The Great(ish) Invasion
Locked away in his quarters, Covertron sat in complete darkness, the only source of light was a green glowing plume of smoke that towered before him. It looked like a giant green mushroom made of smoke. Covertron looked up to it as he held his hands together.
"Oh Grand Coverlord, though it has taken over year I have finally managed to complete my mission in weakening this planets defences. Spending the last 18 months in this planets most secret base has revealed every last security measure it has and I have successfully disabled them all. Despite this place being inhabited by 'morons' they haven't made it easy for me, the hardship I have endured is beyond humiliation and I look forward to watching my vengeance take hand when you bring this planet to its knees! These cretinous creatures will taste your might this day! HAH-HAH-HAH! Evil laugh-Evil laugh!"
The monsters were in their quarters, enjoying some leisurely time. Dr Sprocket was tinkering away in his lab, Fang and T.O.M were nearing completion of their latest game, GBH V on the XStation 4.1 and Sarah was sitting in the corner, she had been trying to phone her mom since the Time Scar incident.
"Come on, come on! Pick up the phone, Mom! How long does spin class take?" she muttered as she had her phone almost glued to her ear.
"Annnnnnnnd….BOO-YAA! Final level complete!" Fang declared, throwing his controller on the floor, "We finally did it! We beat the game!"
T.O.M let out a long yawn, 36 hours non-stop gaming had worn him out, "So, what do we do now?"
"How about playing GBH IV?"
"Classic gaming? Let's do it!" grinned the tomato.
Fang walked over to the closet where they kept all their games, he opened the door and a tsunami of junk fell on top of him, knocking him back till he was halfway across the room. Sarah gave up trying to ring her mom to see what was going on.
T.O.M slid over to his buddy and looked over him as he lay spread eagled on the floor, "That was awesome! Do it again!"
The lab door opened and Dr Sprocket stepped out, he saw the river of mess on the floor and Fang lying at the end of it.
"You opened the closet, didn't you?" he said, slowly shaking his head.
"Doc, what the heck is all this garbage?" said Fang, scrambling to his feet.
"Well I ran out of room in my lab to keep all my creations so I did what all you lot do and began storing my things in the closet,"
"Newsflash: you got too much junk in the closet now!" Fang said crossly, "This closet is for things that are needed, not things you throw away and not use again! Geez, I can't even get in there now!"
"Yeah, the number of times Fang has come out of the closet and now he can't anymore!" said T.O.M.
"Well what do you want me to do with my stuff then?"
"Throw it away!"
Dr Sprocket squeaked in horror at the thought, "Throw away my creations? Even the Toaster Phone?"
"Yes."
"The vibrating space hopper?"
"Yes."
"Actually I think I'll take that one," said Sarah, innocently twiddling with her hair.
"Surely not my tornado powered pencil sharpener?"
"Yes and FYI having a mini tornado inside a jar with several razor blades is a stupid idea! The base completely ran out of pencils in one day!" said Fang.
"What about….what about this one?" asked Dr Sprocket, going through all his creations and holding up a small yellow cone with the top removed and two ice cream scoops inside the hole like little antennas.
"What is that?"
"It's a…It's…erm…what was this one?" the mad scientist frowned at it.
"See? You can't even remember what half of them do! Just clear out the ones you don't use and then we can have our closet back the way it's supposed to be!" said the snake.
"He's right, Doc, you do tend to make a ton of things that you never use. Maybe it's time for a clear-out," said Sarah nicely.
"I suppose so. Uh, where do I start though?" the robo-doc looked at the dozens of mad creations lying all over the floor.
Suddenly the lighting in the room went red and the alarms began blaring before General I.N. Mongers voice boomed out of the speakers.
ALL MONSTERS AND ALIENS REPORT TO THE WAR ROOM! IMMEDIATELY, ASAP, RIGHT NOW AND PRONTO! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!
"Well duh! Its Monger!" said T.O.M, "Drills can't speak. Can they?"
"You heard him, guys, let's go!" said Sarah and they raced out the room and headed for the War Room.
Dr Sprocket had forgotten he still had the cone in his hands, along the way he stopped and handed it to a janitor, "Here, see if you can find out what this does!" he said and then continued on, "Well, that's one item cleared!"
The monsters reached the War Room where Team Alien had already assembled and General Monger was flying back and forth, looking at all the overhead monitors repeatedly.
"General, what's going on?" said Sarah as she saluted.
"Satellites have picked up unidentified flying objects coming this way and they ain't meteors! We've been trying to get a visual and make contact but they aren't responding! It's almost like they're hanging up on us every time we call and that really grinds my gears!"
"How long till they enter our atmosphere?" asked Dr Sprocket, looking at the monitors nearest to him.
Sqooty checked his compocketer, "By my estimations based on the approaching vessels current speed I'd say these aliens will be here in…"
The alarms sounded even louder and the monitors showed the skies over Area Fifty-Unknown darken as thousands of alien spaceships appeared, slowly rotating as purple lights flickered on their undersides. They all let out random electronic humming noises like some kind of giant alien choir.
"…round about now."
"Contact 'em again! I want answers as to why they're in my personal parking space!" Monger ordered his staff, he then turned to Team Alien, "Any of you space heads know these ships?"
"I do not recognise such designs." Said Bar'Hbi, Ravnivore shook his head in agreement.
"I am unfamiliar with the specific class of these ships. Perhaps they are a new make I have not been informed of?" said Sqooty.
Covertron didn't even look at the screens as he focused on filing his nails, "Nope. No idea. Never seen them before in my life."
"Well somebody better give me some answers in the next three seconds before I kick some serious…"
"General! We are receiving a message from one of the ships!" said one of the staff.
"Put it on speakers!"
The message was played over the loud speakers and a loud gurgling noise sounded all throughout the base, it sounded like someone being strangled. Covertron knew of course that his people were only making silly noises and that the humans would stupidly think it was an alien language; he tried hard not to smirk as he pulled his moustache over his mouth.
"Strange, I've never heard a language like that before," said Sqooty, running the message through his translator app, "It doesn't match any of the 3 billion languages I have on file!"
"Sounds like someone choking on Drenalbar beast!" said Bar'Hbi.
"Don't they know it's rude to talk with your mouth full?" said T.O.M, finding these aliens very impolite.
"Covertron, you're our ambassador! Try and make contact with these outer space gypsies!" Monger ordered.
"Oh, if I must." Covertron said and casually hovered over to the microphone, he cleared his throat and spoke, "Excuse me, I am Covertron, alien ambassador for the planet Earth. What can we do for you?" the evil alien was really struggling not to smirk; he kept his back to the others as his people responding with more gurgling noises, "Hmmm, my study on alien languages is rusty but I do believe they are here to invade us. They want us to hand over this planets intellectuals; I'll just tell them we haven't got any, shall I?"
"Hand over…Invade…NO FOUL SMELLING, GREEN SKINNED ALIENS ARE TAKING OVER MY PLANET!" bellowed Monger, almost losing control of his jetpack.
"I don't see how we can stop them, they have us outnumbered and surrounded! I suggest we just surrender and hand the world over to them," said Covertron calmly, hovering back to his alien group.
Monger ignored him and landed, he grabbed the microphone firmly, almost ripping it out of the control panel, "This is a Code Red emergency to all military units! I want every tank, every jet, every missile we have aiming at these illegal aliens at the double!"
FFFZZZZZZIIIT!
Suddenly there was a loud crackling noise coming out of the speakers and the main monitors began to flicker as everyone looked around; the staff were staring at their instruments as they too began to go on and off.
"What in tarnation is happening now?!"
"Sir, something has happened to our communications systems! Everything radio has gone down across the base!" said Benson, one of the monitor staff, he checked the systems scan to locate the cause, "It seems our comm systems were hacked and have been shut down! Locking us out completely!"
"What? How? Our systems are incapable of being hacked from the outside!"
"And I encrypted those systems myself!" added Dr Sprocket, trying to analyse the cause as well.
"The only way I can think of is if the systems were hacked from inside the base but no one would do that!" said Benson.
Covertron looked around innocently, not meeting anyone's eye.
"So you're saying we can't talk to the outside world and warn them?" said Monger.
"No. Nor can we call for reinforcements, we're completely cut-off!"
"So we can't call Team Monster Beta either!" Sarah said to her friends.
"Then…we're on our own. We may not have communications but I helped design this place and I have a different alarm for every occasion! Sound the mobilization alarm and we'll get every man, woman and tank out there to take on these alien intruders!"
"Yessir!"
Benson pressed an orange button and a random number of beeps began sounded across the base as the lights turned from red to orange. The soldiers of the base were trained to know what every alarm meant and this one meant it was time to go to battle stations. They scrambled for their designated areas, some heading for the artillery to pick up the experimental super weapons, some climbing into tanks loaded with UFO designated ammunition and others climbing into jets, ready to be let out of the hangar and take to the skies.
"Now we'll show those aliens who protects this planet!" said Monger, feeling calmer now and confident that his men could bring down the invaders.
"General, shouldn't WE be going out there?" asked Sarah, she and her friends standing idle.
"I'll have you as my backup! If those aliens have something up their sleeves then I'll bring out the big guns! That'll show 'em!" the General grinned.
"And nobody's got bigger guns than Sarah!" said T.O.M.
"Um….sir?" said Benson, his brow now showing sweat as the light reflected off of it.
Monger slowly turned to frown at him; he didn't like the tone of his voice, "Whaaaat?"
Benson just pointed to the screens showing the security camera feed, the soldiers couldn't access the super weapons because the door had been welded shut, the tanks were bellowing smoke and not going anywhere and the wheels on the fighter jets had been removed and were mounted up on bricks, rendering them grounded inside the hangar.
The dark-skinned Generals face was slowly turning purple; the monsters took a step back as they expected the General to explode at any moment.
"WHO THE [CENSORED] IS SABOTAGING MA BASE?" he screamed, several members of staff had to cover their ears whilst Ravnivore howled in response.
"All earlier security feeds have been wiped!" said Benson, checking the surveillance hard drives.
"Oh well, no way to fight back, looks like it's the end for human kind. Let's just go outside with our hands up," said Covertron as he placed his hands behind his head and brought a foot rest out from his hoverchair as he relaxed.
Monger ignored him and looked at Benson, "Are the silo doors still functional?"
Benson checked the systems, "I believe so, Sir,"
"Then get ready to open them and launch all missiles. We'll blow them out of the—"
"General Monger, scans detects energy spikes in the main reactor room!" called another staff member.
"On screen!"
The central monitor flickered to show the main reactor, the large pillar of blue energy, and something glowing brightly at the base of it.
"What's going on down there?" asked Monger.
Dr Sprocket peered closer, his own scans trying to determine what the light was, "I do believe that's matter transmission particles! Teleportation!"
"What?" said Sqooty, his antennas flashing yellow, "But teleportation is impossible, as I have said several times!"
"I accidentally created a teleporter using T.O.M's M.A.D! I fixed the mistake I made but kept the data so I could work on teleportation at a later date! Unless someone broke into my lab and copied all my notes I don't know how these aliens have developed teleportation!" said the robo-doc.
"Hmmm, it's a mystery," said Covertron.
The bright light faded and dozens of black objects were now placed around the base of the reactor.
"What are those?" asked Fang.
Bar'Hbi got closer to the screen and could just make out what they were, "Those are anti-matter seismic charges! The weapons used by cowards! A true warrior fights with spears and their bare hands!"
"Charges? As in….explosives?" said Sarah, everyone looking at Bar'Hbi and then at the screen.
"SHUT DOWN THE CORE NOW!" Monger said quickly.
The room shook violently as the security feed of the reactor room went out, everyone fell to the floor and those in seats were knocked off, Covertron was the only one unaffected as he sat in his hoverchair. They were too late, the explosives had gone off!
Benson climbed back into his seat and checked the energy levels, "Sir, the explosives…"
"I figured that out! Can you power down the base before there's an overload?"
"I can shut down the smaller reactors the main core feeds into but the main reactor is already approaching total meltdown! The explosion won't destroy the planet but the base is going to go up!"
The monsters all looked at each other; they couldn't believe this was actually happening. These aliens hovering above them had completely crippled them and they didn't even know how they were doing it.
"Well, the number of times that cores been in danger of blowing up, it had to happen sometime!" said Fang.
The War Room began to shudder and shake as explosions could be heard going off in the distance.
"Oh god! It's happening…the base is going up!" said Sarah, feeling the floor shake beneath her.
"General Monger! What do we do?" Dr Sprocket asked.
Monger seemed deep in thought, he was conflicted about his options, he knew what he had to do but he really didn't want to say it, he looked to Benson and spoke calmly, "Begin the evacuation alarm. We're abandoning the base."
Everyone was shocked at this announcement, another shudder persuaded them however that it was the right decision and they began leaving the War Room for the last time. The orange lights turned to purple and the soldiers abandoned their tanks and jets and personnel left their work stations and made for the exits. At first everyone was keeping calm but when fires started spreading throughout the base people started to panic and the orderly queues turned into Black Friday riots. Pushing and shoving to get out, Covertron could only laugh as he flew over the panicking crowds.
Monger was the last one out of the War Room, as he stood in the doorway he looked back at the base he had commanded for over fifty years. The screens were all cracked and dust fell from the ceiling as the place continued to shake. A computer console exploded in a ball of flame, sending the middle table flying over and crashing into the far wall. Monger switched his jetpack back on and headed for the main hangar.
Outside the main hangar entrance several personnel were standing with registers, in the event of a full base evacuation they would note down who had come out and make sure everyone was accounted for.
The monsters were trying to stop everyone pushing them forward as bits of the base began to fall and smash down in the main transfer corridor.
"Just keep calm and don't—Hey!" Sarah was pushed to the floor as several workers barged their way past her.
Fang helped her back up and took Dr Sprocket under his other arm, "There's no way of reasoning with these guys, Sarah. We just gotta get outta here right now! Come on, Bro!"
T.O.M joined him as the two monsters extended upwards and began swinging from the ceiling, narrowly avoiding falling panels and steel beams. Sarah and Dr Sprocket held onto the snake as he swung again and again till they reached the main hangar where there was more room to move.
Finally escaping out of the base, now with smoke pouring out of the hangar doors, they walked out into the desert that was now darkened by the shadows of the countless number of spaceships hovering overhead, their electronic harmonics still filling the air.
A few minutes later General Monger landed by one of his lieutenants who was standing near the monsters, "Sir, all staff have been accounted for! The base has been fully evacuated!"
"Good, now let's get everyone as far away from the base as possible cos I have no idea how big the explosions going to be!" said Monger, "Get the troops to move everyone back as fast as possible! The base could go any moment!"
As the troops began moving everyone away from the base Sarah looked around, she saw hundreds of people all scared and chatting at once, the more people she saw the more she realised something. She suddenly stopped dead in her tracks, making her friends bump into her.
"What is it, my dear?" asked Dr Sprocket.
"Where are the Identigirls?" she said, starting to look around frantically.
"The what?" said Fang.
"My clones! The 26 other Sarah's! It was the best name could think of cos I wanted to stop calling them 'clones'! They're not officially designated as base staff so they wouldn't be on the registers but surely they head the alarms as well?"
"And the base going up in flames!" added T.O.M.
"I'm sure they're fine, Sarah, they're probably on the other side of the crowd!" said Sprocket.
Unsure, Sarah grew 50 feet, getting a good view of the 3000+ people. The giantess looked for a small patch of golden blonde hair as they would all be grouped together but she couldn't see any sign of them.
"Oh god! They're not here…" she saw a fireball erupt out of the main hangar like a fire breathing dragon, "…they're still inside!"
"Sarah, before you start making assumptions you should…SARAH!"
Her friends watched as the giantess sprinted back to the burning base as fast as she could.
"TITANA! GET BACK HERE THIS INSTANT!" bellowed Monger, seeing the giantess heading back to the entrance.
Titana ignored the General as she covered her mouth and dived back into the hangar that was now full of smoke. The moment she dove in she felt the heat of the flames on her skin as various areas were combusting and exploding. The smoke was rising to where her head was and making it hard for her to see and breath but she had no time to waste.
She temporarily shrank down so to fit through the doorway into the main transfer corridor which now looked like the tunnel to hell with the place now lit up yellow from the many fires. If she stayed small she could avoid the smoke but may not get to Area Fifty-Secret in time, risking asphyxiation she grew to fifty feet in height, any higher and she'd go through the ceiling, and began sprinting as fast as she could, jumping over flames and pushing fallen debris aside. She had to get to Area Fifty-Secret; she had to save her girls.
"Darn it all! What's that girl think she's doin?" said Monger.
Fang stepped forward from the crowd, "Come on, guys! We can let her go in there by herself, we need to…Urk!"
Bar'Hbi suddenly kicked Fang in the head, sending him flying twenty feet before eating the dirt. When he tried to get back up the alien warrior grabbed him by his tail and starting hammering him into the ground.
"Disrespect me, you pathetic worm? I will turn you into shoes!" she snarled.
Everyone was alarmed at what was happening. Monger hovered over the crowd again and shouted over the commotion, "Bar'Hbi, stand down! This is not the time for one of your…"
Then Ravnivore charged into T.O.M and head-butted him, the mutant tomato rolled along the floor before hitting a rock. Before he knew what had happened Ravnivore head-butted him again and this time tried to bite the monster in half, his dual tongues trying to drag him into his mouth.
Sqooty then took out his blaster and began shooting at Dr Sprocket, his antennas glowing bright red, "It's your fault! I got an Omega minus on my report because of you!" he squeaked angrily.
Dr Sprocket had to dance and dive as lasers exploded by his feet. He didn't know what was going on or why the aliens were suddenly attacking the monsters, he briefly noticed that Covertron wasn't doing anything, "You're the so-called leader, call your team off!"
"Sorry but what can I do?" he said, sipping a cocktail.
Bar'Hbi now had Fang by the scruff of the neck and began strangling the snake, her teeth grinding so loudly that it almost made sparks, "How dare you apologize to me! How dare you mock my people!"
"WHU OOO ORKI A-OUT?" the snake gasped as the life was being squeezed out of him. In a last ditch attempt he whipped the huntress in the face with his tail and she let go, he then swiped her off her feet and knocked her back into a cactus.
Ravnivore was thrashing T.O.M about like a terrier with a rat but the monster was having the time of his life as he laughed out loud whilst being shaken all over the place.
Dr Sprocket was still narrowly avoiding laser fire as Sqooty continued to shoot at him, accusing him of making him fail his exams. The robo-doc did not shoot back as he was sure something else was happening here, as he got in closer he got a quick glimpse at the little aliens black eyes. Dodging more lasers he saw something in Ravnivore and Bar'Hbi's eyes as well.
"Chaps, their eyes! They're glowing red!" he called.
"So?" yelled Fang as he narrowly avoided Bar'Hbi's fists slamming into the ground.
"Last time they're eyes were glowing was when everyone had been affected by the Hallucinatron! They're being mind-controlled!"
"So Ravs only thinks I'm tasty?" said T.O.M as the six-legged alien tried to slurp him up like spaghetti.
"Yes, they're being controlled! We have to knock them out before they tear us to shreds!" said the mad scientist, receiving a laser bolt to the chest.
"Very clever, doctor," Covertron said to himself, his hand pressing on a button on his chair that was creating the same mind waves as the Hallucinatron he had tampered with.
Now knowing the reason for her madness, Fang was ready to tussle with Bar'Hbi as they stood a few yards apart, looking ready to sumo, "Come on, Bar'Hbi, let's go party!" he said.
Every corridor Titana ran down looked exactly the same, ceilings and walls caving in and fires erupting everywhere, the occasional quake to remind her she didn't have much time before the reactor blew. As she ran an explosion went off right next to her and the force knocked her sideways, sending her crashing through a wall, brick, cement and steel fell around her as her body hit the floor with a loud crash.
For a moment she laid there, her ears ringing so loud she thought she had a church bell stuck in there as it drowned out the chaos happening around her. Then the feeling of heat crept up her arm and she saw her sleeve had caught fire, quickly she patted it out and got back on her feet. She climbed out of the hole she had just made and looked down the corridor.
"Not far to go now. Come on, Sarah, move yer butt!" she told herself.
The giantess continued on till she finally she reached the large door that led to Area Fifty-Secret, the previous monster prison before the current one and now the home of the Identigirls, a small army of identical copies of Sarah. The door hadn't been locked so they weren't trapped inside so why hadn't they come out?
No time to waste the giantess dug her fingers into the large steel door, her fingernails sinking into the metal like it was made of dough and with one yank she pulled the door out of the doorway, the metal bending under her strength. She threw the twisted door panel down and peered down the dark and dusty tunnel, still no sign of them. She ventured inside, moving briskly as she had little time to spare.
The long tunnel to the old base was already in ruins as it had been neglected for decades, only recently had it been made to house her clones, and now that the base was on the verge of self-destruction were the walls and ceilings starting to crumble. Sarah covered her head as debris fell on her as she made her way onwards.
Finally she reached the main area where the Identigirls resided, and it was there that she received a shock. Rather than there being thick black smoke hanging in the air there was a white gassy mist staying close to the floor and all around her her clones lay on the floor unconscious.
"What happened here?" she said, the giantess got down on her knees and scooped up one of the clones, Sandra, in her hands and she held her to her ear and was relieved she was still breathing.
She looked at the white mist swirling around the floor, getting closer to it she took a big sniff and started to feel drowsy, she quickly pulled her head up again before she too collapsed, "Knockout gas! But where did that come from?"
Another tremor told her to find out later, she had to get her girls to the surface. She looked around for something to help her and found it in a large skip close by. Using it as a Tupperware box she carefully placed each girl inside it and when she finally had them all in she held the skip under her arm so that they didn't bounce out and began making her way out of the base, hoping she had enough time left.
Outside the monsters and aliens continued to fight, much to Mongers disapproval as his roars for them to cease went ignored. Bar'Hbi was using her elemental staff and Fang was using his claws as they duelled, sparks flying as they made contact with every swing. Ravnivore was still trying to eat T.O.M but the mutant veg was still having a ball as continued slipping out of his mouth, laughing all the while. Sqooty was firing wildly now in his attempt to hit Dr Sprocket, calling him everything under the sun (meaning every alien insult under his own sun), but the mad scientist dodged and ducked every blast, keeping the laser fire away from the crowds.
Fang hit the floor just as Bar'Hbi swung her staff again, sparks and flames spitting out of the claw at the end, the snake had to end this quickly and he had an idea on how to do it, "Hey, Barb, wanna know something interesting about me?"
"That you actually have a spine?" she snarled.
"Nope. Well yes actually but that's not it. Did you know that when I was first captured I had to be devenomized cos my venom was so strong it could kill an elephant?"
"So?" she said, taking another swing.
"Well, when they finished they overlooked the last tooth right at the back, there isn't enough venom left to kill somebody but enough to do THIS!" the snake struck out and bit the alien huntress on the leg, his back tooth breaking her orange skin and injecting what little venom he had left. The alien kicked him off and he landed on his back, "Job done! I was saving that for a rainy day but I'll settle for a 'beating alien day' anytime!"
Bar'Hbi stood with her staff in her hands, starting to feel giddy as she held her head, bright colours starting appearing before her eyes as the world began to spin.
"What…stupid…eel…do….so…pwitty….coolars…Bar'Hbi….go…night-night…now…."
And the female alien collapsed, the venom having rendered her unconscious. Fang grabbed her elemental staff and aimed it at the others who were still duking it out, "Guys….MOVE!"
Dr Sprocket jumped clear and T.O.M slipped out of Ravnivores mouth once again as the snake shot jets of ice at the aliens, freezing the pair of them in blocks of ice.
The robo-doc got up and saw Sqooty frozen in mid-rant, his gun still in his hand. Ravnivore was in the middle of sticking his dual tongues out when he was frozen.
"They're alive. Just in hibernation and the venom will take some time to work out of Bar'Hbi's system so I'd say we're good for now. Hopefully whatever's causing them to go bezerk will wear off,"
Fang threw the elemental staff to the ground next to Bar'Hbi as he re-joined his friends, "Guess that proves it then…Monsters are better than aliens!"
"Not on your life." Muttered Covertron.
Titana ran as fast as she could, the destruction was ten times worse than when she had last been through here, entire passageways were blocked and she had to elbow her way through the blockage in order to continue, all the while making sure none of her girls fell out of the skip. Fire and sparks rained down from the ceiling and explosions were going off everywhere, almost turning the floor into a minefield. The smoke was getting thicker and the giantess was starting to feel the effects even with her giant lungs. She forced herself to keep going, never to stop, never to quit, just keep going. With one blockage smash after another she made her way through the main transfer corridor and reached the doorway to the main hangar, she couldn't shrink down now as she wouldn't be able to get the skip through so she just rugby tackled the wall and landed on the floor of the hangar. She looked up and saw several jets half demolished by explosions and debris but the sight of daylight brought her hope. She picked up the skip once more and dashed out the entrance just as another fireball erupted.
"She's out!" called a soldier looking through binoculars, "Titana has exited the base!"
"Bout time!" said Monger, angry but secretly relieved she was okay.
Titana ran as fast as she could, she was not out of danger yet as the blast could still take her and her clones out. Now that she was outside she grew to her maximum height and sprinted at full speed, the skip now cupped in both hands.
For a second everything went quiet.
…
She looked back.
…
…
…
KABOOOM!
There was a blinding flash and then a blast that knocked the giantess off her feet and sent her flying. Everyone shielded their eyes as Area Fifty-Unknown went up like a thousand erupting volcanoes all at once, a mushroom cloud bigger than a mountain soaring up into the sky, the UFO's moving out of its way.
Monger opened his eyes, he and everyone else had been blown to the ground and were lying face down in the dirt, the only sounds that could be heard was the rumble of distant thunder and a chorus of electronic humming. He slowly got to his feet and looked at the sight before him, soon everyone else joined him to see the fate of his beloved base.
Where Area Fifty-Unknown once stood there was now a gigantic blackened crater several miles in diameter and a plume of black smoke rising up into the sky like the ghost of the base leaving the world.
He saluted his fallen base as the monsters stood next to him.
"My base..."
"My lab…."
"My XStation…"
"My sandwich…"
The loud grunt to their right caught their attention and they saw Megarah curled up in a ball some fifty yards away, having received a greater blast from the explosion than the rest of them had. Once the stinging was gone she lifted her head up and looked at her hands, she was still holding the skip and to her relief all 26 clones were still inside. Before she could say a word General Monger flew right in her face, making her jump with a start.
"And what did ya think you were doin? What kinda crazy fool goes into a burning building?" he shouted.
"Someone who still thinks they can save someone!" Megarah retorted, not caring for the Generals opinions on her actions, "These girls are my responsibility just as much as the entire base personnel are yours!"
Monger hovered back at her reaction, he hadn't known her to speak to him like that before, "Look, buildings and such can be replaced but people can't! I…I just didn't wanna see one of my best monsters go up in a fireball is all,"
"Appreciate the concern but I'm fine! It's the girls I'm worried about; I found them all unconscious with knockout gas everywhere!"
Covertron tried not to pat himself on the back for another successful plan. Using the distribution system he had nicked from the crashed Xynical vessel he had been able to pump the knockout gas into Area Fifty-Secret, thus making sure there was no army of giants to thwart the invasion.
Dr Sprocket peered inside the skip and used his scanners on the Sarah clones, "A little bruised but generally just sleeping. They'll wake up in a few hours I say,"
"Well that's one thing at least," she sighed, the electronic humming above was getting beyond annoying now, it was like that one song you hated and was being played on a loop.
"So now what do we do?" asked Fang, "We've no base, no weapons, no communications…"
"No sandwich!" said T.O.M.
"We still got something, guys," said Megarah, "Remember we once took down an entire spaceship singlehandedly! These guys think they can just fly right in and hum their silly little alien tunes at us then they got another thing coming!"
The giantess stood upright, reaching her full height as the sand and dirt fell away from her and drifted in the wind. She looked up at the spaceship covered sky; there were only a few cracks where she could see blue sky now.
She clenched her fists tightly and stood firm as her long golden blonde hair blew in the wind. As she looked at the alien fleet the more she began to wonder if she and her friends really stood any chance of saving the world this time. Was this where it was going to end?
"Well? Come on then!" she yelled up to them.
Almost in response the spaceships' random electronic blaring's became synchronized as the middle of their undersides began glowing bright purple. The lights became larger and an even louder buzzing noise emanated from each one. Megarah felt deep dread in the pit of her stomach, it was similar to what Gallaxus' ship did and that meant these ships were about to…
"Oh n-"
The spaceships fired purple laser beams all at once and every one of them struck the giantess, almost exploding on impact. Everyone shielded their faces as explosion after explosion went off. Megarah was in such unbearable pain that she couldn't even scream. Her eyes were welded shut but she could feel every part of her body crying for mercy.
It was like mines had been placed under her skin as parts of her body exploded and flesh was ripped away. As the lasers continued to rain down on her, her body ignited and her 150 foot form went up in flames, it was like some twisted Guy Fawkes event as the giantess was engulfed in fire.
Her friends and colleagues could only watch in horror as the giantess was torn apart by the aliens, nobody could do anything to help her as she disappeared in the smoke from her own burning body.
Just outside of the crowd Covertron was busying himself by polishing his monocle; he wanted to look presentable when the Grand Coverlord arrived.
After what felt like an eternity the UFO's ceased firing and remained silent. Everybody looked at the giant cloud of smoke where Sarah was standing; they could hear and see nothing of her.
Eventually the smoke cleared and several female members of staff screamed out as Sarah emerged. The beautiful blonde girl in red was now a burnt husk, her outfit was gone, her hair burnt away to the scalp and every part of her skin was blackened. Even Monger, who had seen many things in his life, was in shock.
She toppled over and crashed into the ground, flakes of burnt skin falling off her as she fell. Monger was the first to react as he fired up his jetpack once again, Dr Sprocket was next as he used his flight mode to get there quicker.
Monger stood by the giantess face, it was almost unrecognisable now as every feature was destroyed, her signature fringe was long gone, her hairband had melted off and her lips had burst exposing her ruined teeth.
"Darn it, soldier! You wake up right now! That's an order! Do you hear me?" he yelled at her, he refused to accept she was gone.
Dr Sprocket landed next to him, "General, is she…"
"She can't be! Nothing can take Megarah down! Nothing ever has!"
"General, I'm sorry but I…I…wait a minute…LOOK!"
The robo-doc pointed and saw that the giantess' face was slowly getting smaller; they looked at the ground and saw her whole body was now sliding back.
"She's shrinking! That means she's still alive!" said Dr Sprocket, overcome with relief.
Monger took a deep breath and yelled at the top of his lungs, "MEDIC! WE NEED A MEDIC HERE RIGHT NOW!"
Dr Leanne McKenzie, the bases 'former' medical doctor, forced her way through the crowd; she had been trying to the moment Sarah remerged from the smoke. Fang saw her trying to get to them and used his long tail to lift her up and carry her over to the General and the others.
McKenzie knelt next to the charred Sarah who had just returned to normal size, having just been evacuated from her medical center and with next to no equipment she was in a bit of a panic, "Okay…okay…major third degree burns, maybe even fourth…nerves possibly organs and bones have been damaged…we need to get her off the sand! We need bandages or something!"
Quick thinking, Dr Sprocket took off his lab coat, emptied its contents and then cut it into strips, he and Dr McKenzie then quickly wrapped up Sarahs raised and leathery body as much as possible. Mercifully a stretcher was one of the few things that had been saved during the evacuation and she was soon placed upon it.
"Now what?" asked Fang, "We can't call an ambulance because them lot up there are jamming us!"
"Yes, we are most assuredly doomed. Oh well, might as well put up our hands and surrender." Covertron said mildly.
"We have to think of something! There must be a way to…"
"General, the base is gone, Sarahs half-dead and we have an alien armada that's clearly gotten the better of us!" said Sprocket, "It's hopeless! We've lost!"
Suddenly between them and the spaceships a large black swirling orb appeared out of thin air, its bellowing roar drowned out that of the spaceships as it started to pull them in one by one. They all watched as the spaceships were pulled inside and consumed like some giant floating vacuum cleaner. As more ships were sucked up the sky began to clear and more and more daylight began to shine through.
Then finally the last of the spaceships was sucked up and the black orb disappeared. For a few moments everyone looked up at the clear blue sky, wondering what had just happened.
Dr Sprocket then heard footsteps coming his way; he turned and saw the janitor he had given the unknown device to walk over to him, the yellow cone still in his hands and it was letting out sparks.
"Oh hey! I just figured out what this thing does!" he said behind his thick bristled moustache.
"A black hole generator! THAT'S what it was!" he said, snapping his fingers.
"Are you telling me the whole world just got saved by…what's yer name?" asked Fang.
"Scruffy…the janitor."
"Yep, seems my inventions aren't so useless after all!" Sprocket beamed.
Covertron was choking and spluttering in disbelief, the entire invasion fleet, most of his own people, had just been sucked up and crushed by an artificial black hole set off by a janitor, "No…that's not…I was…you can't do that!" he shrieked, grabbing his moustache and almost ripping it off.
"Don't know what's gotten into you, buddy, he happy, we're going to live!" said T.O.M, slapping him hard on the back and knocking him out of his chair.
Dr Sprocket then checked his systems, "General, we have communications back!"
"Good, get in touch with the Pentagon and the nearest rescue team, tell them we have wounded and need immediate evac!"
As Dr Sprocket did so the other monsters, Monger and Dr McKenzie stood over Sarah as she lay on the stretcher, wrapped in shreds of clothing, not knowing if she was going to make it after all this.
As the sun slowly began to set the people of Earth got ready for the start of a new day, never knowing that they came so close to their last if it had not been for a janitor and a mad scientist's random junk.
Christmas Special on Dec 20th.
