Previously On Creepymon...

"Welcome, welcome, I'm called the Puppeteer. It's nice to see you again, old friend," The tall lad said, looking intently at Kagekao. Kagekao lowered his head and murmured lowly, "Kon'nichiwa, tomoyo..."(Hey there my friend...). "Oh no, but we're not friends anymore. We WERE friends, that is until you left and betrayed me and Falcon who cared so much for us. Now I'm afraid I'll have to make you pay," The Puppeteer sighed, raising his hands and you saw that golden strings started to entwine around him and everything suddenly became dark. Kagekao gulped again and looked towards you, "I don't feel so great about taking him on, but I'm the only one who can do this..." he murmured before turning to The Puppeteer and standing straight, "I'm ready."

Falcon nodded and The Puppeteer smiled wider, tilting his head, "I'm ready too, old friend."

"Then this battle starts now. Ready...BEGIN!"

▪︎▪︎▪︎

The match had begun, and just like Laughing Jack and Splendorman did, Kagekao and the Puppeteer began circling each other— except the Puppeteer was gliding rather than walking.

You noticed that Kagekao was nervously shaking and you began to feel unsure about having him fight against his old friend.

On the opposite side, Falcon had a solemn expression as he watched the two circle each other. "Knowing Puppeteer, he's probably going to carry out this battle himself..." he muttered lowly to himself.

"Shall I start this battle off with String Attack?" Puppeteer asked and Falcon merely nodded. The Puppeteer smirked and was able to launch his string towards Kagekao, making him get wrapped and tangled in golden twine.

"Kagekao, get—"

Before you could command him to, Kagekao very rapidly slashed and freed himself from the binding using his long claw-like hands. He then hissed and ran towards The Puppeteer at full speed, his masked face turning into a dark scowl.

The Puppeteer only laughed and easily dodged the sprinting Kagekao, making him run uncontrollably into a nearby tree. Kagekao growled and shook his head after the impact, then pushed himself off of the tree, turning to face the Puppeteer again.

The Puppeteer quit gliding and sunk back on the ground. Then he began advancing towards Kagekao, crossing his hands over each other and forming a mass length of gold string. "Try and avoid this, my old friend," he murmured, commanding the string with his hands to seize Kagekao.

Kagekao skillfully hopped and slipped away from each of the string, landing lightly a few feet away from the opponent. However, Kagekao still got caught when one of the string somehow turned and wrapped around his leg. It gripped him tightly and flung him back into the same tree he was tossed into before.

"Yeow! Unfair!" Kagekao snarled and flipped away from the tree, landing once again in front of his opponent. "Everything is fair in the game of war, my friend," Puppeteer sighed, raising his hands and launching more string at Kagekao. "This isn't war, it's just a battle!" Kage retorted, quickly throwing himself aside to dodge the attack. "There's more to this than just a simple battle, Kagekao!" The Puppeteer yelled, anger in his voice rising.

"You left me and Falcon after all he's done for us! He saved us from that...that monster, and he made use stronger! We did everything together and we promised we'd beat that monster together for Falcon one day! Then you decide to leave and betray us, all of us!"

You see that now The Puppeteer was really trying to catch Kagekao in a golden stringed fury, but Kagekao was very swift and easily dodged each of his attempts.

"I didn't run because I wanted t—"

"Like I would believe that. You're a liar, you left and betrayed Falcon on purpose. Then you had the nerve to take S—!"

Kagekao sprung at an incredible speed at The Puppeteer's face, and lodged his claws right into his left eye, sliding them down his face. "Slasher!"

The Puppeteer yelped in shock and stumbled back, clutching his slain face. "You listen to me, Puppeteer! The only reason I ran away is because I knew he was coming back, I had to protect..."

Kagekao's voice trailed off as he watched The Puppeteer grumble in pain from his injury and release his eye which was now pitch black along with the black liquid that flowed from it.

You watched the scene unfold before you, unsure of what they were talking about, but suddenly you were very curious about Kagekao's past. You figured that he used to belong to Falcon, so you look towards the elite, but there was only a blank stare on his face.

"Protect what!? You didn't even bother to think about the rest of us..." The Puppeteer muttered, slowly approaching Kagekao. He then suddenly clenched his fists and a mass of golden string stretched towards Kagekao, wrapping around his arms and legs and neck. Kage tried pulling and ripping away, but this string was too strong for him, and The Puppeteer began slowly pulling Kagekao towards him.

"Ever since you left, you broke me, just like almost every person I ever met has..."

"I never meant to hurt you or Falcon-sama, I'm telling you the truth, please believe me—"

"However your insolence didn't stop me from doing everything I could to get stronger..."

"Wh-What are you doing...?

"Now, I'm going to punish you, my friend, not for my sake, but for Falcon's."

Now Kagekao was straight up face to face with The Puppeteer, his strings entwined all around his body. "Kagekao!" You shouted, watching nervously to see what his opponent was going to do next.

The Puppeteer tilted his head and smiled at the struggling trickster who was now sneering in agony. "Do you feel pain? Is it intense? You should've felt how much pain you made me feel....Well, don't worry. I'm going to make you feel that pain right now."

The Puppeteer's right eye glowed a deeper golden color now and his binding suddenly severed right into Kagekao's body, forcing a terrible shrill scream to seethe out of him. "KAGEKAO!" You shout in horror as The Puppeteer carelessly dropped the impaled Creepymon on the ground. "Lethal Constriction..." He mumbled under his breath.

You rush over to Kagekao and turn him over to see bloody impalements all over his body. His face mask was frozen in all the pain he must have felt from the string binding and he wasn't moving at all, passed out. "Kagekao is down. Puppeteer wins..." Falcon said, his voice monotone. You lower your head in defeat and slowly pull the fainted Kagekao into your arms. "You tried your best, thank you Kage," You murmur.

"This isn't over yet."

You look up and see The Puppeteer standing over you, his face neutral despite his gorged out eye. "This battle is over, you already got your revenge or whatever on Kagekao. Don't touch him," You sneer, backing away with him still in your grasp.

"I realize that that's done. But there is one more thing I have to do, to finally settle things," he growls, slowly raising his hands. You gasp and hold up your hand at him, "Don't hurt me!"

Laughing Jack and Jeff alarmingly raced towards you but it seemed that The Puppeteer was already set to strike before they could reach you. "Don't!" You heard Falcon yell, and you squeeze your eyes shut waiting for impact.

Instead of being struck with pain, you hear what sounds like something being pierced multiple times and you quickly look up in fear.

You see The Puppeteer still looking down at you and Kagekao, but his own strings are tied right through his body, and the black liquid is seeping all over. You gasped when he merely smiled and then fell backwards on the hard earth.

~~~

"Why...why did he do this...?"

You, Falcon, LJ, and Jeff were staring down looking at The Puppeteer who was sprawled on the ground, impaled by his own string. "He used his attack on himself...?"

Falcon shook his head, glaring at his Creepymon with a look of despair. "In the end, he truly didn't want to hurt Kagekao...he was really impacted by his so-called betrayal that he felt he needed to make Kagekao feel that same pain. Puppeteer felt the need, however, to suffer alongside his old friend."

You sigh and look down at the fainted Puppeteer. A somewhat calming smile was on his face, despite the fact that he was passed out. You felt bad for the Elite and his Creepymon, even though you didn't know their full story.

"Falcon? Mind telling me the whole story? What happened here with you, Puppeteer, and Kagekao?" You ask, tilting your head at the gym leader.

Falcon looked to be thinking deeply for a bit as he looked down at Puppeteer, but then he snapped back to himself and slightly smiled at you, shaking his head.

"You've seemed to forgotten that we're still in the midst of a Creepymon battle. I still have one more companion of mine that I'd like to send out, and you have two that are fit to fight. I'll tell you my story afterwards...if you win."

You quickly nod your head and return Kagekao to his capture device; you had almost forgotten about the battle still ongoing. "You're also going to give Hoodie back to me and a gym badge."

Falcon nodded and returned The Puppeteer to his Killersphere and took out his last Creepymon Killersphere. "Who will you be using, {Y/N}?"

You turn to your two Creepymon behind you and noticed Jeff looking away in what looked like anger. "Yep. Go right ahead and pick Laughing Jack to fight again. Hell, you may as well even pick Kagekao!" He snarled, stomping his foot. You chuckle and point at Jeff with a smile. "Jeff The Killer, I choose you!"

It definitely ruins the whole moment for you when Jeff doesn't react and continues to look the other way until you see him start shaking and then he's excitedly bouncing over to you, waving his knife in the air. "YES, FINALLYYYYY!!! LET THE REAL BATTLE BEGIN!!!" He screamed, jumping in front of you and jamming his fist in the air.

"Alright Falcon! I've got my Creepymon, where's yours?"

"Here."

Falcon tosses his sphere on the ground and out formed his Creepymon.

Wait...

The brown hair...

The green eyes...

The cuts and scratches...

A teddy bear...

"It's...it's..." You mutter.

"SALLY!" Jeff cried.

"Hello, big brother Jeff," She murmured, waving her hand and giving a sweet smile. "I really didn't want to fight you, but it seems thats what it's come to anyways. Are you ready? :)"