Family

Chapter 407 Dig Encounters

By: Major144

Disclaimer: I do not own anything, expect the OCs. This is just a story for fun.

"So what should be our first objective?" Asked Gata.

"We need to go deeper Underground and get some more details on what's going on and then we can figure out our next move." Said Huntress Wizard.

"This Gunslinger Lich guy should be our first objective. If he's anything like our Lich, his dangerous and must be dealt with immediately." Said Finn.

"Agreed." Said Huntress Wizard.

"So what exactly brought you to the Underground in the first place, if you don't mind me asking." Said Toriel.

The explorers exchanged looks and then Dipper spoke.

"We're looking for a magical weapon called Horror's Hand."

"Horror's Hand. I've heard of that." Said Jenka.

"Do you know where we can find it?" Asked Ford.

"No, but there is one creature that might know, though finding him will be both tricky and dangerous." Said Jenka.

"What's the story on him?" Asked Dipper.

"Well long ago in ancient times, Horror focused all the fear from his body and soul into his lefthand before he cut it off. This act made Horror into a great and fearless warrior, but his severed hand became a very dangerous weapon. Horror realized how dangerous his hand was, so he came to Mt. Ebott to hide and lock the hand away. On his journey through the Underground a vampire bat became attracted to some blood that was still dripping from Horror's Hand. The bat flew in and feed on the blood, which ended up transforming the creature and giving it great intelligence and power. Horror continued on his journey and the bat followed him and saw where the hand was locked away. The bat was unable to retrieve the hand, but it had formed a psychic link to it and was able to draw power from it making him stronger. He gained the power to enter the Dream World and invade the dreams of sleeping people and give them nightmares. The bat then started calling himself Antasma, King of Bats and has been giving people nightmares ever since. If anyone knows where Horror's Hand is, it's him." Said Jenka.

"Do you know where we can find Antasma?" Asked Ford.

"I'm afraid not. It's nearly impossible to know if his flying around the real world or the Dream World." Said Jenka.

"Well at least we have a name to work with. That's a start." Said Dipper.

"So what exactly is the story with Six and Isaac?" Asked Gata looking at the two kids.

"Well I can't say much. They just popped in another part of the Underground through some different rifts and my good friend Sans found them and brought them here. Poor Isaac was naked and shivering, before he was brought here." Said Toriel.

"That's terrible!" Said Wendy.

"Neither Six or Isaac talk, but they both seem to be good at writing and drawing. They told me their names by writing it down and they've drew some pictures of where they both came from. And from what I can tell they were both running away from some very bad places." Said Toriel.

The explorers looked at the two small children and wondered what had happened to them before they ended up here.

A few miles away from the house and ruins, Tinker Knight's drill burst through a wall and the expedition from Castle Lemongrab stormed into the Underground. The group spread out and took in their surroundings. It appeared they had entered a large chamber with some rocks and glowing crystals scattered about.

"So this is the what's beneath Mt. Ebott." Said Jordan as he walked over and inspected one of the crystals.

"Which way should we go?" Asked General Rabbit.

Before any commands or suggestions could be made the ground nearby began to shake and then a big section of it burst open and a large black scaly serpent-like creature burst out with a terrible roar. The monster had large white lips, a broad white flat nose, fangs, yellow eyes, and short white horns. The monster was called a Pugalisk.

"Monster!" Yelled Tinker Knight as the Pugalisk turned it's attention to the group.

Plague Knight started throwing bombs, General Sheep fired his pistol, and General Rabbit, Jordan and his fairies fired magical blasts from their wands at the Pugalisk. The attacks struck the charging monster, but only managed to knock some of it's scales off it's body. The Pugalisk continued to charge forward forcing everyone to jump out of the way as the monster slammed into the drilling machine knocking it onto it's side. Shovel Knight and Black Knight looked over at Shield Knight, who nodded her head and lifted her shield up over her head. The two knights ran over to Shield Knight, jumped onto her shield, and used it as a springboard to leap higher into the air at the Pugalisk. Shovel Knight and Black Knight struck the Pugalisk's head with all their might knocking more of the monster's scales off making it roar in both pain and anger as Shovel Knight and Black Knight landed on the ground. The Pugalisk whipped it's head at Shovel Knight and Black Knight sending them both flying and crashing into one of the nearby rocks. The monster was about to go after them, but Shield Knight threw her shield and Specter Knight threw his scythe at the monster striking it in the face. Before the Pugalisk could recover and retaliate Green Knight enlarged his righthand and stretched his arm shooting it like a rocket at the monster's face. The fist slammed into the Pugalisk's face and knocked it to the ground in a heap.

"Everyone attack!" Ordered Jordan.

Everyone from the Castle Lemongrab expedition leaped onto the Pugalisk and began pounding on it with their weapons. More of the Pugalisk's scales fell off allowing the fighters to get at the monster's softer and more vulnerable flesh. The Pugalisk trashed around sending the bugbears, Treasure Knight, General Pig, and General Sheep flying. The remaining fighters quickly doubled their efforts and Green Knight ended up delivering the finishing blow by turning his right arm into a long pointed spear covered in spikes and stabbed it into the skull of the Pugalisk and killed it. The Pugalisk collapsed to the ground dead. The warriors looked at the death monster in both triumph and relief and then they heard the sound of someone clapping from behind. Everyone turned to see a very odd assortment of creatures armed with guns standing behind them.

"Bravo! Bravo! Good job! Nice job with killing that Pugalisk. Really saved us some time and bullets." Said a humanoid with black skin wearing red knight armor with a helmet with a shield-like decorative piece with the emblem of a sword pointing upwards and carrying a red powerful looking gun.

"Who are you?" Asked Jordan eyeing the newcomers.

"Ah I am Blockner and these are my merry little band of mercenaries. We have Flame Face, Lil' Hunter, Pedro, Gatling Gull, the Trigger Twins Shades and Smiley, the Gorgun Meduzi, Buffammo, and Gungamesh."

The mercenaries were certainly an odd looking group. Flame Face appeared to be a fire person with a fireball for a head dressed in brown western clothes with ammo belts strapped across his chest. Lil' Hunter appeared to be a man dressed in head to toe high-tech blue armor, with the letters IDPD on his shoulder pads, a jetpack on his back, a canister of green liquid connected to some tubes that feed into his mask, and he had three glowing red eyes behind his visor. Pedro was a man wearing a black mask, a yellow shirt bearing the letters "XOXO", and a black sports jacket with a picture of a banana with a smiley face on it. The man also kept muttering the word Pedro. Gatling Gull was a hulking man with the head of a raven, with two bird legs, dark pants, and carried a gatling gun with an ammo drum strapped to his back. Shades and Smiley were two human size living bullets with little arms and legs, Smiley had a smile and cheery expression, while Shades wore sunglasses and had a serious expression. Meduzi was a green skinned gorgon, with red snakes for hair, a long brown serpent tail, wore brown armor on her chest and shoulders, and carried two machine guns. Buffammo was a hulking man with the head of a buffalo, with hoof feet, blue pants, and carried a shotgun. Gungamesh was a tall blue skinned alien, with fangs, four red eyes, four arms, who wore brown pants, black boots, a red poncho, a red western hat with a large brim, and four gold armbands.

"Quit a crew you have." Said Treasure Knight.

"Indeed it it. Now who exactly are you people and what brings you from the outside world to the Underground?" Asked Blockner.

"How do you know we're outsiders?" Asked General Pig.

"Well you have that big drilling machine and some of you are carrying shovels and explosives." Said Blockner.

"Good point." Said General Pig.

"Now then. Who are you and what are you doing?" Said Blockner.

Jordan took lead and spoke to the mercenaries.

"I am Jordan, Lord of the Fairies and these are my associates. We hail from Castle Lemongrab and have come here looking for a powerful magical item to help our kingdom and it's people defend itself from enemies."

"Powerful magical item you say? Well there's quit a few of those scattered about here in the Underground. I myself am getting funding to help me find a particular item of power." Said Blockner.

"You don't say." Said Jordan.

"Tell you what. You help us load the Pugalisk onto our truck and will lead you to civilization. On the way there, I can give you the download on the Underground and we can maybe see about helping each other out." Said Blockner.

"Sounds fair." Said Jordan.

The mercenaries and the group from Castle Lemongrab went over to the Pugalisk and worked together to pick it up and carry the dead monster to a long flatbed truck. Specter Knight pulled Jordan to the side to talk to him.

"Are you sure it is wise to trust these people?" Asked Specter Knight.

"For the time being they are useful to us. We need a guide and information. If we need more help then that I'm sure we can Blockner and his crew to aid us." Said Jordan.

"What if Blockner is after Horror's Hand as well?" Asked Specter Knight.

"Then will simply do away with him." Said Jordan.

Blockner and Flame Face were also having a similar conversation as well.

"What do you think of these newcomers?" Asked Flame Face.

"An interesting bunch. They look like potential clients." Said Blockner.

"What if they're after the Nuclear Throne?" Asked Flame Face.

"Then will just kill them all and steal all their money." Said Blockner.

The truck was loaded up and the mercenaries and explorers headed off into the Underground together. One of Magica's shadows had witnessed the whole ordeal and flew away to report what it saw.

In another part of the Underground, Laser Wizard and his group broke in and came across a large dark cavern with bones scattered about and a bunch of strange symbols carved onto the walls. There was a deep unsettling chill in the chamber that had everyone on their guard. Beast, Chi, and Kai could sense the presence of something dark within the cavern. At first everything was silent and then there came the sounds of heavy footfalls and rattling bones.

"What is that?" Asked Ringo looking nervous.

"Over there!" Cried Streak pointing to the left.

Everyone turned to see a dozen large shadowy creatures walking their way. The creatures's bodies seemed to be made of shadows with their white skeletons being visible for all to see. They each had large goat-like skulls for heads. Some of the creatures had moss on their bones and the one who seemed to be the leader had large twisted horns and cracks on it's skull and three glowing red eyes. The creatures stopped a few yards away from Laser Wizard's group and the leader spoke.

"Who are you?"

The group eyed one another and the Beast stepped forward and spoke.

"I am Beast. A dark general who serves the Lich."

The creatures looked at one another and the leader spoke again.

"We are the Stalkers and we serve a being called the Gunslinger Lich."

"Another Lich?" Thought Laser Wizard.

"Interesting. May we have an audience with this master of yours? I'm sure he would love to meet us and that we can help each other out." Said Beast.

"We shall take you to see our master and get to the bottom of this preocular situation." Said the Stalker Leader.

The Stalkers lead the way out of the cavern and Laser Wizard's group followed.

"This will be interesting." Thought Laser Wizard.

To be continued.

Glossary

Mario: Antasma

Don't Starve: Pugalisk and Stalkers

Enter the Gungeon: Blockner, Gatling Gull, Shades, Smiley, and Meduzi

Exit the Gungeon: Buffammo and Gungamesh

Guacamelee!: Flame Face

Nuclear Throne: Lil' Hunter and Nuclear Throne

My Friend Pedro: Pedro