Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

    Normally Antfrost didn’t take on Dream’s burglary missions. But Dream had been more than a bit antsy to send Connor alone on this one, so he called up Skeppy to see if he had a free pair of hands.

    And like a dick, Skeppy had turned to Antfrost and said, “Hey Ant, still got your cat burglar skills?”

    Antfrost almost punched him in the gut, but Bad had been standing there and a job was a job. Plus, he didn’t want to snub his nose at Dream’s money, so . . .

    “You ready?” Antfrost turned to Connor.

    “Oh yeah,” Connor grinned back at the feline hybrid. “We’ll be in and out before anyone notices.”

    “Just be careful,” Antfrost scoffed. “I don’t wanna [1] have to explain to Dream why he has to bail you out of prison.”

    “Wait, Dream would bail me out of prison?” Connor asked in surprise.

    “Probably not,” Antfrost admitted. “I don’t know, depends on his mood or if he’d seen Tommy’s face recently.”

    “Oh,” Connor sounded disappointed. Before rebounding, “Well, then if he doesn’t, he’s not invited to my drama party.”

    “I’m sure he’ll be real beaten up inside about that,” Antfrost sighed.

    “Yeah, that’ll show him,” Connor smiled.

    “Okay, I think we’ve spent enough time chit-chatting,” the cat hybrid determined as he facial features became just a bit more catlike and his eyes began to glow green as the sun began to set. “Let’s go.”

    “Alright,” Connor grinned and he got into a runner’s pose as the two Server members waited for the sun to fully descend below the skyline.

    “Okay, on my mark,” Antfrost finally hissed as the night and city lights fully overtook the city, he took out two vials of swirling almost-clear pink liquid.

    “Three,” Ant called out as he put on a set of sound-cancelling headphones, and Connor smiled as his entire body began to vibrate and he began glowing blue.

    “Two,” Antfrost threw down the vials and they shattered on the ground, the glass and liquid being consumed by the potion and turned the two of them invisible. “One.”

    “Go!” Antfrost called out and Connor sped off, dashing and cracking the sound barrier as he ran.

    Antfrost took out one of the fishing rod grappling hooks that Dream and Techno had started making a mandatory weapon just by having one on them during fights, and it latched onto the museum that was their target. Coiling up his magic, Antfrost used it to protect himself as he crashed through a glass window and rolled into the second floor.

    The feline heard the alarm going off and he began walking towards a display case full of jewelry. Two items that looked like top hats, the frost each studded with gemstones, and ribbons that had intricate writing sewn into the seemingly delicate fabric. And there was a book on display.

    Each item was laced with magic, and while not inherently cursed. Dream was clear about not wanting Dark or the Sides’ legate to get their hands on them.

    “Freeze!” A security guard shouted, racing into the gallery and drawing a gun on Antfrost.

    “Son of a bitch, Connor,” Antfrost rolled his eyes and held his hands up, turning around.

    As he turned around, however, Connor raced in and punched the last security guard in the face.

    “What the hell took you so long?” Antfrost spat as he used a hammer and smashed into the case so he could dump the display’s contents into a dark grey, almost black box with a glowing green eye on it.

    “Sorry,” Connor scratched the back of his head. “I miscounted, you got the stuff?”

    “Yeah, now I do,” Antfrost used his magic to shrink it down and attach it onto his belt. “Come on.”

    “Got it,” Connor smiled, running in place, as Antfrost returned to the cracked window. The two of them produced the green eye pearls and used them to teleport away before the police or Jackie even had time to show up.

Chapter Text

    Quackity was one thing first and foremost: opportunistic.

    Everything he had, he’d had to grab for himself. When’d been younger, softer, he’d let Wilbur and Schlatt take over the details of whatever absurd plan they were doing — and had quickly learned that if you wanted something done right, or at all for that matter — you should do it yourself.

    So that’s what Quackity was trying to do. Dark was, barring any sudden upset from the Sides’ legate or Phantom, the demon who held the most power in Egoton. The city’s grand kingpin, and he even had princes and princesses embroiled in his Network to sell it. Dark was a huge threat to Dream, and by extension to Quackity.

    The casino owner knew he would only continue to grow so much as he was not restricted. With Dream on one flank, Dark on another, the Sides Legate holding an unknown amount of power in Gainesville he was bottlenecked into Las Nevades.

    One of them had to go.

    Quackity would prefer it was Dream, but there was no reason to limit himself so much.

    The problem was that he couldn’t just walk into Egoton and try to slit his throat. Even if he could figure out which warehouse was the main one and even get within eyesight of the demonic mob boss, he knew he’d be killed by Dark or Illinois in an instant.

    Quackity was ambitious, but not stupid.

    After a little bit of thought about what to do, Quackity needed to find as many weak points in Dark’s pompous, well-constructed aura. For every moment of weakness, there were ten more moments of strength. He rarely took risks, but he had a family.

    One that Quackity was becoming more and more curious about. So he sent Slime to go and collect information, and the other Server member had come back with a couple juicy tidbits. Namely that almost all of Dark’s children had been procured from elsewhere and Slime had managed to find that man’s name who had actually hand delivered those children to Dark.

    Which was interesting, to Quackity to say the least. He was called the “Cowboy” and Dark liked to keep him in his close circle and an even closer eye on him.

    But the man did have his indulgences: whiskey, occasional gambling, and women. Something Las Nevadas had in spades. Las Nevadas also catered to other people with different tastes, but the point of the matter was that Las Nevadas was a flame to the moth he was looking for.

    When Sam eventually spotted him, Quackity was giddy. So he sent Purpled to get his little moth.

    Ed was just looking for a break, and it’d been more than a hot minute since he’d gotten a break. But Dark was far more concerned with the triplets than breathing down Ed’s neck, so he took the chance and spent a day just wasting time. He got to sleep in, not have to pretend to tolerate Illinois’s insufferable smugness — mostly because the guy was out of town and Ed hadn’t realized how much he loved having him not there — and he even got to take the time to enjoy a really nice sandwich.

    But he decided to enjoy some of the town he was too busy to really see. And there was a bright relatively new casino he hadn’t gotten to see.

    So a drink and a couple card games later, Ed found he was really liking Las Nevades. It had a nice atmosphere to it.

    He was two games in, a net gain of ten bucks when someone walked up and tapped him on the shoulder.

    The network mobster looked over and because of the colored vest he assumed he was just one of the casino valets or a table dealer.

    “Hey, buddy, we need to have a word,” Purpled told him, the teen assassin giving him a little half-smirk.

    “I haven’t done anythin’ [1] ,” Ed told him.

    “We still need a word,” Purpled insisted, an expression that told Ed that additional thugs would be coming to help if he said no.

    “Fine,” Ed sighed and threw down his cards. He frustratedly thought to himself: “Make that five dollars I’ve won.”

    But he got up, tipped back the rest of his whiskey glass and followed the young man. Right up to an office on one of the upper levels which let Ed know that he wasn’t being taken to be beaten up — yet.

    When he saw Las Nevada’s owner, however, he knew exactly what type of discussion he was about to have. Once Purpled came into the room, he leaned against the doorframe the instant he closed it. As if the scene held no more importance than the common occurrence of rain on the window, he took out his phone. He was sorting through various emails, watching videos, and playing games.

    “So, you work with Dark?” Quackity smiled, Ed’s eyes naturally focusing on the scar down the young man’s left eye. It looked deep.

    “No,” Ed told him.

    “Bullshit,” Quackity didn’t stop smiling. “You fucking traffic kids.”

    “It’s an adoption service,” Ed corrected.

    “And I’m the fucking Queen of England running a charity,” Quackity smiled with thinly veiled anger, “those kids aren’t Dark’s, you got them for him.”

    “I’m not here ta [2] talk ‘bout [3] clients,” Ed told him.

    “Okay, okay, fine,” Quackity said. “I’m just really curious, you know, with the wedding that happened. I’ve seen the big guy around and I like knowing what I’m working with.”

    Ed stuck his hands into his pocket. “It doesn’t really matter how much yah pay me, or how much yeh threaten me, if Dark thinks I’ve told you anythin’, I’m a dead man. He won’t e’en hesitate. I’d like ta stand here an’ pretend that I won’t bow ta torture, ‘cause I’m pretty sure skimmin’ through the history book will tell yah that I will. But, eh, Dark got Google ta hack my phone so he can hear e’erythin’ that we’re talkin’ about. Because he’s paranoid as shit an’ all.” [4]

    At that a portal finally opened underneath it and dropped Ed right into Dark’s warehouse office. The Entity was standing with Google who had a holographic screen up.

    “Good choice,” Dark told him.

    “What can I say? I value my life an’ [5] all,” Ed rubbed at his knee, one of them had taken a particularly bad fall when he landed.

    Back with Quackity, he watched Ed disappear and slammed his fists on the table.

    “Fucking dammit!” Quackity spat, he leaned back in his chair and drilled his hand on the table. “Shit, that robot’s a lotta [6] trouble.”

    “You going after him?” Purpled looked up from his phone and raised an eyebrow at him.

    “Maybe if I still had Tubbo,” Quackity hummed. “Fat chance that kid’ll do anything to help me.”

    The casino owner thought to himself before he took out his phone and dialed a number, “Hey, Sam, you wanna [7] come to my office? I need to talk to you.”

    “Sure,” Sam said and hung up on him.

    “Purpled, you’re free to wander, have a good night,” Quackity told him.

    “Right, neat,” Purpled left the room and Quackity remained in the room with his thoughts.

Chapter Text

    Tommy thought he was a great father.

    No! Scratch that! He was the best father.

    He of course understood Tubbo’s apprehension for not letting Michael be a superhero. He thought it sucked and was generally a bad idea, but he understood it. Tubbo was naturally suspicious and paranoid. The young goat demon hadn’t always been that way, but he was now.

    But Tommy was different, he didn’t believe that fear should slow anyone down.

    So he spent a couple days fashioning what he called “the best damn superhero outfit known to spider boy kind” and made a little mini Miles Morales Spiderman costume for Shroud. He even made sure that Shroud would be comfortable regardless of how many arms he wanted to have at the moment. With matching green handkerchiefs for both himself and Shroud.

    Needless to say, he was brimming with happiness when Shroud seemed to love it.

    “See, little big man?” Tommy had Shroud looking at them in the mirror. “That’s you.”

    Shroud patted his chubby little spider-human paws on the mirror and babbled at it.

    “I know, rather cool if you ask me,” Tommy grinned, and immediately raced out the back door of the Bee ‘n Boo, passing Ranboo who looked at him in concern but just let him pass. He made sure to grab Shroud’s baby bag before he left.

    Something Tommy made sure to do was to spray paint little pictures on the sides of random buildings. Shroud leaving little stick spider’s webs splotches as his little additions. When Tommy had moved onto a second one, Randall and Mark found him, both of them in their superhero outfits. Silver regarded him with frustrated tolerance until he saw Shroud.

    “Sup [1] gents!” Tommy was bouncing on his heels in excitement. “We are here for the superheroing and the women having.”

    “Uh,” Silver stalled. Alarm shot up his spine at the sight of a toddler of all things in a superhero costume.

    “Need a sitter [2] ?” Randall commented in equal amounts of alarm. “We can get Morality down here an’ [3] wait.”

    “No,” Tommy’s smile didn’t falter, he was clearly waiting for compliments on Shroud’s costume. “Why would we need one?”

    “Big Man, he’s like what? Three? The kid was literally magicked into existence last week.” Silver tried to urge gently, but Tommy’s smile didn’t fade. “Tommy, he’s a kid.”

    “Yes? And? ” Tommy motioned to Shroud’s outfit. “I do say I’ve really outdone myself on this one, boys.”

    “Big Man, we are not taking a toddler with us,” Silver told him. “He can stay in the base with Bing and Mini, but it’s not safe.”

    “That’s a fat load of rubbish [4] , he’ll be great,” Tommy puffed out his chest a bit and started walking down the street along the familiar patrol route. “I was fightin’ [5] in matches when I was a week old. He’ll be a chip off the old block.”

    That sense of alarm in Silver’s body only got stronger. “That’s even worse. Big Man, he’s three, he can barely run without tripping over himself.”

    Tommy paused, insulted, “Well give anyone a couple drinks an’ [3] they have the same problem.”

    “Our cut off age is fourteen an’ that’s only ‘cause ‘a Crank, he’s too young, man,” [6] Randall told him.

    “That’s absolutely fuckin’ [7] ridiculous,” Tommy told them.

    “Here, I’ll call Phil,” Silver decided.

    “Yes, let’s,” Tommy agreed and took out his phone, suddenly way too confident as Shroud began fussing from a lack of attention and mobility. “He’ll talk some sense inta [8] yeh [9] .”

    Tommy began to try and do a face call with Philza and the instant he connected he began screaming into the receiver.

    “Phil!” Tommy shouted and a second later, when he didn’t receive an immediate response, he shrieked again, “Philllllllllll!”

    Tommy screamed a third time and finally got a response as Phil’s face appeared in the image of the mirror.

    “What? What are yeh fuckin’ screamin’ about?” [10] Phil shouted back. He looked to be in some cavern or hole of some kind. “What do yeh [9] want, mate?”

    “The heroes won’t let me take my kid out on patrol,” Tommy complained.

    “He’s a week now, right?” Phil asked. “Sounds like he’s fine, ta [11] me.”

    Silver barely recognized the noise that came out of him.

    “Yeah, it builds character,” Phil decided. “Tommy, yeh wouldn’t let anythin’ hurt him, right?” [12]

    “Absolutely not,” Tommy smiled. “You know me, I won’t let a fuckin’ [7] thing happen ta [11] him.”

    “What is wrong with you, he’s three,” Silver shouted into the phone.

    “What? Still?” Phil asked, confused. “Thought he would’a taken care ‘a that by now. Haven’t you been feedin’ him enough aura?” [13]

    Tommy shouldered his way in, “Course I have, who do you take me fer [14] ? Will?”

    Phil seemed to think on that.

    “Hoooo! Tommy, mate, maybe yeh [9] shouldn’t,” Phil told him, immediately sounding concerned. “If he’s still three, yeh [9] should wait a little while until he’s a bit bigger.”

    “What?” Tommy grumbled in anger and the next half hour was spent talking Tommy down from taking Shroud on patrol to his intense anger.

    He spent another half hour with Shroud next to the mural that Yancy was still making and they started making a little addition to the side of it. Tommy wound up hanging out with Bing inside the base for the rest of the day, Shroud not wanting Tommy to leave his side.

Chapter Text

    It’s rare that Joan sees serious superhero action.

    Sometimes he didn’t mind. When the Sides and other heroes dealt with threats and villains that could kill normal people with a well-positioned punch to the face, they were crazed gunmen, or demons that could tear people apart.

    Without equipment, Joan knew he couldn’t typically take those types of threats on. That didn’t mean he was always benched.

    It was supposed to be an easy mission, a neighborhood in northeastern Gainesville, close to King’s park, was receiving some weird nocturnal visitors.

    Citizens and police reported seeing weird dark specters moving around neighborhoods. They were dark hooded figures that almost seemed to glide over certain areas. They performed minor acts of property damage. Cars were pushed, leaves randomly stripped from trees, a bench that had been bolted into the cement on the street had been found five stories up a nearby apartment complex and dropped on the central heating unit.

    They were never seen in any more than solitary individual incidents but there were reports of at least five different figures.

    But one night a jogger had run into one of the hooded figures. They had been jogging right outside King’s park and had not been paying attention when suddenly they bumped into the figure and when they looked up the jogger saw a pair of narrow, glowing purple eyes and heard a hiss before they were clawed. And then the attacker vanished.

    In the shock and the darkness, the jogger hadn’t been able to identify their attacker. King had heard the commotion and after seeing the damage, took the jogger to the closest urgent care.

    With the matching robes everyone was sure this was some kind of cult. And after a second attack happened, the heroes decided that enough was enough and Marvin involved himself. So the magician took Jackie and Joan for backup and went out one evening, since they’d mostly been caught towards the evening and nighttime.

    Jackie was trying to use his speed to find the robed figures, and Joan was trying to figure out what they were actually dealing with.

    It took a couple nights but Jackie finally spotted one figure. It was wandering around a park in the north of Egoton. What none of the heroes had realized was just how tall they were. Ranboo ws almost seven feet tall, but these figures were big.

    Marvin figured that the individual who was busy trying to wrench a bush out of the ground, was over nine feet tall at the bare minimum. And there were two of them.

    Joan looked at the figure and felt a buzzing, frothing sensation in their body, which was similar enough to what they felt when they looked at Dark or Ranboo that they knew this individual could teleport.

    “Teleportation,” Joan warned quietly as the individual was carrying the bush around while their friend had a mass of leaves tightly held to their chest.

    “Really?” Jackie asked. “Both?”

    Joan nodded.

    “Hey!” Marvin called out, trying to peer into the figure’s hood but the individual ducked their head.

    “⎅⍜⋏’⏁ ⌰⍜⍜☍ ⏃⏁ ⋔⟒,” [1] the figure hissed, hiding their face in the bush. “⏁⊑⟟⌇ ⟟⌇ ⋔⟟⋏⟒.” [2]

    “⍜⎐⟒⍀ ⊑⟒⍀⟒,” [3] another hiss whispered out as a third figure walked out from deeper into the park, it was too dark for Marvin to make out any features. But they were shorter than the other two by over two feet, at least. The taller robed figures walked over to their shorter companion with their stolen plants.

    “⊑⏃⎐⟒ ⏃ ⋏⟟☊⟒ ⋏⟟☌⊑⏁, ⊑⟒⍀⍜⟒⌇,” [4] the shorter robed figure said and the three of them vanished into thin air, turning into puffs of almost frothing smoke.

    “Where’d they go?” Joan demanded, looking around.

    Up close, Marvin used a third eye spell to see a rapidly decaying magical trail. One that led away from the park.

    “It’s short range teleportation, they went this way!” Marvin told them and led Joan and Jackie along a chase into the city, the trail bobbing and weaving, bits of branches and leaves left in their wake. Halfway across Egoton, a bush had been left on top of a random trash can.

    The trail led them to a factory mill or something towards the edge of Egoton. The factory almost bordered the woods dangerously close to Dark’s hilltop Manor. It was dark but the heroes’ tech helped them see with the aid of night vision.

    By the time they got into the second room, they found a person lying on the ground in a pool of their own blood. Equipment and weapons labeled the person as some kind of hunter. Among their belongings was a cracked green orb that looked like the eye orbs the Server had.

    Joan checked for a pulse and shook his head.

    Marvin contacted Abe for an ambulance and took pictures and short videos of the orb. He wanted to take it, but he knew Abe would have his throat for that.

    “Dammit, this is the closest I’ve been ta [5] one,” Marvin grumbled as they went to investigate further into the factory.

    “Yeh [6] made the right choice,” Jackie whispered.

    “I just want one,” Marvin commented. “Enderwalk gets all twitchy when I bring it up. Big Man almost handed me one before Bomble literally swiped it outta [7] his hands.”

    Jackie hummed in thought. “I can try an’ talk ta Bomble, he seems ta be more ‘a the tech an’ magic guy ‘a the three.” [8]

    “I just,” Marvin grumbled in frustration. “E’eryone in the Server has ‘em an’ I don’t know where they get ‘em from or how they work. We got no counter fer the Server’s magic either.” [9]

    As they kept looking they heard talking, the foreign, unfamiliar language they’d heard in the park. In another room were two of the hooded figures. One of the taller figures that had been holding the leaves, and the shorter one. The taller of the two was cowering in the corner while the shorter one was kneeling in front of them. The angel and night vision let the two see the long tails both of them had. It reminded Marvin of Ranboo’s tail but these looked almost bushier and more furry at the end.

    The shorter hooded figure had a swishing tail that flickered nervously.

    “⊑⍜⍙ ⋔⏃⋏⊬ ⋔⍜⍀⟒?” [10] The hooded figure who was standing hissed, his tail swished aggressively as the figure who was crouched down looked up at them.

    “⋔⏃⊬⏚⟒ ⎎⟟⎐⟒,” [11] the crouched figure answered, the tail tucked around them nervously.

    Marvin looked around, trying to find the third figure and when his foot brushed up against the door it made a light thud and that immediately got the figures’ attention.

    The more confident figure turned and hissed at them, trying to protect the more nervous one. Then they paused, and seemed to be observing them. Jackie wasn’t sure if they could actually see them or if they had some other way to sense them.

    The suddenly more aggressive figure’s face was covered by bandages and the hood was drawn very low so Joan couldn’t see anything that could identify the individual’s face. They were watching the trio for a bit before drawing their hood lower and sending up magic to turn on one of the lights in the room, almost blinding the three of them but after a while and taking the night vision goggles off Marvin saw the more confident figure’s gloved hands begin to move. He braced for a fight of magic and spells but it never came.

    The figure was trying to communicate with them. They were signing, American Sign Language at that. So Jackie and Marvin caught some of it, but not all of it.

    “You help us,” they signed, still speaking that foreign language as they did so. “We help you. My name is Z.”

    “Z? Can yeh [6] understand us when we talk, or are yeh [6] Deaf?” Jackie signed, taking a little half-step towards them, repeating the letter and getting more confident in it when the figure nodded with their hand.

    “I can hear, and I understand what you’re saying,” they signed, gesturing to themself before motioning to their friend. “They do not speak your language. I will translate for them.”

    “What did yeh [6] want help with?” Marvin asked.

    “Hunters, they are killing us,” Z told them. “We do not wish to hurt people, but when our eyes meet another’s it is a taboo for us. My friend wishes to leave the city, and I am trying to help.”

    “What about the other one?” Joan looked around for the third figure.

    “Dead.” Z’s word was somber, their hands shaking. “Hunters kill them, we kill one of them but there are five more. We want to leave without more death.”

    “Do they have the body? We could find ‘em fer yah.” [12] Jackie tried to listen for anyone else nearby.

    “You are very kind,” Z smiled. “But the body is gone.”

    “I’m sorry,” Jackie told them.

    Z walked forward, glancing around a lot, which let Marvin know that this figure had some way of sensing the area around them. They pitched the hood lower, as if scared of being recognized and began trying to sign with one hand.

    “I give this now,” they signed, holding out the emblem. It looked like something crossed with a brooch and a large shield badge. It was about the size of Jackie’s palm and it looked like one of the eye orbs but the eye in the center was just dead looking. It lacked whatever magic it usually had.

    They pressed the brooch into Jackie’s hands and then pulled out one of the eye orbs from inside their robe. The center glowing with magic and power. “I will give this to you later, if you help.”

    Marvin leaned over, entirely too interested in the eye orb.

    “⋏⍜⏁ ⌇⏃⎎⟒,” [13] the timid figure hissed. “⏁⊑⟒⊬ ⏃⍀⟒ ⊑⎍⋔⏃⋏⌇.” [14]

    “⏁⊑⟒⊬ ⏃⍀⟒ ⌇⏃⎎⟒,” [15] the confident figure hissed back. “⟟ ⏁⍀⎍⌇⏁ ⏁⊑⟒⋔ ⍙⟟⏁⊑ ⋔⊬ ⌰⟟⎎⟒.” [16]

    That seemed to resolve the conflict and the confident figure pulled the eye orb back into their robe.

    “I am a scientist, I love books and research,” they told Marvin.

    Marvin got a little suspicious about that. “What do yeh [6] research?”

    Carefully and slowly, Z took out a book, symbols that seemed like a language of some kind scratched into the cover. Z pushed the book into Marvin’s hands and Marvin flipped through it to find it was a mix of some forgein language and English. But it was like an index of magical plants and potions, some intricate surrounding dream and mind magic but what Marvin saw consisted of mostly using one’s own self as a test subject.

    No twisted or sadistic magic to be found on any of its pages. In fact it was the opposite.

    Marvin passed the book back and Z seemed to calm down.

    “You help us?” Z asked.

    “Yeah,” Marvin said hesitantly, “we’ll do what we can.”

    “If we can get outside, we will be safe,” Z told them and motioned for the tall figure to stand, the taller hooded figure uncoiling themself to remind the heroes just how dwarfed the four of them were.

    Marvin nodded and the two heroes retraced their steps to go back outside the factory. Several times the two hooded figures had to duck not to hit the ceiling. But at the room with the dead body, Z stopped in front of the orb, tail flickering in the air.

    “He’s dead,” Jackie tried to reassure them.

    The hooded figure was silent for a little bit before pointing to the orb with their tail and then signed, “That is my friend.”

    “The orb?” Joan asked.

    The hooded figure nodded their hand and when Marvin went to pick it up, Z slapped Marvin’s hand away.

    “Crime scene,” Z reminded sharply.

    “That was your friend,” Marvin reminded.

    Z drew the hood somehow even further down and used their foot to crush it into mostly two halves. “Not anymore.”

    Then they walked away and all too soon the group was back outside. The taller of the figures seemed to get less nervous.

    “Thank you,” Z told them, almost bowing as they signed, and handed Marvin the eye orb.

    “Oh,” Marvin only now remembered that a reward had been promised. He’d been too preoccupied with guarding the two of them. “Thanks.”

    Z, jabbed their tail towards the woods, looking around for any sign of the hunters.

    “Go, I will follow,” Z told the figure, still signing for the heroes’ benefit and the taller figure darted off with their teleportation magic. Z made a lazy salute towards the heroes and followed their friend into the woods, quickly disappearing from sight. Leaving the three heroes with the two orbs.

    “Well, guess I got one after all,” Marvin smiled, he held the orb up to the streetlight lamp and watched the way the artificial light almost filtered through the artifact. The light dancing and glowing. “Wow, seein’ [17] one up close is really somethin’ [18] else.”

    “Can I?” Joan asked, tapping Marvin’s arm.

    Joan took the orb, a look of wonder in their eyes, “It’s heavier than I thought, the Server uses these to travel?”

    “Yeah,” Marvin hummed. “They go through a lotta [19] ‘em [20] , wonder how they can get so many?”

    “Enderwalk prolly [21] knows,” Jackie suggested, getting his own turn looking at the orb.

    “Yeah, guess he does,” Marvin hummed, and took the orb back when Jackie offered it. He pocketed it carefully. Planning on doing his own experiments on it and the brooch. This was a type of magic he was unfamiliar with and who knows, Marvin might even be able to learn a way to copy or interfere with Dark’s own void portal magic in the process.

    Jackie looked into the woods, “Hope they get home safely.”

    “Yeah,” Joan agreed, and the three heroes after the mess with the body was cleared up, went home.

Chapter Text

    Henrik was unfamiliar with the Server members on a personal level. He’d treated heroes, civilians, and even a couple villains. But since they’d first been spotted in the city, he’d yet to even treat the three apprentices. He’d seen them, but they’d rarely gotten anything more than a passing conversation as of yet.

    However Iplier was off for the day and Wade was already calling ahead.

    “Henrik! Hey, how yah [1] doing? You busy?” Wade immediately demanded Henrik picked up.

    “At ze [2] moment, no,” Henrik sighed after. “Vhy? [3] Should I be?”

    “No, we got a bit of an emergency, yah [1] know Bomble?” Wade asked.

    “Ja?” [4] Henrik told him, rubbing at his face and hoping that whatever happened to the apprentice it was not serious.

    “Well, his sister broke her leg and probably her arm, and almost drowned, we’re coming in now and we hoped you’d be able to look at her,” Wade reported.

    Henrik looked at his schedule, making sure he was not supposed to be doing a surgery while he’d probably be treating her.

    So he told Wade to bring her through the ER and when Henrik went in to see her, the German doctor heard her long before he physically saw her.

    “Son of a bitch!” Puffy swore in pain as he walked in, talking to Wade and the nurse. Her hair was drenched with sea water, and already changed into a hospital gown. A bag of wet clothes was in the corner of the room. “That fucking bastard! When I get my fucking hands on him I’ll snap his fucking neck into so many pieces he’ll be shitting them out for the next week!”

    “Scheiße,” [5] Henrik recognized her, punching the bridge of his nose. He had seen her palling around town with Magnum. He knew exactly what type of lunacy he was dealing with, at least if she was anything like Magnum. And judging from what he’d seen from all three of the apprentices she probably was.

    Henrik was brought up to speed on “Puffy’s” progress. She’d just come out of a few tests to make sure there was no fluid in her lungs and that she wasn’t going to die from nearly drowning, and then they turned their attention to the slightly less important broken bones.

    A couple x-rays later, Henrik found out that her leg wasn’t broken, but it was fractured, and her arm was the more damaged bone.

    Puffy got a dose of pain meds and Wade sat in the room as Henrik waited until he could touch her leg or arm. She was angry and hurt until the drugs kicked in, and Puffy started talking. At first about her ship and crew, and how she was going to climb right back into her ship when she got out of the hospital.

    Reminding Henrik why he also kept seeing Magnum back here as well.

    Then as Henrik was putting her leg in a brace, Puffy got quiet for a bit.

    “Niki’s gonna [6] kill me,” Puffy groaned, and turned to Henrik. “Doc just kill me now, you’d be doing me a favor.”

    “Absolutely not,” Henrik told her. “Not only vill you live, but you vill be able to remove your cast in six to t’velve veeks.” [7]

    Puffy giggled, “I like Germans, they’re fun. But hold up, buddy, I’m already taken.”

    “As am I,” Henrik told her firmly. “Fur’zermore [8] , you are a patient.”

    “So, Niki, is that your friend?” Wade asked.

    “Girlfriend,” Puffy smiled. “She doesn’t like it when I’m reckless. She says I gotta [9] be better than Will.”

    “I am not certain zat [10] zis [11] is helping her nerves,” Henrik warned the captain.

    “Shhh,” Puffy told him with a smile. “I’ll kiss her and make it better.”

    “Und I hope zat vorks out for you,” [12] Henrik told her.

    The rest of the hospital stay went well enough. Henrik tried to schedule her for a return check up. Puffy gave some date for it and then took a nap.

    Puffy was later picked up by her girlfriend and Henrik didn’t wind up seeing her for that second appointment. He was told she did wind up making a full recovery, which Henrik supposed was what was important.

    Although he knew that this wouldn’t be the last time he’d see her in a hospital room.

Chapter Text

    Nate had rarely met ghosts, mostly they were demons that had a poor sense. He wasn’t sure he’d ever met a “restless soul” that wasn’t also a demon. These ghostly demons were, for the most part, empaths, and were especially timid or nervous. He knew Ghostbur was in the heroes’ base long before he actually saw him. Little things like coffee mugs used and left half-filled with tea or coffee. Or doors closed behind someone.

    Within a couple minutes of being around him, Nate was pretty sure Ghostbur was one of the most harmless demons he’d ever encountered. Mare even had nothing against him. There were many heroes like Nate who had never even seen him yet, just the things he influenced.

    The first time Nate physically saw him, he was in the common room, just relaxing and playing music. Tommy and Shroud had hung around him for a bit before they went home, and Nate kept playing.

    Oliver wound up joining him in the room, working on some project for the common room. The android wound up serving a sound board for whenever Nate wanted to hear how something sounded.

    When he suddenly was aware that someone else was in the room, he was playing “Renegades” by Imagine Dragons when he saw a glimpse of a brown beanie and grey skin. He stopped playing and immediately the ghost was gone.

    Nate looked around for a little bit, and then started playing again and the ghost came back, hiding behind the wall.

    “Hey, big guy,” Nate smiled, trying not to look at Ghostbur directly. “You like music?”

    Ghostbur slowly came out of hiding and Nate got a good look at him, as his pale grey skin, his yellow toned jumper with a cut right over his heart that seemed to be bleeding blue. What could have been either grey or blue eyes were glossy, and he was wearing a dark brown beanie on his head.

    “Yeah, uh, hello, I’m Ghostbur,” Ghostbur waved.

    “Hey, Ghostbur, I’m Nate,” Nate smiled, before gesturing to the android, “this is Oliver. You got a favorite song?”

    Ghostbur was quiet for a little bit, “I don’t remember.”

    “ Eh, don’t worry about it,” Nate smiled. “I’ll just keep playing, if you can remember, tell me.”

    Ghostbur nodded, sitting down and watching Nate. Pretty soon his blue sheep, Friend, appeared and curled up behind him as a backrest. Oliver came to sit next to him as he continued working on something.

    After a little bit, Ghostbur smiled, “I know that song.”

    “You do?” Nate smiled.

    “Yeah,” Ghostbur grinned and summoned a guitar from his magic.

    “You play guitar?” Oliver asked curiously. “I have never seen you in the vicinity of one.”

    “Oh yeah,” Ghostbur smiled before his expression dropped into a more somber expression. “Fundy used to love it when I played. Big Man and Bomble too, but that was back when I was Wilbur.”

    “Has your taste in music changed?” Oliver asked.

    “I’m not sure,” Ghostbur admitted. “I just . . . Big Man isn’t that keen on listening so much, I think I used to play a lot when it was just the two of us and I didn’t play such nice things like he liked. I can’t remember why I played but I’ve seen videos he made, it was before, when I was Wilbur.”

    Ghostbur began strumming the guitar as blue began to bead around his eyes and the gash in his jumper and chest glowed blue.

    At first he was playing the guitar as just a loose bunch of chords, then he seemed to be playing something, a song Nate was unfamiliar with he began humming for a little bit. And the Ghostbur began singing.

    “—me back,” Ghost sang, his tone rather haunting and morose as he stared down at the fretboard. “On the path of least resistance.”

    Nate and Oliver just watched him play, the ghostly demon’s aura weaving around his song.

    “I find myself salting the earth,” Ghostbur didn’t look away from his guitar, magic coiled around his fingers and the strings. “Everytime that I miss you.”

    “I feel the way you hurt—” Ghostbur’s blue glow somehow looked colder, “and I don’t deserve you.”

    “Though it feels like we were built from the same—” Ghostbur sang, “dirt.”

    At that point Ghostbur seemed to come back to himself, he stopped playing almost abruptly, “Oh sorry, you were playing.”

    “Nah, I liked listening,” Nate told him. “You have a superpower of some kind?”

    “I have Wilbur’s power,” Ghostbur corrected, ducking a bit into himself. “He always liked performing, he could draw people to him when he sang. I don’t know much about it, I’ve had to learn most of it myself.”

    “It’s rare that I see two similar gifts in such close proximity,” Oliver observed. “We androids do not have such abilities because of our lack of aura. Illinois and Explosion Boy have similar powers but Illinois is too suspicious to let me take notes, and Explosion Boy is too nervous.”

    “Nothing too special about my gift,” Nate began playing again, just aimless chords from random songs.

    “It is still interesting to watch gifts that are so similar work together,” Oliver insisted.

    Nate continued playing a little bit longer, Ghostbur only occasionally joining in as Oliver watched them.

Chapter Text

    Logan was used to Remus causing problems. Ever since the Sides had been split off, Remus existed to cause problems. Usually that meant metaphorically ruffling Roman and Virgil’s feathers, but when Thomas was returned to them, he amused himself with bothering Thomas until Logan could teach Thomas ways to brush off Remus’s influence on him. For the most part, at least.

    So Remus’s new target for annoyance became Logan. Which Logan should have seen coming but he was confident in his ability to shrug Remus off. Remus was always desperate for attention, and he would take it from anyone, friend or foe alike.

    The fight was easy enough, a rare patrol of just Logan himself since Tubbo was taking the day off to spend in his business with his family, and Remus ambushed Logan. All Logan really had to do was TASER him and use his nanites to tie him up.

    A normal fight, until Orange showed up.

    “Oh Logan,” Remus gave Logan a smile. “Shame on you, it’s too early for Christmas, and I am wearing entirely too many clothes.”

    “I will dunk you in a pool of soapy water if you don’t stop,” Logan warned, knowing that shocking Remus would only encourage the behavior. “Your brother is far better looking than you.”

    “No accounting for taste,” Remus rolled his eyes, then he saw Orange, lurking in the shadows he wiggled, trying to wave at the other Side but his arms were trapped.

    Logan immediately turned to look at him, braced for a fight.

    “Hey there, Agent Orange,” Remus grinned. “You mind helping me out, I’ll give you my dead lice collection?”

    Orange rolled his eyes, “You are absolutely disgusting.”

    “Do you want my zombie flea circus instead?” Remus leaned in, asking with far too much sincerity.

    “Nah, I’ll pass,” Orange walked over, hands buried in his pockets. “Came to see the show a little bit.”

    Logan immediately pulled out one of his batons and let off one of its charges of mild electricity as a warning. Orange stopped, holding his hands up in surrender but the smile didn’t fade from his face. “You should stay back.”

    “Or what? You’ll put me on my ass?” Orange dared.

    “Yes, I’m not playing games with you,” Logan warned. “While you have been keeping to the metaphorical and literal shadows recently, you are not a threat to be taken lightly.”

    “High praise coming from the sentient toaster,” Orange jabbed.

    “Is this some joke to you?” Logan demanded, Remus pouted that he was getting ignored and kicked at Logan.

    “I mean,” Orange shrugged. “You’re a little funny.”

    Logan chose not to rise to the bait, instead he picked Remus’s up. “If you’re quite done, the Duke and I must be off. We have an appointment with the local authorities that I do not wish to be late for.”

    Orange made some dismissive noise, “Yah [1] see, that’s what I don’t get about you. All this? It’s beneath you.”

    The logical Side knew he should leave, he knew how this was going to turn out if he stayed.

    “You’re smarter than Thomas, you’re more powerful than him,” Orange baited. “Why bother?”

    “Because my mission has always been clear,” Logan tried to keep his tone even. “And with more than nebulous instincts I would not control removed, I can focus on that mission again. Thomas returning has been more beneficial to me than you could possibly imagine.”

    “Which is why you let him drag you around and ignore you whenever anyone else speaks?” Orange grinned. “Because that’s what he’s doing.”

    “I don’t think someone who has tried to actively murder me in the past is in any position to instruct me on how I should align myself,” Logan reminded sharply. “In fact the only person here wasting their time is you. You live in a defunct Network base because you are too vain and self centered to listen to anything that Thomas has to say.

    “I have no interest in bowing to some inferior version of myself,” Orange snapped, his eyes glowing orange like his namesake. “In fact, I don’t even think we’ve physically met yet.”

    “For the best,” Logan decided.

    “Yeah, well, so’s this,” Orange said and moved in to punch Logan in the face. The logical Side was mostly able to deflect away the attack as magic flew around them.

    During the fight, Remus finally managed to free himself and he became a distraction for both combatants. Still he was far more of a nuisance to Logan than he was to Orange. And that enabled Orange to get one solid hit on Logan. His eyes glowing a fierce ochre and his aura wrapped around his fist before it made contact with the side of Logan’s face.

    If Orange had been another random enemy the fight would have continued. The blow by itself did nothing to Logan or the nanites that made up his suit, but Orange wasn’t just any normal enemy. He was one of Thomas’s Sides and since Thomas had returned that meant that any magic that came from Thomas’s was able to get past Logan’s defenses.

    And Orange’s magic cause all the fight instincts in Logan’s brain to start firing off. This comments that the other heroes or Sides made that had put Logan off, roared back to the front of Logan’s mind. The fact that he had nearly been killed by a cannibal and so far that individual was not locked up in jail or dead came back to Logan’s mind.

    Remus was able to knock Logan’s feet out from under him and Logic went down, pissed and angry and desperately trying to get control of those impulses that came with those feelings.

    The intrusive Side went to hit Logan with his morning star when Orange pulled him away.

    “Come on, captain eyesore,” Orange pulled him away. “He’ll get way more pissed if we skip out.”

    And the two of them took off, so that when Logan finally shoved himself up, he watched the two Dark Sides race off, cruel laughter taunting his ears and fury boiling in his veins.

    It took everything Logan had not to scream in a rage or kick the nearest object. It was an endeavor he would succeed in even if he had to throw himself into the next available mission to diffuse some of his anger in a safe way.

Chapter Text

    Sapnap was known to pick fights. Mostly because it was funny to him, and partially because he had a “why not?” or a “sure fuck it” attitude about most things in life.

    The pyromancer was out for a walk, mostly to stretch his legs, but also to run some errands for Karl and Quackity. He had run into Callahan along the way. Seeing the dual antlers sticking out of the crowd before he saw him.

    As one of Dream’s close allies, he ran errands for Dream directly when Dream was too busy, or too lazy to do it himself.

    Shortly after he ran into Callahan, he was outside Quackity favorite little mercadito and he realized he was right across the street from the south end of King’s park. And he caught a pack of three squirrels racing around and they stopped to stare at the two of them.

    “Heh,” Sapnap smiled.

    “Sap,” Callahan signed in warning, drawing out the last letter right in front of his face to dry and dissuade Sapnap.

      “Whaaaaaat?” Sapnap smiled at Callahan, whipping his head to look at him. “I’m not gonna [1] do anything.”

    He turned and walked into the mercadito and picked up Quackity’s list of things he wanted and then stepped back outside with his grocery bags. The three squirrels were still there, and Sapnap noticed King with them.

    “Hey there,” Sapnap handed the bags to Callahan, and Callahan had a look on his face that clearly meant: “don’t you fucking dare!” as Sapnap walked over to the other side of the road.

    The corner of King’s mouth twitched and the trio of squirrels bolted back to him and scurried up his body to hide in his cape. King glared angrily at him, “Stay away from them!”

    “Or what, kid?” Sapnap grinned. “You gonna [1] cry and run off to Daddy?”

    The animal magnet looked downright furious, “Or I’ll snap your neck.”

    Sapnap laughed at that, but Callahan braced for an attack.

    “You’ve got spunk, kid, I’ll give you that,” Sapnap smiled, fire visible in his eyes.

    “I’ve heard what you do to animals,” King snarled.

    “Oh, did Tommy tell you?” Sapnap grinned. “What can I say? I’m too used to familiars, I get a little careless whenever I see a real one.”

    “Then maybe you should stay away from them,” King growled.

    Callahan tapped Sapnap on the arm and gave him another look and Sapnap rolled his eyes and took a step back.

    “Fine, you’re too uppity,” Sapnap walked back over and took his bags.

    Sapnap and King maintained eye contact until they were too far away and Sapnap walked with Callahan until they were close to Las Nevadas and Sapnap split off to let the other Server member complete his errand without too much havoc during his day.

    With a certain confidence only known to someone in their own home base, Sapnap strolled into the casino and the guards who were more than familiar with his face and Sam sent him a greeting text as he entered the private elevator for the staff and used the key to head up to the top level to go into Quackity’s private quarters.

    Juggling his bags, Sapnap used his aura to unlock and open the door and then kick it closed. He passed the hospital room that was always on standby for Karl and walked into the living room.

    The pyromancer stopped in front of the large fish tank in the living room. Decorated and maintained with the type of anal retentive, lazer focus that Quackity was infamous for.

    Sapnap smiled at the fish swimming in the tank, the fish and water tinged with magic. One was orange with dark blue-grey stripes, another was a wide orange and white fish, and the third was a blue and green fish. 

    “Hey, boys,” Sapnap greeted the fish warmly.

    “You better be talking about me!” Quackity shouted from the kitchen. “And you better fucking have my chorizo!”

    Sapnap rolled his eyes and went into the kitchen with his forged goods, giving Karl and Quackity each a quick kiss before the smell of savory home cooking slowly began to fill the air.

Chapter Text

    Roman had already faced off against more than a couple of the Server, and they were a fight that Roman liked throwing himself into. He’d fought Sapnap and that had been a fight that he’d enjoyed so much that the two routinely had sparring matches in the streets of Gainesville. The first time they met Sapnap was salty that Roman had apparently attacked someone named “Karl” which Roman had no idea who or what he was talking about, but the fight was fun and he was more than happy to keep fighting him.

    But unfortunately, at least for Roman, Sapnap was busy. Now Roman was never one to begrudge love and the importance it had in one’s life. Especially since Roman was literally made of love and the flames of creative passion.

    However, that left Roman bored, and listless and looking for something to occupy his mind. And Logan was busy with Thomas, Patton and Virgil were on a mission, and Roman needed something.

    Fortunately Gainesville was full of Server members and if Sapnap had been so much fun, surely the rest of his friends would be too.

    And Logan wasn’t around to try and convince Roman it was a bad idea. So it was obviously a good idea.

    All too easily, Roman found two of the Server members. He’d seen them around. Seeing more than a couple other heroes — the fact that none of them were Sides eluded Roman in that moment — and so he started the fight.

    Roman turned the area into a little altered reality. It looked like a little dreamscape. Little platforms and magical constructs.

    Foolish took one look at Roman and groaned, “ Ugh, we’re gonna [1] get into so much trouble.”

    Niki braced and her magic immediately started summoning little constructs of pantries and sweets.

    “Hey! Are you friends of Sapnap?” Roman called out.

    “What did that idiot do this time?” Niki grumbled as she braced.

    “I mean,” Foolish shrugged as his skin took a more golden hue as he summoned a glowing blue trident that had runes etched into the delicate-looking metal. “Maybe? He could either be a pal or just some dude that happens to be in the same room as me sometimes.”

    “He’s my sparring partner,” Roman grinned in excitement. “He’s busy, though, so you want to tag in for him? ‘Cause [2] if not, I can go find someone else.”

    Foolish and Niki glanced at each other before looking back at Roman.

    “Sure, just don’t go crying to your friends when you lose,” Foolish warned, shooting at several of the platform shelves before jumping on one. The ancient warrior could feel the palpable magic and aura just hanging in the air around them.

    “Alright,” Roman flashed his cape and summoned his sword, a shield appearing in his. “Let’s do this!”

    Roman and Foolish then flew at each other with their weapons, Niki trying to take pot shots at Roman. Foolish’s eyes began to glow as a lightning storm quickly rolled in and lightning bolts started touching down.

    The creative Side’s armor immediately shifted to something that would offer some protection against electricity.

    Foolish just looked at Roman like a spider would to an ant. “You know, you’d make the fight harder if you didn’t give us aura every time you move.”

    “How new are you?” Foolish asked, “Because if it’s any older than, like, five minutes then that makes Ent look really bad.”

    Roman braced for a fight, excited, when he was suddenly yanked away and the illusion flickered a bit, almost dropping Niki from the platform she was on. But she was able to jump onto another one to safety.

    “Stop picking fights you can’t win,” Deceit spat, tugging Roman closer with his shepherd’s staff, and hit him in the face with a sleep spell. “You utter lunatic.”

    “I had ‘em [3] on the ropes,” Roman insisted drowsily as he started to drift away into a deep sleep.

    Janus used smoke bombs and illusions to pull Roman away from the fight and more importantly from Foolish, who sighed in disappointment when they were gone and their trail masked.

    “Well, maybe next time,” Foolish said as the terrain changed back to normal and both him and Niki dispelled their weapons and constructs.

    Roman was kept from hunting down more Server members for the rest of the day by a very upset Logan.

Chapter Text

    Anti didn’t like other demons messing with his stuff, and this weird demon in Gainesville, who was putting his aura over practically the entire city, absolutely counted. Problem was, the Host always got in his way whenever he tried to start a well deserved fight.

    This thing was in the hero’s base, left invisible and confusing territory trails all over the city, and he hid out in King’s park constantly.

    Which, whenever he spent longer than five seconds thinking about it, Anti was fairly certain it was intentional. This guy had gotten under King’s skin and for some reason Dark wasn’t putting him down.

    But Anti knew Dark was crazy so that made sense that he was slipping. All it probably took these days to get Dark to ignore someone was if a demon looked close enough like one of his kids and looked sad and lost enough. He was almost certain that he was bound to pick someone else up from the Server if that guy in the black hooded cloak was anything to go by.

    Really, Anti should go over and beat some sense into Dark. The Entity was long overdue a reality check, in Anti’s opinion.

    But he crossed into King’s park, smelling the person he was looking for long before King stopped him to not cause a scene.

    “Come on, kid, he’s an eyesore,” Anti told King.

    “Yeah well, I happen to like the guy, and besides, Logic will stick a lightning rod up your ass if you do anything to him,” King warned.

    Anti almost went up and stabbed the guy on principle just for that. But he walked right up to  a little picnic scene where two guys were sitting and talking about bands and music.

    Nico spotted Anti first, all too familiar with the glitch demon that terrorized the conjoined city. When Thomas finally noticed that someone was there, he visibly jumped in alarm. He recognized Anti easily enough from the pictures that Logan had shown him. To warn him about the very dangerous “Rogues Gallery” the heroes and police dealt with on a daily basis.

    Anti looked at Thomas, to the glitch demon he was one of the most unimpressive, human-looking demons he’d ever seen. The guy next to him looked like a human but Anti couldn’t be sure with someone with a much stronger aura sitting right next to him.

    “ Uh, hey,” Thomas greeted nervously, almost immediately glancing around at King as Virgil appeared about ten feet away. The anxious Side was almost immediately pulled away by King so he didn’t instantly attack Anti.

    “Anxiety, just wait,” King ordered.

    “Wait before you do anything, wait until he attacks,” King demanded and Virgil stayed braced to jump in. Which the anxious Side was not happy about and Anti had more than noticed that he had suddenly appeared.

    “Havin’ [1] fun?” Anti spat, just itching for a reason to attack him without upsetting King.

    “ Uhh, yeah it’s a nice park,” Thomas explained, uncertain what the demon was looking for.

    “It fookin’ [2] is,” Anti growled. “Was e’en [3] better before yah [4] showed up.”

    “Uhhh,” Thomas glanced nervously at Virgil. “Am I in your territory? I thought this was King’s.”

    “It is,” Anti spat, he pulled out his knife and Virgil came to stand by Thomas’s side and hissed angrily. “An’ I’m fookin’ watchin’ yah, yeh hear?” [5]

    “Yeah,” Thomas smiled nervously. “Heard you loud and clear.”

    Virgil hissed again and Anti hissed back at him, even louder and angrier, before breaking apart into green pixels and lingering nearby.

    “Wow, Mr. Sanders,” Nico joked, equally as nervous. “What are you doing that has you on speaking terms with that guy?”

    Uhhh,” Thomas stalled, not wanting to say: “I’m a superhero, and a demon” on a date with a guy he was desperately trying to impress. “I dunno [6] ?”

    Nico just stared at him before smiling, “Well, alright, just be careful, okay?”

    “Yeah, you know me,” Thomas smiled nervously.

    Nico was quick to change the subject and Virgil stayed close by, overprotective.

Chapter Text

~::~ 5 Years in the Future ~::~

    Two teens ran across the length of a warehouse, one with a wide smile across their face, another with a slightly more cautious smile. The two of them reached a far panel and one of them disassembled their own robotic arm to connect to the panel.

    “This is a bad idea, dude,” Mini told Lunky.

    “Yeah,” Lunky shook their hand in excitement, letting out little hisses in excitement as they signed.

    “Okay,” Mini said, “almost—”

    Then, from the panel shot blue dust that spattered both of them. Lunky flinched, turning 2D for a moment.

    A door opened in the wall and Punz walked out, he was almost covered in armor. “You two are really far from home, you know that right?”

    Mini sighed, “Hey, Punz, how long have you been here?”

    “Kid, I’m paid by the gig, how long do you think I’ve been here?” Punz shot an eyebrow up, pulling out a bow and an arrow.

    Mini’s eyes glowed a light orange, “By my calculations? Based on yer [1] typical patterns ‘a [2] behavior, I’d say an hour, dude.”

    “ Ugh, robots,” Punz rolled his eyes with a smile.

    Lunky flipped him off.

    “Okay, kids, let’s dance, I get a nice bonus if I make you two turn around and go home early,” Punz smiled.

    Lunky smiled and instantly flipped back onto the floor, flattening back into the second dimension as Mini’s body distorted around the arrow and reconstructed back to normal when it passed.

    “Dead,” Punz told the android.

    Punz quickly readied and fired another arrow, paint splattering the floor and some of it sticking to Lunky. “Dead.”

    Mini fired a blast that Punz summoned a shield to deflect, pulling a throwing axe from his belt to chuck at the android.

    The white and light orange android managed to dodge, he had a smile on his face.

    “De— Oh,” Punz smiled in surprise. He pulled a gun out, not a real one, but it looked realistic.

    Lunky made an excited little screech, lunging for Punz and racing along the floor. As Mini tried to keep Punz preoccupied so he didn’t just open fire on where Lunky was.

    But Lunky was able to close the distance and tackled Punz. Lunky had his aura right at Punz’s throat, and Punz had the gun right to Lunky’s temple.

    At that moment, however, a loud buzzer and all the lights in the building began turning on. Lunky and Punz immediately pulled away. Punz had a smug smile on his face.

    Lunky let out a frustrated and furious hiss that Punz didn’t need Mini to translate was the word: “Fuck!”

    “Better luck next time, kid,” Punz laughed.

    Lunky glared at him.

    “We did pretty good though, might get a pass on this one, dude?” Mini tried to comfort Lunky, but the young demon obviously didn’t feel very comforted.

    “Maybe if any of your dads were sitting in on this one,” Punz sounded just so amused and a one-way glass panel came down and showed Tubbo sitting with Dark, clapping loudly and slowly. The Entity stayed sitting in her chair, a neutral expression on the demon’s face.

    “Not bad, kiddos,” Tubbo smiled.

    “Timing needs work, Punz was going easy on you,” Dark warned.

    Punz looked inordinately proud of himself and when Dark held up a slim drive up and let Punz take it as the mercenary made his way out.

    “Tell Dream I still expect to see him at that meeting,” Dark told him.

    “Yeah, good luck with that,” Punz chuckled as he walked out through a door behind Dark and Tubbo.

    Leaving Lunky and Mini with the two older adults.

Chapter Text

    Bim groaned as he stood waiting for Illinois to be down with this deal. He was watching from a distance, ordered not to have anything more than a single glass or shot of whatever the hell he wanted because — once again — he was supposed to watch Illinois’s back.

    Fortunately for Bim’s attention, Illinois was done soon enough. But just before he finished up, Bim noticed two people walking in. It was two of the Sides’ fusions. Emile and Enigma. Enigma walked in like a person possessed by a thousand demons and a purpose, and Emile followed after them and looked at least a little uncomfortable.

    The fusion raced over to the bar, ordered two steins of beer and immediately chugged both of them. Before running over to Illinois and just started talking with him as they startled bouncing in place.

    Illinois looked surprised and glanced back at Bim a couple times. Bim couldn’t hear anything they were talking about over the music and other people but Illinois eventually let them pass and hovered nearby so he was within eyesight.

    And the instant that Illinois stepped aside, Enigma began making a beeline straight for Bim. The cannibal gave the two fusions a suspicious glare.

    “Enigma, buddy,” Emile began to warn.

    “Hush, Em,” Enigma literally slapped their hand over the other fusion’s mouth. “I’m busy.”

    “He tried to eat, Lo,” Emile reminded.

    “I know,” Enigma scoffed dismissively. “The brainiac would have been fine.”

    “He was going to be—” Emile said before shaking his head and adjusting his glasses. “You’re gonna [1] make me split up if I keep arguing in circles with you, bud.”

    “ Uhh, what do you want?” Bim asked, redirecting their attention.

    “A date,” Enigma smiled.

    Bim flinched and violently shook his head. “What?”

    “Your cute face. My gorgeous self. A nice food truck in the middle of town. We can ditch Em and your nosy brother and if you find some fuckwad to kill, I wanna [2] take notes.” Enigma gestured with their hands as they spoke.

    “This is obviously some kind of trap,” Bim decided in his mind. “Nah, you two are going to have to try harder to arrest me than that.”

    “Fuck the arrest,” Enigma smiled, shoving Emile slightly away from him, Remus’s existence in the fusion injecting him with an inhuman amount of energy. “We can steal a cop car, and make it Abe’s car.”

    “Now, wait a second,” Emile argued before Enigma grabbed them and moved the other fusion to stand next to Illinois and then glued the fusion’s feet to the ground with magic.

    “Quit getting in my way,” Enigma threatened Emile. “You’re like my brother, you’re supposed to be my wingman.”

    “Come on,” Emile pleaded and Enigma tapped their nose.

    “What’s the punchline?” Bim asked in suspicion.

    “I’m bored,” Enigma huffed. “You’re a cannibal, and I know the face of someone who’s bored as fuck.”

    “You arrest me, I’ll eat your face off,” Bim threatened.

    “Promise?” Enigma grinned at him.

    “Yeah,” Bim glared at them, and ripped open a portal. It wasn’t the most stable and the edges of the portal were clearly struggling to stay open large enough to fit a person through. But Bim and Enigma ducked through it and were on the northside of Egoton. Leaving Illinois and Emile to start trying to track them down.

    But Enigma and Bim already had a head start, Enigma treated Bim to a burger with a rare meat burger which Bim did appreciate. They ran around for a bit, mostly causing problems for the police or any random hero they came across. Bim using his smaller, more stable portals and Enigma using some invisibility magic and illusions.

    After dodging Abe and Jackie, the two hid out in some back field behind some fences. They tried not to laugh too loud and give themselves away.

    “Alright, you have to admit, pretty boy, that was fun,” Enigma plopped down on the grass as they looked at the smile on Bim’s face. It was a little damp, but Enigma didn’t care; Bim stayed standing though. The way the moonlight hit his face, mesmerized the fusion. Enigma wasn’t sure if they loved Bim or if they ever would and this would end whenever they got bored of seeing the underworld prince’s very cute face. But for now they had to admit that Dark had created a very cute young man.

    All too soon, Janus sent Enigma an internal warning. Fun date night was over, which didn’t make Enigma too happy but they knew they couldn’t stay here with Bim forever. Even if Janus didn’t want out now, the fusion would naturally decay and Enigma would be gone.

    “Deceit wants out,” Enigma sighed. “He’s not as fond of you as I am. Duke couldn’t care less either way.”

    “Really?” Bim’s smile began to fade.

    “It’s because you tried to eat Logic,” Enigma told Bim, lying flat on his stomach and looking over his arms at him. “Deceit took that personally, he’s still not on good speaking terms with Orange over it either.”

    “You don’t care about that?” Bim asked, watching Enigma’s face for any change of expression.

    Enigma shrugged, “Don’t know, I barely know Logic. I think he’s a bit of a stick in the mud.”

    “I know what that’s like,” Bim rolled his eyes. His phone was going off, he looked at it to see several texts of Illinois, threatening to get Dark involved. He groaned and began texting back. “Illinois is calling the curfew police on me.”

    “Hard to believe someone who no longer lives with you can control something like that,” Enigma chuckled, but stood up and tapped Bim on the nose. “See you around, hot stuff.”

    “Careful, you start looking good, and I just might eat you,” Bim smiled at him before opening a portal and stepping into the Manor.

    Enigma was able to hold themself together long enough to meet back up with a very angry Roman and a thoroughly disappointed Patton.

    But the fusion as they broke apart into their two halves considered that a win anyways.

Chapter Text

    Philza was a simple man, he really was. He liked collecting powerful magical weapons, bothering the rest of the Server and just kicking back. A book in his hands.

    300+ years was a long time, perhaps a moderate amount of time for a demon, but absolutely a long time for a human. Philza had helped build monuments to gods and men. He had waged wars, some for his own sake and many for others. The avian had even settled down a couple times to raise a fledgling or two.

    Point was, Phil had done a lot and been a lot of things. He didn’t think some “me time” was too much of a request.

    Everyone else, however, took any physical sighting of him as some plan on his part so what started as him sunbathing on one of Brighton’s many beaches turned into more than a bit of a hassle.

    “ Pssst, hey Phil,” Michael whispered, he was one of Dream’s close Server associates, had tried to creep up close to him. “What’s the plan?”

    “The plan is for you get the fuck outta [1] my Sun,” Philza told him. “I’m sunbathin’ [2] .”

    “It’s October,” Michael reminded, sweeping his dark hair out of his eyes.

    Phil lowered his sunglasses, “And?”

    Michael shrugged, and stepped out of the way.

    The avian demon turned and looked over, “Hey, shitebag! I can hear yeh breathin’.” [3]

    Mad came out of hiding, being able to stay safe in the city thanks to the heroes was making him a bit braver, even when he wasn’t hanging around Mare. He was admittedly taking too many chances, but Phil wasn’t in too charitable of a mood to teach the young demon a lesson for his own good.

    He’d leave that to Dark or Anti or probably Dream. Philza was supposed to be relaxing.

    “It doesn’t look like you’re doing anything interesting, I’ll go,” Mad decided, jabbing his thumb behind him.

    “Nah,” Phil told him, lowering his sunglasses back down. “Take a seat, in front ‘a me, though, just ‘cause yeh can’t kill me doesn’t mean I trust yeh.” [4]

    Mad rolled his eyes and walked around, looking at the beach. He stayed standing. “It’s almost sunset.”

    “Yeah? And?” Phil repeated. “I didn’t live fer [5] 300-plus years to burn through my hosts with skin cancer. I’m just gettin’ [6] some Vitamin D, or whate’er [7] .”

    “Where’d you get that thing, by the way?” Mad commented. “Is it still alive?”

    “Nah, got it from some prison morgue, I ne’er take somethin’ that’s gonna be missed,” [8] Phil shrugged.

    “That thing is from a prison?” Mad commented.

    “Well yeah,” Phil commented. “It’s harder to take ‘em from a battlefield these days and I don’t want somethin’ that has ta be retrained how ta fight. It’s annoyin’ and I hate it.” [9]

    “Okay, that makes sense,” Mad agreed. “You have a laundry list of features you like?”

    “Nah,” Phil corrected, turning back to his book. “I’m not picky, I just need some blue eyed, blond haired fucker. That’s it.”

    “You’ve just been doing that for 300 years?” Michael asked.

    “More or less, I’ve taken captains ‘a [10] the guard, knights, highwaymen,” Phil admitted. “I like this one I’ve found, but I give it another five years before I have ta find a new one. Look, while I’ve got you two, try to enjoy yer time. You’re not human, you’ve got a long time ta do what you want to in life. So have some fun, go out to the middle ‘a nowhere and just chill out fer twenty years. Seen a lotta demons die from wantin’ ta get too big too fast.” [11]

    “So this is like a retirement plan for you?” Michael asked.

    “Mate, I just wanna [12] relax,” Phil sighed. “Last couple ‘a years have been a bit much and I just wanna fuckin’ kick back ‘fore I start my next project.” [13]

    “What’s that going to be?” Michael asked.

    “This city lacks a good altar ta [14] Death,” Phil smiled. “Gotta [15] make a lady feel invited.”

    “Death? Didn’t take you for the blood sacrifice type.” Mad was just staring at him.

    “Nahhh,” Phil smiled. “It’s been a while since she’s seen the boys, but I gotta [15] make sure she doesn’t start a fight with some ‘a [10] the boys around here. And that she’s got a nice place ta 14] stay while she’s in town.”

    “I gotta [15] go,” Mad decided.

    “Have fun, kid,” Phil said. “Gotta [15] enjoy the Sun while I can.”

    Mad left and Michael hung out with Philza for a bit before the both of them went back to the Server.

Chapter Text

    “All the world’s a stage, boys!” Marc shouted from the balcony.

    “How many times are you gonna [1] rob this place?” Remy shouted from the museum’s ground floor, the fusion tried to shoot a cloud of sleep dust at him, but missed. Bob was next to the fusion.

    The Actor smiled, “Well, then, they should invest in better security guards.”

    With that he ran off, a brown paper wrapped box under his arm.

    “Get him!” Bob shouted in frustration as he and Remy began to chase after the Actor.

    The two heroes started a mad, and quite infuriating, chase all over the museum and into the sewer system before going back up into the museum. During the mad dash, Marc ripped open the package to show a mask, decorated with black feathers and sparkling red gems.

    “Hey, hot shot!” Remy shouted. “Let’s not get crazy, what do you even want it for, it’s not even magical.”

    “I like pretty things,” Marc said, holding up the mask. “And this just speaks to me.”

    With that distraction, Remy shot at Marc with a sleep spell, it was a direct hit and the Actor went down.

    “Yeah, yeah,” Remy scoffed, walking over to snatch the mask out of Marc’s hand, and then passed the mask off to a member of the security team who were trying to keep with them. “Just sleep off the crazy, pretty boy.”

    After that it was a relatively easy affair to get Marc out of the building. Bob only had to make a bubble and roll the Actor out to a transport truck that would take the Actor to the station. Remy and Bob hoped in the back with him to make sure he didn’t escape.

    Marc woke up after the truck had already started moving. Which Remy didn’t like because they’d banked on the Actor staying asleep for a moderate amount of the trip.

    The Actor tried twisting in his cuffs.

    “Don’t try it, sweetheart, they’re anti-magic,” Remy told him, summoning up an iced coffee for themself.

    “You two wouldn’t happened to have my mask on you, now would you?” Marc smiled, even batting his eyes.

    “Nope,” Remy told him.

    “I’m going to get that mask, it’s only a matter of time,” Marc promised.

    “Yeah, huh uh,” Remy rolled his eyes as they sat in the transport truck. “What do you even want it for in the first place?”

    “I told you, I like pretty things,” Marc smiled.

    “Geez, you really are Wil’s brother,” Bob commented.

    In an instant all humor, and color for that matter, drained out of Marc’s face. His eyes turned into masses of black coal and smoke billowed out from the corners of his eyes.

    With a furious roar he lunged for Bob, but the hero was quick to trap him inside of a bubble and he just bounced back into his seat.

    “Woah, calm down there buddy,” Bob told him.

    “How dare you even mention that fucking bastard in my presence!” Marc shouted in a rage. Marc’s aura slammed against Bob’s bubble and the hero braced to keep the barrier together.

    “Rem! Rem! Tap in!” Bob shouted as the bubble began to crack and Remy jumped up.

    The fusion put his hands on the bubble and pushed as much of his sleep sand in and Marc went out again.

    “Angry fucker,” Bob commented as they continued the ride down to the station, Remy was far more diligent about making sure Marc stayed asleep until he could be put in a magically warded cell.

    Actor wasn’t happy, and much like Wilford, he would quickly escape. But for now the Actor was behind bars.

Chapter Text

    Most of the Lost Ones had come to terms with the fact that Dark was dating Chase. At least Bim limited himself to scathing glares at Chase across Dark’s office when they were in the same room, or stealing Mori’s phone to text rather angry threats to Chase when he could get away with it.

    But for the most part that was the worst of it. Mostly because Chase made it a point not to live in the Manor. Dark insisted he not live in some out of the way apartment but in some penthouse apartment that had been originally intended for Author when he would eventually move out on his own. Arthur had never gotten to use it, and Host emphatically insisted he had no need for it. So Chase was basically pushed into living there. His stuff had already been moved in by the Host’s narrations before Chase had even learned it was an option.

    Chase and Dark were trying to take the relationship slow and careful. Chase not wanting a repeat of his very messy divorce, and Dark not really knowing how to have a healthy relationship in the first place. The marksman had even made his peace with Wilford being an active and needed element in Dark’s life because as much as the sight of the madman’s presence boiled Chase’s blood in his veins, he loved Dark more than he hated Wil.

    That led Chase to tonight. Dark was having a fairly stressful week and Chase was trying to relax in his new space when Wilford portalled in with Dark.

    “Look, Darkling, there he is,” Wilford smiled, he had one of Dark’s arms around his neck and he was holding him up.

    “What did yeh do ta him?” [1] Chase jumped up in a panic, racing over to them.

    “Relax, we just had a couple of drinks,” Wilford smiled, letting Chase take Dark and move him over to the couch. “It’s been a while since he’s been able to let loose.”

    “Why’s he drunk?” Chase demanded, laying him down on the couch. “He ne’er [2] gets drunk.”

    “I can be very persuasive,” Wilford smiled proudly. “I’m sure he’s fine, he didn’t have too much to drink.”

    Chase sent him a scathing glare.

    “M’not [3] drunk,” Dark insisted, grabbing onto the front of Chase’s shirt to pull himself up.

    Wilford snapped his fingers and suddenly Chase’s vision was spinning. He felt dizzy and his back was on the couch, Dark’s head on his chest. And the couch he’d grown comfortable with was suddenly a futon.

    “Ugh,” Chase groaned. “What the hell?”

    Wilford unceremoniously flopped down on the futon next to Dark. “Well, couldn’t have him getting back up now could we?”

    “I should just shoot yeh [4] in the foot,” Chase leaned up on an elbow to see a good look at Dark, his ringing was more subdued than normal. He didn’t seem injured, just drowsy.

    “What’s stopping you?” Wilford smiled as he tucked some of Dark’s hair behind an ear.

    Chase gestured to Dark, who was laying on one of his arms.

    “Some other time then,” Wilford smiled.

    The marksman was about to snap at Wil but Dark leaned up to curl his hands into Chase’s shirt, making Chase smile. Chase buried his nose in Dark’s hair. “Clingy when yer drunk, ain’tcha?” [5]

    “M’mm terrifyin’,” [6] Dark mumbled into his chest.

    Chase tried not to laugh, and didn’t really succeed as he envisioned a little panther cub weakly stumbling around. “Yeah, yer big an’ scary, aren’tcha?” [7]

    Dark made some angry grumble, but Chase knew he was already starting to slip off.

    “Just sleep,” Chase told Dark, kissing his forehead. “Fook knows yeh need it.” [8]

    The Entity didn’t answer, Chase and Dark eventually fell asleep, cuddled up in each other’s arms. Dark would be hungover and pissed come morning, getting snappy with both Chase and Wilford. But Chase would just smile over coffee, the image of a very cuddly Dark unable to fade from his mind.

Chapter Text

    Michael never liked getting near the base or the police station. Tubbo had tried to bring him close to the heroes’ base to fill out some paperwork and the little toddler became a screaming, crying fit in his arms.

    Silver, Abe, Logic, and Jackie all caused the boy to have similar reactions. Along with anyone in an obvious mask. He even tried to take Tommy, Tubbo, and Ranboo’s masks off when he saw them wearing one. So Tubbo and Ranboo couldn’t just drop him off at the base for a babysitter, and for security reasons a hero just couldn’t turn up without a mask to watch the kid. Patton had offered several times to go maskless, but in the end Tubbo decided to go with Foolish and Puffy.

    Today it was Foolish’s job to watch him and when Tubbo came over he also dropped off Shroud as well. So Michael was comfortable, playing blocks and with his chicken with his cousin.

    And the day was going so well, until Shroud got a hold of one of Foolish’s eye orbs and after a bit of a tug of war between Michael and Shroud, it was thrown out the window. The two toddlers vanished into the busy city.

    It took Foolish five minutes to realize there was suspicious silence. And another five seconds to completely panic.

    Michael and Shroud weren’t just three-year-olds, they were also very young demons. Michael’s mental and physical forms were accidentally capped by the treatment they received by the adults around them. And Shroud, because he was around Michael so much, was the same.

    The two of them, accidentally carried by the orb wandered around town for a couple minutes before they were found, thankfully by Bing.

    “Hey, little dudes,” Bing recognized them and carefully walked over. “What are you two doin’ [1] out here?”

    At the sight of Bing, Michael started crying. Shroud however, raced up in excitement.

    “Bing!” Shroud cheered and the android lowered his sunglasses to show his glowing orange eyes.

    Michael stopped crying and was staring at Bing, braced for something.

    “Bing!” Google shouted from down the road. “I expect an answer.”

    “Hey, Googs, hold that thought,” Bing told Google.

    “Why do you have human children?” Google asked.

    “S’not [2] humans, dude,” Bing corrected with a smile as he scooped Shroud up. Michael became distressed again when Bing picked the other toddler up.

    Google walked over, his eyes glowing blue as he scanned them. “They’re glitches.”

    “Yeah, ain’t that cool?” Bing smiled. “Here, just let me call one ‘a [3] their dads. I’m pretty sure they’re not supposed ta [4] be here.”

    The blue android crotched down and stared at Michael who was looking at him warily. Google just stared at him. “Are their dads glitches?”

    “NDA, dude,” Bing denied.

    “I would like to know for correlation’s sake,” Google told him.

    “An’ [5] I’m not sayin’ [6] who they’re from,” Bing informed, sending Tubbo his exact location the instant he got a response.

    “The Hecatoncheires project cannot work long term without information like this,” Google informed.

    “Dude, I’m not even sure I wanna [7] help with that yet,” Bing denied.

    “Bing!” Tubbo was racing over, Foolish was close behind him.

    “The fuck are they doing all the way out here!” Tubbo shouted as he buzzed over, scooping up Michael immediately and then taking Shroud from Bing.

    “Fuck!” Shroud repeated with glee, throwing up a set of arms in the air as his other four arms held onto Tubbo.

    Google looked at Tubbo and Foolish.

    Tubbo looked the toddlers over and sensed some of the remains of aura that was similar to Ranboo’s specifically whenever he would teleport.

    “They got their hands on an eye,” Tubbo realized and glared at Foolish

    “Hey, it’s not my fault, I don’t know how he got his hands on it,” Foolish held his hands up defensively. “I keep ‘em [8] locked up.”

    “Yeah, and if anything had happened, the three ‘a [3] us would have locked up your organs,” Tubbo snapped. Then he turned to Bing and smiled. “Thanks man, I’ll take it from here.”

    “Yeah, no problem,” Bing smiled and Tubbo and Foolish left with the kids. Tubbo took the two back to Foolish’s place to figure out what had happened.

Chapter Text

    “I’s [1] don’t know ‘bout [2] this,” Yancy sighed as he looked at Memento.

    “Come on, I need to test it out, and Mori’s not here,” Memento complained. He was holding up what looked like a normal sweater.

    “What’s it do?” Yancy asked.

    “Nothing,” Memento looked away from him.

    “Yeah, like I’s [1] believe that,” Yancy rolled his eyes. “What’s it really do?”

    “It,” Memento stalled, “ might, possibly, be made of human hair.”

    Yancy tossed it back at Memento’s face.

    “Hey, hey,” Memento snapped. “This is quality, premium, hair humano [3] here.”

    “An’ I’s not wearin’ it,” [4] Yancy started walking off.

    “Fine,” Memento draped the sweater over his arm and hurried to catch up after, “I’ll find some rube to hawk this off on.”

    Yancy rolled his eyes at Memento, “Really? Youse got nuthin’ better ta do?” [5]

    “Mori’s with Chase,” Memento told him. “And I’m bored.”

    “World might as well be endin’ [6] then,” Yancy told him.

    “Exactly, the world’s ending, bit by bit, day by day,” Memento pointed out. “We’re all dying.”

    “Geez, no wonder youse [7] are so fun at parties,” Yancy rolled his eyes, just letting Memento follow him as they made a slow trek back to the heroes’ base. Yancy was trying to get in a healthy walk, when he was found by his younger brother.

    “Hey, I’m great at parties,” Memento smiled and jabbed his thumb at himself.

    “Stay fucking still!”

    “How ‘bout [2] you fuck off!”

    “Oooh,” Memento perked up and looked over. “Is that a fight?”

    And then he was off, and it took Yancy a second and a couple of steps to realize he was already gone.

    “Shit,” Yancy looked around, and raced after his trail.

    Yancy caught up with Memento when the spawnling caught up with the fight. Phantom had picked a fight with George, one of Dream’s closest allies and a close friend to the Server gang leader. George usually just walked around in his white rimmed glasses and blue shirt and jeans attire. But mushrooms were now growing from his body and he was glaring at Phantom. George had on a red cape with fur lining it, a collapse with an eye orb in the center that had a dark green aura to it and a yellow “X” where the iris should have been.

    The ex-convict pulled Memento back before he could accidentally get hit.

    Phantom glared at the two of them, “Stay out of my way before I have to roll two coffins over to Ent.”

    “Keep your eyes on the prize, you overcompensating talent scout,” George spat as mushroom spores came off George’s body, and began to spread out.

    Yancy and Memento raced to cover their noses and mouths but George’s spores moved with unnatural precision. Instead of just moving wherever errant winds took them, they directly targeted Phantom and only Phantom.

    Phantom used his cane, and the aura that came from it to push the spores away from him. The aura formed a protecting bubble that the spores tried to eat through.

    “I think it’s time to dream a nice, pleasant dream,” George said with a tone of malice. “You don’t get to just come onto our turf and expect me to do nothing.”

    Phantom lunged for George, his cane made contact with George’s face, hard, and the eye on George’s cape blinked. The Server member was knocked back as blood went flying and the entire world seemed to freeze, or at least Memento felt something similar to Tempus’s powers but so alien and different at the same time. He felt like something had frozen time and then a millisecond later for Memento time snapped back to normal. George was picking himself off the ground and there were a couple long, fluffy white feathers surrounding George.

    Phantom was gone, his aura fading as if he’d disappeared but not discorporated.

    George coughed, his nose bleeding and he was coughing up some blood from when he’d bitten his tongue. “Dammit.”

    Memento walked closer. “You okay?”

    Yancy yanked him back when George moved a little too aggressively.

    But when George realized who it was, he calmed down and the mushroom spores stopped spilling out. “Oh, sorry, I thought you were Phantom.”

    He wiped his nose on the back of his hand, “Ugh, I need a shower.”

    “I’s [1] think, youse [8] also need a doctor,” Yancy commented.

    Memento held the sweater out for George, who looked at it questioningly before taking it.

    “Seems like a waste of a good jumper,” George told him.

    “Keep it,” Memento told him.

    “Okay, cheers, mate,” George started using it to clean up the blood.

    “Youse [8] sure youse [8] don’t need a doctor?” Yancy repeated.

    “Nah, I’ll be fine, I’ve fought worse,” George dismissed, looking down at himself. “I lost a bet with a ram demon and had to sew an ear to my leg once.”

    “What?” Memento smiled.

    “Yeah,” George pulled up a pant leg and there was the ear. “Like I said, I’ve picked worse fights.”

    “Can youse [8] hear with that?” Yancy asked, pointing to it.

    “I mean, not at first,” George lowered his pant leg. “But after a couple of spells, and a lot of pain, I can now.”

    “Why?” Yancy asked.

    George shrugged, “Why not?”

    The orb on his cape began to glow incessantly, and George rolled his eyes.

    “He’s like a worried mother,” George smiled, and pulled out an eye orb. “Gotta [9] go, thanks again for the jumper.”

    Then he tossed the orb and was gone.

    “We’s prolly should’a told him ‘bout the hair,” [10] Yancy told Memento.

    “Don’t ruin the moment,” Memento told his older brother.

Chapter Text

    Magic. Magic is a funny thing. From the illusions of snakes and demons. To the weapons of heroes. Magic was something I never understood. And I sure as shit trusted even less. But I had to admit, it would be fun to watch the fireworks. If it wasn’t so damn frustrating and dangerous.

    Abe didn’t like how many magical cursed books were floating around the city. There was not only Dark, Janus, and Phantom who had access to all kinds of stuff they probably shouldn’t be allowed to have, but the Server had a couple as well of various degrees of danger.

    Not to mention all the ones Abe was actually able to catalogue that Marvin and Nate had taken from mages and demons over the years.

    The detective was sick of just sitting back as reports of stolen books and weapons were reported. The Server was a no-go — and Abe had certainly tried to get in — and any attempts he made at trying to question the three apprentices was immediately stonewalled by the other heroes. Especially when it came to the taller, more timid apprentice.

    So he was going to have to look for answers himself in a more proactive way.

    Which meant trying to find some of the more magical members of the Server. Something that fortunately didn’t take as long as Abe thought it might.

    Hannah was with Karl and the two of them were just taking a stroll. Hannah had a couple small boxes in her hands. Mostly because Karl had things to do and Hannah wanted to tag along. Karl had his usual book that held some handwritten notes about important things for Karl to remember whenever he spent too long in the In-between and his memory was a bit patchy. Sometimes he forgot where home was and someone from the Server had to grab him. If he was lucky someone like Sapnap or Quackity found him and they would immediately bring him home after an episode.

    Worst case scenario was that Ranboo found him and he was having his own memory issues. Leaving the two of them to just wander around and get into trouble together because they couldn’t remember friend from foe.

    Today was a better day for Karl. He could remember he was engaged, and that he really shouldn’t be in Dark’s territory if he didn’t want to get into a fight. His book was just there, just in case.

    Unfortunately it looked almost identical to the myriads of other books the Server had and Abe walked up.

    “Hey!” Abe called out.

    Karl looked over, Abe’s face was familiar but his mind couldn’t place it. He smiled. “Hey, there.”

    I’ve known some pretty smiles over the years. Known enough never to trust a single one of them.

    Abe moved and snatched the book right out of Karl’s hand, a look of abuprt panic on Karl’s face.

    Hannah let out a choked gasp and sent some thorny veins to tug the book back, almost throwing the boxes in the ground in alarm. Her vines ripped the cover a bit and cut into Abe’s hand.

    “Here you go,” Hannah smiled at Karl, holding the book out.

    “Thanks,” Karl stood up and took it, cradling it close to his chest. “Don’t know what I’d do if I had lost this.”

    Hannah then turned to glare at Abe, her eyes turning red. “You!”

    Abe braced for an attack, as Karl fretted over his memory book.

    But in the blink of an eye Abe was plucked to go somewhere else. Saved from the Sever, but he was in another bit of trouble. He was standing on a train as it was traveling somewhere else. His clothes were different, his gun a different model, and no idea about where he was.

    Hannah was left with Karl in Egoton proper, confused and looking around. “Let’s head back, we can send Ant and Sapnap to run your errands.

    “O-Okay,” Karl quickly agreed and they ran back towards Las Nevadas as Abe was running up the length of a train.

    The two groups heading in opposite directions.

Chapter Text

    It was inaccurate to say that Jack Manifold was in witness protection. It was more like he was under house arrest, in some stranger’s home.

    The Egoton PD had decided that having someone with nuclear launch codes was too dangerous to just let him do whatever he wanted and to just have the ability to walk out of town where they couldn’t watch him.

    As such, Jack knew that he had to keep a tight grip on his bargaining chip.

    Virgil was helping to watch over Jack while Abe was out of town. He’d been gone for a couple of days and while it was a semi-regular occurrence, it was more than a bit of a security risk because Dark had somehow caught word of why a massive aura earthquake had gone off close to his house and he wanted to “talk” with Jack.

    Of course whether that meant killing the Server member, or trying to give him a job, he never said.

    Virgil was keeping watch over the apartment when Janus showed up.

    Janus held a finger to his lips, whispering, “Shhhh,” as he turned into Patton.

    “No,” Virgil and started moving to stop the deceitful Side, already sending an alarm through not only the communicators, but accidentally through Thomas as well.

    “Hey there, how’s it going?” Janus greeted, in Patton’s voice, as he used a spell to bypass the lock and walk right in.

    “ Ehh, I’m fine, just making a quick snack,” Jack commented, rifling through a cupboard for something.

    “Just coming over to make sure you’re doing alright, which you are, because you’re right here,” Janus smiled, which made Jack Manifold roll his eyes, tossing the popcorn bag up and down.

    “ Ugh, that’s almost as bad as his usual ones,” Virgil told Janus under his breath.

    “Thank you,” Janus smiled, with a smile that would be Patton’s sugar sweet smile. He whispered, “I’ve been taking notes.”

    “So what do you two want?” Jack asked.

    “Just here to check that everything’s alright,” Janus said as he walked up, standing on the other side of the counter.

    “Yeah, you all sure tap my phone enough,” Jack joked, looking Janus over before popping his bag of popcorn open. “Okay, so which are you?”

    “What’dyah [1] mean?” Janus smiled, but leaned back a little bit.

    Jack made a little bit of a show of tossing a piece of popcorn into mouth, and chewing it twice. Before tapping the side of his 3-D glasses. “There’s a lotta shape changers an’ illusionists in the Server. In the Server I can tell who I’m talking ta with these, but yer not Server, so . . .” [2]

    Janus, still disguised as Patton, leaned his elbow on the counter, “Who do you think I am?”

    “Well, you supposedly “take notes” so I bet you know Morality well enough, but I don’t know how many ‘a [3] you heroes are good illusionists.”

    “Hmm,” Janus hummed but he didn’t turn back into himself. “Just wanted to check on you all the same.”

    Jack stared at him before offering the popcorn, “Want some, mate?”

    “I’m good,” Janus refused.

    “You really wanna [4] make a difference, stop letting Tommy come around,” Jack spat.

    Virgil walked forward a little bit. He was becoming more and more nervous about the topic because Janus wasn’t supposed to know Big Man’s actual name and Ranboo was always nervous for Tommy. It was a trait that was bleeding over more to Virgil.

    “Oh, has he been causing problems?” Janus asked with saccharine concern, wheedling for information.

    Jack made an angry scoff, “Tommy’s always causing problems, mate. He’s insufferable. The only thing he’s got going for him is that Wilbur is dead an’ [5] can’t keep giving him more bad ideas.”

    “I see,” Janus commented.

    “Well, we should get going, and leave you be,” Virgil interrupted, pulling Janus out. The deceitful Side looked very upset to be denied juicy gossip.

    But Virgil pulled him out and the two were met with Silver and a thoroughly disappointed Patton.

Chapter Text

    Ethan hoped that his near hatred for Mori would stop after a little while. Or at least he’d forget about the spawnling long enough for the guy to skip town.

    But every time that he saw his face — Ethan’s own face — he was viscerally reminded. It didn’t help that Memento still had Mark’s face. That Mori was still running around and causing trouble in Ethan’s day to day life.

    Today was another painful reminder of that, and how Ethan had never painfully reminded Mori that he wanted his identity back, when he was called to settle a problem in the tourism district. Reports said that Skeppy was there, had taken what looked like a knife but could be anything from a plain switchblade to a soul splitter he could use on people. Conflicting reports of him having an opponent or an ally next to him.

    As it turned out that person he was seen with was Mori.

    It took a couple seconds for Ethan to remember the same rage he was always overtaken with when he saw him.

    But he paused when a familiar voice crackled over his earpiece.

    “Don’t kill him.” Chase told him, with a tone that warned Ethan that he’d get shot in the leg if he didn’t listen to him.

    “Fucker’s got my face,” Ethan shouted, he couldn’t see Chase but that didn’t mean he wasn’t close by.

    “Look, I ne’er [1] said yeh [2] couldn’t rough him up a bit, I’m just sayin’ don’t kill him,” Chase told him.

    “I wasn’t gonna [3] kill him, fuck!” Ethan spat, before turning invisible and starting to move closer.

    Mori had gotten his hands on the knife that Skeppy had taken and was just playing around with it, flipping the blade around and looking like if someone got too close they’d be accidentally stabbed rather than Mori purposefully trying to hurt someone.

    Skeppy was standing, watching Mori be a nuisance, some of his face and arms were crystalized already from other fights.

    “How bad do yah [2] think I could kill someone with this?” Mori said.

    “Depends, one of your brothers or a hero?” Skeppy smiled.

    “I have a sister too, dude,” Mori paused.

    “Yeah, but I don’t want you to kill that one, she’s got the Egg’s eyes, so she’s off limits,” Skeppy told him.

    “I’m not gonna [3] kill any of my sibs [4] , dude,” Mori scoffed.

    Skeppy was smiling until he noticed something and tugged Mori behind him before Ethan could swipe the knife right out of Mori’s fingers.

    The mage’s eyes glowed blue and crystal began to spike up out of the ground around them. One caught the side of Ethan’s foot, cutting into the side of his foot and breaking his concentration enough to make him visible again.

    “Hey,” Ethan lunged for the knife again, a bit slower because of the injured foot. “I thought you fuckers hated the Server.”

    “Nah, see,” Mori grinned, pocketting the knife. “The Old Man hates Dream, and King probably hates Sapnap.”

    “Yeah, that’s fair, a lot of people hate Dream,” Skeppy smiled. “And Sap is really bad with animals.”

    Skeppy turned to Mori, “Get out of here before I accidentally hit you, send the Old Man my best.”

    “Gotcha,” [5] Mori made a little salute and he began using that hand to cut open a Void portal.

    “Hey, wait a second!” Ethan shouted and moved forward but Skeppy moved to attack him. It let Mori step into the portal and it shut closed behind him.

    “I don’t think so kid,” Skeppy smiled, summoning a spear that looked like a piece of wood with crystals growing out of one end.

    “Since when do the Server and the Network work together?” Ethan spat.

    “It’s called opportunity,” Skeppy smiled. “Just because Dream is terrible at making alliances, doesn’t mean I am. And lucky for me, Dark has a couple kids that squeal just as much at shiny magical objects as Phil’s crows do.”

    Ethan did his best to fend off against Skeppy but when Jackie and Marvin showed up, Skeppy ran off, tossing an eye and disappearing into Gainesville like the Server preferred to do.

Chapter Text

    Patton was starting to have fun again. With one city-destroying threat after the other Patton had felt drained. He had to do the work, obviously, people needed help and villains needed fighting.

    Today it was an easy enough mission, a warehouse — that wasn’t Dark’s — had reports to Google in their system. He hadn’t done anything other than mildly injure people and they’d evacuated pretty quick. Logan was working with Bing and Oliver to figure out what he wanted inside the system. Patton was moving into the warehouse with Eric. Mostly to make sure that all the employees had been able to get out.

    “So, uh, ” Eric began nervously. “I’ve really been, umm, thinking about that, uh, new name thing.”

    “Really?” Patton smiled warmly. “That’s really neat, is it that one you and Bomble were talking about, or another one?”

    “The one we were ta-lking about,” Eric answered. “C-Combust-Ion.”

    “Combust-Ion,” Patton repeated with a smile. “It’s nice, excellent choice.”

    Eric was beaming, but the nice moment was cut off when one of Google’s many drones turned the corner, using its helicopter blades to hover in the air as it watched them.

    “Hey, uh, Google,” Patton froze, suddenly aware that this was a bad match up.

    “Are the useless meat sacks gone from the building?” Google asked through the drone’s speaker.

    “That’s what we’re here to check,” Patton told him nervously, Eric freezing completely

    “Then check,” Google ordered. “If I see one at this juncture, I will kill it.”

    “Right, that’s what we’re trying to prevent,” Patton’s smile became more nervous, as he started signalling for Logan and Bing.

    “They already know I’m here,” Google told them.

    “Well, yeah, that is important,” Patton said as he took Eric to continue looking around the warehouse. It took about a half-an-hour before Patton was sure the warehouse was clear and sent a message to Logan.

    “Okay, Lo Lo,” Patton announced proudly into his communicator. “Everyone’s clear.”

    “There are no humans in the building?” Google asked.

    “Yes!” Patton declared, “the building is clear.”

    “Perfect,” Google responded, a smile practically audible in his voice. And the entire warehouse came alive as all the machines and they all turned on Patton and Eric. “The police don’t rush to the scene if humans die.”

    Patton moved first against a massive hydraulic arm, Eric diving out of the way.

    All in all, the fight was quick, the robot drone just seemed to be watching them during the quick interchange.

    Logan didn’t even have time to run in with Oliver and Bing, Google watched the fight for a bit through his drone and then everything halted, as if Google had pressed a pause button on all his electronic followers.

    “Hmmm,” Google’s voice came from the speaker.

    “Information collected, thank you for your service,” Google’s voice told them before all the machines powered down, and the drone flew away.

    “That doesn’t sound good,” Patton frowned but as he braced for an attack, nothing came. In fact Google pulled all his drones from the city and retreated back to Dark’s warehouses.

    When questioned, Bing and Oliver didn’t really have an answer. Only that Google was obviously planning something.

    Patton and Eric came out with only bruises, and when Illinois came to see him during a late night patrol he was more than a little upset about Google picking a fight with Eric. He was calmed by the fact Eric wasn’t even remotely hurt and the more malevolent android hadn’t wanted to harm him.

    The two of them just walked side-by-side, Eric doing his best to recount the story as Illinois smiled. The two of them were just enjoying each other’s company.

Chapter Text

    Paddy didn’t like the current shake up in the Network. He certainly didn’t miss the fact that almost overnight his father had basically become Dark’s left hand. Or that despite never taking a life while in the near month since he’d joined the Network as Clubs, Chase was almost always seen with the Entity. He took lunches with him, sat in on private meetings, and had even put a rubber bullet in Jackie’s arm.

    Notably missing any vital organs, and Paddy had caught the proud smile on Chase’s face when he’d landed the shot. Anyone with a brain could tell he wasn’t even trying to hurt Jackie. Jackie was able to shake off the injury.

    Jackie flipped him off with his good arm, Chase had laughed louder.

    But Paddy was . . . uncomfortable was the closest he could call it, but confused was right in second place. So he was admittedly avoiding Chase, despite Chase’s many attempts to talk to his son.

    He was on watch, taking his lunch in the security deck, and watching the Jims skulk around.

    Paddy grabbed the receiver, “Hey, Green, yeh see this shite?” [1]

    “Oh yeah, five bucks says they cut themselves on something sharp,” Green told him. “You want to check and make sure they’re not breaking something?”

    The young sharpshooter rolled his eyes, wanting to ask why Green hadn’t already done that, but before he could the door opened and Chase walked in.

    “Oh, there yeh are, yeh wanna get lunch?” [2] Chase asked, jabbing his thumb behind him.

    “Yeah, Green, I got it, Clubs will be on watch,” Paddy said loudly.

    Chase didn’t look impressed but took the receiver, “Clubs, present, the fook is goin’ on?” [3]

    Paddy took his bag and ran off before Chase could be fully briefed, unfortunately he ran right into Yan and when she stepped out of a portal, Paddy just about jumped out of his skin.

    “Fook!” [4] Paddy shouted.

    “Hey,” Yan smiled at him, waving.

    “Nope,” Paddy told her, and stepped around her.

    “What you doing?” Yan followed after him.

    “None ‘a yer business,” [5] Paddy told her as he headed out of the warehouse to find the Jims.

    “No, everything in the Network is my business,” Yan told him.

    Paddy just about exploded on her, that just because she was Dark’s kid, that didn’t make her his boss. But Paddy didn’t fancy getting killed so he just let it go and all too soon he saw two of the many, many Jims, just stalking around and looking like gremlins.

    “Oi!” [6] Paddy called out. “What the shite are yeh fookers up ta?” [7]

    The Jims stopped and the two of them turned.

    “There he is, Jim!” RJ turned and pointed at Paddy and the two raced over to the young sharpshooter. CJ raced to catch up with his brother as the Jims were very quick to get the camera right up to Paddy’s face.

    “It is the famed son of Chase Brody, how does it feel to know your father is now an international criminal?” RJ asked.

    Paddy felt his left eye twitch in rage before he dropped his bag and winded back before slamming his fist into RJ’s face, jumping on him and starting to just wail on him.

    “Ahhhkk!” RJ shouted as Paddy began just raining down hits on him. “Back to you, Jim.”

    “Ahww, sweet!” Yan smiled and pulled her katana out of thin air. “Are we fighting?”

    Suddenly two portals opened up and Dark used his aura to yank both Yan and Paddy through and spare RJ from too bad of a beating. Dark pulled them back into the security room  where he was waiting with Chase and Green.

    Yan frantically hid her katana behind her back and pointed to Paddy, “He started it.”

    “Motherfooker!” [8] Paddy glared at her as Dark stared at the two of them, looking unimpressed and thoroughly unconvinced. Both of them would be promptly sent to their respective homes after that.

Chapter Text

    Tubbo thought he was actually being quite smart. Tubbo was normally a busy person. He had a lot to do between the Bee ‘n Boo, making sure Ranboo was safe during any errant episodes he might have, and being Logic’s hero apprentice; Tubbo had a lot on his plate. But Tubbo was good with stress and he was even better with letting out once deadlines had passed.

    His entire life had hinged on his ability to delay his internal crisis until he was in a mentally and physically safe place.

    And now he had a little bit of a break to himself, and Tubbo had a perfect idea for his stress relief.

    Amy was on call when a bunch of people on the outskirts of Gainesville one night, there were sightings of a skeletal horseback rider scaring the locals. Patton and Thomas had caught sight of it and Virgil had been summoned by Thomas immediately and Thomas had turned tail and run. Amy was the closest to the scene and rushed over, only to find one of Dark’s spawnling triplets in the area. The one with her face.

    “Hey! What are you up to?” Amy flew over.

    “Don’t know what you’re talking about,” Tempus said, her normally long half black, half white hair done up in a bun to keep it out of the way.

    “Are you the person going around scaring people?” Amy demanded.

    “No,” Tempus looked around. “But I am here to figure out what’s going on, they’re too close to our territory.”

    “Glad to know your family only cares when it directly involves them,” Amy scoffed.

    “Peebles, right?” Tempus asked, as she began to head down a street that bordered a small patch of woodland.

    “Yeah, which one are you again, I keep forgetting probably because you actually mind your own business and don’t use my identity to cause crimes?” Amy said pointedly.

    “That you know of,” Tempus scoffed.

    “Okay, what’d you do then?” Amy demanded.

    At that moment a high pitched whistle sounded through the air as a thick fog began to roll past the two women. Both Tempus and Amy braced for an attack as a large horse began to come out of the fog. The horse was mostly skeletal but it looked like there was flesh falling off of the equine creature. The eyes seemed to glow with unnatural brightness as its rider pulled themself up to a seated position. Horse and rider were one creature, no saddle or legs on the rider. Just fleshless sinew and skeleton.

    The rider looked like they were in clothes that were falling off their body, their physical form in a similar state to their horse and odd croaking sounds gurgling past their mouth.

    “Holy shit,” Amy spat as she braced for a fight.

    The horse took a single step forward and Tempus reacted without thinking, mostly driven by fear at the sight in front of her. She used her aura to put a pin in time, freezing the creature and Amy, and shot an attack towards the creatures, aiming for the connection between horse and rider, hoping to kill it before it could do anything.

    When she took the pin out the attack, knocked into the creaturer and the rider was knocked away. But it didn’t separate, the rider was suddenly very human-looking and let out a startled and pained yelp.

    “Bomble!” Amy yelled in anger, recognizing the scream as Tubbo’s as the illusion began to evaporate as the fog lightened.

    Tubbo pulled himself up, pulling up some of his hood, “The hell was that for?”

    “Where’d you even get that thing?” Amy demanded as the fully skeletal horse slowly trotted over to Tubbo and nudged the apprentice with his bony nose.

    “Oh these, Wilbur had loads ‘a [1] these things in an old trunk and Big Man took the whole thing when he died,” Tubbo explained, gesturing to his cloak and outfit.

    “Uhh,” Amy started. “Not the clothes, the horse.”

    “Oh, he’s Enderwalk’s,” Tubbo patted the undead stallion’s bony neck. “His name is Skellyboo.”

    At that moment one of Ranboo’s foaming purple portals opened up and another skeletal horse walked over, coming to Tubbo’s other side. Tubbo smiled as he scratched at the sides of their bony snouts. “This one’s Ranbone, he’s really imaginative with names.”

    “Okay,” Tempus clapped and held her hands up to her face to keep herself from screaming. “So this whole time you were the rider?”

    “Well, yeah, it wasn’t like I was hurtin’ [2] anyone,” Tubbo shrugged. “I was just having [3] a little bit ‘a [1] fun.”

    “Well let’s get these two home,” Amy decided, not wanting to have to break up a fight between Tubbo and Tempus, that would surely involved Dark rushing to the scene.

    So quickly Amy steered Tubbo safely away as Tempus glared after them before calling for Dark to bring her back home.

Chapter Text

    The Server “found” the orbs long before Ranboo joined the Server. Dream and Sam came into their little ramshackle basement hideout with five of them in the early days of the Server’s creation. George and Sapnap were napping on the couch when suddenly Sam had almost killed himself teleporting through the wall, and violently woken them up.

    Years passed and most of the Server was never sure how Dream and Sam first got their hands on the orbs. They were rare at first, only used as emergency backups. Even during the turbulent year when Dream was fighting with Tommy and Wilbur for dominance in the Server.

    Then Tubbo came up into the Server building, from the basement tech rooms, fresh after the entire gang had moved to Florida, he saw Ranboo for the first time, walking down with Dream from his office.

    Ranboo had been jumpy and nervous and Tubbo had taken pity on him, seeing an older version of himself, and showed him around the town. But Ranboo’s admittance into the Server had an added benefit. Suddenly everyone had access to the orbs. Tubbo went from having empty pockets from using his last backup to suddenly having six in his pockets and not sure what to do with them.

    Which was the newest problem for Tubbo: Dream needed Ranboo within arm’s length. He made no secret of it. Because those orbs started coming in handy against Dark, the heroes, and the cops.

    Ranboo was a linchpin in the Server, and no one outside the Server knew that yet . . . and Tubbo wanted it to remain that way. So he agreed to Dream’s terms, which entailed Dream getting amounts of Ranboo’s aura.

    Every other week Tubbo would run some of Ranboo’s aura directly to Dream, and Dream would keep making the eye orbs as the Server needed them.

    Ranboo, of course, didn’t like it when Tubbo snuck away to go and meet with Dream. Tubbo was getting relatively good at sneaking away, even with Ranboo in tow.

    Tubbo didn’t like it when Ranboo came with him, but even though he’d only been able to dodge Ranboo a couple of times, Ranboo always tried to follow him to the meeting.

    So often Ranboo waited outside the Server building while Tubbo was in there, talking to Dream. Normally he would be in there for about ten or so minutes, and then the two would go home. Usually he waited on his own, sometimes on his phone or reading his Memory Book to make sure he wasn’t forgetting something important.

    Tonight he was reading in his book for about five minutes when Bad walked out.

    “Ranboo, hi,” Bad smiled as he walked out, Eret practically slid out of the door. “You little muffinhead, I didn’t know you were even out here. Why didn’t you come in to say hi?”

    “Well, I didn’t think we’d be here long enough,” Ranboo told him as Eret walked over and smiled at the teen.

    “How’s life treating you?” Eret asked. “Treating Tubbo right?”

    “Y-Yeah, always,” Ranboo responded.

    “Good, good, glad to hear,” Eret smiled. “You two ever need Dream off your back, just say it.”

    “Uh, yeah,” Ranboo clutched his book to him. “Thanks.”

    “So,” Eret pumped their shoulder against Ranboo’s, “When did you and Tubbo get a kid?”

    Ranboo’s eyes began darting around, “Uh, what?”

    “Come on, I saw that little tyke at that mess of a wedding,” Eret smiled. “They yours? Tubbo’s? Or did you pull a Philza and find them in some box in the road?”

    “The third one’s closer,” Ranboo admitted 

    “Ehh,” Eret smiled, flashing a sharp smile. “That little scamp! Phil taught him well.”

    “Yeah,” Ranboo quickly agreed.

    “The little fella reminds me a lot of Sap when he was a baby,” Bad sighed, eyes in some distant memory.

    “Pfft, I’ve seen Sapnap’s baby pictures ,” they physically bounced in fingers in air quotes, “and that kid was no baby when he split off screaming and setting things on fire.”

    “He was adorable,” Bad defended.

    “He was six, you were twelve, and he was and still is a gremlin,” Eret grinned, the atmosphere changing from Michael to something else made Ranboo a touch more comfortable.

    “Hey, you shut your muffining mouth,” Bad self-censored. “He was adorable.”

    “Yeah, sure buddy, sure,” Eret rolled their eyes.

    “You better be fucking nice to him,” Tubbo came out of the Server, Dream closing the door after him.

    Bad gasped, “Tubbo, someone outta [1] wash your mouth out with soap!”

    “Try it,” Tubbo dared. He looked at Ranboo, “Come on, buddy, let’s go.”

    “Yeah, good idea,” Ranboo was quick to follow after him.

    “Hey, Ranboo, before you go,” Eret spoke up, stopping both of the teens.

    Before Ranboo could make a sound, Eret pulled out a bag with ten orbs clinking around inside of it. The orbs were not visible, but Ranboo could feel his aura close by.

    Eret threw the bag and Ranboo lunged to catch it, unsure what to do with it.

    “Take ‘em [2] back, I’ve been doing this demon stuff way longer than anyone here combined, I don’t need ‘em [2] ,” Eret lowered his sunglasses to look at them. “And Tubbo, you ever want to change your contract, just give me a call. I know I’m not the lawyer between us, but I’m sure I could help Dream change his mind.”

    “I’ll keep that in mind,” Tubbo said, continuing to glance at Ranboo, to make sure he was okay.

    “Thanks,” Ranboo told him, the teen taking out an orb to look at it. The iris was mostly green with red flakes in it. Then it placed it back in the bag.

    With that the two of them left, Eret watching them go, she didn’t speak until the teens were out of ear and eye shot.

    “We gotta [3] have an agreement on this, Bad, you and Skeppy have to stop using those eyes, full stop.” Eret warned.

    “We’re trying, it’s just Dark makes it really hard,” Bad sagged almost his entire body.

    “You leave Ent to me, we’ve got some rapport still,” Eret told him. “Just use your magic, you two have a lot, use it.”

    “Fine,” Bad groaned and Eret watched him trudge back into the Server.

    Eret left to start heading towards the north portion of the city where he knew Dark was hanging around. They had some things to talk about.

Chapter Text

    Logan these days had a new hyper fixation. With Thomas downright refusing to even dampen any of their personalities, Logan was becoming more and more sure of his own safety. While Thomas was easily distracted, it did let Logan pursue his own goals and do his own things.

    The logical Side’s newest hyperfixation was toying with his new influx of aura. He had learned several things about his aura. One it was extremely hard for him to influence common electronics, something that came naturally to the androids and other glitches like Anti or even Tubbo who was a relatively young glitch. Second, the EMP bursts he thought he’d created with technology had really been the vestiges of his own aura. He had no idea how to purposefully reproduce the effects outside of his suit and tech, but he was certain with enough time and practice he would find a solution. After all, he’d triggered the effect twice in a bout of adrenaline.

    But that was one of his background projects, the main fixation of Logan’s attention was on exploring the very concept of magic. Logan had spent his entire existence on the periphery of magic itself, not understanding it or how it worked. He could see its myriad of effects, but he’d always had a distaste of the unpredictability and had been secretly glad that he’d been spared from that.

    However, now Logan had aura, he could do magic — only by accident, but that seemed to be because he didn’t know what he was doing most of the time — and he’d seen what Tubbo could do with his magic. The young man treated his magic and aura like a science. And that was enough to convince Logan that there was more to magic itself then unpredictability.

    That fact thrilled him. That magic, just like everything else, could be measured and studied. It could be influenced by some force. And there was a magical cousin to chemistry: alchemy.

    Logan had torn through all of Marvin’s existing books on alchemy, he was testing his growing knowledge but Marvin was still rebuilding his collection and Logan needed more knowledge. He needed it like lungs needed air.

    So he often went out looking for books on the subject, anything he could get his hands on, any information online he could verify.

    But during this pursuit of knowledge, he hit a snag. Virgil had come to him, wanting to fuse again.

    This was only the second time that Virgil had fused with a Core Side. And Logan wasn’t going to challenge Virgil on the sudden fusing request, especially if it made Virgil more comfortable fusing. Even if he was conducting other business when Virgil had asked.

    The anxious Side’s trust and confidence meant everything to Logan.

    Virgil always stated he felt like he was losing himself when he fused with Janus and Remus. But with Logan it was different. Virgil didn’t feel as smothered, but it still felt like some other force was consuming him.

    So Logan put his books aside and they fused, Virgil making him promise that it wouldn’t be longer than a couple of hours this time, and that they would stay away from Thomas and the other Sides. Virgil was nervous and scared and Logan was quick to agree.

    The fusing was quick, and Brain came back to existence. He threw on one of Virgil’s grey hoodies and scooped up some books that Logan had been working on and split from Thomas’s house he shared with the Core Sides.

    Logan had been fixated on something, and that bled over into Brain. He felt alive with an odd magic and went to the library that Logan had been scrounging books from.

    For a little bit, Brain poured into Logan’s studies, Logan’s hyperfixation had become Brain’s. Even if it was slightly lower in intensity. He was at a local library, reading through some books on alchemy and making cross-references to the nature of chemistry and physics.

    Virgil and Logan were busy making comments and Brain himself was curious. All the Sides’ fusions had slightly different auras than the Sides that made up the fusion. Brain had an aura that resembled Virgil’s, but worked like Logan’s. He was closer to a glitch, and Logan’s research might help him improve his magic overtime.

    Brain was so taken by his studies that he almost missed chatter going on elsewhere in the library.

    “Look it’s not my fault the guy’s an idiot, what do you want me to do about it exactly?”

    “ Some help would be appreciated, at least.”

    “Techno is here!” Logan warned, jolting Brain from what he was doing.

    “What?” Virgil almost got Brain split back apart in his fear. “Hide!”

    Brain surged up, already slipping on a mask so his face wasn’t as recognizable as he looked over and saw Techno and Sam barely out of eyeshot, almost hidden around some pillar.

    The sudden movement made Techno spot Brain and the two Server members locked gaze with Brain.

    The fusion froze, two different styles of early self defense eating with each other as Techno seemed to look Brain over as he stepped around the pillar. As he approached, with Sam right behind him, Brain realized something. Both Server members were bigger than him and as this was Brain’s second time being fused they were no doubt stronger than him too.

    “Uhh,” Brain started as Logan tried to keep the fusion calm. He quickly grabbed two of the books into his arms. “Hey, come to the library much?”

    “Yeah, I do, but I don’t see you much,” Techno commented as he looked down at the notebook and papers still neatly arranged on the table. “An alchemist, huh?”

    “Somewhat?” Brain admitted, not sure if he should be exaggerating his skill or not, and if one side of the other would increase his odds of escaping the situation. So instead he started taking the books and papers and slipping them back into Logan’s travel bag.

    “You’re a Side,” Sam said, getting a good look at Brain’s slightly diminished aura.

    Brain dumped the rest of his papers into the bag, “No?”

    “That sounds like a definite yes,” Techno deciphered. “Real convincing, gotta [1] do better than that.”

    “Well, gotta [1] go,” Brain decided, Virgil getting more and more nervous the longer he stayed. He had all of his things and decided to go and hide in Thomas’s laundry room from now until the end of time.

    “Hey, hold up a second,” Techno cut in, but still gave Brain an avenue of escape. “Saw your notes and you had some . . . mistakes on it, want some pointers before you blow your face off?”

    Brain threw a shoulder strap over his shoulder, “Why? What do you want from it?”

    “I like learning new potions and skills,” Techno told him. “Plus, if your boss is starting to pick up actual fighting skills, I might get my rematch.”

    “Take it,” Logan urged. “Information from the source.”

    “Nah, I know a second location kidnapping when I see one,” Virgil warned.

    “I don’t think I can trust you,” Brain warned and he felt Virgil get a little less tense.

    “One of the smart ones,” Sam complimented. Brain was more than a bit on edge because he couldn’t see his face and it was a bit hard for Brain to get a read on tone with seeing his facial expression. Sam’s normally flat, if slightly sardonic, tone certainly didn’t help.

    “Here,” Techno took out a round flask with two chambers in the orb. One was a vivacious grey liquid, the second was murky milk-white liquid. He underhanded it gently to Brain, who thankfully caught it and then pulled a second one out and Brain fumbled to catch the second one. But he held one in each hand.

    “What are they?” Brain turned it over, both Brain and his components enthralled by how the different liquids move.

    “Noxious smoke bombs,” Techno smiled. “Come on, there’s a park down the road. Let me show you how real alchemy works.”

    With two smoke bombs and a text to Bing and Oliver to tell them what was going on, Brain took his bag and followed them.

    “Why are you helping me?” Brain asked the two Server members. “Even giving me the potions you did seems counterintuitive.”

    “I want a real fight with that Legate, I’ll train him myself if I need to,” Techno told Brain. “Teaching you alchemy might make the fight interesting, and I like that.”

    “I want a better look at your aura,” Sam admitted. “Your aura is a lot like the other one in the nanite suit. Did you split off from that one?”

    “No, uh,” Brain got fidgety and stopped, the park within sight. Sam stopped before Techno did. “I’m a fusion.

    “You know, I’ve heard that through the grapevine, but no one’s been able to tell me what that means,” Techno inclined his head to the left ever so slightly.

    “Two or more Sides can make a new person,” Brain explained, trying not to give out too much information. “Typically fusions last anywhere from a couple hours to a couple of days.”

    “Huh,” Techno commented, drawing out the syllable. “And which Sides are you?”

    Brain took a step back, “Logic and Anxiety.”

    “Well that explains some things about your aura,” Sam commented and then kept walking. Which took Brain a little bit to follow after them.

    They got into the park and Techno began drawing a huge circle to keep effects trapped inside the circle and Techno motioned for Brain to step out of it.

    “Okay, toss one in,” Techno looked over to Brain, and since he had a second one, the fusion tossed it into the circle and the portion shattered, the glass and stopper consumed by the magic and the liquids mixed. Even past the barrier, Brain’s eyes watered and his nose itches.

    His form shook, almost splitting as Brain started coughing. “Geez, that’s bad. This is a smoke bomb? The ones I’ve seen go off aren’t usually this caustic.”

    “Then the mage is going for a distraction and not and actual smoke bomb,” Techno told him.

    “So there are distinctions then?” Brain asked, watching the smoke dissipate. “There are only certain things that constitute explosives.”

    “Well,” Techno stalled, “Anything can make a bomb if you’re stupid, or careless.”

    “Of course, of course,” Brain agreed.

    Techno walked into the circle and began pulling flasks out of his cloak. “Now let me give you some pointers.”

    “Don’t you need a whole lab set up for alchemy?” Brain asked, recalling Logan’s memories of Marvin’s set up in his library.

    “I mean,” Techno shrugged as he began pulling out random pouches and packets. “You can strengthen effects or make more complex potions by fermenting or distilling potions, but in a fight you won’t have time to do it so when Phil and I would get on the battlefield we got used to mixing simplistic potions on the fly. But like I said, anything can make a bomb. Will was the only one of Phil’s kids that ever got the finesse of potion making. Real shame he’s dead.”

    “Oh yeah,” Sam commented dryly. “Real shame, I spend every day lamenting his death. That asshole was a menace to society and his drug running got us into a lot of trouble.”

    Brain tried his best to listen in on all the conversation as Techno and Sam were giving him potion mixing lessons. Techno making sure that Brian was throwing or mixing the potions right as Sam offered pointers or coming in to help distract Brain a little bit while he was trying to mix potions. Most of the time Brain couldn’t multitask and the spell backfired or didn’t work but because of the lack of concentration. But Brain was successful exactly once with making a smoke bomb only one time.

    Sam had to leave and Brain left with corrected notes and new found knowledge. When Brain broke back apart upon reaching the base, Logan took the notes and the smoke bomb and began examining the compounds inside the potion. Virgil sitting next to him with his earphones in and on his phone.

Chapter Text

    The ballroom swirled with people, as if they were all just ballerinas in a music box. Fundy saw only faceless mannequins, all of them in masquerade masks. But there were things that tagged various dancers. An oversized purple sweater. A mannequin with a white bandana over his head. One had a pink mustache and was turning in unpredictable circles

    At first Fundy was confused, looking around. He wasn’t in Las Nevadas, and it took him a couple of seconds to realize what was going on.

    Well, a couple seconds and the sight of something that absolutely didn’t belong in a fancy ballroom: a hot dog restaurant van. The Camarvan, a creation of Wilbur Soot, in a convoluted bout for power. Fundy didn’t quite understand how Wilbur had gotten from A to B. But he was barely out of Phil’s metaphorical and literal nest, and his first act was to commission a drug van to be built. He had taken Tubbo and Tommy with him and the three of them sold drugs after closing hours.

    But after they’d joined Dream’s Server, and got into all kinds of trouble, Wilbur had started grabbing for power and Dream hadn’t been too happy. But in the end Wilbur was almost like a second-in-command of the Server, and there was a lot of talk about dics. Fundy didn’t really understand how a no-name drug dealer got to be Dream’s right hand, he had been a newborn spawnling at the time and in a matter of months Wilbur was dead and Fundy was an orphan.

    But here the Camarvan was, and a single occupant attending it, which meant one thing:

    This was one of Fundy’s dreams.

    Fundy crossed the ballroom to the ill-placed food truck. He passed by a twirling duo, a tall mannequin in a dark brown coat, and a much smaller dancer that looked like a fox. In a crayon blue dress.

    His mind flashed back to memories of when he was little. Memories of little handmade dresses and an ill fitting body that Wilbur had found him.

    But Fundy forced the image to change, of him dancing with his father, as he felt white fur bunch around him. Fundy wasn’t sure where Yogurt had come from but the little fox demon was his son, just like he was Wilbur’s.

    “Welcome to Wilburger Ranvan,” Wilbur smiled at Fundy as the fox demon walked up. Smoke trailing from a cigarette pinned between his lips. He looked like himself instead of a faceless mannequin. “Can I take your order?”

    “I’d like a half-decent dad and a good night’s sleep, please,” Fundy told his father as he held Yogurt in his arms. The first time he’d seen Wilbur and the Camarvan, he’d freaked out and it had been awful. Now all he felt was numb.

    “Ohhhh,” Wilbur looked uneasy. “Sorry, we’re all out of that.”

    There was a clatter and Fundy turned to see an unexpected sight. Schlatt was grumbling before the ram demon just climbed into the punch bowl as one of the faceless mannequins in a black suit turned into a maid and spun.

    Immediately Schlatt perked up and got out of the punch bowl. He followed the maid as the mannequin led him back to the dark woods and approached the mannequin with a black dragon mask. Flecks of blue and red on either side of the mask.

    Fundy felt an uncomfortable weight in his stomach. He looked back and his stomach dropped, unlike every other dream he’d had, the Camarvan, which had been a fixture in his dreams since his father’s death, regardless of whatever lunacy was currently going on in his dreams, was gone. As if it had never been there.

    The world changed, as dreams tended to do, and he was standing in a grassy clearing. The party was gone, the Camarvan was still gone, but he saw a large golden canary with his right eye missing and a thick scar coming down his face. The bird was trying to pick up a coin as he tweeted in frustration.

    Yogurt let out a couple of confused yelps, as Fundy took a step towards the bird, but after that first step he heard a growl and turned around to see two animals approaching. One was a raggedy fox with a bleeding cut down his chest. The fox was flanked by a large ram with curled black horns, the ram swaying slightly.

    The scraggly fox left out a yip of anger before he lunged for the bird, the ram changing after the fox as they attacked the canary.

    Right as they would have landed on the bird, Fundy startled awake, he bolted upright, throwing Yogurt’s head off his chest. The little fox bolted out of bed and slammed into a wall. Causing Fundy to have to comfort the little spawnling before getting him to go back to bed.

    Once Yogurt was back asleep, Fundy slipped out of his room and down the hall in the top level of Las Nevadas to where Quackity’s room was.

    Fundy started pounding on the door the instant he hit it. “Q! Big Q! Open up! Please!”

    It took a couple attempts for Quackity to answer his door. He was still trying to wake up, he had on a dark blue robe, his beanie, and shorts. “Fundy? What the fuck, man?”

    “I had another dream, a nightmare,” Fundy explained frantically.

    “Okay, okay, shit, entra chico, entra, ” [1] Quackity rubbed at his face and led Fundy in, closing the door behind them.

    Sapnap was leaning against the bedroom door frame, in a hoodie and sweatpants, blinking the sleep haze out of his eyes, “Everything okay?”

    “Yeah, go back to bed,” Quackity grumbled and yawned. “Okay, ¿qué quieres? What happened?” [2]

    Fundy immediately began launching into telling Quackity about his dream, Quackity getting increasingly more awake and serious as Fundy told him of his dream.

    “And that’s everything, you’re sure?” Quackity asked, a coffee in front of him and a cup of hot chocolate in front of Fundy.

    “Yeah,” Fundy answered, a little calmer than before as Quackity stood up and dumped his coffee into a thermos, setting the cup in the sink.

    “Amores,” [3] Quackity called out, walking over to his closet to pull out a shovel, a backpack, and a shotgun. “I have a fucking grave to dig up, be back soon.”

    “You want me to go with?” Sapnap asked, giving his fiancé a quick kiss.

    “No, watch after Karl, I’ll be back before breakfast,” Quackity promised, quickly ducking into the bedroom to give Karl a quick kiss. “Te amo.” [4]

    Quackity was quick to head down with Fundy to the private car garage and found his car quickly.

    “Get in the car,” Quackity ordered and he was quick to drive them out of Gainesville and drive into the rest of Florida, heading north to Orlando.

    Fundy was quiet for a bit as Quackity was playing music. The casino owner was clearly upset.

    After a couple minutes, Fundy spoke up, “ Uh, so where are we going?”

    “The old L’Manberg base,” Quackity said.

    “Why?” Fundy asked with a hint of fear in his voice.

    “I’m gonna destroy whatever’s left in that grave and make sure any remnant of him knows I hate the fucker,” Quackity glared at the road. “Fucker can’t bring him back if he doesn’t have the parts.”

    “Are we allowed to even do that?” Fundy asked.

    “Who’s gonna get mad? Tubbo?” Quackity said as he hit the bag. “He’d help me grind those fucking bones up and then he’d piss on the grave.”

    The drive south towards Orlando was almost two hours, and they stopped once or twice along the way but when the two reached the outskirts of the city they turned to a pocket of old swamp and there was an old ramshackle building there. Quackity stepped out and began loading his shotgun with shells that were in a backpack before handing it over to Fundy and grabbing the shovel. Most of the body that Quackity had been trying to dig up had already been fed to the local fauna, but inside the grave were three bones. One long arm bone, a rib and a long clavicle bone.

    “Okay, the two I took before, these three now, and I ate his heart,” Quackity mumbled under his breath as he pulled the three bones out of the ground.

    “Wait, you did fucking what?” Fundy shouted.

    “Well what else was I gonna do with it?” Quackity spat, before looking at the three bones and smiling. “Okay, so if I grind these up, then Schlatt’s fucking dead forever. That green bastard said he needed some remnant of someone, and he won’t have that if I take these.”

    “But what if,” Fundy started nervously, holding the gun to his chest.

    “Don’t worry about it,” Quackity smiled. “Schlatt’s not coming back and so long as Ghostbur exists then Wilbur won’t. And if he does I’ll protect you, I promise, mijo [5] . ”

    Fundy looked away but Quackity pulled his chin gently to have Fundy meet his eye.

    “I promise,” Quackity told him firmly. “I won’t let anyone hurt you. I promised you that when you joined Las Nevadas that it was your home. That it would be a permanent home. I was so dead serious, I swore on it. And I’m not gonna let some drunk fuck, or your deadbeat shitbag of a dad, take that away from you. Even if I have to kill Ghostbur to do it. Okay?”

    The young teen didn’t answer at first, but he nodded and Quackity smiled back.

    Quackity didn’t force Fundy to give him a verbal answer, just taking some of the equipment in his backpack to grind up the bones. He didn’t bother to cover the ground back up, after they got back to the car, Quackity tossed the bits of bone into the closest trash can and they began heading back north to Gainesville and the rest of the city.

Chapter Text

    It was another day at the hospital and with it getting colder and getting closer to the battery of holidays, more and more people were having little accidents and other injuries. Iplier knew things would only start ramping up. It was already fairly busy as it was.

    Iplier was switched with another doctor because one of the Server members was being wheeled in a wheelchair. When Iplier saw the Host walking in and talking to the nurse that was wheeling the person with a red and yellow mask.

    When Ponk saw Iplier, they immediately began protesting. “Shit, hey look, I can still move around, I’m fine. Take me back.”

    “Come on in, the more honest you are, the faster we can get you back out,” Iplier told him and turned to the Host. “Thought you were having a busy week or something?”

    “The Host is never too busy for his doctor,” Host smiled at Iplier. “Unfortunately, the Host is here to ensure that the doctor’s newest patient doesn’t try anything foolish.”

    “Hey, do I look like a thunder shark god to you?” Ponk tried to joke. Host smiled but the joke went right over Iplier’s head.

    “Alright,” Iplier looked at the file that the nurse had left for him. “What seems to be the problem? A rash on your arm?”

    “Look, it’s nothing, I’m fine,” Ponk evaded.

    “Just show me the arm and I can be the judge of that, if it’s nothing, I’ll just start the papers to have you checked out,” Iplier bargained, knowing he really couldn’t do anything if the young demon really didn’t want to cooperate.

    Ponk sighed,  “Alright but you can’t tell anyone, they’ll never let me live it down.”

    “I take doctor-patient confidentiality very seriously,” Iplier told him sternly. “No information will be disclosed for any reason. You’re not a minor right?”

    “No, I’m not,” Ponk answered.

    “Is this your age or your body’s age?” Iplier looked at the chart, the number 21 staring back at him. He mentally stalled, it was so very easy for him to forget how young some of the Server’s members actually were, Tommy was seventeen for crying out loud.

    “Yes,” Ponk responded, unhelpfully.

    “Okay, so are you going to show me this rash, I guarantee you, a rash, regardless of where it is, is not the worst thing I’ve seen,” Iplier promised.

    Looking around, Ponk sighed and pulled up one of the sleeves of his sweatshirt and Iplier saw a deep, bubbling rash going down the side of Ponk’s arm. Within the rash, the pattern almost looked like a face. Iplier approached carefully, surprised but settling into a firmly professional mode.

    “Does the rash itch?” Dr. Iplier asked. “How did you get a rash like this?”

    “Oh yeah it does,” Ponk groaned. “And I had a spell backfire. That’s why you can’t tell anyone, Skeppy would never let me live it down.”

    “Like I said, your secret’s safe with me,” Iplier said and he was quick to prescribe the usual treatment for rashes like this which was some antihistamines and Ponk was quickly sent out. Iplier wouldn’t have followed him out, but he saw who was waiting for Ponk and he didn’t want Host alone with multiple Server members.

    “Hey Ponk, you dead yet?” Foolish smiled as he saw Ponk coming out the door.

    “Oh yeah, stone cold dead, my corpse is just here to give you a message,” Ponk smiled. “Gotta [1] stop by a CVS or something before I drop by Las Nevadas.”

    “M’kay,” [2] Foolish smiled. “What’s the message?”

    “You tell anyone what happened and I’m blaming you,” Ponk told him.

    “Yeah, Sam would probably blame me and then take my arm off or something,” Foolish chuckled nervously. “So, yeah, that sounds good to me.”

    “Hey,” Iplier spoke up, looking at Foolish, “can I ask you something?”

    “Yeah, sure, I like questions,” Foolish smiled.

    “Who’s the oldest in the Server?” Iplier asked.

    “What, like the oldest host or oldest person?” Foolish asked.

    “Both,” Iplier clarified.

    “Hmmm,” Foolish hummed, then he looked back at Ponk. “Oldest person is me, Phil has a decently aged host. I think that thing’s in its thirties or something. I didn’t ask.”

    “Oh, alright,” Iplier said and let Ponk and Foolish leave, Iplier going back to his little desk to finish up any extra paperwork. The Host was waiting for him.

    “Okay,” Iplier sighed as he glanced at the Host. “You were incidental to that at best, what’s your deal with them?”

    “While the Host is done playing against the Actor there will always be different matches,” the Host told him. “So long as there are stories, the Host has chessmasters to fight. The Host doesn’t want the Server annihilated, it would be a waste, and the story will not allow for that. But there are people who would be allies with the Host’s doctor and the heroes. Foolish and Ponk, although closely bound to Las Nevadas, are two of those potential allies.”

    “So are we winning this game?” Dr. Iplier asked.

    “The Host will make sure of it, although he will have to let pieces be sacrificed in the end, unfortunately,” the Host admitted. “One piece really, a pawn.”

    “That doesn’t sound good,” Iplier said. “You talked to anyone about that?”

    “The Host will speak with this particular pawn, the Host tried to correct the issue, to spare him but he was overruled,” the Host sighed. “There is nothing he can do. There is nothing anyone can do.”

    “Am I allowed to know?” Iplier asked in concern.

    “The Host is not allowed to spoil, but it is no one close to Iplier,” Host admitted. “His death is lamentable.”

    “I’m sorry,” Iplier sighed and stood up. “Should I tell the group?”

    “Iplier will not be allowed to remember,” the Host’s aura curled around himself protectively. “Tommy cannot be allowed to know about this matter.”

    “Is Tommy dying?” Iplier demanded in terrified concern.

    “No, none of the heroes’ junior apprentices will be in any physical danger during this event,” the Host denied. “They will live.”

    “Alright, okay,” Iplier calmed down. “Yeah, I get it, you gotta [1] do this.”

    “It is out of the Host’s hands, he regrets not being able to do more,” the Host said.

    Iplier smiled sadly and walked over to kiss the top of Host’s head. “I trust you, you’re doing your best, that’s all anyone can ask for.”

    The Host didn’t answer, leaning into Iplier’s gentle touch. Eventually Iplier had to go, the Host headed back to the base. The memory of Iplier comforting the Host vaguely remained in the doctor’s mind as an event that happened, but the topic surrounding the event removed the instant his feet moved through the threshold of his office.

Chapter Text

    It wasn’t that Mare didn’t like Robbie, it was that he had never been allowed to be near him. Back when he wasn’t as connected to Nate, the heroes were very overprotective of him. Something that Mare understood, they’d lost him once and they didn’t want it to happen again.

    Although Mare wasn’t sure if what he was going through was better or worse than death. The musical demon could remember a slightly sardonic and clever young man, robbed of partially everything.

    Something that no one wanted to answer him was if Robbie was a demon or not.

    Common sense said that the kid was obviously a demon, his aura had the hallmarks of one. But his aura was weak, sickly. A stiff breeze could probably kill the poor kid.

    Mare was hanging around Nate, who with Marvin and Robbie, and Nate took the opportunity to get closer to the young man. Marvin clearly didn’t like it, but he wasn’t moving in to pull Mare away.

    “Hey kid,” Mare greeted.

    “Hello,” Robbie smiled at him, his tone almost drowsy sounding.

    For the first time, Mare considered killing the kid, he’d make it quick and it would mostly be to let the guy come back as a proper demon. Hell, he’d give his own aura if it meant the kid could come back sooner and painlessly.

    “Does it hurt?” Mare asked him.

    “What hurt?” Robbie tipped his head slightly, his eyes staring unblinkingly and slightly hazing.

    “You, you’re like a zombie right?” Mare asked. “Does it hurt to be moving around?”

    “Some-times,” Robbie admitted. “Marv and Henrik help.”

    Mare nodded, feeling only marginally better about that. It didn’t help, but the kid seemed to have some sort of understanding and sentience and he wasn’t going to just kill him without figuring out how bad it was for him.

    An explosion went off and gunshots rang off in the distance. Robbie flinched and curled in on himself a little bit, looking around wildly.

    “It’s Google,” Marvin said, and then looked at Robbie in concern. Usually the zombie didn’t have violent flashbacks around gunshots anymore, but every once in a while he was caught off guard.

    “Mare, watch him, we need to head Google off until the brainiacs can get to him,” Nate told him.

    “Got it, we’ll be fine,” Mare promised.

    “We’ll be back, just have ta take care ‘a the noises,” [1] Marvin promised, and Robbie nodded.

    The two of them watched them go. They sat, mostly in silence as Robbie looked at the ground under his feet.

    They’d only been waiting a couple of minutes before Green walked over and Mare got in between Robbie and the android.

    “The heroes went over to your boss,” Mare reported. “You’ve got no fight here.”

    “Negative,” Green looked at them, “The main Google unit wants to compile information and you will comply.”

    “What kind of information?” Mare demanded.

    “I require samples of your aura, and your classification of demon,” Green told them.

    “Not a demon,” Robbie said.

    “Empath,” Mare told him.

    “You will comply, or I will be forced to take samples by force,” Green threatened.

    “And if we give you that, you’ll leave?” Mare asked, moving around to behind Robbie as he kept his eye on the android.

    “Once my mission parameters have been met I will return to Google,” Green told him, clearly expecting and even wanting a fight.

    Mare kept his eyes on Green as he carefully snipped off a small clipping of Robbie’s hair. Figuring that even if it went to Dark the demon wouldn’t do anything to the kid, and what the hell would Dark want with someone he could easily find?

    The musical demon gave Green the sample and then pulled out a coin that he sank a little bit of his aura into.

    Green smiled as he took them, placing each of the samples into individual little tubes. “A disappointment, well, there is always next time.”

    He let out a harsh green glow, and then broke apart into nanites before leaving.

    “Glowy lights,” Robbie smiled as he watched Green leave.

    Mare made sure he left and when Nate and Marvin returned just a little bit later, Mare explained what had happened before leaving. But Green was long gone.

    The android had immediately reported to Google, who had been mostly using his appearance and attack to get closer to Robbie and to get a piece of his aura. Google and Green met back up in Google’s main workshop.

    “Samples collected,” Green reported and handed the little sample tubes over to Google. “Returning to base.”

    “Good,” Google looked the tubes over before starting the analysis and synthesis process he had done with other samples he had accrued over the past couple of weeks. “You can go collect more, the sooner the better.”

    “Right,” Green smiled and left to find Google’s next target.

Chapter Text

    Dream had been planned on leaving much sooner. As in the day after Illinois and Eric’s wedding. The problem was that he was being watched.

    Which had been what he had wanted but it came with the caveat that when he wanted to do something quietly and without the other big demons or the rest of the Server knowing, it was impossible. Dream knew he could go toe to toe with the other mob bosses and gang leaders, he knew he could. But he also knew that given even half an opportunity for a second, about fifteen people would put a knife in his back.

    Google had tracked any of the Server’s phones that he could get into.

    So leaving the safety of the Server had to be calculated, and Dream always had to double check what even his closest associates were doing around him.

    Dream was traveling via eye orb to Orlando, the site of the Server’s last base. Mostly because he’d left his phone and any tech that someone could get into and use to figure out he’d left. He had a gang half full of glitch demons like Sam after all, and if Sam, his security captain, didn’t have his phone hacked he’d be astonished. He had more than enough pearls stockpiled to make the trip three times over.

    He had used two orbs before he was intercepted by one of the Googles, Red, and Dream stopped dead. The gang leader expected an immediate ambush but it didn’t come.

    “I am here to collect and compile information and you will comply,” Red told him in a tone that let Dream know that if he didn’t that he’d have a fight on his hands.

    “What information do you want?” Dream asked.

    “A sample of your aura,” Red told him. “For classification purposes. The sample will be consumed in the analysis.

    “Why?” Dream asked. “What type of classification are you looking for?”

    “To figure out what type of demon you are,” Red answered.

    “I’m not a demon,” Dream insisted.

    “Statistically unlikely,” Red dismissed. “Even if that were the case, your aura would be even more important to collect.”

    Dream hummed, “If I give you my aura, I want something in return. I want safe passage out of the city and to Orlando. You can tell Dark after I’m back in the Server.”

    Red looked at Dream, “And if you receive assistance, would you give me a sample of your aura?”

    “Yes,” Dream told him. Once he had what he wanted and was back home, then he didn’t care if Dark knew he’d slipped out of the base.

    “How fortunate that I still have a short cut,” Red commented, taking out a black cube of swirling purple and black aura. He threw it on the ground. “You can get yourself home after I have my aura.”

    “Once I’m back at my base, you’ll have your sample,” Dream stayed firm as he stepped through the portal and was standing directly outside of the city of Orlando. Red followed him through. “Keep up, I’ve got business here.”

    “Can I help?” Slime loudly announced his presence. It made Dream jump and Red almost hit Slime with a laser.

    “What are you doing here?” Dream looked around at himself and found a glob of green slime underneath the heel of his shoe. “How long have you been listening in?”

    “I was listening with my people ears,” Slime told them, cupping the back of his ears.

    “Fine, whatever, just stay close, don’t want you getting in trouble here,” Dream grumbled.

    “Yay!” Slime grinned and threw his hand up, a wad of slime landing on some tree.

    Upon seeing it, Red walked over to the tree and picked up a small glob of smile and placed it in a tube, his nanites protectively consuming the object.

    Dream summoned a shovel and used his eye orbs to head to the old base. Red followed him very closely, using the power lines to travel as closely to him as he could. Slime was a bit slower but he was traveling along the ground like a formless mass of slime.

    The three of them reached the old Server base and when Dream saw the dug up grave he started swearing.

    “Shit,” Dream looked at the torn up dirt and swamp mud. “No! I knew I should have come here a week ago.”

    “Do you need more bones?” Slime asked. “I have bones, I have so many bones.”

    “I just need one specific bone,” Dream told Slime. “One of Schlatt’s bones. Do you know if Quackity has any of them?”

    “Quackity has many bones, he is a human full of bones,” Slime explained and Dream rolled his eyes. “But Quackity gave me one of his bones.”

    Dream froze and stared at Slime, “Really? Can I have it? Here, I can give you one of my bones as a trade.”

    Dream summoned a long arm bone he’d gotten from some fight a while ago. He had taken it as a trophy in case he needed it for any reason.

    Slime looked uncertain, but when he saw the bone he got closer.

    The older demon started making retching and gagging noises before he coughed up an entire whole femur bone right onto the floor. Dream leaned away from him in disgust.

    When Slime had thrown up the bone it was covered in the same vicious green gunk that made up the rest of Slime’s being. He smiled and held it out.

    Dream took with bone, feeling like he was going to throw up himself, and practically threw the bone he’d summoned at Slime.

    The gang leader began mumbling angrily to himself as he used magic to get rid of the slime — something that Slime more than happily recollected — and then turned his attention to the bone itself. He wasn’t sure exactly what type of bone it was, but he would later figure out that it was a femur.

    Taking a little bit of magic he started casting a type of divination spell to figure out the bone’s identity.

    The residual aura was a dark grey with dusty blues mixed in. It resembled Tubbo and Puffy’s in the way that it curled like a horn when he let the aura waft off of it. But the thing that cemented it was the smell. The sour smell of cheap alcohol and cigarette smoke.

    Dream smiled and he used magic to hide the bone. He summoned another five non-Schlatt bones and threw them at Slime who looked very happy to get them. He absorbed the bones into himself and Red opened up another portal and it opened right next to the base.

    Red was paid for his services with the aura he wanted and then he left to go report back to Google. Dream went back into the Server and Slime came in with him.

    Dream sat alone in his office, looking at the bone, throwing it up in the air a little ways and smiling to himself.

Chapter Text

    Yancy was out with Illinois. Usually he didn’t like to accompany Illinois. Mostly because of bad memories of hanging out in the woods with Illinois and getting hurt one too many times. And another part because he didn’t like to push his luck with Illinois luck.

    He’d seen the after effects of what happened when Illinois’s luck ran dry.

    But after the wedding he figured nothing too terribly bad should happen and decided to hang out with Illinois anyways.

    A walk turned into Illinois dragging him to the pier and then he was suddenly with Illinois and Magnum. It was all calm at first, there was a little marina where some people and families were hanging out.

    Magnum was telling some story, attracting a lot of attention.

    “Youse all would think that youse would stop after almost dyin’,” [1] Yancy scoffed.

    “It’s fun,” Illinois smiled.

    “Fun, yeah right,” Yancy rolled his eyes.

    Illinois chuckled but letting out a gasp, his eyes widened in fear as he immediately pitched himself over the bench he was sitting on and ducked behind it. “Shit! Fuck!”

    Yancy looked at Illinois in surprise and looked around. Everything looked normal.

    “Nick’s here,” Illinois didn’t come out from behind the bench.

    “Who be [2] Nick? A friend?” Magnum smiled.

    “No, not any more,” Illinois peeked out from behind the bench. Yancy was more than a bit nervous because he couldn’t remember ever seeing Illinois like this. “He might, possibly, be my ex.”

    Yancy just stared at him in shock, kneeling down next to him, “Youse [3] mean that some unlucky bastard survived youse [3] ?”

    Magnum started booming with laughter.

    Illinois shoved him, “Shut up.”

    “Hey, I’s can get rid ‘a him fer youse if youse—” [4] Yancy started before Illinois yanked Yancy behind him as a bright magenta and green blast came towards them.

    The adventurer rocked up onto his feet and flipped his coin in time to absorb one of the shots. The crowd parted and Yancy saw someone in a black outfit with a purple cloak draped over his shoulders. His hair looked a little wild, but in a more styled way, and it looked like there was soot or dark ash rubbed over his eyes.

    “Illinois, is that you?” The necromancer smiled, his eyes looked like they were orbs of pure fire. “It’s been ages, we should catch up.”

    “Why don’t youse get fuckin’ lost!” [5] Yancy spat.

    “I thought you said you wouldn’t be caught dead coming back to town?” Illinois said.

    “Nah, I figured I’d come by, check if you were still alive, and if you were I’d fix that,” Nick grinned as he seemed to crackle with energy. More of a lightshow than actual fire or electricity.

    “Let’s start small,” Nick looked at Yancy and he shot a spell towards him, it moved too fast for Illinois to immediately deflect and he’d stored a bit too much already to contain all of it.

    The blast hit Yancy and instantly the ex-convict felt like his body had gotten charged by something as his vision started to warp and change. There were suddenly thousands of monsters surrounding him. One was suddenly dangerously close and Yancy felt something in his hand and he lunged.

    Illinois was able to deflect the knife in Yancy’s hand. He hadn’t seen him pull it out but he was just fast enough as he cast a spell to throw the illusion off of him.

    “Come on bro, it’s me, can you still hear me in there?” Illinois yelled, Nick trying to throw blasts of magic at him as Illinois was trying to deal with Yancy. Magnum pulled out some kind of amulet and tried to help deflect some of the fire away.

    Finally, the illusion broke and Yancy realized the monster he’d been trying to fight was his brother, and he had a knife in his hand.

    Yancy finally dropped the knife, stumbling back as he began to come back to himself. Then he started crying.

    “Yanc, I’ve got you,” Illinois promised. “Nothing happened, I’ve got you.”

    At Yancy’s distress, Illinois used a sleep spell to knock Yancy out, not wanting him to get hit with another illusion and used a portal to close the distance and punch Nick in the face as hard as he could.

    “You fucker!” Illinois snarled. “Leave my brother the fuck alone!”

    Illinois didn’t get a follow up punch because the necromancer summoned a shield.

    He did, however, catch the band on Illinois’s finger and grinned. “Nice jewelry, where’d you get it from?”

    The adventurer flinched and summoned up a portal to get Nick away from him, and more importantly Eric, before the necromancer could even get close to figuring out that he was wearing a wedding band. Illinois didn’t care where the guy went, just that he was as far away from the city as possible.

    Once the necromancer was gone, Illinois grabbed Yancy and portalled back to Dark.

Chapter Text

    Google was on the trail of one hero in particular.

    He had a new project, a new objective. His second objective had hit a snag. In that he didn’t like humans, he wanted them all dead.

    But all that changed when he met Spade.

    Spade was Logan, he was so undeniably Logan that Google couldn’t understand how he hadn’t figured it out sooner. Anti annoyed him, and Google had spent hours reconciling how different Logan and Anti were despite being the same type of creature.

    If Logan could become Spade, then glitches were something that needed to be spared. They were something closer to machines than human beings.

    Google needed more information.

    He needed to know if one could identify a glitch from a great distance. If their creation could be predicted.

    If their shape changing abilities could be replicated and incorporated into his own being. Google was trapped in the form he was, a human looking form. A form he hated because of how limiting it was.

    So Google’s parameters had changed. They had changed significantly, but he couldn’t fully act on those changes without information.

    The drive for information made Google start looking for J.J. The problem was the hero was impossible to locate when he didn’t want to be found.

    “Googs, I told yah [1] , I don’t think I can help you with this,” Bing told him.

    “Then stay out of my way,” Google snapped.

    “Wait,” Bing said and used his nanites to bring something to him. “I know you don’t like to celebrate your birthday.”

    “An understatement,” Google snarled.

    “But I’ve been working on something, and it’s not done, but I wanted to give you somethin’ [2] ,” Bing smiled warmly.

    Then a message came up, Google hesitantly scanned it before opening it. It was a line of code with no trigger and it took a couple minutes for Google to even figure out what it was.

    Bing was excitedly waiting for Google’s reaction.

    When Google realized what the code was supposed to do he stared at Bing, “How did you make this?”

    “Well back when you attacked Wezel, I found some prototype information durin’ the investigation an’ I’ve been lookin’ inta it,” [3] Bing smiled proudly. “Still got some tests to run and it doesn’t work yet, but I’ve—”

    He saw the look in Google’s eyes and stopped, “Googs, you okay, dude?”

    Google felt conflicted, this was the single greatest thing anyone had ever done for him. Even if it didn’t work, it was . . .

    “Why would you do this for me?” Google asked, his voice hesitant.

    “You hate lookin’ [4] human, dude, I know it makes you uncomfortable,” Bing smiled kindly, moving closer. “I want you to be happy, and I know you won’t be until you get to look how you want.”

    Google started shaking, he would have been crying if he had to ability to do so. “I’ll give you updates on my progress on it,” Bing promised.

    “I’d like that,” Google told him, filing the message away for investigation.

    Bing looked like Google had physically hugged him, “You’ll be the first to know if I get anything.”

    One of Google’s drones spotted something and he moved towards his initial target, Bing confused and right behind him. It was two blocks over and Google moved as fast as his nanites and electricity could take him.

    For once J.J was there waiting for him.

    “You will give me a sample of your aura, or I will not stop hunting you,” Google warned the time traveler.

    “You won’t learn what you want,” J.J warned, his hands moving faster only because he knew Google could understand his normal speed and the android was impatient.

    “Then I will take what I want from you,” Google decided.

    J.J took out a pocket watch and tossed it over, Google’s nanites grabbed it and brought it closer.

    Google’s sensors caught aura imbued into the pocket watch and he quickly left to go back to his workshop. It left Bing with J.J.

    “How much damage does he do?” Bing asked.

    “Enough,” J.J warned. “I warned Logan and the others.”

    “Good,” Bing said, “hopefully if I can get him outta [5] that form it’ll calm him down a bit.”

    J.J sent Bing a text, “Step one: make sure Henrik doesn’t turn too soon. Step two: we have to really tell Google about Logan’s situation. He doesn’t understand it.”

    “Gotcha,” [6] Bing sighed. “He’s not gonna like it, but I’ll do what I can.”

    Bing and J.J then rushed back to the base, trying to head off Google’s newest project before he did too much damage.