Chapter Text
Astro and Brightney were on a run. The floors were progressing faster and faster, they made a good duo. By the time they got to Floor 43, the two were pretty confident. They ended up with Twisted Blot, which didn’t scare them. He typically wasn’t an issue, but it seems Blot has a new strategy.
“Alright, last two, one down the corridor and the other in the animation room” Brightney pointed to each
“Got it. I’ll take the room,” he said softly“ be careful though…” she nodded as they split. Astro stepped into the animation room, glancing around. The paper scrolled on and on, expression sheets, walk cycles, body reference, but more importantly, an inky silhouette.
“Oh , Twisted Blot, that’s where you were hiding, that’s fine you're not a bother” Astro started on his machine turning the wheel. The ichor filled the machine to the brim. The light dinged green and Astro smiled, this floor would be finished as when Brightney wrapped up in the corridor, but soon he felt something cold creeping on the edge of his shoulder
A black, slimy hand had secured Astro, the fingers stretched and warped, slowly enveloping him. It’s all over his chest now. He started to struggle against the arm as it started to twine around him. The ink inched and crawled up his neck slowly tightening around it, he raised his head to avoid the inevitable. The ink started to envelop his face. It entered his nose and mouth. Astro choked on the bitter liquid, he tried to gag up the black fluid. Soon his vision was obscured by burning slime, his head was submerged in ink. He screamed, the bubbles leaking into the surface of the fluid, no sound ever came out of the thick liquid. All that could be seen was a cocoon of black.
Brightney finished her machine and the panic time started. She ran to the elevator, but the door closed when she entered. Something happened…
Vee was in the lobby as Dandy stood at his shop dusting old tapes. They quickly glared at each other before continuing their tasks. The elevator rumbled as a team lifted back to the main room
“Oh goody, a run returned!” He left his shop to great the toon when Brightney exited looking frazzled
“Astro!” That caught Vee’s attention. She started to come near the conversation. Brightney continued “he-he.. he never came back up… floor..43…” she started to become dizzy from her panic. Dandy froze. Vee was glitching noticeably and had to restart herself.
“We need a rescue team stat!” Dandy exclaimed, already making a break for his shop to stock up.
“Hey idiot, all the toons are out of commission,” Vee points out. “The healers are baking, Dyle is at the station, Brightney is exhausted and everyone else is recovering or already on a run,” she snuffed “you can only send me,”
“Like I’m gonna let you handle this,” Dandy snapped back
“You don’t get a choice, I’m your best bet!” Vee was starting to yell now
“I’m going down, you stay out of it” he spat
Vee was about to retort when she shut her digital mouth. “Look, Dandy we have nothing in common but one thing, Astro,” That caught his attention, “and if anything happens to that moon both of us are going to suffer for it, now, clearly we aren't getting anywhere, I think it’s time to truce,”
Dandy thinks, he looks at the robotic woman in front of him, she is completely, udderly serious about this. “Fine, only for Astro” they shook hands to seal the deal.
The duo descended in the elevator , floor one. This will take awhile. Vee identified the machines in the area and guided Dandy. The flower himself would find chocolate, pop, or speed candy to help Vee move around with her heavy metal. Ten floors down.
The first problem arises with Twisted Flutter. With her extreme speed Vee can barely out run her. Her power was low at this point and she was sluggish. The flapping of wings followed Vee’s metallic footsteps. Her battery beeped at her meaning her stamina was almost depleted. Before the inevitable hit, the sound of an air horn rang through the surroundings and the butterfly was gone. When the final machine dinged both entered the elevator panting.
“Hey.. thanks for saving my tail..” Vee mumbled, avoiding eye contact
“Yeah, don’t mention it” Dandy huffed “you’re too slow for you own good”
Vee rolled her eyes and bandaged her body. The elevator hummed around them. The floors climbed and climbed and climbed. And before they knew it, floor 43 was here. The floor was..wrong… ink crawled upon the boards, slithering. They had a mind of their own almost.
“This is extremely off” Dandy spoke
“Agreed,” Vee nodded “I’m going to scan for signs of life” her circlets whirled as she absorbed the information “all this ink.. it’s biological “
“You mean..”
“A twisted made this,” she quickly updated and some more results appeared on her screen “there’s a heat source in the animation room”
Dandy nodded and gestured to show him where. Vee stepped cautiously around the ink, it piled up the closer to the room they got. It smells horrible. It was so bad it choked you. The room was black. Ink
pulsed with a slow, sickly heartbeat. A black cocoon twisted around and you can see the silhouette pressed faintly against the surface.
Vee can sense the life inside the cocoon. Dandy immediately rushed to rip open the cocoon, but Vee stopped him before he could do something rash. Tearing open the cocoon could hurt Astro and Vee explained that to him surprisingly softly.
“ Caution, right” he mumbled “how do we approach this?”
“I've scanned the room but I don’t see the twisted that caused this, I think we’re safe to investigate,” Vee spoke with a logical tone.
They both approach the cocoon, watching it swirl and move and twitch. “Dandy, have anything sharp? We need precision”
“Yeah, here, pair of scissors,” they transferred it and Vee started to make a clean cut. More inky pus leaked from it, and the cocoon deflated slightly.
“I can’t stick my hands in there,” she spoke “it’ll jam my circuits”
“I’ve got it,” Dandy carefully slipped his hands in the frozen black liquid, he felt a body and started to pull. Soon Astro had emerged, he was out, completely unconscious. Dandy slid Astro out fully, and laid him on the floor, checking for a pulse. He sighed in relief when he found signs of life. Dandy lifted Astro on his shoulders and carried him with a gentleness Vee didn’t think Dandy was able to achieve. Vee did her mic check one last time, still confused on why nothing showed up. They walked to the elevator slowly, careful not to jostle Astro too much.
Before the door closed they saw a hint of an inky monster, and then, metal blocked the sight. The elevator shots upwards.