Work Text:
“And that’s all we have for today folks!” As the program ended, the actors returned to the Green Room. Another day on the set was over.
“That was a **MARVELOUS** performance” Tenna congratulated his actors. But It felt empty, for him and for all. The show had no meaning without lightners to entertain. If only the old good days would come back…
And on top of that, where was Kris? It was so late, and somehow the TV seemed more worried than Toriel…
“LET ME SAY” A high-pitched rough voice clamored through the door. Everyone turned to see the speaker, who was covered in shadows.
“LET ME SAY THANKS FOR RUINING MY [[$4.99]] LIFE. THANKS TO [All I want for Christmas is you] I HAVE BECOME [[BIGGER AND BETTER THAN EVER]].” Spamton made his appearance. The towering salesman wore an imposing mechanic armour that made every darkner give a step back, and his grotesque face couldn't hide the excitement he was feeling at that moment.
“Pardon me? Who are you?” Tenna tried to sound calm and diplomatic, but his nervousness was showing. Some shadow guys hid behind him.
“DON'T YOU RECOGNIZE ME? DON'T YOU RECOGNIZE THE [Old pal] WHOSE LIFE YOU [cheapest car crash insurance]” As he moved towards Tenna, everyone could see he wasn’t walking, but floating, held by green strings that disappeared into the ceiling forming a glitched mess.
“(What’s with the tacky outfit)” One shadow guy whispered to another “(and the smell…)"
“Mike, you better call security right now, there’s a weird homeless man in the studio-” Tenna called his right hand.
“MIKE? DON'T MAKE ME [jerk my chin]. YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT MIKE” Spamton briefly removed his glasses to look at (what he supposed were) Tenna’s eyes.
“S-Spamton? Wh-What happened to you?” Tenna looked truly shocked (and his staff wondered how he had only realized It now) and cringed when he took a closer look to the now deformed face of his old partner.
(He really couldn’t recognize me because of the glasses out of all things???) Spamton thought, irritated. “I SAW THINGS YOU WOULD NEVER UNDERSTAND. I SAW [the darkest pit of hell]. I SAW [Heaven]. I SUFFERED. BUT I WON!”
He threw to the ground the broken head of what remained of Queen. Her screen visor displayed an error message.
“Q-Queen? How did you-”
“IT WAS AS EASY AS MAKING [Frozen chicken]. ONE [la Révolution] LATER AND THE [world] WAS MINE” His head twitched and his body moved like a shaking puppet. “AND NOW FOR THE [GRAND FINALE] SPAMTON G. SPAMTON TAKES HIS REVENGE. AND THIS TIME YOU WON'T [$!$!] ME OVER AT THE [Good part]”
“What are you talking about-” Tenna could barely react as Spamton’s hand cannon pointed at him. The scared pippins and shadow guys held his legs while Tenna tried to cover them so they wouldn't take the damage of the impact. (After everything. This is how It will end? By Spamton of all people? What a sick joke…). Nobody would ever watch him again. He would see nobody again, and he didn’t even understand what was happening.
But the shot never came.
“AAHHAH YOU DAMN [Hochi Mama]” Spamton screamed as cloud bullets blinded him.
“Lanino, Elnina?” Tenna looked surprised as his employees, his friends, fought against the maniac salesman.
“Get out of here boss and evacuate everyone! We will distract him!” Shadow guys opened fire as Spamton shot projectiles in all directions, pulverizing some of the nearby darkners. “Yeah sir leave this to us”
“The weather always sticks together” But the couple’s bullets didn’t seem to do that much damage. “What the…!?” Lanino said as dozens of little Spamton heads flew in all directions.
“OU HAVEN’T EVEN SEEN MY PIPIS CANNON YET” At an undodgeable speed, dozens of blue eggs came out of his blaster while everyone tried to take cover. Multiple impacted Elnina’s head among other unlucky shadow men. “[Headshot!]”
“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?” Lanino screamed.
“CONSIDER I>T YOUR [Divorce theory]. YOU WILL THANK ME LATER”
The room had become a chaotic mess of projectiles flying and exploiting, every darkner that remained alive was taking cover without any chance of fighting back.
“He is too powerful!” A pippin screamed in panic.
We interrupt this program due to technical difficulties, thanks for your patience.
“HOLY [[Cungadero]]” The whole scenery had changed and now Spamton found himself strapped in a roller coaster seat.
“It was very naive of you to believe I didn’t have an ace up my sleeve… IT’S TV TIME!!” Tenna sat on top of a director’s chair facing Spamton as the whole set moved across a coaster track.
The shining spotlights blinded Spamton as he faced the whole power of the Lord of Screens. This was the final Show and would not disappoint!
But the actors were still no match for the power of NEO. To Tenna, every life lost felt as if they ripped out all his wires at once, but there was no time for funerals now. Perhaps with some ReviveMints…
“DON’T YOU GUYS KNOW [[NEO]] IS KNOWN FOR IT’S HIGH DEFENSE” Nothing could hurt him. This is how it felt to be a true god. He had always desired power, but this? This was raw strength, the purest form of dominance. If he couldn’t be free, he would at least impose himself against everybody below him. He felt alive.
Suddenly Spamton’s arm twitched in an erratic movement. By pure chance, a bullet had cut one of his strings.
“WAIT WAIT THAT WASN’T [part of the plan]”
One second of silence followed.
“HIS WIRES. EVERYONE SHOOT AT THE STRINGS!”
Now It was Spamton the one dodging as Tenna and his men unrelentlessly pointed to the ropes that kept him a prisoner. He sure wanted to get rid of those strings, but at this point, he had learned sometimes what seemed like an exit could turn into a new cage. Something inside his chest began to shake.
“STOP WITH YOUR [Stars and bars]. YOU CAN’T SIMPLY LET ME [They will all burn] IN [Absolute tranquility!]. ALWAYS THE SAME. IT'S YOUR NATURE.”
“Ruin…? You were the one that abandoned me. You broke the deal! My only sin was believing your word YOU #€&!?” The audacity of that delusional mail guy… had him always been such a bitch?
“Oh come on, can you talk this out later!? You sound like a divorced couple!” One pippin screamed.
The battle scenery wouldn’t stop changing. A spiraling circus carousel, a cowboy town, a royal forest… The fight couldn’t be more chaotic.
4 strings had been cut and Spamton knew he needed to use a last resort.
Spamton’s chest opened and a blinding red light revealing a suspiciously heart shaped object.
Tenna’s face twisted into a look of pure terror. A soul. The human soul. The battle was over.
“[cat got your tongue] [[Trash can]]?” Watching his visible desperation pleased Spamton. “I fear Kris won’t ever watch you again.” His voice turned somber as he remembered what he had to do to obtain this power… the only person that could understand him… but it was worth it.
Tenna remembered the good old days that would never come back. He remembered the human child he had helped smile through difficult times, his best viewer. His family…
“ARE YOU-” Wires strangled Spamton’s neck mid sentence, in fact, wires strangled his entire body. Gone was Tenna’s usual face, only darkness appeared on his screen. Hundreds of wires came out of his back like a mix of Medusa and an octopus. Nobody had ever seen the true reach of his power and even his own staff looked frightened.
“Spamton.” He began coldly. “You were and always have been a leech, a virus, an illness destroying everything you touch. Not only you provoked everything that happened to you, but you deserved it. The biggest mistake of my life was giving you the gift of friendship and letting you suck off my blood too.”
Spamton felt the weight of those words in his guts. But he wouldn’t let some emotional manipulation from a liar bring him down.
His head fell backwards and his body began to move on its own. In a single movement all the wires were cut by the soul. His movements looked as if something else was controlling his body, someone more skillful.
It was as if it already knew every attack, as if it had done this thousands of times before.
Tenna simply couldn’t keep up, and when a big shot broke a corner of his screen, it was all over.
They were all back at the green room, defeated. Spamton’s head came back to it’s place.
“THIS IS THE TIME OF [any last words?]”
Tenna used that second to order the zappers to teleport everyone to a safe place and close all the doors. If he had to die, he would give them time. Spamton seemed amused.
“OH PLEASE STOP ACTING SO [High and Mighty]. WE BOTH KNOW [deep down] YOU ARE LIKE ME. YOU WOULD HAVE DONE THE SAME [unforgettable deals!] AS ME.”
“Stop with your pathetic excuses…” Tenna’s head was emitting smoke and his damaged suit showed parts of his mechanic skin. One of his antennas had nearly been cut in half.
Spamton ignored him and kept talking. “BUT UNLIKE YOU, I WAS [[chosen]]. YOU WERE FATED TO [die]. YOUR MIND WOULD HAVE BROKE SEEING WHAT gaster MADE ME SEE” Tenna didn’t even bother to point out the irony. “BUT-” His voice seemed to crack as tears ran across his cheek “BUT NOT EVEN NOW I CAN REACH [[freedom]]. THIS #!@! [HeartShapedObject]... I’<<M AGA¡N A SLAVE¿ IT PULLS THE [[strings]] AND AND ISNT. IT. SO. DAMN. [TryNotToLaughChallenge].”
“Until know, I hated you Spamton, and during our fight, I despised you." Tenna paused "But now. I only feel pity. You are, have been and always will be, a pathetic little man. I’m sorry it had to reach this point, big shot.” He spoke with the calmness of a man that knew his time had come and that final word had sounded like a bitter mockery.
Spamton screamed in anger as he gave the final blow. As the smoke cleared, he saw in front of him, a lifeless mess of wires and metal, pieces cattered across all the room. It was done. Spamton had fantasized about this moment for years, but now, he only felt the unbearable feeling of his sins running across his back.
As much as the soul controlled him, it seemed like it encouraged to follow his darkest fantasies. A sadistic master using him as a hound…
“WHO’S THERE?”
Lost in his thoughts, he swore he had heard a laugh to his left, and for just a brief instant, two familiar pink and yellow eyes staring at him from the prize counter. But when he looked closer, he only saw the stone statue of an old plug boy.