King Trollex of the techno trolls knew he deserved this. After all he'd done till now he really wasn't surprised where he had ended up. If anything he was shocked it had taken this long. He sighed heavily. Even if he knew it was coming, didn't make it any better.
He was grounded, and there was no getting out of it.
He let out a groan, scratching at the wrappings around his shoulder. The other leaders had insisted that his injury needed to be taken care of, despite his insistence that he was perfectly fine. Sure, it still hurt, but that was only because the universe seemed bent on torturing him.
Almost like the author of his life was a bit of a sadist.
He rolled over in his temporary bed and looked out the window, which offered a rather lovely view of the city. He could probably just slip right out the window… He let his head fall on the pillow with a groan. He was already in enough trouble as it was; if he did that he really wouldn't hear the end of it!
That was when he heard something from outside his window. He rolled himself out of the bed and made his way over, poking his head outside to get a better look. That's when he came face to face with Barb. He almost let out a yelp of surprise before she clapped a hand over his mouth, indicating that he needed to be quiet. He gave a small nod and she let him go.
"What are you doing here? We'll both be in trouble if they see you…!" He whisper yelled at her, though he was still glad to see her.
"How would they know? My city, I can go where I want." Despite that, she looked around to confirm no one was watching, before she pushed him back into the room and hopped in behind him. "I'm breakin' you out, fish boy."
He blinked, rather shocked at the matter of fact statement. "Wait, really? But there's no way we can… We shouldn't anyway, right?" Despite his half-hearted excuse, his heart was already racing a bit at the thought of directly disobeying those that put him in here, even if he knew it was for his own good.
Barb seemed to notice the excitement he was trying to hide. "I know you wanna, man. Come on! Let's go, I got Riff down below ready to make a distraction! It's time to choose…" She held her hands out, shaking her head and looking a bit pouty. "Stay here for your grounding, or…" She grinned, pointing out the window at the bright blue sky and bustling city below. "Or come have fun and party with me and the rock trolls!"
He bit his lip a bit, looking out the window once more before grinning at Barb. "You only live once, right?"
She cackled at that, just barely keeping her voice down. "Right!" She ran to the window, and waved her hands about, catching Riff's attention. He gave her a thumbs up before running off. "OK, just gotta wait for the distraction now! But before that… you gotta blend in!" She stuck nearly her entire body out the window, her legs in the air kicking to keep her balance. A moment later she pulled herself back inside, a bag hung in her hand. "Disguises~"
She ran to the bed, and unceremoniously dumped the contents of the bag onto it. Immediately a deep dusty brown jacket caught his eye, and he picked it up, admiring the feel of the leather under his thumb. "Pretty nice, eh? Figured you'd go for the jacket! It works great to, since the material is so thick, no one'll see your arms glowing!" She hummed a bit, then turned back to the pile. After a few moments she held up a dark grey knit beanie and a pair of fingerless gloves like he'd seen her father wearing. "Try these on, too!"
She hopped in place, clearly giddy. She reminded him of Poppy a little. He chuckled and slipped on the jacket, zipping it up and testing the fit. It was a little tight around his chest, but he could live with it. Once he felt comfortable, he slipped on the gloves and took up the beanie, flipping himself upside down in the air to use gravity to help get his hair all tucked under it. He flipped back again to look in a nearby mirror.
He tilted his head a little. He looked quite a bit like a rock troll now! If he just landed and kept his ear fins a bit flatter… He tried, and he grinned. That's when he realized. "Shoot! My teeth still glow… wait!" He ran back to the pile, and grabbed a bandana. He tied it around his face like a mask, then pulled it down, letting it hang loosely around his neck. "There! Now I can cover my face when I need to!"
Barb applauded him, laughing. "There ya go man, lookin' like a real rocker! Course, you'll have to keep low, or walk if you really don't wanna stick out."
He glanced down at his fins. "I should probably stop zipping around so much. I'll be a bit clumsy for a while though. We tend not to walk far on them."
She hummed a bit, tapping at her chin. Just then, Barb's pet bat flitted into the room, landing on her owners head. Trollex watched with some fascination as the bat scratched at its fur before pulling out… was that a glow worm?
Just then, as though struck by inspiration, perked up and snapped her finger, startling Debbie away. "That's it! We can borrow dad's old chair! There are plenty of trolls that need to use those chairs here!"
He perked up a little. "Wait, really…? Why do so many need them?"
Barb shrugged a bit, stepping over to the window and peering outside at the city bellow. "Because we live in a volcano, basically. A lot of us get hurt pretty bad from eruptions or stray rocks, or burn out feet on the flows…" He turned back to him, smiling a little. "But we're tough as rocks, y'know? We can withstand a lot."
Trollex looked over the queen, then glanced at himself in the mirror. He had wanted to hate Rock for what they did to his trolls, but they had been suffering in silence since their ancestors first settled here. He looked down, rubbing at his arms.
But don't you still deserve to hate them?
He froze, hearing a voice not unlike his own in his head. Was that his own thought? Was that how he really felt…? He turned away from his darkened reflection, looking towards Barb, who was staring out the window again.
He remembered seeing himself, as though distantly, pushing her deeper and deeper into the waiting darkness of his home. She wouldn't have made it out were it not for the other leaders arriving…
He really had been about to take her life.
He clutched at his chest, wincing slightly as he felt it beat a little harder, a little faster. He could feel darkness creeping in on him. It was cold, it was—
BOOM!
He jolted, snapping back to reality as a firework went off just a short distance from where they were.
BOOM BANG BOOM!
He heard more going off, and jumped a little as Barb dashed over to him, grabbing his good arm and smirking. "That's our cue!" She dragged him to the window, and she leapt out of it, grabbing onto the small cliff edge bellow the window before a drop down the mountain. He slipped out behind her, looking up as another firework went off in the sky, a bright shower of red sparks lighting up the sky.
He laughed, looking over at Barb. "Has the party already started?"
She shook her head, leaping down to the next ledge. "Not till a little later today. For now our pre party has just begun!"
She made to leap to the next ledge, but was shocked when she was plucked out of the air By Trollex, who had taken one of her hands and pulled her into the sky, flying her down to Volcano rock city safely. She let out a whoop, punching into the air in her excitement.
He did his best not to laugh too loudly, and set her down where she pointed him to. Once they landed, they found themselves in front of a humble looking home, and Barb walked up to the door, testing the handle. Sure enough, it opened. "This is dad's place, but he's out right now with the other leaders talking about something boring. I'd have gone, but I think it has to do with me. Anyway, we can get one of dad's old chairs out of his storage and just drape a blanket over your legs to hide the glow!"
He nodded, his heart racing. "Oh man, I've never gone against rules before…! Since my parents passed, I've just been following their old rules… But this is fun!"
Barb glanced back at him. "You never rebelled…? Really? You never once thought the rules were unfair, and you wanted to change things?"
He looked over at a guitar that her dad had hung on the wall on a display. "I never said that, but it… it never really crossed my mind. Last time they told me not to do something, well… that was the last time they told me anything."
She gave him a sympathetic look, pausing in the hall. "Trollex, I'm sorry… about what happened to your folks… Maybe back then, if we'd reached out to help you, rather than just keeping to ourselves…"
Trollex shook his head. "No, it's alright. You guys have your own dangers to worry about. Maybe there was something better everyone could have done in their lives, but…" He smiled at her. "For now let's focus on keeping us out of any more trouble, deal?"
She smiled at him and nodded. "Right, let's go then! This way!" She ran over to a door, pulled it open, and headed through. Once he turned to follow, he found himself staring into a dark basement. He hesitated. "Er, I'll just wait up here till you can get the lights…"
He paused, waiting for some sort of response. None came.
"Um, Barb…? Hello…?" He fidgeted, biting at his lip. "Oh no… Barb? Barb please answer…?"
He let out a small whimper. "OK Trollex, you're not a little guppy anymore, you can do this… just go down there, glow a little, and find a light switch, easy…!" He rolled up his sleeve enough to expose the glowing yellow stripe on his arm. He held it out a little in front of him, and floated quietly down the stairs.
He could hear his heart thrashing in his chest, and he wanted nothing more but to leave and return to the light. He glanced at his wrist again, trying to focus on glowing a little brighter. He looked around, but it still seemed like pitch darkness.
He took a deep breath, closing his eyes and trying his best to steady his heart and mind. There was nothing down here, nothing could hurt him… Darkness wasn't a living thing, it couldn't hurt him… He opened his eyes, and saw a face in front of him, cast in an eerie yellow glow from his wrist.
And he shrieked loud enough to knock his own hearing out for a second. He stumbled back, trying to make his way back to the door, only to run head first into a wall, stunning him for a second.
He fell into a heap against the wall, dazed with a ringing in his ears. A moment later, the light flickered to life in the basement, and he looked around, holding his head. "W-Wha…"
Barb ran to him, kneeling over him to check him out. "Trollex, you ok? What happened?"
He looked behind himself, and saw the face he had seen in the dark. It was a mask, hung on the wall. He let out a groan, letting his head fall to the floor. "Just… gimme a sec… heart racing…"
Barb sighed, holding a hand over her own chest. "I hear ya man… But why didn't you wait for me to turn on the lights…"
He looked up at her curiously, the ringing in his ears finally stopping. "I called down to ask if you were ok, but you didn't say anything… I thought something happened so I came down."
She tilted her head a little. "What…? But I never heard you say anything. I came down stairs and was having a problem finding the light switch till you screamed."
He looked around the room, which was… shockingly small. It was just about the size of a standard bedroom. He looked up at her again. "How did either of us get lost down here? It's tiny!"
She looked around the room, looking nervous. "I…I don't know. Let's just get the chair and leave, alright? Something feels really weird… I might have to get dad to stay with me for a while." She ran over to a pile of stuff, sorting through it a moment before finding an old, folding wheelchair. "Alright, here it is. Let's get outta here now…!" She ran up the stairs, following after her.
As they made it to the top, both froze in their tracks as the bulb in the basement suddenly blew, plunging it back into darkness. Trollex was nearly positive he heard a hiss from the darkness. "OK, that's it; let's get out of here, please?" He made his way to the front door, with Barb following quietly behind. Once they were outside, they both slumped a bit, Trollex landing on the ground to stand on his fins.
"The heck was all that about…?" Barb looked back towards the house, and gave a shudder. "Like we were being hunted or something… Oof I got the shivers!"
Trollex nodded a little, finally pulling the sleeve down to cover his yellow glowing stripe. "Yeah… Let's just focus on something else for now. I'm… sure it was just our imagination." He hoped.
It didn't take long to unfold and set up the chair, allowing Trollex to sit in it and get himself comfortable. She let him move himself around a bit, laughing as he nearly rammed himself into a wall as he tried to figure out the sensitive controls. "Why in the deep ocean does this thing go so fast!?"
She snickered at that, then stepped up behind the chair. "Till you get more used to it, I can just push you around. Well, let's go!"
And so they started their adventure, Trollex smiling brightly before pulling the bandana over his face to hide the glow. This would be a great day!