And Your Enemies Closer is the fifty-eighth chapter of Zak Saturday's Immortal Love Life. It was first published on February 27, 2016.
Chapter[]
|
Chapter I shrieked. “You know, I’ve never really looked at a neural parasite up close before, and I’m pretty sure I never want to again. Sarah, Fisk, and I were in the back of the airship, looking at the parasite on a table. “I think it’s kind of cute,” Sarah said. “You think every creature is cute,” I said. “And what’s wrong with that?” I shook my head. “Nothing.” “Ok. But do you really think this is a good idea to keep that?” “No. I know Argost’s working on some evil master plan or something, but his Kur power lessons saved my life once already. What if we—” “What are you boys up to?” Dad asked, entering the room. Mom was somewhere else with Doyle and Raylee at the moment, somewhere in the Himalayas. “Us? You know, a bit of house cleaning,” I replied. I put the parasite back in its container and hid it behind my back. “It seems like you three have been doing a lot of housecleaning lately,” Dad said. “And without even tell your parents about it.” “Yeah, well, uh, things have been a little messy.” “Zak, I don’t know what’s been going on, but I need you to know, whatever it is, you can always trust me.” Then our video phone started ringing. “Dr. Cheechoo?” Dad said, him appearing on the screen. “What do you want, Paul?” “Thank you for taking my call,” he said. “I know this is awkward.” “Because you’re trying to kidnap and cryogenically freeze me?” I said. “Yeah, that covers it. I don’t blame you for hating us right now, but the Secret Scientists really need your help.” “What’s the problem?” Dad asked. “Cryptids. Two days ago, we caught a pretty nasty one that got itself un-caught. It’s ripping Beeman’s lap apart.” We saw something fly by behind him. “Do you have any idea how many probes it took to retrieve that sample?” we heard Dr. Beeman say in the background. Sarah and I laughed. “Beeman? Tell him how broken-hearted we are for his loss,” I said sarcastically. Sarah gave me a high-five. But Dad scolded us. “Wait. Dad, you’re not seriously thinking about helping?” I asked. “Six months,” he said, but not to me. “Wait. What?” “I—I don’t—” Cheechoo stuttered. “You want our help, I want a promise that the Secret Scientists will back off,” Dad said. Beeman appeared on the screen. “We’ll give you seven. Just—Hey, gargantuan, get away from that.” He ran off. “Looks like we have a deal,” Cheechoo said. We ended the call and headed to Peru. “Six months?” Sarah asked. “How about forever?” “Six months is enough,” Dad said. She crossed her arms and pouted. “Fine.” We arrived in Nazca, Peru. “Nice location,” I said. “But I sort of expected more from the Beeman’s hive.” Sarah smiled. We entered our airship in and exited out. The five of us entered into another room and found all of the Secret Scientists being thrown around by a single cryptid that looked kind of like Bigfoot with four arms. “Oh, I should video record this,” Sarah said. “That’s what you needed help with?” I asked in disbelief. “Come on, it’s already five on one.” “Yes, Pointy Locks,” Dr. Beeman said. “Now that we’ve all enjoyed gloaty time, maybe you’d like to stop this—” He was interrupted when the cryptid punched him into the wall next to us. Sarah laughed. “I like this cryptid.” “Anything for you, Uncle B,” I said, then faced the cryptid and activated my powers. “Come on. Sleepy time.” My powers couldn’t get a connection to it. Then it morphed into a bull and knocked me away. “Zak!” Dad called. Komodo and Sarah checked on me. “I’m fine,” I said. “But I’m starting to see the problem here.” “What a quick learner you’ve raised,” Dr. Beeman said sarcastically. “I’ll confirm it in the Cryptipedia,” Dad said. “But off-hand, I’d say you’ve caught yourself a revolving beast.” The cryptid changed form again. A kind of spider figure. Then it changed back to its Bigfoot form. I tried my powers again, but I was really struggling to keep control of it. “Come on,” I said. “Just stay still.” Professor Talu Mizuki wrapped his arms around it and held it back, but it morphed into a bull again and knocked him off his back. Dad, Fiskerton, Sarah, and Komodo tried to stop it, but they just got knocked around as well. It ran through the wall and left the room. “Doc, if you want your six months vacation, you and your boys better contain that thing,” Dr. Beeman said. “I thought you said seven months,” I said. He glared at me. “Six is good.” My family and I ran after the cryptid. “Where is it?” I asked. “Behind us,” Sarah said. A little too late there. The cryptid was in spider form. It hit Komodo and knocked him into some kind of control pad, and the alarms began to blare. The ceiling opened up. We checked on Komodo. “Komodo, hey boy,” Dad said. “Up here.” He looked up at us, but he didn’t look good. The morphing cryptid climbed up to the open ceiling. “How are we suppose to stop that thing?” I asked. “My Kur powers aren’t working.” “Six months without Secret Scientist interferences could make all the difference, Zak,” Dad said. “If your powers can’t do this, we’ll have to figure something else out.” It hurt a little bit to hear that. But I, unfortunately, had someone who probably could help. “Fiskerton, I need you to stay and take care of Komodo while Zak, Sarah, and I—” “Wait,” I interrupted. “Dad, it might be better if you stayed with Komodo. I mean, if something’s really wrong with him, you’d know what to do better than Fisk.” Fisk seemed a little hurt by that. Dad checked on Komodo. “His leg is pretty bad. Go. And hurry. We need this one.” “We’ll get him, Dad,” I promised. “Don’t worry.” I climbed on top of Fisk and we ran up as close to the ceiling as possible. Sarah followed close behind. We caught up to the cryptid. “Gotcha,” I said. I grabbed the claw and slingshot it at it. It grabbed onto one of its tusks. I jumped toward it and kicked it. It landed on the ramp we were on. The cryptid got up and made a run for the opening in the ceiling and got outside. “No, you don’t,” I said. The three of us climbed after it, then climbed down the mountain. It morphed back to a Bigfoot and began throwing things at us. We ran away to dodge it. Then it morphed back to a bull and tried to ram us. Fisk pulled Sarah and I behind something and we took a moment to catch our breaths. “Mom and Dad need those six months, guys,” I said. “Maybe they can finally find a way out of this Kur thing. That’s worth whatever it takes, right?” “It depends,” Sarah said. I grabbed the parasite out of my pocket and gave it to Fisk. “I need to talk to Argost.” He didn’t like it, neither did I, and pointed to Sarah. “He’s not going to dare ask me because I’m his girlfriend,” she said. “And, even if he did, my powers wouldn’t allow him to take control of me.” He sighed. He grabbed the parasite and put it on the back of his neck. Argost was now in control of him. “Found ourselves in trouble already, young Kurling?” I showed him the cryptid. “The solution is childishly simple,” he said. “Frankly, I’m disappointed you even needed to ask.” “Yeah, I’m kind of regretting it too,” I said. “Just shut up already and tell us what we need to do to stop it,” Sarah said. “Clearly, the revolving beast favors certain forms for certain activities,” Argost said. “Therefore, if you wish to stop the shifting, simply lure the beast to a place where only one form will do.” He pointed to a pool fifty feet away. Sarah and I looked at each other and nodded. She ran to the corner of the pool, next to the controls, while I got the cryptid’s attention. “Hey, Eltoro!” I called to it. “Over here.” Sarah had summoned a big light in front of me to get its attention and I was in front of the pool. It ran to me and I moved at the last second. He ran into the pool and morphed into a fish. I activated my powers and made a connection with it. “Ok, nice and easy,” I said. “Sarah, the gate.” She pulled the lever and the gate closed on the pool, trapping the cryptid in it. I deactivated my powers. “Zak, you did it,” Dad called. He, Komodo, and the Secret Scientists were coming toward us. “Not a word,” I told Argost. “Why don’t you just take the parasite off of him?” Sarah whispered. “Not enough time.” They reached us. “Hey, nice work,” Dr. Beeman said. “The six months truce is running.” He and Dad shook hands. “I’m impressed, Zak,” Dr. Cheechoo said. “How’d you figure out a way to beat it?” “Oh, it was, uh . . . childishly simple,” I said hesitantly. “See, the revolving beast favors certain forms for, you know, various activities it does.” Komodo was near us. He smelt a whiff of the air and caught a scent he didn’t seem to like and looked at Argost/Fisk. He jumped on top of him and knocked him down on his stomach. “Komodo, no!” I said. Then everybody noticed the parasite. “Uh, somebody wanna tell me why Fuzzy Wuzzy’s got a V.V. Argost special on the back of his neck?” Dr. Beeman asked. “No,” Sarah said. I walked up to Argost/Fisk, but Dad held me back. “Zak, stay back,” he said. “Doc, I think Zak knew about this,” Dr. Cheechoo said. “What? That’s not possible.” Unfortunately, it was. He looked at me and I didn’t even try to hold back my guilt. “I—it’s not—” “They’re onto us, boy,” Argost interrupted. “This will never be forgiven. If you want to live, you’ve got to come with me right now.” His warship suddenly appeared from the air and the bottom opened up. “Don’t let them get away together,” Dr. Beeman said. But Argost, using Fisk, hit him and Dr. Cheechoo. “Come, boy,” he told me. “Now.” He pushed me toward his ship. I hated the fact that I agreed with him. The other Secret Scientists came outside and started blasting at the warship. I looked back at Dad, and he looked hurt and heart-broken that I, his son, had been secretly working with the enemy behind his back. “What have you done?” he asked. I couldn’t bare to look at him anymore. “Dad, I’m sorry,” I said. I slingshot myself into Argost’s warship and we flew away. “Wait. No!” I said. “Too late for regrets, boy,” Argost said, appearing as himself. “We’re already in the end game.” He pulled something from his cape, a solid green mist. When it came near me, I felt woozy, then I fell unconscious. “Good evening, moonshine,” I heard Argost say. I woke up on an ice mountain and my whole body was wrapped up in Munya’s webs, except for my head. I tried to break out of it, but I couldn’t. “Please don’t exert yourself,” Argost said. “Even if you could get loose, there’s no where to go. We’re on an inaccessible, the most isolated spot on earth. I warned you this moment would come, young Saturday. It’s time I finally got the power I deserve.” “Yeah, I’m sure you’ll get what you deserve, Argost,” I said. “But it won’t be my powers, I can promise you that.” He laughed. “Who said anything about your powers?” He pulled out something from his cloak. “The Monday smoke mirror?” I asked. I had a bad feeling about this. “But that’s—” “Hanging on a museum wall in Paris?” Argost said. “Not for several weeks, I’m afraid. I’d hoped to find something useful when I pilfered your airship’s data base during our Australian visit. Possible even the means of extracting the power of Kur from your unworthy little body. But I’d never dreamed I’d discover something even better. A power as great as Kur’s, but darker, twisted, and also much more useful. The one you call Zak Monday, I believe. The sort of anti-Kur, living in a parallel dimension, needing only this Aztec mirror and the presence of you, his counter part, to be brought back into our world.” The mirror opened up and Zak Monday came out of it. “Ah, guess who’s back in town,” he said. He grabbed his claw and aimed it at me. “Zak, whatever Argost told you, don’t—” I tried to reason with him, but he slingshot his claw into my face. “I had to wait a long time for this,” he said. “Don’t spoil it.” He slingshot his claw into my stomach, and with everything around us going crazy, I bounced off the pillar that was next to me. “You have to listen to me,” I tried again. “You’re in so much danger, you don’t even understand.” “What? The matter, anti-matter, ripping apart the fabric of reality stuff?” he said. “I figured that will stop once I get rid of you.” He slingshot his claw at me again, grabbed me and threw me into a pillar. He walked up to me, but then I noticed Argost behind him and I saw him pull something from his cloak, and I recognized it. “No,” I said. “Zak, that thing he’s got, it’s the Flute of Gilgamesh. He’s going to steal your powers and get rid of us both.” “With a flute?” he asked in disbelief. “Dude, you’re crazier than I am.” I doubted that. He hit me again and laughed. Then Munya tied him up with his webs like me and threw him on the ground a few feet from me. “It is true, only a crazy man would try to take Kur’s power with the Flute of Gilgamesh,” Argost said. “As young Saturday would know, the flute only sucks the Kur power out, and rather painfully, I’m afraid. To truly steal it, you’d need several Devonian Annelids to collect and transfer that mighty life force. My, how well prepared am I.” A Devonian Annelid came out of the sleeve of his cloak and latched itself onto Zak Monday, then Argost attached the other end of it to himself. “Munya, please, protect our insurance policy. I’ve only just learned to play.” Munya stuck his web into my ears so that I couldn’t hear the music from the flute. Argost played it, and Zak screamed in pain. I was glad I couldn’t hear him. Eventually, all of Zak’s powers was sucked from him to Argost and he became unconscious, or even dead. Argost picked up his claw and he had Zak’s, now his, power activated. He dropped the Flute of Gilgamesh on top of the smoke mirror and stomped on both of them, breaking them to pieces. Then, suddenly, he took his face, or mask, off. I almost couldn’t believe what I saw. Munya took the web off of my head. “You’re a cryptid,” I told Argost. “Yes, and that would’ve been incredibly useful information a mere three minutes ago,” he said. “Why I believe it worked. Then it would seem we now have one Kur too many.” I turned my head toward Munya and activated my powers. I was able to get in control of him. Argost shot his claw at me, but Munya stopped it by shooting his web at it, which surprised Argost. He grabbed my claw and cut the webs from around me. I took my claw, stood up, and faced Argost. “You know, I always wondered how much cryptid spider DNA you put into him. I guess the answer is enough.” I had Munya throw a few webs at him, but he blocked them with his cape. Then he tried his powers on Munya and got control of him. He had Munya pick up the ice sanctuary and threw it at me. I dodged it and tried my powers on him again. “Munya, the boy is not your master,” Argost said. But I was in control of him, so I had him pick up Argost and throw him into his warship. “No,” I agreed. “I’ve just been doing this longer.” I had Munya go toward him, but Argost tried his powers and it worked. Munya turned back on me, but I wasn’t about to give up. I got in control of him again. “You’re playing with forces you don’t understand, boy,” Argost told me. “Munya is a creature of rage. You may confound him for a moment, but deep down, all he wants is to make you hurt.” He got back in control of Munya and he turned back on me and attacked me. I just kept dodging his hits. He used his webs and caught my feet, then he threw me and I slid near the edge of a cliff. I stood up and tried my powers again. “Come on.” “Oh, please stop embarrassing us both,” Argost said. “I’m quite immune to your powers. Munya is firmly in my control, and we’re the only cryptids within a thousand miles of this forsaken rock.” Little did he know, I wasn’t trying to control Munya. I’d given up on that. I was trying to get another cryptid to help me. My power turned white and I knew he was here. He appeared, blew his flute, and knocked away Argost and Munya. “Not anymore,” I said. “Tsul Kalu,” Argost said. Then my family and Sarah appeared next to me with their weapons ready. “And friends,” Dad said. “The greatest tracker this world has ever seen,” I said, referring to Tsul Kalu. “Or did you think you were my only emergency contact?” “Congratulations on delaying the inevitable,” Argost said. He and Munya jumped into their warship and took off. “Dad!” I called. I ran to him and gave him a hug. The others greeted me as well. “Fisk and Sarah filled me in a little bit on what’s been going on with you and Argost the past few months,” Dad said. “But you still have a lot of explaining to do.” “I will. I promise,” I said. “But right now, Argost just got a power as big as Kur’s. He can raise a cryptid army. I don’t know how long we’ve got, but if the world has any chance of surviving, we’re gonna need an army too.” “Zak,” Sarah called. She was standing over the unconscious and possibly dead body of Zak Monday a few feet away. I forgot he was still here. “How is he here? And what happened to him?” I told them, but they didn’t seem to like it. Sarah laid her head on his chest. “He’s still alive.” “What?” I asked in disbelief. “How?” She shook her head. “I don’t know. But we have to help him.” I looked at Dad. He nodded reluctantly. “Alright.” Fisk picked him up and took him back to the airship. Everything still went crazy around me when I went near him, so I stayed as far away from him as I could. If he really was still alive, things were going to get really tense for us Saturdays. And even more since we have a war to plan. Ok, well, when I wrote this story, I had only watched this on TV, and in the show, they never explained what happened to Zak Monday. But, not long ago, I learned on The Secret Saturdays Wiki that Zak Monday had actually died. Well, I didn't know that, so this is what I did with him. I actually got this idea from another fanfiction I read on fanfiction.net called Brother, Lovers, and a Mirror by RandomDraggon. Though, I'm not going to do most of the stuff in here that the writer did in there. That's just too much. Go read it if you want to know what I mean. Anyway, the answer to my last quiz was Gotta Find You, by Joe Jonas. I really like that song. Please review here. |
Character Appearances[]
Main Characters[]
- Zak Saturday
- Sarah Hollinger
- Doc Saturday
- Drew Saturday (mentioned)
- Raylee Hollinger (mentioned)
Minor Characters[]
- Paul Cheechoo
- Arthur Beeman
- Talu Mizuki
- Doyle Blackwell (mentioned)