International Graffiti III

'Hold on,' Drak said as they slipped in past the undergrowth and into the caves that were honeycombed throughout the mountain. 'You can go inside Mt. Rushmore?'

'Yes, you can,' Maymun answered. 'It's how they carved it out back in America's early days, but hardly anyone knows about the network of tunnels anymore.'

'That gives me an idea,' Drak remarked.

'Way ahead of you.' With a wave of his hand, Maymun conjured up a mirror.

:[

'Just think, Toad!' Dr. Dred crowed. 'I'm going to replace the Father of our Country with the Father of Crime – Me!' He paused for dramatic effect. 'Do you have me in focus yet?'

'You're too close to the Face Maker, boss,' Toad said. 'Back up a little.'

Dr. Dred backed up, and tumbled right over the edge. Luckily for him, it wasn't a steep fall. He landed and heard Toad break into snorts of laughter. Growling and climbing up, he snapped, 'Toad! Don't just stand there! Give me a hand!'

Toad began to clap. 'Bravo! Bravo!'

:[

Drak looked down from where he was perched on top of the mountain. 'Okay. I'm at the top of the monument. Looks like we got here in time.' Dred and Toad were fooling around. That gave them more time. Drak pulled out a gadget that looked like a regular 2B pencil. He twisted the tail end. The "graphite" extended up into an antennae. Drak lifted it to his ear. 'Come in, Howler? Frankie? Dr. Dred hasn't changed anything yet. Is everybody in position?'

Frankie spoke up first from his place in Washington's nostril. 'Yeah. I hope nobody "nose" I'm in the nose!'

Howler added in from his position. 'And I'm right here in the ear.'

Apparently, they were feeling poetic. Drak smirked, amused. 'Okay. Frankie, get set with the mirror.'

'All set,' Frankie said.

:[

'Ready now, Dr. Dred!' Toad declared.

'About time!' Dred smiled for the "camera". 'Fire.'

Toad activated the machine.

:[

Unbeknownst to the two villains, the beam shot up and hit the mirror in Frankie's hands.

The beam reflected and hit Toad's face.

Neither of them noticed.

:[

'It didn't work!' Dr. Dred declared in disbelief. 'Nothing's changed! What happened, Toad?'

Toad scratched his head. 'I don't know, boss.' He turned around and shrugged.

Dr. Dred screamed when he saw…Toad's face…his own face in place of Toad's. 'How horrible! You've got my face!'

Toad reached up and touched the face. He tugged on the nose. 'Yuck! I'll reverse the machine!' He walked over and triggered the reversal, unaware that he was being very closely watched by vampiric eyes. 'There now.'

The beam shot up.

'It's still didn't work!' Dr. Dred insisted. 'Now what have you done wrong, Toad?'

Toad gulped. 'You wouldn't want to know.'

'I feel strange.' He reached up and touched his face…only to discover that it was not the face he was used to. 'Oh, no!' He grabbed the nose. 'Toad's frightful physiognomy! And I'll probably get warts too! Yuck!' He looked up.

Then he spotted something. Annoyance surged through him as he saw Frankie in the hole of one of the nostrils, holding a particular object.

'Ah!' he declared. 'So that's it! The Droop Group with the old Mirror-In-The-Nostril trick!' He turned to the others. 'Mummy-Man, Vampira, the Drip Pack's up there! Get them!'

'Right, Toad!' Vampira called back.

'I'm not Toad!' he bellowed in outrage. 'I'm Dred!' He quickly turned back around, to where the foul creature was adjusting the machine. 'Hurry, Toad, before I'm warts all over!'

'Yes, Dr. Dred,' Toad agreed. 'I don't want your face either!' He activated the machine.

Their faces were swapped back.

'Beautiful.' Both of them patted their restored faces in relief. 'Beautiful.'

:[

Frankie looked up as he saw bandages heading for him. 'Uh oh. They know I'm in the nose!'

Ducking back into the caves, Frankie let go of the mirror. Mummy-Man caught the glass and pulled it back out. Frankie turned on his heel and ran up the corridor. He was glad it wasn't a complex network of caves. He ran right up and out onto the top of the mountain where Drak was waiting.

Howler came out of his cave at the same time.

The mirror, evidentially, had been shattered, because Drak quipped, 'Breaking that mirror means seven years of bad luck, Mummy-Man, and it starts right now.'

Mummy-Man threw down another bandage. Howler crawled down the mountain face, specifically Jefferson's face, headfirst. Drak, the only one who could fly, took a swan-dive off the head. Frankie stayed where he was. He caught the bandages and quickly curled them around his forearm.

'String me along, eh?' Frankie yanked him right out of the Dredgible. 'You shouldn't have done that.' He quickly adjusted his grip and grinned. 'Yo-yo, and now for the hard stuff!'

Yup.

Frankie had made himself a yo-yo.

:[

Dred ducked his head slightly as Mummy-Man was thrown onto the edge of the Dredgible. He ground his teeth. 'Hold it tightly, Toad!'

They were almost up when Drak shot in, like a bullet from a gun, and snatched the Face Maker clear out of Toad's hand.

'Toad, you butterfingers!' Dred bellowed.

Fortunately, Mummy-Man had managed to climb back on board the Dredgible and he began a lasso.

'Good thinking, Mummy-Man!' Dred called up to him.

Mummy-Man let the lasso fly. He caught the top of the stand of the Face Maker. Climbing up, Dred watched with bated breath. Mummy-Man tugged. Drak turned around and tugged back. A game of tug-o-war began. Dred was surprised with how well the leader of the Drak Pack was holding out. Vampira was weaker than Mummy-Man and she was a vampire too.

Then the stand snapped off.

'Oh, no!' Dred cried.

The stand punctured his Dredgible.

It was all OGRE could do to hold on as they were thrown through the air.

:[

Drak came down to land between Frankie and Howler.

'Did you get it?' Howler asked eagerly.

Drak proudly held the Face Maker above his head.

'All right!' Frankie cheered. 'So, we can take it back to Big D, fix his gargoyles and forget all about this whole thing.'

'Yeah—' Drak was cut off.

'Hey!'

The Drak Pack turned. There were a group of men in black suits running towards them.

Uh oh.

That would be those government guys. They'd probably been watching. Drak didn't fancy the idea of answering any of their questions. And, on top of that, they'd probably want to confiscate the Face Maker. It was too late to power down and feign innocence. This was not good. They had to get out of here.

'Boys!' Maymun suddenly spun around on his carpet.

Drak, Howler, and Frankie dived onto the carpet.

'Hang on!' Maymun barely let them get a good grip on the material before they were off like a rocket.

That, Drak thought, was close.

:[

Vince was amused to see that his uncle had elected to have his gargoyle heads changed to his own face, rather than the way they were before. Then again, it wasn't like anyone would know. It was Dracula's crypt, after all. No one would know that the guy buried there hadn't just decided to have them carved so his likeness would always be around him.

'I'm proud of you boys,' Big D declared. 'And, besides, I like the way you've redecorated my gargoyles. Beautiful, beautiful! Fangs a lot!'

'And the agents?' Maymun asked.

'Yes.' Big D frowned. 'That concerns me. If they're interested in you boys…' He was silent for a moment. 'Well, we can't have you tracked easily. We'll have to give you three a mode of transport that changes as you do.'

'What do you have in mind?' Vince asked.

Big D smiled. 'Leave it to me.'