Chapter 2: Enter Wonderland
At first, there was nothing but darkness as Cuphead and Mugman, still in the bottle, floated down the river of tears. The brothers remained silent as the bottle went up and down over the waves.
Soon, the darkness began to dissolve, revealing a strangely pinkish-purple sky with light clouds. Strange, neither had seen an end to the keyhole they had floated too, and the casino that they had seen earlier through the door was nowhere in sight. It was almost like the world itself had opened up around them, and they hadn't noticed.
While they went up and down, over and sometimes under the waves, the brothers noticed a strange object in the distance. As they floated closer, the object started looking bigger and bigger. Now they could make it out much more clearly.
Before them was a large boat, which even appeared to be alive with large oval-shaped eyes that stared straight ahead. And standing atop the boat at the very edge was a tall, plump man with an eyepatch covering his eye, a messy black beard, a sewn together gray shirt, a red and yellow striped bandana, and two wooden pegs for both of his legs. He looked to be a pirate of sorts.
"Yarr!" They heard the pirate shout, his voice gruff. "A pirate's life be the life fer me! How I love to sail o'er the bounding sea!" He then pulled a telescope out of his pocket and peered ahead into the distance. "Ahoy! Land ho!" He then placed two fingers in his mouth, leaned over the side of the boat and let a loud whistle.
From the water came a large grey shark, a purple squid, and three creatures that appeared to be half fish and half dog.
"Where away, Captain Brineybeard?" The shark asked.
The brothers did a double take. 'Captain?'
"Arr! Three points to starboard!" Brineybeard barked. "Away, me hearties! 'Ave ye in port in no time at all!"
Cuphead and Mugman looked to each other. If the pirate was right, then perhaps it would be best if they asked him help. Now of course they knew that pirates were not the most trustworthy of all people, but right now he seemed like their best shot.
Stacking on top of each other once again, Cuphead peaked his head out of the bottle. "Excuse us, sir! Hey! Hello! A little help here!" He shouted, trying to get the pirate's attention. But it was in vain as the ship sailed away, disappearing behind the waves.
Just as they felt they were all alone again, Cuphead and Mugman spotted several other oddities of the sea passing by, including five large living barnacles, three urchins with small spindly legs, one giant red crab with the one of the grouchiest faces the boys had ever seen, seven yellow stars floating in bubbles, one giant lobster with a long grey beard and a sailor hat, and ten flying fish.
"Uh, pardon us," Mugman spoke up, trying to get the marry band of sea creatures attention, "but would ya mind helping us, please?"
But once again, whatever cries the brothers tried went deaf to any who passed by as the sea creatures simply swam away.
Just then a large wave rose up from behind them. Cuphead and Mugman turned around just in time for the wave to come crashing down on them, tipping over the bottle and making do a full flip, filling it with water. The bottle was now filled nearly to the brim with cold water as the brothers attempted to squeeze their heads through the small opening.
"Yarr!" Came the prates voice again. The boys looked ahead to see the pirate, Captain Brineybeard, standing on a large rock while all the other sea creatures were on the sandy beach, running around him in a large circle. "Upward! Downward! Inward! Onward! Keep runnin' ye scalawags!"
Clambering over each other, Cuphead and Mugman managed to squeeze themselves out of the bottle, but not before another wave crashed down on them, sending them tumbling into the water.
The first thing Cuphead found when the water receded was that his face was in the sand. As he tried to lift it, he found himself being shoved back down into the ground. When finally managed to look up, he saw that he and Mugman were right in line with the circle the sea creatures were running in. Mugman appeared to notice this too as he kept trying to get to his feet but kept getting knocked down.
As boys kept trying to get up, Brineybeard looked down, and his one eye winded upon seeing the brothers before he smiled a jolly grin. "I say!" He exclaimed, talking directly Cuphead and Mugman themselves. "Ye'll never get dry that way, lads!"
"Get dry?" Mugman asked as he and Cuphead were finally able to get up, only to be pushed along by the other creatures and forcing them run in the circle with them.
"Aye, have to run with the others, lads. First rule o' the caucus race. Ye be dry in no time!" Brineybeard told them just as wave came in and washed over them all.
"No one could ever get dry like this!" Cuphead rebuked as he and the others waded through the water before it receded. Now all of them were even wetter than before.
"Nonsense, lad!" Brineybeard refuted stubbornly. "Look at me! I be dry as a bone already!"
"Your not even running with us!" Cuphead retorted just as they were splashed with another wave. Brineybeard simply ignored him as everyone kept running in the never ending circle for quite some time.
Just as another wave receded, Mugman looked out and spotted the white rabbit washing up on the shore. "Cuphead! Look!" he exclaimed, tapping his brothers shoulder. "There he is!"
Cuphead looked over and spotted the rabbit running off the beach and going into the forest, still saying, "The Devil! The Devil! Oh, my dear paws! He'll have my soul for this! I'm late! I'm late!"
Once they saw their opening, the brothers quickly broke away from the caucus race and raced after the rabbit. The boys brushed passed the bushes and went passed the trees.
The woods were quite nice, though at the same time, something felt off about them. The trees didn't look like any trees they had really seen before, and the grass was so flat you could mistake it for paint on a polished floor.
"Gee, Cuphead. You sure this is where he went?" Mugman asked as they wandered through the woods.
"'Course I'm sure." Cuphead replied, pushing past some bushes. "Have I ever steered you wrong?"
"Well, a few times."
"Those times were a while ago."
The boys ceased their arguing when they broke the tree line and came out of the forest. Ahead of them was a small, strangely shaped house with a straw roof and a short picket fence made entirely from rocks. Surrounding the house was a large open field with several giant tree leafs surrounding it.
"Wonder who lives here." Mugman pondered.
"Well, we won't find out by just standing here." Cuphead told him, already walking down the hill towards the house.
The boys quickly approached the front gate of the house. As they walked up to it, they were surprised to see the gate and fence connected to it was much smaller than it looked from a distance. From the tree-line it looked almost like it was the size of a fortress wall, but up close it only went up to the boys' waists. On the front gate was the name 'Hopus Pocus.'
"Tweedle Dee! Tweedle Dum!" They then suddenly heard a squeaky voice from within the house yell. "Blast those boys. Where could they have put them?"
Cuphead and Mugman looked up just in time to see the window on the second floor of the house open, revealing none other than the white rabbit himself!
"It's the rabbit!" Cuphead gasped as he and his brother looked in surprise.
"He must live here." Mugman realized.
Just then, the rabbit (who the boys rightfully assumed was Hopus Pocus) closed the window and rushed down the stairs as Cuphead and Mugman walked through the gate and into the backyard. He was still muttering things like, "It's no use," Or, "I'm awfully late." when he came bursting through the front door.
He then rushed past the boys without even noticing they were there. "Hey, wait!" Cuphead called. "Mr, we were just trying to-"
Suddenly, the white rabbit finally noticed them as he turned back. "Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dum!" He said to them in an angry tone. "What are you two doing out here?"
The brothers were silent as they towards each other in confusion. Tweedle Dee? Tweedle Dum? Was he talking about them?
"Well don't just stand there!" Hopus snapped before he began pushing the boys through the front door. "Go fetch my gloves and my fan! Time is of the essence!" Before either of the boys had a chance to protest, the door was suddenly slammed shut, leaving the two alone in the house.
"Who does he think he is," Cuphead grumbled, crossing his arms, "we're not Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. And what could he possibly be late for?"
"I don't know, Cuppy." Mugman replied, though feeling more confused than agitated. "I guess he might've mistook us for his houseboys. Maybe if we find his gloves and fan for him, he'll tell us what he's so late for."
"How do you know he has houseboys?"
"Just go with it."
Deciding that that was the best solution at the moment, Cuphead followed his brother as they walked up the crooked staircase. As they headed into the upper floor, they came into a neatly kept bedroom.
"These things have gotta be around here somewhere." Mugman said as he and his red brother searched the room. While Mugman searched for the two objects under the beds and in some suitcases, Cuphead decided to search the drawers to see if he could find anything.
Surly enough, he did find something in the form of a large china jar. Feeling curious, he opened it and inside were several cookies in all shapes with different flavored icing on each one, all of them had the same label on them reading 'Eat Me.'
Cuphead picked a cookie out from the jar and looked at it. It looked like it was freshly baked as it felt warm in his hand, and besides he was starting to feel hungry again.
"Don't mind if I do." Cuphead grinned before tossing the cookie into his mouth and quickly swallowing it.
Mugman meanwhile had continued the search around the room before he opened one particular suitcase, which had inside it a small fan and a pair of white kid gloves. "Okay, got both the gloves and the fan." He said, smiling. "Better get these back to Hocus."
"Uh, M-Mugs...?"
"Yeah, Cuphe-" Mugman's words died in his throat as to his shock and mild horror, he saw that Cuphead was beginning to grow at a rapid pace. Soon, Cuphead's body was now getting too tall for the whole room as his head hit the ceiling and had to stoop his head down to avoid having his neck broken.
And he kept on growing and growing as Cuphead now had to kneel down on the floor. In another minute, there was no more room even for that as he still kept growing. Seeing that he was clearly getting too big for the room itself, Cuphead quickly stuck his left arm out the window and his right foot in the chimney. Only after that did he finally stop growing, but by this point he was too large to even move.
During all of this, Mugman had found himself being backed up to the end of the room. He was terrified and also angry at his brother as this was most likely a result of Cuphead's shenanigans again. It seemed to him that it was always him who had to bail his brother out whenever they got in trouble.
"Cuphead, what did you do?!" He cried. Before Cuphead could sputter a reply, Mugman quickly noticed the now shattered remains of the china jar on the ground with cookies being either smushed or scattered about. He quickly noticed the 'Eat Me' labels on each of them and realized just what that meant. "Did you eat one of those cookies?"
Cuphead frowned. "I was hungry, okay?!" He retorted defensively.
Mugman sighed, as he leaned his chin onto the palm of his hand. "Well, I know for a fact that Hopus isn't gonna like this."
"Well, it could be worse, Mugs." Cuphead said.
"WHAT THE DEVIL?!"
Cuphead and Mugman froze, knowing the voice had come from outside. "I-I think it just did, Cups!" Mugman replied, sweating nervously.
And that is going to be it for this chapter! Sorry it was so short, but I hope you are all enjoying this so far and I will update as soon as I can. Until then, peace!
Quick note: I did decide to have Cuphead and Mugman's houseboy names be Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum since they have been potrayed as the oddball twins in some other art.