"Graham, go get me some salicylic acid from stores," Anton Arcane barked to his assistant, who stood nearby. "And be quick about it!"
Arcane was in his underground laboratory at Arcane Industries, in the process of mixing some chemicals over a table in front of him filled with complex chemistry equipment.
"Sure, boss, sure," Graham replied. "I guess that's an important ingredient to that bio-restorative formula you're trying to synthesize?"
"No, you twit!" Arcane yelled at him. "These noxious chemicals I'm working with are giving me a headache!"
Graham looked sheepish for a moment, then turned and bolted toward the elevator that led to the lab complex's upper floors.
Arcane stared at the mixture in the bottle he held in his hand, filled with a greenish liquid. A small, battered notebook lay open on the table in front of him.
"I'll figure out your bio-restorative formula yet, Holland!" Arcane mumbled to himself. "You may have altered your original formula in this notebook of yours (1) to throw me off the track, but I know that formula is still in here somewhere, no matter how garbled it may be. And I'm going to find it!"
Within minutes Graham returned with the requested aspirin. After Arcane had taken it he filled a hypodermic syringe with the green liquid he had mixed.
"Now to see if this version is it or not," he said, a note of frustration in his voice. He went over to a barred cage on one side of the room that held one of his many mutant creations, a muscular, hairy hulk of a man with a misshapen face and skull and two horns protruding out of his forehead. (2) The mutant, who stood quietly because he was already partially anesthetized, put up no resistance when Arcane jabbed the needle into his forearm.
For a long moment both Arcane and Graham stared at the mutant. Nothing appeared to happen.
"Maybe it takes time to work?" Graham offered.
"Or maybe it's still another failure!" Arcane snorted. "I don't have time for this nonsense! I haven't had a meal all day. I'm going to go get some food!" He pivoted and started for the lab's elevator.
"Wait, doctor!" Graham shouted after him.
Arcane stopped. "Well, what is it?" he snapped impatiently.
"Look!" Graham persisted.
Arcane walked back over to Graham and the cage. He looked at the mutant.
"Well?" Arcane snapped again. "I don't see anything!"
"Look at his head!" Graham told him. "His head's almost touching the top of the cage! He wasn't that tall a moment ago!"
Arcane stared at the mutant. "You know, for once I think you're right," he admitted. "I think he's getting bigger."
As the two stared, the mutant began to get larger and larger. Now he had to hunch over to stand in the cage.
"Uh, doctor," Graham said nervously. "How big do you think he's going to get?"
"I don't know!" Arcane responded. "Holland's formula was supposed to cause quick growth in plants, so that they could provide more food for people around the world. Apparently, I found a variant of the formula that causes quick growth in higher organisms!"
Now the mutant had to sink to his knees to fit in the cage.
"I think we had better get him out of here before he outgrows the whole lab!" Graham shouted.
"Wonderful observation, you twit," Arcane replied sarcastically. Both men grabbed the cage (which fortunately had been previously mounted on wheels) and began to quickly roll it toward the elevator.
A minute or so later the elevator doors at the outdoor loading dock of Arcane's lab complex located at ground level slid open, and Graham and Arcane yanked the cage out onto the pier. By now the still-growing mutant was curled into a ball in the cage. Graham hurriedly unlocked the cage's door, and the mutant tumbled out onto the dock.
Graham and Arcane backed up. Some of the complex's guards came running over and raised their rifles as if they were going to shoot the mutant, but Arcane waved them back.
"No!" he shouted. "Leave him alone! Don't shoot!"
The men all stood there on the pier and watched in amazement as the mutant continued to grow before their eyes. He remained bent over on all fours as his body grew bigger and bigger.
Finally his growth seemed to stop. Vaguely realizing that, the mutant got to his knees. Then slowly he stood up.
Arcane and Graham looked up at him. He was now all of 50 feet tall!
"Oh, yes!" Arcane exclaimed. "This opens up a whole lot of possibilities!"
SWAMP THING: THE GIANT MUTANT
by Kirk Hastings
A sequel to the 1990-93 TV Series "Swamp Thing"
Character © DC Comics
Will Kipp stood quietly next to the simple tombstone in Houma's little cemetery. The name "Abigail" was inscribed on the stone. There was no other name, or any dates. Momentarily Tressa Kipp came up behind him. She stood next to him for some minutes, saying nothing.
"It seems like she's been gone a really long time now," Will said quietly. "And yet, in some ways, it doesn't seem like it's been long at all."
Tressa put her arm around Will's shoulder. "I know," she responded. "I felt that way too, when Jim disappeared."
"How's he doing? Have you heard anything from him lately?"
Tressa shrugged. "I guess he's doing okay," she replied. "You know what being with his father is like. A vagabond life. I get a short postcard from Jim every once in a while, when they stop somewhere long enough for him to buy one and fill it out and put a stamp on it. But ever since Brydon was able to rescue Jim from that work camp in South America, they've been almost constantly on the move. I guess, in a way, that's a good thing. That way Arcane can't get a fix on them and have the chance to get ahold of Jim again. But I miss Jim very much. I wish he could come back here to live with us again, but with Arcane still around it's just too dangerous."
"I know," came a low, guttural voice from somewhere behind them. "I miss Jim too."
Will and Tressa turned around to see the massive form of Swamp Thing standing near them. He came over to stand beside them. For a while the trio just stood there quietly, contemplating Abigail's tombstone.
"You know, Alec, sometimes I just don't understand," Will finally said, "why you don't just kill Arcane. Look at all the evil, misery, death and suffering that man has brought to this town. And who knows what he'll do in the future. We'd all be better off if you just got rid of him."
"I understand your feelings, Will," Swamp Thing replied. "Many times I've been tempted to do away with him. But if I just killed him in cold blood it would make me no better than he is. Besides, I once made a promise to Arcane as part of a bargain over Jim's life that I wouldn't kill him. I can't go back on that promise, no matter how much I might be tempted to. Or again, I become just like him." (3)
"Well, I had better get back to the boat dock," Tressa interjected. She turned and walked off. After a minute Will followed her. Swamp Thing remained behind.
Tressa and Will approached the Kipp boat dock where Tressa ran her Swamp Tour business. (4) Obe Hardison was there, tending to the dock and working on the motor of one of the boats. Tressa and Will both noticed two people sitting in the rocking chairs on the front porch of the Langford house. One was a grown man. The other was a young boy.
"Customers?" Will suggested.
Oboe looked up from his work. "Nope," he said with a big, knowing smile on his face. "Somebody else."
Tressa and Will stopped in their tracks. The young boy on the porch had gotten up and was now walking down the path toward them.
"Jim!" Tressa shouted, suddenly recognizing him. She ran toward the boy, who started running toward her. The two met and fell into each other's arms.
"Oh, it's so good to see you again!" Tressa cried between tears. "Let me look at you!" she said. She pushed Jim away from her to study him. "You're such a young man now!"
Jim was now 13 years old. The last time Tressa had seen him he was 11.
The man on the porch got up and walked over to them too. It turned out to be Tressa's ex-husband, Brydon—Will and Jim's father. (5)
"We were in the neighborhood, so we thought we'd stop by," Brydon said, smiling. Brydon offered his hand to Will. "How are you, son?" he said.
Will clasped his hand. "I'm fine, Dad. Good to see you."
Tressa continued to hug Jim as they all headed into the house together.
Nearby, on the fringe of the swamp, partially hidden by trees and tangled vines, Swamp Thing stood, exhibiting the nearest thing to a smile his misshapen face was able to manage.
# # #
After they had all had lunch together, Tressa convinced Brydon, Jim, and Will to take a boat ride through the swamp together.
"This really is a beautiful place," Brydon commented from the bow of the small motorboat they were all in. "One of the most unusual habitats on Earth. And believe me, I've seen a lot of them."
"This one is more unusual than you know," Will replied cryptically.
"What do you mean?" Brydon asked him.
"Uh, he's referring to Anton Arcane and his research laboratory nearby," Tressa cut in. "You should see some of the strange creatures he's created with his experiments in genetics and mutations." She paused a moment. "On second thought," she went on, "you don't want to see them."
"Yes, I've met the man," Brydon replied disdainfully.
Will leaned over to Jim.
"I know all about Alec," he whispered. "So does Tressa. We're both friends of his now."
"Is he okay?" Jim whispered back.
"Yes. He's fine. At least as fine as he can be," Will answered.
Jim looked over and noticed that his mother was wearing the Emerald Heart necklace around her neck that she had lost in the swamp as a child—the very same necklace that had been returned to her (unknown to her at the time, by Swamp Thing) when they had first moved back into the Langford house. (6)
"What's that noise?" Brydon suddenly said, looking around.
Will, Jim and Tressa heard it too. It sounded like something very big and heavy moving through the swamp, making a guttural growling noise as it went.
Brydon pointed up over the tops of the trees ahead of them.
"What in the name of hell is that?" he exclaimed.
The gargantuan head of the giant horned mutant that Arcane had created had just appeared over the treetops. It was headed straight toward them.
Tressa took one look up at the giant and muttered "Arcane!" under her breath.
"Quick, get the boat over to the shore!" Brydon yelled. Will, who was in the back of the boat, turned the motor and headed the boat to shore. Brydon pulled a pistol out of his waistband.
"What are you doing with that?" Tressa asked.
"I never leave home without it," Brydon quipped. He cradled the pistol in both hands and fired three shots toward the giant, ugly creature that was smashing its way through the trees. Reaching the edge of the swamp it proceeded to wade into the water and slog its way toward them. The water just barely came up to his knees.
Brydon's pistol shots seemed to do little more than make the giant angrier than he already was. Just then the prow of the boat hit the shore, and its occupants began to immediately scramble out.
"Out! Out!" Brydon hollered. He helped Tressa out, and then the four of them quickly melted into the underbrush.
"Separate!" Brydon ordered. "It'll be harder for him to spot us that way!"
Brydon grabbed Tressa by the arm and went one way. In response Jim and Will went another.
The giant reached the boat they had all been in. It savagely smashed it to pieces, and then grabbed the outboard motor and flung it away high over the trees. Then it waded onshore where the Kipps had landed, and began to force its way through the vines and trees, looking for its tiny prey.
"Do you think Swamp Thing can help us?" Jim asked his stepbrother, as they ran.
"I doubt it!" Will answered back. "I think that mutant back there is too big even for Alec to handle!"
Meanwhile, Brydon and Tressa plunged through the swamp as fast as the vines and entanglement would allow them. Occasionally Brydon would pause and fire off another pistol shot at the giant. This action served to encourage the giant to follow them, instead of Will and Jim.
"Man, what I wouldn't give for a bazooka right now!" Brydon yelled. "I'd even settle for one cheap little hand grenade!"
Suddenly Tressa grabbed him by the arm, stopping his flight.
"This way!" she told him, pointing in another direction. She began to head that way.
Brydon turned and followed her, realizing that she knew the swamp better than he did, since she ran a tour business there. Before long they came to a hillside that was almost covered by vines and plant growth. Tressa stopped and started tearing at some of the undergrowth. Her efforts uncovered a small cave entrance.
"We can hide in here!" she announced. "He can't get to us in here!"
Ironically, unknown to her, Tressa had picked the exact same cave to hide in that Arcane had once imprisoned her son Jim in, in order to use him as ransom to make a deal with Swamp Thing. (7) She scrambled into the small entrance. Brydon quickly followed her.
It was pitch dark inside. Brydon pulled a pack of matches out of his pocket and lit one, holding it up so he could look around.
"Hey, look—there's a candle!" he declared. Sure enough, sticking upright out of a small outcropping in the wall of the cave was a half-used candle. Using his match, Brydon lit it.
(Again, unknown to them both, this was the exact same candle that Jim had used previously when he had been Arcane's captive in the cave. (7) )
"Who do you think put it there?" Tressa asked.
"Who knows?" Brydon answered. "Maybe some local kids using this as a secret place to make out."
"Yeah, well, don't get any ideas," Tressa responded.
Brydon smiled. "You used to like making out with me," he replied.
Tressa smirked back at him. "That was then," she said. "This is now."
They both settled down to wait until it was safe.
# # #
Will and Jim ran quite a distance before they both had to stop.
"I don't think he's following us," Will said. He bent over, huffing and puffing with his hands on his knees.
"He's not," came a deep voice from nearby. "He's after Tressa and your father, but they are safe also, hidden in a cave."
Swamp Thing came out from behind the trees.
"I'm glad to see you again," Jim said. "Can you do anything about the giant?"
"I'm glad to see you again too, Jim," Swamp Thing replied. "The giant is Arcane's latest warped experiment. I'm not sure what I could do with him, given his size."
Will went over to some nearby trees and peered out between them.
"I can see his head above the trees," he said over his shoulder. "It looks now like he's heading back in the same direction he was when we first encountered him—toward our house and the dock. And the town beyond." He turned back toward Swamp Thing. "Are you sure there's nothing you can do?"
Swamp Thing stared at Will for a long moment, his eyes unblinking. Then, without a word, he turned and headed off into the bog.
# # #
Brydon and Tressa sat quietly next to each other in the small cave they had found, waiting for the mutant giant to leave the area.
"So, tell me about this nutcase Arcane," Brydon asked, as the light from the candle flickered across his face. "I know from past experience he's a dishonest S.O.B., but how is he able to create giant monsters like that one we saw outside?"
"He's a scientist," Tressa replied. "A brilliant one, granted. But he's mentally twisted. He's got the morals of a gutter snake. His field is biology and genetics, which is how he creates the mutants we often have to deal with in the area."
Brydon shook his head. "Fine place you've chosen to live," he remarked. "A place surrounded by a swamp, with snakes, gators, bugs, nutty scientists and genetic monsters all over the place."
Tressa smiled lamely. "What can I say?" she replied. "I was born here. I grew up here. Houma and this area is just in my blood, I guess. It's home."
"Home," Brydon sighed. "It must be nice to feel like that about a place. I never had much of a home growing up. My father was in the military, and we moved around constantly. I guess that's why I can never stay in the same place for more than a short while. That's what's in my blood."
Tressa looked at him wistfully. "Sometimes I wish you could find it in yourself to stay in one place for more than a short time," she told him.
She leaned her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes.
Sometimes I wish I could too Brydon thought to himself.
# # #
Swamp Thing came out of the swamp and stood just across the driveway from the Langford house. Within a minute Will and Jim came up behind him.
"He's coming this way," Swamp Thing said.
"Can't you stop him from wrecking our house?" Jim pleaded.
Swamp Thing did not respond. Instead he looked up at the sky, as if he was contemplating something up there.
"There he is!" Will announced. Sure enough, the giant mutant's head could now be seen over the treetops. He was rapidly approaching the Langford property.
Swamp Thing raised both his arms to the sky, as if pleading with it to do something. Within minutes the sky, which up until then had been clear, began to cloud over.
The mutant broke through the trees surrounding the Langford property, and started to approach the house.
Swamp Thing's arms shook, as if he was summoning the elements. The sky got darker, and storm clouds began to roil overhead. The wind started to blow.
The mutant towered over the Langford home. The storm overhead increased. The mutant brought his fist up, ready to smash the Langford house into matchwood.
Suddenly a huge, white-hot lightning bolt stabbed out of the sky. It struck the mutant right on the top of his head, apparently attracted to the two horns sprouting from his skull. The mutant howled in agony and shook violently. Smoke started to rise from his shoulders.
The lightning bolt ceased. For just a moment the mutant stood there, frozen in place. Then, like a huge skyscraper whose metal skeleton had been removed, he crumpled to the ground with a massive thud.
Swamp Thing lowered his arms. Slowly the wind began to cease, and the dark clouds overhead thinned out and blew away.
# # #
Brydon shook Tressa, awakening her from her doze. She straightened up.
"Something's going on outside," he said. "For a moment it sounded like it was storming outside. But then it stopped."
Brydon got up and crawled out of the cave's entrance. Once outside he witnessed the storm clouds that Swamp Thing had summoned rapidly dissipating. Then the sun came out, and everything was suddenly calm again.
"It's okay," he said to Tressa, who by now had poked her head out of the cave too. "It looks like the giant's gone."
Brydon helped Tressa out of the cave, and after dusting themselves off they both hurried off in the direction of the Langford home.
# # #
"Is he dead?" Will asked.
"No, I don't think so," Swamp Thing replied. "But he is no longer under Arcane's control."
Just as Swamp Thing said that the giant began to stir. Slowly he got to his knees. Then he stood up. He looked around himself for a moment with a confused look on his face, then turned and headed back in the direction from which he had come.
"Now Arcane will find out the very real consequences of fooling with Mother Nature," Swamp Thing declared.
# # #
"The satellite feed isn't working," Arcane spit, frustrated. "I can't see what the giant is doing anymore."
He was in his lab, looking at a TV monitor that was now full of little more than intermittent static.
"Are you sure the giant will destroy the Langford home, and then proceed into Houma?" Graham asked.
"Of course he will, you moron," Arcane shot back. "That drug I gave him put him under my complete control. He has no choice but to obey my instructions. Once the Kipps are dead and Houma is decimated, that insipid little town will need me more than ever to help them rebuild. And when I do, I'll make sure that most of the town's real estate will belong to me, to do with as I please. I won't need any more shadow backers like General Sunderland and his despicable kind to help finance my experiments. I'll have all the resources I need to be completely financially independent."
Arcane looked up from the monitor, musing to himself.
"Maybe I'll even rename Houma Arcaneville," he muttered.
Regaining himself, he turned to Graham. "Well, what are you standing there for?" he snapped. "Get a repair crew on this satellite transmission problem, and get it working again, post haste! I have to see what's going on!"
"Yes, sir," Graham responded. He started toward the elevator doors.
Suddenly the floor began to shake. Graham almost fell over, but after a moment the shaking stopped.
"What was that?" Graham said, addressing Arcane.
Arcane looked equally mystified. "I don't know," he said.
Abruptly the floor began to shake again. Now an emergency beacon started to blare throughout the room.
"What's going on here?" Arcane shouted, now genuinely alarmed. He turned and joined Graham, and they both headed for the elevator. The doors slid open, and they stepped inside. The doors closed.
Meanwhile, up above at ground level, all hell was breaking loose. The giant mutant had returned to Arcane Industries, and he was now in the process of angrily smashing the complex's buildings apart with his fists, roaring like a madman.
"Get those tanks over here!" the head of the complex's security force yelled above the din of the collapsing buildings. In response to his shouted commands a pair of armored vehicles was rumbling up to his location. They came within a few yards of where he stood and stopped.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Blast that thing!" the security officer yelled, pointing at the giant.
The turrets on the vehicles raised until they were pointing toward the general height of the giant. Then they swiveled around to the giant's exact location.
"Fire!" the security head commanded.
Both turrets fired almost simultaneously. Two massive explosions struck the giant mutant, who howled in pain and torment. Like a giant redwood tree he toppled over, half of his body blown away from the charges. He landed right on top of the center of the complex, which collapsed under his enormous weight.
The giant lay still. Smoke rose from the broken rubble now buried underneath him, and fires were starting in various locations throughout the damaged structures.
The giant lay right on top of the remains of the complex's main elevator shaft.
# # #
The next day Will took one of Tressa's tour boats and went into the swamp. Threading his way across the black water through the cypress trees, he eventually found his way to the ruins of the old government laboratory building where Alec Holland, many years ago, had once conducted his super-secret bio-restorative experiments.
When he had reached the location and beached his boat, Will approached what was left of the ruined, burned-out building. He found Swamp Thing standing there, silently contemplating the vine-entangled remains.
"I thought I would find you here," Will said.
"Yes," Swamp Thing replied.
"I came to tell you that the authorities have verified that Anton Arcane is dead. So is Graham, his assistant."
"I know."
"Arcane's complex is almost completely destroyed. You might be happy to know that the county plans to bulldoze what's left of it, and let the land go back to nature." Will smiled lamely. "I guess in the end the swamp won after all, didn't it?"
"Yes," Swamp Thing answered. "There will finally be no more mutants or forbidden experiments here."
"Also, my Dad left this morning, for parts unknown. I think he said something about Malaysia. But before he left he decided to leave Jim here with Tressa and me. Now that Arcane is dead, it's safe once again for Jim to live here."
"That's good," Swamp Thing said. "But now, Will, if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to be alone with my memories here for a while."
"Sure. I understand." Will turned and went back to his boat. Within minutes the swamp had swallowed him up.
"Did you hear what he said, Linda?" Swamp Thing said, addressing the skeleton of his old laboratory. "He told me to be 'happy'. Can I ever be truly happy again, with what I have become? With you gone? … 'Happy'. How I wish I could experience that emotion again."
Swamp Thing turned and slowly made his way back into the black water of the swamp. Within minutes he was gone from sight.
# # #
The swamp just beyond the Langford house was even darker and eerier than it usually was. Thick fog drifted lazily among the vines and trees, making it extremely difficult to see. Insects buzzed and bullfrogs croaked, providing the mysterious nighttime music of the marsh.
Then a figure began to slowly form in the mist. As it came closer and closer it became more and more distinct.
It was a young girl. She stretched out her arms, as if pleading for something.
"Will," she said.
Abruptly Will Kipp sat up in bed, sweat beading on his forehead.
"Abigail!" he cried.
THE END?
NOTES:
1 - The notebook that Arcane acquired in the 1990 episode "The Living Image".
2 - Previously seen in the beginning of the episode "Spirit of the Swamp", 1990.
3 - See "The Death of Dr. Arcane", 1990.
4 - See "Birthmarks", 1991.
5 - See "The Hunt", 1991.
6 - See "The Emerald Heart", 1990.
7 - "The Death of Dr. Arcane", 1990.