Author's Note

Finally, got it done! Hope you enjoy it, and stay tuned for some more fluff!

Hazards

Later that day, the girls all sat down for lunch. Nothing unusual or too strange, just everyone sitting and eating like normal. Adagio and her friends just ate and smiled, feeling much more calm with the surrounding company.

And in that same cafeteria was Tox who was sitting by himself, at a table alone. Everyone else who saw him just ignored him like he wasn't there, or just walked past him. No one wanted to get anywhere near him.

"Why's everyone avoiding him?" Vinyl asked.

"I think its because everyone can detect he's a smoker, if you ask me," Octavia snapped, munching on her sandwich. "You can feel it in your sockets..."

"True as that may be, he's not that bad a guy," Adagio said.

"Then why is everyone running away from him? Its not like he's spitting at them, or hurting anyone," Sonata commented, seeing the lonely teen sitting far away from them.

The girls shrugged. As they looked at Tox, they studied him carefully. Even though people were avoiding him, it certainly seemed like he didn't care. He didn't look bothered that people ignored him, or even stopped to ask if he was okay. It certainly did not look like he was okay. His body was shivering like he was cold, and the expressions on his face looked like he was seething and shaking up, like he was either upset or trying not to break down.

"Maybe we should invite him over. Maybe the poor guy needs some company," Adagio offered with a friendly smile.

"I don't know, are you sure?" Bon Bon asked, unsure.

"Its not that we don't want to, its just... um... acid spit?" Amethyst asked.

"Yes, he may have acidic vomit, but he's strong enough to not spit up on us, or anyone around us. I think I'll invite him over."

Adagio stood up a bit, and called over to the shivering acid breather.

"Tox!"

Tox turned his head and his snake-like eyes glared at the oldest siren who called. She tilted her head, urging him to come join their table. Tox shook his head, refusing her offer.

"Come on, don't you want company?"

"No!" Tox replied, in a rather vicious tone.

Aria deadpanned. "Okay. I'm talking to him."

"No, no... come on, lets leave him alone," Adagio said, placing her hand on her shoulder.

Aria sighed. "Fine."

She plunked her keister back down, arms crossed with some annoyance. But when she looked back, she kept her eyes focused. Tox was getting up out of his seat, putting all of his garbage into the paper bag he had open in front of him. Once they were all in the bag, he walked over to the trash can and immediately dropped the back into the receptacle.

He was about to step out when he stopped and held his stomach. He let out a cough, followed by some more intense coughing and wheezing. Leaning over into the trash can, he launched a small drop of spit, and wiped his mouth clean. And without looking back, he walked out of the cafeteria.

The girls saw him leave, and immediately looked to the trash can. Knowing for a fact he had acidic vomit, they were waiting for it to take effect. And sure enough, it did. A small puff of steam fumed from the trashcan, rising up into the air, thankfully nowhere near any smoke detectors.

Curiously, Sonata got up and walked to the trash can to take a look. She took one look inside the trashcan and cringed.

"Oh Sweet Solaris, ew!" Sonata said, backing away.

"What, did the acid melt?" Aria asked.

"No, that bag he had, I think he was eating at a fast-food place or something. I ate at that place before, really disgusting food," Sonata shivered.

"Mind filling in the blanks?" Lyra asked, moving her hand around.

"Oh, right. Uh... well, that bag... that was from Rusty's."

Everyone groaned.

"So, did he hack up cause he's sick, or is it cause the stuff from Rusty's makes you puke?" Octavia asked.

"I don't know," Sonata shrugged with a straight face.

"Regardless of what he hacked up or not," Adagio cringed, "I don't think that's really our main focus here. Here's the deal; when he was with the rest of the supers, he had no problem interacting with everyone, especially little Silver. But suddenly he's here at school and he's ignoring everyone, and being ignored?"

"I think I might know the answer for that," a voice interrupted.

The girls turned their heads and smiled. A familiar blue-haired guitar player had got their attention.

"Flash! So good to see you," Adagio purred.

Flash chuckled. "Its good to see you too. But, like I was saying, I think I have an idea as to what's going on with Tox there."

"You do? That's wonderful, please, tell us!"

"Are you sure?" Flash sounded a bit worried. "I'm afraid you're not going to like this..."

"Just tell us, we should at least know where some of his issues stem from."

Flash sighed. "Okay. I'll tell you. But I'm going to tell you that whatever I say now is not going to be pretty. Now I don't know everything about the guy, but I can tell you what everyone else here knows."

"Then tell us."

Aria offered a seat for him, allowing Flash to sit down so he could face the group and direct to them all.

"Before I tell you, I should ask this. Did any of you know that I was dating Sunset Shimmer?"

The entire table went dead silent.

"... What?" Aria blanked.

"Okay, so I didn't tell you then. What I'm--"

"--No seriously, what?" Sonata asked.

"Let me see if I got this straight," Adagio held her nose, rubbing it. "You... Flash Sentry. A very nice, very handsome gentlemen at that," Adagio purred, making Flash blush a bit, "dated Sunset Shimmer?"

"Yeah, I did."

Adagio blinked. "How did she not eat you alive?"

"Well... I... may have, sort of... dumped her."

Everyone blinked.

"And she didn't kill you?" Vinyl asked.

"No, she didn't!"

"Maybe she decided that he was good enough for a loss to be cut?" Sonata theorized.

"Can we just get to the point with the guy who smells like cigarette smoke?" Flash impatiently said.

"Right, right. Sincerest apologies, Flash. Please, continue." Adagio waved her hand.

"Well, Tox was... Tox used..."

"Yes?"

Flash shook his head and groaned. Then with the straightest face he could,, he uttered one sentence that made all of the girls drop in dead silence.

"Tox was one of Sunset's ex-boyfriends."

Meanwhile

Tox didn't look back at anyone else in the halls, or in the school. He didn't even go back to gather his things from his locker. He stumbled through the hallway, finally busting through the front door. A small trail of acidic drool followed him as he finally got outside. And as soon as he made it out, he held his hands up to cover the bright sun away from his eyes.

"Agh... too... oh no."

Tox ran as fast as he could, away from the premises and to the back of the school. He found an open garbage bin, and immediately vomited into the bin, releasing the contents from his stomach.

"Oh... no..." Tox moaned.

He held his hands on his knees as he panted and coughed, a pit of fires erupting inside.

"No... no more... no more suffering..."

Tox held onto his stomach and hissed. Mustering the strength that he could, he began to pick up his feet and walked. And no one else at CHS saw him leave the premises...

Later that day, Tombstone came into the front door of his home, setting his construction tools down on a hook. He was finished with his shift for the day, completed his part of the building he was constructing. So with nothing else in mind, he just plunked himself onto the couch with a glass of nice refreshing water, and turned on the TV.

But he stopped for a moment. He got up out of his spot and went to get some much needed food. Some snacks would certainly help replenish his need. He opened up the fridge, taking a look inside. Leftover pizza? Nah, he'll save it. Maybe heat it up for himself and his daughter. Microwave pasta? Nah, too small a meal.

Oh, but what was above? Maybe something delectable in the freezer? He opened it up, and grinned at what he saw. In some freezer bags, he could see some chocolate chip cookies covering some white cream, the ice cream sandwiches that his daughter made a few days ago.

He chuckled, remembering that day.

"Either she's going to be a great baker... or grow an even bigger sweet tooth."

He pulled a single ice cream sandwich, letting it breathe from the bag. Checking on the countertop, he reached for the phone mounted on the stand. He read the little screen, a lot of messages had come up. He pressed the button on the phone, and one by one, the messages began to play.

As he listened, he wiped some of the sweat off of his tan forehead and black hair.

"First new message:", the phone buzzed, "hey man, listen, I'm sorry I didn't get your call, I just needed some time alone, but if you're open to talkin', call me up. Just don't bring Blizzard back, okay? I don't want to be in the same room as a cooler."

Tombstone could obviously recognize the sound of the charismatic and chill voice. And then he heard the next call.

"Next Message: Greetings Tombstone. I wish to apologize for my abrupt absence from the day before, but I had some much growing resentment towards the firestarter. Should you ever need a companion or a friend to talk to, please let me know."

Tombstone shook his head, sighing heavily to hear the little bit of snark before her last sentence. He knew it too well.

"Next Message: Tombstone, hey. Listen, I want to say full and well that I'm sorry that I nearly put Silverstream in an accident. I'd tell her myself but, she's not answering any of my calls. I guess it didn't work out, kind of like everything else I do..." A small humorless chuckle came from the phone, concerning the eldest of the Six. "Look, just, um... It's fine, I just, I'll be fine..."

Tombstone blanked, and shook his head violently as soon as the next message came.

"Next Message."

The sound of soft whimpering and crying came on the other end of the phone. Tombstone got up, and frowned, hearing that familiar squeaky voice.

"Please... just... just get them back together o-okay? I-It shouldn't be like this... n-not like... mama..."

Tombstone shook his head and growled. "That's it, we're talking this out. This isn't something to gloss over!"

Tombstone's fist hit the table, and everything that was on the conutertop bounced up into the air, and then back down like they had just jumped on a trampoline. The slam was so powerful that one of the glass jars that flew up, shattered into nothing but broken glass on the counter.

Tombstone nearly flinched but immediately ran to the broom closet and found the dustpan and brush.

"Oh my gosh, oh dear...." He quickly swept up the broken glass into the pan, trying to clear it all off the counter. "Note to self; take your anger and frustrations out elsewhere, not in your house."

Elsewhere, in an office building, Inferno was busy working in a cubicle, organizing some papers. Had to get some reports in to another office in the building, and it needed to get done, now!

"INFERNO!"

That angry voice came from his boss, one of the meanest bosses the company had ever dropped on them. Of course, some of this was exaggerated, but her orders and acts certainly made it feel like it. No personal items or touches on your desks to make them lively, no food in the cubicles, no coffee mugs, none of it. Nothing to keep you awake, nothing to try and keep up your spirit; this office felt like prison.

Needless to say, the workers didn't like having to operate under those conditions.

Slowly, he stepped into the office with a concerned look. His boss was very intimidating, firing any worker if a single one of them stepped out of line.

"What the flying F@%^ am I hearing, about people seeing you flying through town, on FIRE!?"

Inferno flinched at his echoing shouting. It was like a bear was roaring right at his face, and he was only a few centimeters away.

"Sir, I was busy with a task yesterday, at no time did I go and fly."

"Oh really? Then can you explain this?"

He pressed play on the computer, and a video began to play showing the footage caught from someone's camera with Inferno whizzing through the air, soaring past several civilians downtown.

"... That could be anyone."

"Anyone who has a fiery blend of skin?" The woman snapped.

Inferno nodded.

"Why are you lying, what were you doing out there?"

Inferno looked away. "Nothing."

"That's not nothing, what were you doing?"

"Fine, ya wanna know!? I was trying to stop criminals from escaping!"

The boss stood for a second, and then snickered. "I'm sorry, what? You... you're serious?"

Inferno slowly nodded.

"Wow... I mean, I've heard of crazy things from the employees, but this... this takes the cake."

The boss turned around, looking out the window. A chuckle was on her face while Inferno was scowling. He could tell she had a smug look on her face, just from the reflection in that extremely clean window.

"You know something Inferno... I've got a problem. A problem I think you can quickly solve... you see I don't like it when people lie in the workplace. Or lie to my face..."

Inferno slowly stood up. His fists began to clench up and some steam was visibly coming through it.

"And of course you know what happens when people lie to me, right?"

"Oh, I know..." Inferno replied in an angry tone.

"Now, now, what's with the--OH MY GOSH!"

Inferno's hands were on fire, completely. And he began to walk towards her, the flames still going.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, what's-what's going on? L-Look if this is about me saying you're fired, that-that's not what I'm saying, I'm just... w-we can talk about this, lets um..."

Inferno's hands gripped the woman's work jacket, the small flames now spreading onto her clothes making her shoulders hot.

"Listen to me, right now. For six years now, I've done nothing but follow your demands, obeyed your rules, and done everything you've asked me to do. The minute I do something odd outside of work, it becomes a problem?"

The boss chuckled nervously, with some sweat running down her head.

"W-Well, activities from workers outside could reflect on the company--"

"--I don't care about your burning company. What I do on my own time, is up to me, and no one else," Inferno seethed, the pits of Tartarus visible in his pupils. "Now you're going to listen to me, right here, right now. I've got powers that you don't have, and I've got skills that you don't have. Either you treat me like a real human being and not some eye candy... or so help me, I'll file all of those stories from the people you fired, into the complaint department, so it can get registered, and it'll let people know what kind of boss they'll be working for should they ever come here!"

The boss's body was heating up, the flames now burning more and more.

"Well!?"

"Okay, okay, I promise! Please, stop, it burns!"

Inferno let go, and the flames quickly vanished. His face was still visibly red, but again, his skin usually was red. Some small red highlights were a bit more visible, showing his seething anger.

"Good. Because we're going to have some changes around here. Changes that will make everyone in the office happy, because as the code of work says... a happy worker, is an efficient worker."

He slided his hand across the wood of the door, leaving her office and leaving some small steam marks onto the front door. The woman felt like she was going to faint, and not because of the heat. After Inferno stomped out of the office, he immediately went to his cubicle. He pulled out his pass, and his supplies, about to leave. He was just about done, and he had no interest to stay any further. Sure he would probably get fired after pulling a stunt like that, but he was at his breaking point. He needed to leave before it got any worse.

After he grabbed his stuff, he stomped out of his cubicle and out the double doors to the stairs. He walked down them like an elephant, smoke coming out from the top of his head.

"So done, I swear to..."

He could hear a soft vibrating buzz come from his bag. Pulling out the source, he turned on his phone, and found a text message.

Tombstone: Hey, I don't know where you are or what your work time is like, but if you're interested, do you mind if we can talk over at Maxine's?

Inferno stopped. Hanging out with one of the supers? Maybe just what he needed after a heated discussion with his boss on their last activity together.

Texting him back, he ran down the stairs ready to leave. Now he was off!

At the same time, Blizzard was laying down on the floor behind the counter of her small ice cream shop. Her body sprawled out like a spider and breathing heavily. She could still hear the customers angry complaints about soem of the orders screwed up, or taking so long to get them. An ice cream rush had taken over not too long ago, and it was stressing her out.

So much that she wanted to freeze everyone in the entire facility. But she couldn't bring herself to do that. If she did, she'd be out of business before she knew it. So her closest safe time was to close the shop until she could get herself in order.

"Why did I get myself into this," Blizzard moaned. "Never run an ice cream store on your own... Why do I even do things alone..."

And speak of the devil, she received a text message from Tombstone. Reading it, it said;

Tombstone: Hey, I don't know where you are or what your work time is like, but if you're interested, do you mind if we can talk over at Maxine's?

A small smile was on her face. She didn't know why, but she felt a smile coming on her face. Maybe a break was what she needed. She'd been bustin' her butt off for a few hours now, maybe she needed a break. Maybe even a friend would be nice. Now she would have to go! That is, if she could get her butt off the checkered floor...