How Ziggy and Al Got Contracted

        𝘼𝙇𝙄𝙎𝙏𝘼𝙍 𝘾𝙍𝙊𝙒𝙇𝙀𝙔 𝘼𝙉𝘿 𝙄 𝘼𝙍𝙀 𝙊𝙉 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙃𝙐𝙉𝙏 𝙁𝙊𝙍 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙀𝙉𝘿 𝙊𝙁 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙐𝙉𝙄𝙑𝙀𝙍𝙎𝙀. The End of the Universe was a fabled place that all adventurous space travelers grew up hearing stories about. Whether they were good or bad depended, but it was all the same. This fabled place was so popular that an annual race to see how far people could get was created in its honor.

      (And Al was finally invited to join, apparently.)

      "Why must I wear a floofy dress?" I groaned while overdramatically dropping to my seat. Al glanced up from his holographic newspaper with a questioning glance.

      "Floofy?" Al inquired as he glanced back down on the bright blue letters in midair.

      I nodded. "Yeah, floofy," my reply was short and sweet as I waited for my coffee.

      "Ziggy, I must inform you that the starting of the race is a formal gala in which wealthy sponsors contract the runners. The first seven to make it the Lyrian Outposts then get bankrolled to continue the journey. In order for Alistar to gain sponsorship to enter the race, you must dress to impress."

      "So that means a floofy dress, Tesla?"

      "Yes, I'm afraid so-"

      Our conversation was rudely cut short by Al asking, "Wait. Who's Tesla?" He put his "paper" away and seemed to finally be fully invested in our conversation.

      "I am, sir, " Tesla answered from all around us. Her disembodied voice sounded quite amused.

      "Since when?"

      "Since about a week after I moved in," I shrugged. It really wasn't news to me but I guess it was news to him. "I decided she needed a name. I was not going to have full conversations with a disembodied voice without said voice having a name." I would not say that it was weird per se, but it wasn't not minorly horrifying either.

      "We have been working on a holographic avatar for me as well," Tesla added with what seemed to be a smile to her voice. "I haven't found a form I particularly am fond of though."

      I nodded along with Tesla's statement. Al's vein on the side of his head, just above his temple, that I nicknamed "Angry Al" twitched. Then my house-mate (or is it truck-mate?) let out a very long and very drawn out sigh of exasperation. I turned my head to the side in confusion. "What?" I questioned him with my darker green eyes searching his cobalt blue.

      "Are you being honest with me? A holographic form for my spaceship's main frame?"

      "Why not?"

      "Wouldn't it unsettle you to speaking to a glowing form of a person that you know is actually a ship?"

      "And the disembodied voice of Tesla doesn't bother you now?" I volleyed back with a quirked eyebrow.

      "No. None of the voice in my head do," Al replied as if completely serious. I began to wonder about his sanity in that moment, if I could be honest. The kitchen descended into quite as I sipped my coffee, Al sipped something else, and Tesla was busy cooking up breakfast. I smelt something with vanilla and grinned.

      "Pancakes?" I guessed with a childish expression of excitement stretching from ear to ear.

      "Only for those who will wear proper clothes to a gala."

      "No fair!"

      "Ah ah ah," Tesla scolded from all around us. "Go to the wardrobe now or I will force any door you open to lead you there. Understood, Ziggy?"

      (Living in a place where A.I. controls everything was quite a pain sometimes.)

      "Ugh. Fine." I rose from the table and slouched all the way up the three flights of stairs to the wardrobe. In actuality, it was less of a wardrobe and more of a room dedicated solely for clothes. A very big room with clothes for every occasion which verged on slightly creepy since it seemed to have clothes of every size for every gender. "Gods, does Al believe in being prepared or what?" I muttered when I examined the room.

      "Oh no," Tesla sounded like she was laughing. "I am just programmed to be ready for all possible contingencies as my base default allows."

      "That includes clothes?"

      "Especially when it comes to clothes."

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      "𝙕𝙄𝙂𝙂𝙔?"Al called as he knocked on the door to the wardrobe. Turning around, I waved as I tried not to look too uncomfortable in this very itchy, very floofy (very pink) dress. I heard a snicker at the dress and crossed my arms with eyes narrowing.

      "Listen here, Al—"

      "You need a better dress!" He gasped out as he dropped to the literal floor. Laughter racked his body and I rolled my eyes. "You look like a cupcake!"

      "Thank you, at least he agrees with me," I said as I pointed to his turning form. He was still manically laughing but at this point, I decided to leave him be. After all, I didn't need to watch that—nope. I needed to find a dress that wasn't an uncomfortable, itchy cupcake. So, I was back at it again.

      Searching the racks, I pulled an emerald gown. "Hey, Al!" I called as I held up the dress.

      "What?" He wheezed as he slowly stopped laughing.

      "Come help look for dresses, 'kay?" I poked my head out from the rack as I kept the dress close to my chest. "I need to have an opinion of someone who doesn't like to see me suffer."

      "How do you know I don't?"

      "Hey, Tesla?"

      "Yes?"

      "Play the recording please?"

      I grinned evilly as I heard a noise of agreement. I minorly felt bad as Alistar whitened like a sheet of copy paper. But, and I will be honest, it was really funny to see him cringe and curse at me getting a hold of that tape from a citizen of Venice 626. "𝘡𝘪𝘨𝘨𝘺? 𝘡𝘪𝘨𝘨𝘺? 𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘺𝘢 𝘥𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴, 𝘓𝘢𝘴𝘴? 𝘈𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘦 𝘢 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘺 𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘰𝘵 𝘰𝘳 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘢𝘮𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘶𝘭𝘴𝘪𝘷𝘦? 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘮 𝘐 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯' 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘢? 𝘠𝘦𝘳 𝘮𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥!" The words played on loop until Al raised his hands wildly, knocked over a few jackets in the rack, and commanded Tesla to, and I quote, "Turn that damned rubbish off, or so help me!"

      It was my turn to roll on the floor, laughing hysterically, as he stomped away like a petulant child. I stopped when I heard his footsteps leave the room and walk down the stairs. Shit. "I shot myself in the foot with that one, didn't I?"

      "Well, at least the Inter-Temporal-Spatial Highway gives him a plethora of opportunities to get back at you, Ziggy." Was that Tesla's attempt at trying to make me feel better? I hoped not. Simply because I can remember one time, in the Sirius X Space Station, that I was a blubbering wreck at the thought of loosing Al. I shuddered at the mere memory of that day.

      "And that's my cue to try on this dress!"

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𝙄 𝙏𝙃𝙄𝙉𝙆 𝙄𝙏'𝙎 𝙃𝙄𝙂𝙃 𝙏𝙄𝙈𝙀 𝙒𝙀 𝘾𝘼𝙐𝙂𝙃𝙏 𝙐𝙋 𝙊𝙉 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝘾𝙍𝙀𝙀𝙋 𝙊𝙉 𝙀𝘼𝙍𝙏𝙃, don't you agree?

      Excellent!

      Well, after the whole Astrobot invasion thing happened, but before Venice 626, but after our little outing to the Sirius X Space Station, I landed on Earth for my little cousin's birthday. "No, Alistar, you cannot bring a blaster to a five-year-old's birthday party!"

      (I distinctly remembered telling him that before we landed, but whatever.)

      "But why? What if there is an alien invasion of some kind? We must be prepared for any and all contingencies!"

      "You will scare a five-year-old boy who wanted a puppy for Christmas!"

      "Ugh, fine. No blasters. But I will take my swiss army knife."

      "Don't open it in front of minors and we have a deal," I acquiesced. I couldn't say I didn't enjoy Al's antics. I wouldn't have stayed if I didn't, but even I knew when there was a time and a place for our intergalactic travels to come into play and it definitely was not on Earth where a child was having a birthday shindig. Did I mention my family also tended to have a lot of problems at birthdays?

      (Yeah, we don't have them that often...)

      It started with an, "Oh, Venice! How wonderful it is to see you! You know, when you disappeared without a trace, your parents said the most absurd thing."

      "And what was that, Aunt Tilly?"

      "That you ran off with some Irishman to have adventures in space rather than assume your role given to you by the Mandate."

      "Excuse me," Alistar broke in by raising his hand. "Said 'some Irishman' here. My name's Alistar Crowley, pleasure to make your acquaintance, Aunt Tilly." I bit back a laugh when her face when from "We both know that you really didn't do that" to "Holy shit, she did that" at his introduction. But Al sent me a wink and I knew he was far from done. Alistar Crowley took to his role in the same way butter took to warm toast. His best feature was the fact that he could talk his way across the Galaxy and manage to both compliment and offend people to the point of hunting him down for his head on a pike.

      "Pleasure is all mine," my aunt ground out.

      "Now that formalities have been dispatched, I'll have you know that your niece has saved my life multiple times. Including but not limited to," Al waved covertly at me to leave. I knew all these stories already—after all, I was there—and took his sign as an "ESCAPE NOW" message. Well, off to find the birthday boy any how.

      And then, I saw him as I tried to find Danny.