Luca stalked over to the UglyDolls, who looked a bit nervous. In fact, almost everyone in the area was alight with nervous energy, including Leroy. The green-eyed blond towered over a glue-covered Moxy, who took a few steps back as he approached.

“Do you have any idea what you almost did?” Luca asked in a dangerously quiet voice.

“I-I-”

“Do you?!” Luca cut Moxy off, a furious scowl on his face.

“Luca, buddy, come on,” Leroy spoke up, gingerly placing himself between the two as to not get any glue on his skin or clothes. “I’m sure they didn’t mean it. They’re new, after all.”

The older prototype understood Luca’s outburst, of course. Besides the Institute, looking perfect was truly the only thing the brothers had actual control over. They weren’t entirely fond of getting messy. 

Behind the fiery anger, Luca was downright terrified.

“Listen, we’re really sorry,” Moxy said softly, before laughing nervously. “But, don’t kids like to play rough and get messy?”

Luca’s eye twitched. How the hell would he know? His eyes narrowed into slits as he glared daggers into the misshapen sock puppets. The quintet flinched a bit.

“Wait a minute.” Moxy gasped, looking from Luca to Leroy with wide eyes. “This was one of the tests, wasn’t it?”

Leroy sighed. “Yes, it was. And-”

“And you passed!” Luca exclaimed brightly, covering Leroy’s mouth with his hand.

“Really?” Moxy asked incredulously.

“Really?” Leroy echoed, his voice a bit muffled.

“Yes, really,” Luca replied, turning to Leroy. He was smiling, but his eyes held a familiar gleam that Leroy recognized.

This wasn’t going to end well for Moxy and her friends.

Luca directed the same look to Lou, who nodded as he beckoned the UglyDolls to the stage.

“Luca’s right! Come on up here, and enjoy the Big World!” Lou exclaimed, moving part of the curtain to reveal what looked like the Big World portal.

As the UglyDolls ran up to the stage, cheering and whooping, Luca removed his hand from Leroy’s mouth. He gingerly stepped over the glue before running up to stand by Lou. Leroy slowly did the same, regret rushing over him in waves. He told the UglyDolls he’d help them, but he wasn’t stopping his brothers from going through with their impromptu humiliation plan.

As Leroy hopped up the stage stairs, Moxy turned to him.

“We just want to thank you guys,” she said. “We didn’t think we’d get this far.”

Leroy just nodded silently, before going to stand on Lou’s other side.

“Are you guys ready?” Moxy asked her friends. They all nodded, and the five of them entered the circular passageway…

...only for a glass door to close behind them. Muffled noises of confusion came from behind the glass as Lou addressed the crowd.

“This, students, is what happens to dolls who get messy,” he announced. Lou turned and pushed a button on the washer.

As the machine started up, the muffled noises of confusion turned into cries of pain and terror. Leroy winced. He’d seen dolls go through the washer before. It was a doll’s worst nightmare.

It was his worst nightmare.

Leroy looked away from the washer as Lou turned back to the crowd of fearful-looking dolls.

“Messy dolls get put through the wash!” he exclaimed. “Everytime you go through the wash, you come out a little less perfect, until one day, the washer won’t save you.” 

Lou took a pause, before continuing.

“And when that happens, your child’s parents will throw you away!”

The Perfect Dolls gasped, a few of them fainting from shock.

“We don’t want to see any of you face that type of rejection,” Leroy told the crowd.

“So, if you wanna pass these tests, avoid messes,” Luca added nonchalantly.

The washer dinged, and the UglyDolls sat up inside, looking disoriented. Luca turned to them with a smirk.

“Stay out of the wash.”

After that ordeal, the brothers lead all of the dolls to an obstacle course. Luca jokingly liked to call it the Mini-Gauntlet, because that’s what it was. This had been the original Gauntlet, not that the brothers would reveal that to anyone. 

They didn’t mention that night when, after watching the batch of Type-5 dolls pass through it so easily, the brothers had demanded a new, harder Gauntlet be concocted, with harder obstacles and a time limit, and a curriculum and standard that would sway dolls from leaving, so that they wouldn’t have to be alone any longer.

Besides, that was in the past. They had more pressing things to worry about now.

For Lou and Luca, that was intentionally sabotaging all of the UglyDolls’ attempts at passing through the Mini-Gauntlet without getting in a mess, a feat that wasn’t all that difficult.

For Leroy, it was trying to ignore the guilt he felt every time one of the UglyDolls was sent to the wash. It didn’t help that whenever it happened, they’d send the oldest prototype a pleading or angry look that he found himself ignoring because a secret, horrible part of him wanted to see them crash, burn and fail.

Finally, class was over. The Perfect Dolls began to disperse, talking amongst themselves about how hard class was and how they really wanted to pass the Gauntlet and be deemed perfect. The UglyDolls, however, had just exited the washer for what must’ve been the eleventh or twelfth time.

The hilarity of seeing the UglyDolls walk out of the washer looking like giant balls of fluff almost outweighed the anger the brothers felt when they realized that they all kept their bright colors.

“Well, damn,” Luca said, sarcastically clapping. “I don’t know about you two, but I’m impressed.”

“Why, thank you,” Moxy replied defiantly.

“And yet…” Lou trailed off, a hint of laughter in his voice. “Actually, nevermind.”

“What?” Moxy asked, curiosity piqued.

“Er, well…” Leroy glanced at his brothers, who looked at him expectantly. “Far be it from us to try and discourage you…” He rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

Moxy laughed it off. 

“Yeah, no, that’s really hard to do.”

Lou narrowed his eyes.

“Of course it is,” the youngest prototype said flippantly. “But, just between the four of us, no matter how agile or unshakable you may be, when you look up there” he pointed to the screen displaying what it’d be like in Big World “at that perfect, pretty doll and all the joy that she comes with, do you truly think you and your little sock puppet friends stand a chance in a place like this?”

Moxy looked up at the screen, then back at Lou with a defiant, stubborn expression. Lou just shrugged.

“Well, okay, then. Carry on tryin’,” he told her. “But it’s like I always say. Pretty makes perfect. Good luck trying to beat the Gauntlet.”

The brothers watched as Moxy left with her friends.

“You truly have a way with words, little bro,” Luca said once they were alone.

“Yes, but is that really enough?” Leroy asked, as they began to make their way back to their mansion. “I can’t say much about her friends, but Moxy is truly stubborn.”

“And so am I,” Lou replied. “Not only that, but I’m a realist. I actually know how this world works. You don’t get what you want so easily.”

The two older prototypes blinked. They knew they had all grown a bit jaded, but they’d never heard the youngest prototype sound so cynical. Before either could bring it up, though, Lou’s phone chimed. After reading the message, he smirked and turned to his brothers.

“Our guest has arrived.”

Kitty, Lydia and Tuesday unceremoniously dumped Ox out of his sack, watching as he fell to the floor in a heap. 

“Where am I?” Ox asked, eye darting about quickly. “Who’s in charge here? What- huh?”

Lou stepped out of the shadows, flanked by Luca and Leroy, whose eyes widened a bit in recognition and realization.

“Hello, old friend,” Lou drawled, smirking.

“L-Lou?” Ox’s eye widened, and he scooted back a little.

“Wait, they know each other?” Lydia asked quietly.

“Dia, he just said ‘L-Lou?’, keep up,” Kitty snarked.

“Oh, Lou, have you seen my bangs?” Tuesday pointed to her hair.

Lou sighed. “Girls, please. You can leave now.”

He waved them away as he stepped closer to Ox, towering over him.

“I’ve a private matter to attend to,” Lou said with a smirk.