Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Ash was glad they didn’t have to go to school.

There were of course many things to be concerned about, mainly the fact that after they closed all the windows in the house their memories sort of blurred together into one incomprehensible mess and they suddenly woke up in someone else’s bed with three other people. There was the fact it was apparently 2010, when they last remembered it being 2023. There was the odd feeling of numbness in their hands. There were many things to be concerned about.

But it was best to look at the positive stuff. Like how they didn’t need to go to school.

They did have to go to Roblox HQ apparently, but that was more cool than anything. Roblox HQ! They wish their parents could be here but Mother was dead and Father was for now the colorful cast they’d been stuck with would lead the way. And they’d been requested by Shedletsky himself! That was amazing! An admin! Wanting to see them!

Surely this was a reason for Father to let them  skip school, a request by Shedletsky himself.

And the people around them were interesting too.

Guest couldn’t talk and they didn’t know what her arm movements meant but she’d pet dogs with them and they liked dogs. They’d always wanted a dog, unfortunately they weren’t quite sure if Father would allow it.

Pales was a dragon which was instantly really cool! Though it seemed quite mean with how it was yelling at that Terry, and there was something weird about how…detailed and fluid it was. It moved too fast. The individual scales on its face were far too apparent, something about it just seemed far too..solid.

And Spirit was kinda quiet. But they seemed nice enough, they couldn’t actually say much about what they thought of them since Spirit hadn’t spoken much but that was fine. Maybe they could learn more about them? Oh they’d need to figure out a way to talk to all of them once they all got home, maybe get their numbers? All Ash had was the home phone (their parents wouldn’t let them have their own phone until they were 13) but that was fine, they were sure every house at least had a home phone.

Enough with Ash’s musings on their current companions, the four of them entered Roblox HQ and Spirit went up to the person at the front desk. Ash couldn’t really remember what job that was so they’d just call them the front desk guy, It was the first thing that came to mind. Either way they found themself standing behind Spirit, Pales choosing to stand closer to the door while Guest chose to go forward.

“Hello and welcome to Roblox HQ, do you have an appointment?” The front desk guy asked, glancing at Spirit, Ash noticed that their brow seemed to scrunch up a bit when they looked at Spirit, as if they were trying to figure out if they recognized them.

“Yes, I don’t really know the time but d- Shedletsky wanted to see us.” Spirit’s wings twitch, one of them, the one closer to Ash, nudged them, prompting them to step away from Spirit a bit. 

“Well, I’ll need your names then to verify this.” They prompted. Ash watched as Spirit tensed like Father whenever they mentioned Mother, taking a shaky breath before answering.

“Spirit…Palesmoke, Guest 1486, and Noobash.” Ash waved when Spirit said their name, like when they had rollcall in class. They weren’t in class, but it was still fun to do.

The front desk guy looked at their computer. “…Alright, looks like you do have a meeting…all it really says for time is ‘whenever they get here idc’ so you can just head on up. Mr Shedletsky is-“

A squeaking sound made Ash turn around, and they found that Guest was being confronted by…a tiny noob?

Spirit made some sort of hissing sound, pulling something out of their pocket, a red ball! 

Spirit threw the ball, looking to be aiming at the tiny noob. Ash winced, seeing as the ball actually hit Guest in the back of the head instead. 

They, Guest, the front desk guy, Pales, and even the tiny noob all looked at Spirit.

Ash would have laughed at the avian’s expression if they didn’t feel sort of bad.

Guest picked up the ball Spirit had thrown and threw it at the noob herself instead, watching it bounce back to her and throwing it once again, knocking out the tiny noob.

“Yeah we’ve been having a nooblet problem for the past two weeks.” The front desk desk guy noted. “If your friend there can deal with some of them on the way up there it’d be appreciated.”

Spirit just nodded. Their face red in embarrassment.

Pales apparently had less self control than Ash, bursting out into quiet giggles. “Dang- heh- you’ve got worse aim than me hehehe-“ Pales managed to get out. “Hey I’m not- I’m not that bad, that’s just one battle- Guest 1486 give me my ball back.” She obliged, handing them the ball.

“ let’s just- let’s just go see Shedletsky.” Spirit muttered, marching forward. Ash, and the other two, followed behind them.

Ultimately, Spirit reluctantly ended up handing the ball over to Guest when it became increasingly clear that they couldn’t throw for the life of them while Guest had the aim of a master.

It was honestly sort of comical. The ball was the one thing they’d brought and they’d barely even used it, apparently it technically wasn’t even their ball, it belonged to someone named “JParty”?, Ash hadn't ever heard of them.

Eventually though, they did make it all the way up to Shedletsky, though the state they found him in wasn’t what Ash was expecting.

“AAAND STAY DOWN!!!!” Exclaimed a red robloxian, they looked about Ash’s own age, standing above the battered and beaten form of Shedletsky, a blue robloxian by their side. “Take that bucko!”

“Geez Red…you really knocked him flat on his back…” the blue robloxian complimented.

The two conversed while the four of them just stood there, doing nothing. What were they even supposed to do?! Shedletsky just got beat up! They looked to their left where Spirit and Pales were. Spirit just looked…conflicted, like they weren’t sure whether to step in or not, while Pales kept glancing at the door behind them like they were gonna bolt out of there.

They looked to the right where- wait where was Guest?

“-aus we’re Red and Blue! And we’ll crush you!”

Oh. She was fighting the red and blue robloxians (Red and Blue? A bit on the nose).

Ash jumped to their feet. If they could do that to Shedletsky, then there was no telling how Guest would end up! Better to help than to not.

Just as they jumped in though-

“WAA!” Blue cried, stumbling back and falling down as the ball hit her. “C-crap… this isn’t good…” 

“HOW DARE YOU HURT HER!” Red yelled, running to slash at Guest…and then immediately getting kicked away. “Ow!!! What the heck man?!”

“Red…we gotta tell the boss about this…” Blue tried whispering but Ash and presumably Guest could also hear it.

“WHAT??? No way man…”

“Hey!” Ash called out. “You're not getting away with this dastardly crime.” They ran forward, hand wrapped around the fork it’s covered in blood it’s their own it’s father’s into a fist.

“Ah! Cmon! Make a break for it!” Blue cried, running off, Red following behind. “Wwwahhhhh!”

Ash attempted to run after them, but they were stopped by someone grabbing their scarf, holding them back. “Guest? Why have you stopped me?” She tilted her head, and pointed to Shedletsky, who was surrounded by Spirit and Pales.

Ah. Right. Shedletsky. The reason they wanted to run after the other noobs in the first place.

“aughhhh…my head…aughhhh….” He groaned. “I-is…is someone there…?”

“Uh…” Pales stood there awkwardly. Honestly he looked like Ash did during their first day of school when they didn’t quite know who to play with during recess. Except instead of concerning over new friends he was concerning over what ever he was supposed to do for the injured man, presumably. Ash doesn’t know they can’t read minds. “…Yeah, we’re here.”

Shedletsky tried getting up, but utterly failed and collapsed instead, one of his head wings sticking out at an odd angle that made Ash, who didn’t even have wings, cringe. “I…don’t feel so good…I got pretty banged up…I don’t think I can get up…” he groaned.

“Yeah no you- do any of you have phones?” Spirit asked, “Look in the building they probably have one or something.” Pales’ tail wrapped around one of his legs. Spirit nodded at the dragon and slowly backed off into the building. “#### man…” Pales swore. Ash gasped, Had he really said that? Guest shot him a look but the dragon didn’t seem to care.

“D-don’t let them get away…” Shedletsky exclaimed. “They…took Builderman…” Ash gasped once more. Builderman!? The Builderman?! How could something like that happen?

“Someone’s trying to…they…” Shedletsky coughed, “they want to find…” Shedletsky’s voice went near robotic as he spoke once more, something about what he said next seeming just…slightly off to Ash’s ears, like it wasn’t quite Shedletsky saying it. “SWORD FIGHT ON THE HEIGHTS swords.” Shedletsky gasped and then immediately went into a giant fit of coughs, Pales tried placating him but unfortunately it appeared like they didn’t know what they were doing. Ash would help, but they weren’t sure what to do either, Guest walked closer, and then stopped, probably realizing she also had no clue what  to do.

“T-take this wooden sword…” Shedletsky’s hand slowly gripped onto something underneath him, weakly pulling out the aforementioned sword, Ash watched as Pales hesitantly crouched down, talons gently taking the sword from Shedletsky. “Use it to break those planks…go after them…please…his fate is in your hands…please…find him…” Shedletsky collapsed even further, eyes closed.

Ash stepped forward, a bit panicked. He wasn’t dead, was he? He couldn’t be! Ash didn’t want to see someone die today and Spirit was inside calling an ambulance presumably but-

Ash got a closer look at the large man and sighed when they realized he was still breathing. Albeit heavily. That was good…they never wanted to see someone die again…

The three of them stood there for a moment, Guest with her hand covering her chin, Pales staring at the sword gripped in its talons, and Ash looking up towards the doors in which Spirit had backed into, wondering when they would return.

Two minutes later, they finally returned.

“…had to go all the way downstairs to make a damn phone call…but an ambulance is on its way.” They informed. That was good, the ambulance could help! Just like they didn’t help her she was already dead they’d seen on TV.

“That’s uh…good…” Pales’ wings fluttered a bit behind him. “So…Builderman’s been kidnapped.”

Spirit stared at Pales. It was incredibly awkward. “I know.”

“…ok that’s uh…Shedletsky said something about SFoTH swords and he gave me this-“ Pales held the sword away from themself, “And said we had to save him but I’m not really a-“

“Alright, then let’s go save him.” Spirit interrupted.

“…Spirit.” Pales seemed nervous, Ash noticed, talons clicking against the sword, wings fluttering and tail wrapped around its leg. “I don’t know how to fight, you can’t even throw a ball, and Ash is-“ it looked at Ash “How old are you?” It asked “10.” They responded. “Yeah- their 10!” Pales continued. “How the hell do you or Shedletsky think we’re all going to save him?”

“We’ve got to be here for some reason.” Spirit noted. “I don’t know about you but it can’t be a coincidence, we wake up in a random hotel in Bizville, all from different places besides the here and now, and Shedletsky had an invite for us, what other reason than…getting the SFoTH swords and saving Builderman.” Spirit exclaimed, walking over to Pales and placing a hand on its shoulder. It backed away from them, and they removed their hand.

“I…” Ash began, “Yeah!” Ash smiled. “I think it would be in our best interest to go on this quest!” If it meant they wouldn’t have to go to school than they’d take the opportunity. “Guest is super strong and you can learn to fight and Spirit is…probably good at at least something-“ Spirit let out a little ‘hey’ at that. “And I can uh…” Ash didn’t know what they could do. “…you can take care of items?” Spirit provided. “Yeah!”

“See?” Spirit spread out their arms. “Besides, as far as I can tell none of us are from here, maybe along the way we’ll find our ways home?” They provided.

Pales tail flicked, his mouth going into a thin line before he sighed. “…I guess you…have a point there.” He muttered.

“What about you, Guest?” Ash prompted. “Are you willing to join us?” They smiled.

Guest put her hand to her chin, thought for a moment, and then gave a thumbs up, a determined smile on her face.

“Marvelous!” Ash cheered “Then let’s make haste!” Ash ran back into the building, thinking they were leading the way.

“…”

“They do realize there’s an elevator here, right?” Pales said, using its newly acquired sword to break the wooden boards off.

Spirit shrugged. “We’ll meet them back up front.”