DrC: So.
CrazyA: So.
DrC: You're back.
CrazyA: ... it's been a year.
DrC: Yes it has.
CrazyA: And... I'm sorry. I really, REALLY am. I've been really distracted with my other self-insert story and my work on my deviantart account-
DrC: WE MISSED YOU!
CrazyA: I MISSED YOU TOO! OH MY GOD, I'M SO SORRY. I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY AND I'M AWFUL AND I'M SORRY. I just really, REALLY hope that you guys like this chapter. Realistically it's going to be very slow for me to update this story, but if you guys are willing to wait for updates and keep subscribing then that's just beautiful.
Oh, it's been so long since I've last said it, but... READ AND REVIEW!
21. And We're Out
'We'll make it through. Just stay strong, 'cause you know I'm here for you…' - Keep Holding On, Glee Cast
It's so strange, isn't it? The fact that there was a massive love-triangle going on in a secret, underground prison that was covered up purely by government hush-hush was strange enough. But then let's add the fact that the 'other woman' was nearly 50ft tall, the male lead stuck in the middle of it all was a mutated, half-cockroach scientist (with a habit for evil laughter) and the girl-next-door character was a zombie.
There is no part of that paragraph that was normal, was there?
Oh and did we mention that said zombie liked to dance?
... Nope, nothing normal.
Zomberella, dancing in her corner of the wide silver room, was purely focused on her dancing. Dancing had become a key part of her recovery, which so far was rushing entirely downhill. Dancing made her forget. Dancing made her numb. It made her focus on something fantastic and completely surreal, something she couldn't grasp in her hand.
Link watched from the opposite side of the room, waiting for BOB to order his cards. He knew it'd take a forever waiting, so instead he sent out a high-pitched whistle from across the room. It cut through her breaking head-phones and made her slip up in her step, turning around and facing Link with a surprised expression.
"Lookin' good, Zomberella!" he called out with a grin.
The zombie scowled at him, pausing her music and pulling out her headphones (making sure not to yank off her ears while she was at it.) "Link, as lovely as it is to hear you compliment my form," she said in her poshest and snootiest accent, "try not to do it when I'm dancing to ABBA!"
Link blinked. "Who's ABBA?"
Zomberella shook her head. "Never mind, when you get out of here I'll let you find them for yourself." She packed up her cSquare and pocketed it away, her hair brushing over the side of her pale green face so that Link couldn't see her expression. He didn't have to. She'd been wearing the same one for a while now. And after watching her run off to cry in her room, he knew what it was about.
Doc was such an idiot...
"You okay there?" he asked.
She looked up, blinking dumbly and looking away for a moment. As if looking for an answer. But she smiled and shook her head calmly. "I'm fine!" she chirped.
Link smiled, but he didn't show all his teeth like he normally did. A liar's smile, that's what it was. The sound of their little grey radio filled the silence awkwardly, the dreary song almost sending Zomberella to sleep. Behind Link, BOB looked up from his cards. His goofy grin warmed up both of the monsters, and he held up his cards in front of his face. Ready to play. "Okay, go!" he said happily. His eyes suddenly noticed Zomberella watching the two of them play. "Hey, Wendy! Wanna play Go-Frog with me and Link?"
Zomberella smiled and shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know how to play Go-Frog, anyway. But I'm kind of helping out Doc with his new cure for Susan."
Link paused for a second, thinking what she just said over. "Where is Doc, anyway?" he asked.
BOB pointed over Link's shoulder (not realizing that he was showing all of his cards in a fan of black and red as he did so) and grinned. "Hey look! Walking pizza!"
Sure enough, a collection of pizza boxes, bike-pedals, buckets and wires was being carried along by Dr Cockroach from his room, struggling with the weight. Zomberella smiled at the unusual - yet somehow completely normal - sight. Oh, Doc. She had her fingers crossed for him and Susan and this latest experiment.
Link smirked. "You're crazy, Doc! When was the last time one of your inventions worked!"
Dr C rolled his eyes, his large gold pupils almost comical as they rotated. Didn't exactly help his 'crazy' image... "Link, you could help me out here!"
Zomberella was about to rush over and help, but she could see something else. Susan's door opened, and the giantess herself ducked beneath the metallic panel once it was half-open. She spotted Dr C carrying all of his inventions and piles of jumble and smiled, her blue eyes bright with something compassionate. She crouched down and tapped him on the shoulder, pushing him forward slightly with her accidental strength.
"Sorry!" she said, retracting her finger. Dr C turned around, confused at first but then recognizing her bright white smile. "Need a hand with that?" she asked.
Dr C smiled and shifted the boxes in his arms. "Thankyou, Susan!" He handed them over and left them in her palm, letting out a sigh of relief as he stretched out his arms. "Must admit, I'm not the strongest in the world..." he said with a chuckle.
"Where do you want them?"
"Oh, just over there would be splendid!"
Zomberella's shoulders sagged. Her whole frame collapsed as she let out a sigh. She saw green at once, but her mind fell blue. Jealousy hidden with sadness, and sadness hidden by a mask of calm and norm. She walked over before Link could say anything else to her, running up at full-sprint beside Dr C and calmly pacing by his side. "Hey there!"
He turned around, his smile eager. "Ah, Wendy! How are you?"
"Good!" she replied. "Yeah... good."
... aw-kwaaarrdd...
"Hey, Susan!" yelled up Zomberella. "Ready for some shock-therapy?"
Susan turned from where she was, crouched down to put back the collection of muddled inventions just a few hundred feet from where the giant silver stool (at least the size of an apartment building) sat. She smiled down at her green little friend, a nervous grin but an excited one as well. "Not when you say it like that! Doctor, do you want me to sit over there?"
"Thank you!" Immediately, Susan walked over to her silver chair and sat there in her patience. Legs crossed and hands folded in her lap, she waved a greeting to Insectosaurus. The dinosaur-sized bug roared a sweet reply, blinking his massive gold eyes with a buck-toothed smile as he wiggled a purple foot in response.
Zomberella found herself by Dr C's side once more, watching him blankly as he organized everything. "So... anything you need me to do?" she asked, swinging on her heels casually.
"Um... Just one minute..." he replied, putting down an upside-down bucket with a bike pedal beside a crate. On top of the crate, he carefully placed the pizza-computer and opened it up. Zomberella had to admit, there was something really cool about seeing a pixilated screen on the underside of a pzza-lid. It reminded her of those awesome 8-bit games they hade at the local arcade until some teenager burnt them down on a dare. But when he opened up the lid, she also found several plungers and other strange pieces piled up, all attached to wires and bubble-gum spit. "Here!" he said, picking one up and handing it over. "Just connect all of these to Susan, they should send electric signals through her body and into her DNA systems, thus re-writing her skeletal system and make her shrink!"
She smiled. "Sounds like a plan! Anywhere in particular or just scattered?"
He fished around for a minute in his pocket, pulling out a crumpled diagram on a piece of notepaper torn from his flip-book. "Just try to pin-point those locations," he said, but she was already sprinting away in a blur of green scars, the wires unraveling from the computer system like long, skeletal tails.
"Susan!" she called out as she ran, catching the giantess's attention. "Can you give me a boost?"
Susan smiled and bent down in her chair, reaching her hand out and carefully clutching Zomberella in her hand. Her fingers wrapped around her waist as she pulled her up gently and slowly to the curve of her neck, the zombie clutching tightly to her skin as she carried her up. Just because she was undead didn't mean she didn't want to crash to the floor in a million pieces. Susan dropped her off on her shoulder, a heavy lock of white hair barely missing Zomberella. Laughing, she sat down on the soft fabric of her shirt and let her legs dangle over her shoulder.
"So what do you have to do with all of the...?" Susan gestured to the collection of do-dads and thing-os that she had carried along with her.
The green figure unfolded the crap of paper, the basic outline of Susan's face dotted with the occasional bullet to mark where to put the plunger/pogo-stick/whatever. "Doctor C says that they've got to go on a few specific points so that they can reach your DNA and-"
"-electric signals that will re-write the genetic code and shrink me," finished Susan for her. "Don't worry, I know! Doc's explained everything over to me before..."
Zomberella smiled brightly, her legs ending their swing. The mental image of Dr C and Susan sitting together late at night and trying to figure out the pin-points of Susan's body and nervous system was sweet, hopeful and romantic all at once. It made her sick to her stomach. "Great! That's... really great!"
The two girls smiled, their attention turning to the mutated scientist below them. Dr C was happily singing something to himself as he unpacked all of the equipment and various junkyard treasures, creating something so marvelously weird that Zomberella found herself smiling at the sight of him. He looked really happy... Building this machine just to cure Susan was one of the sweetest things he could do for her, and a great start into winning her affections over. How many Dereks have ever done something to that extent?
"Do you think it's going to work?" asked Susan quietly. "I mean... I have to admit, I'm a little nervous about this..."
The zombie smiled at how scared she sounded. How human. How sweet. She was about to answer when something occurred to her. 'Wait. Perfect moment to lead her into better and more awesome relationship,' she thought to herself. 'C'mon, Zomberella! Play the Cupid card!' Now if only she could think up something that wasn't obvious, but would be able to lead her onto how cool Dr C really was.
This was going to hurt her.
"Wendy?"
She gulped. "It's going to be fine, Suzie... Doctor C's got a PhD, you know! I'm sure that he's more than capable of helping you!" she said, every amazing line coming out of nowhere for her. She even had to pause and wonder if she really did just spew all that gushy crap out of her mouth or if she had been memorizing it secretly. "Not to mention that he understands what you're like and who you are, so he'll make sure that you're completely safe the whole time!"
Susan smiled. But it wasn't any smile that her friend had seen before. It was a kind of sly, 'I know something you don't know' smile. "Is that right...?"
Zomberella stared at her. That sly crease in her cheek. Her pink lips formed into a perfect hiding-spot for scandal... What was she hiding from her? What did she know? The last time she saw a smile like that was back in NANP. Some girl was making a sly remark at how this certain creep would constantly follow around Wendy when she was working. Wendy had laughed it off sarcastically, flipped the girl the bird and then walked off to fill out some pamphlets about an up-coming excursion.
Zomberella hadn't seen that smile in eight years. She forgot how it still secretly hurt and made her face flustered.
Why was Susan smiling like that?
She shook it off and continued, firmly pressing a plastic yellow cone to her cheek, the extending wire waving slightly at the sudden movement. "Does that hurt?"
Susan shrugged, just enough to get the message across, but not enough to knock he off entirely. "Not at all."
"Yay," she said causally, carefully placing her feet on Susan's collar and crawling down her neck, sitting just underneath her chin and balancing on the collar of her shirt. The giantess laughed at the tickle of her hair barely tracing her neck, her smile bright as she leaned up and over her chin, swinging her arm out and sticking a plunger onto her chin. "Sorry if they stick a bit. You're probably gonna be stuck with these rings all over your face for a couple of hours or so, but..." she said, continuing her crawl around her neck and onto her shoulder, taking a minute for a breather. "It's gonna be worth it."
The BFG (that's Big Friendly Giant for those who don't know the master of children's imaginations) smiled down at the little zombie running over her shoulders. "Do you really believe this will shrink me?"
"Trust me on this one, Susan, Doc's a pretty stable guy. You'll be small in no time at all!" said Zomberella, sticking a salad-strainer onto her cheek like a suction-cup, twisting it into her cheek so that it stayed. "Sorry!" she quickly apologized as the giantess flinched as one would to a fly. "Susan, I know that you hate being so... 'Ginormica'... but I'll tell you the truth, I'm going to miss you when you get small..."
Susan smiled, laughing at her friend's serious tone. "I won't forget you when I'm gone, Wendy... You're an amazing friend, and I don't know what I would be doing now if it weren't for you! I promise, when I shrink I'll tell my family all about you guys. And Derek! Oh, he's going to love hearing about you guys!"
Her green smile fell short at the thought. "Oh yeah, Derek!" she said, as much optimism as she could manage. She had to admit, the more she heard of the guy the less she liked him. All Susan ever talked about was how he was so good at his job. News anchor this, Frezno that. It never ended. No matter how many times she had asked, Susan could only list three or five romantic evenings with him. Two romantic gestures. Other than that, he sounded like… Well, a bit of a sleaze.
But, as the best friend to Susan, she didn't say a word until she dumped the jerk and went for Dr C. Only then would she be there to thrill in the fact of how crappy her ex was. It was the Code of the Basics of Female Friendships… or something like that.
"Anyway, can I grab a hug before you shrink and leave us forever?" asked Zomberella.
Susan laughed, her shoulders shaking and nearly knocking her green friend off. "Aw... Okay, come here..." she said, nudging her shoulder slightly to push her closer to her cheek.
Smiling, she rested the side of her face against Susan's freckled cheek, stretching her arms out in the widest embrace and holding herself close to her friend. It had been fun knowing Susan. Even if it was a short time together, being with Susan was a memorable three weeks. She was really going to miss her... and she hoped that Susan would learn to miss Dr C. Remember how sweet he was to her, dump plain old Derek, and track down the missing thing from her life. Then she and the Doc would get married and live their beautiful life together.
Perfect and beautiful.
Susan smiled and reached her hand out to Zomberella, like a platform made of delicate fingers. She let go of her friend's cheek and walked over, making herself comfortable in the seat of her palm. Susan didn't even shake anymore when she was holding Zomberella, and she smoothly moved her down towards the grey metal floor. She jumped off, landing on her feet from the four-foot jump and turned with a smile.
Giving a small salute for a farewell, and receiving one back from Susan, she walked over to Dr C's side calmly and quietly, watching him push buttons and turn knobs. His back to her, she hesitated in talking to him. She didn't want to disturb his work or his focus on Susan. But she couldn't contain her excitement at the sight of blinking light, rainbow pixels and flashing colours. It just looked so cool! Digital pizza-boxes for crying out loud! How can she not ask?
"Is everything working smoothly?" she asked him at last in her most casual voice.
If it were possible for someone to trip without moving, Dr C would have been the first to accomplish it. Startled, he jumped in his place as he found himself distracted form his work by her wide, white eyes. "U-Um, yes! E-Everything seems to be working just fine!" he managed to stammer.
She smiled quickly but showed no soul (pun not intended.) Link wasn't the only person around here who had a liar's smile. The past few days were a little awkward since Zomberella ran away crying from Dr C. Every move he seemed to make now was a bit more hesitant, even though the zombie insisted that she was fine.
'I'm just really happy for you, that's all!'
Liar. And she had the smile to prove it.
"So… did you need any help?" she asked him.
He quickly scanned over the keys of the pizza box/computer, checking that each scrap of junk was in its proper place for performance. "Um… There is… one thing… We need something to fire-up the electricity with enough power to shock Susan's DNA into normalization and reach her to the appropriate and requested height. Now that's going to be a lot more than the average nuclear weapon, so it's going to have to be-"
Zomberella stopped him. "Woah, woah, wait. English please. It's been a long morning."
Ducking his head slightly in embarrassment as he chuckled nervously at his own antics. "We… We just need something to increase the electrical conductivity. That should be enough to boost it. But I don't know how we're going to find something like tha-"
"GUYS! We're trying to play a card game here!" yelled Link from across the room. His webbed fingertips reached out for the dial on his retro silver radio, getting nothing but static and white noise until finally there was music from some lost decade filling the air. "Geeze… I'm trying to concentrate…"
Insectosaurus leaned into the card game, his wide eyes staring from behind BOB who was silently ordering his cards. It was taking him a fair part of his brainpower to do so (or whatever power helped him to put number and shapes in correct order), thus distracting him from the giant moth behind him.
Zomberella rolled her eyes. Cheating as usual. Insectosaurus and Link were as thick as thieves when put together. Nothing could change that. She smiled at the sight, but pretended to be annoyed at their continuous picking on BOB. "Yeah, yeah, whatever, Link…" she mumbled to herself, folding her arms over her chest childishly. She turned to Dr C once more, smile bright. "So anyway, where are we going to get this electric-thinga-majig?"
Dr C watched from a distance as the two continued their card-game, his eyes slowly going wider and his pupils expanding like huge hazel-coloured plates. The little tin-coloured radio shone in the overhead fluorescent lights of the hall and in the scientist's eyes. The sounds and sights and noise of the room seemed to filter out, just leaving the doctor listening to the gravel-textured music comic from the little box.
He didn't even notice the thundering, deafening slam on the floor as Insectosaurus stomped his foot.
Link, still smiling, looked down at his cards with furious intensity and a mind set purely on winning this game at last. "Do you…"
STOMP. Zomberella jumped at the noise, nearly tripping over herself as she found herself two inches into the air from the impact.
"… have…"
STOMP. Dr C's eyes stared down the antennae of the little silver radio as they twitched at Insectosaurus's stomping. He didn't move in the slightest (other than his short jump in the air.)
"… any…"
STOMP.
Link grinned with a curved, sly brow as he looked up from his cards. "… threes?" he asked in an up-beat tone.
As BOB made his astonished response, slamming down his cards in shock and praising Link for his amazing new stroke of luck that the ape-fish brushed off modestly, the zombie girl groaned in exhaustion at the very sight of them. Eight years together and she had run out of patience to try and call out Link on his cheating. That would involve trying to explain it to BOB. So instead, she turned to the drop-jawed Dr C.
Zomberella stared at him in puzzlement. Just how long had he been staring like that? "Uh… Do-?"
Dr C was already on all fours and racing over to Link's table with BOB (who was being cheated out of his collection of three's) and disturbing their card game before Zomberella could even. Not hesitating for a moment, he plucked the long silver antennae from the radio and crawled back over before Link even had the chance to protest.
"HEY!"
Too late. The antennae were shoved into each insert of the rusty toaster before Zomberella could even blink. As his hands raced and pulled and tapped over the amateur keyboard, the pixellated image of Susan flashed onto the screen. His mouth was stretched into a grin of slim and shiny teeth as he whirred at the bike-bucket combination to the point where the pedal blurred in a circle. Hunched over with his eyes looking past Zomberella's Converse sneakers, he seemed to have this whole world of his own as the antennae sparked and rattled in the kitchen appliance. As did the antennae on his huge, heart-shaped skull.
"They called me crazy…!" he seemed to whisper in a mad moment of was still lost in that world of his. That world of dials and DNA and electrocution and all other kinds and forms of mad science. "But I'll show them… I'll show them all! MWAHAHAHA!"
Zomberella blinked. Well that came from nowhere. She hadn't heard a laugh just that kind of evil in a long, long time.
"Doctor…?"
All four monsters looked to the forgotten Susan, who was still strapped up with plungers and other ordinary household items attached to her doe-like features. She cringed away from the scientist, who was paused mid-laugh with his knuckles tight as he gripped onto nothing, bent backwards in the pose of his mad laughter.
"I'd prefer you didn't do your mad scientist laugh while I'm hooked up to this machine."
Dr C looked down at his shoes, a little embarrassed, and snapped back upright at once. Meanwhile, behind his back, Insectosaurus let out a long and mournful roar before the awkward silence could sink in.
Link translated it perfectly, looking up at his friend from his metallic chair and smirking slightly. "You're right, Insecto!" He jumped from his chair and proceeded to walk over to Susan, looking up at her with a concerned look and a laid-back posture. "You've been letting that quack experiment on you for over a month-"
Dr C jumped up and, clearly offended, glared at Link. "I'm not a quack! I'm a mad scientist!" he exclaimed. He looked over to his computer with a sorrowful expression, his eyes suddenly shiny and his lips in a slight pout. With a mumble, he continued. "There is a difference…"
Before Zomberella could open her mouth to defend the cockroach, Susan leaned over in her chair and broke into the conversation once more. "Guys, what choice do I have? If he can make me normal (or even six-foot-eight!) I can get out of here. Get back to the life I'm supposed to have. I mean, I should be in-"
"Let me guess. Frezno?"
So Link was still anti-normal. That was clear, even after their many weeks together. Every time Susan began on one of her 'back in Montresso' or even one of her cute stories about her life with Derek, he would just turn his back and walk away to bench-press or shuffle cards. Zomberella could never quite understand it about Link. He wanted to go outside, yet he hated any story Susan told about what life was like out there now.
And it was easy to see that Susan felt put off whenever he blocked her out like that. "Well… Frezno's just a stepping-stone. Next stop: Milwaki! And then New York and then someday hopefully-"
Link rolled his eyes. "Yeah, we know. Paris." Another block. Another shut-down. Before Susan could look too hurt, Zomberella jumped in to try and cover up the remark.
"You sure you want to go through with this, Susan?" she asked. "I mean… It's getting to the point of no return…"
Susan smile bravely, beginning to sit up. "If it means a life in Paris with the man of my dreams, then I'll go through it." The zombie had to admire her blind passion, though she couldn't help the secret nerves that were hiding in her stomach on behalf of her friend. Turning to Dr C, Susan nodded her head. "… throw the switch, Doctor… B-But don't do the laugh."
Dr C looked up to her, eyes narrowed and a serious look on his face. Thought it was impossible to deny that his eyes were still bright with excitement. "Now, you're going to feel a slight pinch in the brain… Mwaha- Sorry!"
Hands at the keys once more, Dr C began to punch in the numbers, code and combinations. The radio antennae sparked wildly, a cracked and shaking line of neon purple, raw electricity dancing frantically between the metal as the toaster shook. Everybody held their breath and watched as Susan's fingertips gripped the edge of her seat.
It was clear that it wasn't working as planned.
Her hair became a mess, sweeping and shooting out like it was being pulled from her skull in sharp tugs. Her brilliant blue pupils shrank down to the finest points as her body sparked and glowed. It looked as if she were going through a violent seizure during an x-ray scan. Zomberella could even see her skeleton flash through her skin as the power ran through her veins. Her face scrunched up as she tried to suppress the pain, it became too much for her to handle. With a gasp of pain and a sudden yelp as the final jolt was given in a blast of power, Susan fell backwards and off her chair.
As her body hit the floor with as much force as a falling skyscraper, the four standing monsters tried to remain standing. Looking to each other in total silence, they tried to remain hopeful as their eyes went wide with concern and fear. Dr C was the first to move, swallowing nothing in a loud gulp of terror as he looked over to Link with a smile.
"That went well!"
BOB, finally merging through the metal of the card table and joining the others, looked at the unconscious Susan as he gave her the same look as a confused dog would. "Hey, Susan! You fell over!"
There wasn't any reply from Susan. Her body was still twitching violently from the shock. Sparks of electricity still went through her skeleton and indigo bolts of lightning jolted through her fingertips and hair.
Link raised his eyebrows, wolf whistling at her unconscious form in amazement. Zomberella knotted her eyebrows, beginning to take a ginger step towards her friend and not daring any further. "Reckon she's okay?"
Insectosaurus let out a long, low and saddening roar. It was practically a mumble. Link turned and nodded. They were both seeing what Zomberella had noticed for a while now, but didn't want to say anything. Not in front of Dr C.
"Um… I don't think she's shrinking…"
Dr C bit his lip and, looking around nervously before quickly running over on two feet and nervously muttering beneath his breath. Running over to her revealed wrist, Dr C put his small hands to her skin and rested the side of his head on her thin blue veins. Pausing for a deathly silent moment, he turned around to see the gentle rise and fall of her chest. With a smile, Dr C faced his fellow monsters. "She's okay. Just stunned."
Ignoring her perfectly sculptured chest and how Dr C smiled when he looked upon it, Zomberella raced towards Susan and ended up by her cheek, where she pressed at it gently with both of her green-blue hands. "Susan? Susie? You okay?" There wasn't any articulate reply, though the zombie could swear that she heard a slight moan in the giant's throat.
BOB slid over with a slimy, gliding motion as Link ran past on both his feet and knuckles. Crowding around her face and leaning into her expression, the four monsters watched her closely. BOB stretch himself out so that his eye was hovering directly over the bridge of Susan's nose in the centre of her face. "Why is Susan still huge?"
Dr C was forced to admit it. "I guess… Something went wrong in the calculations."
Zomberella couldn't take it anymore. That look of bitter disappointment in himself and the sudden realisation of failure was beginning to show on his once catastrophically optimistic face was just becoming too much. "I'm sorry, Doc…"
"It's okay, Wendy!" His voice was positive and uptimistic He smiled half-heartedly, but didn't look back at her. He just leaned over Susan's chin and stared sadly at her half-shut blue eyes. "You didn't do anything wrong."
Just as he said this, Susan's eyelids began to twitch. Her mouth parted open slightly, nearly pushing Dr C and the other monsters backward as her glassy, unfocused blue eyes were slowly revealed. Zomberella sighed with relief, smiling at her quick recovery, while Dr C leaned in closer to her and waved his hand in the air. "Susan? Yoo-hoo!"
Susan's vision snapped back into focus as she looked at her four friends. It wasn't that surprising when the first question that came out of her mouth was… "Am I small again?"
Dr C wasn't too hesitant in breaking the news. It would only concern her more if there were an awkward silence. With the previous tests, the only thing that he had learnt was how to break the news properly. "I'm afraid not, my dear."
The monsters jumped from her torso and onto the floor once more as Susan sat up with a sorrowful sigh. She was used to hearing bad news in the past month or so and had come used to hearing about more bad results each time, but it still hurt.
"In fact, you may have actually grown a couple of feet! Heh… h-heh…" Dr C's awkward laughter was not helping the situation in the slightest. Link had to give him points for trying, but not when Susan had such a downtrodden look on her otherwise innocent face.
The giant sighed, sitting up on her chair once more and ignoring her radical new hairstyle. Ash was still dusted on her features from the small explosion and her hair looked burnt in some places. "It's okay, Doc. We'll try again tomorrow."
Link had enough of this optimistic attitude. It was like living with a freaking Disney princess. So he decided to finally say what nobody else had the guts to. "You really don't get it, do you? No monster has ever gotten outta here!"
Zomberella, being the sympathetic kind and closest friend to Susan, glared at Link. He wasn't the only person getting sick of the attitudes of others. As good a friend as Link was, his constant pessimism was breaking her patience. "Way to burst our happy bubble of ignorance, Link."
Link glared back. Ever since Susan had walked in, Zomberella had stopped hanging out with the guys as much as she used to. Not to mention she was constantly depressed for obvious reasons nobody wanted to admit. "Well it's true, isn't it? There's no point trying to kid ourselves any longer! Nobody has ever, and I mean ever gotten outta this place!"
Zomberella's eyes narrowed as she folded her arms over her chest. As she opened her mouth, the always optimistic BOB stepped in with his own argument."That's not true! The Invisible Man did!"
Link sighed, turning to the blue carbonate with a look of complete exhaustion in his eyes."No he didn't!"
Dr C and Zomberella froze completely, staring at Link in shock. Hazel and white locked onto Link as their jaws dropped in unison. He really had the heart to- No. To break this really meant he had lost his heart.
Link's expression saddened. "We just told you that so you wouldn't get upset."
BOB looked over to Zomberella, who looked like she was about to hit Link and burst into tears all at the same time. She bit her lip and hung her head sadly. "We were going to tell you when we thought you were ready…"
With that note, the scientist knew that he was the one to break the news. Dr C swallowed and reach out a hand to BOB, trying to make some kind of physical contact to lessen the blow."He… died of a heart-attack… Twenty-five years ago-"
BOB's pupil shrank in his head. His flexible jaw dropped to the floor and he swatted Dr C's hand aside with a gob of ham-scented blue. "NOOO!" he screamed, almost in agony. Zomberella winced at the noise, her arms tying to clutch at herself tightly but still feeling weak.
Link's smile was missing entirely. "Yeah. In that very chair…"
All six monsters looked over to the empty silver chair that was seated in the corner in complete isolation.
"He's still there."
As BOB whimpered like a lion with a thorn in its paw, Zomberella suddenly stood upright, suddenly realising that a human corpse had been sitting there for what? Forty years? How many times had she sat in that chair? She glared at Link. "I've been sitting on a dead body this entire time?"
He looked her up and down, staring into her hollow white eyes in that mouldy, scarred skull. "Does that really matter to you? Zomberella?"
She scrunched up her mouth and narrowed her eyebrows, refusing to admit that it was a good point. "Touché, jerk."
Susan, the only one out of this private conversation, could still see how much this was effecting them all. The thought of one friend being able to escape must have been BOB's point of sanity. The mental image of him dying in prison was heart-breaking and disturbing. It would be like thinking that Derek had run off and started seeing somebody else during her month in prison.
He blue eyes began to leak up at the very thought.
Link saw and, with bitter success, turned to Susan with a deepened frown. "You see what I'm sayin'?"
Zomberella swallowed and, clutching onto her elbows, looked away from Link's back and to the floor. He was right. And it hurt. The thought was already a wound in her skin, but the constant reminder was just salt.
"Nobody's leaving."
Dr C ignored the sound of a car pulling up behind him and looked over to BOB, who was about to start an uncontrollable sobbing fit. He tried reaching out again, but the blue mass turned away. Rejecting him completely. He looked up to Susan instead, who had her head ducked away in shame as she locked her legs together protectively. No amount of optimism would help out the situation.
"Nobody' getting out."
The sound of the engine was slowly increasing in all of their ears. General Monger was beginning to stand up in his jeep, leaning over the side of the classic army vehicle and looking at his prisoners. Not seeing the obvious cloud above their heads and the tears in their eyes, he grinned and let his voice holler out the best news they would hear in all their lives.
"Good news, monsters! You're getting out!"
Link's pupils shrank.
"… until today."
Susan sat up straight, her eyes foggy with tears. Dr C turned around, hand still poised and ready to be placed in an attempt to comfort the crying BOB. Zomberella looked up form her shoes, staring at Monger in confusion as she held herself strong.
This had to be a joke.
Susan swallowed. "Are… Are you serious?"
Monger looked at them all. "Oh come on, ladies! A little bit of enthusiasm would be nice!"
Link glared at him, beginning to walk away and to the open door of his cell. "Very funny, Monger."
Monger glared at the escaping fish-ape and kicked the car horn. It's obnoxious honking rang out through all corners of the barren rec hall. As the monsters began to cover their ears and roar on the top of their lungs, the ceiling opened up to reveal Insectosaurus's favourite set of bright lights. They gleamed like sunshine and made his gold pupils dilate as he stared at in awe, ending his roar once and for all.
Monger took his foot off the horn and called out to Link once more. "Get in the car, tuna-head! That goes for the rest of you!"
BOB's grin was slowly coming back. And by 'slowly', I mean that it appeared as quickly as the switch for a light bulb. "Joyride! I'm in!"
Dr C's jaw didn't seem to fix itself. "You're serious."
Susan's jaw nearly hit the flaw. The tears began to flow freely as those brilliantly white teeth came into view. "I can go home?" she squealed loudly.
"Sure thing, Ginormica!" Monger began to rev up the engine once more. "But first you've got to do a little favour for the U.S. of A! I'll explain it all on the ride in more detail, but that's the basics."
Susan got up from her chair and began to walk over, rubbing away her tears and towering above the other two monsters that were left behind. The walls began to split open further to reveal a vast, long white hallways with a moving platform. Scientists and officials looked over from balconies and began to line up the platform ready for movement.
Zomberella felt at her chest. Completely silent and her mouth caught open in total shock, she gripped at the material of her shirt and shut her eyes tight.
For a minute there, she could've sworn her heart had beaten.
Her whole body screamed at different points. For the first time in eight years, she had the opportunity to go back and see her parents. That wasn't as good as it sounded. She was terrified with the thought of meeting those faces after years of living in hiding in her ugly new form. Though she knew that she was expected to go and see them, she was still afraid of seeing them.
And what was it that Monger was talking about? This 'little favour' for the government? What exactly was going on?
But at the same time:
Sunshine.
Macaroni and cheese.
Cheap movies and late nights.
A whole world to explore in a government helicopt- No, let's not get too excited.
… Oh screw it, government helicopter ride across the world!
Her eyes still clamped shut, she broke out into a grin as she laughed as hard as she could. Dr C watched her as she lost all the air in her lungs, nearly screaming with laughter as she felt her skin prickle with this sudden warmth and her whole body aching and itching at the same time. She jumped up and down on the spot, kicking her legs wildly and suddenly breaking out into a full sprint as she tore past them all and to Monger's side.
"Get me outta here, soldier-boy!" she yelled in ecstasy, pushing past Susan in order to reach the car. Susan simply laughed as her friend flashed beneath her in a blur of green, reaching the car before her giant paces ever could. As the zombie jumped up and landed in the back of the car, it nearly bowled over at the impact. General Monger laughed with her before turning to the other monsters, cupping his hands around his mouth so they could hear him above the sound of machinery and mechanics.
"You comin' or what?"
Dr C stared after Zomberella, who was pushing Monger aside and slamming her hand on the horn of the car. "GUYS, GET IN THE FREAKING CAR!" she screamed out before squealing in her most girly, happiest voice.
Dr C laughed, covering up his mouth with his hand as he blinked back tears. Letting out a huge sigh of relief, he felt his shoulders sag like the largest weight had been taken from his shoulders. His throat vibrated as he tried to control his voice form letting out a sob. As the two girls chased after Monger, he felt his whole spirit feel lighter than air as he straightened out his posture.
Link turned to him. "Reckon we should go on his word?"
Dr C looked back to Link, smiling at him with the calmest expression on his face as he removed his hand. He choked on nothing as he blinked back a tear. With his most sincere, confident voice, he shrugged his shoulders.
"Bugger it."
He ran after the zombie and the general, waving his arm in the air. "Wait up, General!" he said, running as fast as his legs could take him.
BOB began to race past them, laughing mischievously and just about ready to bowl Monger over like a pin. "Come on, Link! Last one there is an ugly fish!" he called out to the muscle of the gang. He spend along quicker, nearly catching up to Susan and Dr C as they neared the jeep.
Link stood there, jaw dropped and completely astonished. He looked over to Insectosaurus, who was already being led away by the bright yellow lights. He didn't even turn around to give a second thought. He simply let out a roar of encouragement to Link before disappearing altogether, being led away by the helicopter and government officials as the door closed up behind him.
Link swallowed and, with his classic grin back, chased after his friends. "Freedom, here we come!"
Monger looked to the lot of them and grinned. He looked really, really happy. Genuinely happy. And not just because he had persuaded the President into believing his idea, but because that the people he had come to know and work with for fifty years were finally going to taste the air. Feel the sunlight. Embrace the world outside of their little grey cells.
"And all you've got to do is fight an alien robot!"
The nearing Susan, the green Zomberella, and the cockroach hybrid looked at Monger with a puzzled expression. Dr C was leaning over the side of the car and nearly out of breath. Susan was up so high in the clouds that she had barely processed it. Zomberella assumed it was a bad joke, making her smile fall.
Monger paused. "Uh… I guess there's a lot to be explained."
CrazyA: I MISSED YOU ALL SO MUCH! DX
I wanted to get back into writing this story, but this chapter was a real struggle to get through. I knew what I wanted to type, but it just didn't seem to be flowing properly. I really hope that you guys enjoyed this chapter. Please, don't expect me to write up the next one ASAP. These things take time and I don't know how much longer this writing passion will last for. But I just want to let you know that you guys are some of my most loyal readers yet. I love you all very much and your reviews are some of the most heart-warming I have ever read.
Please, don't give up on this story. The minute you guys give up is the minute I do. I love you so, SO much. Please, read and review. x