Chapter Text
The group had entered the elevator and were now decending to their first floor. The atmosphere within was tense, and full of anxiety. Despite having done this time and time again, it was always an unpleasant experience full of anxiety and dread.
Astro found himself fidgeting a bit within part of the blanket he was clutching onto. His grip tightened. It was always a bit stressful for him, along with the healers and distractions. Toons used up lots of their stamina easily and he always ended up using his little ability to restore it.
He already couldn't wait to go back and read his books. No doubt the others felt the same way, just wanting this over. He took some deep breaths to try and ease the anxiety up. 'Deep breaths, Astro. Deep breaths,' he thought to himself. It worked only a little bit. But despite his anxiety, he had faith in his team. They could do this. Everyone would be okay. 'It will be fine,' he reassured himself.
Then he heard the elevator ding, and that snapped him out of his thoughts. He watched the elevator door open. The dread he felt worsened. 'I can't let my feelings distract me from this,' he thought. He stepped out of the elevator (it was the floor where the writers of the show worked, before Gardenview shut down). Focusing on each step. Watching his teammates spread out in search of machines to complete. There was one nearby. Brightney was working on it. Probably until it was nearly completed, knowing she would have to wait until the others finished the rest in order to finish it, since the last is either saved for last, or primed. That gramted the others time to get near the elevator.
He was searching for machines and also medkits and bandaids for Sprout to take, since he was the only healer on the team, and valuable to the others. 'No luck on finding a medkit or bandaid,' he thought.
Everything was silent and everyone was cautious since there were twisteds running around. He was pretty quiet, good with stealth. He tiptoed around, still cautious as ever.
Then he heard someone scream. He hoped it wasn't what he thought it was, but unfortunately he knew it was. Someone mostly likely got attacked. He felt a twist in his gut, a feeling that he always experienced whenever someone got hit. He wasn't even fully sure of who the twisted were, since he didn't encounter them yet. Coal was the distractor, right? Maybe someone accidentally got in the way and ended up getting hit? Was their stamina low? Was it his fault? His minded began to flood with possibilities, guilt hitting him easily. He was always susceptible to guilt ever since he found out what Dandy got involved in. Dandy threatened him not to tell anyone about it.
It was only the first floor and Sprout likely wouldn't have enough tapes to heal anyone. There were no other screams, so whoever it was must've gotten away by now before anything worse happened. He went to check out the scene, hiding behind crates and other things, so he didn't get spotted by a twisted. One did pass by him and he was able to tell who it was. Cosmo. Twisted Cosmo. He heard the small sobs coming from the twisted. He felt worse. The poor soul didn't deserve that fate and he knew it. Eventually he did reach the machine the toon was working on. Almost halfway full, that's progress. He used the stars he used as hands to spin the metal wheel and started extracting. Off in the distance he heard a ding. And then another. Two down, just two more to go.
Some minutes later and he finished it. The familiar "ding!" sounded. The last machine was primed for sure, and he headed to the elevator. He spotted the others, except for Coal, who was distracting. Brightney was, as expected, extracting the already primed machine. Soon, they all heard the ding. He stepped into the elevator, not wasting time. Everyone else was in, and he heard Sprout shout, "Everyone at elevator!"
Astro saw Coal running to the elevator, and once she was inside the elevator doors closed.
As expected, the two door latches pop open, and the familiar toon of Clair de Lune could be heard. Dandy's little shop popped out, and there he was, the bright and cheerful little flower who wore the brightest, most biggest smile ever. "Welcome to my shop!" He said, his eyes immediately landing on Astro. Astro looked away from him. Even though he still cared about him, he was scared of him since he threatened him once. Consider him trapped in a toxic "friendship" if you will.
He felt regret for still bothering to be nice and caring to him, for accepting the offer to hang out. He finally the considered it an opportunity for Dandy to do god knows what to him. Could scare him further into keeping his involvement in the ichor operation secret as he sees fit. Their friendship was always toxic behind closed doors, and Dandy had a history of love bombing him (if one can platonically).
But he finally looked up, spotted what Dandy had sold. A pop, some gumballs, and a speed candy. He didn't really have enough tapes to buy anything, since he only completed one machine, and didn't bother picking up any tapes. So he turned his back on Dandy and waited for the shop to close temporarily. When it did, he felt a relief that he wasn't expecting to feel. He didn't pay enough attention to know if anyone bought anything from the flower.
Time seemed to move slowly. The elevator door opened again. The theater ,room. He went out and went to find a machine to do, finally spotting one. He also spotted a medkit near the machine. He would give it to Sprout after completing the machine. He started extracting for the second time this run. No one screamed this time, no one got hurt. 'Good,' he felt relieved upon thinking that. He made sure to finish it as quickly as possible. When he did, he picked the medkit up and went around to find Sprout. Sprout had a claw mark in his left arm. He handed him the medkit and Sprout wasted no time in using it.
"That looks bad, are you going to be okay Sprout...? Please don't lie to me or make it seem smaller than it is." He whispered. He really did worry about him. He loved Sprout a lot, and a world without him might as well be a world without sunshine.
Sprout smiled softly at him. "It will be okay. I can treat it, I think it isn't too bad. But it hurts like hell though... How are you holding up?" His eyes scanned Astro, as if looking for any injuries, any claw marks in his blanket. "Not hurt, are you?" He asked just for confirmation.
Astro nodded. "Not hurt." He looked around for machines. Not any in the room they were at. "C'mon, I'm sure we can look for some machines maybe... If someone isn't on it." He extended a star hand out to Sprout. Sprout took it. They walked out of the room, spotting someone working on the one right next to the projector. It dings. "How many machines are left, Sprout?" He glances at him quickly.
"Hmm... Last time I saw, someone was working on the one near the elevator, and I'm not sure about the others." Another ding from the distance. "If they didn't finish that one."
Someone, particularly Goob, who was panting, comes up to Astro. "Could you pretty please give me more stamina?" He looks at Astro with puppy dog eyes. "Pleeeeeaaaaaasssssseeeeeee?"
Astro sighs. "Of course." He responds, and then, for a brief moment hovers up for a few seconds after he jumped, and a blue the color of his star hands appeared for a shorter time before disappearing. And then he stood back on the ground again. It wore him out slightly. Sprout, patted his back. Goob smiled happily yet goofily. "Thank you!" He said and walked away in that wobbly way he always walked.
"I should go and see if there's any tapes left and anything here that might be useful. Wanna come with me?" Sprout proposed. Astro smiled. Anything to get to spend time with his beloved strawberry. "Yes please." He said.
Another ding. They looked around a bit, and after not spotting anything useful, head back to the elevator. "Do you have enough tapes to heal yet?" Sprout shook his head. "Almost though."
And then the final ding. Everyone got in.
This all went on and they progressed. The whole time, Astro's mind wondered to how Sprout and him became this close, how they got together. It was right after the run where some of the toons from that run who attended didn't survive, others went missing. At least one survived to tell the tale. Brightney. Sprout received the news that Cosmo didn't make it. Sprout was absolutely devastated upon learning that he lost his best friend. He fell into a state of depression that lasted hours and everyone was worried about him. He turned away anyone that came knocking at his door. He refused to eat anything and take care of himself. When he fell asleep, Astro visited him in his dreams. They talked and he comforted Sprout in the dream. Told him it was not his fault this happened, that there wasn't anything he could do. He told him that he would always be here for him, consoled him. It took some time and persuasion, until he successfully convinced him to eat and take care of him. It took further time for Astro to grow closer to him. Astro eventually got permission to visit him, bringing him food and beverages to keep him well fed and hydrated. He reminded Sprout to take care of himself when he needed it, and was always gentle with him, there to console him when he needed it. It took weeks for him to finally get Sprout out of his room, but when he did, Sprout's state had become a bit more better. Despite that, he was extremely clingy to Astro, even more overprotective than he used to be. Both developed feeling for each other after months, and the confession was a surprise to Astro. That day, Sprout poured his heart out when he confessed to Astro and Astro accepted it, telling him of his own feelings. They had been a couple ever since.
Now here they were, in an elevator, doing runs.
The ding of the elevator that he heard 21 times this run now, snapped his back to reality. Floor 21. Everyone held up just fine, despite being somewhat battered up a bit. He stepped out. There were now at least 7 machines to complete now. All of a sudden, there was the oh so familiar noise indicating a blackout, and the floor quickly became immersed in darkness. Sprout kept Astro close, and Astro knew his protective instincts were in overdrive.
Both wandered around a bit aimlessly, until they spotted a couple red circular glowing dots appeared, indicating machines in the same room in the now pitch black warehouse. At least Astro glowed. They extracted from the machines until they both heard a pitter patter of footsteps and a growl. Pebble. Sprout rushed over and yanked Astro away from the machine, and after a minute of looking, hid behind crates. Astro felt Sprout's arms around him, holding him close, and the slight quickening of his breathing. The growling seemed to get closer, but eventually it went silent, and both toons went back into the room. Occasionally, there was the distant ding. It wasn't hard to hear, since there was very minimal noise, except for Pebble's footsteps and growling. The pair both worked on the machines without interruption. Eventually both machines dinged nearly in sinc. What was it? At least 4 dings? 2 more machines to go. They both hid, waiting in tense silence for what seemed to be forever.
Then they heard one ding. It sounded slightly close. But that was supposed to be the machine closest to the elevator, right? Surely whoever it was knew to save that one for last, or at least to prime it? It went relatively silent yet again, and there was a distant ding, the elevator doors opening. Astro and Sprout both bolted to it, hand in hand, other showed up in a couple minutes, just two toons weren't there yet, and there was little t8me left to get there. In the distance, just visible by the elevators rather bright glow, was Brightney, who appeared more than terrified, and Pebble following in tow. She was injured up a bit, and Sprout was ready to heal her, when Pebble's head snapped down, jaw locking on her. The impact must've been pretty bad because she started bleeding. Pebble bit down at her hard, causing deep wounds into her already injured body. Coal had been pursuing them, already in and staring in horror as was the rest of them.
Astro was the most horrified, unable to look away as his friend got mauled. The twisted dog had managed to bite at her so badly, that one of her limbs fell off, ichor gushing for each of the wounds it inflicted on her. All Astro could hear was her piercing screams and whimpers. Watching as she was still in the process of being reduced to nothing more but a bleeding mess of gore and a symphony of screams. The elevator door closed before he could see anything worse.
After that traumatic sight, he stood there with an expression replicating that of the thousand yard stare. No one's voices or actions registering to him at all. He was completely lost in the memory of watching one of his friends getting bitten to shreds. It replayed over and over and over again. It all felt as if he was stuck in that moment, hearing her screams over and over. It was only when Sprout started shaking and shouting his name that he snapped back to reality. He looked up at Sprout, quickly noticing everything in his expression. Horror, fear, concern, distress, grief, everything that he could think of that, after something like that, was appropriate for one to feel. He had hardly noticed that he started crying. 'This can't be real. This can't be real.' he repeatedly thought to himself, as he stared at his distressed partner, a mortified Razzle and Dazzle, and everyone else around him.
Everyone agreed that it was best to stop the run for the day. The elevator ascended upwards. For the first time in a very long while, Astro couldn't speak. Not even one word. He was frozen in place, even as Sprout sat them both down and held him, as he cried and sobbed. His mind was stuck in that moment, frozen in place. Time seemed too fast for him to process anything. Nothing seemed real. He felt disconnected from reality, a feeling he wasn't familiar with at all. That scared him further. He was in too much of a distressed state to even feel guilty as he usually would. He started panicking at the feeling of nothing being real. Sprout picked up on this, and did everything he could to calm Astro down, knowing that if he became too distressed, he could twist. He rubbed his back, shushing him softly, whispering comforting words in a soft spoken voice, even if it didn't entirely register to Astro.
Astro, though, did calm down a bit at his lovers voice. It started grounding him back to reality very gradually. He could finally process Sprout's words. "Breathe with me. C'mon, sweetheart. You can do it. Breathe with me. Please." Sprout said. Astro didn't realize how quick and uneven his breathing was the entire time, but he started following Sprout's instructions, and copied his breathing. Slowly, but surely, he calmed down. He became grounded to reality once more. "Good job, sweetie. Good job. You did so well for me, Astro." Sprout praised quietly.
Everything felt like a disaster, but he felt calmer knowing Sprout was by his side to go through it all with him. That was his comfort.
A few minutes of ascending later, the elevator doors opened to greet them with the bright sight of Gardenview.