Chapter 3 The day of the Cockroach
Dr. C was scurrying about trying to get to where he needed to in a hurry. He was going to be late for the morning debriefing. Though it was of-course a cover up for Monger's birthday. Every year he would have an 'important' morning debriefing and that was when he would drop 'subtle' hints that it was his birthday. The rest of the day would be everyone planning a 'surprise' party.
Dr. C slides to a stop and turns a sharp corner before arriving to the meeting room's door. He runs in and jumps into his seat and stops it as it spins. Monger was in mid-sentence with his back turned to them so he didn't notice the rush of the Cockroach.
"So your mission today will be to set up a party for my, uh nieces and nephews which I may or may not have and each of you are required to bring a present." Monger turns to face everyone. "Nice to see you have decided to join us Cockroach."
"Yes, sorry sir. I was," He stopped and thought for a second. He had actually been cleaning up what was left of his lab after Bob's mess. "I was busy elsewhere sir."
Monger seemed to take this news well that was until he made his way over to the cockroach. That was when he yelled so loudly it made the poor Dr. jump out of his chair a bit. "IF THAT IS ALWAYS GOING TO BE YOUR EXCUSE YOU CAN JUST LEAVE DR. COCKROACH!" Monger stops and lowers his voice. "Now you all know your assignments so I expect everyone to be down and ready at hour 2000! You are dismissed!" After Monger said that everyone hurried out of the room and in the lead was the cockroach himself.
He was trying to get back to his experiment as quickly as possible before, there was a loud noise, that sounded somewhat like a loud pop, and pink bubbles filled the halls encasing everyone. Every-time someone would move a bubble would pop and two would appear but how they left his lab in the first place was a mystery. Well it would be if not for the fact he knew exactly who was missing at the meeting and who would mess with his things without thinking of the consequences. "Link!" HE shouts finally making back to his lab and he had popped many bubbles along the way so his path leading him here was thicker then when he first went through it but Cockroach paid no mind to this he was to angry and focus on finding his fellow monster.
Low and behold he was there holding the vial in hand that was fizzing over with pink liquids that became filled with gas and floated away. Seeing the Doctor Link had hurriedly set the vile down and stood in front of it acting as if he had done nothing the whole time he had been in there. "Oh hey there Dr.C . When did you get here?" The fishman asks as pink bubbles started to float up and gather around his head like a very pink bubbly wig.
If he hadn't been so angry Dr.C would have laughed at this. Most likely he will look back at this later today and laugh at it but for right now he saw red and he wasn't too sure what he had done next but when he finally started to calm down Link was on the floor on his back. The pink bubbly wig had double in size and there was a spot in the wall where Link laid under that had some cement coming off of it. Vaguely a spin kick came into mind but he paid it no heed. Later he would have to deal with the wall but right now he had to stop these infernal bubbles.
Not soon after he had started mixing some vials randomly did Susan come in. "Dr C. what is going on?!" She asks as she slaps bubbles out of her way of-course two replace each one that popped. The whole lair was overflowing with these bubbles. Susan was about ready to scream out of frustration it seemed. Dr.C turned back to his vials and continued his work. "It was a new experiment of mine. It was suppose to be for fun and too see if it could distract Bob away from my lab but Link had messed with it while the chemicals were at their prime moments while we were in the meeting. Not to mention Monger with have my head for this." The cockroach rants as he subconsciously reaches for his throat with his unfilled right hand.
Susan helps Link up as he rubs his back. She starts to giggle slightly at the bubbles on his head before she stopped and he turns to her with a questioning glance. She stops and points to his head. She takes a picture with her phone and he snatches it away. "N-noway! What's with the do?" He immediately starts swatting away the bubbles. "Erase this." He shouts and Susan takes her phone back.
"Sure." She says before pressing random buttons and placing the phone in her pocket. That is going to be her new screen saver. Dr. Cockroach shouts and they turn to face him. He looked sick. He was a brownish-green color and the two colors did not mix well.
Dr. C had found out that after so long the bubbles would randomly combust. "It varies for each bubble depending on the size. The smaller they were they faster the blew up but the smaller the effect too. If one bubble combust though and causes another to it would cause a change reaction which would cause the walls of the base to be painted pink for weeks. Then again if a very large bubble were to burst It could destroy the base, oooor just the room it's in." He explains to Susan and Link. Link had his mouth wide open and Susan had started rubbing her head.
"Okay so all we have to do is wait for them to explode. Case solved." Link says and smacks his hands together. He turns to the wall. "Geesh. You didn't have to kick me so hard."
Dr. Cockroach shakes his head. "We should get as many if not all the bubbles into one room or container and let them go off there."
Susan was already on it. "Okay let's do it we'll start to push all the bubbles back into here, but how can we do that when they all pop when touched."
Dr. C holds his chin in his hand as he thought. "Well we could use these." He says and hurries over to his small closet opening the doors to reveal it filled with machines and contraptions instead of clothes. He pulls out three vacuums that had goggles attached to each. He tosses one to Link and Susan who quickly put on the goggles and look at Dr.C for more instructions. He had flipped the switch to tornado and cleaned out all the bubbles in the room into the wide vacuum with the see through plastic container where the bubbles were.
They open the door and Susan and Link stand right behind Cockroach holding their vacuums out as he says. "It's time for some spring cleaning."
"Really? Wouldn't that be better is we were cleaning up dust bunnies?" Link says giving Doc an unapproving look.
"Actually I have,"
Susan pushes between them and turns on her vacuum, starting to clear the hall. "No time for that down. We have to get rid of these bubbles."
The two boys nod and follow her lead. After awhile of running around their see through containers were stained pink from the inside and they had most of the base cleared but some they hadn't been able to get in time and spots of pink here and there could be spotted on the walls. "Hey Dr.C, you said earlier that if a big bubble was formed it could be a problem, right?"
"Why yes Link it could but why do you ask?" Cockroach questions as he turns to look at Link.
"How exactly would a big bubble form?" Link ask as he pauses in front of the door to the armory.
"Well it would take a few small bubble to blend into one giant bubble but most of them explode as they try this. It would most likely take a small room and plenty of bubbles to form this so I don't think we need to worry. Why do you ask?" He asks turning to see the fishman pointing into the armory. Oh no. Were the only two words that came to mind as the Dr. ran over and looked inside the armory to see a very pink, very big bubble. It was pressing against all the crates and the wall.
Anything could make it burst at any given moment it seemed. "Uh-oh." Was all Link said but it was all that needed to be said to explain how much trouble they were in. Why? Why did Link mess with the vials before Dr.C could. Why oh why did he skip out on the meeting? And boy would Monger be mad if they all survived this. "What did you say would happen if a big one formed and popped?" He asks the frozen Cockroach beside him.
"The base would be destroyed. If we get lucky just this room." He says and raises his arm slightly pointing into the room even though it was needed. It was filled with almost every single weapon on the base. If the bubble went off in here it would cause everything to explode. Such an explosion would more than likely leave a crater where the base is.
"Run?" Link asks leaning to his side a little not looking away from the room.
"Run." Agreed the Dr. and they both took off down the hall and right pass Susan who watched them run by with a confused look on her face.
No way was this good news. She walks back the way they had came and saw the armory door left wide open which it never was. She walks over and freezes in the doorway. Looming above her was a huge bubble thirteen times her size. She looks back and forth a bit confused about what to do. Then she decides to try and get rid of it. Turning on the vacuum to hurricane she slowly approaches the bubble.
Meanwhile after they both had run out of breathe. Bent over taking in deep breathes to get their air back they look at each other before looking back down the way they had came. They had passed Susan. No doubt she went to see what was wrong but why wasn't she behind them then. They look at each other and Link saw Cockroach's eyes go wide. Then he realized it too. She had gone back.
Dr.C grabbed his vacuum into his hands and runs back down the hall messing with it as he ran. He almost tripped but Link had caught him and set him back upright. "Hopefully she doesn't end up popping it." He says as he finishes with his vacuum. Link's grunts in agreement as they take a sharp left turn and saw the door to the armory still open. They hadn't heard anything so maybe it was all still in one piece.
Cockroach slides turning to his side so he was looking straight into the room. In the middle of it was Susan trying to suck the giant bubble in without popping. She kept turning her vacuum on and off taking in small bits and pieces at a time. That plan might actually work if it wasn't for the fact that the other-side of the bubble now was bigger the\an the side she was working on. "Link get Susan out of here." He says in a serious tone.
Link listens to the Dr. with no argument and hurries over to Susan after she had turned her vacuum off again. She gives a small yelp at being picked up unexpectedly. "Sorry but it's what the doctor ordered." He says and sets her down right outside the room.
Dr.C looks back at them and shouts. "Shut the door and don't open it!" Link does so ignoring the protest Susan was starting and with that the mutant Cockroach turned to the bubble and rolled through the very small opening in the side to get to the other part of the bubble. If he could do this just right everything would go find and the bubble will go away but if he messed up then this room would go boom and he had the best chance of survival, with him being a cockroach and all.
After what seemed like forever Susan was done waiting and worry got the best of her. "Link move out of the way." She says ordering him to stop blocking the door.
"No. The Doc said to keep it closed and besides there haven't been any explosion sounds, the door hasn't come flying off, and there's no sign of a fire in there from lack of smoke coming out from under the door. So he's find. We just have to trust him." The door wasn't hot either which was another good sign that their wasn't any fire or explosion that they might have just not heard. He wasn't going to let Susan in there no matter what she asked though. If something did go wrong she would get hurt and no way would he let that happen. Not when he can prevent it. This is all his stupid mistake anyways so he was kinda angry that Cockroach was the one fixing it but he said nothing.
"But Link," She started and then the door opened behind him before she could finish, and it revealed the figure of a very well known bug who was grinning smugly. His goggles were stained pink and a few droplets of pink were on the walls but other then that nothing looked or destroyed wrong. Susan sighs in relief.
Link looks down at the shorter monster and smiles. 'Way to go buddy but how did you do it?" He asks patting the Dr.'s back which caused his goggles to fall off.
"It was simple my friend. You had to even out the sides. Susan was actually doing good but if she would've kept going about it her way it would have gone off and would still be destructive even at half-power but I was able to fix everything. Now that everything's good again and I saved the day how about we go celebrate?" The smug cockroach says very pleased with himself.
Susan smiles and rolls her eyes walking with him and Link to the cafeteria. "So does that mean you have Monger's gift? We need to go see him in thirty minutes." Link asks which caused the Dr. to freeze. "And it better be good. He's very angry about the whole flooding his base with pink multiplying bubbles and believes it is all your fault." Link says looking down at him.
Susan rolls her eyes. "I wonder where he got that idea?" She says and looks over at Link who had raised his hands out in defensive before scratching the back of his head and saying, "What? Don't look at me. He must've found out some other way." Susan rolls her eyes as Dr. Cockroach goes running back to his lab to make a last minute invention gift.