A/N: I apologize for the very long wait; I was fixing/refining parts in chapters I didn't like. Anyway, I thank you all for your patience, and I hope you enjoy these chapters; have an amazing day/night!
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Inside the kitchen, Lily Lovebraids opened the door with her braided hair, smiling. "Here we are!" she shouted.
After the duo entered the kitchen, Lily Lovebraids closed the door with her braid while Katelynn looked around. "Where are the plates?" she asked.
Lily Lovebraids let go of Katelynn's arm before pointing at the top middle cabinet. "In that middle cabinet, the teacups and saucers will be in the left one," she said before pointing at the drawer next to the oven. "And you'll find the silverware in that drawer."
Katelynn nodded as she approached the cabinets. When Katelynn stood before the middle cabinet, she opened the cabinet doors, revealing white plates with purple linings, before grabbing them.
Katelynn squinted her eyes at the plates before nodding. "That makes seven..." she said, lowly, before setting them on the counter and approaching the left cabinet.
As Katelynn turned her head to Lily Lovebraids, she was looking inside the fridge, humming. Soon after, Lily Lovebraids stepped away from the fridge before one of her braids closed the fridge door.
When Katelynn looked in Lily Lovebraids's hands, she saw blocks of ice and stacks of hardtack crackers, which baffled her. Lily Lovebraids looked at Katelynn, confused. "Is something wrong?" she asked.
Katelynn flinched before nervously smiling at Lily Lovebraids. "E-Everything's fine," she said before looking at the ingredients in her hands. "Those, uh... ingredients look great."
Lily Lovebraids smiled. "Thank you!" she shouted before approaching the counter and placing the ingredients on it. "I got these from our Special Guest; I hope he likes this batch."
Katelynn looked away with a sweatdrop as she opened the left cabinet doors and grabbed the saucers. Who the hell wants to eat ice between bland crackers? she thought.
In the dining hall, the small group was searching around the area while Yarnaby walked around. Michelle crouched and looked under the table, but saw nothing. "Nothing down here..." she said, lowly, before standing properly.
Jack stretched his head to the light above the table and saw nothing. "Nothing inside the light either," he said before retracting it.
Matthew lifted part of the couch with his right hand and looked under it before shaking his head and setting it back down.
Kevin grabbed the suitcase and shook it, but he heard nothing, which made him growl and roughly throw it against the ground. "This is fucking stupid!" he shouted as his claws sharpened a bit, and his body started bubbling a bit. "It would be so much easier to just wreck the place..."
Matthew approached Kevin. "I know it's not ideal, but we all need to keep our tempers in check," he said. "Plus, she has Katie with her; if we do something wrong, she might do something to her."
Kevin slightly growled at Matthew before looking away, annoyed. "You don't have to remind me..." he said, lowly.
Michelle looked at Kevin with a slight frown before approaching him. When Michelle was close to Kevin, she held his hand, which made him look at her. "She'll be OK, Kev; she's smart," she said. "She'll know what to do if she's in a bad situation."
Kevin remained silent and looked down before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. After Kevin exhaled, his body stopped bubbling, and his claws retracted a bit before he opened his eyes and looked at Michelle. "Yeah... you're right..." he said, lowly.
Michelle smiled at Kevin as she stroked the back of his hand with her thumb. When Yarnaby was close to the wall behind the tables, he spotted a large picture before roaring a bit, which made the group look at him. "Did you find something?" Jack asked before approaching him.
The trio looked at one another, confused, before approaching the duo. When the trio was close to the duo, they looked at the large picture. "Parts of it look like the inside of the dollhouse," Jack said. "That's weird..."
When Michelle looked at the bottom right corner of the picture, she saw a spider-like toy with yellow skin, orange eyes, and a single strand of cyan hair, wearing a diaper, cyan gloves with white frills and matching shoes, near a seal-like tuba, which shocked her before pointing at it. "Hey, take a look at this," she said.
The trio looked at the bottom right corner. "A Baby Long Legs near... whatever the hell that thing is," Kevin said.
Matthew turned his head to the table and noticed a Baby Long Legs statue on the table. "It's one of the friends Lily is referring to," he said before looking at the picture. "And what's in the picture might be hinting at their locations."
Michelle smiled and petted Yarnaby's head. "Good boy," she said, which made him purr.
Jack looked at the picture and pointed at a doll with pale skin, orange, curly hair with a large black bow in it, and large, stitched-on teal button eyes, wearing a purple-pink shirt, a green jumper dress, and dark purple ankle boots, inside a car. "OK, if we go by that logic, that means Dusky is inside a car," he said.
Matthew pointed at a blue caterpillar-like toy with a pink face and limbs, wearing a sleeping cap with a bell at the tip, inside the shower. "And this Dolly Grub is inside the shower," he said before placing his finger against his chin. "The question is: where could these rooms be?"
Michelle turned her head to the left and spotted a large white door with a purple frame, a blue semi-circle decoration above it, and a star at the center. "I think I remember seeing Huggy go through there," she said. "Maybe that's where one of those toys are at."
Michelle looked at Yarnaby and patted his head. "You wait here, Yarnaby; we'll be back," she continued.
Yarnaby looked at the group as they approached the door before lying on the ground and falling asleep. Michelle looked at the blue doorknob before placing her hand on it and twisting it.
After Michelle opened the door, the group saw a hallway with a door on the right side and a vent across from them before they entered. As the group walked forward, Michelle glanced at the door. "Do you think there's something in there?" she asked.
Jack thought of something and looked at the trio. "I could check in there," he said before approaching the door.
When Jack was close to the door, he faced it and stepped back, which confused the trio. Soon after, Jack sprinted toward the door before diving toward the crack under it, leaving the lower half of his body sticking out.
The trio looked at Jack with sweatdrops as he struggled before getting his lower half inside. "Couldn't he have just stuck his arm under there and felt for the doorknob?" Michelle asked.
Kevin looked at Michelle. "This is Jack we're talking about; he doesn't really think his ideas through," he said.
Matthew nervously smiled at the couple. "While he may lack logic, he makes up for it with his creativity," he said before nervously laughing a bit.
The couple deadpanned at Matthew until the doorknob started turning, which made the trio look at it. Soon after, the trio saw Jack open the door and step out of the room before closing it. "Did you find anything?" Michelle asked.
Jack approached the trio. "Just a room with a whiteboard and a Lily Lovebraids cutout wearing some kind of clown outfit," he said.
Kevin crossed his arms. "So nothing of importance?" he asked.
Jack raised his right arm. "Not entirely," he said as a note came out of his right hand before holding it out to Michelle. "I found this note behind the whiteboard."
Michelle grabbed the note from Jack's hand before looking at it; as she read it, she was shocked. "It's a proposal note written two days before the Hour of Joy," she said.
The trio looked at Michelle. "Seems like Experiment 1468 is supposed to be Lily," she continued. "And the list of materials they used to create her hair is insane. They used horse hair, some bone construct, and other biological materials."
Kevin looked at the note. "Apparently, this operation was supposed to be on the twentieth, but since the Hour of Joy happened two days later, the Prototype put Ms. Gracie in it instead," he said. "Whatever was written afterward got wet."
Michelle crumpled the note and tossed it on the ground before looking at Jack. "Was there anything else in that room, Jack?" she asked.
Jack shook his head. "Nothing that looked important at least," he said, which made Michelle hum a bit.
The group heard growling, which surprised them, before they turned their heads to the large door at the end of the hallway. "What is Huggy growling at?" Michelle asked before turning her head to the trio. "Let's go."
The trio nodded before the group approached the door; when they were near it, Michelle placed her hand on the doorknob before twisting it.
After Michelle opened the door, the group saw Huggy Wuggy snarling at the wall with a large purple cabinet and two pink doors with stars on them: one of them slightly broken, a yellow star at the top left corner, and a deactivated car with Dusky in the driver's seat. "Huggy?" she asked.
Huggy Wuggy stopped snarling before turning his head to the group. "Misha," he said.
The group entered the room. "Could you tell us why you were snarling at that wall?" Matthew asked.
Huggy Wuggy glared at the wall with a slight growl. "Lily..." he said, lowly.
Jack looked at Huggy Wuggy, surprised. "How is that possible? She's supposed to be with Katie, right?" he asked.
Kevin turned his head to Jack. "This is her territory; she probably knows this area like the back of her hand," he said before looking away and crossing his arms. "Even if both of them were severed or not."
Matthew looked at Kevin with a sweatdrop. "That's a bit of a morbid thought, but he's right..." he said before looking around. "She probably knows where all the hidden areas are. In a way, it's similar to what the Doctor was doing, but in person instead of cameras..."
Huggy Wuggy nodded in agreement with a slight growl; Michelle looked at the purple cabinet before approaching it.
When Michelle was close to the cabinet, she crouched and looked through the cracked opening, revealing a battery. "There's a battery behind this cabinet," she said before standing up and placing her hand against her chin. "But where are the sockets?"
Jack turned his head to the left wall and saw a yellow star at the center and a thick white line at the bottom, which surprised him before pointing at it. "That's the same star I saw near Lily's bedroom," he said, which made the group look at him. "Maybe it's hiding something."
Kevin nodded and faced the left wall before shooting his right arm toward it. When Kevin's hand stuck to the wall, he pulled it down, revealing two battery sockets near a deactivated electric panel.
Kevin looked at the deactivated electric panel with a hum as he retracted his hand. "Even though the people in this company were assholes, they were pretty clever," he said.
Michelle looked at the yellow star in the left corner. "In that case..." she said, lowly, before aiming her left arm at it.
The blue hand shot from Michelle's wrist and grabbed the yellow star before the wall with the broken cabinet started spinning around, revealing a different large, purple cabinet and two shelves with clouds on the sides above it.
Michelle smiled at the cabinet as the blue hand retracted back to her wrist. "Nice," she said before grabbing the stars on the cabinet doors.
When Michelle opened the cabinet, she saw a slightly bent vent grille on the right side. "Time for the Pressure Hand," she said before twisting the knob, retracting the Conductive Hand inside her arm, and the Pressure Hand appeared.
Michelle aimed her right arm at the vent grille before the Pressure Hand shot from her wrist. When the Pressure Hand touched the vent grille, the pressure gauge started going up, causing the bars on it to bend.
When the pressure gauge was in the red, Michelle retracted the Pressure Hand back to her wrist, destroying the vent grille in the process.
Michelle crouched and crawled inside the cabinet before spotting the battery on the left side. "One down, one to go," she said before grabbing it with her left hand.
As Michelle got out of the cabinet and stood up, Huggy Wuggy approached the car's trunk before wrapping his arm around the handle and pulling it up, revealing a battery. "I'll take that one," Matthew said as he stretched his arm toward it and grabbed the handle.
As Matthew lifted the battery and put it in the left socket, Michelle approached the right socket before lifting the battery and putting it inside, which powered the electric panel.
Michelle looked at the car. "Now if we power this car up, it should let us get Dusky," she said before twisting the knob, retracting the Pressure Hand inside her arm, and the Conductive Hand appeared.
Michelle aimed her right arm at the electric panel before the Conductive Hand shot from her wrist and touched it, powering it up.
After the Conductive Hand retracted back to Michelle's wrist, she approached the front of the car and spotted a power socket before aiming her right arm at it.
The Conductive Hand shot from Michelle's wrist and touched the power socket, which powered the car up and rolled its windows down. "That should do it," she said as it retracted back to her wrist.
Kevin stretched his arm and grabbed Dusky before retracting it. "Now we can get the hell out of this area," he said.
The group nodded before approaching the opening; before they turned the corner, they heard a voice. "Why can't we go to a Better Place, Lily?" Lily Lovebraids asked in a lower-pitch voice, which shocked them and made them stop.
Michelle turned her head to the group and placed her finger over her mouth, which made them nod before they looked at the door. "Well, when our guest arrives..." Lily Lovebraids said before giggling a bit. "Maybe he'll be so happy, he'll invite all of us."
The group looked at one another, concerned, before they looked at the door on the right and approached it.