Note to self: Updating a story is much easier when you already have two chapters complete in advance.
In the Mafia HQ, Cooking Cat and Mu were in the feline's quaint little loft, the latter sitting miserably inside a cocoon of blankets and pillows.
"Whatever you're making, it already smells horrible." Mu complained.
"That's because I have to use some pretty nasty ingredients to make you feel better sweetums." Cooking Cat said, "I buy quite a bit of healing foods from that Badge Seller man for when my sisters back in Alpine get sick, and I can promise you that these ingredients are not going to taste well together."
"Then why are you using them?"
"Because after one bowl and a good nap, you're going to be feeling much better."
Mu was skeptical but took the cat's word for it. She sneezed up a storm and felt even worse very quickly.
"You should rest sweetums, I'll let you know when the soup is done."
"Oooookaaaaaay" Mu moaned, sinking her head into the blanket cocoon.
—
"Did I miss something?" Ewe the Nomad asked, having just returned from trying to put Hat Kid's diary back to her bedroom.
"Yes." Was the only reply they received from almost everyone in the room, aside from Rham who hobbled over to Ewe and gently bah'd.
"Oh, Rham! You're a young goat again!" Ewe exclaimed, petting the small protector.
"Wouldn't that be a kid?" Asked the prince-turned Snatcher.
"Ok, who are you exactly?" The young Mafia Boss asked. He was sporting some grey sweatpants and a red hoodie (like a lot of boys in Hat Kid's school), so he looked mostly like a miniature version of his adult self.
"I'm Snatcher you jarhead!" The other yelled, looking more or less like the a Hat Kid-sized version of the prince she'd seen in Subcon's pink Time Rift.
"You used to be a human? I thought ye just kinda appeared with the rest of that madness you call a home." Conductor said before making a disgruntled face in response to his younger voice. He and Grooves had clearly gotten the short end of the stick and were spitting images of their childhood selves, who had definitely been younger than Hat Kid, from the Studios' pink Time Rift.
"Guys!" Hat Kid yelled, very clearly ticked off, "Conductor, explanation, now."
"You were so lonely Lassie! I just thought I'd help ye out and find some other children to play with is all!"
"And your solution was to turn yourself and every other adult in the main hall...into a kid?"
"No, that was unintentional."
The lone girl of the group jumped down and swiped the Time Piece that had caused this mess and looked over it thoroughly.
"So uh...yer gonna use that to change us back, right Lass?" Conductor asked.
"Are you crazy? No! This Time Piece is completely unstable!" She pointed to the sands inside the hourglass. Normally they were a light yellow color, but in this case at least half of the grains were pure white. How did they not notice this? "Using it to undo the problem would probably make the situation worse."
All the boys glared at Conductor menacingly, especially Grooves.
"I can't run Mafia Town like this, how do we change back?" Mafia Boss asked.
"I don't know, most of the people that were crazy enough to break an unstable Time Piece has never lived to tell the tale." Hat Kid grumbled, "Those people were usually non-time travelers that wanted power, and they usually either exploded or got erased from existence after trying to get what they wanted."
"So we're stuck like this?" Grooves panicked before covering his beak, his voice came out incredibly squeaky and timid, to his embarrassment and Conductor's amusement.
"What happened to yer deep baritone voice DJ Peck Neck?" Conductor jeered, "You sound like a wee mouse."
"You're one to talk! You sound like a...a…" Grooves stuttered before looking at the floor, "shut up…"
"Are you crying?"
"No." Grooves lied. There were clearly tears welling up.
"Kid, how am I supposed to make contracts when I'm not the right legal age to make them?!" Snatcher asked, "Don't you have any way to fix this?"
Hat Kid thought for a second. She snapped her fingers and nodded, "My bookshelf should have a manual of listed mistakes and problems that have occurred in the past when Time Pieces were accidentally misused in certain ways. I don't remember what it's called but I know where to find it."
The girl ran off into the Machine Room. Snatcher's face became very panicked as he remembered that he had alphabetized the books in that room; if Hat Kid didn't know what the book was called… then that meant-
"Who rearranged my books?!"
"I thought it would be funny!" Snatcher exclaimed.
Hat Kid had returned to the Main Hall and looked about ready to beat up the prince with her umbrella. Her expression softened though a second later and she hugged him.
"Kid, am I crying?"
"Just a little bit."
"Crap." He hadn't even realized he had been crying, but apparently he had. "Why am I crying?"
Hat Kid let go of him to turn to Grooves, who had hidden himself in a corner of the room so Conductor wouldn't see him crying as well.
"I think…" she mumbled, "I think you're bodies are conflicted on whether you should be adults or kids, so your brain is sending in signals that are appropriate for one or the other and acting accordingly."
Snatcher made a very annoyed noise, "Figures…I always wussed out when my fencing instructors tried to challenge me since I was never a fighter."
"That might do it…" Hat Kid said as she walked over to Grooves. He and Conductor were barely taller than Hat Kid as adults, and as such were much smaller as children, so she picked up the young penguin and gave him a gentle hug. He reciprocated her affections by nudging the kid's chest with his cheek.
"Thank you Darwlin'." Grooves mumbled, blushing at his baby lisp.
"I'm gonna need to look through my entire bookshelf to see if and how I can fix this," Hat Kid said to everyone, "Can I trust you guys to not kill yourselves or each other while I'm doing that?"
"Probably." Mafia Boss replied.
"Absolutely!" Ewe said, sitting next to their sleeping goat companion.
"Sure." Snatcher said after, trying his best to still sound like his usual self.
"I'll try me best I suppose…" Conductor mumbled last. He was kind of jealous that Grooves was getting friendly treatment after he went through all that trouble to try and cheer her up. He'd probably tease the penguin later.
"In that case, I'll be in the Machine Room." Hat Kid proudly proclaimed, placing Grooves back onto the ground as she did so and heading to her desired destination.
Asking someone other than Ewe to make sure she didn't fall asleep had been her first mistake that day; expecting five children other than herself to not cause trouble on her spaceship was her second.