And so they arrived.

[Strazio Rockwell]

As they walked Strazio’s phone buzzed in his pocket. He fished out the vibrating device and opened up the series of messages. Images of a colossal beast, covered in spines, teeth, and horns, flashed across the screen. Too big to even fit into a single snapshot Strazio struggled to comprehend the pure enormity of the beast. Underneath the pictures was a message from Strazio’s good friend, Sergeant Rumford. They read - Spotted by our scouts, the Tarrasque lives, requesting immediate assistance by all available Defenders. His heart sank and it wasn’t until Gamzee was prodding at his cheek that he realized he had stopped walking. He batted away the troll’s finger.

“We have to go,” Strazio said, “now.”

“What’s wrong?” Malon asked.

Strazio held up his phone for all of them to see.

“Fuck. That. Noise.” Karkat noted.

Strazio held up the crest around his neck, “yeah, well, unfortunately I’ve got obligations to uphold, come on Gamzee we’ve got a big skull to crack, it was nice to meeting you Malon, let’s keep in touch.”

Malon nodded and smiled, “it was a pleasant time, I’m sure we’ll see eachother again.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Karkat said, grabbing onto Gamzee’s arm, “you can’t seriously be thinking about going on a fucking suicide mission with him can you?”

Gamzee blinked. He looked at his mentor, then to Karkat, back to Strazio, and finally his gaze rested on Malon.

“You ain’t going?” He asked the Hylian girl.

Before she could even properly respond, the troll shoved his best buddy Karkat into her personal space.

With a goofy grin on his face Gamzee said, “Imma need to you to hold onto this for me.”

Karkat sputtered and untangled himself from the human, shouting, “don’t you dare fucking-”

His protest fell on nonexistent ears as the two primes were already mid-sprint. Gamzee waved goodbye as he ran.

“I’ll be back for you, brother! You take care of that nice lady you hear me?” The high-blood shouted as he disappeared around a corner.
Karkat sighed and looked at Malon.

“He’s going to get himself killed.”