been pretty unlucky recently. Let’s just hope nothing else happens while we’re dealing with this.”

Considering their track record, likely no one would be surprised if anything did happen, but they had to simply hope, as they were very much unprepared for any more objects hurtling towards their planet.

“Alright, thank you for informing me, we’ll try our best to do something about it. In the meantime, could you try finding more images so we can learn more about it?”

“Sure, thank you, have a nice day!”

Remote felt a bit better now that she had told someone about what she had found, at least now she wasn’t responsible for making sure it didn’t collide with the Earth. Maybe they could let Black Hole take care of it like they always did…

For the rest of the day, she kept sorting through pictures, taking extra care to look for the swarm of asteroids floating around dangerously close to them. As expected, it seemed it was moving in a straight line, perfectly aligned to impact the Earth in a few days.

“Why does it always have to be us?” Remote groaned, starting to get tired of how often their planet was being used for target practice by rocks.

 

Once the day was over, she packed everything up and went home, feeling more excited than she had been all day. She couldn’t wait to tell her friends about what had happened, and they would probably appreciate the story, too.

The first thing she saw when she walked into the dorm was Pen running around the kitchen and screaming, while Tree and Black Hole watched from the side. They looked rather amused, but Tree was starting to have second thoughts on the idea, wondering whether he should go help Pen before an accident happened.

“Wow, what did he do to deserve this?” Remote asked, watching the scene unfold with a slight bit of concern.

“Nothing, we just decided-” Black Hole cleared his throat. “Sorry, I just decided that he needed to learn how to cook, and this was the best way of teaching him.”

“Are you sure this is teaching? Seems like you just threw him in the deep end and now you’re watching him drown.”

“...The best way to learn something is to actually do it.”

“Sure, whatever you say…”

It took a while longer for Tree to realize that this was what they were having for dinner and at the rate Pen was going, they probably wouldn't be eating anything that night.

“Alright, since I want to eat food tonight, let me try to save this before it goes beyond the point of no return.”

“Hey, my cooking isn’t that bad, is it?” Pen asked.

“No offence, but… it very much is.”

“You really didn’t have to say that.”

Even though Tree had tried his hardest to save Pen’s questionable creation, it still didn’t turn out great, but Remote and Black Hole probably didn’t care or notice.

“Well, I tried my best, it’s good enough.”

“Honestly, I don’t see anything wrong with it, I think it’s great!” Black Hole complimented.

“See? There’s nothing wrong with it!” Pen said.

“I highly doubt you had any contribution towards that,” Remote said.

Having witnessed the absolute disaster that had happened in the kitchen, Tree figured that Pen was going to need a lot more practice before he could be trusted to cook alone, so he decided to let Pen help him with cooking more often, hoping that he would as easy to teach as Black Hole.

Once they had finished eating the meal, which no one but Tree had any major complaints about, they started talking about random memories from the past few weeks, which reminded Remote about what she had wanted to talk about the whole time.

“By the way, I found something new at work today,” she said, during a brief pause in the conversation.

“Cool! What is it?” Pen asked.

“So you remember the asteroid that almost hit our planet a while back? Imagine that times a hundred…”

They all sat there in silence, trying to figure out what she was implying.

“Wait, there’s more of those asteroids?” Tree’s voice sounded very panicky.

“Probably a lot smaller, but they’re still big enough to be potentially world-ending.”

At this point, everyone looked up at Black Hole, silently asking whether he could stop it.

“...W-why are you all staring at me?”

“Do you remember what happened to the first asteroid that got close to the Earth?” Tree asked.

“Uh, I blasted it to… Oh, I see.”

Black Hole wasn’t very optimistic about his chances of defending the Earth against hundreds of giant rocks flying towards its surface, but he felt like he had to try, the entire planet depended on him not messing anything up and letting an asteroid through.

Once Remote had told them everything she had wanted to say, she left and went home for the night. None of them were particularly concerned by the news Remote had except for Black Hole, who couldn’t stop overthinking it.

He didn’t like how many more asteroids there were than last time, and he wasn’t very sure about his ability to save everyone, should something go wrong.

As he dozed off, he remembered thinking to himself that everything was completely fine, and he had it all under control.

If only that were true…

Notes:

Black Hole doesn't seem too relaxed...

Chapter 61: Clear as Night

Summary:

The horde is approaching...

Notes:

The chapters have been so short recently, writer's block has been hitting hard :(

“Wait, is that…?”

Remote had run straight to her computer the moment she got to work, trying to track down the swarm of asteroids that had suddenly been flung towards their planet for unknown reasons the day prior. However, upon finally catching a glimpse of something in one of the images after multiple hours of searching, she was not pleased at all, instead feeling a familiar sense of dread creep into her.

Not wasting any valuable time, she bolted up the stairs and arrived at Golf Ball’s office just moments later, her heart pounding from stress and the short sprint she had just done.

Golf Ball opened the door, looking rather concerned for her. “Remote! Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I just found something out, I need to tell you quickly.”

“Sure, what is it?”

“The asteroids… they’re here.”

 

For the first time in quite a while, Tree had woken up earlier than Black Hole, so he took the opportunity to cook breakfast for Black Hole, making the smallest amount of progress on repaying him for everything he had done for them in the past.

“Black Hole?” Tree walked over to him once the food was ready, gently trying to wake him up.

“Hm? Oh, hey, Tree.” Black Hole slowly woke up and regained consciousness.

“Are you hungry? I made breakfast.”

Black Hole looked over to the dining table and saw what seemed like a mountain of food, all neatly placed together.

“Come on, it’s only a few plates,” Tree said, watching Black Hole gape at his creation.

“Tree, thank you so much! You didn’t have to do this, you know?”

“Yeah, but I thought you’d like it, and you’ve already done so many nice things for us, I was just repaying the favour.”

“Well, thank you, I appreciate it a lot!”

After finishing the meal Tree had cooked (which Black Hole seemed to have savoured a lot), they spent the rest of the morning cleaning up together, until they physically couldn’t make anything cleaner anymore.

Just as they were complaining about having run out of stuff to do, there was a knock on the door and Remote showed up, which they knew from experience usually led to an interesting series of events happening next.

“See? I told you she’d come looking for you at some point,” Tree said

“We have a pretty major problem, but I know just the person to fix it,” Remote explained.

Tree gave Black Hole a knowing look, the latter seeming rather oblivious to what the other two were talking about.

“I think I know who you’re referring to,” Tree said.

“How impressive.” Remote slowly clapped.

“By the way, what’s the problem?”

Remote paused, trying to explain their current predicament as succinctly as possible.

“You remember the swarm of asteroids from yesterday? They got a lot closer to us overnight.”

“Wow, sounds scary. But if there’s anyone who could solve the issue, it would probably be Black Hole.

Tree and Remote were both rather nervous about what was going to happen next, but they both felt a lot safer with Black Hole by their side, likely because he was unreasonably good at saving everyone’s lives, as he had demonstrated many times in the past.

“Anyways, do you want to come with me?” Remote asked Black Hole.

“Alright. See you later, Tree!”

“Bye! Good luck on… whatever you’re trying to do!”

 

They hastily went back to the GASA facility, Remote walking quite a bit faster than usual.

“So you found more asteroids coming towards us?” Black Hole asked, curious as to what they were all so worried about.

“Yeah, it’s really weird, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like them before.”

“I’ll try my best to stop them, don’t know how much I’ll be able to do, though…”

“Don’t worry, you’re a black hole, remember? You were built for this kind of stuff.”

“Let’s hope you’re right.”

Once they got to Golf Ball’s office, she let them in and started discussing, trying to conserve as much time as possible.

“You know why you’re here, right?” she asked Black Hole. “There’s a swarm of asteroids about to crash right into our planet, and you’re probably the only person that can save us at this point.”

“Alright, so what should I do?”

“Just one thing: Don’t let anything touch the Earth, by any means necessary. Got it?”

“I’ll try my best.”

Golf Ball didn’t like the uncertain language he had used very much, but she decided to disregard it.

“Don’t worry, for Black Hole, trying his best means he can do pretty much whatever he wants,” Remote assured, as if reading her mind.

“Alright, then… Good luck, Black Hole. Hope to see you again soon.” Golf Ball gave him a heroic send-off.

“Thank you.”

As Black Hole flew into the air, watching the sky slowly turn darker and clearer, he only had one thought in his head.

Save the world.

Notes:

The ending is very original trust me

Chapter 62: Hanging On

Summary:

Black Hole goes into space and finds a bunch of rocks

Notes:

I hope the chapters will start being longer soon...

Although they had no reason to be scared, Remote and Golf Ball couldn’t help worrying about Black Hole. They had seen him deal with much worse in the past, but, unfortunately, nothing in life was ever guaranteed.

“Do you think he’ll be okay?” Remote asked.

“Considering he’s already stopped a single asteroid quite easily, I don’t see why he couldn’t handle a few hundred more.”

By the time Black Hole had gotten near the large cloud of space rocks, they were already close enough to be clearly visible to the naked eye. Remote and Golf Ball watched very closely, knowing that the fate of their planet was suspended by a thread and things could very well take a turn for the worse if Black Hole messed up even slightly.

Black Hole seemed rather confident and wasn’t showing any signs of weakness but, still, that didn’t make the horde of asteroids barreling towards them any less terrifying. Even then, they still tried to keep the last little bit of hope left within them.

“We’ll be fine,” Remote said. “I trust him.”

 

Just as he was wondering what Black Hole was up to, Tree heard what sounded like an airstrike outside and, despite knowing full well that it was a very bad idea, couldn’t resist the temptation to go outside and see what was going on.

Walking out under the sunny sky, he thankfully did not see anything of note going on around him, but he could still hear the distant sounds of pure chaos and destruction. He looked upwards, feeling that he might know what was causing the commotion.

“Hah, you show ‘em, Black Hole.” Tree smiled, his suspicions confirmed.

For someone so kind and gentle, Black Hole could be unbelievably destructive. He appeared as a towering figure in the sky, deleting asteroids from existence with a wave of his hand.

“Wish Pen was here to watch, he would’ve loved seeing this…”

Tree had almost forgotten about what Remote had said earlier, but he thought this was an adequate reminder. It seemed as though they were making Black Hole do all the work for them, while they watched from inside their safe little building. He didn’t blame them, after all, they had a completely indestructible spaceship right in front of them, so why not use it?

It took all of two minutes for their skies to go from being sprinkled with dark blots to completely clear once again, except for the occasional cloud or two. Having expected it to take a lot more time and effort, Tree was pleasantly surprised.

“I always forget how strong he actually is, he’s so sweet and harmless most of the time.”

The impressive display having ended, Tree watched Black Hole slowly disappear from view and float down back to Earth. He knew they were never in any real danger with Black Hole protecting them, but it was still relieving nonetheless to see the threat neutralized.

Although he would have preferred the Earth to stay out of any trouble in space, he was still thankful that he and everyone else didn’t have to live under constant fear of a mass extinction.

Black Hole was the life force of their civilization, and whatever they did, they couldn’t let him leave them lest their entire planet be destroyed.

 

“Wow, I didn’t know it was going to be over so quickly…” Golf Ball said.

“That’s Black Hole for you, always worrying about everything no matter how easy it is,” Remote replied.

As they watched Black Hole slowly descend back to the ground, they felt a lot like cheering for him, having seen him solve all of their problems in just a few minutes.

“Black Hole! How was it?” Remote shouted into the air, trying to get Black Hole’s attention.

He saw them in the same building he had launched from and flew over to it, excited to see his friends again.

“Hey! It was great, I think all the asteroids are gone now, so there shouldn’t be anything to worry about anymore!”

“Thank you for helping us deal with this issue, by the way,” Golf Ball said. “We couldn’t have done much without you.”

“No problem! I’m glad everyone’s fine.”

Black Hole spent the next few hours tagging along with Remote, Trying to follow what she was doing and inevitably getting confused.

“Oh, also, I was looking at the path of those asteroids earlier, and I found something kinda weird,” Black Hole said, recalling his observations.

“Yeah? What is it?”

“If you extend the path they were taking outwards… it leads directly into another planet.”

Notes:

What other planet? Who knows?

Chapter 63: Planned Expansion

Summary:

Maybe the asteroid wasn't a natural disaster...

Notes:

This entire chapter is just one big conversation, I don't know how that happened

“Oh… I don’t like the sound of that.” Remote seemed extremely concerned, trying to figure out what Black Hole was implying.

“So you’re saying the asteroids were sent from another planet?” Golf Ball asked.

“They’re all gone now,” Black Hole said regretfully, “so we have no way of knowing, but… I don’t doubt it.” 

Although there were presumably countless other civilizations out there in the stars, they could only think of one who would go out of their way to launch a hailstorm of rocks at them in an attempt to destroy their planet.

“Why do they hate us so much?” Remote complained.

“Remember what they said, the first time they tried attacking us?” Black Hole said. “They found out that we were trying to venture out further into space, and they wanted to stop that at all costs.”

“That seems really unfair.”

“Which is why I’m on your side, and not theirs! Well, maybe it’s because I’ve known you for longer, but I still think you’re in the right.”

Once again, Remote was reminded of how much she appreciated Black Hole helping them through everything that had happened in the past few months, especially since they definitely seemed to need it. She didn’t know how one person could save the entire planet so many times, but she certainly wasn’t complaining.

“But why are they only attacking us now? We’ve been trying to get into space for years! YOu haven’t done anything to upset them, have you?”

“Pretty sure I have, I’m the only reason they haven’t succeeded in wiping you all out yet and I destroyed an entire fleet of their ships, seems like a perfectly valid reason to dislike someone.”

“...I meant before they started attacking us.”

“Oh, no I haven’t.”

Remote went silent, unsure why the aliens hated them so much for seemingly no reason.

“Don’t worry, they’re probably just scared of you becoming an interstellar civilization and wiping them out, I’m sure it’s nothing personal.”

“Which is exactly what we’re going to do!” Golf Ball said. “We’ve been planning a trip to the stars for a while now, and we’re almost ready for launch! Right?” she asked Remote.

“Yeah, I just need to add on the sensors for detecting traces of life, and then it’ll be ready.”

“Do you really need a sensor for that? We’ve already found traces of life, haven’t we?” Black Hole asked.

“Still, it’d be cool to find more, maybe an alien species that doesn’t want to remove us from existence?”

It felt rather discouraging that, after so many years of radio silence, the first-ever aliens they had interacted with were only there to attempt to kill them.

“Wow, you’re really into finding aliens, huh? I still don’t understand what’s so appealing about them, they don’t seem very friendly.”

“How could we have known what they were like? We just had to take a shot and hope we hit, so that’s what we’re going to do in the future.”

Black Hole was quite surprised that they had even found one other civilization. He had thought that humans were rare enough, but the universe apparently had a lot more secrets it wasn’t revealing.

“I don’t know if you’ll find another one, the first one was already unlikely enough.”

Remote dismissed his claim. “What do you know? It’s not like you made the universe or anything…”

Black Hole stared blankly at Remote.

“Anyways,” Remote pressed on, ignoring Golf Ball’s baffled expression, “we’d thought that we wouldn’t get to see any life outside of Earth for a pretty long time, and then a random group of aliens came along and disproved us, so it could very likely happen again.”

“If we do find anyone else out there, I sure hope they’re a bit nicer than the first alien species we came into contact with.”

“We’ll get to see soon!” She turned to Golf Ball. “Do you think we’ll be ready to launch by tomorrow?”

“As long as you finish adding your parts, we’ll be able to go whenever.”

Black Hole was rather intrigued by their plans, after all, what were they planning to do in some random star system that probably doesn’t even support life?

“It’s gonna be great, you’ll see,” Remote told Black Hole. “I’ll come get you once we’re about to launch tomorrow, alright?”

“Yeah, sure.”

 

Having discussed the asteroid swarm at length and running out of things to say, Black Hole said goodbye to the other two and went back home, leaving Remote to finish whatever work she was supposed to do. He wanted to talk to Tree again, partially to see his reaction to everything that had happened in the morning, but also to talk with someone calm and relaxing. Black Hole had been quite overwhelmed during the conversation, and all he wanted was to not have to think for a while.

Walking through the sunny streets on campus under the clear blue sky, he found himself repeatedly listening to the conversation he had just had in his head, thinking about every line that had been said. He didn’t particularly like the idea of even more aliens trying to attack them, but perhaps Remote was right and there were indeed nice aliens out there.

He was just going to have to hope that nothing went wrong tomorrow.

Notes:

"Tomorrow" isn't actually gonna be posted tomorrow, there'll probably be a chapter in between

Chapter 64: From the Heart

Summary:

Black Hole gets home and sees Tree bouncing off the walls

Notes:

Short chapter today, but it seemed like a natural place to end it

Still full of energy from everything that had just happened, Tree found it very hard to calm down and instead simply let himself frolic around, like Pen when he has too much sugar.

After the crisis had been averted, he hoped that Black Hole would be back soon. However, it didn’t seem like that was going to happen anytime soon. Almost an hour had passed since the skies had become completely clear before Tree was finally pulled back to reality by a knock on the door.

“Black Hole! I missed you!”

“Really? It’s barely even been an hour.” Black Hole smiled, watching Tree barely able to contain his happiness at the sight of him.

“That’s still one hour too much! Anyways, what were you even doing in space? I just saw you up there, flying into the cloud of asteroids, and then it suddenly disappeared.”

“Yeah, I might’ve done that. I don’t even know how, I just remember telling myself to make sure the Earth didn’t get hit, so I tried doing that and it worked!”

Tree felt the conversation slipping from him. “Wow, that’s cool… I don’t know, I’m honestly very confused.”

Black Hole felt just as confused, if not even more, so he tried leaving that topic and finding a new one.

“By the way, I’m pretty sure the asteroids were actually sent here and directed into our planet by another species-”

“Is it the ones who really hate us?”

“Uh… yeah, probably.”

“I think they’ve tried to kill us enough times for you to not feel bad about retaliating, right?”

“Well…”

Though Black Hole felt like the universe wouldn’t be much worse off if they suddenly stopped existing one day, he was still hoping that he wouldn’t have to resort to violence to resolve the conflict. It seemed impossibly unlikely at the moment, but as fate had shown time and time again, it wasn’t afraid to spontaneously turn everything on its head every once in a while.

“I just wish… we could all stop fighting over these tiny arguments and at least try to get along with each other, but everyone hates being happy, I guess.” Black Hole’s voice was full of bitterness that Tree didn’t know how to get rid of.

“Trust me, out of everyone in the universe, you deserve to be going through this the least. But everyone, well, mostly everyone, has their flaws, and there’s nothing we can do about it, we just have to accept that.”

“I know I’m asking for a near miracle… but don’t miracles happen sometimes?” Black Hole managed a soft smile, trying to see a nonexistent light at the end of the tunnel.

His voice was so desperate and full of pleading that Tree found it hard not to feel bad for him. He had descended into their universe with only one goal in mind, to make the world a better place. But the moment he set foot on their planet, he had gotten a taste of how awful people could be sometimes. And yet, through all of his suffering, he had managed to remain calm and stoic, barely ever raising his voice unless he deemed it absolutely necessary.

“It might take my entire lifetime, but eventually, we’ll create the world you deserve… I promise.”

Overwhelmed with emotion, they pulled each other into a tight embrace, finding comfort in the other’s warmth. They were grateful for having had the chance to meet each other and so glad that they did, for it truly seemed like they were bound together by fate itself, and they wouldn’t have it any other way.

Notes:

Does this count as a romantic relationship?

...Nah it's fine

Chapter 65: To Infinity

Summary:

Black Hole saves the world again, Pen doesn't see it

Notes:

Pen's in class all the time and doesn't have time for anything else, seems accurate :D

After the most wonderful few minutes of their lives, Tree and Black Hole broke apart, feeling calm and pure. They wished it could’ve never ended, but they had other stuff to be doing and couldn’t just stand in one spot for the rest of the day.

Once they heard the door in the living room creak open, they realized that the morning had simply vanished and Pen was already back. Though he had no idea what was going on in the outside world while he was in class, he could still tell that they were both very happy about something, judging by how much they were smiling (especially Tree).

“Hey! What did I miss?”

“Oh, not much…” Tree said.

“Yeah, right, come on, just tell me already!”

Tree cast around for the right words, trying to do the spectacular event justice.

“Basically… Black Hole saved the world again.”

Pen remained emotionless, almost as if he was expecting something of the sort.

“Go on…”

“Do you remember that swarm of asteroids that Remote saw flying towards us? It got really close this morning and was about to collide with the Earth, so Black Hole went up there and blasted them all to dust.”

“Seriously? I missed another epic stellar event?”

“Not my fault you decided to fill your entire morning up with classes.”

Although he still thought he had made the right choice, Pen was still a bit annoyed at how many cool things happened in the morning compared to the afternoon.

“So, you managed to get rid of all the asteroids?” he asked Black Hole.

“I hope so… I think I did a pretty thorough job, but there’s always a chance I might’ve missed a few.”

“Oh, by the way,” Tree said to Pen, “we found out that the asteroids might’ve come from an entirely different star system, because the path that they were taking lined up pretty nicely with one.”

“...I’m not even gonna try to understand how that works, but good job, I guess?’

Once they had all finished lunch, Pen and Black Hole kept talking while Tree had to attend his classes.

“Wow, you’ve saved the world again, while I wasn’t even looking! This is starting to become a common thing…”

“Yeah, I don’t know how your planet gets into trouble so often, but I’m always here to help!”

“Do you think… you would ever stop protecting us? Because I’m pretty sure you’re the only reason we haven’t gone extinct yet.”

Slightly disconcerted by the sudden question, Black Hole tried imagining a future where he left humanity to try to fend for themselves, but he found it too miserable and cut himself off, wishing he would never have to do that.

“No, of course not! It hurts just thinking about it, I don’t think I would be able to live with myself ever again if I did.”

“I’m glad you have such a strong moral compass, otherwise who knows what you could’ve done…”

“Let’s just not worry about it, we probably won’t have to deal with any of this for the foreseeable future, right?”

“Yeah… hopefully.”

They kept talking for hours, switching topics multiple times and connecting with each other. Once Tree came back, he made them some dinner and everyone went to bed shortly after that.

Black Hole was feeling excited, tomorrow he would be sending humans out of the Solar System, for the first time in their history. It was going to be a great achievement for the entire planet, all possible because of his generosity and kindness.

Unless something went very wrong tomorrow, humanity was about to go interstellar.

Notes:

Interstellar reference?

Chapter 66: And Beyond

Summary:

Marker makes it into the history books

Notes:

The thought of Marker being in a history book that people will have to read hundreds of years from now is very entertaining

“Hey, Black Hole?”

“Yeah?”

“Are you okay?”

Black Hole had been very reserved ever since he woke up and Tree, being the great friend that he was, picked up on that almost immediately and proceeded to do everything in his power to make Black Hole feel better.

“Yeah, I’m fine, just a bit nervous.”

“Why?”

“Oh, right, I haven’t told you yet.” He took a deep breath, hoping Tree would be fine with what he was doing. “Golf Ball wants me to help with their new mission, this time they’re going out into interstellar space.”

To his relief, Tree didn’t seem upset at all. In fact, his eyes lit up and he broke into a smile.

“Really? That’s great! Bringing humans outside of our Solar System for the first time, must be pretty exciting, huh?”

“Yeah, but, I’m still feeling a little anxious about it… so many things could go wrong.” Black Hole dropped his voice to a whisper. “I don’t know if I can handle seeing the aliens again.”

Tree lowered his voice as well, trying to empathize with Black Hole.

“You don’t need to stress out about everything, it’ll make you feel a lot worse. Just enjoy the trip and have fun, nothing bad is going to happen.”

“I… Alright, I’ll try.”

“And if you come across those aliens,” Tree added, “just remember, they’re probably more scared of you than you are of them.”

“Still wouldn’t stop them from trying to blast me and the ship to pieces.”

“Do you really think you would just let them do that?”

Black Hole laughed. “I guess not.”

Before Tree even had the chance to finish talking to Black Hole and motivating him, Remote showed up at their door, announcing that they were ready.

“Already? Wow, that’s fast…” Black Hole panicked slightly at the thought of leaving so early.

“You don’t have to do it right now if you don’t want to,” Remote said, noticing the expression on Black Hole’s face. “We can wait for as long as you want.”

“No, I can do it now… See you later, Tree.”

“Bye! Go explore some planets for me!”

With that, Remote and Black Hole headed off, about to accomplish what may very well be the greatest achievement in human history.

 

They arrived at the launchpad and saw Golf Ball waiting for them, running around the ships looking very excited.

“Golf Ball, I’ve got him!”

“Oh, hello! Well then, I think we’re ready to go… I just need to check everything one last time.”

Once that was done, everyone backed away except for Black Hole, who walked over to the spaceship and got ready to fly into the stars.

“Remember, we don’t want them gone for too long, alright?” Golf Ball said from a safe distance. “Once you’ve explored a few planets, you can bring them back.”

“Got it.”

As everyone watched, Black Hole started floating into the sky along with the ship, slowly accelerating upwards.

“Good luck! Have a safe trip!” Remote yelled while he was still able to hear her.

“Thanks!”

Remote and Golf Ball watched him fly high above the clouds and leave the atmosphere, until he became a small dot, perfectly blending into the void of space.

 

Black Hole didn’t even notice, but just a few minutes after they had taken off from the launchpad down on Earth, he had brought the first group of humans over the barrier, and into interstellar space. It didn’t seem much different from the space right next to Earth, except now there wasn’t a single star dominating the sky, instead there were hundreds, each lighting up their own portion of space.

Golf Ball hadn’t told him where exactly to go, instead giving him a general direction to head towards and a vague idea of what the destination star system looked like. It apparently had many planets that could potentially be hosting life, so Golf Ball thought it was a good place to start.

After a bit of searching and asking for help from the astronauts in the ship, he had finally found it. A group of planets orbiting around their star, some with moons of their own. None of them looked all that similar to Earth, but they still seemed like they could potentially harbour life.

He found the specific planet that Golf Ball had wanted him to land on first and flew towards it, making sure to slow down so as not to burn the ship up in the atmosphere. Once they were safely on the surface, the astronauts got ready to leave their ship and set foot on an exoplanet for the first time in history.

“Pie, aren’t you excited?” Marker asked. “We’re in a whole other star system!”

“…Yeah, I guess.”

“You sound the least excited you could possibly be right now.”

“Just because I’m not screaming at the top of my lungs doesn’t mean I’m not excited.”

Everyone had changed rather quickly into their astronaut suits, and were now waiting for Black Hole to let them out.

“Alright, everyone, it’s safe to come out now.”

The front door slowly opened, revealing Marker and a lot of other people behind him. He had wanted to be the first one on the planet, and everyone else seemed fine with that, so that’s what they decided on.

As he jumped down onto the ground, they could feel history being made, one step at a time. The rest of them followed closely behind, and soon they were all on the surface, standing on completely unfamiliar terrain.

“Wow…” Marker walked around a bit, looking at anything he could see. Granted, this wasn’t a lot, as there weren’t many features on the surface besides some pieces of rock and dust.

“Hey, Marker.” Black Hole smiled, infected by Marker’s laughter. “You having fun?”

“Yeah, everything around me is so cool, I feel like I’m in another world! Well, I guess I am, actually… Pie doesn’t like it that much though, I don’t know why.”

“Don’t mind me, I’m just trying to relax,” Pie said.

Marker took something out of his pocket and began to look around, as if trying to find a place to sit down.

“What is that thing?” Black Hole asked.

“Oh, this?” Marker kneeled on the floor. “This is what we use to detect signs of life.”

Notes:

They're literally doing astrobiology, what more could you want?

Chapter 67: Searching for Life

Summary:

Everyone tries looking for life, but they all come up short

Notes:

Disclaimer: I have no idea how they actually look for life on other planets, this is all just science fiction

Marker planted the object into the ground and waited patiently, Black Hole watching along with him.

“How does it work?” he asked.

Marker thought about it for a while. He had mostly forgotten what the machine actually did, instead only remembering how to interpret the data it provided.

“I think it looks for certain materials in the ground to see if life could develop, I kinda forgot…”

“Wow, sounds pretty cool!”

After a few minutes, a lot of numbers showed up on the screen of the device, none of which made the slightest bit of sense to Black Hole.

“Aw, it didn’t find anything,” Marker said.

“...I’m just gonna have to take your word for it, I have no clue what you’re even looking at right now.”

Marker gave a brief rundown of what the results meant, Black Hole trying his hardest to keep up. He was pleasantly surprised at how advanced the technology was, the humans must’ve had to have been pretty smart to come up with such an ingenious device.

“So, basically, that means there’s probably no life on this planet,” Marker finished.

“Is that why Golf Ball gave me a list of several planets to go to?”

“Yeah, this star system seemed pretty promising in general, so she wants us to visit each planet one by one.”

Black Hole consulted the “map” that he had been given prior to his departure. It resembled a bunch of scribbles on a piece of paper, but he was able to slightly make sense of it.

“Should we go now, or…?”

“Since I didn’t find anything, I don’t think anyone else will either, we didn’t spread out very far. So, yeah, I think we should.”

“Alright, let me get everyone back.”

Black Hole projected his voice towards the rest of the astronauts and asked them very politely to return to their ship, to which they promptly obliged.

“Did any of you find signs of life?” he asked once everyone was back in the spaceship.

They all shook their heads and some muttered a negative reply, causing Black Hole to start flying into the sky.

“That’s fine, let’s try some of the other planets. Hold on tight, everyone!”

Black Hole brought the ship up into space and started heading towards the second planet on his list, hoping that they would have better luck there.

 

“I miss Black Hole…”

“Tree, he’s been gone for two hours,” Pen said exasperatedly.

“That’s two hours too many.”

“...Could you make it more obvious?”

“What?”

Pen sighed. Tree had to be playing dumb on purpose, right?

“You know what? Nevermind.”

“I just wish he would come back soon.”

“Considering he’s probably on the other side of the galaxy right now, I’d say it’ll probably take a while for that to happen.”

The memory of saying goodbye to Black Hole was still fresh in Tree’s mind. He hadn’t thought about it at the time, but he had no idea how long Black Hole was going to be up in space for. It could be one day or one hundred, and he would have no way of knowing. Wherever he was, Tree just hoped that he was enjoying himself, relaxing on some faraway planet with no need to worry about anything.

“He shouldn’t take that long, it’s just a quick visit to another star system, that’s all.”

“And in the meantime, you’ll have for as company! Isn’t that great?”

“Yeah… so great.”

“Alright, now, can you make lunch for us?”

Tree shuffled over to the kitchen, resigning himself to what was to come in the following days.

 

Golf Ball turned on her radio and spoke into it, while Remote listened beside her.

“Black Hole? Can you hear me?”

“Yep, loud and clear.”

“I’m still amazed that we can communicate instantaneously, despite being hundreds of light-years away.”

“Oh yeah, I got rid of that speed limit, it just makes everything more complicated.”

After taking a moment to process this, Golf Ball eventually got herself together.

“How has the mission been going? Have you found any signs of life yet?”

“We didn’t find anything on the first planet, so now we’re going over to the next one on the list.”

“Everything going smoothly so far?”

“Yeah, we’ve been doing pretty well. Here, I’ll send you the data that we’ve collected so far.”

They could hear Black Hole talking to someone else over the radio. “ Marker, how do I send the results from this thing? ”

After what sounded like a rather lengthy discussion, Black Hole eventually managed to transmit everything from all of the machines back to Earth, which Remote excitedly opened up.

“Wow, this will be really useful! Thanks, Black Hole!”

“The astronauts did all the work, I can barely even understand what any of this means.”

“Well, thanks to them, then!”

They heard Black Hole approach the atmosphere of another planet, as the sound of air flying past him went through the radio.

“Alright, we’ll leave you to it then, good luck!” Golf Ball said.

“Thank you, bye!”

Golf Ball turned off her radio, hoping that she would soon hear back from Black Hole with some good news. Remote looked at what Black Hole had sent them, thinking about the things she could do with all that data.

“The mission’s been quite a success so far, hasn’t it?”

“It sure has. Everything seems to have gone to plan so far.”

“Do you think they’ll find any life on those planets?”

“I don’t doubt it. Now that we know extraterrestrial life does in fact exist, we should hopefully start seeing it all over the place. Plus, we picked this star system just to maximize our chances.”

In the millions of years that humans had spent on their planet, this was the closest they had ever gotten to finding others like them in the universe. Just in the past few months alone, they had found more aliens than in the rest of their history combined, and it was all because of Black Hole.

Maybe if he was with them again, he’d be able to guide them to another species, that would hopefully not try to kill them the moment they made contact.

Notes:

So far they're 0-2 for nice aliens, it's not looking too good...

Chapter 68: Nothing to Find

Summary:

Pie sees the glass half empty

Notes:

I'm slowly realizing that this fic has turned into a sci-fi story...

“I’m bored… When are we gonna get to the next planet?”

“We’re almost there, I just need to figure out where I’m supposed to land,” Black Hole said, trying to keep Marker preoccupied.

He looked at the map he was given and navigated his way around the terrain, using the landmarks to pinpoint his location.

“Alright, I guess this is close enough.”

Black Hole carefully descended through the atmosphere and gently placed the ship on the ground. Looking around, he couldn’t see how anything could possibly survive in this climate, but he figured Golf Ball (and Remote) probably knew a lot more than him.

“You can come out now, everyone.”

Just as before, they stepped out onto the surface and started taking measurements, but they once again found nothing of note.

“Has anyone considered the possibility that aliens just aren’t real? We’ve spent all this time looking for other species, but what if we haven’t found any because they don’t exist?”

“But we’ve already seen aliens, remember?” Marker reminded her. “They came over to our planet and tried to blow us up!”

“How exciting.”

“I’m just saying, it’s very much possible that there’s life out there that we just haven’t found yet, which is why we’re trying to right now!”

“And look at where that’s gotten us so far.”

Marker looked around as she suggested, and saw everyone crouched down on the ground, struggling to find anything.

“We have so many more chances! Just look at all the stars around us, waiting to be explored. There’s got to be something out there, right?”

“Alright, whatever you say.”

Once they had verified that there was no evidence of any life on the planet, they took off, heading towards the final planet in the star system, their last hope of finding anything on that mission.

“Black Hole, what do you think? Are there other lifeforms out there?” Marker asked from inside the ship.

“I hope so… we haven’t been searching for very long yet, so maybe we just need to look harder.”

On the third and final planet, they landed with high hopes, but that didn’t last for long as the surface proved barren and devoid of life. They stuck around for a bit longer, thinking that maybe life would suddenly appear out of thin air, but they were eventually forced to concede.

“Too bad we didn’t find anything,” Pie said.

“It’s okay, there’s always next time,” Black Hole assured.

On their way home, millions of stars flew by, creating a light show on the windows.

“Wait… maybe we just need to look harder!” Marker said, remembering Black Hole’s words. “What if everyone’s just really far away from us, and we haven’t gotten to them yet?”

“Uh… yeah, maybe.”

“Could we try going further out into space, and looking there?”

“I don’t know, I’d have to ask Golf Ball and the others.”

“Don’t worry, give me the radio, I’ll handle it!”

Black Hole teleported his radio into the spaceship right next to Marker, unsure whether he had just made a good decision or not.

“Hi, is this Golf Ball?” Marker was practically shouting into the device.

“What- Marker? How did you get the radio?” Black Hole heard Golf Ball saying through the speakers, sounding as though she had just recovered from a loud shock.

“Oh, Black Hole gave it to me! I just wanted to ask whether we could extend the mission by a bit, we didn’t find anything on the planets you told us to go to, but I thought there might be life further away from home and wanted to go look.”

“Well… I don’t think we can at the moment, unfortunately, but I’ll try to sort something out for you in the future. For now though, just get back to Earth first.”

Marker seemed rather disappointed by this response, and said goodbye to Golf Ball with a little less energy than he usually had.

“Hey, you heard her, we’ll be able to go in the future, just gotta wait for a bit.” Black Hole tried to cheer up Marker.

“Yeah… alright then.”

Marker looking marginally happier, Black Hole went full speed ahead and raced across the stars, arriving back at Earth in just a few minutes.

“Wow, that was so fast! I didn’t even know that was possible!” Marker cheered.

“Didn’t I go that fast on the way there?” Black Hole smiled. “Anyways, let’s get back to the surface, I’m sure Golf Ball will be excited to see us.”

Golf Ball was indeed waiting for them on the launchpad, and Remote was there as well. Black Hole slowly lowered the ship onto the launchpad, and they finally landed back home almost a full day after they had left.

“So, how was it?” Golf Ball asked.

“Could’ve been worse. We didn’t manage to find anything interesting, really, but at least nothing unexpected happened that might’ve messed up the whole mission,” Black Hole said.

“Hey, Black Hole! Welcome back!” Remote said, running up to them. “Can you gather all the data you collected and come inside? I want to record everything into the system.”

Black Hole went to the astronauts and came back a minute later with all of the devices that they had used on the trip, each carrying plenty of data for Remote.

“Great! This will come in very useful someday,” she said excitedly.

“Don’t they just show that there’s no life on any of the planets? What you are gonna do with that?” Black Hole asked.

“Just because the planets don’t have life doesn’t mean they can’t be useful for something else.”

Deciding not to question her any further, Black Hole followed her into the building and up several flights of stairs, Golf Ball trailing behind.

They entered a room full of computers and Remote turned one of them on, then helped Black Hole transfer the data from the devices he was holding.

“Alright, thanks for your help!” Remote said

“I don’t know how much I helped, but you’re welcome,” Black Hole said.

Remote glanced at the clock, noticing that she was already supposed to be going home. “Oh, it’s pretty late.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Golf Ball said. “I guess you’ll probably want to get going now, so good night, and see you tomorrow! Oh, and thanks for assisting us with the mission, Black Hole!”

“Glad I could help, good night!”

Once they had parted ways with Golf Ball, Remote and Black Hole walked back to campus together, arriving at Pen and Tree’s dorm after a few minutes.

Black Hole knocked on the door, and it opened a moment later revealing Tree standing there, with a wide smile on his face.

Notes:

Oh no Tree you're gonna burn down the kitchen!

Chapter 69: Reunion

Summary:

Tree finally gets to see Black Hole again after a whole ten hours

Notes:

Nice.

“Welcome back! How was the trip?” Tree asked.

“It was alright… I guess. I was kinda waiting for something bad to happen, but thankfully nothing did,” Black Hole replied.

“Did you do… whatever you were supposed to do?”

“You mean find life in another star system? No, we didn’t.”

“But,” Remote chimed in, “they did help me gather a lot of data from all the planets they went to.”

Tree nodded, not quite sure what they were talking about, but happy for them nonetheless. “Sounds like it went well.”

“And we might be going back,” Black Hole said. “Marker wanted to explore more planets even further away from Earth, so they said they were going to plan a new mission.”

“...Marker?”

“Oh, he was an astronaut on the mission. I feel like he’s pretty new, though.”

“Huh, that name sounds somewhat familiar.”

Remote looked at Tree curiously, wondering where he could’ve possibly known Marker from.

“Anyways,” Tree continued, “want to come in? I think dinner should almost be done.”

He led them inside, where they saw what looked like a circus routine being performed in the kitchen.

“Hey, Pen? Are you okay?” Black Hole chuckled.

“Does it look like I’m okay?” Pen was running all over the place, trying to keep everything under control, while giving Tree a death stare.

Tree laughed. “Seriously? I leave for three minutes and you’ve already completely descended into chaos.”

“How many times have I told you that this wouldn’t be a good idea?”

“You can’t go the rest of your life without knowing how to make food, you’re going to have to learn eventually.”

“I’ll cross that bridge when I get there. For now, I want you to do everything while I watch from the side.”

“That’s… not how learning works.”

Pen looked over Black Hole. “If he can do it, then why can’t I?”

“Maybe it’s because he can actually learn stuff? He picks up on new things very quickly, which is a skill you unfortunately do not possess.”

Remote and Black Hole watched from the side, unsure what was happening at the moment. It was rather amusing watching them send shots back and forth at each other, but the humour was admittedly starting to wear off a bit.

“Uh… guys?” Remote interrupted, after almost a full minute. What were you gonna talk about earlier?”

“Oh, right,” Tree said. “We finished, or, almost finished, making dinner.”

“Come on! What else is there even to do?” Pen complained.

“It’s still in the pot, I don’t think anyone wants to eat from that.”

After a few hasty adjustments, the dinner was truly done and they started eating.

“Y’know,” Black Hole said, “you keep saying Pen’s a bad chef, but I think he did fine.”

“Thank you! See? I know how to cook!” Pen said.

“Yeah, let’s just ignore the fact that I was guiding you through pretty much every step,” Tree replied.

Having been delayed quite a few times, it was already well after sunset by the time they were all done and Remote got ready to leave.

“Bye, everyone!” she said, slowly reversing out of the door. “By the way, Black Hole, I might be seeing you again soon, I don’t know yet. I’ll let you know when the next mission is ready.”

“Alright, I hope we’re luckier with our searches this time!”

Once Remote was gone, the rest of them figured they might as well go to sleep, after all, there usually wasn’t much to do in the middle of the night, especially in a rural building on the outskirts of campus.

“I need to get to bed, I have an important assignment in class tomorrow, see you all!”

“Good luck with your assignment!” Black Hole said, trailing off as Pen ran into his room.

Tree followed suit, wishing Black Hole a good night before walking out of the living room.

Although Black Hole appreciated and loved all his friends very much, he still liked to be alone from time to time, so he could focus on his own thoughts with no distractions.

Just a few hours ago, he was in deep space, having just sent humans further away from Earth than they ever had been. And if all went well, he would be bringing them even further in just a few days.

If only all could go well every single time.

Notes:

Don't worry, that last line isn't foreshadowing... Or maybe it is I haven't come up with the plot yet

Chapter 70: Sudden Arrivals

Summary:

Pen encounters the bane of all college students

Notes:

I'm trying to pace this story perfectly so it ends right when I want it to, it's proving quite difficult

Upon waking up the following morning, Black Hole felt all of his memories from yesterday flooding back to him. It was fun being able to go to space and explore the universe, but nothing beat lying down and doing nothing for an entire night. He didn’t strictly need sleep, and he wasn’t sure if it even had any effect on his body, but it was quite relaxing for him and always made him feel better afterwards.

As he usually got up after Pen had left for class but before Tree woke up, he always found himself wandering around the dorm alone for a while, bored out of his mind. Apparently, living in an empty black void for most of his life didn’t lessen the blow of loneliness.

“I wonder how Remote and Golf Ball are doing,” he muttered to himself while mindlessly sitting around. The last time he saw them, they had said that they were going to start planning another mission right after the last one, and it was all because of Marker. Black Hole personally felt rather excited for it, although he doubted the same could be said for the rest of the crew. It must’ve been rather discouraging to go all that way across the galaxy only to be met with some rocks and minerals, as Marker seemed to be the only person left on his team who was even a little enthusiastic about returning to the stars.

Once he ran out of things to think about, he decided to start doing something productive with his time instead of staying put and waiting for Tree to wake up. Walking into the kitchen, he resolved to make the best meal he had ever made and stun Tree with his skill.

Midway through the cooking process, Tree appeared through the door looking pleasantly surprised and Black Hole went over to him, unsuccessfully trying to distract him.

“Oh, hey! Good morning!”

“You’re making breakfast for me? That’s so nice!”

“...I was hoping you wouldn’t notice, but I guess that’s probably not possible.”

“Yeah, it was pretty obvious, I could hear the sound from all the way across the dorm.” Tree pointed to his room. “By the way, that pan’s about to burn.”

Black Hole jumped backwards, quickly removing the pan from the heat before the food turned pitch black.

“Did my cooking wake you up? I’m sorry…”

“It’s fine, I’m pretty sure I was already awake before then, I just wanted to stay in bed for a bit longer.”

Tree continued to watch Black Hole make breakfast for another half hour (Black Hole insisted he do everything himself) before he was finally finished, and they could start eating. To Tree’s surprise, the food tasted amazing and he enjoyed every last bite of it.

“Wow, where did you learn to cook this well?”

“Uh… from you? I’ve only learnt what you’ve been teaching me.”

“I don’t think I’m that good of a teacher, you’re just really fast at learning.”

Just a few minutes later, the plates were all completely clean, Tree having made sure to eat as much as he could from his.

“One day, you’re going to become a better chef than me, I can feel it,” he said.

“No way, you get so much more practice than me.”

“Since you’re so much faster than humans at learning new things, I don’t think that’ll matter in the long run.”

Having completely lost their focus and sense of time, they proceeded to chat for the next couple of hours and probably would have continued indefinitely if Pen hadn’t come through the door in the middle of a brief silence.

“Hey! Look who I ran into!”

Out of seemingly nowhere, Fanny and Lightning appeared by the doorframe, behind Pen.

“Hi!” Black Hole waved. “How’s it going?”

“Pen and I have a group project in one of our classes, good thing we know each other. I hope it’ll actually be fun for once,” Lightning said.

“You’re working with Pen? Good luck…” Tree said.

“Don’t listen to him,” Pen said. “I promise I’ll pull my weight, okay?”

“Yeah, I’ll be making sure he does.” Tree stared at Pen.

Pen gulped, not liking Tree’s tone one bit.

“Anyways, you two want to come inside? We can just talk for a while and catch up with each other, I’m sure Black Hole has a lot to talk about.” Pen moved out of the doorway.

“...Do I?”

“Of course, you’ve done so much cool stuff lately, right?”

“If you say so…”

They all headed into the living room and sat down, everyone slowly starting to initiate a conversation. In truth, Black Hole had quite a bit to say about the last few days, but he wasn’t sure what parts of it he was supposed to share, especially considering that some of the things he’d done weren’t even publicly available yet.

“Hey, Black Hole!” Pen said. “Anything you want to talk about?”

Notes:

I honestly don't know when to end the chapters anymore, so I'm now just picking random spots that seem nice

Chapter 71: Back to Back

Summary:

Everyone learns about the secret missions Golf Ball's been planning

Notes:

Sorry for missing yesterday! I've been really busy lately and haven't had much time to write. I'll try to post two chapters tomorrow to make it up

The sudden mention of his name threw him off balance for a bit, as he slowly processed what was going on.

“Uh, no? I mean… maybe?”

“Come on, we all know what you’ve been doing these past few days,” Fanny said. “It’s pretty hard to miss an entire spaceship being magically lifted into the sky.”

“Really? You all could see that?”

“Yeah, not to mention the sonic boom that happened when you broke the sound barrier,” Tree said.

“Wait, I did? That wasn’t supposed to happen…”

Black Hole didn’t want to go too fast in case he threw everyone in the ship out of their seats, but it appeared he could’ve gone a lot slower.

“So, where were you trying to go?” Lightning asked. “Seemed like a pretty small ship, I don’t know how far you can get with that…”

“This was just a test mission, we didn’t bring that many people. But, it was the first time a human landed on a planet from another star system! You guys are advancing so fast…”

“Maybe because you’re doing everything for us?” Tree pointed out.

“I just transported them to the planets, the rest of them did everything else.”

They all paused for a moment to silently celebrate the accomplishment.

“Anyways, they were trying to find life on other planets, but there was pretty much nothing on any of them, so the trip wasn’t that exciting. Although, we might be going back soon, Golf Ball said that she’d plan another one with Remote.”

“Oh, right, Remote! Haven’t seen her in a while, how’s she been doing?” Lightning asked.

“She’s probably been working pretty hard, I don’t imagine it’s very easy to do all that research while planning an interstellar mission at the same time,” Tree said.

Never having seen the work process, none of them knew how much Remote was doing every day, but she didn’t appear too strained yet, so it was hopefully a manageable amount.

“Speaking of Remote, does anyone know when she gets off work?” Fanny asked. “It would be nice if we could catch up with her after so long.”

“I’m not sure, she always comes back at different times, but I’d say probably around dinnertime.”

“You two don’t have any other plans for the rest of the day, right?” Pen asked. “You could stay for a bit longer if you want, maybe see Remote?”

“Well… I guess it won’t be too long, so why not?” Lightning said.

At these words, Tree looked at the clock and noticed the time.

“Oh, that reminds me, I should go to class soon, probably don’t want to be late today. See you all later!”

“Bye, Tree! Have fun!” Black Hole said.

 

The next few hours passed uneventfully, with everyone simply trying to occupy themselves by chatting about various topics and sharing their life stories. Black Hole was trying his best to keep up with the constant talking, but he had little to no practice in that regard and most of their words flew right over his head.

“...Hey, Black Hole, are you okay?” Pen asked. “You’ve gone quiet all of a sudden.”

“What? Oh, I’m fine, don’t worry about me.”

“I think we should slow down,” Fanny suggested. “I don’t want him to get overwhelmed.”

“Yeah, good idea,” Lightning said.

Shortly after the sun had started to dip under the horizon, Tree and Remote arrived, both showing up at the same time.

“Something happened to the classes today, my schedule was very messed up.”

“No kidding, you got home at the same time as me!” Remote said.

As they both entered, Black Hole approached Remote nervously.

“Hey, do you know roughly when the next mission is going to happen?”

Remote thought for a bit before answering.

“Tomorrow.”

Notes:

I know everything happens really fast in this story, that's because I don't know what I would put between major events otherwise

Chapter 72: Well-Placed Trust

Summary:

Black Hole suddenly gets put under a lot of pressure

Notes:

Black Hole gets to suffer even more, yay!

“Wait, really? …Did you even plan anything?” Black Hole asked, not knowing whether he was ready for another trip to space so shortly after the first.

“Nope! We’re basically doing the same thing as before, so we just used the same documents and stuff,” Remote said unashamedly.

This didn’t help raise Black Hole’s confidence in the slightest, but he just hoped that they knew what they were doing.

“You look nervous, are you not ready yet? We could do it later if you want,” Remote offered.

“I just… you’re sure you’ve got everything sorted out, right?”

“As far as I know, yeah. To be honest, we’re kinda just relying on you to make sure everyone’s safe, Golf Ball said that was the best option.”

“Is it though?”

Black Hole unfortunately did not share Golf Ball’s faith in him, and he certainly didn’t like being the single line of defense against anything bad that could happen. Outer space, as he knew all too well, was full of interesting things, dead and alive, and it seemed most of them had a burning desire for humans to stop existing.

“Wow, even Golf Ball trusts you,” Lightning said. “That’s pretty impressive.”

Remote laughed. “She’s not that scary, is she? Maybe a bit formal sometimes…”

“I don’t know, she just doesn’t seem like the type of person to do that sort of thing, she must really believe in Black Hole to bet the entire mission on him being able to save everyone.”

“You’re not helping calm him down,” Tree said, noticing Black Hole’s body language.

“Oh, sorry, that was meant as a compliment, didn’t mean to stress you out even more,” Lightning said to Black Hole.

Black Hole accepted his apology, suddenly feeling not so anxious anymore. “It’s okay, I need all the confidence I can get if I’m gonna get through this mission with my sanity intact.”

“Remember, once you get past all the dangerous stuff, you’re still gonna have to deal with Marker.”

“Marker’s alright! He’s a great friend, and he’s a nice contrast to the monotonous tone everyone else has,” Black Hole defended.

“Sometimes maybe too much of a contrast.”

“I don’t really mind, I’ve seen much worse.” Black Hole looked over at Pen.

“Hey! I have feelings too, you know?”

Meanwhile, Tree, too immersed in his own thoughts to hear everyone else talking, was racking his brain, trying to remember something.

“Why does the name ‘Marker’ sound so familiar? I know I’ve heard it before but I can’t remember for the life of me where.”

“Considering there’s about five people in this entire city, there’s a good chance you’ve met him before and just forgot,” Pen said.

“He seems like a fun person to be around, I always feel a lot happier when I talk with him,” Black Hole said.

“Kinda like you!” Remote pointed out.

“Alright, if you say so.”

Lost in the conversation, they all forgot that they were supposed to eat dinner and didn’t remember until Pen suddenly started craving every unhealthy food on the planet.

“Why can’t you just like healthier food?” Tree asked exasperatedly.

“Because there’s no added chemicals that make my brain happy!”

“Wow, you… actually know that? I think that makes it worse, you know these things aren’t good for you yet still like eating them.”

“Just because I know what they’re doing doesn’t mean I can do anything about it.”

“You know what, I’ll make some actual food, you’re probably just hungry.”

Tree walked eagerly into the kitchen and started cooking, but he quickly realized that he was going to need everyone else’s help if he planned for dinner to be ready before next week.

They all (Pen very begrudgingly) went over to help Tree as best they could, resulting in them finishing a lot earlier than he’d expected.

“Good job, everyone!” Black Hole cheered, trying to convince everyone that the whole experience was worth it.

“I agree, that was surprisingly efficient, considering we have six people,” Tree said

“Yeah, I didn’t expect Pen to contribute this much,” Remote said.

“Aren’t you proud of me?” Pen asked.

“Yes, Pen. You’ve far exceeded our expectations,” Tree said tonelessly.

While Pen was celebrating, Tree started plating the food and making it look fancy, which everyone else couldn’t help but watch.

“That still looks like magic to me, I don’t know how you’re so good at it,” Black Hole said.

“It’s just practice, you wouldn’t believe how much time I’ve spent cooking for Pen.”

“See? Making me food is beneficial, it makes you better at cooking!”

“There are other ways of doing that which don’t involve letting you sit around all day without having to do any work.”

“Yeah, but I like this method more.”

After almost a full hour, everyone had finally finished eating, well after what would be considered the usual time for dinner.

“You made a lot of food, Tree,” Remote said.

“I may have gotten a little carried away, everyone helping me and all. But, at least he’s happy.” Tree looked at Pen, his hunger seemingly satiated.

“Fanny, should we get going soon?” Lightning asked.

She checked the time before responding. “Probably, it’s not too long until the end of the day.”

“Alright, well, thanks for coming by! See you soon!” Tree said, showing them to the door.

“Bye!” Lightning said.

“Have a good night!” Fanny said as they walked out into the dark streets, disappearing from sight.

Tree returned to the dining table to see the rest of his friends sitting around it, not quite knowing what to do next.

“That was fun,” Pen said. “I had a pretty good time.”

“Was it because of all the food you got?” Remote asked.

“Maybe…”

Seeing how dark it was outside, Remote decided that she should probably go back home as well. She was going to have a long day ahead of her once she woke up the next morning and she wanted to have a nice long rest before that.

“Don’t forget, Black Hole. Tomorrow morning, at the launchpad. I’ll see you there.” She smiled.

Once she left, the rest of the night flew by, the events all blurring together. Before any of them knew it, they were all going to bed, mentally preparing themselves for the next day, especially Black Hole.

“You’re gonna be fine,” he told himself. “Nothing bad’s gonna happen.”

With that comforting thought, he tried his best to fall asleep, which he successfully did an hour later.

Notes:

Don't worry, he doesn't have insomnia, he's just nervous

Chapter 73: Second Time's the Charm

Summary:

Humanity goes back to the stars for round two

Notes:

I may have written a wall of text at the start... oops

Black Hole had lost track of how many times he had woken up in the middle of the night. Every so often, he would find himself lying awake in midair after having seen whatever disturbing visions his mind had conjured up. Most of the time, it was the ship that he was holding suddenly exploding, but some were far worse.

He dearly hoped that it wasn’t his mind trying to warn him.

There was nothing to suggest that anything bad was going to happen, or indeed, anything unusual at all. He had done the trip already with no issues whatsoever, and it was statistically very unlikely that they would encounter any the second time around. Yet, there he was, as always, thinking of the worst possible things that could happen and worrying himself with them.

Why Golf Ball and the others always believed in him so much, he had no idea. It seemed as though all of his friends were willing to literally trust him with their lives, which was strange as he didn’t even trust himself much. Of course, he appreciated their confidence very much and was honoured that they thought so highly of him, but he had to admit that the constant pressure he felt of having to protect everyone wasn’t very pleasant. Remote had even explicitly mentioned to him that, should anything go wrong later that day, he was the only one who could prevent the mission from ending in catastrophic failure.

Above all else, he just hoped that one day, they wouldn’t need his help anymore, for only then, they will have truly made it.

“I know you can do it,” he said to no one in particular. Maybe Tree’s subconscious would hear him and relay the message.

Slowly getting off of his mattress of air, Black Hole started wandering around and tried to keep himself calm by doing some meditative tasks, hoping that it would take his mind off anything stressful.

From the moment he began, it worked surprisingly well. He simply turned off most of his brain and used what was left to focus on the task he was doing. He still had all his concerns in mind and would have to confront them later on, but none of them could bother him at that moment.

Once he had run out of things to do, he started getting very bored and wanted to go back to bed, that was until a few soft noises suddenly came from Tree’s room, instantly making him more alert.

A few moments later, Tree walked into the living room, looking rather impressed with the cleanliness of everything.

“Did you clean the dorm again?” he asked Black Hole.

“Yeah, I thought it’d be relaxing.”

“And was it?”

“I’m not thinking about what’s gonna happen later today now, so I’d say it was.”

Tree didn’t immediately understand what Black Hole was talking about, but he quickly realized.

“Hey, why are you still worried about the mission? Everything will be fine, remember?”

“I know, but… I just can’t stop thinking about what might go wrong, it’s like it’s hard-wired into me.”

“Yeah, having to be the saviour of humanity several times over must be pretty stressful, huh?”

“I guess…”

Black Hole spent the rest of the morning making and eating breakfast with Tree, who seemed determined to make him feel as confident as he could be going into the mission. Tree gave constant words of encouragement and reassurance, which he seemed to appreciate a lot, and he tried comforting Black Hole whenever he seemed nervous about something.

Finally, after hours of anticipation, the time had come. Black Hole made his way down to the launchpad, hoping that luck would be on his side that day.

 

“Hey, good morning!” Remote shouted to him as they slowly came into each other’s line of sight. “Are you ready?”

“I honestly have no idea,” Black Hole said, “but I sure hope so.”

As he approached the ship, he saw that it had been equipped with a few extra tools, presumably for making more observations on the environments they found themselves in. Inside the window, he thought he saw Marker and Pie staring right back at him, Pie looking like she had been made to be there. Marker waved enthusiastically, while Pie gave a small nod of acknowledgement, smiling slightly at his presence.

Soon after, Golf Ball appeared and told him that it was safe to depart. Everything was prepared and they were all very alert, ready to respond to any problems at a moment’s notice.

“Remember, you can go wherever you want this time, alright? As long as it’s in the universe… and you try your very best to keep everyone safe.”

“Yeah, thanks! I’ll contact you once we’ve gotten to the first destination.”

“Great! See you later, then! Have a safe trip!”

Black Hole went back to the spaceship, ready to launch it to distances never before comprehended.

“Alright, get ready, everyone. Try not to get flung around too hard.”

In a single moment, Black Hole picked up the ship and flew into the air with it, trying to be as soft as he could with it so he didn’t accidentally throw all the astronauts into a wall.

“This is so fun!” Marker shouted, although still, no one could hear him over the commotion going on all around them.

“I don’t know what part of standing in a spaceship going at half the speed of sound is ‘fun’ to you, but I won’t judge,” Pie said.

 

Once they had left the confines of Earth, the rest of the trip was smooth sailing. Their speed stopped bouncing back and forth so much, and they were finally able to sit around and relax.

Golf Ball hadn’t given Black Hole any directions on where to go, nor any target destination at all, instead asking Black Hole to simply see what planets looked like they had life on them and visit those.

After flying around for a bit, he saw something in the distance that seemed interesting. There was no reason for there to be any life in this desolate star system in the corner of the galaxy, but he figured it couldn’t hurt to take a look.

Slowly, he approached one of the planets and descended onto its surface, unsure whether or not he even wanted to find anything.

Notes:

Black Hole's starting to get scared of aliens, oh no...

Chapter 74: Rising Tensions

Summary:

The astronauts hit the jackpot

Notes:

Lots of stuff about to happen...

“Black Hole!” Marker ran over to him. “What’s that thing up there?”

Looking up towards the stars, he saw a small sphere of light arcing through the sky, blindingly bright.

“Shooting star? I dunno.”

“It looks so pretty…”

Marker closed his eyes and continued gazing upwards, standing still under the flood of light raining down upon the surface.

“So, anyways…” Black Hole said after an awkward silence. “Have you found anything yet?”

Suddenly seeming to regain consciousness, Marker turned back around and faced Black Hole.

“I feel like we should’ve by now, but nothing’s showing up! Everywhere we go, we just find more and more rocks!” he sighed.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure we’ll find something eventually, as long as we’re patient. Besides, aren’t you having fun exploring the universe with all your friends?”

“I guess…”

After another hour with no one having found anything, Black Hole had to admit that it was slowly getting less enjoyable. He didn’t think it’d be this hard, considering the first alien species they’d encountered had come to them when they hadn’t even done a single thing.

“Black Hole, I’m bored!” Marker said. “Can we go somewhere else?”

“Yeah, sure. I don’t think we’re gonna gain anything by staying here much longer.”

Once everyone was in the ship, it was back into space. Black Hole kept taking them further away from the Earth, hoping that venturing deeper into uncharted territory would yield better results.

There wasn’t anything on the next planet either, but they did catch a glimpse of something peculiar in the sky.

“That… doesn’t seem normal,” Marker pointed out.

“What a great observation,” Pie said.

“Hey, what are you guys looking at…” Black Hole noticed the several perfectly straight lines drifting across the sky. “Oh… that.”

“Do you know what it is?” Marker asked.

Black Hole shook his head. “No idea. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Marker looked at Pie, who appeared to have lost interest in the conversation a long time ago.

“Aren’t you concerned about any of this?”

“Well, it’s not like I can do anything about it anyway,” Pie responded.

“Not with that attitude!”

“I’m just one of several billion humans floating on a tiny rock in space, what am I supposed to do?”

Marker thought for a while, trying to come up with a response.

“You’re friends with Black Hole, remember?”

“I wouldn’t say we’re friends, we’ve barely talked to each other.”

“That’s fine, I’m sure he considers everyone he meets one of his friends!”

Pie didn’t respond, not wanting to deal with Marker’s childish antics at the moment. She looked away and gazed into the distance, hoping to find some quiet. Unfortunately for her, Marker and Black Hole had other plans.

“Come on, Pie! Let’s go back to the ship!” Marker called.

“Already?”

“Yeah, there probably isn’t anything here, we’re gonna go somewhere else.”

And so they did. Everyone else was starting to get tired from moving around the universe all day, but Marker was the exception. It seemed like with every planet they visited, he only got more energetic. Black Hole was trying to best to stay cheerful and motivate everyone, but even he was finding it quite difficult.

While Marker was practically bouncing off the sides of the ship, Pie decided to relax by the windows, ignoring everything else going on around her.

“Hey, everyone, look over there!” Black Hole pointed into the distance.

At these words, everyone headed to the nearest window, trying to find what he was talking about. Looking in the general direction he was pointing, they witnessed a truly marvelous sight. A cosmic dance of planets around their star, all illuminated by brilliant lights scattered over every surface.

“Woah…” Marker gazed in awe. “What is that?”

“I think we’ve found what we were looking for.”

 

Across every single planet, all at once, alarm bells rang, sirens blared, and pandemonium reigned. No one knew who was invading, or why, but that wasn’t the system’s job to figure out. They had to see for themselves.

Since they hadn’t bothered to select a single official leader yet, they instead decided to send a whole group up to the radio tower, who would represent the entire colony in the following interaction.

“What are your intentions?” they beamed up into space.

 

A split second later, Black Hole felt a strong burst of radio waves wash over him. Unfortunately, he couldn’t understand what any of it meant, and he had a strong suspicion that was because the message was in a completely different language. If he wanted to understand what the aliens were saying, he would have to hang around for a bit longer and learn how they communicated.

 

Whoever was approaching them didn’t respond, instead simply floating around their star system, ominously circling them. They watched curiously from the tower, as everyone below them did the same. They were growing ever more confused, having no clue what was happening. Supposedly, the peace treaty that they had signed should’ve disengaged everyone from any and all conflicts, but it seemed the invaders paid it no mind.

They decided that if the mysterious group of aliens kept trespassing on their colony, they were going to send out some ships of their own and forcefully make them leave, even though they had no idea if they were even capable of doing that. They preferably wanted to deal with the situation by themselves, as they didn’t want to get anyone else involved and risk starting another intergalactic war.

There was also the problem of the populace. All the warning sounds that had been blasting down on them understandably made everyone rather nervous, and they would probably be in complete disorder until reassured.

Hopefully, everything could fix itself before it was too late.

 

After having spent a few minutes closely observing and listening to each of the planets, Black Hole felt that he could somewhat understand everything they were saying. However, the original message they had sent was long gone at that point, and he wasn’t about to go out into deep space to look for a radio signal that may or may not have already dispersed.

“Sorry, could you repeat that?"

Notes:

The italics look so bad... Nothing I can do about it :(

Chapter 75: Miscalculation

Summary:

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times...

Notes:

I'm gonna try making the chapters a bit longer, but that might be a bit hard considering my track record...

Right when they were thinking that they wouldn’t be getting a response any time soon, their radio towers detected a message from the same direction.

“They’ve sent a reply!”

“What did they say?”

“They want us to repeat what we just said.”

“Strange request, but fine.”

After transmitting the signal a second time, all they could do was wait, and see what happened next.

 

“‘What are your intentions?’ Uh, does anyone know?”

Black Hole received the message again, and this time he was able to tell what they were saying and translate it for everyone else.

“We’re looking for aliens!” Marker said. “…Right?”

“Sure… let’s go with that.”

 

“What are they talking about?”

The aliens at the radio tower were very confused by the reply they had gotten, and they were quite certain that whatever was happening at that moment was not covered in the protocol.

“How could they be looking for extraterrestrial life? We’re not exactly hard to miss…”

“Maybe they’ve just been isolated for a really long time? It would explain why they don’t even seem to know about anything that’s happened in the past few thousand years.”

One of them sighed. “I don’t get paid enough for this…”

 

The next few minutes were spent slowly receiving messages, and then sending back a reply, taking several seconds to listen to and decode each time. By the end of it, Black Hole had found out the hard way why maintaining an interstellar civilization was so hard.

“What do you mean by that?”

“There aren’t that many planets with life on them where we’re from, so we thought we’d try looking for some in other parts of the universe, and we stumbled across this place.”

“...Sorry, where exactly are you from?”

Black Hole doubted that they would know what he was talking about if he started saying random names that humans had come up with, so he tried figuring out how the aliens talked about locations, which didn’t end up being too difficult.

After he sent out the string of numbers that supposedly corresponded to the Earth, he waited for a reply, but none came.

One minute. Then two. And then three. The longer they waited, the thicker the tension became. Black Hole in particular felt apprehensive. Had he said something wrong? He couldn’t see how he would’ve scared them away that easily, and yet, something told him that things were about to go south very quickly.

 

“They’ve sent back some coordinates!”

“Good, at least this will give us an idea of who they are.”

They inputted the values into the map and waited, theories flying through their heads as to what they were dealing with.

Once the results came back, they went and had a closer look, zooming in on the remote galaxy that they claimed to reside in.

“Where is this place? Never heard of it.”

“Are you sure? Try paying closer attention.”

Doing as suggested, the alien zoomed in even further and inspected their star system.

“I don’t know what I’m supposed to be seeing.”

“Look at this planet!” They pointed to the small blue one, not too far from its star.

As they kept staring, memories started flooding back to them. They remembered being informed by their ruler that a mission had gone terribly wrong, and that they were under no circumstances allowed to visit the site of the incident without permission.

Suddenly, it all made sense.

“No!” they yelled, once they had figured out what was going on.

“Yeah… we might have a problem on our hands.”

“Should we do something? Never said we weren’t allowed to attack if they came to us.”

“I don’t know, they seem pretty strong… They were even able to beat us in battle with all the odds stacked against them, so it doesn’t look good for us.”

Faced with a dilemma and with time running out at an alarming rate, they had to make a decision right then and there which might decide the fate of the entire colony. It was do or die.

There was far too little time for any form of reasoning and they couldn’t come up with a very good plan of action, so they ordered an attack out of desperation and launched their spaceships.

“Might as well die fighting.”

 

It had been so long since Black Hole had sent his last message, yet the radio silence persisted. Fear was starting to consume him, and it only got worse with every passing second. He was considering approaching even closer to check if everything was fine, but he soon noticed that there was no need for that anymore.

He saw a large formation of spaceships, rapidly approaching him. He quickly made himself visible once more, trying to prevent them from accidentally flying into him and getting sucked up. Although this did stop anyone from making contact with him, they still got a bit too close for his liking.

The ships finally stopped, barely outside of the event horizon. As they looked up at the dark towering figure before them, they were all thinking the same thing.

Just what had they gotten themselves into?

Notes:

I'm sorry, I just love making everyone try to attack Black Hole before realizing why that's a terrible idea

Chapter 76: Pursuit

Summary:

Sometimes it's better to just leave things be

Notes:

I don't know if it's just me, but I feel like my writing style has changed slightly

It all happened so quickly. One moment, everything was calm as could be, with only Black Hole and the few astronauts he had brought along, peacefully floating in the emptiest place there was. The next, their entire world had been rattled to its core, overrun by the incoming mob.

How foolish he was, to think that they could ever ally with another civilization. That simply wasn’t how it worked, as was made painfully clear. The aliens had never had any interest in talking with them, they were only after the information of the enemy. And Black Hole, being blissfully ignorant as always, didn’t hesitate to reveal all of their secrets in the slightest.

Such a shame, he thought. Couldn’t these races accomplish so much more if they just decided to work together? Were they too prideful to even consider needing the help of others? He couldn’t imagine what could’ve possibly caused everyone to be so hostile towards each other, to the point where they would attack anyone on sight who dared enter their territory.

However much he wished things were different, the fact remained that reality could never be perfect, and he simply had to accept that.

With all of these thoughts in his mind, he had momentarily forgotten about the situation he was in, that was until his eyes refocused and he saw the hundreds of spaceships covering his vision.

He was suddenly very aware that, unlike in the past, he was the one in someone else’s space that time. Having realized that he was in the wrong, he tried to resolve the problem in the quickest way he could think of, which was to grab the ship and go flying in the opposite direction as fast as he could. No one could see it coming except for him, which led to some unwanted consequences and several screams of panic.

Perhaps he could’ve been a bit more careful.

 

When they approached the figure, they expected it to immediately start attacking them, or at least put up a fight. What they weren’t expecting was for it to start bolting away from them, into the depths of space. They were supposed to defend their land at all costs, but it seemed there was no need for that anymore.

“What…?”

“Does this mean we’ve completed our objective?”

“Great! Now we can go home!”

“Hold it!” their leader shouted. “We can’t just leave, what if they come back? We must stay alert at all costs!”

The rest of the group didn’t like it, but they had to listen. And so they waited, minute after minute, on the off chance that their sworn enemies would return.

None of them could understand why the invaders had decided to leave so suddenly. Perhaps they had scared them away, but it seemed almost too easy to be plausible. Remembering what they had been told before, it was strange that the beings who had clearly been capable enough to damage their forces quite badly in the past, were, in that situation, hopeless enough to believe that fleeing was their best option.

Maybe it really was a trick, in which case they would probably be better off pursuing them, to make sure they didn’t sneakily return while everything was unguarded. Just as a few of them were arriving at the same conclusion, their leader already seemed ready for action.

“They’re not coming back, let’s go after them!”

“Are you sure we have to? Maybe we should just wait here-”

“Who knows how long we’ll be waiting? They might not even return at all! We have to go on the offensive right now! Someone track their location!”

A few members of the fleet started searching for the runaway spaceship, and it wasn’t long before they managed to pinpoint exactly where it was. They decided to split their forces in two, so that one half could stay behind and guard the star system while the other went out into space and looked for them.

“Don’t let them get past the boundary, I’m counting on you,” the leader said.

And with that, they shot off into the stars, ready to finally end the war that they didn’t even know was still being waged just a few hours ago.

 

His heart still pounding out of his chest, Black Hole flew like he had never flown before and only stopped once he was several million light-years away from the aliens, to calm down a bit (and apologize to everyone for throwing them around the ship).

“It’s okay, I actually thought that was pretty fun!” Marker said.

“I personally don’t see the appeal of being flung around like a ragdoll, but to each their own, I guess,” Pie said.

“They looked really threatening, so I just panicked and forgot there were people in the ship.”

“Wow, that makes me feel so appreciated.”

Black Hole felt bad for nearly having injured someone, but there was nothing he could do after the fact, and his main focus at that moment was getting everyone back to Earth safely, which left little room for comfort.

He hoped that whoever they had just visited didn’t escalate things any further, as he didn’t think he could handle another alien civilization that wanted to wipe them out, especially since there was a high likelihood that the first one was going to return for another round soon.

On the way back, Black Hole felt a lot more jittery. Every tiny movement looked like something sneaking up on him, waiting for the perfect time to strike. He had a hard time telling distant stars from headlights, planets from spaceships. It was with a sigh of relief that he reentered the humans’ galaxy and saw the familiar layout of the Earth’s stellar neighbourhood.

As he calmly floated towards their star system, he couldn’t help but reflect on the adventure they’d just been on. At least he couldn’t say it was uneventful. They had finally found what they were looking for the whole time, and the odds were that there were several more of them somewhere out there.

And there it was. After what had felt like an entire vacation, their home was finally in sight.

They almost made it back, too.

Notes:

Uh oh, cliffhanger!

Chapter 77: Unseen Consequences

Summary:

Black Hole gets attacked by nothing

Notes:

I missed another day nooo... :(

“Ow!”

“Black Hole! Are you okay?” Marker asked.

The sudden shock in his arm had caused him to involuntarily let go of the spaceship, so he had to quickly go back to get it before it floated off into space.

“Yeah, but, what was that?”

He looked around, searching for anything in the area that could’ve hit him. But, whoever it was must’ve been good at hiding, as he couldn’t there wasn’t a single ship in sight, other than his own.

“Should we just ignore it and go back?” he asked.

“No, they hit your arm!” Marker said indignantly. “You need to get revenge!”

The last word made Black Hole a little uncomfortable, but he agreed in the end, on condition that they tried the diplomatic approach first before resorting to other methods.

“I don’t even know if I’ll be able to find them,” he said. “I’ll try my best…”

 

“Nice! Great shot!”

“Thanks!”

Now that they were up close, the aliens started having second thoughts about their mission, especially what might happen if they were seen. However, they had a job to complete and weren’t about to give up that easily.

Once they had turned invisible, they prepared to battle. Firing the first shot, one of the ships hit right on target, causing the figure in front of them to flinch in pain. They saw him start searching his surroundings, but they would hopefully be invisible to him.

“Uh… guys?” one of them tried getting everyone’s attention. “Why is it coming this way?”

At these words, they all looked around, hoping that they were mistaken in their belief. Unfortunately, what they saw happening was exactly what they had envisioned, and it was equal parts terrifying and stunning, to the point where they couldn’t feel themselves moving anymore, instead only existing as a statue, their gaze fixed on a single point.

In a matter of seconds, they found themselves right next to the being they had just been trying to attack a few moments ago. Strangely, however, it didn’t seem to notice them, as it looked all around itself as if trying to find something.

“Can it… see us?”

“I’m not sure, but I think it’s still looking for us, so our invisibility should be working.”

They sighed a breath of relief at the fact that they had not been spotted yet, but it wouldn’t last long, as they realized that, even if it couldn’t see them, it could still physically interact with their ships, which seemed to be what was about to happen.

“Should we… maybe-”

“Run!”

At the last moment, the entire fleet of ships broke formation and scattered, ending up all over the place. Unfortunately, it was already far too late for most of them, who found themselves stuck in the massive figure’s shadow, unable to get out of the way. They had not tried to escape, instead accepting their fate and allowing themselves to be consumed by the ever-expanding void that likely didn’t even know about their existence.

“No!”

Out of the few who had barely escaped with their lives, nobody had any morale left and they weren’t sure if they could continue fighting.

“Why did it have to be them…”

Almost all of their army had been taken out in an instant, and the worst part was, it was completely unintentional. Even after having collided with several hundred ships, the entity next to them still didn’t seem to notice what it had done. In fact, it appeared to be simply strolling around, completely unaware of the chaos that had just unfolded.

“Come on, let’s do this. We have to keep going.”

“No, we don’t!”

“General said that we have to stay strong and protect our home, no matter that happens.”

“We’re clearly not gonna be able to protect anything from that,” the alien pointed to the towering shadow that had passed them at that point. “Might as well surrender before we lose even more ships.”

They argued for a while and eventually decided that it was probably best for them to go home, and plan a better attack for next time, if there even was one. Activating their engines, they shot towards their home planet at relativistic speeds. Only once they were absolutely sure there was no one else around did they make themselves reappear.

“How many ships have we lost to it already?”

“I don’t know, probably thousands, and that number will be much higher if we keep mindlessly sending in tiny armies to go fight.”

“Yeah, it’s starting to get ridiculous.”

“You’ve only just realized that?”

 

After having searched for almost an hour with not a single trace of other ships’ presence, they had no choice but to admit defeat and head back home, having missed their chance to discover who could’ve hated them so much, although they thought they may have had an inkling of who it was.

“Look on the bright side! At least you didn’t get hurt!” Marker tried cheering them up.

“Considering my arm still feels a bit tingly, I’d argue that I got pretty hurt.”

“Don’t worry, that was nothing to you! Anyways, let’s go back now, I kinda miss Earth.”

Black Hole sighed. “I wish we could’ve seen who it was, talked with them or something.”

“There’s always next time! Besides, they’d probably just start attacking you again, I don’t think they want anything to do with you.”

“…Seems a bit mean, but alright.”

They slowly made their way back home, Black Hole being especially cautious and constantly checking his surroundings, just in case someone tried to ambush him.

After the final few minutes, they were finally back on Earth, thankfully safe and sound.

“Hello everyone!” They heard a familiar voice coming from the entrance to the facility. “How was it?”

“Hey, Golf Ball! It… could’ve been better, I’ll be honest, but at least we found life,” Black Hole said.

“Really?” Golf Ball’s eyes widened.

“Yeah, but they tried attacking us not too long after we visited them, and we’re pretty sure they followed us back and tried attacking us again.”

“In that case, I’m glad everyone’s safe.”

After a while, Remote came running out of the building as well, very overjoyed at their return.

“Hi, Remote!” Black Hole smiled.

“Hey! So, did you find anything?”

“Yes, actually… you know what, it’ll take too long, I’ll explain when you have time.”

Remote looked very engaged, her interest piqued.

“Oh, that’s convenient, I’m almost done for the day!”

“Alright… I’ll see you at Pen and Tree’s?”

“Yep, bye!”

 

Once everyone was securely on the Earth and everything had been said, Black Hole left and headed back to campus, excited to finally see Pen and Tree again after all that time.

“Goodbye! Thank you for your help!” Golf Ball waved at him, and he waved back.

He arrived at their dorm and, heart pounding, he knocked on the door.

“Wow, you’re back! Was it fun? Did you get to do a lot of cool stuff?”

“Oh, uh… yeah, It was nice! By the way, Remote is gonna show up later tonight, so I’ll tell you then.

Walking into the dorm, he saw Tree, of course, in his natural habitat, flipping several pans and managing a tower of plates with the extra limbs he had apparently grown.

The instant he saw Black Hole, he put down everything in his hands and started running towards him.

“Black Hole! I missed you.”

“Me too, Tree. Me too…”

They kept talking for a bit longer (Black Hole tried to help Tree cook to save time) and eventually everything was set. Now, all they needed was one more person, to fill up the table for four…

A loud noise came from the front door, the sound of a hand striking wood.

Notes:

Long chapter! Not by a lot, but it still counts!

Chapter 78: Adventures Chronicled

Summary:

Black Hole sees his friends again and chats with them for the entire night

Notes:

I know I'm behind several chapters right now, I promise I'll catch up eventually

Pen went to open the door, revealing Remote standing behind it.

“Hey! How was work?” he asked.

“It was pretty nice! Black Hole went to space again, I think he had fun.”

“What was he doing?”

“I’ll let him tell you, he can probably explain it a lot better than me.”

After Remote walked inside, Pen shut the door and followed her into the kitchen, where Tree and Black Hole were waiting for them.

“Oh, hey, Remote!” Tree said.

Black Hole merely waved, mumbling a short “hi” which quickly disappeared in the air.

“Have you told them anything yet?” Remote asked him.

“A bit. I was talking with Tree while we were cooking together, and he seemed curious about what I had been doing the whole day.”

“Hey! How come you tell him everything, but not me?” Pen complained.

“Don’t worry, I’ll tell you now.”

As they ate dinner, Black Hole recounted his trip to them, telling them everything he had seen or learnt that day.

“Then, after flying around for a really long time, we found something.”

“What was it? Did you find aliens?” Pen asked excitedly.

“Uh, yeah… we did, actually.”

Everyone gasped, surprised that Black Hole had managed to achieve his goal after having failed to for so long.

Black Hole continued, keeping everyone on the edge of their seats throughout the entire interaction with the aliens. When he got to the part where hundreds of ships started lining up in front of him, everyone was visibly concerned for him, even though they had absolutely no reason to be.

“I didn’t know what to do, so I just ran, or, flew away.”

“Really? That’s probably the first time I’ve ever seen you run away from something,’ Tree said.

“I couldn’t just stand there, some of them might’ve gotten hurt!”

Tree stared blankly, trying to process what Black Hole was saying.

“...So you weren’t concerned for your life?”

“No, I was concerned for theirs.”

“Weren’t they trying to attack you? Why would you care?”

Black Hole paused to come up with an argument.

“In their defence, I was technically in their territory, so they were probably just trying to get me to leave.”

“Didn’t you say they seemed fine with you before?”

“Yeah, everything was going alright, then they asked me where I was from and I told them, and they stopped responding and showed up with an entire army of spaceships a few minutes later.”

“You told them where-” Tree sighed. “Come on, haven’t you learnt your lesson yet?”

Tree liked Black Hole’s personality very much, but he sometimes wished that it could’ve been just a little different.

“What?” Black Hole asked defensively.

“You’re very trusting, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.”

“Whatever, just… keep going.”

And so he did. Once he was done with all the action and talking about returning to Earth, they thought the story was out of surprises. However, they would soon find out that was not the case.

“Right before we got back to Earth, I felt something hit my right arm, and it kinda hurt, so I accidentally let go of the ship and had to go find it.”

“You got hurt by something? Wow, it must’ve been pretty strong,” Pen said. “What was it?”

“I have no idea. I went to go look for what caused it, but I couldn’t find anything around. But, considering I was just with some other lifeforms and started running away, I think I have a pretty good idea.”

Pen was concerned that Black Hole couldn’t even find who had attacked him. “So they’re just out there somewhere? What if they come back? If they could actually do some damage to you, who knows what they could do to us? Seems terrifying…”

“You guys are more resilient than that, I’ve seen you make it through a lot of stuff.”

“Thanks for the confidence, but… I don’t know, I highly doubt it’ll end well for us if we ever come across whoever attacked you.”

“Don’t worry, if they ever dare try doing anything to you, I’ll make sure they suffer the consequences…”

“Wow, uh… you look menacing, I’m not used to that.”

“Oh, sorry.”

Black Hole relaxed his face and it returned to a neutral expression. “Anyways, after a while, I gave up searching and started flying back. We got home a little after that.”

“Really this time? No more surprise attacks or anything?” Tree asked.

“Nope, it was smooth sailing all the way back.”

“So… I’d say that was a pretty successful mission, wouldn’t you all agree?” Remote asked.

They all cheered loudly, excited that they had finally managed to find another alien species, without the aliens having to come to them.

After the noise had died down a bit, Tree had a sudden thought.

“Wait, you said that they started attacking you after you told them where you were from, right?” he asked Black Hole.

“Uh, yeah? Why?”

“Don’t you think that it’s strange how they became so hostile when you said that? Unless…”

Black Hole’s mind was empty, everything that Tree was saying flying way over his head.

“I’m so confused right now.”

“What if they realized who you were from that information? What if you told them your location and they suddenly remembered another species from that general area that they had interacted with in the past?”

Remote pieced it together far before the other two did. Usually, Black Hole was pretty fast at connecting his thoughts, but it appears he had found the exception.

“Oh, you’re right, that makes sense!” she said.

“Can someone please explain what’s going on?” Pen asked.

“What alien species can you think of that’s interacted with us in the past?” Tree prompted.

“There’s the one that kept trying to kill us… Oh, I get it now.”

None of them particularly knew what to make of the news. On one hand, they had found the enemy, but on the other, the enemy now knew that they were trying interstellar travel, and they certainly wouldn’t like that.

With that depressing thought, they decided to end the conversation so everyone could get some rest. After Remote had left and Pen and Tree had gone to their rooms, it was, once again, just Black Hole left in the living room.

He had many thoughts flying through his head and they were all making him rather anxious, but he figured that dwelling on them wouldn’t help him get much sleep, so he tried to push them to the back of his mind and prepared for a nice, relaxing rest.

Notes:

The ending is a bit rushed because I got jealous of them going to sleep and wanted to as well

Chapter 79: Prepare for the Worst

Summary:

Black Hole realizes he's still very clueless about most things

Notes:

He's only been on Earth for a few months, he just needs some time to learn everything

He could see the aliens approaching, watch as they slowly surrounded Earth and started destroying it, feel the explosions caused by their beams of light all around him-

Black Hole woke up in a cold sweat, breathing in far too much air to be considered normal, and feeling like there was a very hyperactive animal trying to escape his chest.

It took him a moment to realize that the world was not in fact ending, and that he was safely under cover of his imaginary blankets.

Unsurprisingly, he was very confused and had no idea what had just happened. How was he back in his bed when he had been outside just a moment ago? Why was everything so quiet all of a sudden? He felt like he was losing his mind, hallucinating things that weren’t even there.

Once he didn’t feel like he was going to pass out any second anymore, he got on his feet and started walking around, as it was unlikely that he would be getting any more sleep that morning.

He looked outside through a window, just to be absolutely certain that nothing had happened to anything. Seeing the sunlit grass and the rows of trees neatly planted between the roads, he thought that taking a walk might do him some good and let him relax a little, so he walked out the door and breathed in the fresh air, glad that everything was still fine.

As he strolled through campus, he felt his entire body loosen up a bit. His muscles felt a lot less tense, and his mind seemed a lot clearer than before.

Several minutes in, he thought about Tree, who would probably be waking up soon. Black Hole figured he might get slightly worried if he suddenly disappeared with no explanation, so he tried speeding up a little to hopefully get home before Tree reported him missing.

By the time he got back to the dorm, the sun had fully risen and was beating down on him with no clouds for cover, so he felt very grateful when Tree opened the door and let him in.

“Where did you go?” he asked, relieved that Black Hole was back.

“I’m really sorry, I didn’t mean to be gone for so long, I just went for a walk outside.”

“No, it’s fine, you don’t have to ask me for permission to do everything. By the way, was there any particular reason for going on a walk today, or…?”

“If you have some time on your hands, I can tell you, but let’s go inside first.”

They walked into the living room and sat down on the couch, Tree ready to listen to every word that Black Hole had to say. It had been so long, yet his voice was still as sweet and enchanting as ever.

“So… Earlier this morning, I was outside for some reason, and I saw the aliens attacking our planet, and there were a bunch of explosions everywhere. But then, I suddenly teleported back inside, and everything went quiet, which was really confusing for me. I don’t think any aliens actually appeared on Earth, but do you know what happened?”

Tree thought for a moment about what Black Hole could be talking about, and once he figured it out, he started chuckling.

“I keep forgetting how much you still haven’t learnt yet.”

“Maybe it’s because you guys don’t tell me anything.”

“Well, I’ll tell you right now. Basically, when humans sleep, sometimes our brain is conscious enough to form thoughts, and we call that dreaming.”

Black Hole tried to wrap his mind around what Tree had just said. “So it was just my brain coming up with a random situation?”

“Yeah, although the fact that it came up with that specific situation might mean that you’re still scared of the aliens attacking us.”

“I guess that’s true. Now that they know we’ve been trying to fly to other stars, they’ll probably start being even more aggressive, and I doubt they’ll leave us be anymore.”

Tree felt a tinge of regret looking at Black Hole’s guilty face. He had shifted all the blame onto him the previous night, which he knew couldn’t have felt very good.

“By the way, I’m sorry for getting mad at you yesterday, you were just doing what you knew best.” Tree smiled, being as sincere as he could and very much hoping that Black Hole would forgive him.

Black Hole returned the smile, feeling his heart warm up as he stared into Tree’s soft eyes. He had already forgotten about it until Tree brought it up, but he was still grateful that Tree wanted to make him feel better and apologized.

“I wasn’t mad, it’s fine! I know you weren’t trying to be mean, and I do agree that it might’ve been a good idea for me to have kept my mouth shut, I still have to work on not trusting anyone I come across. I appreciate you bringing it up, though.”

“It’s that easy, huh? You never get mad.”

“Unless someone threatens my friends, then I’ll probably be pretty upset with them.”

“Right, of course. Although I do feel like you should learn to speak up when you’re unhappy more, it makes it a lot harder for people to take advantage of you.”

“That’s not very high on my list of priorities, but I can try.”

Black Hole was feeling marginally better after that conversation. He had figured out what all those visions he saw earlier were, and Tree had calmed him down a lot, which he was somehow very good at. Even though the aliens were still out there and could strike at any moment, Black Hole found that he didn’t care very much about them anymore, and simply decided that if they ever returned, he would protect everyone from anything they tried.

While he was in his thoughts, Tree had been on his phone and, a few moments later, suddenly turned on the TV, looking very excited about something.

“Guess who’s on the news again!”

Notes:

I wonder who it could be...

Chapter 80: Undeserved

Summary:

There's no such thing as a free lunch

Notes:

This chapter might be a little sad, but it gets better at the end!

“Hm?” Black Hole heard Tree’s voice ring out and he quickly shifted his attention back. “Oh, Remote! And Golf Ball!”

Tree increased the volume of the TV. “Yeah, they’re out there taking all the credit for all the stuff that you discovered! Pretty cool, right?”

“I don’t mind, I like it better this way. At least I don’t have to make a fool of myself on national television.”

“Whatever you say, but I still think it would be nice if you went along with them, just once. There’s probably a lot of people who haven’t ever gotten to see you before.”

In the brief silence that followed, they caught a few snatches of the conversation playing on the news.

“What will this discovery mean for our species?” the interview asked.

Golf Ball spoke up. “Although we are not quite sure whether they will prove beneficial to us or not, simply knowing that they exist has dramatically increased our understanding of the universe and will lead to great advancements in several fields of study.”

“And, it’ll make us more prepared for any potential threats they might pose to us in the future!” Remote added.

As they kept watching, they found that it became hard to look away. They were constantly being hooked back in by Remote and learned quite a bit about astrobiology because of it.

“She’s really good at explaining things, huh?” Tree said.

“Yeah, even I can understand what she’s talking about.”

“…You know you’re probably the smartest one out of all of us, right? You’ve had eons of life experience, and you’ve been through the universe’s entire history.”

“But I wasn’t doing anything for most of my life, I was just lying around the whole time, watching countless universes come into existence only to annihilate themselves moments later. There wasn’t much to learn from an empty void.”

“I promise you, however unintelligent you think you are, you’re still infinitely smarter than any human. I wish we could all be like you, but that isn’t even physically possible.”

As he watched Tree warmly smile at him, Black Hole didn’t know what to say. He felt like he wasn’t deserving of such high praise when there were people who had to work so much harder to get to where they were. Who was he to suddenly show up one day and take the spotlight all for himself? Why did everything come to him so easily while everyone else had to slowly inch towards their goals? Even though it didn’t negatively affect him in the slightest, he still didn’t like it.

“Don’t worry, I think all of you are special in your own way, no need to compare with anyone else.”

“Are you just saying that to make me feel better?”

“No! I honestly think that there are redeeming qualities in everyone, whether it seems like it or not.”

“Right… well, if that’s what you believe, then sure.”

The interview continued for a few more minutes before eventually ending, causing Tree and Black Hole to start cheering for Remote.

“She did so well!” Tree said.

“Golf Ball did too.”

“Yeah, but Remote made it a lot more enjoyable to watch. I’m glad to see she’s so passionate about what she does.”

“Is that a rare thing to see?”

“Sadly, yes. An awful lot of people don’t care about doing something that they actually like, they just do whatever gives them the most money.”

Black Hole couldn’t possibly imagine caring about something so much that he would throw away his happiness for it, but maybe he simply didn’t understand enough about humans to get it.

“That seems pretty depressing to be honest, but I won’t judge.”

“As I said before, humans are naturally irrational. It’s not our fault, we’re just incapable of being perfect.”

“…Are you saying that I’m perfect?”

“I’m not wrong, am I? You might sometimes do things that I personally wouldn’t, but maybe that’s because my human brain is too small to comprehend your motives.”

Tree was talking in a resigned tone, as if he had simply accepted his species’ flaws and lowered his expectations for what humans could achieve.

“…Honestly, I hate how capable I am. I never asked to be like this, I would’ve been so much happier if I had just been like you guys, and lived a normal life on Earth. I don’t deserve anything that I have right now, it was just dumb luck that I got chosen out of so many possible options to get all of these powers. There’s no reason why I should be better than anything else, it doesn’t make sense!”

Tree rarely saw Black Hole get upset, and he didn’t expect that topic out of all things to be the reason for it. He wasn’t scared at all, as he knew that Black Hole was surprisingly good at self-restraint and would never cause damage to anything without a very good reason to.

“Black Hole…” Tree tried comforting him. “It’s not your fault. You completely deserve your powers, and I’m so glad you got them. Had they fallen into the wrong person’s hands… who knows what could’ve happened? You’re the only person I trust to wield all this responsibility, and you’ve been doing an amazing job so far! Just look at all the great stuff you’ve done in the past few weeks alone, and I think it’ll be clear why you deserve everything that you have right now.”

“Couldn’t it have been someone else? There’s definitely someone out there that could do everything I do as well, and probably a lot better than me.”

“We have no way of knowing that for sure, but what I do know is that you got to where you are today somehow, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

He didn’t know why he found it so hard to trust Tree’s words. It was as if he always needed to prove that he was a complete failure, and disregarded anything that went against that belief. Perhaps he was incapable of feeling pride., or he simply didn’t want to.

Whatever the issue was, he hoped that Tree could help him fix it, before everything started going downhill.

Notes:

More Tree and Black Hole therapy! So fun :)

Chapter 81: Leave No Trace

Summary:

Everyone gathers together once again

Notes:

It's actually hard to come up with chapter summaries for chapters where nothing happens, who would've known?

Tree and Black Hole continued their conversation for ages, and they only realized what time it was when Pen showed up a few hours later.

“Hey, look who I brought-”

“Fanny and Lightning?” Tree guessed.

Pen glared at him.

“You’re very predictable, you know?” Tree continued.

“Alright, whatever.” Pen let Fanny and Lightning in before closing the door. “Anyways, did you hear about-”

“Remote? Yeah, we saw that.”

“Pen was watching the interview during class,” Lightning said.

Everyone laughed, except for Pen.

“Hey! You weren’t supposed to say that! In my defence, we weren’t really learning anything, and that class has been very easy so far.”

“Whatever you say, but don’t come to me crying when you end up failing that class because you didn’t learn any of the material,” Tree said.

“Moving on,” Pen quickly interrupted, eager to change the subject, “What did you think of it? Remote did a pretty good job, right?”

“Yeah!” Lightning agreed. “I didn’t even know what they’ve been doing for the past few days, we’ve just been seeing Black Hole fly into space and come back down over and over again. I never would’ve guessed that they were looking for aliens!” He looked at Black Hole. “It was technically you who found them, right?

Black Hole raised his hands. “I have nothing to do with the astronauts other than getting them places. Anything that we find along the way is purely credited to them.”

“I still think you were the most important to the mission, though,” Fanny said. “Without you, they never would’ve even made it out of the Solar System, let alone the entire galaxy.”

“Yeah, but no one ever pays me any attention, which I actually prefer.”

“Fair enough, it’s not easy being known by so many people.”

“He already is, though!” Pen said. “Remote keeps mentioning him whenever she does an interview, so a lot of people probably know who he is, they just haven’t ever seen him before.”

“And I intend on keeping it that way.”

Tree had to leave to go to class shortly after, and he didn’t return until late in the afternoon. Right as he was thinking about her on the way back, he bumped into Remote, who was about to head back home, but after some persuasion, she agreed to follow Tree back to his dorm.

“We were all watching you on the news today, you were great!” Tree said, opening the door.

“Doesn’t Pen have classes in the morning?” Remote asked.

Tree glanced at Pen, as if welcoming him to answer the question.

“...I may have stopped paying attention for basically an entire lecture.”

Remote didn’t know whether to feel amused or concerned. “You thought the interview was that interesting?”

“Yeah, you explained everything really well, made it a lot easier to understand.”

“You’ve gotten so much better at public speaking since we graduated,” Tree said.

“I guess so, but I still can’t listen to myself talk without physically cringing in pain. Also, Black Hole, I know you probably don’t want that much attention, so I tried not to talk about you that much. I don’t know how much it’ll help, considering everyone probably knows who you are, but maybe everyone will forget eventually.”

“That would be nice,” Black Hole responded.

He didn’t particularly get the appeal of constantly being in the limelight, it just seemed like a lot of unnecessary stress.

“So you don’t want people to even know you exist?” Fanny asked.

“I wouldn’t say that, but it’s a lot less pressure on you when there isn’t a crowd of people watching and judging every decision you make.”

“But… you’re Black Hole, though. I’m pretty sure everyone would just give you constant love and support, wouldn’t that be nice?”

“Knowing me, that would probably make me feel worse about myself.”

After a few more hours of talking, Fanny and Lightning went home, followed by Remote shortly after. Truth be told, Black Hole was somewhat relieved that they had all left. Their conversation had spiralled in a direction that he didn’t enjoy as much, and he felt slightly overwhelmed by it all. On several occasions, he wanted to curl up into a ball and hide in the corner of the room,

But he unfortunately wasn’t able to and so had to endure the entire conversation.

That night, when he went to bed, he lay there thinking, unable to fall asleep.

Why was he like that?

Notes:

I know the ending makes no sense, but I don't know how to change it

Chapter 82: Lights Out

Summary:

The night gets colder and colder...

Notes:

I'm so sorry for disappearing for 4 days... I completely lost motivation and couldn't write :(

I'll try to catch up as soon as I have time

“Black Hole, wake up!”

The world slowly sliding back into view, Black Hole forced his eyes open and saw Tree standing right next to him, looking positively terrified.

“Huh? What happened?

“That’s the scary part, I have no idea. Just… follow me, I’ll show you.”

Tree led Black Hole outside onto the sidewalk, gazing up into the dark, moonlit sky.

“I don’t see anything wrong,” Black Hole said, very confused as to why he had been woke up in the middle of the night.

“Black Hole, it’s nine o’clock in the morning.”

“Is it? …Doesn’t seem like it.”

“Yeah, maybe because the Sun disappeared!”

Black Hole didn’t know what was going on, whether or not Tree was trying to trick him. He wasn’t very familiar with the concept of an entire star suddenly vanishing from existence, and didn’t even see how that would’ve been possible.

“I don’t know… the Sun’s pretty big.”

“Exactly, that’s what I was thinking! So, the fact that it’s completely gone is a little unnerving.”

“Well, if that’s all you wanted to show me, then-”

“No, don’t leave! We need to figure out what’s going on!”

Being perfectly honest, Black Hole didn’t care all that much about the whole situation. They had been through much worse in the past, and surely there was a very simple explanation for why they suddenly couldn’t see the sun anymore.

“That’s not our job, we’ll let the professionals handle it.”

“Those being?”

“Uh… Remote? And Golf Ball?”

“I don’t think any of them know what’s happening right now either. It’s not every day we see celestial bodies disappearing for no reason.”

“And you think I do?”

Tree paused for a moment, his hands on his head, as though deep in thought.

“Fine… let’s go back inside.”

Against his better judgment, Tree turned his back on the dark landscape outside and retreated into the light, feeling that he was merely standing in the eye of a massive storm.

Tree sighed. “I feel so weird… my body still thinks it’s nighttime.”

“Maybe you should sleep some more, I don’t think you’ll be doing anything for a while.”

“Nah, I don’t want to leave you alone.” Tree walked into the kitchen, taking out some pots and pans. “Do you want to help me make breakfast?”

“I don’t know if you’ll even have enough power to do that without the Sun, but we’ll see.”

They finished eating breakfast an hour later and once again had nothing to do, so they had to come up with some more creative ideas.

“Hey, if we’re gonna let Remote and Golf Ball figure everything out, why don’t we check in on them?” Tree suggested. “They could explain to us what’s going on, because I’m still very lost.”

Black Hole looked outside into the dark, empty streets. “Do you even think they’re at work? I wouldn’t be surprised if everyone’s still asleep right now.”

“Well, I managed to drag myself out of bed just fine, so I’m assuming they did too.”

“Alright, then. Let’s give it a shot. There’s not much else for us to do, anyway.”

Once they had mentally prepared themselves for the journey ahead, they left the confines of their home and were enveloped in darkness.

 

“I don’t like this…” Tree said, tightly gripping Black Hole’s arm. “Why does it have to be so dark outside?”

Black Hole simply looked at him, looking utterly perplexed. “Are you okay? Did you forget what was happening?”

“No, I’m just a little scared. I don’t go outside much at night, so I’m not very used to it.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll be fine. I don’t think anyone cares enough about us to go after us anyway.”

“Wow, you’re still so warm…” Tree leaned his entire body into Black Hole, trying to escape the piercing cold of the night.

“Almost there, then you can properly warm up.” Black Hole chuckled.

“I like this more, it feels nicer…”

When they arrived at the building where Remote hopefully was, the sky was still as pitch-black as ever, and the city was eerily quiet. Without wasting any time, they quickly went inside and started looking for her.

“At least we know there’s still people here,” Black Hole said.

“Yeah, but doesn’t it feel a little empty?”

Black Hole looked around, realizing that Tree may have had a point.

“It’s fine, Remote’s a really hard-working person, I’m sure she’ll have come.”

They had no idea where she could’ve possibly been and what she was trying to do, so they could only start looking in her’s lab and hope that she was somewhere near there. However, it didn’t take that long, because they were interrupted by a familiar voice running towards them from inside a room.

“Tree! Black Hole! How’s it going?”

“Not that great…” Tree said. “I’m sure you’ve noticed what’s happened already?”

“Yeah, we’re still trying to figure it out… we’ve come up with several theories, but none of them make sense all that much. I mean, what are the chances that the Sun suddenly explodes overnight?”

Tree started considering this question, unsure whether he was ready to hear the answer.

“Surprisingly high?”

“No, actually. It’s very close to zero, because, on the cosmic timescale, everything takes billions of years to happen. And I’m sure Black Hole would completely agree with me.”

“Yeah, and I wish it didn’t. It gets unbelievably boring after a while,” Black Hole said.

“Anyways, follow me.”

Remote led them into the room she’d been in, which turned out to be one big control station.

“Hello!” Golf Ball said upon seeing them. “What brings you two here today?”

“We were trying to figure out what happened to the sun.” Black Hole said.

“And we were bored,” Tree added.

“Yeah, that too.”

Golf Ball didn’t reply at first, instead drawing everyone’s attention to the screens, where a lot of information was being displayed.

“Wow… I have no idea what any of this means,” Black Hole said.

“Don’t worry, it’s not that complicated,’ Golf Ball assured. “I’m just keeping an eye on a few numbers, and their behaviour will tell me all I need to know.”

They all gathered around and stared at the screens, hoping that, somehow, the numbers would be able to bring their star back.

Notes:

It's quite impressive how they can detect a black hole from outside of the Solar System but didn't notice an entire star go missing

Chapter 83: Encased

Summary:

Remote's satellite pictures have finally failed her

Notes:

I keep writing less than I planned to, that might become a problem later on :/

“Hm, that’s weird.”

“What?” Remote asked Golf Ball.

“I can’t get any data from this area. Almost like it doesn’t exist at all.”

Try as she might, she didn’t get a single bit of useful information on the screen. There was nothing but empty space all around, and the large chunk of the sky that was missing from the map certainly didn’t help either.

“There might be one more thing we can do,” Remote said. “May I?”

Golf Ball stepped back and let Remote execute whatever plan she had, and she proceeded to open the feed of one of the many satellites orbiting the Earth at that moment.

“Now we just have to wait for it to turn around…” Remote held a button on the control panel.

Once she was satisfied, she took a picture from the satellite and opened it, eager to see the results.

“And… there’s nothing.”

Where there was supposed to be a blazing star, there was only the void, a solid patch of darkness in the sky. Having thought that she was onto something, it was quite a disappointment for her.

“That’s unfortunate, I thought that would’ve worked, too,” Golf Ball said.

“Do you have any other ideas we could try?”

“No, it really does appear as though that entire area of the universe simply stopped existing… Maybe we should just wait for a while and hope the Sun comes back by itself.”

They weren’t very confident with that plan, but as that seemed to be the only thing they could do, they didn’t have much choice on the matter.

While everyone else’s mind was whirring furiously, Black Hole only had one thought in his head.

“I could… maybe, go take a look?”

 

“Are you ready for takeoff?” Golf Ball asked.

Black Hole had only faintly suggested that idea, but Golf Ball had taken it very much to heart and decided that he would be their best hope of figuring out what could’ve possibly happened to the Sun.

“Pretty sure,” Black Hole said. “There isn’t anything else I have to bring, is there?”

“I think that’s it. Alright, good luck! Have a safe trip!”

Following those words, Black Hole shot up into the sky, with his mission clearly in mind.

Before he had even left the atmosphere, he was already getting an incoming signal from Golf Ball.

“Remember, be extremely careful at all times, we don’t know what could be lurking out there.”

“Alright, I’ll try my best…”

However, as it turned out, there wasn’t much need to try to conceal himself at all, as his vision was clear all around and he didn’t see anything moving other than himself.

He wasn’t exactly able to see the Sun, but he used his best estimate of where it was and started its general location, hoping that he’d be able to find some hints about what had happened.

As he got closer, still, nothing popped out at him, but he could see a very dim light shining in the distance. Suddenly feeling excited, he flew towards it as fast as he could and saw what it really was.

“What…?”

There was a vast grid of tiles stretching in every direction, and they seemed to end up wrapping around, forming the surface of a very large sphere. Black Hole peered inside, and saw the light source he had noticed earlier a lot more clearly.

It was the Sun.

 

Once Black Hole had left, the rest of them didn’t have much to do in the meantime, only waiting for him to return, or at least an update or two. He hadn’t contacted them at all since the start of the trip, so they got unreasonably excited when they heard a sound coming from Golf Ball’s radio.

“Hello? Can you hear me?”

“Yes, loud and clear,” Golf Ball said.

“I think I’ve found the Sun.”

They all froze in shock, unsure whether Black Hole had actually found something of note. There however wasn’t much else up in space, so they could only assume that he had.

“Really? Where is it? Why can’t we see it?”

“It’s in the same spot, at least I’m pretty sure… but there’s a grid of solar panels, wrapping around the Sun like a shell, that’s blocking most of the light it’s emitting.”

Remote and Golf Ball looked at each other knowingly, and even Tree had a vague idea of what they were talking about.

“Alright, we finally figured out where the Sun went,” Golf Ball said. “Now the question becomes: How?”

Notes:

Any astronomy people out there know what this is?

Chapter 84: Unknown Found

Summary:

Black Hole ventures into the middle of the Solar System

Notes:

I promise I'm not skipping days intentionally, I've just had almost no time to write these past few days :(

Black Hole approached the glowing ball of fire, not sure whether he could believe what he was seeing. It didn’t seem possible, yet there it was, an entire star, completely surrounded by a gargantuan megastructure, emitting an indescribable amount of light that no one could see.

“What is this…” he muttered, feeling rather overwhelmed by the abrupt change in his surroundings.

He got closer and closer until he could feel the bursts of flame dancing in his hand, creating a warm sensation on his skin.

In the distance, from back the way he came, he could hear something disturbing the peace, opening up a gap in the otherwise perfectly arranged tiles.

“Oh no, this isn’t good…”

Although he wasn’t particularly afraid of whoever had just arrived, he still wanted to avoid any interaction if possible, and, assuming they were the ones who had built the structure he was in, he didn’t want to be caught in someone else’s territory yet again. Unfortunately, he felt like it would be inevitable. They would eventually find him in their property and, he didn’t know why, but he had an inkling that they had been able to see him the entire time.

Forced to make a decision quickly, he swallowed his fear and flew back towards the massive wall, apprehensively eyeing the object on the other side.

“Hello?” he called out, floating through the small gap that had been made by what seemed like a spaceship.

“Sorry, but who are you? And what were you doing in there?” a voice responded, projected through the ship’s speakers.

“Oh, I’m from the Earth, and I was just trying to figure out where our star went and accidentally stumbled across this thing, but I wasn’t trying to do anything to it!”

“...Earth?”

Whoever was talking sounded very confused to Black Hole, who tried his best to explain to them.

“This is our star system, and we live on a planet called Earth, right around there.” He pointed in the direction he had just arrived from. “We noticed that the Sun (which is our star) suddenly disappeared this morning, so they sent me to check what happened.”

“Wait, there are beings living here?” Black Hole nodded. “I’m so sorry, we didn’t realize.”

“But, what were you trying to do in the first place? Why did you build all this stuff around the Sun?”

“We wanted more places where we could refuel our spaceships, and stuff like that, so we just picked a random galaxy and went through it harvesting the energy from every star we saw. Had no idea any of their planets would be inhabited, though.”

Black Hole didn’t know what to think. It seemed as though they weren’t intentionally trying to be malicious, and had simply made a mistake. Nevertheless, he didn’t want massive tiles floating around and blocking out the Sun for much longer, so he needed to somehow convince them to give up their valuable energy source, which he wasn’t sure was even possible to do.

“I think we need light and heat from the Sun to survive, so could you maybe consider getting rid of the wall around it, please?”

“Yeah, of course. I didn’t even know there was anyone in this region of the universe, we couldn’t detect anything from around here, but now we know!”

That was unbelievably easy, Black Hole thought. He had barely even said anything, and they were already accepting his request.

“Really? Thank you so much!”

“Well, it wouldn’t be very nice of us to just leave your star trapped, would it? We only tried extracting this star’s energy because we didn’t think anyone lived around it, but since we were wrong, then it’s only right that we correct our mistake.”

“Yeah, but we’re not very used to that, no one does it anymore.”

“What, really? How many other species have you even come across, anyway?”

Black Hole hesitated, contemplating whether he should answer that question. As he didn’t see any glaring problems with doing so, he went right ahead.

“Just one, but they really didn’t like us, and they seem to be very intent on blowing up our planet.”

“Aw, well, that’s too bad, maybe they’ll stop in the future. By the way, if they tried destroying your planet, how did you stop them? No offence, but your species seems like it’s lagging behind a little technologically…”

“Uh… that might take a while to explain.”

“That’s okay, I’ve got plenty of time! I’ve already asked some ships to come over to take down the panels, but they’ll probably take a minute to get here.”

Taking a deep breath, Black Hole prepared himself for whatever was about to happen. “Alright, here goes…”

Notes:

Wow, Black Hole, you should really try keeping your secrets to yourself sometime

Chapter 85: Banding Together

Summary:

Black Hole discovers the universe is, surprisingly, full of life

Notes:

Once again, sorry for disappearing, I have way too much work right now :/

When Black Hole had first left the comfort of his home planet earlier that morning, he wasn’t expecting to find anything all that interesting, perhaps just a simple explanation for all the strange anomalies happening. However, he seemed to be a magnet for anything and everything out of the ordinary, as it was not even an hour after he had departed on his little expedition to space before he happened to conveniently stumble across something that could change the trajectory of all of civilization.

Having finally met someone from another species who didn’t try to attack him the moment they saw each other, he was so excited that he had forgotten everything else entirely. Lost in the conversation, he didn’t realize how long they had been talking until much later.

“…So that made the rest of them leave pretty quickly, but they kept coming back after that, and I don’t think they’re stopping anytime soon.”

“Wait, I think I remember hearing something about that a while back… I’m not sure if it was the same species, though.”

“Really? I had no idea the news would spread so far.”

“They weren’t exactly being quiet about it, they kept complaining to everyone for days on end, asking for more supplies and stuff. I had no idea that was the reason why.”

Black Hole felt something welling up inside of him. After having attacked another planet for no reason whatsoever, those aliens had the audacity to go back and ask everyone else for help? They probably didn’t care at all about their defeat, barely inconvenienced by it. Maybe his friends were right, he did go too soft on them.

“Serves them right, they just showed up one day and started attacking our planet, we didn’t even do anything.”

“And they kept going after that?”

“Yeah, they haven’t stopped since. And, to their credit, they’ve come up with some pretty creative ways of trying to kill everyone off, it’s a miracle none of them have worked yet.”

“Well, from what I’ve heard, you keep stopping them from carrying out whatever plans they have, so maybe that’s why they haven’t been able to do anything.”

“Hasn’t stopped them from trying.”

Although he had a very good reason to, Black Hole still didn’t want to bear malice towards them. Perhaps he simply didn’t have enough experience interacting with others to understand that he couldn’t be so nice to everyone all the time. In spite of everything that the aliens had done to him and his friends, he kept believing that they were still redeemable, and his optimism never wavered no matter what happened.

“I should probably get going now,” the alien said, “I wasn’t supposed to be gone for this long.” Good luck with your… situation! Don’t worry, I’ll tell everyone about what they did, maybe we can get them to change their ways.”

“Thanks!” Black Hole said, doubtful that was even possible.

“Oh, by the way…” A few seconds later, Black Hole felt a few short signals enter his mind, which he was somehow able to interpret fairly easily. “If you ever want to talk to us, this is where our home planet is, and it’s also where I live.”

“You mean, your species lives on more than one planet?”

“Technically, yes, but there’s barely anyone outside of our star system, and they don’t get much support from the rest of the civilization. Anyways, I’ll see you around!”

Black Hole muttered a quiet “bye” as he watched his otherworldly friend disappear into the distance.

With each passing day, he felt he was learning more about the universe. Just a month ago, he couldn’t have possibly imagined that there were entire civilizations out there, all living in perfect harmony with each other. Yet, by some series of events, he had already managed to meet two species, and he had a feeling that there were probably several more he hadn’t yet seen.

He hoped they would end up being nicer than he expected.

As he was making his way back to Earth, he felt his back suddenly warming up. Looking back, he saw the Sun, shining bright in the dark, returned to its former glory.

Gazing fondly at the star, he couldn’t help but smile. This one little ball of light, racing through space, was responsible for all life on their planet, that is, except for him. If it were sentient, he would’ve given it all the hugs in the world, and thanked it for simply existing at any given opportunity.

Hopefully, his friends on Earth would be just as happy as he was, once they saw the Sun’s sparkling rays of light hit their eyes.

Notes:

Yay, happy ending! :D

Those are my favourite

Chapter 86: Risky Business

Summary:

Tree has some words about Black Hole's new friend

Notes:

I feel like I've forgotten how to write ._.

Hopefully I go back to normal soon

“Wow, Black Hole sure is taking his sweet time, isn’t he?” Tree looked up at the sky, which was still obscured in darkness.

“Yeah, maybe I should check up on him,” Golf Ball said.

At that moment, the whole world was illuminated by a brilliant flash of light, and the sky returned to its usual shade of pale blue. Everyone quickly averted their eyes, completely unprepared for the sudden brightening of their surroundings after having been in the dark for so long.

“I think he figured it out,” Remote said.

“You think?” Tree did his best to keep the light out of his eyes.

They kept waiting for Black Hole’s return, until eventually they saw a small black dot in the sky slowly getting bigger, signalling his arrival.

“That only took about two hours longer than I’d expected, not bad,” Tree said, secretly a little relieved that Black Hole was finally back.

“I’m very curious as to why the Sun disappeared for so long, now we can find out!” Remote said.

Black Hole landed beside them, very happy to see everyone. It was fun chatting with extraterrestrial beings up in space and all, but this was where he truly belonged.

“Sorry for scaring you all with the light, I should’ve warned you.”

“That’s fine,” Golf Ball said. “Anyways, how did you fix it? And what happened in the first place?”

“Well, I didn’t really do anything. Basically, some aliens put a bunch of little things around the Sun that absorbed almost all of the light coming from it, and I just asked them to get rid of it.”

Everyone else, perhaps expecting something a little more exciting, was rather disappointed with the explanation.

“Really?” Tree said disbelievingly. “Just like that?”

“Yeah, they were really nice about it. They seemed pretty friendly in general, we got to talk for a while and they gave me their location, so maybe we could visit someday.”

“Is that why you took so long to get back?”

“Oh, right, sorry about that, I was enjoying talking with them way too much and lost track of time.”

“At least we have some friends now… I think.”

They all thought that establishing connections with another civilization, especially one this advanced, would greatly benefit them, but, considering their history with aliens, they were understandably not quick to trust them. As long as motives existed, trickery and deceit would always be one of the most effective ways to achieve them.

“Wow, Remote,’ Golf Ball said, “the moment you join our team, aliens start springing up left and right!”

“Yeah, you’ve been kept pretty busy lately, huh?” Black Hole said.

“There haven’t been that many, only a couple,” Remote said. “Besides, I highly doubt I had anything to do with the sudden appearances.”

Remote looked at Black Hole, who instantly started feeling hot in the face. “Why are you looking at me? I haven’t done anything.”

“Are you sure? You’re the only reason we’ve been able to send humans further than the Moon, and now we look like a threat to the other civilizations. They think we’re going to get too advanced for them, and, at the rate we’re going, they’re probably right.”

“In that case, you’ve got nothing to worry about, right?”

“Well, we’re not more advanced than them yet, so they still have every opportunity to take us out.”

“Don’t worry, we’ve managed to get this far, survived countless disasters. We just have to make it a little bit further.

 

“Are you okay?” Black Hole asked while practically carrying Tree back home. You seem way too tense.”

“You seem way too calm! The next few days might decide the fate of our entire species, how are you not nervous at all?”

“It’s not that serious, I just found a new friend.” Black Hole smiled. “We can maybe help each other out from time to time, but I doubt it’ll cause any major consequences.”

Tree stared disbelievingly, exasperated by Black Hole’s overwhelming naivety. “Right… and I’m supposed to believe that?”

“Don’t be so pessimistic, sometimes things do all work out in the end.”

“I’m just trying to be rational! We have no idea who these aliens are, or why they’re trying to contact us, and you’re saying we should blindly trust them just because they ‘seem nice’? Don’t you see how that could end up being a problem?”

Black Hole shrunk away from Tree, feeling overwhelmed by the sudden outburst. “I… Yeah, you’re right. I guess I’m just getting desperate,” he chuckled quietly.

Feeling Black Hole’s touch slip away from him, Tree instantly regretted his words. Stupid, stupid Tree, he thought. Black Hole already had self-confidence issues, why did he feel the need to make them worse? He was Black Hole’s closest friend, yet there he was, acting like quite the opposite. Black Hole probably hated him now…

“No, don’t say that!” Tree said, softening his tone considerably. “There’s nothing wrong with wanting to make more friends. And… I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have yelled at you, that was really mean. You don’t hate me now, do you?”

“Of course not! You’re allowed to have emotions, and it’s healthy to just everything out every once in a while. I was just a little surprised, that’s all.”

They gave each other a big hug and tried to forget about the disagreement as they headed home. It was pointless to argue over such insignificant things, especially since there were so many of them and they could often be resolved with one or two lines from each side.

“Wow, this feels so nice…” Tree said, leaning against Black Hole with his feet nearly off the ground. “Have I ever mentioned how comfortable your body is?”

“Yeah, multiple times, actually.”

“And I’ll keep saying it for as long as I live.”

Black Hole laughed. “Are you sure that’s necessary?”

“Yes.”

Several comparatively uneventful minutes of walking later, they arrived at the familiar entrance to their dorm.

“I think Pen should be back by now, we can tell him everything that happened today!” Tree said.

Tree knocked on the door, and a few moments later they heard Pen’s muffled voice through the walls.

“Look, I told you! They’re back!”

Notes:

I wonder who he's talking to...

Chapter 87: Perfectly Clear

Summary:

The lights come back, to everyone's relief

Notes:

I'm gonna try to return to a daily uploading schedule, but I don't know if I'll be able to. We'll see :)

Pen opened the door and let Tree and Black Hole in, where they saw some friends sitting on the couch.

“Since when were they here?” Tree asked, gesturing towards Fanny and Lightning.

“What? Can’t I invite them over?” Pen argued.

“You can, but I didn’t know you had a reason to.”

“We just wanted to talk for a while! The windows turned black in the middle of class, and it looked like the middle of the night by the time we were outside. None of us knew what was going on, so we decided to hang out inside until everything went back to normal, which took a lot longer than we’d expected.”

Tree shot Pen a dirty look before glancing over at Black Hole to make sure he wasn’t too hurt.

“Yeah, I may have gotten a little distracted and took a few hours longer than necessary. Sorry…”

“Wait, you’re the one who brought the Sun back?” Lightning asked.

“No, I asked someone else to do it.”

“…Someone else being?”

Black Hole sighed, resigning himself to explaining the story yet again. Everyone except for Tree was very much riveted, gasping and exclaiming at every opportunity.

“So… are they our friends now?” Fanny asked, after Black Hole had recounted his conversation with the alien.

“That’s what I think, but Tree doesn’t agree with me.” Black Hole glanced at Tree, looking for confirmation of his statement.

“I just wanted us to be more careful,” Tree said. “We don’t know what their true intentions are, and it’s very possible that they’re just pretending to be on our side to lull us into a false sense of security so they can hit us with a surprise attack.”

The rest of them didn’t seem as sure, and thought that both sides had some merit.

“If they do try attacking us,” Pen said, “we know what to do, right?”

Everyone nodded, except for Black Hole.

“Uh, ask them nicely to stop?”

“And what if they don’t?”

“…My plan hasn’t accounted for that.”

Pen facepalmed. “I’m talking about sending you to go fight them! You have a very good track record against aliens, so you should be able to defend us from anything they try doing.”

“I don’t know if I like that idea very much, I still feel bad for killing all those aliens a while back, and I really don’t want any more blood on my hands if I can help it.”

“You shouldn’t feel bad,” Tree said. “They got what they deserved for messing with you, they brought their fate upon themselves.”

“I still think I could’ve resolved the situation better, though. I wanted to keep talking to them for a little longer and try to get them to stop peacefully, but after I saw them going for the Earth, I panicked and did the only thing I could think of to keep you guys safe, which ended up causing so many unnecessary deaths.”

“It’s okay, none of us blame you, and, even though the aliens were really mad at you, they probably still knew that you were never going to let them survive after what they did. I don’t think they expected you to care more about the Earth getting attacked than yourself, though.”

Black Hole knew that Tree probably thought him a fool, but if that was the price he had to pay to maintain his moral compass, then so be it. He wasn’t about to lose the only thing he had left.

“They couldn’t really do a lot of damage to me, but I knew the Earth probably wasn’t that resilient, so I was pretty concerned when they started advancing on it.”

“Really? Are you sure that was the only reason?”

“…Fine, I’ll admit, I was worried for you guys, and didn’t want any of you to die, so I did all I could to protect your planet. Happy now?”

“Aww…” Lightning could feel the warmth of Black Hole’s words in his heart, lighting up his entire body.

Tree looked at Black Hole, almost laughing at how closely he had predicted Black Hole’s reasoning. “Wow, that sounds so much like something you would say.”

Black Hole stared back, looking confused. “…Yeah? It is something I would say.”

“I know, I’m just saying it sounds a lot like you in particular.”

“What, doesn’t anyone else try to be nice to their friends?”

“No, actually. It’s honestly a bit sad, but at least we still have you.”

“You’re making it sound like I’m your last hope at survival, which I’m not, you guys are perfectly capable of doing everything without me.”

“First of all, we’d be dead without you, so I don’t think that’s true, and second, even if we did manage to survive this far, our species would probably still be doomed. None of us really have any idea what we’re doing, and our flaws are all painfully obvious…”

Tree stopped talking, as he didn’t want to make himself even sadder with more depressing comments about his species. Seeing him fall into silence, Black Hole tried to comfort him, muttering words of encouragement into his ear.

“I don’t think they are, because I’ve barely ever seen any of humanity’s flaws, and I’ve never seen yours in particular.”

“Yes you have, you’re just too nice to care about it. We all have them, it’s human nature. You, on the other hand…”

“I’m not perfect either! I’ve done so much stuff that I wish I could go back and change, and I still constantly think about how much I’ve messed up these past few months. I may be stronger than humans, but that only means my mistakes will also be bigger.”

“Still, you’re about as perfect as we’re going to get. And I’d argue that all these ‘mistakes’ you’ve supposedly made were necessary to ensure our survival. Even if you don’t think you’re all that great, you’re still a huge inspiration to all of us, and I hope that, someday, you’ll realize how much you mean to everyone.”

Notes:

Let's all cheer for Black Hole so he knows how much we love him!

Chapter 88: Double Duty

Summary:

Black Hole discovers the complexities of the human mind

Notes:

Hi! I'm back!

The past month has been so stressful for me, I kept getting more work piled on, day after day, and I had no time to write

Still, I was gone for a lot longer than I'd expected, so I won't be able to write as much as I'd previously intended

I'll try to post extra frequently for the next couple of days to slightly make up for the hiatus

Sorry for the sudden disappearance, I hope you all can understand!

Tree spent the next few hours making sure Black Hole knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was appreciated and loved by everyone, which seemed to boost his mood marginally. Although he would’ve loved to continue for the rest of the day, Tree eventually had to leave. He had several classes to attend, and he generally wasn’t one to miss them unless it was unavoidable.

“Alright, see you in a bit!” Tree gave everyone one last look before walking out the door.

“Bye, Tree!” Black Hole looked at Tree fondly.

“Wow, Tree’s so nice sometimes,” Pen said, “wish he was like that with me.”

Lightning laughed. “Well, it is pretty funny to watch you get constantly roasted by him…”

“It isn’t for me!”

“He knows you can handle it, you should take it as a compliment,” Black Hole said.

“Yeah, alright, whatever you say.”

“No, seriously! Isn’t that what you guys do when you become really close, start making fun of each other?”

“I guess… but I can never come up with anything good to say against him.”

Pen seemed genuinely upset that he kept getting outdone by Tree, and Black Hole, although he agreed with Lightning that it was amusing at times, still wanted to keep Pen the happy, cheerful friend that he always was.

“If it’s bothering you, you could ask him to stop… I’m sure he’d listen.”

“Nah, he’d probably just laugh at me. Plus, I don’t want him to think I’m weak.”

“Tree wouldn’t do that!” Lightning said.

“Yeah, he’s your best friend… I think. He’d never intentionally hurt you,” Fanny said.

Despite everyone’s continuous encouragement, Pen was still reluctant to listen to their advice, still thinking that it would end up worsening the situation.

Black Hole watched Pen silently look around at them uncomfortably, clearly conflicted on what to do. It was painful for him to watch, and he felt obligated to do something.

“If you want, I could go talk to him instead.”

“Oh…” Pen eased up a little, “yeah, that would be nice.”

“How come you’ll let Black Hole say it for you?” Lightning looked at Pen curiously.

“Well, Tree’s a lot nicer to him, and will probably be more easily convinced by him as well.”

“Is he?” Black Hole asked. “I never really noticed, I just thought he was like that normally.”

Everyone laughed at Black Hole’s cluelessness. “He usually never spends time with anyone unless they ask him, the fact that he voluntarily does anything with you at all is a sign that he enjoys your company a lot,” Lightning said.

“Wow, that’s nice of him! …What’s so funny?” Black Hole saw everyone trying to contain their laughter.

“Nothing, it’s fine,” Pen said, almost out of breath.

They continued talking as the hours passed by, the now visible Sun slowly descending in the sky before disappearing under the horizon.

“Hey, Lightning,” Fanny said, checking her watch, “we should probably get going now, we both have a lot of stuff to do.”

“Yeah, but that class isn’t that important, we could probably get away with-”

“We’re not doing that, you’re already nearly failing and I’m not doing much better.”

“...Fine, but we should come back soon, it’s always so fun here.”

Black Hole accompanied Fanny and Lightning to the door, waving at them as they walked outside into the chilly night. After exchanging goodbyes with everyone, they headed back home, later than any of them had been expecting.

Once the door was closed, an unsettling silence filled the room. Black Hole turned around, slightly concerned about the lack of noise.

“Pen?”

Noticing Pen’s sudden change in energy, Black Hole sat down next to him. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, I just…”

“It’s about Tree, isn’t it?”

“Not entirely, but yeah.”

“Well…” Black Hole cast his mind around for something that would cheer Pen up. “Do you want to make dinner with me? It could help take your mind off things for a while, plus Tree will probably be a lot easier to convince on a full stomach.”

“I normally wouldn’t be agreeing to this, but fine. Just for you.”

Pen did seem to be distracted from his problems during cooking, and combined with Black Hole’s ability to light up the room just by being there, Pen felt much better by the time they finished.

“See? You made all this, all by yourself!” Black Hole said.

“Not really, you helped too.”

“Still, you did great.”

Pen smiled at Black Hole’s constant attempts to make him feel better. “Thanks.”

Tree still hadn’t returned yet, so they decided to start eating and hope that he’d be back soon.

“Do you think Tree will still think I’m cool if I ask him?” Pen asked.

“Of course! There’s no reason why you shouldn’t be able to say whatever’s on your mind, especially since you’ve been friends for so long.”

“Alright, I trust you…”

While they were eating, Tree walked in through the door, to the delight of both Pen and Black Hole.

“Tree! You’re back!” Pen said.

“Did you guys start eating without me?” Tree teased.

“Oh, sorry,” Black Hole said, “I didn’t mean to-”

Tree laughed. “It’s fine, don’t worry.” He took a bite of the food. “Wow, this is really good!”

“Would you be surprised if I said Pen made it?”

“Uh, kinda?”

“I guess I’ll take that as a compliment,” Pen said.

“Did Black Hole make you cook?” Tree asked.

“He asked very nicely, and I said yes.”

Tree looked impressed. “Huh, didn’t know you liked cooking.”

“I don’t, but who could say no to him?” Pen gestured towards Black Hole, who was watching the conversation with a smile on his face.

“So, to get you to do anything, all I have to do is just ask?” Black Hole chuckled.

“N-no, that’s not what I said, I’ve got to draw the line somewhere…”

“Alright, I’ll keep that in mind.”

A long silence followed, in which Black Hole debated whether he should bring up his conversation with Pen earlier. He figured that Pen would probably feel awkward watching them talk about him while he was right there, so he decided against it.

Once everyone had finished eating, Pen announced that he was going to bed. Maybe it was so Black Hole could talk to Tree about him, or perhaps he was simply tired. In any case, he retreated into his room, not showing up for the rest of the night.

“Hey, Tree?” Black Hole said, once everything had gone quiet.

“Yeah?”

“You know how you sometimes make fun of Pen and say stuff about him?”

“…Yeah?” Tree looked confused.

Black Hole paused, trying to figure out how best to word his request. “Maybe you could tone it down? I don’t think he appreciates it very much.”

“Oh,” Tree’s tone softened slightly, “I thought we were doing it for fun.”

“Well, don’t tell him I said this, but don’t you think you might be punching down a little?”

“I guess.”

“Just try not to be so brutal with it, okay? To be honest, I can see how it would get tiring after so long.”

Tree felt ashamed of himself, looking into Black Hole’s eyes. He didn’t seem upset at all, but Tree could still see the slight disappointment in his face.

“By the way, could you not mention this conversation to Pen? I don’t think he’d take it too well if he found out,” Black Hole added.

“Yeah, alright.”

“Thank you.”

Black Hole didn’t continue talking, so Tree took this as a sign that he was free to go and started walking towards his room.

“I’m gonna go to bed too. Good night.”

“Good night.” Black Hole waved, watching Tree disappear into the darkness.

He knew Tree probably thought something was wrong, but as long as no one mentioned anything, hopefully the incident could pass without too much issue.

It was hard being a mediator, but if it was to make his friends just the tiniest bit happier, it was worth any amount of suffering.

Notes:

Black Hole acting like a tired parent, seems about right

Chapter 89: New Horizons

Summary:

Remote's struggles have finally paid off

Notes:

The title isn't an Animal Crossing reference Nintendo please don't sue me

Ever since the two missions that were sent to find extraterrestrial life, Remote had been spending most of her time searching through photo catalogs from the telescopes, looking for anything that seemed relatively habitable. Other than the few alien species that had come to them, they were yet to find anything that they could be particularly proud of.

“Who knew there were this many planets out there?” Remote muttered, slightly losing her interest in the task but still forcing herself to keep going.

She didn’t have much else to be doing anyway, since she was already finished with all of her regular work. It was nice being able to relax her brain for a few days before more things inevitably started piling up on her plate, but looking at images of empty space for eight hours a day might’ve been slight overkill.

Then again, there was the occasional star or planet, barely visible as a few pixels in the corner of the image. Whenever one appeared, it was like a shock through her body, suddenly filling her with the excitement that she’d been missing for days.

“Oh, wow, that’s pretty close!”

Instead of taking up a few pixels, the planet she’d just stumbled across spanned the entire screen. Although the telescopes were very zoomed in and it probably didn’t appear that size in the sky, it was still a lot closer to Earth than anything else she’d seen recently.

Taking a closer look, she thought it looked a lot like Earth, a few continents sitting on top of a massive ocean. It was covered in what appeared to be clouds, meaning that the atmosphere was probably similar to Earth’s as well. If any planet were to have life on its surface, this would be it.

The realization of what she had just found setting in, she jumped out of her chair and hurried across the room, walking through the door and up to Golf Ball’s office.

“Come in,” she heard, before opening the door and walking in.

“Hello, Remote! How’s your little project been going?”

“I just wanted to talk to you about that, actually! I found a planet that looks very similar to Earth, and it probably has a lot of potential for life!”

“Ah, I sense another mission coming up. Granted, it has been getting rather dull, we haven’t done one for a while now. Anyways, let’s go to the computer room, I want to see this planet you’ve found.”

Remote lead Golf Ball downstairs and into the room where she’d been spending most of her waking hours.

“This was really lucky, because most of the planets I’ve seen were very small, and tucked away in the corner of the screen. This one was front and center.”

Golf Ball’s eyes moved around the screen, seemingly entranced by the image. “Yes, this does seem quite promising, we should probably send a mission here soon. Is all the equipment ready to go?

“Yeah, we just kept everything in the ship because we figured you’d probably want to use it a lot more, now that we have Black Hole.”

“Oh, and speaking of Black Hole, I know we’ve already asked him for quite a lot, but could you see if he’d be willing to help us tomorrow morning? Since nothing’s been moved, we should be good to go at any time.”

“Sure, I’ll ask him tonight. And, don’t worry, I’m sure he won’t mind. He’ll probably just see it as a chance to help out more.”

“Great! Now we just need to plan out the mission…”

They spent the next few hours thinking about what they wanted to do, and making sure they had the necessary equipment for it. Remote seemed ecstatic at the thought of finally finding other species of life, especially ones who wouldn’t start attacking them the moment they came close to each other. Golf Ball, too, was thinking about what it would mean for them if they actually found extraterrestrial life on the mission.

“Think of all the experiments we could do! We’ll learn so much from them,” Remote said.

“Yeah, it’ll be nice to have another species to compare ourselves to.”

Once they had figured everything out and loaded the ship, they moved it very slowly from its storage area onto the launchpad.

“I don’t see why we can’t do it now, everything’s ready, right?” Remote asked eagerly.

“Well, first of all, our engine isn’t even here yet, plus it’s getting pretty late now, and I’d rather we didn’t have an overnight mission.”

“Yeah, fair enough.”

“In the meantime, why don’t you see if you can find some more planets from the telescope catalogs? They don’t have to look that habitable, we can afford to visit a few random ones. You’re off work in a couple of hours anyway, so maybe just skim through the images. And remember to ask Black Hole about the mission tonight!”

“Sure, I can do that. Bye!”

With one last wave to Golf Ball, Remote walked back to her room and sat down at her computer, ready to do one last bit of planet searching before heading home.

She didn’t find any more that night, but she didn’t know whether that was simply because she got unlucky or because her mind was bouncing all over the place, energized by random thoughts about the new potential lifeforms they were about to discover. Still, it was no matter. She had already hit the jackpot, everything else was merely a bonus.

Packing up all her things, she left the building and started walking to Pen and Tree’s dorm. It was funny how, excluding sleep, she had recently been spending more time there than at her own place.

She couldn’t wait to tell everyone the news. Even though they didn’t know anything yet, she thought there was a good enough chance that the planet actually had life on it for them to feel excited. She imagined everyone’s reactions, general shock mingled with a small amount of disbelief.

Arriving at the front door, she knocked on it, and waited.

“Remote!” Tree said, opening the door. “Come on in!”

Notes:

At this point, I'm pretty sure Remote has contributed more to space exploration than the rest of GASA combined

Chapter 90: Infinitely Terrified

Summary:

Black Hole wakes up to a whirlwind of thoughts

Notes:

Happy Pi Day! I've been motivated to write more by the random number holiday, so here's another chapter :)

I know I haven't posted in 3 months, and I'm very sorry for that. I just haven't had any motivation or time lately

Last time I said this, it didn't turn out so well, but I really think I can start updating faster from now on. Feel free to throw tomatoes at me if I don't

Upon waking up, Black Hole almost fell out of the air, feeling very disoriented. He had a few images in his mind that he could’ve sworn were from just a few moments ago, but he found it hard to remember any specifics, and more details were fading away with every passing second.

He thought he was feeling overwhelmed by emotions, even though he didn’t seem to have much of a reason. He had just woken up, so what could he have even been feeling?

Even though he usually liked waking up earlier, he couldn’t bring himself to move at all and spent the next few hours floating in midair, perfectly still.

“Uh, are you okay?”

“W-what?” Black Hole was startled by the sudden sound. Turning around, he saw Tree standing next to him.

“You were just lying there, staring at the wall.”

“Oh, yeah…” Black Hole slowly rose, still trying to act like everything was fine.

Tree walked up to Black Hole and put an arm around him, smiling warmly.

“Have I ever told you you’re a really bad liar? You don’t have to hide anything from me, I won’t judge you. I’m just trying to help.”

“I don’t-” Black Hole thought he had completely forgotten whatever was making him act so strangely, but he realized that he had regained a few snippets of memory since he had last thought about it. “I had a nightmare.”

“About?”

“Hold on, I’m trying to remember.”

Black Hole paced around the room, annoyingly close to figuring out what it was that had been bothering him the whole morning.

“What would you even have a nightmare about? I don’t think there’s much that you would be afraid of,” Tree said, causing Black Hole to stop dead in his tracks.

“Come on, you made me lose focus!”

“Sorry!” Tree said quickly.

There was a brief silence as Black Hole pondered the question. “I may be strong physically, but there are problems you can’t solve by punching them really hard.”

“What, are you scared of ghosts or something?”

Black Hole chuckled. “You know that’s not what I’m talking about.”

“I was joking… Seriously, though, is there even anything that can scare you?”

“You’d be surprised. Like, one time, I couldn’t sleep for an entire night because I kept having visions of the universe playing in fast-forward, everything fading away until there was nothing left, which is something I’m all too familiar with.”

Tree wanted to say something comforting, but he couldn’t have had any idea of how it felt to have spent all of eternity alone in a cold, dark void, and however miserable he thought it was, the reality was probably astronomically worse.

“And the worst part is,” Black Hole continued, “that’s not even just a nightmare, all that will actually happen in the future.”

Just by saying it out loud, the truth had suddenly become so much more real to him. His expression gradually shifted as the life slowly drained out of his face, it would’ve been comedic if it wasn’t so terrifying.

“Hey, everything alright?” Tree was slightly alarmed by Black Hole’s sudden drop in energy.

“What’s gonna happen,” Black Hole looked straight into Tree’s eyes, “once everything’s gone? What will I do? I can’t just go back to how I was living before.” He was looking at Tree with pleading eyes, desperately searching for some way to get his happy ending.

Although Tree regretted bringing up the topic, he still considered himself responsible for protecting Black Hole emotionally, since he was seemingly so good at it. However, he had no idea what he was supposed to do this time around. He couldn’t think of any consoling words, and anything he said would’ve probably just made Black Hole feel worse. Nevertheless, he still gave it his best shot.

“Hey, I read somewhere that, in an infinite universe, anything that can possibly happen, will eventually happen. So even if I’m gone for a while, I’ll come back again one day. I promise.”

“But,” Black Hole’s voice became slightly more hopeful at this prospect, “how will I know if it’s actually you?”

“Trust me, once you see me, you’ll know.” Tree smiled warmly.

“How long will I have to wait?”

“Depends on how lucky you are, but compared to your lifespan, it’ll happen in the blink of an eye.”

It wasn’t a perfect solution, but Black Hole seemed satisfied with it, and Tree was just relieved that nothing worse had happened.

“Sorry I started stressing out again,” Black Hole said after a moment. “I know it must get pretty annoying-”

“No, don’t say that! You just have a lot on your plate. I’m sure if any human were put in your situation, they wouldn’t take it nearly as well as you.”

“I don’t, though! I have pretty much everything I’d ever want in life, nice and caring friends, a sense of belonging,” Black Hole saw Tree warmly smile at him, “but all I do every day is just complain about all the useless problems that I have.”

Tree grabbed Black Hole’s hand, trying to talk some sense into him. “Hey, listen to me, alright? We like it when you tell us your problems, because we care about you. Don’t you like the feeling of helping others? Why don’t you let us help you?”

“I thought you would get annoyed if I kept complaining about stuff for no reason. I just didn’t want to be a nuisance.”

“Come on, do you really think anyone’s gonna think that? You’ve been nothing but helpful from the moment we met you, and we’ll always be grateful for that. I know we’ll never be able to repay you, but… at least let us try?”

“Yeah, sure.”

Black Hole opened up his arms as Tree ran towards him, pulling him into a tight embrace. For a moment, he remembered what happiness felt like.

“Thank you so much for putting up with me,” he said. “I always feel better when we talk.”

“Me too!” Tree smiled. “You just have this magical ability of making everyone’s worries disappear just by being next to them, it’s so cool.”

“Aww, thanks.” Black Hole laughed.

Tree looked out of the window at the sky outside. It was a perfect gradient, a million shades of blue all blended together to create a beautiful painting.

“I know I’ve been asking this a lot, but do you want to go for a walk? It’ll help you calm down a bit. Plus, have you seen how nice it is outside?”

“Sure,” Black Hole said, “that would be nice.”

Within moments, they were out on the pavement, taking in the landscape around them. They chatted and laughed, all the while the Sun was slowly dipping below the horizon, casting an orange glow over the sky.

They were enjoying themselves so much, they failed to notice the darkness that was slowly consuming everything until it was already nighttime. They hastily walked back home, hoping that Pen wasn’t too worried about them.

Once they got home, Pen was there waiting for them, but they had barely gotten the chance to get caught up before they heard a sudden knock on the door.

Notes:

I've lost track of how many therapy sessions are in this fic, they're just so calming to write

Chapter 91: Back for More

Summary:

They just never learn their lesson, do they?

Notes:

I didn't want to wait for TPOT 17 so I wrote this

Tree looked inquiringly at Pen. “Did you invite anyone over today?”

“No,” Pen said, “but it’s not like we’ve ever needed to invite anyone for them to show up.”

“You got that right.” Tree walked over to the door, wondering who was going to be there this time. It swung open, and there stood Remote, her face red from the cold, and still wearing her work clothes.

“Remote!” Tree stepped aside. “Come on in!”

Pen and Black Hole greeted her as she followed Tree over to the couch.

“Hey!” Pen said. “Found any cool planets?”

“I did, actually. And you’re gonna help us explore it.” She looked at Black Hole.

“I am?” Black Hole asked.

“Only if you want to, of course.”

“Yeah, sure! When is it?”

Remote thought back to her previous conversation. “I think Golf Ball said it was tomorrow morning.”

“Wow, you move pretty fast, don’t you?”

“We still had everything prepared from the previous trip, so we didn’t have to do all that much. If you want to change the time, I could ask-”

“No, it’s fine, I’m okay with anything.”

“Are you finally gonna find some aliens?” Pen asked.

“Hopefully,” Remote said, “but we’re just taking a shot in the dark, we have no idea what’s gonna be there.”

She looked at Black Hole. “You got this, okay? Just do what you’ve always done.”

“It usually hasn’t ended very well when I do that,” Black Hole said.

“That was because of… circumstances outside of your control. Let’s just hope it doesn’t happen this time.”

“You don’t sound very confident,” Black Hole muttered.

After they talked a little more and had a quick dinner, Remote decided to call it a night. There probably wouldn’t be much time to rest tomorrow, and although she didn’t want to jinx it, she was hoping that something would happen to break the monotony of her everyday work.

 

Before she even felt like she was asleep, she had already woken up and was getting ready for the long day ahead of her.

She decided to get Black Hole before going to work to save time, so she walked down the very familiar path and knocked on the door once she got there. A few moments later, Tree opened it.

“Hey, Remote!” he whispered. “Black Hole’s sleeping right now, I can go wake him up if you want.”

“No, it’s fine, I can come back later-”

“Remote!” said a voice behind Tree, making them both jump. “How’s it going?”

Tree turned around and saw Black Hole towering behind him.

“I thought you were asleep?”

“Oh, did I wake you up? I’m sorry,” Remote said.

“It’s okay, I was going to anyway,” Black Hole said. “So, is it time?”

“Well, no, not yet, I wanted to come get you earlier to save time. There’s still about an hour until the scheduled launch time, but I guess we could start early if you want.”

“Let’s just go, then. I didn’t have much else planned this morning.” He looked at Tree. See you soon. Be safe, okay?”

Tree laughed. “I feel like I should be saying that to you, but thanks.”

Remote and Black Hole headed out and walked to the GASA facility, highly anticipating the upcoming mission.

“You’re really enthusiastic about your job, huh?” Black Hole piped up. “Tree told me, this is the most space exploration humans have ever done in their entire history.”

Remote sighed. Black Hole could be so oblivious sometimes.

“Do you know how expensive it used to be to go to space? We used to be able to afford only one mission every year, and that wasn’t even always a guarantee! Now, it’s basically free!”

“I guess so. But still, it’s nice to see there’s so many people that care about the universe.”

“Really? Why?”

“Oh, well, I just feel a certain attachment to it, and I’m glad people are making an effort to explore it!”

“Yeah,” Remote said, “the universe sure is fascinating.”

They arrived at the building much earlier than anticipated, so they decided to wait in Remote’s office until the designated launch time. Remote found it hard to contain her excitement, but Black Hole was just glad to be able to spend some time with his friend.

“I know I say this every time, but I really think we’re gonna find something cool this time,” Remote said.

“Let’s hope whatever we find doesn’t try to kill us.”

“You’ll be fine. When have you ever been in danger on one of these trips?”

“Uh, every single time?”

“Still, you’ve always returned unscathed, so there’s no reason to believe you won’t this time.”

Black Hole was still worried, not for himself, but for everyone else that was going on the mission. They were not nearly as durable as he was, and all that he could do was hope he was able to protect them from whatever they encountered.

As the launch time ticked closer, Remote and Black Hole started talking less and less. It was just a routine mission, yet they couldn’t shake the fact that they were onto something this time.

While they were sitting in silence, each wallowing in their own thoughts, a loud ringing came from the ancient telephone on Remote’s desk, startling them both.

“One moment,” Remote said, standing up to answer the call.

A few seconds later, she hung up the phone. “Golf Ball wants us to head down to the launchpad, she says they’re ready.”

“Alright, let’s go!”

They walked down the endless flight of stairs underneath them until finally reaching the ground floor, where they saw Golf Ball standing outside on the launchpad with some very familiar faces.

“Hey, guys!” Black Hole said. “How’s it going?”

“Hi, Black Hole!” Marker said. “We’re doing great! Are you ready?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be.”

“Attention, everyone!” Golf Ball said, walking out into the open. “We are about to launch very shortly, please enter your ships!”

“Let’s go, Marker,” Pie said. “See you,” she said to Black Hole.

“Bye!” Marker said, being nearly dragged off by Pie.

Once everyone was safely inside, Black Hole got ready for the launch.

“Good luck, everyone!” Remote said. “Safe travels!”

Remote and Golf Ball watched as the fleet of spaceships slowly rose high into the air, forming a tight ring around Black Hole. After a few minutes, it disappeared from view, leaving the sky clear once more.

“Let’s head inside, we can track them in mission control,” Golf Ball said.

When they entered the room, however, it was already full, so they decided to stand in a corner and watch the dozens of screens monitoring the mission’s progress.

“Wow, they’ve already left the Solar System,” Remote said, amazed at the speed that Black Hole was flying at.

“The planet is very far away, so it’s still going to take them a while.”

Just a few seconds later, they brought their attention back to the screens and, as if he had teleported, Black Hole was right next to his destination, and getting closer every second.

“... Never mind, then,” Golf Ball said.

They watched Black Hole gently lower the ships onto the planet’s surface, before reaching for his radio.

“We’ve made it safely onto the surface, can they come out now?”

“Yes, but you don’t have to ask me every time, you can let them out whenever you want to.”

“Okay, thank you!” Black Hole turned around and started walking towards the ships.

Golf Ball turned towards Remote. “The surface doesn’t look particularly welcoming to life, I don’t know if they’ll find anything.”

“Maybe they just landed in a really hostile location? When I did the analysis, it showed that this planet had the perfect environment for life to thrive.”

“I hope you’re right.”

Remote didn’t know how to reply to this, so after a short silence, Golf Ball spoke up again.

“Well, I still have some work to do, I’m going back to my office, and I suggest you do the same. Why don’t we meet back here in a few hours?”

“Alright, see you later.”

Remote and Golf Ball both gave Black Hole and the crew one last look, and parted ways.

Once Remote was back in her office, she occupied herself with her research, and for the next few hours, that was all she had on her mind.

Notes:

Don't worry, I'm sure nothing bad is going to happen to Black Hole :)

Chapter 92: Among the Stars

Summary:

Marker appreciates the wonders of space

Notes:

At this point I'm just trying to pressure myself into updating faster, but I don't think it's working. I'll try my best, but don't be surprised if I disappear again

“So, what are we gonna do?” Marker asked.

“Dunno. Look for signs of life, I guess,” Pie said. They wandered for hours across the surface, along with the other astronauts. Nobody found anything noteworthy, but that was to be expected. After all, if finding extraterrestrial life were so easy, they would’ve already done it a long time ago.

“Why did Remote want us to come here anyway?” Marker asked Black Hole, who was walking alongside them. “There’s just a bunch of rocks and sand.”

“Mars is just a bunch of rocks and sand, and you guys keep sending missions there,” Black Hole said. “We know there aren’t any aliens there, though. We just go there because it’s easy to get to.”

“You never know, it might be right there, hidden in plain sight,” Pie said.

Marker shuddered. “I don’t want to think about that.”

The entire time, everyone was separated in their own little groups, chatting with each other, but nothing else happened. It felt as though they had circled the entire planet without seeing anything other than its dull surface and opaque atmosphere. After returning to almost the same spot they had started in, many had given up hope of coming across any life.

“Hey, what’s this?” Marker bent down to examine what looked like a small metallic object, which stood out against the pale surface on which it rested. Upon seeing that it extended into the ground, he reached to pull it out.

“Marker, no!”

He saw Black Hole sprinting towards him at full speed, white as a sheet. Before he could even open his mouth in response, he was hurtling upwards like a bullet, flying high above the atmosphere. From the edge of space, he saw a brilliant flash from the surface illuminate the dark sky. A rumbling boom came a few seconds later that shook his entire body.

“Woah! What was that?”

After recovering from the shockwave, he paused for a bit to admire the natural beauty of space, for it wasn’t every day that he had the opportunity. However, he had barely gotten a good look at the stars before his weightlessness abruptly ended, and he started plummeting towards the ground. It was at this moment that he realized he didn’t know what was going to happen when he landed.

“I’ve always wanted to go skydiving, but I didn’t know it was going to be this dangerous,” Marker screamed as he fell down what felt like the tallest roller coaster drop of all time.

He tried to remember what he was supposed to do in such a situation, and spread his body out as much as possible to slow his descent. Unfortunately, he figured it would still take a miracle for him to survive falling on the solid rock that made up the planet’s entire surface.

As he got closer to the ground, he looked up at the sky, preferring that he didn’t see the impact. At the last moment, he oriented himself so he landed on his feet, and less than a second later felt his body come to a complete stop.

It took him a while to realize he was still alive, and that he hadn’t even been hurt. He turned around and saw that Black Hole was holding him, smiling widely.

“Are you okay?” Black Hole asked.

“What… just happened?” Marker looked into Black Hole’s eyes, slightly dazed by the fall.

“I’m sorry I had to do that, I’ll explain later. Come on, let’s go back to the others.”

In the distance, he saw all his friends watching them, seemingly cheering.

Marker felt his body leave the ground again and they started rocketing forwards. Within seconds, his feet were finally back on the floor. He looked around at everyone, all of whom were chanting Black Hole’s name.

“Okay, now I’m really confused,” Marker said.

“So, that thing you found, it would’ve exploded on you, so I had to get you away from it. I thought throwing you onto the ground probably would’ve hurt, so I threw you into the sky and hoped I would be in time to catch you.”

Black Hole pointed to a hole in the ground. It was rather small, but very deep. It was as if a chunk of the planet had been sliced out with a knife, there was no debris anywhere.

“I didn’t know how big the blast was going to be, so I just jumped on top of it to be safe,” he continued. “I think it worked out alright.”

“Woah!” Marker said. “Are you okay? That seemed like a pretty big explosion, I could feel it from space.”

“Yeah, I’m fine. It’s gonna take a lot more than that to kill me.” Black Hole winked.

“So, basically, you saved everyone? Again?”

Black Hole chuckled. “I guess.”

They saw Pie move away from the others and walk up next to them. “Hey, are you guys okay?”

“Yep!” Marker said. “I thought I was gonna hit the ground, but Black Hole caught me!”

“To be fair, I did throw you up in the first place,” Black Hole said.

“We were really worried for you, Black Hole,” Pie said. “It just looked like you were consumed by a massive fireball, and we couldn’t see anything through the light.”

“Don’t worry, I would never have done that unless I was completely sure I could survive. I wouldn’t just leave you guys stranded here.”

Marker ran up and wrapped his arms around Black Hole. “I’m so glad you’re safe. Also, thanks for catching me.”

“Just trying to help.” Black Hole smiled.

There was a momentary silence during which one question rose to the top of everyone’s mind.

“Why was that thing even there?” Marker asked. “It didn’t look very natural.”

“I have no idea,” Black Hole said. “Maybe someone just really hates us.”

“I know someone who really hates us,” Pie said.

“Oh, right.”

Marker looked at them confusedly. “Who?”

“Those aliens that keep attacking us,” Black Hole said.

“Again? Come on!”

“It’s okay, I’ll make sure they get what they deserve sooner or later.”

“Hey, should we head back soon?” Pie asked. “I don’t know if we should stay on this planet for much longer.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Black Hole said. “I’ll ask Golf Ball whether we can leave early.”

Black Hole pulled out his radio and started talking.

“Hey, Golf Ball? We came across some kind of explosive device that looks like it was planted here by someone.”

“So I’ve heard.”

“Black Hole!” He heard Remote’s voice come through the speaker. “Are you okay? That looked really painful.”

“Yes, no one was hurt. But, there might be more of those things on the surface, so I don’t know whether it’s a good idea to keep going. Is it okay if we leave a bit earlier than planned?”

He could hear them having a short discussion before making their decision a few moments later.

“Sure. It’s not worth it to risk more people, and there’s probably nothing on the planet if you’ve already been searching for that long.”

“Alright, we’ll be back soon, then. See you later!”

Black Hole turned to the group and addressed everyone. “Hey, we’re gonna leave now! Golf Ball told me we could end the mission early, because I’m sure none of you want to get exploded. Can you all get back in your ships, please?”

Everyone followed this request at once, and within a minute, they were all safely locked away inside their spaceships.

Black Hole gave the planet, and the newly formed crater, one last look, then he blasted off towards the stars.

Notes:

Hopefully this chapter wasn't too confusing, writing in 3rd person limited is hard

Chapter 93: Compromises

Summary:

Black Hole barely makes it

Notes:

It didn't take a month to update this time! Let's see if I can keep this momentum

“How close are they?”

“Well, they sure are taking their sweet time, but they should be back soon.”

The alien pointed at the several camera displays on the wall, all of which seemed to be monitoring Black Hole and the team as they journeyed across the planet. The ships that they had arrived on were faintly visible in the distance, getting closer with every passing moment.

After intently watching their cameras for several minutes, the aliens finally noticed Marker running towards a small piece of metal sticking out of the ground.

“He’s going for it!” one of them shouted.

“Marker, no!” Black Hole’s voice echoed around the room.

The aliens laughed. “Can’t save your precious friends anymore, can you? Although I am surprised that he even knew it was dangerous.”

They stared at the screen in anticipation, as if watching the climax of a movie. They made all kinds of predictions on how Black Hole was going to try in vain to protect everyone. What they did not expect, however, was for Black Hole to throw Marker up in the sky to safety, then jump directly onto what was effectively a small nuclear weapon.

“What is he doing? He’s going to get himself killed!”

“He’s very brave, we have to give him that.”

As the entire ground, they felt the shockwave through the screen, which was entirely white. Their cameras had barely managed to escape the blast, but were still not entirely undamaged.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“How?”

Once the smoke cleared, there Black Hole was, lying at the bottom of a massive pit. Somehow, the explosion had been entirely contained, and no one was hurt at all.

Watching Black Hole run away to catch Marker, they wasted no time in coming up with a backup plan.

“Alright, if they won’t die, let’s go get ‘em ourselves.”

“Way ahead of you. The fleet should be ready in a few minutes.”

Black Hole was already starting to get everyone back in the ships, so they decided to hurry up and join the attack.

“Do you know which way they went?” Their captain asked them once they had gotten into position.

“No, but we assume they would go back towards Earth, so that way.” One of them pointed to an empty patch of the night sky.

“Alright, then let’s go!”

They scanned the planet’s surroundings once more as they flew past it, just in case Black Hole had decided to go a different way. However, no one saw anything, so they went full speed ahead.

“There! On our left!” one of the ships announced.

“Everyone, attack while he’s still tired!” their captain shouted.

They had wanted to ambush Black Hole, but Marker and Pie were looking in their direction, and the moment the ships entered their line of sight, they immediately raised the alarm.

“Black Hole, I don’t think the aliens were very happy that you survived their trap,” Pie said.

“Look behind you!” Marker shouted.

Noticing Marker’s panicked voice, Black Hole whirled around, now flying backwards. The aliens desperately tried to get a few shots on him before he realized what was happening, but he easily dodged every single one.

Black Hole sighed. “Can you please just leave? We’ve been through this so many times, you know I’m just gonna blast you into a star again.”

“Nice try!” the ship in the front shouted. “You think you could fight us after almost getting blown up?”

“Uh, yes?”

“I’d like to see you try!”

The entire fleet started firing at once, leaving Black Hole scrambling to protect everyone.

“You know what, I’d rather not deal with this right now,” Black Hole muttered.

He turned back around and tried fleeing from the fight, but a swarm of enemy ships blocked his path. He tried to avoid them, but couldn’t turn fast enough. Upon colliding with him, the ships all instantly exploded.

“Ah! I’m so sorry!” Black Hole said, slowing down to assess the damage. This was all the time that the aliens needed to catch up to him, and before long, they were back on his tail. However, a lot of the ships were much more reserved now, not wanting to suffer the same fate.

Black Hole noticed this, and thought they would be more inclined to accept his offer. “Can you please let us go home? I don’t want to have to hurt any more of you.”

“Well, too bad, we’re not leaving until all of you are dead!”

“Captain? I’m not sure whether this is such a great idea,” one of the ships said.

“I agree,” another one said. “Don’t you think we’re all just going to get ourselves killed?”

“Are you really going to let him scare you? We have technology the likes of which the universe has never seen! We will not be pushed around by him!” The captain turned back towards Black Hole. “Fire!”

The rest of the fleet still had some bad feelings, but they decided to trust their captain, and followed his command.

Black Hole was still looking for a way to get out of the situation without causing any more unnecessary deaths, but the aliens seemed intent on making sure that didn’t happen. He was being constantly bombarded by lasers, and even a single one making contact with the ships could be disastrous.

No one else seemed particularly interested in fighting, he thought. Perhaps if he could just get the captain to change his mind, they could resolve the conflict peacefully.

He reached out his hand and grabbed the ship right in front of him, bringing it closer. There was one last thing he could try before he had to resort to suboptimal methods.

“I surrender, alright? Just let us go, and we won’t bother you again. It benefits both of us,” he said.

“In your dreams!” the captain said, still shooting at Black Hole. “Why won’t these lasers do anything?” He pounded on the buttons in his ship.

“Just saying, I strongly suggest you accept the peace offer while you still have the chance.”

The captain was starting to get hesitant, especially since he could feel his ship being slowly compressed by Black Hole’s fingers.

As he sat there thinking, he heard some ships in his fleet shouting at him.

“Just run!”

“It’s not worth it!”

The last thing he wanted to do was to abandon the mission, but he still valued his life a little bit more. If he kept attacking, he would likely be dead within seconds.

“Fine! We’ll stop attacking, just let me go!”

“Wow, that’s all it took, huh?” Black Hole loosened his grip and the captain’s ship darted back towards the fleet, eager to leave the area as soon as possible.

Black Hole watched him speed away, with the rest of the fleet following him.

“I kinda wish I didn’t have to do that, but at least it wasn’t anything worse,” he said.

“Why didn’t you want to hurt them?” Marked asked. “Weren’t they trying to kill us?”

“Yeah, but it’s not really fair if I attack them back, so I try not to unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

“That’s really nice of you!”

Black Hole chuckled. “Thanks.”

Everyone was celebrating their ‘victory’ against the aliens, so the entire journey flew by in an instant. Before they knew it, they were back on Earth, at the same launchpad from which they had left.

“Welcome home, everyone!” Golfball ran outside to greet everyone stepping out of their ships. “How was the trip?” she asked Black Hole.

“It was alright. Could’ve gone better, though. Some aliens attacked us right after we left the planet. Probably mad that we didn’t get blown up.”

“Wait, before you continue, let’s go up to Remote, she’d probably like to hear this.”

After waving goodbye to the astronauts, Black Hole followed Golf Ball up to Remote’s office, where she was doing research in her lab.

Upon seeing them, she immediately dropped what she was doing and walked over.

“Black Hole, you’re back! Did you have a good trip?”

“That’s a great question.”

Notes:

My decision not to give any of the aliens a name has come back to haunt me

Chapter 94: Ideas Clashed

Summary:

Nobody really knows what's going on

Notes:

Shorter chapter today, didn't have much to write

Although everyone was safely back on Earth, a sense of unease still lingered in the air. As if they didn’t have enough problems already, they were now being actively hunted by the aliens, who seemed determined to get to them one way or another.

“So what do you suggest we do about it?” Golf Ball asked, standing next to the back doors in the shade and watching the launchpad get cleared out, one ship at a time.

“We haven’t done very much before, and it’s been working,” Remote said. “Every time they’ve tried attacking us, it’s failed spectacularly, so why should we change anything?”

“I don’t know,” Black Hole said, “I feel like we’ve just gotten lucky a lot. Even if anything went slightly wrong just one time, who knows what would’ve happened?”

Remote laughed. “I don’t think it’s us getting lucky, more like you coming in to save us.”

“Still, what if I can’t save you for some reason? All it takes is one slip up, and I’d rather not take the risk.”

“You’re the one who’s always trying to protect them, that’s already adding more risk than necessary.”

“Well, as you can probably tell, I prefer the diplomatic approach to things, instead of wiping out anything that poses a threat.”

“They don’t seem to want any diplomacy, though. I don’t think this conflict will end until there’s only one species left.”

Black Hole winced. “I hope you’re wrong about that.”

He had been trying not to think about this potential option, but perhaps it was the only path forward. He was prepared to back down, but it appeared they wouldn’t let him, despite an overwhelming amount of evidence supporting the idea that they should.

“Do you think we should do anything in response to their sudden attack?” Golf Ball asked.

“I don’t think there’s anything we could do that would get them to stop, unless we take some very drastic measures, but that’s off the table,” Remote said.

“We’ll talk about it sometime soon. In the meantime, could you keep an eye on them and make sure they’re not trying something else?”

“Sure, I’ll try my best.”

Golf Ball and Black Hole left Remote to it, who began scanning the entire stellar neighbourhood for any signs of an otherworldly presence. After almost an hour of this, she concluded that they were, for now, safe.

She couldn’t have had any idea how important her job would become when she first got the position. It had just been a few months, and she was already helping to protect their entire planet. It seemed like an amazing coincidence, and yet, it might not have been one at all.

 

“So, how did your mission go?”

The captain paused, contemplating his next words very carefully. “It could have gone better, but at least most of us made it back alive.”

“And what happened to those who didn’t?”

“We encountered that weird-looking humanoid figure, and suffered a few casualties.”

“How many casualties did they suffer?”

More silence. The captain didn’t have an answer to this question, at least, one that would make his leader satisfied.

“None. The explosion was somehow contained by that same being, and no one was hurt. Same with the skirmish we had after.”

“Do you mean to tell me,” the captain’s leader stood straighter, “we spent all that time and energy on this mission, only for you to do not a single bit of damage?”

“My sincerest apologies, we severely underestimated how strong they would be.”

For the next few seconds, the captain waited for the explosion, but it never came. Instead, there was a loud sigh, followed by some controlled breathing.

“Alright, sure. That’s fine. Underestimated our opponent, happens to the best of us. Let’s focus on making another backup plan, shall we?”

The captain felt relief wash over him at these words, and he agreed with a little more eagerness than he usually would’ve shown.

“Do you know why they’re not retaliating at all?” The leader asked. “I thought they would’ve wanted revenge for our actions.”

“No, I don’t. From what I can tell, they don’t seem to be very interested, as long as we don’t annoy them any further.”

Both of them were deep in thought, thinking of ideas on how they could finish off the planet, once and for all.

“I’ve got it!” the leader said after a minute or two. “They don’t want to fight us, right? So, if they’re not coming to us, then why don’t we help them out a little?”

“How are we going to do that?” the captain asked.

He noticed his leader’s wide smile, and decided not to ask again.

Notes:

I love being as vague as possible so everyone can be just as confused as the characters

Chapter 95: Reconnaissance

Summary:

The sky turns upside down

Notes:

I forgot to write again ._.

Don't worry, I have a lot more time on my hands now, so I should be able to update more often

This is my longest chapter yet, enjoy!

The Moon cast a faint glow in the night sky, lighting up Remote’s surroundings as she walked home from work. She hadn’t managed to find anything out of the ordinary that evening, but there was no harm in being a little more careful.

Even then, the sky was perfectly still, a mosaic of celestial objects that could’ve been suspended in place for eternity.

Gazing up at the heavens, Remote saw the twinkling of distant stars, the white crescent orbiting their planet. At that moment, she could truly appreciate the serenity of the skies above.

She walked past the familiar entrance to her college campus and eventually made it back home. After a long and tiring day of work, she immediately collapsed onto her bed and fell asleep.

 

Eight hours later, she was awoken by the Sun’s warm, red light leaking in from her window blinds.

“Wait, what?”

Once she returned to consciousness, she quickly realized the Sun was not supposed to be red. Now very confused, she opened her window to take a closer look.

From her room, she could see the light source in the sky. It seemed to be a red dwarf star, although how it replaced the Sun was beyond her. Outside, the few people who had already woken up were rooted in place, looking as close as they could to the new star without blinding themselves.

She was now panicking slightly, as countless thoughts raced across her mind. Experienced as she may be in her field, she had no logical explanation for the sudden disappearance of the Sun.

Maybe to calm her down more than anything, she wanted to call Black Hole, to see whether he knew what was going on. However, she figured he was still asleep, so she decided to wait a few hours.

Now that she was properly awake, there was no point in trying to fall back asleep. On the other hand, she didn’t want to just wait around and do nothing, so she went to work early, hoping that she could find someone to talk to.

 

“Remote!”

She looked around and saw Golf Ball running out of a door, her arms waving around frantically.

“I thought you said you didn’t see anything last night?” Golf Ball asked.

“Yeah, everything was normal until I woke up this morning. I guess it must’ve happened in the middle of the night.”

“Do you have any idea what’s going on? As far as I know, this shouldn’t even be possible.”

“Well, we’ve learnt that a lot of things we previously thought were impossible actually weren’t, so I don’t think logic applies here.”

“What about Black Hole? Doesn’t he know a lot about this kind of stuff? Can you ask him?”

Remote gave it some thought, but still came to the same conclusion. “I don’t know, I’m pretty sure he’s still sleeping, and I don’t want to wake him up.”

“This is a serious issue, it might be the end of the world as we know it! I think Black Hole’s sleep is the least of our concerns right now.”

She was still reluctant to do it, but she couldn’t disobey a direct order from her boss. “Alright, I’ll go get him. See you in a bit.”

Golf Ball watched her walk away, back the way she came. “Don’t worry, if we make it through this alive, I’ll make sure Black Hole gets the appreciation he deserves.”

She was so immersed in her own thoughts, she didn’t even know where she was going. After what felt like an instant, she found herself in front of a door, and she knew exactly who it belonged to.

A few knocks later, the door opened, and Pen welcomed her inside.

“Nice weather today, isn’t it?”

“This is serious,” Remote said. “We have no idea what’s going on, which is actually why I’m here. Golf Ball wanted to ask Black Hole whether he knew anything, because we’re very helpless right now.”

“Alright, give me a second, I’ll go wake him up.”

Pen walked into the living room. A few seconds later, Remote heard some muffled shouting.

“Black Hole! Wake up!”

“Huh? Oh, hi, Pen.”

“Wow, you sleep like a rock.”

“Hey, you can’t blame me. I only discovered what sleep is a few months ago, I have a lot of it to catch up on.”

“Anyways, you should get up, Remote wants to see you.”

Pen and Black Hole appeared a few seconds later, Black Hole looking like he was about to collapse at any moment.

“Hey, Black Hole?” Remote asked. “Are you okay?”

“What?” Black Hole yawned. “Yeah, just give me a few minutes, it doesn’t feel very nice when you get woken up by someone shouting in your ear.”

“Sorry,” Pen said, “it was the fastest way I could think of getting you up.”

“Alright, well, if you’re ready, should we go, then?” Remote asked. “Yeah, sure. See you later, Pen.”

After exchanging goodbyes, they stepped outside and started walking to GASA.

“Uh, Remote?” Black Hole asked. “Why is the Sun red?”

“Oh, I was hoping you’d know.”

“I can only assume it’s because we’re orbiting another star, but I have no idea how that could’ve happened.”

Remote looked up at the sky. “Do you see anything weird up there?”

“There are a lot of new objects in the sky, but other than that, I don’t see anything different.”

“I think Golf Ball’s gonna get you to fly up there and take a look, maybe move our planet back if you can find the Sun.”

“Well, I’ll try my best.”

“I would wish you good luck, but you probably won’t need it.”

Black Hole laughed. “Don’t celebrate too early.”

After a short walk, they entered the GASA building, a familiar refuge hidden away from the starlight.

Golf Ball was in her office, trying to connect the pieces to figure out what happened to their planet. For a moment, she didn’t even notice the visitors at her door.

“Uh, Golf Ball? I got Black Hole,” Remote said.

“Oh, hello!” Golf Ball said. “Sorry if I got you up early, I just wanted to ask you a few questions regarding the current situation.”

“He already said he has no idea what’s going on.”

“I could go up to space to check things out, if you wanted,” Black Hole said.

“Yes, good idea,” Golf Ball said. “Do you want to bring anyone along, or just go by yourself?”

Black Hole had his answer ready instantly. “I think I’ll be fine by myself, I don’t want anyone getting hurt.”

Within minutes, Black Hole was ready to go. He was out on the launchpad, carrying nothing with him. If all went well, he would be back in a few minutes.

“Bye, Black Hole!” Remote said.

“Good luck!” Golf Ball said.

“Thanks, see you soon.”

And with that, he was gone, hurtling towards space faster than any rocket. Within just a few seconds, he had already left the atmosphere.

“I hope we’ll be fine, we’ve already had way too many close calls with extinction-level events,” Golf Ball said.

“It’ll be okay, I trust Black Hole completely. He’s never failed us before,” Remote assured her.

“Let’s hope this isn’t a first.”

 

“Whoa, what is this place?”

As Black Hole approached the edge of space, the opaque atmosphere gave way, revealing a bustling metropolitan hub of planets and moons, the spaces between them filled with streams of spaceships. In the middle of it all was the red dwarf star the Earth was now orbiting.

Some ships seemed to stop by their planet, perhaps wondering how it suddenly appeared there. Black Hole wished he had an answer.

Flying around the different planets, he thought he recognized some of them, and he got a sinking feeling in his chest.

“Wait, is that…?”

A closer look at the surface confirmed his fears. They were in the alien star system that he had narrowly escaped from just a few weeks ago, right in the middle of enemy territory.

The only possible explanation was that they had moved the Earth across interstellar space to their own star system, but Black Hole didn’t want to believe that they were that advanced. What kind of technology could move an entire planet across the galaxy overnight?

He decided that he would do a little more research before heading back home, so he started looking for whoever came up with the idea in the first place. He saw what looked like the largest planet in the system, and prepared to descend onto it.

After making himself undetectable, he entered the atmosphere and scanned the surface for any impressive-looking buildings, hoping the leaders would all be there, planning their next move.

In the distance, he saw a massive palace stretching across the horizon, larger than some of the cities back on Earth.

“Wow, they couldn’t have made it more obvious, could they?” Black Hole laughed.

He took a deep breath and proceeded toward the megastructure, trying to act like he wasn’t scared of what he might hear.

Notes:

Cue the Mission Impossible music... except it's very much possible

Chapter 96: Apology Accepted

Summary:

All good things must come to an end

Notes:

Bit of a serious chapter, heads up

“Still, we have to be careful. We’ve already had our plans foiled by that cosmic abomination too many times to count.”

“We’ve been careful this whole time! Why else do you think they still don’t know what’s happening?”

“They’ll figure it out soon enough, trust me. In the meantime, let’s just make sure they stay right where they are.”

“How long until you’re ready?”

“Everything should be in place, I just need to check the laser one more time, shouldn’t take too long. Maybe half an hour?”

Behind a corner of the room, Black Hole did a double take. “Laser?” he whispered.

“Alright, I’ve got to get going as well, the Emperor wanted to see me before we continued with the plan. Let’s meet back here when you’re done?”

“Sure, see you later.”

With that, the two aliens left the room, walking right through Black Hole, who was too deep in thought to process anything else. He let out a panicked shout before remembering they couldn’t feel him.

Wasting no time, he followed them outside and dashed back to Earth. He figured if there were only thirty minutes before they fired whatever laser they were talking about, he’d better hurry and tell everyone he could.

 

Once he made it back to the GASA facility, he saw several familiar faces in Golf Ball’s office. Marker was staring out of the window while Pie sat next to him, doing apparently nothing, Pen was talking with Fanny and Lightning, theorizing about what might’ve happened, and Tree was watching Remote and Golf Ball as they frantically typed on their laptops, trying to figure out whether they were going to die.

Marker was the first to see him. “Guys, Black Hole’s back!” He pointed out of the window.

“Great, hopefully he has some useful information for us,” Golf Ball said.

Black Hole phased through the wall and landed inside, looking around the room.

“When did everyone get here?” he asked.

“Well, no one really knew what was going on, so we came here to ask Remote,” Pen said. “Turns out, she doesn’t know what’s going on either.”

“I do, but you’re not gonna like it.”

The whole room seemed to freeze, waiting for Black Hole to break the news.

“You know those aliens that keep attacking us? They moved our planet into their star system, and I heard them talking about some kind of laser that they were getting ready. Didn’t sound very good. Anyways, they said it’ll be ready in about half an hour, so I suggest we hurry up and come up with a plan.”

The first person to recover from the initial shock was Golf Ball. “If they’re preparing a laser, I can only assume it’s for us, so our first priority should be making sure we don’t get blown up. Black Hole, can you move our planet away from this star system? Try to bring it back to the Sun if you can.”

“Alright, I’ll be right back.”

Black Hole flew out of the side of the building and went back into space, trying to locate their star. He eventually found a small bright dot that he identified as the Sun and started accelerating towards it. He somehow made it out of enemy territory undetected, and a few minutes later, they were back home.

“I put the planet as close to its original orbit as I could, hopefully it doesn’t fall into the Sun or something.”

“It’s probably fine, a small difference won’t do that much,” Golf Ball said. “Besides, if we ever flew off course, you could just fix it, right?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

The minutes passed by, and they all stayed in Golf Ball’s office, unsure of what they were waiting for. However, this proved to be a very good decision, as Marker saw a large circle floating above them just a little while later.

“Hey, what’s that thing in the sky?” he asked.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Black Hole said, looking up at where Marker was pointing. There it was, clear as day, the same planet he was just on a few minutes prior. Everyone else walked over to the window to take a look and saw the blood red planet, looming ominously overhead.

“So, how long before we all die?” Pen asked.

“Don’t say that, Pen,” Remote said. “It’s been about twenty-five minutes, so five left.”

“You know what? I’m going up there. Maybe I can convince them to stop attacking us,” Black Hole said.

Tree snorted. “Yeah, good luck with that.”

“Hey, you never know, it might work. Plus, there’s not much left we can do, might as well try it.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“Good luck, Black Hole!”

“You’ve got this!”

“The fate of the entire world is resting on you, so, no pressure.”

Black Hole smiled. “Thanks, guys. I couldn’t have asked to meet nicer people. It’s been so fun with you all.”

“Whoa, you make it sound like you’re leaving for good,” Tree said.

“I hope I get to see you guys again, but just in case I don’t, I love you all. Thanks for being my friends.”

He flew off into space, leaving the Earth for what might’ve been the last time.

 

“Yes, we should be all ready to go. The activation phase begins in one minute, then it’s smooth sailing from there.”

“Very good, I look forward to watching this. I don’t think they even know we followed them, they haven’t responded yet.”

Both aliens laughed. “Well, let’s head over to the laser to get a better view.”

“Wait!” Black Hole made himself visible and jumped out from behind a wall. “Please, don’t start the laser!”

“Oh,” one of the aliens said, “it’s you.”

“Why do you want to get rid of us so badly, anyway? What do you gain from this?”

“Mainly to make sure you don’t become a threat in the future. If you become advanced enough, you could disrupt the system we’ve had for eons. It’s safer just to wipe out any civilizations that start looking to the stars so they don’t become a problem later on.”

Black Hole tried rationalizing this thought process, but he couldn’t possibly imagine being so cruel. He was starting to get upset, and it showed in his voice.

“We were never going to do anything, though! We’ve always just been minding our own business, it’s always you who are the aggressors!”

“There’s no way of trusting you, though. Better safe than sorry.”

“Alright, fine! We won’t try to go to space again, we’ll just stay on the Earth forever, okay? Just please don’t blow up our planet.”

The aliens smiled, or perhaps it was a grimace. It’s a bit too late for that, the lasers have already been activated. You’ve got about sixty seconds before they fire.”

“You…” Black Hole had to treasure every second he had left, and every insult hurled was too much time wasted. He rocketed outside and scanned the surface for any structures. He concentrated his efforts on the side of the planet facing the Earth, but still, all he could see was vast plains of sand and mountain-sized dunes.

With every passing second, Black Hole’s feeling of dread heightened exponentially. How much longer did he have left? It must have been the longest minute of his life, yet it couldn’t have gone by quicker.

“Come on, where is it?” he shouted, on the verge of a panic attack.

Never, in his memory, had he felt so stressed before. There were so many people counting on him, he couldn’t just let them all die.

He had to save them.

After what felt like an eternity, he saw it. A cylindrical megastructure aimed towards the heavens, at Earth. On its side was a large electric display, showing the number three.

His heart stopped.

I… failed them, he thought.

Two.

At least I got to say goodbye to everyone.

One.

I’m sorry.

Zero.

Notes:

"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened." - Dr. Seuss

Chapter 97: Let Them Eat Cake

Summary:

"History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes." - Mark Twain

Notes:

Sorry for such a depressing chapter last time... Take this wholesome one to make up for it

A wave of energy expanded out from the blast, hitting Black Hole and almost knocking him out of the air. The laser was obscured by the massive ball of light it created, but instead of getting beamed up into space, it continued getting bigger as it was charged up with more energy until exploding directly above the laser, instantly vaporizing it and anyone who was unfortunate to be standing next to it at the time. Black Hole watched, speechless, the destruction unfolding before him. He felt paralyzed, unable to move a muscle.

The sky went quiet, and all that remained was a building-sized crater where the laser once stood.

“Join the revolution! Down with the empire!”

Black Hole turned around and saw an alien flying around in some sort of jetpack, shouting through a megaphone. However, it didn’t amplify the voice at all, but rather concentrated its sound upon everyone who heard it, so that Black Hole was left feeling as though the voice had spoken from inside of him. Taking another look at the alien, he thought he recognized the face, but he couldn’t remember where from.

Evidently, the message had been heard by the entire planet, as all around Black Hole, swarms of aliens were emerging above the surface, rushing towards the heart of their civilization. Despite being on the other side of the planet, they had all gathered around the central palace within minutes.

Watching everyone race past him, Black Hole decided to follow them to see what was going to happen. Upon arriving at the palace, he saw a crowd of aliens millions strong, laying siege to its inhabitants, who were cowering atop their balconies. Even floating high in the sky, he could hear the chatter of the mob below.

“Hey, Black Hole! Glad you could join us!”

The same alien from before appeared beside him, still wearing the jetpack and carrying the megaphone.

“Wait…” Black Hole looked more closely at the alien, and something clicked in his brain. “I remember you now!”

The alien gasped. “You do? I’m so honoured!”

“You’re kinda the only one of your kind I’ve talked to, face-to-face. And you’re the only one who didn’t immediately try to kill me when we met.”

“I did, though.”

“The first time doesn’t count, you were forced to do it. When you were by yourself, you were surprisingly nice.”

“Probably because you were holding my ship between your fingers.”

Black Hole chuckled. “Yeah, maybe. Still, I’ve been attacked so many times by others of your species, even when I’ve given them multiple chances to run away. You’d think they’d have learnt their lesson by now, but they just never give up. I’m not sure whether or not that’s a good thing.”

“I think it usually is, but you also need to be able to recognize when the situation is truly hopeless, which I don’t think they’re very good at doing.”

“Speaking of which, what are they doing right now? Are they going to fight?”

“Unfortunately, I think they are.” The alien sighed. “I just hope not too many of us get hurt. I was the one who convinced everyone to fight against the empire, and I can’t imagine if this all turned out to be for nothing.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure it won’t.”

The alien smiled and felt all the tension in his body disappear instantly. If they had Black Hole on their side, there was no way they could lose.

“By the way, just curious,” Black Hole said, “were you also the one who stopped the laser from firing properly?”

“How did you guess?”

“Your arrival was so well-timed with the explosion, it couldn’t have been a coincidence.”

“Well, yeah, you’re right. I figured the best moment to unite everyone against our leaders was right after they tried blowing up an entire planet, and they didn’t even bother making their plans private, so I knew exactly when it was going to happen. Right before the laser fired, I snuck inside and broke the mechanism that beams the light away. I got out of there as fast as I could and waited in the air. I saw you show up right before it fired, the look on your face made me feel so bad.”

Black Hole frowned, remembering how he was feeling at the time. The alien gave him a sympathetic look.

“Luckily,” he continued, “the laser couldn’t go anywhere once it was created and ended up exploding itself, so no one got hurt! Except for a few unlucky souls, that is.”

“I…” Black Hole was momentarily speechless, overcome with emotion. “Thank you so, so much. You saved our whole world, I don’t know how I could ever repay you.”

“Hey, you spared my life, remember? This is just my way of repaying you, or at least attempting to.”

“Still, I appreciate it a lot. I’m so grateful I met you, all that time ago. If I hadn’t…” Black Hole shuddered.

“Part of the reason why I had the idea of starting a revolution in the first place was because I met you, one-on-one. You were so nice, you seemed like you wanted nothing but for everyone to be happy. How could anyone possibly want to hurt you?”

Black Hole smiled at the compliment. “I don’t think they were trying to hurt me. They were going for my friends, and I got in the way.”

“That still would’ve hurt you emotionally, I’ve seen how close you are with your friends. Anyways, I knew you were too nice to get revenge, so I decided to myself. A few months of planning later, here we are.”

“Wow, everyone I’ve met tells me I’m too nice.” Black Hole laughed. “Maybe I should fix that.”

“No, you don’t have to if you don’t want to! That’s just your personality, and no one has the right to tell you what it should be. Besides, being too nice isn’t necessarily a flaw, you know? It makes almost everyone you talk to like you instantly, and the ones who don’t are just generally mean-spirited.”

“Yeah, but it also allows stuff like that to happen.” Black Hole gestured in the direction of the laser.

“That’s obviously not your fault. They try to destroy your planet, you let them live, and they decide to pay you back by trying to destroy your planet again. Who even does that?”

The alien sounded genuinely upset, as though he was the one his leaders had tried to kill.

“I guess some people will just keep taking advantage of you if you let them,” Black Hole said.

“Exactly! See, now you’re getting it.”

“I always knew that, I just never wanted to think anyone was like that, so I always looked for the best in people. Unfortunately, some people just want to see you suffer.” He looked up at the top floor of the palace, where the alien leaders were still standing behind the balcony, too scared to make a move.

“You have the patience of a saint. If it were me, I would’ve destroyed them all the instant they tried attacking me. Guess that’s why I’m not the likable one here, huh?”

“Hey, don’t say that! If you weren’t likable, you wouldn’t have an army of supporters following your orders, helping you fight for your cause.”

Below them, the large crowd was still chatting away, restlessly waiting for the sign to strike.

“I think that’s more because they’re fed up with our leaders as well, and joined the first person brave enough to challenge them. I already had fighting experience, so they thought I would be a good leader.”

“You will be a good leader. That I know for sure.”

Looking down, the alien gulped. “I guess we should get going, then. Better sooner than later.”

Black Hole gave him a warm smile. “Hey, you got this. Let’s go make them pay.”

The alien floated down towards the palace, while Black Hole went to join the crowd.

He landed in the back and watched his alien friend approach the balcony where the leaders were hiding.

“Let the show begin.”

Notes:

I'm sorry if I've been mischaracterizing Black Hole this whole time, this is just my interpretation of him

Chapter 98: Uncompromise

Summary:

The game's afoot

Notes:

CW:

Minor character death

“What do we do?”

“Honestly, I don’t think there’s much we can do. You want to go out and talk to them? Fine by me.”

They looked down at the large mob of angry people surrounding them. There were so many, the whole planet must’ve been gathered around their palace.

“Where’s the military? Shouldn’t they be dealing with this?”

“They were called here, I don’t know how long it’ll take them to show up, though.

“Alright, you know what? I’m going out. We need to distract them until we can actually fight them. See you in a bit.”

The alien walked back onto the balcony, where he heard boos from every direction.

He saw one member of the crowd flying towards him and quickly hid behind the balcony walls before regaining his composure.

“What is the meaning of this?” he asked. “What do you want from us?”

“You know perfectly well what we want from you,” the alien said. “Did you really think you could do whatever you wanted and get away with it?”

“Sorry, I genuinely have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t play dumb! That won’t work with me.”

He was getting more confused by the second. This random alien seemed to think he knew something that he didn’t. He racked his brains, trying to think of what they could’ve possibly done to anger this many people.

“Oh! Are you talking about those battles we fought with that other civilization? We thought you all liked those!”

“Are you out of your mind? Why in the universe would you think we liked getting sent to our deaths by the thousands every week?”

“We didn’t know-”

“No matter how many times you failed, you just kept sending more innocent people to fight your battles. Most of us didn’t even want to fight them, but you still made us lay down our lives, for no reason! You didn’t even care about how many people you were losing, did you? As long as it wasn’t you on the chopping block, there was nothing to worry about.”

It felt like he was being pelted with stones. He didn’t know where he would even begin crafting his response, but still had to say something to calm the crowd.

“I understand how you feel, but it was a necessary sacrifice in order to-”

The alien snorted. “First of all, no, you don’t, you’re not fooling anyone with that, and second of all, what part of any of this was necessary? We would’ve been completely fine, had you not decided to go after a random civilization, just minding their own business, so you could expand your so-called ‘empire’. You’re acting like they’re the aggressors here, when they’ve never even come anywhere near our land!”

“That’s not true, I saw one of them in this very building just now, he was eavesdropping on my conversations!”

“Have you considered that, maybe, just maybe, it was because you moved their entire planet over here so you could blow it up with a giant laser? And when he found out and tried getting them away, you followed them back to their home! How could you possibly convince yourself that you’re the innocent one here?’

“I…” He could already feel the crowd swaying against him, and he knew he couldn’t keep defending himself for long, so he did what any reasonable person would do in that situation, and conceded, or at least pretended to.

“Alright, fine, you win. What do you even want from me? Not much I can do now,” he said.

“Can you just use your brain for one second? You’ve massacred thousands of people under your rule, and countless others who weren’t. What makes you think you’re fit to lead our civilization?”

The pressure he was being put under kept steadily increasing, and he could feel himself becoming more anxious and his speech more timid.

“Well, there’s no one to replace us. If we left, the whole empire would crumble!”

“I’m sure literally anyone here would do a better job than any of you. At least they’re fighting for a cause they actually believe in, instead of being forced to by their leaders.”

This time, he didn’t respond. Instead, he stared off into the distance, and a sinister grin spread across his face. “Let’s see how long that lasts.”

And he walked back inside.

 

Remote took her eyes away from the telescope.

“What do you see?” Golf Ball asked.

“I think they’ve started fighting,” she replied.

“Wait, what?” Golf Ball walked up next to her.

She looked through the telescope and saw the surface of the red planet floating directly overhead. Right in the center was the crater where the massive laser once stood that, by some miracle, had failed to fire properly. A little to the left, a golden palace stood tall amidst a sea of smaller buildings. Around it, there was nothing but carnage.

The crowd was quickly thinning out, and not by choice. They were being pushed back towards the palace in all directions, trying to avoid the thousands of deadly lasers being blasted their way.

“Hey, I see Black Hole!”

“Really?” Tree asked. “What’s he doing?”

“I think he’s flying around with another alien, and trying to deflect the lasers away from everyone.”

“Wait, lasers? Can I see?” Pen asked.

Golf Ball stepped out of the way, and Pen put his eye against the telescope.

“Whoa, that’s so cool!”

“It would be, if they weren’t using them to kill each other,” Tree said.

“How did any of this even happen?” Remote asked. “Everything still seemed fine a few minutes ago!” “I wouldn’t count a massive crowd gathered around a palace as ‘fine.’”

“Guess they had a really bad argument.”

After a few seconds of silence, Pen screamed Black Hole’s name, causing everyone to flinch and snap their heads towards him.

“Wait, never mind, he’s fine.” Pen sighed in relief.

“Wow, who knew black holes were immune to lasers?” Tree cursed Pen’s name for nearly giving him a heart attack. If anything happened to Black Hole…

“I just saw those lasers vaporize an entire crowd of aliens, I’m sorry for forgetting they wouldn’t work on Black Hole.”

“Have you ever seen him get hurt? He’s been through much worse and was perfectly fine afterwards. I don’t even know why the aliens still think they can get him with those little rayguns.”

“They’ve been known to be very persistent in the past,” Remote said.

Tree laughed. “I’ve been telling Black Hole all this time, ‘they’ll never give up,’ ‘you can’t befriend them,’ and he never listens.”

“He did befriend one of them, though,” Marker said. “He told me a while ago!”

“Probably because they disagree with their leaders on a few key issues. I highly doubt even Black Hole could become friends with someone who hates everything about him.”

“From what I can tell,” Pen said, “he’s trying really hard to get them to stop hating him. He flew up to the top of the palace, and I’m pretty sure he’s talking with someone, no idea what he’s saying, though.”

 

“Why are you doing this? Don’t you care about your own people?” Black Hole asked, desperately trying to get through to the aliens standing on the balcony in front of him.”

“They’re all traitors, they were trying to kill us. We needed to ensure our safety,” one of them said.

Black Hole gave them a death stare. “No one was trying to kill anyone until you sent your army after those innocent civilians!” He pointed down at the ground, where the battle raged on.

“They could’ve been preparing to, you never know. We can’t take any risks.”

At this point, Black Hole was on the verge of losing it, so he decided to leave before one of them made him destroy the galaxy.

“Hey, Black Hole!” his alien friend said, seeing him descending from the sky. “How was it?”

“Ugh, they don’t even care!” He landed on the ground, and a plume of dust rose into the air. “I tried asking them to stop, but they won’t even listen to me!”

“Hey, don’t let them bother you, what do they know? If they’re not gonna listen to you, that’s their loss. You should just focus on what you need to do.”

Black Hole took a moment to compose himself. Standing next to his alien friend, watching his allies all around him, fighting for peace, he realized just how many people cared about him.

“Yeah, you’re right. I can’t afford to get mad at them, life’s too precious to be wasted like that.”

The alien smiled. “That’s right. Now, I’ll understand if you want to take a break, but do you think we should get back into the battle? They seem like they could use your help.”

“I’m sure you’ll do great, too.”

“Thanks. Now, come on. Let’s go and end this.”

He flew into the air, alongside Black Hole. They moved between different groups, and Black Hole warped the spacetime around any laser beams fired towards their allies, deflecting them away.

The alien was trying to help as well. He had found a laser shooter lying on the ground earlier, and was using it to snipe enemy fighters from the air.

A beam of light descended from the sky, barreling down towards them. Black Hole turned around to congratulate him on the great shot he’d just made, but the laser was faster. It was stunningly accurate, moving in a beautiful arc across the sky before hitting him in the back of the head.

His laser fell to the ground, landing with a clatter on a large slab of rock before coming to rest.

Notes:

I'm sorry if anyone got too attached to him, I can provide free therapy if anyone needs it :,)

Chapter 99: Eternal Torment

Summary:

Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus

Notes:

CW:

Implied character death

All around the battlefield, everyone continued fighting as if nothing had happened. No one noticed that their leader’s laser had fallen out of the sky, or that Black Hole was crouching right beside it, standing as still as a panther.

Although his body was at rest, his mind was anything but. Dozens of thoughts washed over him, none of them positive.

Never in his life had he felt so helpless. He was usually the one saving his friends from danger, but there was nothing he could do this time but stare at the ground in defeat. He could almost feel his friend sitting right where he would have fallen, but no matter how much Black Hole stared at the laser, there was no bringing back its owner.

He had almost forgotten where he was until someone nearly tripped on the laser in front of him.

Regaining their balance, they picked up the weapon, turning it around in their hands. “Finally!”

Black Hole looked up, having snapped back to reality, causing the alien to notice him for the first time.

“Oh, hey, Black Hole! Uh, are you okay? What’s wrong?”

“Yeah, it’s just…” Black Hole sighed. “Your leader died. He was helping me fight the enemy off, and got hit from behind, right when I was getting to know him, too. That was his laser on the ground.”

The alien dropped the weapon like it was a ticking time bomb. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t know-”

“It’s okay, you can keep it. I’m sure that’s what he would’ve wanted.” Black Hole managed a weak smile. He decided he wasn’t going to let his thoughts drag him down, he was going to use them to push himself forward. After all, at least he got the chance to form some memories to remember his friend by. It had ended with both of them having the time of their lives, and that was more than he could ask for.

“Alright, thank you.” The alien looked at Black Hole and felt a pang of sympathy. “And I’m sorry about your friend.”

“No, don’t say that. He was your friend as much as he was mine.”

“In that case, let’s just try to make sure he didn’t die in vain.”

Black Hole nodded, then went back to staring at the ground. “I’ll join you soon, I just want to stay here for a little longer.”

“Okay, see you, then.”

The alien walked off and re-entered the heat of battle. Black Hole wondered whether he’d see them again.

He spent a while looking around everywhere, still trying his best to deflect any oncoming lasers. When he looked behind him, he saw the grand palace in the background, casting a shadow on thousands of combatants. Shifting his gaze upwards, he saw some slight movements behind the window belonging to a couple of vague figures.

His body newly filled with a sense of purpose, he flew back up to the top of the palace, despite knowing what a grave mistake he was making.

 

“Would you look at that,” one of the aliens said, opening the window and stepping out onto the balcony.

“The little crybaby’s back for more,” the other one said.

Black Hole decided to ignore these comments and continued with his plan. “Did you kill him? Yes or no.”

“He wants to figure out what happened to his friend!” the alien said mockingly.

“If only he had eyes so he could see what was going on around him.” They both laughed.

“Answer the question!” Black Hole tried even harder to ignore their jeers.

The aliens continued laughing, taking humour in Black Hole’s anger. “You really don’t understand, do you? We’ve already won, why should we listen to you? Look down there.” The alien pointed towards the ground. “Your side’s been completely wiped out, there’s almost no one left.”

“Then why don’t you call off the attack? You know they’re not a threat anymore.”

“Good try, but we’re not letting them off that easily.”

“‘Letting them off?’ For what? They’ve just been defending themselves the entire time!”

“Well, too bad for them, shouldn’t have tried to overthrow a galactic empire with a few thousand random people.”

Black Hole looked back at the battlefield, watching their numbers slowly dwindle. There wasn’t much time left. “You think they were just going to let you get away with everything you’ve done?”

“They don’t really have a choice, do they? They tried stopping us, but we killed every last one of them, starting with your little friend who thought it would be a good idea to fight us.”

“So it was you!”

“Yes, I did it. I’ll give you the satisfaction of finding out his fate before you join him. I must say, it was very entertaining to watch break down over one silly little person. If you ask me, he wasn’t worth much more alive, what with how useless he was. Did anyone else notice him sitting off to the side with you while everyone else sacrificed their lives for him? What a heroic leader, am I right?”

Black Hole gritted his teeth. “Oh, I’ll show you useless,” he muttered.

 

“Wow, Black Hole looks really mad,” Pen said, still watching the scene unfold through the telescope. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him like this before, it’s actually kinda scary.”

Tree laughed. “Just be grateful you’re not the one he’s-”

“Ah!” Pen jumped away from the telescope, violently rubbing his eyes.

“Pen! Are you okay?” Remote ran up to him.

Lightning and Fanny paused their conversation and looked around in confusion. “What happened?” Lightning asked.

“I got blinded!” Pen sat down on the floor and rested his eye. “There was a really bright flash, and everything went white all of a sudden!”

“The telescope looks fine,” Tree said. “Let me take a look.”

He put his eye up to the telescope. “Hey, where’s the palace?”

The landscape had completely changed. The ground was heavily darkened, the skies were opaque, and the massive building that had been the aliens’ royal palace was nowhere to be seen, replaced by a giant hole in the ground. He moved the telescope over a little and slightly blinded himself as well. But before he instinctively looked away from the light, he thought he could see a dark figure floating in the sky, raining death upon the land below.

“You were right, Pen,” Tree said. “I think Black Hole’s a little upset.”

Notes:

Happy 7/11 Day! Take some free catharsis :D

Chapter 100: Home

Summary:

∗ Despite everything, it's still you.

Notes:

I hope nothing bad happens to Black Hole in TPOT 19! :D (no spoilers please)

Silence fell over the vast plains, ravaged by the recent conflict. For a moment, nobody spoke, everyone still processing what had just happened. Then, cheers emerged from the crowd below, gradually growing louder until the sound was deafening.

Black Hole looked at his hands, like he couldn’t believe what they had just done. Now that the fighting was over, he could hear his ragged breathing, his heart pounding in his chest. He wasn’t physically tired in the slightest, but he felt completely drained and just wanted to go home and relax.

He slowly descended onto the ground as everyone who was still left moved to surround him. Within seconds, he was surrounded by his allies, who were all chanting things that he couldn’t hear.

Even though he wanted nothing more than to curl up into a ball and hide from the rest of the universe, he still felt he owed it to the aliens to help them sort everything out.

“First of all, I’m sorry for killing so many of you, the enemies were too close to you,” he said.

“That’s okay, at least you did your best!”

Black Hole felt even more guilty that they were just dismissing what he had done, as if it had no real consequence to anyone. If he was being honest with himself, he hadn’t been thinking straight at that moment, and so, blinded by rage, he chose the more reckless option, in effect causing hundreds of unnecessary deaths.

He wished he could’ve apologized to them before the fact.

“Anyway, what’s your plan now? What are you going to do without your leaders?” he asked.

“We’ll get some new ones! And they’ll be democratically chosen this time.”

“And don’t worry!” another one chimed in. “We’ll make sure to leave you alone, unless you want to talk to us, that is.”

“It’s fine, we don’t really mind you that much, unless you’re being overly aggressive like the previous leaders.”

“Yeah, they really were something, weren’t they?”

Black Hole smiled, but quickly stopped, as though it caused him immense pain.

“Well, I guess this is goodbye, for now, at least. Good luck with everything.”

“You too. And, Black Hole, from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for everything you’ve done for us. You showed us the life we could’ve had, and helped us get there. Without you, none of this could’ve been possible.”

And in his heart, a tiny flame ignited, melting all the barriers he had placed up around himself within the last hour. Looking at all the faces around him, he was grateful that he could make their day just a little bit better.

“Hey, I’m just trying to help.”

“We know.”

With one final wave, Black Hole flew up, away from the surface, leaving all the memories he had made there behind. He turned around and looked at the planet one last time, and entered outer space.

In front of him, a vibrant blue marble glowed faintly in the void, as if welcoming him back home.

 

“He’s coming back!” Pen said.

The room erupted in cheers as everyone celebrated Black Hole’s return. They all missed him very much and just wanted to talk to him again.

Just seconds later, he was up against the window, and they let him into the room.

“Welcome back! How do you feel?” Remote asked.

“I… don’t know,” Black Hole said, collapsing into a seat.

“Whoa, you okay?” Tree asked.

“Yeah, I’ve just been through a lot today.”

Everyone looked at him sympathetically. They had put him under so much pressure, and hadn’t even thought about how he might have felt.

Pen was about to say something, but he decided to hold his tongue, considering how Black Hole was feeling at that moment.

“Hey, Black Hole?” Tree walked next to his seat, trying to comfort him. “If you want to talk about anything, go right ahead, okay? The best way to get rid of negative emotions is to talk to someone, and no one here will judge you. But, if you don’t want to talk, that’s fine too.”

He didn’t respond immediately, but a few seconds later, he burst into speech.

“They killed my friend. The leaders, I mean.”

“Oh!” Pen said. “Is that why you got so mad?”

Tree slapped Pen on the arm, but Black Hole didn’t seem too upset. “Yeah,” he said. “And, they were disrespecting him even after he died. That was really what got me. He was such a nice guy, he never deserved any of that.”

“I’m so sorry,” Tree said. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Yeah, I don’t either.” Black Hole sighed. “At least I got my revenge, even if it came at a cost.”

“If you hadn’t intervened, a lot more people would’ve died. You did the right thing, Black Hole.”

Black Hole perked up slightly. “Really?”

“Without a doubt. You did the best you could, and that’s all that matters. We all appreciate it, and I’m sure those aliens up there do as well.” Tree looked out of the window at the planet in the sky, but it was gone.

“Thanks for saying that.” Black Hole looked away from everyone, staring at the floor. “I just wish…” His voice broke, and tears flowed down his face. One of his friends was dead, and he was never coming back.

With a pang, he realized eventually, all his friends would die. None of them were immortal, and he knew they had no chance of living for even a single millennium, let alone trillions of years. He hadn’t even known his alien friend for that long, how would he react when Tree, or Pen, or Remote inevitably died?

This thought just caused him to break down further, and he lost all control over the emotions racing through his mind.

Tree, still trying to comfort Black Hole, gave him a hug and said, “It’s okay, Black Hole. You’re going to be fine.”

But he wasn’t going to be fine, and Tree knew that. Black Hole had been through so much, within just a few months, yet this seemed to his breaking point.

Several more pairs of arms wrapped around Black Hole, until nearly the entire room was standing around him. Golf Ball was watching from the side, unsure what she should do. But a moment later, Remote beckoned her to join everyone, and she obliged.

Nobody moved for almost a full minute. They all wanted Black Hole to know how much they cared about him, how much he mattered to them. Eventually, they all let go, one by one. Everyone continued by his side, trying to silently tell him they would always be there for him.

Half an hour had passed, but they didn’t care. At that moment, the most important thing to them was Black Hole, and they were all willing to stay late into the night to accompany him, even Golf Ball.

The Sun slowly set outside, now back to its original colour. Black Hole gradually calmed down until he was eventually able to string together coherent sentences.

“Sorry for keeping you all here so long, I know you all want to go home,” he said.

“Hey, don’t worry about it,” Tree said. “We’re here to help you, isn’t that right?” he asked everyone in the room.

They all muttered in agreement.

Black Hole smiled. “Thanks, everyone, I really appreciate it.” After a moment, he spoke again. “So, should we head back now? You all probably have things to do tomorrow.”

“Sure, as long as you’re fine with it, of course,” Tree said.

“Yeah, I just want to sleep a bit, hopefully I’ll feel better in the morning.”

“I hope you do too.”

They all went outside together onto the empty streets and parted ways with Golf Ball before the rest of them walked back to campus.

As Black Hole looked up at the night sky, he thought of all the people he had watched die that day, and hoped they could find happiness among the stars.

“I’d never appreciated outer space much until you arrived,” Tree said to him. “You showed me just how beautiful and terrifying it could be.”

Black Hole smiled. “And I’d never appreciated life much until I met you. You showed me just how endearing and confusing it could be.”

“Wow, talk about a smooth reply.” He laughed.

Tree felt like the luckiest person alive. By some miracle, he had crossed paths with Black Hole, potentially the best friend he’d ever have.

Black Hole somehow felt the same way.

As the sound of their goodbyes rang through the air, he smiled.

He had finally found home.

Notes:

Thank you all for reading! I can't believe it's been almost a year since I started writing, time really does fly when you're having fun

Whether you've been here since the very beginning, or this is the first chapter you've seen, I appreciate every single one of you for giving this story a try, and I hope it was well worth your time!

I know there have been times when I was... not very active, but I hope no one minds too much. I unfortunately can't spend all my time obsessing over my favourite characters

Once again, thank you for all the support, I couldn't have asked for a better audience

See you all in the next story!