Wild Things Part 2
Monster of the Week: EP12
Welcome to the final installment of Monster of the Week, a Sci-Fi/Fantasy serial where we follow Scrub, Scratch and Maria, Bounty Hunters traveling the galaxy and ridding it of terrifying beasts. If this is your first time, you can click the links below to start from the beginning, or the directory will take you to a list of my other fiction.
Last time, on Monster of the Week: The Crew came back together to fight the biggest threat to the galaxy! Now, it’s up to them to see it through.
Happy Hunting!
Right there, surrounded by all the other monsters they’ve fought over the last few months, coiled in the center of the hangar was undoubtedly a dragon. Its scales – black as space – were draped by two large, leathery wings. Its eyes glowed a faint red as they passively stared at nothing. Small wisps of smoke pirouetted from its nostrils.
Honestly, Scrub wasn’t sure how that wasn’t the first thing they all saw.
“Okay, game plan….” Scratch said as he searched desperately for a plan. “What’s our game plan?”
“I’m gonna kill the dragon.”
“I’m gonna go wake up the Jennys.”
Maria and Scrub spoke at the same time, followed by an echo of ‘What?’s and ‘Why-would-you-do-that?’s
“I’m not going out there and finding out Mr. Generic Villain made himself a woman assassin that I, as the only woman here, have to fight. I’m not being relegated to ‘girl fight.’ I refuse.”
“We don’t necessarily know that,” Scratch tried to get the situation back on track. “Besides, I haven’t seen any shark tanks yet. Wait, was that a point in his favor, or not? I forget...”
“I’m gonna wake up the Jennys because we’re going to need backup.” Scrub explained as Scratch lost his train of thought. “Clearly the pirates are outmatched out there, and there’s no way we can take out all these other guys by ourselves. The Jennys are hopefully programmed as out of the box TSA agents. Therefore, I should be able to just point out all the illegal shit going on here and they’ll do their job,”
“And if they aren’t immediately on our side?” Maria asked.
“It’s a better plan then I’m going to fight a dragon by myself,” Scrub said with a shrug.
Before Scratch had the chance to reluctantly agree, Gabriella’s voice crackled through the comms.
“Gold Leader to Furry One. Come in Furry One,” she said.
“Go for Furry One,” Scratch said.
“I think we have a lock on your location. Morgan was seen at Base Two a few minutes ago. Without a way to keep him in one place, he’s tearing through our defenses. Please tell me you have something for me here.”
“I got it,” Scrub said. “So I guess that means you’re gonna have to wake the Jennys up. Beto, get me to Captain Douche-bag.”
Scrub disappeared before Scratch could argue.
“Okay, so like I said – the dragon’s mine.” Maria picked up her glaive and snuck into the hangar, leaving Scratch alone in the hallway.
“I guess I’ll go wake up the Jennys,” Scratch said to no one in particular.
“Who is Jenny?!?” Gabriella asked.
It took a few blips for Robo-berto to properly calibrate to Morgan Moody’s position. At first, the instant teleportation was disorienting, but the more Scrub did it, the easier it got. When he finally caught up to Morgan, he was standing over a dead man in a narrow passageway on a ship, blood dripping from his knife.
“Hey,” Scrub said, igniting the electricity on his bastard sword. “Remember me?”
Morgan’s neck snapped back as he turned to glower at Scrub, his round glasses reflecting the dim light ominously.
“You!” He said right before vanishing.
Deploying countermeasures, Robo-berto said as Scrub felt reality move around him. This was by far the shortest jump – less than a meter behind where he was just standing. But he blipped just as Morgan appeared right in front of him - what would have been directly behind Scrub half a second earlier.
“Trying to get behind me, huh? Your little party trick isn’t gonna do you any good now,” Scrub taunted. Morgan spun around, knife extending towards Scrub’s scarred midsection. He deftly parried the small blade with his own – the electric current running from the blade up Morgan’s arm, causing him to spasm before he blipped away again.
Scrub followed.
“Okay,” Scratch said to himself. “Just gonna go ahead and wake up the Jennys. This isn’t a terrible idea at all. Yup, just gonna wake up a bunch of half-cooked, clone TSA agents. Nothing bad could come from that.”
As he continued to give himself a rather uninspiring pep talk, Scratch worked his way through a convoluted series of commands on one of the consoles. After a few moments, lights started blinking and beeps started to play in rounds as tubes started to empty themselves of their amniotic fluid. Before long, Scratch found himself in front of a crowd of confused, naked Jennys groggily demanding to know what was going on.
“Now, I’m sure you all have a lot of questions,” Scratch said. He then had to hush the crowd as the loudly yelled out all their questions simultaneously. “Yes, my point exactly. But we don’t have time for all that. Right now, you’re in the belly of an illegal monster factory. Uniforms and sidearms are available in the room to your left. No, that’s your right, the other way. Yup. Okay. I’ll be right here when you’re all ready and I’ll take you to the illegal activity.”
As Maria snuck up behind the giant, reptilian beast, she saw something lodged into it’s hind leg.
Maybe I can pull that out and it’ll be so, eternally grateful that it’ll let me ride it into battle, Maria thought.
But as she got closer, she recognized the burnt piece of shrapnel. She could make out ‘Hornet 3-’ in faded paint. It was a piece of her old ship. The one that had exploded in space after she was stalked by -
“El Cucui!” She shouted. Enraged, she leapt onto the creatures back and stabbed her glaive deep between it’s scales. The dragon roared in pain and began to thrash and twist. Maria held on tight, keeping her footing by standing with one foot on the last remnant of her ship.
The dragon took off – roaring and flying in circles around the high vaulted ceiling of the hangar. Maria dug her glaive in deeper. From her vantage point, she could clearly see Scratch lead the Jennys into glorious battle down below. Soon, Orange plasma and yellow blaster fire covered the hangar as they did their best to take out the waiting army.
But to Maria’s dismay, after the initial surprise of the attack wore off, the Jennys were quickly pushed back. The zombies were unleashed and took the most of the second wave of fire, but as they pressed forward, the golems were able to swing in and cover their exit. The porcupine monsters fired a round of pins that left half of the Jennys immobilized. Without any explosive material, the golems were unstoppable.
Maria cursed under her breath. “Gabby, we need air support NOW,” she shouted before pulling out her glaive and leaping up to the dragon’s wing. She stabbed where the wing met the dragon’s back. The creature jerked as the wing spasmed, causing it to barrel roll with sickening speed. Maria jumped off of the dragon’s back. She aimed for a nearby harpy – using it to slow her fall. The harpy landed on the cement floor with a crunch and Maria dusted herself off as she watched the dragon continue to spiral into the cluster of golems – leaving most of them little more than a pile of rubble. The rest of the rock monsters turned to avenge their fallen. The dragon and golems fought long enough for Scratch and the Jennys to regroup, retreating into a side office and barricading the door.
“You’re welcome,” Maria said with just a tint of sarcasm in her voice.
Scrub had Morgan on the ropes. He could see the fear in his eyes. The surprise every time he teleported only to find Scrub right behind him.
Scrub lunged forward as they teleported into the engine room of a different ship. Morgan parried it as he tried to flee again. But Scrub was right behind him. Shocked pirate cries shot out in stark staccatos as they continuously moved from one space to another.
A wicked grin flashed across Morgan’s face as he disappeared again. When Scrub caught up to him, he had the knife pressed against Gabriella’s throat.
Scrub laughed.
“You think I care? Go ahead.”
Before he had the chance to make good on the threat, Gabriella stomped hard on his foot and then Morgan was gone again.
“For the record, I knew you had it,” Scrub said before blipping after him.
The monsters had all turned on each other and the hangar was chaos. Maria maneuvered as best she could but she could feel the Harpy’s song dulling her senses. Without her music to block it out, she could feel her will slowly slipping away. Adrenaline kept her moving.
The dragon – now grounded – had decimated the golems and was now fighting off the porcupines and the harpies simultaneously. The barrage of pins harmlessly ricocheted off of its scales as it breathed some sort of electrical charge into the air – irradiating a cloud of harpies.
“Alright, Cucui. You and me, now.” Maria said under her breath as she rushed forward. She sprinted up the dragon’s tail, leapt over the piece of ship stuck in its haunches, and slipped the blade of her glaive under the scales at the base of its skull. The dragon roared, unleashing a final charged breath as Maria wrenched it’s head left and right – moving it like a macabre puppet – to take out the last of the harpies. But then the breath stopped the dead weight was too much for Maria to hold. The whole dragon collapsed with an earth-shaking thud!
Morgan was getting desperate and Scrub could feel it. They teleported into the cockpit of a ship and Morgan slashed the back of the pilot’s head. The ship immediately began to fall from the sky. Scrub could see that they were about to land right in the middle of the hangar where he had left Scratch and Maria.
Scrub rushed forward and grabbed Morgan’s wrist before he had the chance to teleport away. Instead, Scrub chose the destination. He blipped, now bringing Morgan with him.
The pair reappeared in the middle of the hangar – standing right where the ship was going to crash.
“Looks like you’re gonna die like me - common trash,” Scrub said as he held Morgan firmly in place. Morgan frantically tried to teleport them away, but every time he did, Scrub brought them right back. As the ship descended, Scratch ran out of the barricaded office space.
“Scrub, don’t do it!” He shouted as he ran towards his son. He grabbed Scrub and held tight.
Scrub teleported at the last moment – moving all three of them out of the blast radius.
Maria scrambled up over the dead dragon that she had been using as a shield and met up with the others just as three of the pirate ships landed in front of the hangar.
Gabriella strutted up with a smirk on her face.
“Looks like we won, Morgan. The police will be here any minute,” She gloated.
Morgan Moody laughed hard, turning Gabriella’s smirk into a glare.
“The police? I own the police you dumb woman!” Morgan declared. “They won’t touch me. What, you think they care about any of this? I pay them too much for them not to look away.”
The local police may not normally care, Robo-berto’s voice spoke up from the comms system so everyone could here. But ever since delivering Ricky Espada back to his parents, Mr. Espada has asked me to provide him with any information on his son’s kidnappers. This morning, when I was in the system I was able to collect all the data necessary to connect you and your operation to the kidnapping, and that data is now sitting with Mr. Espada’s large fleet of lawyers. They are working with the local law enforcement to procure a warrant as we speak.
The color drained from Morgan’s face. He tried one last time to teleport away, but Scrub brought him right back, maneuvering his sword across the man’s chest as he did, igniting the electrical charge – frying their teleportation devices and bringing both men to their knees.
“There, now you won’t be so slippery,” Scrub said, wincing from the pain as he pushed Morgan off of him.
“No, this can’t – you can’t!” Morgan stuttered, words escaped him. Gabriella’s smirk returned.
“Here, let me take this off your hands. Y’all deserve a rest,” she said, grabbing Morgan and dragging him to the entrance of the hangar, where blue and red lights could be seen strobing on distant clouds.
“Well,” Scratch asked as he slumped down next to Scrub. “What now?”
Epilogue
The bell rang out, a customer had come through the front door. Scratch nudged Scrub in the ribs.
“Welcome to Scratch and Son’s Wonder Pet Emporium. Can I interest you in a Blip Kitty today?” Scrub said in a I’m-being-forced-to-say-this monotone while rolling his eyes. He got up from the porcupine pen and dusted off as much of the substrate and crud that he could from his pants. He finally stepped out of the back room and looked over at the door to find Maria standing there – a thick fur coat shielding her from the winter winds outside and a slight blush in her cheeks.
“Oh, it’s you,” Scrub said, immediately regretting it.
“Oh, it’s me? That’s all you have to say?” Maria shot back angrily.
“Well it’s not like you’ve been answering my calls,” Scrub shot back. “I know you’re SO busy taking over your families fortune, or whatever, but last time I called I got Beto to admit that you had him screening me.”
A look of shocked betrayal flashed across Maria’s face before she was able to compose herself again.
“Yeah, look. I’m sorry about that. With my dad’s heart attack and everything else it’s just been… I’m sorry. I should have made time for you.”
“Is that Maria?” Scratch said from the back. He ran into the main room to give her a hug. “We’ve missed you so much! Thanks again for the loan. Getting this place started wasn’t easy, but I think we’re finally there. Come here, you have to see our Pet Rock section. They’re so cute!”
Scratch ushered Maria over to a fenced off sandbox. Maria and Scrub took turns looking longingly at each other when they thought the other wasn’t looking, and shooting each other angry looks when they were. The sandbox filled with a dozen 30 cm tall golems made out of various rock types. One of them stood up, waddled over to Maria, stuck out a hand, lost it’s balance and fell onto it’s butt.
“Aw, that’s adorable! See, I knew getting y’all an ecologically safe, mini-monsters would be a good idea. And you doubted me, Scrub,” Maria said.
“Yeah, well. Clearly you need to spend some time picking up their crap,” Scrub said. They met each other’s gaze and forgot to scowl for a moment.
“So Maria,” Scratch said. “How long do we have you for? Let us take you out to dinner. There’s this great little place that has amazing tuna melts!”
“That would be lovely,” She said, not breaking eye contact with Scrub. “But I’m actually here for business. I’m going to be traveling more. With the court case on Moody finalized the Collector profession as we knew it is effectively dissolved. So now there’s a ton of desperate, violent people running around angry at me. Gabby’s got a solid security detail following me. But I’d like someone I trust by my side. I was hoping…”
She trailed off, finally breaking eye contact and turning to Scratch. “I was hoping that you could spare Scrub for a bit and let me hire him as a personal bodyguard.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Scratch said, wringing his hands. “We’re getting into holiday season. And you know how good of a gift pets are. I would have to hire an assistant earlier that intended…”
Scratch let a big grin spread across his face.
“Of course I don’t mind! You kids be safe.”
“What, don’t I get a say?” Scrub said, indignantly crossing his arms.
“Well, You’re a grown man. What do you want?” Maria asked, crossing her arms back at him.
Scrub buckled under her gaze.
“Yeah, I’d like that,” he admitted. “But only because I’d rather deal with your shit that all the animal shit here.”
Maria rolled her eyes and smiled.
“Good,” she said. “We can go over details at dinner.”
“Well then, let’s go now. This is exciting! Let me just close the shop,” Scratch scrambled around to get the little pet shop secured as Scrub and Maria quietly stepped outside, hand in hand.
The End
Thank you so much for reading! This has been a blast to write and I hope you enjoyed it as well.
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Hooray for love! Though I might hint to Scratch that he should surreptitiously get them both into therapy so they can actually communicate their feelings. 😂
Dragons! Perfect for the finale.
(WOW, I missed a lot).
Congrats on finishing this :D