When the elevator finally came to a stop, and the music was cut off, they knew they had arrived.
The doors to the elevator slowly opened, and the creator and destroyer stood up from where they were sat on the floor, Ink's head previously resting on Error's shoulder. The ride had been longer than expected, so, sitting down was nicer than remaining standing up.
They had come up with a plan, assuming that one of the small skeletons could create and the other could destroy. They decided that with their strength and their abilities, it might be better if they fight fire with fire... Creation against creation and destruction against destruction. If this seemed to put them at a stalemate, then they would switch opponents while in battle and go from there. The only other concern was if the head scientist would show up himself to fight, or if he was going to call more support.
Stepping out into the hallway together, it was quiet, only the soft humming of the air conditioning and other small machinery running somewhere hidden. To their left as they exited was a solid white wall, while to their right was the start of a hallway, taking a turn to the left at the end of it.
"If this isn't a trap," Error mused. "I don't know what is..."
In reply, Ink grabbed his giant paint brush, tightening his grip around it.
They cautiously made their way down the hallway, prepared to fight if attacked.
They soon turned at the end of the hallway, spotting a door to their left. Ink went over towards it, carrying his giant paint brush in one hand as he tried to turn the doorknob with the other. It was locked.
Meanwhile, Error tried to open a door on the other side of the hallway, a bit further away from the one the creator tried to open. Just like the other door, it too was locked.
"I have a feeling they're waiting in the one room not locked..." Ink mused, walking over towards his husband.
"Thanks a lot Sherlock Bones." Error sarcastically replied.
"You're welcome." Replied the creator in a playful manner.
The destroyer jokingly rolled his eyes.
They then begun down the hallway again, soon coming to a wide open doorway, that appeared to have a car garage door set up, located to their right. The inside appeared to be a storage room of sorts, metal shelves packed with random equipment and old nicknacks that varied.
It appeared the last room in the hallway, meaning their final battle was about to begin.
They exchanged a quick glance at each other before facing back towards the room.
Stepping into the room, it all seemed too quiet. Glancing around the shelves, they couldn't see anything odd.
Upon stepping into the middle of the room, multiple green strings came flying at them. Error jumped out of the attack's way, seeing the shelves he should've ran into faze through him. At the same moment, Ink deflected the strings by twirling Broomy in front of him and hitting the strings back.
The illusion of shelves around them quickly disappeared in the decent sized storage room. Now they saw what appeared an army of skeletons similar to the two they spotted by Dr. Catrone that day in Glitchtale. Both were taken off guard by the amount, the small skeletons taking up most of the room. Ink and Error put themselves back to back, debating on what to do.
"There's so many of them..." Ink mused. "What should we do?"
The destroyer squinted at them, his vision being a tad blurry.
"I can try to catch their souls." He suggested. "Just watch my back."
"Got it." The creator replied with a nod even though the other couldn't see it.
As predicted, more attacks came at them, this time being of bright red paint coming from above. Ink quickly painted a black shield of paint above their heads, blocking the attack. Meanwhile, Error pulled blue strings from his eyes and shot them at the skeletons in front of him. That was when he made a realization.
"Those aren't real monsters, they're damn illusions!" The destroyer exclaimed, the half of the army he had thrown his strings through disappearing.
Hearing the other, the creator took down the shield above them and quickly threw his own red paint at the illusions in front of him, making them disappear. The rest of the illusions still in the room soon vanished as well, revealing 1.2 quickly yanking down the metal garage door with his strings to trap them all inside while 1.1 stood beside him. The smaller skeletons quickly turned their attention to Ink and Error once the door shut with a loud bang!
Turning to face 1.1 and 1.2, Error raised a hand up into the air and summoned multiple gaster blasters and fired them. Countering the attack, 1.2 quickly summoned and fired blasters of his own while 1.1 fled from the area near the door, going around the blasters and attempting to sneak up behind Ink.
The creator had noticed the other's movement, turning around just in time to knock away incoming bone attacks created by the smaller skeleton. The movement of Ink's giant paint brush was quick, flinging the bones away for them to turn into paint and disappear. The speed of the other was not what 1.1 had expected.
Ink quickly flung magenta paint at 1.1, the smaller skeleton dodging most of it. He was quickly yanked down by the chains that were created around his right ankle by the paint that landed on him.
Meanwhile, Error was busy countering the bone attacks of the other small skeleton, copying the actions and deflecting the other oddly colored bones. The destroyer couldn't help but wonder where he had seen such bones before...
When the rain of bones ended, they went to strings. 1.2, a look of determination on his face, shot strings towards where the older's soul would be. When the strings got close enough, Error moved just out of their grasp and grabbed onto them and yanked them forwards. 1.2 fell forwards and hit the hard ground with a thud. He hadn't expected such a turn of events.
"Switch." Ink stated, going back to back with Error once more.
On cue, they each rotated one hundred and eighty degrees, facing the enemy the other was facing before.
1.1 was the first to get back on his feet, finally cutting the chains with a large pair of pliers he had created. Once back up, he didn't hesitate to fling the new attack he had just learned about at Error.
The destroyer recognized the magenta colored paint right away, quickly summoning bones out from the ground to take the blow. The magenta chains quickly formed around the bones, and soon disappeared as the bone attack did. Without hesitation, he shot his strings at the small skeleton, 1.1 just managing to move out of the way, taking a quick few steps to the side.
From a few feet behind Error, Ink continued to collide paint brush with bones as he tried to get closer to 1.2. He was hoping that would be the other's weak suit just as it was with Error before a bit of extra practice. 1.2 knew he needed to keep his distance and kept summoning bones out from the ground in attempt to hit the moving creator. After each time he attempted that, he also would send a few flying in the air towards the other.
The small skeleton glanced upwards, trying to think of how to get out of this situation before running into the wall not too far behind him. That's when he saw the stuff gathered on the ceiling and a few empty hooks.
1.2 then got an idea, quickly flinging his strings upwards and grabbing onto one of the empty hooks on the ceiling. With the tightening of his strings and a strong yank, he pulled himself up just before the creator would've reached him.
Ink quickly turned around to see the smaller skeleton begin to lower himself back down to the ground. While in the process of landing, 1.2 had sent strings to go behind the creator and suddenly grip onto his phantom soul.
1.2 noticed the other jolt at the feeling of his soul being grabbed. Ink had forgotten about that factor, and quickly glanced down to see the glowing soul pulled out of his chest and wrapped in the green strings. He felt as the smaller skeleton, now standing a good distance in front of him, tightened the strings. The creator couldn't move, and he felt as if his bones had gone numb. Worry showed of Ink's face as he stood there. He was practically a puppet.
"E-Error..!" Ink shouted out through gritted teeth, feeling the strings tighten more, the sudden increase in pain causing him to flinch.
The destroyer heard the other and glanced over his shoulder to see the sight, also catching sight of green strings heading his way as well from 1.2's other hand.
Error quickly ducked down, dodging spears 1.1 had painted and sent towards him. Then the destroyer managed to summon a small blaster to destroyer the oncoming strings.
Ink felt himself twitching as he tried to figure out how to free his phantom soul from the strings. It was impossible to do anything while stuck still.
Seconds later, he was relieved when Error cut the strings with another Gaster blaster he summoned.
The strings still on Ink's soul vanished, and his soul returned to inside his ribcage where it belonged. The creator felt feeling return to his bones and he wiggled his fingers. Being able to move again, Ink quickly moved in front of another bone attack coming from 1.2, blocking it with a black paint wall.
"Are you sure you still don't want to hurt them?" Error asked as they stood near each other.
"Uh huh." Ink quickly replied. "I'm still for sure."
The destroyer let out a small sigh, not really expecting another answer to come form the other. He then quickly raised a hand to form another wall of bones to block more incoming spears from 1.1.
"Let's split up so this isn't such a mess!" Ink suggested, shouting over the noise of the conflict.
Without anything else said, Error made his way to one side of the room while Ink went to the other, their smaller opposite each sending a counter attack at them.
1.2 shot more strings at Ink, the creator quickly defending them with the spinning of his brush. He kept himself constantly moving, not to get trapped again.
"Not this time kid..." He mused, hitting away a few more green strings that were coming up from behind him.
1.2 kept chasing after the other, not being able to slow the creator down. Then he got another idea.
This time he shot the strings, not towards Ink's body as he prepared to send a paint attack, but rather at the brush lifted upwards. The green strings quickly wrapped around, which Ink noticed right away.
1.2 tugged harshly at the strings, trying to pull the brush out of the creator's hands. Ink felt his grip slipping, quickly changing how he was holding the brush. He brought it closer to his chest, elbows pointed outwards as his arms were wrapped around the brush, holding Broomy horizontally.
Despite the fact of the other skeleton being smaller, the strength of him was incredible, causing Ink to have to tighten his grip. 1.2 kept a strong hold, the strings tight, yanking every now and then. The creator felt his right foot slide a little forwards, and he tried to lean back to better his hold. With one more hard yank, Broomy slipped out of Ink's arms and was thrown to the other side of the room.
"Dammit!" Exclaimed Ink. "Stupid slick gloves..."
"Ink, you've got one coming!" Error shouted from not too far behind.
The destroyer may had started on the other side of the room, but ended up over by the creator due to 1.1 heading that direction with a plan in mind.
The creator turned around to see 1.1 swinging a metal sword, which he had made with his magic, at him. Ink managed to summon a sturdy bone of black paint to block the attack, holding onto it with one hand at each end.
Error quickly shot his strings at 1.1 to help out Ink when the attack was intercepted by a bone attack. 1.2 had shot at the strings from far off, catching the destroyer's attention. It appeared they were switching enemies once again.
The clanking of sword clashing against bone continued to echo around the enclosed room. Any silence being filled by the sound of blaster beams hitting each other.
Error couldn't lie to himself, these kids were giving him a workout. Even with training sessions with Ink, he still wasn't at his finest. He quickly summoned three blasters at a time to counter 1.2's attack of three blasters firing at once. The sound of the beams colliding made it hard to hear anything else as the brawl continued.
Keeping an eye towards the center of the room and on the battle in front, Ink continued his "dance", dodging and weaving while defending the blows of the sword with the bone he held. He was grateful that he had learned how to use magic without Broomy in his hands, making this easier for him.
Crack!
It appeared he had been grateful too soon when the bone in his hands began to splinter.
This isn't looking so good... He noted, pushing back the sword with the cracking bone, creating a little space between him and 1.1.
After that, the bone shattered, leaving Ink unarmed. 1.1 charged at him swinging the sword again. If only he could hit him.
Ink continued to weave and move out of the way to the swings. His health depended on it.
He took another glance across the room. Unlucky for him, it appeared he was only moving further away from Broomy. His eye lights flashed to a red circle and diamond, reflecting the irritation. Dodging another swing of the sword, cutting it close, he turned back to face the kid in front of him.
His eye lights quickly changed to a yellow exclamation mark and green triangle at another too close moment, him being able to feel the wind the blade created when passing by him.
Meanwhile, Error wasn't having it any easier. The destroyer was stuck defending himself more than anything as he stood in one location in the room's center. When the green strings came flying towards him, he was forced to counter with his blue ones. With another flying bone attack coming, he quickly had to summon a wall of red bones from the ground.
It was as if 1.2 had gotten his second wind, sending attack after attack with a determined and courageous expression on his face. He kept going, slowly causing Error to back up little by little.
If it wasn't for all the noise, anyone would've heard a creaking coming from directly above where he stood.
1.2 glanced up above where Error stood, seeing the hook holding up netting containing all sorts of random metals, old machinery, and ruined science equipment that weighed tons...
Suddenly, just as planned, the hook was moved, causing the objects to fall down from their height. 1.2 kept attacking Error, keeping the destroyer distracted as it fell, and keeping it loud enough for the sound of the falling objects to not be heard.
Ink glanced back over to check on the other in the center of the room as he continued to dodge. That's when he spotted the objects just being dropped. Alarm showed on his face, both eye lights flashing to yellow and orange exclamation marks.
He quickly dodged another swing of the sword and ran as fast as he could towards the other, Error's back turned towards him.
"Error, watch out!" Ink shouted, catching the other's attention.
The destroyer quickly looked over his shoulder to see the other shove him out of the way of the incoming objects. 1.1 and 1.2 stopped attacking, watching it unfold. Ink had jumped in order to shove Error out of the way, and out of range, of the falling objects.
The creator glanced up above him, noticing what he had feared. His eye lights became white circles...