Chapter 13: Campfire Origins: Part 2! The Revenge Seeker From Van Nuys!
"When I was a child, my parents were more concerned with themselves then they were at raising me." Dan began his tale. "They were being so neglectful to the point that television was basically my parent throughout most of my abusive childhood in Van Nuys."
"Oh my goodness!" Eclipsa exclaimed in shock at the human's no so happy upbringing.
"That's horrible!" Bridgette said as she instinctively held Milo and Sara close to her.
"Is all that happened, Dan?" Lincoln asked. "Was everyday like that?"
"Basically." Dan replied. "My mom was away a lot and apathetic towards anything revolving around me and my dad was an abusive, lazy jerk the whole time. Often to the point of beating me for almost no reason."
"Geez, that's troubling." Globgor said as he embraced the two females in his life.
"Agreed. Anyway, my mom was just as bad. For crying out loud, I consider a fire to be like a mother's hug to me... at least I think that's what I think that's what a mother's hug is like cause I never got a hug from my mine."
"Oh man! That is messed up!" Lincoln said in shock.
"I'm with Lincoln." Sara said. "What is wrong with your parents?!"
"I don't know! Apparently I guess they didn't want to have me! They even divorced over it, I mean for God's sake, my mother gave me some brass knuckles as a gift once, which I still have with me when I was on Earth." Dan said before reaching into his left pocket and pulling out a pair of gold brass knuckles as he showed them to the gang. "This is the only gift that my mother gave that I actually like!" He revealed to them before shoving the items back into his pockets. "I mean seriously, what kind of gift is that?!"
"A messed up one obviously." Lincoln replied.
"Right you are, Lincoln." Dan said as he then said to the boy. "So, believe me Lincoln when I say that you're not the only one who suffers from abuse from those around you, hubris comments or anything of the sort."
The boy nodded as Dan got back to his story. "Anyway, it got so bad that they once sent to a summer camp called Camp Atrocious (which was horrible by the way) with no hesitation where I met animal man here." He said, patting Chris' back.
"Wait, is it one of those camps where the bullies pick on you and hide from the counselors and make you take the blame for whatever it is they do?" Lincoln asked.
"Not this one." Chris said. "Camp Atrocious was a camp where the older kids pick on the younger kids, which the camp counselor named Mr. Tadesco, the cruel founder of said camp, who not only allowed the violence but encouraged it."
"Well it wasn't all bad after that, right?" Milo asked.
"Yeah, I mean you met each other." Sara said.
"Allow me and Dan to give you a reality check of what we had to go through at that madhouse." Chris said as he began his tale of the duo's experience at the hellish camp, making Lincoln and the other gulp in fear. "Tadesco ran his camp applying the methodology of "might is right", meaning that the physically strongest members would prevail. The camp attendees would be split into one of two teams, the Warrior Wigwams or the Papoose Pavilion, and both teams would have to fight over the Spirit Stick, a wooden spear which signified which team had power and privilege to abuse the other team."
Dan then continued from there. "For two years since the camp's inception, the Warriors kept the Spirit Stick and constantly abused the Papoose, but that all changed when I arrived at camp for the first time. Upon first arrival, I had my things stolen by two Warrior members called Alec and Bobby, who also tied him to a tree, from which he had to be untied by Chris. In order to get my things back, I devised a plan to steal the Spirit Stick, which culminated with me throwing a nest of angry hornets into the Warrior cabin, injuring several of them before stealing the Stick."
Chris then continued from there. "Despite their rotund victory, Tadesco punished Dan and the Papoose for using "subterfuge and tactical superiority" instead of brute force to take the Stick, locking them in a tennis court as part of a "game" he called Civil War Prison Camp and intending to leave them there until camp concluded two weeks later. Dan devised another plan and dug a hole under the court fence, escaping with me one night to overthrow Tadesco's regime."
Dan then concluded their tale. "Chris and I subdued the Warriors with several traps in the woods before releasing the other Papoose and attacking Tadesco's cabin. A terrified Tadesco ran out into the woods but was soon captured and beaten by yours truly, I also stole his toupee and left him to the mercy of the other Papoose, who decided to play "William Tell" with Tadesco. I don't know what happened to him after that though, until now that is. After that, bear man and I became friends, so I guess it wasn't all bad. After all, that psychopath is the reason why I am the revenge hungry, person that I am today."
"Wait, was Mr. T the one who sent you into space?" Eclipsa asked.
"Well... he was one of them?" Dan mutter in his usual angry tone.
"There's more of them?" Chris asked.
"Yeah, there was the superhero or in this case super jerk Terrifi-Guy-" Dan began only to be interrupted by Lincoln.
"Wait? Did you just say... s-s-s-SUPERHERO?!" Lincoln said as the pupils in his eyes became diamonds as he was about to let out a high pitch squeal of giddiness, joy, and just sheer glee, only for Dan to instantly cover his mouth with a hand.
"If you're about to squeal like a little girl. Do us both a favor and don't, for the sake of your manliness and dignity. And also because you have to remember that he was one of the people who sent me here." Dan said in a gentle but firm tone as Lincoln nodded as the revenge seeker gently took his hand off the boy's mouth. "As I was saying, the third one was the news reporter, Helicopter Hal. The next one was that imposter that tried to steal my looks and my life, he even tried to drive me crazy when he was a telemarketer! The next one was my former dentist, Dr. Pullum..."
Dan then stopped for a moment to look at his best friend. "Chris, I'm not really sorry to say this but Elise was the last person to do this to me too."
"Wait, WHAT?!" Chris exclaimed in shock. "Dan, please tell me you're joking."
"I'm not, you gullible idiot!" Dan said in anger. "That selfish broad of yours didn't hesitate to launch me out here! Especially, after everything I've done for the both of you, despite my countless jabs at your marriage! It was in that message that was relayed to me when I woke up on that rocket!"
Chris fell silent for a few minutes at his friend's conformation. He couldn't believe that his own wife did this to his best friend and didn't tell him about it until i was almost too late... which led to the duo's current situation.
He showed signs of shock, anger, and a hidden rage within that he rarely showed!
Chris knew one thing he had to do when he got back to Earth... if he ever did that is!
"If we get back to Earth, I'm going to confront her for this, I guarantee you that!" Chris said in a rather cold tone.
"Woah, Dan!" Globgor exclaimed in surprise. "What'd you do to make them mad enough to do this to you and Chris?!"
Dan thought back to some of the crimes he's committed before he replied. "Well, before this, I took Terrifi-Guy's powers away, destroyed Pullum's HQ, my rebellion against Tedesco spoke for itself as Chris and I stated earlier, and nearly destroyed the Earth when I tried to off a family of squirrels that annoyed me."
"WHAT?!" Dan's fellow humans exclaimed in absolute shock.
"A family of squirrels?!" Lincoln asked in shock.
"Jesus Christ!" Martin said in shock.
"Why squirrels though?!" Sara asked in shocked.
"They made a big mistake when they wronged me!" Dan exclaimed dramatically.
"How?" Bridgette asked.
"There irritating squeaking kept me up at night for five whole months in a row!" Dan said angrily as he thought to the sleepless nights he had on Earth. "They deserved what I nearly gave them!"
"And destroy the planet and kill everyone in the process?!" Milo asked, completely weirded out. "Including you?"
"That's awfully petty." Eclipsa said.
"Extremely petty." Bridgette said.
"And maddening!" Globgor said in shock.
"As much as I hate to admit it Dan, they all have a point." Chris said to his "friend".
The Californian revenge loving sociopath looked to the side for a bit before realizing that they were indeed right. "Touché. But hey, at least I don't kill anyone... intentionally that is."
"Well, at least you have some morals, Dan." Eclipsa couldn't but be snarky to him.
"Okay Eclipse, if you think your so high and mighty, why don't you and Globs here tell us your story of how you got exiled from..." Dan stopped for a brief second. "wherever it is that you hail from?"
"Okay, that's fair." Globgor said as he began his family's tale of exile.
To be continued...