Dance of the Dandruff Fairies

Chapter 3.

The sun was setting in the west, throwing shades over the silent forest of Skin Peel Valley. The silence was suddenly broken by the booming sound of the GRS-2's jet engine as the aquamarine vehicle darted right above the canopies. "Alright, let's do this right and let's do it quickly. Finding anything in these woods will be difficult enough without the help of sunlight." Ty stated before turning on the GRS-2 radio. "Alright, LabRat. We're flying above Snake Peel Valley right now…"

"Any idea where we should start looking?"

In the Gaglab, LabRat sat in front of a monitor while Abby playfully swirled around in the office chair next to him. A dissatisfied frown smeared across the young scientist's face as he flipped thru Abby's copy of Tales of the Scab Fairy. He let out a yielding sigh. "Nothing. This book doesn't have much on dandruff fairies and what little there is, is rather vague."

"I know, I know!" Abby exclaimed loudly as she pushed aside the shut-in. "Where do I push to talk to Ty?"

"Um, no pushing. Just talk into the mic." LabRat hesitantly pointed to a stationary microphone in front of the monitor.

Abby grabbed it by the neck with both hands. "Ty, do you hear me?"

"Yes Abby, I can hear you." Ty's voice mused thru the radio.

"I remember reading somewhere that the Dandruff Fairies live inside an enchanted cave with waterfalls and snow and magic mushrooms." Abby explained, full of excitement.

There was a moment of silence before Ty spoke. "You heard that, LabRat?"

"Yeah, I'm checking right now." LabRat stated as he typed the keyboard, staring intensely at the screen. "No waterfalls but there are a couple of caves in Snake Peel Valley." He read thru a certain article extra thoroughly. "Including a mine."

"A mine?" Ty blinked.

"Yeah, it was apparently used during the 1940s to mine for iron. And get this, no one has been to it in nearly ten years." LabRat explained thru the GRS-2's radio. "It's located a few kilometres to the west of your coordinates. Follow the mountainside and you can't miss it."

"Closed off, I guess." Ty said off handily.

"An abandoned mine would be a perfect place to set up a workshop. You wouldn't have to start from scratch." Andy stated. "Mad or not, Scab Fairy is still an inventor."

"We'll check it out immediately, LabRat." Ty talked into the radio.

"Fly safe." LabRat exclaimed.

"And bring me back a souvenir!" Abby's voice squealed thru the radio.

"We'll see about that." Ty scoffed and steered the GRS-2 in the direction of the mine.

"It does beg the question thou," Naomi began saying, "how can someone who invent and use technology actually believe they're magic?"

Ty let out a sigh. "The mentally ill create their own logic. Someone as deep into their conviction like Helena Globin will keep living inside their delusion regardless of evidence to the contrary. If you asked her, she'd probably tell you her inventions are magic."

The GRS-2 touched down at the mountain side that bordered the west end of the valley. In front of them was a typical 18th century mine with rails leading into it and its entrance was framed by a structure of wooden beams. Ty pulled up a spoke and pushed his controllers forward, driving the GRS-2 into the mountain. "Andy, turn on the ship's scanner, will you?"

The white-clade Grossologist nod off in surprise. "Huh? Um, sure."

The road ahead was already illuminated by the vehicle's headlights but now, a second pair of lights installed in the GRS-2's fenders cast a wave of green light thru the tunnel. It was scanning the mine for organic material.

Andy read the results on the little computer in front of him. "The mine is littered with human scabs," He double checked the readings, "and dandruff."

"Did you hear that, LabRat?" Ty spoke to the radio.

"Yeah, I'm gonna try to see if the DNA matches that of the crime scenes."

"I'll guess we just have to follow the trail of breadcrumbs." Ty japed.

"At least we know there won't be any birds eating these ones." Naomi retorted, earning her a small chuckle from her boyfriend.

Only fifteen meters in, the tunnel came to a sudden stop. A barricade of wooden planks blocked the Grossologists to continue any further.

"Oh no, shut close." Ty lamented. His lips then curved up into a smirk. "Anyone up for ramming it?"

"NO!" Both his teammates shouted simultaneously.

"Yeah, probably for the best. Not wanna do anything that could cause a cave-in." Ty stood up from his seat and tapped his Gross-Com. "LabRat, we're getting out of the vehicle."

"No!" Surprisingly, it was his sister's voice that came thru. "Don't go into the cave, Ty. You may get lost. You know our mom has advised us from running into condemned places."

"Um, Abby?" LabRat gently budged the redhead away from the microphone. "I understand you're worrying for Ty but he's a seasoned secret agent. He can take care of himself so don't sweat it."

Abby pouted. "I wouldn't worry if you send me with them."

"I can't send you on field duty until your head injury heals. Besides, you know Ty would burn me on a stick if I put you in harm's way."

Abby groaned and pouted.

"Interesting." Andy commented as he hoovered right below the cave ceiling. He'd just found that the barricade wasn't as solid as it looked. "Hey, guys. There's a human sized hole up in the corner here."

"Human sized and high up. Seems perfect for a flying supermodel." Ty mused. "Do you see anything on the other side?"

Andy peered into the opening. "Yeah, light, dim light. The tunnel is being lit up by low watt tube lights."

"Seriously?" Ty gasped.

"Seriously." Andy confirmed.

"Seem like we still got more to explore then." Naomi stated.

"Yep." Ty bowed and offered Naomi a helping hand. "Would my lady like a lift up?"

Naomi simple smirked. She jumped onto a rock that stuck out from the wall before spring-loading herself backwards, curled in mid-air and disappeared thru the hole in the barricade. Like a thread thru a needle.

"You guys coming over?" They could hear her giggle from the other side.

Andy simple smiled, shrugged and flew thru the hole.

Ty aimed his Gross-Pincher at the opening and fired the upper claw which attached itself to the barricade like a grappling hook. Ty then simple let the gadget haul him up and he slipped thru the hole.

He landed elegantly on the other side. He gave a quick look-over of his teammates before leading them further into the tunnel. The walls and ceiling had plenty of electrical wires and thou the light was dim, the tube lights were clear evidence that this place wasn't as abandoned as it appeared to be.

Andy stroked his hands over the wall. He then used the zoom-function on his Grossgoggles to examine the white flakes that gotten stuck to his fingers. "There's dandruff here too."

Ty crouched down and used his Gross-Pincers to pick up a pink slab off the ground. "And more scabs. We're definitely on the right track." He chuckled. "Get it? Tracks? As in rails?"

Andy sighed. "Yes, Ty. We get it."

Naomi walked slightly ahead of her teammates when some white dust tinkled down in front of her. Some landed on her nose, making her sneeze. She looked up and was meet with one of the oddest sights in her life. "Guys?"

The two boys followed her pointing finger, looked up at the ceiling and were struck with the same feeling of shock as their teammate. What they saw was dandruff completely covering the ceiling but not any normal kind of dandruff. Each and every flake was enormous. Thick like a rock and more than half-a-meter in diameter.

Ty squinted his eyes. "Are-are those things moving?"

Andy and Naomi realized he was right. The dandruff was moving, scrapping and nudging each other like they were trying to make room. Suddenly, one of the dandruff flakes dropped from the ceiling and landed behind them. The Grossologists all spun around and came face to face with the true nature of this dandruff. It was in fact an arthropod with eight legs and a pair of sharp, opposable fangs. Even more terrifying was the fact that it was the size of an American Pitbull. It hissed and aggressively clasped its fangs at the Grossologists.

Naomi immediately drew her Gagstaff while Andy armed himself with his goopshooter. Ty thou remained calm and used the bio-scanner on his GrossWatch to examine the creature. "LabRat, you got this?"

"Yeah, I'm aware." LabRat's voice spoke thru their Gross-Coms. "That thing's a Dandruff Mite. Also called Walking Dandruff."

"Walking dandruff?" Naomi blinked.

"Quite the nasty little parasite. They burry into the skin of its hosts, causing the skin to get irritated and flake. Some species even camouflage themselves as dandruff."

Then, three other dandruff mites dropped to the floor and took up the same threatening stance against the Grossologists. Then two others. Then four more landed.

The team of Grossologists took a fearful step back. "I'm starting to think these mites will do something far worse to our skin than just irritate it." Ty stated in a fearful tone.

At that moment, one dandruff mite fell off the ceiling and landed on Andy's head who shrieked at feeling its legs tangle in his hair. Using her Gagstaff, Naomi immediately struck the creature off her teammate's head, sending it flying at other mites.

"They're going to flay us!" Ty cried out.

The mites on the ground rushed at the Grossologists while the ones in the ceiling started dropping upon them but they were quick to react. Ty and Andy fired their goopshooter at the incoming arachnids while Naomi swatted them with her Gagstaff, its static shocks paralyzed any mite that was hit with the full blunt of the weapon. In the end it wasn't the strength of their enemies but their numbers that overwhelmed them. "There's too many of them!" Naomi exclaimed.

"You're right, let's leg it." Ty ordered. He let Andy and Naomi run ahead of him while he stayed behind and made a barrier of slime with his goopshooter, hoping it would slow down the mites. He then ran after his teammates.

"Ty, no! Run out of the mine, not further in!" Abby shouted at the monitor. Seeing her little brother getting assaulted by mutated bugs without doing anything about it was worse than the scariest horror movie she'd ever seen. "LabRat, do something!"

"Relax. This is on the low end of freaky situations Ty's gotten himself out of. Here, take a candy bar." LabRat said and handed her a wrapped candy bar.

Abby frowned at him but none the less, took the candy bar and bit off a marginable chunk of it, shewing it bitterly.

The Grossologists had run out of the tunnel and followed the railway into a large cavernous area with a seemingly bottomless pit. From here, the railway went uphill making it even harder for them to run with the dandruff mites practically knowing at their heels already.

At that moment, Andy noticed a large metal pipe mounted above the railway. "Ty, I got an idea." Andy exclaimed before activating his hoover-boots.

He flew up to the pipe and pulled a wrench out of his belt. Andy didn't know much about mining but he knew that these sort of pipes where usually used to drain the mines of water and other waste products. He started to unscrew the bolts on the pipe.

Ty saw his teammate and understood what he was thinking but he also feared Andy might have miscalculated. 'Better safe than sorry.' He thought to himself. "Naomi, let me carry you."

"What? Ty, I don't need-

This time, Ty wouldn't have it. He pulled her to him by the wrist and lifted her up bridal style. He then activated his jetpack and jetted forward.

Andy had managed to unscrew four bolts so far and while he wanted to do more, he understood he was out of time. 'This pipe and these bolts are pretty old and rusty so they might break anyway.' He flew higher before slamming his entire bodyweight onto the pipe which broke and let out a torrent of sludge and dirty water. With only seconds to spare, Ty and Naomi passed by the wet avalanche but the dandruff mites where not so lucky as they were flushed off the railway by the torrent of dirty water and into the dark abyss.

Ty deactivated his jetpack once he landed and Naomi slipped out of his arms. Andy then descended from the air and landed in front of the couple. He was a bit worried his plan had been too rash but all his worries evaporated when he saw the smiles of his teammates.

"Andy! Way to go, buddy!" Ty cheered and punched his best friend in the shoulder. He probably put more force into it than intended but he was just so proud of him that he couldn't help it.

Naomi practically threw herself at the chubby little guy, giving him a tight hug. "You were amazing, Andy!"

Andy blushed and tried to say something but all that came out of him was incoherent stammering.

While the Grossologists where busy celebrating their minor victory, one dandruff mite had strayed from the pack and headed in the opposite direction of the mine. It came upon the wooden boards and started climbing up the barricade. It fell thru the hole and landed on its carapace. After some straggling, it managed to right itself onto his legs.

It then found itself a warm place to rest…

The GRS-2.

"Did you see that, LabRat? My brother and that chubby pervert were absolutely amazing!" Abby jubilatted and randomly gave LabRat a quick hug.

"Don't forget that Naomi kicked a lot of mite-butt too." LabRat pointed out.

"Yeah, whatever." Abby brushed off the comment. "But Ty was so cool with that jetpack. Whoow! And he does those kind of things all the time?"

"Not just him. You pull of all sort of amazing stunts all the time. Both of you are some of the best Grossologists there's ever been and the rest of the team is catching up to you." LabRat explained. "You should know how much this town owes to you two."

Abby smiled at the praise and the feeling of pride she felt over her brother but that feeling soon vanished, along with her smile. Another emotion creeped into her. She couldn't quiet place it. It was a feeling of emptiness. "Um, LabRat?"

The young scientist had resumed operate the monitor but he looked over at her when she spoke up.

"Will you need me here anymore?" She asked.

"Hmm, I don't think so. I'll call you if we're in need of more of your Scab Fairy wisdom."

"I was thinking to take a look around the lab. I promise not to break anything." Abby held her hands over her chest and gave him her puppy dog face.

"Sure. Just don't go into the Gross-Vault again." LabRat shot her a smile before resuming operating the monitor.

Abby hung her head low, not even looking at all the scientific equipment as she sauntered thru the gaglab. "Ty was right, he doesn't need me anymore." She lamented to herself. "He's so brave and clever now and he has friends to rely on, even if they are a chubby pervert and a pretty girl I can't stand." She let out a sigh. "What am I supposed to do with myself now when I'm not needed?"

When she walked past an open door she stopped in her tracks and stepped back. The room inside looked like a gym and that odd blonde boy on a mattress in the middle of it, seemingly meditating and listening to music. "Chester?"

Startled, Chester opened his eyes and turned off the music with a remote. "Oh, hey Abby." He greeted her in a friendly tone.

Abby approached him. "What are you doing in here?"

Chester got onto his feet. "Just trying to find a way calm my nerves. I-I really messed up last time." He rubbed the back of his head.

Abby tilted her head. "You mean when you erased my memories?"

"Yeah." Chester looked away in guilt. "I just have it way too easy to let my emotions get the best of me."

"Yeah, I have that problem too." Abby admitted, feeling shame build inside of her as her eyes fell to the side. "That was why my parents sent me to a terrorist."

"Therapist." Chester corrected. "And yeah, I know. You told me."

"I did?" Abby blinked. She hadn't even told Ty about it until today.

"Um, yeah," Chester again rubbed the back of his head but this time it was in embarrassment, "You actually gave me some really good advice on how to wire down. Wish I was a bit better at implementing them thou."

"Really? Can you teach me?" Abby asked giddily.

Chester blinked. "Um, sure. First step you used to tell was to not fight your emotions but to flow with them."

Abby tilted head and raised a puzzled eyebrow.

"Yeah, you were a lot better at explaining this than me." Chester stroked his hand thru his hair. "Anyway, the second step you mentioned is to think about something you're grateful for."

Abby pouted. "Well, I'm not grateful for anything right now."

"Because of your memory loss?" Chester asked. The concern in his voice made Abby feel oddly safe and a bit humble.

"No, I'm used to it. It's just…I feel sort of useless." Abby admitted.

"That's not true at all!" Chester cried out without even thinking. Seeing Abby's befuddled expression caused him to step back. "I mean," Chester paused as he contemplated what he should tell her, "even thou you've forgotten some of your skills, you can always learn those skills again."

"Really?"

Chester nodded. "Of course. You might not be able to do much right now but I know you got more potential than you can even believe." 'That's how I feel about myself whenever I see you.' He thought to himself.

Abby smiled from ear to ear. She felt so dejected a moment ago yet only a minute of talk with this blonde boy and suddenly she felt ready to take on the entire world. That was when she had an idea. 'If Ty has new friends in this future, maybe I can make friends as well.' She grabbed the boy's wrist. "Do you want to show me around the lab?"

Chester's eyes were wide with confusion. "Um, sure I guess but I think-

Abby didn't let him finish before dragging him out of the room, a childlike laughter escaping her throat.

"Ty," Naomi spoke up as she and Ty walked down yet another tunnel while Andy walked ahead of them, "I'm sorry I was so stubborn back there."

"That's alright."

Naomi's face sunk. "You and the others do so much and I-I just don't want to be seem useless."

Ty smiled and rolled his eyes. "I don't think you nor Chester are useless but you're definitely overly ambitious and way too hard on yourselves." He stopped walking and made sure she meet his gaze. "There's nothing wrong with relying on others, right? That's why we're a team."

Naomi smiled and noded. 'Ty's smile is so cute.' "Right!"

"Um, guys?" Andy called out as he stared wide eyed into a crevasse carved into the side of the tunnel. "You should see this." Ty and Naomi ran to him. Both of them gasped simultaneously when they saw the same thing that had stunned their teammate.

It was a cave filled with a thick layer of snow. It even glistened like a winter wonderland. "Is this…snow?" Naomi wondered as the team stepped onto the blanket of compacted flakes.

"Nah, it's too warm for snow. Besides, I think we all know what it is." Ty exclaimed.

Andy scanned the floor with his GrossWatch and checked the results. "Dandruff, but there's so much of it."

"So, you've finally found me, goblins." Immediately upon hearing that voice, the Grossologists drew their weapons and aimed them upwards. The Scab Fairy descended from the darkness up above with a wicked smirk on her lips.

"Wow, look at those curves." Andy said with a giddy grin.

"Andy, focus!" Ty chastised his lewd teammate.

"A scientist, a cosplayer and a total babe. She'd be totally my type if it wasn't for the entire crazy villain stuff." Andy joked.

"For the love of Darwin, this is a kidnapping case! Take it seriously!" Ty roared furiously.

"Oh, sorry." Andy exclaimed bashfully.

"I have to say, you goblins are amazingly dedicated to vexing me." The Scab Fairy stated. "You even surpassed my dandruff mites. I paid plenty a' coin to a witch called Arachnidia for those creepy crawlies. One bite from one of those and you'll be washing dandruff out of your hair for weeks."

"Was that how you gave those girls dandruff in the first place?" Ty asked.

"Wouldn't be a bad idea and I'll certainly use it later when I need some extra labour but no. twenty-one days ago, I detonated a small bomb containing enchanted yeast near a grade school. I then simple waited till the children got dandruff and had my pick of the litter with the use of this." She pulled out a small device from behind her back. It looked like a fancy handheld mirror with angel wings carved into its frame but instead of a looking glass it had a computer screen built into it. "This is the Dandruff-Catcher. It can locate anyone with dandruff within an entire miles radius."

"Enough with the show n' tell!" Ty barked at her. "Get down on the ground and tell us where the missing kids are."

The Scab Fairy simple grinned and pushed a button on her Scab Sceptre. Five hydraulic containers were lowered down from the ceiling, all drum-shaped and about six feet tall. One after one, they opened up, revealing the five missing girls (including the brunette Ellie) inside. All of them wore the same long, white dresses and had similar kinds of mechanical wings on their backs as the Scab Fairy, except theirs were rounder and more butterfly like. All of them seemed to be asleep.

Naomi gasped and covered her mouth, Andy blinked and Ty grit his teeth.

"Dandruff Fairies! Wake up and say hey to your new playmates!" The Scab Fairy hollered.

The little girls opened their eyes, revealing that their irises had turned silver and their pupils had turned white. A state of brainwashing. All at once, the girls flew out of their containers and started to flock around the Grossologists like a swarm of angry bees.

They then drew wands out of their sleeves and Ellie thrusted it at Andy, blasting him in the face with a white ray that burst into dandruff upon impact. The chubby Grossologist cringed and started scratching his nose.

"Andy!" Ty exclaimed worryingly.

"It's fine. Their blasts don't hurt. They just itch a little." Andy stated.

Meanwhile, Naomi were jumping and trying to grab the two Dandruff Fairies flying above her but to no avail. She was hit in the neck by one of the Dandruff Fairies and stopped to scratch it. 'They're not dangerous, just irritating. Still, I can't use my martial arts against them. They're just children after all. Brainwashed children but still.'

Ty and Andy stood back to back as they fired their goopshooters at the flying girls, only lose shots thou, hoping it would immobilize their wings while they were still flying low. One of the Dandruff Fairies hovered still in the air and Ty took aim at her, certain of a direct hit. However, just as he was about to shoot, the little girl fired her wand directly into the goopshooter's barrel. Ty squeezed the trigger but instead of an explosive burst of slime, there was a fart-noise before green sludge squeezed itself out of the barrel. "Hey, what gives?" Ty complained, giving his goopshooter a look over.

"That's called wet dandruff, you ignorant goblin." The Scab Fairy explained. "Extraordinary oily dandruff that sticks to hair like glue and I'm afraid it just glued your dirty little toy shut." She cackled maniacally before holding up her Scab Sceptre and pushed another button.

Suddenly, the ceiling that had been so high up it been covered in darkness now let in light as a giant scuttle opened up, revealing the starry night sky above.

"Playtime is over! Let's take to the stars, my pretties!" The Scab Fairy proclaimed before she headed towards the open ceiling with her Dandruff Fairies following her close behind.

"Oh no, you don't!" Ty activated his jetpack and jetted after the escaping fairies. In truth thou, without his goopshooter he had no way to apprehend the Scab Fairy in mid-air but he didn't even think of it. All he cared about was getting to those girls in time.

With all of her little helpers out of the cavern, The Scab Fairy grinned as she once again pushed the button. Ty was mere seconds away from the opening when the scuttle closed in front of him. Ty instinctively decelerated before the doors could crush him, leaving him hovering with a shocked expression of disbelief.

They failed.

The GRS-2 touched down in the gaglab's hangar bay. LabRat was awaiting them, Hermes perched atop his shoulder as usual. The GRS-2's door opened up and the three Grossologists walked out, all of them slumping their heads and shoulders in misery as they mosey along.

"Welcome back." LabRat greeted.

"We completely failed." Naomi sighed regretfully.

"I was this close, LabRat. This close." Ty pinched his fingers to demonstrate. "Yet, I couldn't save a single child."

"Well, at least you tried something." Andy exclaimed. "We were useless."

"Cheer up." LabRat placed a comforting hand on Ty's shoulder. "Today was definitely a failure but at least we now know the girls are alive."

"Brainwashed but sure." Ty jived.

"We'll find them again soon enough. Come on, you three need to fill out a report to The Director."

"Oh, that sounds like fun." Ty retorted sarcastically as the three of them followed LabRat out of the hangar bay.

The moment they we're out of the room, Abby and Chester snuck in. "Um, Abby? Why are we sneaking around?" The blonde asked.

"For fun. It's like playing hind 'n seek without the looker knowing." Abby ran up to the GRS-2. "Wow, this is so cool. Is this like a spaceship or something? Have we been fighting aliens?"

"I don't think so. That's the bureau's alt-terrain vehicle, the GRS-2." Chester replied.

"Two?" Abby blinked. "What happened with GRS-1?"

"Andy turned it into a robot and then that robot was crushed by another robot that looked like a dinosaur."

Abby just stared at him with a raised brow.

Chester shyly rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, things really does get weird around here."

"Can we go inside?" Abby head gestured to the vehicle.

Chester scratched his hand. "Well, any registered Grossologist can get in but I don't think-

Before he could finish, Abby opened the vehicle's door and got inside. She marvelled at the controls and monitors in the relatively spacious vehicle. "Wow, this looks almost like the set for an old sci-fi show on cable TV. Hey, do you know how to drive this?" She turned to the blonde boy who had just stepped aboard.

For some reason, Chester was a bit taken by the question. "Um…" The hallucination of Kid Rot popped up next to him. "Tell her you can and offer her a ride. And then, she might offer you a ride." The parasite chuckled. Chester huffed and waved off the hallucination. "No, I'm not a pilot. I'm not much of a tech guy at all, actually. I'm more of a flora and fungi kind of guy."

"So, who usually drives this thing then?"

"Either you or Ty. You're both really good pilots."

"Really?" Abby asked rhetorically as she walked over to the pilot seat, stroking the armrest before slumping down into the seat.

Unfortunately, Abby failed to notice the eight legged creature, crawling up the backrest behind her. She eyed the control board in front of her with a wanting smile. "Maybe we should take this darling for a ri-

Suddenly, the stowaway dandruff mite jumped onto her head and dug its claws and fangs into her scalp. Abby shrieked in horror and got off the seat. "Get it off! Get it off!"

Chester didn't even think but immediately swatted the arthropod off his teammate's head. It bounced off the wall and fell onto its back. Chester then blasted it with a ray of dark energy. The mite died immediately, its legs cramped in to itself as rigor mortis settled in.

"Are you okay?" Chester almost shouted with worry. He grabbed Abby by her right shoulder while parting some hair on her forehead. The bug had left some claw marks in her scalp but nothing serious.

"I'm fine." Abby said as Chester forced her head down so he could study the head injury she got previously, just to make sure the mite hadn't reopened any wounds. Everything seemed fine thou.

Chester sighed in relief. "Thank god. You seem fine but I still think LabRat should look you over."

"What was that thing?" Abby asked.

"I don't know." Chester glanced at the dead body. "Seem like some sort of arachnid."

"Not it. I mean what you just did. What was that?"

With a look of absolute horror, Chester let go of her and took a few steps back. He stared at her with tense, fearful eyes.

Abby stared back at him with eyes full of confusion, begging for understanding.

Chester's head lowered in defeat. 'Why am I even trying to hide it? She would have found out eventually. She deserve to know.' "It's my powers." He spoke but couldn't bring himself to look up at her. "I can rot organic matter instantaneously."

Abby tilted her head. Once again, this Chester person puzzled her. As far as she knew, he was the only human being on the planet with superpowers. One would think he'd be happy over it but he seemed so distraught. Did his powers hurt? Maybe he felt like an outcast. Abby could certainly relate to that. 'Wait, rot? Didn't he mention someone with a name like that earlier?' Abby pondered. "Are you Kid Rot?"

Chester froze up upon hearing that. He could not imagine Abby saying anything worse. 'She'll see me as Kid Rot, as a monster. Please don't hate me. Please, don't leave me.'

"Abby!" Ty cried out as he and LabRat rushed into the vehicle. "We heard you screaming. Are you alright?"

Abby smiled reassuringly at her little brother. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"What happened?" LabRat asked.

"It was my fault." Chester started, gazing at the floor. "We snuck in here and that thing attacked Abby." He gestured to the dead dandruff mite. "I killed it with my rot powers without even thinking."

"It's one of the dandruff mites." LabRat stated as he strapped on a pair of yellow gloves and picked the carcass off the floor.

"Don't blame him." Abby pleaded. "I didn't listen to him when I snuck in here and he saved my life. Or at least my hair. Same thing, really."

"I think we've had enough excitement for one day." LabRat stated. "I need to analyse and profile all of today's findings. You guys should go home and get some rest. Maybe we can pick up our search tomorrow."

The Archer siblings were walking home. Abby couldn't help but notice the dejected expression on her brother's face. "Ty, did the mission not go over well?"

Ty sighed. "No, Abby. It didn't go well."

"I wish I could have been useful." Abby said in a depressed manner.

Ty chuckled a bit. "I think you did more to help than anyone else today, Abby. Even without your memories you're apparently the best of us."

The girl beamed like the sun. "Thanks but you know, I saw you on LabRat's big computer. You were amazing, even thou that chubby pervert did the most important stuff. I believe that tomorrow you'll be beating the bad guy and saving the day like a superhero."

Ty smiled at her. "Thanks Abby. I feel a bit more cheery now."

Their house came into view and Ty started to think of an excuse to give their parents as to where they've been all day.

"Ty, can I ask you something?" Abby sounded shy.

"Um, sure."

Abby hesitated to voice her question for a moment. "Is Chester and I close?"

Ty grinned mischievously as they walked onto the pathway of their yard. "How close do you wish?"

"Like, are we friends? Do we hang out and such?" Abby asked, seemingly oblivious to Ty's subtle hints.

"Oh." Ty stopped in front of the door. "Well, I don't know the complete nature of your relationship but I know for sure that Chester cares for you." He opened the door and entered their house.

"Cares for me, eh?" Abby whispered to herself before entering her home. She had an idea of what she wanted to do tomorrow.

Author's Note:

In hindsight, I feel like maybe I should have written this episode earlier. I sort wanted to use this story to develop Abby and Chester as friends rather than love interests but since I already wrote in some shipping-moments in episode 5 (That Mockingbird Won't Sing) it's a bit difficult to make it come off that way. Oh well, live and learn I guess.

On the upside, I feel like I've learned much from working on this story. I had no idea what dandruff mites or wet dandruff was until I did some research for this chapter. Yes people, those are real things.

As always I'll appreciate any feedback you guys can give me. Been kind of sparse with reviews lately so it would be nice.

Till we meet again, Grossologists.