Title: Firewood and Ice: A Different Take

Summary: This story is following along the same plot as PhoenixFirewing's 'Firewood and Ice' story, but with my own take. I did ask her permission if I could borrow this plot, along with another one of her stories, 'Anger Rising', and she has graciously permitted me the use.

A/N: This story is going to take place before Rick Myers arrives at the hotel, and it will have some OC's in it. Namely those of Chug's dolls and animatronics, but I will try to keep the focus on the puppets. And Torch is just a child bullied by Jester.

The star mark is from her story, which she has graciously allowed me to use as a starting point.

End of Author's Note:

Time line: 1993, Bodega Bay

*Torch was fighting a losing battle as he struggled to swim, but as he only had one hand, it was near impossible. He opened his mouth to scream for help but only air bubbles escaped.

Then there was a great splash and he felt something grabbing the back of his collar and hoist him out of the freezing water.

~Take him to the nest, quickly! And keep him warm.~

~It was the evil one! I saw it! He pushed him!~

~Alert the Major Seven. The young one would surely want someone he trusts with him.~

Torch was starting to panic. All the talk around him stated that he was being taken away.

~Tun'ler!~ he shouted in a panic. ~Tun'ler!~

Meanwhile, on the other side of the stream's bank, Six Shooter was trying to figure out how to rescue Torch while Jester was content to leave him to his fate. Jester turned to go back to the hotel where it was nice and warm, with the few sticks he could carry.

"How are we going to explain this to Blade?" Six asked, picking up some of the bigger twigs and following the little clown puppet.

"We tell him we tried to save Torch but it was too late." Jester answered calmly, feeling smug. "Blade doesn't need to know that he was taken by other monsters. Besides, it serves that child murderer right to drown." he said, quietly grumbling that last part to himself.

'How am I gonna explain this to Tunneler?' Six Shooter thought worriedly to himself.

Ever since Pinhead had told Six and Tunneler about Torch's arrival and how it came about, Tunneler took to the pyro puppet and guarded him like mother hen, and would threaten bodily harm to anyone who harmed the youngest member of the family. He so far hasn't gone through with the threat, but it was only a matter of time before he snapped.

Six himself couldn't see why Tunneler would take to the pyro puppet like that. He thought Jester and Blade were right to be angry at Torch for burning one of their own alive and burning down a children's hospital, or even harming an innocent child for no reason. But, he also knew things were slightly different with Torch, so had opted to remain neutral between Tunneler and Blade. He was not looking forward to a grumpy Blade once they got back. Their supposed leader could get rather grouchy during the cold winters.

Arriving back at the hotel with a pitiful pile of firewood, Blade demanded that they go back out and gather more.

"But Blade, it's cold outside, and it's about to snow soon." Jester whined, wrapping his arms around himself to prove his point.

"Well then, we're just gonna have to hurry, won't we?" Blade growled, poking the little twigs into place in the hearth. "And where's Torch?"

Jester spun his face into a sad frown. "He fell through the ice." he whimpered. "We tried to save him, but it was too late." he cooed and proceeded to cry. "We told him not to cross, that it was too dangerous, but he wouldn't listen!" he pretended to sobbed, easily convincing Blade.

"Well, there's one problem we don't have to deal with then." Blade replied, hugging himself as the cold was settling in. "You're lucky Tunneler ran out of juice while you were out. Now, let's get more wood before the snow falls." he said, dragging Jester with them for another trip to the cemetery. The dried bushes there could tie them over long enough until they could dismantle a dining chair for the fire.

They heard a loud crash from the kitchens followed by several footsteps running off towards the main staircase.

Blade motioned for Six Shooter and Pinhead to check out the noise, since he was currently busy.

Six and Pinhead rushed over to the kitchens to see six dolls all wearing trench coats and stetsons and were currently helping a seventh through the vent before rushing out the kitchens and over to the main lobby stairs, completely ignoring the two puppets along the way.

"Hey! Who are you guys?!" shouted Six Shooter and ran after them while Pinhead left to inform Blade of the intruders.

Six Shooter was quite impressed with how coordinated the dolls were: all seven linked their arms together and flung themselves up the stairs without breaking a single stride, which allowed the seven dolls to reach the top faster than he ever could. However, the puppets had lived in the old hotel for decades and knew every shortcut there was to get anywhere. None of the puppets knew where these dolls were going, or why they were in their hotel until it was almost too late.

Blade had spotted the seven dolls trying to open Toulon's trunk.

"Hey! Get away from there!" he shouted.

One of the seven dolls that was dressed in black but had light lavender hair and green eyes and fair "princess" complexion, drew his weapon: a long sword in which the blade was shaped exactly like Blade's own, and immediately engaged Blade in a fight. The doll was obviously skilled in sword fighting and some hand-to-hand combat because Blade was getting his butt kicked.

Six Shooter, Pinhead and Jester all arrived to see the dolls removing Tunneler from the trunk. "They're trying to take Tunneler!" Six shouted and drew all of his six-shooter guns and took aim. But one of the dolls had whipped the guns out of his hands with a whip in each hand, while another doll started dancing with him and had somehow hog-tied him up in the end.

Pinhead had picked up the fire poker when he went to get Blade, and engaged two dolls at the same time . . . and was losing. However, he was faring much better than Blade was with his opponent.

Jester, meanwhile, was standing off to the side, keeping an eye on the whole thing. Blade was in a middle of a fight with one doll, Pinhead was fighting off two, Six Shooter was tied up at the moment, and the remaining four intruding dolls were making quick work in removing Tunneler from the trunk. Once he was free, the four that were carrying Tunneler made their escape, weaving through the fights as they ran out of the room.

"They're getting away!" he shouted, pointing in the direction they ran in.

"Like I hadn't noticed!" Blade snarled back before getting kicked in the chest, so hard that he flew a good two feet away, allowing his opponent to rush out the door.

Pinhead's fighters made a surprise swipe under his feet then cartwheeled free-hand over him and also ran out the door.

Blade and Pinhead got up and chased after the dolls using every shortcut towards the kitchens. Jester untied Six Shooter and they followed their brothers. All four met the dolls at the base of the main stairs in the lobby and tried to form a wall to stop them from going any further.

"What do you want with our brother? Where are you taking him?" Blade snarled, brandishing his knife threateningly. Six Shooter made a move to grab his guns, but had forgotten that he'd left them upstairs in his hurry to stop the intruders.

The dolls stopped in their tracks for a brief moment, before splitting up to surround the puppets and fought them, while at the same time, tossing/dancing Tunneler through the fight until they were out the door where there were seven strange animals waiting for them. The animals looked to be a cross-breed between a horse and a dragon, and all seven of them were saddled. The one that currently held Tunneler mounted up first and rode off at a gallop. The remaining six dolls weaved through the puppets and mounted on their own dragon-horse and rode off, one by one. The one in black was the last one to leave, riding an intimidating black dragon-horse.

Six Shooter was frozen in shock at the sight of the dragon-horses. "That is not fair. That is SO-O not FAIR! How come they got horses?!" he shouted, and crossed all of his arms in a pout.

"Why would they take Tunneler? Who out there would know about him residing here?" Pinhead asked.

"What if they know about us?" Jester asked, not wanting to be left out of the conundrum. Pinhead had asked some pretty good questions and he wasn't going to be out-classed by that brawny puppet.

"We just fought their own living puppets, they're already gonna know about us." Blade growled back in answer, glaring in the direction of the intruders. He was rather upset that he was outmatched by another puppet. He'd always considered that he was good at handling a blade, but that puppet had easily fought him off without even trying. Not only that, but his coat was much better looking than his own. Blade had become rather vain of about his outfit.

With their secrets compromised and gathering a few necessary items, the four puppets chased after the intruders, tracking the foot prints left from the dragon-horses on foot and prayed to any deity that they would catch up to them before it got dark. Hopefully their camp wasn't too far.

.

Torch stayed as far back in the cave he was placed in front of, to keep out of range of the long-necks. Tun'ler usually read him to sleep, and some of the books they'd found was on dinosaurs, so Torch knew that these long-necks were dinosaurs - or at least toy-dinosaurs since the real animals had died a long time ago. Which meant that there was someone out there who knew how to make the formula. Tun'ler's told him about how important the formula was, and that it should always be protected, along with their master or mistress.

When he heard the sound of horses running up to the cave he tried to back deeper into the cave. The cave was tall and deep enough to hide two of the trunks with some room to spare for a small rabbit. When he saw Tun'ler being placed on the ground at the entrance to the cave, he rushed out to see if he was okay.

~Tun'ler . . . Tun'ler, wake up.~ When Tunneler didn't wake, he stood up and brandished his flamethrower arm at the dolls and lit a flame. ~What you do to him?!~

"Us? We didn't do anything." said one of the riders.

"Maybe he's a formula-borg. He did have a hole on the back of his neck." said the rider that carried Tunneler.

The black rider knelt down and removed a small vial filled with a green glowing liquid from his right shin and walked up to Tunneler.

~Stay back!~" Torch growled, and fired off a warning stream at the black-clad doll approaching them, but his flames didn't do anything.

"I was only going to give him this formula. If you and he are anything like us, you'll need this formula to wake up, am I right?" the black rider asked, having stopped in his tracks to show that he meant no harm.

~Formula? You know of our formula?~ Torch asked.

"Well, no, not your formula, but ours is based off some organic material." said another rider.

Torch became hesitant. ~You wake Tun'ler?~ he asked, shutting off his flame and lowering his arm.

"Yes, just wake him, afterwards, we can have a talk." the black rider said.

Torch looked back at Tunneler. ~Okay,~

The black rider stepped up and gently turned Tunneler onto his front, pushed his collar down a bit to get access to the neck-hole and connected his tiny vial to it. The liquid seeped down until it was completely empty. The rider stepped back and waited for the formula to kick in.

Tunneler stirred a minute later, thankful that he was on his front for once. His back stiffened whenever he "fell asleep", no thanks to those blasted researchers smashing him with a floor lamp like he was some kind of common pest. He pushed himself up off the ground and sat back on his haunches.

"Torch," he called out. Torch's familiar growl resounded a second later and he found himself in a tight hug from the metal puppet in the same second.

"Excuse me," said the black rider. Tunneler turned around to see seven dolls, all wearing trench coats, and each a different color. The black rider stepped up. "I'm DK-20, DK for short. These are my brothers: DK-20-F, Andre; DK-20-W, Shin; DK-20-I, Kori; DK-20-A, Airon; DK-20-E, Dash-E; and DK-20-P, Doku. We brought you here because the Diplodicus herd were worried about the young one that was pushed in the ice by an evil clown?" DK asked.

"Jester pushed you into the ice?" Tunneler asked Torch.

~I didn't see him, but he was the closest.~ Torch said, covering his eyes with his right arm first, then tapped his left shoulder.

"You didn't see him but he was close?" Tunneler guessed. Torch nodded.

"That was pretty good." whispered one of the riders.

"Now, if you could please answer a few details about the dolls at the old hotel, and about yourselves, we can probably help." DK said, inviting Tunneler and Torch back into the cave. "And we can tell you two about us."

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Would you like me to turn this into a multi-chapter story?

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