This section has a scroll-down portion; I dunno if I need to say that, but you get a warning anyway. *insert suspense here* is less suspenseful than scrolling down a bit.

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Cross.

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It had been two months since Horror got Nibble, and now only Dust and I were left to get our blasters; Dad told us not to be upset if we didn't get them soon, since there were no guarantees for these sorts of things, and it was really only chance that caused the others to get them within only a few months of eachother. Another thing that everyone was thinking about was Dust: in less than a month, he would turn ten; his birthday was close to Horror's, while mine was about a month after that. At the moment, it was a bright Saturday morning, and I was sitting on the porch in the backyard, enjoying the morning air; I had never had that chance in the lab..I had always been inside. Inside air was different from outside air; I preferred the latter. I drank some milk as I slowly started my day, noting when Dad joined me, sitting down on the porch table next to me.

"Lovely morning, isn't it?" He commented.

"Mhm." I agreed, sipping my milk.

"I was thinking about going on a trip today; would you be interested in that?"

"Where?"

"Well, I was thinking of going to visit that farm - the one where we get our eggs?"

"Oh." I hummed. "I guess I'd be okay with coming."

"Very well. I actually wanted to get there before the others woke up; Killer is sleeping a bit later today, and I figure that I can make a good breakfast."

"All right, I'll come." I placed my milk on the table.

Dad soon opened a portal to the farm, and I followed him through. We usually had only to look into one of the food storage rooms to find ingredients for things, but whenever possible, Dad liked to use fresh eggs; he said they were better than stored eggs, but we would use the stored if we had to. We went up to the market in the farm, meeting a nervous farmer; I wondered why he was so nervous.

"H-hello, N-Nightmare.." He stuttered. "How c-can I help you..t-today?"

"I would like to purchase one dozen eggs, please." Dad requested.

"S-sure.." The farmer placed a carton of eggs on the counter. "Th-that'll be t-two g.."

"Here you go." Dad gave the farmer the money and picked up the carton of eggs. "Good morning."

"M-morning.." The farmer shuddered.

As soon as Dad took the eggs, there was a rumble..was it an earthquake? No..it sounded more like..hooves. I froze, knowing that there was only one creature that made those types of sounds: cows. I heard cows, and there were lots of them. Dad didn't seem to notice the stampede that was obviously nearby! I grabbed his leg, whimpering; they were going to kill us all! Dad still didn't notice the stampede..how could he not have noticed?! It was so loud! In an instant, the wall of the market building was broken, and a cow faced us; Dad glared at the evil cow, who huffed demonically. Its horns even looked like demon horns..it made the sound. I whimpered, holding on to Dad's leg with all my strength. He looked down to me, gesturing for me to get behind the counter; I did so quickly before returning my attention to the face-off. Dad growled at the evil cow, who seemed to smile at the challlenge; they fought. Dad fired multiple blasters at the cow, who was unphased; Dad was a bit shocked that his attacks did absolutely nothing against the beast. The cow attacked, making the sound I feared so much. I screamed as dust flew up into the air..no..no! Dad! No..he wouldn't leave us like that..

The beast then looked at me, giving a huff of amusement at my terrified expression. The farmer backed away slowly, obviously knowing that this cow was too much of a threat to even bother trying to save its victim: me. The beast made its sound again, approaching me slowly. I backed against the wall of the market, screaming as loud as I could in the hopes that someone, anyone would save me! But..nobody..came. It was just me and the cow..me and the horrendous, vicious, vile, terrifying, scary, unstoppable beast. Me and it. I stood slowly, knowing that it was now life or death, and I was the only one who could protect me now. I activated my erratic magic, hoping to fire an attack at the beast, but it was too fast..it raised a hoof, and I screamed. 

"Cross!" Dad's..voice? "Cross, wake up!"

"D-Dad?" I whimpered, leaning into the goopy texture..Dad was alive?

"Cross, you had a bad dream..it's okay, Cross." Dad hugged me tightly. "It's not real; none of it is real."

"B-but you..it.."

"Shh, just focus on my voice and deactivate your magic."

"M-my magic?"

"Yes, you've already blown three holes in the wall, and we don't need to make it four."

"Wh-what..?" I couldn't make holes..

"Are you all right now?"

"I..I'm okay..I used my magic?"

"Yes, you used a lot of magic.."

"I'm sorry.."

"It's okay, Cross. Whatever you dreamed about must have scared you.."

"Yeah..th-there was a cow..and it..k-killed you.."

"I see.." Dad hugged me tighter. "Cross, trust me: I won't die from a cow."

"I-it was going to step on me!"

"I understand." Dad sighed. "Well, your room is a bit of a mess, and you've won fourth place in the blast-olympics, but I think we can sort this out."

"My- I what?" I wasn't hearing that..

Dad chuckled. "Your bad dream must have triggered a magic surge; you've successfully summoned a blaster."

"I..have?" I wriggled out of Dad's grasp to see myself faced with a blaster; it had the same brand I had been marked with so long ago.

"Congratulations, Cross. It's a girl."

"She's not a baby.."

"Might as well be; all of you will forever be my baby boys."

"..I've been thinking about that."

"About what?"

"Us..and you..what's going to happen when we grow up?"

"I imagine you'll stop aging somewhere in your twenties; the multiverse likes its..Guardians..in their best shape."

"So..we're going to be immortal?"

"Unless it has reason to kill you, yes."

"Huh..cool."

Dad smiled. "So, what are you going to name your baby girl?"

"Flapjack's new daughter shall be named.." I thought for a moment. "Star!"

"That's a very nice name, and I'm sure Flapjack will adore his new daughter."

I giggled a bit. "What are her traits?"

"Getting right down to business, I see." Dad hummed, laying a hand on Star. "Oh, this is odd..this is very odd.."

"What's odd?" I hoped there was nothing wrong with Star! She was supposed to be special! I hoped the bad dream didn't affect her badly!

"Usually, a blaster summoned as a result of a nightmare would have fear or anger as a trait..I feel..kindness..and curiosity? No, more than curiosity..inquisitiveness..this blaster's traits are kind and inquisitive."

"What does inquisitive mean?"

"It resembles curiosity, but on a further scale; Star may be a bit too curious about things..she may end up getting in trouble because of it. With this nature comes the desire to obtain knowledge, and this blaster is bound to be intelligent. You'll need to keep an eye on her."

"I will!"

"I know you will." Dad rubbed my skull playfully. "Now, would you like to try to go back to sleep?"

"Yes, thank you, Dad."

"Of course."

I then desummoned Star, falling asleep soon after. I had a better dream this time, dreaming about playing with my brothers instead of being murdered by a cow; I preferred playing. I soon woke up to the sound of Killer's voice, prompting me to get out of bed. I put on some day clothes and walked out to the upper dining room, finding my family already there; I smiled at the sight of Error feeding Matrix a piece of bread. Blasters didn't typically need to eat, but they enjoyed being fed, nonetheless. Still smiling, I took my seat at the table, beginning to eat my breakfast and talk with the others, who hadn't been made aware that I had summoned a blaster. We had a conversation consisting of caterpillars and their different characteristics, leading to the question of if Error was a caterpillar - I didn't know how it got there, and I really didn't want to. After breakfast, the others would usually go into the backyard to watch their blasters play together, and I had always been brought along, since Error wanted me to come; Dad wasn't going to join us today, instead summoning Flapjack and going to have a talk with Dust about the future. My brothers summoned their blasters, and I surprised them by conjuring my own.

Error gasped, hugging me. "Crossy! You did it!" 

I chuckled. "You didn't think I'd miss out on all the fun, did you?"

"Yay!"

"Looks like Dust's last, then." Killer stated.

"Dusty will make one." Error was sure of it.

"What's its name?" Horror pet Star before sending her to play with the others.

"Her name, and it's Star." I replied.

"Flapjack has a lot of kids!" Killer giggled, looking at the blasters' shenanigans.

We all turned our attention to the sight, finding the blaster family welcoming Star with smiles. Soon enough, they began to chase eachother around the yard, humming happily; I was glad that they all got along. When they tired themselves out - some took longer than others - the little ones huddled around Flapjack and cuddled with him; that was adorable. Flapjack seemed to like his children; he made sure all of them had enough room to move while also maintaining cuddle status. After a while, Error was beginning to get a bit tired - I attributed that to the fact that he went to bed late. He yawned slightly before walking over to the blasters and joining their cuddle; they accomodated him, and now there was an eight-and-a-half-year-old covered in various sized blasters. After a while, Horror decided to join the mix, and Killer and I were not going to miss out on this opportunity; we were all covered in and surrounded by blasters within five minutes. Actually, being surrounded by blasters was surprisingly comfortable, especially when one was small, such as us; we were no different than a group of children with one large blanket.

"Taking a nap already?" Dad was impressed.

"Maybe.." I glanced at Error, who was already soundly asleep. 

"Hm. Okay, then. Dust is paying a visit to fluffy land; perhaps you would like to continue your nap there instead of on the grass?"

"That sounds super comfy.." Horror was half asleep.

"All right, then."

Dad then picked us up, not waking up Error or disturbing Horror's drift to sleep. He brought us to fluffy land, where we continued our cuddle, except this time, Dust joined our pile. After a bit of silent pleading, Dad was convinced to join us as well, and we enjoyed our cuddle a million times more than before, which was saying a lot. We spent the rest of the day playing with our blasters and comforting Dust, who seemed to get more and more paranoid as the days went on; it was unfortunate, really..he had been coming out of his shell before the knowledge that we would grow up to help Dad struck, at which point, he just started retreating. We knew he was scared; he didn't try to deny it. Dad was trying to prepare him, but it didn't seem as if anything would prepare him for the tasks that lay ahead. Instead, we decided to make him feel as comfortable as possible; that might have helped a little, and Dust certainly needed comfort, with everything he was going through. At the end of the day, we were a family, and we would do whatever we could to make our family members feel like they belonged just as much as the rest did; it was our duty. We just needed to hold on for a while longer; Dust would be okay.

I was sure of it.

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Cross bean get blaster bean!

Hope I didn't scare y'all with the cow-

Thanks for reading my starry writing!

Bye!