I found this in the hole I fell in
Truly the only part of the LaserBox thing I’ve been working on for days that I like even a little bit. PV did a dumb and got himself in a lab accident (is it an accident if you’re trying to do it?) and got his powers back, but he’s Laserblast again and doesn’t remember anything from the last six to eleven years. PV’s old name is Trevor because I watched too much of this.
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There were no pictures of Boxman’s partner in Boxmore.
Trevor didn’t really leave Boxmore, given how things were. Hard to explain a random reappearance six to eleven years after everyone had decided you were probably dead. But he had to catch up on everything he’d missed, so he spent a lot of time on the computer. Fink had shown him to Boxman’s missing partner’s lab and set him up there.
He’d been catching up on world news and POINT news and news about his disappearance. It got boring after awhile. So, he began researching Boxmore. It seemed like Boxman was generally just a nuisance to the surrounding area, and not even a big one at that. At least he wasn’t rooming with someone like Kosma.
But what he really wanted were pictures of his missing partner. It wasn’t like he had a name to look up. No one said it. Raymond occasionally mentioned stepfather, but that was it. Even then the other bots would shoot him nasty looks until he shut up too. Trevor got the feeling their want to avoid upsetting their father was stronger than their own upset at the man’s disappearance.
“It’s useless.” He dropped his head down on the desk, talking directly into it. “I’m not gonna find him or anything, why am I even looking?”
“Have you read about Professor Venomous yet?”
Trevor managed to not completely fall out of his chair when he jerked up and whirled around to see Fink in the doorway, but it was a near thing. He did knock his mouse off the desk. It dangled uselessly over the edge by its cord.
“What?”
“You’ve been looking into Boxbutt and the other villains, have you heard about Professor Venomous?”
“Um, a little. He’s a bio-engineer. He’s rich. He seems to stay out of the news, generally.”
“You should pay him a little more attention.” Fink scurried over to him and jumped up on his lap, taking over the computer. “He’s the best.” She did a lot of things he couldn’t follow and ended up on a page filled with info on the professor.
“Is he an actual professor?” Trevor began skimming the page.
“Uh huh. Night classes.”
He scrolled around, taking in random bits of information. “What’s he doing lately?” His eye caught on Boxmore and he stopped to read the whole section. “He’s Boxman’s partner?”
“Boxbutt isn’t good enough for Boss, but yeah, he bought Boxmore from the board and brought Boxman back in. I don’t know what he’s thinking lately.”
“Any pictures?” Fink protested but he found a link to a gallery at the bottom of the page and clicked it before she could pull the mouse away from him.
Venomous was about his height, maybe a little taller. He was every bit the twig his wardrobe promised. Long, dark hair, purple skin, and sharp teeth from what he could see. He hadn’t been around in Trevor’s POINT days, but he looked… familiar.
Lots of the pictures also had Fink in them. She looked happy. Well, evil, but happy.
One had Boxman. He looked lovestruck. Venomous looked… softer than the other pictures. It was obviously a candid shot, neither party seemed even vaguely aware of the camera. Leaving a café in what looked like the Danger Zone, Venomous held the door open for Boxman.
“Well?”
“What?”
“You… you wanted to know about him. What do you think?”
He wanted to know why someone who had Boxman so obviously infatuated would leave him. He wanted to find Venomous, shake him down for answers, and force an apology from him.
“I think he’s a skinny little twerp.”