towerofanimus | [closed]

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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.

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[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.]

[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.]

[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.]

[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!]

[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.]

[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?]

[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.]

[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.

[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.

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.

[It's too bad that Dave had been watching. And of course he wasn't going to take this lightly. They not only attacked a unit, but they killed that unit even. That unit was his damn brother. The human part of him was long gone though. He wasn't angry over the death of his brother. He was mad at an obvious disobedience.

Dave moves towards them. He's quick. The only sound they probably hear are gears turning. And then he speaks.]

You two are in trouble. [How dare these residents do this to the units. He'll punish them for misbehaving.] I'm going to have to punish you both for attacking and destroying a unit. [It wasn't even killing Bro. It was destroying a unit. Like they were expendable.] You can't run.

[You can't escape what you deserve.]

[John opens his mouth to argue with his alternate self, but instead ends up jumping about a foot off the ground instead when he hears Dave's voice. He turns slowly, hoping this is some kind of shitty joke but knowing full well that it isn't. And sure enough...]

[He stands rooted to the spot, staring at Dave for about thirty seconds before his brain kicks back into gear.]

Run! [He practically hisses it at the other John, shoving him in the small of the back towards the staircase. It's long past time to get the fuck out of here, they don't have time to stand around having stubborn arguments with each other. Never mind that Dave said they can't run, they can totally get away.]

[Bro was one thing. As much as John didn't want to kill him, he wanted to kill Dave even less. In fact, he pretty much outright refuses that. Not an option.]

[John agrees, and slings the hammer to rest on his shoulder to run. But instead of going first he falls behind John. If anyone is dying first it would be him. He couldn't live with himself if his alternate self died. He would feel like the biggest douche bag.]

If he attacks, I got your back, alright?

[This was such a stupid move. This was really dumb. They're running from something they can't get away from. John knows. He's been through this already. The chance of survival is very fucking slim.] I don't want to hurt him. But. If I have to stop, you keep running you hear me?

[He is so fucking serious right now little John, don't you dare be a fucking dummy and stop with him.]

[How can you run from someone who can control time right at his fingertips? Do you really think that's possible? And even if that's the case, Dave has always been quick on his feet. Speed was his forte.

He's already hot on their heels. In a few more seconds he'll be able to grab the other. It's almost laughable that they're trying. That they think that they have any chance of escaping.]

You both don't have a chance against me. [He's not saying it to be cocky. He just actually thinks so. Because he can't afford to fail the admins.]

[On some level, John knows it's stupid to try and run. He's the powerhouse, not the speedster. But he doesn't want to attack Dave and maybe if they can outrun him long enough...maybe Dave will come back to his senses. It's a slim chance, but it's better than dying or attacking his best friend.]

[He grabs the other John's wrist, trying to tug him so that they're running on equal ground again as they start run p the stairs towards the next floor.]

Don't you even fucking start with that heroic sacrifice bullshit, John. I am not helpless and I am not leaving you behind! Just shut up and keep running!

[Nope, you're not getting a chance to stop and do something dumb. He's spent the last month and a half training so that this exact situation wouldn't happen again. He won't stand off to the side while somebody else risks their lives to protect him again. It's just not happening.]

[This death is the fucking worst, how do you think it's gonna feel getting crushed to oil Dave's gears? Not so fucking great. He wasn't planning on letting that happen to his alternate self, nope! But they have to give it a chance and just keep running.

Dave's words bounce off his brain and he doesn't want to believe that they won't be able to escape. Sure they're running on equal ground, but who would Dave try to go after first? John is terrified. If they were being honest.]

I don't think you're hopeless. I don't want you dead.

[It's stupid. This hero sacrifice bullshit. But this was his only plan.]

[There is no chance. Dave was too perfectly brainwashed. He was happy to assist the Admins. Proud of it. After all, why shouldn't he be? There's no reason for him not to want to do this, right?

He doesn't know why his mind is screaming.

And why does he need to only catch one of them? When there's two terrifying clockwork Daves now. Did you think he couldn't control time as he was?]

Running is futile. Just accept your punishment.

Yeah and I don't want you dead either! And that's how that works, right? You do something heroic and you're toast? Just shut up and ke--

[Fuck.]

[Fuck fuck fuck!!!!]

[Heading for the staircase was a terrible idea and why didn't they realize this sooner. With Dave able to bring in the time clones, it'll be all too easy for him to box the Egberts in, if he hasn't already.]

Sh-shit!

[John bro, if you have any ideas that DON'T involve heroic sacrifice on your part, now would be a good time to share them.]

Yeah, basically. But that's fine. As long as I can fight him off and you can go and run in another direction while I've got him concentrated on trying to kill me instead of you.

Dude. Stop worrying.

[He pulls his arm away from John's and turns. Turning so that his steps are sideways instead on going in the same direction of his alternate self.

This is so stupid.]

You've already got me once Dave, is that not enough?

[He's taking a swing at Dave, because he has no other plans.]

[Dave frowns a bit at that, but he doesn't slow down.]

Got you? The only reason I'm doing this is because you deserve it. It's punishment for lying. Punishment for killing a unit.

[Not because it's Bro. No, because Bro was a unit for the Admins. That's what matters. He snarls a bit as John's swing actually hits. It doesn't seem to deter Dave at all. Only anger him.] That hurt, John. [That was...not a relatively smart thing to do.

Even if John has this one distracted, there's still the other him who's interested in the other John.] Now you're really in trouble.

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