-Joe's POV, 1st-

I was walking through the Shopping District in search of rockets to restock my supply with, like normal, when I stumbled upon an odd of odd sight. Two robotic figurines, walking side by side, hand in hand. Both of them looked oddly familiar, but neither could I quite place my finger on. Anyways- They were just walking, seemingly with no aim, when the taller one turned to the shorter one, staring at it silently. It stared back, and said something incomprehensible, to which the taller blinked, robotic screen turning pink and red in what I figured was either anger or embarrassment. The shorter let out a small chuckle, and I knew immediately where I recognized it from.

They were different looking, sure, but these were, without a doubt in my mind, Grumbot and the Button. Sure, the Button was supposed to be dead, and Grumbot was supposedly in a little box of tranquility off the shore of the Shopping District, but neither was where they were supposed to be, and neither, quite obviously, were dead. The Button— the shorter— noticed me, and turned towards me, staring at me in fear. Grumbot immediately tried to attack me when it noticed another presence, to which I fought it off dazedly, completely and utterly confused, but not wanting to die to a robot.

"Please have mercy, I come in peace!" I shouted semi-loudly, voice cracking a little bit. Grumbot didn't stop trying to attack me, however the Button looked a little less wary— Jesus, it felt so weird to be pretty much personifying a robot— and told Grumbot to back down. It looked between me and the Button, shoving me to the ground, before retreating to the Button's side. I sighed, standing up, and brushing myself off. "What do you want?" Grumbot asked me curiously, attitude changing quite quickly. I thought about it, and shrugged. "I don't really want anything, I just stumbled across you two, and had to make sure I wasn't hallucinating or something."

Grumbot looked me up and down, shrugging, while the Button simply sighed, before speaking in a rather feminine voice. "Alright. We'll trust you on that, and be on our way. Tell anyone what you saw, though, and I'll personally make sure you don't make it away alive. Capiche?" I nodded vigorously, eager to get out of there as quickly as possible despite the many questions plaguing my brain that I had wanted to ask. The Button nodded at me, before grabbing Grumbot's hand, and walking off with them. I watched as they went, before scrambling to go pick up some rockets like I had planned, and fly back home.

As I flew home, I saw, down below, Grumbot and the Button, happily hugging each other in what seemed like farewell, which surprised me now of all times, for some reason, because I had thought them to be emotion void. I guess it figures I was wrong. I shrugged, smiling a tiny bit, and continued to fly, ending up the complete wrong direction from my base. Looking around, I noticed absolutely nothing similar, except for a small outline that looked like Bdubs' side of the half mansion, though from this far away, it was hard to tell. I figured I might just turn back to find the correct destination, but when I did, I saw nothing. Nothing, that is, except for the thick forest.

My first thought was 'maybe I can call or text the other Hermits', and, of course, I tried to do that. There was just one issue with that plan, though. My communicator wasn't in my pocket where I had left it. I searched my other pockets frantically, hoping I had just misplaced it, but after emptying them all, I found I had completely lost it. I pondered where I could have lost it to, and then it hit me: 'It must have fallen out of my pocket when Grumbot pushed me...' I thought, groaning. My next thought was 'If I head towards that structure in the distance, maybe I'll be able to navigate homewards, or at least get my bearings'. And so off I went, praying to whatever god I didn't believe in that this would all work out.

———————————————————————

(I'm so sorry that this chapter was shorter than normal, but I wanted to get it out before Christmas so that I can plot out the rest over break and update my other books. I hope you understand, and that you have a great day!

-A.T.M.)