Archive of Our Own ^beta

Rita didn’t count anything before the Testicle Monster Mission (TMM) on her team performance chart. If she were to do so, she’d have to determine whether Larry being called to action and then crash landing immediately counted as a failure. And to call that a failure would mean having to judge Larry’s value as a team member with respect to having quite recently coughed up a surprise… thing.

Really, the creation of that tiny bundle of sparks had originated in such a way that made it tolerating it… problematic. Mr. Negative Spirit Senior, whom according to Larry shared a name with the small one, had been such an utterly repellent creature. Rita couldn’t fathom how Larry had begun to bond with it after decades of misery. He’d suffered incurable nightmares, spent his days arguing with an alien organism that refused to communicate properly, and frequently been dropped to the ground like a discarded toy or, occasionally, left in precarious perches around the manor. As if it amused Keeg Bovo Sr. to watch Larry suffer.

It probably had.

Larry had certainly thought so for years. He couldn’t control the Negative Spirit. He feared the spirit coming out of its own accord. Larry was the least inclined of them all to step foot off the grounds of the manor, and not only due to his fears about radiation somehow leaking through his bandages. Their relationship had been nothing but an oppression upon Larry’s soul, something that had seemed to physically weigh him down on top of the aches and pains that came from the crash.

Which Keeg Bovo Sr. had caused, by the by, while invading Larry’s body without so much as a proper “Hello, sir. Is anyone sitting here?”

How the man had come to develop a fondness for the consent-free spirit was beyond Rita. Particularly given the reality that the spirit had pressed Larry to leave with him and then summarily abandoned him with that little thing growing inside of him.

In what world was that even remotely acceptable behavior?

And of course, after failing to identify morning sickness for what it was (regardless of whether Larry was inclined to think of it in those terms), this would in fact be the second time Rita had absented herself when a friend found themselves in trouble. Simply abhorrent. Not that Rita had intended to leave her friends behind in becoming a world renowned time traveler, but the reality was that she had.

Rita wished she had some form of motherly instinct. She didn’t. Not in the slightest. She was not prone to spending time with small children at the best of times. Her greatest effort had gone into being kind to Dorothy, but she couldn’t call even that much of a success nor called herself much of a role model to the girl. Seeing Keeg Jr. as a larva, even when cradled in Larry’s arms or in a baby sling, failed to spark slightest bit of warmth in her. Rather, it had caused her deep irritation to see Larry so preoccupied with it, so determined to keep it close and protect it. This thing that was the symbol of Larry’s torture for years. This thing that was the spawn of something that had quite deftly taken advantage of Larry’s trust in him.

Simply, she’d rather not draw those factors into consideration in her work as team leader. So she ignored them. She continued ascending to greater things, conceded (eventually) to the pitiful name of Doom Patrol in honor of that crumbling former team, and pretended that Larry’s status as a fledgling superhero was on par with the rest of the team: hindered mostly due to inexperience, and not due to the fact that his other half had quite literally just come into existence and Larry was attempting to care for and parent it, much more so than he was trying to get it or himself into any kind of fighting shape.

Larry could probably be flying by now… if that thing could manage to keep them both going for more than a few seconds. He could probably be expanding whatever bizarre ways he had of hopping into someone else’s head or seeing visions of someone in trouble in pancake batter…. if he weren’t preoccupied with that thing’s happiness and emotional wellbeing. It was as if Larry didn’t even consider his own capabilities. As a leader, did that mean Rita needed to spell them out for him?

It was far easier, though, to attempt positive affirmation when Larry didn’t manage to get knocked right out of the battle early on. Keeping him alive was a big motivation for Rita. Not just Larry in that regard. She’d devoted the majority of her considerations, from selection of missions to team training and motivation, to keeping her wayward band of misfit toys with superpowers alive. Although Dr. Harrison had a much better sense of self-preservation and had the alters behind her to keep herself protected, Vic stayed in the ship as tech support, and Cliff was nearly indestructible. If Rouge got herself killed, they could throw a party. There would be cake.

No. They were all problems in different ways, but Larry was a tricky case. And he seemed to be growing cold on her for some reason, probably owing to his devotion to that thing. Rita had to make sure it didn’t ruin everything, the way its “father” had.

* * *

The fire in the day room crackled. In front of the television set (a newish one, set up so they could get proper news from one of those “streaming” channels that Vic had set up for them), hovered Bubble (one of Jane’s alters who Rita had only seen once before Dr. Harrison had taken over) and oddly, Larry.

Since when did Larry hover? He was sitting cross-legged in front of the television, with his hands folded in his lap and his head tilted as some animated program played. And he was about two inches above the sofa.

Bubble giggled. Her hair poofed around her face in blue curls. But, as per usual, her hovering came as a result of her being ensconced in one of her eponymous bubbles, allowing her to float. The characters (big eyed and deformed) on screen were on some desert island cooking fish around a fire. One of them started to sing.

“How does his family not notice he’s missing?” Larry asked.

“The Gems are on a mission. They said at the beginning,” Bubble said, her voice delicate and breathy.

“Oh. Right. What about his father?”

“Greg doesn’t see him every day.”

“Hm.”

“Is this the best use of our time?” Rita chirruped behind them.

Larry dropped straight down. “Oof.”

Bubble floated the remote to her and paused the program, and she grinned, blue glitter sparkling on her cheeks. “You did it for about fifteen minutes!”

Larry shrugged and got up.

“Nooo! Steven just used his bubble to protect them, see!”

“I see. I just… I should get started on dinner.”

“Keeg likes watching,” Bubble protested.

Larry looked down and touched his chest, which glowed ominously. Rita braced herself in case it decided to come out.

“What do you like about this, huh, pal?” Larry asked it gently.

“You don’t?” Bubble’s bubble popped, and she pulled her legs up to her sulkily.

“It’s fine. I’m just… you know. A little old for it.”

Bubble turned the show back on, and Larry headed for the kitchen.

“Is that the longest you’ve been able to fly?” Rita pressed as she followed him.

“I wouldn’t call that flying. But, yeah. So far.” Larry opened the fridge and frowned. He coughed and cleared his throat. “Are we already out of…? Never mind. I’ll make it work.”

“Well, that’s excellent! The flying… Um, floating.” Rita clapped her hands together and beamed. “I’m sure if you continue to apply yourself you’ll be soaring again in no time!”

Larry’s expressions were perennially hard to read, but Rita wasn’t sanguine about the way he looked back at her. He coughed again, rubbing his sternum, and then snapped on some gloves before taking out some chicken to prepare for dinner.

“Yeah. Sure.”

“Goodie!” she said with a little pump of her fist.

Never had the kitchen felt so uncomfortable. Larry didn’t reply. Not to her, anyway. After she’d stepped away, she caught him murmuring to that thing.

“Y’did good, kiddo. Yeah, we can watch it again later. I know you like it.”

How could Larry be bonding with that thing? Had he forgotten all he’d been through?

Ridiculous.

Still, a small part of her quieted as she watched Larry chatting softly with his new alien tenant. It was seldom that moments between Larry and Senior had been calm and quiet. Though, come to think of it, there had been that one moment Larry had stepped back to speak to it before they’d gone into the Ant Farm.

Rita touched her lips and frowned.

* * *

With powers that occasionally landed her in the furnace trying to slug her way up the stairs without arms or legs, having her heart drop into her stomach was hardly a new experience for Rita. Less literally speaking, the next time Rouge fucked up and got her teammates knocked into a lava (?) monster that had been trying to eat a children’s jungle gym, she was going to rip out her pasty little throat.

Luckily, Sun Daddy took over for Dr. Harrison at once, shoving the creature back about twenty feet. Unluckily, Larry was still in its lap when Sun Daddy began to launch a fireball at them both.

“No!” Rita shrieked, reaching out to grab Larry.

The heat coming off both of them burned her hands, causing her to pull back involuntarily. Sun Daddy turned to look at her.

“Don’t fry him!” Rita scolded.

Larry lifted up into the air briefly and then…

Hugged it? What nonsense was this??

“Bow chicka wowow!” Cliff yelled.

“STOP LAUGHING!” Rita roared. Her eyes bugged out as she spotted Vic coming up over the hill. “NO! Get back there!”

Cliff dropped backward with a mighty clang.

“Oh my,” Dr. Harrison said as she emerged and ran over to Cliff. “The heat is cooking him, I think.”

“Everyone draw back!” Rita threw both of her arms out and soccer-mom-armed Rouge, Harrison, and Vic back toward the ship. But what about Cliff? He was mostly indestructible, but if he boiled inside that hunk of poorly constructed tin, he was dead!

“Dr. Harrison, have Sun Daddy grab Cliff… Oh, no, that’ll just kill him faster.” Rita bit her thumbnail. “Maybe Hammerhead could—”

“She’s been disinclined to take orders lately. She’s a bit distracted looking for the girl,” Dr. Harrison said.

Rita flailed her hands. “Well, we have to get someone in there!”

“Well, Larry’s already over there. Tell him what to do,” Vic said.

Rouge peered over Rita’s shoulder. “I think he’s done hugging Mr. Lava.”

“Get back here!” Rita shouted.

“He doesn’t seem to be on fire,” Dr. Harrison mused coldly.

“He wouldn’t be,” Vic said. “For starters, that guy was giving off heat, not fire. And the bandages aren’t flammable. Haven’t you guys read Niles’ files on you guys yet?”

Stumbling a little, Larry made his way toward Cliff. Then, faceplanted onto him.

Rita had yet to give Larry a frownie face, but this was pushing it.

“LARRY TRAINOR!”

Larry didn’t move… Oh god, was he dead?

Oh no. Thank goodness. He was getting up. He stumbled backwards, fell on his ass, and then made to crawl away from Cliff. Vic tried to step forward, but Rita clotheslined him.

“No!”

“Cliff’s probably fine now!” Vic objected.

“How?” she snapped.

“Thermal energy. Look at the guy we were fighting!” Vic pointed. By the slide, the charred figure was up again, but without the steam coming off of it, a head-shape could be seen, shaking as its hand smacked its head.

“I don’t understand.”

Larry had finished crawling away and sat under a tree… scorching the grass around him.

Cliff moved and sat up. “Whoa… Spandex… Burning man.”

“Get Cliff hydrated!” Larry yelled. “Go! I can’t be in the ship with anyone else for a little while!”

“Huh.” Rita stared as her team slowly collected themselves.

The former “lava” monster tried to sneak away, but Rita wrapped her arms around him and dragged him to her.

“We need to talk, Mr. Heat Miser.” She twirled him around to face her. “Before the Bureau traps your smoldering ass underground.”

Had she ever known that Larry could absorb thermal energy? She was quite certain Larry had never mentioned it. Niles definitely had failed to speak to any of their potential skills. For all she and Larry had known for their first sixty years together, she was good for becoming a slime monster, and he was good for literally killing everything around him.

For fuck’s sake. Niles had been such an incompetent leader. No wonder the former Doom Patrol was in a home.

Granted, he’d never intended to lead them. Just keep them incarcerated in the manor forever while he studied them.

* * *

“And one star for Crazy Jane for keeping her head, a frownie face for the Murderous Whoreslut from Hell—”

Rouge pushed her lower lip upward as she considered that and nodded in agreement.

“And a gold star for Negative Man!” Rita clapped her hands together. “Yay! Your first!”

There was no reading him. He stared at her with as much enthusiasm as if she’d given him a frownie. Or not mentioned him at all. Or informed him his next mission was to give them all Brazilians with a special holy wax created from Candlemaker.

“Hey, how was the sweet lovin’ from that lava monster?” Cliff asked.

“If you want, next time I’ll let your brain boil in there,” Larry drawled. “It’s not like you’re using it.”

Dr. Harrison chuckled to herself demurely, and Vic pumped his fist.

“Buuuurn,” Cliff said, holding his fist to his chest. “Literallyyyyy.”

“Yeah.” Larry sighed. “It’s It took me half an hour to stop scorching things.”

“But we saved all those children today!” Rita said cheerfully. “It looked a bit dicey at first, but we stopped that wayward chemistry teacher from completely melting down. And we learned something new about Larry!”

“Some of us already knew...” Vic said smugly.

“No one likes a showoff, Vic,” Rita said tersely as she wrung her hands.

“Perhaps a bit of crowing is warranted.” Dr. Harrison tapped her pen on the table. “I’ve yet to delve very deeply past that hard, defensive shell.”

“I wonder why,” Larry said flatly. “You’d think people would be very inclined to talk to people taking notes on them.”

“You know who took notes on us all the time?” Cliff said. “Fuckin’ Chief.”

Rita crossed her arms and eyed Larry. “You never told me. When did you find that out?”

“Ant Farm,” he said simply.

“Oh.”

Well, that explained why Larry wouldn’t mention it. He’d never even spoken of the Bureau to her until the day they’d taken Vic. And Niles probably did know, if that was the case.

Fuck him. What if they’d needed to know that?

“Good job, then.” Her cheer faltered. But no one could hold that against her, could they? “Great job putting our talents to use today.”

Rouge raised her hand. “Where does it go?”

“What?” Rita glared at Rouge for ruining their team bonding moment.

“The energy. All that y’know. Stuff. You sucked it all up.” She looked at Larry. “Where does it go?”

“It wears off after a while. I diffused some of on the way back, and in my room.”

“But you could do other things with it, maybe?”

Larry lowered his head a bit, and his shoulders turned inward. Vic might know these minor secrets, but Rita knew Larry.

“Don’t be nosy, Whoreslut,” Rita admonished.

* * *

Vic had created a little tech guru office down in the lab, which, to be fair, Rita had only visited a time or two in directing him to find information on a potential mission. Rita herself didn’t tend to use any screens or bother with the internet much at all, but apparently, having about seven screens, meant… more adequate computering. Or the search went deeper? Or… something.

Look, Rita didn’t get the concept. She didn’t even understand why people didn’t use phones as phones anymore.

“Hard at work down here? Finding the mad guys? Scanning the networks and whatnot?” Rita asked. Before he could answer, she said tightly. “Or planning your next big moment as Larry’s new bestie?”

Vic turned with his brow raising incredulously. “What?”

“You’ve apparently been having these long, meaningful discussions with him,” she said, gesturing grandly. “I can’t imagine the fascinating nights that I’ve missed.”

“You realize he’s like 70 years older than me, right? I mean, we’re friends and everything, but… like since when is Larry super open about anything? I told you. I read some of Niles’ files” He shrugged. “I didn’t ask him about it because… you know. Ant Farm.”

“God.” Rita crossed her arm over her stomach and sat back against a nearby table.

“I was only there two days before you guys came and got me. I couldn’t say I ‘get it’ enough to really talk about it with him. But you know Larry. Real chatterbox.” Vic pushed back from his little station. “If you want to talk to him, why don’t you? You’ve known him longer than pretty much anyone alive.”

“We talk. We’re perfectly fine. Where did you say those files were?”

Vic narrowed his eyes and gestured for her to follow him.

“If I see a rat, I won’t be held responsible for my actions,” Rita grumbled as Vic leaned over and started to paw through the files piled on Chief’s desk. And file cabinets. And on the floor.

“There might be parts of dead bodies in here,” Vic joked. “Sorry. I don’t remember where Larry’s was. It should’ve been in the cabinet, but his and Cliff’s were left out… Chief was working on some new designs for Cliff. For Larry… I dunno.”

“Do you think that he planned to…?” Rita stopped herself. Because she knew the main reason the Chief might get back to work on his old projects after all this time. His quest for immortality.

“He didn’t come up with any answers, if he did.” Vic pulled out two folders. One thick, and the other thicker. “Jane’s and yours are still in the cabinets. Guess he gave up on that. He was never qualified for Jane’s solution, anyway.”

“Certainly, mine was too distasteful.” Rita opened Cliff’s folder first.

Vic went to the file cabinet and opened it. “I thought you wanted to know about Larry.”

“As team leader, I should know about all of my team’s abilities. Did he really think he could… put his own brain in a machine like Cliff?”

“I think he thought he could make a better Cliff.”

“That asshole. He waited, what? Twenty-four years to try to improve the model? After two decades of Cliff feeling nothing. When he knew how hard it was for Cliff to live like that.” Rita dropped the file back on the desk. “You know, Larry and I warned him. Do you know how upset Larry was at the idea Cliff would wake up to find his family dead? To not be able to touch anyone, to feel them? We must’ve been insane to assume there could’ve been any reasonable excuse to take a dead man and shove his brain in a tin can!”

Vic said nothing. He just pulled out a few more files and set them on the desk.

“Crazy Jane. Rita Farr,” she murmured.

“And, not that it matters now.” Vic tossed another on the pile.

Victor Stone.

“Wait.” Rita’s head snapped up. “Did he—?”

“Not exactly. See, Larry overheard me saying my cybernetics had stopped my growth. He asked if the Chief had ever done any tests one me.” Vic spread his hands out and shrugged. “He thought Niles might’ve been able to use that. So I came down here looking for answers. He had been looking into me. And he definitely tried to get me to come down to Cloverton more than once. He just never got the chance to study me the way he wanted.”

“Good god.” Rita took the file and began to thumb through it. “I understand virtually none of this.”

“I wouldn’t worry about it. It’s not even up to date anymore. Not since my last surgery.”

“Still. You’re a member of the team.” Rita sighed and threw the file down. “How am I supposed to lead all of you if I can’t understand what was done to us?”

“I can probably go through Cliff’s file a little more closely. I was thinking about it. Now that Niles is dead, my dad might be more open to working on him.”

“Could you? I think any improvements you could think of would be welcome.”

“Yeah, sure.”

“And I’ll…” She flailed her hands at the remaining files. “See what I can glean from our files.”

“You might wanna just talk to Larry,” Vic suggested.

“Oh, he has his new little ‘friend’ now.”

“He cares a lot about Keeg, yeah.” Vic lingered by the door. “But Keeg’s a baby. It’s not exactly the same as talking to an adult. You can go ahead and worry about him not needing you anymore when he meets someone as old as him—”

“Hmph.”

“—and who’s had the same kind of shit happen to them. No one here would really get it. But you two had all those years you were alone here together. You’ve got more history than anyone.”

“He’s not exactly been my biggest fan since we crashed the bus.” Rita sat at Niles’ desk and opened her own file. “Thank you for the tip, Victor.”

“Rita—”

She waved her hand idly. “That will be all.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Rita could tell that Vic was shaking his head, but she paid him no mind. Information. That’s what she’d wanted. She would discover what she could about her team from the files of this chaotic, shitty scientist. She didn’t need to be surprised in the middle of a mission.

* * *

She woke drooling on papers covered in Niles’ prissy scrawlings about her own grotesqueness. Rita hadn’t realized how spent she’d been after their last mission. She hadn’t eaten much (relevant to her) since she’d been so concerned that Cliff have suffered permanent brain damage (relevant to him) and that Larry might melt or explode from absorbing all that “thermal energy.”

Pushing her hand over her sticky cheek, Rita looked around for a clock. How could Niles have managed to run this experiment on them with such pitiful organization? Even Laura’s desk hadn’t been such a disaster back in the day, and she’d been firmly ensconced there by the time Rita had met her.

Rita had been dreaming. Out on a lawn with the sun shining approvingly down on them. Lying blissfully, ignorantly, with her slim hand in the rough one of a man who had traveled leagues and suffered losses silly little Bendy could never have imagined. A man more worldly and sad and kind than she’d ever allowed herself to love as Rita. At least in that way. Loving meant being open. Being able to let someone see all of you. Or at least, most of you.

Rita Farr had never managed that.  Not once.

With a shake of her head, Rita straightened her blouse and headed upstairs. She could resume trying to pretend she understood the bullshit chemistry Niles had put into her and Jane’s respective creation tomorrow.

On her way down the hall, she could hear some sprightly music from the sun room. It was late. Who would be in there? Bubble? Flit? Sometimes, Cliff liked to marathon Riverdale—what was surely, in Rita’s estimation, one of the worst written, worst acted abominations that had ever slunk across the airwaves.

But, no. It was Larry on the couch. Not floating this time, but with his head lolling to the side in that position of utter collapse that he’d taken when Keeg Sr. had left him behind. The little one floated above him, facing the television, as if it were watching the bright characters sing:

“You do it for him! And you would do it again! You do it for her—That is to say, you’ll do it for him!”

“I don’t remember the first one liking cartoons,” Rita said to herself. It had never even bothered to float by if one of her movies was on. It had, in fact, hopped out of Larry once, mid-movie, and refused to return until it was over. Just incorrigibly rude.

It was odd, seeing Larry like that again. She’d seen it so many times: sprawled out on the concrete, slumped over a chair as the spirit decided to watch Cliff’s in-progress head, passed out on the floor of the little house they’d rented together, crumpled on the floor of the greenhouse.

Rita remember the first time she’d observed Larry keeping it together when the spirit left him. On the gravel road, leading up to his son Gary’s old house as agents from the Bureau rushed forward, carelessly brandishing their guns. It had saved them that day. Not soon enough for Larry’s grandson to avoid being shot. But it had saved her along with Larry, and it didn’t have to.

It could be kind. When it chose to be. Other times, it left a teenage boy to die, or sided with Mr. Nobody against them, or crashed their bus out of spite. A will of its own, for certain.

“You be good to him,” Rita said sternly.

The little thing turned, staring at her in that blank way. Or maybe not so blank. This one had more colors floating around in him, whereas Senior Alien Asshole had been an unadulterated blue.

“Do you understand me? No shenanigans, you. No leaving him in the rafters or dropping him down the stairs. He deserves better than that. You wouldn’t exist, if it weren’t for him. He brought you into this world. I might take you out.”

It flickered in front of her, tilting the shape of its “head” to the side in a way that was… Well, it was quite like Larry, wasn’t it?

“I’m watching you,” she whispered to it.

It stared at her for another moment, then lowered itself so it was closer to Larry as it watched the cartoon.

“Deep down, you know you weren’t built for fighting,” sang a pale, spindly character wielding a sword. “But that doesn’t mean you’re not prepared to try! What they don’t know is your real advantage: When you live for someone, you’re prepared to die!”

Rita scrunched her nose up at the cartoon before turning to go up to her room. When did children’s shows become so disturbing?

* * *

After going to the future, taking a walkabout through her old pictures, having her longevity stolen, and accidentally cursing her team (plus Willoughby and minus Larry), Rita finally managed to do something right. She’d successfully infiltrated the Bureau with Laura. But then, she’d come home to find everything had imploded in her absence.

Cliff was talking to his bloodied oven mitt while Jane argued with him about the freezer. (What?) Vic stood with a civilian Rita had never seen before, trying to explain a pocket dimension made of paper, and Larry leaned heavily against a chair, panting as though he’d been shot.

“Enough!” Rita clapped her hands loudly. “We’ve gotten information. You all have information. Let’s all sit down for a briefing in an orderly manner.”

“We don’t have the fucking time to sit around eating your nasty egg salad sandwiches!” Jane snapped. “They’ve taken longevity from all of us except Cliff. We’re fucking doomed.”

“I uh, maybe, have to tell you guys something…” Cliff said hesitantly.

“Cliff really fucked up this time!” said… his oven mitt.

“What the hell happened to Cliff?” Larry said in a near groan.

“What the hell happened to you?” Cliff said. “And what the fuck did you do to get Keeg to turn on you?”

Larry drew in a breath, rolled his shoulders back, and stretched his neck from side to side. “He hasn’t turned on me.”

“He chucked you into that fucking portal to Orbitz!”

“Orqwith,” Vic said.

“What I said,” Cliff said. “Orb-ballz.”

“What did he do?” Rita glared at the glow in Larry’s chest.

“He was trying to save me,” Larry said.

“By handing you over to the bad guys?” Jane said. “Yeah, that shit tracks.”

“He wasn’t trying to save me from them. He was trying to save me from what happens in the future.” Larry stepped toward them and ended up collapsed onto the floor.

The little spirit shot out, hovering over Larry frantically.

Rita pointed at the thing angrily. “You ungrateful little wretch! What is wrong with you?”

“Rita, stop!” Larry said. He looked at the spirit and held his hand out. “I’m okay. Just… stay close for now? Okay, buddy?”

Vic and his little friend grabbed Larry and helped him up. Larry took in a sharp breath and held himself rigidly. Rita felt her heart jumping into her throat. He was clearly in a great deal of pain. Pain that this new and hardly improved spirit had brought onto him!

“What exactly did they do to you?” Rita asked.

“Same thing they did to you guys. Except I don’t have to worry about getting gray hair.”

Rita pinched her lips together and attempted to incinerate his sarcasm with her eyes.

“That was a joke,” Larry said flatly. “Because I don’t have any hair.”

Rita raised her hands as if to strangle him. She knew her nostrils were flaring, and she gripped her hands shut tightly and threw them to her sides.

“Will you come over here and sit down, you incorrigible man? How am I supposed to keep you people from getting yourselves utterly fucked and dead?”

“Rita, calm down.” Larry shook his head at her. “I’m in no worse shape than you are.”

“You can barely stand.”

“I’ll get used to it.”

“To what. To what?” she demanded.

Too many things happened, then. All at once, the door behind Larry burst open, revealing sharp-toothed brutes with bulbous cheeks lunging for him. A green cloud billowed in and formed a man of shining silver who stood between them and the butts, letting them chomp ineffectually against his metallic arms. Sun Daddy emerged, pitching several fiery spheres at the butts, leaving them charred remains, apart from one that flung itself through the window and disappeared.

The danger had crashed into their home and then left just as precipitously. Rita flew to Larry’s side, putting her hand on his shoulder and checking over him quickly.

“Did it get you?”

“No, Rama stopped it.”

“And Rama is… whom?” Rita looked up at the man. She recognized him now. The charismatic little minion of Dr. Janus. The one who had helped that vampire suck her longevity away.

“A man of many elements,” Cliff said mockingly.

“Many elements man isn’t moving,” Laura pointed out.

“Rama, are you okay?” Larry asked. His spirit flew around the man a few times, then ducked back into Larry’s chest. “Yeah, I know, Keeg. We’ll help him.”

“Why does he need helping?” Rita went to face this “Rama” fellow, prepared to give him a piece of her mind.

He was frozen. His eyes met hers with a panic that was quite familiar to her.

“I can’t… I-I can’t…”

“Repeat after me. Rama, is it?” Rita put her hands on his shoulders. “The person who is speaking is me… Go on.”

“The person who is sp—” His lips stopped moving and a distressed noise came out.

“Well, shit,” Jane said, coming up to them.

“Oh, snap.” Cliff came over. “Oil can! Oil can!”

Jane snickered.

“Knock it the fuck off,” Vic said.

“Let me try.” Larry pushed himself up with an audible grunt and stood in front of Rama. He was a bit taller than the man and looked down at him with gentleness written over every line of his body as he touched the middle of Rama’s chest.

A glow came over them both, one that should be a sign of the spirit doing its thing, but Larry was clearly in charge in this moment. Rama didn’t move, of course, but the panic in his eyes seemed to fade and go distant as he and Larry stood there motionless.

Jane sank into a chair. “Is this what it was like when O.G. Neg decided to pop Cliff into my brain?”

“Kinda, yeah,” Vic said.

“Minus the wedding dress,” Rita added.

“Fucking Karen,” Jane muttered.

It took several minutes as they stood there and watched, but finally, the glow receded and the cold metallic sheen over Rama’s skin faded to a warm reddish brown. His eyes lit up, and his face cracked into such a bright smile that Rita was taken aback. He was looking at Larry like he’d hung the moon.

Well, as one might, if someone could help one regain control of their body.

“My hero,” Rama said, beaming.

“Yeah, as if you didn’t just literally save me from being torn apart,” Larry said in disbelief.

“Nothing but luck,” Rama replied. “I spent the last hour or so floating around as nitrous, and those things were just running into trees and laughing.”

Larry’s shoulders drew up, and he laughed softly.

Laughed.

Larry.

Larry laughed.

“Unfortunately, that level of extreme competence puts you quite on par with the rest of the team,” Rita said. “Your efforts are definitely appreciated, but can someone please tell me why he’s here at all?”

“It’s a long story,” Larry said. “But… um…”

“Larry’s a skillet,” Cliff said. “Cause he flipped ‘im.”

“What?” Rita was starting to get a headache.

Larry touched his chest. “Keeg, could you check out the grounds? See if there are any more of the butts, or other enemies, and how close they are?”

The little spirit popped out, looked at Larry, and then Rama for a second, before flitting off.

“Well, at least you boys made up,” Laura said. “Without anyone getting set on fire.”

“I told you,” Larry said, growing a bit stern. “He wasn’t trying to hurt me. He was trying to save me.”

“I got in his head, then, didn’t I?” Rama said apologetically. “With that talk of him never having to leave you?”

“He saw some pretty terrible things in the future. He got scared.” Larry shook his head and moved his hands as though he didn’t know what to do with them. “I wish our future selves had just told us what happened.”

“What exactly did he see?” Vic pressed.

Finally. Finally. The team, plus their new recruit, it seemed, sat down to brief one another on what had happened while they’d been spit up. Larry shook as he tried to lower himself, and Rama’s expression seemed fairly traumatized as he helped him down. Clearly, for Larry, loss of longevity meant facing the chronic nature of injuries one might sustain when knocked out of the sky and set on fire.

The little one came back fairly quickly, causing Larry to lower his head slightly when it returned to him, and he told them the grounds were clear, but they should secure the house as soon as they were done.

So Rita sat, and Rita listened. To Cliff explaining how he’d not actually had the heart to kill the zombie butt. (Vindicating, since Laura hadn’t succeeded in the one mission they’d promoted her for, but Rita was past that now that Laura had already handed back the reins.) To Jane explaining how Willoughby had (unsurprisingly) betrayed them, and then gotten his ass handed to him by the Immortus Cult. To Larry explaining how his little spirit had decided to villain-nap Rama and hold him still while feeding him Larry’s memories, and then vice versa. Then, how Rama had saved Larry, only for the spirit to drag Larry back, on the flimsy promise that Immortus could give them a miracle.

Rita sighed. “So that thing—"

“His name is Keeg,” Larry said sharply. “I don’t know if it was a bad decision—maybe I’ll regret it, I mean, probably— but he is a child, and he shouldn’t have had to deal with this on his own.”

“Yeah. That sucks monkeys, little dude,” Cliff said. “Sorry future-us biffed that one so hard.”

Rita folded her hands and closed her eyes for a moment to compose herself. “So Keeg is also responsible for Rama being here, just now, to stop Larry from being torn to shreds?”

Keeg glowed in Larry’s chest.

Not that it meant much. His other father had saved Larry sometimes. And others, been a complete dickhead… but Larry was right that Keeg Jr. hadn’t been around for very long. They couldn’t expect him to know what to do when none of the adults in the room did.

“Sounds like he also parent-trapped these two,” Cliff said, pointing at Rama and Larry.

Larry ducked his head down uncomfortably and blustered a denial, while Rama just grinned. His grin faded after a moment, though, and he looked at Rita.

“I just wanted… I’m sorry. It was quite stupid to think no one would get hurt in all this. I was… desperate, I suppose. I wanted to believe.” Rama glanced to Larry and then back at them. “When I was in the Ant Farm, if I lost control, they just kept me in a sealed room where I couldn’t accidentally hurt anyone.”

Rita’s brows shot up, and she looked to Laura.

“It makes sense,” Laura said. “Security at the Bureau has been crumbling lately, it seems. We slipped in and out of there like a stealthing frat boy.”

“Dr. Janus helped me and the others escape,” Rama explained. “I trusted her implicitly for that kindness, and she knew so much about everything that was happening.”

“You wouldn’t be the first person here to believe a charismatic ‘doctor’ who staged your rescue,” Larry said.

Rita covered her mouth with her hand and then stood up and smoothed out her dress. She looked between Larry and Rama, and then at Cliff (who somehow managed to look sheepish), and at Jane, and at Vic and his little friend.

“You’re on probation,” she said definitively. “We have bigger problems than holding a grudge against you for your slights against me. I’ve done worse things than you, Tin Man.”

“It was titanium,” Rama said very seriously, looking up at her like a chastised little boy.

Rita half-smiled. “Okay. Our problems are legion. We need to come up with some new strategies.”

Jane raised her hand. Rita looked at her curiously.

“Are you the leader again?”

“You’re welcome to vote again. Laura has abdicated.”

Laura saluted Jane with two fingers. “I surrender.”

Jane shrugged. “I don’t give a shit. We don’t want it.”

“I think it’s better that, like Rita said, we all try to pitch in on a solution,” Vic said. “But… it’s good to have you back, boss.”

* * *

The seamless way Larry floated up to the top of the windows was something akin to a blue balloon. Maybe that was what seemed so off-putting about the way he moved when he flew or floated. Walking had a stride, steps, an up and down rhythm. Flying, for Larry and Keeg, seemed to be a direct glide from one point to another.

Until one or the other caused Larry to drop to the ground… as he just had.

“Be careful!” Rita admonished, coming to help Larry up.

“We were doing okay.” Larry shook his head haplessly. He looked to her, as though he wanted to say something, but instead went to pick up the board that had crashed to the ground when he had. “Where’s that hammer?”

Rita picked it up. “Why don’t I get the tops?”

“Thanks,” he said, sounding a bit disheartened. He held up the board, and she stretched on up.

Though not particularly good with handy-tools, Rita figured it couldn’t be that hard. Or she did, until she hammered her hand instead of the nail.

“Dammit!”

“Not that I want to be lifted up like a toddler, but umm…”

Rita came back down and sucked in her lips as she looked at Larry. “Good thing you never eat.”

No more was said as Rita boosted Larry up high enough to nail the boards to the top of these ridiculously high windows. Surely, no one involved in the construction of this house had considered the need to ward it against carnivorous, zombified butts when they decided natural lighting was best. Rita had set Vic and his little friend whose name she couldn’t remember on considering traps for the perimeter (if Future Vic could trap them all, Current Vic could trap some butts), asked Bubble to float around outside as a lookout, and sent Laura with Cliff to the doctor because talking to his hand like that was clearly the result of his meds acting up.

That left Larry and her for the home improvement.

Once they’d gotten the tops of the windows, Larry started on the ones he could reach without help. “Thanks,” he muttered.

“I put everyone else to work. I might as well help.” Rita pressed her palms together. “No point in just standing around in the middle of the apocalypse… es. Apocalyp-ti?” She shook her head. “Whatever.”

“I wanted to thanks you, also, for um…” Larry set the next board into place and turned to her. “For letting Rama stay with us. After Cliff’s reaction when we first showed up, it occurred to me there was no reason anyone else besides me would trust him, and you in particular… You have a compelling reason to hate him.”

“Well, he wasn’t in charge. We know who that was. If being naïve were a crime, we’d all be doing time.” She gave a brief, humorous laugh. “In fact, we kind of did.”

Larry nodded and got to hammering his board.

“Compared to the rest of us, he has hardly done anything worth getting up in arms about.”

Larry hesitated.

“What, did he tend to go around murdering people?” Rita pressed.

“Not… willingly.” He finished the board and stood there, mutely.

“What do you mean?”

“In the Ant Farm… I mean… the tests they’d do, didn’t just measure your own limits, but…” Larry seemed unable to finish a sentence on this topic.

Rita was considering an overly cheery change of topic when Larry found the words.

“Remember how Red Jack had me arranged in that room?”

Did she? She’d had nightmares about that. Larry, strung up and immobilized, unable to stop the people around him from dying—Actually, from her experience with the Bureau even in its early days, Rita knew exactly what Larry was talking about.

“Oh god. Is that why he’s so skittish about the idea of losing control?”

Larry nodded.

“Hm. Given I’m a person who has, unintentionally, smushed someone, and very intentionally poured scalding water onto someone’s brain—”

“What?”

“I’m still going to suggest that I’m in no position to judge. Frankly, his saving you in the hallway, his bringing you back to us—even if Keeg had other ideas—it does speak to his character more than things he was forced to do.” Rita pressed a hand to the boarded window. “None of us are shining examples of heroism, you know.”

Rita wondered if Larry would be better able to find his words with someone who had endured the same torments at the Ant Farm. It dawned on her that Rama might be the very person Vic had suggested ought to worry her. Someone likely around Larry’s age, who truly understood his experiences. On Rita’s part, having Laura, when they hadn’t been bitter enemies, had turned out to be quite the palliative to her wounds.

“Definitely not.” Larry looked up and down the hallway, expressing some kind of unspoken anxiety. Rita only knew because Keeg was lighting up inside him.

“You’re such a little mood ring, aren’t you, Keeg?” Rita told him.

Keeg seemed to like that because Larry touched his chest and seemed pleased.

“Better hope your other father doesn’t come to visit,” she teased. “He’ll be jealous at how quickly Larry’s connected with Rama.”

She’d been teasing, but Larry tensed.

“He won’t be coming back.”

“Why not? Whatever issue he had with you, I think it’s fair to say that you put a great deal of effort into that relationship.”

“He doesn’t…” Larry, at a loss for words again, held his hands up. “Um… You know that show Keeg likes? With the singing alien rocks? Who cry all the time? Who are also gay? And Estelle is one of them? I don’t really know how to describe what it’s about.”

“Children’s programing is so strange.”

“It is. But um… Keeg likes it because one of the characters, his mother gave up her material form to create him with a human. That’s what happened to the Negative Spirit.” Larry paused, his shoulders turning inward a little. “I didn’t realize at first. It was hard for me to understand everything that happened in the nebula, but Keeg showed me, when that came up in the cartoon. The Negative Spirit deconstructed his essence so that he could make Keeg with me.”

There were many feelings that Rita had about that. The most prominent being: Good. The less dominant feeling, which Rita wished she didn’t have, was loss. Not that she would miss the Negative Spirit for a second. Even the ability for it to sweep her and Larry away from a spray of bullets didn’t justify most of what had to be tolerated for it to be around.

But Larry had clearly been upset when he’d returned without it. And the fact that Keeg knew Larry was on his own and wanted to let him know he hadn’t been abandoned…

It was a bit sweet.

The kid was alright.

“I’m so sorry,” she said finally.

“No, you aren’t.”

“Well, I’m sorry that it’s made you and Keeg sad.”

“I appreciate that.” He picked up the boards. “We should get the day room. Give me a boost?”

“Of course.”

“I haven’t told anyone about that. What really happened to Keeg’s other father, I mean.”

Rita wrapped her arm around his free one and leaned her head on him as he walked.  “Thank you for telling me, then.”

“I’m sorry… For being so harsh about, you as a leader. You’ve really stepped up since we all came back together. God knows I couldn’t do it.”

“Oh, bullshit.” She rolled her eyes when Larry looked at her. “You were a captain. You could be a leader, if circumstances were right. You’re just clearly not in the place to do that. I just wish that, perhaps, you had told me sooner that you weren’t a fan of gold stars.”

“I think maybe Cliff liked getting them? Or actually, he liked rubbing it in Vic’s face.” He cringed a bit. “I don’t always know how to tell you I disagree with you… without you getting angry about it.”

“It may have been said that I’m just the slightest bit sensitive to criticism.”

“And I’m not exactly the most gentle about giving it.”

“No, really?” Rita sighed. “I wanted you to feel good about your wins, you know. That’s why I used the gold stars. Besides the fact that Cliff and Jane respond to it. Not Jane, Jane. I mean, Dr. Harrison seemed to like the affirmation. She seemed ‘grade’ driven.”

“She was pretty critical of everything else you did, behind your back. But she was perfectly happy when she got a gold star,” Larry said. “You know that… when I don’t agree… it’s not because I don’t want to support you, right?”

“Oh, I know that.” She swatted his arm. “It’s just been hard, since I returned from my little time travel adventure. I was different. I’d had certain experiences, and it was harder to read you all than I remembered.”

“You were grieving.”

“I… I was. And I’ve just been so afraid. I wanted this. To do this team thing, so very much. But I couldn’t do it without you. And even then, with you, it meant that I was putting you at risk. The whole time, every time, every mission, I feared I’d lose one of you, and then… We went to the future. And I’d lost all of you.”

“I never thought that was your fault. I just—”

“We had to do something.”

“Clearly, Team Rouge didn’t swing it.”

“We’re not completely at a loss. You got Rama for us. I have him down in the Chief’s lab analyzing Niles’ incomprehensible notes.”

“He can also block radiation. Which should be helpful.”

Rita stopped in the day room and glanced around at all the windows. Better get started. “You have your bandages for that. And your room.”

“Wouldn’t help if I got torn open and dragged from the manor,” Larry grumbled. “Do we even have enough boards for all these windows?”

“We’ll find more. What makes you think that’s going to happen? Rama stopped the butts from doing just that.”

Larry touched the back of his head idly, and then turned back to Rita. “Can I show you something?”

“The way you did Rama before?”

“That was easy. I just had to bring him into memories we’d both had.” He made a noise in his throat. “Would’ve been nice if Keeg’s other dad had helped us do that with you, right?”

“Would’ve been nice.” Rita stepped up to him. “Show me.”

Larry stepped closer and pressed his hand to her chest. Before she could ask what she was supposed to do, she was watching Larry, right in front of her, being dragged down the hallway they’d just boarded up. Larry, injured and bleeding heavily, shooting into the sky to stop from spilling radiation over the town. Larry, absorbing more and more radiation and thermal energy out in space. Floating, dying. And Keeg, panicking.

And then, the sun.

“Oh!” Rita stepped back and gaped up at Larry. “That… Oh! No!”

She covered her mouth, stumbled backward, and dropped into a chair.

“It wasn’t that I screwed up and made him hate me. Keeg had to help me die. I know it’s going to be harder now, without my longevity, but… honestly, that shouldn’t matter so much for me. Not the way it does for you guys. Valentina didn’t age at all after merging with her Spirit. And Keeg just didn’t want to have to lose his dad so soon.” Larry dropped his hands to his sides, seeming to be at a loss. “I’m glad I can help Rama stay in control. Because if what Keeg saw happens… I can’t ask Keeg to do that. I might need someone to contain the radiation.”

Rita remained silent. It was exactly what she’d feared… only worse. Larry came to sit near her, and she moved her hand over to his leg. He covered her hand with his and squeezed it.

“I’d never have done this whole thing if not for you. I’m no hero. They used to call me that, just because I could fly planes, and it’s… so uncomfortable. Not that I’m ever not uncomfortable,” Larry joked. “I just don’t want to hold us all back. I’m not very good at this stuff, no matter how many missions we go on, and you’ve come so far, Rita. You really have. At the end of the day, though, I’m still…” He leaned his head back as if he were rolling his eyes.

“I’m still Negative Man.”

“We can call you Positive Man, if that makes you feel any better,” she said.

Larry looked at her.

“You don’t need to be a bucketful of sunshine. And you are doing better, even if you can’t see it.” Rita squeezed his hand, hard. “This is harder for you than for the others.”

“Not really. We all have our shit.”

Rita clicked her tongue. “Well, they hadn’t just given birth days before we started actually being a team.”

Larry ducked his head slightly, seeming embarrassed.

“You’re doing better than you think,” Rita said firmly. “Even if you don’t want the gold stars. You got us Rama. You saved us all from purgatory. Keeg freed us from being trapped in those movies, and I doubt he would’ve done that if his daddy weren’t there.”

“I think he likes you more than you like him.”

“I like him fine, now. As long as he doesn’t mess with you. And you, negative or not, have never been what held me back. I held me back. My shit, I had to deal with and overcome on my own.”

“We all do. In the end.”

“I don’t need you to be my savior, or my superhero. I just need you to be here.” Rita gathered herself and stood, offering Larry a hand up again. He took it. “I need my best friend. I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you, too.”

Her breath caught as his arms encircled her, hugging her tightly and infusing her with that odd sense of completeness. Their years together had been miserable, in their way, but having one another had been the only thing to make it bearable. Knitting was no comfort. Larry’s unwavering presence? It was a necessity.

Bendy hadn’t understood that. Because she couldn’t remember him. But so quickly, she’d found a brooding fellow, a bit more oriented towards her type, who she got on with like a forest fire and dry kindling.

She could give up parts of Larry, if it meant she could keep him overall. She could give up parts of him if the people those parts went to loved him as fiercely as he deserved to be loved. Rita, after all, had been making and keeping other connections beyond their insular little dynamic. Things had changed so much since Jane had taken them out to town on that fool’s errand.

Larry no longer did what she said without question. Which was annoying, but frankly, could only be a sign of improving mental health for both of them. Rita no longer feared melting into a writhing mass of flesh with the slightest emotional disturbance. That Larry was open enough to connect with and use his powers in tandem with Keeg was a grand sign for him overcoming some of his old wounds.

And Rama seemed nice. And wildly attractive. Goodness, those cheekbones. If he wasn’t there to infiltrate and destroy them, Rita heartly approved of him as an upgrade for Larry.

Larry would probably know whether he was secretly evil if they’d spent all that time in each other’s memories, right? Well, even if Larry didn’t have a ton of sense when it came to men, Keeg seemed to.

Upgrade all around.

“Let’s get these windows boarded up,” Rita suggested.

“I can probably get some of the tops now.”

“Are you sure?”

“No. But I’ll try. I just run out of energy sometimes.”

“I’m going to start making you eat.”

“Who doesn’t want their faces melted off at the dinner table?” Larry picked up the last board. “Let’s look out back. I think we never cleaned up that old shed Cliff got into a fistfight with.”

“How about we try to boost your battery with some heat energy,” Rita suggested. “That works, right?”

“It might?”

Rita followed him with a skip in her step. “Let’s set something on fire!”

“Go Doom Patrol.”

Keeg popped out and circled around their heads protectively as they ventured outside. Even Rita had to admit, he might be a little cute. Larry looking up at him in delight, his voice lifting from that gravelly depth of his daily pessimism, slowing his stride to keep pace with her…

Definitely cute.

He’d done a lot of work today, to open up to her. Rita might have to try to do what Bendy could not do, and share a few things she’d kept too close to the vest. Larry was a better listener than he was a talker, even on his most Negative Man days. She would plan for it, and Larry wouldn’t deny her some time together.

If they survived these various apocalypti.