"Nellie Brie, you remind me of a female Basil of Baker Street sometimes." Cherry commented.
"Well... Thank you, I suppose," Nellie replied.
They soon stopped.
"What's wrong?" Fievel asked Nellie out of concern.
"I shop here... I know the owner..." Nellie replied. "Or rather... I used to."
"Whoa," Lionel commented. "Looks like the monster made a stop over here and decided to do some extreme renovation."
"Guys... S-Something's moving..." Fievel began to feel scared. "It's the monster!"
"No, I don't think so," Cherry said. "It's okay, Fievel."
Atticus got ready to fight just in case and soon came out a mouse from underneath the shambles of the store before he glared around.
"Back for more, is he?!" The mouse glared while coming out of the wreck.
"Well, good to know somebody's still here!" Lionel noted.
"Mr. Haggis, you're alive!" Nellie beamed and hugged the mouse.
"What else would I be?" The mouse replied.
"Dead?" Cherry rolled her eyes.
"Ah, not likely, lassie," The mouse said to her. "It'll take more than that old banshee to peck Old Haggis off to the Pearly Gates!"
"Must be Olivia's uncle or something." Cherry muttered since this mouse was Scottish like Olivia and her father.
"Seems likely," Atticus replied. "I take it you were attacked by the monster as well, sir?"
"Aye..." Haggis nodded. "Came up through the floor like Nessie herself, breakin' the surface of Loch Ness! Nuthin' but teeth and fins!"
"Say hello to this evening's nightmare, Fievel." Cherry deadpanned.
"Another different description..." Lionel remarked, writing it down.
"How'd you get away from it?" Fievel asked the Scottish mouse.
"By fightin' the blasted thing with my own paws, that's how!" Haggis replied. "I was just startin' a wee batch of shortbread when I grabbed the batch of butter and poured it right down the beasty's mouth!"
"And then what happened?" Cherry replied.
"See for yerself." Haggis said as he went to show them the damage.
Lionel noticed a large clump of burnt gray fur on the ground. "Phooooo-ey!" he gagged, pinching his nose.
"Yuck! Do you smell that?" Fievel grimaced.
"I certainly do, it's positively putrid," Nellie replied before she took out a stick to check it out. "Well, then... Here we go."
"Repulsive..." Cherry muttered. "I think I have the flu again."
"Close, but no," Lionel replied. "Also, a couple whiffs of Tabasco sauce will clear those sinuses. Besides, that's burnt fur! Which means this monster isn't what we think!"
Nellie kept poking it before smiling. "Ah, he's right, just a run of the mill, spit up by a house cat, hairball! Start drawing, Fievel."
Fievel then smiled and began to sketch out the hairball in his notepad.
"A break in the case, everyone!" Atticus smiled. "We're back on track!"
"Great observation, Nancy." Cherry approved.
"I'll ignore that..." Atticus remarked. "Anyways...c'mon!"
They soon went to keep going with their investigation of the Night Monster that threatened the poor mice.
Meanwhile, Tony was trying to sell papers, but he wasn't feeling too enthusiastic about it since he felt like he was getting a raw deal. Tiger did his best to help out, but it seemed to be all downhill from here.
"Anything in there about the monster?" A mouse asked Tony.
"What am I, a librarian?" Tony glared. "You wanna know? Buy yourself a copy!"
The mouse then put his penny back and kept right on walking.
"Tony?" Tiger muffled.
"What?!" Tony glared.
"Uh, is something bothering you?" Tiger asked.
"Me? No, why'd you ask?" Tony sighed. "Paper, hey! Get your paper."
Another mouse just walked by, ignoring him.
"Fine, so STAY uninformed!" Tony snapped.
Today was obviously not a good day for Tony.
"Tony, no foolin', you sound kinda,... I dunno... Cranky." Tiger said to him.
"Well, okay, maybe I am," Tony sighed as he sat down by the vegetarian cat. "I mean, Tanya's workin' with Mr. Daley, Fievel and his friends are hangin' out with Nellie Brie, but I am out here, poundin' up payment!"
"Uh, Tony? I'm pounding the pavement," Tiger replied. "You're just sitting."
"Tiger, the point I am making is I can do that reportin' stuff!" Tony replied before turning his back on the cat, crossing his arms.
"I believe ya, Tony, only what you gotta do is dig up a scoop on that Manhattan Monster, and then Mr. Daley will hafta notice you, get it?" Tiger suggested.
"What I need is a clue...a tip...a lucky break!" Tony realized.
"Yeah! Exactly! Who doesn't?" Tiger added.
"Psst!" A voice whispered from the shadows. "You two! Over here~"
"That was fast." Tiger commented.
"Yeah, just get over here!" Another voice replied.
The two soon followed the voices before seeing two shadowed figures before they came into the light.
"Ain't you that psycho poodle?" Tony asked.
"Not psycho, PSYCHIC, you uncultured rodent!" Tolansky retorted. "Mousey, I am SO sorry! I shouldn't have spoken out of turn like that!" he stated.
"Ooh, you are forgiven, but he shall have a warning..." Mousey grinned, trying to keep her cool.
"There's a difference?" Tony blinked in confusion.
"Excuse me, did you say 'poodle'?" Tiger smiled nervously.
"Oui, I am a poodle." Mousey replied.
Tolansky nodded. "Mm-hmm!" he replied.
"But that would make her a d-d-d-d-d-d-" Tiger stammered.
"A dog?" Mousey replied.
"DOG?! Nay!" Tiger cried out before fainting. "I thought you were just a rat with big hair!"
"She IS NOT A RAT!" Tolansky growled. "And you'd better show her the respect that she deserves!"
"Ya got it?!" Mousey glared.
"Got it!" Tiger replied nervously.
"Merci~" Mousey smirked before calming herself down. "I am seeing ze famous Nellie Brie... You would not by chance know her?"
"Sure!" Tony smiled.
"Oh, that's great!" Tolansky grinned.
"Non~" Mousey replied to Tony.
"No, honest!" Tony smiled to the poodle. "Me and Nellie Brie? We works together! I'm a reporter too!"
"Of course you are," Mousey rolled her eyes at first. "Which is why I can trust you to give 'er a, 'ow you say, a 'ot tip?" she then held out a card to the Italian mouse.
"What exactly is a 'teep'?" Tiger asked.
"Non, non, non, not a 'teep', a tip!" Mousey replied through her thick French accent. "Sheesh! Ya know, a hint, a clue, a lead!"
"Exactly! Like you said you were looking for!" Tolansky remarked.
"Ohh... Oh, oh, good!" Tiger replied.
Tolansky handed Tony a scrap of paper. "Might be good for finding the location of that nasty Manhattan Monster!" he explained.
Tony looked hopeful to that and decided he had to go and tell Nellie right away.
As soon as the two left, Tolansky looked over at Mousey. "Did I do good, Madame Mousey? Did I?" he asked.
"You did wonderful, my pet, most wonderful indeed~" Mousey smiled to him, petting him like he were her own pet.
Tolansky wagged his tail gleefully. "Oh, thank you, thank you!" he grinned.
"Who's a good boy?" Mousey smirked as she pet him.
"I am! I'm your good boy!" Tolansky replied obediently.
Darla glanced over as she seemed to see that and looked a bit suspicious of Madame Mousey and Tolansky before she soon wandered off after Tony and Tiger had left.
Meanwhile, back at the newspaper office...
"Hmm... Very interesting..." Atticus commented. "Just who gave you this insight?"
"Eh, sorry, fella, but a professional reporter should never digest his sources." Tony advised.
"The word is 'divulges', Tony," Tanya remarked.
"Oh, sure, get technical." Tony huffed.
"Look here, Reed!" Nellie told her boss, showing him what Tony was given. "This is absolutely absurd!"
"Look, Nellie, if we got a hot lead on that whatsit, I don't care where it comes from!" Reed replied.
"But Mr. Jameson-" Lionel started before correcting himself. "Reed, after all the legwork we've done...!"
"You've got nothing but a bunch of hunches that lead nowhere!" Reed glared. "Not to mention, drawings that don't even match."
"Of course they don't match," Nellie huffed as she took Fievel's notepad. "Fievel simply drew this thing the way each witness described it!"
"I did?" Fievel blinked.
"Yeah, Fievel, that's what a sketch artist does." Cherry told him.
"Sure! The Chinese saw a dragon, that Scottish guy saw a sea serpent, and so on," Lionel replied. "Further proof that this monster is as hokey as hokey can get!"
"Yes, it's the same monster, it's just seen with different eyes." Nellie added.
"Well... But I still want you to check on this hide-out, pronto!" Reed soon said as he took out the map from Mousey.
Nellie soon took it before sighing in defeat. "Come on, Fievel; we better chase this wild goose before it flies south."
"But what if the rumor's true?" Fievel frowned. "What if the monster's... Really there?"
"Good point, Philly," Tony replied. "So what say you stay, and I go?"
"That's helpful." Cherry deadpanned.
"Whoa! News hound, not so fast." Reed said, grabbing Tony by his scarf to stop him.
"But Mr. D! It's my tip!" Tony cried out.
"Forget it, Tony!" Tanya glared. "Mr. Daley said no, and that's final! Now buzz off! Go! Shoo!"
"Wow, Tanya really DID become meaner between films..." Lionel noted.
"So it's not just me, right?" Cherry replied.
"Nope." Lionel nodded.
"Okay, okay, calm down, Tanya," Atticus said to the young mouse girl. "You're worse than Cherry on the one week out of the month."
Cherry gasped before giving a small glare to Atticus.
"Uh, which I know you can't control and is very painful to go through, but I would not know because I am a stupid boy." Atticus then said to appease her.
Lionel snickered at that. "Alright, let's get going." he replied.
The others agreed to that and they soon went off together.
Eventually, they arrived at a large, empty house with a "FOR SALE" sign in front.
"Cherry, I think I found you a house to move into after you graduate high school." Atticus commented.
"Awesome." Cherry replied.
"I call top bunk!" Lionel whooped.
"You can have it, I hate heights." Cherry replied.
"Swish!" Lionel whooped as they went inside.
"Boy, I hope we have the wrong address." Fievel shuddered.
Nellie soon took his paw as they went inside of the hole to explore the house.
"This must be what it's like to be The Littles." Cherry said.
"I thought Stuart was the only mouse?" Atticus replied.
"No, not those Littles," Cherry clarified. "I read a book on them once. They're tiny people who live in people's houses and borrow food from them when they're not around. They're sometimes called 'borrowers'."
"Oh, yeah!" Lionel replied. "Didn't DiC base their first animated series on those books before they made Inspector Gadget?"
"Uh... I don't really know... It's been a very long time since I last saw it." Cherry replied.
Lionel checked. "Yup, that's correct." he replied.
They soon came inside the house and the curtains gently blew from the wind outside.
"Just as I thought!" Nellie said. "A wild goose chase."
Nothing seemed to happen until they felt something rumbling.
"Please tell me I'm having another bad dream!" Fievel whimpered.
"If so, then ya better wake up!" Atticus replied.
The floor soon began to burst open and crack from the shaking.
"I think he might be right." Nellie agreed before a ring of fire seemed to come into the floor, and they soon heard some mewing.
"RUN!" Fievel yelped, seeing a cat monster and ran off for his own life.
"Look at that." Nellie plainly stated.
"Waitasecond..." Lionel remarked. "This ain't a monster! It's just some mechanical menace!"
"Either way, we should run before we're shredded!" Cherry suggested.
"Good idea." Lionel replied as the machine continued its advance.
They soon ran off as the machine chased after them, but it wasn't so scary now that they were able to see right through it, in a metaphorical sort of way. Fievel yelped as he nearly fell into a gaping hole until Nellie grabbed onto his paw to keep him up.
"Watch that first step!" Lionel advised.
"The Phaaaantom of the Opera is here~..." Cherry sang before the chandelier dropped on the 'monster'. "Inside your MIND~"
"Whoa! Maybe I don't really want that bunk bed..." Lionel yelped. "I'd be happier with side-by-side beds."
"That's probably a good idea." Atticus said for Lionel's sake.
"But who dropped that chandelier?" Lionel wondered.
"...Cherry?!" Atticus asked.
"Like Shaggy, wasn't me." Cherry replied, quoting a song, not Scooby-Doo.
"Hmm... How in the world-?" Nellie was about to ask.
"Up here!" A familiar voice called out.
They all looked up to see Tony and Darla hiding in the ceiling.
"Darla?!" Atticus called out to his little sister.
"Tony!" Fievel smiled.
"Next stop: ground floor!" Tony smiled back before riding down the chain with Darla.
"Way to go, you two!" Lionel commended them.
"Mr. Toponi, didn't we tell you to stay away from here?" Nellie scolded Tony.
"Yes, ya did." Tony replied.
"But you came anyway?" Nellie then said.
"Yes, we did." Tony smiled.
"As I said, Mr. Toponi, you're going to far in this business," Nellie smiled back. "Now, let's go after that thing."
"Maybe we can find a clue on who built it..." Atticus pondered.
"WHAT?!" Fievel and Tony yelped at first.
"Time for some detective work." Atticus smiled to himself.
"Right behind ya, bucko!" Lionel replied.
"Be careful, Atticus." Darla said.
"Careful is my middle name." Atticus reassured.
"No, it's not," Cherry deadpanned. "It's James."
"You have a middle name?" Lionel asked.
"Lots of people do," Cherry replied. "Though, my grandparents except for my maternal grandmother didn't."
"Hmm...interesting." Lionel nodded.
Fievel shivered and whimpered as Atticus and Nellie went down together.
"Fievel, take a look at this." Nellie declared.
"What is it?" Fievel asked nervously.
"I believe it is a sewer line." Nellie informed.
"Sure smells like one." Lionel noted, getting a whiff of it.
"You ain't just whistlin' Dixie." Tony agreed.
"Look!" Fievel pointed something out. "Is that a ruby?"
"No, a cheap imitation." Nellie replied.
"Let me see that." Cherry said.
Nellie then passed it up to her.
Cherry checked it out. "It's a rhinestone..." she then said. "Trust me, I know rhinestones."
"Hoo-wee!" Lionel remarked. "But how would a rhinestone get in the sewers, and where would it come from?"
"It might be a clue." Atticus said to the others.
"Definitely." Lionel nodded.
Cherry and Atticus looked to each other before sighing as they had yet another mystery to solve. Eventually, they found Tiger and he gave them a ride through the Central Park gate.
