For Your Pink-Eyes Only
Chapter 5:
Tears, mixed with mucus ran down the ginger haired boy's cheeks as he sat broken down on the floor. "I used to be one of them but they kicked me out. I forgot and they let me think it never happened. Ty, Ty kept it from me." Roger bowled his fist and punched the wall behind him. "Ty, I thought he was my friend."
Meanwhile in the Gaglab, the Grossologists kept standing around Salvador Slimeman, all wondering what to do next. "So, does anyone have any idea how to get this guy back to normal?" Andy asked.
"Maybe we can feed him to some snails and bugs. That was how we cured Slim." Ty suggested.
"Maybe…" LabRat vented and kept typing on his computer. "But this guy's genetic makeup is completely different. His human and slime mould DNA has merged a lot more thoroughly than Slim's had."
"In other words, it's too inconvenient to pull the same trick twice." Abby mused sarcastically.
"Maybe we should start with dehydrating him." Chester suggested, inspecting the petrified body behind the force field. "I mean, with the force field in place he can't be too dangerous."
LabRat rolled his eyes. "I rather not take any chances until we know how to undo his mutation. I do have a few ideas in mind actually. Just give me a few minutes to run some simulations."
Unbeknownst to the Grossologists, Roger Pink-Eye's spy drone were still filming them. The small rotor blades that kept it air born where too quiet for the Grossologists to hear but there was someone in the room whose senses were far keener.
Hermes turned to the source of the sounds he were hearing and saw the drone hoovering in the air. The white rat didn't know what most of the machinery in the gaglab even did but he knew for certain that that thing wasn't supposed to be there. He started chirping and squeaking but no one paid him any attention. He ran over the table to his master and started bumping his forepaws against LabRat's arm.
"Not now, Hermes. I'm in the middle of something here." LabRat said dismissively.
Figuring he wasn't gonna get any attention from his master, which wasn't out of the ordinary whenever LabRat got into the zone, he turned his attention to his second favourite person in the room. He jumped onto Naomi's shoulder and started squeaking.
"Oh, I'm sorry Hermes. I don't have any snacks for you right now." She apologized and started scratching him under his chin with her index finger. As much as Hermes loved the treatment, he knew he needed to get her attention on that weird flying thing. He bit her finger. "Ouch! Why you do that for?" She asked as Hermes jumped back down onto the table and pointed at the drone with his tail. Naomi looked to where the rodent were pointing and saw the drone. "Guys, look!"
Everyone turned around and saw the flying drone. "The heck is that thing?" Ty asked.
"I've never seen that here before." LabRat stated. For a moment, no one knew what to think.
"It's a drone!" Abby shouted.
Hearing those words thru his computer, Roger immediately woke up from his stupor and he rushed as fast as possible to his laptop, pretty much throwing himself at it. "No, no, no."
He resumed control of the drone but had no idea what he should do. He actually had no plan on what to do after the drone got inside the Grossologists' headquarter, even less how to get it out from there. He'd been too fixated on uncovering their secrets to even think of it. "Oh god, what do I do? What do I do?"
"Someone, catch that thing!" Abby cried out, pointing at the drone. "Who knows who could be filming us?"
Naomi ejected her gagstaff and leaped at the drone but it dodged in the last second. Instead, Naomi's vibrating weapon knocked into a radiator and dented it.
"My radiator!" LabRat cried out.
Roger's spy drone flew up to the ceiling. Since Roger had no plan to get his drone out of there, he resorted to trying to keep it out of the Grossologists' hands until he found a way for his drone to escape the Gaglab.
Ty activated his jetpack and zoomed towards the drone like a rocket. Just as he was about to catch it, the drone dived and Ty crashed into the ceiling. The spikey-haired boy then fell onto a table, scattering a bunch of stacked papers.
"Ty!" Naomi shouted.
"My paperwork!" LabRat shouted. In desperation he snatched Abby's goopshooter out of her holster and fired at the drone. The drone manged to dodge the first two shots but the third hit it dead on, plastering it to the wall. "Now, can everyone chill and stop destroying my laboratory?"
On the screen, Roger saw the Grossologists, Abby, LabRat and Andy approaching the drone's camera with puzzled and curious faces. "Eep!" Roger immediately closed his laptop, almost like he thought they could see him thru the screen before backing away from the device.
"Oh no, this is bad, really bad. With my drone they'll be able to track its signal back to me. What do I do? What do I do?" He started to panic. "I know, I'll flee to a different country and start a new life! No, that wouldn't solve anything. I can blame it on my mother! No, she's too stupid for them to buy it. I know, I can set up a death trap! No, that would take too long to make."
As Roger kept rambling to himself, yellow goo started pouring out of the ventilation shaft. As it pooled onto the floor, it started to take shape.
"I got it! When they come, I'll beg for their forgiv-
The moment Roger turned around, he screamed in fear and stumbled backwards, falling onto his butt. There, right in front of him stood Salvador Slimeman.
As Roger stared in horror, Salvador smirked. "So, you must be this Roger Pink-Eye I've heard so much about. Man, your eye really is disgusting. Then again, I guess I shouldn't talk." He pointed at his eye that had turned red since Abby sprayed it with chlorine.
Roger could hear his own heartbeat. Right now he was praying for the Grossologists to show up. He didn't even care if they arrested him, he just wanted them to take him away from this monster. "You-you're that slime-person."
"Slime-man. Salvador Slimeman." The Hispanic mutant clarified.
"But-but I saw you. I saw you get captured by the Grossologists and they hauled you off to their hideout."
"Yeah, about that…"
In the Gaglab.
Cracks started to form on Salvador's body and flakes started falling off. Chester noticed this. "Guys, something is happening to Sal." The others, who had been inspecting the drone, turned around to see it.
*Crack* *Crack* *Crack*
Suddenly, the body of Salvador Slimeman crumbled into dust, causing all of them to gasp in horror.
"You see Roger, back in the junkyard when I started to crust, I separated my head from the rest of my body. Of course my body then generated a fake head, completely fooling those do-gooders." Salvador Slimeman explained. "Meanwhile, my real head slithered away. I then grew a new body and followed you here."
"Wha-what do you want from me?" Roger asked, stuttering in fear.
"The big boss wants a meeting with you."
Roger blinked. "Big boss?"
Swiftly, Salvador's right arm stretched out and his oversized hand grabbed hold of Roger. At the same time, he opened the window with his left hand. Roger was pulled towards him so they could see each other eye-to-eye. Salvador's smirk grew even more malicious. "Let me escort you to him, Pink-Eye."
"No, wait! Leave me alone!" Roger kept shrieking to no avail as Salvador Slimeman dragged him out the window.
The GRS-2 speeded across the road, heading towards Roger's apartment building. Ty was sitting in the pilot seat and Abby sat in the seat next to him, arms crossed over her chest while Andy sat in a seat behind them. Chester and Naomi had decided to stay with LabRat in the Gaglab to help him out with Salvador's remains.
"I can't believe Roger was spying on us." Ty lamented.
"You can't? What else has he been doing for the last three years?" Abby barked harshly at him.
"I should just have told him from the beginning but now when he's figured everything out himself, I'm afraid he's going to do something rash."
"Yeah and that rash thing will be my foot colliding with his crotch." Abby snarled. She was pissed off which made the two boys keep silent.
LabRat suddenly appeared on the GRS-2's communication screen. "Guys, I got good news."
"What's the word, LabRat?" Ty asked.
"It would seem like Salvador Slimeman is still alive."
Andy raised an eyebrow. "Is that really good news?"
LabRat shrugged. "It's either good or bad depending on your stance on capital punishment."
"How can he still be alive? We saw him turn into dust, didn't we?" Abby asked, puzzled.
"Despite being a mutated blob, Salvador should still have his cranium and central nerve system intact but no trace of that could be found among the remains." LabRat explained. "The body you guys brought in was probably a copy made to look like him."
Ty sighed in relief. Even thou he had no love for people like Salvador Slimeman, he certainly didn't want to be guilty of killing him.
"Great. As soon as we've brought in Pink-Eye, we can go after Slimeman." Abby stated.
The three Grossologists broke into Roger's room, goopshooters already drawn. They were lucky Roger's mom weren't home. "Roger Pink-Eye, stay down!" Abby ordered but she then realized no one was there. "No one's here?"
"Hey guys, look. The window is open." Andy said, gesturing to the windowsill.
Abby looked out the window. "He must have known we were coming for him. That little worm."
"Um, guys? You should take a look at this." Ty exclaimed in a worried tone. He pointed at the wall in front of him and the trail of yellow goo than ran from the ventilation shaft down to the floor.
Upon seeing it, Abby's eyes widen. "Is that what I think it is?"
Andy went closer to the wall and scanned the slime with his GrossWatch. "Yep. Its slime mould." He said after reading the screen.
"So, Salvador Slimeman was here." Abby concluded, vigilantly looking around the room.
"He might have kidnapped Roger." Ty exclaimed, worried.
"Maybe Roger was never the one spying on us. Maybe it was Slimeman all along." Andy suggested.
Abby clutched her chin, pondering. "I doubt it but remember what Salvador said. He told Chester he'd volunteer for someone's experiment to get those powers of his."
It was silent for a moment before Ty spoke. "So, you're suggesting that the person who mutated Salvador…"
"And created the slime mould that mutated Slim." Andy added.
"Has kidnapped Roger." Ty concluded.
"Kidnapped or influenced. I'm not sure what's going on here but my instincts are telling me that there's more to this than meets the eye."
Salvador Slimeman arrived inside a poorly lit, underground hall. Roger, who up till now been carried semi-unconscious inside Salvador's gelatinous body, fell onto the floor on his hands and knees. He gasped for air and started coughing up small chunks of yellow slime.
"Welcome, Pink-Eye. We've been awaiting you."
Roger looked up at the owner of that voice. There, at the other end of the hall were three characters. One was a tall, cloaked figure sitting in a chair, his face completely shrouded in darkness. On the floor to the right of him sat a long haired man (or maybe it was a woman) in a cross-legged position. His skin was pale and his shirt was stripped. To the left of the hooded figure was a short but old man, sporting an owl-themed helmet and flight-suit. They were Mr. Fowler, BookWorm and their master.
"Who-who are you?" Roger asked, trembling in fear.
"We are the Society of Drossology and we would like you to join us." The cloaked figure stated with a dark yet raspy voice.
"Jo-join you?" Roger asked, like he couldn't believe what he was hearing.
The cloaked figure nodded slightly.
Roger shacked his head, shacking some of the fear out of him in the process and stood up. "What is going on here? I have never heard of something called the Society of Drossology? It sounds like a bad Grossology knockoff. Who are you people?"
"We are the movers and shakers of Ringworm City. We see all, we hear all, we know all. We control virtually everything from the shadows. The city is our lab and its citizens are our test subjects." The hooded figure explained. "Thanks to our research we've been privy to remarkable innovations."
"What kind of innovations?" The redheaded teen asked.
"Like the Slimeman standing next to you."
Roger looked at Salvador who simple smirked at him.
Next, a large screen was lowered down from the ceiling. It lit up, showing a video of scientist experimenting on some green slime mould in a laboratory.
"The Society of Drossology has long dreamt of creating a shapeshifting human. As you can imagine, the unicelled slime mold was of great interest to us. Unfortunately one of our test subjects escaped into the sewer and mutated a man named Slim Crone, creating Slim Slimeman, the original slimeman." The screen kept updating with photos, showing exactly what the man was saying. "This incident wasn't a complete failure however since Slim proved that a merger between human and slime mould was possible. After two years of work, our bio-engineers managed to create a more stable slime mold mutation. Mr. Alonso here was kind enough to donate his body to our experiment."
Roger turned to Salvador. "He's speaking the truth, gingerbread. I am eternally grateful to the Society for giving me my new body. I do their dirty work every once in a while as long as I get to run wild with these powers."
"That isn't the only example I can provide you." The cloaked figure spoke. The screen now showed photos of the huge land-dwelling hagfish. "Three years ago, we released hagfish that'd been gene-spliced with conger eel DNA. The Grossologists assumed they came from a farm but in actuality we created them to see what would happen if a new super predator was introduced to Ringworm Bay. The results were a lot more destructive than we anticipated."
Next, the screen showed photos of Emily and her leeches. "You may remember the giant leech infestation that took place on Halloween that same year. Those leeches originated from a medical doctor named Emily whose research had led her to uncover a cure for several blood-related ailments. Those findings didn't sit well with the Society of Drossology so we contaminated her leech farm with a drug that caused them to swarm like locusts. The cure was destroyed and because of the incident, Emily has had problems finding funding for her research."
Roger scowled. "So you decide what people can and cannot do, eh?"
"We sabotage research that threaten our ambitions and support research that could potentially help us."
"And what about him?" Roger pointed accusingly at Mr. Fowler, causing the birdman to flinch. "I know him. He's a villain that attacked my classmates. Does all the villains in this city work for you?"
The cloaked figure chuckled maliciously. The sound sent shivers down the boy's spine. "Don't be silly. Working with all of those maniacs would be utterly foolish of us. I can assure you Insectiva, Fartor and all the other criminals of this city has their own motives for doing things. However, we do keep a watchful eye on all of them. After all, their crimes provides us with scientific data that would take years for us uncover by ourselves."
Unexpectedly, BookWorm now spoke up. "The Society of Drossology keeps its research secret. We don't flaunt it in everyone's faces like those morons." Her voice was monotone as always but there was a hint of irritation to it.
"Mr. Fowler here is a special case. We were impressed with his lifelike robotics and decided to recruit him. As we do with you now, Roger Pink-Eye." The cloaked man proclaimed. He rose out of his chair and started approaching Roger. "Your scientific knowledge and espionage skills shows a lot of promise, young man. With the right guidance, you would be a valuable asset to us."
"Why would I ever join you?" Roger spat.
"Why? For revenge of course. Revenge on the bureau of Grossology that rejected you, betrayed you and lied to you. I can give you the means to destroy those that wronged you." The cloaked figure now stood right in front of him, less than fifty centimetres from him. The man's smell reminded Roger of rancid meat.
The cloaked figure extended a hand to Roger. His palm and his fingers were covered with deep, red scars and his skin seemed hard and crusty. "So, what do you say?"
Roger was taken aback, frozen with doubtfulness. He knew his next decision would determine his entire future.
Author's Note:
Now everything has come back full circle. Roger has gotten his memories back, Salvador Slimeman's true motives has been revealed and now we know why the Society of Drossology were a part of all this.
As I've said before, I've always thought having the Grossologists go up against an Illuminati-esc organisation would be a great idea but I also think it could be an opportunity to clear up some unexplained mysteries from the show. For example, that slime mould that mutated Slim in the episode Slim Slime Man never got an explanation. It kind of makes you wonder whether that's something slime mould just do in this universe or if there was something special about that on in particular. It's the same with those leeches from Vein Drain. The closest to an explanation we got was Emily saying they escaped into the sewer. Again, is swarming cities like that just something leeches just do in their universe or was there something special about those particular leeches. Then there are those hagfishes from Go Fish. I know the Grossologists assumed they came from a farm but they never tried to locate this farm or anything. Then there's that weird cat at the end of Night of The Living Roadkill but I'm not gonna get into that.
I first came up with the idea for Salvador Slimeman when a friend of mine told me she wished she could ship Abby with Slimeman if only the guy was younger. So I created a new younger, Slimeman. Note, Abby is 17 in my stories while Salvador is 19. I also decided to make him part Latin-American and sneak in a bit of Spanish into his dialog (not that I actually can speak Spanish) just to give his character a bit more flavour. My inspirations when creating the character was Felix from Red vs Blue and Deidara from Naruto Shippuden. Smarmy and cocksure on the surface but aggressive and explosive underneath.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Now there's only the epilogue left and then episode 6 is done with. Thanks for your support and as always, I appreciate any feedback you can give me.
See you on the flipside, Grossologists.