“Damn, I wish I had the same no pain condition you have.”
“Trust me; you would not, if it meant being a quad like I am when I’m not in this suit.”
“Yeah, sorry Dr. I forget that you are, you know since I see you doing amazing stuff all the time.”
“No worries.”
“Hey Doc, did you really scream something about green tacos when you were hit?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“It’s better than cursing right? With over an I.Q. of over 200, I can’t be sounding like every Johnny-come-lately right? I thought it was quite clever.”
“Yeah, clever. Almost as clever as Scorch putting that tracking device in Detective Allen’s shoes at his house without him knowing.”
“Yeah, of course it’s clever. I created the device after all.”
BCG rests his arm on Dr. Q’s shoulder, who is about a foot shorter than him.
They both watch the helicopter fly off until they hear one of the living dead approaching from behind. BCG says, “Oh yeah, forgot about them.” He turns around and blows its head off, dropping it to the ground.
Dr. Q’s says, “Let’s go finish off these things and then go find just where they are taking the poor ol lad.”
Chapter Twelve
On the helicopter, The Diabolical Chee Chee is talking to The Host on a headset as he sits in the co-pilot seat. Once finished, he hands the headset over to Kane who is pilot.
The Host tells Kane, “I should have seen it coming. Humans are so fragile and their existence next to pointless. It is not the necklace that allowed her to control the dead, yet it’s her natural ability, the necklace only seemed to unlocked her dormant ability. My guess is due to the traumatic events surrounding her parents’ demise. It became apparent once I saw her aboard without her necklace, yet live news feeds show the corpses still attacking until a little after she left the area. The Stone of Forgat did enhance the range but what is the use of that with the frailty that is human existence?”
Kane nods in agreement and continues to listen after acknowledgement of agreement. The Host continues, “If something was to happen to that pathetic shell, years and millions of dollars would be wasted, and for what? A warehouse of relics years later. I want you make sure she does not come back to the lair alive. Is that understood?”
“Yes Master.”
“Good, I am still going to go to our lair at the Isle of Reckoning. Rendezvous with me once you have completed what I have requested.”
“Yes, Master. Understood. Kane out.”
The communication was terminated. Kane takes off the headset and started to turn around but before he was able to, Ms. Grimsley cuts his head off with the sharp blade she used earlier on The Host but this time with a successful outcome. Kane’s body disappears, yet his clothes remain. She glares at the rest of the shocked crew, whose shock seemed only momentary as they almost immediately went back to what they were doing.
Chee-Chee on the other hand, has his eyes closed. As Ms. Grimsley approaches him, he says telepathically to her, “I’m assuming Kane disappeared right? It was an unsettling site the first time I witnessed it. It appears that he is linked to the Betty Hughes Museum in Craptown. Every time he dies, he reappears there, naked. While The Host won’t admit it, that museum even scares him. Since the incident, no one knows what is actually going on inside it.”
Ms. Grimsley clears her throat to get him back on track, “Oh, sorry Master. The Host informed me that he knows that your ability is innate, therefore not due to the necklace and in short you were expendable. He said he saw you without it in the copter. Combine that with the information that he was able to ‘see’ at the graveyard when we first ran into Detective Allen, I deducted that he was able to see through me. So, the last time we were at the lair, I searched around on the system’s network and found that my right eye was actually being used as a camera for him. With me mostly being animal DNA and parts, I am unable to close one eye individually and I figured you would not want him to see you kill Kane, whom was supposed to kill you. So please remove his clothing, and I will open my eyes.”
She does and he opens his eyes, he continues to talk telepathically, “Good thing The Host does not know you turned me the first day you met me, otherwise you might be dead already. And apparently, all the tinkering in my genetic makeup has allowed for us to have more meaningful conversations than most of those bags of skin we tend to use, otherwise I would be forced to let everyone in on the little plan I conceived.”
They both grin.
Chapter Thirteen
Aboard a different helicopter, one that is more designed for stealth, sits BCG in the pilot seat and Scorch in the co-pilot seat. Dr. Q is looking at a holographic image of a woman, along with Scorch, with BCG giving occasion glimpses back. The woman says, “The tracking device has slowed dramatically, so I’m assuming they are all on foot now. Somewhere on Holt Island, they must have a hideout. You must find it and try to retrieve any information that you can on what they are doing to the recently decease. Worse case scenario blow the whole thing up, but not until you have found the detective, dead or alive. I will be jamming all satellites and radio broadcast in the area, so you will be ‘ears and eyes closed’ for one hour. That’s about all I can give you. This should help prevent from any kind of backup being called in.”
Dr. Q replies, “Should be as easy as advanced neurosurgery, well for me of course.” He laughs at his own joke, then asks, “So, any news on the big game? Did A.J. Colton make us tons of money?”
“You better be joking, gambling on him is strictly prohibited.”
“I was joking. I’m not your common bar nuts eating, beer bleeching comrade I tell you. I was simply wondering how he did?”
“They won, 45-15. Anything else?”
“Nope. Starting radio silence now Nina. Talk to you in one hour.”
The holographic image disappears.
Scorch asks Dr. Q with a smile, “You like picking on her don’t you? Does it bother you that a woman is smarter than you?”
He replies, “First, little lady, mind your elders.”
Scorch smirks, “Secondly, we have never actually had a true measurable battle of intelligence, therefore neither of us is, how you said it, smarter than the other.”
BCG pushes a button on his belt and two mechanical arms descend from the roof above the pilot seat. As the hand grips lock firmly on each side of his waist, he says to, “Well regardless of who is smarter than who, I’m just glad that you Scorch old buddy are smart enough to fly this thing. Especially when nature is calling like it is.”
The arms lift his upper torso, which is lined along the bottom with electrical connecting devices, and carries him over to a pair of mechanical legs that his upper body connects into. After a few clicking/clasping sounds, fully together now, he walks over the restroom compartment.
Dr. Q asks, “Well big fellow, I’m curious to know, are you fully function down there? I mean is the anatomy correct?”
“Wanna find out? You can hold it for me.”
“Ummm..no. I’ll pass. I will just look at the schematics once back at HQ.”
“To Hell you will! My private is private, got it?”
Dr. Q looks embarrassed as BCG looks back over his shoulder at him with a serious look, as he lets a lengthy one continue. Scorch can be heard laughing under her breath. Dr. Q looks at her and says, “I have also always wondering, just how do you go, too? I mean, I know you are all woman under the man suit, but I don’t see any zippers or any way you can remove the suit. So is it like overalls someway? Or is there some kind of reservoir, colostomy bag contraption?”
BCG says firmly, “Just drop it doc. Otherwise, we are gonna think we got some perverted old man on our hands.”
Scorch adds, “Yeah, please do.”
“Fine. I was only curious in a scientific way. Since I am the latest member of the team, I am at a disadvantage when it comes to team members’ histories an
d origins.”
Scorch notices smoke coming from a crash site. “I think we found out why they are on foot now.”
BCG, just finishing up his business, adds, “Well its time to lock and load baby.”
Dr. Q asked observantly, “I don’t think I heard you wash your hands.”
BCG replies with a smile, “You didn’t.” and reaches out to touch the doc who turns his head complete 180 degrees away from him, while his arms try to hold him at bay, “Oh gross, knock it off.”
Scorch laughs as she lands the copter.
Chapter Fourteen
In this dark and slightly damp room that is faintly illuminated from the various machinery lining the walls, is a gurney like operating table. Strapped to the table is Detective Allen and slowly circling him like a vulture does its dying prey is Ms. Grimsley. She is wearing a black leather butcher’s apron covered in blood. There is a bright operating room light beaming down on to him. He’s unconscious.
Meanwhile, in a side room connected to the central area of the underground lair, the two henchmen are standing guard next to the giant crate they were dragging around earlier. One says to the other, “So, how long are we supposed to be his servants? Can you believe we are crate sitting. This damn thing has its own room and we sleep on the floor until we are allowed to go home. I’m just saying for crying out loud, it seems like it’s gonna be forever.”
“Well without the antidote what choice do we have? Don’t you remember what happened to Dick? Dick exploded right in front of our eyes!”
“Of course, I haven’t forgotten about Dick exploding in front of our eyes. Wait? Do you know how perverted what we just said sounded? Haha! Imagine if someone just over heard just that part of the conversation.”
“What? I’m being completely serious. Seeing Dick blow up everywhere and getting all over me still gives me nightm….oh wait…oh my God, you seriously took that out of that? You are the one who brought up the subject and then you…”
“Brought what up?” asks the Diabolical Chee- Chee in a stern way. He had swooped in and gently landed on the top of the crate without them noticing.
“Umm…nothing Chee…Diabolical Chee Chee.” Responded one of the henchmen.
“That’s what I thought. You two are not here for a friendship to blossom with each other or anyone matter of fact. And truly, neither of you know Dick.” He gives a slight creepy smile.
Both henchmen look confused and slightly scared. They can’t seem to figure if Chee Chee was trying to be funny or was it just an accidental joke.
The Diabolical Chee Chee shakes his head in disgust, “I can’t believe I even wasted my time with you lower life forms. It is called a double entendre imbeciles!”
As one of them starts to laugh, when Chee Chee cuts them off, “Sssshh! Didn’t you hear that?”
Back inside Ms. Grimsley’s private laboratory, the operating table is now horizontal. She holds a vial of something under his nose till he wakes from his apparent drug induced slumber.
Detective Allen shakes his head trying to clear the bats from his belfry, “What? Where am I?”
He looks over at her and she smiles.
“You? Where am I?” He struggles to move, “What have you done to me? What do you want?”
She shakes her head as if she wants nothing from him. She walks out of his view and out of the light.
“Wait! Where you going? You got to let me go. I’m a police officer; do you know how much trouble you are getting yourself into?”
She doesn’t respond.
Growing more nervous by her silence and being restrained, he frantically tries to look around but realizes that even his head is restrained to looking straight ahead. He comforted a little when noticed out of his peripheral vision that she was coming back.
“Good. You came to your sense. Just let me go and I promise I won’t press charges. I will just chalk it up to a drunk weekend when asked where I was at. Ok?”
His nervous rambling is interrupted when she puts her finger in front of her mouth and says in almost a whisper, “Ssshh…”
He acknowledges her by being quiet as he looks at that creepy grin for the second time in a few minutes.
She doesn’t back away and keeps the pose. He had looked down but looks back at her again, puzzled on why she is still keeping that pose. He looks at her and thinks, “Man, she is a weird one. And she has pretty manly hands for a woman.” Her lack of movement forces him to focuses more; he notices something odd about her finger. “She has a scar on her index finger like I do, that’s odd, what are….” Her grin grows as she can see by the look in his eyes that reality has worked its way into his mind.
“That’s…that’s…oh my God that’s my finger!”
She slowly lifts his arm upward until he can see where she cut it off from the rest of his body. The open end is still dripping blood.
“No!!!!!!!!” screams Detective Allen as Ms. Grimsley starts to give a slight giggle with her huge grin.
The door to the lab is blown off its hinges; smoke pours in along with the sound of gunfire and soldiers fighting. Once the smoke clears the doorway, BCG steps through, “Maybe he’s in here.”
She looks back over her shoulder and BCG and Ms. Grimsley lock eyes, “What in the hell are you doing?” BCG demanded as he could only see Detective Allen’s head past her and what looked like his outstretched arm. That is until she turned a little more, and then realized what she did to him. “Oh you fucking freak!” He starts shooting at her and with cat like graces she escapes between two machines along the wall and exits out through a secret corridor, dropping the arm to the ground on her way out. He walks over to the arm and to his horror; she had cut off both Detective Allen’s arms and legs. He looks up at Detective Allen, who has been frantic ever since seeing his own detached arm. “That crazy bitch cut off my arm! Why would she do that?! My fucking arm!”
Squatted over the body parts, he realizes that Detective Allen must not be able to move his head much, as to the fact that he is stating ‘arm’ in the singular sense. Looking at him on the table, he can see that she cauterized his extremities to prevent blood loss and that she had done an amazing job. He thinks to himself, “Well, I guess that is good news, she didn’t want him to die. But how am I supposed to tell him that he has no legs or arms? He’s freaking out from an arm, which he has truly has a right to be freaked out but what am I supposed to say? I wish the Doc was in here, he has a way with words.”
“Hey, get me down from here! And grab my arm. Maybe there is a way to save it.”
“I’m just hoping there is a way to save you.” BCG mumbles to himself.
Ms. Grimsley, hunched over comes near the end of the escape tunnel and notices a flickering light. She steps out of the tunnel leading to the room the crate was housed in to find it on fire. She freezes in place and starts shaking uncontrollably. She reaches to grip her necklace and despite it not being there, she keeps her hand closed and by her chest as if it was. The crate, engulfed in flames starts to fall apart and two decomposing bodies emerge from within.
Not frightened, Ms. Grimsley stands still, despite the ever growing fire and loud explosions and exchanging of gunfire in the adjacent areas. The two bodies reach outward towards as they slowly make their way towards her.
She can hear them in her thoughts, “Release us. Please. Release us.” They continue to repeat, as she starts to cry. She mumbles softly, “No. I can’t”.
They continue their approach. The smell of rotten and burning flesh doesn’t bother her as they close in, still constantly asking to be released.
She finally moves, but towards the burning duo and yells, “I can’t! Without you mommy and daddy, I have no reason to live!”
They all embrace each other and hold on to each other despite the fire and cavern coming down all around them. A loud explosion causes the cave to collapse.
Dr. Q staggers into the room that both BCG and Detective Allen are in. “Well, that’s the last of them.”
He finds that BCG is trying to comfort a crying detective. “Well, what do we have…” he cuts his sentence short as he was approaching them and noticed the body parts on the ground. He looks at them and sees where those parts should be. “Well, umm, Scorch is trying to get as much information out of the computer system as she can. It seems that The Host has wired this place to blow, so we don’t have much time. Umm..can we move him?”
Detective Allen says in somber tone, “Just leave me. Even if I survive, what kind of life would I have? Just please leave me.”
All three men look down and Scorch comes to the door, “We gotta move it guys, less than two minutes before something bad happens based on that countdown timer on the computer I was at.”
She sees Detective Allen, and asks everyone, “What’s the hold up? He’s alive, right?”
BCG answers, “Yes, but...”
“Then let’s go, grab him and let’s get the hell out of here. What kind of rescue mission would this be if we found him alive and left him?”
Detective Allen protest, “I’m not going anywhere! Just live me here to die!”
BCG looks conflicted and so does the doctor.
“Fine, I will carry him out!” yells Scorch.
“No! Leave me here, please! Just let me die!”
He protests the whole way out as they make it safely out and back to the helicopter. She doesn’t argue with him, she doesn’t say a word and neither do the other two.
Chapter Fifteen
A few days later inside McLaughlin’s City top secret Abnormal Science and Phenomenon research facility, two orderlies are making their rounds. One of them asks the other, “Hey, have you seen the latest freak show they brought in?”
“You talking about the one they brought in a couple of nights ago? The one in the Urel Foy unit?”
“Yeah, but I mean have you actually seen it?”
“It?”
“Well, I say ‘it’ cause it was so covered with burns that you couldn’t tell if it was a boy or girl. All its hair was burned off too.”
“Damn, naw. I got to go see this.”
They make their way down to the special unit and stop at door, N-103.
“Ok, dude, get ready to upchuck your lunch.”