Three Delivery: Revenge of Tobey Rabbit
By Crystalquirt
Tobey witnesses horrible animal cruelty on his way back from a delivery and gets involved. He is deeply affected by what he sees and can't rest until those responsible are caught.
Contains violence, violence against animals and angst. I seem to be on a 'torture Tobey' kick eh? I think Sid needs a break anyway. Next up should be Sue.
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Something caught Tobey's eye as he coasted past the end of the alley on his bike. Someone was unloading a cage full of rabbits from a truck. "Awwwe! Bunnies!" He slammed on the brakes and backed up to watch. "Somebody's getting some new pet bunnies!" It looked like there were five rabbits of all different colors in the cage.
"I want a bunny!" Tobey said out loud, wishing. But Mr. Wu would never let me have one. Maybe they will let me play with theirs for just a minute. He leaned his bike against the corner of the building. His back tire remained on the sidewalk.
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Sid tried to call Tobey, but when his phone rang, Tobey was too enchanted by the rabbits to see what Sid wanted-sure it couldn't be important-he would call him back, he said "Later Sid" and pressed ignore on his phone.
Sid frowned "Tobey just put me through to his voice mail. Darn him!"
They were going to be late for Mr. Wu's birthday party, and Nana was gonna kill them all. Sue had her hands full of party stuff with three big balloons floating in the air tied from her handlebars. Sid had been riding while balancing the birthday cake, but he had put it down on the trunk of someone's car to use his phone.
"Where is he? Let's go see what he's doing." Sid told her he was still near his last delivery. Sue and Sid set off in the direction of Tobey's beep.
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As Tobey walked quietly toward the three people with the rabbits, he saw they were all young guys a few years older than he was and were all wearing leather with lots of spikes. He heard one of the rabbits squeal and they laughed. He could hear the cage rattling as the rabbits ran around. Tobey frowned and sped up to a jog.
"What are you doing?" He asked, as he got close enough for them to hear him. As he walked toward them and got up next to the truck, he saw they had taken the lid off of the rabbit cage. He was close enough now to see what they were doing to the rabbits in the cage behind the truck.
Tobey was horrified! One of them had climbed up on top of the dumpster that sat next to it with a slingshot and was taking aim down at the rabbits running around in the cage. Another guy had a motorcycle chain swinging it around. Three of the rabbits little bodies lay bloodied in the straw, killed by the three jerks.
"Stop it!" he ran right into the middle of the three guys and pulled the one with the slingshot off the dumpster. "How could you? Defenseless bunnies . . . !" The other two laughed at Tobey.
"We just wanted a little target practice. What's your problem?"
The two rabbits that were still living huddled in a corner as far back as they could get as Tobey got close to the cage. He turned back to face the three.
"I can't believe you did this to them! What is wrong with you?" Tobey had tears in his eyes and was so upset, he didn't think about the danger he might be in. All the three guys did was laugh at him for now. Tobey could only think of getting the last two rabbits safely away from them. With his back to the jerks he bent over into the cage to pick the last living rabbits up.
It took a moment to catch them, but he got them in his arms, "Don't worry bunnies, I won't let them hurt anymore of you." The guy with the slingshot took aim at him while he was still bending over into the cage. Tobey felt a sharp sting as the pellet ripped through his pants and buried itself into the back of his thigh, just under his butt. Blood splattered on his pants around the hole. "Aaaahg" he fell forward and dropped one of the rabbits. Tobey kept the other rabbit in his arms, close to his chest as he turned to face them again.
"Do you want to take the place of the rabbits for my target practice? We went to a lot of trouble to steal them from the pet store and we need some sort of satisfaction."
Another one added, "I think he will do, and started swinging a motorcycle chain in circles in front of him. As Tobey turned to run with the rabbit, he felt the end of the chain wrap around his the front of his thigh. He stumbled and fell, blood rapidly soaked into his pants leg leaving a deep cut just inches over his knee. Tobey tucked and twisted as he fell, to protect the rabbit in his arms and landed on his back. He clutched the rabbit tightly to his chest with both arms as he landed.
Tobey rolled over and got back up on his feet, the one with the slingshot was taking aim at the rabbit he dropped back into the cage. Tobey ran at him. "Stop! Please – don't hurt them!" the rabbit squealed in pain as he was shot right before Tobey's eyes. It twitched and died in the cage with the others.
"Curse You!" Tobey charged him in anger, one arm holding the rabbit, the other drawn back, ready to punch they guy's lights out. One of the guy's friends stuck out his foot in Tobey's path and tried to trip him. Tobey managed to stay on his feet after smacking into the dumpster with his shoulder.
He held the rabbit tight to his chest with both arms and tried to run again. He gritted his teeth and moaned when he felt the chain strike him again in the arm, right by the rabbit's head.
"You aren't getting away with that rabbit. I am going to kill it while it's in your arms if I have too."
"No!" Tobey turned away, protecting the rabbit and the chain cut him again across his back. It cut through his shirt and left an eight inch long shallow cut from his shoulder to his ribs. Tobey went to his knees and bent forward with his eyes shut as blood soaked the back of his shirt.
He frantically tried to figure out how he would protect the rabbit now, he felt so weak. The chain was coming at him again, aimed at the rabbit in his arms. Tobey's head got in the way this time. A chunk of white hair fell to the asphalt as blood soaked his bangs and ran down his face.
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"There's Tobey's bike, but where is he?"
"I don't know, what would make him just leave his bike unattended like that?" Sue and Sid stopped next to Tobey's bike and heard the laughing and taunting voices from ahead down the alley.
The guy with the chain saw them coming and walked toward them to scare them away from their little session of target practice. Tobey could hear Sid exclaim, "What's going on here?" and Sue added, "Have you seen our friend, the owner of the bike over there?"
"We haven't seen anyone, and you are not invited to our little party. Leave now."
Sue looked past the rude guy and saw a guy with a slingshot take aim and fire at a target she couldn't see behind the truck. She and Sid heard Tobey cry out "Ahhhgh!" when the pellet got him in the stomach, just under where he held the bunny in his arms.
Tobey sat back on the ground, and pulled his knees up in front of his body. He closed his eyes tight and gritted his teeth but he still didn't let go of the rabbit. He worried what would happen to the rabbit if he passed out. He resolved that wouldn't happen. "Help!" he moaned.
"Tobey? What have you guys done?" Sue and Sid tried to push their way past the guy blocking them from seeing. The stranger stupidly blocked Sue's path by stepping in front of her. Sid turned to defend her, but cried out as he felt the chain take a chunk of his skin off his forearm. They guy has surprised him. Sue grabbed the guy's collar and threw him back over her head as she dropped and rolled backwards. As he tried to get up, she kept him down with a series of spinning kicks.
Sid was so proud of her, he grinned a little grin. The other two strangers were running at them. Without even turning to look at them, Sid delivered the back of his knuckles to a nose and he heard a butt hit the pavement behind him.
The other guy made the mistake of getting too close to Sue. A battle cry from her is all it took to stop him in his tracks and turn him away from her. He ran past her with his two friends staggering and limping behind him.
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Sid and Sue ran just past the back of the truck. Horrified at the scene in front of them they both gasped. Tobey, dazed, battered and bloody was slumped in front of a cage full of brutally killed rabbits.
They saw a little pink nose and eyes peeking out from under Tobey's arm. Sue bent down next to him quietly and put her hand gently along the side of his face, intending to look at his injuries. "NO!" Tobey startled and put an arm up in defense. He had knocked her away from him for a moment.
"It's us Tob'. . ." Sid spoke to him softly. Tobey looked up at them. "Sue, Sid . . . Save the bunnies!" Sue leaned back in close to him and saw Tobey's blood-soaked white hair, matted down over one eye. "Oh Tobey" Sid bent down on his other side.
By now, the rabbit in his arms had stopped struggling and seemed content to stay in his arms even though he had loosened his grip on it. Tobey started to cry.
"They were hurting the b-bunnies, I c-couldn't let them. . ." Sue sat down next to Tobey and put her arm around him. "You did fine, you saved this one."
"B-But the others!" he put his head between his knees.
"Ya." Sue touched his shoulder and he looked back up at her. She tried to take the rabbit out of his arms, but he wouldn't let go.
"Tobey? Let Sid hold the bunny. You're save now and you know he won't hurt it." Tobey reluctantly let it go. Sid stroked its head and ears and started to set it down back in the cage.
Tobey reached for the rabbit and pleaded "No! Don't let him see the others!" Sid quickly stood up still holding the rabbit. Sue pulled Tobey back to her and hugged him to her side with one arm.
"Don't worry, Sid won't let him get any more frightened." Sue gave Sid a 'look.'
Sid took his phone out and dialed the police with one hand. He briefly reported what happened. The operator asked if anyone or any animal was hurt. Sid told her he didn't think Tobey's injuries were serious and the injured rabbits were already dead. The operator told him to wait for the officers, who would get there as soon as they finished with a report of a robbery at the pet store. After he hung up with them he called Nana and told her they would be late and why.
"It sounds like it will be a little while before the police will get here." Sid crouched back down next to them.
Sue unstuck Tobey's blood soaked bangs from his face and pushed them out of his face. She was relieved that both his eyes looked ok the injury was along his hairline. "Tobey, can you stand?" he nodded and she helped him up. Then she saw all his other injuries.
Sue and Sid looked at each other, shocked by how much it looked like he suffered in the fight. "Tobey, how did you get so injured?"
"I couldn't let them have the bunny!" Tobey's voice sounded defeated, and weak. He looked at Sid to be sure he was still protecting the bunny. Sue guided him to lean on the truck. Tobey looked down at the wound in his stomach and explored it with a finger. Out came the pellet that had lodged itself under his skin.
Sue saw it, "Do you have any more of those in you?" Tobey blushed and showed her by pointing where there was one in the back of his leg, just under his butt.
The back of the pickup truck made a good operating table. Sue had Tobey bend forward and lean on the truck's tailgate. She knelt down behind him and made a face as she got the pellet out of his leg for him with her pocket knife. Tobey gritted his teeth when it pinched and stung as she worked on it.
"That is not too sterile, what are you kids doing?" Nana arrived before the police did and saw Sue's version of triage and first aid. Sue had Tobey turn over on his back on the tailgate of the truck. Sid handed him the rabbit back and he let it sit on his chest. Sue and Sid looked at Nana but no one said anything, and no one was smiling.
Nana stood by Tobey. "Tell me what happened . . . Tobey?" His eyes already swollen with tears, and one covered in blood had been stuck closed. His eyes welled up again with tears. He was all choked up and couldn't answer her. He lifted the bunny's soft chest up and put it over his face. The rabbit started trying to clean his face. It tickled a little and Tobey didn't care if he was being licked by a rabbit.
Sue spoke softly. "He protected the rabbits from three jerks, all by himself."
Nana told Sid to wrap the little bodies up in a towel she had brought. Tobey begged "No don't cover them up! They are scared of the dark." Sid gasped. Tobey was confused, he thought.
Nana, in a soothing voice told Tobey "They won't be scared of anything anymore. They are safe now from any suffering. The police will want to take the bunny you saved back to its owners. Ok?"
Tobey took a deep breath and nodded.
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The police took lots of pictures of the crime scene and the dead rabbits. Sid had to unwrap the towel but Tobey didn't see. The officers spoke with Tobey for almost an hour. Officer Lucas granted Nana permission to take the dead rabbit's bodies' home with them. She believed that burying them himself would help Tobey cope.
Nana, Sid, Sue and Tobey had a funeral service when they got home. Calvin started in on the birthday cake with Barney and they were not too concerned that the rest seemed to be occupied with something else. Tobey insisted he dig all the holes by himself. He painted the names he gave the dead bunnies on the stones and marked the graves with them. They all sat together and Nana spoke for a while. Tobey sniffled from time to time.
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After going to sleep, Tobey woke up in the early morning hours screaming "No!" over and over. Tobey had been restless and moaned and talked in his sleep since they went to bed so Sid was already lying in his own bed awake and worried about him. Sid got up and went to him. He was sitting with him talking to him when Sue poked her head in and asked if everything was ok.
"Everything's ok, considering" was Sid's answer. Sue went back to bed and Sid sat up with him until he went back to sleep.
Summer break was a great time to learn and grow in other ways beyond routine schoolwork. It was also helpful that they didn't have to get up until almost as late in the morning as Mr. Wu slept.
Tobey had witnessed something terrible, awful suffering and cruelty. He felt changed somehow, like things would never be exactly the same. He had never even seen Kong Li be that cruel. He was mourning for the rabbits he saw die and spent most of the day on his bed thinking. Sue and Sid checked on him in-between their deliveries.
That evening, after the restaurant closed and Barney locked up. Tobey came downstairs. It was the first time all day that they had seen him downstairs, and dressed. He hung around in the kitchen for a while and then snuck down to the storeroom after he was sure everyone else had gone to bed. In the storeroom, he looked through box after box and finally found the cloth bag where Nana had hid her magic transformation cookies. She had said that each one would have a different effect.
He tucked them up under his shirt and sneaked out with his bike. The cookies in his shirt made him look a little pregnant. He went out looking for the three guys who had been so cruel.
After looking for hours, he finally found one of them, alone. "Perfect" he mumbled under his breath. He watched the guy for a while. He was hanging out in the apartment's parking lot near the park talking to girls. One girl in particular stayed and they laughed and giggled for a while, but then she left. Tobey's eyes narrowed. This was the guy who had the slingshot that horrible night.
Tobey parked his bike out of sight and took a cookie out of the sack. He hid the rest of the bag of cookies in the bushes that were part of the apartment's landscaping. Tobey stealthily crept around to get in front of the creep. He watched him as he hung around his car in the parking lot. It didn't look like he was going anywhere anytime soon, and no one else was in sight.
The cookie snapped in two pieces, Tobey dropped them as the expected blue energy flashed around him. His ears grew long and he felt himself shrinking in size.
What? He thought. Tobey critter looked at his reflection in a nearby puddle of water and he had been turned into a . . . A Rabbit! Of all the luck! Why a rabbit? This was unexpected – but he stared at his reflection - I am sooo cute as a rabbit!
His little rabbit lips formed a smile and his nose twitched as he smelled the air. Tobey-Rabbit hopped under the front of the car that the guy was sitting in. A rabbit was the perfect size to climb up under the car and into the engine compartment. He hurried while he listened carefully for it to start – he wanted to be nowhere near the belts if it started. He got into the wiring and chewed through as many of the wires as he could find.
Then he hopped back down to the ground and looked for the jerk. He was lying back across the driver's seat with his legs hanging out and his feet on the ground. He was smoking. How disgusting! Tobey-Rabbit thought.
He carefully poked his nose up under the guy's pant leg in the back. He opened his little mouth impossibly wide and made sure he was lined up correctly to administer the most damaging bite EVER inflicted on a human by a rabbit. His sharp little teeth chomped deeply into the guy's Achilles tendon.
Screaming echoed in the night off the walls of the apartment building, several lights came on in nearby windows. The jerk jumped up and ran away from the car. "What was that!" he looked under the car from what he thought was a safe distance.
Tobey-Rabbit leapt at his face as only a rabbit could and chomped on his nose. He put his hands around Tobey-Rabbit's shoulders and spun around in panic. Tobey-Rabbit't teeth remained clamped into the guy's nose. Every time the guy pulled on him, he hurt his nose more than he did Tobey-Rabbit.
Tobey-Rabbit timed it just right. The guy spun around with Tobey's rabbity hind legs flailing out in the air behind him. He used the momentum to get his strong rabbity back claws under the guy's neck and chin and kicked six times before releasing his nose. The momentum generated from the guy spinning tossed Tobey-Rabbit into the bushes in front of the car. Tiny pink eyes waited for a moment from the bushes to see what he would do next.
"That must be some sort of possessed rabbit! I gotta get out of here." The guy jumped in the car, holding his scratched neck and while he was trying to start it with all the chewed wires, Tobey rabbit went back under the car without being seen.
When the car wouldn't start, the guy looked around the car, and even in the mirrors. Seeing no rabbit, he thought it was safe to get out and look under the hood, but as soon as his heel touched the ground, Tobey-Rabbit chomped on his foot again. He screamed and pulled his feet back in the car. He crawled out window and scooted out on the hood.
Again, when he tried to step down Tobey-Rabbit chomped into the toe of his shoe – and into the flesh of the pinky toe. He screamed and kicked, but Tobey-Rabbit was quick-he landed on his hind legs and displayed for the guy a series of Kung Fu moves including spinning kicks and flips.
The guy's mouth fell open in awe and Tobey-Rabbit ran back under the car. Now the creep didn't know what to think. He sat back up on the hood as close to the windshield as he could. There was a blue flash under the car as Tobey-Rabbit turned back into Tobey.
Tobey took his phone off his belt and very quietly reported the location of the wanted man. Within minutes Officer Lucas and three others pulled up and surrounded the car with the creep cowering on the hood of the car. After they had him in custody, Tobey crawled out from under the car staying out of sight until he got on the sidewalk in front of the car.
The guy was telling stories about a ferocious rabbit that attacked him and wouldn't let him leave. The last thing he saw as they put him in the patrol car was Tobey smiling at him as he calmly leaned on the side of his car.
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Tobey retrieved his bike and the bag of cookies and went back out. He went back to the alley where he had first encountered the idiots. He parked his bike, deciding to walk in so there was less chance of him being seen too early. The dumpster still sat along the fence taking up one of the parking places, and the cage was still there. Anger swelled up renewed in his heart.
Tobey heard voices and looked up. Sure enough, the other two were lounging out on the fire escape at the windows of an upstairs apartment and they had girls with them. Too bad there are innocent girls here. Tobey thought about waiting until they were gone. The males were laughing and talking about how they went "hunting" and defeated the wild beasts and beat up some kid the night before.
Both of the girls giggled at their stores of how 'tough' they were. Tobey suddenly didn't feel so bad that the girls were there – if they thought it was funny – they were not innocent either. He went back around the edge of the fence to experiment with another cookie. The pieces of cookie fell to the ground and the blue flashed. Tobey felt huge this time. He looked at his claws and wings and when he felt his own green scaled skin, he realized he had taken the shape of a dragon!
"Awesome!" he squealed out loud. He crouched down lower and folded his wings to try and stay out of their site for a few moments more. He was so big he had to crawl to the end of the fence and around the corner. Once he was sure he was out of sight, he flew straight up along the wall of the apartment building.
The first thing the group on the fire escape noticed was a strange, strong breeze. It was like a helicopter was landing in front of them. Tobey-Dragon dropped down into their sight from above, hovering like a giant hummingbird in front of them. They all screamed. The guy closest to the apartment door, was so scared he couldn't get it to open – even Tobey-Dragon could see he was pulling in the wrong direction on the sliding door.
Tobey-Dragon laughed, "You will pay for your cruelty – how dare you hurt innocent animals under my protection!"
"What?"
"All animals are under my protection! By harming them, you have brought my wrath on you!" Tobey-Dragon roared his loudest roar and grabbed onto the fire escape railing with his claws. He threw his head back and flame shot from his nose. He was careful to not start a fire. He used his clawed hands and feet to turn sideways on the railing and suspended sideway he could reach all the way around. One of them tried to go over the railing as far away from Tobey-Dragon's head as he could.
Tobey-Dragon smacked him back onto the fire escape with the end of his tail. The two girls ran down the ladder and he let them leave. When the guys tried to go down the ladder, Tobey-Dragon blew a flame across their path that turned the iron ladder and railings white hot in an instant.
They screamed and turned around to climb up. Tobey-Dragon let them go up. He climbed up the fire escape after them. He had to be careful to go slow enough to not pass them. They fumbled and stumbled from fear until he thought they might never make it up. As they took off across the roof Tobey-Dragon flew up into the air over them. They both screamed as they felt clawed hands on their backs as he picked them both up.
It didn't bother Tobey-Dragon at all that they found his claws extremely 'uncomfortable'. When the two realized they were hundreds of feet of the ground, they forgot about the claws and tried to hang on tighter to his talons. The one that had used the chain on the rabbits wet himself during the flight.
Tobey-Dragon dropped both of them a short distance above the roof of the police station. "You will not move." Tobey-Dragon blew a circle of flame with them in the middle. They cowered in the center. The flame went out almost immediately after Tobey stopped but it left a blackened ring on the roof. Tobey-Dragon flew up and circled in the air above them, daring them to move.
They stayed in the middle of the circle hugging each other. Tobey dragon disappeared over the edge of the building. The guys thought he was gone so they ventured out of the circle. Tobey-Dragon shot back up and at them throwing flame in all directions. He put on a fine display of dragon wrath before picking them up and dumping them back in the circle. "I won't warn you again!" he said in his deepest, most threatening voice. "STAY IN THE CIRCLE!"
Tobey dragon disappeared over the edge again. When he peeked over the corner, the two had remained in the circle thankfully, since his time was up. Tobey-Dragon just made it to the fire escape on the police station before the blue flashed and he returned to his human self again. He climbed back up a floor, until he was just under the edge. The two stayed in the circle while he called 911 again.
Since the police only had to run to the roof, they were there in seconds and found the two on the roof babbling about a monster that brought them there. Tobey climbed up on the roof in full view to watch the arrest. Officer Lucas was the first to spot him again and went over to speak to him.
"Tobey? You must be having a lucky night, or maybe we are. Turned out these guys were too easy to find eh?"
"Ya, imagine them just waiting for you up here. They must have felt very bad about what they did."
They got the handcuffs on them easily and took them back toward the stairs to go back inside. Officer Lucas joined them in escorting them to their new quarters. For all three of them, the animal cruelty charges would have been bad enough, but they also faced assault on a minor for what they did to Tobey. They saw Tobey standing calmly with his arms crossed over his chest watching them being led away.
Tobey went quietly back to Wu's and hid the bag of cookies where he found them. Then he got a giant glass of water and went up to his and Sid's room.
Sid was awake, on his side with his hand supporting his head. "That was a long potty break."
"I had to pee real bad." Tobey sat on the edge of the bed and drank down the entire glass of water without stopping. Sid watched him with his eyes wide. "Well no wonder – look how much water you drank. You are going to be up peeing for the rest of the night."
"Well, breathing fire really dries me out." Tobey smiled and stretched out on his bed. Sid smiled and rolled over on his back.
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