Chapter Text
Dr. Sunshine gazed down at the pile of ugly maroon ash on the operating table, letting out an almost cartoonishly exasperated sigh- no, a groan, with the volume she made, it was definitely a groan- as she lifts the goggles up from her eyes and buried her face in both disappointment in her own failure, and in annoyance at her colleague's incompetence... Yes... Their incompetence, that was probably the majority reason of why this attempt failed, Sunshine merely had a few minor slipups compared to Leary's, the attempt definitely would have gone... slightly more perfectly if they'd made... well, at the least, less mistake than her.
Dr. Leary turned to their colleague after coughing out all the marrow scented smoke trying to worm its way into their lungs. Panting a bit before letting out a tired "Ugh...". Leary looked down at their clipboard, their jagged mouth tilted to the side, like they were looking at the same, unappealing image for the god-knows-how-many-eth time. Which... They definitely were. They clicked their pen almost instinctively, like they'd gotten used to this exact song and dance. They read aloud what they were inscribing on their red-tinted clipboard, putting emphasis on random syllables to express their exasperation.
"*sigh*... February TWEN-ty second, NINE-teen THIRTY seven... Subject being the dug up skull, left femur, ribcage, and multiple arm bones belonging to... *unintelligible muttering*... Subject, much like its predecessors, was reduced to ashes of bone marrow upon electrocution... multiple minor changes to be added to experiment."
Leary tucked their clipboard under their arm, walking away from the operating table, waving their hand dismissively behind them at Dr. Sunshine.
"If you're not sick of the sight of bone dust like me, feel free to clean up the table for the next batch... I'll be in my office if you need me."
Sunshine turned over to the remains of the failed experiment on the operating table. She wiped the ash off the table and onto the lab floor. Thinking to herself "Eh, someone's bound to sweep it up." before walking outside to take a quick smoke break.
Sunshine had always been a rather... quirky individual. While that sounds like some generic, amateur fanfic writer term, there was simply no other words to describe her... overly-ambitious nature. She was like a force of nature, a force of violent, exhilarating nature. Much like her fiery-hearted father before her.
She let out a deep sigh, gazing over at the dull, office-gray walls of her lab, she seemed almost proud of her own life's work to get to this point, yet... at the same time. She hated it. She hated her failed attempts to reanimate the deceased with just some dusty old bones and electricity. She hated the thoughts she made up about the majority of her failure being based off Leary's mistake. And God, did she hate how monotonous the process of the experiment had become, the rush of the thought of reviving the dead had slowly started to fade. And honestly, the process was only so fun for her to begin with. Dusty old bones weren't nearly as fun to poke and prod as an average human being. Sunshine's mind flashed back to those old experiments she'd put Mushrooms through, chuckling at the memory before sighing in both self-contempt and a... strange nostalgia.
"Hehehehh... Mushrooms, that boozin' bastard..."
Just as she was contemplating digging up her sister from that old couch in her father's house, and convince her to be a living subject, she'd heard violently loud sparks of electricity from the inside of the lab.
Someone had cut the power.
Sunshine practically instinctively started sprinting back inside of the building, like a parent trying to protect their child. She slammed the door open to find Dr. Leary standing in their office doorway, panting heavily.
"WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO THE LIGHTS!?" Leary shouted out to their lab partner, panicked about losing any experiment progress.
"THE POWER GOT CUT!" Sunshine replied, her entire body shaking in protection of her precious lab, "GET TO THE ELECTRICAL ROOM!"
The pair had sprinted down the hallway, with Sunshine running with far much more fervor, before the two stopped directly in from of the door to the electrical room. Before Leary could even mention how they'd need a flashlight, Sunshine slammed her shoulder into the door, forcing it open.
"Please, please God... PLEASE have the lab be Ok... Please have my work be ok..." Sunshine muttered to herself as she frantically ran around the electrical room, searching for any sign of what caused the power to cut. Sunshine's worry was soon interrupted by Leary shining their flashlight in her face.
"Don't run around, you're gonna damage something and ruin the lab even further." Said Leary... Seemingly ignoring that Sunshine herself could get hurt... Although, disregard for their lab partner's health was certainly not out of character for Dr. Leary. "Keep an eye out for any cut wires or something." Sunshine nodded, blindly searching around the blackened room for any discrepancies.
After... four minutes of frantically searching and finding... nothing. On account of not really trying that hard, she'd been just quickly glancing at all the circuit breakers without putting much effort into actually finding problems, Sunshine had decided to sit down in the middle of the electrical room, starting to subtly panic, breathing almost dangerously quickly. Her rabid dissociating was soon cut off by a sound. A sound from outside the electrical room... a sound of someone scurrying, scurrying around in the lab... Most likely whatever... or WHOever had cut the power. Sunshine stood up, sneaking out of the room. She was shaking, shaking like she was ready to beat the shit out of whatever was sneaking around her lab. She'd take shaky, rage-filled around the lab, searching the near-black room, like a hungry cat hunting down a mouse. She kept hearing whatever the hell was inside the lab scuttling around on its stupid little feet... probably knocking over precious equipment too. Little fucker.
Just as she was about to yell out to gain whoever's attention, the lights suddenly flicker back to life. Leary had fixed the power. The doctor's head suddenly snapped towards the source of the noises in the lab. Her gaze fixating on a man scooping up bone dust and lab equipment into a small black drawstring pouch.
He'd been a rather short man, a bit of a chubby one too. A short black hat adorned with flowers and plastic gray skulls was perched atop his black, unkempt hair. He'd been wearing a black-and-white checker pattern shirt with various smiling faces on half the squares, as well as a black jacket with the left sleeve rolled up, and a necklace with yet another smiley face drawn onto the largest piece in the center. The most attention-drawing part about him however, had to be the silver mask, covering his entire face... This man looked like he hadn't seen the sun in God knows how long.
Sunshine had clenched her fists, striking a pointed finger in this gross little rat man infiltrating her lab.
"YOU." She practically roared out at him as he snapped towards her, pausing his thievery and jumping back in surprised, letting out a short "AH!" Before running away from the enraged doctor, clutching the pouch to his chest as to not drop his takings. Sunshine would soon follow suit, practically leaping with each step, making a beeline towards the intruder.
The intruder had started to lose breath, slowly getting closer to his pursuer, before Sunshine had practically tackled him, slamming him against the wall.
"WHO ARE YOU?! WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THE LAB?!!"
"OHOGOIDIMSORRYOOIMNOTARMEDIWSWEARIMNOTARMED-"
She panted heavily, before glaring down at the panicked, wriggling man she had against the wall. Before deciding to loosen her grip on him, giving him time to breathe.
"...What's that you have there."
"WH- Euh- ...E-E- EVIDENCE!" He'd gained an accusatory tone in his voice, as if he was uncovering some grand mystery, and not breaking into a building.
"D-Don't think I haven't heard the rumors about what you and you're partner've been doing! Y-YOU'RE DIGGING UP BODIES!" There was definitely a hint of truth in his claims, but his argument was falling apart on account of... well, the fact that he was a messy little man, screaming like a crazy person inside the building he broke into.
"WHO KN-KNOWS WHAT YOU TWO ARE DOING WITH THOSE CORPSES! Y-YOU'RE MAKING IMPOSTERS, SHAPESHIFTERS! YOU'RE MAKING PEOPLE WEARING FACES THAT AREN'T THEIR OWN! YOU'RE- YOU'RE- YOU'RE-"
Sunshine slammed her hand over the intruder's mouth... Or rather... Where his mouth would be.
"What we're doing with those old bones is none of your Goddamn business."
The man, of course, still had the ability to speak, and only grew more suspicious of her. "I- I'm MAKING it my business! I'm ge-getting to the BOTTOM OF THIS. I-I'M GETTING TO THE BOTTOM OF YOU AND YOUR PARTNER'S GODDAMN... MAD, PSYCHO, GODFORSAKEN EXPERIMENTS-"
"HA! YOU THINK MY PROJECTS ARE JUST SOME PSYCHO ART PROJECTS I DO FOR FUN?!" Sunshine responded with contempt.
"YES! WH-WHAT GOOD PURPOSE DO YOU HAVE FOR THOSE DEAD BODIES!" Screamed the intruder.
"SCIENCE, YOU-"
Sunshine was soon cut off by a loud, shrill "HEY" from her lab partner, having came out of the electrical room, and finding Sunshine pinning some random intruder to the wall.
"What the HELL is going on- WHO IS THAT?!?!"
The intruder shot Leary a glare of both fear and suspicion. Pointing at them with his free hand that was holding the bag of equipment he'd snagged.
"C-CAPGRAS! PROFFESIONAL INDEPENDANT INVESTIGATOR, SHUTTING DOWN WHATEVER SICK SHIT YOU'RE SUBJECTING THOSE-"
Sunshine had suddenly yanked the sack out of the intruder's (supposedly known as "Capgras") hand, leaving him dumbfounded at the sudden gesture as Sunshine had stood back up from eye level with the man, now practically dragging him by the neck of his shirt as she'd stared at Leary.
"...No one, no one, he's no one, don't worry..." Sunshine said, dragging the panicking Capgras behind her, as he was kicking and shouting about how "THAT BAG'S FULL OF EVIDENCE!!" and "EVERYONE'LL KNOW WHAT YOU TWO ARE DOING WITH THOSE BODIES!!". Sunshine ignored his screaming, and practically tossed him out of the building, before shutting the doors in front of her, chuckling a bit to herself afterwards like a mischievous little bastard.
Leary and Sunshine looked at each other for a quick minute, both staring at the other. It was like they were silently asking eachother "Who WAS that man?" before they simply... got back to their labwork... that was it, no "Glad that guys gone" from Sunshine or cynical reply from Leary... they'd both simply gotten back to the operating table, dumping out the next batch of bones for the next round of their little... necromancy experiment. Not even bothering to place the retrieved equipment back into its original positions.
After a few more hours of more failed experiments, it'd been around 12 am, and the pair had to retire their work for the night and return home, as the two stood under the viridescent glow of the bus stop, Sunshine had decided to attempt conversation with the usually-less-than-social Leary.
"Has anyone ever told you that you need to work on your... Y'know, listening skills, Lear?"
Leary had snapped out of their dissociating and turned their head to an annoyingly smug Sunshine.
"What do you mean by that?"
"In case you haven't checked your notes in the past few weeks, almost all our attempts have failed. We've got bins full of bone dust and not ONE of them have reported any signs of... y'know... Being brought back to life."
Leary let out a disappointed sigh. "Yes, yes, I know, no need to remind me, Sunny. I'm aware that science does come with a failure or... a hundred... I'm kinda curious why you brought up my "listening skills", though."
Sunshine had chuckled at her friends attempt at keeping their "formal" tone, even while outside the lab. "Why I bring that up, is cause I find it a bit coincidental that the rounds that were closest to success... were the ones with less of YOUR involvement."
Leary raised a brow, becoming annoyed with Sunshine's teasing. "So what, are you implying you want to go on on your own?" They scoffed.
Sunshine chuckled, "NO, NO, NO! You're a core component in the lab's functionality! Some of our previous experiments couldn't have succeeded without YOUR assistance! But, I DO wonder..."
Expectant silence from Leary.
"Are you perhaps... Bringing back the '12 days, my friend?"
Leary's typical professional demeanor instantly shattered like thin glass, they'd almost jumped at Sunshine's question, stammering and stuttering in offense... Though, also a bit of them trying to cover something up, too.
"WHA- NO- NO- I- I- I HAVE NOT EVEN LET MY MIND WANDER TO THE SU-SUBSTANCE SINCE '12! THOSE DAYS ARE B E H I N D M E AND Y-YOU CAN NOT ACCUSE ME O-OF GOING BACK-"
Sunshine had tuned out Leary's coverup, thinking to herself... Yes, yes, Leary's mind must simply be not working as good as usual, that's definitely causing the lack of production in their work. Silly Leary, Sunshine thought, she'd pictured how much more work she'd get done if they weren't holding her back. Sunshine's mind had temporarily reentered that night with Jimmy, the night she'd gotten a bit... curious with chemical combinations. She'd remembered those violet fungi sprouting up from his eye, as well as him cradling the area around that eye in mortification, praying that this growth would be a simple temporary side effect of Sunshine's experiment... Sunshine remembered her making a pun about his last name being "Mushrooms". He had not found it funny.
Maybe that's why he'd covered his eyes with those cheap shades since then.
...
Maybe that's why he asked for a divorce the very next morning.
Leary was always more restricted when it came to living subjects since that incident.
Sunshine's reminiscing was cut short by the bus arriving. Her and her coworker stepped onto the vehicle, both having a strange, silent tension between the two as they both arrived at their respective stops.
As Sunshine walked down the damp sidewalk and onto the charred grass of her home's lawn, the first thing she noticed was various near beaten boxes sitting idly on the ground. Sunshine walked over to the boxes, muttering under her breath that it hopefully meant that EmCie would FINALLY be moving out of their father's house after sleeping on that couch for God knows how long, only to sneak a peak at the inside of one of the boxes, only to find... the familiar red, velvety fabric of one of her mother's old dresses.
"Well, he seems to be handling the divorce well..." Sunshine sarcastically muttered to herself about her father. She'd taken note of how the boxes were simply out for anyone to take for grabs... As if her father had been so committed to his hatred to that four-thousand-named bitch that he didn't even bother giving it to a pawn shop or something.
Sunshine walked inside, instantly met with the sight of her sister like a dead body on the couch, the cold blue glow of the TV displaying some cheap fantasy movie that's definitely EmCie's taste gently illuminating her resting faces. Sunshine blankly stared at her before turning off the TV, so she wouldn't be annoyed by its noise while she was in her room.
Sunshine walked down the hallway to her own bedroom. Noting the faint orange glow under the door of her father's bedroom, indicating that he'd also been asleep, seemed like Sunshine had time to herself tonight...
As the doctor sat down in front of her desk, she found herself... still. She found herself unable to move, like a statue. She found herself like a fish caught in a net, and she was getting dragged up to the surface at unfathomable speeds. She found her mind...
...Blank.
She felt held back, she glanced down at her notes, inscribed with various critiques of her and her colleague's method of their whole... "raising the dead" experiment. She stared down with... contempt. With heavy breathing, she gripped the notes like she wanted them dead, and tossed them away from the desk, making a small "crunch" sound as they hit the hardwood floor. She buried her head in her hands, grumbling and cursing to herself.
The process was never good enough for her.
It was always Leary's warnings holding her back from perfecting the formula. She felt determined to drive back to the lab and work on the experiment on her damn own. She was filled with a violent rage for her coworker's stuck-up, cowardly research methods. "There's no way these... bitch-level measurements are gonna bring back the dead... I could do better", Sunshine muttered, a fervor bubbling up in her voice. "I could do way better...! Hell does Leary know about this kind of HARDCORE S C I E N C E?! I CAN MAKE THESE BREAKTHROUGHS ON MY OWN! IN MY OWN LAB! THAT I PAID FOR!"
And so she did.
She had drove back to the lab out of sheer, raw, throbbing spite for Leary. She'd dumped some old bones she found on the drive there, and started hooking up the equipment to each other, mumbling and cursing to herself about how much smarter she was compared to Leary, she turned up the power of all the machines needed for the experiment to the numbers that even she would argue was too risky for reanimation. But she ignored that, she'd been a blind, raging storm of pure determination, and she wanted to watch those old, dead bones rises to life like a puppet getting picked up by the strings.
She was life.
She was death.
She was the Sun.
She turned on the machines, watching the electricity flowing into the remains, and then...
There it was. That all-too familiar sight of burnt bone marrow dust, lying there on the metallic operating table, taunting her.
She quickly brushed off her disappointment and the ash on the table, quickly replacing it with another batch.
That would also become bone dust.
Then the next batch... Then the next batch... Then the next batch... Then the next... then the next... the next... the next... next... next...
...Soon enough, the raging storm that was Sunshine soon became reduced to a faint, depressing drizzle. Like the kind that didn't make any filth-ridden puddle of water, but still made you unable to go outside.
As the doctor was "taking a break" by burying her head in her hands, sitting idly by her lab desk, she snapped her head towards a sound all too familiar to her, granted, not as familiar as the sight of bone ash, but familiar to be like a bad memory. A familiar... Scurrying sound...
Capgras had just gotten down from sneaking in from one of the taller windows, and he'd froze, looking like a deer in headlights.
"Wh... What are you doing here?!" Capgras shouted, slapping himself against the wall in a panic.
"What are YOU doing here?!" Sunshine retorted, temporarily gained a faint glow of confidence to intimidate the recurring intruder.
Capgras looked around his surroundings for a quick second in a frenzy, before he pointed at Sunshine, as if accusing her of something.
"I-I'm BACK! AND I'M SEARCHING FO-FOR EVIDENCE! AGAIN!"
Sunshine had stood up from her desk, silently walking over to Capgras, ready to toss his ass out onto the pavement. Capgras was slowly backing up (or, well... sliding the opposite direction... he was already on the wall), yet he was still trying to be the more intimidating person in this scenario.
"I-I'M HERE TO BRING THE TRUTH TO LIGHT! I'M HERE TO FIND OUT WHAT YOU'RE DOING WITH ALL THOSE POOR BODIES!! I-I WON'T STOP! I'LL COME BACK! I'LL COME BACK TO STOP YOUR PSYCHO PROJECTS IN THEIR TRACKS! I'LL EVEN COME BACK AFTER DYING!!!"
Sunshine stood still... "After dying", he said...? That had caught her attention... She seemed slightly less aggressive. He'd lost her anger, and gained her attention.
This man was desperate, this man was determined, this man might have been immortal, this man... Was the perfect test subject. Capgras' voice had suddenly popped into Sunshine's mind after he'd started shouting to get her attention.
"H-HEY! A-ARE YOU NOT GONNA SAY SOMETHING!? Y-YOU'RE NOT GONNA COME UP WITH SOME NEFARIOUS, VILLAINOUS COMEBACK?! H-HUH?!"
Sunshine looked him up and down for a second, studying him, contemplating how she could convince him into being the ideal, frightened, thick-skinned guinea pig for her studies.
"...You can stay."
"HA! I'M NOT GIVING UP MY RESEARCH NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU-
...
Wh-what?"
"Yes, yes, you can stay! Stay as long as you'd like! You're welcome here anytime. Just don't take anything, mm'kay?"
Capgras stammered, before he temporarily regained his composure, and started to nervously approach her, like he was approaching a rabid animal in his backyard, he had reached into his coat and gently pulled out a notepad and pen. He'd gotten about a yard away from her before stopping in his tracks, positioning his legs like he was ready to start sprinting away in the opposite direction in case the Doctor had changed her mind.
"Hmph... S-so if y-you won't let me get my hands on any physical evidence, I'm hoping that YOU are willing to... answer a few qu-questions about your project, mm?"
Sunshine considered her options for a moment, before simply nodding. He wouldn't be a willing subject if he knew nothing about the lab. Though... at the same time, she didn't want to reveal too much information on her projects, she knew he'd probably be screaming in the streets about her attempts to raise the dead... Then again, that sight alone might make his claims seem false, so she might be a bit safer.
That night was... nothing special, strangely enough. Capgras would ask something like "Where did you obtain those remains?", "Where'd you get the funding for these experiments?", "What branch of science even is this?", or, of course "Are you even a real doctor?", all of which would be met with ass-pull answers from sunshine like "They were donated to us.", "A small loan from... the Government.", "Archaeology, to some degree.", and "well, are YOU?" all of which were met with a held tilt of suspicion and various notebook scribbles from Capgras. Then, he'd talk about how he'll put this info to good use, then he'd run away through the lab doors, disappearing into the night, and Sunshine would be met with Leary a few hours later, praising her for arriving so early, then the work day would continue, like normal...
That one night would eventually turn into multiple nights. Sunshine got home from work, drove back later that night, met up with Capgras, bullshitted her way through an "interrogation" (according to Capgras), he'd sprint away through the lab doors, then Leary'd arrive for the two to continue their experiments. After a few nights, Capgras had gotten almost casual when it came to his interactions with Sunshine, even starting every interview with greeting her by her first name... Sunshine remembered when he asked her "When are you here at the lab, usually?", and Sunshine cheekily replied with "Why? You wanna see me more often?", to which Capgras had gotten flustered, angrily stuttering a bit before he scribbled something out in his notepad, before continuing the interview... Sunshine liked to imagine a blush painting his face hidden under that metallic mask of his.
Hell, even Sunshine would consider herself... Strangely attached to him. Granted, she wouldn't give up research for anything, she'd rather collapse dead on the floor than give up her experiment for anything, yet, she enjoyed seeing him, she enjoyed watching him shaking and stuttering whenever he interviewed her, she enjoyed the extent he went to to find answers to his questions, she enjoyed... him. This was a type of enjoyment that was weirdly foreign to her. Sunshine had felt rage, she'd felt envy, she'd felt warm, cordial metal against her skin, and cold, unfeeling flesh against her skin. She had felt the sun, she had felt the moon at night, yet she had never felt...
...
That. Bleck... just the thought of her feeling that made Sunshine's skin crawl... Yet she had felt it in what felt like her heart.
And it felt like Capgras had felt it too. Blegh.
Sunshine would eventually find herself alone. The only sound being her loud, excited breathing, the crackle of far too much electricity for the experiment, and Leary slamming their fists on the doors barricaded with various desks, screaming at Sunshine to let them in, but their pleas had fallen on deaf ears. Sunshine did not process her memory of the past few hours, her argument with Leary which ended with several pieces of lab equipment being thrown had been reduced to static in the back of her head, Leary threatening to shut down the experiment and the lab as a whole if Sunshine had not calmed down, and chose to follow the proper safety precautions, and all risks of what she could lose if her version of this test failed, all of it had faded to abstract noise in the darkest corners of Sunshine's mind. She put everything aside.
This was it.
This was the one that would work.
Sunshine gazed at the skeleton slowly getting surged with electricity, watching it writhing around on the operating table, her eyes were filled with a flame of psychotic excitement, she felt like a bird free from its cage, no longer bound to Leary's rules, she could practically envision the bones rising back to animation.
The loud, piercing "BAM" of the door getting broken open by Leary invaded Sunshine's mind, she had paused her premature self-celebration to glare over at Leary in both rage and fear of her project getting shut down. From the movements of Leary's mouth, it was clear that they were screaming at Sunshine to shut down the machine, but the crackle of electricity was too loud, letting Sunshine die on this hill she had dug up. Sunshine started backing up, closer to the viridescent glow of necromantic shock raging behind her, slowly growing more violent, she was also screaming, she didn't know was she was saying, but she knew that it was her argument to keep the glow behind her going. Her determination and passion for science had trumped her common sense. And she had every right to keep going. In this moment, she is death, she is life, SHE IS THE S
All had gone quiet.
"...
...
....
S
S i e
SU INE
S SHI NE
SUNSHINE!!!"
Leary regained their composure, the explosion temporarily blinding them. They stand up weakly, their weakened eyes falling upon the combusted machine, charred lab equipment stood around the room like tall, imposing trees, the scent of bone marrow poisoning the room, and lying in the center...
...Was Dr. Sunshine.
Leary cautiously approached, leaning down in one, shaking motion to inspect what was left of their partner. Half of her face was charred to a horrifying black crisp, leaving rows of her teeth fully exposed on that side. Both her hands were near eviscerated, with only bones and a few scraps of charred flesh where her hands once were. The flesh of her stomach had been completely blown open, leaving wet, unmoving organs exposed to the debris and marrow-filled air. Leary grew silent, their scarred hand resting and idly shaking on the shoulder of what used to be their friend. This has to be... minor damage, Leary thought. Dr. Sunshine isn't dead. Dr. Sunshine doesn't die. DR. SUNSHINE COULD NEVER DIE.
...
...
..................................................................
The air was cold.
Leary, EmCie, and Thermos stood in the yellowing grass, the ground soft, and welcoming, like a warm welcome to talk to whatever remains were hiding in the earth, each visitor donning night-black dresswear, circling an ebony coffin, partially in the ground. A framed photo of Sunshine stood next to the box. Weed and moss lay like a wall around several pale color flowers. The one sound around the area was a solemn wind blowing (And EmCie trying to not burst into sobbing), as if to rub in the fact that once they would all go home, Sunshine would never come with them, even on days where she had worked herself to near-death, she was still semi-welcome to get home... There were only a select few visitors... but Sunshine would have wanted that. She would have preferred to have only her closest, trusted contacts to be there when she was at her lowest. She was gone. Dr. Sunshine was gone.
Thermos stood like a statue a few yards away from his daughter's picture, a rare moment of... well, something that wasn't anger from him, before his attention had been called to a noise. A noise... nonfamiliar to him. A nonfamiliar... scurrying noise. He spotted a black coated, masked stranger climbing down from the chain linked fence several yards away, and almost instantly, Thermos' temper had flared violently, his firey face contorting into a snarl as he barked out a "HEY!!" to the intruder, which quickly noticed, and attempted to climb back up the fence. Thermos had suddenly gripped him by the shoulders, spinning him around to face him as the thrashing flames that were his body had grew more violent.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE??!!" Thermos roared out in fury. Capgras stammered in fear, sparks just barely dodging the mask on his trembling face. Leary and EmCie had turned to view the situation, flabbergasted, but did not dare to interfere.
Capgras finally managed to stutter out a response. "I-I KNOW SUNNY! I-I WANTED TO INSPECT THE FUNERAL TO S-SEE IF I CAN GET ANY INFO ON-"
He was cut off by Thermos shrieking in his face again "YOU WHAT?!"
"i-I know sunny, sir-"
"WHAT 'INFO' COULD YOU NEED! SUNSHINE'S DEAD! DEAD LIKE A GODDAMN FLY! WE DON'T NEED YOU HERE TO SHOVE YOUR ASS INTO HER LIFE!"
As Thermos was scolding him, a slight noise had quietly rose from the coffin, gaining EmCie's attention. She had inched closer to the wooden coffin, inspecting the sound peeking out from it. It sounded like... laughing? EmCie quickly shook her heads, there's no way laughter was coming from the coffin, she was dead, Dr. Sunshine was deceased, she... she was just being haunted by her grief for her sister... Yeah, that was good, that sounded... cool enough.
The sound had gotten louder, it had definitely been laughter coming from the coffin, gaining Leary's attention and fear as it had grown louder.
Something was in the coffin. Something that was... less dead than it should have been.
Thermos was still roaring at Capgras, gripping him in place to keep his attention as Capgras shivered below him.
"DON'T YOU FUCKING GET IT!!? 'SUNNY' IS DEAD! DR. SUNSHINE IS-"
The coffin lid shot wide open, revealing a writhing doctor, laughing maniacally to herself, she had pushed the lid open herself, much to all the guests' petrification. Thermos paused his rage to turn toward the open casket, his jaw slack, lessening his grip on Capgras, who was also staring in horror at the opened casket, but unlike the others, he has a mix of awe. EmCie jumped back in shock, her voice shaking in terror.
"S-SUNNY!? Y-YOU-YOU'RE-"
Sunshine rose up from the bottom of the wood, gaining her stance as she was practically howling in laughter at her own pride.
"IT WOOOORKED!" She bellowed out. "I!! LIVE!!!! DR. SUNSHINE LIVES!!!" She gazed around her surroundings, taking in the looks on everyone's faces, before she had spotted the familiar sight of Capgras.
"AHAHAAGH! CAPPY!!"
Sunshine had leapt up from her coffin, sprinting over towards Capgras, as much excitement as she could show on her recently reanimated face.
"I KNEW I'D SEE YOU HERE!"
Capgras stammered a bit, frantically screaming out apologies towards her, like he was expecting her to just throttle him, he tensed up, sweat coating his face under the mask as Sunshine wrapped an arm around his body.
But, much to his surprise, in a quick, flash of movement, Sunshine had yanked the metallic mask from off of Capgras's face, and pressed her mouth against his. Capgras was shaken by the sudden display, not expecting his face to be revealed like that, before he quickly lets his guard slightly down, practically melting his body into hers as they were in each other's embrace, occasionally glancing around to make sure that no one gets a glance of his true face.
After was felt like an eternity of the two finally expressing affection towards another, Capgras pulled away, yanking the mask out of Sunny's hand, seating it back on his face, they would come from their high for a few seconds, Sunny grinning madly, ignorant to the shocked gaze radiating from the funeral guests.
...Dr. Sunshine is alive. And live did she damn do.