Chapter 8
"So that hole was caused by you?" Polly asked her sister.
She was standing across the street from Jughead's house along with Betty and Jughead as the three of them watch a crew of repairmen going over the damage Ambrose had done to the Jones' house.
"Yep, I'll admit I was little caught off guard when he punched me," Betty answered.
"Really? Because he kind of announced that he was going to hit you," Jughead mentioned.
"I didn't think he was going to go through with it," Betty protested.
"Did it hurt?" Polly asked.
"Not really," Betty replied.
"Do you even know what pain is?" Jughead asked. "Because I think getting punched through a wall would qualify as something that hurts."
"I know what pain is," Betty answered slightly indignantly. "I might not experience pain from injuries, since I can't be injured. But that doesn't mean I don't know what pain is."
"Yeah, you should see her when she's near shard of the green meteor rocks," Polly stated. "She gets weak and uncoordinated and touching them, that causes her pain."
"Yeah like a burning sensation that just courses right through me," Betty added.
"Oh… wait a minute!" Jughead exclaimed. "Is that why you're such a klutz whenever you get near Archie? Because of that meteorite pendant he always wears?"
Betty nodded sheepishly.
"Well this is good," Jughead said.
"Good? How is this a good thing?" Betty asked.
"Because I can help now," Jughead said. "You might not be able to go near him, but I can. And I can take that pendant of his."
"Ah, and I thought that you two were going to end up together," Polly said putting her arms around the two of them.
"Oh come on Polly," Betty complained pushed Polly's arm off of her.
"Yeah, that's just wrong," Jughead agreed.
"Oh come on you two have been friends almost your whole lives," Polly said.
"Yeah, FRIENDS," Betty stressed. "No offense Jughead, but there's no romantic feelings on my side."
"None taken Betty," Jughead responded with a shrugged. "I've got no romantic feelings for you either."
"Or any girl really," Betty added with a smirk.
Jughead nodded in agreement.
"See I don't believe that," Polly said.
"You should see him at school," Betty said. "There's this trio of girls, Mina, Nina and Tina they all have a crush on him and he totally stonewalls their advances."
"Are they ugly or something?" Polly asked.
"Oh no they're definitely attractive," Betty answered. "Here look."
She pulled out her phone and pulled up a picture of the three of them.
"Oh, oh they are good looking," Polly said.
Betty turned the phone to Jughead who just shrugged nonchalantly. Then his stomach rumbled.
"Man I'm hungry. You guys want to head over to Pop's and maybe get something to eat?" Jughead suggested.
"Ah, I think I see now, Jughead's heart is overridden by his stomach," Polly commented. "Well one day Jughead a girl will win you over, very likely with her cooking."
"Maybe," Jughead admitted. "Just don't go telling them that."
"I think Pops already has a hold on him," Betty said with a laugh.
The three of them began walking down the street heading to Pop's. The local diner lay between their houses and the highschool and was a popular hangout for student. Back when Polly had gone to Riverdale High it had been known as the Chock'lit Shoppe. However the owner Terry Tate, had won a descent sum in the state lottery and had used the money to do some major renovations to the more than 60 year old diner and he'd reopened it with a new name, Pop's, after what all the students called him, Pop.
"So what did you guys do with Ambrose after you stopped him?" Polly asked.
"We called in an anonymous call from a pay phone that something was happening at the substation," Jughead answered.
"But you weren't there?" Polly asked.
"Well, I don't think trying to explain that I had just thrown Ambrose after he'd grown into a nine foot giant into a transformer with enough force to damage it was a good idea." Betty replied.
Jughead nodded in agreement.
"Fair enough," Polly said. "But I haven't heard anything about him being taken into police custody."
"Well they might be trying to keep that under wraps," Jughead said. "I can see the military being rather interested in somebody with Ambrose's powers."
"That's actually a scary thought…" Betty said. "Maybe we should have stayed behind."
"Look you can't worry about it now," Polly said. "Just be glad that it's over."
They arrived at the diner and went inside and sat down in one of the booths, Betty and Jughead on one side, Polly on the other. Maria Rodriguez, a pretty Hispanic girl in the same grade as Betty and Jughead came over with three menus. She was wearing a turquoise coloured dress with a white apron that served at the Diner's uniform.
"No need," Jughead said waving her off. "I know what I'm getting."
"Oh, uh do you two want menus?" Maria asked Betty and Polly.
"Yes please," Betty said taking a menu.
Polly took one as well and the two sisters looked them over, while Maria left to give them some time to look them over. It was fairly loud in the diner as Pop had 50's and 60's rock and roll playing all the time.
"So what was it like growing up knowing about Betty's powers Polly?" Jughead asked.
"I mean it was a little weird, but she was my sister," Polly said.
"Was? I'm not dead Polly," Betty protested.
"Sorry, sorry, just the whole learning you're actually an alien and all," Polly apologized.
"That is weird," Jughead agreed. "Anyway you were saying?"
"Well I knew that she was different, not like other kids or the rest of us." Polly said. "It led to some hilarious situations."
"Oh? Like what?" Jughead asked excited and curious.
"Well do you remember that Volvo station wagon we used to have?" Polly asked.
"Oh no," Betty groaned.
"Oh yeah the one with the seat in the back that faced backward," Jughead said. "I remember Betty and I used to love sitting in it when your mom drove us to swimming lessons. What happened to it?"
"Betty happened," Polly replied.
"Polly…" Betty complained.
Polly brushed off Betty's protests with a somewhat flippant wave of her hand.
"We were on a summer vacation, we'd driven all the way down to Arizona to see the Grand Canyon and we were on our way back," Polly regaled Jughead. "We were passing through Tennessee when we got a flat tire, probably because Dad was driving a little fast because Chic had gotten diarrhea from eating some bad fish in Louisiana the night before."
"That's a meandering route," Jughead commented.
"Well we'd gone to Houston to see the NASA space center and stayed the night in New Orleans, figured we should see the country," Polly explained. "Anyway back onto the story. So Chic had a very bad case of the runs and we were trying to get to the next rest stop when BOOM! Flat tire, the front passenger tire just went down."
"Oh I think I know where this is going," Jughead said chuckling as he looked at Betty who had her face buried in her hands with embarrassment.
"Now Betty was not quite 8 at the time," Polly said. "So she still looked up to Chic and she didn't want to him to shit his pants."
"I also have a more sensitive sense of smell," Betty added.
"Sure but really nobody wanted to smell that," Polly said. "So anyway Betty wants to help change the tire so we can get going. So dad gets the tire out and Betty grabs a hold of the front bumper and before my dad can stop her lifts up."
Jughead struggled to contain his laughter, "Let me guess, she tore the front bumper off?" he asked.
Polly nodded as she laughed herself.
"It screeched so loud, we were lucky there were no other cars on that stretch of the highway because that would have been something to explain," Polly said.
"Look, I was still seven," Betty protested. "I didn't realize you have to lift the car by the chassis."
"It's still funny," Jughead said chuckling.
"Oh it gets better," Polly continued. "So she bends the bumper back, not perfect but enough that the car at least doesn't look like it's been in an accident. And then after dad tells her to lift by the frame she does that with one hand and with the other she starts to take the nuts off the wheel, because she can do it faster than my dad could with the tire iron."
Jughead frowned not sure where this part was going.
"Problem is she took them off too fast," Polly said. "Stripped the threading right off of the bolts and the nuts. We couldn't put the spare tire back on. We ended up having to call a tow truck. The driver was confused as to how we'd even been driving with such stripped bolts."
Jughead started laughing.
"Oh my gosh, that is amazing," he said slapping the table.
"I think I made a mistake saving your life," Betty groaned as she looked up at the ceiling.
Just then Maria came back to take their order.
"Have you had enough time to look over the menu?" she asked.
"Well it's the usual burger for me," Jughead said.
"I'll have the fish and chips," Polly decided.
"And I'll have the turkey club," Betty chose.
"And anything to drink?" Maria asked.
"Root Beer floats all around," Polly said. "It'll be my treat to you two."
Maria nodded and left to place their order.
"I still wonder where Ambrose is…" Betty wondered softly.
Belle Reeve, 30 miles west of Riverdale
Veronica looked out the limousine window as it pulled up to what looked like a large country estate. They had passed through some large gates and drove at least a quarter mile up the driveway just to reach the building. It was a C- shaped building that was three stories tall with a roundabout driveway with a fountain in the middle.
"This is Belle Reeve?" Veronica asked a little confused.
"Don't let the appearances deceive you," her father Hiram said. "Belle Reeve houses some rather dangerous individuals, Mr. Pipp was just one of them."
Veronica could see the armoured truck that Ambrose Pipp had been loaded into stopped nearby. The back opened up and she saw Ambrose lying on a gurney.
"Come let me show you where they're taking Mr. Pipp," Hiram said.
He got out and led Veronica over to the side entrance where the two attendants from the truck were wheeling the unconscious Ambrose. Veronica took a glance at the IV bag that was currently hooked up to him and noticed that they were pumping him with sedatives. It made sense they didn't want to risk him escaping.
The side entrance went almost directly into an elevator and she and her father boarded with along with the attendants and Ambrose. However rather than go up as Veronica expected the elevator began to descend and it went far further than she expected.
When it opened they were in a long and wide corridor. There were large heavy doors on either side of the corridor always two opposite each other and space equally apart. It reminded Veronica of a prison.
The attendants wheeled Ambrose down the corridor until they arrived at specific door. One of them buzzed into a radio panel near the door and it opened remotely. They wheeled Ambrose into what was a room with rubber padding on the walls, the ceiling and the floor. There was a wood framed bed with a thin foam mattress. They lifted Ambrose off the gurney and put him on the bed and removed the IV before quickly exiting the room.
"What is this?" Veronica asked.
"This room was designed specifically to contain Mr. Pipp," Hiram replied.
"So you knew about him before today?" Veronica asked.
"Of course, he was given his powers here," Hiram answered.
"What do you mean given his powers?" Veronica inquired suspiciously.
"Come with me," Hiram said.
He led the way back to the elevator and Veronica followed him. She still wasn't sure what was going on but she had her suspicions. The elevator went up this time but Veronica could tell that they were still underground.
This time the door opened to reveal yet another corridor, however this one was lined with glass walls. On each side were some of the most extensive scientific labs that she had ever seen.
"You were only four years old when the meteor shower that began our family's good fortune hit Riverdale but you recall that I managed to secure the sole clean up contract," Hiram said as he walked down the corridor with Veronica following him.
"Yes, what of it?" Veronica asked.
"Well I made a rather low bid, the reason being was I was able to secure all of the meteorites that had hit the town, it was worth more than what the clean-up contract would have earned us." Hiram replied.
"The meteorites?" Veronica inquired more confused than ever.
"At first I thought that they were emeralds or something," Hiram said. "But tests on them soon showed they weren't, in fact their composition was nothing we had seen before. They showed properties we didn't even know existed; but perhaps the most interesting fact, they showed that they were capable of mutating a person's DNA."
He stopped at a particular spot and Veronica saw a teenage boy strapped to a table. Scientists dressed in clean suits surrounded him their identities concealed. There were tubes connected to him were pumping in some sort of green liquid. The boy seemed to be screaming in agony.
"What are they doing to him?" Veronica asked.
She was a little concerned, not so much for the boy's well-being. But rather for the potential lawsuit that could result if this was some kind of unsanctioned torture.
"They're pumping liquefied meteor rock into him," Hiram replied. "It has the strangest properties, it melts at about 600 Kelvin, but it doesn't revert back to a solid until it cools to 300 Kelvin. That alone is extraordinary don't you think."
"It defies the laws of thermodynamics," Veronica remarked. "But why pump him full of meteor rock?"
"To see what kind of mutation it can cause," Hiram said. "With Mr. Pipp we arced electricity through the meteor rocks into his body which is how he gained his powers."
Veronica was fascinated. As a xenobiologist this was exactly what her field of study was centered on.
Just then the boy on the table began seizing as he spasmed uncontrollably. The scientists moved to try and help him but suddenly he lay still. Veronica could see that he was bleeding from his mouth, nose, ears and even his eyes. It was soon quite clear that he had died having suffered massive internal haemorrhaging.
"Unfortunately not all of our experiments work," Hiram commented with mild disappointment. "Of course I'm hoping you can change that."
"What do you mean?" Veronica asked.
"I want to put you in charge of all this," Hiram said. "Hopefully you can use it to capture that Cooper girl, or if not perhaps duplicate whatever happened to her."
Veronica looked around at the facility, already thoughts were forming in her mind about what she could do.
"So do we have a deal?" Hiram asked.
"Oh yes," Veronica replied with a smirk. "I think I'm going to like it here."
A little bit of Betty's history and some insight into what sort of people the Lodge's are. We'll see what Veronica's first move is now that she has control of Belle Reeve soon, and perhaps Jughead will play matchmaker and get Betty and Archie together. Please review.
