Chapter Text
Goob was in the middle of a run, and things were looking bleak. The last machine was stuck in the middle of the map, everyone was on low health, and twisted Pebble was sleeping in the middle of the floor. It seemed near impossible to get it done. The toons in the run were him, Gigi, Glisten, Vee, Shrimpo, and his sister. Goob felt horrible. His one job was to distract for the team, and he couldn't even handle that. They should've brought any other distractor, because any of them could've handled Pebble. Except Goob. Because Goob was useless. He was broken out of his spiral when he heard Vee speak up. "I'm going for the machine." Everyone gave her a concerned expression, with Goob replying first, "You're stealth's to low! You could get hurt-" Vee cut him off, "I'm the fastest extractor and I have a jumper cable. I'll be fine." Gigi grabbed Vee's shoulder, "I'm fast too! Let me take it, my stealth's bet-" Vee cuts her off, her voice glitching a tad as she tries to hide her anger. "NO!.. No, I'm the fastest. We don't have time for the second or third best, we don't know when that beast will wake up." Gigi pulled her hand back, muttering a "Fine.."
Vee started to leave the corner they'd all been hiding in, before Goob walked next to her. She stopped, "What are you doing?!" the annoyance was clear in her voice. Goob couldn't be mad at her for it though, he was getting in her way. "I'm going to protect you. IF, Pebble wakes up, I can pull you back." Vee rolled her eyes, as she continued to walk towards the machine. "We have the same stealth. You're not gonna be able to do anything." Goob held up an airhorn as he followed her, "I'll be fine, sparkplug." Vee sighed, before turning to start the machine. It shook with a loud schlep sound as ichor thumped through the pipes before starting to drip into the machine. Pebble's tail twitched a bit, but he stayed asleep. Goob looked at his sister and the other toons, hiding, and motioned for them to go to the elevator. He watched them quickly move past, before turning back to Vee. She'd pulled out the jumper cable, hooking it up to the machine. Goob quickly noticed something though, a few exposed wires on the cable. "VEE WAIT-"
As the electricity pulsed through the wires, it went straight into Vee. She yelled in pain, her screen and voice glitching out before tears started to spawn into her screen. Goob quickly covered her speakers, shushing her before he turned to look at Pebble. Who'd opened his eyes. And was now standing up. Vee moved Goobs hands, pointing to the elevator, "You need to run now-" Goob shook his head, "NO! Finish that machine. I'll distract him." Vee looked at him, her expression mixed with confusion and anger, "You're not fast enou-" Goob quickly shoved her out of the way as Pebble snapped his jaws down at her. The dog narrowly missed the two, before Goob blared his airhorn and started running. He saw Vee get back on the machine out the corner of his eye, but he needed to focus on running. He could hear Pebble snarling and growling behind him, his footsteps stomping down onto the ground, as Goob turned a corner. He continued to run, before he felt something pierce into his hand. He was yanked backwards into the air, as Pebble jaw ripped into his hand, holding him in the air. Goob was going to die, he was inches from death, he just hoped his sister and friends would be fine.
He heard the elevator door shake open, causing Pebble to turn and charge towards it. Goob struggled against the dog's grip on his hand, before ripping his hand out Pebble's mouth. He bit the inside of his mouth, trying not to scream. There was roughly 15 seconds, and he needed to book it. Goob sprinted towards the elevator, the dog far infront of him, chasing something. Someone. Vee. Goob quickly shot out his arms, wrapping them around Vee and pulling her towards him. Before she could say anything, he threw her towards the elevator. Pebble turned around, growling at him, whilst his teammates tried to help Vee with her wounds.
Goob took a deep breath, before trying to sprint past Pebble. The dog snapped down onto his arm, trying to pull him back towards Pebble, but Goob quickly recoiled his arm in on himself. The dogs teeth ripped through his arm, creating a large gash. Goob just ran into the elevator, the door slamming shut afterwards. Goob looked to Vee, who was mostly healed up by now, and then back to his arm. "Are ya okay, Vee..?" Scraps shoved past the other toons, grabbing his brothers' arm. "Who CARES about Vee right now- YOUR HALF DEAD!" Goob rubbed his neck with his other hand, "I'm fine, sis.." Scraps looked to Gigi, who yanked a medkit out of her head before quickly passing it to Scraps. She started wrapping up Goobs arm and hand, while lecturing him about safety. Goob wasn't listening though, he was more focused on Vee. She seemed to be spacing out, with an expression she usually didn't have. Fear.
`~ An hour later ~`
Goob was looking for Vee. Riding the elevator up to the lobby, he walked out to the train tracks. He spotted Vee sitting on a bench, so he walked over to sit with her. Vee turned her head away, muttering, "Leave me alone, Goob.." He could hear the static in her voice. She'd been crying. Goob moved his arm around her shoulder, ignoring how her cold metal skin hurt to put his bandages against. "I'm afraid I can't do that. Somethins' wrong with ya." Goob instantly regretted phrasing it like that, as he could feel Vee freeze a bit at the comment. Goob sighed, "I- I meant to say, I can tell somethings up.. Wanna talk about it..?" Vee glanced over to Goob, the blue pixels made to look like tears under her eyes. She opened her mouth to try and start speaking, but couldn't figure out how to word it. She eventually settled on, "I just.. I'm failing." Goob looked at her with concern, but let her continue. "I'm failing my main objectives. To do machines, to help the team, to.. to be needed." Goob could relate. Hell, he'd almost lost an arm in an attempt to be needed. Because if he wasn't helpful, what was he? Just the worse sibling. The one who was too needy and clingy, the one who couldn't make it without the other. Goob knew that wasn't what Vee needed right now though.
He looked at her, "That must suck.. But, ya know we still want you even if you aren't always the best. No one is, just.." Goob tried to place the words. Words he knew she needed, words he knew should've helped with his own issue, but he just couldn't accept to be true for him. But Vee was better, so he'd hoped it would help her, "Even if you're not being the most effective, we'll always want you safe and sound. We care about you. I know I do." Vee looked away from him. Her tail flicked, before settling on the bench. "You shouldn't. I'm ineffective. I don't have a use if I can't do my main objectives." Goob turned towards her, "Hey, hey, that's not true. You're just saying that because it's about yourself." Goob paused, examining Vee's expression. She hadn't noticed how particular Goob's comment was. Good. She shouldn't worry about him. But oh, how some selfish part of him YEARNED for the comfort he didn't deserve..
Goob quickly went back to talking, cutting off the awkward silence, "I mean- If we applied that to anyone else, you wouldn't agree. Shrimpo's not the best at- well- anything- BUT! Would you say that means we shouldn't care about him?" Vee shook her head, "No, but-" Goob didn't let her continue. "Nuh-uh! You're valuable. I mean hey, atleast you can provide something useful for the team!" Goob chuckled a bit, while Vee gave him a bit of a confused look. Goob pulled his arm back, "Oh it's- It's nothing." Vee's eyebrow furrowed, "So you can make me open up but you won't even explain a joke?" Goob couldn't explain the joke, because then he'd have to explain the fact he just put himself down to make her look better, so he just chuckled. "It's not that big a deal, Sparkplug." Vee smiled at him, "If you say so." Vee was a tv host, an actor, and she knew when others were acting. It just annoyed her how she didn't know what Goob was hiding.