(Author's Notes: Episode 4 of the "Growing Up Creepier" series, updated daily until completion
"Grossology" created and owned by Nelvana LTD.
Rated "T" for action-violence, blood, suggestive dialogue, nudity, intense imagery, and mild language. Reader discretion is advised.)
Verge of Extinction
Chapter 01: Gross Encounters of the Third Kind
Man rescued from lake by loyal llama. Girl falls off of tricycle into other dimension. Man mistakes Hot Dog for finger, tries to have it sewn back on.
The headlines scrolled past in a blur as Skipper's finger pounded again and again on the down key on the keyboard in front of him. He could barely see well enough by now to recognize the letters in front of him, but he refused to give up. Over a month now… for over a month Creepie had been gone and everyone else had given up hope. Even Creepie's best friends, Budge, Chris-Alice, Raven, were going on with their lives… but he refused. He wouldn't, he couldn't, do that. She was the only reason he was happy to be human now.
He twitched and grunted when he felt a gentle hand on his shoulder. Maria Suarez's voice spoke in a soft, but firm tone. "Come on Skipper, it's getting late. Nobody ever rescued a princess while they were on the verge of exhaustion."
"I'll go to bed in a few more minutes. I think I'm almost through this batch." Skipper replied numbly. He had been spending all of the time he could spare at Maria's house, looking through the day's news stories for any sign of strange creatures popping up anywhere. If someone saw Creepie, it would definitely be in the news somewhere. The only place anyone knew about her was in Middlington, she was still unknown everywhere else, and a human-sized bug showing up would definitely catch some sort of media attention.
"Alright, fine, just don't push yourself too hard, kid. I want to find her too, but eventually you have to accept that maybe…" Maria trailed off when she realized her words were falling on deaf ears. Silently she patted his shoulder and turns to leave, leaving the overhead light on for him as she turned to make her way to her bedroom.
"Come on Creepie…" Skipper yawned, feeling his eyelids grow too heavy to hold open. "I know you're out there somewhere…" He didn't even feel his head hit the desk as he fell into a deep sleep.
***
"We're approaching the water treatment plant." A boy spoke in a strong tone over the hum of the engine that kept them soaring high over the town, its treads dangling down toward the ground as the green bullet-like ship pierced the sky. The boy reached forward with one orange-gloved hand, flicking a few switches n the ship's dashboard. "The GRS1 is responding nice and smoothly. It looks like Lab Rat's improvements are holding… this is so cool. Nobody's going to be able to touch us as long as we're in this thing."
"Yeah well, it's just too bad we can't take it into a building with us." His big sister glanced over from the seat beside him, her eyes shining behind the dim green visor of her Slime Suit as their ship hovered down toward the ground in front of a massive metal building. She reached forward and pressed the controls to open the GRS1 cockpit, standing and looking over the windshield at the door. "Looks like we're going in the old fashioned way, Ty."
"Ugh, what's the point of new features on the ship if we don't get to use them?" Ty sighed, then gasped as his sister leapt out of the ship to rush towards the door. "Hey, Abby, wait for me!" He leapt out of the ship to join her by the door, each of them on either side of it, resting their backs against the wall.
Abby Archer made a few quick gestures to her brother, then they both reached into their backpacks in unison and pulled out a pair of shining metal cannons, which slid smoothly over each of their right hands. Abby made a few more gestures with her left hand before sliding quickly into the building, stepping nimbly toward the metal railing that overlooked the massive containers of water in the center of the building. The thunderous noise of suction pumps moving water through the pipes all around them drowned out what little noise she made, but she still remained silent as she gestured back for Ty to join her.
Ty rushed up to her side, his fingers sliding over the side of his visor as his eyes scanned the dark interior of the building. "I'm not picking up any signs of life in this room. Are we sure the information about the intrusion was legit?"
"Who knows? Lab Rat just said something about someone seeing massive numbers of bugs in the building." Abby rolled her eyes.
"So… we're just here as exterminators?" Ty groaned. "Sometimes I think the Director is really taking advantage of us. I have a math quiz in two days, you know."
"Oh come on, you'll pass it anyway." Abby smirked.
"Probably, but this study time could mean the difference between an A and an A+." Ty pointed out.
"My heart bleeds for your plus." Abby shook her head, then ducked down again as something flashed in her visor. "Hold on, I'm seeing something." She reached up to adjust the settings on her visor. She could definitely see something now, a tiny speck of heat zipping through the room by itself. Abby was about to call attention to it, but her eyes widened when suddenly thousands of other specks began to emerge, converging in the center of the room like a massive cloud of insects. "Ty, are you seeing this? Am I really seeing that massive swarm of bugs?"
"Yeah, it's unreal." Ty was rapidly tapping on the side of his visor. "That's not a normal swarm, I count at least a hundred different species of insect in that cloud, if not more, and most of them are natural enemies. There's no way they could act as one hive mind unless they were being controlled."
Abby and Ty exchanged a knowing glance. "Insectiva."
"I'm not sure what they're up to, but finding them in a water treatment plant can't mean anything good. Ready Lab Rat's latest modification." Abby tapped her fingers against the Goop Shooter on her right arm. She felt it hum and shift around her hand, taking a slightly different shape, with a smaller nozzle taking the place of its usual wide cannon. "Okay, on the count of three let's gas these bugs and take Insectiva down. One… two…"
"Three!" Abby and Ty Archer leapt over the railing together, sliding down one of the beams that held the platform in place before touching down and whirling on the bugs. A powerful stream of gas erupted form their Goop Shooters, plunging straight into the massive cloud of insects that still hovered over the water. The noise grew louder and more shrill, as if the bugs were screaming in surprise and terror as the swarm began to disperse.
If it had been a normal swarm, it would have dispersed completely… but it didn't. The swarm loomed large outside the range of their shooters, then began to shoot down toward them in pockets like miniature missiles. Powerful blasts of gas met each missile knocking it off-course as the bugs fled for their lives. The two Grossologists met threat after threat without hesitation, their Goop Shooters darting around in a wide radius above them.
"Yeah, we've got you guys licked!" Abby grinned as another blast from her cannon took down a barrage of what looked like moths, though she'd never known moths to attack anything. "Now why doesn't your master show herself? We know she's here!"
Abby readied herself for further assaults, but the swarm of bugs didn't attack. Instead, they regrouped toward the top of the building, hovering right over their heads as their buzzing grew ever louder and more fearsome. Abby kept her Goop Shooter trained on the swarm, but Ty lowered his to stare up at the swarm in awe. "Ty, this is no time to let your guard down." Abby warn through gritted teeth.
"But look at them…" Ty muttered in awe. "Doesn't it look like they're talking to each other? It's absolutely incredible…"
Abby finally lowered her Goop Shooter, realizing that he was right. It did look like the hovering swarm was talking among itself, the various individuals either shrieking at them or whispering to one-another in hushed tones covered up by the sound of their beating wings. "There's something weird going on here…" Abby muttered.
No sooner did she mutter her last sentence than she heard a sound that made her stomach churn and her Goop Shooter once again point to the sky. It was similar to the buzzing of insect wings, but the sound was so deep and massive it sounded almost more like helicopter blades spinning. "Ty, do you have any idea what makes a sound like that?"
"No clue, but it would take something huge. Keep your eyes open." Ty pressed his back against hers so they could watch as much of the building as possible. The deep wingbeats continued to pound at the air, growing louder by the moment, echoing throughout the massive metal building. They couldn't even tell where the sound was coming from, despite that it was now drowning out both the bug swarm above them and the pounding of the water through the pipes.
Abby didn't even have time to shout a warning when something split from the darkness, the wingbeats stopping for several seconds as the figure arched through the air towards them. The violet gossamer wings were still against its human-shaped back as it raised claw-like hands into the air above it, screaming in anger. Abby tried to bring her Goop Shooter around to fire, but the creature slammed into her, knocking her back against Ty and ultimately driving her to her back on the floor.
One of the creature's claws lashed at her Goop Shooter, ripping a painful gash in her arm and sending her weapon skittering across the floor in several sparkling pieces. Abby's arms shot up just in time to catch the round, humanoid head before it could come down on her. Its mouth gaped open right above her so that she could see the slick, venomous fangs bared, ready to plunge into her the second her strength gave out. Whatever this thing was, it was strong. She couldn't hold it forever.
"T-Ty!" Abby shouted as she struggled to hold the fangs back. "Help me!"
"I'm coming, Abby!" Ty scrambled to his feet and raised his own Goop Shooter towards them, but before he could fire the swarm of bugs swept from the ceiling and covered him like a ghostly blanket. "Hey! Ack! Get off! No, I can't see! Ow! Stop it! I've got to help Abby!" Ty struggled against the swarm so thick he couldn't even see through it, leaving Abby to fend for herself.
Grunting in fear and desperation, Abby pushed the head back slowly, glaring into its massive, but strangely human eyes. She couldn't see any thought process in those eyes, not even viciousness or hatred. It just looked like a drone, programmed to do what it was told to do… as if it was simply programmed to be angry. "Get… off of… me!" Abby hooked her legs around the creature and twisted her waist roughly, slamming the creature into the ground beside her and rolling the other way.
She was barely on her feet before the creature was launching itself at her again, its claws slashing in wide arcs for her torso. Abby was ready this time however, her arms snapping out in expert motions. Ignoring the burning pain of the gash in her right arm, she deflected the slashes by nudging them off-course away from her. This creature was amazingly fast, but it was mindless, throwing the same slashes the same way every time.
Finally Abby caught one of the slashes, grabbing its arm by the wrist and yanking it forward as she brought her knee up in a vicious strike on the creature's chin. It stumbled back, spinning from the force of the blow, but the instant it regained its footing it launched itself at her once again. Again Abby deflected several slashes before throwing out a palm strike against the creature's nose, sending it stumbling back once again.
The creature's recovery was almost instantaneous. "Come on… don't you ever get tired?" Abby huffed, tired and in pain from the gash on her arm. The creature was mindless, but it seemed like it could keep going forever, while Abby was quickly wearing down. She has to find a way to end this quickly and decisively.
The creature rushed her again, but this time Abby didn't deflect its slash, she dodged it, leaping under the arm and rolling across the metal floor. She stopped herself by slamming her feet into the bottom of the steps that led down from the entrance on the level above. She raised both legs and slammed them with all her might against one of the handrail support beams, hard enough to knock it clean off and send it clattering to the floor nearby.
She had underestimated her opponent's speed, however. The creature was on her before she could rise from the floor, but Abby brought both legs up just in time to catch it before it could drop right on top of her. Her heels slammed into its shoulders, pushing it back slightly, then she pushed off from the ground in a backward vault, slamming both of her heels into the creature's face with her upwards motion. The creature's back hit the floor with a heavy thud as Abby landed on her feet, then darted for the pipe.
She leaned down and grabbed the pipe just in time to meet the creature's next charge with a mighty swing. It slammed into the creature's torso with a sickening crack, sending it stumbling off to the side with a shriek of pain. "Can you understand me?" Abby demanded, holding the pipe in both hands as she stumbled toward the creature. "You look human. You've got to be able to understand me."
The creature whirled with another slash, but Abby spun the pipe, knocking its hand out of the way with jarring force before slamming the blunt tip of the pipe into its forehead with another sickening crack, knocking it to the floor where it groaned and raised a claw to its head. "Come on, there's got to be something bigger here. Did Insectiva send you? Where is she?"
The creature clawed its way to its hands and knees, groaning in pain as its wings lay limp against its back. Abby tensed herself to deflect another attack, but instead the creature leapt to its feet and charged for the stairway, rushing up towards the entrance she and Ty had used. "Hey! Where are you going!? What are you doing here!? Did someone send you!?" Abby demanded angrily.
"Everyone, let's get out of here!" Abby blinked when she heard the creature shout back into the building in a scratchy, but female voice. The swarm of bugs, which Ty had just been barely holding off with his Goop Shooter's spray mode, cut away from the battle and surged in a straight line up to the door, vanishing outside into the dim light of dusk beyond. The creature stared down at Abby for one more instant, its eyes looking even more human than before, before it whirled to follow the bugs outside.
"Darnit." Abby growled with a sigh. "We don't even know why it was here…"
"Abby!" Ty rushed up to her with a worried look on his face. "Are you okay? Y-your arm…"
Abby blinked and looked down, seeing for the first time that the gash the creature had left on her inner arm was bleeding, the blood sliding along the outside of her Slime Suit and creeping down the pipe she'd pried from the stairway. Abby dropped the pipe and gripped her arm with her free hand. "It just cut me, I'll get Lab Rat to look at it… you make sure they didn't do anything to the water supply. I hope we got here in time to stop whatever it was planning."
Ty nodded. "Right, I'll be right back, you just rest here." Ty turned to rush toward the control room while Abby sank down to her butt on the bottom of the stairs, holding her injured arm.
She didn't know what it was, she didn't know where it came from, and she didn't know what it wanted. Still, she couldn't stop thinking about it. Those eyes had seemed so human, and yet something was off. At times they had been mindless, drone-like, other times they had been sharp and contemplative, like there was a real human brain trapped inside there somewhere. Just what was that thing? A human… or a monster?
TOMORROW - Chapter 02: Uncertain Consequences