God, this story was WAAAAAY overdue! But it's FINALLY out! I know that most of you, if not, all of you, have forgotten that I was planning on making a story on Russlob's arrival and his first time interacting with the other Russells. (At this time Happy and Mexican didn't come around yet.) MUCH thanks to Silky (Firefly Fairy in a Bottle) for helping me out with this story; I can't thank you enough! So, without further ado, I present to you:
The Corrupted Hedgehog: Russlob
"What's a good word to use instead of 'bite'?"
Five orange heads turned towards Shipper, who held the back end of his pencil up to his mouth, looking like he was in deep thought. He was always in deep thought when writing fanfiction, it seemed.
Within seconds, most heads turned to Auggie, instead, who frowned at them. "What? At least he's not asking for a synonym for something worse. I can't control him." He gave his boyfriend - draped across Auggie's lap with a clipboard in one hand - an exasperated look, before reaching over to smooth down an unruly spine. He'd probably been staying up too late writing this stuff. Again.
Adverting his eyes away from the pair, Geek straightened his glasses, turning red. "'Nibble' might work." There was a distinct pause. "Or, knowing you, 'gnaw' might work better."
Shipper grinned and mumbled some sort of thank you before returning to his clipboard.
Yes, all in all, it was a normal day in the Tumblr Multiverse.
"Hey, kid..." a voice rose from the silence. Littlest looked up from his novel, thinking the voice was calling for him. He turned his head towards a large crate conveniently placed next to the group. "M-Me?" he squeaked, placing a tiny paw on his fluffy chest, confusion shining in his large yellow-green eyes.
"Yeah. You. I got somethin' to show ya." Littlest turned to look at the other Russells, who were all doing pretty much their average run-of-the-mill things, and concluded only he noticed the voice.
"Is it safe?" Littlest said, remembering what one of Double's friends Penny Ling had told him and his other young friends about who to trust and who not to.
"Of course it is. I have a great book I thought you would be interested in."
The youngest Russell looked down at his book, debating on whether to trust this unknown character. Making his decision, he stood up and began walking towards the crate; if there was trouble, the other Russells would be there in a flash to help him anyway.
Once he reached the crate, he balanced himself on his toes, straining to see over the crate. "Okay. I'm here. What is it?"
"Here's your surprise. It will certainly blow your mind!" What happened next went so fast Littlest had no chance to react. A Russell with gray hues of orange and brown, taking the same design as Double but with a different eye design, jumped up onto the crate and blew an air horn right in Littlest's face, making him scream in surprise and fall over. Immediately all the Russells looked and saw this mysterious hedgehog laughing at the youngest.
"Told ya it would be mind-blowing!" he cackled. His grin only grew larger when Littlest started to whimper, ready to cry.
The first to rise was Fun, clutching the rubber ball he had previously been bouncing against the wall in one paw. The others could only watch in shock as he approached the mysterious newcomer. He stopped when he was a few feet in front of the hedgehog, looking him over with an uncharacteristic frown on his face. "If you're gonna use an air horn, you should use it in a fun way. Not a way that makes little pets cry!" He gestured to Littlest, who was busy picking his glasses up off of the floor and scampering away.
Fun's signature grin returned as he leaned in, inspecting the air horn in the other pet's paws. "And can I borrow that? I broke mine a week ago. Skateboarding accident; long story."
"Oh! So I can't use this air horn unless I do it for fun," the newcomer said in mocking understanding as he leaped off the crate an landed next to Fun. "Well, how is this for fun?"
Before Fun could react, the gray-brown hedgehog grabbed him by his top spine, pulled his head downward, and blew the air horn right in his ear.
As soon as he was released, Fun stumbled backwards, hitting his own head to stop the ringing in his ears. "So I guess that's a no?" he shouted, probably starting to go deaf.
Emo's cigarette met the ground with a slight, muffled crunch. He pulled himself up from off the ground, giving the new pet a dangerous look. Double made sure to pull Littlest aside as Emo made his way towards the gray-brown hedgehog.
A few feet away, Shipper grinned. Make Littlest cry, and Emo doesn't care. But once you mess with Fun... He scribbled something on his clipboard, before returning his attention to the scene unfolding before him.
The newcomer smirked at Emo as he stomped towards him. He blinked and looked at Fun, who was rubbing his sore ears, then back at Emo, and let out a harsh laugh. "Oh, I get it now! Came to defend your boyfriend?"
Emo turned red, his eyes unusually wide. "Boyfriend?!" He froze in place, muttering something along the lines of, "He's not my boyfriend, why would anyone think that, I mean there was that one time, but that was Shipper's fault and..."
"He's really mean..." Littlest whimpered as he nuzzled his tiny muzzle deeper into Double's belly, who just managed to hold back a smile and a flinch.
"It's okay, Littlest," he comforted as he rubbed the youngest hedgehog's head comfortingly. "If anyone can put that rotten hedgehog in his place, it's Emo."
The sound of pencil scribbling on paper made Double's ears twitch, and he looked to see Shipper writing something on his clipboard. Sensing someone looking at him, the gray hedgehog looked up from his clipboard. "Are you writing a fanfiction about this?"
Shipper smiled. "Not quite! I was writing down the premise for one. I'll write the rest later." He looked up at Auggie, smiling still. "For someone so rude, he's pretty clever."
Finally recovering from the shock, Emo finished his ranting and gave the hedgehog in front of him a harsh glare. "He's not my boyfriend, and I should end you for even saying something as ridiculous as that!"
"End me?" the gray-brown hedgehog laughed. "You can't end me! I'm a corruption, a discord, and you can't end that! Besides..."
The hedgehog walks past Emo and picks up his dropped cigarette, then walks back to meet face to face. "You'd never have the guts to do it anyway. You, my friend, are all smoke and no choke." He then turned the cigarette's burnt end forward and stabbed Emo's nose.
Emo hissed, lunging back and wiping the ashes off of the tip of his nose. He grumbled something inaudible before sitting down again. "Fuck it," he said, lighting another cigarette. "You're not worth my time."
The hostile hedgehog smiled in satisfaction. "Any other fool who wants to challenge me? Huh?" His gray-green eyes scanned across the group of Russells, and his gaze landed on Shipper. "How about you? Do you have a say in this, or are you too much of a coward, sitting out and write your stupid little stories that no one else gives a flying feather about?!"
Shipper pouted, twirling his pencil in one paw. "Actually, my best friend likes my fanfictions. And Auggie will read them if I tell him to. He gives great advice. Plus I have like 50 followers online, thank you very much." He was trying to stay calm, but anyone could see he was getting defensive. He stopped twirling his pencil, hitting the eraser end of it against the ground with a dull thump. "So, yeah. Ha."
"Oh, really?" The hedgehog walked towards him, still wearing that devilish smirk. "Well, let's just see how great your fanfictions really are!" In a flash, he swiped the clipboard, as well as his pencil, right out of Shipper's paws.
"H-hey!" Shipper cried, instantly rising to his feet. He took a step forward- or rather, tried to. But his foot collided with Auggie's side, and it didn't take long at all for him to come tumbling down.
The hedgehog chuckled, then looked at the paper, pretending to read what was written. "Eh, decent, but I wouldn't go bragging about it. Obviously you can do better..." He then gripped the top of the paper...
...and ripped it completely in half!
Shipper shrieked as the paper tore, and that shriek turned into a overwhelmed scream as the paper fluttered to the floor. He crawled over to the papers as quickly as he could, picking them up with shaky paws. He scanned the papers, as if to check that everything was still there. Then he let out a gross sob, followed by several more sobs as he rocked himself back and forth.
Auggie rose quickly, and was the first to reach Shipper's side. He frowned at the gray-brown hedgehog, clearly displeased with his actions. "What to you expect to accomplish by being so... so awful to other pets?"
"Simple: my accomplishments are to make every last one of your lives a living Hell," the hedgehog growled with a smirk. "And it seems I'm off to a damn good start, too."
He grinned and looked at Geek. His gaze slid to Double, then back to Auggie. "Tell me, have you ever actually told Vinnie and Sunil about your crush on this pathetic weasel?" He looked down at Shipper, who was still rocking and whimpering in despair.
"It's not a crush!" Auggie said on instinct, before adding, "I love him." quietly, almost as an afterthought. He took Shipper by the shoulders, pulling the crying hedgehog a little closer. "And I'll tell them when the time is right." He frowned. "But that doesn't matter right now! Who are you?"
Silence lingered through the entire area, drawing everyone to anticipation and even fear. After a while, the hedgehog grinned evilly.
"I am Russlob, pure evil and darkness taking the form of one of you, though I will never be one of you, nor would I ever want to. And..." The gray-brown hedgehog turned to look at Double. "I am also the creation of Double's same exact mod."
"What?!" Double couldn't help but shriek, startling Littlest, who was still pressed against his belly.
"Why do you think I look exactly like you? You couldn't have thought it was just a coincidence, could you?" Russlob growled in vicious laughter.
Everyone turned to look at Double, who couldn't stop staring at the gray-brown hedgehog in dreaded fear, surprise and sympathy sparkling in their own eyes. They turned back to Russlob, who was grinning smugly.
"Prepare yourselves, for I have just opened the gateways to Hell, in which none of you can escape," he growled. "Prepare for great pain, humiliation, and torture. And you'd better learn to get used to it... because I'm not going anywhere."