Chapter Fourteen!
Washington B.C. - Part 2 (From Season 1 Episode 2)
As they were following the mutated parakeet, Gwen was in the back of the Rust Bucket on her laptop trying to look up the Mad Scientist, Dr. Animo. While she busy with that, Max was concentrating on driving the Rust Bucket as he followed the giant bird, it reminded him of the old days when he was a Plumber, and he was chasing after aliens and other weird things, keeping the world safe. Harry was in the passenger seat of the RV looking out of the window, he was angry and annoyed at what happened back at the M-Mart.
He had saved the store from Dr. Freak and his mutated pets, all without going alien, and the store wanted to reward him for doing so. He had risked his life to help, and as a ten year old he thought that he deserved the rewarded. He might not want to be a hero, but when he did something good, he did want to be recognized for his good work like any ten year old, or any human being in general really, would have. But for some reason his Grandpa dragged him away before he could get his reward, something that would have taken about twenty seconds. And yet his Grandpa gave him a dark look, like the idea of him getting a reward was a bad thing. Harry couldn't see why, or why they had to deal with Dr. Animo. The police or the F.B.I could handle him; it was their job to do so, after all.
While he was thinking about all this he heard Grandpa Max say to himself, "Just like the good old days, just before I retired."
"What kind of Plumber were you Grandpa?" Gwen asked, drawing a blank on what kind of Plumber would do this kind of job, chasing after mutated animals and whatnot.
"Err, hmm, a damn good one!" Max said with uneasy bravado, realizing his slip up as he caught up in the memories of the good old days. He hoped his grandchildren didn't catch his slip up, although Gwen just let it slip by, Harry didn't, as once again was suspicious about his Grandpa, but he was too annoyed to say something about it or care. Something Max caught on as he asked, "Harry what's the matter?"
"I saved an entire Mega Mart from being a giant hamster's chew toy by just being me, not an alien, just me, and what do I get? Zip, nothing." Harry said, annoyed, "it's just not fair."
"Being a hero isn't about others knowing that you've done something good," Max began wisely, "it's about you knowing you done something good. Being a hero is its own rewards."
"What, did you read that off some greeting cards or something at the Mega Mart?" Harry asked dryly.
"Well, yes." Max admitted.
Before Max could say anything more, they heard Gwen say, "Bingo, I've found him. Doctor Aloysius James Animo." She began to read the article aloud, "Five years ago, Doctor Animo was a promising researcher in veterinary in science. But it turned out he was doing twisted genetics experiments and was mutating animals. And when he didn't win some big award called the Verties Award, he flipped out big time. Does anything of this sound familiar Harry?" She accused.
"No." Harry said firmly.
Both Gwen and Max looked at him in disbelieve.
Harry sighed, as he explained himself, "This Verties Award, by the sound of it, is like the science fair we have at school where the best project wins, and there are set rules we have to follow. By the sounds of it, this Doctor Animo was doing something that he really shouldn't be doing, and so he was rightly disqualified. The people giving out the awards had every reason to do so. From the sounds of it he was lucky he wasn't arrested. I, on the other hand, was helping people, and they were willing to give me a reward for doing this. An electrician doesn't rewire somebody's house for free, an artist doesn't give out free commissions, and I don't risk my life for nothing. When possible, and especially when offered, I expect a reward of some kind. Comparing our situations is just insulting."
Wincing as he turned to glare out the window, Gwen and Max had to admit that that example that Gwen gave to make Harry see their point was a bad example to give. Before Max could tell him that wasn't the point of the story that Gwen was trying to make, he lost sight of the giant parakeet. "Damn, I've lost it." Max said unhappily, "He could be going anywhere in Washington D.C."
"Or Washington B.C..." Gwen remembered, an idea dawning on her. "That's it! I know where he's going!"
o0OoO0o
The Natural History Museum:
It was about twenty minutes or so before the Tennysons found themselves out of the Natural History Museum, it was as Gwen suspected; Dr. Animo was here. They found a huge hole in the wall of the museum, and in the rubble of the destroyed walled they found a feather from the mutated parakeet from earlier. As Harry picked up the feather to examine it Grandpa Max said, "Looks like we're on the right trick. Good work Gwen." Before they entered the building.
As they looked round the museum, they soon found Dr. Animo, he was fixing the final parts onto his Transmodulator, then as he turned his shoulder, he saw the Tennysons, mainly Harry, "You are very persistent, and I hate persistence."
"We all know about you and your freakazoid experiments Dr. Animo." Harry claimed, "It's over."
"Oh but it has only just begun!" Dr. Animo crowed, "You see I only needed a few components to finish my Transmodulator and push my work into phase two. Reanimation of dormant cells."
"Zombies?!" Harry exclaimed.
"Nothing so pedestrian. This is much more refined! Observe..." The mad doctor breathed as he turned the dial on his Transmodulator and aimed it at the mammoth nearby and reanimating and mutating the formerly dead animal. As he did, the Doctor said, "Behold, the genius that is Doctor Animo!
Harry turned to his cousin and grandpa and admitted, "Okay, he has some pretty awesome toys, but he's completely nuts."
"Instead of making witty remarks, now would be a good time to become an alien." Gwen said.
Harry nodded, and in a flash of green light he was several hundred pounds heavier and had four arms. "I'll deal with Dumbo here, you two deal with Animo."
"Right, good luck and don't get gored by its tusks." Gwen advised as she and Max backed up.
"I'll keep that in mind. Let's fight!" Harry said fearlessly as he ran at mutated mammoth.
While Four Arms was wrestling with the mammoth, Gwen and Max ran after Doctor Animo, but they were stopped by the mutated parakeet. Picking up the spear from the Caveman that was next to hear Gwen spun it around skilfully, smacking the avian when it tried to bite at her and building up speed to use the momentum to perform a massive swing that shattered the spear on impacted over the bird's head. It worked, and the parakeet squawked in pain and flew off.
"See that, Harry isn't the only one with skills." Gwen said with a smug look, leaving a gob smacked Max following her. If it wasn't for his word to their parents, he would have them training as Plumbers, but their parents wanted Harry and Gwen to be fifteen before he was allowed to train them. It was old enough so they wouldn't be blinded by how cool it was and could make an informed decision so they could decide if they want to be Plumbers or not.
However, as they ran into the next room, they saw Doctor Animo looking at them with a smirk as he used his Transmodulator to mutate the bones of the T-Rex on display before getting on top of it. As he did, Dr. Animo said, "I would love to stay, but I need claim the award that I so richly deserve."
When the T-Rex smashed through the wall, further damaging the building, the two were too distracted to see the Parakeet before it was too late. Gwen screamed in surprise as it picked her up and carried her off.
o0OoO0o
Back with Harry:
As this was happening, Four Arms was having a hard time with the mutated mammoth. He hadn't been gored, thankfully, but he was getting thrown around. When the mammoth crashed at him once again, Harry took hold of its trunk and begun to spin round as fast as he could before stopping and letting go of the mammoth. The beast crashed into the wall, which collapsed on him.
Gwen's scream greeted him as he stopped spinning and, without checking to see if the Mammoth was out, he ran into the other room, where he saw the mutated parakeet just as it was flying away with Gwen. Without a word he took off after it, and Max moved to follow, but he stepped on something. The crinkling of old paper caught his attention and he looked down to see a newspaper clipping, which gave him a good idea of where Animo was going.
While Dr. Animo was on a rampage across town to get to where he wanted, Gwen was being held in the claws of the mutated parakeet. Four Arms jumped up to grab hold of the feathers of the parakeet. "Hey bird brain, let go of my cousin!" He yelled.
The avian had other plans as it made a dive towards the ground, before flying up suddenly, in doing so shaking Four Arms of and dropping him into the pavement where he made a crater in the ground. For once luck happened to be on Harry's side and the Omnitrix only flashed and timed out after he hit the ground.
As Harry crawled out of the crater he himself had made, Max appeared in the Rust Bucket. The older man popped his head out and asked, "Did somebody called for a taxi."
"Thanks Grandpa." Harry said as he got into the RV.
Meanwhile, back up in the air, Gwen grumbled to herself as they swerved between buildings, "Spend the summer with your Grandpa Honey, it'll be an adventure. Yeah right…" just then she saw the Washington Monument where the mutated bird perched itself. Hanging there, Gwen panicked at being so high until she remembered her cell phone. "Well mother did say I can only use this in case of an emergency..." She remembered as she dialled Max's number. "If this isn't an emergency I don't know what is."
Back on the ground Harry and Max were driving around town to find Gwen. "No sign of them." Harry reported, keeping his eyes on the sky and any tall buildings.
"There can't be many places for a parakeet the size of an elephant to roost." Max said thoughtfully before picking up the newspaper clipping that Doctor Animo left behind and handing it to Harry, "Here, this is what Dr. Animo left behind at the museum."
"Dr. Kelly receives the Verties Award." Harry read the newspaper clipping, "He's going after Kelly, to pick up the award that he wants."
"First things first, we need to find Gwen." Max said, only to jump in surprise as his phone suddenly went off. "It's Gwen!" He exclaimed as he saw the caller ID.
Despite being on the top of the Monument and justly terrified of either falling off or being eaten, Gwen was able to tell the two where she was.
o0OoO0o
Max took a step back as something shattered in front of him. He paled as he saw it was a cell phone, paling even further as he looked up and saw the tell tale orange hair of his granddaughter.
"Not if I can help it!" Harry declared as he twisted the dial on Omnitrix before pressing it down, turning into… himself, with the Omnitrix symbol on his chest.
"Clayface?" Max said in shock, only able to recognize Harry had changed from Gwen's very detailed retelling of what had happened back at the hotel. "Wouldn't Stinkfly be better?"
"For a normal aerial rescue, yes," Harry admitted. "But this is could turn into a fight and Clayface would be better overall." To prove this, wings appeared on his back and he flew off into the night sky to rescue Gwen. He was about halfway up the tower when Gwen, who's grip on the pole she'd latched herself onto had become more and more precarious as time passed, finally slipped completely and fell.
Her scream lasted roughly three and a half seconds before she realized she was both not falling, and in someone's arms. She looked up and blinked. "Harry?"
"Clayface at the moment." He corrected.
"Thanks for the save." Gwen replied, only for her eyes to widen as she looked behind them and saw the parakeet wasn't too happy to see his captive had been rescued and was chasing after them. "Watch out, behind us!"
Looking over his shoulder Clayface saw the mutated creature behind him and shifted his body. When he was done he was some sort of centaur with wings. He momentarily had two sets of human arms, but once he'd moved Gwen onto his back they sank back into his body. Handles appeared on his back and at first Gwen thought they were hand holds for her, but when she grabbed one it snapped off, revealing a dagger shaped tip "Gwen, use those and throw them at that mutated freak."
Gwen was all too happy to attack the thing that had bird-napped her, but no matter what she did the bird would avoid her projectiles. Even Clayface throwing in his own attacks didn't help. Of course all this mid-air manoeuvring was really starting to catch up to the girl and her face was turning green. "I feel like I'm going to throw up."
"If you hurl on me you better learn to fly fast!" Clayface warned her.
As they circled the Washington Monument once again Clayface spotted Max in one of the windows. Considering he really couldn't fight while carrying Gwen like he was there was really only one thing left to do. "Gwen, I can't deal with the bird with you here. Do you trust me?"
"Yesssss...?" Gwen answered nervously, and before she could asked what he had planned, his whole body turned around to face her and took her in his arms before he turned into his humanoid form with wings, and flew down the Washington Monument as she screamed, "HARRRRYYY!" before all of a sudden she found herself in the arms of Max.
Because it happened so quick, the mutated parakeet had no idea what happened and missed the switch. What it didn't miss was Harry suddenly expanding before it slammed face first into the bars of a massive clay bird cage. Harry made sure the cage was secure, the bars thick enough to hold the creature, before he flew back up to Max and Gwen. "Are you two okay?"
"Go and stop Animo," Max said, "we're both fine."
Harry nodded and flew off. Just before he was out of earshot he could have sworn he heard Gwen mutter a harsh, "Speak for yourself Grandpa."
o0OoO0o
Kelly Industries:
As this was all going on, at Kelly Industries Dr. Kelly was having a party with his board of governors and a select handful of people to get funding for a new experiment he wanted to try out but needed the backing for. The meeting was going rather well, until a flesh and blood Tyrannosaurus Rex burst in through the wall.
"Kelly I think you have something belonging to me!" A cackling voice called from the dinosaurs back.
"Animo?" A gob smacked Kelly sputtered at the sheer absurdity of the last thirty seconds. "Is that really you? What are you doing here?"
"Getting what is rightfully mine after all these years!" Animo began as he jumped down of the T-Rex and took the Verties Award from the nearby shelf it was resting on. "I would like to thank the committee for this honour." Animo drawled as he jumped back onto the T-Rex.
Once he was back on his steed, Animo was about to allow the dinosaur to eat Kelly, but Clayface appeared and knock the T-Rex away from the doctor.
Animo quickly ordered the dinosaur to hurl Clayface back a few meters, where he landed next to some rubble. A glint caught the alien's eye. "Gold?" He wondered, only to gasp as it was a Sumo Slammer card. "I've struck Sumo Slammer Gold,"
"Help, somebody help me!" Kelly cried.
Clayface looked up to see the T-Rex had Dr. Kelly hanging from his mouth. He jumped into action, but as he did an extra arm shot out of his back and snatched the card from the ground, sinking back into his body.
Lengthening his arm Clayface was able to catch the screaming scientist as the T-Rex threw him into the air, just a scant second before he was eaten.
"What are you, you little pest?!" Dr. Animo screamed.
"I'm Clayface," He introduced, "and I'm here to kick your ass for trying to hurt my family."
With a growl, Animo used his Transmodulator to fire a beam of energy at Clayface, only for it to be blocked by a hardened clay wall. It crumbled slightly, but did its job and took the hit without Harry being harmed. Using the momentary distraction, he fired a glob of sticky clay at the T-Rex's face, which made the dinosaur stumble around.
Animo lost his balance a bit, enough for Clayface to knock the Verties Award out of the mad doctor's hand - which fell onto floor and bloke.
His anguished scream was cut off suddenly as Harry didn't pause to watch and yanked the Transmodulator off the man and destroyed it with a quick hammer-hand.
Harry yelped as he was thrown back by the red ring the device produced as it was destroyed. When the ring hit the T-Rex its flesh sizzled and disintegrated, becoming bones once more, which promptly collapsed without the wire holding them together like at the museum. Animo, unfortunately for him, just so happened to be under them and was pinned down under their weight.
Not leaving it to chance, Clayface used his powers to wrap the doctor in clay before turning to Kelly, "I'll leave you to deal with the doctor." He said quickly before leaving the building and area.
He was just in time, as the Omnitrix beeped and timed out.
Harry immediately grimaced and reached into his mouth, where he pulled out a spitty, but completely safe, Golden Sumo Slammer card. "Ugh, clay and plastic do not go together. It's like tooth paste and orange juice!" He shuddered again at the taste, but pocketed the card, really glad the gold cards were all laminated. With nothing else to do, he settled himself on a bench on the side of the street and waited.
o0OoO0o
It took twenty minutes for the Rust Bucket got to Kelly Industries. By this time the police had arrived, secured their perpetrator, and were taking Dr. Animo away. Harry watched it all with a bored look, momentarily shocked at how such an old man could turn into a complete baby once his device was taken away. "Let me go, I deserve that award! I've got it coming to me! I want it!" Animo screamed petulantly.
But no one was listening to him, Harry just shook his head as he turned round to see the Rust Bucket, with Max and Gwen coming out of it, Gwen had a parakeet on her shoulder. "Harry, are you alright?" Max called out, worried.
"Fine Grandpa." Harry replied. Out of the corner of his eye he caught sight of one of the Kelly Industries employees that was cleaning the area about to throw away Dr. Animo's Transmodulator. Neither them or the police knew what it was, and it seemed broken anyway, so they had no use for it. Harry had seen enough cartoons to know throwing it out was just asking for a new villain, possibly junk themed, to crop up. So, making a slight detour back to the RV, he nicked the device from the dumpster.
"What's that?" Max asked.
"Animo's Transmodulator." Harry answered, "Definitely don't want to risk someone getting hold of this. Plus, I can be like the Batman and keep trophies of people I beat. Might come in handy someday if I ever go through a gritty and introspective arc and need evidence that I'm doing the right things, or something." Harry reasoned with a completely serious look.
Both Max and Gwen shook their head, only Gwen having the barest idea as to what he was talking about. Then he saw the parakeet on his cousin's shoulder, and guessed where she got it from. "So I see that you picked up a pet Gwen."
"This stupid this wouldn't leave me since it turned back to normal," Gwen said, giving the bird a dark look, "it seems that it likes me or something and won't leave me. But I'm thinking of keeping it."
Before Harry could give a smart remark, Max saw something golden in his Grandson's pocket and asked, "Harry what have you got in your pocket?"
"Hm? Oh, that, just a Golden Sumo Slammer card." Harry said with a shrug, "I found it in the rubble when Animo's pet dinosaur attacked Dr. Kelly, so I picked it up. Not sure what it was doing in a place like this, but lucky me I guess." And with that he walked back to the Rust Bucket and sat in the back, placing the card with his collection and the Transmodulator into a box he decided would be his trophy box if this forced hero business became a running theme.
o0OoO0o
About an hour later the Tennysons found a place to stay for the night. As they settling down for the night, Gwen was on her laptop and Harry was laying back on his bed playing Sumo Slammer Smackdown. He'd just aced the first level for the first time when Grandpa Max called up from the front, turning down the radio to do so. "Harry can you come up here please."
"Sure Grandpa." Harry called back as he powered down his GBA. "What's wrong Grandpa?" He asked after making the journey to the front of the RV.
"I want to talk about today, about not wanting to help with the thieves and with Dr. Animo at the start." Max said.
"Yeah that's something I also wanted to talk about." Harry agreed, "Why is it you want me to be playing hero for?"
"Because you have a great power Harry, and it's your responsibility to use that power wisely and help people."
Harry was suddenly reminded of Peter Parker's uncle telling him something very similar; 'With great power comes great responsibility'. "Read a lot of Spiderman Comics when you were younger Grandpa?" Harry joked.
"Yes I did." Max admitted proudly, being a fan of the series since it had first come out, "Both my father and I agree with the motto that Uncle Ben lived by. We believe that anyone with any sort of powers should use that power responsibility by helping and protecting people who can't do so themselves. And those people should also stop those who misuse their power for evil and to harm others. So with the power you have to transform into those different aliens, I see it as your responsibility to use those transformations for good."
"But I'm not you, Grandpa." Harry didn't like what he was hearing. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I don't think 'with great power comes great responsibility' really means what you think it means. At least not in my situation. The motto means I need to be responsible with my powers, not hurt innocent people due to my own recklessness. That is my responsibility, not catching every criminal I find like some kind of obsessive compulsive kid with a messiah complex." It was shocking what watching anime and cartoon reviews online could do for one's vocabulary.
"But-" Max began, but Harry interrupted him, "I know that the world is a dark and corrupted place, and in need of as many heroes as it can get its hands on, but I don't want to be a hero. I don't want that kind of life, one where I go hunting for villains and risk my life daily, putting my family and the ones I care about in danger. Maybe some other ten year old - one that doesn't really grasp the big picture - would love this kind of life, playing hero and that, but not me. Don't get me wrong, if I see someone whose life is in danger and the police either aren't around are just can't help them I'll step in, that much I'll be happy to do. I didn't ask for this, and I'm not going to risk the safety of myself or my entire family because I'm bored or need attention like some insecure brat. I'm going to do exactly as Uncle Ben's motto says, use the Omnitrix responsibly."
Max looked at Harry in shock, not believing that his Grandson felt like that. Sure he could understand his feelings, but he hoped that Harry would jump at the call to help people. It would make things a lot easier when it came around to talk about them becoming Plumbers in the future. He knew that every day more aliens and people with mutant like powers were born or landed on the planet, and the Plumbers would one day be needed again. The Plumbers would be reforming in the near future, and he hoped his Grandchildren would be a supporter, and maybe even members of the fighting force. But from the look of things Harry, at least, wasn't going to go along with it and be recruited without a solid motivation to do so.
Before anything could said, Harry stood up and began walking back to where he was before. "I'm off to bed, goodnight." The raven hired boy said over his shoulder before he pulled the curtains of his bed closed and went to sleep.
o0OoO0o
Metropolitan Police Department:
In the holding cells, Dr. Animo was laying in his cot, thinking about how his day could go all wrong. It was going so well for him, he was going to get the Award that he had been waiting for for years. But then everything went wrong when he faced those three people and those aliens. Those things, those whatever they were, appeared, and got in the way to stop him from getting the Award that he deserved all this time. They would pay for denying him what he deserved, he only needed to get out of here first...
As he was thinking about this, a cop came into the holding cells and approached him. "Greetings Doctor Aloysius James Animo." The officer said.
"What do you want?" Animo snapped impatiently.
"I want to meet up with one of the most genius human being on this planet," said the cop.
"Thank you," Animo said graciously, mood much friendlier from the buttering up, "but that doesn't explain what you want."
"What if I told you I could get you away from here, offer you a chance to get your revenge on those that foiled your justice?" The uniformed man said.
"I would not only ask why, but what you want." Animo said slowly.
"The how is easy." The cop suddenly became a blob of clay, shocking the prisoner into silence. A face formed on the blob, from which poured the same voice the cop had been using. "My name is Gandrayda, and I am an alien. My race is known as the Axilasapiens, and we can transform our body into anything. With my abilities, I'm sure you can see how escape is very possible."
"And what do you want from me in return?" Animo asked suspiciously.
"I want your help to take over this planet." Gandrayda said without hesitation, "I have my own plans for revenge, but for that, I need help, a lot of it. The person I wish to exact vengeance upon is very powerful, and has entire armies at his disposal. Thus, I must build a large army as well. I utterly loath my need to rely on help from anyone, especially from a race weak as yours, but the situation is what it is. If you agree to help me, will help you with your experiments and allow you to rule part of the world as you see fit. I will tell you who stopped you from getting what you deserved. So what do you say, will you join me?"
The idea was certainly appealing to the Mad Doctor, who knew what advance equipment this alien had that he could use? What was more, the call of his own kingdom filled with the perfect beings, all completely loyal to him, was a very strong one. In the end, there was only one thing he could say, "You have a deal."
"I thought you would say that." Gandrayda said. He extended a hand that became a wedge, which grew thicker and thicker until the bars of the cell were wide enough for the doctor to step through. "Let's get out of here."
TO BE CONTINUED!
Author's Notes: Here ends the second part of two of Washington B.C. Sorry for the delay, not only was I needing a new part for my laptop, but I needed to wait for my beta reader to get this back to me. In this chapter I just altered a few bits from the show, and reworked parts that didn't fit in the chapter. I hope you like what I came up with. I'm trying to show that Harry won't be a hero, and I hope I'm doing so. Still haven't decided if he'll be good or evil yet, but one thing he'll not be is a hero - not willingly.
Now that you spent the time to read this story, could you spend a few minutes to review and let me know what you think of the story? Positive or negative, I would like to hear what you think and what you would like to see happen next.
I would like to ask what episodes you would like to see and not see within this story, and ideas for new aliens, what they look like, powers, where they come and things like that to make it easier to write them in. I'm planning to use a few aliens from Star Wars.
Omake's are also welcome, or even just suggestions for scenes you'd like written out if they're funny but you don't feel confident you can write them out yourself.