An important common duty of the proxies is to patrol through the forest. They have to do it every day to look out for both Humans and Creepypastas. Slenderman, like most Lords, keeps his territory in a space that overlapped the Underrealm and Overrealm. This makes it in both places at the same time as opposed to the other way of having it in between both realms and therefore making it separate from both. With that way one needs a portal to enter or exist, whereas with Slenderman's territory one simply needs to wander into it.

This means the grounds need to be patrolled regularly to keep unwanted guests out. Lately though there have been more sightings of other Creepypastas near the edges of the territory. Specifically Zalgos pastas. This has Selnderman on edge as the two Lords have never been more than civil to each other at the best of times. This is due to the fact the Slenderman, son of Slayerman a High Councilman, has first pick at a position on the Council should a position open. A position Zalgo has been after since before Slenderman was even a Lord. This has caused many fights to occur between the two Lords over the centuries.

So Slenderman was keeping a close eye on his borders, but couldn't make a move lest he be accused of trying to start a Lord War. So he has been sending his proxies out on more patrols than normal. If Zalgo did intend to start trouble, Slenderman wasn't going to be caught unaware. He was even planning to make a quick visit to his brothers to gather them for support. Not even Zalgo is stupid enough to take on all four of the Slender Brothers at the same time.

In the meantime Masky, Hoodie, and Toby were patrolling together a lot more often. Slenderman sent all three together for safety. Even though Zalgo has always used quantity over quality, as opposed to Slenderman preferring quality, even the best can eventually be overrun by sheer numbers. So everyone, not just the proxies, were forced to go out in at least pairs. Though this was met with resistance from several of them, everyone eventually complied.

While on their current patrol through the edges of Slenderman's territory Toby was chittering away at the two elder proxies. Hoodie hummed occasionally, only half listening at the time. Masky led the group, checking the borders for any signs of trespassers. They found a lot of scuff marks on the other side, though none of them crossed over. Still, the amount of scuffs had increased in the last couple of days. They were becoming more bold, though they still hadn't met a group. Yet.

"S-so I went to s-sell the rings and a c-c-coup-ple of necklaces f-from th-that one house to Jack of Trades and while I-I-I was waiting for him to e-estimate th-the value this one g-guy started hitting on m-me." Toby started his next story cheerily. He didn't notice how this one had caught their attention far more than the others he told. Masky tensed at hearing about another guy hitting on Toby while Hoodie looked back at the twitching boy. "He w-was pretty t-t-tall with packed m-muscles, but he was b-bright r-red. And I-I mean bright fucking r-red. I-it hurt t-to look at him."

Both older men relaxed at hearing the distast in in the younger's voice. They glanced at each other, a silent exchange between the two men. It was quick as they had known each other for a long time. Body reading was fluid between them. Once they turned back to the rest of the world, though they had noticed that Toby had gone quiet. They both stopped to look behind them, curious as to why he had suddenly stopped talking. When they looked back they saw Toby kneeling by a thorn bush, seemingly inspecting something.

"Did you spot something?" Masky asked as he walked up to the spot. Hoodie stood back a little to keep guard over the small group. It was dangerous in the woods, even without the added danger of Zalgo's pastas around. So one always had to keep an eye out.

"Yea, I-I can't tell if this is animal or p-pasta." Toby said, pointing to a clump of grey fur that had a bit of nearly black red liquid clumping one side together. "It doesn't look natural."

"Hmm." Masky hummed as he used his pocket knife to bring the clump closer. "You're right it's not natural." Masky agreed as he began inspecting the ground around the bush. Several sets of tracks scattered the area, some overlapping each other, but they were distinctly not from any of the animals in the forest.

"Creepypastas?" Hoodie asked, reading Masky's tensed body like an open book.

"Yeah, and on our side of the border." Masky growled lowly. He stood back up, quickly followed by Toby. In a rare show of affection Masky reached over and patted Toby on the head. "Good job spotting that. That was a very important find."

"Th-thanks!" Toby stuttered, but not from his tics this time. His heart picked up a little bit at the contact, not used to the affection. Especially from the oldest proxy.

Hoodie watched the interaction with hidden approval. Masky had never been good with expressing his positive feelings. Even before they became proxies. He loves his best friend regardless, but knew that the youngest proxy would need better, especially after the life he had and who he had as a father. It was part of the reason they hadn't confessed to the twitching boy.

"So what should we do about it?" Hoodie asked as he did a 360 to inspect the area.

"The tracks are only one way." Masky observed, following the tracks a little bit further into the forest. He remained in sight of the others, only following it enough to confirm. "That means they either took a different way out or are still here. The blood isn't fully absorbed by the soil yet nor had the drops evaporated from the leaves."

"So it's still fresh." Hoodie finished, unslinging his rifle in preparation. He looked at his friend who was still staring into the forest. "They'll be nearby, we can easily catch up."

"Yea, we'll do that." Masky nodded his head. He turned to look back at the other two. "Toby, send a message back to the mansion. Let them know what we found and what we're doing."

"A-already did!" Toby said cheerily, showing the text message he sent to Ben. Good choice as the electronics addicted pasta would surely see the text long before anyone else would. "Oh, he j-just texted back saying he'll l-let Slendy know."

"Good." Was all he said before turning back to the forest.

They were quiet as they walked deeper into the territory. The path was nearly straight, like they were trying to walk from one border to the other. It made tracking them through the forest very quick and easy. Something they weren't expecting. It didn't even take them long to catch up to the trespassers. They weren't being quiet as they bickered with each other in a small clearing.

"What is up with these guys?" Masky muttered more to himself than the group. He glared at them through the trees, keeping himself hidden. "Hoodie, how many do you spot?"

"Looks like two?" Hoodie said questionly as he looked at them through the scope.

"You don't sound too certain about that." Masky pointed out.

"Well, I think one of them has two heads? The trees are in the way of most of the body. Looks quadruped though and is definitely the one who got scraped." Hoodie said uncertainty before moving his scope to look at the other. "The other is biped though. Looks about your size, skinny as fuck. They have to be low ranking."

"Alright then." Masky said thoughtfully as he tried to find the best way to deal with the problem. "Slenderman is going to want to talk to them, so we need at least one alive. Hoodie, move to the right, put yourself between them and the border. If we need to chase them let's have them head towards home. The others can help with the capture. If they make a dash for the border, do what you do best and shoot to kill. Toby, with me and keep your guard up. These aren't humans we're dealing with."

"Pfft. I know that, I've dealt with Creepypastas before." Toby rolled his eyes before pulling his goggles down and his mouth guard up.

"When have you-? Never mind. Just focus." Masky ordered as they started to move forward.

They were bold in their move forward, drawing the attention of the two pastas. Masky and Toby wanted this, to seem very confident. Especially on their own lands. It would help with cowering the two and keeping control of the situation. After all, they would not know how many others are with Masky and Toby.

One was indeed a two headed quadruped. It had grey fur with darker grey stripes that were between a tiger and a jaguar. Like someone took the spots of a jaguar and stretched them out. It had a long tail with a razor sharp claw at the end. Sharp spins ran down its back, stopping at the base of its tail. Each head was different from the other. The one on the left had a long red strip of fur that went from it'd forehead to the base of its knack like a mohawk. It's eyes were orange and had cat-like pupils, though they were white instead of black. They had long k-9s that curved back. The other head had blue bangs that fell to the right, partly covering one eye. This head had four eyes, each a deep purple with white pupils as well. They had smaller k'9s than the other, but they still showed.

Both heads had long ears with piercings all along the top half. They stood half as tall as Masky, but were easily twice as long as he was tall without the tail. Each paw had long, exposed claws that were as long as Toby's middle finger. They were lean, looking like they were built for speed more than strength.

The other pasta was like how Hoodie described. It stands just a bit taller than Masky though. It honestly looked like a biped Rake, but pinkish with a wide open mouth that had teeth in a circle around the mouth. It had no eyes and two long slits where the nose should be. It's ears were pointed, stretching twe inches past the top of its ovular head. Its arms were so long that its fingertips touched the ground. Many large cuts spread across its body, leaking blackish red blood. Worst of all, it wore no pants and was clearly a he.

"You are trespassing on the land of Lord Slenderman and his House. Who are you who dares to do such a thing and who is your Lord and house?" Masky said loudly, bordering on shouting at them. He stood confidently in front of them, more than ready for the upcoming fight. They would have gone straight into one, but certain protocols need to be taken.

"I we are Dark Light and he is Screecher." The quadruped said, both heads speaking in unisine. Both voices were ambivert in tone, though they did have a slight femin tone to it. Then the blue furred one spoke alone. "Our Lord is Lord Zalgo of House Za'lgatoth."

"We are here doing some sightseeing in our new territory." The red furred one cackled.

"Once we take it from your cold, dead hands that is." The blue one chuckled.

"You're not taking this forest." Masky all but snarled, pulling out his crowbar. "In the name of Lord Slenderman I order you to surrender at once for questioning."

"Make us." Red started.

"Pretty boy." Blue finished.

Dark Light charged forward, going straight for Masky with outstretched claws. Masky dodged to one side, using the momentum to slam his crowbar into the quadrupeds side. This made them stumble on the landing and smack into a tree, causing it to break and fall over. They stood up snarling at Masky, getting ready for another strike. Masky stood ready, his anger at the trespassers giving him an edge.

Meanwhile Screecher made a swipe at Toby who ducked. He then used his hatchet to make a swipe at the arm. It struck the bone but didn't go further, suggesting that the bone was harder than it looked. Toby quickly pulled it out, just in time to use both hatchets to block a swipe from the other hand. This left his side vulnerable for it to smack him on the side, sending him tumbling through the clearing away from Masky. While he didn't feel the pain from hits he still felt his heart start to pick up more in fear.

It was about to make another swipe at the young proxy when the sound of a gunshot sounded. In that second a bullet ripped through the creature's shoulder, sending blackish red blood splattering on the ground. It was quickly followed by two more to the other shoulder, making him stumble backwards. This gave Toby a chance to get up and make a strike of his own to the back of its knees. It fell with a hollow sounding yell, blood steadily leaking out. Toby gave a quick salute in the direction the bullets came from and ran to help Masky.

Not that he needed much help. Despite the quadruped having many advantages it sucked at fighting. All it took to bring them down was for Masky to hit Red in the head and for Toby to sink his hatchet deep into the thigh on the other side. Blue stumbled as she tried to gain control of all five limbs by herself now that her sister head was knocked out. In that distraction Toby took his hatchet out of the injured leg and used it to pin the tail down by sticking the hatchet straight through it.

Hoodie came running up to the group, rifle still out. He aimed it at Red's head, stopping Blue from striking out against the youngest in fear of what he would do. With that the fight was over with. Screecher was too injured to move and Dark Light was pinned down. It was a quick fight, over in less than two minutes.

"Toby." Masky said, addressing the youngest. "Text Ben, have him send out some others to help with transporting prisoners."

"On it." Toby nodded his head, texting away.

"Is the other one alive?" Masky asked Hoodie as he looked at the creatures still, bleeding body.

"Nothing vital was hit, but if we want any information out of it we need to get it back to the Mansion soon. Bloodloss kills nearly everything." Hoodie remarked, never waving his gun from Reds head.

"You're not going to get anything out of us." Blue snarled at them.

"A-A team is on th-the way." Toby informed the others cheerily. "Slendy s-sent a patrol o-out right after Is-sent my last text, s-sp they'll b-be here soon."

"The fuck is wrong with you? Did your mama drop you on your head or something?" Blue chuckly cruelly at the twitching boy.

Toby's temper flared like wildfire at the comments. He snarled loudly, pulling his hatchet above his head to deliver a killing blow to the Blue head. Seeing that the twitching boy was about to kill one of the prisoners Masky acted quickly. He pulled the hatchet out of Tobys hand and stepped between him and the quadruped.

"Hey, hey, calm down." Masky put his hands on the twitching boy's shoulders, trying to calm him down.

"D-d-did yo-you here w-wh-what s-s-she sa-said!" Toby barely stuttered out, anger making his twitching and stuttering worse. While he always hated when others made fun of his twitching he got pissed when some talked shit about his mother. He still loved her and never blamed her for anything. So he was not going to stand here and listen to someone bad mouth her.

"I hear, but you need to ignore her. She is a prisoner who just wants to get a rise out of you." Masky said, one hand absentmindedly rubbing the younger's shoulder. It was working to soothe Toby to a degree. "Don't let her. We need to keep a clear head until the others get here, okay."

"O-okay, b-but I don't l-like it." Toby huffed angrily, going back to texting on his phone.

It took ten minutes for the patrol to show up to help escort the prisoners. It was made up of Jeff, Clockwork, LJ, and Ben. A larger patrol because of the confirmation of trespassers. LJ, being the tallest there, slung Screecher over his shoulder to carry him back. The thing was extremely light, so it was no trouble at all for the killer clown. Clockwork and Ben took either side of Dark Light as they escorted her. Masky was in the front and Hoodie in the back. Jeff and Toby each took a side of the group, leaving all sides protected from potential ambush. The group was on high alert all the way back to the Mansion.

When they arrived they were greeted by Slenderman standing outside on the front lawn. Two cages for the prisoners were to his left while the rest of the House was to his left. They stood ready to fight should the prisoners decide to cause trouble. Dark Light was shoved into her cage right away while Screecher was bandaged first. The only reason why EJ bothered to do so was because he is no good to them dead.

"Masky, Hoodie, Toby, good work capturing the trespassers." Slenderman said as he wrapped his tentacles around the cages. "You three are relieved for the evening. Jane, Clockwork, and Laughing Jack, go on patrol. Afterwards I want Jeff, Eyeless Jack, and Ben to patrol. Report back any suspicious activity."

With that the entity disappeared along with the cages. Everyone headed inside save for the ones that were going on patrol. The proxies went straight for the kitchen, hungry after a good fight. Toby had popped his waffles in the toaster while Masky and Hoodie split the last of the cheesecake. The whole time Hoodie was watching Masky. The masked man was tense, seemingly lost in thought. Once again Hoodie was reading his boyfriend like an open book.

"What's wrong?" The hooded man asked after a few minutes of silence. Masky stopped mid bite while Toby turned to join the conversation.

"I don't know, something seems off." Masky said after a moment of silence.

"What seems off?" Hoodie prompted.

"The two we fought today." Masky said, lowering his plate but not looking at Hoodie. It was like he was still lost in thought, but now thinking out loud. "What were two low ranking soldiers doing on our territory? Why were there only two of them? And why didn't they put up much of a fight?"

"Y-you noticed that t-too?" Toby asked, though he was looking for more of a confirmation.

"If they were really that bad, why fight? Yet they looked strong enough to have put up more of a fight. It doesn't add up." Masky sighed heavily. He ate the last of the cheesecake in one mouthful.

"Do you think something else is going on?" Hoodie asked, placing a comforting hand on the tallers shoulder.

"I don't know, it just doesn't make sense." Masky sighed again.