Chapter Text
The surrounding room was dark. Blackout curtains draped along the windows. In the center sat a desk illuminated by three glowing monitors. The outline of one's head can be made out from the light bouncing off. They furiously typed at the keyboard searching through information, they found something in an audio clip replaying it constantly to pinpoint exactly what was being said.
The door creaked open silently, a hand slithered into the dark room and flicked on the light switch. Suddenly Tango jumped at his desk, the flames in his hair lighting up. He took out his earbud spinning in his chair to see who decided to blind him.
“Gosh, Jimmy,” he sighed, a hand swooping over his flames to calm them down. “What was that for?”
“I called you for dinner like 20 minutes ago.” Tango looked at the time, it was closer to 8pm then 7pm. “Have you found anything?” Jimmy wraps his arms around his boyfriend.
“I’ve been trying to match this audio clip with known agency members but I haven’t found and correlations,” the clip continued to play on repeat, the little white line moving to the edge of the darker grey one before restarting, the clip was only about 5 seconds long and didn’t hold any information that could be useful besides a voice match. Which clearly wasn’t being that useful.
“Hmm, let me hear,” Jimmy took a headphone and held it to his ear. It took the clip replaying a few times before Jimmy started registering exactly what he was hearing. A deeper masculine voice was speaking. It was practically ineligible, but it was familiar. “Can you send me this, I need to show Lizzie and Scar,”
“Yeah, sure. Give me a sec,” Tango took control of the keyboard, taking the download and importing it into his email. Then copying the bamboozlers before hitting send. “What’s wrong with it?” he asked out of curiosity.
“That voice, it sounds like the guy we ran into at the train warehouse,” Jimmy wasn’t quite sure. He felt a little crazy for comparing the two. There’s no way this is the same guy. There’s no way he was the one who blew up their base and-
“HE KIDNAPPED SLAYER!” Scar jumped from his chair as he pointed and yelled, the legs of the chair went up as the back hit the floor. Scar lowkey kind of forgot he can’t do that anymore and he also lost his balance tumbling down with the chair.
“Yes Scar, we are aware he’s the one who kidnapped Slayer,” Lizzie watched as the other met the hardwood floor completely unfazed. “On another note, he’s also the one who blew up our base,” the bamboozlers were sitting around a small circular table. The second Jimmy had sent the email the other two ran over to his house. It’s a good thing the dish he made for dinner could feed all… I would say four but Grian and Joel were kicked into the living room due to lack of chairs at said table. Also a football game was, so every other minute the group would hear the two boys yell and get rage baited by their team losing.
“Yes! My team scored!” Tango peeked around the doorway, shooting his arm up. Grian and Joel would turn and cringe towards him.
“Stop ragebaiting them,” Jimmy pulled his boyfriend back into their meeting.
“Is there any other information you got from the security camera?” Lizzie reasonably asked.
“Not really, before this clip there was a glitch where the whole screen went this static red color, then it cut back to normal and I heard the voice.” Tango revealed the whole clip, showing the red tv static screen as they huddled around the computer.
“Wait go back,” Lizzie bumped Tango’s hand off the arrow keys taking control, she revered the video and watched again and again as a shadowed hand came into view, then the red static, then the camera was on the ground. “Whoever did this has some sort of shadow power, they can also interrupt electromagnetic waves, and they can sense when they’re being watched,” Lizzie took note of her findings on her little note pad.
“Alright, who else do you know with shadow powers,” Jimmy sat back in his chair.
“I don’t know everyone with shadow powers. The only other person I have knowledge of is the CEO of the hero agency, but that’s a woman,” they had crossed the watcher off a while ago. “Women can have deep voices!” Scar defended, as if he can name one person who identifies as a woman with the voice they had recognized.
“It’s not her, Scar,” she wouldn’t do something like this, it was too risky.
A separate notification caught Lizzie’s attention though. Movement at the front door pinged into her lock screen. She opened it out of curiosity, noticing multiple bodies standing in front of her door. One of them reached out a hand and pressed the door bell, when she retracted her arm it was obvious who the person was.
“Joel!” Lizzie hollered to the boys in the living room.
“Yes?” He appeared a few seconds later.
“You haven’t notified the watcher of Slayer's absence, right?” she gave him a glare.
“No?” he was now concerned. Leaning over Lizzie’s shoulder she showed him the camera footage. The watcher, dressed in her usual business attire–a dark grey suit–was standing on their porch surrounded by many men all dressed similarly. They looked like her body guards, if only they weren’t all holding clip boards.
“Oh shi-” Joel and Lizzie rushed out the door.
“Bye guys, uh… good luck!” Jimmy bid them farewell as the door slammed behind.
“YES!” Grian shouted from the living room, he ran into the dining room/kitchen pumping his fists in the air, “we tied the game! Wait- where’s Joel?”
“He and Lizzie had to go, an emergency,” Jimmy answered while giving Tango a little punch in the arm as he whined about the game tying.
“Oh no, that doesn’t seem good,” Grian took Lizzie’s seat.
“Yeah, the watcher showed up at their house,”
“Oh that’s definitely not good,”
Joel pulled up to their house and hopped out of the car. Lizzie lingered behind and waited till Joel got the watchers' attention.
“Hello Watcher, what brings you so late?” He walked up to the front porch.
“Ah Joel, we were wondering if you had any knowledge on this,” the watcher holds up a letter to the hero agency. Joel took a hold of the paper and flipped it open. Inside he was greeted with horrendous handwriting that could only belong to a man, and a ransom note about Gem’s kidnapping.
“Bring me all three bamboozlers and I'll release your puny hero,” he read aloud.
“What do you know about this?” she questioned the hero. They had swapped places, the watcher and her goons standing with their backs to the street, Joel was sitting on his steps to his front door.
“I don’t have any information on this. I’ve had no contact with Gem since Monday,” it was Wednesday. The watcher nodded her head in acknowledgement, scribbled something in her notes then whispered to one of her goons. Joel watched as a shadow behind them crept from the car and into the bush. But he didn’t see where she went from there as his attention was turned back by what the watcher said next.
“I need you to locate the bamboozlers,” was this an out of ordinary question, absolutely not. Of course the watcher would want to use the villains to free a hero. Although Joel was most certain it was a trap, he wasn’t quite sure. Could this be the way the hero agency finally gets rid of the villains. Which one of them was literally hiding a few feet away in the shadows.
“What!?” This has to be against their code in some way. Joel couldn’t do that, he wouldn’t even follow through if Lizzie agreed to do that. He didn’t feel comfortable sending in the bamboozlers to a villain that’s even more nefarious than them, he blew up their base for god sake.
“Will you do it Joel?” the watcher pushed.
“I- I don’t think I can,” he mumbled out, he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t lure them out. He couldn’t even ask them politely he would feel like he was betraying their relationship of trust. But he couldn’t just leave that as his answer so he said more,.“It’s just really difficult to locate them, like we don’t even know where their base is,” he tossed in that second part to really send his alibi.
“Actually we do,” the watcher gave him a smirk. She flipped around her tablet to show a picture of what at first glance is a sink hole in the graveyard, but at a closer look it’s reminiscent of an explosion underground. Their base was exploded… Joel remembered it was the same night Gem had gone missing. “Well it’s what's left of their base. We assume whoever took Gem is also after the bamboozlers, considering the ransom note but also how much was just left in their base, almost like they had fled from a threat, panicked, then exploded it just in case.” the watcher wrongfully explained. Joel knew exactly what happened. He also knew that they had scavenged their base last night and burned the rest. This picture looks as if it was taken immediately after the bamboozlers had fled to chase the villain, therefore the base does not look the same as it does right now.
“Hmm, alright. I can patrol in the morning,” but that was information he would not tell to the agency.
“We were hoping you could patrol right now,” the watcher pushed, man she really did have favorites. Joel did not want to. He wanted to go inside and handle this tomorrow, but he knew there was no way around the watchers orders, especially when it came down to one of their own. “Alright lets head out-” she stopped as the front door opened. A pink haired woman dressed in pajamas stepped outside.
“What's going on here?” She questioned.
“Oh hello dear, we’re so sorry to bother you at this hour. We’ll be heading out now,” the watcher switched up her act so quickly.
“No, that was directed to Joel. What’s happening?” She walked closer to him, placing her hand on his shoulder.
“It’s just some work things. One of my coworkers is missing and they were just asking if I had seen her recently,” Joel pretended as if she didn’t know about the situation.
“Oh no that’s horrible,” she acted shocked. As she moved closer to Joel now sitting next to him. She tucked herself more into his oversized sweater she stole and placed her head on his shoulder.
“They were telling me I had to-”
“No no, it’s fine we can continue this in the morning. I will leave you and your partner to your evening,” the watcher gathered her men and loaded up the car. The two sat as they watched the exhaust dissipate.
“Oh my gosh,” Joel released the sigh he was holding. “Thank you for saving me, I did not want to patrol tonight,” he wrapped his arm around her.
“Of course. I didn’t want you to patrol a base that has been burnt to a crisp tonight either,” Lizzie cuddled into his side.
“How did you get inside anyway?” he questioned as they entered through the front door.
“I used my power,” she demonstrated, pressing her arm into the shadow casted from a piece of furniture against the wall, her arm started to fade through like she was explaining. Watching as her fingers to her wrist disappeared. Joel watched in awe, her powers were always so much cooler than his. She pulled her arm back, her hand turning back to normal as if nothing. And the two settled down into the night.
In the morning Joel continued his plans from the previous night. He put his morning coffee in a travel mug, slipped on his shoes and put on his coat in preparation for the morning breeze. Lizzie ran down the stairs past him stopping to give him a good bye kiss.
“Youre coffee’s on the counter,” he gave her a quick squeeze around the shoulders then pulled back as she turned to the kitchen.
“Thanks, do we have any more travel mugs?” she paused before he opened the front door.
“Oh yes, in the upper cupboard,” he watched as she opened it standing on her tippy toes to reach inside and grab one. “But where are you headed this morning?” He followed her into the kitchen. She hadn’t told him any of her plans for the day.
“We’re going back to the train warehouses, trying to see if we can trace any leads,” she poured the warm coffee into the thermos.
“Alright, my mission is going to be short so I may join later,” he pressed another kiss to the top of her head. She leaned into it before he pulled away, giving a hum in acknowledgement. She watched as he left their house before putting on her own gear and following suit.
A couple of days ago the civilized bamboozlers had made a visit to their local library. Once inside they searched through the books not looking for anything in particular. They were just passing time, needing a sheltered place to get away from the constant thoughts of being stalked. Lizzie was muttering things to Jimmy, who was half listening while peeking at different books as they walked by. Grian and Scar had looped arms walking a few steps ahead of them through the isles of books.
Grian had let go of Scars arm once they entered the medical section. He was searching through the books to see if there was any he could use to help him when patching up the clumsy villains. This section just so happened to be in the very back of the library, a very tall shelf of books covered the back wall completely. The librarian was an avian so it made getting books from up high easy, they could just fly.
Scar propped himself against the book shelf, crossing his legs, leaning off of his cane as he back pressed against the books. Grian knelt down to peek at a book and suddenly he sees a Scar toppling backwards through his peripherals. Jimmy and Lizzie come around the isle to see half of Scar sticking out from a bookshelf. Grian helped him up, peering into the room.
“You said you guys needed a new secret base,” Grian shrugged. The three bamboozlers all looked at each other before nodding their heads in agreement.
Lizzie pulled a book from the bookshelf, slowly the door opened, she made sure no one saw them, then she entered the door closing behind her and the book setting itself back in place like nothing happened. The space was massive, perfect for a temporary secret villain base. They had moved a pop up white table and a few chairs inside not wanting to go all out quite yet. They still don't know what this place was originally used for. Based on the cobwebs it wasn’t anything recently.
Grian was sweeping up said webs. It made the atmosphere a little easier to breathe. They had hung up some fairy lights to give the room a cozy feel. Scar and Jimmy sat at their makeshift table that was illuminated by a lantern as they were marking a map that didn’t look like it was above ground.
“You’re late,” Jimmy looked up at her.
“Fashionably,” she flipped her hair over her shoulder.
“Quick brief, then lets go,” Scar ushered Lizzie into the chair next to him.
Scar explains to Lizzie how they found a trap door that leads to a system of tunnels. Earlier he sent Jimmy down there with a tracker to trace the path and they lead into the sewers, which have paths all underneath their town. Jimmy then almost got his head run over by an 18 wheeler but that’s besides the point.
“Is G coming with us?” she propped open the trap door about to jump inside.
“Nope, I'm on my way to work,” he set the broom down and dusted off the straying cobwebs before grabbing his bag, the medical book he had checked out and moved past them spinning his car keys around his finger, “y’know the drill, don’t get injured and if there’s blood-”
“Notify you immediately," the three rolled their eyes as they repeated the same phrase he told them every time.
“Perfect, see ya later,” Grian pecked a kiss onto Scar’s cheek then walked out the secret bookshelf exit.
Lizzie jumped into the hole in the floor. She landed spiderman style in front of a dark tunnel to which she could not see the end of even with her night vision. “Clear,” she signaled to her other teammates. She gave them some space to land, Jimmy throwing himself down Lizzie style while Scar repelled himself with a grappling hook shortly behind.
“Alright lets go,” Lizzie starts walking. Jimmy follows behind her not accounting for the fact this tunnel was built for dwarfs, therefore he immediately hits his head on the top. Tumbling backwards Scar steadies him with a hand against his back.
“Owch,” he rubs the red mark, Lizzie giving him a mad laugh echoing through the short walls. “I forgot we have to crouch,” he and Scar are halfway bent by the waist as they follow Lizzie’s lead. “At some point there’s a pipe sticking out just be careful of tha-” you would never believe what happened to Jimmy… Lizzie and Scar are both cackling.
“Nice one Jim,” Scar pats his back the way Grian does when he makes a silly mistake.
“Oh don’t you start with that,” the blonde boy would retort more but his spine is aching with how long it has to be bent for.
“Hurry up guys I found the exit,” Lizzie hollered from a few feet away. They emerged behind her straightening their spines with a satisfying crack. Suddenly a ridiculous stench of sewer floods their senses.
“Oh how pleasant,” Scar mocks, holding his mask up to his face. All three of them click on then swoosh out the stinky air as they become secure from their noses to their chins. “Ah, now that’s better,” they started making their way through the sewage system. There is a direct path from the secret base to underneath the warehouse, however when Ringmaster and Boogeymen tried to find it previously, Boogeymen miscalculated and ended up in the middle of a busy road, hence why they no longer had a flash light–rip–and he almost got brain damage. So from that point forward Eclipse will be their map guide and also night vision.
“Don’t we turn this way?” Boogeymen pointed to the right tunnel as Eclipse turned into the left. At one point there were markings on the walls but with the pale green–yellowish colored lighting and the visible erosion marks from the water it wasn’t very eligible. So map it was.
“That leads to the freeway…” she gave him a glare.
“So that’s what the wonky arrow on the wall meant,” he pointed out a mark that was very clearly F shaped.
“Oh my gosh Jimmy…” Eclipse facepalmed over her villain mask.
They continue walking for a few more miles. “Augh! My legs hurt,” Boogeymen starts complaining.
“Who’s genius idea was it to walk the sewage system,” Eclipse gives a mean look to Ringmaster who hasn’t complained once, just walking with his clutch and whistling occasionally to the sound of water running beside them.
“We’re almost there,” he acknowledges, silencing his teammates' discontent.
“Yeah, yeah, right above us,” Eclipse rolls up the map and shoves it into the belt of her outfit. “I’ll go first,” she hops up on the ladder, then widens her stance so she can push the heavy sewer lid up. Small pieces of debris fall down past her as she peeks into the daylight. Her eyes blink out of the sewer waiting for them to adjust. And just like she had assumed they were in the middle of a dirt path. A dirt path that just so happens to be next to an abandoned train warehouse.
“Alright, come on up guys,” she throws the sewer lid aside watching as it coughs up a tiny dust storm on impact. Eclipse sits on the edge catching Ringmaster’s cane when he tosses it up. Then he climbs up using purely his arm strength, Boogeymen following behind him.
“Ok what now?” All Boogeymen could see was run down buildings, what is he meant to do with those.
“We search,” Eclipse picked up a stick and started drawing lines in the dirt.
“For…” Boogeymen ushered her to continue.
“For clues from that night,” she marks an X. “So we were standing here…” She pointed to the line she drew. “And he was standing here with her,” she stabs the stick into the dirt in the center of her X. Which means he would’ve had to run there,” she turns around to the warehouse standing behind her. It was bigger than the others casting a tall shadow on the land.
“Look at this, guys,” Ringmaster swipes his hand along the door. It seems like it was kicked or pulled or something was used to damage it, but most of all it’s covered in black smog, the same smog used in the dust he threw at them.
“Oh gosh, this better not be a trap,” Boogeymen follows the others as they enter the abandoned building. The space was completely empty, graphite covering some of the blank metal walls. The ground was dirt, nothing too interesting. Ringmaster kicked a small pebble watching it roll a few feet ahead of him. It landed in a pile of dirt that drew in his attention. It was slightly tinted red, and formed two lines that intercrossed in the center of one another.
“Oh- so there’s nothing here,” Boogeymen threw his arms out with a sigh.
“No, there’s something,” Eclipse said very assuredly, she eyed the darkened corners of the room. Everything was lit from reflected sunlight, but she could swear she saw something move to the right. After a second of she shook her head, her eyes just playing with her.
“Eclipse is right, there is something here,” Ringmaster ushered them his way. He used his crutch to drag along the red stained dirt drawing out the X.
“But why would someone put a mark there,” Boogeymen exclaimed. The three of them went to get a closer look stepping on the lines of said X.
They stood there for beat until they heard the cranking of metal falling. Suddenly it got louder and louder and within a few seconds rusted metal bars were falling from the ceiling surrounding the three, now trapped, villains.
“So that’s what that pulley system did…” Boogeyman earned a side eye from both Eclipse and Ringmaster. The dust that shot up from the impact cleared, their masks filtering out the dust in the air so they could breathe perfectly fine. They expected to see the one who pulled the lever but no one was revealed. It was just three villains trapped in a cage, now alone in an empty rusted warehouse.
“Gosh I hope the floor doesn’t open up into a trap next,” Ringmaster said sarcastically.
And now the dirt beneath their feet starts spilling inwards, the side sloping lower and lower until it snaps open and the three fall into a hole with a scream.
“Well…” Boogeyman landed straight on his ass. Eclipse laid flat on her stomach and Ringmaster was knocked onto his back.
“No. Both of you are banned from talking, this point going forward,” Eclipse takes a handful of fallen dirt and throws it at Boogeyman to shut him up. Eclipse turned back to Boogeyman as he made a throat clearing sound, “I told you to shush,”
“I didn’t make a sound,” he put his hands up in defense.
“I did,” a familiar, deep voice responded. The bamboozlers turned to see a barred door locking them in this small stone walled room. There was nothing signifying it was a prison but it sure did feel like a secret torture dungeon of sorts. Especially with the pit trap above.
“It’s nice to see you three again. I know our last meeting was haste, but I had bigger priorities to commence,” he stood up to the door, his face hidden, only the outline was a visible shadow staring at them through the bars.
“Oh yeah, like kidnapping a hero,” Eclipse mocked as if it offended her.
“Well yes, I had to get bait somehow. How else would I get the heroes to follow my plan.” His cold tone of voice was very unnerving.
“You mean blackmail?” Boogeyman tweaked.
“Are you giving me sarcasm?” He entered the cell, traveling through the metal like it was nothing, standing over the invisibility one sending shivers down the villains spine.
“Oh- uh no I was just, stating a fact,” he coward back.
“Back away from him!” Eclipse pushed the shadow down. He stammered backwards at the attack not expecting her to be able to touch him. “I have shadow powers too,” she huffed, taking a battle stance. He did make a slight oversight on that note. It wasn’t like she’d win this fight anyway.
He took one of his hands, held it up, then twisted his fingers until they made a fist. A dark molecules hand arose from the ground swinging at Eclipse and shoving her into the wall not too far behind. She fell to the ground, cracks and crumbles of stone from her impact following her as she was practically unconscious.
“Okay… we are not fighting him Boogeyman,” Ringmaster took the other and backed them away, he did not want to be downed like Eclipse. And with this shadow guy standing between them Ringmaster couldn’t get to her safely anyway.
“Smart choice, should’ve told her that earlier,” he smirked. “Now follow,” by summoning another hand from the ground to pick up Eclipse, he unlatched the door and walked the three further down into this dungeon.
“This place was made by the hero agency back in the 90s before the rail yard was abandoned.” he led them down a spiral staircase. “We suspect it was used to hold rogue heroes, but the documentation was burned before anything was confirmed.” They entered a dimly lit hallway, gas powered torches lining the walls. It really was a dungeon.
Ringmaster kept his hand tightly in Boogeymans as they continued. He didn’t have his cane anymore, lost somewhere in the fall. But from the tightness of the grasp, imbalance wasn’t his reason. Not like Boogeyman was complaining, he was equally scared from the sheer unpredictableness this guy had.
“It sits abandoned with no traces left, not even the emblem of the agency,” he runs his hand over a circular hole cut out of the wall. “They really didn’t want anyone to know what happened down here,” he had a slight chuckle at that one. “Silly silly agency,” then he stopped.
Ringmaster and Boogeyman peaked into the cell he stopped in front of. Sat balled up in the corner, back turned to them, was a dirtied green suit with tossed red hair falling out of what could barely be described as a braid. Slayer… she flinched slightly chains smacking against each other at the small motion, the cuffs wrapped around her wrists and confined her to the small block. To her left was a tray holding an empty plate and glass.
Scar didn’t know what came over him seeing her so… vulnerable. It sent a sharp pain to his chest. The feeling of desperation he felt to get him back just over a year ago. How did they end up back at the start of it all?
“Hurry up now, we shouldn’t linger for long,” he spoke using his shadow ability to push them along. Slayer must’ve realized there was more than one standing upon her cell, cause at those words she spun around the chains reacting with her movements. The glitch of her eyes caught Ringmaster and Boogeyman’s. Then she sunk back into herself as they left.
Continuing down the dungeon the halls started to become lighter, natural light flooding in from a tiny window.
“In ya go,” the two conscious villains entered before the third was tossed towards them, Boogeyman catching her. “This one's a special cell, it stops your powers from working,” you could hear his smile as he slammed the metal door shut.
“Well at least we get natural light,” Boogeyman joked, he held Eclipse in his arms, placing her down on the stone slab. That was probably meant to be a bed of sorts but anything was more comfortable than the floor.
“Grian isn’t gonna like this one,” Ringmaster sighed and took the spot next to them.
“We’re stuck in a cell now aren’t we,” Eclipse lifted her head up a tiny bit so she could see her teammates, they nodded in response. “Ugh!” she sat up groaning. “It’s not like I could use my powers anyway, he drained them,” she pulled the sleeve of her shirt up, vines of darkness crept along her veins.
“Oh my gosh, Eclipse, that doesn't look good!” Boogeyman acted in concern, taking her arm to get a better look.
“It’s not good but it’s not gonna kill me,” she ripped her arm out of his grasp. “This is what happens when I can’t use my powers. For different people it shows up differently, for me my veins turn black,”
“So him sticking you in that shadow hand thing sucked out all your powers and now you’re useless?!” Boogeyman was being very dramatic about this.
“No… I just need to wait for them to come back,” his screaming was not helping the pounding in her head.
“Boogeyman we talked about this, there can be side effects to lack of power use,” Ringmaster acted as if the other was paying any attention to that conversation.
“But this was in the span of a few minutes, that’s prolonged time of usage,” ok maybe he was paying attention…
“He stole my powers,” Eclipse said again, “but in a few hours I’ll regenerate them back,” she added on as if she was talking to a kindergartener.
“Ohhhhh,” Boogeyman finally understood. “So you are useless,”
“We’re all useless stuck in a jail cell where all of our powers are blocked, Jimmy,” Ringmaster concluded.
“Right…” the three of them stared out into the blank stone wall across from them.
“Speaking of useless, pretty sure I have a concussion,” Eclipse rested her head on Ringmaster's shoulder.
“Oh we are aware,” he brought his arm around her.
Hours passed through the night. They watched as the light faded away. Boogeyman paced around the room kicking a tiny pebble he found like he was a pro football (soccer) player. Eclipse was well asleep laying against Ringmaster, who was going in and out of consciousness.
There was shuffling by the door and a loud crash on a tray hitting the ground followed by two more. Ringmaster startled from his sleepy daze, Eclipse didn’t. Boogeyman stopped kicking his makeshift ball as he watched a trap door against the wall flip open and three trays of food pile in.
“Well at least they aren’t starving us,” Boogeyman picked up a glass of water from one of them.
“Wait Boogeyman, you can’t even drink that remember,” he pointed to the mask still attached to their faces.
“Oh right…” he pushed a button on each side of his mask and waited as it hissed the release and dislodged from his chin. He took one big breath of air relishing in his free face. Then coward back pulling the collar of her shirt over his nose. “Nevermind it stinks, holy hella,” he quickly took a sip of the water then shoved his mask back on. “It smells like a public bathroom in here,” he scrunched up his covered nose.
“Probably because we’re located next to the sewers,” Ringmaster pointed out the tiny window that was giving them light before.
“That leads to the sewers?” Boogeyman pulled himself up to look out the window. And sure enough there was a tub that went beyond his vision and a small stream of water trickling down. “Oh it does.” he backed away from the window not wanting to stare at humans waste for much longer.
He went back to kicking his pebble crossing one foot over the other as he flipped the pebble over her heel. It bounced off his shoe and out the small batted off rectangle. Boogeyman and Ringmaster watched as it fled captivity leaving them to rot.
“Well… that’s what you get,” Ringmaster tried to not laugh as Boogeyman fell to his knees in agony over a rock.
“It was sentimental to me,” he whined as cartoon tears ran down his face. He wasn’t actually crying, it's just a matter of dramatics.
“Sentimental?” Ringmaster was shocked he bonded so quickly considering it took him and Tango a solid couple months to even consider one another for romance, and yet it took him less than 8 hours for a rock.
Boogeyman was about to rebut but Ringmaster shushed him.
“Did you hear that,” He snapped his fingers at the other. Boogeyman looked confused, quivering an eyebrow, his mood changing instantly. “Someone’s out there?” Ringmaster quietly placed Eclipse against the stone so she wouldn’t fall over as he crept up to their tiny window.
As the pebble flew or the limitation of freedom its bouncing wasn’t over yet. It was tossed over stone and hit a warmer, softer, almost fleshy surface before it hit the cold, gross, stone ground. A little thunk as it splashed through the stream of water.
“Ow- what the?” A quiet voice whipped around, rubbing the bruise on their head. “Where the hell did that spawn from,” they pointed the flashlight around looking for a bat or a crack that could’ve dropped something on their head. What they found was worse.
“Oh my gosh?! Ringmaster? Boogeyman?!” The flashlight blinded them as it captured the image of their two heads peering through a small barred uneven square. “H-how did you guys get in there?” Pearl swooped down her hood. If it weren’t for her familiar accent, they wouldn’t have recognized her. With the mask over her face and seeing her wearing a color other than red draped around her head. They would’ve assumed it was any random person. Her hoody wasn’t quite black, it had a slight blue tint to it, but it was also hard to tell with a bright bulb being pointed in your face.
“Hi yes, it’s us,” Ringmaster replied so that she’d stop pointing the light at her.
“What are you doing in there?” She removed the light so they could talk normally.
“I would ask you the same but we’re in more of a predicament right now and could really use your help.” Out of all the people that could possibly come and save the bamboozlers, Pearl Moon was one of the last they could possibly have hoped for. But Ringmaster wasn’t gonna test their luck.
“You want me to help you?” She queried, that’s a sentence she didn’t expect to hear.
“Yes, yes we really do,” Boogeyman wrapped his hands around the bars acting as if he could pull them apart, showing how desperate they really were.
“Why.” She crossed her arms with a hmph.
“Because we asked?” They were literally behind bars, why is she acting like this isn’t a serious situation.
“But I have no reason to help you, for all I know this could be a trap,” Pearl had a good point… they haven’t necessarily had a good relationship. And being in a place with multiple cells isn’t a very good look.
“Ok so long story short we ran into the evil guy who is probably the one who blew up our base. He trapped us in a cage then dropped us into a pit. Then revealed how powerful he truly was so we were practically defenseless. Then he dragged us and put us in here and we’ve been trapped here for… what time is it?” Boogeyman paused his story.
“Past midnight,” Pearl checked her phone.
“…8 whole hours!” Boogeyman exaggerated.
“Wow,” Pearl rolled her eyes unamused by his story telling skills. “You still haven’t given me a reason to help you,” she continued her valid attitude.
“We know where Gem is.” Ringmaster said. Pearl's whole demeanor shifted, her posture getting more tense.
“What…” she exhaled.