Chapter Text
The clicking of hooves on the pavement was being drowned out by the murmuring of cyber darkners. Noelle had been running for what felt like hours now, if it wasn't for her friends and that goat boy, her face would've been turned into that of a robot. The idea gave her chills, as did every form of face removal…. Well.. almost every.
Before she knew it, she was already knee deep into Susie-related thoughts. Her huge teeth, her fierce eyes, her tail…
Her daydream bubble was quickly destroyed however, as she bumped into something, or rather.. someone?
She clumsily fell onto her behind, looking up to see the roadblock that was in her path in the first place.
Instead, she locked eyes with what she assumed was another darkner. He looked akin to the shopkeepers that Noelle had seen all over the place, except he lacked any of their vibrant colors besides his bright red cheeks and similarly colored suit. 'He is also quite a bit shorter,' she noted in the back of her mind.
"O-oh I'm sorry! I didn't—" Noelle sputtered out, but she couldn't even finish her sentence before a loud, squeaky voice interrupted her.
"YOU LITTLE SLIME, WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING!"
Hearing his voice, Noelle couldn't help but notice that it sounded vaguely familiar. It was clear that she had never met this man in person, as there were no monsters that looked quite like these shopkeepers in her world (for as far as she knew at least), but there was just something about him that seemed to unlock some childhood memory.
What she hadn't realized however is that her small mistake had caused quite the scene already, as a circle of darkners had surrounded them. They were gossiping amongst themselves, Noelle only being able to slightly make out what they were saying, it sounded like a bunch of baloney to her.
The red-suited man continued; "ARE YOU BLIND?? HM?? DO YOU NOT KNOW WHO I AM??"
His chirpy voice ripped through the tense atmosphere as his face turned bright red. Noelle could feel the panic setting in, the gazes of all of these darkners piercing right through her like sharp icicles.
She couldn't muster up anything more to say, as she felt her frame shake in embarrassment.
She didn't mean to upset him, it was just a mistake, why did everyone have to stare like that? Why couldn't she just have looked forward for a second instead of mindlessly running around?
The worries were filling her head and projected themselves onto her face, giving her a blank yet vaguely anxious stare.
Lucky for her, the darkner took note of her terrified face and calmed himself down. He fixed his tie and slicked back his hair with a stiff motion, almost robotic in nature.
He took a deep breath, his face returning to its usual pale color. "Look kid, watch where you're going next time. This is Cybercity, not the Cyberfields, before you know it you'll be squashed under one of my brand new cars! Don't forget to check out the Cungadero Lite on BigShotAutos! Only $49.999 with taxes included!"
Noelle gave him a puzzled look, did he just try to give her a sales pitch? She wasn't even old enough to own a car yet, let alone buy one. Where would she even get all that money?
An awkward silence ensued as Noelle didn't respond, left with absolutely no words to say as the darkner's expecting smile started cracking at the edges.
The surrounding darkners went back to their usual business, they must've gotten bored of this little scenario and left to tell their friends and colleagues.
Noelle was hoping the man in front of her would leave too so she could get back to Kris, they couldn't have gone that far yet, right? She couldn't even tell how long it had been anymore since she had to flee as to not be caught by Queen
Thinking about what could be happening to Kris was hard while being scanned from head to toe by someone in front of you while you're sitting on the cold pavement.
Oh yeah, she was still sitting down, maybe now was a good time to get up-
"Wait a minute. Hold on. Fuck the presses. You're a lightner, aren't ya??" Noelle was still in the process of standing up as she let out a soft confused hum. "No no, I saw you, I saw you for sure. Queenie has been looking for you everywhere!!"
That was a clear sign for her to dip, but she couldn't move. It felt as if her hooves were frozen to the ground as she straightened out. She was completely screwed, what could she do? Run? Cry? Fight?
In an instant, a small icicle appeared in the palm of Noelle's hand, going with her first instinct and flinging it straight at the darkner. It hit him square in the face, making a jingling sound followed by a small squeak of pain. Being able to gather enough strength, Noelle ran as fast as she could, she had to find the others ASAP!
"arGH YOU LITTLE— GET BACK HERE."
The darkner whipped around and set chase, he wasn't about to be defeated by a bit of ice.
A chase ensued through the city, Noelle clearly having the upper hand with her experience in track running over the years. This would be the only time she's actually glad to be in that club. The darkner on the other hand, had already lost his breath, barely dragging himself behind her. He rubbed his forehead as he winced at the slight ache causes by the bruise on his forehead.
Hoping to shake the man off, Noelle took a sharp turn into an alleyway, even knocking over the occasional trashbin to hopefully make catching up to her even more of a chore. The adrenaline of the chase filled her with a bit of glee, but it wasn't long before it got cut short by a large fence blocking her way, leaving her with no choice but to turn around and face the man head on.
"HhAHEAHA I GOT YOU NOW." The darkner cackled while he blocked the one-way exit, pulling a remote out of his pocket and pressing a comically large red button places in the middle of it.
A cage dropped down onto Noelle, trapping her inside with no clear exit. The bars were made of bright, jittering electricity. The cage was clearly meant for people taller and wider than her however, as the space in between the bars was wide enough for her to squeeze her arm through without being turned into roasted deer.
In a weak attempt at an escape, she tried to grab and yoink the remote out of her captor's hands. He was quick to pull it away, flashing her an almost offended look as he scowled. "HOW STUPID DO YOU THINK I AM?? I AM NOT GIVING AWAY THESE REMOTES LIKE IT'S SOME CHARITY AROUND HERE."
Noelle felt her fear actively be repressed by anger. She was really done with all these wild goose chases through the city, and now she had to deal with another smug henchman of the Queen trying to catch her. Why her? Did they think she was weak? An easy target? She'll show them, she'll show them all that they're wrong, starting with darkner in front of her who was now looking at his phone.
She raised up her hand in the hopes of another icicle appearing and hitting the man in the face again. It was to no avail however, as she unfortunately lacked enough.. what did Kris call them? Tension Points? She must be with them to get any of them.
Wait…
Kris!
I can call for Kris!
With all her might, she yelled out their name, pleading for help. It startled the darkner, making him almost drop him phone, his smug smirk immediately turning into a look of annoyance instead.
"CALL AS MUCH AS YOU WANT KID, BUT THEY WON'T HEAR YOU! And if they do, THEY FIRST HAVE TO GET THROUGH ME! WHICH THEY CAN'T! BECAUSE I HAVE PLENTY OF CAGES LEFT." He let out in a very forced, faux-confident manner. He was visibly sweating, anticipating another hit in the face as he glanced at Noelle's hand, who gently lowered it again.
"Who are you? W-why are you doing this??" Noelle asked, her voice cracking under the pressure.
"Who am I?? WHO AM I?? HAVEN'T YOU SEEN MY FACE EVERYWHERE??" The darkner yelled. Noelle shook her head in response, making him nervously fix his tie and clear his throat. "It's Spamton. Spamton G. Spamton. The Queen's right hand and THE number one rated salesman since 1997. I would say it's a pleasure to meet you if you didn't shoot an icicle into my FACE."
Noelle couldn't help but let a giggle slip out, she couldn't help but find the little squeak amusing. That.. sounded quite sadistic now that she thought about it like that, so she let out a soft 'sorry' while looking down at her hooves.
"SORRY. SORRY. ALWAYS THOSE 'SORRY'S. I HEAR ENOUGH OF THOSE DAILY, KID. A SIMPLE SORRY WON'T GET YOU OUT OF THIS CAGE HAHEHAHAHE ! Oh Queenie will be so proud of me…" He slicked his hair backwards while staring forward with a lovestruck expression, it didn't do much however, as it was completely sealed in place by an absurd amount of styling products, most of which were clearly gel.
Before Noelle could try to argue something back, Spamton pulled out a second remote from his pocket and clicked a comically small blue button. The cage lifted up from the ground, startling Noelle. It floated behind him as he started walking towards the main street.
There wasn't much she could do now, so she took this as her chance to ask the man a question, despite her fear already getting the best of her.. She had a feeling that asking him something could maybe give her a hint to how she could escape, just like the detective movies she used to watch as a kid. She twiddled her thumbs as to not seem all to suspicious and softly asked the first question that came to mind: "Have we.. met before?"
"WHAT?! SORRY KID BUT YOU'RE GONNA HAVE TO SPEAK UP!"
"Does this guy ever stop yelling?" She couldn't help but wonder.
To her annoyance, she raised her voice to be equally as loud. "H-HAVE WE MET BEFORE?!"
Spamton stopped for a second and turned around to face the trapped deer. He took a good gander and scratched his chin.
"Well now that you do mention it, you do look kinda familiar. You a car fanatic?"
The question took Noelle by surprise, she wasn't a big car fan herself but her dad did ask for a miniature car model on his last birthday. After looking on the internet for a bit, she got an advertisement for a website showcasing bright red cars, accented with a bright yellow lightning bolt. Red being her favorite color, she instinctively clicked without any further thinking as to what she was even clicking on. To her dismay, this was an ad for normal sized cars, no miniatured. She ended up (permanently) borrowing one from Jockington instead.
"I clicked a car ad once.." she slipped out.
"Oh! That must've been mine, haha! Gorgeous, aren't they? Spent hours on perfecting that ad. Aren't we just living in a small world.."
Noelle wasn't completely sure why her captor made it sound like he handcrafted that advertisement but this did confirm her suspicion. She did meet this man before, or well, she interacted with his work. She wasn't sure if she should tell him that she downloaded an adblocker only a week after that little misclick.
She didn't know what else to ask so she sat down in a not-so-comfortable position and patiently waited to see where she was being brought to. All her ideas of escaping weren't exactly realistic, especially when her fear of getting electrocuted by the bars kept her from going anywhere near the edge of the cage. She just looked on as Spamton brought her towards the mansion she had been seeing in the corner of her eye during her (now failed) escape attempt.
Oh what can I do… if only Susie was here…