International Graffiti II
'All right,' Maymun said at last. 'This is it: the Great Pyramid of Giza.' He pulled up the magic carpet and heaved a sigh. 'Don't do anything reckless.'
As the three boys climbed off the carpet, they transformed. Drak wasted absolutely no time leading his friends to the foot of the first pyramid. His gaze snapped up, immediately. 'Look up there on the top of the Gizas!'
Frankie and Howler gasped.
'It's that dastardly Dred with his whole OGRE gang!' Howler exclaimed.
Drak smirked. 'And will he be surprised when he sees us!'
'Yeah,' Frankie said.
'Okay, Pack! Let's attack!' Drak led the charge.
They all leapt upwards and tackled OGRE…
…Only to pass right through them.
Below, Maymun rubbed the bridge of his nose. 'Kids!'
:[
The Drak Pack landed in a pile.
Drak pushed himself up. 'What happened?'
'Where'd they go?' Frankie pushed himself up too and looked around.
Dr. Dred spoke up. 'Here I am, Pack!' He was standing just a few feet away from them.
'I'll get him!' Frankie jumped at him, only for Dred to vanish.
Dred reappeared behind him. 'Back here, you clod!'
With a growl, Frankie stood up. 'Sneaky!' He tried to grab him again, only for Dred to vanish again. Then it hit him. 'Hey! They're not real!'
A panel in the top of the pyramid opened and Dr. Dred stuck his head out, a remote control of some kind held in hand. 'Precisely, you pigeon! You've been fighting holographic illusions and fallen right into my trap!'
'Wrong, Dred!' Drak snapped. 'We haven't fallen anywhere!'
'Well, it's never too late! You can drop in on Mummy-Man and his relatives!' He hit the button on his remote.
'That's what you—' Drak's grandstanding was interrupted as a trap door opened underneath their feet.
:[
The fall was a tangle of limbs and Drak was only grateful no one had seen it all. Still, he'd admit 'Remind me never to let Dr. Dred get the drop on us again.'
Frankie sat up. 'What do we do now?'
Drak extracted himself from the pile-up. 'Well, better split up and find a way out.'
With an alarmed noise, Frankie pulled himself out of the pile-up, leaving only Howler, who just stood up.
'Split up?' Frankie looked around wildly. 'You mean…like…not in together?'
'Yes,' Drak said as he moved off in one direction. 'You see we can cover more ground that way.'
'Relax, Frankie.' Howler grabbed Frankie's shoulders and pushed him in the other direction. 'I'll be right behind you.'
Drak chuckled and shook his head.
:[
Howler crept along with Frankie. Though he was behind him, Howler crept backwards.
'It's scary…' Frankie remarked.
At that moment, Howler backed into something. He jumped and stopped, covering his eyes and shaking.
Nothing happened.
Opening his eyes and looking around, Howler yelped. He was the only one here. He quickly crept onwards, looking for Frankie. 'Where did Frankie go?' He crept onwards. 'Oh, Frankie?' Looking around, he saw something terrifying behind him and he yelped in alarm.
There were a couple of sarcophaguses advancing on him. One of them reached for him.
Howler bolted. He mindlessly ran through the corridors of the pyramid. Finally, he slowed to a stop. Panting for breath, he remarked, 'I lost those mummies. But I lost myself too!'
Fortunately, that was when Drak bumped into him – quite literally.
:[
Maymun sat above the Pyramid of Giza, having rendered himself invisible, nursing a growing headache.
How Dracula dealt with those boys every day, he didn't know. That vampire deserved a medal. It probably helped that one of them was his own flesh and blood. Idly, Maymun found himself wondering if perhaps Dracula had been like that himself once upon a time. Perhaps that was why he had a greater tolerance for their antics.
Maymun was suddenly torn from his thoughts.
There were trucks driving by the pyramids. They were not, however, normal trucks. It was an envoy of uniform trucks. They all looked the same, from the paint job on them right down to the acronym painted across the doors and the hoods of the cabin. And they all drove in a straight line, heading right for the Sphinx. The acronym gave them away.
Government agents.
Not good.
:[
Drak hadn't been happy at how he found both Howler and, most especially, Frankie. It seemed that the smart thing to do now was to stick together. So the three of them snuck through the inside of the pyramid. He hadn't anticipated having to navigate one of these. He wouldn't let the other guys see it, but he really was anxious.
Getting them out was his responsibility, after all.
'By the time we get outta here,' Howler remarked, 'we'll all look like mummy-men!'
There was suddenly a ringing from a…very strange phone booth. That was odd. Drak was sure that there shouldn't be a working phone booth in here. Pyramids were supposed to be no more than ostentatious tombs. Of course, Frankie never had been able to let a phone ring. 'I'll get it.' He immediately opened the booth and opened it. Stepping inside, he answered the phone. He listened for a moment and then turned. 'It's for you, Howler.'
Drak was immediately suspicious as Howler stepped in and took the phone. 'Hello?' He listened a moment and then turned. 'No. It's for Drak.'
Now Drak was definitely suspicious, but his curiosity got the best of him. 'For me?' He stepped into the booth and took the phone. 'I wonder how they got my number.'
Before he could say anything, though, the door slammed shut behind him. He spun. Only for a moment, Drak saw Mummy-Man before the booth was lifted up into the air. I should've known! He hung up the phone and waited. They could have, theoretically, broken out. But Drak had a feeling that waiting was a good idea.
They were probably heading right for Dred.
Sure enough, the booth was moved – probably on a pulley system – over and then lowered over a small pool filled with crocodiles. Drak had a good idea what would happen once Dred had his gloat. Dred himself had dressed up like an Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh, complete with Toad and Vampira fanning him.
'I wonder who's dropping in,' he quipped.
'The old phoney phone booth trick, huh?' Drak retorted.
'And you fell for it!' Dred gloated. 'What a shame!'
Toad had a turn then. 'You won't get to see Dr. Dred's next face switch!'
Drak was far more concerned with the snapping crocodiles below at that moment. Still, he asked, 'What great monument are you gonna desecrate next, Dr. Dred?'
'Not desecrate, Drip,' Dred shot back. 'Decorate! My famous face on the Sphinx!'
'The Sphinx?' Drak demanded. 'You can't!'
'Well, you won't be there to stop me…'
Drak noticed, while Dred was talking, Toad moved away from him.
'…Because you're going down the Nile on a cruise you can't refuse!'
'Now, Dr. Dred?' Toad asked eagerly, grabbing onto a chain that hung from the ceiling.
'Yes,' Dred said. 'Now!'
Toad yanked the chain. 'Oh, boy! Oh, boy!'
The pool below them turned into a whirlpool, sucking the crocodiles in. The booth dropped in. The Drak Pack all yelled out in alarm as they spun faster and faster and faster. They spun so fast that even Drak lost track of their surroundings. It took a few minutes before the world righted again and the phone booth floated up to the surface of the Nile. They were still, however, surrounded by crocodiles.
'Well, we're out of Dr. Dred's clutches,' Drak remarked.
Something hit the water around them and the crocodiles turned and swum out of the water as fast as they could.
'And here's Maymun!' Frankie pointed out.
Sure enough, the Jinn was descending on his magic carpet. With a wave of his hand, the top of the booth was gone.
'What kind of trouble did you boys find in there?' he asked in exasperation.
'No time to explain,' Drak said, the first to hop out. 'We need to get to the Sphinx.'
'We also need to keep our heads down.' Maymun pulled Frankie up.
'Why?' Howler asked.
'Dred's putting his face on statues all around the world,' Maymun said. 'Naturally, the federal authorities are getting involved. We don't want to be seen.' He scoffed. 'After all, it took centuries to convince those people that the supernatural was nothing more than superstition.'
:[
OGRE had set up in front of the Sphinx.
'The Face Maker is ready for you, Dr. Dred!' Toad called.
Dr. Dred turned from the vanity he'd set up. 'Don't rush me, warty one. I want the Sphinx to look my best.' He powdered his face. 'I'll be there in a few minutes.'
'A few minutes?' An idea came into Toad's head. 'Do I dare? Do I dare? I…I do!' He activated the Face-Maker and stood back. The face of the Sphinx transformed into his own face, Toad observed with delight. 'How beautiful! It's the real me, warts and all.'
'I do hope I make a good impression.' Dr. Dred laughed. But his laughter abruptly cut off. 'Toad! What have you done to my Sphinx?'
'Can we keep it this way, Dr. Dred?' Toad asked eagerly. 'Can we? Can we?'
'How dare you put your loathsome frog face on my Sphinx!' Dr. Dred pulled out the fly swat and swatted him.
Toad retreated into his collar.
'You rock-head!' Dr. Dred pulled his head out of his collar.
'Forgive me, boss.' Toad took the swatter and swatted himself with it. 'Bad Toad! Bad Toad!'
'One more goof and it's back to the alligator swamp for you, Toad,' Dr. Dred declared.
Toad dropped down to Dred's feet. 'No, please! Not the swamp! Anything but that!'
'Then stop snivelling and get to work!' Dr. Dred barked.
'Yes, boss!' Toad hopped over to the Face Maker. 'I'll do good, boss!' He adjusted the machine. 'Say cheese.'
Dr. Dred grinned. 'Cheese!'
Toad activated the machine.
Dr. Dred tossed in, 'Limburger!'
The face of the Sphinx changed from Toad's to Dr. Dred's.
'Ah!' Dr. Dred exclaimed. The whole of OGRE moved closer to it with him as he admired his own face on the ancient statue. 'That's better. Now, there's a monument, if I do say so meself!'
'Too bad we'll have to erase your evil face, Dr. Dred!'
OGRE twisted around. All of them were stunned. Dred ground his teeth. The Drak Pack had snuck up behind them. They were all standing around the Face Maker. Drak was even leaning on his ingenious machine, like a cocky teenager. Part of Dred wondered if he did that on purpose, because he knew how infuriating it was.
'The Drak Pack!' Vampira exclaimed.
'Who else?' Drak retorted. 'Were you expecting King Tut?' He turned to the Face Maker and started tinkering with it. He muttered to himself, trying to work out how it worked no doubt.
Dr. Dred couldn't have that. 'Get my Face Maker back!'
Mummy-Man charged first. Drak grabbed it and lifted the Face Maker up. Apparently, he decided to be a smart-aleck. 'Keep your distance, Mummy-Man!' He brandished the Face Maker and its stand like a sword.
'Time to go underground!' Vampira transformed into a snake and tunnelled under the sand.
Dred decided he'd leave that to them. 'Quickly, Toad! To the Dredgible!' Before he could move though, Toad leapt forward. Dred snapped him out of the air, mid-jump. 'Not that quick!' He put him down. 'After me!' He bolted.
'Oh, yes! Right behind you!' Toad followed.
Unfortunately, they were followed by the other two members of the Drak Pack.
:[
Drak was actually kind of enjoying himself. Mummy-Man wasn't really fighting back because he didn't want to damage his boss's precious machine. The feeling of power that fact gave him brought the quasi-vampire a sense of euphoria. Mummy-Man would hold back. Drak was under no such pressure.
'Pretty fancy fencing, huh, Mummy-Man?' Drak crowed. 'Touché!'
His only warning was a yell from behind him. He didn't quite catch the word but he certainly recognised the voice. A snake then wrapped around his leg and pushed him over. The Face Maker went flying out of his hand. Drak ground his teeth as he watched it fly across and land in Mummy-Man's hands.
Drak turned around and looked at the shape-shifted vampiress. 'That was a sneaky, snakey trick, Vampira.'
'And you fell for it.' Vampire transformed back into her natural form and strode off after Mummy-Man.
:[
The Dredgible lifted up.
'Bye-bye, losers!' Dr. Dred crowed as Howler and Frankie skidded to a stop below.
'You can't win 'em all!' Howler yelled upwards.
Frankie pointed at the Dredgible. 'Dr. Dred's a-getting away.'
Howler looked over his shoulder and saw something of far greater interest. 'Yeah, but Drak needs our help. Come on, Frankie!' He shot back the way they'd come.
They ran back, but skidded to a stop just shot of where Drak stood opposite Mummy-Man and Vampira. A massive gust came out of nowhere. It threw up the sand directly in front of Drak, causing a maelstrom that lifted the two OGRE grunts clear off their feet. The two of them yelled as they were thrown up and taken away.
But Mummy-Man didn't let go of the Face-Maker.
Dr. Dred caught them in his Dredgible.
Howler and Frankie ran the rest of the way as the sand settled and stopped just next to Drak. The Dredgible lifted up above the clouds, Dred and Toad jeering the whole way. Then Maymun faded into visibility, standing atop his magic carpet. His arms were folded and he was watching them go with a curled lip.
'I almost had them!' Drak insisted.
Maymun sighed and looked down at them. 'This party's getting a little crowded, boys. I have a plan.'
'What's that?' Drak asked.
'Well,' Maymun said. 'They haven't done Mt. Rushmore yet.'
:[
'So, those boys…'
'Boys?'
'Yes, Agent Black. Boys. According to the scouts, they were overconfident and let an early win get the best of them. On top of that, they had to be extracted by another person. I feel very safe assuming that those three were teenagers.'
'They why were they fighting a group like OGRE?' Agent Black asked. 'And OGRE seemed familiar with them.'
'I have no idea. The best guess I can make is that they've set themselves against Dred and his followers for some reason. But they are, at the end of the day, very inexperienced.'
'So, what are we going to do about them?'
'We have no orders pertaining to them apart from observation and, if possibly, engage to find out who they are and what they want.'
'Did the scouts get a name, at least?'
'They did. The Drak Pack.'
