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It had been days since Shadowy put quite the twist on the term "father-son bonding", Boxmore was in a state of chaos that would've been unthinkable back when Venomous was still in control of their body. The bio-engineer had been very particular about his space being neat and organized - especially when it came to his lab - however, this was a sentiment that Shadowy Figure didn't seem to share. He also hadn't brushed their hair since he'd taken over the body, resulting in a much more uncharacteristically messy appearance.
Once the factory had been so full of life. Nowadays it was still perpetually noisy, though in comparison to the sound of the boxbots arguing, Fink shouting curses at her videos game, or Boxman's horrendous singing it was figuratively silent. It was empty, what it once had was missing and the uproar that enveloped it now from both the inside and outside was a hollow kind of noise. It might as well have been silent.
Ever since Venomous had fucked up so gloriously and gotten rid of even the little power they had had as Laserblast, Shadowy had been trying to make up for his mistakes, cleaning up his mess. Long after the other had given up on trying to regain his powers through experiments, he had kept engineering on their body. If the professor wasn't going to do it, then he'd just have to do it for him. Progress had been slow and tedious, he had had to take it slow so Venomous wouldn't pick up on a sudden and wide array of new changes about their body or any unexpected side-effects. Bio-engineering also proved to be incredibly difficult.
Finding out that their son had inherited the ability to absorb energy was so wonderfully convenient, a true breakthrough for the first time in years! To be honest with himself, he had hoped to attain the status he desired alone. The idea of soaking up all the power contained in the glorbs for himself had been incredibly attractive, but unfortunately, this seemed to be his last option remaining, unless he intended to waste the rest of his years on this project too until he'd eventually go senile and die weak and dementia-ridden or something of the sort.
By now the plaza tournament was well in progress and Shadowy had decidedly procrastinated long enough down under the plaza, fiddling with the glorb tree and making preparations. It's time for the curtains to open. This play was just now getting started. "Alright, kiddo. You're up.", he spoke, naturally referring to TKO. In his hand he held a remote with a big red button, allowing him to elevate the tree to the surface at the simple click of said button. Shadowy crashed through the ceiling of the Bodega unceremoniously, the glorb tree continuing to rise until it was slightly above the building itself. He called out to TKO again, this time loud enough for him to hear: "Every ounce of glorb energy the Lakewood Tree has to offer! It's all yours, TKO!"
"Yeah, give it all to me!", TKO cackled, feeding off of any force plant he could get. Freshly energized, he could now resume the tournament battle.
Shadowy perched on a branch of the glorb tree. From this spot, he could admire his destruction, as if a predator overseeing its territory, a lion looking over its kingdom. The view was glorious. And from this height, all the fallen participants of the tournament look like tiny little specs, almost ant-like in comparison. A warm sense of pride pooled inside him, it almost felt like he could feel his ego physically grow. From this distance, he felt powerful. He briefly ran his hand through his mane.
The plan was ultimately to drain the power of all the Lakewood citizens, leaving him - and well, TKO, but he'd figure out what to do with that kid later - at the top of the food chain, above everyone else. That way there would truly be no one left that could stop him anymore, no one Venomous could drive himself insane comparing himself to either. They would be at peace. The lion sleeps soundly, knowing that there is no other creature that will eat it.
"It's time, son. Now you can drain all of their power permanently."
There was no telling how much time had passed. It could've been hours, days, weeks. Everything happened so quickly. One second Venomous was preparing to spend the weekend with his son, the next he felt like he was floating, and then he was gone. Something told him whenever he snapped out of this state he would have a migraine bad enough that he'd feel an urge to tear his own head off.
His only contact with the outside world was a big screen in front of him, similar in shape to goggles when you're looking through them. Presumably, these were their eyes? He could hazily tell what was going on, it was unclear if the screen was the hazy one or if the professor himself was out of it. There was a big purple dome and cheering.
"Yes - building it! - nothing - in your way! - don't want - left with their powers!", he could make out bits and pieces of the outside noise. This allowed him to put together that Shadowy was taking advantage of his son's energy-absorbing ability to make himself more powerful, by making everyone else weaker. He assumed anyways, suddenly realizing that he'd never bothered looking into what specifically he had been doing in the lab under his old lair anyway or what he was planning to do with the glorbs. That would've most likely provided a lot of context to the situation he found himself in. Hindsight is 20/20.
Apropos hindsight, centering your entire plan around an angsty child was probably not that smart. Venomous wondered if Shadowy realized that at about the same time.
"No! Don't stop - dome - shrinking!"
" - trying!"
"Try harder, mister."
The professor winced a little at how his headmate treated his son in his absence.
"Well, - if - quit nagging me."
"Did - talk back to me?"
" - what if - did? I'm the one with all the power."
Suddenly he could almost sense the Shadowy's rage, then there was yelling and then he felt a punch to his gut. And then there was two of them.
"No no no no no!", Shadowy growled in frustration and made a noise akin to hissing. Gloved hands tore and ruffled at his own hair a little.
Just as quickly and suddenly as everything had happened up to now as well, Venomous' hand suddenly moved to slap the grey man, resulting in a loud smacking noise against his cheek. Both of their eyes had formed into furious slits, though Shadowy's eyes were additionally glazed with something like shock, surprise, maybe confusion. Something disturbs the lion's slumber.
"What have you done?", the professor's voice is enameled with snake-like hissing, earning a growl and hiss back.
"What have I done? I gave you exactly what you wanted, at least I tried to!", if he'd had fur, it probably would've stood up then, seemingly stunned at the audacity. "You wanted to be strong and powerful I only ever tried to give you exactly what you wanted, I was going to give you unlimited strength!" Shadowy briefly debated if he should add a quiet 'I was going to keep us safe' but uselessly decided against it. The manner in which Venomous' eyes eased a little told him that something about the way his mouth had been open for just a second too long, or maybe the way he huffed a little bit of air out of his nose, spoke for him.
"This was never what I wanted," the professor spoke simply. He glanced at Shadowy, who still had the same look on his face that had reminded him of an angered cat. Guard up and still furiously eyeing him, his arms had now moved to cross in front of his chest. Waiting to see if he was going to get slapped again, he assumed and winced without meaning to.
Then he considered the apocalyptic state outside. Not only had he manipulated his son, but he'd also made a wreck of Lakewood and indirectly injured multiple people and- jesus christ did he blow up the sun? "God, this isn't what i wanted. This isn't what I meant.", his tone fading into something less aggressive and more exasperated, maybe guilty.
Guilty of what? Maybe the chaos and hurt they'd caused outside. Maybe because out of all the things he'd tried to deal with Shadowy, he'd never considered treating him as a complex human being and not just an evil, inherently malicious parasitic animal.
From this perspective, Shadowy actually looked more like an angered kitten than an angered full-grown cat. And god, he could stand to kick him right now.
Venomous woke up disoriented and just having promptly landed, on concrete, on his ass. He blinked in confusion for a second before seemingly just noticing TKO standing right in front of him.
"You said we were partners, but I was nothing more than a pawn in your stupid plan! And you used me!"
Right.
"Well, no more. I'm gonna disempower everyone so thoroughly, not even a speck of energy will remain. Starting with you, Dad."
Venomous breathed in deeply, letting his lungs fill fully, then sighed. Guess he's going to have to deal with the consequences of this disaster. He was going to either way. "Do your worst, kid.", he breathed, closing his eyes and bracing himself.
Before TKO could absorb his energy, however, he spotted a little green figure in his field of vision, slowly nearing. "No!", the voice was high-pitch and whiny and an unnerving kind of familiar in his current predicament.
"Fink, no! Get out of here!" This was his dirt to deal with, he refused to involve his minion in his punishment.
"What kind of minion would I be if I didn't stand by your side 'til the very end?", she stood in front of him protectively and turned her head to look at him. God, this isn't what he wanted.
"Makes no difference to me."
There was a zap and a thud, he'd screamed, reaching toward her as she fainted and fell. He didn't even get to see her hit the ground before the second zap announced his own loss of consciousness.
Lions probably didn't fall when they tried to climb the food chain, and if they did they probably landed on their feet. They also probably don't get exiled to strange planets.
At this point, the professor was getting used to the constant disorientation during this whole ordeal.
Something told him he was going to stay here for a long while.