Marvel Monsters Unleashed: Beware the Glop!

by Steve Behling

“Or we could just cut through the graveyard and head for the abandoned house!” she said, sprinting ahead of her brother.

  Ben followed. Both kids raced through the graveyard, passing by old, crumbling gravestones. The ground was a bumpy, pitted mess, littered with rocks. Ben almost fell a few times, and Cindy fared little better. But somehow they managed to make it through the creepy maze of graves and to the abandoned house beyond.

  “Let’s head inside,” Ben said, walking up the clattering steps. “Maybe we can find a good hiding spot. Rest up before we have to start running from the Glop again.”

  Cindy looked up at the withered house, fully expecting a mob of brain-hungry zombies to come crashing through each and every window. But it was this or get eaten by the Glop.

  She took a big gulp, nodded, and followed her brother into the dark, foreboding house.

  IF THE KIDS THOUGHT that it might not be as creepy inside the old house as outside, they were wrong.

  It was a million times more creepy.

  The house was dark, save for the slivers of moonlight that came in through the broken windows and a few cracks in the walls. Through the shadows they could see small portions of the entry room, but not the whole place. They could make out an old, broken chair in the corner.

  There was a weird skritching sound that echoed around the room.

  “What was that?” Cindy whispered.

  Ben shook his head and took a couple of tentative steps inside. The floor beneath his feet moaned. He felt the rotting wood give a little.

  There was the skritching sound again, as a rat emerged from the darkness and ran over Cindy’s foot. To be fair, it was kind of a cute rat. But, you know, it was still a rat. Cindy jumped, but it was Ben who stifled a scream with his right hand.

  “Oh, come on, it’s just a rat,” Cindy said. “And it ran over my foot, not yours.”

  “Sorry,” Ben whispered back. “Sympathy scream.”

  Slowly, the kids crept inside the room, walking carefully on the rotting, creaking floor. They had to be careful to make as little noise as possible. The Glop wasn’t far behind them and was sure to come across the house just like they had. If the creature heard noise coming from inside the house, it would be all over for them.

  A few more steps in, and Ben spied some stairs that led to the second floor. “There!” he said in a hushed voice. “Up those stairs. Maybe the place has an attic where we can hide.”

  The kids made their way across the floor toward the stairs. They were almost there. Ben took a step, setting his foot down on the floor.

  Except the floor wasn’t there!

  As he was toppling over, he saw through the darkness. The entire floor in front of the stairs was missing! He could see into the cellar below, which was exactly where he was heading, face-first.

  Until a hand grabbed his sweatshirt and yanked him backward. Hard.

  Cindy held tight onto Ben, right at the edge of the big gap in the floor.

  “Whoa! Thanks for the save!” Ben said. “Who did this? The rats?”

  Cindy shook her head. “People. The wood floors in some of these old houses are worth a lot of money. Someone probably came in at night and stole the wood so they could sell it.”

  Ben looked at his sister and raised an eyebrow. “How do you know all that?”

  She shrugged. “Sometimes I watch home-repair shows when you’re busy drawing your monsters.”

  A gap of about ten feet separated Ben and Cindy from the stairs. It was very clear they weren’t going that way. On the other hand, they now had direct access to the cellar. They looked into the black void. They couldn’t really see anything. All they could hear was more skritching. Rats.

  “I hate to say it, but the basement is probably our best bet,” Ben said. “You could lower me down there, and then you can jump—I’ll catch you.”

  “That seems like a terrible plan,” Cindy said. “Let’s do it.”

  Ben moved toward the opening, when the skritching sound suddenly grew louder. Much louder. And closer.

  There, in the darkness, they saw it—them.

  Eyes.

  Red rat eyes.

  Hundreds of them.

  And they were all heading directly toward Ben and Cindy!

  YOU KNOW WHAT STINKS? Being in a situation where you really, really want to scream, but you can’t. Like when hundreds of rats come skittering at you in a dark, creepy old house. You want to yell as loud as you can. But Ben and Cindy couldn’t scream. They couldn’t afford to make a sound, otherwise the Glop would know exactly where they were.

  They shouldn’t have worried. They should have screamed as loud as they wanted to.

  Because there was a reason the rats were suddenly running.

  They weren’t running at Ben and Cindy.

  They were running away.

  From something.

  As the rats skittered past Ben and Cindy, the floorboards beneath them came to life. It was like someone took a rug, held it by two ends, and shook it. The floor rippled in a wave, throwing Ben and Cindy up into the air. They landed with a dull thud on the rotting wood. Ben’s elbow went through a board.

  They struggled to their feet. As they did, they saw something rising through the giant hole in the floorboards in front of the stairs. Something huge, something hulking.

  Something gloppy.

  “Eeeeeeasssssssyyyyyyy peassssssssyyyyy,” said the Glop. Ben didn’t know if that thing had any emotions, but it sure seemed happy to him. Like it was gloating. As if it knew that it had Ben and Cindy right where it wanted them.

  The Glop was now fully formed in front of Ben and Cindy, taking up the entire hole in the floorboards. Hiding in the house was no longer an option. They had to get out of there, and fast. They turned tail and bolted for the front door where they had come in just a few minutes earlier.

  The Glop shot out a gloppy hand, trying to shut the door before the kids could escape. Ben saw the hand from the corner of his eye. He did what anyone in his situation would do.

  He pushed his sister.

  “Hey!” Cindy shouted in protest, as Ben shoved her away from the door and toward a window right next to it. As both kids tumbled out of the empty window frame, the Glop’s oozing hand slammed the door shut with such force that it not only pulverized the door, but it took the whole doorframe with it. A shower of splinters rained on the front porch.

  Ben and Cindy rolled onto the muddy ground below the window. Inside they heard the Glop moving. Coming for them.

  It was time to run.

  THEIR LEGS WERE DEAD TIRED, but somehow, they kept running. Had they been running all night? Ben glanced down at his phone.

  4:30 a.m.

  Ever since the encounter at the abandoned house, they had managed to evade the Glop. But sooner or later, they were going to have to stop running. And when they did, the Glop was sure to find them. It always seemed to find them.

  “Any word from Kid Kaiju?” Cindy asked. It had been a while since Ben had checked Tales to Astonish.

  Ben broke pace for just a second so he could grab his phone from his pocket. He loaded the Tales to Astonish thread. There was one new message from Kid Kaiju:

  “Well?” Cindy asked again.

  “He says, ‘I’m on it,’” Ben replied. “That’s—that’s good, right?”

  Cindy jumped over a rock in her path. “Yeah, that’s great. Oh, did you remind him that a giant Glop is TRYING TO EAT US?!?”

  “I think I might have already mentioned that, yeah,” Ben shot back.

  They kept running in silence.

  “The school!” Ben said, breaking the quiet between them.

  Cindy turned to look at her brother. Then, realizing what he meant, she peered through the trees before them. In the distance, she could see it. Kurtzberg Middle School! If they could make it to the school—to shelter—they might have a chance! They could catch their breath, make a plan, and figure out a way to stop the Glop before it took over their town…and the world.
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br />   “That’s perfect!” Cindy said, hope in her voice. “Plus, there’s no creepy graveyard…”

  “…and no rats!” Ben finished.

  With an end to the running in sight, the kids redoubled their efforts. They sprinted through the forest toward the edge. They tumbled down a hill and rolled right out of the trees into a grassy patch behind Kurtzberg Middle School.

  They landed right in front of a huge, overpowering figure!

  “AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!” Ben screamed, startling his sister, who started screaming, too.

  They looked up at the “overpowering figure.” In the darkness, Ben thought it was the Glop, looming over them. But it turned out to be a statue of the school’s founder, Jacob Kurtzberg.

  “Oh, man, I do not need more scares like that,” Ben said. “I am done with statues.”

  Cindy punched her brother on the arm for what felt like the millionth time. “That’s for scaring me for nothing,” she said.

  The ground rumbled.

  “What was that?” Ben shouted.

  Again the ground rumbled, and the statue of Jacob Kurtzberg trembled, then fell over! Beneath it, a gooey substance began to bubble up, growing, rising, until it formed the now familiar shape of…

  The Glop!

  “Wait, that thing can burrow under the ground, too?” Cindy yelled. “Not fair!”

  The creature threw back its “head,” and a stream of glop flew through the air as it did. It raised two massive appendages above its “head,” like it was about to crush Ben and Cindy.

  They closed their eyes. It seemed like the end. After everything, after all the running, after the escape from the old house, after meeting Kid Kaiju—well, exchanging message-board posts with Kid Kaiju!—it was over. Ben and Cindy were cornered by the Glop.

  An unearthly sound filled the air. It was something they hadn’t heard before, something unfamiliar.

  Ben was just glad it wasn’t the Glop saying Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

  A screech. Then wind. A wind so massive, it actually forced Ben flat on the ground. Cindy, too.

  Then came a heavy, dull thud in front of them.

  They opened their eyes and looked up from the ground. Standing in front of Ben and Cindy—between them and the Glop—enormous green scaly reptile with the weirdest wings either had ever seen.

  Another monster.

  The new monster looked at Ben and Cindy and sniffed. It was like a dog, checking the scents around it. The monster sniffed some more, then seemed to nod its large green head at the kids. It had big, wobbly, batlike ears that shook when it nodded.

  Somehow, the kids knew that this new monster was not there to hurt them. No, he was there to protect them.

  The Glop let out a sound that was so sickening, it almost made Ben throw up. It unleashed a torrent of glop at this new monster and the kids right behind it. Before either Ben or Cindy knew what was happening, the monster scooped them up in its huge, clawed, webbed-finger hands, and leaped into the sky! The stream of glop landed on the ground below them. Ben watched in horror as the goo rolled back toward the Glop. Was it his imagination, or did the Glop seem bigger than before?

  The flying reptile monster set down Ben and Cindy close to the school entrance, then turned its attention back toward the Glop. It narrowed its eyes as it stared at the oozing horror, and then, without any warning, sprayed flames from its mouth! The flames engulfed the Glop, and it made a sound—something like a howl of pain? Ben wasn’t sure if the fire hurt the Glop or not, but it definitely slowed it down…

  Until goo from the Glop’s body slid over the flames and extinguished them.

  Ben glanced down at his phone as the two monsters circled each other. He saw a reply to his thread on Tales to Astonish—it was Kid Kaiju!

  “We have our own monster now?” Cindy whooped. “This is awesome!”

  “THIS IS NOT AWESOME!” Ben shouted, as a large glob of glop flew just inches from his head, landing on the bench the kids were using for cover. The gooey substance now seemed to dissolve the part of the bench that it hit. The goo swelled a bit, like it was absorbing the bench parts. Then the goo rolled back toward the Glop.

  “I mean, it’s awesome watching two giant monsters fight, but it’s less awesome when the Glop tries to glop us!” Ben said, all in one breath.

  Slizzik breathed another fiery blast at the Glop. Once again, the Glop recoiled from the flames, as the goo from its body rose to dampen them. It seemed like Slizzik’s fire only slowed the slimy creature, but couldn’t really hurt it.

  That’s exactly what Ben was typing to Kid Kaiju at that moment. If he had sent Slizzik to help them, then Kid Kaiju should know that the plan wasn’t working! Ben finished typing and hit the Post button. He hoped that Kid Kaiju was glued to Tales to Astonish and would respond quickly.

  By now, it was obvious that the Glop was growing. It was much bigger than when it first came to life in the town square. Ben observed that over time, the Glop had become almost like an acid, dissolving everything it touched, making more goo.

  The Glop seemed to know this, too, as it spewed more gross goo at Slizzik, who dodged the mess, moving incredibly fast for something his size. The great beast beat his wings rapidly. The wind generated by his wings pushed the Glop backward—not much, but a little bit. The Glop struggled against the wind.

  “He wrote back!” Cindy hollered, and Ben pulled himself away from the monstrous battle to check his phone.

  Ben and Cindy looked at each other. They turned their heads and looked at Slizzik, flapping its huge wings. They saw the Glop slowly advancing against the wind toward Slizzik.

  “How,” Ben said incredulously, “are we gonna stop THAT?”

  BEN TRIED TO WRAP his brain around everything that was happening. All he and his sister had to do was figure out a way to stop a gross, sticky alien from outer space.

  Piece of cake.

  “You’re coming up with a plan, right?”

  Cindy’s voice snapped Ben out of his thoughts. It took a second or two to register what she had said.

  “Um, yeah, a plan, of course!” he said. The words were hardly out of his mouth when the Glop sprayed more of his disgusting ooze at Slizzik. The winged reptile was doing its best to draw the Glop’s “fire” away from the kids, but the monstrosity was losing interest in battling the fire-breathing lizard. It was not, however, losing interest in getting Ben and Cindy.

  “Doooo nooooot resssssisssst usssssss!” the Glop hissed. “Weeeeee wiilllllll abbbsssssoooorrrrbbbb youuuuuuuu…youuuuuuuu wwwwwiiiiiillllllll beeeeeeecommmmmeeeee ussssss!”

  So that was the Glop’s gross plan? It was going to attack Ben and Cindy and then add them to its slimy body?

  “Oh, no,” Cindy said, shaking her head. “Oh, heck no!”

  Ben should have been so afraid that he couldn’t move—an alien from another world just threatened to absorb him and his sister into its oozy body! But he was too busy trying to figure out a way to escape from the Glop. The answer was right in front of him. The school. They had to get inside the school.

  “Hey, Glop!” Ben yelled as he stood up, waving both arms wildly. The sound and motion immediately caught the creature’s attention, and its “head” wrenched around 180 degrees, staring at him.

  Cindy looked at her brother like he was out of his mind. “I’m sorry, you WANT him to come after us?”

  “Yeah, I do! Come on, Glop! Bet you can’t hit us!” Cindy now realized what her brother was doing. Ben was taunting the creature. The Glop let out a sound—was it an evil laugh?—then his spat its horrible goo right at Ben and Cindy. Ben grabbed his sister’s arm and pulled her down to the ground with him.

  The goo missed by inches but completely nailed the side of the school. Within moments, the goo dissolved the brick exterior, making an enormous hole in the school wall. The goo grew even bigger. The strange substance rolled back toward the Glop and became part of its body—making the Glop even larger than before.

  Cindy stood,
gaping at the Glop in disbelief. “Wait, now he can dissolve stuff? NO. WAY!”

  “Maybe it’s evolving,” Ben guessed. “Remember what Kid Kaiju said? How the Glop started to eat everything in sight?”

  As if in answer, the Glop covered a nearby playground slide in goo. The slide melted away as it was dissolved and absorbed into the goo.

  “Inside, now!” Ben shouted, shoving his sister toward the opening in the school that the Glop had made.

  The creature was furious. Only then did it realize that it had been tricked. It moved with tremendous speed toward the hole in the wall. Slizzik was behind it and tried to prevent the Glop from entering. But the flying reptile was too late! The Glop oozed through the hole.

  Slizzik tried to enter, but its huge wingspan prevented it from going inside the school.

  That left Ben and Cindy inside Kurtzberg Middle School all alone.

  With the Glop.

  IT WAS 5:00 A.M., prime monster time. It wasn’t uncommon for Kei to be awake at that hour. It was quiet, and there was no one to bother him as he devoured information from Tales to Astonish and sketched his monsters.

  But this morning was different from those quiet ones. Sure, Kei was wide-awake at 5:00 a.m., but it wasn’t to pursue his passions. Not for fun, anyway. It was because he was worried about benthemonsterkid! It was clear now that Slizzik’s fire alone wasn’t going to be able to stop the Glop.

  So what would stop it? Was there another monster at Kei’s fingertips that could send the Glop packing?

  He needed a plan.

  He went back to Tales to Astonish, to the Monster Lore tab, and reread the article on the Glop. Maybe there was something in Elsa Bloodstone’s notes that would help them.

  And then he came across something in Elsa’s notes, something that he hadn’t noticed before:

  “…discovered the diary of a man who claimed to have fought the Glop many years ago. He wrote, ‘I waited tensely until the pursuing Glop was within range…then I hurled the open can straight at him! Immediately the thick bubbling “paint” began to dissolve.…’”