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pi-cat000 · 1 year

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MSA time travel idea (part 44)

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Vivi POV, 8, 9, 10, Lewis POV, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, Lance POV 18, 19, Lewis POV 2, 21 , 22, Vivi POV 2, 24, 25 Lewis POV 3, Mystery POV , Vivi POV 3, 29, Lewis POV 4, 31, ViVi POV 4 , 33, 34, Lewis POV 5, Mystery POV 2, Lewis POV 6, Vivi POV 5, Lewis POV 7 Vivi POV 6 Vivi POV 7 42 43

Part 45 here?

...

When Arthur blinks back awake his head is heavy like it has been filled with cotton and there is a persistent throbbing soreness to his shoulder. Out of habit, he checks his arm. It is still his arm and still attached to his shoulder. The dull pain is from a shotgun wound and not a recent amputation. After several years of arm-related pains and aches, it is a familiar enough sensation. Easily ignored. Best to just go back to sleep and let the world fade away. Everything is better when he is not awake to feel the press of guilt weighing on his throughs. Fittingly, it is this same guilt that drags him into a more coherent state.

He can’t drift back to sleep yet.

What right does he have to sleep when his Uncle and Lewis might never wake up? For all he knew his last conversation with Vivi had been a hallucination conjured by his exhausted brain and his Uncle was dead and Lewis possessed.

He shifts his attention to the room, immediately spying Vivi sitting at his bedside. The room is quiet enough that he can hear her finger tapping aggressively across her phone. She is hunched under Lewis’s oversized jacket, reading something on her phone, her brow creased into a scowl. The dirt on her face is gone and her shirt is a lighter shade of blue so enough time has passed for Vivi to leave the hospital, get changed, and come back.

He clears his throat to catch her attention, watching how a faint smile tugs at the corners of Vivi’s mouth when their eyes meet. Like she is happy to see him or something.

“Are Lew…” he immediately breaks into a coughing fit before fumbling for the half-full cup at his bedside, shrugging away Vivi’s attempt at helping and gulping the water down.

He clears his throat again.

“Lewis and Uncle Lance? Are they…” alive?

Vivi’s smile falls away, settling into a more neutral line of worry.

“Lance is still in intensive care, but only because he needs a ventilator. The nurse in his ward says he’ll be moved out today as long as there is no further complications with his injuries. As for Lewis’s situation…” She breaths out, face crumpling ever so briefly, “there’s been no change. He’s still in a coma…”

“Do you think I can see them?” Maybe it’s dumb but Arthur wants to confirm with his own eyes that they are both alive. He attempts to wiggle upright and finds it difficult from his prone position.

“I can’t see why not. They’re in different parts of the hospital so it’s a bit of a walk.” Vivi looks him over, gaze critical. Pain spikes in his chest and he fumbles for the bed’s remote knocking over the now empty cup, so it tumbles to the ground.

“…we should ask a nurse first,” she amends, catching the remote before he can knock it off the table as well. She offers it to him, and gives a shaky smile. He tries to return the gesture but the expression feels wrong...disconcerting…He lets his eyes drop to focus on the remote, selecting the setting that would raise him into a more upright position.

Vivi’s hand rests against his shoulder, drawing his eyes back to her.

“Just take it easy Arthur. I checked in on Lance not even an hour ago and Nicholas and Maria are with Lewis almost around the clock. They’ll let me know if things change.” She holds up her phone which is lit up with several message notifications, none were from Lewis's parents.

“Right…” Arthur lets himself relax back onto the bed with a weary exhale. “Okay…”

He doesn’t have the energy to make a fuss or press for more. Not with Vivi looking so upset. Arthur doesn’t think-not even in his own timeline- he has ever seen Vivi look so unhappy. But of course, in his timeline, Vivi had complexly forgotten Lewis and it was hard to be sad about something you couldn’t remember.

Their conversation fizzles out and Arthur lets himself fall back onto the bed in favour of staring at the ceiling.

Remembering was better. It had to be better. Right?

Lewis wasn’t in the clear yet. If Lewis died then…then maybe forgetting was better. The ugly thought twists in his chest. Lewis’s disappearance had been the source of so much going wrong in his life. Would he have been better off completely forgetting as well?

“….” Vivi clears her throat and he twitches. Awkwardly, he shifts his attention back to her, realising he was still staring unblinkingly at the ceiling.

“I’ll go ask a nurse and see if we can visit Uncle Lance,” Vivi says, saving him from what would surely have been a clumsy attempt at reassurance.

“Just wait a second… I’ll be right back.”

Not like he could go anywhere. He has nowhere to go.

When Vivi returns she is accompanied by a harried-looking nurse who, despite not appearing pleased, helps Arthur into a wheelchair, impressing upon him the importance of not making an extraneous movement.

Arthur half follows along with the instructions. This isn’t his first time in the hospital with a serious injury. Everything is very familiar including Vivi pulling out her phone to take notes, nodding seriously. Deja vu. He is really starting to hate the feeling.

“…and please stay on hospital grounds.” The nurse finishes after which Vivi asks a few more questions which Arthur doesn’t pay attention to. The energy needed for him to move from his bed into the chair has left him exhausted.

“Arthur. I’m going to push you now. Let me know if anything hurts or if I’m going too fast or something.” Vivi leans over him, filling his field of view.

He takes a long, tired breath. “Sure…”

Vivi bites at her bottom lip, obviously worried. He tries once again to muster up a smile and give her some indication that he appreciates her efforts. Even if said efforts were undeserved.

All he can manage is a grimace.

…..

Lance is alive.

He had known Lance was alive. Why would Vivi lie about that? Seeing that his Uncle was alive in person makes it real.

Arthur leans as far forward as he can while confined to the wheelchair, attempting to see as much of the man as possible. From this low angle, he can see the profile of his uncle’s face and not much else. Despite it being eerily pale his chest is rising and falling in slow rhythmic patterns. There is a heart monitor counting out steady beats. The beeping is loud enough that it thankfully drowns out the soft tick-tick of the clock on the wall. This wasn’t the room Lance had almost died in but it looks similar enough that makes his skin itch. He focuses on the beep beep of the monitor and the soft breaths of his Uncle instead.

Some small, fractured shard in his chest loosens. The demon had failed. Maybe his cursed luck had rubbed off on it while it occupied Arthur’s body. Maybe Arthur’s unique ability to screw everything up had been passed onto the demon.

Sharing is caring.

He glances away from his Uncle’s chest and up at Vivi who is sitting in the room’s visitor's chair.

She is still chewing at her bottom lip, watching Lance. When she notices him watching, she turns, looking like she wants to ask a question. An uncomfortable question going by her hesitation. There is no shortage of possible topics. Arthur has barely explained anything.

She doesn’t ask her question and Arthur turns back to his Uncle. They both sit in unbroken silence.

…

The hallway between his and his Uncle's rooms has large windows with a view onto a half-paved, half-gravel courtyard. The open-air courtyard separates the hospital’s two main buildings and access to the adjacent research centre. Arthur can't help but let his eyes be drawn to the space. The sun outside is directly overhead, meaning everything is blindingly bright, making the hospital’s interior dim by comparison. Benches and tables are clustered around two sprawling trees at its centre. All were occupied by groups of off-duty doctors, nurses, and researchers. Nobody wanted to sit on the benches placed along the perimeter and under the hash midday sun.

Vivi follows his gaze. “Do you want to go outside?”

Arthur shrugs.

....

They end up sitting on the bench closest to the building entrance, barely shaded in the lea of the hospital. Well, Vivi sits on the beach. Arthur sits in his wheelchair next to her. It doesn’t take long for the sun to beat some warmth into him.

Deja vu all over again. He and Vivi had spent several afternoons sitting in this courtyard, talking themselves in circles trying to figure out what had happened in the Cave. He remembers accidentally trigging one of Vivi’s more severe blackouts on this exact bench trying to get her to remember Lewis. Months later, when Arthur started working on his prosthetic arm at the research centre, Vivi would visit on her lunch breaks and they would eat out here together. He doesn’t know why the memory makes his throat tight.

“It’s a bit hot out,” Vivi comments awkwardly, tugging off Lewis’ jacket to rest across her lap. She eyes him, tilting her head to the side.

“It's nice I guess…the hospital is too cold…” she continues after a beat.

“This place could do with more trees though.” She eyes the space and squints at the sun critically. “There’s not enough shade out here.”

“Yeah…” he agrees in lieu of anything substantial to say. The statement rings familiar. Vivi had complained about the lack of shade in the courtyard back then as well.

He lets out a weary breath, “So…” He might as well do this now while he has some iota of energy. Once he was back in his bed this would be almost impossible.

“So?” Vivi repeats.

“So…do you want to talk about it.”

“It?”

He hesitates, “You want to ask questions, right?” Obviously, she has questions he has barely told her jack, his own mind mocks him.

“That obvious huh?”

“A little …” he winces which has Vivi looking concerned again, “I know when you’ve got something on your mind.”

“I’m just worried.” She gestures at the hospital buildings around them. “about you and Lewis and everything else. It’s…it’s a lot to process.”

“In the future…” He starts, “In my timeline, I lost my arm like Lewis.” It feels like a cruel joke explaining it but, if the information helps, then little discomfort was worth it.

“It happened just after Lewis…ah…” he swallows, deciding that mentioning Lewis’s death probably wasn’t a great idea if his goal was to make Vivi feel better.

He starts again, “The old mines-the cave where I lost my arm- there was no cell reception out there, not up in mountains. Vivi, my Vivi, had to drive me to the main road so I probably lost just as much if not more blood. It took a few days, but I still woke up abet missing a few key memories. Hopefully, it’ll be the same for Lewis…i mean he’s a lot bigger than me...more blood?”

Shiny blue eyes meet his, unsure, conflicted.

“Lewis should wake up,” he clarifies, “hopefully not missing any important memories. The missing memory thing kind of sucked…a lot…” He tails off lamely, swallowing again to help with his dry throat. Understatement of the century. What if Lewis ended up with memory problems like Vivi? God, if Lewis forgets anyone let it be him and not Vivi. Please don’t let Lewis forget Vivi. Unease sits about him like a well-worn coat.

Vivi sighs, “I…” She shifts to sit a little straighter like she was physically pushing aside their combined gloom, “yeah…I hope so too.”

Arthur grimaces. He had always been terrible at cheering Vivi up. “You can ask more questions. I…I’ll answer them now.”

“I do have a few,” Vivi agrees, and lets a long, frustrated breath, “Okay…I have more than a few questions.” Another pause. “Actually, I have nothing but questions really.” Her open mouth clicks shut and he finds himself the subject of a scrutinising stare. She is scanning his face for something…he doesn’t know what.

“I promise I will answer?” He tries to inject some enthusiasm into the statement, but his voice sounds just as thin and tired as he feels. Vivi’s stare turns troubled.

“I mean…” Arthur starts again, “I’ll tell the truth. I did promise I would."

“That’s not….” Vivi interrupts and frowns. She takes a breath, “I don’t want people lying to me and that includes lies of omission. But look, just rest, get better, and tell me when you’re ready. I know about time travel and the body snatcher. I have Mystery to answer the more general questions now he's actually telling me stuff. You just focus on recovery.”

She nods to herself and sits back on the bench satisfied.

“I’m fine,” he reassures. “Just ask away…hmm…some of it isn’t very pleasant but I’m fine.” If he repeats it enough times maybe it would come true as if that strategy had ever worked for him.

“...” Vivi raises a brow, giving him one of her ‘do you seriously think I’ll believe that’ looks.

“I am fine.” He defends.

Vivi huffs, crossing her arms, “I thought you said you’d be telling the truth.”

Arthur grimaces, “That’s not fair. I’m fine enough for this.”

“You’re really not.”

“I mean…aside from the bullet wound I’m fine. Just ask me anything.” And now he just sounds desperate. Great. Why does Vivi pick this to be adamant about?

Vivi just scans him again, silent, scrutinising, like she is trying to decide what question to ask. It is a familiar expression.

“Arthur. Are we friends?”

Arthur blinks. “What?” Not the question he had expected.

“In the future are we friends?”

“Yes. Of course, we are, were, friends. You've always been my best friend,”

“I’m still your friend, right?”

“Ah…” Arthur hesitates because…because he doesn’t know what to say. Were they friends? Did Vivi still want to be friends? Why, after all his lying and the trouble he caused, would she still want to be friends? His hesitation does him no favours because Vivi is now a mix of indignant and worried.

“Maybe?” He answers. Vivi’s whole forehead lifts in disbelief.

“I mean…Yes?” He tries again.

“Then stop acting like we’re not,” Vivi bites, anger colouring her voice before she takes a calming breath and confirms, “We’re friends.”

She uncrosses her arms, turning so she can give the side of this wheelchair a light tap, “and as your friend, I want you to take it easy. If you’re set on telling me everything, then we can do it later. There will be time for explanations and questions. I’m not going anywhere.”

Oh no. He was not waiting for later. If he didn’t say something now he’d never have the courage to say it. It was now or never.

“The other Arthur, the one original Arthur from this timeline, he wanted to go on the supernatural-themed road trip originally, before I came back and replaced him.” He begins, ignoring Vivi's attempt at interrupting.

“We painted the van and put on that Mystery Skull logo like you always wanted. It even turned out looking pretty cool. Technically I didn’t lie about being afraid of supernatural stuff. Everything bad in our lives started on that road trip and none of it was normal or explainable. I didn’t want you and Lewis to get hurt.”

Arthur scrambles to reorder the sorry saga into something that was somewhat chronological, trying to separate the two timelines out in his head so he could cover any major differences. He could skip the majority of the road trip. He barely remembered enough of the good parts to recap them anyway.

“The road trip ended with Lewis disappearing you see, and I didn’t want a repeat of that. It didn’t work. You both got hurt anyway. Sorry.” He mutters the last bit like saying sorry made any difference.

“Arthur…” Vivi tries to interrupt again but Arthur pushes on.

“We solved mysteries, saw way too many lame roadside attractions, went to every haunted diner between here and California and no one got food poisoning … It was a good road trip. Your…ah…your itinerary was spot on.”

Vivi’s expression is now pinched, pained. He gives a weak almost-smile which Vivi doesn’t return. He quickly looks away, staring at his lap, mouth dry.

He swallows and chokes out, “Then there was the Demon. The Cave. No more arm. No more Lewis. Haha.” Even to his own ears his laugh sound hollow. His chest hurts and he takes a shuddering breath.

“I didn’t remember Lewis dying. Not at first. Not for a long while. Traumatic amnesia will do that apparently.”

Too much of a coward…locking away the memories of his role in Lewis’s death. If not for the demon, who knows if he would have ever remembered?

“Everyone tried to tell me Lewis was gone, but I didn’t listen. Guess I just didn’t want to believe it. To me, it was like he had just vanished. Poof. I always knew something was off about it. Something more to the story than Lewis getting lost in a cave and...and succumbing to exposure somewhere where none of the search parties could find him…I was only partially right."

He blinks rapidly to clear incoming tears. With no demon to dull this physical response, it feels like he reliving that moment of realisation all over again. The grief feels like a lead brick sitting in his chest.

“and Vivi got hit with some memory curse. The memory curse was our running theory because it targeted her memories of Lewis specifically. She forget him, everything about him and most things associated with him. It was too specific to be anything normal. It had to be a curse because a curse was better than brain damage or anomalous, medically inexplicable, memory loss triggered by a traumatic event. At least a curse might have been curable. No one believed us.”

And why would they have believed him? Arthur had barely believed it himself.

“It was bad in the beginning when no one knew what was wrong. We would mention Lewis’s name and you would just not register it or check out like a real-life blue screen. You barely recognised his parents. Anything that reminded you of him kind of zonked you out. After we discovered what was triggering it…” he swallows the familiar old sting of helpless frustration ignites, adding to his grief, “At least we knew what to avoid talking about."

“Once I recovered enough from losing my arm we went searching... ” He chokes out and stops talking because he physically can’t continue.

A glance at Vivi shows that she is understandably upset, her face slightly paler despite the sun's heat.

“I’m guessing convincing me to search for a person I didn’t remember wasn’t easy,” She mumbles and her voice also sounds wobbly like she’s trying to not cry.

He quickly looks away, sniffing back tears and pushing on, “You do like to ask questions and know things. I used to say we were searching for your memories…it was close enough to the truth. I thought that maybe, if we found Lewis, the memories would all come back. I was kind of desperate.”

It had always been a farfetched goal. The kind of goal that sprung from desperate hope. Hope so painful it kept him awake at night on the rare occasions the nightmares didn’t. Hope that he would carefully tuck away in the morning to prevent Vivi from catching on to the fact that something was terribly wrong.

It feels oddly freeing to voice this to Vivi now. He had clung to the belief that finding Lewis would break some mysterious curse and return all Vivi’s missing memories for so long that he had grown afraid that any points to the contrary would cause his motivation to crumble. It had always been a point of tension between him and Vivi. He wishes he could have explained it back then. Back when it mattered.

“Was saving Lewis the reason you came back?”

Arthur blinks rapidly to clear his vision and glances to the side, “No. It wasn’t. Like I said, I didn’t know Lewis was gone gone until I was…” He stops, wincing and swallowing, “I was already here in that past when I found out he was..d..dead.”

“I don’t know how I came back. We were out on one of our investigations looking for Lewis and we ran into this…Tree creature…looked like a human-shaped tree…. I hit it with the van by accident. It’s kind of hard to remember now...” He slowly sorts through half-truths. His encounter with Lewis directly after hitting the Tree Lady dwarfed everything else in his mind, making the strange attack seem barely important. He hardly remembers events between seeing Lewis at his ghost mansion and crashing into Kingsman Mechanics.

“I ended up crashing the van...” Arthur stops, stalling. Then Lewis killed him…his brain helpfully supplies.

All his fault…he had wanted Lewis dead. So weak and pathetic. It was only fair that Lewis return the favour.

“...and I woke up in my bed. At home. In this body. Two years in the past…” He finishes quickly.

“The demon…”

“Body snatcher.” Vivi corrects. “Don’t call it a demon,” she explains, “Calling it a demon makes it sound impressive. That thing was a parasitic asshole.”

“Ri…Right,” The venom in Vivi’s voice has him restarting, “The… body snatcher…” He shakes off his discomfort and the undercurrent of fear. Arthur remembers how annoyed the demon had been when Vivi called it a body snatcher and a small part of him worries...

“It was just as surprised to find out about the time travel and was really interested in how I did it. I...I didn’t know anything useful …It, ah, went through my memories pretty throwaway so I got nothing…not even subconsciously. The…body snatcher…ah…found the memory of me pushing Lewis of a cliff…in the cave…that’s how I, ah, know I killed Lewis. The demon found the memory and showed me.”

There is a sharp movement and rustling next him and Vivi stands up. Then the crunch of gravel. Arthur tilts his head up to see Vivi standing in front of him, leaning over. She reaches out to put one hand on each of Arthur’s shoulder, grip relaxed so as not to aggravate his injury. She holds him at arm’s length, scanning his face, her expression intense.

“Stop that." She commands.

“Stop what?” Arthur responds dumbly.

“Stop saying you killed Lewis.”

“I…”

“It wasn’t your fault.”

“You weren’t there. You can’t know that.”

“I know enough.”

“But…” the words stick again, “that’s just it! You don’t know. You don’t know everything…I…I haven’t told you everything yet. When I tell you, you’ll agree with me.” When he looks up the sun is high enough in the sky that it turns Vivi into a darkened outline, stirring up hazy half-forgotten deams.

He squints up at the blurry Vivi-shaped outline but can’t make out her face. The word around him is too blindingly bright to make out anything.

“It’ll be okay Arthur. Just explain what happened. I’ll understand...We all make mistakes.”

He deliberately averts his eyes, muttering, “Why are you both so stubborn.”

Vivi obviously hears because she pulls back and frowns. Then, slowly, she reaches out with one hand to touch his cheek. Arthur, confused, also reaches up with his uninjured arm to put his hand over hers. Vivi brings her other hand around so she is squeezing both his cheeks together, scanning his face.

“We’re not different people. Me and your 'future Vivi' are the same person. Just like you’re still my Arthur.”

He doesn't meet her gaze. It is a lot harder to do with her holding his face like this.

"I’m just as much your best friend as she was…”

“…” he doesn’t know what to say so pulls one of her hands away from his cheek.

“Any version of me would care if their friend,” She emphasises the word, retracting her other hand without prompting, straightening “went through something awful. I care. We’re the same.”

“But you’re...we're not. I’m not your friend…” Arthur can’t help but protest even when he knows he should give it up and let Vivi believe what she wants. Arthur never won these sorts of arguments. Better to let everything stew and think up an argument with sounder logic later when Vivi was less worked up.

Frustrated at himself he continues, “I came back to fix things, and everybody was worse off for it. I lied to you. I lied to Lewis. Now Lewis’s arm is gone…That was supposed to be me! I was the one who lost their arm. I hurt Uncle Lance. I killed Darrel! I stabbed him. He was nice. A good guy. He always took my shifts at the workshop when I couldn’t work and I couldn't save him. Just like I couldn't save Lewis. I'm cursed. If I had just not been here, he would be alive.”

“Two years Arthur,” Vivi interrupts, hash now, standing taller, hands on her hips, “You’re two years older. Last I checked, that doesn’t make you a monster so stop acting like I’ll pack up and leave because you aren’t 100%, A-Okay after living through all that horrible stuff. Nothing you say is going to change my mind so you can just quit while your ahead.”

When he opens his mouth to argue Vivi beats him to it, “Don’t you dare try and get rid of me.”

“I’ll confess.” He continues hysterically. If Vivi won’t believe him then maybe he should find a way to remove himself from the equation, “Turn myself in. I’ll tell the police I drove Darrel out into the desert and killed him.”

“No.” Vivi objects. Sharp and abrupt. “You’re not going to tell the police you did anything because it wasn’t you who did it.”

“I can’t just leave him out there. He deserves better.”

Vivi’s face spasms, “Not at your expense…You shouldn’t take the fall for this. Not on top of everything else.”

She glances around but the space around them is clear of people and Arthur realises that their conversation had been growing louder and more intense. The courtyard is now mostly empty with many of the hospital employees returning to work

Vivi lets out a long breath then kneels down, putting her at eye level, crouched in front of his chair.

Arthur still can’t hold eye contact. Vivi’s eyes are too intense.

“When the police come to question you,” she says in a lower voice, “you need to say that you came to the hospital to see your uncle then went off for some alone time to gather yourself. They’ll have you on the security cameras so you can’t deny that you were here. Luckily, they also have that asshole Micky on the cameras. Out of the two of you, he is way more suspicious, and they already have him in custody so it’s not completely unbelievable that he would kill some random employee. Guy was a nut case.”

“He’s not some random employee.” Arthur interrupts upset, finding his voice again, “Darrel was a friend, and I killed him.”

“No. No you didn’t,” Vivi snaps matching his upset with equal frustration. “Look, I know you think you deserve some punishment for...I don’t know...having a bad case of amnesia and getting possessed, both of which were out of your control. That bastard parasite probably fed you a bunch of bullshit lies as well. It seemed like just the type to gaslight. Tell me I’m wrong.”

Arthur stalls in unhappy silence, not prepared to compromise or give ground.

“If you confess to the murder then I’m going to say I was a co-conspirator and planned the whole thing.”

Arthur blinks, finally looking up. Vivi’s glare is frosty, intense, and unyielding.

“What?”

“You heard me.”

“Why…why would you do that.”

“I told you. I’m going to help you, Arthur. If you’re set on doing this, then I’m not letting you face murder charges alone. What did you think I meant when I said that.”

“Not this,” Arthur cracks, “You can’t.”

“I can and will.” She really meant that.

“But… you’ll be arrested or something…” He is not actually sure what would happen if Vivi randomly confessed to his crime.

“Just the way it has gotta’ be apparently.”

Arthur gets with another wave of déjà vu because he has had this conversation or a similar one with Vivi before. In another life. In a different future. It leaves him floundering as both versions of Vivi seem to meld into each other, like everything he loved about his own Vivi was seeping through to this new one.

“This isn’t …” He starts then stops. “It’s not supposed to be this way,” he says helplessly. Vivi wasn’t supposed to be this way.

“Of course not. What’s the point of changing the future if everything stays the same? We’ve both seen the same moves. You know how this works.”

“Half of those movies end with a lesson on inevitable consequences and fate.”

“And half of them end with everything sorting itself out. Look, we can argue about this until I get kicked out at closing time -remind me to find the paperwork so I can sign myself up as your medical proxy- but I can guarantee that nothing you will say will change my mind.”

Well, he’s not sure about that. Maybe if told her the real truth about Lewis and his role in his murder she would leave. He wasn’t sure. The answer, which moments ago he had been so certain of, was now unclear.

“I can’t leave Darrel out in the desert,” he repeats, exhausted, “He deserves better…”

Vivi frowns, opening her mouth and then clicking it shut, considering him. Her jaw clenches and she flops back so she is now leaning against his chair instead of crouching, half stretched out across the gravel path.

“Yeah…okay,” she props up an elbow against a knee, massaging her eyes. “How about this? You give me as good a proximation of the location as possible, or any landmarks you remember, and I’ll go track Darrel down with Mystery. Then I’ll leave an anonymous tip with the police, and they can handle the rest. How does that sound?”

“Like you’re giving me much of a choice.” He mutters, trying to not let his thoughts wander off into dangerous lands filled with crackling fire and unkind whispers that would berate him for giving in and letting Vivi bully him out of justly deserved consequences.

Vivi glances up at him and she is back to looking sad, anger falling away

“Maybe I’m being too blunt about all this. I’m not good at this sort of stuff,” she says, “but, Arthur, if Darrel was a friend, then he wouldn’t have blamed you. Just like I don’t blame you. Just like Uncle Lance or Lewis wouldn’t blame you.”

He can’t help but shiver. Bright purple flames dance across his vision like ghostly hands pulling his attention.

Lewis’s angry fire catches in in shirt and a sudden drop awaits on either side of him.

“This is your fault!”

He can almost feel the heat.

Lewis had blamed him.

He doesn’t know who to believe. Should he believe Vivi, sitting here with him, peering at him with such honest intensity that he can hardly stand to look at her? Or should he believe Lewis, dead by his hand, left in a future that didn’t exist?

For some strange, unfathomable reason, he thinks he believes Vivi. If she was so willing to share the consequences of his failures, then maybe she wouldn’t care that he was so weak and pathetic. He squashes the sentiment. He can’t think like that. It’s wrong.

It must be wrong.

...

Note: a year later and this is finally done.

#MSA #mystery skulls animated #arthur #ViVi #HEAVY ANGST #hospitals #unreliable narrator #fanfiction #fanfic #time travel #dialogue heavy

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nrmndllykwho · 2 years

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Another Rodeo// Lucas x fem! reader (Sequel) - Chapter nine: Cuddles (on Wattpad) https://www.wattpad.com/1220854481-another-rodeo-lucas-x-fem-reader-sequel-chapter?utm_source=web&utm_medium=tumblr&utm_content=share_reading&wp_uname=NurImanDlaila&wp_originator=lg%2BhQM%2BtEEu8TdVLbXLVnFBgco0OFKxongxB0ue%2BJEUURTw5n9yY5vfP%2Bd%2FpaXMdUo0ZBHkVLeKHeD1Juj4U%2B0PLk9XrkuGaC15sc9wAs%2FYDkWOQRiW1BG8iq3qoOuOc Sequel to Playboys! Y/N and Athena are now dating Lucas and Tanner. When the new school year comes, there's a whole new and improved 'Triple Threat'. How will Y/N and Athena deal with them? Started: Feb 11, 2022 Ended: ??? Edited: Not yet ! I DO NOT OWN MY STORY ANIMATED OR IT'S CHARACTERS, ONLY THIS STORY AND Y/N ! This is an amazing for those who simp for Lucas like me❤️

#andr #fanfiction #femalereader #fluff #lucas #lucasmystoryanimated #lucasxreader #msa #mystoryanimated #sequel #tanner #xfemalereader #xreader #books #wattpad #amreading

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s-nacore · 11 months

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Honestly imagine shifting to MSA. Like the animated stories that lowkey was inspired by a some wattpad fanfiction. Ah seeing it happen in real life would be so fun!!!

#sanacore #thoughts #reality shifting #loa blog #my story animated

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skellebonez · 1 year

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MYSTERY SKULLS FAN???

Yes! I love the music and the animated music videos!

I am so excited for the next animation, I am pretty sure I know (like 75% sure) what the next song MAY be. Hopefully when it drops my desire to write MSA fanfiction pops back up again.

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ghost-writer-in-the-sky · 3 years

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Prompt fill for @eagefree, who asked:

:3c “This is my favorite picture of us." (Vivi)

“This is my favorite picture of us!” she declares, yanking it out of the box- and then frowning at it. “Wait, no it isn’t.”

Arthur shakes his head at her. Her memories have returned with a vengeance, and she seems determined to take a trip down memory lane as often as possible, as though settling something inside her.

Arthur combs through his allocated box, photo after photo amassed over their cases together. Most of them are businesslike snaps of their investigations- he hastily stuffs one back that shows the edge of a circle, daubed in red- and unearths another one of their group shots. “This?”

She casts her eye over it, then smiles, taking it and tilting it toward Lewis. “Remember this?”

“Oh, I wonder what happened to that shirt?”

“Um, I think I’ve got it...” Arthur admits sheepishly, earning him a knowing smile from both of them and a gentle pat from Lewis.

“Nice, but not the one I’m thinking of,” Vivi says, setting it aside into the ‘frame’ pile and going back to her box.

“Maybe if you tell us which one you’re looking for?”

“It was all of us together- I think Lance took it. We’re at the Mechanics and we’d just finished painting the van-”

“Oh,” says Arthur. “I ...know where that one is.”

He passes his box to Lewis, leaving them to track it down. He knows exactly where it is, after all, they’d only pulled it out recently...

In a drawer in the living room he finds the small stack, set aside for a particular purpose. He retrieves the photo and heads back into the kitchen to hand it to Vivi.

She beams at it. “Yes! This is it! Wait- where was it?”

Arthur glances at Lewis. “It was in the stack you put together. When we were... uh, making Lewis’ new locket. Remember?”

Vivi looks the photo over again. They’re all holding paintbrushes, even Mystery holding one in his mouth, the four of them covered liberally in splashes of orange paint. Lewis leans his elbow against the van, Arthur scolding him for mussing the fresh paint, while Vivi cackles at them both and Mystery winks at the camera. The ‘Mystery Skulls’ symbol shines above them, fresh and sparkling and so full of hope.

She runs her finger along the edge of it carefully, tipping it toward Lewis as he looks over her shoulder. “That’s right. I nearly decided on this one to use, but... I don’t know. Part of me just couldn’t bear to cut it up.”

“I’m glad you didn’t,” says Lewis. “It’s my favorite too.”

“Framing pile then?” Arthur says, gesturing to it, and Vivi nods.

“Framing pile. Although... it’s not as big a pile as I thought it’d be.” She frowns consideringly.

She couldn’t have set it up better for him if she’d tried. “We-ellll, it’s a good thing I’ve been working on a ghost-proof camera.”

They both swivel to look at him in delight, and the box topples, a handful of joyful moments in time splashing across the floor.

#flashwrites #asks: eagefree #prompt fill #lewvithur #msa fanfiction

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pull-the-hoodie-strings · 3 years

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Misfire

(So uh, that one post saying what if Lance missed Lewis and hit Arthur instead? Yeah.)

Credit for the idea goes to @phantoms-lair

AO3 link- https://archiveofourown.org/works/27373156

He... he couldn't do it.

Lance stood at the door, shotgun still smoking and looking pale. As Lewis turned the man reloaded and shot again. And again. And again.

In that split second of watching his former friend fall, Lewis couldn't do it. The man hadn't even let out a scream. All Lewis could think of was how painful the impact was going to be. Maybe if he was lucky Arthur would've hit something vital and bled out before he could really process it. But Lewis kept replaying it. His own fall, on the other end of this situation.

His anchor shuddered. Lewis hesitated, raising a hand. The stalagmites below him started to crumble away like sand. He didn't know what he wanted. Just that he didn't want to experience that. Didn't want Arthur to either.

In the next second he heard a bang and a hole was blasted through his chest. It wasn't so much painful as it was startling, sending a shock through him. His anchor bounced away, echoing in the sudden absence of sound as the truck reformed around them. Shock turned to disbelief turned to anger as he turned.

The man finally ran out of bullets, looking up at a very angry ghost. Lewis seized the man by the shirt and hauled him into the air. The man shouted and tried to fight the ghost off by hitting him with the shotgun. That went about as well as shooting him, had as Lewis batted the weapon away.

Unlike the first, they all passed harmlessly through Lewis's body like he wasn't even there. Another shot hit him in the chest, sending Lewis back half a step. Oh, that’s why.

The deadly stalagmites from before had turned back into a harmless pile of cardboard boxes. At some point Arthur had picked himself out the pile and only managed got a step or two forward. Lewis met his eyes as Arthur looked up from the bloodstain rapidly spreading across his stomach.

He was about ready to throttle the man when he heard coughing behind him. Lewis turned, having forgot about the other mechanic entirely only to freeze, eyes shrinking to pin pricks.

"Get some help damn it!" Lance shouted at him, probably had been for a while now, tear tracks staining his face. Did he expect Lewis to help, especially since he was just trying to kill his nephew a few minutes ago, or was this just pure desperation?

"Lew-" he tried to say only to cough, blood bubbling up between his lips.

Arthur lost his balance then, stumbling backwards and throwing out a hand to try and catch his balance. Distracted as he was, Lance was finally able to struggle out of his grip. As Arthur collapsed back into the boxes Lance hit the ground running, scrambling to his nephew's side.

"Artie!" Lance cried, gathering Arthur up into his arms. His coat was already off as Lance pressed it into Arthur's stomach. The orange colour darkened too quick, turning a muddy brown and Arthur coughed and spluttered. "Jesus, Arthur, hang on. I didn't- Don't you- god don't you die on me, boy!"

Lewis couldn't move, frozen where he stood, hand still hovering in the air. The wall behind Arthur was littered with dents and bullet holes. He'd stood up at some point and-

But he didn't think it mattered. It wasn't going to matter. Arthur's breaths were rattling in his chest now, audible from where Lewis stood. His skin was too pale and the blood puddle gathering underneath him, seeping into cardboard and slicking the floor, was too big. Lance still pressed down on the wound. A stream of curses and desperate apologies were practically shouted at Arthur.

Lewis took a step back, a glint from the floor catching his eye. His anchor. Cracked and gray and laying only a few feet from him. Lewis didn't know how he didn't realize Arthur had picked it up.

Numb, Lewis stooped down and picked it up with shaky hands.

The picture had changed. It was all of them together now, like it had been before the cave. All happy and smiling and-

Lewis hit his knees, clutching the locket so hard he was liable to break it himself. Hot tears streaked down his face as Lance cried out in anguish. This wasn't what he wanted.

But that hardly mattered anymore.

#mystery skulls #mystery skulls animated #mystery skulls fanfic #msa fanfic #msa fanfiction #mystery skulls spoilers #mystery skulls animated spoilers #msa spoilers #mystery skulls future #mystery skulls the future

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hecallsmehischild · 2 years

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TITLE: HIT AND RUN

FANDOM: MYSTERY SKULLS ANIMATED

RATING: T

SYNOPSIS: Mystery Skulls Animated secret santa oneshot. It was supposed to be a calm, relaxing, fun game night. No ghosts, no cryptids, no hot leads. Just friendly competition and fresh pizza. But the pizza delivery person claims to have hit something weird on the way over, and it's impossible to say no to Vivi once she gets going.

Note: @msaholidayspirits 2021 Secret Santa gift for @titenoute! Featuring Titenoute's MSA OC Fiona! A fic of firsts: First time I've written an MSA fic with someone else's OC, first 3rd person non-specific POV I've tried in ages, and first time I've written solely pre-cave material. I had a couple mini-comics, sketches, and a profile to go off of for the OC Fiona. Fingers crossed that I landed somewhere close to an accurate portrayal and also that the literary police don't ram down my door. Pre-Cave gang gains a new friend, Merry Christmas! Cover photo by 5demayo at morguefile.

.......................................................................................................

"Artie, standing by the door and staring at it isn't going to make the food arrive faster."

"Prove it."

"And saying 'prove it' about every statement you don't like won't make it untrue."

"Prove it."

Lewis sighed, folding his hands behind his head and leaning back on Vivi's worn, puffy sofa. "Somebody's been in a real mood since he lost his queen."

"Prove it."

A wooden pawn bounced off the back of Arthur's head. He finally turned away from the door and locked glares with Vivi. She occupied the other end of the sofa and was bent over a well-polished wooden chess board. She pointed a captured bishop at him. "Hey, we all know you're hungry. We're hungry too. Food is on. The. Way. So get your butt back over here, it's your turn."

Arthur bent down and grabbed the pawn off the floor. He tossed it back at her and swivelled back around to face the door. Under the coffee table, Mystery snorted, then stretched out his forepaws and yawned.

Vivi's scowl deepened. "In about thirty seconds, I'll switch from Chess to Munchkin. Make game night last ALL night long."

Lewis rolled his eyes. "Give it a rest, Vee. He'll come around when he's not so hangry."

"Prove—"

"Arthur, swear to gods, I will cram a load of ever-loving proof up your—"

DING DONG

Arthur seized the doorknob, a gleeful grin on his face. He flung the door open. "About time! Can't wait for…" he trailed off. Behind him, Vivi and Lewis rose to their feet.

At their door stood a young woman in a Topolini's Pizza uniform, holding the expected pizza-warmer. Except it only held one box, not three. There were tooth marks on the edge of the battered box, and the delivery person was pretty tattered too. Her right cheek looked like it had been dragged along gravel, and the clothing tears all along her right side bore that out. Even the lime green helmet she wore was scuffed on the right side.

A stiff breeze passed her, entering the house. Mystery lifted his head, scenting the air. He crept out from under the coffee table, tail slung low and a growl in his throat.

The delivery person tried to smile, but the smile twisted as Mystery bared his teeth. She stumbled back a couple steps, then glanced over her shoulder. She shivered. Lifting her chin, she stepped forward–grimacing as she came down on her right foot–and faced Arthur squarely.

"T-Topolini's delivery. Did I make it in thirty?"

............................................................................................

Nobody mourned the jumbled remains of what had once been a beautiful oyster and anchovy pizza pie more than Arthur. Truthfully, nobody else mourned that one at all. Still, he had the grace to set the issue aside nearly as quick as his teammates. Vivi and Lewis had convinced the young woman—Fiona, or so her nameplate read—to come in and lie down on the couch. Mystery paced nearby, muzzled by Vivi's stern warnings to behave himself.

Vivi squatted next to the couch, carefully tweezing pieces of gravel out of Fiona's cheek. She brushed Fiona's bangs out of the way. "That's some nasty spill you took. Bike?"

"Vespa."

Lewis frowned. "High speed tumble down the road? Is anything broken? Should we call someone for you? What hurts?"

Fiona winced. "Face… right now. Ankle when I walk. Hard to tell. Can't really feel much."

"Shock, probably. What happened?"

"I hit something," she mumbled. "Something big. I flew off. When I sat up, it was going after the deliveries."

Vivi's eyes sparkled. "A 'something big,' eh? What kind of something do you think it was?"

"Not sure. It's dark out there. Nasty looking teeth. Like… small moose size? Or a big horse? I got in a right hook at its head and ran off with a box." She indicated the abandoned pizza box on the ground with the shredded corner. "Thought I could at least get one back. So much for that."

Lewis used his foot to nudge the box under the coffee table, out of sight. "Then what happened?"

Fiona winced as Vivi swabbed her face with rubbing alcohol. "Ow. Ow. Running. Getting away. Knocking on your door."

Arthur's head jerked up. "You went on foot? Your Vespa's wrecked?"

Her eyes widened. "Is… it? I don't know… I punched the thing and ran. Didn't check the Vespa. It was laughing… not like an animal. Like a person. Really freaked me out. Wasn't thinking."

Arthur stared at her. "Why would you punch something like that?!"

Vivi's grin stretched from ear to ear. "Probably gave it a nasty shock. Good for you. Don't you carry mace, though?"

Fiona's head wobbled back and forth, and she fumbled for her pocket. "I keep forgetting. Always swing first. Then run. Then remember there's mace." She pulled it out with a grimace.

Arthur shook his head. "Yeah, well, probably best to wait 'til morning to get your Vespa picked up and taken to a shop. If you wait that long then whatever you hit will have left the area."

"Which is exactly why we have to get back there right now!" Vivi grabbed a bottle of rubbing alcohol and splashed it onto a washcloth. She pressed it into Fiona's hand and stood. "Something's off about this. Big as a moose? We don't have any wild animals like that in our area."

"Small moose," Fiona corrected.

"Still. And it laughed? Last I checked, all our hyenas are in the zoo. And Mystery's been on edge ever since she came in." She glanced at Fiona. "Sorry about that, by the way. He's very friendly. I bet it's the smell of whatever you hit that's got him all riled up. He's good about sensing weird stuff."

Fiona eyed Mystery, who sat back on his hindquarters. He stared back.

"Your dog has little spectacles. Why?"

His fur bristled from neck to tail and his lip kept lifting up over his teeth.

Vivi shrugged. "That's a mystery unto itself. He's been with my family forever and he's always worn them. Nobody knows why."

Fiona shook her head, refocusing. "You said weird stuff, what do you mean by 'weird stuff'?"

"Cryptids! Ghosts! Small-scale possession cases. Unexplained phenomena to be banished or witnessed. We look into all that. Speaking of, Lewis? Would you get our gear together? Night kit, too. Point is, Fiona, this is a hot trail and it's worth checking out. Plus we could retrieve your Vespa. There's room in the van if we all squeeze a bit."

"Absolutely not!" Arthur threw up his hands. "Vee, you promised! No ghosts on game night!"

Vivi's eyes twinkled. "This doesn't sound like a ghost, Artie. Sounds more like a cryptid. Maybe an undead, if we're lucky. Not a ghost."

"You know what I mean!"

"And when's the last time we had a lead this hot? Arthur, it's been weeks since anyone contacted us for a case. We aren't making enough money to upgrade gear. How are we going to get in the big leagues if we stick to shooing out local poltergeists?"

"If this is about money, who's paying us to take this case?" Arthur challenged.

Lewis cleared his throat, "It probably left some physical evidence on the Vespa. Hair, blood, claw chips. There's always reward money for that kind of evidence."

"So we should wait until it's gone for sure!" Arthur insisted. "We'll still get paid."

"And let the elements spoil all the good samples?" Vivi shot back. "Stop being such a soggy leaf."

"Hey! I am a crunchy leaf, thankyouverymuch, I just want to stay in my tree tonight!"

Lewis coughed. "Crunchy leaves are usually found on the ground, Artie."

"Prove—"

"Hey, who says you all get the money?" Fiona objected, struggling to sit up. "If it's on my Vespa after I hit the thing, then I should get the reward. I'll need plenty of money for repairs."

Lewis and Vivi turned to Arthur at the same time. Arthur folded his arms. "Don't even. She's right. Do you have any idea what a good quality regulator costs on a Vespa? Or a wheel rim replacement? Really, no telling what could be broken until I get a look at it. Don't give me that look! You want to trade my labor for access to the case? Well I'm not paying out of pocket for parts, that's for sure. Plus she's not even part of the team! I do that for OUR van."

"Artie…" Vivi bit her lip, staring mournfully at him.

Arthur groaned. "Don't do the thing, Vee."

"Please?" She clasped her hands together. "Pretty please? Pretty please with syrup on top?"

Arthur turned to Lewis for help, but Lewis just grinned at him.

"Pretty please with syrup and oysters on top?" Vivi pressed.

Clearly this wasn't about money for the team.

"Pretty please with syrup and oysters and scallops on top?"

Arthur ran a hand through his hair a couple of times, then pointed at Fiona. "We'll go out and get your Vespa and collect any samples. The reward money goes to you, the credit goes to us. BUT. Your Vespa goes to Kingsmen Mechanics, and I'll fix it right for a fair price. Deal?"

Fiona's eyebrows shot up. "Sure. Deal."

Vivi whooped. "Hot chili churros!" She seized a leash and clipped it on Mystery's collar. She headed for the door, calling over her shoulder, "Artie, can you give her a hand up? Lewis and I will get our stuff out to the van and we'll be off before you can say–Mystery!"

The door had barely cracked open before Mystery bolted, his leash slipping through Vivi's fingers. "Mystery! Where the flying fir cones are you going?! Mystery!" she hollered, running after him.

"Vee!" Lewis scooped up the gear and followed her out. "Wait! You'll never catch him on foot! At least take the van!"

Arthur gripped his hair with one hand. "'Just another game night,' she says. 'No weird happenings, I swear it, Artie,' she says. Gah. Listen–Fiona, right?–this is already falling apart, how about you wait here while we deal with the… with the…" He gestured at the door. "Whatever it is."

Fiona stared at the door, now hanging wide open. It was a new moon night and the house lights stopped abruptly at the end of the street. Beyond that was a pitch black eternity that she could just see Vivi vanishing into. The sound of an engine spluttering to life snapped her to attention. Arthur already had a foot out the door.

"Hold up, hold up. I need a hand." She grunted, easing herself upright.

Arthur paused at the threshold. "You sure? Are you good with weird stuff?"

"No. I hate ghosts. Cried when my friend tried to summon Bloody Mary in the bathroom mirror." She held a hand out. "Also, I punched that mirror when it shifted by itself. Safety in numbers, yeah?"

Arthur hesitated, then hurried over and pulled her arm across his shoulders, hauling her up. "Alright, but hurry. No telling what kind of weird we're dealing with tonight, and we're already separated."

.........................................................................................

By the time Arthur and Fiona made it to the van, Lewis was frantic. He barely waited for them to load into the backseat, and he didn't wait for them to buckle up before gunning the engine and tearing down the road. "How far away was the crash?" he asked as they hurtled into the darkness.

"Don't know!" Fiona snapped, struggling with the seatbelt. "I wasn't really paying attention when I was running for my life. It couldn't have been too far, though, I was getting close to your place before I hit the thing."

"Headlights!" Arthur yelled, grabbing the driver's seat-rest.

Lewis fumbled with the headlights, flipping them on. They flash-lit Vivi in the middle of the road, wrestling with Mystery on the far end of his leash. Lewis jerked the wheel and braked hard, screeching past them as the back end of the van slid around. Arthur and Fiona shrieked in unison as the left side of the van rose up a little bit, then settled back to the ground with a thump.

The van had barely re-grounded itself before Lewis vaulted out of the driver's seat. "You okay? Why didn't you wait? Are you hurt?"

"Fine!" Vivi gasped. "Just… can't…" she nearly came off her feet as Mystery lunged forward. He strained at the end of his tether, snapping his teeth at the road ahead. He wasn't barking.

Fiona rubbed her eyes, staring at the dog. The headlights were at a weird angle to the dog, that was why his eyes looked red. Right?

Lewis seized the leash and hauled back, bringing Mystery up on his hind legs. "What were you thinking, Vee? You can't just run off like that! And you, Mystery! Knock it off! Bad dog!"

Mystery snarled once, a quiet sound, and kept pulling as hard as he could. Fiona tilted her head, brushing hair away from her ears. "Um. Hey, guys?"

Vivi wheezed at Lewis. "I had… had to catch…"

"Don't go running after a dog on your own two feet! This was luck, but you could have run into something nasty. Or gotten hit," Lewis scolded.

Fiona poked her head out the window. "Guys."

"Come on, let's load into the van." Lewis grunted, pulling Mystery back a step at a time. "I've got your bat and most of the gear. We should stay in the van until we know what's got him… acting like this. Whoah!" He stumbled forward a step. "How–?"

"Guys!" Fiona yelled. "Shut up! Listen!"

Silence. For a moment, there was only the sound of Mystery's nails scrabbling on the road.

Then a quavery voice called, "A… Aaaartieeee? Thur?"

Arthur went very still. All eyes locked on Vivi, who stared off into the darkness. It was her voice everyone heard, drifting up the road, but her lips weren't moving.

"Ar…thurrrrr. Heeellllp. It huuuuurts."

Vivi exhaled slowly, then straightened. "That's no animal." She turned and strode over to the van. Arthur grabbed a large, metal baseball bat and poked it out the open driver's door. She grabbed it and cocked it back on her shoulder as Arthur slid up into the driver's seat and buckled himself in.

"Whoah!" Fiona protested, "What happened to 'everyone get in the van and see what we're up against'?"

"It's already here," Vivi answered, grimly. "And it's using a classic psychic lure."

"Psychic lure?" Fiona echoed. "The hell is that?"

The not-Vivi voice whimpered a little, throwing in a choked sob. "Lew…isss…? Helllllp…"

"Surface level scrape of the brain for information," Arthur answered, checking the mirrors. "Got it from one of us. Pulled Vivi's voice, her name, and the fact that any of us would go in guns blazing for each other. It's a trick generally used by malevolent or predator types to lure victims. Can't let it run around town doing that to people who don't know about this stuff. That, or it might try to track us down later. Gotta deal with it now."

Lewis sighed. "Artie's got the van, Vivi's got the bat. So…?"

Vivi clapped him on the shoulder. "Yep. You've got the short straw this time. But you've got Mystery, too."

"Great. Alright, then. Fiona, you'd be doing us a favor if you'd grab a camera or something–anything from the bag that you recognize, really–and start recording."

Wide-eyed, Fiona pulled her phone from her pocket and clicked on the camera. "What are you going to do?"

Lewis grimaced, struggling with the leash. "Bait it. That's the short straw job. Just have to–!"

In between Lewis taking a step, Mystery lunged again, his eyes blazing bright. Lewis toppled to the ground and the leash ripped out of his hand. Mystery tore off down the road, howling.

"Mys…tree?" The imposter wobbled. "Goo-boy. Good… aaaeeeeEEYEYEYEEEEE!"

Vivi took off after him. "Go, go, go!" she yelled. "Light it up!"

"Brace yourself," Arthur muttered, shifting into drive. A blood-curdling screech filled the air. Fiona slipped into the front passenger seat and buckled in. Arthur turned on the high-beams and pulled forward, keeping pace with Vivi and Lewis as they ran.

It wasn't too far before the beams caught a flash of fur. It vanished for a second, then reappeared as the van pulled closer. Arthur stopped the car a good ways off. "Get me a clear shot!" he shouted as Lewis and Vivi ran past.

Whatever the thing was, it was twisting and turning so fast that it was difficult to make out head or limb type. Sometimes it was up on two legs, sometimes down on four. It kept turning in a circle, screeching and shaking its head. A whip-like tail lashed every time it turned and its screech never stopped. Fiona caught sight of long, curved tusks and a gaping maw. Mystery hung just below the jaw, his teeth fastened on the thing's neck. The creature shook its head and Mystery's body snapped back and forth, but he refused to let go.

Vivi rushed in and brought her bat down on the thing's forehead with a crack. The screech wobbled as the creature stumbled back. Arthur pulled the van forward just enough to keep it lit up. Lewis dodged flailing limbs and seized Mystery, yanking him off. There was another terrible shriek from the monster as Mystery came free with a bloody chunk in his mouth. The creature lurched toward Lewis, but Vivi smashed it across the snout with her bat. A tusk went flying and it crumpled to the ground, wailing in Arthur's voice. Vivi faltered.

"No you don't," Arthur growled. He leaned back and shouted, "Get clear!"

As Vivi and Lewis pulled back, Arthur slammed the gas pedal. The van squealed as the wheels spun madly for a moment, then hurled the van forward. It was a short distance at that speed, and the van struck just as the creature found its feet.

Fiona lurched into the airbag. It slammed her back into her seat. Glass shattered, metal twisted, and something heavy tumbled over the top of the van.

....................................................................................

"Hey! Fiona? Fiona. Fiona! C'mon."

Fiona's eyelids slid open, her eyes unfocused and wandering. Vivi snapped her fingers in front of Fiona's face. "Hey! You woke up, great. Next step is saying something. Preferably, 'I'm okay, Vivi, no need to panic.' That would be fantastic."

Fiona blinked. "Woke. Up?"

"Ah, well. Can't be choosy with a blackout. Yeah, you were unconscious when we pulled you out of the van."

"Van." Fiona struggled to sit up.

Vivi held her down by her shoulders. "Whoah, whoah. Take it slow. You've been in two wrecks tonight. We found your Vespa. Frankly, I'm… a little scared to show it to Artie."

Fiona groaned. "I saved up over a year for that. What did I…" She bolted up, shoving Vivi's hands off. "What did I hit? What did we… where is it?"

"Hey, it's okay. We got it. It's pretty injured, so we hog-tied it. Lewis made a few phone calls, so we should be getting help soon. Probably some media attention, too, if he played it right."

Fiona stared at her. "You. Hog-tied. A monster."

"A crocotta." Vivi straightened her sweater, a crooked smile on her face. "A live one at that. Biggest team haul yet."

"How d'you know ropes will hold it?"

"Ropes, duct-tape, and Mystery standing guard." Lewis walked over and squatted by them. "It is really weird to see that huge thing cringe every time Mystery growls. Guess he established who's alpha. Do you want to see it?"

Fiona shook her head hard, then groaned, pressing the heel of her hand to her eye.

"Easy." Arthur muttered from off to her right. "You might be concussed. Slow movements. Don't sleep."

Fiona turned her head. Arthur was stretched out on the ground. Blood trickled from a cut on his forehead, but he grinned over at her.

"Don't blame you. I don't want to see it again either. Nightmare fuel, that thing." Arthur shivered. "I hate knowing what's out there."

Vivi frowned. "Aww, Artie, but knowing exactly what it is makes it less scary!"

"No, Vee, knowing that my nightmares have real fur and claws and teeth to walk this world with makes life more scary."

"C'mon, Artie. It's not even that smart. The brain scrape is weird, but it's just an extra evolutionary edge on what's basically animal-level intelligence."

"Fantastic. A large, hungry animal that steals personal info to lure people into the dark for a dinner date. And since it got this extra edge for better survival and reproduction, it's probably not the only one out there. Yeah, I feel way better, Vee."

"Either way," Lewis cut in, "We took this one out of the game. And we might be putting ourselves on the map with this find. That being said, we wanted to re-negotiate with you, Fiona."

She squinted up at him. "Ehhh?"

"Well, you did hit the crocotta first, but we took it down. We also messed up the van pretty bad doing it. It isn't the first time somebody's pulled the hit-and-run move to help the team, but this time the damage is worse than usual."

"My baby," Arthur moaned. "How bad is she?"

"Just lie back and think of the new wax job you'll give her when she's all straightened out," Vivi soothed.

Fiona glanced back at Lewis. "So…?"

"So, capturing a living specimen is probably going to rake in enough money to fix your Vespa and the van. The fixed Vespa is all you're after, right? Unless you want to get into the ghost-busting, cryptid-hunting business with us."

She shuddered. "No. No thank you. I just want my wheels back."

"Happy to help," Arthur croaked. "But we'll need the funds, too, if the van is as bad as they're refusing to describe to me. Revised offer: Let us take the money and the credit, and I'll fix your ride. Parts, labor, and paint job. All of it. I'll even throw in a few upgrades."

That did sound like a good deal. Still…

"Throw in a one-year warranty on your work and we'll call it a deal."

Arthur sighed. "This is the problem with trading labor. Fine. One-year warranty, but you cover pizza for two months of game nights."

Fiona thought about it for a minute. With her employee discount, she could swing three pizzas a few times a month for a bit. "Deal."

Vivi cleared her throat. "You sure you don't want to join the best up-and-coming paranormal investigation team? We're still trying to grow and we could use an extra set of fists, or a hand to hold the camera."

"No," Fiona said, flatly. She paused, then shrugged a shoulder, wincing. "I'm not into that stuff. I am into games, though."

The grin on Vivi's face would have put the Grinch to shame. "And just what kind of games do you play?"

#msaholidayspirits2021 #mystery skulls animated #msa #mystery skulls #msa fanfiction #mystery skulls fanfiction #mystery skulls oc #titenoute

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alphashley14 · 6 months

Text

A heated argument in a haunted conservatory…

Revived another one from my sketchbook! (Actually I’ve had this done for a while but am only now mustering the courage to post it. 🫣) I loved the process for this one and I had fun getting more familiar with Procreate’s brushes!

Based on Chapter 16 of my crossover fic, ‘One of Us!’

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the-headbop-wraith · 3 years

Text

3 _ 40 _ The Land Time Forgot

Part 2

Before the Mystery Skulls could begin officially on their new assignment, they swung by headquarters office and met with security. Temporary passes went to each member, even the Mystery hound. Once the park was shut down fully and the cleaning crews made the final rounds, the crew took one assigned golf cart over to the Land that Time Forgot attraction. Arthur was issued the keys, and he was the one grumbling about coming out to do this gig.

“Just pretend we’ve been called off holiday for an emergency exorcism,” Lewis, once again, tried to appeal for optimism.

Arthur held the staff access open for his crew. The corridor extending within dark and though the emergency lamps buzzed active, only afforded so much light for them to navigate by. They had backpacks with essential supplies loaded up, flashlight torches among the essential gear, but for the time the trope worked with the shoddy light and let their eyes acclimate.

“I’m goin’ through with this, right?” Arthur snapped. “You go, I follow. Let me have my bitchin’ gripes, okay.”

Mystery set a paw on his knee and yipped.

Through the corridor Vivi led the way, with Mystery behind her, and Arthur with Lewis trailing. “We have maps,” she stated, “but we’ll take a patrol and get our orientation.” She swung around and pointed to Arthur. “Make sure walkies are on.”

Arthur placed a hand on his chest. “I, turn my walkie-talkie off? Never.” He pinched his thumb and forefinger together, and whispered to Lewis, “I turn it down super-duper, itty-bitty low.”

“Maybe don’t confess that.”

The entirety of the ride was inactive and still, like browsing through the clothing section of a store alone, while the mannequins judged your every move. Though the animatronic dinosaurs were not immediately visible, their watchful gaze was felt by the members of the Mystery crew. No draft skittered through the interior building, and despite the abundance of foliage, there was an unnatural ambiance in the dearth of nocturnal presence. Everything about the attraction became otherworldly, detached from an established norm prevalent in the former active day – wherein lights and sound ran rampant. The isolated world of the ride was by perception boundless, yet sterile and contained like an ordinary jelly jar fitted with twigs and a bit of soil to appease a small insect or lizard.

After making the rounds of the ride, the group placed themselves at the loading dock. The carts sat on their tracks within the suspended dividers, where guests could stand to climb in or out of the carts. The dull gleam of an emergency light draped its light over the collected members. Mystery leapt into one buggy and put his paws on the front handlebars.

Yap!

Arthur pulled out a folded page and slapped it to the hood of the buggy. “Okay, fifteen animatronics. All chillin’, save for one.”

“Allo,” Lewis presumed. “Won’t stop, can’t stop. Any idea where our dino-terror might be off to?” Vivi shifted at his side, digging around in her backpack.

“There’s no tellin’ how much truth there is to Mr. Klayton’s story.” She clicked on a torch, but quickly shut it off. “But he’ll likely respond to light or sound, and movement.”

“Like a real T-Rex,” Arthur groused.

“Precisely,” she whispered. “We’ll trust it responds strongly to light, over sound. So be very quiet. Arthur.”

Arthur glared. “Why’re you picking on me?”

Lewis poked his shoulder. “You scream. Very loud. Alerts our foes. Not good.”

Vivi came around to Arthur’s side and clicked on her light, though she kept a had capped to its side. “Our first order of business is determine how much control can be managed over this mechanical nuisance, wouldn’t you say?”

Arthur nodded. “Yeah. Good start.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “That’ll depend on what’s bugging Allo, or what’s controlling him. That’ll give us a foundation for what we’re dealing with.”

Lewis whistled, and Mystery gave a soft yip. The dog came over to his group and waltzed around them. “Let’s get a move on then. Get this thing flushed out, and see what it’ll do.”

“I’d rather not,” Arthur whimpered.

Vivi pointed to him. “You and Lewis then. You brave boys, see what you can figure out about the deactivated animatronics.” She turned away, studying the abyss of the ride interior. “You wanna start from the exit or entrance?”

“Exit,” Lewis vouched. “You and Mystery then? What’ll you two get up to?” Arthur was already folding up the page, and began rummaging through his own backpack.

“We’ll see about coercing Allo out.” She adjusted her backpack and moved her hand a little off the flashlight. “Don’t worry about us. We won’t get into any excitement without permission.”

Lewis started after her. “But Vii, that’s dangerous!”

From a considerable distance, she called back, “Turn on your walkie! We’ll meet you back here!”

Lewis sighed, and reached around to his backpack for the volume switch. “En un buen comienzo, no es así.” He clicked the transmitter. “Viiiii….” Arthur grabbed him by the sleeve and began dragging him.

“We’ll meet them middle way on the track. The sooner we start, the quicker we can finish.” He spoke, hushed. “But make too much noise, that dino will zero in on us.”

Once released, Lewis hopped off the end of the loading slab and followed. “You have no escrúpulos about this?”

Arthur grumbled under his breath. “Let’s set the record straight, she saved your butt today. Don’t forget that.”

When they moved beyond the range of walls and certified fortifications to guide them toward the world outside, the attraction became more unsettling as the artificial jungle scenery enclosed and thickened around them. High and in the distance, a red sign blazed faithfully above the gloomy fronds towering, but it seemed a mocking landmark, enticing misguided travelers. A lure on an angler fish, while unknown perils lurking like jagged teeth ready to ensnare the gullible.

Trekking within the thicket was monotonous, given that Arthur examined each and all of the inactive puppets dotted throughout the foliage. This task was made possible due to an interesting and terrifying feature of the animatronics; a mirror in the eyes reflected light, similarly to genuine nocturnal animals. By setting the flashlight to their face, it illuminated the eyes and singled out where each machine was if within the appropriate range.

“I’m getting jumpscared trying to find the chill pacifists,” Arthur muttered. He held a clipboard in both hands, while Lewis held a torch. The two sifted among the plastic and cloth replicated plants, working closer to the giant carnotaurus. The animatronic gazed into the endless black, a sentinel. “That thing is a ship with teeth.”

The two stood beneath it, dwarfed.

“Can you imagine if this ONE was running around?” Lewis whispered, but a little too loud. He capped his flashlight. “The damage it’d do.”

Arthur stumbled forward, but Lewis caught him before he could fall. He grumbled about the uneven floor, where fabricated vegetation lay tattered. “Damn. Yeh. Another tally for human interference.” They made the remainder of the way to the column legs. “I haven’t seen all the entrances or exits, but it’d be more practical for them to access a machine with mobility security.” Lewis moved away from him, taking the light with him.

“Here’s another penny for your thoughts.” Lewis aimed the torch down on the carnotaurus feet and prodded the claws with his sneaker. “Allo shredded those fences and bit a poll in two.”

Arthur knelt, the clipboard balanced on his thigh. “Yeah, I was there. Well, sorta. What’re you getting’ at?”

“The wood was reduced to toothpicks. Toothpicks.” Lewis applied more pressure to the claw. “Klayton said the animatronics were made nerfed, so they wouldn’t damage each other if they get into a ‘brawl’.” He did air quotes, momentarily redirecting the slice of light through the canopy. “And to prevent them from tearing up the set. But all the animatronics we’ve looked at, have pliable rubber claws. The toes here, too.”

Arthur wrote onto the notebook pinned to his clipboard. “Good catch. So, our feathered nightmare can’t be a part of this attraction. The question now, where did he come from?”

“Or when he arri—” Arthur leapt up and capped a hand over his mouth.

“Shh!” He went into alert mode, spiked hair standing on end and eyes dissecting the area over-and-over. “The light,” he hissed. Lewis shut the light off. In the blanket of null and sensory deprivation, Arthur uttered, “Yu hear that?”

Lewis wouldn’t dare move, aside from rove through the daunting gloom with his limited visual capacity. However, he trusted Arthur’s perception, there was good reason to be alarmed. Also, Arthur was rarely wrong. For a short time, nothing trickled through to suggest a presence or any direct threat. Then, a faint but ambiguous rustling – it was impossible to determine the direction. He tugged Arthur’s hand down.

“Vivi? Mystery?” he squeaked. The sounds ceased. Not good. “Let’s go this way.” He pushed Arthur sideways. “I hope that thing doesn’t see in infrared.”

“Don’t jinx it— ARGH!” Arthur twisted around, his legs became tangled with Lewis’ ankles and the two collapsed. This incident was to their benefit, when the allosaur launched its snout through the shrubbery and snapped on empty air. “RETREAT!” He took off running, but more shredded, decorative texture in the terrain sent Arthur crashing in a stringy-bean heap.

Lewis rolled aside and plucked up a rock. “You stop that right now!” He brought the suspiciously light rock down on Allo’s head, which succeeded in destroying the fake plaster prop between his palms. The Allosaur seemed to blink off the assault. “I pictured that going a lot differently in my head….”

The allosaur swung its head back and screamed a prehistoric yowl. Lewis grabbed the flashlight he dropped and staggered backwards, mind churning through the benefits of turning tail and running versus trying to face the machine. Bottom line, he needed something to slow it down with. The team studied the machine, it’s many malfunctions, and how to locate the thing….

But forgot to devise the certified way to incapacitate it! And it was going to require more than dropping an anvil on its head.

With a piercing snarl the allosaur thrust its jaws out, cutting the distance between it and Lewis in mere seconds. Its teeth clamped down on soft material and it began thrashing, hissing, and snorting.

Arthur released the chunk of fake palm trunk he swung into Allo’s teeth and back peddled. “I’m all for solving this case lickety-split, but we won’t do much of that in traction.” He snatched away Lewis’ flashlight and searched the ground, until he spied the notebook with the clipboard.

“Valid point.” Lewis began after Arthur, springing over a cracked log. “Vivi!”

“Viv-vi!” Arthur hollered. “Where’s the road?” He jammed the notebook in the backpack and fitted it safely to his spine. One more shield between him and teeth!

Lewis bolted between two close standing trees. “Keep running, the track winds around here. We’ll intercept with them, we gotta! Vivi!”

A fearsome wail shot through the once silent theme ride. Despite the ground Arthur and Lewis covered, the noises of cracking timber and thumping footsteps propelled after them from the oppressive gloom. The thunder and rumble gained, growing intense and closing fast.

Arthur barely dodged a set of small standing dinosaurs, emotionless and motionless in the dark. “Help us, we’re gunna DAI!”

There was absolutely no way some hulking, mechanical nightmare could navigate the staged scenery without alerting her or her companion. The slightest movement issued rustling or crinkling, from the material used to fabricate soil and lush greenery, to the low hanging branches lumped by carefully sculpted cloth, and the canopy high above. Everything smelled artificial and tinged with dust, it reminded her of offices with the fake plants that hung around forever. Not the nice ones that looked real, but the very fake, obvious fake plants with plastic stems and ratty cloth soil with the green Styrofoam base. It was likely more impressive with the lights and sound ambiance of living things, even if artificial. She wished they had a chance to go through the ride and see what it was like.

“Hello!” Vivi called. “Rawr! Rawr-rawr!” Then, she paused and listened. Not an echo nor a snort. Would the animatronic snort? In all the excitement that day she didn’t see much of it in action, aside from its retreating tail end. “That’s ‘I love you’ in dinosaur!”

Bark. Mystery kept his tone low, while he slunk beneath some fern leaves.

“Machines need love too.” She swung her flashlight through the faux grove, a thick haze of dust swirled through the blue beam. “Echo!”

Mystery’s eyes glint as he rolled them. He trotted ahead, sniffing at the ground. It was spongy and soft, a layer of plant fiber set above sand or wood chips.

“Any leads?”

Woof. He toed at a fake collection of rocks – them being fake because they were glued together.

“Maybe the therma frost broke it for good.” She snuck around a tree trunk, the structure made of cement and rock hard. A lush green, petrified tree. “I hope not, I was looking forward to cracking this case.” The light she flashed through the depths of interwoven branches, and wiggled it swiftly like a strobe.

Mystery yipped.

“Therma, perma. What’s the differ—ENCE!” She froze, her light caught the burning glare of twin orbs suspended three meters above the floor. “Mystery….”

Mystery gave a noisy snort and inched forward, but wiht caution. His ears straight, eyes intense.

Vivi let the light trail down. “Hmm?” She swung the light down and up. “Oh, that one’s way too big.”

Borf. Mystery trotted the remainder of the way, with Vivi in tow.

“That looks like a mini-Rex. Baby T-Rex?” she posed. She went up and touched the underside of the belly. “The eyes glow. That’s nice to know.” She continued prodding the mini-Rex. “Squishy.”

Mystery yapped. When she turned a light on him, the hound nodded aside and resumed his trek.

“You gotta admit, they are cool. For cheesy attractions.” Vivi whistled, as loudly as she could muster. Sometimes she would give a hoop, or a holler. “Aside from the technicians, no one else is probably allowed this close to them. Except for Allo nuisance, he does his own thing.” She took a deep breath and gave her loudest yell yet.

Mystery stopped in his tracks and gave her the widest-eyed stare.

Vivi aimed the torch through the brush, listening. “Where could it be? We don’t have the time to search half the park this night.”

A few yards away, Mystery padded up a decorative slanted log and perched at the peak. Nothing to the right, nothing to the left. Yip! He leapt off and landed beside Vivi. He grumbled under his breath and barked.

“Let’s wait ‘til we meet up with them. We might cross paths on the way there.” It would be a while before they returned to the entrance of the ride, but somewhere they had to cross paths with the Allosaur. That is, if the machine was still within the attraction, or within sensory range to her dino-summons. She was beginning to doubt it remained inside the attraction, if like Mr. Klayton indicated, it was becoming more mobile. That was going to be a problem.

“If we can’t draw it out,” she began, “we can’t devise a way to coax it, or restrain it. It shredded a fence just fine, but maybe we can tangle it up in a good net?”

Yarf.

“Cliché. But effective.” A sound from the rear startled her. She whipped around with the flashlight, holding steady and listening. It wasn’t a sound, was it? The fake foliage settling as they passed, nothing ominous or pursuing. “A snare?” She flashed the light over the tree branches. “Hmm. But what sort of cable and how much tension?”

Mystery whined.

“I want to get with Arthur on that.” She turned her light and recoiled! An ominous and hulking shape crouched behind a flowering palm plant. A stegosaur, or something. It stood on four short, but column legs. “I don’t trust the owner, or Ms. Attorney Lady. But I wanna catch him in a lie, and try getting a read if he’s into something shady or….”

The walkie-talkie crackled against her backpack, squealing with a surge of static and muffled yammering, all of what might’ve been voices.

“Or if he’s not very bright,” she ended, in sigh. She unclipped the communicator and snapped the send button. “Lewis! That you?”

“AAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

“Lewis.” She snapped the device away when a roar ripped through.

Mystery sat down and gave his ear a well-deserved scratch.

“Talk to me, boys! What’s happened?” She picked up with a run, the beam of her torch bounded across the uneven terrain and across elephant ear leaves. “I think I know what’s going on, but are you okay?” Mystery caught up at her side, his collar rattling in rapid succession with his zipping stride.

In the background and distant, Arthur came through chattering up a panicked storm, “It found us! We’re bein’ chased— WeWereSoFuckingCarefulThisIsUtterBullShit!”

“Language Arthur!”

“My gods, Lewis! We’re gunna DAI!” The communicator gave a dramatic, electrical wail as Vivi toggled the relay switch.

“Okay! Okay! We’re on our way, don’t panic!”

Bark!

“Who’s panicking?” Arthur wailed. “We’re being chased! We’re so lost, and we’re being chased!”

Lewis hollered through, loud and clear, “Where are you!”

“Not at the entrance.” One of the animatronics was in her path, once again freaking her out – what with all the noises churning through the communicator. “Find your way to the backside! I don’t know where we are! Can you make it to the back? This place is a box, we can follow along the wall—”

A response was not forthcoming, not for her. Lewis gasped, speech labored, “Watch out!” Following came snippets of silence, with patches of Arthur screaming and the Allosaur shrieking. Some sort of distinctive weight thumped, almost vibrating the walkie-talkie in her palm. There was some cussing in there and harsh scuffling. The screech of the Dinosaur became intense, until it was right there in the communicator.

“What’s happening?” Vivi halted in her tracks and listened through the device, terse and powerless.

Mystery shot by, his barks fading as he tore through the pseudo jungle. Vivi resumed in a job, leaping logs and some sort of small animal puppet. The whole time, the communicator was treacherous and silent.

“Hang in there! Mystery and I got your trail!” When she snapped her finger off the transmitter, Arthur’s voice punched through:

“This was a bad idea! I told you guys, didn’t I say? I called it! One Hundred Percent CALLED IT! I’m a fucking seer! AYYYEEEEEE!”

RAAARRR!

“Just shut up and run!” Lewis snarled.

How far the Allosaur was behind them, this was hard to say. It followed with intense, single-minded focus, pronouncing the diminishing stretch by cavernous bellows. The duo was in some horrendous video game level with an instant game over, snapping at their heels.

The jittering beams of their flashlight flickered across the thick fibrous carpet, revealing snags and gleaming across sinister disasters hidden among the shadows. Though, neither Arthur or Lewis paid much mind to the ground beneath them – except to save them from colliding with a low branch – focus was averted high above, to the bright mocking glare of the EXIT sign. It was a beacon in the night, the easiest recognizable landmark in the abyss of the hellish attraction.

“Hang in there! Mystery and I got your trail!” crackled through the radio Lewis gripped, the plastic creaked under intense pressure.

He toggled the transmitter, “THANK YOU!” He was having a hard time keeping up with Arthur, despite inspiration being super motivating.

The Allosaur gave a peeling shriek, the noise of it vibrating in Lewis’ ears, growing louder and more deafening. It was right at his backside.

Lewis scrapped between two narrow trees, nearly getting wedged in the narrow space. A rebounding Thunk! echoed, and the Allosaur hissed. But the sound of it did drift away. However, he did not stop to look or spare a thought, he recovered his speed and tried to catch up with Arthur. He pinpointed him by the sporadic patches of yellow light flittering through the shrubs, and managed to catch his stride.

“Pepper!” he panted.

“Kingsman!” Lewis vaulted over a rock.

“Nice day at the office!”

“Marvelous! Absolutamente asombroso!”

“Technically, it’s nighttime.”

Lewis exhaled, “True!”

A thundering screech crashed through the plastic flora somewhere to the left. The Allosaur was gaining, due to the fact it was not a living animal. On the other hand, Lewis and Arthur ran on fumes.

“The Exit, there should be a door!” Lewis huffed. The red beacon was neigh ninety degrees airborne, a few more meters they should come to the boarders of the building.

The line of his light did hit a sheer and solid surface, which by the explanation of his light revealed a rugged boarder of stone standing at about ten or eleven feet. Well above his height clearance. But there was no clean cut wall, no slate, and no irrefutable explanation of exit. Nothing but a cliff face.

Being more spry and agile, Arthur flew up the wall like a squirrel. He chucked his light up, his hands caught grips with practiced ease and with a small bit of leverage propelled himself skyward.

That looked easy! Lewis jammed the flashlight between his teeth and felt for a handhold. His fingers easily found a knot, he braced his foot and—

Fell backwards. With a hunk of cheap plaster gripped in his hands.

“Lewis!” Arthur set his light down on his teammate, and hissed, “What the FACK?! Get up here!”

Lewis bit down on his flashlight and scrambled to his feet. From his safe perch, Arthur held the light steady while Lewis took another fixture of the coarse wall and shoved his toes into niche. He managed to ease himself up a foot or so, but applying too much weight and the crappy Styrofoam snapped. The outer layer was stiff and scrapped his knuckles when he came down. Lewis looked up at Arthur and they locked eyes.

“AAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

The Allosaur shrieked. Arthur turned his light up, catching the eye sheen of the animatronic as it barreled through the fake jungle. “Oh my god! Um, Don’t move! I’ll get help!”

Lewis spat out the flashlight. “Arthur?” The Allosaur expelled another echoing howl. He turned, angling his light through the thicket. “Arthur!” The soft yellow light that drenched him, was now gone. Lewis had never felt so alone, so utterly betrayed. “ARTHUR!”

The thundering parade of the Allosaur hurtled toward his focal point, everywhere it went the plants rustled and crashed. It snarled, the sounds of its violent procession closing in on him. It must have infrared vision!

Lewis pressed his back against the cold fake rock. The Allosaur bounded through the thicket, the frayed ends of his light brushed against its snout. It closed in with terrible swiftness, weaving around artificial plants, but never once detracting for more than a millisecond. Lewis began inching away, if he timed it right, it might just shatter its CPU. But his timing had to be impeccable.

A blissful light drenched his shoulders, along with a stringy long rope thing. Likely a vine prop. The tale end of Arthur’s hoot, “—Tight!” Came through, and Lewis had enough foresight to piece together the full phrase. Without delay he dropped his flashlight and grabbed the rope.

The Allosaur barreled forward, chewing through the remaining few feet, teeth glittering in the spotlight Arthur cast. Lewis braced himself, he wasn’t sure what for. A Tarzan themed holler peeled from above high, and Lewis shot up at rocket speed. The angle of the line zipped him across the upper edge of the plaster cliff face. He cleared it but barely, his jeans scrapped eliciting a sharp yelp. Out somewhere across the open air, the Tarzan yowl waned in its descent.

Then Arthur really started screaming.

Lewis had to release the vine thing, or he would have gotten skinned on the concrete surface of the floor he was on. He crawled to the edge, and peering down tried to make sense of the swaying murk below. A succession of snarling poured forth of the large, black heap; it thrashed and swept into a stray flash of the yellow beam Arthur held. He thought this was clear indication where Arthur wound up, but the light cut off. He heaved off his backpack and dug through the folders and tools, until his palms clasped the large cylinder camping lamp.

“I did NOT THINK THIS THROUGH!”

He clicked the light on and turned it down. There was Arthur, running around the erratic animatronic. The dinosaur roved in circles, shaking and snapping, not fully invested in chasing the yellow blur. After affording a brief examination, he recognized the actual issue. The other end of the rope was snagged between its teeth, and the animatronic was fighting to cut it free. The line was tangled somewhere, this provided by how every time the Allosaur went to turn on Arthur, it’s head snapped sideways.

“Arthur!” he hooted. “ArthurArthurArthurArthur!” He dashed along the edge of the cliff flailing the flashlight around. “Get over here ya dweeb!”

The rope at last snapped with a grueling CRACK! and the Allosaur swept its snout towards the tiptoeing figure. A peeling shriek, something like an EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE shot out of Arthur as he did a one-eighty and charged out into the jungle thicket.

A rumbling snarl thundered out as the Allosaur resumed its chase, it’s tail flashing out of sight within the shrubbery.

Lewis stamped his foot. “Damnit!”

Meanwhile, Arthur was running for his life. Several times he nearly stumbled or lost his footing. Though he had the advantage of choosing a tight pathway difficult for Allo to pursue, the animatronic was not distracted by a second target. It was able to lay full focus on him, and track him with crazed efficiency. Or frenzy. He managed to catch his second wind in the meager intermission, but his muscles were giving out. Running on the spongey floor was strenuous, and the Allosaur’s grating call was closing in. If it got a clean opening, it would have its jaws on his neck.

There! He took a sharp right, in the line of sight of Allo. The dinosaur lunged, but Arthur already tucked into a stunt roll. Its feet trounced the earth right behind his shoulders, but he kept going until he was back on his feet. At no more than two meters there was some shadow, and bent – what he guessed would be roots – the trees weren’t real. But that black, unmistakable, hollowed space – there was no mistake on what that was. He’d stake his life on it, as he was about to.

The roots were concrete, hard as stone, bent and arched around a gouged hollow beneath the fake tree. Arthur clambered through the wedge, with the Allosaur not more than a breath behind his feet. His immediate thought was, ‘How deep is this!’ He smacked his flashlight against the wall and the light doused, the space around him blacked out. His hands prodded the walls seeking space or drafts, he jammed his elbows and shoulders at every inch, pushing further away from the hissing hydraulics of the Allosaur as it snapped and worked its way after him.

He felt the walls and ceiling, using his legs to kick for any missed crease that might afford an exit. There was nothing but concrete on all sides – left, right, up, and down – solid, unyielding.

“SHIT!”

The Allosaur snapped its jaws inches from his knee. “Fuck you!” Arthur tried kicking its snout, however ineffective it was. The machine twisted its neck and squeezed in further, the servos in its jaws whirling. It wouldn’t help, even if he wasn’t exhausted. He had nowhere to go—

Something snagged his collar and yanked him upward. He gave a little sob.

“Gotcha! I got ya Artie!” Lewis heaved him out of the hollow between the knotted roots, and dropped him on the ground. “You okay?” He adjusted the camping light, checking Arthur over, making sure he was in one piece.

“Yes, fuck! That was too close!” Arthur gave his own body a full pat down. All there, except for the gash in his vest where he fell earlier. All the stuffing on that side fell out. “It almost turned me into bubblegum!” He got onto his feet and paced a bit, before stopping to hunch over and set his palms to his knees. He just needed to breathe a moment.

“Take it easy now, you’re fine.” Arthur took a noisy breath and gargled. “Smooth, climbing into that… what is this? A burrow?” Lewis turned his light onto the opening, where he hauled Arthur out.

“I don’t give a toot what it is.” Arthur rounded the side of the tree, but cautiously. The Allosaur was still being raucous, snarling and grunting. It sounded like they had some time to catch their breath. “Probably for those lil dinosaur thingies. Are they chickens? The small nuggets.”

Lewis quirked his brow and shined the light across his face. “Raptors?”

“Chicken tenders,” Arthur insisted. Lewis came over with the light and stood beside him, observing as the Allosaur persisted with its struggles. And failed to free itself.

“It’s… not getting loose, huh? It’s stuck.” He shined the light lower, against the backside and shoulders of the unruly thing. It was surreal, watching the rubber suit cover on the dinos backside jiggle, but not ripple like the way muscles should. As muscles would, if on a real animal. For most of the night they were running from this thing, and it felt very real, like a hunting predator. Not some deranged AI, or whatever went off with it. Nonetheless dangerous, but creepy and sinister.

“Y’know what,” Lewis went on, stunned, “I think you caught it!”

Arthur gasped. “NO!” He leaned a little closer, but wouldn’t get too close. “No! Really? I did it? I did it! The case is over!” He throws his arms up. “WHOO! I am a mastermind!”

“Don’t get too hyped,” Lewis warned. “We caught it, but we still don’t know what’s up with it, or if someone is controlling it.”

“CASE CLOSED!” Arthur hooted. “Our contract said we have only gotta catch it! Done deal!”

Lewis chuckled and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Por el amor de…” he sighed. “Y’know, lemme be honest, I thought you bailed back there. On that cliff.”

Arthur dropped his arms and gave Lewis a befuddled stare. He winced when Lewis shined the light his way. “What! What kind of loser do you take me for? Abandoning my best bro. Get outta here.” Lewis laughed.

“It was pretty stupid.” He turned the light back onto the Allo. “I have a habit of overestimating myself, getting in over my head. You guys… always come back, and keep me outta trouble.”

Arthur shrugged. “Eh, we’re even now. Right?”

“Right.” He held up his fist. Arthur smirked, and returned the fist bump.

The Allosaur gave a grating wail, gears grind in its neck as the body twisted, the rear legs shoved at the padded terrain. At the cement roots, they crackled and squealed. With another shriek, the Allosaur ripped its shoulders free – a flint of light ignited off the Allosaur’s neck.

“Shit!” Lewis backed up, and pulled Arthur with him.

“Fuck a balloon!”

The Allosaur hauled its arms and neck free, the cement barrier that once caged it snapped apart. Lewis swung his light on the dinosaur, the beam momentarily illuminated a space on its arm torn open, revealing foam and inner padding. It was fleeting, and before Arthur or Lewis could react to what would happen next, the dinosaur veered aside and charged off. Disappearing into the fake foliage of the eerily silent jungle. The thundering footfalls and rustling shrubbery diluted after seconds, until once more silence tormented the fabricated fauna sprawling abundant.

Arthur dropped, but Lewis caught him before he collapsed entirely. The taller figure held onto his friend, and used his other arm to pat his back. Arthur sniffled and shuddered.

“There-there. We knew it was way too easy.”

“We never get a freebee!”

Off somewhere, echoing yaps rebounded through the area. Lewis gave a holler, and reached down to take up the camping lamp. “Over here!” He swung the light around, flashing the vibrant rosy beam through the clutter of petri-timber. “We’re okay!”

“No we’re not!”

Lewis sighed. “We’re in one piece!”

“Yeah!”

Soon, the panting rasp of a dog threaded its way towards the two. Once Lewis was able to interpret the direction, he hauled Arthur with him toward his teammates. “Vivi?”

“Yeppers!” she called. She was not far from the dogy gasping. “You got away from it?” The swaying blue beam preceded the clopping footfalls as she raced to them, out of breath and hair frazzled. “What happened? You’re both okay?” Upon seeing Arthur hanging off Lewis, she handed her flashlight off to Mystery and knelt before him.

“He’s in a little shock.”

Arthur whimpered, “It got away.” Vivi scrunched up her face.

“That’s… not something I expected to hear from you.”

Arthur brought his hands to his head. “No! We managed to trap it—”

Vivi turned her eyes up to Lewis. “You caught it!”

“Eh,” Lewis shrugged. “Isn’t that past-tense?” He moved down the slope, guiding the path with his lamp. “Temporarily snared.”

Vivi groaned, “I miss all the fun stuff!” Arthur balked.

The group examined over the area, inside the warren and the arched cement tree roots, decorative fantasy décor for the ride-goers. Vivi took interest in the snapped root ends, where the rebar stuck out, warped and shattered.

Vivi poked the corrupt end of rebar. “Can we decide how much gauge of cable to use, when we need to catch it?”

Arthur stood nearby, gazing off into the thicket with Lewis’ lamp flittering through the grove. “Sure. I don’t think it’ll have that much tensile strength in its hydraulics.” He perked his lips and nodded his head. “But we’ll work on how to keep it from tearing loose later. We kinda fucked up figurin’ how we’ll get it into the trap, though.”

Lewis was crouched, giving Mystery’s shoulders a rub while the dog laid on the floor resting. “True. But we can vouch that Mr. Allo is on someone’s payroll.” He perked, and stood. “Did you see, Art? It did rip its skin cover, on its arm.”

Arthur didn’t answer immediately, vouching to listen and study the perimeter. “We can try shorting it, given if the interior wiring isn’t insulated. That’s no guarantee.” He patted his own arm. “Insulation takes time to incorporate, and costs extra. It would also bulk out the equipment. So, we can think of that as an alternative, if getting it to behave doesn’t work.”

Vivi stretched and gave a yawn. “Okay, we have some intel to work with. It seems like time to call it a night, sound good?”

“You won’t hear a complaint from me,” Arthur chimed. “Stick a fork in me.” He was already walking away, with Mystery hurrying after. Lewis grabbed up his backpack and followed.

“The Allo might need to recharge,” Lewis mentioned. He took Vivi’s hand, and helped her up a loose fitted slope. “Each animatronic has a battery life for a few days, but we don’t know how long our friend has been running amuck. That might be the reason it took off.”

Vivi adjusted the light between her hands. “We’ll snoop around the park in the morning, try and find where it went and build our game plan. Did you guys hear me, I was making a lot of noise. That thing didn’t give a truck about Mystery or me.”

Ruff!

“I didn’t hear ya, but I’ll take your word for it” Lewis affirmed. “Someone has access to the Allo controls.”

Vivi stroked her chin. “Someone that knows we’re investigating the park.”

Together, Lewis and Vivi did a dramatic, “Hmm….” Simultaneously.

Arthur yawned and rubbed his face. “Can you guys draw up accusations tomorrow? After we’ve slept on it.”

Woof.

Together, the Mystery Skulls navigated their way through the fabricated jungle, trading stories on the encounter with the Allosaur and their escape. At one point Arthur stopped midsentence and in his tracks, then turned the camping lamp around the area they were currently within.

“Where the fuck are we?”

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