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Return to Monster Island

a story set in the universe of Champions Online

I hate Monster Island. Even though it gave birth to me and was the only world I knew for the first twenty years of my life, I despise that little hunk of rock in the South Pacific. I'd have been perfectly happy to never lay eyes on it again.

Of course, that wasn't going to happen.

I got the bad news while I was poring over some schematics in my office at Harmon Industries. A new energy converter. Very hush-hush—and so far, very inefficient. As in zero percent. I'd been brought in by James Harmon IV himself to help the team developing it make it better. They weren't happy about an outsider being assigned to their project, and doubly so that he was a chimpanzee, but that was their problem. Mine was finding a way to make this worthless piece of junk work.

While I was pondering this, curled up in my chair, my cell phone went off to the tune of "Incense and Peppermints" by the Strawberry Alarm Clock. I've a fondness for '60s psychedelia. I picked it up and answered it. "Hello?"

"Adam?" It was Jim Harmon. "Could you come up to my office? I need to speak with you about something."

I sighed. "Is Owen bitching again about me 'monkeying' with his design?" I don't appreciate being compared to monkeys. I'm an ape, not a monkey. I wouldn't expect the man in the street to know the difference, but the people here are smart enough to know better, so Owen's comment could only be intended as an insult. Owen was an asshole.

"No, it's nothing to do with that," Jim replied. "In fact, I'm taking you off that project, effective immediately."

I started in my seat. "What? Look, I know progress has been slow—"

"It's no reflection on you, Adam. There're a dozen engineers here who can work on Owen's design. I need you for something else, something more suited to your . . . unique talents."

Now I was wary. "The last time you needed my 'unique talents,' I ended up on a truck full of explosives careening through Westside with my old enemy Ratskeller shooting at me."

"It's nothing like that," said Jim hastily, which made me even more certain it was something exactly like that. "Just come up to my office. I don't want to discuss it over an open line, and besides, there's someone here who wants to see you."

That piqued my interest. There weren't a whole lot of people in the world who wanted to see me. I don't have that many friends. Go figure. I hopped down from my chair and left my office, and went to the elevator, my bare feet padding silently on the hall carpeting. I pressed the call button and waited. When the elevator arrived, I entered and pressed the button for the top floor, which I can reach only because I have long arms. There was one other person in the elevator: a nerdy young fellow, probably fresh out of college, the ink still wet on his degree in quantum dynamics or whatever. He stared at me through his thick round glasses. I'm used to that. What I wasn't used to was what he did next.

"Wow!" he said, grinning widely. "It's really you! I read your paper on electrokinetics in the Journal of Applied Physics. Brilliant work! May I shake your hand?"

I blinked up at him, momentarily at a loss for words. Then I nodded and extended my slender, long-fingered hand to him. He seized it and pumped it vigorously. "I'm Jerry Blaine, incidentally. Honored to meet you, sir. Can I call you Adam?"

"It's my name," I replied.

He nodded, still smiling. "Always good to meet someone on the same wavelength as myself, so to speak."

"You're into electrokinetics?" I asked.

"I did my dissertation on it!" he said proudly.

"Really." I filed that fact away for future reference. "What's the only one hundred percent efficient device ever created?"

He blinked, caught off guard by the apparent non sequitur, but recovered quickly. "Hmm, the only one hundred percent efficient device." He furrowed his brow in concentration for a moment, and then he had it. "An electric heater, since its job is to produce heat."

"Very good," I said. "You'd be surprised how many physicists don't get that."

He grinned, looking proud of himself for having passed my little test.

The elevator stopped, the door opened, and Blaine stepped out. "Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Adam," he said as the doors closed on him. I put my hands behind my back and rocked on my heels, humming the tune of "The Girl From Ipanema" as it played over the elevator's sound system and feeling rather good about myself.

At the top floor I exited the elevator and went to Jim's office. His secretary barely paid any attention to me as I went past her. She'd seen me many times before. "Go right in, he's expecting you," she said absently as she worked at her computer.

I opened the door and stopped dead in my tracks. There was Jim, leaning with his butt on the edge of his desk, hands in his pockets. He was a handsome blond man in his mid-thirties, wearing a suit that cost more than I make in a month. I was one of the few people who knew that he was also the armored superhero Defender, leader of the world's greatest super-team, the Champions. Beside him stood a tall, slim woman with long, dark-brown hair. She wore the blue-grey jumpsuit, black combat boots, and black beret identifying her as an agent of the United Nations Tribunal on International Law, otherwise known as UNTIL, an organization that polices paranormal crime around the world. Her name was Cassandra Kelley, and she was a graduate of King's College London School of Medicine. Her specialty was biomedical research. She was UNTIL's top expert on people like me: manimals, creations of the mad geneticist Dr. Philippe Moreau. I smiled immediately when I saw her, but then my smile faded. Her presence here could only mean one thing: Something dangerous was afoot.

"Hello, Adam," said Jim, nodding to me. "You know Dr. Kelley."

"How could I forget? We had quite the adventure together last year."

"And you performed brilliantly," said Kelley, in her upper-class British accent.

"And spent the next several weeks in the hospital," I added, a touch of vinegar in my voice. "What sort of danger to life and limb does UNTIL want to engage me in now?"

"We only need you in an advisory capacity," said Kelley.

"That was all you needed me for last time, and look how that turned out."

"Yes, look how it turned out," said Kelley. "You saved Millennium City from Ratskeller's plan to turn millions of people into manimals."

"You forgot to mention that I was nearly killed in the process!"

Jim cut in. "Please, Adam, hear her out."

I sighed, climbed up into one of the big chairs facing Jim's desk, and waved her on. "Proceed."

"It concerns Moreau's former lieutenant, Hyena-Swine," Kelley began.

"I thought some heroes offed him," I interrupted.

"Yes, well, we thought Ratskeller was dead too, but he turned out to be alive, didn't he?"

"Great," I said, scowling. "Next you'll tell me Amelia Earhart, Judge Crater, and Jimmy Hoffa are alive and living on that island too!"

"Earhart is alive," said Kelley, "or at least someone claiming to be her. She's not living on Monster Island, though, but rather right here in Millennium City. But I digress. Hyena-Swine has been positively identified by several recent arrivals to the manimal settlement of New Gornyj, and since like you he was a unique creation, its unlikely they're mistaken. He's got a bunch of savage manimals under his sway, and they're hiding in the deep jungle of Monster Island."

"Why doesn't UNTIL just go in and take him out?" I asked.

"Father Elk has asked us not to," Kelley replied. "He's trying to organize a working government on Monster Island and show the world that manimals can take care of their own problems. He wants his people to handle it, and since we've had a good working relationship with him in the past, we agreed to let him."

"Commendable," I said. "So what do you need me for?"

"I'm getting to that. A week ago we got a report that Hyena-Swine's group were excavating the ruins of an old VIPER nest on Monster Island."

I interrupted her again. "Didn't UNTIL clean out all those nests after VIPER abandoned them?"

"We did, but Hyena-Swine worked closely with VIPER when he was Moreau's second-in-command. He might know things about those nests that we don't. Clearly, he has some reason for doing this, and we want to find out what it is. To that end I've assembled a group of heroes to investigate that nest. I'd appreciate it if you'd accompany them. Your insight and experience could prove invaluable."

I looked from Kelley to Jim and back to Kelley again. "Could I have a minute alone with my boss?" I asked her.

"Of course." She left the room, closing the door behind her.

Jim and I stared at each other for a long moment. "Bringing her here was a dirty trick, Jim," I said at last.

He shrugged. "It wasn't my idea, Adam. UNTIL sent her."

"Because Major Martinez thought she'd be able to bring me on board."

"I'd imagine the pair of you saving Millennium City had something to do with it."

"And I'm sure me dating her for a while after wasn't a factor at all."

"I wouldn't know about that," said Jim. "Take it up with Martinez if you care to."

"I may just do that. I take it you want me to go."

"Well, it's always possible you might find something in that nest that would be of interest to Harmon Industries. It wouldn't be the first time we've turned VIPER technology into something benevolent."

I smirked at him. "Not to mention profitable."

"This is a business, Adam. Look, from what Kelley told me, you'll have five heroes protecting you. And what will they be up against? A bunch of savages armed with spears. The risk should be miniscule."

"It's not about the risk!" I exploded, standing up in my chair and causing him to recoil. "I don't think you understand what you're asking of me! Suppose I'd been in Auschwitz! Would you send me back there?"

"The situations are different," he protested.

"Why? Because I'm a manimal, not a Jew?"

"Because you're a hero, whether you like it or not! You saved this city!"

I waved my long arms about. "You could cover these walls with pictures of all the heroes who've saved this city! You've done it yourself!" I stopped, took a deep breath, and lowered my voice. "I made a promise to myself back when I was Moreau's slave on Monster Island. I promised myself I wouldn't die there. The best way to keep that promise is to never set foot on it again!"

"Look, Adam," Jim said gently, "I can't force you to go, but I really think you should. If you're that afraid of the place, the best thing you can do is go back and face that fear."

"What are you, my shrink?"

"No, I'm your friend. Never forget that, Adam. I've entrusted you with my greatest secret. If you want, I'll go with you." And I knew he meant that. Defender doesn't lie.

I shook my head. "No, I won't ask you to do that. You've got enough on your plate, running this company and leading the Champions." I looked up at him. "You owe me for this, though."

He chuckled in that ingratiating, self-effacing way he has. "Whatever you want, pal."

I couldn't help but smile back. Jim has that effect on people. You'd do anything for him, because you know he'd do anything for you.

He called Kelley back into the office. "Adam has agreed to participate," he told her.

"Splendid!" she replied, smiling at me. "I'll take you to UNTIL's Millennium City offices to meet the rest of your team. They're already over there waiting for you."

I nodded and said goodbye to Jim, and we left the office together.

We took the elevator to the parking garage and Kelley led me to her car, a sleek little silver Piranha two-seater. It looked perfectly innocent, but if I knew UNTIL, it was packed with James Bond-style gadgetry. I wondered if it could fly. I climbed in through the gull-wing door, settled into the curved black leather seat beside Kelley, and strapped myself in.

"So, you took it for granted I'd be coming," I said as she started it up.

She shrugged as she eased the vehicle out of its parking spot. "This mission was going to happen with or without you, but I'd rather hoped you would. I thought we made a pretty good team last time."

"Is that why Martinez sent you?"

"I was the logical choice. I'm UNTIL's top expert on manimals, after all."

I nodded. "Does he know how much of an expert?"

She cast me a sidelong glance as we emerged into the sunlight. "My personal life is my own affair. Though truth be told, it's not as if we were particularly discreet."

I tried to see past her cool British reserve, and concluded that it was beyond my abilities. "I was just wondering what happened," I said.

"The job happened, Adam," she said, pulling out into traffic. She drove the way she talked—calm, controlled, efficient. "UNTIL agents get sent on missions all over the world. It had nothing to do with you being a chimp, if that's what you're thinking."

I nodded and tried to come up with a reply, but I couldn't think of anything to say that wouldn't have sounded petty, jealous, and selfish. It was all perfectly logical and reasonable, like everything she said. It's hard to argue with logic without sounding like an idiot. "And what happens when this mission is done?" I asked.

"Let's deal with that later, shall we?" she asked. "I have obligations to UNTIL. That limits the kinds of promises I can make."

Again, perfectly logical and reasonable. Even so, I felt like I was being given the brush-off. At some level it was actually comforting to know I was being treated just like anyone else. After all, that was what I'd always wanted, wasn't it?

We parked in front of the UNTIL building and entered the lobby. Nobody gave me a second glance as we walked by, though I knew we were being scanned six ways from Sunday. This was UNTIL. A chimp in a suit and tie was small potatoes here. They dealt with much weirder things.

How much weirder, I was to discover a minute later. We went into a conference room and my jaw dropped as I beheld the five heroes who'd be protecting me.

Not one of them appeared to be over fifteen.

"Adam," said Kelley, "meet Hot Stuff, Troll Kid, Celestial Boy, Johnny Cool, and Mowgli. Gentlemen, this is Adam."

My eyes traveled down the line. Hot Stuff looked like a juvenile devil, with bright red skin, a pair of small pink horns atop his bald head, pointed ears, and a spade-tipped tail that swished about constantly. He was attired in blue jeans, sneakers, and a black T-shirt with a flame insignia on the chest. He was trying way too hard to look tough, with spiked leather bands on his wrists and a chain for a belt with a metal skull buckle. He grinned when he saw me, displaying small fangs.

Then came Troll Kid, in a star-spangled purple satin luchador costume that left his hairless green chest and arms bare. His head was completely covered by a matching mask with openings for his eyes, nose, and mouth, though with his green skin there was no question of it hiding his identity. A purple satin cape hung to his ankles behind him. The outfit was gaudy, tacky, ridiculous, and absolutely heroic.

Next was Celestial Boy, with short black hair and glowing golden eyes, wearing a leotard, boots, and briefs all of red and purple separated by thin bands of white. He regarded me with a calmness that seemed to come from ages of experience.

Johnny Cool was dressed like a 1950s greaser, in a black leather jacket, white T-shirt, blue jeans, boots, and mirrorshade sunglasses. His blond hair was combed back and plastered to his skull with Brylcreem. He appeared to be naturally relaxed and nonchalant, as though you could have pointed a gun in his face and he wouldn't have batted an eye.

Finally there was Mowgli. He looked to be the youngest of the group, a slender, brown-skinned youth with an unruly mane of black hair. He wore only a buff loincloth, and his dark eyes were intense and alert, his lean, wiry body giving the impression of a jungle cat liable to spring at any moment.

"They're . . . they're a bunch of kids!" I stammered.

Kelley nodded. "A bunch of kids who destroyed a VIPER nest in upstate New York last year. We asked UNTIL's computers for recommendations for this mission, and these are the ones it came up with."

"Which just goes to show how stupid computers are!" I shot back. "Monster Island is no place for a junior high school field trip!"

"They're all experienced heroes," Kelley countered, "and Mowgli is an expert in jungle survival, which puts him at the top of a very short list of qualified individuals."

"And what do their parents have to say about this?" I demanded.

"Troll Kid is the only one with parents, and they've given their okay." At this, the others all grinned at the green-skinned boy, who squirmed uncomfortably, and Hot Stuff elbowed him in the ribs. I got the impression that this was a source of embarrassment to him, like being the only kid in the neighborhood who has to ask his parents if he can go out to play.

I tried to think of more objections, but stopped, realizing that the decision had already been made and nothing I said or did was going to change it. I could have quit in protest at their computers' ludicrous choice of sending a bunch of adolescents to the hellhole that was Monster Island, but if I didn't go and anything happened to these boys, I'd spend the rest of my life tortured by guilt, wondering if things would have gone differently if I'd been there.

"Fine," I sighed, my shoulders slumping. "When do we leave?"

"There's an UNTIL jump jet prepping as we speak. We can leave within the hour and be on Monster Island in six. Now, as for the mission itself . . ." She touched a control on the table, and the surface lit up with an satellite photo of Monster Island. "The nest Hyena-Swine is interested in is in the northwestern part of the island, here. He's got a force of fifty or sixty manimal followers with him. Here are schematics of the nest itself, from when UNTIL cleaned it out three years ago. The entrance was sealed with demolition charges, but it looks like Hyena-Swine has managed to dig his way inside."

"Memorized," said Celestial Boy after a brief glance at the map, his young voice strangely resonant. "What was the nest used for originally?"

"Biological research," I replied. "VIPER was interested in using Moreau's genetic discoveries to create stronger, deadlier soldiers for their plans of world conquest. They produced all manner of monstrosities."

"Have you been inside it?" asked Troll Kid.

I nodded. "Yes." I saw no reason to elaborate on the horrors I'd seen in there.

"The area around the nest looks pretty heavily forested," Mowgli observed, inspecting the map.

"It is," I said. "The deepest, thickest jungle you're likely to find anywhere."

Mowgli grinned. "Sounds like my kind of place."

"We'll be landing at B17, here," said Kelley, indicating a spot midway down the eastern shore of the island. "It's an UNTIL base. We've been helping to administer the island while Father Elk sets up a new government now that Moreau is gone, providing food and supplies to the manimals of New Gornyj. From there we'll have to make our own way across the island to the VIPER nest. The terrain is too rough for any ground vehicle, and no air vehicles can land in that jungle, so we'll be on foot."

"No need for that," said Troll Kid. "Hot Stuff, Celestial Boy, and I can fly, and Johnny can create ice slides. We can carry you, Adam, and Mowgli."

"I can manage on my own," I said. Then I turned to Kelley. "What about Qwyjibo?"

"Who?" asked Troll Kid.

"One of the biggest monsters on an island of monsters," said Kelley. "He used to be a gorilla manimal until he injected himself with an experimental serum created by Dr. Moreau to help some heroes fight the Teleiosaurus, another giant monster. It caused him to grow to immense size, as well as giving him the ability to generate intense bursts of fire."

"And reduced his intellect to bestial level," I added. "That nest is in the middle of his stomping grounds."

"Sounds right up my alley," said Hot Stuff, slamming a fist into his palm and grinning. "I'm immune to fire."

"Are you immune to fists?" I asked. "Qwyjibo has flattened whole teams of heroes." I looked at Kelley. "We should avoid him at all costs."

"I agree," said Kelley, nodding. "He's not our objective. The nest is."

Hot Stuff looked disappointed, but said nothing.

"Then there's the Elder Worms," I said. "Humanoid invertebrates with psychokinetic powers who ruled the Earth hundreds of thousands of years ago. They're all over the northern part of the island."

Celestial Boy nodded. "I know of these creatures. Most unpleasant."

"We should try to avoid them too," said Kelley. "If we encounter any, we need to make sure they don't report our presence to others."

Troll Kid nodded. "Understood."

Hot Stuff grinned. "Sizzle sizzle, pop pop."

"What about Hyena-Swine himself?" asked Johnny Cool. "What's the dope on him?"

"Big, strong, tough," I replied. "He's as cruel and vicious as his name suggests, and he's not stupid, either. You can bet he isn't leading a bunch of savages who respect only brute strength by virtue of his sparkling personality."

"Are there any other questions before I bring this briefing to a close?" asked Kelley.

"I'll let you know if I think of any in the next six hours," said Johnny Cool, with an easy smile.

"There's some equipment in my lab I'd like to bring," I said. "Do I have time to go back to Harmon Industries and get it?"

She nodded. "I'll have an agent drive you. Be back here in fifty minutes." She looked around the room. "Well, that appears to be that. I'll notify Director Martinez we're good to go. Good luck, everyone."

I left the room with Kelley, leaving the Teen Beat Brigade to do whatever it is teenage boys do before embarking on a dangerous mission on a remote island halfway around the world. "I sense you've some reservations, Adam," she said.

"That's the understatement of the century," I replied dryly. "Since when does UNTIL use children as operatives?"

"They're hardly ordinary children. Their actions in upstate New York last year sufficiently impressed the Director that he approved the computer's selection of them. You might want to take a look at our file on that incident. It's called The Indian Lake Affair."

"I'll read it on the plane," I muttered. And this had started out to be a halfway decent day . . .

"You're seeing something only a handful of people in your time ever saw, Johnny," said Celestial Boy, over the constant high-pitched whine of the jump jet's engines, causing me to look up from my tablet, where I'd been reading.

"How high up are we?" asked Johnny Cool, gazing out the window at the deep indigo sky.

"Sixty-five thousand feet, well into the stratosphere," said Celestial Boy. "That bright blue line you see along the horizon marks the limits of the Earth's atmosphere and the edge of space."

Johnny smiled. "That's cool."

I looked around the cabin of the jump jet. Kelley was sitting in a chair, working on her own tablet. Hot Stuff and Troll Kid were locked in an arm-wrestling contest at the table along the wall beside me. Mowgli was curled up asleep on a couch.

"Give it up, Troll," Hot Stuff grunted, straining to push the green boy's arm down. "Your biochemically enhanced muscles are . . . uff . . . no match for my hell-spawned strength!"

Troll Kid grinned back at him. He'd doffed his mask, revealing a handsome young face with ears as pointed as his opponent's and a unkempt mop of green hair. "Forget it, devil! Science beats magic!"

"We'll see about that! Ugh!" Waves of heat rolled off Hot Stuff as he exerted himself, and his eyes blazed with inner fire. In response, Troll Kid's body crackled with dark energy, his eyes turning black with white pupils. Neither seemed to be gaining the upper hand.

"If you don't mind, boys," Kelley cautioned, "I'd like to get to Monster Island in one piece."

They ignored her, continuing their struggle, until at last Troll Kid's arm hit the table with a loud thud as he groaned. Hot Stuff jumped up, fists in the air, tail lashing about excitedly.

"Yes! In your face, Troll!" He kissed each of his biceps. Johnny Cool just shook his head, grinning. Mowgli remained asleep. Celestial Boy smiled, walked over to the table, and placed both elbows on it, holding his hands up, ready to take them both on. I sighed and went back to my reading.

According to UNTIL's file on the Indian Lake Affair, the boys had performed with surprising professionalism. Johnny Cool had single-handedly averted a meltdown of the nest's atomic reactor that would have rendered hundreds of square miles of countryside uninhabitable and probably cost thousands of lives. Even more remarkably, Mowgli had been shot dead by the nest leader, a slime-ball named Prejda, only to turn up later alive and unharmed and beat the snot out of Prejda, blinding him in the process.

I also took the opportunity to read UNTIL's dossiers on each of the boys. Hot Stuff was a creature from a hell-like dimension. Gary London, a.k.a. Troll Kid, had been used as a guinea pig by VIPER for their strength-enhancing drug, Draysha. The drug had put him into cardiac arrest, but he'd been revived by an alien creature made of dark energy called a Nictus. It had taken up permanent residence in his body, while the drug had mutated him, giving him his green skin and pointed ears. Celestial Boy was also from another dimension, a place called Elysium. His people visited Earth periodically to help combat various cosmic menaces. Johnny Kowalski, a.k.a. Johnny Cool, had drowned in Indian Lake in 1958, only to be revived last year by the chemicals released from Prejda's VIPER nest, where they were working on creating zombie cyborgs, because of course they were. He was apparently still dead, having no heartbeat and not needing to eat, breathe, or sleep. Regarding Mowgli, there was very little information save that he'd been found living wild in the jungles of India and possessed uncanny fighting skills but no actual superpowers—that is, unless you consider rising from the dead a superpower, which I do. Witchcraft of the Champions had speculated that he might be an avatar of Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction, but like most magic types, she's always seemed kind of flaky to me.

My attention was grabbed by a change in the pitch of the engines' whine, along with a slight rising of my stomach, that told me we were beginning our descent. That meant we must be near our destination. I looked out the window, but there was no sign of it. Of course, there wouldn't be if we were headed directly toward it, which we surely were.

"All right, boys," said Kelley in a motherly tone. "Enough with the macho shenanigans. Into your seats and strap yourselves in." Hot Stuff and Troll Kid ceased their fruitless attempts to push Celestial Boy's arms down, and all three went to their seats and did so, as did Johnny Cool and Mowgli, who had just woken up and was still rubbing his eyes. I did likewise, glancing out the window again as the jet sank through the clouds.

Several minutes passed as we continued to slow and descend, our ride getting considerably bumpier as the air thickened, and at last I could finally see the coastline of Monster Island, a ragged line of black and green on a dark blue canvas, fringed with white where waves crashed and churned endlessly. I felt no pleasure at seeing it again, no warm feelings of nostalgia. I had no happy memories of this place. For me it had been a prison, as hellish as Devil's Island, and I counted myself lucky to have escaped it. I noticed Kelley looking at me, no doubt wondering what I was thinking. I saw nothing to be gained by telling her.

Down we went, the jet lurching slightly as it switched from horizontal to vertical propulsion, and we dropped toward B17's landing pad like an elevator. By now I could make out individual trees and rocks. I watched as the palm fronds rose above the jagged horizon, and in the far, dim distance I could make out the pale silhouette of the mighty volcano Andrithal, a smear of smoke trailing from its peak. Finally, with a thud and a shake, we came to rest on the pad, and the whine of the engines began to fade. I was back on Monster Island. Hooray. Roll out the red carpet, the prodigal son has returned.

There were three people waiting for us on the pad when we emerged from the jump jet, all of whom I'd met before. One was Fulani Okonkwo, a tall, slim Nigerian woman wearing an UNTIL uniform. She supervised UNTIL's activities on Monster Island. Then there was Dr. Janice Sellers, a zoologist who had once run a refugee camp for escapees from Moreau's prisons and now lived in New Gornyj. Finally there was Brother Whitehart, a stag manimal who had worked with Sellers in getting escaped manimals to safety. I'd heard that he and Sellers had gotten married not too long ago, Father Elk himself having performed the ceremony. It made sense. They'd been through a lot together back in the Moreau days. Whether or not their marriage was valid in the States was a question that was still being debated, but it was certainly valid here, and that was all that mattered to them.

Kelley and I greeted them, and all three gaped with surprise when they saw the Teen Beat Brigade. Apparently, nobody had informed them who was coming to dinner. To their credit, the boys took it in their stride. I guess they'd expected something like this. Okonkwo shook each of their hands, skepticism written all over her face, and she glanced at Kelley as if to say, "This is what you sent me?"

It was Sellers who diverted attention away from them. "Did you bring the medical supplies I asked for?" she asked Kelley.

Kelley nodded. "They're being unloaded now."

She looked relieved. "Terrific!" Then she turned to me. "Nice to see you again, Adam."

"Nice to see you too, Janice," I replied. "Congratulations on your marriage, both of you."

"Thank you," said Sellers, smiling brightly. Whitehart simply nodded, his thick arms folded across his massive furry chest. He'd never liked me. He'd always suspected my loyalties had lain with Moreau, because I had never tried to escape. I'd explained to him that the best way I could help bring Moreau down was to stay close to him and feed Okonkwo information about his activities, but Whitehart remained mistrustful, even now that Moreau was gone. That was one of the reasons I'd left Monster Island. Between manimals who considered me a traitor for betraying our creator, and those like Whitehart who suspected me of being a collaborator, I didn't have a lot of friends here.

I decided to busy myself unpacking my equipment. There were three boxes, each of which had a thumbprint lock. I pressed my thumb to the pads, and they fell open to reveal two shiny metal robots about the same size as myself, two rectangular objects about the size of lunch boxes, and an assortment of other gear. The Teen Beat Brigade took an immediate interest in my stuff, teenage boys being well known for their fascination with gadgets.

"Cool!" said Hot Stuff. "You brought your own robots!"

I nodded, buckling on my utility belt over the red and white Kevlar jumpsuit I now wore. "They're munitions bots. I call them Tom and Jerry. They're both armed with pulse lasers. The two smaller ones are medical bots. They generate beams that stimulate tissue repair. I call them Hawkeye and Trapper John. They're programmed to recognize injuries and heal them on the spot."

"Can they talk?" asked Johnny Cool.

"Tom and Jerry can, which is ironic, considering their fictional counterparts couldn't." I switched all four bots on, and the two med-bots rose into the air, hovering above us. "Ready to go to work, Tom?" I asked one muni-bot.

"Let me at 'em," Tom replied in an electronic monotone.

"How about you, Jerry?"

"Ready spaghetti," the other muni-bot replied.

Hot Stuff gave me a look. "Ready spaghetti?"

I shrugged. "I programmed them to say funny things sometimes."

"Too bad this isn't one of those times," said Johnny Cool, grinning.

"Okay," said Troll Kid, "if everyone's ready, let's head out!"

I strapped on the jetpack I'd brought with me and switched it on, the thrusters lifting me off the landing pad. Tom and Jerry activated their thrusters, too, and rose with me. Troll Kid, Hot Stuff, and Celestial Boy all rose as well, the devil boy leaving a trail of flame behind him. Mowgli jumped onto Celestial Boy's back, clinging to him like a hairless monkey. Johnny Cool created an ice slide before him, and Kelley put her arms around his waist, ready to slide along with him. And off we headed toward the interior of Monster Island.

We traveled west across the scrubland that covered the foothills to either side of the massive thousand-foot-high rocky ridge that ran north-south down the center of the island from Andrithal like a spine. It took us half an hour to reach the crest of the ridge. The western side was more heavily forested, and as we descended we could see lean, predatory shapes stalking through the luxuriant undergrowth. These were teleioraptors, creations of another mad scientist—Teleios, the self-proclaimed Perfect Human Being. Johnny raised his ice slide some twenty feet in the air, creating support columns for it every fifty feet, so as to stay well above the vicious beasts.

"Looks like Jurassic Park down there!" commented Hot Stuff.

I nodded. "They're all offspring of the Teleiosaurus. She produces eggs by parthenogenesis that hatch into these."

"Partho-whatsis?" asked Troll Kid.

"Parthenogenesis," said Celestial Boy. "It means that the eggs hatch without needing to be fertilized, producing clones of the parent. It is quite common in nature, though mostly found in invertebrates."

Troll Kid's eyes went wide. "You mean all these," he gestured at the dozens of teleioraptors beneath us, "will eventually grow into new Teleiosauruses?"

"No," I said. "They only get to be about ten feet long and then stop growing. Nobody knows why. Possibly the Teleiosaurus gives off some pheromone that inhibits their growth."

"Thank goodness for that!" said Troll Kid, looking down at the teleioraptors that were looking up at us, licking their chops hungrily.

"Do you think we'll see the Teleiosaurus?" asked Hot Stuff.

"God, I hope not!" I said. "She's the only creature on this island who can stand up to Qwyjibo!"

Again, the devil boy looked disappointed, but said nothing.

Another half hour of travel northward brought us into thicker jungle, the leaf canopy now virtually unbroken, casting the ground beneath into permanent shadow. Liana vines dripped from the branches so thickly our progress was slowed to a crawl, but we dared not rise above the canopy for fear of being spotted by flying bird manimal sentries, or worse yet, levitating Elder Worms.

Predictably, it was Mowgli who spotted them first. He made a barking sound that caught all our attentions, then motioned quickly at the ground. Nobody questioned him; we just dove into the dense undergrowth and lay still.

"What did you see?" Troll Kid asked the jungle boy in a whisper.

"Worms," Mowgli whispered back, and pointed. Our eyes turned in the direction he'd indicated, and there, crunching through the undergrowth, were a group of Elder Worms.

They were shaped like men, and wearing what looked like armored space suits with transparent glass helmets. The heads inside those helmets, though, were not remotely human. They were eyeless and elongate, with gaping mouths surrounded by four wicked fangs. A hundred thousand years ago these Lovecraftian horrors had ruled the Earth, until they'd been overthrown and exterminated by early humans, aided by a race of immortals called the Empyreans. Now they'd somehow returned, intent on reclaiming the Earth.

"They're coming this way," said Johnny tensely.

"I think they see your ice slide," I said. His slide melted quickly in this tropical heat, but not that quickly.

Sure enough, the worms were pointing in our direction and advancing. A fight appeared inevitable. I unholstered my pulse beam rifle and flipped off the safety. Tom and Jerry would automatically attack whatever I did unless I told them to do otherwise. I noticed Hot Stuff licking his lips, trembling with anticipation. Troll Kid's dark energy aura crackled to life around him. Celestial Boy gestured, and was suddenly attired in a suit of purple, white and red armor with a squarish helmet and complex geometric designs on his chest and belt. Stiff fins shaped like curved wings rose from his back, giving the suit a vaguely Art Deco appearance.

When the worms were ten feet away, Mowgli sprang like a panther, launching a kick that struck some device in the center of the nearest worm's chest. Immediately, the worm began to convulse as electricity arced from its suit while Mowgli rebounded safely away. Hot Stuff stood up and raised his arms, raining fire down upon the rest of the worms, setting their suits ablaze. Troll Kid and Johnny Cool fired blasts of dark energy and ice shards, respectively, at two of the worms, while Kelley and I shot two more. Tom and Jerry aimed their lasers at the worm I'd shot and began unloading beams of hot light at it. It collapsed, steaming inside its helmet.

Then the remaining worms retaliated, firing bursts of pinkish kinetic energy from their hands. One near Mowgli summoned a pair of pinkish energy knives in its gauntleted hands and lunged at him, slicing the air his lithe body had occupied a split second earlier. Celestial Boy fired a silver-white bolt from his hand at the worm, knocking it back into the undergrowth. Hot Stuff and Johnny Cool were both hit by bolts of energy from the worms, which made them stagger. Immediately, Hawkeye and Trapper John flew to them and bathed them in healing rays, repairing whatever damage the worms had inflicted.

The worms weren't without tricks of their own, however. Several in the back raised their arms and doused the injured worms with healing energy, rejuvenating them. I cursed as I remembered that Elder Worms were very good at keeping their own alive. Our two teams seemed fairly evenly matched, which worked very much against us. The longer this fight lasted, the greater the chance of worm reinforcements coming.

Celestial Boy raised his arms, and a massive bolt of gleaming silver-white energy exploded among the worms, knocking several down and shattering their helmets. He rained death and destruction on the creatures, his normally serene face twisted with rage and hatred. The worms turned their attacks on him, blasting his armored body with their pink energy bolts, but he ignored them and continued pounding the space-suited annelids into the ground. They tried to flee his ferocious attack, only to be blasted by the rest of us. Within seconds the fight was over, all the worms lying scattered around the clearing of burned and broken flora, Celestial Boy hovering above them like some angel of death, a frightening grimace darkening his youthful features.

"Disgusting vermin," he growled.

"You okay, buddy?" asked Hot Stuff cautiously.

Celestial Boy nodded. "I am fine. Let us continue."

"You have something personal against the Elder Worms?" I asked him as we got moving again.

"As I said, I know these creatures. My people have fought them before. I know the atrocities they are capable of. Had they been given the chance, they would have transformed you all into Elder Worms."

Hot Stuff gasped. "They can do that?"

Celestial Boy nodded. "It is how they increase their numbers."

Johnny Cool gestured at the fallen worms. "Then, these used to be human beings?"

"Undoubtedly."

"Can they be changed back?" asked Troll Kid.

"Sometimes," said Kelley. "UNTIL has lost a number of our people to them. We managed to transform a few back, using the strange gems that form the basis of the worms' technology, but only a few. Beyond a day or so, the process becomes irreversible."

"Does the worms' transformation work on dead things?" asked Johnny Cool.

"Not to my knowledge," Kelley replied.

"Well, that's a relief," he said, grinning. "I never thought I'd be so glad to be dead."

"Given a choice between that and being an Elder Worm," said Troll Kid, "I'll take death, thank you."

"I think we all would," I said.

We continued on toward the VIPER nest.

Night enveloped the jungle in its inky grasp as we traveled across the tangled undergrowth, and it fell to Hot Stuff to light the way for us with a flame he held in his outstretched palm. He doused it when we drew near the point where Kelley's satellite phone said the entrance to the VIPER nest was. Before us towered the broken steel walls surrounding the nest's compound, half demolished by the assault that had closed the place down years earlier. Now it lay draped with creeper vines and spattered with bromeliads whose fibrous roots were wedged into any corner or crevice where they could take hold, the entire structure in the process of being reclaimed by the seething jungle.

"I count four cat manimal sentries on the walls," whispered Mowgli, who apparently had the eyes of a cat himself, since I couldn't see a thing.

"So how do we get past them?" I asked, curious to see how the Teen Beat Brigade would surmount this first hurdle.

"Como este," said Troll Kid, and faded out of sight. "I'll sneak past them invisibly," his disembodied voice continued, "and once I'm inside, I'll teleport all of you to me."

I just nodded. It seemed like a safe, simple plan, and I certainly couldn't come up with anything better at the moment. Some leaves rustled as Troll Kid brushed past them; then we waited.

After a few minutes, Hot Stuff vanished in a burst of purple-black energy, followed by Mowgli, Johnny Cool, Celestial Boy, and Kelley. Then I felt a slight tugging sensation and a brief chill, and I was standing in a small, cramped room with the others. The floor was made up of bare metal plates, and the water that was dripping from the ceiling had covered it with a wet film. The sole illumination was Hot Stuff's hand flame.

"Well, that was easy!" said the devil boy, grinning and displaying his sharp little fangs.

I nodded. "Don't get too cocky, though. There are sure to be more guards further on, and no doubt Hyena-Swine has set some traps, too. He likes that sort of thing."

Hot Stuff shrugged. "Eh, we can handle it." He opened the metal door of the room and went out into the corridor after first peering down it in both directions. We followed him, single file, Kelley and me bringing up the rear.

We hadn't gone twenty feet when Mowgli hissed, "Stop!"

Everyone froze. "What is it?" Troll Kid asked.

"That floor plate Hot Stuff just stepped on shifted slightly," the jungle boy said, crouching down near the devil boy's foot to inspect it.

"Maybe it's just loose," suggested Johnny Cool.

Mowgli shook his head. "There are markings around the edges, showing where it was pried up recently."

"You think there's something under it?" asked Troll Kid.

Mowgli nodded. "A grenade, most likely. It's an old jungle warfare trick. Prime the grenade, bury it under a flat rock, someone steps on it and shifts it, and then, boom." He glanced up at Hot Stuff. "Don't move your foot."

The devil boy nodded, jaw clenched. "I'm not moving!"

"Johnny," said Troll Kid, "freeze the floor plate."

Johnny Cool came forward, crouched beside Hot Stuff and Mowgli, and traced his finger along the edges of the floor plate, leaving a thin line of ice that fused it to the rest of the floor like caulking. Mowgli tapped on it lightly with one hand. "Sounds solid," he said. "Okay, Hot Stuff, lift your foot, slowly. The rest of you, move back."

Hot Stuff nodded and did as he'd been told, and we all held our breaths as the sole of his sneaker parted from the floor plate. Nothing happened, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. I was now officially impressed. The Teen Beat Brigade had handled that obstacle like professionals. Then again, I reminded myself, Hot Stuff and Celestial Boy were both much older than they looked, and for all anyone knew, so was Mowgli, whose cool authority in that tense situation belied his youthful appearance. Perhaps UNTIL's computer was smarter than I had given it credit for, and perhaps Director Martinez had been wise to accept its recommendation.

We continued on through a labyrinth of corridors, guided by Celestial Boy's mental map of the nest he'd viewed only briefly once before, but hampered by the fact that we had no clear objective. All we knew was that whatever Hyena-Swine wanted had to be deeper into the nest than we presently were. So down, down we went, into the depths of Tartarus.

After what seemed like hours but was probably only twenty or so minutes, the steel-plated corridor ahead of us opened into a crudely dug tunnel of rock and earth supported by wooden timbers. We all looked at Celestial Boy, who shook his head. "This was not in the schematic," he said. "Either it is something new, or UNTIL missed it."

"It's not new," said Mowgli, examining the walls. "With all the fungal buildup, I'd say this tunnel is at least five years old, probably older."

"Before the nest was cleared out," said Kelley. "Interesting."

"Interesting that UNTIL missed it," I said sourly.

She shrugged. "We always knew that was possible. VIPER nest leaders often add things without telling anyone, so that only the nest leader might know all the secrets of a given nest. It's their way of holding an edge over any who might try to usurp their power."

We proceeded on cautiously, Hot Stuff lighting the way, his tail swishing with agitation. Then we saw a light ahead, and he doused his hand flame. Chittering sounds came to us of rat manimals, followed by the growls of bear manimals and the bleats of stag manimals. There was a veritable menagerie coming toward us, and we braced for a fight.

It wasn't long in coming. One of the rats squealed and pointed in our direction, and spears were raised and hurled. Hot Stuff opened his mouth and breathed a gush of fire down the tunnel at them, and they retreated, chucking some small metal objects that bounced and rolled along the dirt floor toward us.

"Grenades!" shouted Mowgli, diving to one side. Troll Kid instantly erected a force field to shield us from the explosions. The grenades detonated, and the tunnel shook, rocks raining down around us. It hadn't been very solid to begin with, and the explosions had demolished what little structural integrity it had. I found myself enveloped in choking dust, immersed in utter darkness as Hot Stuff's hand flame went out. I stumbled away from the roar of the collapsing tunnel, unable to see anyone else, my robots following me. Then a rock hit my head, and there was nothingness.

I awoke with Hawkeye and Trapper John hovering over me, the throbbing in my head already fading thanks to the waves of healing energy they were bathing me with. Tom and Jerry stood nearby, awaiting orders, their cybernetic eyes glowing red in the darkness. Rubbing my head, I sat up, coughed from all the dust, and looked around. The glow from the bots provided barely enough light to see by. I activated my belt buckle flashlight and played it around. I was in a rough-hewn tunnel with a lot of rocks strewn about. I switched on my wrist communicator and tried to contact the rest of my team, getting an earful of static for my trouble. It wasn't quite as bad as listening to Lou Reed's "Metal Machine Music." Probably there was enough metallic ore in these rocks to block radio transmissions. I considered the possibility that I might be the only survivor. Then I decided to shelve that thought. It wasn't productive, and besides, the Teen Beat Brigade had shown themselves to be pretty capable so far. Instead, I focused my efforts on getting out of here.

There was no going back the way I'd come, that was clear enough. Even if I managed to blast my way through, with my plasma rifle and with Tom and Jerry assisting, there was every likelihood of further cave-ins. Best to follow the tunnel I was in and see where it led. I remembered an old movie where the hero was trapped underground and lit a match to see if the flicker told him which way the air was flowing, and thus which way led to the surface, but I didn't have any matches on me. Not that I had an abundance of choices regarding which way to go anyway. I got to my feet and started walking, my bots following along behind.

After a hundred yards or so, the tunnel opened up into a cavern, and I saw light ahead. Not the flickering of fire, but steady electric lights. I doused my own light and advanced slowly, gripping my plasma rifle. Around a bend I found what appeared to be the Batcave. That is, it was a rock-walled cave filled with hi-tech equipment. From what I could see, it looked like a biochemistry laboratory. In the middle of it was a cat manimal. He had brown fur and wore only a loincloth, as most manimals do unless they just go naked. He was leaning against a lab bench, watching some solution in a flask boil as his tail swished rapidly, the way cats do when they're excited. As I debated whether to announce my presence, he spoke in a soft voice, his eyes still fixed on the boiling liquid. "Hello. Take a seat, I'll be with you in a minute. I'm just finishing up here."

"Doing a little science, are we?" I asked, walking over to him with my bots following.

His tail flicked. "Being a little patronizing, are we?"

I shrugged. "For all I know, that flask is full of raspberry jello."

"I assure you, it's a bit more potent than that." He turned around to face me, his green eyes sizing me up. "You're Adam. Hyena-Swine told me about you. He doesn't like you very much."

"The feeling's mutual," I said. "Who might you be?"

"Joshua Felinus. That's the name I chose for myself, anyway. I'm a geneticist."

I nodded. "Sure you are."

He looked at me with that inscrutable feline face. "You doubt my credentials?"

"Let's just say I'm skeptical. You wouldn't be the first manimal I've met who thought that pouring red stuff into blue stuff made him a scientist."

"Well, I'm the best Hyena-Swine has, since Ratskellar left."

That put me on my guard. "You knew Ratskellar?"

Felinus nodded. "He trained me. He didn't like you either."

"Well, he's dead now."

"Is he? Too bad. He was a smart rat. Crazy, but smart."

"How about you?" I asked. "Are you crazy?"

He chuckled. "Would I know if I were?"

"Good point."

He turned around and laid his head sideways on the lab bench, gazing up at the boiling flask, arms stretched to either side. "As far as I know or can tell, I'm perfectly sane. But that's just what a crazy person would think." He glanced back at me over his shoulder. "Are you crazy?"

"Not crazy enough to be working in a laboratory wearing nothing but a loincloth."

"You are barefoot," he pointed out.

I walked up behind him. "What's on the Bunsen?"

"A little something Hyena-Swine had me cook up for him. A variation on Moreau's serum that turned Qwyjibo into a giant monster."

I started. "What the hell does he want with something like that?"

"He wants to become a giant monster himself, but retain his intellect."

"I see. And how exactly do you test something like that to see if it works?"

"You test it on really small subjects." He gestured at an aquarium full of cave crickets. "I've made some really big ones that spit fire."

"How big are we talking?"

"Eight or nine inches."

I did some mental arithmetic. Considering the size of normal cave crickets, yeah, that was getting into Qwyjibo's size range for a big guy like Hyena-Swine. "And how do you know their mental capacity isn't diminished? Cave crickets aren't exactly geniuses to begin with."

Felinus shrugged. "I don't. I just eased back on the stuff that seemed likely to cause brain damage. Admittedly, it's still a dicey prospect. But then, I'm not the one who's going to be putting that glop in his veins."

"No," came a gravelly voice from another opening to the Batcave. "I am." I turned around, and there stood Hyena-Swine, along with several of his lieutenants.

He was seven feet tall and built like a professional weight lifter, with cloven hooves and three thick fingers on each hand. His body was covered in spotty fur, with big tufts of hair on his back and shoulders and a scraggly mane around his head. That head was snouted like a pig's, with fearsome tusks and beady, porcine eyes. He wore only a loincloth. His lieutenants included two bears, two stags, and a trio of rats.

"Attack!" I shouted, raising my plasma rifle and aiming it at Hyena-Swine. Tom and Jerry both let loose with a hail of plasma bolts, but Hyena-Swine was already moving, leaping through the air toward me. I got off one good shot at his torso before he bowled me over, smashing me into the wall, while his lieutenants went after my bots with VIPER laser weapons. I saw that Hyena-Swine had a laser pistol at his hip, but he hadn't bothered to draw it. He preferred to use his fists when possible. One of those came down on me hard, pounding me to the floor, where I lay crumpled at his feet, gasping for breath. Hawkeye and Trapper John flew toward me but were quickly shot to pieces by his buddies. I tried to get to my feet, but he hammered me down again, stunning me. Then he folded his arms across his barrel chest and grinned wickedly.

"Welcome home, Adam," he said. "I was hoping UNTIL would send you."

"I'm not all they sent," I slurred around the blood in my mouth, drooling on my chest.

"Oh right, that team of teenage wannabe heroes. My men are dealing with them as we speak."

"They're tougher than you might think."

He shrugged. "It doesn't matter. Before long I'll be powerful enough that they'll be like gnats to me."

"You really intend to inject yourself with that garbage, after what it did to Qwyjibo?"

He nodded. "Yes, I really do. Doctor Felinus over there has adjusted Moreau's original formula. I'll be fine."

"You don't know that. Not even he knows that. You could come out of this just as brain-damaged as Qwyjibo, if not worse!"

Hyena-Swine picked me up by one arm and held me before him, grinning in my face. "It's nice of you to care, Adam. But what's life without a little risk?" He nodded to Felinus, who took the concoction off the burner and set it in an ice bath to cool. "Is it ready?"

"Ready as it's likely to be," Felinus said. He took out a syringe and filled it from the flask.

"Let's go to the surface," said Hyena-Swine, turning and walking toward the exit, still carrying me dangling by one arm. I looked back at the smoking ruins of my bots. No help there. I pulled against Hyena-Swine's fist, but his grip was like iron. There was nothing to do but go along for the ride.

The ride, such as it was, consisted of a journey though a long, ragged tunnel whose walls I kept banging against, ensuring that I'd be plenty bruised and sore by the time we reached wherever we were going. It was pitch dark, but Hyena-Swine didn't stop or even slow down, evidently having come this way many times before. I thought about snakes. A lot.

After way too long (probably around five minutes), we broke through into sunlight, and I couldn't help thinking of the Batmobile on that goofy old TV show, bursting out of the Batcave's secret entrance through a fringe of overhanging branches. We were standing beneath a cliff beside one of the trails that crisscross Monster Island. There was thick tropical foliage everywhere, the trees dripping with vines. Felinus and the others emerged from the tunnel behind us.

Hyena-Swine let go of my aching arm and grinned down at me, hands on hips. "Ready to witness my transformation?" he asked.

"You mean your degeneration into a mindless brute?" I asked, rubbing my arm.

He growled at me, his piggy little eyes narrowing. "I could test the serum out on you."

"And turn me into another Qwyjibo? Does that sound smart to you?"

He shook his head. "No, it sounds smarter to make you my first victim."

"I'll pass, thanks. Besides, if this is going where I think it is, everyone here is likely to be your victim." I cast a glance around at the other manimals. They looked at each other uneasily, apparently not having considered the possible outcome if the serum backfired.

Hyena-Swine snarled. "Doctor, the injection, please." He held out his massively muscled arm to Felinus. The cat-man went over to him and pressed the syringe to his forearm, squeezing the serum into his vein. I held my breath.

Nothing happened.

"It's not working," Hyena-Swine growled.

"Give it time," said Felinus.

I looked around and noticed the other manimals backing away. Nobody wanted to be the closest one to Hyena-Swine when and if he changed into a monster. Fortunately, that meant their attention was on him and not on me.

"Oh yes," said Hyena-Swine, a grin of triumph on his pig-snouted face. "I can feel something happening. It's starting!"

Indeed, his entire musculature was getting more developed by the second. His arms were now thicker than my whole body. He resembled a furry version of one of those steroid queens you see on the covers of bodybuilding magazines; you know, the ones who look like their muscles are outside their skin? Those are grotesque enough, but Hyena-Swine hadn't been all that pretty to begin with. His loincloth began to split apart as his thighs and waist swelled. I noticed Felinus backing away, and I started doing the same.

"Yes! YES!" Hyena-Swine roared at the sky, flexing his newly enlarged arms. "It's working! And my mind is as sharp as it ever was! I'm going to be more powerful than Qwyjibo! More powerful than the Teleiosaurus! More powerful than ANYONE!"

I decided it was time to go. I scooped up the laser pistol from Hyena-Swine's fallen belt and bolted for a nearby clump of bushes. Laser bolts burned the air around me, a few striking me, but my suit was made of heat-resistant material, and it absorbed them with just a few scorch marks. I saw Felinus had had the same idea and was running for cover on all fours with superhuman speed and agility, dodging the shots from Hyena-Swine's lackeys.

We crashed through the undergrowth together, a flurry of leaves and branches clawing at us as laser shots made the plants around us smoke. Behind us, shouts from the manimals, and the ever deepening roar of Hyena-Swine. I cast a glance back at him as we ran forward. He was well over fifteen feet tall now, and still growing. Then I looked ahead again and saw that we were nearing a cliff. Before us there was only sea and sky. I just knew there were jagged rocks and pounding surf somewhere far below. Behind us, there was a sound like an atom bomb going off, and the trees around us started bursting into flames.

"Jump!" I shouted at Felinus. I wasn't exactly his biggest fan right now, but that didn't mean I was going to let him be burned to death.

"What?" he asked, sounding incredulous.

"Trust me!" I leaped forward, casting myself flailing into space, and activated my jetpack. I grabbed Felinus by the arm and flew us both down beneath an overhang where we'd be protected from laser fire from above. With any luck, they'd figure we'd both perished on the rocks below.

We paused a minute, both of us panting hard. Then I hit him.

"You idiot!" I hissed at Felinus. "Do you have any idea what you've done? As if the manimals here don't have enough problems without there being a third giant monster on this island, not to mention one that can actually think!"

Felinus clutched his belly where I'd slugged him. I'm as strong as a normal chimp, which is to say about five times as strong as a human, so I'd made sure it would hurt. But when he got his breath back, he grinned at me, flashing his fangs. "He won't be that way for long," he said. "The serum is unstable. It'll break down in his bloodstream."

I stared at him. "How long does he have?"

"Depends. The more he uses his strength, the faster he'll burn it out."

"I take it back. You're not as stupid as I thought."

"Thank you. I just want to get off this island. With my knowledge of genetics, I think I could really do some good for humanity, as well as be a good ambassador for my people. Our people."

I thought about that for a minute. I'd been living among humans for a couple of years now, and while I'd tried to set a good example, I'd also kept a fairly low profile. My public appeareances had been few. I'm just not much of a people person. Plus, I don't enjoy being thought of as a freak and a curiosity, even though technically I am. Now here was a guy who actually wanted the job. Well, more power to him. Why should it all be on my shoulders?

My musing was cut short by Troll Kid, Hot Stuff, and Celestial Boy dropping in from above, the latter carrying Dr. Kelley in his arms. She jumped onto the ledge to join us and threw her arms around me in a hug. "Oh, Adam, thank God you're still alive! We weren't sure after we got separated from you in the cave-in!"

"I'm fine," I said, putting my long arms around her and holding her close. "How did you find me?"

"We picked up the radio beacon from your wrist communicator a few minutes ago. We'd been busy underground, fighting Hyena-Swine's troops."

"Well, speaking of Hyena-Swine, he's now a giant monster."

Troll Kid nodded. "We spotted him from the air. Mowgli and Johnny Cool are watching him as we speak."

"He's big," said Hot Stuff. "I mean, really big! And he's giving off fire!"

"Just like Qwyjibo," said Celestial Boy.

"Well, meet the manimal who made that possible," I said, gesturing at Felinus. "Doctor Joshua Felinus."

"His condition is only temporary," said Felinus. "The serum will gradually break down in his body. Unfortunately, until then he'll be nigh unstoppable."

"Is there any way to accelerate the process?" asked Kelley.

"Make him use his strength," Felinus replied.

Troll Kid grinned, and folded his arms across his bare green chest. "I think I know a way of making him do that."

"How?" asked Hot Stuff. "We're no match for him physically, and if he generates fire, he's probably also immune to it, which makes my powers useless!"

"I agree," said Troll Kid. "We're going to need help."

"I suspect I know where you are going with this," said Celestial Boy, "and I do not like it."

Troll Kid shrugged. "We don't have a lot of options open to us."

We all huddled together while he laid out the plan.

"As I thought," said Celestial Boy, golden eyes glowing. "I do not like it."

"I think it's kinda neat," said Hot Stuff, grinning.

"You would," I said. He stuck his tongue out at me.

"Do you have any better ideas, Adam?" Troll Kid asked.

"No," I admitted. "I don't."

"In that case, let's roll."

I'd known the gorilla called Qwyjibo before his transformation into what he was now, and he'd been the bravest manimal I'd ever met. He'd willingly injected himself with Moreau's serum to help some heroes drive Teleios off Monster Island, reasoning that if the heroes were willing to risk their lives for us, we could do no less for them. It had turned him into a fiery version of King Kong and diminished his intellect proportionally, leaving him mentally no more than a beast. The gambit had worked but had left Qwyibo permanently in his monster state, wandering the island mindlessly, a threat to everyone and everything he came across. Was having one more giant monster on Monster Island worth having one less mad scientist? That's not for me to say, but all the same, I'm glad Teleios is gone. Who knows what sort of abominations he would have turned Moreau's manimals into?

Kelley, Felinus, Celestial Boy, and I watched as Hot Stuff stood in a pass where the earth had been mashed flat and melted to glass by the passage of giant flaming gorilla feet. I noticed that Felinus and Kelley seemed to be getting along quite well, which I supposed made sense, since they were both biology nerds while I was a physicist. It also made me feel just a teensy bit jealous, which made no sense at all, since she had never promised me anything. I could have employed the rationalization that she and I were both primates while he was a feline, but what good would that do? The heart wants what it wants.

"Come on, you big ape! Come get me!" the devil boy shouted. Then he took a deep breath, and flames gushed from his mouth as he incinerated some of the undergrowth at the mouth of a nearby canyon. The flames caught the occupant's attention, and he came galloping forward on all fours, breaking out into the open where we could see him.

Twenty feet tall, black as coal, his head, shoulders, and arms wreathed in flames that never went out, Qwyjibo was a terrifying sight and made the tiny red figure before him seem insignificant by comparison. He gazed down at Hot Stuff in puzzlement, sniffing, as if wondering what business this insect had challenging him. Then he bellowed and pounded his chest in the classic gorilla style, making a sound like rolling thunder. I have to give Hot Stuff credit here. He never once flinched. In fact, he grinned at his gargantuan opponent, his tail lashing excitedly behind him. I got the feeling he was enjoying this.

Qwyjibo lifted his enormous fists high above his head and brought them down with a terrific crash that shook us all to our spines. Hot Stuff had braced himself against the shock wave, but it still sent him tumbling backwards, stunned. Qwyjibo followed it up with a withering gout of flame from his mouth. Hot Stuff's clothing was instantly vaporized, leaving him naked but for a pair of asbestos undershorts. No fabric made by man, however fireproof it claimed to be, could withstand that kind of heat. The devil boy himself was completely unharmed, though. Fire was like mother's milk to him. He got to his feet and flew straight at Qwyjibo, buzzing him, and then flew off into the jungle, leaving a flaming contrail behind him. Enraged, the giant gorilla gave chase, knocking aside trees and leaving burning handprints in his wake. The rest of us followed the rather obvious trail he'd left for us.

Through the devastated, burning jungle we flew, me carrying Kelley while Celestial Boy carried Felinus, though I had the feeling the latter could have kept up with us on the ground easily enough. We didn't encounter any Elder Worms; they knew enough to give Qwyjibo a wide berth. We just kept following the wreckage until we broke through into a clearing. There before us stood a giant, naked Hyena-Swine wreathed in flames, with a somewhat surprised-looking Qwyjibo facing him and Hot Stuff hovering above the pair.

For a moment, the two fiery titans just stared at each other. Then Hyena-Swine grinned and charged at the gorilla, head lowered, deadly tusks jutting out before him. Qwyjibo responded with a roar of pure outrage, as if furious that anyone dared to challenge his supremacy, and charged as well. They slammed into each other with an impact that shook my teeth and sent a ball of flame billowing out from them, knocking Hot Stuff for a loop. The devil boy sailed through the air, stunned, and even though he was much tougher than a normal kid, I suspect it was only due to Celestial Boy catching him in midair that he escaped serious injury. Celestial Boy laid Hot Stuff down beside us, and Kelley checked him out while the rest of us watched the show.

And what a show it was! Hyena-Swine was actually the bigger of the two, but the difference appeared to be negligible. Each was immune to the other's fire, so they resorted to good old-fashioned fisticuffs, rolling around on the ground while they grappled and tore at each other, reducing the clearing to blackened ash in the process. Every time one of them threw the other to the ground, the impact measured on the Richter scale, and we had to struggle to keep our feet. Hyena-Swine gored with his tusks while Qwyjibo gouged with his canines, yet they both healed so fast that neither appeared to be able to do any lasting harm to the other. It seemed as if their battle might go on indefinitely. As for us, we were like ants watching a pair of kids tussle.

Enter the cavalry. From out of the forest came Troll Kid, Johnny Cool, and Mowgli, flying, ice-sliding, and vine-swinging, respectively. Not that three additional heroes would have broken the stalemate in the clearing. No, it was what they brought with them that would take care of that.

A massive, frilled, orange head poked out of the jungle, followed by a pear-shaped body covered with spikes. Puny, useless arms tipped with wicked claws extended from nearly nonexistent shoulders, while farther down, its prodigious body weight was supported by a pair of drumsticks that would have fed everyone on Monster Island for a week. A long, sinuous tail tipped with spikes whipped around behind it as the gigantic monstrosity emerged into the clearing, massive clawed feet tearing at the ground. I'd never seen the Teleiosaurus this close before. I'd never wanted to, and I still didn't. Among its other endearing attributes, it possessed radioactive breath that was instantly fatal out to a distance of a hundred feet.

Qwyjibo and Hyena-Swine ceased battling for a moment and regarded the new arrival, which stared back at them with tiny, unblinking eyes. Then it opened its gaping tooth-lined maw and screeched, a sound like a thousand nails on a thousand chalkboards. It made my and Felinus's fur stand on end and forced everyone to cover their ears.

"This is your plan?" Hyena-Swine bellowed at us. "Siccing a pair of dumb brutes on me? Fools, you forget, I still have my wits. These two animals can't match that!" He seized Qwyjibo and lifted him over his head, a sight that will haunt my dreams until I die, and hurled him bodily at the Teleiosaurus, bowling the pair of them over in a tangle of arms and legs. Instantly, the two monsters forgot about Hyena-Swine and started tearing into each other, the Teleiosaurus's breath washing over Qwyjibo while his flames scoured the other.

"Well, that went well," remarked Mowgli, frowning.

"Definitely not cool," said Johnny Cool.

Troll Kid shrugged. "It seemed like a good idea."

"Heads up!" yelled Hot Stuff, as Hyena-Swine charged toward us, his hooves pounding the ground like artillery shells going off.

We scattered every which way, and once again I cursed my stupidity for letting Jim talk me into coming here. I had promised myself I wouldn't die on this island, and that promise was looking harder and harder to keep by the minute, especially since Hyena-Swine had apparently chosen me as his target above all the others. It made sense. He did hate my guts, after all.

Fortunately, I could do something he couldn't do. I could fly.

I triggered my jetpack and rocketed up through the trees, breaking out of the canopy just ahead of Hyena-Swine's giant, flaming, grasping hand. Up and up I flew, wanting to put as much distance between me and that super-sized maniac as possible. He roared with anger and sent a flaming tree trunk hurtling my way, spinning end over end. I dodged it—almost. The thing struck me a glancing blow, which unfortunately totaled my jetpack, leaving me without support several hundred feet in the air. Needless to say, I fell.

Fortunately, falling into a tropical rainforest isn't as bad as you might think, since there's a lot of stuff between you and the ground. Once I hit the canopy, branches and vines helped to break my fall, and for someone as strong and agile as chimps naturally are, it wasn't hard to latch onto a vine and swing my way down to the ground. I felt pretty proud of myself as I stood there on the forest floor, brushing myself off. Seems taking the chimp out of the jungle doesn't necessarily take the jungle out of the chimp.

As I was congratulating myself on my survival, I heard Hyena-Swine roar, "Where are you, Adam? You can't hide from me forever!"

"Maybe not," I muttered to myself, "but I can damn well hide until that serum wears off."

"Unfortunately," said Doctor Felinus, who had just appeared out of the shadows beside me, "that's taking longer than I anticipated, especially now that he's got Qwyjibo and the Teleiosaurus fighting each other instead of him."

I whirled on him. "Hey, this is all your fault, pal! You made that damned witch's brew for him!"

He nodded. "Indeed I did. And he was kind enough to test it for us, so we know it works without destroying the mind."

I stared at him. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying it's time we stepped up to the plate. This is a manimal problem. Manimals should fix it."

I shook my head. "I'm not putting that stuff in my body. Not when there's five heroes here. Let them take the risk. It's what they do."

"They're not manimals," said Felinus. "There's no telling what effect it might have on them. We know what it will do to us."

I bit my lip, remembering what Qwyjibo had said when he took the serum that turned him into a monster: "These heroes were willing to risk their lives for us. We can do no less for them." Damn you, Qwyjibo.

Felinus took a syringe out of the satchel slung over his shoulder, filled it with the serum, and looked at me. I sighed and rolled back the sleeve of my jumpsuit, exposing my hairy arm for him. There was a twinge of pain as the needle slid in; then he did the same to himself. Then we waited.

"If my IQ drops so much as a single point because of this . . ." I said to him.

"You can sue me for malpractice," he replied, removing his loincloth. "You might want to undress. Your clothes won't change with you."

Muttering about how I get myself into these situations, I stripped down so I'd have something to put on once I returned to normal. If I returned to normal. I reminded myself that I had no idea if this guy had actually known what he was doing when he made this stuff. Still, it seemed to have worked according to spec so far. In any case, it was too late to back out now.

It started with my toes. Or maybe I just noticed them first because they were the only part of me that was touching anything. I felt the ground moving beneath them, but the ground wasn't moving—my toes were growing. I looked down and saw them plowing through the grass, expanding like balloons inflating. Where all that extra mass was coming from, I had no idea. The fifth dimension, maybe. All I knew for certain was that I was definitely getting bigger.

I noticed that everything around me was starting to look like it was shrinking. Everything except Felinus, who was growing right along with me. He looked over at me and grinned a fanged cat grin. He looked very pleased with himself. I guess he had a right to be. I still felt very uneasy about the whole business. I wondered if the food in my stomach was growing along with me. Probably not. It wasn't really part of me yet. That meant I was probably going to be very hungry before long, which led my mind along another path as I stood there growing. If I scarfed down a giant-sized meal and then returned to normal, would I explode? This was the kind of thing I imagined heroes who grew and shrank had to be careful of. Best not to eat anything while I was big, I decided. Not that I would likely have the chance to.

I felt a crackling sensation along my arms, back, and scalp, and looked down at myself. Sure enough, I was on fire. It didn't hurt, though it did feel weird, like something was constantly ruffling my fur. I was around ten feet tall now, and I did some mental math. Based on Qwyjibo's current size versus what he'd been like before, this should be as big as I was going to get. Felinus was about fifteen feet tall, which fit the pattern. He also looked like a demon, his body jet black and wreathed in flames. I tried to keep my mind grounded on facts and numbers to avoid dealing with how utterly bizarre this whole thing was.

"So, ready to mix it up?" asked Felinus, his voice noticeably deeper now, which made sense, given the greater length of his vocal cords, just like a bass fiddle has a lower pitch than a violin. I nodded, and together we started lumbering through the jungle. That took a minute to get used to. My stride length was so long now that I felt like I was moving in slow motion, even though I was eating up ground faster than I ever had before. We both stumbled several times as our bodies adjusted to the new rythym of walking, but soon enough we had it down.

We crashed through the jungle, leaving a trail of flaming undergrowth behind us, searching for Hyena-Swine. Fortunately, he wasn't making himself hard to find. I heard him before I saw him, cursing and smashing and lashing about, five young heroes harrying him like mosquitos. They weren't doing him any real harm, but they were making him very mad and keeping him busy. Then he saw us coming, and the look on his face was priceless. It quickly melted into a sneer of contempt, however. "So, you actually worked up the courage to use the serum after I tested it for you? Doesn't matter. The pair of you were no match for me when we were all normal size, so why would you think you could take me now that we're all giants?"

"You're forgetting about them," I said, not recognizing the sound of my own voice. I gestured at the heroes, who were staring at me and Felinus in amazement.

Hyena-Swine laughed, hands on hips. "Them? They're nothing! Pesky little gnats!"

"We'll see about that," I replied. I charged forward and hurled myself at him, arms spread wide. Hyena-Swine threw a punch at my face, which hit, but I looped my arms around his middle and knocked him off balance. Then Felinus came loping in and launched a kick at his head, knocking him off his feet and flat on his back. He fell like a sequoia crashing to the ground.

Immediately, Troll Kid, Johnny Cool, and Celestial Boy were on him, blasting away with darkness, ice, and whatever silvery energy it is Elysians use. He writhed beneath their attacks, thrashing about as I held him down, and belched a gout of flame, which Hot Stuff, who was floating in the air with his arms and legs spread wide, soaked up and expelled harmlessly away. I hadn't known he could do that. Even Mowgli was doing his part, despite his ostensible lack of any superpowers, punching and kicking the tusked behemoth's side.

I felt a powerful hand grab my arm, and Hyena-Swine tore me from him and hurled me away. Doctor Felinus followed me, landing on his feet as cats always do. Our pig-snouted adversary stood up, glowering at us, and dug his hands into the ground before him, lifting a mass of flaming earth that he sent tumbling through the air our way. Felinus barely managed to dodge it, his normally uncanny reflexes slowed considerably by his increased size. I wasn't so lucky. It hit my shoulder, causing an explosion of pain, and sent me flying backward fifty feet into a grove of palm trees, which went up like matchsticks. I sat up and shook my head, dazed, only to see Hyena-Swine charging toward me, bellowing like a bull moose. Have I mentioned he hates me?

I jumped to my feet and instinctively reached for my plasma rifle, only to remember I was now naked. That gave him time to bowl into me, knocking me back again through trees and bushes. He leaped at me, arms outstretched, murder in his beady eyes. I caught his belly on my feet and rolled, sending him flying over me with a squeal of rage. He crashed into some trees and we both regained our feet.

"Weak!" he snarled at me. "You're weak, Adam! You always were! The weak perish, the strong survive! That's the law of the jungle!"

"Notice how I don't live here anymore?" I asked, glaring back at him. "I've heard this song and dance before from Moreau. It was bullshit then and it's bullshit now, nothing but a shallow excuse for brutality and sadism! You know how much he loved that stuff!"

"Shut up! Father was a genius! You're not fit to utter his name!"

"Father was a psychopath who caused nothing but death and suffering! I'm glad he's dead, and you should be too!"

He howled and charged me again, and I ran, hoping that damned serum in his body was somewhere near burning itself out. It was sure taking its sweet time. Then I broke out of the jungle and found myself at the brink of a cliff overlooking the ocean. I managed to stop myself before I went over the edge, but only just barely. Then Hyena-Swine came barrelling out behind me and slammed into me, and we both went over.

It was a long fall, the two of us tumbling head over heels, and we struck the water with a deafening slap and a hiss of steam. Hyena-Swine recovered first, hurling punches at me as the water boiled around us. I blocked them as best I could, stalling, trying to drag this out as long as possible.

"I'm going to kill you, Adam, like I should have done years ago!" Hyena-Swine roared. "You're going to die today, and then I'll skin you and wear your pelt as a cloak!"

"That's what I like about you, H.S." I said. "You're a real class act."

"I'm triumphant, Adam! I'm . . . what . . . what's happening?" He looked down at himself, and I could see he was starting to get smaller. The serum must have finally been wearing off. Unfortunately for him, that meant he was going to return to normal in boiling hot water. And if his serum was wearing off, mine couldn't be far behind.

"We've got to get out of the water, you idiot," I yelled at him, "or we'll be scalded to death when we revert to normal!"

That got through to him. He may have been crazy, but he wasn't stupid. He struck out toward the shore, swimming frantically, and I followed him.

As he shrank, he slowed, and his flames started to go out. I could hear him squealing in pain from the boiling water. He wasn't immune to heat anymore. Biting my lip, I reached out, grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, and hurled him through the air as hard as I could onto the beach at the base of the cliff. He landed with a thump, and within seconds he was back to normal, a little burned but still alive. Unfortunately, I was in the same kettle of poached fish he'd been in, and I didn't have anyone to throw me out of the water.

Fortunately, I had friends. I don't always want them, or appreciate them the way I should, but I have them. Hot Stuff came rocketing down from above and grabbed my flaming shoulders, while Johnny Cool skated in on a slideway of ice along the surface and started chilling the water around me. As I shrank back to normal, the water was barely lukewarm, and Hot Stuff picked me up and flew me to the beach, depositing me on it. Troll Kid, Celestial Boy, Mowgli, Doctor Kelley, and Felinus were already waiting, the cat manimal having also returned to normal. Hyena-Swine was in their custody while Celestial Boy healed the burns on his body.

"Well," said Kelley, "that appears to be the end of that." She looked at me and smiled. I smiled back politely. I wasn't terribly thrilled about being naked in front of them all, but it was better than being boiled alive. She handed me my folded up jumpsuit and utility belt and Felinus his loincloth and satchel, and we both got dressed.

"I think I'm done with this stuff," said Felinus, taking the flask of serum out of his satchel and handing it to Hot Stuff. "Get rid of it, will you?" The devil boy nodded and poured the stuff into a flame in his palm, vaporizing it.

"Don't care for being a giant monster?" asked Kelley.

"I'm content with being the size I am," Felinus replied.

"How about you, Adam?" asked Troll Kid, grinning.

I shrugged. "It was an interesting experience, to say the least, though it would have been more fun if I hadn't had a lunatic trying to kill me the whole time. But this island already has one giant ape. It doesn't need another."

"With any luck I can use what I learned making that serum to find a way to someday return poor Qwyjibo to normal," said Felinus.

"Here's hoping," I said.

"Our ride's here," said Kelley, nodding to the UNTIL jump jet that was coming in low, approaching the beach.

Within a few minutes we were all airborne. I glanced out the window and saw Qwyjibo standing near the edge of the cliff from which Hyena-Swine and I had done our dive into the ocean. There was no sign of the Teleiosaurus. Apparently, they'd grown bored with fighting each other and it had slunk off back to its own turf. I watched the huge, solitary, flaming figure as it stood there staring out at the sea, as if trying to remember something it had long ago forgotten.

"Someday, buddy," I said quietly. "Someday . . ."