[closed]

[ghostytrainer]

Characters: Bro Strider, John Egbert [OU], John Egbert [AU2], and eventually Dave Strider [OU]
Setting: Floor fifty-four (toy shop)
Format: Action
Summary: Egbertian luck is bad as usual as they happen across a malfunctioning Bro while trying to avoid tower craziness. They manage to survive the encounter, only to die at the hands of a none-too-pleased, clockwork'd little brother.
Warnings: Language, body horror, a toasted marshmallbro, and scrambled egs

[You would think that they would have come to the conclusion of staying together in these sorts of circumstances a lot sooner than they did. You would think, but you would be wrong. Such is the Egbert way of life.]

[They'd been moving from floor to floor, avoiding all the droned inhabitants to the best of their abilities. They never stayed on any particular floor for too long and only ventured near the staircases when tey were absolutely sure that there was nobody there. And so far, they'd managed to do a pretty good job of avoiding death. Guess it really is true what they say about two heads vs. one.]

[Currently, they were hiding out on the doll floor, sticking to the edge of the room and trying to avoid thinking about how creepy the stares of the dolls and puppets were.]

Okay, my vote is that we leave this floor and head up to the ball pit, what say you? Not only does it have better cover but it's less...creepy. This is a very creepy floor.

Comments

[longwinded]

[Oh hell to the no, Bro. Bigger John will not let Bro lay a finger on his alternate self. John grabs the Fear no Anvil hammer and takes a good swing at Bro. Whether or not he was able to activate it was a different story. He didn't use this hammer as much as he should have.

Hm.]

Take that, asshole.

[INSIST THEY AMSCRAY JOHN...]

[plushaeusrumpified]

[Yeah. You know that inexperience with the hammer? It's not going in your favor, Johnny boy. Bro manages to dodge the swing and now he's tackling smaller John to the ground, hard, and trying to get his hands around his neck.]

[ghostytrainer]

[John gets the wind knocked out of him entirely as Bro slams him into the ground. Disoriented, Stars blink in and out in his field of vision as his head spins. And with Bro going for his throat on top of all this? Well it doesn't exactly bode well.]

[longwinded]

[Missing is kind of embarrassing. So when the two slam to the ground, John goes into action- raising the hammer and bringing it down hard over Bro's head.

He wasn't one for attacking people like this. He didn't WANT to kill Bro. But if he had to....well...he had to.]

[plushaeusrumpified]

[He's just getting his hands closed around John's neck when the blow comes.

What did you expect to happen, John?

Because what happens is probably not something you ever could've imagined. The back of his head caves in, the force of the blow sending his head forward and smacking right into John's face. Those pointy anime shades don't feel too good when they're slamming into you, do they, John? Oops.

But instead of brain goo spilling out, the only thing they'll see is the smuppet fluff, sticking out bloody and fluffy from around the bits of bone and sunken skin. It's disorienting enough for Bro to roll off of John for the moment, but he's very clearly Not Dead as he slowly moves to get up, blood dripping from the back of his head. His shades were knocked off and you're getting none too happy looking orange eyes glaring at the both of you as he stands.]

[ghostytrainer]

[John coughs as he rolls over onto his side. His back hurts, his lungs are on fire, and now his face hurts on top of it all after having Bro's head slammed against it.]

S-son of a bitch...

[Panting, he manages to push himself into a half-seated position on the floor. High enough to get a better look at what's going on, but he's not so sure about actually standing just yet. One look at Bro is enough to make the color drain from his face.]

What the hell!? [This is all kinds of messed up right now.]

[longwinded]

[John lowers the hammer and gets a good look at Bro. What the fuck is going on here? Is that fluff? Yeah that is definitely fluff. He just fucking made a puppet Bro bleed. They were so fucked right now.

Son of a bitch is right.]

This is so messed up. [Talk about body horror. John wasn't even thinking anymore-it was either kill or be killed at this point and if Bro keeps getting up, they needed to off him.]

[plushaeusrumpified]

[Here's your chance to try and off him again, John, because now that he sees you with the bloody hammer, he's coming after you now. Forget the one he just tackled. You bashed his head in, you bastard, you're the enemy once more. He's still sort of disoriented, so his movements are similar to a zombie as he stumbles towards the John with the hammer.]

[longwinded]

Nice try, puppet dude.

[Nope. Not so fast Bro! Big John knows how to defend himself here. Unlike the last couple of times he's encountered someone, he just materializes off to the side of Bro, getting himself out of sight for another attack if need be.]

[ghostytrainer]

[Certain that his alternate self isn't going to come to any harm, Johto's John takes advantage of the fact that Bro's attention is once again off of him and staggers to his feet.]

[He'll work on making a run for it once the room stops spinning. He must have hit his head harder than he thought when Bro tackled him. Dammit he better not have sustained another concussion here...]

[plushaeusrumpified]

[When John materializes away, Bro is trying his best to find him. He's forgotten little John for the moment and he's swaying a little as he looks for where the other went. His mind lands on the smaller John though, and his mind is telling them they're both enemies. If he can't get one, then he needs to get the other.

So fighting the disorientation, Bro heads towards smaller John. The puppet head from before is between them and as he runs at him, he picks it up and hurls it at John's head just to distract him, and then keeps running at him, attack mode engaged.]

[ghostytrainer]

[The doll head doesn't so much distract him as it does hit him square in the face, reigniting pain in an already tender area and throwing him off balance.]

Ack!!

[He manages to stay on his feet, but he is not at all prepared for Bro's approach. He's one gentle shove from being acquainted with the ground again and hardly in any position to put up a defense or a counter attack since John still has his hammer.]

[plushaeusrumpified]

[Mission accomplished. With the hit secured, Bro is free to tackle him to the ground again. Because of his head wound, it's not nearly as hard or as rough as before. Hell, towards the end it's kind of like he stumbles into John. But once he's got him on the ground, he's going to try a different approach. Thus far, choking has only gotten him bashed and beaten. So clearly he needs to do something else.

So yeah, he's just going to start trying to claw at John's face, going for the eyes mostly, hard and rough and angry, because maybe if he really gets John injured then he won't be able to run away so much!]

[ghostytrainer]

[Tackle or stumble, it's enough to send John reeling again. Son of a bitch, he just got OFF the floor, why does this keep happening? At least he's not trying to choke him again, though John can't honestly say he cares for this approach either. Hasn't his face taken enough abuse from Bro today? Apparently not.]

[He writhes on the ground trying to roll away from Bro or kick him off him or basically do ANYTHING that will separate them. His eyes are screwed shut in an attempt to keep Bro's fingers from scratching them out.]

Get offa me!! Get--!! Stop!! [Alright, fuck it. He really didn't want to do this but it's come to the point where he doesn't have any other options. The hammer isn't doing shit to Bro's puppet innards so even with his other self here, there's not much that can be done. While using his right hand to push Bro's chin back and hopefully get him to ease off the cat attack, his left hand goes for his belt. Specifically: the little red-and-white balls stuck to it. Good thing he has their positioning memorized, because there's really only one Pokémon for the job here.]

[There's a flash of light as John releases his Dusknoir from his Pokéball, the giant ghost appearing at the side of the floorbound duo. Now, Elliot isn't exactly the most expressive of Pokémon, considering he doesn't really have any facial features but even so it's pretty obvious that he is Not Okay with this in the slightest.]

Elliot! Help!

[John didn't even need to give the command, as the ghost was already in the process of reaching for Bro the moment he realized what was going on. There is one thing in this world that you don't fuck with in front of Elliot.]

[And that one thing is Master John.]

[One of his massive hands grabs at Bro's back, attempting to pull the man off of John none too gently.]

[plushaeusrumpified]

[John's eyes being closed definitely makes it hard to get at them, that's for sure. But that doesn't stop him, he's determined to claw the fuck out of him, and he does at least get a few good swipes in.

But then the Pokemon is pulling him off, though he does manages to squirm out of the grip thanks to the fact he's kind of slick with blood. Welp. That certainly is a new threat. So Bro is just going to try and attack it now, lunging at it viciously.]

[ghostytrainer]

[Elliot goes incorporeal as Bro lunges at him, sending the man barreling right through him. Nice try, but not good enough. He spins around on the spot, facing Bro and waiting for a counter attack with his right fist curled into a ball.]

[Bring whatever you've got, you won't hurt his master or his alternate master again, Puppet-Man.]

[plushaeusrumpified]

[Son of a bitch you guys and your ability to go incorporeal. It makes it hard to do what he needs to do and kill you all. So obviously he can't hurt this big fella, so he'll go back to just trying to kill John. So he just looks past the Pokemon and then decides to go after John again. Yep, so he's going to attempt to run past it now, as fast as he can.]

[ghostytrainer]

[By now, John has pushed himself into a seated position on the ground. He turns to look towards his Pokémon just in time to see Bro running towards him again. Jesus Christ, not again!]

[He really didn't need to worry or brace himself though. Because as Bro moves closer to John, Elliot moves silently to intercept him. The Dusknoir plants himself squarely between the two humans and sends a flame-enveloped fist straight towards Bro's face. You better believe he's not pulling that punch at all. But it's not the force of the punch itself that Bro has to worry about, after all it can't do much more than hammer in this situation.]

[plushaeusrumpified]

[He doesn't see it coming. Not until there's a blinding flash of orange directly in front of his face and the punch connects with a thud. He goes sprawling back, landing hard on his backside, head thudding sickeningly on the floor with a squish where it'd caved in.

Instantly his hands are coming up to clutch at his face, which is on fire. Slowly though, his skin is breaking out into ugly red blisters and there's a popping noise, the sound of the fluff inside of him catching fire and burning. Bro is practically thrashing around by now, trying to get the fire to quit.

It breaks through his skin first on his arms, the flames inside of him finally licking through his skin as it burns. The fluff inside of him has caught fire, and he's being burned alive from the inside out.

Good job, John, it was super effective!]

[longwinded]

[John quickly regains his post at the other John's side. Checking him over and turning to raise the hammer again. He would fucking smack this guy a good one and make sure he didn't get back up. He doesn't care anymore at this point. Bro was done for and he was just going to deal the deal.]

[ghostytrainer]

[This John, on the other hand, was able to do little else other than watch the scene before him unfold in horror. Never. Not once. Have any of his Pokémon attacked a human being with serious intent to harm. And he certainly never expected it of his giant reaper with a heart of gold.]

[As he watches Bro die, he's honestly more disturbed by what Elliot did than he is by the death itself. Not that he wanted Bro to die, of course. But had he been more on top of things, he could have stopped this. Had Elliot use Bind on him and run away while Bro was unable to move. He never would have given a command like Fire Punch and the fact that he did it without prompting...]

[He should probably be touched that the Dusknoir cares that much about him, but it's really hard to be when your best bro's dad-brother lays in flames in front of you. It's hard to feel much of anything at that point aside from mind-numbing disbelief.]

[What finally jolts him out of it though is his alternate self raising his hammer next to him.]

No, don't! [He scrambles to his feet, tottering slightly as he moves to try and keep the taller John from bringing the hammer down. Bro's suffered enough already in his opinion and he's not going to get back up from this anyway so what's the point in hitting him again?]

[plushaeusrumpified]

[It's around the time the flames are licking through his stomach that something in Bro clicks. His mind comes back to him, just in time to feel the flames eating through his skin. With his brain malfunctioning no longer, he's fully aware of the pain. The throbbing in the back of his head is nothing compared to the flames inside of his body, tearing through him and turning his insides to ash and burning through his skin.

He isn't in control of his body's actions, which just makes it that much worse.

Why is this happening? Fuck, fuck, god, he can't even scream, can't cry out, can't even flail in the way he wants because his body is still on auto pilot. His mind is screaming though, even if there are no words coming from his mouth. He doesn't know what the fuck happened, why he's on fire or anything. All he knows is that this is fucking hell. It's hell and it's not ending fast enough. He can't see jack shit, eyes burned away by the initial punch. If his mouth does open, flames erupt from them and his lips just kind of shrivel and peel away, blackened and burned.

He's not dead yet? Why is he not dead yet? This hurts so fucking much, he just wants to cry. But...slowly. Slowly his mind goes fuzzy, the pain begins to feel like a warmth, a prickle. And then...

Nothing.]

[longwinded]

[He lowers the hammer. He feels like he's going to be sick. He feels like he wants to throw up. Why is this happening. Why did Bro attack them, why did they have to come to this. Bro didn't have to die. If they could have just restrained him. Fucking hell. He felt so bad, watching Bro die, and die in pain.

Whatever had snapped Bro, let him go, and now he's dead. Now he's fucking dead.]

John. We just murdered Bro.

[ghostytrainer]

[John can't pull his eyes away from Bro, though he's stopped breathing. At least through his nose because charred flesh is really not an appetizing scent at all. And it's making him more nauseous than he already was.]

[For a good minute or so, he says nothing. He doesn't really even move either.]

No. [When he finally does speak, it's barely above a whisper. He pulls Elliot's Pokéball from his belt, calling the Dusknoir back in a flash of white light.]

No, there's no "we" in this. So help me god if you try and share the blame for this I will literally punch you in the dick. There is absolutely no sense in you beating yourself up over something that wasn't even remotely your fault. Elliot is my responsibility and all this incident shows are my own failures as a trainer. [Can he really call it a failure though?] He may have had good intentions, but that doesn't change the fact that he just killed a person. Nor does the fact that Bro couldn't control himself.

[He grits his teeth, curling his fist at his side.]

This is the admins' fault, like everything else terrible that happens here. They're the one that did whatever it is that made him attack us in the first place. I just happen to share part of their blame this time because I couldn't stop Elliot.

[longwinded]

If we would have just run instead of me turning my stupid ass around we wouldn't be in this situation, we wouldn't have had to come to this. Just shut up and don't argue.

[Both of them were stupid, both of them did this. Just because Elliot decided to use lethal force wasn't his alternate self's fault at all. It just meant Elliot wanted to protect his master, and he did. They couldn't fault the Pokemon's natural instinct.]

Don't you dare start trying to take the partial blame to yourself. We could have avoided this together, and we didn't. Now Bro is dead. We have to go John, we can't look back right now.