Chapter Eleven

A Metal Misadventure
Part I

Murderface paced his room, plagued by the notion that he would be the 'Devious Duo's' latest victim. "Wha'do I care if they wanna prank me." He cursed under his breath, "God damn douche bags…"

He sat on the edge of his bed, playing with a small knife in his hands. He had been sure to act as indifferent as possible around the pair, hoping that type of attitude would deter their interest. So far it didn't seem to be working. He resorted to threats, to curses and tantrums, anything to scare them off. But they would combat each intimidating remark with an innocent smile, the girl being sure to whisper,

"You're next, William." Just audible enough to send a cold chill through his body.

He hated that girl.

Well, he hated all girls…but this one in particular was driving him insane. What kind of person would smile at each rude remark he barked at her? Or happily clean the messes he would purposely make to piss her off. She remained cheerful and content, almost as if she were mocking him. He had underestimated this one, merely making her cry wouldn't be enough to send her packing. The rest of Dethklok seemed to have forgotten the plot to get rid of the opening act, but not him.

If nothing else, he wanted to be rid of her.

Pickles' horror stories about the duo's mischief kept him on his guard. He instructed Roadies to walk into rooms before him, inorder to avoid booby traps. He slept with a gun more often than usual, to avoid sleep-pranks. And he now had an official 'taste-tester', since he could have sworn he caught her slipping something sinister into his dinner one night. The others did not believe him when he complained about it, as a matter of fact, they had called him paranoid and immediately dismissed the claim.

It sickened him to see them bewitched in such a manner, and it disgusted him even more when Skwisgaar abandoned his hostile attitude towards the girl. The guitarist had claimed it was 'mores funner' to merely toy with someone who took his insults so seriously, even if she continued to harbor a strong dislike towards him. It seemed as if she were systematically getting closer to Dethklok, infecting them with her childlike demeanor and overly friendly personality.

"Useless shedevil's gunna break up the band, and everybody's just lettin' her." He mumbled, pressing the knife into his flesh until a bit of blood oozed from his skin. "She can't do anything besides cook…can't even drum…fucking klutz...I hate her."

After a moment Murderface removed the knife, 'Why am I taking this out on myself?', he wondered. She was the one trying to break up the band. She was the one who put the pranking idea into Toki's head. She was the one who wore those ridiculous bunny slippers that he couldn't stand. She was the cause of his problems; her, and her alone.

Murderface went to an oak cabinet in the corner of his room, randomly grabbing a rifle from it. He wasn't Pickles, he had no sympathies towards this girl, and he wasn't going to take any of her nonsense, either.

x - x - x - x - x - x - x

"Pickles I can't do it!" Kyrie whined, throwing her drumsticks on the ground.

He eyed the frustrated girl, tapping his finger against the beer bottle in his hand. "Dude if ya keep throwin' your gear on the ground like that and you won't have nothin' left to play with."

"Who cares if I can play or not?!" she shouted, wide eyed and desperate. Pickles rolled his eyes, she was doing the 'panic attack' thing again. "What do I do if I can't twirl my drumsticks at the end of the song?! Or if I hit someone with them?! It's the finale! I have to do it, or else everyone will be disappointed, and then they'll laugh at me, and then we'll get booed off the stage, and then I'll ne—"

"Kyrie, " he said, but the girl was too wrapped in her panic to hear him. "Kyrie? …KYRIE." He shouted, the girl cut her rant short and gazed at her teacher. "Calm down. Just keep practicin' it and you'll do fine, alright?"

"It's not alright! The tour is so freakin' soon, and I can't even get the stupid twirling down…"

"Don't worry about that," he reassured the girl, "just keep practicin' what I told you and you'll do fine. Nobody cares if you can spin your sticks or not, it aint important. Just worry about the music."

"Well its important to me." She huffed. "If you can twirl then I wanna do it too."

Pickles was far more experienced with drumming than her, and despite of how many times he told her that, she refused to listen. It was impossible to learn everything she wanted (and basically forced ) him to teach in such a short amount of time, regardless of how dedicated she was.

"Besides," she added, picking her drumsticks up, "Leo really wants me to learn this, he said it'll look really cool at the end if I do it."

"How is stuff with uh, Leo?" he asked, relieved she brought the topic up on her own.

"Much better!" she said with a smile, "He said sorry for before and stuff, I was shocked…Leo never apologizes for anything. He's been a lot nicer at practice too."

Pickles nodded, "Well if he…ever, you know, does anything to hurt your or, ya know….something, don't hesitate to say somethin' so we, uh, know, and…" he glanced at Kyrie who stared at him with a puzzled look on her face. Was he actually expressing concern for her wellbeing? Pickles nervously cleared his throat, quickly changing the subject.

"Okay, so, we did the basics, you have dynamics down now, I think I've taught ya all you wanted to know. I mean all you really have left to do is practice more and you'll be fine."

"I gotta do twirling too!" she chimed.

"Spinning." He correct, "Don't say twirl, it aint metal."

She crossed her arms and scowled at her teacher, "Whatever. So, is this it for today?" He nodded a yes, "I guess just a few more lessons left then… you glad to finally be rid of me?"

He half smiled at the girl, unsure if she were seriously asking or not.

"I bet not!" she said before he could answer. "Although if you were I'd understand…those pranks we played on you were kind of mean."

"Childish is more like it…" he grumbled, "You be careful doing that stuff with Murderface, he don't really like practical jokes."

"We don't even have to do anything with him." She said, skipping out into the hall, "He's so worried about what we might do it's more fun just to watch him squirm…see ya Pickles!"

Kyrie stretched her arms as she advanced down the hall, humming happily to herself. Leo accepted her bold new attitude, she was getting better with drumming, learning to cook exotic things from Jean-Pierre, and having fun with Toki. Sure there had been a few set backs, but overall…

"Thing's couldn't be better." She said to herself, letting out a happy sigh as she walked outside into the courtyard.

Since Toki had the Roadies dispose of her play-corpse, she enjoyed going there to relax. The atmosphere was very serene, a place Dethklok would retreat to when they were worn out from being 'dark and brutal' all the time. Yet something was missing, she just couldn't figure out what that something was.

"Oh! Animals…where are the animals?" she asked. The only animals she had seen around Mordhaus were the yard wolves, and those terrified her.

She let out a sigh, "Well, maybe it's best there aren't any animals here…can only imagine what would happen to o—" out of the corner of her eye she saw something scurry behind a bush, and she quickly went over to investigate. When she peeked over the shrub a soft, fuzzy brown creature peered up at her.

A rabbit.

"Oh my gosh…" she gasped, reaching down to pet the animal. It instinctively jumped away, causing the girl to frown, "You might be a wild one but I think those run more…don't they?" she asked aloud, "How'd you get in here mister bunny?"

Kyrie took another step towards the rabbit, which turned from the girl and scurried away. She couldn't help but giggle, happily chasing the animal around the courtyard.

Toki and Skwisgaar watched from a distance, the two were headed to the main room when Kyrie caught their attention.

"She just having's so much fun with that bunny." Toki said, a gentle smile on his face.

"Ja, looks at her goes." Skwisgaar added, his eyes fixated on her bouncing breast. "She's can's really hop."

Toki glared over at him as Kyrie finally caught the rabbit, holding it up in her arms. "Hey don't you's looks at her like that. She not likes it when you's do it."

Skwisgaar glanced back at Toki, "Well's I's n—"

A loud shot echoed from the courtyard.

Someone had fired a gun.

Toki looked panickedly to Kyrie, who stood with her arms still in the air and blood splattered on her face. Without a word he ran out to the girl, leaving Skwisgaar alone in the hall.

The guitarist stared blankly at the girl, the look on her face was a mixture of horror and shock. It didn't appear she had been hit, but the rabbit had not been so lucky. She loosened her grip on the creature which fell to the ground, making a bloody mess at her feet.

"Mister bunny…" she whispered as tears swelled in her eyes.

"HELL YEA I GOT IT!!" Skwisgaar looked across the courtyard, Murderface stood with a smoking gun in hand and a gleeful look on his face. "Take that soul murderer!!"

x - x - x - x - x - x - x

Toki stood at the head of a dining room table, surrounded by his heavy-eyed band mates. "Ok's…" he said, clearing his throat. "I am's callings this band meetings into orders."

"Toki sit down." Pickles grumbled, sitting in his underwear. "You don't gotta make this official just tell us why we're here so we can go back to bed."

"I am angry's about what Murderface did to Kyrie's, a—"

"It was brutal." Nathan said, sounding almost as if he were applauding the behavior. Toki shot him an irritated look,

"It was not's brutal, he make her cry. Kyrie ju—"

"Toki, just do the meeting." Pickles said impatiently.

Toki sat into his chair, crossing his arms, "I don't likes it, it wasn't nice he coulda really hurts her."

"I did what I had to do, she was gunna prank me you guys heard her!" Murderface shouted in his own defense.

"We wasn't even going to do nothings!!" Toki shouted back to him, "It not even matter now, she don't want's to do no more tricks since you make her sad."

"Good then." Murderface grumbled, "You guys owe me, I saved all your asses too."

Toki glared at Murderface, setting aside his desire to argue with the bassist to continue the meeting. He needed their assistance. "Since Kyrie's sad I wanted to makes it ups to her, and shows her that we not all such bad guys like you, Murderface."

"I don't care." Murderface spat.

"She really likes animals, so I wanted us to buys her a zoo aquariums so's she happy."

"That is the most dildo's ideas you's have ever had, Toki." Skwisgaar said with a yawn.

"I aint payin' for that." Pickles added. Kyrie was tolerable, but none of them liked her that much.

"Yeah, what Pickles said." Nathan added, "That costs to much, feeding, and taking care of them."

"Not to mention they fuckin' stink." Pickles muttered.

Toki frowned, "But's guys she's really sad, can'ts we's do something for her? Anything??" he pleaded.

They eyed their distraught rhythm guitarist, and after a few minutes of sad, puppy dog eyes they couldn't help but feel slightly sympathetic. 'Damn it Toki.' Murderface grumbled to himself.

"She cooks, and keeps Toki's busy so's we's can record." Skwisgaar suggested. It seemed whenever they debated on doing something for the girl they were forced to reflect on what good she had done for them.

"She can have them…" Nathan muttered.

"Only one day Toki." Pickles quickly added. "Go rent them or somethin', have 'em here for a day and then gone the next you got that?"

Toki's face lit up, "You really means it?!"

"Ja's now goes hurry's it ups and gets them so we's can go back to sleeps." Skwisgaar said, stretching as he stood.

Toki sped off to prepare, and the rest of Dethklok returned to their rooms; with the exception of Murderface. He remained at the table, arms folded across his chest and an aggravated look on his face. What was he going to do now?

x - x - x - x - x - x - x

Alvin gently lead a blind folded Kyrie through Mordhaus. Toki had directed him to send the girl to the eastern section of the estate for a surprise of some sort, "I hope this is safe…" mumbled to himself. After hearing what Murderface had done to the girl he wasn't sure it was safe for her to be around Dethklok any longer, but Toki insisted this 'surprise' was harmless.

"Do I really have to wear this stupid blindfold?" Kyrie huffed, twitching her nose in an irritated manner. He wasn't sure if she understood how close to death she had almost come, after tearfully burying the rabbit she seemed almost fine again.

"Just a little farther." He said, opening a door for Kyrie and escorting her outside. A large metallic box stood where the tennis court once rested, and a group of men in yellow hard hats were situated around the box. He cocked an eyebrow, they didn't look like Roadies, so what were they doing at Mordhaus?

"It's all fixed chief." One of the men said, placing his tools back into his toolbox. "You just press that button there to activate it."

"That all?" Alvin heard Nathan ask. Kyrie perked up at the sound of his voice.

"Yessir, just be careful, this is new technology…" the man continued, "We're still in the embryonic stages of the Habitat-In-A-Box project and do—"

"Yea, yea we got it from here." Pickles said in a nonchalant manner. "Oh, shusssssh, here she comes."

"What's going on?" Kyrie anxiously asked, wanting to yank the blindfold off and see what the fuss was about.

Toki appeared from the box, mouthing a 'thank yous' to Alvin who reluctantly passed the girl off to him. He couldn't help but frown,

"Don't let anything happen to her." He whispered.

"What's going oooon?" Kyrie whined. "Somebody tell me!!"

Toki giggled, ushering the girl into the box with the rest of Dethklok. The electronic door slid closed behind them, and the panel next to it blinked :

Habitat Secured

"Boss you sure this is safe?" one of the men asked, the comment immediately caught Alvin's attention.

A balding man nodded, "This is Dethklok, how could I say no to them? Besides, I'm sure they'll be fine."

Alvin winced, "It's not safe…?" he asked, upset with the idea that Toki had lied to him.

"No, no!" the boss quickly said, "It's totally safe, I told them that. We wouldn't sell them this product if we didn't think it was safe, that's company policy."

"But Boss," another man said, "You said with what they're paying us who cares if it's safe."

The boss glared over at his blabbermouth employees, "It's Dethklok! They'll be fine." He said again.

"My friend is in there with them, and I don't want her to get hurt. Could you please let her out?" Alvin asked.

"It's fine!!" the boss insisted, "Your friend is with Dethklok, nothing in there can hurt them!"

"But boss," another employee said, "Aint it tigers, and alligators, and boars, and t—"

"Shut up!" the boss shouted, "It's Dethklok, they'll be fine!!"

"I want my friend out of there now, or else." Alvin said in a serious tone.

The boss snickered, "Or else what?"

"Or else you'll have a heavy lawsuit on your hands." Charles said from behind them, startling everyone. "I need to speak with Dethklok about this 'Habitat' investment of theirs. Open the doors."

The bald man's face paled, "Ye—yessir. Open it up, Johnny."

An employee nodded, pressing buttons on the control panel next to door. A dull tone blared from the speaker above the panel,

Error. Please Try Again.

The boss stiffened, sweat trickling down the side of his face. "D…do it again…"

After a few more failed attempts the employee let out a sigh, "I think the error is coming from the inside. Either we input the passwords wrong, or they've busted something in there. I can't get it open."

"Then open it another way." Charles said, standing next to Alvin.

"T…" the boss cleared his throat, "…there aren't any other ways to open it."

"What do you mean there's no other ways to open it?!" Alvin shouted.

"This is still in the early stages of development…" the boss mumbled, "We didn't have time to find another exit when they called, we told them no but they offered so much money…we needed it for research, to finish the Box…"

x - x - x - x - x - x - x

Kyrie stood, mouth agape, at the scene before her eyes. Tall tree's reached for the bright blue sky, echoing sounds of a lively forest environment. A clear blue stream calmly trickled beside the girl, monkey's howled from the wooded area, and birds carelessly fluttered overhead. Despite it's realistic qualities, she couldn't help but notice an outline bordering the 'sky' and the lack of a sun, despite the fact that it appeared to be midday.

"Where are we?" she gasped, "Some kind of…fancy zoo, or something?"

Toki smiled down at the girl, "Since you's was sad about Murderface and the bunny we gets this Habi-tabit box for you's. It's lots of animals and stuffs for you's to play with, all right here's at Mordhaus!"

"Aww Toki!" she jumped up and hugged him tightly. "You're so sweet!"

"What's abouts us?" Skwisgaar grumbled.

"Yeah," Pickles added, sounding a little irritated. "Toki aint the only one who paid for all this crap." Kyrie peeked behind Toki where the rest of Dethklok stood, as colorful butterfly's fluttered around them. The death metal band looked absolutely out of their element in such a bright and lively environment.

"You guys want hugs too?" she asked, pulling away from Toki.

"No." they unanimously grunted, having only come along to ensure their money hadn't gone to waste.

"This is so awesome!" she exclaimed, happily buzzing around the area, jumping over rocks and running through the stream.

Pickled sighed softly, it was nice to see the rabbit incident hadn't traumatized her. "Are we done here?"

"Yeah, I, uh, really don't want to be here anymore." Nathan added, shielding his eyes from the brightness of the artificially lit sky.

"I didn't wanna be here in the first place." Murderface grumbled, angry Toki had dragged him along.

"Yeah, I see you's guys later." Toki said, after sacrificing the night setting all of this up, he was happy to see how much she enjoyed it.

Murderface rushed towards the exit, desperate to get back to his room and away from that girl. He stepped in front of the door, expecting it to slide open. "What the fuck?"

"Open the door so's we's can leaves this place." Skwisgaar said impatiently, "It's too fucking hots in here's."

Murderface stepped towards the door once more, and again nothing happened. "It won't open." He said, then began banging his fists against the door. "HEY, OPEN UP!!" Kyrie and Toki looked towards the exit, unsure of what the commotion was all about.

"Dude, press the button on the box." Pickles said. Nathan headed towards the control panel, looking over the array of multicolored buttons.

"What button?" he asked, no one had bothered to listen to the man explaining the controls, he had been far too boring.

"The uh's, press the green's ones." Skwisgaar suggested.

Nathan pressed it several times, quickly growing frusterated, "Why won't it open??"

"Nat'an no!" Pickles shouted, moments to late. Out of frustration Nathan slammed his fists into the panel, causing sparks to flare and a loud sound to radiate from the speaker next to the panel.

Error. Unauthorized Code.

Restoring Safe Mode.

Murderface continued pounding on the door, "DUMBFUCKS OPEN THE DOOR!! LET ME OUT!!"

"Murderface that ain't helpin'." Pickles said, but the bassist ignored him and continued pounding anyway. Pickles rubbed his temples, "It's sound proof."

"Sound proofs?" Skwisgaar asked.

"It means it not matter how much you's yell, nobody can hear you's." Toki responded.

"Pfffbt, dildo, I knows whats a soundproofs is." Skwisgaar huffed, "I's just asking why they make it do that. How the hell they gunna hear us needing outs now?"

Nathan looked to Pickles who was examining the control panel, "Uh...can you fix it?"

"Dude it's fried," Pickles responded with a shrug, "We need some tech people in here or somethin'."

"What's safe mode?" Kyrie asked, the band looked back at her confused. "The computer, er, thingie said that we're in safe mode, what does that mean?"

"Anybody read the book that guy gave us?" Pickles asked, causing his band mates to look away sheepishly.

"Too many's words." Skwisgaar answered.

"I was settings all this up, I not's have time to reads it." Said Toki.

Nathan shrugged, "Didn't care."

"I was too drunk." Answered Pickles.

Kyrie hung her head low, "Why would you get something like this and not even bother to read the manual?" she groaned.

"You…" they looked to Murderface, who had finally stopped banging on the door. He pointed to Kyrie, an angry look on his face. "This is all your fault!! If you would of never came here all of this would of be FINE. THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT WE'RE TRAPPED IN HERE!"

Her lower lip began to quiver as tears filled her eyes. She was learning to stand up to Leo, she had gotten over the fact Skwisgaar was not her special someone, but something about Murderface scared the hell out of her, and she just couldn't bring herself to stand up to him. "I'm sorry…" she helplessly mumbled.

"Murderface, dude, relax." Pickles said, trying to calm the tension in the air.

"NO!" He shouted, clenching his fists. "YOU GUYS ARE ALL BRAINWASHED BUT I'M NOT LETTING HER GET TO ME TOO!!"

Nathan sighed to himself, not wanting to deal with a tantrum from Murderface or crying from Kyrie. He blinked as something wet splashed onto his cheek, and after the second and third drop he looked up at the sky as it gradually grew darker.

"What the hell?" he said, "It can rain in this?"

Thunder began to roar around them, "You's gots to be kiddings me." Skwisgaar said, holding his hands above his head as a shield against the rain.

"We need to get outta this rain." Nathan said.

"We's could goes into the woods." Toki suggested.

"I aint goin' in there." Pickles protested, "It's animals and shit, we're better off out here where we can at least see somethin' chargin' at us."

"Looks guys, it's a huts over theres." Skwisgaar said, pointing to a small straw hut to the far left of the group.

Nathan nodded, "Alright douche bags, we'll stay in there until those jack offs outside get us out."

Dethklok followed behind their leader, with Kyrie sticking close to Toki and out of Murderface's way. She briefly glanced at the bassist, still unsure if he honestly hated her or not. Her attempts to win him over with kindness only seemed to anger him more. He shot her a deadly glare as the rain poured down around them, and she couldn't help but sigh, 'Stupid scary William…'

They trudged into the small hut, shaking off water and wondering when help would arrive. No one seemed to notice the creature deep within the trees with large, glowing yellow eyes watching the group intensely.

Notes : Pewpew! Took almost a month but here's an update, excuse the grammatical errors...it's just if I don't post it now it won't be up for atleast another week. This is part one of a two part chapter! This chapter is waaaaay longer than I intended it to be, but I guess that's ok...last chapter was boring imo since I feel like I tried to explain too much with mere text, so with this one I tried to make it a little more chatty. BUT I, of course, am not good with talking-stuff so I hope I didn't mutilate their dialogue to much. I'm hoping the second part to this will be up in a more timely manner. 'n hm...for the record, I don't dislike Murderface or anything, just I'd imagine it would be harder for anyone to get even remotely close and friendly-like with him...well, atleast it would be hard for someone like Kyrie.

Thanks so much for reading. :D I wish I knew how to reply to comments directly, if anyone knows how to please share :( , 'cause all I have time to really say is special thanks to Luna and Marner who got me started (and kept me goin'!)with this fic C: as well as Ranekaera, JoSchmo, Domi, Spike, Pheonix, purpleleemer, Starlit, and Zuzu(?)! 'cause reviews r love. :D