Ya got something original?

Mono and Six were both in the hospital section of the city as they were continuing their mission to stop and defeat the evil signal tower that had been plaguing the city with the transmission. The hospital was unsettling as there was various medical equipment strewn about and old hospital beds that looked more like an insane asylum instead of a hospital where people were supposed to get well. The boy always hated hospitals as he had a fear that some of the mannequins would come to life, to which his friend always tried to reassure him that he was just imagining things. So far on their task, they had managed to find a key for one of the puzzles that they had to unlock. Mono was carrying a large stuffed rabbit that was twice his size with the key inside, and Six followed him from behind, carrying a wooden duck toy. With Six occasionally pressing the wooden beak against his cheek, pretending to kiss him, and Mono occasionally getting revenge, shining the flashlight in her face. They had just gotten through putting the toys through the incinerator, taking the key that was left behind their cremated ashes, as they miraculously didn't melt in the fire, and putting the key around the ring that was attached to his coat with the rest of the keys as they returned to the lobby. The two had walked down a long corridor, flanked on all sides by a perpetual dust and rot that showed the decayed age of the hospital since the transmission started when they stumbled upon an elevator. Instinctively, and with little self-control, Mono reached up to activate it, but nothing happened. 

“Nothing,” Mono said out loud, as though he were to confirm it by saying it to be real. Six merely shook her head before noticing the panel was slightly ajar. Walking past Mono, she pulled the panel back. The two of them looked into the mess of wires and dust, searching for a possible explanation, before Mono commented: 

“Look, it doesn’t have any fuses in it. I think we need to find two of them.” Mono turned to Six and continued, his determined face hidden behind his paper bag, with an air of authority. “You should stay behind. Danger seems to follow you, no offense. I should probably do this by myself. I don’t want you to get hurt again.” 

“But I want to come with you,” She said with a pout, stubbornly stomping her foot on the ground.

Mono chuckled at her adorable display “I know you want to come with me but I can't get the fuse and look after you at the same time,” the boy smiled underneath his paper bag.

“You would be better off just waiting here. I don't need you getting into danger,” he added.

“But what about you? You don’t need to get into trouble by yourself, either,” Six responded with a faintly pleading voice. Her raincoat had hidden her annoyance with Mono’s almost uncaring attitude towards her with his command, but she still did not want to leave his presence. 

“I'll be fine, you know that I can handle anything,” Mono reassured her.

Six reluctantly agreed to stay behind while she waited in the lobby, surrounded by the fluorescent lights overhead as her companion delved into the darkness.

Mono absolutely hated hospitals as much as he hated walking around in the dark, not being able to see where he was going. Luckily, he had a flashlight with him, so he wasn't completely alone in the darkness. As he delved further into the hospital's abyss of halls and rooms, Mono grew weary of his judgment with Six, feeling a creeping sense that he should have brought Six with him, even with the risks, because he had overestimated himself. He shook away the thought soon after it came, however, trusting his judgement about the risks Six would have been under. As Mono wandered throughout the darkness, he could see faint remnants and fragments of the doctor's work and what exactly his experiments were on in the form of detached body parts that were made of plastic, looking like they had belonged to mannequins in boxes and crates. Mono had a severe fear of mannequins. He was afraid of anything that looked unnaturally human just enough to be uncanny. Mono hoped that looking for this fuse would be easy, so he didn't have to spend too much time alone in the darkness. He was beginning to regret not having Six come along with him but it was better to not risk her safety. As Mono ran into a room that had more mannequin parts, he was silently dreading the thought of the mannequins coming to life. He knew that it was more than likely just paranoid superstition. But unfortunately for Mono, he worried that he must have jinxed himself because while he was in the middle of climbing and getting himself through one of the tall medicine cabinets, he had shone his light in just enough time to catch a glimpse of what looked like the pale skin of a disembodied hand scattering across the floor that looked like a creepy crawly spider in the darkness. Mono watched above from the medical cabinet he perched himself upon with a fear of God striking his nerve to stone, never daring to move an inch, trying to avoid the presence of the severed hand. The hand crawled about the floor, mapping its terrain, knowing Mono was nearby but not where, waiting for the young man to make a mistake and reveal his location. He felt like he was a small boy navigating through the sea on a small rowboat with only a pitiful amount of light to keep him company, trying to avoid being capsized by a whale lurking below his minuscule vessel. As Mono's eyes darted around like a scared little rabbit, he noticed a large hammer sitting on the floor below, not too far away from where he was posted. If he could just get to that hammer, he would be able to defend himself. Mono acted quickly as he jumped down from the cabinet, making a run for the hammer at breakneck speed. He looked over his shoulder to see that the hand was already clawing its way at his coattail. Upon grabbing the hammer, Mono raised it high above his head, sending it crashing down into the stone-cold concrete with a loud crack. The hand jumped back, avoiding his attack, rearing on its hind legs like a tarantula sizing up an enemy as it hissed. Mono took another swing at the severed hand, missing his target as the fingers crawled across the room with all the accuracy of a spider as it disappeared into the darkness. Mono clutched onto the wooden handle of the hammer, bracing himself for another attack, looking at every angle as to where the hand would appear out of the corner of his eye into the light. After a few minutes of nothing, Mono drew the conclusion that he managed to scare the threat away, now he could get back to the objective.

"MONO!" Only Mono knew that voice because of how infrequently it was used; when she spoke, it forced him to remember and listen. But this immediately drew concern within him from her tone.

"Six!" Mono yelled back, clutching the hammer in his hands, dragging it against the floor as he made his way back to the hallway, running down the long corridor, the weight that he was carrying slowing down his motility as he shuffled his small, bony feet as fast as he could across the stone cold floors, being sure to avoid cutting the bottom of them, eventually standing in the doorway of the hall where he left Six. He was not prepared for what he saw "Six?" Mono asked, confused and alarmed to see Six on the ground, lying in the fetal position, stifling small chuckles and giggles as her side was being tickled by the same hand that had attacked Mono before. As the hammer seemed to barely be held in the palm of his hands Mono was at a loss for what to do, as he seemed to be entranced by her face plastered with pink from the laughing tears forming in the corners of her eyes, threatening to cascade down her face. 

The memory of her smile came to mind, as he could remember when they were playing in a large meadow of brightly colored flowers, chasing after each other in a game of tag through a field of wildflowers. Mono bounded after her, as he was having trouble keeping up with the girl. Six looked over her shoulder, watching as the boy lagged behind, laughing whenever he tried to grab her sweater but missed. And just for a moment, the two acted like real children, no trauma, no fear, no bellies twisting and churning from starvation, where the only boogeyman they had to concern themselves with was being caught by the tickle monster. Six was more light and agile. She was fast, but she could only run with short bursts of speed and not run for long intervals. Once she started slowing down to catch her breath, Mono pounced on her from behind. Crashing into her, tackling her to the ground as they rolled down a hill together, while the world moved past them in a flurry of color, being the brightest yellows. When they reached the bottom of the slope, the hard blow was cushioned as they fell into a small patch of daisies. Mono landed on top of her as he pinned her to the ground with his strength, looming over the girl, wiggling his fingers in the air, looking down at her before going.

“You know what's about to happen, don't you?” Mono grinned with a self-satisfied smirk on his face.

“Do your worst,” Six sneered playfully, giving him a challenging glare.

Mono didn't look amused as she resigned herself to her fate as if he expected her to put up more of a fight or make some sort of snarky, sarcastic comeback. He grinned as he then began to tickle her, his fingers wiggling against the soft cotton of her jumper, targeting her belly, knowing that it was her most sensitive spot. Six laughed, her bangs that usually concealed half of her face in darkness were slightly parted, revealing a sliver of her face underneath those ebony locks. Her cheeks were a light shade of pink, her eyes squeezed shut, her mouth curved upward into a smile. Her sharp little canines that poked out from the top of her lip flashed, to remind him that behind that cute and innocent facade of a child she portrayed, she was still dangerous and had the ability to make his hand bleed if she wanted to. But at this moment, he believed that she was some sort of skittish feral creature, scared and nervous attacking only out of instinct and survival instead of a miniature predator that he had seen eat live mice before. Her laugh was something like a hyena cackling, like an evil super villain that he would have seen in the old cartoons that he loved watching on the television screen. It sounded cartoonishly evil. Mono was abashed by her smile, stopping to look at it like it was a field of the sweetest honeysuckle with the sun waning to set on the horizon at dusk. Her eyes were as deep and blue as a lake, with the sun sparkling like crystals in the reflection of the water. Warmth thawed behind their icy cold exterior compared to his own matte eyes, which were just an ordinary brown. Mono didn't know why, but…she looked to be the happiest he had ever seen her in their time spent together. She never really seemed to be so "happy." Mono had been staring for so long that he didn't even notice there was a small smile spreading on his cheeks. 

"Mono, what are you waiting for?!" Mono was snapped back into reality when he heard her voice shouting for him to take action against the hand. 

"Oh, right! Right! Sorry!" Mono shook away his thoughts, going back to business as he took a wild swing at the severed hand. Squishing it and breaking its fingers in its entirety, as with a crack of its fingers, it remained motionless. Mono took a few more wild swings with the hammer just to make sure that it was dead, as he didn't want it to be like a cockroach that kept coming back to life and wouldn't stay dead.   

“Six, you alright?” Mono would ask Six, offering his hand to help pull her up. 

“Y-Yeah, I'm alright,” Six replied. She was still breathless, her breath shaky and trembling as she was still recovering from the attack, as he helped her to her feet. 

“So…what was that about?” Mono asked her with genuine curiosity as he was curious about the spectacle that he had witnessed. 

“I don't know, I think that it came after me when I had thrown a rock at it,” Six said

“You threw a rock at it?” Mono repeated with an amused smile on his face. That sounded exactly like her. Typical Six behavior being a feral little gremlin. He had no doubt she did it in self-defense, but she had done this prior to small animals and even billboards, making it impossible to deny the possibility she had antagonized it.

“I thought that it was a rat at first,” Six replied, “After I called it a fucking bitch.” 

“You called it a-” Mono slapped a hand over his mouth, his cheeks burning with embarrassment as he looked like a child who had just got caught saying an inappropriate word as she laughed at him. 

“You shouldn't say words like that, Six,” Mono would say as he mumbled a weak reply under his breath.

“But you just did it,” Six replied.

“Only because I repeated what you said!” Mono exclaimed with an embarrassed shriek, which only made her laugh more.

“You are such a pain in the butt, Six.” Mono gave an exhausted sigh.

“Weird how you're perfectly fine saying ‘fuck’ but the word ‘ass’ is too much,” Six teased.

“Shut up,” Mono rolled his eyes. 

Six grinned mischievously as she flashed her sharp little canines at him. Mono was about to reply again, giving a flustered response, before the girl wrapped her arms around him, pulling him into a hug. 

“Thanks for saving me, Mono,” Six said, her tone softer.

Mono returned the hug, wrapping his arms around her tiny frame, “O-Oh yeah sure no problem…” Mono said, “It was easy saving you…” he whispered against her, his cheeks warm.

After the two friends took a moment to recuperate their surroundings, checking over each other and making sure that the other was safe, the more talkative of the two eventually spoke up. 

“Well, come on, we should probably focus on finding those fuses,” Mono would say as he pulled away from the hug.

“Right,” Six would say as she began walking.

Mono didn't say it then he should probably say it now.

“You have a nice laugh,” Six heard him say, making her perk her head up and whip her head over her shoulders, looking back at him with surprise. 

“Your laugh…it's cute…” Mono said quietly. 

“Thanks…” Six would say. Both of the children had a blush on their faces as they said that. A light shade of pink dusted both of their cheeks, though Mono's hue was hidden underneath the protection and safety of his paper bag. Though their shyness was communicated through their body language as both of them averted their gaze, Six scratched her arm awkwardly as Mono shuffled his feet and fidgeted with his fingers. 

“On second thought, maybe you should just come with me instead,” Mono said, reaching out to hold her hand. “We can go looking for the fuse together.” 

“I would love to,” Six said happily, taking his hand in hers as they walked throughout the hospital.