Good evening, all! Today is the 14th anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy. Of course, you already knew that, but I wanted to make it clear what this memorial tribute fanfic was for.
For this latest of the ones I've written, I chose the Stuart Little movies for the franchise/universe it takes place in because of the following.
First of all, for the most obvious reason, the Stuart Little movies take place in New York City, and so it is pretty fitting and only too appropriate that they would be used for a memorial tribute to the September 11th attacks. That, and the Littles are a family of very nice individuals(especially Stuart)and a cat who, despite being mean at first, turns out to have a heart and become much nicer at the end of it, along with how he and Stuart become closer when the latter grows on that cat who goes by the name of Snowbell and that same Snowbell warms up to him. So none of them would expect, want, condone or agree with something so unpardonable as what was done and seen on September 11th, 2001.
And secondly, the fact that the second Stuart Little movie was made in summer of 2002 and thus while people were still at a considerable level of nursing their wounds from the 9/11 terrorist attack(especially since it wasn't even September of 2002 yet and thus the unspeakable tragedy hadn't even reached its first year anniversary)further spurs me to write a fanfic that is a tribute to September 11th.
The third reason? I'm actually surprised that no one has done this sort of thing for the Stuart Little category of yet. So I guess I'll be the first one to do so, especially since I've already written seven 9/11 tribute fanfics prior to now(one in 2010, 2013 and 2014 and two in 2011 and 2012).
I am hoping that this story will move and touch you as much as any tribute to the terrorist assaults on the USA on 9/11/01 should do to the one reading or viewing it, in this case reading, of course.
THINGS TO NOTE:
This tribute takes place, rather predictably, between the first two Stuart Little movies, since it takes place, also rather predictably, on September 11th, 2001, and specifically in the part of the morning that was the aftermath of that horrific, harrowing tragedy of that fateful, absolutely world and universe scarring day.
I've chosen to make it so that, unlike most of my stories, 9/11 tributes or otherwise, what characters say isn't mentioned here despite happening by all means. Rather, I'm letting what's going on speak to all of you and for all characters for both a little difference from the usual way I do things and for how this is a little dose of the idea of actions speaking louder than words I ordinarily don't use.
Along with that which is predictable(that is, the Littles being part of this story and of course hit hard in a way most terrible and on a level just as horrid as all others in this story), I'm having it so that the rotten ones from the first movie(Anton, Smokey, the four followers of the latter, the mice who posed as Stuart's parents and Monty)are also hit hard and part of the ones who help along with the Littles and anyone else who's helping out.
Why? Because it's to signify and emphasize, in a metaphorical sense, how that day, that tragedy, affected us all and levels of good, bad or mixed didn't matter and neither did how things normally were between one or the other of us or vice versa and so on and so forth.
But I wanted to do so in a way that made sense(i.e. I wasn't going to use Falcon to fill that niche, for he's been proven to be the most evil Stuart Little movie villain there is and noticeably so, as his article on Villains Wiki shows, plus Stuart hasn't even met him or Margalo yet in the part of the film continuity where this 9/11 tribute fanfic takes place, so using Falcon for that metaphor would be phony and unacceptable).
The way this is done, by the way, makes it so that, in Smokey's case, his fate, while left ambiguous in the actual 1999 film, is made so that he survived, albeit with a lot of injuries, before finding a place to hide and recover in this story to fit the trend.
Additionally, I figured that, if Falcon can be made to have survived his fall into that trash can at the end of the second movie that would follow this fanfic if it were part of the actual continuity, and on top of that made to be one of the villains in the 2003 Stuart Little cartoon which follows the second movie and get a non-dying defeat again(being trapped in that cage and jailed, that is), then Smokey, his cat followers, the mice who faked being Stuart's parents, Anton and Monty sure can be used to fill the niche I speak of as part of the meaning, feeling and point of this story that goes with all the other parts of those three things.
I own none of the characters. They all belong to their respective franchises.
Stuart Lament
It was morning in New York City and for everyone in it, and therefore for the Little family, as well, for they were no exception.
But the morning they were currently in the middle of and therefore experiencing was a most unconventional one, indeed, and by no means in anything even resembling a good way.
You see, on this morning, there had been a terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in this city that was the capital of the state called New York.
Not only that, but there had been one on the Pentagon in Virginia, too, as well as how a fourth one was meant to be unleashed.
And on the White House in Washington D.C. that bordered Maryland and Virginia and was the capital of America and the home of the President who was George Walker Bush.
Early on in this morning, nineteen Al Qaeda hijackers who were also ghouls who had the shamelessness to disguise themselves as human beings had taken control of four planes.
The first one of them to take off, American Airlines Flight 11, was flown at and slammed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 8: 46.
The second one, United Airlines Flight 175, was aimed at and rammed into the South Tower at 9: 03. American citizens now knew any doubt the U.S.A was being attacked was gone.
The third of them, American Airlines Flight 77, was gone for and crashed into the Pentagon at 9: 37.
But the death and terror didn't end there. Far from it. For the South Tower gave way and collapsed at 9: 59.
Meanwhile, unlike the other three planes, the fourth plane, United Airlines Flight 93, did not reach its target, for the passengers in it did all they could to put a stop to the hijackers.
They were successful in preventing it from getting to the White House, but the terrorists in it saw it crashed into a field in rural Pennsylvania, said crash occurring at 10.03.
Which means, of course, that like was the case with the planes which reached their targets, everyone aboard, be it terrorist or American passenger, was killed on the spot.
Back in NYC, the North Tower collapsed at 10: 28. And by that time, numerous people all over the nation, and the world, for that matter, had learned of the heinous assault on America.
Virtually everyone in that world, especially in America and doubly especially in the Big Apple, were shocked, saddened and enraged. So much that each feeling dwarfed the galaxy.
And many things went on both in the regions of NYC and the region of Virginia where the indescribably villainous, absolutely unforgivable atrocities had been made to happen.
As well as in America along with all other countries, but NYC was, quite fittingly, where the most of them occurred, with Virginia following up a close second.
One of these things was that certain events(such as scheduled baseball games)and certain attractions(such as Disneyland)were closed down and would be for a noticeable amount of time.
Another of these things was that some, though not all, schools were closed and the students attending the closed schools were sent home.
In the cases of Stuart and George Little, their school was one of the closed ones, and while they would normally be delighted to go home early, they just couldn't feel that way now.
Not with their knowledge of how it happened because of these grave events and the grave events themselves. Of course this was the case with all of the other students at that school.
Just like it was with the students of all the other closed schools. But Stuart and George are the main focuses of that part.
For, upon learning of the attacks and that their sons would be sent home early, Frederick and Eleanor Little quickly went outside of their home and took Snowbell with them.
Shortly thereafter, Stuart and George arrived near their home to see their parents and their cat right there in front of them, and while George got off the bus and ran towards them?
Stuart promptly stopped his car and did the same thing, and Eleanor knelt down to hug Stuart fast along with Snowbell doing the same thing(something he never thought he'd do).
Frederick also knelt down to hug George, but in both cases, the hug was brief, and the Little parents stood up again while Snowbell backed away a couple of steps like they did.
The reason for this, of course, was because they knew that they had to help any which way that they could, and looked for any means possible to get to the site of the aftermath.
They were able to find one and get there, and once they did, they were unable to believe what they saw before their eyes, just like they were unable to believe it when first hearing of it.
But they were only stilled for a moment, as they needed to help out in any fashion at all possible. Soon enough, they saw multiple NYFD firefighters, NYPD officers, what have you.
It wasn't the least bit long before they let them know that they would do anything to help out and go all out in so doing, and the cops and firemen alike let them know how they could.
They looked around as best as their capabilities would allow them for any survivors of the considerable assailing against America, and they were thankfully able to find some.
While their teamwork enabled them to successfully help those survivors out and get them to an ambulance in order to make sure they were brought to a hospital, one thing was still so.
Despite how they ignored such feelings because it wasn't an option to give in to them right now, they were feeling just the way that anyone and everyone with half a soul was.
And that meant the aforementioned shock, sadness and rage, as well as pain, fear and knowledge that nothing would ever be the same again on very equal, endless levels indeed.
But more than this, just as they'd rescued as many survivors as they could and done the best that they could for them along with making a 911 call for anyone they weren't able to save?
Along with how those ones were either saved by everyday heroes or, in the saddest cases/those of the unlucky ones, taken away as corpses, something most unexpected was seen.
It turned out that literally anyone and everyone in or near this part of New York City, human or animal, was now here and trying to aid the ones who needed it the most.
As in, even bullies like Anton were looking around and helping out with what people were doing the same. And the rescue dogs were being assisted by the most unlikely of allies.
Those unlikely allies were as follows. They were Smokey along with the other cats who he had commanded and, along with them, had tried to eat Stuart before.
And those same cats had some unlikely allies joining them in all of this as well. Who, you ask? First of all, there were those two mice they'd had pose as Stuart Little's parents.
To say nothing of that dog who went after Smokey before and hurt him bad before he was able to escape, find a hiding place and recover. It had recently become a rescue dog, you see.
And indeed it was one of the ones helping here. Despite the fact that the Little family fully recognized them all, none of them reacted furiously, with hostility or anything of the sort.
Likewise, even when the lot of them saw that the Little family was there and could tell who they were, neither Smokey nor any of the others were angry or intent on payback/revenge.
In fact, not only could Stuart see in the eyes of all of the cats and both of the mice who had posed as his parents the same feelings they had but also a vulnerability of sorts.
Said vulnerability well revealed that the five alley cats, even Smokey, were just as sorry as the mice who'd pretended to be Stuart's real parents for what they had done.
Even without that having happened prior to these tragic events(which it did, long story), there was also the way that some things matter more than enmities, grudges and/or rivalries.
Furthermore, even if the five cats and, to a lesser extent, the two parent fraud mice, had not lately decided to turn over a new leaf(and they had, again, long story)the fact is as follows.
These excruciatingly devastating, painful and suffering filled events would scar, torture and traumatize all but the very most vile, monstrous, soulless, heartless, sinister and diabolical.
Even bad guys of the regular or even the higher ranking sort would not go as far as the hijacking terrorists who could easily be considered agents of Satan and all of the above six did.
There was also the far from insignificant matter of how the antagonist relationship between Smokey and the dog who now had the heroic job he did meant nothing to either here.
Let's not leave out how the dog's feelings also being the same as those of the Littles were accompanied by how he saw it in their eyes, and them his.
He and Smokey saw those feelings in one another's eyes as well, and the dog seeing the vulnerability and sorry feeling in Smokey's eyes made it so he did two additional things.
The first was to appreciate Smokey playing a part in heroic, life saving matters and the second was to decide to, when this rescue mission ended, let him go and stop trying to kill him.
If he would agree to them not being rivals or foes anymore, that is, and Smokey could tell that it'd be his best bet to do just that if given the chance, so he would at the end of this service.
Going back to how the main matter, the here and now, the time and place is what we focus on, the feelings that were present in everyone's souls shone through those same souls.
It was not important how pure, vice-laden, in-between those two traits and/or new leaf turned over any of those souls might have been. Not when this sort of crisis was going on.
No more than what any of them thought of one another, did to each other, what have you was important at all when something this critical was the case and so much was at stake.
And with how not just Stuart, but also Frederick, Eleanor, George and Snowbell could see such things and the same feelings they were exhibiting in those five cats and those two mice?
It was something that emphasized such facts considerably. And, as a bonus, another cat who was filling the "rescue cat" niche was Monty, and he was only a small distance away.
Away from the cat quintet along with the Little family, just to clarify. Snowbell was the first to face him despite having spotted him before, followed by Stuart and then the other Littles,
Much the same things could be said about Anton, with the exception of George being the first one to face him despite having spotted him before.
As you might have guessed, just as the five former villain cats and the two once fraud mice, now vulnerable, were seen with shared feelings in their eyes by the Littles and vice versa?
Why, Monty was also seen with much the same thing by the Littles and vice versa, and so was Anton. Monty didn't want Stuart as food this time, just as Smokey and the cats he led didn't.
It mattered not to Stuart that Monty had previously wanted to eat him to the point of begging to(with his famous "please")outside of that one "mouse with a pet cat" laugh they had.
And Anton had no intention of bullying, deriding and/or getting back at George and/or Stuart, nor was George intent on gloating to Anton about winning that boat race of before.
Stuart would not show any hatred toward Anton for trying to get rid of him during that boat race. Both for being a sweet, forgiving guy and because such loath was irrelevant here.
The other children who had been at that boat race and normally disliked Anton had come here to help and, when spotting Anton, had seen in his eyes what the Littles did and vice versa.
What did it matter to them how much of a jerk he usually was or to him how much he ordinarily looked down on them? This was a situation that came well before than any of that.
The way George tackled Anton for insulting Stuart made no difference to either now. The insults themselves were immaterial to Stuart. Anton didn't care about his rivalry with George.
George didn't care about his rivalry with Anton one way or the other, either, nor about the insults Anton had thrown his way in the past. After all, this hideous disaster went past them.
Of course the other children the Littles saw were exhibiting the same feelings they were, and it was another matter of them seeing it in their eyes and vice versa.
Just like the hard work and considerable effort put into locating those still alive and with a chance to stay alive along with any other way to help was so, the omni-uniting was as well.
No matter where we are from, who we are, what our age is, which ancestry we've got, what ethnicity we have, what color we are, how we look or how we sound, we are one.
And a tragedy of an atrocity such as this one brought us together with a common cause, one to save those we could, grieve for those who died and sympathize with those with losses.
Our personalities and the variations thereof didn't keep us apart in the aftermath of this felonious assault on our home of Beelzebub level evil that was nothing short of inexcusable.
What we were otherwise didn't stop us from coming together and doing everything in our power to serve the greater good after the unforgettably loathsome attack of destruction and death.
Particularly since not only the hijackers who did the dastardly, despicable and disgusting deed(the act that was the most of all of those things in all of mankind), but also?
Also the rest of Al Qaeda, especially its leader and orchestrator, the nefarious coward and selfish scumbag of a villainous hypocrite Osama Bin Laden, had proven evil beyond evil.
For their actions were just that, and while this was by no means the first time they had attacked either the US or some other part of the world, it was by all means and by far the worst.
Along with, besides how it signified wickedness, monstrousness, cowardice, callousness and heartlessness in a league of its very own, it was the one that ended the most lives.
The true way of all that lives and breathes is not shown in buildings. It is shown in feelings. In emotions. In hearts. In souls. In spirits.
No matter how we differ, be it physically, mentally, emotionally or any other sense, we all have a voice in us that screams "This cannot be allowed, accepted or tolerated!"
Except for those who are not truly human, but rather some of hell's abominations with the temerity, the brazenness, the audacity to dress up as so to appear and sound human.
But those of us who have anything even resembling a soul and/or heart are far from being of that status, and indeed of a far different status in the strongest, firmest sense of those words.
This was seen so much everywhere in the world as it would be in any other, but this instant especially, in this time and place, with so many ignoring their normal way of life to assist.
Assist in doing whatever was possible to make it so no more life would be lost, no more tragedy would be befall the world, America or otherwise and no more destruction would ensue.
Be it the Littles, Anton, the other children, the outdoor cats, alley or otherwise, the dog who was now one of multiple rescue dogs or any others, no one paused for a second.
The police, firefighters, paramedics, doctors, FBI agents, CIA agents and rescue dogs might have been the first ones to come to mind in doing this, but everyone there was doing it.
Just as everyone there and around the world was affected by it, everyone from mourners to helpers to those with losses to the injured to the dead to who was more than one of these.
In the doing of this, after an incalculably long time of hard work on the part of every last individual who was giving it their all to prevent this tragedy from worsening, what had occurred?
As many survivors as the heroes present were able to find had been gotten out from where they were trapped and brought to a hospital in order to be treated so they could recover.
Additionally, despite neither the death or the destruction done to the Pentagon being nearly as high as that done to the World Trade Center towers, the work to help was no less hard.
Nor was it any less sincere, and the heroes there-everyday ones or the citizens or any others, human, dog or anything else-went no less all out in their effort to aid as much as possible.
That everyone, be it the ones helping at where the towers had fallen or anyone else, knew just as much about the Pentagon attack as they did the WTC one only compounded this.
Same with the fact that those brave passengers in that plane which ended up crashing into an empty field in Pennsylvania had stopped the hijackers and saved lives aplenty in so doing.
By the time there was no more that anyone could possibly do to help near both what would be known as Ground Zero in New York City after these attacks and Virginia's Pentagon?
It was very late at night, and as many Pentagon survivors as could be found had also been helped out of where they were trapped and brought to the hospital for treatment and recovery.
Just like was the case in NYC, and in both locations of America, everyone who'd helped was most exhausted, spent and worn out, but that didn't matter to any of them.
They'd done it for a cause that was more important and had more meaning than was imaginable on both counts. And all of them felt it on equal levels.
After all, New York City was their home in the case of the Little family and those who they assisted, and of course in the case of all other residents of the Big Apple.
And in the case of all residents of Virginia, the ones who'd done their best and all that they could to help at the Pentagon or otherwise, that state was their home.
Of course the America that contained both of those locations and the residents therein, along with all other USA residents, was their home just as much.
And no one, human or animal, good or bad or neutral or in any other way varied from one to the other and so on, would stand for this level of evil, especially when it attacked their home.
Which it had indeed done, and there would be a special place in hell for Bin Laden and the other still living members of Al Qaeda.
Just as the hijackers, having taken their lives along with those of so many others in the horror-laden atrocity that they caused and created, were already in a special place in hell.
Trapped forever in it as well they deserved for their villainous deeds and wicked crimes. In the case of New York City, by the time there was nothing more anyone there could do?
That was when the Little family, along with Smokey and his four followers, Monty, the rescue dog, Anton and the other children let loose what they'd been suppressing for so long.
And the other heroes present, professional hero and citizen who'd assisted alike, did much the same thing.
That meant that all of them let out enraged cries of grief, anguish and sadness for the dead who had lost their lives undeservedly in their most harrowing and awful of events.
As well as how they simultaneously shook with fury at what those terrorists had done and how the other members of the group they ran with, Bin Laden or otherwise, had helped cause it.
Despite not doing so in word, motion or body, they by all means prayed for the dead who became so on this saddening, infuriating and world-changing day in mind, heart and soul alike.
And they did the same for everyone else affected, but especially those who the dead were close to and therefore were permanent, unbearable, unendurable, excruciating losses for them.
During that time, Frederick embraced his wife Eleanor and vice versa, both looking as though they would not let go of each other for at least a century.
George, Stuart and Snowbell did much the same with one another, though obviously in a three way form/version of it and after George had picked his white, furry friends up.
All of this was done with everyone doing it having their eyes shut tight, their bodies stiffened along with shaking and nothing being said by any of them.
When the lot of them, the Littles or otherwise, were finally tired enough and had cried and shook enough so it was time for them to depart and do what, away from here, they had to?
Why, everyone took one last look at each other with the remaining tears in their eyes and their feelings of all this still written all over their agonized, emotionally scarred faces.
And they nodded sincerely, respectfully and solemnly to say anything and everything that needed to be said before they turned around and returned to their respective usual locations.
It was obvious why they felt the gratitude that they did towards each other, and what that gratitude was for/about/due to/directed towards. All of what they felt was for good reason.
Whether it was what was mentioned or the massive swirl and flurry of other emotions going on inside them or as it did in anyone else, American or otherwise, it was understandable.
It was also justified and no one could possibly blame them or anyone else feeling it for such feelings as that.
By the time they were all back to where they usually could be found, let alone before they finally fell asleep shortly after getting there, they could not block what they were hit hard by out.
This was actually the case for Eleanor and Frederick more than the other Littles(which was saying a lot, to be sure)on account of how the former was currently three months pregnant.
And that meant that their new baby would be born into a world which was of the status of being after this most foul and soul-shaking of events had come to happen.
How would they explain it to their child when he or she was old enough to understand and/or need to know about that sort of thing, especially since there was no good way to say it?
And even if there were, it would still hurt just as much. In any event, be it their slightly bigger amount of those feelings(again, quite a statement)or those of the other Littles, they stuck.
Indeed, stick they would for quite a while. It was impossible for anything otherwise to be so. They were amazed they were able to keep it together at all after all of what occurred today.
It only stopped being in their minds when they were sound and fast asleep, and even then, they'd wake up to feeling them once more, morning of new day or no morning of new day.
THE END
Tell me, anyone and everyone who read this(especially you Stuart Little fans), has this story proven to be the powerful, heartfelt, touching and moving tribute of a memorial to the 9/11 tragedy that it was intended to be? I certainly hope so. After all, September 11th, 2001 was a horrifically sad and infuriating day and one which has forever scarred this world, and yet it also was one which proved how strong, resilient and, in fact, unbreakable America is.
After all, the wicked, vile terrorists who were behind it, the plane hijackers or otherwise, wanted to strike at the heart of the USA. They wanted to nail and shatter the American spirit. They wanted to make us despondent and in the process cause us to surrender to their twisted, oppressive rules and ways of life. But they missed. They failed. All they did was drive us to make them pay for what they did and cause us to prove that we can recover from just about anything.
Of course we, and the rest of the world outside of the few in it who are the most vile, were scarred and forever changed, especially in terms of the way we see things and how we live our lives(particularly with things like getting ready to board a plane in an airport), thanks to the horrendous events. But at the same time, it cannot be denied or ignored that something which was meant to break us only made us all the stronger. As Lee Greenwood nicely put it in his well known and well liked song, God bless the USA.
Anyhow, my thanks to everyone who read this, and I would like ratings and reviews, too, please! We are to never forget what happened on 9/11/01, what it caused and what it resulted in subsequently! Please never forget what happened on that tragic, fateful, enraging and horrible day! May all innocents and heroes who lost their lives that day rest in peace as their souls remain in heaven, and may all the Al Qaeda terrorists who were behind it and later killed, Osama Bin Laden or otherwise, continue to be barbequed in hell as they well deserve for their malicious, malevolent misdeeds!