Work Text:
K.O., currently 13-17 years old, was peacefully passing the time on the late-night shift at the bodega.
He had recently mopped the floor as shiny as Mr. Gar himself would, checked the shelves to make sure everything was stocked perfectly and made sure he had extra pennies saved to avoid confusion with any costumers with too-big techno bills. He was doing great!
Well, as great as he could with so little shoppers. Work was no fun without attacks OR people to sell stuff to! All his tasks were done and he simply hated just waiting for the time to go back home...
And just as he is ready to start making frustrated whiny noises over being angry that he’s bored (just like when he was a kid, but he’s allowed to do it since he’s alone), the sound of a costumer entering the store gets his attention.
“Welcome to Gar’s Bodega! What can I help you with?” He greets the costumer.
A person in a purple and golden wizard’s robe and hat (that looked oversized, considering how it obscured their face) looked at him with one wide eye.
“Oh! You’re just who I needed, uh...” the one visible eye squints as they lightly approach K.O. to read his name tag. “K.O.! Yes, you are just who I needed, young K.O.”
“Good!” K.O. replied, voice strained and clear discomfort on his face. “So, what you need?”
The one eye on the dark blob of color that is the costumer’s face looked him up and down, then the two gloved hands from them started wiggling with magic-y gestures hovering K.O. as they hummed weirdly. K.O. quietly thought about how he was glad he was getting taller and stronger because he knew the person in front of him would break like a stick if he needed to defend himself against them.
“I see you are afflicted by a curse!” They finally concluded, overly proud about it.
“I am?” Was he? Oh, can they mean...
“Your were-puppy-now-dog form is not natural! And I can see you are not comfortable about it!” A finger is dramatically jabbed at his face. “I can help you!”
“You can?!” K.O. replies, surprised. “You can heal my friends too? Rad and Enid?”
“Show me a picture of them?” They asked on a smaller voice, giving up the theatrics for a second.
K.O. nodded and pulled up his phone, not having to go too far onto a search since his wallpaper was a picture of him and his friends.
“Aah, yes, I see, I see...” They scratched their.... Well, it was on the spot K.O. would imagine the chin to be. “Of course I can heal them, too! It will be easy!”
“Cool!”
“But tell me, young K.O.... Are you willing to sacrifice anything for this cure?”
“Uhm... no?” K.O. deflated, of course this came with a catch.
“Don’t be so hasty to deny it!” The wizard replied quickly, breaking from character to show distress. “Let’s say... How would you feel if your biggest enemies the ones to be afflicted by the curse instead of you, huh?” They said, theatrics back on yet again.
“Not that good, I think.” K.O. frowned. “I’m a hero. Causing distress to people is not really what I do, even if they’re my enemies.” Unless they’re the one causing said distress to others and he needs to stop it, he added mentally.
“But you do wish your curse was lifted, yes?” They offered, impatient.
“Yeah, that would be cool.” K.O. agreed.
“Good! Yes!” They exclaimed; arms lifted in excitement. “It is done then! You are free of your curse!”
“Really?” K.O. asked, but just as the words left his mouth, he felt the fluffy layer of fur over his skin simply disappear. “Nice!”
“Now,” The wizard in front of him started. “Can I get some lighting nachos?”
As the costumer – K.O. learned he is called ‘The Necromancer’ after a few minutes chatting with him while he ate his nachos – left, K.O. sighed to himself, shaking his head fondly.
“I’m so glad he healed me without getting anything in return! Or cursing anyone!”
Somewhere else, Rad and Enid feel themselves return to their fur-less selves and cheer.
And somewhere else, hours later, Lord Boxman wakes up earlier than usual.
He feels for Venomous’ side of the bed, but finds nothing. He’s still used to his partner going missing from bed even after shadowy was gone; Turns out the man was worst at keeping a sleep schedule once he had enough sleep, and nothing could stop him from checking specimen A-randomnumber at the weirdest hours of the night. Still, he sighs, disappointed he didn’t wake up with the chance of morning kisses and probably with the task of taking coffee to the lab earlier than usual. He gets up and makes his way to the bathroom they have in their shared room, going halfway through his morning routine when he finally sees himself in the mirror and stops.
He had been feeling half-asleep until now, but the view that greets him on the mirror feels the same as a bucket of cold water being dumped on his head.
That was now a chicken’s.
Boxman blinked, then closed his mouth, that had been hanging open; the ‘mouth’ was now a beak, and made a light “clack!” as it closed. Had he.... had he been turned into a chicken?
He checked around himself. His whole body was covered by soft white feathers, he had those weird skin flaps on his chin (the same color as his hair, that was... he wasn’t sure if his hair was hair, skin, or some cartoonish undefined third thing). His legs were now chicken legs, his right arm was a wing, and his left arm... Of course it was a human arm. Cob probably felt so funny for this one.
He was already concerned as he checked what had changed, but as he looked at his back, he felt his blood freeze as he was a tuft of green-colored feathers.
Forming a tail.
He had a tail now.
A loud scream could be heard through the entirety of Voxmore and the plaza, and if anyone asked, it wasn’t Boxman’s.
“Boxman? Is everything alright?” He heard Venomous’ voice coming from the room, around where he would be if he was on the bed.... Oh no.
Before he had time to worry too much of what might have happened to Venomous, he hears the man scream equally as loud as he screamed seconds ago.
Then, a third voice joins in.
“Boss!” Fink’s voice came from the hallway. “Are you okay, bo-” A loud thump, as if someone attempted to run on all fours and fell right onto their faces, echoed through the halls, then, a few seconds later, a third yet equally horrified scream.
Sitting at the breakfast table, the entirety of the voxy bunch shared concerned glances. Fink was fuming, the original shock now faded; the rat girl had turned into... a regular, human girl. Boxman, now full chicken save for the human arm where his chicken arm had been previously, had his partner wrapped around his arm... His partner. That had turned into a full snake... and a small one at that. He shouldn’t feel like that, but Boxman thought that Venomous keeping his hair and killer eyelashes were a charming quirk for this form.
Well, he should be thankful his transformation wasn’t as absurd as Venomous’. He should be even more thankful that his arm was a human ARM, not a human foot, like his chicken arm had been previously.
The bots seemed uncomfortable, Darrell being the one that looked the most unstable about it, almost vibrating on his spot but making an ugly face while at it, as if he was holding something in. Venomous raised a brow (or whatever his snake face had that functioned the same way) at that, and watched as the robot seemed to finally ‘explode’.
“Whatareyouthreeplanningtodoaboutthis?” He asked in one breath, as if saying it slower would make him second guess himself.
“Could you repeat that?” Venomous tried, soothing patience on his voice.
Darrell looked almost ashamed at the question, deflating and looking away from the table (and thankfully not seeing his sibling’s judgmental looks, because that would probably be enough to make him not attempt to speak again). “I wanted to know what you three are planning to do about this. Because...” He looked at Boxman and braced himself for a bad reaction from his dad as he spoke. “I really wanted to have a chicken before, and now I have one! But it’s my dad...”
“Don’t you have a farm now?” Venomous asked, surprise on his face.
“I do! But I don’t have chickens yet, only horses.” Darrell explains, matter-of-factly.
“O...kay.” Venomous stared at Darrell for a few more seconds before Boxman broke the silence.
“I’m not planning of staying a chicken, but I also have no idea why I’m like this.” He started, scratching his neck with his human hand, the feathers bothering him. “If we knew why we woke up like this we’d probably be able to go after a solution, but without that...”
“I might have an idea of who did this.” Venomous offered, getting curious glances. He sighed. “There was this note on the nightstand, from someone named Necromancer, saying we’re now cursed and were-people. They even left a mention to thank K.O. for this by the end of the note.”
“Do you have that note with you?!” Boxman asked, urgently.
“And tell me, Boxy, with what hands would I grab it?” Venomous replied.
“Oh! Heheh. Sorey.” He replied sheepishly.
“But what about Fink?” Shannon asked, a finger pointed to the human girl.
“It’s a were-person curse, right?” Raymond replied. “Fink was probably turned human, since the opposite of were-person doesn’t exist. You can just bite her back into a rat.”
“And how do you know that?” Shannon eyed her brother suspiciously.
“If there was an opposite curse to it, our beloved sister would have found a way to get it herself.” Raymond said, gesturing to Mikayla.
“Mikayla!” She confirmed.
“So, we just bite her?” Venomous asked, getting a nod from Raymond. “Boxman, can you-”
“I’m NOT letting him bite me!” Fink protested. “I prefer to stay human than let him do it!”
“And what about me?” Venomous offered, very tiredly. He got a few seconds of consideration from his minion before he turned away and huffed.
“I don’t wanna risk getting poisoned...” She mumbled, then added something else too low for Venomous to hear. It wasn’t, however, low enough for Darrell to not hear it; the robot’s eye widened and he gave Fink a shit-eating grin.
“So you ARE afraid of sn-” He started saying before Fink nearly stuffed her whole hand on his mouth to shut him up, almost burning red from shame over her almost-revealed secret.
“I’m not! Shut up!” Darrell was about to bite her hand when Venomous interrupted them, thinking out loud.
“She is right, I’m not sure what species of snake I am...”
“Can’t you just, you know, look at your scales and tell?” Raymond suggested, getting a groan from the professor.
“Technically, yes. But right now, I have two options. One is harmless and the other is deadly... I just need to confirm one thing before I can be sure.”
“That is?”
“I need to see my own face so I can be sure, does anyone have a-”
“Mirror.” Shannon completed his phrase, putting down a small compact mirror in front of him on the table and winking.
Venomous was about to thank her when he saw himself and froze. Boxman could tell his partner was about to lose it, judging by the way he went completely silent, wide-eyed and fully still.
“So? What kind of snake is it?” Blissfully unaware Darrell asked, not sensing the tension in the room.
“Lavender Rattlehog.” Venomous replied, tone flat. Boxman accidentally let out a snort at the name, but apologized.
“And what does it do?” Raymond asked.
“It’s a harmless kind of hognose snake. It looks similar to a Lavender Rattlesnake to scare away predators. It can, at best, make you bleed a little if you’re human.” He explained, tone empty.
“So you can bite Fink?” Darrell, again, asked.
“Yes.” He replied. “Come here, Fink.”
Too freaked out by Venomous’ reaction to his own face, Fink obeyed and didn’t make too big of a fuss when he bit her.
The robots watched in awe as she transformed back to her rat self, fluffening up in just a few seconds, growing a tail and getting her floppy rat ears back... One thing, however, stuck out like a sore thumb.
“Why are you white?” Raymond asked.
“And red!” Darrell added.
“You can’t just ask that!” Shannon scolded both her brothers, then turned back to Fink. “Why, though?”
“Aw, come on!” Fink said after taking a look at herself. “Boss!” She looked at Venomous with the face that always got her new gifts from the man.
“Yes, Fink. I’ll buy you enough mountain dew to change you back to green.” He replied, tired.
“She’s albino?” Boxman asked, not believing he was never told this.
“Anyways, I’m retiring to my lab for the day, I need to think of a way to get us rid of this curse...”
“I can help!” Boxman offered. “We’re both affected, after all. It's the least I can do.”
Venomous considered for a bit before he gave in. “Fine. I’ll need hands for what I need to do.”
After a fist pump to the air and a “Yes!”, Boxman scooped up Venomous and let him wrap around his neck as he walked to the lab.
“Did you want to be the- well, the Venomous one?” Boxman asked out of nowhere while they worked.
The two had been working without many distractions, Venomous pointing at items and giving instructions to Boxman, who actively acted like his partner’s “arms”. Venomous had to admit that no matter how many times he saw Boxman working with more delicate stuffs, it always surprised him how careful the shorter man is with it.
“You know how I feel about having power.” Venomous answers, not too happy about it.
“I do, but you also wouldn’t be able to get Fink back to her usual self if you were the rattlesnake you wanted to be.”
“I guess.” He says, before grumbling to himself and trying again. “Sorey, that was rude. It’s just... It feels almost mocking that I would turn into a snake that only poses as something, but isn’t really it. It’s too personal.”
“Therapy really is changing you, isn’t it?” Boxman commented about the apology. “Yeah, I imagined that was it. But you know there’s something fun about this, right?”
Venomous “hmm?”-ed at that, causing Boxman to give his partner the best smile he could manage with a beak.
“First” He starts, then leans in, giving Venomous’ snake lips what he’d imagined when he heard the word ‘peck’ being used for kisses. “I can do this without consequences. Second... You’re the only person in the whole area of Voxmore AND the plaza that could possibly know the difference between these two species. I say we use that to scare the brats.”
“You can never tell if someone knows these things like that-” Venomous started, only for Boxman to interrupt him.
“PV, people see a rattle and fangs and panic. Hell, they see snakes and they panic. We’re safe to play around that.”
“You’re right.” He accepts.
“...Speaking of which.” Boxman starts. “Do you want to use that -”
“Use that to go to the plaza check why in Cob’s name K.O. was mentioned on the note? Sure.”
“Oh, thank Cob you said it. I’m not proposing to attack your son! You are!” Boxman replied, mock distress on his voice, and Venomous couldn’t help it and giggled at his partner’s reaction to it.
“Oh man, I can’t believe you guys could be working anywhere else but you chose to come back here for the summer!” K.O. exclaimed, watching as his two friends went on their classic tasks around the bodega.
“You know how it is little guy! We would never choose something else when you’re one of the options!” Rad says, but deflates as he gets close to K.O. and notices they’re similar heights now. “...uh, normal guy?” He says to himself, testing how that sounds.
“Besides, job market’s impossible nowadays.” Enid says. “Even if we wanted, we couldn’t get something else.”
“Don’t say it like that, Enid!” Rad chided his coworker. “Even if the job market was good, we’d still come back to K.O., right?”
Enid offers her friends a small smile before replying. “Yeah, you’re right.”
Before K.O. could start his next thought, the alarms for another attack went blaring.
“An attack! Oh boy I missed those!” Rad exclaimed excitedly as the group ran outside.
The three of them watched as the vortex formed and reshaped the clouds around it as a frame for the portal; A box with the logo “VM” fell from said portal, causing brows to raise in curiosity. As the dust settled from the box’s landing, another wave of it lifted as the box was kicked open by a very angry chicken.
Wait, chicken?
K.O. squinted his eyes at that, and noticed two things about this attacker:
1- The chicken is Boxman.
2- Boxman has a fairly small snake wrapped around his shoulders that looks suspiciously like Professor Venomous.
“What’s wrong, Lord Buttman? Decided to go full chicken?” Rad taunted. “Not like you weren’t like that before, I just didn’t expect you to go with the visuals too!”
“You-!” Boxman starts, but interrupts himself. “K.O., you are in so much trouble!”
“Wh- Me?!” K.O. spluttered. “What did I do?”
“Oh, you know what you did, young man!” Boxman continues with the scolding tone.
“No I don’-” K.O. says before interrupting himself. “Wait a minute! You are not my dad! You can’t talk to me like that!”
“Oh, but I can!” Boxman smiled mischievously. “I AM your step-dad, after all!”
“NOOOOOO!!” K.O. shouted to the heavens, falling on his knees.
“Hey, dude?” Rad poked him. “We already had this character arc, remember?”
“Oh yeah!” K.O. instantly brightened up and got back to his feet. “Where were we? Oh, right!” He pointed a finger to Boxman and started shouting heroically. “No, I do not know what I did! Could you please tell me what I did so we can resolve this is a friendly way?” His tone didn’t change during the whole phrase, getting a confused glance from Boxman.
“Just look at us!” Boxman shrieked, gesturing at his whole body.
“Did you have any run-ins with a wizard recently, K.O.?” Venomous finally unwrapped himself from Boxman’s feathery neck, lifting his body up high and looking at K.O. with patience, his voice as even as possible.
“Is that-” Enid started, but interrupted herself with a laugh. “Oh man, that is adorable!”
“A chicken and a snake!” Rad cooed before joining Enid in the laughing; Both were ignoring the threatening rattle of Venomous’ tail.
“We already were a chicken and a snake before!” Boxman replied, flustered.
“Oh!” K.O. exclaimed, finger lifted and a shining lightbulb near his head, and completely unaware of the most recent wave of taunts between the two groups. “There was this guy...”
As K.O. recounts the events of the night, Enid, Rad, Venomous and Boxman watch wide eyed at the boy’s innocence.
“...And I was like, ‘wow, good thing he didn’t do the bad thing he wanted to do but still healed me!’”
“You can’t just say ‘yes’ to a wizard like that!” Venomous chided.
“I didn’t think he would do it, okay?” K.O. put his hands up defensively. “I’m sorry!”
“K.O.!” Enid called, now sitting down by the curb, her face back to her default bored expression. “I love hearing your tales, buddy, but weren’t we going to fight them?”
Rad, who was sitting down by her side, shouted a “Yeah!”, making K.O. frown in thought.
“You’re right!” He turned back to Boxman and Venomous, stomping forward with a big smile on his face. “Sorry, dads!” He said, as he started to wind up a kick.
“At least tell us who the wizard-” Venomous tried, but before he could finish the phrase, his voice was drowned by the loud screaming from Boxman as they were punted back to Voxmore by one extra strong kick.
“Oh, hey daddies!” Darrell greeted the two as they broke through the roof of Boxman’s office.
“Uuugh...” Boxman groaned, trying to soothe the pain from the landing. Huh, the feathers did make it softer...
“Darrell.” Venomous greeted the bot, less affected by the trip back.
“How was it?” The bot asked, his ‘I’m just glad to have my dad’s attention’ smile big on his face.
“Horr-” Venomous started, but was quickly interrupted by a chicken screech.
“HORRIBLE!” Boxman’s voice sounded absurdly close to cracking. “I can’t believe those- those-”
“Not kids anymore.” Venomous added.
“Yes, that.” Boxman replied with a neutral voice, then returned to his angry squeals. “They called us chicken and snake! Can you believe that?!”
“Well, they are not wrong...”
“How dare they never realize that until now?!” Boxman adds.
“Huh.” Venomous blinked. “How?” The professor shared the perplexed and annoyed look from his partner.
“I. Don’t. Know!”
“Uhm.”
The two finally remembered Darrell was also in the room with them.
“So... It didn’t go well?” The bot asks.
“No, Darrell. It didn’t go well.” Venomous answers him. “We have no idea who we’re looking for, unless...”
“Unless...?” Darrell asked.
“Professor. Interesting to see you using your pass like this.”
Since the whole Shadowy and T.K.O. thing happened, Venomous was prohibited to get anywhere near K.O. for obvious and understandable reasons. However, time passed, and K.O. once again looked past his dad’s actions and got curious to know more about the man; This curiosity got Carol and Gar setting up a system for this: Venomous is not allowed to be near K.O. without supervision from someone the two trust; He needs either Rad, Enid, or in more common cases Gar or Carol themselves around if he wants to talk to his son. Oh, and he can only do that once a week.
Right now, the one watching his every move was El-bow.
“Yes, yes. Laugh all you need, but I need to talk to K.O.” Venomous glared at the hero, still wrapped around Boxman’s neck lovingly. “Or do I need to take him on a walk or something for you to think this is a valid use of it?”
He knew, of course, that acting like his son was a dog that needed a walk was incredibly offensive... The thing is, he didn’t believe that at all; All he wanted was to annoy El-bow as much as he could. And if insulting the kid didn’t annoy the other man, Venomous himself would feel offended by it.
He knew it was working, because the only thing stopping the other man at the moment was self-control, if the kettle sound and red in anger face were anything to go by.
Still, Gar gave a long inhale, then an equally long exhale, returning to his normal, not red color.
“K.O.!” He called, and K.O. almost instantly showed in front of him, saluting the man as if he was a military general.
“Sir, yes sir!” K.O. said, then looked at Boxman and Venomous. “Oh, hey dad! And Boxman!”
“And Box-” Boxman started, already offended, but was quickly interrupted by Gar explaining the situation over.
“Kid, your dad wants to use his pass for today. You are free from the bodega work until you decide otherwise.”
“Huh. Okay, sure. Who’s gonna come with us this time?”
“Boxman will.” Gar replied casually.
“WH-” Both K.O. and Venomous were equally surprised at that. “BOXMAN?!”
“Well, your mother and I have been talking, and your mom and Boxman started a friendship after... Well... Everything happened. They became friends over similar experiences, you know?” Gar started explaining to K.O.; he gave the group an awkward laugh, then cleared his throat before continuing. “She decided she trusts him enough to keep an eye on you two, since he was also affected last time and she is sure he wouldn’t want bad things to happen again.”
“Carol was the friend you were going out to drink tea with?!” Venomous looked at the chicken with wide eyes, not believing it.
Boxman chuckled sheepishly, trying to avoid his partner’s eyes. “Well...”
“Anyways, I don’t believe I’m saying this but I trust you in this one, Boxman.” Gar said, then an overly intimidating aura surrounded him. “Don’t disappoint me.”
“Gotcha!” Boxman squeaked out.
With a dash, Gar left them to stare at each other uncomfortably.
“So...” K.O. looked around, trying to seem nonchalant. “Is this about the necromancer?”
“The Necromancer?” Venomous raised a brow.
“Yeah, the wizard that you guys asked about. His name is ‘The Necromancer.’” K.O. explained.
“Huh, I think I heard that name before...” Boxman mentioned.
“Is he a villain?” Venomous asked.
“Mm-hm.” Boxman nodded. “I think I met him on an online forum once, we talked a bit. Guy seemed like a -1 at best.”
“He can’t be that weak.” Venomous frowned. “If he pulled this magic on us, he’s at least -5... Specially if the magic was cast without him being near us or without any previous instance of the curse around.”
“Oh, he used the were-person curse me, Enid and Rad had gotten when I was younger.” K.O. mentioned casually, and before either villain could react to that or question him, he showed them both his phone. “I found him on social media! Look!”
Venomous watched as Boxman pulled the phone closer to their faces, wishing he had his glasses with him.
“He lives... Not too far from here, actually.” Boxman commented. “We could go pay him a visit, if you want.”
“K.O.?” Venomous looked back at the boy, who just shrugged.
“I can go, but it’s whatever.”
“Ugh, please don’t turn out to be that kind of teenager.” Boxman said under his breath, almost getting a chuckle out of Venomous.
Not long after, the three of them arrived in front of a building K.O. could swear looked way too similar to the ones in his Japanese animes. It was a short building with 3 floors and corridors open to the weather and multiple doors leading to individual apartments that looked way too small to be comfortable.
“We need to find which one the guy lives in.” Boxman commented as they looked at it from afar.
“I might have a hunch.” Venomous said, using his rattle to point at a door with overly edgy decoration, making it look like whoever did so raided a Halloween store for their supplies.
They all agreed to try that one, climbing the stairs to the floor the door was in and knocking at it. They heard a muffled scream at someone to get the door, then another, clearer scream, saying “Coming!” in a very excited voice.
When the door opened, a werewolf with black and white fur and a skull for a face greeted them. K.O. was almost certain that the werewolf was taller than Mr. Gar, and not by little. Boxman looked like he had shrunk into himself.
“Hi hi!” The werewolf replied, his voice friendlier and higher than any of them expected. “What can I help you guys with?”
“We’re here to uh...” K.O. was the first to speak up. “Talk? To The Necromancer?”
“Of course! I’ll get him, just a second!” The werewolf replied and went back into the house, not bothering to close the door behind him. The inside of the house, from what they could see, was fairly normal and organized, with just a few dog toys tossed around.
Then, they heard it, less muffled this time.
“Master! You have guests looking for you!”
“Do I?”
“Yes! They are at the door, waiting for you to-”
“Chartreuse, I swear if this is another plan to get me to take you to a walk...”
And then they heard steps and the three of them tried to act casual and like they totally weren’t peeking into the house or listening to the conversation.
“Oh, hey, it’s the kid from the bodega.” The Necromancer said as he came into view. “And the... huh.”
“Kid, what are you doing with the two people that are your biggest enemies?” He finally asked, extremely confused.
“Hi The Necromancer!” K.O. greeted. “So, I kinda forgot to mention but when you asked me if I wanted my curse on my worst enemy, but my worst enemy is...”
“Your friend?” The Necromancer tried.
“My dad” K.O. corrected.
“Yeesh.” The Necromancer frowned. “So, I’m guessing you’re here for a cure, chicken man?” He then looked back and forth between K.O. and Boxman. “Huh, you guys really don’t look alike.”
“Oh, no. That's my step-dad.” K.O. corrected him. “My dad is on his neck.”
The necromancer looked at Boxman again, squinting. His eyes widened when he saw Venomous staring back at him, unamused. “Huh. Well, that didn’t make it any better.”
“Shall we go?” Venomous suggested, gesturing towards the car with his head. K.O. nodded and The Necromancer shrugged before saying ‘Eh, whatever, sure.’
The four of them were on the car for a few minutes when The Necromancer finally decided to say something.
“So, you guys know I can undo the spell at any time, right? I don’t really have to... You know, be somewhere specific.”
“Oh, we know.” Boxman said.
“So why are we...” The Necromancer started, but was interrupted by the car stopping in front of the same bodega he’d met K.O. that day.
“Bye dads!” K.O. waved at Boxman and Venomous as he exited the car and went back to work.
“Bye, K.O.! See you on the next attack!” Venomous called back, not waving due to the lack of arms. “Necromancer, can you move to the front seat?” He asked casually.
“Uh, sure.” He replied, unbuckling his seatbelt before leaving the car and re-entering to sit by Boxman’s side and putting the seatbelt back on. “So, uhm... Where exactly are we going? Why did you drop him off?”
“Oh, it’s just that we have a deal with K.O.’s mom.” Boxman started, voice chipper. “We can’t have him around if we’re doing our villain stuffs.”
“Huh.” The Necromancer replied, then frowned. “What are you guys planning to do, exactly?”
“We were planning to beat the crap out of a cheap wizard that transformed us in animals before dinner.” Venomous said, giving the Necromancer a dangerous grin.
“Uh.” The Necromancer finally understood he was in danger, tensing up. He tested for the door he just came in through, finding it locked. Then he tried to pull the seatbelt off, only to also find it locked in place. “You don’t have to! Really, I can just pass the curse along to someone else-”
“Oh, but we don’t want that.” Venomous interrupted. “We’re not doing this to be changed back, you know.”
“No?!” The Necromancer was now visibly sweating, the skin obscured by shadow around his only visible eye glistening against the light. “Why not? Isn't staying as a snake too complicated?”
“It is,” Venomous said. “But we did find a cure to the curse and we already have it on the ready. We’re just doing this for fun.”
“And revenge!” Boxman added.
“And revenge.” Venomous echoed.
Back in Voxmore, Venomous and Boxman (both back to their human forms) sit side by side on their favorite beach chairs, watching as a rope slowly lowered a screaming Necromancer to the pit of lava.
“Just to be sure,” Boxman speaks up, then slurps on his drink. “You’re really a Necromancer, right? With the no dying and all?”
“Of course I am!” The Necromancer stops his screaming to answer, overly offended at the possibility of not being one.
“Oh, good, good!” Boxman replies before pressing a button that makes the rope descend faster and getting the Necromancer screaming even louder. “Can’t be really going that far as doing something irreversible to go against a prank, you know.”
“YOU ARE BURNING ME IN LAVA!”
“It’s reversible, you said so yourself.” Venomous replies, his tone bored but a small smile on his face.
“Enjoying the view, dear?” Boxman asks Venomous.
“I sure am, Boxy.” He gives Boxman a peck. “I missed being able to kiss you like this.”
“Nothing was stopping you, you know.” Boxman gives him a soft smile.
“Mm-hm. I still prefer you with lips instead of a beak.” Venomous leaned closer to his partner, both looking deep into each other’s eyes and sharing a sappy yet evil romantic moment as the Necromancer’s screams stayed on the back as a soundtrack for the end of the day.
A few hours later, back in The Necromancer’s house, a cut-off scream awoke his roommate.
“Master? When did you get back?” The undead werewolf asked as he entered the room he heard the scream come from, still rubbing the sleep off his eyes.
The Necromancer, who had just gotten re-awakened after a dip in the lava pit, looked angrily at his servant.
“Chartreuse.” He said, tone dry. “I’m never accepting your suggestions again. Being a real villain doesn’t work, I’m going back to being a shut-in.”
“But master!” The werewolf whined. “You’ve only been a villain for a day!”
“And that was enough for me!”
And just like that, Venomous and Boxman had accidentally made a villain give up on evil.