(State 51)
Nextwave look on, shocked, as Number None picks up Aaron Stack using a spear that he’s shoved through the robot’s chest. He drops him to the ground and tells the team that they understand nothing. They are the villains: he is the hero. Monica replies that he’s a super-terrorist who subverted a massive anti-terror operation to attack ordinary Americans. “I do what must be done,” replies that white-suited Number None, nonchalantly. Monica says he’s insane, and Number None takes umbrage at this.
“I do what must be done!” he repeats. He orders them to stop talking. “You must all be silent. S.I.L.E.N.T.!” Realizing that he’s ranting insanely, Number None turns and admits that he’s insane, but is it really that bad? Why do they fight him when he could make them kings and queens of America? Unfortunately, he lets slip that he means zombie kings and queens.
Not as injured as previously thought, Aaron Stack raises a finger, out of which emerges a large cutting tool with myriad razor-sharp rotating blades. He asks Number None if he’s ever met a robot he could kill by stabbing it through the chest. He doesn’t think so. He proceeds to ram the cutting tools into Number None’s face, which then explodes. This surprises Aaron, so Monica asks him to open up the chest. Before he can touch it, the chest explodes, creating a hole through which its insides can be seen. Tabitha looks inside and thinks it’s disgusting. The Captain wonders what it is.
Inside the chest is a small, pink baby-faced M.O.D.O.K. Monica explains that it’s a Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing. She guesses there have been four or five versions over the years, including female versions called M.O.D.A.M.’s. They are Mental Organisms Designed for Aggressive Maneuvers. She didn’t know that they came this small.
The tiny M.O.D.O.K. informs Monica that it’s a baby; the creation of a coming together by a M.O.D.O.K. and a M.O.D.A.M. by the light of Worlds of Warcraft servers. Monica cannot believe this. She’s been put to all this trouble all year by a baby M.O.D.O.K.? She asks where its mommy and daddy are. She wants to make them eat it.
The baby asks her not to talk about them. This isn’t about them. Its father disowned it and its mother wouldn’t stand up to him. It is alone in this world, it bawls. Its father did nothing for it. It took over S.I.L.E.N.T. on its own and developed the Beyond Corporation program… on its own! “He’ll notice me now. They’ll all notice me now!” it screams.
Monica swats the small pink flying robot away with her hand and the baby M.O.D.O.K bounces until teleporting away, warning them that it will show them all. Aaron can see the matter stream it leaves behind and asks the rest of the team to follow him. Tabitha taunts him a little, getting a rise out of Aaron. Monica has to step in to cool the situation down, and explains that they can follow this baby M.O.D.O.K. and pull the plug on S.I.L.E.N.T. once and for all. When the Captain asks what happens then, Monica guesses that it’ll probably mean the end for the Nextwave squad. There’s no real reason for them to stay together. They can go their separate ways; back to their lives. The Captain scratches his head, and the others realize that she might just be right.
The team follows Aaron as he tracks the baby M.O.D.O.K.’s matter stream, across State 51 to a large spherical building. Tabitha blasts the building as they approach to create an entrance. Inside it, the baby M.O.D.O.K. makes its way up a large staircase, only to be faced at the top of the stairs by a large revolver. Its owner is surrounded by smoke. The baby informs them that it tried to tell them, but now they have to show them. The gun’s owner calls the baby an idiot. They reckon that the baby probably told them this was all its idea. Without waiting for a response, the gun is fired, and the baby M.O.D.O.K. is ripped apart by a huge bullet. The spent bullet lands at the feet of Nextwave who have now entered the facility.
Through the smoke, the looming red figure of Devil Dinosaur emerges, carrying the revolver in one set of claws and a glass of wine in the other. He’s wearing a green smoking jacket and cravat. He calls them ‘impressive little monkeys’ for getting this far. He hates monkeys. Devil Dinosaur is full of himself and informs the team that he is the intellect behind the Beyond Corporation and S.I.L.E.N.T. He expects Nextwave to ask why, in some blatant and piteous attempt to distract him while they try and think of something to do. However, there is nothing to do, he informs them. It’s the end of the line.
Monica turns to Aaron and asks him to provide her with a read of the place. She wants to know the structure, load points, foundations and fixings - anything. Aaron begins to compute. Devil Dinosaur, who loves the sound of his own voice, explains that he is older than humanity. Older even than the monkeys. He is an authentic prehistoric citizen of the planet Earth. He was there before them, and knew the world before jabbering monkeys like them appeared. As he continues his spiel, Aaron gives Monica the low-down on State 51’s layout. She in turn gives the Captain, Elsa and Tabitha their orders.
Devil Dinosaur points out that he seeks nothing more but to restore the Earth to the peace it, and he, once knew. In that sense, he thinks of himself as an environmentalist or a compassionate conservative. “A return to Jurassic values, ha!” Monica asks Ellie and Tabby if they’re ready. Devil Dinosaur hears her talking and hurls his glass against the wall, smashing it, dramatically. Monica asks him if he did all this simply to victimize humans: to play with them. Devil Dinosaur admits that he did need his weapons tested. He may be two- hundred million years old, but that doesn’t mean he wants to spend time killing them all individually.
Monica replies that it’s not really her point. Devil Dinosaur asks what is her point. Monica tells him that she doesn’t buy his story. He lives on a floating state and would never have to see another human if he didn’t want to. She used to lead the Avengers, and knows how people think; even candy-apple red dinosaur people. “What did that human do to you?” she asks. Devil Dinosaur closes his eyes and turns his head away as the memories flood back. “I don’t know what you mean,” he lies. Monica says sure he does. What made him turn to a life of monkey-killing crime? The conversation becomes childish, with Devil Dinosaur refusing to answer the questions Monica puts to him. He becomes agitated, aiming the revolver at Monica and ranting about how he killed ‘him,’ and how they aren’t going to make him cry anymore.
Finally, he ceases his rant and offers Monica a crumpled photograph. It’s a picture of him and Moon-Boy. Monica doesn’t get it. Devil Dinosaur replies that she should look at it. He’s so ashamed that it took him so long to see it. He points at Moon-Boy with his claw. “Look at him there,” he mutters. “I am the monkey! Carry me around like an animal while I spread my monkey joy!” He informs Monica that Moon-Boy hated him and therefore had to die. He tasted bad and gave him some considerable rectal distress. He hopes she and her friends aren’t quite so hard on his guts.
Monica places her hands on her hips, and asks if he knows that they’re not just going to lay down and die. Devil Dinosaur replies that it doesn’t matter. He could not die by fire in the moments following his birth and they cannot harm him now. He’s been shot, burned… beaten. Monica asks if he’s ever been dropped from a height of two miles or so. Devil Dinosaur begins to rack his brains, before eventually realizing that her words are a threat. “…oh,” he exclaims, just as Monica unleashes a microwave storm in his direction. Devil Dinosaur fights on, and lifts his revolver to begin shooting. Before he fires a round, Elsa shoots a bullet from her rifle straight up the barrel. The gun explodes in his hand and he screams in agony.
It’s now Tabitha’s turn, and she creates tendrils of flame that seek out the hulking creature. They hurt him, but he still argues that they won’t kill him like this. He’s going to kill the ‘filthy monkeys.’ Nextwave exit the spherical building and the Captain gives it a good kick. The interior begins to collapse in on itself, with Devil Dinosaur still inside. It then begins to roll across State 51, crushing everything in its path. Devil Dinosaur complains to the bitter end, and is still shouting when the building rolls over the edge of State 51 and onto a mountain top two miles below. It then tumbles down the mountainside and lands in a crevice at the bottom. “’splode,” says Tabitha, and the entire sphere goes up in flames as a huge fireball destroys it.
Back on State 51, the Captain wonders what now. Monica admits that she hadn’t really thought about how she would feel. She ponders for a second, before asking the team, “What do you do with a vast invisible floating base full of God knows what kind of technology and supplies?” The Captain gives in. Monica turns and smiles. “Anything we want.”
End.
