CHAPTER THREE
Wilburts blinked. "I beg your pardon?"
Jarrett removed her spectacles and stared at him unblinkingly. "Oh, it's too late for begging, Commander. Far too late."
Wilburts looked at her bewilderedly. As he did, he saw the two massive zits on her upper lip move, swivel, in his direction. Wilburts realised what was about to happen a split second before it did, and threw himself out of his chair just as Jarrett's zits exploded outward, showering the chair where he had been sitting with puss. Wilburts picked himself up, to see the puss starting to dissolve the chair into a gooey mess. Jarrett rose from her seat. Wilburts drew his gun and aimed it at her. "Stay where you are!"
"Don't be a fool, Commander," Jarrett's lips didn't move, and the voice was altogether squeakier than her own, yet it was definitely coming from her.
With disbelieving horror and revulsion, Wilburts realised it was Jarrett's spots that were actually talking. "What..." Wilburts gasped. "What are you?"
"We are your new masters!" Jarrett, or rather Jarrett's spots, ranted manically. "We come from a galaxy far, far away, to control and enslave your puny, weak-minded race! Bow down before us and tremble, for we are The Pimp-Els!"
Wilburts blinked again. "You can't be serious, surely?"
Nance's zits exploded, showering the gang with puss.
The gang recoiled.
Only Ian was not hit by the flying puss. "What the hell?!"
Nance stared at him manically. "Surrender!" A dozen voices, all somewhat squeaky and high-pitched, seemed to shriek from him at once. "You cannot fight us now!"
"Ian," Banix interjected. "I have a problem here."
Ian stared as the puss appeared to eat away at Banix's clothes and artificial skin like acid.
"Guys?!" Ian cried. "Are you alright?"
The gang turned. The puss did not appear to be having the same effect on them as Banix, but each and every one of them now sported a red, swelling, enormous zit in the centre of their forehead.
"Surrender," Matthew squeaked. "Surrender yourself to domination!"
"There is no escape," Jarrett's zit squeaked mockingly.
"Just stay the hell away from me!" Wilburts backed away toward the door.
"Where are you going, Commander?" Jarrett taunted. "There is nowhere you can hide from us now."
Wilburts flung open the door, to find himself facing a veritable army of teenage students, all sporting tell-tale red spots. "Not today, thank you." Wilburts slammed the door back shut again.
"You see?" Jarrett's zits mocked spitefully. "You cannot hide from us. Wherever there are teenagers, we'll be there! Wherever this is bad skin, we'll be there! Wherever there is junk food, we'll be there! We are everywhere!"
"Yeah, well," Wilburts eyed her office window cagily. "Sorry about this, but...must dash." With a sprint and a leap, Wilburts went crashing through the window and out the building.
Eyes - and spots - blazing madly, Jarrett ran to the door and flung it open. "Find him!" she addressed her possessed students. "Seize him!"
"Matt?" Ian blinked. Matthew and all his former friends advanced on him menacingly. "Cody?!"
Cody grinned malevolently. "Surrender yourself... human!."
That decided Ian. "Banix?" Ian questioned.
His robotic friend was watching his clothes and all his fake human outer shell dissolve into nothingness, although thankfully the puss' toxicity seemed to have burnt itself out, not affecting his inner robot workings. "Yes?"
"You still with me?" Ian questioned tightly.
"As I am not human, and indeed no longer possess even fake skin upon which these mind-controlling spots could foist themselves, then I suppose so," Banix acknowledged.
"A simple 'yes' would have been sufficient!" Ian yelled.
"Oh," Banix pondered. "In that case... yes."
Nance and the spotty gang were still advancing on them threateningly.
"Little help!" Ian cried, clearly unwilling to open fire on his friends.
Wilburts hit the ground outside Jarrett's office with a practised roll, and was quickly on his feet again. There was no one in sight, but Jarrett and her spotty army would be after him soon enough.
Wilburts surveyed the scene with increasing desperation.
He needed somewhere to hide.
"Sorry about this, gentlemen, ladies," Banix grabbed the gang and Nance in one big mechanical bear hug. They struggled desperately to free themselves, to no avail. "Ian - run! I'll catch up!" Ian bolted for the door.
Charlotte's spot erupted, spraying puss over Banix's shiny metal head. It had no effect.
"Charmed, I'm sure," Banix told her.
Wilburts had doubled back inside the school, and now crept downstairs to the school basement. Wilburts took out his walkie-talkie and was about to call in reinforcements when he noticed something strange in the darkness.
Wilburts flicked on the light, and gasped. "The hijacks..." he realised.
Stored in the basement of Maltby High School were over two thousand boxes of spot cream.