Trick or Treat, Pt 18

By Jill Weber

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

***

Any other day of the year, Neugogg's arrival would have been met with screams and panic. Tonight, however, he was greeted with applause.

Taken aback, he looked around the room and scowled. "I am going to eat your brains!" he roared.

The crowd roared back in approval.

Neugogg scratched his head, being careful to avoid the exposed brain case that made up the back of his skull. "Well, you're certainly being good sports about it," he said, puzzled.

"Man, that's the best costume I have ever seen!" somebody in the audience called. "And after twenty years of San Diego Comic Convention, that's saying something!"

"Ahhh…" Neugogg said, enlightened. "You think I'm just part of the decorations! Well, what if I told you that I'm a real mutant and I really eat people's minds?"

This was greeted with more cheers, whistles and even foot stomping from the children and adult guests. The Quark employees on the other hand, looked ready to faint or flee. Even if the Quark employees hadn't known Neugogg from earlier attacks, they'd have known that he wasn't part of the planned entertainment.

As a test, Neugogg made a rush at a huddle of Quark employees, who promptly screamed and ran away. The rest of the audience also screamed and sent catcalls after the fleeing brainiacs. Neugogg couldn't remember the last time that he'd had so much fun.

"And now, for my next trick, I need a volunteer from the audience," Neugogg said. He saw Dr. Slate standing irresolutely in the crowd. He knew she recognized the threat he represented. He also realized that she was faced with the tricky problem of alerting the crowd that they were in danger without starting a stampede.

"Dr. Slate, would you care to come up here and have your brain eaten?" he wondered if he could actually pull this stunt off without tipping off the audience that he was a real monster. Once he'd eaten Dr. Slate's intellect, she'd be reduced to a babbling idiot. The change in her behavior would be obvious.

On the other hand, this group would probably think it was part of the act. He chuckled to himself. Just think, his dinner might well sit around applauding him like so many brainless boobies until… well, until he turned them all into brainless boobies.

All he had to do was keep the people who knew the score from interfering with his fun.

"No thanks," Slate said.

Neugogg eyed her. She was rubbing her neckline nervously, obviously trying to think of a plan. He wondered why she didn't call for help.

Just then, Rusty's Big Guy signal went off.

Rusty and Dwayne jumped. Slate sighed. So much for Big Guy coming to the rescue, she thought. Looked like Garth and the Pit Crew had their hands full.

"Aren't you going to answer that?" Neugogg asked Rusty.

"Can't, I have to protect the audience from you!" Rusty replied defiantly.

The crowd applauded. "Yay, Rusty!"

Hunter edged away from Slate in what he hoped was an inconspicuous movement.

"Ah-ah-ah!" Neugogg said, waving a tentacle at him. "Where do you think you're going?"

"Um, to get some punch," Hunter said. "You want some?"

Neugogg probed the man's mind to gauge whether his intellect was worth eating, then he recognized the thought patterns. "No thanks, I'd rather eat your brain!" he replied excitedly.

Here he was! Big Guy's pilot! No wonder Dr. Slate hadn't called for help, there wasn't any to be had! The tongue from his second mouth slid out and drooled at the thought of finally getting revenge.

The audience clapped and whistled. "Whoa, wicked effect!" somebody said. "Hey, how about eating Donovan's brain?" someone else said. "Assuming that he has one!" a third somebody called.

Distracted, Neugogg looked around. "Dr. Donovan?" he asked. He finally spotted Donovan in his party dress and fell over laughing. "Oh, I should eat your brain!" he said. He rolled to his feet and charged after Donovan.

Donovan screamed and tried to run away. He ran around the refreshment table with Neugogg moving almost leisurely behind him.

The audience hooted and laughed while the Quark employees who hadn't fled, Hunter and Rusty tried to figure out a way to evacuate everybody before the situation got out of hand.

Some of the employees were managing to get the people closest to the doors to leave the room. Hunter and Slate could see expressions change from puzzled to doubt to alarm as the employees whispered sweet nothings into nearby ears.

"Lucky for us he's decided to ham it up a bit," Hunter muttered. He looked at the punch and then had an idea. "What we need is a diversion."

"He's probably never had an appreciative audience before," Slate said, sotto voce. "Rusty, distract him while we get these people out of here!"

Meanwhile, Donovan was actually being useful for a change. He was keeping Neugogg's attention on him as he fled around the table, knocking decorations over and totally ruining his expensive silk stockings.

Finally, he tripped and fell headlong into the tub of ice water. He came up, dripping and clenching an apple in his horsy teeth.

"Hey, you can't eat his brain!" Rusty said, involuntarily playing to the audience.

"Aww, let him have a snack!" some female called.

"Sorry, I'm sworn to protect all humans!" Rusty said.

"But you can't save them from their own feeble minds!" He glared at Donovan. "Come to me, NOW!"

Meanwhile, Hunter had edged closer to the punch bowl. He looked at Dr. Lester, then at the smoke that was coming from the punch bowl.

Dr. Lester wasn't a genius, but she wasn't an idiot, either. Her gaze followed Hunter's, then she shoved an insulated chest from under the table.

Deducing that the chest contained dry ice, Slate looked around for something wet that she could spread over the floor and dump the dry ice in. A nice dense fog should cover everybody's escape.

Assuming, of course, that they could persuade the audience that they needed to escape.