Things have calmed down somewhat of the way for Twitchell to be on top of the busiest he has ever been while being over the Perfection Valley. He had gotten all the reports from everyone that day a large convoy was headed out. Which turned out to the biggest mess he's ever been in. After sending in report after report he then gets a report back stating a new endangered species will be coming in the day Burt is back at the doctors for his checkup. Along with that Twitchell needed to be there to put up more signs and to inform the townspeople of all the details.
Twitchell grumbled as he was driving back to Perfection. He had just gotten a message stating Burt was in route to the doctor's office in Bixby. The endangered species is in route towards Perfection. He had to arrive before the vehicle. Twitchell kept muttering to himself about a pay raise and bonuses. How he should retire early if he could. How he needed to send his kids to colleges. How he liked have good benefits. Anything positive he could think of to reassure him from jumping off the wagon.
Coming into Perfection, he saw the townspeople grouped together in front of Chang's. Everyone was there that needed to be there. Twitchell parked. The group were curious as to why Twitchell was there. They were getting ready to hold the vigil.
"Glad all of you are together," Twitchell spoke after opening the doors. He grabbed the paperwork that was laying in the front passenger seat. He then got out of the car. "I am here to inform you of the new endangered species that is coming to this town as we speak." This shocked them.
"A new endangered species?!" Some of their jaws dropped.
"Oh, sorry," Twitchell looked at the paperwork. "Same endangered species, just a new one. Government has a weird way of wording. Anyways, it's on its way. Please stay together. We may have to be above ground in case anything goes wrong."
"Wh-wh-why would we need to be above ground?" Jodi stuttered out.
"Are we getting another graboid?" Larry's eyes lit up. He was the only one now excited. Jodi jerked over to him.
"A new graboid?" Jodi looked back at Twitchell. "Is this true?"
"I mean, above ground, that's lingo for graboid," Tyler tilted his head. "You might want to explain."
Twitchell read through his letter to read to them. "Ah. Here it is. Yes. Another albino graboid."
"Another albino?" Rosalita blinked.
"Well, that makes sense," Nancy sighed. "If it was a regular graboid, Burt would have killed it already."
"Maybe it will become a friend to El Blanco," Harlowe suggested. "They have been in that corner lately. Seems heartbroken."
"And when is it coming again?" Rosalita looked in both directions of the road.
"It should be here in ten to fifteen minutes," Twitchell looked at his watch. "The scientist who hatched the graboid will be here to explain in detail everything about it."
"This is recent, recent then?" Jodi was perplexed.
"Dios mio!" Rosalita exclaimed. "No puedo creerlo. Its new-new? Or has it been like a few months?"
Twitchell handed out paperwork. "I can't say anything about it since I don't know anything about it. The scientist will explain."
The group read the paperwork together while asking Twitchell questions sporadically to kill time until the vehicle arrived.
A black semi-truck and trailer pulled to a stop in front of Chang's. The group was curious as to how big the graboid was if it needed a semi-truck to haul them.
"You think that's the same one that's been going back and forth?" Larry muttered to Tyler. Tyler shook his head.
The passenger door opened. Stepping down was Lewis Thorpe. He smiled to them. "Hello. It has been a while."
"You're the one who hatched the graboid?" Tyler pointed to trailer.
"Yes, I have hatched several," Lewis walked over to them. "Those graboids, shriekers, and assblasters weren't coincidental in Utah."
"They were planned, a distraction," Tyler nodded. "For me and Burt to go there while something was happening at the lab."
"Correct," Lewis agreed. "May seem like Burt's paranoia has rubbed off on you but gut instinct never lies. Anyways, we, as in me and my scientists, have hatched through all life cycles. I bargained all I could to save the albinos. In that paperwork, it should be detailing you that Monster World will be the new habitat for albino shriekers and assblasters. Since that facility isn't built at all. A team was just sent to inform Mr. Basset, Mr. Hoover, and Dr. Riley about that. Those albinos are still in Utah. A facility for the rest of the regular life cycles is being made in a secret area."
"Area 51?" Larry blurted out.
"No," Lewis shook his head. "That's more of a red herring." This sparked curiosity amongst the group. "And the only albino graboid from that hatchery is here now. To become pals with our dear El Blanco, who has been in one section of Perfection after the Proudfoot lab incident. Hopefully this will stabilize them both." Lewis headed into the market. The group followed behind him. He continued to speak. "We have made several leaps and bounds in graboid research. Along with the confiscating of Proudfoot labs, again. Dr. Debevic, also in your paperwork, along with Dr. Poffenberger will be on the Proudfoot labs case. Dr. Mathews and her assistant Roger will still be in Perfection until no sign of Mixmaster anymore. You will see me occasionally along with two other people. They have come with me to oversee the transitions. You'll probably see them more as they are better adapted to this valley than I am."
He pulled down the ladder and climbed up. The group could hear the semi moving down the road. They all got onto the roof. Lewis pulled up the ladder behind them.
"How is this graboid, personality wise?" Tyler wondered how it was going to be when Burt got back.
"Ah, well, you'll see," Lewis headed over to the side. The group followed him. They all watched the semi take a turn. They had a great view of the back of the trailer. Once stopped, two people got out. They were wearing combat gear all decked in black. It was a man and woman. That's all they could tell.
"These are the two who will be here?" Jodi looked between them both.
"Yes, you'll see why," Lewis nodded. "New technology was created from all of this research."
The man opened the trailer doors while the woman pieced together a long baton with cylinder at the end. It looked like a black giant cotton swab or a weird tv set microphone. The group could hear gears working as the beak of a white graboid slowly came into view. The graboid was on a type of pallet that could move back and forth inside the trailer by motorized gears. The pallet started to go out of the trailer before slowly tipping towards the ground. They could see straps holding the graboid down. The woman was still standing next to the trailer.
Once the pallet stopped, she went over to undo every strap one by one. Flinging it over the graboid. Each strap that went flying, made the group more anxious. After the last strap was unclicked and flung the group thought that the graboid would immediately dive under or attack her. The graboid didn't. Instead, the beak started to clack.
"The graboid is trying to communicate," Harlowe spoke everyone's thought out loud.
"And she will answer," Lewis muttered to himself.
The woman went over to the front of the graboid. The people were wanting to yell out to her to run away instead or to get to higher ground.
"Is she going to be alright?" Rosalita grabbed onto Tyler.
"Nothing is going to happen to her right?" Jodi peaked over at Lewis.
"Just watch," Lewis kept his eyes on the woman.
The woman placed down the baton with the cylinder touching the ground. Her fingers moved as if she was playing an instrument. They couldn't see but vibrations were being emitted from the cylinder. The graboid picked up the vibrations. The graboid clacked back. The woman nodded to the man in the trailer. He threw out a long stick like a javelin. It landed at an angle into the ground. The stick began to move back and forth.
"A worm charmer!" Larry jerked his head to Lewis. "You're bringing El Blanco here!?" He turned to look back. Some of the group looked at their seismo watches. Nothing. Soon a few more worm charmers were thrown in the same spot. All working simultaneously. This brought the attention of El Blanco.
The group watched the dust clouds coming in. El Blanco was coming in hot. They looked back to see the woman was still standing there. She didn't move at all. The other graboid was waiting with her. It was the oddest thing they were seeing that day.
Tentacles popped out of the ground, disarming the worm charmers one by one. The woman's fingers moved, creating vibrations. El Blanco moved away. The group thought it wasn't a success until they saw El Blanco beaching themselves facing the other graboid.
"Look at that!" Lewis smiled. "A juvenile graboid, only three months old compared to an adult of three years. Look at the difference!" He clapped. "The length, the size, the aging!" He was thrilled. The group was awestruck. "Okay, everyone. This is now the main event to see if these two will get along."
The woman moved her fingers. The vibrations came out. The two graboids clacked at one another. Everyone was in silence listening and watching beaks clack back and forth. It went on for a few minutes before utter silence. El Blanco raised their head up only to slam it down into the soft ground. They headed down into the dirt. After a few moments, the other albino graboid followed the same procedure. The two graboids heading off into the same direction.
The woman lifted up the baton. She turned around to give a thumbs up to Lewis. He clapped his hands and let out a whoop. "We did it. They are friends! Everyone, please welcome your new albino graboid, Das Weiss, or also known as D.W."
"So, things went well then," Harlowe was happy. "Good. Least they can keep each other company."
The group headed back down into Chang's. The two in the combat gear came walking in as well.
"D.W. is nice though, right?" Tyler was worried.
"D.W. has mostly lived by themselves," Lewis explained. "There were no other albino graboids. Anytime we got an albino, I quickly sent them to live by themselves or in their species group. This was to protect them from being sold off from the Proudfoots." Lewis waited until everyone was down from the roof. "Everyone, these are the two who will be checking in." He waved a hand in front of them. "There is no need to introduce them."
The two stepped closer, taking off their hats. The group's eyes went wide. Some let out gasps.
"Did you miss us?" Wes spoke first.
"We sure did miss all of you," Rose added.
The group formed around them. Everyone was chattering. Hugging them. Some were crying. Others were asking what had happened. Lewis, Rose, and Wes gathered them into the restaurant side. Twitchell took this time to Irish exit. The group caught up with one another. The three explained what all had happened over the course of those last months.
It took hours to get everyone settled. Jodi and Larry cooked up dinners for everyone as they were all still there.
"So, what does Mixmaster look like?" Tyler looked over to Rose.
"Mixmaster was originally a chemical agent," Rose started to explain. "Gene splicing is the process of chemically cutting DNA in order to add bases to the DNA strand, have that memorized word for word. Anyways, it becomes a process. It only takes twenty to sixty seconds to splice. We're dealing with all sorts of animals, fish, insects, chemicals, and anything else you could think of. The scientists were splicing things together that couldn't be spliced. Since they started at the base, DNA, they spliced together all they wanted, let it grow, since this was a genetic engineering lab. Think of the scientists in the dinosaur movie. Similar ways. Taking genetic engineered DNA and putting it in a suitable component to let it grow."
"Easiest way to think of it is Proudfoot was like Jurassic Park," Wes added. "I thought it was more like the movie where the guy turns into a fly. Put everything in one side, out comes a mixed product. It's not."
"Mixmaster allowed the scientists to splice and to fill in the holes," Rose continued.
"So not frog DNA," Larry spoke up. Lewis chuckled.
"Not frog DNA," Rose shook her head. "Take 4-12 for example. That creature was spliced from a rhinoceros, switchback spider, wolverine, skunk, panther, and cougar. The receptors are astronomically different except for the panther and cougar which are both felines so could be easier there. All sorts of madness going on, yet Mixmaster was the chemical to form them all together cohesively." She saw the look of confusion on their faces. "Common example of receptors, is a lock in a door and a key. In order for one to go through the door, one must have a key. If not, you're locked out. Mixmaster is the skeleton key. There is no door it can't open.
"Now, chemical agent was left to be burned in the Proudfoot labs, and as we all know it survived," Rose headed back on course. "Chemical agents have an expiration date but its more of a suggestion. The last of Mixmaster was by itself. Over a period of time like all chemicals some can be fine or it can go against the container its left in. Mixmaster sat for too long and started to splice on whatever was around it. Meaning the oxygen and nitrogen in the air. The chemical compounds making up the container. It transformed and mutated. I don't know what it mutated into exactly but the continuation of mutation made it grow and replicate itself. Hence why we have seen an increase of creatures. Not everything gets fried either. Microscopic there is still strands of DNA.
"That's how these creatures were formed, or reformed again," Rose felt like she was teaching a class. "Mixmaster drew up those leftover DNA, since no one bleached or sanitized the facility, and started to recreate everything. Few more mutations and Mixmaster became its own living organism. Right now, this is the form it's takes on." She grabbed a nearby napkin. She drew eight legs coming out of a long tube with what looked like a cross between a rhombus and an octagon. Larry thought it looked like a dungeons and dragon die twenty. "This is actually a bacteriophage. I don't know why it would want to look like a virus but that's what it has become. A fifteen-foot bacteriophage."
"That thing is fifteen feet!?" Nancy blinked. They passed the napkin around.
"If its standing on all legs," Rose nodded. "If not, its more or less nine to ten feet."
"Also, that is El Blanco's buddy," Wes pointed out. The group turned to gawk at him in surprise. It was almost déjà vu since they gave him the same look when he showed them his long locks. "I know. I felt the same but when the lab was reconstructed in the facility that thing went straight to that corner. We made it easier for all the creatures to have more room and to spread out. Lots of plexiglass. They're home is all see through. Anyways, that thing crawled to the corner where El Blanco would talk to it. We're researching what they could have talked about. Since we have a gist of graboid communication. Someone was absolutely wrong in her guesstimate."
"And this is why we write it down in the name of science," Rose glanced at him. "My thesis was that it was another prehistoric creature based on what was coming out of the lab, and how instinctual El Blanco felt towards it. But yes, it was Mixmaster after all. We're still figuring out how Mixmaster gene splices now. Dr. Poffenberger will be leading over that kind of research."
The group asked different questions about the lab and such. It went to early morning before everyone decided to call it a night. Burt had to stay the night in Bixby as he was ordered to get an overhaul of exams and bloodwork. He was worried about how to pay for it all when the nurse let him know it was all covered by his insurance and there would be no need to worry. Burt couldn't remember all what his insurance covered but if the nurse said it was covered, he wasn't going to think twice about it.
The next day the group all had a meal together again. Afterwards, Wes and Tyler were by themselves while the rest were still in a big group. The two were talking about how things were with Burt. Wes let Tyler know about the possibility of helping Burt with his blood but it would be a while before that happens. Right now, every one is trying to settle back down after the incidents. Tyler asked when Wes was going to be back again. Wes didn't know that just yet. He still had to visit his mother since a phone call would not do after everything that happened. Wes wondered how he was going to learn the updates on what all was happening with the townspeople themselves. Tyler went out on a limb and suggested to that him and Rose could read his diary, if, and only if, they read the parts pertaining to the town and nothing else. Wes agreed he would.