A Lonely, Sepia Melody[A BATDR Story]

Part 11

"There you are! Thank goodness!" A robotic nanny pressed a hand against her chest as Audrey appeared, her two companions creeping around behind her.

When Bonzy had woken up, Audrey's head resting against theirs as she snored lightly, Charlie had already been awake, eyes staring down the hallway with his pipe resting crossed his legs like a sentry. Bonzy shifted and Charlie's eyes shot towards theirs, he smiled briefly before turning back to face the hallway. He said the Creator had gone off to do whatever the Creator did when he was away and to wake Audrey up so they could continue on. And now they were back in the mansion with a nanny talking about Audrey meeting Wilson and needing groceries.

"I can make it worth your while, I promise. But up to you! No pressure!" The robot nanny reassured Audrey, though her eyes wandered to Bonzy and Charlie every now and then. Audrey looked perturbed by this, so Bonzy raised a hand behind her, hearing the words worth your while, couldn't be a bad thing.

"We can go get your groceries, Miss!" The robot nanny's torso swiveled slightly to turn her attention to Bonzy. Despite having no moving facial features, she sounded quite pleased when she replied.

"Oh, would you? Thank you! I can make a lovely celebratory supper!" Bonzy tipped their hat in response, a charming smile on their face as they turned to Charlie.

"We can get groceries, right?" Charlie pursed his lips, gripping his pipe before nodding, "perfecto! Audrey," turning to their third party member, Bonzy gripped her elbow and had her lean down a bit as their tone turned serious, "do not and I mean do not go down there without us. Find somewhere to hide until we get back." She leaned back with a firm expression and a nod.

"Understood." They nodded back to her before smiling at Betty.

"We'll be a skip and a hop back." Linking arms with Charlie, Bonzy turned them down the stairs and towards the subway tracks, hearing the robot nanny say something about Wilson once more and Audrey's even footsteps clicking away from them. Bonzy's ax handle hit their thigh as their legs took sideways steps down the stairs, Charlie on their heels due to their loosely linked arms.

"A little side mission sounds like a nice relief," Bonzy replied once they reached the bottom of the steps. Brainless activities to live life a little in this place. Maybe they'd get to know it better- before it's mine in my world domination plan.

"It sounds like stalling the inevitable," Charlie replied morosely and Bonzy said nothing in response as they led the way to the end of the subway tracks, the distant sound of a horn blaring up the tracks. Because really, Bonzy isn't one to avoid problems, that seemed more up Charlie's alley.

But... this time Charlie wasn't wrong, and Bonzy was well and truly worried because this was starting to feel like the leadup to an End Scene.

♆♆♆♆♆♆♆♆♆♆

Charlie's senses prickled uneasily when they found their way back to where Bonzy had met Toon Bendy. His head hung low as he followed Bonzy's vest-clad back back down the steps they'd previously led into Downtown and he sought a drawn-out comfort in the weapon in his hand. Bonzy was ranting aimlessly about a cafe they constantly go to where they're from and how they knew Wilson was bad from the start. Charlie let them rant and tuned it out as he scanned the tiled walls that looked much like the subway system in Queens. Deciding to look away from those, he sped up to Bonzy, keeping close and alert as they re-entered Downtown.

Once they reached the bottom, near the ramp, a tar-like feeling suddenly weighed on his chest. It felt like being blinded by ink, in a way, and so Charlie seized the back of Bonzy's vest and pulled them back around the corner as they stepped out into the exit room. They opened their mouth, definitely to complain in some way, so Charlie hushed them, ignoring the spikes of irritation that shot through his arms due to their connection.

Peering around the corner, they found a Lost One swaying left to right in the doorway, twitching manically every few seconds. He swore under his breath, "Feral Lost One, Wilson's got ahold of it and it's been through the Tube." Bonzy sent him a look of blatant puzzlement, but Charlie didn't want to explain it at the time so he went to the quick and dry, "it's got no soul, only a single message in its brain." This didn't clear much of it up, but there was something close to fury in Bonzy's eyes that Charlie looked away from. "I'll knock 'em out, stay here."

Relinquishing his hold on the short newcomer, Charlie crept forward with a practiced gait, hands held out and pipe looped through his pants. As he neared the Lost One, the feeling of tar on his mind made Charlie shake his head through the slow thoughts and trembling nerves as he struck. A hand over the Lost One's pulse and a whispered, 'sleep' in its ear as his hands sucked the tar out of its head.

As the Lost One dropped like a cement brick, body crumpling, Charlie swayed against the doorway himself, grasping his head.

It's always a little woozy after doing something like that, especially to Feral Lost Ones.

Bonzy appeared next to him a moment later, "Sometimes, and I mean only sometimes, it's a little creepy that you can do that." Charlie rolled his eyes in response, but let himself shake off the uncomfortable feeling of tar as they finally managed to move on. This means onto the next Lost One, who startled them as they rounded a car towards the farmers market.

Bonzy, however, jumped forwards and shot more bolts of electricity at the Feral Lost One, sending it sprawling until they could incapacitate it with a swift kick to the head. Charlie winced a little at the sight, trying to swallow the thick displeasure feeling of watching the Lost One get attacked for something they couldn't control. Sure, they were attacking Charlie and Bonzy first, but...

It doesn't matter, he told himself firmly as they moved on towards the farmer's market, Bonzy complimenting themself on their ability to get better control of their 'magic fingers'. Charlie could agree that they had caught into their gift quite quickly but didn't comment much on it.

What they were looking for was a cardboard box labeled 'Vegetables', which had an assortment of ingredients for any given meal, including a package of crisps or two. Bonzy cheered, "AHA!" and took the box into their care, "we'll be back soon and-." They froze, looking somewhere over Charlie's shoulder in a way that had Charlie spinning around on the defense before halting as well.

A small head was peeking around the side of the farmer's market stand, pie-cut eyes looking despondently up at the two as a pair of trembling gloved hands gripped the wooden posts.