Forever Bat
...
Chapter 9: The Real Monger
Red lights began to flash and a blaring alarm went off, causing my ears to ring in pain. Soon after, a loud roar echoed throughout the whole base. The loud noise caused me to fall to my knees, crying out in pain. Link reached out and placed his hand on my shoulder.
"Bat! We need to leave! B says they need our help!" Link said, opening his eyes, but keeping them down on me. I saw his eyes strain to keep them on me, but eventually they flickered to behind me. His eyes widened in horror. I quickly stood up, thinking he saw October and was starting to go insane, but I turned around and saw that he had kept his eyes down and he was staring at the dead scientist on the ground. I quickly turned back to him, fanning wings out so he didn't have to see her. He turned his eyes back to me for a moment, snapping back to the present. He grabbed my arm and began pulling me towards the exit. I resisted his pull.
"What about October? We can't just leave him!" I said, my voice shaking little from the shock. Link didn't turn back around, knowing well of the consequences of accidentally catching a glimpse of October.
"We can't do anything with him right now! We are just gonna have to come back for him later," he said. I could hear the concern in his voice for Butterfly. I hesitated, turning to look back at October one last time before Link pulled my arm again. I gave in and bolted out the door with him.
We passed by Clark the robot, causing me to slow down a bit.
"Clark! Watch over Oct-erm...The patient!" I demanded as I passed him. Clark saluted. "I shall, Miss Bat!" he called back. Link impatiently waited for me at the elevator as I came running up to him. He pressed the button to close the elevator doors and up we went. My ears rang from the blaring alarm. Thankfully it was quieter in the elevator. As we stood, breathing heavily in the small spaced cube of an elevator, I remembered the dead scientist and doctors. I should've asked Clark to take care of them; but there was nothing I could do. They were dead. Hopefully Clark would go inside and immediately know what to do. I looked up at Link, he kept his eyes on the numbers as they went up the levels.
Suddenly the elevator began to shake, red lights began to flash. Link slammed his arms against the sides of the elevator walls to steady himself. My wings fanned out instinctively. I stumbled a little, causing my right hand to press against Link's chest. I quickly pulled away and pretended not to notice. Link thankfully didn't notice as he was too busy looking up at the glowing numbers again. "No. No! What now?" asked Link in frustration but also concern. The elevator grinded to a halt. I lowered my wings and saw I was standing near the doors.
"Open the doors. Maybe we can climb out," I told him. Link tried prying the doors open with his fingers but they wouldn't budge. Link cursed under his breath, then turned to me.
"Your turn," he told me, gesturing to the door.
I took a deep breath and screamed at the doors. The metal doors screeched and caved in, crumpling inside of themselves by the Invisible impact before falling backwards and down. I poked my head out. We were suspended by cables in the elevator shaft that went infinitely up and infinitely down. I looked up and saw a door in the wall above us. It was fifteen to twenty feet up above us. I turned back to Link.
"I'll fly up to the next level and open the doors for you. You can climb the cables up," I told him. Link nodded his head. "Just like in the movies, right?" he asked smirking. I smirked back. I opened my wings and flew out the elevator and up through the vertical tunnel. Link hoisted himself up to the top of the elevator and began to climb the cables.
Perching myself on the narrow ledge where the closed doors were, I tried prying them open with my fingers. When that didn't work. I moved off the ledge and flapped my wings to give myself some space and screamed at the doors. The doors flew backwards into the room. I flew into the room, moving away so Link could have enough space to jump and land inside. The room was a small grey hallway with a set of stairs. Thankfully the alarm and flashing lights had stopped.
"I guess taking the stairs is our only option," Link said, sighing loudly.
We took to the stairs. I flew up them, Link ran on all fours, taking them four or five at a time. After the seventh or eighth flight of stairs, he began to slow down. "Go...go on...without...me...I'll...catch...up..." he panted heavily. I hesitated, not wanting to leave Link, but knew Butterfly called out for us-
As if on cue, another roar shook the Base. Link threw his arm upward. "Go, Bat!" I left him to the stairs and flew past the rest of the stairs to the main Base level.
Once I got to the Meeting room, I found myself facing a very strange scene. Doc and B.O.B. were near a Monger that was only wearing his underwear with little American flags all over it, and tied with all kinds of rope, chains, and some kind of glowing yellow alien laser loop. Butterfly and Susan were in a fighting stance against another Monger wearing his military uniform, but with his arms up in defense.
He turned his head to me and seemed to sigh with relief. "Oh thank goodness. Bat! Tell your monster friends that they are wrong! They think that I'm an alien!" he told me. The tied up Monger wearing only his underwear stopped staring at me with wide eyes, then glared angrily at the clothed Monger.
"That's a load of hogwash and you know it! You stole my clothes, then tied me up like a prized hog at the county fair and locked me in my WW1 eight foot ariel bomb in my office! It's empty I promise," he added when he saw Sudan and Doc stiffen from the mention of a bomb.
"You're a load of hogwash, you imposter! You're the alien who's trying to kill Bat!" snapped clothed Monger.
Butterfly turned to look down at me and gave me a concerned roar. I assumed she was asking where Link was. I pointed to the stairs thirty feet away. "He's coming. Just taking the stairs," I told her. She nodded her head, then made another roar. I unfortunately didn't know what she said, thankfully the next best translator was B.O.B.
"Yeah, I agree. I have no idea who the real Monger is. I am so confused right now. Especially about the one in his underwear right now. Didn't Houdini do a magic trick like this?" he asked, pointing at the tied up Monger in underwear. I turned to Susan and Doc.
"Do you guys know which one is the real Monger?" I asked them. Susan and Doc exchanged glances before turning to me. "Well...We weren't expecting to find another Monger. We thought the Monger standing over there was still Monger, just being controlled by the alien," Susan answered truthfully.
"I was tricked! He jumped me and trapped me in my own office!" said underwear Monger.
"I was tricked, but I got the upper hand and stopped it!" said clothed Monger.
I turned to face the two Mongers and inspected them closely. The clothed one was clean shaven and well kept. The other was unshaven and his hair was a little longer then his usual buzz cut. I listened to their heartbeats. They each had one heart. Not multiple like an alien, specifically October's kind, but it still didn't clear them. I thought for a moment, trying to figure out a way to know which was the real Monger. An idea came into my head.
"What name is the robot downstairs?" I asked them.
"Clark," said the underwear Monger.
"Clark," answered clothed Monger right after him.
"Why is his name Clark?" I asked.
"I'm a Superman fan. I helped build him and I named him Clark Kent, after Superman's secret identity," answered the first Monger.
"I'm a Superman fan. I wanted to name him after my favorite comic book character when I was building him," answered the second Monger.
"What was Clark built to do? You first," I asked the second Monger. The clothed Monger hesitated for a second, his heart rate increasing a little. "He...was made to guard the patient," he answered.
I turned to the first Monger. "Same question."
"He was built for classified reasons...I am not allowed to say what," he answered. I couldn't help but to smile at that answer. "Hi Monger. Long time no see," I said. The Monger in only his underwear smiled back, nodding his head. "You've grown, Bat," he said. The clothed Monger's jaw dropped, then clenched in anger.
"What are you talking about?! I am the real Monger, you guys! What do I have to do to convince you all that I am General W.R. Monger!" the clothed Monger yelled. I turned to the clothed Monger, walked up a couple steps towards him, and stopped a couple feet from where he stood.
"...Work on your Texan accent more. You didn't say 'ya'll,'" I said.
I screamed at the clothed Monger.
All my monster friends gasped out loud in horror. "Bat!" Susan cried out, not sure what I did was the right thing. The clothed Monger was sent flying fifteen feet across the long hallway, then skidded to a halt on the ground. The clothed Monger didn't get up. I turned to help Doc untie the real Monger from his bounds.
Monger stretched his bare arms once he was free. "Thank you, Bat. It's so good to have you around again," he said in his heavy Texan accent. I nodded my head. "Good to be back...and to be talking to the real Monger," I added. We all turned around when he heard faint cursing and groaning.
The fake Monger was slowly sitting upright from where he got knocked backwards. He glared at us from where he was sitting, causing us to gasp in terror. Yellow eyes with black cat like pupils appeared instead of Monger's human eyes. The fake Monger grinned as he got to his feet, shape shifting his military uniform into a black suit and tie; his light brown buzz cut darkened to slicked back dark brown hair, and his right arm became a robot arm.
John Thorson.
All the monsters gasped except me. I just glared at John. John just kept grinning as if he just won a game against the world; placing his sunglasses over his yellow alien eyes.
"Hello, monsters. Long time to see. Well...I have been around, you just didn't know." he chuckled to his own joke as he lifted up his non robotic hand. It shape shifted into a tentacle, then a claw, a weapon, then finally back to his own hand.
"Cool huh? it's my new ability. Since Experiment Six here never wanted to join my side...Had to experiment on myself. I don't see why you are so upset with me for turning you into something better. Having alien DNA is great." He stretched his arm out towards us at lightning speed, grabbing me tightly around the neck. I wasn't able to dodge it in time as he strangled me, lifting me up in the air, then throwing me across the room.
"An eye for an eye, Bat," John said as I slammed into the wall, crumpling to the ground. The back of my head felt wet. When I reached behind my head and pulled my hand back, I found myself staring down at my own blood. My focus blurred a little.
Butterfly screamed in anger and tried biting John's head off with her needle sharp teeth. John dodged out of the way of the giant Butterfly. He shape shifted his robot arm into a flame thrower, causing flames to erupt out of the end. Butterfly reared back, stumbling backwards on her back legs. John shape shifted his whole body into a puddle of goo and slid under Butterfly's feet, causing her to slip, fall backwards and crash through several walls. The whole place shook like a size seven earthquake.
John laughed as he shape shifted back to his original form, but was soon taken down by B.O.B. and Doc. Doc pulled out a gun that shot little balls of electricity, thus shocking John, giving B.O.B. enough time to wrap his gel like body around John. John shook off the pain from the shock and struggled in B.O.B.'s grasp, then turned into a swarm of tiny bees. B.O.B. cried out in pain when they started stinging him, then ran away. The bees swarmed into the shape of a man and John turned back to one solid form again.
He calmly walked up to Doc, grabbed the gun out of his hands and shot it at both Doc and Monger before either of them had any sense in stopping him. The two fell to the ground, convulsing in pain. John laughed at their pain before breaking the gun in two and tossing the pieces to the ground. Doc shook himself out of the shock and tried taking a swing at John, but it was pathetic. John grabbed the bug scientist's fist, then shoved him backwards before adjusting his black suit.
He was nearly flattened to a pancake by Susan's fist and fell backwards on his ass. Susan snarled as she tried punching him again, but he was ready and quickly dodged out of the way again. Susan played whack a mole with John for a while, till John figured out how to get out of the situation. He turned into a snake and slithered up her arm, biting her on the neck and paralyzing her. Susan gave out a strangled cry before her enormous body began to stiffen and collapse to the floor.
"Susan!" I cried out, but was in too much pain to get up from where I slammed into the wall. John calmly walked up to me smiling his malicious smile. "Now, it's just you and me. Creator against creation," he said.
Before John or I could make the first move, Link appeared from behind John, wrapping his arms tightly around him. "You forgot about me, Four Eyes," Link snarled as he wrestled with John. John screamed angrily out loud from the sudden surprise attack. He turned into liquid and spilled out from Link's massive arms. He formed back to himself a few feet away from him. He breathed heavily, adjusting the sunglasses on his face and smoothing back his hair that went out of place.
"Of course...the loyal Dogfish...How could I have forgotten all about you..." John snarled sarcastically. "Where were you this whole time?" he asked. Link pointed to the stairs. "Elevator broke down. Had to take the stairs," he answered truthfully. John nodded in understanding, then shape shifted into Link. The only way I could tell who was who was that John's form of Link was a darker green.
The two lunged at each other and began throwing punches, snapping their sharp teeth, and swiping each other with their fish tails. As I watched from where I laid, I wondered if this was how it looked back in Link's time. Two missing links fighting for survival in the thick humid jungles that would soon become Florida thousands of years later. I wondered if the real Link thought the same thing. I wondered if he missed it...
The real Link roared as he got the fake Link in a headlock, cutting off his circulation.
John choked and struggled for a moment. I watched intently, waiting for John to pass out from lack of air, but instead he did the unthinkable. He shape shifted into me, crying out in pain in Link's strong grip. Link stopped for just a second, staring down at the fake Bat in surprise, but it was all John needed. The fake Bat sank her teeth into Link's arm, drawing blood. Link cried out, thus releasing fake me, and turning back into John.
John gasped heavily, blood trickling down the corners of his mouth and the side of his temple. He wiped the blood dribbling down his mouth and choked out a laugh. "You are one tough fish..." John admitted. "but you always take the bait," John laughed, causing me and Link to cringe from his dad joke. Sometimes I forget he's a dad...Sometimes I can't even believe he's a dad.
Link was standing near me, breathing heavily from the fight. His tail swishing behind him to show he was annoyed. Red scratches were seen all over his scaly body. "I'm starting to wish you were the one in the coma and not October," Link said angrily. John straightened up a little. "October? ...Oh...Subject One. You guys saw Subject One?" he asked. I nodded my head, struggling to get to my feet. "Yeah...I figured it out..." I told him, coughing. John smirked.
"And because you have Subject One's DNA you didn't go insane...why didn't your loyal Dogfish go insane?" he asked. Link growled a low growl. "She warned me ahead of time not to look...How come you aren't? Oh wait...you already were insane," Link threw back at John, making the shape shifting villain laugh.
"Oh, my dear fish-man...You don't know the half of it," John said, grinning evilly, shape shifting back into Monger. He pushed a button that was on the wall near him. Another alarm went off, causing me to flick my bat ears back. Armed, uniformed men and women came pouring out of secret doors from everywhere and surrounded us. John, in the disguise as Monger, pointed at me and Link.
"We got ourselves some rogue monsters! They plan to take down the President and reek havoc across America. Take them down, ya'll" John emphasized on the Texan drawl as he stared at me. I glared at John. He had this whole thing planned from the very beginning.