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Purple carefully sets the flowers down at his mother's grave.
The cemetery is quiet, as per usual. Her headstone isn't the only one behind the small church, but as far as Purple can tell it's the only one that gets visited with much regularity. He does his best to clean the others off every now and then, but today he's just here for her.
"Hey mom," he says, stepping back a few paces and sitting a little behind where her feet should be, like he's sitting at the foot of her bed again. For a moment, he could almost mistake the damp ground for the hard plastic of a hospital chair.
"Sorry I missed last week. I had a science project and King had to work late. Bunch of stuff has happened since I last talked, though. School's going fine, I guess. Internet History is still dumb, but I'm doing okay in it. We got this new long-term sub in my language arts class last Thursday since Mrs. Calluna just had her baby, and you would not believe how similar he looks to King. Like, there's an actual possibility he might be his long-lost brother. I haven't said anything about it to either of them, but it's really funny. I called the sub King once by accident - I usually call King by his actual name in public 'cause it raises fewer questions - but I played it off as a joke and I think it might be starting to catch on? I dunno. I can never figure out why some nicknames stick and others flop, but it'll be funny if this one does."
He sits there for a moment, letting the wind flow around him. It's peaceful here. Quiet. There's a side street behind him where he knows a car is waiting for him, but it's all hidden by the overgrown fence enclosing the graveyard. It's easy to let the mass of ivy block out the rest of the world. Easy to pretend that this little area blocked off by the ivy is the rest of the world.
"I'm almost done with Driver's Ed, too," he continues. "I have my last class Friday, and then I get my full learner's permit and can drive with King instead of an instructor. His car is a stick shift, so he's going to have to teach me how to use that part, but it should be fun. He says that when I pass the test we can go on a road trip this summer so I can start getting hours. I don't know where we'll go, but he says his wife Xan had a sister who lives on the West Coast with her family, so we might go and visit them. I haven't met them yet, but King likes them, so I hope it will go well. Apparently I have three cousins, which is kind of cool. One of them is adopted like me, although I think she's only one or two I think."
It's almost dark and the late April air carries a bit of a chill. He wraps his jacket - a leather aviator still several sizes too big - around him a little tighter. A bit of newly-familiar fabric scratches at his shirt.
"Oh! And look what my friends helped me do the other day!" He opens one side of his jacket like she's there to see it. A tidy column of colorful square patches line the inside, next to the busted zipper. They stack in rainbow order, all displaying tiny little pieces of his friends, from a bit of yellow ribbon at the top to a stitched potion bottle in the blocky Minecraft style at the very bottom.
"They each made one for me," he says, his voice slightly awed. "They said they made Red do all of the actual stitching, he's good at that I guess, and they offered to make me one for myself. I'm not sure whether I'll take them up on it, but it's sweet of them, don't you think?" He traces his fingers along the patterns - the ribbon, a pencil, a wrench, a cluster of music notes, and the little potion.
"Also! Have I told you this? I might've told you this, I don't remember, but Green, the one who's my age, is going to be joining me next year for high school! He said he wanted to. I don't know anyone who would want to go to school and they all seem plenty smart to me, but he said that he talked it over with King and King called the school and the school said they'd take him. He's gotta pass a basic knowledge test in August to prove he can take high-school-level classes instead of the normal remedials that are usually offered to Drawns his age, but King and I are planning on helping him get caught up on some of the science and math and stuff he never really had a chance to learn back on the PC this summer. Him and Yellow have already gotten into those Crash Course YouTube videos. Don't worry, though, we're making sure he doesn't mess with the Greenzilla account."
Purple looks down at his knees, smiling.
"In other news, yesterday, Blue and Orange-"
A burst of light explodes into the sky, staining the bottoms of the clouds dark red. Purple's head shoots up as two years of being around his friends snaps him into action. Something just happened - something big. Purple can't see the source of the light, but whatever it was, something tells him it can't be good.
A few seconds later, the light is followed by a massive BOOM and a wave of hot air. It's intense but Purple doesn't feel much - there must be enough buildings in the way that they took the brunt of it. A plume of smoke rises over the tops of the buildings and Purple scrambles to his feet, running for the street, his heart rate picking up.
He almost collides with King at the entrance. His face is white.
"Get in the car," he says, taking Purple by the shoulder and tugging him to go faster, not taking his eyes off the bloom of light and smoke off in the distance. The temperature has risen several degrees and the air feels thick.
"What's-"
"Get in the car. You're going to stay with your friends."
"What about-"
"Now, Purple." His voice is charged, angry, no-nonsense, but there's a slight shake to it. He looks terrified. Purple glances back at his mother's grave one last time before nodding and getting into the passenger seat, pulling the door shut behind him and making sure his seatbelt gets on.
"What's going on?" he asks as King gets in on the driver's side. He jams the key into the ignition and the car sputters to life. The second the engine turns on, King stomps on the gas, pulling them out of their parking spot and into the empty street. The radio turns on, blaring some sort of warning. King jabs at the dashboard, changing it to one of the preset stations. It's sending out the same message, warning people to get out of the City while they can.
"Change it to something less depressing, will you?" King asks, white-knucking the steering wheel with one hand and the stick shift with the other. He turns onto another street, this one much busier. Everyone's going the same way - away from the explosion.
"What's going on?"
"I don't know."
"-seems to be an explosion at Rocket heatquarters-"
"I said change that!"
Purple switches the radio off entirely, and the car goes silent except for King muttering something under his breath. Purple can't quite tell what he's saying, but he thinks he catches Xan and Newgrounds and can't be, none of which bodes well.
They're quiet for a moment, King hunched too close to the steering wheel and Purple trying to quietly sink into his seat.
"When we get back home," King says abruptly, "I want you in the basement immediately. Go through Minecraft, get to your friends'. I'll come get you when this mess gets figured out, got it?"
"But-"
"You will listen to me. It's probably nothing, there was probably just an accident, but I'm not taking any chances. I'm not going to lose another kid."
"But what about you?"
"I'll be fine. I'm tough. You know this."
"And I'm not?"
"Purple," he says, taking his eyes off the road. Purple is surprised to see that his eyes are shiny. "I refuse to lose you like I lost Gold and Xan. You will stay safe. You will hide with your friends. I will come find you when all of this is over. Got it?"
Slightly shocked, Purple nods.
"Good. Grab the spare toothbrush and change of clothes you have hidden in that chest in the wall when we get there. And don't tell them anything about what's going on down here. I don't want them freaking out."
"You know about the chest in the wall?"
"Kid, I practically invented hiding things in the wall. There was a loose tile in the kitchen wall of my old apartment that I hid candy behind for years. You're not that sneaky."
They turn onto a slightly less busy road, a shortcut home that mostly relies on the web of suburban neighborhoods and little-used side streets that sprawl between their house and the city center. They pass by well over a hundred people crowded onto the sidewalks and spilling into the streets, all of them staring at the space behind the car. Purple turns around in his seat, trying to see what they're looking at. The skyline seems about normal, but there's something strange on the north side.
The north side is the oldest part of the City, and the most built-up. Even still, Purple can see a pair of new spires, curved to a point like a pair of devil's horns just peeking over the very tops of the buildings.
"What the…?" he mutters, squinting. He's pulled back to the present by King swerving sideways to avoid a man standing stock-still in the street, apparently unaware of the oncoming car.
"I'm gonna call them," Purple says, trying to push away his worry. "Just to let them know I'm coming so they don't accidentally torch the place in the next five minutes." King mutters something that sounds like agreement and Purple pulls out his phone, trying to figure out who would be best to call.
Orange might be the most likely to pick up, even if he was asleep, but would be able to tell he's panicking instantly, even over the phone.
Green would also absolutely answer, but only if he isn't covering up the ringtone with whatever his new instrument of the week is. He thinks it's been the trumpet for the last few days, which lends itself to drowning everything out, and Purple doesn't know if he should risk it.
Red's is always dead.
Blue never has his on him.
Yellow has been trying to 'upgrade' his and Purple doesn't know if he's put it back together yet.
Without any better ideas, he calls Green and hopes.
Green doesn't pick up. It's fine. He's fine. He's just practicing and can't hear me.
He tries Red. Nothing. It's fine. It's never charged.
Same with Blue. And Yellow. It's getting hard for Purple to stay calm.
His heart hammering, he tries Orange.
It rings once… twice… three times…
The call goes through and Purple almost melts with relief.
"Hey Orange. Thank cursors I got through. So-"
"Who is this?" comes a voice on the other side. Purple's heart stops. That's not Orange's drawl. Or Green's cracking or Red's squeak or Blue's alto or Yellow's machine gun or even Chosen's rasp. This voice is a well-pitched tenor, silky smooth and dangerously sharp in that carefully offhand way that seems to cut through the phone screen.
"Who are you?" Purple says, his voice hardening, taking on its own sharp edge. King looks over, worried.
"I asked you first. Name and how you know this pathetic creature." It's clearly a command, not a question.
"Why would I tell you that?" Purple snarls. What's going on? King mouths from the driver's seat, not taking his eyes off the road for more than a second. Purple makes a hold on gesture and goes back to paying attention to the phone.
"Hm. Unimpressive. You could at least try to do a better job. I assume your name is Purple as that's what you're listed as under in his contacts. How do you know him? I don't remember there being a 'Purple' at the cliffs. Has he picked you up more recently?"
Purple smashes his finger on the end call button, his breathing picking up and starting to rattle and his hands starting to shake as he puts pieces together.
No one's answering.
The weird spires in the City.
Calling Orange a 'pathetic creature'.
Unknown voice.
The cliffs.
"What's going on?" King asks, clearly nervous.
"We gotta go back," Purple says, his eyes wide.
"What? Back where? If you left something-"
Purple shakes his head.
"They're in there."
King sucks in a breath, stomping on the brakes, the car stopping with a screech of tires. They're in an empty section of neighborhood. Purple looks around and recognizes the gnarled tree on the corner. They're almost home
"How…? Are you sure."
"I don't know. But it's them. Are you really surprised?"
They sit in the middle of the street for a moment, the car idling. King lets out a sigh and shifts the car from second down to first as he pulls into a random person's driveway, turning them around.
"Somehow, I'm not. They had better be with Chosen right now."