Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this fanfic aside from Neo and Amelia. And, No, this is NOT A PARODY OF THE MATRIX! (Glares at those who might think it's a parody of The Matrix)
Ratigan woke up in the sewers where he was currently hiding out until the whole "Tower Bridge job" all faded into nothing like mist in the evening. However, he felt, well, different. He was worn out like he had been running for hours. No, not like he was running for hours. It felt more like he had been running for days, weeks, months, years even! But, somehow, he felt normal, even if he had been running for so long. But then he noticed . . .
He felt a lot stronger now than he had ever been before. He was content with something, like a kitten presented with a bowl of warm milk, but it wasn't about the heist. He would almost have been caught if it weren't for Fidget's last minute distraction. So what was he so satisfied about? The next thing he noticed was that he was completely starved, since he had been on the run for at least two weeks, he hadn't had the time to swipe any food, and his stomach was roaring like a lion. Now that he thought about it, he realized that he never had the conception that it was necessary, considering that he was one of the criminal greats, in comparison to those pathetic lackeys he was forced to use.
That led to the next puzzling question: If he was starved, why hadn't he lost any weight? He seemed normal, aside from the fact that he had been on the run for two weeks without any food, and yet hadn't experienced any weight loss. Then he gingerly touched his head, and it all came flooding back to him:
He was on the run from Basil of Baker Street, who had cleverly uncovered his plan to steal the crown jewels (mostly because Fidget left behind something that caused the whole plan to fall apart). He had made it back to the sewers after spending the aforementioned two weeks on the run to find a mysterious meerkat, bedecked in a leather jacket and standing in the shadows. "Who are you?" he asked nervously. "Are you that detective, Basil of Baker Street?"
"No", the figure calmly responded.
"Then, who are you?" Ratigan asked, barely managing to keep calm. Was this mysterious creature an enemy agent of some unknown gangster?
"I am Neo, the One guardian", the meerkat replied.
"Okay, now I am confused", Ratigan thought. But he pressed on, and he said "Well, Neo," he said, still retaining his caustic tongue in this moment of crisis. "Surely you know who I am?"
"Why certainly, Professor James Ratigan," Neo replied.
For a moment, Ratigan was flustered, but he kept an outward appearance of calm, cool, collectedness, and pressed on by saying, "So what would you happen to be doing here in the presence of such greatness as I am?"
"Save your talk for later, because I think you'll need it. I came to warn you."
"Warn me?" Ratigan asked. "Warn me about what?"
"Something is coming. Something BIG is coming. We are in a lot of trouble, and you are one of the few people I know who can help stop it."
Now the former college professor was amazed and shocked. Someone wanted his help? He must have been dreaming!
Neo continued. "We are members of a secret society sworn to protect all of mankind and mousedom as we know it from a force that was stopped eons ago. We chose you because we feel we need someone with your intelligence for this kind of thing."
Ratigan was amazed and shocked at the same time. But he barely had time to inwardly marvel at the meerkat's ability to talk that way to someone of his status, and the proposition he was offering him, when a female stepped out of the shadows.
It was not a female mouse, nor a female rat. She was a crossbreed of a mouse, rat, and cat, strangely enough. Yet Ratigan sensed a strange aura about her, something that he did not like, and he wasn't about to stick around to find out about. But the really freaky part was that he was somehow attracted to her, like moths to a flame.
"This is the most important part to the whole of our society's mission. She possesses powers that no creature has ever dreamt of. She, if I may put it bluntly, is perfect", the mouse mused.
All of a sudden, a bullet hole appeared in the wall close by. A group of mice came in, clad in black suits and sunglasses, and pointed guns at the trio. "All right, Neo. Come out with the girl, and no one gets hurt", one of them said.
Neo immediately pulled out a weapon and fired back at the other mice. He got mostly all of them to follow him, except for one, who started toward the girl, who got behind Ratigan. But Ratigan got in the way to defend the girl, and the black suit clad mouse in question pulled out a dagger and stabbed him underhand.
Immediately, the female thing responded in one of the strangest ways Ratigan ever saw: She directed a ball of energy towards the mouse, and he disintegrated. But the energy blast must have done something to her, because she collapsed on top of Ratigan. One of the last things he remembered was her muttering "Heal", and blue sparks crawling along to where the dagger had stabbed him, which he managed to pull out. Then the only thing he heard after that was something that sounded like Latin of some sort. He translated it later, and it came out like this: "And now though I lay down to die, I command to let all my powers fly. Into this tortured soul, my strengths I give, so though I will die, he shall live. . ."
As all this came back to him, he remembered the girl creature and realized that she must have healed the dagger wound when he was unconscious. Then he looked over, and he saw the girl, stretched out over his form, tail interlaced with his. He slid out gracefully, setting her on the floor gently, and after a quick check of her vitals, he determined that she had died.
"She's dead, isn't she?" an all-too familiar voice resonated from somewhere inside the lair.
Ratigan looked up, and saw Basil of Baker Street standing there. He was staring at Ratigan from the shadows, and was mad about something.
"Yes, unfortunately, she is dead," Ratigan replied in a somber voice, scared, because he knew what was coming next.
"Do you know what the penalty is for murdering someone? You already happen to be in trouble for that little escapade at the Tower Bridge, Ratigan," Basil replied harshly. "And don't think you will escape this time. I am going to make certain of that."
All of a sudden, a gunshot echoed from somewhere down the hall that corresponded all too well with the bullet hole that had appeared in Basil's Inverse. Neo appeared in the shadows behind him, and was wielding a gun and a sword!
"All right, Basil of Baker Street. I want you to back away from Professor Ratigan and the dead girl. Otherwise, things might become a teensy bit graphic."
Basil did so, and Ratigan got up on his legs, which were surprisingly stable, and started towards Neo.
"Ratigan, get the girl's corpse", Neo said. Ratigan, who didn't want to end up in the same position as Basil was, did so carefully. All of a sudden, from out of nowhere a voice shouted . . .
"All right, NOBODY MOVE!!! You're all covered!"
Ratigan sighed in exasperation. If there was one ally of Basil he was most annoyed with, it was Inspector Vole of Scotland Yard. He said he was a mouse, but he had a nose of something that was the result of crossbreeding a mouse and a tapir.
But Neo had a plan already formed. He fired a shot into the base of the sewer lamp above Vole, and the weak frame gave way, crashing the lamp onto Vole. Basil was momentarily distracted, and that provided the escape for Ratigan, Neo, and the dead creature.
(To be continued . . .)