The fortress doors opened and Master Frown flew in as fast as his body could carry him.  He yelled as he slammed his fist into his desk, almost crashing into it.

“THIS DOESN’T MAKE SENSE!” he shouted, “WHY IS SO HARD TO KILL THOSE TWO IDIOTS!?  I’M SUPPOSED TO BE STRONGER THAN THEM!  THAN THIS!”

“Well technically they’re not idiots,” Brock said, walking in from behind, “Hawkodile’s been fighting since like, forever, and Dr. Fox is really really smart.  Plus she’s got hundreds of inventions, so…”

“Brock, what are you doing?” Master Frown asked as he turned around, “I thought I told you to watch Unikitty!”  “Oh,” Brock nervously said, “you did, buuut I heard you come in, so I-“

“And what’s with that key in your hand?” Master Frown raised his voice as he walked closer to Brock until they were inches apart and Brock started to sweat.

(Arty by @friffinx​)

“Oh I…uhh…”

“Brock, this doesn’t have to do with Unikitty, does it?”

“No, it uhh…I just, uh…” Brock stammered, sweating even more.

“TELL ME OR I’LL MAKE YOU SAY IT!” the Doom Lord commanded as his eyes burned brighter and he held his hand to the side of his head.

“OK OK FINE,” Brock confessed, “it’s the key to Unikitty’s cage!  We came up with a plan to bring you back to the kingdom so we could…you know, help you.”

“Of course you did,” Master Frown groaned, his eyes getting dimmer with disappointment until they glowed brighter again with his wide grin, “But now I’ve got an even better idea!”  “Oh no,” Brock whispered as Master Frown giggled.  “Oh yes,” Master Frown said, raising an arm out in front of Brock, “If Unikitty still thinks that talking and some dumb science magic will fix everything, then I’ll just have to give her a reality check!”  Brock shut his eyes tightly with pain, struggling to keep himself together.  “And you’re gonna help me whether you like it or not.”

Brock’s eyes opened with red light back shining in them again.

“My apologies,” Possessed Brock calmly said, “I’m ready when you are.”  “Good,” Master Frown said, “now come on!”  He began excitedly making his way to the conference room with Possessed Brock following him.

                                                     : ~~~ :

Hawkodile had been sitting on the same foyer room couch for hours.  More than anything, he wanted to get off his numb tail end and stretch his legs beyond kicking them up and flexing them.  But though he hated admitting it, Rick was right: he had to stay seated until he was in a better condition.  But by nightfall, Hawkodile was feeling a little better; though his arm still hurt, Richard cleaned, disinfected, bandaged, and even sewn it up surprisingly well.  Still, as Hawkodile held his arm and waited for his blocky friend to return again, he kept worrying about Dr. Fox.  He thought about her the most since she ran off, and she still hadn’t come back from the lab.

“I’m back,” Richard announced from afar, carrying casting tape and more bandages to wrap around Hawkodile’s injured arm.

“This should keep you from trying to use your arm while it recovers,” he said, busily making the cast, “I know it won’t help you recover any faster but this is the best I can do until Dr. Fox comes back.”

“Look, Rick,” Hawkodile said, “you’ve already helped out a lot.  If you think about I should be-“

“No,” Richard nearly yelled, “you won’t be fine, so stop saying that you are or you will be!  How many times do I need to tell you that you can’t jump back into a fight with an arm ready to fall apart!?  You still need time to recover!”

“Well yeah,” Hawkodile almost laughed, “I was gonna say that I should be ok enough to see Dr. Fox.  After, you know, everything that happened, I just hope she’s doing ok down there.”

(Art by @arekusatheamazingx​)

“I can understand where you’re coming from,” Richard said, “but really?  I’m sure that if she’s working on anything at the moment, it’ll take a lot of time considering how the fight affected her.  She’s undoubtedly struggling and under a lot of pressure.”

“Yeah, me too!”

Richard floated back an inch as Hawkodile continued.

“That’s why I want to talk to her!  And hey, since plan A didn’t work, maybe we can try something different to save Unikitty.”

Hawkodile’s nervous, wide smile and shrugging shoulders seemed like enough to not convince Richard, but Rick knew that they were running out of options that’d work fast enough to at least see Unikitty again.

“Well possibly,” Richard admitted and helped Hawkodile stand up.

“Alright,” he said as he led Hawkodile to the lab, “let’s just hope it’s good enough.”

                                                               : ~~~ :

Unikitty kept her restless eyes on the conference room doors, and when they opened she gasped with joy, ready to cheerfully ask Brock about the key.  But when she saw that Brock’s eyes were red and Master Frown came in after him with eyes just as red and spinning the keys around his hand with his magic, she gasped far less excited.

“Awww,” Master Frown mocked her, “you thought you could make your way out of this easy-peasy, huh?  Well not this time, you sushiney little slob!  And you know why?  Because you’re in my NEW world now, and you’re never leaving it!”

Master Frown unlocked the cage and Unikitty prepared to zip out, but he grabbed her tail; first with his red aura and then his hands.

“A-a-aah,” he teased Unikitty as he dragged her midair to the closet, “nope!  You’re staying right here, ‘Princess’!”  He threw her into the conference room closet, slamming the door shut and locking her inside.

Unikitty looked around the dark, damp closet.  She started thinking that when Master Frown said he became bigger and stronger, he meant it, but still tried to stay positive.  What could really be worse than killing the other Doom Lords anyway?

The first thing that caught her eyes was a projector.  She stepped closer, noticing that there was film inside.  She wasn’t sure if she should play it but asked about it anyway, to which Master Frown yelled “YES”.  So she started up the projector and watched the film begin.  It was a piece of found footage.

“Who does Master Frown think he is?” the person filming said, “Master Doom didn’t deserve it!  No one did!”

Master Papercuts was hiding in an alleyway.

“What's he doing,” the hollow-eyed Doom Lord said, “going around all proud of killing people for doing our jobs better than him?  Ok, sure, when I first walked in I freaked out seeing them all dead and ran out before he could catch me.  Does that mean I’m gonna run away some more and let them die in vain?  Nope nope nope nope nope nope NOPE!  Because I’m better than him!  I’ll avenge them and become the real best Doom Lord ever!  A new wave of really really bad papercuts is beginning, and there’s nothing, I repeat NOTHING that can stop me from-“

“No witnesses,” Master Frown said, suddenly sliding in behind his co-worker with the same axe he killed the others with.

(Art by @x-master-brock-x​)

The screen turned to static and Unikitty gulped in fear, trying to distract herself from the fact that Master Frown would take down any opposition for sure.  But then she found Master Papercuts’s hat hanging from the ceiling on a string right in front of her, screamed, and as she backed away, tripped over a gun on the floor.  Though hesitant, she picked it up along with the flashlight next to it.  It was a blaster roughly the size of her arm with a small note taped across the grip.  Unikitty turned the flashlight on with one paw to read the small writing:

“I’ve been on the run for two days now.  Reporting a murder should’ve been easier, but every police station in this dreaded town is the same.  Turns out I ‘don’t have evidence’ or a ‘good enough alibis’.  What part of ‘My brother got killed by a maniac and now the guy’s after me because I was a witness and want to keep our home safe’ don’t you understand???  But I can’t keep this up anymore.  I’m too tired, weak, and hungry, so unless I can find an officer that gets stuff done “

The delicate writing stopped, and Master Frown’s sloppy handwriting invaded the rest of the note.

“U’LL DIE TRYING, HAHAHAHAHAHA!”

Unikitty got goosebumps.  “This is fake, right?” she insecurely asked.

“Flip it over,” Master Frown yelled from outside.

Unikitty sorrowfully gasped as she did.  Snippets of two “Missing" posters were also taped to the grip.  Both victims’ posters were cut in half, one half each taped together to make what looked like an amateur craft project with the face and names sloppily scribbled out in black and red.

“YEESH, WHAT ELSE IS IN THE CLOSET!?” Unikitty cried, stomping on the ground out of fear.  Se heard something small and metallic fall off a shelf from behind her as a result and turned around.  Lying in the shadows was a pen, and as she picked it up, she paid attention to the buttons on the side: play, pause, rewind, fast fowrd, and a red recording button.  Though more terrified and wondering why someone would make a pen that could record things, she gulped and pressed the play button.

“Hey, you wanna see something cool?”  It was Master Frown’s voice.

“Uhh…sure, what is it?” She assumed the other voice was a Frowntown citizen’s.

“See this pen right here?”

“Yeah, what about it?”

SLAM!

There was an unfinished scream, and the recording ended.

Unikitty moved her paw closer to the tip of the pen to put it away, but felt something icky and gagged.  She moved the pen closer to her face to see what it was, and found the victim from the recording’s eye and brain bits still there rotting away on the pen.

She screamed, one so loud and blood-curdling as the pen flew out of her paws, that turned into ugly sobbing.  Master Frown held his head closer to the closet door, enjoying every second of her pain.

“You hear that!?” he excitedly asked a softly grinning Possessed Brock, “OhHOHOHOHOOOOOH, YES, YES!  I LOVE IT!!!”

“OK OK, I GIVE UP!!!” Unikitty bawled, banging on the closet door, “PLEASE, MASTER FROWN, PLEASE LET ME OUT OF HERE!!!”

“See!?” Master Frown yelled triumphantly, “Now you know what you’re dealing with!  And if you try to find a way out again, YOU’RE NEXT, you hear me!?”

“YES,” Unikitty kept crying, “JUST PLEASE, LET ME OUT!!!  I DON’T WANNA BE IN THIS CLOSET ANYMORE!!!”

“Good,” Master Frown growled happily.  He unlocked the closet, to greet a traumatized Unikitty, her body white as snow and shaking so much that she could hardly stand, and her eyes ready to pour more buckets of tears.  “Now BACK IN THE CAGE WITH YOU!”  He tossed her into her tiny prison, and as she crash-landed inside, he slammed the cage shut and locked it.

(Art by @usf2020​, again)

“No…” Unikitty whimpered as she struggled to move until she could stand and yell “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?”

Master Frown and Possessed Brock left the room without a word.

“What have you done?” Unikitty whispered again before breaking down.

                                                          : ~~~ :

Hawkodile and Richard entered the lab in shock.  It became a mess of broken objects and stained walls and floors, one so messy that they couldn’t even see Dr. Fox herself until they spotted her in a curled up, shaking, panicking mess on the floor.  Tear marks stained her furry face and her glasses were cracked.

The two looked at each other, unsure of how well talking to Dr. Fox would go.  But they knew she’d get worse if nothing was done, so they walked slowly towards her.  Richard stopped a few yards away to give Hawkodile more space, and the bodyguard stopped once he felt close enough to Dr. Fox.  He knelt down and softly asked for her by name, to which she turned around, screamed, and turned back, hyperventilating louder and faster than before and trying to cover herself up with bent and crumpled up papers.

“No D-Dr. Fox, it’s ok,” Hawkodile hopefully tried calming her down, “It’s just us.”

“NO!” Dr. Fox yelled, “Please go away!  It’s best for all of us if just you leave me alone…”

“No, it’s really not,” Hawkodile tried to explain, “Because without you we have no chance at stopping Master Frown and saving Unikitty!  Now look, I know that today’s battle was…not that great for us, but it’s all just one little slip up if you think about it-”

“NO IT’S NOT!!!” Dr. Fox had enough strength to say to Hawkodile’s face, “I MADE THE GREATEST MISTAKE I POSSIBLY COULD, DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND!?  THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING ABOUT ME, NOT JUST AS A SCIENTIST BUT AS A PERSON!  AND TO YOU OF ALL PEOPLE, SO HOW CAN YOU SAY THOSE THINGS!?  I DON’T WANT ANYTHING LIKE THIS TO EVER HAPPEN AGAIN!”

Hawkodile thought about how he likely still wasn’t helping but felt that he had to keep trying.

“No, I know!  Believe me, I know.  You’re right, this did happen to me.  But look, it was an accident.  So even if I’m still in a lot of pain, I can’t really get mad at you because this is something none of us have ever prepared for.  So right now the best thing we can do is get up and try again.  And better!  Think about it: this is Unikitty we’re fighting for.  She’d wouldn’t give up on us if her life depended on it, and right now her life depends on us.  So I don’t know but if I were you, I’d get myself together and back on the team, and find her before it’s too late.”

“I-I know,” Dr. Fox sniffled, “I want to as much as you do, Hawk…but what if I mess up again?  You could  all die, Master Frown would win, and it’d be my fault!”

“Listen Doc,” Hawkodile gently put his arm on her shoulder, “you’re putting too much pressure on yourself.  There’s no way we’d let you do all the big stuff alone.  I can still fight!…” He looked back at his other arm.  “Well I’m gonna need some help first, but that still kinda proves my point.  If we’re gonna fight Master Frown again, we need to stick together.  And it’ll be different this time, I promise.”

Hawkodile held Dr. Fox’s hands and looked deep into her eyes.  “I’ll give you all the help you need.”

(Art by @its-a-me-lava​)

“Hawkodile…”

Just when he thought all his words meant nothing, Dr. Fox hugged him.

“You’re right!  It was dumb to think I’d be the kingdom’s big hero anyway.  We gotta give each other the help we need.  In fact, I think I can fix your arm and find a way to successfully raid Frowntown!”  She got up and walked out from under her desk.

“Of course, we have no idea how successful it’ll be, but hey, we still gotta try, right?”  Dr. Fox turned back to Hawkodile and winked at him.  He blushed and giggled.

“Yeah…we do.”

Richard leaned over gave a small smile, proud of his friends.

“So what do you say, guys?” Dr. Fox asked her friends, already regaining some confidence, “Let’s head back out there!”  She held a fist up in the air.  “For Unikitty!”

“For Unikitty!” Hawkodile joined her.  The fist bump turned into them holding their hands…and Hawkodile blushing harder.

The three walked upstairs to discuss potential rescue plans when Puppycorn suddenly greeted them.

“There you guys are!”  the prince said, relieved, “I’ve been looking everywhere for you!  Why are you still not telling me what’s going on?  I miss Unikitty just as much as you do, you know!”

Dr. Fox, Hawkodile, and Richard looked at each other, trying to decide who had the best answer to give him.  But Richard got the most stares, so he sighed and floated closer to Puppycorn.

“Well, Hawkodile and Dr. Fox just agreed to go to Frowntown and rescue Unikitty.”

“Aww yeah!” Puppycorn shouted as he wagged his tail, “Can I come?”

“For the last time,” Richard sighed as Hawkodile and Dr. Fox cringed behind him, “no.”

“AGAIN!?” Puppycorn angrily protested, “But why!?  And you better tell me this time!”

“Ok slugger,” Hawkodile explained, “we know how much you love your sister, and trust us, we’d like to have more on the team.  But Master Frown’s become really dangerous as of late, and you’re uh…”

“Too inexperienced,” Dr. Fox continued for him, “Let’s put it that way.  We’re doing this to keep you safe, Puppycorn!  Hawkodile and I know a bit more when it comes to actually fighting and can’t afford to lose anyone else like we did Unikitty.  You see what he did to Hawkodile, right?  Just imagine what he could do if he got his hands on you.”

“Yeah it’d hurt,” Hawkodile tried putting it lightly.

“Indeed,” Richard agreed.

(Art by Michelle, who’s not on Tumblr)

“Well you know what else hurts?” Puppycorn pouted, “Being left out of something huge because you think I’m not smart enough to understand it!  And it’s not fair!  If you’re so scared of losing me, what about  Hawk and Dr. Fox!?  You can still lose them out there when they’re fighting!  Unikitty’s my big sister!  And I don’t know if I’ll ever see her again!  So if you can’t save her, then I want to.”  He looked away and hung his head to the side.

Everything was quiet until Dr. Fox gasped and shouted “THAT’S IT!  Puppycorn, you’re right!”

“He is?” Hawkodile and Richard asked.

“I am?” Puppycorn happily asked after them.

“Yes,” Dr. Fox joyfully explained, “Hawkodile and I can do the fighting, but you can do the rescuing!  Why didn’t I think of it before?”

“Wait, you’re right!” Hawkodile agreed.

“Yeah,” Puppycorn shouted, “let’s do it!”

“Hold up,” Hawkodile held Puppycorn by the head to stop him from running, “we still need to fix my arm.  Plus we’re gonna need more weapons and gadgets and I’ll have to show you some ways to defend yourself if you get in trouble.”

“Ok cool!” Puppycorn said, his tail wagging again.

“Which means we probably won’t leave until tomorrow,” Dr. Fox added.

“Ok,” Puppycorn’s mood didn’t change as Hawkodile let him go and he ran around in circles, “we’re still gonna save my big sis together, woo-hoo!!”

Richard knew he couldn’t stop them from doing something this risky and even a little stupid, but also that it was the best they could do.

“Just be careful out there,” was all he could say.  “Don’t worry, Richard,” Dr. Fox told him, “we’ve got this completely under control, right guys?”

The brick gave her a stare of disbelief as Puppycorn and Hawkodile cheered “Yeah!”

Dr. Fox put her fist in the air again.  “Come on guys, for Unikitty!  Again!”

“Yeah, again!”

“Aww yeah!”

                                                         : ~~~ :

As the sun rose over Unikingdom the next morning, the castle residents prepared to for the day’s big fight.

“Ok,” Hawkodile instructed everyone, eyeing Puppycorn specifically, “so one more time this way no one forgets: Dr. Fox, Puppycorn, and I are heading to Frowntown together and Rick will stay here to take care of the kingdom until at least one of us gets back.”

“Yes,” Richard said as he wearily looked at his friends, hoping it wouldn’t be the last, “just remember to please be careful out there.”

“We gotcha, Rick,” Puppycorn gave him a salute, “we promise, we’ll have Unikitty with us when we get back!”  He ran off giggling.

“Yeah,” Dr. Fox stepped closer to her floating gray friend, “if we’re successful, we’ll be right back.”

“We got this,” Hawkodile reassured Richard, putting his hand on Dr. Fox’s shoulder.  Then he pointed and yelled “Now let’s move out!”

The mission had begun.

That same morning, Master Frown watched the dull excuse for sunlight drift over Frowntown from the Doom Lord fortress rooftop.

(Art by me)

“Today’s going to be special…I can feel it.”

His evil giggle echoed through the town.

Well…happy St. Patrick’s Day!  :D

(Sorry if the wait for this one was a bit longer than expected.)

But wow oh wow, we’re roughly halfway through the AU’s story already!  Feels like just yesterday I was still working on the asks and still thinking about how the story would end.

A few more co-artists joined since last time as well, so not all of them got to work on art this time.  But the ones that did are, again, credited above.  I also promise that you’ll get to see more of them and their art in the upcoming chapters, so keep your eyes peeled!

(Even if chapter 4 is about as long as chapter 1 was and may take a while.)