Mugman casually strolled out the cottage. He was wearing his bathing suit and sunglasses and was holding a deck chair. He propped up the deck chair and then jumped into it, lounging backwards and soaking up the sun.
"What the hack are you doing Mugsy?" Cuphead asked, poking his head out the window, "it's November! Why are you sunbathing!"
Mugamn sat up ,raised his sunglasses and turned to look at his brother.
"Well excuse me for trying to relax. This is the best sun we've had in weeks, i'm not just gonna let it go to waste"
"It's like four degrees out there!" he exclaimed, already shivering from the cool air, "face it mugsy, the season's over."
"Pfft, nonsense! why would I waste this perfectly good su..."
At that moment something eclipsed the sun. The cups looked up and saw a huge silhouetted spheroid in the sky. The thing opened its mouth and cackled an echoing laugh that permeated throughout the inkwell isles.
From behind that ominous form a small aircraft appeared. It was a biplane that was trailing smoke and declining rapidly. The cups watched as the thing spiralled down through the air in chaotic circles.
The brothers watched it, slightly mesmerised but slightly too late did they realise that the plane was set to crash right on their lawn. Mugamn frantically grabbed his brother by the collar and jumped down the well with him.
The plane crashed into the lawn, blowing the cottage windows to smithereens and leaving dark soot on everything in the area. Within milliseconds Elder kettle appeared at the door, steaming from annoyance and wearing his pyjamas.
"WHAT'S ALL THIS NOISE!!!" he exclaimed.
His eyes were immediately drawn to the smoking wreck in the middle of the lawn.
"What the..."
He walked over to the smoking heap and poked it with a stick.
"Ow!"
Elder kettle took a step back. From the rubble clambered a very sooty pilot. He was an anthropomorphic flask/canteen wearing aviator goggles and looked around Elder kettle's age.
(looks like this just older, i may draw him at some point but i don't have time rn.)
"Flask?" Kettle exclaimed ,"what are you doing here!?"
Cuphead and Mugman pulled themselves out the well and stared at the new arrival.
"Kettle!" The flask man said ,"I haven't seen you in ages, i'm a little tied up right now."
"Hey! Who are you?" cuphead asked walking over to the crash site
"Oh, boys! This is your Great Uncle Flask," he explained.
"Hi kiddos!" he said ,"just got to tie up some loose ends quickly."
He turned around and watched as the ominous silhouette in the sky descended through the air, cackling like a madwoman. As it descended the light shone from a different angle, lighting up the silhouette and revealing it to be a giant red blimp with a face on the front
"Looks like Mr pilot's hunk-o-junk failed him again!" she taunted
"You tampered with my plane Hilda Berg and I know it!" Great-Uncle flask yelled back, "in a fair match my plane would leave your head full of hot gas in the figurative dust!"
Cuphead leaned over to his grandad and asked out the corner of his mouth ,"who's that balloon lady?"
"That's Hilda Berg, Unkle Flask's arch enemy,'' Kettle whispered in reply.
Once she neared the ground, she transformed herself into a normal looking person and landed gracefully on the ground right in front of the small crowd.
(looks kinda like this just not on a cloud)
"Looks like blimps win again." she gloated.
"I bet that you could be beaten by children flying planes but you just keep messing with me!" Flask yelled.
"Ok then," Hilda replied, unfazed by the accusations ,"let me see if that smart remark was just bluff. Let's see if i can be beaten by children, those gross looking ones with the huge hands should do."
"OI!'' Cuphead yelled but Elder Kettle held him back, stopping him from doing something rash.
"Tomorrow," Hilda said ,"at high noon, the most dramatic time of day, meet me at the inkwell race track. We'll race to see who can circle the island fastest. No rematches. Winner gets eternal bragging rights and validation. Deal?"
Hilda berg held out her hand for Flask to shake and agree to the contest
"Deal!" Unkle flask replied, "but no foul play!"
They shook hands and Hilda stepped back.
"I'll se you there," she said
She then jumped high into the air and transformed back into her blimp form, she then flew away cackling and laughing.
"Hey!" yelled a voice, "Hey dingdongs! What the heck was that."
Everyone turned to see chalice standing on the path.
"Chalice!" Cuphead yelled and ran over to hug her.
"I figured that you had something to do the the blimp eclipse." she explained ,"now what's going on, what's with the laughing red balloon and the bottle with the face?"
"I am squadron commander Flask of the inkwell air force!" he announced ,"or I would be if there was one. I have been challenged by the devious balloon lady to a race but I also need to prove that she could be beaten by a child and you three seem the perfect fit."
"oooooOOOOOOoooooh!" the cups said excitedly.
"But before we do any of that," Flask said ,"I want some pancakes."
***
Elder kettle was standing by the oven, casually flipping pancakes.
"It's been great to see you Flask," Kettle said, "we've shown you around, you,ve met the boys and you've started a blood feud with the neighbours, it's been great. heads up!"
Kettle flipped the pancakes over his shoulder and Flask expertly caught them in his plate.
"I've still got it!" he exclaimed before digging into his pancakes.
Eldar kettle flipped some more over his shoulder in perfectly portioned stacks. Cuphead caught them on his plate and Chalice grabbed her cutlery and managed to skewer them all, surprised that she actually managed to catch them.
Eldar KEttle was about to walk Mugmna's pancakes over to him but mugman waved his hand, gesturing for him to stop.
"i think i got it this time," Mugman said ,"fling them at me!"
Kettle shrugged and threw the pankekes at the young mug. Mugman reached out his hand and compleatly missed the pancakes but cuphead saw this coming. he reached behind Mugman's back and caught them for him.
"here you go buddy," He said, plopping them on his brother's plate ,"thought you might miss them."
"Pancakes are as divine as ever!" Flask complimented, licking the syrup off the plate, "now, i need to start building some planes for the kids, they can't race if they don't have planes."
And with that announcement, Unkle Flask slipped out the door.
***
The Cups waited as Great Uncle Flask speedily constructed aircraft for them.
"How do you actually fly a plane, cuphead?" Chalice asked ,"you flew one once in hell"
"I.. don't really know." Cuphead replied ,"i just kind of... did. I'm not really sure, it just came to me in the moment."
"A whole lot of help you are!" Mugman said ,"i'm glad we'll be getting lessons from an actual pilot."
"By the way," Chalice asked ,"who is that guy? I just kind of assumed he was one of your friends."
"That's My Brother Flask," Kettle butted in ,"oh, what a character he is, reckless but he seems to love rules."
"How come you've never mentioned him before?" Mugman asked, "Speaking of which we don't know much about our family atall."
"Oh really! I thought I'd have probably mentioned him to you at some point by now," he replied, a single bead of sweat trickling down the side of his face ,"guess you know now. I'm sure you four will have a great time together."
The cups shrugged and continued to stare out the empty window frame , watching flask at work.
***
"Oh Kids!" Flask called "planes are ready"
Cuphead and Chalice barreled down the stairs as fast as they could trying to be the first to reach their new vehicles which they were definitely too young to use. Meanwhile Mugman climbed out the window and onto the roof, before calmly jumping down, easily beating the now out of breath cuphead and chalice.
Flask started to give a quick rundown of some tips and how the plane works
"The first thing you need to know about flying is..."
Before he even finished that sentence, cuphead ran past him shouting "I got this." he hopped in the plane, mashed the buttons and then promptly took off into the sky.
"I take it he's a natural," Flask said, watching cuphead do loops in the sky, "ok then looks like it's just you two. It's time to fly!"
(i'm not an expert on planes from the thirties. Normally I would research, but @cupheadfan_0001 is screaming at me to get this up ASAP so just ignore my blatant inaccuracies.)
*>:Montage time:<*
Scene 1:
Flask is explaining to his students how to start the engine of the plane.
"So first" he explained ,"you have to start it like a car, so press down the clutch pedal and then.."
"I know how to drive a car!" Chalice exclaimed, "this should be easy."
"Be careful," Flask warned ,"it...
"HAHAHA!" Chalice laughed as her plane shot off down the road, "it's like a car but-
CRUNCH
Mugman and Unkle flask winced.
"IT DOESN'T STEER SO WELL!" he called,
Chalice got to her feet and pulled a wad of leaves out her cup before dragging the plane back to the starting point in a begrudging manner
Scene 2:
Mugman is uncertainty puttering along in the plane ,nervously trying to build up momentum for take off.
"You can do it Mugsy!" Cuphead urged, circling low above Mugman's position, "I believe in you."
Cuphead flew down low, next to Mugman, almost level with him.
"You've just got to give it some gusto! Here I'll show you!"
Cuphead did a barrel roll in the plane, picking a large rock off the floor in the process. He then positioned himself just above the slow moving Mugman and dropped the rock on the accelerator.
Mugamn immediately shot forwards and into the air.
"AAAAAAAAHHHHRRRG!!!!!" he screamed in utter terror, hands over eyes and stomach tight.
After the shock wore off, Mugman uncovered his eyes and saw that he was flying.
"I'm doing it!" he said excitedly ,"i'm flyiiii..."
CRASH
Mugman dive bombed into the foliage of the tree, getting the collar of his shirt hooked on a branch.
"Great job!" Flask congratulated, "you got up there, now you just have to stay up there."
Scene 3:
Chalice and Mugman were both shakily keeping the planes in the air. They were both unsteady and gripping the steering wheel a little to tight but they were flying. Mugman in particular had his eyes bugging out of his head in fear and he had gone so pale his milk began to crystallise into ice.
"The next step is to know how to land, patience is key. so first you have to tilt the joystick down a little and..."
Though Chalice was not comfortable being that high in the air, she soon got bored with the painfully slow descent her and Mugman were making. She turned to Mugman, planning to talk to him about how boring this was but his expression gave the impression that he wasn't in the mood to talk. Most mortified people aren't.
Chalice looked down and saw they they were flying over flat ground. After strategizing for a second she transformed herself into a ghost (i didn't make it very clear but she regained that power after being resurrected in chapter 12) and phased through the base of the plane. She then placed her ghostly hands against the base of it and, as the plane fell, she was able to ease its descent.
Once she had floated to the ground with the plane and transformed back into a cup, she looked smugly back up at the sky.
"That's cheating," Flask yelled off in the distance, slightly jealous.
***
Soon all cups were confident in the air and ready for the race. Cuphead was still flying loops around the other two but that was to be expected.
"Do these planes have any bullets? any bombs? any missiles?" Chalice asked.
"No of course not,"great uncle Flask replied, "this is a race not a war. My plane has guns but there haven't been bullets in there for years and I had no reason to build guns into your planes."
"But what if Hilda Berg cheats," Chalice questioned ,"guns would be useful then."
"I can't just bring weapons on a whim," he replied, exasperatedly ,"it's not right, as much as i'd love a good old fashioned shootout and to down that bag of hot gas like the overly combustible fire hazard it is. It's still just a race."
Chalice slumped, rolled her eyes and then muttered something about rules rules rules.
Once the planes landed Chalice walked off to her own place and flask reentered the house with the cup brothers.
"I've got dinner," Elder Kettle said, holding up four plates of lasagna, "how was your flight."
"It was great!" Cuphead exclaimed ,"he gave me and Mugsy planes and taught us how to fly except he mainly taught mugsy because i'm better than him."
"Don't be arrogant Cuphead," Kettle advised, "now remember to thank your great uncle for teaching you."
"Thankyou Great Uncle Flask," the cups chimed
"It was nothing," Flask replied ,"you two are naturals, as well as that grail girl. You were much easier to teach than your Elder Kettle."
Flask then leaned it to whisper to the boys.
"Mr infantry, not very good at flying. I used to call him the landlubber."
The cups held in laughter while Elder Kettle eyed them up suspiciously before shrugging and placing dinner on the table.
***
Once night had fallen and everyone was sleeping peacefully a shadow stealthily hopped up the path. It was chalice, and she was holding a huge pile of metallic pieces."
She carefully placed all the pieces next to the parked planes, the sound of the clattering metal making her wince. She then pulled out a tool box and a book labelled "an engineer's guide to everything under the sun".
She flicked through the book until she found the page on how to install guns onto aircraft.
"This is a very niche guide," she remarked, skimming the instructions to check she had the right stuff.
Through the night she worked, fixing metal piping to the base of the aircraft and wiring the thing up with a new button and filling the ammo storage with illegally obtained munitions she stole from an undisclosed location.
Chalice managed to finish right at dawn. She was covered in grease and debris from crawling about under the planes. The gun barrels were subtle and easy to miss as well as being able to fire bullets accurately and quickly.
At that moment she heard scuffling inside the cottage and saw movement behind the windows. She looked at the horizon and saw the sun rising, only then realising that she worked through the night.
She just had time to hide all her equipment down the well so there was no evidence before Cuphead opened the door with Flask and Mugman right behind him.
Cuphead looked at Chalice who was standing suspiciously in the middle of the lawn with bags under her eyes, strange stains all over her shirt and skirt and a look in her eyes that indicated the desperate need for someplace to lie down.
"Chalice?" cuphead asked ,"are you... ok?
"Me?!" Chalice replied trying to wipe the dirt off her clothes and sound her jovial self but the sleep deprivation was getting to her ,"pfffft, i'm fine! Just need to *yawn* get some blood moving."
"Perfect timing," Flask said unfazed ,'' I was just going to show these two how to do some tricks. You can join in! We need to make a good entrance to the race track!"
***
Hilda Berg waited impatiently at the race track.
"Servent!!!" she called ,"tell me the time."
A mini zeppelin flew up to her and said "11:58 my lady"
(one of these things. They're called Zeppellings)
"Looks like those fools are going to not even try," she remarked, pouting her lips in a fake sad face ,"the right choice."
At that moment a loud humming sound pierced the air. Hilda berg turned and sneered as she saw four aeroplanes approaching in a perfect V Formation. As she watched the planes all simultaneously don a barrel roll and then, while trailing coloured smoke, they then did a huge loop before landing on the racetrack in front of Hilda.
" I see that you're quaking in your boots at the sight of that entrance!" Flask said snarkily
"I am merely a bundle of nerves in your presence," replied Hilda sarcastically, "now hop to it, I have a race to win."
"That's what you think," cuphead yelled then blew a raspberry at her.
"I want a clean race this time!" Flask demanded ,"no magic, no cheating. You got that blimp face?"
"Why would i need to cheet against you?!" she rebuked ," 3, 2, 1, GO!"
Before the chips could react Hilda jumped high into the air and then transformed into her blimp form. She then took in a deep breath and then blew the air back out her mouth. This propelled her far across the sky like a deflating balloon.
"FLY! FLY! FLY!" Great Uncle flask yelled, stepping on the accelerator. The cups all shot forward and up into the sky pursuing the cackling blimp.
The planes rocketed into the air, leaving skid marks of the concrete track. The wind blew hard against the cups' faces, causing their cheeks to flap about in the wind.
Far ahead Hilda began to weave a spell.
"Procellam Vocaro!!!" (please feel free to make fun of my latin)
As soon as those words were uttered a purple shockwave radiated out in all directions.
"Uh oh." Flask muttered ,"here comes the storm."
Hilda Berg's laughter echoed definingly around the area and dark clouds appeared in the sky.
Suddenly the sky exploded with lightning and thunder deafening the cups. The heavens opened and rain poured down by the litre. Strong winds began to buffet the planes, disorienting them and blowing them off course. A deep purple haze filled the air, making it impossible to see well.
(yes i did take inspiration from the fortnight storm)
"What the heck's happening!" Cuphead screamed.
"Storm magic!"Flask replied, "that blimp's messing with us."
They could just make out the silhouette of hilda berg when the lightning flashed. She seemed to be in the middle of a huge swirling vortex that encompassed much of the inkwell isles, including the cups.
"Keep Going!" Flask, "we can still catch up."
The cups fell into a line formation and flew through the storm. Lightning crackled around them. The air fizzed with electricity and the cold wind smarted but the cups foreign onwards, closing in on hilda.
Hilda Berg saw them approaching and began to chant another spell.
"Milites Multas Vocaro!"
From the swirling storm clouds emerged hundreds of Zeppellings (those small blimps that shoot at you). They swarmed like bees around the aircrafts and began to fire their pellets. The pellets seem to float through the air unnaturally slowly, unaffected by the wind like bubbles in calm air.
Mugman easily dodged the first one, by swerving to the side.
"Is that all you got , ya big fat losers!" Mugman shouted, exhilarated by all the flying."
As soon as he said that, all the other zeppellings fired. The sky filled with black orbs. The cups dogged and weaved as best they could but there were simply too many."
"FIRE THE GUNNS!!!!" Chalice yelled.
"I TOLD YOU!" Flask cried ,"WE DON'T HAVE GUNNS!"
"I ADDED SOME!!! PRESS THE BUTTONS ON THE TOP OF THE JOYSTICK! I ALSO GAVE FLASK'S PLANE BULLETS!"
Sure enough when they looked there was one big grey button on the top of the joystick.Chalice was the first to open fire, releasing a spray of bullets into the swarm of enemies causing many to burst into little puffs of smoke. The others opened fire, popping the Zeppelings by the dozen.
However, more kept coming, emerging through the clouds like bubbles of some noxious gas.
"DRIVE DRIVE DRIVE!!!" Flask commanded," WE'LL TRY TO OUTRUN THEM"
The cups stepped on it and the planes shot forward, clearing the swarm of projectile firing mini blimps. Cuphead was about to say something about being in the clear when a loud wiring sound began behind them.
The Zepellings sped up their propellers and accelerated towards the quartet.
"THEY'RE GAINING ON US!" Cuphead shouted.
"I've got it!" Chalice assured.
She turned her aircraft around and pointed the nose of her plane at the swarm of mini airships. She slammed her fist into the huge red button in the middle of the dashboard and sat back as she watched her final modification to her plane begin to work.
The nose of the plane flipped upwards, relieving a massive missile launcher. She slammed the button once more and the missile shot out the front .
!!KABLAM!!
The huge explosion obliterated the cloud of Zeppellings, balsing them to smoke. Chalice quickly realised that the explosion would reach her and changed into her ghost form, just as her aircraft disintegrated in the force of the explosion.
Chalice's ghost zipped through the air and caught up with the cups.
"Well that dealt with them," Chalice said ,"now it's time to give that bag of hot air a taste of her own medicine."
HA HA HA!
Hilda Berg's voice boomed around them.
You're all hanging in the wind already and you're all about to be heaven bound!
The huge whirling maelstrom that surrounded them began to close in as they approached Hilda berg creating a small fighting arena in the middle of a swirling tornado. The squadron flew directly at her, firing their guns until they were mere metres from her before pulling up and circling around for another go.
The bullets seemed to have no effect on Hilda, seemingly bouncing off some magic shield. The storm had picked up a large amount of debris which constantly threatened to hit the planes making their flight erratic and caused them to lose a sense of direction. Everyone was soon separated, even the ghostly Chalice and no one was having any effect on the cackling Hilda.
Mugman knew he had to do something before everyone got smashed by high speed detritus. In desperation Mugman reached into his porcelain head and pulled out the jar of Jolly jam from his milk (see previous chapter).
He unscrewed the lid and dipped the tip of his finger into the gelatinous liquid, collecting the tiniest drop of the stuff. He then leaned out the side of the plane, keeping it steady with his feet and wiped that miniscule drop onto the tip of the next bullet before lining it up to fire.
Once he had done that he safely stowed the jam away in his head linde up the shot and pressed the button.
!!!BOOOM!!!!
A shockwave expanded through the air erasing the storm and all effects of Hilda's magic. Mugman could now clearly see all his friends in the bright afternoon sky, all looking baffled.
But most confusing of all Hilda Berg, who now seemed slightly smaller was drifting towards earth with a smile on her face that connoted pure happiness.
"Hey look!" Cuphead shouted ,"I see the finish line!"
Remarkably, in their huge battle the cups had actually completed a circuit if the island and the end was in sight. Everybody dived for the finish line and they all landed successfully, meaning that in a very scuffed way, they had won the race.
"WOOOO!" Flask cheared, "where;s that blimp, I need to gloat, come on kids, gloat with me!"
Chalice turned back into her physical form and the cups climbed out the plane, then all jogged over to where Hilda Berg was standing.
"Looks like that planes have been proven to be the far superior form of aviation," Flask boasted ,"even in the face of cheating we prevailed. I also won my bet. how do you feel about that?"
Flask looked at Hilda who was now in human form and noticed that something was wrong about her. She had an ecstatic expression on her face, as if she was on some mood lifting drug. Her cheeks were rosy and eyes bright like an innocent child's.
"Oh i don't care much for conflict," she dismissed jovialy ,"i just want to spread happiness across all the world."
Flask paused for an awkwardly long time, waiting for the punchline but it didn't come.
"So let me get this straight," he said ,"you now care nothing for our rivalry and your pride and actually just want to bring happiness to the world?"
"Yup." Hilda replied beaming as Flask ,"well, i better get started."
And with that she turned and skipped down the path and out of sight.
"The heck!" Cuphead exclaimed.
"The heck indeed," Flask furthered, "well regardless of that. You three did great today, you have become true pilots and I now dub you the first recruits of the Inkwell air force. Now what do you say we go home and get Eldar Kettle to make his famous ravioli."
All the cups loved that idea except chalice who still just wanted to sleep. (like Proofreading Egbert up at 11:30 to meet a deadline)
The newly dubbed Inkwell air force clambered back into their planes, chalice squeezing in next to Cuphead, and started their engines. They then all took off flying off into the distance, as the screen fades to black.
(The jelly is quite powerful. It was quite a rush to get this out. Normally books like this are 50% shorter and made in twice the time span but i think it turned out good. I've been uploading less frequently on this book as I have lots of other books I've been writing. If you want more of my cuphead stuff you can read my book Plotholes but I'll probably be primarily working on my godzilla and rio books for a while. Until next time!)