Chapter 13: Gizmo on the Trail

Every angry thought and thirst for violence had left Billy's body when Chuck had stepped in front of him to protect him. What the hell was he thinking? Was he going to attack his friend? He closed his eyes as a new feeling took over, shame and embarrassment.

"Billy?" Gene's voice was heard on the inside of the backpack

"Sorry. I'm so sorry," Billy said softly.

A cackle of electricity was heard followed by a screech and the clatter of chairs being knocked over.

"Got him!" Chuck said in triumph.

Billy opened his eyes to see a struggling bat gremlin as it was trying to get up and out from under two fallen chairs. He set down his back pack and ran on all fours towards the gremlin and pulled it out.

The creature stared at him in confusion before it hissed and Billy hissed right back at it. It flapped its wings and tried to get away but Billy held onto it.

"We both got him," Chuck said as he grabbed onto the wings of the creature.

Billy used one hand to hold on to the bat gremlin's ankles to keep it from moving. The creature was using all of its strength to try to get away, but it wasn't going to get away. Billy swiped at the gremlin's throat with his claws.

The bat winged gremlin screeched once more before it made a gurgling sound and green blood oozed from his wound.

"That's one down," Chuck said as he stepped away from the dying creature as it bled out. "Hundreds more to go."

"Yeah." Billy found a stray overturned napkin to wipe the blood off. Was his blood green now as well?

"Something wrong?" Chuck had picked up the backpack and Gene had popped his head out. "We make a good team with my security guard training and your claws."

"I was close to sinking my claws into you." He placed a hand against his forehead. "I was growing angry with you, not specifically you but humans in general."

"Do they all hate humans?"

"Not all," Gene said. "Hei'an Lingxiu."

"What did he just say?"

"I'm not sure," Billy said and sighed. "But I'm pretty sure that is what I am. They didn't just use any mogwai DNA on me but they used the blood of their leader, Razor and there was always one lead trouble maker out of the group. The first time it was Stripe and the second was this grayish green one with a red Mohawk like fin on his head." He reached up to touch the back of his neck. "I have a bit of that same red fin on me and he had it on his arms and legs and so do I." He pointed at the red fringe on his arms and legs. "The other gremlins love to have fun, go nuts and cause trouble. It's funny to them and they don't really know the extent of what they are doing or they don't care, but those leaders do and they seek to cause more, kill as much humans as possible and I'm the same."

"No you're not," Gene said and shook his head.

"The little guy is right," Chuck said. "You're not evil. I mean do you feel evil? Do you want to kill all humans?"

"No," Billy said with a sigh and shrugged. "Not now I don't."

"A few minutes ago I asked you if you wanted to call your boss again and tell them about what happened and bring justice to this doctor Friedrich, but you didn't because you wanted to make sure everyone in this mall was safe first. That is not evil."

"I may get cravings and urges again."

"And I'll keep you in check," Chuck said as he set the backpack back on him. "The others aren't really that evil?"

"No like I said they don't understand or care about the consequences of their actions. They have some soft spots. They don't like animal testing and they love Snow White."

"Disney version?" Chuck raised his eyebrows.

"They loved it."

"You might think some of them might be in the theater? They could be interested in Mulan?"

"They might," Billy said as he held out his hand. More people were approaching the food court and they looked confused. "We have to keep evacuating."

"Billy, let's get down to business."

"Cops haven't arrived yet," Kate said as she leaped from the car. She didn't even wait for Murray to stop once he had entered an empty parking space near the clinic of the medical building.

"Told you I'd get you here first," Murray said once he had turned off the engine. "Should we wait for the others first?"

"No," Lynn said as she slammed the door behind her. "Billy is in there and so is Gerald and they been through so much." Tears were forming in her eyes. "My boy is in there."

"We are going to find both of them," Kate said in pure determination and from her purse she could hear Gizmo agree. She wanted to help Gerald as well even though he used to make advances at her, unwanted advances, but that was fourteen years ago. He had a wife, an ex-wife who was seen crying on the news and he had two daughters. Two little girls who were missing their father and from what some people who knew Gerald recently mentioned how he was always helping others and volunteering at the soup kitchen on Thanksgiving, it sounded like he certainly had changed.

"Wow beat me here by a few minutes," Clamp said as he and Forster ran up to them. "The police should be here soon and should I call in the swat team now or wait?"

"I say we wait until we hear from Billy," Murray said. "Or we find Billy and talk to him. I'm sure he has a dozen good ideas on how to deal with these gremlins."

"Good point," Clamp said with a nod of his head. "Bill comes up with great plans even at the last second he can think of something."

"We still need to find him." Kate ran towards the clinic entrance and ignored the people who were crowding around. There were several people in lab coats talking to each other and few angry people who were complaining about how their appointments were canceled.

"You don't want to go in there," a woman said as she waved her cigarette and the direction of the clinic. "There are things inside, little ugly things."

"I'm about to become a little ugly old lady if you don't let me in," a woman with a head full of pale white curls and red cat framed glasses barked.

"Security issue," a man said as he was sitting on a curb and holding a blood stained cloth to his head. "I'm head of security and it is not safe. Trust me. I got attacked by something and now I'm dealing with a concussion."

"Sheesh, I know how hard it is to get appointment these days but they are really pushing it," Murray said as they were about to enter.

"Freeze," a young woman in a security suit said. "I can't let you in there." Her hair was out of place and she had an arm in a makeshift sling.

"My husband is in there," Kate said as she tried to shove past the woman.

"They are going to get him out of there," the woman said as she stepped in front of Kate.

"I don't think you understand," Kate said if what Gerald had said was true then being outside in the sun was going to be a problem.

"You listen to me, young lady," Lynn marched right up and put herself between Kate and the woman. "We know about the gremlins. I even killed three of them by myself one time."

"Gremlins?" One the people in the white lab coats said. "Is that what they are?"

"You did," another person asked. "How did you kill them? Is there a special way?"

"Sliced, blended and microwaved," Lynn said in a proud tone.

"I killed a flying one," Murray held up his hand. "I helped in killing hundreds at once and Mr. Clamp also helped."

"Mr. Clamp?" Several voiced cried at once.

"Oh hey how are you," Clamp greeted when the people crowded around him and were held back by Forster. "I will be happy to answer any questions you might have."

The crowd was distracted and both Lynn and Murray were keeping the woman from security back making it easy for Kate and Gizmo to enter inside.

There was nothing near the doors or front windows, obviously with the sun streaming in at them. The clinic side was empty and everything was clean if slightly dim the further back it went until it met with the pharmacy that was where the clean and tidy part was gone.

Shelves were knocked all over and various bottles and packages were scattered across the floor. Some of them looked empty and various pills were spread out. There were also a few small puddles of vomit and a few sleeping gremlins.

"May cause drowsiness," Kate read from the half empty bottle that was in the green creature's hand.

Kate perked up when she heard a slow and soft scrape like something being dragged along the ground. She stepped towards the mall entrance and froze.

Standing between her and the mall was a large monster. It had the upper half of a gremlin and the lower legless half of a snake. Its ears were connected to its neck, forming a cobra like hood and it had two long protruding fangs.

Kate gasped before she bolted back towards the clinic and didn't look back to see if the thing was chasing her. She could hear it. She stepped right into the bright sunlit area and turned around.

The serpent hissed in pain as it recoiled from the light and slithered off into another direction.

"A snake gremlin," Kate gasped as she fell to her knees. "Why did there have to be a snake gremlin?" She breathed in deeply and looked around her. Her purse! Where was her purse? She must have dropped it and Gizmo was still inside. She had to go back for him.

The snake was not around the corner when she peered from the one clinic counter. She also couldn't hear it . Taking in a deep breath she stepped around and looked for her purse, ready to run back to the light if she could see the large and frightening gremlin.

She could see the back of the serpentine gremlin as it slithered into the mall and was crawling towards the direction of one of the other shops.

"Giz?" She whispered as she approached her bag. "Gizmo I'm sorry I left you." She looked inside her purse and Gizmo was gone. "No!" She shook her head. She abandoned her friend and now he had been eaten by a giant cobra gremlin. She felt the tears well up in her eyes when she noticed something else was gone. It was the small multipurpose tool that belonged to the mogwai. Did that mean he was still alive?

Gizmo felt like he was dropping while he heard Kate scream and felt the thud of the landing. He could hear something move fast and he parted the purse and peered out as a large snake like gremlin was slithering around it looked like it was slightly burned as it grew closer to the bag.

Gizmo ducked in further and forced the bag to close and listened to the scraping sound of the monster as it slithered past him. As soon as it was gone Gizmo had bolted and dashed towards two shelves that had fallen against each other and crawled underneath the tunnel they had formed. When he crawled out from the other side he faced a vent.

"Vent," Gizmo said as he used his trusty little multi tool to remove the screws in the panel and crawled inside. He could find Billy this way.

He paused when he heard footsteps and could see Kate coming up to where he was.

"Bye bye, Kate," Gizmo said.

"Giz, you are okay?" Kate asked. "Where are you?"

"In vent," Gizmo answered. "I find Billy." He scurried off before Kate could say anything else.

Directing the patrons of the mall to the nearest exits wasn't too hard, at least Billy thought so. They had approached well-lit areas and explained to the people the mall had closed for an extermination before ducking into various stores to warn them and Chuck was hearing from another guy named Trevor who was helping people evacuate at other parts of the mall, but for some reason he couldn't reach Laura and that worried Billy.

"We will keep this up while on the path to the WB store," Chuck explained while trying to hide how worried he felt. "It's not like for Laura to lose communication. She always has two radios on her."

A scream came from several yards ahead where the lights were out and it came from the direction of Claire's. Both of them had bolted to the store where seven gremlins were running around.

A light green one was sitting in the piercing chair while a teal one was covering the large ears with different kinds of studs and laughing while the other screamed. A dark green one was seated on the counter near the registers and was eating the impulse candy. Another teal gremlin was eating various kinds of lip gloss while a light green one and another brown one were dolling each other up with various make up and accessories and a different dark green one was wearing several glittery scarves while trying on different sunglasses in front of the mirror.

In one corner of the store was the employee standing in front of several women and their children and a small group of middle school aged girls.

"Everyone be quiet," Chuck said as he approached them. "They are distracted by all the shiny stuff."

"Slowly and quietly you need to get out," Billy explained. "Chuck you need to get them out and I'll distract them." He went right up to the one in front of the mirror who had turned around and pointed at himself.

"You like?" the gremlin asked.

"Yes but I think the scarf is too loose," Billy said and grabbed at the ends. "Let me tighten it." He wrapped the scarf even tighter and pulled as hard as he could while the gremlin grabbed at the air. He continued until the creature fell down.

Snarling brought his focus towards to the two make up wearing gremlins. One launched itself at Billy as he brought up his fist and struck it in the face, knocking it back.

The other gremlin swiped at Billy and his claws grazed his arm.

Billy growled as he covered his bleeding scratches and yes his blood was also now green. He tackled the creature and ripped out its throat while his teeth were bared.

"He's also a monster!" One of the women screamed as she grabbed her daughter by the arm and ran out of the store.

"Monster?" Billy repeated and stared at his injured arm.

"Get back!" Chuck shouted followed by the crackle of electricity. Snarling was heard followed by more crackles of Chuck's stun gun. "And you." The electric sound heard was loudest followed by the scent of smoke and some kind of floral fragrance "Whoa that one was a little too long."

"Too long?" Billy asked as he found where his new friend was. Smoke was still wafting off the melting form of an electrocuted gremlin. "I think long enough." He noticed the broken bottle of some cheap pink perfume bottle was next to it. "Not to mention it must have soaked itself in fragrance first."

"I uh didn't know that would happen," Chuck said before he looked up at Billy. "Oh, hey one of them got you." He pointed at Billy's arm.

"I've had worse," Billy answered and remembered the pain from the arrow.

"Let me take care of that." He ran back to where the scarf accessories and the strangled gremlin was and grabbed one of the thicker scarves. "They all escaped and I got a few Band-Aids here. " He felt around one of his large pockets and pulled out a small medic kit. "I better use the gauze pad and this antibacterial spray. He applied the spray to Billy's wound before placing on the cotton pad and wrapped it up with the scarf.

"That's good they have escaped." He couldn't shake off the fact he appeared as a monster. "Let's go meet up with Gerald."

"I'm not sure if the Warner Brother's store is safe," Billy said once they had reached another darkened part of the mall. The store in question had various gremlins climbing up and down it and there was laughter heard on the inside.

"I don't see your friend," Chuck said as he was looking around. "I also don't see Laura." He brought his radio to his ear. "Hello, Laura, come in Laura?" He was silent for a few seconds. "She is not there."

"Don't think they are on the inside," Billy said as he looked inside. The gremlins were in there, but they were not causing trouble. Several where wearing oversized shirts with the various characters on them and they were munching on candy, but they were mostly fixated on the several screens. One was playing a Roadrunner and Coyote cartoon, another had a classic Bugs Bunny and Daffy and the third had a more recent 90's cartoon, an episode of Animaniacs was playing.

"What are they doing?" Chuck whispered.

"Watching cartoons," Billy answered as he continued to watch the screens and smiled

"What should we do?" Chuck asked. "Should we go back to the office?"

"No…wait," Billy was trying to think but he was also distracted by the antics of the characters. "What if they are not there? How about you take Gene and I'll stay here."

"I don't like the idea of us separating even more," Chuck said. "Wait a second." He reached into a different pocket and pulled out another walkie-talkie. "This is my back up. I always have a backup."

"Thanks," Billy said and turned his on. "What frequency?"

"Number five," Chuck answered. "Are you sure you will be safe?"

"I have my claws and these are the regular ones. If you don't provoke them they won't attack."

"Stay safe."

"Gotcha." He didn't even see Chuck leave and was focused on the cartoons. He felt himself grin and laugh along with the gremlins.

It didn't take Gizmo long before he came across another vent that wasn't abandoned nor was it near any gremlins. He could hear a man swear and grumble out of frustration.

"Come on," the man said. He did not sound like Billy "I just need that other paperclip."

Gizmo removed the panel and entered a dark office. He could see the desk with a computer on it and the chair in front of it and there were a few other office items. He crawled under the desk and saw the chair on the opposite side, a few paper clips on the ground and a pair of large four toed gremlin feet.

"Uh-oh," Gizmo said. He wasn't sure what he was looking at. Was it a large gremlin, but it sounded more human and then he remembered when Mr. Clamp was on the phone and said that Billy and another man were mutated into being half gremlin.

"Who's there?" The man's voice was heard again. "Gene is that you, or are you another mogwai?"

"Mogwai," Gizmo repeated and stepped out from under the desk. "Gizmo." He could see the feet were sticking out from the cuffs of denim pants and there was a very short man wearing those pants and he had strange streaky tan and greenish brown arms save for the green spot on one of them and he wore a t-shirt with a giant lizard foot on it. The man had the same streaky complexion along with strange pointed growths on his face. He had light brown hair on his head and that was crowned with a baseball cap and something hanging from the sides, those were ears, gremlin ears.

"Gizmo," the being repeated and grinned, showing sharp pointed teeth. "Billy told me about you and boy am I happy to see you. I tried to warn them about the gremlins but they cuffed me to his chair." He raised his hand, or tried to, causing the cuff and chain to rattle. "I'm trying to get a paperclip so I could bend it and use it to pick the lock. Could you hand me one?" He had to be Gerald.

Gizmo had a better idea. "Pick me up." He held up his arms.

"Okay," Gerald said as he lifted Gizmo up. "You have something in mind?"

"Uh-huh," Gizmo answered as he crawled across his lap and pressed the tip of his multi tool into the lock. After jiggling it for a few seconds there was a click.

"Huh." Gerald opened up the cuff and pulled his wrist free. "You are very clever, just like your clone."

"Clone?" Gizmo said and wondered how they were able to copy him. The twin scientists hadn't taken any samples from him, but he remembered waking up from a nap not long after he had arrived and felt something sharp. He looked and there was another scientist walking away.

"Gene is a nice mogwai like you." Gerald said as he picked up the sunglasses that fell to the ground. "I don't need these to block out the light, but it covers up the red and I look good." He placed them back on his face. "Let's go find, Billy."

"Yeah," Gizmo agreed as he was carried by Gerald.

"I'm going to have to find the directory because we were supposed to meet up at the WB store."

They left the office and they were not alone. There were four gremlins waiting for them. One was pale and short with pink eyes, the one right next to him was a taller, green and fat, the third was brown had two eyes facing the opposite direction and a tongue hanging out and the fourth was light green in color and covered in spikes.

"Gizmo," the gremlin said with the same voice it had as Mohawk and Stripe. It had narrowed its bright orange eyes. "Gizmo Caca"