As the mortals were continuing their day to day lives on the crust of the earth, several thousand feet below ground was the Underworld or some of you might call it Hell, the residential home of the Devil.
Ha! Betcha forgot about this guy! I was gonna get to him eventually!
The Devil sat in his personal library where stood several staggering shelves each storing hundreds of books that he has collected for as long as he's been alive; From Alchemy to Witch Craft to Black Arts to Rituals to Potions. He also collected pieces of literature that mortals have written over the past 1000 years. The only exception was the Holy Bible as he had some…controversial opinions on it.
Despite the scent of brimstone and fire and the sight of stalactites on the ceiling and stalagmites on the hard floors, it was rather cozy with a lit fireplace and the calming tune of 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' from his gramophone.
In his hands was a recently added book to his collection, 'Controlling your Rage' which he has been routinely reading …for the last 3 days straight. He opened the book to 'Chapter 3: Turn that Frown Upside Down' and took the tip of page…only to tear it out slowly.
It was like the book was telling him to be happy and he hated being told what to do or how to feel! The Devil was initially tearing out every page of that chapter. His loyal assistant, Henchman wheeled in with a table with a tea set.
"Hey! Lookin' great, boss! Your fur's almost grown back!"
His compliment only got an annoyed growl from his boss. He couldn't ponder on what it was that was bothering; not even the Devil himself could figure out why he's been a bad mood for the past few days.
He has tried MANY tactics to calm down, but with little success. Rather it be breathing exercises, meditation, yoga, counseling; you name it, he's probably done it.
Henchman put on a huge grin once again as picked up the golden teapot. "Oh, looks someone needs his calming tea poured in to his favorite cup."
"Cup?"
That word somehow got him to stop tearing the pages and his scowl vanished. He seemed to be SO fixated on the cup on his tea tray as the beverage was being poured in. He then saw his cup form into a face of a familiar mortal who also had a cup for a head!
Hey DUMMY, I still have my SOUL! The cup jeered at him, made silly faces and started laughing.
The Devil then unleashed a loud roar, aimed his pitchfork instinctively and burnt the tea table into ashes to silence the laughing. He realized what his main source of his temper was and threw down his pitchfork and got up off his chair.
"THAT'S IT! I am throwing EVERYTHING I've got in that CUP!"
"Head!"
"Thank you, Henchman," he responded gently to his assistant before booming out, "NOW BRING ME MY FINEST DEMONS!"
Back up on the surface, Cuphead was whistling a tune while sweeping the living room as part of his daily chores.
The closet door opened slowly to unveil a figure stalking towards the unsuspected cup. It was until he turned around to find Mugman pouncing out of the closet with what seemed to be mask that resembled a…horse head?
"Uh…"
"Neigh…"
Cuphead squinted his eyes in disgust and confusion,"Wha-what are you wearing?"
"I made it. It's just like that horse head that scared you when we we're little."
"What horse head?"
"The one from the Hay Maze, remember? You froze in terror."
"I never froze in terror."
"Sure you did." He picked up a flier that was promoting the Fall Festival with an aerial photo, including the giant hay maze. "Look, I remembered it when I saw this flier."
5 YEARS AGO…
The two younger cups wandered around with Cuphead leading the way through the hay maze while his brother scrunched his body from the constant pop-ups from around the maze.
"This place is a little spooky," Mugman lightly whimpered.
"Eh, I ain't too worried about it."
As they reached the end of the maze, a poorly made horse head popped out from a hay stack, which made Cuphead gasp, freeze with terror and he turned white.
For some reason, Mugman was unfazed by it but confused by his brother's reaction. "Cuphead? Cuphead?"
"That never happened. I ain't afraid of no Hay Maze Horse Head! Come on! I'll prove it," Cuphead stomp his way out the door.
Mugman gave a smug grin to his brother. "I'll get my coat." He followed him out to make their way to the Fall Festival. He knew him too well; Cuphead will do anything to prove people wrong. Mugman was certain that he would be scared.
Back at the Underworld, Henchman abided to his boss' commands to summon his army of demons from the deepest parts of Hell, whom were colossal figments that would haunt your nightmares!
The Devil was jumping and clapping giddily by who stood looming over him, "Ooh! Now these are some fine class demons! Look, that one has sharp talons and that one has three heads!
"Oh, hey, hey! Check out the muscles on this guy!" The Devil squeezed the enormous biceps of one demon before collecting himself, striding pass them. "Now, I assume that you're all wondering why I summoned you today. Let me tell you about this…cup!"
"Head!"
"Thank you, Henchman! Never before have I severely humiliated by mere mortal. First, he lost at Soul Ball but his dumb brother grabbed his soul and stuffed it back in, which is COMPLETELY unethical after I stole it fair and square; and then they destroyed the WHOLE CARNIVAL!"
He took a breath in, remembering his exercises before he continued, "Then he goes on 'Roll the Dice' which is impossible to lose and wouldn't you know it? He couldn't name Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star!
Henchman backed away from his boss and behind a rock. "I MEAN WHO CAN'T NAME TWINKLE, TWINKLE LITTLE STAAAAR?!"
The Devil's temper ignited the whole room into flames, quite literally, and when he turned around he was greeted with ALL of his finest demons were nothing but piles of ashes. The silence of the room was interrupted by the sound of scatting of King Dice.
"Number One, here, fashionably late and fashionably fashionable as per usual-OH!" He gasped in horror at the piles of ashes. "WHAT DID YOU DO?!"
"BRING ME MY SECOND FINEST DEMONS!"
The Annual Fall Festival was often an overlooked event that didn't seem to have much to offer. It was an opportunity for farmers to harvest and sell their crops and goods. Their list of events were meant for much younger visitors such as Apple Bobbing, Jack-o-lantern contests, hay rides and of course, the ever popular 'Hay-Mazing Maze'.
"Tickets, please," Cuphead and Mugman offered them to the ticket taker and entered into the maze.
Shortly after they entered, they were greeted by a ghost, which was just a sheet with a face. Cuphead couldn't help but laugh, remembering how cheap the scares were, "Ooh, real scary."
"Just you wait. That horse head's gonna make you freeze in terror. Then you'll have to admit that you were afraid," Mugman jeered back.
The Devil paced around his army of second finest demons that Henchman and Dice lured in. They were decently menacing but they paled in comparison to his first finest demons who were now burnt ashes. He was still venting on his interactions with the cup.
"…And who couldn't name 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star'? Hmm? And then has this…this sweater! It was invisible and impenetrable and DUMB! And I couldn't have just RIP his soul out AND EAT IT BEFORE HIS VERY EYYYYYYYYYYYYYYES!"
The Devil set the room on fire again, moments before Henchman grabbed the unresponsive Dice behind a rock. They peeked out to see that their boss had once again let his temper get the better of him; the Devil turned around to them to yell, "THIRD FINEST!"
Later, he grimaced by what stood in front of him.
"These are my finest demons?" he whispered to Henchman.
"Well, now, yeah."
Finest would NOT be the word to describe this group of supposed demons; in fact they seemed to looked more like failed experiments rather than walking nightmares. One was a fat shark gasping for air, another was a giant spider with a clutter of multiple eyeballs, and one was a literal flying eyeball with a small wing, a demonic yet non-threatening vulture that gobbled like a turkey.
The Devil stared up at one of the larger demons in question, "A Cyclops with an eye patch? And how does THAT work exactly?"
The monster demonstrated his scare tactic, only to crash into a stalactite. "Oh…it doesn't." He looked the next demon who was a small and round demon who looked more like a plush doll than a demon. "Ew! And what's this thing?"
"Burpity-burpity-burp!"
"Is that ALL you do?"
"Wow, you blew up the biggest one…great job."
He then turned to see two other demons, who stood out from the rest of these rejects, even more than the eye-patched Cyclops; they were two demons who took the form of children with one having a cup for a head with yellow deranged eyes and fangs sticking out; he had black fur and light purple shorts and dark shoes. He had black fur and wear magenta shorts with a matching straw. The other had a mug for a head and had matching clothes but with a dark purple shorts and straw, but he also had a large big nose.
The Devil seemed to want to them to ignite into flames, but he couldn't figure out why. "YOU TOO…are the most vile and most evil abominations I've ever seen in my life and I can't even find a reason WHY I resent you."
The cup demon responded by biting his arm like a bone; the mug just stood idly.
"Evil?" the cup repeated.
"Vile?" the mug shortly after. The Devil pinched his temples and transitioned into palming his face.
"I am SO ANGRY right now, I want to obliterate ALL of you. But, I cannot even BEGIN to imagine the FOURTH finest demons!"
"Duh…or as they're now known: The second finest."
"THANK YOU HENCHMAN!" He then showed a 'WANTED' poster of Cuphead "Look he's no longer wearing the sweater!"
Henchman intervened "…Which is in an undisclosed location" The Devil glanced annoyingly to his assistant. The purple demon looked down muttering, "Thank you Henchman."
"Just bring him back and I'll rip out his soul."
"Bring them back, you live…FAIL and I'll destroy you!"
"RELEASE THE DEMONS!"
The gates of the Underworld opened slowly as the summoned demons made their way to search for their victim. That is except for the Red and Blind Cyclops who ran in a different direction. The Devil sighed in relief
"WHAT ARE YOU TWO STARING AT?! GO!"
"Da-da?" the two cup demons went up to him with their arms extended while the Devil backed away and shoved them to the ground. "Da-da! Da-da!"
"EW! NO! I'm not your da-da!" He shouted at the demons. He wasn't planning to have another spawn to deal with. He then brought out his pitchfork already engulfed with flames ready to blast those cups into shattered ceramics, "GET OUT OF MY SIGHT OR—"
Henchman decided to step in, grabbing the poster and spoke slowly to the demons "Duh…Let me try. You two need to capture THIS GUY and bring him here, okay?" Henchman points to the obnoxious cup on the poster, which Evil took from his hand and hooted to Vile who looked at it the photo.
"Oh…." Vile responded looking at the photo. It seemed that Henchman knew how to get to them, much to the Devil's surprise and disappointment as he wanted to scorch them out of pleasure.
"Does that make sense now?" Henchman asked and the cups nodded.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!" the two cups replied while nodding rapidly
The Devil stood next to Henchman with a large smile and patting them gently, "Wonderful…" Before changing his tone again, "Now…BEAT IT! AND DON'T COME BACK TILL YOU BRING ME THAT CUP!"
Evil and Vile were blown away the Devil's booming yell and out into the surface world before gates closed. They were dazed for a moment but then ran on all fours, laughing and snarling as tried to catch up with the other remaining demons.
The Devil stood as he watched his army to search for the cup; next to him stood Dice who was relaxing on a rock.
"Big D, Big D. It is a pleasure to see you in action. No one clears a room like you do," he hoped to get on his boss' good side, but the Devil can sense a suck-up.
"Are you still here?"
"Wait…does his Number One have to go too?"
The Devil locked eyes with him to get his answer.
The Underworld gates opened again as Dice was sprinting to keep up with the other demons.