#to catch a leaf
Summary: “You?! Why would I trust you? You have brought me nothing but failure. Time and time again; nothing but disappointment!”
His father’s words might have been a result of his possession by the White Bone Spirit, but whether or not they were his true thoughts, Red Son vows to prove them wrong. To do so he seeks to attain a power strong enough to destroy his father’s immortal enemy. After all, he’d much rather throw fire at his problems.
Word Count: 1940
Ratings/Warnings: Teen and up; injury, burns, angst and hurt/comfort, toxic thoughts caused by toxic parents, panic attacks, abuse.
Notes: Sandy POV, and my love for “To Catch a Leaf” is very apparent in this one XD
Credits: Big thanks to @painted-arachnidand@simplyfornardo for helping me bounce ideas off of them. And also thanks to @lemonsqueazie for providing me with “Journey to the West” lore. I don’t know much about the original novel or other iterations, but I still tried to keep some things compliant with the lore. You should check all of them out, since they’re really great content creators with neat ideas!
———-
When Sandy got back to his houseboat and saw, not only that both Red Son and MK weren’t there, but also that there was a gaping hole in his roof, and a giant mechanical spider looming over the city, it didn’t take long for him to piece together that the Spider Queen was plotting something evil and that MK and Red Son got caught up in it somehow. So he calls his friends at the noodle shop to inform them of the situation and quickly makes his way over to the giant spider.
The spider base is walking along a main stretch of road in the city. Many folks are scrambling away from it, and from the rubble left in its wake. Sandy looks the mechanism up and down. It moves slowly, but purposefully; its long and sharp legs smashing down in the concrete as it goes. He needs to get in there.
So he makes the obvious move when confronting a giant, destructive vehicle.
He plants himself in front of it, holds up his hands, and asks it politely to stop.
For a moment, it seems like it’s going to continue its rampage.
Sandy doesn’t budge.
Then there’s a hint of recognition in the many eyes covering its face, as it angles its head down towards him. It comes to a slow stop, steam and some magical green glow billowing out of its crevices. The section that looks like its mouth opens up and the Spider Queen herself steps out.
She has a confident and calm aura about her, as she assesses the large man in front of her. “To what do I owe the pleasure?” she asks, not sounding at all pleased.
Sandy perks up cheerily. “Ah, hello! Sorry to interrupt your villainous rampage throughout the city. But I was wondering if you perchance had a fire demon and the Monkie Kid with you?”
As if to answer his question, Red Son himself steps out from behind Spider Queen looking sheepish, and almost sickly.
“Red Son!” Sandy exclaims happily. He’s about to go over to him when the Spider Queen moves one of her spindly legs in between them and interrupts.
“Ah yes, he was in your care for a while wasn’t he? There’s a lot of gossip among the city spiders.” She grins wickedly. “But did you know that it is largely thanks to him that I was able to power this spider base before you and begin my takeover of the city?”
Sandy looks between her and Red Son, disbelievingly. Guilt is evident on Red Son’s face, but he stammers out desperately, “It’s not like that! I– that was before… I- I didn’t know she’d…”
Spider Queen again brushes him aside, “Whether intentional or not, I am grateful for his services. I doubt you’d want him around anymore. He works much better with me - I could use an engineer to work on my Arachnoid Base and other mechanisms…” She eyes Red Son, almost hungrily.
Red Son lets out an audible gulp, but lowers his gaze as if he can’t bring himself to look at Sandy.
Sandy himself does feel a tinge of hurt. That Red Son could’ve helped orchestrate this is a possibility. But he feels like Spider Queen is bending the truth. And with the shame on Red Son’s face and the way he holds himself, Sandy can tell the implication is eating him up.
He softens his gaze, speaking to the Spider Queen, but looking at Red Son when he says, “I would like my friend back, please.”
Red Son’s face shoots up and locks eyes with Sandy’s. Sandy holds the gaze long enough to make sure Red Son got the message. Once Red Son’s eyes widen in quiet understanding, Sandy turns to Spider Queen and says, “And I would like you to tell me where MK is. I want him safe, too.”
Spider Queen grimaces slightly, as if the display displeases her. She waves an airy hand and says “I have no idea where the Monkie Kid is. Maybe climbing up a tree?”
Suddenly Red Son blurts out, “He’s here! She’s captured him and is using him as an energy source for–”
Quick as lightning, Spider Queen shoots a web across his mouth, preventing him from finishing his sentence, then shoots another around his arms and torso so he can’t take the web away.
“Annoying little welp,” Spider Queen mutters.
“Hey now!” Sandy steps forward. Red Son wasn’t able to finish what he was saying but it was enough for Sandy to understand. MK was here. And he wasn’t going to leave without both of his friends. “I don’t think you want to keep my friends here. Let them go,” Sandy says sternly.
“Oh, I think I very much do,” Spider Queen retorts. Then she looks behind Sandy and smirks, “Anyway it looks like more of your companions want to join us…”
Sandy turns around to see Pigsy, Tang, and Mei charging towards the scene; swords, frying pans, and other implements of destruction held at the ready.
“Sandy!” Pigsy yells. “We got your message! We’re here to back you up!”
“She has MK and Red Son!” Sandy responds.
“Not for long, she doesn’t!” Mei says confidently, and she leaps in the air, sword swinging in front of her. Pigsy and Tang follow her jump.
As they arc towards Spider Queen, she makes a motion and the Arachnoid Base’s head lifts upward. A glow surrounds its mandibles, some sort of energy building up. Sandy’s eyes widen in alarm, recognizing an incoming attack. He turns to his friends and begins to shout for them to look out, but his warning cry is drowned out by the blast of green energy that the spider mech shoots at them.
Mei and her sword makes a momentary defense against the surge of energy, but the attack is too powerful and all three of them are quickly overtaken by its light.
For a heart stopping moment, Sandy can’t see them.
Then three figures fall from the air, smoke billowing out behind them as they fall.
“Guys!” Sandy cries out, attempting to quash down the fear bubbling up in his gut and the old memories of past battles flashing across his vision.
His friends stir and groan from their position on the ground and slowly begin to pick themselves up. Unfortunately, before they can take back a fighting position, Spider Queen has shot her webs at them, pinning all three of them together and sticking them to the ground.
Sandy spins back to Spider Queen in a harsh motion. Too quick. Too angry. Sandy takes a breath. “Let them go,” he says, in a low rumble and without his usual mirth. “Please,” he softens his tone and his expression, raising his eyebrows in compliance.
Spider Queen lets out a thoughtful hum, looking Sandy up and down. “I hear you used to be a pretty scary guy. But in person you are so boring. I wonder what would change that…” Sandy clenches and unclenches his fists, trying to control his stress levels. But she continues. “You know, it’s funny you call both them, and this little twerp ‘friends.’” She motions at Red Son. Then she shoots another wad of webbing at the fire demon. The force is enough to fling him to the ground out of reach on the other side of Sandy. “Who do you care for more?” she asks, darkly.
At her command, the giant spider lifts its two front legs upwards. One is brought towards Pigsy, Tang, and Mei, and the other goes to Red Son; both with their heavy and sharp ends hovering dangerously close to his friends.
“Choose,” she says simply.
“What?” Sandy is momentarily speechless, air leaving his lungs.
“Who will live and who will my spider crush under its leg?” Spider Queen grins.
“N-no! Both–! –Neither! Don’t hurt any of them!” Sandy stammers. He’s trying to stay centered, trying to stay grounded, but he can’t seem to get a good breath in.
“That’s not how this works,” Spider Queen drolls. Both of the mech’s legs inch closer.
“Look, I don’t think you really want to do this. I mean, what will this accomplish?” Sandy tries to reason with her.
“Oh, just a bit of fun for me and pain for my enemies. Now choose or they all die.” The legs inch closer.
“Why don’t you point those at me instead?”
“Three,” she begins to count.
“Listen, don’t do this.”
“Two.” The legs come even closer.
“Please,” he begs.
“One.”
“STOP!”
The legs swing downwards.
For just a moment Sandy is no longer there. He is in a different fight, with his companions injured, laying around him, unmoving. He doesn’t know if they are alive. Long forgotten rage finally bubbles to the surface.
Before he knows what he’s doing, his fist strikes the mech, a hair away from Spider Queen’s face, and suddenly there is a gaping hole in its hull with half its head missing. The shock of the blow causes the whole mech to lurch backwards and the attacking legs manage to land just in front of his friends, ripping through the webs that had entangled them, but not harming them at all.
Through the hole that he created he sees MK. Any elation that he may have felt upon seeing his friend is squashed when he sees the state that the boy is in. He’s tangled up in webs which are attached to some machine. He looks sickly and outright exhausted; deep bags are under his eyes, and sweat fresh on his face. But he seems aware enough that his gaze flashes up at Sandy’s entrance, and looks at him with a strange expression.
“..Sandy..?!” His voice is small, but filled with a certain amount of shock and disbelief.
Through the fear and anger, a wave of shame washes over Sandy. What must he look like to MK right now? Furthermore, his thoughtless strike could have hit MK as it blasted through the mech! And didn’t Red Son say something about him being an energy source for it…?
As if to answer his question, the engines inside spark to life and jolts of energy start coursing through the webs holding MK, and he screams out in pain. The surrounding metal starts bending back into shape and the hole that Sandy created starts closing up.
Sandy can’t even find his voice to call out to the boy. He caused that. If he hadn’t attacked the spider directly then it wouldn’t have hurt MK by using him as a battery. The hole closes, cutting him off from potentially getting to MK.
Sandy looks around to see his other friends looking at him with similar levels of shock as MK’s.
And it hurts. He didn’t ever want his anger to show in front of others, especially in front of his friends, and especially when it caused them to be hurt. Again.
Even Spider Queen takes a moment to recover from the sudden blow to her base. Pigsy is the first to react, and he rallies Mei and Tang together to attack Spider Queen. Due to the damage to her mech and it still repairing itself, Spider Queen can only fight hand to hand, giving the others more of a fighting chance.
But Sandy doesn’t enter the fray. He can’t. His body doesn’t want to move. As the others exchange blows, Sandy can only stand there on unsteady feet, letting the noises wash over him. He vacantly looks over to where Red Son was last stuck, and finds that the fire demon is no longer there.
