#Chasin' the Bird | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sungbeam · 2 months

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BIRD HUNT — four

nonidol!choi line x f!reader

gotham city is a gutter running rampant with the ill, corrupt, and the insane. at times, justice and vengeance must be served by one's own hand... no matter the lengths one must go to do so.

▷ genre, au, etc. bat family au, dc comics inspired, dark, vigilantes au, slow burn, ceo/billionaire au, cat woman!reader, murder mystery au, action, suspense, angst, slow burn-ish?, love square??; choi line inspired by dick grayson (csb), jason todd (cyj), and tim drake (cbg), including bruce wayne for choi minho and damian wayne for nishimura riki, inspired by 2022's The Batman

▷ chapter warnings. swearing, mentions of death and murder, mentions of weaponry, depictions of violence, mentions of corruption, a funeral

▷ word count. 4.5k // taglist: open

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FILE_04 : death brings us together

gotham city.

[eight days since your mother was murdered.]

"Looking for this?"

Soobin's eyes took in the woman before him. You were dressed in all black, form-fitting clothing. Over the upper half of your face and head, you wore a black beanie with eye holes cut out and a cat ear silhouette on top. There was a thigh holster wrapped around your right thigh, and your hand was primed with a can of pepper spray. He had to give you props—simple, but effective. All the while, Beomgyu was still trying to hack out the chemicals from his mouth.

"That's why you wear full face coverings," Yeonjun coughed.

Beomgyu growled. "Shut up."

Soobin held up the thick folder in his hand, eyebrow lifted in your direction while pretending his brothers weren't making a fool of themselves as per usual. "So? Why're you snooping around here?"

"Did you shoot our Mr. Yang in the head?" Yeonjun chuckled, cocking his head to the side. "Bad, bad kitty."

Soobin caught the flash of panic in your eyes, but it was gone as quickly as it came. You felt familiar to him—your stature, the way you carried yourself. He couldn’t label why those aspects were familiar to him yet.

"Give me the file and I'll be on my way," you said. "No harm, no foul."

"All foul!" Beomgyu cleared his throat from behind you. He clutched at his throat, his tongue hanging out of his mouth like a dog. "You are so lucky I still have some morals left. That was rude!"

You rolled your eyes and cast a cursory glance over your shoulder. "Maybe you should carry pepper spray on you, too."

"I like her," Yeonjun said, completely unnecessarily.

Soobin shot him a look that said as much, and Yeonjun shrugged his shoulders as if he was helpless to his own running mouth. "Who are you?" He asked you.

"You first," you fired back.

"Ladies first," was Yeonjun's drawled reply.

Soobin massaged the space between his brows. "Okay, look. We really don't have the time to chit chat all night. So why don't we crack this file open right here—"

In the distance—no, that was right here. Right at this building. Car wheels squealed and engines roared, and Soobin looked to Yeonjun who had his body tipped out of the window and peered down at the street below. His hand reached for one of the pistols in his side holster with a groan. "You've gotta be shitting me."

"What? Who is it?"

Yeonjun grumbled an obscenity under his breath as he assessed the situation below on the street. "The Penguin."

Soobin shook his head. "Fuck this."

"Exactly."

"Ah, Bat Boys!" Trilled the obnoxious mockery of the Penguin's voice. Oswald Cobbletpot, better known by his moniker, the Penguin, was a well known mobster in Gotham, widely recognized as the owner of the Iceberg Lounge and in kahoots with some of the most dangerous and most powerful villains in Gotham. And one of the most annoying pests the vigilantes had ever had the displeasure of dealing with. What the hell was he doing here? "Are you finished chasing tail up there?"

"Chasin' tail—?" Both Yeonjun and Soobin's heads whipped around, but the space where you and Beomgyu had been was now empty. Instead, the office door out into the hallway had been busted open. There was only one way the two of you could have disappeared off to.

The two eldest brothers cursed their younger brother out. "Fuck this," they both groaned.

Beomgyu had just left them both high and dry to deal with the Penguin on their own while he could chase your tail… as if he had a chance of catching it in the first place.

Your heartbeat thundered loudly in your ears as you pressed your body up against the wall of the rafters. There was something so satisfying about hearing the Red Robin's noises of frustrations as he failed to find you in the labyrinth of wood scaffolding in the abandoned building. It was the old construction site of a skyscraper, but the project had been abandoned years ago, the project paused, and no one ever returned to finish it or buy it out. Wasted resources for them, but you had spent so much of your adolescence in this self-proclaimed jungle gym, discovering all of its kinks.

And when the Red Robin finally gave up on finding you on the fifth floor, you slipped out of your hiding place, back onto the shadowy streets. You skipped the well-lit places, quickly making your way across what felt like half the city, back to the Iceberg Lounge.

Part of you was grateful that the Penguin had shown up when he did, but the other half… you didn't know, really. Was it just a coincidence or had your father sent the Penguin out as a precaution? Was it worry or a lack of trust?

There was no real way to find out, you decided, as you were granted entry into the lounge. Because it was the ungodly hours of the morning, the nightclub was in full swing, and you squeezed your way past sweaty, crowded bodies. You had removed your mask while walking up to the door and tucked it into the back of your waistband. By the time you had made it to the elevator, your heart rate had slowed to a more regular speed—and then you remembered that you only had half of what your father had asked for.

He can suck it up, you thought to yourself, the elevator doors sliding open to reveal the entryway to your father’s penthouse suite, classical music floating in the air like an expensive perfume. There was a part of you, however, that worried there was actually something important tucked away in those files. Would you be led to your mother’s killer without it?

Well, there was only one way to find out.

Your father was seated in one of the armchairs with a book propped open in his lap. One leg was crossed over the other, and a glass of amber colored liquid sat on the coffee table next to the chair. He glanced up from his literature, eyes flickering up and down your form. “Where is the file?”

Something about that irked you. You dug the burner out of your thigh holster and tossed it to him. He caught it with one hand. “Back with the vigilantes.”

“Vigilantes?” His eyebrow arched.

You collapsed into the armchair across from him. Your bones and joints were already groaning and aching. Maybe you could just curl up here for the night… getting back across town to your apartment was just far too much effort—shit. You had to feed the cats though. “Yeah,” you said, your head resting against your fist, “how come you didn’t tell me Nightwing, Red Hood, and Red Robin were interested in Yang’s death? A warning would have been nice.”

Your father busied himself with the burner phone in his hands, eyebrows bunching up. “I sent the Penguin,” he quipped, his tone dismissive.

“I could have gotten killed. Or worse, found out.”

“But you didn’t.”

You scoffed. “Of course you would say that—”

His eyes sliced up from the phone screen to you, and you hated the part of you that wanted to shrink under his gaze. You supposed there was a reason why he was called the Capo, and why he had the power he did. It was one of the many reasons your mother never wanted you to have anything to do with him after those initial couple of years. “Your mother’s killer can do much worse to you.”

Your jaw snapped shut.

There was a satisfaction that rolled off him, and it made you shift uncomfortably.

You cleared your throat. “By the way.”

“Hm?”

“The funeral—” When he said nothing in reply, you continued, “I wanted to invite one more person.”

He nodded to you. “Of course, my dear. Who else would you like to invite?”

You exhaled. “Choi Beomgyu.”

Beomgyu had been awake for the entirety of the night. His body sat slumped in the desk chair behind the Bat Cave monitors, head buzzing and turning and working. With the assistance of about three cups of coffee, he had managed to distract himself enough from the fact that he had found you breaking and entering into a murdered man’s office tonight. Well, he supposed it was no longer “tonight," but “last night." Alfred had long since gone to bed after Beomgyu’s repeated insistence that he could take care of himself.

(Truthfully, Alfred never believed any of the Chois when they claimed they could “take care of themselves," but he had grown tired of arguing. He would watch after them and take care of them to the best of his own abilities. He never liked fighting with the Chois, even Minho, the boys’ father. The lot of them were more alike than any of them would like to admit. Alfred noticed much about the Choi family.)

Besides the fact that he had just physically brawled you last night, Beomgyu had been actively engaging his brain by finding out any and everything about you. The last time he’d seen you was the night of his sixteenth birthday, when the day afterwards, he was to move back into the Choi Estate. He never told you, and he never reached out to you again. He suspected you hated him for that—leaving without any explanation. He had grown so fond of you, and when you had said so blankly yesterday that you had been grieving your mother’s death…

A wave of grief and guilt washed over him once again, and he found himself reaching for his cup of coffee.

As he set the mug back down onto the desk, the sound of the elevator carriage and his damned brothers’ voices erupted into the quiet. Quiet gone too soon, he thought to himself as he massaged his temples.

“—evil! You are evil, I tell you! I was having such a good dream—”

Soobin audibly rolled his eyes (Beomgyu had learned that yes, this was, in fact, possible). “For the love of all things holy, shut the fuck up.”

When Beomgyu looked over, he sputtered out a laugh as he watched Soobin practically drag Yeonjun over to the desk by his ear. It was clear that Yeonjun had been forced out of bed from the strands of his dark hair sticking up everywhere and the disgruntled wrinkle in his forehead. Soobin looked slightly better, but only slightly. There was that telltale Choi family set of eye bags beneath his eyes, but his hair was slightly damp as if he had actually gotten up and showered.

Beomgyu subtly sniffed himself. He usually showered after coming home from patrol, but his lack of sleep was making him think he forgot to.

Soobin dumped Yeonjun right next to the desk, and the eldest crumpled to the floor like a sack of potatoes. “Hey! I could have hit my head against the corner, you dickwad!”

Soobin rolled his eyes again, coming by to lean over the arm of the desk chair and smack the manila folder from last night onto the desk, right in front of Beomgyu. He even startled slightly at the sound—coffee definitely didn’t do that for him.

Yeonjun muttered a string of obscenities and complaints under his breath as he crawled to his feet, only to perch himself on the table itself to peer at the unopened file folder. “Are we gonna open that thing or is it gonna keep bein’ a—”

“I think Ln Yn’s the cat woman.”

Soobin and Yeonjun turned to their younger brother, eyes suddenly awake. Beomgyu reached for his cup of coffee and took another sip before confirming, “That cat woman from last night? I’m pretty sure that was Ln Yn.”

“Ln Yn…” Soobin’s voice was barely audible, his eyes glazing over as he pondered that revelation.

Yeonjun waved his hands out in front of him. “Waiwaiwait—you think Catwoman is who? Who the fuck’s Ln Yn?”

Beomgyu leaned forward and pulled up a particular window on the main monitor. He had been doing some digging on you… not that that was creepy or anything (he was fully aware how creepy it sounded, but he swore to God he was just trying to catch up on what you had been up to lately). Your profile appeared before them, a small portrait in the top right hand corner. Notably, he had found this in the Choi Enterprises database.

Apparently, you had applied for a position at the company about a year ago. And upon further digging, Beomgyu had discovered that you had been one of many rejected applicants, but you had somehow fallen into the hands of Lee Sungjae. Someone must have recommended you, but he was working on finding that particular tidbit out, as well as who in the world decided to deny you that position—

Yeonjun squinted at the screen, then a lazy grin appeared on his face. Beomgyu did not like that smile on his brother so early in the morning. “Oh, hey! That’s the girl from the bank!”

Now, Yeonjun was at the center of his brothers’ attention.

He elaborated, flinging a hand at the monitor with your soft-smiling portrait. “I was telling you guys about this girl in the Gotham Bank vault the other week—that one badass chick—well, that’s her. She might also know that I’m the Red Hood—”

That woke Beomgyu up faster than any shot of espresso could. Soobin smacked his palm against his forehead. “Fucking christ, hyung.”

“Relax, it was only ‘cause I let her,” Yeonjun protested, then crossed his arms over his chest.

Soobin opened his mouth, most likely to rip Yeonjun a new one for such an arrogantly stupid mistake when a voice cut him off.

“Master Beomgyu.”

All three heads whirled as Alfred made his way from the elevator carriage and toward them. He seemed to be as put-together as always, hair combed back neatly and dress shirt crisp. Beomgyu had always admired Alfred’s ability to stay so sharp. He definitely couldn’t relate. The object in Alfred’s hand, however, was the point of interest for this morning. It looked like an envelope—wait, it was definitely an envelope. It looked expensive, too. Like that type of shit that the company would use for banquet or gala invites. Stupid 110-pound cardstock or something.

The envelope was placed in Beomgyu’s hands, and he examined the outside very carefully. He wasn’t the biggest fan of social functions, but sometimes they were a necessary evil… the thought died in his head and on his tongue when he read the return address on the back. Ln Yn.

His heart leapt, unmistakably. Why? He didn’t have a clue why.

But he was tearing into the flap a second later while everyone around him waited for a report. The Bat Cave had gone quiet as Beomgyu wrestled the expensive accompanying card out of its confines. Where had you gotten the energy to make invitation cards like this? Why were you inviting people to the funeral in such a fancy, unnecessary form? And why, in Hell’s name, were you inviting him?

Dear God, there was something inside him that awakened when his sleep-deprived eyes roamed over the words, however flowery, inviting him to attend the service of your mother’s memorial. You hadn’t forgotten him after all. And maybe this was a sign that you didn’t hate him.

“—Bro, who’s got him smiling like that?” The spell was broken.

Beomgyu cut Yeonjun a look, and the eldest simply replied with a wolfish smile. Beomgyu said, rereading the contents of the invitation for what felt like the thousandth time, “Yn invited me to her mother’s funeral.”

Soobin placed a hand on the back of the chair and leaned over Beomgyu to take a peek at the words. Beomgyu had this odd feeling that this was not what your handwriting looked like. It was far too… detached. Like a computer-made font kind of script. Not like the scrawl he remembered you had those couple of years ago.

“Well,” Soobin breathed out, “if Yn really is the Catwoman, as you said Gyu… then you need to go to that funeral to confront her.”

Beomgyu snapped the invitation closed and slid it back into the envelope sleeve. “I’m going there to honor her mother. Giving my condolences comes first and foremost.” His eyes shuttered. Fuck, he was praying to a god he didn’t believe in that he was mistaken—but he’d recognized your voice, your posture. That was you under that cat mask. “No matter if she’s the Catwoman.”

“Of course,” Soobin agreed, letting up off the back of the chair. “You’re right.”

“What the hell am I missing here?” Yeonjun piped up. His face was contorted in utter confusion. “Why is Yn even inviting you to the funeral, Gyu?”

“I believe Miss Yn is Master Beomgyu’s… friend from so long ago when he lived in the apartment,” Alfred answered, coughing slightly as he side-eyed Beomgyu with a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

As Alfred made his exit from the underground headquarters, Yeonjun laughed. Beomgyu despised the way his eyebrows wagged suggestively at him. “Ooh, so Yn-ie was the Romeo to your Juliet, hm—”

“Don’t call her Yn-ie, old man,” Beomgyu fired back.

Yeonjun bristled at the bite, much to Soobin’s utter delight. “Whatever.” If there was one sure-fire way to get Yeonjun to shut up, it was by over-exaggerating his age. There were far too many times that he hated being the eldest Choi brother.

A smile danced on Soobin’s lips. “Okay, then that’s settled. Beomgyu’s going to the funeral and we’re pretty certain that Ln Yn is the Catwoman.”

Yeonjun reached down to the bottom drawer of the desk and pulled out that half-eaten bag of potato chips. “Now can we open up the file?”

Soobin nodded his agreement, and reached over Beomgyu’s shoulder to grab the file from the desk. Beomgyu and Yeonjun sat quietly while Soobin propped the file onto his forearm so he could open it up like a massive book. He flipped the cover open, and his head tilted to the side. He blinked—flipped to the next thing.

His skin paled.

His brothers questioned him.

Soobin’s lips parted slightly. “Holy shit… this is an exposé on the Capo.” No one had seen who the Capo was, but everyone felt his existence. He had his dirty fingers in every crevice of Gotham, almost every crevice, at least. It was one of the main reasons why he was still out and about, ruling the city like a kingdom. Despite the fact that very few people knew his true identity, the Capo was on everyone's hit list.

Yeonjun pushed, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means,” Soobin replied, “that there might be enough evidence in my fucking hands to put away the Capo for life.”

Once upon a time, you loved your father.

That had been several years back, when your little teeth were still falling out, and you just barely reached your mother’s stomach. It was when your father had only been the accountant to the Iceberg Lounge, counting up bills and counting out expenses and the like. It was a dull job, but your father had been good at it. Maybe even the best at it.

Your mother loved him, too. She loved that he never asked for more, that he always smiled when she brought you into the office for a surprise visit, that he cared so deeply about you. There was this sparkle in his eyes when he looked upon you, your mother had once told you when she had stopped bringing you to the Lounge to see him. She explained in simple terms that he had changed.

For better or for worse—you just knew if your mother couldn’t stand to see him as he was then, that you wouldn’t be able to stomach it either.

You remembered how he hadn’t even fought to see you again. So you never did. You grew up just fine under your mother’s wing; struggles were constant and persistent, but you and your mother were even more persistent. No matter what befell the two of you, it would be just that—the two of you.

Sometimes you wondered what you might have turned out to be like if your father had fought to see you, to have an influence in your life. Maybe you would have ended up like him: empty, cold, alone.

The buttons on your dress jacket were large, but stubborn. The jacket was pretty with bell sleeves and a flared hem—definitely one of the garments that you had purchased after coming under Lee Sungjae’s employ. You didn’t have a lot, not now and not then, but after landing that secretary job with the Lees… you had only your secret benefactor to thank for recommending you. Lee Sungjae had never told you who it was, but his eyes had been teasing whenever he said that, and you could only guess that it hadn’t been your father.

Lee Sungjae had been a good man, but even good men wanted to succeed.

Unfortunately, you couldn’t wholly blame him for wanting that either.

A fluffy entity snaked its way around your heels and the cuffs of your slacks, the white fur now clinging to the hems. You lacked the energy to even admonish Kiyo for doing such a thing; you had literally just rolled away all the fur with a lint roller five minutes ago. You bent down with a sigh and picked up the mewling ball of fur into your arms so that your entire upper half was now fluffed.

“Time for the funeral, huh, Kiyo?” You murmured to her softly as you made your way out of your bedroom, and down the narrow stairs to the first floor. The rest of the cats were huddled around the food and water bowls. Many of them were unhappy that they couldn’t accompany you to the memorial service, and you had to admit that you wished they could be there, too. They had known your mother far longer than anyone else who had been invited to the service today. Plus, you figured you were way more comfortable speaking and interacting with cats than real people anyway.

You set Kiyo down and she trotted over to the nearest hoard of cuddling cats, and you looked on with a bittersweet smile. You always had this growing family of seven or so strays, but you yourself weren't a cat. You envied how close they had all gotten sometimes, and it baffled you how you were jealous of your own beloved cats. They weren't just pets, after all, but family.

You checked the time on your phone. It was time to go. So you picked up your purse from the bottom stair, slipped into your flats, and headed out the door for the funeral.

You had been careful with the list of people to invite, really. All of them had to be someone you knew, too, which wasn't too difficult since your mother always introduced you to people she was comfortable and close with.

The service had been brief, but as you watched your mother's casket be lowered into the ground, you realized that you would never see her again after this, except in images and dreams and memories. The longer you stared at the casket, the more you determined you hated how polished and expensive it was. You hated that your father had been the one to pay for it instead of you. Hated that he even had a hand in this, like he did everything.

The distinct feeling of eyes on the back of your head had you turning back to meet them. You almost started in surprise at the person you saw at the back, lingering on the edge of the crowd. You felt hands taking yours, hands clasping your shoulder, words in your ear, kisses to your cheek, sorries in the air—and then you were standing in front of Choi Beomgyu, who had come in a pressed, all-black suit and a bouquet of calla lilies. His eyes were rimmed red and silver, similar to your own, you imagined.

"I didn't know if you were gonna come," you confessed, crossing your arms over your chest. You realized that he had grown up—not just grown taller or handsome, but up. He wasn't the kid in the apartment next door who called you weirdo anymore.

Beomgyu's lips twitched into some sort of smile, but then a tear slipped down his cheek as a genuine one broke out onto his face. It was one of the most beautiful things you had ever seen. "Yn, I'd be stupid not to come. I'd be stupid not to pay my respects." He cleared his throat and shoved the bouquet into your hands, like they caught fire. "Here. These are for her."

"I'm surprised you remembered," you mused, walking over to place the bouquet among many others atop the dirt pile where they had buried the casket. Beomgyu walked beside you as you did.

"I'm surprised you remembered… me," his voice became quiet at the end. His eyes hadn't left you for a second, as if he had taken these few minutes to soak in the years he had missed. "Yn, I'm so sorry—"

You nodded, letting the words fall from his lips. He deserved to grieve, too.

"You're probably sick of hearing that, huh?" He said with a small chuckle. His cheeks glistened with tears, and he reached up to swipe them away. "I wish I was there."

That was when you shook your head. "No, you really did not want to be there." No one should have ever had to see something like that. God, that image of your mother on the floor in a pool of her own blood would be ingrained into your memory as thoroughly as the blood had sunken into the floorboards.

There was a flicker of confusion, before it disappeared. "I mean, I wish I was there—with you—and with your mother. That I never disappeared like that."

Your heart stuttered in your chest, and a different ache appeared. "Beomgyu, let's not talk about that. You're not sorry."

"I am—"

"How about if you buy me ice cream, I'll consider believing you." You just wanted the aching to stop. He had been a friend—a close one. You never had a lot of those, and you didn't exactly want your first reunion to be filled with this many sorries and regrets.

There was that familiar twinkle in his eyes. He licked his lips, smile peeking out like the sun through an overcast sky. "Sure. I owe you for all the hot chocolate anyway."

You grinned. "That's the spirit." It was as convincing as you could make it.

You could walk away from your mother's grave then. You thought you'd be stuck there for a few more hours after everyone had gone, but something told you that Beomgyu's appearance was important, and there was something else he had left to say to you.

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bleachanimefan1 · 1 month

Text

Hallowed Fangs Part 12

The Druid, Halsin,

Just as they were to head inside the temple, Vex noticed a small maze of some sorts and walked a little closer towards it. The others followed behind her, wondering where she was going. Vex approached the goblins, guarding the maze. Vex's eyes widen when she saw the owl bear cub. The same one in the cave with its mother. The goblins must have killed her. Vex frowned, seeing the cub's terrified state as it shivered a little.

"Well now-you look like a tough'un. But 'ave you got smarts? Skill? Guts?" The female goblin smirked. Vex crossed her arms, narrowing her eyes at the goblin.

"I can handle myself just fine." She spoke. The goblin chuckled.

"No doubt mate. But this ain't dragons, or demons, or anything else you might've faced. This...this is chicken-chasin'."

"For the record that's an owlbear, not a chicken." Vex corrected. The goblin shrugged her shoulders.

"It's got feathers, don't it? A beak? Besides, I reckon it owes us seein' as it just ate our last chicken. Reckon it owes us a game. You wanna hear the rules or not?"

"Could be fun. What's chicken-chasing', exactly?" Vex asked.

"Only the greatest thing since eggs sprouted legs, mate. You just gotta chase the chicken around the course and through the posts0 but that ain't all. Gotta do it quick and alone- any of your mates step in, you lose. Time runs out, you lose. Sound's easy? It ain't. Better contenders than you have been bested by the bird."

"We don't have time to be doing this." Lae'zel spoke but Vex glanced over at her.

"Just stand back and watch."

"Oh, this is going to fun." Astarion smirked. Vex blinked, looking at him for a moment and turned back to the goblin.

"Sounds fun. I'm in." Vex smiled. The goblin snorted.

"Fun? Show a bit of respect, mate. This is serious business. Besides-we gotta agree stakes before we begin, don't we? 30 gold."

"Sure, I'll place a bet." Vex spoke and handed her the gold.

"We got the coin-we got the wager. Now we just need the crowd, eh?" The goblin woman smiled and walked away to get the match started. The others watched as Vex approached the entrance of the maze. The goblin started the timer and Vex quickly urged the cub, moving it through the obstacles in the way until they finally reached the two posts.

"That's the game, done. Come'ere." The goblin shouted. Vex had quickly sneaked in a speaking animal potion and drank it. She bent down towards the cub, who eyed her curiously, but backed away, scared.

"Hey, I'm not going to hurt you." She whispered, softly.

"Mother gone. Hungry!" The cub cried.

"I have a camp. You'll be safer there." Vex told the cub. The cub blinked at her with his big eyes, turning his head.

"New home? Maybe. But I got to stay here." The cub told her. Vex nodded and stood up, thinking. The cub was too anxious to leave. The goblins need to be dealt with, first.

"Okay, I'll be back for you." Vex told the cub and walked away, heading back towards the female goblin.

"Well lookee! That thing works even better'n a chicken. Reckon we won't eat it after all." The goblin sneered.

"Now, if you'll hand over my winnings, please." Vex said. The goblin blinked at her.

"Pardon, your what? I think you misunderstood, mate. Ain't no winnings, cos only a goblin can win chicken-chase. Says so in the rules." She smirked. Vex frowned.

"We're having fun, aren't we? Why ruin it now?"

"Hmm. Alright, no need to be weepy over it. Here." The goblin handed the coin back to Vex. Vex smiled, taking it back.

"Thank you." She headed back to the others, who were waiting for her. She noticed that Astarion was loving the party.

"Ah, drink it in-that sweet, sweet chaos." He smiled as he breathed in deeply.

"Seems like you're enjoying yourself." Vex told him.

"Not that I approve of the goblins, of course-filthy little beasts. But I do like a good den of debauchery." He smiled. Vex rolled her eyes.

"Come on, lets go get Volo and Halsin." She told him. They headed inside the temple, but saw there were several guards at the front entrance. One of the goblins glared at Vex and the others as they approached.

"Oi! Ain't no party in here-We doing the Absolute's work. State your business. Now." He demanded.

"We have an audience with the one in charge." Vex insisted.

"Right. Well. You ain't the first foreign type, I'spose." "Gonna 'ave to be a bit more specific though, mate. Absolute's got a few favorites around here. You 'ere to see Priestess Gut, Boss Ragzlin, or the drow?"

"I want to see Priestess Gut." Vex told him.

"Do ya now? Might feel a little different once she puts a brand on you." The goblin sneered. "She's up ahead." Vex blinked wondering what he meant and quickly left; the others followed behind her. They approached an alter of some kind and saw a goblin dressed in shaman clothes.

"It smells like burnt flesh in here." Vex gagged.

"Let's just hurry up and find the druid and that idiot and get out of here." Lae'zel spoke. The group walked over towards the goblin shaman. She smiled when she noticed them approaching, looking at Vex.

"Now, here's somebody special. The Absolute has touched you, hasn't she? Priestess Gut needs to touch you, too-hold out your hand so I can mark your flesh."

"I'm not letting you burn me for life on a whim." Vex frowned. The goblin blinked and smirked.

"Maybe you don't need it. After all, you're special, ain't you? Like me. In fact, I can sense all of you all were touched as well."

Vex could feel the goblin probing through her mind as she tried to block her out. She had a parasite like them. Darkness seems to swallow the temple, leaving her with a vision of the goblin priestess, receiving instruction from a handsome young man. One of the Chosen...

Vex blinked as the vision faded away, staring at the goblin in front of her. Vex decided to push deeper into the goblins mind to see if she could find anything else. Her faith floods into you-a tide of shuddering ecstasy. Her tadpole within that mania, secure, hidden. The goblin smirked.

"I can fell you in there, digging around. Works both ways. And I saw some wierd shadows swimming around in your head just now. Maybe I can help with that. Us True Souls got to look out for one another."

"Sure, but can we talk privately this is a sensitive matter." Vex told her. The goblin blinked, a little surprised, and nodded.

"Of course, don't want the rabble interfering in our business. Come, let's go talk in the chapel." She walked away, telling the others to follow her.

"What are you doing? You're not actually going through with this are you?" Shadowheart whisper to Vex.

"Don't worry, I got a plan." Vex told her. The goblin shaman led the party up stairs and into a room, which led to a chapel.

"Ready to clear your head?" She turned, looking at Vex. Vex smirked.

"There's been a change of plans. I'm here to kill you."

The goblin's eyes widen in shock and she got into a fighting stance.

"The Absolute will protect me-You will not stand a chance!"

"Now!" Vex shouted and everyone quickly lunged at the goblin. Lae'zel, Vex and Shadowheart both sliced at the goblin with their swords, Astarion shot at her a couple times with his crossbow. The goblin fell to the ground, dead. Just as Vex walked closer to loot the body, a voice spoke.

You should search that corpse.

Vex blinked and turned to the others.

"Did any of you say something?" She asked them.

"No." Shadowheart spoke.

"Did you hear something?" Astarion asked her.

"Maybe it was just my imagination." Vex shook her head and looted the goblin, finding a key and some healing potions. There was also a letter as well and she read it. Halsin was being held in a Worg pen, not too far from here. Her eyes widen when she saw that the goblin had a parasite contained in a jar. She could hear the same voice again, telling her to take it. Vex quickly stashed the specimen into her pack and stood up.

"So, did you find anything useful?" Astarion asked. "Or was all this for nothing."

"There was a note, saying that Halsin is being kept in the pens not too far from here. And the goblin had a parasite contained in a jar, so I took it as well."

Shadowheart and Lae'zel's eyes widen in shock.

"Why?" Lae'zel frowned.

"I figured that it might come in handy. You never know." Vex told her.

"These things are not here to help us. We need to remove them as soon as we can." She told Vex.

"Still, it wouldn't hurt. Plus, no one else can get it. So, it'll be safer with us." Vex told her. Lae'zel huffed. Vex walked away and the others followed behind her as they went deeper into the temple. They headed to where the pens were, where Halsin was being held captive. They passed by a room and Vex was surprised to see Volo in cage, being guarded by the female goblin.

"Hey, there's Volo." Vex pointed out to the others. They slowly walked into the room and the goblin noticed them and so did Volo who silently whispered to help him. The goblin stood in front of the cage, narrowing her eyes at everyone.

"Don't go botherin' my pigeon! He's mine."

"So I see. Do you have plans for this "pigeon?" Vex smiled.

"Keep him safe. Listen to him coo. 'Til I gets hungry or some such. What's it to ya?" The goblin frowned.

"I hate to see such a lovely creature in a cage." Vex told her. The goblin waved her hand.

"Ehh, he don't mind. Keeps him safe from me mates! Raids make 'em rabid. Then catch one of your own."

"He looks weak. Sick, even. He won't last long in there." Vex spoke, smirking at Volo. Volo frowned at her, feeling insulted. The goblin was silent for a moment before she nodded.

"Take him for a jog, why don't ya? Here's the key. But don't let the other mates snatch him up! Bring him back once you're done." She told Vex and handed her the key. Vex took it from her and the goblin walked away. Vex unlocked the cage, opening it. Volo smiled and he stepped out, shaking Vex's hand, gratefully.

"Ha! Ha! Look at this-I'm quite saved! A joy to see a familiar face in such a precarious setting. I guarantee the story of your daring rescue of my person will live on for aeons!"

"Just get yourself to safety and be quick." Vex told him.

"I intend to do just that. A trusty invisibility potion goes a long way in a place like this. We mustn't tarry, but I'd hate for our friendship to end here. Please-won't you meet me once we've both slipped the goblin's yoke?" Volo asked.

"How did you get yourself into this mess to begin with?" Shadowheart asked him.

"Why, by design my friend. How better to learn the ways of a people than to live among them? I daresay the experiment has proven most fruitful, too. I'll be happy to share my findings, once we've found somewhere safe to parley." Volo explained.

"The camp's nearby here. We'll talk once we're both safe." Vex replied. Volo smiled.

"Smashing! Soon, my friend! We'll share a flagon and talk about our Daring dos. I can't wait to pick your brain!" He pulled out an invisibility potion out of his hat and drank it and disappeared.

"Why didn't he do that before?" Astarion questioned.

"He probably froze up. He seems like that type of guy." Vex told him. Everyone continued, heading to the pens. They passed by a couple of goblins guarding the door and quickly went into the dungeons. Up ahead, Vex heard a couple of goblins laughing. She walked closer and the others followed behind her to see what it was. There were three goblins near a cell. They saw a bear, locked inside, being tortured by the goblins as they threw stones at it.

"See? It squealed!" one of the goblins shouted, jumping excitedly.

"Hit it again!" The second one exclaimed. Vex walked over to them. The bear looked at the group when they approached, looking at Vex.

"Stop them. Free me." It spoke.

"Again! Again! Make it squeal again!" The goblin shouted. gleefully, about to throw another rock at the bear.

"What are you doing!?" Vex shouted at them. The goblins turned to her.

"We're juicing it up. The beast came in with those robbers. Boss's thinkin of sevin' it to the worgs." One of the goblins smirked.

"And it makes funny noises." The second one smiled.

"We made it squeal!" The third one shouted. "Look, look, you'll see. Gimme that rock. I'll show ya!"

"Leave him alone!" Vex shouted, angrily.

"What're ya-get lost if you can't stand a bit of rough housin'." The goblin guard, glared at her.

Vex made a nod to the bear and it let out a roar, distracting the goblins. They looked back and saw the bear reared up on it's hind legs and charged at the door. Vex and the others quickly moved back and the door fell top of the goblins, squashing them. The noise also alerted some of the goblins in the room and the charged at the group. One goblin unleashed the worgs and they charged at the group as well. They quickly took out every single of them.

Vex turned back towards the bear to see it change, shifting back to an elven man. He was a wood elf, a lot taller than usual, bulkier and muscular. His hair was tied back in a ponytail while most of it hanged out loose. He was wearing a red and white armor with leaf shoulder pads. He also had a large scar over his right eye, covered by a faint red swirling tattoo, that looked like it was slashed by claws.

"Pardon the viscera. One should cherish all of nature's bounty, but goblin guts are quite far down the line. Not only do you speak with a bear, but you free it, too? A true friend of nature-or perhaps a lunatic. Either way, I owe you thanks. I am the druid Halsin."

"You're Halsin? The Mater Halsin of the Emerald Grove?" Vex asked, unsure. He smiled.

"Yes, but just Halsin will suffice. Unbecoming to demand honorifics from the one who saved my hide."

"Glad I could be of help." Vex smiled back.

"I must admit, I didn't expect anyone would come to my aid. Who in their right mind would infiltrate a goblin infested temple. Unless..." Halsin stared into Vex's eyes. "Hrrm. That look in your eyes-I've seen it before. Are you feeling alright?" He moved in a little closer, cupping Vex's cheeks. Astarion frowned as he watched the two, not liking how close the druid was to Vex. Halsin peered deeper into Vex's eyes before his eyes widen a little in shock and let go and he backed away from her.

"Oak father preserve you, child. You're infected, aren't you? The mind flayers' spawn. But something's different. You're aware of the monster inside of you. You don't bow to the Absolute, like the True Souls do. How is this possible?"

"It's not just me who is infected, it's all of us. But we don't know how we still have our minds." Vex told him.

"It's no coincidence that you found me here. I'll wager you're after a cure for this parasite, yes? I've been studying those parasites for quite a while now. Ever since I discovered those so-called True Souls are infected with them. Some is using very powerful magic to modify these tadpoles. They are using them to exert control over the infected. I'm sorry to say, I can't undo that magic, which means I cannot cure you. But that doesn't mean I can't help. I didn't find what I came here for-a way to remove the tadpoles, but I found the next best thing. I found out where they are coming from. That must be where these enchantments are placed on them, and it's where you'll find your cure." Halsin explained. Vex eyes dropped, disappointed, and so did everyone else.

"So, this was all for nothing." She sighed. Halsin held a hand out, that he wasn't finished yet.

"Patience. I can't just snap my fingers, but I know where the solution almost certainly lies. I overheard that the cultists are sending all of their captives to Moonrise Towers. Innocents go in, True Souls come out. Given that all of these True Souls are infected, it has to be the source of this magic. IF you want to find a cure, you must head there and discover how the tadpoles are being manipulated."

"You seem to know a lot about this. Will you come with us to Moonrise?" Vex asked. Halsin shook his head.

"I wish I could but there's still work I've yet to finish-blood I've yet to spill. I've no right to ask more of you, but if you could help me, I'd be free to join your journey to Moonrise. I cannot allow these butchers to threaten my grove. the natural order must be protected." He told them.

"How can I help?" Vex asked. Halsin smiled.

"My thanks. If you prevail, I'll owe you the debt of a lifetime. Rare is the beast that survives decapitation. Help me eliminate the drow Minthara, the hobgoblin Dror Ragzlin, and that perversion of a priestess Gut. They are the ones holding these parasites together. Remove them and nature will cure itself." Halsin said.

"Having a shape-shifting bear druid at my side might make things easier. And we've already taken down one of the leaders." Vex told him.

"Be warned, my presence could make things more difficult. I can only restrain my bear form so much. I won't be able to help but attack goblins. If I join you, we'll likely have to slaughter this entire place. You may want to use discretion when approaching the goblin leaders." Halsin spoke.

"We could use the help." Vex insisted. Halsin smiled and nodded.

"So, it will be. May Silvanus lead us to nature's fury."

Vex nodded, smiling back.

"Great. But, not at the moment. We need to rest a little first. Do you mind if we head back to our camp? Then we'll come back to get you." She told him and Halsin nodded. Everyone walked away, heading back to the camp for some rest. As they walked, Vex noticed that Astarion had been quiet, instead of being usually chatty self.

"Is there something wrong?" Vex asked him.

"I just noticed you and that druid seemed pretty chummy with one another." He frowned. Vex smiled.

"I didn't think you would be the type to be jealous." She smirked. Astarion blinked at her. Why was he acting like this? Sure, he cared about her, even if she was a goody two shoes. But this whole relationship was just for protection, right? And nothing more. He had to stick with his plan.

"Besides, you're the only elf for me." Vex spoke, snapping Astarion out of his thoughts. "And a vampire. He can't beat that." She smiled. Astarion stopped in his tracks, completely surprised by her words and Vex walked away. Astarion followed behind her as they headed back to the camp.

#fanfiction #read more #Astarion #Baldurs gate 3 #Astarion bg3 #Baldurs gate 3 oc #Baldurs gate tav #astarion ancunin

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toontails · 2 years

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Toon Quest

Chapter 5: Deep Under the Streets of Wellington

A/N before reading I just wanted to let you know that this chapter does have music and that Quotev works best for it, though if you don’t use and or can’t access Quotev, the song is in the link when reaching the scene! If you’d like to read the chapter on Quotev, the link is right here!

Y/n couldn’t remember much that happened last night other than drifting off to sleep under a tree with a throw over blanket that Cuphead had bought. The two really only bought it because it was chilly outside and the fact that they continued wanting to speak, they got a small blanket and sat under a tree…now…Y/n didn’t exactly expect to wake up to the sun blaring into her eyes and the sound of birds chirping as an alarm.

Her eyes slowly fluttered open, she felt her head resting on something that wasn’t the tree, she had been resting on Cuphead’s shoulder and he was leaned into the tree—not necessarily asleep, but busy picking at the grass blades—how did she manage to sleep so comfortably—she had no clue in the world—it wasn’t until then did she realize that she had slept..outside..and the sun was up. Y/n immediately shoots up and quickly examines her surroundings, they seemed to be in a park—a few bystanders walking around doing whatever, Y/n quickly pats her pants to see if she could find her phone but to no avail she remembers she left it back in the room.

“Jesus, you let me sleep till sunrise?!” She exclaims a bad gut feeling stirring up—jeez she could already hear the earful she would get from the others, surely Alice would notice she was gone! But the minute that she had shot up onto her feet and placed her gaze on Cuphead she noticed Mugman standing beside him, Mugman flinched slightly at Y/n’a quick and abrupt movement and took a small step back. Y/n immediately went silent as she saw Cuphead stand up.

“Don’t worry ‘bout it. You’ll be fine.” He says. Y/n furrowed her eyebrows at his ‘couldn’t care less’ attitude, clearly that was something Cuphead was known for as Mugman had slowly shook his head as well. Mugman gently rubbed his hands together before finally gathering the courage to look her in the eyes, when he did he gave her an ever so small wave with his gloved hand.

“Hey uh..sorry about the whole chasin’ thing.” He says bashfully as he rubs the back of his neck. Y/n stared at Mugman for a moment, which seemed to make him shuffle on his feet, she slowly nodded before giving him a small smile. “Don’t worry about it.” She says.

“Mugs, this is Y/n. Y/n this is my bro, Mugman.” Cuphead introduced with a boyish smile as if Y/n didn’t already know Mugman’s name by now, but it was still good to have an actual introduction.

“Nice to meet you.” Y/n says and Mugman smiled ever so slightly before nodding.

“Cuphead told me about the situation and the book.” Mugman says and Y/n nods. “Yeah. My friends are at this church to get the jewel—but in order to get it we have to win the town's music competition.” She tells him. Now saying it she felt much more confident considering yesterday the choir actually sang pretty good.

Cuphead grunted and scratched his neck. “Geez, you shoulda heard the amount of singing we heard while bein’ here,” Cuphead grumbled, understandable.

“He doesn't like musicals.” Mugman tells Y/n. “I actually really liked the songs,” Mugman smiled—Now noticing how Mugman's tense form seemed much more relaxed once realizing that Y/n meant no harm, he seems much more relaxed and talkative than before.

“I hate them, who wants to sit around and listen to someone sing about—whatever for the next 4 minutes? I don’t.” Cuphead crossed his arms and complained—Y/n would enjoy spending more time and speaking to the brothers but she really had to get back to the chapel, she genuinely didn’t want to worry the others—whatever they might be doing.

“Alright, alright. We’ll walk you back.” Cuphead says he walks past her, Mugman follows after Cuphead and so does Y/n.

“So, I take it you also don’t know what’s going on?” Mugman asks Y/n. The human slowly looked at him and made a small expression that meant she didn’t exactly know.

“Uh…not necessarily. From what I know. It’s a book that tells us where to go and who to get.” She says before motioning towards him. “And you and Cuphead are a part of the book, which is why we’re getting the jewel.”

“Hopefully—“ she quickly adds.

“Well..didn’t expect so much when coming to the mainlands.” Mugman expresses. Cuphead shrugs. “Eh. M’ sure there’s far worse to come.” He says and Mugman sputters at that before nudging his brother. “Don’t say that, you can’t jinx it you moron!” Mugman scolds and Cuphead only shrugs. “Can’t get worse from here, Devil got us under a contract, the book we need to take to give to them is somehow something we actually really can’t give to them because we’re apart of it—“

He then smiled. “And not to mention we’re far from home.” The list could go on and on for everyone surely, Y/n already got a thousand things she could go on about. Mugman only rubbed his face in frustration.

“What are you guys going to do about the Devil anyway?” She asks. Mugman sighs and looks away. “It…it’s complicated. We don’t know ourselves.” Mugman mutters.

“I’m sure we’ll figure something out, Mugs.” Cuphead says as he slowed down in walking so Mugman could catch up.

“Sure, I mean. We’ve gotten away from him once.” Mugman tried to bring a voice of reason to swallow away his worries, and Cuphead nodded wrapped his arms around both Mugman’s and Y/n’s shoulders. “See? Positive thoughts, everything will sail just smoothly, we’ll take her back to the others, let her work the magic and boom, we’ll all get our happy ending.” Cuphead says. He seemed so…’so—so’ about certain situations as his brother seemed vigilant to certain things, two major differences in the brothers.

Mugman slowly sighs before shrugging, letting the worries seep away. “If you say so—“

“Hey! You surfers! Down here!” Shouts a voice. Mugman looks at Y/n who had also heard the voice as she slowly furrows her eyebrows at the sudden voice—looking around she doesn't spot anyone that might seem to be talking to them and Cuphead looks around as well.

“The hell was that?” Cuphead asks before releasing the two. Mugman slowly shrugs. “I-I dunno. That’s weird.” He says.

“Look down!” The voice shouts. The three heard the voice nice and clear that time, immediately moving their gaze in front of them and down to the ground, there was a small toon rat—standing on its hind legs, a leather strap wrapped around its torso with—what seemed to be an archery bow wrapped around him as well. The rat stood firm and stiff as if some sergeant. Y/n furrowed her eyebrows in confusion before glancing around her to see if the small guy was speaking to anyone else, which the rat noticed.

“I’m talking to you three!” He shouts and Cuphead shoulders jolted and huff came from him—a short chuckle before he looks at Y/n. “Ya’ know this guy?” He asks and Y/n looks at Cuphead and Mugman. “Uh, no, do you two?” She asks and Mugman shakes his head—no—he can’t recall speaking to someone so small.

“Nope.” Cuphead chuckled before looking back at the rat.

“What’s up little guy, need a ride or somethin?” Cuphead squats down to see the rat up close. “Cups, don’t get too close.” Mugman quickly warned his brother.

The rat had quickly taken a dagger from his pocket—which looked to be a sharp stone or rock -- and jabbed it onto the tip of Cuphead's nose. “Ow!” He shouts in pain before quickly standing up and standing right back between Mugman and Y/n. Y/n placed a hand on Cuphead’s arm as he held onto his bow sore nose, Cuphead ripped his nose with the sleeve of his arm and sniffed, he turned his gaze back onto the ray and glared at him.

“What was that for?!” He hissed.

“You three have a warrant out for your arrest from our leader, Argus! Surrender now, or we will have to take lethal action.” A warrant for their arrest? What?

Y/n furrowed her eyebrows and placed her hands on her hips. “What? You can’t do that, we don’t even know you! Besides, we aren't even residents of this town.” She says the soldier rat looks at her and glares.

“Are you all resisting arrest?” He said and Cuphead grumbled. “Clearly—“ He says before placing a hand in front of Y/n to back her away, he motions his fingers in a gun like position and pointed his index finger down at the rat, the familiar blue beam of light charging up but the rat didn’t even flinch nor run off, before Y/n could think, a toothpick sized arrow swishes past her and hit Cuphead in the back of his hand, Cuphead quickly moves his hand and hisses in pain, he looks at his hand and removes the arrow.

“You gotta be kiddin’ me…”

Y/n felt a sharp pain in her leg as Mugman had gotten shot in the arm, and almost immediately the three fell to the ground, everything blacked out.

All Y/n felt was the cold ground beneath her. The sound of echoing droplets of water and the ambience of still air, and occasionally squeaking echoing somewhere from in the mysterious place.

Y/n’s leg muscle twitches—the leg that she had unfortunately gotten shot in. Her eyes fluttered open, a blur of dark colors and the pungent smell of mold and mildew hit her nose. Her eyebrows furrowed and she groaned, her hands planting on the ground before heaving herself up, the ground was cold and slick—almost as if it were a broken concrete, it wasn’t until she finally adjusted her eyes to her surroundings. Bars. A cell. She was in a cell. Infront of her was another cell with it empty.

Y/n quickly stood up, stumbling on her feet, her small frantic breaths echoed and her foot hit something hard, a groan escaped from whatever she hit.

“Oh…my head..” she looks down to see Mugman finally waking up, Cuphead laid next to him, who was also waking up as well.

“Guys—“ she quickly bends down and takes Mugman's hand to sit him up, which he did. His hand then rubbed at his head as he looked away, Cuphead already sat up himself with an irritated expression.

“Where are we? How did we get here? What are we doing in a jail cell, oh I’m too young to be in the slammer!” Mugman immediately starts to panic and Y/n starts to wave her hands in front of him.

“No, no, don’t worry Mugman. We’re fine, At Least we’re alive—“

He immediately looked at her when she said that. “You mean we’re going to die?!” He cried out…maybe it would be best to not say that again…

Cuphead stood up and walked over to the cell and planted his hands on it. “Jeez—it’s one thing after another.” He groans and gently slams his head into the bars, a clink echoing in the area. Mugman stood up but he glued himself to Y/n’s side.

The two walked over and grabbed the cell bars as well.

“Did that rat bring us here? That’s one strong guy.” Y/n says and Cuphead grunts. “I wouldn’t be surprised if there were more.” He says which would make sense.

Soon the sound of feet pattering on the ground echoed, the three turned their gaze to the direction the sound was coming from and watched as a few rat toons wandered down to their cell..so there were more.

One of the rats turned to the cell and gazed up at the three, and even though Y/n, Cuphead and Mugman were giants to them, that didn’t seem to bother them.

“Let us outta here you little rodents! Whatever you’re looking for, we don’t have anything you need! You got the wrong people!” Cuphead shakes the cell bars, the iron clanking as he did so. The rat slowly shook his head at the notion.

“I’m afraid you do.” The rat chuckles—it didn’t take until now to realize that that was the same exact guy that captured them..wow..great looking Y/n..props for paying attention.

“Come on Jura, Argus will be coming soon and I don’t wanna hear her nag my ear off.” One of the other rat soldiers points out, Jura immediately stops laughing and rolls his eyes.

“Poe, shut it, I need complete silence when executing my diabolical plan.” Jura grins mischievously. Cuphead had rested his elbow on the bar and had his head resting on his hand as he gazed down at the rats.

“Evil plan huh? Well you sure are one evil genius.” Cuphead says nonchalantly and Mugman glares at his brother. “Don’t taunt him.” he immediately hissed.

“You should listen to your brother, Cupboy.” Jura advised.

“It’s Cuphead.” Cuphead growls under his breath.

Jura shrugs and huffs. “Could care less.” He muttered.

Y/n could care less about the back and forth—she needed to know what they were doing in a cell for—and after worrying about a warrant for their arrest—she would assume she would be in a police jail cell—which —not to mention, looks nothing like a Police precinct cell.

“What are we doing here?” bossed Y/n. Her voice was stern as she glared daggers down at Jura who looked up at her with a glint in his eyes she couldn’t exactly recognize.

“The book, where is it?” Jura asks. And the three immediately went silent..what? Why the hell did they want the book? Who were they? And dear god more people were after it?!

Y/n felt her eyes slowly roll in frustration as she sighed through her nose. “And what exactly makes you think I’ll tell you anything about it? And even give it to you?”

Jura fiddled with his nails as Y/n spoke as if what she said wasn’t interesting. “Oh, trust, it was already easy enough to get you all down here.” He says.

“I don’t have it.” She answered. Jura’s ears perked up as he looked at her and squinted his eyes.

Poe stomps his foot on the ground. “Dammit, I was positive it was these three, Argus will have our head if she finds out!” Poe panics and Jura hums.

“Then w-“

“Argus said bring out the prisoners!” Someone echoes down the hall, Jura and Poe look down that direction and Jura looks over to the other rat guards and motions his hand towards the cell.

“Restrain them and bring them out.” He says before Poe and Jura turns and leaves the area, Mugman, Cuphead and Y/n all shared looks as they moved away from the cell when it opened, immediately Y/n felt a tug at her arms, she looks down to see a thick nylon rope had been tied onto her wrist, binding it together. Her first thought was to tug her hand to escape but she saw one of the other two rats lift their bow and arrows up to her—aiming and ready to shoot just in case—she would have laughed at that considering the arrows didn’t hold much damage—until she remembered that the arrow was clearly laced with something to make her pass out—and she didn’t want that to happen again. And clearly Mugman and Cuphead had the exact same thought.

The three were tugged out of the cell and into the walkway, despite the rats small nature, they did have some strength to tug her with a bit of force. Now walking beside Cuphead and Mugman the three looked at each other as they obliged to walk.

“This is crazy, I’ve never been in a situation like this before.” Y/n whispered to the two and Mugman quickly nodded. “‘Me either..but for the most part, they know about the book too..” he brings up.

“I’m just thinkin’ how far they’ll fly if I kick the hell outta them.” Cuphead muttered to the two and Y/n and Mugman only gave him a deadpan expression, he only shrugs his shoulders. “Just sayin.“

“We gotta get out of here.” Y/n said and Mugman agreed. “Well yes, but here’s the thing…how?”

“I bet there’s a rat civilization—with little rat people and their little rat homes and little rat markets with little rat families.” Cuphead abruptly says as he looks down at one of the rays who still held the arrow up at him, daring for him to make a move.

Mugman gives his brother a look. “Cuphead, there’s no such thing as a rat village.” Mugman hissed—but immediately when he said that, the wooden doors in front of them had been pushed up, and behold—was a large open sewer area—with buildings made of old boxes and metal and other tossed away trash that was recycled to make a town—the buildings reached above Y/n and the others, and there was…an actual civilization! Small wooden carts with scrapped bread and markets and stores and schools and homes! The light was dim but it seemed that used flashlights were their source of light. The town was big enough for the three to walk through it; some rats had spotted them and gasped softly, murmuring to each other a sea of hushed voices whispering.

Y/n and Mugman had their mouths agape as they gazed upon the creation of a town! A literal town!

“Look—it’s a surfer..” whispered a child mice that hid behind his mother, the mother gasps and covered her child’s eyes away from the dangers of the three—known as ‘Surfers’

Whatever they meant.

“They really do exist..” another voice whispered

“Look at how big they are—“

“The stories are real…”

“Killers..”

“That one is a human surfer, they hate toons..”

“How many of them are there?”

The voices circled around the three as they stood next to each other. Y/n could see how some of the civilians seemed afraid—but what for? She was more afraid of them than they were to her!

“Where…are we..” Y/n asks and Cuphead slowly shakes his head. Hell, of course he called it but he..didn’t expect to be right. “I have no clue..”

Jura raised his hands with a smile. “My people! I bring you, the surfers!” He announced and the civilians gasped and the sea of voices grew louder as they all gossiped.

“Vile creatures from the surface, that grab you with their bare hands and rip you to shreds! And they have what is ours to bring our community back our queen!” He says. Cuphead slowly furrowed his eyebrows.

“Hey! Uh—“ he shouts, getting the attention of everyone. The civilians stopped talking in fear once hearing Cuphead. Jura turned and looked at Cuphead.

“Yeah, I dunno what you all are talkin’ about, but who ever you’re looking for, You got the wrong people. We’re just regular people like you a-ow!” He hops on one foot when one of the soldier rats poked him with the sharp weapon. Cuphead quickly stomps his foot down onto the ground in an attempt to stomp at the rat—but it quickly scurried away before his foot could land on it. That gesture frightened the civilians and they all gasped and shouted.

“They really are monsters!”

“The horror!”

Y/n looked away from the crowd and grabbed Cuphead by his shirt and he quickly looked at her. “Stop it you moron, they’re already on edge about us.” She harshly whispered to him. Cuphead quickly shrugs as much as he could, seeing Y/n had a tight grip on him and his wrist were tied.

“Look—it’s not my fault they’re flighty.” He seethed. Y/n huffs before letting him go. Jura only motioned up at the three.

“And this is why they are our enemies! Harsh, bloodthirsty creatures!” Whatever he was saying, it was all lies.

“Hey! We-we’re not like that guys.” Mugman laughed through his teeth nervously as he looked at the civilians who only seemed to fear him.

“And I’m going to assume there’s no bad news, Jura!” A voice shouts. Cuphead, Mugman, and Y/n look up to see a slim rat—wearing a long dark cape and a golden staff—that Y/n was sure was used as some sort of tool beforehand. She walked down the lane of the village up to the thre, the civilians moving from her path, she had sass and moxie.

She gazed up at the three before eyeing Jura.

“Where is it?” She says slowly. That was Agrus.

“Well..you see…” Jura starts and Y/n immediately knew they were referring to the book, what did they need it for? Y/n’s eyebrows furrowed as she gazed down at Jura and Argus.

“They don’t have it.” He took some time to say it almost as if he were afraid to do so. The civilians had fallen into a deep silent coma, it seemed disappointing Argus was something of a great fear.

“I think I need to remind everyone around here who runs this place!” Argus's boisterous voice shouts out, minus the fact she was just a mere rat, her voice spoke volumes and shook fear into the civilians as they backed away.

Cuphead clearly knew what was up next as he sighed and hung his head low with a groan. “God please no..” he says. And Y/n could feel the build up as well as Argus then points her staff towards some of the civilians who backed away in fear.

“Noooow! When I wake up in the afternoon, which it pleases me to do! Don’t nobody bring me no bad news! ‘Cause I wake up already negative, and I’ve wired up my fuse, so don’t nobody bring me no bad news!” She sings before her gaze at Jura.

“If we’re gonna be buddies, better bone up on the rules, ‘cause don’t nobody bring me no bad news—“ she quickly looks at another civilian who smiled nervously under her gaze.

“You can be my best of friends! As opposed to payin’ dues! But don’t no body bring me! No. Bad. News!” The civilians scattered away to their prospective places and started to work—sawing, stocking and other things.

“No bad news!” Argus sings

“No bad news!” The civilians sang after her.

“No bad news!” Argus sings again as she pushed a civilian to the side as she walked close to the three.

“No bad news!” The civilians sang.

“And don’t you ever bring me no bad news! ‘Cause I’ll make you an offer, child that you cannot refuse, so don’t nobody bring me. No. Bad. News!” Argus gazes at the three before she motioned the guards down the town which they led the three down as Argus continued singing.

“When you’re talking to me? Don’t be cryin’ blues! ‘Cause don’t nobody bring me no bad news! You can verbalize and vocalize, but just bring me the clues, but don’t nobody bring me. No. Bad. News!” Argus shouts as she prances around, Cuphead, Y/n’s and Mugman’s walking feet as the civilians sing along in the background, Y/n’s eyes couldn’t keep in one place as she stared between Argus and the civilians and wherever the guards were taking them.

“Bring some message in your head, or in something you can’t lose! But don’t you ever, ever bring me no bad news! If you’re gonna bring me something, bring me something I can use, but don’t you bring me, no bad news!”

As she sang the guards stopped walking and Y/n watched as some civilians scampered around—grabbing ropes, needles, weapons and wrapping around their feet. She tried focusing on the signing; she was so focused on the fact that they were literally wrapping them up. She couldn't move as her hands were confined together and she heard Cuphead shouting at the rats as Mugman was tied to Y/n and the same for Cuphead.

“Hey! Let go!” Cuphead shouts as he kicks at the rats but misses every time. The three fell to the ground and Y/n yelped slightly as the three were tied together.

The three shuffled and moved but the ropes were way too tightly to even move properly, one thing for sure those rats were strong. Y/n watched as the rats hopped over their legs to tie the nylon rope around them, only further tightening it that Y/n was starting to think they were going to tie them to death.

The civilians quickly scurried away as Argus had been signing; she scurried to the three with a grin.

“Don’t you ever bring me, bring me, bring me, noooo bad neeewwws!”

Alice stared at the empty bed, her eyebrows stitched together..where..was Y/n? She slowly blinked before walking over to the bed and lifting the covers. There was nothing under there, the bookbag was tilted over on the floor—which Alice immediately noticed. She walked over to the Y/n’s bookbag and picked it up, she remembered how the girl kept the book in the bag at all times and lo and behold. The book wasn’t present.

No Y/n. No book.

“Oh..this is bad..” Alice whispered to herself.

“What’s bad?” Bendy’s voice asks from behind her. She turned around and her gaze landed on Bendy, who had slowly walked into the room, his eyes falling onto the bookbag before raising an eyebrow. “Where’s Y/n?” He asks.

Alice sighs before giving him a look. “She wasn’t with you?” She quickly asks and Bendy squints his eyes and shakes his head. “Not that I remembered, I was with Donald the entire morning.”

Alice placed the bookbag on the bed and placed her hands on her hips. “Well, she wasn’t with me and I can’t find her, I've been looking for her for the past 10 minutes.” She scoffs and Bendy only chuckles. “Don’t worry too much. She wanders off sometimes to get some alone time? You know how humans get, especially when they’re away from home for so long.” He pushed the matter away as if brushing dust from his shoulders.

“Besides, the gal’s been stressing with everythin’s that been going on, m’sure she’ll turn up later on today.” Bendy’s words did bring Alice down from her small stupor, she sighs softly and rubbed her forehead. “I mean, if you say so.”

Right when Alice finished her sentence a small thud emits from under the bed. The two looked at eachother and Bendy soon smiled and chuckled before his head motioned towards the bed that made the noise.

“That’s probably her.” He muttered to Alice. Which..Alice could only hope it was Y/n under the bed. Bendy lifts a foot up slightly, lifting the draping sheet up near the bed.

“C’mon kid. Jokes time over, we got work to do today.” Bendy chuckled. But he was met with silence. He was about to speak again until the book slid from under the bed as if someone pushed it. Alice and Bendy watched as the book slid between the two and opened. The pages flip and Bendy furrowed his eyebrows in seriousness, once the book stopped its flipping he could see the page were the names of the people who had already been found was imprinted on the book, his name, Panchito’s, Oswald, Donald and Y/n—but her name glowed ever so slightly in a yellow golden soft light.

“What does that mean?” Alice asks Bendy and Bendy slowly opens his mouth and moves to pick up the book. “I have no idea, but are you sure that isn’t around here?” Bendy looks at Alice and she nods.

“I know she really won’t walk around this place and I hadn’t seen her when I woke up either, I just assumed she was off in the bathroom or something or with one of the boys.” Her voice edged slightly in worry.

“Come on, let’s go to Felix.” Bendy quickly turns around and walks out of the room, Alice followed behind him, no one had really left their rooms yet, mostly because there wasn’t much to do around the chapel other than the rehearsal that Alice scheduled for later on in the day. And pretty much it was a very relaxing time to just sit back and let loose.

When Bendy entered the room with the book opened. He spotted Boris and Edgar making paper airplanes, Charley and Barley hadn’t been doing much but sitting on the couch talking? And Felix, Oswald, Donald and Panchito were sitting at the counter talking with each other, Bendy walks over to the four and looks at them.

“Have you guys seen Y/n by any chance?” He asks.

“Uh..no? I thought she was with you.” Oswald says and Panchito agrees with Oswald—he hasn’t seen her as well.

“No, sorry.” Donald answered and Felix could see Bendy’s change in demeanor. “What’s wrong?” He asks him and Bendy places the book onto the table.

“Well, I mean, no one saw her and usually she would be around us, and the book did some weird thing and her name is glowing.” He explained as Oswald, Felix, Dondald and Panchito looked down to see the name glowing in the book, Alice had slowly walked over.

“I think she may be in danger.” She went ahead and called out and Felix moved to touch the book, but before he could land a claw on it slammed shut in a way for a defense mechanism. Felix had moved his hand away quickly and looked at Bendy, but the demon had his gaze on the floor, as well as Panchito, Oswald and Donald, the golden trail leading out of the door.

“Oh god she is.” Bendy quickly states which caused Felix’s ears to perk up.

“Well then what are we waiting for? Come on!” Donald removed himself from the seat as everyone hopped up as well.

They had to find Y/n.

Y/n, Cuphead, Mugman we’re tied together and all they could do was silently and grumpily watch the civilians move to continue their work—as Jura and Argus left to go and discuss ‘more important matters’ as she claimed..

“Can’t believe we’ve been napped by a couple of rats…” Cuphead muttered. Y/n grumbled and shoved him with her shoulder, Cuphead grunted before turning his head to look at her. His straw gently hitting the top of her head with how close they were to each other.

“Can you stop tryna hit them for one minute, Jesus Christ, Cuphead.” She hissed at him. Cuphead sighs before looking away from her. Everytime a civilian would wander pass, Cuphead would try to kick his foot to hit them and that only fed into the narrative that they were monsters to them.

“Now you see what I have to deal with.” Mugman sighs and his head lowered. “We’re going to die in here!” He cried out dramatically. Which Y/n thought he was overreacting but he started to actually cry. Tears fell down his face as he threw his head back, and then landed his face on her shoulder, his large tears soaking her shirt.

“Oooh, Mugman don’t cry, we’ll be fine.” Y/n quickly comforts Mugman as she gently rests her cheek on the rim of his head. Cuphead gazed at the two from the corner of his eyes and he rolled his eyes.

“You two are big babies.” He says nonchalantly and that earned him another shove to the arm and he grunts. “Okay! Okay..jeez..you sure do pack an arm.”

“Um..excuse me.” A voice calls out.

The three turned their gaze down to meet another rat..great..what now?

He wore a white dingy lab coat and had round glasses, he adjusted his glasses and smiled at the three.

“Oh great, another one.” Cuphead grumbled.

“My name is Puck—and uh. I think you guys would be better off with me.” He seemed to talk as if he were speaking from a script? His eyes quickly glanced over at the soldier who was standing a few feet away, clearly keeping an eye on the three as Jura and Argus were away.

Y/n’s legs felt like pins and needles and her muscles were starting to stiff up—not entirely a good position to sit as she was practically squished between Cuphead and Mugman. The guard turned to Puck and Puck smiled. “I’ll take these three to run some test.” He says and the guard nods. “Of course sir.” He says.

Puck motioned towards another guard to the three. “Untie them.” He says. As the guards wandered over and pulled out the sharp metal of a sword and started to cut away at the ropes—some crawling the rope like a latter to to cut away, Y/n could not think—test? What test?

And clearly Mugman thought the exact same thing as well as he nervously looked down at Puck. “Uh-uhaha—test? What test?” He asks leaning down slightly towards Puck once the ropes around him had been cut away and loosened, Y/n felt the blood slowly rush back to her arms that she hadn’t noticed was cutting circulation away. But the restraints around their wrist were still there.

Puck only winked silently at Mugman—quite..obviously actually but the guards didn’t seem to catch wind of that.

“Follow me!” Puck shouts before turning the opposite direction and walking off. Y/n immediately stood up—Cuphead and Mugman following after her—it only took her a couple of strides to make it over to Puck. “And—what exactly are we here for? Where are we going?” She asks him—she felt awkward just..speaking to a rat..but that didn’t matter at the time—clearly her life was at stake and she really didn't want to go out by dying in a sewer line.

“I'll tell you when we get to my base.” He tells the three, his small feet patting the ground as he quickly scurried on all fours towards a hallway to wherever he was taking them. The three following close behind.

Mugman curiously looked around the town—some civilians only looked away in fear and continued on with their day—the place was so dull and gloomy—then again—it was a small town filled with rats, Y/n didn’t know what to expect.

“I say we just book it.” Cuphead says and Mugman slowly looks away from the small town and to Cuphead. “I dunno Cuphead..something fishy is going on around here.” Mugman seemed to sense something was off and Y/n glanced at him and raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?” She asks.

“I mean this town just looks so—so—“

“Stupid.” Cuphead blatantly cuts in and Mugman quickly shakes his head. “No! They look so miserable.” Mugman’s bottom lip quivered almost as if he were going to cry about the small town.

“Well..yeah I noticed that too.” Y/n admits. She did see how off the civilians acted when Argus came around—it was clear Argus ran pretty much everything and maybe perhaps abused her power..

“That’s because you’re right.” The three looked down at Puck who was standing in a doorway—which was a bit too small that she was sure they would have to crouch slightly to get in.

“Come in, hurry.” Puck says before scurrying into the room. The three look at each other before Y/n walks over to the small corridor—rags as curtains enter her vision as she ducked down slightly and entered the room.

Which was tad but difficult considering her wrist were still bonded together. But once entering the room she slowly opened her mouth in awe.

A blue lamp filled the room in a warm nice blue glow—there were small sized trinkets and lab beakers and other lab instruments. A desk filled with papers and other stuff—the room was small but it was enough to fit the three even if the ceiling brushed the top of their heads making them bend down slightly. There was a computer screen on the wall in front of them that was turned off and a small bed off in the corner of the room. Puck excitedly scurried over to the table and moved papers out of the way.

“Whoa..” Cuphead says in awe—his binded hands lifting up to gently tap the plastic star near his head that was taped to the ceiling as decoration.

“You’re a scientist?” Mugman asks and Puck looks up at the three and smiles. “Yeah! First in command.” He said proudly and Y/n had to admit it was adorable to see him beam up at them, Puck goes back to searching through the sea of papers before finding a razor blade, he walks over to the three and lifts it up. “Here—let me give you guys a hand.” He says. Mugman reached his arms down to Puck’s height, and Puck cut away at the rope and freed his hands. Mugman rubbed his wrist and smiled at Puck.

“Thank you.” Mugman says and Puck hums happily In response before moving over to Cuphead and cutting his rope away—as he did so Y/n’s eyes landed on a piece of paper—it was a photo of the book in a display case—more than likely before it was snagged.

“You know about the book?” Y/n looks down at Puck and watches as he cuts the rope away, once the rope slips from Y/n’s wrist and onto the ground Puck nods quickly.

“Yes!” He says. Y/n gently rubbed at her wrist and immediately knew she needed answers.

“What? Really?” She frantically asks.

“My great grandfather was your ancestors' researcher and all eyes.” Puck hops from one foot to the other with excitement and Cuphead tilts his head.

“All Eyes?” He repeats and Puck nods.

“Yeah, basically just keeping an eye out for stuff. Not much of a serious job, but it’s still something.” Puck seemed overjoyed about that but hey, Y/n didn’t want to raid on his excitement, she was more so focused on the thousand of questions that she was about to ask Puck.

“Wait. So, you know about the book, which clearly means you know about us—how did you know we have it?” She asks.

“Oh that’s easy, I saw how you all were running around yesterday, this town doesn't get too much action so seeing you run around crazy after the book was a major factor.” Well..she would give him that. She did run past many people yesterday trying to secure the book so there was no doubt some people saw her doing that—which did bring up the fact that they had to be extra careful next time—if Puck saw that—lord knows how many other people saw her with the book that was literally trending on the news.

“Wait a second. Then if you’re apparently the good guy, how come those other rats want the book?” Mugman asks suspiciously, placing his hands on his hips and Puck sighs softly. “That’s the hard part. Argus wants to use the book and use it as some totem to bring back the queen for our town.”

“I don’t know much about the book, but I’m pretty sure resurrection isn’t a thing in it.” Y/n deadpans.

“It isn’t. She made it up to make herself look good in the eyes of the town, to put her as the new leader, she wants to use it for its power.” Now that speaks a lot. The three went silent as they stared down at Puck. Puck walks over to the cluttered table and picks up a photo, he walks back over to the three and turns it to them.

The photo seemed old—the colors in black and white, a man with a pencil mustache—wearing a light button up and suspenders with slicked dark hair. He wore a paperboy hat and he seemed to be in his mid 30s. He had his elbow on a table and was leaning on it. A stack of books was stacked up to reach his shoulders and there stood a rat with a bushy mustache, wearing a lab coat as well.

“This is your great grandfather.” Puck hands Y/n the photo and she gently took it in her hands. Staring down at the photo in awe. She had..never seen this man before…never..

Her thumb gently brushed over the photo and she felt Cuphead and Mugman hover over her shoulders as they both also looked down at the photo. She turned the photo around to see a small note.

Hector my friend, as you venture off to contain the demons of the world and its mystery, I want you to take this photo—of the last time we will see each other.

You are a great friend, and an amazing hero.

The note was vague—but Y/n could only assume the man's name was Hector. She turned the photo back around and felt like she was looking dead into the past.

“Geez, he sorta looks like Cab Calloway.” Cuphead mentions.

“His name was Hector Vendolez L/n.” Puck says.

“Do you know him?” Mugman asks Y/n and she slowly shakes her head. “I have never seen this man before, nor heard of him.” She answers as she hands the photo back to him but Puck shakes his head.

“You keep it. That is a part of you.”

Y/n looks back down at the photo, she just couldn’t seem to stop looking at the man. This was her grandfather—her great grandfather. A man who was in the same exact situation she’s in. An adventurer…he was an adventurer!

“That book you all have—from my fathers past research, that book holds a great power, and only the hero’s can access it.” Puck starts as he walks back over to the stack of papers and looks through them once more. Y/n stared at the photo before looking at Puck.

“So, your grandfather got some notes about the book, through my grandfather?” Y/n asks and Puck fixes his glasses and nods. “Yes!”

“That book originated on an island called Ruby Falls.” Puck turned to the three with a map—which was the only human sized object in the room, he pulled it from the table with a tug and it landed on the floor, pushing it slightly the map slowly uncurled—a coffee colored map was present showing the countries and what not—it seemed pretty much like a regular map a school teacher would have in their room.

“I’m glad you all came, because I have everything you need.” Puck claps his hands excitedly. The map had a circle marked on it from what was a marker Y/n assumed with an arrow pointing at..nothing but the ocean..

‘Ruby Falls’

“Ruby Falls?” Mugman says and Puck nods, who had managed to scamper back over to the table to fiddle with a few things and a—he somehow managed to pull a decent sized box out besides the table.

“Yes! Ruby Falls is an island—and on that island is this—area—a cave maybe? Who knows—from my grandfather's notes and journal it said that it’s an island down on the Atlantic Ocean—No population, that island will unlock the book and all of its—I guess you can say power—I dunno, his notes were hard to interpret. He made it seem like it was some second world thing—I wouldn’t ever know though so it’s really up to you guys.” Puck spoke quickly but Y/n made sure to hear every word he said.

“Well it looks like we’re lookin’ at the ocean to me.” Cuphead points out. There was no island on the map, the circle was just in the middle of the ocean—that said nothing.

“That’s because it won’t be on any maps. I can’t exactly tell you how they found it, it wasn’t mentioned in my grandfather's notes. But one thing is if they were able to find it, hey, you all can too!” Puck’s tail wagged and Y/n reached down slightly and picked up the map. Her eyes looking over the pictures of the countries, the rough paper rubbed against the palm of her fingers, clearly that paper was old, lord knows how old.

“But, there’s this stone—called Ruby’s Heart. And..that’s pretty much when everything ended for them..” Puck lifts up another photo—yet again in lack and white, a small circular stone with an emblem on the front—which actually sorta made the stone look like a button, it was laying on a table when it was taken.

“You need this in order to access wherever the book takes you when you get there. It acts as a key to a door—from what I read. With that key, there'll be an altar inside. But the thing is..” he slightly lowered the photo and sighed.

“The key was taken years ago—when Hector and his team died, the key was broken into pieces and taken to different parts where I can’t say, because I don’t even know. But he had a speculation that with you all—you can still find it and put it together.” Puck had smiled nervously as if the information would have made them upset—which it slightly did—but at this point Y/n was getting used to disappointment.

“So Hector was the only human in his group like me?” Y/n asks and Puck’s smile comes back and he nods. “Yep!” He answered.

“And boy will I tell ya, they were such a fierce group. My grandfather made it seem like they were the best in the world.” Puck sighs softly before his ears flattened and tail slowly lowered to the ground.

“But..it’s uh..unfortunate that they didn’t get to see the hero’s they got now.”

Mugman’s eye twitched at this slightly as he held a strained smile. “So..they…they died? Like..they were killed? That type of dead?” He edged—it was evident that didn’t put him at ease, if their ancestors couldn’t even make it—what makes them think they can do it?!

“Oh please Mugsy, we’ll be fine, they left this adventure in the right hands.” Cuphead boasted and placed his hands on his hips. Y/n’s head felt like it was spinning, there was so much to do!

“So..we find Ruby Falls—and we’ll get some sort of answer as to what’s going on?” Y/n asks but Puck nods and then slightly points his finger at her.

“Yes, but you all would have to do what first?” He asks as if testing her. “Find the pieces to Ruby’s Heart in order to access the island.” She answered and Puck nods.

“Yes, and despite all the work you guys will have to do, there’s one thing that’ll help you all.” Puck walks over to the box and gently pulls at the front of it.

“Hector was originally an engineer, he built all sorts of things! And he made this for you, human!” Pulling the box open and the front falling onto the floor with a soft thud—Puck didn’t get to speak before something quickly dashed out of the box, the sound of metal clinking together, Cuphead, Y/n and Mugman backs away quickly sharing a yelp as the thing finally stopped moving, and..it was a puppy!

The puppy turned around and looked directly at Y/n. He was clearly made of colored white metal, with dark spots, and a dark spot on its left eye. It’s tail wagged excitedly before pouncing on Y/n’s leg.

“Arf!” Y/n gasps and quickly shoves the map into Cuphead’s chest for him to hold. “Oof!” Cuphead fell to the ground at the unwanted shove and Y/n quickly bent down to let the pup.

“Aww you’re so cute!” She shouts. She felt the pup place it’s paws on her shoulders and lick at her face—-she was utterly surprised to feel a wet tongue lick at her face, the tail wagging in pure excitement, it’s head rubbed under Y/n’s chin and Y/n’s hand gently rubbed against a cold metal, she looked down to see a name tag on its collar, gently taking the name tag to get a better look, she saw the name embedded in the metal.

‘Spunk’

“Spunk.” Y/n read and turned to tag around and immediately furrowed her eyebrows. “Therapy dog?” She grimaced before looking at Puck for an answer and he tilted his head slightly. “I..don’t know why that’s there.” He says quickly.

Spunk lets out another robotic bark to catch Y/n’s attention, which it did, when she looked back down she saw him in his back for a rub, which she rubbed the pups belly and he gently stuck his tongue out and closed his eyes in joy.

“How come I don’t get a dog?!” Cuphead quickly glares at Puck, Mugman only looks away from Spunk and his eyes look at the ceiling as if saying. ‘Dear god why’ before looking back at Puck.

“Ignore him.” He says.

“Hector is an odd guy, I dunno why he made it. But it said in the notes he wanted to give his future grandchild something to help them with their journey and ease them from being overwhelmed.” Puck answered and that was really all he had information on regarding the gift.

Y/n huffs as she finally stopped rubbing the pup and shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t get..overwhelmed..” she muttered under her breath.

“Sure ya’ don’t doll.” Cuphead says and she looks at him to see him looking down at her with a hand on his hip with a sly smile. Y/n only rolled her eyes and stood back up while Spunk quickly stood up and sat close to her foot, proud and tall as if he were guarding her.

“Personally I would think making an adult sized dog would have been better.” Puck points out the size of Spunk—he was just so small—either Hector only thought about Y/n being a kid at the time or just genuinely felt like a puppy would have been better—who knows, only he knew the true reason why.

“But there is one thing that I feel might actually be useful for you all…one of the pieces of Ruby’s Heart, is here. And Argus has it. She uses it as some sort of deity to the town—saying it would tell them to bring the ‘Surfers’ to us so we can sacrifice them to make her queen.” He spoke about Argus in disdain and disgust, his ears flattening as he grimaced. The three fell in silence as they looked at eachother…sacrificed?

“Uh..sacrifice?” Y/n asks and Puck nods. “Yeah..doesn't sound too good.”

“You kiddin?! That’s horrible!” Mugman cried out in fear.

“But don’t worry! I’m going to get you guys out with that stone piece and you guys can be on your way.” Puck rushes over to the table and looks through his notes for the 100th time it seemed.

“Great, so we can’t leave this stupid place without that piece.” Cuphead deadpans before turning his head to look at Y/n. “Yeah..” she replied before looking at Puck.

“I take it you’re the one that sent them out to get us?” It would make sense, he saw they had the book—knew who they were—hereditary wise—and knew that the only thing that would help them advance later on was located in the town he resided in—but really, Y/n didn’t feel betrayed nor upset for the matter. In fact, quite grateful, without any of that happening, who knows how long it would have taken for them to find out they needed a key to get to some mysterious island.

Puck nods bashfully and rubbed the back of his neck slowly. “Yeah..sorry about that..had to use my label for granted for this one.” He apologized.

Cuphead had folded up the map and placed it in his pocket and Y/n still had a grip on the photo which she then placed into her pocket as well.

“Alright, well where is it? We can just kick our way through, snatch the piece and bust outta here.” Cuphead announced before nudging Y/n slightly as if she would agree with his plan—which not gonna lie, she actually was thinking about doing it.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Those arrows are laced with heavy chemicals that can shut the brain down in a matter of minutes, we don’t use them in ourselves—which is why they can take out someone as big as you guys so quickly.” Puck informed and Cuphead deflated, his straw went limp slightly.

“Good to know…” he muttered through his teeth.

“Why do they have the stone piece if Hector was close with your kind?” Mugman brings up. That would seem kinda backstabbing someone—in a sense.

“Oh he was very close to us, but the thing is, our last queen died..or..Argus killed her. For some reason she thinks we’re close—I..don’t know where that came from— but she told me her plan was to take out our old ruler and have her become the new ruler—where we’re from, you have to sacrifice something of great power to become the leader.” Puck’s ears slowly flattened and he deflated slightly in sadness.

“I shoulda told someone about her plans but I just stayed back and let it all happen..”

“Oh don’t worry!” Mugman frowned before getting on his knees and patting Puck’s back with his index finger, in the best attempt to comfort him, Spunk had spotted Mugman squat on the floor and the pup laid on his tummy—squatting as well as if they were sneaking and Mugman being the one to initiate it.

“So sacrificing someone gets you a big role around here?” Cuphead raises an eyebrow.

“It doesn't have to be a person, it has to be something big—not size matter—but something that the civilians and feel in their heart—something passionate—our last ruler burned flowers as essence, to show love—but—with her passing, the story on how she died was..well..” Puck looks up at the three once Mugman stood back up.

“The ‘sufers’— you guy—Had killed her, and Argus promised to bring the surfers down here to restore justice—and if she kills the thing that killed our ruler—“

“The civilians would look at her as a hero and deem her the new ruler to keep them safe.” Y/n finished and Puck nods.

“But that doesn't explain why she wants to book. Sure she can try ta’ kill us, but she knows about the book and has one of the pieces to that key.” Cuphead didn’t finish his sentence but only raised an eyebrow and looked at Puck.

“She wants to get power from it. I’m a way that even if it's—technically broken. The piece can still react to the book..the confusing part is while no one can access the book that’s not a part of it, anyone can still land their hand on that piece and—sorta in a way gain power from it.” Puck fixes his glasses slightly and Mugman things for a moment.

“That’s probably why it was broken.” Mugman comments. It would only make sense, a stone that could give you some sort of power or strength with anyone—entirely different from the book—but the catch was;

“You can only use it when the book is either near opened.” Y/n says quietly but they heard her. It had to be that—why else would Argus need the book—unless she wanted for the same reason the others were after it for. Well—Y/n didn’t know why they were after it—but still.

“Jeez Puck, thank you for this information—I never knew any of this stuff. Is there anything else we need to know?” She asks, Puck could only think for a moment before shaking his head. “That’s all he wrote—other than a few dated pages in his journal about Hector—not anything informative to help you all though.”

“So. What’s the plan to get that key and get outta here?” Cuphead asks and Puck’s tail wags.

“Well…they’ll tie you up again that’s for sure..Argus will bring out the piece—I don't know where she’ll have it. Best chance is to escape and take it.” He replied and Mugman slowly squinted his eyes and his shoulders raised slightly.

“And..how are we going to..do all that?”

Puck slowly deflated. “I’m only good at researching..not planning..I thought that was a ‘you guys’ thing!” He quickly said and Cuphead jolted his head. “Us?! That’s a her thing!” He points at Y/n who furrowed her eyebrows.

“What makes you guys think I can make a plan to take a stone from a rat while being sacrificed and not die??” She could barely even think straight when people were chasing her! There’s no way she can make a full fledged escape plan!

Cuphead lifts a hand. “I’ll make one.” He smiled.

“We first grab a chains—“

“Cuphead, shut up.” Y/n rolled her eyes.

“It’s a good plan!”

“There you guys are..”

Cuphead, Mugman, Y/n and Puck looked over in the corridor to see Argus and Jura. Mugman started to sweat as he flashed a nervously smile.

“Puck, great. You got them ready for the offer?” Argus walked in, her hands clasped together, the dark cape moving ever so slightly—following her moment. Puck quickly fixed his glasses and nodded quickly. “Yes.”

“Wonderful.” Argus says ever so softly before turning to the three with her hands behind her back—when Y/n moved her gaze down to her, she noticed Spunk was missing, but her focus was mainly now on Argus.

“3 surfers should be more than enough, hm Jura?” Argus asks as her eyes wandered over the three, Cuphead only rolled his eyes at her statement.

“Yeah.” Jura muttered—clearly not caring about the conversation at hand.

“What’s up with surfers? What’s that supposed to mean?” Y/n had asked and Argus only looked her up and down and huffs. “It talks..” she sneered.

“I mean, you’re not so bright looking yourself.” Y/n shot back and Cuphead snorted before letting out an obnoxious laugh and nudging Y/n.

“Good one!” He laughs and Y/n lets out a snicker. Mugman gently rocked back and forth on the balls of his heels silently not saying anything in fear Argus might do something.

“Restrain them. And get them up to the dock—and gather the people. We start early..” Argus grins…well…that was..bad.

“If only you two…” Mugman muttered—the sound the creaking rope echoed, hanging upside down wrapped together with the nylon rope. How the contents in Mugman and Cuphead’s head didn’t spill and fall into the 60 foot abyss and into the large mass of murky green water below..was beyond Y/n.

“KEPT YOUR MOUTHS SHUT!” Mugman shouts, his voice echoing and bouncing off of the moldy, slimy walls of the sewers.

Y/n’s heart was beating quickly and she felt the blood rush to her head, now she was scared, she was afraid—80 feet away from them was a 12 foot deep body of water with lord knows what was in it. Holding them up was the thick nylon rope holding onto a cranked crane that could lower them into the water. Y/n’s mind was worried about multiple things at once. Would that rusty metal crane break and they’ll plummet to their death, or would the rope snap instead from the three bodies that were weighing it down.

Or would they fall into the water and immediately die on impact—or whatever in the water gets them?!

Or would they just hang until the blood rushes to their head?! She’s never been in a situation like this before!

“Hey! Y/n—doll—calm down—breathe!” Y/n’s clogged ears heard the voice of Cuphead and her vision finally came back to her, she felt Cuphead’s head gently nudge her own. Her heart was beating so fast it felt like it would rip itself from her chest and flee. She hardly noticed she was breathing so fast.

“It’s okay, we’ll be fine guys.” Cuphead told the two—Mugman was clearly pissed..

“Cuphead, we’re dangling feet away from water that I’m positive has radiation, nothing is okay!” Mugman shook his legs angrily.

“We’re going to die.” Y/n sighs and closes her eyes. Damn it—right when she found out who Hector was and everything that Puck told them..even a little robot puppy too!

The loud laughs echoes—chattering and murmurs echoed in the area, looking over, they could see the town of rats slowly walking up the spiral stairs they circled around the body of water.

Argus’s laughs echoed as she wandered over to the ledge that had the rod that was holding onto the rope that held onto Cuphead, Mugman and Y/n. Jura and Poe and a few other guards stood behind her.

The three had moved their gaze over to see Argus—which the led was above their left—and immediately Y/n’s eyes landed on the white cracked stone—that looked like a porcelain plate being held up by a string wrapped around Argus’s neck, acting as a necklace of some sort. That was the key.

“She has the key.” Y/n muttered to Cuphead and Mugman, the two moving their gazes back to Argus.

“Nuts. How are we supposed to get it now?” Cuphead cursed.

“My people—what I bring to you—are the creatures from above! That has rightfully so taken our queen away from us!” Argus’s voiced shouts, her voice echoing and bouncing from the walls for everyone to hear. The people cheered at the announcement she made—acting as if a rightful judgment of justice was taking place.

“With this sacrifice, I bring to you a new generation of wealth and prosperity, I shall be your new leader!” Argus raised her hands in the sky as the cheering from the town grew louder.

“Behead them!”

“They deserve death from all they’ve done!”

“Never trust surfers!”

The voices of different cries reached the ears of the three and Mugman made an uneasy sound. “Oh god..I’m gonna be sick..” he shuddered.

“Deep below..for our sacrifice..we shall feed them to the great green beast!”

Immediately when she said that everyone cheered even louder. Big green beast? Hold on what?!

“WAIT!” Y/n shrieks—which the town simmered down their noises and some gasps at the sudden outburst. She felt Cuphead move his head to look at her.

“Are you guys blind or something?! There is no such thing as a surfer! We didn’t do anything, we’re regular, ordinary people like you all!”

Meanwhile a few meters away—a group of toons pushed a set of wooden doors open, Alice gazed around the empty town and her eyebrows furrowed. “Wow.” He said. Felix's ears immediately perked up at the sight. “Rat People.” He says.

Bendy held the book as he looked around the area as well and raised an eyebrow. “Rat People?” He repeats and Felix nods as he slowly walks into town—the streets were empty and very vacant almost like a ghost town.

“The actual name is Atika—transferred from the long lost language of Alu. Not important though.” Felix then turns around to look at everyone. “The important thing is, they’re a very smart tribe of Rats.”

“So they won’t be a problem then, right?” Oswald asks. Charley chuckled before kicking over a basket of apples which caused Edgar to punch his back and immediately stop him from destroying things any further.

“Well—I hadn’t ran into them and had a problem before, but, every part of the world is different, you gotta always keep that in mind, one moment you’ll run into a tribe of talking rats who would let you stay for a few days and give you food—and the next you’ll be scuffling into a fight to get away.” It seemed Felix had met with that last statement a lot more than he was willing to admit.

Panchito frowned and his tail feather gently lowered to the ground. “Aw..but where is Y/n?” He asks, the trail led them there and vanished the minute they opened the door—when they all saw the door they assumed that she would be behind there but behold there was an abandoned town—but no Y/n.

Alice sighed and rubbed her forehead. “This is my fault, I should have kept a close eye on her.” She says softly—her halo dimmed ever so lightly, she felt a hand on her shoulder and she looked over to see Charley giving her a comforting pat in the back—she smiled softly at him and he then chuckled.

“Yeah you’re right it’s your fault.” He quickly says, cutting the sappy interaction off quickly. Alice deflated and rolled her eyes before shoving him away from her with one hand.

“Guys, focus.” Donald scolded the two and Boris looked over when he spotted Felix unzipping Y/n’s bookbag and taking out her jacket, he then held the jacket up to Boris’s nose.

“If it led us here—that means she has to be around here somewhere.” He tells everyone. Boris took in the scent of Y/n’s jacket before sniffing the humid air—after taking a few more sniffs his nose finally started to lead him to the area Y/n was—a trail of her and..

“Someone else was with her.” Boris informed as he walked the opposite direction towards a dark hallway.

“Who?” Donald asks and Boris slowly shrugs as he was more focused on tracking down where Y/n was—it seemed she was walking in one straight line.

“Can you smell over there?” Felix stops Boris from walking and points over to the other side of the hallway—completely off track where he was smelling, Boris only looked at Felix before walking over to the area and sniffing around—but there was no identical smell to Y/n.

“No.” He tells him and Felix points over to another area which Boris repeats and does the same thing and shakes his head.

“What are ya doin?” Barley asks—watching Felix point in different directions for Boris to sniff. Barley started to get the idea that the cat was playing a joke on Boris.

Felix looks at Barley and then to everyone else. “If Y/n wasn’t in any other parts in the town or this hallway—and only in one continuous direction, that means someone does have her.” He says and Alice gasps softly.

“Well—is she alive?!” She quickly asks—she was much more worried now that Felix mentioned the poor girl was basically kidnapped.

“I sure would hope so because I can’t even begin to imagine what to tell M/n—in fact I might not even go back home knowing her, she’ll kill me.” Bendy shivered at the thought of that. M/n never was bothered with much—but she sure as hell cared about her family and if that woman even remotely finds out about Y/n going missing? Oh boy..

“Come on! I can still smell her!” Boris said impatiently as he continued on down the hall.

“Whatever happens, just keep an eye out, and keep a good hold on that book, we don’t know who we’ll run into.” Felix says and everyone agrees as they follow Boris down the hall.

Back where Y/n, Cuphead and Mugman were, when Y/n finished her first statement, then town had gone silent and Y/n breathed slowly.

“Your leader Argus killed her!” She confessed. A few gasps and murmurs filled her ears—yeah..they heard that alright. Argus looks down at Y/n and her eyebrows furrowed together.

Argus lifts up her head to look at her people. “She’s telling lies, fibs!”

“She’s using you all!”

“You can’t listen to a creature with flesh!”

“She doesn't care about you! All she wants is power!”

“Pay attention to me!” Argus lifts her hands up in order.

“What a woman…” Y/n heard Cuphead purr and she looks over to him to see him looking at her with a boyish smile and glazed eyes. Y/n rolled her eyes softly at his statement—but the three yells once feeling them drop for a split second, her stomach dropped as if she were on a roller coaster and the fear set in, Y/n looked back up to see Argus holding the crank.

“I am your salvation!” Argus tells everyone—but instead they didn’t cheer as they only either watched the three or was busy overthinking Y/n’s words.

“You’ll kill us for no reason.” Y/n tells Argus—she tried to find a way to reason with her—she really did—but only so much could go through Argus’s brain, and she looked to have had her mind already made up.

Argus only stooped down low to the three. “I have a reason..” she bellowed to Y/n specifically, Y/n stared at Argus—but not with a glint of hate—but one with confusion..what? Y/n felt her eyebrows slowly furrow together.

“What…?” She whispered.

“Don’t listen to her, she’s only trying to get in your head.” Mugman tells Y/n.

Argus stands back up—this time with a newfound passion of anger and resentment.

“Because when you’re gone—that book will belong to me, your bloodline will be no more!” Argus shouts at Y/n, removing a sharp knife from behind her and holding it to the nylon rope that felt like a strand of hair ready to be snapped.

“You were just like your stupid grandfather, curious and hopeful. Well that ends here.”

Everything went silent for Y/n as Argus’s words met her ears.

“L/n.”

She cuts the rope and Y/n felt like everything went slow, she closed her eyes and clenched it closed, the rope that was wrapped around the three slowly fell off as they fell—inching closer and and closer to the murky water, Argus’s laugh echoed in Y/n’s ears the sound of cheering from the people and the shouts of herself and the cup brothers.

To be honest Y/n didn’t think she would die this way. Not by rats..well..then again who would think they would die by rats not unless you lived near a plague—but that was quickly erased when she felt her felt give out a rough pull, she gasps and opened her eyes—a few feet away from the water and she saw Cuphead and Mugman hanging upside down as well. Looking up all the way at the top of the staircase near an open door was Edgar!

“Eddie!” Y/n shouts as she extended her arms towards the spider who squeaked happiness and hops up and down—he held onto the spiderweb—with surprisingly good strength, she felt giddy and smiled up at him. Oh man was she glad to see him!

“Good—god! I thought I was a goner.” Cuphead gasps for air and Mugman lets out a sigh. Of relief his hands dropped to his side in exhaustion.

Edgar squeaks once more as if telling them if was going to pull them up. Which he did and they started to slowly yet safely be tugged up.

“Wasn’t there suppo—“

“Don’t!” Mugman shouts at Cuphead—quickly cutting him off from his question and Cuphead sucked his lips in as he glanced back at the water.

“Oh—the green monster?” Y/n asks and she felt Mugman glare daggers at the side of her head. She looked at him and raised an eyebrow. “Wha-“

Just as she said that. The sound of water bubbling emitted from below, she and the cup bros glanced down to see the water bubbling as if it were boiling. Y/n clenched her teeth and furrowed her eyebrows, and suddenly a large green alligator jumped from the water, the three screamed in fear and held onto each other. Mugman and Cuphead hugged tightly onto Y/n, squishing her between them, the alligator hopped up so high they could peer deep into his maw, the heat of its breath radiating onto them before snapping closed—almost catching by a hair strand before falling back into the water.

One last tug and the three quickly latched themselves onto the ledge and crawled up—finally onto land, and Y/n smiled at Edgar and immediately wrapped her arms around his neck in a tight hugging—considering how short he was she had to hug him on her knees—mostly because she finished crawling back up.

“I’m so glad to see you!” She shouts. Her eyes looked up to see the others were there as well. Dropping the web from their hands as they were the ones to also help Edgar drag the three to the top, which explained how Y/n thought the small spider could manage to handle all that weight.

“Guys!” She stood up and immediately was pulled into a hug by Panchito. Hugged her tightly and shook her body. “Oh there you are! my friend, you had us worried! ¿Dónde has estado? ¿estás herido? alguna lesión?” Panchito frantically questions and checked her face for any scars or bruises as well as her arms. Y/n smiled and Alice walked over and placed a hand on her head.

“Are you okay?” She asks.

“She looks fine to me, takes a lot to knock down a L/n. Ask M/n. That woman never stops.” Charley pipes up. Y/n laughs softly and nods. “I’m good.” She said, and Bendy finally caught her eye—and he was too busy eyeing Cuphead and Mugman. Who was looking at him.

Cuphead smiled before walking over to Bendy, holding his hand out for a shake. “You must be Bendy? My name is Cuphead.” Cuphead smiled at Bendy and Bendy had a disgusted look in his eyes before he let out a small chuckle and smiled slowly giving his hand to Cuphead.

“Pleasure to meet you.” He said before his hand quickly grips onto Cuphead—a loud crack emits from Cuphead’s hand and Cuphead shouts in pain and buckles his knees, Y/n quickly pushes Bendy’s hand away. “Stop!” She scolds him.

“Cuphead isn’t bad, he and Mugman didn’t do anything.” She quickly tells Bendy who looks at Y/n for a moment. “So you were with them the entire time?” He asks.

“Yes. Don’t hurt them.” She looked at everyone and wanted to make sure that the cupbros were okay and didn’t need to be manhandled.

Cuphead swats his hand and hisses in pain.

“Felix!” Mugman noticed Felix and smiled and Felix smiled at Mugman. “Good to see you boys are okay.” Felix tells the brother and Mugman quickly nods.

“So—what’s with the rat sacrifice?” Oswald abruptly says and Donald nods. “Yeah..” Donald said slowly in utter confusion.

“It’s crazy, I..” Y/n slowly stopped talking as she glanced back at Bendy who was already looking at her. Jeez..she didn’t really wanna go over the fact she snuck out of the church last night. “I can explain the story when we get out of here.” She muttered.

“But the important part is—this rat named Argus wants to kill us for a sacrifice to her people to make her the official queen but the thing is, she killed the original queen—to make her the new leader which can turn her into the queen if she finds a sacrifice which was is-and we met this guy named Puck who told us about the book—because his grandfather used to work as a researcher for the last book holders and this guy named Hector—who is my great grandfather—had the book at the time—and basically there’s this island called Ruby’s Island that we have to go to because it can unlock the secrets to the book to help us stop what’s going on—BUT we have to find this key called Ruby’s Heart and it unlocks some sort of temple in the island, so we need that key but the thing is the key broke years go—and it broke into pieces and we have to find those broken pieces first and put them together in order to find the island and Argus has one of the pieces that we need to get to the island but the thing is she wants to book because I can only assume the book reacts to the key piece—whatever it is. It’s not good.” Y/n takes a deep breath after explaining it all in one full sentence and the faces they all made were hilarious.

Oswald, Donald, Panchito and Bendy had their mouths opened slightly in shock as Alice, Charley, Barley and Edgar stared at Y/n and basked in all the information that she managed to spit out in one go and Boris smiled goofily.

“Ruby Falls, I heard of that, never been there myself.“ Felix says. Cuphead sighs dreamily as he looks at Y/n his hands behind his back as he rocked back and forth on his feet.

“Man..ain’t she somethin..” he purred and Mugman nudged Cuphead and coughed in an attempt to stop him from his awkward staring.

“Well—I mean it’s a good thing you guys didn’t bring the book.” Mugman says and Bendy raises an eyebrow. “No, I have it right h-“ he looked down at his and went silent—Y/n looked down at Bendy’s hands as well to see nothing. Bendy’s tail dropped to the ground and he huffs heavily. “You gotta be kidding me!” He shouts.

Hearing the familiar laugh, Y/n and everyone else looked over to see Argus, holding the book above her head, Y/n was still astonished with how strong these rats were but that wasn’t even something to be thinking about right now.

“With this power! I can finally be powerful!” She lets out a laugh loud and powerful.

“Aw..she’s so small.” Panchito cooed with a soft laugh and Oswald let out a strained laugh through his teeth. “Not the time Panchito..” he wheezed.

“Good luck trying to get in it. You can’t open it.” Donald tells her with a simple shrug—at the point he knew if anyone got their hands on that book, it would be for a short time because they simply couldn’t get in it—but instead of meeting an embarrassed and angry expression, he was met with one of smugness and courage.

Bendy chuckled. “And what are you gonna do little guy?” He teased.

“I don’t need to open the book..” she says before tossing the book in the air, a bright light zapped from the front of the closed book and down onto Argus’s chest, hitting the stone that was on her neck, the bright yellow light growing fierce as everyone immediately stared in awe and astonishingly surprised expressions.

The wind circled around them—Y/n’s hair moving as she felt the ground beneath her shake.

Before her Argus lets out an echoing deep laugh, the sound of the ground cracking and debri falling echoes. And the sound of cracking of bones or muscles as Argus started to grow before her. The rat surpasses everyone’s height—standing at least 10 feet tall now.

The book falls limply onto the ground—near the edge of the ledge near the water. “Who’s the little guy now?!” Argus shouts down at everyone with a laugh.

Y/n sighs before looking straight forward…great.

Argus looks down at Y/n before swinging her tail—knocking her off of her feet and off of the ledge, Y/n quickly grabs Argus’s tail and lets out a shout—glancing down at the water below.

“Don’t! Don’t do it!” Alice shouts Argus, the rat only looks at Alice and smiles before moving her tail up and back down—Y/n’s arms slipped from the tail and she felt herself falling a few of her friends calling after her as Argus let out a loud menacing laugh.

“I’ll get her!” Bendy shouts before he without a second thought hops in after Y/n—not waiting to hear what the others had to say or what would happen next.

Y/n fell into the water—making sure to inhale a deep ball of air in her lungs—the water taking her in as she. The water slaps her body harshly and she quickly opens her eyes—the water is murky and barely transparent. She kicked her feet to swim back to the surface—but caught glimpse of a moving creature—quickly looking over she was met with a maw snapping in front of her—she quickly smiled plunged deeper into the water—she could only move so fast with swimming in the water, her body gently barrel rolled as she looked between her legs to see the alligator quickly lunging for her yet again, when it got close she quickly with all her power kicked the alligator in the head—her shoe collided with the hard scaly skin—which sent her back when she kicked it.

The alligator clearly felt the kick and growled—shaking its head before quickly snapping at Y/n—but she moved back yet again—this time her back bet something and a hang grabbed the back of her shirt and dragged her down. Y/n would have gasped if she wasn’t holding onto the last bit of air she had. She looked over to see Bendy was the one that latched onto her to move her away from the gator.

He spotted a small tunnel and looked at her, before releasing her. He points down at it and points down to his wrist as if telling the time. ‘Give me time.’

He must have wanted her to hold her breath for just a tad bit longer. She nods before Bendy grabbed her wrist and swam towards the tunnel—as he did so Y/n felt a movement of water hit her her feet—looking back she spotted the gator yet again snapping at her, she hugged Bendy’s arm and he looks back as well before quickly looking at Y/n and furrowing his eyebrows—he must have not noticed it was behind them.

But before the gator could get any closer, the two entered the tunnel and quickly swam through, Y/n felt her chest tightened and her neck become hot and in need of air—she needed to breath—unlike Y/n who was a human, she couldn’t hold her breath for too long compared to toons.

But once they exited the dark tunnel they entered another small sewer room—a light from above them and they quickly swam up—that must have been the surface—Y/n felt like jumping out of the water when she finally was able to break free and get air flowing into her lungs. Inhaling loudly she coughed as the water left her nose and ears—eyes closed as she grasped onto the ledge of concrete, she coughed and hacked up water as she pulled herself onto the ground weakly, Bendy following after her as he coughed up water as well. The two were drenched in water, Y/n felt the water exit her mouth—her nose burned and the cool air started to attack her, Bendy crawled into the ground—but he had still been coughing.

Y/n looked over quickly when she noticed his coughs sounded more like he was choking, the water spilt from his mouth and a long string of black saliva from what it seemed dripped from his mouth, but it seemed to be ink of some sort.

“Bendy—“ Y/n shivered before she placed a hand on his back. Bendy sits up and wipes his mouth. “I’m fine.” He grumbled. He..didn’t sound happy at all. Y/n removed her hand from his back before looking around, there wasn’t a way out—not a door nor a ladder—it was just an area where the water would transfer. She shivered softly and held her arms and slowly sat down. She heard a few muffled coughs from Bendy which his throat should have been cleared from water by now but she didn’t think too much of it.

Bendy looked around as well and slowly stood up. “There’s no way out.” Y/n tells him.

“I can see that.” He quips. Y/n felt that Bendy must have been upset with her leaving last night which—was understandable..

“Sorry..” Y/n says quietly. Bendy looked down at her and furrowed his eyebrows, his chest jolted as he muffled down another cough.

“We wouldn’t be in this mess if I had just stayed at the church, sorry.” She apologized and Bendy sighed.

“Do you know what could have happened to you? Anything. Y/n we can’t play games like that, especially with people that tried to kill us not even 40 hours ago.” Bendy scolds harshly and Y/n didn’t exactly like the feeling of her grunts and felt her cold hair attached to her face.

“I can watch over myself, Bendy. I’m not a kid.” For years Y/n always felt that she had an eye on her. Mostly from her parents—they were so afraid of—the world they didn’t want her in harm's way—and as nice as that may sound it made her seem like a kid—felt like a kid, but she wasn’t . She could take care of herself!

“So taking care of yourself is being tied up in a sewer by rats going to feed you to a gator?!” Bendy tilts his head and Y/n falls silent.

“You almost died if it weren’t for us looking for you!” Bendy immediately lowered his voice before closing his eyes and sighing. “I didn’t mean to yell—“ He immediately says. Y/n looks away from him and to the water silently. The sound of the water dripping from their clothing echoing and she felt Bendy stare at her and a few muffled coughs exited his mouth.

“I’m sorry..” Bendy apologized again.

No..he was right..blindly just leaving and winding up in a mess they now had to get out of…she scratched the back of her neck and sighs through her nose. Bendy slowly wandered over to her, gently wiping his mouth yet again and slowly sitting down beside her, his tail gently resting behind her.

He looks away from her and into the murky water—reflecting from the dull yellow lights above on the ceiling that looked like it was ready to go out.

She did have to admit..she did almost die. The silence between the two wasn’t tense—but something was there, it was evident that Bendy wanted to say something. And after a few more moments, he spoke;

“You just had me worried, that was all...” he tells her. Wrapping an arm around her shoulder to pull her into a side hug. Y/n rested her head on his shoulder and sighed. “It’s not your fault. I was just bein’ an idiot and sayin’ stupid things, sorry about that..” he rested his head ontop of hers—cascading her in his warmth, it took Y/n a moment to notice how apologetic Bendy was for his sudden burst of anger and shouting—something that he really didn’t need to apologize for—it wasn’t like Y/n would break down crying because of it. But when he had stopped—it looked as if he had remembered something—or thought of something in the least.

Y/n wrapped her arms around Bendy to properly hug him and he wrapped his arms around her as well. “Thanks for coming back for me.” She tells him and Bendy gently pulls back and smiles at her.

“Oh please sweets, I’ll always come back for you.” He stands up and Y/n stands up with him the two letting go of eachother.

“Okay le-“ Bendy let out another cough and He clenched his eyes closed at the coughing fit. Y/n gently placed her hands on his shoulders. “Dude are you okay?”

“It’s —probably somethin—“ he let out another cough and shook his head gently. “It’s probably somethin’ in that water.” He finished and Y/n placed a hand on his head to feel his temperature—his head was warm and wasn’t burning hot or anything.

“I’m fine toots, really.” Bendy chuckled and Y/n’s arms fell to her side.”okay..just checking—how are we getting out of here? I don’t think swimming back to the other side is a smart idea.” She says before moving away from Bendy and looking around the area, Bendy walks over to a wall and places his hands on it.

“This way.” He held out his hand to her and Y/n looked behind her to see a black puddle formed on the wall, similar to what she saw back at the bar a few days ago when Bendy popped out of it. She curiously looks at it and then to Bendy.

“C’mon, it’s just like walking through a door.” He chuckles before leaning over and grabbing her hand himself and immediately walked through the ink like portal, Y/n walked through as well—felling Bendy’s hand in hers—she couldn’t seem much but just like he said—it was like walking through a door, when she made it to the other side she felt herself stumble slightly as if her brain said ‘whoa!’ Being in an entirely different area than where they were.

She heard shouting and other scuffling noises from afar. And Bendy looks down the hall.

“We need to get that stone from Argus.” Y/n tells Bendy and he looks at her and nods.

“Alright, well—if you ask me, I’ll send you on rat duty and me and the others can try to snag the stone.” He smiled at her and Y/n huff before placing a hand on her chest.

“I’m not doing that!”

Y/n stood behind the towering body of Argus. Felix had sent Alice, Charley, Barley, Edgar and Boris to go tend to the civilians with Mugman—in the time Bendy and Y/n were gone, Puck found Cuphead and Mugman with the others which he quickly explained the situation that Y/n had already explained prior to falling off the ledge. Puck had gathered the people in town with Alice and the 5–telling the truth about Argus and how the ‘surfers’ aren’t the people they were looking for.

Which—the town could only cry in disbelief. How dare she lie to everyone! The human girl was right—they changed for the human—they wanted to see her but Puck couldn’t find Y/n prior to them being saved by Edgar.

Alice held some of the children's mice to be distracted as Argus was busy, hopefully not killing her friends somewhere along the sewer lines.

Puck stood on top of Edgar’s hand as he looked down at his people.

“The human! She’s a miracle for telling us the truth! How could we be so blind!” One of the civilians cried out.

Charley chuckled and rolled his eyes. “Idiots.” He laughed softly but Alice glared at him.

“We are so sorry? We’ve been blinded by our own selfishness for someone to help us mourn from our last queen that we didn’t look to see the surfers aren’t the real problem.” One civilian apologized. Barley tilts his head.

“How long as Argus’s been ya’lls leader?” He asks. Puck looks at Barley. “A year.”

“We stand with the human!” Shouts a civilian and right after they shout after him.

“We stand with the human!”

“Hey!” Y/n shouts—throwing a fairly large rock at Argus’s back. Bendy and scampered over to Felix, Oswald, Donald, Panchito and Cuphead who had been distracting Argus ever since waiting for Bendy and Y/n that they had been hoping for their return the entire time.

“We need to get that stone off of her neck.” Bendy points out Argus’s neck and the boys looks over to see the tied necklace around her neck. Y/n stood in the background taunting Argus.

“Oh great—how are we supposed to get up there?” Donald asks Bendy and Felix looks at Panchito to see he had the lassos behind his tail feathers.

“Panchito, I’ll need that lasso.” Felix said—Panchito looks away from Argus and to Felix and takes the lasso away and hands it to Felix, Felix holds the rope in his hands before looking at the others.

“I’ll help Y/n with tying Argus, you guys find a way to trip her and when we get this rope around her, Cuphead you shoot at that wall over there—“ Felix points his fingers over to the weak crumbling cobblestone near a leaking vent.

“And Oswald you’ll hold the book with Donald—I’m certain there’s a way to redo whatever she did.” Felix says and Cuphead hands the book to Oswald who nods and takes it in his grasp.

“Bendy and Panchito—while you’re helping cause a distraction—I want either of you two to take either side of me and Y/n’s rope and help tug her down.” He looks between the two and they nod silently.

“Alright, then let’s go!”

Y/n hardly noticed Felix run over to her and drag her out of the way when she moved to dodge Argus’s tail when Cuphead threw a rock at her to distract her.

“Hey!” Felix smiled at Y/n and he handed her one side of the rope, she grabs it and Felix placed on foot in front of the either and motioned his head down as if signaling her to follow his movement which she did.

“We’re gonna tie her up okay!” He tells her and Y/n nods quickly.

“Toss, pull—“ he then motioned his hand in front of him as if going in a circle. “Clockwise!”

Toss, Pull, Clockwise.

“You ready?” Felix asks her gently, nudging her shoulder, Y/n looks over at Argus to see Cuphead was pretty good at taunting her, he hopped around each time she tried to swing at him with either his tail or hands.

“Uh..” she took a step back and she felt Felix’s hand gently place itself on her back to stop her from backing away. “You’re an adventurer now Y/n, rise to the challenge.”

When Felix told her that—she slowly eased up, just like her grandfather..she could do it. She gripped the rope in her hand and placed her foot ahead and leaned forward slightly.

Toss, pull, clockwise.

Felix's ears perked up and he smiled at her change in demeanor, in sync the three took 4 steps back, and tossed the rope, when it caught around Argus’s waist they both pulled and leaned back so their weight could pull! The rope tightened but Y/n didn’t ever think about letting go. Argus stumbled and Cuphead shot at her feet to get her to move—which did get Argus to stumble back more towards the area he needed her, Y/n kept a strong hold onto the rope and started to run the direction she was supposed to as Felix ran the other direction, Argus bellowed and lets out a roar of anger. Y/n smiled as she felt joy spark in her!

The rope tightened around Argus as the two wrapped her tightly into the rope—Felix’s boots dug into the ground as he skidded to a stop the same as Y/n across from Argus’s other side, she felt someone run up behind her and take ahold of the behind her and tugging as well—looking over she saw Panchito who smiled at her and the two tugged together. Cuphead points his hands towards the wall and a blue beam of light shot from his finger and hits the crumbling wall, but it didn’t do much as only a few debri of rocks fell down and onto Argus’s head.

“Hurry! We can’t hold her for long!” Bendy shouts over to Cuphead. Who had shot at the wall over and over again—but to no avail it wasn’t enough. Cuphead cursed under his breath before taking a deep breath his shoulders heaving up a ball of light forming in his hands his straw sticking up and soon releasing the energy and it shot at the wall—the wall crumbles down onto Argus, dropping her to the floor, the debri of dust and rocks flew in the air and Oswald opens the book up and almost immediately the same string of golden light shoots out the book and aims at Argus’s neck, Oswald seemed like he was pushing the book with bow strong the force of it was that Donald came up behind Oswald and pressed his back against his to keep it steady? Argus shrinks under the rubble and the light goes away, the book closing and landing itself in Oswald’s arms.

Y/n immediately drops the rope and rushes over to the rubble to see Argus laid on the ground she coughed and Y/n quickly snagged the necklace away from her. Argus growls but was far too wear to say or so much of anything.

Y/n smiled down at Argus and dangled the necklace down at her. “Who’s the lil guy now?”

“I!” Y/n turns her head to see Felix smiling at them all. “Am so proud of you all!” He finished before he wrapped his arms around Bendy, Donald and Panchito, grabbing Cuphead by his straw to pull him into the hug and then grabbing Y/n by her shirt to also drag her into the group and lastly grabbing Oswald to pull him into the hug, his arms engulfing everyone as the cat purrs and releases them.

Cuphead stumbled slightly at the amount of energy he just had to use. “We wouldn’t have done that without your plan.” Donald tells Felix, the 7 looked like they just finished running through a dusty house as the dirt and dust from the air and fallen cobble stone decorated their bodies. Felix ruffled Y/n’s hair and smiled at her. “You did good going back when you wanted to leave, that’s very brave of you Y/n.” He tells her and Y/n bashfully swatted her hand and looked away dramatically.

“Jeez, this thing is strong.” Oswald tiredly handed the book to Donald—who held it—clearly pushing against the book could wear someone out.

Y/n held up the stone to everyone and smiled. “But we got it.” She tells them and Felix smiles and nods at her with pride.

“Got me thinking if I should start getting you guys some more outdoor clothes.” He says and looks at everyone—considering how scuffled they always get dealing with their adventure it would be smart to get some more comfortable lightweight and durable clothing.

“What makes you think you’ll walk out of here alive?” The voice of Argus croaks. The group looks over to see Argus still laying on her stomach—weakened by the tumble and rocks piling onto her.

“Your people will soon find out what you truly did, it’s not like you can hide it from them.” Y/n grumbled.

Argus only chuckles. “They don’t know anything..I killed that woman because she was in no power to continue running this place..only me.” She muttered.

“And I will get to see that happen, stone, book or not..all I have to do is tell them to rip you all apart and they’ll do it.” Argus was silent for a moment before laughing under her breath.

“Well, you heard that ladies and gentlemen?” The forum looks over to see Charley, standing in front of ofnthr town of civilians who was on the other side of the wall that had been blown away—via Cuphead.

Alice, Barley, Mugman, Edgar and Boris stood behind the civilian and Puck was standing in Alice’s hand, Y/n looked down at Argus to see she had weakly gotten up.

“Wh-you can believe these people! They are surfers! They harm our people!” She shouts and Puck looks at Y/n from Alice and nods his head before smiling. She smiled back at him and nodded her head as well.

“Oh no—she’s gettin’ rowdy—cease this menace.” Charley laughs as the guards walk past him and grab Argus by her arms, she grunts and kicks her feet. “You can’t do this to me! I’m your queen!” She shouts they are dragged back into town.

“You are no longer our queen!” Shouts a civilian.

“Guards, you’re forgetting two others as well that were in on it.“ Mugman clears his throat before pointing a finger over to Jura and Poe. Poe shivered slightly and waved nervously.

And just like that, the guards dragged them away as well, with Jura clearly upset about the entire plan being foiled.

Puck looks at Y/n. “Our new leader—is someone who we thought we should fear, but with knowledge we shall move on as a society—to accept others.” Puck says. Y/n perked up slightly at the mention of the leader, the civilians all looked at Y/n with a glint of glee and hope in their eyes.

“Uh—“ she didn’t know what to say…

“I—flattered, really.” She felt the paper in her pocket when she nervously placed her hands in her pockets, pulling her hands from her pockets she saw the photo of Hector..a sense of calming came from the photo—a fiery fierce rage of determination.

She placed the photo back into her pocket and looked at everyone.

“As your leader, I promise to deliver prosperity amongst you all, no fear will walk the streets—not while I’m here…”��

“Not while I’m here…”

“Alright, bye Puck! Keep an eye on the town while I’m away! I’ll make sure to visit!” Y/n waves goodbye to Puck who happily nods and waves goodbye to the large group.

“Bye guys!” He waves to them, Cuphead and Mugman standing beside Y/n waving with a smile—standing right in a ditch of a creek where they had been blindly dragged through..god she didn’t even wanna think about it.

“You guys stay safe! And I wish you good thoughts on your adventure!” Puck says as her friends waved him goodbye as well.

“Feel like I’m missing something..” Y/n suddenly says and Bendy looks at her. “What is it?” He asks.

“Bark!”

Y/n smiled at him before looking over to see Spunk scurried over to Y/n, Puck smiled softly. “You forgot Spunk.” He said and Y/n laughs before looking at Puck.

“Thanks, see you soon!”

Puck nods before scurrying back into the sewer, Spunk ran in circles as his eyes landed on all of her friends!

“What is that?” Alice asks.

“Whoa!” Donald exclaims.

Oswald tilts his head at the dog when Spunk sniffed his foot and looked up at him before going over to Bendy to sniff him, Bendy chuckled before Spunk scurried over to Felix who had bent down to examine Spunk.

“He’s a creation Hector made for Y/n.” Mugman informed. Spunk rolled on his back when Felix reached down to grab at his tag.

“Geez, you tellin’ me this dog is his old?” Barley points out. Panchito cooed and rubbed the dog's belly. “He is just a puppy.” Panchito cooes.

“I don’t know how long ago it was made nor do know what year Hector and the other holders had this book.” Y/n shrugs and Oswald nods.

“Well..If he’s still in working order, then maybe it couldn’t have been that long. The book itself might be old, but not the people who had it before us.” He says—which yeah—makes sense considering it was said the book was eons old.

“Jeez..I’m starving..” Cuphead muttered.

Boris looked up at the sky to see the sun was starting to set. “Well, it is gettin’ late.” He mentions.

“Best head back to the church and get cleaned up for tomorrow.” Alice brings up and Felix nods, with them having the new information they had now regarding the booo, the stone called; Ruby’s Heart and the location it was supposed to go to—but before they could do that he had to finish finding the pieces to the stone and before they could do that they had to get the jewel.

“Yeah, we got a lot to do—we’ll start planning about finding those stones after we get this jewel for Cuphead and Mugman.” Felix brings up and Y/n nods—thank goodness—taking one thing at a time..

Once making it back to the church which took an hour—and having some of the nuns baby her the minute she walked through the door looking like a disaster—they immediately fed her and gave her clothes for a bath and now Y/n sat in the window sill listening to the birds, Cuphead sat next to her, the two watching the sunset as she heard the boys arguing in the background who was best at playing cards.

Mugman was in there with him—finally relaxing and having fun after the dreadful events they went through.

But unfortunately the cup brothers wouldn’t be able to stay, they would have to head back to their lair until they could get the jewel.

Cuphead fiddled with a piece of paper he was folding up—creating an origami with it, listening to him ruffle with the paper in his hands and hearing the birds caused Y/n’s eyes to drift close—she was so exhausted..she heard the rustling of the paper go quiet and she opened her eyes to see the paper horse near her face, she smiled and looked at Cuphead and he made a nose with his mouth similar to the noise a horse makes when sputtering their lips. She lets out a soft laugh.

Cuphead chuckled before placing the origami horse beside him. “So..it’ll probably be awhile till I get to see you again.” He said and Y/n smiled.

“Cuphead, you’ll probably see me in the next..I dunno 20 hours?” She chuckled and Cuphead laughed shortly after.

“Yeah? Well, 20 hours too long. Just sayin.” He then looks at her and smiles; “A good luck kiss would do me right.” He smiled boyishly at her and Y/n felt a smile form on her face as well. She laughed yet again and gently pushed him.

“Okay, stop joking around.” She says and Cuphead gently took the hand that pushed him. “Don’t be gettin’ all flustered on me now.” He teased and Y/n laughs again.

“C’mere you..” Cuphead grabbed Y/n’s face and leaned forward but was met with a hand that shoved him away and shockingly it wasn’t Y/n’s, it was Bendy’s. Bendy crawled and sat between the two and look Cuphead who had shook his head upon the shove.

“Sorry, was I interrupting something?” Bendy smiled. Mugman walked over with a giddy smile—winning 6 times in goldfish! What a night!

“Alright, alright. We’ll leave..” Cuphead says before jumping from the window sill and landing on his feet on the ground. Mugman waves at Y/n and smiles.

“Bye! See you soon.” He says before following Cuphead’s lead. “Bye boys! We’ll make sure to get that jewel for you.” Y/n waves as Cuphead and Mugman smiled and waved back as they walked off and Y/n hopped they would come back to the group in one piece considering they had been gone the entire day from their group.

“Well, it’s time to hit the hay.” Bendy says before standing up from the window sill and stretching, Y/n followed after.

“See you tomorrow, Bendy.” She bids a goodnight to him as Bendy leaves the room. “Night sweets.” He tells her before leaving. Y/n quickly hurried into bed in desperate need of sleep. And the last thing she saw before laying down—was Alice fixing her blanket before she left her vision to go to sleep as well.

#toon quest #toons #bendy and the ink machine #bendyxreader #animanics 2020 #animaniacs x reader #the three caballeros x reader #three cabarellos #oswald the lucky rabbit #batim bendy #felix the cat #mickey mouse #donald duck #panchito pistoles

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