Funshine chased their void target into a room, the window was closed and the door was also closed. The void creature screeched and looked at Funshine, the body had saw blades appear.
“Ok, that seems very painful. So—Ah!” Funshine barely ducked when one saw blade flew at him. He started to run dodging the saw blades, unable to get a second to aim and fire his arrow. Funshine saw the five sawblades return to the void creature and begin to spin around it, like a shield. Funshine took the moment to climb the banner to get to a higher vantage point. The creature only watched but didn’t move.
“Ok…Evil monstrosity down there, me up here. So let’s prime the bow…mmm…I can’t stop anything…those saw blades will just block my strike…hm?” Funshine focused his eyes, seeing that when one blade went in front of the creature, it’s chest opened, exposing Bedtime’s belly badge. “You have Bedtime’s badge huh…If I hit that sawblade hmm…Alright Funshine, aim…focus…” Funshine fired his arrow, but as expected the void creature jumped back as the five saw blades rushed out, however by luck one of the arrows went through the middle of a sawblade pinning it into the ground. However the chest stayed closed. Funshine let out a huff of frustration and used the banner as a swing to throw himself to another area. Right before he could swing forward a saw blade cut the ropes dropping Funshine and the banner together.
“Ow…Not cool…Eek!” Funshine kicked back as a sawblade whizzed by, barely grazing Funshine’s fur, but not leaving any marks. “Oh come on…I don’t need to get cut by a saw, already have two permanent scars.” Funshine backed into the wall, and felt it solid. Coming to the realization that he was trapped, he started to panic.
“Funshine! Focus!” Funshine ducked to the side hearing Good Luck’s voice as one saw blade hit the wall and got stuck before turning to black dust.
“Ah…Sorry Good Luck, but I’m trapped in this room with this creature! I can’t stop their saw blades because I can’t aim without the blades coming at me.”
“Than don’t aim at the blades. Aim at the creature. Why not aim for their head?” Funshine blinked, aim at their head? Why didn’t he think of that. He rushed around before getting behind a pillar, confusing the creature.
“Alright Good Luck…Your luck is with me right?”
“Of course bro, now aim and kick that creature’s ass!” Funshine smiled, Good Luck was the very first to know about Funshine’s secret.
Funshine had been feeling off, at first they did feel like their female self was right, but as years and care missions continued, the female self felt wrong. They never wanted to do the feminine things, wanting to go camping and practice archery instead of shopping for clothes or putting make-up on. Sure, males could do that but so many human kids believed females always did that. Add on that Funshine felt weird to being female, nothing against them but just not one of them. Good Luck and Funshine spent the night together as usual, watching movies and playing games when Funshine talked to Good Luck about it. As they went late into the night and into the morning going over it all, Good Luck gave Funshine his cap he started wearing. Slowly over the next few weeks, Funshine started to talk to the others and eventually to Noble Heart and True Heart, who accepted Funshine as their son, as any parent should.
Funshine gripped his bow and pulled the arrow back, aiming at the head. He took a deep breath and released the arrow.
“Fly, pierce them!” As the arrow pierced the creature’s head, the saw blades shattered into dust as the creature tried to screech but was unable to make a sound and instead exploded into dust, leaving only Bedtime’s badge behind. Funshine walked over and picked it up with a smile. “Mission complete. The windows and doors are unlocked.”
“Good job Funshine, small problem. Somehow those walls were teleporting walls. Instead of being near the car, you not only are on the east side instead of the west, but also six floors higher!” Tenderheart’s comment made Funshine check. Sure to his word, Funshine had to look right to see the car, they had parked at the south side. Funshine sighed, took a few steps back and rushed forward, jumping out the window and turning the glider on.
“Funshine, what’s the situation?”
“Well Thief, the walls are teleporting walls. How are you and Mend going along?”
“Yeah um, Funshine we’ll need to get back to you. We got separated and are facing our own adversaries.”
Mend Heart was using the grappling hook to dodge the whip this creature’s arms had become. They were sharp on each end with a spiked tip. It was like a double-edged blade but in a whip! Thief however was dealing with a smaller creature, that like him, used a knife. They were parrying and striking at one another with speed. Thief swore his enemy was mimicking his movements but couldn’t be sure because of the speed.
“You two, be careful ok? I’ll be waiting at the car.”
Mend took a deep breath and processed their thoughts as they hid behind a pillar on the upper area of the room they were in. This creature seemed to be quick, but was it able to see Mend or was it reacting to sound? Mend grabbed a pebble they had in their pouch with the smoke bombs. If the sound was what they reacted to instead of the sight, then the smoke bombs wouldn’t serve a purpose. Mend threw the rock at the wall and as soon as it hit the wall the tentacle struck. Mend decided to test eyesight and threw the rock slightly to the side of the creature, the creature didn’t react until the rock hit the wall. Mend let out a silent frustrated sigh. They began to go through possible strategies before having an idea. If they threw rocks in every direction, they may distract the creature’s senses. Mend silently moved toward the railing facing the creature. Mend waved their arms but the creature didn’t react.
“A dumb creature. I swear if this fails and I cease to exist, I’m haunting Thief forever.” Mend threw the stones in an arc in front of them, as soon as the rocks landed the creature went ballistic not sure where to aim. By the time the creature composed itself, Mend Heart had already fired the grappling hook into it’s head, rushing forward and kicking the creature in the head, the creature screeched and fell back, revealing Losta Heart’s badge. Mend picked it up and heard footsteps.
“Watchtower, which way?!”
“Out the window, complete 180, You’re on the 5th floor Mend!” Cheer had taken over for Tenderheart as Mend rushed and jumped out activating the glider as the door busted open. Mend let out a sigh of relief as they kept flying around until they saw Funshine waving at them and landed next to him. Mend hugged Funshine.
“You got Losta Heart’s badge! She’ll be happy to receive that back. I got Bedtime Bear’s back. He’ll be happy. That means Thief is the only one left.”
“Thief, this is Mend. How’s it going?”
“It’s like fighting a clone, my windows are closed along with the door AND the walls are solid. Plus there’s no balcony. I swear this has to be a dance hall.”
“You may have a point there, Thief. While I was checking the map, you seem to be in a big area. A dance hall sounds very likely.” Tenderheart was checking the map as Mend was escaping.
Thief sighed, he had tried a smoke bomb but the creature saw through it just like Thief. He just kept dodging and parrying the knife strikes. He was running out of options until Mend’s voice broke his thoughts.
“Thief, fake him hitting you and pretend you are on the ground in pain. When he gets close, use the close distance to steal the badge.” Thief smirked to himself, Mend had a great idea, Thief followed the procedure according to plan. Pretending the creature’s knife got him he fell onto the pain letting out a believable scream of pain, the creature grabbed handcuffs and walked over. Thief waited for a second and as soon as the creature was in range, Thief quickly moved swiping his paw through the creature, grabbing Champ’s badge. To add insult to injury Thief slashed the creature’s neck as it turned into dust. Thief took a deep breath and walked to the room’s window and saw the Cloud Car beneath the area and jumped out activating his glider. As he landed he stumbled into Mend and Funshine’s arms.
“Whoa Thief, you ok there?”
“Yeah…Let’s head back. Who did we all get?”
“Well I got Bedtime, Mend got Lotsa Heart and you got Champ. Cheer you got those three?”
“Yes Funshine, I’m getting them to come to the watch tower. Once you three arrive up here you can give them back. That makes a total of six retrieved.” Thief sighed as he got into the back seat. His eyes were blurring. Exhaustion, Thief knew if he continued these missions without rest he’d collapse during one. He’d have to rest at the tower before the next mission.
