Everything You Ever? Ch 9

The face paint slid out of its pot wit a sickening 'plop' onto Horrible's palm. The Doctor and the Captain both peered at the grey sludge, half expecting for it to get up and start slithering away.
"You not seriously putting that on my face, are you?" Hammer scrambled away from the foul smelling paste, looking revolted. He looked a little odd dressed in a ripped tee and shredded jeans.
"I've already done it, so you've got to." Dr Horrible approached the man, looking equally bizarre with his face painted in a deathly pale way, hair dyed jet and slicked over the back of his head, a black cloak over his shoulder and a pair of fake fangs lodged in his mouth. "But your paint didn't look like porridge and smell like dog muck!" Hammer ducked away as the scientist closed in with the gunk.
"For God's sake, hold still! We need to be incognito for this plan to work!" and with that, Horrible splattered the stuff into the hero's face and began to smear it into a zombie-ish mask, amidst Hammer's protests. By the time he was done, Hammer looked as dead as his arch-nemesis.

"Ugh, this smells gross," whined Hammer, turning to look at himself in the mirror "and I don't look like my normal, handsome self!"
"That's sort of the point; nobody is meant to know who we are. That is why it's called a disguise." Horrible turned away from the complaining Hammer, to look around their new apartment in an attempt to settle his nerves. It didn't work; the place didn't have that soothing smell of geraniol esters, but instead reeked of bacon. It hadn't surprised him that the last occupant had died of a coronary- from just the state of the oven he could tell that the guy had had enough fry-ups to put pigs on the endangered species list. Number 53 was also smaller than their old home, meaning that their clutter was still stacked in boxes all over the shop. The Resurrect-Ohm-Meter stood silently in the kitchen where the fridge used to be. Well, he had needed the sockets…

The Doctor began to pace, as he always did in such stressful times. He tried telling himself that there was no need to worry. Their plan was simple, and very little could go wrong; go to the graveyard, do the unspeakable deed and arrive back at the apartment. No biggy. Except that this was a BIG biggy. Without Penny's body, he couldn't bring her back to life. And if the LAPD caught them in the act- he shuddered to think what would happen to them if that happened. Probably spend the rest of their days in a psycho ward…
"Moist!" called Horrible, unable to bear waiting any longer. "Hurry up!" There was a muffled yell in reply and then the bedroom door swung open and the henchman, with some difficulty, waddled into the room.
"Mo-ist," sighed Horrible, rolling his eyes "I thought you were going as a werewolf? How are we meant to do a Twilight double-act now?"
"I tried Doc, but the hair kept sticking to my hands. I went to the costume shop whilst you were doing your make-up, but this was all they had left."
"You look like Sebastian from 'The Little Mermaid'…" his roomie was indeed dressed in a bright red lobster outfit, complete with giant pincer hands.
"Well you don't look much like Edward Cullen to me anyway…"
Horrible shrugged. "I didn't have enough body glitter and one of the contacts fell in the loo, so I decided to come as a vampire instead." The Doctor grabbed his Stun Ray (which he had decorated for the occasion with plastic spiders, webs and a stuffed bat), a Jack-O-Lantern treat pot, and led the way out of the apartment. Outside was a wooden deliver trolley, which the villain gestured for Moist to start pushing, a task made rather difficult when he had to get the thing down five flights of stairs without opposable thumbs.


"Okay just a little to the left…straighten it up at the back, Moist…Hammer, don't let go! There!" after ten exhausting minutes, the wheels of the trolley hit the ground floor heavily as Moist let go, panting. He didn't get much chance for respite though; the Doctor was already striding towards the exit, vampire cloak swishing behind him and Hammer hurrying to keep up. Wishing that he'd decided to go into business like his father had said, rather than crime as his third grade teacher had suggested, Moist started shoving the trolley forward which, as Murphy's Law dictates, had a wonky wheel.

The sun was setting over the city streets, but the pavements were still swarming with trick-or-treaters, all of them in costumes ranging from extravagant to evidently-home-made-by-mum-five-minutes-ago. For once, Horrible actually fitted into society, with no one giving him weird looks for his costume. Small children and teens made up most of the Halloween crowd, but there were adults amongst them too, on their ways out to parties and the like, meaning that the trio could blend in seamlessly. Horrible made his way carefully through the people, all too aware of the LA cops that mixed in with the halloweeners, keeping the peace and making sure no one tee-peed the nearby houses.
"I love Halloween." said Hammer in a hushed, excited voice, his head snapping around to look at the decorations in people's yards. "Ooo, a Monster Bash! Can we go in? I've got this great party move where I stand on my head like this-"
"Not now, Hammer!" hissed Horrible, grabbing the idiot's sleeve. Around them, the people were getting in tighter, pushing and shoving Horrible and Hammer forwards in an eagerness to get to the park for some reason. Moist was stuck in a throng of teenagers a little ways behind, unable to move the trolley forward without mowing down a little kid. Confused, the henchman craned over the rushing crowd to see what all the fuss was about.
"Hey Doc!" he called, making his employer spin around. "There's something going on at the podium!" he thrust a claw, smacking a passerby full in the nose, at the white stage where most of the costumed people were heading. Horrible turned to look at the podium, standing on tip toe to get a better look. What he saw was…

The Doctor blinked, hard, sure that he had got it wrong. It couldn't be…not possible…

"Change of plan." the scientist grabbed Hammer by the collar of his shirt, tugging him towards the podium and beckoning for Moist to follow. Slowly, they made their way nearer, and Horrible had to restrain himself with every ounce of his being to stop himself from barging through the crowd to reach the front. Because on that stage, and he could hardly dare to believe it, was a red-haired somebody, wearing that exact dress, holding herself in the same way-

They had reached the edge of the crowd now, and still, Horrible could hardly see; the curse of being short. He stepped backwards onto the trolley that a puffing Moist had just wheeled behind him. It just gave him the extra height for him to be able to see the woman on stage. Yes, she was dressed like Penny, she was even stood like Penny, but she wasn't her. She also wasn't alone.
"What's going on?" hissed Moist, watching the people on stage with a look of befuddlement. Next to the girl who looked like Penny, was a man dressed in a black tee with a hammer printed onto the front. The girl was swooning, or pretending to swoon, into the not-Hammer man's arms whilst he sung lyrics to a song that they couldn't make out. There were a bunch of other people on stage too, cheering and clapping…
"I-I don't understand…" said Horrible, although inside, he really did, and knew what would be coming any moment now. He could feel his face burning already-

Sure enough, a man dressed in his lab coat and his goggles strode across the stage, cackling and fired a fake gun at the man playing Hammer, who went into a freeze frame. The Penny screamed, and cowered away from the Doctor Horrible, who burst into song:

"Look at these people
Amazing how sheep'll
Show up for the slaughter-"

Horrible stared, dumbfounded; Penny hadn't screamed, what were they on about? She hadn't been scared of him, she hadn't leapt into Captain Hammer's arms! She hadn't been in sight when he'd made his appearance!

"-Why can't they see what I see
Why can't they hear the lies?"

He didn't walk like that, and he most certainly didn't sing like that! And he hadn't sneered at Penny, or glared at her, ever! Where had they got all this from? Why were they buying this utter crap? Horrible knew that some of these people had been there, why the hell were they going along with it, when it was all wrong?

"-Your disguise is…slipping.
I think you're…slipping-"

Numbly, Horrible watched the remainder of the song, watching as his counter-part prowled the stage, threatening both the people on stage and the crowd (who would shriek in mock fear each time) with the glammed-up water cannon in his hands. When the song ended, he watched as the Hammer unfroze and stepped in front of the Penny, to protect her. Horrible's gorge rose.
"You won't touch her, Doctor Horrible! I won't let you hurt her!"
"Bah, I'll kill the pair of you, I don't care who I murder! I want the world at my knees, I want everything I ever. But most of all, I want you to hurt, Captain Hammer, so I'll kill her, and anyone else who gets in my way!"

Billy could feel himself shaking, but couldn't turn away. He stared as the Doctor Horrible aimed the gun and, as if in slow motion, shot Penny, unable to contain a yelp of anger and upset as the actress crumpled to the floor. Captain Hammer stooped to the floor, sobbing, and cradled her in his arms.
"Penny, hold on, no no no no no-" The girl was heaving on the floor, lolling against the Hammer's chest as the Dr Horrible walked across the stage with a triumphant grin on his face. The real Dr Horrible stared at them, wondering how much worse this could possibly get, how much of a different turn this 'reenactment' could take.

The answer: a lot.

"Captain Hammer," Penny gazed up at the man above her with a look of adoration, gasping for air. Her hand reached out to touch his face, and then raised her body a little to kiss him on the mouth. She then fell back against his arms and breathed the words: "I love you…"

Billy let out a strangled choking sound as the woman on stage slumped. He barely heard the onstage Hammer's cries, the rest of the lines, his character's closing song, or anything else really. Even the crowd's wild cheers and applause as the cast took their bows didn't drag him out of his stupor. He glanced over at Moist, who was still watching the stage, a little shocked. Billy, unable to stand any longer, sank onto the trolley. He felt sick, actually felt sick. His heart thudded dully in his chest, and a dull thrum filled his ears. He could see that Captain Hammer looked completely unbothered by the play, and even Moist was beginning to get over his original surprise, and was starting to get fidgety, tapping Horrible with his claw in an attempt to get him to move. The other people had dispersed now, and Horrible could see the members of the production more clearly, leaving the stage and heading towards them. Billy's eyes sought out the Penny; there, between two groupies. Close up, Dr Horrible could see that she looked nothing like Penny; her hair was obviously dyed red, she was taller and bigger than her too. Her face was rounder, and her eyes were blue. Nothing alike…
"Doc," Moist was still tapping his roomie on the shoulder "we need to get moving, if you want to get it done tonight…" Horrible let out a little grunt, and shuffled off of the trolley, getting to his feet. Like a sleepwalker, the Doctor made his way out of the park and back onto the busy streets. The people all around were chattering happily, many of them complimenting the performance. Horrible couldn't believe it; were they all morons? Did none of them realize that none of the things they had just seen were true? Not a single one of them seemed to notice that it was him who had held Penny, that the Hammer had stolen the lines that should've been the Dr Horrible's? That Penny had never said…never said…
"Can we hurry this up, I want to go trick-or-treating at some point!" Captain Hammer was stood, tapping his foot at the Doctor, who had been stood stationary at a junction for about a minute. Horrible clenched his fists; this guy obviously didn't realize how close he was to getting a fist in the face at the moment, didn't understand how much Horrible hated him right now. Had always hated him…
"Yooo hooo, Doctor Horrible!" Hammer was shaking his shoulder now. Billy tried not to recoil, tried not to flinch at the man's touch. He didn't want to be anywhere near this guy at the moment, or ever again. "You said that you wanted to do it tonight, so lets go!" The ex-hero waved a hand in front of his face. "I think he's been paralyzed. Anyone see a Basilisk around?" Ugh, how could she of ever stood to hear this guy's voice, have him whisper to her? How could she have…how could she possibly…?
"I think he didn't like that play very much…" said Moist, trying to pat Horrible on the back, but only succeeding in poking him in the back of the neck with his giant lobster hand.  He heard Hammer say something about it being very good, but complaining about how the guy who played him looking nothing like him. Whilst the idiot was spouting off, Moist at least tried to cheer his friend up a bit.
"You sing way better than that guy who was playing you, he couldn't hit half the notes you can. Plus he didn't pull of the whole look very well." he muttered, nodding as Billy's lips twitched a little "And I know the details were…off. Don't let it get to you-"
"Who said it was getting to me?" Horrible forced a grin. "I was just thinking about…what to do now." He strode forward, not looking at Hammer.
"I think we should take West 73rd; it'll take us on a more populated route, so we won't look suspicious. Following the road along, it should be easy enough to slip into the graveyard unnoticed."
"Great," said the Captain, rolling his shoulders and stretching "does this mean that you're finally putting your plan into action?" The Doctor looked at his enemy for a moment, before grinning widely. But it wasn't a normal grin, more the kind of grin you see on a person that got a joke no one else did.
"Yes. Yes I am."


Horrible, Hammer and Moist made their way through the darkened streets of LA without incident, mingling in with the steady trickle of people enjoying the night out with their friends. Dr Horrible decided that Halloween was probably his favorite holiday; it was the one day of the year where being weird, being abnormal, being different didn't get you funny stares or abusive comments fired at you. Beat Christmas; what was the point in giving presents to ungrateful, undeserving people? Not like he gave anyone any presents anyway; wasn't like he had anyone to give presents to in the first place. Or anyone to give him presents in return. Other than maybe Moist.

After not long at all, the trio found themselves stood under the streetlights outside the graveyard, the iron gates wide open in welcome. Beside him, Horrible felt Moist shudder; the air felt colder, the night stiller. Maybe it was in his head, but Horrible thought he could hear something in the distance…
"You here for the Ghost Walk, boys?" came a voice from behind them, making all three men shriek in fright. But it wasn't the voice of the undead who had spoken to them, just the old undertaker. Horrible had forgotten that they always did graveyard tours here on Halloween.
"Yeah, yeah we are." the elderly man chuckled at them.
"You sure you lot are going to be alright, if you scare that easy?"
"We'll be fine. Three tickets for the Ghost Walk, please." Doctor Horrible handed over a few dollar bills, and they joined a small group of others.
"What're we gonna do?" hissed Moist in his ear
"We'll ditch as soon as we can."

The group in front of them began to shuffle forward, and the villains and hero hastened to join them as they made their way past the mass of graves. In the trees, cheapo decorations had been hung from the branches, so that the folds of polyester cloth would flap feebly in the wind. Cardboard cut outs of ghosts and the like were dotted around the gravestones, a couple fallen over from the breeze. It was all pretty tacky. The undertaker at the front was spiraling off some ghost story at the head of the group. No one was paying any attention to the three men at the back of the group.
"Now!" murmured Horrible, silently slipping off the path and sprinting towards cover in a thicket of trees. He could hear the crunching of autumn leaves and long grass as Hammer and Moist followed, the odd hollow bang echoing through the darkness as Moist's large lobster hiney smacked against the marble stones.

As soon as they heard the voices of the Ghost Walk people begin to fade, The Doctor head off across the burial grounds again, aware of how freaky it was being there at such a late hour on Halloween. He kept jumping at small noises and literally waiting for some kind of wraith to jump him and drag him to his death. He was shocked (and relieved) when they reached Penny's grave unscathed. Hammer and Moist stood back as the scientist thrust his hand under one of the roots of the tree by the grave. In the light of the moon, it was easy to see the guy was quite glad that no zombie hand grabbed him as he pulled out a shovel from the hole. Horrible weighed it in his hands before chucking it, rather hard, at Captain Hammer who managed to snatch it up.
"I like how I always end up doing everything…" grumbled Hammer "I feel like I'm your lackey…"
"You are. Now hurry up and dig, we don't want to get caught!"
     
Rolling his eyes, Captain Hammer thrust the shovel into the ground directly in front of Penny's grave. There was a loud crunch as it contacted the dirt and rocks, and, with a heave from the hero, a large mound of earth came loose. Hammer dumped it out of the way, and attacked again, and then again. Even with his superior strength, it was going to take a while.

"Moist," said Horrible after a few silent minutes, his henchman spinning round at the sound of his name "go over there by that bench and keep an eye out for anyone snooping."
"But, there could be ghosts over there! I don't wanna stand on my own!" the villain shot Moist a look, and the man grudgingly shuffled over to the memorial bench that Horrible had pointed out. He would've sat down, but his stupid costume made even that very difficult. He was now sort of regretting dismissing the slutty nurse outfit.

Now that Moist was out of the way, Dr Horrible could get doing something he had been intending on doing for a long time; a task that had brought to the forefront of his mind by this night. A task involving revenge…

Hammer was too busy toiling away at digging up the grave to notice that the villain had slipped away, darting behind the tree whilst he fiddled with his phone. He peeked at Hammer from behind the trunk. Good; he wasn't watching. Moist, too, was turned the other way, probably on the watch out for goblins, ghouls and Scooby Doo. As silently as possible, Dr Horrible stepped out, and clicked the camera button on his phone a couple of times.
"Hey, Dr Horrible!" called Hammer, making the Doctor almost drop his gadget in fright. Luckily, the man still had his back to him. "I think I've reached it!" There was one last scraping sound, followed by a clunk. Hammer dropped his shovel and bent down, heaving out a large, heavy item from within the hole he'd dug. Snapping one last shot, Horrible stowed his phone back into coat and hurried over to help lift the coffin out of the grave.
"Careful, careful, careful! We don't want to drop it!" Horrible stumbled back from the weight of the box. "Moist, get the trolley!" The henchman galloped over and shoved the trolley beneath the coffin, which Hammer and Horrible laid down with a slight thud. The Doctor ran a hand over the worn mahogany, dusting the remaining dirt off of the top. The little plaque was scuffed, but her name was still readable, carefully etched onto the brass plate.
"Quickly, fill it back in." glaring at Horrible, Hammer picked up the shovel once more and began filling the hole, the Doctor and Moist helping by chucking the earth in with their hands. Or in Moist's case, claws.

The grave still looked uneven when they had finished, the missing lumps of grass a dead giveaway that it had recently been disturbed. Horrible frowned, worried that it might betray them, but he supposed that it didn't matter; they would be long gone by the time anyone realized there had been a grave-robbery. Horrible eyed the trolley as Moist adjusted his grip on the handles, looking at the coffin in particular. He couldn't help but feel a little disgusted at himself for doing this- digging up people was just a little bit…weird. But it was creative, right? He was giving life, not taking it, so he figured that it was probably okay to nick corpses in that such case. Just so long as he didn't make a habit of it. Else people would talk. It had been bad enough when he had had to explain his way out of the whole fiasco with that bulk order of naked mole rats to Mrs Coopes next door. Wasn't his fault that he hadn't been in to collect them off the deliveryman. Also wasn't his problem that they chewed through her phone cables.
"Doctor Horrible? Doc, you hear me?"
"Mmmhmm?" mumbled the Doctor, drawn out of his musings. "What?"
"I just said, how are we getting this coffin home without half the LAPD swooping down on us? By hearse, or are you going to make me run back and get the car? " Dr Horrible shook his head and then sighed.
"A coffin won't fit in the car and, anyway, it'll be far easier than that; I didn't bring us down here on Halloween night just because there was nothing on TV except SAW 2481, you know. This is literally the only night of the year where you can waltz down the high street carrying your head under your arm or brandishing a chainsaw without anyone looking at you funny. Seriously, no one is going to bat an eyelid at us carrying a coffin."
"Genius!" cried Hammer, looking thoroughly impressed, unlike Moist who still looked skeptical. Horrible had said the same thing about 17 crates of dynamite they'd had shoved in egg boxes at Easter…
"Well, I am an Evil Genius. I have a PhD in horribleness to prove it."

And with that, Dr Horrible burst into his most outrageous evil laugh. Moist had to admit, he was impressed; seemed like all those singing lessons- sorry, vocal coaching sessions- had paid off.

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Moist couldn't believe it when they made it all the way around the corner of the block without anyone so much as looking at them shiftily. The Doctor, for some unknown reason, insisted on sitting on top of the coffin whilst Moist pushed, saying something about 'keeping up the façade' or the like. Moist wasn't fooled though; he knew that Billy had never ridden on a trolley before, something that just about everyone had done at some point in their youth. And after all the trouble earlier, the henchman hadn't felt like denying him this. Plus, he suspected that he could get fired if didn't.
"Carefully around the corner, Moist." said Horrible as they rounded onto their home street.
"It's not fair, I want to ride on the coffin, too." grumbled Hammer.
"I can let you push it if you want." suggested Moist. Dr Horrible spluttered a protest but, too late, Hammer had already grabbed the handles off of the henchman.
"You tip me onto the pavement, Hammer, and I swear to God I'll stuff the gap between your two ears with enough TNT to blast your remains to Mars."

Captain Hammer ignored the villian's complaints, and carried on pushing the trolley. Man, this reminded him so much of how he used to drive the Ham-Jet; two big handles in his palms, a slight twist and it'd obey him. Hammer jerked the trolley, lost in his daydream. He could remember the breeze wafting through his wafty hair… Hammer quickened his pace, oblivious to both Moist's and Horrible's warnings. He would always fly to the tune of 'Don't Stop Me Now' whilst he blasted ELE members from a height with missiles and stuff. He'd been so upset when a man from a shop called The North Korea (Hammer assumed that was the name of a Chinese restaurant) had bought it from the nasty repo-men. He missed it so much; he could just imagine swooping and diving and-

The wheel of the violently swerving trolley had gotten lodged in a drainage grate, jolting Hammer out of his little fantasy. Unfortunately, the sudden halt had also jolted Dr Horrible and the coffin into a large pile of garbage on the sidewalk. The Doctor floundered in the mess, his cloak trapped underneath the box…the lid of which had come open when it had hit the pavement. And dangling out of it…
"Oh no!" cried a mortified Horrible, trying, and failing to free himself. A dazed Hammer, who had fallen to the floor on impact, crawled towards Horrible in an attempt to free him, but only managed to stumble and fall on him as he tried to get to his feet.
"You-you-" stuttered Horrible, words failing him in his anger. Furiously, he shoved Hammer off of him. "Moist! Moist, get the-" the scientist gestured furiously at the open coffin, which a horrified henchman was waddling as fast as he could towards. The Doctor tried desperately to cover up a well preserved, but clearly deadened arm. Penny's skin was yellowish (well, being in the ground for three months tends to do that) and there was a rotten stench beginning to creep out from her coffin. Moist hastily shoved the limb back inside, but some of the damage couldn't be undone.
"Mummy," a young child was stood, only feet away from them, staring transfixed at the three men and the coffin in horror. "Mummy, I see dead people." the little boy was tugging at his mother's sleeve, pointing at the now closed coffin.
"Yes sweetie, it's Halloween; there are a lot of dead people around."
"No, mummy, there was a woman in that coffin and she wasn't breathing!" in a panic, Horrible flapped his arms at the kid, trying to get him to shut up.
"That's very nice, honey."

The woman pulled her son along behind her as she carried on down the street. The little boy watched Dr Horrible and the others with suspicion until he and his mother had rounded the corner out of sight. The Doctor let out a shaky breath. That had bee too close. In fact, every time he did anything with that stupid, moronic Hammerman, 'way too close' always seemed to be an outcome.
"How," hissed Horrible, grabbing a hold of Moist's arm 'am I meant to be the world's greatest villain with him around?"
"You could always kick him to the curb." Horrible watched Hammer shake a rat off of his foot, a look of disgust on his face.
"I wish, but I need his strength; that serum won't work on anyone but him or me… damn DNA compatibility. And you saw the side effects I had..."
"It won't be for much longer, though." said Moist, helping the Doctor get rid of the bits of banana skin from his hair. "Soon all of this will be done with and you can send him packing. It'll be just the two of us again."
"And Penny."
"Yeah, well…" Dr Horrible shot his friend and angry glare, before hauling the coffin back onto the trolley.
"It will work, I assure you." he said, reversing the trolley, and setting off back down the street once more. Horrible lowered his voice, making it hard for even Moist to catch his next words. "And Hammer will be finished. I'll uphold my end of the deal, but he'll be finished. I guarantee it."

The Doctor wheeled the coffin around into the lobby of their building, the wheels squeaking and sliding on the linoleum flooring. Together, the three men (somehow) hoisted Penny's body and her coffin up the five flights of stairs without mishap, and, after twenty minutes of hissed curses and death threats, heaved it into their apartment.

Horrible slumped on the floor, exhausted. His make-up was running, and he looked almost as sweaty as Moist, which was saying something. But there was still some work to be done.
"Moist, fetch those large grey canisters from in my room, would you?"
"The ones saying 'DANGEROUS: DO NOT HANDLE WITHOUT TRAINING OR LIFE INSURANCE'?"
"Yeah, those ones."
Shrugging, Moist ambled into his boss's room and returned moments later, rolling two containers with health warnings plastered over literally every inch of them. The liquid inside sloshed loudly as they came to a stop at the Doctor's feet.

Quickly, Horrible grabbed one of the canisters and pulled it over to the tank of the Resurrect-Ohm-Meter. A number of tubes dangled over the side. The Doctor grabbed one of them and rammed it into the cap and fetched the second container, doing the same thing.
"Stand back." Hammer and Moist happily complied as the scientist flicked a switch on the machine. There was a loud sucking noise, like a vacuum-cleaner, and then a green liquid began to be drawn into the tank, splashing down the sides.
"What is that?" asked Hammer, peering into the tank. "It looks like Lime Jello."
"It's a stem cell based chemical, containing too many compounds to bother naming." Horrible affectionately stroked one of the containers. "It's illegal in every state of America, other than Alaska. It regenerates cells, would be great for treating amputees if the acidity, high mercury levels and presence of asbestos and arsenic didn't kill you before the neutralizing agents could be administered." As the tank filled to the top, the Doctor switched off his machine. The bizarre substance swirled around the glass sides of the tank, glowing eerily in the darkness of the room. Horrible shrugged of his cloak as the last bits of fluid dribbled into the tank, replacing it with his normal, more comfortable lab coat. Spitting the fangs into the sink and ramming on his goggles and gloves, Billy approached the coffin that was laid between Hammer and Moist.
"I'm gonna take of the lid now." he said softly, handing the pair masks and nose clips whilst putting on his own set. "It's going to reek worse than your gym socks, Moist, so try not to breathe too deeply." Moist and Hammer backed off as Dr Horrible slowly lifted the lid once more. The smell hit them harder than it had on the streets, being no wind or anything to make it drift off. Captain Hammer retched, despite the protective gear, and Moist became paler than usual. The Doctor had to swallow hard as the stench hit him full in the face. Eyes watering behind his goggles, Billy carefully opened the wrappings. The rest of Penny's corpse was as well preserved as her hand had been, but the papery, sunken skin was a dead giveaway that she was, well, dead.

Her red hair was fanned out in the base of the coffin, dry and wispy but still the same. Her eyes were shut and were it not for the smell, she could've been sleeping. She looked exactly the way Horrible remembered her, and, even in death, she still had a kind expression on her face. Gently, Billy lifted the body out of the box, carrying it to the tanks. Then he ascended the ladder that was stood at its side, bringing him high enough to open the lid of the now full tank.
"Press that red button."

Moist tapped the button Horrible had gestured towards with his claw. The lid of the tank automatically slid open, revealing the solution's bubbling surface. The Doctor attached a bunch of wires to different parts of Penny's body before carefully lowering her into the tank. She floated in the chemicals, the wires looking like the string of a marionette, looking rather eerie for a few moments, before bubbles began to fizz around her, obscuring her from view. Horrible couldn't help but smile; finally, they were making progress.

Unable to contain himself, he opened him mouth and began to sing.