Bringing Back the Gauntlet

Chapter 1 - "Vile creature"

"Doctor."

No answer.

"Doctor..."

Someone is calling him but he pretends to be asleep. He finds it easier to pretend than to be honest at times. Up until now he has made a living on lying to people's faces.

"Doctor?"

Was he a Doctor? He has no right to that title. He pretends to be a Doctor. However, he can't remember the last time he actually cured someone from anything life threatening. He feels as if in all actuality, he only seems to delay the inevitable. He would tell his patients that they shouldn't give up. He tells them that they still have a fighting chance against the Mycovirus, instilling false hope within them through words and various over the counter medications, but it would only be a matter of time for each of his patients that had been infected with the virus.

Normally a simple Mycovirus would only infect fungi, causing the mushrooms to become malformed and spoil quickly due to premature maturation of its cells. This was until a mutated strand of the virus became transmitted to humans at an alarming rate. Ingesting a mushroom that had contracted the virus would be enough to transmit the virus from mushrooms to humans. The Mycrovirus would then spread through the host, infecting the cells throughout the body, replacing human cells with that of infected Microvirus fungi. The fungi would then take over the host like a parasite, often turning the host into that of a grotesque shell of their former selves; it had been documented that those infected would have the appearance of that of a mushroom man with fungi and spores growing out of the entire body! Eventually the Mycovirus would prove to be fatal, resulting in the spores erupting from the many fungi protruding from the host, infecting other people in the vicinity with an airborne form of the Mycovirus, thus continuing the cycle.

"Doctor!"

"I shoulda been a uh plumma!" The Doctor's eyes open and he is back in the alley with his heart beating at an alarming rate. "Mama-mia." He looks down at his gloved hands. "Poppa was right, Momma was right, my Brotha, my Brotha uh Luigi was right," he rambles on. "I-I, I shoulda uh listened to them."

"What's up, Doc? Ya don't look so hot," someone says to him, and the Doctor turns to face a massive spiked tortoise shell, and inside the shell, two red eyes stare back at him. "As a matter of fact, I reckon ye might wanna go and check ya self in and take a look at ye head a bit mate – yar beginning to talk to yar self and I think that ye gone and lost it."

The Doctor scrambles away from the shell, backing into a dumpster. "You're nada real to me you monsta!" He shakes his head, wishing it all away. "This is all a bad, uh bad dream!"

A horned, fanged reptilian beast pops his head out of the large spiked shell and he smiles evilly at the short little Doctor. He approaches the small Doctor, delightfully taking in his discomfort and anguish. His massive snout comes closer to the Doctor, making each inhale and exhale tug and push back on the Doctor's hair and lab coat.

"Who are ye calling a bad dream, pip squeak," He asks the Doctor. He takes a deep breath and the Doctor dives out of the way as the massive reptile breathes fire, engulfing the entire dumpster in flames. "I can be yer worst nightmare if yer not careful watcha ya say little feller!"

"Mama-mia, ah ha ah!" the Doctor shouts, and scurries away from the flaming dumpster. He checks himself for burns and points his shaking hand at the shelled monster. "Whateva ya are, I'm nada, I'm nada uh 'fraid of ya!" the Doctor says, gulping as it becomes obvious that he is no bigger than the foot of the monster he is yelling at.

"Oh yeah?" the reptile's shadow is casted over the Doctor. "Well I reckon you've just pissed yer pants little man!"

Doctor Mario looks down and sees his knees shaking, and the puddle of urine forming underneath his feet. "Mama-mia!" He cries as his whole body shakes uncontrollably.