We're crazy and proud of it

CHAPTER 7 THE LAB

"That's very clever Jodake. Nanobots." Gearhead said.

"What?" Jack asked.

"Nanobots created the zombies. This also explains how they were able to move at close to a running speed and were able to trail almost straight to the warehouse." Jodake explained. "Okay I knew things were going to get worse, but can you reverse engineer it to find out where they are coming from." Jack Replied

"Just finished... or not" Gary said as the device on the desk sparked and fizzled out.

"Crap," Jodake said as he expected his laptop to break, too.

"Your laptop should still work Jodake." gearhead said "but for now I think our best bet is to just follow the trail of zombies, Bobby."

"So this will have to wait," said Jodake, gesturing towards his laptop in mock exasperation.

"Uh, guys I think I found the place." Bobby said as if he was a little disgusted or frightened by what he saw while he slowed down the bus to closer to a cruise speed. And he had right to be. "Oh, my, freaking, god." Jack said as the other Crazys began to crowd around the front of the bus. "KYAAA" Karen squealed as she dove into Jack's chest while he tried to comfort her. "UH,JOHNNY GET BACK IN HERE." Jack called trying to sound calm. "W-what i-is t-tha-at t-thing?" Daniel and Brook said as they held on tightly to each other, shivering. Sera fainted and Sid woke up shortly after, "aw man, that place is gross, hahaha! I'm getting a picture uh' this " Sid said almost excitedly, like a coaster-junkie at the top of the peak. "By the gods, it's hellspawn." Katon said in a sort of shocked awe. Before them loomed a large factory like building the seemed to sweat blood from all the massive amalgamous lumps of flesh that appeared to have formed from multiple corpses mishealing together, many of which had somehow fastened themselves to sections of the walls. In some cases this had created long body-tentacles over ten bodies long with the bellybuttons and spinal humps running down them like grotesque rivets that clawed, swatted, or kicked at whatever came near with it's over a hundred arms as well as numerous zombies milling around it. "What, is this place?" Johnny asked, his mouth agape once he had gotten back inside the serpent. Everyone else just stood there in stunned silence. "I think it's the zombie lab." Jack replied still a bit stunned. "Okay Bobby, listen closely. I want you to try and charge the serpent through the zombies and amalgamations to get us inside the building then you let me, Jodake, Gearhead, Johnny, and Katon out. Everyone else stays on the bus. After the you put the bus in siege mode, got it?" Jack said, setting Karen on a seat and trying to regain his confidence "Um okay, yeah, YEAH I got it." Bobby said. He does just that, charging through the zombies and letting the group out past them and then curling the Psycho Serpent into a tight loop with the door on the inside. Once Jack and the others had breached the inner sanctum of the building they quickly resealed the door behind them. "Wow it's surprisingly clean in here, nothing like back outside." Katon commented.

"GAH, what, who, wait, did you reseal the door!" the scientist inside said. "Yes," Jack replied quizzically, "I'm guessing things got really out of hand for you."

"Yes, they did, wait, I know who you people. You're those psychopath criminals Boss warned me about," the scientist said.

"So you work for Etimis Draconian then, don't you." Jack deduced.

"I think thats the control panel over there, we should be able to use it to power off the nanobots and end all this." Jodake said.

"Good idea. Let's finish this." Gearhead replied already trucking towards the platform.

"Wait! You can't do that!" The scientist cried.

"And why not, fiend" Katon said, suddenly behind him. BWOOOooo, the sound of the device powering down resonated throughout the whole room. "I'm done forrrrrr..." the scientist said as he fainted. "Ya know guys, if this guy's working for Etimis, we can try to see what he was working on and really get Etimis in trouble," Jack suggested. Glancing at the massive vats and tanks around the room. "I like the way you think, Jack!" Jodake and Gearhead said together and the two began to boot up the machine and tinker around with it. Meanwhile, the others began to engage in idle chitchat. A short while later a warning began to blink on the panel "uh, guys" Gearhead said a little worried, then more light began to flash and a buzzer started sounding. "GUYS!" Gary shouted starting to panic.

"Huh," Jack said turning around.

"GET DOWN," Jodake bellowed as suddenly several of the tanks burst, spraying the party with an eclectic mix of chemicals and some leftover nanobots. 'Ow ow ow ow, my head hurts now." Jodake complained.

"Weird, my body feels all tingly." Gary said so quickly that only Jack could understand him and just barely at that.

"Ugh, this is annoying. My body feels strangely stiff like it's made of metal" Jack said.

"Woah my body feels really light and wispy!" Katon remarked a little excitedly

"Um guys, is anyone else burning up here?" Johnny asked sweating

"Okay everyone, I think we got what we came here for, so let's head back to the bus." Gearhead suggested

"Alright but would someone mind carrying me there, because I cannot move very fast right now," Jack requested. Back on the bus the gang was starting to understanding what their strange afflictions had meant and were starting to learn to control them. "That's cool Katon that black wispy form of your's is basically a wraith form, that be great for sneaking around quickly." Jack remarked. "meanwhile I command metal and Gearhead is now a master of electronics!"

"Heys lookie what I can do!" Johnny called as he lights both his forearms completely on fire and then starts tossing around a fireball.

"Come here Jodake Jack and I can build that hand of yours now." Gearhead said, as soon as they finished a tiny 3D avatar about the size of a action figure appeared in the palm of his hand and said "Hello Jodake, it's been a while."

"who are you?" Jodake asked.

"I'm Joseph." the figure replied.

"So,you're what, an AI now?" Jodake asked.

"Yep, pretty much." Joseph replied.

"Cool, so now we've got super powers" Jodake said. "For sure, baby!" Jack said eagerly.