Through Another World (MSM)

Chapter 3

Authors note: Had to unpublish this chapter because I realised some paragraphs at the end were missing from forgetting to save. Luckily I was able to copy and paste since I post this fic on other sites too.

Pandora's log! (1st September, 12000)

Gwen and I have somehow ended up in the Human World. It's a weird place and we've met this Strombonin named Hermit. I feel so bad for him- he's been stuck here for 15 years. I don't know if my sister likes him, but I hope he'll feel better now that he has us. And that Gwen will stop yelling...

We're going to help him find his Strombone. Then we'll all go home. I can get back to the Institute! When I graduate I can help monsters like Hermit. Hopefully one day everyone can be happy.

Pandora put her notebook and pen back in her bag. Good thing she always carried those. It was good to document anything important. She could look back in it years later, and hopefully it would be fun.

Gwen and Hermit were asleep on the other side of the room, layed out on the carpet and the beanbag respectiveley. Hermit's bunker thing was strange. The walls beneath the gigantic piles of weird human stuff- some of it a lot like monster stuff, and others not- were bare, white, and thick. Hermit said it was old and belonged to the humans once.

Was it just her imagination, or did Gwen shudder? No, she never shuddered in her sleep, ever. Gwen never had nightmares and almost never got sick.
Breathing deeply and calmly, she curled up in the corner, falling asleep in minutes.

_______________
Gwen was running for her life, in some weird broken version of the Collosingum. He was chasing her. Storm killed Firecracker and he was going to kill her too. She had to run.

She looked back at the gigantic T-Rox, his heavy feet shaking the dry, dusty ground each time he took a step.

A bronze amulet clicked on his chest. That wasn't there before. There was an odd arrangement of symbols on it, but she couldn't get a good look before Storm's gaping jaws closed around their face....

"Gwen,"
The Dandidoo blinked her eyes open, remembering the previous days events and staring up at the pale, scar-covered Strombonin's yellow eyes, the bags under them visible in the slight beams of orange sunlight sweeping into the bunker.

Through the small shaft of natural light she could see the sun was just beginning to rise. It was fine, though. She got up this early anyway.
Gwen rose to her feet, groaning. The carpet was uncomfortable. She had to get back to her home where things were nice.

Pandora was still sound asleep, pressed against the wall and breathing lightly. Gwen nudged her sister awake as Hermit packed a bunch of things into a bag. Things like weapons, tools, jars of food and bottles of water, all no doubt stolen from the nearby human town.

"Oh..." Pandora stretched her wings and ruffled her feathers as she rose. "Oh! Yesterday happened! We gotta go!"

"I agree. I've got everything ready," Hermit responded. He gazed thoughtfully across the bunker. Probably saying goodbye to this messy cluttered place that looked like a rowdy monsterling's room.

She thought about the dream. It was almost exactly like the day before she was forced to leave the Collosingum, the day when everything went horribly wrong- but a corrupted reality where Storm won.

In the Collosingum, the main rule was 'Sing till one falls'. You simply had to bring your opponent to the ground, without hurting them and ESPECIALLY without killing them.
But the T-Rox she'd been put up angainst had taken it too far. And she had to do so too to defend herself. She killed him in the process, but not before the Collosingum's organiser, Firecracker the Congle, ended up dead too.

And so, the very next day she had to leave for breaking the rules. If anyone else knew she'd be thrown straight to the castle dungeons for sure.

"Gwen, are you alright? You look so distant,"
Her train of thought had been interrupted by Pandora. The unusual group of monsters had been walking for nearly an hour, with Hermit at the front with a backpack across his shoulders, constantly holding up one of those human 'gun' things and looking around for threats.

Unusual autumn smells filled her nostrils while leaves crunched under her talons. Gwen took a deep breath. "I don't trust him," she confessed quietly, whispering into her adoptive sibling's ear.
"Well, maybe you should learn to trust others," Pandora responded, the constant calm and comforting energy she had hinted in her voice. "He hasn't done anything wrong at all. Wouldn't you be acting strange too if you'd been completely alone for 15 years?"

Gwen sighed, and then winced as she bumped into Hermit's rough fur and scales.
He just scowled at her slightly, then crouched, gesturing for the two sisters to keep silent.

Gwen peered through the bushes. The area right past dipped into a river, with two small boats floating in the middle, each of them containing three humans, all of them laughing and chattering in an incomprehensible human language.

"Wait for them to leave," Hermit whispered. "We can't risk being spotted,"
"Why did you bring weapons, then? Aren't they to fight off the humans?"
"Only when they attack first or see us! It's safer to sneak past!" Hermit whisper-shouted, moving Gwen aside with his tail.

She hissed at him for suddenly touching her, staying in a stiff position with her feathers spread out.

Right as Pandora was about to calm her down, one of the humans turned their heads and pointed, causing the rest of the group to follow and begin shouting.
"NOW look what you've done!" Hermit called out.
One of the humans drew what looked like a small pocket knife and stood its ground.

Instinct took over Gwen's mind as she leaped several feet into the air, controlling the plants around and letting them contort into massive vines. She wrapped her talons around one of them and used it to bounce all the way onto the one of the boats, almost capsizing it with the sheer impact of her landing.

The humans yelped in terror, and the one with the pocket knife, a stout one with flowing blonde hair around wrapped around it's neck, slashed it's weapon at the tall Dandidoo, slicing a small cut through her chest. Gwen felt a trickle of blood running through her feathers, but she hardly cared.

Beside her, Hermit burst out of the water, looking extremley angry. That was what sent the humans running, for they all scrambled out of their boats and jumped to the nearby shore, on the other side of where the group of monsters had been standing, some of their feet trailing in the gushing riverwater as they scurried away into the tall grasses.

Gwen sat down in the boat she had just been fighting on, panting. A tiny red pool of her blood had formed on the floor, but the wound wasn't very serious, she would survive. Nearby, Hermit almost tipped over the other boat, taking up most of the space as the Strombonin climbed in.

"What was that for?!" He growled. "You could've gotten one of us killed!"
Gwen didn't respond. She didn't know how.

"Are you ok??" Pandora chattered as she landed hastily next to her sister. "That looks bad! We need to get you healed. Hermit, do you have those medical supplies?"
Hermit didn't even grumble passed Pandora a small first-aid kit.
"How do you get along with everyone?" Gwen whispered. "Even him. He's almost as bad as my boss and he doesn't hate you,"
The Tweedle explained as she gently patched Gwen's wounds. "The first thing you did was yell at him. Of course he'll be mean at first. Apologise and be nicer around him. You two will both get over it eventually,"

"Get over it?" Gwen thought about her nightmare. She clearly hadn't gotten over what happened with Storm.
"Not immidietley, of course. Even with guidance, healing takes time. But it won't happen if you don't at least take steps towards it,"
"I'd rather focus on getting out of here than getting over it,"
"We will. But to do that we have to help him, renember?"
Gwen sighed. "Alright. I'll try to talk to him niceley like you want me tonight, alright?"

"Hey, birdies," Hermit spoke out, holding an oar in each hand. "At least we got free boats out of that fiasco. Come on,"
Grabbing one oar with her beak and talon while Pandora held the other, Gwen swept it through the current, following Hermit down the river.

Author's note: In this universe, the msm game does not exist and the Monster World is real instead.