I obviously do not own TPoH nor it's characters. Enjoy :)
"…mm…mmf…"
A young girl with chestnut hair stirred from her slumber and lazily cracked open her eyes. When her line of sight readjusted to the world around her, she took in the tall shelves around her stuffed with strangely shaped bottles and flasks, each filled with a mysterious substance. She sat up and stretched her arms over her head, letting her small legs dangle over the edge of her bed.
…Wait. A closer inspection revealed the true nature of her 'bed'- a plump red armchair, big enough for her small body to use as a makeshift mattress. Blinking, the child hopped off, discovering a pair of living googly eyes at the edge of the armrests. They trained their attention in her direction curiously while she gathered her bearings.
Yes, now it was all coming back to her. She was a 'Hero', taken to a surreal land in need of a savior. Accompanied by RGB, a man with an invisible body, save the TV set hovering where his head should have been.
"Wait-where is he? And…where am I?" Hero thought. Scratching her short hair, she scanned the rest of the room. Cherry wood ladders leaned against a few towering shelves filled with hundreds if not thousands of glass tubes. The chalk green walls elsewhere were decorated with bizarre skulls of horned animals and unfamiliar creatures.
A loud snore broke Hero away from her thoughts. Laid out near the foot of some stairs was a snoring mass partially covered by a red blanket. At one end, atop a pillow, sat a head with feathery pink hair and a single closed eye. The person obviously wasn't human, but something about the figure seemed feminine to Hero. Fluttering above the stranger's face were tiny, dancing flowers, like some strange light show. A thin trail of drool leaked out of the corner of her mouth while a yellow tinted tear ran down her left cheek.
The person didn't seem to be a threat, so the girl approached her and knelt down closer, observing the long eyelashes and even longer beaded hair chain. After a couple more snores, the pink haired cyclops sluggishly opened her coral colored eye.
"Hm?" The stranger hummed, half awake. She stared back at Hero's smiling face.
"Ah. So, you made it." The woman playfully placed a noodle thin finger on the tip of the girl's nose. "What an unusual one you are."
"Why were you sleeping on the floor?" Hero asked as the other groggily sat upright.
"Because you were on the chair." She mumbled, stretching her arms in the air, showing off the oversized sleeves of her salmon pink plaid sweater.
"Oh…you fixed me didn't you?" The girl remembered how those spiky black beasts had ambushed her and RGB, nearly shoving him into the water. All she could recall after that was a swift stab of pain right through her chest, and collapsing-so she assumed she had been injured one way or another.
"Not really, you did that." The female cyclops muttered flatly. "I mean, I gave you a dream to help, but honestly I didn't expect you to-"
"Thank you."
Hero's comment caused the older woman to blink and stare at the brunette. "…Hn. Humans. Your really are strange things, aren't you?" But then she shrugged, "Anyway, I'm not the one who carried you here…" and eyed the flight of stairs behind.
"Looks like he's not up and about yet, though."
"…You mean RGB?"
"Mm-hm." The woman got to her feet, letting the blanket collapse to the ground, revealing her spidery slender legs. "Come on, our sleeping beauty may need some assistance waking up." She began to walk towards the stairs, and little Hero trotted right behind her.
"'My name's Madras, by the way. You go by Hero, correct?" The lady in pink threw over her shoulder. Hero nodded her head and continued to climb the steps, allowing the wood to creak beneath her bare feet.
If Hero had bothered to count how many steps they climbed, she would have counted forty four, from the quiet basement to the top floor. She continued to follow Madras through a long hallway bathed in daylight from windows, giving the environment a pastel green atmosphere. Unlike the floors below, however, the walls didn't hold any shelves for vials-this area of the home looked more…homey.
After passing a couple of doors, Madras came to a halt, curled one hand around a door handle, and wiggled her wiry finger with the other for the girl to come. "Our technicolor friend is in here."
The tumblers in the knob clunked softly as she twisted her wrist. Once the door was fully ajar, Hero poked her head into the room. A clear window let light pour in, casting the colors of daylight over a queen sized bed with red sheets and plush pillows. Sprawled out over the bedspread was RGB, still in his bright blue and red striped blazer and cream colored pants. His black bowtie, however, hung undone around his invisible neck. Fuzzy static littered his usually colorful TV screen with clear drool dripping out of the corner.
"After I got my payment, he could barely stand, so I let him sleep on the bed." Madras explained as the girl hopped over to the bedside. "Better to keep my customer healthy for future purchases than let my only source of income pass out on the floor."
Hero remained silent, occupied by her snoozing companion. She almost reached out to touch his screen, as if drawing another silly face on it would wake him up this time, but Madras's voice stopped her.
"If you'd like, I can show you an interesting method of waking him up." She purred while inspecting her pink nails.
"Really?" Hero pulled back her hand and stared back at the cyclops.
"Sure; I don't see why not." A glint of mischief sparkled in her eye as she walked to the other side of the room, dragging her feet against the long rug spread out in the bedroom. The woman paced back and forth some more, still rubbing her feet against the soft carpet. Hero sat on the edge of the bed, watching her every move with curiosity.
"Tell me, Hero…" Madras asked in an almost sultry voice, still pacing. "Do you know how to make static electricity?"
The girl gasped, and whipped her head at RGB, who was showing no signs of waking up.
"I'm actually wearing some thin, cotton leggings right now." Madras continued, gesturing to her legs. "My feet tend to get cold easily, and it's pretty useful whenever RGB pays me a visit…" She chuckled.
"Now then, Hero, could you stand aside for a moment, please?"
The child obeyed her command and hopped eagerly off the bed. Madras slowly, almost sneakily, approached the unconscious man with her finger poised and ready. She reached out towards his screen, shrinking the space between her hand and his face.
Ka-bzzt!
A sharp spark of electricity clapped between the finger and screen. The reaction was immediate; no sooner had she jumped away from his body did he literally spring from the bed like a jack-in-the-box.
"W-WhAt in God'snAmE iS gOing oN-"He jabbered crazily. The colors on his suit and screen flickered and flashed with rainbows while he stumbled around in an absurd dance. His antennas bent and twitched wildly as his arms and legs flailed in the empty air. If Hero was older and wiser, she might have thought her friend was drunk, or high, or both, or maybe a demented lunatic. The only way her eight year old self could describe him, however, was as downright insane.
After several moments of this ditzy, silly show, the bedlam of his state grew calm. The colors of his suit settled into golden yellows with white pinstripes lining his pants. His antennas relaxed and his screen dripped with his normal colorful mouth.
"Good grief…" He held onto a nearby bureau to steady himself. After shaking his television head, he casted a glance over his shoulder, and saw Madras with a satisfied smirk on her face.
"Never get's old." She grinned, pleased.
"How many times do I have to tell you not to do that to me?" RGB lamented. "Ugh…My head's still splitting…"
"Maybe you should spend less time complaining and more time trying to wake up earlier." Madras hummed, coyly brushing some pink strands of hair out of her eye.
He sighed grumpily and began to fix his now dark gold bowtie, as if that would vent out his frustration. It wasn't until he tightened the knot did he properly notice Hero staring at him.
"G-good morning, RGB." She said with wide eyes.
"Oh…Good morning to you, too, Hero." RGB replied as cheerfully as he could muster. "I take it you slept well?"
"Yes…are you okay?"
"Me? Oh, sound as a pound." He buttoned his blazer as if everything was perfectly grand.
"Are you sure?" Hero didn't know what to think; one minute he was as mad as a hatter and the next back to his smooth talking self. Was he really alright after that tiny electric shock? She had never perceived something so small and everyday as so powerful and, possibly, deadly.
"Oh, don't worry; he needed it, trust me." Madras chimed like a bird, earning a frown from RGB.
"Remind me to throw you off a cliff later." He grumbled as she walked over to the bedroom's door.
"But of course, dear friend." She leaned against the door frame and made eye contact with Hero. "Now you know why he doesn't wear socks." Her blush colored eye blinked friskily in a strange sort of wink before she stood straight up and turned away. "I'll be waiting by the front door when you're ready to leave." She threw over her shoulder before disappearing down the hall.
Once the mischievous woman was out of sight and earshot, RGB whipped his screen in Hero's direction and crossed his arms. "Don't even think about trying that on me later, understand? Doodling on my face is one thing, but electric shocks are another matter entirely."
"But I'm not wearing any socks…"
"Do as I say. Now let's get going before Madras starts to charge us rent."
Now that you have read the fanfic...I dare you to recall the title...Unless you suffer serious allergic reactions to puns XD