Chapter Text
Groggily, Dr. Flug woke up, only to regret it once his headache made itself known. And as much as he wanted to, he knew he wouldn't be able to go back to sleep. Not even with the nice, comfy bed he was laying on. Wait. This wasn't his bed. Flug slept in a cryo-bed, not on a plush mattress (although this really felt great on his aching back). Groaning he slowly opened his eyes. The room was dark, except for the bit of light creeping out from under the door and a blinded window. Flug tried to make out the details of the room he was in, but that only served to send a sharp shooting pain into his head.
After a while, once Flug's eyes adjusted to the low level of light and his headache died down to a dull throb, he was able to analyze his surroundings. The room he was in was small, with the bed he was laying on being the only piece of furniture. The room's window had cheap, plastic blinds covering them, but they still let in some of the warm morning light. Or whatever time it was anyway. Upon further inspection, the window was locked, unsurprisingly, but as he checked it Flug noticed a second door. Waddling over to door number two proved it to be a small bathroom. Thank goodness, Flug really needed to use it. It was one of those situations where he didn't realize how much he needed it until the option presented itself.
He remembered what had happened as he analyzed his surroundings. He had been kidnapped, from his own home. This wasn't the first time he'd been kidnapped of course, but it was the first time he'd been kidnapped while pregnant (and based on empirical data, this would also be the last time. Unless Black Hat decided to impregnate Dr. Flug again. Flug really hoped that this wouldn't be the case.). Flug hoped this wouldn't impede upon his escape too much.
Flug washed his hands after he had done his business, grimacing as he caught the sight of his hideous mug of a face in the mirror. It seemed that Flug had lost his bag at some point. Flug left the bathroom quickly, not wanting to look at his own face longer than he needed to. Flug wasn't all that surprised to see his capturers waiting for him in that room when Flug had exited the bathroom. Flug thought he saw pointed animal ears on one of them perk up upon seeing the scientist.
"Oh there you are, I was starting to get worried. Sorry about the rough treatment back there, I told CM to use the tranquilizer darts I gave him." They say through clenched teeth before turning on the light. After Flug's eyes adjusted to the light he saw that his capturers. There were only two of them, both were some kind of humanoid canine creatures. The one who spoke was roughly human proportioned and just a little shorter than Flug. Lassie had gestured to his other capturer, whom Flug had dubbed as Brutus, who was a much larger creature guarding the door. The slighter wolf-man looked kind of familiar actually, what was his name again? Captain Furry Complex? He knew that this was the leader of an animal-themed superhero group, so who cares.
"Anyway, we're here to rescue you, believe it or not. We didn't know you were pregnant, otherwise, I wouldn't have sent CM in at all. And we would have come earlier of course." Lassie seemed nice enough, but Flug knew better than to assume that meant he was naive or stupid. "Oh, I completely forgot to introduce ourselves. I'm Anubis, I'm kind of the leader of our superhero group, Kingdom Animalia. And that's Coyote Man over there. He's our muscle, in case you couldn't tell. A real meathead that one."
Seriously? Anubis? Coyote Man? Couldn't these heroes come up with better, or at least more original names for themselves? Coyote Man started wagging his tail at the mere mention of meat, despite that not being at all what they were talking about. Obviously no, they weren't smart enough to be able to think of more clever names.
"Oh thank god! He's been keeping me trapped in his mansion for years, forcing me to make all those awful weapons. But if I-I don't do what he says... well he's taught me that there are far worse things than death. He won't even let me take breaks, I haven't had a decent night's sleep in years because of him. And then he implanted this... this abomination inside of me. I can't be pregnant, I'm a man! And he won't even tell me how this thing is supposed to come out, or if I'm going to survive this, or... Please, you have to help me." He forced his breath to be fast and shallow, not enough to put him into an actual panic attack, just to be able to sell it. The tears came easily too, perhaps due in part of his pregnancy. Just as planned, Anubis began to comfort him, hugging Flug and whispering reassurances.
"Shhh, it's going to be ok, ok? We're going to take you to the infirmary, and we're going to see what our good Dr. Avery can do for you." Anubis broke off at the buzz of the phone in his pocket. The hero frowned upon reading whatever message had been sent to him. "Rats. It's the Rat Gang, they're tearing up the streets again. CM, can you take Dr. Flug over to Avery?" Coyote Man nodded. "Thanks man, you're a real lifesaver. Anyway, looks like I'm off." They all left that room, at first sticking together, but then Anubis branched off, darting towards the direction he needed to be.
Flug made sure to linger behind the Coyote Man, just outside of his peripheral vision but still close enough to put his plan into action. It actually was a struggle to keep up with him as it was, so Flug actually had an excuse as to why he was lagging, not just some lie. Flug had a plan, but he had to be very smart about it. Coyote Man was huge, and Flug wasn't very nimble in his condition. But if his plan worked, none of that would matter.
When they had gone far enough away from the room they had come from, and while the hallway was still empty, Flug stopped where he stood. Coyote Man turned around immediately, growling threateningly at Flug.
"I'm sorry, but I'm tired and my ankles are killing me. Could you carry me? I don't think I'll be able to continue on on my own." Coyote Man rolled his eyes, but ultimately complied with Dr. Flug's perfectly innocent request. It was as the hulking figure was picking him up gently that Flug reached into his pocket. He moved his arm in a calculated manner that seemed like he would be placing his arm around Coyote Man's neck. Really he was just readying the attack.
He stabbed the hero in the throat with his pencil, aiming for the carotid artery. Coyote Man howled in pain, and perhaps a bit of rage, and ripped the pencil out of his neck. Big mistake. That'll only help him bleed out faster. Dr. Flug could see the effects of his precise attack almost immediately.
He died in less than a minute.
Flug allowed himself to gloat over his deceased adversary for a moment before searching the body. He found a phone, which was exactly what he was looking for, and quickly left to go find a suitable hiding spot. As much as he would have liked to, Flug couldn't hide the body. He could barely bend over to tie his shoes these days, not to mention bending to try and lift a body that was easily thrice his size. Besides, even if Flug was physically able to move the body, there was still all the blood in the hallway that he didn't have the time to clean up, even with everybody out of the building.
Mid-mission, however, his stomach seized up in pain, and Flug became acutely aware of how his pants were now very, very wet. Oh no. No no no no no. Not now, anytime but now. Flug wasn't a religious man by any means, yet he sent up his prayers to every god that he could think of. Prayers that were clearly ignored as Flug went through another bout of pain, only this time much sharper.
Flug had only just gone into labor, it wasn't normal to be experiencing this amount of pain this early on, right? Looking down at his awfully bloated stomach, he could see his little monster shifting beneath the flesh, as if he were trying to escape on his own through that route. Probably not normal then. It was all Flug could do to cover his mouth as wave after wave of pain overtook him to keep from giving away his position. Flug ducked into a nearby storage closet. It was cramped, really cramped, but he didn't have much on the table to choose from. More importantly, Flug hoped it was discreet enough to avoid detection.
So this was it. This is how Flug was going to die, giving birth to his little eldritch horror like it was some xenomorph out of Alien. Alone, afraid, and not even in the comfort of his own home. Flug crumpled to the ground and started crying then, the tears filling up in his goggles and obscuring his vision. He wanted to go home. Flug felt sick, although he wasn't sure if it was from the pregnancy or his own overwhelming terror.
Flug pulled out the phone he grabbed off of Coyote Man. There was a password, but Flug was just using the emergency call option anyway, so it wasn't as if that mattered. Flug called Black Hat's personal number, but after a couple of rings with no one picking up, he left a voice message instead (phone-bot may have used a rotary phone as a base, but Flug did make the upgrades on it himself).
"Jefecito, it's me, Dr. Flug. I'm at the headquarters of Kingdom Animalia, can you come pick me up- oh fu- Listen, I've gone into labor, I won't be able to get home myself this time. It hurts so much." Flug was trying his best to keep his voice at a whisper, but whenever a contraction would ravish his body, he found that to be excruciatingly difficult. "...Jefecito, if I don't make it, can you tell 5.0.5. that I love him dearly? And Demencia too, even if she is a pain in my butt sometimes. Heh. I should probably hang up now, before I give myself away." Reluctantly, Flug hung up, but even still he didn't want to bring the phone away from his face. Flug was scared. He didn't know if he'd ever see his acquired villainous family again, but that phone in his hand was the closest he could get.
Sometime later, Flug heard the commotion going on outside. How much longer later wasn't entirely clear as the pain he was in made it feel like so much longer than it actually had been. It seemed that the heroes had found Coyote Man's corpse. Flug's mind was so completely hazed with pain that it barely registered to him that they were screaming. Should they be screaming that much? It was all he could do to keep himself quiet and conscious. When that door to his little hidey-hole opened up, Flug panicked and did the only thing he could do in his situation. Point his phone at the intruder like it was a ray gun hot and ready to fire. Which, of course, was completely useless.
"There you are. Did you really think you could escape from me?" Flug just about cried with relief upon hearing the voice of his villainous boss. "Come now, you look tired. Sleep." Those were the last few words Flug's mind clung on to before he finally drifted off into blissful unconsciousness.
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When Flug awoke again, he immediately sensed something was off. He felt... lighter, somehow, and he couldn't figure out why. It was only when Dr. Flug's hands reached his stomach after patting himself down, assessing for any potential injuries, that he realized what happened. Flug's stomach wasn't quite flat, there was a bit of pouch to it, loose skin, and still angry stretch marks that remained to be the only evidence of a recent, yet former pregnancy.
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"Sir, what happened to... to the baby?" It was at this moment that Flug realized that he hadn't even so much as considered a name for his baby. If 5.0.5. or Demencia were any indications, Flug wasn't good at coming up with names for others. Hat Bot-ler was probably his best one yet.
"Gone. Into the void. Floating off into space. Doing whatever in Hel's name it wants to, I don't care."
"But jefecito, he was only just born, he's just a baby. "
"What? Did you really think you were going to keep it? Raise it like some human, or like that blasted excuse of yours for an experiment? Ha! What nonsense. Now get back to your bloody duties and quit your mithering. It was amusing for a while, but now I grow weary of it. Begone, and leave me the bloody Hel alone." With that, Flug left the room in something of a daze, until he closed those office doors behind him. With that, the great Doctor Kenning Flugslys broke down into a little ball, grieving over something that had never truly been his to begin with.