So it's taken me QUITE a long time to upload this chapter, I know. But it took me a while to write it because, if you'll notice, it's very long. For those of you who like long chapters, rejoice, and for those of you who don't, I'm sorry, but live with it because this is a VERY important chapter. You find out lots of things. :). Enjoy!! Please review!!

EL Ch. 3


Brain had absolutely no idea how he was going to get into the bar. He remembered there was some maneuver the gang used to use to get in, via window or some other non-orthodox entry, but he couldn't remember which of the back entrances they used to force their way into. It was amazing how you could remember things like "calcium is good for you" and forget important things, like how to get into a popular bar in New York when you had no money.

Brain was jarred out of his thought process, furiously picking the recesses of his mind for some useful tidbit of information, when he heard a loud clang coming from the shadows behind him.

"Duh…who's there?" he asked, realizing too late that if it was a security guard, he should have just run like the wind and not said anything.

"Whoa, Brain, is that you?"

How did that cat know his name? Brain studied the green figure as it stood up, dusted itself off, and fixed the trashcan it had tripped over. A few seconds later, Brain realized that he did, in fact, know the cat.

"Spook?" he cried incredulously, mostly to confirm the fact that a friend from a past he thought was long-gone had suddenly reappeared in an alley in the back of a bar in New York.

"Yeah, Brain, it's me!" Spook smiled harder than he had in ages, resisting the girlish urge to run forward and hug Brain as hard as he could. "What have you been up to?"

"Aw, nothing much. I've been living in the park and…well, begging for donations." For some reason, Brain wasn't ashamed to admit that in front of Spook.

Spook laughed. "You mean old-fashioned, hardcore begging? Not much better than me, I, like, just went to another alley to see what living quarters I could find. Turns out there's not much in the way of housing around here."

"Duh, you can say that again," Brain said.

"So what are you, like, doing here?"

"Well I remembered whenever times got rough, T…" –Brain caught himself—"…the gang used to come here and sneak in just to…you know, be here."

"Yeah, like, soak up the atmosphere and stuff. Crazy as it seems, that's why I'm here, too."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

Spook walked forward to the middle window in the back of the bar, where he jimmied a loose pane for a few minutes. As soon as it was loose enough to sneak in, he motioned Brain forward with a hand gesture. Brain followed, their method of entry slowly returning to him as they worked their way into the men's bathroom.

"I remember how easy it always was to get into here. Even if we had money to get in, we'd always come around back here because it was cheaper and we only got caught once or twice", Spook said as he re-closed the window pane so, to outside eyes, it didn't look like a decent gain of access.

Spook and Brain walked into the crowded bar, relishing in the familiar sights, sounds, and smells. It was a haven—for the night, they could forget about their problems and try to remember the good times of their fragmented past.

Spook stared vacantly at the poker tables in the corner, wishing that he had money to buy in with. A few seconds after that, he realized that he was suddenly sprawled across the floor.

Wondering vaguely how that had happened, he stood up and dusted himself off, then reached a helping hand out to whoever he assumed had run into him.

He was met with a disbelieving stare.

"Spook?" the pink cat in front of him said, more to himself than anything.

"Hiya, Choo-choo!" Spook said, resisting the urge to hug for the second time that night. Choo-choo accepted his hand and bounced up, seemingly revived of whatever invisible force had been pulling him down. "Long time, no see, eh? You're, like, the second friend I've run into tonight!"

"Duh, yeah," Brain echoed from somewhere behind Spook.

"I can't believe I ran into you guys! What are you doing here?"

"Like, just chillin'."

"Duh, yeah."

"Same here. I was going to buy into one of those poker tables. You wanna join me?"

"Like, do I ever, but I don't have any money."

"Yeah, me neither."

"I'd lend you some but it's my sister's money," Choo-Choo said. "Let's just get a table. I want to catch up."

Choo-Choo motioned for Spook and Brain to follow him to a vacant table over in the corner. His thoughts swam as he walked. Out of all the coincidences, he had the lucky fortune of running into two of his closest friends. It was too hard to believe.

Choo-Choo stopped walking when he realized he couldn't push past a couple of lovebirds in front of him, deeply involved with expressing their love for one another.

"Um…sorry…pardon me, I just want to get through…"

All attempts at maneuvering past the roadblock utterly failed.

"Reminds me of something Fancy would do," he muttered under his breath.

A tan-fur-colored head popped up from behind the female one. "Somebody say my name?"

"Fancy?!"

"Hey, Fancy, baby!!"

"Duh, hiya, Fancy!"

With one swift movement Fancy was out of the clutches of the random female. "What are you guys doing here?"

"We're just…you know, here. We all came separately but we ran into each other," Choo-Choo explained.

"Yeah, we're just hangin'," Spook reimbursed.

"Mind if I join you? Priscilla over there's getting annoying anyway."

"Not at all!"

Fancy-Fancy led the way to the table, totally deserting Priscilla, but Choo-Choo honestly didn't think Priscilla noticed.

As soon as everyone was seated, an awkward silence fell upon the group. They'd all been separated for so long, the friends weren't quite sure what to say to each other.

"So…" Choo-Choo began.

"So what number girlfriend is this, Fancy?" Spook asked, a teasing tone in his voice.

"Two", Fancy said honestly.

Choo-Choo, Spook, and Brain stared.

"I'm serious, guys. I dated this one girl for 11 months, and we just broke up today."

"Whoa. Sorry, bro."

"Yeah. That's hard."

"Duh, right."

"Nah. It wasn't that hard of a break-up, anyway, I just lost the place I've been crashing."

"You mean you were living together?" Choo-Choo asked.

"Yeah."

"I don't think I've ever seen you actually commit," Spook pointed out.

"Well the only thing stopping me from committing was..well, the gang."

Another awkward silence followed. Fancy broke it.

"So, Spook, what have you been doing?"

"Living in another alley." He paused. "…it's not the same."

A third awkward silence. Fancy broke it again.

"Um…Brain?"

"Duh, I've been living in the park. Spook's right. It's not the same."

Silence.

"Choo-Choo?"

"With my sister and her kids. Still not the same."

More silence. But this time it was broken by a whiny voice coming from the nearby phone.

"But, Ma, I just got here…I told you, I'll be careful...No, Ma, no one's going to remember I was Mayor…No, Ma, I'm not in any danger…"

"BENNY!"

The little blue cat dropped the phone when he heard his name called out by four voices he thought he'd never hear again. Quickly he picked it back up. "Ma? No, nothing happened, I just found some friends. I gotta go. I'll see you later."

With that, he hung up and bounded over to the table.

"Fellas! I thought I'd never see you again!"

"Grab a chair, Benny," Fancy said, pulling an extra chair from a nearby table and offering it to Benny.

"Thanks, Fancy."

"So, Benny, baby, whatcha been up to?"

"I've been living with my mom. We took a vacation to New York. She wanted to see how bad it's become since I retired as Mayor."

That got a laugh from the entire table.

"That was a fun day," Fancy said, smiling in remembrance.

"Remember how Dibble had to pay the fine for the taxi he borrowed from that guy?" Choo-Choo asked.

"Yeah, that was a classic," Spook said, laughing.

The laughter died down after a minute, only to pick up again as they all reminisced about their old ventures. It was a while before the next silence came. This time, the silence was broken by Benny, asking a question no one had dared to ask for a year.

"What happened to TC?"


Choo-Choo, Spook, Brain, and Fancy all looked up and stared at Benny, surprised that he had popped the question. And, at the same time, not surprised.

"I don't know, Benny," Choo-Choo said. "It…it happened so long ago, I…"

"Aw, come on, Chooch, it only happened a year ago," Spook said.

"Yeah, I think it's time we finally just…faced the facts," Fancy agreed.

"Duh, yeah. Now, what exactly happened?" Brain was a little embarrassed to say that he had successfully pushed the memories from his limited mind, which no one else in the group seemed to have done.

"I remember," Benny started. "One morning, Top Cat just wasn't…there. We waited for the sound of trash can lids the entire day, and finally I went to see if he was sick or something. He just…wasn't there."

"So Benny rang the alarm instead," Choo-Choo continued. "We couldn't figure out where he was, and when Dibble came by he said he didn't know, either. Dibble looked for him that whole day, and the next day filed a missing persons report."

Spook took over the story. "It went on that way for, like, a whole week. No one knew where he was. And then…" Spook couldn't bring himself to say it.

Fancy finished it for him. "Dibble found his hat in the river."

A stunned, but not awkward, silence followed the end of the story.

"But why was it in the river?" Brain asked, feeling that the answer could only be bad.

"I don't know," Choo-Choo said again.

"I don't see why he would've…you know…jumped," Spook said, speaking the last word only in a whisper.

"TC wouldn't have done that," Fancy said adamantly.

"But then why was it there?" Choo-Choo asked.

"What did Dibble say was the reason?" Fancy asked.

"He didn't," Spook said. "He barely talked after that."

"And then…well, we all just left," Fancy said, a tone of finality in his voice. "The Alley wasn't the same."

More silence. This time no one broke it.

"Uh, Benny, you OK?" Spook asked.

Benny, eyes wide open and mouth agape, didn't answer.

"Benny, what are you staring at?"

No answer.

Slowly, all four cats turned to look in the direction Benny was looking. And what they saw made their jaws drop.

In the middle of the bar, rolling dice with an unsure look on his face, was a yellow cat who looked remarkably like their old leader.


GASP!! Who is the cat who looks remarkably like TC? What actually happened? You'll find out when I update more. :). Another reminder: please review!!