Chapter 11.
While initially thought to be an easy task, Limburger and Karbunkle were having a very difficult time in trying to move Spectre to the transporter, still strapped to the exam table. His behaviour was...animalistic, to say the least.
The bros exploded through the double doors of the lab, their guns still smoking.
"Alright Limburger, let him go," Modo sneered, his eye glowing a furious maroon.
A pistol appeared in Limburger's hand and was immediately aimed at Spectre's temple. "I cannot allow that to happen. I'm requiring this rodent to rid me of your repulsive reactions."
Vinnie grabbed a flare from his bandoleers, however the look on Limburger's face told him it was best not to even try a sneak attempt to burn through his shackles. He threw the flare across the room.
It was also then that the Biker Mice saw another side of their new friend.
Rather than being the withdrawn and quiet young mouse, he was instead thrashing and pulling at his restraints so much that they had cut into his wrists, a pool of blood forming on the floor. He was snarling and snapping, as if he had the mindset of a wild animal which had been tortured for months, even years. He was in a state of feral rage, and it all seemed to be directed towards Karbunkle.
So, while the bros couldn't try anything to free him, Limburger and Karbunkle were in a stalemate as they couldn't get near the table to try and move it.
They needed someone to break it. And it came from a very unlikely source.
Charley.
She had collected the flare Vinnie had thrown earlier, set it alight and threw it perfectly at the back of the table, destroying its mechanics. The restraints immediately went dead and Spectre, still in his frenzy, broke free and launched himself at the scientist who had so cruelly played with his mind.
Limburger went white underneath his mask. "No! Noooo!" he cried, as the trio of bikers advanced on him simultaneously.
Vinnie and Modo took hold of one arm each, while Throttle grabbed him by the front of the shirt and brought him face-to-face. "Listen here. No stinking Plutarkian ever takes a mouse back to your rancid home planet. Party's over, Limburger."
With that, the bros took their arch-enemy over to the transporter and threw him into the light, sending him to a distant planet where clouds of pollution lifted as high as the stratosphere.
"Well, that oughta keep him away from here for a while," Modo said, glad to see the Big Cheese gone for a while. He fired a few shots from his arm cannon at the roof of the transporter, putting it out of commission. Limburger wasn't coming back through this way.
Throttle eyed the destruction of the lab and saw Spectre kneeling over someone on a section of wrecked machinery, pummeling them into a pulp. Rushing over, the bros tried to take him off the unconscious Karbunkle, but were instead met with a sudden rush of pain as he thrashed all of them from his body within a few seconds. And then, he left Karbunkle and slowly stepped towards the Biker Mice.
"Talk about no appreciation," Vinnie said more as a statement than a joke. He rubbed his cheek after copping an elbow to the face.
"What are you doing, man?" Modo asked. He was annoyed that he had almost had another tooth broken.
In response, Spectre remained snarling like a wild dog fighting another over food scraps. His fingers were splayed and drool dripped from his mouth. The pointy ears and deranged orange eyes made him a positively scary sight.
Throttle watched him cautiously. Something must have set him off, and judging by Karbunkle's current physical state, he had a fair idea of what it was. He had seen it during the war where soldiers who were prisoners of war would go insane at the sight of a picture or even the mention of a simple word. He needed to try and subdue him but without causing to much damage.
"How are we gonna do this?" he muttered to himself.
"Let me try."
It was Charley.
"No, Charley-girl. You might get hurt."
"He thinks that you're going to hurt him. Just trust me on this, ok?"
Throttle still looked skeptical.
"Last time you said I might get hurt, I got jumped. Now, let me do this!"
He sighed. "Ok, but if he tries to attack you, I'll be forced to step in."
"Charley..." Vinnie started to tense up at the sight of his girl trying to calm some kind of monster.
"You got a better idea, Vinnie?" she asked.
Vinnie shook his head.
The pretty mechanic slowly crept forward, but made sure to keep enough space between them so Spectre didn't feel threatened. She spoke in a low voice, trying not to spook him with too much noise.
"It's ok, no one is going to hurt you. It's me. It's Charley. The lady who helped fix your bike."
The dark brown mouse looked as if he recognised her, but still kept his guard up.
"Try and get control of yourself. You remember me, don't you?"
His eyebrows started to relax a bit. He had stopped snarling and drooling, and he was breathing slower and deeper
"That's it, just calm down. Nothing bad will happen."
She was now an arms length away from him. She reached and placed her hand on his shoulder, then she pulled him closer and moved her hands to his shoulder blades, holding him. She felt his shoulders slump and heard his slightly gasp for breath, as if he had just woken from a bad dream. Pulling away, she looked into his eyes. They weren't like a feral animal anymore.
They were back to normal. He was back to normal.
He looked up to meet her gaze.
"You found me."
After a quick session of 'welcome backs' and 'well dones' it was time to go, but they paused when they heard Karbunkle groaning over the other side of the room.
Spectre closed his eyes, tensed and waited for the blackness to take him again, but he opened his yes and found that he could see fine.
He hadn't lapsed into his subconscience.
Charley saw that he was slightly confused, and stood next to him.
"You're free now," she said.
Spectre paused, and sighed. His dark side which lay inside him for years, was finally gone. Then he thought of one final dig he could do to Karbunkle before leaving the memory forever.
He went to his bike, popped open the grenade launcher and aimed it right at the mad scientists chrome dome.
"What are you doing?" Charley asked, slightly alarmed.
A sly smile spread across his face. "Watch this."
KER-CHUNK!
A projectile flew out from the barrel of the launcher and hit Karbunkle in the head, the bottle exploding on impact. A brownish colored liquid splashed all over his white lab coat. Karbunkle dropped back down, knocked out.
