Two months had passed since "Team Crafted" had decided their name and found their home. The four of them had spent a whole week fixing up the inside of what turned out to be a rather large cave. The entrance was concealed behind a curtain of lichen.

  Inside was quite roomy, branching off into several rooms used for various purposes such as cooking, forging, and bedrooms. The main cave led into an entire cave system, a network of tunnels and ravines and even a mineshaft. Deadlox had spent three full days mapping the entire thing out, returning with an arrow in his thigh and a satisfied grin. It turned out that there was an underground river that would provide them with fresh water.

  Above the cave, in a small clearing surrounded by thick woods, was Sky's garden. It provided them with fresh food, but it also gave Sky a calming feeling. Deadlox would often see him slip out, unnoticed by the other two. Once, he secretly followed him to discover him kneeling in the dirt and planting beans, humming a soft tune. Deadlox suspected that he liked the thought of helping it thrive and live.

  Best of all, there wasn't a town or ocean for miles.

  For the first time in his life, Deadlox felt a sense of security. He trusted these people with his life, even after knowing them for such a short time. Trust had never come easily to him, a result of a lonely life as an assassin. Now, it was a shock to see how far he had come. He had friends now, best friends—a team.

  Two months had passed without hostile encounters with rival parties—besides mobs, of course—and Deadlox felt comfortable with the peace and quiet.

  That is, until their hidden base became not so hidden.

-

  Sky let out a yawn, pushing aside the lichen to open the iron door guarding the entrance to his home. He flung his sword onto a table, giving an exhausted sigh.

  "Oh, crap."

  He was instantly on alert, hearing an unfamiliar voice in the kitchen.

  Another voice cursed. "There's someone here. Check for windows."

  "This is a cave, moron, there aren't any windows!" replied the first voice.

  They have a point, Sky thought, approaching the kitchen cave and throwing the door open. The two people in the kitchen, although the same age as Sky, shrieked with surprise. One wore glasses and a checkered shirt. The other had a monobrow and wore green and white with khakis.

  "Don't hurt me!" wailed Monobrow.

  "Stay back!" yelled Glasses, throwing potatoes at Sky. "I'm armed!"

  Sky covered his face with his hand, trying to avoid the flying potatoes. "Hey! You shouldn't be in here! This is breaking and entering!"

  "I thought nobody was home!" sobbed Monobrow.

  "We needed food!" Glasses continued to pelt Sky with food items, having run out of potatoes and moved on to throwing utensils, which were a bit more dangerous. Sky dodged a flying fork, silently grateful that Glasses had awful aim. 

   He suddenly lunged forward, swinging his sword and slicing the spoon that Glasses held in two. The boy blinked for a moment, then shrieked and hid behind his friend.

  "W-we didn't mean any harm!" he stammered. "W-we thought this p-place was abandoned."

  "It's not," Sky informed him sharply, keeping his sword pointed towards the duo. "Who are you?"

  Relief slowly crept onto both of their faces as they realized he wasn't going to kill them immediately. Glasses stepped out from behind Monobrow and did a little mock-bow. "The name is Tyler."
  
  Monobrow slapped him on the back of the head. "Steve at your service."

  "Steve and Tyler," Sky muttered. "Okaaay."

  "I'm not actually at your service," Steve informed him. "I don't do work very well."

  "I don't care. How did you find this place?" Sky questioned. "It's hidden and miles off the road."

  Steve shrugged. "I dunno, man. We were just walking in the woods, definitely not lost, y'know, at all, and we found your place." He studied Sky closely. "You look a lot like the guy on the poster."

  "What poster?"

  "The ones that have been everywhere?" Tyler scoffed, pulling a wad of paper from a—

  Sky couldn't help but snicker. "You have a purse."

  Tyler's cheeks grew red. "It's a satchel!"

  Steve snatched the paper from his friend and spread it out. Despite the creases and folds from being wadded up, he could clearly see his own face, along with Deadlox. Above them stretched a bold word that read 'WANTED.' A paragraph at the bottom of the poster probably had more information, but Sky, his mouth open in shock, was focusing on one thing.

  "How do they have our pictures?" he shrieked. "That's so creepy!"

  Steve's eyes widened. "Wait, so it is you?"

  Sky hesitated, then nodded. There was no point in keeping it secret, since he had said 'our.'

  "We did it!" shouted Tyler, giving Steve a high-five. He turned to Sky. "Sorry, but we're going to have to kidnap you."

  "I'm sorry?"

  "For the reward. We're bounty hunters. The best around."

  Sky raised his sword defensively. Steve and Tyler both drew chipped wooden swords, swinging them at Sky in a very clumsy way. Sky easily sliced through both of the frail weapons. They watched with wide eyes as the tops of the swords clattered to the floor.

  "Maaaaybe 'the best around' is a bit of an understatement," Steve said sheepishly after a moment's silence. 

  "I just want one capture!" Tyler threw his broken sword onto the floor. "Is that too much to ask?! Just one so Seth will stop calling us failures!"

  Sky didn't even bother to ask who Seth was. "Sorry. I don't exactly want to meet Jason again."

  They both stared as if he'd grown another head. "Who's Jason?"

  Surprise hit him like a rock, and he opened his mouth to reply when he heard the creak of the main door as it opened. He cursed under his breath and shoved the two boys. "Quick, hide-"

  "Sky?" Deadlox's sharp voice sounded. "Who are you talking to? No one else is here." The kitchen door opened to reveal the demon. His eyes widened at the sight of the two strangers and Sky and he instantly tore off his wristbands. Wings and a tail sprouted from his body as he lunged forward, throwing himself in front of Sky and seizing the collars of Steve and Tyler's shirts in razor-sharp talons. He glared at them with a blazing fury. Sky shrank back, not denying that he was, indeed, afraid of his friend.

  "Who are you and what are you doing here?" he nearly roared.

  The two boys stopped shrieking, which was something they had started doing the moment that Deadlox had removed the wristbands.

  "I think I just peed myself," Steve whispered.

  "We didn't mean to come in! We were just talking!" Tyler was talking fast. "I'm sorry! We're sorry! Don't eat me please!"

  Deadlox looked disgusted. He glanced back at Sky. "Did they hurt you?"

  Surprised by the amount of worry in the demon's voice, Sky shook his head. "They're harmless."

  "Hey! That's a lie!" Steve instantly shot back. "Look at these guns!" He flexed his arm.

  Sky raised an eyebrow and Tyler rolled his eyes. "What guns?"

  Deadlox glared at them a moment longer, then dropped them on the floor. He picked his wristbands up off of the floor, his gaze flicking between Sky and the two boys.

  "So if you're not working for Jason, who wants us? And why are they offering a reward for our capture?" Sky continued questioning the two.

  "Well, not really capture. Return is a better word." Tyler dug another piece of paper from his bag. Another poster. This one had a picture/drawing of them all and there was indeed a reward, but the one offering it was certainly not Jason.

  Deadlox studied it. "Didn't Mitch say he had a friend named Jerome? I think it's the same one offering the reward if we're found."

  Sky let out a sigh of relief. "It's not Jason. He's looking for us, has posters. But he hasn't found us."

  The whole room seemed to relax, falling into silence.

  Steve shattered the quiet. "Hey, um, dude, do you have any spare pants? I was serious when I said I peed."
 
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Wow. I feel like a piece of crap for not updating. I apologize!

And I finally figured out how to sneak Steve and Tyler into the story; tell me if you get the video references (you will if you watch[ed] mlgHWNT).