It was a beautiful morning in what is called Homes, a neighborhood in Creamland. The sun rose an hour ago, and the sky looked clear. No signs of clouds, but there were still morning mists along the road. Visibility was average.
There were cars parked outside the line of houses. Some of the cars had the mirrors covered with smoke, possibly due to condensation, after the rain the day before.
Joe woke up at 7.00 AM. After he woke up, he was surprised. He rarely wakes up early, but this time, he did. He prepared his breakfast and ate quietly. His neighbour, and good friend, Jamal was seen holding his hands up high, probably to recite a prayer.
When Jamal got out of his family home, he saw Joe talking with someone on the phone.
"Right, I will see you soon," Joe said at the end of the conversation. He then saw Jamal, and waved.
"Hi there!" he said to his young friend.
"Hi!" Jamal replied.
"I was talking to Eddie the policeman."
"Oh, it was Eddie. How is he?"
"Getting rich."
"Oh, I see. He might be busy."
"Yes, he is. He caught a street thug after chasing for many minutes."
"Good to know."
Joe and Jamal walked through the streets. They went past Big Mac's house, and Eddie's. Eddie was not around. Big Mac was not seen, but he usually stayed indoors, taking care of his brother Alibaba.
Then, while walking, they came across an incident. They saw a man getting beaten up. They recognized the beaten man. It was Poulson the laundry man.
The two Js( Joe and Jamal ) found a place to hide, and hid there to avoid being seen by the two suited men who beat Poulson up. They found a nice spot behind a small wall.
"Listen up! Tell us where the weapons are, or you will be finished!" said one of the suited thugs.
Poulson replied, "I do not know anything. Please release me."
Poulson honestly did not know anything about any weaponry. All of a sudden, a masked figure appeared to confront the suited thugs.
"Hold it right there!" exclaimed the masked man.
"Who is there?" asked one of the thugs.
"I am the masked man! Please surrender and release your hostage."
"Yo! This is our man. You cannot take him."
"Yo! I can save him from you."
"Then, try to stop us!"
The two Js watched in awe. The masked man took a dustbin cover and threw it towards one of the thugs. In turn, the thug fell. The remaining thug looked on.
"Want some more?" said the masked man. The thug did not reply but took out a water pistol. He tried to hit the masked man but missed. Then, he threw the pistol and it hit the man's head. The impact left the masked man feeling a bit dizzy.
Then, the police appeared. "Freeze!" said a policeman. "You with the mask, and you, suit man!" .
"Oops…," the thug said.
Jamal thought of running away from the scene. However, before he got up, he heard a voice saying, "Not so fast." It was Big Man, Eddie's big-sized friend.
"Big Man!" Jamal exclaimed.
"What are you two doing here," Big Man asked Joe and Jamal.
Joe said that they were investigating. Big Man found it hard to believe, even though it was true. Jamal confirmed that it was true, and they were not involved with the suited man.
Jamal tried to explain the story. "The masked man was trying to save Poulson the laundry man. He is innocent."
"So you both are not involved?" Big Man wanted to confirm for the last time.
"No!" the two Js said.
Suddenly, a medium-height and small man appeared. He said, "Pardon me for my client, gentlemen." It was Eddie.
"It is okay, officer," Joe said.
"Please, call me Eddie. Just Eddie. I am a top policeman."
"A detective?" Jamal asked.
"No," he replied, "but I assist them if they need assistance."
"Great!" exclaimed Jamal.
The police took care of the thugs. After that, Eddie and the two Js talked.
"I think I am going to need your help," said Eddie.
The two Js, especially Jamal, raised their eyes.
"How may we be of help?" Joe asked.
"We stay put," Eddie said. "We act when necessary."
The discussion ended. Joe accompanied Jamal back home. Jamal felt a little unsure about helping the police. He was surprised when Joe agreed to help.
"Joe, I am surprised. Do you know how to do this?"
"I am a detective in training. I know how to do this."
"You are not a detective."
"But I like to be a detective. You see, we passed the first round. Eddie gave us the second round. If we get through, we are real detectives."
"This is not a game."
"Jamal, please. I want to help by being of good use to people. Helping the police is a way for me to do so. One more thing, if you are not interested, you can forget about it."
"Err…" Jamal froze for a while. He thought about it. He had not much to do in his spare time. So, he decided to help the police. "I will go with you," he said.
"Made up your mind?"
"Yes."
The Creamland city is a modern suburb. Tall skyscrapers owned by vast corporations stood high near the town centre. Unfortunately, things were not always plain sailing. Mr. Dominic was upset about the incident where his thugs got arrested.
"The dam burst again," he said to his friend, Raul.
"West got caught. East, too," said Raul, who was referring to Dominic's men.
"North and South?" Equator?" Dominic asked regarding his other men.
"North and South are unavailable. Equator is on a vacation in Mauritius."
"Mauritius? No!"
"Yes."
"Aaaarrghh!"
"Relax."
Dominic was upset because it looked like no one in his team were going to capitalize on the new high-tech weaponry that they found out about.
All of a sudden, a voice appeared, saying, "Way to go, Dominic." It is Espionage. The man was once a worker for Dominic, but he had other plans, and quit his job. An intelligent scientist, he is also a skilled combatant. He learned it through training.
Dominic got frightened. Raul told his friend to keep calm.
"What do you want, Espionage?" Dominic asked.
"Oh, nothing much. About the tools…" Espionage said.
"What tools?" Dominic asked again.
"The high-tech weaponry you talked about. They are hidden somewhere."
"Yes, they are. What are they to you?"
"The weaponry are what I need to continue my research."
Dominic replied, "I am closer than you are in getting those tools."
Espionage just said, "Not really. Your men got defeated."
"A setback. But I will win."
"We will win," Raul added.
"Right. We will win."
Espionage believed he was wasting his time. So, after saying goodbye, he left the building in a flash. He used his glider to get through the skyscrapers. Raul is impressed with the former employee, but Dominic is not. It later turned out that they would find the weaponry themselves, with their remaining men.
Somewhere in Creamland, in the areas near Homes neighborhood, the masked man got up to the rooftop of a bakery. He put on a pair of gloves. He was about to jump off to somewhere else when Joe showed up.
Joe brought Poulson along. Poulson thanked the masked man for saving his life. The masked man just stood silent, but puzzled.
"…?"
"He does not talk much, does he?" Joe said.
Masked man gave a reply after that. "I do not. I got things to take care of. Some weaponry are scattered and needs to be disposed of." Joe nodded in confusion. He did not really understand. Later, Joe received a call from Eddie. Eddie told him to get everyone together.
Dominic was in his limousine with Raul driving. He wanted to observe the weaponry. Raul saw the GPS radar beeping. It appeared that Espionage was sitting on the rooftop of a building. Thus, they did not need to worry about the former employee.
Unfortunately, some people got to the destination first. Black Raccoon and its gang of raccoons surrounded the area's front entrance.
"I do not believe this," said Dominic.
"Me neither," Raul replied.
Dominic left his limousine and argued with Black Raccoon. "What are you doing here?" he asked. "Well, you know that the weaponry in this old building is powerful. It can help me generate more money, and help my raccoons in battle," the Black Raccoon replied.
Feeling defiant, Dominic said that the weaponry belonged to him. Raul corrected him by saying, "Our weaponry, Dominic." "Right, sorry," the boss said. Raccoon suggested a fair way to determine who could take home the weaponry. It decided to do a coin toss.
"If the coin lands in head, you win. But if tail, I win," it said.
"Fine," Dominic said.
The coin was tossed. It would roll on the ground for a while, and landed on the tail. Raccoon won. Dominic looked frustrated. Raul tried to cheer him up.
On the rooftop, Espionage was ready to get going. However, he was stopped by the masked man. Still, he did not want to waste time. He tried to get going, but the masked man tried to stop him nonetheless. Espionage would counter with a punch.
The masked man was surprised. "Nice skills," he said. Espionage replied, "I built them through years of training. I am a skilled combatant."
"You came for the weaponry?"
"What else? Of course."
"Why?"
"I need them to undergo some projects. The weaponry can help move forward the project by a lot."
"Still, I have to stop you, because the weaponry does not belong to anyone."
Espionage jumped off the rooftop and landed on his feet. He ran towards the old building. The masked man could not do anything about that.
All of a sudden, the police arrived. "Freeze!" said Eddie. The two Js were also there. So was Big Man. "Put your hands in the air!" Jamal said, "Give me all your money." Joe said, "What did you say?". Jamal replied, "Oh, nothing. It is just a joke."
The raccoons tried to attack but the police stopped them in unarmed combat. Jamal was surrounded by two brown raccoons, but Big Man came to his rescue. He grabbed the raccoons with his big arms, and put them to the ground. They were handcuffed.
Joe punched one of the raccoons after he got bitten. The raccoon attacked Joe again, but Eddie stopped him with help of Big Man. "Thanks, I owe you one," Joe said. "Nonsense," Eddie said. "We got this covered."
The masked man got off the roof and went towards the building. He hoped that Espionage did not take the weaponry away. However, when he got in, he was surprised that, in a big box, there was no weaponry, but only Lego toys. It seemed that the weaponry was taken by the government to a safe place, or maybe it was merely a hoax.
Anyway, the two Js rejoiced in their victory. They sort of helped the police capture Dominic, Raul, Black Raccoon and the rest. The two Js were thanked by Eddie and his friends. They would walk home feeling proud.