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Jozei / MuffinxXxSyndrome / Sanguinistic Nightmares out!

- - - Monday Dreaming ~ A Charles Snippy story - - -

Chapter Two ~ Clumsy Lavender

Dawn came in what felt like mere minutes for Charles Snippy; It felt like he had just flopped down onto his bedroll, when sunlight began to filter through the scratched and stained windows above his head. He opened his eyes with a faint groan, inwardly wondering why his vision was tinted blue, until he remembered that he had just thrown himself down. His rifle was still strapped on his back, and he was still lying exactly as he had been last he remembered.

His dreams were rather normal; Nightmare plagued one moment, black the next. However he had been catching odd glimpses of peach coloured light, which in his waking time he came to realise was the disappointment of the evening before kicking in. His mind still didn't want him to forget about the survivor he had unintentionally let die with his hesitance.

Snippy hoisted himself upright after a few moments, letting out a faint yawn as he began to figure out what he was going to be doing. Undoubtedly Captain would just send him on another random mission which would ultimately prove to be a pointless endeavour, but Snippy didn't want to do that.

"Guess I'll go back, see what I can find." Snippy spoke beneath his breath, lifting himself to his feet with a faint groan. No one ever seemed bothered in telling him what was going on unless they wanted something from him – that even included Engie in that count. Snippy didn't really feel bothered that no one was in the building at that moment. Captain and Pilot were probably outside doing something random and without sense, and Engie just sitting there in an irritated mood.

After making a quick check over his stuff, Snippy began to make his way outside, where he knew Captain was. It wasn't like he was getting permission to leave; He just didn't want to come back and find that everyone had gone to find a new base to stay at for a few days. While Snippy didn't feel quite fond of the group, he didn't want to be abandoned. That would mean certain death in this wasteland of monsters and radiation. And he certainly didn't want to die like that Survivor did yesterday.

"Nein! I already told you the Moon Landing was staged! And if you believe otherwise, then you're clearly a boob!" Came Captain's exclamation, causing Snippy to sigh as he stepped down the step of the front door. He looked over to where Captain's voice was coming from, to see him standing in front of a bored looking Engie, who's orange goggles did nothing to hide the bored frown across his face. Pilot was hovering somewhere in the background behind Captain, throwing what Snippy immediately recognised to be a rather beat up plane model he'd found somewhere.

So far, it looked like Engie had made a reference to the Lunar landing, and that set Captain off on this little spiel again.

"Ah – There you are Snippy!" Captain remarked, cutting himself off from his little speech as soon as Snippy had come to a halt a few paces away. "It's time to expand the borders of Captania! We're moving out!"

"Bwah?" Snippy had to do a double take to actually comprehend what Captain had just said. He was ironically surprised that his prediction turned out to be right. "Right now?"

"Of course! Captania waits for no one!" Captain remarked, as if it were obvious. Snippy couldn't help but smile wryly as he heard a faint sigh escape Engie. At least Captain hadn't decided to send him out on a death-trap of an assignment.

It was a short task to collect everything before moving out; Snippy went around gathering the supplies while Pilot was sent to go fetch Captain's personal belongings. And within half an hour, they were on their way south, Pilot in the lead with Captain, and Snippy accompanying Engie as the newcomer was assigned with the task of dragging the scrap-metal sled stacked with all their supplies and belongings. Inwardly, Snippy was glad he didn't have to pull the sled today; It was exhausting, and not to mention hard work.

But then again, Snippy was a little disappointed he wasn't able to go investigate the ruined building for any sign of that survivor.

Wherever Captain decided they were going, Snippy didn't know. He guessed Captain had tasked Pilot with searching out a new location yesterday; That would probably explain why Captain's adoring fan wasn't around last night. And probably why Snippy had a mostly uninterrupted sleep.

The faint tone's of a shrill cry echoed through the air after what seemed like hours of travel, causing Snippy to blink in confusion. Pilot was busy listening to Captain's not-so-rivetting story about flying eyeball soup invading Captania to hear anything, and Snippy was fairly certain Engie was too busy dragging the sled to even notice anything. Snippy wasn't sure what that sound was, however given the events of yesterday, he lifted his rifle from his shoulder, and kept it on hand in case anything decided to leap out at them. Snippy was fairly certain, however, that there certainly was something out there.

Again, the shrill cry echoed through the air, however this time it was a lot closer. Engie lifted his head to look around curiously, however the other two remained blissfully unaware.

"Did you hear something?" Engie asked, turning his head to glance at Snippy for a moment. That shrill cry actually sounded like someone yelling – at least, it did to Snippy, anyway.

"Yeah." Snippy spoke, lifting his rifle to the ready as he tried to pinpoint where the noise was coming from. "I don't know where-" Snippy cut himself off as he spotted a spidery monster throw itself across the gap between two skyscrapers ahead of them. Snippy recognised it as the one from yesterday, and with a faint breath, he aimed his rifle to try and peg it in the head. It was safer to bump it off, and he kind of felt he should, given the death yesterday. At least he was, until another form caught his attention.

A very small human form threw themselves from the rooftop of the skyscraper the monster had just landed upon, onto the roof of the next skyscraper across. Clad in a very baggy outfit of black pants, black hooded jacket with cut off sleeves, and a pair of black boots, it was hard to pick anything distinguishable about this form. A long earthen orange plait of hair trailed out from the neck of the form's hood, however this was not what had Snippy's bewildered attention. The form donned a gas mask with a visor much the same as Engie's, however they were tinted a vivid peach; Exactly the same as the survivor from yesterday's was.

No, he was the very same survivor; Snippy was certain of it.

"FRICKING DAMN YOU! FALL INTO A VATT OF MELTED CHEESE! HAIRSPRAY CONFETTI! I DON'T CARE! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD JUST CURL UP AND DIE ALREADY!" The peach-visored survivor shrieked at the top of his lungs back at the monster hot on his tail, throwing himself across to the next building as fast as his legs could take him. His voice matched the shrill cries Snippy had been hearing for the past half hour; How had Snippy not noticed him until now?!

"Not to criticise or anything. But aren't you going to bail him out?" Snippy heard Engie begin, shaking his head slightly to shake off his stunned stupor. "It's gaining on the poor kid."

That's right! He might die this time! Snippy immediately aimed his rifle again, making certain to take the monster's movements into his calculations. Just as the Peach-Visored survivor threw himself across to the next building, Snippy shot as the monster tried to make the leap too. The monster was struck in the head, and landed in a sprawling mess upon the edge of the building; As it tried to scramble back onto the building, a second shot from Snippy caused it to slip, and plummet to the ground hundreds of meters below.

A sickening squelch echoed loudly as the monster splattered upon the ground, however Snippy trained his Rifle upon the roof of the building, searching for any sign of the survivor that hopefully had survived.

"Did you get it in time?" Engie asked, concern echoing in his voice; Obviously Engie viewed the prospects of another somewhat sane person existing the same way as Snippy did – a relief, considering the two madmen they were stuck travelling with.

Finally, after what seemed like minutes, a tiny head popped up at the closest corner of the Skyscraper, orange hair blowing in the wind and framed a black gas mask with a vivid peach visor. It appeared the survivor was staring down at them, as if trying to figure out if they were really there. When it appeared the survivor recognised their presence as reality, he seemed to leap to his feet all of a sudden, his arms flailing around in what Snippy could only assume to be joy. That, or an erratic attempt at saying hello.

"Great." Engie complained, lifting up the rope of the sled again to continue onwards. "The first survivor we find, and he turns out to be another madman." Snippy chose to ignore Engie's complaint; After all, if he was being chased around by a spider monster for what Snippy knew to be two days, he would be just as overjoyed to find it dead as the survivor up there. Jumping around like that didn't make you insane – just obviously very, very happy."You coming?"

Snippy glanced over towards Captain and Pilot, to see that they had gotten ahead, and certainly hadn't noticed the commotion going on atop the skyscrapers over their heads. Not that Snippy really was surprised about that, either. Those two were hopeless, anyway.

"I'm going to see if he's alright." Snippy called back, however all he earnt was a groan from Engie.

"Leave him!" Engie remarked, placing his attention back ahead of him as Captain finally noticed that two of his so called Minions had fallen behind. "We don't need another lunatic!"

"Mein Minions!" Captain hollered, waving his free hand in the air as if beckoning them. "Captania has yet to make it's allocated movement! Move before you all turn into boobs!"

"Fine, fine!" Engie yelled back, however Snippy continued to ignore them; Instead, he began to make his way towards the skyscraper the survivor was still flailing around atop. He could make out the faintest squeaks of delight echoing from above, in that voice that had been yelling before. The tone was rather high-pitched to be another man's voice, however Snippy wagered that this one was very young; Maybe still in his teens? He looked really quite small, anyway.

Snippy wasn't sure what he was expecting when he finally got to the roof of the skyscraper – he had learnt to not really expect anything after travelling with the Captain for so long – however, the sight that he found was the last thing he would have expected at all. As Snippy pushed the door open and looked over at where that voice was echoing, he found himself staring at a form that was rather unlike a male survivor. The peach-visored survivor was perched upon the lip of the skyscraper with their back to him. While Snippy's eyes had taken in the form's outfit somewhat right, he found himself realising that this wasn't a man he had rescued from a Spidery monster – it was a young woman.

A frightened squeak escaped the woman as the door slammed shut behind Snippy; So much so that in her jostling motion to turn around, her right foot slipped on the lip of the rooftop edge. Snippy was too shocked to have reacted, and as another squeak escaped the woman before him, she slipped from the edge of the building with an almighty scream.

"Shit!" Snippy dragged himself from his shocked stupor to try and catch the woman. As he reached the edge of the roof, he found that her fingers had managed to catch the lip of the edge, leaving her form dangling over the edge much like she had been yesterday.

"Awwww Geeze!" Came her wailing voice, causing Snippy to blink in shock. "Not again! Why am I always slipping off of skyscrapers?!"

Inwardly sighing, Snippy shook his head as he realised that the woman had an obvious case of terrible luck – It was even possible her luck was far worse than his own.

"Just hold on a second; I'll pull you up." Snippy spoke, however his words were met with a faint squeak of what he assumed was 'Thank you!'. Snippy grabbed hold of her arms, and pulled her back over the edge. It was just a good thing that she was rather light, he found. His gloved hands tended to slip just that little bit on her bare arms.

The young woman collapsed to the floor of the skyscraper in an uncoordinated drop, a loud sigh escaping her as she obviously relished in the relief of not falling from the skyscraper this time. She collapsed backwards so she was lying on her back, her arms splayed out at her sides as she caught her breath. Snippy took this moment to actually get a good look at her.

The outfit the young woman wore was rather different to what he had thought he spotted; She wore a pair of black cargo pants tucked into above-ankle boots in black, and a black hooded jumper, except the arms had been torn off. He could see that she kept her jacket zipped right up, and beneath that through the tears in the jacket, she wore a skin tight, sleeveless black top that came up to her chin. Around her waist, she had a thick chain of steel looped around for some reason; he had no real guess as to why, but there must be one, considering how heavy it looked. However, that was not what had Snippy's attention by the end of it.

He could see at least a little of her face through her visor; Pale skin touched with freckles, delicate looking features with high cheek-bones, and the most energetic looking eyes he'd seen, even while she was lying on her back fighting to catch her breath. She looked rather like a kid, now that he was looking at her properly. Just that thought had him begin to wonder how old she actually was – He had an odd feeling that told him he shouldn't judge her by what he could see.

"Hell! I thought I was really going to die that time!" The young woman exclaimed, blinking momentarily as she looked up at the sky. Here, Snippy could see that her eyes were oddly coloured; Kind of like a lilac colour. But that could be her visor's colour making the oddity. It was strange that hers was so clear and easy to see her face through; Engies and everyone elses seemed to have a kind of opaque colour to them that made seeing the face inside rather difficult. Snippy was dragged out of his thought, however, as the young woman's eyes soon focused upon him, and she decided to throw herself into an upright position on the ground. "Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry! I wasn't ignoring you! I promise!"

"Uh – It's fine." Snippy found himself rather shocked; She looked like a kid, but her voice sounded like she was easily his own age. Her voice also sounded rather pleasant to his ears with the way that her tone picked up just slightly at the end of her words. It was probably because he'd been around Captain and Pilot for so long, it just felt nice to hear another voice. "Are you alright?"

"Yes~! Thanks to you! I would have been nothing more than jam if you hadn't helped me up! And probably would be a tasty lunch had you not saved me from Spindles!" The young woman spoke, nodding her head vigorously enough where her hood fell from her head to rest down her back, allowing her earthen hair to fall free around her head.

Snippy bit down on his instinctive need to sigh at the young woman's energy – She seemed to be on a similar wavelength to Captain and Pilot, however, he could at least follow the general gist of what she was saying. Which was more than what could be said about how well he understood whatever Captain or Pilot would go on about.

"Spindles?" Snippy repeated her last word, a frown creeping across his face as he saw her nod once again, before she seemed to fiddle with her facial-equipment. "That monster?"

"Yup!" She let out a faint chuckle as she unclipped her gas mask, and proceeded to lift it from her face. "He's been trying to eat me for weeks, so it was just easier to name him Spindles than call him 'Giant Mutant Spider Thingy'."

Snippy had to give the strange woman that one.

"Wait – Weeks?" Snippy gawked at the young woman as she nodded, and lifted her visor from her head, before shaking her haywire hair out of her face. Snippy paused for a moment as he found himself rather shocked that her eyes really were a bright lilac colour. "You've been running from it for that long?"

"Hmmm, yeah, I guess you can put it that way." She replied nonchalantly, a sigh escaping her as she then picked herself up from the ground. It was in this moment that Snippy noticed she barely came up to his shoulder, which was quite surprising, considering that he knew he wasn't considered tall, either. "I kinda started camping on top of tall buildings to hide from him when he found me weeks ago. But then the other day, he learnt how to climb. And then he'd learnt how to chase after me from rooftops without falling off." Snippy remained silent as he thought about that for a few seconds, and couldn't help but sigh. It was just his luck to hear that the Mutant Monsters were capable of learning.

Then a sudden question popped into Snippy's mind as he watched the woman as she began to dust herself off, her lilac eyes looking around as if she were expecting another 'Spindles' to come barrelling over the top of the next skyscraper. How did the young woman standing in front of him survive what happened yesterday? It didn't seem possible for her to be standing right there in front of him, when he couldn't see any foreseeable way that she could have survived.

But was it right to ask? Snippy crossed his arms as he thought carefully, while his subconscious thoughts tried to derail him into asking how old she actually was.

"So how did you survive that fall yesterday? I thought for sure you'd either been eaten, or crushed."

"Huh?" She snapped her gaze back up to Snippy's face, a lack of comprehension showing across her face. At least until she realised what he was actually referring to. "Oh, that!" A smile broke across her face, and oddly enough, Snippy had to shake his head to stop himself from drifting into thought. "I'm always falling from buildings, so I just dropped three or four windows at a time … then fell the rest of the way when Spindles broke the building." She seemed to shrug slightly, as if what she was talking about was as impressive as finding a rock. "I kinda fall from a lot of high places regularly, so I guess I just built up a resistance to it."

Snippy remained silent, rather unsure of what to say in response to that. Was that really how it was? And she was right there the whole time, but he assumed the worst and left her there? He didn't like that thought.

"But wait!" She piped up, a sudden thought shining in her bright eyes as she then looked at Snippy a little closer. "How do you know about that? Unless ..."

A gasp escaped her, and Snippy found himself feeling more than a little confused as he saw her actually bounce a little on her feet; He glanced at the edge of the roof just feet behind her, bracing himself for what he guessed was another likely fall.

"Oh my gosh! You must be who was yelling at me yesterday! I thought I was imagining things, and … Oh gosh!" She squeaked, bouncing in what Snippy understood to be glee; Her face looked alight with the erratic emotion. "I'm sorry! I'm not the brightest person around! And I haven't even introduced myself, yet!"

Snippy merely nodded briskly, his right eye twitching as he saw her bouncing bring her a little closer to the edge; Of course, he was certain now that she wasn't aware of this.

"My name's Juno! Juno Matters! It's really great to finally meet another person out here!" She announced as she stopped bouncing, and took to smiling brightly up at Snippy. He couldn't help but let out a breath in relief when she stopped bouncing on her feet - She was an accident waiting to happen!

"Charles Snippy..." Snippy replied, his tone sounding rather exasperated. It didn't help that the young woman called Juno Matters bounced on her feet once again, and inched just a little more towards the lip of the roof. He was rather tempted to grab her and drag her away from the edge before she fell again. This really was not doing his nerves any good!

But then something about her introduction caught his attention.

"Wait – I'm not the first person you've met out here, am I?" Snippy asked, his brow furrowing as her bouncing stopped, and she looked rather confused.

"Why, yes?" Juno seemed rather confused about the question. "You're actually the first person I've met since those fires burnt everything to the ground. I thought I was the only person left alive around here, to be honest." her brow then furrowed as she thought on that for a little longer. "Although, I'd never really met anyone else before the fires, come to think of it."

Snippy let out a breath as a wry smile crept across his face. If that was the case, then he guessed he could understand why she was so energetic and happy about meeting him. That did also explain why it seemed like she was trying to figure out if he was really there, earlier.

"Sorry! I'm being real hyper and a downer at the same time!" Juno suddenly squeaked; Again, Snippy noticed her energetic movements bring her even closer to the edge of the roof, however this time, he had expected it; If the Captain decided he wanted her with them, Snippy was going to have to make sure she didn't break her own neck within minutes. "I'm honestly not this scattered! Really, I'm not!"

"I believe you." Snippy replied, rolling his eyes as he heard a squeak escape her. For the sake of his own nerves, Snippy grabbed Juno by the elbow, and proceeded to pull her towards the doorway; her feet had been just a few centimetres from the edge on that last bounce.

"Wha—Wait! What're you-"

"Excellent work, Minion!" Came the one voice that had startled Snippy at that moment – and it appeared Juno had been thoroughly startled too; She recoiled noticeably at the new voice, and had managed to slip backwards. Snippy didn't even have a chance to look at Juno, let alone stop her fall before she landed flat on her back, a faint squeak of pain echoing from her. "Wunderbar! I've been in need of a mailman!"

"What?" Snippy gaped at the suddenly present Captain, who was standing just at the rooftop door, his mug held towards his face with his ever present personal straw sticking out of the top. Pilot was in the process of walking through the door; Snippy wagered that Engie had decided to sit down outside for a break, instead of investigating what's going on.

"Owwie..." Came Juno's voice from right next to Snippy, causing him to look down at her. She was propped up on an elbow, her right hand massaging the back of her head, where she had evidently hit her head on the way down. It was here that Snippy noticed her hands were wrapped in strips of material resembling bandages. "That didn't sound like Spindles! What snuck up on me?"

"And he can speak! Even better!" Captains voice alerted Juno to where he was, and Snippy could only let out a breath as she looked over at the two madmen at the door. For some reason, he couldn't bring himself to tell her to run. Maybe it was because he guessed she'd be all alone if she did? Maybe it was because she was probably the only female left on this decaying planet? Or it could have been because he didn't want a partially sane person to leave him alone with these people.

Either which way, Snippy just watched silently as Captain strolled towards Juno to peer at her at close proximity, inwardly hoping that Captain wouldn't manage scare her away. Or Pilot, as Snippy added upon glancing at the silent madman still hunched over at the door.

"Mein new Minion!" The Captain announced, and Snippy sighed as he heard Juno flinch from her sprawled position on the ground. "Welcome to Captania! Be honoured! I have the perfect job for a young boy with your great talents!" Captain continued to announce, straightening up as he took a sip from his steaming cup of what Snippy guessed to be coffee today. "Captania is in desperate need for a mailman! And Toast! Toast is of course needed to defend against the Doctorate Egg!"

"Uh … what?"

"But I digress! Today we must name our newest Minion! In the name of Captania! We must repopulate this world's population of rubber ducks! Or else we will turn into Boobs!"

"SHOE!" Came Pilot's booming voice as the said man came sprinting over from the door to quickly reach Captain, which of course caused Snippy to sigh as Juno of course recoiled in fright. "HE'S NOTHING BUT A SHOE! CAPTANIA HAS NO NEED FOR MORE SHOES!"

"What? Captania always has need of shoes!" Captain replied nonchalantly, taking a sip of his coffee as Pilot of course seemed to sulk. "Just think of the small minions living in Captania who have no shoes! We can't keep them all to ourselves! And he will make an excellent Shoe!" Snippy slapped a gloved hand to his forehead, rather glad that he had managed to get Juno a few meters away from the edge of the skyscraper before Captain had caused them to stop.

At least, he had been glad until he heard the frantic scrambling of feet.

"Oh no!" Snippy snapped his head around to where he could hear dispersing footsteps, to see Juno running towards the edge of the building, in much the same fashion she had to escape the monster she named Spindles. She had barely gotten half way when Snippy had sprung to movement, and just as her right foot had reached the lip itself, Snippy managed to grab ahold of one of her wrists to stop her from making the jump. Of course, her foot slipped and a squeak escaped her as she began to fall, however, Snippy had somewhat expected this, and had braced himself. It was a good thing he had managed to stop her, he noted with a glance at the skyscraper she'd just tried to leap to – the gap was too far for her to have reached; She would have become a small mess on the concrete below.

"Calm down!" Snippy demanded as he felt Juno attempt another escape, his brow furrowing as he increased his grip of Juno's arm. "Just go along with it! He's just gonna send Pilot out to drag you back, anyway!"

"But I'd rather be running from Spindles than being someone's shoes!" Juno squeaked out, panic showing vividly across her face. Snippy huffed slightly at the rather bizarre imagery he got from her exclamation.

"They won't turn you into a shoe – It's just more trouble than it's worth to run now that his mind's set!" Snippy admitted, knowing from experience just how much more trouble it was to fight against the Captain once he'd made up his mind.

Slowly, Juno turned her head to fix Snippy with a rather watery look; He actually had to resist the sudden urge to let the teary girl go.

"They're not going to chop me up and turn me into shoes?"

Snippy let out a faint breath, inwardly sighing as he found himself realising that he was signing himself up for a lot of trouble by saying what he was about to.

"I won't let them turn you into shoes." He ground out, frowning down at her face as he heard her sniffle slightly. "Alright?"

Slowly, Juno seemed to incline her head in what Snippy recognised to be a meek nod.

"Excellent capture, Minion Snippy!" Captain shouted out in delight. "Your services to Captania will be rewarded with balls of captivity! But first, help Toast up! He needs to come and pledge his loyalty to Captania!"

"Toast!?" Juno squeaked, however Snippy begrudgingly did as he was told. Captain did have a full cup of scorching hot coffee in his hand, after all … At least he didn't decide to go with Pilot's choice and name her Shoe... It would have been a nightmare to stop Juno from running off again.

"Yes! Toast!" Captain announced, once again taking a sip of his coffee as Snippy steadied Juno on her feet; And then proceeded to drag Juno away from the edge again after a moment's thought.

"What the hell is Toast, anyway?" Juno muttered beneath her breath, causing Snippy to look at her in surprise. Did he hear that right?

Captain seemed to peer at Juno's face once again, a faint humming echoing from behind that gas-mask as Juno of course tried to edge away from him.

"Good enough!" Captain announced, before turning on his heel and beginning to head back towards the rooftop door. "Onwards Minions! Engie is waiting for the arrival of the much anticipated toast! He musn't eat him though! For Toast shall become the greatest Shoes in the whole of Captania!"

Beside Snippy, Juno let out a strangled squeak in response to this. The blue-goggled man cast his gaze to the young woman, before he sighed. Yep, he had signed himself up for a lot of trouble.

But nowhere near as much as the girl that was freaking out beside him.