Work Text:
“Tony can be such a jerk sometimes.” Aly stood in front of her house as Mike’s foreign friend meandered around town. She bounced up and down a bit, played with the grass under her feet, but couldn’t help noticing the boarded up well at the edge of town. She had done nothing but talk to Mike and go to school for the past few days, so her curiosity eventually got the best of her. When Mike’s friend was out of sight, she darted towards the well and began to pull off the boards. She looked into darkness and picked up a rock from the ground, dropping it into the well. She waited. No sound at all. Noticing that the sun was about to set, she hoisted herself over the edge and began to climb down the rock wall.
Dev Grove
“Hey Joe, do you hear something?”
“No, nothing unusual. Why, what do you hear?”
“It sounds like, climbing.” Joe and the Droogle Leader both got up from their positions and peeked over the edge of the well, only to see Aly climbing up the well, upside down.
“There’s no way that’s Alana, right?”
“Sure looks like her to me.”
“Well let’s not just stand here, help me pull her up.” The two of them each grabbed one of Aly’s ankles and pulled her into the Grove.
“Woah, there’s an entire village at the bottom of this well! Oh hey, check you out!” Aly said, reaching out to pet the Droogle Leader. “You must be one of those Raposa things Mike used to talk about! Is this that place he kept saying he went after he got out of the hospital?” The Droogle Leader swatted her arm away, and Joe began to speak to her.
“Alright Aly, it’s clear you don’t remember who you are, so I need you to listen to me.” Aly looked at Joe, continuing to pet the Droogle Leader. “You’re a character in a video game, and you were sent into that video game by me, Joe.”
“That’s a good one Joe. But seriously, where are we?” The two inhabitants of the Dev Grove looked at each other, knowing that there was only one way to make Alana remember who she was. Joe sighed and pulled out a sword from the hilt on his belt.
“We’re in the Developer’s Grove,” he said, thrusting the sword through her stomach, causing her to disappear from the Grove, leaving just the human and the Droogle.
The Void
“But you’re in the void Alana. Say hello to some of your old friends!” Joe’s voice boomed in the air as Aly took in her surroundings. There was no visible mark left on her body, and she realized that she hadn’t felt any pain whatsoever. Surrounding her was a red, rocky landscape with flowing lava and a vat of color. In front of her was what seemed to be a collection of floating rocks with bridges connecting them, along with a giant, robotic frog swimming in the distance.
“Oh my god! Alana? Is that you?” Aly heard someone shout. She turned to face the voice and noticed a grey furred fox person running towards her. Behind him was an orange fox with a green hat and a yellow haired fox in a blue dress.
“Woah! Woah! Personal space! Who and what are you people?” The three figures looked at her in confusion, before shaking their heads.
“Sorry, you were in a completely different world for two years, we can’t expect you to remember us perfectly,” the grey figure said, extending his hand. “My name’s Rocko, and I’m the mayor of this village!” Aly took Rocko’s hand and stood up, getting a better look at the landscape around her.
“My name’s Fiora! You probably don’t remember, but I’m the one that gave you that dress.” Aly looked down at her yellow dress. As far as she knew, this was a birthday gift from Mrs. Esow - a yellow dress every year, each with a slightly different design.
“Bark!” Aly looked down to see a small black dog licking her legs.
“This little guy is Sandal! He’s my pet Shadow Dog, but I don’t think you met him before you went into that other world.”
“An’ I’m Lambert! You and I used to get into fights all the time, it was great!” Aly looked at the three of them and smiled.
“This must be where Mike went then! You guys are Raposa, aren’t you? Mike has some dolls of two of you in his room!” Before Rocko could correct her assumptions, a voice boomed from behind her.
“ALANA!!!” Aly turned around to find a horde of people running towards her headed by a black teenager wearing a green shirt. Behind him were a cloud of blue smoke, a black mass that looked like sentient black paint, and what seemed to be a monkey in a scorpion mech, along with a few more Raposa and more of the tiny creatures she saw in the Dev Grove.
“I’m sorry, I don’t think I understand anymore. What’s happening here?” The group of people running towards her stopped, and the smoke cloud moved forward.
“Aly, we heard Joe’s announcement. What are you doing back in the void?”
“Back in the void? Is this not my first time here?” The smoke hesitated to respond and eventually pulled the person coated in black paint aside. As the two of them talked, the teenager came up to Aly.
“Do you really not remember anything from down here?”
“I’m sorry, it doesn’t seem like it. Did I know you too?” The teen took a big sigh and placed his hands on her shoulder.
“C’mon Alana! We were cut from the same draft! You and I were buddies down here before the whole Mayo thing. You’re telling me you don’t remember any of it? At all?” Aly recognized the sorrow in the teenager’s voice, so she tried to be as gentle as possible with her response.
“I’m gonna be honest and say I have no idea what you’re talking about, but I will say that you look kind of familiar.” As she responded, she felt Sandal licking her leg again. “Well, if it isn’t this little fella again!”
“I guess he really likes you,” Fiora said as Rocko and Lambert helped console the teen. “He never acts like this with anyone else.”
“Maybe I have some food on my leg or something? Nolan, can you check it for me?” After speaking his name, Nolan and the Raposa froze, with the smoke and paint beings turning to look at her again.
“Alana, you…you remembered my name! Holy shit, you remembered my name!” As Nolan celebrated, the smoke and paint beings drifted over to Aly.
“You remembered Nolan’s name, but how? What happened to make you remember?” The paint asked.
“Well, I couldn’t remember, then…Sandal licked me.” The three of them looked at Sandal, who was still licking her leg. “Wait, more is coming back to me I think!” She pointed to the smoke. “You’re Willham.” She pointed to the paint. “And you’re Mayo?”
“Close, Alana. This is Shadow Mari.” Willham turned to face his fellow screener. “Maybe you could accelerate the process with a beam?”
“I don’t know. It could corrupt her, and she still needs to get back to the game eventually. It’s nowhere near over, not to mention the fact that she’s a main character.”
“It might be worth the risk. If we could have Alana in the field, then we could make it to the game world if we absolutely had to.”
“And why would we need to do that?”
“Rogue code. GenericChallenge still needs to be brought down here, so Alana could be the perfect plant for the job!” The two screeners turned back to face Aly, telling her to back up. As she planted her feet firmly on the ground, Shadow Mari released a beam of shadow at Aly, engulfing her entire body. Eventually, it dissipated, causing Alana to fall to the ground.
“Oh my god, that was so cold!” Alana began to shiver, causing Nolan to run to her side with a jacket.
“Did it work?” Alana smirked and returned the hug Nolan was giving her.
“Well, if me having memories of a book almost killing me, riding a giant monster, and fighting a war around a bottomless pit means it worked, then yeah, it worked.” The inhabitants of the void began to celebrate Alana’s return while Willham and Shadow Mari pulled her aside to brief her on her new mission.
“You might not see them around anywhere, but when you go back to Belleview, look for a Raposa with a pink and black checkered pattern. They’ve been causing a bunch of chaos with the villagers in both realms. If you see them, come back to the void and let us know so we can wrangle them up.”
“Alright, I’ll see what I can do, but what happens if I lose my memories again?”
“I wouldn’t worry too much about that,” Shadow Mari piped up. “I remember back when I was filming for The Next Chapter, part of the publishing process was wiping memories of the void in the Grove. As long as you sneak past Joe and the Droogle Leader, you should be fine.”
“And how would I do that?”
“You’ve snuck around the void more times than anyone else in our history. If anyone could sneak past them, it’s you.”
“Then a deal’s a deal. I’ll keep up the Aly act until Two Realms is over, and then if I see GenericChallenge, I’ll let you know.”
“Thank you for your help Alana. I’ll be sure to let Flash know what’s happening in case something comes up and we need to pull you out.” Alana nodded and returned to the main group as Willham and Shadow Mari returned to the center of the void.
“So, when’re you heading back to Two Realms?” Nolan asked.
“Right about now actually. Willham and Shadow Mari have me on an espionage mission, so that’s cool. But hey, don’t worry about me! I’m keeping my memories this time for sure.” Alana continued to make formalities with the void inhabitants before clearing a space for herself.
“You gonna use the same mantra as before?”
“I don’t see why not. See y’all after the game!” Alana closed her eyes and began to repeat a message she had been saying countless times recently. “tony can be such a jerk sometimes…Tony can be such a jerk sometimes…Tony can be such a jerk sometimes. Tony can be such a jerk sometimes.” As she spoke, she lifted off the ground and rose into the sky, eventually popping out of the void.
Dev Grove
Alana poked her head out from a bush and noticed that the Droogle Leader was preoccupied with some sort of commotion coming from the forest, while Joe was nowhere in sight. She crawled across the ground, hiding behind ledges and rocks until she made her way to the well in the center of the Grove. As she prepared to jump in, she overheard a conversation happening in the woods and peeked over the well to watch.
“I know of something here that will grant me the power of color. I would like you to take me to the void so I may use it.”
“I’m sorry dude, but first off, how did you get in here, and second off, what is that machine?”
“Perhaps you misunderstood,” a Raposa said, firing a beam of shadow at the Droogle Leader. “Send me to the void, or I’ll make sure no one ever hears from the Droogle race again.” After watching the Raposa attack the Droogle Leader, Alana quickly dove into the well, appearing back in Belleview without harm. She replaced the boards on the well and spoke to herself while walking home.
“Tony can be such a jerk sometimes. I've known Mike for a long time... My parents are going to take me to the water park soon! Just keep repeating those lines and everything will be fine. Look for the rouge code and report back. Don’t worry about that Raposa with the shadow. Everything’s gonna be ok in the long run…right?”