Zeke proudly pointed to his head. “Yep, being mostly brain-dead has a lot of advantages!” he said proudly.
Ms. Nancy, Tomas and Felipe followed Zeke out of the elevator.
“And since we are vampires, our minds are much more powerful than the minds of normal humans,” Ms. Nancy said. “We’re betting those slime won’t be able to jump into us and mind-body control us!”
Don looked at me. “You sure about this?”
“Yes,” I said.
“If the slime does manage to take control of any of them, it could mean trouble,” Don told me.
“Then we just need to make sure that doesn’t happen!” I said. “Now, come on! We have a mad scientist and some slime to stop!”
We ran down the hall. I could hear a strange buzzing sound coming from Dr. Bobby’s lab. We reached the lab door. The lab was a HUGE room. In the middle of the room was a round metal arch. This arch had to be three or four stories high. The inside of the arch was pulsating with white energy. The pulsating stopped. Looking through the arch, we could see a strange marsh green world. This new world was covered in slimes of all sizes and colors.
Dr. Bobby stood next to a control panel alongside the arch. Two lab assistants stood next to him. The three of them turned to us. Their eyes glowed bright red.
“Dr. Opal, Consoler Opal, Little Opal, Foster Opal, how nice of you to come for the bonding of our worlds. And by bonding, I mean us taking over your world.” Dr. Bobby said.
“By us, I take it you mean the slime?” I said.
Dr. Bobby’s eyes glowed even brighter red. “Yes, this creature called Doctor Bobby, a ridiculous name I might add…he sought to open an inter-dimensional port between our two dimensions to create energy. Vast amounts of energy.”
“That does make sense,” Don said.
Dr. Bobby’s head spun around. “It may, but we, the red, decided that you things called humans are too violent and greedy. And quite frankly, you don’t smell very unpleasant at all. We decided to take over your world and enslave you. We do not wish to, but we must stop you from spreading to other worlds.”
Ellie Mae glared at Dr. Bobby. She pointed to our group of super people. “Yeah, well we are here to shut this down. We got you outnumbered a bunch to three!”
Dr. Bobby smiled, red goo came out of his nose and mouth. “Actually, we are opening the gate right now so our lead blob and the others can come through. The gate takes ten minutes of your earth time to open up.”
“Yeah, well we’ll shut you guys down way before that!” I said. “Like my foster sister pointed out, there are way more of us than there are of you.”
“True,” Dr. Bobby said, shaking his head. Beads of red sweat oozed from his hair. “But we can multiply very quickly!”
The beads of sweat hit the ground. Each of the beads grew into a big man-sized glob of what appeared to be red jello.
“See!” Dr. Bobby said.
“Ellie Mae, get Mom and Dad out of here!” I ordered.
Jeanie’s eyes started to water. “Oh, how sweet, you called us Mom and Dad.”
I turned to her. “I think of you like that, but we’ll talk later.”
“If you live!” Zeke added.
“Yeah if we live…” I agreed.
Ellie Mae touched each of her parents on the shoulder. They smiled and disappeared in a crack of energy.
I turned my attention back to the slime and to Dr. Bobby. “Okay, let’s get on with this!”
Dr. Bobby hesitated. “You know, none of you are technically normal humans. We have no qualms with you. We will leave you alone if you if leave us alone. Deal?”
Zeke looked at me. “That’s a good deal. Right?”
QUAZAR NOTE: BAD GUYS BENT ON TAKING OVER THE WORLD DON’T MAKE GOOD DEALS!
“No,” Ms. Nancy said. “We can’t let this slime come into our world and take over our friends and family.”
Zeke scratched his head. A finger fell off. “I hate it when that happens,” he said. He grabbed the finger with his other hand and jammed it back where it belonged. “Well, I actually never had a friend until Adam came along. But now I get it. Friends are fun.”
“Hey, we’re your friends too, bud!” Felipe said.
“Yeah,” Tomas agreed. “You’re weird, but you claim it. I respect that.”
Jess popped in through a ball of magic. She had Mookie the wolfman with her “Even I like you, Zeke!” Jess said.
Mookie started to speak. He coughed up a hairball. “Gross!” he said. “You’ve grown on me as well, kid!”
Zeke turned to me. “Can I answer this slimy Dr. Bobby for you?”
“Of course,” I said. I thought about for a second. I leaned into him and whispered, “You are going to turn down the deal. Right?”
QUAZAR NOTE: ZOMBIES CAN BE UNPREDICTABLE!
Zeke thrust a hand at Dr. Bobby. His finger flew off and hit Doctor Bobby in the face. “No deal!” he shouted.
“Looks like we have a fight then!” Doctor Bobby said.
Chapter 12
Not a Normal Fight
Scanning the vast room, I figured there had to be hundreds of slimy gross blobs hidden everywhere. And I knew we couldn’t let any out of the room.
I turned to Zeke, “Okay, so we have like a couple of hundred blobs versus me, you, Jessie, Mookie, Ms. Nancy, Tomas and Felipe.”
Zeke lumbered up to me. “I like those odds buddy…”
Ellie Mae flashed into the room. She had an extra surprise for me…my good friend, Lia Strong, otherwise known as Super Teen was standing alongside her. She also had the way cool Tanya with her. Tanya has control over time.
“I thought this could be a job for Super Teen,” Lia told me.
“And when Ellie Mae told us these were beings from another dimension, it sounded like something I’d be interested in. So, I thought I’d come along, too,” Tanya said.
Tanya looked at the globs of slime all around the room. “I must say, this is interesting…. in a very weird way…”
QUAZAR NOTE: WHEN BATTLING EVIL, MORE IS USUALLY BETTER THAN LESS!
A big red one-eyed, six-armed slime rolled over to us, leaving a trail of red goop in its path.
A large mouth formed in the middle of the slime. “Your words are difficult for me to pronounce,” the slime said.
“Sorry,” I said.
“Dude, don’t apologize to the slimes who are trying to overrun our world,” Zeke told me.
“The zombie has a point,” Lia said.
I lowered my head. “Sorry, I’m new to this superhero thing….”
Lia patted me on the shoulder. “You’re doing great!”
Zeke patted me on the head. “True, dude, you are rocking it out…”
The slime coughed, sending out red goop. Tanya froze the red goop in mid-air then sent it shooting back towards the slime.
The pieces of red goop slapped the slime in the face. The slime grew a tongue and licked them off. “Okay, that was fun!” the slime said. “But as I was saying, our leader has evaluated our options and your options. We would once again like to offer you a truce.”
“For the entire planet?” I asked.
“No, just for you super people. We find you a threat, therefore we wish to make peace with you,” the slime said.
All the other slimes (and there were a lot of them) had now surrounded us in the room. On one hand, their tactic was sneaky. On the other hand, it meant they were all close together making it easier for us to clobber them. If it came down to fighting (which I was pretty sure it would), it would be handy to have them all clumped together.
“So that’s the deal, it's a one-time offer,” the slime said, choking on the words. “Take it or die!” The slime grew a tentacle that pointed towards the arch. “Remember, there are only so many of you on this planet. But we have an unlimited amount of red slime that will come here to stop you.”
“What about the other slimes?” I asked.
The slime shot back. “Huh? What?”<
br />
“The blue and yellow slimes,” I said.
The slime shook its top half, spraying out more slime. Once again, Tanya froze the slime spit (for lack of a better word), in mid-air and then reversed the spit back at the big red.
“Yeah, so what about the other slimes?” I repeated.
“The blue and the yellow…they are the scholars and artists…they know nothing about protecting themselves. Leave those silly slimes out of this! They say things like…slime and let others slime!
“We have a similar saying, live and let live,” Lia said.
“Those sound like wise words to me!” Zeke said. He pondered for a second, biting on his fingers. “I like slime and others let slime, better.”
The big red slime sighed. “Silly, dead human, it’s slime and let others slime….”
Zeke smiled. “I like that too!” He looked at the slime. “Ya gotta admit, they are both catchy…”
The big slime plopped to the floor. A mouth shot open in the pile of red. “Look, are we going to fight, or will you take our deal?” A tentacle grew from the slime’s body and pointed at Zeke’s head. The tentacle formed the letters MT.
Zeke pointed at the letters and slowly read: “M T.” He looked at me. “I get it. They say my head is empty! Ha!” Zeke thought about it for a moment more. “Hey, I should be insulted.” He thought another moment. He turned back to the red slime thing. “My head is not empty. It still holds most of my brain,” he boasted far more proudly than he probably should have.
“It’s just most of my brain that’s left doesn’t work as quickly as it should. My brain synapses fire slowly and weirdly.”
“Wow, I am impressed you know about brain synapses,” I told my buddy.
“Hey, I know a lot of things,” Zeke said. “I just don’t brag. For example, what goes up must come down, even though rockets don’t. I know there will always be taxes. I know if you leave bubblegum on the bedpost it will lose its flavor. I know it’s not polite or in good taste to fart in an elevator. It’s even worse if you fart and blame it on somebody else. I know the amazing saying, who smelt it dealt it.”
The red slime started wiggling violently. “What does any of this have to do with anything?” It shouted.
“It means ATTACK!” Zeke shouted.
He leaped at the big red slime.
All heck broke loose.
“Remember, each slime can break apart and split into more slime if you don’t totally freeze or fry them!” I shouted. Then it occurred to me, “Hey, how can all you guys see the slime?”
“Jess and I combined our magic to make them visible,” Ms. Nancy said.
“Great!” I said.
“Do these things have a sense of smell?” Lia asked me. She blasted a few slime away with a massive red heat wave from her eyes.
“Not really sure!” I admitted.
Ms. Nancy and Jess started concentrating. “We will try to get a reading on them….” The two ladies nodded. “They do have a sense of smell, but they love stinky things….so your super foot odor won’t work on them…”
“So, I probably shouldn’t belch on them either,” Zeke said.
“Nope, buddy,” I told him.
“Bummer, they have no brains to eat and my stink won’t work on them. Not really sure why I am here…”
“Mental support, bro!” I said as I hit a bunch of bouncing slimes with a freeze beam, holding them in place.
“Go, team!” Zeke said half-heartedly. Actually, it was more like quarter-heartedly.
Meanwhile, the battle with the slimes was taking off. I continued to freeze away, stopping the slime cold – literally. Lia hovered above me, covering my back, and blasted away with her super heat vision. Felipe and Tomas used their mad vampire skills to jump over and around the slime. Once behind them, they used their vampire draining power to suck energy out of the slimes. Ms. Nancy used her massive vampire energy to drain a bunch of slimes without even touching them. She just waved her arms and the slimes simply shriveled up and kind of wilted. It was neat and scary. Jess used her magic to create balls of energy that turned each slime they hit into little toy slimes. Tanya used her time control to rewind the slimes back into the archway.
Mookie, for his part, tried to eat one of the slimes. At first, he said, “yum tastes like jello….” But then he suddenly turned a very bright shade of green.
His smile disappeared and he passed out. Ellie Mae teleported him to the Future Now medical lab where they kept him in isolation along with Dr. Bobby and his assistants.
QUAZAR NOTE: DO NOT EAT SLIME!
Speaking of Future Now, Mr. Lawrence contacted us through MAC, the communication device that Lia wore on her wrist. “How’s the situation, Adam, I mean Quazar?” Mr. Lawrence asked me.
“We are holding our own!” I said and blasted out more freeze rays.
“Do you want me to send in security bots?” Mr. Lawrence asked.
I heard the very familiar voice of Lia’s, BFF, Jason, kick into the conversation. “Actually, from what I’ve learned from studying the slime here at BMS Labs, the slime could overrun and take control of the bots just like they do normal humans.”
That Jason is way smart.
“Okay, so I guess the world’s safety is up to you guys!” Mr. Lawrence said.
“Don’t worry, we got this!” I said.
Tanya walked up to me. She was soaked in sweat. “Yeah, we have this for now. But these slimes keep coming and even though we’re superhumans, we’re still mostly humans and we can’t keep this up forever.”
“We can!” all the slimes cried at once.
Lia and I exchanged glances. We knew the always practical Tanya was right. We couldn’t hold off the slimes indefinitely.
“How about we shut down the gateway?” Ellie Mae suggested.
MAC, Lia’s communication device crackled again and Don’s voice broke into the conversation. “That could work but you can’t shut down the gateway while there are still slimes coming through it…. It’s a fail-safe.”
“Well, that fail-safe is a real FAIL!” Zeke said.
Everybody looked at Zeke. His green skin had turned slightly red. “Well it is,” he said, slinking backward. “I mean…I am still part of the team…sisk gom ba rah rah rah!” he said. He leaped off the ground maybe an inch, which is pretty good for a zombie.)
QUAZAR NOTE: GREEN ZOMBIES CAN’T JUMP.
He raised his arms and shouted. “SISK GOM BA! RA! RA! RA!”
All the slimes in the room let out a horrible, blood boiling shriek.
“Was it something I said?” Zeke said.
“No idea,” Ms. Nancy said.
I started thinking. I turned to Jess and Tanya. “Wait, these slimes don’t like pleasant things right?”
“Well, they hate pleasant smells but none of us smell pleasant right now,” Tanya said. “I think my armpits right now could be registered as lethal weapons…”
Ms. Nancy sniffed herself. “Ditto!” she said.
“Maybe they don’t like pleasant sounds like rhymes either?” I offered.
Felipe bounded over, leaping between a bunch of slimes. The slimes closed in on him. Felipe shouted, “Roses are red violets are blue, I have a big fat fart for you!”
The slime all screamed. “Yikes!! The sounds!!! The sounds!!” They retreated away.
Felipe laughed. “Man, normally it’s my farts that are scary!”
“Okay, everybody start rhyming!” I said. I rose in the air and started shouting mad rhymes:
“Slimes go away!
YOU ain’t wanted here today….
Those are the words I say!
Hey hey hey!
Nay nay nay!!
Those are the words I say!!!
Ay ay ay
You will pay pay pay
We do not play play play
Flee today today today!
Don’t say neigh
Or I’ll break out the rhyming ray!
That’s what I say!”
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The slimes all leaped into the air and combined into one, then threw themselves back into their gateway. The gateway crackled with white sparks flying. The gateway turned black. Red lights across the top of the arch began blinking.
Lia landed next to me. She patted me on the shoulder. “You did it!”
Zeke moved next to me. “Dude, you may have a career in front of you as a rapper….”
QUAZAR NOTE: I DO NOT HAVE A FUTURE CAREER AS A RAPPER!!
Tanya and Jess started to fake cough.
Zeke looked at them. “Hey, he’s my friend and I support him, no matter how terrible he might be at something.”
Zeke walked over to Tanya. He winked at her. His eyeball fell out and plopped to the ground. He bent down and tried to pick it up. He failed the first time. “Dang, deep perception gets so bad with just one eye.”
Tanya bent down and picked up the eye for him. She pushed the eye back into its socket.
“Thanks,” Zeke smiled. “Does this mean we’re dating now? I mean, you did hold my eye in your hand. I think in some cultures that even means we’re married.”
Tanya lifted a finger. “No, it does not mean any of that.”
“Oh, darn it,” Zeke said.
“It means I was helping a friend and an ally,” Tanya added.
“I’ll take it,” Zeke said.
Zeke walked over to me and whispered. “I think she’ll warm up to me. We zombies are slow but very persistent. And I love her brain.”
Don, Jeanie, and Mr. Lawrence came into the room.
Don moved quickly to the control panel next to the gateway. “Time to shut this thing down!” he said sternly.
“How are you going to do that?” I asked.
Don bent down to the floor. He followed a long black wire to the far wall. He reached the wall. He pulled the plug at the end of the wire from the wall.
The lights on top of the arch went dark. “When in doubt, turn it off,” Don said.
The Battle Page 7