Gremlin: Philadelphia

A Story by Abishai100

A colored fantasy about an unusual seemingly harmless fantastic creature being adopted but mutated and drawing its care-taker and his girlfriend into a Philly dare.

A very fun movie adaptation/fanfiction of the 'uncanny' Christmastime fantasy-adventure Gremlins, which, incidentally, has been well-adapted into very gorgeous modern (American) comics! Enjoy,

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Amlan Satan has lived in the City of Brotherly Love his whole life since immigrating from India with his nuclear-family in the early 1980s. He went to Charles Drew elementary school and high-school and then to UPenn where he double-majored in social science and art (cognitive science and comic book art!). Philadelphia had become his special 'haven' for the American Dream.

AMLAN SATAN: I make Christmastime comic book doodles for youngsters for a cyber-fanzine and work-from home with the fortunes of family-inheritance money since graduating from the University of Pennsylvania [2000].

Satan's 'Christmastime comic-book doodles have become quite the 'rage' in the City of Brotherly Love (Philly), where he's come to be known as 'Snake-Eyes' (GI Joe comics 'avatar' reference!) for his 'uncanny' ability to 'snake through' the labyrinths of consumerism imagination to offer special shopping-season colored characters that youngsters simply love and equate with more 'mainstream' comics-characters like Richie Rich, Curious George, and Gumby.

Well, now Satan's heading to Chinatown for a photojournalism 'project' involving the images of this Philadelphia ethnic-district restaurant inside-kitchen atmospheres and cleanliness for his Christmas consumer-heavy seasons comic-book cyber-mosaics/arts.

AMLAN SATAN: While eating inside one of the more 'iconic' Philly Chinese eateries, I noticed the unusual manager.

RESTAURANT MANAGER: Ah, I recognized you from your 'iconic' Philly cyber-comics Christmas blogs, Satan; come to kitchen!

The manager stared into Amlan Satan's eyes and explained he'd like to 'gift' the curious comics/photographer/artist a special 'creature' he'd obtained on his magical journey to Tibet.

MANAGER: This 'living creature' is called a Maguai, and I'd like you to take him home and care for him, Amlan.
AMLAN: Why me?
MANAGER: You have the look of a valiant man with a very responsible look in your creative eye.

AMLAN: He's really cute; alright, I'll take him home.

Amlan took the creature home and named him Gidget, and he hoped/planned to take great-care for the being. It was not categorized as any known species of animal he'd read of at UPenn, and he wondered if it was some 'bizarro' hybrid between a mini-chimp and a squirrel or something. He didn't care, for Amlan Satan began to really love and care for Gidget the creature in his Philadelphia townhouse which he shared with his mother, Nina.

NINA: I fed 'Gidget' a zesty baked-potato with chili-and-cheese at 12:30 am last night, Amlan my son.

AMLAN: Oh, no; the Chinatown restaurant-manager explained you're not supposed to feed him after midnight!

NINA: Why?
AMLAN: He implied if you feed him anything, his gluttony will change something in his digestion/habits.

The revelation came too late. Gidget the creature began 'mutating' after being fed the night before past midnight and began to resemble a more 'mischievous' animal-being with more spikey hair and elongated troll-like ears, and Amlan Satan decided to tie him up and threw him down a sewer-hole outside.

Amlan Satan's girlfriend from UPenn, Ezzy, visited one day later and Amlan and Nina (his mom) explained the unusual 'tale' about Gidget the mutated creature (accidentally fed past midnight!) to her. Ezzy laughed and explained it was perhaps some strange 'deviant' animal-species from Tibet the Chinatown manager brought with him to pose a special 'spiritual dare' for Amlan/Nina. Ezzy couldn't stop laughing!

However, no one new the real 'dark impact' of Nina's horrid error with feeding Gidget the creature from Philadelphia's Chinatown. The mutating creature, thrown into the sewer(s) by Amlan Satan, transformed into an 'evil' being with a troll-like visage and popped out into the city-streets and began wreaking havoc elusively as a mini-demon.

EZZY: Did you see the news of some horrible car accidents in the city at dawn yesterday and a 'creature sighting?

AMLAN: Oh goodness; that mutating 'Gidget' creature must've been the culprit, Ezzy.

EZZY: Amlan my love, we've got to investigate this case in Philadelphia!

Amlan and Ezzy decided to become masked heroes and go out into the city-streets of the City of Brotherly Love (Philly) past midnight hunting for the mutated 'evil' Gidget who'd no doubt continue to wreak havoc, most likely causing more car accidents than anyone anticipated! Amlan/Ezzy didn't approach the Chinatown 'shaman-manager' who gifted the original/unmutated creature-animal to Amlan Satan in the first-place and instead decided to go out on their own as 'vigilantes' for the sake of Christmas sanity/security.

EZZY: I don't think we'll fail in this case, my darling; this creature will have a weakness, and we'll be the right heroes.

Amlan/Ezzy came up with a bright plan to use a Christmas toy laser-gun and 'lure' the evil mutated 'Gidget' animal-being with a careful 'play-dance' hypnosis trick, which was working when they spotted the mutated creature trying to break into a toy-store after midnight in Philadelphia. Amlan/Ezzy noticed its completely transformed shape/visage and named the more troll-like animal 'spirit' Spike. They used their handy-dandy toy laser-gun and hypnotized the evil troll and began to draw it towards the city park fountain area with their laser-gun!

PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER: One thing's certain; a drowned mysterious 'dark' creature with toll-like visage was found in the fountain today; we've no idea how it got there but it's certainly deceased, and some car-accident 'sighting' reports of the wild 'animal' have been linked to this animal.

AMLAN: Let's go to the Catholic city-church and pray, sweet.

EZZY: This has been some pre-Christmas adventure, Satan.

AMLAN: Let's just sit inside and pray, Ezzy.

EZZY: Cool.

Amlan/Ezzy returned to that same Chinatown restaurant and wanted to inform the shaman-manager of their creature-adventure, but the man was gone, returned to Tibet, and in his place was his cousin-lady Eunice who told them, "You passed the great courage-test, but keep this a 'dark' secret, for the sake of Christmas in Philly."

Amlan decided to start penning a series of Philadelphia 'city-spirits' comic drawings online featuring the magic 'sanity' of the City of Brotherly Love, following his adventures with Gidget, who'd been killed/destroyed as the transformed evil Spike being. Amlan Satan's new Philadelphia arts were suddenly even more popular than the ones he'd made before his Maguai adventure.

Amlan/Ezzy got married, and Nina (hi mom) cared for their two daughters (Nora/Sive) as they moved into a much bigger home in the Philadelpha-suburbs outlands-area and Ezzy made photo-mosaics online of their new family consciousness following their harrowing ordeals.

Amlan would win a major Philadelphia arts-award for his comics-works with creature-adventure stories, adapted from the bizarro news-story about the 'Spike' Maguai being discovered drowned in the fountain in Philadelphia, and fans linked these 'Gremlins' comics (Marvel) with the actual Chinatown challenge which was still a secret between Amlan/Ezzy/Nina.