For Your Pink-Eyes Only
Chapter 2:
The man made up of slime mold kept glaring down at the Grossologists from atop the water tank with his sinister skull grin.
"Slim Slimeman." Abby hissed at him.
The Slimeman blinked, puzzled. "Slim? Oh, you mean the mistake. No, no, no. I'm not him. I am the new and improved Slimeman."
Now when he said it, Abby did realize some notable differences from the Slimeman she fought three years ago. Not only was this one yellow instead of green, he also wasn't an amorphous blob like Slim had been. This Slimeman had limbs, a head and neck, fingers and even defined pecs and abs. Not entirely human but not entirely slime mold either.
"Well, no matter who you are, you need to come with us to the gaglab for examination." Abby stated and aimed her goopshooter at him.
The Slimeman clutched his chin and sarcastically hummed as he pretended to consider it. "Tempting offer but I'm busy. Got evil plans to enact, you know?"
"What evil plans?" Abby demanded.
"Oh, I'm so glad you asked. Monuologing about my genius is one of the main perks of being a villain. You see, I have recently started producing spores and they'll need a moist place such as this to hatch and once they do, those mutated slime molds will need some hosts to be real Slimemen, just like me. Get where I'm going with this?"
Abby grit her teeth with anger.
"What is he talking about?" Naomi asked, distraught.
The Slimeman somehow smirked even more and stretched out his arms. "Somewhere in this plant I got five people tied up next to my litter of spores. Once my spores hatch, they will take over the humans' bodies, mutating them into Slimemen. I will finally have a gang of my own!" He let out an evil laugh. "You Grossologists on the other hand can just go ahead and die." He made a slow handclap.
Suddenly, the yellow slime mold that was scattered all over the facility started moving and assembling into larger bodies that seemed to be surrounding the Grossologists.
"I have a bad feeling about this." Andy lamented.
"See, this is something that Slim could never do." The yellow Slimeman explained. "I have the ability to split my body into smaller parts that can act independently from me, although still do my biding. So I'll just be relaxing, chillaxing and watching you guys get eaten by what some call, living dog vomit." He leaned back and gave a pleasant sigh. "I love being me."
All Grossologists (except for Ty of course) immediately got into defensive stances. Abby aimed her goopshooter, Andy took to the air with his hover-boats, Chester ignited his rot-powers and Naomi gripped her gagstaff. "Naomi, you protect Ty. The rest of us will split up and search for the hostages. Also, try not to get killed." Abby ordered.
"RIGHT!" The other three Grossologists exclaimed in unison and then…
…all hell broke loose.
Meanwhile, outside…
Roger Pink-Eye approached the GRS-2. He double checked with the Grossometer. "Interesting. It seems like this strange little device has lead me to this vehicle. It must be picking up on some kind of signal."
Roger started walking around the vehicle, stroking his fingertips along its steel surface. "Man, she is a beauty. Like something out of sci-fi. I don't see any wheels but it has wings that fold upon its back like a fly. So cool." He now checked out the GRS-2's rear. "It got some impressive rocket thrusters and while it doesn't have wheels, I can now see it got tank tracks underneath its haul. O'boy, flying around in this must make one feel like a space-age fighter pilot.
He moved to the other side of the vehicle and spotted its entrance. "I wouldn't mind taking a peek inside." He grabbed onto the handle, it was one of them large metallic ones one had to twist before pulling. He tried to open the door but of course it was locked.
More than that, Roger's actions had triggered a silent alarm. Inside the GRS-2, a screen lit up with the following text.
SILENT ALARM ACTIVATED.
ACTIVATING SAFETY PRECAUTION 1.
"Ouch!" Roger suddenly feel a sharp electric shock go up his left hand. He staggered backwards, clutching his electrified and now numb hand. He pouted. "So you wanna play it that way, huh?"
Roger pulled out a pair of rubber gloves from his back pocket and slipped them on. He then grabbed the handle again with both hands and tried prying it open again.
SILENT ALARM STILL ACTIVE.
ACTIVATING SAFETY PRECAUTION 2.
A robotic arm slowly came out from the GRS-2's hood and rose up next to Roger like a cobra. Roger was too busy trying to break open the door to notice it but once he heard something, he turned and saw it. Roger stared at it with a mixture of confusion and horror. He felt so small. "Um…"
The robotic arm's pincer like claws grabbed onto Roger's shirt and started thrashing him in the air like a ragdoll. "Aaaaaaahhh! Stop! Let me down!"
The GRS-2's arm then threw Roger far, far away. He hollered like a lunatic as he flew thru the air until he landed with a splash into a pool of unchlorinated, untreated sewage water. After a while, the ginger haired boy broke thru the surface. He coughed up water. "Yuck, this water is the most disgusting thing I've ever tasted. It's like manure glazed in vomit with a side order of my mom's casserole." He whined to himself as he swam to the edge of the pool.
Once he had climbed out of the pool and onto the ground, he heard strange sounds coming from inside the water treatment plant. It was the sound of screams, metal getting pummelled and things getting torn down. In short, it sounded like fighting.
"That noise is coming from inside the water plant." He turned to the direction of the GRS-2. He thought to himself for a moment. "I can do something about the fly machine later. Time for me to do what I do best. Stalking."
Roger was now inside the facility, covering behind a wall. He peeked out from his hiding spot and saw the Grossologists fighting the mutated slime mold all over the place. He saw a female Grossologist in a magenta coloured slimesuit, protecting an unconscious orange clad Grossologist with some sort of spear. The unconscious Grossologist did look familiar but from this angle, Roger couldn't make out any details.
Roger also saw a Grossologist with a white slimesuit flying in mid-air like a helicopter, firing his goopshooter at the yellow slime as it struck out its tendrils at him.
"Wow. Its like a free-for-all of Grossologists versus snot." Roger commented and snapped some photos with his cell phone.
He then heard something overhead. Looking up at the gallery, he saw a female Grossologist with exceptionally long hair getting forced back by a mass of yellow goo. The girl was agile. Each time the goo attacked, she jumped back in a zigzag-pattern and fired her goopshooter, destroying a small part of the blob each time.
Roger stared at her in awe. "Damn, that girl can move but…she seem…familiar…" Roger was suddenly hit with a massive headache. He clutched his head in pain and fell to his knees.
He suddenly had a flashback to an event he'd forgotten about. He remembered another ponytailed redhead fighting inside the exact same water treatment plant except, she wasn't fighting slime, she was fighting Sloppy Joe. 'Was that Abby Archer?'
Roger snapped back to the present. He panted heavily as he rose up, leaning against the wall for balance. "Was that from two years ago?" Roger waited a moment to get his bearings together. He then looked around to make sure no one had seen him and then ran out of the facility.
Meanwhile, Chester was being chased by another mass of mutated slime mold. He wanted to counterattack but the slime mold gave him no opening. The living slime launched at Chester but the black clad Grossologists jumped to the side.
That was when the slime mold did something unexpected. Several dozen tendrils exploded out of its body and some of them stuck to Chester. "What the?" The slime mould now extended a thicker, stronger tendril to wrap around Chester's body and pull him into its mass. Chester was now being devoured by the gelatinous being.
The Slimeman saw what was happening to the blond boy from atop the tank. He snickered to himself. "Once my slime mold have dragged you into its body, it will disintegrate you into nothingness. It's like getting absorbed into jelly."
Chester grit his teeth. His head was the only part of him that was not engorged by the slime mold. 'I really don't like using my powers on animals but this is more like an amoeba, so…'
Chester's hands ignited with dark energy which soon spread to the rest of his body. The slime mold started decomposing around him until he was free from its grasp. Chester rose onto his legs, stretched out his arm and with one powerful outburst of energy, disintegrated what was left of the mould.
The Slimeman gasped. "Wait! You have powers too? Unfair!" He reshaped one of his arms into a long, slimy rope, lashed it at the ceiling where it got stuck. He then swung down and landed with a *splash* in front of Chester. Chester staggered back.
In one second he turned from a shapeless puddle on the floor into a giant serpent with a multitude of arms and attacked the terrified Grossologist. "I am supposed to be the only superpower in this city! I can't be top dog with you around! You have to die!"
Chester was completely overwhelmed by the slimy monster that was now coming at him. Several of Slimeman's arms merged around Chester's body and shoved him violently into the nearest wall. Chester tried to bend the giant arm off him but his hands only sunk into the slimy mass.
That was when he once again heard Kid Rot's voice inside his head. "Why don't you just use our power to rot this scrub?"
"Because he's a human being. I don't wanna hurt him."
"Well, that's sad cause if you don't, he will be hurting you. It's as simple as two plus two."
The Slimeman approached him and formed his other arm into a massive club. Chester couldn't tell if the club was hard or not but he didn't wanna find out. The Slimeman raised his weapon and brought it down on his victim. Chester reacted instinctively and his power rotted both of Slimeman's arms off.
Slimeman hollered in pain and stepped away, leaving Chester to fall onto the floor. Chester looked up at his opponent and felt a weird sense of relief when he saw Slimeman's arms both regenerating. He sighed. "It's as I thought. His slime mold ability allows him to reshape and regrow parts of himself." Chester whispered under his breath.
The Slimeman studied his regrown limbs. "That's the first time anyone ever managed to make a scratch on me." Now he was pissed. He turned to Chester, gritting his teeth. "Who are you anyway? Why would a superpowered freak like you ever hang with these goody two-shoes?"
Chester rose onto his feet and faced the enemy, scowling with determination. "I'm a Grossologist. I am here to save those people you've taken hostage and to help my friends."
The Slimeman blinked. "You sicken me. If one is blessed with amazing powers, the only responsibility you got is to yourself." He reformed his right arm into a whip and latched out at the Grossologist. "Doing otherwise is disgraceful!" The force of the whip knocked Chester off his feet once again.
"Oh, I like this guy. He's speaking the truth." Kid Rot's voice echoed inside Chester's head. He tried to ignore his inner demon and focus on the demon in front of him.
Meanwhile, Naomi kept standing guard over Ty's unconscious body. One large slime mold slithered toward them with intent to kill them. The moment it struck, Naomi thrusted the clawed end of her gagstaff into the slime mold and sent a shockwave thru the creature's gelatinous body, causing it to explode into a million pieces. Naomi couldn't help but smirk at her victory.
Suddenly, a second slime mold came up from behind and tried to go after Ty. Naomi quickly turned around and stabbed it with her gagstaff and like with the previous one, the shockwaves from her weapon caused the slime mould to explode, staining the floor with yellow goo.
Naomi looked at her weapon. "Huh, never thought the gagstaff would be this effective against these things."
Andy meanwhile, had gotten away from the worst of it but he wasn't out of the woods yet. One slime mold that was hanging from the ceiling launched itself at the white clad Grossologist. Andy manoeuvred to the side and dodged it at the last second. "Whoow, that was a close shave." His hoover boats may not be as fast as Ty's jetpack but it allowed for a lot more manoeuvrability.
"Hey you! Help us!"
"Please, help us!"
He heard the same calls for help as they had heard earlier but now they were much closer. He looked down to his side and there he saw them. Harvey Archer, Naomi's mother (Martha Collins) and three other men were at the bottom of an empty water tank. All of them were unable to move due to the sticky slime mold that kept them in place. On the wall above them was slime mold spores. The spores looked like white droplets made of papier-mache.
"Oh, thank god! Please get us out of here!" Martha cried out.
"Don't worry, it will be alright." Andy reassured them before tapping his Gross-com, calling his teammates. "Guys! I've found the missing people!"
"That's great, Andy! Stay with them until we get this slime problem under control!" Abby's voice replied thru the earpiece.
*Crack*
Andy suddenly heard something cracking underneath him. Looking back into the tank, he saw that some of the spores were beginning to hatch. Yellow slime started seeping out of them. The people below them started trembling with fear, except for Harvey. "Boy, do you see that small storage room?"
Andy scanned the facility with his eyes until they landed on a wooden door at the western wall. "Is it the one by the western wall?"
"Yes. We store chemical products in there." Harvey replied.
A lightbulb went up in Andy's mind. He knew what Harvey was getting at. He tapped his Gross-Com again. "Abby, there's a storage room bellow you. I need you to get me something from there."
Abby finished hearing Andy out. She looked to her side and saw the wooden door at the other end of the facility down below. "Alright, I got you." She spoke thru her Gross-Com, all while rapid firing at the attacking slime mold. She then jumped onto the gallery's railing and just as the slime mold launched at her again, she jumped high up and landed safely onto a thick pipe.
With her arms spread wide, Abby started running across the pipe until she reached the other end of the room. She then jumped down onto an engine block and from there she jumped to the floor before running the last few feet to the storage room.
*Crack* *Crack*
More and more of the spores started hatching, oozing with newly formed mutants. The people below him where so frightened they couldn't even scream, just stare at the slime with mouths agape.
"I don't want be another Slimeman." Harvey exclaimed.
"And I don't want to be the city's first Slime-woman." Martha stated.
Andy was getting so nervous his teeth were grinding. If he hadn't had gloves, he would be biting his nails. "Abby, please hurry!"
Abby came out of the storage room, holding a big bottle of bleach. "Andy, catch!" She called out to her teammate and threw the bottle like a football.
Andy flew from side to side, trying desperately to predict the bottle's trajectory. Finally, he managed to catch the blech bottle in his arm and like a player after a touchdown, he raised it triumphantly. "I did it!" He then brought out his goopshooter and took out the ammo before inserting the bleach bottle. Andy then flew down to the dried water tank below.
"Hey slime, have a taste of my favourite manga. Bleach!" Andy fired his goopshooter at the spores. The spores and the hatching slime mold died seconds after getting into contact with the toxic cleaning fluid. Some of it dropped down on the hostages below but it didn't matter. They were just relieved to be out of danger.
Meanwhile, Chester kept holding his own against the Slimeman. His hands where ignited with rot-energy while Slimeman kept attacking him with tendril-like arms. Every time his opponent latched out at him, Chester did his best to only rot small parts of his opponent's weapons instead of totally annihilating him.
"If you want to survive you have to do more than defend yourself. You have to go on the offensive." Kid Rot's voice echoed inside the boy's mind.
Chester scowled and narrowed his eyes. Kid Rot's advice was indeed tempting. "Kid Rot is right. This guy may not be as powerful as me but at this rate he'll overwhelm me for sure. Still, he's a human being."
"I won't attack him. I won't be like Kid Rot." Chester vented to himself.
The yellow Slimeman smirked and tilted his head a bit. "Man, how can someone with your powers be so pathetic?" He latched out with his elongated arm once again and this time it wrapped itself around Chester's legs and tripped him to the floor.
The blond boy growled in pain and tried to sit up but a second tendril tied up his arms. The tendrils then kept growing till they merged into one giant arm that kept him in place.
The Slimeman smirked sinisterly. "This time, I'll finish you!"
Suddenly, Naomi's gagstaff was thrusted into his giant arm and the shockwaves it generated blew up the gelatinous limb. The Slimeman yelped in pain. He then turned to his aggressor.
There stood Naomi, a determined scowl on her face and her weapon drawn at him. Ty was leaning against her shoulder. He had regained consciousness but was still dizzy from being knocked out earlier, so for now he relied on his girlfriend to stand.
"Step away! I will not allow you to hurt another one of my friends." Naomi proclaimed furiously. The Slimeman took a step back.
Then, Abby and Andy also converged in front of the villain. The Slimeman now realized he was surrounded by the Grossologists, all aiming their weapons at him.
"Give it up, Slimeman. It's all over for you." Abby exclaimed.
"Yeah, your spores have been spoiled and your hostages have been released." Andy added. "You may as well pack it up."
The Slimeman looked distraught and surprised for a moment. Then he his smirk returned. "Maybe I will, fat boy." His body transformed into a more serpentine-shape. He then darted across the floor, went in-between Abby's legs and disappeared thru a drain. "See yah on the flip-side, heroes." He called out mockingly while the rest of the slime mold bodies followed him into the drain.
And just like that, it was over. The Grossologists where left dumbfounded.
Later, in the gaglab.
While LabRat was working in front of his computer, analysing the evidence found in the water treatment plant, Ty sat atop a slab as his sister wrapped a bandage around his head. "Hey, be careful with my head, sis. That's where I keep all my witty puns."
Abby sighed. "I'm gonna let that one slide. I'm just so grateful my stupid little brother doesn't have a concussion or anything worse." She gave him a small hug.
Naomi stood beside them, clutching her hands over her chest and looking like she was about to cry any second. "Ty, I'm so, so sorry. It was all my fault."
"Naomi, you've apologized five times already. I keep telling you I'm fine. You got nothing to be ashamed of." Ty smiled reassuringly at her.
Naomi lowered her head. "When I heard my mother's voice I couldn't help myself. I ran into a trap and you…
"Naomi, please stop. Beating yourself up won't help anyone." Ty tried to reassure her.
"Yeah, even Ty and I sometimes give in to our emotions." Abby added, also trying to comfort her fellow Grossologist.
Naomi looked up at the Archer siblings. She then carefully approached them and very lightly stroked Ty's hand. Ty took her hand and gave it a comfortable squeeze.
"Alright. I think I got something." LabRat announced. He clicked a button which activated the large screen at the middle of the room so everyone could see the results. "Just like with Slim, three years ago, this Slimeman's DNA contains traces from both slime mold and humans."
"So, he is human? Just like we thought." Chester said.
"Any idea who the DNA belongs to?" Abby asked.
"According to the data files, the DNA belongs to someone named Salvador Alonso." The screen shifted to a profile photo of a Latin-American teenager with an angry face. He wore a blue tank top and had a black tattoo on his right arm.
"I guess we can call this new bad guy, Salvador Slimeman, then." Ty stated.
"Or maybe Sal Slimeman." Andy suggested.
Ty frowned. "Salvador Slimeman is fine. Let's stick with that."
"According to the files, Salvador is nineteen years old and he got a police record." LabRat continued. He then pulled out a pair of cheese-doodle from a bag next to his computer. He offered one to Hermes and the rat immediately started munching. LabRat then popped the other one into his mouth.
"Police record? For what?" Abby asked as she went over to him.
LabRat shrugged. "Larceny, car theft, assault. Typical hoodlum stuff." He leaned in a bit in order to see clearer. "Says here he used to run with a street gang known as the Diablo Dogs until one year ago."
"What happened one year ago?" Abby asked.
"He disappeared." LabRat replied. "He just vanished without a trace."
"Well, now we know what happened to him. He turned into a walking, talking booger." Ty jested as he slipped off the slab.
"About that…" Abby clutched her chin, contemplating deeply.
"What is it Abby?" Chester asked.
"It's just something he said. He said that Slim was just a mistake. As if Slim was an accident while he was the real version."
LabRat blinked. "You mean, he didn't become like this by accident? That someone intentionally made him into Slimeman?"
"Maybe." Abby replied.
"That would be even worse than what happened to me." Chester exclaimed, sounding concerned.
"So, how does one become a Slimeman in the first place?" Naomi asked, disgust written all over her face.
"We don't know. We analysed the slime mould that mutated Slim but we couldn't find anything out of the ordinary." LabRat replied with disappointment in his tone.
"Is it possible Slim could be involved in this?" Naomi asked.
"Nope." LabRat replied quickly.
Naomi blinked. "How do you know?"
LabRat stuck even more cheese-doodles in his mouth and pressed a button. The screen switched to a video feed of Slim, sitting awkwardly in his apartment with half a dozen cops all around him.
"He's been put in house arrest until this situation is over." LabRat explained. "Just as a precaution."
"Poor guy." Naomi lamented.
"Yeah, we need to capture this Sal Slimeman as fast as possible." Andy exclaimed.
"Salvador Slimeman." Ty corrected. "But how are we supposed to find him, even less capture him?"
LabRat hummed and swirled around in his chair. "I got a few ideas on how we can capture him but finding him will be a problem. I guess we just have to wait for him to make a move."
"In that case, can we go home now?" Naomi asked. "I want to see how my mom's doing."
"Sure, you can leave. I need to work anyway." LabRat said and waved them off.
The five field Grossologists started moving towards the exit.
"Wait!" LabRat suddenly called out. They all stopped in their tracks and turned to the young scientist. "I just remembered something. During your mission, the GRS-2's alarm went off."
Ty shrugged. "So? It's a cool ship. It was probably just some curious kid messing around."
"Maybe but the alarm went off twice. Someone definitely tried to break into it." LabRat explained. "Any idea who that could have been?"
Ty and Andy exchanged worried looks. Both having the same unsettling suspicion.
Author's Note:
Crow:
"Hey idiot did you forget that Slim went good at the end of his episode and also was human again?"
Well, obviously it wasn't Slim Slimeman. That would have been obvious if you'd paid attention. I mean, Slim was never yellow and never had any arms or legs. So, who's an idiot now?
With that said, Crow does bring up a good point. I wanted Slimeman to come back (mostly just cause I like the idea of a slime mold/human hybrid) but I felt Slim's story was already done with so I thought it was better to come up with a new character to take the name. Of course, new characters taking on the identities of old heroes and villains is nothing new. In the Spider-Man comics alone, we've had multiple iterations of Venom, Vulture and Green Goblin. This also gives me a chance to plug a plot hole from the show. In the original series we were never given an explanation as to how the slime mold turned Slim into a monster. Like, was the slime mold mutated by something in the sewer or was it an escaped experiment of some sort? We never got answer I plan to explain it later in this story.
In the episode Yack Attack, we did see Naomi at the water treatment plant during bring-your-kid-to-work day which is why I made her mother an employee at the water treatment plant in this story.
As always, I would appreciate any feedback you could give me and Favourite this story if you like it.
See you next time, Grime Fighters!