Daemons
Chapter 6

Sighing, Sci looked up to the bright clear sky above him, noting the sun approaching the far horizon. A month from now, and he’ll be walking home in the dark. Just another thing I’ll have to worry about. Shifting the mountain of books in his arms, the tired skeleton trudged away from the building his lab was in. He began making a mental checklist of all the things he still had to do tonight to stay on top of his work, groaning inwardly as the list kept getting longer.

“Sci, is that you?” A calm and familiar voice snapped him out of his spiraling thoughts. Peering past the books in his arms, Sci saw the familiar figures of Cross and Geno.

Cross smirked as his friend’s head popped out from behind a large stack of books. “Heh, how in the world could you tell that was Sci? All I saw was a pile of books with legs.”

Geno just rolled his eye. “Just shut up and help him, will you?” With that, Cross walked over and effortlessly plucked over two thirds of the stack out of Sci’s hands. “What even are all those books?”

Sci wandered over to the scarfed skeleton, finding the two books he still held significantly easier to manage. “Eh, mostly some research journals. Figured they would be easier to read at home then in my lab. But enough about me, how are you feeling? It feel like I haven’t seen you in forever.”

“Probably because I’ve been stuck in the damn hospital for forever.” Cross piped up only to clarify that it was two weeks. “That’s still three weeks I haven’t been here, with the past week I spent getting caught up.” He glared over at the black and white skeleton, who simply shrugged and continued walking, gesturing to Sci to help out Geno and follow.

“Wait, you’re already all finished? How did you manage to get caught up on two weeks of work in only one?” He was struggling to find a way to push the chair with his hands full of books, until Geno reached a hand back offering to take them. With his hands now free, the nerdy skeleton was quick to attempt to catch up to Cross’ long strides.

Geno simply shrugged at the questions. “I would’ve been done sooner if someone wasn’t constantly distracting me when I’m focused.”

“Oh, excuse me for making sure you eat and sleep,” Cross responded with mock indignation. “I’m not really in the mood for you to put yourself back in the hospital, I’ve missed my training buddy!” The taller skeleton slowed enough to throw their chair-bound friend in a playful headlock, eliciting laughter from the two of them at their playful antics.

Sci couldn’t help but smile at the two of them. While Cross and Geno weren’t related to each other, the two had always been together since before Sci and the others had met them. Both were highly protective of the other and acted completely different with each other than with the rest of them. Cross for example would come across as so responsible and serious when with any of the others, often acting like a babysitter with some of them, yet whenever Geno was around he was always quite playful and relaxed, making jokes and poking fun at the scarfed skeleton. Geno on the other hand often seemed quiet and reserved, more of a listener than a talker, yet he always seemed far more confident and outspoken whenever their monochromatic friend was next to him. Truly, the two of them were brothers.

Yet something that Cross said caught the bespectacled skeleton’s attention. “Wait, training buddy? What do you mean by that?”

“Heh, you caught that huh?” Geno shot Cross a look, causing him to immediately let go with an apologetic look. “Well, we were just on our way to go do a training session, want to come with and see what he meant?” His curiosity caused him to nod his head. He started pushing the chair along as he followed Cross, all three of them heading to a building Sci never spent time in, the physical education building. The building had state of the art arenas, gyms, and sparring grounds, all of which had never interested him in the slightest. While the technology might be interesting to dissect and examine, Sci was fairly certain he had access to higher quality equipment in his lab that he was actually allowed to dismantle.

As the three entered the building, Cross led them to one of the sparring grounds, taking a wheelchair accessible route out of habit. The walk there was quite uninteresting to Sci, finding the walls filled with sports memorabilia and trophies almost tacky. He much preferred the science building, where models of various scientific achievements decorated the walkway. But, instead of getting to see a real dinosaur skeleton, he was currently walking past some ratty old mascot costume that smelled as if it had never been washed. Then again, that might’ve just been the lingering odor of the place.

The sparring grounds themselves were a different story. As Cross checked in, Geno directed Sci over to the outskirts of the grounds. The console they stopped in front of practically had the scientist drooling, desperately wanting to dive in and figure out how it worked. With a practiced motion, the scarfed skeleton rolled in front of the console, waving his hand over the glass to activate it. Dozens of buttons illuminated the panel, yet Geno began working too fast for Sci to even begin to comprehend the setup. A bit disappointed, he made a mental note to look into the controls later.

Cross was practically skipping in excitement as he returned, hopping up behind the two other skeletons and clapping a hand on both of them. Sci couldn’t help but jump at the sudden action, while Geno simply looked over his shoulder, giving no other form of reaction. The taller smirked at his more jumpy friend before turning to address the other. “Alright, we’ve got the place for an hour. You thinking anything in particular? After all, we’ve got ourselves an audience this time.” The wide smile Sci was sent did nothing to calm his nerves.

“One to five sound good? He can just chill with me in the end zone then and still be able to see you show off.” While Cross seemed to understand what Geno meant, their friend was left trying to comprehend what they meant by ‘one to five’.

“Oh please, you act like you aren’t going to show off a little.”

“Okay, maybe a little.” The two skeletons were laughing at what Sci could only guess was some inside joke before Cross leapt over the gate and ran over to the opposite end of the arena. He then began to do some basic stretches and warm ups while Geno went back to the console.

“And there. Alright, let’s head in.” As the scarfed skeleton uttered those words, he turned his chair around, gesturing for Sci to take him into the arena, which Sci of course thought was completely foolish.

“B-But, if Cross is g-going to be training, s-shouldn’t we stay outside t-the barrier?”

Ignoring the other’s stuttered protest, Geno began wheeling himself over to the gate. Not wanting his friend to struggle too much and hurt himself, the nerdy skeleton quickly raced to assist. Yet as he took that first step past the gate in the barrier, Sci felt a wave of power course through his bones, tingling against the surface and full of energy. While the sensation was unfamiliar to him, he gathered that the most likely scenario was that Geno had dropped the magic suppression system for the arena.

Since humans were the dominant species on the planet, outnumbering monsters almost twenty five to one, there were certain rules and regulations that had been enforced on monster kind. One such rule was magic suppression. Humans viewed the magic most monsters possessed as highly dangerous, and so mandated that any settlement with a sizeable monster population would have magic suppression systems installed across the entire settlement. Some monsters, like Sci, had spent their entire life under the influence of a magic suppression field, meaning they never once learned to use that power. There were only certain areas where the field could be legally dropped, and one such area were sparring grounds like the one they were now standing in.

Geno moved over to the end of the field, opposite from the other skeleton still preparing. As Sci followed, he took notice of how different and almost unnerving it was to actually be in the arena. The arena’s shape for the most part was a rough oval, similar to a skating rink. Various grooves were etched into the metal flooring, likely where certain parts of the arena would spring to life following some sort of programming. While the physical barricade encompassing the arena only came about halfway up Sci’s body, he could quite clearly see the swirling magic barrier encompassing them, which would dispel any magic attack on contact.

Curious, the scientist found himself trying to command his magic to create a bone, the most basic form of magic for a skeleton monster like himself. Unsurprisingly he found the attempt unsuccessful, though his actions served to earn him a chuckle from his companion. “Guess I should’ve expected you to try it, would’ve been amazing if you managed to pull it off on your first try.”

His words were clearly hinting at something, causing Sci to raise an eyebrow. “You sound like you did the same thing at some point.”

“Well, not exactly.” As he spoke, Geno held out his right hand. Within a few seconds, a pure white bone materialized, hovering over his palm and leaving Sci speechless. Never in his life had he seen a monster perform magic, and yet Geno, who only last week was discharged from the hospital, made it look so easy. “I didn’t grow up in the city like you did, so I was taught how to use my magic when I was pretty young. It’s fairly easy for me to do it now. And before you freak out, no it will not affect my health in the slightest.” He spoke with such a confident calmness to his voice that Sci just couldn’t help but believe him.

“Well then, moving along... So how exactly do you and Cross train? And what’s this ‘one to five’ you mentioned?”

“Well, the second question is fairly easy. We split the field up into five segments, which we mentally assign a number starting at one and going to five. Each segment is harder to traverse than the last, sort of like a sliding difficulty scale. And to answer your first question...” He trailed off, waving his arm about till Cross returned the gesture. “I feel like a demonstration is easier than an explanation.”

Geno took a deep breath and closed his eye, exhaling before raising his left hand high in the air. As he snapped his fingers, a vibrant mixture of blue and red magic exploded from his fingertips as the far end of the arena was suddenly filled with bones. Sci was pretty sure his jaw would’ve hit the floor if it weren’t attached to the rest of his skull from the impressive display. Glancing over, he saw Geno’s one eye was now open, the pupil now stained crimson and azure as raw magic left a trail leaking from his socket. Yet what really surprised him was the look in Geno’s eye, the vibrant and lively passion that burned in it as he grinned at the skeleton across the field.

While the distance made it hard to tell, Cross seemed to have a similar look on his face as he fearlessly leapt into the field of bones. The black and white skeleton effortlessly weaved between them, never even coming close to getting hit. Before Sci could even comprehend what his two friends were doing, Cross had covered a fifth of the distance between them, neither him nor Geno even reacting to this achievement. The second the other crossed the threshold, the scarfed skeleton snapped him fingers again, creating another barrage of bones, though this time Sci could see blue bones mixed in among the white.

Blue magic, the ability to affect gravity and motion. A high level form of magic beyond the typical colorless magic most monsters had access to. For someone of such fragile health as Geno to be capable of such a thing was completely baffling to the scientist. Yet the scarfed skeleton showed no signs of fatigue, on the contrary he seemed to be more energized as Cross set to traversing the second segment.

Said skeleton was making quick work of the obstacles, expertly predicting where the bones would strike while Sci couldn’t even begin to see a pattern. It was almost like he could see each one of them, even the ones flying at him from behind. Yet again not a single bone managed to connect before Cross cleared the second segment.

“T-This isn’t seeming l-like much of a challenge f-for him.” Sci couldn’t help but notice the tremor in his voice, betraying how nervous he was about this whole thing. After all, one friend was willingly walking into massive field of magic attacks, while the other was using magic on a scale the scientist had never seen. He was honestly quite scared that one or both of them were going to recklessly land themselves in the hospital.

Yet despite how obvious Sci’s hesitation was, the scarfed skeleton merely chuckled, brushing away his concerns as if they were nothing. “Well, the first few sections are mostly just a warm up for both of us. End of section three or the start of section four is where things really start getting interesting.” The tone of voice Geno used practically sent shivers down the other’s spine. It seemed so unlike his typical relaxed and cheery self that it took a while for the nerdy skeleton to convince himself that it actually came from Geno. The tone held a dangerous note to it, full of a dark energy that he’d never seen from his usually passive friend.

A loud snapping sound served to bring the bespectacled skeleton back to the present. Yet he was pretty sure he was still in the world of his imagination as his sight was filled with something that couldn’t possibly be true. On the field now were several Gaster blasters. Summoning a single one of those blasters consumed large amounts of magical energy, and firing it was a whole different story. His initial count was 6 blasters, all charging and preparing to fire. A nervous look to Geno revealed a glint in his eye, yet otherwise he didn’t seem any different from the enormous amount of magical energy he was expending. “H-How the hell c-can you summon a-all those?! How d-do you have t-that much m-magic?! Y-Your condition-”

“Does not affect my magic in the slightest, so please don’t stress yourself out. I dragged you here to help you relax and unwind a bit, not to get you more worked up.”

“... Wait, what?” That last sentence completely threw him off, distracting him from his earlier questions on Geno’s magic supply and health.

The scarfed skeleton sighed, not really paying much attention to his friend on the field that was now dodging the energy blasts fired at him. “It was pretty obvious when we ran into you that you were stressing about something. So I figured I could bring you here and distract you for a little bit while giving Cross the workout he’s been begging for over the past week. Then, once we’re done here, I was thinking we could go to the comic store or something while you vented. Plus I knew you wouldn’t mind seeing the two of us use our magic, as you do research that kind of stuff in your spare time.”

“... How... how do you do that?” When he received a quizzical look, Sci elaborated. “In the few years I’ve known you, you somehow always manage to know exactly what’s happening and what the best course is. I managed to hide my anxiety problems from the others for years, but then you come in and within a week of us being friends you figured it out. You even managed to find a way to help me, and even now you still keep an eye out for me whenever I seem stressed. It’s not just me either, you somehow do it for all of us. I don’t... I can’t understand how you manage to pull it off.”

“Practice makes perfect I guess.” The scarfed skeleton shrugged as he gave such a casual answer, yet went rigid a second later. “Sorry,” he quickly apologized, not even giving the other a chance to ask what for before Sci felt magic encircling his soul. It wasn’t painful, but was definitely uncomfortable, followed by disorienting as he felt his soul yanked to the side and behind Geno, the rest of him following with a yelp of surprise. Not even a second passed once Sci was properly behind the wheelchair before Geno flicked his wrist up, the top half of a large bestial skull appearing in front of both of them and acting like a shield.

As something crashed into their shield, Sci was pretty sure he screamed like a girl, cowering behind Geno’s wheelchair in case the magic skull gave in. His friend’s laughter was what finally convinced him it was safe to move from his position, allowing him to see the tip of a metal object piercing through the back of the skull. As Geno moved the skull to their side, Sci could now fully see the giant knife embedded in the bone structure, the glint in the edge betraying its sharpness. Meanwhile both Geno and Cross were now giggling at his reaction to the oversized weapon.

“What’s the matter Sci? Never seen a knife before?” Cross called out to him as the blade shifted and vanished, the skull holding it dissolving not long after.

“Oh, don’t pretend like you weren’t trying to be a dick, Cross. We both know you just wanted to scare him.” Geno yelled back, rolling his eye as if he hadn’t been seconds away from being skewered just a minute ago.

“Not my fault you weren’t paying attention!”

Sci looked from one skeleton to the other as he slowly processed what their words truly meant. “W-Wait, you made that knife?!” As if in response, the black and white skeleton called forth another nearly identical blade, tossing it about effortlessly in one hand while the scientist was left baffled. “B-But, skeletons make bones, n-not knives! I don’t even know a monster whose magic naturally takes that form!”

“What can I say? Neither of us have ever claimed to be ‘normal’. Just consider this one of my many quirks.” The knife Cross held was tossed into the air, the tip of the knife landing gracefully on the black and white skeleton’s finger as if it were nothing but a feather. He made balancing the razor sharp weapon look easy as in his other hand he summoned another knife, tossing it into the air repeatedly and catching it without even looking.

“Well Gen, I say it’s time you stopped holding back, seeing as how you’ve only got two sections left.” As Cross spoke he crossed the threshold into the fourth section, maintaining his actions with the two summoned knives. “Besides, we’ve got to give Sci here a real show!”

Geno nodded his head in agreeance before craning his neck to see Sci. “Hey Sci, you like Gaster blasters, right?” Gulping, the scientist gave a reluctant nod, though immediately regret it as the scarfed skeleton summoned one of the constructs directly underneath him. He shrieked as the skull lifted him up in the air, resulting in him hovering above and behind Geno. “Relax Sci, I’m not gonna drop you! This way if Cross decides to pull another stunt to get my attention, you’ll be nowhere nearby. Also, feel free to steer it wherever you want to get a better view, as things are about to get... interesting.”

The two skeletons faced each other, both grinning like madmen as their magic was visibly flaring around both of them. From this vantage point, Sci couldn’t help but notice something peculiar about their magic. A skeleton’s magic often tended towards blue hues due to the gravity magic at their disposal, yet neither Geno nor Cross’ magic was perfectly blue. Both had bright crimson hues mingling with the blue. While Cross’ magic seemed perfectly split down the middle, half blue and half red, Geno’s was quite dynamic, the red in his magic constantly shifting, growing and shrinking randomly. At the moment though the red magic seemed to be more prevalent, growing brighter and more intense with each passing second. As he thought back over his notes and research on magic, Sci tried to place the red color, yet no monster ever tended to that color by nature. The only magic that was naturally that color was determination, a completely human magic that was highly toxic to monsters. That couldn’t be what it is though since both of his friends showed no signs of DT poisoning, characterized by the monster’s magic actually attacking their physical body and causing it to melt and break apart.

Before Sci could even think of anything else for the magic to be, Cross lunged forward with incredible speed, both the knives he was playing with earlier now firmly in his grasp. Geno was quick to respond, a wall of bones jutting up from the ground as half a dozen Gaster blasters were summoned in seemingly random positions. The black and white skeleton effortlessly leaped over the barricade, stopping his motion by driving the point of one knife into the ground. As he was practically riding the weapon, bones materialized right in front of him. He used the blade in his other hand, digging it into the bones and using it to propel himself forward parallel to the bones.

By this point the first blaster was charged and ready to fire. The skull construct leaped into action, positioning itself at the end of the maze Geno had formed with his bones. Unaware of what awaited him, Cross kept using his giant knives to safely maneuver the bone maze, avoiding touching any of them. The second the black and white skeleton reached the end, the blaster’s jaw opened, releasing a beam of pure energy at its target. Now completely boxed in, Cross had nowhere to run, though this didn’t seem to faze him. He took one of his knives and drove the point hard into the floor, allowing the blade to intercept the blast. As he held the attack back, Cross summoned a barrage of knives above the blaster, plunging them in and destroying the construct.

Neither wasted any time, Geno immediately sending in the next blaster and several sharpened bones while Cross dashed across the ground, trying to cover as much distance as possible before being intercepted. The bones arranged themselves in circlets, hovering around Cross before all striking at once. The first ring was fairly easy to dodge, as the black and white skeleton rolled on the ground while they hit nothing but air. Seeing this, Geno aimed the next round for Cross’ ankles, forcing said skeleton into the air in order to avoid them. Now airborne, it seemed impossible for Cross to dodge the next volley, yet he merely smirked as the sharp points formed around him.

Before Sci could even blink, an equal number of sharp blades formed around the knife-wielding skeleton, mirroring the movement of the bones. The two sets of projectiles collided, taking each other out and leaving Cross without a scratch as he hit the ground running. “You’re gonna have to try harder than that Geno, stop holding back or I might finally beat you!”

“Oh, no way in hell am I ruining my perfect record!” With a flick of his wrist, Geno sent two more Gaster blasters into motion before snapping his fingers. Within seconds the entire fourth section of the field in front of Cross was filled with bones, barely an inch or two above the ground but close enough that there was no feasible way to pass them without touching one.

The black and white skeleton’s eyes grew wide as he came to a complete stop, looking over the white field in front of him in surprise. “Be careful what you wish for I guess,” he chuckled, not really paying attention to the three blasters closing in on him. “Fine then, you wanna play that way, then so will I!” Cross snapped his fingers as he jumped into the air over the field, only to land on a Gaster blaster of his own, riding it in a similar way to how Sci was using one to observe the match.

Geno seemed unimpressed with the other’s decision, sending the other two blasters in as well to intercept. The two constructs came at their target from opposite sides, one aiming for the skeleton and the other aiming for the blaster he was riding. Cross pushed off of his blaster, leaping into the air as one of Geno’s weapons passed harmlessly through the air. The other crashed into its target, jaws swinging open to clamp down as if it were prey. With whatever energy was still in the blaster, Cross ordered it to self-destruct, taking out Geno’s blaster with it.

The bone covered ground was growing ever closer to the monochrome skeleton. Without wasting a beat, Cross summoned forth another knife, larger than any weapon Sci had ever seen. The blade itself had to at least be twice as tall as the wielder, yet Cross held it effortlessly with a single hand. The ridiculously oversized blade plunged into the ground, standing stiff as its wielder stood on the base of the blade, gripping the handle for support.

The four remaining Gaster blasters were now circling, bones forming en masse until there seemed to be no feasible way for Cross to escape without becoming a pin cushion. The black and white skeleton pulled himself up to perch on the tip of the handle, looking like some sort of ninja out of an action movie as he faced down the mass array of magical weaponry before him.

Sci blinked and then Cross was in the air, pushing off the handle and putting a spin on his motion. The four Gaster blasters each prepared to fire, yet as Cross was spinning midair he flung four large knives. Each one hit its target, impacting in the center of the bestial skulls and bringing their destruction. Another knife appeared behind Cross’ feet, allowing him to push off and dart through one of the hole left in Geno’s array by the now destroyed construct. The bones raced forward, each attempting to catch him, however the monochrome skeleton was simply too fast. Any bones that managed to get close were cut away by Cross’ knives, a spinning halo of them surrounding him protectively.

As Cross landed he stepped over the threshold, entering the fifth and final region. A cocky smirk was plastered on his face as he called forth two more knives, holding each in one hand as he prepared himself for whatever was coming next. Not an ounce of fatigue was present, despite the incredible feats he’d pulled off just moments ago. “Alright Gen, playtime’s over. Now it’s time we both got serious, otherwise I might just finally beat you! Now come on, show Sci what you can do and give me all you got!”

The scientist from his elevated perch could see both of his friends quite clearly now that they were so close to each other. He honestly thought Geno would appear unnerved or at least winded from their earlier clash, so he was a little shocked when his chair-bound friend began laughing. It wasn’t his normal, happy chuckle either, but something far darker, tinged with a bit of insanity to the point where Sci was beginning to fear Geno had lost it. The scarfed skeleton’s grip on the edges of his wheelchair tightened as he pulled his body towards the edge of the chair, almost as if he were going to attempt standing up. Mania danced in his one eye while the glitches covering the other became far more active than Sci had ever seen them, almost allowing him to glimpse what was always so carefully covered underneath.

“You really want me to go all out? Are you sure about that Crossy?” The same manic look that was in his eye colored his voice, giving it an eerie quality that made Sci unconsciously drift the blaster he was on closer to Cross.

What scared the scientist only served to increase Cross’ excitement. “Hell yeah! I haven’t seen you this energized in years! No way am I passing up an opportunity to see you fight like this again!”

Geno’s fevered laughter grew in volume at the monochrome skeleton’s words. “All right then, don’t say I didn’t warn ya!” The scarfed skeleton threw his left arm straight into the air, magic swirling around it as a veritable armada of Gaster blasters began to form behind him. Large sharpened bones filled in the gaps left in the array while the constructs all charged, with smaller boney growths popping up all over the remaining field in a chaotic pattern. Magic use of this scale was beyond anything Sci had ever thought possible, with only boss monsters capable of anything like this. Boss monsters were incredibly rare, as humans feared their incredible power and immortality, so the likelihood of Geno being one of these elusively rare monsters was pretty remote.

“You ready?” Geno’s voice served to snap the scientist out of his thoughts, bringing his focus back to the epic battle that was about to unfold. Cross nodded his head, adjusting his stance as he prepared to attempt to reach the end goal, completely unfazed by his friend’s ridiculous display of power.

“Let’s go then Cro-” Before Geno could finish his statement and launch his assault, a strangled gasping noise tore through his throat, cutting him off. The magic dissipated from his hand as both hands clamped on to the center of his chest. His red and blue eyelight wavered before the socket was shut tightly, face screwed up in pain with more unnatural noises constantly coming from every shuddering breath he took. As his concentration broke, Geno’s magic dissipated, all bones and blasters evaporating including the one Sci was currently on. For a minute all the nerdy skeleton could feel was the wind rushing past his face as he began falling. By the time he was aware enough to scream, something had already appeared beneath him to break his fall. Looking down revealed the object to be one of Cross’ blasters, gently taking him to the ground before dissipating as well. Both skeletons gave each other a look, ensuring that Sci was okay, before turning their attention back to their friend.

Cross was the first to react, racing across the field to Geno’s side. Sci had been closer yet slower to fully comprehend what was going on, resulting in both skeletons making it to their friend at about the same time. By this point the scarfed skeleton was doubled over, clawing at his chest and his one eye flung open in panic. There were still traces of his magic present in the eyelight, but for the most part it had returned to its original white. It was currently restricted to a fraction of its normal size from fear, tears streaming from it relentlessly. Beads of sweat were rolling down his skull as a coughing fit seized him, causing his body to convulse roughly as he struggled to take in air.

“Geno!” Cross’ voice somehow managed to come across as both panicked and calm at the same time, the fear for his friend and his need to control the situation mingling in the tone. “Geno I need you to listen to me, okay? I’m gonna lean you back, and I need you to take as deep of a breath as you can.”

The monochrome skeleton did as he said he would, causing a strangled cry to come out of Geno’s mouth. “H-Hurts...” he managed to croak out before another coughing fit started.

“I know, I know, but you need to do what I tell you to do or it won’t go away. Can you take a deep breath for me?” His tone was almost motherly as he soothed the distressed skeleton, rubbing gentle circles on his back to try and encourage him. Geno sucked in as much air as he could, hissing at the pain the action caused, before shakily exhaling. “Alright, that’s good, now just keep doing that. Breathe as deeply as you can, okay?”

Sci was completely lost, feeling absolutely useless as he was forced to watch one of his best friends suffering in tremendous pain. He could tell it was bad because the scarfed skeleton had proven himself to have a very high pain tolerance, barely reacting even if his toes were smashed into the table by Blue’s careless driving of the wheelchair. Was it because of the sparring, was that what was causing all of this? He knew that was simply too much magic to safely expend, especially given Geno’s fragile health. “W-What’s h-happening? C-Can I do a-anyt-thing to h-help?” Despite his best efforts, the nerdy skeleton couldn’t keep his worry and fear out of his voice.

“Relax Sci, Geno will be fine. He’s just having an episode, it should pass soon. So long as he doesn’t start coughing up blood we should be good.” As he said that he continued rubbing their friend’s back, whispering words of encouragement to him that seemed to be helping, the other’s breathing slowly becoming less labored. “This just happens sometimes if he gets too worked up. Guess that’s my fault though.”

Before Sci could probe for more details, a shaky hand came up to rest on Cross’ hand currently on Geno’s shoulder. “N-Not... y-your f-fault...” While his voice was far from its regular strength, it was significantly better than the croak he’d managed earlier.

Knowing that the two of them would continue to play the blame game indefinitely, Sci interrupted them before they could get started. “S-So it wasn’t b-because of the insane amount of m-magic you used?” Both skeletons shook their head in response, Cross clarifying that it was caused by an intense emotional outburst. In other words, Geno had gotten too excited and his weak soul simply couldn’t take it.

A few more minutes passed in tense silence before Geno’s breathing even out, the skeleton slumping back into his chair as his eye socket fluttered close. Sci would’ve thought that he passed out were it not for a murmured ‘I’m good’ that came from him. His head tilted back just a bit so that his tired gaze could see Cross. “Sorry for ruining your training session.”

The black and white skeleton merely shook his head. “Don’t be sorry, it’s not something you can control after all. Besides, even if our session was cut short, it’s still way better than anything this stupid arena can manage to offer me.” The scarfed skeleton chuckled a bit, however the action seemed to cause a small coughing fit, throwing both skeletons on edge again. When it finally settled down, Cross immediately started moving the wheelchair. “Yep, I think we’re done for today.” Another muttered apology came from Geno, causing Cross to laugh.

Sci however couldn’t get his nerves to relax quite yet. His friend was quick to notice, sending him a tired smile. “I’m fine Sci, honestly. Just a little tired, these episodes always seem to leave me pretty drained. Once I get home I’ll just take a nap and I’ll be good as new.”

“If you’re sure, then I guess you two should go-”

“Nope, we’re going to the comic store, remember? After all, my plan to make you relax is royally backfiring right now as now you’re just worrying about me. So, we’re gonna drop your books off, we’re gonna go to the store, and you’re going to stop worrying about me dammit.”

“Heh, looks like momma Geno told you what’s happening Sci. Can’t argue with him now.” Cross piped up from behind the chair-bound skeleton, earning a glare from the nickname. To be fair, almost everyone in their little friend group had called him momma Geno at some point, as he often acted motherly in one way or another to pretty much all of them. Cross however was the only one brave enough to call Geno by that nickname to his face, as somehow their typically weak friend could be absolutely terrifying if he wanted to be. His earlier display of magic served to further cement that fear in the scientist.

Lucky for the taller skeleton, Geno only rolled his eye and groaned. “Shut up, I’m too tired to put up with your stupid shenanigans.”

“Ooh, looks like momma’s mad~”

Geno flipped him off, muttering, “Yeah, yeah, fuck you too.” The nerdy skeleton couldn’t help but burst out laughing at their brotherly exchange.

Since Sci lived in campus, it wasn’t a long trip to his apartment to drop off all his research journals. Again he tried to step out so Geno could go home and rest, but the scarfed skeleton had been insistent, refusing to leave until Sci agreed to go. By this point the sun had nearly set, though the three skeletons were quite careful to stick to well-lit and highly travelled roads.

The first part of their trip was spent in silence, as the nerdy skeleton was too busy replaying his friends’ battle in his mind to be talkative. Both had displayed insane power, with Cross possessing magic no monster should have and Geno’ power far beyond what he should have been capable of. That wasn’t even including the red magic they both possessed, and how both hinted at there being several similar battles in the past between the two, with Geno somehow winning every one of them. While the chance to experience real magic firsthand was amazing, it only left more questions about easily the two most secretive friends he had.

A boney hand waving in front of his face dragged the scientist out of his thoughts and back to reality. “There ya are, we’ve been calling to you for at least a minute now. Where do you go inside that massive brain of yours?” Cross teasingly knocked on Sci’s skull, earning a bit of laughter from Geno as the nerdy skeleton tried to get him to stop.

“Sorry, guess I just spaced out. What did you want?”

“I just wanted to know what you thought of today’s earlier demo, minus the whole me collapsing part.” Geno’s eye shined with curiosity in the dark as he eagerly anticipated the other’s answer. That question served to bring the other skeleton’s gaze down on Sci as well, equally as curious of the answer.

“W-Well, if I’m being honest, it was pretty cool to see real magic instead of just reading about it, though I got to admit both of you kind of baffle me with what you can do. I’ve never heard of any monster producing knives, and I really don’t get how you have such an insane amount of magic at your disposal Geno, much less how you were trained to use it with your... condition.” Sci couldn’t stop the words coming out of his mouth, the desire for answers was simply too great.

Geno shot him a look at his statement. “I haven’t always been stuck in this stupid chair, you know.”

“N-No, I don’t, not really.” He knew that his next words would be like poking a sleeping bear, but once again he couldn’t hold back. “I mean you two have been pretty tight lipped about anything to do with your past, so none of us really know what either of you were like before we met you.”

The scarfed skeleton’s expression fell as he nervously tried to come up with an explanation. When nothing seemed to come up, Cross came to his rescue. “Look, our past isn’t something we exactly like thinking about. It’s not pleasant, and we wouldn’t want to burden any of you with that knowledge. Besides, I’m pretty sure neither of us want to even think about it if we don’t have to.” Geno nodded his head in agreeance. “Please understand Sci, it’s not that we don’t want to tell you guys, it’s just...” he trailed off, looking for the right words as Sci realized the mistake he made.

“N-No, it’s okay, really. I’m sorry for bringing it up, even though you’ve both said before you don’t want to talk about it.” Neither really reacted to his apology, his guilt resulting in another vomit of words as he tried to fix his mistake. “I-I mean, the past is the past, right? And we’re in the present, so no sense in looking back at it when we can look forward instead. If you guys don’t want to talk about it, then that’s fine, it’s your choice after all. Just know that if you ever do decide to share, all of us will be more than happy to listen.” While he wasn’t quite sure if what he said made any sense, it did manage to get Geno at least to giggle a bit. Cross’ mood quickly picked up after that.

“It’s alright Sci. We both completely understand that you’re all curious, you especially Mr. Scientist, so we promise that when we do feel like sharing, we’ll go to you guys first. Deal?” The scarfed skeleton held out his hand, Sci quickly shaking it with a smile to seal the deal. “Now then, enough about our depressing past that we don’t want to talk about, how about you start telling us what’s been eating you instead?”

That simple question launched a rant that lasted the rest of their walk to the comic store. Ranging everything from classes to coworkers to cafeteria selections, the scientist took full advantage of the opportunity to vent that he was given.

“... And then it crashed all over the floor! Hundreds of tiny little pieces now everywhere!”

“What did you do?”

“What do you think? I grabbed a bag of chips from the vending machine and proceeded to watch him try to find every piece and reassemble it!”

Geno burst out laughing at Sci’s response. “Oh my god, that’s so cruel!”

Cross was snickering as well. “Nah, he totally deserved that. What would’ve been cruel is if you filmed him trying to fix his mess.” When a light blush decorated the scientist’s cheeks and he failed to respond, both of them burst out laughing again. “Oh my god you totally did!”

“Well, I needed something in case anyone asked why our team was behind schedule. I was not gonna take the fall for that idiot’s mistake.”

All three were laughing like crazy, until their chair-bound friend burst into another coughing fit. Both Sci and Cross waited nervously for it to pass, fussing over him and getting the same annoyed response of ‘I’m fine’ as usual. By the time Geno managed to calm the two of them down, they were now standing at the comic store’s front door.

Several colorful displays could be seen from inside the window, with heroes and villains in all sorts of costumes lining the walls. To Sci the store felt quite natural, as he often would spend what little free time his research allowed him in places like this. Cross honestly seemed the most out of place, as the nerdy skeleton had come here with Geno on several occasions. It didn’t seem to matter what the medium or genre was, his friend loved to read anything he could get his hands on. It was one of the things that had resulted in the two of them becoming best friends rather quickly, bonding over a shared love of escaping to fictional worlds.

Sci followed Cross as he gently pushed Geno into the store, taking the chair-bound skeleton wherever he wanted to go as nothing in the store really interested him. Meanwhile Sci absentmindedly browsed the shelves, though his thoughts kept wandering back to the other two. Maybe hidden in one of these worlds would be advice on how to discover the secrets his two friends seemed determined to hide, or at least answers to some of the questions resulting from today. He didn’t mean to be nosy, but as a scientist he’d been trained to feed his curiosity, to search out answers and solve puzzles. And right now, Cross and Geno were the two biggest puzzles he could find.

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