I grumbled as I rolled over, feeling something poke and prod at me. I let out a whine as I hug Gladius closer, but as the poking continues, I slowly open my eyes and sluggishly roll over. Barely visible in the dark of my room though my tired eyes, was the vague form of Star. She looked… distressed?

"Mmmmmmm… what is it Star…" I mumbled, rolling over to face away from her. Gladius shifted so he was cuddling closer to me, and I helped by hugging him tighter.

"We have a bit of a situation", she said fearfully. I grumbled and looked over at her with a weak glare. I opened my mouth to say something-

"IT'S ARMAGEDDON OUT THERE!" Steve screamed as he rushed in, slamming my bedroom door behind him and blocking it closed.

I flailed around in shock and surprise, trying to get untangled from my blanket as Gladius Bolted into the air. "What did you do?!" He yelled in a demanding tone.

"Long story", Star said, joining Steve at keeping the door closed. I finally wrestled my blanket off of me and looked at my alarm clock. 4 AM. My left eye twitched. It was way too early for this shit.

With a slow turn of my head, I gave them a stare that made them both flinch.

"WHAT. DID. YOU. DO." I said in a slow, gravelly tone.

They both shared a look. "It was Star and Zomboss!" Steve admitted. His face morphed to an over exaggerated frown when the princess glared at her. "Sorry. He's scary when he's mad."

Star sighed and faced me again. "Basically, Zomboss, me and Marco were all doing another 'Let's mix magic and science' experiment, but we're all tired. So we weren't paying attention when the machine we were using started spitting out a bunch of little gremlin creatures."

"And let me guess", Gladius said in a disappointed tone, "They've overrun the manor, and everyone else is fighting back against them?"

Both my friends nodded, lurching forward a bit when there was a bang at the door, followed by the sounds clawing and a plethora of odd sounds. Steve and Star both gave me wide-eyed stares with frowns, and I just stared back. I pinched the bridge of my nose and let out a frustrated sigh.

"It's too early for this…" I said in a strained whisper. While I did have my eyes closed, I could tell Star and Steve flinched at my tone. "I just wanted to sleep. I am tired. I don't have any patience for this…" I looked back at my three friends, and they all jumped at the dark fire brewing in me.

I forced myself out of bed and slowly walked towards the door, forcefully grabbing Gladius' handle and pulling him out of his scabbard. I gripped him tightly, the sword putting up no resistance. I then glared at my two friends who were still blocking the door.

"Move." I said stiffly.

"Caleb, look, it's not a good idea to just-" Steve started.

"I WASN'T ASKING! MOVE!!!" I screamed. This made both my friends scramble out of the way, and once they were gone, the door was knocked off its hinges. I stepped aside as it fell to my right, and stared dead on at the horde of mini monsters.

They all looked like bootleg gremlins, only with mechanical bits that definitely were Zomboss' technology and the bright colours of Star's magic. One of them immediately jumped for me…

And I stabbed Gladius straight through the thing's head and slammed it down. Everything became silent as the creatures all stared at their dead ally. I glanced over my shoulder, and met with Star and Steve's silent stares. I looked back down at the dead creature…

And twisted Gladius. There was the brutal sound of bones cracking and metal bending as I gave a dead look to the rest of the horde. They all seemed to back up, but after one of them let out a snarl, I snapped.

"IT'S TOO EARLY FOR THIS SHIT!" I screamed. I lifted Gladius over my head, and began to rip them all apart. Some were sliced in two, some I cleaved into their skulls, and others I just squashed like bugs. Their confetti-like blood erupted everywhere, and I was soon covered in the stuff. Any of the creatures with half a brain cell all let out cries and whimpers of terror as they fled, but that didn't stop me. Any that made an attempt to flee were slaughtered. Any that were trying to climb over their fallen comrades were slaughtered. Any that didn't even do anything were slaughtered. Once the hallway was empty, I spun back around to Star and Steve. Both of them looked at me with horrified expressions, but after I grinned at them evilly and nodded, they let their walls fall into the monster bathers I knew they were.

"Let's rip these bastards to shreds!" The three of us cheered. I led the charge down the hall, towards more of the rampant creatures. Star summoned Cloudy for all of us, and we rode him through the halls, pulverising any of the creatures we came across. Star laughed wildly as she blasted out a variety of spells that either disintegrated, squished, or cooked any of the creatures. Steve was going absolutely wild with his crossbow, firing poison, sickness and blinding arrows at any creatures Star missed or that jumped at us. I was on clean up duty, taking care of any creatures my friends missed, Gladius quickly taking out any before we passed them.

"This is what I've been missing!" Steve shouted as he fired an arrow that nailed a creature right between the eyes.

"When all of this is behind us, you've gotta take me to your place Steve!" Star said as she blasted another group.

"Oh of course! You'd love it so much!"

"Focus, you two!" I barked. My friends both returned their focus to our mission of being temporary exterminators, and we continued to dash through the halls on top of the smiling, pink cloud.

~X~

Star and Steve weren't kidding when they said the place was overrun. When we reached another part of the manor, we saw Ralph swarmed with the beasts as he held up a frustrated Vanellope, worried Hilda, growling Twig, and very concerned Scaredy. The wrecker looked over at us, and beamed as we approached. We all hopped off Cloudy as Star barraged the ground, turning all the creatures around Ralph into sparkles. She and Steve were quick to push back against another oncoming wave.

"Man, are we glad to see you three", Ralph said, setting the girls and deerfox down. The bat, however, clung to the side of his face. "We've been fighting for our lives over the past hour."

"Do any of you know where Zomboss is?" Star asked, kicking one of the vicious creatures away after it nibbled on her wand a bit.

Ralph joined in keeping the creatures back, using another door that was torn off its hinges. "I think he went to the grand hall", he said, grunting as he pushed back against the wave. "I think Izzy and Majima went with him to help. Something about keeping these things inside?"

"Alright, we know where he is", Steve said, assisting Ralph with the door. He turned attention to Star. "Let's go get him, and hopefully you two can stop these things multiplying like rabbits."

"We'll come with you guys!" Vanellope said, ramming her much smaller body against the door to offer as much help as she could. "After we get rid of all these pests." She ducked aside when one tried to claw at her.

I let out a roar and jumped over my friends. "Caleb!" Hilda called at me. But I ignored her and barrelled right into the group of violent creatures. I continued to rip all of them apart, and when I grew bored of Gladius, I used all the strength I had to lift the door Ralph grabbed, and used it as an oversized flyswatter to crush every last of the creatures in my sight. Once everything hostile was completely wiped out, I tossed the door aside and looked back at my friends. Instead of fear and horror, it was shock and a bit of awe.

"Are… you okay kid?" Ralph asked.

"A tired Caleb", I said vaguely before my tone shifted into a venomous one, "is an angry Caleb." I marched forward and grabbed hold of Gladius again, making my way to the foyer of the manor. I looked over my shoulder to see my friends hesitate, give each other awkward looks, and then follow after me. My walk became a run as we all made our way through the halls, only to stop when we saw Marco, Galacta, Manolo, Maria and Maple all getting swarmed with the short annoying ankle biters. I breathed harshly through my nose, my grip tightening on Gladius, only for the knight to utterly decimate the whole horde. I could see in his eyes that his patience was also at its breaking point.

"I did not want to wake up to any of this", the knight shot a glare at Marco, who just sheepishly chuckled.

"Look, let's not worry about this now", Manolo said, getting between the glaring knight and the sheepish Hispanic boy, "Right now, we need to focus on all these little… things."

"A little help?!" Maria could be heard crying out in distress. We all looked over and saw her struggling against another horde of the small pests. Ralph, Manole and Galacta were quick to rush to her aid while the rest of us all stood back and watched. It was then I noticed Poe sitting on top of an exhausted Marco when Star went to stand by him. I was slowly losing my steam of bloodlust, but my irritation towards three of my friends was still there. But I pushed it aside and just walked up to the Echo Creek residents.

"I'm surprised to see you inside, Poe", I said to the crow.

"Well, yes", he said back in a strained tone. "I didn't mean to be here… I was looking for a book. But then those things rushed into the library. If it wasn't for Marco and Manolo, my goose would be cooked."

Star snorted, but clammed up when I shot her a grumpy look. "Well, I'm glad you're okay. And I am sorry about all of this."

"Ah, it's all fine, my boy", Poe dismissed kindly, "Especially after the 13th, I feel invincible!" I smiled at his confidence, only to suddenly remember something.

"Right, we need to get to the grand hall!" I said.

"Wait, why?" Manolo said as he slashed down the last few creatures.

"Zomboss is there", Ralph explained, "And we need him to stamp all of this."

Galacta subtlety looked over behind him, the sound of another wave of the creatures getting louder every second. "We should get going." No one argued against that as we all ran away from the approaching wave.

~X~

"Holy crap!" I said in shock.

We had all finally all reached the grand hall, all of us leaning against the railing as we all looked into the large room. We all gaped as our remaining friends were utterly swarmed.

Zomboss, Izzy, Majima, Jenny, Maple and Alfur were all on top of the dining table, with Ruby, Skullboy, Frank & Len, Iris and Misery all with them. The table was surfing atop a massive horde of the creatures like a wave of water. Majima and Izzy were batting away any of the little pests that jumped up (the redhead was using the very distressed Wasabi Whip), while Jenny was blasting the greater chunks of the crowd while flying above. Zomboss, meanwhile, was almost pathetically flailing his arms around as two of the creatures nibbled on his arms, the cyclops and skeleton trying desperately to get them off. Misery was lazily wacking and of the creatures away with her staff, Frank & Len used one of their guitars, and Ruby tried to keep moral support up.

She was the first one to look up and notice us. "Guys! We could use some help!"

Jenny flew up to us. "Nice of you to finally show up!" She said, her voice a mix of relief, frustration and exhaustion. "What took you guys?"

"I was sleeping!" I spat out, still not over that fact.

"Those things are everywhere!" Vanellope shouted, no one paying mind to my remark. This made me grumble angrily to myself, Gladius patting my shoulder reassuringly.

"WE COULD USE SOME HELP!" Izzy screamed, Maple quickly whipping away several of the creatures that jumped at the two of them. Ralph was the first of us to act, swiftly jumping down to the floor below as Scaredy (who was still clinging to the wrecker's head) screamed in terror. When the large man landed, it created a shockwave that squished those too close, knocked a few away, and staggered the rest. Steve, Star, Marco and Galacta all followed after him, and the four of them went wild.

They began to tear up every one of the creatures, soon joined by Izzy, Majima and Jenny and the eight of them soon were all sucked into a bizarre, violent brawl as it was them against thousands of the bootleg gremlins. Manolo and Maria helped Vanellope, Hilda and Twig down to the bottom floor, Gladius carried me down, and Poe quickly flew down on top of the musician's head. Ruby, her friends and Zomboss all were able to dodge around and stragglers to the fight and join back up with us.

"Am I glad you guys showed up when you did!" Iris said in a tired tone as Scaredy fled from the fight and latched onto my leg. "I was worried we'd be… what, be turned into canned dog food or something?"

I shrugged at her and turned my attention fully to the brawl at hand, which seemed to be winding down, until all eight of my friends finally halted. They were all covered in confetti, panting heavily.

"Well, glad that's behind us!" Zomboss said in a strained tone. He suddenly yelped when I grabbed him by the collar of his lab coat, stormed over to Star and Marco, grabbed both of them by their ears and brought the three of them to the side. When the three of them recovered, they flinched under my harsh gaze. Everyone else was silently watched.

"Well?" I started, giving the three a very grumpy look, "What do you three have to say for yourselves?"

"Wait, why am I here?" Marco said. He pointed at his best friend and the zombie. "They're the ones that were doing the experiment." He was met with a glare with the two.

"You're a witness to the crime, Diaz", I spat back. He flinched and hunched his shoulders up. "You three are so freaking lucky that I'm way too tired to actually do anything serious other than chew you three out. And make you do all the cleaning."

This was met with instantaneous complaining, and loud laughter from Majima and Izzy.

"SHUT UP!" I screamed, making everyone fall quiet. I started to massage my temples. "I am tired. You three made this mess. Do the math, and it checks out." The three guilty members hung their heads and nodded in shame. I gave a stiff nod, and began to walk back to my room. "Any of you can help them", I called back as I left, "Just make sure they do most of the work!" Gladius quickly flew to my side, and the two of us started our long, quiet walk as we turned down into one of the confetti coated hallways.

"Do you think I was a bit harsh, Gladius?" I asked my friend absentmindedly.

The sword looked down at me, and shook his hilt no. "They made a mistake, and now they're facing the consequences. You just took your role as leader and did what had to be done."

I let out a dry chuckle. "I'm no leader. Vanellope is a president, Majima runs a construction company, Zomboss rules over all of his city, and Star is a soon-to-be queen. Heck, even Steve and Jenny are better at being a leader than me."

"Don't sell yourself short, Caleb", the blade pressed, "You're a natural leader."

I smiled up at him. "Thanks, Gladdy."

He sighed. "I really wish you would stop calling me that…"

"C'mon, it fits you!" I teased, receiving a tired sigh that made me laugh. As we approached our room's door, my laughter dying down as I let out a yawn. Gladius was quick to prop me up and help me into bed.

"I must apologise on our friend's behath, my boy", Gladius said sweetly, "What they did was careless, but they never meant to hurt."

"Well, Zomboss probably…" I mumbled.

"Oh shush", he said. He snuggled up next to me, now wearing his scabbard. "Just don't worry about it. He's smart enough to know not to do anything drastic."

"Yeah…" I tiredly sighed out. I let out another yawn and hugged the sword closer. "Goodnight, Gladius…"

"Goodnight, Caleb."

~X~

I awoke, very much refreshed and a lot happier. As I blinked my eyes, getting adjusted to my surprisingly bright bedroom, I noticed my room's door was open and Gladius was gone. With a stretch, I got out of bed, got my sweater on, and walked out into the hallway. It was totally spotless, and I let out a smile as I walked towards the foyer. It was fairly quiet, so I decided to hum the melody of Turn Off The Lights by Tally Hall, closing my eyes and dancing as I walked. It was pretty relaxing, and I felt the whole song chiming in my head as I slowly danced down the hallway.

"Huh, didn't take you to be a dancer."

I let out a surprised scream and whirled around, facing the one who suddenly appeared. It was Ruby, and I instantly calmed down when she smiled up at me.

I chuckled sheepishly, rubbing the back of my neck. "Yeah, I have danced before, but not in public. I'm really shy, so I usually do it on my own."

"Nothing wrong with that!" The rag doll girl smile grew brighter, and that elevated all my frayed nerves.

"True that. So, why are you here?"

"Oh, well, your friends came to get me", she explained, "Some of them were getting nasty, so they were hoping I'd kick you out of bed."

I hummed. "So they wanna get going?" I snorted happily. "Yeah, I don't blame them. We don't usually stay in a world too long. The longest was when we first landed in Star and Marco's world."

Ruby nodded, looking off to the side. I could see that look in her eyes, and I smiled.

"You want to join us, don't you?"

She looked up at me in shock. "Wait, you'd let me come along?"

"Of course!" I said happily. "It's the least I could do, since you let us stay at your place. But…" I looked at her with a curious look "Why do you want to come with us? I can tell by that look in your eye."

Ruby looked off to the side. "Well, I love my home, I love my friends, but… sometimes I sort of wish I could see more out there. I never really left Gloomsville at all, and getting a chance to go wherever and do anything is just so… exciting to think about."

I looked her over carefully, then nodded. "Makes sense. I was like that before winding up at where I met Gladius. And well, here we are." I gave her a small smile, and picked her up. She smiled back, and we shared a hug before I set her back down. We both headed down the hallway towards the grand hall, happily chatting all the way. I felt happier, especially as I thought of how Ruby would react to some of the crazier things I could remember. After a few minutes, we were walking across the indoor walkway in the foyer, and I smiled when I glanced at the front of the fireplace.

The whole gang were idly standing around, some of them chatting with Skullboy and Poe. Most looked up and smiled at the two of us, some were distracted by Iris jumping around on her spring shoes, and mainly Majima was eyeing Mr.Buns (who was once again on the fireplace's mantle) with a strange glare. I chuckled at the sight of that final thing, and soon enough I was walking down the stairs to join them. Gladius, his scabbard being held by Hilda, glided over to me.

"Finally all rested up, Caleb?" He asked.

I nodded. "Yep!" I turned to address my friends. "Are you guys all ready to get going?"

"You bet!" Marco said with a nod. "Star's getting antsy, so I think we should get going soon." He motioned his head at the Mewman, who was bouncing giddily like it was her birthday.

I laughed at the sight, then turned my attention to Majima. "I can tell you're ready to get going."

"That thing has been staring at me non stop", he whispered, actually somehow afraid of the immobile plush.

"Goro, he's not alive", Manolo said as he pat the yakuza on the shoulder, "you're just being paranoid."

"You say that, yet that thing suddenly appeared in my room last night before all those little stains attacked." He glared at the stuffed rabbit, making all of us sans Galacta giggle or quietly laugh. Ruby came up to my side, looking at her friends with a giddy smile.

"Oh yeah, gang", I spoke up, earning everyone's attention again. "Ruby's gonna be tagging along with us. That cool?" I crossed my arms, shooting everyone a raised brow. The others all shared glances, and while they all nodded, most hesitated a bit.

"Are you guys cool if I head out with them?" The rag doll asked the skeleton and crow.

Skullboy nodded with a smile. "Of course! Exploring a whole new world is always a good idea."

Poe looked at Ruby. "Oh, my dear, be sure you come back with plenty of wonderful stories." He then flew onto her shoulder, and tried to whisper to her "And make sure to bring us back a souvenir or two." We all shared a good laugh at that. I looked at Gladius, and he nodded in silent understanding. I grabbed hold of his handle, and slashed in the direction of the fireplace. The portal that was becoming commonplace formed shortly after.

"Well, I hope you have fun, Ruby!" Iris cheered as she bounced around some more, 'I'll be sure to - WOAH!" Iris' goodbye was cut short when she bounced at a weird angle…

…and went right into the portal, screaming her lungs out in both fear and excitement. We all gasped, and Galacta was quick to jump in after her.

"Well, I'll miss you guys!" Ruby shouted in exacerbation, "Try to make sure the house is in one piece when I get back!" She joined Vanellope, Hilda, Twig and Alfur on Ralph's back, and the wrecker swiftly jumped in.

I just let out a sigh as we all followed suit, myself giving Skullboy and Poe one final salute as I dove in, Gladius glued to my side.

~X~

And so ends the Ruby Gloom arc, with Ruby and (by pure accident) Iris joining our ragtag bunch of misfits. The party will keep on growing, and I couldn't be happier for it.

Special Shoutout to my friends Olivia, Jen and Howai on the TDWriters Discord Server. You three are such shining beacons of creativity, and it strives me to improve my art and writing. Love ya'!

Up next: Now joined by the living ray of sunshine and accident prone daredevil, Caleb and Co. Find themselves in a city protected by three sister superheroes.

~Caleb~