Chapter 254: Payback! These Are His Dogs
Night had fallen over the quiet suburban streets of Bellwood.
Ben, having just finished a lengthy comm-link call with Grandpa Max, slumped heavily onto his mattress. The television illuminated his room with the flickering, pale light of a late-night horror movie, casting long shadows against the walls. He stared blankly at the screen, the exaggerated screams of the actors barely registering in his mind.
"I wonder what my cousin is up to right now?" Ben muttered to the empty room, tossing a rubber ball against the ceiling and catching it.
Bored out of his mind, he grabbed the remote and aimlessly flipped through the channels. 'Should I go find Kevin to hang out?'he thought.'Nah, he's been totally down in the dumps ever since he got back. Probably wouldn't be much fun anyway.'
Even though Ben no longer had a strict curfew tying him down, he still found himself stuck at home on a perfectly good night, staring at a glowing box.
Meanwhile, on the other side of Bellwood.
A luxurious three-story villa sat quietly in the dark. The tranquility of the courtyard was abruptly shattered as a battered spacecraft, bearing an uncanny resemblance to a rusted, oversized Earth garbage truck, descended from the sky. Its thrusters scorched the manicured lawn as it touched down with a heavy, metallic thud.
"This appears to be the designated premises," Octagon Vreedle announced, adjusting his suspenders as he hopped out of the driver's seat. He strode confidently toward the front door, his heavy boots crushing the decorative flowerbeds. "Now listen closely, Rhomboid. We shall divide and conquer to expedite our search..."
Before he could finish his tactical directive, Octagon noticed the ambient lighting in the courtyard suddenly dimming. A massive shadow eclipsed the moonlight, plunging him into darkness.
He slowly turned his head. Towering behind him was a hulking, bipedal wolf-like creature, its muscular frame rippling beneath thick fur.
"I don't suppose you are the target, buddy?" Octagon asked, blinking his beady eyes.
The Loboan responded by unhinging its jaw, which split sickeningly into four distinct mandibles. A localized sonic boom erupted from its throat. The concussive wave of purple sound blasted Octagon squarely in the chest, launching him backward. He crashed through the wooden courtyard fence, splintering it into a thousand pieces, and tumbled violently onto the asphalt of the street outside.
"Now what kind of upstanding citizen keeps a Loboan as a domesticated pet?!" Octagon groaned, rubbing his aching head. He was thoroughly bewildered, not just by the sheer force of the sonic howl, but by the sheer absurdity of the situation.
The Loboan's brutal, glowing purple eyes locked onto Octagon's prone form. It dug its razor-sharp claws into the dirt, muscles coiling like springs as it prepared to dash forward and shred the intruder.
Suddenly, a pair of thick, meaty arms wrapped around the alien wolf's torso in a crushing bear hug.
"Hey! You overgrown mutt! You wanna get turned into dog meat stew?!" Rhomboid Vreedle bellowed, straining every muscle in his dense body to restrain the beast.
"Exemplary work, Rhomboid!" Octagon praised, scrambling to his feet and retrieving his laser rifle from the pavement. He dusted off his trousers and rushed toward the villa's entrance. "You maintain your hold on that Loboan, and I shall proceed indoors to retrieve the client's little dog!"
Seeing the smaller intruder making a break for the house, the Loboan's eyes narrowed. Its massive muscles bulged, vibrating with raw, untamed power as it fought against Rhomboid's grip.
Rhomboid squeezed his eyes shut, gritting his teeth as he exerted every ounce of his strength to keep the beast pinned. But a second later, the sensation of gravity vanished. He opened his eyes, only to realize the ground was rapidly shrinking beneath him. He was flying.
The Loboan had simply pushed off the ground with its powerful hind legs, launching both itself and the clinging Vreedle brother dozens of meters into the night sky.
At the apex of their jump, the Loboan twisted its body with terrifying agility, shifting its weight so that Rhomboid was positioned directly beneath it.
They plummeted toward the street. With a thunderous, bone-rattling crash, Rhomboid slammed into the asphalt, absorbing the full weight of the Loboan. A crater three meters wide spider-webbed across the road, sending chunks of debris flying into the air.
Rhomboid felt an overwhelming, all-consuming discomfort. The sheer agony radiating through his spine forced his arms to go slack, instinctively releasing his grip.
The Loboan landed gracefully on its feet, shaking out its fur. Rhomboid groggily sat up, clutching his ringing head. The moment he opened his eyes, a massive, razor-sharp claw eclipsed his vision.
Inside the house, the first-floor living room was shrouded in darkness.
Octagon Vreedle swept the area with his laser rifle raised, his beady eyes darting from corner to corner as he cautiously searched for his target.
As he crept past a hallway wall, he abruptly skidded to a halt. "Well now, what do we have here?"
The wall was adorned with various framed photographs and odd trinkets. What caught Octagon's attention was a large group photo hanging right in the center. The background depicted a picturesque outdoor camping site, complete with towering mountains and a crystal-clear lake. Parked on the grass was an old-fashioned Earth recreational vehicle. Half-crouching in front of the RV was an older human male wearing a garish red Hawaiian shirt.
Standing in front of the old man were three children, all appearing to be around ten years of age.
Octagon leaned in closer, his eyes zeroing in on one of the boys. A deep sense of familiarity washed over him, quickly followed by a cold wave of dread.
"This is highly improbable! I haven't even encountered that many Earthlings in my travels!" Octagon's grey face contorted in sheer terror. "That child right there is..."
At that exact moment, a towering silhouette, faintly radiating an eerie purple glow, materialized directly behind him.
Octagon spun around on his heel and squeezed the trigger without hesitation. A brilliant blue laser pulse erupted from the barrel, punching a massive, smoking hole straight through the chest of the mummified creature standing before him. The beam continued onward, blasting a chunk out of the living room wall.
Causing property damage in this particular house was a monumentally dangerous mistake, but Octagon had zero alternatives. From the moment their ship touched down, they had already crossed the line of no return. Failing to fight back now meant being captured by the homeowner's bizarre menagerie of monsters and waiting for a very painful demise.
The Thep Khufan did not even flinch. The gaping hole in its chest smoothly knitted back together as the alien bandages writhed and reconnected. It raised its arms, and dozens of thick, white tendrils shot forward like striking vipers, fanning out in a pincer maneuver to bind the intruder.
Octagon fired a continuous volley of lasers, carving a path through the incoming bandages. He threw himself into a clumsy forward roll, narrowly slipping through the opening he had created.
"Oh, so you wish to engage in fisticuffs, do you? Then bring it on, you oversized roll of medical gauze!"
As a cloned product of the Vreedle family, Octagon possessed the exact same genetic predisposition for destructive impulses as Ma Vreedle herself. "You think a pile of stinky toilet paper can best me? I shall blast you into microscopic smithereens!"
True to his word, Octagon hoisted his heavy laser cannon and unleashed a furious barrage. Blinding blue flashes illuminated the living room as he blasted the Thep Khufan's body into a pile of shredded, burning ribbons more than a dozen times in rapid succession.
But the alien's regenerative capabilities were nothing short of nightmarish. In the blink of an eye, the scattered ribbons slithered across the floor, intertwining and pulling themselves back up into the towering, imposing figure of the mummy.
Octagon's beady eyes widened to their absolute limits. The destructive high instantly faded, replaced by cold, hard logic. "Uh-huh. Well, I believe I shall just go use the restroom facilities first."
He pivoted toward the nearest exit, initiating a highly tactical retreat.
The Thep Khufan clearly had no intention of letting him leave. Its body exploded outward, sending dozens of bandages coiling through the air like a nest of angry snakes. They swept up to the ceiling and cascaded down, completely enveloping Octagon from above in a matter of seconds.
"Are you entirely devoid of manners? You won't even permit a gentleman to use the restroom?" Octagon gritted his teeth, a few drops of cold sweat squeezing out of his grey forehead. "You possess absolutely zero understanding of basic hospitality! It is exceptionally rude!"
He fired blindly upward. A brilliant blue beam managed to pierce the overwhelming dome of interwoven bandages, creating just enough space for Octagon to clumsily dive out of the trap.
Seeing its prey escape the snare, the Thep Khufan let out a raspy, annoyed hiss. The sound squeezed through the gaps in its facial wrappings. Slowly, the bandages covering its chest parted.
A dazzling, hypnotic purple glow blossomed from the exposed cavity. A jagged chunk of Corrodium rested within, radiating a dangerous, captivating beauty that instantly captured Octagon's full attention.
"My word. What in the cosmos is..."
Bathed in the eerie purple light, Octagon's frantic movements ceased. His grip on his laser rifle loosened, and his gaze gradually became vacant, glassy, and entirely dull.
The Thep Khufan observed this with satisfaction. It fully expected the intruder's mind to shatter under the Corrodium's radiation, turning him into a crazed, mindless mutant like any other Earthling.
However, the reality of the situation was vastly different.
"So pretty..." Octagon murmured, a silly, dopey smile spreading across his grey face. He dropped his weapon entirely and began stumbling forward, reaching out toward the glowing rock like a moth drawn to a flame.
The Thep Khufan paused, tilting its head in confusion. It suddenly remembered that this intruder was an alien, and therefore should have been completely immune to the mutating effects of the Corrodium crystal.
So why was he acting completely hypnotized? Did the crystal possess a secondary mind-control ability it was unaware of?
The mummy was genuinely baffled. What it failed to realize was that the Vreedle family, being a long line of endlessly recycled clones, suffered from severe, inherent genetic degradation. Their baseline intelligence was staggeringly low. Even the fearsome Ma Vreedle could easily be distracted by a sheet of bubble wrap in the middle of a life-or-death firefight.
Octagon wasn't being manipulated by some dark, cosmic power. He was simply an idiot entranced by a shiny object.
Though it didn't understand the mechanics of the alien's stupidity, the Thep Khufan recognized a golden opportunity when it saw one. With a flick of its wrists, dozens of thick bandages shot forward, wrapping the drooling Octagon up tight from head to toe. It tossed the discarded laser rifle into the corner like a piece of trash, leaving the Vreedle brother bound and helpless on the floor.
Meanwhile, the chaotic brawl out on the street was rapidly drawing to a close.
Rhomboid's physical strength and durability were impressive, but they completely paled in comparison to the raw, predatory power of the Loboan. Coupled with the fact that Rhomboid was somehow even denser than his brother, the fight was entirely one-sided. The alien wolf pinned the battered Vreedle to the asphalt, ending the conflict without breaking a sweat.
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