Welcome to Bugaria: Act 1

Despite how many days passed since they'd initially entered Snakemouth Den, Kabbu didn't give in to the ever-increasing worry concerning how big this cave seemed to be. Were they close to finding the fabled artifact, or a way out? ...Hopefully they'd find one or the other soon.

It'd been a few days since the last major incident. With no way to see the rise and fall of the sun, they've had to go by the time on Anne's phone to hopefully not collectively destroy their sleep schedule. Even so, they've mostly been able to get by just fine the past few days, the four of them working much more carefully and efficiently than before.

...Kabbu did always hate how conflict always had to occur before they'd grow closer. Nevertheless, they were getting on just fine now! ...With one exception, though.

"How much longer is this gonna take?" Vi whined behind him. "This place is HUGE!" The last word she said echoed off the cave walls, emphasizing her point.

"We have no idea." Leif replied, casually strolling alongside her.

At this, Vi stopped, an incredulous look on her face. "Why did you even respond if you weren't going to give me an actual answer?!" She yelled, now causing Leif to stop in his tracks.

Inevitably, this set in motion yet another argument between the two of them, the bee and moth bickering... yet again. This was far from the first time something like this had happened in the past few days. Anytime one of them would say something, the other would almost always barge in with some sort of snarky comment, which without fail would set off some kind of argument, no matter how mundane the subject matter was.

Kabbu let out a deep sigh, frowning and closing his eye briefly in disappointment. "I wish the two of them would get along better..." The first few times this happened, he broke it up within moments, chastising the two of them... but by the time it was an hourly occurrence, he gave up, letting the argument run its course. ...Why were the two of them so hostile toward each other?

"I agree." Anne said, trying to avoid staring at Vi and Leif for too long. "All this noise is making it impossible for me to focus." As if on cue, a moment later she wasn't looking where she was going as, and tripped on a fairly large rock, letting out a yelp of surprise as she started to fall forward to the ground, instinctively sticking her arms out.

"Anne!" Kabbu yelled, rushing over to her and catching her. At the sudden commotion, Vi and Leif stopped arguing, looking over to see what'd been going on. ...Well, that was one way to get them to calm down.

"You really should be more careful." Leif commented as Kabbu helped Anne stand back upright, the human briefly dusting herself off afterward. Vi rolled her eyes at Leif said, walking forward ahead of him.

Before long, the path they were walking along expanded into a much larger room- a wide-open area filled with many large blue mushrooms before them. The four of them stopped for a moment to take the sights in; yet another marvel that was within these caves. ...There was also a small cavern off to the right wall as well.

"You think those mushrooms are bouncy?" Vi asked out of nowhere. "Hm... I'm going to try them out!" At hearing this, Kabbu was about to chastise her, but he didn't need to, as the bee paused right before she was about to run to the mushrooms, blinking a few times as she yawned.

"Someone's tired." Leif pointed out. Oh no...

"No I'm not!" Vi challenged, taking a step toward Leif.

"Well-"

"Both of you, cut it out!" Anne yelled, stepping in between both of them, pushing them away from each other before any further conflict could occur. ...Huh, now that he took another look at her, Kabbu could definitely see small bags under Anne's eyes, and that she was very quick to react to even the slightest thing.

"...If we're all starting to get restless, perhaps we should turn in for the night?" Kabbu suggested, gauging the reactions of the others. Vi and Leif were still silently angry at each other, and Anne looked like she could fall over at any moment.

"Where would we sleep?" Leif asked. "This area is very... open, and we're bound to be in trouble if we stay too long." Good point, good point...

Anne then gasped, snapping her fingers in realization. "What about that?" She pointed at the small cavern Kabbu noticed earlier.

"Oh, yes! I was thinking that as well!" Kabbu agreed. "We're sure to be safe in there." Any of them would easily be able to tell if something tried to crawl in while they were sleeping; the entrance was fairly small.

"If it's our only choice, then we'll take it." Leif said with a nod.

Vi groaned and rolled her eyes, clearly not a fan. "Fine. If we're in this place much longer I think I'm gonna scream." ...Kabbu hoped it wouldn't come to that.

The cavern was pretty much their only option, so the four of them walked in one-by-one, Kabbu going in first. It was... small; he even needed to duck his head down to be able to go in. The rest of them filed in soon after, Anne using the flashlight on her phone to illuminate the place; it was much darker than the main cave.

"I'm already having second thoughts about this." Vi said with a huff, her arms crossed. There wasn't too much room to move around, but thankfully they wouldn't have to sleep on the cold floor. There were a few fairly sized mushrooms growing from the ground; exactly enough for all of them to sleep on.

"This is less than ideal..." Leif added, appearing to agree with Vi at first. "But we'll suck it up. We just hope some other bugs can." He gave Vi a side-eye glance, the bee too tired to respond with anything else other than a sigh before rolling her eyes.

"W-Well, it's just for tonight!" Kabbu said, hoping any other arguments wouldn't start. "I'm sure it'll be okay."

Without much else to talk about, the four of them settled down onto their mushrooms to sleep for the night. Kabbu plopped himself down on the leftmost mushroom; it was a slightly lighter blue than the rest and he liked it. Anne dropped her backpack down beside her before settling down herself, taking her shoe and socks off and kicking back on her mushroom.

The only two mushrooms left were right next to each other, to which... Vi and Leif would have to get comfy next to each other. Leif was more than happy to lay down already, while Vi grumbled, clearly not happy with this set-up. Kabbu would offer to switch, but he didn't want to incite anything that would further drive a wedge between Vi and Leif.

"You know, this is great." Anne said, stretching her arms out with a relaxing sigh. Kabbu wasn't too sure if he would call this 'great', but it was nice to have them all relaxing together for once.

"Why?" Leif asked, a little confused himself.

"Friends always become closer when they bunk together!" Anne explained. "It's like friendship 101!" Well, that certainly was true. Kabbu always felt that he had a tighter bond with a bug if he was able to spend close, personal time with them.

"Like for example, whenever Sasha and Marcy bunked at my house, Marcy would always put on this movie about..." Anne slowly stopped, frowning before putting a hand on her chin. "Huh. I don't remember what movie it was."

"I just wanna get some sleep already." Vi sighed, turning over on her mushroom so she was facing away from Leif.

"Er... yes, let's all try to get some rest now." Kabbu said, a bit tired himself. He laid down on his belly, trying to get comfortable before closing his eye, slowly drifting off to sleep...

Except that ten minutes later, he was still awake. ...Twenty minutes later, he was tired but just couldn't get to sleep. Thirty minutes later, he grumbled, opening his eye. He sat up, feeling just a little frustrated, wishing he could just sleep. "Is anyone else still awake?" Kabbu asked, trying not to be too loud.

"We are." Leif answered, still laying down. He sat up, looking at Vi next to him. "And we're pretty sure some others are too."

"Well, I'm not gonna be getting any sleep at all if you keep yelling in my face!" Vi exclaimed, sitting up all of a sudden. She glared at Leif, and the moth simply turned away from her.

"Yeah, I can't sleep either." Anne said. Maybe it was a bit difficult to sleep in such a small and cold space? Anne stole a glance at the others, also seeing that Vi or Leif wouldn't be silent for much longer. "Hm, what about an activity to pass the time?"

"What kind of activity?" Kabbu asked, intrigued. "Preferably something not too intensive, since we're all pretty tired."

"Don't worry, this is easy." Anne reassured, shaking her head. "It's called, 'Would You Rather'. For example... would you rather... have a splinter you could never get out, or run away from a wild animal once a day forever?"

"Anne, what kind of question is that?!" Kabbu asked incredulously. "Why would anyone do either of those things?" A splinter he'd have to constantly deal with would be bad enough, but going to sleep each night, dreading the morning where he'd have to run for his life each and every day was by far a much worse fate.

"No, you're ruining the point of this!" Anne clarified. "It's a hypothetical! You know, pick your poison sorta stuff?" ...It did make a lot more sense if he thought about it that way.

"We suppose having a splinter we couldn't get out would be preferable." Leif answered. "We do have an easy way to numb the pain, after all," briefly summoning his ice magic.

"You're wrong!" Vi yelled. "Splinters are gross, I'd rather get chased by a wild animal each day!"

"Only because you'd be able to fly away from them, and that's not fair." Leif pointed out. Vi glared at him, slowly bringing her face closer to his.

"SO?" Vi screamed, causing Leif to flinch.

Yet again, it devolved into a loud argument between the two of them, one that looked like it was going to last a while. Anne groaned, turning onto her side trying to ignore them. Kabbu felt bad; she obviously didn't mean for this to happen.

"...This might be a long night." Kabbu admitted with a sigh, giving up and trying once more to rest, an endeavor that would eventually prove to be futile.

After a while, the argument eventually died down, all four of them becoming quiet once again. For a few fleeting minutes, Kabbu thought that... just maybe, there'd be no more interruptions; that he could at last get the rest his body craved.

That was, until a light was suddenly turned on, visible from the corner of his eye. Kabbu turned, seeing Anne mindlessly looking at her phone to pass the time, scrolling once every few seconds; stopping occasionally to laugh at something she found funny.

"Can you turn that off, please?" Leif asked, trying to shield his eyes from the light with his wings. "The light is keeping us awake, we can't sleep."

"Oh sure, sorry." Anne said, immediately complying. She turned off her phone, setting it on the ground before trying to sleep. ...That was a bit unexpected, admittedly.

"Thank you." Leif said, before trying to make himself comfortable once more. He resumed his comfortable position, closing his eyes.

Kabbu did as well, turning back around and closing his eye... until a few minutes later, when that same light came back on again. He turned around again, seeing that now Vi was using the phone, holding up to her face, the phone at the brightest setting possible.

Leif looked up from where he was sitting, clearly frustrated. Without a word, he snatched the phone from Vi, before turning back over to his side, turning off the phone and hiding it in his wings.

"Hey, give that back!" Vi yelled, to which Anne shushed her. Frustrated, Vi grumbled, to which Leif only replied with a knowing smile.

Things calmed down again for a while, despite none of them appearing to get any sleep whatsoever. The phone light did turn on again, but Leif made sure to turn it to the lowest setting possible, not using it for any mindless browsing. Instead, he shined the light over his fluff as he dug through it, picking out any dirt and grime that he found and tossing it to the side.

"Ew!" Vi loudly complained, sticking her tongue out in repulsion. The light had gotten her up, and when she followed the source of the light, this is what she saw. "You're being disgusting!"

"Well too bad, we have to do this." Leif said, giving Vi a harsh look. "Shouldn't you be cleaning your fluff up too? This is a dirty cave."

"HEY, I'M NOT DIRTY!" Vi screamed, completely misinterpreting what Leif said. And thus, another loud argument began, this time practically devolving into a screaming match. Anne held her hands over her ears, trying to block out the noise. Kabbu scrunched his eye shut, trying to focus on sleeping and nothing else, even if the loud argument made it near-impossible.

It did eventually die down again, thankfully. They all sat in collective silence once more, the occasional yawn seeming extra loud, especially in the small space. At one point, Leif stretched out while still laying down, feeling a bit cramped. He was the tallest among them, after all. However, this caused him to inadvertently get a bit closer to Vi's spot than he intended, causing her to shiver.

"It's too cold over here." Vi complained, trying to adjust herself in her spot, despite not having much room.

"Get over it." Leif huffed, trying to get the ensuing conversation over with. "It's always cold in here."

"Well you don't have to get used to the cold, you're always cold!" Vi argued, sitting up and crossing her arms.

Leif stayed silent at this, simply getting up onto his elbows and staring at Vi. "It's too hot over here for us." Was it really? His tone reeked of sarcasm, so...

Vi rolled her eyes, trying to scoot away from Leif. Unfortunately, with Anne resting right next to her, there was hardly room for her to move. "You need to move!" Vi yelled at Leif.

"There's no room to." Leif said. "Maybe you should move so we can stop having to endure your jabbering." With this, she shoved Vi, pushing her into Anne.

"Maybe you should move so there's less of your annoying quips!" Vi snapped, pushing Leif directly into Kabbu, the beetle yelping in surprise at feeling the moth's cold body upon him.

Leif did get off of Kabbu, briefly muttering an apology to him before refocusing his efforts on Vi, pushing her again. Their pushing soon devolved into a slap fight, in which the two of them eventually started blindly slapping each other, closing their eyes while looking away from each other.

"I CAN'T SLEEP!" Anne yelled, suddenly bolting upright. Anne took several deep breaths, slight bags in her eyes as her scream echoed a bit through the small cavern. Vi and Leif froze, both startled by the declaration. Kabbu sat up as well, giving up on sleeping altogether tonight.

"Me neither..." Vi said, shooting Leif a glare. "I wonder WHY!"

"We wonder why as well." Leif replied, giving Vi a look that seemed colder than his body temperature.

Hmm... why couldn't they sleep? It was a strange conundrum that Kabbu racked his brain trying to figure it out, until... he remembered something. A similar situation he and some... others were in, many moons ago. He shuddered, thinking about it, but if it could provide a clue, then...

"Wait, everyone!" Kabbu said, butting in before any more conflict could start. Thankfully, everyone's attention was now focused on him, even if Vi did briefly give Leif a passing glare. "I think I might know why we've been unable to sleep tonight. It's probably because of our bodies, and-"

"Our bodies? What the heck is that supposed to mean?" Anne asked, an incredulous look on her face.

"Right, I suppose I should explain for you." Kabbu said, realizing that a human might have no idea about something like this. "You see, even if we can't directly see or hear it, us bugs can sort of... sense when there's a threat nearby. Our bodies keep us alert and awake in such situations, until the danger has passed." ...Now that he thought about it, that might be a reason why Vi and Leif have been at each other's throats; could they be on-edge?

"Ohhhh, I get it!" Anne said. ...Huh, that was quicker than Kabbu expected. "It's just like that mechanic in CraftWorld, where the game won't let you sleep if there's monsters outside!"

"Yes, that's exactly what I'm talking about!" Kabbu agreed. ...Even if he had no idea what "CraftWorld" was.

"But that makes no sense!" Vi yelled. "In case you forgot, we've been able to sleep just fine in this gross cave so many times before, so what would be different now?!" ...Huh, that was a good point. Despite the Zombiants, Jellyshrooms, and other monsters creeping around every corner, all of them had relatively no trouble getting some sleep each night, so what would could change tha-

Kabbu's thoughts stopped for a moment, one singular possibility crossing his mind for a brief moment, before implanting itself in his head, making more and more sense as he thought about it, even if it seemed highly unlikely. ...But still, it could be true.

"...Maybe it might be... that spider we encountered earlier?" Kabbu suggested, nervous to even bring it up. He still vividly remembered being pinned underneath the spider, helpless as it wrapped its silk around him as he could do nothing to stop it... Hopefully he wouldn't be in such a compromising situation again.

"T-T-The spider?!" Vi nearly screamed, her antennae sticking straight up in fear. Next to her, Anne froze up, the topic clearly uncomfortable for both of them.

"Kabbu, that's ridiculous." Leif shook his head. "There's no way that spider could be anywhere near here. ...But if it was, we wouldn't hesitate in showing it what for." Leif appeared a bit tense, even if he tried to shrug it off.

Despite Leif's objections, Kabbu couldn't toss the idea aside so quickly. Even if the spider couldn't follow them directly, this cave was massive. There might've been some other path that they missed in their mad dash to get away from the large arachnid, which could eventually lead back to here...

"Well..." Kabbu frowned, unsure what to say. His gut told him that this was a strong possibility, and if it wasn't the spider, what else could it be?

"This better not be some prank you're trying to pull!" Vi said, ticked off. "I've already had enough of a certain someone getting on my NERVES!" At this, Leif gave her a glare, Kabbu's heart dropping as another argument was certain to follow.

During this, Anne put a hand on her chin. A few seconds later, a mischievous, almost devious look briefly appeared on her face, disappearing as she spoke up. "I agree with you, Kabbu."

"You do?" Kabbu asked, thankful that his concerns weren't completely being brushed off.

"Yeah!" Anne said, her tone sounding just a little... off. But he brushed it aside. "With how big a cave this is, even if it's not the spider, there could be something to watch out for, soooo... two of us should go out there and keep watch!" Anne explained, holding up two of her fingers.

"Why, that's a fantastic idea!" Kabbu exclaimed, immediately onboard. Yes, two of them keeping watch would certainly ease their minds a bit... "I-"

"Aaaand it should be Vi and Leif." Anne finished, stopping Kabbu right as he was about to volunteer himself.

Leif gave Anne an odd look. "What? Why... us?" He asked, the same question on Kabbu's mind. Sure, the spider did something terrifying to him, but now he was prepared for anything it might throw his way.

"Leif, your ice magic would be very helpful in slowing down any kind of monster," Anne began explaining, before then gesturing to Vi. "And Vi's boomerang-"

"Beemerang." Vi corrected.

"Vi's beemerang can strike anything from far away!" Anne continued, trying to make sure nobody steered things off-track. "Sooooo..." Anne clapped her hands together. "The two of them together are a win-win combo!" She then smiled widely, showing her teeth.

Well, when she put it like that, it was very convincing... scarily so. Kabbu couldn't argue against her; a long-range attack would be the most effective against any surprise intruder, and that combined with the ability to freeze anything in your path created an almost frightening combination.

"Anne, you've done it again." Kabbu said. "Vi, Leif, you wouldn't mind keeping watch together, right?" ...Would they, actually? With their constant arguments, he already was starting to have doubts, but...

"Of course they wouldn't mind." Anne answered before Vi or Leif could protest. The two bugs gave each other incredulous looks, both of them clearly not onboard with this. Kabbu gave Anne a nod, about ready to leave the two of them to it.

"Oi, wait!" Vi yelled in protest. "I'm really tired! You can't expect me to keep watch over anything while I'm super sleepy!" To prove her point, she overdramatically yawned, stretching her arms out. She did nearly hit Leif in the process, not that she would've minded.

Anne sighed, immediately opening up her backpack before hurriedly fishing through it for... something. Kabbu tried to peek over to see inside of her backpack, but she quickly took notice, moving the backpack away from Kabbu's (and everyone else's) view as she continued searching through it for several more seconds, before...

"Here it is." Anne said, getting out a bottle before tossing it to Vi, the bee barely managing to catch it.

"What the heck is this?" Vi questioned, giving the bottle a strange look. It was a tall, rounded red bottle, purple in the middle. The text in the middle read 'Blam Berry Blitz', whatever that meant... likely a human thing.

"It's an energy drink." Anne explained, sounding just the slightest bit annoyed. "If you feel sleepy at all, just drink some to wake up! I know it's only half-full but there should be plenty for you!"

Vi stared at her, before finally sighing and conceding, storing away the energy drink for now. "Fine." She grumbled, standing up and walking out of the small cavern.

"Whatever." Leif said, standing up as well. He waited until after Vi left before he walked out, subtly rolling his eyes as he did so.

And thus, only Anne and Kabbu were left in the cavern. Anne sighed in relief, setting her backpack aside before laying back down on her mushroom. "And now... peace and quiet." She closed her eyes. ...Hm. Was it really the right decision to send the two of them off on their own? Kabbu tried to lay down as well, but it kept nagging at him...

(WTB-LINE-BREAK-WTB)

Vi huffed as she sat down against the cave wall, her arms crossed as she stared at the wide-open area ahead, the blue mushrooms almost taunting her. She refused to even glance at Leif, who was sitting several feet away from her.

Out of everything that could've happened, she had to get paired up with Leif to keep watch for the spider or some other monster that likely doesn't even exist. Why? Why did she have to sit with someone who kept making snide comments towards her- every moment he could? It left her frustrated, almost wanting to scream her anger out.

"This is stupid." Vi said, rolling her eyes. Just when she'd resolved her issues with Kabbu, of course drama with Leif just had to rear its ugly head. There were already signs of it before, but... would this ever stop?

"Yeah, it is stupid." Leif said, strangely agreeing with her. "How we have to sit out here with someone who can't stop whining." Of course it was too good to be true.

"Oh yeah?" Vi challenged, provoked enough to turn and face Leif, who looked at her, as if daring her to do anything else. "Well... It's stupid how I have to sit out here with... with someone who's really cold!" Great, that comeback was terrible. Vi groaned in exasperation, quickly turning around in slight embarrassment as Leif snickered at her.

But before Vi could stew in her thoughts too long, she... noticed something? There was a large object way in the corner on the other side of the room, and it was a bit hard to see from where she was, but... what was that? Confused, she stood up, trying to get a bit of a better view. It was still difficult to see, although...

"Is that another one of those roach statues?" Vi asked, getting Leif's attention. This time, thankfully, he didn't make a rude comment, instead raising his head up, looking in the direction she was. How did nobody notice this earlier?

"Really?" Leif asked. "That large thing over there?" He stood up as well, walking toward the statue. Vi immediately followed, although she kept a bit of a distance. "Hmm... it does look like another one." Leif added, increasing his pace a bit. He stopped a few feet before the statue, waiting for Vi to catch up.

It was practically identical to the statue she saw a few days ago, the same big, bulky roach being depicted as standing in a heroic pose, slightly looking upward. Was this roach an important figure or something? If so, she'd never heard of them.

"The craftmanship of this statue is... pretty good." Leif said, placing a hand on the statue. He pulled away, shaking the dust from the statue off his hand. "Compared to everything else here, at least."

"Yeah, I guess it is." Vi shrugged, not really impressed with it. "I just can't believe that this statue outlived its creators." She added. Leif turned to her, tilting his head slightly in confusion. ...What, did he not know? "I mean, you only hear about roaches in folk tales nowadays, you know?" Vi clarified.

Leif opened his mouth to say something, only to pause and close his mouth, looking away for a moment. "...Pardon?" Huh? "When exactly... did the roaches disappear?" Leif asked.

It took a moment for Vi to remember. "It was probably a bit before I was born? I think." ...She never really paid attention to all that roach jargon back when she was learning, to tell the truth. It all sounded so boring, so dumb at the time.

"...Hm. So it wasn't too long ago." Leif contemplated. For a few seconds, Vi thought that was yet another jab at her, but... it wasn't really, was it? He wasn't focused on her when he said that, he was just... thinking.

"Uh... yeah, I guess." Vi said, feeling a little awkward right now, scratching the back of her head while looking away. "Nobody really knows how it happened... not that I could tell you anything about it. It's just a mystery." She shrugged, having pretty much no insight on this whatsoever. It wasn't like she could give the answer to everything unexplained she came across.

Leif stood there for a moment, looking at her before he looked back at the statue. He then sighed, turning away and walking back to where he was sitting. "This can't be right..." He muttered to himself, just barely audible enough for Vi to hear.

Not really knowing what else to do, Vi followed him, her antennae drooping a bit. She frowned, feeling... bad for him? He sounded so confused, unsure... hm. Vi sat down next to him, unable to take her eyes off him, watching as he looked at the dirt floor, the moth contemplating a lot.

...Should she say something? A part of her felt uncomfortable sitting here with Leif, solely because of the way he'd been treating her lately, but that doesn't mean it'd be right to ignore him in his time of need. So many conflicting feelings and emotions swimming inside of her...

"Leif?" Vi asked. He dully turned his head toward her, his fluffy antennae drooping a bit just as her own had earlier. "Do you, uh..." She paused, gulping a little. Normally, she'd vehemently refuse to talk about stuff like this, but... "Feel a bit... lost here? In this place? Because of everything that's happened."

The moth didn't answer for a moment, before simply nodding. "We do." His tone came off a bit short, but Vi tried to not let it get to her.

"Well... I can relate." Vi added. That got Leif's attention. "My dream's been to become a big adventurer, to explore, get treasure and riches, and now that I'm on the way to getting that treasure..." Vi leaned back a little, unsure of herself of the words she was saying. "I... don't know what I'm gonna do when I get out of here."

Every day she spent in Snakemouth Den left her anticipating what kind of reward would be waiting for her when she finally made it to the end of this cave. The artifact? Something else entirely? Whatever it was... "There's an entire world out there, ripe full of stuff to be discovered, and the more I think about it... the bigger it gets. It just feels so... intimidating." By now Vi's words were strained, hating herself for admitting such things out loud. ...At least it was with only one other bug.

Leif sat there for a moment, taking in her words. Leif's expression was impossible to read, simply appearing... neutral. "We see." He said. Leif leaned back against the wall, softly closing his eyes before chuckling a little. What was so funny? "We guess that deep down the two of us are just... a couple of big ol' softies."

For a moment, Vi had absolutely no idea how to react. Well... he wasn't wrong. Vi couldn't help but laugh a little, realizing the irony of the situation. "Yeah. I guess we are."

It was weird. With all the demeaning and snarky comments Leif would make, it was hard to remember that Leif was... living, just like the rest of them, who were all trying their best to get through life. And now that the two of them found common ground with each other, Vi felt... at ease. For once in her life, she could finally get a chance to relax, without worrying about-

"Of course, our problems are way worse than yours." Leif said, breaking Vi's train of thought and getting her immediately frustrated again all in one fell swoop.

"You always have to make it about yourself, don't you?" Vi questioned, her eyes narrowed. "I'm Leif, and my life is WORSE THAN EVERYONE ELSE'S!" Vi screamed, changing the tone of her voice slightly to mock Leif. In a matter of mere moments, everything had been completely ruined.

Vi groaned out loud in anger, wanting to make sure Leif knew how ticked off she was. "I need a drink or something to cool me off." She wasn't tired or anything, but that drink Anne gave her earlier was starting to sound pretty good right now... at least it would distract her from her main problem.

She'd set the energy drink beside her earlier, so without too much thought, she grabbed it, wondering what it would taste like-only for Leif to suddenly reach over and snatch it from her, causing her to reel back a bit. She tried to grab the drink back, but Leif held it high up out of her reach. "What was that for?!" Vi asked in near-rage.

"We can't take your constant complaining, so we'll be having this human drink ourselves." Leif explained. What kind of reason was that? Without missing a beat, Leif screwed the cap off the red energy drink, tossing it aside before tilting his head back, beginning to down the contents of the bottle.

Vi gasped, quickly realizing that she had to do something before Leif kept the whole thing for himself. "Here's a bright idea..." Vi said, her voice low as she stood up. "Why don't you share it!" With her declaration getting his attention, Vi charged at Leif, tackling his cold body while also trying to grab the drink in all the chaos.

Through some sort of miracle, Vi managed to get a good grip on the drink at the same time that Leif pushed her off of him, ripping the drink out of his grasp. Vi had no idea how much time she had before Leif would be upon her, so she quickly drank some of the liquid for herself, wanting to try and savor some of the taste. It was powerful, almost burning... but still so worth it. She didn't want to drink the rest of it in one go, so she stopped when there was just a bit of it left, not realizing that there was a little bit dribbling down her face from how fast she was trying to drink it.

Before Vi could even hope to find the top, Leif was on his hands and knees, coughing. "That... drink might've been too much..." He said, his voice almost at a whisper before he immediately began coughing again, his eyes watering.

Vi rolled her eyes at seeing this display. "Psssh. He's weak." Only seconds later, the burning sensation returned to her, filling her entire body. Vi nearly dropped the drink when she started coughing, struggling not to fall over. The burning sensation was mostly contained in her mouth and throat, and she just needed to get it out-

In all this happening, Vi didn't realize Leif recovered and was making another move for the drink until nearly the last second, which was why she yelped and fell backward, trying desperately to hold the drink out of Leif's reach as if it was Snakemouth's treasure. With her other limbs, she tried to push Leif away, blocking him from getting any closer.

"Give us that drink, Vi!" Leif yelled, craving more of it. There wasn't much left in the bottle, which was why Vi had to make sure it wasn't wasted.

"No! You don't deserve it!" Vi snapped back, fighting as hard as she could to keep Leif away, her eyes shut.

"You're only making yourself look like a brat!" Leif argued, his hand only inches away from the bottle. That statement only riled Vi up more, fueling her in her struggles, and in a split-second decision, she raised her foot up, kicking Leif in the chest.

She hadn't realized it until after she'd done it, Leif's loud "OOMPH" causing her eyes to snap open as Leif was forced off of her. Before Leif could try anything else, Vi quickly got to her feet and backed away, breathing heavily. Leif was standing as well, staring daggers at her. The two stood there for a minute or so in some kind of stand-off, not taking their eyes off each other.

Vi gripped the drink tighter, feeling some sort of... sense of accomplishment. She did it! She won! At last, she finally got the upper hand and claimed what was rightfully hers! With a smirk on her face, she lifted the drink up a bit. "Look who has the drink now, huh?" Vi taunted, shaking the drink slightly.

"Oh yeah?" Leif challenged, his eyes narrowed slightly. "Well at least our head didn't turn into an apple!" He declared triumphantly, until a second later his expression changed to that of utter confusion. "Wait, what." He rubbed his eyes, as if trying to confirm what he was saying.

Vi paused, also completely confused. That's ridiculous, her head wasn't an... she'd reached her free hand up to the side of her head to confirm how ridiculous Leif was being, but her body went cold. She fully expected to just feel her normal, warm, fuzzy head, but instead... cold. Smooth, no fuzz to be found. And not entirely circular, almost like an...

Apple.

...What?! Vi gasped out loud at the realization, trying to make sense of whatever just happened to her. How did her head get like this without her knowing? When? Why?! She frantically looked down at herself, trying to make sure the rest of her body was normal.

...Thankfully, it was. Confusion and fear filling her entire being, she looked back up at Leif, only for that to bring her further questions. "W-Well at least I'm not some kind of weird red stardust color!"

"Excuse us?" Leif asked, not believing her. That is, until he looked at his hand, his definitely not blue hand, before doing a double-take. "W-What the-" He looked over the rest of his body in a panic, seeing just how different he was.

Leif's fur and wings were a weird rainbowy stardust red; Vi could stare at them for hours if the situation wasn't so dire. His head, limbs, and body were all the same color: a soft mix of orange and red that was pleasant to look at, and his eyes were yellow; fear and confusion written clear as day all over his eyes. "How did we get like this? What happened to us?!"

"Hey, I'm not doing any better!" Vi said, before pointing at her head. "My head is literally an apple!"

And yet, that wasn't even the end of it. A few purple bubbles somehow floated up out of the ground and up to the ceiling, getting both Vi and Leif's attention. More bubbles began rapidly appearing from the ground, Vi and Leif trying to back away from them, unintentionally bringing the two bugs closer together. Vi didn't dare touch any of these bubbles, not chancing anything at this point.

Then, just when it seemed impossible for things to get any crazier, a gigantic bubble rose up from underneath them, only for it to pop, causing the two to fall backward onto their butts. The bubble morphed into some kind of weird purple energy, filling Vi's entire vision, transforming the place before her very eyes. The remaining bubbles dissipated, and now the cave walls, ceiling, and floor colors were inverted, now a bright blue. The mushrooms were also a striking red, the tufts of grass now purple... everything was so bright.

"What's... going on..." Leif said, shaking a little. He struggled to stand up, his eyes darting around the cave, before landing on Vi. "We need to know! Please! This is all so..." Leif didn't finish his sentence, only opting to stare at his hand again.

"How am I supposed to know?!" Vi yelled, very close to freaking out herself as she flailed her arms. She'd obviously never experienced anything even close to this before, and she couldn't think of any reason that this could've- She stopped cold, the answer already becoming obvious as she nearly dropped the drink right out of her hand.

"Leif, wait, I know!" Vi said in a panic, trying to get through to the moth. She shoved the drink toward Leif's face, the moth recoiling back a little. "It's because of this stupid... berry blitz whatever drink! We aren't used to this type of stuff cause it's from Anne's world, and now we're having crazy reactions to it!"

...Huh, when she said it out loud, it made so much more sense than she thought it did initially. Even so, this new information didn't calm Leif down in the slightest, with the moth pushing the drink away from him and stepping back a bit. "If it's because of that horrid thing, then when's it going to wear off?!" Leif questioned, his voice fraught with panic and worry.

Sure, this was a bit of a crazy and mind-bending experience, but Vi didn't understand Leif's over-the-top reaction to it. She... she felt bad for him, seeing someone go through this much distress was never a good time. "L-Leif, it's alright!" Vi said, trying to walk toward Leif. "You're not alone, we're gonna get through this together!"

Leif looked down at her, trying to focus on her words, even if it seemingly proved hard to. If Vi knew why he was reacting like this, maybe she could-

She thought things couldn't get any worse for the two of them, but they just may as well have. Before Vi could say anything, some kind of mangled, warbly shout erupted from behind her, freezing her in place for a moment. Leif straightened himself up a bit to get a better look at whatever it was, and Vi temporarily stored the drink away before turning around, coming face to face with...

At this point she wasn't sure what was part of this crazed thing or not, but what she did see in front of her... she could definitely tell was real. It was some sort of large, bulky, shadowy figure, taller than her and Leif. It stood at the other end of the room, shouting more unintelligible garbage at them, probably in some other language or something.

But still, even if it wasn't making any move to attack them... "Kabbu was right!" Vi said, Leif turning his head to her. "It's because of this... thing!" Vi added, pointing at the shadowy figure. "This is why none of us were able to sleep, so thanks a lot!"

"At the very least, it isn't that dreaded spider." Leif said; something that Vi was happy to agree with. "Though even if it isn't, we have to take it down!" Leif got himself into a battle-ready position. "Are you with us, Vi?"

"Til the end! Let's hurry up and take care of that thing!" Vi yelled. She noticed some sort of light from below her, and lifted up her hand, letting out a small gasp as there was some sort of yellow and black sparkling energy forming on it. Leif looked at his hand, noticing something similar, the energy on his hand some strange mix of orange and blue. The two bugs looked at each other in determination, giving each other a nod.

Vi turned back to the shadow creature, letting the energy build on her hand for a few moments before letting out a shout, thrusting her hand forward. "This is for making me stay AWAKE so long!" As she shouted, a gigantic beam of black and yellow energy shot out from her hand toward the creature.

At the same time, Leif was building up his own beam, before letting it loose on the creature, the weird orange-blue beam rapidly accelerating toward the shadow creature. The two beams hit the creature at the same time, creating a gigantic dust cloud that made it impossible to see anything, and also nearly took Vi and Leif off their feet.

The two waited with bated breath for the dust to settle... only for the shadow creature to still be there, as if nothing happened at all. Vi immediately grew worried; if an attack like that didn't do anything, just what the heck could take this thing down?

"We've had enough of this." Leif said, conjuring up his ice magic. After waiting a few seconds, he swiped his arm forward, expecting some sort of ice block to appear, trapping the monster inside... only it never happened. The shadow creature did move to the side a bit, as if anticipating some sort of attack; an attack that never happened.

"What the-" Leif grew perplexed at this outcome and tried to freeze the creature again. The exact same thing happened. "Nothing we do is working. This... thing must have some sort of magic immunity!"

Upon hearing her suspicions be confirmed, Vi looked around the room, trying to find something else they could use; anything. It only took a few moments, but... "Leif, quick! Grab those powerups!" Vi pointed to a few jagged, pointy stones with sharp edges on the other end of the room, thankfully not too close to the monster. The stones glowed, appearing to give off some sort of energy, which could definitely serve useful in taking down the shadow creature.

Leif gave Vi a quick nod in confirmation before the two of them ran up to the stones, both of them picking up one each. Then, without any hesitation, they let out battle cries, stones raised above their heads as they charged at the creature. Said creature let out some garbled roar of surprise, turning around and running away onto the red mushrooms; indirectly indicating that it was weak to whatever power these stones held.

The two bugs didn't let up in their chase one bit, trying to close the distance between them and the monster, despite how fast it was able to leap across the mushrooms. Without warning, Vi took a chance, throwing her stone at the creature, prompting Leif to do the same a split second later. While it looked like that the stones would make a direct hit, they instead... passed right through the creature, causing it to split into two smaller creatures, both of them veering off in slightly different directions.

"Go after that one!" Vi yelled, pointing at the one on their right. It moved a bit slower than the one on the left, which meant that with enough time, they would catch up to it. The one on the left simply moved too fast for them to keep up with.

The two redoubled their efforts to catch the creature on the right, Vi only now remembering she had her beemerang, getting it out and preparing to throw it. Only seconds later, the creatures ran out of mushrooms to jump on, reaching the other end of the large room; the creature on the left collapsing in exhaustion. Good, that'll make it easy for them to deal with after the one on the right.

Speaking of which, the creature on the right skidded to a stop right before it crashed into the wall. It turned around, seeing Vi and Leif slowly advance upon it. This was their chance; finally, they'd be able to rid Snakemouth Den of the creature that deprived them of their sleep once and for all. In some sort of desperate last attempt for them to spare it, the creature got on its knees, clasping their hands together tightly.

"Wait, I'm sorry, I really am!" The creature spoke. Its voice was still warbly, but now Vi could understand it, and... wait... "I swear I promise I'll never try and force the two of you to get along again!" That voice... behind all the warbliness...

"Uh... Leif?" Vi lowered her beemerang, the cogs in her head slowly starting to turn. "Doesn't that creature sorta sound like Anne?" Despite how distorted it sounded; it was unmistakably her.

"...Yeah." Leif agreed. He turned his head to the other creature; staring at them from several feet away, its eye wide. "And we're pretty sure that other creature looks sorta like Kabbu." Vi didn't believe him at first, but when she looked at it too... yeah, she could sorta see the resemblance.

As both of them stared at the other creature, its form slowly morphed into Kabbu, the beetle having a shocked and bewildered expression on his face. Vi was dumbfounded by this, turning to look at the creature before her, only to see that it was morphing back into Anne, tears coming out of her eyes as she begged to be spared.

And just like that, the effects of the drink slowly faded away, the room slowly going back to its normal colors. Vi raised a hand to her head; it was no longer an apple, back to its normal fuzzy self. She looked at Leif, the red slowly disappearing from his body as he turned back to his normal blue. It was a lot to take in at once, Vi almost forgetting what she and everything else looked like without the effects of the drink.

Beat.

"Wait, was none of that even real?" Vi questioned, only now realizing the absurdity of the situation.

"We guess not." Leif sighed, holding his head for a moment. "We are glad we're back to our usual color, though." He looked over himself once more, just to be sure. "...Maybe it wasn't the best idea to ingest that drink."

Oh yeah, the drink. Vi took it out, looking at it in disgust. She tossed it aside, the red bottle falling before rolling a bit on the ground. As long as there was no chance of her experiencing the hallucinations induced by that drink again, she didn't care what happened to it.

"It all looked so real and terrifying!" Vi said, voicing her thoughts. She felt a bit silly now, knowing that she and Leif had only been chasing after their friends, but in the moment, how was she supposed to tell the difference? "I thought I was a goner, for sure!" And then, she realized something else.

She wasn't the only one who'd been trying to fight off the monster. She hadn't been by herself. Even after all the disagreements, and everything else that'd happened... "...And you stuck by me the whole time." Vi turned to Leif, completely ignoring Kabbu walking over to Anne to make sure she was okay.

"And you stood by our side." Leif added, a soft smile on his face.

In some kind of weird, ironic twist of fate, Vi felt like she understood Leif just a bit more now than she did before. She no longer saw him as some sort of jerk that constantly demeaned her and pushed her buttons, but rather... a friend. All because Anne forced the two of them to try and get along.

"Yeah... I did!" Vi said, a slightly smug look on her face. "I guess we do have each other's backs after all, don't we?" Before Leif could respond, she couldn't help herself from laughing, the sheer absurdity of how far the situation had escalated finally catching up with her. Leif started laughing as well, also realizing how dumb the situation had become.

While the two of them shared a genuine moment together, Kabbu helped Anne up to her feet, both of them listening to the ensuing conversation between Vi and Leif. And, after taking a deep breath and wiping the tears off her eyes, Anne only had one thing to say:

"Are. You. KIDDING ME?" Anne screamed, frightening Kabbu before she went on an entire tirade that Vi and Leif would largely ignore.

Vi paused, trying to find the right words to say to Leif. She really was never good at this kind of stuff, huh. "Hey, I..." She frowned, her antennae drooping slightly. "Sorry. About any hurtful stuff I said."

"...First Kabbu woke me up cause he was worried about you two, so we went outside to look but couldn't find you anywhere!" Anne ranted, pacing around the room. Kabbu was helpless to stop her.

"It's alright, Vi." Leif said. "We... might've gone a bit far ourselves." He scratched the back of his head, a bit hesitant.

"...Oh, but when we came back, you were doing all these weird movements and acting crazy, and when Leif nearly froze us with his ice blasts, we had to run!"

"Yeah, you did." Vi replied to Leif, a bit blunt. This type of situation was very familiar to her... Vi closed her eyes for a moment and smiled. "But you apologized, so I forgive you."

"We do too." Leif said, nodding slightly. "Now, let us finally try to get out of this place, shall we? It's becoming a bit... boring." Vi couldn't agree with this statement more; she was itching to get her hands on that artifact already.

Extremely frustrated, Anne groaned out loud. Nobody was paying attention to her at this point, not even Kabbu, who was now more focused on the conversation with the two other bugs. "As long as I live, nobody is ever going to get drugged up on one of my energy drinks again!" She proclaimed, her confidence in this claim clear.

"Anne, you ready?" Vi asked, snapping the human girl's attention back to what was currently happening. There was an open passageway ahead; the only way to move forward.

For a moment, Anne froze, blinking a few times, before shaking her head. "Whatever." She completely ignored Vi's question, adjusting her backpack before walking past the bee. "It was my fault that this whole thing this happened in the first place."

Vi raised an eyebrow at Anne's odd behavior, but shrugged it off as a lack of sleep. She followed Anne and Leif through the passageway, the original reason why she or nobody else could sleep being forgotten in the back of her mind.

...Kabbu was the last of them to follow; or he was about to be, until he realized he kicked something with his foot, the object rolling across the ground. Curious, Kabbu stopped, leaning down to pick up the object. It was Anne's energy drink; the same one she gave Vi and Leif earlier. There was only a tiny bit of the liquid left inside.

Normally, Kabbu would give the drink back to Anne, but he was super tired and thirsty after having to run a bunch, so... "It wouldn't hurt." He drank down the last of the drink, tossing the empty bottle aside. Ahh, that was refreshing-

He stopped, feeling a burning sensation rising up from within him. His eye shut as he coughed multiple times, underestimating just how powerful the drink would be, already regretting his hasty decision. That was all forgotten when he opened his eye, seeing the colors of the environment before him shift to eye-irritatingly bright colors.

But that wasn't what caught his attention. Somehow, some other beetle guy he'd never seen before was leaning against a wall, staring right at him. Was he-

"Well, today's my lucky day, finding a guy like you~" The mysterious beetle man spoke, walking toward Kabbu. The green beetle couldn't find the words to respond, too flustered at this point to say anything coherent, only managing to stammer out unintelligible gibberish.

...Several feet away from him, Anne facepalmed, watching him stare and babble at nothing.