Spooky Scary Skeltons

After following the Jack O' Lantern for a while, pepper became annoyed with how long it's taking to get to Utsu and hopefully Kumo, but he decides to just wait it out until he gets somewhere.

After another long while, the Jack O' Lantern stopped and turned around. "Pu. Puuu... uu pu-u." The Jack O' Lantern whispered, nodding its bodiless, pumpkin head as if were trying to point somewhere.

"What? You want me to look over there?" pepper asked, confused about what the Jack O' Lantern wants.

"Hmph." The Jack O' Lantern nodded.

"Alright then, sure." pepper said, with suspicion.

As pepper looked over the bush that the Jack O' Lantern was pointing at, he saw a cage made of bones, inside the cage he saw Kumo and Utsu, they both sat still.

"Kumo..." pepper whispered, to himself.

"PUUUUUU!!!" The Jack O' Lantern screamed, as it started running through the bush and down the hill.

"I-I guess we're going!" pepper said, rushing to catch up and not trip.

"Oh, I see our guest has finally arrived." reppep said, with a disgusting smirk.

"reppep! Fight me, may the strongest win." pepper said, as he approached and slowed his running.

"Hahaha! Ooh, I'm way ahead of you, pepper. Do you notice where you are? This is a grave yard! You're on my ground now." reppep said, with confidence.

"What does that mean? And why can I feel... a presence, not just one... I can sense reppep, Kumo's fairy, Utsu, the weird pumpkin thing, and Kumo. But not just them, I can sense another one, is it reppep's ability?" pepper thought, trying to figure out why he's feeling presences.

"Wait, what's that green light? It's just... flying around, why?" pepper thought, as he witnessed a floating green light, that is about the size of the average human ribcage.

The light sank into the ground and then poped back out, in various places. Again and again, it goes in and out of the ground.

"Ten times... Twenty times... Fourty times... Eighty times... One hundred and fourty times... Four hundred and fourty four times..." pepper thought, to himself, keeping track of how many times it went under.

"That's your ability, isn't it, reppep, what's it doing?" pepper asked, knowing reppep wouldn't reply.

Suddenly, the ground started shaking. The Jack O' Lantern started growling.

"C-Come... Come here... P-Pumpkie..." Utsu said, stuttering and pausing.

"Pumpkie? She must mean the strange pumpkin. Is that thing her ability?" pepper thought, as he watched Pumpkie run inside the cage and sit in Utsu's lap, still growling.

"I think I've realized how unimportant that thought is." pepper thought, as he realized the potential danger ahead.

"Spooky Scary Skeltons... That's what I've called it. My ability, I mean. I can control as many skeletons as I wish, lucky for you there aren't more in this grave yard. A friend took the other corpses." reppep said, with a look of no concern.

pepper's eyes went wide with a mixture of disbelief and frustration.

Skeletons rose up from their graves of dirt, they made no sound other than the rattling of their bones. pepper notices the green light sits still in the ribcage of one of the skeletons.

"It's sitting there, it's twisting and twirling, but it stays within the ribcage. What if I kill the skeleton?" pepper thought, trying to think of an easy solution.

"Here goes nothing!" pepper said, as he ran and punched the skeleton in the ribcage. But right before his hand hit, the green light moved to the closest skeleton. As pepper's fist hit the skeleton, it shattered into a pile of bones, the ribcage was cracked but that's all.

"So this light... it seems to act more like a soul or something. It can just go to the next and still control them." pepper thought, trying his hardest to think of something to defeat reppep.

Then the soul flew to the broken skeleton, and not more than a second later, the skeleton had been rebuilt, though the crack was still there.

"And it can rebuild them, great." pepper said, sarcastically.

"What's your big plan, pepper? What are you going to do? You're weak! You can do nothing! I am the one who is powerful! So much for your hero, huh, girls?" reppep said, showering in his early victory.

pepper began to run, he ran away from the skeletons.

"After him! Chase him! I want him dead! Go, quickly!" reppep shouted, commanding his skeleton army.

Out of nowhere, pepper swang on his web from a tree, he crashed into the skeletons and destroyed a lot of them.

"WHAT?!" reppep yelled, not expecting pepper to come back.

On his swing back, pepper picked up a bone, then once he was safe, he jumped down and tossed the bone far into the forest. The sould rushed to the pile of bones and remade one, then two, then three, and as it made the fourth, the bone pepper threw came flying back and attached itself to the skeleton. The soul then rebuilt the rest.

"You may have tricks but there's nothing you can do to win. Just give up." reppep said, feeling relieved.

"Damn, it was worth a shot... shot? Hmm... that gives me an idea." pepper thought, with a smirk.

"You call your ability Spooky Scary Skeltons? Then I'll call mine Itsy Bitsy, that's my ability." pepper said, as he swung in again, this time he had his spider legs out, and once he got close enough to the slow walking skeletons, he punched in every direction with the legs, destroying numerous amounts of them, then he shot webs with his free hand all over the bones. Once pepper was safe, he jumped off his web rope.

Again the soul went to the pile of bones, it even went through the webs as if it were a ghost. The skeletons tried to get through the webs but they're too weak to rip them.

"Hah! I knew it, all I need to do is trap the skeletons, without an army you're defenseless, reppep!" pepper said, as he ran around and webbed the remaining skeletons.

"No... no... no... no no no no no no nononononononoooooooo!!! THIS WAS NOT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN!!!" reppep yelled, at the top of his lungs.

"I don't know what you expected, they're just skeletons, they have no muscle and are extremely light. They aren't strong. I can't believe I was actually scared of you, you talked so big, I thought you could back it up, but you're just weak." pepper said, as he walked closer to reppep.

"Stay back. I was so close! Wait, I can still do it! Kumo, become mine! Don't you want ultimate power? Come on, join me!" reppep said, desperately.

"Don't talk to her. You will not speak another word to my Kumo, and I'll make sure of that. Do you have any last words?"

"Yes... I'm sorry..." reppep said, with a long pause.

"You expect me to forgive-" pepper said, being cut off.

"I'm sorry, Tetsu." reppep said, as he slowly moved his arm, and shot it towards pepper.

"Tetsu? Who's Tetsu?" pepper said, as he caught reppep's quick arm which held a knife.

"Like I'll tell you." reppep said, with an angry snap.

"Whatever. Now die." pepper said, quietly, as he sent his spider leg into reppep's heart.

"How... How come YOU aren't evil like the rest of us! HOW COME YOU GOT TO KEEP YOUR LIFE!" reppep yelled, as his eyes lost the life inside them.

"That's a good question... Why aren't I evil like the rest of you? Perhaps I'll never know, but I'll do my best to put you all out of your misery, and protect the Kumos that are in danger from this evil curse." pepper said, as he buried reppep's corpse.

"I should probably go back and bury Godita too. After all, we're like brothers, I suppose." pepper thought, as destroyed the cage of bones the girls were in.

"Daddy!" Kumo yelled, as she hugged pepper.

"Hey, Kumo. I'm glad you're safe. You aren't hurt are you?" pepper asked, concerned for Kumo.

"No, I'm fine." Kumo replied, with a smile.

"Um... th-thank you..." Utsu stuttered.

"Yeah, of course. It's no problem. What's that on your neck?" pepper asked, noticing black lines on Utsu's neck.

"Oh... um... i-it's a crack, Master reppep h-hit me w-with a metal... p-pipe... and it c-cracked my neck right h-here... I'm sorry, i-is it ugly...?" Utsu explained, with many stutters.

"A crack? How on Earth does someone crack their skin?" pepper asked, with a mixture of concern and confusion.

"Um... I-I don't h-have skin... I have s-some silicone... but m-most of my body i-is made o-of plastic... You s-see, I'm a-a living d-doll... I'm n-not made of s-skin... like y-you." Utsu explained, more.

"Oh. I had no clue that was a thing, but that's not the weirdest thing I've seen today, so sure." pepper said, accepting Utsu's explanation.

"Well, Utsu, I think you should join Daddy and I, you don't have anywhere to go, right? Daddy will protect you, he won't hurt you like reppep did." Kumo said, hoping Utsu would join them.

"Umm... is that... a-an order?" Utsu asked.

"Utsu, I won't force you to do anything, if you ever think something seems fun or interesting, just try it out. If you think that you would be happy with me, then that's completely fine, I'll protect you." pepper said, hoping Utsu would understand.

"It's b-been a long... t-time since I've w-wanted something... Are y-you sure that it's o-okay?" Utsu asked.

"Of course it's okay, Utsu. And I'll be right here if you need anything." pepper said, holding out his hand for her to grab.

"Um... o-okay..." Utsu said, as she took pepper's hand.

pepper smiled and let go of her hand, then he looked around. "Oh, right, I need to bury Godita. But, wow... I feel dizy." pepper said, as his vision gets blurry.

"Maybe you need to rest, Daddy?" Kumo said, as she sits on the ground.

"Yeah... I probably should." pepper said, starting to feel sick.

"Alright, now that I feel better and that I've buried Godita, we should get out of here." pepper said, wondering which direction to go.

"Yeah... uh... how the hell do we get out of here?" pepper questioned.