Quintessence by Hugs.And.Kisses (book recommendations website TXT) 📕

8

The Not-so-Good Doctor

"Mom!" Ed and Johnny yelled, running outside to bury their faces in their mother's dress. Johnny was the first to notice the pyromancer who had his arm around Aubrey's waist.

"Lock?" He asked warily. "Are you…?"

"Back on our side, squirt." Aubrey said, grinning. The twins let out a whoop of joy and tackled/hugged Lock to the ground.

Lock laughed. "Glad to see you guys too." Lock sat up suddenly, looking at the two seriously. "Hey, do you two still have it?"

The twins nodded. "Yeah, it's safe."

"It? What are you three talking about?" Jack questioned.

Ed and Johnny looked over at each other before running inside the manor. They returned a minute later with a steel box. "It's… well, see for yourself." Ed said, lifting the lid.

Aubrey recoiled a bit. "Is that… a brain?"

"Yeah, but whose brain it is is more important." Lock said. "When Oogie 're-enlisted' me, Shock, and Barrel, I was getting these two out of the acid works, and they had that." He motioned to the brain-in-the-box.

It took a moment for the reality to dawn on Jack and Sally. "That brain belongs to Dr. Finklestein?" Jack gasped.

"That's impossible, the Doctor has been running the town." Sally said.

"Yeah, with an Oogie monster brain in his head." Johnny said.

"We saw it! Mercy switched the brains. That's why he's been making all the monsters for Oogie!"

Aubrey looked in the box again. "Which means that the most brilliant mind in at least half of the Holiday Worlds is under Oogie Boogie's control."

Jack shook his head. "I never would've imagined Oogie would sink this low."
"Really? I would." Lock scoffed. Aubrey pushed him a little. "Look, whatever the… the thing in the doc's head is, we have to get it out and put his real brain back in."

"How? I doubt he's just going to let us pop his head open and switch the brains back." Aubrey asked.

"We may have to fight the doctor." Jack said.

"How hard can that be?" Lock asked.

"Lock… do you REMEMBER the robot?" Aubrey questioned.

"Oh… yeah… shit, this is gonna be hard." Lock groaned.

"Way to be optimistic, Lock." Aubrey said dryly.

Lock shook his head. "It's not like we can get in, anyway. The gates to Finklestein's lab have been locked since Oogie took over."

Sally smiled slyly, and reaching into a pocket of her dress, revealed a black key. "The doctor knew that I had a second key- but I don't suppose that Oogie's monster would."

"Go mom!" Johnny grinned as Sally handed the key to Aubrey.

"You two stay here with your mother." Jack ordered, taking the box from Ed. Johnny looked disappointed, but Ed nodded.

"Be careful." Sally said, wringing her hands.

Jack nodded, hugging her tightly before heading back to the town square, Lock and Aubrey behind him. "How are we going to take down the doc? Whatever that thing in his head is has to be just as smart as him, if it's using his equipment to make those monsters." Lock shook his head. "This isn't going to be good."

"I don't know… but we'll think of something, we always do." Aubrey offered.

"Somehow, Aubs, that really isn't as reassuring as it should be." He said as they reached the locked gate to the Acid Works. Jack slid the key into the heavy lock, turning it with a dull 'tunk.' The gate screeched open, revealing the metal bridge that led over the venomous green pool below.

"Keep on your toes- who knows what kind of monsters we'll run into here." Jack ordered, making his way inside.

A high pitched cackle filled the air. "What the hell?" Lock looked around, his eyes widening as he realized what it was. "Watch out!" He ordered, pulling Aubrey out of the way of what appeared to be a black and white missile zoomed by.

"What- what is that?" The "missile" turned in midair, cackling madly. "Is- is that…?"

"One of the old Christmas toys."

"I thought all of them were destroyed." Aubrey said, looking at Jack, who was glowering at the floating doll.

"So did I."

Lock shook his head. "But we trashed them in the junkyard- Doctor F. might've just had them rebuilt."

There was a clean 'snick' nose, and the doll fell to the ground, headless. Jack and Lock looked at Aubrey, who was suddenly holding her scythe, the chained blade retracting to the staff. "What? That thing always creeped me the hell out."

"Let's just hope there aren't many more of them." Jack said, proceeding further in. Down the pathway to the laboratory, Jack wasn't surprised to see Igor hovering midway down the path. The hunchback seemed to spot them and scurried down the path.

"Master says he is not to be disturbed." Igor mumbled, stepping in the way of the three.

"Igor, the doctor isn't himself. We have to go up to his lab to stop him." Aubrey said. Igor shook his head, obviously terrified.

Lock grinned. "Igor, if we get you some bone biscuits, will you let us through?"

Igor looked down at his stomach guiltily. "Igor is hungry…"

"Bone biscuits it is. Let's go to the Witches' Shop and get a box." Lock said, leading the way back out of the acid works.

The three were immediately spotted by Clown and Mr. Hyde. "Jack, you have to hurry! The Witches' Shop is under attack!"

"What? By who?"

Lock looked up as a bolt of lightning shot down from the sky in the general area of the shop. "Shock!" He cried, running toward the shop, Aubrey and Jack on his heels.

"Well, I was wondering how long it was going to take to get your attention." Shock scoffed, hovering high off the ground on her broom. Jack noted that, while there was a great amount of damage to the surrounding area, the shop itself seemed to be relatively unharmed.

"What the hell are you doing here, Shock?" Lock growled.

"Finishing your job, what else?" She said bitterly. Raising her hand, she snapped her fingers. Aubrey jolted as a barrier rose behind her, cutting them off from the square, and across the door of the shop.

"Lock, look out!"

The pyromancer leapt out of the way as a pair of translucent, ghostly hands began to creep around his legs. A swarm of ghosts suddenly appeared out of the ground. "Have fun." Shock said, waving as she flew off.

"She's heading toward the lab!" Aubrey called, able to see more clearly from her vantage point in the air.

"Damn it, where are all these things coming from?" Lock demanded, slashing through one ghost, only to have another two take its place.

Jack sent the Soul Robber through the heads of four ghosts, watching as they disappeared and reappeared again. In the brief moment they left his line of sight, he spotted something interesting. "Aubrey! The ghost with the crown! Destroy it!"

"Crown?" She asked, looking at the mess of monsters below her. She spotted it, hovering away from the rest, its red and gold crown standing out like a beacon. "Got it!" Holding the scythe off to her side, she dove down at the ghost, bringing her weapon around and slicing through it. It let out a shriek of pain as it dissipated into the air. The other ghosts quickly followed at Lock and Jack's hands, disappearing for good. The barriers around their exits disappeared, and all three rushed inside the shop.

"Hazel, Zoe, are the two of you all right?" Jack asked the two witches.

Hazel nodded. "We're all right, Jack. Shock didn't hurt us. In fact, she told us as long as we stayed inside, nothing would happen to us."

Jack let out a relieved sigh. "Good." It seemed that Shock, like Lock, wasn't too thrilled with being forced to work for Oogie. "Zoe, we need a box of bone biscuits."

The smaller witch hopped off her stool, rummaging around underneath her counter. "Here you go, Jack, our last box."

"Thank you." Jack said, taking the box and leaving. Aubrey stopped Lock just outside the shop.

"Lock, that mark on your arm earlier… do Shock and Barrel both have one?"

Lock nodded. "Yeah. It's how Oogie used to control us. If we didn't do what he wanted, it would start to hurt. Why?"

"Where is Shock's?"

"Aubrey, why-"

"Lock, please. Where's Shock's mark?"

Lock frowned. "Her left side, at the bottom of her ribs. Aubrey, what are you planning to do?"

"I… I think that maybe I can break her contract, like I did yours." She explained. "The only problem is, I don't know how I did it the first time." She said, looking down at her hands.

Lock smiled and grabbed her hand. "We'll figure it out. Let's catch up with Jack."

She nodded and let him tug her along. The three found their way back into the Acid Works, where Igor was waiting nervously. "Here you go, Igor. Now, will you let us through?" Jack questioned, handing Igor the snacks. Igor nodded, eagerly digging into the box of biscuits.

Aubrey stretched her wings. "I'll go check out the lab- maybe I can surprise him."

Igor dropped the biscuits suddenly and latched onto Aubrey's legs. "No! Don't go near!"

Caught off balance, Aubrey fell backwards, the hunchback still clinging to her legs. "H-hey! Igor, what's wrong with you?"

They all looked up, startled, as there was a loud sound above them- like a bug getting caught in a bug zapper. A bolt of lightning had just fried a murder of crows that had flown above the lab. "Damn. What the hell was that?"

"Master has installed security." Igor whimpered, helping Aubrey back up to her feet.

"No kidding." Aubrey said, her voice shaking. "Thanks, Igor. If I'd flown up there…"

Lock grimaced. "I didn't have any idea about this. Guess Oogie's smarter than he looks." He looked around. "There has to be a power source somewhere."

"It could be anywhere in town." Aubrey said. "We could look until Christmas and we'd never find it."

"Or maybe not." Jack said, looking at the gates that surrounded either side of the path. The doors leading to the junkyards were barricaded by wooden planks. "Stand back." He ordered, stepping between the two doors. Flames licked up Jack's pinstripes, turning them to the patched tan pants and a maroon shirt of his Pumpkin King form. Throwing his arms out, flames exploded from his body and decimated the barricades.

"Good job, Jack." Lock said, letting Aubrey step out from behind him (as he was a bit more fireproof than her).

The skeleton, back to normal, straightened out his jacket. "Thank you, Lock. Now, we should split up and investigate the rest of the area and find that generator. Aubrey, you and Lock check out that side of the junkyard. I'll go this way."

They nodded and pushed open the door.

"I think we may have found it." Lock said, looking at the many gates with electricity arcing through them.

"Maybe if I stay really low, I can just fly over?" Aubrey murmured, looking at the height of the gates.

Lock looked less than thrilled with the idea. "Let's save that for the last resort. For now…" He pointed a finger at a ball of junk and, muttering a levitation spell, whipped it toward the first gate. Having smashed one of the pylons,