Chapter Text
I run and hide,
But there’s no hiding from yourself…
Can’t escape
Gotta find my own way out…
Now there’s no time to take a break.
Gotta push against what is fake.
Now you and me, side by side,
All of us can win the fight!
Now you see the truth of me,
Breaking under reality,
Begging to finally be free
From this darkened night!
Stand together, we stay strong.
Guess you’re what I was missing all along.
Now I think everything’s going wrong
And only one end in sight…
Back in this Sunset Paradise!
The sun shone bright on Port Aurora. Luci looked down on the area, specifically a farm area on the opposite side of the road, and groaned.
“Do we have to do this in broad daylight…?” she muttered, looking over to Whisk with an annoyed expression.
“I dislike it as much as you, but the package can’t be collected at nighttime. Why, I don’t know, but that’s what she said.” Whisk shrugged. “Whatever the reason, you’re being paid enough to not care.”
“Fair.” Luci glanced at her. “You?”
“Hm?”
“What’re they offering you?”
Whisk clenched her fist for a moment, but then relaxed it. “...enough to stop being solo.”
Luci smirked knowingly. “Did they pick at your bleeding heart again? I told you caring about anyone else was a bloody weakness.”
“There is a reason I broke up with you.”
“...I’m guessing it wasn’t my garbage cooking.”
“You know why.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Luci rolled her eyes, looking around. “Y’know, we could hit that hotel over there later.” Luci pointed to a hotel off in the distance. “Looks big, fancy. Probably some people with big pockets in there…”
“No.” Whisk glared at her from behind the mask. “We’ll hit somewhere else. We’re not robbing that hotel.”
“Jeez, chill, girl.” Luci waved her off. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you got something important there.”
“...”
“Is that what they’re bribing you with?” Luci grinned, resting an elbow on Whisk’s shoulder. “Again, bleeding heart, weakness.”
“Off.” Whisk elbowed Luci in the stomach, knocking her off (and knocking the wind out of her).
“Oooh, Whisk…” Luci smirked. “Still playin’ rough, eh?”
“Shut up already.” Whisk held up a familiar device; the very same that the Spud Buds had used. “Our boss needs those Ashes.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Luci shrugged. “Fine. Let’s get on with it, then.”
Luci and Whisk leapt down, jumping from rooftop to rooftop until they reached the ground. They landed right behind a female Aura Bora farmer. She jumped, turning around.
“Hey!” she shouted, a Southern accent slipping through. “What’re y’all doin’?!”
Whisk aimed her weapon at the Bora and sprayed her with some of the gas. The Bora screamed, flailing about. “N-No! I’m sorry, Mom! I’ll eat my vegetables, I promise!”
“Girl with vegetable trauma became a farmer.” Luci snorted in amusement. “I guess exposure therapy is a thing…”
“Shut up already.” Whisk pointed the canister-like device towards the crops. “Let’s get this over with.”
She pressed a button on the side of the device, and the top opened up. Orange particles began being pulled from the plants and into the canister. As they left, the plants themselves began to die, the soil becoming infertile.
“Jeez…” Luci glanced at Whisk. “That’s… interesting.”
Whisk turned it off once the glowing particles stopped flowing. “We should get out of here. Drop it off at the meeting point, collect the next one.”
“Right.” Whisk and Luci used their grappling hooks to pull them up onto a nearby building’s roof, just as the farmer recovered.
“Aw, man…” she muttered, looking over her once-ripe crops, now reduced to dust. “I gotta call this in…”
Whisk and Luci opened up the warehouse door. The light spilled in, filling up most of the warehouse.
“So… what? Is she gonna meet us here, or…?”
Whisk sighed. “Probably not. C’mon.”
The two moved further in, eventually reaching the center of the warehouse. After a moment, a voice came up.
“So, ya did your end. Good.”
“Who’s there?!” Luci shouted.
“Relax, darlin’. I’m the one who employed ya.” It seemed like it was coming from a radio somewhere in the warehouse, the sound echoing around the building and increasing in volume as a result. “Set the Urn down. Let’s make this quick, I don’t have long.”
“Urn?”
“This thing.” Whisk set the device down in front of her. “There you go. Now…”
“To your right.”
A light lit up a still-darkened area, revealing another Urn, alongside a stack of money. The two mercenaries moved over and scooped up their respective shares, with Whisk grabbing the Urn.
“So… what’s stopping us from grabbin’ the money and dipping?” Luci asked.
“...I have my ways.”
Unknown to the duo, a pistol was focused on them from the rafters above.
“Seems I can trust ya, though. Good. Keep it up. You know the other dropoff locations. Gather Ashes, fill those Urns, an’ drop ‘em off. Simple. Now… get outta here. I got places to be here in a few minutes… well, sorta.”
Whisk nodded and headed out. Luci hesitantly followed. As the two stepped out of the warehouse, Luci moved over beside her.
“So… what’s her deal?”
“Dunno.” Whisk shrugged. “She wants these… ‘Urns’ filled, and that’s all that matters.” The cat-human hybrid glanced towards the ground. “I swear , though… I feel like I’ve heard her voice before…”
“‘Course you have, she’s your bloody employer!” Luci rolled her eyes. “Crikey, Katphish, ya need your head checked?”
“Don’t call me that.”
“What? It’s just your last name!”
“Meggy!”
Meggy blinked as Desti snapped her out of her thoughts. There was a semi-annoyed expression on her face. “Yo, you spaced out for a bit there. You good?”
“Y-Yeah.” Meggy shook her head. “I’ll be fine. Just… a little tired.”
“Well, maybe don’t take walks so early.” Desti crossed her arms. “You just got back to sleeping decently .”
“I know, I know…” Meggy sighed. “Look, just… let’s get back to work for now, okay? I’ll… figure that out later.”
“...Right.” Desti turned back to the farmer. “So, you were saying?”
“So, these two girls showed up!” the farmer continued. “One was kinda dark-sinned, white hair, cat ears and tail. The other had a cloak on and spoke kinda Australian.”
“Whisk and that cloaked girl from before…” Auri put his hand to his chin. “So they’re working together, then?”
“Seems like it.” Meggy glanced back at the farmer. “So… what? They steal your money? Your… I dunno. What’d they take?”
“I don’t even know.” The farmer frowned. “They sprayed me with this freaky gas thing and then when everything cleared, all my crops were dead an’ they were gone!”
“Whisk got her gas gun back?” Auri frowned. “I thought that was destroyed when we fought Benedict!”
“She must’ve gotten a new one, then,” Desti noted. “She used it last time I saw her.”
Auri and Meggy quickly turned to Desti. “You’ve met Whisk?” Meggy asked, naturally surprised at this revelation.
“Oh, yeah. She and I worked a case once.” Desti shrugged. “Guess she just works for whoever pays her.”
“Don’t worry, miss!” Auri placed his hands on his hips, grinning. “We can bring them in!”
“Please do. And figure out what they did to my crops.” She frowned, looking over her empty field. “Ah know the others won’t want this happenin’ to them…”
“So…” Desti glanced towards her girlfriend as they and Auri headed off. “What do you make of it?”
Meggy tapped her chin. “Well… Whisk and Cloak are clearly being employed by the same person. Maybe it’s that Paisano guy? Cloak did seize that other… thing. Whatever those are.”
“Wait…” Auri frowned. “When the Spud Buds ran out of that plant shop with that device… the plants inside, they were all dead too.”
“You think they’re using it to keep… killing plants, I guess?” Meggy asked. “Why would they wanna do that?”
“Okay, lemme think…” Desti muttered, rubbing her forehead with her thumb and forefinger. “Whisk and Cloak are using weird glowing orange devices to… to kill plants. But why…?”
Auri paused. “Wait… glowing orange.” Auri turned around, looking back at the field. “The plants withered to dust…”
“You thinking of something, Auri?” Meggy asked, kneeling down next to the kid. “Whatcha got?”
“...What if they’re draining the Phoenix energy from the life around here?” Auri suggested. “The orange aura, the fact that life withers anywhere these devices show up… it kinda adds up.”
“I didn’t even know someone could do that.” Meggy frowned. “Can they drain the Phoenix Ashes out of the plants?”
“Evidence points to yes.” Desti jerked her head to gesture back towards the farm. “So what exactly are Phoenix Ashes again?”
“Ashes that came from the Phoenix Egg,” Auri explained. “They give our island life. Without them, Port Aurora would go barren. Life would all just… die out. This is a lot worse than I thought if it’s true. We have to stop them!”
Desti groaned, her head falling back. “Can we just have a goddamn vacation without something that threatens life itself?”
“I mean… you can just keep vacationing, if you want…” Auri looked down. “I mean… you’re here on vacation, after all.”
“No.” Meggy shook her head. “No, we have to help. We’re not gonna let any innocent lives be lost.” She glanced to Desti. “ Right ?”
“Ehhhh…”
“Desti!”
Desti snorted. “C’mon, you know I’m messin’ with ya, Spletzer. Of course we won’t.” She wrapped an arm around her girlfriend and turned attention to Auri. “Been through too much crap to leave people to rot now.”
“Awww…” Meggy smirked, glancing at Desti. “Why, Sinawe, I’m so proud of you! You’ve grown so much.”
“Don’t patronize me, babe.” Desti returned her attention to their Bora friend. “But yeah, we’re helping. Don’t try and stop us, we’ll do it anyways.”
“...Alright then.” Auri shrugged. “Welp, let’s go, partners! There’s gotta be a trail!”
Auri ran off, and Meggy and Desti quickly followed him.
What followed was an extremely close chase. Whisk and Luci would drain an area of its Phoenix energy, swap out their urns, and move on. Meggy, Desti, and Auri would show up soon after, each time a little closer to finding them. A greenhouse, a garden, from the palm trees on the beach; anywhere with plant life, where it could flourish, where it had potential to flourish, they drained.
“And that’s five of those things,” Luci said as they set a newly filled Urn in a warehouse. “How many more of these?”
Whisk looked over the new Urns. A map of Port Aurora hung over them. “Multiple this time. Interesting…”
“Why would she suddenly change tactics?” Luci asked. “It’s odd…”
“She wants us to go for the big score,” Whisk muttered, looking at the map. The boardwalk market was circled. “Where else could you get a whole bunch of Phoenix Ashes?”
“Sweet!” Luci grinned. “Well, let’s get goin’, mate!”
“...You sure about all this?” Whisk asked. “We’re draining life from the island…”
“Psh.” Luci rolled her eyes. “C’mon, Whisk. It’s just a couple gardens and whatnot. It’s not like we’re drainin’ the whole island or somethin’ like that. And even if we were, think of the payout.”
“...Yeah.” Whisk looked down. “I… wanna make a stop first. If that’s alright.”
Luci shrugged. “Sure. Whatever.” She walked off carrying two Urns, leaving Whisk with the other two. Whisk picked one up and looked it over. Her face couldn’t be seen from behind her mask, so whatever she might be thinking couldn’t be discerned. After a moment, Whisk turned and followed Luci out of the warehouse.
Meggy frowned as she looked over what had once been a garden of beautiful plants, now all reduced to dust. “Geez… how can they think this is okay?”
“Money, plain and simple.” Desti shrugged. “Whisk is selfish. This Cloak person must be, too.”
“But Whisk has people she cares about. She’s not all bad…” Meggy looked down. “I thought she couldn’t go this low…”
“Well, we can’t be too far now,” Auri noted. “Dust is still settling here. They were here not so long ago. If we hurry, we can catch them!”
The trio ran ahead, stopping these criminals from whatever they were doing their sole priority.
“Seriously?” Luci rolled her eyes as she stood on a rooftop. “That hotel? You wanna stop there?”
“I… w-wanna see someone…” Whisk mumbled, eyes on the hotel below. “Stay here. I’ll be back.”
“Whatever. Don’t take too long, mate.”
Whisk leapt down, using her grappling hook to fly over towards the hotel. Luci crossed her arms and sat down on the edge of the rooftop, waiting.
Inside the hotel, a green Aura Bora hummed to himself as he walked down the hallways, pushing a janitor cart. He put it in the janitor’s closet and shut the door.
“Welp, done with my cleaning of every single room in the hotel!” he said, hands on his hips. “Now to head down and take over for Bob at the front desk…”
Suddenly, he heard something land behind him. He slowly turned around to see Whisk towering over him. The cat-human hybrid raised her hand up… and removed her mask.
“H-Hey, Chet.”
“Miss Whisk!” Chet said happily, lighting up as he jumped up into her waiting arms. Whisk twirled around once, giggling a little.
“C-C’mon…” she mumbled. “J-Just Whisk. We’re dating now, no need to be all formal…”
“Right. Sorry, Whisk!”
Whisk chuckled. “It’s okay. Kinda cute.” She pressed her lips to his face briefly before setting the Bora back down. “I was in town, working a job, and… I just wanted to see you. Check in.”
“Oh, don’t worry about me, Whisk!” Chet smiled. “I’m doing just wonderful!” He leaned forward. “So what’s this job you’re doing?”
Whisk looked down. “I-It’s… not really a good one…”
“When are they ever good jobs?”
“I mean… fair?” Whisk shrugged. “I just… this one’s different. This client, she’s serious. And something about her…” Whisk shivered. “I… don’t like her. I don’t like most of my bosses, but something’s just really off about her.”
“Hey.” Chet looked up at his (very much taller) girlfriend. “I’m sure things will turn out fine. You’re Whisk! You’re the only person to ever get out of Benedict’s service scot-free. Best cat burglar in all the land!”
Whisk giggled again. “Ch-Chet…!”
“What? It’s true!” Chet smiled. “I’m sure you can pull it off. And then, maybe… we can relax for a bit? Go out to dinner or something, maybe?”
Whisk blushed. “Y-Yeah… that’d be… n-nice…”
“Cool!” Chet grinned. “I do have to get back to work, though, so…”
“Y-Yeah. Right.” Whisk nodded. “I… need to get back to mine, too. See you soon…?”
“Of course!” Chet nodded. “Later, Whisk!”
Whisk smiled as Chet dashed off, a small blush on her face. After a moment, she put her mask back on and turned away.
Luci hummed to herself, kicking her feet as she sat on the rooftop. Whisk had been gone for a while. She… kinda missed her already.
“We shared some good times, the two of us…” she whispered to herself, reminiscing on old memories of when the two had been together. “The banks we robbed, the gigs we pulled… heh. God, I missed having you around…”
Then, she heard feet land behind her. She shook herself out of memory lane and turned around, a cocky smirk returning to her face. “So, you see your partner? It is a partner, isn’t it? Boyfriend, girlfriend, what?”
“Shut up.” Whisk picked up her Urns. “We have places to be.”
“Right around the corner, right?” Luci got to her feet. “Welp. We have places to be, things to do, babe. Let’s get goin’, yeah?”
“Don’t call me that.”
“We’ve got a sighting!” Auri said, jumping up from his chair and leaving the phone dangling. “Someone saw them heading towards the boardwalk!”
“Sweet.” Desti cracked her knuckles. “I’m lookin’ forward to punching some faces in.”
“Let’s go!” Meggy led the group out of Auri’s house. The Spud Buds looked on. Yam smirked.
“Everything’s goin’ according to plan…”
“What are you talkin’ about, Yam?!” Russet shouted. “We’re captured! Arrested! Again!”
“Like I said…” Yam pushed his shades up. “Part of the plan.”
Boras ran screaming as Whisk held one of her Urns above her head. Streams of orange energy flowed into it, filling it up. Luci did the same.
“Aaand… one down!” Luci said, closing her first Urn and trading it for her second. “Man, this place has a lot of this stuff!”
“Yeah.” Whisk glanced over at some Boras that were hiding away, terrified at the strange event unfolding. Her expression couldn’t be determined because of her mask as she switched out her Urns. “...Let’s not take too long.”
“Stop right there, vile villains!”
The two turned to see Auri, Meggy, and Desti had arrived on the scene. Auri’s eyes widened upon seeing what the criminals were doing. “Oh my stars… they ARE taking the Phoenix energy!”
“Then we’ll stop them quickly,” Desti cracked her neck and balled up her fists. “Ready?”
“Ready!” Meggy and Auri said in unison.
Whisk groaned. “Great. Now we have to fight. That’s gonna make this a lot harder.”
“Cheer up, darling!” Luci grinned, tucking her Urn under one arm and pulling out her scythe. “Now we get to take ‘em out!”
Luci lunged forward, spinning her scythe. Auri brought up his spear and blocked her strike. “Go!” he shouted.
“I’ll help Auri!” Meggy shouted to Desti. “Take Whisk!”
Desti nodded and dashed ahead, her blaster aimed right at Whisk. “Sorry, Whisk, can’t let you keep killing things.”
“It’s just plants,” Whisk countered, leaping out of the way of a few shots. “Not like I’m actually hurting people.”
“Still!” Desti kicked Whisk in the stomach, causing the hybrid to stumble back. “You’re draining the life force from the island! Can’t you see that’s wrong?!”
“You don’t know what’s at stake for me!” Whisk snapped, swiping her claws and scratching Desti across the face. “I can’t back out, not now.”
Meanwhile, Luci punted Auri away, only for Meggy to grab onto her scythe. “Don’t you touch him!” she shouted angrily, yanking the scythe from Luci’s hands.
Luci blinked, staring at the angered Meggy with curiosity. She tilted her head. “...have you ever had a Western accent?”
Meggy froze. “Wh… what?”
“Your voice, you sound like someone I know. Just… she talks all Western-like. Like a bloody cowgirl or somethin’. You got, like, a sister or somethin’?”
Meggy’s eyes darted around as she thought. Panic surged in her mind. What did she… no, no she can’t mean… no. No, she’s dead, she’s gone, SHE’S GONE!
Meggy snapped, grabbing Luci’s cloak and slamming her fist into her face over and over until Luci went limp. She let go of the woman, panting. She looked down at her fist, which was now lightly bloody, then back to Luci. She was breathing still, just unconscious.
“Dammit…” Meggy muttered, clutching her head. “Don’t fall apart again, please… deep breath… deep breath… Splatsville, castle, home, Aurora… Splatsville, castle, home, Aurora…”
“Meggy?”
Meggy let out a sigh, turning back towards a concerned Auri. “S-Sorry, Auri. I… I guess I’m not as put together as I thought…” She looked to the ground, shame on her face as tears started forming. “I… I thought I was better now… I thought I w-was finally okay…”
“Hey…” Auri placed a hand on her leg. “It’s okay to… to not be okay.”
“I know, I know, I just…” Meggy sighed, wiping her eyes. “I hate that it keeps coming back. I just wanna be done with all… all this .” She tapped the side of her head.
Auri frowned, his eyes moving to the ground.
“OW!”
Desti’s yelp of pain caused the two to immediately turn their gaze to her fight with Whisk. There were scratches on her face, and her clothes were lightly torn.
“DESTI!” Meggy shouted. She quickly rushed in as Whisk’s Urn finished filling.
“Finally,” the hybrid muttered, shutting it mere moments before Meggy tackled her to the ground. Meggy tore her mask off, prompting Whisk to yelp. “H-Hey! M-My mask!”
“Don’t. Hurt. My. Girlfriend ,” Meggy hissed, her crimson eyes narrowing.
Whisk blinked. “Y-You’re dating?”
Meggy grabbed Whisk’s head and slammed it against the ground, knocking her out. She took a moment to catch her breath before standing up. She turned her attention to Desti, kneeling down next to her. “Are you okay?”
“I’ll… be fine.” Desti clutched her face lightly. “It’s just a few scratches. I’ll heal.”
“We’ll get these guys back to the cell,” Auri said. “After that, we need to talk to the mayor.”
Desti perked up at that. She scowled. “Yeah, we definitely do. I’d like a word with him myself.”
“Desti?”
“Later.” She released Meggy and moved to scoop up Luci. “Grab Whisk. Let’s get them to their cell, and then we have a mayor to visit…”
In the mayor’s office, the mayor sat, looking out the window behind his desk from his wheelchair.
Suddenly, the door burst open, and Desti stormed in. “We need to chat, Mr. Mayor.”
“Desti!” Auri shouted, running in after her alongside Meggy. “We need to warn him about the Ashes being stolen!”
“He knows,” Desti said simply.
“...Huh?”
“It was obvious when I thought about it. You called him two-dimensional, quiet, arrived a couple months ago now?” She smirked. “You meant two-dimensional literally, didn’t you?”
“How did you…?”
“That timing, two months ago… that was around the time we fought Puzzles. About the time a certain someone disappeared. And when I heard the name Paisano, that sealed the deal. Only one guy involved in crime used that name for anything.” Desti stepped forward. “That’s right, bastard, I know about what happened. Three told me. So, Paisano , why don’t you show yourself… or should I call you Marty?”
Meggy’s eyes widened. “Wh…?”
After a moment, the mayor’s wheelchair turned. He rolled around to the side of the desk before turning to face the crew, revealing Desti to be correct: the mayor of Port Aurora, and the criminal mastermind Paisano, was none other than cardboard cutout Marty.
“Hello, Meggy, Desti. It has been some time,” he said in his robotic voice.
“...Okay, now that is something I didn’t expect. You can talk now?”
“Where’s the other one?” Meggy asked. “Y’know, Lui?”
“I… do not know. Lui and I were separated after your melon friend sent us flying. I have been trying to locate him to no avail. It’s hard when you are stuck on an island.”
“Okay, okay.” Desti sighed. “I thought you went straight after the whole thing with the notebook.”
“No. I merely stopped pursuing the notebook.” Marty rolled around to the front of the desk, sitting before the trio. “I am not simply giving up the empire I’ve managed to build, even if I lost Casino Paisano. Unfortunately, the entirety of Port Aurora is now at stake.”
“What are you talking about?” Desti crossed her arms. “And why should we believe you?”
“Across these past few weeks, a new player has moved in,” Marty explained. “I don’t know their goal, but because of them and Whisk, I’ve lost all my best employees. I’m losing power here, and other crime bosses know that. Port Aurora is a valuable place.”
“What are you saying?” Auri asked.
“I am saying that Port Aurora will be ground zero for a gang war. And that the reason for this instability is not just the fault of my new rival, but of you as well.”
“So… got you too, huh?” Russet muttered, looking up at Whisk. “Again.”
“And that chick.” Yam raised an eyebrow. “That the Cloak girl?”
“Luci.” Luci crossed her arms. “I can’t believe we got caught! We’ve never been caught when we’ve worked together before!”
“That’s because this time, it was the plan,” Whisk said, leaning against the wall. “The b-boss, she… she wants us off the streets for what comes next.”
“...Wait.” Russet glared at Yam. “Has that been what you’ve been talking about?”
“Yup.” Yam shrugged. “Couldn’t let everyone in on it just yet. I tell ya, she’s a genius. Gonna give us the best payday yet.”
Whisk looked down, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a small locket – a gift from Chet. She frowned. “...Money isn’t the only reason some of us are doing this, you know.”
Something inside Luci stirred a little. In a moment of what she’d consider weakness, she stepped towards Whisk.
Suddenly, the cat-human hybrid perked up, her ears twitching. “Shush. They’re coming.”
The door swung open, and Auri, Meggy, and Desti stepped in. Desti yawned. “God, I’m tired… and we’re gonna need some rest, if there is a gang war coming.”
“Yeah.” Meggy nodded, her expression unreadable. “Here, I’ll put the Phoenix Urns with the other contraband. You guys get ready for bed.”
The other two nodded and headed off. Meggy scooped up the four Phoenix Urns, wincing. “Stupid, lettin’ that slip… lucky nobody caught it,” she muttered, her voice taking on a slight Western twang.
She stepped over to the wall and pressed a button, opening up a hidden door. Stored inside were the various contraband they had taken from those they’d arrested. Whisk’s mask and belt, their weapons, Luci’s cloak, other things.
Meggy looked around carefully, making sure nobody was around, before sliding a box out of the way, revealing several stashed-away Phoenix Urns, all filled: the very same ones Whisk and Luci had filled already. She slid them in to sit alongside the others before sliding the box back in front, hiding the Urns away once more. She stepped out of the vault, smirking as she shut it, sealing the room in darkness.