#tiny!karl

------------------------------------------------------

The attic smelled like dust and old cardboard, the kind of place sunlight only visited through a slatted window at odd angles. Sapnap had climbed up there to find the missing charger he was certain he’d left behind. Instead, he found a movement — a small, deliberate skitter across a stack of comic books — and the instinct that had kept him alive through awkward childhood encounters with bugs kicked in. He froze. The skitter stopped. Sapnap didn't think, he acted: a glass cup from a nearby shelf pitched down and thunked over the creature like a makeshift bell jar.

For a long, excruciating second, there was silence. Then, impossibly, a voice squeaked from beneath the rim

"P-Please let me out!"

Sapnap's hand hovered above the glass. His heart did that ridiculous flip where it tries to escape through his throat. He had trapped a spider. He had trapped a talking spider. He imagined the headlines. He imagined yelling.

"...No."

The voice went high with outrage. Tiny legs beat a rhythm he could feel more than hear against the cardboard floor. A pair of too-bright eyes peered up at him through the cup — not the cold, insect eyes Sapnap expected, but...they looked pretty like human eyes.

"Why?!"

the voice demanded. Sapnap swallowed. He kept his hand on the rim like an anchor in a storm.

"You scare the shit out of me"

he admitted, and the words landed between them, loud in the dusty light. There was a long, slow pause. Then, with a theatrical huff, the creature folded one delicate foreleg across its chest.

"What...? You're saying that you, the person who trapped me against my own will and made me try to deal with the fact I might die at any moment...is scared of me? of tthe tiny little spider?"

Sapnap snorted despite himself. It was absurd — this tiny creature, this drider with a humanish face and... suprisingly pretty talkative. He had expected animal instinct, maybe even teeth. Instead he was looking at a face that raised an eyebrow.

"..."

Sapnap rubbed the back of his neck.

"…In my defense the way you run freaks me out..."

"....and I'm kinda scared of spiders"

Sapnap mumbled. after a while of silence, the drider said.

"...im Karl by the way"

those words made Sapnap’s palms itch with the need to apologize.

"Next time try saying hello instead of playing toupée with the nearest household object"

Sapnap's fingers loosened. The argument made him laugh. He'd stolen something from himself in that moment — the panicked, reflexive part that flinched first and thought later. He lifted the cup. Karl clicked his mandibles once. He climbed out with careful dignity, legs folding like an exotic umbrella. Up close he looked even stranger: a torso that could have belonged to a small, wiry human, wrists ringed with too many joints, and a soft, rueful smile that almost made Sapnap want to reach out and touch him, purely to disprove the old spider myths in his head.

"So,"

Karl said, arranging himself on the desc he was.

"Now that I am not on the menu, can we talk about why you were rummaging through my attic?"

"...you live here?"

Sapnap asked. Karl shrugged, a motion full of silk and economy.

"Sort of. Borrowed space. I prefer low humidity and a steady supply. And humans always forget better things up here."

Sapnap asked what felt important for him: "Are you—like, dangerous?"

Karl laughed, a sound like somebody flicking a violin string.

"Dangerous? To what? To dust bunnies? To your fragile dignity? No. To people who step on me while distracted? Possibly. To those who underestimate conversation as a form of diplomacy? Absolutely."

Tag list

The beeping that woke him earlier was still going, and it was starting to get annoying. He quickly located the source – above him, sticking out of the ceiling, was a red flashing light with a small speaker sticking out of it. The dark room flashed red continually, and the speaker continued to beep and beep. Dream was tempted to stand and reach for the speaker, if only to try and crush it to make it stop.

Suddenly, the red light stopped flashing. The beeping stopped. The light and speaker retracted into the ceiling, a little metal panel sliding shut behind it with a loud bang, as if getting on Dream’s nerves one last time to give a last hurrah. Behind him, the metal table – bed, whatever it was – retracted into the wall just as fast as the light. Then there’s a whirring sound, and suddenly, the rooms dropped like an elevator, but much harsher and dangerous. Dream yelped as he hit the floor again, watching through the little glass panel as metal, bright lights, and grey flew by alarmingly fast. He stayed on the floor until the room stopped roughly, throwing him to the side and making him yelp again.

In front of him, the entire wall lifted like a sliding garage door, showing a huge, mostly empty, room. The walls, ceiling, and floor were all metal. It was also well-lit, unlike the room Dream was in now. In the middle of the room there was a metal table and chair.

Suddenly, the wall behind Dream started to push forward. Dream, still sitting, gasped as he struggled against it, not wanting to be pushed into the new room. He splayed his hands out, pushing against the wall with his feet, but his efforts were futile as eventually the wall stopped, and he was sitting in the new room. Breathing heavily, he looked around, eyes wide. Before, he had underestimated just how huge it was – the ceiling must have stretched fifty feet above his head, at least. It was daunting, and Dream stood hesitantly, startling when the large metal wall slid shut behind him. Dream took a couple more steps into the new room, toward the table, unsure about everything. He was man enough to admit he was even a little scared of the strange rooms and lights and metal.

He was walking to the table when he felt himself step on something, heard a metal twang, and he startled. When he looked down, he saw … a tiny table? And a tiny chair – now smushed by his shoes. He reached down to pick up the chair, smaller than what he would imagine one would use for Barbies. It barely weighed anything. He squinted, confused. Why was there such tiny furniture?

More questions, unbidden, come to him. Where was this strange room? Why was he here? And more importantly – how does he get out?

Just then, he hears something – like whispering. He dropped the chair, letting it clatter to the ground.

“Hello?” He called out to the empty room. He felt his ears twitch – a strange sensation he’s never felt before – as there was more murmurs. Then, strangely, he can hear the words perfectly, as if they were whispered right into his ear. If he’s being honest, what he hears doesn’t make his situation any less confusing.

“Is it just legs? Did they capture a giant pair of legs?” He heard one voice say.

“Shut up, Karl! They’ll hear us!” Another voice said.

“How? Legs don’t have ears.” First voice again.

“Just shut up!” Was the final thing he heard before the whispers fell silent once again.

Dream walked over to where he heard the voices, still scared and cautious. There was a large metal wall, just like the one that had closed behind him before, but this time it was slightly cracked open. Underneath was darkness. He bent down, getting on his knees, and looked into the darkness. He squinted as his eyes got used to the dark, but he saw nothing. “Hello? Is there someone there?” There was nothing – no response. He grunted. “Could you tell me where I am, at least?”

When he still didn’t get a response, Dream stood again, frustrated. He walked back over to the table, taking care to avoid the doll furniture on the floor this time. Then, the strangest thing happened – a long and thin plastic tube descended from the ceiling, right above the table. It opened up at the bottom, spewing beige mush into a pile on the table. A metal spoon soon followed after, sticking out of the mush at a weird angle. Dream flinched away from it, not sure if it was food or poison.

Before Dream could do anything else, there was a scuttling sound, like a mollusk on metal.

Dream flinched. “Shit, what was that?”

He had no idea what made the noise, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to. He grabbed the spoon and held it out in front of himself, as if it could protect him from any bugs or crabs that decided to come out of the woodwork … or metalwork, if the room’s composition was to be considered.

Dream surveyed the room, trying to spot what made the noise, before turning back to the table, relaxing minutely. But then he saw something on the table – and truly, he could not describe that something if he tried. It was only two or three inches in height – about the size of a Polly Pocket Doll – but it looked so realistic that Dream couldn’t help but think it was alive. It looked like someone’s cruel idea of a fairy, but they brought out the doll and bug-like features to make it truly unsettling. Its eyes were large and brown, but looked like wasp eyes, with no pupil or iris, just all sclera. Its hair was a dark brown and thick, but two long antennae stuck out from the bushy mess, like a butterfly. Its hands had tiny claws, and on its back were little wings, like from a cockroach – and Dream would know, having lived in several unsavoury apartments before.

The bug-like doll looked strange enough, and Dream was trying to figure out how it got on the table, when it moved. It rubbed its hands together like a fly, pushed back its hair, and cleared its throat. A surprisingly human voice came out of the doll. “Hello, I’m –”

Dream, though he hated to admit it, screamed. “Ew!”

Dream, though he stood at six feet and three inches, and though most people thought him to be tough, absolutely hated bugs. They creeped him out to no end, and his instinct was to kill every single spider and roach he found in his home. And right now? This was no exception. His instinct kicked in and he tried to use the spoon to kill the bug doll, not wanting to touch it himself.

Unfortunately, the bug was a quick mover, and evaded his hits several times, talking all the while. “Will you stop?!” It screeched. “Careful, you almost hit me –”

Finally, Dream’s spoon hit true, and the bug-like doll finally flattened out on the table, dead.

At least, Dream thought it was dead, until it groaned. “Whatever mad scientist made you, they really went all out.”

“You … you can talk,” Dream said, stupidly, only processing it now. Before, he had been so creeped out that it hadn’t clicked in his head that this bug-thing might be an actual person. The bug – person – whatever it was – only groaned in response.

“Hi, there!” Another voice said.

Dream jumped in surprise, tripping over something on the floor. He grunted in pain when he hit the metal flooring. When he looked down, there was purple goo on his dress shoe. He reached out to take it off, hating the feeling of the slime on his hands, only for the goo to move on its own, forming the shape of a person, like some kind of purple Play Dough. Like the bug person, this one was only a few inches tall. The person hung upside down from his hand, and Dream grimaced in disgust. He threw the slime to the floor. “Ugh!”

The slime person broke in two, falling apart into two separate piles of goo. One pile of goo rose up, forming a human face and eyes. “My back!” The goo person cried. Then they smiled. “Just kidding! I don’t have a back.”

They easily moved over to the other pile of goo, reforming back into a full person again.

Above, on the table, the bug person groaned, this time not in pain, but in exasperation. They peeked over the side of the table, their bug-like eyes shining in the light. “Please ignore Karl – as you can see, he has no brain.”

It was true – Dream could see straight through the purple goo, and there was nothing.

“Pfft,” Karl, the goo person, said. “You don’t need a brain! Totally overrated, Gogy.”

“May I remind you who has a brain and a PhD, and who doesn’t?” Gogy – god, what a weird name – said. His antennae moved up and down in irritation.

Dream just stared in disbelief at the two – monsters? – when something approached from the foot of the table. Just like the other two things, it was only a few inches in height, and it looked strange. Its skin was tinted orange, with bits of black around the eyes, like a panda, and tipped black on the claws it had. It had a mullet of black hair, with two orange and black horns sticking out. Dream could see tiny fangs hiding in its mouth, and a tail that swung back and forth casually behind it. Its eyes burned a bright orange, like fire, with the sclera being black. Dream couldn’t help but think the tiny person looked like one of those miniature demons you would see on the shoulder of characters in comic books.

“Wow, look at you, you’re huge!” The demon thing said. “Now, I know what you’re thinking – first day in prison, you’re big, and you want to take down the toughest guy in the yard. Well, I’d like to see you try!” Then the demon thing cracked its knuckles, grunting, and held out its hands at its side. They lit on fire, and Dream had to do a double take to make sure it was real. The demon grinned, looking proud of itself. Its hands extinguished. “Hey guys – look, he’s speechless!”

The bug person spread its wings and jumped off the table, floating down to the floor where the other two monsters (Dream still wasn’t sure what the three things were, exactly, and whether they counted as people or something else) were. Gogy wrinkled its nose in frustration. “Sapnap, you’re not making a very good first impression.”

“Yeah, like you did any better, Mr. Cockroach!” Sapnap – the demon thing – defended. “At least I didn’t scare him into trying to kill me and denting the new table.” Dream, belatedly, realised that Sapnap was right – there were now several new dents in the metal table, though he didn’t know how he could have done that. He wasn’t that strong, was he? “Besides, this is the first new monster in years, and we couldn’t get, like, a wolf man or a mummy? You know, someone to actually spar with. Your scrawny ass never wants to do anything with me.” Sapnap finished his rant by pouting and crossing his arms.

 “Oh, forget it,” Gogy said. It turned to Dream, bug eyes staring unblinkingly, and being unsettling in general. Dream shuffled backwards. “What’s your name, anyway?”

Dream, still hugging his knees to his chest, answered: “Dream.”

Gogy squinted. “No, no, no – we mean, like your real name, not whatever the government named you. For example, I’m George – but they like to call me 404. What do your friends call you?”

“Dream.”

“Dream?”

“Dream.”

“You know, you’re not much of a talker,” George – not Gogy – pointed out. “What’d you even do to get so big –”

Just then, there was suddenly a beeping sound, not unlike the alarm that was in Dream’s room earlier. George stops mid-talk and the three little monsters all perked up and ran over to the tiny table that Dream had observed before. George grabbed one chair, Sapnap ran and jumped into another, and Karl was left with the squished chair that Dream had stepped on earlier. Karl shrugged and moved toward the chair, the metal passing through his gooey body.

“Yes! Food time!” Sapnap cheered, punching his fists in the air. In his excitement, his fists light on fire briefly, shooting fire flares into the air, before extinguishing.

A long plastic tube descended from the ceiling, much like what happened earlier with the mush on the normal-sized table, but this time smaller and centred around the tiny table. It deposited what looked like coal and burned meats in front of Sapnap – who happily started biting into the charred meat with his hands alone. Large bones and metal cans of what look like energy drinks are thrown – quite literally – at Karl, who simply absorbs them into his body, disintegrating them into his purple goo. And lastly, George gets … Dream has to squint, but it looks like sushi. He didn’t know bugs liked sushi, let alone that a monster like George would eat something so normal.

Meanwhile, Dream is still having a crisis over where he’s sitting. Only now was he starting to remember what happened at the wedding, his recollection fuzzy. He’d thought that it was all a dream, but now … now, he’s not so sure. After all, he woke up in a strange place, met three little dolls – monsters – strange people – whatever you wanted to call them – and he saw no way out.

“Oh, please, god, tell me this isn’t real,” Dream muttered to himself. He carefully stood, backing away from the three at the tiny table. “Please tell me I had a nervous breakdown at the wedding, and now I’m in a psychiatric ward on medication that’s giving me hallucinations …”

Suddenly, Dream felt fuzz behind him, like he just backed into his grandmother’s old carpet wall.

He looked up.

Standing over him was what looked like a cross behind a giant, a cat, and a fuzzy caterpillar. Covered in fur, coloured in patches of reddish brown, the monster – for this, for sure, is a real monster – looked down on him. Its nose twitched and its cat-like ears swiveled. It had to be at least twenty feet tall.

Dream cursed. “What the fuck!”

The monster roared.

Dream cursed again and started running to the other side of the room; this time, his strides are long and strong, and he makes it there in three seconds flat. Where was this speed when he needed it at the wedding?

Briefly, he hears Sapnap yell. “Hey, don’t scare Patches like that! She’s really skittish!”

Dream ignored Sapnap, hurrying over to where he remembered the wall moving from earlier. It was a door – it had to be a door. It had to be able to open again, maybe into another room where he wouldn’t be surrounded by monsters, where a normal human could tell him what was going on. “There’s got to be a door here! Where’s the door?” He banged his fists against the wall several times, flinching back when he realized the several-inch deep dents he left in the metal. What the hell? Since when was he strong enough to bend metal? “Please!” He calls out. “Please, anyone! Where am I? Let me out!”

Behind him, George called out, “Hey, hey – that’s not a good idea!”

“Let me out!” Dream demanded again, feeling anger course through his body. For a second, it seemed like the room got smaller, before his fear returned and the weird perspective shifted away. He banged on the wall one more time, leaving a huge hole in the metal.

A surprised face greeted him on the other side of the hole – a human face.

A tiny face.

“That was carbon steel,” a surprisingly high-pitched voice said, coming from the tiny human.

There was a whirring sound, and the wall in front of him lifted like a garage door, groaning when the dents scraped against the other metal. The tiny human was revealed to be using some kind of futuristic jetpack, silent and steadily keeping him in the air at Dream’s height. The human had long hair, down past his shoulders. He was wearing a black beanie, wire-rimmed glasses, and had a goatee. The rest of his outfit looked to be some sort of military garb, with some medals glinting on his breast.

“Monsters,” he called, “get back in your rooms.”

Karl, George, and Sapnap all groaned, but didn’t protest past that. They got up and retreated to different walls in the room, which lifted and shut behind them. The giant monster – Patches, Sapnap had called it – her? – made a sound disturbingly like a meow but was led back into her cell by a giant light.

Dream turned to the tiny human. This was his only chance to get real answers about where he was and what was going on. “Thank god you’re here, I thought I was going crazy!”

“Trust me, you’re not going crazy,” the man said, smiling.

“Then, you don’t mind me asking … why are you so small?” Dream asked, scared to know the answer.

“It’s actually you that’s big,” he said. “You’ve been turned into a giant.”

“What – no!” Dream denied. But then he thought of the wedding; he thought of how he grew and grew, until he burst out of the church. He thought of how small Quackity seemed in his hands. He remembered how small the three monsters had seemed. He thought of how his hair had turned white, how his hearing was suddenly better, and how strong he seemed now. “How …”

“It’ll all be explained to you,” the man said. “The name’s Bad. I’m in charge of this facility. Now, follow me – it’s time for your orientation.”

-

Once Dream stepped onto a moving platform, Bad seemed ready to start. He didn’t even say anything about the two small – well, small to Dream – helicopters that followed them the whole time, or how they looked ready to shoot Dream if he made the slightest wrong move. Bad just kept jetting along, like nothing was wrong. “In 1950, it was decided that the general public could not handle the truth about monsters and should focus on more important things – like paying taxes.” Dream couldn’t tell if that was a joke or not, but Bad just smiled and continued. “So, the government convinced the world monsters were the stuff of myth and legends and locked the monsters they could find in this facility.”

“But I’m not a monster!” Dream protested. He flung his hands out. “I’m just a regular person –”

One of his hands hit one of the helicopters, which had gotten too close. The helicopter went flying, spinning wildly and falling below the platform, into the darkness. The entire way down, the pilot screamed.

Dream flinched. “… Sorry?”

But Bad didn’t seem phased. “Accidents happen!” He said, like Dream didn’t just take out a military helicopter with a flick of his wrist. “But let’s try to keep those accidents to a minimum, alright?”

“… alright,” Dream said, still feeling guilty.

The platform Dream was standing on shifted, making him startle and throw out his hands for balance. He was careful to keep them far away from the remaining helicopter. Bad seemed to ignore what just happened in favour of barreling on with his explanation. “You’ve not only gained massive size, but also massive strength. Earlier, you punched through ten feet of carbon steel. Not to mention that you’ve gained non-human qualities, like sharpened canines, changed senses, and pure white hair. Now, as far we can tell from the numerous scans and tests we conducted, your current condition is because your body absorbed a massive amount of energy, not seen from this Earth. Where you got that energy from, we’re unsure, but some of the brightest minds were stumped by it. One voiced that it almost seemed like the same energy that came from the sun, like an extra-terrestrial source, but that would be impossible unless –”

“Oh, I was hit by a meteor,” Dream said, nonplussed.

For once in their entire conversation, Bad’s calm and collected appearance cracked.

“You were what?!” He yelped.

“Hit by a meteor,” Dream repeated. He played with his hands, suddenly feeling sheepish. “I’m not sure where it went, because it was gone by the time I woke up. But I was hit by a meteor on my wedding day, and I just thought it was a crazy fever dream, so I ignored it, but –”

“But now things are starting to make more sense,” Bad finished for him. “Alright. I have some calls to make, now that you’ve given me that bit of information. I’ll take you to your cell.”

The platform moved again, but this time Dream was ready for it, and he kept his footing. He looked around the large room he was in – at the moving jeeps, helicopters, and bright lights. There were multiple platforms and lots of people scurrying around. He glanced upward and saw multiple large glass windows, showing into little cells that contained the monsters from earlier. Sapnap was lifting weights, George was fiddling with what looked like Legos, and Karl was … well, he was just sitting there and giggling. Dream was surprised he was even able to see them from where he was standing – he guessed his vision was also something that was enhanced.

Dream turned back to Bad. “And how long will I be here?”

“Indefinitely,” Bad said, distracted by some sort of screen on his jetpack.

Dream sucked in a sharp breath. Indefinitely? That could mean anything from a week, up to years. And Dream wasn’t stupid – in his current condition, with how big he was, he wasn’t going to fit into normal human life. Unless something could reverse what happened … maybe he could get out, then.

“Can I at least contact my friends and family?” Dream asked hopefully.

“No,” Bad said, like he didn’t just rip out Dream’s heart.

“What about my husband – I can’t just –”

“Sorry, not him, either.”

“Do they at least know where I am?” Dream asked, desperate.

“No, and they never will!” Bad said cheerfully. He turned away from his screen. “This place is not even known to most of the government, let alone regular citizens! There will be zero contact with the outside world.” Finally, the platform stopped moving, and a large panel on the wall opened. The platform moved again, sliding Dream neatly into the new room. It looked much like the room he was in when he woke up – small, all metal, and it had a metal table sticking out of the wall with a singular, sad pillow. And now, on the table, there was a folded outfit, mostly black and green. If Dream squinted, he could see a singular poster taped above the bed, of a kitten stuck in a tree, with the tag line ‘Hang in there!’ Bad flew closer to Dream, smiling softly. “I had the prison psychologist redecorate your cell, to try and make it homier.”

Dream’s eyes started to sting.

Today had been a long day. Not only had his wedding been ruined, but now he was locked up in a military prison with no way to contact the ones he loved. He was branded as a monster and stuck as a freak indefinitely. He didn’t even get a proper room – just a small, sad cell. “But I don’t want a poster,” he said, starting to cry. “I want a real kitten. I want my family and friends. I want to go home.”

“Oh, please don’t cry,” Bad said hastily. “It’s not that bad – don’t think of this as a prison. Think of it as a hotel you’ll never leave, because it’s locked from the outside! Oh, well, maybe don’t think of it like that – but still. You’ll be treated well. Just put on your new jumpsuit, and we’ll be good to go!”

The door started to close, and Bad turned sideways in his jetpack, looking at Dream through the slowly closing space. “Oh yeah, and one other thing – the government has changed your name to Nightmare.”

Then the door slammed shut, leaving Dream in a dimly lit cell, alone.

"Sapnap, c'mere!" The ravenette yelled in excitement, the shorter was practically bouncing off the walls as Sapnap entered the room. The brunette scoffed as he playfully rolled his eyes as he waited for the other to speak. A mischievous(and overly proud) grin was placed on the shorters face as he began to speak.

"I got a new job for us~" He grinned widely as he brought out a poster, "They're showcasing the Dumontè Crystal in this museum. That crystal is worth a lot. If we can figure out a way to steal it and sell it without it having to trace it back to us, we'll be set for life!"

Sapnap chuckled as he took the poster from the shorters hands and began examining it, "Yo we could certainly pull this off." Before Sapnap could praise Quackity on his findings a rather loud and exaggerated sigh came from beside them.

"No chance you guys can even get close to getting that."

Karl

Karl was a borrower they picked up a while back, the criminal duo never understood having borrowers as pets or food—Neither of them wanting to eat anything alive—so when they found the tiny brunette on one of their little escapades, they decided to just bring him along with them.

Now the borrower was sitting on their countertop, eating large amounts of sweets. As he continued to degrade their chances of ever pulling off the mission.

"Even if I joined you guys on this mission again, their security in protecting that crystal is like top tier!" Karl said as he waved his hands around, "I've heard of their security measures, apparently people died, trying to get in." He explained as he grabbed a handful of cotton candy. The two humans were taken aback at the borrower's knowledge of the topic.

Quackity grinned as he leaned against the counter, "Seems like you know alot about this thing, I'm sure we'll get it if you come with us-" The shorter brunette rolled his eyes as he stared at the ravenette. "I literally just said it wouldn't work." As the words left his mouth, Sapnap butted in the conversation. "Karl, I bet those other thieves that tried stealing it were uninformed. And plus, we all know you're gonna join for the thrill anyway."

The tiny chuckled as he agreed, "Fine, I'll help you idiots-" Quackity and Sapnap let out a short 'whoop' as they high-fived each other. Then Sapnap scooped up the borrower, and they headed to their room to begin their plan.

The trio worked on their scheme the entire night until they all passed out at sunrise. Even if the two humans were tired as hell, neither got a wink of sleep.

(Why does this tiny have to sleepwalk!?)

》》》☆《《《

A few weeks have passed since they started planning, weeks of preparation and thinking of every possible outcome that would come from their actions—they even have time to make an entirely new fit for Karl, which the borrower greatly appreciated—After months of Karl living with the two criminals, he certainly picked up a few tricks.

The trio worked during the weeks of their planning, each working to perfect their respective roles for the mission—albeit with a few mishaps, they all deemed themselves ready.

The day arrived when they would pull off their heist. It was the day the crystal was showcasing, and there definitely will be more security, but on the other hand, more distractions. The trio stood a good distance away from the event as they went over their plan.

"Okay so- once I and Karl sneak in and disable the cameras, you and I go and snatch it," Quackity affirmed as he wrapped his hand around the borrower and hoisted him up to his pocket. Sapnap gave the shorter a nod as he watched the duo hop down to the next building.

The ravenette and brunette both carefully neared the building—albeit Quackity did most of the work—a sea of people assisted them in blending in, of course giving a bit of struggle, Quackity maneuvered through the crowd eventually reaching a backdoor.

It was Karl's turn to weigh in. The borrower slid down under the door, climbing his way to unlock the door. The borrower mustered up his strength and began to turn the lock. Immediately, the door was flung open, the tiny almost flying off if it wasn't for his grip on the handle.

"Oh shit- sorry." Quackity sputtered out as he grabbed the borrower and abruptly shut the door. The duo began to navigate their way through the building. Hiding away from security that was guarding the parameters.

Quackity was able to snag the keys—which were properly labeled—from one of the passing guards. He browsed through the keys. Once he picked the right one, he clicked open the door, and they both sneaked in.

Weirdly enough, there was no guard in the security room. The raven-haired male got to work as he hacked the systems. He replayed the security tape so they wouldn't be spotted as they slyly sneaked around the facility. As Quackity typed the last bit of code, he grabbed his comms and messaged Sapnap.

"Okay, Karl, from here on out, it'll be me and Sap." The taller grinned as he placed Karl in his pocket, the borrower crouched and waited for further news.

Every noise outside the pocket was muffled, it oddly soothed him, just enough that he didn't even realize he fell asleep. The last sounds he heard were the vague voices of Sapnap and Quackity.

He jolted awake once he felt the pocket jostled, he immediately panicked as he was violently thrown around the minimal space. He could hear a faint voice call out 'sorry', followed with a few hushed curses and screams. He thrashed around his arms, desperate to grab onto something to keep himself stable. He grabbed a handful of the fabric.

The borrower was clearly still shaking, hr held his ground as he felt everything come to a stop albeit with a bit of shuffling about. Light peeked in as the pocket was opened, Karl jumped to poke his head out.

"Karl, you okay?" Sapnap spoke as he gripped the steering wheel. The borrower climbed out of the patch and turned his head to the taller ravenette. "Y-Yeah? Just a lil dizzy." He chuckled. The brunette turned his head to look at the crystal in Quackity's palm.

"Woah- that looks so cool!" Karl stares, mesmerized at the crystal. "So, how do you plan on selling it?" He asks curiously, Sapnap hummed as he gave an answer. "I got this buddy of mine. He's the top mafia boss in probably the whole world, and he's willing to pay a pretty penny to get his hands on it." He grinned as Karl gave him a noise of approval. "However, he's currently out of country, and considering this crystal is one of a kind, he wants to see it firsthand, so we'll have to keep it for the time being."

The road was no longer smooth, it was a telltale sign they were nearing their cabin, the borrower almost fell over, yet he caught himself. As the car began pulling up to the driveway Sapnap scooped up the borrower and placed him on his shoulder(truth be told Karl was way too comfortable in letting them drag him around.)

The three let out a sigh of relief as they stepped into their humble abode. Quackity instantly went to place the crystal in a secure place, which was oddly enough an intricately designed box. The ravenette cautiously dropped the crystal in the cushioned box.

The trio decided to head to bed, not even bothering to wash up. The velvety dark skies overlooked the forest as the moon glowed, bright and powerful. As the three slept soundly that night, something was askew with the presence of such a mythical crystal in an untamed area.

Hidden within the box, the crystal shimmered and glowed. It began to vibrantly shake as smoke was emitting from it. None of the residents were aware of the matter; as they preferred to collect their well-earned sleep.

They subtly inhaled the fumes, unaware that they even did so. It was only till the very next morning when they all startled awake and screamed in unison.

"What the h-"

〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️