Work Text:
Cuphead feels the hell-elevator stop and prepares to step out; As the doors slide open, he takes a step forward, and the first thing that hits him is a brilliant light shining directly into his eyes
Cuphead squeezes his eyes shut, raising a hand to shield them from the glare as he takes a few more steps out of the elevator; he feels the heat of the flames at his back fading as the elevator goes away
He blinks a few times to adjust to the brightness and finally opens his eyes fully
The place was a forest; The grass was a vibrant shade of green, and there were trees of various sizes and colors, some with dry leaves that drifted down at the slightest breeze, others lush, green, and teeming with life
His feet moved on their own, and soon he was running through the woods
Trees blurred past him, and though he was certain a few leaves had landed on his head, he didn't care; He heard the call of an animal he couldn't identify, the sound of grass crunching beneath his feet, and the gentle breeze against his face
It was paradise itself
A laugh bubbled up from his chest, causing him to stumble, but before he could regain his footing, he spotted something colorful that made him stop dead in his tracks
Flowers
There were no flowers in the casino, at least, no real ones. According to Henchman, flowers never survived there, so they used only artificial ones to decorate the vases
But these were real flowers
Cuphead walked over and crouched down to get a closer look; Some were red, others yellow, with yellow speckles on the red ones and vice versa
He didn't know flowers could look like that!
He then reaches for one of the red flowers and delicately runs his fingers over its petals; He read that they are quite fragile and he doesn't want to damage them
Cuphead then lies down beside the flowers, careful not to crush any, and looks up at the sky. He observes the cotton-white clouds scattered across the blue sky and reaches out as if he could touch them
"I think blue is my new favorite color..." Cuphead whispers to himself amidst the flowers, feeling a strange sense of peace.
He closes his eyes and feels the nature, listening to the sound of the trees in the wind for a moment
Right, he can't stay here, he has a job to do
Cuphead take a deep breath and, reluctantly, gets up of were he was laying dow and takes an piece of paper out of his pocket to read what he wrote down
'The Frog brothers at the swamp diner'
Ok, boss mentioned that one of the deptors was in a swamp and, according to a image of an swamp he have in one of his books, he was not in one right now and that means he have to look around until he finds one
Great
Cuphead sighs and put his paper in his pocket again: How he's suppose to find a swamp? He have no clue
Then he just go to a random direction hoping its the right one, hoping he finds someone to tell him the way...
At least hes finaly seeing a real forest
~
Mugman was tired, he just came from one hell of fight with a giant flower and now is getting his ass kicked by two frog brothers that turned into a giant slot machine
How do they do that???
The thing is, he's not winnig but he can't afford to lose either so hes moving on perseverance and adrenaline alone
He kept shotting but it seens nothings working on these guys!
The sharp flouting plataforms came back, and Mugman jump up down to dodge the lasers and continue shotting but he's not sure this is actually doing damage and he's getting out of ideas
Then, out of nowhere, an gunshot pass through him and break the machine glass, causing the machine to break and smoke to come out, the fight ended
Thank god
Mugman's run to them, grabing his purse in the way, and steal their soul contract running out of that place as fast as he could before they wake up
After running for a while, he slow down to a walk and started to think about that random gunshot that helped him in the end, what was that?
"You're better at it than i thought"
A random voice startles him, causing him to stumble over his own feet and fall to the ground, after the fall, Mugman sits on the ground and looks around to see who talked to him
He then look at his back and get caught by surprise seeing an boy there, how did he get there whitout Mugman noticing?? The boy seemed amused by Mugman's reaction to his presence
The child was a red cup with a bow tie and a black sleeveless sweater over a white formal blouse, Mugman gets up but couldn't stop staring at him in shock
Mugman never saw someone that looked like him before, both of them just stared at each other for some minutes without saying a word, that's so awkward
The cup guy coughs in his hand making Mugman pay attention to him
"Well, i should present myself" The Boy puts his hands behind his back and and raises his chin "My name is Cuphead. I'm here to observe and assist you in collecting the contracts"
.
.
.
.
What?
"What?" Mugman echoes his thoughts
"I here to keep an eye on you and to assist in the colection of the contracts"
"No, i heard you it's just-" Mugman press the space between his eyes "So you work for the Devil?"
"Yes"
Mugman put his hand down and squinted his eyes at him
"...How old are you?" Cuphead tilts his head to the side in response to Mugman question
"Why are you asking?"
"Nevermind" Mugman brushes it off, of course the Devil would have children working for him, Mugman is kinda working for him too "Forget it"
Cuphead stared at him with a raised eyebrow for a moment but then just shrugs
Cuphead, changing the subject, asks "And your name is...?"
"Oh right, it's Mugman" Mugman replied embarrassed, how rude of him not to introduce himself after Cuphead did it, Elder Kettle raised him better than that
Mugman then realised something
"Wait, so you're the one that did that last shot back there?"
"Yes, it was me" Cuphead smiled and walked closer to him "Your welcome, but you did a pretty good job alone"
"Thanks?" Mugman is not sure hes should be proud of anything in this situation
"Sooo" Cuphead leans to him "How many contracts did you get by now?"
"Counting the one I- we get now, theres five" Cuphead whistle in response
"Wow you're fast" Cuphead sounded genuinely impressed "You're used to fighting?"
"Not really"
"Then it's even more impressive" Cuphead gave him an smirk "Ok, whos next?"
Mugman then open his bag and get the list out of it, crossing the frog brothers names out he reads the next one
" 'Baroness Von Bon Bon' Shes in island two" Mugman look up the paper and sees Cuphead staring at him "What?"
"You know her?"
"Not really" Mugman gives him an half smile
"So how do you know where she is?" Cuphead looks over the paper in Mugman's hands "It's not written there, is she famous?"
Mugmans just stare at Cuphead
"Yes? Everyone knows her" Cuphead tilts his head still looking confused "She's the candy kingdom queen, i never met her but she's well know across the isles"
"You don't know her?"
"No?" Cuphead responds while Mugman looked shocked
"How??" Mugman asks in disbelief
"I never heard of her" Cuphead responds seeing to get kinda tired of all the questioning
"How you never heard of her??"
"I just didn't okay?!" Cuphead snaped "Can we just go? Your time is counted remember??"
Cuphead don't wait for his asnwer and start to walk away to a random direction
"The island two is the other way" Mugman scream to him
Cuphead stopped and looked back at Mugman
"Then come and show the way!"
Mugman sighs and put the debtors list inside his bag then walk towards the right way, hearing Cuphead footsteps following him
When he caught up, Cuphead started walking beside him. As they walked, Mugman rummaged through his bag and realized something was missing, he began to panic, searching unsuccessfully for the missing thing
"Hey, Cuphead?"
"Hmm?"
"I had an cyan potion in my bag, did you saw it??"
"Ah, i used it" Cuphead continues to walk as Mugman stoped in his tracks
"You what?!"