Curlsandblueyes

After Wrecker had accidentally teared out three sunshades, hit countless people with the beak of his flamingo swim ring and almost caused a fight because the beak had also touched the rear of a woman who thought Wrecker was hitting on her and her boyfriend did not approve, he finally agreed to take it off. With a loud groan, of course, but he soon forgot about it when he heard Omega squeal with pleasure when she ran off into the sea and the cold water splashed around her body.

“Hey, wait for me!” he shouted, ran towards her, jumped into the water and made a big wave.

Both giggled, played and tried to shove water in each others faces, played catch, swam and just had a good time.

But suddenly Wrecker screamed. “Aaaaaaargh!”

“What's up with you?” Omega asked and gave her brother a worried look.

“My foot! Something bit in my foot! There's something in the water!”

“Oh no! Let's get out! Out!” Omega screamed.

Both ran out of the water in panic. When they reached the shore, Wrecker jumped on his good foot, briefly looked at the other one and waved his hands around. “Oh no, it's still there, it's still there! Take it off! Take it off!”

Omega almost didn't dare to look at his foot and was tempted to call Hunter for help, but she had to help Wrecker in his panic right away, no chance to bail out.

Then she saw it.

It was a tiny hermit crab, half the size of Wrecker's little toe. She giggled.

“Take it off, take it off!” Wrecker kept on screaming.

“Did you take a closer look at it?” she asked, still giggling.

“No! I don't want to see it! Take it off! It's going to eat my foot! My precious foot!” Wrecker still jumped on his good foot and waved his arms around, making it impossible for Omega to get closer.

“Wrecker! You have to stop moving!” Wrecker stopped jumping but still waved his hands. “Make it quick, make it quick! Do I still have all of my toes? I can't look at it! Please tell me it didn't eat my toe already! Do you see blood? Take it off! Take it off!”

Omega plucked the tiny hermit crab off of Wrecker's toe, held it up and took a look at it. It had retreated into its shell but soon got curious and stuck its eyes and tiny red feet out.

Wrecker had paled, looked as if he was about to faint and panted. He didn't dare to look at whatever monster Omega had removed and couldn't think about anything but his toe. “Can you look at my foot? Please? How much blood is there? How much damage has it done?”

Omega couldn't stop laughing and checked his toe. Two almost invisible red marks were the only damage the hermit crab had left.

“Well the good news is – your foot is still intact.”

“What's the bad news? Tell me! What's the bad news?” Wrecker screamed, still in panic.

“You just got scared by...THIS.” She held the one inch shell with the hermit crab up in front of Wrecker's eyes.

Wrecker's face derailed.

Omega chuckled. “He's cute! I think I'll call him Elvis. I might even make it my pet...another check on the bucket list.”

“You wanna name that thing?” Wrecker couldn't believe it. After all, this monster had almost taken his foot! But Omega was obviously in love with the tiny creature.

“Look at him and his big eyes! He was probably just scared because he thought you would stomp on it with your foot. I'll get him something to eat! Come!” Omega ran over to Hunter who laid lazily in a deck chair, opened the cooling bag next to him, took out a sandwich, ripped off a tiny bit of the sausage and offered it to Elvis the hermit crab who immediately stuck out his claws and started to munch the unexpected treat.

Wrecker stood behind her and crossed his arms. “That was MY sandwich!”

“You can have the rest.”

“Now I don't want it anymore” he pouted.

“Of course you do” Omega answered and laughed, took a bite and gave the rest to Wrecker who groaned, rolled his eyes and then bit off anyway.

“I know what we're going to do.” Omega fiercely looked at Wrecker. “We will make a sausage tournament.”

“A what?”

“We will collect more hermit crabs and let them fight for a piece of your sandwich.”

“But it is MY sandwich!”

“You can spare a tiny bit of sausage...here...” she ripped off another piece of it “this is enough.”

Wrecker groaned again but then he finished his sandwich and helped Omega collect hermit crabs in a small plastic bucket. When they found out there were red and blue ones they decided to build a course for two teams, put the sausage in the middle and watched the hermit crabs dig through sandy walls and make their way through the course towards the sausage. All but Elvis who stayed on Omega's palm and happily munched Wrecker's sausage.

After the winning team had eaten up the piece of the sausage, the tiny creatures left the place and spread all over the beach again. Omega looked up. “I wonder when Echo will join us.”

Wrecker looked over to the empty deck chair. “Hunter's gone too.”

They looked over to the bar where Tech made an impressive and successful attempt to carry four very big colorful drinks at once.

“Tech!” Omega waived.

Tech came over and handed them the drinks. “Hunter got us “Virgin on the beach.” An adequate match for us, if I may say so. For him...not so much” he added dryly.

“Where is everyone?” Omega asked.

“Hunter went back to Echo and then called to say that something has come up. He will not return but advised us to stay here, enjoy the day and share his drink. We shall be home at 1800.”

“Ohhhh” Omega made a disappointed face. She would have loved to finally spend time with all of her brothers at once. She began to wonder if it was possible at all or if it took another mission to get them all together again.

Even though it was only the three of them left, Omega overcame her disappointment with a little help of Wrecker's pep talk. In the end, they still had a great day on the beach and later that evening they came back laughing, discussing about Tech's kite surfing stunts and the crowd that had gathered over the time to watch him. Someone even wanted to get an autograph and asked him if he was a professional.

When they just wanted to enter the Marauder, Hunter went out the door with a dark and gloomy face and sat down on the stairs. “Sit with me.”

Omega and Wrecker knew right away something was wrong. “What happened?” Omega asked.

Hunter ground his teeth. He spoke very slowly. “Echo is not doing well. We need to leave this place. Tonight.”

Omega and Wrecker looked at each other. Tech got up. “If he needs technical assistance, I can...”

“No...” Hunter stopped him. “He does not need technical assistance, but thank you Tech.”

“Did Hannah hurt him?” Omega asked anxiously. She slowly realized that her vacation plans were going down the drain before they had even had a single activity together. But she was even more worried for Echo.

Hunter slowly shook his head. “You all know Echo has been through a lot. Some of it came back to haunt him. It was probably triggered by his encounter with Hannah but it is not her fault.”

Omega understood the gravity of the situation right away and tears filled up her eyes. “Is there something we can do? Can I see him? Give him a hug?”

“No.” Hunter sighed. “Give him time, that's all we can do right now. Give him some space.”

Wrecker saw the helplessness in Omega's eyes and took her in his arms. She started to cry right away. Hunter swallowed. He softly brushed over her head and got up. “Come on, Tech. Let's get the Marauder ready.”

Tech nodded and both went inside.

Part 11

Omega and Wrecker and the Space Stork from a Mandalorian Moon Masterlist

General Masterlist