Chapter 1: It’s Cold

  The night was cold. Damp. Wet. It was Halloween, after all. October 31st, and the darnest thing was that a typhoon was happening right at the center of the mountain. There were rocks hurled from the peak falling down. Landslides everywhere. But, this specific town was quiet.

  Heavy, shaky breathing left his mouth, but with no visible steam. This was our favorite Superhero mascot, Happy, from the last arc. He just finished hiking up the mountain after saving the world, and now, he’s here. Sweaty. Stinky. And he smelled awful. He couldn’t smell himself, though. He knew why, he just wouldn’t tell us.

  Happy smiles, using his drones to navigate the area, finally reaching the town. The Superhero with the drones going around him was met with non-chalance by the bystanders. He sees a gas station, faded slightly by the fog. He walked closer and saw that the gas station had a strange stench of dead rats, flies everywhere on the food being sold, and literally the food there were just a couple of pizzas and a bag of cookies.

  “Hey, bossing!” smiled the man behind the counter. He wore a yellow and black cap, with a yellow and black uniform.

  “Oh. Hey. is this place supposed to be ‘Paperille’? Like, the one historically linked to that American guy who founded said town out here in the 30s back in American Colonial period, Joseph Paper?”

  “Why, yez sir we are, bossing! We are the proud Paperville!” smiled the man.

  “Great. Uh… Can you tell me if there had any been strange occurrences?”

  “You a journalist?”

  “No.”

  “Detective? Vigilante?”

  “No, no. I’m a mascot. WAS a mascot. Boss didn’t say I was good enough, and let me go..”

  The man smiles. “Oh! You are now? What’s the code?”

  “Honey, I’m home,” said Happy.

  “Ah! Perfect! Name?”

  “Canton. MacArthur Canton.”

  “You Chinese?”

  “Chinoy. Chinese ancestry.”

  “Ahhhh… Interesting!” smiled the man. “What brings you here?‘

  “Have you ever heard of MacJovial?”

  “Who?”

  “The… The second known Filipino serial killer. After Mallari in Spanish times. He… He’s somewhere here, I think.”

  The man’s eyes just look down to Happy’s mouth. He smiles, staring at his lips. “I don’t recall!” he smiled sweetly.

  He nods softly, almost just bouncing his head in disappointment. “Okay. Great… You guys have a hotel here?”

  “Yes, we do! Right beside the barangay hall!“ smiled the man, staring at his ear this time.

  He nods, and Happy goes out into the cold fog. No rain. Just cold fog enough to cause one to shiver. Happy doesn’t shiver.

  He reaches the Barangay hall, and sees that there are dead rats and birds hung from the ceiling. Happy backs away and gasps. “Jesus! Fuck, that’s gross.” He doesn’t cover his nose, since again, he can’t smell. He enters the door and meets with the Kapitan.

  Happy’s eyes widened. The Kapitan’s face osall bloated, eyes bulging and just staring into nothingness, with his cheeks bloated as well. His skin is rubbery, almost fake, and he is salivating. He was stiff, and he smelled atrocious, but Happy can’t smell.

  He smiles, wheezing and laughing like a dying teenager.

  He’s also a teenager.

  Happy sighs. “You the Kapitan?”

  “Yeah…”

  “You’re old enough to be one? Leader of the local gov around here?”

  “Yeah. Yeah.” He stared at Happy’s nose and ears.

  Happy tightens the hold over his costume. “Uh… Okay. i’m a mascot.”

  “Yeah. Yeah. Okay.“

  Happy nods. “Can you tell me about the… Ahem..,. MacJovial?”

  The Kapitan stayed silent, and his smile slowly faded away.

  Happy asks again. “Dude? Hello? Right… I’ll just… check in next door.”

  Happy leaves, and the Kapitan’s eyes just turn to him, and his eyes begin following him, even turning his head to follow him. He wheezed louder, sounding like sandpaper scraping on stones.

  He walks out back into the cold. He, again, can’t feel it’s cold. Not for a second, and he enters the lobby of the hotel, yellow, pristine, golden chandeliers above, and beautiful.

  He meets with the concierge, who has her face dripping down, half-melted.

  “Hi. How may I help you?” she asked.

  Happy is visibly unamused. “Uh… I’d like a room, please.”

  “Certainly! You are a mascot, yes?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Name?”

  “MacArthur Canton.”

  “Name. Yes. Ah. Name. Hello, Name. Yes. In.”

  “What?”

  “MacArthur Canton. Welcome. Enter room. Now. Please. Haahahahaha!!!” she smiled, face forcing itself into a smile, giving an eerie massive sneer over her face and eyes bulging out of her socket.

  He walks into the hallway, tightening the grip on his chest as he reaches his room. The long hallway had a red and black pattern, similar to the one in the Shining,. The room. “66.” He opens the door and immediately hears a sort of howling of anguish. He turns both to the left and right, giving a sigh, seeing nothing but the elevators. He realized that it was rather strange that there were two elevators in the same hallway, where the hotel was only two floors. He shrugs and enters the door.

  He opens the door and sees a nice, calm room. He falls on the bed, obviously tired, where a sound of creaking and twitching could be heard from his body, squeaking like iron, before falling asleep.

  Suddenly, he opens his eyes, and his drones are gone. He sighs, trying to summon the drones from his skin, but nothing happens. “Fuck.” He told himself. He looks around, shuffling in the room to search every drawer and wardrobe for something. No toothpaste. No toothbrush. No complimentary food or water. Just an empty room, and no drones. He knows what’s going on. He takes a chair, dismantles it, and takes the two legs, arming himself with two sticks essentially.

  He walks out and sees the Kapitan dancing at the end of the hallway, before crawling on all fours and running toward him, howling like a dying cat. He screams and screams, running toward him as Happy tosses a stick and beats him in the face.

  The Kapitan grabs him, revealing his disgustingly bloated muscles and beats him, slamming him to the wall. “Shouldn’t come. Shouldn’t have come. AAAAAAAH!!! Why. Is there. Dog. What. Fuck bottle. Computer. Mouse. Hang mouse. Mommy?”

  Happy roars and dropkicks him, as his head fell to the doorknob and his skull breaks open, bleeding all over the ground.

  A shriek could be heard, and Happy grunts, beginning to limp away as the woman walks, moving erratically as she develops stilt-like legs, crawling toward him as Happy grabs the door, shatters it out and uses it as a shield. She roars, staring at his nose. His nose. His nose which she licks and bites at but Happy punches her and stabs her in the face, brains splattering all over the wall. “AAAAAAAAAAAAH!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!! TOMMY!!! Tommy. TOMMYYYYY!!!” Happy roars and beats her, continuing to beat her over and over, before silence.

  Happy sighs. He doesn’t pant. He just walks away and doesn’t even clean the body. He checks out of the hotel and walks outside, armed with two sticks.

  Chapter 2: The Elephant

  Happy reaches the convenience store and grabs a shopkeeper by the neck.

  “Hey… hey! What are you-!?” asked the shopkeeper, rather elderly with white hair and wrinkly face, staring at his eyes.

  “WHERE THE FUCK IS MACJOVIAL!?!?”

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  “Who? I… I don’t know! I started working here a month ago!”

  Happy yells and slams him to the ground, knocking him out. He sighs and robs him, grabbing some batteries and chargers before walking out of the house. “FUCK!!!”

  Happy looks around and searches for a charging station. He reaches the local bus station, which is mostly empty.

  The guard smiles, staring at his ear. “Hi!”

  “Charging station,” said Happy, visibly frustrated. The guard checks him for weapons. He gives a thumbs up as Happy is visibly annoyed and enters the facility. It has cobwebs everywhere and stenched of death, but Happy is just annoyed, even charging something in the station: His gadgets. Phone. Flashlight. That’s it. He sighs, trying to charge these devices. “FUCK!!!” he yelled.

  Suddenly, he turns and backs away, gasping. “WHAT THE FUCK!!??”

  He sees a hunchback old lady, who smiles kindly. “Can you please give me balut?”

  Happy sighs. “I don’t have balut with me.”

  The old woman sighs and begins crying. She shakes her head, over and over, spinning it before falling to her knees and making a tantrum.

  Happy sighs and just ignores her. He tries to make a call. “Guys? Hello? Hi. Miguel. Dude. Yeah. On vacation. You sure this is the place? Because I think it’s just another one. You’re positive? FUCK!!!” Happy sighs and breaks the phone in half, before turning to the old woman, who had seemingly vanished. He looks outside and sees a shadowy leg leaving the scene. He approaches the window with his flashlight. Only to see a snake jump out of the window and bite him in the hand. He bludgeons the snake, beating its head to death. Interestingly, he just bleeds, and the poison even bleeds out. He gives out a sigh and just walks away.

  Happy angrily turns to the guard. “HEY!!! YOU!!!”

  The guard looks normal, but still continues smiling.

  “WHERE THE FUCK IS MACJOVIAL!?!?”

  The guard smiles. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, friend!”

  Happy grabs him and beats him over and over. “WHERE THE FUCK IS HE!?!?“

  “I don’t know! Who’s Mac? Sounds Jovial!”

  Happy roars and beats him. “HE MADE ME KILL MY FATHER YOU DUMB FUCK!!! WHERE IS HE!!!?” he boomed, each strike causing the guard to bleed, while he continued to smile, blood sputtering out of his mouth.

  The guard even lets a tear out while Happy beats him.

  “WHERE IS HE!?!? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!”

  Happy grabs him and beats him to the ground, hammering his head and bludgeoning his brains out, before panting, tired. “FUCK!!!” He’s panting, not because he needs to, but because it’s instinctive, like he was once… capable of doing so.

  He sighs and walks outside, going insane, as the madness in the whirs of his own body began to piss him off. He yells out, screaming at the top of his lungs before falling to his knees, tired and angry.

  Suddenly, a tall shadowy figure began to loom from the distance. The being was loud, massive, whose footsteps were heavy. The figure looked kinda like an elephant. A trumpet. He hears a trumpet. A trumpeting sound of what sounded like Heaven breaching open. It then began to wheeze and laugh.

  Happy just mumbles to himself. He turns and tries striking the creature, but the creature, a mascot elephant, grabs his hand and slams his hand and the stick back into his face. Its eyes were constantly jovial. It was smiling, but its face can move like a giant live action cartoon character, but he was constantly smiling with pupils dilated. Its eyes looked… real…

  Happy holds his fists up, kicking and punching the elephant, but the elephant salivates and grabs him tossing him into the car.

  The convenience store shopist, in horror, shoots at the elephant over and over, but the elephant grabs him and beats him, before biting his head off. His eyes, still aware, were still looking about as the elephant crushed his head, eyes popping out of his skull before letting out a horrified gargle.

  Happy backs away and grabs the shotgun, shooting at the elephant who approached him, but the bullets were merely absorbed into its leathery, human-like skin. The elephant grabs him, picks him up, and slams his body into the car, denting it.

  He grabs the car door and beats the elephant’s face with it, managing to shred its face and revealing an animatronic endoskeleton underneath, before bludgeoning it as its gray matter and brains leak out. He beats it, over and over before the elephant falls to the ground, laughing, and dead.

  Chapter 3: The Clown

  A younger Mac cries, hugging the dead body of his father and brother.

  “Very good…” said the masked man. “Now… chop them up…”

  “Why… Why did I do this!?”

  “I said… chop them up…” he said.

  “NO!!! AAAAAAH!!! AAAAA-!!!”

  He honked his horn, as immediately, Mac did everything he asked. He chopped them up.

  Now…

  Happy sighs, angered, and having brutalized the elephant. He whirred once more, angry as he sighed in annoyance.

  Happy stood up only to fall into a dark pit. He opened his eyes. Though it was pitch-black, he could see, and saw that there was a tunnel before him. He hears screaming, horrific screaming that no one deserves to hear. The screaming. He followed it. The damp cave and the horrific screaming. He didn’t smell. He can’t, but he wishes he could. He walks, and continues walking, only to hear…

  That same darned honking noise. And that disgusting laugh.

  He ran forward and Happy saw…

  MacJovial stood above a grinder right beyond a higher level in the cave. A man with a clown mask and a honky horn with that ball you squeeze. Every time he honked, one of his cult members would force stuff a dead child into a grinder, of which a special device, a Soulamabob, would absorb the Soul, and an Organajig, would build a mascot suit out of the ground organs, where finally, they would make a Mascot, a species of eldritch creature powered by the Human Soul. He smiled, as his cultists prayed to some sort of jellyfish mural and painted themselves with the blood of children, dancing around the fire and swaying their bodies around.

  Happy Hornet reveals himself to the men and women.

  They all scream and begin staring at Happy, who sees his drone-cog in MacJovial’s hands.

  MacJovial gives a loud cackle. “Aw, Happy! Finally joined the food industry?”

  “Go FUCK YOURSELF, UNCLE MAC!!!”

  MacJovial removes his mask. He sneers and reveals a normal-looking man.

  “Ah, come on, kiddo! WHEN I HEARD you came here, I just couldn’t believe it! HAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA!!!“ he shrilled. “Everyone in this town except the children are like… My bitches!”

  “I FUCKING KNOW!!!”

  “Cept for that one guy… Fred I think. That guy had a shotgun!”

  “I FUCKING KNOW!!!” boomed Happy.

  “So. Come here to finish the job, eh?“

  “I came here to kill you for KILLING MY DAD AND BROTHER!!!”

  “I’m the Head and CEO of fucking Happy Hornet’s Food Enterprise! Why the FUCK will I DIE, HEH!?!!? HAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!”

  Happy Hornet sighs and takes out the shotgun. He began shooting at the men and women charging at him, screaming and shrieking like apes.

  Happy kept on shooting at them.

  “ALL HAIL PRAED SHIVUS!!! WHOM WE HAVE WILLINGLY GIVEN OUR LIVES TO!!!” yelled the men and women all having their bodies grotesquely transforme into eldritch unspeakable horrors. “Oh, how we have our ways with her!” they smiled. “The great jellyfish in the sky will scorch the Earth… Let us feed it as many children as possible!!!“ They smiled in unison as Happy roars, running out of shotgun shells, He grabs his sticks and beats them all down, bludgeoning them.

  Happy, however, is outmatched, and brought to his uncle, dropped before him.

  “I studied alchemy, Happy. For years, now. You, really fucking thought you could kill your uncle? Your Dad got suspicious of me. I had to take care of him. You should fucking know that.”

  Happy just stared at him without remorse, being held down by his men.

  MacJovial smiles and began stabbing him. He slowly slits his throat, as blood gushes out. MacJovial smiles and begins stabbing him over and over, but sees that Happy isn’t struggling at all. MacJovial angrily beats him

  MacJovial turns to one of his goons. “Hey. C’mere. Wanna see if it still works.”

  The goon approaches him and he stabs his penis off, as he screams in horror.

  “Yep! Still works!”

  “I’m enhanced…” growled Happy.

  “Oh wow. Splooge, huh? You’re an Infected? FUNNY!!!” MacJovial keeps on stabbing him, even peeling his face off with the knife, only for MacJovial’s smile to go away.

  Inside Happy’s face is a cybernetic animatronic endoskeleton, whirring.

  “Jesus Christ… What the hell did you do to yourself?” asked MacJovial. “Eh! You win some, you lose some!”

  “Life?” asked Happy.

  “Mhm!” MacJovial tries stabbing his head, but the knife breaks. “Huh… Reinforced graphene. Amazing.“

  MacJovial smiles. “What’s this for, then? I thought it was some sort of phone…”

  Happy smiles. “It’s a Drone Cog. Insert it in your chest and you gain the power to summon my drones.”

  “You fucking dumbass. Welp!” He inserts the cog in his chest and the drones emerge from his skin. “Any last words?”

  “Yeah. You win some, you lose some,” smirked Happy, as the drones began drilling out of MacJovial’s skin, causing his goons to scream in pain as well. “Of course, the drones will do that, and not only that, they’ll remain loyal to me. They just consider your Soul as a battery for them to work…” He grabs the cog, pulling it out. For a moment, MacJovial gives a sigh of relief, but Happy installs it back in his chest, as the screams continue.

  Happy then pushes his uncle into the grinder, causing all of the goons to be turned into essentially ground meat, starting with the melting of their heads, then down to their bodies, in a disgusting horrific fashion kinda like melting ice cream. They jolted and moved erratically, trying to grab Happy’s legs but Happy, whose face was half robotic, just gives a smile with his flesh face, while the screams of anguish and wheezing and howling continued in the cave’s walls. “Music to my ears…” he smiled, before dancing around in the cave’s heights..

  Chapter 4: Music to My Ears

  Happy smiles, walking out of the cave, backpack ready. He sees that it’s raining in the town again, as if the bubble it was once in was gone. He smiles, sighing briefly before walking out into the fog.

  “MACARTHUUUUR!!!” roared a whirring voice. MacJovial, now a clown animatronic, charges and knocks him into a pine tree. He roars, strangling Happy.

  MacJovial roars and whirrs psychotically, beating Happy to the ground, strangling him.

  Happy, choking, grabs his stick and beats the bloody clown to death. The clown’s eyes were real. His skin felt like flesh. His human teeth were revealing but clacked upon each shut of the jaw. He wheezed from his human-like throat and honked repeatedly.

  “Look what you turned me into…” said MacJovial, with blood painting a smile over his face, sporting black eyes and white pupils.

  “You’re so fucking beautiful… Just watching your flesh skin show that fear in your heart… AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!” MacJovial headbutts him as he summons his drones and begins tackling MacJovial, who shrugs the drones off and headbutts Happy again, and again, and again.

  He grabs Happy and crushes his crotch, then tears half of his body away.

  Happy crawls away, with his spine wriggling like a worm spurting out what was once spinal fluid, now a black oil of sorts, but MacJovial just grabs him and beats him over and over. MacJovial tears his jaw off, now it hangs from his face from a thread of muscle.

  “What was that you said? Music to my ears…” said MacJovial, smiling, strangling Happy.

  Happy roars, remembering the fog in the distance and the rain. He can’t smell. He can’t taste. He can’t eat, but his resolve is immense, enough to have the obsession to destroy anything in his path. He can, however, hear and see. He grabs the flashlight from his pocket and shines a light into Mac’s eye. He then shoves the flashlight into his eye as he screams and topples backward. He types into his phone, texting someone, only for it to be swatted away. MacJovial prepares the finishing blow, but then, someone teleports into the scene.

  And a giant tree is hammered into his head, and his head was crushed by the tree.

  Miguel smiles. “That robot thing wasn’t sentient, right?” asked Miguel.

  Happy sighs in relief.

  “Dude. Answer the question.”

  “No?”

  “Fuck… Was it at least a zombie?”

  “Definitely.”

  “Oh. We’re cool, then.” Miguel offers a hand. “C’mon. We’re playing GTA 6 Multiplayer.”

  End.

  Suddenly, MacJovial’s body, is being pulled away by Eradicator…