Lab C: Chapter 12 - Creature Feature: "The Swarm" & "Chuck"

Dr. Tesla sits across from Dr. Grimsen and sighs, “Ok… the day everything went down, Dr. Deb and Dr. Deb-”

“-Wait, they’re both Dr. Deb? Oh right, they’re married and getting divorced. Sorry. That sounds like a toxic environment.” John’s watch blares and he smacks it off. “Sorry, I thought I silenced it. Please, continue.”

She was all like….

Inside the Animal Communications Research Facility on a Dark and Stormy Night…

Dr. Deb (F) screams, “THEN WHY IS THAT SLUT STILL WORKING HERE?!” as she slams a door shut on Dr. Deb (M). She’s buxom, with ruby red lip stick. Her dress under her lab coat is better suited for a night club, and her obnoxious heels, which she only stumbles in once, clack aggressively on the floor.

She storms her way over to the front door of the lab past a dozen lab assistants as Dr. Deb (M) flings his office door open. His face, neck and shirt are covered in ruby red kiss marks. “SAME REASON YOUR BUTT BOY IS! YOU BITCH!”

Dr. Tesla stares intently at a mess of flies in a clear container, taking notes. “How fascinating.”

—-

“WAIT! Wait, sorry again. That was going on, and you we’re still studying the flies?”

“They’re fascinating things.”

“Ok, flies are fascinating things, are your uber hot boss was just walking by?”

“Right, so she grabs me by the collar and says, “Damn it Daniel! Open the door for me. We need to get back to the-”

John’s watch screams again. He smacks it off without looking. “That’s so rude of me. Ok! My bad. What ever it is can wait. “You need to get back to the…””

—-

Back in the Animal Communication Research Facility on a Dark and Stormy night

“Why can’t you just keep your badge on you?” I (Dr. Tesla) said as I followed her past the dolphin tank.

“That’s I have you around.”

“But all the rooms lock on the inside to prevent escapes. What if you get trapped inside one day?”

“When will I ever be more than 50 feet away from you?”

Dr. Tesla looks lamentingly over at the Dolphins who seem to nod in agreement.

I groaned, throwing my hands to the side and staring at the ceiling. “They so clearly can communicate why can’t we just get them to speak?”

—

“Hold on, I’m sorry, you were working on talking dolphins?” John interrupts.

“Oh yeah, it was the sweetest thing. I mean, I was way more interested in trying to develop consciousness in lesser… well not lesser, but like not human intelligences. The work they were doing was top notch and I was really lucky to be there actually.”

“Are you sure you’re not covering up the immense feelings of inadequacy and lack of control brought about by your abusive female boss?”

Dr. Tesla scoffs, “No! What? No. That just went straight through me, I didn’t let it touch me. I was damn good at my job and I would have cracked it too, if it hadn’t been for…”

He looks over at The Swarm whose gotten bored and is an amorphous blob floating in space, “… my greatest mistake.”

John nods, ok, sure. He hovers his hand over his watch, the instant it screams at him, loudest yet, he smacks it. Shakes his head. “So rude. Anyways. You know we have talking dolphins here right?”

Dr. Tesla blinks a few times, “Hm?”

“Yeah! Yeah, dude. I can’t believe Dr. Ambower didn’t tell you. We picked them up decades ago. They have a lot to say, and honestly? I don’t think any of it is interesting or productive. There is so much stuff here I can’t even/Oh fuck I know why my watch is blaring.”

Suddenly, John stands up and faces the door ready to dodge. Dr. Tesla, confused. “Uh, Dr. Grimsen.”

“Not now. He’s coming.” John says to Dr. Tesla who stands dumb founded behind him.

“Whose coming?” He asks just as a Muay Thai wrapped, monstrous, rocky scaled fist phases through the wall.

John steps back and turns his shoulder, allowing the massive, 8 foot tall, rocky skinned, thickly muscular, hairless, eyelidless, lipless, beast of a man to plow right past him.

Dr. Tesla stands in shock as the beast falls right through him, landing in a fighting stance. John looks back at him, gives a nod. “Chuck.”

In graveling whispery voice, Chuck says, “Round 8 John, FIGHT!” and leaps at John who dodges again.

Dr. Tesla watches as the beast swings at John but can’t land a blow. Hook, upper cut, spin kick, John just bobs and weaves. Chuck misses a punch and it lands in the wall, getting stuck. John takes the chance to upper cut palm his head, but Chuck goes incorporeal, loosening his hand and making John miss.

John and Chuck square up. Chuck smirks, then both John and he lunge forward.

The Swarm doesn’t know what to think and expands into a wall so every fly has a chance to watch.

“Dr. Grimsen?!”

“What?!”

“Explain!”

John head weaves a few hits. Chuck takes a step and throws a massive haymaker at Johns head but misses, and Chuck’s fist goes into the “glass” and gets stuck. The Swarm turns, all the flies looking to a crack, as John takes the chance to land a flurry of blows into Chuck’s gut. He merely laughs as he tries to pull his hand free.

John takes one step away, and with one hand, smashes breaks a chair on Chuck’s back, it flinches enough to pull out its fist.

“He likes throwing hands”, he says as Chuck reverse round house kicks at him, but he’s able to flip backwards.

“What do I do?”

“Get me a weapon?"

Dr. Tesla looks around as John narrowly avoids a flow of blows.

The flies investigate the tiny crack and a few of them land and feel with their mouths at the microscopic opening.

John is stuck up against a wall, Chuck whips around to smash John with his shin, but John blocks with his forearms. The fabric of his lab coat singes. John drops kicks Chucks knee, bringing him to his knee, then from the floor drives his heel into Chuck’s jaw.

Chuck’s head flys back, and there’s a pause. He smiles, “I missed this.” Then looks back at John who smiles.

“Gotta be honest buddy,” John starts as Chuck rears his fist and slams it into the ground. John scrambles back, barely dodging. The floor explodes. Chunks go scattering. “I really didn’t.”

Chuck looks back offended and lunges at John wildly.

Dr. Tesla stands like a dork, no idea what to do, then remembers, his watch! He taps it, looks around, presses a button and bam, a secret compartment opens up with guns. Dr. Tesla smiles and grabs a beefy shotgun. He cocks it and points it right at Chuck.

“Wait! Dr.! DON’T” John puts up his hand just as Dr. Tesla nails Chuck in the back. The 00 buck bounces off Chucks back. One of the balls implants into John’s leg, another in his shoulder. He falls back. Aside from that, clear scene.

Chuck stands, frozen. Dr. Tesla, frozen. Then Chuck slowly looks back at him, and lightning fast heel kicks Dr. Tesla in chest, sending him flying into the wall. He is WHEEZING.

The Swarm sees this and rear back, deeply offended. They blast forward like a firehouse, pelting themselves into the “Glass”. Chuck pays them no mind and looks down at John, whose now gone, having left a splattering of blood behind.

Chuck SCREAMS! and runs, plowing through the door like it’s nothing. Chuck takes off like a bat out of hell. “FIGHT ME JOHN!”

John’s face appears at the side of the hole. He waves for Dr. Tesla to come on. Dr. Tesla is barely waking up from the momentary nap Chuck gave him. He takes in what happened, “Did I do that?” he looks at the gun. “Guns are never the answer” he says, shaking his head.

“Seriously. Dr. LETS GO!” John says looking at the cracks forming in the “Glass” keeping The Swarm contained. Dr. Tesla scrambles to his feet and runs over to John, catching himself on Johns arm. He pulls him in the other direction and they start running, John limps but is still has to slow down for Dr. Tesla to keep up.

“What’s his deal?”

“He’s kind of like Goku.”

“The monkey?”

John looks at Dr. Tesla confused.

“JOHNNN!!” echos through the massive hallway. Many of subjects have come to the “glass” to see what’s happening.

John and Dr. Tesla look back to see Chuck “swim phasing” through the concrete floor like a shark SPEEDING towards them.

“WHAT IS THAT?!”

“He’s also like Le Million.”

“WHAT?!”

“You know, like Madara.”

“THE ISLAND?!”

“How are we such different nerds?”

There’s gun fire behind them. Dr. Tesla looks back to see Chuck spring from the concrete a few hundred feet back leaping towards a three guards pointing electric stun rods at him.

Chuck flies through them, lands behind them, and then reverse round his kicks all of them to the side. He stands and looks up, stares down John.

There’s a loud burst. John and Dr. Tesla slow to a halt to watch as The Swarm bursts out of their containment and swarm around Chuck. He stands, stoically, eyes closed, mouth closed and smiles.

“No match” he grumbles to himself, then “….ah, ow. Ow! Ow!” a chunk of rocky skin falls to the floor and green blood oozes from the wound. He slams a fist on it to close it, but The Swarm can get under his hand. He goes incorporeal and falls through the floor.

John rolls his head and begins running again. Dr. Tesla follows. The Swarm forms a person and looks to Dr. Tesla, then zooms toward him as a cloud.

“What do you mean Goku?” Dr. Tesla demands as John turns them down a corner and into a large lunch room where hundreds of guards have set up barricades and mounted weapons. John and Dr. Tesla run past them.

They round another corner and hear absolute, utter chaos and ultra violence from the room. Dr. Tesla gulps and looks at his watch. From the video camera, we can see Chuck phasing through the floor and launching himself into a barricade. He knees and elbows his way through a slew of guards.

Behind him, The Swarm enters and starts to move towards him, but then get nailed by a sound blast, and turn their focus to the other side of the room, and begin to turn guards into mist. Sections of The Swarm then take over the suits of armor and use them to man the guns and fire at Chuck.

Chuck gets annoyed, screams at The Swarm. He kicks a few of the posed corpses and sends them flying. The Swarm reforms and Chuck punches so hard that they get burst apart, but then reform around him. He screams and sinks into the floor, returning to trying to get to John. The Swarm follows.

Dr. Tesla looks at John, concerned. John shrugs. “Like I said, dude really love throwing hands. And I am good at throwing hands. Can you give me the low down on your guys?”

“They love me.”

John cracks a smile, “Yeah, so does mine.”