Young Writers Society

The dust settled around Jason's limp body as Avery leapt down from his side of the trench, scrambled up the opposite end and sprinted down to the aftermath of the battle. Benny, dirty from earlier but otherwise untouched, beeped and buzzed disappointedly as he poked at Jason's defeated face. Jason groaned.

The farmer and his hippo hadn't retreated, but they had halted in their onslaught as Avery drew closer to the scene. Jason hadn't managed to land a single blast on his opponent, or even fire one for that matter. He'd sorely underestimated the opposition.

Benny chirped gladly, noticing Avery's approach.

“Bzzt. Sir Avery, Mr. Jason has fa-ailed. Perha-aps you-u would be a more suitable ma-atch for thi-is farmer-r?”

“Er, I don't think so, Benny,” Avery said, eyeing the farmer warily.

There was no sound, nor movement from the farmer; just a furrowed brow and intimidating glare. Avery nodded to him, unsure himself of what he meant to be conveying to the man. That he just wanted to drag his friend away, maybe?

Kneeling at Jason's side, Avery froze. He wasn't sure what he was meant to do here. He could check for a pulse, but that wasn't necessary, seeing as Jason wouldn't stop moaning in pain. He could try to lift him, but what if the farmer attacked then?

He opted for poking Jason's shoulder, not that it had ever prompted useful results in the past.

“Euurgh,” Jason whined weakly from behind his helmet's visor. “What do you waaant?”

“Well, I'd like to get off this planet,” Avery responded. “But right now I'd take you getting off your backside, if nothing else.”

“I don't wanna,” Jason replied stubbornly.

“Well, you kinda have to, if you don't want this guy to trample you with his hippo--”

The beast reared its giant head and bellowed, cutting Avery off. Its rider remained silent and watchful. “Alright, whatever,” Jason sighed. He peeled himself off the ground, a thin layer of reddish dirt clinging to the back of his black coat and bronze helmet. The hippo-creature snorted and pawed at the earth.

“Yeah, yeah, sure — talk it up,” Jason retorted, pulling away from the scene. “I could've beat you if it weren't for that spear guy on your back!”

The rider rose an empty fist at this, shaking it threateningly, and began shouting in his incomprehensible language again. The hippo ducked its head and beat the ground faster, as if it were preparing to charge.

“Okay, okay!” Avery cried, holding up his hands towards the pair and stepping away with Jason. “Come on, Benny, let's go.”

As he and Jason stepped back, quickly but carefully, intent on not becoming a set of helmeted pancakes, Benny went in the opposite direction and rolled directly up to the two locals.

“Benny, what're you doing? You're gonna get us all killed!” Avery hissed.

“Nah, shut up, Avery. He's gonna show 'em what for!” Jason gasped quietly, his tone accented with what seemed like a mixture of pride and awe.

Benny did neither of this things, however, and instead started flinging a flurry of beeping sounds back at the man on the hippo.

“Whoa, no need to get vulgar, Benster,” Jason said. “We've all still got our dignity here, right?”

“I think he's speaking the native language,” Avery realized as he caught a couple of familiar sounds within the bot's language.

“Hm,” Jason responded. “I don't know about that, but alright, man.”

The farmer spoke back to Benny, then glared up at Avery and Jason. The tip of his spear crackled as he pointed it at them. Avery shuddered fearfully, holding his breath and keeping still. Benny continued speaking and the farmer's gaze slowly returned to the droid, a wave of relief washing over Avery as he resumed breathing.

Eventually, after a seemingly pointed conversation, the farmer tugged on his hippo's reigns and the beast pulled away from the group. As it turned away, the farmer shot a final glare at them, and at their ship in the distance, then the two slipped into the green wall of vegetable stalks and disappeared. Benny whirred proudly and spun to face Avery and Jason, digital blue eyes blinking up at them cheerfully.

“He says he ha-ates you-u,” he explained.

“Really?” Jason asked sarcastically.

“Ye-es. But he will not kill you-u.”

“Oh, well that's actually great,” Jason commented, sarcasm scampering off.

“Yeah,” Avery agreed. “Was there anything else?”

“He-e wants us to move the shi-ip by toni-ight,” Benny said.

“Okay, um, when is that?” Avery asked, looking up to the tiny silver sun in the sky.

Benny paused and a rainbow-colored tsunami of numbers zipped across his face.

“In approximately three hours,” he stated, at last.

“Three hours?” Jason repeated, looking back towards the smoking, dented mess that was their ship. “Well, crap.”

“I don't even know if this thing will fly for another week, much less before tonight,” Jason said, crawling out from the exposed belly of the control panel.

“A week?” Avery said, more to sound it out himself than for clarification. “How long has it been already?” he asked after a moment's thinking.

“Uh, about ten minutes since I crawled under there,” Jason replied. “Maybe fifteen since we got back to the ship?”

“No, no,” Avery said. “I mean, you know...” he glanced toward Benny, who was testing that EGO still worked, then leaned in. “Since we left Earth,” he said, voice hushed.

“Ohh, right,” Jason thought. “Well, let's see. First we were on... There. Then Terra, and that other Avery guy was a really slow driver. Then we flew to the moon?”

“Where we met Jasmine, yeah. And then the squid guys — the Cephalods.”

“Oh, the squid guys,” Jason shuddered, recalling Captain Quell's intentions for him. “What else? Filthy Beau's, which was pretty far away.”

“You just flew in circles, though.”

“Hey, I flew in circles for part of the trip, but it was still far.”

“Okay,” Avery said. “Then there was the hospital, the wyrm, and now here. So how long as all of that?”

“Ehh, give or take a couple days, maybe?”

“A couple days? But we haven't slept, why aren't I tired?” Avery rubbed at his eyes, wondering if he'd had some sleep that he'd forgotten, or if people just didn't need to sleep in space.

“Well, I mean, you did pass out for quite a while, man,” Jason said. “Confusions or concessions, or whatever you called them, might not be the most well-resting, but that counts as sleep, right?”

Avery shook his head, but didn't feel like correcting him. “Must have just been adrenaline from running and flying around so much. Plus, space, you know,” he said, rubbing his head. “Anyway,” he nodded to the soot-coated controls. “Anything you can do about that?”

“Yeah right. Nada,” Jason said, looking the unit over. “There aren't any spare parts aboard, huh?”

“Not that I saw. Just clothes and some powder. Guess Benny's master was more concerned about wetting his pants than needing to repair the ship.”

“Or he could actually pilot it,” Jason said, not maliciously, though stinging Avery's feelings on the matter.

“Either way,” he clapped his hands together and looked back to Avery. “Maybe there's a town somewhere nearby. And maybe they have parts. Or a whole new ship, even!”

“Right,” Avery said, mustering enthusiasm. “Which means we can get off this place, and Farmer Brown can't do anything to us about leaving the ship if we aren't around.”

Jason paused, squinting. “You know his name?” he asked.

“What?” Avery responded. “Oh, no, never mind.”

“Alright,” Jason said, eyeing him with suspicion, then whistling Benny over.

After asking the droid if he was capable of scanning for nearby settlements, then arguing with the droid because he suspected it was lying when it said no, Jason kicked the already-ruined control panel and made for the back door.

“We'll just go look for one ourselves, Avery. The robot stays here!” he cried, slamming the door behind him.

“Er...” Avery mumbled, glancing at Benny apologetically. Thudding sounds rose from below a second later.

“Dammit. Avery, hurry up! I kicked over a crate and now this stupid dust is all over my coat!” Jason screamed up at them. “Benny, you can clean the floor while we're gone!”

“Someone sho-ould tell hi-im about the ba-ack of his coat, from losing that fi-ight,” Benny growled electronically.

Avery grabbed his helmet, feeling increasingly more awkward, and followed through the door as he heard the entry ramp lowering, almost drowned out by Jason's shouting.

*  *  *

“Is it really necessary to scream at Benny so much?” Avery asked, joining Jason over the lip of the trench their ship had made.

“Technology infuriates me. You wouldn't understand — Earth doesn't have any,” Jason said, scanning the horizon for any signs of civilization.

“Did you not see the exploding car you saved me from?”

“No. I did that? Well, you're welcome, I guess.”

Avery rolled his eyes and looked for civilization as well. It wasn't long before they sighted a slight plume of smoke in the distance, nearby a small grove of emerald-green trees.

“Well that was easy,” Jason said, glancing back at Avery. “So do we start walking--?”

A low screech suddenly filled their ears, followed by a crackly electric voice.

“So-o you found something-g?” Benny asked.

“Benny? Ears, buddy! Tone your volume down a bit,” Jason responded. Avery heard the voice twice, once beside him and once over the comms. He noted that Jason sounded like a whiny squirrel through the speakers.

“I'm sorry, is this better?!” Benny shouted.

Jason grappled at the sides of his helmet and Avery flinched.

“Anyway-y, Sir Avery-y,” Benny continued,“if you would like to avoid wa-alking, I believe my old master often kept some bikes in a secre-et compartment in the underbelly of the ship. I can release the-em, if you'd li-ike. I suppose Mr. Jason could have one as we-ell.”

“I can hear you. I'm in on these comms, too,” Jason said.

There was a clicking sound and the only one of Jason's voices Avery could hear was the one standing in front of him. Jason started screaming, trying to catch his voice on Avery's comm so that it would reach Benny.

“Euurgh. I will relea-ase the bi-ikes. I'm shutting this line off, thou-ugh.”

Jason, meanwhile, had grabbed Avery and was yelling right into the side of his helmet. Avery pushed him off and motioned to the ship. The shouting stopped.

“So, we're getting bikes, I guess.”

“Cool,” Jason said. “I hate walking.”

They made their way back to the base of the ship, Jason tripping down the side of the trench along the way. They waited barely a moment before a low hissing brought their attention to a set of panels, on opposite sides of the entry ramp, slowly opening and lowering to the ground. Four thin cylinders sat at the corners of the panels, and the middle of the two displayed a glorious, gleaming speeder each. For some reason, even with all of the spaceships and angry, sentient droids, and vaguely arrogant entertainment systems, Avery had expected “bikes” to simply mean bikes.

As the unnecessary, over-embellished steam spilling from the compartments above sluggishly cleared, however, Avery realized that the speeders weren't quite as grand as he had thought. They were still a lot more than just “bikes”, but not entirely in a good way. The wheels were sci-fi enough, he supposed — thick and golden, with pulsating, neon blue rings wrapping around the axles — but they also sort of resembled a coloring book, when a kid colored all the superheroes the wrong way.

Jason seemed quite impressed, hopping excitedly onto the large-backed black seat and gripping the ridiculously tall handlebars. Though he was desperate to save his impression of the situation, the grandeur of the bikes was rapidly lessening, and Avery decided not to expect much more from the galaxy after these glorified, poorly-colored motor hogs.

“Well, it'll have to be better than walking,” he said, reluctantly settling into the seat of his speeder.

It was surprisingly comfortable, until he was stretching awkwardly, trying to simultaneously rest his back against the seat and keep a firm grip on the handles.

“Woo-hoo!” Jason crowed, already buckled in and revving his engine, the sound of which almost completely made up for the terrible look of the bikes.

Avery revved his own bike's engine and couldn't help grinning as the whole sci-fi movie feel rushed back to him. The sound was impossible to describe, but felt perfect for being about to speed across a foreign planet with your alien buddy.

These thoughts had Avery reflecting on the recent events of his life for a moment, but suddenly Jason disappeared with a boom and he saw a flurry of dust racing towards the smoke on the horizon. Grinning even larger, Avery quickly secured his safety buckles, revved the engine one more time, and slammed down what he thought must be the acceleration pad.

For a second, he wasn't sure whether he had succeeded in racing off or if he was dead, as the inertia of all that sudden momentum nearly crushed him. But he soon found himself gliding through the grassy valleys of Pompeii, bike hovering a couple short feet above any would-be obstacles. The bikes sure didn't look appealing, but Avery was never judging a book by its cover again.

“Woo-hoo!” he cried, repeating Jason's earlier reaction just as he was passing him up.

Jason's head swiveled around, seemingly confused for a moment, but then he stepped on his accelerator even harder and zipped past Avery. The two went back and forth this way for a time, each speeding to overtake the other and constantly exchanging first-place. They were having the time of their lives, so engulfed in their race that they didn't notice the first few outermost buildings of the city until they'd rammed straight through them.

Avery swerved out of control and slammed to a halt at the feet of a giant fountain statue. Jason spun off in some perpendicular direction and vanished behind a tall, tan, brick building. An ear-ripping explosion shortly ensued.

"At least he didn't forget his helmet," Avery heard a voice say somewhere above him.

His vision was too blurry to make anything out other than massive blurs of colors, and he could only assume that an extensive crowd had formed around him. He dropped his head, with a groan, into a pile of rubble beside him.

"Ah, never mind," the voice said, as blackness enveloped his eyes and he fell away from consciousness.