AUTHOR'S NOTE -- Here. Christmas came early. The story is now done. No sequels, no future installments, FINISHED. If you don't like the ending, then I'm sorry. I am quite literally out of steam and out of patience with this behemoth. *slams the book closed on Karma and Dr. D* x_x I'm free!! AHAHAHAHAHA!!! MY ONLINE LIFE IS MINE ONCE AGAIN!!! NO MORE NAGGING LETTERS ABOUT FINISHING!!!!! XD
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"First of all, am I in trouble or anything?" the human asked as he followed Glitz inside, closing the door firmly behind himself.
"No." the techo said quietly, feeling very awkward as his eyes wandered over the interior of Joey's neohome. The furnishings were modest, mostly made of bamboo and coconuts, but it seemed to be a comfortable dwelling.
"Alright then." he nodded, seeming to relax a little. "Then my next question is, are you here to beg from me?"
"No." Dr. Death said again, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Then what do you want?"
"I--" he paused, trying to think of where he should begin. "Do you remember when you owned a techo?" he asked at last, deciding this was a safe enough start.
"I've owned a lot of techos. I've owned a lot of neopets in general, actually. I used to rotate fighters once a month." Joey explained, brushing past him as he crossed the room and seated himself in one of the bamboo chairs. From the living room, Dr. Death noted that he was being watched very closely by two pairs of ruddy yellow eyes....one belonging to the familiar hulking scorchio frame of Fangpoint and the other affixed into the skull of a rather mean-looking fire lupe. This was Scorchruff, he was guessing.
"Were you going somewhere with this?" Joey sighed impatiently. "I have a schedule to keep." The techo began to wring his hands and looked down.
"I don't look familiar to you at all, do I....?" he said quietly, hurt in his voice.
"Should you?" the human asked, sounding mildly confused. The blankness in his question angered Glitz hugely as he clenched his fists at his sides and felt his apprehension melting away into rage.
"Think back a little, if you even can." the yellow techo said through gritted teeth. "Remember your first pet?"
"Sure. It was a Jetsam." Joey replied casually. "But what---"
"It WASN'T a Jetsam!" Dr. Death cried angrily, cutting him off. "You dropped ME for that fish! Can't you even keep *that* straight, Joey??" There was an immediate look of angry reproach in the human's eyes at the outburst, followed quickly by shocked understanding.
"Glitz...." he whispered. "Oh...god, you look different." he said at last, looking over the techo's taller and clothing-clad form, the lines of age in his face, and the mop of hair on his head. "I didn't even know you were still around...."
"Thanks a lot." the techo replied coldly, aware that hot angry tears were puddling in his eyes as he impatiently wiped them away.
"But why'd you come here?" Joey asked, still recovering from the loop he'd been thrown for. "I mean, I thought we parted ways a long time ago. Why didn't you just move on like I did?"
"I tried, god damn you...." he hissed. "And you know something? It all keeps coming back to the fact that you dumped me first!" His anger, much to his surprise, was a lot more deeply-rooted than he had first thought it would be. Even if he wanted to, he didn't think he could stop as years of unvented outrage tried to escape all at once.
"Look, calm yourself..." Joey began. "I guess you've got a right to be mad at me but--"
"My life has been a hell because of you!!" he yelled. "Every goddamned time I try to move on and get over what I was put through when I was still a pet, SOMEHOW everything keeps coming back to you!"
"Then that's your problem." Joey replied firmly, narrowing his eyes. "If you can't let go of something as stupid as being impounded and get on with it, that's *your* malfunction. Stop yelling in my house."
"Have you ever been in the pound except to scrounge around for new meatpuppets, Joey? Have you??" he asked, quieting himself down a bit, though his voice was still tight and loud.
"Don't start with me, alright? I know its not the best place, but pets get dropped there all the time and they all find new owners eventually and they all turn out fine. You still have no excuse as far as that goes." the boy said reasonably.
"First of all, don't act like you know more about the pound than I do." the techo told him in a low and dangerous voice. "I've spent my entire life there.....first as a homeless pet that nobody wanted, and now I work there. I've worked there for years....and I've seen PLENTY of pets never even get a second look from the people who come in. So don't you tell me that they all find new owners eventually, you ignorant bastard."
"That's ENOUGH!" Joey bellowed suddenly. In a flurry of motion, Fangpoint and Scorchruff were suddenly between their master and Dr. Death, snarling menacingly. "Who the hell do you think you are?" Joey demanded to know from behind the protective cover of his neopets.
"Who the hell do you think *YOU* are??" the techo retorted, trembling with anger. "You think you can just grab up and toss away neopets like toys? What ever happened to that Jetsam anyway? Did you drop him on his ass too as soon as you found something better??"
"Look, I don't have to listen to this! I've worked hard to get where I am!" Joey snapped.
"And how many lives did you ruin to do it??" Dr. Death demanded. "Where is he, Joey? WHERE??" It had gone beyond a verbal taunt, really, and the techo had a sudden burning desire to know just where the green jetsam that had taken his place years ago was now.
"I don't have him anymore, and I've had enough of you." the human snarled. "Fangpoint, take him outside and deal with him."
"Deal with me yourself!" Glitz snarled. "This has nothing to do with your pets! This--" he was cut off sharply as the scorchio lunged forward, seizing him around the waist and hefting him easily over one shoulder, carrying him toward the front door. Dr. Death struggled for a moment and then resigned himself, glaring daggers at his former owner as he was transported outside.
Joey watched with flustered satisfaction and then moved quietly to the front window to watch the fight. He was already quite certain of the outcome, but it would satisfy him to watch it anyway. He hadn't even thought of Glitz in years...and the techo, in his opinion, was quite out-of-place appearing again out of nowhere and accusing him of so many things. "Ruining lives", feh! You had to break a few eggs to make an omelette. It wasn't his fault that the techo had turned out badly, he told himself.
Outside, Dr. Death found himself thrown to the dirt sharply as pain bloomed in his shoulder.
"Oops." Fangpoint sneered, lumbering after him. "Must've lost my grip." For a moment, the doctor simply laid there in resignation, not seeing any reason he ought to humor the neopet with a fight. He'd get beaten, he'd turn tail and run home, and he'd not speak of today. Ever. As the scorchio loomed over him, however, drawing back one foot to kick him, the techo's hand turned traitor on him, snatching up a handful of dead leaves and grit and flinging it into Fangpoint's face.
"AUGH!" the scorchio cried, scrambling backward, and pawing at his eyes wildly. "You dirtyfighter! Friggin' dirtyfighter!" he wailed, his eyeballs burning as the granules of sand brushed against them, involuntary tears streaming down his face. It occurred to Glitz that he had only temporarily disabled the scorchio and when he recovered, he would be very angry. With that anger would come the need to hurt the techo very badly and, whether he liked it or not, he was now in this fight.
And as long as he was in it, he thought, he may as well be IN it.
He lunged forward in a full-body tackle, colliding with the tought muscles of Fangpoint's abdomen. The scorchio, had he seen the attack and been expecting it, would have easily deflected him, but being temporarily blind, he found himself at a disadvantage and sat down hard, his breath knocked from him with a loud "WHUFF!"
The two grappled for a few moments, the scorchio's wings battering Glitz's face and his talon-like claws raking shallow bloody digs in his flesh. And then, with a cheated and angry hiss, Fangpoint's massive paws closed around Dr. Death's throat and began to squeeze. The techo struggled, attempting to draw breath and failing. Black spots began to swirl in front of his eyes as the scorchio squeezed harder, seeming to still be deciding whether he wanted to simply choke Glitz or break his neck.
Dr. Death's mind became hazed in darkness, but not before it conjured up a memory. The memory of being on the phone and trying to reclaim his job....and of becoming angry and crushing the reciever in his hand with startling ease. He had an unnatural strength of some sort...a strength given to him by whatever tampering Sloth had done to him and Karma when they had been held captive. At least...he hoped he did.
In a somewhat sluggish movement, he bent his legs to his chest and ducked them between him and Fangpoint, bracing them on the scorchio's belly. And then, his want to survive and anger aiding him, he gave a tremendous shove with both feet. With a surprised grunt, Fangpoint toppled over backward and skidded a few feet away, blinking in muddled surprise. THAT wasn't supposed to have happened...the techo was scarcely half his size.
And then Glitz was up again, legs splayed and ducked close to the ground. The techo's tail came around in a whiplash, striking Fangpoint sharply in the chin. The scorchio momentarily saw a burst of red stars as his fangs drove into the tender flesh of his gums, creating a stinging pain in his mouth and no sooner had begun to cry out than the techo's tail struck him again, snapping him neatly and quickly between the haunches, bringing a new and even more excruciating type of pain.
Fangpoint's eyes crossed and his breath caught in his throat as all of the fight promptly went out of him and he slowly rolled onto his side, doubled over and whining thinly. Dr. Death watched him closely, eyes narrowed and ready to retaliate if the scorchio's submission was just a ploy. When it became evident that Fangpoint's defeat was for real, the techo allowed himself to relax, the fire that had ignited in him briefly now leaving him as he crumpled to his knees and gave a long shuddering sigh of both relief and disbelief that he had come out the victor.
As the adrenaline drained from his veins and he was overcome by an urge to rest, the door of Joey's home exploded open, revealing a very angry Scorchruff, bristling and foaming at the lips at the techo. "Send me in, Joey!" he commanded, trembling with rage. "Dammit, send me in!!"
"Scorchruff, calm yourself." the human boy sighed, appearing a moment later behind the raging fire lupe and patting his head in idle distraction and clearly dumbfounded at the defeat of his battlepet.
"Send me in!" Scorchruff demanded again, becoming unnerved that his request to fight Glitz was being ignored.
"No." Joey replied firmly, making the lupe give a snort of utter surprise as he ventured past him, off of the porch and toward the panting and wounded techo. For a very long moment, the two simply regarded one another in silence. "You know....the last time I looked down at you like this, you were a lot smaller..." Joey began.
"Uh huh..." Dr. Death grunted as he rubbed at his bruised throat where Fangpoint had choked him a few moments ago, no longer having the strength to feel anything but irritation. The power needed to fly into another rage at his former owner had fled.
"Heh. We used to make daily trips to the Healing Springs with you....remember that?" the boy smirked, attempting to lighten the mood. The techo simply lowered his eyes and said nothing. "I always said that sooner or later we'd make a battler out of you.....I guess I stopped believing that after awhile."
"I guess." Glitz muttered sullenly.
"Glitz..." he said in a voice that was almost gentle. "I put you in the pound, but that doesn't mean I didn't care about you, you know."
"You have a funny way of showing it...." he sighed, his balance threatening to give out. There was another silence between them.
"Come inside. I've got some healing potions for you. I can do that much at least." he said gently, crouching and grabbing one of the techo's arms, draping it around his shoulders and standing, taking Dr. Death with him as he did. As much of a relief as it was to Glitz to not be fighting with Joey anymore, he wasn't sure he liked the sudden calming of the waters either as he was led back into the house, past the snarling Scorchruff, Fangpoint momentarily forgotten.
Joey brought him into the kitchen and seated him at the table before opening the fridge and taking out several small bottles full of puce-colored liquid.
"I keep the potions in the fridge so they stay fresh." he explained to no one in particular. "I dunno what the water faerie's been putting in them lately, but you leave it out on the counter overnight and it starts to smell like rotten eggs." He offered a smile and set the bottles down in front of Dr. Death. "Don't worry, the corks come out easy." he added. The techo gave him an uncertain look before picking one up, plucking the cork out of its mouth, and slowly drinking the contents. It reminded him of cranberry juice and he found, after having it, that he DID feel better. The bloody scrapes on his arms from Fangpoint's talons had begun to close and heal over, leaving no trace of scar tissue in their wake.
By the time he had finished drinking the third potion, he was perfectly fine again with no evidence of his previous scuffle with Fangpoint. That solved, he looked awkwardly across the table at his former owner.
"....what?" he asked at least, feeling self-conscious.
"How'd you get so strong? I mean, I've seen huge neopets not be able to budge Fangpoint in the ring and you shoved him like a sack of potatoes." Joey complimented.
"Oh..." he muttered, rubbing at his forearm and looking down at the tabletop. "....that's not important...." He really didn't feel like delving into the ray incident again.....especially not with Joey of all people. He was more docile now, but he was still angry at the young man. VERY angry.
"No, I guess its not." Joey agreed. "You've really changed, haven't you?"
"Yeah...guess I have." Dr. Death sighed, folding his arms on the table and laying his head upon them. He wished he was back home suddenly....he really wanted to take a nap. He might, actually, have fallen asleep right there at the table if Joey's next words hadn't jolted him fully awake again.
"Maybe I made a mistake throwing you away, Glitz....and maybe this is fate. Maybe we're meant to be together. I mean, how many people have their first neopet come back to them after all this time?" the human grinned. "What do you think? I've got room for you..."
Truthfully, the doctor didn't know what to think. His first impulse -- that crying abandoned neopet inside of himself that still pined for its owner -- wanted to seize the opportunity. Just throw the past years away and start again......
But it was the second impulse he listened to -- the part of him that had learned much from a life of being hurt and scorned constantly. It was this impulse that reminded him of what was waiting for him back home and the handful of people he had allowed to get close to him and who had come to care for him deeply.
It was also this impulse that stripped the sugar-coating from Joey's offer and showed him that there was no love in it. Joey hadn't missed his companionship at all and had been set to see him torn to ribbons only moments ago. The only thing that appealed to the boy now was his drastic increase in strength. "He wants to make me like them..." he thought, his eyes darting to the side to look at Scorchruff sitting on the porch, eclipsing the front doorway and curling his lips. "He wants me to be a battle-hungry zombie like they are...."
"Still with me, Glitz?" Joey asked.
"I'm with you." he sighed. "And I'm going to have to say no." The human's smile slipped a few notches.
"Why?" he asked. "We'd be great together! I mean, with your new strength, we--"
"That's all you want, isn't it?" the techo interrupted, unable to look at Joey. "Just to make me another notch in your belt like those three poor idiots you've got slaving for you now...."
"That's not--"
"And that's how it is, isn't it? If your pets can't fetch you glory of some sort, then they're not worth having." he continued, narrowing his eyes. Joey eyed him sternly.
"Look, I'm trying to make peace here, Glitz, and I don't want another fight." he stated firmly.
"There won't be another fight, Joey." the techo said matter-of-factly as he stood up from the table. "Because I'm leaving....and I think this time, I'll stay gone. I've got too much to worry about back home to let what you've done to me haunt me every day anymore. I don't know what I was thinking coming here. It didn't solve a damn thing."
"Look, that's why I'm offering to take you back." Joey reasoned. "If we start over again, none of this would even matter."
"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Dr. Death sneered, turning his back on the human and heading for the door, speaking over his shoulder. "You know something, Joey, neopets are known for their loyalty. Its kind of ingrained in us to stay with our owners at all costs and look to them for shelter and protection and love. But there's some owners who take advantage of that loyalty to the point where its sickening." he paused, his hand on the front door's knob as he shot a final and accusing look at his former owner. "And I feel very sorry for any pet that relies on you for anything."
And as he slammed the front door closed behind himself, somewhere in his head a chapter of his life that had been left hanging unfinished for years, wrote its final words and closed itself forever, never to be opened again. He decided, once and for all, that he was done with Joey and brooding over "what-if's". Life hadn't dealt him an incredibly good hand, but it certainly could have dealt him much worse....and it was time to stop obsessing over what could have been and start to sort out what was.
Nearby him on the porch, Scorchruff bared his fangs, his hackles bristling menacingly at the techo. "Get out of here...." the lupe rumbled. "And don't ever come back either. You're not welcome here."
"There's nothing that would make me WANT to be welcomed here." Dr. Death shot back. It felt good to say, namely because he knew that he meant it now and was not trying to mask any underlying hurt. Not giving Scorchruff a chance to reply, he turned sharply and began to walk back in the direction he had come, noting briefly that Fangpoint was still KO'ed in the dust and not caring. Maybe the three pets would realize one day, as he finally had, that their "owner" was only as important as they let him be...and if they were to all walk out on him, he'd be a faceless nothing in the thousands of neopian citizens again.
"Woah, you're leaving already?" a familiar voice called when he had left the house well behind himself and was nearing the small jungle that led back to the beach. Glitz looked up to see Bloodcloak poised over the dormant body of an imp that he had just conquered in battle.
"Apparently, we had nothing to discuss." he told the young kougra.
"Did he kick you out?" the tiger neopet smirked knowingly.
"No. Actually, I think it was the other way around....and I can't say I minded much." he corrected, never pausing in his gait.
"Hey wait up!" Bloodcloak called, abandoning his imp to walk with the techo. "So what's this beef you've got with my owner?"
"Its none of your business." he replied curtly. "But if you plan on sticking with him, you'll probably find out for yourself soon enough."
"Hey, don't knock on Joey, alright?" the kougra said, his voice devoid of its normal good nature and sounding utterly serious. "I mean, just because you butted heads with him once doesn't mean he's going to do that to everybody. Joey's my friend and he loves me. He'd never give me up for anything."
"Yeah...." the doctor sighed uncommittedly, deciding it was for the best not to argue though he was fairly sure that he knew better. "See you around, kid."
"Probably not." the kougra muttered.
"Probably for the best." Glitz nodded and began to pick his way back through the small jungle toward the beach.
There, he would climb atop one of the boulders and wait for the evening to come and one of Mystery Island's shoreline patrol team to come by in a motorboat and notice him. After a hasty explanation of why he was there, he would return home that night quietly. He'd not return to work, but spend the remaining two days he had taken off as sick time in bed, recovering from everything, assuring himself it really was finally over, and having the soundest sleep he'd had in years with no nightmares or jolting awake in the middle of the night feeling cold and alone.
The "curse", so to speak was finally lifted....and his life was his once more.
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EPILOGUE
"Are you sure this is everything?" Glitz asked, carrying in one last box and setting it down, arching his back to pop it.
"Should be." Karma smiled awkwardly. "We didn't have much to start with, remember."
"I remember." he nodded. "Like I said before, I don't know how you managed in that apartment for so long."
"The question is, are you going to be able to handle living under the same roof as the hellions I'm about to bring in?" the frog asked. The two of them, lately, had been discussing her living situation a lot more heavily than normal. Her apartment simply wasn't big enough for herself and her pets and yet she hotly denied his offers to pay the first installment on having a neohome built. She assured him that she could afford to do it herself, but was waiting until she could also afford having it built out of decent materials.
Eventually, a compromise had been made and an inarguably big step had been taken. Karma had given over her neopoints to Dr. Death and he had used them to add four rooms and a hallway onto his own home and they were now merging both households into one, despite the raised eyebrows and clucking tongues of those who had somehow found out about it.
The techo recalled with some amusement, the elderly poogle woman who had been hobbling past as he and Karma had been carrying boxes inside, noticed their lack of wedding bands and had shaken her head and announced that it was "simply disgraceful".
"I should be able to handle them...or at least get used to them." he nodded. "When did Rose say she was going to bring them by?"
"In..." Karma paused to look at her watch. "...an hour or so. So we can at least *start* unpacking..." She paused, biting her lip.
"Something wrong?" the doctor inquired, putting a hand on her shoulder.
"No...just....heh, wondering if we're doing the right thing is all." she shrugged.
"Does it feel right to you?" he asked, quirking a brow. She smiled slowly.
"It does." she nodded.
"Then don't worry about it." he told her gently, returning her smile. "Let's worry about something that might turn into a problem....like whether Candy's still in her phase of trying to recreate modern art on the walls with crayons."
"No, she stopped that after Yahoo and I threatened to coat her in chocolate and sell her as a gourmet food." the frog admitted, laughing lightly and then resting her head on his chest. For a moment both were quiet.
"This is going to work." he told her, sounding confident in this decision as he gently ran a hand through her brown hair.
"Think so?" she murmured.
"I do." he nodded firmly.
"Even if my pets won't be satisfied till they've driven you crazy?" she pressed playfully.
"After all I've been through, they're going to find out I'm a hard nut to crack." he assured her, affectionately nuzzling her forehead as he drew her close.
"I guess the question is, where do we go from here?" Karma whispered.
"Where would you *like* to go?" he asked, touching noses with her. Her eyes glistened as she leaned in further.
"At the immediate moment, I kind of like where I am..." she said.
"Then let's stay there awhile." he smiled, closing the last of the distance between them and kissing her softly.
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THE (friggin') END *faint*
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"First of all, am I in trouble or anything?" the human asked as he followed Glitz inside, closing the door firmly behind himself.
"No." the techo said quietly, feeling very awkward as his eyes wandered over the interior of Joey's neohome. The furnishings were modest, mostly made of bamboo and coconuts, but it seemed to be a comfortable dwelling.
"Alright then." he nodded, seeming to relax a little. "Then my next question is, are you here to beg from me?"
"No." Dr. Death said again, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Then what do you want?"
"I--" he paused, trying to think of where he should begin. "Do you remember when you owned a techo?" he asked at last, deciding this was a safe enough start.
"I've owned a lot of techos. I've owned a lot of neopets in general, actually. I used to rotate fighters once a month." Joey explained, brushing past him as he crossed the room and seated himself in one of the bamboo chairs. From the living room, Dr. Death noted that he was being watched very closely by two pairs of ruddy yellow eyes....one belonging to the familiar hulking scorchio frame of Fangpoint and the other affixed into the skull of a rather mean-looking fire lupe. This was Scorchruff, he was guessing.
"Were you going somewhere with this?" Joey sighed impatiently. "I have a schedule to keep." The techo began to wring his hands and looked down.
"I don't look familiar to you at all, do I....?" he said quietly, hurt in his voice.
"Should you?" the human asked, sounding mildly confused. The blankness in his question angered Glitz hugely as he clenched his fists at his sides and felt his apprehension melting away into rage.
"Think back a little, if you even can." the yellow techo said through gritted teeth. "Remember your first pet?"
"Sure. It was a Jetsam." Joey replied casually. "But what---"
"It WASN'T a Jetsam!" Dr. Death cried angrily, cutting him off. "You dropped ME for that fish! Can't you even keep *that* straight, Joey??" There was an immediate look of angry reproach in the human's eyes at the outburst, followed quickly by shocked understanding.
"Glitz...." he whispered. "Oh...god, you look different." he said at last, looking over the techo's taller and clothing-clad form, the lines of age in his face, and the mop of hair on his head. "I didn't even know you were still around...."
"Thanks a lot." the techo replied coldly, aware that hot angry tears were puddling in his eyes as he impatiently wiped them away.
"But why'd you come here?" Joey asked, still recovering from the loop he'd been thrown for. "I mean, I thought we parted ways a long time ago. Why didn't you just move on like I did?"
"I tried, god damn you...." he hissed. "And you know something? It all keeps coming back to the fact that you dumped me first!" His anger, much to his surprise, was a lot more deeply-rooted than he had first thought it would be. Even if he wanted to, he didn't think he could stop as years of unvented outrage tried to escape all at once.
"Look, calm yourself..." Joey began. "I guess you've got a right to be mad at me but--"
"My life has been a hell because of you!!" he yelled. "Every goddamned time I try to move on and get over what I was put through when I was still a pet, SOMEHOW everything keeps coming back to you!"
"Then that's your problem." Joey replied firmly, narrowing his eyes. "If you can't let go of something as stupid as being impounded and get on with it, that's *your* malfunction. Stop yelling in my house."
"Have you ever been in the pound except to scrounge around for new meatpuppets, Joey? Have you??" he asked, quieting himself down a bit, though his voice was still tight and loud.
"Don't start with me, alright? I know its not the best place, but pets get dropped there all the time and they all find new owners eventually and they all turn out fine. You still have no excuse as far as that goes." the boy said reasonably.
"First of all, don't act like you know more about the pound than I do." the techo told him in a low and dangerous voice. "I've spent my entire life there.....first as a homeless pet that nobody wanted, and now I work there. I've worked there for years....and I've seen PLENTY of pets never even get a second look from the people who come in. So don't you tell me that they all find new owners eventually, you ignorant bastard."
"That's ENOUGH!" Joey bellowed suddenly. In a flurry of motion, Fangpoint and Scorchruff were suddenly between their master and Dr. Death, snarling menacingly. "Who the hell do you think you are?" Joey demanded to know from behind the protective cover of his neopets.
"Who the hell do you think *YOU* are??" the techo retorted, trembling with anger. "You think you can just grab up and toss away neopets like toys? What ever happened to that Jetsam anyway? Did you drop him on his ass too as soon as you found something better??"
"Look, I don't have to listen to this! I've worked hard to get where I am!" Joey snapped.
"And how many lives did you ruin to do it??" Dr. Death demanded. "Where is he, Joey? WHERE??" It had gone beyond a verbal taunt, really, and the techo had a sudden burning desire to know just where the green jetsam that had taken his place years ago was now.
"I don't have him anymore, and I've had enough of you." the human snarled. "Fangpoint, take him outside and deal with him."
"Deal with me yourself!" Glitz snarled. "This has nothing to do with your pets! This--" he was cut off sharply as the scorchio lunged forward, seizing him around the waist and hefting him easily over one shoulder, carrying him toward the front door. Dr. Death struggled for a moment and then resigned himself, glaring daggers at his former owner as he was transported outside.
Joey watched with flustered satisfaction and then moved quietly to the front window to watch the fight. He was already quite certain of the outcome, but it would satisfy him to watch it anyway. He hadn't even thought of Glitz in years...and the techo, in his opinion, was quite out-of-place appearing again out of nowhere and accusing him of so many things. "Ruining lives", feh! You had to break a few eggs to make an omelette. It wasn't his fault that the techo had turned out badly, he told himself.
Outside, Dr. Death found himself thrown to the dirt sharply as pain bloomed in his shoulder.
"Oops." Fangpoint sneered, lumbering after him. "Must've lost my grip." For a moment, the doctor simply laid there in resignation, not seeing any reason he ought to humor the neopet with a fight. He'd get beaten, he'd turn tail and run home, and he'd not speak of today. Ever. As the scorchio loomed over him, however, drawing back one foot to kick him, the techo's hand turned traitor on him, snatching up a handful of dead leaves and grit and flinging it into Fangpoint's face.
"AUGH!" the scorchio cried, scrambling backward, and pawing at his eyes wildly. "You dirtyfighter! Friggin' dirtyfighter!" he wailed, his eyeballs burning as the granules of sand brushed against them, involuntary tears streaming down his face. It occurred to Glitz that he had only temporarily disabled the scorchio and when he recovered, he would be very angry. With that anger would come the need to hurt the techo very badly and, whether he liked it or not, he was now in this fight.
And as long as he was in it, he thought, he may as well be IN it.
He lunged forward in a full-body tackle, colliding with the tought muscles of Fangpoint's abdomen. The scorchio, had he seen the attack and been expecting it, would have easily deflected him, but being temporarily blind, he found himself at a disadvantage and sat down hard, his breath knocked from him with a loud "WHUFF!"
The two grappled for a few moments, the scorchio's wings battering Glitz's face and his talon-like claws raking shallow bloody digs in his flesh. And then, with a cheated and angry hiss, Fangpoint's massive paws closed around Dr. Death's throat and began to squeeze. The techo struggled, attempting to draw breath and failing. Black spots began to swirl in front of his eyes as the scorchio squeezed harder, seeming to still be deciding whether he wanted to simply choke Glitz or break his neck.
Dr. Death's mind became hazed in darkness, but not before it conjured up a memory. The memory of being on the phone and trying to reclaim his job....and of becoming angry and crushing the reciever in his hand with startling ease. He had an unnatural strength of some sort...a strength given to him by whatever tampering Sloth had done to him and Karma when they had been held captive. At least...he hoped he did.
In a somewhat sluggish movement, he bent his legs to his chest and ducked them between him and Fangpoint, bracing them on the scorchio's belly. And then, his want to survive and anger aiding him, he gave a tremendous shove with both feet. With a surprised grunt, Fangpoint toppled over backward and skidded a few feet away, blinking in muddled surprise. THAT wasn't supposed to have happened...the techo was scarcely half his size.
And then Glitz was up again, legs splayed and ducked close to the ground. The techo's tail came around in a whiplash, striking Fangpoint sharply in the chin. The scorchio momentarily saw a burst of red stars as his fangs drove into the tender flesh of his gums, creating a stinging pain in his mouth and no sooner had begun to cry out than the techo's tail struck him again, snapping him neatly and quickly between the haunches, bringing a new and even more excruciating type of pain.
Fangpoint's eyes crossed and his breath caught in his throat as all of the fight promptly went out of him and he slowly rolled onto his side, doubled over and whining thinly. Dr. Death watched him closely, eyes narrowed and ready to retaliate if the scorchio's submission was just a ploy. When it became evident that Fangpoint's defeat was for real, the techo allowed himself to relax, the fire that had ignited in him briefly now leaving him as he crumpled to his knees and gave a long shuddering sigh of both relief and disbelief that he had come out the victor.
As the adrenaline drained from his veins and he was overcome by an urge to rest, the door of Joey's home exploded open, revealing a very angry Scorchruff, bristling and foaming at the lips at the techo. "Send me in, Joey!" he commanded, trembling with rage. "Dammit, send me in!!"
"Scorchruff, calm yourself." the human boy sighed, appearing a moment later behind the raging fire lupe and patting his head in idle distraction and clearly dumbfounded at the defeat of his battlepet.
"Send me in!" Scorchruff demanded again, becoming unnerved that his request to fight Glitz was being ignored.
"No." Joey replied firmly, making the lupe give a snort of utter surprise as he ventured past him, off of the porch and toward the panting and wounded techo. For a very long moment, the two simply regarded one another in silence. "You know....the last time I looked down at you like this, you were a lot smaller..." Joey began.
"Uh huh..." Dr. Death grunted as he rubbed at his bruised throat where Fangpoint had choked him a few moments ago, no longer having the strength to feel anything but irritation. The power needed to fly into another rage at his former owner had fled.
"Heh. We used to make daily trips to the Healing Springs with you....remember that?" the boy smirked, attempting to lighten the mood. The techo simply lowered his eyes and said nothing. "I always said that sooner or later we'd make a battler out of you.....I guess I stopped believing that after awhile."
"I guess." Glitz muttered sullenly.
"Glitz..." he said in a voice that was almost gentle. "I put you in the pound, but that doesn't mean I didn't care about you, you know."
"You have a funny way of showing it...." he sighed, his balance threatening to give out. There was another silence between them.
"Come inside. I've got some healing potions for you. I can do that much at least." he said gently, crouching and grabbing one of the techo's arms, draping it around his shoulders and standing, taking Dr. Death with him as he did. As much of a relief as it was to Glitz to not be fighting with Joey anymore, he wasn't sure he liked the sudden calming of the waters either as he was led back into the house, past the snarling Scorchruff, Fangpoint momentarily forgotten.
Joey brought him into the kitchen and seated him at the table before opening the fridge and taking out several small bottles full of puce-colored liquid.
"I keep the potions in the fridge so they stay fresh." he explained to no one in particular. "I dunno what the water faerie's been putting in them lately, but you leave it out on the counter overnight and it starts to smell like rotten eggs." He offered a smile and set the bottles down in front of Dr. Death. "Don't worry, the corks come out easy." he added. The techo gave him an uncertain look before picking one up, plucking the cork out of its mouth, and slowly drinking the contents. It reminded him of cranberry juice and he found, after having it, that he DID feel better. The bloody scrapes on his arms from Fangpoint's talons had begun to close and heal over, leaving no trace of scar tissue in their wake.
By the time he had finished drinking the third potion, he was perfectly fine again with no evidence of his previous scuffle with Fangpoint. That solved, he looked awkwardly across the table at his former owner.
"....what?" he asked at least, feeling self-conscious.
"How'd you get so strong? I mean, I've seen huge neopets not be able to budge Fangpoint in the ring and you shoved him like a sack of potatoes." Joey complimented.
"Oh..." he muttered, rubbing at his forearm and looking down at the tabletop. "....that's not important...." He really didn't feel like delving into the ray incident again.....especially not with Joey of all people. He was more docile now, but he was still angry at the young man. VERY angry.
"No, I guess its not." Joey agreed. "You've really changed, haven't you?"
"Yeah...guess I have." Dr. Death sighed, folding his arms on the table and laying his head upon them. He wished he was back home suddenly....he really wanted to take a nap. He might, actually, have fallen asleep right there at the table if Joey's next words hadn't jolted him fully awake again.
"Maybe I made a mistake throwing you away, Glitz....and maybe this is fate. Maybe we're meant to be together. I mean, how many people have their first neopet come back to them after all this time?" the human grinned. "What do you think? I've got room for you..."
Truthfully, the doctor didn't know what to think. His first impulse -- that crying abandoned neopet inside of himself that still pined for its owner -- wanted to seize the opportunity. Just throw the past years away and start again......
But it was the second impulse he listened to -- the part of him that had learned much from a life of being hurt and scorned constantly. It was this impulse that reminded him of what was waiting for him back home and the handful of people he had allowed to get close to him and who had come to care for him deeply.
It was also this impulse that stripped the sugar-coating from Joey's offer and showed him that there was no love in it. Joey hadn't missed his companionship at all and had been set to see him torn to ribbons only moments ago. The only thing that appealed to the boy now was his drastic increase in strength. "He wants to make me like them..." he thought, his eyes darting to the side to look at Scorchruff sitting on the porch, eclipsing the front doorway and curling his lips. "He wants me to be a battle-hungry zombie like they are...."
"Still with me, Glitz?" Joey asked.
"I'm with you." he sighed. "And I'm going to have to say no." The human's smile slipped a few notches.
"Why?" he asked. "We'd be great together! I mean, with your new strength, we--"
"That's all you want, isn't it?" the techo interrupted, unable to look at Joey. "Just to make me another notch in your belt like those three poor idiots you've got slaving for you now...."
"That's not--"
"And that's how it is, isn't it? If your pets can't fetch you glory of some sort, then they're not worth having." he continued, narrowing his eyes. Joey eyed him sternly.
"Look, I'm trying to make peace here, Glitz, and I don't want another fight." he stated firmly.
"There won't be another fight, Joey." the techo said matter-of-factly as he stood up from the table. "Because I'm leaving....and I think this time, I'll stay gone. I've got too much to worry about back home to let what you've done to me haunt me every day anymore. I don't know what I was thinking coming here. It didn't solve a damn thing."
"Look, that's why I'm offering to take you back." Joey reasoned. "If we start over again, none of this would even matter."
"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Dr. Death sneered, turning his back on the human and heading for the door, speaking over his shoulder. "You know something, Joey, neopets are known for their loyalty. Its kind of ingrained in us to stay with our owners at all costs and look to them for shelter and protection and love. But there's some owners who take advantage of that loyalty to the point where its sickening." he paused, his hand on the front door's knob as he shot a final and accusing look at his former owner. "And I feel very sorry for any pet that relies on you for anything."
And as he slammed the front door closed behind himself, somewhere in his head a chapter of his life that had been left hanging unfinished for years, wrote its final words and closed itself forever, never to be opened again. He decided, once and for all, that he was done with Joey and brooding over "what-if's". Life hadn't dealt him an incredibly good hand, but it certainly could have dealt him much worse....and it was time to stop obsessing over what could have been and start to sort out what was.
Nearby him on the porch, Scorchruff bared his fangs, his hackles bristling menacingly at the techo. "Get out of here...." the lupe rumbled. "And don't ever come back either. You're not welcome here."
"There's nothing that would make me WANT to be welcomed here." Dr. Death shot back. It felt good to say, namely because he knew that he meant it now and was not trying to mask any underlying hurt. Not giving Scorchruff a chance to reply, he turned sharply and began to walk back in the direction he had come, noting briefly that Fangpoint was still KO'ed in the dust and not caring. Maybe the three pets would realize one day, as he finally had, that their "owner" was only as important as they let him be...and if they were to all walk out on him, he'd be a faceless nothing in the thousands of neopian citizens again.
"Woah, you're leaving already?" a familiar voice called when he had left the house well behind himself and was nearing the small jungle that led back to the beach. Glitz looked up to see Bloodcloak poised over the dormant body of an imp that he had just conquered in battle.
"Apparently, we had nothing to discuss." he told the young kougra.
"Did he kick you out?" the tiger neopet smirked knowingly.
"No. Actually, I think it was the other way around....and I can't say I minded much." he corrected, never pausing in his gait.
"Hey wait up!" Bloodcloak called, abandoning his imp to walk with the techo. "So what's this beef you've got with my owner?"
"Its none of your business." he replied curtly. "But if you plan on sticking with him, you'll probably find out for yourself soon enough."
"Hey, don't knock on Joey, alright?" the kougra said, his voice devoid of its normal good nature and sounding utterly serious. "I mean, just because you butted heads with him once doesn't mean he's going to do that to everybody. Joey's my friend and he loves me. He'd never give me up for anything."
"Yeah...." the doctor sighed uncommittedly, deciding it was for the best not to argue though he was fairly sure that he knew better. "See you around, kid."
"Probably not." the kougra muttered.
"Probably for the best." Glitz nodded and began to pick his way back through the small jungle toward the beach.
There, he would climb atop one of the boulders and wait for the evening to come and one of Mystery Island's shoreline patrol team to come by in a motorboat and notice him. After a hasty explanation of why he was there, he would return home that night quietly. He'd not return to work, but spend the remaining two days he had taken off as sick time in bed, recovering from everything, assuring himself it really was finally over, and having the soundest sleep he'd had in years with no nightmares or jolting awake in the middle of the night feeling cold and alone.
The "curse", so to speak was finally lifted....and his life was his once more.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EPILOGUE
"Are you sure this is everything?" Glitz asked, carrying in one last box and setting it down, arching his back to pop it.
"Should be." Karma smiled awkwardly. "We didn't have much to start with, remember."
"I remember." he nodded. "Like I said before, I don't know how you managed in that apartment for so long."
"The question is, are you going to be able to handle living under the same roof as the hellions I'm about to bring in?" the frog asked. The two of them, lately, had been discussing her living situation a lot more heavily than normal. Her apartment simply wasn't big enough for herself and her pets and yet she hotly denied his offers to pay the first installment on having a neohome built. She assured him that she could afford to do it herself, but was waiting until she could also afford having it built out of decent materials.
Eventually, a compromise had been made and an inarguably big step had been taken. Karma had given over her neopoints to Dr. Death and he had used them to add four rooms and a hallway onto his own home and they were now merging both households into one, despite the raised eyebrows and clucking tongues of those who had somehow found out about it.
The techo recalled with some amusement, the elderly poogle woman who had been hobbling past as he and Karma had been carrying boxes inside, noticed their lack of wedding bands and had shaken her head and announced that it was "simply disgraceful".
"I should be able to handle them...or at least get used to them." he nodded. "When did Rose say she was going to bring them by?"
"In..." Karma paused to look at her watch. "...an hour or so. So we can at least *start* unpacking..." She paused, biting her lip.
"Something wrong?" the doctor inquired, putting a hand on her shoulder.
"No...just....heh, wondering if we're doing the right thing is all." she shrugged.
"Does it feel right to you?" he asked, quirking a brow. She smiled slowly.
"It does." she nodded.
"Then don't worry about it." he told her gently, returning her smile. "Let's worry about something that might turn into a problem....like whether Candy's still in her phase of trying to recreate modern art on the walls with crayons."
"No, she stopped that after Yahoo and I threatened to coat her in chocolate and sell her as a gourmet food." the frog admitted, laughing lightly and then resting her head on his chest. For a moment both were quiet.
"This is going to work." he told her, sounding confident in this decision as he gently ran a hand through her brown hair.
"Think so?" she murmured.
"I do." he nodded firmly.
"Even if my pets won't be satisfied till they've driven you crazy?" she pressed playfully.
"After all I've been through, they're going to find out I'm a hard nut to crack." he assured her, affectionately nuzzling her forehead as he drew her close.
"I guess the question is, where do we go from here?" Karma whispered.
"Where would you *like* to go?" he asked, touching noses with her. Her eyes glistened as she leaned in further.
"At the immediate moment, I kind of like where I am..." she said.
"Then let's stay there awhile." he smiled, closing the last of the distance between them and kissing her softly.
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THE (friggin') END *faint*