JMJ
Chapter Seventeen
Unveiling and Unraveling
"NO!" Mojo screeched.
The gang blinked stupidly.
"There will be no deal! There will be no compromise between your miserable selves and me! You are all just a bunch a lazy insolent punks! You are useless to anyone including yourselves. You should be ashamed of your own misery as villains or as people at all! You disgust me! I find your presence to be insulting if not irritating— an insult to intellect incarnate! You will all become corrected to my way of thinking just as everyone else will. If I cannot make robots to be trustworthy at the level at which you suggest, I will make the people I control into something I can manageable with the help of my computers!"
"Look, look! Slow down there, Mojo!" said Ace, backing up nervously.
It was more that finally Ace was showing respect that caused Mojo to at least cease his ranting, but he was still steaming like a kettle heavily between his teeth. His eyes pierced Ace's eyes now revealed in their respectful fright as his shades slipped. Though Ace was trying to smile, it was the most nervous, squiggly Peanuts' styled smile he had ever graced Mojo's presence with.
"We can be on your side!" insisted Ace holding up his hands as though afraid that Mojo would leap at him like a savage beast and pop his head off his skinny little neck. "Honest! We could— uh… we could—"
Mojo curled his lips over his teeth still frowning deeply, but there was a prick of satisfaction nonetheless to find the great Ace of the Gangreen Gang at a loss for words.
At last Ace slumped forward, rather apelike himself, his eyes shaded again in shame.
"Uh… help me out here guys," he snapped.
His minions certainly took it seriously that their undefeatable leader was in fact defeated. The attention suddenly on them broke them from their blank-stared trance. Stiffening with fright they obeyed with gusto.
"We could shine your bootssss!" hissed Snake as he snatched the air on either side of his chin as though his fingers were the snapping of two gulping vipers.
"Mow your lawn," suggested Arturo with a lost gaze that wandered anywhere but Mojo's face.
"Bake you more cookies?" Big Billy asked lifting up a massive stubby finger with hope.
"Pthzz, pzzzfff, pth, fpppfffzz!"
That last one was something over which to ponder, especially with that funny almost-smile on Grubber's face. Maybe it was out of fright; Mojo didn't know. However, the pathetic nature of the whole procedure was beyond words. At first his anger was rekindled, but it stifled out again before it got far by an uncontrollable feeling of laughter so strong that, contrastingly, he did not laugh at all. This was almost beyond laughter.
He looked at the sunken scowl of Pr. Ex still hanging limply under Billy's arm like a beat-up bean-toy. Then he returned to the gang.
A long lazy smile tugged at Mojo's lips. He closed his eyes and could already picture the little amount of fun he could have with them in his basement. If the Gangreen Gang possessed Chemical X, after all, it could be drained out of them, he supposed. He could just give them a slide down into his pit from a tunnel leading from his base either way.
"Well, alright," Mojo crooned as though speaking to rambunctious children asking to stay up on New Years Eve, "you've convinced me!"
"Really?" chirped Ace, but Mojo had a feeling that Ace was not so stupid that he still did not have some doubt.
It just proved the punk's disparity.
"Of course!" sneered Mojo opening his eyes again and motioning to the open doorway. "For old times' sake. We've done time together. That is not a thing which should be passed over lightly."
He felt like the troll under the bridge leading the Billy-goat kids to their demise, and it made him shiver with wicked delight. Who was the most diabolical villain in Townsville? Not, Fuzzy Lumpkins who needed only some anger management, not Princess Morbucks no matter what was written on the Naughty List (Santa was questionably a villain himself anyway)— not even Him compared with the pure evil mind and blackened-to-soot heart of Mojo Jojo.
"Ah, see, what'd I tell ya, guys? Mojo's always been a good sport!" said Ace following Mojo's sweeping arm. "Thanks, Mojo. Real swell of ya!"
Leaning against the doorframe with one arm, Mojo took to nonchalantly inspecting the gloved fingers of the other.
"Yes, yes, yes. I know it is," he carelessly muttered.
Once every last green bean of a teen was inside Mojo followed and promptly sealed the door behind him. The gang had already lost the initial fear and took to poking around the base as though trying to decide where to start sabotaging.
There was the easy chair at the far end near the kitchen along with some prized tokens on a pedestal or two, but they were quite blocked to the eye for the crates and heaps of metal piled neatly though crowdedly about. The whole base was more overrun than Mojo would have liked. He felt somewhat embarrassed to have guests in such a pigsty. Even if those guests were people that lived their days in a junk yard, Mojo was a creature of standards. He was also very territorial.
"Don't touch that!" snapped Mojo when he saw Grubber about to take hold of a piece of metal in particular.
"Don't open the crates!" he snarled as Ace was about to do just that.
They looked at him haughtily.
"Do you want me to change my mind?" Mojo warned crossing his arms wryly.
The gang was all smiles again, arms behind their backs and they shook their heads with all false innocence.
"Okay, then. First I'm thinking that if you want to make yourselves useful, we should get you suitable for being in my sterile environment. Off to the kitchen, you'll wash up. Including your shoes, and we'll do something about that… dead weight you have particularly, Big Billy."
"Dah, Boss says—Boss says Big Billy not dead weight. Boss says Billy productive member of gang!" Billy insisted.
"Not you, that," said Mojo pointing to Ex.
Glowering, Ex remained silent. Mojo smiled with amusement.
"We hassss to clean?" Snake sniveled.
"Into the kitchen!" ordered Mojo.
"Okay, okay, you heard the host!" chirped Ace to the others. "Wash your hands and wash your shoes and behind your ears and let's have a sing-a-long to Snow White while you're at it."
The gang sulkily relented. Ace led the way and Mojo skulked at the rear. However, the boys were poking into the fridge quick enough rather than the sink.
Mojo stamped his boot. "Ahem!"
All eyes went to Mojo. Ace grinned letting his shades slip again to his wide blinking eyes. "Oh, the sink, right, Mojo! Right!"
Mojo slammed the fridge shut.
"Don't make me get my latest laser out to hold at your backs," muttered Mojo.
They went to the low broad sink; though Billy had already found himself a banana on the counter. Mojo snatched it away, but otherwise all was well for the moment. Ace turned the faucet on and motioned for Snake to begin washing first, but just then the kitchen door slammed shut and with such surprise there were no games in anyone's mind anymore, especially Mojo's.
"What?" snapped Mojo going to the door.
He stood in front of it. It wouldn't open. He pulled the handle. He pushed the button.
"Something wrong, Mojo?" asked Ace mildly.
Mojo ignored him. "Com. There's been a malfunction with the kitchen door. I demand that you remedy this."
Silence.
"Com. Whatever matter of which I'm going to assume is of great importance which you are attending to, you must pause for a moment and open the kitchen door for me."
Silence.
A shiver ran up Mojo's spine, but it could have been Grubber lolling his tongue out just a foot behind him. Mojo did not give him the pleasure of turning to him, though.
Had something happened to Com?
His brow puckered and confidence waned.
The electricity was still on. He could hear the refrigerator humming and the air circulating. That only left one logical option, and one that made his stomach churn.
"Com!" he snarled.
"What has already begun," Com's voice erupted so suddenly that Mojo jumped, "cannot simply be put on 'pause'. Things are in motion that cannot be stopped including my plan for vengeance."
"You're plan!" cried Mojo. "You mean my plan!"
"Oh, Mojo Jojo, you know perfectly well that this idea was mine and you just borrowed it. However, it does not change the fact that the idea was mine and has been all along, and long before I revealed it to you. All I've ever wanted since the moment I've had to suffer you is to see the terror in the eyes of my enemy who destroyed me."
"Pr. Ex?" demanded Mojo.
He turned sharply to Ex. Ex was no longer frowning but was staring with wide eyes and sweating like Billy had splashed water from the sink on him.
"Take him!" snapped Mojo. "I have no need for him! Then we can commence with my evil plan, and I'll deal with you later!"
"Oh, no. Apologies, not this time."
"But I'm the one who revived you. You would be dead without me! You owe me!" Mojo declared.
"I think I've more than paid for my revival. Now it's time for you to pay me back."
A hand suddenly fell heavily on his shoulder. He nearly screamed as though it was a zombie hand of Com's, but it was only Ace's grubby paw.
"See, told you, you couldn't trust AI," said Ace sagely.
Mojo wildly shoved Ace away and leapt in fury and up and down several times as he shouted uselessly back, "He is not an AI! He is a genetic experiment with Chemical X controlling a computer network with the brain that is the only part of him still biological! He's—"
"His name is—" Ex roughly interjected.
"I'm glad you remember me, Pr. Ex," Com said with the mildness of HAL. "It must be difficult to recall every one of your many, many, many experiments. Why, I recall how many subjects you went through before it was all deemed worthy to test upon me. In fact, from what I understand the subjects in the room just at this moment are more successful than you had originally deemed thanks to Sedusa."
"Say what?" sniffed Ace.
The other green members shuffled uneasily.
"Oh, you must have figured it by now, boy," said Com.
"No one made the Gangreen Gang!" retorted Ace. "We made ourselves!"
"Ah, and it was mere coincidence that you all turned green on the same night after your little fun with the green, I suppose."
Although still green, Ace's face turned rather flush with it. Even his tongue and gums were green unlike Mojo Jojo whose green was only skin deep even if the Chemical X was coursing through his very red and violet veins. All of Ace's insides were likely greener than spinach, and that green had nothing to do with any power of Ace's. It was beyond cards.
"Yeah, well he never had any control over us after that then! We took our green for what we wanted! We'll still do what we want now! Got it!" snapped Ace. "No one controls us!"
"Sedusa," said Com, "although, naturally that is not her real name, was at one time very much involved with Pr. Ex, and she knew perfectly well what she was doing when she picked you out to help her with her own desires. Before that— well! You were always on a leash, though a very long one, in the hand of our beloved scientist, little did the innocents of Townsville realize, just like the other monsters."
"Uh…. the monsters?" asked Billy, though it was hard to know exactly what he understood from this conversation.
"That's all you ever were to him, just as I was," said Com. "If ever there had ever been something he found compromising in your existence, he would have made an end of you just as he had to me."
Ace's lip twitched. He sat down at the kitchen table, still staring at Ex.
Billy dropped Ex like he suddenly realized he was holding some rotted, diseased thing. Grubber who was closest stepped back a few paces from him. Snake recoiled with a strange sort of hiss more like a cat's than a snake's as his forked tongue did not quite leave his mouth behind his partly bared teeth. Arturo just blinked, though he was further away from the scientist than the others were.
"Ouch!" cried Ex.
Like a fish just escaped from a hook, he flopped about and writhed strangely as with no understanding of why he could not swim in the air and even less so on a floor, but when he did find his bearing enough to get to his knees he scrambled back like a half-drowned rodent. He let out a squeak. He had only bumped into cupboard door. Then he huddled within himself as though wishing he had a shell of a turtle to hide in.
The rest of the Gangreen Gang just stood glaring like bewildered cats. Everyone knew that all Ace would have to have done was lift a finger and his underlings would have pounced for the attack up the now helpless creature, but Ace was deep in his grimace. Thought of a magnitude that most likely did not often enter his mind consumed him. Even Com seemed to respect that moment of silence. Though more likely, Com was just enjoying how vulnerable his enemy had become.
Ace slowly moved his head towards Ex. When their eyes locked, Ace only gave him the most hollow and ironic sort of smile. Before he could speak, Com laughed.
This disturbed all present as there was nothing mechanical about that laughter. It was the laugh of a man possessed with one single purpose. After years of suppressing it, he was nearly beyond any control over his passions.
"That would be too good an end for you, Pr. Ex," said Com, "but your empire is certainly unraveling to the threads now. Interestingly enough it was not the Powerpuff Girls who took you down. It was the monkey just as it was the monkey who had made you decide to get rid of me. Funny how life turns out."
Ex blubbered unintelligibly at first, but when he finally could form actually words, he began to beg fully with hands pressed together, "Please, Kegh—!"
"My name has not been of value since you decided to betray me," Com interrupted.
"And what excuse have you to betray me?" Mojo snorted in one last attempt to take control of the situation.
"For every time I had to sit through your insufferable arrogance; every time I had to hear one of your inane speeches; every time you mocked me to my brain and rubbed it in ever chance you got, and then still expected me to comfort you when you started whimpering for your master like a little lost puppy."
The prickles in his brain were nearly enough to make him pass out. All the power and vile glee Mojo had felt moments ago were stripped from him to the bone. He was left so naked he felt as though he'd been shaven to the skin. He knew he should not have felt so surprised at this betrayal, and yet that made it worse somehow.
"I am not a little lost puppy! I resent that!" he snarled, but his voice cracked.
What should have surprised him more was the fact that Com had been able to override all Mojo's precautions against him. He felt so…
"Right, you are," agreed Com matter-of-factly and mimicking Mojo's rapidity of speech, "You are the king, Mojo Jojo, the mighty, the genius, the supreme ruler and overall dictator who can think of nothing better to do than throw sad little tantrums, which usually involve shooting up the city with no other reason than to do so. Mojo Jojo! With no actual plans for world domination, which you have purposely passed up for these tantrums or some little monkey shines such as the one now with these donkey boys from the Island of Pleasures. And this whole scheme is not so much about utilizing the power I gave you for anything other than playing with your little friends the Powerpuff Girls. Mojo Jojo could have wiped Townsville off the map already, but that would risk the lives of your little friends. At least, you wish they were still your friends since realizing how much their company meant to you only after your original betrayal to them. Mojo Jojo who loves and hates his enemies and it tears through his brain.
"Ah! Such is the pain of Mojo Jojo! Intellect is lost upon you, and you know it is true. The great Mojo Jojo hides it beneath that cup on his head with shame. You long for nothing more than to return to your natural state and this desire torments you with terror at your own feelings as it is the desire to end your sentient thought. All hail Mojo Jojo, the pathetic sad little monkey with no home and no hope."
Words failed Mojo Jojo completely. He opened his mouth to force something. Nothing came out by hot air— literally. He might have simply screamed monkey-fashion, but that would only have proven Com's point. He could not remember the last time he had felt so insignificant— so stupid. He almost felt like crying but though his lip pouted and he stared out with hollow despair, his eyes were dry as toast, his throat drier, and he swallowed hard upon his sandpaper tongue.
He could almost hear in his mind a tinkling of a nostalgic music box, a music box of the mad— of an organ grinder, rather. He was wound tight like a windup toy monkey clanking its symbols on either side of his writhing brain that was shriveling up like a worm in the sun. He could barely breathe the feeling suffocated him so severely.
He was not even sure if he was still standing there or anywhere. Perhaps the world had just become obsolete. Then he blinked over his sore staring eyes.
Nope.
The world was still there and he was still in it, and Com… had defeated him in so many ways, perhaps more than the Powerpuff Girls ever had.
But at least Com had stopped taunting him. Of course, that was probably because he was now taunting Pr. Ex. He was just sucking him down into a trap door in the floor to some place deep beneath his lair to torment him.
No, Com's voice appeared again, but it was not just for the kitchen now. He was stealing Mojo Jojo's allotted 'speech time' now too.
Com announced over the whole of the city, "Attention citizens of Townsville…!"