Chapter 19: Home Sweet Home

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"I made a promise on giving y'all your freedom back...and I doubt any of you want to go back to living in those dark, cold cells I made most of you live in for fifty years," Monger said as he lead us down the long hallway. B.O.B. was the only one who raised his hand as a response to Monger's comment, which I assumed because he really didn't know what Monger was talking about. Monger continued.

"I had a feeling that you monsters would have no place to go...so I got the facility a "make-over" if you will. I hope it fits to how you like it," he said. I exchanged glances with Doc once we got to the end of the hallway.

"...But before we get to that, let me show you the meet up area," Monger said, pushing a button near him in the wall. The huge, Susan sized door opened up.

It was a huge room. It was like looking into a Susan sized dining room. It had a nice wooden table and a wooden bench-like seat that looked like those kind from restaurants. There were plants in huge pots and a window that looked out inside the huge room we were once held in.

Doc, Link, and B.O.B. climbed up the massive table. I tried flapping my wings to fly up onto the table, but it didnt work. Instead, it brought more pain to my broken body. Susan placed her huge hand down in front of me. "Here, I'll help you up," she said in a kind voice. Hesitant, I walked onto her hand. It felt squishy. I asked if it hurt her. She said no.

"You feel as though you weigh as much as a small rock," she commented. I felt my momentum and balance leave me once Susan began to lift me high up. I fell on all fours onto her palm. For a brief moment when I was high above, I felt like Hogarth from The Iron Giant when he made the huge robot pick him up. It was amazing. A bit scary too, but in a good way. Thrilling.

The moment left once Susan put me down on the table where the male monsters were standing. Then Susan walked over and sat down at the table. Monger was already on the table surface too after taking a quick flight trip on his jet pack. I gave myself a mental note to ask Monger for a jet pack for myself.

"This is the meet up place. If you guys want to hang out together, and where we get updates on any possible alien invasions." With that, a bunch of computers and screens came up, showing us places all around the world. Everyone else seemed estatic. I on the other hand had mixed feelings about the whole thing.

Monger smirked at the looks on our faces. "Since you guys did a great job in taking down that last alien, I thought you guys wouldn't mind being a part of a team, a "Monsters vs Aliens" idea if you will. Investigators of any unusual, paranormal, or any suspicious alien activity. The president said himself that he has passed the idea. So you guys are officially Protectors of the World.

Everyone was speechless. It took me a long minute to let all of this sink into my cranium. A protector of the world, a paranormal investigator. Monsters vs Aliens? I felt so overwhelmed by the very idea.

We all looked through the window to see what was down there.

Down below was a huge room, enough to fit a city inside, which was what was inside the said room. At first, I was very confused as I gazed down upon the place through the glass. The buildings were grey and white. Crisp and clean. They looked fake. That's when I realized that they were. The windows and doors looked like they didn't really work. They looked like models. Unpainted models of buildings for a miniature place, only...life sized.

Just then, we all heard a familiar roar, and soon after, one of the buildings was seen falling over. Rising from the heart of the fake city, was Insectosaurous. "Insecto!" cried Link happily as he came up to the window.

Insecto was already in the huge room and was already eating away at the buildings. Monger stepped up next to us near the window and gestured down to the huge room where Insecto and the city was.

"This is Insecto's place. Thought it would be nice to have him close by so you guys can visit him and he wont get lonely...Those buildings are the same material and is a replica of Tokyo," explained Monger as we looked out the window. "Thought it would be nice for the Bug Boy to have," Monger added. Link placed his hands against the glass, grinning from finned ear to finned ear.

"This is perfect for Insecto!" Link said happily.

I looked at the amazing New Tokyo, now being destroyed by Insecto. Insecto lifted his massive head up to where we were and gave us a happy roar. Link waved back to him, happy for his friend. "You enjoy those buildings, big guy," he said. Insecto nodded and gave another demented screech as he turned back to the building he was eating and continued munching away.

Monger called to us to follow along as he turned his jet pack back on. "Time to show you the rest of the place." With that, he took off from the table and flew across the room and back down to the floor. The male monsters got down from the table no problem. Susan offered her hand to me and I took another trip down off the giant table and down to the ground.

Monger showed us around the newly renovated facility. He told us thst we were free to do whatever we wanted, as long as we stayed by the rules and kept our side of the bargain of protecting the earth from alien invasions. I suddenly felt my stomach flip flop. It suddenly felt like a lot, asking for a couple monsters to protect the entire world whenever aliens from other planets decided to stop by Earth and take over.

I tried not thinking about it and focused on what Monger was showing us. He showed us the cafeteria where all the other scientists and caretakers of the facility ate. He said that since we were now part of the facility, and not prisoners, the cafeteria had to be upgraded, with more cooks, more state of the art ovens, toasters, stovetops etc, and a lot of food.

"Just ask for what you want and the cooks here will prepare it for you," Monger said. B.O.B. was thrilled at the mention of it. "Anything?" He asked excitedly. Monger nodded and gestured to the five chefs behind the stainless steel counter. "These are our top chefs. They can make you anything," he said. "Anything?" Asked B.O.B. again.

"Anything."

"Anything?!"

"Anything."

"Anyth-"

"B.O.B.! Stop," Link snapped in irritation.

Monger chuckled. "Let's move on, shall we?"

Next, he showed us "The hangout room" a place where we could all just relax and be together. The room was enormous with a couch big enough for Susan to sit in, and a normal size couch for me and the other monsters. There was a huge screen TV, bigger than a movie theatre screen TV. Monger told us that we had free access to any movie, TV show or game we desired.

"Movie Night!" Susan called out. The others whooped and cheered excitedly. I smiled excitedly and the heavy, nervous pit in my stomach seemed to slowly disappear.

Once we turned back, Monger lead us over to where our "cells" were. Link got a little apprehensive about having to stay in the cells again, but Monger calmed him down and explained himself.

"I am not gonna treat you guys like prisoners here, you guys are free, like I said..." He took a moment to take a breath before turning to where Susan's cell was. "...Here, let me show you instead," he said as he pushed the button on the side. The wall opened up and inside was Susan's room.

"Oh my gosh!" Susan was the first to express her emotions. We were stunned as well. It was the room any girl would ever want…not really me, but it was still cool.

Its walls were a nice pink and the bed was also pink, and bigger than any giant sized bed I have ever seen. You could literally fit a house on top of the bed and have the quilted covers be the front yard and the backyard. On the floor and near the bed, there were huge stuffed animals the size of baby whales. Susan also had her own nightstand with a huge lamp. What was even more stunning was that Susan's room was extended to where it even had its' own walk-in closet with clothes and accessories just for Susan to try on.

"It's amazing!" she shrieked with joy and jumped on her bed.

"If there is anything else you want added in your room, you can tell me," said Monger. He turned to us. "Same goes for the rest of you," he assured us. Link smirked. "I'll believe you, once I get to see my room," he said. Monger smirked back. "You'll see soon enough...next up, B.O.B.'s room," Monger announced as we left Susan in her room and walked down some more to the next room.

It was like a hallway or an apartment because all our rooms were next door to each other's.

We walked a little more before we stood in front of B.O.B.'s room. When Monger opened the wall up for B.O.B., the rest of us peeked in. My jaw dropped at the sight of B.O.B.'s room. Seriously, it was playground heaven for kids. If I were still a kid, I would have wanted B.O.B.'s room. It was so cool! It was like a kid's playground and a party store all rolled into one. Its walls were blue, and had a huge twisting slide, a whole bin of basketballs, kick balls, tennis balls, soccer balls, and any other sports ball you can imagine. There were colorful balloons, colorful streamers, and a couple of piñatas (with tons of candy) and all types of board games or other types of games in the back of the room. There were monkey bars, rings, twisty bars, every kind of thing you would see at a kids playground, but more insane. The floor felt gel like and there was even a hot dog cart in the corner.

"Oh Wow!" B.O.B. said excitedly, he couldn't stop smiling as he went into his room, gazing up at everything. " Is it my birthday!?" he asked Monger, turning to the general.

"Uh…sure," Monger said.

"This is the best day ever!" B.O.B. yelled excitedly and ran around his room playing with anything he could get his gel-like hands on. Link crossed his arms over his broad chest and chuckled a little. "I'm starting to want his room now," Link said smiling. Doc laughed as well. "Same. This is pretty crazy," he added.

"Well, you guys haven't even seen your rooms yet. It's time to show Doc his room now," said Monger.

Doc's room was equally as awesome as B.O.B.'s. It was like looking into Dr. Frankenstein's labratory, except more modern and advanced. There were tables of beakers, tubes, chemicals, and other science instruments. There were screens for researching on things or looking inside people's bodies. There were also microscopes, and a whole library on any kind of science (I bet there was even mad scientists books) and an operating table. His bed was in a dark corner of the room. The whole room was pretty much dimly lit.

Monger looked over to Doc's stunned expression on his face and laughed out loud. "Now I don't want to get any reports of you blowing up the facility or using the scientist's here as your guinea pigs," he warned.

"O…M…G!" was all we heard from Doc. He didn't seem to hear anythijng of what Monger said. All his attention was on his new lab.

He was in mad scientist heaven.

His eyes were wide in amazement and shock. He walked in his room. He scanned through the books and pulled a volume of Biology out.

"There is even a schute that brings you garbage any time you want," explained Monger as he pointed to a schute.

Next to it was a lever.

When Doc walked over to it, he pulled it down, and instantly garbage came rolling down. "I...I don't know what to say!" he finally said.

"You dont have to say anything Doc. Just think of it as a payment of apology and a thanks for taking care of the alien," Monger said to him. Doc smiled. Then as fast as lightning, he was in his new lab room. The mad scientist did an excited dance and turned to us. His eyes gleaming, even in the darkest part of the room. "This is so rad!" he beamed happily. We smiled back, happy for him. The door closed, and now it was just Monger, Link, and I.

"Now for The Missing Link," said Monger.

I have never seen Link so happy. Once we left Doc to his room, we looked inside the hybrids room. I looked up at him, while his eyes were on his room. His grin was wide, and his eyes were big and filled with pure excitement and happiness.

His room was like a gym with every single type of training equipment you could think of. Its walls were painted to look like the beaches of Florida. It had a real life Olympic pool that took up most of his room; it also had fish swimming in it! There were also weights of any size in the back of the room. It also had speakers for the radio and his bed was a waterbed, just the right size for him. Link crossed his arms and smiled.

"I admit it, I'm speechless," He said, trying to keep his cool, but I could hear his heart beating loudly in his chest and feel the excitement coming from him. It made me feel happy seeing him happy.

I was also pretty amazed at his room, even though I wasn't really into lifting weights and stuff. Truthfully, it kind of reminded me of P.E. Having to go into the gymnasium and do all those fitness exercises.

"Now for Bat's room," Monger announced, as we left Link with his room.

I turned my head to look at Link one last time. He was checking out the weights and lifting one of the heaviest ones from the rack over his head. I turned away as Monger and I walked down the hallway to my room, the last one at the end of the hallway. Monger stopped and gestured to the button on the wall.

"I'll let you push the button," he said.

Absentmindedly, I pushed the button.

I stared into my new room. My breath was taken away. It was my old room. My unmade bed, my posters, my shelves of books, even my action figures. "...How did you-"I started. "Classified" Monger interrupted me.

I didn't know what to say after that.

Everything was there. It was like I was back in my house. All my familiar things. I felt tears come to my eyes. I immediately missed my family. I cried, my shoulders trembling. I heard Monger come up next to me.

"It's only temporary," Monger told me. "Until we figure out what's going on and how to get your family's memory back...It's the best that I can do," he said softly. I nodded my head and wiped the rest of the tears away. "Thank you," I finally said. Monger nodded. "I hope it suffices," he said. I staredf at my room and nodded silently.

With that, he left me in my room. He waved goodbye to all of us as he activated his jet-pack and flew off. "Goodnight Monsters!" he shouted to us before disappearing through a secret opening in the wall and it closing behind him. The lights in the huge long room above us turned off, one by one till it was pitch black, except or the lights pouring out of each of our rooms. I heard Susan and the other monsters come out and look at each of the rooms.

Wearily, I came out and sat at the edge of my room. Everyone was so energetic and happy. I think I was the only one who felt homesick and sad. I was happy to at least have something that was from home, but...I wanted my normal life back. I couldn't stand being out of my element, away from what I was familiar with. I felt like a sword was going through my chest. The pain of knowing my family didn't know who I was. I felt so alone, so distant from everything. I wanted to be normal again.

"Hey, Batsy, you ok?" I heard Link ask. I looked up and noticed Link looking at me. I turned away and wiped the tears from my face. "Yeah," I replied. Link didn't really seem to notice that I wasn't and took a glance into my room.

"Huh, your room looks so...ordinary," he commented. I turned to look down at my fingers. "It's my old room," I explained. Link blinked in surprise. "Oh..." he said. My shoulders sagged a little. I suddenly didn't feel like socializing with the other monsters. I stood up and walked back into my room, my ears pressed down against the back of my head, and my wings being dragged carelessly across the wooden floor.

I pushed the button near me, letting the wall come down, and the darkness envelop me once again. I placed my sunglasses on the nightstand next to my bed. I laid down in my bed and pulled the covers up to my chin.

My bat ears picked up to everyone's footsteps and conversations till everyone finally went back to their new rooms. It was very late and we were all exhausted. Well, I was. I knew that for a fact. It was well past midnight and I haven't gotten a proper amount of sleep.

"Home Sweet Home!" I heard B.O.B. say from his room.

Home sweet home...the words didn't seem to fit with this place with me. I never wanted to come back here. I wanted to be in my real room, in my real house, with my family who loved me, and didn't scream in terror and didn't know who I was. More tears streaked down my face. I wiped them away and exhaled a shaky breath. It was my room. The blue walls, the shelves of books, my sketchbooks, the clothes on my floor and on my dresser...even my monster figurines.

I sighed and closed my eyes, trying to pretend that I really was back in my real room, in my real home...and pretending that I was my ordinary self again...

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A/N: Thank you Syd for the nice comment :3 I'm glad you are liking my story so far. Also I'm glad you liked my MVA Valentine's one shot. :)