(A/N) Hey guys! For those who've read my other work, welcome back! For those who haven't, feel free to skip this note.
I just wanted to clarify that my first two chapters of this have technically in one form already been posted, under the title "The Doctor and the Reaper." I have since edited and updated the first two chapters and rather than simply adding these edits to the old version of the fic, i wanted to start fresh now that i have renewed confidence in where this fic is going! I highly recommend you still read these chapters even if you've read the old ones, Not only is it overall written in a way that now flows well, sets up the rest of the fic better and has better interactions, but the second chapter also has an entirely new scene! I am ALSO releasing a completely new chapter along with these rehashes, so don't worry about there being nothing new. Thank you for reading and i hope you all enjoy! 3
(This fanfiction has been cross-posted on AO3)
It was a normal, sunny morning on Piñata Island, and the villagers were up bright and early ready to start the day.
Doc Patchingo quickly gulped down the last of his morning cup of tea, before running to grab his doctor's coat from the coat rack, in a rush to get working as soon as possible.
Another day of healing sick piñata across the local gardens.
That is, he sure hoped he'd be healing sick piñata, as long as HE didn't get to them first… But Patch was up and awake quicker than usual today, and feeling determined to get through the day without losing a patient!
The doctor hopped into his little peddle car and drove it outside onto the path, rushing down it to get to the first garden on his list.
Today was already unlucky for the local gardeners. Three had called him soon after he woke up saying they had awoken to find one of their piñata had gotten sick during the night.
Patch was heading to the nearest garden first, it was only just down the path after all, and the gardener had left a voice alert before Patch was even awake.
That garden was also the most at risk, because it was right next to…
When he arrived at the edge of the garden he could already hear familiar, eerie humming.
Dastardos, who was floating out from behind the curtains of his hollow tree home across the garden, his glowing eyes even creepier than usual in the tree's shadow.
Patch made eye contact with him for a brief moment, and felt his adrenaline level spike. They both knew they were headed for the same thing, it was just another race to see who would get there first.
Patch could see the gardener, a young woman with short, ginger hair named Laura, was crouched over the poor patient. She glanced between the doctor and the reaper with a worried expression as they both got closer.
Patch hurried over to them, peddling as fast as he could. The piñata was closer to Dastardos' side of the garden, but maybe if he was just a little quicker...
As they both closed in on the piñata, Laura saw how close Dastardos was and panicked. Her gardening shovel suddenly appeared in her hands, she swung at the reaper and-!
Dastardos suddenly turned transparent.
WHACK!
… They were too late.
"Easy come, easy go!" Dastardos shot Patch a lopsided grin as his long scarf snatched up the buzzenge's life candy from the pile of broken paper mache and candy.
Laura was shivering behind him, shovel still in hand. Instead of being hit, Dastardos had just kept floating straight through her to the piñata, like a ghost.
He turned to her. "Guess you'll need another buzzenge if you want an eaglair to visit now!"
Both Patch and Laura just watched tiredly as Dastardos cackled like a particularly unhinged Halloween witch, turned transparent again and sunk right into the ground
Doc Patch sighed, already very used to this outcome.
"I'm s-sorry, I should have g-got here earlier… Are you okay?" He gently asked Laura. It was bad enough losing a piñata, but Patch knew from experience that being phased through like that wasn't a fun experience. (Not to mention mind-boggling to Patch in particular. It went against everything he knew about physics!)
She gave him a weak smile. "I'm fine… it happens, especially with him right next door, I'm just lucky I haven't lost more piñata to him…"
Patch could tell she was still shaken, but as much as he wanted to stay and make sure the gardener would really be okay, it was more important that he go to his next jobs and make sure it won't happen again.
"S-still, I'm sorry it has at all… I have t-two other jobs to get to, I'll s-see you l-later!" He said as he started to peddle his car away in the direction of the next garden.
Laura waved. "Good luck!" She called out after him, then sighed to herself.
She looked back over at Dastardos' tree, forever looming over her garden, and thought...
Patch's next job was at a small family owned garden, but the patient was actually a house-kittyfloss, one of Patch's regular patients.
He drove up to the door of the house next to the garden and knocked. it was quickly answered by one of the daughters of the family, Moodle, carrying the sickly pet in her arms.
Thankfully, there was no sign of Dastardos this time, and the doc was able to do his job quickly and leave for the next garden with a friendly wave at Moodle and no issue.
The third and, for now, final garden belonged to Bear A. Maracas, a boy with a garden full of fizzlybears.
It was one of the furthest away gardens he got calls from, nestled in a fir tree forest near the Piñarctic. He had to drive quite a way through the jungle path towards Piñata Central to get there.
The good thing about that though, was that Dastardos was less likely to show up far from his home by Laura's garden! He'd have to float all the way through the Dessert Desert and further to get here.
So, feeling quite optimistic, Patch felt that despite the bad start, things were going to go right today! He was just starting to see Bear's garden and there was still no sign of-
Patch screamed when suddenly a figure with glowing eyes appeared in his path. He quickly swerved his car to avoid a crash, but ended up crashing right into a fir tree instead.
Dastardos cackled, twirling his piñata bat.
"You really are too easy," he mocked, before turning transparent and floating through a different tree (as if to make a point) as he made his way to the garden, "what, too much of a coward to just drive through me still?"
"I've t-told you before I'm not going to just t-treat you like a g-g-ghost - it's not polite!" The doctor huffed as he started reversing his car. Dastardos repeated the words under his breath in a mocking imitation of Patch's stutter, but Patch ignored him.
He knew that this distraction had given the reaper a chance to get closer to the garden than him, despite floating a lot slower than the doctor drove, and Patch started to panic, rushing to get going again more quickly.
As they raced to the garden, Patch was easily able to spot the sick fizzlybear, along with Bear himself, who seemed to be with his friend Eddie Lizard.
Eddie was handing Bear a shovel that the doc immediately recognised.
Being the kid of one of the more well-off families in the area, Eddie was of the few people that could afford to buy the only thing that could actually touch - and hurt - Dastardos. The Dastardos Shovel… and now Bear has it.
If Dastardos was worried it didn't show, it never did… Sometimes Patch wondered if Dastardos was ever afraid...
The reaper was still ahead of him despite his best efforts to catch up, but suddenly, Bear charged at Dastardos with the shovel right when it looked like he was going to reach the fizzlybear first, and the doctor knew Dastardos' lead wouldn't last long now...
Patch looked away before before Bear reached him, and winced when he heard the sound of the hit landing. He focused instead on just reaching and curing his patient.
He heard another WHACK as he reached the piñata and pulled out his medicine bottle, trying hard to ignore the fight going on behind him… He knew Dastardos needed to be stopped but the violence of times like these was always a bit much for him.
A spoonful of medicine later and the fizzlybear immediately peeked up, vibrant colour returning to its paper. Patch smiled wide, happy to have helped another piñata. He turned to tell Bear the job was done and-
WHACK!
…Thud.
Patch froze, mouth hanging open in shock at the sight he saw as soon as he'd turned around, he hadn't ever realised it was even possible, but…
Bear had swung one last powerful swing of the shovel into Dastardos' head, and the reaper collapsed out of the air, completely unconscious, landing on the ground with a light thud.
Before Patch could react, Bear dropped the shovel and rushed over to him.
"Is Teddy okay?!" He frantically asked, and Patch was a little startled at how quickly the teen could switch from furiously wielding a shovel to worriedly fussing over his fizzlybear.
"Um, y-y-yes he is, b-but did you really have to-!"
"Thank you so much, Doc!" Bear cut Patch off, charging past him to pull his fizzlybear into a big bear hug. Patch smiled a little at the sight, who was he to judge how a gardener protects their beloved piñata?
Still… Patch frowned again as he turned to the reaper… Dastardos had always seemed so indestructible, but now… he just looked small and hurt…
Eddie, who had been hiding rather unsuccessfully behind a fir tree during the commotion, cautiously approached and went to pick his special shovel off of the ground.
"Eugh!" Eddie shrieked and dropped the shovel as soon as he picked it up. "What is THAT?!"
He was pointing at some kind of black goop that was covering the blade of the shovel, and Patch crouched down curiously to get a closer look. The substance looked thick, sticky, it smelled sour and…
And there was a trail of it leading to the wound on Dastardos' head. Patch startled, and behind him Eddie gasped as he came to the same conclusion.
That was Dastardos' blood
The doctor's mind raced. How? Why? Had he seen this before and just not realised? Usually he's so focused on doing his job…
Eddie scampered back over to Bear, wanting nothing to do with the horrifying sour blood, but Patch just stepped closer to get a better look, both fascinated by and incredibly concerned for his rival.
As he looked over the wound he couldn't help kicking himself for never wondering just how injured Dastardos got after getting in these shovel fights, what kind of a doctor was he?!
He bit his lip and glanced over to Bear and Eddie, they didn't seem to be paying the doctor and reaper any mind, maybe he could…
Acting quickly, Patch got up and wheeled his car over to the unconscious Dastardos. He reached inside and pressed a button he didn't get to use very often, and a moment later a stretcher on wheels popped out of the back of the car.
Giving Eddie and Bear one last glance to make sure they still weren't paying attention, Patch very carefully began to lift Dastardos onto the stretcher, trying not to get distracted by how eerily light he was, even for someone of his size…
As soon as the reaper was secure, Patch hopped into the seat of his car and sped away in the direction of the clinic.
Even people like… whatever-Dastardos-is deserve to be healed.