“Interesting reactions. Huh? Oh. Finished all the chips here.”
He walked to the pantry area, where there were a few bags of chips left. “Hm…Hobble, Smith, Smith - ah! Load. Haven’t tried these yet.” He grabbed the bag and quickly returned to the observation room.
“Ow…My head.” Larry looked up. “Where is this place?”
“Wherever it is, don’t come near me. At all. Got it?”
“Huh?” Looking over, Larry saw a blonde girl in a light blue top and a blue checkered pattern skirt. There was a very attractive blonde woman in a purple tube top next to her. “Hello. Hey, I know who you two are! You’re Justine Flanner and Dr. Vivian Porter! I’ve seen you both at the Robot Rumble…”
“That’s great. Just stay quiet.” Justine snapped, looking around.
“This place is sealed off completely,” mentioned Vivian.
“What is that noise?” Larry asked, craning his neck upwards as the faintest of hissings came from above.
“SHH!” hissed Justine and Vivian as the screen in the center of the room flickered on.
“Oh. I see you two are awake now. Good. Now we can start.”
“Dr. Possible?” asked Vivian in shock.
“Uncle James?” Larry echoed, squinting to see the screen.
Instantly, the hissing turned to a full roar as powerful fans engaged somewhere in the high ceiling. Seconds later, the room was filled with a swirling, choking cloud of powder.
“What – is that?” asked Justine.
“Extremely high dosages of very potent versions of Ecstasy powder, Viagra powder, Mescaline powder - and a constant stream of 100 percent pure Bremelanotide spray - just to make sure it doesn’t dissipate before you inhale it. Just think of it as one big aphrodisiac. There is only one way out of this room. It’s a test to see whether or not someone in an advanced arousal state can overcome it to escape and survive.”
“Wait. We’re gonna die if we don’t find this way out?”
“Correct, Justine.”
“WHAT?” shrieked Vivian.
“Ummm, Uncle James - may I ask why you’re doing this?” Larry nervously questioned.
“Yeah, what’s gotten into you, Dr. Possible?” echoed Vivian.
“Oh, nothing, Dr. Porter – just some man-eating piranha DNA taking control of over half my body.”
“Okay, whatever,” Justine snorted. “Let’s just all take a deep breath, calm down, and find this way out.”
“Yeah,” Vivian nodded. “Um, let’s check the floor. A secret button on one of the walls would be way too obvious. So, yeah – um - Justine, you check the north section – L-Larry? East section. I got the rest.”
“On it!” was the simultaneous response from Justine and Larry, immediately starting their search.
A few minutes, Larry stood up, unsuccessful. “Hey, is anyone else finding it hard to concentrate?”
“Uh, well, a little bi-oops!” Justine giggled as she stumbled backwards into his shoulder. “Sorry!”
“Ugh – this powder stuff is making this place too stuffy!” said Larry – who instantly shed all his clothes but his underwear. Vivian and Justine stared. “What? I had to take them off! I was going to suffocate!”
“That’s it. If I’m gonna die, might as well do it happy and not a virgin,” said Justine, dragging him to her.
“Yeah, me, too,” Vivian said, walking over to Larry as well.
“Wait – you’re still a virgin, too?” Larry raised an eyebrow.
“My boyfriend is a robot, and I’m a nerd,” huffed Vivian. “C’mon…”
“Hmm…Good point. However,” Larry continued on, looking down in a sudden fit of embarrassed shyness, “I don’t particularly go for the, um… - women, i-if you know what I mean.”
“Who says I’m all woman?” said Justine, letting her skirt drop to the ground.
“Oooh…” Vivian’s eyes went wide as she ogled.
Larry cracked a smile as the powder mixture swirled around them. “Now I know I have lived long and prosper.”
“AHH! GET OFF OF ME!”
“Montykins! That’s mean! Besides, we’re in a closet and the door’s locked. You can’t go anywhere!”
“CURSE YOU, POSSIBLE!” Monkey Fist yelled as DNAmy smothered him, with nowhere to escape.
The faint sound - someone crying - wafted through the darkness, coming from the only other area of light. A figure huddled over themselves, crying, looking at their hands. Squinting to look, Tara gasped.
“What?” asked Bonnie in a whisper. “Who is it?”
Tara looked at her. “Monique.”
BLAM! BLAM! Gunshots crackled in the dry air as Monique jumped up screaming and fired towards the sound. “WHO’S THERE? WHO’S THERE?”
“BRICK! BONNIE!” shrieked Tara, furiously brushing off Brick’s brain matter. “MONIQUE, STOP! IT’S ME, TARA!” She picked up the fallen Bonnie. “BONNIE! HOLD ON! STAY WITH ME!”
“Tara? Wha – BRICK? BONNIE?” Monique raced over to Tara. She gasped at Brick’s headless body, and at the bullet wound in Bonnie’s chest. “Oh, god – not again! Not again! Oh, Jeezus…I’m sorry, Bonnie! I’M SORRY! I DIDN’T MEAN TO DO IT – DIDN’T WANT TO – I WAS FORCED T-”
“Monique, CHILL!” Bonnie gasped. “You’re one of my best friends. Obviously you didn’t mean to!”
“Bonnie, I have to tell you – in that room before this one, I – I – I – I shot – oh, jeezus, I shot – I- I-”
“Shot who, dammit?” Bonnie asked. “And hurry up, so I’ll have the answer before I can’t respond.”
“I – I – I woke up a room with…your mother – a-a-a-and Josh Mankey…There was a gun in the middle of the room - M-M-Mr. Possible appeared – an – a-and he was insane – told us we had to – oh god, it was all such a blur from there! Th-th-then they were dead – and I – oh, god, I shot them! It was all a bl-”
“Okay, got it, my mom’s dead! Hmmph. Now I hope my sisters weren’t kidnapped along with – me…”
Tara hung her head, cradling her lifeless best friend in her arms for one last time. “Goodbye, Bonnie…”
“That’s IT!” Monique put the gun to her head. “I don’t wanna see another person die because of me!”
“Monique! What-NO! Don’t do it! D-”
“DON’T STOP ME, TARA!” Monique’s hand quaked like the San Andreas Fault as she cocked the hammer. “I’M NOT GONNA DEAL WITH THIS ANYMORE!” Her fingers squeezed the trigger—
Tara dive-tackled her, knocking the gun out of her hand. It slid across the room, slipping just under a third door barely visible in the shadows. “MONIQUE! YOU THINK I WANNA SEE YOU KILL YOURSELF IN FRONT OF ME?” she screamed, wrestling fiercely with the woman. “C’MON! SNAP OUT OF IT! WE CAN STILL GET OUT OF THIS ALIVE IF WE STICK TOGETHER!”
“NO! LEMME GO!” screamed Monique in return, grabbing the blonde and rolling her over so she now had Tara pinned underneath her. “I DON’T-” Suddenly, she stopped struggling. “-kn - know what I’m doing…Oh, jeezus! W – what am I doing?” She pounded her fists against her head, chastising herself. “C’mon, Monique. This isn’t you! Keep it together, girl! You can do it! Happy thoughts…Happy th-” She slowly began to stop hyperventilating. “C’mon, woman. You faced a real life dragon and didn’t freak out – then again, the dragon didn’t force you to kill any-NO! Stop it! Don’t think about that! Think about something. - think about becoming CEO of Club Banana! Yeah…” She sighed, and calmed down.
Tara breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed, letting go of her friend as Monique looked around.
“NO!” Monique jolted back up to her feet, bolting away faster than Tara could react to stop her. “I HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE! I GOTTA GET AWAY FROM THIS BUTCHER SHOP !”
“MONIQUE, NO!” yelled Tara, running after her as Monique grabbed the handle of the third door.
“SHUT UP! I’VE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS! DON’T TRY TO STOP MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” Monique screamed as she opened the door and a vat of acid behind it splashed over her, dissolving her instantly.
Tara collapsed to her knees, now trying to keep her sanity. “This’llbeoversoonThis’llbeoversoonThis-”
KRASH! She dove for the cover of the shadows as a well-built Latino boy a little older than her barreled through another part of the wall, furiously hurling a very short man in an odd yellow helmet to the ground and held a blaster gun up to him. “MY NAME IS SEÑOR SENIOR JUNIOR! YOU KILLED MY FATHER BY DROPPING HIM INTO A VAT OF ACID – and, although he was probably proud to go out like that, it being all part of ‘standard procedure’ and suchwhat – PREPARE TO DIE!” BLAM! He fired the blaster gun at the short man, who screamed in agony as his life was extinguished.
It was all Tara could do to not puke again.
“Ooh… So that was the Fluoroantimonic acid. Damn, now I'll need to repair the floor in that room. I knew I should've marked those bottles better…” He reached for another chip. “Mm…Nice n’ soylent.”
“Well, what are we supposed – ERGK!” Prince Wally gasped as the wire garroted him, and he dropped.
Will Du took the cyanide capsule out and swallowed it. “Ah…Silence.”
“Sorry, fella…But I’m a soldier. First thing we’re trained to do is stay alive. Which is why I killed him, and why I’m killing you…with my shovel. Also, I’m…just getting tired of the whole “seriously” thing.”
“Aw, dude, that is so bogus - seriously.”
SPLATCH!
“Oh, yes…Thanks for the keys. Seriously.” Barkin picked them up, unlocked the door, and walked out.
Lucre gasped as the spiked wall impaled him. “Well, that was cheap…”
“The hand does the walking, dear sister!”
The missiles fired from Gemini’s hands. Dr. Director dove out of the way as they exploded behind her. “Funny, Sheldon – you always use the same trick. Guess I’ll show a Global Justice trick then, perhaps!”
She spun and fired her tazer wires – which stabbed themselves into the chest of her brother’s dog – apparently frightened by the words “Global Justice.” The dog screeched as the voltage ran through it.
“PEPE!” Gemini leaned down to pick up his wounded pet. “Oh, you’ll pay now, Betty!”
“Yeah, sure - Sheldon.” KRACK! Dr. Director laid out a kick that sent Gemini reeling backwards. “Whoah, whoah – WHOAAAAAHHHHH!” he yelled as his foot slipped and he fell into the lava pit Dr. Possible had opened below them.
Dr. Director looked over the ledge as the lava was covered up by the mechanical floor. “Goodbye, little brother.”
“Betty? Is he dead yet?” Adrena Lyn poked her head out from her hiding space.
Dr. Director sighed. “Yes, he is. Ugh, this is just perfect – Kim’s father goes insane a week after I start my yearly month-long vacation. Of course he knew my agents are under strict orders not to contact me at all during my time off…Swell.”
“We’re gonna get out of here alive, right, Betty? This is too freaky for me!” cried Adrena, throwing herself against Dr. Director.
“Shh…we’ll be fine, hon.” Betty returned the woman's spontaneous embrace. “Now, c'mon - let’s get out of here.”