The Bet (part 1)

"Do you and your brother remember me?" Joan's words hung in the air for what seemed like a million years. There was, what it seemed, complete silence between the two of them. Then Mugman finally replied, "I'm sorry miss, I don't really know who you are. Actually this is my first time seeing you here at the casino. Maybe my brother would know, I'll ask him." "Ask me what? What do I know?" Joan flinched as the oh so familiar voice spoke out right beside her. She didn't even hear him coming! Maybe it was because the casino games and people are so loud. Or maybe it was the fact that she was really shocked and nervous that she finally met the brothers after all these years. "Oh, there you are Cuphead! We have a question for you." Mugman said eagerly. "Lay it on me brother!" Cuphead exclaimed. Mugman replied,"This young lady here wants to know if we have ever met her before." Cuphead raised a brow and then a cocky smirk, "Muggy you and I are only 18 years old. 'Young lady'? Really? You sound like an old man again." Mugman made a look, a head gesture, and a 'Ahem'/cough toward Joan, that said, "Shut up and just answer the damn question!" Cuphead got the memo loud and clear. He replied, "Ummm...to answer that question... I'm not really sure. Hey miss? Can you please turn around so I can see your face? It's kinda hard to tell who you are just by looking at part of your face." Joan started to sweat profusely but not to the point where it showed. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and turned around to face him. She opened her eyes and saw an older looking Cuphead. He, like his brother had similar features. In both race, height, looks (kinda), and clothing. The only difference between them were that Cuphead's head was a little more wider and circular. And that his uniform had a red color theme to it and had a red diamond patch at the corner top of his vest. Oh and did I mention, their personalities as well? Joan had her thick glasses on and of course had her hair in the way (sort of), so Cuphead couldn't tell that she was wide eyed and was about to blush and cry at the same time. She did everything in her power from losing her composure and making a scene (again). She, unbeknownst to Cuphead and Mugman, she was using both of her hands to squeeze the sides of the bar chair. Trying very hard not to jump out of the chair and giving Cuphead a big kiss and hug. Cuphead stared at her for the longest time, then finally replied, "Nope! Never met her! I would definitely remember your face. I'm good with faces, so I definitely would know."

Joan figured as much. She WAS the one to seal away their memories of her and what they did together 8 or 9 years ago. But she remembers it as if it was just yesterday. She remembered that when she first arrived at Inkwell Isle, she was the new kid in the neighborhood and everything was new to her. From seeing moving vehicles to seeing a skyscraper. Before living there, she was either in foreign countries or going back and forth between dimensions learning what her parents did for work and preparing to get ready for Heaven's training camp. The reason she was at Inkwell Isle was because her parents thought it would be a good idea for her and her twin sister to get some practice in before going to the training program for a few years. And becoming members of the Heaven's court in the next thousand years. She wasn't so enthused to being in a strange and remote part of the world. Her sister, on the other hand, was so excited that she could hardly keep still in one place. She kept trying to remind her sister that they were there for training purposes only. And not to fool around with either buying things that they didn't need or goofing off too much and not to wander off to far and to stay close to her. But her words were in vain. She turned around and her sister was gone. Joan face palmed her face and groaned. She started looking for her immediately while grumbling underneath her breath, "I'm the younger twin. So why do I have to act like the mature one around here?! You're supposed to set a good example for me and our family. What the heck Josephine?!" She cried out for her sister as she ran down the street. Looking left and right, she didn't notice that there was someone in front of her. She accidentally ran into a large, buff, and intimidating wolf man with scars on different parts of his body. As she stared at him, he replied, "Hey you little punk! Watch where you're going!" She snapped out of her surprised trance and tried to apologise, but she kept stuttering over her words. "Oh, I see. It's because I'm not human that you must think I'm a freak?! Go on! Say it! I dare you! Say I'm a freak! You're going to pay for being rude to me anyways!" She tried to get the words from her mouth but she couldn't. It was her first time feeling so scared. Even though she's seen a lot more scary things in the last 10,000 years, for some reason, she couldn't gather her courage to defend herself. Due to her heritage, she ages a lot slower than the average person; so she was basically only a 10 year old back then. Or at least had the appearance of one. But compared to how old her parents were and the rest of her family, she and her sister were considered as youngsters. The wolf man replied, "Well whether you say it or not, you're still gonna get a good beating!" As he grabbed her by the collar of her shirt, she closed her eyes and waited for him to punch her. But before he could, her sister jumped right on him and tried to hold his arm back.

Now you got to remember, they weren't ordinary little girls. They had numerous powers they could use. And the one Josephine used was her super strength to hold him from hitting her sister. Joan was surprised that her sister was doing this. For deep rooted and traumatizing reasons, Josephine hasn't fought seriously since the year of 1200 A.D. Back then, (730 years ago), they were only 9,270 years old and dealing with the Greek's Dark Ages. They both had to fend for themselves from the harsh obstacles, trials, and environment all around them. Josephine was fine with fighting then, but something happened that made her not want to willingly fight at all. So Joan had to do it for her and protect her. But now the roles were switched and now it was her sister's turn to protect her.

Josephine used all her strength to hold him back from hitting her, but for some reason, he wasn't letting go of her shirt. So she did the only thing that she COULD do. She climbed up further on his back until she got to the base of his neck, opened her mouth, and chomped down so hard that even a deaf person could hear it. The screams of pain that came afterwards were just as loud. He let go of Joan and as soon as he did, Josephine released him from her Hellishly powerful and painful bite grip from his neck, and grabbed Joan by the arm and yelled, "Ruuuuunnnn!" They ran and ran until they ended up in the middle of the woods. They had no idea where they were and what they were going to do. But the first thing they did was stop to catch their breathes. Second thing they did was look at each other, hugged one another tightly, and wept until they had no tears left to shed.

After an hour or so, they were trying to make their way through the woods, seeing if they can find help. They were a tattered mess. Joan had tears in her shirt from the wolf man's claws from when he grabbed her, she was covered in dirt from running so much, and her hair was in disarray. Josephine wasn't any better. She was also covered in dirt from running so much, and had messy hair. But her face, especially around the mouth area, was covered in wolf man blood from when she bit him. They wanted to at least find a stream to wash up and get at least cleaned up to the point where they didn't look like they had committed a murder.

When they finally found a decent stream of water, it was already sunset and was getting dark. When they were about reach for the water they heard voices on the other side of the stream. The voices were getting closer and closer to them. Until they, (the people), were in view, but only in shadow form. The sisters were frightened, and hid behind some bushes until the people left. They were perfectly quiet until one of them accidentally broke a stick, making a loud 'SNAP'! The people on the other side heard this and replied, "Who's there?! Show Yourself! We're armed and we're not afraid to use 'em!" The sisters cried out, "Wait! Don't fire, please! We just want some water and help!" As the sisters were coming out of the bushes, Joan whispered to her sister to stay behind her since she didn't want to scare the people that possibly had firearms on them. She did exactly that, since she had so much blood on her face.

As they came out, the sun was shining a golden light in between the stream of water making it glisten like jewels. As both the sisters and the people stepped into the sun light they were able to properly get a good look at each other. As the sisters stared at the people across from them, they realized that they weren't people, monsters, adults with dangerous firearms, or all of the above combined together. They were little cup children that were carrying not firearms, but butterfly nets. And like how Josephine was hiding behind Joan, the little blue mug child was hiding behind the little red cup child. They looked to be about the girls ages, you know, appearance wise. As the sun shone down on Joan's beautiful, messy, bright blonde hair, it revealed her wild, but glowing, icy blue eyes. Cuphead's mouth went slightly ajar and his eyes started to go wide and glisten and started to blush a slight red across his face. Joan saw his reaction towards her and couldn't help but think, "What's the matter with him? He's just staring at me. And I think he has a cold. Does he have a fever? Why isn't he saying anything? Is it because of how I look right now?" Joan was new to love back then. After the thousands of years that she's lived, she never once had a crush on someone and vice versa before, until now.

To be continued...