Forever Bat (The final story to my Bat Trilogy)
Chapter 10: A Plan
...
"Hold your hands up where we can see them, monsters!" yelled one of the soldiers. Around forty to fifty guns were aimed right at Link and I. Link raised his hands up, baring his sharp teeth. "That's not the real Monger, guys! It's John! He can shape shift!" Link yelled back to the soldiers. The soldiers ignored the hybrid. They were trained to only listen to their leader, and their real leader was unconscious on the ground. No one was going to listen to us.
Susan was paralyzed, Butterfly and the real Monger were unconscious, B.O.B. was having negative side effects against the bee stings John created. Doc had none of his inventions, and was no use in hand to hand combat. Me and Link were worn out or slipping in and out of unconsciousness from being slammed into a wall or being in a rough fight. John had the upper hand. John/Monger grinned maliciously down at us from where he stood. He raised his hand up, seconds away from commanding his soldiers to lock us up and to never see the light of day again-
"Wait! wait! Stop!" Doc cried out. John, in the disguise of Monger, narrowed his eyes at Doc. "What is it you want, Bug Man?" asked John/Monger, going heavy on the Texan accent. Doc narrowed his eyes and placed his hands on his hips.
"That's Doctor Bug Man to you. I am a doctor and my friends need my care! Susan is poisoned, Bat has a serious concussion, and Link has wounds all over his body!" he yelled back. No one moved or spoke.
John/Monger narrowed his eyes in annoyance. His victory ruined by the interruption of a mere monster. "Is this some sort of tr-?" he started, but Doc interrupted him. "You can plainly see that they are in need of a doctor! We will do whatever you say, just please let me help my friends first!" Doc pleaded. John/Monger stared down at the bug headed scientist for what felt like a full twenty minutes. Finally, he sighed in annoyance and waved his arm to the side. The soldiers lowered their weapons.
"Fine. Go into the nurse's office and take care of Bat and Link. Susan is fine. She is just paralyzed. It'll wear off in a few hours," he told Doc. Doc, Link, and I sighed with relief. John didn't have the ability to poison people when he shape shifted into poisonous Earth animals.
Doc nodded his huge bug head once. "Thank you, General," he said as he turned to us. "Follow me, I need to patch you two up." Link and I carefully walked away from the army of soldiers. Two of them followed behind us via John/Monger's orders. He still didn't trust us. I could feel John/Monger's glaring eyes burning into the back of my wounded head as we all walked down the hallway towards the small nurses' office.
The two soldiers stood outside the nurses office while we walked inside. Once the door was closed, Doc's composure disappeared as he took a huge breath and exhaled, leaning against the wall opposite of us.
"Edison's Lightbulb! I didn't think that would work!" he told us, placing one hand on his bug face. Me and Link exchanged confused glances. "What are you talking about, Doc?" I asked, but when I did, I immediately felt nauseous. Doc didn't respond as he began to treat my concussion right away. He opened and closed the wooden cabinets on the wall, grabbing whatever he needed, and coming back over to me and fixing me up. As he worked, he finally revealed what he was thinking.
"I have a plan to stop John," he whispered to us. Our eyes widened. Doc finished wrapping the bandages around my head. "But it's in my room. We are going to need to knock out the two soldiers outside this office and run as fast as we can to my room. I have a plan of slowing them down if John finds out we are escaping." Link's tail swished behind him.
"Wait. We are escaping? Leaving Susan, B.O.B., and Butterfly behind?" Link asked, tensing up. Doc hesitated on answering. "John has us outnumbered, you two are both injured, and our only hope in stopping John is in my room." Doc's huge hazel eyes saddened when he saw Link's worried look in his eyes. Link did not want to leave the others behind.
"I know this is hard for you right now...this is hard for all of us... but please trust me on this, Link. This is our only chance in stopping John," Doc explained.
"What is it that makes you certain it will stop John?" I asked slowly. Before Doc could answer, there was a sudden loud pounding on the door. "Hurry up in there! We don't have all day!" snapped one of the soldiers from the other side of the door.
Doc hesitated on what to tell them. "I...O-ok! We will be out soon!" He turned to Link, lowering his voice again. "Bat is in no condition to run or scream, I'm going to need your help. Are you able to knock out those two outside?" he asked. Link grabbed me by the waist with both of his hands and gently lifted me onto his back. "Just open the door, and I'll take care of the rest," he said confidently. Doc's huge eyes flickered over to mine and smiled at me. I felt my face burn a bright red and lowered my head to hide behind Link's back fins.
"Ok then...On my mark," Doc said as he placed his hand on the door knob and got into a stance. Link lowered his head a little and got into a running stance, his hands out in front of him that reminded me of a football player. My whole body tensed up as I held on as best as I could.
"One...Two...Three!" Doc opened the door wide for Link and stepped aside. I nearly fell off Link as he bolted forward and smacked his arms at the two surprised soldiers. They slammed against the wall from the impact and crumpled unconscious to the floor. Then, Link bolted on all fours out of the nurse's office and back the way we originally came from.
We passed by the hoard of soldiers, busy trying to lift the unconscious bodies of Susan and Butterfly onto the lifts. John/Monger saw us race by, and cursed angrily where he stood, unable to shape shift. If he shape shifted, he would be blowing his cover of tricking the soldiers into believing that he was the real Monger.
"They are getting away! Stop them!" John/Monger screamed instead, pointing his finger at us as we zoomed by and disappeared around the corner. The soldiers stopped trying to lift the two giant monsters and chased after us.
Doc ran on all fours like a... well, a bug, ahead of us. Link followed right behind the bug scientist. I held on to Link, my arms wrapped around his thick neck. Behind us, we could hear the thundering footsteps of the soldiers after us. Link and I ducked as bullets whizzed by our heads. Hopefully they weren't real bullets. Ahead of us, Doc whistled a loud whistle with his two fingers and yelled.
"All you can eat Buffet!"
Immediately, B.O.B. appeared out of nowhere at full speed, knocking all the soldiers aside. Instead of being his usual shape, he looked like the outline of a bunch of grapes. It was sad to see the gel like mass in that shape. Thankfully, the bee stings and the bulbous swellings didn't stop him from helping us.
All the soldiers who were chasing us, got trapped in B.O.B.'s gooey body. B.O.B. grabbed one of the soldiers and lifted him up to his face. "Do you know where the All you can eat Buffet is? I heard someone scream 'All you can eat Buffet.' Was it you? Where is it?!" B.O.B. demanded the soldier, who was half unconscious, but also confused.
Doc grinned as he ran right next to us. "I figured that out when we went on our trip to Texas to fight Hogzilla," Doc said. We turned another corner and ran the rest of the way to Doc's room. Doc opened his door and closed it shut behind us. Link lifted an arm up to me. I grabbed his hand and he lifted me up off his back and gently set me down in front of him.
Doc rummaged through a bunch of papers and a stack of video tape players. Glowing purple goo illuminated and dripped from one section of the ceiling. I don't remember that being there the last time I was in Doc's room. As always, trash littered the dark place. In the corner of his room he had a case of Uranium. I wasn't going to ask him how he finally was able to get his hands on some. Doc finally found what he was looking for and handed it to me.
A black backpack.
A cold, dreading feeling washed over me as I felt something heavy inside it. "What's in the backpack?" I asked Doc. Doc hesitated. "I...I think it's best you wait till you are in a safer area," he said. Link narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?" he asked. Doc rubbed the back of his head. "Well...seeing how John is now taking over the Base...I feel that the cards are not in our favor at the moment...and I don't want him finding out about this, and getting his hands on it," he admitted.
"So you think it's safer in our hands?" Link asked. Doc gestured to me. "I think it'll be safer in her hands, yes," the scientist said. "What is it?" Link asked as he grabbed the backpack from me and opened it. "Don't-!" Doc cried out, but it was too late. I felt my blood turn to ice as I stared at the object in Link's hands:
A shiny chrome toaster with strange junk attached to it: five small tubes of plutonium, four tv antennas, three alarm clocks, two cans of energy drinks and a burnt piece of toast in one of the toaster slots.
It was the time machine.
"Doc...You complete idiot!" I screamed at the bug headed scientist. My hands balled up into tight fists at my sides. Doc placed his arms up in front of him in defense. "I'm sorry, Bat! I know I shouldn't have! I know you are angry-"
"I'm fucking pissed! Do you know how much trouble this damn thing has created?!" I screamed at the scientist, ignoring the growing nausea and throbbing pain in my head. Doc winced at my language, but I wasn't the little teenage monster he met nine years ago. I was a full-grown adult monster who had gone through the worst shit imaginable.
"I know, Bat. I remember what Future Bat told us about her experience with the time machine, but the Mothman told you that we are on a different timeline now! The future is unwritten! The unknown! We can-" he started, but Link finished for him.
"We can use the time machine to go back in time and stop John!" Link realized in excitement.
"I am not using the time machine!" I snapped.
"We can go back in time and stop John before he got the shape shifting ability!" Link threw back. I turned to face Link who stood behind me.
"But when was that? Also how can we trust Doc's machine will do that? Don't you remember Future Bat was trapped in different timelines for four years? This is the same exact device that did that!" I stopped yelling and held my head when the nausea came.
"Give me some credit, Bat! I studied the machine when future you came here and tried to see if I could not make it do that. If you press the Bagel button after every date you set it at, then it should be fine," he said. I turned my head to him. Bagel. One of Mothman's prophecies...
Suddenly, a loud boom came from Doc's large closed door, knocking us to the ground. We all got to our feet, Link helped me up as we turned to the huge metal door. We could hear John/Monger yelling from the other side. Another boom, this time causing the metal to concave and bend. Doc quickly grabbed the toaster time machine from Link's hands and shoved it back into the backpack and gave it to me.
"You can yell at me later. Right now, I need you two to leave! Keep this safe, and out of the hands of John." Link looked around. "How? Isn't that the only exit?" he asked, pointing at the metal door where John was trying to get in. Doc scuttled over to a wall on the other side of the room and revealed a dug out hidden tunnel from underneath an Einstein poster. "Did you really have to ask that?" he asked, smirking. Link gapped for a second, then crossed his arms over his chest. He smirked, nodding his head. Impressed.
"Have I told you that you are a genius, Doc?" Link said.
"147 times sarcastically and 3 times genuinely, but who's counting," Doc answered as he motioned for us to go. Another boom shook us where we stood. The door was not going to hold John/Monger or the other soldiers out much longer. Link placed his hand on Doc's shoulder. "Take care of the others while we are gone," he said. Doc smiled up at the fish-ape hybrid. "I shall, my friend." With that, Link climbed into the tight spaced tunnel and disappeared into the darkness.
John/Monger had caused another loud impact, weakening the metal door. The metal screeched and began to split into a small opening. More metal screeched. Now, he could reach his arm in. Doc turned back and pushed me forward. "Go!" he cried, shoving me into the tunnel. I scrambled through the tunnel, just as Doc cried out. I turned back around and saw John's arm stretch forward, and grab Doc by the neck, lifting him up. Doc kicked his feet as he struggled to breathe, suspended in the air.
"Doc!" I cried out, turning back around.
Doc turned his head to me. "N-No! Bat! Go! I'll hold him off!" He yelled to me. I hesitated from the tunnel. Doc reached out with one hand towards one of his shelves. On the shelves were finished inventions. He grabbed what looked to be an alien gun. He shot the entrance of the tunnel where I was, and immediately toothpaste like foam covered the entrance of the tunnel, and began to harden.
"No!" I cried and began to dig through what felt like toothpaste that had been sitting out for years. It was thick and tough, I was having a hard time digging through it to get to Doc. He was in trouble! I had to help him! I felt a huge hand grab my arm and pull me away from the blocked entrance of the tunnel.
"Come on, Bat! We got to go!" he yelled and pulled me along. I finally turned around and crawled on all fours with Link through the dark tunnel. I shouldered the backpack on my back. The machine pressed into my back. Link made me go first because he couldn't see where he was going. It was pitch black in the metal tunnel, but I could faintly make out more than he could.
Wires hung from the tunnel's ceiling, as well as ran alongside the tunnel walls with us. We crawled through the tunnel in silence for what felt to be a very long time. Neither of us had anything to say. We were on our own now. I blamed myself for not helping Doc in time. I couldn't do this without him. I never have used the time machine before. I was terrified to use it.
"Do you see the end of the tunnel?" Link finally asked after what felt like hours. I looked ahead and squinted. I could only see more wires. A few of them sparked from being disconnected. Link yelped when one of them shocked him as he crawled behind me. I kept crawling, trying to look past all the hanging wires, only to see more darkness.
"No...I can't tell how far this tunnel g-" my sentence got cut off when my hands underneath me felt only air and I fell forward down a vertical metal shaft. I screamed as I fell straight down.
"Bat?! Wha-Ahhh!" Link screamed as he fell with me down the new vertical tunnel behind me.