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For the umpteenth time, Gus found himself rustling around his caretaker’s fridge, looking for something to take his mind off the unfortunate situation the hexsquad found themselves in.
He started pulling out the jelly to make a demon realm classic, a rarity these days, when he spotted a tall black can behind it with three green claw marks on it. The text read ‘ MONSTER ENERGY ’, and Gus remembered Luz saying something about it tasting like electricity. Curious as to what that tasted like, Gus put the jelly back and grabbed the can.
That’s when a devious idea popped in his head.
So he grabbed a pot, opened the can, poured the liquid into the pot, and set the pot on the stove top.
Queue Luz, walking in on this disaster of a scene.
“Hey Gus, I heard you grabbing pots, what’s co…,” she trailed off. “Is that my Monster?”
“Yup!” said Gus with a smile.
“...Is that what’s in the pan?”
“Wow, you’re good at this!”
“Not again!” Luz said, dismay clear in her voice.
“Hey, you enjoyed the last one!” Gus defended. “Figured I’d try my hand at innovation once again.”
“Gus, buddy, you have got to start running these ideas by me before trying them”
Gradually after that, the rest of the Hexsquad filed into the room. First Hunter, then Willow and Amity, and finally Vee. By the time everyone was in the room, Gus determined the unholy abomination bubbling in the pot was done.
“Hey, can someone grab some mugs?” he said, looking at Luz.
“No-ho-ho thank you, I’ll pass,” she said, shaking her head.
“I’ll grab them,” Amity said. Aside from Luz, everyone was much more welcome to the idea of hot beverages since the ‘Hot Dr. Pepper’ incident, so Amity grabbed 5 mugs.
Gus poured a bit of the concoction into each mug, but made sure to leave some, “For when Luz realizes she wants in on this”.
“Your hubris will be your downfall, Gus,” Luz joked.
“No idea what that means. Cheers!” said Gus, raising his glass to the sky.
“Cheers!” echoed the other four, mugs raised high.
Then they all took a swig.
…
And immediately spat it all out.
Coughing and sputtering, Hunter gave Gus the plain truth;
“This is awful!”
“Yeah,” Amity piggybacked, “this tastes like it could kill the Titan.”
“No offense, Gus…,” Willow said, “but they’re right. That one just wasn’t right.”
“No, no,” Gus replied, “you guys are right. This one was pretty bad, even for my standards.”
“Woah, that’s low,” Vee chimed in.
And so down the drain it went. Mildly annoyed at Gus for wasting her Monster, Luz made Gus clean the previously spat out horror-in-liquid-form, which Gus thought was fair.
Everyone else moved out of the room and returned to what they were doing beforehand, leaving Gus and Luz alone in the room.
“Well, Augustabeth, you truly made a drink to kill God, didn’t you?”
“I don’t know who that is, but yeah, I totally did.”
“Maybe leave the hot beverage business to the professionals from now on, yeah?”
“Yeah,” Gus said, “besides, I’ll have plenty of time for entrepreneurship when this is all over.”
“...I’m sure you will Gus, I’m sure you will.”