A Dark and Scary Night (Part 2 of 2)
Behind the front desk of the Katz Motel, Katz looked at his watch. A single flourescent light above his head displayed the time on the watch: one minute to midnight. He lay the watch on the desk and pulled out a walkie-talkie from behind his back. He set the device on the first channel and pushed the 'talk' button.
"Come in, Ma. Come in."
In a room next to the basement, Eustace's mother sat in a desk chair. Before her sat a control panel that controlled all the electrical devices in the motel.
"I'm here, Katz," she answered.
"Are you ready to begin Phase One of our plan to get rid of the agents?"
"Affirmative."
"Excellent. Proceed on my command. Over." Katz then switched the walkie-talkie to channel two. "Come in Group One. Over."
"Yeah, we're here. Over," said Doc Gerbil. Him and Cajun Fox were sitting at one end of a hallway near the snack bar with a large machine between them.
"Good," said Katz. "After Phase One is complete, you two will proceed with Phase Two on my command. Understood?"
"Yep!" said Cajun Fox. "Read ya loud and clear."
Katz sighed and switched the receiver to channel three. "Come in Group Two. Over. Are you there?"
"Yeah, we're here," grumbled Mad Dog. He was crammed into a small, dark room with Foot Fungus. A large, two-way mirror made up one wall of the room. On the other side was a motel bathroom...specifically, the bathroom that was connected to Barsby and Gammon's room!
"Now then," continued Katz. "You two will commence with Phase Three on my signal, alright?"
"Whatever you say, boss. Nyah," said Foot Fungus. Mad Dog groaned. He wished he could dump some foot powder on his partner because the stench was beginning to get to him.
Katz then tuned the walkie-talkie to the last channel. "Come in Group Three. Over."
The voices of Le Quack, Queen of the Black Puddle, and growls of the Weremole could be heard on the other side. "Uh, yes, over!" shouted Le Quack quickly.
"Please pay attention," declared Katz. "Now, are you all listening?"
"Yes, we're listening," said the Queen.
"Very well. You three are going to proceed with Phase Four of our plan upon my command, okay?"
"Ten-four," said Le Quack as the Weremole growled with agreement.
Katz finally pressed a large button on the side of the talkie. "Attention all units. The plan, once again, is only meant to SCARE the agents. I don't want anyone causing bodily harm to these agents. The sooner they are gone, the better. Understood?"
A mass of voices agreed.
"Excellent," said Katz as he observed his watch. Midnight at last.
Katz turned his attention to a security camera's TV screen. It showed one of his many spiders standing in front of a pipe. It's orange eyes looked up at the camera as Katz spoke into a microphone. "OK, you. You know what to do." Upon hearing the sentence, the orange-eyed spider crawled into the pipe.
Katz then turned around and tuned the walkie-talkie back to channel one. "Okay, Ma. Showtime."
Ma laughed evilly as she pulled two large switches on the control panel. This caused all the televisions in the motel to turn on with the volume turned way up.
The wake-up call worked. All four agents sat up in bed and covered their ears.
Darkest Moon watched Agent R as he got up to switch the TV off. In the next room, Gammon screamed at Barsby to turn the TV off. But before anyone could press the off buttons, all the TVs turned off by themselves.
"Jonathan, what was that?" D.M. asked Agent R, as she wiped her eyes.
"I don't know. Must be a malfunction or something 'cause the remote's over there." He pointed to where the remote was sitting on top of the drawers.
In the next room, Gammon and Barsby kept accusing each other of turning on the TV with the remote. When they finally realized that neither of them turned on the TV, they began debating how the TV turned itself on.
"Ghosts?" asked Barsby.
"Yeah, or electrical problems. One or the other," answered Gammon sarcastically.
Barsby sighed. "Well, I'm going back to bed." He got back under the covers.
Gammon began putting his shoes on. "I'm hungry. I'm gonna get a snack." He started searching his pockets for change.
Back in the other room, Agents D.M. and R tried going back to sleep, but couldn't.
"Hey!" cried D.M., who bolted up in bed and looked around. "Where's our stuff?"
"Don't you remember?" asked Agent R.
"Oh yeah!" D.M. suddenly remembered that right after they came back to the motel, they decided to put all their stuff in the RV, including her camera. "Hey, Jonathan?" she asked.
"What?" asked Agent R. It was clear he wasn't going back to sleep anytime soon.
"Do you think we'll see that pink dog soon?"
"I'm still trying to figure out if that dog's good or bad. We've had different responses from folks around here, right?"
D.M. nodded. She yawned. "Well, I think I'll go take a shower now. There's not much else to do anyway." With that, she entered the bathroom and closed the door.
Agent R suddenly realized he had to go to the bathroom too. But he didn't want to bother D.M. at the moment, so he decide to use the downstairs public restroom.
Gammon and Jonathan exited their rooms at the same time. They walked side by side down the walkway.
"So, where are you headed?" Jonathan asked Gammon.
"Snack bar. You?"
"Bathroom. D.M.'s taking a shower."
"How's everything between you and her?"
"What do you mean by that?" asked Agent R, who was sightly annoyed by the question.
"Hey, I'm just curious, that's all."
"We're fine. How are things with you and Barsby?"
"Better. I guess."
"Glad to hear it. You know, I heard the most interesting piece of information in the Weekly World Enquirer yesterday...."
Meanwhile, D.M. turned on the shower. As the water sprayed out of the showerhead, D.M. looked herself in the mirror. She wondered if there was any toiletries in the cupboards underneath the sink. So she opened the cupboards and was looking around when suddenly the sound of water coming out of the shower stopped!
"Great," said D.M. This stupid town didn't even have a decent water supply.
But what was this? Now she heard little tapping sounds coming from inside the shower! D.M. peeked over the cupboard door and gasped.
Eight skinny legs were wiggling out of the showerhead! Just then, the whole thing popped open, revealing a beach ball-sized spider with glowing orange eyes being showered upon with water. Those eyes turned toward a terrified D.M. and the spider opened its jagged mouth.
D.M. screamed as she raced out of the bathroom and locked the door behind her. The spider was scraping its legs against the door trying to get to her.
D.M. always had a feeling that something creepy would happen to her during the night, so she ran to the bed and brought out from under it the one thing she didn't put in the RV: a shiny metal baseball bat. The childhood gift was one of the first things D.M. brought with her on the assignment.
As she walked back to the bathroom, she suddenly realized she was only wearing a bathroom towel! Her clothes were still inside the bathroom with the spider! Since the rest of her clothes were in the RV, she would have to get rid of the spider before getting her clothes.
Taking a deep breath, she unlocked the door, said a quick prayer, and kicked in the door.
"Aaaaaaaa!!!" she yelled as she swung the bat at the spider again and again and again until it was nothing but a splatter of goo.
Afterwards, D.M. spotted her clothes on the floor. They had some spider guts on it, but D.M. didn't mind. She washed some of the gunk off and walked into the bedroom. She locked the door (just in case Agent R came back) and started getting dressed.
Downstairs, Agent Gammon walked off when Agent Jonathan R entered the restroom. Gammon spotted the snack bar halfway down a long, dark hallway. As he walked towards it, he quickly glanced at the security camera. Katz had him on a TV screen. He turned on his talkie. "Commence Phase Two of the plan now," Katz ordered.
Gammon had now reached the snack bar, which consisted of several snack and soda concession stands. He reached into his pocket and put the correct amount of money in the machine. Gammon chose a bag of chips and, as luck would have it, the bag got stuck in the machine. Fortunately, being a secret agent has its upsides. Gammon quickly took out a weird device from his pocket and placed it up against a lock in front of the snack machine. It was designed to unlock any lock on any door. Ten seconds later, Gammon opened the glass door of the machine, grabbed the chips and locked it back up.
Smiling, Gammon was just about to open the bag when he suddenly saw a light out of the corner of his eye. It looked like a lighter flame way down at the other end of the hallway. Gammon put the bag in his suit pocket and took a couple steps toward the light. Instantly, Gammon saw two figures standing on either side of the flame. One of them was Doc Gerbil, whom Gammon had interviewed earlier. The other was a fox-like creature with dark sunglasses.
"Hi there," said Doc. He reached over and pressed a button on the machine between him and Cajun Fox.
Suddenly, a huge flame explosion raced towards Gammon at light speed. He just had enough time to duck behind the snack machine before the flames raced past. Gammon concluded that those two villains were carrying a giant flamethrower! Without hesitation, he sprinted down the hall towards the restrooms.
"Oooh, I wish I could make a stew out of you!" said the Fox as he fired the flamethrower again. Gammon dove off to the side in the nick of time.
As soon as the flames stopped, Agent R walked out of the restroom. He was startled by what he saw: Gammon on the ground, smoke in the air, and scorched marks on that hallway. Didn't this place have any sprinkler systems?
Agent R ran over to Gammon. "Are you okay?"
"Okay??!! I was nearly fried!"
"Well that clinches it," said Agent R. "I think it's time we had another talk with our 'friend' Katz. You coming?"
"Gladly," answered Gammon. The two agents started walking towards the lobby.
At that moment, Agent Barsby entered the bathroom in his motel room. He'd been trying to get back to sleep, but he thought he kept hearing D.M. screaming and explosions from downstairs. He got up when he decided to go to the bathroom. As he stepped into the bathroom, he wondered what was taking Gammon so long.
Mad Dog and Foot Fungus looked away as Barsby did his business. Afterwards, Barsby began washing his hands.
"Nyah. I'll bet that guy is gonna get a real 'kick' out of us!" laughed Foot Fungus.
"Where is that stupid cat?" mumbled Mad Dog. This agent was just inches away on the other side of the two-way mirror. Why didn't Katz start Phase Three yet?
Barsby looked around for a towel to wash his hands and saw one at his feet. It was at that moment that Katz initiated Phase Three. As Barsby bent down to pick up the towel, Mad Dog and Foot Fungus leaped through the mirror, sending shards of glass flying in all directions. However, the two villains misjudged how close the opposite wall was to them, and they crashed headfirst into it.
Barsby didn't know what was going on. All he heard was a loud crash, saw glass flying everywhere, and felt two bodies fall around him. Without thinking, Barsby ran out of the bathroom and slammed the door behind him. He then ran out of his room, closed the door, and ran straight into D.M. on the balcony overlooking the parking lot.
"Barsby!" cried the fully-clothed D.M. "What's wrong?"
Her answer was a crash of wood behind Barsby. Mad Dog and Foot Fungus emerged onto the hallway just as a bolt of lightning illuminated the surroundings. Muffled by the thunder, Barsby screamed as D.M., in a moment of fearful courage, swung the bat at Mad Dog's face, missing it by inches. Mad Dog was so surprised, that he stumbled backwards over the Foot Fungus and landed on his back.
"I TOLD you there was a big foot here!" yelled D.M. as she started hitting each toe of the Foot with her bat. It reminded her of that arcade game where you whack the gophers' heads with a big mallet.
"C'mon!" shouted Barsby, who noticed Mad Dog rubbing his head and growling. "Let's get to the lobby. Maybe Katz knows how to get rid of these guys!"
Seeing as how Katz was probably one of them, D.M. didn't see much sense in that plan. But with one villain down and one on the rebound, she knew that they had to get out of there fast. They turned and were about to dash down the hall, when they were stopped by a small lady with a red wig and a VERY large machete.
"Where do you think you two are going?" asked Eustace's Ma.
The two agents were trapped! And the dog and little old lady were closing fast! There was only one way out.
"Hang on!" shouted Barsby. He grabbed D.M.'s hand, leaped over the railing, and fell twelve feet onto the hood of a car. Both agents were unhurt.
"Let's go," said Ma. Her, Mad Dog, and Foot Fungus (now with several lumps on his toes) raced down the upstairs walkway.
"Are you okay?" asked Barsby.
"Yeah, I'm fine." D.M. noticed that she was still holding her bat in the other hand.
"You've got quite a swing," said Barsby.
D.M. smiled, but a clap of thunder brought them back to their senses.
"Look!" shouted Barsby, who pointed to the motel entrance. "There's where Katz is! C'mon. I wanna see you knock some sense into him."
"Or out of him," said D.M. Both agents dashed towards the entrance.
"Katz!" shouted Agent R. Him and Gammon busted into the lobby.
Katz whirled his walkie-talkie behind his back. "Enjoying your stay?"
"Like heck I am!" shouted Gammon. (Which was the cleanest thing to say under the circumstances.)
"What's going on here?" demanded Agent R.
Katz whipped his walkie-talkie up to his ear. "Initiate Phase Four! Now!"
"Hey!" shouted the two agents as they rushed towards Katz.
Suddenly, accompanied by a bolt of lightning outside, the floor boards between Katz and the agents exploded! Up popped Le Quack, the Weremole, and the Queen (who was now in her monster form.) They began roaring, shrieking, and quacking like crazy. Gammon and Agent R were more than a little frightened by this and stumbled back in terror.
Just then, before the villains could advance, the front doors flew open. Barsby and D.M. stood dumbfounded at the scene before them. Barsby was shocked upon seeing the Queen in her true form. Just like the picture on the table when he interviewed her! D.M., on the other hand, let out a high-pitched Sailor Moon cry as she ran into the room, baseball bat swinging. The other agents immediately began fighting back as well. That is, until Mad Dog, Foot, and Ma arrived. Mad Dog grabbed the bat out of D.M.'s hand by surprise.
"Let's see how you like this!" said Mad Dog as he raised the bat above his head.
D.M. screamed, but Agent R suddenly tackled D.M. just as the bat came down. It smashed into the floor boards instead of into D.M. and Jonathan.
"No, you fools! Don't harm them!" bellowed Katz.
The Weremole, who was just about to bite Gammon's leg (and therefore turn him into a weremole) stopped and grumbled to himself.
"The RV!!!" shouted Barsby, as he flung Le Quack across the lobby. "Head for the RV!!"
The four agents quickly ran out the door with all the villains close behind. As they dashed across the parking lot, another lightning bolt streaked across the sky. Agent R turned around and saw a small army of large spiders chasing after them.
"Keep running!!!" he screamed.
The thunder was joined by a downpour of rain. Katz, who was in the lead, saw the rain and stopped in his tracks underneath the shelter. The other villains followed his example.
Soaking wet, the agents ran into their RV. Agent R started the engine and zoomed out of the parking lot, leaving the spiders behind.
D.M. dashed to the rear of the RV and looked out the back window. Through the rain, she saw the villains celebrating over the success of their mission. She caught sight of Mad Dog holding her bat over his head in victory.
D.M. gritted her teeth. "I'm gonna get that bat back," she whispered to her self.
"You know what?" announced Katz. "This calls for a celebration!"
"A party! When's it gonna be?" asked Cajun Fox.
"Well, we don't have anymore annoying tenants to put up with. Let's take our time, shall we?"
"But what if those gov'ment guys come back?" asked Doc Gerbil.
"Oh I don't think that's gonna happen," said Mad Dog, holding the bat in his paws and smiling evilly.
The RV raced through the streets of Nowhere in the pouring rain.
"Where are we going?!" shouted D.M. from the rear.
"Anywhere!" answered Agent R at the wheel.
The vehicle disregarded any traffic signals as it cruised full speed through the town. It knocked over carts and side-scraped numerous cars.
"So who's driving badly now?" asked Gammon.
"Yeah," added Barsby.
"Stuff it, guys," ordered Jonathan, who suddenly braked hard. Gammon and Barsby flew into the windshield. Jonathan punched the gas pedal again, as his buddies flew onto the ground next to where D.M. was sitting.
"I was just kidding!" yelled Gammon, rubbing his nose.
After a short while, Agent R noticed that the buildings were becoming scarce. They must be leaving town! Quickly, Agent R drove off the road and stopped the RV. The rain pelted the vehicle as the engine was turned off.
"We'll have to sleep here tonight," said Agent R.
Barsby looked out one of the windows. "Look! There's a house over there! Why don't we...?"
"Hey, I'm not going anywhere until this rain lets up," interrupted Gammon.
"He's right," said Agent R. "Let's just stay here for the night. Tomorrow, we can, I dunno, get D.M.'s pictures processed."
D.M. smiled as she shakily got into bed. The other agents quickly entered their beds, but it would be quite a while before they would finally fall asleep.
And one other thing...they were only 100 feet away from a certain rickety, old farmhouse on the outskirts of Nowhere...