::Sneaker's SnacShak – Businesses are Spooky at Night::

Sometimes, Kyle wondered when it was that Kenny got the hang of breaking into places- not that the Mysterion gig didn't occasionally necessitate it. Still, the casual energy with which the guy arrived with black masks for not only the both of them but Kyle's baby doll too, and handed a bottle of black spray-paint to Kyle since he was the taller out of the two of them, made him wonder just how many times he'd done stuff like this outside the masked persona.

Sure, there was the stuff they'd all gotten up to as little kids, but that was usually out of necessity and panic. Kenny's energy had a level of... whatever going on.

The locked door which Kenny bypassed was a back door to the building, which opened up into a short and narrow hallway. Their first stop was a back-office, which had the monitors for the CCTV... and no one watching them. As suspected, this shop didn't bother with an overnight security detail, and the feeds gave them an idea of where the cameras were, making blacking them out without being seen by them all the easier.

Once that was done, it was straight into the main garage without a word. Kenny just used little hand signals, opening the door up the same way he'd opened the back door and motioning Kyle to go through in the dim red light of the emergency exit sign at the end of the hall.

The smell of these places was something Kyle always noticed- oil, metal, gasoline- it was the same smell that emanated from monster truck rallies and motocross events, though he hadn't take the bus into the city to see one in forever. Didn't matter- one whiff and the memory was right there; only he was in a pitch black and dead silent garage well past business hours instead of a packed and brightly lit stadium.

Once the door shut behind them, Kenny clicked on a flashlight, a blinding circle falling upon the open hood of an old car that had its engine pulled up and out, hanging from a mobile hoist, just a few feet away. The light somehow made the consuming blackness even worse; everything outside the circle became utterly invisible, impossible to even intuit.

"What are we even looking for?" Kyle asked in a stage whisper- the building was empty, but he couldn't bring himself to speak any louder as Kenny took the lead. He had the light, after all.

"Donno." Kenny answered- he'd put on his black mask beneath his trademark parka, and pulled his hood tight over the top. The extra layer of muffling made him even harder to understand than usual- Kyle was convinced it was only years of practice that left him able to understand at all. "That's why we're gonna take pictures of everything- and examine it back at base. You already kill all your data connections?"

"Yeah." Kyle confirmed, fumbling between the spray can he was still holding, the baby doll he was cradling in the other arm, and attempting to get his phone out. Eventually he shoved the can into the chest pocket of his coat before finally retrieving his phone. "Before we got here- no wifi, no data; phone is... a brick."

"A brick with a camera." Kenny pointed out, flashlight in one hand and his phone in the other. "Let's get multiple angles on everything- never know when Wendy is gonna have a brainstorm."

"How long have you guys all been working together? Doing the whole hero thing?" Kyle asked, taking steps to the other side of the half-disassembled car Kenny had highlighted just past the door. It was doubtful to be important, but Kenny had just said everything, so he dutifully snapped photos of it. "Like, Dee moved in a couple years ago, and I remember you having a huge problem with the guy after the whole stick of truth thing. And Wendy- she was a lone operator when we played superheroes that time, not part of either team. Like... how did you all end up... sticking with that?"

Kyle heard Kenny make a noise- it was probably a nostalgic chuckle. The flashlight beam swept on to a different space, flowing over roller-base toolboxes to some kind of... contraption that looked like someone was attempting to build a helicopter around a lawn chair.

This was probably the project that got the garage owner to write in to the Facebook post Dee had made. Probably not what they were looking for, but cameras were aimed anyway.

"Well there was the whole initiation thing at school..."

"Where you tried to beat the hell out of him on his first day?" Kyle asked. Cartman had insisted on it after Dee became the King while they were playing stick of truth- in his words, 'at skewl, there are no kings.' Giving a new kid a hard time until he found his niche was pretty standard, but Kenny had been... particularly enthusiastic about teaching Dee a lesson at recess on his first day.

It had also been a total failure. Kenny had gone for the running tackle from behind approach to get things started when Dee initially ignored him, and the kid had fucking flipped Kenny over his shoulder and slammed him into the snow- as a bonus the move had dislodged the earbuds Dee had been listening to from the cord side, causing his phone to play what he'd been listening to that day aloud... a song called CIGARO that happened to feature the line 'my cock is much bigger than yours' with utterly perfect timing.

The whole thing had landed them both in Macky's office.

"He had good reflexes." Kenny laughed. "After the whole Mitch Conner thing, and I found out his powers were legit? I started keeping an eye on him. The next time the dudes in suits rolled into town, I gave him a heads up, and the two of us worked together to protect his family. Wendy got involved at the same time- once we knew what his stakes were, we all agreed we'd work together to protect him... and we all still had our costumes."

If it ain't broke, why fix it, huh? Kyle supposed he couldn't argue with that.

"What happened to Mysterion working alone?" He asked as Kenny moved on to the next workspace. There was an aisle of empty space between areas, marked in yellow paint on the floor, and the people working in this garage seemed to keep it pretty clean without any major tripping hazards left out. It appeared this garage had a total of four spaces; the next one was a snowmobile in the middle of an overhaul.

"Things change, man. Are you the same kid you were a few years ago? Even a couple months ago? I worked alone until I didn't."

Kyle felt like there was more to that than Kenny was saying, a note of defensiveness in his statement, but now wasn't really the time to press on into tender heart-to-heart territory. Besides, Kenny was right; they were all in a state of flux. He could hardly claim to be the same person he was last year, much less who he'd been when Dee moved in. Growing up was a thing, gradual and weird.

Man he was feeling old today.

"That fuckin' thing hasn't cried in a while- did you drop it just to take the F and shut it up?"

"What?!" Kyle cried out much louder than he'd intended, Kenny's suggestion making him so horrified he nearly did drop the doll cradled against his chest with one arm. With a second of readjustment to ensure the baby did not somehow slip from his grasp, he glared at Kenny in the dark, where he sensed the other guy was smirking at him. "No," He continued at lower volume. "I didn't- it... hasn't made any noise since we were at the pizzeria this morning."

He'd been worried about it, but he didn't realize just how quiet the doll had been until after dinner. At that point he was not going to call Ace- he'd sent her an e-mail explaining what was happening instead, and he'd get a response when she found the time to address his concern.

Let's just hope she doesn't tank my grade. I know I didn't drop it- I've been doing this project the best I can.

"Maybe that creepy animatronic scared it so hard it's robotic ticker burst... though I guess that would make battery acid leak everywhere, huh?"

"Dude... gross."

"Jeez, Dee, you sure that's a normal one?"

Dee smirked faintly at Butters, lifting the metal gate after the security was disarmed and the alarm would no longer shriek. Wendy had supplied her with the code she'd needed ahead of time, and a time stop had nullified the magnetic trip that should have gone off after the physical lock had been picked.

She wasn't quite as fast as Kenny was, but having him teach her that particular skill was already coming in handy.

Normal as they come, dude- farting hard enough to rip time and space isn't exactly going smell like a basket of roses.

"I'm just sayin', your family's gotta stop feeding you spicy foods, or you're gonna get ulcers an' stuff."

Spice wasn't the big draw tonight- dad did chowder, and he always goes heavy on the heavy cream- damn good shit. She gave him a lopsided smirk while waving him beneath the heavy metal gate, following behind him as he pushed the door beyond it open and the pair of them ducked down against the front counter inside. Butters was familiar with this shop, and knew they didn't have cameras... but there was always a chance that someone had stayed late.

The pair of them sat in silence, listening.

Cradled in Butters's arms, Izzy the baby doll started crying.

"Oh, shoot-!"

The blond boy fumbled as Dee half-way jumped out of her skin, watching him dig in his pockets for the plastic bottle that would hopefully mollify the molded plastic monster he'd been treating with such tender care today.

Further in, she heard a clatter of something being dropped- like someone else in the building was equally startled by the sudden screaming of an infant, simulated or otherwise, followed after by some muffled cursing.

Someone's here! Adrenaline was the first thing to hit her, and it made her gut tighten as she made a quick decision.

She dove away from Butters- if he was too close she'd take him with her, and she needed this to impact him as well. Drawing in from the bowels, she concentrated herself on a mere twenty seconds ago- when she'd cracked the gate and led him inside... and let it rip.

Disorientation. Short hops were weird, where she held still but watched the world around her back up. Butters went from staring at her, confused and panicked, to winding backwards in time until he was back under the gate... which she was no longer holding up for him, because she had not moved.

She winced as the normal ticking of the clock resumed, and the heavy gate obeyed the law of gravity to hit Butters in the head. The whack made him whimper before catching it with his free hand whilst his body bent over his troublesome charge of a baby doll. Looking around, he first frowned at where she'd been in his experience of that moment before jerking his head over to where she actually was- beyond him in already inside the doors.

She put a finger to her lips, signaling for quiet and then holding her palm out to suggest he wait where he was. After a second, he nodded his understanding, and forced a smile through the pain that was getting whacked in the head with a metal security gate.

Right on cue, Izzy started crying again. On the other side of the door, the sound was muffled and didn't carry into the space beyond the entryway. There was no clatter in the back- no alarm from the other person that was in there with them... just a terrible odor that was currently trapped in the lobby as long as all the doors were shut.

Dee felt like gagging- nothing like hotboxing on her own brand. Yikes.

Still, there wasn't time for holding her nose- she ducked low and, like Kenny had been teaching her, assessed her options. There were three doors off of the lobby- one behind the counter that went into an office, one that led into a restroom, and a big set of double-doors that went into the garage itself. Bathrooms were probably a dead end, and she didn't remember the clatter from before coming from the office... and, now that she was looking, there was dim light coming through the windowed doors that led into the garage space.

Creeping up, she only stood taller to peer in through those windows, squinting to see and holding her breath.

The main lights of the space weren't on- instead, bright work-lights on the floor that were directed away and into a far corner she couldn't quite spy from her current vantage point. There were other objects in the way, too- a ceiling hoist and it's industrial sized hook, standing tool boxes, metal shelving units that looked to separate work spaces- the lights were all the way at the end of the space, beyond all that and obscured by it. Watching, she couldn't see the person who was in the room, but she could see their shadow thrown up against the wall by the work-lights; elongated and massive, without clear definition.

Unhelpful. What in the name of fairy-fucking titty twisters am I supposed to do now?

Gut instinct was to rush in and take them out, and sort out the details after... but who was going to do the sorting? Butters? Usually that was Kenny's job-

Kenny's not here, and the whole team is offline so long as the Doc is a hacking concern. Fuckin' breathe and figure it out yoursel- oh fuck that is terrible, maybe I should take it easy on the dairy...

The directed light in the garage went off, plunging the room into the still darkness that was a place of business after hours; strange and surreal.

Decision time, bitchtits, what's it gonna be?

Given a split second more to think, Dee opened the door and slipped in, carefully closing it behind her.

Listening for footsteps, she heard the distinct clack of heeled shoes on the concrete floor.

::The Author's Corner::

I'M BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!

HELL-o friends and readers. As always, I am deeply sorry for the delays in the story. Life, as it does, happened. BUT! It is a time to celebrate and doing so has gotten me rather jazzed up for these stories once more. The Tumblr I run for these fics has hit 200 followers, and as a little victory dance I began doing a twitch stream of the games, which has already spawned some fun new ideas for coming installments. I've posted the link to my Tumblr in my author profile here on FF, so if you're curious and wanna catch the next one to chat with me LIVE while we play some Stick of Truth, I encourage you to follow me on Tumblr and pop in.

I've also posted the invite link to the Discord I run for readers of this series, so if you wanna chat with others, bum around, share some memes, share theories, or otherwise, we got a space for that, too! Discord followers also get first-looks at sketches I do for the series, as well as deleted scenes.

Ah, but that's enough shameless self promotion.

ONWARDS!

-Buttlord