Chapter Text
Their victory over Velvet and Veneer was punctuated by the yacht getting docked. A young woman with baby pink skin and light green and pink hair was waiting there, glaring daggers at Veneer. She stared at him silently as the police led him away, tears falling down both of their faces. With a little more trouble, the group of trolls got out of the vehicle. They had barely settled on the ground before the other Rageon turned to them, wiping her eyes. “Are you all okay? Is anyone hurt?”
They looked between each other hesitantly before she sat on the ground in front of them, raising her hands placatingly. “I’m not going to hurt you, I promise.”
“And why should we trust you?”
Branch glared up at her, defiantly hugging Floyd to his side. She frowned and held her hand to her forehead before making the love sign then pulling her thumb in to switch it to the sign of the horns. “He said you’d know what that means.”
“Who? Nevermind that, we don’t know-”
“Love rock.”
The brothers glanced at Floyd, who hummed. “That was a popular rock troll’s signature move. It’s popular with the rock trolls.”
“Oh, he does listen to a lot of rock music.”
“I say we trust her.”
Branch nearly yelped as Floyd’s legs gave, moving to try and support his full body weight. “A little help?”
“I’ve got you, little bros.”
As Bruce scooped up Floyd, the Rageon offered them her hand to climb on. “My name’s Rose.”
“Oh! My name’s Poppy! We both have flower names!”
The pink troll stepped onto Rose’s hand, grinning as she was lifted to her shoulder. “Branch, I think she’s telling the truth! There's a bunch of handholds on her outfit!”
“I promise you; I just want to help.”
This time, when her hand came down, Branch stepped on, making eye contact. “I don’t trust you, but I trust Poppy.”
Rose nodded at that, continuing to lift the rest of the group to grab onto the numerous handholds on her outfit. “Oh, are we bringing this darling?”
The band of trolls glanced down and spotted Rhonda, John Dory practically glowing with pride. “Yep! Rhonda goes where we go!”
“Rhonda? How precious!”
She carefully scooped up the armadillo-bus and headed for her vehicle. A short drive later, they found themselves in front of another recording studio. “Welcome to my home sweet home! He should be in here waiting.”
“Who’s this ‘he’ that you keep bringing up?”
“That’d be me.”
A troll with dark grey skin and near black markings ran across a shelf to meet them by the door. “Any major injuries besides the obvious?”
“I don’t…think so?”
“Good. Rose, if you will.”
The troll dashed back across the shelf, jumping onto another one as he led the way to another room. Rose followed, careful not to jostle the trolls on her shoulders. The room they found themselves in had a large bed, where one corner had a mound of pillows and blankets while the rest of it was still clean and made nicely. Towards the middle of the bed was a towel, on which the other troll was waiting. “Set them down here. Let me have a look at them.”
Rose helped the group onto the bed and left the room. The troll was on them in seconds, checking them over. “Alright…no head injuries on any of you, that’s good.”
“Really? I’d double check John if I were you.”
“Clay!”
The other troll chuckled, moving the goggles slightly. “Huh, he’s right. You’ve got a cut, right at your hairline.”
“I can take care of it myself. Just gimme a bandaid.”
As he went to pass over a bandaid, Floyd grabbed his arm with a strength that surprised his brothers. Floyd pulled the other’s glove back a bit more, revealing a mark in the shape of a guitar pick on his inner wrist. He looked up at the other, not releasing his hold. “What did you say your name was?”
The other troll chuckled. “I didn’t. But you know who I am, Floyd.”
Floyd grinned, using the hold on the other’s arm to pull him into a hug. “I can’t believe it! I almost didn’t recognize you!”
“Yeah? You’ve barely changed a bit.”
“Wait, wait wait wait, you two know each other?”
The pink haired brother pulled back from the hug, letting John Dory finally get his bandaid. “Yeah! Everyone, this is Hades,” He gestured to the troll he just hugged. “He’s my podmate.”