This chapter is unedited, and in my defense, it's 11:26pm.

Point out the mistake to me y'all, I don't mind.

~~~~~~~~~~

The ride to their hometown was filled with music, advertisements and news from the radio, bathroom breaks and occasionally very random conversations.

You know? The norm for a six hour long road trip.

Soon the spruce sign made of trapdoors came into the view, with logs keeping it up, quartz lettering on the it, spelling out, 'Welcome to Hermitville! Prepare for your plans to flip underside down and get set on fire! 'Cause this town is chaos.' with the town off in the distance.

Keralis grinned up excitedly and turned towards Bdubs, who was driving the car. His excitement dimmed as he noticed the worry growing in Bdubs's stance and expression.

Ass soon as Keralis got his bags and head to the car, Bdubs immediately turned into the Recap station, though it was near the end off a news report.

Even though Keralis would prefer to listen to another station, he didn't told Bubbles that. The man seemed to be looking for something on the station, maybe a news report on the latest events?

He glanced back to the road, the mix-mashed town getting closer.

It has been a fair while since they last been home, however dad always made sure to inform them about the events or spend links of articles written by the locals.

Although, their father was quite the busy man, being the mayor and all that came with challenges. However, he foreseen it happening and told them not to worry about it and just to be prepared for everything to be completely different since last they've been there.

So, unless Bubbles heard something really serious that happened while listening to Recap, which is, the most likely, he shouldn't be at all worry.

The car slowed down once it got nearer to the gates, a both in the middle with two guards standing beside it.

One of them walked over towards the driver's seat and knocked on the window. Bubbles lowered the window all the way down.

The guard wore any other uniform an officer has been seen wearing, their blonde hair was tied up and a face mask covering their mouth. Blue eyes staring at Bubbles's near to black browns.

Though, the most noticeable feature was their white wings covered by feathers.

"Reason for visit?" They asked blankly, giving off the impression that they had said it multiple times before.

"Poul Poul, you know us. You used to babysit Bubbles in your teens!" Keralis mentioned, causing Bubbles to turn and glare at him. "You were babysat as well," He pointed out angrily. "Yeah, but dad always told Poul Poul to focus more on you!" Keralis counter backed.

"Listen you two, calm down," Poul Poul ordered, raising his voice only by a little.

"Sorry Sir." "I'm sorry, Poul Poul!" Both brothers apologized to which Poul Poul rolled their eyes at them.

"It's alright, Bdubs, you're a naturally loud person. However..." They glance towards Keralis with scolding eyes. "Keralis, I thought I told you to not call me 'Poul Poul'."

Keralis giggled at that. Bdubs waved a hand at them with a bored expression. "Don't bother, once you're nicknamified by Keralis, you'll forever be that nickname to Keralis."

They rolled their eyes and backed up, their arms crossed and joy in their eyes. They glanced at them with a grin.

"You may go in, boys. But be do careful."

"This town is like a closed knitted family!" Bubbles yelled out, dismissing the warning. "No one would hurt us." He drove off before Poul Poul could speak up.

They coughed out as smokes over their face. They waved in front of their face and shut their eyes.

They opened their eyes and found the car driving away.

"Everything good, Paul?"

He turned around and found his partner behind him.

She was a bit different from other guards they worked with. She dyed her hair grey with yellow highlights. Hazel brown eyes and orange eyeshadow underneath them, black lipstick as obvious as daylight.

They sighed out and nodded their head.

"Yeah Priscilla, I'm just worried them."

"So, Keralis? Where do we stop at first?" Bdubs asked, riskily looking around the town.

Not much have, really changed in his opinion. Everything about the same with some new sprinkled in.

"How about we go home first to unpack? And if dad's free than catch up!" Keralis answered. Bdubs nodded his head at him. "Yeah, I can agree with that."

He clicked onto the control panels in between the driver and passenger seats. It glowed and Bdubs pressed his hand down, the machine scanned his hand and the inside of the car turned green.

Holographic screens formed around Bdubs and not in front of his face. He pressed onto the one off to the right and clicked on it. Three symbols appeared, not directly in front of his face but still there.

Off to his left was a water drop in a circle, colored blue. Off to his right, was a simplified wind blowing drawing in a circle colored faded light blue. Near his chest was a simplified mountain colored brown, in a circle as well.

He clicked onto the wind blowing one and a female robotic voice announced.

'Flight mode, activated. Do you wish to inform other drivers nearby?'

"Yes, Stacy please."

'Informing other drivers...'

"Thank you, Stacy!" Keralis yelled out gently, still staring out the windows.

Two girls holding hands walked passed the car, chatting happily with each other. Their face was red and their smiles were wide.

"Flight mode has been selected, if you can hear this, please leave as fast as possible."

The shorter female, a brunette wearing orange dress with white stripes on her sleeves and a white ribbon tied around her waist, picked up the other woman and ran as fast as possible.

Detecting neither people nor vehicles around, the car wheels turned to face down and started floating, using magnetic force, the wheel stub over up and fire shot up, pushing the car upwards.

Bdubs double tap onto the control panel and clicked onto the upper top corner button. A blue screen flickered to life next to the control panel. He reached his arm back and pressed onto it then dragged it up to the middle.

The car flew up and Bdubs steer it to Xisuma's base. Keralis opened his window and popped his head out, staring at the town from above with a gentle smile.

"Recent news just came in about the meteorite accident."

Keralis turned back in and stared at the radio in shock, his hair messed up due to the wind, yet his hat remained on his head somehow.

"What meteorite accident?" He asked out confused and concerned, shifting in his seat. Bdubs sighed and leaned forward slightly, his grip on the steering wheel tightened.

"I heard from the station that this weekend a meteorite fell and smashed the Head Games area on the opening day."

Keralis widened his eyes at the news and his mouth gaped open.

"News from the local hospital has informed us that all the victims have miraculously healed."

"However..."

Bdubs froze then begin to panic internally and Keralis frowned.

"Cleo, Xelqua and Zedaph has been discovered to have strange, alienated coding in their files. They are currently locked up with our mayor so he can study the alienated coding closer."

Bdubs and Keralis turned towards each other, the garage door opened up and Bdubs steered into it. Once Stacy detected the ground, she deactivated flight mood and turned back to a normal car.

"Thank you Stacy," Both men thanked the robot assistant, listening intensely to the radio.

'Would you like me to inform your father of your arrivals?'

"That's really nice of you, Stacy but there's no need, the other security system robot guy already informed him," Bdubs answered, keeping his eyes on the radio.

'Alright, have a lovely day.'

"You too, Stacy!" Keralis cried back to the robot.

The car turned off and so did the radio, Bdubs groaned and smacked his head against the steering wheel. Keralis patted his back in attempt to comfort him.

"Welp..." Bdubs sat back up and unbuckled his seatbelt. Keralis leaned back to the passenger seat and stared at him. He opened the door and got up, Keralis followed, unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of the car.

He glanced at the back of the car to find its trunk opened and Bdubs presumably getting his own backpack and bags.

Keralis froze up at the sound of the door slamming. He saw the trunk raised up abruptly, followed by Bdubs screamed out.

He hesitantly turned around and stared at a woman wearing a white collar shirt and pulled up sleeves, black suit jacket and black dress pants. Long brunette hair flowing past her shoulder. A pair of glasses rest on her face, she held a bow in her hands, an arrow already loaded.

She turned and met Keralis's big, beamy eyes and aimed the weapon at him. Said man screamed out loud and raised his arms up.

"What's going on?" Bdubs screamed out. A hand went up and lowered the car trunk, his head popping up above it. He widened his eyes at the scene in front of his eyes.

She turned to stare at him intensely, tapped her feet against the ground and something fell from her pants. She pushed it with her feet and stomped on it hard, she catch the weapon with her mouth and aimed the shot gun the him.

Footsteps echoed out the hallway and an albino person came in. Their hair was tied up in a messy ponytail, they wore square glasses. Red, long sleeve button up shirt, black velvet vest covering it and brown jeans.

"Adri, stop! They're my nephews!" The man screamed. The Adri person sighed out somehow, they put the bow away and took the gun out of them mouth and shoved it in their pocket. "If you say so, Mr. Void."

She turned towards the two Void members and apologized to them. She turned to face the man with a raised brow. "Would you like me to inform your brother, Mr. Void?"

He nodded his head at the woman and she walked away from the others and headed her way.

The albino man chuckled and turned towards them with an awkward grin, though his eyes screams for sleep stressfully. "I'm sorry about her, she's a new intern and was hired in stressful circumstances, didn't hit the chance to tell her about you guys."

"It's okay, uncle," Bdubs assured, letting go of the trunk and going back to grabbing his bags. "I'm sure you couldn't have predicted this happening."

"Uncle kazoooo!" Keralis yelled out. He ran towards the man hugged him tightly. "I missed youuuuuuuu..."

'Kazoo' rolled his eyes at Keralis and returned the hug. "I thought I told you to stop calling me that, it was one time."

"Oh, shush," Bdubs interrupted, closing the car trunk and glancing up at them. "It's not Keralis's fault that you shallowed an entire kazoo whole."

"It was an accident."

Bdubs rolled his eyes at 'Kazoo'. He turned towards Keralis.

"Hey! Keralis!" Said man turned around and stared at him. "Hmm?"

"Catch!" He yeeted Keralis's bags at him and the wide-eye man screamed out as bags attacked him and threw him to the ground. 'Kazoo' just stood there and stared at him with a slightly tired but amused grin.

"Soon uh..." Bdubs trailed off and turned to stare at 'Kazoo'. "Me and Keralis are just gonna head back to our room and—"

"Uhh, actually..." 'Kazoo' interrupted, bringing a hand up to signal Bdubs to stop talking. "We renovated your rooms for Cleo and Zedaph to stay as they are under lockdown because of a strange new coding found in them.

So we decided to keep them as close as possible in order to find out what the alienated coding is. I hope you two don't mind."

Bdubs stare at his uncle with his expression showing how surprise he is at the news.

He knew from the radio that Cleo, Zedaph and Grian were in lockdown, though he thought that they would be in the guest rooms, not his and Keralis's own personal room.

"It's fine, Kazoo!" Keralis cried, who just successfully unburied himself from underneath his bags. "But what about Brian?"

'Kazoo' turned towards him a raised brow, clearly confused by his question.

Silence quickly filled the room and both Bdubs and Keralis grew worry for their uncle. Bdubs scrolled over towards the other two and Keralis got up from his bags and ground.

Bdubs frowned once he was in front of his albino uncle remained silent, with a very confused look in his eyes.

"Uncle?"

He didn't seemed to acknowledge him.

Bdubs took in a deep breath, slight fear entering his system as he spoke next.

"Ex?"

Keralis turned to stare at Bdubs with narrowed eyes. "Who's Ex?" He asked with clear confusion in his voice. Bdubs sighed out and answered tiredly, "Kazoo."

"Oh."

Silence filled shortly.

Bdubs sighed once again and turned to stare at Ex, then waved in front of his face.

"Hey? Uncle, you're there? Hellooooooooo?"

Ex slapped Bdubs's arm, to which he responded by letting out the loudest 'OW' he screamed out yet. He flapped his arm Ex slapped and glared at him.

"Shut up sleep addict, I'm trying to think who is this... Brian..."

Bdubs stared at him with a dumbfounded expression, holding his 'injured' arm close to his chest. "Grian..." He spoke, his voice showing how shock he was from that.

"Oh right, that guy."

Ex turned towards them and explained casually, "Well since he's a robot, he has different needs compared to living, breathing beings. He's still locked in this building with us, he's just not staying in a bedroom."

He glanced up at them and raised a brow at their confused faces.

"What?"

"Brian's a robot?" Keralis cried out, his eyes going widened and his mouth dropping opened. "Since when did that happened?" Bdubs screamed out, his pupils dialing back to basic dots.

Ex stared at the two with a stunned expression. He sighed out and turned around, his back facing them.

"To save time, I'm gonna explain what happened while leading you to Xisuma, I'll give you three seconds."

Keralis yelped out and began picking up his bags, Bdubs laughing at him.

True to his words, after three seconds, Ex started to head out of the room. Bdubs and Keralis followed after him quickly, knowing how fast he can walk, with Keralis the furtherest behind.

"You remember that game Grian made up when he was a hippie?" Ex started off with a question.

Bdubs and Keralis glanced back at each other.

"Yuppie." "Wasn't it cancelled?"

Ex turned around to give Bdubs a look on his question, he turned back to stare forwards, he turned and began walking down the stairs, forcing Keralis and Bdubs to carry their bags downstairs.

"Yes, it was cancelled, Bdubs."

Keralis raised a brow at him. "Why was it cancelled?" He asked, struggling to bring his bags with him.

Ex took in a deep breath and shut his eyes as he start to explain, "Cub set up a trap at the Dragon Bros headquarters, aka Grian's basement." "In his defense, his basement look amazing," Bdubs added in, thinking back to seeing pictures of the headquarters Grian sent him.

He wished he could've seen it in person, however shortly after he was Dragon Bro'ed, they had to head back to their very creatively named college. So sadly, he didn't got the chance to see it, but he could now.

"Well apparently the respawn system was glitched and it somehow went past Xisuma and I's radar." Bdubs and Keralis stopped in their tracks for a second before continuing downstairs. A feeling of dread in their chest, and they prayed for it to not be what they think it would be. "With the game going on, no one discovered it until then..."

Ex jumped off on the second to last step then ventured towards down left. Bdubs, now holding two of Keralis's bags, and Keralis fastening their walking pace to catch up with him.

"The death message was different and everyone immediately knew something was up."

He thought back to the message, the letters blond and white with black shadows.

It was very common to see those messages back then, before people managed to find out how to turn off hardcore. Of course, people eventually die out of old age.

Hermitville was one of the many towns that turned off hardcore, so he has never one personally before. And seeing one of someone he knew... was horrifying, to say the least.

"I..." He paused and halted in his steps, he took in a deep breath. "...didn't believe it..." He stared at the ground with fear in his eyes.

"Xisuma immediately rushed towards the location and informed the paramedics. He dragged me along and I only snapped out of the trace once I heard the sirens blaring..." He continues to explain while standing. The two Void behind him stared at him with a concerned frown.

Ex let out a long sigh before continuing the explanation. "I didn't saw what was left of Grian, but from what I gathered, he barely even looked human anymore."

Silence quickly filled the room and he glanced down to stare at the ground.

"Uhh..." Bdubs glanced around awkwardly. He glanced back to him. "Are you alright?"

He sighed out and nodded his head. He continued to walk down the hallway. "Cub, Iskall and Doc designed his new body and Mumbo helped out so he can make sure it will be comfortable for Grian."

He stopped at the door and turned around to gesture for them to enter the door behind him.

"I'll be checking on every patients's coding, message me if you need me," Ex called out and headed off, not waiting to hear their replies.

Once Ex reached the stairs, he heard Xisuma yelped out. He grinned at that and walked down the spiral stairs. He let his mind slipped away as he goes through the very familiar routine.

Up five floors— Ex yelped out and stumbled forwards, he glanced up and found himself in where the Bdubs's car is parked in.

Oh yeah, he started off in the 'business' floor. H- he should've really just went down a floor instead of going up three floors.

Welp, it's too late now.

He turned around and head down, falling into the a familiar pattern. Welp, not exactly that familiar, but this time he knew where to stop off.

Down four floors, turn to the left— wait no, right. Yes, right–. Nope, no, wrong direction. Check on other two first then check on Grian.

But it's too late, as once he turned around, he heard the door creak opened behind him.

"Uhh, Exton?"

He inhaled a deep breath and exhaled, he turned around and gave Grian a nervous grin.

Grey metal body stood there, blue light glowing and acting as accents. Black hair that resembles his old golden locks. His face a black screen, bluehighlights that makes out his face.

A glass circle in his chest on where his ribs should be, a faded light blue beings floating around, looking like it was connecting with the inner system. Grey framing around the glass.

He wore a dark blue sweater with black jeans to better fit his new appearance.

"Hey Grian, how is everything going?" He asked, giving him a nervous grin. Said man returned him a grin. "You asked me earlier, and the answer is still the same."

Ex chuckled and glanced behind him. "Well, how exactly are you?" He asked with some nervousness. Grian raised a brow at him and glanced back to the room given to him, he turned back to stare at Ex.

"If you're talking about after the meteorite accident, I'm been feeling better," He answered simply and gave Ex a grin. He piped up at this and stared at Ex in shock with widened eyes.

"Stay still," He ordered and grabbed onto Grian's shoulder and pulled him closer. He raised his arms and pressed onto his watch, clicking onto an app and started to scan him.

Then, Grian pushed him off. Ex yelped out and stumbled back, staring up at him in shock. Grian gave him a grin and backed into his room, gripping tightly onto the doorknob.

"I'm not... exactly the most comfortable with scanning right now," He spoke nervously and grinned at Ex. Ex backed up and frowned at him. "I- I'm sorry." He apologized and rubbed his neck awkwardly. He glanced at the ground and grinned nervously to himself. "I- I should've asked first..."

He backed up and felt guilt washing over him. "It's alright," Grian reassured and gave Ex a nervous grin. He waved at him and backed closer into his room. "See ya, Exton." He shut the door and Ex sighed out.

He turned around and walked towards the others's room. As he knocked onto Cleo's room, a thought hit him.

Since when did Grian called him by his full name? Xisuma always scanned Grian's coding without consent before, why was he only bothered now?

However, he couldn't continue to ponder on those thoughts as Cleo opened up the door.

And he met her green, cyan eyes.