Maroon's brilliant idea involved stretching the lassos as far back as Victim allowed them to go before letting go.
"Brilliant idea, Mar. No wonder you sell corn dogs." King grumbled.
"We got him there!...Right?"
Purple had made it to the creature's torso, but wasn't able to be thrown straight into the transparent coating. Instead, he'd been launched closer to the creature's right arm, but was able to grab a fistful of flesh to keep himself from falling a very long distance to the ground.
King flinched.
"Come on, kid..."
Purple was, from his position, also very easily able to climb closer to the torso and break through the transparent coating, climbing inside and shooting a thumbs up to the group.
"Yes! He made it!"
"Now, all we have to do is find the Singularity and get it to the Monoliths."
"How do we do that?"
"Well...I don't know."
"We've got to find the people who started this entire mess. Where'd they go?"
"Last time we saw them, they had me and Mar captured and thrown into a cell...somewhere."
"It wasn't too far from here, so they've gotta be around here somewhere."
"Like there?" The alternate King said, pointing to the roof of a high building.
Sure enough, the three sticks who had started the entire disaster were standing on a roof, watching the Monolith with intense fascination.
One of them had a lasso in their hand.
"Oh, shit-"
Purple seemed to have seen it too, since his attention was on the three sticks as well.
One of the sticks shot a lasso at him, seemingly noticing him. The other two had their attention turned to King's tiny group, so making any sudden movements wasn't a death wish.
"PURPLE, LOOK OUT!" Maroon screamed. The other two started sending lassos in their direction, sending the group of five running.
"They're gonna capture us!"
"Shut up, Mar! They could kill us!"
"God, our alternate selves sure are paranoid." Maroon muttered.
"Hey, their Purple's been gone since the entire Silver incident. It doesn't really surprise me."
"Still."
"Mar-"
"Fine."
"Look out!" Victim shouted. One of the villains had given chase.
King hopped the fence into the park, dodging a ray.
"Your not getting away that easily!"
"And your not making me go through what you put my kid through!"
"Oh, please! That's your kid?" The figure snapped, laughing a little bit. "How absurd that you, of all people, was able to raise such a suicidal brat!"
"Purple is not suicidal, asshole!"
"What makes you say that? He has razor knives and box cutters! Blades for the knives! And your saying he isn't suicidal?"
"Yeah, I am! He used those to save our asses from certain death! Why in hell would someone like him want to die?!"
Maroon, from what King could see, had taken the altercation as a distraction, and was being helped into the small ship by Victim and the alternate Maroon.
"Because his shit dad? His dead mom? His lack of a family?"
"That "brat" you speak of is my adoptive son." King snapped. "And, do you really think that those stopped him?"
Maroon raised his hands, one of them wrapped around a tight fist, and brought it down on the girl's head. "King, get in! We're gonna get the kids out of there!"
King wasted no time in climbing in, moving the girl's unconscious body. "Why?!"
"Simple. Victim thinks Silver made some adjustments to the creature's abilities. The Monoliths are sucking out their energy. If they're in there any longer, both Purple's are going to die."
"Ow..."
Sure, Purple had made it inside the giant creature, but it didn't mean that it didn't hurt.
Having to dodge being attacked by the people who had caused the entire disaster he was in caused him to fall backwards.
"Okay, just get the other version of me out of here, open another portal, and fix everything...how the fuck do I do that?"
Think, Purple, think!
"Okay, okay...how do I..."
He glanced in the direction of his presumed dead counterpart, giving him an up close glance at what he was dealing with.
The alternate Purple was stuck to the far wall of the Monolith, his arms and legs pinned to the wall with a thin, transparent coating that Purple didn't even want to try and touch.
"Holy shit..."
Okay. You can do this.
Purple took cautious and careful steps towards the chained up teen, trying to avoid anything that could potentially trap him inside the creature too.
(Which was pretty much everything.)
The alternate Purple didn't move, even when Purple finally moved past the initial hesitation and started pulling the coating bounding his arms.
"Come on. Unstick, you little bastard."
The only time the teenager did move was to snatch Purple's wrist just before he'd gotten it unstuck, lifted him barely a foot in the air before tossing him backwards.
"Ow! What the-"
The alternate version of himself slipped out of the slimy and sticky restraints with ease before staring Purple down with a look that could kill.
"Oh, so now you come for me after your abandonment, father."
Ehjebe-What?!
What was he-
"What? What are you-"
"You know, King, I'll never understand you. All the work you gave to make us both happy, and then you go and abandon me."
Oh shit.
He thinks King is here.
Well. Fuck.
Now what is he gonna do?
Purple's entire plan flew out the window. He couldn't get through to his counterpart if he was spouting nonsensical bullshit about King not caring about hi-
Wait a minute.
He could just play along with it.
But the question that remains is, what would King do?
"Okay...what would King do?"
Some type of motivation would be so fucking helpful right now.
What would King say in a situation like this?
"Purple, please answer! It's King and the others. I don't know what the hell your under, but please listen if you can. Navy and Silver are talking shit. Don't listen to what they're saying. Whatever they're saying, they're wrong. Your not stupid, or worthless. And you are good enough. Any one of your friends can tell you, but I know you'll listen to me the most. You are good enough, even if your dad doesn't acknowledge it. Your a good friend to everyone, and your an amazing kid, Purple. I wouldn't have let you come with me if I thought you were a failure. Because you aren't. You are amazing in so many ways. And...I am so, so proud of you and how far you've come, even with everything you've gone through. I wouldn't have begged Mar to help me get adoption papers for you if I didn't love and care about you."
"Oh, Purple...I'm so sorry..."
Wait, what?
In less then a minute, King was right in front front of him.
"King?"
"I'm so sorry, Purple. I..."
Purple, against his better judgement, runs up and hugs him.
"I know."
"I should've known I was hurting you more..."
"King, it's okay."
"No, it isn't," King is crying, almost on the verge of breaking down in hysterics. "Your dad hurt you more than he needed to, and I picked up where he left off. Your in this whole mess because of me. I am so sorry, kid. For everything thay I've ever done to you. I never meant to hurt you, I promise. I...I cared about you."
Purple froze. "You...cared about me?"
"I still do. Even after...everything I did to you, I still cared about you, maybe more than I cared about Gold. I'm so sorry for not realizing how much you actually meant to me. Because you mean so much more to me than just an assistant."
Purple looked at him. "You..."
"I know I never showed it, but I loved you. So much. I was just so scared of losing another person that I loved that...I just numbed the feeling of caring for other people...until it was too late."
Purple froze. King...loved him?
"You loved me?"
"I still do, Purple. I love you...so much, kid. I don't want to lose you. I'll never forgive myself if I lose the only person that I have left..."
"Who?" Purple was confused. Was King genuine about this?
Or was this just a cruel prank?
"You, Purple. You're all I have left. I can't lose you. Not again..."
Purple hugs him tighter. "You won't. I promise."
"You...promise?"
Purple stared up at him, smiling softly. "I promise."
King presses his forehead to Purple's, returning the smile, clutching his hands tightly. "I love you, Purple."
"I love you too, King."
"Think, Purple. What would King do?"
If he was going to play along, he would have to think of something that would snap Alternate Purple out of it.
But what?
Sure, King had said numerous things that would snap him out of something, or even as words of comfort, but would they work on the other Purple?
He thought King had abandoned him.
How in hell would he get through to the alternate counterpart of himself if he thought he'd been abandoned?
Then he realized that the other Purple had tackled him to the ground.
"Fuck!"
"Now you'll feel the pain of being abandoned by the people you love." His counterpart snapped, making Purple question if he'd realized there was an alternate version of himself pinned underneath him.
Or if he was still talking to King with a lust for revenge.
King and the others reached the transparent coating on the colossal creature in record time. It was a struggle, but they could kind of see inside.
Purple was not doing as well as they'd hoped.
The alternate counterpart had tackled him to the ground, pinning him down.
"Fuck!"
"Well, good to know that I'm wrong for once. Silver didn't give them energy sucking abilities," Victgim said.
"You could still be right. It's still possible." His counterpart said.
"Fair."
"Can't we just...get in there and stop him? He's going to kill Purple before the Monolith does!"
"Do you want to die?!"
King was already climbing out of the ship. "Fuck it. That's my kid in there, and I'm not losing him again."
"King, wait! Your gonna get yourself killed!"
"That's my son in there, and I'm not losing him again!" King snapped back.
The alternate Purple looked up at him, and with a look of rage, resentment, and revenge, he jumped for the barrier separating the two groups.
"King, look out!"
Purple jumped up, trying to get his counterpart away from the barrier.
"Purple!"
"He thinks the other King abandoned him!" Purple shouted, his voice strained from the pressure of holding back his identical self. "I can't get through to him!"
The alternate King looked up. "Get me in there."
"What?!"
"He might listen to me if he can't listen to Purple."
Victim and Maroon shared a look before nodding their heads.
The alternate Purple threw his counterpart off of him, while the others tried getting King into the creature.
By the time they succeeded, the alternate Purple had already tackled him to the ground.
"Purple, calm down! It's me! It's King! Listen to me!"
Purple stopped for a moment, his eyes still filled with hatred. "You've got some nerve coming back after you abandoned me!"
"...What? No! We didn't abandon you!"
"You didn't come for me!"
"I thought you were dead! Agent wasn't able to lock you inside the cage in time and the place exploded! We couldn't find you when we went back to search!"
"And you really thought that stopped me?!"
"That explosion killed so many people in seconds, including Silver! I just thought...you'd fallen victim to it as well..."
Something ignited behind the look in the boys eyes. Amist the hatred and lust for revenge, there was something else.
Relief? Pity? Regret?
What was it?
King was easily able to get the kid off of him before he was able to do anything worse. "I'm so sorry, Purple. I tried to find you, I really did, but...there was no trace of you, no matter how hard we tried. Even if you had survived the explosion...Victim said that one of the other monsters released that day would have gotten you before we did."
Purple continued to stare at him.
"Kid, I am so sorry. I didn't want you to think we'd abandoned you. I just-"
Purple tackled him back to the ground in a tight hug.
"...Purple?"
"I'm sorry! Please don't leave me, I-I'm so sorry!"
King returned the hug just as tightly.
"Sweetheart, I'm not leaving you. You don't know how relieved I am to know you're safe."
And Purple breaks down sobbing in his arms.
Purple knows the battle isn't over yet.
They got his counterpart back to normal and reunited with King, but there was still safely getting down from the near-four hundred foot Monolith they were still stuck inside of.
And that...was going to be tough without his King and the others.
"Okay...how are we-"
"Get down!"
A part of the Monolith landed directly in front of him.
"What the-"
"Without something to keep it stable, the entire Monolith will break down with us in it!" His counterpart shouted, already pulling King to his feet.
"Oh, fuck."
The ground tilted forwards, as if the creature was being pushed forward, and Purple slipped.
He caught the edge of the creature, just under the now torn coating, trying to keep himself from falling to the ground below.
Shit.
How was he going to get out of here?!
Purple frantically looked around from the hijacked ship King and the others had, but couldn't find it.
Come on, King!
Where are you?!
The thoughts carry Purple into a scream, and Purple doesn't feel much of anything anymore.
Not even the sticky flesh keeping him alive.
Purple realized too late, but still tried desperately to grab a hold of something, but couldn't.
"Fuck!"
"Purple!"
King screams to him from below, and it sends Purple back into reality.
Purple loses his grip and falls...