Post by dragonstar on Dec 4, 2009 10:27:22 GMT -5
This started out as a simple little one shot story about Dr. C teaching Susan to dance with a little romance thrown in, then I wanted to do a picture to go with it, since the only stock picture I could find that I liked had costumes I came up with a way to explain that in the story. Then I thought Dr. C had taken over the story when he started talking about his family, I later realized it was actually the little girl in the kitty costume from the Halloween special and her siblings who had really taken over the story and I ended up making some changes to my picture because of it, and then more changes to the story and it just kept going back and forth. Now I have a nearly 40 page story and I think the changes are slowing down although I still have a few scenes to add.
Comments, suggestions or advice are always welcome and appreciated.
Also if anyone has ideas for Link and B.O.B.’s costumes I’d love to hear them because I haven’t come up with anything yet.
Past, Present and Future Chapter 1
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“Alright, last year we waited too late to get our costumes ready, this year we’re going to start a month early.” Link announced as Susan came out of her room, “You’d be perfect as King Kong or Godzilla or maybe Death, it’s a bit over done for normal humans, but a forty nine foot tall Death who could just step on you to kill you would be pretty scary.” he told her.
“Why do we always have to be something scary?” Susan asked as she sat down and picked up her mug of coffee.
“Because it’s fun to terrify people.” Link replied.
“Which is exactly why there are groups of people who still think we should be locked away. We’re still different and scary to them and you going out and deliberately scaring people isn’t going to help change that.” Dr. Cockroach said, “Something more civilized and refined, something to make us seem more human than monster would be better for improving our image with the groups who still don’t like us.”
“Come on Doc, that would just be boring, it’s Halloween, we‘re allowed to scare people.” Link replied.
“Well being boring for a while might be worth it if it helps people accept us faster. Then again I wouldn‘t expect you to have the maturity or self control to not scare people.” Dr. Cockroach said.
“Maturity and self control? This coming from Mr. I got a lollipop now I have to go get all the candy I can get my hands on.” Link replied sarcastically.
Dr. Cockroach glared at him for a second, “I was just getting over some metal scarring from my childhood and we had to go door to door looking for aliens anyways, so-” he stopped when General Monger flew into the room and over to Susan.
“Ginormica, we just got a call from the hospital in Modesto, your mother was in an accident and will be in the hospital for the next day or two for observation.” General Monger told her.
“Oh my gosh, how badly is she hurt?” Susan asked, worry evident in her voice.
“Just a broken leg, nothing to worry about.” General Monger replied.
“Can I go see her?” Susan asked.
“No, she’s going to be in the hospital and then on bed rest for a few days while her leg starts to heal. No sense letting you go out there when you wouldn’t be able to get inside to see her anyways. I’ll notify you if there are any updates on her condition.” General Monger told her.
“Okay, well thank you for letting me know.” Susan replied quietly staring sadly down into her coffee.
“You’re welcome.” General Monger replied before leaving.
“Are you alright my dear?” Dr. Cockroach asked as he walked up next to the coffee mug that Susan was still staring dejectedly into and rested a hand on her arm.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” she replied picking up the mug and finishing off the coffee before standing up, “I’ll just be in my room if anyone needs me.” she said before quickly heading to her room. As soon as the door shut behind her she leaned against the wall, sliding down to sit on the floor. She pulling her knees to her chest and burying her face against them she started to cry.
About fifteen minutes later there was a knock at her door, “Come in.” she said, quickly trying to wipe the tears from her face.
Dr, Cockroach stepped into the room and walked over to her, climbing up to stand on her knee so he would be more at eye level with her, “I’m sure your mother will be fine, if it were anything more serious General Monger would have told you.” he said.
“I know, I just want to be there for her, she always took such good care of me if I was sick or hurt, even after I moved in to my own place she would insist on coming over and taking care of me when I was sick. Now she’s hurt and daddy could probably use some help taking care of her and I can’t even fit inside the house to visit her.” Susan told him, fighting back more tears.
Dr. Cockroach sighed, his antennas drooping a little.
“What is it?” Susan asked.
“You don’t realize how lucky you are to know what’s happening to her, to know that she’ll be alright and that you’ll get to see her again once she’s recovered enough to be outside.” he replied solemnly.
“What do you mean?” Susan asked.
“When I was brought here my family was told I had died in a failed experiment and I was never told about anything that happened to them. By the time we were given our freedom my grandparents and parents were dead along with my two older sisters and my older brother is eighty six and in a nursing home with Alzheimer’s so bad that he doesn’t even know his own name most of the time. My mother died alone in a nursing home because my sisters had their hands full with their own families and couldn’t take care of her. If it weren’t for her constant support and encouragement I probably never would have made it through collage and yet when she needed me the most I was locked away here, not even knowing what she was going through. You are quite lucky that things changed so soon after you were brought here.” Dr. Cockroach told her.
“I’m so sorry.” Susan replied sincerely.
“It was ultimately my own fault, I was the one who was cocky enough to believe that my invention was so perfect that I didn’t need to test it on anything else before I used it on my self.” Dr. Cockroach replied.
“Why would you want to be part cockroach in the first place? Just so you could be almost indestructible?” Susan asked.
“Indestructibility has its advantages, but Cockroaches have the ability to survive higher amounts of radiation than humans can and that was my main focus. My grandfather on my mothers side worked in a nuclear power plant, when I was seven he was exposed to a dangerous amount of radiation and died a painful death. My mother was devastated and I promised her I’d find a way to make sure that someday that wouldn’t happen to anyone else. That was still my goal when I graduated from collage, I thought I could find a way to give humans who work around radioactive materials a higher tolerance to them. I never did get a chance to check the effects of radiation on myself; I passed out shortly after the experiment, woke up here and haven’t yet convinced Monger to give me anything radioactive. From what I have been able to learn I gained the near indestructibility of a cockroach and thanks to a failed escape attempt twenty seven years ago, I found out I also have their ability to regrow limbs that have been lost. As well as being able to permanently claim to be twenty nine.” Dr. Cockroach told her.
“Permanently twenty nine?” Susan asked raising an eyebrow, “Doesn’t pretty much everybody try to claim they never get any older than that?
“Yes, but for me it seems to be true, it was eight days before my thirtieth birthday when I performed the experiment and I’m not quite sure why, but I don’t seem to have aged at all since then.” Dr. Cockroach told her.
“Wow, so how old are you really?” Susan asked.
“Technically, seventy seven years, but I’m still fit, healthy and sharp as I was the day I was mutated.” Dr. Cockroach replied.
“So technically, you’re a really, really old guy.” Susan replied grinning.
“Yes, just like Link is technically thousands of years old.” he said a grin spreading across his face before he began laughing maniacally for a moment before stopping and looking back at Susan, “Sorry.” he said.
“It’s alright, I’m use to it by now, as long as you’re not experimenting on me when you do it, it doesn‘t bother me.” Susan replied, “So you’re going to start harassing Link about his age now, aren’t you?” she asked.
“Oh absolutely my dear.” he replied laughing again before saying, “Now as for this busyness of you not being able to go take care of your mother, I may have a solution.” Dr. Cockroach told her.
“Really, how?” Susan asked.
“Well with the lowered security on the monster containment area I was able to sneak out in to the rest of the base and it seems no one outside of this area expects someone to be crawling around on the ceiling making it quite easy to sneak around unnoticed. I found out they have the meteor that hit you stored here and it still has some of the quantonium in it, so I took some samples and began working on finding you a cure. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to recreate the extractor that was used on you before; what little technology was salvaged after the ship exploded simply isn’t enough to figure out how it worked, at least not without many years of studying it. However after accidentally coming in direct contact with the quantonium, I discover that something in my mutation seems to have given me an immunity to it. So in basically the same way snake antivenom is made I’ve been able to create a serum that should block the effects of the quantonium in you. Unfortunately it’s not a permanent fix, my tests indicate the effects could last anywhere from ten to twelve hours before it wears off and I’ve only been able to test it on mice and rats so far.” Dr. Cockroach told her.
“You found a way to get me back to normal and you hadn’t told me yet?” Susan asked a hopeful smile spreading across her face.
“As I said I’m still testing it, I wanted to wait until I was sure it would work before I told you. We suffered so many disappointments trying to get you back to normal when you first came here that I didn’t want to get your hopes up only to have it not work. But since there haven’t been any negative side effects on the test subjects and you want to be able to go take care of your mother I thought this would be the perfect time to tell you about it. Although I had hoped to find a way to make it permanent.” he told her.
“Oh doc, it’s fine that it won’t be permanent, I’ve gotten use to being this size and it does have it’s advantages. The only thing that really bothers me is not being able to properly celebrate the holidays with my family and stuff like that and this will fix that perfectly.” Susan told him, “So shall we go make sure it’ll really work?” she asked grinning as she held her hand up next to her knee.
“Of course my dear.” he replied stepping onto her hand.
A minute later they were in Dr. Cockroach’s lab, Susan sat down along an empty wall while Dr. Cockroach got a few things ready.
“Now, I’m not sure if this will hurt, the mice and rats seemed upset by the size change, but I don’t know if it’s because of pain or just because they don’t understand what’s happening to them and it upsets them.” he warned her as he prepared a large syringe.
“It’s alright doc, even if it does hurt I’m sure it’ll be worth it to be able to go help take care of my mom.” Susan replied.
“Alright then.” he said cleaning a spot on the inside of her elbow before inserting the needle.
“How do you feel?” he asked as he removed the needle.
“Kind of tingly, kind of like when your foot falls asleep and starts to wake up. It’s not pleasant, but not quite as bad as the pins and needles feeling.” Susan replied falling silent as she began to get smaller, “Okay, now it’s full fledged pins and needles.” she told him between gritted teeth before she completely disappeared inside of her large clothes.
“Susan, are you alright?” Dr. Cockroach asked a few seconds later.
After a moment and some movement from inside the clothing Susan popped her head out, clutching the collar of her jumpsuit over her with one hand, “Aside from the fact that I didn’t think about getting normal sized clothes before we did this, I’m fine.” she said, blushing, but grinning excitedly.
“Well, it’s a good thing I had General Monger get you some normal sized clothes when I knew I was almost done with the testing.“ Dr. Cockroach replied pulling a paper bag out of a cupboard and handing it to her.
Susan disappeared into her clothes and climbed out a few minutes later wearing an ankle length sky blue dress that was slightly to big and a pair of moccasins. She quickly climbed over the large pile of clothing then excitedly hugged Dr. Cockroach, “Thank you so, so much for this.” she said before running out of his lab and to the main room. Grabbing a phone that was hung on the wall incase the monsters needed anything and punched in the number that would connect her to General Monger’s office, “I need to talk to General Monger please.” she said when a woman answered.
“He’s not in right now, would you care to leave a message?” the woman asked.
“Yes, tell him I need clearance to go to Modesto California as soon as possible.” she told the woman.
“Alright, I’ll have him contact you as soon as he get’s back in.” the woman told her before hanging up.
Susan walked out into the large room, looking around, “I can’t believe how big this place looks from this point of view.” she said as Dr. Cockroach walked over to her.
“It would be quite a change.” Dr. Cockroach agreed, “So how about a tour of the place from this point of view?” he asked offering her his arms.
“That would be wonderful.” she said grinning as she took his arm then entwined her fingers with his, looking down at their hands she sighed, “You really take for granted how amazing it is to simply be able to hold someone else’s hand or even be able to touch someone else without worrying about hurting them, until you lose that ability.” she said then smiled, “Has any one ever told you, you’re the most amazing, brilliant scientist in the world?” she asked.
“Not since the last time I visited my mother before being mutated.” he replied.
“Well you are, I can’t imagine anyone else could have figured out how to get me back to normal.” Susan told him.
“Hey, what’s a human doing in here?” B.O.B. asked as they walked past him.
“It’s Susan, B.O.B. she’s just normal sized now.” Dr. Cockroach told him.
B.O.B. looked at her for a moment, “You’re really Susan?” he asked, not sounding convinced.
“Of course it’s really me.” Susan told him.
“Hey, B.O.B. are you ready to go costume hunting yet?” Link asked walking around a corner, “I thought we wer-” he stopped when he saw Susan, “Susan?” he asked in shock.
Susan grinned, “Yep, Doc finally found a way to get me back to normal, at least for a little while.” she told him grinning.
“Awesome, if General Monger wasn’t so up tight about us having clearance to leave I’d invite you to go costume hunting with B.O.B. and I.” Link told her.
“That’s alright, as soon as he’s available I’m planning on going to see my mom anyways.” Susan told him.
“Good for you, I bet she’ll be surprised to see you like this. Well, we’ll see you later Susan.” Link said, “Come on B.O.B. we’ve got to find the most terrifying costumes on earth.” he said as he and B.O.B. headed to where Insectosaurus was waiting for them.
Nearly an hour later Susan was curled up in a chair near Dr. Cockroach’s large bookshelves reading a book about the history of various dances, trying to distract herself from how slow time seemed to be passing. She finally let out a frustrated sigh and set the book on a nearby end table, “Where is he? It’s like he’s deliberately hiding from me to make it take longer to be able to go see my mom.” she said.
“I’m sure he’ll be here as soon as he can, I believe he mentioned having a meeting he had to attend to today.” Dr. Cockroach told her.
“I’ll go crazy from waiting before he shows up.” she said picking the book up again only to put it back down a few minutes later and got up to begin pacing, “I can’t even concentrate to read, I should be at the hospital, visiting my mom by now.” she said frustration evident in her voice.
“Perhaps you just need a proper distraction.” Dr. Cockroach said walking over and looking at the book she had been reading, “You’re interested in dancing?” he asked indicating the book.
“Yes, I’ve always wanted to learn, Derek and I were going to take dance lessons before the wedding so we could really dance at the reception, but he ended up too busy with work.” she shook her head in disbelief, “I can’t believe I never noticed what a self centered jerk he was.” Susan said.
“He certainly wasn’t good enough for you. Would you care for some dance lessons until General Monger arrives?” he asked.
Susan grinned, “That would be wonderful, but I’m not quite sure I could keep up with you. Do you know anything other than that fast dancing you were doing in the space ship?” she asked.
“My dear I come from a family of dancers and as the youngest member of the family I quite often got stuck being the guinea pig for everyone else’s practicing as well as my mother‘s lessons. She taught classic ballroom and Celtic dancing, my sisters were always keeping up on the most recent styles of dance and insisted that I help them practice. Before my grandmother got married she was an understudy for Clara in the Nutcracker and got to perform as head dancer for a season when the original girl broke her foot. Every year after that she insisted on reenacting that highlight of her life for the family, at first with my grandfather playing the nutcracker and then after his death she chose me to take his place. Before they moved from England to the U.S. and he started working at the nuclear power plant my grandfather was a tap dancer, they met when they were both performing at the same theater and always said if it weren’t for dancing they never would have met. My grandparents on my father‘s side were from Ireland and taught both of my parents and every grandchild they could Celtic dancing. My mother often said none of her children learned to walk, they just went strait from crawling to dancing ” Dr. Cockroach told her.
“Wow, no wonder you’re such a good dancer, I always thought you would have come from a family of scientists.” Susan said.
“There’s that to,” he said, “I had an aunt and uncle who worked in one of the more advanced labs of the time. They got me my first chemistry set and would let me come stay with them for a few weeks in the summer, they had an amazing lab set up in their basement and we would spend hours down there doing experiments.” he smiled, “My science teacher always said I leaned as much over the summer as I did at school. Now, what type of dance would you like to learn?” he asked.
“Something slow and easy would probably be best.” Susan replied then spun to face the door as it opened and General Monger flew in and over to her door.
Knocking he called, “What do you need Clarence to go to Modesto for? I already told you, you won’t be able to see your mother.”
“I just thought I could go visit her and help take care of her until her leg heals.” Susan called over to him grinning when he turned to look at her and a look of shock crossed his face.
“Well well well, so your little experiment worked.” General Monger said as he flew over and landed in front of Susan and Dr. Cockroach.
“Of course it worked.” Dr. Cockroach replied.
“So how soon can I leave for Modesto?” Susan asked.
“Tomorrow morning at the earliest.” General monger replied.
“Tomorrow morning, why do I have to wait that long?” Susan asked.
“Because we don’t know how long you will stay this size and I don’t want to hear that you suddenly returned to your normal size inside a hospital. It’s for your own good, you don’t want to suddenly change at you’re parents house and end up crushing your mother instead of taking care of her.” General Monger told her.
Susan sighed, “I guess you’re right.” she reluctantly admitted.
“Of course I’m right, now you just sit back and relax while you wait, better yet, relax in your room where you won’t damage anything when you change back to your normal size.” General Monger told her.
“It should be quite a while before she becomes bigger again.” Dr. Cockroach told him.
“Well just make sure she’s back in her room before it happens, the last thing I need is to have to replace half the stuff in this room or worse have to deal with some type of explosions if she’s to close to any of your equipment when it happens.” General Monger replied.
“Don’t worry, I will be.” Susan told him.
Good, I’ll be in my office most of the day, let me know as soon as you return to normal then we’ll make the arrangements to get you to Modesto.” General Monger told her.
“Alright.” Susan said before General Monger left, “I really thought I would be able to see my mom today.” she said sadly as she dropped back into the chair she had been sitting in earlier.
“At least you’ll be able to be there when she get’s home and until then,” Dr. Cockroach said then bowed formally and held out his hand, “Would you care to dance my dear?” he asked.
Susan smiled, “Why yes, I’d love to.” she replied taking his hand and standing up.
“Now I’ll warn I may not be a smooth at this as I was with the dancing on the space ship, it’s been a very long time since I had a partner to dance with.” Dr. Cockroach told her.
“As long as you keep me distracted from worrying about my mom you’ll be doing good enough for me.” Susan replied.
“Alight then, we’ll start with a the basic box step of a waltz.” he told her.
“Okay.” Susan replied.
“Now take a step back with your right foot,” he told her and she did, “Now bring your left foot back and over to the left and bring your right foot over next to it. Good, now bring your left foot forward, right foot back to where you started and left foot back beside it and repeat.” he instructed.
“Keep your back strait and don’t look down at your feet.” he told her a few minutes later as she continued to practice the steps.
“You’re doing beautifully my dear, do you think you’re ready to make it a little harder?” he asked several minutes later after she had gotten through several rounds of the steps without missing any steps.
“I think so.” Susan replied a little uncertainly.
“Alright, your left hand goes here, on my shoulder,” he told her, guiding her hand to his shoulder then placing his right hand on her back just below her left shoulder blade and taking her other hand in his, “Now, just like you were doing before, nice and slow.” he said as they started to slowly go through the steps several times until Susan stepped on his foot.
“Oh, I’m so sorry.” Susan said.
“It’s quite alright, you’re doing far better than my sisters usually did when they were learning a new dance, especially Harriet, she loved to dance, but learning new ones was quite painful to whoever she practiced with and it was usually me.” he said, walking over to his desk and turning a radio on to play some slow classical music, “Anyways, I’m nearly indestructible, don’t worry about stepping on my feet, I’ll be just fine.” he told her as he walked back to her and repositioned their hands and started to lead her through the steps again.
Half an hour later they were moving gracefully around the floor, “You’re a natural at this. Do you think you’re ready to add a new step?” Dr. Cockroach asked.
“I think so.” Susan replied as they stopped so Dr. Cockroach could teach her another step.
---
By that afternoon Susan had learned several different steps, “We should probably stop for lunch, after all this you need to eat and I‘m afraid you‘ve probably over done it a bit and may end up rather sore.” Dr. Cockroach told her.
“Oh I’m fine, I don’t get sore. Although some lunch does sound good.” Susan replied then grinned, I can eat real food again! No more mass amounts of nearly tasteless or horribly tasting muck. I don’t care how healthy anyone claims that stuff is or how it’s the most affordable thing to feed me, I hate it. It’ll be so nice to have real food again.” she said excitedly heading for the phone.
“Could we please get a pizza delivered here or have someone pick one up?” she asked when a man answered.
“You’re in the monster containment area, aren’t you ma’am.” he asked.
“Yes.” Susan replied.
“Food is already provided to that area.” he told her.
“Not food fit for a normal sized human, so something else needs to be brought in.” Susan told him.
“We have perfectly good food for a human and we can have a smaller portion of it delivered to you if you’d like.” he said.
“No, I want real food, I’ve spent well over a year eating that slop, now I’m at a size where I can eat real food without you people having to pay for mass amounts of it and I want pizza.” she told him.
“Look ma’am I’m sorry, but that’s all we’re authorized to feed you.” the man told her.
“What’s your name?” Susan asked calmly.
“George Schwab, why?” he asked.
“Because I would hate to step on anyone other than you when I get bigger again. Now get me a sausage and ham pizza with extra cheese and a big bottle of Pepsi or the next time I’m out I’m going to use your car for a skate board and accidentally run you over with it. You shouldn’t tell a woman who has gone over a year without normal food and who is usually forty nine feet tall, no, unless you are ready to deal with the consequences. Now are you going to get me my pizza?” Susan asked him, her voice staying calm and even through out the entire threat.
“I- uh, yes ma’am, I’ll get that for you right away ma‘am.” he stuttered out before hanging up the phone.
Dr. Cockroach chuckled, “My dear you are simply amazing when it comes to getting what you want.” he told her.
“Do you think I was a little harsh on him?” Susan asked.
“Not at all, it’s the only way some of the people here will listen, perhaps you could convince them to bring me some real food once in a while as well.” Dr. Cockroach said.
“I thought you liked your garbage?” Susan said.
“I have gained an acquired taste for it, but I honestly I would usually prefer normal food.” Dr. Cockroach told her.
“But why do you eat garbage then?” Susan asked.
“Because the idiot who was in charge when I was brought here thought that since I was part cockroach I should be able to eat garbage and it would save them having to pay to feed me. After my first few weeks here I gave up asking for normal food because it was clear I’d never get any no matter how long I asked. Honestly it disgusted me just as much as it would have any other human when I was first brought here, up until then I had been human and had the same views and opinions as most other humans. Except for the fact that as a scientist I was probably more aware of just how much bacteria and germs can live in garbage, luckily my mutation also gave me the same immunity to those things that a cockroach has.” Dr. Cockroach explained.
“That’s horrible, I can’t believe any one would treat another person like that.” Susan said.
“They didn’t consider me a person, just a monster, originally there had been talk of simply killing me and dissecting me and over the years, being locked up for so long, there were times I wished they had, but now that things have worked out for the better I’m glad they didn’t.” Dr. Cockroach told her.
“It was really that bad?” Susan asked.
“Yes, especially in the beginning, General Monger didn’t take over here until nineteen sixty five and Andrew Jacks, the man in charge the first three years I was here felt that it was a waste of government money to keep monsters alive. When he couldn’t get permission to kill and study us he started doing every thing he could to make sure as little money was spent to keep us alive as possible, which meant the cheapest food he could come up with and nothing for entertainment. After collage I wasn’t a very social person, preferring to concentrate on my experiments, but after a couple months of being locked up with nothing to do and no one to talk to, even I started to go a little stir crazy. I was actually rather freaked out by Link and B.O.B. when I was first brought here and avoided them for the first few months I was here and there really wasn’t anything to do for distraction, since Jacks thought paying for any form of entertainment was a waste of government money. That’s how I became so good at creating stuff out of garbage, it was the only thing I had around to work with. Once general Monger started working here he tried to change that a bit, giving each monster something to do for entertainment, but by then the area’s budget had been cut back because of Jacks constant cost cutting and convincing his superiors that more money wasn’t necessary, so that there wasn’t very much money left over for things like that. The hardest thing to deal with though was the loneliness, even if I barely talked to anyone or didn’t come out of my lab all week I still always made it home for a family dinner on Sundays to spend time with my parents, my siblings and their families. Or when ever one of my nieces or nephew had plays or games that they were doing.” Dr. Cockroach told her.
“And I thought it was bad when I first got here.” Susan said, “You said earlier that you had looked for your siblings, if they had families what about their kids, are any of them still around that would remember you?” Susan asked.
“I don’t know, my brother never married and I haven’t been able to track down my nieces yet, Christy moved several years before our parents died and Harriet’s son died when he was twenty one. My nieces Catherine and Sharon must have moved away and gotten married because there’s no records for them getting married in the area their parents lived in, but looking them up by their maiden names doesn’t come up with any results. I’m still looking, but it’s beginning to seem quite impossible.” Dr. Cockroach told her.
“I’m sure you’ll find them eventually and the fact that you’re having such a hard time finding them means they’re probably still alive. A friend of my mom’s, who does some genealogy, always used to say it’s harder to find living people because some of the records are harder to get and there’s less likely to be information about them on the internet.” Susan told him then started to get up when a door opened and a man came in carrying a large pizza and a bag with a two litter bottle of Pepsi, Styrofoam cups and paper plates in it.
Susan only got half way up before she gasped and sat back down. “Sore?” Dr. Cockroach asked.
“Yeah, my legs and feet are really sore, I haven’t really gotten sore from overdoing anything for so long.” Susan replied.
“The serum restrains all the effects of the quantonium, your strength and durability as well as size.” Dr. Cockroach told her as he slid a table over in front of the chair she was sitting in so she wouldn’t have to move to eat.
“Here’s your pizza ma’am.” the man said as he set the pizza and bag on the table.
“Thank you.” Susan said sweetly before the man quickly left, “Do you want some?” she asked Dr. Cockroach as she started to get out a plate.
“I’d love some.” Dr. Cockroach replied smiling as he pulled a second chair over to the table.
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Susan spent the rest of the day reading or talking to Dr. Cockroach until Link and B.O.B. got back and invited her to play a few card games.
At nine o’clock Dr. Cockroach said, “It’s been eleven hours since you were injected, it would probably be a good idea for you to retire to your room as soon as we’re done with this round. The longest the serum worked on any of the test subjects was about twelve hours and it could become rather embarrassing for you if you return your larger size out here.”
“But we’re having so much fun.” Link said.
“He’s right though and I am getting pretty tired anyways, it’s been a long day.” Susan said.
“Just come let me know when it wears off so we can let general Monger know.” Dr. Cockroach told her as they finished their game and Susan headed to her room.
---
Just over an hour later Susan came out of her room, returned to her usual size.
“Just as I expected, a little over twelve hours, that should give you plenty of time to do some of the things you’ve been missing because of being so tall, but hopefully not too long if there is a crises and your abilities are needed.” Dr. Cockroach said.
“And it’ll give me plenty of time to help take care of mom.” Susan said happily.
“Yes. I’ll let General Monger know and hopefully you’ll be able to leave in the morning.” Dr. Cockroach told her.
“Excellent, thank you so much for everything Doc.” Susan said.
“You’re quite welcome my dear, I’m only glad I was able to get it to work just in time. Now you should get some sleep, you’ll have a big day tomorrow.” Dr. Cockroach said.
“Alright, see you in the morning, good night Doc.” Susan said.
“Good night, sleep well Susan.” he replied as he picked up the phone to let General Monger know about the results of the serum.
Comments, suggestions or advice are always welcome and appreciated.
Also if anyone has ideas for Link and B.O.B.’s costumes I’d love to hear them because I haven’t come up with anything yet.
Past, Present and Future Chapter 1
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“Alright, last year we waited too late to get our costumes ready, this year we’re going to start a month early.” Link announced as Susan came out of her room, “You’d be perfect as King Kong or Godzilla or maybe Death, it’s a bit over done for normal humans, but a forty nine foot tall Death who could just step on you to kill you would be pretty scary.” he told her.
“Why do we always have to be something scary?” Susan asked as she sat down and picked up her mug of coffee.
“Because it’s fun to terrify people.” Link replied.
“Which is exactly why there are groups of people who still think we should be locked away. We’re still different and scary to them and you going out and deliberately scaring people isn’t going to help change that.” Dr. Cockroach said, “Something more civilized and refined, something to make us seem more human than monster would be better for improving our image with the groups who still don’t like us.”
“Come on Doc, that would just be boring, it’s Halloween, we‘re allowed to scare people.” Link replied.
“Well being boring for a while might be worth it if it helps people accept us faster. Then again I wouldn‘t expect you to have the maturity or self control to not scare people.” Dr. Cockroach said.
“Maturity and self control? This coming from Mr. I got a lollipop now I have to go get all the candy I can get my hands on.” Link replied sarcastically.
Dr. Cockroach glared at him for a second, “I was just getting over some metal scarring from my childhood and we had to go door to door looking for aliens anyways, so-” he stopped when General Monger flew into the room and over to Susan.
“Ginormica, we just got a call from the hospital in Modesto, your mother was in an accident and will be in the hospital for the next day or two for observation.” General Monger told her.
“Oh my gosh, how badly is she hurt?” Susan asked, worry evident in her voice.
“Just a broken leg, nothing to worry about.” General Monger replied.
“Can I go see her?” Susan asked.
“No, she’s going to be in the hospital and then on bed rest for a few days while her leg starts to heal. No sense letting you go out there when you wouldn’t be able to get inside to see her anyways. I’ll notify you if there are any updates on her condition.” General Monger told her.
“Okay, well thank you for letting me know.” Susan replied quietly staring sadly down into her coffee.
“You’re welcome.” General Monger replied before leaving.
“Are you alright my dear?” Dr. Cockroach asked as he walked up next to the coffee mug that Susan was still staring dejectedly into and rested a hand on her arm.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” she replied picking up the mug and finishing off the coffee before standing up, “I’ll just be in my room if anyone needs me.” she said before quickly heading to her room. As soon as the door shut behind her she leaned against the wall, sliding down to sit on the floor. She pulling her knees to her chest and burying her face against them she started to cry.
About fifteen minutes later there was a knock at her door, “Come in.” she said, quickly trying to wipe the tears from her face.
Dr, Cockroach stepped into the room and walked over to her, climbing up to stand on her knee so he would be more at eye level with her, “I’m sure your mother will be fine, if it were anything more serious General Monger would have told you.” he said.
“I know, I just want to be there for her, she always took such good care of me if I was sick or hurt, even after I moved in to my own place she would insist on coming over and taking care of me when I was sick. Now she’s hurt and daddy could probably use some help taking care of her and I can’t even fit inside the house to visit her.” Susan told him, fighting back more tears.
Dr. Cockroach sighed, his antennas drooping a little.
“What is it?” Susan asked.
“You don’t realize how lucky you are to know what’s happening to her, to know that she’ll be alright and that you’ll get to see her again once she’s recovered enough to be outside.” he replied solemnly.
“What do you mean?” Susan asked.
“When I was brought here my family was told I had died in a failed experiment and I was never told about anything that happened to them. By the time we were given our freedom my grandparents and parents were dead along with my two older sisters and my older brother is eighty six and in a nursing home with Alzheimer’s so bad that he doesn’t even know his own name most of the time. My mother died alone in a nursing home because my sisters had their hands full with their own families and couldn’t take care of her. If it weren’t for her constant support and encouragement I probably never would have made it through collage and yet when she needed me the most I was locked away here, not even knowing what she was going through. You are quite lucky that things changed so soon after you were brought here.” Dr. Cockroach told her.
“I’m so sorry.” Susan replied sincerely.
“It was ultimately my own fault, I was the one who was cocky enough to believe that my invention was so perfect that I didn’t need to test it on anything else before I used it on my self.” Dr. Cockroach replied.
“Why would you want to be part cockroach in the first place? Just so you could be almost indestructible?” Susan asked.
“Indestructibility has its advantages, but Cockroaches have the ability to survive higher amounts of radiation than humans can and that was my main focus. My grandfather on my mothers side worked in a nuclear power plant, when I was seven he was exposed to a dangerous amount of radiation and died a painful death. My mother was devastated and I promised her I’d find a way to make sure that someday that wouldn’t happen to anyone else. That was still my goal when I graduated from collage, I thought I could find a way to give humans who work around radioactive materials a higher tolerance to them. I never did get a chance to check the effects of radiation on myself; I passed out shortly after the experiment, woke up here and haven’t yet convinced Monger to give me anything radioactive. From what I have been able to learn I gained the near indestructibility of a cockroach and thanks to a failed escape attempt twenty seven years ago, I found out I also have their ability to regrow limbs that have been lost. As well as being able to permanently claim to be twenty nine.” Dr. Cockroach told her.
“Permanently twenty nine?” Susan asked raising an eyebrow, “Doesn’t pretty much everybody try to claim they never get any older than that?
“Yes, but for me it seems to be true, it was eight days before my thirtieth birthday when I performed the experiment and I’m not quite sure why, but I don’t seem to have aged at all since then.” Dr. Cockroach told her.
“Wow, so how old are you really?” Susan asked.
“Technically, seventy seven years, but I’m still fit, healthy and sharp as I was the day I was mutated.” Dr. Cockroach replied.
“So technically, you’re a really, really old guy.” Susan replied grinning.
“Yes, just like Link is technically thousands of years old.” he said a grin spreading across his face before he began laughing maniacally for a moment before stopping and looking back at Susan, “Sorry.” he said.
“It’s alright, I’m use to it by now, as long as you’re not experimenting on me when you do it, it doesn‘t bother me.” Susan replied, “So you’re going to start harassing Link about his age now, aren’t you?” she asked.
“Oh absolutely my dear.” he replied laughing again before saying, “Now as for this busyness of you not being able to go take care of your mother, I may have a solution.” Dr. Cockroach told her.
“Really, how?” Susan asked.
“Well with the lowered security on the monster containment area I was able to sneak out in to the rest of the base and it seems no one outside of this area expects someone to be crawling around on the ceiling making it quite easy to sneak around unnoticed. I found out they have the meteor that hit you stored here and it still has some of the quantonium in it, so I took some samples and began working on finding you a cure. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to recreate the extractor that was used on you before; what little technology was salvaged after the ship exploded simply isn’t enough to figure out how it worked, at least not without many years of studying it. However after accidentally coming in direct contact with the quantonium, I discover that something in my mutation seems to have given me an immunity to it. So in basically the same way snake antivenom is made I’ve been able to create a serum that should block the effects of the quantonium in you. Unfortunately it’s not a permanent fix, my tests indicate the effects could last anywhere from ten to twelve hours before it wears off and I’ve only been able to test it on mice and rats so far.” Dr. Cockroach told her.
“You found a way to get me back to normal and you hadn’t told me yet?” Susan asked a hopeful smile spreading across her face.
“As I said I’m still testing it, I wanted to wait until I was sure it would work before I told you. We suffered so many disappointments trying to get you back to normal when you first came here that I didn’t want to get your hopes up only to have it not work. But since there haven’t been any negative side effects on the test subjects and you want to be able to go take care of your mother I thought this would be the perfect time to tell you about it. Although I had hoped to find a way to make it permanent.” he told her.
“Oh doc, it’s fine that it won’t be permanent, I’ve gotten use to being this size and it does have it’s advantages. The only thing that really bothers me is not being able to properly celebrate the holidays with my family and stuff like that and this will fix that perfectly.” Susan told him, “So shall we go make sure it’ll really work?” she asked grinning as she held her hand up next to her knee.
“Of course my dear.” he replied stepping onto her hand.
A minute later they were in Dr. Cockroach’s lab, Susan sat down along an empty wall while Dr. Cockroach got a few things ready.
“Now, I’m not sure if this will hurt, the mice and rats seemed upset by the size change, but I don’t know if it’s because of pain or just because they don’t understand what’s happening to them and it upsets them.” he warned her as he prepared a large syringe.
“It’s alright doc, even if it does hurt I’m sure it’ll be worth it to be able to go help take care of my mom.” Susan replied.
“Alright then.” he said cleaning a spot on the inside of her elbow before inserting the needle.
“How do you feel?” he asked as he removed the needle.
“Kind of tingly, kind of like when your foot falls asleep and starts to wake up. It’s not pleasant, but not quite as bad as the pins and needles feeling.” Susan replied falling silent as she began to get smaller, “Okay, now it’s full fledged pins and needles.” she told him between gritted teeth before she completely disappeared inside of her large clothes.
“Susan, are you alright?” Dr. Cockroach asked a few seconds later.
After a moment and some movement from inside the clothing Susan popped her head out, clutching the collar of her jumpsuit over her with one hand, “Aside from the fact that I didn’t think about getting normal sized clothes before we did this, I’m fine.” she said, blushing, but grinning excitedly.
“Well, it’s a good thing I had General Monger get you some normal sized clothes when I knew I was almost done with the testing.“ Dr. Cockroach replied pulling a paper bag out of a cupboard and handing it to her.
Susan disappeared into her clothes and climbed out a few minutes later wearing an ankle length sky blue dress that was slightly to big and a pair of moccasins. She quickly climbed over the large pile of clothing then excitedly hugged Dr. Cockroach, “Thank you so, so much for this.” she said before running out of his lab and to the main room. Grabbing a phone that was hung on the wall incase the monsters needed anything and punched in the number that would connect her to General Monger’s office, “I need to talk to General Monger please.” she said when a woman answered.
“He’s not in right now, would you care to leave a message?” the woman asked.
“Yes, tell him I need clearance to go to Modesto California as soon as possible.” she told the woman.
“Alright, I’ll have him contact you as soon as he get’s back in.” the woman told her before hanging up.
Susan walked out into the large room, looking around, “I can’t believe how big this place looks from this point of view.” she said as Dr. Cockroach walked over to her.
“It would be quite a change.” Dr. Cockroach agreed, “So how about a tour of the place from this point of view?” he asked offering her his arms.
“That would be wonderful.” she said grinning as she took his arm then entwined her fingers with his, looking down at their hands she sighed, “You really take for granted how amazing it is to simply be able to hold someone else’s hand or even be able to touch someone else without worrying about hurting them, until you lose that ability.” she said then smiled, “Has any one ever told you, you’re the most amazing, brilliant scientist in the world?” she asked.
“Not since the last time I visited my mother before being mutated.” he replied.
“Well you are, I can’t imagine anyone else could have figured out how to get me back to normal.” Susan told him.
“Hey, what’s a human doing in here?” B.O.B. asked as they walked past him.
“It’s Susan, B.O.B. she’s just normal sized now.” Dr. Cockroach told him.
B.O.B. looked at her for a moment, “You’re really Susan?” he asked, not sounding convinced.
“Of course it’s really me.” Susan told him.
“Hey, B.O.B. are you ready to go costume hunting yet?” Link asked walking around a corner, “I thought we wer-” he stopped when he saw Susan, “Susan?” he asked in shock.
Susan grinned, “Yep, Doc finally found a way to get me back to normal, at least for a little while.” she told him grinning.
“Awesome, if General Monger wasn’t so up tight about us having clearance to leave I’d invite you to go costume hunting with B.O.B. and I.” Link told her.
“That’s alright, as soon as he’s available I’m planning on going to see my mom anyways.” Susan told him.
“Good for you, I bet she’ll be surprised to see you like this. Well, we’ll see you later Susan.” Link said, “Come on B.O.B. we’ve got to find the most terrifying costumes on earth.” he said as he and B.O.B. headed to where Insectosaurus was waiting for them.
Nearly an hour later Susan was curled up in a chair near Dr. Cockroach’s large bookshelves reading a book about the history of various dances, trying to distract herself from how slow time seemed to be passing. She finally let out a frustrated sigh and set the book on a nearby end table, “Where is he? It’s like he’s deliberately hiding from me to make it take longer to be able to go see my mom.” she said.
“I’m sure he’ll be here as soon as he can, I believe he mentioned having a meeting he had to attend to today.” Dr. Cockroach told her.
“I’ll go crazy from waiting before he shows up.” she said picking the book up again only to put it back down a few minutes later and got up to begin pacing, “I can’t even concentrate to read, I should be at the hospital, visiting my mom by now.” she said frustration evident in her voice.
“Perhaps you just need a proper distraction.” Dr. Cockroach said walking over and looking at the book she had been reading, “You’re interested in dancing?” he asked indicating the book.
“Yes, I’ve always wanted to learn, Derek and I were going to take dance lessons before the wedding so we could really dance at the reception, but he ended up too busy with work.” she shook her head in disbelief, “I can’t believe I never noticed what a self centered jerk he was.” Susan said.
“He certainly wasn’t good enough for you. Would you care for some dance lessons until General Monger arrives?” he asked.
Susan grinned, “That would be wonderful, but I’m not quite sure I could keep up with you. Do you know anything other than that fast dancing you were doing in the space ship?” she asked.
“My dear I come from a family of dancers and as the youngest member of the family I quite often got stuck being the guinea pig for everyone else’s practicing as well as my mother‘s lessons. She taught classic ballroom and Celtic dancing, my sisters were always keeping up on the most recent styles of dance and insisted that I help them practice. Before my grandmother got married she was an understudy for Clara in the Nutcracker and got to perform as head dancer for a season when the original girl broke her foot. Every year after that she insisted on reenacting that highlight of her life for the family, at first with my grandfather playing the nutcracker and then after his death she chose me to take his place. Before they moved from England to the U.S. and he started working at the nuclear power plant my grandfather was a tap dancer, they met when they were both performing at the same theater and always said if it weren’t for dancing they never would have met. My grandparents on my father‘s side were from Ireland and taught both of my parents and every grandchild they could Celtic dancing. My mother often said none of her children learned to walk, they just went strait from crawling to dancing ” Dr. Cockroach told her.
“Wow, no wonder you’re such a good dancer, I always thought you would have come from a family of scientists.” Susan said.
“There’s that to,” he said, “I had an aunt and uncle who worked in one of the more advanced labs of the time. They got me my first chemistry set and would let me come stay with them for a few weeks in the summer, they had an amazing lab set up in their basement and we would spend hours down there doing experiments.” he smiled, “My science teacher always said I leaned as much over the summer as I did at school. Now, what type of dance would you like to learn?” he asked.
“Something slow and easy would probably be best.” Susan replied then spun to face the door as it opened and General Monger flew in and over to her door.
Knocking he called, “What do you need Clarence to go to Modesto for? I already told you, you won’t be able to see your mother.”
“I just thought I could go visit her and help take care of her until her leg heals.” Susan called over to him grinning when he turned to look at her and a look of shock crossed his face.
“Well well well, so your little experiment worked.” General Monger said as he flew over and landed in front of Susan and Dr. Cockroach.
“Of course it worked.” Dr. Cockroach replied.
“So how soon can I leave for Modesto?” Susan asked.
“Tomorrow morning at the earliest.” General monger replied.
“Tomorrow morning, why do I have to wait that long?” Susan asked.
“Because we don’t know how long you will stay this size and I don’t want to hear that you suddenly returned to your normal size inside a hospital. It’s for your own good, you don’t want to suddenly change at you’re parents house and end up crushing your mother instead of taking care of her.” General Monger told her.
Susan sighed, “I guess you’re right.” she reluctantly admitted.
“Of course I’m right, now you just sit back and relax while you wait, better yet, relax in your room where you won’t damage anything when you change back to your normal size.” General Monger told her.
“It should be quite a while before she becomes bigger again.” Dr. Cockroach told him.
“Well just make sure she’s back in her room before it happens, the last thing I need is to have to replace half the stuff in this room or worse have to deal with some type of explosions if she’s to close to any of your equipment when it happens.” General Monger replied.
“Don’t worry, I will be.” Susan told him.
Good, I’ll be in my office most of the day, let me know as soon as you return to normal then we’ll make the arrangements to get you to Modesto.” General Monger told her.
“Alright.” Susan said before General Monger left, “I really thought I would be able to see my mom today.” she said sadly as she dropped back into the chair she had been sitting in earlier.
“At least you’ll be able to be there when she get’s home and until then,” Dr. Cockroach said then bowed formally and held out his hand, “Would you care to dance my dear?” he asked.
Susan smiled, “Why yes, I’d love to.” she replied taking his hand and standing up.
“Now I’ll warn I may not be a smooth at this as I was with the dancing on the space ship, it’s been a very long time since I had a partner to dance with.” Dr. Cockroach told her.
“As long as you keep me distracted from worrying about my mom you’ll be doing good enough for me.” Susan replied.
“Alight then, we’ll start with a the basic box step of a waltz.” he told her.
“Okay.” Susan replied.
“Now take a step back with your right foot,” he told her and she did, “Now bring your left foot back and over to the left and bring your right foot over next to it. Good, now bring your left foot forward, right foot back to where you started and left foot back beside it and repeat.” he instructed.
“Keep your back strait and don’t look down at your feet.” he told her a few minutes later as she continued to practice the steps.
“You’re doing beautifully my dear, do you think you’re ready to make it a little harder?” he asked several minutes later after she had gotten through several rounds of the steps without missing any steps.
“I think so.” Susan replied a little uncertainly.
“Alright, your left hand goes here, on my shoulder,” he told her, guiding her hand to his shoulder then placing his right hand on her back just below her left shoulder blade and taking her other hand in his, “Now, just like you were doing before, nice and slow.” he said as they started to slowly go through the steps several times until Susan stepped on his foot.
“Oh, I’m so sorry.” Susan said.
“It’s quite alright, you’re doing far better than my sisters usually did when they were learning a new dance, especially Harriet, she loved to dance, but learning new ones was quite painful to whoever she practiced with and it was usually me.” he said, walking over to his desk and turning a radio on to play some slow classical music, “Anyways, I’m nearly indestructible, don’t worry about stepping on my feet, I’ll be just fine.” he told her as he walked back to her and repositioned their hands and started to lead her through the steps again.
Half an hour later they were moving gracefully around the floor, “You’re a natural at this. Do you think you’re ready to add a new step?” Dr. Cockroach asked.
“I think so.” Susan replied as they stopped so Dr. Cockroach could teach her another step.
---
By that afternoon Susan had learned several different steps, “We should probably stop for lunch, after all this you need to eat and I‘m afraid you‘ve probably over done it a bit and may end up rather sore.” Dr. Cockroach told her.
“Oh I’m fine, I don’t get sore. Although some lunch does sound good.” Susan replied then grinned, I can eat real food again! No more mass amounts of nearly tasteless or horribly tasting muck. I don’t care how healthy anyone claims that stuff is or how it’s the most affordable thing to feed me, I hate it. It’ll be so nice to have real food again.” she said excitedly heading for the phone.
“Could we please get a pizza delivered here or have someone pick one up?” she asked when a man answered.
“You’re in the monster containment area, aren’t you ma’am.” he asked.
“Yes.” Susan replied.
“Food is already provided to that area.” he told her.
“Not food fit for a normal sized human, so something else needs to be brought in.” Susan told him.
“We have perfectly good food for a human and we can have a smaller portion of it delivered to you if you’d like.” he said.
“No, I want real food, I’ve spent well over a year eating that slop, now I’m at a size where I can eat real food without you people having to pay for mass amounts of it and I want pizza.” she told him.
“Look ma’am I’m sorry, but that’s all we’re authorized to feed you.” the man told her.
“What’s your name?” Susan asked calmly.
“George Schwab, why?” he asked.
“Because I would hate to step on anyone other than you when I get bigger again. Now get me a sausage and ham pizza with extra cheese and a big bottle of Pepsi or the next time I’m out I’m going to use your car for a skate board and accidentally run you over with it. You shouldn’t tell a woman who has gone over a year without normal food and who is usually forty nine feet tall, no, unless you are ready to deal with the consequences. Now are you going to get me my pizza?” Susan asked him, her voice staying calm and even through out the entire threat.
“I- uh, yes ma’am, I’ll get that for you right away ma‘am.” he stuttered out before hanging up the phone.
Dr. Cockroach chuckled, “My dear you are simply amazing when it comes to getting what you want.” he told her.
“Do you think I was a little harsh on him?” Susan asked.
“Not at all, it’s the only way some of the people here will listen, perhaps you could convince them to bring me some real food once in a while as well.” Dr. Cockroach said.
“I thought you liked your garbage?” Susan said.
“I have gained an acquired taste for it, but I honestly I would usually prefer normal food.” Dr. Cockroach told her.
“But why do you eat garbage then?” Susan asked.
“Because the idiot who was in charge when I was brought here thought that since I was part cockroach I should be able to eat garbage and it would save them having to pay to feed me. After my first few weeks here I gave up asking for normal food because it was clear I’d never get any no matter how long I asked. Honestly it disgusted me just as much as it would have any other human when I was first brought here, up until then I had been human and had the same views and opinions as most other humans. Except for the fact that as a scientist I was probably more aware of just how much bacteria and germs can live in garbage, luckily my mutation also gave me the same immunity to those things that a cockroach has.” Dr. Cockroach explained.
“That’s horrible, I can’t believe any one would treat another person like that.” Susan said.
“They didn’t consider me a person, just a monster, originally there had been talk of simply killing me and dissecting me and over the years, being locked up for so long, there were times I wished they had, but now that things have worked out for the better I’m glad they didn’t.” Dr. Cockroach told her.
“It was really that bad?” Susan asked.
“Yes, especially in the beginning, General Monger didn’t take over here until nineteen sixty five and Andrew Jacks, the man in charge the first three years I was here felt that it was a waste of government money to keep monsters alive. When he couldn’t get permission to kill and study us he started doing every thing he could to make sure as little money was spent to keep us alive as possible, which meant the cheapest food he could come up with and nothing for entertainment. After collage I wasn’t a very social person, preferring to concentrate on my experiments, but after a couple months of being locked up with nothing to do and no one to talk to, even I started to go a little stir crazy. I was actually rather freaked out by Link and B.O.B. when I was first brought here and avoided them for the first few months I was here and there really wasn’t anything to do for distraction, since Jacks thought paying for any form of entertainment was a waste of government money. That’s how I became so good at creating stuff out of garbage, it was the only thing I had around to work with. Once general Monger started working here he tried to change that a bit, giving each monster something to do for entertainment, but by then the area’s budget had been cut back because of Jacks constant cost cutting and convincing his superiors that more money wasn’t necessary, so that there wasn’t very much money left over for things like that. The hardest thing to deal with though was the loneliness, even if I barely talked to anyone or didn’t come out of my lab all week I still always made it home for a family dinner on Sundays to spend time with my parents, my siblings and their families. Or when ever one of my nieces or nephew had plays or games that they were doing.” Dr. Cockroach told her.
“And I thought it was bad when I first got here.” Susan said, “You said earlier that you had looked for your siblings, if they had families what about their kids, are any of them still around that would remember you?” Susan asked.
“I don’t know, my brother never married and I haven’t been able to track down my nieces yet, Christy moved several years before our parents died and Harriet’s son died when he was twenty one. My nieces Catherine and Sharon must have moved away and gotten married because there’s no records for them getting married in the area their parents lived in, but looking them up by their maiden names doesn’t come up with any results. I’m still looking, but it’s beginning to seem quite impossible.” Dr. Cockroach told her.
“I’m sure you’ll find them eventually and the fact that you’re having such a hard time finding them means they’re probably still alive. A friend of my mom’s, who does some genealogy, always used to say it’s harder to find living people because some of the records are harder to get and there’s less likely to be information about them on the internet.” Susan told him then started to get up when a door opened and a man came in carrying a large pizza and a bag with a two litter bottle of Pepsi, Styrofoam cups and paper plates in it.
Susan only got half way up before she gasped and sat back down. “Sore?” Dr. Cockroach asked.
“Yeah, my legs and feet are really sore, I haven’t really gotten sore from overdoing anything for so long.” Susan replied.
“The serum restrains all the effects of the quantonium, your strength and durability as well as size.” Dr. Cockroach told her as he slid a table over in front of the chair she was sitting in so she wouldn’t have to move to eat.
“Here’s your pizza ma’am.” the man said as he set the pizza and bag on the table.
“Thank you.” Susan said sweetly before the man quickly left, “Do you want some?” she asked Dr. Cockroach as she started to get out a plate.
“I’d love some.” Dr. Cockroach replied smiling as he pulled a second chair over to the table.
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Susan spent the rest of the day reading or talking to Dr. Cockroach until Link and B.O.B. got back and invited her to play a few card games.
At nine o’clock Dr. Cockroach said, “It’s been eleven hours since you were injected, it would probably be a good idea for you to retire to your room as soon as we’re done with this round. The longest the serum worked on any of the test subjects was about twelve hours and it could become rather embarrassing for you if you return your larger size out here.”
“But we’re having so much fun.” Link said.
“He’s right though and I am getting pretty tired anyways, it’s been a long day.” Susan said.
“Just come let me know when it wears off so we can let general Monger know.” Dr. Cockroach told her as they finished their game and Susan headed to her room.
---
Just over an hour later Susan came out of her room, returned to her usual size.
“Just as I expected, a little over twelve hours, that should give you plenty of time to do some of the things you’ve been missing because of being so tall, but hopefully not too long if there is a crises and your abilities are needed.” Dr. Cockroach said.
“And it’ll give me plenty of time to help take care of mom.” Susan said happily.
“Yes. I’ll let General Monger know and hopefully you’ll be able to leave in the morning.” Dr. Cockroach told her.
“Excellent, thank you so much for everything Doc.” Susan said.
“You’re quite welcome my dear, I’m only glad I was able to get it to work just in time. Now you should get some sleep, you’ll have a big day tomorrow.” Dr. Cockroach said.
“Alright, see you in the morning, good night Doc.” Susan said.
“Good night, sleep well Susan.” he replied as he picked up the phone to let General Monger know about the results of the serum.
