Chapter 26 – A Rift between Friends
It had been several hours since the group had made the decision in taking up Ruby, Franky and Uncle's offer of hospitality, and of course everyone was taking full advantage of it. Just like Ruby had said, the upper levels were WAY nicer that downstairs, in fact if they didn't know any better, they would say that they had entered a completely different hotel. Not only were the upper levels spotless, but it looked as though they were the only levels that seemed that they were still being used even with the hotel being closed down. It had to have been at least three in the afternoon, and Adagio was still in the process of soaking in the tub.
"Ah! If this is a dream I don't ever wanna wake up," she sighed, breathing in the scented aromas of the bath salts and foamy bubbles. "To think that two weeks of no indoor plumbing would make you appreciate a nice hot bath."
As her naked body continued to soak in the hot, bath-salted water as it had did for the past hour, Adagio felt better than she had in ages. Even her sisters seemed to enjoy themselves as they explored their new room, as anyone who knew them would come to expect, the Dazzlings instantly seized the opportunity to move into one of the hotel rooms, another one of Ruby's gracious offers after she had discovered how the group spent the first night. After winning a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, much to Aria's annoyance, Sonata was the first to try out the tub, then Aria's turn came after that, now as Adagio had her turn in the bathroom, both Sonata and Aria were now sitting in their room wearing fluffy white bathrobes and enjoying the comforts that had been provided to them.
"Hey Aria, check out how soft and bouncy it is!" Sonata giggled as she bounced up and down on the double bed.
However Aria once again only found herself annoyed by her younger sister's antics, so much so that she snapped her head around to glare at her whilst still in the middle of applying her eyeshadow.
"Would you quite jumping around Sonata!" she snapped, causing Sonata to stop jumping. "Seriously, you're acting like a two-year-old!"
"Aw, but It's been so many days since I've even seen a bed this comfy," Sonata argued before slumping down into the mattress. "Ah, it feels so fluffy nice!"
As usual Aria found herself rolling her eyes after another one of Sonata's playfulness, however in this case she also couldn't help but crack a smile too, all things considered things were finally starting to look up for the Sirens.
#
Meanwhile, back on the first floor, both Chef and Uncle were in the middle of preparing a meal for everyone else. Chef may have been reluctant to do so, but as far as everyone knew, he was the only one who even had any indication on how to cook, all Lug, Mossy and Spud could make was their traditional Irish cuisine, the Dazzlings only experience with food was serving it back at the Prancing Pony, and the only thing Goggles would make was tea. Granted no one had tried asking G about it yet, but he seemed to have been keeping his distance from everyone for the past few hours, as such it was Chef who was chosen to be the group's designated cook. However Chef's own cooking methods brought some unwanted attention in the form of a cranky old Chinese man who had been leaning over Chef's shoulder the entire time he tried to make something edible, worse still he also tried adding stuff to the recipe.
"Ha! You are a terrible cook," Uncle scoffed as he once again began to power powdered Garlic into Chef's stew. "You are not using enough wholesome ingredients!"
"Whoa! Hey, that's too much garlic dude!" Chef screamed as he snatched the jar out of uncle's hand, only to receive one of his two-fingered strikes to his head for the trouble of doing so. "OW!"
"No such thing, 'too much garlic.'" Uncle snapped, snatching the jar back. "You want to learn to cook good food? Yes? THEN YOU WILL LISTEN TO UNCLE!"
Chef never thought he would find someone more annoying than Chris Mclean or any teenager that went on reality TV, but for the first time in a long time, he actually felt the urge to actually beat the living crap out of someone… publicly anyway.
#
Thankfully, everyone else seemed to be getting along with the new hosts rather well, while Franky was able to get along with Lug, Mossy and Spud, due to their unanimous love for music, Laura insanity became good friends with Ruby, mainly because the red-hooded girl seemed to find her fox-like appearance quite cute, thus leading to the two have a pleasant conversation regarding a similar species in Ruby's world, known as the Faunus. The only ones who didn't seem to be enjoying themselves were Nyx, Edward and G, of course each of them had their own reasons for how they felt. For G it was mainly because of his own suspicions, as well as concern for everyone else the longer they stayed in this hotel, as for Nyx and Edward, they each felt concern mainly because of the unknown, and by that I mean that they literally have no idea as to why G was acting so distant. Add that to the fact that they were both worried about Rahzar being somewhere in the area, and it was no wonder why the three felt such worry. Of course Laura felt the same way at first, however she somehow felt a little more relaxed after having her conversations with Ruby, the talks must have acted as some form of comforting blanket for the girl. When the large Grandfather Clock in the lobby began to strike four, Nyx soon found herself walking into the lounge, where she found Goggles sipping tea from some cracked china and munching down on a piece of cake. Needless to say, Nyx felt the need to voice her concerns.
"How can you guys be so relaxed, Goggles?" Nyx asked, almost scolding the Gizmonk for being so relaxed.
Sensing Nyx's hidden tone of voice, Goggles couldn't help but raise an eyebrow as he answered her.
"We're in a hotel with people who are willing to take us in and help us out," he said. "And what's more they're from different realms too. So how could you NOT relax?"
"Well let's see, we have no transport, there's a wolf mutant out there trying to hunt us down, and we only have two more days before the other villains track us down!" Nyx retorted in a huffed manner. "Do you want to hear more?"
However Goggles merely took this little outburst as nothing more than the nervous jitters of a child, granted he knew better than to underestimate any filly but he also knew that sometimes their actions can be foolish if not in the right state of mind.
"Nyx, Nyx, you are getting way too hysterical here," he said reassuringly. "You heard what Adagio said, Rahzar's gonna take forever to track us down. PLUS that's two days we get to take a breather before we start running again, and two days we have to get to know our new friends."
However at those words, Nyx then looked down at the floor with a sheepish expression upon her face.
"That's the thing though," she said. "Didn't you see how G reacted towards them? It was like he knew them."
At those words Goggles merely rolled his eyes.
"Well duh," he retorted. "The guy HAS been around a few dimensions, he probably knows them better than they know themselves."
"True, but it was HOW he knew them that worries me," Nyx argued.
It was only then that Goggles' smile finally turned into a look of concern, however it was more of a curious concern than a worried concern like Nyx's was.
"What do you mean?" he asked curiously.
"Didn't you see how G looked at Franky when we first met?" Nyx asked, much to Goggles' confusion. "It was as if he could tell something was off about him."
Goggles may have been a scientific genius, but based on the look he was giving her, Nyx couldn't help but feel like she was talking to an idiot. It may not be a very nice thing to think about her friend, but given the fact that the Gizmonk wasn't showing as much concern as he should be at this point, Nyx wasn't feeling any ounce of guilt in doing so.
"What are you saying?" Goggles asked, setting down his cup of tea.
At first Nyx said nothing but after a few moments of carefully choosing her words, she finally looked at the Gizmonk with a stern face and spoke.
"I'm saying that maybe these new guys aren't what we think they are," he said. "I thought you of all creatures would understand that."
However this turned out to be a BAD choice of words since it was now Goggles' turn to narrow his eyes.
"And what exactly do you mean by that?" he asked.
It was only then that Nyx realised what can of worms she had just opened, widening her eyes with terror upon what she had just said, she hoped that whatever she said next, didn't effect G in any negative way.
#
Speaking of G, after spending some time alone with his thoughts on whatever situation is going on in this dimension, he finally felt that he needed someone to talk to. Thankfully he was able to find Edward sitting at the base of the stairs in the lobby, with a look of concern upon his face.
"Hey Edward," he said, bringing Edward out of his trace.
"G?" he said in response, giving G a small smile.
"Fancy some company?" G asked, looking towards an empty space on the stairs next to Edward.
Of course Edward was happy to have his friend join him, hence he gave no argument and ushered G towards the empty spot. Once G took a comfy seat on the stairs he then spoke again, even when sitting down Edward still towered over G by a couple of feet, something that G may have found annoying, but didn't stop him from starting a talk with his scissor handed friend.
"How're you holding up?" he asked.
"Better," Edward replied, not really sure as to what else to say.
It was then that G let out a light sigh, he didn't really want to bring up a suspicious subject out in the open like this but since Edward was a good friend of his, he didn't want to beat about the bush either, so deciding to swallow his pride, something of which came rare for him, he brought the subject he wanted into the conversation.
"Hey, can I ask you something?" he said, catching Edward's attention again.
"Yes?" Edward responded.
"What do you think about Ruby and those other two?" G asked in reply. "Honestly now."
Of course Edward was taken aback by this new subject for a brief moment upon hearing it, but of course he also expected as such from his friend, after all he knew him long enough to recognise one of his concerned looks from a mile away.
"They seem okay," Edward answered honestly. "But they also seem… strange."
It may have felt for Edward to say such a thing given his own character, but his honesty was something G always admired about him, thus he was satisfied with the answer he gave. After all what Edward said was certainly on the money, at least from G's perspective, in fact the longer the group stuck around the hotel, the more oddities he noticed about their new hosts. For example, while Franky's personality change was strange enough, after a bit of stalking on G's part, he discovered that it was because the cola bottles that served as the power source located in his abdomen were in fact replaced by Ice Tea, a drink that if G remembered right, would cause him to act like the gentleman he was now. Not only that but Ruby's character seemed out of place too, so much so that G found himself scratching his head at it, if she were truly acting like herself then she would have gone gaga over Nyx's cuteness just like Porche and Ranamon did back in Middle-Earth, but for some reason she never did. True, she was interacting with Laura in a friendly manner but that's as far as it went, the only time that Ruby dropped her cutesy personality was when she was concentrating in battle or concerned, perhaps even scared about other people. As for Uncle… well actually Uncle seemed to act just like he always would, no matter how hard G looked, the old man was just as grouchy as he always was.
"I thought so," G said, voicing his concern a little more. "And why do you think they wouldn't let us up any higher than the fourth floor?"
This was of course yet another oddity that G had noticed, while SOME of the upper levels had been opened up to everyone in the group, the fifth floor up had remained closed off. Ruby may have said this was because that it was because there was still a bit of maintenance, and of course Uncle threatened that he would break the collarbones of anyone who tried to go up there, but those statements only added to G's suspicions.
"They're hiding something?" Edward queried.
"Possibly," G replied, scratching his chin with thought. "Though we can't really be sure until we go up there and see for ourselves."
"I'm afraid that won't be a good idea," said another voice, joining the conversation.
It was only then that Edward and G realised that someone else was in the lobby with them, however they seemed to have been too wrapped up in their own conversation to notice her walk in, in fact hearing the voice instantly made G jump a little due to being startled so much. Turning their heads towards the source of the voice, both Edward and G's jaws dropped upon the sight of the new arrival. She was a tanned woman in her mid to late twenties, with platinum blond hair tied up into a bun, and wore a purplish grey business suit that consisted of a white buttoned shirted topped with a purplish grey jacket and tie, a dark grey, knee-length skirt with a matching belt, grey stockings and black shoes, along with a black bow in her hair and a pair of deep purple, moon shaped glasses that windowed her oaky brown eyes. As the new person stared back at Edward and G with a clipboard in her hand and ample curiosity in her eyes, the two couldn't really comprehend the sudden arrival of the woman or her lack of fearful expression, in most case anyone who saw G or Edward in their normal forms would have screamed, or at the least cringed upon seeing them, however this women seemed… fascinated by them, as if she were desperately trying to figure out the secrets of a magician's trick. Finally finding his voice again, G decided to try his best to give the woman some form of intersection.
"Who are you?" he asked curiously.
The woman instantly smiled at that, almost playfully though definitely trying to be subtle in that particular area, at least in G's opinion.
"My name is Miss Hazel," she said with a respectful nod of her head. "I'm actually the owner of this hotel, and you are?"
So THIS was the woman that helped Ruby and the others out, upon seeing her G had to admit that she wasn't exactly what he had expected, if anything she seemed more like the type of person who wouldn't bother with owning a rundown hotel rather than simply work in a high business company. Also she seemed to be giving off a strange smell, G may not be certain due to his nosebleeds, but if he didn't know any better, then he would have guessed that she was from a different realm too. However that idea was quickly dismissed when G snapped back into reality for a moment to answer Miss Hazel's question.
"I… I'm G, and this is Edward," he said nervously, giving the woman a small introduction. "Wait, you're not freaked out by us?"
Miss Hazel couldn't help but chuckle at that.
"I have seen many weird things in my lifetime Mr G," she said in response. "I assure you, nothing surprises me anymore. Then again your presence here is most befuddling. I assume you know that I have employees here?"
"Yes," Edward replied awkwardly.
"In fact they told us you were coming today," G added.
Awkwardness aside, this woman seemed to be one of the friendliest people G or the rest of the group had the pleasure of encountering, it almost seemed too good to be true.
"I know," she said, taking a moment to look over the notes on her clipboard. "They also informed me about your arrival before I came by. Needless to say I was intrigued when Ruby mentioned what you looked like over the phone, I have to say that I'm not disappointed at what I see here."
G couldn't help but blush at that.
"Uh… thanks, I'm flattered." he replied.
Now that the ice had been somewhat broken, G and Edward finally began to relax a little, letting out a light sigh as they rose from the stairs to shake Miss Hazel's hand, though obviously Edward settled for a polite nod due to his circumstances.
"Well then," Miss Hazel said politely, looking down at G with her welcoming smile. "Perhaps you would like to introduce me to the rest of your friends? After all you are the first two I've seen thus far."
However before G could give a respond, one of those said friends came stomping into the lobby with a furious look upon his face, quickly followed by Nyx as they exited the lounge.
"You sorry sack of Dragon Dung!" Goggles shouted, pointing at an accusing finger at G. "You know about me and decided to spill everything!?"
Goggles may have only been thirteen inches tall but that shout was loud enough to echo throughout the first two floors of the hotel, in fact everyone heard it instantly. It was then that a few people close enough to the lobby began swarming towards it, curious as to what the commotion was about.
"What's going on?" Ruby asked as she and Laura came walking in from the dining room.
It was just then that Ruby spotted Miss Hazel by the stairs, letting off a small gasp the second she saw her. Upon seeing this, something caught the sight of G's Jolly Roger eye, it was only for a moment, but judging from Ruby's expression it looked as though she DIDN'T know about her arrival. However once again the thoughts had to be set aside for now as more people began to flood the lobby, soon enough everyone was there.
"This idiot is what's going on!" Goggles snapped, answering Ruby's question. "The guy's been spilling secrets willy-nilly about everyone's personal life before all this happened. Read about what happened in Equestria Daily did you?"
Upon hearing this a few gasps were heard, mainly from Lug, Mossy, Spud and Laura, and before long everyone was staring at G with shock or anger, however one individual only seemed to look down at the floor with shame.
"Sorry G, it sort of slipped out," Nyx whimpered, fearing that she was going to get in trouble for telling Goggles what G told her the previous night.
G couldn't help but sigh at this, of course he didn't blame Nyx for saying anything, after all he didn't mention anything about Goggles' past being a secret to her. Still he knew that it was a sensitive subject for him so of course the Gizmonk was going to be pissed off, especially when G goes blabbing about it behind his back. Even Laura couldn't help but rub the back of her neck in an awkward manner, after all she knew about Goggles' past too, and in all honesty she definitely understood the Gizmonk's point of view in this whole situation.
"No, don't apologise to him," Goggles said, almost scolding Nyx for doing so since he believed G was in the wrong here. "He's the one who's been spreading a bunch of garbage any way he can."
Again G sighed, this was certainly a can of worms that was NOT going to be sorted out easily, still he tried his best to calm the situation down, almost ignoring Miss Hazel's curious gaze as he began to speak to Goggles.
"Now, come on let's not get ahead of ourselves," he said peacefully. "Why don't we all just calm down and perhaps talk a bit in the lounge eh? Maybe have a cup of tea."
However this was one of the few rare moments where Goggles was NOT in the mood for tea, in fact he merely scoffed at the very mention of it. What made things worse was when Lug decided to add to the argument.
"Why?" he said. "So that you can try to convince everyone to leave the hotel as soon as possible!?"
G's eyes widened at that.
"I'm sorry?" he said, not really sure he heard right, however before Lug could answer Goggles spoke again.
"Look, it's bad enough that you've been spilling our secrets, but we have been hunted, injured and traumatised beyond belief and the second we get a chance to relax, you start spreading ideas into everyone's heads that we need to leave!" he snapped, producing point to Lug's suggestion. "It's like you ENJOY being chased by monsters! I can't believe I actually defended you at one point!"
Now G was beginning to understand where all this extra rage was coming from, clearly Goggles hadn't forgiven G for what happened with the Wargs just before they left Middle-Earth. Then again who could really blame him? After all after being inches away from death, he was tossed like a baseball as part of the attempted rescue, of course he was still going to be angry with G. After all it doesn't matter how much experience one has in the matter, being held hostage is NEVER a pleasant experience. At that moment, more members of the group began adding their own comments.
"The monkey does bring up a valid point," Adagio pointed out, leaning on top of the first floor banister as she spoke to G from above whilst wearing a bathrobe and slippers. "As far as we know, all those villains are hunting YOU! And the only reason we're caught in the crossfire is because we're following your lead."
"Not to mention the fact that you basically TRICKED us into joining your little group." Aria added.
G growled angrily at that.
"Hey, you were the one who wanted your voices back!" he snapped, causing a few eyes to roll.
"And at what cost!" Adagio snapped back. "For us not to have the same powers we had before? To be your lackeys until this whole adventure is over? You mentioned before that if we decided to break contract, then you would abandon us in whatever dimension you see fit without our voices. Well seeing as how these aren't our real voices anyway I think I could live with sticking around here for a while."
However while Adagio may have been strong in her opinion, it certainly wasn't shared with her sisters.
"Say what!?" Aria exclaimed.
"You can't be serious!" Sonata added with a strong gasp.
However Adagio chose to ignore her sister's comments for the moment since she was too wrapped in in the more pressing argument happening in the lobby. At this point even G found his blood beginning to boil, the Dazzlings he understood getting in his business like this, but now most of the group were looking like he was enemy number one.
"Face it G," Lug said bluntly. "Every decision you have made up till this point has led us from bad to worse!"
At those words G clenched his fists so tight that he literally cracked his bony hand and dented his metal one, after all that he tried to do for these people, they are turning on him just like that!? And all because he spilled one little secret, no, it was more than that, perhaps they were in the right in letting their bottled up anger out. After all, it was his mistake that caused this whole mess in the first place. However there were two certain individuals that didn't feel such anger towards the Living Genre.
"Hey that's not fair!" Nyx snapped, completely astounded that Lug would say such a thing.
"That DOES seem a little harsh," Laura added, not liking the whole argument in general.
However to their surprise, G then raised his hands to silence them.
"No girls, let them have it out," he stated calmly, much to their shock. "Needless to say they every right to be upset with everything that has been happening as of late. But unfortunately I'm not gonna just stand here and take this kind of abuse from a bunch of people who have no clue as to the full extent to what is happening right now."
At first everyone thought that G was going to lash out a very convincing argument, perhaps even scold them for not giving him any deserved trust, however much to everyone's surprise he simply turned and walked towards the front door.
"Now where are you going!?" Goggles snapped.
"To clear my head!" G snapped back. "Hopefully you idiots will do the same while I'm gone!"
And with that G then opened the front door and stormed out of the hotel, he didn't really want to leave but given the circumstances, he thought it best that everyone was given a bit of space in order to calm down, plus he too was too upset to be thinking straight anyway and frankly he didn't really care either. The second G was gone, everyone could only stare at the front door with a look of concern etched across their faces, the only one who seemed to have a different expression upon her face was Nyx, who simply looked at the other with a look of pure anger.
"Way to go, you guys!" She snapped. "I thought we were past all the blaming!"
Then before anyone could argue with her, she too stormed out of the front door, quickly followed by Edward who merely wanted to make sure his friend was alright, a feeling that was certainly mutual between the both of them. After that, the whole lobby fell into silence, with no on having any clue as to what to say.
"Ruby?" Miss Hazel finally said about a minute later. "Did I miss something?"
#
Author's Notes:
The Character Nyx belongs to Pen Stroke / :iconPenstrokepony:
The Character Laura belongs to :icontwokinds:
The Characters Chi and Mimi belong to :iconbleedman:
The Character Ruby Rose belongs to Rooster Teeth
