Chapter Text
When Howard came to, first thing he noticed was that his head hurt. A lot.
It felt like someone stuck an iron poker right through his temple and out the other side and left it in there for days, watching him writhe around in pain and bleed out. Of course, that wasn’t the case, he just had a crazy headache. Probably from when he got hit in the head and knocked out cold. That would be the most reasonable answer.
Second thing he noticed, as he tried to reach his hand up to make sure that said poker was indeed not in his head, was that he couldn’t. Maybe he forgot how to move his hands? Maybe a poker was stabbed through his head and severed his brain waves to his muscles to tell them to move. He tried again, same result. His hands didn’t want to move it seemed.
He knew he’d need to find out why, but his eyelids felt like that were made of lead, so that was the third thing he noticed.
He really didn’t want to open his eyes. That mixed in with his headache just seemed like too much to deal with so he decided to let out a frustrated groan instead, which only made things worse because as soon as he did he felt like a fishhook was sliding up his windpipe, ripping open the flesh on he inside with every vibration from his throat.
Why did everything hurt? Howard didn’t get drunk often, that was mostly Vince’s thing, and he doesn’t recall ever going out to get wasted the night before which would explain the block in his memory. Opting right now to not open his eyes or make a sound in fear he’d just cause himself more pain, he tried his best to recall the events that lead to him being in this position.
His brain was all foggy, his memory like puzzle pieces he had to try to sort through, but he was able to start to see some clear images the more he focused and ignored the throbbing in his head. None of the images told a complete story yet, so he’d have to organize it himself.
A ring. A jungle. Vince. Robes.
Gosh, his brain was moving so slow today. Did he accidently take one of Naboo’s forbidden hash brownies? That would explain what these images meant that his brain was showing him that he couldn’t figure out the meaning of yet.
Suddenly, as if waking up from a dream, the ring seemed familiar.
Yes, he remembered that.
-
Vince had found it stuffed into the cushions of the couch after he was looking for a bobby pin for his hair. It was covered in filth and fluff and dust and looked like it had fallen through the cracks and forgotten for quite some time.
Vince had commented on the disaster of the mixing gems – one bright purple and the other bright orange, surrounded by small gold engravings on the edges. A clash of the color spectrum, he’d said. You should never mix Orange and Purple. No wonder someone forgot about it. He commented, holding it up closer to his face to get a better look at it.
Vince huffed, tossing the ring down onto the cushion as he continued rummaging for a bobby pin, the ring forgotten once more. Howard, who’d been in the kitchen making himself a cup of tea, walked over now with a mug in his hand and saw the ring laying against the cushion, glistening up at him.
Something about it looked familiar, like he’d seen it before but couldn’t remember where. Placing the mug on the coffee table, he picked it up, observing it and trying to translate the etchings on the gold. “What’s this?”
Vince, who had apparently found the bobby pin he was looking for now, stood upright and placed it immediately in his hair after blowing off the remaining dust it had gathered, before looking back at the ring Howard was holding. “I dunno, some junk. Naboo’s got like 50 rings, probably one of his.”
“I think I’ve seen this before.” Howard turned it in his fingers, observing it from every angle. “Haven’t you?” He held it closer to Vince now, letting him have a better look at it.
Vince leant closer, narrowing his eyes as if it would help him study it better, before shrugging. “If it’s one of Naboo’s we’ve probably seen him wear it.”
“Yeah, maybe..” But Howard wasn’t convinced. He racked his brain trying to figure it out. He was a man of action after all, and once he had a mystery on his hands, he had to find the answer.
-
The more the story played out in Howard’s head, he felt a pit start to form in his stomach. Why was he so nosy? If he’d just left the ring alone and forgotten about it, maybe he wouldn’t feel like he’d been hit by a truck and backed up on.
-
“I think Naboo has talked about this. Remember, the other week? He barged into our room claiming we’d messed with his things again. He thought we stole this ‘Shaman Ring’.”
Vince thought about it for a moment, then nodded in agreement. “Oh yeah. But we hadn’t.”
“Yeah, clearly he’d just dropped it into the couch.”
“So, it’s magic, you think?” Vince seemed interested now, his face lighting up with excitement at the possibility of finding something mystical.
“Maybe.”
“What do you think it does? Let’s find out!” He reached forward eagerly to grab the ring, but Howard was faster and managed to move it out of his grasp.
“Woah there, little man. I don’t think so. Remember last time we found one of Naboo’s special jewelry? We ended up on an alien planet and you made me dress in a loin cloth and chains, before we were left for dead buried in sand. Forgive me if I don’t want to relive that.”
Vince rolled his eyes in frustration. “I’ve already apologized for that, aint i?” Howard didn’t answer, just stared at him with a blank expression. “Fine. Why don’t you use it then, and if we land on an alien planet I’ll let you be the chosen one this time.”
“And what about that time we messed with Naboo’s spell book and summoned Nanageddon?”
“Alright, alright. Point made.” Vince huffed in annoyance, placing his hands on his hips and chewing onto his bottom lip. “What we gonna do with it then? Give it back to Naboo?”
“You kidding? If we hand it over to him he’s going to assume we did steal it and probably lace our food with chili powder for a week again.”
“We could just put it back in the couch?”
That seemed like the best option, really. No harm in that, and when Naboo eventually stumbles upon it he’ll realize he lost it all along and never bring it up with Vince and Howard again.
“Alright, let’s do that and forget all about it. I don’t want an angry shaman to deal with again.” Howard nodded at the decision for finality, but before he placed it back in between the soft cushions to be lost and forgotten about all over again, his organized brain picked up on how dusty it was, and therefore needed to be cleaned at least. He brought the gold ring to his chest and rubbed it against the soft fabric of his shirt to remove any dirt and specks it carried. It was the least he could before he discarded It away.
“Come on, Howard.” Vince stated, starting to sound annoyed at his friend and reached forward to grab a hold of Howard’s shirt sleeve, more than likely to tug at it to get the older mans attention, but Howard never found out, because suddenly everything in the loungeroom started to spin, flashes of the couch, the kitchen, the stairs all buzzing by in a whirlwind like they were caught in the tornado to Oz.
They barely had enough time to let a small yelp escape their lips before they found themselves planted back down to earth, only this time not in the living room.
“What the-“ Howard breathed out startled, looking around at their new location. They were in a jungle of some sort. The only thing within Howard’s line of vision was trees and bushes for miles. He looked to his side and found Vince had come with him too, his hand still gripping onto Howard’s shirt with his eyes wide in confusion. “What did you do?” He asked accusingly.
“Me? You’re the one who decided to give a Shaman Ring a massage! What did you think would happen, you tit!”
Howard felt his defenses start to rise at the insinuation that he was responsible for this current predicament because that wasn’t the case with their adventures. It was usually always Vince who was the curious one and dragging Howard along with him. He opened his mouth to retort back, but never got any words out before they both heard a loud voice shouting behind them.
“You there! Don’t move!”
They both whipped around to find the face of the mystery voice, Vince finally letting go of Howard’s shirt that for some reason he had still been clinging onto, and were greeted by not one, but three robed figures approaching them rather quickly.
Howard took in their appearance. Their faces were covered by the hoods on their robes, and the robes themselves were long enough to cover any bodily features, so it was hard to tell if they were human or some other being. As they got closer, Howard held his hands up in a peaceful manner to show he meant no harm.
“Hey, hello there! My name is Howard Moon, perhaps you’ve heard of me?” Silence. Howard swallowed awkwardly, glancing down at Vince who met his eyes with small pleading ones, silently begging Howard to deal with this and who was he to say no to a man who had so much faith in him. He looked back up at the figures. “Sorry to intrude on your lovely.. forest.. but we were just passing through. No harm done, we’ll be leaving now, thank you, sirs.” Howard nodded once at the three beings in an authoritative manner, hoping that was enough to conclude the encounter and get home. He wasn’t sure how they would be getting home, but he’ll figure that part out later.
“You carry the Ring of Jupiter.” One stated simply, none of them flinching or moving a muscle as they stood before the two friends.
Howard realized in his hands he was still carrying the small gold ring, and was able to put the pieces together quite quickly that this was the reason they had arrived in this weird forest to begin with, so it could probably get them back home.
“How do you carry the Ring of Jupiter?” Another spoke up now, at least, Howard thought it was a different one, they all actually sounded and looked exactly the same.
“What? This old junk? It’s our friends, Naboo.” Vince spoke up now, and Howard wasn’t sure if that was for the best or not. Usually Vince could sweet talk his way out of anything to anyone, he even once got The Hitcher to buy a bloody toy car for christ sake, maybe he could do the same here?
“Naboo?” One of the hooded figures asked curiously.
“Yeah, Naboo. Small, lisp, looks like a toddler. You know him?”
The three beings remained silent, which Howard took as a no, and decided to step in once more.
“Anyway, he’s probably missing it now, so we better get it back to him, see ya!” Howard reached out and gripped Vince’s wrist with his hand and brought the other one holding the ring back to his chest to rub on his shirt once more, hoping the same scenario would happen and the two of them would buzz out of there quickly.
After a few rubs, Howard noticed that wasn’t the case. They weren’t going anyway. Nothing was changing. They were still in the jungle, and the hooded figures were still standing in front of them menacingly. He tried again, this time a bit rougher and faster, but still nothing.
All of a sudden, a loud echoing laugh erupted from the three beings. “Idiot. The Ring of Jupiter only works once every 24 hours. It seems you are stuck.”
Well, that didn’t sound good.
“Now, hand it over.” The figure at the front took a menacing step forward, holding out his palm, and Howard mentally commented on the fact it looked ridiculously human. Where exactly were they?
“Excuse me?” He stuttered out.
“The ring. Hand it over.” He repeated, a little more demanding this time.
If he handed the ring over, they wouldn’t be able to get home, so that wasn’t an option. “Ah, actually, I might just hold onto it for now, take care of it until we can get it back to Naboo.”
“I will not ask again.” The being sounded irritated now, and Howard felt the butterflies in his stomach turn into moths at the realization that this could be a rather serious situation they had found themselves in, and for what? A dusty old ring they found in the couch?
“I don’t think the ring would be a good accessory for you guys, actually. With those robes and all. Have you guys thought about belts, maybe? They could really add some style to your look! I could help you out, find you some good ones to match your personalities and styles.” Vince tried sweet talking again, and to his defense, this style of offering to re-do someone’s look hadn’t let them down before, so it was a solid strategy on the young mans behalf.
Unfortunately, the hooded figures didn’t agree.
As quickly as a gust of wind, the other two had appeared before Howard and Vince, revealing long wooden sticks of some sort they had been hiding within their robes. They apparently didn’t like Vince’s response and Howard’s delay to hand the ring over, and before Howard was even able to let out a startled cry, they raised the wooden sticks into the air and brought them crashing down right into Howard’s temple.
He blacked out after that.
-
As the memory of his predicament came flooding back to him, Howard felt a sudden rush of adrenaline from the panic that arose in his chest. His eyes shot open, no longer feeling like heavy weights and let out a loud gasp of air, taking in deep breathes like he’d been stuck under water the whole time.
This was serious.
Glancing around at the surroundings, he noted he wasn’t in the jungle or back home, but in a large stoned room, damp and wet with the smell of musk and mold in the air. He could feel his chest tightening and he needed to feel grounded, so he tried moving his hands once more. Same as before, they didn’t budge.
Looking down at his body, he found he was sitting upright, leaning back against one of the stone walls of the room, and as he followed the trail of his arms down to where his hands met his wrists he discovered they were pulled tightly behind his back, bound by what appeared to be rope, and a lot of it. Judging by the red and purple color his hands had turned from lack of circulation, he assumed they been tightly wrapped together for quite some time now, which didn’t help his panic at all.
He was breathing quite loudly now, his gaze continuing down his body to where his feet lay, knees bent to his side from the awkward position he’d been laying in and discovered his ankles were also bound by the same rope. He was stuck.
“What the- Oh god.” He panicked, stuttering out any words he could form. He looked back up at the room, hoping to find something, anything that he could use to help him out of this nightmare, but the room was completely bare.
Not even a table or a bed or a chair. Just Howard, all alone.
Alone.
Oh god, Vince!
“Vince!” Howard shouted suddenly, thinking maybe he’d just missed his flamboyant friend in his panic search and he was actually sitting right beside him, but all he heard in response was his own voice echoing off the walls. “Vince!” He tried again, a little louder this time as he started wriggling around in his bonds, thinking maybe he could get the knot loose if he tried hard enough.
He carried on with his writhing and shouting for what seemed like an eternity, every time only being greeted back by his own panicking voice, until finally he heard a small click at the door on the opposite end of the room.
For a small fleeting moment he felt hope. Hope that maybe Vince would walk in unharmed, that big goofy smile on his face and explain that he was able to talk to the beings and now they’re good to go back home. Or maybe it was Naboo and he’d followed them here through his shaman ways and was here to break them out.
Neither walked through the door though. Instead, he got one of those hooded figures who simply strode into the room, leaving the door open behind him, and walked up to Howard, stopping a few feet away from the man.
“Where’s Vince?” Howard spat out, some sort of courage he didn’t know he possessed overtaking his usually frightened brain that would be begging to not be killed right about now.
He didn’t get an answer straight away. Instead, very slowly the being raised his arms, his very human like hands gripping the sides of his hood and lowering it down, revealing his also very human like face to Howard for the first time. He had a strong square jawline and dark spiky hair, but the most unnerving feature was the large scar that covered almost half his face, starting from his eyebrow down his nose and across his lips. Wherever he had gotten that scar, it looked painful.
“Your pretty friend is with us.” His face showed no emotion, and his words were delivered with zero care or attitude. Almost like it was an annoyance to be talking with Howard to begin with.
Howard narrowed his eyes, glaring back at scar face. “What do you want?”
“Tell us how you had the Ring of Jupiter.”
“What- is that it? We found it! We told you, it’s our friends!” Howard shouted, starting to writhe around on the floor once more to try to escape or at least get an arm free.
“The Ring of Jupiter has been missing for many centuries. It belongs to the great and powerful Jupiter Knight. Our leader. You had stolen it from us.”
Howard was getting pretty sick and tired of people accusing him of stealing this bloody ring.
“We didn’t steal anything from you. I don’t even know who this Jupiter Knight is! You want to find out how we got it? Ask Naboo!”
Scar face remained un-emotive, staring blankly down at Howard as he wriggled and tossed on the ground, with no prevail or even managing to budge the ropes holding him even slightly.
“Do not lie to us, human. We know the capabilities you humans carry. You are easy to destroy. Easy to break. Don’t tempt us.”
That caused Howard to stop moving for a moment, his eyes widening. Okay, so they weren’t humans then. Maybe aliens? Were they on another planet? The sudden images of Vince came back to him, recalling scar face telling him that they had Vince too.
“Where’s Vince?” He repeated, hearing his own voice sounding more afraid than he wanted.
“As I said, we know how you humans work. We’ve done this several times before.” Scar face moved now, bringing up his hand to hold in the air in a fist, and for a moment Howard thought that he was about to be hit in the head again and closed his eyes tightly, opting to not look at the oncoming strike as he braced himself for the impact.
But nothing came. Instead, he heard some scuffling and the sounds of feet on the concrete floor just outside the door.
Peaking his eyes open, he noticed two more human looking beings walk in, although he now assumed they were in fact not humans, also with their robes still on but their hoods lowered, but it wasn’t the sight of them that had Howard shouting in fear.
It was the sight of Vince being dragged in with them, both his arms also securely tightened behind his back, his feet dragging behind him against the concrete due to his ankles being bound too. They each had a strong grip on the younger mans armpit to keep him upright, and that image in itself would be enough to send Howard into a frenzy. But it was that, mixed in with the fact Vince had a large gash on his forehead and dark, dried blood smearing all the way down the side of his face, mixing in with his hair and dripping down onto his cream colored shirt he was wearing.
There were smears of blood and dirt all over his face and his hair was soaked and sticking to his skin from sweat. Despite all of that though, Vince’s eyes still held onto their stubbornness and defiance. He was thrashing about in their grip, trying to break free and shouting obscenities at anyone who’d listen.
“Listen here you fucks, I swear you better let us go right now or you’re going to feel a fire storm of shit! Our friends won’t mess around, trust me!” He was yelling, swinging his head from side to side to shout at the two that were holding him up as well as Scar face who had turned his attention to look at Vince as well.
“Vince!” Howard screamed desperately, just trying to get the attention of his friend for even a second. It did work. Vince stopped yelling and glanced at Howard with big wide eyes, scanning him from top to bottom for any injuries and to take in his predicament as well. “Vince, are you okay?!”
“I’ll be okay once these fuckheads stop getting their grimy fingers all over my clothes! This was a brand new shirt, you know?! You fuckers better pay for another one!” It was almost soothing to hear Vince rant about his clothes, it meant they hadn’t completely damaged him just yet. But Howard knew it would be short lived if they didn’t find a way out of here and fast.
Scar face glanced back at Howard now, taking a few big steps until he was crouching down in front of his face, his eyes still empty of all emotions. He reached forward, roughly grabbing at Howard’s jaw, pinching his cheeks in tightly and uncomfortably as he forced Howard to meet his eyes. “One last time, human. How did you have the Ring of Jupiter?”
Howard tried moving his face away, but the grip was so tight he could already feel the bruises forming, his teeth grinding together roughly. He could make out the sounds of Vince yelling again, something about getting away from his friend and then some more obscenities, but Howard was a little preoccupied right now to make it all out. Flaring his nostrils in defiance and irritation, he tried the truth again.
“I’m telling you – We. Found. It.” Maybe if he just repeated it enough they would believe him, because surely no person was foolish enough to risk themselves for this stupid ring like these things clearly thought Howard was doing.
Scar face, for the first time this entire encounter, pursed his lips and let out a small sigh of disappointment, finally showing that yes, he did feel emotions and wasn’t a robot. “Very well.” And with that, he turned Howard’s head to face Vince and the two others holding him in place, and Howard really didn’t like where this was going now.
The two beings released their grip on Vince, watching him fall to the ground with a thud and nothing to break his fall. He groaned as he landed front first on the concrete ground, thankfully being able to move his face to the side just in time to stop his nose from breaking on impact. The being on Vince’s left kicked his foot into Vince’s shoulder roughly, causing him to roll over onto his back, which surely was putting a lot of pressure on his bound wrists and hands underneath him, leaving Vince laying face up and defenseless.
“Wait, no, wait!” Howard started shouting, seeing both of them pull out those long wooden sticks once more and knowing exactly what was about to happen. With no hesitation, they both raised the sticks up high before bringing them crashing down onto Vince, wherever they could land. Howard could hear the loud thuds as they connected with Vince’s ribs, stomach, shoulder, legs.
Vince was crying out now, shouting and sobbing and begging, writhing around to try to block to the blows but they kept raining down one after another. They seemed to be careful in avoiding his face, only targeting his body and limbs, even though his face would’ve been an easy target right now, but Howard chose to assume that was a small blessing and not something more.
The sound of his own screaming and begging was mixing in with Vince’s to a point he didn’t even know who was shouting what anymore.
“Stop it! Please! Leave him alone!”
“Howard!”
“Vince!”
“Please, stop!”
Finally, after what seemed like hours of beatings, there came the final blow, this one targeted specifically at Vince’s knee and came down with so much force Howard heard a loud echoing crack ricochet off the walls.
Vince let out a sound he didn’t even think was possible for a human to make. A large drawn-out wail that carried on for long agonizing seconds, until eventually he must have run out of breathe or voice, and it just turned into heavy breathing and panting mixed with sobs.
Howard’s own voice was course and rough from shouting, he felt the cool air mixing in with his wet cheeks from tears he didn’t even know he was shedding, and he couldn’t tear his eyes away from his friend, despite Scar face holding him in place.
He could hear the sounds of someone talking near him, but his own heartbeat was thumping so loudly in his chest and ears that it was overtaking everything else. He just focusing on the heavy rise and fall of Vince’s chest, his features scrunched up in pain and the horrible dent he now had on his right leg where his kneecap should be.
Scar face must have realized Howard wasn’t paying attention to him as he suddenly jerked Howard head back to lock eyes with him, forcing him to look at him once more, this time with a low glare and a small smirk plastered on his once emotionless face. “Every time you deny us an answer, we’ll break another bone. Force another scream. Drain some more blood.”
Howard felt helpless. Vince’s fate was in his hands, and he didn’t even know the answer to the question they were asking! All he could was pant and look pleadingly back at the man before him.
“We’ll give you some time to think about it.” And with that, he finally released his grip on Howard’s jaw, standing himself back up and walking towards the door. Howard followed him with his eyes, watching as the two others who had carried Vince in leant down and roughly yanked him up, ignoring his small shout of pain and the sob that once again escaped his lips.
Howard studied Vince, taking it all in in fear he might never get another chance to look at him again.
“Vince! Just.. just hang on, alright? I’ll get you, I promise!”
Vince must have been too caught up in his own pain because he didn’t look back at Howard or even acknowledge he had spoken, he just let himself be dragged back out of the room with small whimpers and face showing nothing but pain, and Howard watched all four of them exit, closing and locking the door behind them.
Leaving Howard all alone, all trussed up and nowhere to go.