Copyright note: the song, My Boyfriend's Back (c) The Angels
Secret Agent Man (c) Johnny Rivers
Chapter 16
X X X
Julie walked up to the bunker door, stopping just as she distinctly heard the sound of music on the other side. Curiously, she opened the door slowly. To her surprise, Zeke was dancing to some music playing on a radio.
"What made you think I'd believe all your lies?" he sang along, as he continued dancing, "You're a big man now, but I'll cut you down-..."
He stopped when he noticed Julie watching him.
"Oh... hey." he uttered sheepishly.
Julie smirked, as Zeke reached over and turned the radio off.
"Well, I guess you've still got it then." she commented.
"Yeah, well... I was just thinking about that dream you told me about. The one where I was doing a dance off. Just thought I should... you know, be prepared in case it does eventually happen."
"I see. So... 'My Boyfriend's Back', huh?"
"Eh... it wasn't exactly my choice of song, but somehow it seemed strangely appropriate. Which is more than I can say for the previous song."
"Right, well anyway..." Julie responded, fishing a note out of her pocket, "I was just talking to Father Vittorio. Apparently, he's found the location of the tomb, where that Egyptian vampire hunter was buried. Not only that, but he also got this note from his- and our- anonymous friend; who-"
"Err... hold on." Zeke interrupted, "We should probably give him a nickname. Like we did with Lil' Sparky."
"Hmm... okay... how about Mr. X?"
"Nah, that's a tad predictable. How about Mr. Y?"
Julie shrugged.
"Whatever, Mr. Y it is. So as I was saying, Father Vittorio gave me this note from Mr. Y; which not only has the coordinates of the tomb, but also a map that leads to where the guy was buried."
She handed Zeke the map and he looked it over.
"Wow..." he said, "whoever Mr. Y is, he must really hate Dr. Tongue and Count Eveer. Not that I blame him."
Julie held up her hand and peeked around outside the bunker door, to make sure there was nobody else within earshot, then took out Lil' Sparky.
"We better keep quiet about this though." she reminded Zeke in a whisper, as she punched in the coordinates, "Nobody else, but Vittorio, should know about this."
"Right, right. So I guess this should be one of those... uhh... what do you call it..."
"Black ops missions?"
"Yeah." Zeke replied, putting on his glasses and grabbing the water guns, "So we better be careful what we say, or we'll give ourselves away. Odds are, we won't-"
"Zeke!"
"Sorry, sorry."
With that, Julie activated the door and the two of them quickly went through it.
X X X
"I told you, you should've let me suck their blood!" Eveer told Dr. Tongue, "I could have made them loyal servants to your cause."
Dr. Tongue sighed, not knowing what to say, as he leaned on the rail of his laboratory balcony. The Count glanced at Dr. Tongue's neck and took a quick look around. Then he opened his mouth, baring his fangs, and slowly moved closer.
"Wait... that'th it!" Dr. Tongue cried.
As Dr. Tongue turned around, the Count quickly closed his mouth and stood up straight, with his hands behind his back.
"If they won't be my tetht thubjecth," he continued, walking away from the balcony, "then we'll jutht make them bring me thome!" (If they won't be my test subjects, then we'll just make them bring me some!)
"So you wish for me to suck their blood then?"
Dr. Tongue stopped and replied, "If that'th what it taketh to make them work for me, then yeth." (If that's what it takes to make them work for me, then yes.)
As he was saying this, the Count snuck up on the mad scientist and made another attempt to bite his neck. But once again, he was forced to abort and feign innocence as Dr. Tongue turned to face him again.
"And onthe you've got them under your control, I want you to thend them after thothe people they've rethcued and capture thome of them for me, to uthe for my new tetht thubjecth. Underthtand?" (And once you've got them under your control, I want you to send them after those people they've resuced and capture some of them for me, to use for my new test subjects. Understand?)
"No need to tell me again, my master. I will get right on it."
With that, Count Eveer went on his way in disappointment.
"Oh, and one more thing."
"Yes?" the Count inquired, turning back to face Dr. Tongue.
He then screamed in pain and fell backwards onto the floor, as the mad scientist whipped out a gold crucifix and pressed it against the Count's face.
"Don't ever try to thuck my blood ever again. Underthtand?!" (Don't ever try to suck my blood ever again. Understand?!)
The Count rubbed his face and nodded, as he picked himself up off the floor. As Dr. Tongue turned back to the balcony rail and pocketed his crucifix, Count Eveer turned and walked away in frustration.
"Patience, Christof." he muttered to himself, "Just a few more days, then the ritual will commence. And then you won't have to be anyone's servant anymore!"
X X X
Julie cautiously turned around the corner, pointing her gun in front of her and slowly walking forward. Zeke, who was calmly following her, sighed.
"Come on, seriously, what are you so afraid of in here?" he asked.
"Zeke... we've already had to face two undead monstrosities and a vampire- who is still at large and will be summoning even more vampires soon- to say nothing of all the zombies we've had to deal with, and you're surprised about me being nervous in a place full of dead people?"
"...Okay, I guess you kinda have a point. But come on, we're in Egypt right now. Whatever Dr. Tongue did to those cadavers back home, couldn't have followed us all the way..."
He stopped when he heard the sound of footsteps around the corner.
"Then again..." he muttered, holding his gun ready.
Zeke waited, as the footsteps came closer, while Julie checked Lil' Sparky's radar.
"Uhh... Zeke?"
But before she could stop him, Zeke jumped out and fired... startling a man in a yellow explorer's outfit.
"Oh, whoops..." he said, sheepishly, "sorry, Mister."
The explorer brushed the water off his face and replied, "It's quite alright, no harm done. Although, I am a bit curious as to what praytell brings you two here?"
"Err... well, we uh..."
"School project." Julie cut him off.
"...Yeah, that's it."
"Hmm, I see. Doing research on some of the great Egyptian pharohs then? Well, I wish you luck in your endeavors here. Though I wouldn't advise spending too much time in this place. Err... by the way, you two wouldn't happen to have found the way out of here, would you?"
Thinking quickly, Julie held Lil' Sparky behind her back and pointed it towards the wall.
"Oh, yeah." she replied, activating the door, "It's right over there."
"Ah, jolly good then." the explorer responded, "Well, you two take care. I've got to be going. Cheerio!"
Julie waited for the explorer to pass through the door, then deactivated it and pocketed Lil' Sparky.
"You didn't just send him back to base, did you?" Zeke asked.
"Nah, I haven't changed the coordinates yet. He'll just be sent to the outside of the tomb, where we arrived. Anyway, let's keep going."
With that, Zeke and Julie proceeded through the tomb. As they passed through a certain doorway though, they were startled by the sound of a stone door slamming shut behind them.
"...That's not a good sign." Zeke remarked.
Then there was another distinct creaking sound, followed by a low groan.
"Zeke, am I the only one who just heard something go 'uuugh' over there?" Julie asked.
"I'm afraid not."
"So... I guess you owe me an apology then?"
Before Zeke could respond, they suddenly saw it. A walking, rotted, mummified corpse slowly shambling its way towards them. They stared at it, as it slowly raised its arm at them and let out a loud noise as if to threaten them. Finally, as it came within range, Zeke and Julie nodded at each other and opened fire. After a few quick blasts of holy water, the mummy finally exploded, leaving a pile of bones and rotted bandages.
"Hmm... took a little more than usual," Zeke observed, "but it still works."
Julie then thought back to their time at Dr. Tongue's castle, when they found some mummies just outside the lab entrance.
"Hey, Zeke... you don't think maybe Dr. Tongue took some of the mummies from here and... turned them into..."
Zeke thought about that briefly, and was about to respond with a "Nah." But another voice suddenly answered instead, "You are correct, my dear!"
Startled, Zeke and Julie turned on their heels. Floating in the air in front of them was a glowing white orb, with a face that chuckled at them.
"The Count!" the two of them cried together.
"Correct again, my friends." he replied, "You see, I wanted to make up for my castle's bad accommodations, so I decided to invite you back for dinner. But since you weren't home and I had my dining room all set up, I invited a few of your friends instead."
Julie gasped.
"The survivors!" she cried.
"You monster!" Zeke snapped at him.
"Oh, don't worry." the Count replied, "They're alive and well, for now. Fortunately for you, Dr. Tongue has other plans in store for them. However, I must confess that I have been yearning for some fresh human blood lately. Those pouches of medical blood that Dr. Tongue has supplied me with won't last forever, after all. Besides that, I will be needing help to complete the ritual I've planned. Which reminds me..."
Count Eveer paused as more faint moaning noises reached the teens' ears.
"Dr. Tongue and I knew you two would come here, seeking that little toy that would disrupt my ritual, so we borrowed a few of the mummified bodies here and made some improvements to..."
"English?" Zeke cut him off.
The Count sighed.
"We injected the corpses with chemicals that made them reanimate. Must you take the fun out of everything?! Anyway, if you'll excuse me, I have some preparations to make. Have fun with your new friends. And do not 'Count' on stopping me!"
The orb slowly vanished away as Count Eveer laughed.
"Okay, that's the worst pun I've ever heard." Zeke remarked.
He paused to look up, just in time to see two more mummies coming their way.
"And... we should probably do something about those guys."
The mummies continued shambling towards Zeke and Julie, but after a few water blasts from their guns, they were reduced to nothing but bones and bandages.
Julie sighed.
"So not only is the Count onto us," she complained, "but those people that we risked our lives to rescue are in danger again."
"Yeah, well... I know this situation looks bad," Zeke replied, "but it certainly won't get any better unless we find that artifact and bring it back to base."
"Yeah, you're right. Shoot... where's that map?"
Zeke looked around, and soon found the map; which Julie had dropped on the floor. He picked it up and lifted his 3D glasses, to read it.
"Hmm... this can't be right." he muttered, scratching his head with the barrel of his gun, "I don't remember passing by that area."
Julie glanced at the map in his hand, then smirked and turned the map rightside up.
"Of course." Zeke mused, "Wouldn't be me otherwise, would it? This way then. Come on!"
Keeping on their toes, Zeke and Julie continued through the tomb halls, while stopping every now and then to blast an occasional mummy. Finally, they came to the fabled hero's burial chamber.
"There!" Julie cried, pointing to a sarcophagus that had been recently disturbed.
As they ran towards it, Julie stopped to blast away at another approaching mummy. Zeke, meanwhile, pushed open the coffin lid and looked inside. When the mummy finally exploded, Julie shook her now-nearly-empty water gun.
"Got it, Zeke?" she asked, glancing in his direction.
From the sarcophagus, Zeke pulled out what looked like a gold music box. Lifting his glasses, he briefly looked it over.
"So, this is it, huh?" he mumbled, "Wonder how it works."
They didn't have much time to wonder though, as five more mummies suddenly stormed into the room. Startled, Zeke tumbled backwards, momentarily losing his grip on the music box. He barely managed to grab onto the lid with the palms of his hands, causing the box to open. Suddenly, a bright light emerged from the box and an ear-shattering musical tune began to play. After a few seconds, Zeke quickly shut the box. Then, to the teens' surprise, the mummies that had entered the room were now replaced with piles of bones and rotted bandages. Zeke and Julie stared back in amazement. Then they once again looked at each other with a smile, as Zeke gave the music box a light toss in the air and caught it.
"Well," he said, "looks like we've got our secret weapon then. Let's get back and get ready to put it to use."
"I hear that." Julie responded, "And hope nothing happens to those captured survivors too."
"Oh, right... yeah, that too."
She took out Lil' Sparky, set the coordinates to the base, and activated the door; which she and Zeke promptly walked through.
X X X
As he struggled in vain with his restraints, Trevor shouted to the Count, "You'll never get away with this, you... you wannabe Dracula!"
"Yeah!" Tina added, from one of the other cells, "Like, Zeke and Julie will totally come to save us and stop you, or some junk!"
Christof chuckled in response.
"Those two will save you." he remarked, "That's a good one. They will not survive much longer against Dr. Tongue's creations; which by the way, you will soon become the latest additions to."
"You're insane!" Emily snapped at him.
"Yes, I know. Now, if you'll excuse me, it is now nearing sunrise and I must get some sleep. Farewell!"
As he walked away from the prison, the count mumbled to himself, "Wannabe Dracula! Hmmph! I can see I'm going to have to teach that prisoner some manners. Just what has that 'Count Dracula' character got on me anyway? *I* do not say 'bleh bleh bleh!'"
X X X
To be Continued