I was starting to look around my room for anything that could be entertainment other than my phone. After finding nothing but dust, I started tidying up my room and cleaning up. There was miscellaneous crap everywhere you could think, and they say a messy and stressed room means a messy and stressed mind! Come to think of it, I was pretty stressed, but that was from the infected. I dragged my green, purple-spiked tail around my room as I was walking, and I eventually came across a calendar which had apparently fallen to the floor at some point. I picked it up and glanced at the page, which said it was August. I flipped a page to get to September, and looked at the date, September 23.

Wow.. only a couple months until the end of the year..

I glanced over the next two weeks, and that's when I saw something that made my chest sink.

September 28th:
Ally, Joocie, Oof, and TBVG Visiting!!

We only had five days to make everything seem normal, five days to make it look like Gulvic and Ryzo don't exist, and five days to bring Meme, Woolf, and Muffin back from the dead.

That's a lot for five days. I need to tell everyone..

——————————————————————-
-Oompa POV-
I was in the kitchen, looking in the fridge, deciding what to drink. I just wanted to catch a break. Socks then entered the room for, I assume, the same reason as me. I thought he was going to head over to my direction when he started looking through the cabinets.

"What are you looking for, Socks?"

He didn't respond, only kept looking through the cabinets almost as if he didn't hear me.

"Socks?"

"Yeah? What's up, Oompa?"

"Did you.. hear me?"

"You never said my.. name."

"Are you pulling my leg?"

"No- I never heard you say my name.."

"I literally said, 'What are you looking for, Socks'."

"I never heard that.. but anyway I'm just trying to find something to drink- we ran out of water bottles again."

"Why are you looking in there then?"

"What?"

"Why are you looking in the cabinet? All the drinks are over here."

I gestured to the fridge, which I had closed as I didn't want to let the cold, misty air out.

"Oh, I.. guess I forgot.."

He let out a nervous laugh and walked over to the fridge, which was now open once again. I couldn't help the detective side of me, and raised my voice.

"Gulvic, what are you doing to Socks? Why are you making him forget the simplest things and why don't you just tell us all what's up?"

A confused expression spread across his face, and he genuinely asked,

"Who's Socks?"

I didn't have words. I could only muster,

"Y-you are.."

"What? I am.."

He held out his last word, expecting me to give an adjective to describe him.

"What?"

"You aren't stable-"

"Yeah I didn't think I would be."

A couple minutes of an awkward silence then went by, with the only sound being the air conditioning's intermittent air circulation. We both got our drinks, and were set to leave the room. I didn't want to leave him alone here, and I don't think he wanted to leave me alone either. The orange, demon-possessed astronaut then dumped onto me,

"Every day I feel like I'm slowly losing my sanity. I feel like I'm slowly fading away. I can't do it anymore, Oompa. I just want everything to go back to normal. Being in mortal danger 24/7 just feels normal now."

He took a swig from the cup of orange juice he had gotten from the silver, titanium fridge. I wasn't sure how to respond, as I wasn't the best at dealing with this kind of situation. I had just built up the courage to reply when I heard the floorboards squeal inside The Room Next To The Stairs.. A familiar, green, purple-hoodied reptile slid into view of the doorway. He was holding a calendar, and it seemed color coded like he had always done. As he slid, he shouted,

"HEY, LOOK WHAT I JUST FOUND!!"

His gaze immediately went to me, but when he saw Socks, his face showed being unsure and unwilling to tell of  of his findings.

"Uh- hi Dino.."

Socks was just as confused as me. Trying to lighten the mood, he questioned,

"Didn't that hurt your feet? I mean, I know you have scales and all, but still."

"No, not really. I'm lucky I didn't get any splinters."

Dino stomped his foot onto the ground, and calmly stated,

"Oh, nevermind."

He then lifted his foot and pulled out a small, sharp, sliver of wood that had pierced his skin. I wanted to resume what Dino was about to say, so I asked,

"Sooo.. what did you want to tell us?"

"Uh- nothing important."

He rolled his eyes to his right and out of the room, gesturing that he shouldn't stay there if I wanted an answer. I understood, and gave a small thumbs up without moving my arm, hoping he saw. Socks just stood there confused, but also seemed to be in a trance. I saw him mouth the words, "no, stop it.. he's not hiding anything". He seemed to get a bit annoyed as well. I asked him before I left the room,

"Are you okay, Socks?"

"Oh- yeah! I'm fine!"

He then added shortly after,

"Just sorting things out mentally.. you know?"

If I may add, his voice had a certain tone. It didn't seem like a general, genuine statement. It sounded like he'd just stolen a dollar from behind my back, and was desperately trying to hide the fact he'd done it. I thought I saw a slight, bright red glow near his eye, like Blaza had described, but his irises looked like the normal hazelnut brown.

"Okay. Well, see you around! And tell Gulvic to stop messing with your head."

I then rounded the corner of the doorway, only to be dragged aside with a reptilian hand by the collar of my green sweater. Dino swiftly maneuvered over to the mouth of the hallway and opened the door, only about fifteen more feet away. I followed much slower, not seeing the urgency. Once we were in the beginning of the hallway, and the door was closed, Dino became jumpy and nervous.

"OOMPA- DO YOU REMEMBER ANY OF THE THINGS WE HAVE PLANNED THIS WEEK?!"

"Uh.. I guess whatever it is kinda flew out my head- heh,"

The humanoid dinosaur jerked up a calendar, and darted a finger to the date September 23.

"You see this? This is where we are now. Not only have these demons taken up my entire two free weeks,"

Immediately knew who he was talking about. Who wouldn't if they were living in this base?

"But in FIVE DAYS, Ally, Tbvg, Joocie, and Oof are visiting for a whole two months!!"

Before I could say anything, he added on with a gaspy, air-grabbing voice,

"And.. if I remember correctly, some of them will be staying here longer in this base if they like it enough."

I was in shock, my mouth gaping open slightly like a loose hinge. I'd completely forgotten about them visiting. They were only staying for so long because they all lived thousands of miles away, and we haven't seen them in person for years.

"Yeah. It's going to take a lot to get back to normal. Especially fitting it all in five days."
__________________________________
-Sub. Laff POV-

"So.. Ryzo?"

"Yeah?"

"Who's side are you on?"

"You know.. I'm not totally sure.."

"Why not?"

"Well, killing innocent people like Woolf doesn't sit with me right.. yet I need to avenge all the hybrids."

"Well.. you don't need to! You're not being forced. It's your choice in the end."

"Yeah, but I want to help Gulvic! I also don't want to face his wrath again.."

"Here's the real question. Are you helping him out of pity and fear or is it genuine?"

"Oh, I guess I never thought of it like that. I'd say more out of fear and pity. But it's not all about him. I want to get back at the humans for killing all of us."

"But you don't want to kill innocent people?"

"Y-yeah!"

"Not all humans are evil, Ryzo."

"I know, Laff. I'm just split down the middle. I'm not sure what to do."

"I don't want to sound biased, but maybe you should help us! It's the better side. After all, we aren't killing you two."

"True."

We stood next to each other in silence as we were focusing on maneuvering our physical body. When we weren't focusing on it, and we were bickering and conversing back and forth, it was in a trance-like state. Before we could continue, Tbh snapped in our face a couple times with his claws. I was snapped back to reality, and I was the one in control instead of Ryzo. The crab explained everything about the Tearglass to me, and I didn't know how to feel.
_____________________________
-Meme POV-

"Come on, guys!!"

"You're flying at the speed of light right now."

"I'm not going that fast."

I twisted around to see Muffin and Woolf far behind me, therefore confirming that I was in fact, flying fast. The poltergeists caught up with me, and that's when I actually took a second to see where we were. Around us were shadows of the trees that stretched and squashed from the light of the sun, along with what should've been the scent of pine. The mud color of the trees gave a relaxing atmosphere, along with the array of colors raining from the treetops. Red, orange, yellow, green, you name it. The breeze sounded like the hiss of a snake, overlapping the sound of maracas from the gusts gently pushing the dancing leaves.

"Oh, uh.. sorry about that."

"It's fine, Meme. Just calm down a bit. We still have time."

I doubt that..

Woolf then butted in me and Muffin's conversation, rushing, running in like a bull who had just seen red.

"Meme, stop it."

"What?"

"I know what you're thinking. Nothing bad is going to happen. Calm down your neurotic, jumpy mood."

"I know, I just have a gut- a weird feeling that something could go wrong at any time.."

I had to stop myself from saying gut, as none of us even had guts anymore. I then jumped to another subject quickly to get out of the topic of my worrying.

"Anyway, come on slow pokes! We gotta get to that artifact!"

"Well, hold on, Antsy! We need to know where we are."

"We've only been flying for about fifteen minutes.. I don't think we've gotten too far.."

"Well at the rate we've been going we've obviously made some progress."

Woolf then checked the crumpled, ancient map, having enough of my "neurotic" mood. I wasn't acting neurotic, I was looking out for my friends. I wanted to banish those two murder demons with all of my heart. Sure, I technically created them. That doesn't mean it was on purpose. Woolf, apparently knowing where we were now, muttered,

"We still have a long way to go.. somehow.."

"Then let's move."

Woolf sighed, obviously getting annoyed with me. The two reluctantly, then eagerly followed, dashing behind as if I were the head of a Christmas sleigh.

"Meme.. you're insane sometimes. You know that, right?"

'What do you mean by that?"

"Sometimes you're maniacally laughing to the point you're in tears, and then other times you are angry to the point you just walk away. You're just very emotional and intense."

"Heh.. it's just how I am I guess."
__________________________________
-Blaza POV-

"So.. can you hear me?"

"Meep."

"I can't understand you.. but I'd assume that was a yes since you answered."

"Meeeeepp..."

"...."

I wasn't sure how to respond. It was a hoodie after all. I still had the piece of clothing on, talking to it and walking back and forth in my room. It felt weird talking to something that seemed fake, like I was insane. I guess that's what Socks and Laff felt like all the time.. talking to something that didn't seem real. But, it was real, no matter how hard it is to accept.

"So.. uh.. should I just call you.. Bear?"

An uninterested meep was made, symbolizing it didn't like the name.

"Hoodie?"

Another annoyed meep.

"Fuzzy.. Wuzzy? Fuzzy Wuzzy?"

An energetic, happy meep was heard. I felt my mouth curve upwards,

"Fuzzy Wuzzy is a bear.."

"MEEEEEEP!!"

I felt Fuzzy's ears burst upwards as it squeaked, making me feel calm that I wasn't in danger for once. I then proceeded to position myself to be sitting on the edge of my mattress.

"So.. are you a ghost? Uh- one meep for yes and two meeps for no."

"Meep."

"Oh, then are you okay with Fuzzy being your name? Or do you want your actual name?"

"Meep-meep me meep."

Something whispered and hinted in my mind that it said, "Fuzzy is fine."

"Alright, sound's good!"
________________________________________________
-Laff POV-

"Alright, Tb.. my brain is going to fry if we stuff anymore information or theories about hybrids into it."

"Heh, okay, Laff! You can leave if you'd like."

"Thanks. Also, again, thank you for going through all of this. It's a big help."

"Oh, no problem! Let's just hope we can rely on the ghosts to get the Tearglass back here safely."

I waved goodbye, and left the library. I strolled down the hall, turned right, and kept walking until I reached my door. I entered, flicked on the lamp, and was relieved. I guess Ryzo had enough respect for me not to mess with my stuff. My tools were still scattered everywhere just like they had been for the past three weeks, with nuts and bolts littering the floor like confetti. On my desk and taped to the wall above it were my plans for all the inventions I've thought of, including my robotic clone, gravity gun, even my Laff Loaf recipe. Ryzo grabbed the blueprint of what was the 'Robotic Clone E.M.H.I.' or 'L4FF' for short.

"What is this? What is all of this stuff?"

"Right, I never mentioned that I invent things in my free time."

"Really?"

"Yep! I obviously just haven't had the chance for the past week or so. I've also just been busy with all the stress, the church, you.."

"I could see that. So what is this?"

"This is my Robotic Clone EMHI! I also call it L4FF."

"What does EMHI mean?"

"It means Electromagnetic Humanoid Intelligence. Me and Dino have been working on it for a while now. We've finally got it to start making sense! Also- well, I guess I'm getting a bit side-tracked."

"Heh, it's fine Laff. I'm listening."
_____________________________

"He's obviously hiding something from us.. are you that stupid not to notice?"

"No.. he's not hiding anything."

"Really? Sounds like he's hiding something from you."

"..."

I thought of something that might stir the pot.

"What are you going to do about it? Get angry? Get back at him?"

"I don't know.. but they all sound nice."
_________________
2581 Words

I am sorry this chapter was so bad- it's honestly just a bunch of filler to fill up the amount of chapters.. TwT
I am so sorry for the wait once again.
Also, WHAT IS WITH THE 7.5k READS OH MY COSH
also also, only 7 more chapters remain!! :DD