Laff stood over Dino. Yes, he knew it was creepy to watch someone in their sleep, but Laff had his reasons. He continued to stare at Dino's green scaled face.

Suddenly, Dino's eyes snapped open and he shot upward, hyperventilating. His tail— which had been laying peacefully on the ground— flicked upward, smacking Laff's arm.

"Aye! Watch it, mate!" Laff yelled.

Dino's head snapped around to see Laff standing less than a foot away, and he immediately started to crawl backward in a panicked manner.

"Get away from me," he hissed.

Laff squinted, thinking. 'He's scared of me... Should I be scared of him? If not, why am I?'

Dino paused, staring into Laff's eyes. The gasman stared back, his gaze slightly clouded.

"Meme!" Laff suddenly shouted. "He's awake!"

Dino's eyes widened. "No no no, shut up!"

Lunging forward, Dino grabbed at Laff, trying to cover his mouth— which was stupid, since he was wearing a gasmask. Laff kicked him in the stomach, causing the furry to falter onto his back with an 'Oof!'. Quickly recovering, Dino scrambled up to run. He only made it a few steps before metal hands closed around his neck in a tough but gentle way.

Dino gasped in a breath, probably expecting Laff to tighten his grip, but Laff just held him, the furry's clawed feat hanging a few inches off the ground. Once realizing this, Dino started struggling, grabbing angrily at Laff's hands and kickinv behind himself.

This, however, only did damage to Dino, as his talons banged into hard metal plates, leaving nothing but nearly invisible scratches.

"Meme! Please, come quick!" Laff yelled, panicked by this fact.

'How 'm I in control? How long 'til I'm not? What happens when I'm not!?'

"Alright, alright, I'm here," Meme said, coming out from behind a tree. At the sight of the iron gasman, he froze. "Shit," he whispered. Laff was only just able to hear it.

Blaza now appeared behind Meme, too. However, instead of stopping, he dashed over, tugging Dino out of Laff's hands. Laff let go easily, as he wasn't entirely sure what to do with the furry-saur, and his vision was starting to become blurry.

"Okay, sit down, sit down," Meme said, tugging Laff to the floor. His voice echoed in and out of focus as Laff watched Blaza snatch a vine from overhead and tie Dino to a tree. Then, the gasman passed out into complete darkness.

Not the black of Nowhere. Just complete and total dark. And Laff?

He just disappeared.

|—o–O–o—|

Awakened by pain, Laff screamed as his arm suddenly seared with agony. His eyes snapped open, and he found himself standing in a clearing, with Blaza guarding Dino's tree, Meme staring, and Woolf leaning against Muffin with a defensive look in his eye, Muffin holding a strange looking pickaxe, ready to fight the one who'd killed him.

The sharp edge of a sword suddenly snapped up to Laff's neck as an arm grabbed his chest, pulling the gasman against his attacker and rendering him defenseless.

Laff let out a small yelp of alarm. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Laff whispered, shutting his eyes. He wasn't entirely sure what he was sorry for, other than the death of a certain furry and child.

"Oof, let go... I think he's fine now... maybe," Meme called from across the clearing. Laff opened his eyes just enough to see Woolf holding Muffin back as the child swung his pickaxe through the air, grimacing a bit as he stepped on his bad side.

"No! Kill him!" Muffin screamed angrily.

Oof relaxed his grip on Laff, but only slightly, and he kept the sword against Laff's neck.

'You should kill him,' L4FF echoed in the back of Laff's mind. He sounded irritated, though Laff didn't know why. 'Shut up,' Laff thought, earning a sickening chuckle from the robot.

Laff shivered, and his arm suddenly seared again. Slowly moving his head— as to not cut himself on Oof's blade— Laff looked downward. His black, long sleeve shirt had a cut near the elbow and blood was stained all around it. More was still dripping out, and Laff could feel it sliding down his skin on the inside of the shirt.

"Please, mate; let me go," Laff whispered to his dice-headed friend.

After a moment, the sword dropped away, and Oof let go, just as Laff had asked. Laff stumbled forward and then tripped. Socks— who must've been behind Laff, as the gasman hadn't seen him— grabbed Laff's arm and dragged him back onto his feet.

Laff looked into the spaceman's brown eyes before stuttering out in a confused tone, "W- what happened?"

Laff had a pretty good idea, but he wanted to be sure.

"You fainted, and then... He attacked," Blaza said, confirming Laff's suspicions. Dino made a scoffing noise at Blaza's words— almost a laugh— and though he didn't turn to look at the lizard, Blaza's eyes saddened.

Woolf, however, did turn a glare on Dino, who he'd once been great friends with. "Shut your shit mouth up... Furry," Woolf spat. He whispered the last word, and Dino— clearly hearing it— saddened as well.

The two of them had teased each other with the name for as long as Laff could remember. Dino and Woolf had known each other the longest out of all the friend group, meeting through a partnership on a job they'd both applied to. They'd become fast friends at the company, which was known by the name of 'Discord'.

Socks had one day decided to work there for a bit of extra cash, and met the two of them. They'd then all dropped out to make blogs of them messing around in the crazier parts of Minecraft, where blocks came to life and attacked you, or where villagers dressed in the same fuzzy blue sweater as Memegod— who'd also stitched a hood with silly googly eyes onto it.

It'd been fun, those old times. But ever since the death of Wiktoria, those times had become rare and short lived. The fun had been replaced with constant war and bickering, and then the terror of L4FF.

'The terror of you,' L4FF whispered. 'No. We are nothing alike. You are not me,' Laff thought, though now he questioned himself once again.

"I know where Nadwe went," Dino suddenly said.

Meme, who had been trying to tend to Laff's arm, snapped his gaze in the other direction to stare at the lizard. Everyone who wasn't already looking at him followed Memegod's movement.

"Tell me. Now. And for the record, murder is an option if you don't," Meme said.

Dino blinked, glanced at Woolf, and then sighed. "I shooed him off. He went in that direction, but that was a pretty long time ago," Dino grumbled, jerking his head to the right to indicate which way the child had gone.

"Then we go that way. Blaza, untie him. We're taking him with us," Meme said, tying the gauze he'd wrapped around Laff's arm— after letting a healing potion drip into the wound— to make sure it wouldn't come off. He stood, quickly moving to cut the vines that tied Dino to the tree.

"We're going now?" Oof asked. "Shouldn't we take some time to prepare for travel?"

"Yeah. You go get some supplies and food. Take Woolf and Muffin with you. Socks, you get Tbh—"

"I'll go with Woolf. I'm sure I could help," Dino said, cutting Meme off. The man glared and shook his head no as Socks ran to find the crab man.

"Uh, I have some bread with me," Laff spoke up.

Everyone in the area, other than Dino, made a disgusted face.

"Yeah, I don't think so, Laff," Woolf said.

Laff sighed. 'Guess we'll have to wait a few hours for them to get back,' he thought.

'Plenty of time for murder,' L4FF responded, even though Laff hadn't been talking— wait, no— thinking to him.

'Mate, please, just leaves me alone...' Laff pleaded quietly.

|—o–O–o—|

The group had gathered the supplies they needed, and the moon was just starting to rise into the blanket of stars overhead.

"Let's go," Meme said.

(/==^o^==\)

Joocie sighed as Patches tugged at his pant leg once more.

"Stop it already!" he yelled, annoyed with the cat.

Patches cowered, letting the fabric fall out of their mouth. Then they bounded away in the other direction. Joocie's eyes widened.

"Wait! Don't leave me! Patches, please! I'm sorry!" he cried, chasing after the cat's fuzzy tail.

Eventually, Patches came to a halt, tail sticking up in the air. Joocie ran up to the calico, picking it up and cuddling it close... and then he noticed where he was standing. Right in front of a white block in the ground.

Joocie knew that block. The block he'd crouched on before Dino had knocked him out.

'The exit...'

"Holy—" Joocie gasped. He held Patches out to look into the cat's eyes. "Th- thank you... I should've listened sooner."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

{CHAPTER NOTES}

Summary: Dino wakes up to find Laff staring at him. Laff calls for Meme. Dino panics, then, and attacks Laff. Laff begins to turn to L4FF, but holds control for longer than usual. Not forever, though. When he wakes up, everyone is kind of afraid, clearly having just been fighting with L4FF. Dino ends up blurting out that he knows where Nadwe went, so the gang starts getting ready to head off and look for him. Joocie finds his way out of the cavern after chasing Patches, who was trying to lead him there the entire time. (Word Count: 1501)

[NEW NOTE]: If you care for my school life as of right now, I'd say I'm doing pretty good. I've found this year that doing my best to try and stay caught up by doing things as soon as possible has helped a lot. Of course, everyone is different, so this might just be me. Try to keep your life balanced as best as possible, though. I have a lot of writing and drawing classes that have led me to procrastinate working on my own stories and animations, so it can get a little rough— not that I don't enjoy those classes! Just do your best, is all I'm saying. And also, just because I'm not online as much as I used to be doesn't mean I don't still appreciate support for my books. I know it's been a while, but I'm still really grateful. It's made me feel so much more confident in my skills and has me sharing my stories with other people I know.

(Old Note): Hey there! Been a while, hasn't it? Sorry for disappearing, but I've been so stressed with school lately, and it's been impossible to upload. However, we've hit 1K views, which is really big to me! TYSM guys! Chapter summary: Laff- Dino wakes up and tries to escape, which results in Laff turning into L4FF before passing out. When he wakes up, Laff thinks about the past and then Meme decides they're going on a road trip. Joocie- Joocie finds his way out of the cavern, due to the cat who knew it's way to the exit. Joocie is also left behind. (Word Count: 1494)