#part 2…… part 2……… heh.. guys.. looks around awkwardly.. what is she talking about

[ghstzzn]

“at first i was gonna have heeseung go from some loser to some mean dom” you are now my number one enemy.

(YOURE GETTING YOUR DILF IM HEADING TO THE GOOGLE DOCS RIGHT AFTER I EAT. WHERE IS MY PART TWO???)

[lord-of-gender]

A Small Problem - Part 2

Once again my inspiration comes from @deyageka

Word count: 1960

Syndicate Meeting

"Perhaps if we-" Phil was saying as Ranboo came into the meeting room, with Tommy right at his heels. It had been two months since they originally found him in the prison and Ranboo had volunteered to watch him that day, completely forgetting about the meeting. He knew he didn't have to come, but it was a good excuse to finally tell them about Tommy.

"Hi, sorry I'm late," Ranboo said awkwardly, knowing the other explanation that he would have to give.

"Hallo!" Tommy said cheerily, moving to stand next to Ranboo, some paper and coloring pigments in his arms.

"What the actual fuck," Phil said, he did a double take when he saw Tommy.

"Heh!?" Techno exclaimed, of all the things he expected, a young Tommy was not on the list. "How?! I thought you said he was dead."

"No, no, no, don't tell me that's Tommy," Niki said, shaking her head.

"Yes, he did die, but Dream revived him," Ranboo said, shifting from foot to foot, "I think that's what happened. Sam found him in the prison like this."

"So that's why you asked me, Tommy couldn't keep his mouth shut," Phil muttered, talking about when Ranboo asked about the old Empire. He knew Ghostbur wouldn't have remembered it, or else he would have mentioned it to him.

"I'm the Empire-er," Tommy went up to Techhno and held up a wooden sword, he also wore the paper crown he made. "Like you."

"Be quiet," Techno growled, Tommy backed away, this wasn't the Technoblade he remembered. The boy ran over to Ranboo and buried his head in his shirt. Ranboo could feel his shirt start to get wet as Tommy started to cry. What had he done wrong? Why was Techno mad at him?

"Oh my gosh, Tommy are you okay," Ranboo knelt down to Tommy's level, taking out a cloth so he wouldn't get wet from the boy's tears.

"Tech-no does-n't like me," Tommy sobbed, sniffling between words.

"Oh, I'm sure that's not true," Ranboo said, he looked back at Phil and Niki, silently asking them for help. "He's just surprised to see you."

"I just want Wilbur," Tommy said, his cries starting to die down and reduce to hiccups. "Sam pwomised he would find him."

"He doesn't know," Phil asked, at this age Tommy had idolized Techno and Wilbur. He followed Techno around everywhere and wanted to know everything about him.

"Know, what," Tommy sniffed, using his sleeve to wipe off mucus. "What don't I know?"

"A few months ago," Phil came over and crouched in front of Tommy. "Something happened and-"

"It might be better to find Gho-Wilbur first to tell him," Techno said, the voices had been telling him one of two things. To protect Tommy as all costs, or to kill Tommy for being an orphan. "Who's watching him? Or is he an orphan?"

"I- uh- Sam is mainly taking care of him, so no, he's not an orphan," Ranboo stuttered, knowing a bit of Techno's history with orphans.

"I mean last time I checked I wasn't fucking dead," Phil chuckled, Niki started giggling.

"So what's the plan for today," Ranboo asked, he picked up Tommy as the boy kept pulling on his shirt.

"We're going to do some recon on the Egg," Techno said, "Phil received an invitation to some banquet so we're going to check it out beforehand."

"So I probably shouldn't have brought him," Ranboo said, talking about Tommy as he started to nod off.

"Can't we take him to Snowchester," Phil said, subtly asking if Tommy could stay with Micheal.

"I don't know, Tubbo's not going to be there for a while. He and Jack are busy doing something," Ranboo didn't know what it was there were doing, but it seemed important to Tubbo. And he didn't want Sam to get mad at him for leaving Tommy alone for a little bit.

"He'll be fine alone," Phil said, "We used to do that all the time when he was originally this age."

"You are a terrible parent," Ranboo said.

"Okay mate," Phil rolled his eyes, "you can't be speaking here. Especially not about that shit."

"I wanna stay here," Tommy piped in.

"We could talk to Puffy on our way," Techno said.

"Auntie Puffy!" Tommy said excitedly, bouncing in Ranboo's arms. At the mention of Puffy he had brightened up and got energetic again.

"I guess we have our answer then," Niki laughed.

"Are you good to stay here by yourself for a bit," Ranboo asked. Tommy shook his head and pointed at Niki, she seemed nice.

"Huh, he didn't mind staying home when I took care of him," Phil said.

"Well we think he might have vague memories of what happened in his past," Ranboo lowered his voice and put Tommy down to let him walk over to Niki. "Sometimes he'll just freeze when coming near lava or even a Nether Portal. We've noticed that most of the time he hates being alone."

"I want to stay wif you," Tommy said to Niki.

"I don't know, Puffy and I don't have the greatest history," Niki said, then looked down at Tommy's face as he started to pout. "But I can't say no to you. You are absolutely adorable. Okay, just this once."

"Go now," Tommy waved at them as he sat in the chair next to Niki.

"He does that alot," Ranboo chuckled, "see you later, Tommy."

"Okay Ranboo," Tommy pulled out Clementine from his inventory and made airplane noises as he moved it in the air. Ranboo, Techno, and Philza left the meeting room as Niki laughed with Tommy.

"I haven't seen him like that since," Phil started but trailed off.

"Well of course not, he's a little kid again," Ranboo said.

"Pogtopia," Techno finished for Phil, "he has that light in his eyes again. I remember when we were building that big obnoxious tower, but it made him happy."

"How long had Tommy been with you," Ranboo asked.

"I found him when he was four or five," Phil said, "Wilbur is my only biological son. I adopted Tubbo when he was five as well."

"It's still weird seeing Tommy at that age again," Techno said.

"Yeah, I can't imagine how much of a shock it was when I brought him in there," Ranboo said, he should have thought about it beforehand.

"Oh we were surprised for sure," Philza laughed.

After the trip through the Nether to the community portal they found Bad, Ant, and Punz waiting right outside of the portal. How were they supposed to tell Puffy now?

"Hello, Philza," Punz said, "I didn't think you'd only have two people coming with you."

"Our fourth member is on her way," Techno said, "don't try and threaten us. We have all the power here."

"Ranboo, go talk to Puffy," Phil whispered to him. "Gentlemen, there's no need to fight. We were just curious about the meaning of this invitation I received."

"Ah yes, the banquet," Ant said, "the egg has realized it over stepped a bit, so we've been cleaning up some of the vines and are holding a festival of sorts as a formal apology to the server. You are all invited, we just wanted Phil as a guest of honor."

"Well I'm pretty sure the last time I went to a festival, it didn't turn out well," Techno chuckled, but the voices had raised a good question. Why Phil?

"We swear it won't end like those," Bad said, "I mean we aren't L'Manburg after all."

"Maybe Techno would be more convinced if we saw this change ourselves," Phil said as he spotted Puffy coming towards them, then messaged Niki. Ranboo rejoined the group.

"Of course," Bad said turning around, allowing Puffy to go around them then enter the Nether.

"So uh, where's Skeppy," Ranboo asked, he'd heard from Sam that he had also been infected. "I haven't seen him around recently."

"We don't know," Punz said, "haven't seen him in a while."

"So when you say everyone is invited, who does this include," Phil asked, if they invited the whole server this could be a problem. Tommy couldn't just be left alone for a few hours, but the last thing they wanted was to take him near the Egg.

"Well everyone, except for Dream of course," Bad said, "but alot have said they'll be busy and unable to make it." They walked along the prime path where huge vines used to be, it appeared that they had been cleaned up. Soon Niki caught up with then.

"So what's going on," She asked, holding a cheerful expression to disguise the fact they were hiding something.

"We were just telling them about the banquet," Bad said, "you're coming, right Niki?"

"Of course, I wouldn't miss it," She said.

Something about the banquet and how similar it was to the L'Manburg festivals didn't sit right with Techno. To make matters worse he had just received a message from Quackity.

"I have to do something, you guys can fill me in when we get back," Techno said, he noticed Phil's questioning expression. "Don't worry it has nothing to do with my favor."

"See you later Techno," Ranboo said, he had been wondering the same thing but didn't want to say anything.

"Yeah, I'll say hi to the kid for you," Techno said. It was a throw away comment, but it seemed to interest Bad.

"Kid?" He asked, after checking that Techno was out of hearing range Ranboo responded with: "Yeah, me and Tubbo adopted."

"Oh, you mean Michael," Bad said, he'd heard about the young zombie piglin.

"We were going to Snowchester afterwards," Phil said, easily going along with Ranboo's lie.

"Yeah! You know, every member is important," Niki said, she had no idea who they were talking about, but she could use what they had said to play along.

“Well we should probably let you guys do that,” Bad said, he wasn’t sure if it was time to show them the Egg. No, it wasn’t, they had enough evidence from them to go to the banquet.

“Yes, you’re right,” Ranboo was getting uneasy, he didn’t like anything about the Egg or the Eggpire.

“See you the 25th!”

[prismatica-the-strange]

Have I Ever Told You I Love You? | Urushihara Hanzo x Streamer!Reader (Part 1)

Warnings: Swearing, fluff, and idk if you can call this angst

Word: 1270

    During his short stint in the small apartment with two other guys, Lucifer managed to find his own little world in his laptop. While it wasn't capable of running the games he wanted he was able to enjoy them vicariously through various streamers.

        His favorite streamer was a pink-haired girl from California. He came across her stream late day when he was scrolling through Stitch (Twitch). He knew a little English from the research he'd done for Maou and Ashiya, it was rough, but through some Foogle Translate, he managed.

        The first time he made her laugh through a badly translated off-handed comment, he knew he was done for. He would do literally do anything to hear her laugh like that again. 

        She wasn't a super popular streamer but had a loyal following that made a tight-knit community. It wasn't hard for him to start a conversation with her, and so a friendship began.

        A handful of months later, the short interactions turned into late night text sessions, and he went to as many streams of her's as he could.

        "What in the world are you watching?" Ashiya asked him one day.

        "None of your business!" He growled.

        "I think it's that girl he likes," Maou said through a mouthful of noodles.

        "What are you talking about?!" He yelled, "Why would I like some human? She's just good at gaming!"

        Oh, but he liked her. He liked her a lot. 

        One night he got a notification that she was live, which was odd cause it was almost 3 am where she lived.

        The title of the stream was "I'm drunk and wanna play games!" He chuckled to himself and opened her stream.

        She was sat at her normal streaming setup, but her face was flushed and hair messy.

        She had 'Golf With Your Friends' up, one of the few games his crappy laptop could play. He then got a text from her that said 'Join us' with the room password and a little purple heart.

        He quickly pulled the stream up on his phone and loaded the game, wasting no time getting into the room.

        With his phone propped up next to him, he saw her face break into a big grin.

        "Angel boy!" She smiled, his username was FallenAngelxxx, but she thought it was cute when he got flustered when she called him 'Angel Boy'. "I'll send you the link to the Biscord server voice call." 

        He never even thought to make a Biscord account, so he quickly set it up, claiming the name Angel_Boyxxx.

        "Angel boy, you there?" She asked when he joined the call. They hadn't voice called before and she was almost anxious to finally hear his voice. 

        "Yeah, I'm here." He said thankful Maou and Ashiya were out for the night. After he started watching her, he used what little magic power he had left to help him learn the monstrosity that is English.

        "Hey," She breathed before someone else in the call made a vomiting noise. "Shut it, Pat!"

        "You guys ready to start?" Wade laughed.

        As the night went on, she kept a constant state of drunk causing giggles and stupid comments. 

        "Hey, Angel," She said an hour or so into their play session, as the others were AFK for a few minutes, "Have I ever told you I love you?"

        He froze mid-practice shot, causing him to miss what he was aiming at completely.

        "I love you so much," She giggled.

        "What's with him?" A voice said behind him as a door shut. "Urushihara? Why's your face so red?"

        She gasped excitedly, "Who's that, Angel?"

        "He's not sick is he?" Another voice said, "Jeeze we can't afford a hospital visit right now."

        "I-I-" He covered his mouth with his hand, his face bright red. "Why now?"

        He moved awkwardly and his headphones came unplugged.

        "Angel? You okay?" Her voice sounded almost concerned through the haze of alcohol. "Angel?"

        "Who's that?" Maou asked, looking at the screen quizzically.

        "Are you playing those damned video games aga-" Ashiya started.

        "It's no one!" Lucifer rushed, slamming the laptop shut, cutting off another 'Angel'.

        He grabbed his handheld game and sat in the corner, trying to hide his blush behind his hair.

        The other two men shrugged and started talking about the next day's plans.

        About five minutes later, Lucifer's phone began to ring. He managed to snatch it before Ashiya grabbed it.

        "Were you about to answer my phone?!" He nearly screeched, "Can a guy get any privacy around here?!"

        "As your superior, I need to know you're not talking to any undesirables," Ashiya argued.

        "You mean like you old farts?" He hissed, before stepping into the hallway, slamming the door behind him. 

        The phone had stopped ringing when he went to finally answered and he slouched against the wall, head hung low.

 ~~~~~~~

        He was so embarrassed that it took him two weeks to go back to another stream or even answer any of her texts. He barely even went near his precious computer and Maou and Ashiya were even slightly concerned. 

        She was busy in-game and missed his meek little 'hi' in chat, he sighed and cradled his head on his arms on the desk, eyes staring at the screen.

        When she paused to read chat, someone told her he was there, even going as far as to ping him.

        Her eyes lit up as she asked, "You still here Angel Boy?"

        He put a purple heart emoji in the chat and she smiled.

        "Where you been? I- we've missed you," She said as she went back to the game.

        FallenAngelxxx: Who missed me?

        He couldn't help but tease her about her little slip-up.

        She scoffed and rolled her eyes at his chat, "Shut up."

~~~~~~

        For the next three weeks, they texted every day, he was so distracted he even stopped ordering stuff. Until one day she never texted him her usual 'Good Morning Angel.' In fact, she never texted him at all that day and he was beyond worried. Sure she'd missed a couple of texts before, but nothing like this. He scrolled through their last conversation, wondering if he'd said something to make her mad.

        Ashiya watched him get more and more worried, "That girl you like not talking to you?"

        "No, she's not," Lucifer muttered from his place in the corner, just loud enough for Ashiya to hear. He was anxiously playing his handheld to take his mind off it.

        "Well, you probably did something in your own brand of stupid to upset her-" His roommate was cut off by a discord call on his computer.

        Lucifer scrambled to his computer, leaving his game unpaused on the floor.

        He glanced at the time as he answered the call, it was past 2 am for her.

        "His Majesty will be back soon, must you take a call instead of-"

        "I'll get to it later!"

        She chuckled as he tried to get his roommate off his back.

        "Hey Angel," She smiled, and his heart stuttered in his chest.

        "H-hey, where've you been all day? I... I was almost worried." He lied.

        "I-heh... Just a super busy day, I guess." 

        "You sound tired," He commented, "Shouldn't you be asleep?"

        "Don't wanna," She whined sleepily, "Help me stay up?"

        "Okay, you wanna play a game or something?" He scrolled through his Solar library for something to play.

        "Uh-uh, too tired," She yawned and he nearly 'aww'd, "Let's just talk for a while."

        "Y-yeah, okay." The other line went real quiet, "You still with me?"

        "Huh? Oh. Yeah, I'm here," Her small sleepy voice was doing things to his heart.

        "So," She yawned, "How was your day?"

        "Boring," He scoffed.

        "Tell me all about it," She said, "I wanna know every detail."

        "Every detail?"

        "Yep. What did you do? What did you eat? What stupid thing did your roommate yell at you for? Did you play anything fun? I want to know all of it."

        "Heh, I uh..." He had no idea what to say, he definitely wasn't telling her he spent the whole day freaking out, "You know, I just played some stupid game on my handheld and slept. Ashiya was out most of the day, so he really only got on my case a few minutes ago."

        "That's it?" She almost sounded disappointed.

        "Yeah, just another boring day." He shrugged. There was a knock on her side and he could hear her adjust.

        "Ah, that'd be room service," She groaned as she got up, "Be back in a mo."

        "What? Roomservice?! Where in the Hell are you?"

        "What's up with you?" Maou asked right next to him, causing him to jump and let to a small yell.

        "What the Hell, man?! I didn't even hear you come in!" He shouted, "You can't just scare people like that!"

        "Who can't scare what now?" SHe asked through a mouthful of food.

        "No not you- It's just- It's nothing Maou just scared me is all." He stammered.

        "Oh. HI ANGEL'S ROOMMATE!" she yelled loud enough that Maou could hear it through the headphones, making Urushihara yank them off his head.

        "Uh... Hi, Urushihara's girlfriend?" Maou answered unsurely.

        "Wha- She! Sh-sh-She isn't my girlfriend!" Lucifer argued, putting his headphones back on to hear her bubbly laughter.

        "I'm not?" She giggled, "Well maybe I should be since everyone already thinks it."

        His face flushed bright red as he stared at the screen. "W-w... Really?"

        "Yeah, the guys make fun of me for it all the time. They even said that I told you I loved you on stream once, ridiculous, right?"

        "A-actually..." He trailed off. "You kind of... did. I was there."

        It was quiet again.

        "N-no one clipped it?" She said in disbelief. Someone had actually clipped it, and he had it on his phone. Every once and a while, he would play it and his heart would do somersaults.

        "Well, no taking it back now," She chuckled. "Guess the cat's outa the bag."

        His jaw dropped.

        "Close your mouth, you'll catch flies," Ashiya teased and Lucifer threw a magazine at him. "That was uncalled for!"

        Lucifer grabbed his laptop and stormed out to the hallway. 

        With the door closed, he set his computer on the washer.

        "You love me?" He asked, trying not to sound completely desperate, unaware of Maou and Ashiya's ears pressed against the door.

        "Of course I do Angel."

        "Wow..." He felt like crying he was so happy. "Me too- I mean! No, I- shit... You don't even know what I look like."

        "Well... What are you doing in two days?"

        "What? Uh, my roommates are dragging me to some stupid work thing, why?" 

        "Can you get out of it?" She asked hopefully.

        "Unlikely," He frowned, "Ashiya is dead set on getting me out of the house and won't let me out of his sight."

        "Oh... Ok." Great, now she was sleepy and sad.

        "What was your idea? Maybe we can reschedule?" He suggested.

        "I'm only in Japan for the next three days, so I don't think it'll work."

        "YOU'RE IN JAPAN?!" He yelled, "Like, right now?!"

        "Good Hanzo, do you mind keeping it down?" Suzino asked from her doorway, "Some of us are trying to enjoy a quiet evening."

        He waved her off and went back to questioning the girl. 

        "Why didn't you tell me you were coming?"

        "Didn't know till a couple days ago myself. I thought I'd surprise you." She told him shyly. "The guys had an extra spot on their panel at some convention and invited me."

        "Scrw what Ashiya wants, where's the con?"

        "It's at the-" There was a loud bang outside the building, the lights went out and he lost internet connection.

        "No... No! NO!" he gripped the side of his computer and begged her to tell him.

Taglist: @unicornwithachainsaw83​ @steviestyle​

Masterlist​

[fangirl-creates]

ZERO OVER YONDER (FULL FIC)

(Likes and Reblogs are appreciated!)

1 - Banjo Pluck

“Look, all I’m saying is—would it kill Rippen to just have a little chill once in a while?” The red-headed boy vented to his friends as they walked to the movie theater.

“Penn, Rippen is Rippen. Of course he’s still gonna be rude to you when we’re not saving the Multiverse.” Sashi commented, wanting desperately to hear the end of these complaints spilling out of Penn’s mouth.

“Well yeah, obviously. But today, there was just no end to it! Like even when I was eating lunch, BAM! There he was!” He folded his arms, his face turning about as red as his hair at this point.

Rippen had definitely been more annoying than usual today. The reason? Probably having a bad day and picking on Penn was the only thing that would bring him ‘joy’...if you’d even call it that. And even though Penn had learned to ignore Rippen during times like these, today was one of those ‘impatient’ days for Penn Zero—considering the fact he had stayed up till 3am last night on a count of The Chinchilla bothering him again.

“Don’t worry about it, dude.” Boone put his arm around his friend, patting his back. “I’m sure beating Rippen again will put you in a good mood. Think of it as a way to get back at him.”

“Yeah!” Sashi chimed in. “I’ll even let you kick him in the face this time.” She smiled.

Penn felt a little better, the red from his face fading away. “Thanks, guys.”

The trio stepped onto their usual spots on the zap platform, Penn cracking his knuckles.

“I’m really gonna let him have it today.” He grinned between his teeth.

“Violence must wait till tomorrow!” Phyllis called from her spot on the balcony.

Penn titled his head. “...I don’t understand.”

“You will see.” She pulled the lever, the trio levitating as they were forced into the portal. “GOOD LUCK!”

After the brilliant blue flash, Penn opened his eyes. Space. He saw Space. Below him was the material of some kind of smaller planet he stood on—“Purple-colored dirt” in his Earth vocabulary. But that wasn’t the thing that surprised him...it was the body he was in. It was weirdly insulating, like a very thick fur coat—that’s when he realized he was covered in it. Orange fur coated him from head to toe. The only articles of clothing he was actually wearing were white socks and some slightly worn blue sneakers. He felt..uncomfortable.

“Penn?” Sashi’s voice made itself known.

Penn looked up, a bit surprised she was taller than him now. “Sashi! You’re a—uh….” He studied his friend’s new look. She was blue with a pink mane—yet her body itself was a cross between a horse and a dinosaur. He shrugged it off. “Never mind.” He looked around for the Wiseman. “Where’s Boone?”

“Right here!” A confident voice called, Penn searching for the source.

“Boone? Where are-” He noticed Sashi pointing above his head, to which he realized he was wearing a hat as well. He took it off to find the rather large green hat staring back at him. “Oh.”

“Oh yeah. I definitely feel like a wiseman now…”

“Cause you were on my head and you feel like you can give me knowledge that way.” Penn raised a brow.

Boone did what was an attempted shrug. “Who knows...maybe I’m magic.”

Penn rolled his eyes, placing Boone back on his head. “Okay Sash, check the specs.”

Sashi pressed the side of her glasses, which were now a dark purple to complement the colors of her new form. The holographic image showed up in front of them. “You are a wandering Do-Gooder, and I am your trusty steed and best friend.”

“What about me?” Boone asked, feeling a little left out.

“You’re his hat.” ….She didn’t add anything else.

“Well, I still think I might be magic.” He looked away. “You two just don’t know it yet.”

Sashi rolled her eyes. “Annnnyway, the evil Lord Hater is planning to conquer another innocent planet with his army of Watchdogs. It’s up to us to stop him before he manages to leave the planet successful.” Normally, this was the part where the hologram would disappear, but it lingered.

“All right! Sounds easy enough.” Penn pounded his fists together. “I’ll admit, this body is a little on the weaker side, but I can still give Rippen a good fi-”

“Actually, you can’t use violence at all. I’m the one who can fight them. You stop bad guys by...being nice.” Now the hologram was gone.

Penn suddenly understood what Phyllis meant earlier...and he hated it. “I...I can’t fight him?! Seriously??” His face was turning red again, yet it was hard to tell with the orange fur. “So not only does Rippen get away with all the stuff he did to me today, but now I can’t even GET HIM BACK?!”

“No one said you can’t get him back—you just can’t beat him up.” Sashi folded her arms.

“...Can I at least punch him?”

“No. You’ll ruin the hero’s image.”

Penn covered his face with hands, a muffled scream. He then took a deep breath, calming himself. Thankfully for him, this body seemed to have a very calm mindset...that, and really cheerful one. “Okay...okay, I’ll do my best…for the sake of the mission, and because I don’t want to accidentally break something.” He hopped onto the saddle on Sashi’s back.

“Good choice.” Sashi nodded. “Now how do we get out of here?”

“Don’t look at me—what the??” A small bottle fell onto the ground. Upon closer inspection, it looked like a container for bubble blowing, but it read ‘Orbble juice’, with instructions on the back. Penn shrugged and pulled the wand out, blowing as a large air-tight bubble formed around them, lifting them off the ground. “Now we’re talking!” He yelled out into the bubble, cheerfully. “HEIGH-HO, SYLVIA!”

Sashi and Boone both looked at him.

Penn blinked, not sure what came over him. “S-Sashi...I meant Sashi. Oh, that was weird.”

Thankfully, it was quickly forgotten by the trio, heading on their way to their next destination…

—————————-—————————-—————————-—————————-—————————-————————

2 - A Hero’s Image

Rippen looked at himself in the mirror. In all his years as a Part-Time Villain, he had only been a skeleton once. And even then, it was only for a couple minutes. The complete lack of skin made him feel...exposed. But at the same time, the bone seemed hard as nails, so there was that.

His thoughts were quickly interrupted, however, by the rambles of his cheerful minion—who was in the body of a Commander with the exact opposite personality. But that didn’t affect Larry in the slightest. “Isn’t this eyeball head weird? I mean I’m talking, but there’s no mouth! How crazy is that?” He laughed. “How do people even know when I’m speaking?”

Rippen rolled his eyes. “Your pupil moves, Larry.”

Larry looked in the mirror, expressing a smile as much as a watchdog could to the best of their abilities. “Heh, it’s kinda funny how it bounces like that.”

“Can we get on with it, then?” He was having an exceptionally good day...as far as Rippen’s standards go. And he didn’t want this good mood to go to waste.

“Right, right...sorry.” He laughed softly, pressing the side of his glasses, which were now yellow and only one square instead of two. “Okay, you are the evil Lord Hater and I am your Second in Command. Our Mission is to conquer another poor innocent planet before Penn stops you with-” Larry paused, unsure he was reading this right.

“With what? Come on, spit it out.” Rippen pestered.

“Um...friendship.”

Rippen blinked, a bit stunned by what Larry just said. “Maybe it's the lack of ears that makes it hard for me to hear you, but did you say…‘Friendship’?”

“Yep. He’s supposed to be nice to you.” Larry nodded.

Rippen was silent for a moment, then he burst out laughing. “Penn Zero’s forced to be nice to me!” He laughed again. “If we’re lucky, he’ll break under the pressure, completely ruining the hero’s image! And then I can finally become a Full-Time Villain!” When he laughed a third time, however, green lighting shot from his fingertips as he made a ‘rock n roll’ gesture with both of his hands.

Larry narrowly avoided it, but some watchdogs down the hall weren’t so lucky; loud yelps followed by groaning were heard after getting zapped.

“Wait..what just happened?” Rippen looked at the gesture he was making, a bit confused.

“Oh yeah, you got cool lightning powers! I forgot to tell you that…” Larry attempted a smile again.

For once in his life, Rippen was filled with the absolute confidence that this time...this time, he could not only win...but finally annihilate Penn Zero. He laughed one more time, green lighting sparking around him. “This is it, Larry! Victory is finally at hand!”

Friendship...of all the things. He had been nice to Rippen before, sure, but that was often out of pity...or on rare occasions, when he genuinely felt sorry for him. But this was the first time he was forced to do it. And that fact made him upset. Heck, even the phrase ‘Kill em with Kindness’ was starting to sound not understandable anymore. He glanced at Sashi. “Soooo, this whole ‘friendship’ thing…”

Sashi’s eyes met his, despite being focused on the destination.

“Is he like...allergic to it or something? Is he gonna melt if I hug him??”

“No. You’re just being nice to him...for the 100th time.” She mumbled under her breath.

“I know, I know...it’s just...what’s the point of being nice to your enemy if they’re just gonna continue to do you harm? How is this furball even still alive after constantly clashing with this guy?”

It Never hurts to Help. A little voice said in the back of his mind.

Penn blinked. “Boone, did you say something?” He glanced up.

“Uhh no?”

He scratched his head, thinking. If he was really gonna do this, he was gonna do it right. But how?

As if on cue, Boone jumped up, a Banjo seemingly appearing out of nowhere, landing in Penn’s hands. He stared at it. “Uhhh Boone...where did this come from?” He looked up.

Boone just gasped in response. “I AM magic!!” He said triumphantly.

Penn rolled his eyes, holding the banjo awkwardly. When it came to music, Penn considered himself more of a singer than anything else. But Instruments were not his strong suit...still, this Banjo didn’t look unimportant. He held it the right way, his fingers dancing along the frets. And then, as if on command…he started playing. It wasn’t a specific song or anything too complex, just a simple melody that made his friends smile as he continued. It was so strange...he had never played the banjo before, and here he was; playing it like he’d had years of practice. He was so lost in song, that he didn’t realize he was moving around while he did so. Luckily, they had found their destination before Rippen did, so Sashi was able to land on the ground, giving Penn freedom to do...whatever he was doing.

Sashi was amused by this. She had seen Penn dance before, but this was nothing like how he normally did it. This kind of dancing was silly, almost...cartoonish. What was even funnier was that not only did he dance in tune to the music, but he sang along to it as well. Well...more like sing-talking gibberish. Regardless, he seemed really into it. In fact, he got faster with each ‘verse’. It got to a point where he was strumming so fast, one would think the banjo was going to catch fire.

Penn’s chest went up and down as he breathed heavily, stopping finally. The sound of Sashi clapping caught his attention and he immediately realized what was going on. “O-Oh...yeah I didn’t mean to do any of that….” He blushed.

“It was cute.” Sashi commented. “But, you know, like in a funny kind of way.”

“Yeah, But not so good for me…” Boone managed, feeling a bit dizzy from Penn’s rapid dancing and spinning.

Penn cringed. “Ohh oh no. Do you need a minute? Do hats even get sick??” He thought about it for a second. Unfortunately, his thoughts were interrupted by a loud THUD.

All three turned to see a giant Skull Ship land on the planet’s surface. It opened its mouth, a large tongue landing down as watchdogs began to march in formation, chanting ‘Hate’s Great, Best Villain!’ as they did.

Penn watched, standing proudly as he held the banjo close. “Alright…” He took a deep breath. “Time to go to work.”

—————————-—————————-—————————-—————————-—————————-————————

3 - Never Hurts to Help

It didn’t take long for Rippen to get the Watchdogs out, the inhabitants of the planet already running away in fear. The Do-Gooders were behind a rather large rock. Not the best hiding spot, but a good temporary one.

“Okay, Sash. That’s your cue.”

Sashi cracked her knuckles, but glanced at her friends before she ran off. “I know you can do this, PZ.” Then she was gone—charging into a group of Watchdogs.

Penn watched, taking a deep breath.

“So what are you gonna do?” Boone asked.

Penn hesitated. “Honestly, I have no idea.” He remembered what Sashi had said earlier...No one said you couldn’t get back at Rippen—you just can’t beat him up. Penn remembered how annoying Rippen was earlier...and for some reason, the mindset of this body seemed to know exactly how to annoy him back. A smirk appeared on his face as he ran to find his enemy.

Rippen was having the time of his life, blasting back at forth. What felt even better was that the creatures feared him the closer he got. He didn’t even care Sashi was punching the Watchdogs left and right—as long as he got his reward, he didn’t care what else went wrong.

“Havin’ fun, Rippen?”

And there it was.

Rippen turned to face the orange ball of fur, a cackle at how tall he was compared to the do-gooder. “Well, Well, Well! If it isn’t Penn Zero!” He raised his hands, pointing them at him as green lighting charged between his fingers—the soft glow illuminating on everyone close enough to see. “I know all about this little requirement of your’s to not hurt me-! So now I only have one thing to say to you—!”

Penn’s heart pounded in his chest. Best case scenario, the plan worked. Worst case scenario, Rippen blasts him into the next dimension.

“—Are you ready to meet your demise?”

Penn cleared his throat, standing casually. “Actually, Rippen ol’ Buddy, I’ve got a question for you.” He sounded so calm despite the fear inside of him.

Rippen raised part of his brow, staring down at his enemy. This day had been going so well for him. And if he destroyed him without hearing the question at all, it would haunt him forever. Rippen shrugged, not letting his guard down. “You know what? Ask away!”

Penn breathed a small sigh of relief, taking a step back. “Well I was just thinking...you must be hungry after this...invasion thing.”

Though he didn’t want to admit it, Rippen was starving. He didn’t understand why, but this body had the need to consume every junk food imaginable. And everything it craved, Rippen had never touched in his life. He made a slightly annoyed face at Penn. “Why would it matter to you?”

“Oh no reason…” He pulled out two sandwiches from behind his back. “Just that...uh..got some sandwiches here. Hate for them to go to waste…” He mocked, waving the scent around Rippen’s nonexistent nose. “Truly...truly a shame.”

Rippen’s stomach made probably one of the loudest sounds a stomach was capable of making—strange, considering Skeletons didn’t even have stomachs. He tried to keep his eyes off the two sandwiches, but it was impossible. “Ugh! Just give them to me—!” He tried to reach, but Penn jumped back.

“What’s that? You do want these?” He grinned. “Well, would you prefer—” He threw the first sandwich at Rippen’s face. “Mustard-?” He jumped over Rippen, throwing the other sandwich on his face when he turned around. “-or Mayo?!” He laughed, landing on his feet.

Rippen angrily wiped the sandwiches from his face, staring at Penn with a piercing glare.

Instead of a rude gesture, Penn stuck out his tongue in a playful manner, his legs speeding up. “Come and get me!” And he was gone.

Rippen didn’t know why, but every voice in the back of his head screamed ‘GET HIM!’ no matter what. And that’s exactly what he did. He ran, screaming at the top of his...lungs? Whatever skeletons have.

Penn pulled out the banjo as he ran, turning around as he was now jogging backwards. “How about a little chase music?” He smiled, strumming rather fast. The music seemed to be annoying Rippen even more, which meant it was working.

Meanwhile, Sashi had already beaten up all the Watchdogs while Rippen was distracted. Larry was too busy watching Rippen chase Penn around to notice. Something about it made him want to sigh. He was...disappointed in Rippen?? He shivered, hoping he’d never get that feeling again.

At this point, Rippen was exhausted. He clawed at the ground, now laying on his stomach. Penn, however, didn’t feel tired at all. He felt as though he could run a marathon in seconds. Eventually, he stopped running and walked right over to Rippen, bending down so they were at eye level once more. He put his hands behind his back, a smug look on his face.

“You uh..you doing okay?” He raised a brow.

Rippen wheezed, trying to stand. “W...Watchdogs! Get him—!” It wasn’t until he yelled that when he realized they were all defeated, Sashi standing there triumphantly. “NOOO! I WAS SO CLOSE!!” He wheezed again, his face lightly hitting the ground.

Penn felt a little bad for him. He wasn’t sure why the feeling was so sudden, but he didn’t question it. “Look, you seem pretty exhausted, so I’ll just leave this here for you.” He placed one of the mustard sandwiches and a bottle of a soda labeled ‘Thunder Blazz’ in bright yellow bubble letters on the side.

Rippen stared at the food, standing up as he wolfed down the sandwich. He glared at Penn, pointing at him. “This doesn’t make us friends!” He spoke between bites.

Penn made a face. “I uh...I never said that.”

Rippen blinked, shaking his head. “Oh never mind!” He grabbed the soda and angrily trudged back to the skull ship, Larry patting him on the back as they headed inside.

The inhabitants cheered once the skull ship took off, Sashi running to greet her friends. “You did it, Penn!”

“Yeah!” Boone chimed in. “I’m not exactly sure what you did...but you did it!”

Penn’s eyes watched the skull ship fade from view. Why did Rippen retreat? And why did he think he was trying to be his friend? Even with all these questions, Penn still couldn’t help but feel good about himself…

With another blue flash, the trio was pulled back to the movie theater, landing safety back onto their original spots. Penn looked at himself, no longer feeling uncomfortable, but a bit disappointed the cheerful feeling was gone. “That was probably one of the strangest missions ever...but in a good way.” He managed.

“Yeah, wonder what was up with Rippen after we won…” Sashi added, hand on her chin.

“Sometimes,” Phyills started, coming back down from the balcony. “Enemy is just a friend you haven’t made yet.” She looked at Penn. “Remember that, Penn Zero.”

Penn put his hands in his pockets, a smile. “I will.”

—————————-—————————-—————————-—————————-—————————-————————

4 - Epilogue

Later that evening, the space duo set up camp for the night. Sylvia was still trying to process exactly what happened earlier. Her fists were sore from punching Watchdogs, when she hadn’t even done that today? Or had she??

Wander, on the other hand, seemed to be in a particularly good mood. Normally, that wasn’t a surprise in Wander’s case, but it definitely was after the events of today.

“I swear,” Sylvia put some wood on the fire, the flames grasping onto it. “My head’s buzzing like a swarm of bees. The whole thing was so weird…” She sat down next to her friend, who was casually resting, playing a happy tune on his banjo. “How are you keeping it all together, buddy? Doesn’t your head hurt?” She asked, concerningly.

The Nomad looked up at her, smiling. “Because I helped someone.”

Sylvia blinked. “So...you remember what happened today?”

“Nope.” He cheerfully responded.

“...then..how do you know if you helped someone or not??”

“Just a hunch.”

Sylvia rolled her eyes, playfully, rustling his fur. “Okay, buddy…”

Deep within the stars, they saw the skull ship pass by, the voice of Lord Hater screaming into the night sky…

“I CAN’T BELIEVE I ACTUALLY ATE ONE OF WANDER’S STUPID SANDWICHES!!”

Wander chuckled, yawning as he got into his normal sleeping spot. “Yep, not a bad day…”

Sylvia still couldn’t remember what happened, but regardless of that, she was happy Wander still got to help out someone. And in the end, that was all that matters...

END

[jammin-strawberry-jammin]

The Butterfly Effect-Part 2 ~Katsuki Bakugo x fem!reader

Warning!⚠️ violence, cussing

Previous Parts:

Prologue Prologue 1.5 Part 1

“Hey Hiro, isn’t that where your dad tried to beat that sludge villain when he was little?”

Hiroyuki looked at the exhibit that Miyoko was pointing at. “Yeah, my dad tells me about it all the time. His friend was in trouble and the heroes there couldn’t help him so my dad tried to save his friend all by himself,” Hiroyuki said with a sparkle in his eye.

“Well, your dad’s friend sounds pretty lame since he couldn’t even beat a little slime,” Miyoko said with a grin. “Well, my dad only beat him because he had help from Grandpa Toshi. Heh heh,” Hiroyuki said as he rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “Yeah, but your dad is awesome. I wish he was my dad,” Miyoko grumbled.

Hiroyuki looked at her and got ready to say something to cheer her up when the doors to the museum busted open. Two pro heroes rushed in.

“Woah! Red Riot and Chargebolt! I wonder what they’re doing here?”

“Everyone remain calm. There’s a problem in the building and we need everyone to evacuate immediately.”

The teachers tried to group all of their students up but they were interrupted when the lights flickered off and the ground shook violently. A chorus of screams sounded as an explosion rumbled through the museum causing the walls of the museum to shift and collapse.

***

Bakugo’s head pounded.

Ears ringing, he reached up and touched his head.

Blood.

“Tch. Damn psychopath. ”

Bakugo swayed when he stood up. He stumbled for the first few steps but was over all pretty good for surviving a full blown explosion. He guessed he was just used to them. He kept going until he saw a familiar head of red hair.

“Bakugo! What happened out there man!?” Kirishima asked knowing better than to ask if he was okay. Denki not so much.

“Yeah man, you look like shit.” Bakugo glared at the blonde.

“What did you say to me, Asshole!?” Bakugo went to swing at Kaminari but he missed and swayed forward.

Kirishima caught Bakugo.

“I don’t need your help, Shitty Hair!” Bakugo said as he swayed more trying to get away from the red head’s grasp.

“What happened back there, man?”

“Damn suicide bomber.”

“Woah man. That’s pretty serious. You need to get some medical help.”

“I’m fine.” Bakugo grumbled. Kirishima gave him a worried look.

“Fine. We’ll finish looking for survivors but after that we’re getting you to a doctor.”

Bakugo growled but didn’t comment on it.

***

“Hiro!” Miyoko yelled, trying to locate her best friend through the dust and wreckage.

“Miko! I’m over here!” Hiroyuki cried back from under a collapsed wall.

Miyoko started digging through pieces of wreckage desperately trying to free her best friend.

“Don’t worry Hiro! I’m gonna get you out!” Miyoko yelled, trying to calm down her bestfriend.

“Hey guys, I think I hear some kids over here!” Miyoko heard from behind her. She turned around to see heroes running towards her. She instantly recognized them from earlier.

“Red Riot, Chargebolt you’re here! My friend needs help!” Miyoko cried out as she ran over towards the heroes. Kirishima had to do a double take when he saw a carbon copy of his best friend running towards him.

“Hey, are you hurt little girl?” Kirishima asked as she approached him.

“My arm hurts a little, but I’m okay. My friend needs help. He’s stuck under those rocks,” Miyoko said as Kirishima checked her for immediate injuries.

“Hey Shitty Hair, what’s the hold up?”

Miyoko turned to face the rash voice. Another blonde hero limped towards the group. She stared intently at the hero, trying to figure out where she had seen him before. Bakugo looked at Miyoko.

“What’s your problem, brat?” Bakugo scoffed when Miyoko stuck her tongue out at him.

“Ground Zero, there’s a kid stuck under here. I’m worried that if we start pulling out rocks, it could bring the whole place down. I’m gonna go around and see if there’s another way to get the kid out,” Kirishima said before jogging around the rubble.

“Wait! I wanna go with you! He’s my friend and I wanna save him!” Miyoko yelled. Kirishima stopped dead in his tracks.

“Hey, what’s your name?” Kirishima asked the girl gently.

“Miyoko and his name is Hiro, Hiroyuki! He’s my best friend!”

“Look Miyoko. It’ll be safer for you and him if you wait here with Bak- I mean, Ground Zero. I know your mommy and daddy wouldn’t want you to get hurt or lost too,” he tried to reason with the four year old.

“Well, I don’t have a daddy.” Miyoko argued back.

“Well, I’m sure your mom would be really sad if something happened to you. You need to stay here where it’s safe,” Kirishima said with a frown. Kirishima leaned down to her level.

“I need you to protect my friend over there. He’s hurt. Can you be my hero and watch out for villains for me?” Miyoko begrudgingly nodded. She didn’t want to watch over this mean guy, she wanted to save her friend.

Miyoko crossed her arms and frowned but didn’t say anything else as the red headed hero ran around the building’s remains.

Bakugo and Miyoko sat in silence for a few moments before the rubble shifted and Hiroyuki let out a cry.

“Hiro!” Miyoko yelled before shooting up and running to help her friend. Miyoko was fast, but Bakugo was faster even in his wounded state. Bakugo tried to hold her back, but Miyoko was determined to get away and save her friend.

“Kid, you gotta stop, dammit! If you start pulling random fucking rocks, they’ll all fall and crush your friend,” Bakugo gritted out as he tried to contain the squirming Miyoko.

Miyoko eventually went limp in his arms, the frustration getting the better of her and hot angry tears made their way down her face.

“Shit,” Bakugo sighed. He wasn’t good with kids and Kirishima knew it. So, he didn’t see why he thought it was a good idea to leave him here.

“Everything’s gonna be fine, kid. There’s no reason to-“ Bakugo stopped as a new idea ran through his head.

“Hey kid, who’s your favorite hero?” Miyoko looked at him through big watery eyes before answering him.

“Hellfreeze, the duality hero. He’s the coolest. And my name’s not Kid, it’s Miyoko,” she sassed to him.

‘You gotta be shitting me,’ Bakugo thought to himself.

“Well, what would Hellfreeze want you to do in this situation? He wouldn’t want you to cry. He’d want you to be strong so that we can save your friend.”

Miyoko sniffed. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. I wish he was here. He’d know what to do.”

Bakugo suddenly remembered why he decided to never have kids.

***

Hey guys! Here’s the next part of the series! I hope you like it! Don’t forget if you guys are ever confused on what’s happening or just want to talk about what’s happening, don’t hesitate to ask! I will try to answer all your questions! Also if you want to be added to the tags still, just let me know!

Edit: Okay I feel like I have to clarify because if I didn’t know, it might now be that clear to me. In my fanfiction, Todoroki is one of the top three pro heroes. He also took on the hero name Hellfreeze mostly because I thought it sounded badass 😂 also in the next part, it might get confusing again so I’ll clarify right now. Uraraka let her hero license expire right after she had Hiro so she could protect him at home. Her and Midoriya desided it was for the best, because it was extremely dangerous for them to have a kid while Deku was still the no1 hero. If there’s anything I might’ve missed that’s confusing, just let me know!

THANK YOU FOR READING!

Tags

@orokayagi @venusianpink @confusedpimp @katsukisuwus @downlowhoee @bleachbetch @rise-from-the-ahes-the-phoenix96 @bakakaashii @videogameboiwhowins @just-another-quirkless-loser @hot-pocket01 @aurorahoneybuns @wassupducks @mo0o0milk @olivialikesurmom @bitto-hee @chocolatebelievercrusade @geeky1151 @quasarre @strawberry-artini @kellyyween @liliesoftherainmain @bubbleteaa @vante-visuals @jelly-bean8383-blog @illy213 @godsavedthewrongqueen

[thedumbguywithaheart43]

Boomlord weird adventure

Chapter 8 what time is it?

It was early morning in the omnispace void. Boomwood had gotten to the kitchen to start brewing coffee as the footsteps of a yawning purple hair woman enter the room."morning Twilight."Twilight mearly gave him a wave before sitting down. Looked at her noticing the look on her face. To be honest she looked exhausted.'ah shit'he quickly poured a shot glass of the Cuban coffee and handed it to her. She stared at the coffee for a minute."I appreciate the gesture but I doubt this is going to do much for me."good Lord gave out a chuckle."Twilight trust me this is Cuban coffee any more than this and you'll be wired."He gave out a chuckle before Twilight downed the shot, unsurprisingly her face scrunched up. This was probably the most bitter thing she ever had."bleh! Why would you drink something so bitter!"Boomlord shrugged."honestly I only drink it for the caffeine. If it helps I think I have some orange juice in the fridge."Twilight just looked down rubbing her head . Not long after the other girls walked in each of them heading into the fridge grabbing various fruits mostly apples. Pinkie pie was the only one who grabbed something else, looks like she found the flan and was in heaven."oh my Celestia this tastes so good!"At least she wasn't breaking the fourth wall again.

2 After everyone ate they all headed to the living room again."ok girls this is it we are heading to the next world. Now before I go this mission is not meant to be dangerous however the world we're entering can be a bit chaotic so be prepared for anything."The rest of the girls nodded they likely had assumed as much from the previous conversations."so where are we going anyway"dash blurted out as boom pulled out his pen."yeah I'm with Dash partner id hate to go in blind."Aj took a step forward to make her point."we're going to a place called ooo I spent a lot of time there and it's the only place I can really say I have friends anymore...."booms voice got deep as a sorrowful look overtook his face for a minute. This was enough to make Applejack back off. Twilight in particular took a mental note of this.'guess friends are a touchy subject for him.' boom grabbed his notepad An drew another circle, in the center he wrote °adventure Time 1°as always the golden electrical ring formed with a blackened middle. Boomlord jumped into the portal and when he landed his feet were on solid ground. Solid green grassy ground. He surveyed the area around him noticing he was in a grassy clear field however the ends of what looks like old nuclear bombs stuck out overtaken by the grassy plains. The girls enter next each of them still in their same outfits however 4 of the girls had notable changes to them . Twilight and rarity each had a sword at their side. Twilight sword with a sleek and purple short sword with her cutie mark on the hilt. Rarity sword on the other hand looked as if it were made of blue crystal with a white metal hilt her cutie mark also on it. Fluttershy and rainbow Dash had also had the return of their wings which Dash took this opportunity to fly up into the air a bit doing a few loops and swirls."Hell yeah I missed this!"boom couldn't help but smile."Real fly girl up there."a few of them awkwardly smile."so where's our destination?"Twilight asked giving him a quick grin knowing that he's trying his best to make everyone feel better about being in a strange world."we're going to see princess bubblegum at the Candy Kingdom."and just like that he found himself lying on the ground being pinned by pinkie pie."DID YOU SAY CANDY KINGDOM! A KINGDOM MADE OF CANDY IS THIS PLACE PARADISE O.M.C O.M.C."Twilight practically had to pry pinky off of him ."yes the entire Kingdom from the trees to the ground is made of candy including the people."He started to brush himself off as pinky smile only widen."but please don't eat the Candy people or I will probably have to stop you"pinky reluctantly nodded.

3"rainbow do you mind taking an aerial view try to find the place that looks like it's surrounded by Pink cotton candy trees.... Well because it is surrounded by Pink cotton candy trees."boom called out before stopping looking at the ground a large Shadow now loomed over them. It was Spike. All the ponies turn to look back in both shock and horror. Spike mostly remain the same with one slight difference... He was absolutely Giant. His whole body in total was about the size of a two sorry house and his wings could probably cover all of them with ease."oh yeah I forgot dragons are huge here but at least he still looks different from them normally they're just Giant tube dragons with big ass butts."The ponies/girls stared for a moment but in silent agreement they chose not to address it not that Spike would mind he was too busy checking himself out."oh crap I'm HUGE you guys look so small from up here!" It was the most adorable giant grin in the world. Rainbow decided now was a good time to take him to the air as she being flapping her wings disappearing above the clouds. Surveying the land below she was able to make out what looks like pink trees and a large structure that looked somewhat like a castle."guess that must be what I'm looking for."she kept looking around noticing in One direction was a rather large tree that almost looks like it had Windows in it and in the opposite direction she noticed tall mountains made entirely of ice."heh heh heh what do we have here"a voice from nowhere stated in a malicious tone from behind her. Is she turned to look behind her she saw a giant monster with a bat like face and long blue limbs with crooked nails.'OH SHIT'at this point rainbow Dash started nose diving down towards her friends with the creature in pursuit who was maliciously chuckling the entire way down. The rest of the group saw the creature and the girls had various reactions. Applejack rarity and Twilight look like they were getting ready to fight with rarity and Twilight pulling out their swords. Fluttershy and Pinky had decided to stick near Spike who is now using his wings to shield them.Then there was boom standing out in the open as dash passed him and he just smiled. Apon seeing him the creature stopped a look of surprise on our face."hey Marceline it's been a while"the creature began to shrink taking on a human form she had pale white skin and incredibly long black hair which reached down to her feet a simple jacket and jeans and her ,guitar-axe strapef to her back and a nice big floopy hat which covered her in a shroud of darkness. She give out a wide smile revealing her fangs before wrapping her arms around boom giving him a hug."holy glob dude!your back it's been like 4 months!"he returned the embrace from his old friend as the rest of the girls started to calm down noticing that whatever that thing was it seemed friendly at least now it did."oh that's right."he turned to the girls and dragon."everyone this is my old friend Marceline... The vampire queen"a few of the girls jaw started to drop."your freinds with a literal blood sucking vampire?"Marceline shrugged at Twilight comment."actually it's just the color I'm after."Marceline started floating on her back around them."so boom what brings you and your new friends back to ooo."Boomlord got quiet."I found it Marcy.... I found the Rose fire and they're here because Twilight here"pointing at the slightly flustered purple pony girl."is the key to everything."Marceline stopped moving for a moment the words settling in her mind."oh we need to get to the Candy Kingdom right away then."then without word Marceline started floating off towards the direction of the Kingdom and boom followed along with the girls and the giant dragon...... Yeah that might be a problem.

4 After a few hours of walking they all managed to reach the candy kingdom with Spike deciding to hide in the trees to avoid unwanted attention. Pinkie pie look like she was about to go crazy or more crazy."o.m.c so m-much candy!"she was practically foaming at the mouth."look pinky just eat the sidewalk or something just please don't start eating random people I don't want to deal with any drama today especially because we need the princess's help."the pony started walking forward into the rather nice town and to boomlord credit every building and every person was made of candy, And many candies citizens passed by. Mr cupcake crunchy punch bowl guy."wow this is actually really fascinating I can't help but wonder what they're DNA is like how do candy people procreate do they need to breathe or eat its quite fascinating"Twilight then begin rambling about a whole bunch of science jargon that boom did not know but he found himself listening to every word she spoke it wasn't until arsenaline tapped his shoulder that he snapped out of his trance."I see you found a real good friend~"she whispered in a teasing tone."w-what no she's just um cool you know for someone who was a horse the other day."Marceline rolled her eyes."horse or not you always did have a thing for a Smart ones~."boom felt his blood pump. "Oh you're one to talk."Marceline then backed off she knew how far she could go before boom would made her regret it. After a while of walking the group then found themselves at the castle as a pink cared and pink skinned princess in a long pink dress noticed them."oh my! Boom you have returned and with.. many female companions huh"princess bubblegum gave a smirk."oh don't you start now too!" Boom was probably going to say more before pb gave him a warm hug."so I assume this has to do with the rose fire."bubblegum look down at him and while she kept a smile her face was full of worry."yeah Twilight here um it's kind of a long story."bubblegum nodded."it always is."about an hour had passed after this meeting and boom had explained to Marceline and bubblegum how we came to meet the girls and discover the fire leaving out the parts where he burned himself or threw a skillet at Twilight."interesting I'll probably have to run a few scans on Twilight then with her permission."Twilight nodded."good we'll start by using the rejuvenation tank to monitor your body and vitals while I conduct a few scans"boom notice that she was pointing to the large tank filled with water and knew that this meant that Twilight was going to have to strip down which he then took his cue to leave. "I'll be back soon gonna check on stuff."and before anyone could say anything he left the room.

(oh and before I forget I'll be opening asks for boomlord and Friends so if they appear in the story feel free to ask them a question ask box is officially open)

[cursewoodrecap]

Session 23: Medical Ethics

Y’all ever been to college?

Our new friend Vigdor has just pulled a pale, twitching human leg out of a poster tube, sheepishly admitting to Valeria that it’s his own.

Valeria blinks at it. “Well, it doesn’t appear to be bleeding demons, so that’s good?”

Shoshana sticks her head in the door, and has to pause to take in the sight. “Uh, bruh? Bruh? I have questions. Is that yours? I mean, like, yes, you HAVE it, but was it attached to-“

“That’s a bit tricky? It was amputated twice.”

“Twice?!”

“Once from me, and then, well, um. Once from an amalgam of sewn together body parts?”

(Gral and Shoshana pile into the room, because Oh, Lore?)

“When I was in the swamp, we were fighting a bunch of zombies led by this particularly nasty undead guy. We called it the Wailing Wight. At first it was just the usual undead hordes, but then a local leatherworker was found, torn apart and harpooned every which way, half his limbs torn off and stolen. After that, we started getting attacked by stitched together abominations cobbled together from human and animal pieces. I was there just trying to help the villagers, being a doctor and all. But that’s when I lost my actual limbs.”

“They got stolen, like the leatherworker’s?”

“I had to chop them off. Which, for the record, is not a fun time? The Wight’s harpoon has a kind of poison that rots everything it touches. So I had to amputate or, like, die. So I cut them off and his zombies, uh, stole them. And I managed to get one back? Kind of a long story. I don’t know how I recognized it, but – I guess I know my own leg like the back of my hand? Now I’m taking it back to Sturmhearst. There’s a weird fluid inside it; I want to study what’s going on with that so we can take care of the nastyboy in the swamp.”

“Well, I am generally against nastyboys,” says Shoshana, poking his foot in the ticklish bit. It squirms at her.

We’re headed to Sturmhearst anyway, so traveling together seems reasonable. We think about taking Fun Key Shortcuts, but that could backfire spectacularly, so we’ll play it safe and go the normal, boring way.

In the morning, we head downstairs. The inn is trashed. The stalwart barkeep Rene is not there; instead there’s a young elf sweeping out what debris he can. As we grab breakfast and the young fellow thanks us over and over for saving his friend’s life, Vigdor awkwardly wanders around casting Mending on chairs and tables that got a little too close to the tentacles and chainsaws. Shoshana doesn’t really do non-destructive magic, but she slips the barkeep some gold for repairs.

Vigdor’s too lopsided for a horse, so he’s gonna hop on in our cart. He’s very taken with the Eyegis, poking at it with fascination. “You can see the blood vessels in the eyes, despite no source for a blood supply! Do they have tear ducts? Have you ever seen the shield produce tears? Can you make it cry?”

Valeria gets very uncomfortable with this line of questioning and turns the eyes back into painted ones, put off by a Weird Stranger gettin’ all up in her business. Gral distracts him by asking about his fancy metal limbs.

Vigdor goes full technobabble on how the runes and machinery work. “Well, there’s three different kind of magical actuators on each joint, and they act as conduits for the dilithium crystals-” He knows the details secondhand from Bjork and none of us speak robotics, so if he ever needs serious repairs he’ll have to bring them back to Sturmhearst for the engineers to take a look at.

Valeria knows a bit about Jotunn runesmithing, but she’s never heard of it working to this degree of precision; before, she’d only heard of stuff like boats that row themselves, or a peg leg that has a little extra articulation. These are fully actuated limbs!

Val checks if the limbs are the same metal as our space wrench, but nope, they look like completely normal everyday metals. She’s not gonna inspect further, because she has RESPECT, unlike SOME people.

(“Hey, I didn’t try to pry the eyes open or anything!” Vigdor protests.)

She does notice one thing, though: Valeria recognizes runes from most magic systems even though she doesn’t know them well enough to use; her sister studied magic for a long time, so she knows what they look like. There’s one elaborate rune that appears on both Vigdor’s forearm and leg that is of no origin she’s ever seen.  

“How long’d it take Bjork to build this thing?” Shoshana asks, squinting at Vigdor’s kneecap.

“Well, I was unconscious for a good bit of it so…between a week and 2 months? He was already working on it when I, uh, had to amputate.”

“…did you KNOW you were gonna wake up with those things on?”

“Oh! Yeah, yeah. It took a while ‘cause the original blueprints they found were for somebody, like…really short for a human or really tall for a halfling? Something in between. Bjork had to resize the whole model to fit a human.”

“He, uh, FOUND blueprints?

“I can’t imagine he’d have made blueprints for a person who didn’t exist? It was all proportioned very strangely. I don’t know too much about it, you’d have to ask Professor Bjork.”

(One of the players asks if the strange rune, perhaps, says ISTC in a language the characters don’t know. It DOES, and we’re all very pleased with ourselves for previous-campaign references.)

The long road stretches on before us, and we have plenty of time to talk as we spend a week or two heading north toward the coast. We fill Vigdor in on the four flavors of Curse and the concept of the Prisoners, and that we suspect there’s major Key nonsense going on up at the university. (Heh heh, “major key.”)

Vigdor and Shoshana bond over being locals. Why are foreigners so weird about trolls?

Vigdor really, really wants to look at Twombly’s glasses. We explain to him that the Key could take his desire for knowledge and turn him into a cackling, dimension-hopping madman with a few extra eyeballs. He still wants to play with the glasses. Valeria protectively hides the Key map, just in case, flashing her Hunt fangs at anyone who asks about it.

After like a week of pestering everybody, Vigdor gets to look at the glasses. Disappointingly, when not looking at the Key map, the colorful lenses just make everything look slightly more those colors. Maybe Gral’s lutestrings look weird, but that could be the placebo effect. He tries flipping around the many lenses in different combinations, and finds that all of them make him look absolutely ridiculous.

Eventually after many days of travel, we can smell the ocean and the distinctive stench of a large number of humans living in one place. Vigdor takes in the familiar sight of his college hometown. Shoshana is dumbfounded that this many people can live on top of each other, while Valeria thinks it’s a quaint little town.

Up to the west, Sturm Castle squats on a cliff above the city, like a big hippo of knowledge. It looks like it was once a reasonable castle shape, but it’s had new wings and towers built onto it haphazardly until it’s a weird sprawling network of jammed-together architecture. By the edge of the cliff, in one of the more sensibly-built sections, a majestic lighthouse beams out over the bay. In the city below, the largest building appears to be a grand temple, with its roof carved in the shape of an open book. The perimeter of the city is outlined by strange wooden and metal towers, two or three stories tall with conical brass roofs.

Eh. It’s only got one castle, so it can’t be that good of a city compared to Aurentium.

Our cart is briefly stopped for a quick examination at the gate by a friendly city guardsman. He’s flanked by two of the same enormous owl-masked guards we saw accompanying Quercus and Ulmus. “Hi, welcome to Sturmhearst, folks! What brings you here?”

We all awkwardly try not to look at Vigdor’s leg bag.

“I’m, uh, here to visit Dr. Emily Thorpe?” he tries.

“Oh, visiting the university. Don’t need yer life story. Where you stayin’? I can recommend some inns. Oh, and check out the Scholar’s Temple while yer here!” He hands us a brochure from the Sturmhearst Tourism Board and steps back. “ALL RIGHT BIG GUYS, LET EM THROUGH!”

The owl guards don’t move.

“Oh, uh, I mean –“ He fishes in his pocket and pulls out a whistle. “Lemme see if I can remember how the doc told me to do this.” He blows a few sharp notes on the whistle, and the owl guards promptly step off the road to let us through.

Huh.

Vigdor makes an investigation check on those guards, who definitely weren’t around back when he was in school. They’re pretty bulky for humans – no, honestly, they’d be bulky even for goliaths. He’d heard a story from Professor Bjork that the school was hiring goliath mercs and dressing them in owl masks, but the professor had sounded like he hadn’t believed it much. Supposedly they’re silent because they don’t speak the language, but Vigdor’s pretty sure Bjork speaks Jotunn, so that excuse doesn’t quite hold up.

Once we’re out of the guards’ earshot, Gral pulls a huddle. “Vigdor, the Key’s a more recent influence, so let us know about anything new or significantly more abundant – that’s where we’ll need to search.”

Vigdor hmms. “The big brass towers weren’t here before. And the owl guys didn’t used to be a thing.”

Gral cuts another glance back to the owl guards, considering. “…How much of a faux pas is it to remove a Sturmhearst person’s mask?”

“I mean, if you’re dealing with the plague, it’s kind of a dick move? And dangerous? But most people – it’s like, the same rudeness of grabbing someone’s hat or jacket. For some people it’s badge of honor or superiority, y’know, how amazing they were to get through the gauntlet of Sturmhearst. But mostly it’s a practical tool of the job. We’re not, like, afraid to show our faces.”

Gral nods. “So you wouldn’t have to duel them, then.”

“W-what?”

“Oh, with bards it’s like ‘you are not deserving of your title’ and you have to duel about it. You know, like, how dare you slander my name, I’ll have to fight you for my honor?”

“Oh, uh, no, nothing like that. The mask is proof of office, that’s all.”

Before we get investigating, though, it’s late and we should rest. Vigdor wasn’t a palling-around-town type, but he rolls a nat 20 and knows the best inn in the city – not one of those touristy places on the square; the best-kept-secret on a side street that only the locals and regulars know about.

We have a lovely night around the docks of Sturmhearst. Shoshana spends like fifteen minutes just staring out to sea, because they MAKE boats that big???? This much water even EXISTS????? There’s a dragonborn ship from Aurentium, a goliath ship from Jotunhein, a couple of Galwan freighters, and even a ship crewed by colorful macaw aarakocra. (History check: while the Aquilians mostly died out, some of the ground-based aarakocra cultures survived. Valeria’s met macaw traders before in Aurentium; they tell lots of stories and do GREAT impressions.)

Valeria, meanwhile, holies some ocean water. They say Galwan clerics swear by holy seawater; salt repels demons, right? It’s gross harbor water but, whatever, it’s holy now. She also beats a sea captain at Man-go, presumably dock style. The inn’s equipped for foreign travelers, so it’s got a whole bar of draconic and goblin spices!

Gral, meanwhile, discovers the inn is near a bath house and enjoys finding out what a sauna is.

Morning comes, and Sturmhearst U awaits. Vigdor knows the main campus has the colleges of Engineering, Science, and Medicine, while the satellite campus across the bay houses the college of Ethics, which includes humanities like economics and history.

Valeria rolls for Order of the Rose knowledge. The Order actually has an arrangement with Sturmhearst when they’re working in Valdia – whenever the Order is sent on disaster relief, some Sturmhearst ethicists are sent to help coordinate. Valeria’s never worked with them personally, but the impression she’s gotten from her fellow knights is Not Great. From what she’s heard, they’re supposed to do triage and help direct the knights, but it seems like they spend the whole time sitting around debating absolutely horrible things. “Hey, if we brewed up some necromancy, could we use the skeletons of plague victims to transport supplies without spreading the infection?” Apparently they just sit around in corners debating whether that kind of shit is kosher or not, without ever actually DOING anything.

Also ethicists wear white instead of black like most Sturmhearst scholars, which is just pretentious. We then poke fun at an Order of the Rose knight calling anyone else pretentious.

Vigdor studied at the College of Medicine; he’s a doctor. But that’s not where he’s taking the leg.

“Why not Medicine? I mean, it’s a human body part, innit?” Shoshana asks.

“It’s…I have some concerns…regarding the, um. So, along with this leg, my arm was stolen, right? Not long after the arm was stolen, the sewn-together amalgams got a lot, uh, cleaner.”

We stare at him.

“…as if whatever stitched them together had my medical training.”

…oh.

“I’m a little hesitant taking that info to the College of Medicine,” he admits.

“Why?”

“There’s a lot of ‘for the greater good’ stuff with the College of Medicine sometimes. The College of Ethics keeps them in check. Anyway, there’s actually this thaumochemist I want to take a look at it.”

(We’d know the discipline as alchemy, but she hates that. She’ll go on a whole tirade about it. Somebody yells “Full Metal Thaumochemist” and we accidentally take a commercial break. We’ll never get tired of that joke.)

More of those owl guards are at the door, supervised by a businesslike white-coated member of the College of Ethics. His mask is a bit more abstract than the ones we’re used to; not modeled after a bird face like the regular scholars’. He lets Vigdor in with no problem, though he’s a bit suspicious of the rest of us. We’re with a doctor, though, so he’ll let it slide. “Welcome to Sturmhearst, may your visit be enlightening.” He does the same whistle we heard before and the guards step aside. Gral’s a string guy, he can figure out the notes easily enough but he doesn’t whistle.

“Nothing goes on here without Ethics knowing about it, huh,” Gral observes.

More owl guards are stomping around, some carrying heavy objects. Vigdor knows where he’s going, but asks an owl guard for directions, as an experiment. The owl guard doesn’t even notice him. He steps in front of the guard, who just steps around him very politely.

The castle is a nightmare to navigate, like Hoeska, but we have an expert tour guide. “The old keep, the part that used to be a castle – that’s where all the 101 classes are and the whole working hospital. All the additions are laid out super weird, and then there’s the tunnels underneath. The Chem students had WILD parties down there, they brewed up all SORTS of stuff. The lighthouse is a real lighthouse, but it’s also where admin is, and the dean’s and headmaster’s offices. Oh! DO NOT cross the librarians. Each college has its own library? Like, theoretically they share the whole collection, but which college keeps which books is kind of a blood sport…”

Shoshana and Gral hang back, feeling out of place. “Bards don’t really have a college, exactly?” Gral explains. “It’s more of a pilgrimage. I met the elders of each village and they imparted wisdom upon me?”

Shosh feels like an uneducated hick even by that standard.

We take a hairpin turn in one of the Science buildings and run into Professor Quercus! Or at least someone with a bird mask and a similar voice, chatting with some other masked scholar. “Ah! Yes! We made a lot of excellent discoveries before we started to run into problems – you see, there hadn’t been an event in some time, but if we could get in there to the source, we could really – well, my goodness! These are the people I was telling you about, who gave me such wonderful notes!” Quercus turns to us, sounding rather delighted. “I certainly didn’t expect to see you here. Welcome to the world of knowledge! What brings you here? I thought you were having adventures and derring-do!”

“Well, it turns out our adventures led here!” Gral tells him.

Quercus nods enthusiastically. “I’d show you around, but I rather need to speak to the bursar! If you need anything, I’m sure you can find my offices without too much problem. And please, if you’ve encountered any interesting monsters, I’d love to hear details! Especially if you have samples!” Despite his keen excitement, Professor Quercus rolls a four and fails to notice our Shusva accessories.

“If you ever need a cup of tea and a biscuit, you’re welcome to stop by my office! I’d be more than happy to speak with you! And if you could do me a favor – well, I wouldn’t mind having you with me when I speak to the bursar! See, our expedition to Holzog has hit a bit of a snag. The events with that mist stopped happening, you see. Luckily, we managed to identify which house you were going to, and we were all set to investigate, but then the Baroness put a squadron of those damnable Condotierri to prevent us getting in – “

Gral shrugs, deliberately casual. “I don’t know why you’d go back; there’s not much to see besides what’s already in the notes.”

(Vigdor immediately rolls insight to see if Gral is lying. Unfortunately for him, bards are excellent liars.)

“Anyway. The bursar’s giving me an earful about continuing to fund the expedition. I’m considering withdrawing from Holzog and asking him to redirect the funds into a different project! For example, lots of interesting monsters have been seen around Barroch lately!”

Yes, definitely, we want him to go somewhere that’s not a Tempting Key Portal. Valeria and Gral tag-team Persuasion checks to sell him on interesting cases of monsters we’ve heard of around Barroch. If we’re fuzzy on the details – well, all the more reason to have someone get out there and take a closer look!

Quercus is rather taken by the idea. “If you would, Mr. Duu –“

“Um, actually, Duu is the tribe, my family’s name is-“

“-yes, if you could write me some letters, I might find it useful making the acquaintance of the locals while setting up camp. Sturmhearst hasn’t established an official relationship to your people yet’”

Gral agrees to write up a formal letter explaining the mission of Sturmhearst and the expedition to make introductions a bit smoother; the word of a bard will go a long way in gaining the cooperation of the orcs of Barroch. He’ll do a personal letter of introduction for Quercus, and a general letter to Shieldeater’s administration to explain who the heck these weird bird people are.

“Wonderful! Bring it by my office!” He gives us directions that make NO sense to anyone but Vigdor. We’re pretty sure several of those compass directions aren’t real words?

“Oh, and if you see an angry tall woman stomping around, tell her I’m not here! She’s mad at me for some reason I can’t discern. Good day!”

He scuttles off, presumably to hide.

We definitely want the gossip on that – Ulmus was mad at him about funding, and she definitely dissed his field of study. Is this what academia is like?

Vigdor confirms that the professors have all kind of weird beefs, interdepartmental politics, and personal feuds. “One of my professors gave me a B- in amputation – shows what he knows – purely because I was taking some classes outside the College of Medicine and he got all offended. It’s a lot of politics and bullshit, they’re all more concerned about their careers and publishing than actually important stuff.”

We find a door with a brass plaque: Dr Emily Thorpe, Thaumochemist. There’s a paper list tacked to her door with a list of courses: “Intro to Potion Brewing,” “Principles of Alchemy Thaumochemistry”

Vigdor knocks. “Yes, who’s there? Come in!” a voice calls.

“It’s Vigdor! Vigdor Gavril!”

“Ah, Vigdor!” A halfling woman in the requisite bird mask waves from behind a counter where she’s handling a set of proper Movie Science bubbling beakers and flasks. “Yes, you sent me that letter! You had something ‘interesting’ for me!”

“Yes, and you will see why I couldn’t be more detailed!”

She notices his metal arm as he starts pulling open his heavy waterproofed case. “Oh! I heard that Professor Bjork was giving you his prototype! How’s it working?”

“They’re loud and heavy and uncomfortable sometimes, but I have limbs! Can’t complain! But then I, uh, found one of my limbs again.”

He goes over to an open table and pulls out his entire-ass leg with a flourish, plus vials of hair and blood and strange unidentified liquids. Her eyes widen.

“Ah, this is yours!” She watches his toes wiggle. “Well, you don’t see that every day.”

“Yeah, I found it stitched to some kind of unholy undead abomination.”

“And that explains the Knight of the Rose. Hello, Kyr.”

“Kyr Valeria Argent, at your service!”

“Dr. Emily Thorpe, at your service as well, I guess? Pardon the mess in my lab, it’s not much but it’s home. Hand me that vial?” She pulls out a syringe and takes a sample of not blood, but oily black liquid, from the leg. “It will take some time, but I can write up a thaumaturgical profile without much difficulty. Do you mind if I keep it?”

“You can hang on to it. But I would appreciate discretion.”

“Yes, this will stay between me, your friends, and – oh, this is Hugo, he’s my teaching assistant. He’s been helping since the school was mobilized.” She turns to Vigdor’s clearly uneducated hick friends (not you, Valeria, you’re very fancy) and explains:

“In times of crisis, the University turns from education to innovation. Were this a disease, we’d be researching cures! If demonic, we’d be researching weapons or dimensional banishment. We haven’t really received direct orders this time, so everybody is doing their own thing, which I can’t say I mind. Mostly I’ve been helping other researchers with the practical application of their theorems.”

She scribbles out a hasty list. “Hugo, if you can go to the library and put these books on order? The Vigmar and the Auspelius especially would be useful, but don’t let the librarians kill anyone over them. And the Principles of Advanced Anatomy – tell them I won’t ask. But I do need it.” The grad student nods and hustles out of the room.

(Shoshana insights, out of paranoia. Hugo’s a good egg, though he might refer to thaumochemistry as alchemy.)

“Now, Dr. Gavril, do you want this leg back? How intact-“

“Want it back? Like, in the abstract, or on my body?”

She pulls out a vial of bubbling acid. “I’d like to put some of this on it and I’d like to see what happens.”

He blanches slightly. “Uh. Um. I have some proprietary-“

“Aw, no acid then,” she grumbles, stowing the acid with an audible sigh.

“Only do something you would do to living person’s leg. That they would survive!”

“How would I know? I’m a chemist, this is only, like, my second dead person!” She pauses. “…well, fifth.”

Shoshana starts looking around at all the alchemy equipment curiously. Everything here is clearly labeled with numbers, and letters that feel like numbers, and complex formulae, which hedgewitch potionery doesn’t really account for.

There’s a knock at the door. “Ah, that must be Hugo. Come in!”

Valeria instinctively body-blocks the leg from view.

It is not Hugo. In walk 3 white-clad ethicists. The gentleman at the front is in fancier robes – we suspect he’s the kind of fellow who has tenure – and he wears a powdered judge’s wig atop his mask. We immediately don’t like it. His two companions peer around the lab – one has a jeweler’s loupe built into the lens of his mask, and the other is carrying a big chime with runes carved into it, clearly a magic item of some sort.

“Dr Thorpe,” the leader intones.

“Sorbus,” she replies disdainfully.

“I see you have guests, is now a bad time?”

“Is it ever a good time?” Emily makes a point of tending to her samples and beakers busily.

“I suppose not. We have come to ask a few follow-up questions. Have you been visited at all by Professor Matthias Macker? Has he followed up on the project you were working on together?”

“I told you, no! I had no potions strong or precise enough for what he needed, and he’s never spoken to me since. That was months ago!”

“And no one has seen him since then. You understand why we need to know what you discussed.”

“Yeah, not since you quarantined the whole surgical wing!”

“That is not what I’m asking about. Has Macker’s assistant Greta Ruble visited you?”

“No. She’s a good kid, though, don’t hassle her.”

“We are simply making sure she is not a danger.”

Emily sputters angrily. “A danger to who?!”

“I cannot tell you that.” He turns to Valeria. “Kyr, it is always a pleasure to see a member of the Order here. I suppose if you’re here we can be assured nothing… unethical is happening,” he says, unpleasantly oily. “I am Professor Rigmor Sorbus of the College of Ethics; I lecture on legal and judicial ethics. These are my assistants, Charles and Pippin.”

Valeria bows with the precise degree of politeness required. “Kyr Valeria Argent, at your service.”

“A pleasure to make your acquaintance. In these times of mobilization, it falls to us as ethicists to supervise our colleagues’ noble efforts. Please, I implore you: if you see anything untoward or suspiciously unusual, I request you report it to the nearest representative of the College of Ethics.”

Emily butts in. “What happened to Eric Pelbort, his other assistant?”

“Mr. Pelbort has transferred to the College of Ethics and is assisting us with some research. We will let you know if that changes.” He tells her dismissively. “Kyr Argent, the College of Ethics has always been proud of our long association with the Order, and I would like to extend our deepest condolences for the tragedy of the Crusade. Should you have need of any assistance whatsoever, do not hesitate to ask. Our offices are on the satellite campus across the bay. If you were to visit, I’m sure many would love to speak to a paladin of the Order of the Rose.”

“We have business here, but I might be able to make time to stop by,” she equivocates.

“Very well. I will let you all get back to whatever it is you’re doing with that leg,” Sorbus says, turning neatly on his heel and taking his leave, his toadies hurrying in his wake.

(Yes, you guessed it: That was Professor Rowan, with his Tort Wig and his assistants Pip Loupe and Chime Charles.)

“Those guys give me the creeps,” Emily grumbles. “They used to be fine, but lately they’ve been doing this whole inquisitor act.”

Vigdor’s always known these guys as douchey blowhards. But now they’re douchey blowhards with AUTHORITY.

There’s always been a divide between Ethics and the other three colleges roughly the size of the harbor! The sciences don’t believe in debate, they believe in experimentation! Anyone who can spend an entire week talking without action is wasting time and breath. The College of Medicine thinks even less of them – they just get in the way of progress!

(IRL we all respect medical ethics, but Sturmhearst WAS founded on a fine tradition of graverobbing and leeches.)

Vigdor is primarily a surgeon, or he was, when he had two fully functional hands. (Two players at once: “HE GOT DR STRANGED!”) He had quite a few classes with Macker, the chair of the surgery department. Most people didn’t like the guy, except his surgical grad students who would defend him to the death. A bit of a hardass about proper procedure, but that’s probably not a bad quality for a surgeon. He was a local institution, so it’s pretty alarming he’s somehow gone rogue.

“His whole lab was quarantined?”

“The whole teaching wing, actually,” Emily tells us.

“Are there people in there? Some kind of sickness?”

“Not that I’ve heard. Ethics just put guards outside the labs and blocked everyone from going in. They’ve done it to a couple places around the school recently. The excuse is that someone was doing ‘unsafe experimentation’ that’s ‘poisoned the area’ or something?”

Wack. “How long have these quarantines lasted?”

“They don’t really end? A couple stopped after a few months, but some have been there for a year! Nobody goes in or out. Sometimes the white coats go in, but it’s pretty rare and they don’t stay long.”

“Is that what all the guards are for? Where’d they all come from?” Vigdor asks.

“Medicine used to be the ones, uh, hiring them.” (A quick insight roll notes that she hesitates on the phrase “hiring.”) “Lots of them still answer to whoever they were originally assigned to. But recently Dean Chidor from the College of Ethics took over that whole program, so a lot of the newer ones answer primarily to the ethicists. I mean, they all dress the same, so it’s kinda hard to tell? I haven’t asked a lot of questions, I’ve been trying to keep my head down since the whole thing with Macker.”

“What actually happened with him?”

“He’d been acting weird for a while,” she confides as she starts sticking pins in the leg and wiring them to a voltage generator. “He’d been working on something, some kind of extreme surgery – I think he was looking into a method of surgically removing Curse corruption. He was hitting roadblocks, though; he called in me and Alma Ulmus, who’s a College of Medicine bigwig.”

“Yeah, we met her in Bad Herzfeld!”

“I heard she’s here again, stalking around the halls complaining about funding. She knows more about his project than I do. Anyway, Macker sent me requirements for a healing potion he was gonna administer as part of some surgical procedure. I couldn’t get anything as powerful or precise as he needed. I’m a thaumochemist; I don’t know medicine that well. So it was beyond me to do that amount of gross tissue damage repair as controllably as they wanted it. I mean, I made some pretty nice innovations as far as the theory of potioncrafting, I’m hoping to get published as soon as it goes to peer review.

“But I couldn’t do what he needed, and eventually I got shut out of the project. Then one day he vanished. Alma set off for Bad Herzfeld and Macker stopped coming out of his lab. His assistants were still going in and out, but not long after that, the ethicists quarantined the place.”

“Has anyone else been quarantined?” Valeria asks.

“People from all three colleges got hit. I dunno about other ethicists, I haven’t heard about them quarantining anything of their own. But everyone else has. A group of engineering students were building a defense system to be deployed out to the Scar, and all of them got quarantined. Here in my department, Dr. Vilman – remember him? Stupid goatee, did a lot of stuff with crystals? – got shut down. Sometimes they quarantine the whole lab; sometimes they just shut down a project and everyone working on it gets a ‘guest lecture position’ over in Ethics. Sorbus said they got one of Macker’s assistants, Eric Pelbort. He had another one, Greta Ruble, but I guess she’s given them the slip.”

Emily’s got experiments to do on that leg, so we’ll let her get to it. As we head out, Gral asks one last question. “What’s up with those guards, by the way? Why do they only respond to those whistles?

“Uhhhh,” she says, as we fail our persuasion check. “They, er, don’t speak very good Valdian. Mostly foreigners, goliaths, the like. The whistles get their attention.”

Gral sighs and doesn’t push it. Vigdor’s already making plans to pickpocket a whistle. Valeria, since she has a direct invite to talk to the ethicists, considers the unheard-of paladin approach of Just Asking Them Directly.

First, though, Vigdor wants to check out the quarantine of Macker’s lab; he knew that professor well, and we’re all curious what’s been going down.

We walk on over to the surgical wing to case the joint. There’s a single owl guard blocking the hallway, presiding over a small barricade. A pleasant sandwich board sign states “Area quarantined by College of Ethics, apologies for the inconvenience.”

We try to walk in and the enormous guard holds out a hand to stop us. Shoshana tries to wiggle around him, like a cat trying to get at your dinner, but he impassively blocks her every move.

Gral tries a smoother approach. He begins with small talk; the guard doesn’t even twitch. He starts asking prying questions about the surgical ward. No response. Fine, then: he switches to Orcish, a sinister undertone weaving through his voice as he uses Words of Terror.

An insight roll reveals completely unchanged body language.

“Either they’re immune to fear or not a humanoid,” Gral reports back. “Not a single emotion. Definitely not goliath mercenaries.”

“Tryin’ to talk your way into the surgical wing?” says another chatty passerby. “Good luck. They got all the medical cadavers locked up in there and they won’t let us in.”

(Cadavers? Oh shit, we bet that’s the guard factory, theorize the players.)

“Oh, are you a med student?”

“Yeah. I work with Professor Herberts, or I used to, anyway. We needed a couple cadavers to do this comparison study about spleens; we got some weird ones from out in the wood, we compare spleens to see if place with thing don’t worry about it; need control spleen. And then these BIG DUMB IDIOTS wouldn’t let us in, and Herbert got transferred to the College of Ethics all of a sudden. He’s been gone a couple months.”

“How long do professors usually transfer for?” asks Gral.

“I mean, they usually pop over to give a lecture or two and come back by the end of the day.”

(Vigdor happens to remember that the College of Ethics also runs an asylum. They live in a big spooky castle and do dissections with guts and stuff, it can do a number on your head! Some of the ethicists have branched into the field of psychology. No reason to mention this when people are having extended stays on the ethics campus, of course…)

The student shrugs. “I gotta get to lecture. If you manage to get in there, any chance you can bring me back a couple spleens?”

We wave goodbye noncommittally, though Vigdor insists he can pop a spleen out of a corpse like a yolk from an egg. He’s a good surgeon!

Anyway, Vigdor went to school here, and the dice are on his side; he knows a side path through an old abandoned classroom into the surgical suite. He pops the lock on the door easily; all the undergrads used to go this way when slipping into lecture late, to get past the TA keeping track of tardies.

The guard is in earshot but facing the other direction, and he’s not even blinking, much less scanning around. Gral casts Silence on us and our very clanky party slips by easily.

Shosh sticks her head into the TA’s office. Nothing really stands out, but she swipes some interesting-looking notes from the desk drawers to look at later.

Meanwhile, Gral and Vigdor go into Macker’s office. The desk is an absolute mess, which is very unlike the guy Vigdor used to know. There are wheeled chalkboards crammed into the office, covered in scribbles and anatomical diagrams. Paging through the notes and glancing over the chalkboard, Vigdor makes a decent medicine check and can at least figure out what problem Macker was working on.

Based on what Dr. Emily told us, Macker’s trying to develop a surgical procedure. The issue is that whatever he’s doing would cause so much physical trauma that it’d kill the patient, and he’s looking for some way to prevent that. There are lists of healing options: formulas, spells, potions, nonmagical stabilization methods to keep the patient alive while various tissues are extracted from the body.

Gral’s unimpressed. Healing methods? That’s pretty tame for forbidden knowledge.

To Vigdor’s experienced eyes, this stuff looks mega-advanced and highly experimental, but Gral’s right – it’s not anything you’d scramble to censor.

Weirdly enough, the place doesn’t look ransacked, only disheveled and a little dusty. Macker’s notes haven’t been moved since he was here. Maybe this isn’t what the ethicists were after?

We head to cadaver storage while Valeria keeps watch. Cadaver storage is creepy as hell, but only because it’s, y’know, a room full of cadavers. A lot of the bodies, kept stable with Gentle Repose, appear to be Cursed, but that’s hardly weird. What’s so crazy they’d keep it hidden from everyone?

Vigdor opens the door to the dissection labs, Gral’s Silence deadening any ominous warning he might have had from the room beyond. Yes, the table here’s been recently used, and the bizarre symbols scrawled on the chalkboards have spilled onto the surrounding floor and walls, but Vigdor’s eyes are drawn to where the chalkboard peels away like skin to reveal a strange, multicolored, impossible space. The floor begins to take the shape of a stone hand that projects out into the shimmering void, joining a daisy-chain of enormous hands that form a walkway out to a marble platform floating in space.

Gral takes his Silence spell with him and runs to get Valeria.

Eyes starry, watching entire worlds and impossible shapes spinning through iridescent mists, Vigdor takes his first heady hit of Key taint.

As we cut session, Valeria considers that the ethicists may actually have a point.

[thebladeblaster]

Pokémon: the Dark Circuit (aka Vanguard Descends season 2)

Chapter 8 Prelude To The Circuit Part 1 (cont.)

“I think we already did this.”, Kamui replied.

Aichi looked over to Olivier.

“Is that fine with you?”, Aichi asked and Olivier nodded.

“Yes, I came here to talk as well.”, Oliver replied.

“We must have been thinking something similar.”, Aichi replied.

“Do you mind following me. Your friends may come along if they wish.”, Olivier asked.

“You bet we will!”, Kamui replied.

“Yeah, that’s fine.”, Aichi replied.

Oliver, Aichi, Misaki and Kamui started walking.

“I…”, Aichi looked down as he trailed off.

“Why am I getting tongue tied now? I have been waiting for this moment.”, Aichi thought.

Olivier looked over to Aichi noticing his struggle.

“It must feel a bit awkward to be talking after all these years.”, Olivier said.

“Yeah...umm...so how has things been since I’ve been gone?”, Aichi asked awkwardly.

Before Olivier answered they stopped to see a burnt down manner. Aichi’s eyes widened in shock recognizing the building.

“...My father died and many others in our family in a fire.”, Olivier responded.

Kamui gasped in shock and Misaki looked to Aichi who became very quiet. Aichi looked down at a loss for words.

“Arthur’s dead?”, Aichi questioned, sounding as if he could hardly believe it.

He had wondered why Arthur hadn’t been by his father’s side. He usually always was like how him and Olivier had been.

“I-I...I am sorry to hear that…”, Aichi said quietly.

“It wasn’t a accident. It was a attack meant to kill your father.”, Olivier explained and Aichi was at a loss for words.

His bangs covered his eyes.

“I’m sorry...I haven’t been here for you like you were for me. But if you come back with me to Kakusa maybe we can make things right!”, Aichi said.

Olivier looked rather shocked at the invitation to Kakusa and knew the implication.

“I’m sorry 00...Aichi but I can’t betray Team Asteroid. While from your perspective what your father is doing may seem wrong but it truly is the best for the world.”, Olivier replied.

Aichi looked up heartbroken at his response.

“How do you know? Have you really seen the people of the outside world? How they’ve lived. When I was with Team Asteroid I didn’t know anything besides my father’s vision. It was drilled in my head since birth that it was my purpose to fulfill his vision. I never experienced other viewpoints or what a free life was like.”, Aichi replied, walking up to Olivier.

“That freedom leads to conflict and suffering. Only through the watchful guidance of Team Asteroid can the world reach peace. If there’s no differing ideas there’s no conflict and...no one else has to die in war.”, Olivier replied, looking over at the manner during the last part.

“Olivier...life without freedom is...hell. I know that more than anyone. I suffer the most whenever Team Asteroid tries to control me. Sure freedom can lead to bad things and horrible things. People can be very cruel with free reign to do what they want. But...people can also be very kind to and do things that help people. If people are controlled they can’t evolve or innovate. I may not be fighting Team Asteroid for Arceus, but I believe in the world it created. I believe in the people of this world. Even if they aren’t perfect I know everyone is capable of doing good.”, Aichi replied.

“The world Arceus created is broken. If life was truly created in its image. It is just as flawed as it’s creations. Living in a region like Kakusa has made you naive. The conflict in Kakusa was merely a childish scuffle compared to the conflict with the other regions.”, Olivier replied with a glare.

“Fuck you! You don’t know what we’ve been through! You weren’t there! How could you possibly know!”, Kamui loudly interjected and Misaki didn’t stop him glaring at Olivier herself.

“You’re not the only one who’s suffered.”, Misaki said angrily.

“Then let’s test how strong your will is Aichi! We’ll battle with one Pokémon of the same type.”, Olivier declared pointing at Aichi.

“Why would he impose a weird condition like that?”, Kamui wondered.

“It’s what we call an honor battle. The two trainers in one fight with a Pokémon of the same type, an even playing field. It’s usually to determine who’s way better at raising Pokémon.”, Kamui jumped as Neve walked in.

“Who’s way is better huh? It’s a battle of ideals.”, Misaki said.

“Exactly.”, Neve replied.

“Oh oh! A battle that should be entertaining!”, Rati said.

“What the?! Are you guys ninjas?!”, Kamui questioned.

“We’re trained soldiers or course we know basics like stealth.”, Raul said, causing Kamui to jump and growl at him.

“Which type?”, Aichi questioned.

“Dragon type.”, Olivier declared.

“Alright! I won’t back down! I’ll show you how serious I am! Go, Soul Saver!”, Aichi called out throwing out Soul Saver.

“Haxorus! Haxorus! Haxorus! Haxorus! Haxorus! Haxorus! (I won’t let you get away with making mama angry!)”, Soul Saver roared angrily after she came out feeling the same strong emotions as her trainer through the link.

“Go Prominence Core!”, Olivier called out.

“Garchomp! Garchomp! Garchomp! (I won’t lose to some pet dragon!)”, Prominence Core roared at Soul Saver challengingly.

“Get em bro!”, Kamui cheered.

“This is so childish.”, Misaki sighed.

“I can see they really care about each other but they're both too hard headed to concede to the other. They both think they’re right and know what’s best for each other.”, Misaki thought.

“Soul Saver, let’s go! Use scale shot!”, Aichi ordered.

Soul Saver shot scales at Prominence Core.

“Prominence Core use dragon rush!”, Olivier ordered.

Prominence Core charged at Soul Saver its fins cutting through the scales. Soul Saver narrowly dodged Prominence Core and glared.

“Soul Saver use iron tail!”, Aichi ordered.

Soul Saver dug it’s tusks deep into Prominence Core before it could evade. She slammed her tail hard onto Prominence Core’s rough scales. Prominence Core quickly collected itself slashing at Soul Saver’s tusks with its fin.

“Prominence Core use flamethrower!”, Olivier ordered.

“Soul Saver!”, Aichi called out as Soul Saver’s top half was engulfed with blue flames.

“Heh, is this fight already done. 003v really has become soft in the Kakusa region. After all a Haxorus isn’t even an optimal choice for a dragon type.”, Raul commented.

“Don’t…”, Aichi said as his voice became deeper.

“Haxorus!!! Haxorus!!! (Count me out yet!!!)”, Soul Saver roared.

Prominence Core staggered back as its flame started to be overwhelmed by another blue flame. Through the flame Soul Saver’s eyes glowed menacingly.

“Prominence Core don’t back down!”, Olivier ordered.

“What a miscalculation. His Garchomp really should evade.”, Raul said.

“It’s about his pride. He can’t run away.”, Neve replied.

Prominence Core stood its ground, its fire clashing with Soul Saver’s own. Soul Saver’s glowing eyes showed that she was now using outrage.

“Why can’t you see...”, Olivier thought.

“That you’re wrong!”, Aichi thought.

“I don’t want to be your enemy.”, they both thought.

The area around started to shake and parts of it started to melt from the heated clash. Good thing they were away from civilians here.

“Seems 003v’s Haxorus is very powerful Raul.”, Rati said.

“It’s due to its exposure to 003v’s power as an egg. It’s made his Haxorus unnaturally powerful compared to most of its species. It’s like the enhancement 002f and 004a use but permanent.”, Raul explained.

“That’s amazing can the other Psyqualia user’s do that as well?”, Neve asked.

“I won’t answer it here with enemies nearby.”, Raul replied and Neve nodded.

Rati casually held a box of donuts and munched on one.

“Want one?”, she asked Misaki who sweat dropped.

They weren’t sure how long they had sat there but considering the stubbornness of the two they knew it was long very long. The others had even come there worried something bad had happened. They also sweat dropped as Aichi continued to battle even with his stomach growling like an angry Salamence. The two Pokémon sweated as they were running out of energy. The two ended up collapsing making the battle a draw.

“Want a donut, 003v?”, Rati asked.

“Thank you!”, Aichi hastily thanked before devouring the donut in a few bites.

“You idiot you should have ate before. You should know how much your Psyqualia drains your energy.”, Olivier scolded Aichi, sounding like a worried parent.

Soul Saver smelled the donuts and buckets of drool leaked from her mouth. She jumped up ignoring her tiredness skipping over to Rati.

“Haxorus? (Can I have one too?)”, Soul Saver asked, with her tail wagging like a puppy.

“Aww! Your Haxorus is so cute! You can have one too.”, Rati said, holding out the donut like a dog treat and Soul Saver gulped down the donut in one go,

“Why are you guys taking food from them? It could be drugged or something?” , Honda questioned.

“Rati wouldn’t do that.”, Aichi replied almost instantly sounding strangely sure.

Olivier’s eyes widened looking over to Aichi.

“Does he?”, Olivier thought.

“Why are you so sure of that we met for the first time today?”, Rati asked.

“Really? That’s strange...I feel like we have.”, Aichi questioned, blinking a bit with a look of confusion.

“Now, that I think of it I only spent a few of my early years with Olivier yet I feel like I’ve known him for a lot longer.”, Aichi thought.

“Strange…”, Yugi trailed off as Anzu looked over to him.

“Why does the image of the five of them together feel so familiar?”, Yugi thought.

Suddenly he had a very strange flash. Aichi had the Quatre Knights by his side and a Haxorus. He wore a black general-like cloak. The attire seemed rather out of character for Aichi he knew especially the sinister smirk he had on his face.

“So you’re the other messiah of this era?”, 003v questioned.

To be continued…

Yeah I’m that evil to give you that cliffhanger. Sorry for the lack of updates I have had a hard time writing. Wow, this chapter felt a lot longer than it actually was to me.

[mischiefandspirits]

Doppelgänger (3/?)

Previously on Doppelgänger ~ Masterlist ~ Next time on Doppelgänger

Danny, Sam, and Tucker were just 14 when they took a look inside the portal Danny’s parents had built. From there, everything changed. They woke up with white hair, green skin, and powers they could learn to control. They were hybrids, halfas.

They were the hero Doppelgänger.

{Prisoners of Love, Part 2}

Doppelgänger only realized the van they’d been tossed into had been moving when it stopped. They looked up as the doors opened.

“Out,” one of the cops growled.

They awkwardly got to their feet, their three minds all trying to control their body. They tried to shuffle to the doors and promptly fell out of the van.

Danny started apologizing, Sam started cursing, and Tucker started laughing.

A sound came from their mouth that sounded more like television static than words.

“Get up,” the cop growled.

The static got louder and they shakily got their arms and legs under them. It took a few moments, but they eventually got to their feet. They looked up and froze.

In the prison yard next to where the van was parked were Skulker, Technus, Desiree, and quite a few other random ghosts they’d fought over the past few months.

The ghosts had been watching the van and they all took on smirks or scowls when they saw Doppelgänger.

“Well, if it isn’t one of the young whelps who helped us get locked up in this stinking place!” Skulker said, crossing his arms and giving them a vicious grin. “Welcome home.”

The static grew to a screech before finally forming words. “We’re in trouble. Do you think shankings still happen in ghost prison?”

One of the police ghosts -- guards? -- grabbed their arm and dragged them into the prison. He shoved them into a small room where a pair of striped prison clothes waited. “Get changed,” he said as their bonds disconnected from each other, keeping their powers bound but allowing for freedom of movement. “You’ve got a meeting with the warden, then you can go see your friends in the cafeteria.”

“Friends,” they growled as he shut the door to the room with a smirk. “I’ll show him friends.” They moved to grab the clothes, then jerked back violently. They collapsed to the floor. “We can’t take off the hazmat suit. We’ll get in trouble if we don’t put the clothes on though.” After a moment’s deliberation, they struggled to their feet and grabbed the pants. They haphazardly began to put them on over the suit.

“Can you believe he thought we were just duplicates? Well, it makes sense. We do look exactly alike as long as we’re wearing our goggles. Remember how freaked out Skulker was when he realized we were a trinity. And how many ghosts have actually seen all of us fighting together?” They paused, one arm in the prison shirt. “Skulker and Sidney know, but Sidney never talks to anyone but us and the chess club. Skulker obviously didn’t tell the fruit loop so he might not have told anyone else. The dragon, Technus, and Vlad have only ever seen one of us change and Technus thought we were one of us. The same goes for Boxy and Desiree, but for each of the other ones of us. Holy crow, does everyone just think we’re one ghost going around kicking butt and duplicating now and then? That’s hilarious!”

They finished buttoning up the shirt and their bonds disappeared.

Energy blasted out of them, scorching the walls and leaving flickering fires surrounding them.

They collapsed as they forced the energy down, shaking. They spewed static as they tried to get their energy under control without the bonds to inhibit it. They tried to figure out why the ghost prison would allow them their powers, then they felt it. There was something in the prison clothes trying to inhibit their powers, emphasis on trying. The clothes were obviously only designed with one ghost in mind. They could feel the power of the clothes wrapping around Sam, then Tucker, then Danny, then Sam. Always trying to lash them down, but only managing one at a time.

The energy of the others was spilling out, trying to fit into the too-small space their body made.

They were about to separate, but then Sam got an idea. The boys hesitated and went over the idea. Slowly, they perked up with excitement and all three pulled themselves in, shrinking their power as much as they could without transforming. Even still, white-blue-purple light flickered at their waist and energy buzzed across their skin, hidden mostly by the prison clothes.

Danny and Tucker allowed their minds to go blank, allowing Sam to take control of them. She quickly put out as much of the flames as she could and placed herself in front of the door so that the guard couldn’t see much of the room when he came back.

Thankfully it worked and he didn’t say a word as he led her through the halls to an office, where he chained her to a chair.

“Doppelgänger, is it?” the white ghost from before said as he marched in and the guard left.

“That’s us,” Sam chirped.

He glared at her and opened his green book. “Trespassing, loitering, creating a disturbance, and possession of real-world contraband.”

She opened her mouth to comment, then her eyes widened as a gift box floated past. “The gift! Mr. -”

The warden grabbed her by her shirt. “Walker, son. Kn-”

“Not a boy,” she said.

“Don’t interrupt me, girl.”

“Not a girl either.”

Walker threw her back onto the chair and she barely stopped it from toppling over.

“You better learn quick that your jokes won’t earn you any favors here.”

“It wasn’t a joke,” she muttered.

“I am your judge, executioner, jury, executioner, jailer, and, if necessary, your executioner.”

She stared blankly at him. “You said executioner three times and we’re ghosts. If you’re going for scare tactics, then we should point out we kind of already did the death thing so executioners aren’t exactly scary.”

Walker smacked her across the face with enough force to knock over the chair.

“Son of a bi-iscuit,” she growled into the floor, barely keeping a hold on the three’s power as Danny and Tucker swirled back into consciousness. “We’re feeding him to Audrey II. No, she’s got better taste than that. True.”

“Seeing how this is your first offense, I was willing to be lenient. Now though… five thousand years!”

“Ok boomer,” they snorted.

He scowled and waved at the door. “Get it out of my sight!”

“Wow, we’re an it now. Just call us they you coward,” they said as a guard came to unchain them. “Did we have to antagonize him that much? No, but it was fun. Yeah, that’s fair. We're insane.”

The guard dragged them up and out of the office. A few halls over they were shoved into a cafeteria. “Chow time! Move it out!”

“Huh, so ghosts do eat,” they said as they stared around the too familiar settings. “It’s kind of like school.” Their eyes landed on the table where Skulker, Technus, Desiree, and Boxy were sitting. “Wow, heh, pretty much everyone who hates us all at one table. It’s exactly like school.”

As they tried to get themselves back into some semblance of order, they watched Skulker stand up and march up to them. The others stood, but stayed behind to watch.

“Hey, Skulky, question before we do this: Does everyone really think we’re just one ghost duplicating?”

Skulker cracked his metallic knuckles. “As far as I’m aware.”

“Wild.”

He stopped in front of them, towering over them as other ghosts began to gather around. In a low voice, he asked, “So which one are you then: the hunter, the geek, or the girl?”

Doppelgänger gave a smile that was all fangs for Sam, crossed their arms and tilted their head mockingly for Danny, and laughed in Skulker’s face for Tucker. “Yes.”

Skulker gave a confused frown, then his eyes widened and he backed away.

Their grin grew and they tapped at the tight rubber band-like feeling that had been growing in them since they’d been forced together. It snapped and the prison clothes were disintegrated as they split apart in an explosion of energy that knocked down every ghost in the room.

The trio instantly went to work. Tucker and Sam fired plasma blasts at the guards near the doors and on the catwalks while Danny opened his Space Fold, allowing six of Audrey II’s bathtub-sized heads to emerge. He set her upon the guards, then he and Tucker turned their attention to their fellow prisoners.

The lot looked caught between horror and excitement.

“Are you all going to try to fight us or are we getting out of here?” the trio asked. Danny raised a hand to shield them from a guard’s blast and Tucker took control of all the guard’s batons, forcing them to stop working.

“The enemy of my enemy is my friend, for now,” Skulker said, eyeing the flytrap head that had just scooped up two guards and began dissolving them in the acid dripping from their lobes.

“No, don’t eat them, Twoey. They’re bad. They’ll give you a stomach ache. We’ll feed you when we get home,” the trio said, Danny turning to wag his finger at the plant.

The flytrap spat them out then started grabbing and tossing the guards around instead.

“You feed your plant ghosts?” Desiree asked, looking ill.

“No, we feed her ectoplasm. She’s still learning the difference between pure ectoplasm and inhabited ectoplasm though,” they said and Sam scratched one of the plant’s lobes. “Now are we going to get out of here?”

The prisoner ghosts nodded quickly and started rioting.

“We should probably send Twoey back before she accidentally eats one of them,” they said quietly and Danny flew over to lure the stalks back into the fold. “We’ll go for the gift while we lead these guys out of the prison. Alright, meet up on the other side.”

Sam flew out of the cafeteria and transformed. Humming, she made her way through the halls until she reached Walker’s office. She slipped through the door to see the warden yelling into a microphone.

“Guards, what’s going on down there? Somebody answer me!”

She rolled her eyes and walked over to the present.

“You? What are you doing here? Who are you?” Walker growled as she grabbed it out of the air.

She set it on her hip and turned to the warden. “I’m Doppelgänger, duh.”

He snarled and tried to grab her, only to pass right through.

She ignored him as she grabbed Tucker’s phone off his desk.

“Why can’t I touch you?” he asked as he kept trying for her.

“I’m a halfa, moron. Half-ghost, half-human. And humans are the intangible ones here.” She gave him a wink and walked through the wall.

She kept going until she passed through the outer wall, then paused. “Now where are my boys at?”

“Have fun?”

She smiled and turned to Tucker and Danny. “I got your parent’s present and ticked off a prison warden. Today was a great day.” She passed Danny the box, then handed Tucker his phone before transforming to join them in the air.

“My baby,” they said as Tucker nuzzled the phone. “Don’t make us say that! Come one, let’s head home.” They paused. “Do we know how we know how to get back to the portal? Maybe because we died there? Or formed there? How about we not think about that and just head home? Yeah, alright, it’s interesting though. Interesting as in morbid? Yes.”

They laughed and flew off.

{My Brother's Keeper}

Sam checked her watch and frowned. Danny? What’s taking you so long? Did a ghost show up?

Yeah, but that’s not the problem. The thing got away and left me in the smoking remains of the new guidance counselor's office. Lancer and Jazz found me and now they’re making me talk to her. Apparently, Jazz convinced him it would do me some good to talk to her because I’ve been “pulling away from everyone except his partners” and she’s worried we’ll become “overly dependant.”

Yikes, sorry, dude, Tucker said.

If she only knew, Sam snorted. Want us to bring you some lunch?

Yes, please. I don’t know how long she’s going to keep me here.

On our way.

The two stood up and Tucker grabbed their lunches while Sam went to grab some for Danny.

“You know, Jazz might have a point,” Tucker said as they headed to the office.

“Seriously?”

“I mean, when was the last time we did anything apart?” Tucker pointed out. “I know I haven’t hung out with the computer club since the new school year started.”

Sam frowned and tried to think of the last time she’d been to a poetry night. “Oh.”

“Yeah. And how much do you want to bet Danny’s been skipping out on time at the observatory?”

“Okay, yeah,” Sam sighed. “Maybe we should schedule more personal time.”

“Before we really do become a hive mind,” Tucker chuckled, only half-joking.

“We wo-” Sam cut off as heat flooded her cheeks. She looked to Tucker to see him staring down at his arms. “Hair standing up?”

He nodded.

They stuffed their lunches into an empty locker and transformed.

Sam pointed at the counselor's office.

“Think the ghost came back? Wouldn’t one of us have noticed? Even if we did, we wouldn’t be able to do anything with the counselor there.”

The two shrugged and turned invisible.

When they stuck their heads through the wall, they saw Danny sitting in a chair looking miserable while a perky redhead came up to him.

“I'm not saying you're a loser, Danny,” she said, stepping behind him. “I think you're a great kid!”

She grabbed his shoulders and their eyes widened when they saw a flicker of green energy passing from Danny to her.

“Then why do I feel so miserable?” their partner asked, slouching down.

The two snarled and Sam blasted her away from him.

“Woah!” Danny said, jumping up as they landed in the room.

Tucker immediately placed himself between the redhead and Danny while Sam had a nearby potted fern grab the ghost.

“What are you doing, uh, ghosts?” Danny said, backing away.

“Get somewhere safe,” they said. “She’s not what she appears.”

Danny nodded and ran out the door.

Suddenly a blob ghost tackled Tucker. “I thought you said it was the Fenton kid, Spectra,” it hissed.

“I thought it was!” she growled, phasing through the plant.

“Stay away,” the two snarled as Sam ripped the blob off Tucker. She punched it and sent it crashing into Spectra.

It helped the redhead back up, then turned to them with a furious glare. It transformed itself into the shape of a bee, only to be sucked up by the thermos.

The two looked up to see Danny poking halfway through the ceiling, waving.

“No,” Spectra shouted and black clouds formed around her. They rose to cover her, then dispersed, leaving her as a literal shadow of herself.

Unimpressed, the three blasted her before Danny sucked her into the thermos as well.

He gave it a hard shake as he dropped down next to his partners and they all transformed.

“That’s what you get for trying to mess with my head.” He gave it another shake then put the thermos in his Space Fold.

“Feel better?” Sam asked.

“Much.” He pressed into her side and she wrapped an arm around him.

“Good, now let’s get out of here before we get blamed for this,” Tucker said, gesturing to the upended plant and cracked wall.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jazz fidgeted slightly as she made her way down the hall. She really should leave this to the professional and let Danny work through things without her intervention, but she couldn’t help but want to check on him. Her brother had been closing himself off from the world and that wasn’t healthy. His partners were no better, but she didn’t have any authority to help them. Hopefully, when they saw how much Danny benefited from it, they’d consider getting help too.

She turned the corner and then ducked back around when she saw Danny come running out of Ms. Spectra’s office. She peeked out to see Danny looking around then he held his arms up. Her eyes widened as she saw him transform into a green creature in a flash of white rings.

“What was that?” she whispered as he floated up and pulled a Fenton Thermos out of nowhere before diving upwards. She ran up to the office and looked through the window to see two people that looked just like the… whatever Danny had turned into facing off against a green blob and Ms. Spectra. The blob suddenly turned into a giant bee, only to get sucked into a thermos held by a third green creature -- Danny? Wait, he used the thermos! Does that mean they're ghosts? Ghosts are real! -- that emerged from the ceiling.

Then all three took down Ms. Spectra -- Who was also a ghost? Maybe? She turned into a shadow! -- before they all transformed. Danny from the one with the thermos using white rings like before. The one next to him turned into Sam using purple rings. The last turned into Tucker using blue rings.

Are they all ghosts? Why did they look exactly alike? Is this why they’re always hiding away together?

“Feel better?”

“Much.”

“Good, now let’s get out of here before we get blamed for this.”

Jazz eye’s widened and she ducked down and ran for the corner. She slipped around it just as she heard the door open. She looked back to see the three come out of the office, Danny still tucked against Sam’s side while arm-in-arm with Tucker.

He smiled up at them and kissed them both on the cheek. “Thanks for the save back there.”

“Of course, dude.”

“You’re our partner, we’re always going to take care of you.”

Jazz smiled and left the three.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“What?”

“Nothing,” Jazz said quickly, turning her gaze back to her food.

Her eyes slid back to her brother.

“Ugh! What?”

“Nothing!” She shouldn’t say anything, should she? He’d get defensive. But a little push couldn’t hurt, right? “Uh, so, uh, Danny, I know I've been kind of hard on you lately, but you know I think you're great, right?”

He looked surprised before ducking his head. “I-I guess. I mean, I thought so, but I’ve been hearing things.”

“Then you've heard wrong,” she said, grabbing his shoulder and squeezing it. Well, he certainly feels solid. Human. And he’s breathing so-No, focus. “Look, I know you think I'm pushy and I'm a know-it-all. I know you think I can be a jerk sometimes…” she trailed off as he saw the dorky smile on his face. “You know, you can stop me at any time.”

“I know.”

She sighed and let go of him. “All I'm saying is I'm your sister and I care about you. And even though you don't think I'll understand, you can talk to me about anything.”

He bit his lip and looked away. After a moment, he glanced at her, “I -”

An explosion sounded in the family room. They ran to the door to see the couch was smoking and their dad was holding up some new device while their mom watched on.

“I'm just saying, if we can find that ghost at Jazz's school, we can peel that ghost like an onion!” their dad said.

“Well we can't completely vaporize it,” their mom reasoned. “Don't you want to at least examine the remains?”

Danny’s shoulders hunched up and he went back to the table. “I don't feel like talking about it.”

“Yeah, I'd imagine not,” she said, holding back a glare. Why did her parents’ obsession with ghosts always have to ruin things? She followed him back to the table and kissed him on the head.

He squirmed away with a glare, but she ignored him as she went back to her meal.

“I… Jazz?”

“Yeah?” she said, head popping up. Maybe her parents hadn’t messed things up after all.

“Sam, Tuck, and I were talking and… Maybe, maybe, you were right about us spending too much time together so… Would you want to go to the observatory tomorrow?”

She blinked, then smiled. “Sure, little brother.”

Not exactly what she’d been hoping for, but it was a step in the right direction. He could tell her when he's ready.

[blackhakumen]

Mini Fanfic #483: Pirate Case Blues (Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney)

2:35 p.m. at a Burger Joint......

Apollo: (Looks Down on his Food in a Sad and Disappointed Expression) ............

Ema: ('Sigh') Alright, Justice. Tell us what's wrong.

Apollo: (Looks up to Ema and the rest of his Friends) What makes you think something's wrong with me to begin with?

Klavier: (Frowns at Apollo a bit Worryingly) Well, for starters, you haven't touched your meal yet.

Wocky: And you look like you actually want to knock someone out. Not that I don't think you could, but.....

Apollo: ('Sigh') Well, you guys aren't completely wrong in that assumption....

Ema: So something DID happened to you earlier today, huh?

Apollo: Yeah.....Long story short, Mr. Wright and Athena, the new recruit in the agency, went to a pirate show in Shipshape Aquarium called "Swashbuckler Spectacular" for investigation. Meanwhile, I was ordered to stay behind and do chore work around the entire office.....

Wocky: For real, man?

Apollo: Yep. I did it all..... Vacuumed the entire room's floor, wiped all of the windows, finished the rest of Mr. Wright's Mountain Top of paperworks, planted Charlie every five minutes.....

Klavier: (Raised an Eyebrow in Confusion) Mr. Wright has a plant.....Named Charlie?

Apollo: Yeah..... Apparently it's the agency's mascot. But out of all the chores I did.....The worst one by far is.....('Sighs Heavily') Bathroom cleaning...........

Ema: (Eyes Widened in a bit of Surprised) You had to clean a Wright's bathroom?

Apollo: Worst.....I had to clean his toilet.....

Wocky: (Almost Choke on his Food) Dead-Ass?!!!

Apollo: Yeah......(Immediately Starts Shuddering in Disgusted) And trust me when I say that it wasn't the only time I had to clean it......

Klavier: I don't follow....Why would Mr. Wright would entrusted you to clean his toilet?

Apollo: That's what I wanted to know!! I've been asking him, non-stop, on why he wants me to do so and everytime, he would always find some way to dodge the question entirely and leave me to do his literal dirty work! And today, really wasn't even an expectation!

Ema: Okay. So if that's the case, does it mean you're upset at Athena too for going to the investigation instead of you?

Apollo: Not all all. In fact, I'm happy she's able to do another investigation today. Athena's been doing a really great job as a lawyer lately and it would be criminal of me to be mad at her for something she didn't even do. I'm more upset with Mr. Wright if anything.... And it's not just because he left me behind to do his chores.

Klavier: It isn't?

Apollo: No. It's.....(Took a Deep Breath before Speaking Again) Sometimes I feel like...... Maybe I'm just.....not good enough to work alongside him.....Even after everything I did to clear his name and get his old job back, I can't help.... but to feel less worthy than I already was.

Klavier: (Starts to Looks Up Once He Saw a Very Familiar Face Standing Behind Apollo) Uh....Herr Forehead?

Apollo: Like my hard work, determination, and even the progress I made so far..... Doesn't matter anymore....At least not to Mr. Wright.....

Ema: Apollo.....

Apollo: And, sure, maybe I am being too negative about this.....And even to myself. I mean.....I did came along way-

Wocky: Hey yo, Justice!!

Apollo: W-What?! What is it?

Ema: Think it's time for you to turn around?

Apollo: (Slowly Starts to Turns Around) Why would you guys want me to-Ah! (Jumps a Little in Fright once He Sees the Person Behind him was None Other Than Trucy Wright) Uhh... Heyyyyyy, Trucy. How's it going?

Trucy: (Frowns Sadly Towards Apollo in Silence) .....................

Apollo: I-I-I was just.....(Chuckles Very Awkwardly While Rubbing Back of his Head Back and Forth) Eating lunch with a group of friends and everything. You know, the same ol', same ol'. Nothing too special, of course.

Klavier: You know.....(Immediately Starts to Get Up From his Seat) I uhh... almost completely forgot that....I have somewhere very important to be right now.

Ema: (Got up From her Seat as Well) Y-Yeah....Me too. E-Even Wocky here has somewhere he needs to go too.

Wocky: (Got up from his Seat Too) I do?

Ema: (Bumps Wocky's Shoulder with Hers)

Wocky: I-I mean, yeah! Yeah.('Heh') I uh....Gotta get back to my pops now. He uhh.... needs something.

Klavier: If you two could kindly excuse us........

Ema: We'll be on our way now.

Wocky: See ya! (Immediately Speed Walk Away from the Table with Klavier and Ema Follow Pursuit)

Apollo: (Watch his Three Friends Sprint Away Before Turning Back to Trucy While Chuckling Awkwardly Again) Busy people, am I right?

Trucy: Polly.

Apollo: ('Sighs in Defeat') I can't keep do this anymore........ I'm really sorry about this, Trucy.

Trucy: Polly.......

Apollo: I-It really wasn't my intention to be a huge downer today or anything. I really appreciate everything your dad done for me last year. I really do!

Trucy: Pollyyyy.......

Apollo: Hell.....I wouldn't be who I am now if it wasn't for you and dad helping me be the best lawyer I can be and-

Trucy: Apollo! (Gently Grab Both of Apollo's Hands and Squeeze Them) Calm down. You're gonna get yourself a headache if you keep this up.

Apollo: You're right. (Takes a Few Deep Breath to Calm Himself Down)

Trucy: That's it. In and out. Just like that...... You're ready to talk now?

Apollo: (Took One More Deep Breath Before Speaking Again) Yeah......Sorry about that.

Trucy: Don't worry, Polly. It's fine. (Giggles a Little) I'm guessing daddy's chores gotten you pretty stressed out earlier, huh?

Apollo: For the most part..........

Trucy: You know, I can totally get where you're coming from all of this. Dealing with daddy's nonsense and whatnot.

Apollo: Seriously?

Trucy: (Happily Nodded) Yep. Though, it's mostly when I was younger. ('Sigh') I remember those days...... Making daddy's breakfast, do some chores around the office, making sure he doesn't get late from a part-time job he used have. Yeah.....I did it all already.....

Apollo: (Chuckles Lightly) You make it sound pretty easy.

Trucy: Trust me, Polly. It was anything BUT easy. Probably because it was me and him at the time.

Apollo: (Immediately Frowns Again) Oh.......Trucy, I-

Trucy: (Place a Finger on top of Apollo's Nose) Upupup! Don't even think about doing it, Apollo.

Apollo: (Very Confused) Doing what exactly?

Trucy: Feeling sorry for us. Sure, daddy and I have been through a lot these past years and everything, but we were always did whatever we can to make it through together, no matter what.

Apollo: (Smiles a Little) That's great, Trucy. Really.

Trucy: Thanks. But I think we're getting way off track here, don'tcha think?

Apollo: ('Sighs in Defeat') Yeah.....

Trucy: (Sighs a Little While Gently Placing her Hand Back on to Apollo's) Listen, I know daddy can be a real handful at times, work or not, but I promise you he means well.

Apollo: I know a-and I believe it too. I just...... Don't wanna feel like I'm slowing you guys down, you know?

Trucy: ('Gasps') Apollo Justice! How could you think something like that?! You're not slowing us down at all! You've made the both of us very proud, even now!

Apollo: You..... Really mean that?

Trucy: Of course I do. I knew should've told you all of this earlier but....A few days ago after you went back home, daddy told me how proud you made him lately and how happy and thankful he was to have you in our agency. He even told me he wants to adopt you one day.....

Apollo: Wait. What?!

Trucy: Okay. Maybe that last one was was exaggerated....But he DID told me you were almost like the son he never had!

Apollo: (Eyes Widened in a bit of a Shock) You're serious?!

Trucy: (Rapidly Nodded) You've changed his life for the better the moment you agreed to joined our agency that day. You were even able to get his job as a lawyer back and everything! That alone is worthy of his thanks and gratitude. Which you clearly deserved, by the way.

Apollo: (Couldn't Believe What He's Hearing Right Now) Wow......I..... honestly had no idea he felt that way about me.....

Trucy: Well, it's the honest truth. He might not show it all the time, but trust me when I say that you really do mean the world to him, Polly. Just as much as you mean to me.

Apollo: Trucy, I......(Slowly But Surely Begins Smiles Sincerely) Can't thank you enough.

Trucy: (Smiles Softly) Hey. There's no need to thank me......Just yet!

Apollo: Huh?

Trucy: (Giggles Softly) Polly, would you like to watch a pirate movie with me back at the office?

Apollo: You actually got yourself a pirate movie?

Trucy: (Smiles Brightly) Yep! It might not be as real as an actual pirate show, but it definitely has a lot more action in comparison.

Apollo: Sweet. You don't mind if I invited Ema and the others to come over and watch it with us, do you?

Trucy: The more the merrier! (Makes her way to Apollo Side of the Seat and Hugs Him) Anything that makes you better again is good enough for me.

Apollo: (Smiles Softly while Ruffling the top of Trucy's Hair) Have I ever tell you how much of a great little sister you are to me lately?

Trucy: (Giggles Softly) Not really. Buuuuuuut I'll be very happy if you keep telling me that a lot more often.

Apollo: (Chuckles Lightly) I'll see what I can do, sis. I love you.

Trucy: I love you too, Polly. (Gives Apollo a Big Kiss on the Cheek) So much.

@cyber-wildcat

@apollo-justice-for-all

@keyenuta

@miki-13

@albion-93

@ma-lemons

[homesweetsewer]

Consolation Prize: Part 2 (Donatello x Fem Reader)

Hello! Finally got around to posting Part 2 (yay!). I’m thinking this is going to have 2 more parts to it...my muse willing. I also wanted to say that I’m horrible about checking my inbox so if you’ve sent me a message, I promise I’m not ignoring you. I’m slowly sorting through what’s in there and you are not forgotten. Gonna go ahead and link the rest of this little series since quit a few people told me it helps them navigate and I’m all about being user friendly!

Harmless: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

Radiant: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Consolation Prize: Part 1

“I think that should do it for tonight.” Donatello pushed away from the workbench and stood from his chair to stretch his long legs. “We’ll need to test the final compound and work on creating an efficient delivery system, of course, but it should neutralize both the acid and base properties rendering the chemicals useless.” 

“And prevent the contamination of the city’s water supply.” A smile stretched April’s lips as she beamed up at him. “Don, you’re a genius.” 

“That’s the rumor,” the ninja joked as he rolled his shoulders, relieving the kink in his neck from being bent over for so long.  

April laughed and stood as well, stretching her slender body in an attempt to relieve her own aches and pains. She looked up at the turtle from beneath long eyelashes. “Seriously, Donnie, I really appreciate you taking the time to help me with this. I know you probably have a million other things you could be doing instead.” 

“I’m happy to help. Besides,” Donatello shrugged, “that’s what friends are for, right?” 

“Right,” April’s smile took on a sad edge. “I’m glad we’re able to do this,” she softly stated. “You know...after everything.” 

“Yeah,” the bespectacled turtle quietly answered, a soft smile of his own gracing his lips. “Me, too.” 

April didn’t need to elaborate. They hadn’t really talked about it, but Don knew exactly what she was referring to. He wouldn’t lie. He’d been hurt badly when he’d learned months ago of the woman’s relationship with Casey. At the time, he’d believed himself to be in love with her, hanging on her every word and action as if her very presence gave him life. The crush he’d had on the woman felt so silly now...embarrassing, really. Looking back, he could see that what had transpired between them, despite being a painful lesson, had actually been a blessing in disguise. If it weren’t for his heartbreak, he would have never found the amazing gift that had been staring him right in the face the entire time. 

You. 

He had a girlfriend...an incredible, beautiful, funny, intelligent girlfriend that he loved more than anything else in the world. Sometimes he felt like kicking himself for not realizing what you meant to him sooner, but then you’d smile at him or take his hand in your own and his heart would feel like it would want to explode right out of his chest and he’d forget about everything else except for you in that moment. The two of you just seemed to click so perfectly together, moving from friends to something more with surprising ease. You were able to see beyond the green skin and shell, down deep to who he really was and you loved him regardless. Him! How on Earth had he ever gotten so fortunate? His smile grew at the thought. 

“You seem really happy,” the woman observed. “Things must be going well?” 

“Things are great. I am really happy,” Donnie quickly confirmed. He gushed, a giggle escaping from his throat, “She’s...she’s amazing. Sometimes it’s still hard for me to believe it. She could have literally anyone she wants, but she still chose me for some reason.” 

April made an amused sound. “She’s a smart girl. She knows a good man when she sees him.” 

“Heh...” Donnie shook his head and looked away, embarrassed. “Uh...what about you and Casey?” 

“You know.” April smirked and gave a half shrug. “Casey is Casey.” 

“Ah,” Donatello wasn’t sure exactly how to respond and so merely nodded. To be honest, it was still a bit of a sore spot where his pride was concerned and he was glad she hadn’t gone into detail.  

April sighed and stepped toward the turtle. Without warning, she wrapped her arms around him, ensconcing him in an embrace to the best of her ability with her cheek pressed against his plastron. “You’re a great guy, Donatello, I mean that. I’m happy for you...both of you. You deserve it. You all do.” 

“Um,” the ninja stiffened slightly and patted her on the back awkwardly. Now that his feelings towards her had changed, it felt weird being so close to her. “Thanks, April. That means a lot coming from you.” 

April lingered for a moment longer before pulling away and looking up at him with an almost melancholy expression. “Well...I guess I should probably get out of your way. Thanks again, Donnie. Enjoy the rest of your night.” 

“You’re welcome,” Donatello replied softly as he watched the woman turn and slowly make her way out of the lab. “You, too.” 

He stood there for a long moment after she left, a low hum emanating from deep in his chest as he turned the interaction over in his mind. He was glad that he and April were still able to work and spend time together as friends after all that had transpired. He’d been hurt and angry at her for a while, yes, but those feelings had faded once he’d had a real opportunity to sit down with himself and examine them. He still cared for her, but the giddy feeling of butterflies he’d once had whenever she was around had been replaced with a warm feeling of friendship, which he was thankful for. He could think clearly in her presence now and truly appreciate all she’d done to help his family. April was good people. She had a place in his heart, but it wasn’t exactly what he thought it would be. That space had been perfectly filled by another and he couldn’t have been more at peace with it. 

He was a logical turtle. He put more stock in science than he did fate or destiny, but he couldn’t help feeling that everything had worked out as it was meant to. He’d been entirely truthful when he’d said he was really happy. He couldn’t imagine anything more satisfying or fulfilling than being in a romantic relationship with his best friend. You’d both decided to take things slow and he was perfectly okay with that. He’d never been in a relationship before, he was a turtle after all, and he appreciated the time to feel things out and get them just right. This was previously uncharted territory for him, for the both or you, really, but he couldn’t think of anyone he’d rather explore it with. He had plans, so many things that he wanted to do and experience, and he wanted to do those things with you, if you’d allow it. 

Speaking of which... 

Donnie’s eyes drifted toward the clock mounted on the wall and his eyes immediately widened behind his tortoise shell frames. An undignified squeak escaped from his throat as he bolted for the door. “Oh, no…no, no, no…”

The ninja burst out of his lab to find the lair more or less deserted. The lights were dim and the television silent. Muffled snores emanating from the couch reached his ears. He crept forward to peek over the back to see Mikey shell up, sleeping peacefully with his face buried in the cushions. Moving silently so as not to disturb his youngest brother, he crept toward the kitchen to find his older brother carefully rearranging the fridge in order to accommodate the evening’s leftovers.

Don cleared his throat, “Raph?” 

“He lives,” Raph responded gruffly as he rose to his full height and turned to look at his brother. He inclined his head to the cardboard box he still held in his hands. “We saved ya some pizza.”

“I’m not…” Donnie shook his head. “I’m not hungry.”

“Suit yourself,” Raph shrugged and shoved the box into the space he’d cleared in the refrigerator. “Its there if ya change your mind.” 

“Where, uh,” Donnie stuttered. “Where is everyone?”

“Where do ya think they are?” Raphael scoffed and slammed the refrigerator door and moved to shoulder his way passed his brother and out of the kitchen. “Its after 2 AM, genius.”

Donnie hurried after him. “I know, but…”  

“If you’re askin’ about your girl,” Raph guessed, “she left over an hour ago. Leo was feelin’ all chivalrous and walked her home for ya. Ya know, since ya stood her up and all.”

“What?” Donatello squawked in indignation. “I didn’t stand her up!”

“Yeah?” Raph turned to look at his brother, one brow raised. “What do ya call it then? This ain’t the first time you’ve flaked out on her. You didn’t see her face after she sat here all night waitin’ on your sorry shell to remember she was here.”

“I-I was working,” the purple masked ninja defended. “I lost track of time!” Then, he added forlornly, “she didn’t even say goodbye…”

Raph looked pointedly at the other turtle. “Said she didn’t think you and April wanted to be bothered.”

“Bothered?” Donatello looked helplessly at his older brother. “Why would she even think that? She’s never a bother!”

“That’s not the impression she got. Look,” Raph shook his head and turned to continue his trek through the lair, “ya got a good thing goin’ here, Don. Ya don’t think any one of us would give our right arm to be in your shell? Ya got a great girl and she thinks the world of ya. I hate to see ya screw that up.” 

“Wait,” a look of alarm settled over Donnie’s features. “You think I’m screwing things up?”

Instead of answering his brother’s panicked question, he stopped at the couch and balled his fist, knocking on Michelangelo’s shell. “Get up, Mikey,” he ordered. “Go get in bed.”

“Mmmkay…” the youngest turtle roused slowly, allowing his much larger brother to practically lift him from his reclined position by the rim of  his shell and set him on his feet. Bleary eyed, he moved almost zombie like in the direction Raph propelled him in with a careful shove. “G’night, bros…”

“Raph!” Donatello demanded, “what do you mean I’m screwing things up?”

Raphael sighed and held his hands up in a defensive manner. “All I’m sayin’, is that it ain’t a good look.”

Exasperated, Donnie demanded, “What does that even mean?”

“It means,” Raph started, “that all the movies and books I’ve ever seen have taught me that girls don’t like it when ya repeatedly blow ‘em off to go hang out with your ex.”

“My ex?” Donatello looked confused for a moment before what his brother was getting at dawned on him. “You mean April? April isn’t my ex anything,” the tall terrapin insisted. “We were never together! Nothing ever happened! She knows that!”

“Not for lack of tryin’,” Raph pointed out. “Do ya remember how twisted up ya got when ya thought she was ghostin’ ya?”

Donnie swallowed hard, nodding. “Yeah…”

“Now imagine,” Raph painted the picture, “that instead of sittin’ at home alone, worrin’ about ya, she was holed up somewhere with some guy she never stopped talkin’ about and fawnin’ over to your face. How would that make ya feel?”

Donatello felt like someone had punched him in the gut as what his brother was getting at hit him full force. “But,” the purple banded ninja shook his head, “she knows April and I are just friends. I’d never do anything to betray her trust like that. She’s not just my girlfriend…she’s my best friend. I love her. She knows that.”

Raph eyed the other turtle skeptically. “Does she?”

“Yeah…” Donnie answered hesitantly, now feeling unsure under his brother’s heavy gaze. “I-I think so…”

“Ya think so?” Raphael shook his head. “Ya better make damn sure that ya know so. A girl like that…she’s got options and they ain’t limited to mutant freaks. She doesn’t have to be slummin’ it down here in the sewers with your scaly ass.”

“Seriously?” If Donatello wasn’t panicked before, he was now. He could feel the color drain from his face and his heart begin a furious gallop in his chest at the thought of losing you. “You think she’ll leave me?” 

Raph shrugged, obviously done with the entire conversation.

Fear gripping him, Donnie asked, “what do you think I should do?” 

“I’m a turtle, not an advice columnist,” Raphael deadpanned as he moved off toward the room he and Mikey shared. He called back over his shoulder, “you’re the brainiac, you figure it out. I’m goin’ to bed.”

Donatello was left standing alone in the middle of the darkened lair, his eyes glassy with unshed tears and his heart breaking over the thought of losing you. His brilliant mind whirred at a million thoughts a minute, all swirling around how foolish he’d been lately when it came to you. Now that he thought about it, all the signs were there. He’d done it again. He’d taken you for granted. He’d let himself get sucked into another project, with April of all people, and hadn’t really considered how you’d feel about it. Relationships were so new to him that, honestly, it hadn’t even crossed his mind that you’d be upset. 

He berated himself. How stupid was he? Of course you’d be upset! He knew he would be if the roles were reversed. He couldn’t lose you. He wouldn’t let that happen. You meant everything to him. You had to know how much he loved you. He’d make sure of it. 

He checked the time and sighed. It was late. Too late to call you now or slip out and go to your apartment. He didn’t want to disturb you should you be sleeping. He’d already done enough damage for one evening and didn’t want to make things worse. 

“I’ll call her first thing in the morning,” he promised himself. “I can fix this. I know I can. It’ll be fine.” 

At least, he hoped it would be.

[themanicgalaxy]

SPN 2X21 All Hell Breaks Loose Part 1

Yes, I did make a Series of Terrible Irresponsible decisions to watch this episode tonight.

No this won’t be a problem

Who needs a good memory it’s Useless I have the Notes app

OH HELL YEAH ROCK AMV IS B A C K BABYYYY

oooo nice liminal space for an opening, and with the fun rock music

dammit let’s hope we find AVA I forgot about her

and so did the show oop

ohohHO the RADIO! THE SPOOPY RADIO

It’s a Good Day to justify my fear of spooky diners at night

oh my god that guy is FUCKING DEAD

Everyone’s just in a pool of their own blood

sidenote, boy is that uncomfortable, 0/10 do not reccomend

oho, Sam wakes up alone in an abandoned town? spooky town?

and they’ve fucked with the color grading just enough/given him a very white shirt so he always stands in Stark Contrast yes we love that

Also worth noting the town looks Just A Smidge old time-y I’m sure that’s gonna be important later

ANDY!!!

“frontier land” HAHAHAH

Aw Andy wants to Vibe with Dean that’s adorable

AVA!! FINALLY!

They have to uncomfortably tell her that her fiancé’s dead afh;ouaf

Andy is just Awkwardly Quietly freaking out I love him

San Diego and Afghanistan? Ah the Date is important

it’s like a Grunge version of the Avengers, which I do appreciate

Sam being Protagonist Boi to stop the arguing actually works this time around

BOBBY!!!

ASH IS BACK! AND HE’S GOT VAGUE OMINOUS WORDS OF WARNING

DFAIHSAP SAM HAS TO FUCKING SELL THIS ON HIS OWN THAT’S GREAT

No OF COURSE it’s not gonna work, demon war is a vERY HARD SELL

THE CREEPY GIRL WITH THE I WILL NOT KILL REPEATED ON THE CHALKBOARD HIDSPFAP

“I’m still working through ‘demons are real’” I love Andy

also well, at least we got proof

Sam the Nerd figures out where they are

jesus christ she killed her own girlfriend because of this noooo

...does this count as bury your gays because DAMN that started quick kripke what the fuck

I still don’t really understand why they don’t just leave, and figure it out later

SeRIOUSLY? THEY TORCHED THE ROADHOUSE??

OH C O M E ON

oh it killed Ash before he could say

ALONG WITH ONE OF THE ONLY INTERESTING PLACES IN THIS G O D D A M N SHOW

I mean Sam is right in the stick together, but like...shouldn’t they try to leave? say “fuck destiny” and move on?

Sam screaming a bit more loudly and Ava jumping is good, that’s very accurate he's very Tall and a Lot

Oh, they’re trapped by the ghosts that makes sense

“soldier up”...great I wonder what headspace this guy was trying to emulate

D. Hasselhoff that’s your fucking pseudonym what the fuck Dean

ah the spiritual vision

And Bobby(in contrast to the very cynical Dean) tries to call it

Instantly cracks jokes, yep that’s the Character Type

SUPERSTRENGTH!

“crazy’s relative” ok but the bond with the soldier is cool(yes the fact that he confides in the soldier is a Thing ok, it’s still nice to have fucking BONDS in this godforsaken show)

and Sam as a Leader is REALLY cool, please more of this

no I know we won’t get it let me delude myself

SAM IS ACTIVELY EMULATING DEAN AWWWW

heh Sam has to tell Ava her fiancé is dead that’s FUN isn’t it? Aren’t you HAVING FUN?

It’s Yellow-eyes! Appearing in a dream!

I do like his Barely Contained Power Jolly vibe. It’s cool

“only one of you will make it” AGH

Once you notice how Individualistic this shit is, none of it ever goes away

“Strong enough” feels like a thing about Bad Dads

WHY DO NONE OF YOU GO TO THERAPY AND WRITE TV SHOWS INSTEAD 

ah that’s why we had Jess in the last episode, for this episode to hit harder(and show the complacency ig?). Which....does work, actually

Ah the Demon blood

he just feeds that shit to kids huh

SHE KNEW HIM! Can we please get interesting Mary shit? please

I know damn well we won’t till WAY LATER and all of that is contested but STILL

oh NO AVAAA

DAMMIT AVA WHY DID YOU HAVE TO BE EVIL/POSSESSED 

And she plays it up

AH the five months unaccounted for

Yes, no trust, but whatever

the tear wipe is balling tho

is this gonna be a power corrupts thing? I feel like it is

alTHOUGH, I do like it’s her, and not a possessed version of her

the soldier just fucking killed her holy shit

ah Sam is the only Non Corruptible one, of COURSE

of course he doesn’t kill him

Stabbed in the back, ha isn’t that pointed

“it’s not even that bad” AWWWW

Motherfucker I saw a tik tok where you couldn’t talk about the family dynamic between Sam and Dean without...certain people coming in and ...yeah that’s a shame. There’s so much there and like...nah we can’t touch that shit agh

ok quick wrap up:

1. Once you notice the individualistic thing that Kripke is going for(trust nothing and no one, no bonds, everyone dies(and yes, while people that aren’t straight white men have a better shot, literally EVERYONE dies)), you literally can’t unnotice it, it is baked into this fucking show

2. And like. I saw these things where supernatural is a show to exist like...there is a lot here. Subtext and plaintext, there is a lot here. but the shit that is here is...not comfy, so people ignore it, call it a dumb show(which I’m guilty of too). But...that’s not true. it can’t be. We liked this show for a reason, and there’s also way more than we ever wanna admit in the show, both good and bad. And like...I clown this show a lot, but there is good, there has to be for it together as popular as it did.

ok part 2

[yuhimananimegurl]

Myutanto No Jikan

Part 2 of: Kiba Mukidashi No Kemono

Same rules apply. The words in Japanese are bold. This is Part 2 to my original story. Please go check that out if you have not seen it, this will make a lot more sense if you do :) I don’t really know if people will like my story, but hey whatever. Enjoy the story! Please don’t be afraid to send feedback :D And i’ll let you guys figure out some of the myths included, like for one Howaito Man is not a direct answer. ;)

Tsunoki was awaken quite rudely. “TSUNOKI GET UP FOR SCHOOL, OR ILL DRAG YOU!” Of course he knew his mother was joking around, but he also knew if he didn’t he would be in for a treat. As tired as he was, he somehow managed to get up, and get ready for school.

When he went downstairs he would be welcomed by a big, warm breakfast. Maybe fluffy pancakes with, fresh strawberries, and butter on top, with long lengths of maple syrup, fresh from the sickle tree’s in the forest, glazing down the pile. If only he knew how wrong he was. He went downstairs and on the table, was a bowl of cereal not even fully prepared. He poured the cereal, and then the milk, and ate as fast as he could. As he went outside and was greeted by Hina, who was grabbing Tetsu’s ear for teasing her about being 5′5. Of course he had to tease her! What other entertainment was there for a 6′0 teen? Nothing. Not in his book.

“Hey Tsu! Come on we’ll be- SHUT UP TETSU! We’ll be late!” Hina exclaimed. “STOP PULLING ON MY EAR HINA!” Tetsu shouted back. No use. All he got in return was a smack to the back of his head. “Coming!” He said as he started running towards his friends, visibly rolling his eyes in the process.

“Alright listen up nerds. We have an exam today. So Tetsu, stop running into classrooms screaming, that this is all just the matrix.” Hina calmly, with a tint of annoyance said. “No promises!” Tetsu confessed. Tsu laughed at his friends. wait... what? WAIT? WHAT?! They had an exam? Which one was it? He didn’t even get to study! “Which exam do we have today?” he said, trying to contain his worry. “Myths and Legends. Why?” He awkwardly chuckled. “No reason, no reason at all!” Tetsu saw right threw the lie, while Hina was completely oblivious. As Hina shrugged it off, Tetsu broke the silence. “ohhh~ i see! Tsu. Did you study last night?” Honestly, Tsunoki was not surprised his friend saw right threw him. But either way it was none the less embarrassing. “What? Of course I did!” If he had tried a little harder, it would have been believable. “Really? Then which myth took place during, Howaito Man?” Tetsu questioned his friend. “Oh my god. Don’t act like you actually know Tetsu. You’re too dumb for that.” Hina said in disappointment. “True that.” Tetsu confessed. “Um..Well you see.. It was.. Um..” “Wow Tsu, that’s like the easiest myth on the exam!” Hina exclaimed.

He was bound to get an F if he didn’t even know that.

So of course as his friends had thought, he had failed yet again another exam. It only came to him 20 minutes after Myths and Legends, which myth was in Howaito Man. “OH COME ON!” He shouted in the middle of Chemistry. “Hamazu! Stop screaming! Next time, it’s detention for you mister!” He looked around and chuckled slightly before getting back to working on making electricity.

His day wasn’t going very well, but to make it worse, there was a giant rumble, that made the floor shake gravely. Chunks of the ceiling were falling, and soon other teenagers. “Everyone, DO NOT PANIC. Get down underneath the desks now!” The teacher yelled. Everyone was screaming. There was so much blood. Many were either falling from above, dying from sharp plaster, impaling their bodies. Others were being crushed by the falling debris. Either way the stomach churning stench of blood filled the room. Tsunoki was paralyzed, hiding underneath his desk, slowly watching half of his peers die. He wanted to throw up, to cry. But he couldn’t. His body couldn’t. It wouldn’t let him.

As he finally found control of his body again, he found himself darting to find his friends.

As he reached Tetsumono’s classroom, he heard this blood curdling roar. No not roar, screech. The sound pierced his ears like a needle, causing tears to be brought to his eyes. Pushing away the urge to drop and the floor and cry, he opened the door, and found Tetsu hiding in a closet, balling his eyes out. “WHAT’S HAPPENING?! I DON”T WANNA DIE!” The look on his friends face killed him. “I don’t know! But we have to find Hina!” The look on Tetsumono’s face when he realized Hina has on a lower floor, was intense. “LETS GO! SHE’S ON THE 5TH FLOOR!” They sprinted down the stairs, knowing full well they could die in the process. By the time they were halfway down to the fifth floor, they heard the same terrifying scream from before. When i say they they sped up, i mean they started bolting.

They reached Hina’s classroom and the door flew open. What they saw on the other side, will scar them forever. A creature as big as the empire state building, with a half burned face, eyes out of its sockets, veins sticking out of their natural places, blood overflowing its face. “WHERE’S HINA?!” Tetsu screamed in concern, for he did not see his friend in the classroom.

“She went to the bathroom! She never came back!” One of her other friends screamed, tears running down her face.

They started running to the nearest girls bathroom on that floor, and sprinted in. “HINA?! HINA?! COME OUT! PLEASE ITS US!!” Tetsu sobbed. “GUYS?” A feminine voice screamed back. Hina! They thought. They smiled as their friend came running out of the stall. They had no time to waste. They had to hide from whatever that ‘thing’ was. Otherwise they wouldn’t live to see the end of it. Paying no attention to the the rotten smell of flesh, bones, and blood, they ran out of the school. When they saw the creature again, they ran as fast as they could in the opposite direction of this monster. They had found a store with a basement to hide in. They dropped and started crying incredibly hard. For the next few hours, they had to bear the horrifying screams of this, half dead creature. They couldn’t sleep even when it hit 3 in the morning.

For days they were scared to even try to exit the basement, in fear of dying. No matter how scared they were, they were starving, and parched. They had to find something, anything to eat and drink, otherwise they’d perish. So eventually on the third day, they finally talked after, living in silence ever since they made it. “Guys we need to eat.” Tsunoki spoke. “No thanks. I’d rather die of hunger than by that.. you know what i mean.” Hina shakily answered. “Hina, but would you really die, not knowing whether or not, you could have lived?” “Alright then. Lets all go. so that way if we die, we die together.” Tetsu offered. They all nodded to each other, and with the most caution they ever had they left the basement, and quickly scurried to gather as much food- well snacks- as they could. Hina grabbed some Honey Buns, Doritos, Water, Lemon Tea, Onion rings, the freshest Cold Cuts she could find, some bread, and Gatorade. While Tetsu, grabbed band-aids, Sleeping pills to sleep threw those screams that were still occurring frequently, some aspirin, sanitizer to keep from getting sick, and an asthma pump, as he desperately need it. And Tsunoki was gathering, all the electronics he could find, radios, cellphones, computers, headphones to try to prevent from hearing the screeching- He knew they would probably fail, but as long as it’s not as loud- and lastly, firecrackers, to scare away rodents.

They all headed back down to the basement and placed everything on an old dusty table they found in an old corner filled with cob webs.

To lighten the mood Hina broke the silence. “That’s disgusting, more disgusting than when my brother farts.” They all chuckled a bit before getting serious again. “What did you guys get? I got electronics so we could contact people. And not die of boredom. Heh” “Oh my god, thank you. If we even have wifi.” Tetsu thanked. “I got some food, its not much and mostly just snacks but I got some cold cuts and bread. There’s way more up there that i couldn’t get though... I wanted to get back down here ASAP.” Hina answered. “And I got some stuff for our health i guess, like i got some sleeping pills, and some band-aids, you know, that kind of stuff.” Tetsu followed after his friends.

After a couple of minutes they found some wifi, and set up the phones. Of course they had tried to call the police, but they didn’t pick up. They tried numerous times but failed miserably, so they decided to use the phones to watch tik tok. No one in japan really used tik tok, so the tik tok’s they watched were mostly made in America, or in general the United States. There were alot of tik tok’s on the creatures scream, but they hadn’t seen it.

They kept themselves entertained for the majority of it. And after a couple of days, they finally heard the scream again, but this time it was louder...

[speeding-fox]

Sorabon Vs. Porukabon: The Big Race! Enter Bolt Striker! [Part 1 of 2]

~~~~~~

Author's note:

This story takes place long before this story as well as both parts after it, and "~~~~" indicates a scene change, while ---- indicates the same scene from a different perspective.

~~~~~~

Synopsis: Sora and Polka decide to have a race to see who'll win (and claim bragging rights), and Polka and Dot's vehicle gets an upgrade. Some point during the race, Sora encounters a tough foe, and Polka realizes that some things are more important than victory.

~~~~~~

[At a park somewhere in Biida City.]

Wind gently blows as two kids, Sora and Polka, stare eachother down with narrowed eyes. The atmosphere around them seemed tense. 

"Did you really think you could defeat me, Porukabon?" Sora inquires as he glares Polka down.

"Heh, as small as you are, Sorabon, this will be a piece of cake, for me." Polka replied smugly while returning a glare.

"Your lame insult has no effect on me. When I take you down, I'll prove that size doesn't matter, and that cake will be mine!" Sora proclaims.

"Then bring it, Shorty!" Polka challenged.

The two then engage in an intense arm wrestling match over a tree stump as Tosukana, Dot, Tiiru, and Shian watched from afar. Tosukana facepalms. "There they go again." He groaned.

"After that fifteen minute Rock, Paper, Scissor's session, you'd think they'd let it go." Tiiru says.

"Porukabon is rather..."competitive."" Dot adds. "Once he gets challenged, he doesn't back down until the other side surrenders."

Tosukana sighs. "Sorabon is the same way, especially when he thinks someone's cheating, like earlier."

The three turn to Shian when they hear a bag crunching. "I don't know why you guys so annoyed." She grabs a handful of popcorn from the bag. "This is entertaining! Keep it up you two!" She raises the fist full of popcorn as she's cheering them on, some land on the ground, then stuffs her face with the stuff.

Tiiru furrows their brows at her. "Shianbon, don't encourage them!" They then stare at the bag of popcorn she's holding in bewilderment. "Where did you get that?" Shian looks down at the bag of popcorn in her hand, turns to her sibling to give them a shrug in response, then turns her gaze back to the two arm wrestlers and munches on more popcorn.

Sora sweats as he strains to pin Polka's arm as his arm was starting to lose strength, victory seemed to be within Polka's grasp, but there was no way Sora wanted to lose against the Rock, Paper, Cheater! Polka was ready to pin Sora's arm as he struggled to push back when he saw a beeron land on Polka's eyepatch, he got an idea. "Hey dude, a beeron just landed on your eyepatch."

Polka scoffs. "You're just saying that distract me from winning. I'm not falling for it!"

Dot chimes in. "Erm, Polka, he's not lying, there really is a beeron on your eyepatch."

Polka pauses as he was just about to pin Sora's arm, he hears a singular buzz, goes pale, and he lets go of Sora's arm and begins panicking. "AAAIIIIIEEEEEEEE! GET IT OFF GET IT OFF!!! AAAAAAAAA!!!" He screams like a girl as he runs about, trying to get the beeron off his face.

"P-Porukabon! The beeron will sting you if you don't stop panicking!" Dot tried to shout admist her brother's screaming.

Polka was too busy shrieking to hear his sister's shouts. He soon trips on a rock, and the beeron flies off his eyepatch as if nothing happened before he fell face-flat onto the ground with a thud.

Dot cupped her hands over her mouth(?) and let out an "Oh dear.", Tosukana and Tiiru grimaced and let out an "Ooooh...", while Shian busts out laughing, mostly from not hearing Polka scream like a girl before, until Tiiru elbows her arm to shut her up. "Ow!" She rubs her arm as she glares at her sibling. "Hey! You had to have found that display at least a little funnnn-" She drones on the "n" when she sees Touskana and Dot giving her looks. "-nnnnevermind."

It was quiet for about a second, until Sora holds a fist up victoriously. "Hah! I win!"

Polka lifts himself from the ground, spitting out some dirt and grass before shaking more off, then turns to Sora with a look of disbelief. "No you didn't! That doesn't count!"

"Yes it does!" Sora argued. "You forfeited!"

"That's because I didn't expect there to be a beeron flying onto my face!" Polka argued back as he got to his feet.

"That's what you get for being lame and cheating at Rock, Paper, Scissors!~" Sora sung smugly.

Polka went over to him and was almost right in his face. "I told you, I didn't cheat, you little punk!"

Sora got right into his face and poked his chest. "You totally did, you Cheaty McCheater Pants!"

"Don't you poke me!" Polka hissed.

The two were exchanging death glares and growling at eachother, it was apparent a brawl was about to break out. "Uh oh." Tosukana muttered. "They're going to fight if someone doesn't do something."

"FIGHT! FIGHT! FI-" Chanted Shian, until Tiiru once again elbows her. "OW!"

"Shianbon, what did I say about encouraging them?!" Scolded Tiiru. She simply grumbled as she rubs her arm, during their exchange, Dot wheels over to the two boys, then raises her hands up to gesture them to calm down.

"Now boys," She starts; hearing her cause them stop growling and glaring with eachother and turn to her. "there's no need to get physical. I'm sure you two can come up with a better resolution than resorting to fist fighting. How about talking it out to reach a compromise?"

"Or having a race with your vehicles!?" Shian butted in. Tosukana and Tiiru stare at her.

"No Shianbon. A having race is a bad-" Tosukana tried to tell her it was a bad idea, but he was cut off by Sora and Polka simultaneously yelling "That's a great idea!"

"Great..." Tosukana mumbled.

"Boys, I'm sure there is a better-" Dot tries to say, but she gets ignored.

"I'm so gonna win!" Proclaimed Polka.

Sora scoffs, crosses his arms, and closes his eyes. "Psh, as if, not with your lame little hovercar."

"Excuse me?!" Snapped Polka.

"Porukabon, my Sky-Soarer can fly at high speeds to out-fly a jet-plane." Sora opens his eyes and uncrosses his arms to point at Polka. "Your vehicle can only go as fast as a regular car can, but if you want to try and outrace me, I'd like to see you try."

Polka growls. "Grrr, fine then, Pipsqueak! Tomorrow after lunch, at Biida Canyon, we'll race to finally prove who the REAL winner is, and I WILL win!"

Sora chuckles. "We'll see about." He turns around to leave the park. "See you tomorrow, and you better not cheat! Laters!"

"Is it just me, or does Sorabon get obnoxious when he gets all cocky?" Tosukana asks as Sora leaves.

"He also gets obnoxious when he's "heroing," so no, it's not just you." Tiiru replies.

"Not as obnoxious as you can get, Tiirubon." Teased Shian.

Tiiru snaps back. "Hey! I am not obnoxious!"

Shian rolled her eyes. "Yeah, sure, whatever you say, sib."

Polka grumbles, and begins talking to himself. "Grr, Sora you brat! I hate to admit it, but he's right about the hovercar, it won't be able to out-fly Sky-Soarer with its max speed being the same as a car's," He pauses, then his eye slowly widen as a great idea dawns on him, while everyone else stares at him awkwardly as he monologues. "unleesss it gets an upgrade!" He glances to his sister. "Dottobon, come on! We're going to Triple G's Lab."

He sprints off with Dot trailing behind him, not expecting him to suddenly bolt. "Polka! Slow down! Oh dear..."

Tosukana turns to Shian and says sarcastically: "Thanks for your brilliant idea, Shian."

"Hey, no need to be all sarcastic, Tucker. There's going to be a race tomorrow! Aren't you at least a little excited?" Shian questioned Tosukana.

He simply stares at her, unamused, and clearly not excited. "Actually, no, I'm not."

Tiiru adds in: "Apparently they also forgot there was going to be a storm tomorrow."

Unbeknownst to the group, the Neo Devil Trio was watching everything unfold from the shadows of the bushes from afar. The three ducked down once the show was over. Dandylion shook their fists in excitement and squeals "Oooohhhh hhhhoooo! A race! That sounds so exciting!"

"It also sounds like something Lucy would be into." Hades remarks.

"Meh, I'll pass." Lucifer replies nonchalantly.

"Whaaat?! But Luuucyyyy," Dandylion whines. "I thought you liked racing!"

"You have a collection of toy cars to prove it." Hades added.

"Yeah, and?" Lucifer inquires as he raises a brow. "I rather not race against those brats, and besides, no point in racing if there isn't gonna be an award."

"There could be an award though. Every race has to have an award for the person whom finishes first." What Hades is saying has Lucifer's full attention. "Go on."

Hades continues. "That reward is usually a nice, shiny golden trophy while the second and third place get the mediocre silver and bronze trophies, and the winner also gets full bragging rights." 

"And we both know how much you like to flex on people.~" Dandylion chimed in.

It took a moment for Lucifer to think about it, before saying: "You're both right. If I win, not only will I get a trophy," He presses his fist on his hand and rubs it for emphasis. "I will get the satisfaction of rubbing in the brats' faces!" He glances to his sister. "Hades, do you have a plan?"

"You know I always do, but it might be a bit, shall I say, "cheatsy."" She answered.

Lucifer smirked. "Who said I wanted to win fairly?"

~~~~~~

[Inside Graybon Hakese's Lab.]

"An upgrade?" The eldery Biidaman questioned Polka as he twirls an end of his white mustache. "Of course, Porukabon, but why for?"

"Because Sorabon and I are having a race tomorrow, and I want this hovercar upgraded so it can outspeed his Sky-Soarer, as well as to prove to him I'm a winner and no cheater!" Polka shouts with a fire of determination in his eye.

Graybon grumbles. "Oh of course that rascal has you riled up again." He sighed. "Fine, I'll upgrade it for you, but I'm not working on it by myself."

"You got it, sir! Dot and I will be sure to help!" Dot turned to her twin upon being volunteered unwillingly. "You and me? Polka, are you sure about that?"

"Yeah!" Polka assured.

"I don't know, Polka, I'm not sure if I can-" Polka cuts her off before she could finish her sentence.

"Of course you can! C'mon Dotto, think about all the new stuff you could learn by helping me upgrade our hovercar hands on. You did say you wanted to try something big one day, and this is your chance!" Polka hoped saying this will encourage her to say yes.

"I rather have you and Sorabon talk it out, a race could be dangerous, especially considering it's going to storm tomorrow." Implored Dot.

Polka got down on his knees, holds his hands together, and looks at her with a pleading puppy dog eye. "Pleeeease Dottobon, pretty pleeeaaase help me make our hovercar go faster. Pleeeeeaase?" He begs in a somewhat squeaky voice.

A drop appears on the side of her head as she stares at her brother, unsure of what to think. Dot has never seen her brother pull this stunt on her before, but he is her brother, and it's not like she has much of a choice, their only mode of transport home was in the vehicle bay because of Polka's competitive brashness/need for victory. She thought about her twin's plea, then sighs. "Okay, I'll help. Getting to learn something new could help us in the future."

Polka sprang up and hugged his sister. "Oh thank you thank you thank you so much, Dottobon!" After thanking her, he pointed towards the supply closet and tool shed. "Now let's get started!" He starts making his way to the slide-open doors, but stops and turns to Graybon. "Oh, and Triple G, can you call down Aobon-san and Baiorettobon and ask if they could also help out? We need all hands on deck here!"

"Oh, ahm, of course." Assured Hakese.

"Thanks, Triple G! You're the best!" And with that, Polka makes a break for the supply closet and tool shed.

Graybon and Dot watch him run ahead, then Graybon turns to her. "Your brother sure is..."something," when he gets competitve, Dottobon."

Dot replies with: "Yes, yes he really is."

[Cue montage of the hovercar being worked on, from the planning, to the designing, to the inner workings, to updating the design, and Polka painting lightning bolts and strikes on his side of the hovercar (and polka dots on Dot's side at her request); everyone had breaks inbetween of course! With this montage, a few hours only seemed like a few seconds!] 

Once he was done painting, Polka let out a "Phew." as he wipes his head with a sweat rag and backs up along with everyone present to admire his and their hours of handiwork. The upgraded hovercar definitely looks a lot better, bigger, and especially looks faster. "Wow, this looks great!" Dot chirps. "Good job everyone!"

"Yeah, nice job everybody! Thank you! Now with this," Polka rubs his hands together. "now I'll surely be able to beat Sorabon in the race with this, er, with my half!"

~~~~~~

[The next day, sometime after lunch.]

A crowd had gathered around the large plateau. None of the kids (whom were stationed at a table with a tarp over them incase it rains, and dawned a headset and mic) had anticipated so many biidaman to come to spectate Sora and Polka's race. How did they all know that a race was taking place?

"Sheesh." Tosukana mutters as he glances around the large crowd. "I didn't expect a crowd to come and watch a race between just two kids."

"How could they all have known? They weren't around during Sorabon and Porukabon's argument, were they?" Dot wondered aloud as she glances around as well.

"Anyone that were around didn't seem interested." Tiiru noted as they spot Shiro talking to some biidaman. "Hey, Shirobon-san!" They call out, and once they caught his attention, they wave him over. "Over here!"

Shiro ambled over to the group. "Heya kiddos, you guys need anything?"

"Just a question answered. How and why are there so many biidaman here?" Asked Tiiru. "None of them were around when Sorabon and Porukabon fought."

"Oh, that's because I made flyers!" Shiro answered as he takes out a flyer that appeared from nothing and shows them. On the flyer in big bold red letters read 'A BIG RACE! SORABON VS. PORUKABON! COME TO BIIDA CANYON TO WATCH THE SHOW! NO PAYMENT REQUIRED!'. "Sorabon told me he and Porukabon were gonna have a race, and he asked me to make flyers and post then all around the city."

Tosukana groaned. "Of course he did..."

"He probably did that to get a bigger head." Tiiru remarks, and right after they say that, guess who happens to show up in his Sky-Soarer. "Speak of the devil..."

As Sora sets his vehicle into neutral, opens the hood of Sky-Soarer, and proclaims confidently: "The winner has arrived!"

"Oh geez..." Tosukana and Tiiru jeered hushedly to themselves.

"There you are, champ! Ready to race?" Shiro chirps.

"Heh, of course I am, Dad! Why would you even ask?" Answers Sora.

Shiro gives his son a wink. "Just askin' cuz I'm rooting for ya. By the way, it might storm here pretty soon, so I want you to be careful out there, sport, alright?"

Sora was staring ahead at the starting line. "Yeah, careful, sure." He takes Sky-Soarer out of neutral, and hovers it forward until it was a couple feet behind it. Tosukana muttered under his breath: "Something tells me he ignored the careful part."

"Shirobon-san." Dot called out, making Shiro turn around. 

"Yes, Dottobon- Oh..." He sheepishly rubs the back of his, seeing as she now has a disappointed look for him not supporting her brother. "Sorry Dottobon, Sorabon is my son, so I pretty much have to be supportive and cheer him on." 

"No Shirobon-san, I understand." "Weelll, not just that, I've also made a bet with your dad that Sorabon is gonna beat Porukabon." Shiro points afar at Kiiro, who's handing out hot dogs while chanting "HOT DOGS! COME GET YER HOT DOGS! THEY'RE ONLY 2 BUCKS! GIT'EM WHILE THEY'RE HOT!", then adds "IF YA THINK MUH SON, PORUKABON WILL WIN, I'LL THROW IN AN EXTRA HOT DOG FOR FREE!"

Dot sighed. "That's so like you two."

"But I do wish your brother luck, and don't worry, if anything goes wrong, I have Crys-Whiter parked nearby." Assured Shiro as he gestured to his mecha a fair distance away. "By the way, good job getting the roles of spokespeople you four, I'm sure you guys will do a great job. Now if you need me for anything else," He points behind him towards some food tents set up. "I'll be over by the food tents, I heard they're having a bake sale." The kids thank him and he goes towards the food tents like he said.

"Speaking of food..." Tiiru turns to Shian, who's been oddly quiet the whole time, to see she's surrounded by food she bought, and munching on some snacks with her feet propped up on the table. "Did you have to get so much?" She responds by shrugging, and continues eating. "I hope you're planning on sharing some of those."

"Hey, Dottobon." "Yes, Tucker?" "Where's your brother?" He asked her while looking all around. "With you here, he's usually nearby, but I don't see him."

Dot replies with: "He said something about making a "dramatic entrance."

Sora scoffs. "Or maybe he wussied out cuz he knows he can't outspeed Sky-Soarer."

A voice echoes from far behind him. "As if, Shortcake!" Everyone turns to see a hovercar fast approaching, not just any hovercar, but Polka's hovercar! 

"What on E-, WHAT?!" was all Sora could yell as Polka zoomed over, and stops perfectly at the same distance away from the starting line as Sora's Sky-Soarer. Once he parked in neutral, Polka opens his vehicle's hood, then turns to the awestruck Sora with a smug look, and the crowd is in awe at Polka's hovercar.

"Polka, what the heck is that?!" Sora yelled as he points at Polka's vehicle.

"Sorabon, meet Bolt-Striker! You were right about my hovercar just being a regular car, so with some help, I went and got it upgraded to make it bigger and go much faster, faster than your Sky-Soarer!" Polka claimed as he gestured to his vehicle.

Sora didn't anticipate Polka going out of his way to get his vehicle upgraded, let alone give it a cool new look, paint job, and name. "While I admit that it does look cool, there's no way it will outspeed Sky-Soarer!" Sora proclaims as he hops into his vehicle.

Shian looks to Dot. "I guess that explains why you updated "Yellow-Flighterbug," huh Dot?"

Dot lightly blushes. "Yeah." She says, softly.

"You did a great job! Both halves look awesome!" Shian exclaims.

Dot blushes more from her compliments. "A-Actually, Polka did the painting, including the spots on Yellow-Flighterbug on my request, and I only helped with the design." "So? You still did an awesome job!" "Th-Thank you, Shian."

While awaiting for the race to begin, Polka gazes down to something in his hand: a card with gilded rims, with the letters "B" and "C" both bold, and crimson in color, in the center surrounded by a yellowish-orange sphere shooting out bolts of lightning. When he first received it, he was initially stoked to finally get a card of his own, and customized nonetheless. He recalled what Graybon Hakese told him after he give him the card though. ["The card functions the same as Tiirubon's, Sorabon's, and Tosukana Akabon's Junior Rank Biida-Cop cards, however, I've encountered an issue with it not syncing up with your Bolt-Striker. I do not know what the issue may be, but perhaps you could find a way. Porukabon."]

"Perhaps I could find a way..." He mumbles to himself. His gaze turns to the oncoming storm, before his gaze gets fixed back to his card. "Hmmm..."

"Looking at your cheat sheet?" Sora quipped to Polka, and snapped him out of his focus.

Polka stores his card in a compartment before turning to Sora and shooting him a glare. "No, and it's not a cheat sheet!"

Sora raises a brow. "Uh huh, sure. There you go with lying again."

The two begin to argue. "I'm not LYING!" "You know, if you just admitted you cheated at Rock, Paper, Scissors, we wouldn't be having a race." "I told you. I. DID. NOT. CHEAT!" "Yes you did! I saw you change it at the last second!" "I DID NOT!"

As the two kids argued, the crowd talked amongst themselves with the new information they just heard. "This race is over a simple game of Rock, Paper, Scissors?" "How petty."

Shian was sitting back, watching the show as she munched on snacks, while Dot, Tosukana, and Tiiru awkwardly watched them verbally fight from the table. "To think we're friends with those two..." Tosukana whispered audibly.

Something in the far distance catches Dot's eye, and she thought to inform the others. "Guys, what's that?" She points to said object as it's closing in fast, prompting the others to look as well.

Turns out, the object was Lucifer and his vehicle. As he arrives, he settles himself between the arguing kids, stopping them from arguing further. "If you don't mind me interrupting your bickering, I'd like to participate in your race."

"Lucifer?!" Sora called out.

"That's me." Lucifer responded.

"The heck you doing here?! This race is against me and Sorabon only!" Barked Polka.

"The flyer didn't say anything about other not being allowed to join, did it? No." Lucifer nonchalantly digressed.

Sora quickly checks the flyer he just so happened to have to prove him wrong, but nowhere on the flyer did it say that others can't join. "Shoot! Forgot to tell dad to include that detail!" He tosses the flyer aside to glare at Lucifer.

 "You may be right, but you're still up to something." Polka states sternly, eye narrowed.

"Yeah. This is probably another one of you and your sibling's lame schemes. Speaking of which, where are they?" Sora looks around for the remaining two Neo Devil siblings.

Lucifer points out his siblings by the sidelines and corrects Sora. "They're right over there." Dandylion and Hades wave at their brother. "And actually, we're not up to anything for once. I'm just here to have fun and they're just there to cheer me on." On cue, the two Neo Devil siblings whistle and cheer on their brother.

Despite his insistance that he's only here to participate in the race, Sora and Polka knew better than to trust Lucifer's word, he and his siblings are always up to something whenever they're around, and he has no other reason to join other than to pull something, but at the moment, they can't prove it. They may not be on good terms right now, but they shared a look of knowing. "Just don't try anything shady." Polka finally muttered. Their attention turns to Tiiru as they blow a whistle and step near the starting line whilst holding a large checkered flag.

They raise the flag to point up at the large floating screen above, which showed a map of the route they're going to take around the Canyon. "Because Biida Canyon is so vast, there will be one lap. The path shown will be the route you're all taking to avoid getting lost, so avoid using shortcuts if you can, and no cheating!" They announced as they then use the flag to point at a floating camera. "There are these floating cameras spread throughout the Canyon to record your progress, so try to avoid ramming into them." The screen now shows a gold trophy. "First Biidaman to make it back here is the winner! Now racers, on your marks!"

The trio reach for their controls. "3!" Hands on their controls at the ready, they close their vehicles' hoods so they don't get wet incase it rains, then they look ahead. "2!" Sweat rolls down their heads as Tiiru gets ready to lower the flag. "1!" Their grips on their controls becomes firm as they prepare to floor it, and Tiiru waves the flag downward. "GO!"

None of the racers hesitated, and they all zoomed off, and because they were so close to the starting line, poor Tiiru ended up getting spun like a tornado for a bit before they stopped, all dizzy, eyes swirling, and wobbly. They dazily babble something unintelligible, then they collapse to the ground. "I'll just...laaaaay heeeere for a few miiinutes." Nobody notices the remaining two Devil siblings nod to eachother and sneak off once the three racers took off, and Dot and Tosukana were busy discussing who should check on Tiiru.

Shian pauses her snackfest to call out to them. "Yo, Ti! You aight, sib?"

They raise their hand up to hold up one digit, and they dazily reply "I was a "Tiinado." Heeheehee."

"Yup, they're gonna be fine." She told the two, then goes back to her snackfest.

Tosukana sighs and gets up from his chair. "I'll drag them back over here so they don't get wet when it rains." He goes over to them, and does exactly what he said he was going to do, shortly after he gets Tiiru and their flag back under the tarp, it begins raining; the biidaman that forgot to bring an umbrella take shelter in the tents. "Huh. I brought them back just in time."

"I hope Porukabon and Sorabon will be alright out there." Dot says out of concern as she stares into the direction the racers took off in as it poured.

"Don't worry, Dotto, I'm sure they'll fine. They can handle some rain." Shian assured her.

~~~~~~

The three racers fly through the canyon, all three are even in speed. Lucifer cuts in first, but is soon overtaken by Sora. The kid pulls down his eyelid and goes "Nah nah!" in a taunting manner, not noticing Polka pull ahead of him. When he does notice, he yells: "Hey! I was busy taunting Lucifer!"

"Should've been paying to what's ahead of you then, so you don't fall behind!" Polka quips before darting ahead.

Sora growls. "HEY!" He speeds after him.

Lucifer calls out to his siblings through his telecom. "The two brats are ahead of me. Are you two in position?"

"Positioned behind some walls obscuring anyone's view of us? Yes we are, brother." Hades replies back through the aircraft's telecom.

He chuckles. "Perfect."

~~~~~~

"Porukabon and Sorabon are head-to-head! The two make it to narrow ravine! Ohhh! They barely manage to squeeze outta there!" Shian exclaims through the speakers as she's standing on her chair. "Sorabon does an amazing barrel roll after going under that archway, and- ooooh! Holy crap! Porukabon grazes a stone and spins out, but he manages to recover and get back in the game! Sorabon's now in the lead and oh my bom this is getting INTENSE!" She stomps a foot onto the table as she scream "intense," startling the rest of the group, and almost spills their drinks.

"Shianbon, sit down! You almost spilled our drinks!" Tiiru loudly reprimands, and ushers her back into her seat, to which she is now pouting. Tiiru chuckles awkwardly. "Hehe, sorry about that, everyone. My sister can get very excitable during these events."

~~~~~~

Throughout most of the race, "bolts of lightning" would strike atop pillars of rock and cause an avalanche of debris to fall. These avalanches would slow down Sora and Polka and have them take a detour. One instance the two had to completely come to a halt so they couldn't get caught in the rockfall, and their slow down gets Lucifer to steal the lead. They blame the storm for the cause of these rockfalls as they speed after him, of the two of them though, only Sora was beginning to notice how "convenient" the "lightning" would strike as the two get close to their route, and Polka was too focused on taking the lead to take this into account. One particular rockfall occurs as they're about to catch up to Lucifer, and cuts them off from him. From behind the newly formed stone wall, they hear his taunt echo to them. "Later losers!" As well as hearing him take off.

Polka slams his fists down on the control panel and growls out of frustration. "Come ON!"

The duo get the same idea of flying over the tall craggy wall instead of taking a detour. Polka bolts on ahead after Lucifer once he flew over, Sora was about to do the same thing, but something dark sticking out of the side of a stone pillar caught his attention. "Huh? What's that?" He flies on over to get a better look to find it was the Devil sibling's aircraft, the two seem to be too busy gloating to notice him.

Dandylion laughs. "Ooohoohoohoooo! That slowed the two brats down good!"

"Indeed, the two will have a difficult time trying to catch up to him now." Hades bragged to her sibling.

"Shall we cause more avalanches?" Dandylion asks.

"Only if they somehow catch up to Lucy, but I doubt it with how long it took to get over that wall." Hades answered, then laughed.

It all clicked for Sora. He knew those rockfalls weren't caused by natural causes, they were all acts of sabotage! "I knew it!"

Hearing Sora yell suddenly startled the siblings and prompted them to turn around. "GAH! SORABON?!" Screamed Hades.

"I knew those rockfalls were all too convenient!" Sora shouts at them. "You were trying to cheat Lucifer into winning by sabotaging me and Porukabon!"

"No! We were simply watching him!" Hades lies.

Sora calls out her bluff. "I literally just heard you both talk about causing the avalanches! And watching him while trying to stay out of me and Polka's sight behind a bunch of stones is too suspicious!"

"Uuhhhh-." Beads of sweat appear on the sides of Hades's head as she tries to come up with a response, but couldn't think of one as Sora is now firing double shots at the sibling's aircraft.

Dandylion yelps as the ship gets hit. "Aah!" They thrust the control sticks forward. "F-Fly away!!" The ship flies forward speedily, and Sora and his Sky-Soarer are now in hot pursuit of the siblings, still firing at them as they chase them down.

~~~~~~

Lucifer listened to some rock music and was singing confidently about how he will win the race and have the privilege of rubbing his shiny new trophy in Sora's and Polka's faces. When he hears his telecom going off, he groans, turns off his music, and answers. "What's going on?" He asked, annoyed.

"The blue brat found us out!" Hades shouts through the telecom. "And he's chasing us down and firing at us! We need you back here to help us!"

Lucifer groans loudly. "Can't you two handle him on your own? I'm getting so close to winning here."

"We could if it wasn't pouring!" Hades yells. "Please get your butt over here, Lucy!"

Another loud groan from Lucifer. "Ugh, fine! I'll be over there asap!" He ends the call. "The things I do for the both of you, I swear."

Lucifer does a u-turn and bolts off into the other direction, zooming past Polka on his way to his sibling. Polka glances behind him. "Why the heck is he turning around?" That thought quickly dissipates onces he realizes he's in first. "Wait, if he's turning around, then that means I'm in first! Ha haa!" He laughs victoriously gazes foward. "Finish line, here I come!"

~~~~~~

The Devil siblings were chased into a dead end. Sora had them cornered, ready to fire at them once more. The two were in a panic.

"Oh dear! Oh dear! Dead end!" Dandylion shouted hurriedly.

"Nowhere to run now, Devil Dorks!" Sora yelled, charging up some shots that will send them blasting off again.

The siblings braced themselves for impact, but luckily for them, Lucifer arrives in time, and he rams into Sky-Soarer to knock it out of the way before it fired at his siblings again. Sora screamed as Sky-Soarer flew through the air until it crashed front-first into a pile of gravel. His eyes swirled as he groans. "The canyon is spinning..."

"Lucy, you saved us!" Dandylion cried out of relief.

"Yes, I did, but if I lose this race because of you guys, you both owe me." Lucifer stated firmly.

Sora shakes his head once he gets over his daze, then he checks for any damages, aside from a few scratches, and a mild dent on the left side, his plane is still functional. He gets it back up and flying in no-time, and flies back to face the siblings. "You jerk!" He bellows at Lucifer. "Not only was I right about you being up to no good and you not intending to win fairly, you dented my Sky-Soarer!"

"And I would've won by now if you didn't have a keen eye and meddled." Lucifer states. "Since you now know about our plan, I can't let you leave!"

A dark glow surrounds Lucifer, and shapes begin to form around his body, when the glow fades, he's now armored. The hood of his vehicle opens up, he jumps up, and shouts "TYRANTULA, HEADS ON!" as he backflips, spins in the air for a bit, then transforms into the head, and attaches to his transformed vehicle, now a robotic body. He poses menacingly once the transformation was complete.

He flies forward a bit to tower over the now intimidated Sora. Lucifer could easily just send him crashing down into the canyon, but that would more time than he wanted, he still wanted to win, so he came up with another idea. He glances to his siblings.

"You two have an idea of what I should scan?" He asks them confidently.

"Oh! Oh! How about scanning that pile of boulders over there?" Dandylion enthusiastically points over to said pile of boulders.

"Boulders?" Hades questioned.

"Yeah! Boulders are reaaally heavy and tough, aren't they?" Dandylion inquires.

"So you're saying if Lucifer makes a Biidaroid from scanning the boulders, said Biidaroid will be tough for the brat to defeat?" Hades, once again, questioned.

"Yup!" Dandylion chirped.

"Sounds like a great idea to me!" Lucifer affirmed as he swats Sky-Soarer out of the the way, and scans the boulder pile.

"WAAAAH!!! NOT AGAAAAIN!!!" Shrieked Sora as Sky-Soarer flipped uncontrollably. Luckily, he manages to regain control and recover right before he crashed again, not into a gravel pile, but onto a platfrom that was conveniently below him and his foes. He let out a sigh of relief. "Phew..."

That brief moment of relief lasted for merely a moment. A sudden boom, not from thunder, but from something crashing into the ground, causes him to jump out of his seat and let out a yelp. "YIKES!"

There was a cloud of dust, so Sora couldn't see what it was that landed, until the dust quickly clears because of the rain. Towering in front of was a Biidaroid made of stones and boulders. "HOLY FIDDLY-STICKS!" He screamed.

"Have fun with our friend, Rocky, kid!" Lucifer taunted before flying off, with his siblings close behind.

"Hey! Get back- WHA!" Sora tried to yell after him, but he had to dodge out of the way of Rocky's swing and fly some distance away behind the enemy. "Gah, I can't defeat it like this!" He glances down to Sky-Soarer's compartment, opens it up, and takes out his Junior Biida-Cop Card. "Time to ready up!"

He opens the hood, and back-flips out. "Junior Cop Sorabon, ready up!" He shouts as he holds up his now glowing card. He gets enveloped by gusts of wind, briefly turns into a glowing light-blue tornado, then bursts out, now dawning his armor!

He shouts "Sky-Soarer, HEADS ON!" as he does another backflip, spins in the air briefly, then transforms into a head for his soon-to-be mechanized body; Sky-Soarer shifts into a body for Sora, the two link up and became one! Lightning disperses behind him as Sora poses once the transformation complete!

The rocky foes turns around just in time to see Sora's completed transformation, and charging up his attack. "Alright, Rocky! Let's see if you can handle this! Double BiiDA SHOOT!" 

He fires two charged shots at the Biidaroid, and BAM! "Ha-haaa! Direct hit!" Sora pumps up his robotic fist, thinking he won, however, it was soon revealed that the enemy was completely unscathed from his attack. Sora was stunned!

"The-They didn't do anything?!" He stammered out. "But those were charged!"

It was now Rocky turn. It lifts and aims its heavy arm cannons at Sora, and shoots large stone projectiles at him. "WAH!" He manages to get out of the way of them before he got hit. Those giant rocks were now embedded in the wall Sora was just standing in front of moments ago.

"Oh man, this guy means business!" He stands tall. "But I can't back down from this fight now! I'll find some way to beat you!"

~~~~~~

[worldofbangtan]

Shylight pt 2

•Hybrid! Taehyung x Reader

Warning: none for right now

A/N: So I think I might post once every month as of right now :( I’ve been getting busier than I expected these two past months and I’m sorry for the late update :(( I tried to write when I had the chance my plans was to have this posted two weeks ago and then post another part this week but it didn’t turn out that way I’m so sorry everyone. However I’ll try to work on the next parts when I have time once again I’m so sorry everyone! Also I’m not sure why but Tumblr won’t let me post this chapter in full so I guess this is the first part of chapter two of that makes sense? Dont worry I have the second part of chapter two (that’s quite a long title) done I just needed to cut the chapter in half in order for it to post hhhh I might post the second part of pt 2 tomorrow I’m really tired right now since it’s late where I am thank you for having patience!

Taglist:

@baka-chanismyname @local-mochi @ssarcasticbbunny @stargazingmoonchild @reallysparklychaos @marveldcgirl2 @lilacbaby11 @lilliaflurr

To be tagged for the next part, feel free to comment down below :D

☾ ☾ ☾

It had been exactly four days since the tiger hybrid had arrived. He had been put in the exotic hybrid section. After all the domestic hybrids would probably be terrified of a tiger hybrid joining them suddenly.

Despite trying your best to convince your boss to let you into that area for once in your 3 years of working there, he denied you.

No matter how relaxed your boss was or no matter what reason like “pls I’m getting my medical degree specializing in hybrids very soon and I’ve been working here for 3 years I’m begging you”, you were still met with a cold hard no. You couldn’t exactly blame your boss especially since it was absolutely mandatory that no one without authorized access is permitted into the exotic section for the well being of both the hybrids and employee.

When it came to dealing with the hybrids, your boss took the utmost of caution and did thorough background checks on every single employee who’s job is to handle the hybrids. You had always admired that fact but right now it didn’t help you at all.

You couldn’t help the curiosity that bubbled within you whenever the door to the exotics section would open.

There were also rumors, lots of them.

Lately, they’ve mostly been centered around the tiger hybrid.

Most times you wouldn’t care for the gossip but you kept an ear out for anything on the tiger hybrid.

So far it wasn’t looking too good.

You’ve heard that tiger stayed in his corner at all times. Which really wasn’t good considering that the employees had to try harder to feed him. They tried to ask what the tiger would like but the tiger would stay silent. They just figured they should leave food at his room .

But apparently every time they left food of him, only a little was eaten.

The staff was starting to get stressed out. Hell even you were anxious for the tiger’s well-being.

Abruptly one of the employees,named Alana comes to your desk nearly on the verge of tears.

“I can’t work in there anymore.”

She slams down her card to the exotics room.

To say you were shocked would be an understatement. Alana had been one of the workers there that had been there for so long. She was incredibly patient and determined to make every hybrid feel better. Sure she was a perfectionist but she was one of the best at the shelter so it’s helpful atleast. Usually a hybrid would only take two days to open up to her.

After a minute you were the first one to speak.

“Wait what? Why?”

Her glassy eyes looked down to the floor for a second. Alana sucked in a breath.

Her voice came out shaky, “I just c-can’t do it anymore. That new hybrid is tearing me apart. I stay for hours every single damn day talking to him trying to get him to open up. But he says absolutely nothing.”

She bursted into tears.

“I can’t take it anymore, Y/N. I feel my pride breaking little by little just by being in there. I don’t wanna work with the exotics anymore.”

You felt extremely bad for the poor girl. She wasn’t used to an extreme hybrid case.

You stood and walked over to the other side of your desk to give her a hug. You stroked her hair and give her words of comfort like “it’ll be ok” or “you tried your best so it’s okay.”

It stayed this way until Alana finally calmed down.

She gave a watery smile and told you she was gonna come back in a few days.

And so she left.

And you didn’t know what to do again.

You stared at the exotics access card on your desk for a few moments until you got an idea.

You knew as a responsible secretary you should have deactivated the card until Alana came back. But..curiosity was itching within you.

You wanted to see for yourself how the toger hybrid was doing.

So you slipped the card into your pocket as you decided that you were gonna go into the exotics room for a little bit tonight.

☾ ☾ ☾

You felt the guilt rising already. You know you shouldn’t be in there.

It was just you at the shelter now. You had stayed later than everyone else even the boss.

Your boss was surprised that you stayed overtime. You passed it off by saying that you needed to finish up something. Your boss just nodded his head and cheekily said that you wouldn’t be paid for it.

You don’t mind though. You feel as if you were to have been paid then you would feel way more guilt than you do now.

You walk up to the door of the exotics room. With shaky fingers you scan the card into the slot.

It did a little ‘beep’ and opened.

You took a deep breath and went inside.

You thank your lucky stars that all lights were turned off meaning that almost all of the hybrids had been sleepy or fully asleep.

You took off your shoes to lessen the noise of your footsteps so you wouldn’t awake any hybrids by accident.

After walking around for a few minutes you realized that you had no clue as to where the tiger hybrid’s room was.

You feel like you’re getting nowhere as you sense that you passed a door a couple of times already.

Curse the identical doors

You huffed and continue on trying to find the tiger hybrid’s room.

What you didn’t expect was for the hybrid to find you first.

He stood right in front of his door. He was watching you curiously. His tail swayed from the left to the right.

He sniffed the air around him.

He looks different from last time. Well first of all there is no blood on him now.

And second, he looks anxious.

You awkwardly wave at him. You let out a nervous “hi”.

He looked down to his feet.

He meekly said “h-hi.”

He is so cute, you thought to yourself. You would have given him a hug but he looked like he was ready to bolt right into his room at any moment.

As you were lost in your thought, the tiger spoke again “I uh-..what’s your n-name?”

You were surprised you had to admit. You didn’t expect to speak again you were only expecting a ‘hi’ based from the rumors that you had heard.

Ah well you suppose you shouldn’t trust rumors.

“My name is Y/N. What’s your name?” You smiled at him.

He froze in his place and he sputtered. “M-my name is Kim Taehyung.”

Kim Taehyung huh?

Now you finally have name to match with the face.

“That’s a nice name you have there, Taehyung.”

His face lit up as a boxy smile made its way across his face. “Thank you!”

You felt as if you were blessed with the beauty of his smile. He looked so cute and squishy you didn’t know whether or not you deserved to see his smile.

You wish you could reach out to poke his cheek but you don’t because you don’t want Taehyung to think you’re weird five minutes into introducing one another.

You beamed right back at him. “No problem.”

“So..how do you like it here at the shelter?”

The tiger’s smile slowly dropped. As he fiddled with his hand he replied “Well it’s good I guess and everyone here is so nice to me. But I...” He seemed a little hesitant to go on and for a second you thought he was gonna leave at that.

But he doesn’t.

“I-i guess I’m not used to being in shelter.”

Your eyebrows furrow together as you form a question “What do you mean by that? Surely you’ve been to a shelter at least once.”

Taehyung looked a bit embarrassed as he looked down and blushed.

In a quiet voice he says, “nuh-uh”

You opened your mouth only to lose it again. You were confused.

“Have you been homeless all of your life then?? How didn’t you get caught?”

You really tried to stop the questions from coming out of your mouth, you really did. But you were just too curious for your own good so the questions start hurling out at the poor guy.

He seemed to get a little nervous by the questions as he fumbled with his clothes.

You quickly realizing your mistake added “I’m sorry you don’t have to answer.”

His shoulders seemed to relax.

“Uh thank you I don’t wanna talk about it”

You flash him a smile. “Nah I understand. It was my fault for making you uncomfortable. Don’t worry about it.”

“You’re very nice and p-pretty” Taehyung whispers to mainly to himself. But you caught onto it.

“Heh well I would hope so.”

He seemed a bit spooked as you replied to him. His cheeks flushed pink. “Sorry!”

You decided right there that you wanted to wrap him in a blanket and give him hugs and kisses because he was too cute you couldn’t handle it.

You lost yourself in thought until you heard a door open from the outside.

You and Taehyung both looked at each other in panick.

Taehyung acted fast and grabbed your wrist pulling you into his little room.

You have never been in the hybrids’ rooms before so you took the chance to look around. The room was small and it didn’t really have much color. It was white everywhere, from the walls to the floor. The only pieces of furniture there was the bed, the small closet and the rug.

Taehyung pulled you both once again to hide behind the closet. You were side by side and there was no space between you two. You felt your heart start to speed up the slightest bit as you waited with bated breathe.

[jammin-strawberry-jammin]

The Butterfly Effect-Prologue 1.5 ~Katsuki Bakugo x fem!reader

Previous Parts: Prologue

Next parts: Chapter 1 Chapter 2

Warning! ⚠️ Angst, Pregnancy, Lying, Jealousy, Vomit

You groaned into the toilet bowl as you threw up the contents of your stomach.

You guessed morning sickness was something you were going to have to get used to. You got ready to throw up again when you heard a voice calling for you.

“Hello? Is everything okay in here?”

It was Ochaco, your best friend. You glanced down at your self. You were still wearing your clothes from last night. You didn’t have the energy to change out of them last night. Last night. The mere thought nauseated you. You threw up again while thinking about how you were going to explain yourself to her.

“Oh there you are,” she said as she peaked into the bathroom. She saw what was going on and moved to sit beside you to hold back your hair.

“Hey what’s wrong? I got worried because you weren’t answering my texts or my calls. So, I used the key you gave me to come check up on you,” she said in a worried tone.

You wiped bile from the side of your mouth with the back of your hand. You looked down sadly before telling her how Katsuki broke up with you last night.

“Oh Sweetie! That’s horrible! I’m so sorry that happened to you,” she said while she hugged you.

You hugged back until you felt more bile rushing up in your throat. You quickly pushed her away. When you looked up from the toilet bowl, you saw Ochaco with a concerned expression on her face.

“Oh. Uh, last night after Katsuki.. you know.. I went to the bar down the street I guess I drank a little too much. I don’t even think I came home alone. God, what was I thinking?” Ochaco put her arm around you.

“Sweetie it wasn’t your fault,” she comforted you. You felt guilty, but you were relieved that she believed that lie you told. Lying wasn’t something you were all too familiar with. It sickened you. Even after he tossed you aside like trash, you were still protecting him.

Ochaco rubbed circles in your back before sending a quick text to who you assumed was Izuku and grabbing an empty trash can.

“Come on,” she said, “we’re going to have a lazy day together.”

She handed you the trash can and helped you to your feet. She lead you back to your bedroom and sat you on your bed. She grabbed a pair of comfy pajama pants and a large t-shirt. She left you to get dressed. You were a little paranoid that she would notice your stomach but you knew that it was still way too early to notice anything.

After you were dressed, you laid down on your left side to help with your nausea and Ochaco tucked you in. “I’m making us breakfast, eggs to help with your hangover,” she said with a smile before disappearing out of the room.

About ten minutes later, Ochaco returned with two plates of scrambled eggs and two glasses of water. She gave one of each to you and set hers down on your night stand. She then walked back out and came back in with your tv floating behind her. She plugged it in right in front of your bed and then climbed into the bed with you and her food. You both stayed there all day watching your favorite movies. You were thankful to have a best friend like Ochaco. You still felt bad for having to lie to her but you didn’t want to let your secret out just yet.

You decided to try to take your mind off of it by making some small talk with her. You started by asking her a few questions about the movies and what type of snack to get next. Eventually, the questions got bigger like how she was doing with Izuku and how was her hero work doing. Then you remembered why she came over in the first place and asked her about it. Ochaco became more nervous with each of the last three questions that you threw at her. But eventually she just came out with it.

“The reason I wanted to talk to you was because I kinda have to tell you something. But when I got over here, you told me what happened. Now, I’m not so sure it’s such a great idea,” she said while looking away so she wouldn’t meet your eyes. You laid a hand on her shoulder.

“Ochaco, you’re my best friend. You can tell me anything, always. No matter what’s going on in my life,” you told her, reassuring her. She was beating the bush and it was slightly irritating.

“Well, actually me and Izuku are doing really well, but I’m afraid that my hero work will have to be put on hold for a while,” she said while rubbing the back of her neck and hiding her face. You looked at her in confusion.

“Just tell me already!” You said exasperated. Ochaco sighed.

“I’m pregnant.”

Your mind went blank. Of all things, pregnancy was the last thing you would’ve expected from her and Izuku. But you quickly shook off your surprise in order to congratulate her. You pulled her in for a tight hug.

“Ochaco! This is great! I’m so happy for you!” Ochaco sighed in relief.

“I was nervous because I didn’t know how you’d react because of what happened to you. Heh heh,” she awkwardly chuckled. You looked at her.

“Ochaco you’re my bestfriend. You can always tell me anything. I don’t want to bring down your mood just because someone else decided to be a douchebag,” you said referring to Katsuki. She hugged you again.

“I’m so thankful to have you as my best friend,” Ochaco told you with a big smile on her face.

“I’m thankful for you too,” You told her as you returned her smile.

Over the next couple of months the two of you hung out even more. You guys basically lived together. Of course you eventually had tell her you were pregnant. You lied and said it had to be the nameless one night stand because you and Katsuki hadn’t done anything sexually in a long time, way before you broke up. But that didn’t really matter to Ochaco because she was just really excited to be pregnancy buddies with her best friend.

Poor Izuku had to deal with both of you being pregnant at the same time. Since you and Ochaco were together like all the time, he had to deal with double the mood swings, double the cravings, and etc. The worst part would be when you two would gang up on him. For instance, when Ochaco’s cravings would get really bad, Izuku would spew off some fact about not giving into the cravings and you both would just be done.

“Ochaco, you shouldn’t eat those chili peppers! You know how they give you heartburn!” Izuku worriedly chided. Ochaco rolled her eyes.

“Izuku, are you the one carrying that baby? No, I didn’t think so. You can’t tell her what she can and can’t eat,” you told him just as mad as Ochaco because Izuku started lecturing you about the things that you craved too.

“The baby gets what the baby wants,” Ochaco yelled while munching on raw chili peppers.

“You put this baby in me now suffer the consequences!” Izuku facepalmed.

Sometimes, this craving feud would get so bad that Izuku would hide all the things he deemed too dangerous for you two to eat. You and Ochaco would get so mad, that sometimes you both would lock your selves in the bedroom refusing to come out until he brought you two whatever strange concoctions you were craving. It was all fun and games until your water broke and you went into labor which of course put Ochaco under a lot of stress which then caused her to go into labor as well.

Over the next several hours you both had given birth to your newborns. You had given birth to a beautiful, healthy baby girl named Miyoko. Ochaco had given birth to a handsome and healthy baby boy named Hiroyuki. Miyoko had inherited soft spikes of ash blonde hair and your eyes. Hiroyuki on the other hand had curly chocolate brown hair and big green eyes. You had brought Miyoko to visit Ochaco, Izuku and Hiroyuki after you were feeling a bit better.

“We make some pretty cute kids, huh Y/N?”

“Yeah. They’re beautiful aren’t they?”

You looked up from adoring your newborn’s features to see Ochaco nodding in response. You couldn’t help but envy her and Izuku’s relationship. The room felt a bit colder as Katsuki’s absence became more noticed. This wasn’t how you had mentally planned any of this at all. Your thoughts were interrupted by Miyoko making a small squeal-like noise in your arms.

“Y/N... are you sure that Miyoko isn’t Kacchan’s baby?” Izuku asked hesitantly. Your head snapped up from tending to your baby.

“Yes I’m sure,” you answered sharply. Izuku shrunk back.

“I’m sorry! It’s just that the hair is so similar..” he squeaked out.

“What can I say? I have a type,” you covered up as you looked back down to gently rock Miyoko back to sleep.

Ochaco put her hand on Izuku’s shoulder and gave him a soft look. You looked back up at them.

“I’m sorry Izuku. I guess even after everything, I’m still not over him completely,” you talk softly.

“No, I’m sorry. I should have been more considerate,” Izuku apologized.

“It doesn’t matter anymore. What does matter is that we have two very cute babies who are definitely going to be best friends just like their mamas,” you said to the other new parents in the room.

Despite the confidence in your voice, you knew this was only the beginning of a very long journey.

~*~

Notes

Miyoko- a beautiful child

Hiroyuki- a lot of happiness

Hey guys! I’m back with the next part of the series :) just a little insight on what is going on before we get into the real story ! Don’t be afraid to tell me what you think! If you would like to be added to the tag list, just let me know!

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