TWs: Manipulation, Hellu-bot is a douche, ominousness. Stay safe :)

"You're bribing me with... cola?" Edd quirked an eyebrow as he held the red and white can, inspecting it.

"Yes, I outlawed cola a while ago because of a certain... disagreement," Hellucard spoke through gritted teeth as his eyes averted to his arm. Dr. John was in the middle of replacing his faux skin and repairing his systems, "So your only way of getting it is through me."

Edd furrowed his brows, slightly glaring at him, "Let me get this right; you want me to join you in defeating some rebellion."

Hellucard nodded, "Yep."

"And all I'm getting out of this are caffeinated drinks?" The taller pointed out, holding the can up.

Hellucard blinked with his mechanical visions, seemingly in shock. Then he smiled at the other as he thought of something, "You have a cat, right? Well- had a cat... say, where is she now?"

Edd blinked as he realized, "I- uh, don't know..."

"Exactly! Poor Ringo, she must be frightened out there, all alone...or, I bet the rebellion snatched her."

"What gave you that idea?"

"Doctor, show him the drone's surveillance." The King told him. John did just that, opening a laptop and typing in a few words, "From a few days ago..."

Edd watched the footage, seeing his zombie pet roaming the streets of England. The brunette thought nothing of it, knowing his cat tended to wander off when she saw something that piqued her interest.

His eyebrow twitched when he saw another person enter the frame.

"Eduardo...?" He muttered.

"You recognize him?" John seemed surprised, given that the mind spell should've erased his memories of everybody he knew.

"Mmh... he was always jealous of me, claiming he was better than me at everything. He copied everything I did or said but in a mocking way." Edd spoke, "I'm surprised his friends still stick with him, given that he was an asshole to both of them."

"You have bad memories of him?" The scientist got out a notepad and wrote something down.

"What do you mean? I only have bad memories of him."

"Intriguing..." Edd ignored him in favor of observing the rest of the tape.

He watched as Eduardo spotted Ringo and scooped her up in his arms. The cat seemed surprised and tense as Eduardo ran towards a nearby alley.

"Where... where did he take her?" Edd spoke.

"You already know the answer," Hellucard responded. The robot leaned back in his chair, kicking his feet up, "So, do we have a deal?"

Edd was silent as he peered at the computer screen, "If I do this for you, you'll get me my cat back?"

"Yep, and all the cola you desire." The King nodded.

Biting his lip, Edd nodded hesitantly, "I'll do it."

The King grinned, putting his hand out to shake, "Pleasure doing business with you!"

The taller grimaced, "Yeah, there's no way I'm touching that."

He crossed his arms as he looked at the fallen skin of the mechanical hand.

Hellucard shrugged, "Fair enough."

Katya watched from across the room, her eyes glancing everywhere she could, taking it all in. She knew she was in danger if anyone ever found out she wasn't hypnotized. Katya knew she wouldn't make it out of there if she ran; it was 3 against 1, and the blonde wasn't much of a fighter. All she had was medical experience to back her up.

She crossed her arms as she huddled in the corner of the room, making herself seem small. She had to remind herself why she was doing this in the first place.

'Get as much information as you can.' Katya thought, repeating it in her head. She let out a breath, only glancing up when she heard Hellucard speak.

"Oi, newbie, get us some food."

Katya's eyebrow twitched as she bit her lip, a remark close to slipping out. She held it back as she left the room.

Tord faceplanted onto the table, "Bare drep meg nå..."

Pau rolled his eyes at the display, "Tord, please... we haven't even made it past step 1 yet."

Two diagrams were placed in front of them, one for the palace and one for the sewers. Various pencil marks scattered across both pages messily.

"I don't know... there's Edd and Katya who might always be at the King's side 24/7." Tord lifted his head, counting on his fingers, "And then there's Bing, Arthur, and Larry; we know Bing wasn't taken, but we have no idea where the other two are."

"The palace," Matt spoke up from across the room, startling them.

"How long have you been there?" The Norsk questioned.

"Not too long-" The ginger responded, "Anyway, my father and Larry might be at the palace; in the dungeon."

"That place actually has a dungeon?" Tord quirked an eyebrow, glancing at Pau.

"Unfortunately." Another voice spoke at the doorway, out of breath.

"Are you okay, Pat?" Pau stood up, about to walk over to help him.

"Ah, I'm fine," Pat set his laptop down on the table, "just out of practice- running and all."

Pau sat down, continuing to watch his partner carefully.

"We recently got a transmission." Pat started, "Tracking it, it seemed to have come from the palace."

"Underneath the palace." Matt finished. Pat nodded.

"But... there's also a power grid in place at the palace; it could electrocute you if you try to use any tech within its border. The only way to bypass it is if someone manually turns it off, if something overloads it, or if you have special access."

Tord huffed, "That makes our plan a lot more complicated... we'll need some inhibitors."

There was a knock at the door, and Clay wasted no time walking in, "Uh, guys?"

"Clay, I thought I told you to watch the monitors." Pat turned to him.

"I did." He frowned, "And then I got bored."

Pat grunted in feigned annoyance as he turned back to his laptop.

"Anything else, Clay?" Tord looked at him with a small smile.

"Not really." He adjusted his cap, "Actually, have you seen You or Yan anywhere?"

Tord hummed, "No, why?"

"I can't find them..."

The Norsk glanced at the clock, "Ah, they must've gone on patrol early; you know how they are with getting things done."

"Aw man, I wanted to do trick shots with them." Clay deflated.

"We can do trick shots later, Clay." Tord smiled, "I promise."

Clay puffed out his cheeks, "Mmh, fine."

"Check on Kim while you're waiting," Tord called as he left the room, leaving the proper adults to do the planning.

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Norwegian =
Bare drep meg nå - Just kill me now

(Translations brought to you by Google Translate)

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There's a picture over on my Tumblr where I drew Arthur- I think he turned out alright :)
Then again, I'm no artist...

Comments are appreciated 3

Tumblr: transacewithapan (Astraea)