Stanley began picking the grass around him in boredom. "Say, why didn't you want me to tell Ms. Lamb about her… past life?"
Fred's face became serious. He reached out and fixed Stanley's soiled collar.
"I wasn't going to hurt you. I just wanted to talk to you without giving Eleanor any suspicion. She's lost parts of her memory and is slowly regaining them. She doesn't remember being a little sister and I figure it should stay that way. At least I do know that neither of us is qualified to tell her."
"She doesn't remember a thing," Stanley contemplated. "I did some… I left her to become."
"And she doesn't need to remember that right now. Something's not right with her and until she has her answers I don't want to make it worse. But right now we need to put on an act for her. So not a wor-"
"Aaaaaaiieeeee!"
Both Stanley and Fred jumped at the sound of Eleanor screaming. They began rushing towards the stairs.
"Eleanor, are you alright," shouted Fred.
"Nooooo, no don't come down ju- just yet."
To Fred, Eleanor's sounded like she was in pain and her breath was labored. Never the less he halted at the entrance to the stairs leading below and held out a hand to stop Stanley.
"It is okay now. You can come. But don't you dare try anything."
The two men almost flew down the stairs to find Eleanor standing in the water with nothing but a brown towel to protect her dignity. Their eyes were torn from the extraordinary view by the site of the water around Eleanor's foot turning murky red.
"Aagh! Are you two going to stop gawking and rescue me?"
Stanley's eyes grew large and he extended a finger towards Eleanor. "But aren't you um spotting?"
Fred's mouth dropped open but he quickly regained composure. "If that's the case Eleanor, I'm not sure how we can… well, help."
Eleanor's face went red from embarrassment to anger. "Spotting? My body is leaking blood like a small fountain and you think I'm spotting. Did any other woman in your life spot like this," she yelled.
Both men looked at each other and scratched their heads.
"Eleanor it's not a common thing for men to witness." Fred began. "They get very cranky but it's normal to be like that. It's just a process er- part of becoming a fine woman. And you'll-"
"For the last bloomin time, it is not, uurrg," Eleanor replied grasping her leg in pain. "It is not my- my thing. See these roses. They have thorns you know. And I went and stepped on one. It went through my foot and I can't get free. It hurts," she whimpered in despair.
No sooner had she finished her rant when two pairs of strong arms held her up. Stanley proceeded to grab Eleanor around her waist and slowly lift while Fred knelt in the water and gently found where the thorn had pierced threw her foot.
Even though she was grateful for their help, Eleanor could not help but feel very exposed between the two of them. "If you dare look up Fred Tumble," she admonished.
Fred waved her fear away and handed her his revolver. "This is going to be painful. Put the wooden part of the handle in your mouth."
Eleanor took the weapon and stared at the handle. The wood already had two rows of teeth imprinted in its grain. She shrugged it off and put the handle in her mouth bracing herself for the worst.
"On my count," Fred commanded.
"Three, two, one, PULL!"
Stanley lifted Eleanor's surprisingly light body up while Fred lifted her foot around the thorn. They could hear Eleanor's muffled screams as she bit down but it was over in a moment's notice. Stanley gently put Eleanor down and helped her hobble to the stairs to sit down. All three people stared at the wound as it stitched itself back together.
"I can't believe you guys thought I was on my {.}," Said Eleanor as she playfully badgered the two men. Now fully dressed, they were heading down to the bathysphere. Fred had wished for Eleanor to rest a little bit after the incident but she pressed them to leave. She wanted answers, all of them. But as they approached the station for the bathysphere they found the door to the submarine blocked off by tons of-
"Trap darts," Fred exclaimed.
Stanley threw up his hands. "But what are they doing here? They weren't here when I arrived."
Eleanor stared at the millions of trap darts arching electricity across the entire room. She thought to herself how she, had at one time, spent all her trap darts in one go in order to stave off Sander Cohen's subordinates from killing her only to find that the game did not allow for that many traps and had erased most of them. She was thinking about how to break through when she heard a whistling sound. Her hand jutted out in front of Fred's chest and caught a red-hot dart using telekinesis.
A Houdini grasping a dart gun appeared on the gangplank leading into the Bathysphere. "This is as far as you go. For the sins of killing my love you must die. Fear the saturnine lowlifes."
The woman fired two darts that went high and wide. She disappeared with a 'poof'. Then two male Houdinis appeared and shot bolts of fire toward the three who scattered. Eleanor stayed on the defense catching the burning spheres, Fred shot in vain because there were too many, and Stanley huddled in the corner firing his weapon in the general area.
Fred walked over to Stanley and smacked him. "Don't hit the bathysphere. It doesn't react well to bullets."
"Yea well neither do I," moaned Stanley.
"You guys," yelled Eleanor as she fired back and dodged a dart. "I can't handle this many people."
The female Houdini appeared right in front of them with dart gun in hand. "You shall di-"
The sudden pounding of heavy footsteps resounded on the wooden floorboards. A Rosie appeared waltzing through the scene towards the hidey-hole on the side of the wall. The repetitive pounding echoed throughout the room as he called for his charge.
"You shall, you shall die," the woman declared again.
"I don't think so," a voice whispered.
(Sheink)
The female Houdini turned around to see a spider-splicer pulling her hooks out of her two companion's heads. Blood driveled out of their mouths and they fell dead in sync.
Stanley was the first to react and lost his lunch while Fred and Eleanor looked on in dread.
"You, you, you dare," the Houdini splicer stuttered. A ball of fire formed in her hand but before she could release it she felt pain in her torso. She looked down to see a hook with an arm attached sink into her abdomen. The spider-splicer took her other hook and also stabbed the other splicer keeping both hooks embedded.
"Me, me, me," the spider-splicer mocked.
The Houdini evaporated into thin air but the spider-splicer remained still.
"Your tricks won't work on me pitiful Houdini."
A second later the Houdini reappeared where she had been standing with the hooks still inside her. She gasped for air and vomited blood. Seeing her defeat, the Houdini wiped the blood from her mouth. "Long live the Saterni-"
Right before the Houdini could finish, the spider-splicer ripped her hooks apart causing the other woman's intestines and fluids to gush out. Death came before the corpse hit the floor.
All who remained alive stared at the bloodied spider-splicer while the big daddy remained where he was still knocking on the metal hole.
The woman wiped the blood from her face and smiled devilishly. "Hi Eleanor, I see you've made more friends. And you Fred, you seem to be enjoying her company. Really cute… really sickening!"
Fred stared at the woman. The face was as similar as the voice but in a really twisted way.
"Lucy Evansfield?"
Author's notes: I decided to give Lucy a last name and created one up on the spot. For those of you who don't remember her, she was the assistant to the poor dead Doc Johnson. She is also the dark character seen looming over the dead doctor's body. I'm no M. Night (HE SCREWED UP AVATAR THE LAST AIRBENDER) but i love a good twist. Hope this one keeps you hungry. Oh and how was the short fight scene. At some point Stanley will grow a pare but i didn't want to make him a sudden hero. At the moment he's just a tepid guy who wants to do the right thing but lacks a pair.
