Alright, this one's coming out pretty soon after the last one, and I'm still kind of getting back into the seat of writing. So, yeah, here's the final "intro chapter", Skwisgaar.
Also, yes, the Mantis will be explained very soon. I don't know how (still writing this as I go), but I will.
Also also, I planned on making the families of each member feature prominently within their chapters, but I just realized that I forgot Nathan's parents in his chapter, so I will include them sometime later.
Foreign = Italics.
He knew that this was fate. Running from home, falling down into this cavern, finding this guitar. He knew it was meant to happen. He didn't know if he would ever see home again, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to. However, he had been down here with this guitar a long time, and he was getting hungry. He knew he'd have to figure out a way to get back home, but as he thought, he heard a voice, calling through the raging winds.
"Skwisgaar!? Where are you!?"
It felt odd hearing his mother actually seem worried for him, so he decided he would respond.
"Down here!"
Serveta's face became visible from the hole that he fell in.
"Oh, thank god."
Skwisgaar was still bewildered that his mother was so concerned for him.
"Mom, I'm fine. It's okay."
She shook her head.
"Oh, no, no, I don't care about that. Some people are here for you and I don't want to seem rude by refusing to come find you."
The fleeting feeling that his mother cared about him ripped itself from his mind and was lost in the snow.
"Yeah, sure, be there in a second."
Serveta made to get up and leave.
"Okay, well take your time, I feel that I might enjoy...talking, to this man."
Skwisgaar froze. He knew exactly what was going to happen, and now he certainly didn't want to go back up. He furiously tapped away at the frets of his guitar, shredding up the strings with his right, eyes shut tight in frustration.
*Scene Switch*
Charles saw Serveta's figure emerge over the frost-covered hill that she had left to a few moments before, no son in sight.
"Ah, Ms. Skwigelf, where is Skwisgaar?"
She made her way back down to Charles before answering him, giggling.
"Oh, Skwisgaar will be on his way. In the mean time, his little friends here should go and play with him while I..."
She placed a hand slowly over his neck.
"...Play with you."
Charles had heard stories about this woman, but he had dismissed them as some gossipers trying to make her look bad. But he quickly realized how wrong he was.
"Ah...No, that's fine, these boys will stay with us, thank you. I'm actually waiting for one of them to return right now."
Just as he said this, he saw Toki running through the snow toward him.
"Um, Mr. Ofdensen, Pickles is awake. I think it worked."
Charles breathed a sigh of relief.
"Thank you, Toki. I'll be right there. Go take care of him until them."
Toki obliged and ran out of sight.
"Now, Ms. Skwigelf, we really need to speak with Skwisgaar."
She wrapped her other arm around his chest and looked up at him, upper eyelids relaxed.
"Oh, trust me, he'll be here. It's getting cold out here, come inside."
Murderface turned to Nathan.
"Dude, you schpeak Schwedisch, right? The fuck are they schaying?"
Nathan simply shrugged.
"Dude, I learned all my Swedish from that chef on The Muppets. He never said any of this shit."
Charles turned to the both of them.
"Boys, we're going to have to find Skwisgaar ourselves. Follow me."
He shot Serveta a glare before walking along in the direction that she went earlier. Just as they disappeared over the hill, Nathan looked up at charles.
"Uh, dude, what happens if Toki comes back while we're over here?"
Charles slapped himself on the forehead for forgetting about Toki and turned to Nathan.
"I'm going to go keep an eye on him, you two find Skwisgaar. No wandering off, and if you get lost, stay where you are. I'll find you."
Charles ran off and Nathan looked around at the frozen wasteland, the occasional tree and mountain in the distance.
"How the fuck do we get lost here!?"
*Scene Switch*
Skwisgaar heard the voice of a boy about his age. Having never heard a voice in this area save for his mother's and thousands of adult men, he was rather surprised.
"Um, hello?"
*Scene Switch*
Murderface put his fingers to his lips and shushed Nathan, listening. He heard a voice.
"Hello!?"
He expected to hear "Hello" in return, but instead he heard "Hej".
He sighed.
"Oh, schit. Of coursche, this kid schpeaks Schwedisch too. How are we gonna get him to follow usch?"
Nathan simply continued forward in the direction of the voice, which seemed to be coming from a large opening in the ice.
"Hey, is someone down there?"
He spied a blonde child with a white sweater and a guitar.
"Hey, uh...What was your name? Skewer-Guard? We need you."
*Scene Switch*
Skwisgaar couldn't understand a word that this child was saying, so he simply picked up his guitar and looked for a way up to him. He found a small crack in the wall of ice. He headed toward it, praying that he could get out through it, when it burst open. Ice sliced through him and knocked him back. He heard the sound of large, heavy footsteps coming from the cavern. He heard the voices of the children above.
"Oh, schit! It'sch the fucking mantisch thing again!"
Skwisgaar backed away. He reached for his guitar, which he had flung across the room in fright, and grabbed it around the neck. He swung the body at the mech, knocking it back and exposing circuits. He threw another blow at it and it went down, falling to pieces.
"Hey, the neck's still straight."
Just as he finished this sentence, a suited man dropped from into the cavern.
"Skwisgaar, you..."
He quickly spotted the mantis' body.
"How did you kill that?"
Skwisgaar looked at his guitar.
"With this."
The man looked down at the body.
"It's still moving."
He grabbed Skwisgaar's guitar, produced an amp from Hammerspace and plugged it into the guitar in a flash. He turned the volume to max and swung down on the strings with all of his might. The feedback from the amp was enough to knock both Skwisgaar and the mantis to the ground, and destroy the latter's head.
"It's always good to get feedback about your ideas."
Charles' nose was starting to hurt now from how often he was pinching it.
It actually hurt to write the last bit of this chapter because of how rushed I had to make the mantis-battle. I still haven't explained the mantises or how they got Pickles to Sweden, so I'll do that next time.