For Your Pink-Eyes Only

Chapter 3:

'I saw them, I saw them. The Grossologists! And now I got a way to track them whenever they're on the move and soon I'll have a way to track them all the way to their headquarters.' Roger thought to himself as he walked up the stairs towards his apartment, all while eyeing the Grossometer in his hand.

He got inside his apartment, kicked off his shoes and headed for his room.

"Roger!"

That stern voice turned Roger stiff as a board for a second. Then he sighed and turned around. "What is it mom?"

Roger's mother was a snub-nosed, freckled redhead. In other words, she looked like her son if he was a forty year old woman (excluding the pink-eye). Her dull eyes judgmentally stared him down. "Why are your clothes so dirty and soaked?"

Roger looked down on himself. His clothes were still soaked from the sewage water from the water treatment plant. "Um, I…" He scratched the back of his head. "…fell in a puddle."

His mother sighed and rubbed her head, as if trying to numb a minor migraine. "What am I supposed to do with you, Roger? You always get yourself dirty by swimming in the swamp for some disgusting bug or something. You always get yourself in all kinds of trouble. Did you skip school again?"

"Um…" Roger couldn't bring himself to answer.

"Also, when was last time you cleaned your room? There's this horrible stench coming out of it. Are trying to make cheese again?"

"No, I haven't but I can clean my room now if it's such an issue." The ginger boy barked and turned to walk away but his mom grabbed him by the arm.

"You know, it's just this kind of behaviour that made your dad leave us." She hissed.

Her words hit Roger like a rock. He had to force himself from crying. He took a lot of abuse from his mother but he had his limits. He jerked his arm free and turned around, giving her the death glare. "Us? There's no us, mom. Dad left you because no man could possible want a crazy old bat like you."

There was a moment of silence between mother and son which seemed to last an eternity. Then…

*SLAP*

Roger entered his room with a red hand-mark on his throbbing cheek. "Stupid mom. Why can't I be an orphan already?" He muttered to himself. He looked around his room. His mom was right on one point. His room was extremely dirty. Cluttered with all sort of things he'd gathered, from oily iron pieces from the scrapyard to jars with various bugs from the woods.

He heard the sputter of sawdust and turned his attention to his two brown rats in their cage. He got loser and felt the sharp scent of rat urine. "So, it was your cage my mom complained about." The two rodents ran around in circles. Roger's eyed their feeding bowl. It was completely empty. "Sorry guys. I'm out of pellets. I'll buy you more tomorrow. Right now I need to focus on the Grossologists."

He opened his closet and pulled out a large cardboard box. "I've waited to put this to use." Roger placed it onto his worktable and opened it up. Inside was one of those remote controlled drones one could order on the web. Roger had managed to get his hands on a used, relatively cheap one but he knew his mom would go thru the roof if she ever saw it so he kept it a secret.

"Now, I also need some kind of adhesive or cup." He rubbed his chin as he thought of an answer. Then he got an idea. He pulled out an old toolbox from underneath his bed. From there he got a handheld suction cup (one of those that builders used to handle heavy tiles). He slammed it onto the worktable next to the drone. He then fished the Grossometer out of his pocket and placed it on the table as well. He then grabbed a nearby drilling machine, turning it on and off to make sure it worked. He smirked when he saw that it did. "Now then, let's get started."

For the remainder of the day, Roger did nothing but work tirelessly at his invention. He did not take any rests, not even to eat. By the time he was done, the sun had long since gone down. He wiped his forehead off sweat but he was proud over his latest creation. "There. Tomorrow, the Grossologists will cease to be a mystery."

He then heard something smattering against his window. He walked over to the window frame and saw it was raining outside (and raining quite a lot at that). "It's raining. That means the town will be soaking wet tomorrow which will bring out the Slimeman." He smirked deviously. "And that will bring out the Grossologists."

The Next day at school.

Roger opened his locker before looking from side to side to make sure no one was watching him. He then loaded the box with the spy drone into his locker and closed it, sighing with relief. He knew bringing the thing to school was a risk but in case the Grossometer's alarm went off during school time he needed to get to the drone as fast as possible.

"Roger!" Ty's cheerful voice echoed thru the corridor. Roger turned to its source and saw the spikey-haired boy coming towards him. Ty waved at him with one arm while cradling a small cardboard box with the other. However, what mostly caught Roger's attention was the bandage over Ty's forehead.

His mind immediately went to the orange clad Grossologist knocked out in the water treatment plant yesterday and now he saw one of the main suspects with a head injury. Roger was immediately on guard. "Hello, Ty." He spat out the words like they were poison.

Ty came up to him. "Hey bro."

"Why do you have a bandage on your head?" The ginger-haired boy questioned.

"Oh, that. Nothing, really. I just fell down some stairs and hit my head." Ty laughed nervously.

"Right." Roger scowled and sharpened his eyes. 'He's lying to me.'

"Hey, check out what I just got." Ty showed Roger the box. It was a video game casing with an illustration of the characters from that sci-fi series, Star Voyage. "It's the new multi-player Star Voyage game. Star Voyage: Revenge of the Slapnard Empire."

"Yeah, cool." Roger vented sarcastically without a hint of excitement.

"I thought since its Friday, we could meet up later at my place and make it a game night. You know, like we used to."

"Why don't you hang out with Andy or your sister? Or better yet, that new girlfriend of yours?" Roger snapped.

"Eh…" Ty scratched his head to come up with an excuse. "Well, Abby and Naomi don't like video games very much and Andy will be busy with other stuff."

"So, I'm the backup-pal, is that it?" Roger sounded genuinely offended.

Ty suddenly realized he messed up. "What? No, that wasn't what I meant."

"Goodbye Tyler Archer." Roger huffed and walked away.

"Roger, wait!" Ty cried out and ran after him, only to accidentally bump into a taller student that had just walked into the corridor. Ty fell to the floor and so did the energy drink the other student had been holding. Half of it spilled onto his shirt while the rest of it poured onto the floor. The taller teenager glared furiously at Ty. He was seventeen or older judging by his stature. He wore a black west and had a nose piercing.

He grabbed Ty by his shirt, lifted him off the floor and shoved him into the nearest wall. "You! You spilled my drink all over me!"

"I'm sorry. It was an accident." Ty exclaimed apologetically.

"Will you pay for that?"

"I-I don't have money on me right now."

Hearing Ty pleading made Roger stop in his tracks. His lips scowled and for some reason he remembered the first time he and Ty met.

It was fifth grade and all of school was outdoors for one of those sports day so all the classes where mixed up together.

Roger ran up to a group of kids (two boys and two girls) with a big smile on his face. "Hey guys. Look what I found." He held up a large beetle he'd found in the grass. The insect wiggled in the boy's fingers, waving its long legs and antennas around.

All four kids squealed in unison. "Eeeeeeeeeep!"

"It's so gross!" One of the girls shrieked.

"Get it away from us!"

"What? You guys don't like bugs?" Roger asked and smirked.

"Not the bug, you sicko. We're talking about your eye." One of them clarified.

"Huh?" Roger blinked.

"It's all red and swollen." One of the girls exclaimed.

"It's really, really gross!"

"Is it really that bad? It's just pink-eye." Roger sounded sad and started slowly coming towards them. They shrieked once again and ran away. Roger felt completely rejected. With low head and shoulders, he walked away to be alone. He hunkered down on the ground and let the beetle scurry out of his palm and onto the grass. He sighed.

"Wow. What a cool beetle."

Roger looked over his shoulder and saw a boy in his own age with jet black hair and a genuine smile. "Um…" Roger didn't know what to say.

"That's a longhorn beetle, right?" The black haired boy said and sat down next to Roger.

"Um, yeah. You know, I didn't think anyone else here liked bugs." Roger replied, managing to smile a little.

"No way. Bugs are awesome. My mom's a biologist. She studies beetles at the university."

"Cool. My mom's just a janitor." Roger said. "I'm Roger by the way."

The other boy flashed him a toothy grin. "I'm Tyler but you can call me Ty."

Roger stuck his hands into his pockets, turned on his heels and went towards the bully who were threatening Ty. "Let go of him, Dirk."

The seventeen year old (apparently named Dirk) glanced over at the ginger haired boy, raising a confused eyebrow. "Pink-Eye? This nerd's your friend or something?"

Roger glared at Ty, still pressed against the wall before turning back to Dirk. "Something like that."

"Well, I don't care. I'm gonna make this guy pay for ruining my shirt." Dirk exclaimed and prepared to punch him.

"I wouldn't do that." Roger placed his hand on the older teen's shoulder and leaned in towards his ear, whispering. "If you do, I'll release those photos I have of you and your friend Grant, K-I-S-S-I-N-G. You think your dad would like that?"

Dirk's expression turned to shock. He let go off Ty's shirt and stepped back. Ty was completely taken aback. "Sorry about that. But you know, you shouldn't run in the corridor." Dirk pointed out before storming off in a huff, mumbling swears under his breath.

Ty stared baffled at the defeated bully as he left them. "Wow. You just talked that guy into submission. How did you do that?"

Roger shrugged. "That's how I've kept bullies off my back for so long. As soon as someone starts messing with me, I'll seek out their deepest and darkest secrets and blackmail them with them. Believe me, everyone got secrets." He hissed the last word out.

"Okay but isn't that a bit…shady?" Ty asked, wincing.

Roger blew a raspberry. "Nah, what's shady is allowing hooligans like that to freely harass people while the teachers does nothing."

"I guess." Ty bashfully rubbed the back of his head. "Roger, listen. About what I said about game night, I didn't mean it like that. I don't want to play with you cause I got no other choice, I want to cause I want to. Because it's been so long since we just hung out."

For a second, Roger smiled a little. "I don't know, I need to hit the pet shop and buy food for my rats."

"I can come with you. I sometimes go there to buy cat food or to just look at the lizards and fishes."

"I know what you mean. The pet shop is the poor man's aquarium." Both boys chuckled at the joke. "Alright, I guess we can see each other after school."

"Great. Then we can go home to me and play this game. Not the entire night necessarily but just for a few hours."

"As if you've been able to stop after only a few hours." Roger jived. "Alright, see you later then." The ginger haired boy said before taking his leave.

"Great. See you later, buddy." Ty waved him off before going off in the opposite direction.

He headed into another hallway where he were supposed to meet up with Andy. "Alright, went a bit rocky in the start but I think Roge-

First now did he realize that Andy wasn't alone. Abby was there as well, frowning and crossing her arms over her chest. Andy stood next to her with a look of shame.

"You told her of our plan, didn't you?" Ty pointed accusingly at Andy.

"I'm sorry. I just couldn't help it. Her boobies compelled me."

"Shut up, Andy!" Abby barked at the short boy who froze up at her harsh words. She then turned her attention back to her brother. "You're going to tell Pink-Eye about our secret identities? What are you thinking?"

"You were okay with it when I were going to tell Naomi about it." Ty argued.

"That's different. This is Roger Pink-Eye we're talking about. You know, the same Roger that locked us in a room with a mold monster, released said mold monster on the school just to uncover our identities" Abby counted on her fingers, "conspired with Lance Boil to frame me and created an evil clone of me!"

"True but he's also the same Roger that destroyed said mold monster, helped you out when you were both captured by Boil and helped defeat Boil and your clone."

Andy tapped his chin. "That's four counts on being evil versus three counts of being semi-heroic."

"Shut up, Andy!" Both siblings shouted simultaneously. Andy stiffen and bit his lips.

"Okay, so Roger may not be the incarnation of evil but he's still not trustworthy. What good do you think will come from telling him?" Abby asked.

"I think Roger will take it better if he hears it from me than if he finds it out himself. I can convince him to not tell anyone or do anything rash."

"Why do think that would work?"

Ty was silent for a moment before answering. "Because Roger's my friend and friends don't deceive each other."

Abby raised an eyebrow. "You sure about that?"

Ty lowered his head. "I don't know. Roger and I haven't always treated each other like friends but…" He looked up at his sister, "it's about time one of us starts setting things right."

After getting Roger's rat food at the pet shop, the two decided to get something to eat from the cafe. Ty bought an ice cream cone with three scoops of chocolate, strawberry and lemon, sprinkled with caramel sauce. Roger didn't have quite the appetite of his friend and had simple bought a cinnamon roll and a can of soda. They ate their munchies while strolling down the street towards Ty's house.

Ty thought that maybe a good way to bridge the gap that's been growing since Junior High was to admit to a mistake he'd made. "Roger?" He asked carefully.

"Yeah?"

"I've meaning to apologize to something bad I did back in Ringworm Junior High."

Roger raised a brow.

"I was the one that spread the rumour about you believing in ghosts. Sorry." Ty admitted, his head lowered in shame.

Roger looked peeved for a moment but then shrugged. "I barely even remember that. I've been bullied far worse for far less. So, why did you do it?"

Ty blushed and lowered his head again. "I guess I just tried to impress on Naomi."

"You dog." Roger chuckled. "You do anything for that girl. Still can't believe that after three years you two love birds finally tied the knot. Would have thought you'd lost interest by now."

Ty smiled, knowing Roger had no ill feeling over the entire rumour thing. "I thought she would be the one to lose interest. I mean, most girls don't go for geeks like us."

"Yeah…" Roger frowned. He remembered something that happened two years ago.

Roger was walking thru the corridor when he happened to overhear three girls talking by the lockers. He knew the girls from his class.

"Girls, I think I got a crush on Ty Archer." One of the girls said.

"You're not alone, girl. I know several girls that likes him."

"I know, he's so hot and funny."

"Sad he only have eyes for that Naomi girl."

"Sad he's into gross stuff like bugs and human anatomy."

"Nah, I can stand that as long as he's willing to get into my anatomy." The girls giggled.

Roger huffed annoyed and kept walking.

'Ty's always been popular with girls. He's just never noticed. I on the other hang get rejected the moment they see my swollen eye.' Roger thought bitterly.

"So Roger, do you have your pink-eyes on someone pretty?" Ty asked, unknowingly pouring salt on the wound.

"Nah, girls are stupid."

Ty blinked. "I can admit, some girls are stupid but so are plenty of guys."

"Yeah, but when girls are stupid, it's a special kind of stupid."

Ty rolled his eyes. "Can't argue with you there." He didn't really think that but he rather just agree with him than keep the arguing going. He took another lick of his ice cream.

Roger smirked. "So, have you and Naomi ploughed the bean field yet?"

"What!?" Ty was so startled, one of the ice cream balls fell off the cone and Ty (in his infinite wisdom) instinctively caught it in his hand, getting caramel sauce all over his fingers. "Oh great, now my hand is all sticky."

"That's what she said." Roger laughed full heartedly.

Later, the two sat cross-legged on the floor of Ty's room, playing his new video game but Roger's mind seemed to be a million miles away.

"Dude, you're guy died again. Are you sure you're up for this game?" Ty asked. "If you're not into this I got plenty of other games or we can find something to do on the internet."

Roger remained silent for a moment, looking down at the carpet. "Ty, do you ever wish you were part of something bigger?"

Ty blinked. "Well, of course. Everyone wish their life was a bit more exciting."

"I want to get away from this life, my apartment and my crappy mom. I want to be somewhere where my gifts can be appreciated and where I can be useful."

Ty had to admit, he was a bit baffled by his friends confession. Roger wasn't usually this open about his feelings nor as introspective. He thought that this might be the right moment to tell him the truth. "Roger, I-

Suddenly, Ty's GrossWatch started buzzing.

"Dude, your watch's going whack. Got something to do?"

"Um, yeah." Ty stood up. "I have to, um…" He rubbed the back of his head as he tried to come up with an excuse. "Go to Naomi's dance recital."

Roger blinked. "Dance recital?"

"Yeah, you know, Naomi's a ballet dancer. Today there's an important performance for her."

"So you decided to invite me to play video games on the same day as your girlfriends important dance recital?" Roger questioned with a raised brow.

"Yeah, I'm awful at keeping times. I should try to keep a schedule or something but hey, you can stay and play here for as long as you want." Ty exclaimed before rushing out of the room. "I'll call you later tonight!" He cried out before disappearing out of earshot, leaving Roger dumbfounded.

"I'm here!" Ty proclaimed as he ran thru the Gaglab's entrance. "This… better be… good, LabRat." He panted while leaning on his knees.

"Since when is crime fighters called in for something good?" LabRat retorted sarcastically.

All the other Grossologists where already there. Andy slided up to Ty and whispered to him. "Did you tell Roger yet?"

"I was about to but then I was called in here."

"Why didn't you take Roger with you?"

Ty face palmed. "I didn't even think of that."

"Think of what?" LabRat asked.

Ty now realized he had talked too loud. "Oh, nothing. I thought of something completely unrelated."

"Okay, now when we're all here, tell us why you called us, LabRat." Abby exclaimed.

"We just got an eyewitness report from The Detective. Apparently Salvador Slimeman has been spotted at the junkyard." LabRat explained.

"Good. This time we won't just stop Slimeman, we'll capture him as well." Abby proclaimed, clenching one of her fists.

"How are we supposed to do that? We couldn't even touch him last time." Chester exclaimed.

"I've been thinking of that since yesterday and I think I got a solution." LabRat replied and tapped a key on his keyboard. The largest screen turned on, showcasing an image of a yellow slime mould. "As you know, the slime mold that mutated Salvador is different from the one that mutated Slim. I think it's because this slime mould belongs to the order Trichiida and they have a special ability for when things get hot or should I say, dry." He tapped another key and a new image appear, this with a pale crust around the slime mould. "As you know, slime mould needs moisture. When it gets dry, this slime mould creates a hard crust made out of dead cells atop its body. However, this renders the slime mould completely immobile."

"So, if we get Salvador dry, we prevent him from moving?" Naomi asked.

"Yep." LabRat kicked against his computer table, sending his office chair rolling to a slab. There he grabbed a small spherical device and tossed it to Abby.

Abby eyed the mechanical ball in her hand. It looked like a metallic bandy-ball with a red button on it. "What's this?"

"It's a kind of grenade I developed over the night." LabRat explained. "Once you've clicked the button, you have five seconds to throw it at your target. Then it will emit a special kind of drying agent I've synthesised from Potassium Carbonate and Sodium Chloride. It should dry out the slime mould."

"Awesome." Andy exclaimed.

"I only made five of these thou so be careful where you're throwing these things." LabRat warned them.

"Good job, LabRat. Anything else we need to know?" Abby asked.

"No, the rest is up to you guys."

Abby turned to her fellow field Grossologists. "Alright everyone, board the GRS-2. This time we'll finish Salvador Slimeman, for sure."

Meanwhile, Roger was walking down the street on his way home when he suddenly heard a familiar buzzing. He reached into his pocket and fished out the Grossometer. The red dot on the map was back.

The ginger teen smirked. "Seems like the Grossologists are on the move again and where ever they go, I'll go."

Author's Note:

I did try to write a scene of Ty & Roger in the pet shop but I could just not get it right. First, I was going to include Paige but that didn't seem to add anything. My second idea was to just have Ty and Roger goof off but it ended up not nearly as funny as I thought it would. So, I decided to cut it out altogether.

Star Voyage was introduced in the Grossology episode Fart Side of the Moon as this world's Star Wars/Star Trek which LabRat is a big fan of so when I decided the boys were going to play video games, I felt it was the right time to reincorporate it.

This will probably be my last chapter of the year so Happy New Year everyone. In January I'm going back to college so I may not be able to post as often as I used to but I think I'll find time to write none the less.

Thank you all for reading my story so far and as always I'd appreciate any feedback you can give me.

Till we meet again, Grossologists!