Trick or Treat, Pt 16

By Jill Weber

Big Guy and Rusty characters owned by Sony and Darkhorse and are used without permission or intent to make a profit.

Does anybody read this disclaimers? If so, I'll give you a cameo in my next story.

***

The last of the party-goers had arrived, which meant that it was time to get to some serious snacking.

Slate had to admit, the spread was impressive, even if it wasn't very nutritious.

"Look, Slate, they have vegetables here!" Hunter teased. He pointed to a section of the table with deserts.

"I don't really consider pumpkin pie to be a 'vegetable', Lieutenant," Slate said, trying to be severe.

Dwayne just grinned at her. "Well, it's not like you have to worry about what Rusty eats," he said.

"You should be worrying about Jeffy," Slate retorted.

"We had a healthy dinner of vegetable soup and grilled cheese sandwiches at the diner downstairs," Dwayne retorted. "So, what did you have for dinner?"

Not wanting to admit she hadn't even had dinner, Slate decided to change the subject.

***

Meanwhile, Dr. Neugogg was having his own brand of snacks. He ignored the sugary treats that remained in the maze in favor of the minds of the employees who had been stationed along the route.

He did regret eating Dr. Huckle's brain, though.

"Not very smart, either, for all that he was getting paid more than I had!" He'd really hated working for Quark's. He hoped he'd get a chance to eat his former boss's brain tonight. Not that Donovan's brain would taste any better than Huckle's had. "Talk about empty calories," Neugogg muttered to himself.

Instead of eating the brain of the next person he met, Neugogg tried to use his mind control to force the man to lead him out of the maze.

He had limited success. The man lead him through most of the maze, but Neugogg lost his 'grip' on him when he tripped over one of the booby traps.

The man ran for it. Neugogg wasn't sure what had gone wrong. Maybe he'd over indulged in too many picayune minds like Huckle's, or maybe the huge number of intellects in one room was distracting him. Whatever the cause, he had just lost his 'native guide' as it were.

Or maybe it was because the man, while highly intelligent, was too panic stricken to even think.

Neugogg decided on the last theory, because he could hear the man screaming. That made it extremely easy to follow him.

Thanks to the maze, the man had only one path he could take to get out of harm's way.

"This should lead me to the party and Dr. Slate," Neugogg mused. "Not how I would have chosen to get out of the maze," Neugogg shrugged. "But it'll do."

The screaming man dashed into the party room. "A monster!" he shrieked as he ran out the other door.

The party-goers fell silent and whirled to face the exit from the maze. Moments later, a huge spider with tentacles sprouting from his thorax burst into the room.