Title: Puppet Master and the Two Brothers

Summary prompt:

Abandoned in the woods by their master, the puppets must abandon the one place they called home for near a century: Toulon's trunk.

(Leech Woman N/A due being thrown in an iron stove and burned alive.) and Jester doesn't have his hat.)

"Italicized words" = Puppets talking

'Italicized words'= Puppets thoughts

"Not Italicized"= not-puppet speech

'not italicized'= not-puppet thoughts

animals and insects talking

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Chapter One: Abandoned

The puppets didn't know what was going on. Their master had told them they were going on a small trip, a sort of vacation after defeating Sutekh's totems again. Although the master didn't show it, Blade and Jester knew the master was scared out of his wits, and of the puppets. Even though they had won their battle the master had asked if the totems would return. Against his better judgment, Blade nodded. A couple weeks later the master had given them a new dose of their formula; Jester, Tunneler and Blade having a little more than the others, and told them they were going on a little vacation up in the mountains. That didn't bode well for the puppets.

So there they were, gathered in the trunk in the back seat of the car.

"I don't like the looks of this." Jester mumbled.

"Me neither." Blade replied.

"You don't suppose he's going to abandon us, do you?" Tunneler asked.

The car hit a slight bump in the road causing the puppets to momentarily be lifted from the trunk's wall and bump into each other. Jester tried to shift closer to Blade who could feel the other's slight tremble.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"What if the master does abandon us? This will be the fourth one if he does." Jester whispered but the others heard him regardless.

Soon enough they felt the car make a turn and the road no longer smooth. Now they were all bouncing away and bumping into each other for what felt like hours. The car finally slowed down and came to an abrupt stop; Blade, Jester, Tunneler and Six Shooter all shifting to their left, Pinhead and Torch shifting to their right.

Torch, being the heaviest, fell out of his holding strap and landed on Six Shooter with a thud, leaving Six winded. "Why Toulon decided to make you entirely out of metal I will never know." he wheezed.

"Your guess is as good as mine. Now scoot over." Torch growled and tried to squeeze himself between Six and Jester, forcing Blade to scoot next to Tunneler who was forced to turn on his side to try and make room but it wasn't enough.

"Torch, get back on your side." Blade grunted, trying to make himself comfortable without hurting anyone.

Before Torch could reply they all heard the car door open and then their trunk being dragged out from the bottom side and then they were all suddenly upside down being dragged away from the car. Now that he thought about it, Blade didn't think the master shut the engine off. . . . They were going to be abandoned! He let out a foul curse and told the others.

Though in retrospect he probably shouldn't have because Jester then went into a panic attack and tried to get the trunk open. Their rough housing caused the rest of the holding straps to snap so now everyone was loose and making a loud ruckus to get the master's attention, but he ignored them and dragged them a little further before dropping the trunk and quickly unlocking the latches then ran back to his car and drove off as fast as he could.

"Pin, hold down Jester! Tunneler, drill a couple holes together so we can get out of here!" Blade shouted.

Pinhead grabbed hold of Jester and held him back, the rest moved back as much as they could to give Tunneler some space. Tunneler immediately started his drill and drilled into the wall above his head, all the while Jester trying to get free of Pinhead's hold. Pinhead was having a hard time holding the little puppet, Blade trying to calm him down as well. Jester was fighting so much Six grabbed hold of Jester's legs with his middle arms, and his feet with his third pair of arm, using the top pair to shield his face. Pinhead kept a firm hold of Jester's upper body, managing to cover his mouth at the same time. So now Jester's panicked shouts was muffled.

Torch was getting tired of Jester's squirming and crawled over the other puppets, much to their annoyed discomfort. Tunneler stopped his drilling for Torch to get by.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"If we're upside down the locks could be as well." Torch said and punched the trunks center opening as hard as he could. Tunneler just shrugged and went back to drilling the wall. Blade, while trying to calm Jester and help Pinhead and Six Shooter to hold him down, felt his foot slide into a crevasse and get stuck. Shifting to free his foot he accidentally opened the latch that held Decapitron's heavy casket which fell out and landed on his right ankle. He yelled out in pain. Jester finally stopped his squirming and looked at Blade.

"What happened?" Pinhead asked.

"Nothing." Blade huffed.

Jester muffled a negative sound, calling Blade out.

"Nothing happened, I'm fine." Blade said. "Are you calm?" he asked Jester.

Jester was quiet for a moment before he nodded. Pinhead cautiously let him go, ready to grab him again if he panicked.

"You don't yell out 'Ah! Fuck!' and not be in pain." Jester said, his voice trembling a little.

"I'm through!" Tunneler called out, his drill usually caused him to temporarily go deaf when he drilled through wood.

"Jester," Blade called, but Jester was already crawling over him and over to the hole Tunneler made and squeezed himself out. Once out he hurriedly went up to the front and undid the latches. Pinhead was then able to lift the lid and with it, Decapitron's casket, until the hinges to its hidden door broke and landed right back on Blade's ankle, this time snapping it out of place and fracturing his leg and he screamed out loud.

Pinhead shoved the trunk open and they all saw that night had fallen. Torch lit his fire to provide light and they all saw what caused Blade to scream. Jester gasped and headed over to the casket to try and lift it off. Pinhead assisted and they both placed the casket on its bottom so Decapitron wouldn't be harmed much further. Six Shooter stood up and helped Blade up to his feet, letting him lean on him for support.

"Now what do you we do, O wise leader?" Torch growled sarcastically.

Thunder rumbled overhead before Blade could say anything. "Now we turn the trunk over, put Decapitron back his secret hold and climb back in."

"Exactly. WE will, not you. Not with that injury." Jester said.

"Jester," Blade protested. A flash of lightning revealed a cabin not too far ahead. "We'll head to that cabin instead." he said, pointing ahead.

"What cabin?" Pinhead asked. Lightning flashed again and they all saw the cabin.

"That cabin." Blade said and Six Shooter passed him over to Jester so that he could help Pinhead, Tunneler and Torch carry Decapitron.

They moved as fast as they could before the rain started. A soft downpour got to them by the time they reached it and all crawled in any under space they could find and would reconvene afterwards.

Jester carried Blade further underground to ensure that they wouldn't get wet and possibly splinter from the water damage.

"Should be safe enough this deep." Jester said and reached out to see if there was any place to sit. When he found none he lowered Blade to the ground as gently as he could before sitting down next to him.

"How's your leg?" he asked.

"Hurts." Blade breathed, panting to catch his breath.

"Uh, if you were still human, how bad would the damage be?" Jester asked.

A harsh wind blew through, a down-draft sweeping underneath the cabin causing a loud howl before Blade replied. "Well, broken ankle, shattered bones in the foot and a possible fracture in my shin."

"Oh, so you were a doctor before."

"Yes, I was a doctor."

They sat in silence, listening to the storm outside grow stronger. Jester was trying to think of something else to say to keep the conversation going, but a quick flash of lightning illuminated a strange silhouette.

"Did you see that?" he asked. He felt Blade shift abruptly.

"See what?" Blade hissed.

"Wait here." Jester said and got up to investigate.

Another flash and the silhouette was noticeable. Jester paused in his investigation, frightened a little by the shadow. Then he heard some shuffling near him and turned in its direction. A bright flash and a deafening thunder crack a few seconds later caused him to jump in fright and he found himself dangling an inch off the ground. His shirt had caught on something and the shadow in front of him being lighted by the lightning proved to be even more frightening.

Needless to say Jester was getting pretty scared. He reached scared shit-less when the silhouette was revealed to have red glowing eyes and a loud roar.

"AAHH! HELP!" he screamed and fought to get back on the ground. The roar sounded again and he decided to forget his shirt and ripped it to free himself then ran back to Blade, bumping into him instead and knocking them both down.

He and Blade suddenly went still when they heard what sounded like stomping. It was only confirmed when lightning showed the shadow had moved a few inches from it its previous spot. But then the stomping stopped and there was silence again aside from the rain pouring down. Jester didn't want to move and Blade couldn't, so when they heard shuffling sounds again they dared not breath or move. Blade held up his knife for protection.

"Jester?!" they heard Tunneler call out. Lightning showing his position. He was standing close to the shadow. "Tunneler!" Jester shouted before the shadow lit up his eyes and roared again. The roar startled Tunneler but he wasn't scared of it.

"I found the source Pin!" he shouted and then called out for Blade and Jester.

Jester refused to leave Blade's side, at least that's what he told himself, and called out to Tunneler again. Tunneler eventually found his way over to them.

"We found a way inside the cabin. Six sent me and Pin down to find you guys." Tunneler said and helped Blade up to his feet.

"W-what about the roaring?" Jester asked.

"Just a toy." Tunneler said. A light in the distance shone onto the shadow revealing it to be a green dragon toy. Its head was rubberized but the rest of the body was a solid hard plastic. The dragon's eyes lit up and roared again, its head moving in a circle. After the second roar the eyes went off and the head remained still. The eyes lit up again and the dragon started moving forwards a few steps before it stopped completely.

Tunneler looked at Jester with a smile, not saying anything.

"I'm not going anywhere near it." Jester stated and crossed his arms.

"Well, we're gonna have to. There's an easy path that leads to the inside of the cabin." Tunneler said and started walking. "There's also a fireplace if you want to get warm." he added to coax the little puppet.

Jester remained where he stood for a moment, stomped his foot then grudgingly followed his brothers.

Behind them in the dark and above their heads were four pairs of eyes watching their every move. It followed them all the way to the entrance not making a sound, even as they entered the cabin.