Coraline didn't waste time screaming. Instead, she kicked out, hard. The Beldam screeched and let go of her face, but her foot caught in the Beldam's ribcage, twisted scissor-blades twining in around her ankle and holding her fast.
That was when she screamed.
"Let go of her!" Danny shouted, hurling a globe of explosive green at the other mother. The Beldam made a disgusted noise and spun around, dragging Coraline off of the web and then releasing her foot, sending her crashing headlong into Danny. The web shuddered and jumped, metal joints wailing.
There was a thump, and the other mother screeched almost exactly like a sewing machine when its thread tangles in its inner workings mid-stitch. Coraline hit the bottom of the web, making it bounce and shiver, and she rolled, expecting the Beldam to drop on her at any moment.
She hadn't counted on her friends. Apparently, neither had the Beldam, who was too busy thrashing around trying to dislodge Tucker from where he was now perched on her spidery abdomen to bother about Coraline.
"You wretched children!"
"Go for the eyes!" Coraline shouted, and Tucker nodded, unhooking one hand from its death grip on one of the other mother's exposed ribs. "They're just sewn on, so if you can pull them off -"
"Not this time," the Beldam hissed, and it might've gone very badly for them all if Danny hadn't suddenly figured out how to aim his blasts.
In between the angry screeches and the bright green blasts, Tucker managed to jump from the Beldam's back, out of the line of fire, landing on the web above Coraline. The impact made the web shudder again, knocking her down just as she was starting to regain her feet. "Ow!"
"Sorry," Tucker said quickly, offering a hand to help her up again. "Well, it looks like this was a bust."
There was a sizzle as one of Danny's blasts scorched the top of the Beldam's head, leaving a smoking bald spot in its wake.
"Definitely a bust," Coraline agreed. "We've got to get out of here. Do you think -"
She was cut off by a cackling laugh from above, and looked up straight into the Beldam's gleaming eyes. "Do you really think you can escape that easily?"
"Yes?"
"You're forgetting the most important thing," the Beldam said, and her voice was almost sweet when she sing-songed, "There's only one key. And oh! You don't have it." One spindly, spidery hand reached down and patted her patronizingly on the head.
"Neither do you," Coraline retorted, swatting away the hand. Before the Beldam had a chance to react beyond a hiss of displeasure, Coraline flung herself flat against the web behind her. "It's up in the lock. And by the way, I've still got your right hand."
The Beldam didn't screech. She just lunged at Coraline, head still smoking slightly and both the hand of pins and the empty wrist outstretched. Coraline tucked her arms in and rolled sideways along the web, feeling it shake as the witch slammed into it, and let herself be bounced forward into the opposite side of the web. As soon as she hit the metal, she grabbed hold, wincing when her fingers slammed into the bars, and started to climb.
There was a clatter of metal from behind and below her, and Coraline spun, dangling from the web by one hand, to see the Beldam furiously battering at the web. Two of her ribs and one spiny leg had tangled in the webbing, and she thrashed around madly trying to free herself. Tucker dodged out of the way of one flailing leg, scrambling upwards after Coraline.
For a few tense seconds, the little world went quiet, as the Beldam worked to extricate herself from the web, apparently too incandescently angry to say a word. She was not, however, too angry to refrain from occasionally growling or shrieking in such a way that Coraline stopped every time she did, heart racing, and had to look back to make sure the Beldam wasn't coming rocketing up the web after her and Tucker. Up above, Danny swung the door open, before swooping down to blast one silver leg that came scything up towards the climbers.
"Get back to the Specter Speeder, I've got your back!" he shouted over his shoulder, letting loose a barrage of poison-green blasts. He pulled up sharp, however, when the last one fizzled out in his hand. "Or, maybe I don't." He shook the offending appendage, but only managed to work up a faint greenish glow.
The Beldam's shattered face split into a huge, needle-sharp grin. "Did you honestly think you could escape walking straight into my web for the second time?"
"I don't know. Do you ever stop talking?" Tucker quipped, as Danny banged his right fist against his open left palm. "Dude, forget it, let's just get out of here before -"
The Beldam lunged, in one quicksilver movement, shooting up the web to swipe at Danny with one spear-like leg. Danny yelped, dodging to one side, and sped around the web, diving out of the way of the Beldam's thrashing limbs. Coraline tried to start climbing again, only to have to stop and grab onto the web when the Beldam slammed into it again, nearly shaking her off. Tucker didn't even try to move, clinging to the web for dear life.
A loud, angry screech was the only warning she got before the Beldam smashed into the web just below her feet. Coraline swung herself up on the thin metal band she was clinging to, wincing as the edge bit into her hands. A hand grabbed her by the shoulder, and she was promptly hoisted straight up into the air.
Coraline screeched, trying to hang onto the web. From directly above her, Danny's voice said, "Hey, I'm trying to get you out of here!"
Coraline let go of the web, just as the Beldam's hand scraped over the metal in the place where her foot had been, missing by inches. Her howl of rage drowned out the high-pitched scream that Tucker let out when Danny flew over and scooped him up with the hand that wasn't holding Coraline.
"Time to go," Danny said, raising his voice over the loud and angry metallic screeches from below. Whether they came from the Beldam's throat or her bright steel body against the rusty web, Coraline could no longer tell. They cut off abruptly as the three flew up and through the open door, which slammed behind them.
"Wait!" Coraline shouted, as Danny soared towards the Specter Speeder. He pulled up short in midair, and Coraline reached back to turn the key in the lock, just as something heavy hit the door at high speed. Coraline pulled the key from the lock, and couldn't help a little smile. They'd all gotten out alive and unbuttoned.
They landed back in their seats in the Specter Speeder, Danny phasing the three of them through the roof. It tingled faintly as Coraline passed through it, sending cold shivers up and down her spine.
Danny dropped heavily into his seat, transforming back to human in a flash of white light."Okay, can someone please tell me what just happened?"
"That was your other mother, right?" Tucker asked, hesitantly. "I mean, not that your mother is anything like that. I'm sure your mother is a very nice lady and not a deranged metal spider-monster."
"She's not my other mother. She just pretends to be people's mothers," Coraline grumbled. "But yeah, that was her."
"I thought she made creepy replicas of people's houses to lure them in."
"She does."
"Then why did we walk into a web?" Danny asked, pressing the button for the ignition. The Specter Speeder rumbled to life.
"Because she didn't take Sam."
"Whoa, wait." Tucker held up both hands. "First you say it's definitely her, then you say it isn't?"
"No," Coraline growled. "I thought it was her, but I was wrong! But now I know what's going on, and I'm not wrong this time. I wasn't thinking." She could have bashed her head against the dashboard. "It's a game she and I play," she quoted, half to herself.
"Uh, what?"
"There's a third player. Always has been. And I should have known that the other mother couldn't make a new playing field, not after it all crumbled when I took the other children's eyes away."
"Okay, that's both ew and yikes," Tucker said decisively.
"So what now?" Danny asked. "We're right back to square one, we still don't know where Sam is or how to get there –"
"Yes we do." Coraline waved the key in front of her face. "There's only one key, but there are two doors it opens. One of them is here. So the other one has to be in the real world."
"Wait. You mean we just missed the door in Sam's house? We had to stare at the Box Ghost's butt for nearly an hour for nothing?" Tucker groaned. "I hope you know I am never going to be able to get that image out of my head."
"That can't be right." Suddenly, her confidence felt very misplaced.
"You said it was a game, right?"Danny suggested. "Maybe it's part of the game. And we've got to find six more keys before we can win."
Tucker laughed. Coraline didn't. If it was supposed to be a joke, she didn't get it.
"No, it makes sense," Tucker said, thoughtfully, between chuckles. "It really is like Doomed. If we don't collect the items, we can't move on to the next level. We beat the boss and got the key, so now we get to level up."
Coraline opened her mouth to object, and paused. "Actually, that does make sense."
"See? Told you my gaming expertise would come in handy."
"Yeah, that's great, Tuck," Danny agreed, throwing the Specter Speeder into drive. "But how do we find the final boss?"
"Leave that to me," Coraline answered, with slightly more conviction than she felt.
Tucker frowned. "No offense, but last time we left it to you, we almost got turned into spider-chow."
"Trust me, that won't happen again." Coraline's fingers closed around the stone with a hole in it. "When we get back, I'm calling my friend Wybie. He'll know where your 'final boss' is."
"Why would he know?"
"Because it's his cat."
AN: I apologise profusely for neglecting this fic. A combination of real life and a new fandom took me out for a bit. Thank you to everyone who stuck around, and who read and enjoyed.