Chapter 11: Of Monsters and Men
Dave
The plan was going to be executed so perfectly.
The silent contemplation, the careful planning, the in-sync actions of Penny and Kenny and my henchmen that would come to rescue us… it all would have ultimately led to our escape and North Wind's demise. North Wind and their precious airship.
My stand-off with the wolf was all part of my attempts to play with his mind. It was his choice after all: the lives of himself and his crew, or their deaths. Now don't get me wrong, I am not one to outright kill anyone. Gross. But I also can't control how someone behaves when presented with death as a very evident factor. Any normal creature would fight for their lives and save themselves.
At least, that's what I thought.
The wolf dumbfounded me. His stubbornness, his refusal to retreat. In hindsight, I should have seen this coming, but I guess my calculations based upon someone's self-preservation instincts versus their willpower didn't balance right with me, especially with a poor excuse of an organization such as the North Wind.
But regardless of my strategy, things fell apart the moment the wolf attacked Kailey. In my last ditch effort to pull ourselves out of the situation, I tried calling for her: "Kailey! The escape pod! We need to get into this escape pod, now! Grab hold of me!"
But things were becoming more chaotic by the second. The red flashing lights, the siren, the to-and-fro of agents attempting to reach the escape pods acted like ticks to the timer of the bomb that was about to go off. The bomb that I told my henchmen to cast onto North Wind's airship.
"Kailey!" I yelled again, but I felt like my best efforts to call her were being drowned out by the chaos. I heard a mild whoosh behind me, and then felt Penny and Kenny grab hold of me, tugging me backwards into one of the escape pods.
"Wait—" I had huffed, but my henchmen had already made the call, forcing me into the escape pod with them. Kailey was so far out of reach on the other side of the airship that I could only watch as those seconds sped by before my eyes. The escape pod dropped us from the airship, extracting us from the evident eruption, and before my eyes I saw it explode.
North Wind's airship was swept in a sudden blast of fire, but just as quickly as the flame's red hue engulfed the sky, the color green exploded outward and around the now falling craft. Far away were other escape pods filled with all the North Wind agents…
"KAILEY!" I yelled again, this time anguish evident in my tone. I felt my hearts skip in my chest as a wave of terror fell upon me. I turned around to look at Penny and Kenny, an intense scowl growing upon my face as I looked at them. "How dare you! You left her!"
Penny and Kenny looked at each other, Penny's eyes glistening with tears.
Kenny spoke softly on her behalf, and what he said, as bold as his words were to his own superior, left my scowl fading as a cold dawning overcame my senses.
"You're right… you don't need to say anything else," I said, my voice low and melancholy. Against my better judgement, I had made the wrong call. I had let myself get angry and unstable because North Wind had stolen my tech, my research… and I gravely paid for it.
Oh, how fast things can change for the worse.
My mind scattered through all the scenarios as my emotions did a reboot of the sort. Trying to fight the fact that I had erred in my arrogance and put Kailey in danger was driving me insane. A bubbling fury returned to my chest as I thought about the North Wind, that constant pest to my plans, and that even when I thought I had the upper hand of them, the wolf still managed to get in my way.
"Kenny, Chesney is still on standby, correct? Do you have the communications link I gave you?" I asked.
Kenny nodded.
"Call the fleet, tell them to return to base."
Penny began to ask me a question as to why, digging through a backpack that she had prepared for this mission, but I spoke up before she could utter much of her inquiry.
"We are going to look for her." My throat got tight thinking about it. The plans beyond my dealings with Octo Corp, North Wind, and everything that didn't matter. My plans for me and her were the only things that did matter. For me and Kailey. Plans that now I didn't know would come to fruition. "We'll bring her home, one way or another…"
My henchmen nodded and gave me a salute to acknowledge my orders, and got to work. Kenny hailed Chesney to order the fleet return to the Octo Corp building, and Penny navigated the escape pod to make a U-turn in order to scout the land below us for my dearest…
. . . . . . .
The escape pod didn't have enough juice to keep us airborne for long. We had managed to circle the crash site for a few rounds before we had no choice but to make a landing. The autumn colored forests of our surroundings were a great contrast from where we had been prior, and the cold air only added to the void I continued to feel as I desperately scanned the woods.
I kept imagining that I'd find her here, somewhere between the trees, looking for me too. I ached to hear her voice call out to me, but alas, the only thing that could be heard now was a light groan of the late season air.
So quiet. Yes, I wondered if human authorities would be on watch now. Surely, they must've seen the explosion, or at the very least know an aircraft had fallen. I could have thought more deeply of the repercussions of this incident, but I kept my mind focused on finding Kailey.
The longer we crept around, the more frequently we ran into pieces of the destroyed airship, small crackling fires among the wreckages filling the quiet woods. Luckily the forest was so damp that a fire was unable to spark and cause more trouble.
A snap of a twig echoed somewhere among the trees around us. Penny, Kenny, and even I recoiled at the sudden sound, having gotten used to the silence for so long. We looked around first before we gave each other a glance, listening and waiting cautiously where we stood.
Penny had suggested it was just a falling twig or something simple like that, but I continued to stand there, listening. The more I listened, the more I could tell something was off. The sound of breathing was obviously among us, but it was an angry breath, and then a growl.
I was about to give my henchmen another order to be on their guard when whatever was stalking us burst out of the trees. A giant creature with a mass of green fur barreled at us like a boulder dropping from a hill.
Penny and Kenny disappeared to blend in with their environment, giving me the same idea as I fell back into my surroundings. The creature came to a violent stop as its paws buried themselves in the dark, cold, damp soil beneath it, sniffing the air with its back against us.
The hulking creature was a terrifying sight to behold, but it didn't take me long to realize that this was the workings of my Medusa Serum. The sickly green color, the unrecognizable form of whatever—or whoever it used to be.
I gasped. "My Medusa Serum, of course!" I said, but my expressed revelation came out too soon. The moment my gasp left my mouth, the creature turned around, making eye contact with me despite my camouflage, and growled again.
Through the unruly sharp barred teeth, monstrous size, and green fur, I finally recognized that it was none other than the wolf who had become an unwilling victim to my serum. He was so overwhelmed with his monstrous instinct that he charged at me again, swiping his claws at the air as he ran in my general direction.
Out of fear my camouflage uncontrollably began to shift through all different kinds of colors, unable to pick and stay with a hue like my life was flashing through my eyes. Luckily, Kenny had gotten himself together and used the opportunity to toss a rock at him, distracting the agent from his current pursuit to maim me and bringing him to a screeching halt.
Recalling past experiments with my Medusa Serum, and even during the peak of my revenge against the penguins in New York, I knew some individuals, if not all, would experience what I referenced before as the "monster instinct". Because my goal with the serum was to make, you know, monsters, that also meant suppressing higher cognition. The only thing that I've observed snapping a test subject out of this was presenting them with something that they would recognize. Something that had inherent value to them.
Skipper, Kowalski, and Rico had broken past that instinct thanks to Private and their teamwork. Familial bonds, perhaps. However, what on earth did the wolf value? Justice? Taking me down? In other words, sissy stuff and something that was never going to happen?
The wolf, with his attention on Kenny now, started charging, resuming his fit of rage. I knew my henchmen were quick-witted, but with an abomination this size, taking the wolf down by himself was not something all that possible. I jumped to action, maneuvering through the trees, rushed up behind the wolf just as he was about to reach Kenny, and I wrapped my arms around his neck as tightly as I could.
"I'm going to knock him out!" I shouted to my henchmen aloud, but the idea was easier in my head, unfortunately. I was thrown and thrashed about, holding on for dear life as the wolf attempted to knock me off.
"Where is Penny?!" I yelled then, trying to get my bearings of where everyone was.
To try and help, Kenny kept throwing rocks at our new unwelcome guest, but again, this was unfortunate, because every other rock hit me. I was starting to get a bit queasy when suddenly I heard a new sound: the sound of silverware and ceramics clink to the side.
The wolf had heard the sound too, but shockingly instead of charging at the new sound, stopped. We both looked toward the clicking, seeing that Penny was holding a little teapot, and a single, tiny dainty teacup with hot tea inside, the warmth evaporating above the cup and into the cold autumn air.
She must've had quite a few items in that little backpack of hers. Good thinking, being prepared like that.
The wolf sniffed the air, his eyes dilating and his posture slackening. "Is… is that black tea from Yorkshire?" he asked.
Penny nodded.
I finally let go of his neck, again dumbfounded by his behavior as he walked to little Penny, took the tiny little cup with his forefinger and thumb, took an elaborate sniff, and then sip. "Ah, yes," he said, "it is Yorkshire. Wouldn't have put you as one for authentic taste."
My mouth was agape as I could only watch the situation. Penny was certainly filled with all kinds of tricks up her sleeve. I wouldn't have put it past her to know everything about our enemies if the need were to arise, such as it was in this occasion.
"Is that cinnamon?" Classified inquired. "Very seasonal. It suits the weather."
"Okay, so I'm going to go off on a limb here and say that you no longer want to kill us," I finally said out loud.
The wolf didn't turn to look at me, but he responded, rather nonchalantly, like he would normally do. "I mean, I did think about it. No… as a matter-of-fact I actually was trying to kill you just now, but I think I'm enjoying this tea too much to care anymore for some reason."
"Penny here has more where that came from if you promise not to kill us." On one side of the coin, it was interesting seeing how my Medusa Serum was working on another subject, but on the other, I wasn't sure if this was the time or place, considering the lack of a controlled setting.
"Oh, goody, the only positive thing to come out of you Octopi, I suppose."
"What is that supposed to mean?" I asked, but I shook my head. "Look, let's just get down to the important stuff. If you promise not to maim me and my henchmen, you'll get your tea or whatever. On top of that…" I felt myself wanting to choke as the second portion of my words fell out of my throat, "this may be a situation where we could help each other."
Work with a North Wind agent? What was I thinking?! I guess my own instinct was taking over as I pondered over the gesture for a moment. I needed North Wind's cooperation to find Kailey, even though this was my fault. Not to mention we were currently in human territory, out in the open, and exposed, so logically this sounded like the only solution.
"Help you?" The wolf scoffed. "After everything you put me through today? For destroying our airship, for turning me into, well, this?!" He gestured to himself, his teacup empty now and dangling in his sharp green claws. "You are insane, David. I will never join forces with the Octopi!"
"What I put you through!?" I erupted in response. "You were the one that kidnapped us, destroyed my jet, and attacked Kailey, and us just now! Maybe if you were a proper leader you could have evacuated everyone more quickly and saved yourself from this! By all means, you becoming a green blob is your fault! Stealing my serum! Ha! Please! Go cry me a river!"
"Green blob!?" The wolf looked offended. "I could ask you the same questions! Hmm, you would know how it feels to be a monster, wouldn't you? What is it like to be a hideous ugly beast? I'm just now figuring it out, but looks like you've had a while to come to terms with it."
"Why, you good for nothing—!" I felt like I was about to throw myself at him and choke him again. Despite the saltiness of the conversation, to put it in colloquial terms, Penny waved her arms at us, attempting to dilute the negativity brewing.
Again, BLAH! Working with this guy!? Normally I'd say 'no thanks!' but again, I was letting my hatred for North Wind get the better of me. As angry as I was for what he was saying to me, in the back of my head was an oh so small voice, whispering to me that I still needed to find Kailey. For now, this was beyond my rivalry with North Wind. It took second to my priority of searching for her.
Before I could settle with another train of thought to direct the conversation, I began to hear distant mumbling. The more time that went by, the louder the mumbling became before I realized it was the sound of voices.
Human voices.
"Take cover!" I said.
Everyone followed my lead as we rushed back, dived behind some dense brush, and stayed still. From this distance I could still see parts of the crashed airship, but it was far back enough to where I felt safe observing the human authorities as they walked into the woods, inspecting the crash with both awe and worry.
"I can't believe this," one of the men said. He was wearing an officer's uniform. "Actual alien activity! And here I thought this was all a bunch of pranks!"
A few more officers walked up, but with them were two men in black suits, wearing sunglasses. I didn't understand why they would be wearing them, since it was so cloudy, but they didn't seem to mind keeping them on.
"Yes, as it would seem," one of the men in black said. The other hunkered over a piece of metal from the ship, and with gloved hands reached down and plucked a piece from the ground, and put it in a bag.
"Officer, you need to keep word of this situation at a minimum to Woodstock and the surrounding area. We can't have people losing their minds over this. Best we keep people going comfortably about their daily lives."
"Not sure how we're going to do that now that they've seen that green alien walking around town!" the officer responded. "Everyone has phones these days, someone was bound to catch that on film!"
Wait—green alien? I thought. I turned towards the wolf, whispered, "Were you out roaming a nearby town?"
The wolf shook his head, placed a finger to his muzzle and shushed me. My eyes grew large as I turned my head back to the humans conversing a distance away, but for a second I lost track of what they had to say, a thought ringing in my head.
Could that creature they were talking about… be who I thought it could be?
"Yes, but public statements as of now need to be kept confidential until the state is able to make a statement. It will be up to the Pentagon to address this issue properly when the time comes—"
The man in glasses that had been talking was interrupted by the beep of a phone. The human pulled it out from his coat pocket and read the screen. "Looks like they have the subject at the lab. Let's finish up this inspection and head on back."
"Right," the officer replied cautiously. "Once we collect evidence here we'll be done for now. Send a crew over here to mark off the area from civilians."
At that moment I turned back to look at Penny and Kenny. "You hear that?" I asked. A glimmer of hope was finally shining through me. "We need to follow those guys when they are done. We need to figure out who this green alien is…"
"I will need to escort you," the wolf whispered then into our conversation. "This is very much on the verge of breaking code. If it's one of my agents then we might be in trouble."
"Or what if it's Kailey," I said then. "She was on that damned ship too when it exploded."
"Perhaps…" the wolf stated. "Under the code I must make sure that no human-animal interaction exists in this situation. As much as I hate to admit, we will need to team up, David."
We watched the humans navigate the area for some time before the two men in black separated from the officers to report back to the lab they had mentioned earlier.
The timing was perfect, because the moment we began to move out of the area to follow them, other humans from what looked like the US Government were taking their place, and with them lines of yellow tape, and vehicles, and tech to help with the crash site.
Unfortunately, following them only got us so far before the two men got into a dark vehicle and began to drive off. I was able to watch them go down the far country road before they disappeared down a slight left, hidden by the dense forests surrounding us. The late fall foliage seemed confusing as the colors meshed with my racing mind.
"Hmmm," I grumbled, unsure with how to proceed. If I didn't know where they were going, then this was going to be more difficult than I thought. Not to mention we had a lot ahead of us in terms of even breaking in.
For a while I continued to contemplate this idea: finding the lab and busting in, but this was more than what I was used to in terms of breaking and entering, like I did so many times with zoos and aquariums when I was kidnapping penguins.
Luckily, I wasn't only Dave the octopus.
"Kenny, do you have your communications device on you?" I asked.
He nodded.
"Hand it to me." I extended an arm to accept the device.
Once Kenny plopped it in my grasp, I dialed a number I had called often during my time at my lab in Venice, and put it to my ear. It rang only a few times before a human picked it up.
"Yes, this is Dr. Octavius Brine. I have heard about the recent events with strange activity in the American northwest and would like to visit their lab to assist them with the investigation. Do you have the address?"
The woman on the other line was happy to oblige. Oh, how easy it was for Dr. Brine to get in on the juicy stuff happening in the scientific community.
"Ah yes, Woodstock, Vermont, lovely, I will be there shortly. Please send the lab an alert that I will be attending."
Once I hung up I looked to my henchmen and the wolf, grinning now that I knew what to do. I eyed Penny one last time before I spoke, taking note of her backpack she had been carrying around with her since we evacuated the ship.
"Penny, do you by any chance have my wig and coat?"
She nodded happily.
"Good then! I know where to go now. My plan is simple: I go in as Dr. Brine, scout the premises, and return stealthily with the subject at hand… once we are done, we will need to evacuate quickly to avoid suspicion.
While I was neutral in stating who this "subject" was I kept hoping that it was my dearest… If it was, I could fix this, and maybe everything would finally be okay.
. . . . . . .
"Ok, how do I look?" I asked my henchmen.
I received approval from them, but my eyes glanced at the wolf a few paces behind us, acting aloof in our presence. Again, I hated being reminded how he had to be our new tagalong, but this was the only way, and we both knew it. I was counting the seconds before I could split off back to my lab and be rid of him.
"I'm going to head inside, then. You all wait in this area, and I'll come and meet you once I bust out the 'subject'.
"A North Wind agent isn't going to listen to you, you know," the wolf commented. "Especially if they are under the control of your Medusa Serum. Do you have any idea what your plan is to get out of that?"
I narrowed my eyes, getting tired of his questioning. "It remains to be seen if it is a North Wind agent," I argued. "Nevertheless, I'll work with what the lab has and attempt to identify solutions to restore cognition to the subject."
I turned around then, smoothing out my white lab coat and patting my wig to make sure everything was in order, and then I ventured to the lab entrance.
This place would have easily been missed if you didn't know where to look. Among the dense trees and hills and valleys that made up the vast territory, the building was built discreetly into one of these hills. A visitor could arrive to this place by complete accident, and even if they did see it, it would have been easily mistaken as a basic office building, or a manufacturing plant of some kind. The path leading off the main road and all the way up here was unpaved and rather unkept, with the path being covered in fallen leaves.
I walked through the entrance like I owned the place. The reception area was guarded by a few security guards, an older woman sitting in front of the entrance desk. Everyone's eyes fell on me the moment I walked in, naturally, and I was glad to see that they recognized me. They welcomed me quite immediately.
"Ah, Dr. Octavius Brine, we were told you'd be arriving," the receptionist said, sitting up from her seat and extending her arm to gesture towards a hallway behind one of the security officers. "You have a committee waiting to greet you in the main observation area. They'll be happy to discuss their findings with you."
"Thank you," I responded, and began walking down the hall as the woman gestured. I took note of security cameras, vents, anything I could use in an attempt to create an escape plan in my mind. It seemed the further I went into this facility the harder it was going to be for me to simply bust anyone out, especially as the renowned doctor.
I stepped through a doorway that opened for me, and then through another set of doors that created a pressurized grumble before they opened, too. It was here that I finally saw the committee that the receptionist had told me about, making up three scientists and the two men in black from before.
"Ah, Dr. Brine, we are excited to have you here!" one of the scientists said. "We were about to give you a call before one of your connections told us you'd be coming. We just detained the specimen over an hour ago. We have been observing the creature and it is very… emotionally unstable."
"I am glad to be here," I acknowledged initially. I swallowed, attempting to be discreet about my discomfort from his second statement. I made sure to poise myself before I continued. "Can you explain further what you mean by emotionally unstable? Is it… intelligent?"
"It is able to replicate human language, specifically English, so yes, it is intelligent," he answered. "There were reports before we detained it that it was running amok across Woodstock center. Attacking cars, we hear."
"That's putting it quite mildly," another scientist chimed in. "It totaled those cars. Hit the front end of one of them and flipped it, so it's very strong."
"Really?" I asked, my eyes widening momentarily before I had to regain my poise. My Medusa Serum wasn't supposed to cause increased strength, but thinking about it, the wolf was far more difficult to apprehend than normal. My mind started rummaging through different scenarios and hypotheses as to why this happened.
"Indeed, shocking isn't it?" the first scientist said. "But, also very interesting. We are preparing to communicate with it, but it has not really calmed down. We were considering initial steps to proceed with our first assessment."
"Once we find more about it and where it came from, its society, culture, intentions… we can move forward with phase two of the investigation: understanding its biology," the third added.
"Can I see this creature?" I asked, my mind skipping over the second portion of their statement. That was something I wasn't prepared to acknowledge at that time. All I could think about was trying to find a way to create an escape plan and get out before that happened.
"Of course," the first doctor said.
They turned to head down the lab area; I followed close behind, and the two men in black walked likewise behind me, keeping a uniform procession.
The dull grey lab, made of metal walls and pillars, filled with matching gadgets and computers, sterile and well kept, clashed once more against what I was accompanied to. My lab, normally bustling with the to and fro of my henchmen, the complexity of my computers and tools, seemed so different then as I compared them in my mind. Like the shift from a warm Thanksgiving dinner, to the explosion of North Wind's ship, and to the cold forests below, was like my trailing of two different types of scientific environments. One mine, the other foreign; one my life, the other one I didn't want to be a part of.
We finally arrived in front of a large transparent holding cell, the door sealed tight, keeping a barrier between ourselves and the creature I had been waiting to see inside. I had to adjust my glasses on my face, staring hard at the green creature in front of me, slowly but surely my mind connecting the dots… connecting the features I recognized and new ones I didn't.
It was her… through it all, all the changes, I could still see her in there.
Kailey's skin was green, the trademark of the introduction of my Medusa Serum on a subject. Her feet were no longer human—instead, they looked to be avian, large, scaled, clawed and predatorial, and her stance now digitigrade. Green feathers crawled up the side of her legs and thighs, disappearing on her torso, but reappearing on her arms. Her hands were now long, and nails claw-like. Her hair looked wet, like she had been running through the damp woods for a long time, and on her head were a set of large, spiraled horns.
"Would you mind if I approached… the creature?" I asked. I was trying to be careful with my words, but at the same time I was adamant about getting to her. I couldn't waste another second standing there when she was right in front of me, alone in that container.
"But Dr. Brine, we told you it was unstable," the first scientists noted. "That would be unwise."
"I can calm her," I said. They seemed inquisitive about that simple statement, however.
"How do you intend to calm it?"
"You said it was intelligent," I stated. "It must be able to negotiate… understand and tell us what happened to it."
The scientists grew quiet for a moment, looking at one another as they silently attempted to work out my requests. The first scientist would be the one to answer me, after some thought.
"We will have our guards come in and armed with tranquilizers in the event the creature becomes unsteady," the third scientist said.
I began to hear the shuffling of the committee preparing for our next steps from behind me, and hear them begin to call for backup, but despite all the new movement around me, I couldn't help but remained fixated on Kailey through the glass. The fluorescent lights above me seemed to send my reflection, ever so slightly in the glass, my image clashing with her own. My hearts ached.
"We're ready when you are, Doctor," the low voice of a security office said to me.
I nodded, stepping back to allow the cage to open, and stepped in…
I could hear her mumbling now, saying, "why, why why… how could this—why would this—?!"
Suddenly, and jarringly, her head shot up from her hunkered position, looking me in the eyes, her stare piercing with a pair of red colored irises, like mine.
She started sniffing the air, but following that she started taking deep, uncontrolled breaths, like she was trying to fight off fright.
"What do you want!?" she yelled. "Leave me alone!" At this point I was starting to gather that she didn't even recognize me.
"It's okay…" I said, raising my hands up to show that I meant no harm. "It's me."
"What more could you want!?" She was delusional, scattered. "All that I've done, does it mean nothing to you!? You take, and take and take, yet I'm never good enough for you!?"
She slammed her fist against the metal wall behind her, the loud pound creating an echo effect in her holding area. I flinched momentarily after this occurred, regaining my focus to see she had left a dent in the place she had hit.
I was beginning to realize talking to her wasn't going to help. I had to do something different—drastic.
She was continuing to yell a bunch of different accusations at me when I rushed up to her, getting as close as I could before I laid a hand on her cheek. The dark circles around her eyes were more apparent to me now that I was up close, and I could feel her trembling through my touch.
She blinked once, startled when I caressed her cheek, a single tear drop falling from her left eye. She looked for what seemed like a long time, in those moments a realization that she was starting to recognize me.
"Kailey," I whispered, "I thought I lost you."