We Work Well Together (Somehow)

Chapter 1: Willing To Accept, Willing To Protect

Don't ask Megavolt how it happened, he doesn't know. What he does know is that one day FOWL was something he didn't think much about, and the next day they were his sworn enemies.

Maybe they tried to take over the city, maybe they pissed off Negaduck, maybe Steelbeak broke a few too many streetlamps in his last car chase — it doesn't really matter.

What matters is that Megavolt is surrounded by too many Eggmen with too many guns, three more popping up for each one he fries. They're drones, willing to risk anything for the cause of their superiors, while he delights in his individuality — which unfortunately means they have the sort of numbers that made very little impossible, while he really doesn't.

He only has four; Quackie's hammer smashes through helmets, leaving the goons dazed; Bushbrain is proving himself stronger than any of them thought, with a good deal of people tangled high above the battlezone in his vines; Negaduck... Well, the less said about what Negaduck is doing the better, but Megavolt has never been happier to hear that chainsaw.

And Liquidator is doing what he does best: freezing tanks and weapons solid, then smashing them to pieces. It's terrifying, honestly, to think what any one of them could do if they were a tad more homicidally inclined.

A laser beam flies pass him, barely an inch from his head, and Megavolt responds with a bolt shot in the direction he thinks it came from. The blue glow of his powers barely flash, he doesn't have much charge left. He knows the others are getting tired as well; Bushroot has never had much stamina, Quackie hasn't made a single joke in ages, even Negaduck has to be feeling it by now (though he's pretty sure both Masked Mallards are capable of fighting through any level of exhaustion short of a coma).

Normally, tiredness isn't something one attributes to The Liquidator — he could spend a week changing his size, bending into impossible shapes, dodging blows, and not even think of sleeping — but Megavolt knows better, knows that changing his temperature so extremely, so quickly was the one thing that really tires the aquatic dog out. None of them can keep this up.

A growl from Liquidator and the sound of rushing water is all the warning Megavolt gets before a wall of waves comes barreling down the street, sweeping up everything in its path. He scrambles up one of the larger Eggman, jumping off him to hang from a street lamp right as the flood reaches him, legs pulled close to avoid the surface of the water.

Megavolt has been asked before why he's willing to be anywhere near Liquidator, much less work with him. Most of the time, he can't really answer, not remembering much beyond a vague feeling that they work well together.

(This is typically met with disbelief, as using them against each other is a frequently-used tactic among their enemies)

He looks up at the vines crisscrossing the skyscrapers, Bushroot expanded and unraveled to the point of representing both spider and web, enemies and civilians alike caught up in his clutches (he always sneaks civilians out, the big softie). Megavolt watches Quackie panic and Negaduck rage as both are lifted out of the water, and he remembers.

He doesn't have much charge left, but he has enough. His eyes lock with Liquidator's watery pits that pass for eyes, both knowing the dog can't get out without the floodwaters receding. "Sorry, Drainbrain." He mutters, blue lightning arcing from his fingers and across the waves.

Liquidator screams, feeling his form come apart and wash away with the rest of the water. He can barely think, much less assume anything close to a solid shape.

It honestly isn't that much pain, is the funny part. Not as much as Elmo feels when he gets shorted out, or Reggie when he gets shredded. But it is the most pain Liquidator can feel anymore, the second worst he's ever felt (it doesn't come close to the acid), so it is bad enough.

As he drains away into the sewers (it is going to take forever to purify himself, uck), he barely registers the hundreds of dazed Eggmen, the police and ambulance sirens, or his cohorts fleeing the scene as fast as they can.

He'll remember it, though, hours later. In the middle of the ocean, stretching himself out and relaxing, he'll remember and he will laugh; everything comes with a price, and it had been a small one for such a stunning victory.

Days later, safe in the Greenhouse, he'll be joking around with the others. They'll relax, watch a movie, plan more heists. Jack will pull a prank, the Boss will yell, and Reggie will try so desperately to keep the peace.

Elmo will ignore them and fall asleep, his arm slipping and nearly hitting Liquidator, but the canine will dodge. And he'll just chuckle at the barely-avoided disaster, settling into a tub for a nap of his own.

It is dangerous being around Elmo, every moment is another one he could get shocked. Liquidator has been asked many times why he's willing to work with the electric rat, much less consider him a friend.

And what is he supposed to say to that? The truth is they make a good team for the same reason all of them do. It's a secret that took a while for them to figure out, originally held together by nothing more than pure stubbornness and spite.

A schizophrenic toymaker, a mood-swinging botanist, a brain-damaged physicist, an amoral salesman, and a chainsaw-wielding dictator — why do any of them work together, why do any of them hang out?

Because any one of them is willing to get hurt. Shorted out, fried, beaten, shredded, burnt — they are willing to suffer for the sake of their team. None of them knew it at first, as none of them really cared for anyone back then, but they figured it out with time.

(Time, and blood, and pain, and fire, and shaky smiles shared despite everything, and—)

And if someone had told Bud Flud he'd someday honestly list the 'power of friendship' as the secret to his success? He probably would have poisoned them. But he would've done it with a smile...