Chapter 83: The Ko Trap
It was a normal day at the bodega and our heroes had just arrived for their shifts. "What in the world? What happened to the doors?" Ko asked as they noticed that the doors to the store were gone. "This has Boxmore all over it" Nebula said darkly and they all stormed over to the building across the street.
"Hey! Open up already! We know you're in there" Rad yelled as he pounded on the door. "Okay this is getting ridiculous. Darrell, give us back our doors!" Enid demanded as she banged on the door. "No!" the robot yelled and the heroes combined their powers to break the door. "Seriously! Boxman teams up with Professor Venomous and this was the best he could do? This barely qualifies as an act of villany" Enid said. "Nuh-uh! Without these doors, little squirrels will come into the bodega and eat all you food!" He explained and Nebula shuddered when he wiggled his tentacle arm that was not holding the doors.
"Darrell! You and your creepy bio upgrades are going down!" Ko said as he redied his powerfists. "Ko, no! We can't risk damaging the doors" Enid whispered to the boy. "I know. You're right" Ko said with a sigh. "Later losers!" Darrell said and he used his tentacle arm to hoist himself up onto a nearby ledge and he ran off. "After him!" Ko said and they all chased after the robot. They were then blasted with a purple cloud and they began to cough. "This stuff again?" Nebula said as she coughed. "Oh no! It's a trap!" Rad, Nebula, Enid" Ko was heard saying weakly before he passed out. "But why is it affecting me this time?" Nebula wondered and as she reached out to Rad and Enid who were still coughing, her eyelids closed as she lost consciousness.
When she woke up, she found herself in a room with her friends who were kneeling on the ground near Ko. Rad then smacked Ko's face and Enid hit his arm as Ko got up and was gasping for air. "What? It may be mean but it's also effective. I used to do it to Nebula all this time! Although, she did always slap me once she woke up" Rad responded and he moved a bit away from Ko's body. "Now to wake up my sleeping beauty" he said and Nebula closed her eyes and pretended to be unconscious. Rad leaned over her and he got his face extremely close to hers. "Babe, I know you're up" he said and Nebula rose up from the ground. "Thank cob you guys are okay!" she said happily and she immediately hugged them. "How do you guys feel?" she asked. "Surprisingly, we feel fine" Enid responded. "Yeah, were just stuck in this room with no windows, or doors, or a way out…" she said as she trailed off. "And no wifi" Rad said bluntly. Nebula quickly took her phone out of her pocket to see that it's battery was dying. "And this place is draining my battery" she said. "What? That's impossible! I'm sure we can find an escape" Ko said and they all began to search the room for a hidden exit.
They searched frantically for what seemed like hours, but to their dismay, they found nothing. "Maybe we just need to smash our way out!" Rad said and he began to punch the wall. "Rad honey, stop. You're only hurting yourself and wasting your energy. I guess all we can do is wait for someone to notice we're gone and to come find us" Nebula said defeatedly as she sunk to the ground. Ko then began to ask the wall nicely to open up. "Ko, I don't think that asking the wall to open will work" Nebula said carefully so she wouldn't hurt his feelings. Rad then fired a beam at the wall as Enid sent a flaming kick. The beam hit Enid and Rad was sent into the air by the kick. He then landed harshly on his back near Nebula and he let out a groan. She raised an eyebrow at him and he pointed a finger at her. "Don't you dare say it" he said and she shrugged. "Awh man. Who knew Boxman would defeat us with a stinkin' box?" Enid commented angrily. "Gotta hand it to him. It must have taken him a lot of restraint not to try this earlier" Rad commented. "Maybe it's not so bad" Ko said trying to stay positive as he pointed out different areas of the room and saying what parts could be used for a certain purpose. Rad and Nebula shared a look of uncertainty and Enid put a hand on her chin. "You know, Ko's right! Sooner or later Mr. Gar will figure out that Boxman has us trapped and he'll come rescue us" Enid said. "Isn't that what I said earlier?" Nebula pointed out. "Besides, it might be good practice for when you and Nebula get married. Ko and I could be like your kids" Enid teased. "Enid, don;t you mean if we get married?" Rad asked clearly embarrassed and nervous.
They then spent their time playing games that involved asking each other questions to get an answer, asking if they have done something, acting out something and the others had to guess what they were trying to act out. They also played games like 'Rock, Paper, Scissors', 'Hero, Hero, Villain', and 'Impressions' to pass the time and stay sane.
When they got tired, Rad was laying on his back with Nebula cuddled up into him and using his chest as a pillow. "Night guys" Enid said as she was laying near them with Ko using her stomach as a pillow. Time had passed and Enid summoned a throwing star to make lines on the wall. As more and more time passed, they could all feel their saity slowly slipping away.
They were all sitting in a circle and Enid let out a growl as she had finally snapped. She began to yell at them and they all began to argue with each other. "And you! If you never existed then we would have never ended up here!" Enid yelled as she pointed to Nebula. She began to insult her and to her surprise, Ko hesitantly agreed with Enid. Nebula looked at Rad with tears in her eyes and all he did was look away from her as he agreed with the Enid and Ko.
Nebula lowered her head as tears fell from her eyes she looked at her hands as she began to believe the insults that everyone had told her ever since she arrived at Lakewood. The room got extremely cold, ice formed on the walls, and unknown to her, her hair grew darker as her hands balled up into fists. "See? You really are a freak" Enid spat as Nebula's fists began to glow and form a dark smoke over them. She let out a mix of a cry and a growl as she raised her head and blasted the trio. She then began to catch her breath and once she did, she gasped as she saw the piles of green goo where her friends once were. She looked at her shaking hands and she wept over the destruction of her friends. She then began to breath quickly and she raised a now glowing fist and punched the wall. To her surprise, it was destroyed and she carefully walked out. She then came across a vent and she used her levitation to open it. Once she was in the vent, she crawled through. At one point, the vent began to shake and it broke as it dropped her onto the floor. She spotted a door and ran through it, only to crash into a hard surface. She backed away and she gasped when she saw Ko coming up out of a large container of green liquid.
"Ko!" she said happily and she hugged him. "I'm so glad that you're okay!" she said as tears fell from her eyes. "I'm glad you're okay too! But we need to get out of here" he said and the two ran through a nearby door. They then crashed into Rad and Enid. "Guys! You're not goo!" they all said in unison as they hugged. Nebula pulled away and she peppered kisses over Rad's face. "Babe" he half whined and Ko and Enid let out a laugh. They all then pulled out of the hug, with the exception of Nebula who was clinging to Rad and holding his close as she told them what she had experienced. Rad rubbed her back soothingly as he calmed her down. They all then told each other about their torturous experiences.
"So Boxman simulated the same nightmare scenario for each of us… separately?" Enid asked disturbed. "Just so that we'd all think each other was really gone?" Ko said. "That is just messed up!" Rad said angrily. "Guys, I don't think that Boxman did that. It's too well, evil. He usually uses his robots, not goo" Nebula pointed out. "It's gotta be someone else. Someone like" Ko said and he gasped. "Professor Venomous!" They said in unison and they glanced to a door that had a 'V' on it. They then burst through the door to see said villain playing 'Solitaire' on his computer and eating an apple.
"Didn't think we'd get out of your trap so easily huh?" Ko said. "Trap? Right! I had Darrell put you all in that trap! Look, as a villain of my stature you have so many people to torment at any given moment" he said and he tossed his apple. "You'll have to forgive me. I shifted my attention not too long ago to installing um" he then looked at a small note on his computer. "Anti vi-rus software" he read. "Which I asked Fink to help me with ten minutes ago" he yelled. "I'm on the toilet!" Fink yelled back and Professor Venomous sighed. "You know, normally Boxman would just tie us up or make us fight some robots or something" Enid said. "Unless he had plans that evening then he would let us go and we in return would ruin his meeting and kick his butt" Nebula commented. "But he would never mentally torment us with fake goo clones!" Rad said.
"Oh so you got it?" Professor Venomous said with a chuckle. " I admit, the wizard boy from months ago gave me the idea when he brought people from the past to fight under his command. But I thought it'd be easier to create the clones and I can see that I was right. By using DNA obtained from previous battles, I created realistic goo clones and tricked you into watching them perish. But they weren't fake. The goo clones have your unique memories and a soul" he explained as he resumed playing 'Solitaire' on his computer. "Those poor goo clones" Ko said sadly and Professor Venomous turned his chair to face them. "It's a small price to pay if it means pushing your minds to the breaking point. It's much easier to dissect you that way" he said darkly and Nebula paled and if Rad didn't hold an arm out behind her, she would have fallen back and onto the floor.
"Ew! What is wrong with you?" Enid asked, clearly angry and disgusted. "That trap was just messed up!" Rad said as he agreed with Enid. "You're not like Boxman. You're truly evil" Ko said darkly and Professor Venomous chuckled. "Oh little Ko, I must know. Were you disturbed?" he asked mockingly and Ko let out a growl. He then charged at the villain and he stopped his attack by holding a foot out. This saused Ko to slam into his foot and Professor Venomous kicked Ko to the ground. "Ko!" Rad, Nebula, and Enid said in worry as they checked on him. "Are you okay?" Enid asked and Professor Venomous let out a growl. "I will not tolerate disrespect in my study" he said as he pulled out a sealed beaker from inside of his coat. He then used his sharp teeth to pull out the cork and as he spat out the cork, he threw the beaker. It hit Rad and Enid and Ko and Nebula began to cough. Once the smoke cleared, they saw that Rad and Enid were goo clones as they fell to the ground. Professor Venomous cackled and Nebula passed out.
Not a minute later, she felt herself being smacked in the face and she opened her eyes to see Rad. She hugged him and then slapped him. "Guess I had that one coming" he said as he helped her up from the floor. Professor Venomous pulled out a ray gun as Rad and Enid attacked him. Enid was able to kick it out of his hand and Rad swung his fist at him. Nebula snuck to his computer and secretly inserted a small device from her phone into it as Professor Venomous jumped back as he dodged Rad's fist and he put a hand to his head. "You four are giving me a migraine. This ends now" he said and he pulled a button from his coat pocket. Noting happened for a moment and before anyone could say anything, they were launched into the air and crashed outside of the bodega.
"You know, Mommy says that hating others is wrong. But I think I hate Professor Venomous" Ko said. "He's nothing like Boxman. If anything, he's worse" Nebula pointed out. "Looks like we're gonna have to start taking Venomous more seriously now" Rad said. "Yeah. I'm just glad that we made it out alive" Enid said. "Ko? What are you doing with those rocks?" Nebula asked in alarm. "Hold still. I gotta make sure that you're not goo clones" he said. "Ko, no!" the trio said in unison as they ran away from Ko who was throwing rocks at them while two squirrels snuck out of the bodega with snacks in their small hands.
That night while Rad was asleep, Nebula snuck into the bodega and hacked into the security cameras. "Come on, come on, got it! Now to see about the other day" she said to herself. She then found what she was looking for and she watched and listened carefully to the video. "Oh no. It was him! But why would he want Glorbs to be brought to the sewer?" she mumbled to herself as she sent the video and audio to someone. She then took out her phone and dialed a number."Did you get it?" she asked. "Yes, thank you. I'll have people check for his location in the sewers" the other person said. "Oh, I also sent you a file. Earlier I put a virus on Professor Venomous' computer. It has an undetectable bug on it to se we can find out all his information and plans" she said. "Alright. Thank you. I'll look into it tomorrow. In the meantime, why don't you go back home and get some rest" the person said. "Alright. Night Miss Bi" she said. "Goodnight" Bianca said and Nebula hung up.
The next morning, Rad woke up to see that Nebula was not in bed with him nor was she in his home. "She must have left for a secret mission last night" he said and after breakfast and getting ready for the day, he went to the bodega for his shift.
"Morning Rad, where's Nebula?" Ko asked. "She must have left for a mission last night. I'll call her to see when she'll be back" he said. He then took out his phone and called her. "Bodegamen" they heard Mr. Gar call worriedly from his office as they heard a familiar ringtone. They ran into his office to see their boss holding her beloved phone and looking at them worriedly. Rad dropped his phone in shock and he let out a cry.
Unknown to them, across the street Professor Venomous and Lord Boxman heard Rad's cry and they smirked at each other. Lord Boxman pressed a button and the two laughed as Raymond brought in a large sack and placed it at their feet. "Ready Boxman? We have work to do" Professor Venomous said evilly as he opened the sack.