Chapter Text
Chapter 1
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Our Island Home
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HEADSPACE ISLAND
{A World Rediscovered}
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HEADSPACE was many things...
A home, sometimes a prison for some.
Mainly, it's a land filled with many bright vibrant colors...
...But it's sky was NEVER blue...
...
The violet-filled twilight that normally dotted the skies was now a clear cerulean blue, unfamiliar animals and fauna had begun to appear all over the land and the sun would set and plunge everything into temporary darkness. These changes had initially caused widespread panic for many, including the kids of the PLAYGROUND, who were unaccustomed to this alien change in their world. Another surprise had come in the form of a mass exodus from parts all over HEADSPACE.
MR. JAWSUM had lost everything when the LAST RESORT had been suddenly sunk to the ocean and flooded over, completely ruining his business and effectively bankrupting him. No one was injured from the loss of DEEP WELL as HUMPHREY saving and delivering them to dry land. The only thing injured was the loan shark's pride.
CAPT. SPACEBOY'S crew, were found somewhere off the coast on the NORTH BEACH. They told everyone that OTHERWORLD had unexpectedly risen into space, beyond any form of recovery. SPACEBOY himself was missing and his location was unknown...
ORANGE OASIS had fallen into disarray when the sugary island was engulfed in by a tidal wave, the sugary-themed landmark was left as a melting mess of it's former self, slowly sinking and dissolving into the ocean under the sun and waves. Strange pirate ships had been seen patrolling around the coasts...
PYREFLY FOREST had been reduced to an unwelcoming noxious bog-land swamp, inhabited by hostile creatures and the remnants of SWEETHEART'S loyal SPROUT MOLE forces struggling to defend the abandoned castle as it sunk deeper into the mire. Rumors surfaced of a rising civil war stirring deeper in the marshlands...
BERLY, being the unofficial de facto leader of the PLAYGROUND kids, rallied the wayward residents with the help of HERO, to sort out and arrange for the refugees to live in parts of the VAST FOREST and the borders of PYREFLY FOREST for the time being. It was hard long work and not everyone was happy with the decision, but it kept everything from falling back into chaos. It didn't take everyone long to realize that HEADSPACE wasn't different at all, it was now just in island the real world, and it's changes were just it poorly adjusting to the reality around it...
...They hadn't gone home at all...
...Home, had come to them instead...
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HEADSPACE ISLAND, Edge of the VAST FOREST
{Hide and Seek}
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BERLY stood atop of a large veiled object, looking very proud. The Dream Friends and PLAYGROUND children were all gathered around at the western shore of the VAST FOREST to see what she was brewing this time. This was the seventh attempt in a series of recent ones that she had made to try and escape HEADSPACE. Ever since everyone had woken up in the PLAYGROUND and realized there was more outside the island, BERLY had been determined to meet her other self, Kim. At first it was just harmless questions about what her real world counterpart; like what she looked like, favorite colors, hobbies, if she liked to play hide and seek, etc. BERLY had been transfixed by the gang's story's about their real world adventures-as none of the PLAYGROUND kids had ever been to or heard of the real world.
But when she had started talking about plans to leave, things would start to become concerning.
The dino girl had been nonstop at work, day in and out in finding ways to escape. Swimming was too treacherous and to attempting to enlist PLUTO was met with a resounding 'No'. It seemed like none of BERLY'S efforts would work. The bridge that spanned HEADSPACE and looped back to VAST FOREST was shrouded in a deep fog that couldn't be had recently emerged and refused to leave. Another way had to be made, and being the stubborn hard-headed girl she was, BERLY turned to building various contraptions that would allow her to cross the ocean...
"Come on BERLY, what is it now? it's five in the morning..." KEL whined.
BERLY raised her hands. "Now now, before you judge it too quickly. Hear me out. This one will work this time. I promise."
KEL and AUBREY both exchanged a doubtful looks while HERO tiredly listened along to BERLY'S latest spiel. Her latest contraption; the BERLYMOBILE MK. VII, was was the latest attempt in a long line of hodgepodge machines she had built to try and escape HEADSPACE, She'd quickly whipped this one together after her last attempt, the BERLYMOBILE MK. VI had sunken into the sea, the entire eastern edge of the island was littered with the failures of from the past iterations, each formerly a piece of playground equipment turned into a vehicle.
And as long as the dino girl remained adamant on her plan, then there might not be a PLAYGROUND left afterwards.
"So...what if, instead of using a boat to cross the ocean...that never worked." BERLY explained, pacing around her project raising a finger. "So...why not try to fly over it instead?"
BERLY beamed with pride and chuckled with excitement at her veiled latest creation. She pointed towards the crowd. "Any questions before I take to the skies?"
The crowd remained silent, KEL was sat on the grass absentmindedly picking his nose, while HERO was trying to stay awake. AUBREY was the first to slowly (and reluctantly) raise her hand. "How exactly is this thing supposed to fly?"
BERLY chuckled in response and grinned at her. "Excellent question AUBERY! Let me show you all..." She snapped her fingers and pointed a finger towards a tree.
silence
"*Ahem* let me show you all..."
She snapped her fingers again...
nothing
A few seconds passed and nothing happened, BERLY huffed as the awkward silence continued. She grumbled something under her breath and stomped off to the tree where a smacking sound and a startled yelp were heard followed by frantic apologies. MIKAL stumbled out from behind the tree carrying a large piece of plywood over his head. Everyone watched as he painstakingly dragged the board across the grass and with one final effort, plopped it against a tree, wheezing and bending over to catch his breath afterwards. BERLY came out behind and patted him on the back to send him off to the others.
Thank you MIKAL." she says with a hint of passive aggressiveness and looks to the crowd. "Let me show you all what I've been working on."
BERLY let her grin return and proudly presents the hastily drawn schematic for the flying contraption made from familiar objects all around the PLAYGROUND, including the MAILBOX that sat near the southern exit. While the vehicle was supposed to be an airplane in concept, it looked more a submarine with wings, as soon as the gathered children got a better look, their enthusiasm waned.
"What is that?" REN asks with in awe of the complex scribbles and drawings on the board.
"Why it's an airplane of course!" BERLY answered. "I saw one of them flying overhead one day and I thought; that might be how I'm gonna get outta here!"
"Is your plane thingie... made out of the slide and swingset?" REN questioned with a uncertain tone.
BERLY nodded eagerly, her grin growing wider. "Yes! yes it is! and It's under this veil The slide is wide enough to be aerodynamic enough!"
"Areo...areo-what?"
"Nose goes..."
"Yeah, I agree with NOSE. We like our slide as a slide, not a plane."
"Please put it back BERLY, you're making everyone sad."
Everyone murmurs along in agreement. BERLY bit her lips into a frown, the plan was starting to go downhill before it started. She tried to salvage what was left "Well...I...I-"
Aubrey stood up and walked over to the veiled machine and peeked underneath. After a second she poked her head out and crossed her arms. "I see the problem here. Even if you do launch this, it's not even going to fly very far before it falls like a rock."
She turns and studied the crudely drawn picture. "And where even is the engine shown in this picture?"
"I...already have the engine problem covered!" BERLY retorted defensively and crossed her arms. HERO did a double take when he saw the next image. "Are those birds? How many are in there?"
"About a hundred of em to be exact..."
AUBREY unfurled her lower lip, baffled at the idea. "BERLY! That's really mean to the birds! You can't just stuff one-hundred birds into a tight box and force them to make your plane fly!"
"It worked with that SCARECROW in OTHERWORLD..." KEL muttered with a yawn and leaned himself up against the machine.
AUBREY rolled her eyes and sighed, arguing with KEL about this was like trying to ask a rock on a date...which seemed like a very KEL thing to do unironically... Her eyes trailed towards at a small poorly made image hidden in the bottom left corner and turned towards her friend with an unamused look. BERLY looked off to the side.
"Is that round fat thing on a hamster wheel supposed to be me?"
BERLY simply nodded. "Backup power." she admits quietly "And you could really use the exercise too-"
AUBREY sighs and threw her hands in the air in exasperation. "Nope, that's it. Your plan is dumb, we're not watching you throw yourself into the ocean, again."
BERLY watches them go and stomps her foot. "Well okay, miss airplane genius~, if you know so much more about how to make this thing fly than I do, they why don't you build it instead and prove me wrong?"
AUBREY whirled on her heel. "Cause I don't WANT to build your stupid airplane! Why do you even want to leave so badly?"
"It's cause I want to see what's out there okay?!" She blurts out.
The other children sit in uncomfortable silence as the two stare each other down. BERLY is visibly shaking as her face turns red. She takes a breath in.
"I-I wanna have cool adventures like you guys and have fun in the real world with my other me." BERLY'S hands shook and she sniffled before throwing down her pencil into the grass and sat on the floor.
"Ever since that thing happened with everything crumbling apart, we've all been stuck asleep and we couldn't wake up. We didn't even know you were gone until recently. And I heard all about what you guys did with those real versions of you guys, and I wanted to see if I had one too." BERLY said sadly and drooped her shoulders, tears trickling down her cheeks.
"I just wanted to be cool...like you."
AUBREY'S anger subsided. "You really want to see your other self that badly?"
Berly nodded and sniffed. "Uh huh, Is...is she at least into tether-ball?"
HERO leaned in with a kind smile. "Kim? oh she's just like you and real nice when you get to know her. You would both get along great...I think." he assures.
KEL butted in. "Yeah she's got a hard head and she says a lot of bad words HERO won't let me say."
AUBREY looked down, now she just felt bad. She sat next to BERLY. "Look, I'm sorry I made fun of your ideas BERLY. We can still go look for Kim someday-preferably with less machines, okay?" BERLY nods in response and gets up. AUBREY smiles and turns around. "Okay, now let's just get this machine taken apart and put everything back where it-"
The BERLYMOBILE began to slowly roll forward, it picked up speed and upon reaching the edge it tipped and dived over the edge. KEL turned his head back to a devastated BERLY with a nervous apologetic look. "Uh, oops..."
AUBREY leans forward into his face, her eyes practically glowing with rage. "KEL?"
"Yeah?" he answered.
She smiled and placed her hands around his throat and spoke in the cheeriest threatening voice she could.
"I'm going to wring your neck now."
AUBREY was about to strangle KEL for his stupidity and throw him into the ocean when a shape swooped into the sky. the BERLYMOBILE had taken flight and was soaring through the sky. The PLAYGROUND kids watched in awe while AUBREY just stood there with her jaw dropping to the ground in disbelief. BERLY meanwhile was jumping up and down in pure excitement, screaming her head off and pointing at the flying marvel.
"OH MY GOSH! OH MY GOSH! LOOK! IT WORKS!!!! IT'S ACTUALLY FLYING!!!! MY BEAUTIFUL CREATION IS-"
There was another shape that dropped out from above, it landed on top of the BERLYMOBILE and went through one of it's wings causing it to dip to the side and nosedive into the ocean before exploding. Everyone's hearts dropped when they saw the what was formerly the slide and swings of the park become another new addition to the vehicle graveyard.
"Falling...it's...falling..." BERLY whimpered in a defeated tone and curled herself up into a ball on the grass while VAN knelt beside her to offer support.
A hand bursts out from the water and a figure in a navy blue jacket and and an aviator cap climbs onto the shore and flops on his back, he coughs up some water and pours water out of his goggles. The others gather around him with increasing worry. "KITE KID?! What happened to you, are you okay?!" HERO exclaims, he gestures for everyone else to leave and give them some space.
KITE KID coughs and looks down. "No...I'm not." he murmurs dejectedly and clenches his fist. "M-my KITE. My friend... H-he was...he was taken by a horrible flying monster!"
"A flying monster you say?" KEL butts in, his interest piqued.
He nods with a shiver. "Yes, a terrifying flying beast with a mouth full of sharp teeth! and glowing evil eyes! It took my KITE from me!" he starts to cry into his jacket.
"Okay, slow down. How did this happen?" HERO calmed. "What were you doing when this happened?"
KITE KID stops bawling and looks at the sky. "Well, I was flying my KITE as I always do on the PINWHEEL FOREST, there was a nice wind coming up north and it was perfect weather. But then it got all dark and stormy and this...this giant, ugly creature. Swooped in and swiped my KITE out of the air. I tried to get it back but it was like it controlled the winds itself, and I was thrown over the edge..."
He begins to tear up again. "M-my KITE...my poor poor KITE, he's still up there, I can't fight that thing to get it back, it's too scary...I...I'm nothing but a coward without my friend."
KEL helps KITE KID to his feet. "Hey buddy, don't worry, we'll get that kite back no matter what and show that thing who's boss!" He soothes and then stands up to puff out his chest. "You can count on KEL and friends to save the day!"
AUBREY smiles with him while HERO gives a thumbs up.
KITE KID composes himself and sits by the shore. "Please save my KITE, I can't bring myself to imagine what that beast is doing to it right now..."
[NEW QUEST!]
Save KITE KID'S KITE
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VAST FOREST, PINWHEEL FOREST
{Eye of the Storm...}
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The group tenuously climbed up the ladder to the PINWHEEL FOREST high above them, it was a piece of land in the sky where the kids would sometimes come and fly kites and enjoy the breezy conditions. Of course now, it was enshrouded in a sphere of swirling storm clouds and crackling lightning; the source of the high winds and fog washing over the VAST FOREST. AUBREY winced when some high winds shook the ladder, she cried out.
"HERO I'm scared!" she whimpered and hugged the ladder.
KEL looked down at her and smirked."Pfft~, don't be such a baby AUBREY, it's just a bit of wind and-"
A bolt of thunder boomed close to KEL. "Ah lightning!" he screamed out and clung on to the rungs, frozen in fear.
Behind him, he could hear HERO chuckle under his breath. "Oh really? it's just some thunder KEL, you'll be okay." he assured.
...
Once they had managed to get past the inclement weather, they were met with a shell of the floating island they once knew. The whole island was being torn apart by the violent winds, many of the trees had been stripped of their leaves, the pinwheels still in the ground had come off their poles entirely, the picnic setup near the edge had been scattered all around the area, a tattered blanket was caught in a tree branch AUBREY had to tie her hair into a ponytail with her bow to keep it from fluttering into her face.
"This is definitely the where all the winds are coming from just like KITE KID said it would be..." HERO observes and shakes his head at the ruined picnic. "Jeez, this place is a mess...MARI would be REALLY upset if she saw this."
KEL walked forward and looked under an overturned bench. "But where's the monster he was talking about? He said there was some kind of animal up here that did all this."
AUBREY lifts a fallen tree and peers underneath before putting it down. "We're not looking for the monster, KEL. We need to find KITE KID'S KITE, remember?"
Suddenly a distant bellowing echoed from above as something plummeted from the sky and smashed into a tree, knocking it over. The dream friends cautiously approached when another object soon fell and implanted itself next to the fallen tree; A large shovel with it's blade bent at an angle... HERO peered over into the crater, his eyes widened in shock when they saw what had fallen.
"No way. I can't believe he's-"
...
A thundering roar reverberated through the air and the thunder clouds receded slightly. The wind creature KITE KID described revealed itself, spiraling through the clouds and descending to the ground with the force of a hurricane, it's entrance blowing back nearby debris in it's wake. The gang hid in some bushes to watch the monster from a distance.
When the dirt settled, the creature that stood there was strange looking to say the least.
It was a giant bear head, not too dissimilar to a RARE BEAR, mounted on a much smaller body on two legs well hidden under thick coat of black and purple fur. The creature's bulbous head bobbled and shook around awkwardly on top of the comically small torso holding up it's weight. It's jaw hung slack, only being propped up by a pair of dainty thin arms poking out underneath it's coat, clacking and rattling as if it were just a costume and not part of it's body. KITE KIDS KITE dangled weakly around the beast's neck by a tangled string as it began to wander around the ruined island. The monster lumbered over to the crash site and sniffed around it before snorting and moving onto a lone tree, rubbing itself against it.
"That's...that's a RARE BEAR. A huge, flying, RARE BEAR." AUBREY whispered.
"And there's KITE KID'S KITE..." HERO said quietly pointing towards the object around the bear's neck. "There. It's wrapped around it's neck."
They watched as the giant animal clamped it's jaw around the picnic blanket stuck in a tree and pull it down. It only succeeded in getting half of it, leaving the rest of the torn blanket in it's jaws. It hobbled over to the open spot and set the scrap of cloth down, straightening it out with it's feet and face until it looked flat enough before going back to the woods.
"Okay, we need a plan, how exactly are we going to get the kite away from that thing?" HERO purposed ideas to the others.
"Could we even fight that thing? It looks really tough." AUBREY suggested.
"Maybe? The FOE FACTS guide has nothing about what this thing could be, it looks like a RARE BEAR so maybe it won't be that different." HERO hummed. "But it's huge and it flies. so I don't think that information will be helpful at all."
"Okay fair point. What if we go distract it?"
"I dunno, but that might just work..." HERO says and looks to his right. "Hey KEL can you...KEL?"
The both of them look around confused. "KEL where did you go?"
Beyond the bush a small boy was sneaking around loud enough for the bear to drop the picnic basket from it's mouth to swivel around and curiously sniffed the air in his direction. The others saw KEL trying to sneak around himself as he held his ball in his hands ready to throw. "KEL! what are you doing?!" AUBREY whisper yelled. "Get back here!"
KEL looked over in their direction, he made a shushing gesture towards AUBREY and took another step closer to the bear. It again looked around.
"KEL stop it! You're going to blow our cover!" AUBREY hissed, raising her voice a little louder than intended.
The bear creature startled and slowly turned it's gargantuan head to the sound of the voices in the bush. It stared intently with it's large glowing eyes for a few seconds, chattering it's teeth loudly before lumbering towards the bush, breathing heavily as it's footfalls shook the ground. AUBREY and HERO were too busy trying to get KEL back to notice that the beast was now coming directly to them. HERO looked too late and gazed into a pair of bright green eyes staring at him. His face went pale before AUBREY turned and softly gasped.
"Do you think it sees us?" she whispers to him.
The Bear let out a mighty bellowing roar, unleashing a blast of wind from it's maw and destroyed the surrounding flora the three had used for cover. HERO, KEL and AUBREY were left in the open against the monstrous ursine when it bounded towards them at full speed and leapt into the air with the winds at it's back picking up into a raging thunder storm.
...
SOMEONE IN THE STORM
Great Raging Beast of the Untamed Storm
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[]BATTLE![]
What will HERO and friends do?
KEL attacks SOMEONE IN THE STORM
SOMEONE IN THE STORM took 17 damage
SOMEONE IN THE CLOUDS lunges and snaps at KEL
KEL takes 75 damage
AUBREY used HEADBUTT
SOMEONE IN THE STORM took 28 damage
HERO used COOK
KEL healed 39 HEART
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KEL used YOU CAN'T CATCH ME
SOMEONE IN THE STORM'S HIT RATE fell
SOMEONE IN THE STORM stomps the ground and sends forth a raging tornado!
Everyone took 149 damage
AUBREY used PEP TALK
The storm blocks out EMOTIONS and lowers everyone's STATS...
HERO guards
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KEL attacks
SOMEONE IN THE STORM bites AUBREY!
AUBREY takes 61 damage
AUBREY used MASH
SOMEONE IN THE STORM takes 25 damage
HERO attacks
SOMEONE IN THE STORM took 16 damage
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KEL used RUN 'N GUN
The attack missed...
SOMEONE IN THE STORM barrels through everyone!
Everyone took 122 damage
AUBREY became TOAST
HERO used SNACK TIME
HERO healed 255 health
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KEL attacks SOMEONE IN THE STORM
The attack missed...
SOMEONE IN THE STORM adjusts it's jaw...
HERO attacks
The attack missed...
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KEL used RICOCHET
The attack missed...
SOMEONE IN THE STORM roars and summons lightning to strike the ground!
KEL took 71 damage!
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...
The longer the dream friends fought, the lesser their chances were that they could defeat the great bear as let out another mighty roar that rocked the floating island with high winds and bolts of lightning, tear the landscape apart in the furious storm. HERO held on desperately to AUBREY'S TOAST and to a branch to avoid being blown off the edge while KEL grappled with his foot. SOMEONE IN THE STORM began to rise off the ground, propelled by the sheer might of the forces to levitate into the sky and began gathering itself into a cyclone that threatened to tear the floating island in half.
HERO grunted and squinted. "We can't defeat this thing with just the two of us, it's just too windy to get close enough!" he shouted over the wind. "I wish we had a fourth person here!"
KEL'S eye caught something moving behind the wind beast and stood upright. KEL immediately recognized the figure and grinned He looked back at his brother. "Oh, we might not be able to beat it..." He pointed towards the silhouette. "...But HE can."
HERO blinked and looked confused where his brother was pointing at. "Who can-oh..."
[ROWAN strikes!]
[SOMEONE IN THE STORM took 433 damage!]
[IT HIT RIGHT IN THE HEART!]
At the moment, the SOMEONE IN THE STORM was struck out of the sky by an shovel thrown into it's hindquarters with such force that it was sent crashing to the ground. The brief moment it was on it's side, an eerily familiar skirt and pair shoes and socks could be seen underneath it's shaggy fur...However, the bear was quickly able recover to it's feet and turn towards it's new attacker with a enraged snarl.
The projectile that struck the bear spun through the air until it was caught midair by a familiar teenage boy standing strong against the winds, The figure flipped the shovel to his side, steeled his gaze at the wind creature with a calm focus and took a slow breath in and out. With a maroon colored flower pin in jet black hair and his trusty shovel at his side. The tall goth boy cracked his knuckles in his fists and grinned back at the SOMEONE with a devilish toothy grin.
"Hey Yogi~." ROWAN spat and pointed. "Why don't we finish what we started before you start stealing other people's picnic baskets and wrecking places?"
ROWAN circled the massive bear, it growled and snapped it's jaws at him as it's eyes seemed to glow brighter. It lifted into the air again and suddenly vanished into the air. He paused for a moment, standing completely still for a second before dodging to the side in time for the SOMEONE to lunge over and clamp down on where he was standing. It followed up with a swipe of it's legs in an attempt to kick at them. The goth boy jumped back in time as the large forehead of the bear mask slammed into the ground, ROWAN kicking himself off of it and rolled back a short ways from HERO and KEL. He turned to look at them.
"Don't just sit there, I need your help!"
The brothers got up and rushed behind the bear in different directions, KEL threw his ball at it's face whenever he could while HERO clanged his SPATULA and FRYING PAN together to irritate the beast. Each time it turned around, ROWAN would take swipes at it's hide and jump away before it could bite him. Whenever it summoned the winds to propel itself towards any of them or the lightning to strike them, The group scattered or kept close together to avoid either attack respectively.
The three worked in tandem to eventually overwhelm the beast enough to where it leapt into the air and lifted itself up into the clouds. KEL and HERO stood behind ROWAN as the clouds parted and the SOMEONE IN THE STORM came down in a spiraling dive with it's jaws gaping wide open. Shovel collided with primal force as the goth boy held back the massive wind beast's charge. He jammed his shovel between it's jaws. Startled by the blockage, the SOMEONE began to buck wildly as it tried to reach for the tool.
"Now! grab that kite!" ROWAN shouted, wincing as one of the flailing hands holding the jaw smacked him in the face.
KEL jumped over to the side and grabbed a hold of some of the beast's hair, he climbed inside the wet fur and dug through it until he managed to find the where kite's string was wrapped tightly around the neck area. He began to pull it apart bit by bit. Outside, the beast struggled greatly to dislodge the object stuck in it's maw while bellowing in pain, KEL was working as fast as his fingers would let him.
"Hurry up! I got it-" ROWAN called, there was a cracking sound from the base of the shovel, the jaws closed in a bit more. "For a little while!"
"Almost...Gotta unwind this bit of twine...criss cross, bunny ears..."
"I can't hold it back much longer!"
"Hold on! I...just have one more to go..."
"KEL!"
"I got it! I-"
The shovel snapped in half and launched the goth boy backwards, but at the same time, KEL was thrown off and the KITE was unraveled, it floated freely until it came to a rest on the ground nearby. The SOMEONE let out a gasping breath and fell on it's side with a tremendous thud, breathing heavily. HERO and KEL approached the animal only for ROWAN to stop them.
"Stop. Don't get too close. She needs some space to heal." ROWAN spoke plainly.
KEL watched the SOMEONE heave itself upright and lumbered away from them towards the back of the island. HERO looked at him. "She?" He pointed at it. "ROWAN what are you talking about? it's been causing all the storms, we can't just-"
The goth boy narrowed his gaze at him. "Leave. The bear. Alone. We've done what we can already." He turned around and went towards the ladder. Come on, we'll talk more later once we're out of here."
...
HERO and KEL exchanged confused looks with each other but seeing how it wasn't attacking anymore, they picked up the lost KITE and slowly backed away from the bear as told. The skies soon started to clear up and the sun beamed down on HEADSPACE, showing the vast land before them, from SWEETHEART'S castle in the distance to the long ladder that led to nowhere now that OTHERWORLD was gone. They quietly made it to the ground and met up with ROWAN leaning against a tree gazing up at the sky. KEL ran in out in front of HERO and tackled the goth boy into a big hug.
"ROWAN! you're alive! I thought you died!" he cried out and buried his face in the other boy's overalls.
ROWAN smiled and gave KEL a noogie. "I didn't die? I never did."
KEL lifted his face up. "Then how? You were keeping that horrible nightmare cluster thing busy when we left without you and the world fell apart and stuff..."
"We thought you sacrificed yourself to save us." HERO added.
The goth boy sighed and sat down at the tree's base, gesturing for the other's to do so as well. "I've got some explaining to do then. You may want to take a seat, I've got a lot to unload."
ROWAN then retold the last thing he remembered from then to now;
He was fighting the FACECLUSTER; a malformed eldritch amalgamate creature created from bodies in BLACK SPACE by D.R.E.A.M. to guard Sunny while she worked on him. The gang had encountered it very late into their journey as it attacked them trying to get Sunny back. His best friend FLOWER had taken a fatal hit for him and ROWAN, in a fit of rage had attacked the monster so violently that it crippled it for a moment but also but him into a critical state. He'd stayed behind to fend it off so that the others would escape.
The battle that followed had been one of the toughest fights he'd ever been in. Here he was, him, battling the literal thousands of copies of his friends all mixed into one mind in the crumbling ruins of an unstable reality all so his friends and their counterparts could escape. ROWAN was in bad shape, his being was partially comprised of the SOMETHING he was twisted into long ago, and it would be soon that he would revert back into that SOMETHING again. He gave it everything he could until he could fight no longer and the FACECLUSTER had escaped to pursue the fleeing group.
In that moment...ROWAN was scared...not of dying, but where he'd go when he inevitably would...
...
...
Time passed, he was...falling for a long time into darkness below, there was no wind at his back in this void, there was nothing...dead silence for what seemed like eternity.
...
...
Then he woke up in the middle of some foggy woods, no longer wounded or corrupting. He wandered around for a bit until he came across an opening that was familiar. He saw KITE KID standing over the edge playing with his KITE and went over to greet him, but he soon saw a shape in the fog fly by and get tangled up in the KITE'S string. The animal had gotten caught and was desperately struggling to free itself but only tangled further, it kicked up trees and other parts of the island, and in the frenzy, KITE KID had been pulled up into the air with it.
Mistaking it for an attack at the time, ROWAN had rushed in and tried to attack the thing, which caused KITE KID to be let go and drop, the beast, the SOMEONE IN THE STORM whom he had just provoked, grabbed onto the goth boy in it's jaws, flying high into the sky above where it would let go and drop him to the ground just as the friends would arrive to see him fall.
"...And that's how I got here." He finished with a sigh.
KEL sat there his mouth slightly open, his eyes sparkled in amazement at ROWAN'S story. "Wow, that's crazy..." he says.
ROWAN shrugs. "You don't know the half of it, 'crazy' doesn't even begin to describe how the hell I'm even still alive to begin with."
HERO placed a hand on ROWAN'S shoulder and gave him a welcoming smile. "Anyways, glad that's over, it's good to have you back with us, ROWAN. The others will be too."
ROWAN glanced around at his surroundings, his eyes lit up with wonder. "Likewise. Speaking of which, it's good to be home again after so long...I missed this place so much."
"You lived here?" HERO questioned.
The goth boy huffed. "Did I live here? Of course I did! HEADSPACE was my home too once...I practically know it like the back of my hand."
HERO looked back at KEL. "Do you still have KITE KID'S KITE?" he asks and reaches into his pockets and found AUBREY'S TOAST. "Dang, I also don't have any JUICE or LIFE JAM to bring AUBREY back. We should head back."
He nodded and showed him the battered KITE. "Yeah, we'll get back and have MARI un-TOAST AUBS." Then more excitedly. "Everyone's gonna totally flip when they meet ROWAN!"
ROWAN's eyes lit up and he sat up, eagerly set off to the park ahead. "What are we waiting for? Let's go! I can't wait to go see my old house again and everyone at the park." he raced off in the other direction with KEL and HERO following behind.
Something told them that this was the beginning of another grand adventure...
The day has ended...
Let's greet tomorrow together!