Chapter Text
It was another sunny day for Katie, as all days are on the island. She can’t recall ever seeing true rain or storms ever since she arrived here. Today she has big plans. The second grand KFC opening, of course. With the new Regime assistance, KFC is officially standing on its own legs. Tubbo really gave it his all when he made the chicken sandwich machines. Katie doesn’t even need to pretend to cook in the back of the kitchen now!
It made her a bit sad that Mike was gone for so much, but hopefully he’ll be proud of her contributions to the brand. It’s the first time she’s really felt independent on this server. She’s in charge of her own life, where she goes and what she does.
She walked in through the new glass doors, putting up a sign on the windows “opening soon”. She then wrote in chat, “KFC Opening VERY SOON!!! Free fries for everyone! If you poison my chicken, BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN TO YOU!!”
That should be good enough for an announcement. Now it’s time to wait.
Katie taps her foot on the ground impatiently, watching outside the window for any customers. Her face is drawn into a grimace when she watches Ewroon sauntering out of his Zabka with a sly smirk. A notification interrupts the silence.
“Ewroon: Zabka free sandwiches! All products are half-off JUST today!”
She swears under her breath, throwing the doors open and stomping over to Ewroon, “You asshole! Am I not allowed to have ONE good day?”
Ewroon takes a step back defensively, “Woah woah, you didn’t even tell me good morning? How rude.” Ignoring everything she said. Katie leans her full weight onto the fence dividing the two franchises, “I-”
Her angry train of thought is immediately interrupted by the sudden appearance of none-other than her cameraman boyfriend, Tomate. Katie’s face shifts to a smile as she jumps to hug him, “See! SOMEONE came to my grand opening! How are you, boyfriend? Crouch if you like KFC more than Zabka.”
It takes a few moments, but he lowers himself into a crouch. Katie laughs triumphantly. Ewroon rolls his eyes, “Seems your ONLY customer has arrived. I don’t even think those things can eat food, so good luck serving him KFC.” He shrugs.
She never really thought about that. Can Tomate actually eat? Everything about Federation members is a mystery.
Katie pauses for a moment to think of a rebuttal, “Well at least I have a loving boyfriend! He supports me through everything. I doubt YOU have anyone like that.” Then she grabs Tomate’s hand and walks off.
She’s learned to ignore the massive camera he always hulled around. It was a nuisance originally, but now she couldn’t care less about being watched. Tomate was one of the only people she could confide in. Whenever Mike was away, or Schlatt was blackout drunk, Tomate was there to listen.
Katie brings him up to the counter, “Here, how about I get you some food? Crouch once for a chicken sandwich or twice for fries.”
The crouching system was the closest thing they had to communication. Tomate was restricted in his body language and he is fully unable to speak. He thinks for a moment before crouching once.
Katie smiles and does her usual peppy, “Order will be up in a jiffy! Get yourself comfortable somewhere.” Then she disappeared behind the counter.
Tomate sat in his seat, looking out into the window. He placed the camera down, fidgeting with the buttons before finally turning it off. Then, he pulled a book out from his satchel and began scribbling. It was messy but readable.
Katie returns with some fries, placing them onto the table before sitting on the opposite end, “So! How’s your day been?”
Silence. Tomate nods his head towards the book on the table. Katie’s eyes light up excitedly, “OH MY GOD! You can write???” Then she frowns dramatically, “you could write this whole time and just didn’t?”
She grabs the book and reads the first page, “Thank you. To show my appreciation, please follow me.”
She smiles widely squealing, “Is this a date! Awwww I knew you were a romantic. Lead the way!”
Tomate stands up, leaving the camera on their table. Katie jumps up to follow, grabbing his hand and rambling on about random bullshit. They were walking in a straight line towards spawn, and Katie assumed they would teleport somewhere special.
Maybe Tomate found a cool biome they could explore? Or he’s showing her his house? Maybe it’s a dinner date at the Dutch cafe. Thoughts were racing through her mind so fast that she barely noticed Tomate walking past the waypoint.
Katie found herself in the corner of spawn, watching Tomate counting the quartz tiles beneath their feet. Soon enough, he looks towards her then crouches. In an instant, he vanished.
Katie nodded, recognising an elevator. She walked over to the tile and copied Tomate, finding herself in a strange white room. It was so bright, she felt the need to cover her eyes. As she was blinking away the disorientation, she could feet Tomate reaching for her other hand to continue leading her somewhere.
She stumbles, “God, it’s so bright down here. Where is this place, your home?”
It was so cold, she could feel all of her exposed skin prickling into goosebumps. It felt like a hospital with neverending hallways. “Nothing bad is going to happen to me, right?”
No response, as always. Tomate eventually reaches a door, typing in a code and allowing Katie to walk in first. She winces, trying to look at her surroundings. To her surprise, Tomate closes the door behind her.
“W-Wait, Tomate? Boyfriend? Why are you walking away?” Katie quickly asks, grabbing at the door’s handle, “What’s the code for the door? Tomate?!?!” God, this had to be a joke. Maybe it’s part of a new QSMP reality tv show! But, he didn’t have his camera on him…
Katie assumed Tomate turned off his camera so they could have privacy on their hangout. But now, she’s beginning to believe it was so the public wouldn’t be able to see what was going to happen.
A minute passes, then two, then Katie realizes her boyfriend is gone. She’s stuck in this room by herself and needs to find a way out. Easy peasy.
She walks around, documenting each item available to her. There are a few books in a small white bookcase, a white table with paper and a pen, and a security camera on the ceiling. She grabs the books first, throwing them open. Each book was empty.
“Fuck, man. Why would they even put these here?”
Katie throws the books at the door, then walks over to the camera, “You think this is funny? Whatever is going on here needs to stop, or else I’m going to blow some shit up. You hear me???? I’ll blow this WHOLE place up, if you don’t let me go.”
The camera moves.
Katie takes a step back in surprise, before recollecting herself and continuing her threats, “Yeah, YOU! I know this is the damn Federation. You know, Maximus told me a LOT about you guys. All the experimenting and shit. You torture people you don’t like and cover it all up with a nice little island facade!”
Katie takes another step back, throwing her arms wide, “I bet you guys are PISSED at Max’s little museum, telling everyone the truth about your EVIL FUCKING DEEDS!”
She takes her final step back, bumping into something. She blinks, the wall wasn’t normally this close, was it?
“Hahaha”
Katie throws herself forward, grabbing the pen on the table as defense, “You asshole, let me out.” She backs into the wall, holding the pen out. In front of her was Cucurucho, standing still as a rock.
He cranes his head slightly in her direction, “Hahaha”
Katie sneers, “Hahaha! Hahaha! See? I can do it too! Why doesn’t the Federation just replace you, since you’re clearly not good at doing your job? Aren’t you meant to make sure everyone enjoys the island? I’m doing better than you at your own job.”
She doesn’t know why she’s taunting him right now. Her adrenaline is blurring all of her common sense, forcing her into aggression.
They stand still, waiting for the other to move. Katie breathes heavily. Her heart is beating so fast she can barely hear her own thoughts. When she DOES hear her thoughts, they are all focusing on her boyfriend backstabbing her.
She blinks and doesn’t notice Cucurucho take a step forward.
Katie heaves out a heavy breath, “Tomate. I- Did he actually care about me? Or was it all a ploy to get me kidnapped?” She blinks away the tears welling in her eyes. Her voice begins cracking, “Don’t get any close to me.”
Cucurucho takes one more step forward.
Katie looks to the door in a panic. She still needed the code to escape. Her eyes widened as she watched Tomate walk back towards the door. He must have felt bad for leaving her in this situation, and is going to get her out!
She hears the door click and immediately ducks out of the way of Cucurucho. She scrambles for the door, reaching for the handle and throwing it open.
Her back was turned to Tomate as she ran, which was her greatest mistake. It only took a moment, but the cameraman swiftly hit the back of her neck and watched as she collapses to the ground unconscious.
__________________________
At the KFC, there was a surprising amount of people present. Of course, most were there for
the drama. The last opening was so catastrophic, people were laughing about it for weeks.
Ewroon was leaning against the fence, rolling his eyes and loudly declaring, “Wowwww, Katie isn’t even here to open her own establishment. She really doesn’t care about KFC. EVERYONE, Zabka is open NOW and also offering half off!!”
He funneled her customers straight into his shop with ease.
But something bugged him. Katie wasn’t the type to be absent at her own grand opening. It couldn’t hurt to do some snooping. As a plus, he might find some blackmail material inside the restaurant.
He walks into the KFC, looking around and checking for cameras. Luckily, Katie hasn’t put up any replacements for the cameras he already broke. (although, she probably isn’t even aware enough to notice)
Then he spots an unusual detail. One of the booth tables had a camera and a book placed on top. Ewroon quickly steals the camera, laughing to himself. Then he grabs the book and flips it open. He mutters under his breath, “to show my appreciation, please follow me. Hmmmm.”
He looks out the window in thought, “This camera must belong to Katie’s boyfriend. So she followed him somewhere? I guess it’s not my problem.” He shrugs, walking back to Zabka to shill his own store.
_________________________
Ewroon felt like he was overreacting. It’s only been a week since he’s seen Katie! But… a week is the longest they’ve ever gone without interacting. He hasn’t seen her once, and he’s seen her little camera boyfriend plenty of times.
In fact, he went up to the cameraman with a confrontation, “Where is Katie? You must know, you are her boyfriend right?”
The Federation worker just looked at him and walked away. When he followed, the worker teleported somewhere else. That felt incredibly suspicious to him. Even when someone is being confrontational, the cameraman always stays and records unbothered.
The war between businesses felt incredibly sad when it all became one sided. The only person he ever saw enter KFC was Tubbo to repair any broken machinery. Ewroon didn’t even need to try anymore, and that made him miserable.
It got to a point where Nexe backed him into a corner, concerned, “What is happening to you, my friend? You have been pacing for hours?” Ewroon runs a hand down his face, “It’s nothing, just… my business. Business issues.”
Nexe frowns, “Is it Katie?”
Ewroon blinks in surprise, “What? Why would you ever say that?”
The shiba inu laughs lightheartedly, “You seem happiest when you are scheming how to prank her. But now, you haven’t bothered me with a prank idea in days. Something must have happened.”
It was true, but Ewroon struggled to accept it, “She’s gone, disappeared. I don’t know where or how, but I know she followed the cameraman and never came back.”
Nexe tilts his head, “Cameraman? The Federation worker? Are you saying the Federation took her?” His voice was laced with concern.
Ewroon nods in confirmation, “She’s gone.”