Itsmimi4744

If Pickle had to summarize his current situation in one word, it would be bizarre, or something of that nature.

Of course, despite the high crime rate in Inanimate city, being surrounded by villains threatening to kill you was surprisingly out of the ordinary. Honestly? a small part of him was surprised it hadn’t happened sooner.

But what was even weirder to Pickle was how he got into this situation to begin with. It started when some villains decided to rob literally the smallest store in the shopping block. (Pickle assumed it was likely the easiest of the stores to rob) Of course, Pickle and Taco had been shopping for some snacks when they arrived. For a while, Pickle didn’t even notice them, absorbed in his shopping. Taco was the one who had to tackle him to the floor (which actually kinda hurt) and warn him to stay quiet.

He was hoping to wait for the villains to leave, but the next thing he knew, Taco had suddenly appeared in front of the villains, shouting at them and clearly trying to instigate a fight. Pickle had never moved faster. Of course, it wasn’t long after the two had come out of hiding that the villains decided to bribe the cashier into handing over the money by threatening the duo. Just their luck.

Speaking of Taco, she stood as tall as her short stature would allow her in front of Pickle. He had tried to get her behind him, but she had refused to move. In fact, she was uncharacteristically silent at the moment.

“What are you thinking, Taco?” Pickle leaned and whispered in her ear. She kept her eyes locked on the exchange between the leading villain and the cashier at the desk, but nonetheless, she leaned towards him to whisper back.

“We can take them.”

Pickle was taken aback, because no, they could not take them. They wouldn’t even be close. What was she talking about? He locked eyes with one of the villains surrounding him and quickly looked away. There was no way out of this.

“We don’t have all day. Hurry up!” The leader villain barked at the frantic cashier.

“I’m going as fast as I can!” Her voice shook.

The villain raised his knife towards the cashier, pointing it at the cashier’s face.

“Hurry. Up.”

As stereotypical as this situation felt, Pickle still felt himself trembling. He wished this was merely a scene in a cartoon he could pause and walk away from. In a cartoon he could laugh at the hilarity of the situation; the garden-variety dialogue with the dramatic expressions, he could make a joke of it. He could choose not to take it seriously. But here? Their weapons pointed directly at him, the tension that swept throughout the whole room, the way he could almost feel his heart pounding? This was real, and there was nothing to joke about in the absolute fear plastered on the cashier’s eyes. He found himself averting his eyes to save her the humiliation.

His eyes also happened to be facing away from the little shopping basket he’d been holding onto during this. Taco eyed it intently.

“T-there,” the cashier said hesitantly, “that’s all the money we have.”

“Now that wasn’t so hard was it?” The leader villain reached for the bag of cash, but just as he grabbed it, something smacked it out of his hand, sending it hurtling toward the floor.

It was a lemon.

The leader villain’s gaze made Pickle’s heart drop in a way he could only describe as dread, but the villain’s eyes weren’t on Pickle. Part of him would have rathered they were.

“You’re gonna regret that!” His voice was dangerously low. The bag of cash was forgotten on the floor now as the surrounding villains zeroed in on Taco, all with darkness in their eyes.

“Taco-” Pickle began to call out, but it was lost to the wind as Taco headbutted him out of the way, just narrowly dodging the leader’s knife. She quickly spun around to face the villains, who had moved closer now, but the leader held out his hand to stop them.

“She’s mine!” He growled, raring to strike again.

Shit. “Taco, run!” Pickle shouted, but Taco didn’t move. She merely turned and locked eyes with him for a moment, grinning.

“Get down!” She yelled, her voice dripping with anticipation. Pickle’s eyes widened.

What happened next was something straight out of a comic book. Pickle watched as Taco took a deep inhale, stretching with the movement, and opened her mouth.

Suddenly all Pickle could see was white as a large beam of energy shot from her mouth, completely overtaking the group of villains. He watched their silhouettes disappear in the light, and heard their screams fade to silence.

The light disappeared just as quickly as it had arrived, and the villains?

Nowhere to be seen.

The store was rife with the overwhelming scent of lemons as Taco turned back to face Pickle, her grin somehow even wider than before. She hastily scrambled to Pickle’s side and nuzzled him, letting out one of her gleeful little howls. Though Pickle took no notice of it. He was…in shock, to put it simply. He locked eyes with the cashier, still behind the desk, who wore the same expression as he felt.

Bafflement. Complete and utter Bafflement.

Pickle just wanted this day to end…

As if finding out Taco had superpowers wasn’t enough, now he had to answer to several police officers, who couldn’t possibly be less intimidating than the villains themselves, with how they glared at him. Of course, it wasn’t like major property damage and the disintegration of several villains wasn’t something you could really expect to walk away from all casually but surely Pickle had earned himself the right to be somewhat annoyed.

He sat on a small bench just outside the store while the cashier was being questioned. Taco was sitting in his lap, smiling as if she didn’t just kill several objects. He honestly wasn’t sure how she could be so unfazed by this. If he didn’t know any better he would assume she’s done this before, but that can’t be right, he literally shares an apartment with her, if she had been up to something, surely he’d have found out by now, he believed.

“Have you always been able to do that?” Pickle asked, still half-dazed.

Taco nodded. “Didn’t really need it until now.” She said all too casually.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Eh. It never came up.”

Pickle found himself unable to argue with that. How do you even go about bringing that up in the first place?

He glanced back at the wrecked store. Police were swarming the place at this point, and even some bystanders had come to get a closer look as well. He locked eyes with the cashier for a moment; she looked like she pitied him. She glanced at taco and glanced back at the store before turning to look at the officer questioning her again. He felt that familiar dread pooling in his gut like from before, not quite having dissipated since the robbery.

“You know we might get in trouble for this, right?” Pickle’s brows furrowed.

“We didn’t do anything.” Taco shrugged

“You killed all of those villains-”

“It was self defense!”

“Taco-”

“Excuse me?” A familiar voice sounded, startling the duo. “May I speak with you two in private for a moment?”

Pickle turned to face the source of the voice, and had to fight himself from flinching. The object who was talking to them was none other than Sir Citrus himself, a popular superhero in the central part of the city. Pickle felt a lump forming in his throat. He’d heard the Masquerade-clad hero mostly operated in the richer parts of the city. What was he doing all the way downtown? He knew the store incident was bad but was it that bad??

“Sprinkles!” Taco exclaimed. She’d been so serious during the whole situation that her default catchphrases suddenly felt unusual. The hero looked down at her, puzzled. She was kicking her feet and grinning at the superhero, meanwhile Pickle just stared on, letting the silence linger for a little longer than necessary.

“Uh- yeah! That’s fine.” Pickle tripped on his own words, noticing his gawking, “What did you wanna ask?”

“Follow me.” Sir Citrus said, turning and walking towards the police officers. Pickle hastily picked up Taco and followed him.

“I’ll handle these two,” the hero said to one of the police officers, “Can I leave the rest to you?”

“Yes.” The officer stated, “Thank you, Sir Citrus. You really didn’t have to come all the way out here.”

“It’s not a problem.” Sir Citrus gestured for them to follow once more.

So they were in a lot of trouble. Great. He and Taco shared a glance as Sir Citrus led them into a secluded alleyway behind the store. She looked…honestly more curious than worried, like something else was on her mind. Pickle wished he could be that care-free right now. Eventually they came to a stop in the alleyway behind the store. Sir Citrus turned to face them, his demeanor shifting from cordial to complete and utter appallment.

“What the hell happened in there, Pickle? Why am I hearing that Taco killed a whole group of villains?” The hero’s voice reverberated in his ears. Pickle paid no attention to the actual words that were spoken, as his mind was focused on something else at the moment.

“...your mouth didn’t open, how'd you do that?” Pickle mumbled incredulously. The hero sighed.

“My powers.” He said simply, “You can talk to me through here too.”

“What are you- Oh my cucumber, what is this?” Pickle’s mouth dropped as he felt this strange wave of connection between him and the superhero, as if their very minds were linked. Sir Citrus allowed himself a light grin before he huffed and got serious again.

“We can unpack that later, can you just answer my question? What happened, Pickle? ”

“Um, how do you know our names?” Pickle raised a brow. He cast a quick glance at taco to see her tilt her head to the side. He didn’t know whether that meant she could hear them or not.

The hero raised his eyebrows, taken aback, “Wha- do you not recognise my voice? It’s me, Pickle!”

Pickle studied the hero some more. His voice certainly was familiar, and his appearance, a cylindrical glass full of orange juice, did bear a resemblance to one of Pickle’s closest friends. But, there’s no way it could be him! The resemblance is there, but his friend doesn’t have superpowers! Surely he’d have said something if….

“Wait-”

Taco never said anything about her powers. Why would he?

“OJ?!” Pickle blurted. Out loud. Taco’s jaw dropped.

Oj slapped him.

“ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!” The sheer force of his mental outburst made Pickle’s head hurt.

“Um?! Ow?!” Pickle rubbed his mouth where Oj slapped it. He was surprisingly strong.

“Are you trying to tell everyone here my identity?”

“We’re in an empty alleyway!”

“Someone could still hear us though!”

“Why’d you tell me who you were anyway?!”

“Well obviously when I hear two of my best friends are involved in a store robbery in which one of them could be facing murder charges, I’m gonna want them to explain themselves!”

“That doesn’t make any-” Pickle paused. “...Murder charges?” Taco looked at Oj in shock.

Oj sighed, concern outlining his expression, “Yeah, the mayor sent me to handle it.” He placed his hands on Pickle’s shoulders. “I need you to tell me the whole truth, ok? I can’t help you otherwise.”

“Uhm, ok…why do you want me to explain and not Taco? Can’t you talk to her like this too?” Pickle gestured to Taco, who stared up at Oj in wonder.

“I tried. ‘Sour cream’ wasn’t the most detailed explanation.” He deadpanned. Pickle raised an eyebrow.

“When?”

“While we were walking over here. Can you tell me what happened now?” Oj’s tone suggested he was losing patience.

Well, that explained Taco’s earlier curiosity.

“Right, sorry,” Pickle started, and he told Oj all he could; about the robbery, about the villains, about how the cashier almost gave them the money. Oj listened intently as he recounted the event, and cast a meaningful look at Taco once Pickle began describing how she’d…defeated the villains. Taco puffed her chest out in pride at the notion.

Oj turned to Taco, his voice soft. “So you were the one I was sensing the whole time?” He asked. Taco nodded.

“Sensing?” Pickle looked at Taco.

“Yeah, all superpowered objects have the ability to sense each other’s powers in some way,” Oj explained, slipping back into Pickle’s headspace, “but we can’t pinpoint the exact source of the power, so it’s harder to tell where it’s coming from when there’s a lot of objects around. I always sensed some power whenever we’d have our little hangouts with Bomb, but I could never tell which one of you it was.” He shrugged.

“Why didn’t you say anything before?” Pickle asked. Oj huffed in response.

“Why do you think? I didn’t want to risk any of you finding out about my hero status.” He glanced at Taco, “Anyways, hold on for a minute-” he went quiet, turning to look at Taco. Taco was staring at him now too. Pickle wondered if they were having their own little conversation inside Taco’s head. He guessed Oj could probably only talk to one object telepathically at a time. Honestly, he felt a little awkward just standing there, and their occasional glances in his direction certainly didn’t help. Pickle started fiddling with his hands to distract himself from the awkwardness of the situation.

Eventually, Oj nodded and spoke aloud, albeit quietly, “Ok, I have a proposition for you, but I need you both to listen.”

“We’re in trouble, aren’t we?” Pickle said hopelessly, shrinking into himself.

“That depends,” Oj began, “It’s not exactly legal to kill objects, villains or not, and Taco could get in trouble for even confronting them in the first place, which she confirmed she did, I asked her. But, she was also coming to someone else’s defense, so technically speaking, she should be eligible for the mayor’s community service program, which is actually why I’m here in the first place.”

“‘Community service program?’” It was Taco’s turn to ask questions now. She tilted her head in curiosity.

“Basically it’s like a deal with the mayor.” Oj explained, “Objects who break the law in order to come to someone else’s defense can be pardoned of all potential charges if they agree to about a year of, what he likes to call, ‘community service’.”

Pickle shrugged, “Oh, that shouldn’t be too bad! Right?”

Oj sucked in a breath. “Well, not quite. There’s more to it than that.” He paused, clearly thinking through his next line, “Being a superhero is considered a form of ‘community service.’”

“Oh.” Pickle mumbled. He supposed with the city’s high crime rate it made sense that hero work would be considered community service. They are providing for the community, after all.

Realization hit him like a lemon.

“Wait, you want Taco to become a superhero!?”

“Really?!” Taco’s eyes shone.

Oj averted his eyes. “Well, it’s not the safest of jobs...” He shrugged, addressing Taco, “but it’s your only out. No matter how much Pickle or I or even that cashier over there vouches for you, you could still be facing prison time. I don’t want to force you but I’d rather not see you end up in jail so, what do you say?”

“I’ll do it!” Taco exclaimed without skipping a beat. “I wanna beat up super villains!”

“Um, there’s a little more to it than that,” Oj smiled, “but I’m glad you agree! I’ll have to let the mayor know you said yes.”

“Yippee!” She cheered, “I’m gonna be a superhero!”

Oj let out a little chuckle of amusement. Taco’s enthusiasm certainly was contagious. However, no matter how proud he felt for Taco at that moment, and proud he was, he found something was still eating at him. The dread from before had lingered, never once lessening in intensity. It made his mind wander to scenarios he did not want to even think about;

Taco had gotten lucky during the robbery, to have escaped without even a scratch. Sure, the villains tried to attack her, but she held her own relatively well, and even managed to get Pickle out of the way without taking a hit.

But what if she doesn’t get that lucky again? Oj probably wasn’t gonna hover over her forever. She’d likely go solo at some point.

Will she be alright on her own?

He couldn’t be sure.

Taco’s shrill voice interrupted his worries

“Pickle!” She beamed, “I’m gonna be a superhero!”

He smiled, taking in Taco’s own cheerful expression. She was so happy. Nothing could ruin this moment for her right now.

“Congratulations Taco!” Pickle mused. Worry was still etched deep in his mind, but he purposefully pushed it down. His friend deserved his full support at the moment.