Bonding

"…and then we saw this family being attacked by one of the alien probes that have been staging attacks on us as of late," Susan finished the story she was telling Johnny, "We were going to attack it as one, but when their car was destroyed, I knew that we couldn't wait for Butterflysaurus to get low enough for the others, so I decided to take it on myself. The rest you know."

"Wow!" Johnny remarked, "You guys are like bona fide heroes! I still can't believe that you work for that creep that locked you guys up in the first place, but what you guys do is awesome!"

"Thanks! And General Monger isn't that bad. After all, when he was ordered by the President to lock us back up after our saving San Francisco from the first alien probe resulted in severe damage to the Golden Gate Bridge, he defied those orders and kept his promise to set us free after our help."

"But you still lock up monsters?" Johnny asked.

"Only the ones who can't remain secret or endanger the populace," Susan clarified, "Believe me, if we'd known there was an alternative, if I knew that a place like this, I would've advocated it a long time ago. In fact, I think that I'll recommend to the General that we begin to release the monsters and relocating them here, so you guys may teach them to steer clear of human populations."

"I thought that we humans had changed," Johnny said remorsefully.

"I'm sorry," Susan said, "but the main difference between humans now and the way they were 1000 years ago is that today they don't believe that monsters exist, and a large part of that is due to actions taken by government agencies like the one that grabbed me and my friends. Tell me Johnny, what was your first reaction when you found out about this place?"

"Once I found out that the guests weren't wearing costumes?" Johnny answered, "I guess I kinda freaked out."

"Right. Now imagine that reaction in a large city full of people," Susan continued, "Now you're proof that we've evolved enough as a species that we are capable of understanding and making friends with monsters, but you had time to realize that we are not as bloodthirsty as we've been portrayed in stories and folklore. If the general populace found out too much too fast about the existence of monsters, that my friends and I aren't merely anomalies, we may end up seeing the return of angry mobs, only they would be armed with much worse than torches and pitchforks."

"I guess," Johnny said dejectedly, "I had just thought, from the way that Drac described his encounter with the people in town during the Festival…"

"You mean the Monster Festival?" Susan asked, to which Johnny nodded, "Well, fanboys and girls have been considered almost been a different breed than the common human anyway. I imagine that it was their extreme love of monster stories that makes them more ready to accept monsters as people. For the rest of the human population, though, I think that it will take more time, and a slow exposure to the existence of monsters, for them to accept us and not try to destroy us."

"I see," Johnny said solemnly, "Do you mind if I ask you something?" When Susan nodded her ascent, he continued, "I noticed that you've used the term 'we' in reference to both humans and monsters. I know from your story that you started life as a human, but what do you consider yourself as now?"

After considering for a moment, Susan answered, "I guess I would say both: human and monster. As you said, I was originally human, and my parents still are, so I can't throw away that part of me. On the other hand, I can't deny that I'm so much more than human now, and while I had the opportunity to let go of this thing that makes me different, the fact is that I don't want to! I like having the strength to help others: it made me so happy to help your friend Wayne and his family, even after I found out he was a monster too! Plain old Susan might have simply called 911 if she saw a scene like that, or she would have run and hid when she saw a monster or an alien. So I'm proud to say I'm both a human and a monster, and I would not change that for anything!"

Johnny nodded as if he accepted that answer, then he stood and stretched as he said, "Well, I better let you get some rest, and I have a late-night date with Mavis, after which we're going to watch the sun rise together."

"Wait, isn't she a vampire like Drac?" Susan asked with concern, "Wouldn't the sun be, like, really bad for her?"

"No worries," Johnny assured her, "It's pretty shaded in our usual spot, and we get inside well before the sun has a chance to reach there." As Johnny started to leave, he said over his shoulder, "And you don't have to worry: I won't tell Drac anything that you shared with me, 'though I think you should."

Susan hesitated before saying, "Maybe after the party."

Johnny nodded then added, "For what it's worth, I think that Drac likes you too, and you are much better off without that weasel Derek."

"Thanks, goodnight!" Susan said before lying back down and shutting her eyes, trying not to think about how she felt about Drac, or how he might react if he were ever to find out about some of the things she'd discussed tonight.

Meanwhile, back at the clearing where Ginormica had destroyed the droid earlier, two other droids were scanning the area around them, but not taking any apparent aggressive actions, not even against the military personnel who are observing them from the concealment of the trees.

"Well, bust me down and call me Private, Ginormica was right!" General Monger said quietly, "Those alien robots aren't doing anything but looking around for her and the others!" Then he scowls down and smacks the scrawny, uniformed man in the back of the head and barks, "Are you getting any of this down, nerd?"

"Uh, S-s-sir yes Sir!" The intelligence officer stammered as he wrote the information down on his notepad, " 'Alien probe droids not taking aggressive action in absence of monster combatants.' "

"That's the exact thing I just said!" General Monger grumbled, "Why it is that they refer to you boys as 'military intelligence' I'll never understand!"

"Excuse me for asking, Sir," the intelligence operative asked nervously, "but those things are surely picking us up on their scanners, yet they're not attacking. However, according to Ginormica, the first one attacked a family without hesitation. Why?"

"Well, why don't you go out there and ask it?" General Monger suggested sarcastically.

"Really sir?" the intelligence officer asked, not picking up on his tone.

"No, you pea-brain!" Monger barked, "You're supposed to be observing them to find that out yourselves! Honestly, I have half a mind to send you back to the lab to pick apart unexploded artillery shells!"

"Yes Sir!" The officer said quickly, "I mean, no Sir! Sorry, Sir!"

Monger shook his head in disbelief as he went back to observing the droids' behavior through his binoculars, but he couldn't get over what the officer's question had suggested. Why had the first droid attacked that family when these two weren't attacking them? Was there something about that first incident that Ginormica hadn't shared?

Meanwhile, in geosynchronous orbit, the probe droids' masters observe from the safety of their cloaked ship.

"Where are they!?" the female in the captain's chair said tensely, stroking the ridges running down the middle of the crown of her head in agitation, "The seeker droids should have engaged the monsters in battle already!"

"Maybe they're tired of constant battle and are taking a small break?" one smaller female suggested from her forward console.

" 'Tired of battle'? 'Taking a small break'!? Have your neural nodes gone completely dark!?" the leader roared at the technician who'd spoken and was now quailing under her leader's fury, "The monsters live for battle! It says so in all of the humans' literature! I should expel you out of our airlock for your stupidity! If it weren't for your lazy programming, we would not have wasted a seeker launch on a small group of weak monster hatchlings!"

Throwing herself at her leader's feet, the technician begged, "I'm sorry, my liege! Please, forgive me!"

After a couple minutes of groveling, the leader consented, "Very well, I suppose it would be rather difficult to replace you at this point in the venture, so I'll spare you this time. Fail me again, however, and next time I will not be so merciful!"

Sobbing in relief, the technician backed away bowing as she said, "Thank you, my Liege, thank you!"

To the rest of the bridge, the leader asked, "Now, does anyone have any useful theories as to the monsters' absence?"

Hesitantly, a male data analysis suggested, "Uh, maybe they're off somewhere planning a counter-strike?"

The leader stroked her chin thoughtfully for a minute before her face was split in a feral smile as she said, "Yes! That must be it! The only reason the monsters would not be attacking is if they were planning a bigger attack: either trying to figure a way to get us up here, or planning to set up a trap for us down there! But we will not allow them to concoct such a plan, we will find and destroy their base of operations, crushing them once and for all! Technician! I want you to trace the radiation given off by their enormous leader, use that to locate where they're planning their attack!"

"But the shielding provided by her suit make it nearly impossible to detect except at close range!" the technician explained fearfully, "and the various forms of radiation that permeates their atmosphere…"

"Just do it!" the leader bellowed, "Unless you want to experience that spacewalk without a suit!"

"Yes sir!" the tech agreed in fright, "Right away, sir!"

"And recall the other seekers right away!" the leader commanded, "I've had enough of the human vermin gawking at them scanning for nothing! It's time to crush the Earth's only real defense against our rightful conquest of this world!"

The next morning, Susan woke up rather refreshed. Even with how comfortable the back of Butterflysaurus is, there was simply no substitute for a comfortable bed. Should she ever spend any real time at Area Fifty-something anymore, she'd have to get the General to requisition one for her "room".

Once she'd straightened out her hair , Susan stepped out of her room and was surprised to see Drac just passing by outside. "Oh, Count! Sorry, I didn't expect to see you there! I thought you guys slept during the day."

"Hm?" Drac said as Susan caught his attention, "Oh! Good morning, Susan! Yeah, truth is that we vampires don't really need much sleep at all. Turns out that's a good thing too, as this Hotel and its varied guests keep me far to busy to get 6 hours of rest, much less 16."

As she joined Drac walking down the halls, Susan asked, "And the belief about you guys drinking blood?"

"Well, we do drink," Drac conceded, "but we prefer a blood substitute like Near Blood or Blood Beaters. Far more healthy than human blood. I mean, have you seen some of the things that they eat?" As Susan suppressed a chuckle, Drac continued, "Say, Susan, I was just thinking of offering you some breakfast. I was going to knock on your door to ask you, but I wasn't sure if you'd be up yet or not."

Smiling, Susan answered, "Sure. I am pretty hungry, some breakfast sounds pretty nice." Then she gestured for Drac to lead the way.

As she saw what courses were being offered in the dining room, Susan decided that maybe she wasn't that hungry after all. Apparently her friends felt differently, however, as they devoured course after course of the rather rancid and grotesque looking food.

"Morning, Susan!" Dr. Cockroach greeted her, "You have got to try some of this bubonic moose nose omelet! It's simply divine!"

"And I simply love this scream cheese bagel!" Bob said in between screeches from the white blob on his bagel, "I think I'll name it Calvin!"

"Say Drac," Link asked, "Is there any possibility that we can get a small container of this mouse jelly for when we leave?"

As Susan fought down a wave of nausea, Drac asked in concern, "Susan? Are you all right?"

There's no way I could simply duck out of this after having said I'm hungry, Susan thought to herself, Maybe I could share with him that little bit now as a means of explanation, maybe that would even make it easier to share the rest of it with him later. Aloud, she said, "Sorry about this, Drac. I do thank you for your hospitality, but the truth is I haven't been a monster all that long, so I have yet to acquire a taste for such….cuisine."

Wanda, who'd been nursing the triplets nearby, asked Susan, "If you haven't been a monster long, what were you before that?"

"Well," Susan said uncomfortably, "up until a couple years ago, I was a human."

"Really!" Winnie, Wayne and Wanda's second youngest daughter said, sounding rather fascinated, "How'd you go from being human like Johnny to being a monster?"

Smiling at the little pup, Susan said to her, "Well, you see, I got hit by a radioactive meteor on my wedding day."

"Your 'wedding day'?" Drac said, sounding somewhat disappointed, "You're….married?"

Susan looked up, surprised at Drac's tone, before answering, "Oh, heavens no! The meteor put the kibosh on that, and thank goodness it did! Turns out that Derek was nothing more than a self-absorbed, selfish jerk! If it weren't for that wake-up call from the cosmos, I'd be the most miserable human on the planet!"

"Well I think you're nice!" Winnie said shortly before leaping up to give Susan a hug and a lick on the cheek. "Thanks for saving me and my family!" she said before letting go and joining her rowdy brothers at the dinner table.

"That goes for us all!" Wanda agreed gratefully, "I thank my lucky stars for the day that meteor found you, that you found us last night."

"Think nothing of it," Susan said smiling. Then with one last smile, Wanda grasped Susan's shoulder in gratitude, then turned and headed to join her family at the table.

"You know, Susan, we do have some human-style food here," Drac explained smiling warmly, "We keep it around for Jonathan: his pallet isn't geared the same as ours either. I could get the chefs to whip up something and have them bring it here."

Then, after Drac relayed the order through one of the armors, Susan joined him at the table.

Later that afternoon, Mavis was trying to get changed for the party, and she was becoming incredibly frustrated. Why, of all days, did she have to get such an incredible snarl in her hair!? It was so bad that now her hairbrush was stuck in it too! Failing once again to remove it, she growled and banged the top of her vanity table, causing the cosmetics to topple and roll around on it.

She was considering risking turning into a bat to see if that would dislodge her brush when there was a knock on her bedroom door. Turning and expecting to see either Johnny or her father, she was surprised to see Susan standing there instead. "I heard the commotion from in here," Susan explained, "Mind if I come in?"

Relieved that it wasn't her father or especially Johnny coming in and seeing her like this, Mavis groused, "Sure, that's fine,"

Hiding a small smile behind her hand, Susan asked, "Bad hair day?"

"Yeah," Mavis grumped, "Of all the birthday presents I could have gotten today, this is one I could have done without!"

Susan stood behind her, then Mavis could feel a tugging on the back of her head as she tried to get the brush out. "Wow, that's really stuck in there, isn't it? Here, let's try this."

Mavis felt Susan let go of the brush as she walked away, then as she turned she saw Susan turn her bed around without any trouble so that it was parallel to the wall rather than perpendicular to it. Then, as she sat Indian style in the newly cleared space, Susan concentrated and grew to three times her original size, her head just avoiding hitting the ceiling. Ginormica then patted her knee and said, "Here. Have a seat."

After Mavis sat on her lap as instructed, Ginormica grabbed the brush between her thumb and forefinger and pulled it free. Though there was a brief moment of pain as she pulled the brush past the tangle in her hair, the rest of the styling actually felt rather pleasant as well as achingly familiar, as if Mavis was remembering a sensation from a time that she had no real memories from. As she brushed, Ginormica said, "You know, I always imagined doing this with my own daughter, back when Derek and I were still engaged. Of course, I still had brown hair and wasn't 25 feet tall back then."

Mavis chuckled at this, and she could feel Ginormica rumble with a chuckle of her own as she paused her brushing and asked, "Which way are we going with this?"

"Straight up," Mavis answered, "There's some gel on that desk over there."

As Ginormica picked up the jar holding the hair gel, she asked, " 'Bride of Frankenstein' look?"

Mavis smiled as she said, "Yeah. Since this party's theme is a costume party, I'll be going as Aunt Eunice."

As she applied the gel and combed it into position, Ginormica said, "Well I think that you'll make a very lovely Mrs. Frankenstein."

"Thanks," Mavis said with a smile, "When I was growing up, Aunt Mavis was the closest thing to a mother-figure that I had, but now…"

"Yes?" Ginormica prompted.

"…well, I think that she's still a great aunt, but I think that you'd be a cool mom." Mavis finished.

For a moment, no one said anything as Ginormica continued to style Mavis' hair, so Mavis ended up getting startled when her right arm ended up soaked. Looking up, Mavis saw that a tear had leaked from Ginormica's right eye and trailed down her cheek until it dripped off her chin. "Oh! I'm sorry!" Mavis said apologetically, "I didn't mean to upset you!"

As Ginormica realized what prompted that reaction from Mavis, she replied as she dried her tears wit her free hand, "It's okay, you didn't upset me. I just found what you said rather moving, that's all. I'm sorry that my being emotional nearly ruined your look."

"It's cool," Mavis said with a warm grin, "no damage done!"

As Ginormica put the finishing touches on Mavis' hair, she said, "There, now all you need is hair color to finish it off, have a look….wait, I forgot: No reflection! I'm such an idiot!"

"It's okay," Mavis assured her, "that 'no reflection' business is just a silly human superstition anyway." As she applied bone powder to her hair to give it the streaked appearance, Mavis asked, "By the way, who are you going as?"

As she returned to her original size, Susan answered, "Well, I didn't really bring a change of clothes with me, much less a costume, so I guess I'll just go as myself."

Mavis then turned towards her and said with concern, "Well that won't do! Wait right here!" Then she turned into mist and zipped down the hall, returning seconds later and reformed, holding a long black dress with a cape, saying, "Here! Try this on!"

As Susan held it up in front of her as she stood before a mirror, she said, "It's beautiful! Where'd you find this?"

"It belonged to my mother," Mavis answered simply.

Suddenly looking like she should be handling it with surgical gloves, Susan turned quickly and tried to hand the dress back to Mavis as she said, "Oh no, I couldn't possibly…"

Pressing it more firmly back towards Susan, Mavis insisted, "Please, wear it tonight. I'm sure that Mom would want you to. I insist! Just remember that it doesn't stretch, so…"

"…no becoming Ginormica while I'm wearing it?" As Mavis answered with a nod and a smile, Susan laughed and said, "Then I accept your offer!" Turning back towards the mirror with the dress, Susan then asked, "You wouldn't by chance have any black hair dye, would you?"

As Griffin made his way through the haunted forest, the moonlight clearly illuminated his glasses and his suitcase, but nothing else about him, as usual. Still as he crested the top of the hill and caught sight of the hotel he sighed with relief. From the pulsating lights in one wing of the castle, it looked as though Mavis' birthday party was just starting. He was sorry he let himself get distracted at Key West and lost track of the time, but if he hurried he could still make it for cake and to perform with the guys.

As he jogged the remaining miles, Griffin found himself thinking about the other friends he left behind back in Area Fifty-Something all those years ago and how much they would have loved this place. He was sorry that he couldn't include them in his escape plan then, but there was no way it would've worked with them, and none of Dr. Cockroach's were working, so…

Back on the mothership, the technician turned to her leader and said, "My Liege, I have traced the unique energy signature given off by the monster known as Ginormica to a mountain range in the area the locals call Transylvania. The strong magnetic composition of the mountains will make navigating difficult, but I estimate that it will take only around two hours to reach their location."

"Very good. I may have a reason to keep you around after all!" The Leader said as she templed her hands, "Begin preparations for our assault! In two hours we will crush those monsters once and for all, and then the Earth will be ours for the taking!"

End of Chapter