A mission of stealth was nothing new to the creator and destroyer. At this point, they've hidden in too many AUs to count. The only one's not used to it as much were Dream and Blueberry, who had decided they would help keep watch for the wanted skeleton, knowing that this universe had plenty of space considering all the cities included in its Surface. It was relieving that they only had to worry about the Surface and it's emptied Underground and not have to search other planets, like they would if the attack was planned to be in Outertale. Glitchtale didn't include alien life in its design.
At first, Dream was hesitant about letting Blueberry come along for obvious reasons, but he caved in at being reminded how big this AU was. He just had to hope the other wouldn't blow their cover.
Presently, Ink and Error walk down empty alleyways in the large city. Luckily for them, the world wasn't ending yet, the human known as Betty still not having not met Frisk in this timeline. This factor alone made hiding easier for them since everything was still intact.
They tried to stay out of busier sidewalks and streets, watching from the shadows.
The two came to a stop at the exit of an alleyway to a main road. They stopped on opposite sides of the alleyway walls, leaning against the bricks the walls were made of. They kept watch of the busy street and stores in front of them.
"So, what's our plan if we find them?" Error asked.
"I'm not really certain myself... Sure, the plan is to follow the skeleton, but I don't know if we should scare him first and then follow, or if we let him destroy first..." Ink replied, his eye lights flashing to a green swirl and blue oval to show his worry.
Error thought about it a moment, crossing his arms, before making a decision.
"Let's try scaring them and following first." He replied, looking over at the over.
Ink returned the gaze.
"Alright-"
He cut himself off at the feeling of something being of the AU destroyed by out of place magic. The feeling quickly went numb, leaving as if it was never there.
"They're here." Stated the creator, eye lights changing to a star and orange exclamation mark.
He moved to a more central position in the opening of the alleyway leading to the street. He blinked and his eye lights went back to their normal oval and star.
Ink carefully scanned the area with his eyes. That's when screaming started coming from down the left side of the street.
Without a second thought, he bolted out of the alleyway and down the middle of the street, causing cars to slam on their breaks as he cut them off.
"Idiot!" Error mused, quickly taking off after him, causing the drivers to keep their vehicles still.
The other was faster than him, so he struggled to catch up. Even with being behind, he could see a building further down the street burst into flame. Then a shadowed figure jumped away from it, using their strings to swing across and to a building on the other sides.
Cars were stopped at random in the street, a few piled up. Monsters and humans alike screamed in terror and ran. Meanwhile, further up the road and closer to the flames, the creator and destroyer spotted Dream trying to calm people down to make evacuation smoother. Not far from him, they could see Blueberry trying to help those injured, that he could reach, get to someplace safer.
Through all the shouts, some humans could be heard dissing the monsters and saying how they were correct on monsters not being trustworthy. Some braver monsters, on the other hand, tried to use their magic to lessen the damage of the building and heal some wounded.
Pushing and shoving was common among all races as most sprinted away from the destruction.
Ink and Error soon arrived at where Dream stood.
"Which way did they go?" Ink asked.
"I'm not exactly sure, but it was somewhere in the vicinity." The guardian of positivity replied, pointing towards the building across the street and away from the growing flames. "Blue and I will handle things here, you two should go after them."
The couple nodded in agreement. Error quickly shot his strings up and towards the building. He then grabbed Ink around the waist.
"Hang on." He warned.
The creator did just that and Error used his strings to pull them to the top of the building.
Once up top, they could hardly see through the smoke. Both took a couple steps away from each other and pulled their scarves over their mouths and nose holes. Both squinted through the thick smoke, Ink soon spotting the moving figure.
"This way!" He shouted to be heard over all the noise.
He took a sharp right turn and jumped from one building to the other that was a bit lower down, Error following not far behind him. The more they ran, the more the smoke seemed to clear up, allowing them to see the moving figure across the street and to their left standing on another building.
They saw multiple souls suddenly get pulled up into the air and torn to shreds.
They came to a sudden stop and let their scarves uncover their faces.
Ink decided to test his luck, grabbing a hold of his giant paint brush and flinging red paint towards where the small skeleton was running on the buildings across from them. With luck, the attack just managed to hit the figure's toes, causing them to trip and hiss in pain.
During that same moment, Error took aim with multiple bones he summoned. The small skeleton just managed to dodge, and they looked over their shoulder to see the two beings they feared.
1.2 felt terror hit him like a truck.
They've found me again? How?! He questioned it as he continued to run.
They were going to catch him now that the red paint had seeped into his shoes and had injured his feet. It slowed him down and made it harder to keep running. He had to escape, and he had to do it now.
Using his strings, he pulled himself across another large gap between the city buildings, getting him farther away from the skeletons and closer to the forest he arrived in. He kept going, continuously pulling himself across, snatching a few souls along the way. He had barely done any damage to this universe, once again having another failure.
He was arriving at the edge of the circular city, carefully dropping himself to the grassy ground with his strings. He continued to destroy a few trees as he passed through the woods. Soon he stopped destroying and continued his sprinting, pushes bushes and branches out of his path.
He kept going until finally slowing down by a large boulder in the forest. He looked around himself, not seeing anyone else nearby. He had done it again; escaped without being killed. He took a seat next to the boulder and decided to catch his breath.
Unknown to him, not far from where he sat, Ink and Error hide behind a thin wall of standing paint that looked like part of the forest from the small skeleton's angle. Ink had left a small gap in the wall, just big enough that they could look through without their hiding spot being given away. They watched carefully and quietly as the skeleton sat there in silence.
The birds around slowly began to sing, realizing the worst of it was over. It gave the small skeleton peace and helped calm his nerves as he sat there. He let out a small sigh and closed his eyes of a minute, taking in the peaceful atmosphere around him.
He adjusted his glasses, tempted to take them off and clean them, but he left them resting on his face.
He then heard a fizzing from in front of him. He opened his eyes and stood up to see two familiar faces appear out of pixels, causing him to smile a little.
Ink's and Error's eyes widened at who they saw. They had not forgotten the gray lab coat wearing feline, who had a purple streak in the thick strip of wavy hair that matched his fur coat and hung in front of his face. Then there was the figure behind him... It appeared another skeleton, wearing a paint splotched scarf and shared the same main bone color as the other.
From their angle, they could see one side of the faces of each of the figures.
"Another failure I see." Said Dr. Catrone with a pitiful smile.
"Yeah..." 1.2 sadly replied.
"Honestly, this seems to be the easier job." 1.1 replied. "You don't need any original ideas."
1.2 frantically shook his head.
"No, it's not easy!" He exclaimed. "Our copies showed up again! They were trying to kill me. I was so scared! Terrified! It's not as simple as you think-"
He went quiet when Dr. Catrone placed a reassuring hand on his head.
"It's alright. You will be strong enough to match them soon. There is nothing to trouble yourself with." Said the head scientist, a quiet harshness fading into his voice as he spoke.
"Okay..." 1.2 replied.
Dr. Catrone turned to glare at a spot in the forest, the spot where Ink and Error hid behind the paint wall. Their eyes met the scientist's, the scientist's glare meeting their shocked looks.
"We should get going." Stated Dr. Catrone, turning his gaze away from the paint wall.
The creator and destroyer watched as the scientist lifted up the portal gun, firing it and summoning a pastel rainbow portal. They witnessed the small skeletons go in first, and then Dr. Catrone follow behind. Once they were gone, the paint wall fell down and disappeared.
Error glanced over at Ink to see him scribbling something down onto his scarf. It took a second for him to realize that what was scribbled down first was a quick drawing of the other skeleton. Then there was the second thing written down - a note of sorts...
"'Figure out how to get into the void.'" Error read the note aloud. "Guess that's the next step, huh?"
Ink looked up from his scarf and tucked the pencil he had been using into one of his pant pockets.
"It seems like the best move." He replied, glancing over at the destroyer before looking back over to where the three figures had stood with a portal. "That lab in there is clearly behind all of this."
Error grimaced at the mention of that laboratory, recalling it's inhuman and cruel experiments. He still remembered the events as clear as day. If it wasn't for Ink being with him, he might have gone mad- or worse...
The destroyer felt the memories of it all rush at him at once.
"Now thinking about it," Ink began. "They could be putting those skeletons through what we went through..."
"Isn't that not a bad thing for us?" Error questioned, not having much sympathy for the little skeletons.
"Even if they are messing with the Multiverse, it's not right for them to be treated that badly." The creator stated, eye lights changing to a dark blue oval and sky blue square.
The destroyer's noticed the change in the other's expression. Error heaved a sigh.
"I guess you have a point..." He mumbled.
Most wouldn't care if they found out he had gone through such harsh things, but that didn't mean the actions that happened while trapped in that lab were just. He was certain that was where Ink was leading with his comment.
Error wrapped an arm over his husband's shoulders.
"What's the rest of your plan?" He asked.
"I'm not sure yet." Ink replied. "I know for certain that we need to get in there, and maybe..."
He purposely trailed off. He was debating over his options.
"We need to find out more about those two skeletons." The creator stated, finishing his previous response. "Then we can decide on the next course of action."
"Sounds fine to me."
Ink smiled at the other agreeing, filling him with a little hope. His eye lights flickered back to their usual colors and shapes as he looked over at the other, causing Error to smile as well.