Admittedly I'm kinda randomly typing berryfunny stuff here, but it'll be angst. The twisteds here are also kind of clones but some aren't like some are infected i didn't think it through.
Healed Goob, he had to take a stopping point, a break, but that's no worries,it was Pebble who was stepping up to distract now. Pebble, doing a good job of not getting hit while distracting, to which Sprout had to focus on others now-which is good! Once the group had finally made it into the elevator, Sprout let out a sigh of relief, mentally exhausted from managing everyone else. Still, Cosmo was not on this floor at all, so where was he?
Finally, preparing his next heal as soon as possible-Sprout turns to the toon he knows very well is on one; Looey. "Here you go Looey, oh god I am so sor-" but Looey cuts him off.
"Ah no Sprout its fine!" Looey grins, a huge smile on his face to which Sprout narrows his gaze on the balloon boy, his long inflated ears pinning back as he avoids contact with the main toons eyes, the strawberry evidently not having it.
"Sprout i promise its okay!" Looey exclaims as he raises his hands in surrender.
"But you're not distracting," Sprout puts a hand on his hip, his head tilting to the side. Looey sheepishly turns his head the other way, nervous since Sprout always was worried on him.
"I mean you gotta save them for the distractors, right?" Looey questions. "I'm not gonna pop with the others handling the twisteds!"
"I mean c'mon Sprout!" Looey's tail wags in anxiety. "I don't want to waste any of your tapes!" His back is pressed against the wall, beginning to babble out of nervousness. "You got a lot of tapes i know but everyone else SURELY needs more then me and when we find Cosmo again I know you'll need to-"
"You're not a waste of anything," Sprout said as he tosses the heal at Looey, the sound of a balloon inflating with a loud whistle noise. Looey blushes a little, albeit embarrassed with ending up being healed right away before Looey laughs nervously.
The elevator opens with the two staring at eachother as the other toons make it onto the floor. "Ah-AH of course I know that!" looey says proudly, looking up and blinking rapidly as his voice cracks, Sprout watching him as Looey speeds off into the floor, the strawberry toon smiling and shaking his head before leaving the elevator to proceed onto the floor.
For now until they were able to find a band, both distractors were in fact taking a break. Sprout was doing a machine, struggling a bit due to the machines always being complicated. Looey was standing nearby in case a twisted goes near, but occasionally he looks over Sprouts shoulder with curious eyes.
Sprout, after what felt like eons, he turns to Looey with a smirk on his face. "You wanna help me with this?" Sprout asks as his hand pats the wheel of the ichor machine, the balloon toon blushing just a little. Noticing the blushing, the strawberry continues on his tirade. "Come on, I'm such a slowpoke. Besides I need someone at work here," Sprout snickers, the healer stepping aside while Looey went onto the machine instead, Sprout waiting near.
Looey made a bit of whistling noises that sounded like a balloon deflated but he's more embarrassed then anything--and nervous. When the machine is completed the two begin to walk off to check on other machines since the loud sound of the elevator hadn't opened yet. Sprout let out a shakey sigh to break the silence after the two ran off from twisteds, Looey being in more of a risk then Sprout. Looey turned to Sprout raising a brow.
"Theres no Cosmo again..." Sprout murmurs in a bit of a low voice. "I'm worried. I havent seen him since the elevator shut floors ago. I know he had to have made it out. I just-" His heart felt heavy, being reminded that he didn't run off after Cosmo as the elevator was open because he was SURE that his best friend was okay, because if anyone was gonna be okay, it'd be his best friend on the way to the elevator. Being reassured that Cosmo is strong and will find his way puts him at ease, but he's growing ill at the thought.
Looey put a hand on Sprouts back, his ears pin back at his friend's distress. "Hey hey..." Looey says with a frown, not trying to crack jokes or anything--hell Sprout might kill him for that. "He's gonna be okay Sprout. We will find him. We'll find Cosmo." Looey told Sprout as Sprout nodded. "Theres only so much you can do." Internally, he admired Sprout so much for what he did for everybody-even if he felt the care Sprout showed toward him didn't feel deserved. He felt icky for being cared for over others--even if the others were doing fine.
The reassurance didn't help.
"I-okay....okay...." He ran his hands through his leaf-ey hair and took a deep breath, the sound of the elevator opening racking through the floor as all the toons rushed to the elevator. But unfortuonately Astro lead a toon to the elevator, causing Sprout to get grazed by a twisted Brightney.
"Astro!" Sprout snaps immediately as even though he was on one, he didnt care. What he cared on was more that Astro was seemingly out of it. Looey and many of the other toons flinched. "Get out of whatever funk you're in now! It's dangerous to be zoning out like this especially now!" Sprout snaps as Astro looks down and away ashamed.
Knowing Sprout is on one though, Looey searches his belongings: cola, box of chocolates, and a valve. No band. "Sprout, maybe you should just-" Looey began but Sprout cuts off.
"I'm fine Looey," Sprout grumbles, Teagen walking forward.
"Are you sure dear? I have-"
"I said I'm fine!" Sprout exclaims, sounding more and more agitated which only makes everyone else go completely silent as everything felt tense, everyone moving onto the floor in silence. Looey watches the strawberry toon walk off, about to walk after but then Brightney stops Looey.
"He might just want some alone time. I think he's agitated about Cosmo," Brightney spoke, Looey biting his lip. He just wanted to be there for Sprout--especially since he didn't want Sprout to be alone in his thoughts like how he let himself get alone in his thoughts when Yatta-
"I'm going after him. He needs someone," Looey told Brightney and just walks off faster, unable to be convinced by the light toon. As other toons focused on machines, Looey found Sprout anxiously collecting tapes--he could tell he was anxious. "Sprout-"
Sprout immediately looks up to Looey and his eyes widened. "Hey...-hey! You okay? You need help? You okay?" Sprout asks, sort of lighting up as he steps forward to check on Looey but Looey shakes his head and steps back.
"No!-" the toon replied a bit loud but he cleared his throat. "Nono, I'm okay!" He reassures Sprout and then tilts his head, his ears going low. "Are you okay?"
The main toon could only stare at him, finally he shakes his head to snap out of it before responding: "What? Yeah of course I'm okay!"
"Were you able to find a band?"
"Well--no. But I'm trying to collect tapes so I can heal others when they need it. They've been doing good in not getting hit as much."
But then there was only silence as Sprout did not dare respond to what Looey had asked, now his eyes grew glossy as he turned away. Looey steps closer. "Its okay, it's okay-" Looey wasnt sure how to comfort. He put a hand on Sprouts back but Sprout didn't back away, thats how he knows Sprout is in a worse mood. How can he comfort him? Would Sprout even appreciate it? Then, Looey remembers how Goob always asks if the toons need a hug.
Looey then moves forward to go hug Sprout from the side, but Sprout stiffens before he immediately turns to fully hug Looey, Looey returning the hug and Sprout hugging tight-but not too tight for the balloon toon. Sprout buries his face in Looeys shoulder, his eyes watery there and Looey just keeps his hand on Sprouts back, the two standing there and Sprout basking in Looeys comfort after accepting the hug.
However accepting the two had to be moving on- Sprout let's go of Looey, much to looeys dismay and Sprout shoots a small smile. "Thanks." It was something in Sprouts eyes that Looey can't really discern--but Looeys tail wagged as the two just walked together to do machines the rest of that floor, the floor getting done rather quickly.
While waiting in the elevator, Sprout turns to talk to Looey "Looey...." Looey's head rose up to look at Sprout. Sprouts gaze is soft, Looey blushing just a little. "Thank you..." Sprout said in a content voice. Looey's ears pinned back and his tail began to wag.
"For what?" Looey asks with a stupid happy smile, but he just likes that seemingly made Sprout feel better.
"For the hug," the strawberry responds with a smile, the two standing next to eachother staring at eachother. "But also just trying to be there." In his head he'd much rather focus on tending to others but this...this was needed.
The elevator opens, the familiar thumping made a wave of unease wave over everybody, Pebble whining but then growling as he knew he had to distract so he took the moment to bark, a loud barking noise came from twisted pebble and then Pebble ran off with Twisted Pebble. Goob took off running.
"Bring me any of the regular twisteds!" Goob exclaims loudly as the many toons ran off to go and find machines to do.
Sprout ran off to go immediately do a machine, thankfully another machine was near so Looey ran over to do that machine too. Looey got done much faster then Sprout did predictably so Looey stayed near Sprout just in case any twisteds grew near.
However Sprout stopped the machine at the corner of his eye because he saw movement near. Looey and Sprout exchanged looks. "You think its a twisted?" Looey asks and Sprout nods. The two walked over in the direction of the twisted, very hoarse breathing in the dark as Looey stepped in front of Sprout so he can defend him. But sprout...his eyes slowly widened when he sees the twisted.
White sleeveless hood, ichor dripping from his head--Cosmo. Oh god. Oh god it's Cosmo.
"Oh god we need to go bring this to Goob-" Looey grabbed a hold of Sprouts arm gently to pull him along. Sprout was stuck in place. "Sprout?" Looey was worried deeply as Cosmo slowly turns, his red eye staring at the two, of course focusing on Looey but if Looey runs off Cosmo will focus on Sprout and Sprout will be toast.
Sprout wasn't moving. His eyes were wide, his heart beating fast and his body just locked in place as he watched his former best friend turn to face him. Looey's words are just blank to him.
"Sprout? Sprout come on-" Looey taps Sprouts cheek as his other hand grabs Sprouts shoulder, Sprout just not moving in place and his stare frozen ahead, gaze locked onto Cosmo. Looey began trying to gently move Sprout, but Cosmo gets up. Looey tries to be more frantic in moving Sprout as suddenly the sound of someone dying rang in the floor, the sound of twisted pebble roaming continues.
"Sprout!" Looey yells but when Cosmo starts charging, Looey let's himself get hit by Cosmo, his head shrinking as Looey launches himself into Sprout, Sprout finally snapping out of it and the two began to run. "Looey?!" Sprouts voice breaks as Looey finally says-
There was the sound of another toon dying, Sprouts eyes widen as he looks back where he found Cosmo, who is walking off and back ahead. Sprout had silent tears fall down his face. "Dont heal me-" Looey told Sprout.
The strawberry toons eyes widened. "You're gonna distract pebble?" Sprout asked in a shakey voice. Looey nods. Since time has in fact passed there had to be a good amount of machines done.
Looey then turns to shoot Sprout a grin. "I'll be right back!" He blows Sprout a kiss before he runs off to go find Twisted Pebble to distract him. Sprout turns back where he had found Cosmo.
Oh god. He failed his best friend. He failed Cosmo. And in standing there like a idiot, Looey got hit. Sprout looks down, tears falling onto the ground as he began to shake, but then he sniffles, wiping his tears. No time to properly grieve. None.
Minutes pass, the elevator opens and the toons remaining make it over, Sprout ending up making it to the elevator last so far but the timer just goes down. Sprout checks for everybody but his eyes widen in horror. Looey. Looey isn't there. "H-He's out there-" Vee and Astro grab Sprout, their hearts breaking at how mentally exhausted and stressed Sprout is. "Let me go! He's out there!" Tears fell Sprouts cheeks as he was actively struggling against the two, thoughts of Looey and also Cosmo still rang in his head, of his failure to protect Cosmo.
"I wouldn't worry Sprout, Looey will make it in time, he's able to do so. He's incredibly fast right now," Rodger told Sprout calmly, which only reassured him but then a look of horror washed over his face.
The elevator slammed shut.
