Cortex Complex: 2nd Night
Chapter 2: Disgust

Noise filled the halls of the Academy of Evil as the students began making their way to the cafeteria for breakfast. It was scrambled eggs day so the children were especially eager to get some real food for a change. Nina was sitting at a table in the back of the large crowded room eating her meal as one of her classmates sat down across from her with his tray of food.

“Oh. Hello Markus.” Nina said, looking up from her plate of eggs.

“I prefer to be called Slash.” He replied. Doing his best to not sound dejected that Nina didn’t sound very happy when she saw him.

He would have pressed the issue but just then Lockbolt joined them at the table. Slash scowled at the sight of who he considered an intruder.

“No food for you?” Slash asked. Noticing Lockbolt came to the table with no breakfast at all.

“Of course not. I don’t eat that kind of stuff.” Lockbolt replied.

“What, you a vegetarian?” Slash asked with an annoyed tone thru a mouth full of scrambled eggs.

“No. Quite the contrary, actually.” Lockbolt said in his usual innocent voice. “I just don’t eat the unfertilized children of birds or drink the sustenance from a cow’s teat is all.”

With disgusted looks on their faces Nina and Slash stopped eating and looked down at their plates with a complete lose of appetite. Neither of them had the desire to finish their breakfast anymore.


The bell rang, signaling that class was about to begin. There was a commotion out in the hall as Nina and Lockbolt made their way towards the chemistry lab for their first class of the day. Students were gathering in front of some lockers and talking loudly:

“What is that thing?!”

“How did this happen?!”

“Who do you think killed it?!”

Nina pushed her way to the front of the crowd. Some of the other students looked as if they were about to vomit. Splattered all over the roof and walls was unmistakably blood, and there, lying in an enormously gory puddle was the body of a large toadyish-like monster with long claws and large horns jutting from its back. The head was taken clean off the body and thrown almost 50 feet up the hall, its mouth wide open. Aside from the decapitation there was no other visible wound on the creature.

“What is going on out here? If there’s been another fight I’ll-” A woman in a red dress with tied up medium length light brown hair made her way thru the gathering of students. Ms. Patterson’s rant was cut short when she got to the front of the crowd to the grizzly scene. She screamed. Then shouted with a shocked tone: “What happened here?!”

None of the students had an answer for her. None of the kids knew what the creature was or where it came from. Or as to how it would have ended up dead like that.

Just then another teacher came up from the back of the crowd. Igma was shoving students aside as he made his way to the front.

“Did I just hear a scream? What- My monster!” Igma yelled. The hall quieted as all eyes turned to look at him. He made his way over to the doorway where Ms. Patterson was standing and the students chatter started to pick up again.

“What happened, Claudia?” Igma asked.

“Your guess is as good as mine.” She replied. “We need to get these students off to class. They shouldn’t be near that thing. They’ll track blood everywhere.”

Some students were poking at the monstrous limp body lying in a pool of its own blood. Others were nudging its decapitated head with their feet.

“Move along, you brats.” Igma said. No one budged.

“Get to class, now!” Ms. Patterson screamed. The students quickly began dispersing to their morning classes. She turned to Igma and said: “Go get the Janitor to clear this mess.”

“The Janitor?! I don’t want to go down into that basement. He gives me the creeps!” Igma protested.

“It’s YOUR monster. And you’re just lucky it didn’t eat a student.” Ms. Patterson said with a scowl.

And with a nod Igma sighed and headed off in the opposite direction. The hall had finally cleared except for the dead monster.


In the chemistry lab the students were still buzzing with excitement about what had happened out in the hall. Theories abound but no one knew for sure. Professor N. Brio was pacing between the tables observing the students progress.

“I bet anything it was Igma’s doing.” Nina said, as she and Lockbolt were measuring the components for their chemistry project.

At the table next to theirs N. Brio was scolding a half alien classmate named P.J. for drinking the chemicals. Claiming they were delicious he didn’t seem at all harmed by them.

“So you think he brought in a monster and then killed it? What would be the point?” Lockbolt replied. They were keeping their voices down to not be overheard.

At the table behind them Jessica and Henry were arguing over which ingredients would create a bigger explosion.

“I don’t know what’s going on. But I just have a feeling Igma is behind it. You heard him out in the hall, that monster was his!” Nina said.

“Yeah, but why would he kill his own monster?” Lockbolt asked.

“He’s up to something. I don’t know what, but I’ll find out.” Nina replied.

N. Brio made his way over to their table. “You two should try talking less and pay more attention to what you are doing. If you guys mix those two chemicals you’ll blow this lab to pieces.”

They quickly corrected the ingredients they were using. The Academy students were not unaccustomed to strange things happening, but usually it was planned activities or practical demonstrations. It was rare for something to happen out of the ordinary without any ones prior knowledge. This only struck Nina as odd because no one knew anything about it.


Luckily for Igma he hadn’t switched to his infrared goggles yet and was still wearing the night vision ones, so it was easy for him to see thru the darkness as he descended the stairway into the basement. There was no source of light as he made his way down into the lowest level of the Evil Academy.

“Hello?!” Igma called out, as he made his way thru the maze of pipes. Some areas of the basement were missing floors or were flooded with acid. All things foul and rejected ended up down there.

There, in one of the farthest back corners Igma could see what appeared to be a person. A man unmoving while perched up on a platform.

“Um, hello? There’s a huge mess over by the cafeteria that needs to be cleaned.” Igma said, approaching cautiously.

The Janitor didn’t move or respond.

“Uh, all right then. Just take care of it when you feel like it.” Igma turned and hurried away.


End of Chapter 2
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The next day at the Academy of Evil. Lockbolt grosses out his classmates. The teachers and students are treated to a gross discovery out in the hallway. The students want to blow up the chemistry lab. And Nina knows Igma is up to something. It's an interesting morning as usual at the Acedemy of Evil. ^_^

Cortex Complex: 2nd Night more chapters:
Chapter 1: [link]
Chapter 3: [link]

Nina Cortex, N. Brio and Academy of Evil (c) Sierra/Radical
Lockbolt, Igma, Claudia, The Janitor, P.J., Henry and Jessica (c) Me
Slash (c) Doomseye

-JenL