Chapter Twenty-Six: New Leg at Last/Movie Time
Chug numbed Blade's leg like he said he would by cutting the flow of the formula off and redirecting it and then removed the bandages, the clay and then the leg itself. Pinhead and Jester both fainted when the leg was removed, Tunneler was watching the whole process with interest and Torch was standing by, loving the idea of being able to help.
Six Shooter was off somewhere else keeping an eye on Torch. He was trying to come up with a plan on how to revert Torch back to the way he used to be when he was a newborn. Emotionless and unquestioning. He dared not try to make any move now because both brothers were watching him. The brother was at the piano playing away, and Torch was right next to the kid so there was no way he could sneak him away.
He didn't have a ready plan anyway, so he'd put up with it for now.
.
Chug placed the bone inside one half of the hollowed new wooden leg, placed the IV cord between the fibula and tibia, securing it in with sawdust paste-glue before connecting the line to a simple foot and reconnected the fluid's flow. Then he filled the other hollowed leg with the sawdust to act as a shock absorbant whenever Blade walked around and not jostle the IV cord too much, then squeezed each piece together tightly while a spider wrapped some webs around it to secure it.
"Do I have to have the webs on me?" Blade asked.
"Yes, spiders can weave a very tight net and if it gets wet it gets even more sticky, which I don't mind. Unless I walk into it on early mornings." Chug answered, mumbling the last part and shrugged. "This time you're getting a proper cane for it. And you'll have to go through some physical therapy, starting tomorrow, to help you get used to the new leg. I don't know if it'll throw off your whole balance or not. So, here, I picked an ebony cane for you." Chug said and inserted the cane in Blade's knife arm. "Jester can help you with the physical therapy. Nothing too strenuous. Five minutes walking only."
Blade slouched in his chair, crossed his arms and pouted.
"I know you don't like being confined to limited mobility, neither do we." Chug said, glancing at Kokiri. "But if you want your knife back you'd best follow doctor's orders. And I dare you to defy me." Chug smirked, crossing his own arms.
Before Blade could respond they all heard a loud roar coming from the kitchen's direction, it was soon followed by a crashing noise, more roaring and then a loud thud.
"Looks like we've got company." Kokiri said and got up and left the room.
Chug placed all three computers together and started typing away on them. Each screen was soon divided into four screens, all having video footage of the hotel in various locations. Chug switched one screen to a tracking one and found what he was looking for.
"Aha, there you are." he said quietly and typed away some more, putting an ear piece on. "Kegs, it's heading down the hall on the east side via vents."
Blade looked at the screen and saw several dots on it, but they were labeled so it was easy enough to follow. Kokiri was a blue dot, the intruder was a gold one. There were four red dots labeled T-Rex, four brown dots labeled with a spider symbol and four black dots with the scorpion symbol.
'Oh, Jess isn't going to like this.' he thought.
Chug then 'houdini'd' a large TV screen out of his hat and placed it on the floor in front of the coffee table and the scorpions and spiders from the medical team quickly hooked it up to the middle computer he was working on. He clicked a button and the TV screen came on showing a live footage.
"There you go, entertainment for the day." he said and typed away.
The puppets gathered around the TV and watched what was happening. The screen clicked to a darkened hallway and a silhouette became visible in the moonlight. The camera moved closer and it revealed a creature of 15 inches tall, wearing some kind of crown-looking helmet and had a raspy, screech-like roar.
"Sutekh's totems!" Blade gasped.
The demon totem walked cautiously around the corner, holding something in its hands, aiming it at the slightest sound.
"Is it . . . scared?" Six asked.
The demon totem flinched and whirled around when there was a thrum-hissing noise, pointing the object in its hand at the camera.
"It is scared." Tunneler said.
"We've got it on the run, bro." Chug mumbled. "Capture and contain it. The boys seem to have an idea about it."
The totem on the screen was soon attacked by a web, the web hitting the object and snatching it away, leaving it defenseless. Then a large scorpion dropped down from behind it, grabbed hold with its claws and stung it.
Jester screamed when the scorpion dropped and scurried under the coffee table.
The totem soon went limp and then was wrapped up in a spider web cocoon and then placed on the scorpion's back.
"Ha-haa! Take that demon! Let's see you get out of that one!" Blade declared, feeling a sense of justice.
"That's it? No big battle?" Six asked, feeling cheated.
"Give me about an hour and I should have a good section composed into a movie." Chug said, switching programs on his computers.
.
Five hours later . . . .
Everyone was sitting in the lounge room waiting for the show to start. Chug had wanted to send the puppets away for some privacy, not wanting to spoil the picture for them, but Torch and Jester were reluctant to leave and Blade wasn't able to, so he sent them off to the crafts corner and put up a barrier to keep them there. Kokiri was called in to help keep and eye on them so that Chug could work uninterrupted.
Six Shooter and Blade felt highly insulted about that, stating that they were fully grown men and didn't need a baby-sitter. Kokiri just lowered his glasses, gave them a look and raised an eyebrow. They immediately went quiet and reluctantly agreed to the arrangement. But they didn't have to like it.
Chug turned off the lights and sat down, pulling Torch into his lap.
"Everybody comfortable?" he asked, getting nods, and clicked play.
.
Movie . . . .
The movie started on a calm night, a third quarter moon shining down from a clear night sky. The view was of Bodega Bay and the ocean. The next second the sky showing off a very bright and twinkling star before the camera zoomed in on it, showing what it really was, a small space ship and it had crash-landed in the ocean. The camera followed it into the ocean, showing bubbles bubbling out of the ship before the ship lit up in a green glow and navigate through the water like a submarine.
The camera switched to a different angle, having the probe appear from the left side of the TV and onto the screen before the camera rose to show Bodega Bay Inn.
The next shot showed Chug running down the hall of the ship with the puppets behind him in the megalograptus.
"We're not exactly over Bodega Bay so we can't just beam right on down. We're nearly halfway across the world from it so we're gonna have to do some flying when we transport." Chug said, trotting down the hallway.
"We're not gonna fly in another car, are we?" Blade asked.
"Just Kegs, we'll be in my hat." Chug said and entered the transporter room. Once there he placed all the puppets in his hat and told them not to touch anything until he gets there, stepped on the transport, grabbed a tight hold on his hat and beamed away in a flash of light.
Then the camera switched to a calm, clear night sky before Chug suddenly flashed in, clutching his hat and free falling for a second then he pulled himself through inside the hat and the hat was left falling. The band on the black fedora and the brim of the hat lit up in a bright blue light and then flew off towards a city.
Blade shuddered at the memory of the flight in the hat.
The next shot was of Kokiri running down a hall, also from the ship, but this time the camera paused on a directory sign showing where he was heading. Down to cargo Bay 4. When he arrived it showed the cargo hold was filled with cars. Sports cars, racing cars, inexpensive cars and old vintage cars.
"That's a lot of cars." Jester mumbled to Blade.
Kokiri selected a dark blue car and drove down what looked to be a short runway. Very short. The car was in position and the engine went off, and then the car was being loaded into a large hollowed rock, the rock sealed up and was catapulted out of the bay.
The next scene showed the rock exited out from under a large ship, run down its length up to the front, which showed that the ship resembled some kind of marine creature with its large flippers, and around the moon towards Earth.
". . . . What is that?" Blade asked.
"What is what?" Kokiri questioned.
"That ship. What was it?" Blade asked.
"My ship." Kokiri answered.
"Of course, but from what creature?" Blade hissed.
"Liopleuridon. Now shoosh, it's not over." Kokiri hissed back.
"Any specifics?" Blade asked quietly, crossing his arms in a pout.
"Marine Paleontology." Kokiri answered back and nudged his right leg to shoosh.
Blade huffed and continued to watch the film.
The puppets finally held interest in the film when the camera went to the beach down below the hotel, showing the small space ship had tethered itself to a rock offshore and three creatures were thrown onto the beach by the waves, each one having some large item on their backs.
They screeched at the ocean, one swiping at it as if attacking it with its little clawed hands, and looked up the cliff where the hotel sat.
The puppets stiffened at the resemblance these space creatures had with the demon totems. Not just their looks, but their sounds as well.
The creatures unloaded the items from their backs, the sounds of rifles being loaded coming from each of them.
One creature growled at the other two and they headed up the trail that lead to the hotel.
The next scene was a group of dogs walking around near the kitchen area of the hotel, sniffing the ground. Their heads went up when another canine appeared, this one was quite unusual. It was built like a fox, had fox markings, and overall looked just like a fox. But it was as tall as the other dogs, the tail was quite long and fluffy-lucious, the end of the tail split in three points and it had blue fur and green eyes. Eyes that were cat-like.
Blade jaw dropped and looked at the brother with the glasses.
Kokiri looked back, raising an eyebrow and then put a finger on his lips and pointed at the TV.
The dogs stood at attention when the fox appeared, all whimpering at it. (Six was glad for the subtitles added.)
"No signs of intruders here, Captain." said one of the dogs.
"That's because they've just arrived and are still on the trail." said the fox, oddly enough it sounded just like the brother. "There are three of them, all armed. You and you," it said, point at the first one and the third dog with its tail. "head over to the overgrowth and ambush them but do not eat them, subdue and confine. You, take two other patrollers and head down to the beach and destroy their ship." said the fox and took off.
The dogs separated and the next shot showed the overgrowth and the dogs running through, trotted around a bit before crouching low and out of sight.
The creatures from the space ship finally reached the top of the trail and stopped to rest a bit. One groaned loudly and dropped sprawled eagled on the ground. That's when things got interesting. They heard the dogs growling and two seconds later were attacked. Two of the creatures were already ensnared in the dogs teeth, their weapons crushed, and they ran back to the hotel towards the kitchen area.
The one that was lying on the ground peeked out from a hidden spot, shaking, grabbed its gun and followed the dogs.
