Cross woke up this morning with a bad feeling. The kind of bad feeling had him shaking with anxiety, the kind that made him want to throw up. Nightmare said it was probably nothing, and to "chill out". He also said that if something were wrong Kevin's "animal instincts" would pick up on it immediately...

"I hate to tell you Nightmare, but Kevin doesn't exactly have any...animal instincts." Error said with a grimace.

Nightmare gasped loudly. "What would possess you to say such a thing?!"

"Kevin is literally eating out a ramen cup with slippers on!" Error yelled back, "What about that screams, normal chicken to you!?"

"He is very normal to me!"

As Nightmare and Error were bickering the door was suddenly broken through. This was a fairly common occurrence for the trio, having their home broken into.

Ink was standing on their door, paintbrush in hand.

Cross peeked his head out from the kitchen. There's that bad feeling.

Ink had also brought back up. Great, just freaking great.

Nightmare flew up and snatched Kevin from the couch, clutching him tight against his chest. "Let's get out of here!"

Cross flew out of the kitchen, wielding his knife.

Just as he was about to stab Ink in the gut, blue strings swiftly grabbed him. "We don't have time! We gotta go!" Error yelled. Leaving no room to argue with him, Error pulled Cross through a portal with Nightmare and Kevin in tow.

"Don't let them escape!" Ink sounded slightly frantic as he raced after the trio, forcing Error's portal to remain open.

--

Errō hummed as they tied off the last stitch of their bandanna. Now all they had to do was add in the more minor details in white thread.

Errō then frowned as they continued to stare at their newly made bandanna. They needed to wash it. They blinked down to their scarf; it was a dull, purple-ish blue instead of the bold blue it should be...They should probably clean it as well.

"Meow!"

Errō looked beside them where the strange cat was sitting. They lifted a hand and lightly scratched behind its shredded ears; the cat purred and arched into their hand. "What are you still doing here, Cat?" They asked tiredly.

The cat meowed again, lower this time as it opened its eyes. It swished its tail slowly, eyes glued to Errō's.

Lifting their hand away, Errō looked out the window. They frowned, it was nearly sunset; they didn't have time to wash anything. Errō stood up, walked into the kitchen, and scoured through the drawers. They knew that most of the time people almost always had a box of matches in their kitchen drawers. At least Blue did.

Ah-ha!

Letting out a relieved huff of air, Errō grabbed a disheveled box of matches. They looked back outside. "I should get going..." They thought to themselves. They only have an hour. Tucking the box of matches in their pocket Errō whisked out the front door.

Cat's ears pricked up. What on earth is that big oaf doing? It shouldn't be going outside alone. Growling softly, Cat jumped off the couch and bounded after the strange creature.

--

"Watch out!" Error yelled, yanking Cross away from an incoming attack from Ink.

Cross yelped as Error yanked him harshly to the right. "Don't pull my freaking arm off!"

"Oh, get over it-AHH!" Error cried out as he tripped on a tree root.

Nightmare spun back around and shot out a dark purple beam of magic at Ink and his squadron, stunning them. He pulled Error back up. "You okay?"

"Yeah."

Cross looked back over to Ink, who was frozen in place, swallowed by a menacing, but calm cage of negativity. He scowled and summoned his sword again.

He turned back to Nightmare and Error. "So are we gonna fight back or are we just gonna run like we always do?"

"It's too risky to fight back, Cross." Nightmare said, glancing nervously at Ink and the squadron, who were frozen in place. "It'd be too dangerous with everything going on with Dream."

Creeeek...

"Our only choice right now is to run." Error chimed in.

Crrraack!

"Yeah, speaking of running, we should do that!" Nightmare said with increasing panic.

Snap!

Ink panted and held his head, glowering up at the trio.

Nightmare held Kevin closer.

Error looked over to Cross with a hard stare.

Ink straightened his back, glaring dangerously. His grip on his brush tightened. "Okay, one more time. Let's get this over with!"

Error grabbed onto Cross's wrist and pulled him into a sprint after Nightmare.

"We are not leaving until we have one of them in cuffs!" Ink called out to his recovering team. "Preferably Nightmare, but I'm fine with whoever we get first!" With that Ink sprinted after the Meme Team, followed by a few members of his team who had recovered.

"Nightmare! Where are we going!?" Error asked frantically, still with an iron grip on Cross's wrist.

"As far away from these psychos as possible!" Nightmare yelled back.

Cross growled, he's had enough of this crap! They need to fight back now. Wrenching his wrist out of Error's grasp he summoned his sword.

"Cross! What are you doing!?" Nightmare yelled, skidding to a stop.

"I'm sick of running, Night! I'm fighting back, even if you won't."

Ink slid to a stop with a grin on his face. Finally.

Winding up his sword Cross lunged at Ink. Eyes narrowed and pupils small with fury and buried betrayal.

"Cross no!" Nightmare yelled, voice shaking in fear. Hugging Kevin closer to his chest as he clucked in concern, flapping his wings.

Black ink dripped from the bristles of Ink's paintbrush. And just as Cross lunged for Ink, he whisked out of the way and swung his brush at Cross.

Inky chains wrapped around Cross's feet and arms, binding them to his torso.

Nightmare's soul stopped in his chest, his eyes got wide and his breath stopped.

"Cross!" Nightmare yelled. He lunged for him but he was stopped as Error pulled him back.

"Night, we need to go! We can come back for him later!" Error opened a portal and got ready to drag Nightmare through.

Nightmare looked back to Cross, who was lying on the floor. He craned his head around to look at him and Error. He nodded and yelled back. "Go! I'll be fine!"

Ink was no longer paying the other two any mind, he would let them go. For now at least. "Let the other two go. We have what we need."

The other members of the squadron halted, looking confused, but they obeyed anyway, allowing Nightmare and Error to slip into a portal.

Ink desummoned his paintbrush. "Alright, get him in cuffs and we'll take him back to JR." He leaned mockingly over Cross. "Got that Crossy?" He leered.

Cross scowled as one of the team members cuffed him.

--

"I really hope Ink is doing this right." Dream thought as he rubbed his temples. He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, trying to focus on something else.

Letting out a heavy puff of air, Dream opened his eyes and looked back towards Errō's file. Dream turned it over and slammed his eyes shut. He wasn't doing himself any good by continuing to scour through Errō's file. He'd run himself into a brick wall trying to find something that he had missed after the past ten reads.

It was useless right now.

Ring, ring!

Dream groaned and pulled his phone out of his pocket. Looking at the caller ID, he almost sighed in relief.

Click!

"Did you do it?" Dream asked.

Ink sighed heavily from the other line. "Yes, and no. We just managed to get Cross. Nightmare and Error got away before we got the chance to arrest them as well."

Well, there goes that good feeling. At least they managed to arrest one of them. "Fine, Cross will do."

"What interrogation room do you want him in?"

"The third one, it's the most secure one we have. How far away are you?"

Ink was quiet for a moment before answering. "We're somewhere in the forest of Undertale number one. We'll be back to JR in like two minutes."

Dream clicked his tongue. "Alright, call me when Cross is in the interrogation room."

"Will do, Boss!" Ink said before hanging up.

--

"Ow..." Error rubbed his head as he landed roughly on his chest. He looked over to Nightmare who was curled over Kevin to protect him on the harsh landing. "Are you okay?"

Nightmare sat up and let Kevin go run around. He looked up to Error through the side of his eye. "Yeah, besides for the fact that we left our best friend to be arrested by my tyrant of a brother!" He yelled.

Error shuffled over to Nightmare's side, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Nightmare, Ink outnumbered us. We couldn't have done anything to help." He sighed and wrapped his arm around Nightmare. "I'm sorry dude. We can break him out, we've done it multiple times before."

Nightmare lifted his head up and looked around. He squinted. "Where...where are we?"

"Nightmare, I-" Error said softly.

"No, seriously, where are we?" Nightmare interrupted.

Error raised an eyebrow and looked up. "Looks like we're in a forest, again."

Nightmare gave Error a playful glare. "No, I mean-I recognize this place! Or, at least the energy."

"Care to elaborate, or..?" Error deadpanned.

"You remember that destructive energy I was feeling?"

Error nodded. "Yeah?"

"Well, I think this could be that person's house...And-I think we should check it out."

Error glitched. "Uh-no." He said firmly.

"What! Why?" Nightmare exclaimed, throwing his arms up in the air.

"Because it could be dangerous?! Have you not considered that?"

Nightmare blinked. He let out a loud, dramatic sigh before flopping down on the forest floor. "You're the worst!"

Kevin ran back over and looked down at Nightmare before pecking his nose.

"OW! Kevin!"

Error rolled his eyes and crossed his arms as Nightmare ran after Kevin. "You should keep it down!"

Nightmare crashed to the ground with his arms around a screaming Kevin. He rolled onto his back and flipped upwards. "Oh, yeah-I guess you're right."

"I know I'm right."

°˖✧✿ Chapter Eight Complete ✿✧˖°

☒ Snap-crackle-pop.

☒ 1732 words

☒ Thank you for reading, I'll see you soon!