Chapter Text
Soulvester was an excellent extractor by all means. He found the strange machines to be much too easy to complete for a knight such as him, and could not help but feel confused at the sight of other Toons struggling with its mechanics. His personality was far from vitriolic—albeit with its fair share of bitter edges—so he helped those struggling whenever he could.
There was another part of extraction runs that he simply could not improve on, no matter how much effort he put into it: running from the Twisteds. He was an accidental laggard when it came to escape, and his teammates had certainly noticed.
Ribecca carefully wrapped a small bandage over a cut on Brusha’s finger. “Have you been working on any new drawings yet?”
“If you’re asking me to show you, the answer is no. Sorry, Ribecca,” Brusha quickly answered.
“Aww, why not? I like seeing your art!”
“It’s her choice if she wants to share it or not,” Soulvester interrupted. “Besides, we’re near the end of the run, aren’t we? Thou should be focused on that right now.”
Poppy, who was standing rather nervously near the elevator door, dramatically sighed. “I guess it’s just up to you and me to finish the last floor. Well, I hope you all know this run is in perfect hands!”
“Hey, could you two close the staff doors on my floor? I’ll deal with the Twisteds and clean everything up later,” Vee asked, passing a box of chocolates over to Razzle and Dazzle.
“I’d imagine it’s pretty inconvenient to have a room on a lower floor,” Dazzle said, gratefully taking the box.
“It’s a double-edged sword, I guess.”
All chatter in the elevator ceased once the door lifted itself off the ground, revealing the familiar Vee-themed floor. Although the Toons had come to expect the usually unsettling ambience of a lower floor, another sound could be heard amidst the echoes of rattling pipes: the drenched footsteps of a large creature roaming the depths.
An expression of wariness appeared on both Soulvester and Poppy’s faces, though the latter was the first to speak up. “Uh, who is that? I can barely tell from here.”
“Not Twisted Pebble, that’s for sure,” Soulvester remarked. “It’s not very slow either. Who–”
The sharp sounds of growling interrupted him. It was a low, hollow sound with hints of low vocals that sent shivers of dread down Soulvester’s spine, for it simply could not have been made by any natural Toon voice.
“...Twisted Shelly. Great,” he finished.
Poppy grabbed his hand and slowly pulled him out of the elevator. Her profound confidence from earlier had increased as she insisted, “This floor will be over in just a second, wait and see!”
The floor was not over in a second.
Alongside Twisted Shelly, the duo found the floor occupied by a Twisted Ribecca, a Twisted Finn, a Twisted Cosmo, and a Twisted Shrimpo. Eight machines were scattered around the floor, each one desperately needing attention.
Twisted Shelly was a formidable foe worthy of the Main Character title. The lower half of her body had been replaced by an ichor-covered caricature of a dinosaur's skeleton—according to the real Shelly, it was most similar to a Majungasaurus, though Soulvester did not know what species that was—that was incredibly fast and strong. She constantly bore an exaggerated smile of flesh-tearing fangs that only widened when she spotted potential prey. A few ribbons of film were wrapped around her ribcage, and a small ichor horn in the middle of her forehead caused a few cracks in her head.
Twisted Ribecca had no noticeable quirks apart from a constant enraged expression. The Twisted versions of Cosmo and Shrimpo were similar, though Twisted Shrimpo was usually seen with a vacant expression and an ichor-covered wipe in one hand.
Twisted Finn was a stark contrast to his well-known Toon version. His legs had been apparently ripped off, forcing the Twisted to crawl towards its victims with a tearful scowl and giant ichor claws. Although he was fast on his own, his presence on the floor made machines malfunction in inconvenient—and occasionally deadly—ways.
Soulvester did fine at first. He avoided the Twisteds as stealthily as he could and powered through each machine he could find. Poppy did the rest of them, including the “treadmill” machines Soulvester had troubles with. Once there was only one machine left, the two met up near the elevator to discuss their plan.
“Twisted Ribecca is so annoying! She kept sneaking up on me while I was extracting. Obviously, I was able to complete it with ease, but still!” Poppy ranted, keeping her voice at a lower volume to not disturb the nearby Twisted Shrimpo.
“I think we should just go for the last one. Twisted Shelly is fast, but if she never sees us, we won’t have a problem,” Soulvester suggested. “I could complete the last one if thou could keep watch.”
“I can do that, of course,” Poppy agreed. She scanned their surroundings for Twisteds, and once the coast was clear, the two made their way towards the last machine that was hidden in a small nook, right next to two arcade machines.
Soulvester made a show of pretending to crack his ghostly knuckles before placing his hands on the red wheel and focusing on turning it. Immediately, the black pipe began to rattle as globs of ichor filled the container. It was an unsightly view, but the Toons had gotten used to it. Poppy stood nearby, eyes peeled for any unwanted interruptions.
“Hey, Soulvester?” she suddenly said around the midpoint of the machine’s filling.
“What is it?”
“You know how Twisted Finn makes the machines leak ichor when they’re completed, and it gets all over your feet and makes you super slow?” she asked.
Soulvester nodded as memories of his encounters with the Twisted played through his mind. “Yeah, I know.”
“Well…” Poppy seemed to juggle a few possible sentences before deciding on, “No offense, but you’re, like, really slow with that armor on. Since this is the last machine, if you were trying to get to the elevator and Twisted Shelly sees you while you’re still covered in the stuff… Maybe it’s better if you let me do it.”
“That’s very considerate of you,” Soulvester approved, taking his hands off of the wheel.
Poppy grinned and walked over to the machine while Soulvester sat where she was earlier. Being a decent extractor, the machine’s light soon turned green. The moment it did, a torrent of ichor spilled from the wheel and onto Poppy’s feet. She yelped in surprise and almost jumped up from shock, but the stickiness of the semiliquid substance kept her still.
“Come on!” Soulvester grabbed her hand and tried to pull her out of the mess, but by the time her legs were free and unharmed, it was already too late; Twisted Shelly had seen her.
A roar echoed throughout the floor as the colossal Twisted began her chase. The two Toons scurried towards the elevator with haste, but they knew they couldn’t simply outrun Twisted Shelly. Being much less stealthy, Poppy was more of a prominent target, and as the two rounded the corner and their exit came into view, both Poppy and Twisted Shelly passed Soulvester, and he could see just how close Poppy was from getting her bow bitten off.
The Toons inside the elevator had noticed as well. They yelled at her to run faster, but given most of them were injured, they knew that they could not do anything to help. Soulvester knew he had to do something, but his inventory of items inside his bag was completely empty except for his lucky sword.
That was when Soulvester got an idea.
“Hey! Twisted Shelly!” he yelled, dropping his empty bag and striking the Twisted’s long tail with his flimsy light cyan sword. Although it did no notable damage, Twisted Shelly stopped in her tracks and turned her gaze towards her new target with an eerie open-mouthed grin. Soulvester realized the foolishness of his plan once she chomped down on his metal helmet as he tried to escape. Luckily for him, her bite could not penetrate his solid armor, and he managed to break free once she reeled back for another attempt. He soon made it to the elevator safely.
Poppy was not so lucky.
Soulvester had managed to distract Twisted Shelly, but all the commotion had alerted the attention of Twisted Finn as well. He spotted Poppy trying to flee and began to chase her, and, exhausted from her earlier sprint, he caught up to her swiftly.
It all happened in under a few seconds. None of the Toons knew what was going on until they heard her scream.