Forever Bat (The final story to my Bat Trilogy)

Chapter 5: Night Out

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Knowing John was here in the secret base made me very uncomfortable and nervous. Monger didn't seem to care and didn't see it as a big deal. I get the idea of keeping your enemies closer, but this was not the way to do it. We thought he died when we first fought him and he came back to create an army of teenage monsters! The man was a threat to the entire universe. I don't think any prison could hold him. Not even the current state he was in. He was most likely sleeping, waiting for the right time to wake up and attack.

I was walking down the huge hallway of all our rooms. Susan's room was closed. I wanted to talk to her, but from what I could hear with my sensitive bat ears, she was on the phone talking to someone. It sounded like she was talking to that company that makes her giant clothes. They wanted her to model for their magazine. She sounded very excited. I decided to leave her alone.

B.O.B. had his door open. He was creating what looked to be a tower of cheese cubes. I decided not to bother him.

Doc had his door closed, and good thing too because right when I came walking up to it, a loud explosion went off and an imprint of the mad cockroach scientist's body was seen on the huge door. I decided to leave him to whatever he was working on.

Last but not least was Link. I felt my face get warm, then shook my head. I just have something on my mind that's bothering me, and I just want to talk to him as a friend...nothing more. I reached my hand up to knock on his door.

I jumped when the door automatically opened, Link already standing there. He didn't notice I was there as he stretched his massive arms over his head. It looked like he had just finished working out, and judging by the trail of water behind him, he was done with his usual swimming routine as well. My eyes wandered past the fish man and into his room. I haven't seen his room in so long.

From what I remembered, he had a huge Olympics pool in the center of his gigantic room and work out equipment set up in the corner. Everything pretty much looked the same from how I last saw it nine years ago. The one thing I noticed different was that he didn't have those female bikini model posters hanging up on his walls anymore. Other pictures were hanging up on his wall-

"Bat?!"

I looked up and found Link staring down at me. His eyes were wide in shock. Before I could say anything, he quickly reached over to the button near his door and slammed his fist against it. The door immediately closed behind him, nearly crashing down on his tail. I'm guessing he didn't want me looking inside his room.

"Heeeey, Batsy. How's it going?" he asked casually, leaning against the door, acting all cool and calm, but I could hear his heart going 120bpm.

My ears flicked a little from his weird reaction. "Erm...I was just...wondering..." I lost my train of thought for a moment. I remembered John and I guess made some kind of face because Link noticed right away I was not happy. "Oh, did you see John?" he asked. I looked up in surprise that he automatically knew. Link jerked his thumb behind him. "Doc said he saw you and Monger heading towards that area. We all put two and two together that when Butterfly told you about John being here...your mood seemed to change."

My ears went down a little, like wilted flower petals. They understood my pain. They knew John made me very uncomfortable. Of course they did, they had witnessed it firsthand. I nodded my head. "Yeah...it bothers me that he is here..." I admitted glumly. Link nodded his head. "I understand." I turned my gaze from him and stared down at the floor.

Suddenly, Link suddenly snapped his fingers, literally snapping me out of my thoughts. "I know what will keep your mind off of John. A night out!" I lifted my head up to him, blinking my eyes from behind my glasses. "A...what?" I asked. Link repeated what he said. "A night out! You know, get out of The Base. Go see a movie, eat a nice dinner, get back at your ex boyfriend." That last part threw me off.

"What are you talking about? I don't think you understand what a night out is," I told the hybrid monster. Link smirked. "Sure I do! You'll love it. Come on," He waved me to follow him to the cafeteria with a spring in his step. I walked after him.

He lead me through the cafeteria to the way back, the cafeteria stretched out into a huge storage warehouse that sort of reminded me of Costco. Crates and crates of food. All sorted into categories from vegetables, to meats, to fruits, to grains. All packaged nicely and freshly picked. The further we went down the huge warehouse, the colder it got. I shivered, rubbing my arms before wrapping my wings around myself. I noticed Link shuddering too from the cold. I remembered him saying that he was cold blooded a long time ago. I hesitated on wrapping my wings around him to help warm him up, then got embarrassed and focused on the floor.

Link finally stopped in front of this one door that opened up into a small walk in refrigerator room with tons and tons of metal boxes. Link took a moment to rub his arms before pointing to the boxes. "I found these here a few days ago when I was trying to find the exotic fish section." He made a brrrr sound afterward, then chattered his sharp teeth.

"What is it?" I asked him. Link opened one of the containers and showed me what was inside. Stored inside was a dozen slightly green speckled chicken eggs. I blinked in surprise.

"That's...a lot of eggs..." I said. Link nodded. "Rotten eggs too. Though...they kind of look like the alien chicken eggs we had to bring back from fighting the green alien chickens a few months ago... Not sure...might just be regular old chicken eggs...but imagine throwing these at your ex's house. He wouldn't know what hit him!" Link chuckled. I had to admit, seeing Link happy was very strange, but I wasn't going to complain.

"But...why would I want to egg his house? I know what he did hurt me greatly but...I don't want to sink down to his level, Link," I explained to him. Link came up to me and wrapped his arm around my shoulder, causing my whole body to grow very warm. "Bat. Who is going to know that you "stooped down to his level?" No one is in charge of that. Also, the jerk deserves it. He wont even know it was you anyway." He explained to me. He did have a point, in the weird sense. If I don't get caught, the asshole wont know I was behind the egging.

Link scooted closer to me and placed the other arm around me. "Warm..." I heard him mutter, leaning his huge head against mine. Then he snapped his head up, realizing what he was doing and moved away from me. Suddenly the cold warehouse didn't feel that cold anymore. I coughed and pretended I didn't notice.

"Ok...but, if I were to egg Kenneth's house...how would I transport all of these eggs?" I asked him. Link flashed me one of his mischievous smiles, and pulled out a set of keys. "Does this answer your question?" I stared at the keys in his hand. They were car keys.

"Did you steal a car?" I asked him. Link gave me a look. "I didn't steal I car! It's mine. I asked for a car and Monger set me up with one. Though I had to go through the written and driving tests too...ugh that took forever." Link grumbled in annoyance. Then his mood changed and he twirled the keys around on his index finger from the huge key ring they were on. "But it was all worth it in the end. Getting my own set of wheels." I nodded in approval.

"What kind of car did you get?" I asked him.

"A Jeep."

"A Jeep?" I asked him. He nodded. I made a "Hm," noise, placing my hand under my chin. "I saw you as more of an amphibious vehicle kind of guy," I told him. Link smirked at the idea, then shrugged, "They don't go very fast on water or land. Also there aren't really many around that are for sale." I blinked in surprise. "Really? I didn't know that. All right...may I see this car of yours?" I asked him. Link beamed excitedly, "I thought you'd never ask." Before he started leading the way, he grabbed a few rotten egg boxes. Specifically four under each arm. He asked me to grab a few as well, and then lead the way. I grabbed two and followed after him.

We left the cafeteria, both our bodies thawed from being in that giant fridge warehouse, I saw Link shake away the cold feeling from his body, his tail flicked a few times. We walked through the Base to a different section. A few short elevator rides and long hallway walks later, we made it to an area where the Base stored their vehicles, All types of army trucks and Jeeps, dating back to the second World War.

At the end of the line of vehicles, was Link's Jeep. It was a little bigger, I'm guessing custom made for his size, and had no side doors or a roof, just the thick black bars that outlined where a roof could have been. His Jeep was dark green, with four huge tires and a spare in the back. From the looks of it, it looked like he had already taken it for a spin a few times. A few cans and fast food trash littered the inside of the car. Link saw me looking at the mess and quickly began cleaning up.

"Sorry I uh...forgot to clean it when I drove in it last time," he said in his deep gruff voice as he took all the trash out and threw it away in the trashcan near him. He had a few knickknacks in/on his car as well. They looked like things you would get from tourist trap areas. There was a bobble head of an alligator from Florida on the dash. A shark tooth necklace hanging from the rearview mirror from Hawaii. A yellow Mystery Spot bumper sticker near the rear license plate.

"Me and the others had gone to a few places over the years for vacations," Link explained. I silently nodded my head. Link placed the eight metal cartons of eggs inside the back of the Jeep. I placed my two in the back as well.

"Alright so...do you want me to borrow your car or...?" my question falling flat. Link didn't really explain to me what was going on with this "Night Out" idea of his. Was he trying to help me have a night out by myself? Did he want to come with? Was this all just a way to get back at Kenneth for being an asshole to me? Link looked at me like I had grown another head.

"Oh no. No...No offense but, I'm the only one who drives Julie." The name made my heart tighten a little inside my chest, immediately feeling sick to my stomach. "Julie?" I asked him, trying to keep from jumping to conclusions. Link got into the car. "Yeah, the actress: Julie Adams. I named my Jeep after her." I realized I had been holding my breath and exhaled in relief.

"You mean the actress who was in Creature from the Black Lagoon?" I asked him, my heart lifting inside my chest. Link turned away, pretending to be interested in something in his Jeep and nodded. "Yeah. I remember you mentioning her name when we were watching the first movie together...so many years ago," He added. My heart went back to being tight inside my chest. Link continued talking.

"I remember you talking on and on and on about that movie while we watched it. Telling me so many facts and behind the scenes trivia about it," Link told me. I felt myself blushing. Link looked over to me and smiled. "Nerd," he called me, but in a way that wasn't offensive. Endearing? Was he being endearing with me?

"I liked the actress, so I named my Jeep after her," Link finished explaining. I smiled. "I'm surprised you remembered." Link patted the passenger seat next to him. "Get in." I hopped in right as Link was turning on the ignition of the car. Link pressed a button on what looked to be a garage door opener. The wall near us opened up and a long tunnel that seemed to go on forever stretched out before us. Link strapped his seatbelt on.

"Got your seatbelt on?" He asked. I clicked mine in and gave him a thumbs up. Link nodded and put the car into drive. "Good, cuz there's no speed limit here." Before I could ask, he turned on the radio, a disc already in the player started playing the first song: Thunderstruck by ACDC. The fish hybrid stomped on the gas pedal and we went from zero to sixty in just a few seconds. The speedometer kept making its way up and up, past seventy, then eighty, reaching ninety. The back half of me had sunk deep into the passenger seat. I could feel my whole body tensing up. My nails digging into the armrest. Link meanwhile, was slapping his hand against the steering wheel to the beat of the song, and singing along with it:

"-I was caught...In the middle of a railroad track (thunder)
I looked 'round...And I knew there was no turning back (thunder)
My mind raced...And I thought, what could I do? (Thunder)"

The man made tunnel we were driving through started to light up, lighting the way for us. At the end was a closed metal door. My eyes widened at the dead end and tried yelling at Link, but Thunderstruck was playing so loud, I had to flick my ears back to keep from going deaf. Link didn't seem to hear me as he made the Jeep hit one hundred and ten mph.

"-Sound of the drums...

Beating in my heart..."

I got ready to scream, but Link placed a hand on my shoulder. I watched as he pressed another button on the garage remote. The gate opened. By this time, the tunnel had slightly inclined up like a ramp. I could see the outside. The moon was full. My heart pounding to the beat of the song.

"The thunder of guns

Tore me apart..."

Julie the Jeep went through the opening...

"You've been..."

We were airborne...

"Thunderstruck!"

The Jeep came crashing back down to the earth as the guitars and drums in the song began rocking out. The Jeep bumped and skidded a little before gaining traction. Link let out a whoop and raised his fist into the air. A ton of desert dirt rose up behind us as we crossed the miles of nothingness. I found myself gripping Link's arm. I quickly let go before he noticed and laughed a little.

"That was fun! I just wish you told me you were gonna do that," I said giving him a little push. Link smirked as he kept his eyes on the road. "And ruin the surprise? Never," he joked. Link slowed the vehicle back down to ninety, then eighty. The evening weather was nice and cool. The stars were out, and the moon illuminated the ground, painting everything silver.

I had to admit, the Jeep was very nice. I had never been in a Jeep before. The wind whipping my hair back. The cold on my face. It was almost like flying. Without thinking, I took off my seatbelt and stood up on my seat, holding onto the metal bar. Link looked up at me as I stood with my head out the top. My wings trailing behind me. Feeling that rush of adrenaline. Oh how I missed it. I jumped out of the top of the Jeep and flapped my wings. Link did a double take, then saw me flying ten feet above the Jeep. He grinned mischievously.

"Race ya!" he called out to me, speeding faster in his Jeep. I had to call out to him that I couldn't fly that fast, and it has been a long while since I had used my wings. He slowed down and drove under me. I looked down and smiled at him. He smiled back. Then he reached up and grabbed my arm. I hesitated before wrapping my fingers around his. I felt like a kite for a moment. I fanned my wings out and just glided. I couldn't help but to smile.

After a while, I got tired and Link pulled back inside the Jeep. Clicking my seatbelt in, Link turned down the volume. The desert landscape gradually disappeared and became suburban houses. Link asked me for Kenneth's address and placed it into the GPS device. After that, we drove in silence for a while, listening to some soft rock.

"So, why has it been a while since you used your wings?" Link finally asked me. I looked out my window and shrugged. "I don't know...I guess I felt I didn't need to use them amongst the people. I'm so used to hiding them so much. Afraid of being screamed at..." my voice faltered. Link glanced over to me.

"Bat...I know its still hard for you to accept it. You didn't deserve what John had done to you. But don't look at your bat features as a negative thing. Looking the way you look now doesn't define who you are. I know you. You are an amazing person. Don't be afraid of what others think of you. You need to be better than the ones who don't take the time to get to know you."

I nodded my head. "Thank you, Link...I appreciate it." He nodded his head and turned back to look at the road. "You have done so many amazing things. Kicked butt. Saved the world..." I felt my face burn as he began listing off everything that made me great. "...You are a wonderful painter. Painting all those beaches for m-er...uh...Mister...uh Florida...Florida guy!" Link sputtered the words out. I turned to look at him.

"Wait...what did you say? How do you know I was painting beaches for FloridaMan?" Link's face turned bright red. "I...uh...he...Oh look! We made it to your ex's house!" He quickly said as he pulled over across from the house. Butterflies were already fluttering around in my stomach, but now there was way more inside.

We both got out of the Jeep and looked at the house. The house was run down, one story, plain white house with a dead lawn with pieces of trash and a broken dirtbike on it.

Kenneth wasn't at his house. I could tell because his motorcycle wasn't there. I had a feeling I knew where he was. Once I told Link, we both got back into Julie the Jeep. Link drove the car a couple blocks further down the road till we were in front of a different house. Sure enough, his motorcycle was there. Link grabbed a box of eggs from the back of the Jeep and opened them. Miraculously, none of the eggs were broken. Link handed me an egg and gestured to the bike.

"Ladies first."

I stared at Kenneth's bike. All the times he would take me places on his bike. Red flagged memories came back to me as I stood there on the driveway. I wish I wasn't so blind when I decided to go out with him. Why do first loves always hurt the most? What did I do to deserve this type of treatment? I narrowed my eyes when one horrible memory surfaced:

I remember going to the mall with Kenneth. I was visiting him over the summer, while school was out. I wanted to get away from my family, they were yelling at each other again. I left the house to escape. To get away. Kenneth's house was the only safe place from my own life. Kenneth was my savior. Someone who I thought loved me. I remember holding hands with him as we window shopped, neither of us had a lot of money on us. Kenneth pointed out a movie poster with the new movie coming out.

"Oh hey, it's that monster you liked...the name at least." I looked over and saw the poster. "The Missing Link." A director was inspired by Link's back story and wanted to make a movie about him. Link wasn't asked for permission or anything, the director just went and made his own movie about a monster who lived in the ocean and killed people. It was very bad just so you know. It got 5% on Rotten Potatoes.

I remember my heart skipping a beat and my face heating up. I had never told anyone about my crush with Link. Kenneth did eventually find out I was a monster. He seemed ok with it at the time. But I had never talked about my times at the Base, or my moments with Link. Kenneth had found my sketchbook filled with my drawings of Link. He asked about it. I just snatched the sketchbook away and hid it from him after that.

"Heh...yeah," I responded nervously.

"Could be his cousin," I remember Kenneth saying jokingly. I just shrugged, but stared up at the poster. Thinking about him. Thinking about Link. Wondering what he was doing right now.

"What did you even see in him?" Kenneth asked.

My heart felt like a knife had slid through it from his words. I turned to him. "What do you mean?" I asked him. Kenneth sighed and ran his fingers through his unwashed dirty hair. "I mean...the slimy scales, the fish tail. I bet he just reeked of dead fish." I didn't respond. I didn't know how to respond to that comment at the time. It threw me off guard. He sounded jealous while he made the comment. Then Kenneth laughed to himself as he thought of something funny in his head.

"What?" I asked him. He turned to me with that horrible smile on his face.

"Do you get turned on when you see fish at an aquarium?" My jaw dropped in horror. How could he say a thing like that to me? What made him think that disgusting idea? Kenneth didn't seem to get the hint when I told him that it wasn't funny. Apparently seeing me angry made him laugh harder. "Does tuna in a can make you w-"

I didn't let him finish. I told him to shut up. Well, I screamed at him to shut up. My scream caused him to fly backwards and skid across the mall floor on his ass. I turned and stormed out, leaving him in the mall. I think afterwards I found out he had been cheating on me after that incident. I humiliated him at the mall, and the only way to get back at me was to cheat on me apparently.

I threw the egg hard at Kenneth's bike. The egg yolk landed on Kenneth's bike's windshield, slowly sliding down, making a gooey mess. Link grinned and threw one at the bike too. The egg splatted against the front light. For the next ten minutes, it was just me and Link throwing eggs and ruining Kenneth's prized possession. Cracking eggs and letting them drip onto the seat and side saddles. Link stuck one into the exhaust pipe. I cracked a few on the handlebars. Sticky handlebars sounded so annoying. Perfect for Kenneth. Doing this did feel very childish, but at the same time, it felt good to get back at that asshole.

We threw the last ones from afar, seeing if we could break any of the side mirrors off. None of us did, but it was fun. Link had one more left but he said he was saving it for when we left. Once the eggs were done, we sat behind one of the bushes near the driveway to take a rest. Link smiled and gave me a weak shove. "So, was it worth it? Did you have fun?" he asked me. I smiled and nodded. "Yeah...I think it helped a little. It's not going to undo everything he did...but I feel like I was able to release some of this built up anger inside me."

Link nodded. "That's good." We sat there in silence, enjoying the cool night air. I stared up at the moon. Suddenly we heard a strange hissing sound. Both our ears flicked up. "What's that?" I asked. Link shrugged. "I have no idea."

Boom! Pop! Pop! Boom! Bam! Pop!

We both jumped and scrambled to our feet. Looking over the bushes, we saw Kenneth's bike steaming and turning yellow. The eggs were bubbling, popping and making those loud noises. The eggs acted like acid, and started eating away at the bike and the ground around it. Link's tail went straight up.

"Oh...crap...those were the alien eggs," Link said, looking down at the last egg in his hand. I guess someone from the Base thought they were regular chicken eggs and stored them in the walk in fridge. Kenneth's bike fell over and crashed as the eggs acted like a herd of starfish over a corpse of a sea creature. Sparks and flames erupted from the bike. It was suddenly like the 4th of July. Both me and Link's jaws were open in shock.

"Fuck." I said. Link nodded his head. "Yeah...fuck."

Suddenly the front door of the house burst open. Kenneth and a girl I didn't recognize came outside. Kenneth was in his boxers. The girl was wearing his shirt and nothing else, thankfully it was like a tent on her. I guess we interrupted something important with those two.

"Hey! What the fuck are you doing?!" I heard Kenneth yell. Link's eyes widened as he cursed under his breath. "Let's go!" Link threw the last egg at Kenneth. Kenneth yelped as the egg exploded in front of him, causing the cement to get eaten away and creating a foot wide hole in the ground.

Link grabbed my arm and we both bolted back to the Jeep and sped off. The last thing I heard was Kenneth screaming about his bike. Link began laughing. It was both a laughter of fear but also thrill. I smiled and joined in. The Jeep sped faster down the street into the night.

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