Chapter 2: behind the smile…
"Toad come on you're the breadwinner now, you're the one who brings home the bacon and you go to work dressed like that?" Pietro demanded as Todd walked into the kitchen wearing the same dreary clothes.
"It's not like it's an office job!" Todd grumbled and Fred put a plate of toast in front of him.
"Thanks blob" he smiled and then pushed it away. "I ain't hungry though"
"Oh okay" Fred said looking a little hurt and then looked at Todd "you okay with this? I mean I saw the way you looked when you saw him come in, you looked really angry"
"I don't like him that's all, that guy isn't the sort to care about his employees if you get my drift" Todd muttered and then leapt up and headed for the door "See ya later okay?"
Todd walked into an alleyway he was in the side of Bayville you wouldn't see in the brochure, it was side that every city had but hates to admit. Stinking slums and homeless people were a common sight along with the sort of people who mug you for a quid. Having the police here was like getting a cat to get rid of a barn yard full of rats. To put it blunt there was too much crime and not enough police force.
"And to think…" Todd muttered "I used to call this place home!" he walked up to a dusty old warehouse and knocked on the door.
"Name?" asked a gruffed voice.
"Todd Tolensky" Todd muttered.
"Oh Slime ball, come in" the voice declared and opened the door, inside was a small vat and various other machines and chemical things. What Todd couldn't shake was the horrid stench, it was his smell - the odour of mouldy algae pit on a hot summer's day with a hint of dead frog - but much stronger.
"Todd my boy!" Harold declared "Good to see you"
"I thought you were running out you look full to brim with the stuff" Todd muttered looking around.
"True, true but luckily for me when you ran off with that blue bitch you had already produced enough catalyst for me to make all this, and it's selling like hot cakes!" Harold explained "Which means we have to supply to demand" he grinned and then shoved Todd towards a tray of milk bottles.
"Milk bottles?"
"Yeah the best way to get untraceable bottles, you just put em out on doorsteps and get em back when their all clean!" Harold laughed "And most people think it's just mould or slugs"
"Yeah" Todd laughed weakly.
"Get to work my boy!"
Todd walked over to tray and picked up the first bottle and spat slime into it till it was full, he did this again and again until the whole tray was full. It was about two hours till it was done and Todd slumped back and groaned.
"Good, good!" Harold cackled and then took one of the bottles and poured into the vat, there was a lot of steaming and bubbling when the final concoction trickle slowly out from a tap which filled syringes. Harold picked one up and put a needle and top on it and looked at it with gleaming eyes.
"Let's see if it still has its magic" he laughed and beckoned the door man over, he gave it to him and smiled "Consider it half your payment"
The man smiled and injected it into his arm; a second later his muscles bulged and veins popped up under his skin as he grew a size larger, he then walked over to a heavy crate and lifted it up over his head easily.
Todd sighed and looked away.
"Yes!" Harold laughed manically "Elixir is in business!"
"I can't believe my slime is used for this" Todd muttered "man I feel dirtier than usual" he yelped when Harold shoved the bottle in his hands.
"Keep it up Toad we're on a roll" he cackled and Todd put the bottle down.
"Look Harold I can't do this in one straight go yo, I need to rest my…err…slime organ…things…whatever makes the slime in me!" he declared and hopped down from the stool and walked to the door. "I'm off yo…ulp!"
The now monster of a door man stood in his way, and Todd shivered.
"Now now my dear boy, I understand it's pretty late anyway you go home" Harold smiled.
"What about my pay?" Todd demanded and Harold took out a wad of money and handed it to him, Todd ruffled through it and then shoved it in his pocket.
"See you later" Todd declared as he closed the door "Eeugh creep!" he muttered, he shuddered and began to make his way home. There was something about Harold that freaked Todd out, he wasn't a mutant as far as Todd knew but it was just the way he looked and spoke to him. He always looked like he had the upper hand and with the smug face someone would wear when they know they're going to win a game of poker but don't want to show it. What really creeped Todd out was how he talked to him, it was always so polite and sickeningly sweet it made Todd want to run into the nearest hot bath and scrub himself clean.
If he had his way he would run off and never go near that weirdo again but he couldn't now, it wasn't like before when he didn't have anything to loose now he had the others to worry about. Without him raking in the money they would starve and freeze to death. He sighed and patted his pocket where the money was.
"Oh well at least I get to eat now!" he sighed and with that hopped out of the slums as fast as he could.
Meanwhile inside the 'factory' Harold chuckled as he looked at the newspaper clippings he had of Todd during the sentinel incident. He looked in the background to see Lance and Fred in their battle out-fits clear as day, he smirked as he put them away again.
"There's money to be made out of these mutants, when the time is right I'll get all of them working for me but for now let's go get rich!" he declared as the door man packed the elixir in a van.