“Come on Nick, let’s go!” Kevin Demanded
“Dude! I just got to the best level, I can’t leave now.”
“We’re gonna go without you.” Howie chimed in.
“So go. We can go dancing any night. I only have this game tonight. I have to give it back in the morning.”
Howie and Kevin looked at the television completely confused. “I thought you already own that game, why would you have to give it back?”
“That’s ‘Evil Alien Conquerors I’. This is the sequel. It’s way scarier and the graphics are hella tight. I got it from this fan who’s a gamer. She swiped it from work for me. It’s not even out yet.”
Kevin and Howie exchanged odd glances and then watched Nick pound away furiously at the buttons on the controller. Howie grinned with delight and then winked at Kevin as he cleared his throat. “Fine, but I just talked to Mary-Kate and she said she and Ashley are going to be at Shagg tonight.”
Nick tried to keep his eyes on the screen in front of him but couldn’t help perking up at the mention of his favorite set of twins. “The Olsens Twins are going to be there?”
Kevin chimed in on the conversation with a wicked grin. “Yeah man. Kristin ran into them on the Promenade the other day and said we would all go out on Friday night… as in tonight. She said Ashley seemed excited to meet you.”
Nick paused his game and looked up at Kevin curiously. “Ashley Olsen was askin’ about me?”
Kevin and Howie shrugged at one another. “That’s what Kristin said.”
Torn between the possibility of hooking up and playing an underground video game, Nick looked longingly at the big screen and then to Kevin and Howie who were zipping up their jackets. Eventually his downstairs brain won and he put his shoes on. Kevin and Howie smiled their approval and began pushing Nick out the door.
As soon as Nick stepped onto the porch, Kevin snatched the keys from his hand and Howie slammed the door shut. Nick stood a moment in confusion and then began pounding on the door. “What the hell you guys? Why did you just lock me out of my own damn house?”
Neither Howie nor Kevin responded to Nick’s ranting. They instead headed straight for the game console laughing hysterically as they connected a second controller. “I heard this game is so freaky.” Howie said as he un-paused Nick’s game and turned up the surround sound.
Nick heard the commotion from outside and began to throw a fit. “Are you playing my game? You guys can’t do that! I’m almost to the end! You’re gonna kill me!”
“Aw, have a little faith Nicky.” Kevin teased through the door. “I’ve learned a trick or two since being on the road with you.”
Kevin made sure the deadbolt on the front door was locked and then sat down next to Howie. “You know he’s gonna bitch about this for like a year.”
“Worth it.” Howie replied as he began to move Nick’s avatar around the dark spaceship.
Within a few seconds, a giant alien came up behind him and stuck a foot-long claw into his back forcing his intestines to spill onto the ground in front of him. The move was so sudden and the graphics were so amazingly clear that both Kevin and Howie jumped back “OOOOOOOOHHHHHH!”, they groaned together through their laughter.
Kevin’s cell phone rang and he answered it without looking at the caller ID. “Hello?”
“What the hell was that!” Nick shouted.
“Howie just killed you dude.”
“Is that Nick?” Howie asked as he tried to figure out how to start a two-player game. “You’re right man,” he shouted toward the phone, “These graphics are awesome!”
“Dammit guys, this in not funny!”
“Actually it kind of is.” Kevin laughed, “Why don’t you call Jay and go hang out with him for a while or something. Howie and I might be here for a while.”
“Quit being a little bitch Kevin and open the fucking door!”
“Come on Kev, it’s starting!”
“Shoot man, I gotta go. I’ll call ya later.”
Kevin hung up the phone and began helping Howie shoot a slew of oncoming aliens that were emerging from a giant mother ship. Outside, Nick gave up on his hope that Kevin and Howie were just messing with him and became angrier than he’d ever been in his life. As his anger levels were bordering irate, he yelled out one final round of curses. “You guys are such ass holes! I hope you never make it past the first level and die slow torturous deaths. I hope Lord Zogg eats your flesh and explodes your brains!”
Kevin and Howie never heard Nick’s wish, but as the words escaped his lips the walls around them began to melt away into vast expanses of nothingness. Kevin and Howie looked around themselves in awe at the outer reaches of space and then noticed that they were sitting in a small two-seater spacecraft that was being pulled into a large ship by it’s tractor beam. Howie gulped, “What’s going on Kev?”
Kevin stared in front of him as a large door began to open and their ship was swallowed up by the much larger ship. “I don’t know, but this can’t be good.”
Aliens began to appear from out of nowhere, growling and snarling as slime dripped from their hellish bodies. “Do something!” Howie whispered, horror creeping into his voice as the roof of their ship slid open.
Kevin looked around desperately and reached for his pockets. That’s when he noticed the large oozy strapped to him. He looked down at himself and saw strands of ammo strapped to his bare sweaty chest. A dirty old sweatband was holding his long silky hair back and his large bulky pants were home to numerous knives and grenades. He looked back at his friend, and Howie was dressed very similarly except with surprisingly tighter abs.
When Howie saw the look on Kevin’s face he patted himself down, discovering just as many weapons. He looked over to his right and grinned when he saw a big-ass rocket launcher and several missiles. He grabbed the gun and looked back to Kevin. “You ready?”
Kevin slid the oozy into his hands. “Let’s do this.”
Together Kevin and Howie stood up and with a chorus of manly screams, opened fire on the grotesque invaders. Blood and guts splattered about the room as the bullets flew and the grenades were launched. Howie and Kevin found themselves bathed in the foul stench of alien slime, but it didn’t stop the fearless warriors. No, they didn’t stop the assault until every last creature had been blown back to the hell from whence it came.
Kevin and Howie looked around the empty room and hi-fived each other, basking in their glory until a door slowly slid upward exposing a dark empty corridor. They looked at each other and then studied the hallway. “Could be a trap.” Howie suggested.
“Yes, but it could be a way out.”
Howie gave an understanding nod and then mounted the rocket launcher on his shoulder. He jumped down from the spacecraft and ran through the mess of remains, with Kevin close on his heels. They raced through a maze of hallways until they finally came to what looked like the ship’s bridge.
Both men knew it was strange that the ship was deserted, but they didn’t worry about it too much because they were staring at a smaller ship that might be able to send them home. They boarded the escape pod and set their weapons down. “Howie, set the coordinates for Earth and let’s blow this bitch!”
Once all systems were a go, Howie hit the big red button that should have bought their freedom. The engine revved for a moment but ultimately died. “What happened? Are you sure you hit the right button?”
“There’s only one button!”
Howie slammed his hand down on the launch button once more, and again the ship failed to take flight. Then a crackling noise came from the ships intercom and a deep evil laugh began to filter through the air. The voice was so sinister that it sent chills down our hero’s spines. They exchanged fearful glances and picked up their massive guns. They took a strong stance next to one another as the lock on the escape pod door blinked “failure”. “Howie?” Kevin whispered as the door began to open.
“Locked and loaded.” Howie replied pointing his missile at the entrance. But before he had the chance to fire the rocket launcher he was lifted off the ground and suspended upside-down in the air, his weapons falling to a pile beneath him.
“Howie!”
“Help me!”
Kevin ran to help him but was thrown across the room by an invisible force, slammed into a cement wall and rendered unconscious. “Kevin!” Howie screamed, but soon found himself unable to make sound.
Something was choking him. He reached for his throat but nothing seemed to work. As he struggled for breath a dark figure emerged from the hallway into the pod and Howie’s eye’s widened at the horrific sight. Saliva dripped from his razor sharp fangs and his eyes glowed with the light of the devil. Howie instantly recognized the foot-long claws that protruded from his massive arms and envisioned them spilling his guts onto the ground below him. “I am the evil Lord Zogg, and for you, there is no escape!”
Unable to do anything else, Howie synched his eyes shut and screamed out in pain as the alien began to tear his limbs from his body and eat the raw flesh they provided. The cries of his dear comrade were enough to wake Kevin from his slumber and he slowly reached for the oozy at his feet.
With his stealth like movements, Kevin was able to unleash all his fury on the murderous villain. What was left of Howie fell to the ground as Lord Zogg cried out, but the bullets simply weren’t doing enough damage to his armor-like exterior. Lord Zogg captured Kevin with his mega brainpowers and thrust him into the corner.
Kevin was a strong-willed man and resisted the force as best he could, but he simply couldn’t get to his feet. He stared down the alien with hate in his eyes and he could hear the creature’s thoughts inside his head. “Your tricks are no match for me! How dare you try and take over what was mine! You will pay for your crimes. You will suffer a greater fate than that of your friend!”
Just then, Kevin began to hear a high-pitched ringing that rattled the very core of his soul. The lights in the room flickered casting a depressing green glow about the room. Kevin’s head began to throb and as his brain began to swell, Lord Zogg began to laugh, enjoying the excruciating pain he was inflicting.
The laugh started out as the same dark laugh they’d heard over the intercom but quickly turned into the very familiar whiny laugh of his band-mate, Nick Carter. Kevin looked into the creature’s eyes and watched them turn the most brilliant blue a pair of eyes could be. Then, just before his brain exploded, Kevin watched Lord Zogg transform completely into the blonde heartthrob he once called a friend.
Then there was only darkness…
“Kevin.”
“Kevin…”
“Yo Kev! Wake your lazy ass up, you’re havin’ some kind of nightmare.”
Kevin’s eyes flew open and his breathing began to slow as her recognized the lulling feel of the bus beneath him. He sat up and wiped the sweat from his forehead then looked around for Howie. He saw him perched quietly in a chair surfing the net on his ridiculously expensive laptop and there was never a more beautiful sight. “Thank God!” he breathed as Nick starred at him like he was crazy.
“Dude, you’re not allowed to borrow my x-box anymore.”
