Chapter Six: Ratbird Rampage
Whole flocks of Ratbirds were flying all over the neighborhood. Hundreds were scattered all over the sky, and many were attacking the people below and carrying them away!!
Sam gasped at the sight of it, too. After a moment, she spoke up. "The food's been sitting out for so long that all the Ratbirds in the neighborhood must've consumed enough food to reproduce at a surprising rate, and keep searching for more…they'll ruin the town!!"
"I gotta change my brain back and stop them before they take over!"
I tried to rush to the door, but I quickly groaned in pain from my Ratbird wounds. Sam helped me back up.
"You can't go out there by yourself, Flint, not while you're hurt!"
I thought hard. Then Sam got an idea. "Manny, do you guys still have those rescue helicopters?"
"Si."
"How 'bout we use those to fly over the Ratbirds, and get to Flint's lab?"
The nurse's face lit up. "That's a wonderful idea, Ms. Sparks! I'll be right back!"
"Oh wait!! Bring a big net, too! We can round up all the Ratbirds so Flint can get rid of them at once!"
I stared at Sam with wide eyes. "Whoa, Sam, how'd you come up with that?"
"It's just the way my brain works..."
In a few minutes, we were flying high again in a large hospital helicopter. A large mesh net hung over the bottom. As we flew over, some Ratbirds attacked the chopper, but Manny was able to winsheild-wipe or maneuver the helicopter to get the Ratbirds off, and into the net. Every time a Ratbird was caught, Manny pressed a button that sealed the net tight, and then opened the net up again in a split second to trap another one.
As soon as we reached my backyard, the chopper lowered to my street, and I raced to the elevator door.
"Sam, I need you to come with me! Everyone else, stay here!"
Sam and I raced up the elevator, and reached my dusty, cob-web covered lab. Underneath the layers of dust was my Brain-Transmogrifier. I quickly handed it over to Sam.
"Ok, Sam, I need you to put this on my head, and help me set this to my Asperger Syndrome."
"Why me?"
"...I forgot how to work this thing! The controls are pretty self-explanitory, but I think you have the right sense of precision to be able to determine just exactly how an Asperger brain would work."
Sam thought for a moment. "I gotcha."
Quickly, Sam looked at the brain diagrams and x-rays I googled earlier, and used them as her model to help her set the knobs just right. Using the greatest of care, she made it so the knobs set my IQ, Intelligence, Ambition, and Interests in the the highest range, my Genderness in the middle, and my Posture, Social Skills, Speech about a fourth full in the meters. Then she set the timer knob to Permanent, pushed the button, and ZAP!! I screamed when I felt my mind being transformed again, and after a few moments, the helmet died down. I sat there groaning in a daze for a moment, and Sam watched at me with fright.
"Flint…are you ok?"
"S-Sam?"
Then we covered our ears and cringed at hearing something banging against the roof of the lab.
"Ow! What was that?"
"It was the Ratbirds, they're still swarming like crazy!"
"Right. Now how am I gonna get rid of all tho-THAT'S IT!!"
Bursting with excitement, I raced to some of my inventions, but accidentally tripped on the one I was looking for. After I got back up, I showed it to Sam. "I can use my Actual Magic Wand to make the Ratbirds disappear!"
Sam's eyes went wide. "Define 'disappear'."
"Ya know, cause them to vanish from one place to another?"
"Yeah, but how?"
"The wand has a special navigational computer that'll teleport anything I point at to whatever destination I've chosen. Where I want to send them...I still don't know, but we're gonna find out. C'mon!"
Sam smiled as she raced down the elevator. "That's the Flint I know and love..."
Soon, Sam and I were back outside, only to find that the Ratbirds were chewing and biting on the net. Finally, some of them managed to break several holes in the net, and soon they were all loose again!
I thought hard. "What am I gonna do with all those Ratbirds?"
Suddenly, another thought came to mind. At first, I was really excited.
"I know! We can put the Ratbirds right in..."
But then my expression died down to fright.
"Oh no..."
"What is it, Flint?"
"Follow me and hurry!!"
I had Manny fly us down to the ChewandSwallow Zoo, which was also taken over by the vicious Ratbirds. In a giant, green, curved cage was the Monkey Exhibit, and many chimps in there were rioting and screeching like crazy at the surrounding Ratbirds all over their cage. Among them was Steve, terrified at how much danger he was in. Many Ratbirds were biting or trying to squeeze through the bars to fight back at the primates. Finally, five managed to squeeze through the bars of the cage and were already biting, scratching, or carrying off the monkeys, including Steve!!
By the time we showed up, the Ratbirds were already biting Steve and trying to drag him away.
"NOOO!!"
The helicopter lowered down so close to the cage, it scared away the Ratbirds that were attacking him.
"GET YOUR CLAWS OFF MY BEST FRIEND!!"
Steve recognized me, and happily raced into the helicopter door. My monkey buddy leaped into my arms, and I snuggled him close.
"I'm so sorry, Steve..."
After my tender hug, Steve climbed on my shoulders, and we flew back up in the sky at low altitude.
"Ok, guys, I finally have an idea of where to put the Ratbirds! Dad, Sam, Manny, I'm gonna need you all to help fight off as many Ratbirds as you can while I round them all up."
Dad saluted me. "Aye-aye, Skipper!"
Everyone stood beside me by the door of the helicopter with Manny at the cockpit. I saw several Ratbirds that were flying from a distance.
"Activating AMW codeword...ABRACADABRA!!"
ZAP! Five of those pesky pests were gone!
"Yeah!! Now I'm gonna end this rat race for good!"
ZAP, ZAP, ZAP! I got dozens and dozens of Ratbirds from a distance, but there were still hundreds more to get rid of.
"It's no use! I can't just zap them away one group at a time!"
Then I got another idea.
"Wait a minute…that's it! The
!"
I found a giant moldy doughnut that was covered in flies and maggots, and lifted it up in the air with the AMW.
"Lifting…trying hard not to puke…Hey fellas, look what I got!"
Dozens of Ratbirs made their way toward the big pastry, all trying to get their teeth on it. Suddenly, after hearing them cawing and squawking at once, I started groaning and screaming.
Sam looked concerned. "Flint, what's wrong?!"
"AHH!! Ratbirds! Too loud!!"
"It's ok, Flint. Just press the button and they'll all be gone!"
I finally made those loud Ratbirds disappear, but I still felt my anxiety overwhelm me. Sam gently rubbed my back.
"It's ok, Flint. Just focus on your mission and try to mentally tune out the Ratbirds."
"Right."
Sam, Dad, Brent, Steve and I all went around the rest of Chewandswallow, gathering as much giant food as I could, luring it up in the air, and making it disappear with all the pests that swarmed around it. Dad, Manny, Sam and the nurse all fought off whatever Ratbirds tried to attack any other part of the helicopter. As I made my way closer to downtown, some of the other townspeople started pointing and cheering for me.
"Yay, it's Flint Lockwood!"
"Yeah, Lockwood's back!!"
"Go Lockwood!! Go Lockwood!! It's your birthday!!"
I spent about a half-an-hour cleaning up every single giant pizza, steak, cheeseburger or meatball I could find, vanishing the pests with it, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Loud noises like the Ratbirds' squawking irritated me, but throughout the entire chase, I hummed my own theme music, said what I was doing, and cheering with victory.
"Aiming...zapping....zapifying completed! Now we just have to do town hall and we'll finally be finished!"
Sam smiled tenderly as she saw me in action...
As Manny flew us closer to town hall, where the Mayor's funeral was being held, I aimed the AMW at a giant chocolate-chip cookie, and lured twenty Ratbirds into it. It pretty heavy so I had to lift it carefully and slowly...
"Almost there...just a little higher..."
Suddenly, the entire helicopter violently jerked forward, causing everyone to fall hard toward the front of the copter. I accidentally dropped the chocolate chip cookie, and it soon fell to the streets in crumbs.
I felt both scared and irritated at the same time. "Wha? What happened?!"
We all looked up the windows, and saw that a couple of Ratbirds got jammed on the helicopter's propellers, causing the blades to freeze! In less than three seconds, we were falling right out of the sky!!
I gasped. "Everybody jump!"
Luckily we were already at low altitude, so we were able to leap safely out of the helicopter before it could crash in front of town hall. Much to my surprise, it looked as though swarms of Ratbirds were swarming on the outside of the Mayor's coffin!!
"HEY, STAY AWAY FROM THE MAYOR!!"
Suddenly, the AMW started sparking, and a stream of smoke rose up from the top! The Ratbirds were charging back at me again while I opened up a compartment of the wand, trying to go through the sea of colored wires, but they were getting too close, and too loud! As I heard them coming closer and closer, I felt my anxiety blow over the top. I tried harder and harder to get the device fixed, but when the anxiety of being killed by Ratbirds coupled with their overwhelmingly loud cawing, I was screaming in a matter of seconds.
Sam gasped. "Oh no! He's having another anxiety overload!"
Sam quickly looked around, and saw the plastic windshield of the helicopter had fallen off, but was unharmed. Sam lead me to the plastic shield, and pulled me in with her. I scrambled inside, hyperventilating again, but Sam handed me back my AMW, and gently massaged my shoulders as I tried to fix it.
"It's ok, Flint, it's ok. Just focus on your invention; don't listen to the Ratbirds."
Dad, Brent, and the nurse surrounded the windshield, and tried to fight the Ratbirds off by hitting it with sheets of metal or broken parts from the helicopter.
"Keep your claws away from my son!!"
Brent was especially aggressive. "You wanna piece of me, Rat Pack?! Dogpile!!"
With the plastic on the windshield tuning out the Ratbirds, I carefully rearranged the wiring on my AMW, and got the device working again!
But Dad's and Brent's efforts didn't last long. Soon they were surrounding our windshield, and the plastic started cracking! Sam and I both quickly searched around.
"Quick, Sam! We need some sort of giant food!"
"But we just rolled away from the last piece you had!"
All of a sudden, I felt my head agonizing again from hearing the Ratbirds squawking so loud. Sam tried to protect me, but the Ratbirds beat her to it. They tore through the plastic, and started squawking, clawing and scratching us. My overly-disturbed senses and rising anxiety could not tolerate it much longer. I was only millimeters from exploding until the Ratbirds started lifting Sam off the ground!!
"AAAHHH!! FLINT!!"
"SAM!!
NOOO!!!"The nanosecond I saw Sam in danger, I became so focused on saving her that I ignored the Ratbird's attacks and loud noises without even knowing I it. Putting every ounce of energy I had into it, I used the AMW to round up all the Ratbirds at once, and made them disappear in less than five seconds. Sam fell from the sky screaming, but I reached my arms out and caught her, and we both landed hard on the street.
The townspeople slowly came out of hiding once they noticed the Ratbirds were gone. They soon formed a happy crowd on the street, applauding and cheering as they ran over to me.
Sam and I both cried and hugged each other close.
"Flint, you did it!! You really did it!! I'm so proud of you..."
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Author's Note: NO this is NOT the last chapter!