Chapter 101: Carl Part 2
"Get in! We can catch up to him much faster in this than on foot" he said as he put his special driving gloves on. Nebula got into the passenger seat and once they buckled their seat belts, Professor Venomous drove off and they followed the trail of slime. "Oh no! We need to hurry!" Nebula exclaimed as she noticed the people that were stuck in the slime."Don't worry. I'm on his trail! Professor Venomous responded as he sped up the car. They then spotted Carl with a biker. "Carl! This sticky rampage needs to stop! Now! We're taking you back to Boxmore!" Nebula yelled as she got out of the car. Carl growled and launched some slime at her. "Hey! Knock it off!" Nebula said as she dodged the slime. "I said stop!" she then held out a hand and froze Carl. Before she could breathe a sigh of relief, Carl broke out of her ice and Nebula gasped. Nebula then ran and Carl tried to pelt her with more goo.
"Stop running! You need to fight! A monster like this can only be stopped by strong, special powers" Professor Venomous called and Nebula looked at him. "I already tried! My ice didn't affect him! Why don't you stop watching and actually help!" Nebula called back as she dogged more slime balls. "Don't worry, I have just the thing to stop him!" Professor Venomous then pulled out a beaker from his lab coat. "Then why didn't you use that on him earlier?!" Nebula yelled and Professor Venomous threw the beaker at Carl.
The slime monster turned into stone and it fell to the ground. "Alright!" Nebula cheered. "Uh oh. I guess it didn't work" she remarked as Carl broke free. "Oopsie-daisy. I must have used the wrong beaker" Professor Venomous responded as Nebula glared at him.
"Why wouldn't he use the right one if he's the one who created it?" she thought and Carl growled loudly. He then tried to attack Nebula. "How come it's only attacking me?" she asked as she continued to dodge his attacks and run from him.
"You know, a little help would be nice!" Nebula yelled as she ran. "Gee, Nebula. I wish I could help you fight, but I don't have any powers" Professor Venomous replied. "You don't need power to fight! How about when you fought against Ko, Rad, and Enid after they discovered the goo clones? You fought them off like they were nothing but small bugs!" Nebula argued.
"Yeah but I don't have any powers! There's no way that I could help! There must be some additional power you have deep inside of you" Professor Venomous replied and Nebula stopped in her tracks. "Huh?" she then looked at her now glowing hands. "Oh, you mean her" she said darkly as she clenched her fists. "You know full well about her! Remember, you were the one that mentally tormented me until she came out? Besides, there has to be another way!" Nebula argued. She then took out her phone and made a call. "Rad honey, I really need your guy's help!" she said. "Babe? Is everything alright?" Rad asked.
"No! Carl turned into a monster and he's attacking everyone and I can't stop him by myself! Professor Venomous wants me to activate her but I really don't want to 'cause if I do, I'll lose control!" Nebula panicked. "Easy there babe. Don't worry, we're on our way! Wait, who's Carl?" Rad responded. "Oh cob!" Nebula exclaimed and she and Professor Venomous were trapped in slime. "Great. Just great" Professor Venomous groaned. "You know, there's still time Nebula. Unleash your full powers!" he said and Nebula's eyes widened.
"Wait, is this really what this whole day was about!? You never wanted to spend time with me, you just wanted me to unleash her for your own personal gain! Didn't you?! That's why you refused to help me!" she cried and before she could continue, they heard a horn playing 'La Cucaracha' heading towards them.
"Alright! My handsome prince to the rescue!" Nebula cheered as Rad's van shot a rocket at Carl. "At least I know that someone actually cares about me" she commented as Rad landed his van. He, Ko, and Enid then burst through the back and sprayed the goo with something.
Once they were free, Rad hugged Nebula. "My hero" she swooned and she peppered his face with kisses. "Were you crying?" he asked as he wiped away her dried tears. "We'll talk about it later. Thanks guys, you rock!" Nebula said. "So, what was that stuff?" she asked. "It's nonstick cooking spray, I got it from my dad" Enid replied. "At least your dad loves you" she said and she glared at Professor Venomous. "But I love you Nebula" Rad said and Ko hugged her. "Yeah, we all do!" he said and Nebula hugged all three of them. "Awh, and I love you guys too!" she said.
Carl let out a growl as the hole from the rocket returned to normal. "So, how do we stop this thing? If we try to fight normally, we're just gonna get stuck in that goo" Rad asked. "Maybe we should get stuck! Let's dive in and attack from the inside" Ko chimed in. "Yeah! Good idea Ko" Nebula praised and she ruffled his hair.
They then leapt into Carl and sure enough, once they attacked him together from the inside, Carl exploded. While the heroes celebrated, Professor Venomous went back into his car.
"Sure you don't need anything else before we take off honey?" Rad asked as he and Enid leaned against his van with Ko. "You could always come home with us you know" Enid said softly. "Yeah! We were gonna hit the spaghetti truck on the way back. You sure you don't wanna share a string of spaghetti like in that one movie?" Rad asked.
"Hey! We're burning gas over here Nebula!" Professor Venomous called. "Be there in a minute!" she called back and she then turned to her friends. "Sorry guys, maybe next time, okay?" she replied. "Okay" Ko said and he and Enid got into the van.
"Wait, Rad. Before you go, I really need to ask you something that's been on my mind a lot lately" she admitted and Rad took her hands. "What is it?" he asked and she took a deep breath. "Would you ever get tired of me like a certain someone did with my mom? She asked as she looked at the ground. "Of course not! I love you and every day with you is amazing and you wanna know why?" he then used his thumb and pointer finger to raise her head. "Because I'm with you and I'll never ever leave you! Yes, I may let my pride and ego get in the way sometimes but no matter what, you were always there for me when I needed you and you know that I'll do the same" he said and Nebula hugged him as she cried into his shoulder. "Thank you Rad" she cried and Rad rubbed her back soothingly until she stopped crying. He wiped away the last tear and they shared a kiss. "I'll see you later Rad" she said as Professor Venomous started to continuously honk his horn. "Later Nebula" Rad said as he got into his van and started it. Nebula then got into Professor Venomous' car.
"I love you!" Rad called as they all drove off. "I love you more!" she called back as she stuck her head out of the window. Professor Venomous sped up and pulled her back into the car.
"You know, I remember when your mom and I were like you and that boyfriend of yours" he remarked after a few minutes of silence. "Yeah, but my Rad would never get bored of me and his life being alongside me" she responded coldly as she looked out the window.
Minutes passed and Nebula took out her phone and smiled softly at the texts that Rad, Ko and Enid had sent her. She then got a text of all three of them at the spaghetti truck. "Remind me again why I didn't go with them. I could have been sharing a spaghetti with Rad" she thought bitterly.
"Professor Venomous, you made Carl, you even watched him hurt people and when I asked you for help, you just made him grow bigger and meaner! And you continually told me to unleash her! It all sounds like something Shadowy Figure would do. Are you sure you got rid of him?" she interrogated. "Nebula, I promised that I'd get rid of Shadowy Figure, didn't I? I didn't even attack the plaza at all during the week. Do you still think that I didn't keep my promise?" Professor Venomous asked. "Maybe… It's just at the very end, it felt like you were trying to push me to bring out her. Was today really all about getting me to do that?" she asked. "I wan't to trust you but-" she was then cut off by the car stopping. "We're back" Professor Venomous said. He then turned to Nebula. "Let's make one thing clear Nebula, I haven't forced you to do anything today. Where we go from here is your decision" he responded.
"Then I choose to go home" Nebula said and she exited the car. Professor Venomous drove off and Nebula scoffed. "Father-daughter bonding day my foot!" she grumbled and she made her way to Rad's house.
"Professor Venomous never wanted to bond with you! He only wanted me! He doesn't care about you at all!" a familiar voice said.
"I'd try to say you're wrong, but I know that you're right! How could I have been so stupid! Because of me, all this bad stuff happened! All because I thought that my actual dad actually cared about me and he wanted to make up for all the lost time! What was I thinking?" Nebula cried and she sank to the ground. "You know that this is all your fault" the voice said and Nebula cried harder. "Y-you're right, this is all my fault! It's all my fault!" she cried.
"That's right Nebula! You're a loser! A failure! Not even your real parents want to be around you! This all happened because Professor Venomous, your own father, knew that you were weak! Who know all the lies he told that you believed!" The voice said. She let out a loud cry as she squeezed her eyes shut and lowered her head.
She let out a breath and she slowly raised her head to reveal cold, emotionless eyes. Her skin turned dark and her hair grew longer and darker. "Goodbye forever Nebula!" she said darkly and she burst into the Voxmore building.
"Well, I'm here! You ready to fight Professor Venomous?" she remarked and Professor Venomous laughed, "Oh, I'd rather not fight. After all, I've been waiting for your return Negula. You see, Venomous and I have reached a beautiful compromise" he began and in a flash he was transformed. "What's wrong Negula? Don't you recognize you dad, Shadowy Venomous?" he revealed as he noticed her glaring at his purple spiked wristbands. "That's right, it wasn't Professor Venomous who forced Nebula to unlock you, it was me!" he revealed as he took off his hood that hid his face. "Once Venomous saw the power he could have when you were in full control, he just couldn't help himself!" Shadowy Venomous explained. "And here I was thinking you couldn't get any worse!" Negula scoffed."Ha. How could I be worse when I'm so much more powerful?" he responded and he laughed evilly.
"I'm finally in complete control, I'm the person I was always meant to be. Surely you know what I mean Negula" he said and Negula rolled her eyes. "Considering that I finally gained control from Miss Goody Goody, I do" she replied. "See? We're not so different now, are we?" Shadowy Venomous then held out a hand.
"All my efforts to bring you back from out of Nebula have led to this! Join me Negula. A new world awaits us, a world where we're in charge!" he offered. "You know, Queen Negula does have a nice ring to it. Let's get this started, we have a lot of father-daughter time to catch up on! And this time, no plain vanilla activities" she said as she took his hand. "Of course! Only the best for my girl!" He said and they laughed evilly.