Toby was careful when going through the portal on his way back. He wouldn't be able to see the guards placed there until he was already there. He was surprised, however, when he came through to find no one. Not a single guard, housemate, or any other pasta was there. It made him hesitate for a moment before fully exiting the portal. He looked around cautiously, but when nothing happened he moved on.

He was quick when moving through the forest. He forgoed quietness in favor of getting the supplies back to the mansion sooner. He's been gone for several hours longer than needed already, he had to get there soon. The battle they would have fought to protect his escape would have only added to the injury list.

The trip back seemed to be a lot shorter, though he supposed it was due to him now running. Though as he started to approach the mansion he began to notice ashes floating in the air. He stopped for a moment to let one land on his hand. The black ash landed on his palm, too large to have been from a fire pit. Toby lowered his mask to smell the air better. The arid stench of burning treated wood, shingles, polyester, and many other things blended together to create a smell he would know anywhere. A smell he himself had created over two years ago in his old neighborhood.

A burning house.

Toby's eyes widened in horror as recognition of the smell. He took off at a faster run towards his home. As he got closer to the mansion the ashes fell in thicker and larger clumps. He could see the fire's orange-red burning glow through the thick forest trees. The stench of smoke grew strong the closer he got to the source. When he got to the edge of the forest around the large clearing he stared in shock, heart breaking at seeing his home set ablaze. His hands came up to cover his mouth to stop the noise from coming out of it. Tears welled up in his eyes before spilling out in two steady streams. He was about to run over when an unfamiliar voice sounded over the roar of the blaze making him duck back down into the underbrush.

"Man! I can't believe we got stuck with burn duty!" A masculin voice spat out in anger. "It smells, then the smell sticks to me all day long!"

"Quit your complaining!" A scratch high pitched feminin voice snapped at the voice. "Lord Zalgo has given us an order and we will follow it through."

"Well the building is on fire, so I think we followed his orders pretty damn well." Another voice said, this one is also masculin, though less whiny. "Can we go now? I wanna have some fun with our new prisoners. We've been just teasing them all week, I wanna get some real action in. Especially with one of the big four. It's not everyday you have a Lord and equally powerful entities as your prisoners."

"Fin. The blaze will burn on its own anyway until it's all gone." The feminin voice reluctantly agreed.

"Great! We're going to the new castle, right? The one he took from that pathetic excuse of a Lord." The not whiny one asked, voice now humorous. "What was his name, Lord Sparky? Ha! Oh, please tell me it is."

"Former Lord Electric Shock, and yes, we are." The feminin one corrected, voices growing fainter as they walked away.

Toby sat back in the brumble, not believing what he had just heard. His friends, his family and Lord were taken as prisoners of Lord Zalgo, the second strongest Lord in Toby's mind. His family was taken prisoners of a literal demon.

The tears in Toby's eyes returned tenfold. They fell down his face in thick rivers, never stopping. He kept both hands over his mouth to stop the cries and screams from escaping and alerting the three in the area. His heart broke and twisted inside, like someone was driving a knife through it. The last time he felt this kind of pain was when Lyra had died in that car crash. The pain you only get when everything you hold dear to you is ripped away.

He sat in the underbrush, weeping for over an hour before the tears slowed down. Tears still fell down in trickles, adding more wetness to his now soaked mask. His hands dropped from his mouth, switching to wrap around his body in a self hug. His thin body trembled in the after shock of such great emotion. He sniffled quietly, not wanting to be heard, though he's sure that any of Zalgo's remaining pastas are gone by now. A small keen leaving his body now and then.

He tried to figure out what to do, but nothing came to mind. He can't go to another one of the Power 6 Lords. Alliances are purposefully avoided between any two or three of the top six Lords to avoid scaring others into alliances and starting unnecessary wars. That doesn't mean alliances are't formed with lesser Lords or among the lesser Lords. In fact it happens all the time as a form of protection.

Toby paused at the thought of lesser Lords. There were nearly a hundred lesser Lords in the realms, most young and new. While he couldn't go up to just any Lord and ask for help there is one he might be able to. He's known her for a while now, even being considered an honorary member of her house. And even if she said no he knows there are two who will back him for a rescue attempt.

Toby wiped his teary eyes one last time before standing up and running back to the portal. The bag of supplies is still on his back as he's sure he'll need them later. He ran back to the portal as fast as he could, thank whatever is in the universe he was born with the inability to feel pain as his legs were sure to be screaming in pain if he could feel them. He arrived at the portal, stopping before entering. If one knew where they wanted to go, like to another Lord's land, and if they had the right code they could use almost any public portal to transport themselves there.

Entering the code is difficult, and for good reason. To keep unwanted guests out. So they are usually very long and difficult to remember. To enter a code one has to take the four dimensional cube, also known as a tesseract, out of the compartment on top of the portal and touch each side in a very specific order. It's difficult for most Creepypastas and down right impossible for a human.

Toby entered the code and placed it back on top of the portal. It will allow a one time use for everyone to enter the custom destination for one minute. After the minute is up it will reset to the default destination. To make sure he wasn't followed Toby stayed by the portal for the full minute. Once he was satisfied that no one was following him he took off into the new forest.

Most Lords choose some form of forest or woods, though a few will choose something more specific to themselves. Slenderman chose a forest that was mostly flat with a few hills and a couple of cliffs and rivers. Warning Call, the Lord he was visiting, chose a forest higher in the hills, borderline mountains. Lots of rivers criss crossed through her lands, dropping off over the numerous cliffs. She chose a dangerous area to keep other beings out.

On the side of one of the mountain-like cliffs she had built her castle. It was larger than the mansion, but only had one way in or out. Five towers protruded from the castle main, though only two were on the corners. A massive wall surrounded the place for protection. When she built the place she did so with safety as her number one. But don't let that deceive you, it is still very dangerous, for a human that is.

Toby ran across the bridge to the front of the large magnificent double door. He began banging on one, desperate for someone to hear. He only stopped when the other door swung open, revealing the surprised face of Crosshair. Crosshair was a little taller then Toby with gray eyes, the left one having a crosshair on it that gave him scope like vision in that one eye.

"Toby? What are you doing here? It's not Saturday." The other hermaphrodite asked, confused at the smallers appearance.
It was then that he noticed the burnests tear streaked face. His own face softened in concern. "Taby, are you okay sweetie?"

"Crosshair." Toby started, a sob making him puse for a moment. "I-I need y-y-you to get Warning Call f-for me. I-it's im-im-important-t."

"Shit, it must be. Come on in, you know where the sitting room is. Game Master is in there." Crosshair said softly, gently pushing Toby in the direction of the sitting room before going up the stairs.

Toby walked down the hall to the large room. It was sophisticatedly decorated, like it belonged to a Victorian aristocrat with a hint of modernism. The color scheme is a combination of cream, beighs, and white. Three others of the house were already in there besides Game Master. Target Locked, Dr. Painkiller, and Candy Pop (not the blue haired one, I came up with this one years before I knew of the other one's existence. Now I use it as a personal joke.)

Target Locked was a taller muscular burnet, who is married to Crosshair. His job is similar to that of a proxy. He'll stalk humans and can track them no matter the conditions. He works side by side with Crosshair who takes out targets from impressive distances. Their main jobs are to locate, stalk, gather information, and relay that information to Warning Call who will then decide if she wants them dead. His outfit was a normal everyday outfit of a shirt, hoodie, jeans, and boots that is accented by his shoulder bag.

Dr. Painkiller is a young, petite blond lady. Like Toby, she has half her mouth missing, though it's on her right side as opposed to Toby's who has his on the left. It's kept hidden behind her surgical mask, though its outline is visible by the blood. It's a wound that will never heal and is in constant pain. She has black eyes that have red lines going from the pupil to the edge of the iris. When she cries blood tears fall from her eyes. Her main job is to play doctor for the House, though she does her fair share of killing to obtain hearts to eat. She wears a modified pure white 1960 style nurse uniform, though she is still a doctor, that always has at least three needles in the breast pocket.

Candy Pop is the eldest member of the house, even older than Lord Warning Call. She is a clown with pink and blue hair kept up in twin pigtails, pink on one side and blue on the other. Her outfit is very complicated. She wore a bubblegum pink vest and a tie over a cotton candy blue button up shirt. Lemon yellow gloves with loose tool on the base covers her hands. She had a lime green skirt with lemon yell ruffles under it that stopped at her knees. She wore tights with all four colors under her skirt and to finish it off she had multicolored boots. Her face was white with makeup, the only color being her pink and blue lips and the complex design of colors around her eyes.

She doesn't have a specific job in the House as she is considered to be a Chained Rouge, a Rouge who belongs to a House. She does her own thing whenever she feels like it. Almost like Jeff. She does, however, have the highest weekly kill count of anyone in the House. She also contributes the most in cooking out of everyone in the House.

"Oh my!" Dr. Painkiller exclaimed upon seeing the state Toby was in.

"Toby, darling, what happened to you?" Candy Pop inquired, British accent lighter right now. She stood up to walk over to the trembling form of Toby. Being the second tallest in the house, she had to bend over slightly to look at him better. "You look like you've been through Hell. You smell like it too."

"The m-ma-mansion was b-burned d-down. M-my House, m-my whole f-f-family w-were taken p-p-prisoner." Toby stammered out, fresh tears falling down his cheeks. He looked up at Cady Pop's unnatural blue eyes, heartbreak clear on his face.

"By whom?" A steady, mature femimin voice said behind him. Toby turned around to see the tall form of Warning Call behind him, flanked by her two proxies and Crosshair. She is the tallest in the house, wears a modern female suit and tie outfit, jet black hair held up in a bun, and is human in appearance. The only give away are her fire red eyes that seemed to pierce through everything. "Come sit down and tell me who took your House?"

"It was Lord Zalgo." Toby choked out, sitting down on the long sofa. "HIs pastas have been harassing us for weeks now, wearing us down. They finally attacked today while I was out gathering supplies. They took the whole House, my Lord and his brothers, and burned the place down."

"Fuckin' Zalgo!" Candy Pop spat in disgust. Warning had tensted at his name. "That wanker is always pickin' on those around him!"

"Uhg, I hate that stupid demon." Game Master stated as she walked into the room. Game Master, aka Lilly, is a nineteen year old blond haired blue eyed woman. She, like Crosshair and Target Locked, was similar to a proxy, but she picked and choosed when she played the part. She wore a blue tank top with a white skirt and blue and white tennis shoes. She wore tennis shoes every day of the week except Thursdays, when she wears her flip flops. "He's always causing a mess at my games. His pastas are ruder than an ill tempered honey badger. He never pays for anything, need I go on? And now this!?!"

"I wasn't aware you were in the area." Warning Call commented as she looked at one of her youngest pastas.

"I wasn't, but Lil was." Lilly said pointing to a mirror where a hooded look a like of herself stood. "She filled me in."

"Well, Toby." Warning call said to the young proxy, getting everyone's attention back to the task. "You know you are more than welcome to stay here. I will gladly accept you into the house."

"I-I'm not here f-for that." Toby said, looking the young Lord in the eye. "I d-don't w-want to ch-change Houses, not t-th-that there is anything w-wrong with yours."

"Then why are you here?" Warning Call asked, already getting a clue as to why he was herer. Her face didn't change from a calm natural expression.

"I want to rescue my family." Toby said determinedly, not stuttering once through the sentence. Warning Call's expression of calm turned to that of shock, matching those around her. Save for Lilly and Candy Pop, who faces suggested they expected their friend to say something like that. "Th-that's why I-I'm h-here. I w-w-want to r-r-r-rescue them, b-but I need help. I-I need y-your help to r-r-rescue them f-f-from Lord Zalgo."

Warning Call's face had morphed back to that of calm. Around her her pastas waited for her answer. The last two to show up were quietly being informed of the situation. Warning Call sat back, thinking as she looked at the small proxy of another Lord. What he was asking, on his own accord, was both big and dangerous. Before she had a chance to speak up both Lilly and Candy Pop spoke up.

"I'll go with you." They said at the same time in perfect unison.

"We won't leave our best friend hanging like that." Lilly chuckled, smiling wide in giddiness.

"I'd like to give that red demon a taste of his own medicine." Candy Pop added on, accent thickening up a bit.

"Thanks, guys, but I don't think this will work with just the three of us." Toby smiled appreciatively at both before turning back to the Lord. "I need the entire House Fairuza and the Lord if I want to have any hope of rescuing my family."

"Toby, do you understand what you are asking of me? Of us." Warning Call questioned him as she pointed around the room filled with Creepypastas. She sighed, face turning slightly solemn. "First you are asking for a House of seven, ten if you include the animals, to attack and infiltrate a House of over thirty powerful pastas. Not only that, but if we do this we will forever be the enemies of Lord Zalgo. We will be putting ourselves in his crosshairs, so to speak.

"That is extremely dangerous for even a Power Lord. Not to mention that your Lord might not even agree to an alliance after the rescue, leaving us vulnerable. This is bigger than a big favor you are asking of me. This will change the fate of my House forever." She finished explaining to Toby, whose tears had started up again.

"I-I know it's a-a-a l-lot to ask, b-but I c-can't do th-th-this alone." Toby sobbed, stuttering getting worse. He looked at the Lord with large, pleading eyes. "I-I n-need to a-a-ask you f-for th-this favor. I-I need y-your h-h-help."

"Even if you won't agree, Warning, CP and I are going." Lilly told her Lord, voice firm, as she slung an arm around her friend.

"My Lord." Heartbreaker, a strawberry blond proxy spoke up to get her Lord's attention. Warning Call turned to face her news proxy. "If word gets out that one Power Lord was able to defeat another and kill them, 'cause lets face it, they will kill the whole House, then this will cause a massive shift in the alliances and power struggles of every house in the Underrealm. And who's to say that the Lord will stop after just this."

Warning Call grew quiet again, thinking. She was trying to weigh the pros and cons of the situation. The potential risks and rewards of starting a fight with a Lord that doesn't even know she exists. It was an incredible amount to consider. This decision would mean life or death both now and in the future. She looked at Toby's watery Brown eyes and sighed.

"Alright, we'll help rescue your House." Warning Call said, giving in. "Just please tell me you have a plan other than charging in head first."

Toby looked at her, tears drying gradually. He nodded his head to answer her question, looking at both Lilly and Candy Pop. A terrible idea formed in his head. One so bad it just might work.