Masked (A Hat In Time)

Another Chapter

Great, now I have the Bendy and the Ink Machine Song playing in my head-

Peck you, TryHardNinja. Why must you make your songs so catchy?

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Looking out the main window, Hat Kid could see the large planet. Though it loomed before them, unfathomably huge, she knew how friendly the inhabitants on it were. She smiled as she remembered it all.

She remembered landing in the town of the mafia- those huge, bulky men who liked to speak in third-person- and teaming up with Mustache Girl to bring them down. Even though things didn't go according to plan, she had a lot of fun doing it all.

She remembered the Conductor and DJ Grooves, the two birds who were rival filmmakers. She grinned, remembering their competitive, deadly movies, each one trying to be bigger and better than the last. She remembered, in the end, DJ Grooves winning the award and turning on them.

Hat Kid remembered Snatcher...okay, admittedly, he was less than friendly, considering that he'd forced Hat Kid and Bow Kid into a contract, stole their souls, and then tried to kill them. But he was legally bound to be their BFF now. After a lot of harassing and taunting, he'd reluctantly accepted the edited contract despite his complaints that that was "not how contracts work". Kind of hypocritical, considering that minors couldn't be forced into contracts, or something like that. But despite all that, he was fluffy and she liked him.

Then there were the goats and natives of the Alpine skyline, but the girls didn't know them that well. It was a little hard to get to know someone when they slap you off the side of a mountain. But she thought about the place constantly because of how beautiful it was, from the lava cakes to the twilight bell.

She remembered, with Bow Kid at her side, fighting Mustache Girl at the end of the world. Hopefully, their friendship was sort of repaired by the timepiece they gave her.

She remembered the arctic cruise. The captain had seemed a little tired of them after the whole crashing-the-ship incident, but the seals were still happy and adorable as ever, and that was the only important part. Hat Kid just hoped that she hadn't ruined the ship captain's entire life.

And who could forget the metro? The food there was delicious, the cats malicious, and the Empress was a jerk. Seriously. She was creepy. What sort of person shot diamonds out of a rocket launcher?! A maniac, that's who.

But Hat Kid knew as she looked down upon the planet, reminiscing about all her friends and everything she saw and experienced, that she'd have to leave it behind. Sure, she'd miss the sights and the sounds and the movies and the experiences, but she and Bow Kid had a home to get back to. People to get back to. Places to be. It was fun exploring the cosmos, but the whole Mustache Girl incident put a little damper on things. Well, at least she'd have some good stories to tell her friends and family back home.

Hat Kid heard a noise behind her. She turned away from the window. Bow Kid hopped off the elevator to the attic and looked at Hat Kid, her purple eyes wide. "You need to see this!" she exclaimed.

Curious, Hat Kid stepped away from the window and ran over, jumping over the Rumbi on its path to clean the carpet. She ran up the ramp and next to Bow Kid. "What is it?" Hat Kid asked.

"There's something in the attic," Bow Kid said with a huge grin on her face. Her eyes were sparkling with excitement. They waited for a moment for the elevator to come down. After a moment the elevator slid down from the top floor and rested for a moment. Excited, Bow Kid grabbed Hat Kid's hand and pulled her on. The elevator rose again, bringing them up to the attic.

Hat Kid sneezed, the dust of the musty attic tickling her nose. Bow Kid pulled her off the elevator again and to the closest wall of the attic. She faced Hat Kid, the smile on her face enormous. "So I was poking around here, looking for things that might help us for our trip back home, right?" she asked. "And somehow- I have no idea how- I found...this."

Bow Kid turned, pressing onto a board on the attic. A loud creeeak came from the wall. She pressed a little harder. Slowly, the wall swung open with squeaks and cracks.

"Whoa," Hat Kid breathed, her eyes growing wide too. The attic wall was a hidden door?! Wow... Hat Kid looked around the room. The room was dark but Hat Kid could see bookshelves.

"I know, right?" Bow Kid asked, ecstatic. "Who knew there was a hidden room in the spaceship? Here, let me see if the lights work." She trotted over to the back corner of the room, bending over. There was a small click, and light flooded the room.

Bow Kid backed away from the lamp and Hat Kid turned in a full circle, getting a view of the room. It was...a giant library! It was so cliche...but yet, it was so comfortable! The walls were a muted red color, with a faded design on the wallpaper. The rug beneath their feet was fluffy and golden. And the bookshelves...So this was what people meant by wall-to-wall bookshelves, Hat Kid thought. More books than Hat Kid had ever seen in her life covered every shelf completely, with thick covers and a layer of dust covering them. Tucked in the corner was a large, comfy padded chair, with a small table beside it. The table held the lamp Bow Kid had turned on and had enough room to hold an enormous book.

The whole room had an ancient, solemn feeling. It was slightly awe-inspiring, really. How had something so old-fashioned ended up in something so modern? Hat Kid grinned, immediately thinking of Snatcher. He spent a lot of time reading, didn't he? He'd love this.

She turned to the left and stopped, her eyes growing so wide it felt like her eyeballs were about to pop right out of her head. There was a telescope, pointing up out the small window of the library.

Hat Kid gasped and met Bow Kid's eye. She grinned back. "More timepieces," they said at the same time.

Eagerly Hat Kid looked through the telescope to a new angle of the planet. It showed a large patch of ice on the planet, with chunks and sculptures of ice sticking out. "Chapter 8," Hat Kid read. "Halcyonian Tundra."

"A tundra?" Bow Kid repeated. "Like, all snowy and icy?"

"Yeah." She moved the telescope a bit until she saw something shining down at her. "Found our first timepiece!" she exclaimed. Bow Kid gasped happily. Hat Kid squinted to look closer. "Ooh, it's a free roam!"

Bow Kid gasped again. "Peck yeah!" she exclaimed. "Do you think one's going to be more like Nyakuza Metro, or like Alpine Skylines? Like, do you think there'll be someone there, telling us where to go, or do you think that we'll just be able to run around freely?"

Hat Kid shrugged, looking harder. The shine of the timepiece was coming from the top of one of the ice sculptures. She looked up from the telescope to flash a grin at Bow Kid. "Well, let's go find out!"

Hat Kid held out her hand to her friend. With a huge smile on her face, Bow Kid eagerly took it.

The two girls turned to the telescope, the glow of the timepiece reflected in the excitement in their eyes. Then both of them disappeared from the library.