«Spy!»

Scout couldn't move his rear paws. It should have worried him, but at that moment that didn't matter. He used his front paws to crawl towards Spy, dragging the rest of his body. He reached his partner and all of his concern was checking if he was alive, patting him with his paws.

Thank God, he was alive. As soon as he touched him, Spy groaned and tried to get up, unsuccessfully.

"I'm alright." He muttered. "Just an internal bleeding, I suspect."

He paid no attention to Scout's expression of worry, it was his spread hind legs which worried him. He made a great effort again to be able to sit on the ground and picked him up. Scout let out a little whine when he did so. Spy felt him and heard him complain when he touched certain spots. Yes, his spine was broken, he was paralyzed.

Scout knew. He didn't need Spy to tell him. Anyway, he guessed he had come out pretty well, considering the unbalanced fight. Spy had taken the worst part.

I thought you were dead for a second, they both thought, though one couldn't say it and the other didn't dare to. But there was one thing they could do. Scout rubbed his nose against his chest, hoping it didn't cause him too much pain, for he seemed to be much in pain already; Spy held him tight and caressed him with much delicacy, he seemed so small and frail…

But he wasn't…He had dared to attack Merasmus even though he didn't stand a chance. That was a bad choice which could have gotten him killed, but, deep down, he admired his boldness…

Scout rose his eyes at him. What now?, Spy understood that he was asking him.

Now…Well, they were going to die anyway. They were in the Underworld, and now that Merasmus was gone, there was no way to open a portal back to the realm of the living. They were trapped in that place where there was no food, no water, nothing at all; and they were wounded, perhaps critically. It was very likely that they would die soon—no, it was sure.

In spite of the evident, Spy sighed through his nose and gave Scout a calm look.

"We will find a way out of here. Then we will find Merasmus wherever he is hiding now and make him return you to normal."

Scout seemed to hesitate. He didn't show whether he agreed or thought he was just saying that to cheer him up. He simply buried himself deeper into his chest, closing his eyes. And Spy held him closer, shutting his eyes as well.

He wasn't saying that to cheer him up. He wasn't the kind of a man who gave people false hope. He truly meant every word he had said, and more he kept to himself. He would not sit around waiting to die: he would find a way out of this place, even if that meant finding a mean to survive for a whole year until next Halloween came and the two realms became connected; he would put his detective skills to practice and find the wizard wherever he had gone, capture him and torture him with the most twisted methods he knew until he spat out the truth; if it was true that he didn't know how to break the curse, he would meet every damned wizard and witch in the planet, until he found someone who could, and give them whatever they asked in return, beat them and make them in case they refused. And if the team wasn't willing to take the risk, he would do it all alone.

Spy looked at Scout. He was trembling in his arms. It could be the pain or the cold in this place—it was so cold! He removed his jacket and covered Scout with it.

Scout stopped trembling and closed his eyes. For a moment, he felt like this wasn't so bad, like there was absolutely nothing to worry about. Sure, some bad things were going on, but he was in Dad's arms.

Scout never expected Spy to say it aloud. Spy didn't want to, either. He thought he was feeling too numb to feel the soft kiss he left on his tiny head.

They both closed their eyes and rested a little. Perhaps they were losing their consciousness or dying, but they didn't think of it and just let it happen. It felt kind of nice. So nice none of them noticed the changes.

It wasn't like the time when he was turned into a hare. It all happened so quickly but so softly that it didn't interrupt their moment of peace. The ears shrunk. The fur detached from the body and scattered all over Spy's suit, except on top of the head. The arms and legs enlarged, and the proportions changed. The tail retracted into the spine until it disappeared. The fingers and toes became longer, easier to move, capable of manipulating. His little body became so much bigger.

That was how they noticed the change, when it was complete and Spy fell backwards, crushed by a sudden weight. Scout opened his eyes and found Spy looking at him with surprise.

"Wha—?"

It was then when he realized that he had talked with his normal voice. He got off him quickly and felt his chest, then his face, turned his head and looked at his legs. It took him a few seconds to convince himself that he wasn't dreaming or suffering a hallucination caused by pain or brain death. It was none of that. It was true! He was a human again! He was the way he had always been! When it hit him, he let out a big cheer, threw the jacket covering him away and tried to jump up and dance but found he couldn't move his legs, though that didn't spoil his ecstasy.

"I'm back! HAHAHAHA! I'm back! How?! What did just happen?! Wait, who the hell cares?! I'm back! Girls around the world, I'm baaaack!"

He was so happy that he threw himself into Spy's arms to embrace him. He barely reacted.

There was a flash and they were surprised by probably the last person they expected to find there: Medic?

"I finally find you! Do you have any idea of how difficult it is to come to the Underworld out of Halloween time? I had to…Well, that doesn't matter. Just try not to die or get dragged here more than eight times. Souls are not easy to—I mean, where's Merasmus? Is he dead? It's alright, I have been discussing with Engineer the possibility of transferring your mind into a robot—one we can mute, and—"

He stopped upon realizing that his young teammate was back to his original form.

"…Ah. I see we don't need it anymore."

"Nope, not anymore!" Scout was glad to confirm.

"Well, I will build it anyway. Ah, I see Merasmus didn't go down without a fight." He took out his Vaccinator and used it to make Scout abled again and heal Spy, so both of them were finally able to get up from the ground.

"So how are we getting out of here, Doc?" Scout asked, his hands on his hips.

"It is a bit of a long way, we will have to cross a lake of sulfur—we will be fine as long as we ignore the tortured souls trying to drag us to our doom—, then we will reach the Mountain of pain—don't worry about the name: our bodies will merely disintegrate then recompose in the realm of the living; a very unpleasant experience, but, hey, we should be back to the base for dinner time. I suggest you to put something on: we will be getting lots of bites."

"Welp…I don't mind putting up with a lil' more shit today." Scout shrugged, and started walking before Medic could show him the way, not hesitating for a second, so tall and firm, so good-looking (he believed), so naked and freezing.

Medic and Spy watched him go.

"Was Merasmus lying? He lifted the curse?"

Spy shook his head.

"What happened, then?"

Spy didn't reply to him, so Medic answered to himself in the end.

"I suppose the spell had some kind of expiration date." He shrugged.

Satisfied with that hypothesis, Medic quickly ran to catch up with Scout because he was seeing he was heading straight to the Bottomless Pit. Spy stayed right where he was. Now that he was alone, he let out a long sigh which contained many different emotions, closing his eyes for a moment, before picking up his jacket from the ground, shaking the dust off of it and following them without a hurry.