Malachite (1,000 New Inceptions)

New recruits. And a New Crush?

(Hey so uh TW in this chapter. You'll see soon its basically characters getting hurt 😎💀)

He was on the news again. Cuphead looked at the tv in the cafeteria as he tried to drown out all the shouting and laughing. He could see his brother with his helmet on, and people escaping the prison in terrible condition. It was his first time in prison, next time they'll probably execute him.

"Hey!" Snickered Peachy.

Peachy still had bandages on her arms and she couldn't move them even if she wanted to. Peachy stayed standing and Cuphead attempted to ignore her but he made eye contact with the fangirl. She gave him a great big smile. Venus ignored the two and proceeded to tinker around with a little robot she made herself, she had tools and everything with her.

"Aw come on why don't you smile?" Asked Peachy. "You escaped one of the most dangerous prisons! Isn't that like a great thing?"

"That's not a reason to smile." Muttered Cuphead. "If anything, I'm more wanted than before."

"Oh come on Cup, she's just trying to make things better." Replied Mugman. "It's not like she's plotting against you."

Peachy walked away leaving the two with Venus tinkering around with the robot she made. It suddenly lit on fire and she instantly grabbed the fire extinguisher next to her and used it on the robot. Mugman was caught by surprise and accidentally fell to the floor, Cuphead helped him get back up and they saw her groan.

"If only I knew much more about programming than simple detection and actions." Venus gritted through her teeth as she grabbed the robot.

"Hey, I thought she knew a lot about these wacky things." Muttered Mugman.

"Not that much." Sighed Cuphead. "Programmers get tons of money from the government to try and take us down so we only have a dozen out of the thousands in our clan."

"T- Thousands?" Stuttered Mugman. "I thought we had a few here!"

"Nope, this clan's all over the globe." Snickered Cuphead.

Some of the criminals that joined the Hydrangeas walked into the cafeteria with confused looks on their faces. There was the so-called scary guy, Aoi and his siblings Aka and Midori but thankfully the paper bag dude wasn't there. Cuphead had to keep his helmet on just in case these guys tried to attack him. Mugman didn't have his.

Suddenly the lights and electronics all shut off leaving everybody confused and surprised. Vesper poked his head out of Mugmans pocket to see what just happened. Everyone started to complain and they all waited for it to come back on, there was a backup generator but why wasn't it working? Cuphead stood up and proceed to get everybody's attention.

"Hey! Stop crying over the fact that there's no light, we still have the windows!" He exclaimed. "I'll sort it out."

They all proceeded to boo but then they stopped as soon as all the lights turned back on but they were all red, everybody looked at the lights and each other wondering what was going on. Venus gasped and turned her phone on and started to text rapidly as the commotion was getting louder and louder.

"Gah!" She exclaimed. "Maxie says Somebody is at the gates."

"Who is it?" Hissed Cuphead.

"The camera died!" Venus replied.

"What's going on?" Muttered Mugman.

Venus shrugged and Cuphead sighed. He got off the table and ran outside with Mugman following behind him. Others wandered around cluelessly and some angry members followed behind him. They marched towards the door ready to attack whatever it was that hacked into the base.