Hello everyone! We are back with a new chapter!

I can't believe it's already December! I hope people have fun plans ready for the upcoming holidays and spending time with family and friends. I also hope people are enjoying this story. I hope to have it done by Christmas

Now, let's continue our story...

Chapter 3;
Playtime isn't over!

With Josh and his toy crew, they passed through the winter forest, trekking carefully through the snow. While it was a beautiful night and the moon showed high and proud, being in a forest at night isn't really something you would want to journey in, especially with the worry of someone or something jumping out at you, possibly giving you a terrible fright.

Josh kept his hand near his sword, as a caution, scanning the area. So far nothing has happened so far but he and his crew were not out of the woods yet.

Figuratively and literally.

He took a deep sigh, seeing his breath in the chilly air.

"Ok, just a little further and we should be out soon." Josh announced.

"That's what you said about an hour ago." Cuphead whined. "My feet are killing me."

"Are we getting close?" Mugman asked, pushing aside a branch.

"I know it's a long way, but we have to keep moving forward." Josh claimed. "Look if we keep up this pace, we should be able to get there in- wait, do you guys hear that?"

They all stopped and listened. At first, nothing odd was heard, just the gentle brushing of the wind in the trees, and the crunching of the snow on the ground. But then they heard a faint sound of rattling, and clattering off in the distance.

"Sounds like, clanking noise." Mugman finally spoke.

"Clanking?" Chalice repeated, arching an eyebrow.

"Come on, let's go check it out." Josh added, adjusting his glove.

They made their way down and after passing through more of the woods, they pushed aside some branches and came upon a huge wasteland of scrap metal. There were piles and mountains of used materials as far as the eye can see, scattered all around them. As they walked around, they spotted used and broken toys, ones with missing buttons, broken arms, and gears and knobs dispersed.

"Whooooaaaa..." Cuphead gasped, gazing around the waste land.

"Golly! That's a lot of scrap metal." Chalice mentioned.

"Not only that but there's tons of toys here." Mugman pointed out, picking up a beat up wind up metal mouse.

"Yeah, some are beyond repair." Josh added, eyeing shattered objects and ripped up dolls.

Cuphead gave a nervous gulp.

"Aw man… I'd really hate to imagine if this has anything to do with the Devil."

"Y-yeah I would not want to be in that spot…" Mugman shivered, clutching to his brother.

"While I want to think that, I don't think it would be his doing…" Josh pondered.

"What do you mean?" Chalice asked, nervously.

Before Josh could explain, suddenly, they began to feel the place shake and suddenly out of nowhere, a giant automaton burst from the ground. The Automaton was a giant robot, with a hatch on his head, an antenna is sprung out of his forehead two slots in his torso, at the height of both the abdomen and the heart. It furthermore had glimmering yellow eyes with vertical, rectangular black pupils, and displayed many automatic lights through his body such as in his shoulders and knuckles, around his forehead, long metal legs, and torso sides, and even at the tip of his antenna.

Then, the hatched opened and the group saw a man in the cockpit. It was a man sporting the appearance of a typical mad scientist, some dull purple hair on his near-bald head, as well as on his mustache and goatee, wearing a white lab coat and gloves, along his large, round, bright green-stemmed glasses. He also had an inordinately large head in comparison to the rest of his body.

The automaton leaned close and the scientist glared at them.

"Oh jeez!" Josh gasped, jumping a bit.

"What's this?! Trespassers!" He gaped. "You fools won't be getting away coming into my wasteland! I, Dr. Kahl, do not permit trespassers!"

"Trespassers?! We ain't no such thing!" Cuphead shouted. "And we ain't even interested in staying here! We just so happen to be passing through to find the-!"

"SILENCE! You are trespassing and you shall be punished!" Dr. Kahl spat. Pressing a button on his counsel, he shouted. "Automation! Get them!"

The automation began to buzz and sputter, his eyes glowing red and squeezed his hands into fists, making the others scared. Josh pulled out his sword while the cup boys clung to each other.

"This can't be good!" Chalice gulped.

The robot raised his fists and Josh knew what he was planning to do.

"Take cover!"

The four ran for it just as the robot's fist pounds the spot they had been standing on. They rushed over and hid behind a large pile as the automation began trudging around the place, making angry and startling noises.

"Jeez! He looks mad!" Mugman panted.

"There's got to be a way we can fight this thing!" Josh stated.

"How?!" Cuphead asked, his voice panicking.

Josh scanned the area that was around and saw the many toys that were there. There wasn't a lot he could use but there were some weapons that were nearby. Then he got an idea.

"We fight with toys." He announced. "Grab what you can and let's see if we can use them against him!"

The cups saluted and grabbed what they could and used it to fight; Mugma grabbed a slingshot and began to collect rocks and other materials that he could use, Chalice found a bag filled with marbles and jacks and Cuphead saw a Aeroplane that was painted red that had silver accents and a propellor in the front. Cuphead hopped in and saw a pair of pilot goggles along with a red scarf.

Cuphead then started the engine and the propellor began to spin, ready for a flight.

"Time to double down!" Cuphead cheered.

"Let's do it!" Mugam exclaimed.

"Way ahead ya, fellas!" Chalice piped up.

Soon, the cups and Josh began attacking the automaton with the toys that they had making it frustrated and confused. Josh used his sword to defend himself from any attacks the robot made, Mugman shot objects to irritate it, Cuphead flew around and blasted bullets before flying upward, and Chalice tossed jacks on the ground, making it step on them and causing it to yell in pain, hopping up and down on its foot.

"Alright! Let's keep it up!" Josh called to his friends.

"Roger!" Cuphead called from below.

"Copy that!" Chalice added.

They continued to battle and were getting a good handle on things. But as much as Josh wanted to drop his guard, he knew that the automation would get really mad and would pull out the big guns.

And he wasn't wrong.

As Cuphead flew down to fire at the automation , suddenly the automaton smacked Cup's ship with the back of its hand, making the wings snap off and zoom down for a crash landing.

"Mayday! I'm hit! I'm going down!" Cuphead cried.

"Oh No! Cuphead!" Mugman gasped.

Cuphead pulled back his handle with all his might and managed to land and slide on the ground before hitting a large scrap metal piece. That caused the plane to launch Cuphead out and land on a large stuffed teddy bear, thankfully unharmed

The group rushed over to Cuphead.

"You okay?!" Chalice asked, helping him up. Cuphead's eyes were spinning a bit, dizzy from the flight and crash.

"Yeah I'm good." He replied dizzily. "Whoo what a ride…"

Just then, the antenna began to glow from the robot's head and after a second it blasted a laser at them, causing them to yelp, grab Cuppy and bolt to a safe area, just as the laser hit the ground and created an explosion. The group panted but then felt the ground shake as they saw the automation approach them.

"We gotta put a stop to this before things get much worse!" Mugman cried as Cuphead shook the dizziness from his eyes.

"But our weapons aren't helping!" Chalice panicked. "What can we use to stop it?"

Josh looked over and saw that the automation was making his way towards them. They needed a new idea and needed one fast. He scanned the area once more and saw a stack of yo-yos nearby, some broken in half while the others were still useable. Just then, Josh had an idea.

"Cups! Mugs! See that Yo-yo over there? Pull the sting and make it trip over it!" He instructed. Turning to Chalice, he added "Chalice, you and I can distract him, giving the boys time to make him trip."

"You got it, Josh!" All three cups beamed.

And they got right to work. Josh and Chalice used what they had to distract the automaton, while trying to avoid his laser and his fist slamming in attempts to crush them. Josh was known to be fast and needed to keep that up, despite feeling tired and stressed out.

Thankfully, the cups worked fast and each grabbed an end of the yo-yo string and pulled it as the automaton got closer. Before it could do anymore damage, it stepped forward and tripped over the rope, making it land hard on its stomach. That caused it to launch Dr. Kahl from his cockpit, making him fly out and land on his back. Josh now could see that he was wearing black pants and white sneakers.

As he sat up and rubbed his head, the automaton's eyes were swirling, as sparks sputtered from its body

"Error…error!" It kept alerting. Then, after a bit, it shut down, ending the fight.

Josh gasped and panted as the other cups reunited with him.

"Whew, that was close." He sighed.

"I'll say." Chalice nodded as the cup boys caught their breaths.

While that was a rough battle, Josh was happy they were able to take down the automaton and be victorious in the end. Now they had the chance to head out and seek the Gifted Inventor for their aid.

Just then, before they could head out, they stopped as they heard...crying? They looked over and saw Dr. Kahl sobbing as he was on his knees before his broken automaton.

"No no my beautiful automaton! It's broken!" He wailed.

Oof thats gotta hurt.

"Oh gosh… now I feel terrible." Mugman sadly sighed. "I didn't know he had sentimental feelings for it."

Josh slid his sword in his belt and calmly approached the weeping doctor.

"Hey I'm sorry for that but why did you attack us?" He asked. "We didn't know about this place until recently and we weren't trying to trespass on your property."

Dr. Kahl sniffled, wiped his eyes with his tissue and replied in a shaking voice

"I'm sorry. I-I've had trust issues ever since I was little. People would say they would come and play but they would ruin my stuff. They broke a lot of my inventions and made fun of me, saying I was weird and a loser. So, I got a little defensive but now seeing that you were just passing by, I overreacted."

"Golly! We're so sorry to hear that. But not everybody's a bad guy." Cuphead piped up "There's just as many good people out there."

"Yeah and you were just trying to protect your heart and it makes sense why you attacked us." Josh claimed. "We're trying to make our way to the Gifted Inventor, as we need his help to take back my kingdom from the Devil."

That caught his attention.

"Wait, you know about the Gifted inventor?"

"Well, sorta." Chalice answered. "We know about the legend of his work but we don't know him on a personal level."

"Oh good! I'm not the only one who believes he's real." Kahl replied. "He's got great things that no one else has ever created. He's that magical and wonderful."

Josh was surprised. He had no idea that Dr. Kahl knew about him as well. It was nice to know that someone else had information regarding the inventor. He wanted to ask more about him, but seeing that they ruined his automaton, he probably wasn't going to fork over any information at any point.

After a second, Josh had an idea. "Say, how about we help rebuild your robot? If we help, can you give us a way to the Gifted Inventor?"

"Oh yes! I have a map that can be very helpful!" Dr. Kahl replied.

"Awesome! And sorry again about it." Mugman replied.

"Oh no its my fault. I was blinded by anger and past hurt, but I think you guys helped me see the error of my ways." Kahl smiled.

The heroes beamed and began helping him fix his automaton. Thankfully, he had blueprints on fixing it and began to work right away. A few minuets later, they were able to fix his automaton, along with some of the toys that were there. Kahl then handed Josh a map and unrolled it. There were other locations around and the Gifted Inventor's home was still a ways to go.

The good news was they only needed to go to three other locations before getting to him.

"This does help." Josh smiled. "If we keep on the trail, we should be able to get there in no time."

"And we'll be able to take back your kingdom and save Princess Audrey!" Cuphead smiled.

"I hope she's ok…" Chalice claimed. "I know she's a strong princess, but the Devil is a nasty villain. Who knows what he's doing right now."

"Probably making plans on redecorating, but I see your point."

Turning to Dr. Kahl, Josh replied.

"Thank you again. This really helps. So what will you do now?"

"Well, I think I will start by fixing the toys. I know some are beyond repair but maybe I can make them into something new." The Doctor answered.

"That sounds swell!" Josh beamed. "And maybe you can come visit the kingdom once I defeat the Devil."

"Oh I would love that."

Once the heroes made their plans, they thanked Dr. Kahl once more and departed, as the newly repaired automaton waved good bye.

"Goodbye!"

"Good bye!"

"See ya!"

"Farewell!"

Meanwhile back at the palace, Audrey pulled up the keys that Andy left behind for her, hoping to use one of them to get out. Now, it may seem like an easy task to pull up the keys with the rope, but since she was small, it was a workout for her.

She grunted and panted as she pulled on the rope, hoping to get the keys to her. However, she was still pulling them up when she heard-

"Hey, little princess. What's going on here?"

She looked and saw two imps approach her. While the imps looked alike, she recognized these two as Bash and Shriek, the Devil's assistants.

Bash is the one on the left, who was a purple anthropomorphic imp, wearing a tailored suit, with two sharp curves, a sword like tie, fingerless gloves, a snake like belt, knee guards designed with scary black faces with green eyes, that connected to his three toed feet.

Shriek was the one on the right, similar to his brother, but was blue instead of purple, consisted of a chain mail vest on his shoulders, a scale around his stomach, and a ruby waistline.

Both of them had bat-like wings, three claws, goblin faces, and two horns that stuck out from their fuzzy hair.

Remember that now.

Audrey panicked a bit, but quickly shot them a sheepish grin replying "Oooh…nothing."

"Well, we got our job done." Shriek replied. "Come on let's go.

He started to leave but Bash grabbed his shirt collar and yanked him back.

"Yeah. I'm not buying it." He stated. He then studied the area before adding "Hmmm…keys attached to string…."

Audrey gulped. She knew that while they were dumb, they weren't that dumb. Bash could ruin her whole plan of escaping and wouldn't be able to find out what the Devil is planning.

"So, you're trying to make a break huh?" Bash finally announced, taking the keys from her. "Sorry to say, princess, but the boss wants ya here. Hate for him to get upset."

Audrey took a huff. She needed those keys to get out, but tricking those two might be difficult. She began to ponder a plan when an idea sparked.

"Ok, you caught me. I was trying to get out. But it was only for a little bit."

"Sorry to say but the boss wants you in here." Bash taunted. "We can't risk letting you escape."

"True true, you don't want the Devil to get angry…but don't you think that watching me is a waste of time?"

Bash arched an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I know you two are his go-to men, next to King Dice and Henchman, but it surprises me that you two are given a kinda pointless task in your career."

"What?! Watching you is not pointless!" Bash argued.

"Yeah! The boss gave us this task personally and since no one else wanted it, we decided to do it!"

"Oh I don't doubt that. My only concern is that everyone else is doing an important assignment for him, and you two are just standing guard." Audrey mentioned. "Kinda sad that you're here doing nothing while everyone else has a more important job to attend to."

Bash wanted to argue but hesitated. It did seem pointless to keep an eye on her and since she didn't have any magic powers or abilities, there wasn't a need to watch her all the time. They could go get food, watch a show, read a book, nap, come back and she would still be here.

"Well, I guess that makes sense…"

"Come on, Bash. I'm getting bored!" Shriek whined. "I wanna go do something else and have fun. Standing around is lame and nothing ever happens! Let someone else do it for once."

"Yeah…I think we can leave for a bit."

"Yay! Let's get some hot chocolate!" Shriek cheered.

They started to head out when Dice entered the throne room holding a clipboard in his hand.

"Ok you two I got new-where are you two going?"

"Getting some hot chocolate and getting a new task from the boss." Bash replied.

"Yeah, watching the princess is boring so we're going to get someone else to-"

"Keeping an eye on the princess is a necessary task, you idiots!" Dice snapped, glaring at the two demons causing them to jump back. "The boss wants to keep his bride locked up and secured in that cage! You two so much screw this up he'll have your heads!"

"U-understood!" They both cried, handing Dice the keys. They both scampered out of the room as Dice approached Audrey.

"I see what you're doing! You're attempting to distract the king's minions from their duties! Well, it won't work!" He growled.

That surprised Audrey. For a second she thought he figured out what she was trying to do. To add to that, he dropped the ring of keys in her hands, leaving her a bit perplexed.

"Here, I haven't got all day. Just get what you need to get done and make it quick!" He snapped. He then turned around and began to leave. Seeing her chance, Audrey began to turn the ring to get the keys inside.

"She's got more keys than I do…" Dice muttered to himself, and then realized what he had done. He rushed over and snagged the keys from her, startling her a bit.

"Clever, princess. But we'll have no more of this nonsense." Dice remarked glaring at her, as she gave a cute smile with her hands behind her back. "There's no use in escaping so don't try anything else."

"Aww I'm sorry. I promise to be a good girl from now on…" Audrey apologized in a slight mocking tone.

"I hope I make myself clear." Dice retorted, narrowing his eyes at her.

As he left, Audrey's sweet smile turned into a smirk as she held tightly onto a gold key she managed to snag.

"You made yourself very clear…not."

Wow! Looks like Josh survived another crazy attack! Hopefully Dr. Kahl will be more nicer to people and it seems that Audrey has a chance to escape. Hopefully she can find information and to get people to safety. Toon in next time for another exciting adventure!

As always, thanks so much for reading. Don't forget to leave a review but let's avoid the flames please :D