Jack's eyes darted around in all directions. He could count at least five of the wolf like creatures surrounding them. He figured more were probably lurking in the darkness, but he chose to focus on the positive / hopeful part of the situation.
He looked back around to Brainstorm. His eyes were fluttering open and shut, and he didn't appear to be aware of what was happening.
"Frank, I really am going to need you to snap out of this!" He shouted, taking hold of Brainstorm's shoulder.
"Jack... I have complete... control... of the situation..." The mad scientist mumbled, beginning to sway back and forth slightly.
The werewolves continued closing in. The closest one snarled, menacingly and begin raising its arms, its thick furry hands trembling with anticipation of their impending kill.
Jack continued frantically trying to get Brainstorm to hold onto the device, but his hands kept slipping off of it.
Jack growled in both frustration and fear as tried to support his collapsing companion. Then, a light of realization came on in his eyes.
"Frank, I hate to do this to do you but we're kind of in a situation..." He said, holding his hand up.
Brainstorm didn't even respond, as Jack held up a single finger, and a needle began to extend out of it. With a tremendous force, Jack stabbed the needle into Brainstorm's arm.
This finally received a reaction.
"OOOOOOOWWWWWWW!"
The werewolves paused, slightly taken aback by the mad scientist's sudden outburst, as he shot up out of Jack's arms, and held his own arm in pain.
"WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT?!"
"A mix of adrenaline, caffeine and some steroids which probably aren't entirely healthy to directly inject into your bloodstream..." Jack said casually, shaking the needle and retracting it back into his hand.
"WHAT DID YOU DO THAT FOR?!"
"Well the comedic value was definitely not overlooked."
"DARN IT JACK! WE DON'T KNOW HOW THAT WILL AFFECT ME IN THE LONG RUN!"
"Well how do you feel?"
"COMPLETELY AWAKE!"
"Might want to look around then."
"DON'T YOU START TELLING ME WHAT DO NOW! I WILL LOOK AROUND WHEN I FEE-" Brainstorm cut off and looked around. The werewolves were still there. A couple of them looking entirely offended at the lack of fear their prey was displaying. "...Oh..." He said in a more quiet voice.
"Yeah." Jack nodded.
There was a moment of silence.
We should leave." Brainstorm said, still not moving from the position he was in when he was previously shouting.
"Yeah," Jack said once again, in a more sarcastic tone.
Finally deciding he had seen enough, the largest werewolf reared up and threw its head to the sky and let out a chilling howl. The rest of the werewolves followed suit one by one before they were all howling to the sky with Brainstorm and Jack slowly looking around them.
"Jack..." Brainstorm hissed. "Where's the dimension hopper?"
Jack's eyes went to the stone walkway. In the process of waking Brainstorm up, the device had been dropped, and was laying on the ground, with a couple of the lights still blinking on it, waiting to be activated.
But before either of them could act, the lead wolf stopped howling and made a swipe for Dr Brainstorm.
"YIKES!" He shouted, barely dodging the blow. The other werewolves began growling and began lumbering towards the two.
"RUN!" Brainstorm shouted, and without a second thought, he and Jack fled in the only direction that didn't have teeth at the end of it.
Several of the alleys were blocked off with fences, giving the two little room for escape. Brainstorm and Jack could hear the werewolves behind him snarling and pounding after them.
Emergency Temporal Suspension activated
Suddenly, with no warning, everything stopped. Brainstorm halted in mid step and froze in place. the werewolves as well froze in mid leap, one of them preparing to pounce on the mad scientist. Jack continuing sprinting for about three seconds until he realized what happened.
He skidded to a stop and looked all around. It was as if a time pauser had been activated, but he knew he didn't have one. In the back of his head he noticed a very distinct albeit slow ticking sound. His brow furrowed, and he walked back up to Brainstorm and the werewolves.
"What in the...?"
Temporal suspension will expire in 65 seconds.
Jack shook his head slightly in confusion. He could hear his own voice speaking in his head. For most people that's a sign of insanity and possible need for some kind of drug. In a robot's case, it means something's been turned on that he didn't know about.
"What's going on?" He grumbled looking around.
Emergency Temporal Suspension has been automatically initiated.
Jack paused.
"Kay... What's that?"
In the event of a life threatening situation, temporal suspension is to be activated to allow Jack T. Robot's assessment and eventual solution to survive said situation. Temporal Suspension shifts self repair nanobots to overdrive to greatly accelerate thought processing, visual interpretation and movement process, to take on the appearance of a time pauser.
Jack looked over at Brainstorm and the werewolves again. Upon a closer look, he now noticed that they were all still moving, albeit so slowly it was nearly impossible to see.
"Oh yeah, the moving faster thing." Jack nodded, now remembering. "Yeah, Frank put that in when he installed the nanobots like... I dunno, seven or eight years ago. Ya know, there were so many other instances where this feature would have saved our rear ends with so much less stress... Why is it just now turning on?"
This feature was installed by Dr Franklin J. Brainstorm.
"Oh, yeah... That... makes more sense..." Jack grumbled.
Temporal suspension will expire in 45 seconds.
"Alright... Let's see what we got. How fast are Frank and I running?"
Speed calculated at approximately twelve miles per hour.
"How fast are the werewolves running?"
Speed calculated at approximately forty three miles per hour. Estimated real life time before demise is 0.3 seconds.
Jack sighed in frustration and scanned his surroundings.
Beside them, he and Brainstorm were in the process of passing an abandoned horse carriage. Not too far away, he saw a street lamp which seemed oddly out of place considering the Victorian setting they were in. The lamp was emitting a strange dim white light which only lightly illuminated a small portion of the sidewalk. However, it was enough light for the robot to notice an open alley behind it.
Temporal suspension will expire in 25 seconds.
Jack walked over the front of the carriage. He leaned up against it, and began pushing it until it slowly began moving backwards. Finally, the carriage was even with the werewolves. Jack then walked over to the side and gave it another hard push, this one slightly lifting it from the ground, and freezing it in mid air. The robot then walked over the alley and peered inside. It was dark, but appeared empty, other than a few rats and a couple trash cans. Nodding in satisfaction, he walked back over to his mad scientist companion.
With a mighty heave, he lifted the mad scientist up and threw him over his shoulder, and began walking back towards the alley. He strolled inside, and laid Brainstorm down on his side, before sitting down on the concrete himself.
Temporal suspension will expire in 10 seconds.
Jack yawned and waited. His only regret was not getting to see what was going to happen outside. Slowly the ticking in the back of his head began getting louder and faster, before suddenly, sounding as though someone pulled a speaker out from underwater, everything accelerated back to normal.
The carriage collapsed with a mighty crash on top of a couple of the werewolves. They yelped in pain, as they proceeded to tear the carriage apart in their effort to escape. In the process of that, the other werewolves stopped in their tracks, looking around in confusion at what had happened. From their perspective, they just watched their prey vanish, and a carriage that was sitting silently beside where they were passing, had instantaneously appeared in the air above them. After surveying their surroundings and finding nothing, the wolves once again howled ominously at the sky before splitting up and dashing off into the darkness.
Brainstorm writhed on the ground for a second, still thinking he was sprinting, before he realized what was going on.
He jumped to his feet and held his fists up, spinning 360 degrees searching for the wolves.
"WHAT THE...?" He started, until Jack put a hand over his mouth, and held a finger up to his own to silence him.
"What just happened?!" Brainstorm hissed, looking around to make sure nothing had noticed him.
"Yeah you remember that movement accelerator thing you installed in me a few years back?"
"No!"
"Yeah well, that just happened."
"What just happened?!"
"Super speed"
"You mean to tell me you have super speed and you never told me?!" Brainstorm demanded.
Jack sighed.
"Considering you're the one who put it in, I'd think you'd have known." He said. "Also, you know perfectly well I don't pay attention nor care about anything you install in me."
"Oh, but you were soooooo happy about the internal wifi receiver, but you don't remember me installing super speed?"
"That about sums me up." Jack nodded.
"What else can you do that I'm unaware of?!"
"Well, I was trying to log into Facebook the other day and I accidentally hacked into the U.S. government's nuclear launch codes. Apparently I can do that, now."
"And you didn't tell me this, why?!" Brainstorm demanded.
"Seems I forgot until just now."
"Can you do it again?!"
"I don't remember how I did it, I was on Facebook for god's sake."
Brainstorm growled in frustration.
"Did you at least grab the dimension hopper?"
Jack's eyes blanked out.
"Oh yeah, I figured I was forgetting something."
"DARN IT, JACK!"
Jack hushed the mad scientist once again.
Suddenly, they heard a crashing in the trash cans behind them.
The two froze and looked over at them slowly. It was then that they noticed a dark, scrawny figure looming over the bin. Without a sound, it ignored Brainstorm and Jack and stuck its head inside, seemingly eating something inside.
Brainstorm and Jack exchanged glances.
"Was that here a second ago?" Brainstorm hissed.
Jack shook his head, silently.
Brainstorm nodded. "Let's not talk to him.." He suggested.
"Good plan." Jack two began backing up, slowly. In the process, Brainstorm accidently stepped on a crumpled up piece of paper.
At the sound of this, the figure looked up and its head jerked towards Brainstorm and Jack, revealing two glowing white eyes. They froze.
The figure let go of the trash can, allowing it to clank back against the wall, before it took a quick but singular step towards the two.
"I should warn you!" Brainstorm announced nervously lifting his finger and pointing at the figure. "I will be your future ruler! And... I will remember if you cross me!"
The figure growled and stepped into the light. The sight of the creature, to say the least, did not sit well with either of the two. Although it resembled human, the creature was completely bald, and had no fat or muscle underneath its skin, which clung sickly to its bones. It wore very tattered and ripped clothing, as if it had once been a normal person, and as it snarled at Brainstorm it revealed two very distinctive fangs protruding from the top row of otherwise normal looking teeth. Its mouth and face were covered in blood and in its right hand it was tightly gripping an equally bloody dead rat.
Brainstorm and Jack stared at the creature in stunned silence.
"Is that a..." Brainstorm started.
"Looks like." Jack nodded.
"Why is there a vampire, Jack?"
"Don't know. Shall I ask?"
"No... So yeah, that super speed?"
"Don't know how to turn it on."
"Wonderful..."
The vampire screeched and sprinted towards the two. Brainstorm and Jack yelped in fear and spun around, attempting to run, but Jack was quickly pounced to the ground.
"OOF!" Jack and the vampire both collapsed on the ground and the two began struggling with each other. Brainstorm stopped and turned back around.
"UNHAND MY ASSITANT!" He bellowed, bravely taking a step towards the battle.
The vampire's head shot up and it hissed at Brainstorm, who promptly took a step back.
"...Please?" He said a little more sheepishly.
"Don't be too heroic or anything, Frank." Jack said, flatly.
The vampire snarled and bit down hard on the robot's neck.
CLANK
The monster reeled back and held its mouth in pain. It stared at Jack incredulously, and began backing away from him.
Jack casually stood up. The vampire hissed angrily at him, before giving Brainstorm a foreboding look and dashing away into the darkness.
Brainstorm blinked.
"You forgot I'm made of metal didn't you?" Jack sighed.
"No!" Brainstorm said, defensively. "Maybe... Let's just leave!"
And with that, he spun around and sprinted out of the alley.
Jack sighed and turned as well, only to see Brainstorm running back.
"Yeah, we're not going that way!" He said, pushing Jack further into the alley.
"Oooh, What now?!" Jack groaned.
Upon speaking, he then heard what sounded like moans and shrieks of pain coming from the outside of the alley.
Jack heaved a long deep sigh, as he began seeing several pale and bloody moaning people stumbling over each other and reaching for the mad scientist.
Brainstorm backed against the wall, looking around in all directions.
"ALRIGHT JACK!" He screamed over the defeaning sounds of the approaching shadows. "WE'RE SURROUNDED BY ZOMBIES WITH NO WAY OUT!"
"Appears so."
"WE'VE BEEN IN THIS SITUATION BEFORE! WHAT DO WE DO?!"
"Have any garlic?"
"THAT'S FOR VAMPIRES!"
"Well I don't know, has anyone ever tried garlic on zombies, before?"
"I DON'T HAVE ANY GARLIC!"
"At least I'm coming up with ideas."
"Do you think we could scale the wall?!"
Jack stared at Brainstorm blankly, taking zero threat in the approaching dead people behind him.
"What?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.
"There's probably some loose bricks here! We can climb the walls and escape via rooftops!" Brainstorm shouted, frantically searching the wall behind him. "I saw it on the History Channel once!"
"Oh, that channel hasn't been about history in I don't even know how long."
"JACK, HELP ME!"
"And what are we going to do about the gargoyles awaiting us up top?"
Brainstorm stopped and looked up.
He saw two stone gargoyles glaring down at them with glowing yellow eyes. One of them roared and extended its wingspan out, lifting off and circling the alley like a vulture.
"OH COME ON!" Brainstorm screamed. "WHAT IS THIS PLACE?!"
Jack looked back around. The zombies were almost upon them.
"I don't... actually see a way out of this..." He said quietly.
And suddenly, without warning, another sound began to reach Brainstorm and Jack's ears. This was not anything that was alive or undead. It was a very unsettling sound, nonetheless, and before the two knew where it was coming from, it way already upon them. The sound of metal sliding across metal
SSHK SSHK SSHKK SSHK SSHK SSHK
Brainstorm and Jack looked around in all directions before suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, a hooded figure stepped out of the darkness and faced the zombies in front of the two terrified bystanders. The black cloak covered his face, and the only visibly part of his body were two white gauntlets, held out in front of him. Around the gauntlets were long and twisting armbands with small glowing white crystals embedded in them. However, that's not what caught Brainstorm and Jack's eyes. Gripped in each of the figure's hands were two black steam punk looking chainsaw swords. Each of them had blades and curves extending around the holder's hands, and the chains on the swords were spinning like real chainsaws. The unsettling sound, at that point, began to make sense. It's what a chainsaw would sound like with no motor.
Brainstorm and Jack stared at the figure in absolute shock.
"Hi." Brainstorm said, quietly.
The figure didn't respond. It simply moved one of its feet backwards, pushing a small device towards Brainstorm and Jack.
"You dropped this." He said in a scrappy voice.
Brainstorm and Jack looked down, and saw Brainstorm's dimension hopper, sitting silently on the ground.
"Oh... Thanks.." Brainstorm said, shakily, bending down and picking it up.
"No problem." The figure replied.
And with that one of the zombies was finally upon the three.
In a very quick motion, the figure brought his sword down onto the zombie as it went to bite his gauntlet. Another went for his other arm, but whoever was under the cloak clearly knew what he was doing, as he stabbed it in the shoulder and used it as a stabilizer to do a front flip over the top of the other zombies, and into the crowd.
Having now lost interest in Brainstorm and Jack, the horde turned and began after the figure, still moaning and screaming. Brainstorm and Jack watched this unfold, still stunned at the figure's sudden appearance.
"I really don't like it here." Jack said, finally.
"I agree. Let's leave..." Brainstorm said, hurriedly, holding the dimension hopper up. Before he turned it on, however, he noticed a small light from the ground. He looked down and saw a very distinctly white glowing crystal laying motionless on the ground where it had fallen from the chainsaw sword wielding figure's arm band.
"HOLD UP!" He shouted causing Jack to jump slightly. The mad scientist rushed over and snatched the rock up.
Ignoring the moaning and screaming from outside the alley, Brainstorm held the crystal up and squinted at it, rotating it around with this thumb and forefinger.
The light, strangely matching that from the outside street lamps, was surreal looking. While the surrounding reality around them almost seemed to have a layer of dark insanity and evil around it, the light from this rock seemed to penetrate through it. The range of everything the light would reach, be it ever so small, had the familiar sense of normality to it, as if time and space was bending around it. Upon holding it longer, Brainstorm began noticing a significant amount of non-caffine induced energy returning to his body, and the crystal had a barely noticeable vibration to it.
"Ten to one says I found something important." Brainstorm said, a giant grin spreading across his face.
"That's fantastic... Can we leave now?" Jack growled, still eyeing the gargoyles above, which were beginning to attempt clawing their way into the alley, despite their giant stone bodies being too wide for it.
"Right, leaving... On it!" Brainstorm leaped up, and raced over to Jack, grabbing the device and hitting the button. The machine whirred and hummed, and a brilliant purple and blue light began surrounding the two.
"Well Jack, I can honestly say this has been completely worth the stress and possible years lost off of my life!" Brainstorm said, proudly.
"Whatever you say, Frank." Jack sighed.
And with that, there was a flash of light and the sound of electricity crackling as Brainstorm and Jack disappeared from the alley.
To say the least, Calvin was not expecting one of his least threatening enemies / sometimes friends to appear out of literal nowhere in front of him and from the sight of things, neither did the cult. Everyone stared at the mad scientist in shock as he straightened himself and continued yelling at his robot companion, before turning and screaming instead at Calvin.
"AND AS FOR YOU!" He shouted. "CAN'T I GO TEN MINUTES WITHOUT YOU BARGING IN ON LITERALLY EVERYTHING I'M DOING?!"
"In my defense, you barraged in on me." Calvin grumbled.
"THAT IS NOT THE POINT!" Brainstorm screamed.
Suddenly, the cult members began chanting quietly and bringing their hands motionless to their sides.
Brainstorm and Jack looked around them cautiously.
"Uuuh..." Jack started.
"Oh don't worry, they do that." Calvin assured.
Jack blinked.
"Oi," MTM suddenly piped in. "The rift is closed. All systems are back online."
Calvin grinned. "Everything?"
"Yes, I recommend we teleport..."
"Great idea!" Calvin interrupted. "Teleport everyone here!"
MTM sighed.
"Yeah... That's exactly what I was going to say."
"Well hurry up! We have an evil cult to deal with."
"Mmkay."
BRAZAP!
There was a flash of light, and all of a sudden, four more people appeared in the forest.
Interestingly enough, all four of them had been asleep during their teleportation. As they appeared, each lingering for a split second in the air in their own respective sleeping position, Andy, Sherman, Socrates and Hobbes all collapsed in a heap on the ground in front of Calvin, resulting in one collective "OOF"
"Oh god lordy in heaven!" Socrates yelped. "Who am I and where are you?!"
"I was afraid that was gonna happen." Hobbes muttered, his face still buried in the grass.
Andy groaned and picked himself up off the ground, wearing his striped pajamas and acquiring the usual annoyed expression he gets whenever he gets teleported without his knowledge.
"Never a little warning?" He grumbled, rubbing the back of his neck. "Everyone accounted for?"
"Regrettably..." Sherman's voice was heard from the grass. He picked himself up, also wearing a tiny pajama set.
"Good, everyone's here." Calvin nodded. "Guys, this is the evil cult that captured my babysitter."
Everyone turned and stared at the hooded figures, expect for Hobbes, who was still laying face down in the dirt.
"Just when I thought we were running out of weird scenarios." Socrates sighed, shaking his head.
"Brainstorm's here, too. He'll probably end up helping us out at some point." Calvin added.
"WILL NOT!"
"And Jack is here to provide insight as well."
"Yo."
"ENOUGH!"
Everyone jumped at the sound the shrill voice and Hobbes finally leapt to attention, and the woman from before stepped forward, slouching slightly and trembling with either anger or general insanity. "YOU WILL ALL MAKE FINE TREATS FOR OUR FATHER UPON HIS RESSERECTION!"
Everyone stared at her.
"Oh yeah, then there's her." Calvin mentioned. "She yells a lot and most of it doesn't make sense. I've given up on translating."
"Is she part of the threat?" Sherman asked.
"Define 'threat'." Calvin said, tilting his head, slightly.
The woman threw her head back and screeched. Everyone flinched and covered their ears at the sound. The other cult members followed suit, until the forest was deafened by the shrill screaming of at least fifteen people.
"SHUT THEM UP!" Socrates bellowed, holding his ears down over his head and squeezing his eyes shut.
"JACK! ACTIVATE TELEPORTER! GET US OUT OF HERE!" Brainstorm screamed.
"What?" Jack asked, the only person not holding his head in pain, as he turned to Brainstorm.
"I SAID ACTIVATE TELEPORTER!"
"Activate what?" Jack said, raising his eyebrows.
"TELEPOTER!"
"Recorder? Why the heck do you want to record this?"
Brainstorm took a step towards Jack to repeat his previous line, and in the process, dropped the glowing item he had been holding in his hands.
The crystal plopped silently on the ground, and the glowing illuminated the small patch of grass it laid upon.
This resulted in almost instant silence.
The cult members all stopped, and muttered among themselves silently, looking around cautiously and some were even starting to back away. The tattered woman stared at Brainstorm with an expression of fear and disgust.
Everyone turned and stared at Brainstorm.
"The heck did you just do?" Calvin asked, raising an eyebrow.
"What is that light?!" the woman hissed, also starting to back away slightly.
Brainstorm looked all around before he finally noticed his star crystal sitting in the grass.
"Ah, my unlimited power source. Jack! Fetch that for me, will you?"
"No."
"JACK! ACQUIRE THE STAR CRYSTAL OR I WILL BE ISSUING YOU ANOTHER WRITE UP!"
"You get written warnings now?" Andy asked.
"Gives him an excuse to use the boxes of red construction paper we never ended up using for anything," Jack nodded.
Brainstorm growled to himself and stomped over to the crystal, snatching it up. As he did so, several of the cult members shouted in fright and fled the scene, darting into the forest and out of sight.
Brainstorm's brow furrowed in confusion as he watched the fleeing people. Then a light came on in his eyes and he looked down at the glowing crystal in his hand. An evil grin spread across his face.
"So are they actually doing anything yet or are they still yelling at each other?"
Not too far away, two figures were sitting behind a bush. In the darkness, the long beak of a plague mask was just barely distinguishable on one of their faces.
"Naaaaah... they're still yelling at each other." Shack said, peering through a pair of binoculars at the group ahead of him.
"I'm starting to think that's all these people ever do..." Shade grumbled, pacing back and forth behind Shack.
Shack grinned, and put the binoculars down, looking up at his companion with his usual insane grin.
"The hooded people have all run away. That guy with the Kakashi hair just chased them off." He chuckled.
"Wait what?" Shade grabbed the binoculars away from Shack and peered through them as well.
In the distance, he could see Brainstorm laughing his head off while he sprinted around, holding the star crystal in front of him like a weapon, warding off the cult members, all of whom seemed horrified by it. Around him, Calvin, Hobbes, Andy, Sherman, Socrates and Jack watched the situation unfold with complete confusion.
"How the heck did that idiot get a star crystal?!" Shade growled, throwing the binoculars away.
Shack shrugged, and Shade rubbed his chin in thought.
"All right, so this Brainstorm character might be a little more of a problem than I thought. When we followed him through the rift though, I wasn't expecting him to come to this forest. Why here?"
"Sometimes when you switch dimensions, you don't always end up in the place you left from." Shade explained. "Sometimes you're placed in spots that you've been before or around people that you've had extended amounts of interaction with, as your dimensional signature is linked to those places or people, and has a certain draw on you."
Shade paused for a long moment. "How did you know that?" He asked finally, turning an inquisitive look onto the not in the least bit insane man.
Shack thought for a moment. "You know, I really have no idea." He said finally. "Want to see my log book? I can finally put wherever we are into my 'Places Shack has Visited' diary!"
"No!" Shade growled firmly, picking the binoculars back up and peering through them again.
Shack shrugged, and happily scribbled in an old beaten up book he pulled out of seemingly nowhere.
"Who's the boy?" Shade mumbled, finally fixing on Calvin. "He used that CD player as a teleporter and brought more people in... How can he have that kind of technology?"
"Maybe his parents gave it to him." Shack said, popping up over Shade's shoulder.
"Unlikely. The boy seems very fluent in his commands and he's clutching that CD player like it's a weapon..." Shade put the binoculars down. "I'm guessing teleportation is not the only thing that machine can do."
"So what does that mean?"
"It means the boy is possibly affiliated with the mad scientist, so he's a threat to project as well." Shade put his hand on his chin and cracked his neck slightly. "We need to do something about it."
Shack's usual giant grin spread out, covering a good half of his face. "Waiting on your orders sir."
"HA HA!" Brainstorm announced, having finally chased off every hooded figure surrounding them. "I am once again victorious! No need to thank me of course!"
Calvin heaved a deep sigh.
"I kinda needed them..." He grumbled. "They have my babysitter!"
"Since when do you care?" Sherman asked.
"Since I determined that I don't want to explain to my parents why the new babysitter's being sacrificed to an evil demon overlord."
"Yeeeah, I don't see that going over well." Socrates nodded.
"Let's vamoose! After that evil cult thing!" Calvin announced, turning in the direction of the forest.
Andy sighed. "Is this gonna take longer than fifteen minutes?"
"Quite possibly!"
"Can I change out of my sleep wear?"
"Excellent idea." Calvin snapped his fingers. "MTM, teleport him into his usual attire."
"Or we could teleport your babysitter here and then teleport home." MTM said, flatly.
"No, we are doing this the fun way." Calvin insisted.
"Very well."
There was a small pop, and Andy's usual T-shirt, jacket and worn jeans appeared in place of his pajamas.
"Ah, that's better." Andy nodded, snatching Sherman up from the ground and placing him in his pocket. "Alright let's go."
Calvin grinned, and sprinted off into the darkness. Andy and Sherman followed suit in front of Socrates who happily skipped along after. Hobbes watched all this for a brief moment, before sighing and realizing he had no other choice. He followed after as well.
Brainstorm and Jack watched.
Brainstorm whipped back around to Jack.
"Jack, do you realize what this means?!" He grinned.
"We're stuck in the middle of a creepy forest in the middle of the night with no way to get home?" Jack said, dully.
"No! It means we can kill two birds with one stone here! I have already acquired my ultimate limitless power source and now we have found that the same power source can be used as a weapon against our enemies!"
Jack paused for a moment.
"Some of them... but sure, go on."
"All we need to do is capture Calvin's babysitter before hold her ransom!"
"Why?" Jack asked.
Brainstorm paused.
"We'll figure that out when we get there!" He snapped finally. "All we need to do is destroy the babysitter and Calvin will be left in a state of weakened mental posture, and give us all the chances we need to destroy him and move on with my plans of world domination!"
Jack stared at Brainstorm for a long time.
"What?!" Brainstorm demanded.
"I dunno, it just fascinates me how obvious it is when you make something up on the spot." Jack shook his head.
"Never asked your opinion, Jack!" Brainstorm growled. "Now let's go!"
"Actually, Frank, I've been holding a call from your sister for the last half hour, and she's getting antsy." Jack said, as Brainstorm turned around. "Might want to look into that."
"DR BRAINSTORM! And I don't care how long you've been holding that call! I don't... I... Wait... You can hold calls?"
"Yeah..."
"... You can receive calls?"
"Um... yeah..."
"Since when? I never installed that!"
"Er, your mom did." Jack said sheepishly.
Brainstorm stared at Jack for a long moment. "Uh... I... erm... I don't know! Tell her I'm not here!"
"She already knows you're here."
"Tell her I'm in the shower!"
"She can hear you."
"NO SHE CAN'T!"
"Okay, I can't say I have an argument for that." Jack shrugged.
"YOUNG MAN, YOU PICK UP THIS CALL FROM YOUR SISTER THIS VERY INSTANT!"
Brainstorm and Jack both jumped in horror at the sound of the Mother Brainstorm's bellowing roar that suddenly emitted from Jack's speakers. Around them, birds erupted from the trees and flew away in terror from the sound that had disrupted their sleep.
Brainstorm lay in a heap on the ground, groaning and rubbing his head.
"Jack... why did you put it on speakerphone?" he moaned.
"I didn't...," Jack also moaned, laying on the ground in a heap himself, holding his head in pain.
Brainstorm slowly collected himself and stood up.
"Hello Mother...," he grumbled.
"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN FOR LAST FORTY FIVE MINUTES?!"
"An alternate universe that uses magic to look for an infinite power source." Brainstorm said sheepishly.
"DID I ASK FOR AN EXCUSE?!"
Brainstorm paused. "Um... yeah, you kinda did." He said, finally.
Jack rolled his eyes. "Wrong choice of words." He sighed.
"I WILL NOT SIT HERE AND BE BACK TALKED BY MY OWN SON!" Mother Brainstorm roared. "YOU'RE TAKING SHEILA FOR THE NIGHT!"
Brainstorm's eyes widened. "No, Mother I can't! I'm in the middle of an evil plan!"
"WELL MAYBE YOU SHOULD INCLUDE HER IN YOUR EVIL PLANS FOR ONCE!"
"She'll mess it up!" Brainstorm whined.
"I HEARD THAT!" Sheila was heard screaming in the background.
"SHUT UP SHEILA!"
Jack sighed. Sometimes he hated being part of this family.
"I AM GOING TO THE SPA TONIGHT AND I WILL NOT LEAVE SHEILA HOME BY HERSELF AGAIN AFTER WHAT HAPPENED LAST TIME!"
"Hire a babysitter!" Brainstorm groaned.
"SHE SWITCHED THE LAST BABYSITTER'S BRAIN WITH THE BRAIN OF A HORSE!"
"SHE TOLD ME I COULDN'T WATCH AMERICAN HORROR STORY!"
"SHEILA I SWEAR TO GOD!"
"Why do I have to watch her?
"BECAUSE I SAID SO!"
There was a moment of silence.
"She's got you there, man." Jack shrugged.
Brainstorm growled. "Fine... I'll have Jack send you our coordinates..." He muttered through gritted teeth.
"ALREADY HAVE THEM! WHY THE HECK ARE YOU IN A FOREST?! DID YOU PACK YOUR TOOTHBRUSH?!"
"I was actually just about to leave..."
"DID YOU PACK YOUR DARN TOOTHBRUSH?!"
Jack shook his head and mouthed 'just say yes'.
"Yes... Yes... I packed my toothbrush..." Brainstorm sighed, slapping his forehead.
"GOOD! SENDING SHEILA NOW! DON'T FIGHT WITH EACH OTHER!"
And with that there was a tremendous CLICK and Jack rubbed his head in pain.
"Gonna need to take the speakers out of my ears..." He grumbled.
Brainstorm crossed his arms and grumbled angrily to himself, as a flash of light filled the forest.
BRAZAP
The woman that appeared in front of Brainstorm, albeit slightly shorter, definitely shared several of her brother's physical traits. Which is kind of a scary thought to be honest. Her electric blue hair shot straight into the hair ending in spikes exactly as Brainstorm's hair did and she wore the same white lab coat over a black shirt.
Beside her stood another robot, who was silently stretching her limbs, while ignoring the insanity that went on around her. Although she looked very similar to Jack with the silver body and segmented legs, her nose was slightly shorter and she had a more feminine build.
The robot smiled and waved, as she finally materialized in.
"Hey Frank. Hey Jack." She said cheerily.
"DOCTOR BRAINSTORM!" Brainstorm screamed.
"Hello Jacqueline," Jack said, boredly.
"DON'T YOU YELL AT MY ROBOT ASSISTANT!" Sheila screeched. "I'LL HAVE YOUR HEAD IN A PETRI DISH!"
"IT'S GONNA BE HARD TO DO THAT FROM DEEP SPACE, SHEILA!"
"I'LL DRAG YOU OUT WITH ME!"
"NOT IF I DRAG YOU OUT FIRST!"
Sheila paused. "YEAH WELL...You're... STUPID!" she screamed finally.
"YOU'RE STUPID!" Brainstorm shouted back.
"Sometimes I wonder how these two managed to live with each other before Frank moved out." Jacqueline commented.
"I've heard many war stories." Jack nodded.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING OUT HERE IN THIS STUPID FOREST ANYWAY?!" Sheila demanded.
"I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW THAT IS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!" Brainstorm shrieked.
"TELL ME!"
"NEVER!"
"TELL ME OR I'LL TELL MOM YOU DIDN'T PACK YOUR TOOTHBRUSH!"
Brainstorm growled and glared at Sheila with a rage that doesn't emerge out of him very often. Jack and Jacqueline exchanged glances.
"I AM GOING TO DESTROY THE BABYSITTER OF MY ARCH NEMESIS!" He finally announced. "AND YOU'RE GOING TO WAIT HERE UNTIL I DO!"
"YOU CAN'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!"
"I'LL TELL MOM ABOUT THAT GUY YOU'RE SEEING!"
"YOU WOULDN'T DARE!"
Jack turned an astonished expression onto Jacqueline. "Sheila's seeing someone?"
"Yeeeeah... He's not really all for it..." Jacqueline said, nodding.
"Ah, that makes more sense." Jack nodded. "That poor fool."
Brainstorm whipped around and faced the two robots.
"COME JACK! WE MUST DEPART WHILE I'M STILL WINNING THE ARGUMENT!"
"You're winning?" Jack asked.
"SHUT UP AND LET'S GO! WE HAVE TO GET TO CALVIN'S BABYSITTER BEFORE HE DOES!" And with that, Brainstorm rushed off, while Sheila continued screaming after him.
"DON'T YOU RUN FROM ME!" she roared. "I WILL FIND CALVIN'S BABYSITTER BEFORE EITHER OF YOU! AND THEN I WILL BE THE ULTIMATE DESTROYER OF MY ARCH NEMESIS' SUPERVISION!"
Jack and Jacqueline watched this unfold.
"I suppose I should go make sure he doesn't hurt himself." Jack sighed.
"Yeah. I'll wait here with Sheila." Jacqueline nodded. "Let me know if you need help!"
"Righto."
"Have fun!"
Jack turned and stared at Jacqueline's cheerful and happy expression.
"Sometimes I really don't understand you." He sighed.
Jacqueline shrugged.
And with that Jack walked off after his companion.
Sheila glared at him as he left. For a while, nothing was said, there was simply the chirping of the crickets and the sound of Sheila angrily muttering to herself.
"We're not staying here, are we?" Jacqueline sighed.
"YOU'RE DARN RIGHT WE'RE NOT!" Sheila screamed, throwing her fist to the sky. "COME, JACQUELINE! THERE'S WORK TO BE DONE!"
Jacqueline sighed, and reached into a compartment on her side, pulling out a couple of small dumbbells. "I could use the jog."
Calvin raced through the forest, holding the MTM in front of him like a flashlight. He jumped and crawled over logs and rocks, while behind him Socrates and Hobbes followed on all fours, jumping around the trees, logs and rocks a little more gracefully, while Andy was left slightly in the dust.
Calvin paused for a second, and panted slightly, holding the MTM in front of him, and scanning the area.
"Okay…," he panted. "Where are we?"
"Still on their trail," MTM said simply. "They're starting to converge on another opening, it appears. The people we're trying to save are already there."
"Right…," Calvin gasped. "What were their names again?"
"I don't remember," MTM said.
"Well come on, you're the super computer, here."
"Do you actually care what their names are?"
"Not really. I barely remember what they look like to be honest."
By this time Hobbes and Socrates had caught up and were looking around in all directions.
"Where we at? Are we ready to tussle?!" Socrates asked, eagerly.
"No... Just taking a breather," Calvin sighed. "Where's Andy?"
"Still back there." Hobbes said. "We... kinda outran him."
"Okay… We'll wait for Andy and then we're taking off again. Heaven knows what these terrible people are doing these… poor… innocent young teenagers."
"Rosalyn?" Socrates asked.
"New person," Hobbes panted.
"Wow, she was that bad?"
"I don't think we gave her enough of a chance, personally."
"Hobbes, she was in charge of babysitting a six year old, and then dragged him out to a campground without the parent's knowledge or consent to see her make out with a boy who wears a sideways snapback," Calvin sighed.
"Fair point."
"Ah, the ol' sideways snapback." Socrates nodded. "I know the type."
"He also wore socks and sandals."
Socrates gasped. "That monster! Why are we saving them again?"
"Eh," Calvin shrugged. "It's not like it'll take us long."
"Whoa... hold up...," MTM suddenly cut in. "I'm getting a new reading."
Calvin turned a puzzled look onto the machine. "What?"
"I don't know how I didn't see them before... they must have had a cloaking device..."
"Who?" Hobbes asked, cautiously looking around in all directions.
"Two more people..." MTM said. "It's no one we know, but they're not the part of the cult, their mental signatures are different. They're... close..."
"How close?" Calvin growled.
"Twenty three feet to north."
Calvin looked to the right.
"North."
Hobbes and Socrates looked behind them.
MTM sighed. "To the left."
Calvin, Hobbes and Socrates turned, just in time to see a bright and blinding light speeding towards them.
"AAUGH!"
Andy trudged through the forest, dodging tree branches and crawling over logs, trying to catch up with his friends. "Darn it! How is Calvin this fast?" he grumbled, searching the darkness for some sign of them.
"Well I mean, he is chased by tigers all the time," Sherman said, tightly holding onto Andy's pocket.
"True…," Andy panted. "Okay... I need to stop for a moment."
The boy slowed and put his hand against a tree for support.
"Wow... for an evil cult wearing movement restricting cloaks, they can really move fast."
"In their defense, we also spent a fair amount of time arguing." Sherman said, looking around in all directions. "Sometimes I really wonder how we get anything done."
"We usually don't," Andy nodded.
Suddenly, a twig snapped somewhere in the distance. Andy and Sherman tensed up and froze, and Andy's breathing slowed.
"Where was that?" Andy whispered.
"Behind us…," Sherman said, shakily.
Andy slowly nodded and slowly turned his head.
In the darkness he couldn't make anything out aside from trees and bushes.
"Shall we continue?" Sherman said, quietly.
"Yes," Andy said, not taking his eyes off of the trail behind.
He took another step forward until he heard another snap behind him. He froze again.
"What if it's one of the evil crazy people?"
"Well, it's not going to help anyone by staying here!" Sherman insisted.
CRACK!
Andy jumped and whipped around, as a deer leapt in front of him and bounded off into the darkness. The boy clutched his chest in horror as he watched it.
"Oooh... Oh boy..." He groaned. "I can't take jumpscares, man."
"Yeah…," Sherman agreed, also clutching his tiny chest. "Let's hurry up and catch up with everyone."
Andy nodded and turned towards the direction he had been going, only to be met with a blinding light that seemed to be cutting through the forest towards him.
ZZZZZZZZT
Brainstorm, however, had been completely turned around in the forest. As he ran around in circles, chased sounds that ended up being squirrels and deer, and generally heading in the completely wrong direction, Jack followed quietly behind him, knowing full well where they needed to go, but deciding to see how long it took Brainstorm to figure it out.
After a while of running, Brainstorm paused and leaned against a tree, trying to catch his breath.
"JACK!" he half shouted, clutching his chest. "How... pant... How much... pant... further?"
Jack casually walked up to the mad scientist. "Ready to admit you're lost yet?" He asked simply.
"Dr Brainstorm does not get lost!" Brainstorm announced. "I just... It's too dark in here! I don't know how that Calvin can figure out where he's going!"
"He has a flashlight."
"This is prime example of why I'm in charge of this operation, Jack!"
"Operation?"
"Because if you were in charge, you'd just make smart remarks the whole time, and we'd never get anything done and the world would never get taken over!"
"That's kinda what happens anyway, but sure."
"Shut up! We must continue!"
"Oh, you won't be continuing with much more for very long."
Dr Brainstorm and Jack froze at the sound of the cool voice behind them.
Brainstorm whipped around to meet the face of a man wearing a black plague mask. "YOU AGAIN!" he growled. "WHAT DO YOU WANT?! CAN'T YOU SEE I'M BUSY?!"
Shade didn't respond, he simply stared at Brainstorm silently, crossing his arms and lifting his head slightly. Behind him, the outline of Shack came into view as he sprinted up as well, waving.
"JACK! JAAAAACK!" he called, happily.
"Oh god…," Jack groaned.
Shack approached and happily moved towards Jack.
"Hey ol' buddy! How you doing?!" he grinned, shoving his face into Jack's.
"Annoyed... as usual," Jack said, taking a step back.
"That's pretty cool!" Shack grinned. "Have I ever showed you my taxidermy collection?! I stuff them myself."
"I'm sure you do," Jack said, looking the man up and down in annoyance.
"Yeah. Some people think I have an unhealthy obsession with stuffing things that are dead. They're always the ones that haven't tried it! But since you're my best friend and all, you understand... I'm sure people judge your taxidermy collection too!"
Dr Brainstorm and Jack exchanged glances.
"Dude... we've met once…," Jack said, backing away and holding his hands up. "You're starting to cross over into slightly creepy status."
Shack laughed. "As long as I'm not crazy, because as everyone knows, I'm definitely not crazy!" His left eye began twitching, madly.
"Shack, enough," Shade said.
Shack looked up at Shade and grinned. "Oh yeah! Sorry boss!" he cackled, taking a step back.
Shade cleared his throat. "You know, I probably actually don't need to do anything, to be honest," he said. "Neither you nor your robot look capable of taking over a department store, much less the world."
"I resent that!" Brainstorm growled.
Jack shrugged. "Eh. Too much work."
"But to my knowledge, you're the only other people on this planet with access to dimension jumping technology, and you need to be taken care of," Shade growled, reaching into his pocket.
In a flash, Brainstorm whipped his servant ray out of his pocket and aimed it at Shade and Shack.
"I don't think so, Hawk Man!" He growled. "I may look incompetent, but faced with danger I am a force to be hold!"
There was a silence.
"Yeah, that didn't sound very threatening," Jack said.
"Shut it, Jack!"
Shade chuckled. "You act as though I'm going to kill you? No, no... I wouldn't waste the energy."
Brainstorm raised an eyebrow.
"Not when there's an alternate reality right next door full of things that will do it for me," Shade cackled, throwing his hand out from his cloak and tossing a small Frisbee like metal disk at the mad scientist.
"SERVANT RAY DO NOT...!"
Brainstorm was cut off mid-sentence as the disk stopped in midair and seemingly exploded in a blinding flash of purple and blue light, briefly illuminating the forest.
As the forest fell back into darkness, the disk collapsed in the dirt. Brainstorm and Jack had vanished, and Shade and Shack were left starting at the empty space in front of them.
Shade walked over and picked the disk up from the ground.
"Let's get out of here." He growled. "We don't want any of those freaks in the hoods finding us."
"Ha ha ha! Yeah, there's nothing I hate more than freaky weird people!" Shack cackled, skipping over to Shade and taking his arm.
Shade pushed a button on his watch.
BZZZZT
There was an explosion of electricity, and the two villains vanished from sight. The forest fell into complete silence.
Well, aside from Sheila screaming angrily in the distance...