Monster Arm, Part 3
Early the next morning, the same day as Marco's tournament, Star dragged Bucky along as she barged into Marco's room, the potted plant-turned-hand tucked under her arm.
"MARCO! I DID IT! I DID IT! I DID IT!" she screamed excitedly, hopping from foot to foot while holding the transfigured plant in front of her. However, she and Bucky both faltered in confusion.
Marco, fully dressed in his red hoodie and black jeans, was using the Monster Arm to do push-ups. Six hundred seventy-five of them, by the Hispanic boy's own count.
"Uh, Marco...what are you doing?" Bucky asked. Noticing their presence at last, Marco looked at them and grinned.
"Oh, hey, guys! Check it out; I finally figured out how to control this thing!" he exclaimed, doing a front flip so that he was back on his feet. "Man, I can't wait to knock Jeremy down a few pegs at the tournament this afternoon! If this Monster Arm doesn't help me out, nothing will!" The Butterfly siblings looked at each other worriedly.
"Marco, I may not know much about Earth fighting competitions," Bucky began, "but being a member of Mewman royalty means I have to stand by and observe every time one of my relatives is challenged to a duel. Which happens more often than I like to admit, but that's beside the point. I've witnessed and participated in enough duels to know a body modification like yours would be seen as an unfair advantage. I'm not even gonna try to sugarcoat this; attending the tournament in your current state would be cheating!"
"Oh, funny how you guys don't have a problem using magic when it benefits you," Marco said in an accusatory tone with a frown, "but as soon as it gives me an advantage, you wanna take it away!" This kind of outburst was very uncharacteristic of the Hispanic boy, which worried Star and Bucky even more.
"Marco, I think that arm's a bad influence on you," Star tried to tell him, her voice starting to fill with fear.
"And I think you need to leave!" Marco growled, and the Monster Arm shoved both siblings out the door and slammed it shut. Star sighed dejectedly and was about to walk away when Bucky grabbed her shoulder to hold her in place, his ear pressed to Marco's door. Star saw what he was trying to do and did the same.
"Man, what do they know?" they heard Marco say, his mattress creaking as he sat down on his bed.
"Don't listen to them. They're just jealous," purred an unfamiliar deep masculine voice, and the siblings' eyes widened.
"Y-you can talk?!" Marco screeched.
"You don't need them anymore. I can give you everything you've ever dreamed of," continued the voice, which the siblings wordlessly agreed must have been coming from the Monster Arm.
"Really?" Marco asked, prompting the Monster Arm to keep on talking.
"First, we're gonna destroy that little punk, Jeremy..."
"Yeah?"
"Then, we're gonna get Jackie Lynn Thomas to like you..."
"Yeah!"
"Then, we're gonna slaughter all humans and FEAST ON THEIR BOWELS!"
Whatever Marco was going to respond to that last statement with was cut off when Bucky kicked Marco's door down and hurled his trident at the Monster Arm, pinning it to the wall between two of the three tines. Halfway down the tentacle was a gaping mouth full of jagged shark-like teeth, which was the source of the voice.
"Okay, I've heard enough! DO IT, STAR!" Bucky hollered. The Monster Arm tried to squirm around and escape, but Bucky's trident held it tight to the wall.
"RETURNIO ARMIUS NORMALRINO!" Star cried after charging her Wand with magic. The bright blue beam of magical energy struck the Monster Arm square in the mouth, and it let out a very inhuman scream as it slowly shrank and morphed back into Marco's original arm. Bucky then pulled his trident out of the wall, freeing Marco's arm. Marco stood stock-still, then flexed his fingers with a broad grin.
"My arm! My beautiful arm! It's back to normal!" he cried out in relief. Then a sharp crack was heard, and he suddenly grimaced in pain. "ARGH! And totally broken..."
...
One quick trip to the hospital later, and Marco's arm was back in a cast. Marco soon got the idea that his sensei might still let him compete so long as Jeremy promised to go easy on him, so once he was dressed in his Karate uniform, Star and Bucky escorted him to the tournament.
Sensei Brentley was a tall, buff Hispanic man who could've passed for an older version of Marco, with spiky black hair, a red headband, a short black beard, brown eyes with bushy black eyebrows, a sleeveless black-and-red Karate uniform, and his hands and bare feet wrapped in white workout gauze.
"Sorry, Marco, I can't let you compete with that injury. It's just too dangerous," Brentley regretfully told Marco in a gravelly voice. "However, given how much of a stink the Birnbaum kid will likely raise about this, I suppose I could let someone compete in your place..."
Marco, Star, and Brentley all turned to Bucky, who raised his eyebrows.
"What? What are you all looking at me for?" he asked in confusion.
"Face it, dude, that kid needs a serious reality check," Brentley explained. "Marco told me about you and how good you are at hand-to-hand fighting, even if it's not proper Karate. It'll slide, because this is technically a Mixed Martial Arts tournament, and all ages and skill levels are welcome."
Seeing the pleading looks Star and Marco were giving him, Bucky shrugged and gave his consent. A few minutes later, he stood on one side of a rubber wrestling mat in Brentley's dojo in view of a set of wooden bleachers filled with various members of the Echo Creek community, including but not limited to Marco's friends and other students from Echo Creek High. On the other side of the mat stood a tall figure wearing a floor-length hooded blue cloak that concealed everything but the lower part of his face. Marco stood next to Bucky, giving him advice to help him against Jeremy.
"Remember, Jeremy generally plays clean until he notices that he's losing. When that happens, he'll most likely resort to dirty tricks to regain the upper hand. Sensei's not so easily fooled; he knows a cheater when he sees one," the Hispanic boy said.
"Marco, I appreciate that you want to help, I really do, but I can handle this," Bucky said. "I've beaten way tougher guys than some filthy-rich hotshot. I'll be fine!" Before long, Brentley stepped up to the mat and addressed the audience.
"Ladies and gentlemen! Boys and girls! Presenting our first match of the afternoon!" he announced. "In this corner: foreign exchange powerhouse Bucky Butterfly!" Star, Alfonso, Fergusen, and the other Echo Creek High students cheered loudly. "In this corner: local golden child Jeremy Birnbaum!" The other community members cheered, the high school students booed, and the person opposite Bucky discarded his cloak with a high-pitched battle cry, revealing...a blond-haired eight-year-old on a STOOL!
Everyone went dead silent when Bucky threw back his head and guffawed loudly.
"Are you kidding me?! This puny little shrimp is the big, bad Jeremy Birnbaum?! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Bucky continued his bout of laughter, wiping tears of mirth from his eyes. Jeremy was far from amused.
"Oh yeah?! Well, you don't look so tough, either! I could pound you into the dirt with my eyes closed!" he taunted in his squeaky prepubescent voice. Bucky stopped laughing, but his smile never faltered.
"Alright, kid, let's see if your actions match your words," he replied to the taunt, unclasping his cape and pulling his shirt over his head. The older community members gasped, and the high school girls swooned as Bucky's powerful muscles and tattoo came into view. Janna, who was sitting on the bottom row of the bleachers with a large bucket of popcorn, wolf-whistled. Jeremy blanched for a moment, then shook off his surprise and jumped down from his stool.
The two opponents approached each other on the mat and bowed to each other, Marco and Brentley having given Bucky a brief run-down of tournament etiquette. Brentley gave the signal for them to begin, and Jeremy made the first move, trying to take advantage of his smaller size. Yet despite how big he was, Bucky was incredibly light on his feet. He swiftly avoided Jeremy's attempts to make him lose his footing before knocking the kid flat using the heel of his palm.
"Point: Butterfly!" Brentley announced.
With a growl of frustration, Jeremy jumped up and unleashed a flurry of kicks aimed at various points on the upper part of Bucky's torso. However, Bucky was still wearing his leather armguards, and blocked each strike with his forearms before knocking Jeremy down again using the exact same palm-heel strike.
"Point: Butterfly!" Brentley announced again.
Jeremy was in the process of picking himself up from where he'd fallen to the mat again when he noticed Bucky looming over him, his arms crossed over his chest.
"Face it, kid, you're out of your league here. I'm bigger, stronger, and far more skilled than you are. Not to mention that I'm literally twice your age," Bucky stated. "I'm willing to let you walk away unharmed; just say the word, and the fight's over. Do you yield?" Bucky offered his hand to the still-prostrate boy beneath him. Jeremy looked at the hand, looked at Bucky's face, then scowled.
"NEVER!" he shouted and pulled the ultimate dirty move. Before Bucky could react, Jeremy angled his body to get the right amount of leverage and kicked Bucky hard between the legs.
"OOH!" the entire audience exclaimed with a collective grimace as Bucky sank to his knees. Meanwhile, Jeremy jumped to his feet and started doing a victory dance.
"Hey, uh, Jeremy? You reeeeeally shouldn't be celebrating right now!" Star called to him from the top row of bleachers, causing Jeremy to abruptly stop.
"Why not? I obviously just won the match!" Jeremy boasted.
"Oh, no, no, no! Not even close!" Star corrected. "Bucky is very proud and protective of his masculinity. All you did was make him mad!" Jeremy's eyes widened, and he turned around to find Bucky staggering to his feet with a deep scowl.
"Alright, Shorty, playtime's over," he growled. "COME HERE, YOU!" Jeremy yelped and tried to bolt, only for Bucky to reach out and grab his arm. Roughly yanking him back, Bucky said, "Poor guy, you must be so lonely. Here, let me give you a HUG!"
"Mother!" Jeremy managed to squeak before being swept into a bone-crushing embrace. This was no loving or brotherly hug; every time Jeremy exhaled, Bucky squeezed tighter, like a python. Soon, Jeremy was barely able to breathe; his face was red, his vision swam, and his attempts to get free were getting weaker by the second.
"You know how to end this. Just say the words," Bucky told Jeremy. The smaller boy was about to let his pride get the best of him once again. However, the risk of suffocation forced him to swallow it for once and admit defeat.
"I...yield," he croaked. Bucky released him, sending him tumbling to the mat in a heap, panting and gasping. Bucky loomed over him again, still with a deep scowl.
"I may be savage and brutal on the battlefield, but I am not without honor," he informed Jeremy. "If you weren't so young, things would have been far worse for you. Next time, you might not be so lucky." He walked away and retrieved his shirt and cape from Marco, after which Brentley stepped forward and addressed the audience once more.
"There you have it, folks! Birnbaum yielded, so Butterfly wins!"
Amid the cheering and applause, Jeremy was glaring daggers at both Bucky and Marco. Someday, hopefully soon, he would be able to get even with both of them...