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It was a normal run, they promised it was just gonna be a normal run with Wanted and Prisoner.
Yet here they were inside of high-rise, suddenly on a double date because they somehow went too far into a lie and had to stay committed. That's one way to ensure survival. Glider and Grappler weren't gonna hear the last of it from Charger once they're back.
So now it's wasn't just any normal run.
The four intruders sat around a table, nothing but awkwardness lingering between them. This entire situation was awkward, they didn't even plan a date between either of them to begin with!
This certainly was hardly even seen as a double date, given the circumstances. Residents of the void claimed it to be on the house, another fuel to their rising confusion.
As for the cherry on top? They're preparing their 'specials', they're having void-knows-what on their first double date, and it all sprouted from one harmless lie.
But that's a consequence they'll have to suck up, maybe next time they'd leave back onto the main islands before the residents recognise them once again and offer yet another date. If anything, they'd rather go back to being 'intruders'. At least their chances of dying was reduced due to this.
With their biggest worries paved out of the way, it's about time they think about the unbearable awkwardness this double date had held up to their recent point in time.
The conditions weren't ideal for a double date, the adrenaline that had set off into their bodies was yet to leave, their thoughts scattered all over. The quad felt like running away. Despite their urges, they remain seated and silent.
The silence at least didn't last much longer, if their lie had become reality then they may as well start some small, dreadfully awkward talk. And out of the four? Of course, it had to be Grappler to initiate.
"We'll all be stuck here for a while so why don't we entertain ourselves with a story? How did you two meet?"
Grappler laid themself further back on their seat in an attempt to calm their nerves for now, pointing to the "criminals" infront of them. A story would be a nice distraction, plus, don't couples ask each other that on double dates? They weren't quite sure themself but they figured it's normal enough.
Wanted and Prisoner gave each other uncomfortable glances, knowing their history wasn't something you share so casually. Their first meeting was in harsh conditions, and they were the same that the rest of their story followed so they rather share nothing about it. The chained prisoner averted their eyes away from the rest as their partner in crime took the responsibility of providing an answer.
"That would be none of your business. If you felt the need to scout a story then why don't you share yours?"
Wanted leaned onto the table, raising one eyebrow as their eyes alternated between looking at the hook line master and their pilot-looking fellow.
Grappler tilted their head in confusion, Glider shrugging back to reciprocate. They didn't particularly think there was anything wrong with the question itself, rather the question being asked altogether.
"Don't you two already know that? I was the one that.. ahem.. found Glider when they first ended up here."
Grappler lowered their tone as they looked around muttering the last part, one word falling into the wrong ears and their lives as of right now may as well be over. Not like they could die permanently, the pain of death was enough to want to shoo the thought of risking anything away otherwise.
Upon processing the information uttered by Grappler, Wanted couldn't help but giving a sigh of defeat. The one time they try to sound smart is the time that the void doesn't seem to have it. Meanwhile, Prisoner mentally face palms at their partner's thoughtless head-butting.
While the awkward tension planned on setting in, life planned otherwise. A line of four Marts skipped their way over to their table with kitchen cutlery balancing on their heads, each sliding on infront of the nearest respective guest. The cutlery wasn't left dry unfortunately for them, each item was left dripping water being affected from the littke waiter Marts.
As they exited the area, the familiar beeping of ICBM echoed down the high rise, this time not to hurt but to indicate its arrival. It was just a few beeps that echoed however, it was countless. The squad couldn't quite pin point and exact amount themselves. At this point, Wanted would have rather they took the path where they died rather than the one where they have to follow a stupid lie.
A horde of Marts hovered by them quickly, giving way to about 7 trillion or so ICBMs attempting to deliver the main dish. Maybe this was Wanted's short-anticipated death.
The dishes luckily dropped right on the table as the ICBMs, too, hovered quickly by them.
Uncovering the first dish lead to discovering 2000 cigarettes being presented, 500 to each and every one of them. Wanted suddenly didn't want to die so much anymore, maybe this was actually a great idea!
Prisoner held neutral grounds, the only thing concerning them was cigarettes being served as a dish and the amount of them stacked on top of each other. Grappler and Glider on the other hand? They didn't seem too content. Sure, Glider could stand the smell of smoke and fire, they were constantly working around it, they were a mechanic for crying out loud. But smoking? They'd rather live longer because their job sure was to take them out first before they could even touch a cigarette.
Before any of them could touch anything, the 7 trillion ICBMs returned to drop off yet another dish. Hopefully something edible to Grappler and Glider. Similar to the previous process, they quickly hovered by them again, leaving them to investigate the second mysterious dish.
Uncovering this one revealed.. Telefragger? It looked like Telefragger at least. Wanted shrugged it off, returning their focus to their 500 cigarettes as the rest further questioned the void's residents taste in food. Concern tugged at them, as if the void wasn't already a strange enough place to end up in.
What even went on inside the kitchen? Where was the said kitchen even located?
---
The void's residents had taken this day to be special as they, for once, did not need to hunt anyone down for intruding. They instead spent their time in the kitchen, preparing dishes for a double date! Isn't that wonderful! They couldn't even remember the last time anyone had a date in the garden!
Everything was under control in the kitchen, Voidbreaker made sure of it doing so. While the Springers attempted to stack 2000 cigarettes in a nice mountain, Husk cooked a deceased Telefragger on Sigil so that they at least didn't need to remember its corpse existed within the high rise ever again!
They hoped no Telefragger would pass by to witness it however, if that happened then surely everything is to go wrong. They didn't want that, especially not with Operator patrolling the garden currently. That would make a legendary disaster to be told to Celestial and a reason to punish them all. So Voidbreaker had to do their best to ensure everyone's right on command.
Baby, Guardian and Flesh may or may have not been banned due to this issue, if any of them was to be allowed into the kitchen it would be worse than a scolding from Operator and a punishment from Celestial. For now, they seemed to hold up a good job.
Voidbreaker commanded a Mart to go fetch the ICBMs to deliver the dishes as they looked about done already. Mart, zooming by the kitchen, accidentally flew into bell alarming the rest of the Marts. They all collectively agreed on their desire to follow along with their brother to fetch ICBMs to get their guests' double date on going. That was quite the opposite of what Voidbreaker was hoping to happen, they were undoubtedly about to summon a huge number of them. Whatever, as long as they did their job effectively.
---
As Wanted enjoyed their 500 cigarettes, Prisoner, Grappler and Glider tried figuring out if their speculation about the second dish was right and whether it was harmful to eat. They couldn't do much about it but poke it with several different items and see if it would spring back to life. Glider even had the guts to poke it with their own arm, earning a disgusted reaction from Grappler. Unfortunately, they didn't seem to be getting any leads on their secondary dish.
As curiosity ate at them to find out what is it that they behold, a Telefrsgger happened to be passing by. It was meant to be casual, only wanting to actually check the double date they heard of from the other residents.
But a glimpse of something washed away all casual-ness they held.
A Telefragger's corpse was among the dishes, and they were poking it.
Telefragger stopped dead in its tracks, staring at the squad and their once friend. Someone they could rely on, someone they knew, trusted, and loved, now reduced to nothing but a dish to be consumed.
Telefragger felt their anger build up. Before it could process anything else, it found itself suddenly acting on impulse, telephoning to one of the intruder and murdering an ally infront of them before dashing straight to their target. Glider and Wanted were gone in an instant. Their bodies crashing down created quite the commotion, as a chair was kicked down and the banging of a body hitting the table sounded, Prisoner and Grappler were forced to quickly absorb the situation of their dead partners.
Telefragger couldn't let them escape, their motivation, their boiling anger, it was all channelled into teleporting behind Prisoner, catching them off-guard and allowing them to murder the chained individual before they could have a moment to react. Prisoner's body soon joined Wanted's and Glider's as it, too, was pulled by gravity straight into whichever object could catch it. Grappler attempted to grapple away, however Telefragger had other plans as it teleported once more right on them. Their grip time was gone in an instant as their body was left flinging into oblivion.
Finally, Operator made it to the alerting scene. Seeing the mess formed around the table, the three limp bodies and the lack of a fourth one, Operator blared without a second to spare, alerting the rest of the residents in and out of the high rise. It looked ticked off, contagiously so.
Operstor's blaring reached Celestial, and proof of that was Celestial's new found presence within the high rise, disappointed with everyone in the kitchen. Not just disappointed, angry even.
The consequences stretched further when all residents whose presence happened to be in the kitchen was lines up now, all ready for a scolding and a punishment from their higher up. It happened to be a surprise to everyone but Voidbreaker that they were being accounted for the majority of the incident despite their efforts to keep the daye going as well as it could. The discovery came when Celestial asked them to step up.
"FOOLISH. THEY WERE OUR ONLY WILLING VISITORS IN A WHILE, AND YOU DARE LEAD THEIR CURSED DESTINY RIGHT TO THEM?"
Celestial's wings widened in intimidation, causing all the adversaries to stare at the ground guiltily, especially Voidbreaker. She aggressively gestured on of her legs, pointing to a door leading outside of the kitchen as Voidbreaker reluctantly left.
It called out Husk infront next. It froze infront of Celestial, bracing itself to hear of the punishment decided upon it. Rather instead of the next wave being the announcement of their execution, they felt one of Celestial's limbs resting on its shoulder, the rest of her limbs pointing at it.
"A FRUIT BLOSSOMS FROM A FLOWER'S WASTED EFFORTS, LET THIS BE AN EXAMPLE OF HOW TO REACH YOUR FULL FORM IN BLOOM."
Celestial's announcement only allowed silence to flow once more in the kitchen. Then a single, slow clap could be heard from the back. And then another. Soon enough, the rest of the kitchen joined in, all celebrating Husk's promotion in their own ways.
Maybe the next date would go well under Husk's lead