Chapter 14: (The Void Hat)
Hat Kid begins her journey back to her ship walking out of the colosseum and to an elevator. She slides down the long chain to the elevator carriage below. "Stay with Zote for a moment, Snappy."
"Scyaaaa."
"I know there's a stag station below but I can't bear to see anyone right now. We're walking back to the ship so don't complain."
"Scyaaaa."
"You're right, I'm the one doing the walking, It's me complaining."
She reaches the bottom of the elevator shaft. "Ok, toss him down!"
Snappy drops Zote over the edge and she catches him, then takes the elevator back up higher with Snappy joining them. "AK!" She puts her hand over her open eye socket. "That is some sharp pain! What am I going to do? I somewhat regret not taking that medical class at the TTA and instead doing parkour and agility. I figured, you know, if I don't get hit then I have no need to heal serious injuries. OW! I doubt It'll kill me, it just hurts so pecking much."
They reach the top and go through a small part of the resting grounds to find a blue lake. "It's beautiful." She says sitting down by the water, seeing her warped wounded reflection in it. "What has become of me? A broken vessel of a body right now to say the least. My blood really stains; so some might not come off with a simple wash but most of it is fresh so this should more or less do the trick." She sets her hat down and picks up some water in her hands and washes most of the blood off her face. She yawns and lies down, closing her eyes... or more so just eye. "Now this brings me some much needed peace and tranquility."
She stares at Snappy. "I didn't want to kill Tiso, Snappy! Something crazy happened back there and I wasn't aware of what I was doing. Before I knew it, Tiso's leg was amputated and other warriors were coming. I swore to at least subdue him and in the worst case scenario; kill him swiftly... but I left him for dead in agony. It all just happened so fast. I feel like such a horrible person." She sits up and buries her face in her arms and legs, crying for about 30 seconds until she lifts her head and sees a bug sitting next to her. "Umm... hi?" She says wiping her face.
"Ah, hello there, strange lady. What brings you to this lake of serenity?"
"Pain... suffering."
"Your eye is not in good shape if you don't mind me commenting."
"I don't, but I'm not sure what to do about it."
"Well whenever I have a serious wound, when in doubt, put some lifeblood on it."
"Actually... that's not a bad idea." She takes out one of her lifeseeds from her hat and makes tiny cuts in it so it barely leaks. She pushes the sphere into her open eye socket. "AHG! That was one of the most unpleasant feelings ever. Although the liquid in my eye is very soothing."
The bug looks at her with interest. "I was going to suggest you just crush the liquid in the hole but I guess that works. I'm Quirrel by the way."
"Hat Kid. So what brings you to Hallownest, Quirrel?"
"I'm... not too sure if I'm being honest."
Hat Kid gets up and puts her hat back on. "Well then I hope you find what you're looking for, Quirrel." Hat Kid leaves Quirrel at the blue lake and heads upward to a short way tram while carrying Zote by a horn.
They enter the tram and Hat Kid puts Zote in one of the seats. She relaxes while listening to the tram music as they head to the forgotten crossroads. Hat Kid notices in the corner of her eye that Zote opens his eyes and closes them. She subtly watches him with suspension. As the tram doors open Zote sits up and try's dashing out while limping. Hat Kid grabs and grips his arm and he bites her hand and manages to escape her grasp. "Ow, you fool Zote! You're injured; let me help."
She chases him and tackles him. They tumble down to a small village below. "Next time I see Hornet I'm asking her for some web."
Zote takes notice of her face. "Ew, your eye is horrid, cur."
"Oh shut your mouth zote! I don't have any intention to kill you so work with me here because you're making it very hard!" After squirming with Zote for a moment, she lets go and turns around.
"Ha, you were no match for me, cur... um, cur?"
Hat Kid pays no attention to Zote and starts walking around the village holding her head. "Why is my mind so dim on sensing timepieces? Normally I can sense them from a mile away. There's one nearby but... why haven't I sensed it before in the past, I'm not at all far from where the false knight was."
Zote limps behind her. "What are you babbling about, cur?"
"Just hold on, Zote." Hat Kid starts breaking into the homes of husks until she finds a glistering timepiece in one of them. "Wow, that was easy." She picks up the timepiece and puts it in her hat.
"Alright, Zote."
They stare at each other for a moment. "What, cur?"
Hat Kid grabs him by the horn and starts dragging him back to the forgotten crossroads well. "I know you're not going to follow willingly, especially while you're injured, so just allow me to drag you and don't struggle please."
Zote starts babbling on the way while Hat Kid does her best to ignore him. Once they reach the well, Hat Kid grabs life ender out his hand. "If you want your blade then it will be at the top." She gives it to Snappy who flies up to the top with it.
"This is treason, cur." Hat Kid starts climbing the chain and Zote follows behind. Hat Kid waits at the top until Zote reaches her. She takes him by the horn again and goes around the back of town to avoid everyone. They make it below her ship and Hat Kid teleports them to the main room.
Hat Kid lets go of Zote and he chills out. "Hm, nice place, cur, I can respect those who keep their home tidy."
"Just don't screw anything up while I take a rest, keep him in line, Snappy."
Hat Kid heads to her room and takes her hat off, lying down and closing her eye to rest her head. She wakes up hours later, puts her hat back on and goes out to the main room. She sees Zote sitting with Snappy.
Hat Kid overhears Zote talking to Snappy, "I definitely think she's been losing sanity."
"Excuse me!?" Hat Kid says.
"OH! Hello, cur."
She picks him up by his horn with a bit of spite but drops him right after and inspects the injury on his head. She sighs, "I do apologize for beating your skull in, Zote."
"Serves you right."
"Don't start."
She gets some bio-glue and puts it on the crack in his shell. "Ok, that should heal your head in a few hours so until then you will stay here where it's safe."
"So be it, cur."
Just then, Roombi comes into the room with a happy aura of beeps, "Guests, how may I serve you?"
"I would like food." Zote says.
"Request received." Roombi takes off to the kitchen.
Hat Kid looks at Roombi in surprise. "What a minute... where have you been this whole time?!"
"Question does not compute." Roombi responds.
"You little peck neck."
Hat Kid gets up and goes over to her timepiece vault. She opens the vault and takes her 3 new timepieces out of her hat and stacks them on one another on the floor. She begins taking a record of inventory. "So that plus 3 is 24, I need just 1 more to be able to make it to the TTA HQ where I can get plenty of timepiece fuel." She tosses one timepiece gently into the vault and then another. As she goes to reach for the last one, the ship suddenly tilts to its left, unbalancing Hat Kid and the exposed timepiece. The vault door shuts from gravity. As she panics, Hat Kid's vision slows as she reaches for the timepiece in midair. She spots Zote at her ship's wheel. "You peck neck- ow!" She hits the wall hard, the timepiece shatters, creating a black time rift which Hat Kid rolls into and teleports away.
Zote settles the ship down and runs over to the black time rift with Snappy. "Oh, that looks very threatening."
"Scyaaaa." Snappy flaps over to Hat Kid's library and brings a book back for Zote.
"What? You want me to try and read this?" Snappy gets another book for translation.
"You think I'm going to try to translate and try to understand what that black ball of death holds inside?"
"Scyaaaa."
"Fine, let's get reading you, flappy little cur."
Roombi comes to Zote with some cookies. "Request complete."
Hat Kid awakens in an exceedingly dark room filled with oval headstones that look like their screaming. "Where am I? The timewatch is more all over the place than before. Oh... I'm talking to myself, Snappy is not here."
She looks around in the dark when something grabs her leg. "AHHHHH!!" She screams, kicking it off and the room shakes intensely as black vapor spews from the headstones. They enwrap Hat Kid and then disappear. She shutters and twitches frantically ."I'm so anxious from all this impulsive magic!" After catching her breath she continues down the only path she can with only her timewatch to light her way. She comes to a section where there is a sea of black liquid. Her timewatch light starts to finally dim so she takes her hat off and digs inside for some crystal fuel.
Black tendrils rise from the dark sea; startling Hat Kid with its figure in the dark. She screams, dropping her hat into the black sea. "Nooooo! My pride and joy!" She quickly grabs her parasol off her back and picks up her hat with the end of it. She swiftly shakes any liquid off her hat and puts it back on, running back the way she came.
She stops to collect her thoughts. The body of a black and white figure falls from above; scaring her. "This place is madness, where the peck am I!?"
She looks above her to see a small radiant light at what appears to be the top. "Light, such a beautiful sight." She starts climbing with her mantis claws and notices other little creatures doing the same with just their stubby hands. Most of them can't seem to get very far doing this and fall down to their death. All the creatures seem the same except for the shape of their head. More and more creatures fall down from above, almost hitting Hat Kid.
As she ascends to the light, she notices one of the particular creatures jump from a platform that crumples straight after. It hangs on to a metal platform for its life. "That's a far jump, sorry little guy, sacrifices must be made." Just as the little creature loses its grip and begins falling, Hat Kid jumps towards it and cloak dashes off its falling body; pushing it off in a different direction and giving her a boost to ascend enough and grab the metal platform.
She crawls up and sees one of the many creatures next to a different kind of bright pale creature with horns who's inspecting a timepiece. "How intriguing, it shines almost as bright as me." The pale creature says.
Hat Kid runs straight past him and grabs the timepiece, making her vision go white.
"Look flappy cur, it says black rifts take you back in time to a random place in your current solar system... What's a solar system?"
The black rift warps in on itself and disappears. "Um, is that good or bad, flappy cur?"
"Scyaaaa."
Hat Kid teleports in; in a flash of light, painting with fear.
"Woah woah slow down, cur!"
She slows her panting and looks at Zote. "D-do you know what I just had to go through to get back here! This is all your f-fault! You tilted the ship."
"Oi, your pet just pressured me into finding out where you went. A little gratitude would be nice, cur."
"You're the one who got me stuck in the first place, you don't deserve gratitude. Me and Snappy need to head out for a tiny bit so I'm leaving you here till your wound heals, I'm giving you one last chance Zote. I'm locking the ship down so you can't do anything."
"Well if I can't do anything then what can I do?"
"Just lie on the floor or something. Oh and in a few hours my ship's teleport system will unlock, so stand on it and hit the preset button so you teleport in Dirtmouth. Then you can go and DIE on your own terms." She takes Snappy into her hat and sets coordinates in the teleporter. "Not having you almost kill us again, Snappy."
"Scyaaaa."
Hat Kid steps onto the teleporter and with a boop, they are zapped away.
The duo materializes in Fog Canyon at the front of the teachers archives. "I am having such luck recently..." She feels the lifeseed in her eye socket. "More or less."
Hat Kid pops a few bubbles that float past her for the fun of it. They enter the overgrown building and tread the archives carefully. "A little warm in here, what do you think, Snappy?"
"Scyaaaa."
"What am I even asking you for, you eat fire."
They sit down on a bench inside while Hat Kid checks her timewatch. "Monomon should be somewhere in here and then once she's gone, there will only be one dreamer left." Hat Kid and Snappy continue walking through the archives avoiding tiny jellyfish that could zap them at any moment.
She comes onto a path with boiling acidic water. "Now how am I supposed to get across this?" Snappy starts flapping across without a problem. "Ok... what about me?"
Hat Kid checks her inventory for anything useful in the situation. "Cookies, no, mantis claws; possibly." She thrusts one into the ceiling of the rusted and partly melted metal. "That should be fine, but if I fall into acid it's nobody's fault but mine."
She starts climbing across the ceiling upside down. Putting her boots into some of the mottled surface, she's able to manage climbing across. She's almost to the end when some of the bubbling water singes the back of her head which almost makes her slip up. "Peck that stung! I'm not entirely sure how what I'm doing is possible but I don't care." She reaches the end of her climb and stands upright again.
The duo continues exploring the mysterious archives and they uncover a device with lots of jumbled writing. "Interesting language but what the peck is it saying. Let's continue already and stop getting distracted."
They enter a large room with multiple small platforms above a large pool of acid. "Of all my time exploring time and space I can say without a doubt that this area has some kind of guardian."
The room rumbles and the pool of acids bubbling increases. "Figures!" A humongous jellyfish shoots out of the acidic water and starts floating around Hat Kid and Snappy. "Now what?!"
The jellyfish starts to summon electric plasma around the room. Hat Kid jumps off it's head and slashes it a bit. "Don't think that did much."
One of its tentacles slaps Hat Kid and electrocutes her face. "Ahwt eth lelh. My face! Always in the face!"
"Nakeno Nakeno!" It's Quirrel to the rescue. I'm sure you knew that.
Quirrel slashes the jellyfish up till it floats around weakly. Hat Kid jumps in with a great slash to cut up it's orange brains. With her large swing, she makes a large cut in its inner brains with a great slash and it starts bleeding from the inside. The both of them start overkilling the giant jellyfish till its body plops into the acidic water.
"Hello, Hat Kid, what brings you to such a hazardous place."
"I think we just went through this but this time it's the opposite. Comfort... hope. I'm here to help stop the infection."
"Well I'm here to... I still don't know but something guided me here. Let's discover what there is to discover, Hat Kid."
The three of them make their way to the large tube containing Monomon's body.
Hat Kid looks towards the body of Monomon and puts on her mask. "It's not working." She says twitching. "Something about that wasn't right, it's like blocking me from entering her mind and soul."
Quirrel takes the mask on top of his head off and it disperses into a spirit white and goes to Monomon in her tube. "I realize this is why I am here, to help stop the infection by breaking the extra seal on her, do what you have to do, kid."
Hat Kid nods and sits down in front of the tube taking out her mask and putting it on as she looks towards Monomon. She falls over and her vision goes white. She awakens once again in the white clouded dream world.
Monomon puts down a book. "Oh, it's my turn?"
"Yeah, I guess it is."
"Well then I only ask for one thing."
"Ask away."
"Don't let the knowledge of the archives go to waste."
"Ok, I can try and download it since it seems to be pretty advanced."
"Thank you... strange traveler."
Hat Kid wakes up next to Snappy and Quirrel. "It's done, and now all that's left is Lurien."
"Hey, kid, why did your hat turn somewhat black since I last saw you by the lake?"
She takes her hat off and sees that it's color is gradually turning from purple to black. She drops it on the floor in a fright. "That ain't right."
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone