CHAPTER 4
Nemo moaned and groaned groggily as he began to slowly open his eyes. Once his eyes were open and adjusted he tried to get up. Nemo rubbed his eyes, he can still feel pain in his head. He tried to remember what happened. Nemo thought back remembering the events that happened to him. From his first day of school, to the field trip, up to his kidnapping by those strange men in those mecha suits...
"Dad!" Nemo shot up from his place. He did a 360 degree turn, looking around, knowing this was not some place he was familiar with. "Daddy?" he called out, beginning to feel a little scared.
Where was he exactly? Where was his dad?
Nemo began to whimper as he panted, feeling more and more scared of the place. Checking every inch and corner of the room he was in.
The room he was in was dull, had no color at all, expect a gray color, the only furniture that was in the room was a dull beige colored couch, a brown love seat chair and some old looking cot beds. The floor looked demolished as if it was damaged or taken apart leaving only a giant hole in the floor leading to who knows where. The room had only one window that was bared up, it was too high up for him to reach and see outside.
Nemo looked around at the room he was in, it somewhat reminded him of some sort of hospital room, only it didn't feel like it. It also reminded him of a prison, which what it really felt like to him. Whatever this place was, Nemo didn't like it at all and had to get out.
That's when Nemo noticed a door, he ran to it and tried to open it, tried with all of his might as he could, it would still not open. "Come on, open! Open!" he cried, tried to push onto it, tugging and pulling as well, but still the door remained locked.
Soon Nemo began to hear muffled voices coming from the other side of the door and out of the room, he couldn't quite hear them. But soon he took notice of a strange large glass window, he slowly walked over to the window and had a good look on what was the other side.
Nemo noticed this large glass window looked like one of those one way mirrors in some ways. Nemo looked through the window to see there were strange people looking like they were doctors from the way they dressed, gathering around a patient tied to a stretcher. Nemo caught the look at the patient, seeing he looked terrified of something. Nemo was surprised when the patient stared right at him, giving a pleading look that he wanted help for some reason. But Nemo wondered if this place was anything like a hospital, than why was the patient all tied up?
"Why hello little fella! See you're finally up!" a gruffed voice said, revealing of a tall man in front of the window. Nemo yelped and tried to hide within his arms that he placed over his head, shielding himself. Nemo heard the man laugh, but something about this man's voice seemed awfully familiar.
Nemo slowly lowered his arms as he took a peek at the man in front of the window. The man was tall with an average built but with a bit muscles, almost like he could work as a drill sergeant in the military. Having gray hair, and having blue eyes but they didn't seemed friendly or welcoming, they were cold cruel in some ways. The man continued to laugh, Nemo began to shiver in his place, just realizing who he was staring at.
This was one of the men in the mecha suits that kidnapped him.
Nemo continued to shiver, until he noticed another man walked over. He seemed roughly around the man's height and age, sporting salt and pepper hair that was a bit thinning. And he too had blue eyes but somewhat seemed a light blue and almost friendly compared the other man's cold deep blue eyes.
"Cute kid, ain't he Dr. Hunter?" the man said to his follow colleague "He sure is something Sherman, despite his hand and all" "We'll be sure to look into it" both eyed the boy and his hand "Now where exactly again did you and Stien find him?" Dr. Hunter asked.
Nemo turned to his kidnapper, seeing he was called Sherman, as he laughed and replied "Found this little guy being a bad boy, and got caught in a restricted area at the Aviation Museum. You could say Stien and I 'saved' him before security got to him" Sherman recounted his 'caught of the day' to the doctor beside him. Nemo just looked up at him with a scared look, knowing his version was different and what actually happened to him. "So those mecha suit prototypes seemed to work this time" "Worked like a charm!" the two men said and turned back to their patient.
"So is the patient ready?" "Barbara gave us an all clear, he's ready for his operation" the two walked over and began to wheel the patient to a set of doors down the hall. Nemo watched as the patient was afraid and looked like he was struggling, trying to break free but was still tied down.
Nemo didn't like the looks of this place more and more. Having no clue what this place was and/or where it was. Not even wanting to know what they had planned for the patient, or worse to him.
He began to slowly back away from the window until he yelped as he tripped over something. Nemo looked up wondering what tripped him, he looked to see a strange box, resembling a treasure chest. Nemo stared at the strange box for a good second, before opening the lid. Soon bubbles began to stream out of the box, Nemo looked to see this box was like some sort of bubble machine.
"BUBBLES!"
Nemo suddenly turned from the shout, seeing a scruffy blonde haired man running over and yelling something in gibberish. Nemo jumped out of the away and watched the man continued to yell in gibberish as he seemingly tried to catch the bubbles. Nemo got a good look at this man, seemingly he had blonde hair, pale skin and wore a yellow shirt and white pants and white and yellow runners.
The blonde haired man suddenly closed the lid and held onto the bubble machine "My bubbles" he said, holding the box protectively close to his body.
Nemo slowly backed away from this strange man until he bumped into something, or rather someone. "Don't mind him. He likes bubbles" a friendly female voice said. Nemo turned to see he bumped into a woman with onyx colored eyes, fair skin and pink hair that was up in a half bun hairstyle, with a cute star hair clip in her hair, while the rest of her pink locks flowed down to her shoulders. She wore a hot pink flared bell sleeved blouse, blue jeans and flats.
The pink haired woman just gave a friendly smile, but Nemo jumped away from her. "Ah! No! No!" Nemo ran to one of the cot beds and hid underneath.
Nemo looked to see some shadowy figures whispering to eachother as they approached the cot where he was hiding. One of the figures he recognized was the blonde haired man, but the other 3 were unknown to the young boy. Nemo whimpered in fear, seeing these strange people. More people that might want to hurt him. Nemo tried to hide deep under the cot, not wanting these people get any close to him.
"Bonjour" a voice said next to him, making Nemo screamed and run out from under the cot.
"Whoa, slow down little fella." a man chuckled as he gently grabbed the boy that tried to run pass him. Nemo looked to see he was big and bulky, somewhat a little overweight, he had tan skin color, was bald and had a brown colored beard on his face. He wore a beige tank top and brown shirt jacket and brown pants and runners. The big man chuckled again as he slowly brought Nemo back "There's nothing to worry about" he said, calming the boy that he and the others mean him no harm.
However despite the man's calming words, Nemo still looked afraid as he panted a bit.
"Oh, he's scared to death" a woman cooed. Nemo turned to see another woman, she had short chin length dark blue hair with white highlights, half of her hair was up in a small top knot. She had kind blue eyes, and had fair skin. She wore white shirt underneath her blue and white striped poncho, blue skinny jeans and white runners. The blue haired woman also had a handheld mirror attached to her wrist.
Nemo then turned and noticed that beside the blonde hair man was another man, in which he was skinny, had pale skin and had blue eyes. He wore a purple and yellow looking beanie to hide his unusual purple hair. His outfit he wore was a long sleeved turtleneck sweater, upper half was purple while the bottom was yellow. He wore yellow colored pants and black runners.
Nemo looked at the strangers around him, seeing as they were not mean people at all. But he was still scared. "I wanna go home" he said timidly. "Did you know where my dad is?" he asked, looking at each of them to see if they had any clue to where he was.
"Honey, your dad's probably back at the town you live in" the pink haired woman said to him sweetly. "Town? What town?" Nemo asked, looking confused "You know, small little community town. Known for popular tourism spot, or founded by certain historian resident, famous landmark, that sort of town" the big man said, giving examples to what most towns have. "Take me for example; I'm from Fischmar Town" he then gave an example to where he came from, as did the others.
"I'm from Palacefields" the man in purple and yellow said.
"Fischramaburg" the blonde haired man said, raising his hand proudly.
"OrderMaine" the blue haired woman said cheerfully next.
"East Bay" the pink haired woman finished.
"So kid, which town are you from?" the man in purple and yellow asked, resting his hand on Nemo's shoulder. "I'm from...Ocean City" Nemo answered slowly looking up at him "Ah, Ocean City...OCEAN CITY! AHHH!" the man freaked out. He screamed as he pulled his hand off the boy, looking at his hands. Nemo looked confused while the others rolled their eyes at the man's behavior.
The man looked at his 'contaminated' hand "Do you realize all kinds of germs spreading around a place like that! He needs to be decontaminated! Jacques!" he turned and called out.
Just then a man came from under the cot where Nemo previously hid under. He had sleek red hair, had a mustache and goatee. Wearing a black beret on his head, he wore a red and white striped shirt, black pants and shoes. He sported a French accent "Oui!" he answered "Clean him!" "Oui!" he walked over to the group.
"Ocean City" the man in purple and yellow said, pointing to the boy. The man named Jacques examined Nemo's hands "Cité de l'Océan" he said, bringing out a washcloth and sanitizer. And with great speed he began to spin Nemo around, as he squirted sanitizer in his washcloth and began to scrub and clean ever known each of the boy from head to toe. Jacques then stopped the boy from spinning "Voila! He is clean!" he spoke, showing how clean Nemo was now. Jacques blew a kiss of his work and walked away from the boy.
Nemo was quite dizzy and tried to find his ground, but the big man and blonde haired man helped him keep a steady ground until he was no longer dizzy.
"Wow, Ocean City. The Big Blue" the blonde haired said, marveled by where the boy came from "What's it like?" he asked Nemo. To which Nemo began to look in thought before replying "Big...and Blue?" he said with a confused tone "I knew it!" the blonde hair man said confidently right, with Nemo slowly walking away from him.
"Kid, if there's anything you need, just ask your Auntie Deb, that's me!" the blue haired woman named Deb chuckled. "Or if I'm not around, you can always talk to my sister Flo" Deb said, leading Nemo to one side, bring up her handheld mirror "Hi, how are ya?" Deb greeted her reflection. Nemo looked to see she was speaking to her reflection "Don't listen to anything my sister says, she's nuts!" Deb said as she gave a laugh.
Seeing this confused Nemo, what he saw was that this woman thought her reflection was her sister? Nemo just smiled politely and slowly backed away.
"Must be confusing around here at first, but you'll understand eventually Kid." Nemo turned back to the big man. He then burst out with a chuckle "Where are our manners, I'm Bloat" he introduced himself. "You met Deb, and 'Flo'" Bloat pointed to Deb busy talking to her 'sister.' "You already met Bubbles" Bloat pointed to the blonde haired man who waved, Nemo waved back but chuckled a bit knowing why he was called bubbles upon their first meeting.
"Over there is Jacques, and the germophobic there is Gurgle" Bloat pointed to the next people of the group as Nemo laughed a bit. The purple and yellow man known as Gurgle heard him and glared, while Jacques was cleaning Gurgle's hands.
"And lastly this here is Peach. Don't let the pink fool you, she's one smart cookie" Bloat lastly introduced the pink haired woman. Nemo looked to see the woman wasn't facing them but facing the large window, when suddenly she said something. But she had her face pasted in the window that no one heard her properly. All they heard from her were muffling sounds. "Can't hear you Peach" Bloat said, rolling his eyes a bit with a smirk. Peach then turned back to the group "I said we got a live one!" she replied to them.
"Yes!" "Oh boy! Oh boy! Oh boy!" with that the gang ran to Peach's side, Nemo stood as he watched the group get excited over something. He watched as Peach brought out a small little tv like device, seemingly watching something going on. "What do we got?" Deb asked "Root Canal Operation. And from the looks on what they're doing, it's not gonna be pretty to Tucker" Peach replied, looking from the window and the small device.
It seemed that the device was picking up something, showing what was going on with those doctors and the patient in the operating room. The doctors just seemed calm as they were doing their job, but the patient, known as Tucker, was in pain as they were operating on his mouth. Obviously he was still awake in the operation, not asleep or gassed.
Nemo heard the screams loud and clear, he looked to the gang to see they looked in pity of the patient, almost as if they looked afraid a tiny bit. But they seemed to be more focused to the operation on how it's done. As if it was distracting them from Tucker's pain they were hearing.
"Rubber dam and clamp installed?" Bloat asked "Yep" Peach replied "What did he use to open?" Gurgle asked next "Gator-Glidden drill. Sherman seems to be favoring that one lately with these kinds of mouth operations" Peach replied, looking at her little device. Deb was looking through the window, however her reflection was somehow in the way blocking her view. She gave an annoyed groan "I can't see Flo!" she said to her 'sister' trying desperately to see.
The gang continued to watch Sherman and the other doctors performing more on Tucker, to which he continued to muffle scream in pain. Peach tilted her head to see what they were doing next "Now they're doing the Schilder technique" "He's using a Hedstrom file" Bloat said, looking at one of the tools he claims to recognize.
"That's not a Hedstrom file, that's a K-Flex" Gurgle squinted his eyes before turning back to Bloat. "It's got a teardrop cross-section, clearly it's a Hedstrom" Bloat stated, starting to get annoyed and crossed his arms. During so Peach, Deb and Bubbles backed away from the two, knowing how it's gonna turn out.
"No K-Flex"
"Hedstrom!"
"K-Flex!"
"Hedstrom!"
Both began to yell back and forth before suddenly Bloat began to have head pains "Ow! Ow! Migraine! Migraine!" he shouted holding his forehead. "I'll go get his medication" Deb sighed, running over grabbing them. Once Bloat took his medication, he took calming breaths and was back to normal.
Nemo watched the gang with curious awe. Seeing as how they were all different in some ways, getting a feeling they were kinda like him, different but the same, being of his hand for example. All seemed different from how they act to certain medical issues, just like with his Lucky Hand.
Just then he heard some sort of beeping and clicking sound coming from the door. Nemo whipped his head to the sound and watched with confusion to see a man running in the door when suddenly the door closed behind him.
The man didn't appear to be a doctor, but was dressed like a pilot, wearing a pilot jacket, helmet and goggles on his head which he had gray and white hair. He appears to be an older man, but he seemed to chipper like if he was younger. He was huffing and panting like he was running, before making his way to the gang.
"Hey Nigel" Peach greeted the man "Sorry, I'm late! You know how difficult it is to come and visit" the man named Nigel said, panting a bit before sitting beside Peach. "So what did I miss? What operation is Sherman doing today?" he asked "Root Canal" Peach replied "Root Canal. What did he use to open?" "Gator-Glidden drill" "Sherman seems to be favoring that one lately with his mouth operations" Nigel and Peach began chatting with eachother as they continued to watch the operation.
Nigel's eyes suddenly shifted as he caught sight of a young boy with reddish orange hair "Hello" he greeted. Nemo gasped, feeling more shy than ever as he scooted closer to Deb to hide behind her.
"And how's this?" Nigel asked, trying to get a good look "New guy!" Deb replied cheerfully as she gave a laugh. Nemo felt Deb's hand on his shoulder, she smiled to him as he watched the others gathered around him. "Sherman got the kid from Ocean City" Gurgle told the man.
"An Oceanier huh? Who'd a thunk!" Nigel seemed to be surprised by this. Nemo slowly got out from behind Deb and slowly walked over to Nigel. "You'd be surprised, I made my trips flying over Ocean City a few times" Nigel said, but the look on his face said differently. "Sherman always gets his rare 'catches' alright. But for a child to be taken to a place like this..." "What's wrong?" Nemo looked up at the man "Little guy, you're about miles away from home, aren't ya" "M-miles?" Nemo was shocked and surprised to hear "You didn't tell him yet, did you?" Nigel asked as he turn his attention to the gang.
"Tell him what, Pelican?" Nigel gasped as he, Nemo and the gang turned their attention to see Sherman standing by the door. And from the look on Sherman's face he didn't seem too thrilled to see Nigel at all.
"What did I tell you about visitations with my patients?" Sherman marched over to the pilot "Oh patients are they, you don't treat them like patients Sherman. You treat them like test experiments!" Nigel crossed his arms and glared at the man before him. "Out of here Pelican, now! If I catch you one more time, I'll be taking that card of yours! You can forget back visitation rights with these bunch of rejects!" Sherman yelled, shooing Nigel out.
Nigel turned back to the gang, giving a sad and apologetic look to the others. He then walked out the door before things get wrong and out of hand.
"Let this be a lesson to you 'Lab Gang!'" Sherman stomped over to them "You're all lucky I allowed Nigel to visit you at all, but if you or he cross me one more time, well...let's say the punishment is far worse than you all can imagine" Sherman threatened as he eyed them one by one.
Nemo looked more afraid when he hard Sherman said that. He shifted his eyes to see Bloat glaring at the man, Deb held onto Peach in fear as both woman looked afraid. Both Gurgle and Bubbles were sweating and shaking in their places, while Jacques stood his ground, mumbling something in French.
Sherman glarly eyed them all until he's gazed caught to Nemo. He smiled at the boy and leaned forward down to the boy's height. "I wouldn't get attached to these bunch little fella, you got a special doctor coming in." he began to talk to the boy sweetly, Nemo tried to show no fear, but from the tone Sherman was talking in, something unpleasant was making Nemo more uneasy and afraid, and there was more yet to come from the sounds of it.
"In the next few days, my niece Darla is coming, you got a special operation appointment with her. She'll see what we can do to...'fix' that abomination of a hand of yours" Sherman held Nemo's Lucky Hand, looking disgusted by the 3 normal fingers and 2 prosthetic fingers. Nemo jerked his hand away from the man.
Sherman just gave Nemo a stare before turning to the gang, eyeing each of them again. However Sherman gave an uneasy smirk "Seems like he didn't meet your fearless leader yet, wouldn't matter either way" Sherman said smuggingly as he turned and walked back to the door. "Enjoy your stay little fella!" Sherman said sweetly before chuckled cruely.
Nemo stood like a statue when he heard that cruel chuckle, making him feel more uneasy and uncomfortable than ever. He watched Sherman leave the room, hearing the door click and beep once again.
Nemo turned away from the door as he recalled what happened and from what he heard. He was beyond shocked from what little information Nigel told him. He was miles away from home, and miles away from his dad.
But from the tone of Sherman's voice, something told Nemo that he will be having an operation on his hand. Performed by Sherman and his niece, Darla.
But why?
There wasn't anything wrong with him or his Lucky Hand?
Why was he suddenly informed he will be having a unnecessary operation appointment in the next few days?
Still with everything going on, Nemo still wondered what place this was he taken to. It seemed like a hospital, but it just doesn't in a way. Sherman and the other doctors seemed to perform on their patients with cruel and disturbing methods. And with him and the gang being locked up, it felt more like a prison. But then he remembered that Nigel said that Sherman didn't treat the gang like patients, but treated them like 'experiments.'
Experiments of what though?
Just then Nemo looked up to see the shocking looks on the Lab Gang's faces, all seemed in deep utter shock from hearing Sherman's news. "Oh Darla..." Bloat snarled breaking the silence in the room "What? What's wrong with her? Isn't she a doctor like Sherman?" Nemo asked, more confused as ever. "Kid, she and Sherman are nothing like regular doctors! They're monsters!" Gurgle retorted.
"Buy why? What's going on? What is this place?" Nemo asked, finally wanting to know what they know.
The Lab Gang turned to eachother, all with a same feared look. But they nodded, knowing that the kid had to know the truth.
"Sweetie, this shouldn't be a place for you, you shouldn't even be here in the first place!" Peach said, walking over to him as she held a binder filled with papers. "But you should what kind of place this is, and who Sherman really is" she said as she sat down and began to show him the papers. Nemo walked over, sitting in her lap and looked at the papers, some of the words were a bit hard for him to understand, and there were certain pictures and notes all about Sherman. Nemo turned to Peach as she took a deep breath.
"This man that you see before you is none other than Philip Sherman, he used to have a doctorate and had a job working in the military government. He used to be a regular doctor, like any other. His fieldwork was none other than the study of the human anatomy in environment. Studies from how humans are when they are born, even those who are born...'differently special' you could say and how they benefit in society" Peach began to tell Nemo on Sherman and his past.
"But, Sherman had different sights he set upon in his work. He began to study what if he could 'change' or 'fix' those who were born differently. Maybe even can try to save them and be perfect human beings, just like those who were born normal. Soon this study lead him down a dark path." Peach continued, Nemo looking up at her, seeing a scared look on her face. Turning to see the scared look on everyone's faces.
Having a clue what being 'different' meant by as Nemo held his Lucky Hand.
"Without military personal eyes hovering and watching him, Sherman began to illegally experiment on live people, some who had illnesses and some with disabilities. Trying to operate on them, seeing what made them different and non-perfect inside, trying to fix them, to become normal perfect human beings in the world, maybe even weapons for the military. You could say he was, getting rid of the unperfect of certain 'different' people. Seeing as he's gone mad and drunk with his research! The military realized Sherman's crazy mad studies and imminently fired him. Not long before he managed to steal back his studies, even stealing some military blueprints he could use for himself, like the mecha suits being one of them" Peach continued with the tale.
Nemo was shocked by this, hearing what this man did. Illegally experimenting on innocent people just to see what made them unperfect. He was even shocked by the mention of the mecha suits and where they originally came from.
"After getting fired the military informed many doctors of his crazy mad research, making sure no one would allow him near any person living or dead, or even getting another suitable job. Once Sherman was canned, he vowed and promised himself that he will continue his studies and show everyone he can make the perfect human being. Maybe even try to make them into weapons. Showing them, proving them wrong that he can fix the disabled and mentally and they will be perfect." Peach said and she stopped, taking a deep breath.
So once Sherman restarted his research once again and undetected from spying eyes, he gathered some colleages of his that were also fired as well, and they began to perform more experiments, but in order to do so, they needed to find certain...people. That's when Sherman and his men searched all over towns and snach up those who were outcasts, or mentally, or disablely different. Brought them all here and began to experiment on them, srring what made them different and see if they could try to fix them." Peach finished as she looked back to Nemo sitting quietly in her lap.
"The government and the local police gave up looking upon this place, seeing this old asylum was abandoned and was perfect for Sherman and his man to make a hide out. Fixing it up and putting high tech security locks on the doors so no one can escape." Bloat said.
"Once Sherman and his men got everything set up, from finding a hideout from unseeing eyes and snatching up a few people that were no more experiments, he began to cut open innocent people once again. They pick certain people to 'operate' on them time to time. You hope and pray to God you wouldn't be the next experiment to be strapped down on the stretcher for an operation" Bloat said, seeing as Sherman was someone that showed no mercy to innocent people. "Only a few will be operated, some people were even sold in the black market if they get out of line with Sherman. Even those who do make it out of their unecessary surgery will still be sold off to high bidders. And their certain body parts that were once apart of them sold off in the black market as well" Peach added, seeing the look on half of the gang when they heard of this.
Hearing this, Nemo grew more scared than ever. "But, wh-what about D-Darla?" Nemo stuttered, fearing more and more.
Peach, Bloat and the rest turned to him "She's the worst of all!" Gurgle snarled.
"It's true! As you heard, Darla just happens to be Sherman's niece. Every since her parents died, Sherman took her in, and taught her his ways of being a 'doctor.' No sooner that she began to follow in his footsteps. Being just like her uncle, cutting people up just to see their insides and what makes them tick" Bloat began to tell about Darla.
"She's one of the worst people to ever operate on you! Her operations never go smoothly, all end the same unfateful way. It happened with one previous member of our gang. He had this uncontrollable laugh, most people looked at him thinking he was just crazy. No sooner he was announced to be booked for an operating appointment with Darla being the one to perform the surgery on him to cut his vocal chords. And when Darla came that day, he almost made a seen and began to act up and cry before his time came. People believing that he was still crazy. What's worse is that she has a tendency to shake her patients roughly, during or even after they were operated" Gurgle added.
When Nemo heard what Gurgle told him, he turned to Peach as she showed him a paper with doctor notes on that day. There was also a picture attached to it. Nemo gasped when he looked at the picture. It was a young boy no more younger than him, he had a freakled face and a gap tooth smile and seemed to be laughing, the boy also had orange hair.
"Darla has a certain favortism of her operating patients. Let's just say, her favorite patients happen to be redheads" Gurgle added, looking at the picture.
"Poor Chuckles" Bubbles spoke with a sad tone "He was operated on last year!" Deb cried into her hands, turning away not wanting to look at the picture as if brought that sad memory for her. "Très horrible!" Jacques spoke out.
"Kid, when you go behind those doors, you'll never wake up again! Only thing that is left in the room is silence, followed by the sound of a flat line beep" Bloat said, as he made the sound and hand gesture. "She's no angel, she's what we call the Doctor of Death!" Peach finished.
Hearing all this information made Nemo scared out of his life!
There was no way he was going to stay here and let some mad people operate on his hand!
And there was no way he was going to die here!
"No way! I can let that mad woman operate on me!" Nemo began to panic as he panted, getting up from Peach's lap. "I have to get back to my dad!" he shouted as he walked backwards.
Nemo was so scared of his life that he didn't realized he was walking back to the giant demolished hole on the floor. Suddenly he lost his footing and fell into the hole, he managed to grab hold of the ledge with his good hand. But he was having trouble, struggling to pull back up, holding on for dear life. Feeling his hand beginning to slip as he dangled and cried.
"Daddy! Help me!"
"He's gonna fall!" "Oh no!" "We gotta help him!" the Lab gang rushed over to his aid as they were about to pull him back up. "Nobody touch him!" a voice rang out, making the gang stop and freeze in their place.
The voice came out from the shadows of the corner of the room. Belonging to a man with a slender physic and broad shoulders. The man had long black hair tied back in a ponytail, he had tanned skin tone color, and mahogany colored eyes. He wore a white tank top and black leather blazer jacket, black jeans and black boots. There was also a interesting detail about the man as he had a deep scar on the right side of his face, from his brow down his eye to the corner of his mouth and down to his chin. At first glance he gave off a certain look, as if he was giving a death stare to people whenever they look at him or talk to him. And at the same time he also had this mysterious feel or personality about himself. And with the scar on his face and attitude he gave off, he was certainly a mysterious figure at that.
"Nobody touch him" he said again, and began making his way over to the boy. During which the gang slowly backed away as they did what they were told.
Nemo continued to struggle trying to get up to to no avail. He looked up to see the mysterious man before him, kneel beside him. "Can you help me?" Nemo whimpered and asked the man "No. You got yourself into this mess, you can get yourself out" the man told him straight forward.
"Uh, Gil..." Deb began "I just want to see him do it okay" the man Gil replied turning back to them, almost with a yell in his tone. Nemo continued to whimper and struggle as he can feel himself slipping more "Now calm down" Gil told him calmly. "What you need to do is to try to get your other hand up and use all your strength to pull yourself back up" Gil informed him what to do.
"I can't! I have a bad hand!" Nemo whined as he told him, Gil just frowned at the boy, during which he took his leather blazer jack off him and tied it around his waist. Nemo thought at first he was going to use jacket to help him pull himself out, but Gil just continued to stare and frown at the boy. "Never stopped me..." Gil said to the boy, getting back up. Telling Nemo that he needed to do it himself, with no help and no excuse of his bad hand.
Nemo managed to look up at the man walking along side, he then gasped when he got a look at the man. Without his jacket covering him, Nemo could see a deep tissue scar running down Gil's right arm. Seeing the scar from his face was connected and running down to his arm, making Gil even more mysterious than ever. However despite the deep tissue scar, Gil seems he can still managed to continued to do things with it.
"Just do what you need to do..." Gil told him as he turned back to face him.
Inspired by what he saw before him and from what he heard, Nemo carefully tried to swing his other hand up. Once he got hold, Nemo used all his muscles to pull himself back up on his own.
The Lab Gang stood in silence, watching every move. Anticipated as they watched the young boy "Come on..." Bloat whispered encouragement.
Nemo continued to pull himself up, using all his muscles until he was able to get up and swing his legs up and over. Nemo stood up, panting as he looked behind seeing that he did get himself out of this mess. Nemo looked back to the others and proudly beamingly smiled.
"Perfect." Gil smiled back at the boy, just knew he had it in him all along.
"Yay! You did it!" Bubbles cheered, he and the rest of the Lab Gang ran over to Nemo. All congratulating him. "Never had any doubt, well maybe a little" Gurgle told him "Good use on those muscles" Deb laughed cheerfully.
Gil stood in his place, watching the gang praising the young boy. He stood just staring at the young boy, seeing that he definitely had guts alright. At first he thought he was just a scared little boy that couldn't do anything without someone's help and aid. But seeing him pull himself out of the hole, he didn't appear to be helpless. He just needed a little confidence and encouragement to do it.
Peach walked over and stood beside Gil, she then felt him draping his arm around her shoulders which made her cheeks turn a slight tiny pink. Both of them just stood as they both stared at the young by before them. Seeing he was something alright.
"Wow, from Ocean City...just like you Gil" she said in amazement "Right..." Gil replied, his tone being in thought and nodded a bit. Peach tuned to the man, recognizing the look on his face as she chuckled "I've seen that look before. What are you thinking about?" "I'm thinking...tonight, we give the kid a proper reception" Gil responded, telling her what was going on in his head as he pulled her close to him.
Both turned to smile fondly to eachother before turning their attention back to the gang and the little kid.
"So kid, got a name or what?" Bloat asked, smiling down at the young boy as one hand rest on Nemo's shoulder.
"Nemo. I'm Nemo" Nemo replied, introducing himself to his new friends, smiling at each of them.
Despite the situation he was in right now, Nemo didn't feel so alone anymore. Now that he had some new friends to look out for him. Getting to know the Lab Gang, they didn't seem that scary anymore when Nemo first met them.
But deep down, Nemo just had a feeling that somewhere out there, his dad might be looking for him. He just didn't know how bad he was doing so to find him...
To Be Continued...