Chapter Two

Rick's Story

Rick Myers had gone through a lot in his life, though he was still very young. He remembered when he was a caretaker at the Bodega Bay Inn. It was a simple enough job and still gave him time to work on his Artificial Intelligence Projects. While there, he had discovered the trunk of Andre Toulon in the basement of the Inn, including the puppets Blade, Six-shooter, Torch, Tunneler, Pinhead and Jester. He was astonished at the paperwork left behind by Toulon and the strange vials which gave life to the puppets.

Blade, the small puppet clad in a black trench coat had a hook for his left hand and a knife for his right. White hair stuck out from underneath his fedora atop his gothic style white face with seemingless empty black eyes.

Six-Shooter, the cowboy puppet with six arms combined with the red bandanna that moved of its own accord accompanied by his laugh. Later, he would find that Six could climb walls like a spider.

Torch, the puppet clad in a brown coat with a flamethrower for his right hand and glowing red eyes.

Tunneler, the puppet whose main weapon is a cone-shaped power drill replacing his scalp

Pinhead, the puppet with two big hands that can deliver quite a punch, strong enough to move or drag a full grown human body with ease

Finally, Jester, the puppet with the ability to rotate three portions of his face: his forehead, middle face, and chin. He can show five expressions: happy, devious, sad, angry or surprised

When the Phoenix division found out about Toulon's formula in their own artificial intelligence projects, they were sent two packages respectively. Unfortunately for them, they contained what Rick found out were called Totems, little minions of the Underworld controlled by the demon lord Sutekh. Their souls were ripped from them as a result of the Totems.

The same night, his friends, Cameron, his girlfriend Suzie and a psychic named Lauren came to see him at the Inn. After showing them the puppets, they had a fun evening of trying to see how intelligent the puppets were by playing a game of Laser Tag with them. Unfortunately for them, Sutekh had been seeking revenge on all those who acquired and used the formula that gave the puppets life. Toulon had been on his list and now, he sent three Totems to attack.

Rick was shocked to find out Cameron had his own plans for the formula when he tried to run away with a vial of the formula only to meet his end at the hands of a Totem.

It was during the attack that the spirit of Andre Toulon returned to the Inn, where he had taken his own life, and instructed the puppets, who had attacked and killed one Totem, and Rick to activate his final puppet, Decapitron. The puppets hooked their brother up to an electrical generator and the spirit of Toulon became infused into it.

During this time, Lauren was ambushed by a Totem in the kitchen and only with Suzie throwing a bottle of acid on it, saved her. Now with only one Totem left, Decapitron dispatched it by switching his normal putty head for an electron cubed head. Shooting the Totem with electricity, the spirit of Andre Toulon returned into the body, informing Rick he was now the Puppet's Master.

At first, Rick through this was the greatest thing in the world. That is until the police came and arrested him for the murders of Dr Baker and Dr Piper. Lauren was taken to the hospital in a coma, and Blade was in the police station as evidence.

He was set free on bail by his superior, Dr. Jennings who had doubts about the whole business regarding the puppets, but as new head of the AI department, he thought it was worth looking into. In truth, Rick found out later that Jennings was only interested because there was a ton of money in it for him should he produce proof of the AI in the puppets. He had met up with Suzie who had snuck Blade out from the police evidence room in her purse and, after he had a nightmare, proceeded to the Inn.

Jennings had hired three thugs to accompany him back to the Bodega Bay Inn to search for the puppets. Instead, they find a Totem which Sutekh himself had inhabited. More powerful than the others, it kills off Jenning's men one by one before engaging the puppets in battle. Unfortunately, due to his increased power due to draining three life forces, the puppets couldn't harm him.

Toulon, speaking through Decapitron, had warned him, Suzie and Jennings to leave the hotel while he and the puppets try to stop Sutekh. Jennings had argued with him about leaving without proof and wanted to take a puppet. While in the elevator, he had been clubbed by Jennings. Luckily for him, the puppets took care of Jennings and shoved him down the elevator shaft.

The puppets allowed Suzie and him to escape the Inn while Decapitron and the others moved in to try and stop Sutekh. Apparently, having spent too much time in the mortal world had weakened the Totem and, trying to escape was destroyed when Decapitron fired an electron bolt at the portal to the underworld Sutekh was trying to escape through. The resulting explosion not only destroyed Sutekh but the portal as well.

After, Toulon's spirit entrusted the formula and the puppets to him.

He should have known that it wasn't the end.

Now, six years later, things weren't any better than before. At least now, he could talk with his friends, no, his family, the puppets and they with him. A man named Doctor Magrew had contacted Rick about his Artificial Intelligence project and simply wanted to come and discuss his own project. At first Rick was reluctant to meet with him now that the current owners of the Inn had sold it to Suzie and himself due to problems with finding anyone who wanted a room in the supposedly haunted place. He was optimistic at first of redoing the Inn and re-opening it as a doll and puppet museum, but finances were not good.

Apparently Magrew suspected this because he offered Rick a substantial amount of money to speak with him and compare their research projects. In the end, he agreed to meet and only after meeting Magrew, something told him it was a bad idea. Magrew's research was good, a close second to his own, but he was TOO ambitious. That night, when Suzie had gone into town, Magrew drugged his drink. As the effects of the sedative were taking effect, he saw Magrew loading the currently "dead" puppets into their case and leaving.

When he awoke, the puppets and anything connected with them were gone. He called Suzie and told her what was going on and together, they began trying to figure out where Mulgrew had gone. Tracing phone records was easy enough which gave them an address. When they got there, they were told Magrew had lived there but had since moved on. The landlord only knew vaguely where they might try looking for him.

Months went on with no luck. Going from sideshows to carnivals, anywhere he thought Magrew might try and either sell or use the puppets for his own financial gain. It wasn't until he was told about a doll museum in a town with curious marionette puppets including one matching Blade's description that they found him.

By the time he and Suzie arrived, it was too late to stop the chaos that had happened. They found the puppets, but there was damage. Apparently Magrew had the idea of trying to transfer a person's soul into the body of a puppet. His desire was for people to become like the puppets.

"He never tires, never hungers, knows no fear, tells no lies, feels no pain, and knows no secrets. And what is man except a being at war with himself? But not Blade. He has no hidden motives, no secret self. He is purely and perfectly what he is. In fact, I think the world would be a better place if we were all like him." That is what his daughter, Jane, told Suzie when we found her, still half crazed when she found her father being killed by the puppets.

From what he was told by the puppets told him, he had begun his experiments trying to transfer people into puppets. His first attempt was on a man named Matt. It had almost worked, but when it didn't work, he took the Matt Puppet and placed him into a box, which his daughter told them he left on the side of the road and set fire to it, almost destroying it. She found the puppet later, but it was too late and it died after asking her to help.

The next victim was named Robert "Tank" Winsley, a talented crafter who took over where Matt left off, carving puppets for Magrew. In the end, Tank was ambushed by Magrew and his soul transferred into an electronic Tank puppet with his face on the view screen. The other puppets, never wanting this to happen, turned on Magrew, cutting him and when he was on the floor, allowing Tank to shoot out a beam of electricity into his head, killing him. Jane had walked in on this scene, screamed and collapsed. This is how he and Suzie had found her.

By the time she had awoke, he had gathered the puppets and their belongings and placed them in his van, except for the Tank puppet. He had disappeared when they had arrived, perhaps he didn't feel as though he belonged with the others.

Suzie had talked with her, making up a story about creatures called "Totems" which resembled the puppets and that he and Suzie were paranormalists who were trying to destroy them. Apparently she did a good job since Jane bought it.

While Suzie helped Jane sort out what she was going to do next, he went to the van, trying to find out where the other puppets had gone, including Decapitron.

His heart sank when he found out Decapitron and Torch were sold to a travelling sideshow carnival before coming to this town in an effort to raise money for his experiments. Luckily Jester remembered the name and logo of the carnival so it would be easy to find it.

Three weeks later, he, Suzie and the puppets were approaching the carnival.

Exiting the van, he turned to the small band of puppets in the back.

"Ok, you guys keep quiet back there. Keep Suzie safe and I'll be right back."

Blade tipped his hat to him, while Jester and the others all nodded.

Suzie grinned at them and then turned to Rick, "We'll be fine. Go find the others."

Nodding, Rick turned and headed toward the carnival.

Moving from vendor to vendor, he asked around trying to find the side show until he finally entered a small tent. There were several exhibits around and after looking at all of them, he came to a glass case marked, "Living Puppets" but there was nothing inside.

Pulling over the sideshow barker, he asked, "Where are the living puppets that were in there?"

The man with a handlebar mustache replied with a laugh, "Them? They're gone. Sold them at our last stop. Some guy paid the owner an outrageous amount for them. "

Rick felt his heart drop. Damn it! "Can you tell me any details? I'm extremely interested in buying them myself."

Shrugging, the man replied, "You'd have to talk to the owner about that. I know the guy paid cash for them." pointing toward a small trailer outside.

Rushing from the tent, he hurried over and began knocking on the door repeatedly.

An older man with a scowl opened the door, "Who the hell is banging on the door?" he demanded to know.

"Sorry sir. My name is Rick Myers and I understand you sold your living puppets at your last stop." He panted.

Nodding, he got a grin on his face.

"Yeah. Some guy bought them for $10,000 each. I couldn't pass that up."

"Do you happen to have any details on the guy who bought them? Where did this happen?"

The man shook his head, "Couldn't tell you much about the guy. German, I think. Last stop was a little town called Carson. About 100 miles south of here."

Rick nodded, thanking him before tearing into a run back to the van.

Getting in, he started it up, saying over his shoulder, "Someone bought them in the last town. A German guy which according to Toulon's diaries is never a good thing."

Funds being what they were, they were forced to return to Rick's and Suzie's new home 50 miles away from the Bodega Bay Inn. He hated to lose the Inn, but with money being what it was and the tourists still not coming in, the bank had taken it from him. There was still so much at the Inn he knew he had not found yet.

Days later, Suzie and Rick had returned home from getting the supplies needed to create the serum of life for the puppets when Suzie's jaw dropped, approaching the front door.

"Rick!" she shouted, "Someone's broken in!"

Sure enough, the door was wide open and as they carefully walked in, they saw their home had been ransacked. Pillows tossed aside, furniture knocked over and papers scattered on the floor.

Rick's eyes widened, "The puppets!"

Quickly, he vaulted from the living room to the back bedroom and his heart sank. The trunk, puppets and anything associated with his friends was gone. Someone had come looking for them and had found them. Taken them all.

His head snapped toward the top of his closet as he raced over, running his hand along the top and sighed a breath of relief. The Diary, it was still there.

Grabbing it, he looked down at it. Andrew Toulon's diary he had been entrusted with. He had read it countless times. Re-living the adventures within as if they were his own. Experiencing what Toulon had felt. True, the formula to create the life potion was not in it, but Toulon himself had given it to Rick shortly after defeating the Totems while inside Decapitron's body. He warned him it was a gift to have this knowledge..and a curse. But, as the acting Puppet Master, it was his responsibility to keep the puppets safe. Now, he had failed.

A week passed and he had no leads on who had taken them. The police had came and taken fingerprints, but nothing in their database told them who it was.

Then, that Friday night, they were having a birthday party for Lauren who had just been released from the hospital. She, her boyfriend and Suzie's brother and his wife had just finished their glasses of wine when the doorbell rang.

Getting up from the couch, Rick walked over to the door and answered it. Standing there was a woman with dark eyes and long brown hair. "Rick Myers?" She asked.

Rick nodded, "Yes?"

She smiled, running a hand through her long auburn hair, "My name is Maclain. I think you are in possession of something I need."

His heart began to race. Not here, not now.

She reached into her vest and removed a pistol aiming it at him and forcing him inside.

Suzie and Lauren screamed as she shoved Rick onto the couch.

"Now, Myers. I want Toulon's diary and I want it now. I know you don't have the puppets. They've gone..home." she said menacingly.

His eyes widened, "Where are they? Who took them?"

A bullet hole in the wall next to his head was the response.

"Next time, it will be your head. Now where is the diary?" she yelled.

Looking over to Suzie and the others, he knew he had no choice.

"In my room. Come on." He said, standing.

She shook her head, "No. You go get it. I'll keep them company." Nodding toward the others.

Moving from the room, he went and grabbed the diary. He didn't want to give it away, but with the others being held, he had no choice.

Returning, he handed it to her.

Looking down at it, she nodded once before saying, "Don't think too badly of me. I could have shot and killed all of you. It's for a greater good, Puppet boy."

Backing up, she moved out of the house, shooting out two tires on the cars in the driveway before getting into her own car and speeding away.

Within an hour, he was in the van racing toward the one place the puppets could truly call home. Bodega Bay Inn. Upon reaching it, he saw Maclain's car and carefully picked up the pistol he normally kept hidden under his and Suzie's bed. Making sure the safety was on, he slid it into his belt and got out, heading toward the entrance.

Once inside, he drew out the gun and made his way to Toulon's room, making sure to check around every corner. Upon reaching it, he looked around and found nothing.

Suddenly, he heard a gunshot coming from the basement as he raced down the stairs toward the sound. Carefully, he went down the stairs, crouching down so he could see whoever was down there before they saw him. What he saw shocked him.

Maclain's lifeless body lay there in the middle of the floor, Blade standing nearby looking up at him. Beside her, a man in a brown shirt with a bullet wound to the center of his forehead. The gun he was holding was beside him, but he couldn't tell if the man killed Maclain and then took his own life or was shot by someone else.

Reaching the floor, he looked around, holstering his gun before looking around. Blade and the others slowly walked out toward him as he grinned down at them. "Hey guys. What the hell happened here?"

Picking up Blade, he listened as the puppet hissed in his ear as Rick's facial expression changed from bewilderment to concern.

Setting the puppet down, he quickly whipped out his gun and aimed it up at the shelf by the stairs. "Where is it, Blade? Where's the puppet who shot him?"

Quickly, Blade was running off along with Pinhead and Jester. Six-shooter made his way beside him, holding his own six guns up toward the shelf.

"Where's Tunneler?" Rick asked, looking down at Six.

The cowboy looked toward the table where the now deceased man had been working as he hissed to Rick as well.

Walking around the table, he saw Tunneler laying there beside small miniature tools that Six said the man had been using to fix some damage to Tunneler's arm.

"So this is the boy Toulon brought back with him from Germany?" Rick asked as he picked up Tunneler and gave him an injection to the back of his neck.

Six nodded as his head swirled around at the approached of Blade.

"No luck?" Rick asked.

Blade shook his head as the others approached. All had the same result.

"Ok," Rick began, "We need to figure out exactly what was going on here. Who the hell was this woman and why was she after the formula?"

He sat down as Tunneler's body began to shake before turning his head to look at Rick who was smiling at him. "Hey there buddy."

Blade approached Rick's feet and poked him once with his knife hand.

Picking him up, Rick sat him on the table as Blade began to relay what he had heard the woman say before dying. Why she was there and what she had told Hertz.

"She never murdered me or the others. She was lying about that obviously." He said, looking shocked. "She got the Diary, but the formula wasn't in there, you guys know that."

Blade nodded once, continuing his hissing.

When he finished, Rick sat back, nearly falling out of the chair.

"The wooden puppets…They sent her? But this doesn't make any sense. They want to die?"

The white faced puppet simply nodded as small knives protruded from his eye sockets.

"If that's the case, we need to find Decapitron and Torch as soon as we can. I get the feeling this is not over by a long shot."

Chapter Three coming soon.