Chapter 2: Findings

Ms Mowz followed Bilic down to the docks of Rougeport. Although it was morning, the darkness still filled the skies.
"Any ideas why it's dark?" Bilic asked.
Ms Mowz shook her head. She couldn't stop looking at the tattoo on Bilic's arm, the black fire with a reptilian eye in the middle of it. It was exactly the same as the one she had, and from how Bilic had described it, he'd gotten it in exactly the same way.
As Bilic reached the piers, a Hammer Bro in a white shell and helmet came running up to him, his icy blue eyes reflecting panic.
"Bilic!" He said.
"Valge?" Bilic said. "What's the problem?"
"It's Felix! He won't wake up!" Bilic swore and ran off in front. Valge and Ms Mowz followed. Soon, they had ran up to Bilic, who was crouched down in front of a few smahed crates, bits and splinters of wood surrounding him. On the smashed crate next to Bilic, a Hammer Bro with an orange shell and helmet laid, eyes closed, his left arm twisted in a painful angle and his lower lip covered in dried blood.
"Felix!" Bilic called to the Hammer Bro. "Come on, stop fooling!" He sounded more worried than angry.
Ms Mowz and Valge stood next to Felix, unsure of what to do. Ms Mowz took a look at Felix's twisted arm. Again, there was another tattoo, the exact same one she, Bilic and Valge had. She looked again at Felix's unmoving body.
"What happened to him?" She asked.
Valge looked at her. "We had just arrived here." He said. "At first, we were surprised by how dark and how quiet it was here. Then, these five figures,"
"Demons?" Ms Mowz asked.
Valge nodded. "They attacked us. We tried to fight back, but we were outnumbered and outmatched. One of them stabbed at Felix. There was a white flash and he was blown back into these crates."
"White flash?" She asked.
Bilic and Valge nodded.
"I have an idea, just don't freak out." She said. She went over to Felix's head, then took a breath, closed her eyes, and put her lips to Felix's. She started to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on Felix, slowly moving his chest. She stood back and gave Felix some space. Bilic and Valge were a little surprised, but said nothing.
"Please work." Ms Mowz whispered.
After a few tense moments. Felix finally coughed and opened his eyes. Bilic and Valge breathed out a sigh of relief. Felix slowly got up to his feet, wiping the blood from his lip.
"How long was I out?" He asked, his voice raspy.
"Twenty minutes." Valge said.
Felix groaned, then noticed Ms Mowz. "Hello." He said.
"She just woke you up." Bilic added.
"Thanks." Felix said. "What happened to me anyways?"
"From what your friends told me, the demons stopped your heart with an electric shock." Ms Mowz said.
"Oh." Felix winced, rubbing the his tattoo. "It burns." He said.
Ms Mowz nodded. "Yeah, it does."
Ms Mowz, Bilic, Valge and Felix stood in silence for a few moments.
"Is there anyone else around?" Felix said, finally breaking the uncomfortable silence.
Ms Mowz's eyes widened and she gasped. "I don't know." She said nervously. "There's normally people everywhere, even here, but I haven't heard anything since I woke up."
Felix nodded, looking kindly at her. His eyes were blue like Valge and Bilic, but seemed much more friendlier, like a good friend who liked to make jokes. Ms Mowz blushed slightly.
Bilic took this into consideration. "We should check if there's still anyone around."
Everyone nodded, and they took off to the town square.

Rougeport Town Square was still eerily empty, much to Ms Mowz's dismay. It seemed like the whole town had been put to sleep. All the lights were still turned off, leaving only the moon as a light source, which shone dimly through the dark clouds in the sky.
"How can the moon be out in the day?" Valge wondered.
"I don't know." Ms Mowz shrugged.
"I bet the demons that attacked us have something to do with it." Bilic said.
Ms Mowz's eyes widened. "That's it!" She said, turning to Bilic. "It must be, but we just don't know how."
"Or why." Felix added.
"Or how." Bilic said, staring at the ground, deep in thought.
A scream of pain echoed through the air, snapping everyone from the silence. The scream had come from the Inn.
"Someone's awake!" Felix said.
"And in trouble!" Valge added.

They ran towards the Inn as fast as they could. Bilic brought out spiked, two-sided hammer and swung it at the door, smashing the lock in. Everyone went inside, running inside a small but simple bar, completely wooden with a long counter, a few benches and some bottles and glasses lined up on the wall behind the counter. Sounds of fighting were coming from upstairs.
"This way!" Bilic shouted, pointing towards the Inn's staircase. He and his friends ran up the stairs as fast as they could.
By the time Bilic, Valge, Felix and Ms Mowz had reached the top of the staircase and ran into the Inn's bedrooms, there was no fighting happening, but signs of fighting were obvious. Three beds had been overturned, some planks on the floor had been cracked, and two bodies laid face down on the floor; a male Toad with a white cap and red stripes in a pool of his own blood, a knife lodged in his chest, and a Human girl with long blond hair, white pants and lavender short-sleeved sweater. Felix gasped. Bilic ran up to the girl and turned her onto her back.
"Are you okay?" He asked worriedly. He raised her right arm to check her pulse, but nearly dropped her when he saw the tattoo burned into her skin, the exact same one he and his friends had as well.
He took a deep breath. He then checked her pulse again, being very gentle. He felt a faint pulse in her wrist, and breathed a sigh of relief.
"She's alive." He said. "Although the same can't be said for the other guy." He looked at the dead Toad.
The girl opened her eyes slowly. She winced in pain, clasping her right arm where the tattoo was. Bilic backed up to give her some space.
"Who are you?" She asked, getting up into a sitting position, but remained tense. "What do you want from me?"
"Nothing, we came to help you." Bilic replied. " We heard you scream, and we came here to find out why. But don't worry, we're not here to hurt you. My name is Bilic. Behind me are Felix, Valge and Ms Mowz."
"I'm Jane." The girl said, her blue eyes carefully looking at each of them. She then got up onto her feet, brushing dust and wood shavings off her sweater.
"What happened?" Ms Mowz asked.
Jane sighed. "I just came here last week. I was going to study abroad, so I stopped here to for a night. While I was sleeping, a group of five figures, I'm sure they were demons, grabbed me, pinned me, then burned this tattoo into my arm." She pointed towards her arm.
Bilic started pacing around the Inn's floor, muttering in an unfamiliar language.
"What's he doing?" Ms Mowz asked Felix.
"That? He's just thinking." Felix answered, sitting down on one of the beds. "Whenever Bilic get's flustered or angry, he starts to talk in Croatian. Me and Valge have learned to understand it, though."
"So what's he saying?" She asked.
"At the moment, he's putting together some type of conspiracy. I can't hear everything he's saying, but he's trying to relate the tattoo's and the demons with the turn of events." He said, then looked at Valge, who turning the overturned beds upright. He stopped for a moment, then pulled out a torn piece of paper from underneath the covers. He started to read it, and his eyebrows started to crease.
"Felix, come look at this." He said.
Felix, Ms Mowz and Jane all got up and walked over to Valge, leaving Bilic to ponder alone.
"What is it?" Felix asked.
Valge didn't lift his gaze from the paper, but he pointed a some words written on the paper.
"Read this." He said.
The words on the paper were written with blood, and the message was incomplete:
'...in action. Commence the plan, as it was instructed. And do not fail. You do not want to end up facing the...'
"Plan?" Felix whispered. "What does that mean?"
"It might mean that the demon are taking orders from someone else." Ms Mowz offered.
"Yikes." Felix said. "I thought those guys were tough enough. Now they're taking orders from someone else whose presumably far more powerful?!" He sighed and raised his hands. "Yep, we're screwed."
"Felix, stay calm." Valge said, unimpressed by his friend's worrying. "I'm sure there's something we can do, but for now we need to keep our heads down."

By now, Bilic had already walked to a nearby door on the far side of the room, the one that led outside onto the roofs of the other buildings. He opened the door, hoping some fresh air would help clear his head from all of the demons and conspiracies that he kept coming up with. The moment he put his foot outside, he instantly brought it back. In front of him, a black Chain Chomp had snuggled up in it's own chain, also black, sleeping peacefully. Bilic gulped and took another step back, he didn't want to awaken it, fearing that the Chain Chomp might attack him.
"Bilic!" Felix called. "Come see this!
The Chain Chomp stirred and awoke, growling. Bilic swore silently. The Chain Chomp sniffed the air, then turned to Bilic and growled.
"Stay." Bilic said, putting his hands out, backing away slightly. The Chain Chomp jumped excitedly and pounced on Bilic, sending Bilic backwards. Bilic mentally noted that the Chain Chomp had a blue X on his left side and knife-like teeth, inches away from Bilic's face. 'Well, this is it.' Bilic thought sourly. 'Cursed by demons and now I'm going to have my face torn off by a Chain Chomp.'

Ms Mowz saw the Chain Chomp pounce on Bilic and pin him to the ground. She was about to pull out her knife and attack, but when she saw the blue X on the side of his face, she instantly recognized him.
"Riley!"
The Chain Chomp barked happily and got off of Bilic, bouncing towards Ms Mowz. Ms Mowz patted his head gently, smiling.
Bilic breathed a sigh of relief and got up. "You've got to be joking." He muttered. "You know this Chain Chomp?"
"Yes I do." Ms Mowz said happily. " Riley here belongs to the Inn's owner. He acts like a guard dog."
Riley barked happily.
"Good to see you too." Ms Mowz said. "Now where's your owner?"
Riley sniffed the ground, then bounced outside. Ms Mowz followed, leaving the others inside.
"Unbelievable." Bilic muttered. "She likes that thing."
Valge rolled his eyes. "Bilic, get over it. I know you've had some bad experiences with Chain Chomps, but you got to let this one go. If Ms Mowz can get along with him, then I'll trust Riley as well."
Bilic sighed. "What should we do with him?" He said, pointing towards the dead Toad.
A loud crack was heard from the open door. Everyone turned around to face the doorway, where a black hooded figure stood, gripping two razor-sharp knies in his hands, pulling another knif out of the open door. He was shaped as a Koopa, with crimson eyes, black clothing and pale skin,with black smoke curling at his feet.
"I can't say what you can do with him." He said in a monotone voice, his mouth curling into a smile. "But you can join him."

Ms Mowz followed Riley through the cobbled streets of Rougeport, looking for Riley's owner. Riley stopped by the door of a small house that was sandwiched between two others. Ms Mowz knocked on the door, which was unlocked and creaked open slowly. The house was dark, apart from one lamp with a dimly glowing flame. She stepped inside carefully.
"Hello?" She said. No reply came.
She stepped forward again, and her foot landed in a puddle with a quiet splash. The smell of chemicals and blood filled her nose. She didn't want look down, knowing what she was stepping in, but she looked at the puddle that was at her foot. She looked off towards the edge of the puddle, and covered her mouth to prevent herself from gagging or screaming. A bloody, mangled body of a Toad with a Black cap and white stripes lay at the edge of the blood puddle, a stream of blood dripping from his mouth and a hole in his chest. Looking more closely, the Toad was male, wearing jeans and a gray sweater, and seemed unusually tall for a Toad.
"What happened?" She breathed. Riley whimpered next to her.
A sob echoed from behind her. "It was my fault."

End of chapter 2. Left two cliffhangers at the end of the chapter. Hope you enjoyed it.

OC notes: OC submissions are still open. And to those who already sent theirs in, please be patient, as they will appear eventually in later chapters. I was just strapped for time and I wanted to put suspense on this chapter, otherwise it would have been longer still, and I don't usually make chapters this long.

Anyhow:

Jane is the OC of Wafflegirl0304

Bilic is the OC of IPreferKooper-Koops-Koopakevic

Valge is my OC

Felix was recommended by DutchVlammen, a friend of Kevic with no FFN account

Riley is the OC of KingOfStories01

All for now, -Para-Zackovic