Season 1, Episode 5:
Bunnies in Black
Part 7 of 8
“He’s going to damage that ship!” Mulder exclaimed, as they watched
the fighting from the van. “We have to
get in there before they destroy everything!”
Brian sighed as he looked at the screen, imagining the potential
damage that might be done and what impact that would have. “Let’s go,” he said over his shoulder, as he
was already out of the van and halfway down the driveway towards the grotto.
Mulder and Scully exchanged another mutually concerned glance
before following suit. This was the
breakthrough they had been waiting for, just the evidence they had been searching
for all over the country for years: solid
proof of alien life.
± ± ±
“STOP RIGHT THERE! ALL OF YOU!” Hugh Hefner shouted, in a voice
that seemed almost too powerful to be his own.
Immediately, all the remaining Playmates and guards stopped what they
were doing. Hef, with three blonde
Playmates by his sides, walked closer to the scene that lay before him.
“What kind of sicko are you, Hefner?” Jay asked before the old man
could say anything else. Hef smiled an
evil smile at Jay, then looked at one of the remaining guards and nodded in
Jay’s direction. The guard moved over to
Jay and managed to restrain him, although it took some effort, as Jay put up a
fight and continued to struggle although his arms were behind his back.
“Are you all willing to cooperate?” Hugh asked, looking around at
his captives as they scowled at him. Emerald’s
eyes were particularly full of hatred towards him. He winked at her, and it took Emerald every
ounce of her willpower not to tackle him and pummel him bloody and senseless. “You must have gone to a lot of trouble to spy
on me, but I wonder why?”
“People are dying because of you!” Red shouted, trying to once
again repress the memories of that haunting night that were trying to
resurface.
Hef scoffed, and the three girls with him laughed. “You have no idea what’s going on here. But you’ll soon find out. All of you.” And with that, something that none of them
ever expected to happen, happened.
The Playmates’ skin suddenly adopted a bluish-purple tinge to it,
and their eyes grew large and black, their irises completely disappearing,
almost as though they’d been stretched beyond the corners of the eyes. The nostrils became narrower, almost like thin
slits, and their noses were flat to their faces now.
In the midst of the Playmates’ transformation, the guards, stunned
by fear, mustered up enough energy to run out of the room, screaming. They ran right past Mulder, Scully, and Brian,
who slowly crept into the room, hugging the back wall in the hopes that they wouldn’t
be noticed. Mulder and Scully tried to
hold in their shock and excitement, while Brian simply couldn’t believe his
eyes.
Hef raised his hand to his face and tugged at a wrinkle by his
ear. Almost automatically, a mechanical
sound rang through the room as Hef put his right hand across his face and
pulled it right off. The sight they all
now beheld drew mixed reactions. There,
in the place where Hef’s face had been moments ago, sat a tiny being surrounded
by levers and buttons and cranks. His face
was scowling, but Jay couldn’t help but laugh.
“Dude, that’s what you
really look like? A blue
The alien growled with rage and lunged at Jay, taking him by
surprise. Emerald, finally given the
opportunity she desired, whipped out her concealed gun and fired three shots
into the tiny alien’s skull.
“Man, I’ve been waiting HOURS to do that!” Emerald exclaimed, glaring
at the motionless alien lying a mere three feet in front of Jay. It was then that they all realized that the
Playmates were completely motionless now, their faces devoid of any emotion at
all.
“Ooh,” she cooed, “I never thought I’d see mechanisms like this in
my lifetime! It’s a dream come true!”
“Excuse us, Miss Pearl,” Mulder said, appearing next to her, as
Scully showed up on her other side, “but we’ll need to take a look at this
device.” The incredulous look on
“But- I just wanted to- Surely you can let me just-“
“Miss Pearl, this is United States Government property now. Our
evidence. Please step away,” Scully
said, her intense stare at
Diamond slowly stuck out her finger to poke the one near her in
the arm, quickly pulling her hand back when she realized how slimy its skin was
and letting out a shriek. Red examined
the alien next to her closely, paying attention to the texture of its skin, the
color of it, every detail she possibly could. She was amazed at how all they could seem to
do now was breathe and blink. Her
examination was cut short by the loud boom made by Emerald’s gun firing a shot
into the back of the alien’s skull. Red
was shocked, but Emerald simply smiled at Jay, as they both continued to walk
up to the aliens and shoot them in their skulls.
Brian, however, was walking around the perimeter of the ship,
fascinated by its design. He slowly took
a few steps up the entry ramp to the interior of the ship before he heard
yelling behind him and turned around, gun instantly drawn.
“That’s United States Government property you two are destroying!”
Scully exclaimed when she realized what Jay and Emerald had been doing. By the time the FBI agents had stopped them,
Jay and Emerald had killed nearly all of the aliens; only two or three were
left.
“Oh please, we’re doing you a favor!” Emerald shouted back.
“They’re evidence! Our evidence! You have no business shooting them!” Mulder
screamed at her.
“You have got to be
shittin’ me!” Jay replied.
“Hey!
All of you, listen to me!”
Of course,
just like in the movies, nobody did.
Brian
shook his head and tried one last time to get everyone to shut up. “HEY!”
That
finally made seven heads turn and look at him.
“So
now that I have everyone’s attention, can we at least talk about this?!”
“Talk
about what?” Emerald stared right
through him with her famous piercing look. “These things might suddenly come to life and
start a killing spree.”
“Maybe
so, but we need to keep these last ones alive.” Mulder motioned to the remaining ones. “They can teach us about their species.”
“At
least they knew how to accessorize. And
to cover up nasty skin like that,” Diamond commented casually. “The world could use more people with that
knowledge.”
“Puh-lease.”
Emerald was in no mood to reason with
this man. The whole enema thing was
still fresh in her mind, to the point where she wanted to destroy everything
evil reminding her of the whole ordeal.
“How
about making a deal?”
“You’re
not in the CIA office, Brian.” Jay
smirked. “This is no time for making
deals.”
“Hear
the man out,” Red said, as she motioned towards him. “What’s on your mind?”
“Thanks,
Red. How about we let these three life forms live, and
Mulder and Scully can do whatever they want with them.”
“Wait
a minute!” both Jay and Emerald protested.
“I
wasn’t finished. In return, we – or you,
‘cause I don’t want anything to do with it – get to have a closer look at both
them and Hugh.”
It
took them a few minutes of bickering about the deal Brian proposed, but
eventually, they all complied, even though Mulder and Emerald especially were
not all that happy with it.
Scully
almost had to drag him to the other side of the room, wanting to exchange
thoughts and knowing they had to come with a decent cover-up. First, though, she called their boss because
they couldn’t collect all the evidence themselves. They’d need a team of agents to make sure the
alien ladies would be transported to a safe environment in which they could be
closely monitored or, in case of the dead ones, dissected.
In
the meantime, Mulder kept glancing over his shoulder at the others, checking to
see that they wouldn’t mess things up.
“This
shit is crazy.”
“Can
you please not use the word ‘shit’
anymore?!” Emerald hissed, her temper reaching the boiling point.
“Sorry?”
Jay asked.
“Never
mind,” she muttered, not wanting to explain herself. “Let’s take a closer look at the bastard.”
“Hey,
watch it,
“What
are you people DOING over there?!” Mulder yelled.
“Nothing!”
Emerald responded, followed by a softly spoken, “Asshole.”
“Sorry,
we’ll be careful!”
“Right,”
Mulder muttered under his breath, as he sent a small smile back.
“Mulder,
we need to talk about this.”
“I
can’t stand here while those fools destroy more evidence than they already
have!” he growled as he, being the adult he was, actually stomped his feet.
“Yes,
you CAN,” Scully simply stated. “You
have to.”
“Okay,
okay.” Mulder rubbed his temples as he
tore his eyes away from the HimTak team.
“So,
what WAS that over there?! What are we
going to tell the media – or anyone, for that matter? Because I, for one, don’t have a clue.”
“I
think Hefner had control over them.”
“Yeah,”
she sighed. “I figured as much, ‘cause
they all dropped down as soon as what’s-her-name shot him. Got anything better?”
“Let’s
see. They all seemed to be under a spell
of some sort, but how in the world did he manage that? And, well, they obviously appear to be from
another kind of breed than he was. The
differences between them are clearly visible.”
“Yeah,
not only do they look different, but assuming Hugh’s species built the suit
himself, his kind is far more intelligent than the other one.” Scully let out a short laugh. “The Playmates lack not only brain mass, just
like in the ‘real world.’ They don’t
even seem to have any kind of artificial intelligence.”
Mulder
did not see the humor in that, but then again, he hardly ever found anything
funny, so Scully wasn’t offended.
“Maybe
it was the whole Playboy mansion. The
water or something.”
“Maybe.
We’d have to ask the others if they
drank something during their time here.”
“Let’s
not do that. We don’t wanna make them
any smarter than they already are. They
know far more than is good for them or the rest of the world.”
“Don’t
exaggerate things. I mean, they’re on
the good side.”
“Yeah,
all the killing showed exactly that.”
“You
know you are sulking, right?” Scully stated as she gave him a look. “What if it was the sex he had with his
Playmates?”
“Like
how?” Mulder looked at her, a bit puzzled.
“I
don’t know. Maybe he injected something
every time he had sex with one of them, keeping them under his spell. A microchip that would be in connection with
the suit. Something along those lines.”
“That’d
make more sense.”
“But
now, what do we tell the press that happened?”
“Maybe
that the bastard just died?!”
Mulder
and Scully almost jumped up as Jay seemed to pop up from out of nowhere. In reality, he had walked over there to make
sure they’d all get their story straight.
“That
would be too simple.” Mulder shook his
head.
”Why?” Jay laughed. “To the world, he
was an old man. Okay, he had a lot of
attractive women surrounding him, but he was still an old man. We could release a statement saying he died of
a heart attack while he was having sex with his favorite Playmate of the Month.
Then also state that she was so shocked
by what happened that she killed herself. The other bunnies were so devastated by the
whole ordeal that they went home and turned their backs on being sex objects
ever again, out of respect for Hugh. Something
like that.”
“I
think that could actually work,” Scully said, as she slowly nodded. “It’s not too far out there, for the most
part. And after awhile, we could state
that Hugh said in his will that the Mansion would be made into a
“I
still believe it’s too simple.”
“Simple
might work, Mulder.” Scully smiled. “It just might work.”
± ± ±
“Eww,
who would die for Hugh Hefner?” Leaving
the dead alien Playmates, Diamond walked up to the where the other girls were.
"I wonder what happened to the real Hef?" she asked, more to herself.
“Poor
old ass likely got offed,” the roughest HimTak girl replied. Emerald had knelt down, determined to find
out more about the tattoo and the metal ring embedded in it. Together with Red and
At
first, the women tried to grab it with their nails, but they just couldn’t get
them under the metal ring. They looked
at each other, knowing none of them would have any equipment that could help
them.
“Diamond,
your nails could get under there.”
“But
I just had them done,” the blonde agent said with a pout.
Emerald
rolled her eyes. Then they all looked at
Brian, who was standing a few feet away from them, not wanting to come ANY
closer to the whole alien scene than absolutely necessary.
“What
is it?” he asked them, hands in his pockets and a stubborn look on his face. He did not want to have anything more to do
with this if he didn’t have to.
“We
need your help.”
“I
bet he’s the kind to have a Swiss pocket knife on him at all times,” Emerald
teased.
A red flush crept up his cheeks, as he, indeed, got a pocket knife out of his
jacket and threw it over to Emerald.
“Thanks.”
She smiled at him before she searched
for the right kind of tool. After she
found a small knife, she carefully lifted up the ring.
“Careful,”
Red warned, as she felt herself leaning just a bit backwards. Just in case.
Emerald
nodded as she slowly pulled.
The
women looked in awe as they saw the tattoo move upward, like a hatch of some
kind, revealing part of the inside structure of wires, chips, small buttons and
LEDs, instead of a spine, muscle tissue, blood vessels and nerves.
“Maybe
it’s some kind of emergency exit for the little bastard.” Emerald laughed.
“Why
do you say that?”
“Because
there’s a tiny ladder in here too.”
± ± ±