Chapter 9 – Nightmare
Rhino followed closely to Bolt, a miniature Angelira floating close behind. Her arms crossed and an angry pout on her face, she skillfully kept her body in a vertical position as she flew behind him. "So, Angelira? What brings you to the port?" Bolt finally asked, breaking the awkward silence between the four of them. Angelira took the chance, flying to be next to Bolt's head before answering, but if she were to be honest, it was more or less so she didn't have to look at Rhino, "I'm um…here to…travel!" she said in a kind of strange awkward stammer. "Really?" Bolt asked, "Some kind of business trip?" Bolt asked as he turned to Mittens and smiled. "Yah, you could say that." she replied. Bolt glanced at his wife again, the look of mischief in his eyes told her that he knew better. "What kind of business?" Rhino asked, he had bought what she just said. "Oh, I'm a journalist!" she said smoothly, "I go around the world looking for stories!"
"I've never read any of your work." Rhino said, "Did you have a column or something?" Bolt nearly belted out laughing, but somehow managed to keep it hidden through a very tense smile, Mittens just looked to the hamster with a look that said she what she thought, that he was completely oblivious, "Well, either way, I think you've found your story" the cat said. "Really?" the miniature Neutrosian asked. "Yup!" Mittens confirmed, and lifted her paw from the ground after stopping, out came her fire claws, "We've got our powers back!"
"I hope yours came with common sense this time!" she said as she turned to Rhino. Bolt couldn't hold it in any longer, he just laughed out loud with Mittens at his side, "I'm serious!" Angelira said as they laughed, "I know but…" Bolt tried so say, "…it's just, so funny!" Bolt and Mittens continued to laugh. "Ah, thank you Angelira!" Mittens said as the two of them finally calmed down. "Uh…you're welcome?" she mostly asked in worry. "Things have been really stressful lately." Mittens told the Neutrosian a she used her paw to wipe away tears, "First we get a strange call from an alien named Savage and then this creature named Nightmare comes out of nowhere and gets closer to killing us then Dragoon ever did."
"Nightmare?" Angelira asked in both confusion and worry. "Have you heard of him Angel?" Rhino asked, instinctively using an old nickname that helped calm her down. "Kind of…I think." she responded, "And don't call me Angel!" Rhino simply lifted his paws up, silently saying that he was sorry, "It was something Catzer kept talking about while he was on the ship, you know, the one you guys blew up to save your world?" she reminded. "I remember that." Bolt heard Dark Bolt say, "Good times." That response almost made Bolt feel sick, 'Most of those Neutrosians were clueless and innocent, how can you take pleasure in that?' Bolt thought, to which Dark Bold simply chuckled happily as he ignored the hero, gleefully remembering the sight of the explosion. "He called it the 'Dead Mask Project'. It was supposed to be some kind of parasite that kills its host before taking over the body's neurological receptors, reanimating it as if it were a zombie or something." Angelira told them. "Huh?" Bolt asked, "So, the creature is already dead?"
"What, already dead?" Dark Bolt asked in surprise. "More or less, but the project had hit some sort of dead end." she replied, "The parasite kept dying inside the host within minutes, although they only had Neutrosian animals to test it on, and even one Neutrosian, but that lasted even less time than the animals."
"So what would happen if it incubated inside of an Earth animal for say, eight to ten years?" Mittens asked. "Well, let's see…" Rhino began, and turned to the side, tugging gently on the whiskers on the right side of his face, "Uh oh," Angelira said in exasperation, "Now you got him thinking deeply." Bolt turned to the winged Neutrosian in confusion, "How do you know?" he asked, "He always does that when he thinks!"
"Not really, he only tugs on one whisker at a time when he thinks, it's all of them at the same time when he's in deep thought." she told him. "You sure know a lot about him, are you sure you don't want to date him again?" Mittens asked. Before she could hide it, Angelira blushed a bright red, and turned away, "Yah!" she said forcefully, "I'm sure!" Both Bolt and Mittens turned to each other with the same mischievous look, "Denial!" Mittens said to which Bolt nodded in agreement. Angelira turned to them angrily, her face now flush from both embarrassment and anger at the same time. "Dead and reanimated?" Dark Bolt asked, "I wish I could do that to you!" Bolt simply lowered his eyelids in response, refusing to answer the morbid creature inside him, "Did Dr. Catzer ever say anything about giving the parasite powers?" he asked. Angelira placed her hand to her mouth in thought, "Well, he did say that the creature it infected gave it different powers based on the kind of animal it was." she said, and turned back to Rhino as he exhaled. "This isn't good!" he said. "What?" Mittens asked in worry. "Listen to me very carefully Bolt!" he said as he turned to the white shepherd, "Was Nightmare at all worried when you fought him?" Bolt tilted his head in thought, letting his large ears flop against his head, "Well, not really, just when I was pulling on the mask." With a snap of his claws, Rhino pointed to the sky, "I got it, the dog isn't Nightmare, the mask is!"
"Rhino, has this mad scientist obsession finally gotten to you?" Angelira asked. Rhino turned to her in an annoyed anger, "No!" he said, and turned back to Bolt, "The mask is actually the parasite. This parasite resides as a solid mass until it enters the blood, most likely through the nose. It then takes over the body as it dies off and reproduces again on the outside, the mask!"
"And if we pull the mask off?" Bolt asked. "Nightmare becomes helpless, he can't do anything as long as the parasite has no host. One of the disadvantages of being a solid mass outside of the body." Rhino said, puffing out his chest in pride.
"Hey guys, check this out." they heard from behind them. Bolt turned around quickly, spying a group of almost ten men, each dressed with a large black jacket and red bandana somewhere on their body. Each of them in a confident pose, "Looks like we got us a couple a heroes!" The one up front stood tall, his fist covered by his fingers while he cracked his knuckles in an attempt to intimidate the animals. It only really worked on Angelira, causing her to squeak and hide behind Rhino's crystal ball. "What do you want?" Bolt asked with a growl. "Isn't it obvious?" he heard Dark Bolt asked, "They all want to die!" Bolt tried his best to ignore the voice in his head as Rhino spoke up. "What do you want?" he nearly growled. "Aint it obvious mutt?" one of them said, and paused, "Oh wait, you don't remember us do you?" The others began circling the group, Rhino instinctively keeping himself in front of Angelira as the thugs moved around them. "Bolt, I think we put these guys in prison once or twice." Mittens said as they backed up into each other. "Yah, I get that feeling too." he told her, and snapped his jaws at one of them. The thug backed up a little, only realizing that Bolt probably wasn't going to fight at all. "Hehe!" one of them laughed, "Not so tough now huh? Not without all your powers." Mittens hissed at the man as he attempted to come closer, "Eep!" Angelira squeaked as another one took a step closer. "Back off!" they all heard, and turned to find the captain and his crew standing there, each cracking their knuckles or patting something they held in their hands. "Tch, who are you?" the one acting as leader asked. The captain walked forward, "I'm the captain of the S.S. Iron Hawk, and these are my friends." he explained, his crew moving forward, easily outnumbering the thugs. Each one of the punks backed away as they approached. Still trying to act tough, the leader spoke up, "We can take you!" he said and pulled out a switchblade. "Half of these men are drunk, and the other half are just plain pissed." the captain said, "Are you sure you want to fight us?" Thinking with a glare, the thug put his knife back in his pocket and turned to Bolt, "This aint over!" he said and the group ran back into the ally they came from. "Thank you captain!" Mittens said gratefully. "How did you find us?" Bolt asked, and the captain pointed to the building behind him. "That's the bar we all go to for celebration!" he said, "The bartender just happened to be back there when he heard you talking to those thugs, so he came and got us."
Inside the bar, Bolt happily licked up one of his favorite drinks, a virgin pina colada with a hint of pineapple juice mixed in. Mittens shared the drink with him, licking him in the cheek once in a while just for giggles. He actually responded once with a big slobbery dog kiss to her face. Rhino and Angelira both sat on the wine rack close by, each of them drinking an orange soda from two straws. The sailors shouted happily as they all sang songs they knew, each of them with either a full or half full glass of beer in their hands. The captain walked up to the animals, seeming to be the only one still sober, "Feel better my friends?" he asked. "Absolutely!" Mittens said, and quickly received a large lick to her cheek from Bolt, who had just finished the rest of their drink. "You came in at just the right time." Rhino said from the ledge of the rack. Angelira fluttered her wings and landed on top of his empty ball, "Yah, we were just about to get our buts handed to us." she said as she sat down on the round surface. "We have our powers back remember!" Rhino argued. "Oh yah, and Bolt would have been able to protect all of us from a bunch of totally crazy thugs." she snapped, "You and I would have been the most useless in that fight, Rhino, and you know it. I can't carry you when I'm this size and I still don't know when it will wear off!" Rhino pointed a finger at her and opened his mouth, but quickly realized that she spoke the truth, he didn't have his Nano Suit with him.
End Chapter 9