#tiny!purpled

[bag-o-gummies]

Okay im tired of waiting and need attention so

Tws for: mentions of death, assumptions of death, fires, scars, major character injuries, fear, mentions of insanity, minor character death, death threats, blood. Tis an angsty one boys.

@brick-a-doodle-do @da3dm @munchkin1156 @kayla-crazy-stuffs

Survival (Supers AU)

Word Count: 12.8K

“So Riot, how has your day been?” Riot laughed a bit as Oracle joined him on the edge of the building. “It’s been a f—ing blast, you know? Got some primes, met some women, f—ed up some heroes, and most importantly blew up a bomb.” He responded quickly. Oracle laughed a little.

“Oh wow, that sounds like an eventful day, hm?” He spoke, staring out at the sky with him. “What about you, man?” Riot returned.

“Visited their graves, patrolled the area. Glad it’s a slow day today, it’s pretty hard.”

Oracle had told him a few years back about his fiances. The two had been caught in the middle of a fight between PVP and Gambit, and that’s how Oracle was found as well, scarred from the flames he had tried to save his lovers from.

Today was the anniversary of their deaths.

“If it would make you feel better, I’d kind of like to meet the two who you tell me so much about.” Riot smiled softly from behind the mask. “Yeah. Yeah, we can do this. You know, I think Q would’ve liked to meet you.” Oracle smiled softly in return.

Riot smiled as he let Oracle lead the way, down toward the home they had been staying in. And outside, just underneath the tree, were two graves, marked with little stones.

The bodies hadn’t ever been found, burnt up in the flames.

Riot felt Oracle wrap an arm around him. “You know, you’re like a little brother to me.” He admitted, and Riot watched as he unclipped his mask, holding it in his hand. “Thank you.” Oracle finished. The teen smiled.

“Yeah, of course, big man, we kinda need to stick together. Us against the world.” Riot pulled off his mask. “They’d be proud of us.” Oracle smiled as he spoke.

“They really would be. I mean, we are so cool.” Riot spoke next.

“Come on, let’s go get changed and get some food.” Oracle offered.

- - -

“Gambit, we’ve gotten word from Cerberus, he’s said the coup is almost ready.” Nuclear spoke silently. “Perfect, the sooner Schlatt is overturned, the better. Any word of our little vigilante ‘friends’?” Gambit asked quickly.

“Riot’s starting to comply with Siren a little, I’d expect him to become a full-fledged hero in a few months, as long as the coup is successful.” Nuclear reported.

“And Oracle?” Gambit returned quickly. “Not complying. Won’t even fight the villains. For now, they can’t be too much of an issue as long as they just focus on the civilians.” Nuclear spoke next.

“Get them to comply, or we arrest them. Got it?” The avian spat. “You’ve seen their abilities, no jail could hold them.” The creepertaur returned with concern.

“You’ve seen how they act. I think they’ll be more than willing to comply.” Gambit finished. “Yes, sir.” Nuclear muttered as he turned to leave.

- - -

“So, Toms, I know that living with everyone else is a bit stressful so I figured it would be a good idea to get a break.” Karl smiled at the other, who sat opposite them. “Hey, it’s not that bad big man, I like hanging out with Tubbo and Boob Boy.” Tommy returned with a laugh.

The two laughed happily as they sat at the diner peacefully, waiting for their meals. The two shared jokes, smiling and laughing happily.

Beep beep beep-

“Q?! Sap?! Where are you?!”

He stood up quickly, head shooting around the room while trying to find the two figures.

The groceries he had bought earlier were left at the front door as he trekked through the flames. Karl’s hand covered his mouth as he rushed through the building. “Sap?! Q?! Say some-aH!” He shouted before getting knocked to the ground by a blast. “You couldn’t tell anyone, could you?! Well f— you! Care about someone except yourself for once!”

Why was Gambit here?! He coughed violently as he was hit by a falling piece of the ceiling above him. He was gasping for air now, even as the fire slowly crept up his arm. He felt helpless.

His eyes filled with tears as he tried to free himself, pain spiking by the second. Karl eventually fell limp as his eyes caught on something in front of him.

Quackity’s Beanie-

“Karl!” Tommy shouted, pulling him closer. “T-tommy?” He spoke, blinking rapidly.

“Kar, there you are. Are you okay? You kinda freaked out on me, big man.” The teen worried. “Sorry, I-I don’t know what happened…”

Tommy smiled sadly. “Let’s get back home, alright? I’m sure Eret’ll help you out.”

- - -

“So what happened?” Eret asked as the borrowers tucked Karl into bed for the night. “Right, Karl kind of just blanked out. Like all color in his eyes just drained and he stopped responding after some beeping.”

Eret paused. “I’ll see if I can look back on the situation, go hang out with Tubbo for now, okay?” They smiled, before waving away Tommy and turning away.

“Big man!” He laughed, hearing Tubbo’s voice, jumping up onto the table as he shrunk down to normal height. “So, is everything good?” He asked Tommy who sat down next to Tubbo. “Not really, something strange happened to Karl, and now I think XD’s trying to hunt me down.” Tommy admitted.

Tubbo blinked. “Really?! Does anyone know about XD?!” “Couldn’t bother with Karl today, it’s the anniversary.”

“Tommy, look, if XD catches you, we’ll be so doomed. Everyone else is cool or whatever, right, but you and Karl are the two who cover our a–es the most. Purpled and Aimsey are close though.”

“D— right we are,” Purpled smirked, joining the conversation. “What’s going on?”

“XD’s hunting down Tommy.” Tubbo repeated. “Well, s—.” Escaped Purpled.

“Hey, I’m not that important-” “Tommy, you create explosions from your hands. Tubbo’s a bee. Jack can see through walls. You are one of the few who have useful abilities!” Purpled explained.

“You’re going to be grounded if you keep this talk up.” Ranboo spoke up, arms folded as they leaned against the wall. “You-you can’t just ground me boob boy-”

“I think that’s a good idea honestly, it’ll keep him out of XD’s watch.” Tubbo admitted.

“Great, glad we came to this consensus. Tommy, you’re grounded.” Purpled finished. “What?!”

“You heard me! No patrols!” Purpled informed. “F— you!”

- - -

Karl took a deep breath, adjusting his mask tightly to his face. This was the biggest fight he’d been in.

From his perch on the building, he watched as Cerberus’s wings gave his position in the sky, locked in a fierce battle with Egg. The demon hybrid was fairly powerful, but so was Cerberus.

Time to put on his Oracle persona.

Ha, time.

He mentally slapped himself, now was not the time for puns. He hopped onto the next building, running towards the fire exit. Throwing his body down onto the metal surface to avoid an attack by Egg, he slid down the ladder towards the ground.

He caught himself on the bottom rung, hopping off. Guess he needed to do the thing he was supposed to.

Running towards all of the rubble, he pressed his hands onto the mess as he ran by, moving them back to their original places. This is why so many people thought he had a powerful levitation power.

He ran through the scene, wary of exposing his scar. Things began moving further and went almost everywhere open for Oracle to run through. But he was prepared. Slipping seamlessly through the flying rubble as he took his stand to the side, watching for any victims caught up in the mess.

“Oracle.” The vigilante jumped toward the voice as quickly as he could, hands outstretched.

“The heroes have been looking for you, it's pretty hard to track you down with just a bit of your neck. It was so much easier to hunt down Riot with his prosthetic.” Oracle frowned under his mask, readjusting his collar as Gambit held eye contact. “What do you want with me?”

“Well, I’ve got a few ideas. First, the heroes are planning something and it would be nice to have a levitation user of your strength to help us out. Secondly, you’re an illegal vigilante. Meaning you either help me or get arrested.” Gambit spoke out. “And why would I do that? You and I know I don’t take sides. I’m only doing this for the possible victims. Not for anyone else.” Oracle informed.

“Yes, well, you’d be okay with that if you didn’t use your levitation as well. And that’s a break in the code-” “You didn’t care about the rules until a few years ago, so what the honk happened-” Oracle was cut off as Gambit shoved a hand to his throat.

“Keep that word out of your g–d— vocabulary. You, filthy scum, can never say that again. You aren’t worthy of that word.” The hero spat as the vigilante struggled a bit more. “What, honk-”

Gambit in turn shoved him into a wall, hand still in the death grip around his neck. “Don’t. You. Dare-”

Gambit’s mouth seemed to move in reverse as he backed up, letting go of his neck and returning to the beginning.

“Oracle.” “Hey Gambit.” He spat, standing his vigil, overlooking the chaos of the fight in the skies. Egg was not winning this.

“The heroes have been looking for you, it’s pretty-” “Hard to track me down with just a bit of my neck exposed. I’ve heard that a lot.” Oracle finished. The hero seemed to pause for a moment. “And let me guess, you want me to help you?”

“I-yeah. Two options in this situation-” “Help you or be taken captive. It’s not my first rodeo. And no, I won’t help you or be arrested.” Oracle continued to interrupt as he heard shuffling behind him.

“What, do you want to fight me then? Because now you will.” The hero spoke. “I don’t like breaking my moral code, but I’ll make an exception. I win the fight and you do what I want you to. You win, and you get to go free.” The winged hero bargained.

“Only if there will be no onlookers. No one must be getting caught in the fight.” The vigilante demanded. “This part of the city is evacuated, so you won’t have to worry about another person breaking their moral code.” Gambit hissed out.

Oracle slid to the left, avoiding a right hook from behind. “That was sad.” He turned around, moving quickly around the hero.

Gambit growled, wings spreading– “Karl, you are cracked, how do you preen so well?!” –as he took to the sky, opting for the high ground. Oracle frowned, avoiding a blast of water from Cerberus while also sliding under a shade canopy to run into the building.

Gambit seemed to understand his ideas as the hero swooped down under with him, throwing daggers at the door handle that Oracle had tried reaching for. He hissed, glaring at the hero before disappearing.

Oracle turned around, moving quickly around the hero before pocketing his deck of cards-

Reappearing again he was met with, “What the f—?!” Gambit started, throwing more daggers. “You have backup! Queen is here too, aren’t they?! You cheater.” Oracle just shrugged. Gambit growled, reaching down to grab his pack of cards, only to find them missing.

“What, you missing these?” Oracle held up Gambit’s deck enough so the hero could see, a smile hiding behind the mask. “You b—-.” The hero gritted his teeth, upset at the current situation. “You know you can’t use those.”

“Yeah, I know. But you can’t now either.” Oracle spoke smugly, proud of the situation. “I always have a couple of spares.” Gambit returned, throwing out a ten of spades–the same card that blew up his home–

Oracle was thrown into the air and sent tumbling to the ground. His mask had been shattered on the ground, exposing his face. Pain flared down his arm as the cloak that covered the aforementioned arm seared into his skin. Phantom pains racked his body, forcing him still as his attacker approached him.

He whimpered, forcing his leg to move despite the pure agony his body was experiencing a second time. Blood covered the left side of his face–he didn’t realize he could still bleed from the scar–as tears streamed down and mixed with the red liquid pouring from himself. Not a desirable situation at all.

“I don’t like using that card but now look at what you made me do.” Gambit angrily shot out, standing in front of him. Oracle could barely move his head, but as he did, he and Gambit held a few seconds of eye contact.

That eye contact was enough to throw Gambit off, a devastated look flashing over his features as tears crept out from his eyes.

Without wasting another second, he vanished-

Queen realized something was up when Oracle didn’t respond, so when they heard about the fight between him and Gambit in the city square, they teleported. Everything seemed almost frozen in time before the enderman hybrid wrapped their arms around their friend, teleporting the two back home-

“Karl! What happened-oh g–, someone get Aimsey and Eret, please!” Ranboo shouted into the walls of the seemingly empty house. Mere seconds passed as Karl’s vision began to blur, blood pooling across the room he was left in before two thumps were heard, and Aimsey began to inspect him.

“M’ssed ‘p. G’mbit sa’ m’.” He slurred as Eret ran their hands down Karl’s face, cleaning off the blood with a rag. “It’s okay, let’s just figure this out after. Stay awake, okay?” Eret spoke loudly, placing a cold rag on Karl’s head.

There was a lot of pain running through his body, and yet somehow, he felt like sleeping.

- - -

Gambit sat at his desk with his face buried in his hands. “F—, that couldn’t have been real, f—.” He muttered, thinking back to the fight. That couldn’t have been him. He’d been dead for years. No, Oracle had to be a strong psychic. So not just levitation, but mind manipulation and teleporting. “Nuclear!” Gambit shouted, anger present in his tone.

In only a few seconds, the creepertaur was running into his office. “Yes, Gambit?” “Find Oracle. Arrest them. Do whatever you need to do, but I want them in f—ing jail NOW!” He shouted, slamming his fist angrily against the top of the desk.

“I-im sorry, but we don't have any information on them-” Nuclear tried to say before getting interrupted. “I’m working on that. Now go!” Gambit hissed.

No one would impersonate his deceased fiance on his watch.

- - -

“F0x, nice to see you.” Gambit sat in his office seat, staring at the newcomer. “Didn't know you’d stoop so low, with me being a vigilante and all.” The fox hybrid smirked.

“This is only to help with another case. If I had my way, I'd throw you straight in jail. But I need your help. I need you to look into someone.” Gambit informed, pushing a case towards the now sitting vigilante.

“Case file on…” F0x began before flipping through the pages. “Karl Jacobs. You do realize he's marked as dead, right?” “Oh, trust me, I know. Now just do it.” The hero hissed. Maybe he was a cat hybrid with the amount of hissing he was doing.

F0x nodded, pulling out a tablet and tapping it many times. A few minutes passed before, “Okay, got it.” The hybrid cheered. “Anything new?”

“Bank statements, deposits, withdrawals, a lot of things. Payments on a house too. I can find many examples of those dated within two weeks.” The vigilante spoke, running through the list. “Oh, and one about two days ago at Halo’s. You know, the burger shop on the outskirts of Essempi.”

“So identity theft.” The hero glared at his desk. Someone stole the identity of Karl, and he was not letting that slide. “I'll give you ten seconds to get out of my sight, F0x, before I have you thrown in jail.”

The vigilante wasted no time immediately getting up and running out.

- - -

Karl groaned as his body ached. He wasn't in the best shape but still needed to get up and run his-

“Karl, what the h— do you think you are doing out here right now?” Eret spoke, looking up from their newspaper to stare at him. He would admit it was a bit strange for the blind woman to make eye contact, but due to Eret’s power–Foresight–he could see anything. “Patrols.”

“Purpled is taking your patrols. Go back to the room, you're on bed rest.” “But-”

“Go on.” Karl gave up, sighing and dropping his shoulders before turning and limping back into the room he just exited. “I’ll be in in a little to change your bandages and fix anything else.” Eret finished.

He would admit, it felt nice to be cared for for once.

- - -

“PVP.” Gambit began, staring at the villain. “Gambit.” The fireborn returned with a glare.

“It was fairly easy to find you.” The hero spoke. “What do you want?” The villain returned.

“Someone stole Karl’s identity. And I figured you'd want revenge on them too, so I wanted to bring you along.” The two never broke eye contact. “Besides, I’d never side with a murderer under normal-” “Oh don't you f—ing DARE try any pull this again. You are as much at fault as I am, you a–hole. Not just me. So get your f—ing head out of your a– and see that.” PVP angrily retorted.

“Shut the f— up, everyone knows it's your fault.” “That's because you're the hero and I'm the villain. The whole world believes you couldn't do anything wrong. The only reason I'm even talking to you right now is because someone's impersonated Karl, otherwise I wouldn't put up with your pathetic a–!”

Gambit glared at PVP. “Let's just figure this out already. I still have things to deal with at the tower.”

- - -

“Toms!” Tommy let out an ‘oof’ as the taller man barreled into him. “Where have you been? We missed you!” Wilbur hurried, looking over the boy.

“Sorry, I got grounded.” He admitted. “They couldn't keep me inside though, because I'm such a big man.”

“Why were you grounded, sunshine? I'm sure we'd love to help you with anything.” The taller whispered, pulling him into a hug. “Inside matter.” He whispered into the man's ear.

Wilbur’s breath caught in his throat for a moment. “Come on, Phil's made some pie, I'm sure he'd love to have you try it.” The taller smiled, carrying the boy inside. “Alright, should I get the other two?” “Yeah, it'll affect everything.”

Wilbur nodded, setting Tommy on the couch before running through the house.

The blond looked around, finding the remote and messing with the back of it for a bit before Wilbur came back with Phil and Techno in tow.

“Theseus, what's going on?” Techno started, sitting at his side. Wilbur took to his other side not long after that, smiling at the boy. “I found one of your moles. XD’s been hunting me down.”

- - -

Eret immediately dropped their newspaper to the sound of heavy knocking at the door. With Karl immobile and back at his natural height for the first time in a long while, it was her job to run the house.

He stood up, walked over to the door, and opened it slightly. “Essempi Police, my name is Deputy Chill, may we come in to search your home, please?”

“Do you have a warrant? And a probable cause?” Eret responded quickly. “Yes, we have both.”

“Alright, let me see the warrant.” They opened the door fully, holding out a hand. He was given a paper and scanned it over.

“W-wait, this was issued by-”

“Me. Nice to meet you, Eret Beloved.” Gambit spoke, making eye contact with her. “We have reason to believe that you are harboring vigilantes and a criminal accused of identity theft.”

“I can assure you neither of that is true-” “We know about Riot and Oracle. Now stand aside, Mx. Beloved.” Gambit returned immediately as he interrupted Eret, forcing his way in. “Tell me if you find something.” The hero waved off the officers, who spread out around the house.

“There's no identity theft here, I promise.” Eret defended. “Yeah? Well, Karl Jacobs has been dead for years.”

“No he hasn't-” “And how do you know? Because you see the person who stole his identity all the time?”

“No, because I pulled him out of the burning-” “Found something!” One of the officers shouted, holding out a wallet.

Gambit strode over, taking the wallet and looking over the contents. “How does he have an ID issued last year? Handicapped as well. Bank cards under his name. What the f—?”

“Gambit, sir, we found him.” The hero looked up from the wallet, pocketing it as he turned into Karl’s room. “Wait-” Eret tried, but was immediately ignored.

Gambit stepped into the room, finding a figure smaller than the size of a doll staring up at him–a borrower like Karl. The hero immediately glared at them. “Oracle, you are under arrest for vigilantism and identity theft.” “Wha-”

Gambit reached down onto the bed, grabbing them tightly. “You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you.” The vigilante struggled under his grip as he moved.

- - -

“XD, what are you doing here?” Siren spoke, staring at the person standing next to him. “Tracking Riot.” The addressed hero spoke.

“So you’re tracking a kid? Why?” Siren prodded. “He’s an illegal vigilante.” That was all XD spoke.

“He’s a disabled child. And I’ve seen the reports. You don’t have instructions to hunt him down either. So this is just your sick and twisted game. Why?” Siren scolded. “He’s dangerous.”

“To you. XD, you are under arrest-” The ex-hero glared at Siren through his mask before vanishing into the ground. He’d have to report the changes to the higher-ups now, the hero thought as he groaned.

- - -

“-his f—ing DNA! I-This can’t be him! I refuse to believe it-” “Quackity shut the f— up. The DNA proves it, and the IDs and bank cards prove it. His face is proof! What more do you f—ing need?!”

Karl blinked, slowly waking up. His limbs hurt, his head hurt. He shuffled a bit as he tried to sit up. “A f—ing lot! Oracle’s a f—ing psychic! He knows what he’s doing! You know he died!”

The voices were too loud, he thought to himself as he slid further away, vision slowly fixing itself.

“No one found the body! You found the earring. Besides! He’s got power disabling cuffs on right now, don’t you think if it were true that Oracle manipulated our minds that it would stop?!”

He looked up, staring around himself. Was he in a f—ing birdcage?! Not cool. His body still ached from the battle with Gambit, and if he looked at where he originally lay, he could see blood. Great, he was bleeding again.

“Shut up. You don’t know what I saw.” “Then tell me!”

Oracle cringed as he ripped up his clothing a bit, untying his old bandages to replace them with the pieces of cloth. “Great, you f—ing woke him!” “Oh, you f—er.”

His cage rattled, shaking his body. He dropped the last piece of cloth as he made eye contact with PVP–He watched in agony as Quackity’s beanie burnt with his body before his eyes looked around again and caught the gaze of PVP before black spots littered his vision and he fell unconscious–who glared down at him–wait, he was glaring, why is PVP crying?!

“Hang on little guy.” The villain spoke softly, carefully opening the door. His body seized up as PVP scooped him up in his warm hands. “Gambit, go get a medic, he’s bleeding.” The villain spoke, gently pulling his hand–and Karl–out of the cage.

“You can relax, you know, I’m not going to hurt you.” PVP spoke as he sat down. “Okay, Lemon’s on his way-why did you pull him out.” Gambit growled.

“You shoved the poor guy in a birdcage. If we are going to interrogate him we may as well make him feel comfortable.” PVP spoke with a straight face. “He’s-he’s a criminal!” Gambit returned.

“Shut the f— up and start asking questions.”

Gambit sighed and eventually sat in the seat opposite PVP. “Alright then, fine. What's your name.”

“Karl Jacobs.” “No, it's f—ing not-”

“Gambit, shut up. The lab results said the same thing.” “Well, I don't trust it. How about I do the talking.” The hero hissed. Karl pulled his legs closer to his body as a way to make himself seem even smaller within the hand of the villain but fell onto his side instead.

“Oh, sorry little guy. Let me help you.” PVP whispered, carefully pushing him back up into a sitting position with his finger. “So, if you are Karl then how would you react to this?” Gambit hissed.

Karl brought his attention to Gambit, but the moment he saw his face, his body began to tremble.

Quackity.

- - -

“Well, good news and bad news, XD’s no longer tracking you, Toms!” Wilbur announced happily, walking over to the table where a miniature Tommy stood, carefully scooping the smaller into his hands. “Okay, and what's the bad news?” The borrower asked.

“He kinda just disappeared into the ground…” Wilbur spoke disappointedly. “What-”

“Don't worry Toms, I'll keep you safe in my pocket!” The man smiled, sliding Tommy into his chest pocket. “Look! Pocket brother!” The larger smiled. “Wait, did you just-”

“You're my brother now, all mine.” The hero smirked. Tommy would've returned with a thought, but instead, he felt a buzzing in his pocket. “Hang on Wil, I have a call,” Tommy spoke, pulling out the device. “Oh f—, Eret's calling. Hello?”

“Tommy, where are you?”

“Uh…near the hero building, why?” He was definitely in the hero building right now, Siren brought him there.

“Gambit just arrested Oracle, we need your help. He should just be in the building.”

“Wait-Oracle, the one who managed to evade the public eye even when he was out saving civilians…has now been arrested by Gambit?! What the f—?!”

“Gambit and Oracle got into a fight where Oracle's mask was broken, and somehow with just that, he knew just who Oracle was.”

“I guess I’ll see what I can do…thanks Eret.”

Tommy hung up, staring up at the hero who was trying–and failing–to hide the fact that he was curious.

“Oracle’s been arrested…”

- - -

Put back inside the birdcage, Karl cried to himself with his hands covering his face. This whole situation was terrible. Gambit was treating Karl like he was a terrorist, PVP–who’s a villain–was treating him with so much care that it made him wish to see his fiances again, and to top it off Gambit looked just like Quackity.

Lovely.

He cried to himself, alone like usual. “Hey, Oracle?” The borrower looked up, making eye contact with PVP from across the room. “I don’t agree with how Gambit’s been treating you but I can’t prove your innocence. Is there anyone who we can talk to who’ll be able to prove that you are? Innocent, I mean.”

“If anyone would be able to, ask Eret Beloved. They’ll be able to tell you everything.” The borrower admitted. “Eret Beloved…alright, I’ll tell Gambit that… I-I’m sorry that you had to go through all that.” PVP smiled.

“It’s alright.” Oracle returned. “If you don’t mind me asking, why did you react like you did?” Karl’s eyes widened as-as-

As he placed the stones under a tree near his new house. “Karl, what are you doing out here?” He watched as Eret approached him. His bandaged half ached to sit down, pain flaring with every movement. “Making their graves.”

“Who’s?” “My fiances. They died in the fire. The government may not even realize they’ve died. And yes, I’ve sent in death reports.” He spoke, fingers twitching painfully.

“Oh Karl…” Eret spoke softly, treading carefully over the situation. “They didn’t even find the bodies-” Karl muttered before breaking into tears, wrapping his free arm around Eret, grasping for comfort. “I see their faces everywhere-I hate them, I hate them all-”

The blind man carefully shushed Karl, pulling the injured man into a hug–extra careful with his burned half–as they provided comfort. “I know, it’s hard. Let’s get you sat down, and I could make you some hot cho-” “Nothing hot, please-”

“Okay, that’s fine! I’ll make you some cold tea, okay?” They corrected, running a hand through the remains of the fluffy hair. “Let’s head inside, alright?”

“Karl, hey you back with me?” He blinked back into reality, finding himself sitting on PVP’s hand. “So-sorry…”

“It’s okay. Would you be willing to tell me or-” “Eret will.” The vigilante commented quickly.

“Okay. That’s okay. Do you want to hang out with me before Gambit and I go talk with Eret?”

“Sure.” He whispered, pulling his legs into himself, struggling to drape his cuffed arms over his limbs.

“Alright. Hang on, okay?” For being a villain, PVP was quite nice.

But he still hated the man. And Gambit.

Okay maybe not totally, but he still held a bit of a grudge.

“I’m not allowed to go around without a chaperone, so I need to wait for someone to come get me,” PVP informed, pressing a button with his free hand. The villain–almost like he had practice–moved Karl around a bit to feel out his scar. “How did you get these?”

“It’s one scar, a long one.” “Oh…sorry.” The villain apologized.

“It’s fine. It came from a fire. Eret’ll tell you. I don’t think I’m able to talk about it yet.” “I get that.”

PVP was so gentle and so kind when caring for him, he didn’t understand why. It made no sense, this was such a stark difference from the villain who murdered his fiances and nearly killed him.

Karl didn’t like it, but he liked the care. It reminded him of the care Sapnap gave him.

“Here we go.” The villain whispered enough for him to hear as the door opened. “Daisy, how are you?” He asked, standing up slowly. “I’m fairly well, thank you for asking. Are you allowed to bring Oracle out?”

“Not really, but the poor guy has been having breakdowns the entire time so I figured some time outside of the cell and questioning would help him.” “Aw, poor little guy.” The cold skin of the heroine’s finger pulled him back to reality as she patted his head.

“Gambit won’t shut up about how Oracle’s just so wrong.” “Oh yeah, I know. I’ve got to tell him that we’ve got more proof of Oracle’s innocence.” Karl watched from his perch in the villain’s familiarly calloused hands as the two began to walk. The hallways were fairly large, and standing a silent watch over their room was Nuclear. A smart choice of guard from what Karl knew of the hero.

Daisy took them through a single lap around the floor, the fish hybrid talking about different parts of the place–it was the hero tower’s interrogation floor, where two others were being investigated by Rose and Tulip–and eventually were brought back to their room.

PVP smiled softly as he approached the cage. “Sorry, I need to put you back in now. I have to talk to Gambit and he’d throw a fit if he knew I took you out-”

The villain was interrupted as an explosion rocked the building. Karl was slid quickly into the cage as PVP stood away. When the dust cleared, he stared at the masked faces of Riot, Bee, and Queen.

“Break in, room 3-7.” Daisy shouted into her comm. PVP’s hands lit into flames, preparing for a fight. Queen appeared to the side of the cage with Bee, who immediately busted the cage open before the two were forced to retreat by PVP, who threw fire at them.

“I didn’t know the heroes would even think of getting help from villains.” Riot smirked. Karl stood at the new opening in the cage, thinking his options out. He took a breath, banging the cuffs against the exposed shards of metal, breaking them open.

He jumped out of the cage, using the fight as a way to hide his escape. Before reaching the ground he grew to human height, just as PVP spotted him. “Oracle…hey, let’s talk this out, okay?” Turning to the villain who was covered by Daisy, who threw blasts of water at the vigilante trio.

PVP’s face morphed into devastation as the two held eye contact. He thought through the options. Stay and get picked apart by Gambit, or go with the three and hang out at the safe house for a bit.

The villain reached for his hand before Karl pulled back, stepping back towards the vigilantes. “Karl, wait.” Oracle froze, staring at PVP. That voice-

“Okay, time to go!” Queen shouted from behind him, grabbing his shoulder. “Wait-” Soon enough, the world fizzed around him and Karl felt the familiar buzzing. Queen had teleported him.

The group appeared in the safe house moments later. “No-no f—!” He shouted, pulling away from the three. “Karl! Are you okay? What did they do to you?!” Tommy asked as he dropped his mask.

He paced back and forth, trying to make sense of the situation.

“Gambit was there, he looked like Quackity, PVP sounded like f—ing Sapnap, I want it to stop-” Tommy ran up and hugged the man. “It’s okay, you’re not there anymore, it’s just fine. Stay here and lay low, they won’t find you again. Aimsey’ll be here in a bit, promise.” Tommy spoke, hugging Karl tightly.

“Thanks, Toms.” He smiled, eventually letting the teen go.

- - -

“Queen kidnapped Oracle. I promise no communication escaped this tower. Someone must’ve known from the outside.” PVP reported as he sat with Daisy in Gambit’s office.

“Look, PVP, you aren’t taking this as seriously as you should. Oracle stole Karl’s identity-” “Gambit, the IDs, DNA tests, the fact that Oracle’s a borrower, and bank cards say the same thing. That has to be him-”

“Unless I have a witness’s testimony I won’t believe anything.” Gambit spoke stubbornly. “Oracle mentioned a witness. Eret Beloved?” PVP spoke with a hopeful tone.

Gambit took a deep breath, trying his hardest to stay calm. “Fine. We’ll talk to Eret. Let’s go. Daisy, you are dismissed.”

- - -

“Alright Eret Beloved, tell us how you met Karl. The whole story.” Gambit began as PVP’s hand snuck its way into Gambit’s grasp. “Karl? Well, it started when my Foresight started showing me visions of someone I didn’t know. So the more I looked into them, the more clearly it showed how I would meet him.” They began.

Gambit began writing things down. “And what’s your foresight? For reference?” “It’s my power, it lets me see the future. I can’t turn it off so I always have visions.” Eret informed.

“I see. Continue.” Gambit spoke as he wrote things down.

“Right. A few years ago I was walking down the sidewalk when I saw smoke, just like one of the visions. So I ran towards it and was met with a burning house. I went to the side and peeked through a window and saw the same person I’d been seeing in the visions, so I jumped into the place and pulled him from the rubble.” They spoke.

“Do you know the day?” Gambit asked.

“January 12th. But I’m sure you know when it was too, seeing as he told me you two were there.” Eret spoke as they glared at the hero.

Gambit glared at the woman in front of him. “Enough sass, just continue with the story.”

“I pulled him out of the house and took him to my place to see if the healer there could do something. They were able to do a little, but it wasn’t enough so I took him to the hospital.” Eret continued.

“Okay, and were his emergency contacts called?” PVP asked hopefully. “No. Karl lost his family at a young age.” They answered quickly.

“Was there anyone else on the emergency list? Like fiances or anything?” PVP asked. “Nope. No one else.”

“Karl hadn’t added us to the list because it was only for immediate family, you f—ing moron.” Gambit whispered into the villain’s ear. “Shut the f— up.”

“How did you pay for the hospital fees?” Gambit asked. “Due to the nature of the people in the house, I knew to set up an emergency fund, just in case.” They responded.

“Alright, thank you, Eret.” PVP smiled softly. “Please continue.”

“D—, Karl was right, you are the nicer one. As I was saying, we went to the hospital. Karl was unconscious for a few days, but when he woke up it was a mess. First off, no police came in to question, no one gave us a paper to sign for an incident report to go on your records. I mean, how f—ed is this system? With each fight between heroes and villains, almost hundreds of people are admitted into the hospital and aren’t allowed to say anything against the people who hurt them so badly.”

Eret sighed, taking a deep breath. “Sorry, that was a bit of a rant. The hero system is f—ed for the victims.”

Gambit took a few notes on his paper again.

“When Karl woke up, I asked him what happened. It took so long to get it out of him because it was so fresh, but I got the whole story. He had seen his house on fire and thought his two fiances were still inside. And then he saw you two so he dropped his groceries immediately and ran inside. He couldn’t find them and eventually got trapped under rubble. That’s where he not only saw just how cruel you were, PVP, but where he also found one of his fiance's beanies.”

Gambit stiffened while PVP’s hand held tightly onto Gambit’s. PVP’s other hand flew up to his mouth as tears threatened to fall from his eyes.

“Karl figured they were dead because Quackity–the one who owned the beanie–never left without it. He hated you two from the moment he woke up, and let his tragic story lead him into his life of vigilantism. He promised that no one would suffer like how his fiances did. I gave Karl a home to stay at where he offered to help with payments and such. He got his scars–which he hates–and the doctor tells us that they probably won’t ever fade and that we were lucky to take him straight to a healer or else he’d have been unable to do anything like talk or walk or such.”

“And were death reports ever filed?” Gambit asked as he held his emotions inside. “Multiple. The government never looked into it. Karl never got closure, even if he was stuck on bedrest while mourning. We have never heard a word about the situation since then.” PVP was having a hard time with the information, bursting into hushed sobs. Gambit knew they wouldn’t be able to handle this much longer–he was not going to cry about this later.

“What hurts the most about this is that one of my visions shows him reuniting with his fiances, but they are dead. I can’t hold onto this pain anymore but I can’t tell him.”

“Thank you, Eret. You are dismissed.” The man nodded, standing up and exiting the room. “Gambit,” PVP choked out, “I-I don’t want to be a villain a-anymore.”

“I know-” The two embraced, holding each other tightly as if in the next moment the two would be stripped from each other. “He-he was alive the whole time-oh g–, Q, this is f—ed-”

“It is Sap, it is. We need to fix this.” Quackity whispered as he slowly calmed himself down. He knew Sapnap was a bit more emotional than he was.

- - -

Karl sat alone in the alley next to the coffee shop he just come from, sipping at his drink. His back laid against the wall–his head followed suit as he stared into the blue sky, the same sky that had taunted him since that day–as his arms lay on his knees.

“Mind if I join you?” Someone asked from the entrance of the alley. “Yeah, sure, whatever.” He returned, adjusting himself so his scarred arm lay against the concrete–it had started to feel too hot on that side–and his other hand held the cup loosely.

“What are you doing sitting back here, don’t you want to sit up front?” They asked. “No, I think I’d prefer sparing everyone from seeing this monstrosity.” He returned as he heard the newcomer sit down next to him.

“Why do you say that?” They asked sincerely. “Well, you know kids. They scare easily. If I were to sit in the open some kids would see me and get terrified, so some parent would go inside to complain about the man with the scars so I’d get kicked out. I’d prefer to still be able to get my drink, you know?” He rambled a bit.

“Oh, I see. Are you not proud of them?” The stranger pried. “Why would I? They’re just a symbol of my mistakes.” He muttered, readjusting his left sleeve to hopefully cover the scars better.

“Oh. Well, I like them-” They tried to compliment before Karl interrupted. “Can we please move on from this? It’s not very nice to pry into some random stranger’s past.”

“Sorry, sorry. What drink is that?” They asked next. “Iced tea, very cold.” He returned.

“Why don’t you get it warm?” They asked with concern. “Why do you think?” He shot back, adjusting himself to get ready to stand up. His body was buzzing uncomfortably, and his chest was heavy. “Look, if you keep doing this I’ll just leave.”

“I’m sorry, please stay.”

He sighed, letting his legs lay out on the cold ground. “Okay fine.”

Silence struck the two as they sat in the alley. “I didn’t get your name.” Karl finally spoke. “I-I’m sorry, I thought you could see me, I thought you knew who I was.”

“I wish I could see you but I’m kinda blind in that eye so-” He spoke as he turned his head to look at the stranger, before cutting himself off.

He dropped his drink, jumping to his feet. “No, no stop. Oh no, I’m going insane now, aren’t I…” Karl muttered, staring directly at the face of Sapnap, hand covering his mouth. “No! No, it’s okay, this is real!” ‘Sapnap’ spoke, sliding his hand into Karl’s. It was warm and welcoming, just like how he remembered.

“Karl, darling, baby. It’s me, I promise. Would you let me prove it to you?” Sapnap’s melody, his aura was so welcoming, practically begging Karl closer. “How would you do that?”

“Ask me something only I would know. I’ll prove it. Please love.” Tears streamed down his face as he choked out a simple sentence.

“What-what did I do to Quackity when I first met him.”

Sapnap teared up, laughing softly. “You dumped your soda on him because he wouldn’t stop flirting with you. Made me realize just how much I was in love with you-” Sapnap’s reminiscing was interrupted as Karl barreled into the man. “Oh my prime, it’s you, it’s you!” He cried out. “I thought you were dead! What happened to you!”

“It’s a bit of a long story. Gambit kind of told me that someone was ‘impersonating’ you but it was just you!” He pressed their foreheads together as the fireborn pulled Karl off of his feet, now fully protected in his arms.

“I missed you so, so much…” Karl whispered, relaxing into the fireborn’s hold. “I know, I know. I did too.” The fireborn returned, holding him so closely.

“Where’s Q?” “He’ll be with us soon, promise. How about I take you home?” Sapnap offered. And who was Karl to refuse?

“Okay.” He muttered, filled with warmth he hadn’t felt in so long.

- - -

“Toms! Where’d you go?” Wilbur asked teasingly. “Over here, Wilb—-.” Tommy smirked, arms folded as he stood on the table.

“There’s my little brother!” The taller man cheered, running over and picking him up. “You’re so tiny, my little bitty brother.” The man smiled as he held the borrower up to his cheek.

Wilbur promptly moved to the living room couch, flopping down on the cushion belly up. The larger brit rested Tommy on his chest, letting the other lay as he moved a hand over to cover him up.

“Do you have a family?” “I kind of do. I live in a place with a bunch of friends. Most of us are orphans there.”

“Oh yeah? You’re disabled and an orphan, hm?” Wilbur asked. “Yeah, why? I’m such a big man that it doesn’t bug me!” Tommy returned with faux-confidence.

“Well then, if it doesn’t bug you I guess Phil doesn’t have to adopt you. It’s a shame, really-” “What-Wilbur, what?” Tommy pushed himself up, hands buried in the yellow fabric cushioning him.

“Yeah, Phil wanted to adopt you. You’ve been with us for so long, so when Phil came across your file and saw that you didn’t have any family he took it on himself to personally adopt you.”

“This has to be some sick joke, you can’t be serious.”

“But I am Toms, I am. So is Phil and Techno. We want you to stay with us, Toms. What do you say?” The borrower didn’t have a response, instead opting to cry it out.

“Please-please Wilby, I-i’d love it.”

- - -

Eret watched as a strange man burst through the door. “Hello…? Can I-” “Oh, you must be Eret. My name is Sapnap. Karl kinda got tired on the way here, so I’ll just be in his room.”

Eret watched in confusion as the man went into Karl’s room, holding a resting borrower in his hand.

- - -

Karl woke up from the best dream he’d ever had. He opened his eyes and tried to lift himself off of the mattress only to be met with the realization that it was real as he lay pressed against the fabric of Sapnap’s shirt.

His fiance, one of the two he thought were dead, was alive and promising that Quackity was too. That felt so relieving, yet heartbreaking to him.

Did Sapnap still love him? Or did he only pretend because Quackity and Sapnap became closer than ever while Karl no longer became a part of their lives? How did Sapnap even find his house?

“Amor, I can hear your thinking.” The accented voice of his second fiance rang out, who slowly pried his miniature form from Sapnap’s body. Even in sleep, the fireborn missed him, opting to roll over on his stomach instead.

Endearing.

Karl was brought close to Quackity, who he still didn’t believe was real. The avian merely smiled and pressed a kiss to his face. “I missed you, mi amor.” The Mexican whispered. “I missed you too Q. I-i still don’t think this is real-”

“Eret knows it’s real, I had to have a long f—ing talk with them about the two of us.” The avian laughed a bit at the situation. “Now what’s on your mind?”

“Nothing-” “Karl, shut the f— up. You’re the most transparent of the three of us. Care about yourself for once, please.”

“Fine. I was just worried that all of this was an act. I mean, you two did have a few years alone together, so why would you want me back?” The borrower asked, tears peeking out from his eyes. Quackity’s slender fingers carefully wiped the liquid away.

“We would never pretend, amor. If I’m honest, Sap and I had a…bit of a fallout after everything happened. Losing you meant we lost a part of ourselves, and we simply couldn’t deal with it.” The borrower teared up again, hugging Quackity’s thumb tightly. “It’s okay, let it all out. We’ll be here every step of the way. We’ll never leave again.”

“Wha’s goin’ on?” Sapnap muttered, slowly rolling back over to face them again. “Nothing you a–hole, we were having a good talk, but you had to go and ruin it!” Karl knew there was no malice in those words because there never was.

The fireborn didn’t like that answer apparently, opting to immediately sit up and fall over onto Quackity’s shoulder, who struggled to handle the weight of the other. “Get off of me!” The avian shouted playfully, standing up quickly which made Sapnap lose his spot and fall on the bed.

“F— you!” “Hey! There are others in this house!” Karl quickly reprimanded. Quackity blinked for a little before it clicked in his mind.

“Oh, right, sorry Karlos.” Quackity apologized before lifting the borrower back up to his face and planting a big kiss on Karl’s.”Hey! I want to kiss him too!” Sapnap interrupted with a whine.

“No, you don't get to.” Quackity taunted, holding the little borrower away from the fireborn. “Why not!” Sapnap returned, absolutely devastated.

“Because you can't.” Quackity stuck his tongue out at the fireborn, who apparently couldn't take no as an answer because he immediately stretched himself out and stole Karl right off the avian's hand.

“Hey!” Quackity gasped with betrayal. “How could you, I was giving him cuddles.” Sapnap simply laughed and began snuggling the borrower. Karl just laughed at the whole ordeal. “Okay! Okay! Come on, I want you guys to meet my friends!” The fireborn rolled his eyes with a smile and slid Karl down onto the bed, who immediately grew to human height and stood up, taking one of Sapnap and Quackity’s hands into his own to pull them out of the room.

“Karl! See, Purpled, I told you he was up!” Tubbo immediately announced, running into the taller.

“Tubso! Hey bud, how did you sleep?” “Really good! I had a dream of Tommy, Ranboo, and I sitting on a bench and listening to music! It was a bop!” Karl laughed, hugging the boy.

“Tubso, these are Sapnap and Quackity, my fiances.” Karl introduced, pointing to them. Tubbo thought for a moment before his eyes sparkled with excitement. “Karl! That's so awesome! Do you think any of them want to fire nukes with me?” The bee hybrid bounced.

“Maybe, maybe not, I don't know. How about you go round up everyone so I can introduce them?” “Oh yeah! I can do that big man!” Tubbo announced proudly before excitedly running away.

“Tubbo’s a bit excited. Let's go sit at the table, I'll pull out some foldable chairs.” The man smiled happily. “That sounds awesome.” Sapnap smiled. The two were led into the dining area. Karl opened a closet door, pulling out two foldable chairs. He set them up next to the chair with his name on it. Within moments the teens of the house ran into the room, each taking their respective seats. Karl and Eret sat at opposite ends of the table. Eret pulled out two apple pies and set them out on the table, letting everyone get their breakfast.

“So, any fun things that happened yesterday?” Eret asked, dishing herself a slice. “The Minecrafts are adopting me today.” Tommy announced. Karl looked over at him with a wide smile.

“Toms! That's awesome, I'm so happy for you!” He commented happily. “You'll have to remember to visit us.” “Yeah, big man! Just because you have a family now doesn't mean you can forget about us!” Tubbo commented after, wrapping the boy in a hug.

Eret made eye contact with Karl while the other teens congratulated Tommy. Once the table once again settled down, they cleared their throat to speak. “And who are these two?” She asked, eyeing him with a smirk.

Sapnap gripped his hand as Karl took a breath. “Everyone, these are Sapnap and Quackity, my fiances.” Silence hung in the air, the tension growing quickly. “Look, great reunion and all, but Karl, you said they were dead.” Purpled commented with suspicion.

“I-I know, but they aren't! Sapnap found me yesterday in the alley-” “Have you considered this could be fake?” Purpled returned. Karl was at a loss. He knew it was true, he did, and he could feel it. But what if it wasn't?

“Purpled, do you think I'd let the two in knowing they would just be using him?” Eret answered, and Karl let out a shaky breath. Eret knew. They always did. “And since Karl has a lack of parents I will be stepping in. If any of you two hurt him, let's just say no one will find your bodies.” She smiled, straightening herself in the chair.

Karl burst into laughter as Tubbo bounced in the seat. “Could I nuke them, please, please, please?” “Tubbo no-” Ranboo began, trying to calm the bee down.

“I'm down,” Tommy smirked. “I'm always happy to blow s— up.” The three at the head of the table burst into laughter. “I’d love to see you try, honestly.” Quackity commented as he looked over at Sapnap.

Karl caught his breath again, calming down and relaxing into his chair, holding his fiances' hands tightly. It felt incredible to have the two back.

And yet his mind filled with dark thoughts as everyone else seemed to talk amongst each other. He finished his breakfast and waited until everyone finally left to clean it all up.

“Hey man, what’re you thinking?” Aimsey asked as they approached him from behind, startling him. “Sorry, sorry, it's nothing.” He commented, pulling out the roll of aluminum foil.

“I'd hate to say it but I could see your feelings from across the table, and my power is healing.” She commented, resting a hand on his arm–because they were too short to reach his shoulder.

“I-I guess I'm just feeling bad. My whole purpose in being a vigilante is to make sure no one else suffers like how my fiances did, but I don't even think they had a struggle! I-I don't know, I'm just feeling like I'm not worth anything now because I've lost any purpose I ever thought I had.” He ranted, wrapping the remaining pie in foil.

He had silence to think while he put the pie to the side and started washing the dishes.

“Karl, I promise that it's not true. You've done so much for everyone, whether or not your motives held. You've changed so many lives and saved so many people with that simple phrase. Just because you found out just barely that your fiances are still alive and shockingly uninjured doesn't make your work any less valid.” The healer smiled, wrapping him in a hug.

“You've done so much for everyone, so now it's time to let someone help. Go visit your fiances, I'll handle the dishes.” They finished with a smile, attempting to shove him aside. Karl laughed softly and hugged Aimsey before wandering off to find the two.

- - -

Karl paced the room, holding his new mask in his hands. It had been two weeks since he'd been reunited with his fiances, and now he needed to break the truth to them.

He couldn't find many more excuses for coming home late with bruises and cuts all over him.

Curse HD.

But how would he even tell them?! ‘Hey guess what, I'm secretly a highly wanted vigilante who is pretty overpowered-’ No, no that one won't work, it would just make the two immediately call the cops. And he did not want to see Gambit again.

He'd been watching the hero when he was on patrol while also being a witness to PVP’s redemption in becoming a hero. It made him feel slightly better that his interrogation had helped turn the villain to the right, but also made him feel worse.

Finally, Karl sucked in a breath and clutched his shirt as he opened the door and stepped into the living room where he had heard the two hanging out a few moments earlier.

What he saw was something he never would've thought he'd ever see.

Karl dropped his mask as he stared in shock at Sapnap and Quackity who were now staring at him with panic, dressed up in hero outfits. And not just any hero outfits, but Gambit and PVP.

“W-what the f—...?” He whispered, filled with fear and betrayal. “Karl, wait, it's not what-no it's exactly what it looks like-please let us talk this out-” Sapnap began, slowly approaching him. Karl's breath caught in his throat as he took a step back, away from the two.

“It-it was you…?” He barely mustered, tears threatening to escape. “Amor, wait-”

“It was you two-I-i thought you two were in danger-you two locked me up-you knew-” He struggled, trying to find the words to say in the moment. “I-I know, Amor, and I'm sorry, but we can talk this out-”

“No-no-I-just no, I don't want to talk about this-” Karl choked out, retreating into his room as quickly as he could. He locked the door behind them.

“Love, can we please talk about this-” “Leave me alone!” He choked out, slamming his back against the farthest wall as he interrupted Sapnap. “Leave me alone.” He cried to himself, hearing shuffling from outside.

He cried alone in that room for hours before he eventually passed out from his lack of water.

- - -

“Karl, you need to eat something, please come out…” Ranboo spoke, knocking on the door. “No, go away.” The other responded from the other side. They sighed, staring hopefully at Tubbo.

“He hasn't come out all day, and his fiances haven't been around at all. What do we do?” They asked the bee. “I think Purpled is going in soon, he's going to try and convince Karl to eat.” Tubbo spoke sadly, staring at the door.

“I’m glad someone's trying to do something. Eret's gone out looking for someone–probably his fiances–in their vigilante gear so someone f—ed up.” Aimsey commented. “It's just so sad to see him like this.”

Ranboo nodded, pulling Tubbo away. Aimsey stood at the door for a few moments before eventually stepping away.

- - -

Eret stared out from their perch on a tall building, looking out for two people. They should've seen this coming, they saw everything but that moment.

But finally, their eyes landed on the fiery orange of PVP. She sprung into action, running across the roof and leaping onto the next. He landed roughly but continued, eventually sliding down the side of the small shop, and landing next to the two.

“You couldn't even last two weeks without f—ing it all up, huh?” They began, walking towards their huddle. Gambit jumped back while PVP stood his ground. “I-we didn't mean to, he just saw us like this.”

“I was serious about my threat.” They returned, pulling out an extendable cane. “Wait, no please, we didn't mean to-”

Prince made a move, throwing their cane in the air and slamming it against Gambit’s head. The hero shouted in alarm as he was thrown into the ground. “Wait, wait, Prince! Please, we promise we are just trying to fix this, we are figuring out a plan!” PVP defended himself quickly.

“How. What are you planning on doing to fix this mess?” They spit, letting their cane rest against the ground. “I-Q had a gift he never got to give to Karl, we thought we could use it as a peace offering so we could talk it out.” The ex-villain spoke quickly.

“What is it?” “It’s a necklace, a choker with our initials and birthstones. Karl had done so much for us when I had it commissioned, so I wanted to show our appreciation for him.” Gambit spoke as he pushed himself up off the ground and pulled out a little bag.

Prince took it quickly and opened it up. Sure enough, inside was a black choker. If he looked hard enough they could see silver inside. The vigilante let out a breath, closing the little bag and handing it back. “Fine. We’ll go now.” They spoke, walking away towards the house.

- - -

“Karl, buddy, do you want to talk?” Karl heard Eret ask through the door. “No, leave me alone.”

Karl was alone, the people he thought he could trust weren’t who they said they were. He glanced at the cracker Purpled had left him on the bed, telling him to take a break from being a human and rest.

He didn’t.

“Amor, we have something for you if you’d let us talk it out.” “No,” He said, “I don’t want to talk. This was just a ploy to get me arrested, wasn’t it.”

“No, no, baby, it’s not, I promise. We wanted to tell you on our own, so I’m sorry you had to deal with that. Would you let us talk it out?” Karl thought for a moment. “Maybe…but not now.” He returned quietly.

“That’s okay baby. Would you want us to text you later? We won’t bring it up unless you want us to.” “Please.” Karl started crying again, finally happy to have a middle ground.

“We love you, amor. No matter what.” Quackity finished.

And finally, after spending a whole day against the same wall from last night, he stood up on unsteady feet and flopped onto the bed. He let himself shrink back to his normal size, lying on his back.

“Let’s just see what happens.” He whispered, closing his eyes.

- - -

“So the moles in the commission have been identified thanks to Blaze and Saint, and the coup is almost ready. Is Riot ready to go?” Gambit began in his office. “Theseus is good to go. May I ask who Blaze and Saint are for reference?” Cerberus asked.

“PVP and Egg. The two have been willing to comply with everything we’ve asked of them. Saint remains in the custody of the commission for the time being, and Blaze is to remain with me.”

Gambit returned. “Sounds good. How are we going to start this?” Cerberus asked quickly.

“I’ve had Nuclear and Tulip set up a fake distress signal in an old warehouse. The two say that we should be able to send it out and start tomorrow.” Gambit informed. “Great. And the moles?” Cerberus spoke.

“We have listed down Toast, Marmalade, HD, XD, and Schlatt himself.” Gambit read. “Wait, you can’t be serious.”

“I’m being completely serious.” “Do we have any more backup? The heroes that aren’t will not be enough to handle this.” Cerberus got noticeably more anxious.

“Well, the Flower Girls are helping, all of them. We’ve also got the Happy Crew. Frogger’s offered as well.” Gambit spoke. “Oh, so you’re finally accepting the help of vigilantes?”

“Shut the f— up. Thankfully I think this is all of the new information. I’ve got another group I want to try and see if I can get some help from, but I’m unsure of how that’ll work out.” He finished.

“Alright, just tell me how it goes, okay mate?”

“Got it, thanks, Phil.”

- - -

“Alright, everyone! We have some work to do.” Karl announced, gathering everyone around the round table in the living room. “So Eret and I have done some conversing, and we’ve got a big issue. The hero commission is going through with a coup tomorrow and they won’t make it without our help.”

“So that's where we come in. Let’s go through the plan.”

- - -

Sapnap approached the door slowly, knocking on the door. “Hello?” He asked slowly. The lights were off, but he figured that at least someone would be home. “Hey, it’s Sapnap, I have a question.” The fireborn asked again.

He sighed after no one answered for a few minutes, eventually opting to set a small bag on the doorframe with a note addressed to Karl.

“Well, if anyone’s here there’s something on the door for Karl.” He finished, leaving the house feeling defeated.

- - -

Blaze smiled confidently as he grabbed Gambit’s hand from where they hid in the rafters. They both knew the likeliness that they came out of this alive, yet they were willing to fight the battle for the betterment of the future.

Soon enough they watched as the group of five stepped into the building. “You can come out.” HD spoke immediately.

F—, they forgot about his mind powers.

“What-” Toast started before he was immediately wrapped up in vines. Marmalade made a move to free his partner, only to be pounced on by a tiger. HD was thrown in the air by a blast of wind, while XD blocked a blast of water.

“Great going Flower Girls!” Blaze shouted as he hopped off the beam, spreading his wings. Gambit followed closely, being followed by Saint and the Happy Crew.

Red Devil quickly set Diamond down on the ground, the two falling into their normal formations as Saint followed suit. XD growled as he created a pillar of cement to trap Daisy. The poor heroine managed to barely avoid getting her gills covered.

Gambit threw a trap card at XD who dodged it easily. What he didn’t dodge was the fireball aimed towards his head. “F—! PVP! You traitor!” “It’s Blaze now, f—er!” The fireborn laughed, continuing to hold the air with Gambit.

“What, did you get fancy-talked into becoming a hero?” XD taunted. “No, I just had a change of heart.” He smirked.

The brunet glared through his mask towards the fireborn before launching a knife at the man. He couldn’t get down quick enough, the cold metal slicing through his wing.

“F—!” He shouted as he fell to the ground. Gambit glared, throwing his explosion card, followed by a multitude of other cards.

“Tulip!” Gold shouted after she screamed, covering Toast in gold as he ran to the woman’s side. “What did he do to you?”

“Where the f— is SBI?!” Gambit shouted out.

“Where do you think?” Schlatt spoke, finally stepping into the light. “It was easy to trap them in prison.” The ram hybrid smiled cruelly. “Honestly. For some of the best heroes they are terrible at that.”

Perfect-

You are a traitor.

Get out of my head, George.

You couldn’t even protect your fiance, Karl was it?

Shut up, George.

What makes you think you can protect anyone else?

Shut up!

You are weak. You can’t even save a single person.

I can! I can! Shut up and get out of my head!

You are a sad, pathetic excuse for a human being Sapnap. You shouldn’t even be alive.

He cried as his vision came back. The fight was a mess. Gambit lay on the ground next to him, knocked unconscious. The other heroes were spread through the place in various places.

They hadn’t even stood a chance.

“This is what you heroes get for daring to fight us.” Schlatt smiled cruelly. “XD, if you would?”

Sapnap watched as the man stepped forward, prepared for a clean wipeout.

“Hey d—head, behind you.”

Sapnap smiled as he watched Riot blast the man in the back of the head with a concentrated explosion, knocking the man out. “Riot!” “It’s Theseus now, b—-!” The vigilante cheered.

“Alright everyone, you know what to do.”

Sapnap gasped, trying to push himself up off the ground as he saw Karl’s ever-familiar boots step in front of him. “Leave Schlatt for me.” He commanded. “Wha-Karl, no you can’t fight Schlatt, you can’t affect him, he has training against every type of power!” He warned.

“Relax, Sap, I doubt he’s seen a power like mine.” His fiance spoke with confidence. Quackity shuffled behind him as Goose ran up to the avian’s side and began to heal him.

Sapnap watched Queen team up with Bee against Toast, Shade vanish off to face HD with Prince, and Theseus run off to face Marmalade. “Take a break and watch the show, you two.”

“You’re a f—ing idiot if you think you could face off against me, Oracle. Your stupid psychic powers can’t do anything.” The ram goaded on. “Psychic? Who said anything about that?” The vigilante laughed. “Kind of sad.”

Schlatt didn’t seem to falter at that statement and held his ground as Karl began to approach.

Within moments HD began to scream, falling to the ground and scrambling backwards. “Sir, we can’t just fight him-” “Close your mouth.” The ram shot back.

HD panicked as his mouth vanished, hands reaching up to feel out the area as he began to mumble and screech. “Undo that.” Karl spoke, stopping. “And why should I?” The vigilante merely held up a hand that stopped an explosion mid-attack.

“Watch where you aim those please, Theseus.” He spoke calmly. Sapnap watched with wide eyes. “Now, undo what you did, or that’ll go right into your face.” The fireborn could hear the smile in his fiance’s voice.

“Fine. You can speak again, but don’t you dare try and tell me what you saw there.” HD gasped as his mouth returned, immediately running over to XD’s unconscious body and picking him up, dodging any attacks made by Shade.

“There, that’s better.” Karl seemed smug about the whole situation, stepping forward a bit and letting the explosion go. It hit the wall, shaking the building. “I hope you know I don’t plan to let you near me.” Schlatt spoke.

“Sorry, this fight is escalating, I think I’d like to live.” HD announced before running away with his partner in his arms.

Sapnap was shocked at how calm this whole fight was.

“Now why didn’t you command that?” Karl asked, quizzical. “Because I honestly want to see you try.” The ram smiled tauntingly. Karl continued his slow walk towards the mastermind. “Besides, you need contact for your powers to work, don’t you?” The ram decided. Karl was at quite a disadvantage.

“Who said I needed to touch anyone?” Oh s—, what? Sapnap watched as Karl pointed a finger towards the fight between Toast and the Beeduo. “Watch this, why don’t you?” Within a moment, Toast stopped moving altogether, pausing him mid-fight.

What was Karl doing?!

“I don’t even need to touch to use my abilities.”

Sapnap didn’t miss the flinch from Schlatt. That was what he was doing. Karl was never one for fighting, so he was trying to put on a show to intimidate his enemy into running away. Brilliant.

“What’s happening?” Quackity whispered drowsily, staring at Sapnap. “Karl’s trying to intimidate Schlatt, and I think it’s working. Schlatt flinched.” The fireborn whispered back. Goose was trying hard to contain the confusion on their face, but he could see the poor healer wondering about the situation before they moved on to another hero.

“Really?! What did he do?!” The avian whispered back. “Karl just froze Toast mid-fight without even touching him. He also froze an explosion to keep it from hitting him.”

“Holy s—...” “Exactly.”

“I’ll give you…” Karl spoke up, grabbing his pocket watch and holding it up to his face for a moment, “About one minute to either run away or surrender. If not, you’ll see.” Schlatt took a step back before gathering himself again.

“Watch, see?” Sapnap whispered.

“I’ll never do that, f— you!” The vigilante sighed. “I’d hate to do something I’d regret. Please rethink your choice.”

“Never! You can’t hurt me!” Karl let the pocket watch fall back down to hang at his waist. “You are genuinely a nimrod, I try to show you mercy, and this is what you do? Fine. Your grave.”

The vigilante smiled, running forward. Schlatt panicked slightly before pulling out a sword and pointing it towards Karl before he disappeared.

“They’ll never find your body.” The man whispered into Schlatt’s ear, quiet enough for only the vigilante and his victim to hear, hand draped gently against the back of his head.

Within seconds of Karl’s eyes closing Schlatt simply turned to dust. Gambit screamed as Sapnap stared with wide eyes at Karl, expecting the other to explain it.

Karl decided against that, walking back to his earlier position with a grim look in his eyes. “Poor darling, let me help with that, okay?” The man spoke as he reached the fireborn, kneeling and taking his injured wing in one hand, resting Sapnap’s head on his other hand.

Sapnap glanced over to his wing and watched as the tear fixed itself. “All better.” The vigilante smiled, pulling the fireborn’s face a bit closer as he leaned down to press a kiss to his face. “The best patient.”

“What-what was that…?!” He asked. “My powers. I don’t like fighting or going to that extreme, but it was his choice.”

“I-I thought you were a psychic!” Quackity returned. Karl smiled as he snapped his fingers. “Whoah! Okay, I didn’t do that-” Theseus shouted from the other side of the building.

“I’m not a psychic. My powers are just time itself.” The vigilante smiled gently. Sapnap could feel himself regaining energy and just feeling better. “Really…?”

“Yeah. I can pause people, accelerate or pause their lives, travel forward and backward in time, see visions of the future, all those cool things. I can even heal people by reversing the damage or speeding up the injured area.”

“I’m not going to lie, you looked hot out there.” Quackity smiled. Karl flushed and laughed. “Q! We’re in public!”

The fireborn smirked. “No, he’s right, you were very sexy out there.” “Oh the moment we get back home I am slapping you two with pillows, shut the honk up!”

“How would you like to stay in the hero tower with Q and I? I mean, Theseus is staying there with the SBI now, I think it would only be fitting.” Quackity offered. Karl took a sharp breath. “I-I would love to Q, but I need to stay with the others-”

“Karl shut up and go with them. We can handle ourselves. You’ve helped us all get on our feet, we’ll be just fine without you. And if we do need help we can always call.” Eret interrupted Karl as they put power-dampening cuffs on Toast’s wrists. The vigilante smiled and unpaused the villain once he was sure they had him under control.

“Wha-” The confused villain asked. “You are under arrest.” Eret followed up with.

“Fine, since Eret said so, I’ll stay.” The vigilante smiled. “By the way, I love your little gift.” He finished, pulling away his collar to reveal the choker. It held three letters–Q, K, and S in that order–with their birthstones on each of them. Sapnap pulled Quackity in with a hug. “It looks amazing on you.”

- - -

He smiled as he looked over the framed photo in his hands. A picture of him, Q, and Sapnap at the altar. Karl finally felt like he wasn’t alone after years of being without his fiances. But now they were sealed together with such a precious declaration.

“Karl! Karl help! Sapnap’s armed!” Quackity shouted, hiding himself behind him. Karl smiled with a laugh as he placed the photo down. “Sapnap!” He shouted out in a challenge.

“I’m coming for you!” The fireborn shouted as he emerged from the master bedroom with a pillow in his hands. Karl shrieked playfully as he ran away from the ex-villain, hopping on the couch. Sapnap threw the pillow at him, smacking his face. He devolved into giggles as he threw the plush surface to the side, shrinking down to make himself harder to find.

Quackity hit the couch soon after, the fireborn playfully tackling him. The two were laughing like crazy. Karl decided the safe place would be under the pillow, quick to take cover. The avian’s wings flared and flapped around as Sapnap began to tickle him instead.

“Get him Sappy!” Karl cheered from beneath the protective surface. Sapnap gasped, stopping his playful assault on Quackity. “Q, did you hear that?”

“Yeah!” “I think a certain tiny husband’s trying to hide from our love!” The fireborn spoke out, immediately pulling away his cover and lifting him into the air. “We can’t let that happen, now can we?” He finished, holding Karl close to his chest.

“Hey! I want tiny cuddles too!” Quackity chirped out. “Fine, we’ll just have to take a nap then.” Sapnap suggested, walking towards the room he had just come from. Karl simply laughed, warm within the confines of his husband’s hands.

The fireborn had decided to slowly lay down while the avian decided to jump into the space next to the man. “Okay, now you need to share him.” Quackity demanded with a playful pout. “Fine, but only because you asked so nicely.”

Sapnap let Karl lay down on the fabric of the bed between his two husbands. He eventually felt one of Quackity’s hands resting over him as a sort of blanket with the fireborn layering his hand overtop. “I’m glad I have you two back.” Karl muttered tiredly–his energy went into the fight from earlier.

“We’re so f—ing glad to have you back too,” Quackity whispered in return. “But now you are with us forever.” Sapnap finished as the three were slowly and gently pulled into a beautiful dream.

[toriowlfluff]

Two posts in one day??

WOAH

I was just vibing when I came across a very cool fic by @frickfrackiwastakingabath who wrote it for an AU made by @itty-bitty-rainbow (sorry for the tags :,3) where Purpled is a little alien that crash lands right into Las Nevadas and gets taken. So sorry I got hyberfixated on your AU-

I absolutely love language barriers in size content. Especially when one party doesn’t know much about the environment they were pulled into.

Slime my beloved :,3 and Quackity being Quackity <3

[colossal-red]

TinyHunt Chapter Four Extermination pt.1

Tw: Major angst, mentioned torture (none shown), near major character death. WC: 2708

“So, can any of you pitiful creatures tell me what you know about a borrower named Dream?” Purpled stared up at the might of the man who they all called The Warden, he didn’t think he could’ve been more scared than he had been for the past month. Of course Purpled knew Dream, but that didn’t mean he would give him up. Dream was the only borrower who could match Technoblade in skill. He turned his head away from The Warden in defiance, but he could barely keep himself from shaking as The Warden’s eyes landed on his tiny form. Damnit, it’s almost like he has a sixth sense on information or something. “So you won’t talk, will I have to get The Magnifying Glass again?”

All of the borrowers on display were shaking after that mention. (Purpled has counted 11 borrowers total other than him.) Aw man, what would Dream do? Well, he probably wouldn’t have gotten caught at all. Dream who was his friend, Dream who was the only borrower who could match Technoblade in skill. Dream who would’ve done more for them instead of the Captain.

Dream, who was now in grave danger. The Warden had grabbed the Spiked Magnifying Glass, (why the spikes? Well let’s just say it counts as a Multi-tool now.) and drew the blinds. “I would say I’m sorry, but that’d require me to feel bad about your puny existence.” He monologues as he positioned the magnifying glass in the correct position, causing a beam of light to be reflected in the direction of the display.

The Laser danced around the jars just barely missing the borrowers. A few of them had to duck and move around to avoid it, Purpled looked over to the few borrowers he recognized, Tap-L, Fruitberries, and the thirteenth empty jar of their professor FuntimeMoth. No one knows exactly how they escaped, but they could only pray that they were getting help. The two of them had their Jaws set as they looked back to Purpled. He knew that they wouldn’t give up Dream, so he wouldn’t either. The longer they stayed quiet, the closer the beam of light got, Purpled prepared himself for the pain as the light beam finally hit the side of his face…

10 Minutes later…

Sam was, disappointed at the borrowers lack of cooperation. These creatures were stubborn and needed to be put in their proper place, underneath humanity. He had enjoyed the torture that he put them through, made him feel, in control. He still remembers the time when he punished the borrower friend his younger brother Ponk had made. It still made him smile thinking about it. He didn’t enjoy however, the way his brother looked at him after that.

He wasn’t doing anything wrong, he just needed to inform his brother on how pathetic these creatures are. Serves him right for making a borrower friend in the house of an Exterminator. But none of those family thoughts today, it was time for him to help his friends. He pulled up into their driveway with his extermination van, and got out.

He took a brief moment to examine his arsenal and took out his electric baton. It had these little sparking things on the end that would electrocute the air around it. He went to the front door and knocked. Badboyhalo, Sapnap’s dad, answered the door. He was smiling when he opened it, but it fell immediately when he saw it was Sam. “Oh, hi Sam.” He responded a little, despondent for some reason.

Dream was curious as to who this new guy was, Callahan didn’t accompany him to check out this time claiming that four humans was too dangerous and that leaving soon would be advised. Dream didn’t agree, needless to say. But he did have to admit, he felt tense at the sight of this human with the gas mask and long black stick. “Why don’t you, come in?” Bad asked the man, who was apparently named Sam. “Sapnap hired me here to assist in his borrower problem?” Sam proclaimed, hired? What was he, an Exterminator? Okay, maybe Callahan wasn’t that wrong. Also, HOW DID HE KNOW THEIR SPECIES NAME.

“Borrower? Don’t you mean Tiny?” Bad questioned, good, Dream was gonna get an answer. “Tiny is merely the unofficial name for these small creatures, but the government has deemed them as Borrowers for the official name.” Sam responded very official like. “Oh.” “Oh is right Mr. Halo, now May I please start my work? I’d recommend finding something to do outside the house, is Sapnap or George here?” He finished.

“No, Sapnap’s out with his boyfriend, and George is taking Antfrost out for a walk on the town.” “Ah, so Sapnap’s still seeing that Joker?” “Quackity isn’t that bad.”Bad responded defensively. “Whatever you say Mr. Halo. Please inform the other two that I am starting here and to extend their time outside.” Bad left after that, leaving Dream, Callahan, and Sam here alone.

“Alright Dream, I can see you up there. My gas mask detects heat signatures in the goggles, so I suggest you speak up and surrender to me.” Surrender? As if. “Heh, seems like you’re less of a Buffoon than the others. Well you won’t catch me Sam.” Dream proclaimed stepping out from his normal spot behind the photograph. Sam’s gaze locked onto his form instantly scowling. “You will address me as The Warden.” Sam started,

“And once I catch you I will teach you some respect.” “Over my dead body.” Dream growled back, who did this guy think he is? Dream was just about to leap off the edge when he heard a voice, (Author Note: imagine the voice being similar to Tails from Sonic, the movie.) “Dream, WAIT!” Came Callahan’s voice from the vent next to Dream, it was rather quiet and hoarse from disuse. Dream immediately stepped away and into the vent, if Callahan was talking then something was seriously wrong.

“Callahan, what’s wrong?” Dream asked frantically as he noticed Callahan having a panic attack while staring at Sam’s cold eyes. “Callahan, look at me, Breathe. Just breathe.” Callahan calmed down once he turned his gaze to Dream. “Now, do you want to talk about what’s wro-“ Dream was cut off by a sharp electrical zap that echoed through the Metal vents. Callahan instantly went slack and collapsed,

“CALLAHAN! Wake up!” Dream had never been more thankful for insulating his hoodie and boots. “Oh, so you’re still alive? Clever of you to insulate your outfit, but I’ll get you!” Dream thought through everything that he could do at this moment. His outfit had survived one zap, but couldn’t survive another. He couldn’t charge out at Sam, even though he didn’t want to admit it, he would probably die if he tried. The situation seemed hopeless, then Callahan woke up and gasped air into his lungs.

“Dream, there is something else I need to tell you.” Callahan started whispering due to his injury. Dream listened waiting for as long as he could. Then whispering into his ear, “You’ll have to go without me, I’d only slow you down. I’ll be fine, he probably won’t kill me. Goodbye Dream, and, you’ll have to make friends with your previous enemies if you hope to defeat The Warden.” Callahan finished crawling over to the vent entrance. “No, Callahan…” “GO.” Callahan shouted back as he exited the vent and fell into The Warden’s grasp.

Then, Dream ran. He managed to get out of the vents and hid in the backyard. He hear Sam searching around the house, looking for him. Eventually he left and George, Sapnap and Bad came back. Oh and Antfrost too. He thought over Callahan’s last words to him, no not last words, he was going to get him back. He sped ran over to George’s room, who he’s known the longest. He emerged into the shelf where he hid George’s glasses, his first prank on him. “Hey George…”

George immediately tensed up at Dream’s voice. He had been doing a bit of thinking on his walk with Ant, and thought about the Exterminator that was coming, that was there at that moment. And realized something. He didn’t want Dream to die anymore, after Sapnap called the exterminator, he and Dream talked normally for a bit. Mainly him asking questions about what Dream’s life was like. Dream had teased him quite a bit, But George found that he actually liked Dream.

At least when he wasn’t messing with him. So this was it, the moment where he could bury the hatchet, but not into anybody’s back. “Dream, I was wondering if-“ But Dream cut him off, “Listen George, I’d like to apologize to you, for being such a dickhead.” Dream started, “And that if you’re up to it, maybe we could be friends?” George was surprised by this, he hadn’t expected Dream to actually want to be friends.

“Yeah of course, I was planning on asking you basically the same thing.” George responded. “I thought it over, and you’re actually a cool dude.” Dream smiled a bit at this, and it was genuine smile, not one born out of delight for a humans torment. “Good, because I need your help.” George looked up to him, “What do you need?” “Well I’ll need all three of you.” After that George went and got Bad and Sapnap into the Living Room. “Ok, so let me fill you in.” He started,

Dream swung down onto the coffee table next to George. Instantly Sapnap leapt up from his seat, but George stopped him. “George? What are you doing? He’s right there!” Sapnap pointed at the small man on the table. “Sorry Sap, me and him have worked out.. and arrangement.” “What!” Sapnap exclaimed, “Sap please sit down and let’s hear him out.” Bad gestured for his son to sit. He did rather begrudgingly.

“Ok, so the long story short, Dream’s friend Callahan was captured by Sam-“ George informed them, but was stopped by Bad. “Wait! Callahan was captured!” Bad exclaimed suddenly a lot angrier. “Wait you knew Callahan?” George asked confused. Suddenly all three eyes were in Bad who was a bit flustered. “Yeah, we’ve been talking for a bit, he didn’t want to tell Dream due to his feelings towards humans…” Bad mumbled to the three muffins in front of him, “Don’t worry it’s fine Bad, all that matters is we go save him.” Dream told Bad.

Meanwhile Sapnap was looking at the two of them as if they were insane. “First Quackity, now you two?” He mumbled under his breath. “But why should we help you!” The potato asked Dream angrily, “You tormented us for a long time!” Sap finished. “Because, I apologize for what I did, and I can only hope that your friend and dad’s willingness to help me will sway your decision.”

Sapnap, understandably, thought they were insane. But after meeting Karl, maybe it would be alright for tinies to be, more than just pests. He thought about how Quackity had talked about learning how to use a taser, that seemed like it’d be useful if he wanted to get him to help them.

Sapnap groaned, but he agreed. “Alright, now if we could just find at least one of my borrower friends to help me…” Bad jumped in, “How about Skeppy? Would he be good to have help?” Dream stared at Bad like suddenly he sprouted Devil horns and a halo emerged from his head. “You know Skeppy too?” “Yeah, he pranked me for a while, until he fell and hurt himself and I helped him! It’s part of the reason why I tried to be nice to you.” Dream blinked a few times, “Okay then, here’s the plan…”

Meanwhile…

Illumina was awaiting orders. “Captain, are we going to head out soon?” He asked the headmaster of The Arctic Academy. Their professor and inventor Funtime Moth had come back a day ago to deliver news of an Exterminator who had 12 borrowers hostage in his office. “Yes, this is the start of our Rebellion,” Captain Sparklez started as he and the team of borrowers got ready to ride birds to the Exterminator’s office and hopefully kill him. He held up a paper depicting what the Exterminator looked like, and blasted it to pieces with his magical hands.

It was very cool to know that some borrowers possessed magic like that. “Well then, are you with me!” He shouted to team of borrowers who were there. (Beckyu, Illumina, FuntimeMoth, Thea non, and Smajor. Not a lot, but it should be enough.) “Then let’s go!” He finished as they climbed aboard the trained birds on the windowsill and left for the Exterminator’s.

Purpled was clutching his arm, willing it to heal alongside his face as The Warden stepped into the room. With a new borrower in a jar. Aw great, another one caught. He stuffed the new borrower on the shelf with the rest and took a moment to sit in his chair, his hand on his forehead. Purpled’s Jar wasn’t with the rest, but was instead abandoned near the sink. On the other side of the room. That was when he noticed a small team of borrowers infiltrate through the vent.

He silently cheered as he saw them, FuntimeMoth among them. The others couldn’t see them, and he realized that he’d have to provide a distraction. “So Ugly, what’s wrong with you?!” He yelled up to The Warden. The Warden instantly tensed up his veins popping out of his neck and forehead. “It is not wise to antagonize me at the moment you pathetic creature.” During this the team of borrowers was breaking the others free, with some form of magic?

Dream spotted The Warden through a window whilst sneaking by with Skeppy. “Alright Skeppy, let’s try to…” that was when Dream spotted Purpled on the sink. His eyes widened, “It’s Purpled! I can’t believe it… We definitely gotta save them.” Dream overlooked the situation, and noticed how methodical The Warden’s movements were,

and noticed a button that he appeared to be edging towards. That was when he noticed that someone was already there helping break out the captive borrowers. He spied a man in a ninja outfit. Illumina, of course. Back in school he always tried to show Dream up as the better borrower, but that didn’t matter now, what mattered was that he believed that they were all walking into a trap.

Sam wasn’t an idiot. He would never let a borrower escape his prison, he did it in the hopes of luring more borrowers there, and judging by the sensor going off in the display, it had worked. (Yes he had a load of technological things in his mask, his mask was inspired heavily by Iron Man.) He was nearing the button to close the display wall and trap all of them inside, when Dream rushed him.

This pesky borrower, he wouldn’t be beat by an inferior! He ducked and Dream’s needle just barely missed, he reached for the purple borrower and held the jar up ready to smash it. “Not a swing closer!” He shouted out to all the borrowers in the room. “If any of you move I will shatter this jar with the scum inside.” He proclaimed. One of the borrowers inside the display who had come to break them out seemed to glow slightly. Sam would have a fun time experimenting on him. Then suddenly the door burst open.

Sapnap was thankful for the fact that Quackity had acquired the right to wield a taser. The group of four and Quackity’s new borrower friend Karl burst into the room. “Get away from them!” Sap yelled as Quackity tased Sam. He fell to the floor unconscious, then the room started filling with a strange gas. “Uh oh, Love? I don’t think that’s good…” Quackity informed Sap. “Okay we gotta get out of here-“ But he was cut off by something hitting his side, he turned and saw that Bad, George, and Quackity also felt it. He felt tired, and fell to the floor…

As he fell into Darkness, he could’ve sworn he heard Dream and Skeppy’s voices yelling their names…

@baka-monarch @eiscreme135 @funtimemoth @squishys-soft-stories

[dingbatnix]

Bat Dream

The thought has been plaguing me all day

So, he's a small bat hybrid

He's got two brothers: Punz, who is the oldest, and Purpled, who is the youngest

They all look more bat than human (cause I can't help but keep imagining them with tiny fuzzy snouts and huge fuzzy ears)

Dream has a bright white face and belly while the rest of his body is black; he has a lime green hoodie with slits for his wings, he has his mask, too

Punz is like an off white with small patches of black stripes,he's got his usual arm-striped hoodie and a small gold medalion

Purpled's fur was stained purple from a dye accident when he was younger; he thought is would be cool to have a purple hoodie that matched

They live with their colony

Their roost is in a cave by a mountain

Unfortunately, a bunch of humans wanted to use the cave, and they cleared the colony of bats and bat hybrids out with fire, burning them all indiscriminately

Punz, Dream, and Purpled have to watch as their friends and family are injured and burned to death by the humans

They have to escape with the few of their colony that doesn't die, but they get separated

Punz manages to stick with the remnants of the colony as they flee

Purpled flits off to the west, towards a desert

And Dream, badly burned, manages to flutter his way along the mountainside until he crashes into a tree and hangs there

But...he's more injured that he first thought, and he doesn't have enough strength to hang to the branch

He falls

Down and down...

And down...

and down...

...

..

.

Purpled, scared out of his wits and blinded by sheer panic, doesn't see the bright, glowing desert city until he's deep in it's heart

When his senses come back to him, he figures the best thing he can do is find shelter; he's completely lost and doesn't know what direction he came from

So he wings his way to the side of one of the huge buildings, where there seems to be a human-sized hole in the wall

He flies in, ignoring the strange machines lining one of the walls, and shoves himself into a crevice, where he can recuperate from the shock of losing his colony, his family, and his brothers in one fell swoop

...

Punz, when he realizes that his brothers are not with the remnants of their colony determinedly tells them that he's gonna try and go find his brothers

Any one who tries to stop him is snapped at with the vicious ferocity that only comes from fear for one's family

Punz leaves the colony with promises of return with his brothers, and searches, desperate to find any clue for where they may have gone, are what might have happened to them

Ask me stuff about this one! (I guess) : ) I have stuff in mind for it!

(Later edit: oof, maybe not :/)

[baka-monarch]

Toy story au

:)

Dream has a job of restoring old toys, fixing toys- and basically just helping toys to not be broken and stuff (kind of-)

Except he knows something- he knows that toys are alive. He found out when he was a kid and one little mushroom fairy doll he'd stolen had been too lazy to pretend to be an object

So now, Dream has his little workshop where he'll help fix people's toys- but with the help of George (the mushroom fairy doll) he'll find out how the toy got broken and if they want to go back to the person who had then before, if not he'll let them stay and tell the person he couldn't fix the toy, then it's up to the toy weather they want to be given to another kid or if they just wanna stay with Dream (these options are also given to toys who need to be restored- in case they don't wanna be on a shelf collecting dust, or they just are too lonely being on a shelf as a collectable)

So far Dream does have a few toys living with him such as:

George: a doll of a mushroom fairy prince based off a character in an old children's cartoon (Dream had stolen them when he was a kid because he needed money and knew George would sell alot to collectors- but then he found out toys were alive and didn't do that)

Sapnap: action figure of an anime character. He was given to Dream to restore after a collector bought him from another collector- but decided to stay because sitting on a shelf and doing nothing was boring and lonely, so now with Dream he can run around and do whatever he wants, which includes fighting things

Badboyhalo: action figure of a movie villain. The kid who had him before had ripped all of his arms off (even though he's plastic-) while playing with him and that's why Dream had to fix him. Bad decided to stay because he didn't like having to be the villain, plus it hurt to be thrown around and pulled apart so much....

Antfrost: a cat plushie that had a few tears. He'd been sold at a yard sale- but the people who had bought him had only bought Ant and not Velvet, so when he was given to Dream to sew up he asked to stay to have Dream's help to try and find Velvet again so they could stay together (they do find Velvet eventually, don't worry- it seems like the person writing this world decided that Velvet would be given to Dream to get fixed at some point 👀)

AwSamDude: creeper plushie. A kid had tried to sew armor onto him, but they had no idea what they were doing- so now Sam is with Dream being fixed... But he doesn't really want to go back to his kid because he's interested in building and stuff, so he stays and sometimes him and other toys build amazing things with legos-

Red Velvet: little plushie doll designed like a red velvet cake. He ends up with Dream after a kid ripped his arm- but ended up staying because of Antfrost

Captain Puffy: sheep plushie. She was actually given to Dream when he was a baby, like a present for the day he was born- so she's always been there for Dream, even before he knew toys were alive. Now she's in charge of all of the toys when Dream isn't there, she's an amazing leader, builder, and is great at making sure everyone is doing okay

Niki: she's a monster mermaid doll based off a kids movie series with monsters (definitely not monster high-). A kid cut off some of her hair and tried to put makeup on her. She decided to stay because she didn't really like kids deciding who she was and what she was like (she learned from Puffy she could choose what to be like herself) and decided to stay

Ponk: lemon with a face, arms, and legs. A kid ripped off his arm, and when he was brought to Dream the arm that had been torn off was missing. He decided to stay because he wanted to be able to go on his own adventures

Connor: sonic toy. Nobody knows how he got here or why he stayed.

Foolish: action figure! He's supposed to change colour in water, but was never able to do it, and was brought to Dream to be fixed.... But Dream couldn't figure out how to fix it. So Foolish just stayed, and started to become friends with Puffy

Hannah Rose: chia pet doll- the company just wanted to test and see if a doll would work, the kid who had Hannah broke her almost immediately because she's made of glass- she decided to stay because she knew that if she broke again the CIA per company would just destroy her

Punz and Purpled: superhero action figures. Dream got both of them together after a kid tried to swap their arms. Both decided to stay because kids are destructive and disgusting

Quackity: a rubber ducky! His squeaker broke, and he chose to stay because he wants to still annoy people and cause chaos without a squeaker

Karl: a large plushie doll, designed like his original Minecraft skin. His arm got ripped, and he wanted to stay with Dream because he needed help with some memory problems

Eret: doll king based off a show with fairytale characters. The factory paint on his eyes got whiped off, but when Dream was gonna paint it back Eret told him he'd done it herself, she wanted to have blank eyes and wanted to customize themselves to match what he wanted to look like. So Dream helped them out

Technoblade: pig plushie. The dude got a battle scar (he had a year in his arm) and still refuses to let Dream sew it to this day

Ranboo: same line of monster dolls as Niki (he looks like his vtuber). He hasn't been around long enough to have many memories of his own apart from being bought and loosing his hand... So he wants to stay with Dream so he can make his own memories with friends of his own choosing

Wilbur Soot: an amibo of a character from a game like Stardew Valley..... Except he decided to cause chaos, got off his little pedastool and started threatening to burn down the house of the kids that owned him (with Tommy as his "helper"). Dream heard about this and offered the to take Wilbur and Tommy from the family so they're house would be safe-

Tommy: he's like those really small Polly pocket dolls that come in little compacts- but his is a little petting zoo with tiny animals, and a spider he adopted.

Then there are two more humans for this au:

For the toys that still wanna be owned but don't want to go back to the person who had them originally- Dream sends them off to a friend of his that owns a pawn shop: Schlatt, and Schlatt doesn't work alone, he has his son Tubbo work around the pawn shop and help Dream out as well. Tubbo doesn't mind though since he's become friends with some of the toys.

Mcyt g/t list:

@trashpumped @lorie-the-little-ghost @encaos @jay-b1rd @wyforyu-gaming @shy-septic-dragon @5unfl0writ3r @colorfulsiren @moonmwah @iwasgoingtohellanyways @echoslime @wilbur-simp @trouble-off-grid @lilsyxx @smogs-0 @hello-world-im-snow

[sizeshiftingdeath]

@mcyt-gt-events This is my entry for the Secret Santa mcyt g/t event to @bio-nerds-corner Hope you like it!

Found

“You know what time it is guys?” Foolish asked excitedly.

“POPCORN TIME!!” Charlie and Purple yelled together. The trio raced through the walls to get to the recently put up Christmas tree, decorated with beautiful ornaments and the thing they were most excited for, popcorn on a string, neatly wrapped around the tree, popcorn is a luxury for borrowers most of the time specifically because they can never get to it without being seen, especially not fresh popcorn. “It may be exciting but we still have to be careful grabbing it ok?” Foolish said, knowing that the other two might accidentally cause a scene if they weren’t reminded.

“Ugh, yea yea yea we get it, don’t get caught by the humans so we don’t die,” Purpled said, rolling his eyes at Foolish. After that, they cautiously walked out of their small hole near the tree and started to climb up it. As they got higher, they carefully put small bits of popcorn into their bags, making sure no one was coming back into the room.

Fundy could swear he heard something messing around with the Christmas tree he spent hours setting up, so he went to go check. As he walked into the room, all the sounds he heard before stopped, and as he walked closer to the tree, he could tell something was off. “SAM! Did you mess with the popcorn strands you KNOW I spent HOURS on??” Fundy yelled out, angrily to Sam.

“Why would I do that? I haven’t even been near the tree since you put it up,” Sam calmly called back.

“Well some of the popcorn is missing!”

“How can you tell? It could have just moved around a bit while you were putting it up,” Sam said, trying to calm Fundy down and hoping to stop this little argument. Fundy wasn’t having any of it though, he knows how much popcorn he put up and he 100% knows for a fact some of it’s missing. As Fundy carefully looked around the tree he saw it, actually he saw three, so he grabbed the thieves who stole his hard work. As he pulls them out of the tree and into the open, he sees three little people in his grasp. Fundy, of course, confused says “What the fuck?" The three borrowers stared in horror at the realization that they've been caught. “Who are you and why are you stealing the tree popcorn?” Fundy asked angrily.

“Maybe if you put us down we’ll tell you,” Purpled said, wanting to fight.

“If I do that, you’ll just run off,” Fundy retorted.

“Ok! Ok! Calm down, we’ll tell you if you agree to let us go,” Foolish butted in.

“Fine,” Fundy agreed.

“Ok, good. So, the reason we were ‘stealing’ the tree popcorn is because we need it to survive. If we didn’t we’d starve,” Foolish explained.

“Alright, that explains the tree popcorn stealing, but it doesn’t explain who or what exactly you are. I mean, you seem like you’re just tiny people,” Fundy questioned

“Ok then! I’m Charlie, that’s Foolish, and that is Purpled. We are all borrowers and we live here in Las Nevadas! Also, a borrower is someone who borrows small things that the owner of the house they’re living in wouldn’t miss, like paper clips, or small pieces of food, or even thimbles!” Charlie explained cheerfully.

“Charlie! Don’t go sharing our entire species secrets!” Purpled yelled quietly to Charlie.

“Okay then…… uh, I guess I’ll let you go now since you answered my questions. But don’t think for a second that you can just steal my stuff, especially the stuff I worked hard on!” That last sentence lingered in the trio’s ears as they quickly got away from the giant and into the safety of the walls.

A couple days after the encounter, Foolish decided to take Purpled and Fundy out borrowing for essentials, water, food, and some needed materials. As they were heading back from the trip with their haul, none of them expected Foolish to get caught in a hidden mousetrap close to their hole in the wall. Foolish held back a yelp of pain as he dropped his bag and everything he collected so he could try and get his legs unstuck from the trap. Charlie and Purpled dropped their stuff to help Foolish but he pushed them away, telling them to get back to the walls with the materials while freed himself. As Foolish was trying to ignore the pain while trying to free himself, he didn’t expect one of the giants to walk into the room.

Sam was wandering around trying to help Fundy put the last of the Christmas decorations up when he heard a snap from the kitchen, meaning one of the mouse traps he set up was triggered. As he walked into the kitchen he did not expect to see a small person with their legs stuck in his trap. Sam rushed over, intending to help the tiny person.

Foolish looked up at the giant with fear and saw worry in the giant’s eyes. Foolish started to panic and began pulling on his legs harder, hoping they would come free before the giant got to him. But it was too late, the giant freed him from the trap and held him in his hands.

Sam picked up the small person trying to see how badly they were hurt when all of a sudden, another tiny person walked out of a hole in the wall (Was that always there?) and started yelling at him. Sam tried to calm both tinies down, the one panicking in his hands, and the one shouting at him.

“Hey hey, calm down, I’m just trying to see how badly your friend here is hurt, okay?” Sam said quietly to the yelling tiny. Just then, Fundy walks into the room.

“Sam I still need your help with the decora- What the hell is happening in here?!” Fundy shouted confused at the situation. “First off, Sam, put him down, secondly, Purpled, stop yelling, you’re just making this worse.”

“You know these guys, Fundy?” Sam asked, confused.

“Yea yea, met ‘em a few days ago. Now can someone please explain what’s going on here?”

“Well, I got stuck in a mousetrap that was placed around here and then this guy comes and grabs me out of nowhere. I mean, I’m thankful he freed me but he could’ve just put me down right after.” Foolish explained his side of the story.

“Well I thought we caught a mouse in the trap, that’s kinda the point, anyways I saw him and wanted to help so I released him from the trap and tried checking to make sure he wasn’t too injured. Then this guy with the antennae came out of the wall and yelled at me.” Sam explained.

“All I saw was this big guy come and grab Foolish so I came out to try and get him to put Foolish down.” Purpled explained annoyed.

“So what I’m getting at here is that Sam helped free Foolish from the mousetrap, but didn’t put him down right away so you came out and yelled at him. Did I get that right?” Fundy reiterated.

“Yep,” Foolish, Purpled, and Sam said in unison.

“You guys are lucky Quackity is away for a few days because otherwise, I don’t know what-” Fundy was cut off as they heard the door open behind them and watched as Quackity walked through. Foolish and Purpled sat frozen in fear, not knowing what to do. Sam and Fundy tried covering the borrowers so Quackity didn’t see them. “Uh Quackity! Heyyyy! I thought you were gonna be out longer, what made you come back so early?” Fundy asked nervously.

“I felt like you two would do something stupid, like burn down the place, while I was gone so I decided to come back early.” Quackity explained. “I also feel like it was a good idea because what the fuck are those?” he asked, pointing at Foolish and Purpled. At this point, Charlie walks out of the hole in the wall to see what’s happening and of course, wants to explain to Quackity of Las Nevadas that they, in fact, live there and don’t mess with main parts of the casino.

“So, what I’m getting from this small green person is that you guys are what’s called ‘borrowers’ and have been ‘borrowing’ food and other small materials over time?” Quackity questioned.

“Yup! That’s basically it!” Charlie said cheerfully.

“Alright, as long as you don’t break anything or steal anything important you can stay.” Quackity said, walking away.

“Well that went better than expected,” Fundy said.

“Yea… It was also kinda terrifying,” Foolish quietly said.

“Anyways… You guys just gonna stick around then? It’ll be nice to have some more people around other than Sam and Quackity. No offence Sam” Fundy said.

“None taken,” Sam replied.

“Yea, I think we’ll stick around, as long as you guys don’t try to kill us or something,” Foolish answered.

“Haha! You got yourselves a deal!”

[bittydragon]

Have you ever thought about purpled being a shape shifter but likes being a tiny to not get involved with much conflict. Yet, he's still has issues like the feeling of being forgotten.

(Sorry if I'm bothering you with this)

I like this, though I'll admit that I know nearly nothing about Purpled. Based on what I do know though, this fits him very well!

[colossal-red]

TinyHunt Side Stories The Academy Pt.2

Tw: mild fear, implied human death. WC: 2300ish

It had taken a bit, but Dream was glad his face was healed, for the most part. He did like the mask that Techno had given him, surprisingly enough it didn’t actually hinder him in any way. If anything it seemed to improve his performance. He woke up as he usually did, equipped his hook, and left to go see about breakfast. He has only been practicing for a few days in swinging, but he was immediately one of the greatest swingers in the academy. Not everyone was a fan of him outshining everyone else, especially that guy in the ninja outfit.

“Alright, I’m gonna give each of you an assignment.” Began Techno. “For today, you four groups will go and find a human home and bring back any food that you may find, together as a team.” He finished. “Does anyone have any questions?“ Illumina raised his hand, “Yes, Illumina?” “Is there anywhere you aren’t allowed to go?” Techno nodded, “Yes, you may not leave this neighborhood, or go to Sam Nook’s house.” A few of the less experienced recruits shivered at the mention of Sam Nook’s house, he was an Exterminator and very dangerous. Not as dangerous as his brother, but still very dangerous.

After that, Purpled led them to a house a few blocks down. “Alright team, this is the house.” Purpled told them as they landed on the backyard fence, “I did some recon on the people living here, and I think we’ll be good to go for now.” Alrighty then, they infiltrated through a cracked open window. Dream surveyed the room as the rest of the team jumped down onto the counter below. It seemed, empty. “Hey Purpled, any info in the human who lives here?” Dream asked Purpled as they made their way over to a cabinet that was low enough. “Yeah, he’s some old guy who works at an Orphanage, doesn’t come home too often, and hangs out in the woods at the back when he is.”

Hmm, interesting. They got into the cabinet via hook without any major issues, until they heard the back door open. “Shit, we gotta go!” Tap-L whisper shouted as they were carrying a cookie with Skeppy. Purpled and Fruitberries were waiting by the window sill ready to accept the package, Dream went to go and help the guys carrying the cookie. They struggled for a few, but they were able to successfully get the cookie to the windowsill, that was when the human emerged into the room.

Dream knew instantly what to do, “You guys gk and take the cookie back to the academy, I’ll distract the human.” Purpled looked as if he were going to protest, “Just go!” Purpled nodded, but Skeppy stayed behind. “I’ll help you.” Dream would’ve rather gone alone, but he was still a bit nervous. “Ok, what’s the plan Dream?” Skeppy asked a bit panicked as while the human was turned away, he could turn around very quick. “So, Purpled and the rest are currently setting up a zip line to transport the cookie, we’ve gotta figure out a way to distract the man.” Dream analyzed the room, eventually finding a bottle of beer on a coffee table, but it was on the other side of the old guy.

“We’ll go an knock over the bottle, I”ll swing left, you swing right, whichever of us gets an opening, goes in for it.” Skeppy nodded and prepared to swing. Dream got a running start and jumped off the edge of the kitchen counter, and caught himself with the hook, he loved the feeling of the air wooshing by him as he flew. Skeppy landed on a shelf just barely hiding from the old dudes view. Dream swung past and was able to land smoothly on the table, and with as much nonchalantlessness that he could muster, he knocked it over and jumped off rolling under the sofa.

Philza heard the sound of a bottle hitting the carpeted floor, he had been thinking about his meeting with Kristin in the woods, she was cool. But anyway, he looked over to where Schlatt had left the bottle when he had last visited. It had fallen somehow. “What the hell?” He walked over to the bottle and picked it up, examining it for anything weird. Not noticing anything off, he tossed it in the bin. He remembered suddenly that he was supposed to talk to Techno later, he had met the borrower a few months ago when he tried to steal from his cookie jar. They had been friends for a while now, and he didn’t want to miss out on an opportunity to speak to the smol guy.

Dream finally released a breath that he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. That hand coming down to pick up the bottle had admittedly scared him. But now the human was heading to the backyard, and the zip line was finished. Swinging back up with Skeppy, they got prepared to zip down with the cookie. “Well then, let’s get down there.” Purpled said as he started zipping down the line with Tap-L and Fruitberries, carrying the cookie between the three of them. He and Skeppy followed soon after, once they reached the bottom, Purpled retracted the hook and they were ready to go, then Technoblade emerged from the grass, whistling a tune. “The Blade? What are you doing here?” Purpled asked their headmaster, “Oh, umm, j-just checking on all the groups to, er, make sure nothing happened.” He finished.

“Okayyyy?” Purpled replied, starting the trek back to The Academy. “Welp, see ya back at school.” Techno told them, swinging away. “Guess he couldn’t stop to help us?” Skeppy stated jokingly getting a laugh out of the group and a small scowl from Purpled. After a long while of walking and watching out for birds, they finally reached The Arctic Academy. Once they got inside, and hauled the cookie up to the kitchen counter where Techno and the other groups already were awaiting them. Up there Illumina was already bragging about getting a whole bag full of toasted bread crumbs from the house just across the street.

Dream laughed his now signature laugh, and helped haul their massive cookie up on top of the countertop; And while Illumina’s face was covered by the ninja outfit, it was easy to tell that he was pissed that Dream had outshone him on this occasion. Techno nodded in approval, and berated Illumina’s group when, in an attempt to take the spotlight off of Dream, Illumina confessed that his group had run the risk of venturing into Sam Nook’s house. Which as Techno said, was “Extremely Irresponsible.” Dream was glad to get praise for his work, he was very skilled at what he does after all.

Afterwards Techno didn’t really have anything that he really needed them to do. (Dream suspected that he thought the assignment would take longer.) So for the rest of the day, Dream sparred with Skeppy in Needle-To-Needle combat. It was always a fun activity to practice combat with the Needle, even if the chance of using it against a fellow borrower was low. Needle-less to say, Skeppy was on the floor ten times over in the first 30 seconds. “Urgg, how are you so good!?” Skeppy, while he did enjoy the challenge of trying to best Dream, obviously wished he could win at least once.

“Eh, apparently not good enough. If I was better I would have you in the floor in a second.” He teased, offering Skep his hand to get up. Lifting Skeppy to his feet, they left and discussed which portion of the cookie each member of their group would get. “Hey, you heard that we got a few new recruits the other day?” Skeppy asked him suddenly. Dream frowned, “No, who are they?” “Well, I only know one of their names due to the circumstances where they were found.” Skeppy told him, “Her name is Becky, apparently some borrower found her near the ocean, wielding a really well made katana.” “A katana? Like a human katana?” “Well, not the size of one, but borrower size.” Well, that’s curious, Dream thought, wondering where this one came from.

But his thoughts quickly turned back to his potential graduation. After all, he already was the greatest student in the school, so it only made sense. He would have to talk to The Blade about that before making any assumptions. That was when he and Skeppy heard some screams from the living room. (They were nearing their bird house on the counter island.) He and Skeppy turned and stared at each other, both nodding. They knew that they should go and help, and so they did. After a quick stretch, they jumped off the counter and caught themselves, swinging to the living room that wasn’t that far from the kitchen.

Once they got there, they saw that a wild bird had broken through a window, and was attacking borrowers. But Dream was, weirdly calm. Before The Academy, Dream would’ve booked it out of there. But now, he wanted to go in, and fight. Meanwhile, Skeppy was panicking. “O-oh m-my god, what are we gonna do?!” He asked in a hushed tone, “Okay, first off, we’re gonna calm down,” Dream instructed, helping the masked borrower to get ahold of their breathing. “And then, we’re gonna go and fight that bird.” He finished patting Skep on the back, before jumping off the shelf in the living room that they were on.

Dream faintly heard Skeppy shouting at him to wait, but he was too focused on the task at hand. Skeppy muttered under his breath as well before following. Dream swung and readied his needle to chase the bird away, “Well, aren’t you just a Tweetie pie?” Dream asked the bird in a mocking tone, (granted, it was a seagull, so it didn’t fully work.) It simply squawked at him as it tried to peck him away, flapping its wings from the window sill. Dream near effortlessly dodged the birds advances. (But, as much as he hated to admit, he still needed some training if he wanted to truly become the best.)

“Heh, you know, if you keep trying, you might actually hit me! I’m hooting for ya!” Dream swung around the bird, under the flapping wings and got a nice jab in the area between the left wing and the main body. The bird let out another loud squawk, but Dream barely even flinched. Without skipping a beat, he yoinked a spare hook off the ground, used it to wrap the bird in place on the sill, and wrapped his own around the exposed rafters on the ceiling. Swinging around and around it, he picked up momentum, and released himself, kicking the bird straight out of the window. “Crowing, crowing, gone!” He said after the bird went careening out the window, but soon after, he started to fall. “Oh shit.” Thankfully Skeppy who had been searching for an opening to join the fight was there to catch him.

“Heh, that was a close bird-call wasn’t it.” Skep told him as he landed the two of them on the coffee table in the living room. Dream was able to laugh off some of the fear he had after he fell, although it was still a bad pun. After the whole thing, Dream received great gratitude from every borrower at The Academy, which only fueled the possibility of him graduating. Afterwards, he swung by Techno’s desk, and waited for him. Once he arrived from God-knows-where, Dream asked him “So Techno, do yo-“

But Dream didn’t get a chance to finish. “Do I think that you’ve done a good enough job to graduate early, is that what you were asking?” Techno interrupted. “Because if so, then the answer is definitely yes.” Dream was glad to hear that, and couldn’t stop the grin growing on his scarred face underneath the mask. “But, that’ll be something that needs to wait a bit, a bit of planning for a celebration will be needed. Actually,” He started, “I’m thinking of retiring soon, how would you feel about becoming the new principle of The Arctic Academy?” He asked, pretty much out of the blue. But Dream had an easy answer for that. “What? N-no, I don’t really want to teach, or anything like that.” He told him, “And also, why would you want to retire?”

Technoblade knew it was a long shot, but he really did want to retire and hoped that the first person he asked would go for it. But, he could understand why Dream wouldn’t want to.

Blood, blood…

The voices whisper. They didn’t really enjoy Techno’s newfound okay-ness with humans. But, Phil was cool, and if the voices didn’t like him not killing any more humans, than they’d just have to deal with it. Besides, he’s really wanted to learn how to farm potatoes, he does really like them. “Eh, that’s fine Dream. I’m sure I’ll find someone else.” He told Dream as he turned around and headed to his makeshift bed inside the shelf on the desk, avoiding Dream’s second question. He fell to sleep quickly after that.

Dream was a bit perplexed, why would Technoblade, one of the greatest borrower warriors of all time want to retire? He didn’t even really seem all that old. But, Dream’s thoughts quickly turned toward the glory he’d get once he had the whole celebration of his graduation. (Was a celebration a little excessive? Maybe. Did he care? Not really.) He closed his eyes, and thought about what he’d do to say goodbye to The Academy…

Meanwhile…

Sparklez had heard from other borrowers via eavesdropping that somewhere around here was an Academy, where borrowers could be trained in special skills, for the purpose of taking the humans down. And Sparklez really wanted to join, especially since his powers would be, advantageous to the cause he felt. He smiled thinking about how many humans he could take down if he had some training, not that he really needed it with powers like these, he thought as he watched his hands glow, with cosmic energy…

@baka-monarch @squishys-soft-stories @eiscreme135 @funtimemoth