Pete yelped, clutching his stomach. He coughed hard and wiped his brow.

"Man, you didn't have to go that hard!" he choked out between breaths.

His fists up as he danced on the balls of his feet, Kobra shrugged. "You wanted to spar." He lunged again, trapping Pete's arm and throwing him to the ground.

~~~

Kobra raked his fingers through his hair and plopped down on the counter. The team was sitting at a table, discussing a plan to infiltrate HQ. Pete's hand was glued to his side, massaging one of the many bruises given to him by a broken-hearted boy.

Kobra didn't mean to go so hard against Pete. He didn't mean to fight him in the first place; but Pete was distracted, and Jet was pissed. So, he stepped in to help with training. And his hurt and anger took control.

"The thing is," Poison said, "we don't know anything about them or how to defeat them."

"Nothing we've tried so far has worked." Ghoul frowned in thought.

"Well, you guys have to know something," Pete mumbled. "They've got super advanced tech."

"Well, I wouldn't say super advanced. They just have—" Ghoul waved his arms around— "more."

"I don't know about you guys, but I'd say a multi-dimensional teleportation device is super-duper advanced," Pete shrugged, as if he was saying the sky is blue. All eyes went to him. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

~~~

"There's just one thing I don't get." Kobra ripped off a chunk of meat with his teeth and ate it quickly with a swig of water. "How did you find out about this machine?"

Fire crackled between him and Pete, who was scarfing down his own dinner. Mouth full, he made a noise akin to saying "I dunno" and shrugged. He couldn't tell Kobra the truth, after all.

That he was offered his whole life back in exchange for the lives of his new friends. No — not friends. He couldn't think of them like that anymore. They weren't his friends. They were just some people. An obstacle to getting back to whatever remained of his dreadful life back home.

Home.

"They wouldn't tell their prisoner about their greatest weapon for no reason," Kobra pondered aloud.

"Maybe they wanted me to tell you."

Kobra shook his head, ignoring the suggestion. He kept his eyes on Pete, suspicion brewing behind them. Pete had to look away to quell his trembling heart.

~~~

Kobra leaned against his bedroom door, finally catching his breath. Being around Pete all day was insufferable. He switched between wanting to strangle him and wanting to hug him every other minute. The former usually won.

He took a deep breath. "He's lying."

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454 words
Jan 14, 2021
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Hey lol O.o