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Battat wasn’t sure how him and his friend had gotten where they now found themselves at. He knew the two of them had some sort of (possibly once again pointless) argument, one he couldn’t even remember the topic of anymore. He had gotten so irritated that he wildly gestured around with his hands like he often tended to do, but in his anger started to shove the taller. He must have somehow hit one of the Zapper’s buttons on accident while doing so, however, as he now sat in the middle of the static snow fields, his friend laying in the snow next to him, unmoving.
The Pippins stared at their body, anger slowly replaced by confusion, worry, and guilt. Why wouldn’t they move? Did Zappers have a built-in kill switch that he had accidentally activated? Did he just kill one of his only friends over a stupid thing he didn’t even recall anymore?
He shivered, terrified of what he had done, the low temperatures of the environment he’d been in not helping his situation. His claws raised, he stared at his trembling hands, eyes widening as his breathing quickened by every second. How could he have done such a thing?
He couldn’t return to the studio, not as a cold blooded murderer. They’d all kill him if they ever found out, although maybe it was what he deserved in that case. And keeping two huge secrets was something he didn’t think he could trust himself with. One of them was enough! Maybe if he just laid down next to them to freeze to death, it’d look like they both just died under natural circumstances. And nobody would ever know he was the one to kill his friend! It was the perfect plan!
“Mngh… Boss, dat youse?”
Battat almost leaped out of his skin as he let out an involuntarily high yelp. The Zapper raised their head groggily, a trembling arm trying to prop their body up. If he didn’t know better, they would have looked like they’d just woken up from an ordinary nap.
“Don’t fucking scare me like that! I thought you were dead!!”, the shorter yelled, arms frantically waving in the air.
Despite their exhaustion, Jongler let out a small chuckle, “Nah, jus’- took a lots outta me’s”, their voice sounded unusually staticky and weak, a hand landing on the side of their head as they managed to sit up.
“W-wait, shit-”, the Pippins approached, hands only inches away from their chest, “here, l-let me heal you, rubberbrain”. From his claws appeared two green dice made of energy, which he shot at his friend, both of them only healing by one point each. He swore under his breath, conjuring more dice, only for all of them to heal for the same amount over and over. Him and his stupid bad luck… Can’t even heal someone properly! The fact that his inability to roll anything above ones seemed to extend to his healing abilities as well, just proceeded to make him feel even more useless than he’d already felt.
“Boss, uh. I’s don’t fink ‘s gonna work like dat.”
“Shut up! I’m gonna heal you, and if it takes ten years to do so!”, stubborn as he was, he continued to roll die after die, without any different outcome in sight. A large hand landed on his shoulders, making him flinch.
“’S not mah HP’s, boss”, they looked to the side in what appeared like embarrassment, “Energy’s drained. Imma needsa fresh batterys soon.”
“Why didn’t you say so earlier, idiot?! Making me waste my damn time like that-”, he huffed, arms crossed over his chest as he averted his eyes, “Get up, then. We’ll get your stupid batteries and-” He paused, it only now dawned on him how far out they actually were. Everywhere he looked, all he saw was snow, snow, and even more snow. Maybe if he could somehow get up on top of Jongler’s shoulders, he could see in which direction the studio laid in? Or wait, perhaps the only way to return would be the same way they came here. If only he remembered what he’d done to make them land here…
“Jongler, can you do that thing again?”
“Uh…”, they paused a bit longer than what was usual for them, “what fing?”
Battat huffed, exasperated, “You know, the thing that brought us here? The thing that somehow fucking teleported us from the Mike room to wherever we are right now??”
If they had eyes, Jongler would have blinked. Moments that felt like minutes to the Pippins elapsed, before the other perked up a bit again.
“Ah. Dat fing. Uhh-”, they rubbed the back of their neck, the tip of their tail nervously curling in on itself, “Yeah, uh. Ain’t a good ideas.”
Battat put his hands on his hips, “And why wouldn’t it be? If you just press the same button again we’re gonna land back where we-”
“Dat ain’t how it works, boss.”, Jongler let out a sigh, rubbing their hands together to keep them warm. This cold environment was never good for darkners like them, their tail already feeling stiff. If the both of them stayed here any longer, they were sure they’d freeze over soon.
“Mah energy ain’t enough fer anotha onea’ dose. ‘Least no controlled ones”, they now rubbed their arms, watched as the smaller slowly approached them again, “n’ even if ya press it nows, I’s not gonna wake up any time soons.”
That revelation made the Pippins gulp, so if their energy levels would have been lower, he probably would have actually killed them before. Well, he supposed they’d have to somehow find their way back the old-fashioned way, then.
“Okay, well, come on then! Get up and we’ll get out of this death trap of a place!” Why did they even have an area like this? A TV studio surely didn’t have any use for a damn snow field of all things! Especially considering the many electronic based darkners, all the equipment and the cables. That was kind of like having a giant sea of flames in a dark world entirely made of paper!
“… Can’t.”
Battat whipped around once more, the Zapper still sitting in the snow, “What do you mean, can’t? You frozen already?”, his voice lowered with the last few words, unable to hide the worry for them slipping through. What if they tried to move their tail and it just straight up shattered from the frost? He carefully approached, seeing them trembling as they tried to push themselves up.
“I’s could need yer help, boss.”
Okay, this was still salvageable. He might not be very strong on his own – especially compared to a Zapper – but he had to at least try getting them up on their feet. Uh, tail. Besides, if he left to get somebody else, who knows how long this would take him? By the time he returned, they could have frozen to death, and he’d be a damn murderer again!
He merely nodded, hesitantly grabbing at their hand as he tried with all his might to pull the other up. They barely even budged for a minute.
“Come on you dumb fuck”, Battat pressed through gritted teeth, pulling harder. Jongler shot a look at the Pippins, about to complain that they’re doing all they can, that it wasn’t their fault they felt this powerless, when he continued. “Can’t even- rrgh- help em up- useless piece’a-”
His hand slipped, and he fell backwards into the snow with a quiet thud. He quickly arose again, a hand placed on the side of his head, and the Zapper was now hunched over as if they fell forwards.
It took the two a few more tries, but eventually the both of them managed to stand upright. Or, as upright as they could in their situation. Jongler’s energy was still so low they could barely hold themselves up without help, and Battat had to function as their personal walking aid, their weight leaning into his small stature. It was a miracle he didn’t break underneath them. Or, not after every step, at least.
“Boss?”, Jongler spoke up, only earning a strained grunt in response, seeming like speaking felt like a chore to him, “Ya knows. ‘F I’s too heavy fer ya, youse can leave me’s-”
“And let you freeze to death?! Shut up, we’re getting you outta here!”
Jongler couldn’t help the slight flush crossing over their face, but they supposed they’d do the same for him if the roles were reversed. Even though he was way easier to carry around for them as they were for him. He was just so small compared to them, the fact that he was even willing to do this for them made them feel a little warmer inside already. Even if he could be so rude and even hurtful at times, moments like these showed he really did care about his friends.
“So, does that- hff- happen often?”, the Pippins wheezed as the two of them took a short break, trying to break the silence between them. He stretched his back until it gave off a dull pop.
“Not reallys”, the Zapper stared down at their chest, some of their buttons obscured by their bandana, “we’s usually only do dat if dere’s no otha way outs”, their gaze wandered back up to their companion, “’n normally we’s can control where we’s ends up.”
Battat furrowed his brow, “And you thought it was a good idea to bring us to this hell of a place??”
“Youse caught me’s off guard!”, they crossed their arms over their chest, “Ain’t my fault youse pushin’ buttons all willy-nillies like dat.”
The shorter pouted a little, returning the gesture as he flushed in light embarrassment. “How should I have known what your stupid buttons do?” Before he could continue, a gust of freezing wind made him shiver, cowering in on himself to hopefully preserve some heat.
A quick tap on his shoulder made him look up once more, greeted with the sight of the Zapper holding their bandana towards him. When nothing but silence and a perplexed expression followed, Jongler shuffled a little closer and tied it around the other’s neck, only succeeding in making his face flush a deep green.
“What are you- why are you giving me-?”
“Ya looked like ya needs it more den me’s right nows”, they simply stated, a subtle smile in their eye line, “I know ‘s not much but, uh. Maybes it helps a lil?”
The only thing Battat could do was stare as his cheeks warmed even further. Weren’t they the one freezing their literal tail off? Why would they even give him something they very clearly needed more than he did? What was their goal here?
“Which one was it?”
“Huh?”
“Which button?”, the Pippins curiously eyed the other’s chest, “I don’t wanna push it again on accident, ya know?” He immediately waved his hands in front of himself, trying to ignore the ever rising heat on his cheeks, “I just- don’t wanna end up in some other weird place! D-don’t get any ideas!!”
Jongler could only let out a chuckle, waving the other closer, who merely took the tiniest of steps towards them. They waited a few more moments, before inching closer themselves, pointing at one of the buttons on their right side. The other merely nodded, utterly transfixed. Not that he needed to know what every single button did, but damn it if he wasn’t a little curious! Was that such a bad thing?!
“Least ya didn’ts hit dat one”, they pointed to the one above the previous one, “tho we’s woulds still be in da studios at least…”
“Why, what does it do?”
The Zapper quickly demonstrated by pressing the button down, and just a moment later, they slumped over and landed directly onto the Pippins, who of course tried to push the other off with all his might, cursing and thrashing about underneath them. After a minute he somehow managed to wriggle his way out from beneath them, turned them over onto their back, and, not quite sure what else to do, pressed that same button once more.
A few seconds of silence went by, and the green one was forced to recall his previous theory about a Zapper’s built in kill switch, eyes widening in shock. Did they really just…
The other’s eye line widened again, and Battat took a deep breath of relief, quickly turning back to anger, “You idiot! At least warn me before you decide to knock me over!”
After just a few more demonstrations – thankfully none as incapacitating as that last one – the duo continued their trek through the ice cold wasteland. With the way the two had held onto each other – Jongler slumped over Battat’s shoulder while he held onto their side as if the taller was incredibly drunk – at least they weren’t freezing as much. The close contact to one another held them warm, even if it felt awkward to at least one of the two. If this was any other situation, the Pippins knew he’d have panicked after just the smallest of touches shared between them, left them there as he went to look for somebody else to drag them out (or at least heavily considered doing so). But in this harsh environment… that’d just be unnecessarily cruel of him.
It took them a good while of dragging, stumbling, and getting up again until they finally, finally spotted the familiar doors to the green room, and the shorter quickened his steps as much as he could, determined to reach the end, to reach the doorway to their salvation. He tripped once more on the last few meters, a shaking hand reaching out in preparation to knock as hard as he could.
“Open the damn door!!”, he yelled even before he could knock, and for once Jongler was fine with their friend raising his voice like he tended to do. Not that they weren’t used to it, but sometimes that meant they had to get loud in return, and they despised that even more.
Thankfully they only needed to wait a few (agonizingly long feeling) moments, another Zapper on the other side awaiting the two, staring back in their usual stoic and honestly quite judgmental manner, a hint of confusion present as well. Good that Battat had worked so long with their friend, now able to define those expressions a little easier.
“They need new batteries!”, the Pippins yelled out, dragging them inside. As if on cue, Jongler then let out a short cough, still tightly holding onto the other. They’d really done it, made it back to the studio alive. They wished they could show their friend how incredibly grateful they were, yet unfortunately their energy reserves had drained so much they could barely even say anything, let alone keep their eye open.
Battat watched as two additional Zappers approached, carrying his friend away towards another room, him staying behind in such exhaustion. And as he climbed up on top of one of the green room couches, he collapsed on the spot, but not before reaching up and grabbing a handful of the bandana he still wore around his neck.
When he awoke again, he found himself in a familiar bed, blanket wrapped around him, and a quietly purring presence near him. Instantly grabbing at his chest, he felt the fabric of his friend’s accessory still around his neck, to which he shot up, frantically scanning the room. Pluey, startled by the sudden movement, leaned away for a second.
“Where’s Jongler?!”
A mere moment before the Zapper poked their head through the door, then quickly positioned themselves next to the smallest of the three. Their eye line creased in a mix of relief and some residual worry.
“How ya doin’ boss?”, they started in a low voice, “need anotha blanket or anyfing?”
The Pippins stared incredulously, “How am- how am I doing?! You almost died on me, like twice, and you’re asking how I’m doing??”
They stared back, a moment of silence between the three of them. The Shadowguy sat beside him, crossing its arms disapprovingly, on one hand because of his yelling, on the other because it, too, had been worried about the little Pippins.
“Battat. I’s found ya collapseds in da green rooms.”
“So?? You were the one who could barely stand!”
Jongler sighed, their expression softened by a little bit. If he could complain like this, he was at least okay. Now to hope that staying this long in those harsh temperatures didn’t have any lasting effects on their friend.