Steel And Hellfire

chapter one

"hot dawg! You boys sure have good luck." King dice, the manager of the devil's casino, spoke with a confident smile as he watched Cuphead and Mugman win their third bet in a row. "I know! Cool huh? Im one lucky cup huh mugs?" Cuphead smiled triumphantly before turning to mugman who gave a nervous smile and nod. Mug didn't know why, but he felt a crippling sense of doom looming over the entire casino, like an invisible dark cloud hung over the entire place. They were only ten years old, what were they doing in a casino in the first place? "Well boys. You sure do have a knack for this, don't you?" A tall, ominous figure stepped to the table and leaned over the table with his arm supporting himself. It was the owner of the casino, the devil himself. Mugman felt a chill run down his spine at the sight of him. The sense of doom only grew as the devil grew closer to them. Now he definitely didn't want to be there. "let's make a bet. You roll high and you get all of the riches in my casino. You don't, and I have your souls. Deal?" Cuphead laughed softly at the proposition. "Deal!" Cuphead then grabbed the blood red dice from the devil's clawed hand and began preparing for a roll, all or nothing. "Good gosh Cuphead no!" Mugman grabbed Cupheads arm and almost yelled the objection to get Cupheads attention. Cuphead turned to mugman and smiled. "relax, mugs. You've seen the luck today! It'll be fine" he then pulled his arm away and rolled the dice. Mugman bit his porcelain lip out of nervous habit as the two waited for the dice to settle. "Snake eyes! That's too bad. Now, about those souls." The devil's mouth twisted into a sickening grin as he tapped his claws on the table. Mugs eyes filled with tears and he fell to his knees with Cuphead following soon after. The two begged at the devil's feet for him to let them go free. The devil only laughed at their fear. It was quite funny to him, pathetic really. "well. There is one thing you could do.  You can get these debtors soul contracts. Do it by midnight tomorrow, or your souls will be mine." The two cups happily accepted the offer. "Glad we've come to an agreement. Now get going!" The devil then grabbed the two and threw them out of the casino. Cuphead looked at mugman before scrambling to his feet and running full speed towards the forest expecting Mugman to follow, which he did. "oh gosh what did we do?!  We need to get to elder kettle." Cuphead spoke between panicked pants as he ran. Mugmans face twisted with anger as he quickly jumped on Cuphead, effectively tackling him to the hard forest ground "what were you thinking?!" Mugman basically screamed in Cupheads face. Cuphead just laid there silently as he stared at mugman with wide eyes. He had never seen Mugman this angry before. "what on earth made you think that selling our souls was a good idea?!" Mugman pushed Cuphead further into the ground softly to get his point across. "I-i dunno, m-money?" Cuphead stammered and shrugged. He didn't really know what to say. "Money?!" Mug was truly in disbelief, and his face reflected it. He knew Cuphead was the more rash and impulsive one of the two, but this was just outrageous. After a second, Mugman let Cuphead go and they both got to their feet. "look i'm sorry okay? I-" Cuphead rubbed the back of his head and looked at mugman with apologetic eyes. Mugman almost laughed at Cuphead weak attempt at an apology. "Oh no Cuphead! You can't just do something like that" Mugman pointed back to the casino what was still in view "and just say sorry!" He almost mocked Cuphead when he said the last word, angry venom lacing every word. "Our lives are at stake now because of your greed and inability to think for once!" Mugman almost grit his teeth as he yelled at Cuphead, releasing every ounce of anger he was feeling. After a moment, mug released a huff and glared at Cuphead with a tint in his eyes cuphead had never seen from him before. A look as cold as steel and as angry as hellfire. Mugman let out an angry sigh before walking past Cuphead, who was still frozen with shock, and bumped shoulders with Cuphead as he did so. "hope your proud of yourself" Mugman said coldly as he passed Cuphead, causing him to turn around and follow the very angry Mugman as best as he could. "listen, I can fix this. I will fix this." Cuphead tried to stop Mugman but ultimately failed. "Oh yeah? How on earth are you planning to do that?" Mugman didn't make eye contact and spat those words at Cuphead. "Just trust me. Your not going to clean up this mess for me." Cuphead gave an assured nod but mug didn't care. He was completely done with Cuphead. Cuphead sighed and stopped trying to get through to mug and just kept walking.