Metal and Bone | A Rainbow Quest AU

Chapter 18 - Friendly Help

Hey, I put a cuss word in here. Heads up. Yeah, I know, out-of-character for me. But it's hilarious!

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[Orange Steve's POV]

The Leader, Happy, Funny, Shy, and I arrive in the Hub.

"He's in the house right now. The lightning most likely woke him up." I say.

"I hope he'll be alright..." Happy says.

We walk into the house, and I head upstairs to get Sabre while everyone else waits for us downstairs. When I get up there, I see Gerald sitting on the bed next to Sabre, who's still laying down but looking at me. I walk over to Sabre and pick him up.

"Hey buddy, I brought the Leader and some of my friends to help." I say.

"Okay..." Sabre mumbles, and I take him downstairs.

The Leader takes Sabre when we get down, and I see that he's scanning the little guy. He stops once the scan is over, and looks up.

"This is the effect of those strange purple fruits that have been growing recently..." The Leader says.

"What?" I exclaim quietly. "But he hasn't been anywhere near them! I've made sure of that!"

Suddenly, Funny points at a spot near the storage room door. I didn't notice earlier, but my friends had moved to different spots of the house; Funny near the storage room, Happy next to the front door, and Shy next to a window.

"Yo, what's sugar paint doing over here?" Funny says, confused, motioning to a dark red blob on the floor.

I look over, and now I'm confused too.

"I...I don't know." I say. "We don't have any of that in the Hub..."

"Then... how'd it get there?" Funny asks, and I shrug.

"H-Hey, there's scratch marks o-on that tree outside..." Shy says, pointing out the window.

I rush over, starting to get worried. Sure enough, there's deep gashes into the trunk of the tree near the balcony.

"What in the..." I say, trailing off as I start to get worried.

"Did someone break in here and freaking poison Sabre?!" The Leader says, still whispering as we all have been, so none of us accidentally make Sabre's headache worse.

"Oh, I'm about to kick somebody's sorry metal ass." I say.

"Language, Orange Steve." The Leader says.

"Something just moved outside." Happy says, staring out into the yard towards the forest, through the open front door. "It looked like a person."

Me, Shy, the Leader, and Funny move towards the door, also looking out for whatever Happy just saw. In a few seconds, we see a figure move hastily through the tree branches. The Leader lays Sabre down on the couch and joins us as we all walk towards the tree the figure hid in, all pretty ticked off.

As soon as we get close, the figure dashes away further into the trees. We waste no time chasing him down. We go in circles for a little while, until who ever this is speeds up towards the end of the forest towards one of the portals. Funny runs ahead, out of sight. We suddenly hear the crashing of branches and a shocked yelp, as Funny seems to have jumped at the intruder, grabbing him through the leaves.

"Who the frick are you?!" Funny says, and we all catch up to him.

We reach the end of the forest, and I see Funny holding an all too familiar red-and-colorful figure by the neck, as said figure is halfway hanging out of the tree canopy. He's struggling to get out of Funny's steel grip, and I notice he has little dark red sugar paint splotches on his hands.