All Things End: Part 106

Chapter 106: Arisen

“Wait up! Where are we even supposed to start looking for your body?” Courage huffed. He was lagging quite a bit behind his two friends and they were both running at full speed to get back to where they had last seen the missing machine. He couldn't hope to keep up with them when even walking at a brisk pace was leaving him winded.

“It couldn't have gotten too far from where we left it.” Computer replied, glancing over his shoulder and finally noticing that his friend wasn't keeping up. He slowed to a stop and Nina, seeing what he was doing, did the same.

“What's the hold up?” She asked.

“Pick him up.” He spoke, pointing over at the exhausted dog. “He can't keep running around like this or else his illness is going to start acting up again.”

“I-I...” He huffed out, placing a paw onto the wall to keep himself from falling over. “I'll be alright.”

“No, you won't.” Computer all but chided him. “You're obviously done for the night. Let me and Nina handle this, okay? We'll get you back to her room and then you can-”

“I-I want to help!” He gasped out. He took a step forward to try and show them that he could go on, but only managed to stumble in his exhaustion. He so badly didn't want to admit that his illness was doing him in. Everything had been getting so much better lately and this would ruin it. For a while it had even felt like he hadn't been sick at all, but now...

“You can stay with us, Courage.” Nina interjected, deflecting a glare from Computer. “I'll just carry you while we look around.”

The displeased machine opened his mouth to argue but then seemed to think better of it and shrugged. “Fine. I suppose he is technically resting that way.”

Courage allowed himself to be picked up and sighed with relief as he felt his muscles began to relax. Being able to get off his feet for a little while did feel wonderful. If only he weren't so fatigued, then he could be apart of this mystery like he were meant to be. Strange events like this were practically normal life for him, after all. To be excluded from it felt to him what it must have felt like for a biker to lose their legs.

“He is right though.” Nina went on. “Where do we even start looking for your body?”

“It's been almost a half hour since we last saw it sitting near Nina's room.” Courage added. “If it really is moving around on it's own, it could be anywhere by now.”

“What I'm more concerned about is how it's moving on it's own.” Computer replied, placing a paw to his chin. “How can it do anything without me in it? If it is my evil twin or something, how can it move my body around without power? I mean, I had a hard time just jumping back into this dog body before.”

“Well, you did just technically come back from the dead, didn't you?” Nina asked. “Maybe something hitched a ride back with you. A demon, a wayward soul, or just about anyone who might have been looking for a ticket back to the land of the living.”

“Oh, great.” Computer groaned. “So my body's been possessed by an otherworldly being? That's just lovely! Dog, you'd better go find that flowing garment. We are in for a long night.”

“You know,” Nina laughed. “That flowing garment trick is considered one of the most inefficient forms of exorcising demons ever created.”

“I know.” Computer chuckled. “That's exactly why I chose it for him to use when his Muriel got possessed. Oh what I would have given to see that! It must have been hilarious!”

“Thanks a lot...” Courage grumbled, giving Computer a glare from up in Nina's arms. The machine responded with a grin, which once again reaffirmed in Courage's mind that Computer smiling was among one of the most frightening things he had ever seen.

“Demon or not,” Nina went on. “Who knows what it could be planning. If I were a ghost, I wouldn't want to stay stuck inside a machine. Maybe if it isn't a demon, it might just somebody trying to find a way out.”

“Ghosts have always been known to mix with technology in strange ways.” Computer agreed. “I'm surprised nothing has ever happened to me, given how many wayward souls show up to torment the farm. Better my body getting possessed than me, I suppose.”

“And what if it is a demon?” Courage asked.

“Then we'll deal with it like every other demon who's dared to mess with us!”

Courage shifted around in Nina's arms. “I don't know. Something about this gives me a bad feeling. What if it's none of those things? Then what?”

Computer blinked. “What else could it be? My body getting up without me is weird even by our standards. There's no other explanation.”

“You're obviously new to this.” Courage laughed. “Don't underestimate how strange things get around here.”

Computer let out a huff and crossed his arms. “I know more about all this supernatural nonsense than you do!”

“Well I have more 'on the job' experience!” Courage argued with a laugh.

Nina interrupted them both with about as much enthusiasm as she always had when it came to the supernatural. “Then let's combine all our experience together and solve this mystery!”

“Oh, really?” Computer chuckled. “You seemed scared out of your wits before. Are you sure you can handle this?”

“Of course!” She reaffirmed. “I just got caught off guard before, that's all! I'm going to start my dream job someday and no ghost is ever going to spook me out of it!”  

“We'll have to see about that.” Computer replied, still trying to egg her on. “I'd say you're about as big of a scaredy cat as Courage is!”

“Big talk coming from someone who started screaming like a little girl when a spider landed on their head!”

“That thing was almost as big as I was!” He argued. “And there was no girly screaming involved either!”

“Hmm, actually, that was a pretty girly scream.” Courage added in, mischief sparkling in his eyes.

Computer waved a paw at him. “Pff! I'm not going to take that from a fool who practically made a career out of screaming!”

“Face it,” Nina taunted. “You're just as much of a coward as we are.”

“Am not!” He shot back. “I have realistic fears, unlike two certain spineless idiots I know!”

“Oooo! I'm a scary 'realistic' spider!” Courage joked, waving his arms out in front of him. Nina instantly burst into laughter.

Computer slapped a paw to his forehead and muttered out quietly, “I really am dealing with real life internet trolls, aren't I? Bah! I'm surrounded by idiots!”

“I bet he's afraid of magnets too!” Nina laughed.

“The mortal enemy of all machinery!” Courage said in a faked serious voice before breaking down into a giggling fit. “Hey, Compute? Do magnets stick to you even in that dog body?”

The glowing dog was becoming more and more furious by the second...

“Oh god! I can just see him covered in magnets!” Nina laughed. “I bet we could get a really, really big one and have him go flying all across the house! Pfff, hahaha!”

“Oh for the love of...” He grumbled. “I'm going now! You two chuckleheads can sit here and keep doing whatever it is your underdeveloped minds enjoy so much, but I'm not going to be apart of it! Adios!” He gave them a single wave and then turned to leave.

Nina raced forward to keep up with him as he walked, still gigging the whole way. “You have no sense of humor!” She proclaimed.

“Oh, I have a sense of humor.” He replied. “It's just on a completely different wave length from what you imbeciles are capable of comprehending.”

“You see!” She exclaimed, grinning like a child.

“Your humor is just as bad as your lying skills.” Courage laughed.

“Says the duo of cackling fools. I don't even know why I bother arguing. I guess the internet is right about not feeding the-”

“Oh crap!” Nina yelped, doing a small jump and very nearly dropping Courage in the process. Her tail puffed out once more, making her look more like a startled cat than a ferret.

“You have got to be kidding me!” Computer cried out.

Sitting exactly where it had supposedly been left the last time they saw it, was Computer's real body.

Nina stared, her mouth hanging open. She tried to stammer out a few words but nothing came.

“Oh, so now who's the crazy one?” Computer asked, walking forward.

“I-it wasn't here before!” She cried out.

“Didn't I say the exact same thing?” He asked. “You were clearly just 'seeing things'. Obviously it never moved from this spot! You're simply going insane!”

“Alright! I get it! I'm sorry I didn't believe you before, now can you stop chewing me out?”

“You don't think that we could all be losing it?” Courage asked.

“I doubt that.” Computer replied. “I do wonder if we're being toyed with.”

Nether the ferret girl nor the dog in her arms wanted to get closer to the machine, but Computer had no qualms with such things. He walked up to his body and immediately began looking it over.

“Nothing.” He murmured. “It's not powered on or anything.”

Nina swallowed. “Something freaky is going here. We can't just leave your body-”

BRRRRRRINNNG BRINNNNG BRINNNNG

All three friends jumped at the sound of an alarm going off.

“W-what's that?” Nina asked, her furry face having gone quite pale with fright.

“I'm certainly not waiting around to find out!” Computer spoke, racing forward to go find the sound.

“Don't run ahead!” Courage called out to him from Nina's arms. “We need to stick together!”

“Then don't just stand around!” He yelled back.

Nina got the hint and went after him. “M-maybe we should get my dad. H-he'd know what to about this.”

“Losing your nerve already?” Computer asked, smiling slyly up at her.

“N-no! I-I just...” She took a deep breath and steeled herself. “I won't be a coward! I am not a coward!”

Computer entered the room where the ringing was coming from first. Nina followed him in cautiously, her head darting around to check every shadow in the room. He pulled something out from behind the boxes, observed it for a moment, and then pushed a button which made the ringing stop.

“What was it?” Courage asked.

“An alarm clock.” He answered, checking it over very carefully.

“Just an alarm clock?” Nina asked, taking a step closer to him.

The glowing dog glanced around rather suspiciously. “Someone set this thing to go off. Timed it perfectly too.” He turned to Nina. “It was mean to be a distraction, I'm sure of it.”

“I, er, think we need to get back to your body then.”

“Indeed!” He agreed.

They both rushed back out of the room and down the hall. They were, of course, greeted by the one thing that they had hoped they wouldn't see. Computer's body was now gone...

“What on earth is going on here?” The machine loudly asked. He placed a paw on his head, looking completely confused.    

“Maybe we really are losing it.” Nina mused.

Courage placed a paw to his chin. “Why would your body leave twice, then come back, have an alarm go off, and then leave again? What's the point?”

Nina sighed. “I don't know. None of this is making any sense.” Her sigh quickly turned into a yawn. “It's making my brain hurt.”

Rubbing her eyes, she turned her head towards the room beside them.

“BLAH!” She cried out, jumping once more. Her tail had never returned to normal so there wasn't much left to poof out this time...

Both Courage and Computer turned their sights over to the door.

“What in the world?” Computer asked.

His body was now sitting in the middle of that room, completely inconspicuous. It had been so dark in there, with just Computer's glow lighting up the hallway, that none of them had noticed it until now. It was turned so that only its back was facing them, keeping the monitor screen from reflecting the glow.  

“I'm telling you, man!” Nina stammered. “It's like those statues that only move when nobody is looking at them!”

“Alright, I'm done messing around!” Computer growled. “I'm getting to the bottom of this and that's that!”

He began stepping into the room but then Nina reached forward and grabbed him by the ears, pulling him right back out again.

“H-hey!” He yelped.

“Don't just rush in there!” She cried out. “What if it, er, jumps up and tries to eat you or something?”

“I'm pretty sure I've never had a mouth.” He grumbled, rubbing an ear.

“I bet it could find a way! Especially if it's been possessed!”

“What's the worse that could happen?” He asked. “It'll try and shove my face up the disc drive?”

“I don't know, but this reeks of a trap!”

“She's right.” Courage agreed. “This doesn't seem right.”

“What a bunch of cowards you are!” He exclaimed. “It's just my body! It's practically harmless, even when it can move!”

He stomped off into the room, Nina stammering out at him the whole way. He walked up to his body and began inspecting it. It did not so much as twitch the entire time.

“It's completely shut off!” He yelled, his frustration growing. “How on earth did it get in here then? There's no way that it could be moving on it's own!”

“It might just be pretending.” Courage said to him from Nina's arms. She was still hanging around in the doorway, too frightened to go in.

“It can't 'think' and be shut off at the same time.” Computer replied. “I certainly never could.”

“If it's a demon, I don't think it would matter very much.” Nina stuttered out. “It probably moves that thing around like a puppet on its strings.”

“Well,” He sighed. “It's not moving now, is it? And we've never actually seen it move either. Maybe we really are all going crazy. Our best bet would be to just tie it down at this point and go to bed.”

Nina finally dared to enter the room, her eyes darting around warily. “M-maybe you should hook up to it and go back inside.”

“And come face to face with whoever might be in there? No thanks!” Computer exclaimed. “I like not being possessed, if you don't mind.”

“Come on! That's the only way we're ever going to find out if it really is moving on it's own or not!”

“I'm not going to be a guinea pig just because you're scared out of your wits!”

“I'm not scared! I-I'm just worried, okay?”

“You're doing an awful lot of shaking for someone who's just 'worried.” He quipped back at her.

“Uh, guys...” Courage whimpered out.

“What?” They both asked at the exact same time.

“L-listen!”

In the sudden silence, they caught a sound that was the unmistakable hum of Computer's fan.

All eyes fell back upon the unmoving machine. Seemingly in response to the new found attention, the wires splayed out across the floor began to spark with energy as they always did whenever Computer was moving on his own.

“Oooohh crap.” Nina squeaked.

The machine began to rise slowly and shakily up onto it's legs. The wires were now sparking everywhere and the hum of power radiating from it was almost overwhelming.  

“So...” Computer murmured, his eyes narrowing.

The machine's monitor suddenly snapped around, seemingly drawn by Computer's voice. They were all left staring into it's bluish-green screen which had been dark not even seven seconds ago. It then lunged forward at an impossible speed. It was only Nina's quick movement, who grabbed Computer by the scruff of his neck, that got him out of there right as the mechanical monstrosity would have overtaken him.

She slammed the door shut just before the thing could catch up with them and it hit the door with a loud thud. Both she and Computer backed away, completely stunned. It's claws could be heard scratching away at the wood like a berserk cat.

Both Nina and Courage turned there heads toward Computer. He was just as stumped as they were.

“What?” He asked, placing a paw onto his head.

End Of Chapter