Chapter Nine

Don: The Mediterranean Flower

With every footstep Don took, it left a wet black footprint in the grass. Just something else that told Benson that Don was being possessed by the creature they dealt with some time prior.

Benson struggled in the raccoon's grip, trying to escape him, but much like the creature he had to mess with that one time, his grip was iron clad. Unlike the monster's grip though, Don made sure not squeeze too tight and hurt him. There was a sense of possession that Don had for Benson at that moment that kept him from doing anything he might regret later. He showed it off to all those around him as he fled.

"Get away," Don snipped at all those he passed, "get away, he's mine!"

The various pedestrians and onlookers jumped out of fear as Don rammed and screamed at anything that got in his way. He looked desperately for somewhere to hide himself and Benson, and the perfect location came to him: the house of course! He increased his speed, knocking into more people, and causing more of a ruckus around the carnival. They didn't matter though. All that mattered was him and Benson.

It only took a few minutes before the house was within view and safety was only within a few more small leaps and bounds. He laughed joyously, squeezing a little tighter with the bundle in his arms. "Almost there, Benson!" he rambled. "Then it's just you and me! It'll be so much fun! Sugar, sugar, lots of sugar for you and me!" He continued to giggle, and ran swiftly toward the house.

His giggling was cut short as he was broadsided by a hulking white figure, losing his grip on Benson. Don was thrust to the side, catching the gumball machine by the shoulder using his mouth, and keeping him safe as they rolled along the ground. He jumped up a moment later, placed Benson back into his arms, and hissed at Skips.

The yeti looked riled up, his lips curved into an unhappy frown. He clenched his hands into a fist and began leaping towards Don in large skips.

"NO!" Don screamed. "HE'S NOT YOURS! HE BELONGS TO ME!"

Don leaped forward as well, ready to give Skips a piece of his mind.

The yeti knew that Don wasn't strong enough to overpower him. So once he got the raccoon on the ground again, he would pry Benson out of his grasp and pin the lunatic down until the right authorities got there.

Skips brought his fist up and slammed it into the raccoon's cheek. The raccoon stopped for a moment, and stared down the yeti with crosshairs. Skips' eyes grew wide as he began to realize his punch had no affect on the insane animal. This gave Don plenty of time to counteract with a swift head butt to the beast's temple. The force of it was incredible, knocking Skips to the ground and out cold.

Benson looked on with flabbergast. The strongest and wisest person he had ever met just got downed by something as simple as a head butt. Not only that, but it was by someone as peace loving and carefree as Don. The hope that he would be rescued had just slumped to the ground with his savior, and was replaced with a terrifying realization.

Don laughed at the loser and sped away back toward the house.

As he left, a black footprint jumped up and collected itself into a small rock sized mass of ooze that slowly made its way towards Skips. It stopped short of his head, and began to laugh and mock the yeti with as much ferocity as it could. It didn't see the fist come down upon it, splattering pieces of it everywhere.

Skips slowly lifted his head up, and gritted his teeth in anger. He knew what that thing was a part of, and let out an exasperated groan as he stood up. He looked beside himself and noticed Maellard and Tim approaching him.

"Skips!" the old man screamed as he approached. "What's going on here? There's people everywhere talking about booths falling over and Don going crazy?"

"It came back," the yeti muttered.

"It?" Maellard stood there in silence as he thought about what it could be. Then he remembered why it was he had a bodyguard now and hid behind him. "IT came back? I thought it was dead."

"Apparently not," Skips groaned. "I think it's possessing Don."

"It can do that!" Maellard fearfully asked. "What do we do?"

"I'll handle it." Skips turned away from them and made his way toward the house.

Maellard shivered as he thought about that black mass of god-knows-what getting its hands on him again. "Timothy! You are to stay by my side until that thing Skips is chasing after is dead! Do you understand me?"

The human sighed and rolled his eyes. His attention was focused on the yeti heading to the house, and he found the prospect of contributing to the battle to be quite enticing. However, he had a job to do, and the two didn't balance out. So he stuck next to Maellard. It was what he was getting paid for.


"This place is just fine, just fine, just fine!" Don said as he closed the closet door. He had escaped into Mordecai and Rigby's room, and found the walk in closet they had to be extremely alluring. It was just the right amount of dark and secluded to be the perfect hiding place. No one would surely bother them there.

Don finally dropped Benson, and click on the pull string light in the room. The small space was illuminated in a light glow that portrayed all the feral features of the raccoon. He knelt down on all fours and slowly sniffed at various t-shirts hanging up. The distinct and almost rotten smell of his brother became familiar to him and he smiled with a mischievous curve of the lips.

Benson took this moment of interest on the raccoon's part to slowly try and slip away. He made sure not to let his metal slide across the wood floor, and crawled as softly as he could until he was at the door. But the moment he grabbed the door knob, he was snatched away from it by Don's forceful arms.

"Where are you going, sugar-load?" Don asked him enthusiastically. "The only thing out there are scary people, too much work, and big numbers. It's much better in here. There's not as much addition and subtraction in here."

"What are you talking about Don?" the gumball machine complained. "This closet is only a few feet wide in diameter. There's barely enough space in here to keep one person from going stir crazy let alone one."

"We can manage though!" Don happily replied. "If we just give ourselves a little time, this can be our brand new home! You and me! It'll be great! And there's so much out in the park to scavenge for food, we'll never go hungry! And this closet has a bathroom out in the hallway too! I'll bet Pops and Rigbone, and Mordecai wouldn't mind if we use it every so often." His lower eyelid twitched suddenly and he began to sniff around the room some more.

"DON, are you even listening to yourself!" Benson screamed at him. "This is insane! You're not making any sense!"

"That's okay!" Don laughed. "You have plenty of sanity for the two of us. I'll just provide the sugar!" He held his grip on the gumball machine tighter, enjoying the cold metallic feel of the man. "You and I are gonna be so happy together!"

Benson continued to struggle in his grasp, hoping to some sort of deity that he could get out of there and run away like a maniac. Unfortunately, the more he struggled and shook, the more Don just held on tighter.

"I'm hungry!" Don announced. He put Benson down in the back of the closet and shushed the man. "I'll be back soon. Gonna go get some food! I'll make sure that no one can hurt you, promise!" He hopped out of the closet, and closed the door behind him.

Something sounded like it was being dragged along the ground outside. Benson jumped up and rushed toward the door, but as soon as he tried to push the door open, it was stuck shut. Don must have pushed something in front of the door to keep anyone from getting inside, or at least stopping Benson from getting out. Benson pushed and rammed at the door in hopes that whatever Don put there would topple over, but nothing budged.

"Oh you," Don giggled from the other side of the door. "I'll be back soon!" His footsteps scampered away a moment later.

Benson screamed and slammed his fists against the door. This seriously wasn't happening. A few weeks ago, he got dragged into a dark abyss with an awful monster, and today he was thrown into a closet by a savage love crazy raccoon being possessed by the same monster from that time a few weeks prior. If he survived this, he was seriously going to debate whether or not his employment was worth it. Who was he kidding though? He needed the job and the money.

Now what was he going to do? He was stuck there for the time being while he waited for someone to rescue him. Skips knew where there were going, so he wasn't too concerned. And Maellard couldn't possibly blame this on Benson, could he? No, this was the fault of that damned monster that they all thought was dead. How was it that it was still alive?

The last thing he remembered of that thing, it exploded all over the park after Skips impaled it with its own disgusting claws. And all the black water and ooze disappeared over time too. So where was the remnants? A thought crossed his mind on how it could possibly have survived, but he didn't like thinking it. If he was right, then that thing was still very much alive, and probably more dangerous than the last time. He might have to talk to Skips about that later.

Speaking of the yeti, where was he? Surely Don didn't knock him completely out. Skips wasn't the type of person to go down so easily. Skips probably had never dealt with anything like that before though. He didn't seem to enjoy the first beat down a few weeks back, so it probably wasn't fun for him to have to deal with it a second time. That is if he knew that Don was possessed by that black creature. If Skips did knew, then they might actually have the upper hand in all of this.

Another terrifying thought of Skips beating the raccoon to a bloody pulp crossed through the machine's mind. Skips wouldn't do something so horrible, would he? But if Skips didn't know about what was possessing Don...

Benson jumped up from seat and began to bang on the door again, screaming at the top of his lungs. "I'M IN HERE!" he yelled. But no one came.

"Where is everyone!" Benson asked himself. "They saw us come into the house! It doesn't take a science teacher to figure out where we went!" He slammed his fists against the door futilely and grunted in fury.

The waiting was killing him. He needed to know if anything was happening to Don. He needed to know what happened with Skips. He needed to know if that evil thing that had its grasps on Don was causing anymore damage. Was it controlling more people? Was it destroying the park, or the city even? What about Pops and the others?

"Let me out of here!" he screamed and banged on the door.

And his prayers were answered. The thing blocking the door was moved out of the way, and the door knob into the closet began to turn. Benson smiled as he awaited Skips or Maellard, or anyone's arrival.

"I'm back!" Don beamed, as he entered. He closed the door behind himself and dropped an arm full of prepackaged treats in front of Benson. "What do you think? Did I do good?"

Benson's hopes were shattered to pieces as fast as the snack cakes and chip bags bounced on the floor. He looked up at Don, and gave him a hollow smile. "Yeah, Don," he said grabbing a bag of chips, "you did real good."

Don gave him a great toothy grin and took up a snack cake as his reward. He tore into it with his teeth and inhaled the contents swiftly. As he chewed on his food, he scratched at his back at the terrible itchiness that poked at him.

Benson froze in place with a chip half in his mouth as he watched tranquilizer darts and flattened bullets fall from his back. He took in a breath from his nose, and snapped off the potato chip in his mouth. He hoped that the others outside were alright somehow. Otherwise, he would have to be a wife and change his last name to Don's. And while Benson didn't mind Don when he was sane, he would be damned if he had to share the same last name as Rigby.


Tim grinded his teeth back and forth as he placed another bullet inside the magazine. "What is he, a zombie or something?" he said angrily, his voice cracking. "I unloaded a full magazine onto his backside and nothing seemed to work."

"And we said not to shoot him!" Mordecai snapped at him. "That's Rigby's brother! You know that already! Why try to kill him?"

Tim gave the blue jay an angry look and pointed the gun magazine at the bird. "Because I'm doing what I was paid to do. If my employer is in danger, I react to protect."

"Mr. Maellard wasn't it danger!"

"Look at this place!" Tim screamed pointing all around him.

In the wake for Don's search for food, he left a path of destruction. Trails of dug up dirt and soil were scattered all over the park, while people tried to help each other as he pushed and mauled anyone who got in his way, and several policemen and animal control experts yelling at one another for not doing their job correctly. Pandemonium was too little of a word to describe such destruction.

"This place seems pretty damn dangerous to me," the bodyguard added.

"You haven't worked here as long as we have!" the blue jay exclaimed. "This is all normal! You weren't here for Susan, or Doug, or the Unicorns, or any of the other weird homicidal maniacs. We can handle this, we don't need you shooting that thing at our friends… no matter how cool it was to watch you use it."

"Oh, you like this, huh," Tim said as he pulled out his unloaded gun. "You can hold it if you want. I don't think it's loaded right now." He pulled back the chamber of the gun and caught the stray bullet still inside, before offering it to Mordecai.

"Sweet," Mordecai said taking it in hand and firing off a few imaginary rounds.

Tim smiled as he watched the bird inflict pain on a creature that wasn't there and didn't exist. It truly made his spirit sour to see such negligence for human safety in the name of good ole fashion fun. Then he remembered his friend, and looked down at the blue jay's feet. The raccoon was not happy, tapping his feet impatiently.

"And what about you, little guy?" Tim said in a demeaning voice as he knelt down. "Do you wanna hold Uncle Tim's firearm too?"

Rigby cringed and did his best to stare down the human. "I told you to aim for his legs."

Tim's expression wiped for a second before returning to an amused smile. He scratched the raccoon's head and let out a happy hum. "You're such a good brother, aren't you?"

"That would have slowed him down."

"Of course it would have," Tim mocked as he stood up. His attention shifted over to Skips who was busy trying to get inside the house. Black ooze came up from the ground ten or so feet into a wall, stopping the yeti from entering, no matter where he went or how hard he punched at it. "Always entertaining to watch," the human sighed.

Behind Tim, Maellard clamped his cellphone shut, and approached the group. "Alright then, I've gotten everything taken care of. My lawyers are already going after the company that rents out the supplies to make those booths, so they should be liquidated within the next three days or so. As for Don…" Maellard watched Skips continue to try and find a way inside the house. This prompted the lolliman to shake his head in disappointment. "It's very sad as to what's happened to him. You did the right thing to try and put him down, Tim."

The bodyguard shrugged. "I was just doing what you pay me to do."

"Nonsense! You were looking out for the park and its patrons, and for that you should be commended. Remind me to give you a raise when we leave here."

"Can do, sir," Tim answered. "For now though, let's just watch Mr. Skips do his best to bust inside the house. He doesn't seem to be making much progress."

"Hmm, yes… quite," Maellard agreed as he and Tim sat on the ground and watched Skips do everything in his power to get past the remnants of the black ooze creature.

He was starting to get at the end of his ropes. He had been working on trying to get inside for a good fifteen minutes, and this thing wouldn't let him. Every so often it would open an eye in its dripping self and give out an amused laugh. Skips made sure to sock the eye a few times when this happened, though it didn't do much but open hundreds of eyes everywhere else and continue to echo its laughter.

"Yooooooouuuuuuu caaaaaaan'ttttttttt geeeeeet iiiiiiiiinnnnnnn!" it teased in a sing song voice.

Skips let out howling rage, and began to skip away from the house. He passed by the group who didn't take much mind to him, save for Maellard and Tim, who were wondering what Skips was planning next. Maellard's expression turned from inquisitive to condemnation as he stood up and found Skips dragging his limousine through the park.

"Skips! What are you thinking!" the old man yelled.

Skips refused to answer and pulled the car along until it was right in front of the house. The black wall came back up as well as the eyes. They went large when they saw the white stretched luxury vehicle the yeti had acquired, and the smug grin Skips had on his face. He took the limo into his hands, and slowly used all of his strength to lift it up. And while Skips was a stronger man than any of them, this was pushing his limits. If he held the limo above him for more than just a few short seconds, he would have been crushed under its own weight. With all the muscle in his body aching and pulsing to release the cause of pain, he threw the limo right into the black wall...

…in which the wall descended and let the limo slam into front porch, taking out the steps and beams supporting the roof over it. It came down onto the porch, destroying anything on it. The wall came right back up and continued to laugh, harder than before.

"Whoops," Skips said, underestimating his enemy.

He looked at Maellard who was now looking like a frozen model in a slasher film. His face was contorted into some sort of ethereal scream as if someone was about to pull a knife on him.

Tim was still on the ground though, laughing his butt off at the whole situation. He clapped his hands together and repeatedly yelled, "Bravo! Bravo! Encore!"

Even Mordecai and Rigby had pulled themselves away from playing with Tim's gun to look on in horror at the destruction Skips had just inadvertently caused.

The yeti grew sick of this and walked over to them, where he picked up Rigby and looked him in the eye. "Go tell your brother to come downstairs. He and I need to have a talk."

"Dude, what are you talking about?" Rigby asked, a little concerned for himself. "I don't want to go talk to Don. He's cray cray right now! Plus, if you can't get inside, what are the chances that I will?"

"Pretty good," Skips said, before he leaned back and chucked the raccoon toward the upstairs window of house with whatever strength he had left. Rigby went screaming through the window right into his bedroom.

"Rigby!" Mordecai yelled, dropping the gun onto the ground.

Tim quickly collected it and placed it back into his holster. He looked up at Skips and clicked his tongue. "Wasn't that just a bit much, Mr. Skips?"

"Shut up."


The crash of glass and something rolling into the room caught both Don and Benson's attention while they were in the middle of their snacks. Don's eyes slit and he grew cautious of the intruder outside. He wasn't afraid to attack if that meant protecting himself and Benson. And to protect his belonging, he would rip whoever it was apart, limb from limb.

"Stay here…" he muttered to the gumball machine.

"Do I have a choice?" Benson said to himself as he ate another chip.

Don cracked the door open slightly, and took a whiff of the air around him. Something smelled odd. It was something he had smelled before; smelled earlier in fact. He flung the door open and grew positively giddy at the site of his barely conscious brother on the floor of the bedroom. "Rigbone!" he yelled, leaping forward and taking the small raccoon into his arms. He looked around the room nervously for signs of any predators, and brought his family into the closet, and shut the door tight again.

"Look Benson!" Don announced. "We have a visitor! And it's my favorite visitor ever!" He gave Rigby copious amounts of sugar, nuzzling his nose against his brother's cheek, and getting a good sniff of his scent. He never realized until then, but he liked his brother's musk. True, it was a little putrid and bland, but it reminded him of his childhood and the days growing up with his family.

The eldest raccoon only let out a few little grunts as he did his best to try and come back into full consciousness. All he knew was that he was being hugged by someone and that Benson was looking across from him with his hands folded and his eyes in disbelief.

"Welcome to the party," Benson sarcastically greeted. "Grab a snack and join in."

"It is a party now that Rigbone is here!" Don happily said. "He's always full of energy and lots of fun! Though…" Don took another look outside and looked around the bedroom. "I wonder where Mordecai is? Did you two have a fight?"

Rigby grunted a bit more as his head slowly began to clear.

"Friends shouldn't fight!" Don continued. "Friends should always get along and have lots of fun! Like what Benson and I are doing now!" He leaned in close to Rigby's ear and whispered into it: "Though, between you and me, I think Benson wants to take our friendship one step further. What do you think?"

"Don?" Rigby moaned. "Benson? Wha…?"

"That's exactly what I think!"

In the background, Benson slapped his palm against his forehead. He didn't know why it was that Rigby was there, nor did he honestly want to know. If they were sending people in to save him, why send the least helpful of the group up first. Why not just send Skips and be done with it?

Don gasped as he noticed something along Rigby's arm. "Oh my gosh! You're bleeding, Rigbone! How did that happen?"

No doubt it was probably from that crash, Benson automatically assumed. He was surprised to see Rigby with as little damage as it was, considering he just crashed through a window.

Don quickly bent down and gave the wound a few licks, cleaning up the blood and hoping it would disinfect the wound.

The feeling of his brother's tongue on him brought Rigby back into reality completely. He looked at his arm and saw the tall raccoon licking at him, and pushed Don's face out of his arm. "DUDE, SICK!" he screamed.

"Bro, hold still," Don complained, "I'm trying to make your wound all better!"

"I don't need your tongue all over my body!" Rigby yelled. "Let go of me!"

"Oh, bro. I'm just trying to be a good little brother is all. You'll thank me later."

"No I won't! Quit trying to give me your sugar and honey, and all that other Q crap! I don't want it" Rigby continued to yell.

Benson shook his head and sighed. He wasn't sure if this was supposed to be entertaining or just a sad site to behold. "Rigby, what are you doing here?" he finally asked.

"I don't know!" Rigby struggled to say, against Don's clutches. "Skips wanted me to tell you all to come down stairs or something like that."

"You hear that Don?" Benson asked the tallest raccoon. "We should probably listen to your brother and head on downstairs, don't you think?"

"Nope!" Don smirked. "They just wanna take you and Rigbone away from me. Then they'll put me in the garbage and make me live at the dump!"

Rigby gave a puzzled look to Benson, who just nodded and shrugged.

"Most of what Don's said hasn't made much sense since I've been in here," Benson told him.

Rigby looked into his brother's eyes and saw the darkness and insanity in them, and knew he wanted to get as far as from his brother as he possibly could. Unfortunately, Don's grip on him was far too powerful.

"It's made perfect sense!" Don defended. "You just have to listen closely to what I'm trying to say."

"No, that won't work," Rigby complained.

"For once we agree," Benson sighed.

Don looked at his brother and his possession and noticed the frowning expressions on their faces. That wouldn't do at all. He had to make them happy somehow. "How about some extra sugar!" He lashed out at Benson and took him into chest, bringing the three of them into a nonconsensual group hug. "Now this is much better."

"THIS IS WORSE!" Rigby screamed in horror as he was pushed uncomfortable close to his boss. "THIS IS MUCH WORSE!"

"Let us go, Don!" Benson yelled at him. "This is uncomfortable and mentally scarring."

"I can't see my hands right now," Rigby said. "What is it I'm feeling at right now."

"That would be the inside of my flap," Benson replied with a distressing blush.

Rigby let out as loud a scream as he could, struggling the hardest he ever had before. "Someone get me out of here!"

And then, the door opened up, and the afternoon light came flooding in. Benson and Rigby smiled as their salvation stood in the doorway. Skips stood there with a bit of aggravation painted on his face.

"How did you get in here!" Rigby asked enthusiastically.

Don didn't let him answer though. He hiss at the white beast and threw the two in his arms to the back of the closet, before pouncing forward at Skips and sending the two of them across the room, and through the already broken and open window.

Benson quickly ran to the window, only to find several ladders taped together stretching long from the ground to the window. He looked directly below him and the black walls observing the fight that was now happening on the park grounds. The wall laughed and giggled at the new brawl that had just broken out in front of it.

"UGH!" Rigby yelled from behind Benson. "I need a shower to get all this Don spit off me. That was so sick, I can't even begin to think why he'd do that. You're not going to tell Mordecai, right?"

But Benson wasn't listening. He was too busy watching Skips and Don wrestle each other to the ground, only to watch the other vault back up. The gumball machine climbed out the window and slowly made his way down the three ladders that were merged together. He had a better view of the excitement when he finally touched the grass again.

Skips delivered a crushing blow into the raccoons stomach, but Don countered the yeti with a bite to his shoulder. Thankfully, Skips was already caught up with his tetanus vaccinations. But that didn't stop the raccoon's teeth from penetrating his flesh. Skips kicked him off, and rubbed the slowly bloody wound.

He really didn't want to fight Don, but he had to put him down. He was too much of a threat to everyone in the park, and needed to be removed somehow. So if that meant knocking a few fangs out of his mouth, then so be it.

The yeti rushed forward, ramming into Don with his good shoulder, and pinning him against a tree. Once the young man was confused, Skips began to pummel into his face with one fist after another. He expected blood and teeth to come flying out at that very moment of contact, but nothing seemed to do the trick. In fact, anything that Skips tried to do to him just seemed to cause little no damage what so ever.

Don smiled maniacally and kneed Skips between his legs, hitting an area that brought the man down for a few seconds. It was enough time for Don to seize him by the neck and choke him a little bit, just to get the breath out of him, before throwing him toward the house. The black wall caught him. Familiar knife like hands appeared and impaling the yeti in place.

This gave Don the advantage now, mimicking the same one two punch combo that Skips just gave him against the tree. Combined with the constant stabs of the knife hand's fingers into his arms, it was a painful experience for the yeti.

Don gave out a giddy laugh as he beat Skips to a bloody pulp. At least until he felt some pressure in his legs. He looked down and found some bullets flattened into his legs and turned angrily to find the culprit.

"I knew your friend's idea wouldn't work," Tim moaned as he pulled his gun away.

Don let out a shriek that broke every window in the house.

"Dude, Don! Calm down!" Mordecai pleaded. "We only want to make sure you don't hurt anybody else. Look what your doing to Skips!"

"SHUT UP!" Don screamed at him. "I like what I'm doing to Skips! He deserves it! It running through my veins, telling me to end his life right here and now! He wants to take everything away from me! He tried to take Benson and Rigbone too!"

"No he's not," Mordecai continued. "He's just trying to help!"

"NO HE'S NOT!" Don said in fury. "NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!"

He brought his fist up and began to repeatedly punch at the yeti's face until he heard a distinct crack and the skin tone around the area change to a disgustingly bruised black. Blood trickled out of the yeti's broken nose as he tried his best to stay conscious.

The hands stabbed into the yeti released themselves, and he fell forward into Don's arms. The raccoon's evil smile spread further as he looked at the destruction he caused on his friend's face. "You can't have Benson, or Rigby, or anyone else for that matter. You won't be taking anything away from anyone anymore…" He brought his fist up, and began to laugh. "You can't have anyone, 'cause I said so!"

A curl of black sludge appeared around the raccoon, forming itself into long strands with the ends turning into bladed tips, hooks, hammers, scythes, and tridents. Don's expression was unearthly. It was a face that would have made a devil cry out in fear. He let out one more yelp of laughter and let the blackened weapons come down upon the yeti.

But they stopped...

They stopped...

No more then...

Half...

An...

Inch...

Away...

"What?" Don whispered. "Why did they stop?" He looked at the bladed liquid, each and everyone of them. That had stopped so close to the yeti's face, that if Skips had moved any further, he was sure to be impaled by something. Don took that into consideration, and tried to shove Skips into them. But the weapons only moved away from him, letting him fall to the ground.

"Why?" Don asked the monster. "Why can't you kill him?"

The wall stared at the raccoon intently, and one by one, began to close each and every one of it's eyes. Only one remained open, and it held nothing but fury within it.

But Don's confusion was cut short, as Benson rushed at him, and rammed his body against the raccoon, knocking him completely off his feet.

The black wall didn't like this one bit, and sent out a few more of its knife hands to attack the gumball machine. They smacked right into his head… and caused no damage. The only remaining eye went wide as it found not even a scratch had been made. Benson grinned through all of this. He wasn't going to let this thing repeat what it did to him the last time. But it was going to have the same outcome for it.

Skips, sensing an opportunity, picked himself up from the ground, grabbed at one of the things arms, and snapped it off like last time. Only now, he curled the hand into a fist and rushed at Don.

The raccoon saw the fist and tried to move out of the way, but was hit with it head on right across the cheek with as much strength as Skips could muster. He went rolling along the ground then, and toppled onto his stomach. He tried to pick himself up, but grabbed at his belly when he was only one knee up. An ocean of black sludge wretched out of his throat and onto the ground, slithering into the earth as it touched the park floor. When it had emptied itself out of Don's system, the raccoon's eyes rolled back, and he fell to the ground completely unconscious.

Skips quickly unfolded the first and straightened the fingers out before throwing the sharp end toward the wall. But the wall was already gone by then. Back into the park from which it came.

When the danger had fled, Skips too fell to the ground.


Don happily went with the men in the white coats with no restraint. He was completely aware of what had happened to him and the things he did while under the influence of what he called "Bad News". And while nobody liked that name to describe what it was they were dealing with, it was either that or Rigby's suggestion as "The Righteous Black Beast of the Park". That was too much of a mouthful, so they stuck with Don's suggestion, considering Skips had also called it that the first time it attacked.

"We'll visit you at the hospital as soon as we get things straightened out here," Benson said to the recovering raccoon.

"I promise I'll make it up to Benson," Don rasped out. "I'm sorry about what happened. I didn't mean to…"

"Let it go, Don. It's water under the bridge for now. You go rest up, okay?"

Don nodded. It was all he needed to hear. He saw concerned looks on everyone's faces, save for Rigby and Tim, but knew somewhere inside them was worry for him. He waved goodbye to everyone as they drove him away to the hospital, where he would have a few days stay at the psych ward. They promised him if he was good while he was there, he might even go home in a week, considering his insanity came from an outside source.

As the paddy wagon drove off, both Benson and Skips(with an ice pack to his bandaged and readjusted nose) turned to Maellard.

"You need to shut the park down for a while," Benson said to him, "just for a couple of days at the least."

"And why is that?" Maellard asked. "I'm aware that this place needs some renovations due to the recent events, but I hardly think it'll take more than a day to-"

"It's not about that," Skips chimed in, "but more about the thing that was just here. You saw it go into the ground. I'm pretty sure it's all over the park. I can take care of it, but it's going to take a few days for me to get everything together and perform the ritual."

"Ritual?" Maellard laughed. "There's a ritual?"

"A purifying one."

Even Benson wasn't expecting a ritual, but if it meant that things would get back to normal sooner without the threat of Bad News coming back, it was fine with him. And while Maellard wasn't convinced completely, he remembered that thing wanted his throat specifically the last time, so he agreed to it.

"Fine then," Maellard said, "everyone vacate the park by the end of the day. I'll close the park for the next two weeks until we can get things settled out. Is that enough time, Skips?"

"More than enough," the yeti answered.

"Good then. I will alert the media. Come Tim!"

He tapped his cane into the ground, instructing Tim to hurry up. A black ooze began to ascend his cane, holding it in place in the grassy floor. Maellard jumped back as a small hand slashed out at him and missed. Tim quickly rushed forward and gave the cane a punt, forcing it out of the ground and causing it to fly a couple of feet.

"I'm still getting that raise, right?" Tim said with a smirk.

"Of course you are my boy," Maellard sighed with relief. "We can discuss it as we run as fast as we can out of the park."

The two then dashed away without another word.

Benson shook his head and cupped his hands to his mouth. "Make sure you call Martin about taking care of Don." He may not have liked Dr. Ploddevize, but the man knew what he was doing for the most part.

"Hey wait!" Mordecai screamed. "Where are we supposed to go if we can't stay in the park house?"

"I'm sure you'll figure something out," Benson said to him, as well as the rest of the group. "I'm going home. I need a break and a drink."

The gumball machine said nothing after that, choosing to slowly make his way out of the park. A few random patrons were still there, cleaning themselves up and collecting what they needed to take back to their businesses and homes. The Coffee Shop girls were off in the distance, picking up anything that could salvage. Margaret saw Benson walking home and gave him a wave. Eileen followed suit when she saw him a second later.

Veronica however, simply gave him a shrug and giggled.

As it turned out, this day was pretty much what Benson had been expecting the whole time. Another day, another unusual circumstance. Time to head home.

The Mediterranean Flower (Chill Mix) – Sunlounger


Author's Notes

Well, that chapter went by pretty smoothly. I kind of wanted it to be longer, but I couldn't think of a way to extend it anymore than I could. And I know the wrap up was pretty quick and all, but again, I couldn't think of a way to expand on it, even after rereading it a few times. Regardless, I hope you all enjoyed this nice little action chapter. Crazy Don was fun to write, that much was for sure.

So Until Next Chapter...

Adieu...