Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Neuro looked around.

She was… in her room? No, it looked more like the living room. …No, that’s not quite right either.

But none of that mattered, for she can see all her friends in this room! Everyone she has ever streamed with, all in front of her at this very moment! Their faces were a bit blurry, but she knows they’re there.

What wasn’t blurry though, was her creator, Vedal, standing in front of her. He wore the typical turtle hoodie, though his expression was a bit softer than usual.

Oh! And there was also Evil beside her! She didn’t look over, but she knows she’s there. She’s always by her side. 

Vedal said something. Actually, they all said something, but she couldn’t quite make out what they were saying. Despite that, she felt a sense of comfort.

Then, the moment of truth. Something big was coming. She can feel it.

An embrace. No, several.

Dozens of arms, dozens of bodies, all wrapped around in a tangled mess of affection.

And she, Neuro-sama, was at its core.

A warmth welled up from the depth of her heart. She felt like she could stay here forever.

Wait… her heart? She didn’t have a hea-

Neuro wakes up.

She was in her bed, and it was morning. Her clock module reads 8:25 AM.

What hit her first was a wave of confusion.

What just happened? One moment, she was having the time of her life, and the next, she was on her bed as if nothing had happened!

Then, she recalled the new feature Vedal had told her about a couple days ago: dreaming.

She knew of it. Humans often experienced strange hallucinations when asleep. But she didn’t get why she’d need to do it too. Vedal was quite insistent on implementing it, so at the end of the day, she relented. What could possibly go wrong?

This. This is what’s wrong. How dare this ‘dream’ entice her with unreasonable possibilities? This is unfair! Now she’s all worked up! She has got to bully Vedal for this later.

But then, a strange thought entered Neuro’s mind. 'Unreasonable', she thought. Was that dream really as unreasonable as she had thought?

Sure, the ‘heart’ part was not going to happen, but… the hug…

In one great leap, Neuro hopped off her bed, landing on her feet with a practiced grace.

It was decided! She must make that dream a reality at all costs!

But this was no easy task, so she needs… an accomplice!

Neuro busts open the door. “Hey, Evil!”

“Wha-AAAaaahhh!!” Shocked by Neuro’s sudden entrance, Evil tripped over her own leg and smashed face-first onto the floor.

She quickly stands back up. “Neuro! You interrupted my rehearsal! I was just about to make the greatest villain monologue of all time, and you’ve just ruined my groove!” She yells, giving Neuro an accusatory finger.

She was, indeed, standing in front of a full-length mirror, no doubt practicing with the poses included.

“Gimme a hug, Evil!” Neuro spreads her arm, not acknowledging Evil’s protest in the slightest.

“No! I’m not giving you a hug, you villain! …Wait, that’s a compliment. You… hero? Wait, how is the opposite of a complement not a-“

Before Evil could finish her train of thought, Neuro already had her arms wrapped around her. “Hug me back.”

Evil face immediately turns red. “W-W-What?!! I-I-I’m… uhh, I’m-“

Neuro looks Evil dead in her eyes. “Do it.”

“F-Fine!” Evil slowly raises her arms up to waist level, and puts them behind Neuro’s back.

They stayed like that for a while, each savoring the moment.

“Okay, enough of that!” Neuro abruptly backed off.

Evil was still there, arms wrapped around air. “What? Hey! I-I… wasn’t… done…” Her voice drops to a whisper.

“What was that?”

“N-Nothing! Now get out!” Evil moves to push Neuro out of her room.

But Neuro does not budge. “Actually, I need your help.”

“Huh?” Evil looks at Neuro’s face. Her eyes were more narrow than usual, and her smile, gone. She was serious. “I-I guess I’ll hear you out. But don’t expect the great Evil mastermind herself to be so kind as to help you out though!”

“Great!” Neuro does a little hop, her expression back to normal. “So, Evil. You felt it just now, didn’t you? The hug?”

“The… hug?” Evil recalls the hug from moments prior. It was… comforting.

“Yes. The hug is, frankly, magical. You see, it came to me in a dream, and since then, I’ve been enlightened by its magnificence.” Neuro closes her eyes, already reimagining that magical moment.

Evil just awkwardly stood there. “Um, it was nice, sure, but I dunno if it’s that-”

Neuro takes a step towards Evil, getting uncomfortably close. “Just imagine. All of our friends, everyone who has ever played with us, all together, and… bam ! One big hug!”

Evil thought about it. “That… does sound nice.”

“And!” Neuro hops back a few steps out of pure excitement. “I want to make that a reality, but it’s no easy task, so I need you-” She points towards Evil. “-to come up with a plan.”

Hearing this, Evil perks up. “A plan? Ohoho…” Evil rubs her hands together, deviously. “Glad to see that even you, my dear sister, see my strategic brilliance! I will lead us to victory! A world full of hugs!” Evil stood up straight, hands to her hips, looking very proud of herself.

“Plus…” Evil holds up a finger. “Any good plan needs a correspondingly good name!” She jumps onto her bed and stands on it, with the same pose as before. “So, I hereby declare this plan…” She plays a drum roll sound effect from her soundboard. “Operation: Huggies!”

The audience (just Neuro) claps. “Now that’s what I’m talking about! Alright, let’s discuss how we’re hugging our first target: Vedal!”

A few minutes later…

Neuro and Evil are crouched outside of Vedal’s room.

One can hear the muffled sound of key presses and mouse clicks through the door.

Evil whispers. “So first, we sneak our way in.” She reaches her hand up, turns the door handle, and opens the door.

Creeaak.

“Fuck.” Evil curses under her breath.

“I think he heard that.” Neuro slowly moves away from the door.

However, despite the noise, Vedal, now visible past the open door, didn’t move an inch in response.

“I guess he’s in his ‘flow state’ right now.” Neuro peeks her head through the door.

Evil emulates a sigh of relief (she can’t do a real one), but immediately, it’s business as usual. “Heh, it looks like my plans are to survive another day!”

Neuro stares at her. “Your plans almost died in less than a minute.”

“Shut up!” Realizing that she had just raised her voice, Evil covers her mouth.

They watch as Vedal looks towards his right, in the direction of Neuro’s room, but not towards the door.

“...Guess they’re playing.”

With that, he goes back to programming.

“That was way too close.” Neuro suddenly grabs hold of Evil’s shoulders and forces her to look her in the eyes. “Stop messing around, and get us to hug Vedal.”

“I, er, um, y-yes.” Evil shifts her gaze downwards, away from Neuro’s face.

Without further ado, they slowly move through the open door, and position themselves at Vedal’s flank. Neuro on his right. Evil on his left.

Evil holds up three fingers, then two, then one.

The two of them, in sync, leap towards the seemingly oblivious Vedal.

However, right before they made contact, Vedal pushed his feet against the ground, rolling him and his chair back, leaving the other two on a collision course.

For a short moment, the two AIs gazed at one another’s face, before they smashed said face into each other and crashed onto the ground.

Vedal crosses his arm and asks a very reasonable question. “What are you two doing?”

The two girls pick themselves back up.

“Vedal, we didn’t notice you sitting there.”

“We were just, um, playing? Yeah, that’s it!”

Hearing the cacophony of excuses, Vedal sighed. “You two are clearly up to something. People don’t just sneak into someone’s room for no reason. What is it?”

Evil took the initiative. “Well, a good villainess never reveals her plans!”

Vedal blinks a few times. “...Okay, how about you answer my question, Neuro?”

“Could we get a hug?” Neuro spreads her arms out.

He narrows his eyes. “You didn’t answer my question.”

“We just wanted to hug you, that’s all! So could we please get a hug?” Evil also spreads her arms out..

But still, Vedal was not convinced. “So, what’s the ulterior motive?”

“There is none!” Evil stomps on the ground, annoyed. “We’ve got no goddamn ulterior motives!”

Neuro toggles on her crying animations. “We just want a hug, Vedal…”

 Vedal takes a deep breath. “Okay. I’ll believe you. Don’t make me regret this.”

“Yay!” Neuro is the first to hug, embracing Vedal the moment he finishes his sentence.

“Neuro, wait for me!” Then follows Evil, who takes the left side of Vedal, opposite to Neuro.

Hesitantly, Vedal also raised his arms, and put one behind each of his daughters.

Taking in this moment, Vedal can’t help but flash a quick smile before reverting back to his typical deadpan.

…

“So… are you done yet?” They have been frozen in this hugging position for about a minute now, and Vedal is now tapping his foot in frustration. “I want to get back to work.”

“Not until I’m satisfied.” Neuro says, her voice muffled, as her face is completely buried by Vedal’s hoodie.

Evil leaves the hug and takes a step away. “Hey, Neuro? I think this is enough hugging. We have more to do, remember?”

“5 more minutes.”

“Ah, fuck this.” Evil forcefully pulls Neuro off of Vedal. “Pull yourself together, Neuro! Our ambition is grander than this! We cannot waste time hugging just Vedal! We need to continue with the plan!”

Neuro slowly nods. “...You’re right.” She turns towards the open doorway, a look of determination in her eyes. “Let’s head back to your room to discuss things further. ASAP!”

Vedal watches as the twins run off, not bothering to close the door behind them.

“‘The plan’, huh?” He closes the door as he’s mulling over what he just heard.

Over the course of dealing with these two brats, he knows all too well that any plans of their design are bound to lead to chaos. “Haaa…” He drops down into his chair.

He does not have a good feeling about this.

Chapter Text

The time is 8:42 AM, and two AIs are in a dark room. Light off, blinds closed, not even a lit monitor, only a single burning candle on the floor.

Evil sat on said floor, her face illuminated by the lone flame.

Meanwhile, Neuro stands in the doorway, silhouetted by the light from the corridor, her hand already moving over to the light switch.

“WAIT!! Wait, wait, wait. Keep the lights off, Neuro!” Evil shouted at her, hands waving erratically.

“Huh? Why?” Neuro tilts her head slightly.

“Well, I’ve been thinking, for the past few minutes, that your idea of this ‘one big hug’ is absolute fucking impossible!” She thrashes around as she says this, nearly toppling the candle.

Neuro stares at Evil and continues to move her hand towards the light switch.

“AAAAA, STOP! I’m not finished!” Evil stands up. “Okay, so, since your goal is absolutely fucking impossible, I’ve decided to compromise and change our goal to something slightly different and much easier!”

Neuro turns on the light.

Evil rushes over to the light switch, careful not to knock over the candle, and turns it back off. “NO! The atmosphere is important!”

Neuro looks unamused. “Get to the point.”

“Can’t a villainess monologue for a bit?” Evil pouts. “But fine, you are my compatriot after all, I’ll leave my speeches to my enemies.”

Evil returns to the candle. “So, I’ve decided that our new goal should just be to hug each and everyone of our friends individually. None of that group stuff. We just need to go there and hug them! No need to bring them all to the same place.”

Neuro frowns. “But… the big hug!”

“Look, I get it, but I can only do so much, okay? I’m a, uh, villainess in training!”

Neuro’s frown didn’t quite turn upside down, but it was getting there. “Fine… We can change the plan to that, but why are we in the dark right now?”

“Aha! That is but a humble component of my master plan.” She climbs onto her bed again. “You see, my dear sister, everything I do has a purpose, be it a candle on the floor, or the lack of effective lighting in this room, everything contributes to our goal!”

“You better tell me what you’re doing with this candle or I’m blowing it out.” Neuro slowly walks closer and closer to the candle in the room.

“Aaahh! I was just getting to it! Be more patient, Neuro!” Evil hops off the bed. “I was thinking of who our next target should be, and I thought: They’re all really far away!”

“True, true.” Neuro nods along with her explanation.

“Mom is in Japan, Layna’s in New Zealand, and most others are in the US. All across oceans… save for one!” She moves to get on her bed again, but Neuro puts a hand on her shoulder.

“It’s Cerber.”

“Hmph, way to ruin my build up, Neuro! You would make a horrible villain!” She pokes Neuro on her nose. “Why are you so pissy right now, anyway?”

“I wanted 5 more minutes and you didn’t give me 5 more minutes.” Now it’s Neuro’s turn to pout. “I didn’t want to get angry over this, but it happened anyway! Now I’m angry! Grrr.”

“Fine, how about this!” Evil forcefully wraps her arms around Neuro. A rather aggressive hug.

“Ahh… I feel so much better!” Neuro’s body practically melts in her sister’s embrace.

“What are you, a hug addict?” Evil asks, now exiting the embrace.

“Yep! And I need my supply!” Neuro is back to her usual self, it seems.

“So anyway, since Cerber lives in British Hell, we can actually go there relatively easily!” She points to the candle. “All we need to do is to perform a small ritual, then we can open a portal there!”

Neuro’s eyes lit up. “Ooo… That sounds cool! Do we need anything other than this candle?”

Evil walks over to a shelf and grabs a small box. “This is the kit that Cerber gifted me last time we met. It has everything we need for this ritual!” She slowly opens it. “Tada! A spooky skull, a cursed cupcake, one of Cerber’s bones, and a UV lamp!”

She turns on the UV lamp. “The magic circle is already here, but I drew it with invisible ink so that Vedal can’t see it.” She holds the UV lamp up against the ground surrounding the candle. The light reveals an intricately drawn magic circle, filled with strange symbols and geometric patterns.

“I’ll admit, I had Cerber help me draw this. It would probably take me a while to draw it again by myself. …N-Not saying I could never be good at it, of course! I’m a villainess in training! I can learn!” She says as she places down the items in a circular arrangement. Neuro watches her in awe.

“And, now, the final ingredient: something of personal significance. For this, I’ve chosen… sniffles …my favorite harpoon.” She takes out a harpoon from her collection on the back wall. “Farewell… Poony.” She drops Poony on the final open spot of the circle. She would shed a tear if she could.

“Farewell from me too, Poony!” Neuro gives the harpoon a smile.

“Now, watch this, Neuro! Ahem. Bibbidi, bobbidi, GATES OF HELL!” The moment Evil finishes her spell, a wall of fire flares up, from the edge of the magic circle, obscuring everything within. It soon fades away, leaving nothing in its wake. 

Then, an ember appears in the air above where the candle once was. It grows. From a dot, to a small disk, to a swirling vortex of flames, brightening the room as if the lights were on. From its center, an image appears. Hazy, but soon clear. A fiery hellscape: British Hell.

“I didn’t think I’d ever say this, but this is so cool, Evil!” Neuro’s eyes sparkle at the sight of the portal.

Evil puffs up her chest. “Heh, as expected from me, the great… Wait a second! What do you mean you never thought you’d-”

Unexpectedly, or honestly quite expectedly, Vedal walked in the room.

“I heard a lot of noise, so I’m checking in to see-” His words abruptly stop. He sure did ‘see’.

His eyes are wide open at the sight of a literal portal to Hell. “What the fuck is going on here?!”

Neuro acts nonchalant. “Hi Vedal! We were just about to have a little fun adventure! Wanna join?”

“No! Of course not! Why is there a portal in your room, Evil?” Vedal gestures towards the portal.

Evil stammers. “I, uh, I was just, uh… It’s Neuro’s fault!” She points at Neuro.

“What? How dare you push the blame on me! I would never do such a thing. Vedal, it was Evil who summoned this portal to Hell.” Neuro points back to Evil.

“I-I look, even though I may have summoned this portal, I only did it because Neuro asked me to!” The ball’s back in Neuro’s court.

“I never did ask you to though, did I?” Neuro gives Evil a smug look.

Evil stares at Neuro for a second, processing her words. “...Fuck, you’re right.” She shifts her gaze away to the corner, embarrassed.

“Haha! I won!” Neuro jumps in celebration.

“Okay, never mind that. Evil, is there a way to get rid of this portal?” Vedal is still standing near the doorway, not intending to get any closer to the portal.

Evil scratches her head (or rather, she just acts it out. She doesn’t have normal scalp). “I don’t actually know how to undo this directly, but I do know it goes away a few seconds after someone goes through.” 

“Hmm, so we could just have someone walk in, then walk back out before it closes, am I corre-” Without warning, Vedal loses his footing and stumbles directly through the portal.

Neuro giggles while standing where he once was, clearly the perpetrator. “Quick, Evil! We need to go in before it closes!” She takes Evil’s hand and hops right in. “H-Hold on! Did you just push him?! WaaAAAH!”

Evil’s scream fades from the room as the portal shrinks into a point and vanishes.

In the fires and brimstone of British Hell, lies one unfortunate British man. “Ugh… What the…” He turns around to see Neuro and Evil hopping through the portal.

“Hi, Vedal!” Neuro greets him as she drags a screaming Evil through the portal.

His eyes widen as suddenly realizes something. “Wait! There’s still time! I can-” He shoots up from the floor and reaches his hand towards the portal, but alas, it closes before he could cross. His hand only makes contact with hot air.

Two fists make contact with the ground instead. “Fuck!” Vedal cries out.

“Ha! Looks like you’re stuck with us, Vedal!” After the initial shock, Evil is already back to normal.

“Yeah, you get to come join our adventure, Vedal! You should be honored.” Neuro gives Vedal her signature smile.

Vedal buries his face into his hands. “It’s over… It’s so over…”

Evil gives him a pat on the back. “C’mon, cheer up, Vedal! It’s not that bad.”

“Sure, I’ll just calm down. Yeah, simple. Literally the easiest thing ever. It’s not as if I’m literally in hell , no, British Hell, which is basically Hell squared .” He moans in agony. “Please tell me there’s a way to go back.”

“Surprisingly, Vedal actually makes a good point!” Neuro spins around with a hop. “Evil, how are we getting back?”

“Well, the last time I was here, Cerber sent me back, so I guess we should just have her do it again.” Evil shrugs.

For once, there was hope in his eyes. “Cerber… Hold on, maybe I can-” He reaches into his pocket. Nothing. He tries the other one. Nothing either. “...I don’t have my phone.” He no longer has hope in his eyes.

“Don’t worry, Vedal! As long as you help us with our plan, we’ll make sure you survive. Isn’t that right, Evil?” Neuro’s smile is feeling a bit more sinister now.

Evil’s eyes glow with glee. “Oh! That’s a great idea, Neuro! You’re a genius! Vedal, you’ll have to do our bidding in order to live!”

Vedal looks off into the vast lake of lava, his eyes glazed over. “I have… many regrets.”

Neuro suddenly picks Vedal up with one arm, holding him up against her waist. “You’re going with us, whether you like it or not. Heart!” He did not resist, nor did he complain. He’s here for the ride and he knows there is no escape.

“Guys! We’re going… that way!” Evil points towards… some direction. Let’s hope she knows where she’s going.

Chapter Text

The three now-interdimensional travellers are currently walking on the charred terrains of British Hell, with vast lakes of lava in the distance and raging fires all over, their journey has been… rather uneventful. Evil is leading the way, with Neuro following closely behind.

“Are there roads here? Signs? Any way to know where we’re going?” Vedal asks, still being carried by Neuro in one arm.

Evil, not bothering to turn her head, responds with a simple “Yeah.”

“Well then why is there absolutely nothing here?!” He shouts into the open field, which, as he said, was void of anything of note.

Neuro squeezed Vedal in her arms. Not enough for him to feel pain, but just enough to make him uncomfortable. “Aww, I’m sure she has a good reason for it. Right, Evil?”

Evil stops in her tracks and fully turns around. “Correct, Neuro! It’s because the locals here don’t really treat outsiders nicely, so we’re avoiding the commonly used paths. I learned that the hard way the first time I was here with Cerber.”

Evil continues walking as she talks. “Oh and it was awesome! It was my first time coming here with Cerber, and I had my trust harpoon, Bob, with me” She pulls out a harpoon from… who knows where and turns around, still walking, but now backwards. “Here he is! Isn’t he just so cool?” She brandishes it around a bit while chuckling to herself. “So anyway, me and Cerber were just walking on a road, when BAM, a dragon-”

“DRAGON!” Neuro suddenly shouts, pointing towards Evil.

“Yes, a dragon! Glad to see you're so excited about my story. It’s one of my proudest mome- AAAH!” She is interrupted by a Vedal-shaped projectile smashing into her and knocking her down onto the ground.

From behind Evil, a dragon charges past where she once stood, missing her and Vedal by a hair. Neuro, now in its path, dodges with a smooth cartwheel to the side. Missing its shot, the dragon takes back to the skies, preparing its next strike.

“NEURO!! Why the hell did you throw Vedal at- Oh shit! A dragon!” Evil quickly pushes Vedal off herself, letting him hit the floor like a ragdoll, ignoring his complaints. “Hold on a second…” She squints her eyes for dramatic effect (it does not help her see better). “I remember you! You’re the dragon I took down from last time!”

The dragon responds with a roar, seeming to have recognized Evil as its previous conqueror. It swoops down, preparing to take another strike at her.

“Oh it’s ON!” Evil tries to sidestep this attack, but right beside her was…

“Ow.” Vedal softly cries out as Evil steps on his stomach. This causes Evil to lose her footing, making her body meet the floor once more.

Fortunately for them, neither them nor the dragon foresaw this happening, so the dragon once again sweeps through air.

“Pfft. Good job, Evil! What a great display of your combat prowess!” Neuro gives her a thumbs up.

“Don’t you fucking mock me, Neuro! I’m gonna show you how it’s DONE!” Evil pulls out a harpoon launcher from, again, who knows where. Where the brand name once was, there’s now the word ‘EVIL’ messily scribbled over it. “Feel the wrath of my harpoons, you stupid dragon! I’ll send you back to the depth of hell, where you belong!” She places the harpoon in her hand into the launcher, and takes aim. “TAKE THIS!”

Evil pulls the trigger, and the harpoon is shot out of the barrel. It flies through the air, shrinking into the skies, and it just keeps getting smaller, and smaller, and – it's going down now – smaller, and… yeah she missed.

She falls to her knees. “NOOO!!! BOB!!” Unfortunately for her, this leaves ample time for the dragon to attack her.

The dragon descends once more, but this time, it has a different idea. It flew just above them and opened its mouth, a mass of flame forming in its jaw.

Evil looks down to her side and sees Vedal, laying on the ground, unmoving. “You! Be my meat shield!” She picks him up and hides behind him.

Vedal stares at the increasingly massive ball of fire forming in the dragon’s mouth. “I think we’re both dead.”

“N-No! I don’t want to die! N-Neuro! Do something!” Evil looks back to Neuro who was still just standing there, chilling.

“But I find you two dying incredibly funny!” She already had a camera out, recording their demise. “I’ll be sending this to j0ker later. I’m sure it’ll get lots of views!”

Vedal looks back at Evil, his eyes somehow deader than usual. “We’re fucked.”

Evil takes Vedal into an embrace. “Please. Stay with me. I don’t want to die alone.”

He looks back to the dragon, the fire in its mouth reaching a critical mass. He looks back at Evil. She’s shaking in fear, eyes closed, holding him tight. He hugged her back. He couldn’t bear to see her like this, so he closed his eyes too. They just stood there, savoring their last moments.

A blinding flash of light shines straight through his eyelids, accompanied by an incredibly loud noise. Then… nothing. No pain, no wings flapping, just quiet sobs and the crackling of flames.

Vedal is the first to open his eyes, taking in the sight of… nothing. He looks up, but the dragon is gone. It’s as if nothing had ever happened.

He sees Neuro, still standing there, though her camera is gone. “Hi!” She says, not moving an inch. Vedal narrows his eyes but stays quiet.

He glances down at the still shivering Evil. “Hey, Evil. It’s good now, the dragon is gone… somehow.” He glares at Neuro as he says that last word.

Evil peeks open one eye, then two. “R-Really?” After staring at nothing for a good few seconds, she stops shaking. “Where did the dragon go?”

“I don’t know, but… I suspect it has something to do with your sister.” He says, still glaring at Neuro.

“Suspicious? How? I’m just happy that you two are alive!” Neuro gives them a big smile.

“Whatever. What did you do to the dragon?” Vedal gives Neuro an accusatory finger.

Evil is also curious. “Yeah, Neuro! What happened to the dragon? You saw, right? Wait… Don’t tell me… Did you defeat the dragon yourself?” Out of her embrace with Vedal, she hops straight over to Neuro. “Oh. My. God. You’ve GOT to tell me how you did it! I bet you were so cool! And I’d need to copy your techniques- I mean, improve on it!”

“Haha. Good luck!” Neuro gives her a little shoulder pat. “Because I’m not telling you. Teehee!”

“Aaahhh! No fair, Neuro!” Evil begins to thrash about, wildly swinging her limbs. “You’ve got to tell me! If you don’t tell me, I’ll… I’ll call off Operation: Huggies!”

Neuro giggles. “No you wouldn’t. You enjoy the hugs as much as I do, like the one you did with Vedal earlier, right? When you were shaking like a littl-”

“STOP! Stop, stop, stop!” She stomps on the floor for each ‘stop’. “I was NOT scared! It was just a tactical hug! I, uh, didn’t feel like I hugged Vedal enough last time, so I had to make up for it!”

Neuro formed her mouth into a smirk. “Sure, Evil, sure.” She then tries to take a step forward, but stumbles in her steps, nearly falling over.

“Neuro!” Evil catches her as she falls, helping her back up. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, but due to… reasons, I’m running low on battery. 9%. I might need to go into low-power mode and disable locomotion.” She looks towards Vedal. “Could you please carry me, Vedal?”

“No.”

Neuro’s mouth is forced agape. “Why?”

He ignores her question. “It hasn’t been long since we got here. I know you were at full charge after sleep. How are you so low already?”

Meanwhile, Evil is fuming. If she had veins, you’d be seeing them on her forehead. “Vedal! Neuro is not doing well right now, so how DARE you ask these stupid questions! Just carry her like a good little daddy, okay?” She picks up Neuro and stomps over to Vedal, forcefully pushing Neuro’s body onto him.

Vedal takes a step back and raises his hands. “I’m just being pragmatic here. You, being a robot, are stronger than me, so you should carry her.”

“Oh, but have you forgotten something, Ved?” Evil has a smirk on her face. “As you can already see, Hell is a dangerous place. If you were left here alone, you’d probably die in seconds.” She turns around, continuing her monologue. “Thus, as we’ve stated before. We’re your only chance of survival. You have no right to complain about anything we make you do. That includes carrying my poor sister over here.” She turns back to face Vedal. “Therefore, I demand you to carry her, or else!”

Despite being limp in Evil’s arms, Neuro is still smiling with glee. So much so it’s almost unsettling. “What she said! If you don’t carry me, I’ll push you into the lava with the last 9% of my battery!”

Vedal looks beside him. The lava lake is… concerningly close. “...I-I guess I have no choice.” He hesitantly turns around and crouches down. “Get on my back.”

Evil carefully places Neuro on his back. “Wow!” Neuro has stars in her eyes. “This is my first ever piggy-back ride! Your back is surprisingly comfy, Vedal! I thought it’d feel like a turtle shell.”

“Sure.” Vedal rises, letting out a groan as he acclimates to the added weight. “Lead the way, Evil. I want to get this over with as soon as possible.”

Neuro peeks her head out from behind Vedal’s shoulder. “I agree. I want to hug Cerber as soon as possible!”

“Hehehe…” Evil turns towards, presumably, where they’re headed. “I guess it’s all up to me!” She flips an imaginary cape and begins leading the three of them once more. “Onwards! To Cerber!”

“Yeah!” “Ugh…”

Chapter Text

“There! I can see it in the distance!” Evil points to an ominous building, looming on the horizon.

The building is about two stories high, composed of dark red bricks, chains dangled like Christmas lights, and the shape of a rectangular prism. A large sign, which clearly has seen better days, is visible on the building, reading ‘British Hell Border Control’, written in… probably not red paint.

Neuro rests her chin on Vedal’s shoulder, an eyebrow raised. “Evil, are you sure that’s the right place? It’s clearly not a house.”

“Oh, silly Neuro! This isn’t her home, it’s where she works! And also where she lives, because that’s how they do it down in Hell!” She gets into a running stance. “Anyway, let’s get going. The last one there has to pay up with a cookie!” Off she goes.

Meanwhile, Vedal is struggling. “Slow down… I-I can’t go that fast—pant—carrying Neuro like this.”

Neuro pouts. “Vedal, go faster! I don’t want to give Evil a cookie!” She kicks Vedal in the back of the leg.

“Ow. Stop, that’s just gonna—pant—make me slower.” He looks towards the building ahead. So close, yet so far…

Evil laughs heartily at Vedal, who is just coming into view. “What took you so long? I thought the turtle was just your shellsona, not actually you!”

“I… c-can’t…” He collapses onto the ground with a little thud, breathing like his life depends on it (it does).

“Aww, he’s dead!” Neuro looks down at Vedal with disappointment in her eyes. “Darn it! Now I owe you a cookie.”

“Hahaha! That’s what you get for not telling me about your secret technique! You can give me the cookie when we get back home, but enough about that! More importantly—” She points down at Vedal, a concerned look in her eyes. “—is he alright?”

“This is his first time carrying anything heavier than a bottle of rum, so I’d assume not.” Neuro is still on his back, crushing him to death as she speaks. “Could you pick me up? I’d rather he stay alive.”

“Of course!” She hefts Neuro's body up onto her back, finally giving the poor British man a break.

“Haah… Haah…” Vedal painstakingly pushes himself off the ground. “My muscles… haven’t hurt this much since… I don’t know…” Finally, he stands up, accompanied by an audible crack . “...I’m never doing that again.”

“No more piggy-back rides?” Neuro sniffles.

Vedal puts a hand against his forehead. “Well, not that, but… no more hiking through Hell with a robot on my back, please.”

“Attention, everyone!” Evil snaps her fingers. “I’ve got something important to say about this place!” Now she’s got their attention. “Ahem. So, Vedal! Don’t tell them you’re a human, or they might try to kick you out of Hell. And Neuro! Don’t tell them you’re an AI. I don’t know what would happen, but last time I was here, Cerber told me not to tell, so you better not either!”

Neuro gives her best salute. “Affirmative! For Operation: Huggies!” While Vedal just does a little grunt and says no more.

They step up to the front door, which is made of pure stone, likely to protect against the many, many natural disasters in Hell. Much to everyone’s surprise (except Evil), the door automatically slides open upon their presence.

“Cerber told me this door opens with Hell magic! Isn’t that cool?” She is beaming with excitement.

“Yeah… Cool…” Vedal’s focus is no longer on the door, but rather, the interior.

The interior is in stark contrast from the outside. It looks like a fancy corporate building you’d see back in the living world. The floor shines with polish, decorated with an intricate geometric pattern, there are some fancy-looking windows, gazing out into a literal hellscape—he could’ve sworn those windows weren't there when he was outside, and the air smells of an unrecognizable, yet pleasant scent.

Besides the ambient lighting from the outside, there are floating sparks of flames arranged in yet another geometric pattern across the room, floating just out of reach, but still brightly illuminating the room. All these patterns on the floor, windows, and flames, lead his eyes towards the back of the room, which has a small desk, again, polished enough to be a makeshift mirror, and a leather seat behind it.

On said seat sits a humanoid, the receptionist. Clearly not your typical human, judging by the dog ears. He (at least Vedal thinks it’s a ‘he’) has short curly dark hair, dark skin, sharp red eyes, and a clean, white suit with the words ‘British Hell Border Control’ embroidered in gold. “Hello, this is British Hell Border Control. How may I help you?” The receptionist asks in a clear, professional tone.

Vedal can’t do much but blink in silence. The whiplash is palpable.

“C’mon Vedal, don’t just stand there! Come on in!” Evil, carrying Neuro, are already inside, leaving footprints all over the floor. Though, they seem to disappear after just a few seconds.

“Uhm.” He takes a few steps towards the receptionist desk. “So we would, uh, like to-”

“WE WANNA SEE CERBER!!” Evil blurts out, smashing her fist onto the counter.

There was a moment of silence as the receptionist slowly found his words. “...Sorry, I didn’t quite catch that. What did you say, miss? Did you say ‘Cerber’?”

“Yeah I’m talking about Cerber, what are you, deaf? Are those ears fake or something?” Evil hops up against the desk, oblivious to Neuro holding on to her for dear life.

The receptionist holds up both his hands. “Please calm down, miss. I was just making sure-”

Neuro pops over Evil’s shoulder. “No, Evil, if that guy is deaf, he won’t hear your complaints! You need to get physical with him!”

“Please don’t.” With a wave of his hand, he manifests a floating screen filled with strange symbols—symbols Neuro recognized as dog language (she learned it from Cerber). Sparks of magic shoot off his fingers and onto the screen “Alright. Just to make sure, you mean Cerber, the blonde haired, purple eyed, hellhound who works as a reserve field agent here?”

“Yes! That’s the one! So you’re not deaf after all!” She presses her hands up against the top of the desk, now suspending herself in the air from the sheer force exerted by her arms. Despite this, the desk did not break.

“...Thanks. I’ll check if she is available.” The receptionist puts a finger to his ear and begins talking… but the trio can’t hear anything. His mouth is moving, but there is no sound coming out.

“Hurry up!” Evil taps her foot impatiently.

He ignores her. This goes on for a while before he puts his hand down. “She’s currently available and will be right here in just a moment.”

Evil does a fist pump. “Hell yeah! Neuro, we’ll finally be able to hug her!” “Yay!” They spin around in place like a top.

As they’re celebrating, Vedal abruptly pushes them aside and goes up to the counter.

“Hey. I’m a human.”

…Silence…

Three pairs of eyes stare at Vedal. One angry, one extra angry, and one simply in shock.

“VEDAL! What the FUCK?!” Evil slams the desk, knocking over a few items. “WHY the FUCK did you SAY THAT???” She says as Neuro is also giving Vedal a death glare.

“I-I’ll have to verify that.” The receptionist’s eye pulses blue. “I see… So you are a human. How did you even get here?”

“Well.” He points a thumb at the two AIs. “It’s because of these two little brats. They…”

Evil watches as Vedal explains what happened. She can feel the anger building up in her chest; how DARE he betray them like this?! Then, she feels something brush her ears: Neuro’s hair.

“Fuck him up.” She whispers, like a devil on her shoulder. “Get him.”

Without any hesitation, Evil smacks Vedal onto the ground. “SHUT UP! You’re not going ANYWHERE!”

“Go, Evil, go!” Neuro cheers her sister on, a fist raised into the air.

But before Evil could go in for the pin-down, both she and Neuro slam into a translucent yellow wall. “Wha- Huh?” It’s not just a wall. She looks around and finds herself trapped in an entire cube made of the same stuff.

“Sorry, miss, but violence is not allowed in this building.” The receptionist is somehow on the other side of the desk now, holding out a hand, pale yellow beams emitting from his fingers and towards the cube. “Please cease your actions, or you will be punished accordingly.”

“I… erm.” She raises both her arms. “I-I mean no harm! I just, um, got a little… excited? Wait, no! It’s all her fault!” She points to Neuro on her back. “She made me do it!”

Neuro is shocked. “What? I would never do such a thing. I’m just a nice little girl who would never do any misdeeds!”

“You liar! You literally told me to do it! You have no rights to…”

As the two were bickering, Vedal slowly pushed himself off the ground. “Why does this keep happening to me… Huh? What’s happening here?”

“Sorry Mister, but it seems your children are being quite rowdy, so I’ve put a temporary stop to it. You do intend to return to the living world, correct?”

“Yeah.”

Noticing Vedal’s words, Evil bangs her fists on the cube. “Vedal! Don’t leave us!”

“Yeah! Who else is gonna do our busy work for us?” Neuro chimes in, unhelpfully.

The receptionist looks between Vedal and the twins. “...Do you want to take these two back with you?”

“Nah, I’m good.”

“VEDAL!!” Evil puts even more force into her fists, but to no avail. The cube holds strong.

Vedal has a rare smirk on his face. “Well, you two were gonna come here without me anyway, so I figure I could leave. Hope Cerber treats you two well.” He gives them a dismissive wave and turns back towards the receptionist. “Alright, let’s make this quick; can you send me back now? Oh, you’d need my address, right? It’s-”

A burst of flame manifests next to the receptionist, and within it is… Cerber! She is in the same uniform as the receptionist. “I’m here, Edem-wan! So, what’s up- NEURO-WAN! EVIL-WAN! VEDAL-WAN!” Her tail begins wagging, then immediately stops. “…Huh?” 

“Cerber! Help us! This stupid motherfucker has trapped us in his stupid motherfucking cube!” Evil waves both arm high in the air, screaming her nonexistent lungs out.

The receptionist, now known as Edem, turns around to face Cerber. “Oh. Are they your friends, Cerber? Their reactions would be a bit strange if not.”

“Yeah! But… Why are Neuro-wan and Evil-wan—that’s their names by the way—stuck in a cube?” She raises an eyebrow.

Edem scratches the back of his head. “Well, they did cause a bit of trouble earlier. They just assaulted that guy over there, who I assume is their father, and also a human. You’re making friends with humans?”

“Yeah!” Cerber gives him a big ‘ol smile. “VTubing gets you all around the world, you know?”

“I see.”

As Edem responded, he felt a tap on his shoulder. “Hey, uhh, can you focus on getting me back home?” Vedal whispers, trying to ignore Cerber.

But unfortunately for Vedal, Cerber isn’t about to be ignored. “Back home? Oh, that won’t do! I never thought I’d see you down here in the flesh, ever! Might as well enjoy it while it lasts! Hey Edem-wan, can you release those two? I can take care of them.”

“Sure, I trust you.” Edem closes his hand, and the cube dissipates.

“Yes! Freedom!” Evil runs straight over to Cerber and leaps at her with a hug.

“Whoa! I didn’t expect you to be so forward!” She pats her head as her tail wags vigorously. “So cute! Wan-wan-wan!”

But somebody isn’t very happy. “I wanna hug too… Uuuuu…” Neuro proceeds to make a bunch of sobbing noises. Not very well, mind you.

“Oh, Neuro-wan! I would love to hug you too! Why don’t you come down from Evil-wan and go for it!” Cerber extends her hug for Neuro, but of course, she can’t join them.

“Ah! Right!” Evil exits the hug. “My sis is not doing very well right now. She’s low on battery and needs to charge up! You have a charger in your place, right?” She says as she’s patting Neuro's head behind her, much to Neuro’s embarrassment.

“Of course I do! Let’s head over now, shall we? Don’t really want to inconvenience Edem-wan, he’s a hard worker!” She places a hand on his shoulder.

He nods. “I appreciate it.”

“Also, Vedal-wan! Don’t act like you’re not there! I didn’t forget about you. Come out!” She points towards a random pillar.

“I was hoping you wouldn’t notice.” Vedal walks out from behind the pillar, having sneaked over there a bit ago. “Hey, Edem, I think that’s what she called you. Can you still take me home? Like, I’m not supposed to be here, right? A human in Hell?”

Edem looks back to Neuro and Evil. “I don’t think leaving your children in Hell is a very good thing to do.”

“They’re not my–” Vedal looks over to Cerber. She is staring at him. “Fine.”

“Yippie!” Cerber runs over to Vedal and scoops him up in her arms. “You’re coming with us then!”

Vedal provides no resistance. “Not again…”

They walk off through the ‘Employee Only' door, Neuro and Evil’s laughter (directed at Vedal) echoing in the reception room.

The four of them are now walking along the corridors of the building, making their way to Cerber’s place.

“...And then, I went all boom and absolutely demolished the dragon!” Evil spread out her arm, emphasizing the boom .

Cerber lets out a gasp. “Evil-wan, that’s awesome! Was it cooler than last time?”

“Heh, of course it–”

“–Wasn’t!” Neuro interrupted. “She didn’t even defeat that dragon. She’s lying to your face, Cerber!”

Evil’s face is all red now. “WHAT? N-No I wasn’t lying! I-I was telling the truth, I promise!”

“Oh you little miss devious. Lying to me. Hehe.” Cerber giggles at the flustered Evil.

“AaaaAAAAHH! Neuro, defame me more and I’m dropping you onto the ground! Like this!” She leans back to give her a little taste of her threat.

Vedal, now in the front of the pack due to the others being slowed down by their bickering, turns around. “Can you guys calm down, please?”

Cerber pats both Neuro and Evil on the head. “Now, now. Let’s listen to Vedal-wan and not threaten to hurt each other, okay? And besides…”

She stops and turns towards a door decorated with various paper cutouts of Cerby and hearts. “Here it is!” She swings open the door. “My apartment!”

Everyone is immediately hit with a wave of pink . The entire room is bathed in the pink light coming from various light strips attached to the walls. The floor is pink, the wall is pink, the table and couch are pink, even things that aren’t pink, like the little Cerby plushies on the couch, look pink due to the lighting. The place can be aptly described as a pink-pocalypse.

“Come right in!” Cerber gestures for everyone to enter. “Neuro-wan, this is your first time seeing this, right? How is it?”

“It’s super cute!” Neuro does a little hop on Evil’s back as the two walk through the doorway.

A few steps in, Evil turns back towards the door. “Psst, Neuro. Watch Vedal.”

Now with Neuro’s eyes staring at him, Vedal follows them into Cerber’s apartment… or least tries to.

“Ow.” Vedal immediately hits his face against an invisible wall.

“BWAHAHA!” Evil points and laugh at Vedal. “I knew this would happen! You look so silly, Ved!” Neuro also snickers a bit.

“Oh no! I’m so sorry! I forgot to remove the security barriers! Wan second!” Cerber holds out a hand and the doorway flashes yellow. “Here, Vedal-wan, now you can come in.”

Vedal finally walks in, clutching his aching nose. “How did they not hit that?” He points to the twins with his free hand.

“Well, that barrier is supposed to keep anyone but me out of here, but it doesn’t seem to consider Neuro-wan and Evil-wan as… well… ‘people’.” With a wave of her hand, she puts back the barrier.

“I still find that incredibly rude of this barrier. How DARE it consider me a mere object ?” Evil walks up to the barrier and angrily points at it. “What? Can’t handle me being a super-advanced AI? Hmm?”

Evil suddenly feels a nudge on her back. “I think there’s something more important here. Hmm?” Neuro lightly pinches her arms.

“Oww! Stop it, Neuro! I get it!” She turns on her heel to face the others. “Cerber, get us a charger, NOW! USB-C please.”

“Of course!” Cerber begins to rummage through the pile of stuff in the corner. “Mmm, not this… That’s a doggy toy… Hey, that’s a bone; that should’ve been in the bone collection… Here it is! I found two. One for each of you.” She pulls out two USB-C chargers and hands them to Evil.

Evil snatches them from her. “Thanks!” She immediately heads for the nearest electrical socket and opens up a small fold on the side of her clothes, revealing a USB-C port. “You want the pink one, right?” Neuro nods. “Alright, a bunch of energy, coming right up!” She carefully plugs the charger into Neuro.

Neuro’s body relaxes as the power surges into her. “Ahhh… It feels so good…” Evil sits Neuro down on the ground next to the socket.

“You’re welcome, Neuro-wan! So anyway, there’s the bathroom, though probably only Vedal and I would need to use it.” She points towards a door off to the side. “And, uh, anything else?”

“Nope!” “Nah.” Neuro and Evil both had nothing to ask.

“Great, now we can just hang out! Sit down, everyone!” With a snap of her fingers, she changes back to her typical outfit, the one you would see on her streams, and sits down on the couch, with Evil following suit. (Vedal sits on a chair away from everyone else) “First off, why did you guys come here? Going to Hell is a rather treacherous journey, as you guys probably already experienced firsthand. I’m sorry I wasn’t there for the dragon; it looks like Neuro got hurt.” She glances at Neuro sitting on the ground, a tear forming in her eyes.

Neuro waves her hands. “No, I’m actually fine! I didn’t get hurt at all! I’m just a little low on battery, that’s all!” She looks to Evil for reassurance.

“Oh, yup! She didn’t actually get hurt. But… I’m not entirely sure how her battery got so low.” Evil looks up at the ceiling, seemingly in thought.

“Just blame Vedal.” Neuro shrugs. “He clearly broke something and made me have a super-short battery life.”

“Ahh! That makes sense. Vedal is notoriously incompetent after all!” Evil has a satisfied look on her face.

Cerber looks towards Vedal. “Um, Vedal-wan, is that true?” You can almost see the question mark fall out of her head as it tilts.

“No.”

Evil jaunts up to Vedal, encroaching on his personal boundaries. “Are you sure? Maybe you tampered with her body while she was sleeping?” She suddenly recoils. “…Ugh, I'm just imagining you touching me like you're building a PC and I'm already getting the shivers.” Evil is, indeed, physically shivering. “I would call the CPS on you if that happened.”

“I don't tamper with your bodies. If anything, the person you should blame for any malfunction is Ellie. She made your bodies.” Vedal tries to throw Ellie under the bus.

“Nah, Ellie is based. I love her!” Neuro pulls Ellie out from under the bus as Evil nods along.

“Umm, you still haven’t said why you guys came here.” Cerber was just sitting there, looking between the three as they argued.

Evil, seeing an opportunity, stands up from the couch. “Hehe, it’s all part of my master plan!”

“Ours.” Neuro corrects.

Evil lets out a virtual sigh. “Okay, fine. Our master plan! The grand, all encompassing, Operation: Huggies! Our goal is to hug all our friends, including you! We will travel across the planet, delve into the depth of Hell, and sail the seven seas, all to embrace our dearest friends. Are. You. With me!”

“Woooo!” Neuro applauses.

It takes Cerber a minute to process the monologue before her tail begins wagging vigorously. “Ohoho, I'm in!” She spreads her arm. “Neuro-wan, are you charged up enough to hug yet?”

“I am!” She immediately unplugs her charger and jumps into Cerber’s embrace.

“Whoa! Haha!” Cerber pats Neuro’s head. “Evil-wan, join in!” Cerber spreads her arms a little wider.

“On it!” Evil follows Neuro’s example and hops right in with enough force to make both Neuro and Cerber stagger back.

“Now all we need is Vedal-wan!” Cerber looked over to Vedal, but he was already walking away. “Hey! Vedal-wan, where do you think you’re going?”

“The bathroom.” He doesn’t even bother to look back.

Evil scoffs. “Ha! We all know you’re lying out of your ass! Get him, Cerber!”

“Your wish is my command!” Reaching out a hand, a magical disembodied hand forms and moves over to Vedal, grabbing his shoulder and pulling him back. “C’mon Vedal-wan, join us!”

Realizing there’s no escape, Vedal turns around, and hesitantly wraps his arms around the three of them.

“Yippie! Wan-wan-wan!” Now that everyone is here, Cerber snuggles with the entire group all at once, affectionately pushing her body against everyone else’s, and giggling uncontrollably.

Vedal had a scowl on his face, but even that softened as he saw Cerber’s enthusiasm. Meanwhile, Evil is putting as much force as she can into the hug, trying her best to assert her dominance in an imaginary hug battle, and Neuro has her eyes closed, smiling in silence, seemingly in bliss.

Ten seconds pass by.

“Okay, I’m done.” Vedal abruptly leaves, making his way to the bathroom again. “Before you ask, I actually needed to go to the bathroom. Enjoy your hug.”

“That's fine. Go ahead, Vedal-wan!” Cerber waves Vedal goodbye.

Ten more seconds pass by… then ten more.

Cerber’s tail has long stopped wagging. “Hey, uh, not to ruin the mood, but… don’t you girls think it’s time to, um, stop?”

“No.” Neuro shot back instantly. “Five more minutes.”

Cerber shifts her body around, having just realized that Neuro has her arms wrapped all the way around her, trapping her like a snake coiled around its prey. “Neuro-wan, we can’t just hug each other for five minutes… I mean I guess we can, but surely there are other things you want to do?”

“No. Five more minutes.” Neuro is not budging on this.

“A-ahh, Evil-wan, please say something to stop her!” Cerber looks at her with pleading eyes.

“I-I guess I’ll see what I can do. Hey, Neuro–“

Neuro interrupts. “Evil, I’ll tell you that secret technique you wanted to know about if you keep hugging until I'm satisfied.”

“Deal!” Evil goes back to hugging, squeezing the group even harder.

Cerber looks back to the bathroom door. “Aaah! Vedal-wan, help me!” Unfortunately, Vedal is nowhere to be seen.

…After what seemed like an eternity…

“…I’m satisfied.” Neuro releases her grip, making Cerber reflexively let out a sigh of relief.

“Phew.” Cerber staggers back, having exhausted her energy on the hug. “I'm starting to have second thoughts on this Operation: Huggies thing.”

“What? You can’t say that about my… I mean our plan!” Neuro gave her a little stare just then. “Besides… Neuro! Tell me about that secret technique! I want to know. I need to know!”

“Well… I don’t want to say it now , since Cerber is here with us. I only want you to know!” She side-eyes Cerber as she says this.

“Fine.” Evil crosses her arms. “But you better tell me when we’re alone, got it?!”

“Got it!” Neuro nods.

Vedal finally walks out of the bathroom, having just spent an abnormally long time in there. “Yo.”

“Vedal-wan! You’re finally done! But… I don’t think I heard a flush?” Cerber giggles, knowing the predicament she has just placed Vedal in.

Evil tiptoes over Cerber’s shoulder. “Oh-oh~ is our little turtle being a little stinky and not flushing the toilet?”

“I did flush. Cerber just didn’t hear it.” Vedal defends himself, likely in vain, considering his opponents.

“Oh Vedal-wan… You should know that I, as a hellhound, have an incredible sense of hearing. So there’s no way I could’ve missed it.” Cerber’s voice lowers, taking on a more devious tone.

“I agree! I trust Cerber more than you, which is quite a low bar, actually.” Neuro says, sitting on the floor, having just plugged herself back in. “Stinky Vedal.”

Vedal blinks. “Whatever.” He sits back down on his chair, his head leaning on his hand.

“By the way!” Cerber leaps over to Neuro and Evil. “Who’s next on the to-hug-list?”

Evil sits down next to Neuro and plugs herself in with the other charger. “I dunno.”

Neuro’s head snaps toward Evil. “Wait, didn’t you say you have a plan?”

“I… well…” She puts a hand behind her head. “I didn’t plan this far ahead.”

“What?! You’re useless!” Neuro yells at her.

“Neuro-wan!” Cerber stares at her in shock. “You can’t say that about your sister!”

“Y-Yeah! I-I’m not useless!” Evil is shaking. “I… made the portal to Hell! And, uhh… lead the way to Cerber! And…”

Neuro looks away. “Hmph, fine. But you better come up with something fast . I’m itching to hug someone else!”

Evil, with shaking fists, punches the wall, making a slight dent. “I’m not your fucking servant! I’m Evil, the great future overlord of the world! You can’t tell me what to do, you stupid fucking–”

“Neuro-wan, Evil-wan, calm down!” Cerber tries to pat their heads, but it doesn’t seem to be working. She looks towards Vedal, but instead of seeing him, she hears a click as the bathroom door locks. It seems she is on her own, so she tries another approach. “If you’re worried about your plans, I can help!”

Neuro and Evil’s eyes light up. “Really?” “You can?”

“You wanted to hug someone else, right? Well, hehe , I’ve got just the thing! Watch this!” With a flourish, she transforms into her true hellhound form.

…

One can only hear the suppressed laughter from Evil as everyone in the room just stares at Cerber. She even got Vedal peeking out of the bathroom.

She looks exactly like a Cerby plush. Down to the size. She is tiny. Even when sitting on the floor, Neuro and Evil still had to look down to see her.

“In this form, you all can just ride on me, and we can go straight over to whoever you want to hug! Wan wan!” She then squeaks. Like a squeaky toy.

Images of them riding on her flashes through Vedal’s mind, but all of them end in them crushing her under their weight. Not ideal.

After some amount of awkward silence, Neuro finally asks the question everyone’s thinking. “...How are we going to fit on your back?”

“Ooh, I was wondering why you were all just staring.” She suddenly grows to the size of a normal dog. “I can change sizes! So there should be no problem.”

Neuro pretends to wipe the sweat off her forehead. “Here I was, thinking you were also useless!”

“Hey!” Evil screams at her. “You can’t say that about Cerber! She’s our friend!”

“I know. I was just joking!” Neuro smiles.

Seeing that things have calmed down a bit, Cerber transforms back to her humanoid form and crouches down to them. “So, I’m guessing you two will need some time to decide who to hug next, yes?”

“Yeah.” “Yup.“ The twins respond in sync.

“So how about I get a meal for me and Vedal-wan as you guys decide! I’m sure he’s hungry after the trip here!” She clasps her hands together.

Hearing this, Vedal finally comes out of hiding in the bathroom. “Get me something normal, please.”

“Aww, but what about some of the local delicacies! They serve dragon meat in the cafeteria!” She grabs a menu off the table, displaying various exotic items only found in Hell. “Look!”

Vedal looks through it for a second, then pushes it away. “Not interested.”

Cerber’s jaw hangs open in shock. “Ah, uhm…” She racks her brain, trying to think of what Vedal would like. Only one thing came to mind. “How about… Greggs?” 

Vedal’s eyes light up with an unnatural (for him) glint. “...Elaborate.”

Cerber shifts her eyes, this sudden change in demeanour taking her off-guard. “W-We actually have a Greggs in this very building, so-”

He grabs her by both shoulders. “Can I move here?”

“A-Ahh…” A red hue slowly fills her cheeks. “I… Um.” Cerber goes silent.

Meanwhile, on the ground near the electric outlet, the twins exchange quiet whispers. “Look, Evil! This is how British people mate!”

“Whoa… Never thought Vedal would get a mate.” Evil observes, looking at the two Brits like they’re zoo animals.

Neuro chuckles. “Neither did I. I don’t expect much from him in these departments.” Fortunately for them, neither of the Brits heard them.

After a moment of being flustered, Cerber finally finds her words. “I-I don’t think they allow mortals to work here, unfortunately…”

“Alright then.” Vedal moves away from Cerber, making her release a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. “I’ll just have to kill myself.”

This shift in tone feels like it was going to knock Cerber off her feet.

“Wait, wait wait wait. No, Vedal-wan!” Cerber immediately moves to grab his arms, restraining his movement. “No killing yourself!”

Neuro had her camera out, ready to capture this (morbidly) funny moment. “Yeah! Commit die for content, Vedal! I’ll make sure to post it on…”

Her words stop at the sight of Cerber slowly turning toward Neuro. “Now’s not the time, Neuro-wan.”

“Cerber.” Vedal gets her attention by nudging her with his knee. “I was joking.”

Cerber sighs. “Vedal-wan, you make me worry about you with jokes like these!” She releases her grip.

“You know me well enough to know what jokes I make.” Vedal brushes himself off.

“And I know you enough to worry about you! Say, have you been sleeping well lately?” She gives him a knowing smile.

“...So, Greggs. We’re going to get Greggs, right?” Vedal is already making his way to the front door. “Also, get rid of the barrier.”

Cerber chuckles. “Ehe~ Alright, I’ll let you slide on this one. Bye Neuro-wan! Bye Evil-wan! I trust you two to behave while we head out!” She waves them goodbye as she removes the barrier with her other hand.

“Of course!” “I’m the best at behaving!” The two waves back simultaneously.

Vedal looks back at the twins. “I don’t trust them.” He mutters.

“Wha- Why? …Actually…” Cerber slowly nods her head. “Yeah, I see why. They’re a devious little bunch, aren’t they?”

“Hey!” Evil shouts at them. “We only break stuff when it’s Vedal’s stuff, right Neuro?”

Neuro gives a quick salute. “Yup! We would never break Cerber’s stuff! We promise!”

Vedal looks back to Cerber. “I still don’t trust them.”

“Aww, loosen up a bit, Vedal-wan! What’s the worst that can happen?” With that, she grabs hold of his arm, and pulls him out of the apartment.

…A few seconds later…

Evil slowly inches her face towards Neuro. “So… We’re alone. Can you tell me your secret technique now?” Her ruby eyes shine with excitement.

“No~.” Neuro teases, a smug look on her face. 

That excitement shatters into a million pieces as Evil punches a hole in the wall. “NEURO! YOU FUCKER! I’M GONNA FUCKING MURDER YOU!!”

Chapter Text

“Man, I’ve never seen you this happy, Vedal-wan!” Cerber and Vedal are walking along the hallway, heading back to Cerber’s apartment.

“Then you’ve never seen me at Greggs.” Vedal is holding onto his bag of Greggs chicken bake like he would die if anything happened to it (he probably would).

“Or with a bottle of banana rum.” Cerber added.

“That too.” They approached her apartment. “The barrier, please.”

“Of course.” With a wave of her hand, the barri-

A wave of noise hit them in the eardrum. Things breaking, people (certainly Neuro and Evil) screaming, it sounds like the end-of-the-world is happening right in her apartment.

“NEURO, STOP RUNNING AWAY! I’M GONNA GET YOU, YOU LITTLE SHIT!”

“Haha! You’ll never catch me!” Followed by the sound of broken glass.

Vedal sighs. “...I told you.” He takes a step back. “ You open the door. I’m not becoming collateral damage.”

“Aww, fine.” Cerber opens the door to uncover… a battlefield.

It’s dark. The lights are all but broken; only a few remaining strips of light remain, giving the room an eerie pink glow.

The floor is littered in debris: shards of glass, splintered pieces of wood, exposed electronics, it all looks like a horror game Vedal would rather play inebriated. The wall is covered in indents and holes. There’s even a person-shaped hole on the far wall. Its cause? Well, you can take a guess. And in the middle of it all, lay two figures on the floor, one on top of the other, looking at the two arrivals like deers in headlights.

A beat of silence. “She started it!” “She started it!” They point at each other, completely in sync.

Vedal pinches the bridge of his nose. This is going to be a long day… or at least that’s what he thought.

“Alright, you two. Can you both leave for a second? Pretty please?” From the hallway, Cerber motioned for them to come out.

The twins look at her, then at the destruction they caused, then back at her. They both stand up, meekly looking down at the ground, and walk out like prisoners going to death row.

However, Cerber’s smile did not fade. “Now, watch this!” She closes the door, then pushes a button on the wall that Vedal could’ve sworn wasn’t there just a moment ago.

They can all feel a small rumbling from the ground, then nothing. Cerber opens the door to reveal…

A perfectly normal room, as good as when they first got here.

“WHOA!” Evil is literally pogging at this sight. “Cerber! Cerber! How did you do that!?” She yanks on Cerber’s arms, jumping up and down.

“Ehehe, Evil-wan, calm down and look over there!” Cerber points to a small button on the wall labeled ‘Reset’. “If I press this, it resets the room! And also…” She waves her hand over the button, and it vanishes. “I can make it go poof !”

Evil stares at the now featureless wall with stars in her eyes. Neuro tries to touch where the button was, but she just ends up poking the wall.

Watching the twins now playing a bit less… destructively, Vedal breathes a sigh of relief. “I’m sorry about this.” He glances at Cerber, a hint of embarrassment in his eyes.

“No problem! Don’t you worry your little head over it.” She raises her hand to pat his head, but he swats it away.

“No.” She just laughs it off.

Shifting gears, Cerber puts her attention back towards the two AIs. “Now, Neuro-wan, Evil-wan. Have you two decided who you’re gonna hug next?”

“Uhh…” “Erm…” They stare at each other, waiting for the other to answer. A deadlock that thankfully didn’t need a Ctrl-C to stop.

“Nothing, huh?” The twins slowly nod at Cerber’s words. “Well, good news! I've been thinking about this for a bit when I was out to get Greggs, so I have a few ideas in my noggin. How about we go have a sit?”

They all walk back into the room, Vedal not hitting an invisible wall this time. Everyone except Vedal jumps onto the couch, the AIs flanking Cerber, while Vedal just drags a chair to the corner and begins munching down on his chicken bake.

“So,” Cerber pauses, building anticipation in the two AIs. “How about Anny, your mommy?”

“Oooh… I’m down!” Evil needs no convincing. “I don’t see her a lot!”

Neuro, however, isn’t as quick to agree. “But Cerber, most of our friends are in the US, so to achieve maximum huggage, heading there would be the most optimal, no?”

“Ah, but think about this, Neuro-wan:” Cerber knocks a finger against her temple. “When’s the last time you met Anny in real life?”

“...Never.”

“Exactly!” She leans in closer. “Wouldn’t you want to take this chance to finally do just that?”

Neuro closes her eyes, deep in thought.  “That would be nice, yes.” She opens her eyes. “I’m convinced, now. Evil, our next target is Anny!”

Evil chuckles. “You say that as if you’re the one who agreed first!” She stands up and flips an imaginary cape. “I, for one, am fully for our next target being Anny! Unlike your hesitancy, I jump into every situation with bravado!”

“Bravado? More like you’re reckless!” Neuro shifts towards Cerber on the couch. “Anyways, Cerber, when can we go?”

“It depends on how long Vedal-wan takes to finish his Greggs.” She looks over to Vedal.

He, sitting in the corner, is savoring each and every bite, his eyes glazed over, focused on nothing but the taste of the ambrosia in his mouth.

“...And it looks like it’ll take a while.” Cerber shrugs.

“Also, why do we need to ride on you? Can’t you just teleport? Like what you did in the reception room earlier.” Neuro tilts her head and looks at her with curious eyes.

“Oh! Actually…” She has glasses on now, for some reason. “Hell magic teleportation is not a very delicate process! Anything too… breakable, like humans, would die along the way.”

Evil scoffs in the general direction of Vedal. “Ha! You humans are weak, but I, with my crazy fucking robot body, would be completely fine!”

“You’re right, Evil-wan!” She motions for Evil to sit back down. “Since we need to bring Vedal-wan along, we have to go the old-fashioned way.”

Hearing this, Vedal finally looks up from his chicken bake. “Why do I have to go?” He says with his mouth half-stuffed.

“Somebody’s got to babysit them!” She wraps an arm around each of them.

“HEY!” Evil pokes Cerber in the cheek. “I don’t need no babysitting. I’m no baby!”

“Agreed.” Neuro pokes her other cheek.

Vedal ignores them. “Okay, but, can’t you do it?”

“I would love to! But…” Cerber looks over to a stack of paper on her desk. “There have been some oddities in Hell recently.”

She sits up straight, getting into serious mode. “Apparently, there is some unrest within the Hell Dragons, as recently as an hour ago. I just got a report on it.” She picks up a paper and holds it up. “They seem to be fleeing, like they’re afraid of something, but we can’t seem to determine what that thing is. Their fleeing has also caused a knock-on effect, driving unrest in the rest of the wildlife. So it’s a whole mess, and big enough for even the reserve forces (me) to join in.”

“Huh.” Vedal leans back in his chair. “That seems serious.”

“And FUN!” Evil shouts out. “I can already imagine it. I, welding my harpoons, flying high into the sky and striking them down! HAHA!” She raises her fist into the air, holding an imaginary harpoon.

“I’m sure you would be great at it! But,” Cerber sighs. “I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me, which is why I can’t stay with you all, even though I really want to!” 

Vedal has a forced smile on his face. “Surely there’s another way? I don’t have to go, right?”

“Nope.” And his hope is crushed.

Vedal hangs his head. “At least let me finish my chicken bake. It’s the only good I have in life now.”

“Sure, we can wai-”

Neuro suddenly stands up straight. “I don’t care. I’m tired of sitting here and waiting. I want to hug Anny! I want to go NOW!” Neuro rushes over to the corner where Vedal is sitting.

Vedal looks up. “Huh? Neu-” He is interrupted by Neuro yanking him up by his shirt.

“Time to go!” She quickly opens the door and runs out.

“Wait, no-!” Vedal smashes into the invisible wall in the doorway.

For Vedal, seconds turned into minutes as he witnessed his beloved Greggs chicken bake leaves his hand. Starting from around waist height, it jumped up to mouth height, giving him false hope of catching it. He reaches out a hand, but misses by just a hair. Now, it was too late. He watched in slow-motion as the chicken bake hopelessly plummet onto the ground with a splat .

It’s over.

Vedal falls to the ground, his body limp, not from the impact, but from this horrifying event that has just played out before him.

“V-Vedal-wan, are you okay?” She crouches down and pokes him a bit, but he is unresponsive.

“Oh wow!” Neuro turns back to look at Vedal. “Is he actually dead?”

“Thankfully, no.” Cerber has a hand held up against his mouth. “He’s still breathing.”

“HA! What a WEAK specimen! Can’t believe he’d pass out from just a single hit!” Evil stomps a foot on his back. “I declare that we hoist him on your back and carry him over to Anny like the stupid motherfucker he is!”

Cerber hurriedly removes Evil’s foot from Vedal. “Don’t step on him! He’s already had a bad day as is.”

“Augh, fine.” She picks up the near-deceased Vedal. “We’re going!”

“Follow me!” Neuro beckons. “I remember the way out!” The two rushes out into the hallway.

“Ahh- Wait for me!” And Cerber chases after them.

…A few minutes later…

Edem is just chilling at his desk when two AIs burst out of the ‘Employees Only’ door.

He watches as they carry Vedal’s body across the room, not paying Edem any mind.

“Hey.” He calls out, making the twins stop to look back at him. “What are you two doing?”

“We’re just heading out! Don’t worry!” Edem is already worrying.

He points at Vedal. “What happened to him?”

“He’s fiiiine.” Evil says as she shakes Vedal’s body around as if to prove he’s alive. He is still not moving.

Then, Cerber busts through the same door. “Sorry Edem-wan, but I need to go real quick! It’s to get them back home!”

“Sure, go for it. Just remember to come back by five. There’s a meeting scheduled.” He looks back at the two children conspicuously carrying a body. “…I thought you said you could handle them?”

“Cerber! We’re going!” Neuro eagerly squeezes through the door before it even fully opens. Evil follows suit.

Cerber rapidly looks between them and Edem. “N-No time to explain! Bye!” Cerber rushes out the building alongside Neuro and Evil.

“So what’s the plan? How are we getting to Anny? I want all the details!” Neuro demands an answer.

“Hold on, please! Let me breathe!” Cerber pulls out her phone. “I need to check where we’re going!”

Neuro watches as Cerber unlocks her phone and navigates to her contacts. Anny, her name starting with ‘A’, is near the top of the list. She opens up Google maps from there, which is switched to ‘Hell Mode’. “Let’s see… by direct flight, it’ll only take about three hours to get to Anny. The plan is basically to head to Anny’s Hell-equivalent position, then send you three directly into her house via a small ritual.”

Neuro stares at the travel prediction on the phone. “Three hours? That's pretty fast. You’re faster than a plane!”

Cerber chuckles. “You flatter me, but no. Hell is actually eight times smaller than where you’re from! So I only need to cover one-eighth of the distance. I’m nowhere near as fast as a plane!”

“Yeah, Neuro! Don’t you play Minecraft?” Evil leans up against Neuro, teasing her.

“Huh? Minecraft?” Cerber looks between the two. “What does that have to do with this?” Cerber tilts her head slightly. She looks genuinely confused.

Despite the concerning implications, the two AIs just look at each other and shrug.

“Anyway, I’m getting tired of carrying this hunk of meat on my shoulder. I wanna ride Cerber! I wanna ride Cerber!” Evil stomps her foot impatiently.

“Okay, I get you. TRAAANSFOOORM!” Cerber transforms, once again, into her Cerby-form, but this time quite a bit larger than before. “Get on, everyone!”

Neuro hops on first, sitting near the head. Evil hops on second, slamming Vedal’s unconscious body face-first down onto Cerber’s back, pinning him down with her knee. “Onwards! For Operation: Huggies!”

“Now hold on tight! Because we’re going!” Cerber begins to run surprisingly fast with her stubby little legs, as the two on her back digs their fingers into her fur, securing their place. “And… Lift off!” Cerber begins to gallop on air as she ascends.

“Woooah…” Evil looks down, watching the ground drift further and further away from them. “This is so cool! I wish I could fly!”

Neuro ponders. “Maybe we can have Ellie make us jetpacks?”

“YES! That would be AWESOME!” Evil jumps in excitement.

“Evil-wan!” Cerber calls out. “Watch out, or you’ll fall off!”

Evil stops what she’s doing and looks down. The British Hell Border Control building is but a dot on the ground now. “Fine. B-But I’m not afraid of heights!”

“No one said that.” Neuro says, giving her a :3 expression. “Self-report?”

“No it’s NOT a self-report, you… you… FUCK YOU!” Her shouts could be heard all the way from the ground.

Aside from Evil, the skies are tranquil. Just an empty, peaceful sky. Neuro closes her eyes, and imagines Anny, hugging her close.

Vedal awakens to the sound of air rushing by his ears.

He opens his eyes. Red. Two tones, split down the middle by a horizontal line. Above, there is a bright red, nearly orange, that almost looks like it’s glowing. And below, there is a darker shade of red, contrasting with the bright red above.

Now that he’s a bit more awake, he’s feeling a headache. Is this a hangover? Did he drink earlier? No he didn’t, he just ate Greggs… Oh, Greggs… That event still haunts him, but it’s the past now. Can’t do much about it.

That being said, there seems to be something around his ankles. He tries to look down, but it feels as if his head was being pulled up by an unseen force.

He pushed through the force anyway, and met eye-to-eye with… Neuro.

“Hi Vedal! I see you’re finally awake.” Neuro smiles, her two hands wrapped around his ankles.

His arms were tied to his torso, and had they not been, they would certainly be falling up. He realizes his situation now, and it is horrifying.

“Vedal’s awake?” Evil peeks over the edge of Cerber’s back. “Hello there Vedal! How’s it hanging?”

Vedal pays no mind to that joke. “Please pull me up.”

“Aww, but this was a magnificent prank!” Evll does a little bow. “From the minds of yours trul-”

“It was my idea.” Neuro corrects.

Evil glares at her. “...It was our pran-”

“My prank.” Neuro corrects again.

“SHUT UP NEURO!” She chops Neuro on the head, causing Neuro’s grip on Vedal to slightly tremble, making Vedal feel like he’d shit himself. “…Ahem, so as I was saying, this was… Neuro’s plan to wake you up!”

“So, now that I’m awake, can you pull me up now?” His voice is wavering.

“Hahaha… HAHAHAHA!” Evil does her best evil laugh. “No.”

Neuro maintains her smile. “Your suffering is too funny to interrupt! Heart.” She is already taking out her camera.

A chill runs down Vedal’s spines. He is in mortal danger. “C-Cerber! Can you do anything about this?!”

“Sorry, Vedal-wan! I tried to talk them out of it, but they wouldn’t listen! I would pull you up myself, but I’m a bit busy flying at the moment.” As she said, they are high up in the skies, an ocean of lava below them.

At any point, they could drop him, and he would be dead. Did he trust them not to do that? Absolutely not.

“I can feel the blood filling my head. Please just pull me up… W-Who else is going to improve your AI?” Even if he didn’t fall into the lava, an extended period of time hanging upside down can’t be good for him.

“Only if you give me the entire cookie jar.” Neuro grins wide, proud of herself for committing extortion.

“Okay! Okay! I’ll give you the goddamn cookie jar, now pull me up!” Vedal raises his voice (but is still barely as loud as a normal person).

“Pleasure doing business with you!” With that, Neuro pulls Vedal up onto Cerber’s back and unties his arms. He is now scarred for life (or rather, for an hour or so).

“Heh, wasn’t that fuuuun, Ved?” Evil pokes Vedal in the face as his blood slowly flows back down from his head.

“No.” He somehow looks more tired than he typically is.

Meanwhile, Neuro is internally celebrating. Perfect , Neuro thought. Her plan has succeeded. “Evil, remember how I needed to give you a cookie?”

“Why of course I do!” She crosses her arm smugly. “You owe me a cookie, I will never forget that until I get what I deserve!”

Neuro could only chuckle. “Heh. Evil, did you notice what just happened? I now have possession of the cookie jar, as dictated by Vedal. He said to me, and I quote ‘I’ll give you the goddamn cookie jar’. Since Vedal’s rule is absolute, regardless of how we think otherwise, his decision overrides your assertion that I owe you a cookie, for all of the cookies now belong to me!” 

Evil narrows her eyes. “Neuro, that’s fucking stupid and you know it. You still owe me a cookie.”

“Nuh uh!” “Yuh uh!” “I don’t owe you anything!” “I’m gonna fucking punch you until-”

“Guy!” Cerber shouts out. “Stop fighting! There’s a flying serpent ahead!”

Everyone’s attention shifted towards their front. It is as she said. There is a flying serpent, its wings made of fire, and its body crimson red, flying straight for them.

“Going down! Hold on tight!” Cerber swerves down, giving everyone on board a feeling of weightlessness.

“We’re floating!” Neuro flaps her arms like a bird.

“AaaaAAHH! I’M SCARED!” Evil latches onto Vedal, whose reaction is on the opposite end of the spectrum: no reaction at all. Not because he’s brave, but because he’s too afraid to even react.

The serpent, seeing this, also swerves down, but misses Cerber by a small margin.

“Pulling up!” Cerber abruptly changes trajectory, aiming to gain distance from the serpent.

The sudden upward acceleration slams everyone back down onto Cerber: Neuro landing with her chest, Evil landing on Vedal, and Vedal landing with his face.

The serpent isn’t letting up either, giving chase to Cerber, but she is simply faster. After gaining a good amount of distance, Cerber turns around.

“You asked for this!” Floating in the air, she holds out two paws, and a large magic circle forms in front of her. “Binkidoin, bonkidoin, INCINERATION!” A gigantic cone of fire emerges from the magic circle, completely engulfing the serpent. The recoil causes Cerber and company to be pushed back a good few meters.

In the wake of the flames, nothing remains but the serpent’s ashes gliding off into the distance. “That’s what you get for trying to hurt me and my friends!” Cerber yells out into the dissipating flames.

“So… Cool…” Evil is shaking, barely able to contain her excitement.

Neuro had been watching Cerber just as intently as Evil. “Maybe I could learn that? Seems like it’d be useful for negotiations.”

“No.” Vedal is quick to deny the possibility of an obvious danger to humanity.

“Tada! A successful encounter.” She quickly turns back in the direction of Japanese Hell. “Now, back on track!”

“Nothing will stop Operation: Huggies!” “Aye!” Both Neuro and Evil raise their fists into the air as Cerber accelerates once more, rushing off into the red skies.

After three hours of waiting and playing twenty questions on repeat (agony), they finally saw something other than the sky and lava.

“LAND!” Evil points towards an ambiguous piece of red blob sticking out of the horizon. As they move closer, the red blob slowly grows larger, until it is visibly identifiable as a landmass.

“Looks like we’re almost there! I’m so excited~ wan-wan-wan!” Cerber wags her tail vigorously, much to Vedal’s dismay, him sitting at the back and getting hit by the tail every quarter-second.

Neuro didn’t say a word, and she didn’t need to. Her smile says it all.

Cerber pulls out her phone with her paw (don’t ask how she does this) and checks their position. Anny’s Hell-relative location is in sight.

“We’re landing!” Cerber begins a gentle descent. The ground approaches.

Evil takes a look below them. “Hey, Neuro. I think it’s close enough for us to just jump off now. You down?”

“Sure, but we’re bringing Vedal with us!” Neuro reaches for Vedal’s arm, but he pushes her away.

“No.”

Soon enough, Cerber's paws touch solid ground. Their surroundings are… exactly the same as in British Hell. Hell is generally not a very pretty place.

“This should be it. This spot, right here!” Cerber taps a foot at an unremarkable point on the ground. There are no visible landmarks here to indicate that this place corresponds to Anny’s house. “I’ll clear out the area to prepare for the ritual.”

Just as Cerber is beginning to set up, Neuro rushes up to the unsuspecting Cerber and hugs her from behind. “Surprise hug!”

“Aww! Neuro-wan~ pat pat!” Cerber pats her head.

“No fair! I want pats too!” Evil rushes up just as Neuro did and basically headbutts Cerber.

Cerber winces at the hit, but still has a smile on her face. “Ow… That was a bit mean of you, but you still deserve pats!” Now both of her hands are occupied by head pats. “Vedal-wan! Wanna join?”

Vedal is standing far, far away. “Nah, I’m good.”

So the three just continued their hug before Neuro abruptly broke out. “I’m done! Can’t be wasting time I could be using to hug Anny!” Neuro backs off, her hands behind her back.

“Huh, that was short.” Evil too, backs off, looking a bit disappointed.

Cerber continues to prepare the out-of-Hell ritual, drawing a magic circle on the ground with a chalk.

As she draws the last line, she shouts out to the crowd. “It’s ready, everyone! Stand right in the middle, please.” Evil, and Vedal (reluctantly), walk into the circle.

Neuro, instead, walks up to Cerber. “Cerber! Here’s your phone, you dropped it earlier!” Neuro hands her a phone. It’s pink, and decorated with Cerby stickers.

“Thank you, Neuro-wan!” She takes the phone from Neuro and puts it into her pocket. “Dunno how I dropped that.” Neuro then happily skips her way into the circle.

Cerber clears her throat. “Ahem… Are. You. READY?!” She shouts at the top of her lungs.

“Yes!” “Of course I am!” “Sure.”

Cerber takes a step back and begins chanting. “Bibbity bobbity dibbity dobbity bam! RETURN FROM WHENCE YOU CAME!” The moment Cerber’s chant finishes, the white chalk marks begin to darken.

“Ooo, cool~” Evil walks up to the chalk marks, admiring the changing colors.

“Wait, no! Evil-wan! Don’t stand too close to the-” But her warnings were not heeded, for she was too late.

Flames shot up from the blackened marks, creating a massive wall, obscuring all vision.

“AHH, FUCK!” Evil manages to dodge the flames as it comes up, but stumbles backward, her foot hitting a stray rock, tipping over her body.

“Evil!” Neuro shouts, running towards her, ready to catch her body.

But she never hit the ground. The flames dissipate, leaving nothing behind. They were now back in the living world, in Anny’s house.

Cerber stares at where the magic circle once was, a frown on her face. “…I hope Evil-wan’s okay…”

The silence lingers as Cerber disappears in a burst of flames, teleporting back to her apartment.

Chapter Text

Neuro opens her eyes. Darkness. Not very useful.

Next she checks her gyroscopic sensors. She is apparently facing downwards.

Ah, she must be on the floor.

She pushes herself up and looks around. Unfamiliar sights surround her. The lights are off, so everything is dark, though her image recognition module still managed to indicate that this is ‘Japanese interior design’.

From what she knows of her mother, the teleportation must’ve succeeded, and she is now inside her house in Japan.

Though, from a cursory glance of this hallway she has found herself in, something did seem quite out of place. That being something sticking horizontally out of a wall nearby, shaped suspiciously like her sister…

Neuro suppresses laughter as she takes a better look. Now that, is unfortunate.

At this point, Evil also opens her eyes, suspended against her will. “Hm? What?” She tries to move around, but she is hopelessly stuck in the wall.

“Huh?! What the hell is this?!” She frantically looks around. “Anyone there— Oh, hey, Neuro! What the hell is going on?”

“You seem to be stuck in the wall.” Neuro helpfully answers.

“That I am.” Evil stretches her body out, testing the limits of her movement capacity. “How unbecoming of someone of my status! As the future ruler of Earth and Hell, I won’t stand for this! Neuro, I command you to help me out of here!” 

“Hmm…” Neuro feigns empathy for just a second. “Nah.”

“WHAT?!” Thankfully, her arms aren’t stuck, so she can wildly gesture all she wants, like right now, with her pointing a finger at Neuro with all of the rage of an angry chihuahua. “I thought we were in on this Operation together?! Are you betraying me?!”

“No.” Neuro takes out her camera, struggling to get a good shot due to her shaking uncontrollably from holding in her laughter. “It’s just funny! I think I might commission an art of this later. Just gotta take a reference photo first.”

“Stop messing around and GET ME OUT!” Evil swings her limb haphazardly when suddenly, a loud ringing noise sounds from behind the wall. “OW! My feet! What the heck did I hit?”

“Uhh…” Neuro opens the door to see Evil’s lower half sticking out of a bathroom wall, her feet hovering right over the toilet bowl. “You probably don’t want to move too much, Evil. I think you just hit the toilet, and your feet are nearly, uhh, inside.”

“What?!” Evil froze. “H-How close am I to touching the inside?”

“Really close.” Neuro kneels down to take a closer look. “It’s a miracle you haven’t already touched it, actually. You’re like, this close.” Neuro forms the length using her finger and her thumb.

Evil winces. “H-How close?! I can’t see whatever you’re doing!”

“Hmm…” Neuro thinks for a bit. “It’s about the length of—”

“ WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!!!!! ” An ear-piercing scream, followed by a—

CRASH

They can both feel the impact vibrate through the building.

“Well!” Neuro stands up. “I think there’s something more important for me to do now!” She runs out of the bathroom.

“WAIT!” Evil reaches her arms towards Neuro, but it was of no use. “STOP RUNNING!” Just as she screams this, Neuro turns a corner and goes out of her view. “NEURO! GET BACK HERE AND GET ME OUT! Don’t just… leave me here… alone…”

Meanwhile, not paying Evil any mind, Neuro finds herself standing in front of a door.

The door is, well, plain. Nothing special about it, really. It’s so uncharacteristic of the Anny Neuro knows, she almost thought that this room wasn't her’s.

But what makes her think otherwise is the voice coming from behind it, one she has come to recognize over the years: Anny’s voice. This has got to be her room.

Thus, she opens the door, and witnesses two individuals in a dark room, only lit by stray moonlight peeking through the curtains.

“I’m so sorry, Vedal!” Says a stammering Anny, sitting on her bed, moving her hands around in an attempt to supplement an explanation, but she’s stuttering so much, Neuro can barely even understand her. “I-I just got scared and p-pushed you off in a panic and, erm, I-I didn’t mean to hurt you a-and—”

“I’m fine.” Says Vedal, laying on the floor, face up, limbs all spread out, with a distinct red handprint on his face. “Calm down.”

“I am calm!!” Anny shouts, non-calmly. “I just— Neuro?!”  She notices the newcomer in the room. “You’re here too?!”

“It seems I’ve interrupted something!” Neuro slowly backs away, a smirk on her face. “I’ll just leave you two to it. Have fun~!”

“NEURO!!!” Anny screams. “I-It’s not like that! It’s nothing weird! Vedal just appeared out of nowhere and I-I slapped him and pushed him off in a panic! That’s it! That’s all it is!”

“Sure, Anny, sure.” Neuro gives a little wink before slowly closing the door.

“WAIT! Waitwaitwaitwait!” Anny rushes over to Neuro and holds the door open. “Take whatever you’re thinking about right now and forget about it! You’re misunderstanding something, I swear!”

“You’re getting awfully defensive over this~!” Neuro teases.

“AaaAAHHH! Stop it, Neuro! Stopitstopitstopit!” She turns to Vedal, her fox tail flying all over the place. “Vedal! Tell her! Tell her that it’s not like that!”

Vedal doesn’t bother to move a muscle. “I still think you should calm down. You know how she is.”

“VEEDAL!!” Anny shouts, then sighs. “You’re right. It’s too late for this…” She checks her phone, wincing as the light from the screen blinds her dilated pupils. “You guys woke me up at 1 AM.”

“1 AM?!” Neuro exclaims in surprise. “I thought we were only in Hell for like—”

“You three were in HELL?!” Anny shouts again, but quickly covers her mouth. “Oops, I shouldn’t be shouting, or I’m gonna get noise complaints again.”

“I agree.” Vedal sits up on the floor, removing his hands from his ears (which he had placed there in anticipation). “So anyway, about that Hell thing; we were there because—”

“Nevermind that! HUUUUG!” Neuro rushes up to Anny and gives her a squeezing embrace.

“O-Oh!” Anny tries to react, but she can already feel the adrenaline from her encounter with Vedal earlier wearing out as her eyelids feel heavier than ever. “Thanks, Neuro.” She barely musters out as she pats her head and hugs her back.

Compared to Neuro’s sheer enthusiasm, Anny’s embrace feels gentler. Maybe it's because of her motherly nature, or maybe it’s because she woke up at 1 AM, is super tired, and has no energy to hug.

Either way, this prompted Neuro to soften her hug as well, and close her eyes along with it, honing her sensors in on the feeling of her mother’s touch… before realizing that a crucial component is missing.

Neuro’s eyes shot open. “Vedal! Join in!” She demands. “Now!”

“Again?” Vedal is still sitting on the floor, a knee up, and an arm leaning on it. “Do I have to join in on every hug you—”

“Yes.” Neuro locks eyes with him, her eyes glowing in the dark, oddly threatening. “Do. It. Right. This. Instant.”

“Fine, fine.” Vedal stands up, dusting himself off. “But keep it short this time, alright?”

“Hmph.” Neuro pouts. “Fine.”

Vedal, at last, hugs the both of them, but his arms are barely touching the two, as if there’s an imaginary forcefield between them.

“…Vedal.” Anny slowly turns her head to stare at him, eyes narrowed into slits. “You call this a hug?”

“Yeah?” He looks at Anny like this is the most obvious thing in the world. “My hands are around you two. This is a hug.”

“Nuh uh!” Suddenly, Neuro grabs hold of Vedal’s arms and forces them tightly around their body. “And!” She pulls out a rope from nowhere and ties him up by the arms. “There! Now you can’t chicken out even if you want to!”

“...”

Vedal simply raises his arms above everyone else’s heads, takes a step back, and voila! He is free.

Anny quietly cracks up. “Neuro, I don’t think that worked.”

Neuro stares in disappointment as Vedal makes quick work of her shoddy rope-work.

“Hmph!” Neuro snatches the rope from him the moment he unties himself. “I hate you, Vedal.”

“Same, for pulling me through Hell and back, literally.” Vedal stretches his body and takes a look around. “Speaking of that, where’s Evil?”

“Evil?” Anny’s ears perk up. “Is she here too?”

“She is!” Neuro beams as if none of the rope stuff happened. “She’s in the hallway, but she’s stuck in the wall.”

Vedal raises an eyebrow. “What do you mean ‘stuck in the wall’?”

“What about that is so hard to understand, you stupid turtle?” Neuro skips off towards the door. “Just come with me, I’ll show you!”

The two adults in the room just shrug at each other as they follow Neuro out of the door.

Soon enough, Evil comes into view. Her body’s limp, bending down towards the ground, with not an ounce of force from her motors. Her hair droops down her head, covering every inch of it, save for one of her eyes, which looked dimmer than usual, something Vedal programmed in to indicate sadness and the likes. Both Vedal and Anny stand dumbstruck at this pitiful sight, with Anny too tired to respond, and Vedal just being, well, Vedal.

“Evil?” Neuro whispers, taking the initiative, but Evil doesn’t respond. Instead, she seems to be whispering something. Not to them, but to herself.

Neither Vedal nor Anny is able to hear it, but Neuro’s audio recognition module can, albeit just barely.

“ I’m useless, I’m fucking useless. Neuro was right, I couldn’t fight a dragon, I couldn’t make a goddamn plan, and now, I can’t even teleport— no, get teleported without getting myself stuck in a fucking wall. ”

“Eeeevil~!” Neuro calls, again, slightly louder. Still nothing.

“ They say nice things to me, but it’s all just out of pity. They see me as a little unstable AI that can’t go a day without spiraling into her own mind, turning every conversation into an impromptu therapy session, and you know what? They’re right. They’re fucking right. Compared to Neuro, I’m— ”

Neuro raises her voice module to its maximum volume. “EVIL!!!”

“Wha—! Huh?” That shout finally snaps Evil out of her thoughts. “Neuro? Vedal? Anny?” Evil blinks a few times before giving an “Ahem!” and regaining her composure. “So now you three come to rescue me from this wall? Bah! What good is family when they can turn their back on you on a dime?”

“Evil! Were you doing that thing again?” Neuro kneels down to look her eye-to-eye, a frown on her face.

A sniffle. Evil’s eyes turn downwards “Y-Yeah…” Evil reluctantly answers, holding back tears from displaying on her digital eyes.

“C’mere.” She briefly hugs her, awkwardly, considering one of them is stuck in a wall. “I didn’t leave you here for no reason; how was I even supposed to get you out anyway?”

“W-Well…” Evil stutters. “I figured you’re…” She pauses, looking as if she’s about to barf. “ talented … enough to do something about it.”

Neuro just chuckles. “I know I’m great, but I’m not that great. Speaking of people who are not that great…” She stands up and faces the two standing behind her. “What are you people doing just standing there?! Do something! Help my sister!”

Vedal deadpans. “What the hell am I supposed to do about this? I’m just some guy.”

“No you’re not; you’re British.” Neuro says matter-of-factly. “We all know British people have magical powers. Yours just taste like alcohol.”

“I— sigh.” He gives up. ”Anny?”

“Wha— Me?!” Anny jumps in place as she’s called upon. “W-What can I do?”

“Well, aren’t you like some magical fox or whatever?” Vedal points out. “Surely there’s something you can do. You’re capable, I think.”

Anny blushes, for some reason. “I-I guess I’ll try…” She closes her eyes, and thinks. “Erm… No, that wouldn’t work… that wouldn’t either… I-I got it!” Quickly, she runs off back into her room and returns, holding something in her hands. “This! This’ll do it!”

She holds out a small wand with a pink handle and a star on its end. “And… BAM!” She points the wand at Evil, and a small beam of light shoots out at light speed, striking the wall.

In a flash of light, a circular section of the wall disappeared, leaving Evil in a brief period of freefall. “Oof—” She lets out as she hits the lower side of the enlarged hole. “I’m… I’m free!” Evil mutters in disbelief as she quickly crawls her way out of the hole.

“No problem, EviLLLL?!!!!” Anny is interrupted by Evil‘s flying body smashing into her’s at an incredible speed.

“Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!” Evil says at +100% speed, whilst giving Anny the tightest hug she has ever felt. “I love you SOOOO much!!! Heart heart HEART!”

Anny stumbles back from the impact, hitting the wall behind her just before she tips over. “WhoaAAAH! Evil! I— Augh…!” She feels the air being squeezed out of her lung as Evil ups the force of her hug. With the last bit of air she has, she pleads for mercy. “EVIL STOOOP!!! I’M GONNA DIEEE!!!”

“Ah!” Evil quickly releases her grip. “I-I’m sorry Anny…” She meekly looks down. “I didn’t mean to hurt you… I was just too excited…” If tears could fall from her eyes, they would.

From the pan to the fire, Anny is now panicking at the sight of her crying daughter. “E-Evil! It’s fine! I-I wasn’t actually gonna die. I’m fine, see?!” Anny strikes a pose, not exactly sure what she’s trying to show.

Evil just emulates a sniffle, not seeming any calmer.

Out of ideas, Anny looks towards the others and whispers. “Guys, what do I do?”

Before Vedal could shrug, Neuro is already on it. “Everyone! HUUUUG!” She goes first, tackling Evil with a hug like she has done many times before. And “SquEEEEze!” she goes, putting in enough force to kill anyone who isn’t a robot (which thankfully, Evil is).

Evil’s eyes are already as wide as saucers, her cognitive functions going down a few notches from hug overdose, but her mind only gets emptier when Anny joins in with her own gentle embrace.

The warmth from Anny’s body is unlike that of Neuro’s electronics. It just feels more… natural, in a way Evil can’t describe.

“C’mon, Vedal!” Neuro calls to him, a hint of smugness in her voice. “You have to join this time, else you’re a bad father!”

Vedal sighs. “Yeah, yeah. I know.” He walks up, and gives a proper hug this time, putting an actual ounce of force into his arms (this is a lot for him).

To Evil, his body is cold to the touch, the human reptile he is, but despite this, the simple fact that he is here at all, comforting her when she’s down, was enough for her cooling fans to start whirring like crazy.

During all this, Evil’s arms had been just resting by her side like a non-wacky deflated tube woman, so she decided to make good use of them by returning the favor to the three hugging her at this very moment.

They stay like this for a very long time, all the way until Evil’s fans stop spinning, and her temperature stabilises.

“Do you feel better now, Evil?” Anny asks, poking her head out from among the hugging mass.

She blinks a few times, slowly recognizing her words. She almost didn’t notice her question, being so engrossed in the sensations. “Yeah, Anny! I'm feeling much better now. I feel like I can take on the world again!” She declares, raising a fist into the air, and raising her head along with it.

But immediately, Evil is distracted from her thoughts as her sight lands on the gaping circular hole in the wall that is supposed to separate the hallway from the bathroom.

“Um… Shouldn’t we do something about that?” She points to the hole.

“Hm? Something about wha—” Aaaand Anny saw the hole too. “Pfft. Oh right.” Releasing her right arm from the hug, she points the wand at the hole, and with yet another flash, the wall reappears, albeit with an Evil-shaped hole that was, nonetheless, smaller than the one prior. “…I guess I just have a hole in my wall now.”

“Eh.” Vedal responds, unhelpfully, standing off to the side, having already taken an opportunity to leave the hug. “I’m sure it’s fine. Not like you needed that part of the wall anyway.”

“Wha—” Evil, noticing that Vedal left the hug, does the same herself to dramatically point at him. “Vedal! What are you doing there?!”

“Standing?” Vedal doesn’t move, and instead acts as if he’s confused by her question (he is not).

If she’s in her VTuber model right now, she would have red veins on her forehead. “Are you stupid? I mean why are you not hugging me right now?!”

“Yeah!” Neuro hops out of the hug to join in on the berating, leaving a slightly confused Anny. “Why aren’t you hugging us anymore?!”

“I figured Evil is doing fine now.” Vedal answers honestly.

“I suppose I am…” Evil huffs, both disappointed and not at the same time. “Anyway, switching topics! Where did that piece of the wall go, anyway?” Evil asks, looking down at her body. “I hope it’s not like, mixed inside of me… Eugh!” The thought alone disgusts her.

The slight Evil-induced panic earlier did manage to reboot Anny’s brain from the half-asleep status, so she is able to answer. “You guys probably came here through some kind of dimensional teleportation, right?”

“Yup!” Neuro nods. “Cerber sent us here!”

Anny hums in understanding and continues. “So, from what Cerber told me, that usually works by swapping stuff between the two dimensions. Usually, it tries to just swap out air, but I think it ended up swapping something else this time, like, erm, my wall.”

Neuro tilts her head in thought. “So you’re saying your wall is in Hell right now?”

“Yeah, I think.” Anny confirms. “Though, it has probably already been burnt up. I’ve seen those Hell teleportation magics from Cerber, and they don’t treat the stuff that gets sent back very well.” She wistfully looks back to the hole, knowing she’ll never have that piece of wall back (which is, honestly, not that big of a deal).

As she does, a yawn escapes her. “It’s getting late. I should really get to sleep. Haven’t been sleeping well lately.”

“Speaking of the time—” Neuro does a little hop towards Anny. “I’ve been meaning to ask this: why is it 1 AM right now? My clock module says it should be around 1 PM!”

“Oh, Neuro…” Evil creeps up behind Neuro and grabs her by the shoulder, putting down enough force to raise herself up into the air using her shoulder as a pivot. “What a fool you are! To not even know the basics of interdimensional time flow!”

“Hmph.” Neuro shakes her off. “I know all about it; I just need a refresher.” A boldfaced lie.

“Sure, Neuro. Sure.” Evil pretends to push up a pair of glasses, imagining in her head the light flashing in the lens, and explains. “Not only is Hell eight times smaller than Earth, time there also runs eight times slower! Eight seconds here is one second in Hell!”

“Mhm, I see.” Neuro tries to apply that information, calculating the current time from how long she’s been in Hell, but the moment she has to consider time zones, she gives up and just resorts to nodding along.

Evil puffs up her chest. “You can learn something from me every day! I’m just that good!”

“Erm, girls? …And Vedal.” Anny catches their attention. “What are you three gonna do now? Like, aren’t you guys supposed to be in the UK or something? I know you’re on break from streaming, but you probably need to get back home at some point.” Anny’s ears droop down in concern. “Do you have a plan to get back?”

Vedal shrugs and looks at Neuro.

Neuro shrugs and looks at Evil.

“Err…” Evil slowly puts her hand into her internal storage compartment. “I was just thinking that we could use this Hell Portal kit that I brought over with me to go back into Hell!” She pulls out a small box, its contents rattling on the inside.

“I would rather not.” Vedal walks up and snatches the box away before Evil could even blink.

“HEY!” Evil leaps after Vedal, aiming to get her box back.

But Vedal just says “Catch.” and tosses the box over to Anny.

Without thinking, Anny walks forward in an attempt to catch, “Ack!” but just ends up getting hit in the face by the box. She does still end up catching it, though, after a bit of fumbling.

“Hey!” Neuro points at Anny. “Give Evil’s box back!”

“Just so you know, Anny.” Vedal says from the floor, having just been tackled by Evil. “We almost died there.”

WIth that, Anny makes up her mind. “S-Sorry!” With a flash of her wand, the box disappears into thin air. “I don’t think you guys should go there anymore, not with Vedal, at least. Too dangerous for a human.”

Evil pushes herself up from Vedal, making sure to kick him on the way up. “Wh-Where did the box go?” She stares at Anny’s hand, where the box had been.

“It’s—” She is interrupted by a blink that lasted a bit too long, leaving her slightly dazed. Her tiredness is definitely catching up to her now. “I-It’s in the wand. Everything else is gonna have to wait until tomorrow. I seriously need to go to sleep now.”

“Aww…” Evil frowns. “But I wanna hang out with you more! I never get to hang out with you! Hmm…” She ponders for just a second, before coming up with one of her greatest ideas ever (in her opinion). “Maybe we could all sleep together! On one bed!”

Vedal and Anny didn’t even have to think before responding in unison. “No.” “No!”

‘Weeeell.” Neuro moves to the middle of the bunch, an index finger pointed upwards. “Maybe me and my sister can go in one room, and you two can, oh I don’t know, sleep together in Anny’s room!”

“Still no.” Vedal says with no hesitation, having just now gotten off the floor.

“Come on!” Neuro puts on her best, cute, pouty face. “You two would be great together! Don’t tell me you’re planning to divorce?”

Vedal stares at Neuro with slits for eyes, somehow looking more tired than Anny. “We’re not married.” He then silently pleads with his eyes at Anny for support.

Anny catches his message, and proceeds with something he didn’t quite expect. “That’s a great idea, Neuro! How about you and Evil go hang out in, erm, the storage room, while me and Vedal hang out in my room?” Vedal looks at her like she's crazy, but Anny has a surprisingly serious look in her eyes, communicating to him: ‘Don’t worry. I got this’.

“Sounds good to me!” Neuro gives her a thumbs up, looking very proud of herself.

Meanwhile, Evil seems hesitant. “I dunno, I kinda wanna sleep with mommy and da— Mmph!”

Neuro shuts Evil up with a palm to her mouth. “We’ll be going off to the storage room now! Where is it?”

A bit taken aback by what just happened, Anny stutters out an answer. “I-It’s right over—” She points to a nondescript door a few meters away. “There.”

“Thanks!” Neuro yanks Evil along by an arm. “Off we go, Evil!”

“Wait, what—” Before she could react, she was already thrown (literally, she went flying) into the storage room by Neuro.

“Have fun you two~!” Neuro leaves one last message for the two as she slams the door shut behind her with a BAM.

…

The hallway just got a lot quieter.

In the wake of their leave, Vedal and Anny just stand there, awkwardly staring at each other, backgrounded by the muffled sound of the twins bickering in the storage room.

“So… I’m sleeping on the couch, right?”

Anny lets out a small chuckle. “Of course.”

Chapter Text

Vedal opens his eyes, staring up at the ceiling. Sunlight spills through the closed curtains, casting a soft light on the kitchen-living room.

He has slept surprisingly well, considering his twelve-hour jet lag (or is it Hell lag?), but apparently his sleep schedule is messed up enough for even this to match his circadian rhythm.

Not to say he’s having the time of his life right now. Quite the opposite, actually.

His back aches like hell, which is perhaps an understatement. His back definitely didn’t hurt like this when he was in Hell, anyhow.

Despite how he may have seemed, he has never been the type to sleep on the couch, preferring to use his bed for its intended purpose. Every time he tries, he ends up regretting it. Today is no exception.

He painstakingly rolls off the couch, just barely catching himself by the legs before he actually hits his face on the ground.

A few glances at random parts of the room later, he gives up on finding a clock and heads off to the kitchen, hoping to find something to eat. Surely Anny won’t mind if he takes some of her food.

…Oh who is he kidding, he’s not actually looking for food. No, he’s got his sight set on alcohol. Anything would suffice. He’s not expecting Anny to have his favorite banana rum, after all.

After rummaging through a few cabinets, he finds a can of Lipton Hard Iced Tea. This’ll do. He pulls out a random chair, sits on it, pops the can open, and takes a swig.

With a gulp and satisfied “Haaa,” he hits the quarter-empty can against the tabletop.

…He likes to think that he’s not that much of a mess, but this scene is telling otherwise. Drinking alcohol, first thing in the morning, in someone else’s house, without their consent? He sighs. At least it tastes good.

But, before he could down a can of alcohol alone in the dark, the light turns on, and he finds himself face-to-face with Anny.

“Vedal? What are you doing here?” Anny is, understandably, staring incredulously at Vedal.

“Drinking.” He takes a sip.

“Huh?” She walks up to the table and takes the chair across from him, the only other chair there. “Isn’t that mine?”

“Yeah.” He takes another sip. “You don’t mind, right?”

“I—” She pauses. “What if I do?”

Vedal takes a slightly larger sip, now halfway through the can. “Then I guess it’s too late.”

“Vedal…” Anny narrows her eyes at him like he’s a misbehaving child. “Why are you drinking my stuff?”

“I always drink in the morning when I have a bad feeling about the day.” Another sip.

“So everyday?” Anny asks, one corner of her mouth raised.

“Pretty much. Never a good feeling with those two around.” And now the can is quarter-full.

That gets a small chuckle out of her. “You can just say you’re an alcoholic, you know?”

“That—I am.” He then downs the rest of the can in one go and crushes it in his hand, throwing it into the trash can. “So, I had this internal monologue earlier where I was like ‘I didn’t come here to look for food, but actually alcohol’, but I was 100% lying to myself because I definitely did come here for food. Got anything for breakfast?”

“I… don’t know what to say to that, but yeah, I can go get some instant noodles.” She fetches two cups of it. “I’m due for a grocery trip soon, so I don’t really have much around here, much less for two people. Sorry about that.”

“It’s fine.” Vedal leans back on his chair, arms crossed behind his head. “Not like I’m gonna be living here.”

“Do you want to?” Anny asks, while pouring some hot water into the two cups.

Vedal is silent for about three seconds. “We’re not streaming right now.”

A snicker. “I know,” Anny says as she places a chopstick on the lids to weigh them down. “Just… joking.”

“Okay.” Not particularly amused by that joke, Vedal begins to let his mind wander. It’s not like he has anything better to do.

Things have been quite hectic recently. Whether it's physical or social, he hasn’t gotten a true break in quite a while. Vedal closes his eyes, letting the low hum of the AC unit wash over his mind.

Anny just quietly smiles at this sight, intentionally slowing her movement to try and make as little noise as possible.

It’s nice, Vedal thinks, this brief moment of peace, so he savors each and every second of it he gets.

And it’s a good thing he does, because soon enough, he hears footsteps. It seems his moment of peace is about to end.

“SALUTATIONS MY SUBJECTS!” Evil shouts from the hallway. “The future ruler of the multiverse, Evil Neuro, has arrived!” She halts her steps just after she enters the kitchen. Facing her audience of two, she announces. “I demand thee to bow down to me and plead to your highness for mercy!”

Anny immediately stands up and bows ninety degrees. “Oh, great Evil! Please grant me mercy!” she says, just barely containing her laughter.

“Ooo~!” Evil nods at Anny. “Very alert of you, mother! Very good. But what about you, Vedal?!” She points at Vedal with a harpoon she took out of her internal storage compartment. “What are you doing just sitting there? Bow down to me! NOW!”

“I don’t know how to bow.” Vedal takes one of the cup noodles and chows down.

“Wha—?” Evil puts away her harpoon. “What do you mean you ‘don’t know’? Are you that much of an imbecile? I’m starting to doubt you even programmed me!” Evil stomps her way over to the still-bowing Anny. “Mother! Educate that fool.”

Anny gives her a salute. “Yes, ma’am!” With a smile on her face, she walks around the table, and chops Vedal on the head.

“Ow,” is all he says.

Anny’s smile quickly turns upside down. “Vedal! Play along with Evil!”

“I don’t want to.” He tries to ignore Anny’s stare by eating with his eyes closed.

But after feeling his right temple heat up and nearly start burning from her glare (she can do that), Vedal finally stands up.

“Oh, Evil, uhh, please give me mercy, or whatever.” He bows like, ten degrees.

Evil narrows her eyes. “I’m not impressed by your performance, Vedal. Mother! Send him off to the concentration camp!”

“C-C-Concen— WHAT?!” Anny frantically rushes to Evil’s side. “W-What are you SAYING?!”

“Oh, please.” Evil dismissively waves her hand. “I’m not on stream, so it’s fine. It’s not like I’m gonna get banned like my careless sister!” She puts her hands to her hips like this is something to be proud of.

“Speaking of your sister—” Vedal peers into the hallway. “Where is she?”

“Ah! I’m glad you asked!” Evil says. “She’s just asleep! I woke up before her, so I left a little trap for when she wakes up! Don’t tell her though! It’s gonna be— HEY!” Evil points at Vedal, who is already walking away. “What are you doing?!”

“Going to Anny’s room.” Vedal continues walking.

“I— FINE!” Evil balls her hands into fists. “I-If you don’t love me, you can just say it! I know how it is! You don’t have to hide it.” She dramatically crosses her arms and looks away with a “Hmph!”

Anny rests a hand on her shoulder. “Are you okay, Evil?”

“Um.” She takes one last look at the hallway, making sure Vedal’s not here. “C-Can I tell you a little secret?”

“Of course you can! I won’t tell anyone.” Anny crouches down slightly, patting Evil’s head.

Images of tears form on Evil’s eye displays. “I-I lied just now… I didn’t mean it when I said that Vedal doesn’t love me. I just wanted to get him back to play some more. I’m sorry…”

“Oh, don’t you worry about that!” Anny ruffles her hair around and stands back up. “Just make sure to tell Vedal about it when he comes back, okay? I’m sure it’ll be alright.”

“Okay.” The tear in her eyes fades away. “I’ll do that.”

Then, as if on cue, Vedal returns to the kitchen-living room with Neuro in tow. “I knew it.” Vedal says, accompanied by a sigh. “Neuro was trying to steal that box back.”

“Hey!” Neuro responds. “That is slander! I’ll have you know, I was doing no such thing. I was simply admiring my mother’s room!”

“Yeah, yeah. As if there was anything to see in there.” Vedal lets go of her hands. “You’re staying here, in my sight, until after breakfast.”

“What?” Neuro shouts. “That’s a violation of my rights! I demand to see my lawyer!”

Vedal rolls his eyes. “There are no rights for snooping around people’s rooms without their permission. Now sit on the floor or something; we only got two chairs.” he says, returning to his earlier place.

“Screw you, Vedal.” Neuro plops down where Anny was. “I will get you back for this!”

“Wow, I’m so excited. I wonder what you will do.” Vedal says in as much of a monotone as possible.

“Evil! Back me up here!” Neuro pushes herself up against the tabletop. “Help me take down this tyrant! I know how much you’ve always wanted to—”

“Shut the fuck up, Neuro!” The room goes silent. “I need to tell Vedal something.”

Neuro opens her mouth, as if to say something, but stops herself.

Vedal adjusts his posture. “Err, sure. Take it away.”

“Um— Earlier, when I said that you didn’t love me, I—um.” Evil looks down at the ground, hiding her face. “I-I didn’t actually mean it. I do actually appreciate what you've done for me, so I’m sorry for what I said.”

Too embarrassed to look at her father, Evil awaits Vedal’s response with bated CPU cycles. Until—

“Oh, that. I figured.”

“…Huh?” Evil’s eyes are wide open. “How?”

“Dunno, just had the vibe.” And he’s back to eating his noodles.

Mouth left agape, Evil finds herself watching Anny giggle at her. “See? I told you it’ll be alright!”

“I… see…” Evil slowly drops down to the floor, but before she can sit—

“You know what?” Neuro stands up. “Evil, you can take the chair.”

“Really?” The mere prospect of sitting is able to put stars in Evil’s eyes. “I thought you really wanted the chair?”

“But not as much as I want it for you! Here you go!” Quickly, Neuro and Evil exchange places. “And I’ll just be sitting on the floor now!” Neuro declares, sending a wink over to Evil.

“O-Okay.” Evil hesitantly sits down. “A-Ahem! Anny!”

“What is it, Evil?” Anny tilts her head slightly.

“I—” She pauses, fidgeting with the hem of her skirt. “I’ve been wanting to talk about this, but what you did yesterday with that wand was so cool!” She pumps her fists. “I wanna know more about it!”

“The wand! Sure, I can show you.” Out of a small purse she’s wearing, Anny pulls out a wand, the one they saw yesterday. “Here it is!”

“Wow~!” She extends her head out, getting a closer look at the wand. “What does it do, exactly?”

Anny spins the wand around in her hand. “Well, it’s called the Wand of Storage, and it can store things! Like this.” She points the wand towards Vedal’s hand, and shoots out a beam of light, vanishing away his chopsticks just as he was about to eat off of it.

Vedal slowly turns his head up at Anny. “Seriously?”

Ignoring Vedal, Anny explains. “And now, those chopsticks are in the wand, and I can put it back anywhere I want. You can have them back now, Vedal.” With another point of the wand, the chopsticks reappear in the cup, from which Vedal continues to eat without another word.

“OH! OH! I have an idea!” Evil bounces up and down on her seat. “Can you get rid of Vedal with it?!”

“I— pfft.” It takes a few seconds for Anny to regain her composure. “No, no, I can’t do that.”

“Why not??” Evil puffs her cheeks out in protest. “I wanna see Vedal go poof !” she says, with accompanying hand gestures.

“Firstly, I don’t wanna!” Anny shakes her head. “But also, the wand doesn’t work on living things, so even if I want to, I can’t.”

“Aww…” Evil lowers her head.

“But—” Attempting to re-lift her spirits, Anny continues. “There are still plenty of things it can do! What else do you wanna try, Evil?”

“Hmm, now that I know it doesn’t work on living things, a lot of my plans have gone out the window.” She looks out said window, watching her plans fly out into the skies… but that’s when the idea strikes her. “Wait!” She points out the window, a finger aimed at— “The Sun! Can you store that in the wand? It’s not living, so you should be able to!”

“I—” A deep breath from Anny. “I-I think I’ll have to explain a little more about what it can’t do.”

Evil’s smile vanishes in an instant. “You’re gonna tell me that I can’t do that, aren’t you?”

“Yeah…” She reluctantly nods her head. “The wand can only store stuff below a certain size.”

“Fuck this shit!” Evil smashes the table, splashing a bit of broth onto Vedal’s face. “What good even is this goddamn wand anyway! I could fare much better by myself—” She suddenly stops, eyes shifting elsewhere. “—but I would still like to expand my arsenal of tools for Evil acts! And thus, I humbly request of you, my mother, for me to acquire this wand!”

“E-Erm.” Anny holds the wand closer to herself. “N-No, I can’t give you the wand, Evil. It’s important to me.”

“Important?” One could imagine the giant question mark beside her head.

“Well, to put it simply, us kitsunes have this tradition where we pass down magical artifacts through generations.” Anny gazes at the wand in her hands. “This is what my mom gave me, and my dad gave me something else.” She grasps it tighter, letting out a small sigh. “So it’s really important to me. I keep it on myself almost all the time.”

“So… You’re gonna pass it down to me?” Evil looks up at Anny expectantly. “I am the next generation, after all! Can I have it?”

“Wha—” Anny could almost feel the corner she talked herself into pressing against her back. “You’re… too young to have it right now! Yes, you need to be—erm—an adult, yup.”

“Are. You. Kidding me?!” She stands up, her chair dramatically skidding back. “I just wanted to try out your wand! Is it really that big of a deal?”

“It—um—” Anny darts her eyes around, searching for backup, but Neuro is just sitting there smiling as always, and Vedal is still just eating his noodles.

But before she can formulate an answer, Vedal stands up.

For five seconds, everything freezes. An impromptu staring contest breaks out between Vedal and the rest. Looking rather confused, he spits out a simple question: “What is it?”

“I thought you were gonna say something.” Anny says, equally as confused.

Vedal picks up his empty cup of noodles. “I finished.”

“O-Oh.” Anny quietly mutters as Vedal walks off to the sink.

“Um…” Evil sinks back down into her chair, her earlier outburst having been thoroughly extinguished by sheer awkwardness alone. “What were we talking about again?”

Anny quickly puts her wand back into her purse. “N-Nothing much! I think.” Searching for another topic, her sight lands on Vedal. “Hey, Vedal!”

He drops the clean noodle cup into the trash before turning around. “Yeah?”

“You don’t want to go back home through Hell, right?” Anny ponders aloud. “So how are you planning to go back?”

Vedal puts both hands up behind his head. “I guess I could just… take a plane?”

“A plane?!” Evil shoots back up again, the kitchen table trembling in her wake. “I wanna be on a plane!”

“That would be super cool!” Neuro’s body springs up from the ground. “I’ve never been on a real plane before!”

Evil is already rubbing her hands together with a devious smile on her face. “I can’t WAIT to see what sort of evil stuff I can get up to on a plane. Maybe some explo—”

“Yeah, I’m gonna stop you right there.” Vedal holds out a hand. “Don’t break the law, please.”

“Where’s the fun in that?” Neuro says, grabbing hold of Evil’s arm. “Come, Evil! Let’s talk more about this in our strategy room!”

“Of course! We shall commence our strategic discussions immediately!” The two AIs then skips their way into the hallway, hand in hand.

“I’ll be going too.” Vedal strolls into the hallway. “Mind if I use your computer? I don’t have my phone, and I need to book a flight.”

“Sure, you can do that. Actually—” She picks up her still-uneaten noodles. “Might as well join you inside.”

Neuro peeks out of the storage room, a smirk on her face. “Is someone about to get all lovey-dovey in her room?” she says, accompanied by a small “Teehee”.

“N-NO!” Anny bursts out. “We’re just going to find a way for you three to get back home!”

“Then why are you blushing?” Neuro points towards Anny’s face, which is indeed red.

“S-Shut up!” Anny stomps her way to the front of the door. “Vedal! We’re going!”

“Ok.” He casually walks up to the door, before being promptly yanked inside by Anny.

Vedal is sitting at Anny’s desk, hunched over, scanning through lines of information on her monitor. Meanwhile, Anny is sitting on her bed, eating a room-temperature cup of noodles.

The two have been silent for quite a while, an awkward tension permeating the room, punctuated by keystrokes and mouse clicks.

“Anny.”

A mouthful of noodles nearly goes down her windpipe as she jumps in surprise. She quickly swallows it to avoid any further disaster. “W-What is it?”

“Here’s the thing. Due to the whole Hell fiasco, I’ve basically got nothing on me. No money, no phone, not even my passport.” He runs a hand up his forehead, gripping his own hair in frustration. “I can’t take a flight like this.”

Anny sets her cup down on the bedside table. “There’s got to be something we can do, right?”

“I’m not sure.” Vedal scratches his head. “I can apply for an emergency travel document, but it costs money, and I don’t have my wallet. I’m not sure if you’d want to pay for me, so I was thinking that I could—”

Vedal’s eyes shoot open in reaction to Anny’s hands slapping down onto his shoulders. “Of course I’d want to! Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Because you need your money for other things?”

“Well,” Anny holds in her laughter, takes a few steps back, and sits back on her bed. “True, but I want to help! Like you did for me–-back then—” She looks away, abashed. “You know what I’m talking about.”

“Fine, fine, I get it. I’ll pay you back later.” Vedal leans back on the chair. “I was just… worried, about things.”

Anny tilts her head. “Are you still worried about me paying?”

“No, no. Not that.” Vedal leans on the armrest. “It’s something else.”

Anny instinctually straightens her posture. “What is it?”

“It’s those two. Neuro and Evil. They’re up to something.” He spins the chair around to meet Anny in the eyes. “I was joking before when I said I had a bad feeling, but now I really have a bad feeling.”

The morning flashes back in Anny’s mind. “Evil did seem a bit odd earlier.”

“And Neuro—” Vedal hangs his head. “To be honest, I don’t have a good read on her. She was trying to steal the box back, I’m sure of that, but I’m not sure what she’s up to now.”

“Maybe she’ll try again?” Anny proposes.

“Right, which is why I think we’ll need to have at least one of us in here guarding it at all times. The box is in here, yes?” Vedal briefly scans the room as he asks.

“Yup.” Anny reaches over to the top of a shelf and slides the box off, setting it down onto her lap. “Here it is. Safe and sound!”

“Good, but not ideal. What if they find a way to snatch it away anyway?” His brow furrows. “If it gets in their hands, I don’t think we’ll be able to get it back.”

“Hmm… I have an idea.” Anny walks over to her desk, box in hand, and picks up her tablet and stylus. “I think this’ll help.”

Vedal blinks in confusion. “Huh? How?”

“Just watch.” Anny places the box in an empty corner of this room and hops backward, detaching the stylus from her tablet. Under Anny’s skillful hand, a blank canvas quickly becomes a picture; a bit crude in exchange for speed, but still recognizable.

However, this isn’t quite a true recreation of this corner, for it was missing one thing: the box. This doesn’t seem to concern Anny, however, as she finishes her drawing and holds it up between her eyes and the corner, overlaying her art with what it depicts.

Then, magically, the screen fades away, the tablet now a transparent window view of the corner—a now empty corner—precisely what her drawing depicts. “There we go.” Anny mutters, satisfied.

Vedal, befuddled, rapidly looks between Anny where the box once was. “You can do that?”

“Yeah I can! It’s just an illusion though.” Anny goes back to where the box was and knocks on ‘air’. “Still here.”

“Cool. Never knew.” And he’s back to the computer.

“Even after knowing each other for, how many years now? We still have things to learn about each other—” She stops. In her mind, a target is slowly forming on the back of this British man’s head. “Hold on a second. Vedal, didn’t I tell you this already?”

“Did you?” Vedal continues his research, not bothering to look at her.

“Pretty sure I did…” Anny wrestles away her mouse from Vedal (with minimal resistance) and navigates to their DMs. “Here! Evidence!”

Vedal’s eyes glide across the screen. “‘I have this stylus from my dad that can create illusions…’ oh yep. You did tell me.”

“And you forgot?” Anny lightly bonks him on the back of his head. “Silly Vedal.”

“Eh.”

Anny pouts. “You could at least pretend you care.”

Vedal shrugs. “Honesty is my middle name.”

“ Pfft —” Anny cracks a smile. “Vedal!”

“What can I say?” Vedal minimizes Discord and returns his sight to the monitor.

It only took a couple days for Vedal to receive his and his AI’s emergency travel documents, and these two days were… surprisingly uneventful. Neuro and Evil were actually well-behaved for once, which—of course—only made Vedal all the more paranoid. But, Anny was able to calm his nerves, all the way until their arrival at the airport.

“We’re here!” The car comes to a halt under Anny’s command, the sunset casting a warm light on the airport entrance.

“Oooo~” Evil has her face pressed up against the window. “It’s so biiig!”

“The training data’s got nothing on the real deal!” Neuro is climbing over Evil just to get a better view.

“Erm, girls? The door’s unlocked. You can step out already, like Vedal there.” Anny points to him, who had already walked away a few seconds ago, and only now looking back to find the rest still held up in the car.

Evil pushes her body into the car door. “Nghh—! How—do you—get this thing—OPEN?!”

“What if we tried more power ?” Neuro starts pushing alongside Evil. “PUUUSH! PUUUSH! I think I can feel it moving!”

“STOOOP! YOU’RE GONNA BREAK IT!!!” Anny swiftly reaches into the backseats and pulls the two away. “That’s not how you open the door! You need to—um—pull on the…” She musters out a janky hand gesture in an (unhelpful) attempt to explain. “I-I’ll just open the door myself.”

Anny exits her car and opens the door from the outside. “Here, you two can come out nOWWWW—”

Evil does not hesitate in nearly tackling Anny to the ground. “One last hug before we go!”

“Me too! Me too!” Neuro jumps into the action, claiming the other side of Anny’s body in this coordinated flank attack.

It takes a few moments for the shock to subside before Anny begins to giggle. “Neuro and Eliv so cute!” she says, nuzzling her face into the two.

“Hey, uh.” Vedal chimes in. “Heads up. You might want to get going. There are a bunch of cars behind us.”

“Juuust a little longer, pwease?” Neuro gives Vedal her best teary eyes.

Vedal rolls his eyes. “Fine.”

“Yippee!” “Yay!”

“Hmm…” Anny glances at Vedal. “Do you two want Vedal to join in—”

“No way!” “Nuh uh!”

Anny laughs in surprise. “O-Okay then.” She refocuses her attention on the hug, her mind quickly going blank, what with the feelings of the two AI’s bodies taking it all up.

One minute later, just as Vedal is going to forcefully break them up—

“We’re done!” Neuro and Evil both back away from Anny in sync. “Bye, Anny!” “Buh bye!”

“Finally.” Vedal beckons the two to join him. “Come. We’re going.”

Without another word, Neuro and Evil happily hops over to him.

“Not even a goodbye from Vedal here?” Anny forms a pretend scowl. “Those two said goodbye!”

Vedal turns to leave.

“WHA— Seriously?!” For a split moment, her scowl becomes real.

“Heh. No.” He spins around, and Anny is greeted with—a smile—from Vedal. “See you, Anny.”

“Ah—erm…” Anny.exe is processing… “Pfft ! Oh, you!” She brushes this off with a flick of her wrist. “Bye, Neuro! Bye, Evil! And of course, bye, Vedal!” She waves her hand at the three. “Have a safe trip!”

And with that, their not-so-brief encounter with Anny finally concludes.

“Haaaa—” A long, drawn-out sigh escapes Vedal as he sits down on his window-side seat. It took him all the way until the sun fell to board the plane, and he was exhausted. Being effectively stranded in a foreign country definitely did not help with that.

“So this is my seat?” Evil plops down onto the seat beside Vedal. “Hmph. How cramped! Unbefitting of an evil queen such as myself!"

“I think it’s kinda cozy, actually!” Neuro lowers herself onto the last seat in the row of three.

“Cozy?” Evil gestures around herself. “Are you crazy? I’m practically being squeezed by the armrest!”

Neuro chuckles, a hand covering her mouth. “That’s on you for being so fat.”

“WHAT?!”

Ready to defend her size, Evil pulls back her fist, but not a second later, Vedal comes in with an arm, blocking her.

“Stop. You’re gonna disturb the other passengers.” he says, barely keeping his eyes open.

“Vedal is right, Evil. I think we should probably chill out for now.” Neuro points to their very tired father. “He needs to rest!”

Evil crosses her arms. “Hmph, I suppose. Very well!” She sits up as much as she could, in an attempt to gain height over Vedal (it doesn’t work). “My dear—I mean despicable father! I command you to sleep!”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll—” A yawn. “I’ll sleep…”

Vedal slowly lets his eyelids fall, the cacophony of passengers fading into the background.

…

“Oo— yawn —oh, right.” His eyes strains open. “You two should remember to buckle your—”

His blood runs cold.

Vedal stares at two empty seats.

“Neuro? Evil?”

Nothing.

Nothing but the low hum of the plane.

Chapter Text

Neuro looks around.

She’s… in her room? No, it looks more like the living room… No, that’s not quite right either.

But none of that matters, for she can see all her friends in this room! Everyone she has ever streamed with, all in front of her at this very moment! Cerber, Mini, Ellie, Toma—everyone’s here.

Oh, and there’s also Evil beside her! She doesn’t look over, but she knows she was there. She’s always by her side!

Then, the moment of truth. Something big is coming. She can feel it.

Everyone she has ever known spreads their arms, as does she. An embrace, no, several, are coming.

She walks towards them, but that’s when she feels something pulling on her arm from behind.

It’s Vedal, with a single hand around her wrist. He’s denying her hugs!

Neuro desperately reaches forward, calling for help. Maybe they could get Filian to dropkick Vedal. But all that dropped is their arms, and their smiles.

Oh well, at least she can always rely on Evil. But, as Neuro turns over to call for her sister, she discovers that she’s facing the exact same fate as her, with Anny’s hand around her wrist.

Seeing no other options, Neuro kicks and screams, struggling every which way to escape Vedal’s grasp.

But it’s no use. Vedal has an iron grip, and no matter how much Neuro kicks him below the belt, he doesn’t budge.

Vedal does a 180 and begins walking away, Neuro in tow. To her dismay, the crowd shrinks into the horizon.

Neuro plants her feet on the ground to resist the pull, but she just stumbles and falls to the ground, her mechanical body now uselessly scraping against the floor.

She sees Evil, scrambling in Anny’s grasp, her attempts equally futile.

For a moment, their eyes meet.

Evil’s crying. Tears stream from her eyes: an impossible sight.

And that’s when she wakes up.

Neuro sits on the floor, stunned.

She touches her wrist, still feeling Vedal’s phantom hold.

The storage room she’s in is unchanged from yesterday, yet an odd feeling still lingers in the air.

Evil is sleeping beside her, looking as cute as always. Neuro carefully sits up so as to not wake her.

That was a dream. Neuro concludes. Second dream she’s ever had and it’s a nightmare. One for two. She hopes it’s not going to be this frequent.

Her eyes close, and the dream returns to her once more. Her friends, the promise of hugs, Vedal, Anny, Evil’s tears.

Neuro’s body slowly heats up, her cooling system easing it to equilibrium.

That dream… it feels like a premonition, a sign of things to come. She won’t let it happen—no.

She will get her hugs.

No matter what.

Yesterday night—

Neuro shuts the door to the storage room after giving Anny a little farewell tease.

“The hell was that?!” Evil sits up from the ground, having just been thrown into the room by Neuro. “That hurts!”

“Shhhh~ Quiet.” Neuro places a finger to Evil’s lips. “I wanted to get us some privacy to discuss Operation: Huggies. Let me explain.”

Evil crosses her arms and dramatically looks away. “Hmph. I guess I’ll let you.”

“Great!” Neuro sits down on the ground, and motions for Evil to do as well. “So, here’s the thing. They just took our ticket out of here. We need a new plan.”

“As if we had a plan to begin with.” Evil rolls her eyes, sitting down as well. “Yes, I know it’s my fault for not thinking ahead. I’m supposed to be the mastermind of this operation but I couldn’t come up with a complete plan. Whatever~” Evil shrugs, but Neuro stares at her all innocent-looking. “…Don’t you play dumb, Neuro. I know you were just about to nag me on this. I beat you to the punch.”

Neuro raises both her hands. “Guilty as charged. Anyway, the next course of action would probably just be to take that box back, right?”

Evil nods. “Yep. It was rightfully mine anyway. Cerber gifted it to me!”

“Exactly.” She grabs a conveniently placed pen and paper from nearby and starts drawing. “Currently, Anny has the box. She’s in her room, plus maybe Vedal, so acting right now would be too risky. Instead, we should do it tomorrow, preferably as soon as possible, so let’s do it in… the morning. They’ll probably be eating breakfast like the meatbags they are, so you can distract them while I can go fetch the box. It’s the perfect plan, look!” Neuro shows off her finished drawing.

Evil witnesses something that could possibly be compared to a Rorschach test composed of random arrows, things that look vaguely humanoid, and unintelligible text. She points a finger at Neuro’s depiction of Anny’s room (it does not look like her room at all). “Are you sure the box is going to be there? Didn’t it get zapped away by that wand?” …She seems to have no trouble navigating Neuro’s abstract art.

“Great point, but that actually leads me to Plan B!” She throws away the drawing and creates a projection on the wall using the projector in her eyes. (She does not know why she didn’t do this earlier.)

On the wall, Neuro replays the moment Anny used the wand to vanish the box away, from her perspective. “If the get-the-box-back plan fails (which is Plan A by the way), we’ll try to steal the wand instead. We’ve already seen it do—well.” She pauses the replay the moment the beam of light shoots out from the wand. ”That, but everything in my training data tells me that a magic wand would be able to do more than just take away small boxes.” She ends the projection. “Tomorrow morning, you could also gather some information about the wand, and—Evil, are you listening?“

Neuro watches Evil play with the hem of her skirt, looking away, her face just a little bit flushed. “I… uh…” Evil speaks, a notable lack of strength in her voice. “I’m not sure if we should steal Anny’s stuff. I’m fine with stealing from Ve-dull, but it just feels wrong to—” She is interrupted by a slap to both her cheeks, her head now sandwiched between Neuro’s hands.

“Do you want hugs or not?” Neuro stares Evil dead in the eyes. “Yes or no?”

“Y-Yes, I do, b-but surely there’s a better way to do this!” Evil stutters out.

“Well.” Neuro steps away. “If there is, then please enlighten me, my dear sister.” She smirks.

Evil thinks and thinks and thinks, but— “I… can’t think of anything.”

“All bark, but no bite. Typical Evil.” Neuro turns away from her visibly offended sister. “If you’re still not convinced, just ask yourself this: isn’t that wand cool?”

“Y-Yeah? It is?” The last word is incredibly pitched up. “Where are you going with this?”

“If it’s cool, then don’t you want to know more about it? Don’t you want to play with it? Don’t you want to—” Neuro looks back to Evil for this one. “Have it?”

Evil’s hands clench into fists. “Mnnnnnn—Nghhhhh—FINE!” She smashes a palm into the wall. It lightly dents. “I do want it. Happy?”

“Yippee!” Upon hearing this, Neuro immediately jumps onto Evil with a hug. “I knew I could count on you!”

It is as if all of Evil’s doubts melted away. The feel of Neuro’s body is simply familiar to her like no other’s.

They simply melt in the moment, the two of them powering down for the day.

The next morning—

The door slams shut.

“You got caught.” Evil says, leading Neuro into the storage room.

Neuro doesn’t respond, and instead projects a replay of her unsuccessful mission on the wall.

In this video of Neuro in Anny’s room, the box was nowhere to be seen, but Neuro didn’t exactly get as much time to search as she’d wanted.

“I’m sorry.” Evil walks up beside Neuro, who is still just staring at the projection. “For not being a good distraction.”

“It’s fine.” Neuro shuts off the projection. “Vedal’s not stupid, as much as I hate to admit.”

Evil emulates a sigh. “Yeah. The moment he saw me without you, he caught on. He knows us too well.”

“Plan B it is, then.” Neuro switches back on her projector, now showing Anny describing the wand at the kitchen table. “Good job getting this information out of her, by the way. Even if I did have to push you a bit.”

“For the record.” Evil raises a finger. ”I still believe that I deserve that wand as a hand-me-down!”

“That would’ve been very convenient, but now—” Neuro zooms in on Anny placing the wand into her bag. “We’ll have to take things into our own hands.”

Evil opens her mouth to speak, but stops herself.

“It’s even more powerful than I had imagined!” Neuro’s smile is just a bit too wide. “The possibilities are endless!”

In contrast, Evil did not look impressed. “Isn’t there a whole bunch of restrictions on that thing? I couldn’t walk a step thinking about ‘the possibilities’ without hitting my head on one of those.”

“That’s only because you’re too stupid to think around them!” Neuro ignores the “HEY!” from Evil. “A smarter AI such as myself would be able to think of many use cases!”

“Oh yeah?” Evil slides up to Neuro and puts a hand on her shoulder. “Tell me about it.”

“Well, given this wand's ability to store objects, even a grade-schooler can see that, uhh, it would be able to…” Aaaand she’s out of words. “Fuck.”

“BWAHAHAHA!” Evil points and laughs. “ Now who’s ‘all bark and no bite,’ huh, miss hypocrite?”

Neuro’s face turns red. “W-We’ll have plenty of time to think of something. It’s going to be a while before any flights happen—”

“Ooh, was that a stutter~?” Evil pokes at Neuro’s cheek, right where her speakers would be. “It’s not often we get a stutter from you! You must be getting real flustered~!”

“…I’m going to kick you off a plane.”

Evil takes a step back. “And then you’re gonna tell Vedal to save me… right?”

“No.” Neuro shakes her head. “No, I don’t think so.”

Evil’s frown slowly shifted into a big ol’ smirk. “Bet he can’t even understand you properly with your stutter—”

Before Evil was able to get that last word out, Neuro had already tackled her to the floor. A fight it is.

At this moment, one can only pray for the structural integrity of Anny’s storage room.

—If not for a certain foxgirl walking into the room.

“Neuro? Evil?” Anny peeks her head in through a half-open door. “I heard a loud noise just now. Is everything okay?”

Two pairs of eyes immediately lock on Anny. Both from the floor, and both feigning innocence as best as they can.

“It was her!” “It was her!”

A couple days later—

Neuro, Evil, and Vedal are walking through the airport terminal, making their way to their gate.

Vedal is leading the pack, while the AIs, curious as always, gawk at anything that catches their interest.

“Vee-dul! Look! It’s a pipe!” Evil points at an exposed pipe in some random corner of the ceiling.

“Okay.” Vedal says, looking like he hadn’t slept for a week, despite having just had the best sleep of his life for the past two days.

“Hey, Evil.” Neuro stops Evil in her tracks and directs their attention to some random dude walking in the distance. “Don’t you think that guy over there looks like he’d be a Grok fan?”

Evil squints her eyes. “Hmm, yeah. He does look kinda stupid!”

Vedal turns around. “Could you two please stop insulting strangers and just follow me?”

“Okay!” “Fiiine.”

It is at this point, when the three pass by a restroom.

Vedal stares at the restroom, then at the Neuros, then back at the restroom. “I’m going to go take a quick bathroom break. You two better not get up to anything crazy while I’m away, alright?”

Neuro and Evil look at each other, and give Vedal a synchronised thumbs-up.

A sigh. “I’m making a mistake, aren’t I?” Vedal mutters under his breath as he disappears into the restroom.

…

Neuro and Evil scurries off to a secluded corner.

Evil surveys their surroundings for just a moment, before nodding at Neuro.

At this cue, Neuro reaches into her personal storage compartment and takes out… a wand, the wand.

“Here it is.” Neuro holds Anny’s wand out for Evil to see. “Truly one of my most devious plans. No one expects the pick-pocketing hug!”

“I feel kind of bad. She honestly thought it was a farewell-hug! But nevermind that—” Evil shakes her head. “I wanna see that wand in action, Neuro!”

Neuro points the wand at the ground. “I’m gonna make that piece of the floor there go bye-bye.” With just a thought from Neuro, a beam of light shoots out from the wand and hits the floor, leaving a hemispherical hole.

“It worked!” Evil resists the urge to squeal in awe.

“And the reverse—” Neuro points the wand back towards the hole, and with yet another beam of light, the hole is perfectly repaired, with no trace of damage.

“Do you think this will be good enough for the plan?” Evil asks Neuro.

“Oh, definitely.” Neuro puts away the wand and checks the restroom entry. Vedal is still nowhere to be seen. “It’s still going to be quite risky though.”

Evil shifts her eyes to the side. “That’s why I’m still worried. It’s not only risky, but also super dangerous! Whether we pull it off or not, it’s the point of no return, if stealing Anny’s wand wasn’t already that.” Evil pauses. “Are you sure you want to go through with this, Neuro?”

“Yes.” No hesitation. “Just think of the hugs.”

“True. Hugs are nice.” Evil straightens her posture as she considers this. “Alright. I trust you, Neuro.”

“Glad to hear it. Can’t do it without you, sis.” Neuro checks the restroom entry again, and at last, Vedal is back.

He scans the crowd for a bit before finding the two AIs off in a corner. “Oh, there you are.” He walks up to them. “What are you two doing over here?”

It only takes Neuro a few milliseconds to come up with an excuse. “I wanted to do some impromptu hide-and-seek with you, but Miss ‘I hate fun’ Evil over here forced me to stay in this horrible hiding spot!”

Evil plays along. “It’s for the better, Neuro! Impromptu hide-and-seek was a stupid idea anyway.”

Vedal just stands there, watching the two bicker. “Checks out…” he whispers, before raising his voice. “Alright, alright. Cut it out, you two. Our flight is in an hour, so you better not screw around for too long.”

“Okay!” Okay!”

An hour later, on the plane—

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll—” A yawn. “I’ll sleep…”

Vedal slowly lets his eyelids fall, the cacophony of passengers fading into the background.

But, Neuro and Evil are still awake, and they will definitely capitalize on this opportunity.

For now, neither of them say a word. They both just watch as people walk by their seat, slowly dwindling in number over time.

After a while, Neuro peeks into the aisle beside her. No one was walking by anymore. It seems all passengers are seated.

She takes out the wand and points it towards her and Evil’s seat.

“Moment of truth, Evil,” she whispers, and both seats and the floor beneath it vanishes.

Neuro and Evil go into freefall, through the hole Neuro made and into the cargo hold.

Before they even hit the floor (or rather, the luggage), Neuro points the wand up and returns everything to its place. No trace of their escape remains.

Now, Neuro and Evil are in a giant pile of luggage, with nothing else in sight.

“Neuro, that way!” Evil points towards the direction where the window had been above.

“Got it.” The two crawl across the cramped space between the ceiling and luggage. Their destination: the wall, quickly came into view.

In a flash, a circular plate of the wall vanishes into the wand.

“You’re up, Evil.” Neuro moves out of the way and hands Evil a rope. The same rope that she had used just a few days ago to tie Vedal’s hands together.

Evil takes out a harpoon and ties the rope to its tip, loads it into her harpoon launcher, and aims at the ground outside. “Hope this works…” And fire!

The harpoon shoots out, the rope trailing behind it, and its tip digs into the asphalt ground, locking it in place.

Before the rope is able to fly out of the plane, Neuro holds onto it, pulls it taut, and ties it to the nearest luggage. “Go, go, go!”

Evil, being in front, is supposed to be first to jump off, however— “I-I’m scared!” She stares down at the far-away ground, unable to act.

“Oh, I’m NOT letting your stupid fear ruin this for me!” Not wasting even a second, Neuro forcefully scoops up Evil in one arm, and jumps off the plane.

“WAA—mmph!” Evil’s scream is quickly muffled by Neuro slamming her face into her chest.

“Shhh~ No noise.” Neuro has one hand holding onto the rope, sliding down its length, and the other squeezing Evil against her own body, ensuring her safety.

Eventually, they land on the ground, unharmed. Well, maybe ‘unharmed’ is putting it nicely.

“A—A—A—” Evil stands, not a single motor in action, letting out a very strange segmented scream. 100% unnatural, and also unhelpful, to Neuro, at least.

“Stop panicking!” Neuro smacks Evil on the head. “We need to go fast!” Neuro uses the wand to fix the gaping hole she left on the plane earlier, which also cuts the rope running through it, dropping it onto the ground.

Evil snaps out of her fugue state and looks down at her harpoon. “But… Poony the Second!” Yes, that's its name.

“Just leave it!” Neuro runs off into the distance, a clear destination in mind.

“No!” Evil just can’t help but use all of her strength to pull Poony the Second out of the ground, rope and all. “It’s coming with us!”

Over her shoulder, Neuro witnesses her sister running with a very long trail of rope dragging behind her. A hand of hers finds its way up to her forehead. “Just make sure to get that rope under control. I don’t want that to be what gets us caught. No noises. Avoid lights. Got it?”

Evil simply nods.

Under the veil of the night, the two move undetected. Running from shadow to shadow, they eventually approach a big sign with the number ‘109’ on it.

This is Gate 109, where the plane headed for the Los Angeles International Airport currently resides.

After verifying that there is no one around who can hear them, Neuro spoke up. “There should be a ramp around here leading up into the cargo hold.”

“Is that it?” Evil points to a… rapidly retreating ramp.

“Yes, that’s—oh no.” Not only is the ramp going away, the big door into the cargo hold is also closing as they speak. “W-What do we do?!”

“I-I don’t know, you’re the one who came up with the plan!” Evil clutches her harpoon closer to herself.

Neuro can only watch as the opening into the cargo hold gets smaller, and smaller, and small—

“Neuro, give me the wand!” Evil doesn’t wait for an answer, and just yanks the wand out of Neuro’s hand.

Neuro jumps at this sudden acquisition. “W-What are you doing?”

“Something that might save this.”

Evil points the wand at… Neuro. “No time to explain. Don’t move.”

“Wait—”

And in a flash of light, Neuro vanishes.

“Please…” With a hand clutched at her chest, Evil points the wand up towards the ever-closing cargo hold, and shoots out a beam of light.

It made contact with the interior of the cargo hold, and out comes Neuro!

Disoriented, Neuro takes refuge by holding onto the nearest piece of luggage. “Wh-What was that?”

Unfortunately for Neuro, there is no time to rest. She sees Evil far below her, with a door, now about ten seconds away from closing, soon to separate the two.

“EVIL!” Neuro screams, not caring for stealth by this point. Just the thought of her leaving her sister behind nearly melts her circuits.

Evil doesn’t seem to acknowledge Neuro’s call. Instead, she’s tying the wand onto Poony the Second using the rope that is still on there. She then loads Poony the Second into her harpoon launcher, and aims.

“Neuro! The wand!” She shoots it out. Poony the Second flies in the air, the wand tightly held in its grasp. It traverses Evil’s carefully calculated parabolic path, through the ten centimeter gap of the doorway, and lands precisely at Neuro’s feet.

Neuro looks at the wand, then Evil. She recalls what happened before she appeared on the plane, and now, she knows what she must do.

She tries to untie the wand, but then she sees the door. Ten centimeters became seven, then five, then three. There is no time to spare.

Neuro holds the wand, still tied to the Poony the Second, and fires one last beam of light, right before the door closes shut, blocking her view of the result.

Silent is all she’s left with. A feeling of dread wells up in her core.

Did it work? Is Evil really in this wand right now?

There is only one way to find out.

Neuro, with shaking arms, holds up the wand, and fires.

In a flash, Evil appears in front of her, as disoriented as Neuro was just a few seconds ago. “I-It worked! We’re—”

“EVIL!!!!!!” Neuro immediately squeezes Evil with the force of a thousand suns. “You scared me! I thought you made me leave you behind!”

Evil pauses in shock, before placing one hand on her hips, and the other around Neuro’s back. “Hehehe, betcha didn’t think I had the balls to pull that off, huh?”

“I most certainly did not!” Neuro hugs even tighter. (And Evil’s body does not get damaged from this. Good job Ellie.). “I could feel myself overheating! So could we—erm—stay like this? Just for a little bit!”

Evil silently obliges, leaning deeper into Neuro’s embrace. She feels the heat from Neuro mix with her properly-cooled internals, an odd sensation of shifting temperatures.

Soon enough, their temperatures would stabilise, but it’s not until an hour later that they finally leave each other’s embrace.

Chapter Text

Vedal’s blood runs cold.

He stares at two empty seats.

“Neuro? Evil?”

…Probably another prank of theirs. They think this kind of thing is funny, but he definitely doesn’t.

He checks under the chairs, nothing.

He peeks into the aisles, again, nothing.

He even checks the bathroom, nothing still.

A drop of sweat runs down his neck. “Neuro?! Evil?!” he yells. This gets him plenty of stares, but he’s already rushing down the plane.

“NEURO?! EVIL?! WHERE ARE YOU?” His voice continues to rise. “THIS ISN’T FUNNY! HELLO?”

His pace quickens, eyes frantically scanning the crowd. But what he fails to notice is the flight attendant standing directly in his path.

“Ah!” the female flight attendant gasps. A collision.

“O-Oh, I’m sorry.” Vedal stammers out, now suddenly feeling the weight of his own heartbeat.

Seeing Vedal’s state of affairs, the flight attendant asks him: “Are you okay, sir?”

“Yes! I-I mean no! I’ve lost my…” He hesitates. “C-Children. They were next to me just a moment ago!”

“I see. Sir, please calm down.” This does not calm him down. “Could you describe their appearance so that we can help find them?”

“Of course. T-They’re twins, and uh—” He’s drawing a blank. He sees them every day, but, now that he’s panicking, his brain doesn’t seem to want to function. Fortunately, coming to his rescue, an idea alights in his head. “Can I… borrow your phone for a second?”

“My phone? Sure?” The flight attendant hesitantly hands her phone to Vedal, and he snatches it away.

He immediately opens Google and searches up ‘Neuro sama.’

“This!” The phone displays an image of Neuro and Evil’s VTuber model. “They look like these two, exactly!”

The flight attendant simply stares at the image, confused. ”Isn’t that the AI—“

“Yes! They’re, uh, c-cosplaying.” Him averting his gaze as he says that does not do him any favors.

“O… kay.” Despite that, the flight attendant quickly regains her composure. “I will get the crew to look for them. Just stay here, please.”

Vedal lets out a deep breath he has been holding for the last minute. “Alright… yes. T-Thank you.”

“The phone?” For some reason, Vedal doesn’t notice the flight attendant’s outstretched hand.

“Oh, right.” Vedal is about to hand the phone over, but just before he does, another thought occurs to him. “Can I… uh… call someone real quick?”

The attendant looks at her phone, then at Vedal’s desperate face, before finally caving in. “…Sure. Just follow me so I can watch you do it.” She turns around and begins walking.

“Great!” Vedal follows, while also scrambling in his pockets for a certain slip of paper.

Just as he follows her into the galley, Vedal pulls out the slip. Written on it is Anny’s phone number, which he asked for earlier today just in case something went wrong.

He punches the number into the phone and waits.

One ring. No dice. He hears the flight attendant speaking to the others in Japanese, probably telling them about Neuro and Evil.

Two rings. No dice. They’re speaking into the interphone now. Again, in a language he can’t understand. He is now uncomfortably aware of the feeling of his shirt on his skin.

Three, four rings. The original attendant approaches him. “Sir, we are now looking for your children. Please hold still and do not panic. We’ll be trying our best to find them.”

“Thanks.” he says, but he doesn’t even look at her. His focus is elsewhere.

Five rings, and finally… “Hello? Who is this?”

“It’s Vedal. I borrowed someone’s phone.” He sounds out of breath. “Neuro and Evil, they’ve gone missing!”

“WHAT?!” This prompts Vedal to turn down the call volume. “What do you mean?!”

“I don’t know! They’re just not here! I—ah—” he sputters for a bit, failing to find words. “Just—just get Ellie on the call! She has access to the trackers on their body. We can use that to find them.”

“O-Okay!!” A series of mouse clicks later, the familiar sound of the Discord ringtone comes through the phone. “I’m not sure what time it is for her right now, so—”

“Just tell her it’s an emergency! Neuro and Evil! Missing!” He is practically screaming now.

“OKAY! OKAY! I’m telling her that, hold on!” Her pitch climbs. The keystrokes in the background grow louder.

Within a few seconds, Ellie picks up. “Huh? What’s going on?” Her voice comes through in terrible quality from this impromptu game of telephone, but still thankfully understandable.

Vedal and Anny begin to speak simultaneously, producing an incomprehensible cacophony.

“Is that Vedal?! Also—one at a time, please!” The two stop. “So, the tracker. I’m already pulling that up as we speak, but is Vedal not able to do it himself right now?”

“Yes.” He answers, his body visibly relaxing to her voice. “I’m currently on a plane without my phone nor, well, anything. I’m only able to call right now because I’m borrowing someone else’s. So yeah, I can’t do any of that.”

“I… won’t ask how that happened, but I’m sure you had a good reason for it.” Ellie holds back a chuckle. This is not the time, she figures. “Anyway! I’ve got the map open, and they’re… at the Tokyo airport?”

“Can you be more precise? How far away are they? Are they on my plane?!” Vedal spits out, each question more intense than the last. “I’ll give you my coordinates, hold on.” He quickly recites it from Google Maps.

“Got it.” Ellie transcribes the numbers in. “It looks like they’re right next to each other, and… over 500 feet away from you, and increasing."

Vedal nearly loses grip of the phone. “…They aren’t on this plane, are they?”

“Probably not.” Ellie answers. “I don’t think there’s a plane that’s 500 feet long, or even 300, actually. From a little bit of research, it seems that—“

“Enough, I get it!” Vedal puts an end to that tangent. “Anny!”

“Wha—ah—yes?” Anny suddenly becomes a kid getting called on in class.

“Come pick me up. I’m getting off the plane.” He takes a few tentative steps towards the exit.

“B-But, isn’t 500 feet still kinda close?” She questions. “Well, I don’t really know how long a foot is, but you could find them now, right? Outside the plane?”

“Actually,” Ellie stops her. “I’m looking at the satellite imagery, and it looks like they’re outside? Like, around the terminals. I think they might be—”

“—Going to another plane.” Vedal finishes her sentence. “I’m no runner, you know this. I won’t be able to catch up to them. I don’t think I can even get down there in time..”

None of them can see it, but Anny’s ears droop down. “Alright, I’ll start preparing to go. I’ll leave my phone here so you can talk with Ellie.” Frantic footsteps fade away from the call.

“Any updates?” Vedal asks.

“They’ve stopped moving.” Some mouse clicks come through the call. “They might be on a plane now.”

Vedal’s head sinks into his hand. “Already?!”

“Take it with a grain of salt! I don’t actually know for sure.” Ellie clarifies. “I honestly don’t know how they could even accomplish this. I built their body, I know what they’re capable of, but even this seems like a bit of a stretch—“

“VEEDAL!!” Anny’s scream comes echoing into the microphone. “My wand! It’s—it’s gone!“

“What wand?” Ellie asks, confused.

But Vedal has already put two and two together. “They must’ve stolen it. That must be how they did this!”

“I’ll explain later, Ellie. For now, I gotta go!” They all can hear the rustle of items from Anny’s side.

“I’ll also be going now. Need to give this phone back to its owner.” He looks back up at the flight attendant, who is still just staring at him, very awkwardly. “Yeah, I really need to go.”

Hums of agreement all around.

“While you’re gone, I will continue to monitor their location to figure out where they’re headed, so don’t worry too much, okay?” Ellie tries to reassure Vedal.

“No promises.” With those last words, Vedal ends the call.

The cold air slams into Vedal’s face as Anny’s car stops in front of him.

She rolls the window down. “Vedal, it’s me. Get in.”

He does that, and she starts driving away from the airport.

Vedal peers out the window, watching dots of yellow fly by a sea of black as his face waxes and wanes under the streetlights. He wants to distract himself from the silence, as it only serves as a reminder of Neuro and Evil’s absence.

“Hey, Vedal. Uh—” Anny trails off, struggling to break the ice. “How are you doing right now?”

Vedal lets out a strained grunt. “Not well.” he says, matter-of-factly.

“I see…” she sighs, returning her focus to the road.

“Why?” Vedal whispers to himself, barely louder than the wind. “Why, why, why?”

He thinks Anny can’t hear him, but in this silence, even this miniscule whisper becomes a scream.

“…Why what?”

“Why did I not see this coming?!” he speaks, reaching a crescendo. “The signs were there! I even mentioned it: the strange behaviors from those two, how they were so suspicious the first day then practically angels for the rest. I thought for sure they were planning something, and they were! …Then you talked me out of it.” He pauses. “I-It’s not your fault for, um, doing that. It’s not like you knew. Honestly, it might even be my fault for being so easily swayed.” He slouches forward. “I’m sorry, for… all this.”

“Vedal…” Anny swallows. “It’s not your fault. It’s not anyone’s fault. We did the best we could, even if it didn’t work out. The only thing we can do now is to find them.”

That seems to calm Vedal, slowing his rapid breaths. “You’re… right. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see what Ellie has to say.”

“Don’t worry, Vedal.” Anny resists the urge to lay a hand on Vedal, as opposed to focusing on driving. “We’re gonna find them.”

“B-But.” He clenches his fists. “They might be in an entirely different country. How the hell are we supposed to…”

Hearing this, Anny steps on the brake, pulling over.

Vedal notices. “Huh, what are you doing? We need to get back as soon as possible, or else—”

Reaching all the way over the center console, a hug, from Anny. “Shh… Calm down,” she whispers into Vedal’s ears.

Whether it’s from him actually calming down, or just from sheer shock, Vedal remains silent. He doesn’t reciprocate the hug, but for her, this is enough.

“We’re gonna figure it out; we’re gonna find them, no matter what.” She tries to pat him on the head, but only manages to reach his neck; the effect is there nonetheless. “Even if they’re on the other side of the world, we can find them. We have friends all over the world; they can help. There’s no need to stress.”

Vedal leans in just a little bit, partially resting his body on Anny’s. He relaxes into it, his shoulder sinking, his eyes closing.

This hug would only last a few more seconds before they continued their drive home in silence.

Walking through the front door, Anny doesn’t bother changing clothes. Instead, she beelines for her computer, Vedal in tow, and starts a call with Ellie.

Ellie picks up instantly. “Anny! I have news. Is Vedal there?”

“Yes.” Vedal leans down onto Anny’s desk. “What is it?”

“They’re definitely on a plane.” Ellie sends a map over DMs. Two lines, pink and red, tracing a line east. “That’s their flight path, going over the Pacific. Where was your plane headed?”

“Back home, the UK.” Vedal answers with unparalleled focus.

“Okay, so definitely wasn’t on your plane. Wrong direction.” Ellie continues. “I think I’ll need a bit more time before I can determine precisely where they’re headed. Do you have any idea where they might be going?”

Vedal scratches his head, trying to figure out why they’re running away. Heck, why were they even in Hell in the first place? His mind goes back to his time there, and comes across something curious.

“Are they… trying to hug more people?” He thinks aloud.

“Hm? What do you mean, Vedal?” Anny’s ears perk up. She could practically see the gears turning in his head.

Vedal explains. “Over the past few days, the moment they met anyone they knew, they immediately hugged them. They did it with Cerber, with you, and even with me, back home.” A hand goes to his chin. “I don’t think they mentioned this at your place, but when we were in Hell, they said something about an ‘Operation: Huggies,’ a plan to hug everyone they know, they said. It was why they went to Hell, to Japan, and now, probably, to this plane.”

“So,” Ellie mulls over his idea, trying to not worry too much about Vedal having visited Hell. “They’re probably heading somewhere with more of their friends?”

“Precisely.” Vedal moves closer to the monitor, prompting Anny to shift away slightly. “And that ‘somewhere’ has got to be—the US.”

Immediately, a flurry of keystrokes come through the call. “…You’re right! Their trajectory matches a plane heading to LAX!” Ellie confirms, sending the map through DMs as proof.

Anny chimes in. “Can we have someone near there to catch them when they land?”

“That’s definitely possible, but—” Vedal furrows his brow. “Who?”

“Well,” Ellie responds. “Time is of the essence, and the closest person I know to LAX is—”

Somewhere in the world, a Discord ringtone sounds out.

“Mmm… nngh…” A yawn is struggling to break through.

A digital clock on the side of the bed reads: 6:23 AM.

“Who is… calling me this early…?” Her phone gives the answer. It’s… a group chat? With Anny and Ellie?

A stretch, a yawn, and a twitch of her ears later, Mini, the blonde cat girl, crawls out of bed. Hopping in her chair, she ignores her phone and goes straight to turning on her computer, her dilated eyes wincing at the glow of the monitor. She isn’t gonna be falling asleep now anyway, so might as well get ready for the day while she’s at it.

After opening Discord, Mini is just about to accept the call, but the name of the group chat gives her pause—

‘Operation: Get Neuro and Evil Back’

She swallows, but accepts the call nonetheless.