"Ya know, usually when I ask someone how their night went, I get an answer like, 'Lance buddy, that was the best steak I've had in months.' Or 'Fantastic, didya see the Eagles really take 'em down this time?' When did the answer start bein' 'Rough night, had ta mediate between an overgrown magical fox and a water lady'?"

Arthur chuckled, tossing a busted car door handle over his shoulder and inspecting the mechanism. "Yeah, sorry. At least your house and shop are quieter."

"Well." Lance scratched his beard. "Not gonna say I didn't like hearin' music every night, but the little purple ghosts were a bit eerie. Not that seein' a skeleton first thing when I get outta my room wasn't, mind you, but at least I knew it was Lewis."

"The Deadbeats are Lewis too, just bits of his subconscious."

"Your life got weird Artie."

"Yeah I know Uncle Lance. But it's not bad either."

"Not now maybe. Kid, you gonna be okay if some really bad grease hits the floor?"

"Relax Uncle Lance. I've got more hard hitters on my side at this point than… um…"

"Than Sydney Bakabella and his Wrecking Crew."

"Yeah, that guy. Man he's a sleaze, was he fun to work with?" Arthur jammed a tool into the door mechanisms, tweaking carefully.

"Oh yeah. Loads different behind the scenes, a riot to watch ringside though. Crowds were screamin' for his head."

"I'll bet. So yeah, I'm covered."

"You better be, kid. I don't wanna find pieces of you everywhere when I come over one day, okay?"

"You won't Uncle Lance." Arthur grinned, grabbing a new door handle and fixing it in place. "You should come over sometime though."

"Naaaah, I'm good here kid. You can see me whenever you want. I'm not much for the ghostie scene. Toss me the wire cutters."

"Here ya go." Arthur arced the wire cutters perfectly through the air and Lance snatched them, turning to fiddle with the motorcycle in front of him.

"Where's Mystery? He's usually bangin' down the door to teach you something or other around this time, right?"

"Said he was gonna take a few days' break from teaching me." Arthur slammed the door and tested the handle, which promptly fell off in his hand. He sighed, crouching down to work with it again. "Hunk of junk… he forgot a lot of what he used to be able to do while he was bound. He says it's all still there, all his abilities, but he hasn't sat down and spent time out in the countryside recalling them. He thinks it would be good to have all that on hand again just in case. And I told Callie I need some time to work on Mystery's prosthetic, so she'll focus on Vivi for awhile." Arthur glanced at the clock, then down at the handle in his hands. "Hey Uncle Lance, can I take my lunch early?"

"Sure kid, but we gotta get that heap outta here by the end of the day, I'm sick of lookin' at its ugly fenders."

"Gotcha."

"Where you headed?" Lance called as Arthur headed toward the door.

Arthur paused long enough to grab a rag, wiping his hands. "Think I'm gonna head down to the river today."

Lance nodded and waved. As Arthur left the shop, Lance glanced in the corner and frowned. "Now how come the boy goes on'n'on about all the firepower he's got backin' him and goes and leaves his sword?"

….

Arthur sat on the bank of the river, chewing thoughtfully on his sandwich. How did one coax a water spirit out to talk?

This was the only river running by the town, the one that had frozen under Mystery's paw and Callie's touch. Thinking back on his conversation with her the previous night, she had never once gone near it or made an attempt to touch the waters. Everywhere else he'd taken her, she was constantly touching liquids, whether it was a glass of water he was trying to drink or a dirty puddle on the sidewalk, but there lay a whole river and she treated it like it was contaminated.

A water spirit lived there, according to Mystery. One that didn't want either Mystery's or Callie's intrusion. But maybe…

He set the sandwich down and eased down a bit, poking his shoe into the water. It slipped in, no ice.

He cleared his throat. "Um, hey. So, ah… I heard there's a water spirit here." He paused, looking around. A leaf drifted down the current, and he felt extremely foolish addressing a body of water, but it was his only lead. "Yeah, a water spirit… um… have it on good authority. I won't freak out or anything but, um, I'd like to talk to you?"

Something cold and slimy slipped down his back. He shrieked, catapulting himself straight into the river. He came up spluttering, flailing around. Someone was laughing somewhere, but he was trying to reach the bank again.

"The look on your face was funny." The waters around him heaved, washing him onto the bank. He scrambled up it and flipped over, staring all around. "Right here." He jerked to his right, coming face to face with a mischievous smile and wide eyes glinting with good humor. "I've seen you before. You came the night with the ghost lady, and the other day too. What's your name?"

"Ar-arthur." He stammered, wiping the water out of his face.

"Hi Ararthur." The spirit flipped upside down, beaming at him. "Good to meet you."

"It's just Arthur. Hi." He studied the spirit. It looked in every way just like Callie, same head with a tapering twisting eel-like body, same arms curved back and around like horns from its head. He could see through it more than Callie though, and he'd never seen a smile on her face anywhere near the sheer glee that graced this spirit's face.

"Not a lot of people ask for me anymore. What do you want? Oh wait!" It giggled, swooping forward to put its face to his. "Don't tell me, lemme guess, I'm good at guessing!"

"Ah, I don't need anything but infor-"

"No no no don't, I wanna play the game." It stuck its hand over his mouth and nose, frowning in deep concentration.

Arthur jerked his head back. He couldn't breathe! But the hand followed his face, the spirit's eyes still inspecting the ground as it tried to guess what Arthur wanted. It glanced up, and smiled as he flailed at its arm. "Oh I know what you want!" It removed its hand, and Arthur fell back, gasping for air. "You want your arm fixed!"

"My… I… what?" He panted, starting to wonder if he'd done the right thing coming here.

"Your arm silly." It laughed, grabbing his mechanical arm and tugging. The prosthetic came apart in three pieces instantly. "It's not real, you want a real arm again."

"Stop!" Arthur grabbed at the pieces in dismay. "That's not what I came here for!"

"Don't be silly, why else would you come here knowing I was in the river? Hold still." It reached for the remains of the mechanical arm fixed to his stub, and Arthur flipped over, scrambling to his feet to run.

"Mystery!" He shouted at the top of his lungs. "Mystery!"

"Come back!" The spirit sounded put out, and a wall of water rose in front of Arthur, seeping out of the ground. Arthur skidded to a halt, realizing all at once what a horrible idea it had been to come here alone.

Okay think, what did Mystery say? He said they're like eight year olds. Work that.

Arthur turned slowly, plastering on a smile. "Sorry, was just seeing how fast you could stop me. Fun game, right?"

The spirit tilted its head, unsure. "Thought you were trying to leave."

"Nah, nah. Just testing you, good job! Tell you what, you can fix my arm as soon as you tell me a story, can you tell me a story first?"

"What kind of story?" The wall of water dropped, and the spirit curled up in the grass in front of Arthur.

He sat as well, still working on how to get out of the situation he'd landed himself in. "Well, how about a story about other water spirits? Do you know any?"

The spirit's face scrunched in a troubled expression. "Yes. I don't like her."

"Oh?" He pounced on that, guessing who 'her' was. "Why don't you like her?"

"Doesn't feel right."

"What doesn't feel right?" He leaned forward.

The spirit opened its mouth, then suddenly shrank back as the ground shook, slithering down the bank like a shot and vanishing into the river. A huge, snarling form skidded to a halt behind him.

"Mystery I almost had good information!" Arthur exclaimed.

"And could have been in serious trouble! It's a good thing I heard you!" Mystery snapped. "Arthur, they're like children! They mean well, but they don't know what they're doing! Look what it did to your arm!" He spat a curse at the river. "Some of them don't even understand the concept of human anatomy, you might have ended up with an ape's arm, or a fish-tail at the end of your shoulder!"

Arthur paled slightly, gathering the pieces of his prosthetic up. "Okay okay, I get it. Point taken, don't come here alone."

"Don't come here at all." An angry voice shouted from the river. "Don't come back. You're not welcome if you're together! Go away demon dog!"

"Gladly." Mystery growled. "Keep your fish-eel arms off Arthur." He huffed, glaring down in irritation. "What information were you looking for anyway?"

"Nothing." Arthur muttered, frustrated. "Forget it. My lunch break is over, I have to get back to the shop and fix this mess. Just another dead end, seems to be my luck."