Monster Trackers

Episode 1

Chapter 4

Mister Haystack can feel the cooling touch of the wind on his face, hiding the rest of his body under the bed sheets. He stares anxiously into the darkness beyond the window siding, listening to the forest whisper. With nothing but the small flame of a candle to alleviate the tension overwhelming his mind, he can’t even bear the idea of trying to fall asleep. His drooped ears flare up as the dreaded sound of a cicada gradually joins the blowing of the wind. Piercing the dark, two bright, round, red eyes glare at Mister Haystack. Already, he can feel his heart pounding at an excessive rate, but he does everything he can to keep his composure and not leave the bed. The eyes rise, followed by the sound of tree branches clanging against each other. The red spotlights grow larger as the deep beating of wings becomes more present. Mister Haystack, stiff from fear, hyperventilates and whimpers as the creature draws nearer to the window. It perches itself onto the bottom of the window, and folds in its bat-like wings as it watches Mister Haystack. Its red eyes coat the entire bedroom in a reddish hue, and tilts its head curiously. Its jagged, claw-like beak opens, and a long, worm-like appendage slides out from its mouth. The cicada noise intensifies, and Mister Haystack shrieks in terror.

“Now!” Spades yells. Both he and Bam yank onto two long wires with their teeth, and a series of mechanisms click and switch into place all along the walls. The creature spreads its wings and lunges towards Mister Haystack, but a contraption flings a large, secured net to capture the creature, and another contraption shuts and slams the window behind it to keep it from escaping. The monster struggles violently to free itself, but is unable to escape.

“We did it! We got it!” Bam cheers.

“I don’t believe it . . . we did it! Hah! That was a little too easy!” Says Spades. “Bam, quick! Get the trap!” Just as Bam is about to retrieve the trap, the creature starts squealing, and the sound rattles in their ears. As it continues to struggle in the net, its worm-like tongue spews streams of thick, transparent fluid all around the room. It splashes onto the walls, causing the wallpaper to steam and melt. “Everyone get down!” Spades shouts as he and Bam hide behind the bed. With Mister Haystack still frozen in fear, they grab and yank him behind the bed as he slams onto the wood floor. All of them shield the top of their heads with their hooves, listening to the goop splatter and walls sizzle. Suddenly, the spray of goop ends, and the creature’s screams gradually disappear. The three of them cautiously peek their heads over the top of the bed to see the puddles of steaming goo all around the room, but the creature has vanished.

“W-What happened?” Mister Haystack asks.

“Well, I think it got away,” says Spades.

“Ugh! I don’t believe this!” Bam fumes as she approaches the empty net. She undoes the contraption and takes down the net, and they all find that a large section of the glass window has melted away.

“How-H-How did it melt the glass, but not the net?” Mister Haystack asks.

“We composed these nets out of a strong metallic fiber that not even a chainsaw could cut through. . .” Spades begins.

“But we didn’t even consider reinforcing the window!” Bam finishes as she knocks her forehead with her hoof repeatedly.

“So, what do we do now?” Mister Haystack asks.

“Well. . .” Spades sighs. “We could try coming up with a new plan, and hope it comes back. Or, maybe since we got it on the run, maybe it won’t ever come back.”

“No way!” Bam shouts. “If this thing is at least as intelligent as any animal, it might be driven off for a while, but it’ll come back! As long as we have it on the run ‘now’, we need to keep up the intensity and finish the job!”

“Professor, just, calm down for a second. Let’s think about this rationally. We’re clearly not aware of how dangerous this thing actually is. We should try and stage a new trap with a new approach and—”

“I will ‘not’ calm down!” Bam interrupts. “It’s going to take a whole lot more than some acidic, digestive plasma to frighten me, so we are ‘not’ going to design an entirely new trap just because of that!” Bam digs in her gym bag, and retrieves a couple of yellow, construction caps with flashlights strapped to them. She puts one on her head, and approaches Spades, who is worryingly glancing to the left and right of him. “This thing dares to insult ‘my’ intelligence?! That was a big mistake!” She then slams the other hardhat onto Spades’ head. Going back to dig into the gym bag, she retrieves her Proton-Focused Energy Pack, straps it onto her back, and storms out of the bedroom.

“Woah, woah, woah, Professor! What are you doing?! You can’t bring that thing! It’s too dangerous!”

“Trust me, it’ll work this time! I know it! That bug, bird, beetle bat needs to be taught a lesson!” She shouts as she heads down a set of stairs. Spades and Mister Haystack look at each other in complete shock from Bam’s outburst.

“Is she always like this?” Mister Haystack asks.

“Nope, that was something completely new to me,” says Spades. “I’ll tell you what sir, after what we’ve just been through, ‘she’ scares me more than the creature out there.” Spades collects the trap, turns and trots out of the bedroom into the hall. “Professor! Wait up!” Now alone, and the room silent, Mister Haystack looks around at the chaos that’s been unleashed in his room.

“Well . . . I suppose I’ll just clean this up.”

Spades trots out of the house and into the dark. He switches on the light on his hardhat, and gallops into the woods hoping to catch a glimpse of Bam’s light. “Bam! Bam, where are you?!” He shouts into the woods continuously. Galloping further and further into the woods, and still without any sight of Bam or the creature, he stops to lean against a tree and catch his breath. “Jeez Bam, I didn’t know you were so fast.” He says to himself. “This thing sticks its tongue out at you, and the next thing I know, you’re on a bloodlust.” A twig snaps nearby, and he jolts to find Bam standing just a couple of meters away. “Bam! There you are!” He says, approaching her.

“Stop!” She commands. “Don’t move.”

“Why? What’s going on?” Bam doesn’t respond, and instead, she switches on her machine as it begins to rev, and the lights flash around it. “Bam . . . what are you doing?”

“Don’t move.” She grips the handle in her mouth, pulls and points the nozzle of the gun towards Spades.

“Look, let’s just talk about this. I don’t know what I did, but I take it all back. Just, lower the gun.” Spades suddenly feels something touch his shoulder, and once he checks it and finds a glop of goo dripping down his foreleg, the dreaded screeching noise erupts above him. He is whole body is enveloped by a red light, and the same fleshy tongue wraps around his waist. His body jerks and drags along the ground deeper into the woods. “Spades!” Bam yells as she chases after him while he’s screaming for help. Bam gallops, swerving around trees and leaping over fallen logs and stones, trying to keep up with Spades.

She gallops even deeper into the woods as his screams fade into an echo. Bam halts, skidding her hooves along the ground, staring into the pitch black cave before her. She yells Spades’ name into the cave, hearing nothing but her own voice echo inside. Her hoof trembling, she switches back on the flashlight on her hardhat, and cautiously steps inside.

Her light tears through the blackness, revealing the wet, shiny, stone walls of the cave. The only sounds she can hear are the drops of water puddling on the ground, and the revving of her machine. “Spades!” Bam yells. At once, a huge flock of bats rush towards Bam. She shields her face with her hoof as the bats fly passed her and out of the cave. “Strange,” Bam says to herself. “What are they running away from?” She ventures further into the cave, and finds herself stepping into a pile of goop very similar to the stuff the creature had been spitting at her and Spades back at the house. The only difference being that this transparent sludge doesn’t seem to burn with direct contact. Bam’s body then shudders as the creature’s unforgettable screech fills the cave. Realizing she’s close, Bam continues to trek through the pool of goo. Pointing her light in every which direction as the air suddenly becomes more humid, she spots an unusually large mound of slime near the cave wall. She approaches with her light shining directly on it, and due to its transparency, she can vaguely make out something encased in the slime. Spades’ body is completely encased in the goo, and Bam instantly starts to panic. “Spades!” Bam gasps. “Don’t worry, I’m going to get you out of this mess,” she says as she tries to dig through the goo with her hooves. “This very . . . sticky mess. . .” Bam finds the slime sticking to her hooves like glue, and within seconds, the dreaded red light shines behind her.

She feels something wrap and tighten around her waist before it forcibly jerks and drags her away from Spades’ partially exposed body. She lands on her back, and looks up to see the creature hanging upside down from the ceiling of the cave. Its long tongue has her by the waist, and its eyes shine down on her light a red spotlight. With the gun of her machine still in the tight grip of her mouth, she point the nozzle up at the creature, and bites down on the button. She can feel the machine charging up, and as sparks begin to trickle from the nozzle, a curvy, but smooth beam of bright, blue light fires from the gun and towards the creature. The beam nicks the creature’s wing, causing it to scream in pain and fly away while releasing Bam from its grasp. Bam scrambles to her hooves, catching her breath while looking all around her for the creature, pointing the gun in all directions. Flying in circles around the cave, trying to get away, Bam continues to fire the blue beam at it. However, she can’t nail another hit, as it’s just too swift in its movements. Bam hears a sudden low-tone beeping noise coming from her pack, accompanied by a big red light. “Uh-oh . . . the battery’s dying?!”

Spades opens his eyes as he can feel energy returning to his body, and can barely see Bam squaring off with the creature due to his blurry vision. Bam continues to fire at the creature, but is still having trouble getting a clear shot, and fears the pack losing energy at any moment. Spades squirms inside the cocoon of goo, but manages to break free and fall on his stomach. He can feel something poking his chest, and pushes himself up to find the trap underneath him. Coming to grips with the situation, he sets up the metal, cage trap with trembling hooves, and readies the remote control. “Bam!” He shouts as she quickly turn to find him knelt to the ground, completely soaked in slime. “I’ve got the trap ready! Try to lure it over here!” Bam switches the dial’s setting on the pack from Attack to Arrest Mode. She points the gun, aiming carefully as she follows the creature’s irregular flight pattern around the cave. She bites down onto the button to release an orange beam of light, with another smaller, blue beam swirling around it like a candy cane. It makes contact with the creature, and immediately wraps and entangles the creature, stopping it dead in midair. The creature struggles to free itself, but can’t. “Y-You got it! Now just-just bring it here to the trap!” With her body jittering from the energy being sent through the pack to the handle, she guides the creature closer to Spades.

With a small, metal control panel and a long chord leading to the cage, he presses down on the big, center button switching on the trap. The roof of the cage flips open, and electricity pulses around the metal wiring of the cage. The creature is held just above the trap, and the beeping is only becoming more prominent. “Alright! Now just lower it down!” Spades shouts. Gently, Bam aims down her gun, guiding the creature down to the opening. “I’m ready to close it! Let it go!” The beam ends, and the stunned monstrosity falls into the cage, immediately getting zapped. Spades releases the button, and the lid to the cage slams down and locks. The creature shrieks and rattles inside the cage, desperately trying to escape. Spades presses a smaller button on the control panel, sending a short burst of electricity through the cage, shocking the creature, and halting its violent tantrums. “Y-Yeah! Hurts doesn’t it! Ya little Buggar! Ha-Ha!” Spades celebrates. “Bam, we got it! We got it! I can’t believe it actually worked!” Spades turns to see Bam frozen with her eyes glued to the encaged monster. “Bam? Bam, are you alright?” Bam’s eyes shift towards Spades, and a big smile spreads across her face followed by gleeful giggling. Within seconds, Spades joins her in laughter.

Mister Haystack, dressed in a white apron, is scrubbing away at the slime that’s been splattered across the bedroom. The sizzling has ended, and all that’s left is melted residue along with the cooled slime. “I never thought I’d see ‘this’ happen in my bedroom. Now I guess I’ve definitely seen it all.” He says to himself. “I hope those kids are alright out there.” Mister Haystack glances out the shattered window. The doorbell downstairs suddenly rings, sending Mister Haystack bolting as fast as he can, regarding his age, down the steps. He opens the door to find Bam and Spades, who’s completely soaked in slime, standing on his doorstep. “Woah! Sweet Celestia! W-What happened to the two of ya?”

“A lot of things happened to us, Mister Haystack.” Spades begins. “However, like I stated before, we’re professionals. We know how to handle the situation.”

“Wait! So, you’ve gotten it?!”

“Oh yeah, it’s right here.” Spades and Bam step aside to reveal the caged creature hissing and glaring its red eyes directly into Mister Haystacks. He jumps and takes a couple steps back from disgust.

“W-Well, I don’t know what to say other than thank you! You have no idea how much safer I feel knowing that ‘monster’ is finally out of my life for good!”

“I’m glad we could’ve been of service to you.” Spades then reaches and forcibly shakes Mister Haystack’s hoof, sharing the slime that’s coated Spades’.

“Y-Yes, definitely,” says Mister Haystack disgusted, yet wanting to keep his composure.

“Now, let’s talk numbers, shall we?”

“Oh! Yes, of course! How much will it be?” Spades and Bam turn to each other, and turn back to Mister Haystack with grins on both their faces.