Providence, Somewhere

Supreme Pizza

Author's Note. Hey! I just wanted to take a brief moment to announce a hiatus during December. I need to come up with more plot points and wrap up the ones I have in progress. It's been rather slow because work and the writing block of making sure the characters are correctly characterized (to the best of my ability). I do have something big coming up involving Eclipsa, and a few special chapters I meant to release sooner as holiday specials, but the timeline would be massively off if I posted them now instead of when they're due to happen in this story's canon. Anyway, see you in January!

Fink kicked a stray rock, which clattered along the cobblestone of the sewers. She stewed in her emotions, grumbling amidst the echoing of water dripping somewhere and her footsteps. One thing remained clear in her mind: she didn't want to go to school, or whatever everyone else called school.

Everyone was too nice, for starters. She gagged, disgusted at the thought of being all chummy with someone her age that probably liked colorful ponies or tea parties instead of the guts and haphazard destruction she was used to. Bliss certainly gave her that vibe. Becky was a massive nerd, probably too sweet for her own good. Gus was, well...

Why was everyone close to her age a massive nerd?

She kicked the pebble way too hard, causing it to fall into the flowing water instead of passing through the plank bridge she had fashioned prior to this. She grumbled.

"This town is so stupid! So boring! All that's remotely exciting is some slime and even then no one is willing to do anything with it! Ugh!"

She passed by a doorway, one still lit with its original lighting. A cylindrical chamber, leading down, covered in Distortion slime. Walking backwards towards it, she looked inside with a devious smile.

"Now we're talking!"

She stepped inside, taking care not to touch the stuff herself. Inside, she heard the desperate tapping of fingers on a keyboard, a buzzer, then a fist on the table and a grunt.

Fink widened her eyes. She knew the frustrated grunt from somewhere, even if the smell isn't quite right.

"Boss!" She ran down the stairs, frantic to see the person she only liked in this world. Sure enough, she'd recognize that greasy, black head of hair anywhere, and purple fingers tapping once more at the keyboard. "Boss!"

He turned around. "Fink?" he blurted out. "Wait, stop!"

She stopped right at the landing. "Boss, it's me! Your lackey, you know, your best daughter-minion you've ever had."

"I-I know, Fink, but look around. It's not the best place for you to scamper about like you always do."

She scoffed. "What? You worried about a little goop staining some leather or something?"

"It's not about staining my shoes or yours, it's about what it does. You see—"

"I know, I know. The slime destroys you inside and out." She crossed her arms. "It's no big deal; don't act like those goody two-shoes up above."

The purple scientist glanced around. "Well, I've been trying to find a cure for it, since it, um, got to me."

Her eyes widened. "Then why aren't you attacking me and being all aggressive?"

"I'm staving off the infection, but I don't think I can keep it down for long. I've been trying to hack into this medical system with what little I have, but it's encrypted."

"Just type in 'password'. I'll show you." She walked over, typing on the keyboard. The response was a simple buzzer. "Dangit, I thought that'd work."

"Whoever owned this last must've changed the password."