Today’s challenge is to write anything you like based on the animated video for Mystery Skulls: Ghost
If you need to know, Blue = Vivi, Yellow = Arthur, Purple = Lewis and Dog = Mystery
[AN: This takes place sometime after a re-union of ghost and mystery team. Also I love the fuck out of MSA :D]
Mystery had his nine tails out as he slept. And one eye open. Lewis glared at the kitsune, and at the target beyond.
Arthur. Snoring gently into a cushion of electrical parts and crystals. The remains of an entire case of Caf-Pow Superbullet cans scattered around the vicinity of a trash can.
Like so many other nights. Many of them while Lewis still had flesh.
The way it used to be… they never let Arthur tinker alone. Strange things happened when he was hepped up on too much caffeine and sarsaparilla. And, yes, there was a scattering of root beer bottles underneath his desk.
Memories battled with each other. Lewis knew, as team mom, that Arthur was going to wake up with an atrocious back, a crick in his neck and one hell of a headache. Why hadn’t Vivi…?
Vivi couldn’t carry Arthur to bed. That had always been Lewis’ job.
But also, he remembered the push. One green hand and a lunge. One expression of demented glee battling with the other - utter, pitch-black terror. And his own, illogical concern that Arthur had once again become possessed. He’d forgotten his stupid amulet in the stupid car again. Even though they put the stupid thing on the stupid rear-view so he could stupid see it and remember to put it stupid on…
And he remembered the feel of the stalagmite. And the struggle for air. And begging Vivi not to look. And he remembered the hate. He always remembered the hate.
It was easy to hate Arthur. It was easy to enjoy scaring the kid. So easy… to forget that he had once been Arthur’s mentor. That he’d taken the nervous, twitchy, bullied and browbeaten mechanical genius under his wing. How Arthur had resurrected the Skullmobile from a burned out chassis and a veritable plethora of junk parts.
…how Arthur had invented most of the machines that had saved them all too many times from the otherworldly menaces…
…how scared and shivering Arthur had kept coming back to face his fears…
And he had to keep reminding himself. Why he should not hate Arthur.
Vivi told him, often, about the year and a day since the fall. She called it ‘the fall’. During their time apart, she called it ‘the bad thing’ and did not remember. And once she did… She literally cried for a week. Once she was done, she told him how Arthur had gone through a rapid succession of replacement limbs before inventing his own. It had half the tech they used on their adventures, inside it. And an improved Amulet. He’d never get possessed again.
Some days, it felt like too little, too late. Tonight… it made the rage go away. Because Arthur never took the arm off. Not even for a second.
Lewis tidied up, using his postmortem telekinesis to silently remove the remains of Arthur’s indulgences. And in doing so, he uncovered the plans. Like always, the contents of the plans were incomprehensible to Lewis, but there was a title and a paragraph. Added by habit to stop Lewis derailing Arthur’s train of thought with questions.
He still did that. Even after a year of Lewis’ death.
The words on the sheet read: Corporeal Recombobulator. Return flesh to Earthbound Spirits over the passage of nine months. The rest of it was the usual incomprehensible mixture of math, science, and magic.
And the finished product resembled a bright yellow companion cube.
“…’m s’rry, lew… didn’ mean it…” Arthur mumbled, turning his head. There were transistors and resistors and a crystal stuck to his face.
Lewis sighed and carried Arthur to bed. Things may never be as they were… but they could at least mend the bridges.
When he looked back at Mystery, he seemed like an ordinary dog, once more.
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