Chapter 2: The Carn-EVIL, and...Talking Cups?!
As the group followed the sound of carnival music and the sounds of folks screaming, they came across a pretty decent looking carnival, except it was spelled weirdly. Evelyn looked to Oliver who laughed a little and pointed at the sign. "I think the owner forgot the I in Carnival..."
The other three slightly laughed as well, as they all walked in after Oliver, as they walked in a couple of people stared at them in confusion, Nevy held onto Evelyn's arm nervously as they went further and further into the funfair.
They got a quick bite to eat before they ventured further they just noticed that nobody there was really.. human. So they began to get a little nervous, some more so than the others as they realized maybe there aren't that many humans here. They heard the ding sound of something and made their way to it, and saw two living and breathing cups, one was a mug and the other a cup, the cup was playing skee-ball, er well apparently the owner named it soul ball. None the less the cup was pretty good at it, Evelyn nudged her friend Emma and pointed at the one next to the small cup.
"Em you gotta show em how good you are!" She said, a smile on her face as her friend Emma nodded, going over to it and took one of the balls, chucking it upwards a couple of times before doing a small spin and tossing it, it landed in the middle after it went in the hole the machine shouted: "WINNER" and some of the people around looked at her, and then to the cup.
This went on for a couple of minutes, both doing pretty well. Emma and the cup had gathered a large crowd causing some of the people who were playing other games before to look at the unspoken contest between the cup and the strangely dressed human.
The mug looked at another spot near them, and saw a telephone lose and then it got its soul taken! He looked up at the sign of the game his brother was playing, reading it aloud. "Soulball.." Mugman then looked over by the booths, where some of the people were groaning and looked..dull and lifeless, he then looked up at the big 'CARNEVIL', "Carnival." He read out loud to himself. The sign sputtered out and the part with 'CARN' went dim. "Carn-Evil.." Mugman repeated again to himself, he noticed it the bright letters spelt 'Evil.' "EVIL?!" Mugman yelled out gasping. He turned to his brother and nervously gulped. "Uh Cuphead?"
"Not Now Mugsy! I'm on a hot streak." The cup replied throwing another ball.
'WINNER!'
The crowd went wild, cheering for the two as the competition started to get heated..
Beneath them all was a machine that was collecting the souls of the people! And right near the machine was the Devil himself! He was snickering to himself while rubbing his hands together. "Everyone loves a carnival." with a ding he looked over to his soul meter which was going up and up by the minute. "What a haul!" He said, before he started singing as he sang he not only introduced himself but explained other things as well.. the souls harmonized with him while his imp minions sang the chorus with him.. he then made a big confession about how his biggest obsession is collecting souls! He let out malicious laugh after he confessed that.
He was then in a white suit and doing a little dance while one specific imp named Henchman was trying to get his attention. "Uh, hey, boss." The devil continued to dance to the tune of his song ignoring the imp.
"Boss!"
The demon continued to dance.
"Hey, boss!"
"WHAT?! I was singing!" The devil bellowed at the imp, annoyed that he was interrupted.
Henchman stuttered a bit, as he pointed at the counter. "u-uh the soul counter stopped.."
The devil followed where he was pointing and sure enough, it was stuck on six hundred twenty-nine billion nine hundred forty-six million five hundred eleven thousand seven. The devil angrily muttered to himself and hit the counter a couple of times to see it would work, Henchman flinched inwards when he started beating the machine.
The devil looked over to the transportation tubes and noticed they were empty! He slid over looking at them with a bewildered look on his face. "What The!"
His expression changed to one of anger when he reached for his special binoculars and looked around his carnival, which at first appeared empty with only a paper flying by.. until he turned to his right and sure enough a crowd was around a young cup and.. a human? The crowd was cheering for them. 'CUPHEAD! CUPHEAD! CUPHEAD!' 'EMMA! EMMA! EMMA!'
He sighed in annoyance, "Terrific. Looks like we have a couple of show-offs." He pulled out his pitchfork and tapping on the ground turning into a puff of black smoke.
Back up on the surface the two were still going at it with the mug still trying to stop his brother.
"Cuphead, maybe you should quit while you're ahead." He quietly said to his brother but the cup looked over at his brother, an excited expression on his face.
"DOUBLE DOWN!" The cup yelled before putting the ball he was holding into his straw and blowing it, the ball hit the wood post, the behind of one of the elephants and then into the middle hole, earning another 'WINNER!' much to his brothers agony, The crowd went wild with cheers. "Thank you!" The young cup called out, grabbing another ball.
Oliver walked over putting a hand on Emma's shoulder before she could throw another one, She looked to her friend who simply nudged their head back over to the other two who looked bored. Emma looked at them. "Just two more and then we can go I promise!" She said, and threw another one causing the crowd to go wild.
But suddenly they heard thunder and BAM! as if lighting had struck, in the front of the crowd black smoke appeared revealing the devil! The crowd looked where he stood in fear.
An elephant in the crowd shouted in fear: "THE DEVIL!" before trumpeting and then everyone besides the two cups and the humans ran away screaming. The devil was looking at his nails, "My fans. They love me." He had a smile on while he said that which turned into an uninterested frown as he walked over to the cups and humans.
Evelyn looked over and blinked, confused as the rest of her friends followed her gaze and they too were confused at the sight they were seeing- It was the devil..?
He walked over and behind the two cups, where the mug turned around and started stuttering and patting on his brothers back to get his attention: "Cu-cu-cup-cuphead!' 'Hey Watch it!' his brother exclaimed to him but one final shove made the cup misthrow the ball into the loser hole, Emma had looked after and gasped accidentally missing the hole herself and it too fell into the loser hole.
"Loserrr." The machine said, before letting out a buzz.
Cuphead looked upset and groaned. "Aw heck, Now look at what you made me do!" He turned around and gestured to the soul ball game, while his brother fearfully looked to him, then pointing up. Cuphead followed his brothers finger and began spluttering and sputtering at the sight.
"And that's gameee!~" The devil said in a singsong voice as his eyes narrowed, smirking.
The soul ball machine began to shake slightly and then a vacuum like device came out of one of the holes and started up "WHOA!" Cuphead exclaimed, the force of the vacuum turning him around, It took the young cups soul! Emma turned around and looked at the game and it took her soul too! But it was different compared to cupheads.. it had a shinier effect on it.
Evelyn and Mugman ran over at the same time, Mugman pulled his brothers soul out, Evelyn grabbed hold of Emma's soul which freaked her out, she then followed mugmans lead and put Emmas soul back in while he put his brothers back in.
Cuphead and Emma deeply inhaled, went quiet for a minute. Cuphead then shouted: "RUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!" The group plus the two young cups ran away, the devil's smirk grew. "Ooh, I love it when they run." and then cackled, going after the group.
The two cups held each other, crying and apologizing to each other while the humans all looked to one another. "HOW IN THE SWEET HONEYLOCUST IS HE REAL?" Evelyn yelled, almost tripping over herself, but her friend Nevy caught her.
Oliver looked behind them, and sure enough he was there chasing them still. "I DON'T KNOW BUT KEEP RUNNING CAUSE HE'S GAINING!" They exclaimed picking up their pace, and the group followed suit, then the devil shoot fire at them! Causing the entire group to scream.
The gang went onto a roller coaster, it started up really fast. "I think we lost him." Cuphead turned to his brother and looked behind the two at the humans about to ask something but..
"Surprise!" The devil was just a seat away from the humans! They all turned around gasping as he pointed his pitchfork at the group. Evelyn stood up without thinking and kicked it away from her friends a bit upward and got fell off the ride, her friends without thinking jumped off as did the cups the devil shot the spot where the cups once were.
They all luckily landed on the merrily go round, and looked at each other. Evelyn blinked, shocked she didn't just break a bone! The devil appeared again and fired up his pitchfork again! He shot the ride and all the horses and other animals turned into either demonic versions of themselves or dead versions that came alive!
The horses whinnied, and ran off the ride causing the group to go up and down and falling off said horses!
The cups ran past a picture with the faces cut out and took a quick picture before running again, and the humans did the same before it was destroyed from a blast by the demon chasing them.
They ran into the mouth of a 'fun house' shaped like a clown, an evil cackle was heard before the devil blasted it, turning it into a one with his head instead and the cackle turned into a malicious laugh. As they ran, the first room had eyes on the wall following them which freaked out Nevy completely as she screamed, there was an exit at the end of the hallway which Nevy ran into with the two cups as it rolled up revealing a brick wall instead. The floor opened up under them and the three fell in as the others fell after them, which lead them on a slide! Randomly spikes would appear and the gang would move to avoid said spikes.
The next room had a saw on the ceiling which they ducked under and then another one on the floor which they all somehow jumped over! As they ran to get to the end of this room it flipped on its side! Causing them all to slide down once more a mirror room, the cups stared into the mirrors, as did Evelyn. Evelyn looked at her reflection which didn't differ from her normal self like it should normally in carnivals, but her reflection changed into the devil! All the reflections did with him cackling and reached out to grab whoever was in front of the mirrors. Evelyn swatted his hand away before running off, Oliver ran grabbing Nevy and Emma's hands pulling the two with them.
The group all looked behind them as they ran until they ran into a room with doors that looked like teeth that would've probably killed them if they didn't get past, once they were all out they got spit out by a mouth!
"Eww!" Emma shrieked after getting off the ground.
But soon the mouth exploded and out came the devil shaped like a dragon! The entire group screamed once more running, the gang was squealing and slightly crying trying to avoid the firey blasts being sent at them.
They past the popcorn stand which got blown up causing Evelyn to gasp. "YOU MONSTER YOU BLEW UP THE POPCORN!" She looked over her shoulder, glaring at the devil before turning away once she saw him about to fire again.
Mugman looked away from the devil to in front of them, and lightbulb went off!
He looked at Cuphead, and then the strange beings. "Cmon Cuphead, and weird monsters! It's time for a double down!"
"WHAT ARE YOU, NUTS?!" Cuphead exclaimed as he was dragged by his brother, and the humans all just followed his lead.
They turned back around and skidded to a stop. "Now pretend like we're cornered!" He explained to them, which Cuphead let out a scared shout; "WE ARE CORNERED!" Evelyn held onto Nevy, who was holding onto her as they heard a deep evil laughter from behind them, as the devil emerged from the smoke and fire around the carnival. He put his pitchfork up, pointing it at the gang, firing it up.
Mugman, in slow motion yelled. "JUMP!" and they all jumped out of the way of the blast, Evelyn fell on her arms and the rest of her friends fell on either their backs or their butts, the blast hit instead of them the middle of the soulball game, destroying it, The devil gasp and deflated a bit looking at what he had just done.
The ball game no longer was there instead was the ruins of it, as the souls of those who lost came out and returned to their bodies.
"NOOOO!" The devil cried out, throwing his hands in the air. The lost souls when they returned to their bodies cheered or went back to doing what they were doing before.. one was a pig eating a hot dog!
The devil groaned and angrily rubbed his face, then he went into flames as he looked around to find the group but to his anger they were all running away into the woods, but Evelyn looked behind and made eye contact with him which made him stop for a moment.. But she turned back around and followed her friends and then he realized they were gone.
"You don't just get to run away!" He angrily exclaimed.
The carnival fell to ruins around him as the fire burned the tents down, Henchman flew over to his boss and landing beside him looking where the group once were. "Wow, boss. I never saw you let no one escape before."
The devil looked angrily over to the imp, his frown turning into a snarl. "They didn't escape! They played the game. They lost. Their souls belong to ME. I'll get that cup and those humans!"
"Head? And didn't just one of the humans lose." Henchman added, the devil looked at him and smacked him on the head with his pitchfork.
"Oh, shut up." He bitterly spat out, crossing his arms like a child, before looking back at henchman and angrily explained; "and yes but I need all of the humans anyways, their souls are priceless! And that girl.." He stopped talking once he thought about the black haired girl, he felt weird all of a sudden and angrily huffed again thinking it was him just being angry still.
Meanwhile in the forest, Cuphead and Mugman had stopped running and looked at the humans. "So.. y'all are clearly not from around here. Where ya from?" Cuphead asked as the two young cups looked at the group.
"Let's just say not from this world." Evelyn responded looking around still taking in the fact that they just had a run in with THE devil and that they are no longer in their world but a cartoon one at that!
"Well I'm cuphead, and this is my brother Mugman!" He introduced himself and his brother who sheepishly waved.
"I'm Evelyn, and these are my friends; Nevy, Emma and Oliver." When Evelyn introduced each friend, the friend would wave once their name was called.
After a few moments of talking the brothers asked for help fixing their fence, and while they were working it was blissfully silent.. until Cuphead starting speaking. "What an amazing day! We rode rides." Mugman added; "You and Emma owe the devil your souls." "We played games." Cuphead continued seemingly ignoring his brother, who again repeated: "and you and emma owe the devil your soul."
Cuphead then turned and pointed at the fence. "And we're even almost finished with this dumb fence! Plus we made new friends!"
"and you owe the Devil your soul! As does Emma!" Mugman once again said to his brother emphasizing the owing the devil part.
"Eh I ain't too worried about it." Cuphead said filling up a canon with paint, and Emma lit it. Cuphead positioned it to face the fence and as it was about to blow a kettle came out of the cottage walking towards the gate. "Hey, boys how-" BAM! The paint went all over the kettle! Cuphead hissed snapping his fingers. "Still too much gun powder." Mugman looked at the scene. "And you still owe the devil your soul."
After kettle cleaned up, he came out to yell at the boys but stopped himself when he saw Evelyn and her friends. "Oh who are you four?"
The group introduced themselves and once inside they explained their situation to kettle, who nodded and looked at the group. "Oh dear.. Well stay here with us as long as you'd like and we can help you get home." He smiled at the group, who smiled back.
"Thank you sir..in return we'll help you with anything you may need help with." Emma responded, and the group nodded.
As they all got ready for bed, sharing one room the group looked at each other, knowing that this might is going to be a longg adventure...
