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roseverdict · 4 years

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Bent Out Of Shape (Part 7: Hammer Back Into Place)

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5 / Part 6

This one's a little longer, for several reasons! First of all, YALL ARE ENABLERS. Secondly, IT'S HOLLY JOLLY PRESENTS DAY SO HERE'S A PRESENT FROM ME TO YOU. Thirdly, I got through the scene and when I checked the word count it was long so THAT'S WHAT WE'RE DOING! :DDD

Content Warnings: Bit more body horror of the "possessed arm" variety. Somebody gets heckin possessed and we get to witness it from the outside as they lose control of their body. Also somebody gets tired of being nice, and they just go apesh*t. Not really graphic, like at all, but. Better safe than sorry!

〜〜〜〜〜〜

Lance took a running leap, clambering through the broken window and dropping into the restaurant. Advancing on the Thing, he snarled, "That one's for messing with my family!"

Before he could go on, he looked up, realizing what he'd walked into.

The plant lady (hadn't the kids called her "Shiromori?") stared at him from her spot on the floor.

Mystery's eyes were wide, his little glasses almost slipping off his wolfish snout.

Vivi had shimmering chunks of ice around her arms and legs, and while she also gave him a flabbergasted look, it was with glowing eyes of two different colors.

…specifically, the two colors he'd grown to associate with Arthur and Lewis over the past week.

Because why not.

Lance grimaced. "…well, I can see you're all quite busy, but if you could toss me that piece of vermin down there, I'll get out of your hair right quick." He gestured to the Thing with the baseball bat in explanation, the protective ward around him shifting to keep the bat within it. "I gotta have a bit of a chat with it."

On his shoulder, Galahad chittered, his fur raising up as he glared down at the Thing.

Shiromori smirked, snatching it off the ground with her one good arm. (And when had that happened???) "Do you want it, little mortal?"

Vivi's mouth opened, and she, Arthur, and Lewis all groaned. "Oh, you gotta be kidding us."

"Come and GET IT!"

Lance couldn't believe what he was seeing.

It wasn't just the garden-variety disbelief he'd grown used to over the past week, either. Dogs that were actually ancient fox spirits? Alright. Supernatural amnesia? Sure. The whole complicated mess that the Mystery Skulls' relationships had become? He'd seen weirder!

No, this was a whole new level of impossibility.

With a bloodthirsty cackle, a laugh just to the left of sanity, Shiromori (the plant lady) shoved the stumpy end of the Thing (once upon a time, his nephew's arm) into the sparking, twitching mass of her shoulder.

The Thing writhed in her grip for a moment before stilling, the flesh of its palm crinkling around its eye (and Lance felt his breakfast trying to come back out at the sight of an eye embedded in what used to be his nephew's hand) in a false smile.

Lance found Mystery and himself taking several steps closer to LewViThur, staring in disgust at the now-panicking Shiromori. He swallowed down his oatmeal's 'encore.' "So uh…did anybody else expect this, or nah?"

LewViThur tried to answer, pressing into Mystery's flank for comfort, but the three voices layered atop one another were in disarray. A deep voice went "Eugh," a higher voice made a pained keening whine, and an even higher voice actually managed a full word: "N-no…"

"What?! How DARE you!" Shiromori shrieked, now trying to rip the Thing off. Her only reaction came in sparks both golden and green. "You are merely a spirit trapped in an incomplete vessel! YOU WILL DO AS I COMMAND!!!"

As Lance watched, the greenish tint of the Thing branched up into Shiromori's shoulder. It seemed to be following her not-quite-blood-vessels, twisting and reaching deeper before filling in entirely.

The Thing claimed part of her mouth, and a manic grin grew on their shared face. Not even trying to match a true language, it used her mouth to giggle and snarl in equal measure. "That's what they all say, all say, all say! You need NEED need to get your head on straight LET ME HELP YOU!"

This was the Thing that had taken over Arthur.

This was the Thing to blame for Lewis's death.

This was the Thing responsible for taking the joy in the kids' lives and snuffing it out.

Shiromori's left eye flared green. (Had Arthur's left eye turned green, too?)

Lance was honestly pretty glad that he didn't usually have to deal with any of this supernatural mumbo-jumbo. If he'd been anything other than fully human, and at this point he was pretty sure he'd definitely be something Else, he probably would've blown the Paradiso sky-high by now.

There was the source of their problems, right there!

And yet LewViThur could only watch in horror as the green working its way across Shiromori's body finally reached her bonsai tree. The leaves wilted away, the blooms shriveling up but staying put. All her pinks and reds were washed away, leaving behind pale silvery-grays that deadened to pitch-blacks.

Fine.

If the kids were frozen in terror, disgust, or what have you, Lance would gladly bite the bullet.

"Alright, listen up, you bodysnatching freak of nature!" Lance roared, storming forward with the bat in one hand, the other clenched in a fist. "I've just about had it with you! You kill the gentlest giant in Tempo, you make him kill my nephew, the kid who's been fighting night terrors the likes of which I can't even imagine, and now you're gonna try and tear the whole town to pieces?!"

LewViThur's voices garbled even further, shouting behind him. "MR-UNC-KING-LANCE-MEN! LOOK OUT!!!"

Lance dodged away from the thorny branch as it shot up through the tile, accidentally dislodging Galahad from his shoulder and throwing him from the glowing ward. He couldn't spare more than a glance, however, so he hoped the little guy wasn't being targeted like he was.

The Thing In Shiromori's Body cackled. "But fear guilt hatred LOATHING so good so good so good! Mortal emotions so so so SO strong! I NEED THEM!"

Shiromori's right arm spasmed, sending her shears flying out of her hand as the Thing's influence spread even further. The shears' eye sent a glare at the Thing, but they couldn't do much other than shamble out of the blast zone and into another room.

Lance didn't pay it any mind. If it was gonna come back and bite them, Mystery could take care of it or something. He was too focused on the Thing to care.

"Yes yes you have MANY emotions, taste smell scent DELICIOUSSS!!!" The Thing lunged for him with its plant arm (he couldn't call it "its stolen arm," both its arms were taken from someone else), missing by a hair.

Lance whirled around and slammed the bat down on its hand, shattering its bracelet and driving the shards into its now-flattened wrist. "You brought this on yourself, you disgusting demon!"

LewViThur snapped to awareness at that, and when they next spoke, it was with Arthur's voice. "Lewis, is this how you felt? When you thought…I was guilty?"

Lance and the Thing both glanced up at that, and while the Thing snarled, Lance's jaw went slack.

The ice coating Vivi's arms had shot up to her shoulders, and while the smoother ice on her left side was still wreathed in Lewis's flames, the ice on her right was even more jagged than before. Lightning arced from icicle-tip to icicle-tip, coursing along her arm and leg.

LewViThur's yellow eye was wide and shaking, but not in fear.

Not this time.

Lewis didn't make any outward reply, but Arthur answered whatever he'd heard, his voice struggling to stay steady, to get past their grit teeth.

"I can see…how…it was easy…to get…lost…in your…rage…then."

Lance swallowed, but shot a smirk down at the Thing. "Now you've gone and done it. The kid without any temper whatsoever, and you just had to get him angry."

The Thing didn't take too kindly to Lance's taunting, and he ducked back from its mangled fist.

This also had the side effect of getting him far enough away for LewViThur to get a clear shot.

They sprang forward, tackling the Thing to the ground and rolling out of sight. Lance leapt to his feet as if to go after them, but Mystery placed a paw in his way. "Not yet. Shiromori threw her shears aside, which means she's still around here somewhere. If we find her shears and destroy them, the form that relies on her existence will fade, and the pups will be able to extinguish the green demon."

Lance huffed and turned to follow Mystery. "Alright, but how does that even work? She was just fine when she got barbecued, how is this supposed to be different?"

"When she was 'barbecued,' she still had control over part of her being." Mystery explained, swiping away dying plants to clear the way to the kitchen. "She is currently relegated to her shears, and she cannot grow another humanoid form until the one currently active is destroyed. However, her humanoid form still relies on there being a part of her out there, alive."

Lance squared his shoulders and put some extra energy in his stomps. "So we beat the shears before the kids beat the Thing, or she can just regrow herself again, and we're back to square one?"

"That is the gist, yes." Mystery admitted.

Lance scowled, twirling the bat around so he could smack it into his free palm. "Alright then. Let's cut this tree down to size."

〜〜〜〜〜〜

Galahad was a tiny hamster.

This had always been true.

Galahad was an extremely long-lived, intelligent hamster.

This had not always been true.

Galahad tore across the floor, fleeing the battle at top speed. The others were yelling and shouting, but he couldn't spare them another glance.

Shiromori's shears clattered to the ground in front of him.

He reared back with a squeak in both his wheels and his throat. The shears blinked open an eye(?!) and glared at something over his head, ignoring him completely in favor of trying to make an escape.

Galahad spun around, piecing together what little he could.

Shiromori was the tree lady.

The tree lady was now the same color as Really-Gross-Arthur-Arm.

The shears were still the same color as before.

The tree lady was just trying to hurt Arthur and his friends.

Little Galahad wasn't quite able to wrap his mind around the idea that the shears were a part of Shiromori herself, just that they were important to her.

But that was enough.

Galahad was a tiny hamster, it was true. He'd be smooshed under the tree lady's pointy foot in an instant.

But the shears were a lot smaller than the tree lady, now, weren't they?

He shot after the shears, ready to put his chewing abilities to work.

〜〜〜〜〜〜

Both sides of LewViThur's lips pulled back in a vicious snarl, the lights in their eyes flashing in time with Vivi's heartbeat and the ghosts' anchors. "YOU! YOU DID THIS TO US!!!"

The Thing warped Shiromori's face, grin stretching from ear to ear and still growing. "Oh yes yes YEEES isn't it DELECTABLE, SPIRIT??? Can't you taste taste taste it??? The agony grief self-hatred fury rage SIMPLY SCRUMPTIOUS!!!"

Surprisingly (or perhaps not), it wasn't LewViThur's left arm that snapped out to grab the Thing by the throat.

It was their right.

They spun around, hurling it across the dining area and onto a booth table. (Lewis filed away the urge to congratulate his parents on getting sturdier tables like he'd asked them to for ages for later.)

Flames and electricity intermingled as the ice crawling across their body finally met on their torso. When LewViThur next opened their mouth, Vivi's voice had taken a backseat, and Arthur's and Lewis's reverberated loud enough to drown her out.

"YOU'RE THE ONE WHO MADE ME KILL HIM!!!"

Ignoring the angry tears welling up, they took hold of it by Shiromori's collar, using their left hand this time, and dragged it off the table and into the air. Their right hand curled into a fist, just itching to slug the Thing.

The Thing giggled, not even trying to fight. "No nononoNO, you're all wrong all wrong all wrong! Yellow yellow left the door wide open! Purple pink purple didn't have to HAVE TO listen!"

"Hey."

Vivi's voice was quiet, but the other two were silent, no longer speaking at all.

(Were those chimes in the distance?)

LewViThur scowled, wiping their eyes dry, and in Vivi's voice, they ground out…

"Shaddup."

They tossed the Thing to the floor, and in a change they'd only notice later, instead of ice conforming to the motions of fire or lightning, Lewis and Arthur's elements swirled into their hands like the biting winds of a blizzard.

(…Were the maybe-chimes even very far away?)

"You do realize we can peek at each others' memories in here, right?" Vivi's voice continued. LewViThur calmly strode up to the Thing, glaring down their nose at it. "Artie didn't leave anything open for you, you forced your way in."

LewViThur launched a blast of freezing plasma at the stunned Thing, as if it was a diskus instead of a manifestation of energy.

"And Lew?" Arthur's voice joined in again, still quiet, but growing louder with every word. "He was barely even formed when you made your move! You're the reason he even thought Artie would willingly do such a thing! You're the reason it took so long for him to remember how GREEN ARTIE WAS!"

They stuck their left hand out before them, a stream of sub-zero flames rushing forward and enveloping the Thing's stolen body as it screamed.

(The maybe-chimes were hideously out of tune.)

When they let up, LewViThur's voice was once again an even mix of all three. "You're a liar, a thief, and a murderer, and you've earned the fury of two extremely powerful ghosts and an up-and-coming mage prodigy. Do you have any last words?"

The Thing cackled, pushing itself upright with icy, burning arms. "You are NOTHING nothing NOTHING against ME! I AM ETERNAL I AM FOREVER I AM INFINITE I AM-!"

"-about to be in a world of pain."

〜〜〜〜〜〜

Galahad chased the shears across the floor, and if he'd been able, he'd have yelled curse words at it without stopping. As it was, all he could do was hiss and squeak. The shears glanced back at him every now and then, but he never gave it time to turn around and come after him.

For a brief moment, Galahad's little hamster brain forgot all about the world outside The Game Of Catch The Shears.

Then a huuuge paw slammed down onto the handles of the shears, and Galahad looked up to see Big-Mystery and Uncle-Lance giving him a little smile.

"Galaham, you little rascal, you're getting a whole bag of sunflower seeds after this!" Uncle-Lance reached through the Artie-circle and picked him up with a laugh.

Galahad nuzzled up into Uncle-Lance's cheek. He'd done good!

Big-Mystery chuckled at them for a moment before glaring back down at his prey. "Galaham kept the shears busy enough that they couldn't find a place to replant. What a smart little fellow…" He looked over at Uncle-Lance and Galahad. "Lance, would you like to do the honors?"

Uncle-Lance laughed again, but this time in a way that made the shears' eye go wide. "With pleasure."

Galahad felt Uncle-Lance's shoulders move, and he scrambled for a hold on his shirt-!

The baseball bat sparked gold and came down with a resounding clang.

And then again.

And again.

Galahad stopped trying to watch, instead focusing on keeping his grip on Uncle-Lance's shirt collar. The metallic clanging slowly shifted from a clear, bell-like ring to the crashing noises of crumpling sheet metal.

When the crashing stopped, he lifted his head just in time to see the mangled remains of the shears before they completely disappeared.

Big-Mystery nodded, satisfied. "After centuries of her malevolence…Shiromori is no more."

Before they could celebrate, they heard the Thing's mad cackling from the main dining area. "You are NOTHING nothing NOTHING against ME! I AM ETERNAL I AM FOREVER I AM INFINITE I AM-!"

Uncle-Lance hefted the bat against his hamsterless shoulder and stalked into view, Big-Mystery prowling beside him.

"-about to be in a world of pain."

〜〜〜〜〜〜

LewViThur cracked a quick grin at Lance's interruption. "Wondered where you went!"

"Just beating up a loose end before it could become a problem." Lance waved them off, stopping a safe distance from them and the Thing. "Don't let me interrupt you twice in one day. Take care of This and let's go get the Peppers."

"If you insist!" LewViThur's mouth turned up in a smirk as they looked back down at the Thing. "See you never, body-stealer."

Energy coalesced around their hands, the biting cold of a snowstorm and the all-consuming rage of a wildfire and the jagged shock of a lightning strike combining as they clapped-

If the sounds of their powers were all different kinds of 'crackling,' the sound of all three at once was a rollicking crash of thunder.

By the time they'd blinked the stars from their eyes, their attack had faded, and the Thing was well on its way to joining it. It screamed with what little it had left, though it sounded more like a high-pitched squeak.

With no other fanfare, the Thing responsible for Lewis's death, and Arthur's by extension, disintegrated into nothing, leaving behind only the knowledge it had been there.

After a brief moment, LewViThur nodded, swiping their left foot over the spot where it had been as if to brush away a food spill. "We dont want to jinx it, but…is it…?"

"It's over." Mystery smiled, shrinking back down to his smaller dog form. "There are no other malevolent beings from our past coming to exact vengeance. Perhaps there may be more dangerous situations to come, but this one, at least, is at a close."

When LewViThur next spoke, their voices were even more out of sync. "Oh, thank goodness."

Vivi plopped down right then and there, her breathing labored as Lewis and Arthur fell to either side, their forms flickering slightly.

Vivi flopped her arms up and onto the ghost's shoulders, and the three pushed themselves to their unsteady feet. She huffed and puffed, but her exhausted grin still found its way onto Arthur's face, then Lewis's. "Well, let's not keep them waiting, shall we?"

Lance was the one to get the door for them, and Vivi had a brief moment of peace to enjoy the sight of Shiromori's fake forest withering away and vanishing to the ether.

Then Lewis was tackled out from under her arm by three bawling children, and once she and Arthur recovered, Vivi laughed long and hard.

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