The Blinding Light of Sunrise: The Las Nevadas Arc - AU Short Stories

Chapter 11.5-18.5 Charlie the Spy: Part 1 - Charlie Slimecicle and BadBoyHalo

"Charlie, I've got something to tell you," Quackity said.  

It was the night following their escape from Las Nevadas.  Charlie had had a busy day leading Dream from Pandora's Vault away from Paradise.

"Yes, Quackity from Las Nevadas?" Charlie said to the boss, stuffing some sweaters into a knapsack.

The boss let out a heavy sigh. "You're not coming with us."

Charlie felt his internal slime turn all sinky with disappointment. "But I can help! I won't be in the way!"

Quackity from Las Nevadas grabbed him by the arm and pulled him in so his mouth was next to Charlie's earhole. Which really was unnecessary, Charlie could hear just fine anyway - earholes were such a weird feature people had. Anyway, the boss said, "Charlie. Charlie! Stop!" as Charlie continued to blather.

Charlie stopped.

The boss let out a sigh of relief. "You can help us most by staying here and acting as my eyes and ears in Las Nevadas. When the time comes - and the time is going to f-ing come - I'm going to come back and take back my f-ing city. And, if I don't know what I'm walking into, if we don't know," he glanced over to the kitchen where Tubbo was going through the drawers, "we're f-ed. I need an inside man and you're the only one I can trust to f-ing do it right. If you don't, we're dead. All of us are f-ing dead."

"I won't let you turn to dust, Quackity from Las Nevadas," Charlie said.

Quackity from Las Nevadas smiled, but it wasn't one of those happy smiles. It was kind of scary. "Well, we're going to turn to dust and f-ing soon if you don't get this right."

"What do you want me to do?"

"Learn everything you can about their guards, their movements, their plans, their tech, tunnels, arms, potential allies - everything. I want to f-ing know what Dream has for breakfast every godd-mned day. Anything we can use to even the f-ing odds and take them down. And, whatever you do, don't get caught. You're the only way we even have a f-ing chance at winning."

Charlie beamed with pride. "You can count on me, Quackity from Las Nevadas."

Orange juice. Dream from Pandora's Vault had orange juice every morning for breakfast, along with other things that changed every day. Never potatoes. He didn't seem to like potatoes much, for some reason.  More than once during his breakfast surveillance he'd accidentally sprung one of the neat things Niki had left for Dream.  Sometimes it was cool knives or arrows flying at him, once it was acid.  He felt bad messing up her presents but, then, that was her hobby and this was his job.

Charlie guessed Wilbur from Las Nevadas must've had the same thought as the boss did about him being Quackity from Las Nevada's eyes and ears because he'd heard him talking to the fox about keeping an eye out for "The Slime" which Charlie thought was just plain rude. He had a name, just like every other normal human - which was what he was even if Wilbur from Las Nevadas refused to see that.

He'd spent the first few days hiding in the weather control system while the guards scoured the grounds until Jack Manifold from Manifold Land had found his hiding place. It had been great fun! He'd gotten to learn how all the controls worked. He liked the rain and snow ones best. They made the system vibrate so pleasantly and everything looked so pretty when it was covered with water or snow and not touching him. It also made it easier to track the guards and their paths against the white background. The boss would have been so pleased he'd thought of that.

Now, after over a week, Charlie had settled into a bit of a routine. That was, whenever Dream wasn't around for him to follow, which was often. He'd watch the humans go about their daily lives like it was an ever unfolding drama just for him, like he'd done before Quackity from Las Nevadas found him and offered him a job.