The Rise of the Fat Mogul (The Defenders Saga Book 2) (16 page)

Struggling under the weight of the massive black boot now resting on his head, Buddy maneuvered his body so that his feet were out from under him and he was lying on his back.  With one strong push, Buddy kicked his legs out at the tread of the shoe and the foot flew up into the air.

Buddy stood quickly, looking in every direction for Alexa.  The ground rumbled further, marking the re-approaching giant.  He crouched low to the ground and leapt into the air, landing on the man's head, finding himself in the midst of a pile of long black hair. 

The man's hand swung wildly at Buddy, as he held onto the thick dark strands as tightly as possible.  Buddy felt the hair getting bigger in his hand. 

“What the hell is going on here?” Buddy asked no one in particular.

He heard a voice in his head.  “Holy crap!  They’re getting bigger!”

“Um, yeah,” Buddy yelled in confusion as he tried swinging through the hair toward the ear canal.  “Who is this?”

“Buddy?” the voice replied.

“Yeah, now who the hell is this and what are you doing in my head?”

“Umm, it's Talmadge, and I could ask you the same question.”

“I’m a little busy right now,” Buddy said as he punched through the thick hair at the head of the man.  “You guys have any clue what’s going on?”

“No, but we found the gem.”

“Awesome.  Nab it and let's get out of here, before I become microscopic.”

“That's the problem, Buddy.  We're shrinking too, or everything's getting bigger, or whatever.  The gem’s out of reach and we’re under attack.  Zero’s already been knocked out cold, I think.  I can’t find him and I don’t know how much longer I can hide here before they find me.”

“Dammit,” Buddy yelled as he saw Alexa building a tornado around one of the other men, causing him to spin in circles.  “Why the hell does everything have to be so damned difficult around here?”

“Oh crap,” Talmadge’s voice screamed in Buddy’s ear.  “They’re coming!”

“Great, so, once again, they leave it up to the great Buddy Hero to save the day.”  He landed roughly on the outside of the man's ear canal.  An enormous finger appeared at the same spot and pushed him deeper into the flesh-walled tunnel.  Buddy kicked at the finger tip, which did nothing to stop its attempts to fish him out.

The finger closed off all outside light, but the room flashed with a faint blue glimmer.  Buddy, deciding that he couldn’t get out the way he got in, walked deeper into the cave to find a single solitary computer terminal.

“Of course this thing's gonna involve a computer.  Why am I in here instead of Ryan?”

Buddy sat down at the chair in front of the flashing monitor and pressed a key on the keyboard.  The screen came to life; an eight-bit image of a city-scape appeared with the words Flores Enterprises emblazoned across them.

“Talmadge, pal,” Buddy said out-loud in desperation.  “If you're out there, I could definitely use some assistance.”

“Buddy?” the voice reappeared, sounding out of breath, which Buddy couldn’t help but think was odd for a telepathic conversation.  “I don’t know what’s going on.  I’m scared.”

“Keep it together, kid.  I think I might have found part of the puzzle.  Do you know anything about computers?”

“Of course I do, but now is not really the time to--”

“Shut up and listen.  I'm inside one of those giant guys’ heads and I found a computer.  I'm sitting here in the dark with nothing but a screen saying Flores Enterprises.  What the hell do I do?”

“Is there a menu or something?”

“No there's no freaking menu!  I already told you, it just says Flores Enterprises, and there's a blocky picture of a bunch of skyscrapers, that's it.”

“Oh, okay, you mean like an ASCII image?”

“I don't know.  Sure, why not?”

“Does it look kind of like something you'd see on an old video game?”

“Yeah, just like that!”

“Okay, great.  So, that means that there's any number of ways you could get into the system.  I guess I'd-- Oh crap!”

“Talmadge!” Buddy yelled, his voice echoing off the dark corridors of the man's ear.  “What do I do?”

“Help!” Talmadge's voice screamed in Buddy's head.

“I can't help, I'm stuck in this robot's freaking head.  I need you to help me.”

“No, I mean, try typing help.”

“Oh, okay.”

Buddy slowly found his way around the keys to type the intended four letters.  As soon as he pressed ENTER, the screen went blank and a whirring noise sounded at his feet.

Shortly, the screen flashed and filled with words.

“Talmadge,” Buddy whined.  “I need more help here.”  There was no response.  “Alright, I guess I'm on my own.”  Buddy read through the items on the screen out-loud.  “Information, Directory, System Power, Tools, Graphic User Interface, About--What the hell does all of this stuff mean?”

Buddy slammed his fists against the keyboard, shattering it into pieces.

“Well, I have a hard time believing that’s going to help anything.”

He stood up and looked around the poorly lit room. 

“There's gotta be a light switch around here somewhere or something, right?”

Buddy went to the nearest wall and began feeling around for a light.  He followed the wall around the room, finding nothing that would aid in illuminating his situation.

“Okay, this is going from hopeless to just pathetic.  I should be out there smashing things, not hiding inside some robot's brain meddling around with some stupid computer.”

“Buddy,” the voice reappeared.  “There's only 30 seconds left until the clock hits eight.  You better do something.”

“Argh!” Buddy screamed in frustration.  He ran to the computer, picked it up and threw it across the room.  The box lit up with sparks and fizzled out quickly. 

“What'd you do?” Talmadge's voice asked.

“Um,” Buddy answered reluctantly.  “I just broke the computer.  Sorry.”

“No, that’s good.  Do more!  We’re getting bigger!” 

Buddy looked around and found that the room was, indeed, getting smaller.  A large grin grew upon his face as he ran to the other side of the room where a wall filled with tiny red lights stood.  He rammed into it with his shoulder.  A loud
fizt
sounded as he bolted toward another side of the room where he saw yet more lights. 

Each act of destruction made the room appear smaller, making Buddy’s treks to the next set of lights that much faster.  Within seconds, Buddy found himself having to bend over to avoid banging his head on the ceiling, until finally, he was so cramped, all but the smallest movements were impossible. 

“Talmadge, you had better do something about that damned jewel now or I think I'm going to be nothing but another squashed bug inside this dude's ear.”

The force against Buddy was incredible.  The walls cracked around him as his frame grew larger and larger.  The ceiling gave way and his head burst through the top of the android's skull, causing Buddy to be lost in a sea of dark greasy hair. 

“Taaaalmadge!” Buddy yelled into the skyline.

Three tones sounded through the air and everything melted into a series of blocks.  Buddy fell roughly to the ground as his captor dissolved, showing the entire group standing around his immediate area.  Talmadge held a blue gem in his hand.

The room was black, but lit from somewhere.  Thirty feet away from where the heroes stood, the door opened.

“Congratulations, heroes!” D.A.W.N. said.  “You have passed the Fat Mogul trial.  Please exit to your left.”

C
HAPTER 19

The group reentered the small corridor.  Zero had an arm wrapped around Talmadge as he hobbled into the room.

“What happened, Zero?” Alexa asked with concern. 

“Alas, young Rose, I allowed myself to become over-confident in battle and may have sustained yet another injury.”

“He got stomped and crushed one of his legs,” Talmadge clarified.

“Yes, that is regretfully what happened,” Zero groaned.  “Thank you, little Bee, for helping me out of the room.  However,” he said as his right leg glowed purple, “I believe I can manage on my own from here.”

“You think you can sustain a telekinetic construct around your leg for the rest of the time we’re down here?” Oscar asked.

“I don’t believe I have much of an option, Big Red,” Zero answered.  “I certainly can’t allow this injury to take me out of commission, and I can’t expect anyone to drag me along either.”

“Well, at least let me take a look at it,” Oscar begged.

“Not now,” Zero raised his hand in objection.  “Anything that’s going on down there can wait until the mission’s over.”  He cringed in pain as he took his weight off Talmadge’s shoulder and onto his injured leg.  “See, I can stand just fine.  Little Bee, you should do the honors.”

Talmadge placed the jewel within its appropriate location inside the again-revealed panel in the floor and the panel closed swiftly once more.

“Please grab hold of the handrails,” D.A.W.N. said as the hand rails again appeared from within the walls.  The group obliged and the room fell another story before landing hard on the next platform.  The handrails disappeared as they brushed themselves off.

“Well,” Oscar clapped his hands.  “That was exciting, wasn't it?”

“Yeah,” Buddy groaned.  “Never put me in charge of the computer stuff again, okay?”

“Is that what it was?” Ryan asked.

“I’m not really sure what it was.  All I know is that I got inside that robot’s head and found myself in front of a computer screen.”

“Come on, Dad,” Ryan scowled.  “You know that there’s very little reason that you would ever put the integral parts to an android within the head.  It’s too prone to damage.  You’ve obviously been watching too many movies if you think--”

“Hey,” Oscar rebutted.  “I was doing something artsy here, okay.  It was all about how Arthur would get into people’s—“

“Enough with the explanations of what it was supposed to be,” Zero cut in.  “Although I can’t believe that Buddy actually managed to utilize a computer to save the day.”

‘Well, if by utilize you mean smash to bits, then, yes, I utilized the hell out of that computer.”

“Really?” Oscar cut in.  “There’s absolutely no reason that should have worked to clear the room.  It was supposed to be a battle of wits against the computer, not another place for Buddy Hero-style destruction.”

“Hey pops,” Ryan smiled, “we take what we get.”

“And Mr. Jones,” Murphy murmured, “how did you manage to find the gemstone?”

“I don’t know,” Talmadge answered.  “I just kinda walked right to it.”

“I think,” Buddy added, “what's more interesting is how Talmadge was able to communicate with me.  How long have you had telepathic powers?”

“Wait, that was really you?” Talmadge asked in surprise.  “I just thought I was having another one of my psychotic breaks.”

“Psychotic breaks?” Oscar asked.

“Yeah, been having them for forever.  I usually do pretty good when I’m on my meds, but, well, they kinda numb the brain, you know?”

“It sounds to me,” Oscar continued, “like these things you've been told are psychotic breaks are, in actuality, latent abilities trying to present themselves. It happens quite frequently.”

“Are you trying to say that crazy people shouldn't be taking their medicine?” Kent asked.  “Because I've got quite a few nutters I've locked up over the years that beg to differ.”

“Oh, nothing of the sort,” Oscar mused.  “In fact, there are many people out there who could do quite well with a little bit of medicinal assistance.  The issue is, many of my colleagues are so eager to prescribe the latest and greatest pharmaceutical breakthroughs that they tend to pay less attention to the diagnosis piece of the process than they should.  There are, unfortunately, a fair number of folks, like Talmadge here, who would do much better with a little more focus on the cause of their troubles.”

“That doesn’t sound at all like the man who runs the world's largest pharma company,” Buddy laughed.

“I make the stuff, so obviously I believe it serves some use.  That doesn’t mean I don’t believe it hasn’t been used inappropriately from time to time.”

“Enough with the health and safety chatter, Big Red,” Zero cut in.  “Let's get down to business.  What door do we pick this time, Little Bee?”

“Jeez, Zero,” Buddy disagreed.  “Can't we just take a moment to catch our breath?  That last room was intense.  I mean, look at you.  Maybe you should consider taking the exit and getting some medical attention.”

“Me?” Zero laughed.  “Give up?  Never!”

“I, personally, have absolutely no problem with giving up,” Kent interjected.  “Didn’t you say there was some sort of exit to this place, Doctor Reed?”

“Well, yes and no,” Oscar answered.  “You see, if someone were to use the back door without us actually wanting them to, I really couldn’t just allow them to go along on their merry way if they decided the place was too much for them, could I?”

“No?” Kent asked unhappily.

“The exit door is really just sends the user down to a cell in The Bunker's dungeon-esque lower level.”

“Well, great,” Kent smiled.  “Isn't that where we're trying to get?”

“Yeah,” Buddy added.  “Couldn't we just bypass all this trial crap and take the easy way out?”

“I'm afraid it's not that easy,” Oscar answered.  “You see, although I wasn't able to remove Arthur's image from things like the statue, or the trial rooms, I did remove his access to most areas of The Bunker.  I'd be surprised if he's even able to make his way into the dungeon, much less open the cell for you.”

“I'm sick enough of this trial crap to try anything,” Kent scowled.  “Kid,” he said, grabbing Talmadge by the arm.  “Which one's the exit?”  Talmadge pointed to the door on the left. 

“Mr. Kent,” Murphy warned.  “You are already bordering on complete insubordination.  This will most definitely place you over that line.”

“Why don’t we just consider it my attempt to explore all options for entering the base?” Kent growled.

“Although I’d appreciate your discussing such decisions with me first, I cannot argue that this may have merit.  However, we will most definitely have a discussion about this when we return to HQ.”

“Whatever you want, boss,” Kent answered.  “As long as I don’t have to spend another second in this death trap.”

Kent walked to the door, opened it, and stepped through without another word.  A few seconds later, screams could be heard as the door slammed shut.

“Dad?” Alexa asked quietly.

“Oh, don't worry dear.  You know how this room freefalls down each floor?  Same thing with the exit room.  Only he’s falling all the way to the bottom.”  Oscar had a sly smirk on his face.  Alexa shot him a concerned look.  “What?  I’m pretty sure there are brakes to make sure he doesn’t get hurt.”

“Serves him right,” Ryan laughed.  “That dude was useless.”

“We are, perhaps, better off without him,” Murphy agreed

“We'd be better off without you, too,” Zero muttered under his breath.

“What was that?” Murphy asked.

“I was merely stating,” Zero answered, “that I had somewhat hoped you would accompany him on his journey to capture.”

“I had assumed as much,” Murphy responded.  Then, as if ignoring the comment completely, “Mr. Jones, which direction shall lead us onto the next part of our adventure?”

Talmadge closed his eyes and turned around slowly, reaching toward the door knob of the door they had just entered.

“Hey there, kid,” Alexa said as she placed her hand on his arm.  “Are you sure you know what you're doing?  Last time we picked the door we had just left, I found the tenderizer.”

“Remember Alexa,” Oscar replied.  “The doors change each time.  Talmadge seems to have some sort of connection with this building.  It may be the best chance we've got.”

“Okay,” Alexa said, releasing her hand.  “But why don't you let me do the honors?  If something happens, at least I can get out of there quickly.”

Talmadge nodded quietly and stepped out of the way.  Alexa took position in front of the door and placed her hand on the knob, cringing as she turned it.  It opened to reveal another dark room.  She disappeared and reappeared on the floor next to Buddy's feet, covering her head as the lights in the room turned on.

“Am I dead?” she asked.

“Doesn't appear to be so,” Zero answered, pushing through the group to enter the newly illuminated room.  The room shone a bright orange color, causing Zero to squint as his eyes adjusted to the light.  The rest of the group entered just as he was able to make out the area surrounding him.

They found themselves in the middle of a desert stretching out as far as the eye could see.  It had an other-worldly feel to it.

“Congratulations and welcome,” said D.A.W.N.'s voice.  “You have managed to choose correctly once again, heroes.  You have now entered the domain of the X-tra Terrestrial.”

“The what now?” Ryan asked.

“The X-tra Terrestrial,” Zero answered.  “The most perplexing of The Defenders of America.  Petru Ivanovic.”

“You mean?” Talmadge asked.

“Yes,” Oscar answered, “this is the room designed after your father.  The mysterious X-tra Terrestrial.”

“Jeez,” Buddy laughed, “and I thought my super-hero name was lame.”

“I had always questioned Petru's chosen moniker as well, chum,” Zero responded.  “However, there is no other team member, outside of yourself, that I would have entrusted with my life than my old pal, X.  Speaking of which, whatever happened to trustworthy Petru?”

“Ah,” Oscar answered.  “That's a very good question.  Petru was something of an oddity in the world of meta-humans.  Even he never fully understood his powers, deciding they must have meant that he had come from another planet.  Hence his self-appointed title.  One such ability was that he was unable to be tracked by any known mechanism on Earth.  As such, I lost track of him shortly after The Great Redaction, only finding glimpses of his existence since.”

“I can tell you what happened.  He left.  Well, I mean, he stayed around long enough to find me a foster family, but then he all but completely disappeared.  He pops around randomly just to let me know he’s still alive, but those times are few and far between.”

“I've known Petru for quite some time,” Zero replied.  “If he disappeared from your life, I can assure you there was good reason.”

“Yeah, the reason being that he didn't want to deal with a young kid,” Talmadge frowned.

“Your father was one of the best me--” Zero was cut off.

“Look kids, I get that we're having a moment here and everything,” Buddy interrupted.  “But we've got more pressing matters than daddy issues to deal with at the moment.  The big one being that we're sitting here in a sauna.  Anyone else notice how unbearably hot it is in here?”

“Thank you for the change in subject Buddy,” Oscar agreed.  “And I'm happy to see that the heating mechanisms I created for this room were able to stand up to the test of time.  Granted, they're mostly bio-thermal based.  However, I didn’t really think they would be able to withstand the pressures coming from the Earth's core.”

“You've got this thing pulling heat from the core?” Ryan asked.

“In a sense, you see, I utilized the tele--”

“Gentlemen,” Murphy interrupted, “although I too am quite interested in the science involved in the development of many of these rooms, I believe we should stick to Mr. Jackson's initial statement that there are more pressing matters to attend to.  Namely, the third trial.”

“Ah, okay,” Oscar said, dejectedly.  “D.A.W.N., you got our clue for us?”

“The man from Mars is how he was known, but the X-tra Terrestrial had more than that grown.  A hard one to track, this being long suffered.  The needle in the haystack, was what many proffered.  So now you must show your similar skills, in finding the gemstone within these sand hills.  Yet, this is not one where you simply must search; the heat in this desert will create great thirst.  You must move quite quickly or soon you will find, your death, instead of the treasure once mined.”

“Really, Dad?” Alexa whined.  “Another treasure hunt mission?”

“Hey now,” Oscar grimaced.  “Just because they're similar doesn't mean there isn't some major difference.”

“So, we just follow Talmadge and see where things lead us again?” Buddy asked.

“Well,” Talmadge spoke, “umm. . . I don't know how to say this, but I'm not getting anything.”

“I can't imagine you would,” Oscar grinned.  “This room was themed to Petru's special abilities, so, seeing as his ability was to become all-but invisible, it's going to be a tad more difficult to track the jewel down here than in the Fat Mogul room.”