Chapter 4

by Lucky Lady Bug
Rated PG

He moaned, curling into a ball on the hard floor. It felt as though millions of knives were slamming into his body, piercing his back, chest, and limbs. He had never felt such pain. "No . . . please! Stop!" he cried, though he was not consciously aware that he was speaking aloud.

A rough hand gripped his shoulder. He felt sharp claws digging into his flesh, and he heard indistinguishable words. Clouds of darkness swirled around him and he fliailed helplessly, yelling again. Now he was falling, descending into the abyss.

"Hey! Wake up!"

Abruptly Peter started, giving an alarmed cry. He looked around, blinking, and slowly came to realize that there were not any knives, clouds, clawed hands, or pits. He was laying on the floor of a brightly lighted room, bleeding from a wound in his arm. Mugsy was sitting next to him, watching him grimly. Peter stared apprehensively, recalling that Mugsy had attacked him back at the Pad.

"W-why are you here?" he stammered.

Mugsy sighed. "We were both under Doctor Mendoza's spell," he explained. "You were trying to break free, and you started hallucinating." He himself had also struggled to regain control of his mind, and had succeeded. Neither he or Peter remembered it now, but Peter had lunged at him with a knife and had ended up hurt himself when he had tried to resist the force that had been driving him to do it.

"I...I did?" Peter sat up, staring at his arm and wincing. Mugsy handed him a handkerchief. "Oh . . . thank you," Peter smiled, accepting it and pressing it over the injury. Then he frowned. "Where's the others?"

"I don't know," Mugsy admitted. "Tony's not here, either."

Peter did not like the sound of that. "Do you think he might be hurting them?" he worried.

Mugsy shrugged helplessly. "Maybe, if he hasn't broken the control," he said. "And if he has, then he might be getting hurt!"

Peter blinked in bemusement. "What do you mean?" he asked, suddenly realizing how strange it was to be sitting there conversing with a past nemesis. Mugsy seemed relatively harmless at this point, though Peter still felt cautious. He also worried that he himself was not harmless at all. Vaguely he recalled nearly attacking Mike, Davy, and Micky, and he was horrified.

"Haven't you figured it out?" Mugsy frowned at him. "Mendoza punishes anyone who tries to break the control over them before he decides that they can be released." He sighed. "I think everyone's tried to fight him at some point. He probably just wants an excuse to hurt us." He glanced around and then lowered his voice. "Some of the guys here have some kind of microchip in their bodies, and when they do something wrong, they get shocked."

"Shocked?" Peter repeated, his eyes widening. He could not comprehend that Mugsy actually meant that they were electrically shocked, but Mugsy assured him that it was true. He had seen it happen to several of the other prisoners.

"We're dealing with a really messed-up mind." Mugsy looked down, glaring at the floor. He would not admit it, but he was worried about Tony. He had seen the toll that this bizarre experience was taking on his friend. They had been there for several days already, and Tony had already been hurt several times. Once he had fallen down a long flight of stairs in the castle, and several other times afterward he had acted as though he was having trouble seeing clearly. Mugsy did not know whether Tony had hit his head and that was what responsible, or if it was simply another mind trick of Mendoza's. Also, his wrist had been cut, as if he or someone else had been trying to slice the vein. Mugsy had never been sure who had done that, but Tony had insisted that he had not been the culprit---at least, not in his right mind.

"Well, we have to get out of here!" Peter exclaimed in horror. "We have to find the others and leave, and we have to get Doctor Mendoza arrested!" He did not think that he had hurt the other Monkees, but from what Mugsy was saying, there were plenty of others who could take care of that. And Peter wanted to make certain that they found them before it could happen.

"It's not going to be that simple," Mugsy answered. "We've been trying to get out of here for the last few days." He narrowed his eyes. "Tony thinks that Mendoza is working with someone, but we don't know who that would be."

"Maybe we can figure it out," Peter said hopefully, and wondered if the other person was also someone they were familiar with. It seemed that they were always running into old enemies, so the possibility was likely. The blonde Monkee began making a mental list of everyone whom they had encountered before, trying to pick out the ones who might want to team up with Doctor Mendoza. Mugsy suggested a few others that he knew of, all the while surveying the room for any conceivable way out. It seemed hopeless.

A pained scream echoed down the halls.

Peter started, his brown eyes widening. "What was that?!" he gasped in disbelief. He had never heard someone cry out so pitifully before. And he had the terrible feeling that he would continue to see and hear things that he had never imagined the truth of.

Mugsy glared in the direction of the door. "It sounded like Harry," he realized.

Peter looked at him in confusion. "Who's Harry?"

The gangster eased himself up, wincing at the pain, and made his way to the door, looking out through the thick glass. "He's the quiet guy in the gang," he answered. No one was visible in the long corridor outside the room, but people could be heard in several of the other rooms nearby. Often they would be dragged into such places and tortured, while their friends were forced to stay behind and listen. And at other times, they would all be in the same room, unable to help each other. Mugsy was not certain which scenario was worse.

****

In the meantime, the other three Monkees and the two mobsters were wandering down what seemed to be an endless stone pathway, lit only by the torches on the walls. It had a very gloomy, medieval look that reminded Micky of a dungeon. He shuddered and unconsciously moved closer to his friends, half-expecting a guard to come out any moment and forcefully escort them to a torture chamber in the basement.

"This place is ridiculous!" Mike cried indignantly. "It's like we've just been walking in a straight line for hours!" Hearing a creaking sound next to him, he swallowed hard and tried not to openly show his nervousness. "Micky, is that you?" he asked.

"Quit fooling around!" Davy chimed in.

"It wasn't me!" Micky retorted, his hazel eyes wide. He was every bit as disturbed as the other two were. "Maybe it's Baby Face."

"You moron, I haven't done anything," the criminal retorted, pushing Tony ahead of him as he did so. His associate was still not feeling well, despite his insistent claims, and Baby Face was growing exasperated. Part of him was tempted to simply leave him behind, but for some reason he continued trying to make him stay with them.

Tony stumbled as Baby Face shoved him, and grabbed onto the wall for support. "Watch it!" he snapped, in a rare moment of losing his temper. He hated that he was being forced to display his current weakness in front of the others. He had tried to fight it, but Doctor Mendoza was making certain that he could not. The mad scientist wanted to see him suffer, to see what it would do to him. Tony knew that he was losing---and that the others knew it too. He was being punished for his insubordination, and from what he had seen of the doctor's methods, this would continue until he either stopped resisting or else collapsed from exhaustion and the pain.

Abruptly the wall started to swing inward. Stunned, Tony moved back and glared suspiciously into the darkness. The Monkees tensed, worrying over what calamity might happen now. But they did not have to worry.

Out of the panel stepped Doctor Mendoza's beautiful daughter. She smiled calmly, everyone stared at her, and then Davy's expression turned dreamy. "Well," he said, stepping closer to her, "I guess this place isn't so bad, after all." With that he cheerfully embraced her, and they kissed.

"You've gotta be kidding me!" Baby Face yelled, actually finding himself baffled over this turn of events. "We're stranded in some crazy scientist's place, trying to get out with our lives and our sanity intact, and he has to go kiss a pretty girl! What is he, some kinda idiot?"

"No, he just has his priorities out of whack," Mike answered dryly.

At last Davy pulled back, looking into the young woman's eyes. "So, is this the sequel you were talking about?" he asked softly, running a hand down her cheek.

She smiled. "Yes."

"What's your name, anyway?" Davy asked then. "You never told me."

"I'm Helena," she answered.

"Hey!" Micky exclaimed, running forward. "If this is the sequel, then you've gotta help us get out of here! You said that you'd be participating in it, instead of just standing around behind a door!"

Baby Face and Tony exchanged bewildered looks. "Sequel?!" Baby Face repeated then. "What are you talking about?!" His eyes flashed. "Look, I've had enough of this. If you wanna keep hanging around, that's your problem. I'm getting out of here!" With that he stormed past them and headed off down the hall. Tony regarded them strangely before following.

Mike blew out his breath in frustration.

"Hey, come on, Davy, they've got a point," Micky pleaded, and looked up at the ceiling in despair as he wrung his hands. "We're never going to get out of here..." And he fervently wished for the umpteenth time that Davy could control himself and not fall head-over-heels for every girl he encountered. He was certain that it would be the death of them all someday---or today.

Helena glanced over at him, then back to Davy. "He's right," she said firmly. "I need to show you how to escape before my father finds you!" She grabbed Davy's arm and gently pulled him along to the panel, which was still open. He went along willingly, and Mike and Micky quickly followed.

Suddenly Davy blinked, as if remembering something, and glanced back at the others. "What happened to Baby Face and Tony?" he wondered.

Mike stared at him in disbelief. "They got tired of waiting for you, man!" he exclaimed.

"Yeah!" Micky nodded. "They split!" He gave Davy a Look. "You didn't even notice?!"

Davy shrugged helplessly. "No, not really."

Helena looked at them grimly. "They shouldn't be wandering around like that," she declared. "I know that Tony is suffering because of what my father did to him, and they might end up meeting Dr. Markovich!"

The three Monkees were horrified. "Dr. Markovich?!" they repeated with one voice. "What's he doing here?!" Memories of trying to stop him from abducting Professor Schnitzler and causing Peter to get amnesia filled their minds, and they shuddered. Was there not any end to the troubles they were going to face?

"He's working with my father," Helena explained, turning away from the panel. "Let's go find your friends, and then all of you can escape."

"Well, they're not really our friends," Mike corrected as they headed off down the hallway.

"No," Davy agreed, shaking his head, "definitely not."

"We just, uh, can't seem to stop meeting up with them," Micky put in, grinning weakly.