Alright, since I've been going crazy with Fetus writing and am somewhere towards the start of section three of Chapter 4: The Underworld, I decided to post the final part of the Salt Factory. Enjoy! (It's one of the longer ones.)
VI
Dr. Fetus waited for Brownie in the control room. Bandage Girl was set up behind the last gauntlet of traps. He needed to get his minion ready for the final showdown with Meat Boy.
The door opened, and Brownie slipped into the room.
“Good to see that you’re better,” Dr. Fetus said. Brownie nodded, eyes downcast.
“Boss,” he said. “I’m really having doubts about this. I’m not sure I should go with it. Meat Boy doesn’t seem that bad.”
Dr. Fetus growled. That did it. He was finished with Brownie! He would keep him around for this final fight, but when that was over, Brownie would die too!
“Very well,” Dr. Fetus said. “But please, just finish this one final battle for me. That’s all I ask, then I’ll let you go, give you everything you need for a long, happy life.”
As he said this, his eyes locked with Brownie’s uncertain yellow ones. Two points of yellow, set in a sea of brown...
“Brownie,” Dr. Fetus whispered, standing up. “You’ve been spying on me.”
“What, sir?” Brownie asked, looking nervous, starting to back away.
“You saw me speaking with my mother!” Dr. Fetus roared.
Brownie turned, and sprinted for the door, but Dr. Fetus was faster. He grabbed Brownie, holding him high above his head.
“Traitorous scum!” Dr. Fetus shouted.
“At least I’m finally on the...right...side,” Brownie managed in a choked voice.
Dr. Fetus roared, punched Brownie in the face, and shoved him in a toilet that was sitting in the room.
“You aren’t coming out until Meat Boy gets here! And when he does, you will destroy him, or you will die. That’s final!” Dr. Fetus shrieked, and slammed the toilet seat shut. He could hear a faint thumping from inside the toilet, but Brownie was finally trapped.
Dr. Fetus stormed around the room, ranting to himself in a rage. How could he trust that worthless wretch? It didn’t matter, the threat of death would be enough to provoke a fight. If not, there were...other ways.
Dr. Fetus smirked, and pulled out his beloved remote, caressing it gently. This was his greatest tool, the most powerful thing he had to his name. With it, he could do anything. Including, if need be, obliterate Meat Boy, and Brownie with him. He just had to wait a short time.
As if in response to his train of thought, the robot appeared, Bandage Girl held tightly in its arms.
Dr. Fetus grinned, and yanked Bandage Girl out of the robot’s hands. The metal look-alike vanished, and Dr. Fetus began to tie Bandage Girl up, hanging upside down from the ceiling.
Suddenly, the toilet seat burst upward, and Brownie shoved his way out, gasping for breath.
Bandage Girl shrieked. Dr. Fetus whirled, a look of surprise on his features, then lunged forward, catching Brownie and shoving him back under. To stop any further escapes, he plopped down on the toilet, ignoring the muffled cries for help.
“What
was that?” Bandage Girl asked, breathing heavily from the shock.
Dr. Fetus grimaced.
“A traitor, like yourself,” he responded. “And, with luck, Brownie shall also be Meat Boy’s downfall.”
Bandage Girl stared at him, openmouthed.
“You honestly think some of your crap is going to defeat my boyfriend?” she asked, almost laughing at the absurdity.
“If he doesn’t, I have something that will,” Dr. Fetus replied. Bandage Girl’s eyes narrowed, clearly waiting to find out what that something was, but Dr. Fetus wasn’t talking.
They waited. And waited. Dr. Fetus scowled. Meat Boy was taking too long. He reached behind him, and pulled out an old newspaper.
After a few minutes, he heard some squelching sounds, and glanced up from the paper.
Meat Boy was already untying Bandage Girl! That little rat could be sneakier than Dr. Fetus expected.
With a nasty grin, Dr. Fetus reached and pulled a chain. The toilet flushed, taking a screaming Brownie on a ride through the pipes.
Meat Boy glanced up, hearing the thunking of Brownie crashing into corners. Soon, there was a loud plop as Brownie landed on the floor of the septic tank. Dr. Fetus discreetly pressed the remote’s button. The tank’s doors opened slowly, hissing as the pent up stench of thirty-year old waste material, and the added smell of Brownie, was released.
Disoriented, spooked, and in pain, Brownie sprinted out of the tank, screeching like a banshee. He charged toward Meat Boy and Bandage Girl, waving his arms. Then a look of surprise came over his face as he saw the pair. He glanced at Dr. Fetus, the death threat clearly on his mind.
“I’m sorry, Boss,” he said. “But I’m not doing it. It’s not right. If you want to kill Meat Boy, do it yourself. But I swear, I shall always be in the way. You will always have to go through me.”
Dr. Fetus grinned. He was irked, but unsurprised. Even better, he was prepared.
“I don’t have to do anything, Brownie,” Dr. Fetus said, pulling out the remote. “I have things that do my work for me.” Laughing, he pressed the button.
Alarms blared, and a set of double doors opened wide. A solid wave of salt began to pour out.
The room beyond the doors had been used to contain excess salt. But Dr. Fetus had altered it. All the salt in the factory was being sucked through the room, towards Brownie and Meat Boy, a wall of certain death.
Brownie screamed, and took off running, with Meat Boy close on his heels. They both burst through the same door. Dr. Fetus chuckled. They didn’t stand a chance.
He grabbed Bandage Girl as the wave of salt blasted over them, and winged his way up, towards one of the towers sticking out of the roof, where he could watch the show.
Looking down, he could see Brownie and Meat Boy running as fast as they could as the salt rose beneath them. They were both going pretty quick, being as acrobatic as they could. Meat Boy seemed to be pulling ahead. Perhaps the stay in the toilet had weakened Brownie. Dr. Fetus shrugged. The salt would still catch them.
But that didn’t seem to be the case either. They had both reached the final tower, and were escaping up it. Dr. Fetus growled. He was determined to kill whichever of the two survived. But how?
He glanced down, and saw some loose bricks sitting on the tower. There, then, was his weapon.
He watched as the two climbed to the top. Meat Boy, of course, got himself in a solid position at the top of the tower. Dr. Fetus groaned. It figured. Brownie, one the other hand, was hanging off the tower by one hand, and his grip was slipping. Dr. Fetus watched in eager anticipation.
But as Brownie started to fall, there was a hand to catch him! Dr. Fetus roared. Meat Boy had saved Brownie, cheating Dr. Fetus of his show, and of finally seeing the traitorous minion die.
With a bellow of rage, Dr. Fetus chucked a brick, which hit Brownie in the face.
Meat Boy turned his head, still trying to pull Brownie up.
“No,” he whispered. Dr. Fetus laughed, and threw another brick. And another. Brownie’s face was looking like a mud pie. He turned his eyes towards Dr. Fetus.
“Boss...” he whispered through the pain. “Please...”
The only response he got was another brick. Screaming, Brownie slipped out of Meat Boy’s hands, and plummeted toward the salt below. Dr. Fetus roared with laughter, doubling over.
“So long, Brownie!” he called. “That’s what you get!”
Suddenly, Meat Boy was in front of him, anger filling his features.
“You killed him,” Meat Boy growled. Dr. Fetus chuckled.
“What are you going to do about it, pipsqueak?” he mocked, and whipped out his remote. Meat Boy gaped at it, fear clearly on his features. Dr. Fetus prepared to press the button, but paused. There was nothing around. Nothing. What could he do?
Meat Boy was getting braver as he saw Dr. Fetus looking around. He was going to attack.
Dr. Fetus smirked, then chucked the remote into Meat Boy’s face, knocking him off the tower. Dr. Fetus fell to the ground laughing. What a way to go!
Wiping tears from his eyes, Dr. Fetus picked up the remote from where it had landed. This was the most he had laughed since he had been born.
He picked up Bandage Girl, and climbed down the tower, watching the salt recede back into the store room. But a thought entered his head. Where could he go next? There was nowhere else from his past, nowhere dangerous. He marched slowly down the stairs, thinking.
When he reached the bottom, he heard a distant moan. He glanced across the vast sea of salt, and saw Brownie pulling himself up onto the other side. The fool still lived! Dr. Fetus looked for a brick, but found nothing.
“That’s what you get, traitor!” Dr. Fetus shouted across the salt. Brownie turned back. He was a truly pathetic figure. His skin was lumpy and burned, and he had lost two legs and an arm. His eyes were squinted, and his head sizzled. But the hatred he directed at Dr. Fetus was clear.
“Go to Hell, Mr. Fetus,” Brownie spat. “And stay there!”
With those parting words, he dragged himself off into the distance.
Dr. Fetus stared after him. Go to Hell...
A wicked smile spread across his face. Yes, Hell was exactly where he would go. And he would drag Meat Boy down with him.
And that concludes our jaunt through the Fetus Corp. Salt Factory. I'll get back to writing Dr. Fetus's crazy time in Hell, now.
Super Meat Boy
