CHAPTER SEVEN: FIREWORKS ARE GLORIFIED EXPLOSIONS

Earlier that same night …

"Look, Mom!" exclaimed the little boy from his window again, "It's Sonic and the Lost World come to life!"

"No more Sonic marathons for you. Go back to sleep."

"Aww, Mom …"

This new robot came upon the city of Little Tokyo much in the same way that the first had: rampaging the streets and waking the cats from a deep sleep.

They had been quite annoyed to know that Dr. Purple had decided to come back so quickly. In the old days, the robots had come on about once or twice a week at the most, and even then there were often times when a whole month would go by after such a feat in order for the crows to recuperate. But Dr. Purple apparently did not bother with crows whether or not he was working for the Big Cheese ultimately.

Instead of crows he had drones shaped like owls; thus why the little boy's comparison to the game. There was also a mother robot in the shape of one great and horrible owl like the ones that plague the clothes stores and drug stores only far more hideous with its great multicolored eyes of death from which different colored lasers fired. Missiles came out of its beak from time to time too, making it all the more destructive.

However, the cats would have been able to handle the main hunk of metal just fine. The owl robot was not as strong as the dinosaur had been, but it was the smaller owl drones that got in the way. Each time the cats got close to the mother owl, the drones would close in on them. They would dive bomb, peck, and scratch and scream into the cats' ears.

And there was one more problem too as if this wasn't bad enough. The fight again took place at night. They had recharged their suits, but they had to finish the fight in a limited amount of time or they would not be able to fight back such a robot, drones or not.

"There's only one thing to do!" gasped a completely exhausted and fed up Speedy Cerviche. "Call in back-up!"

Just as Speedy rang his little bell around his neck, the owl robot took a great winged fist and pounded it down upon Speedy's head.

"Gllng," moaned Speedy and stuck out his tongue miserably.

Yet despite being dazed a terrible headache would be delayed until morning. Speedy, shaking himself to, leapt out of the way before another laser fire could come down upon him and blast him. He tried again his signature move, but the drones were fast. They pecked and dive-bombed and were very annoying. He could not squeeze in a time long enough to complete it.

"How's he so fast?!" cried Speedy. "It's like he's synced with our minds or something!"

"Not synced, merely quick-witted and my robots have quick reflexes," the soft and placid voice of Dr. Purple mocked with the sound of Batman the Animated Series' Mad Hatter or Pinky and the Brain's Snowball from inside the main owl, and he gave a slight chuckle before the loudspeaker turned off.

"Oh, I wish I could fight him!" snapped Polly. "He's more annoying than Bad Bird ever was!"

"He's more annoying than the Big Cheese himself!" declared Speedy.

"And he probably fights about as well one on one too," sniffed Polly.

"He sounds like some fat old turkey," agreed Guido.

"Sticks and stones, pussy cats!" laughed Dr. Purple lightly just before a stream of pink lasers fired from the owl's eyes and struck the building on which Guido and Polly stood. It collapsed to the ground.

They could not handle much more of this, and as Speedy watched and struck back a few drones, he growled with rage.

"Why don't you go bug someone else, huh!?" exclaimed Speedy. "We don't even know you, pal!"

"Ah, but we are getting know each other, Speedy, and quite well," said Dr. Purple.

"We'll just see who gets to know who," said Speedy. "Besides in a few seconds you're gunna have the chance to meet my friends."

He said this because at that moment the Rescue Team had just shown up. Or least one of them did. Bat Cat flew in on the scene. His mission: to get rid of the drones so that the Speedy and his partners could get the big owl and hopefully capture the one who built her.

However, Bat Cat had not gone far into battle before the poor cat was struck down with an electric pulse formed by the drones banding together and radiating shocks of lightning from their bodies toward him.

Speedy's face fell, but at least there was one good thing that came out of it. The drones had to recharge after their shock, which seemed to do them a bit of harm as well, and even as poor Bat Cat sailed out of sight, Speedy took the initiative of using his good old signature move on that robot as stupid as it was horrible. And that was the end. It exploded great fireworks that blew all four cats away. The fireworks were a gorgeous sign of the cats' victory, but it proved very painful.

The bright flashes of color and light and the pounding of its sound, almost startled Nobu into dropping from the sky in surprise as he swooped into the city. If he had not been a trained ninja he probably would have. He also almost got struck by one of those bursts of fireworks, and luckily only singed his tail feathers a little after an embarrassing shriek.

It had been another plan of Dr. Purple's of course, this grand finale, and again the good doctor escaped in his pod. When Nobu appeared on the scene all he found was a pile of rubble and a heap of wounded cats.

Besides the fact that he had come too late to help … again, he also realized that in the end he would not have been any help in this case at all, which infuriated him. After a growl to display this frustration, he simply took the initiative of calling the ambulance.

#

Now Speedy had a real reason to moan.

They would all be able to leave by that afternoon, yes, but for now he was lying in bed quite injured. The brunt of the blast had been against him. Polly and Guido had managed to get through the experience with a few bandages and Bat Cat had gotten stuck in a tree during the blast and only had a scratch or two (he was only at the hospital to visit his injured comrades), but Speedy? How would he be able to fight any time soon after this, even if he could go home that evening?

"We gotta get to the bottom of this!" Speedy gasped as a doctor finished adjusting a bandage.

"Hold still," said the doctor.

Speedy paid little attention.

"But how?" asked Guido. "We talked to Al. He doesn't have any dirt on this guy at all so far. We don't even know what he looks like. We don't even know for sure he's working for the Big Cheese."

"If only we could follow him after he blasts off and escapes," said Polly.

"Well, a tracking device could work for that," said Bat Cat, "but you'd have to get it on his escape pod somehow before the robot's broken."

"That means we gotta get inside it!" cried Speedy.

"Please, hold still, Mr. Cerviche!" exclaimed the doctor. He cleared his throat. "There now. That should do it."

Speedy sighed.

"We'll have to have a real plan then," Polly said.

"We will!" Here Speedy pounded his fist on the side of the bed, and even that hurt a little. "Ouch. We'll have the best plan in Pizza Cat history!"

"Oh," said the doctor suddenly. "There's a visitor here to see you."

The cats gasped as they saw who the visitor was.

"Lucile!?" cried Speedy.

"Please calm down, Mr. Cerviche," said the doctor. "It will aid the healing process better."

"Oh, you poor things!" swooned Lucile as she entered the room.

"Don't worry," Guido whispered to Speedy. "I made Lucile promise not to buy any more explosives."

"Huh, well then you turned out to be a better boy friend for her than I was," whispered Speedy in return.

Guido smiled smugly.

"Oh, Guido!" cried Lucile as she grasped him around the middle.

"Ah!" said Guido wincing from the pain, but he forced a smile and nodded. "I'm alright."

"Oh, and poor Speedy and everyone too," sighed Lucile standing upright again and clasping her hands together. "It's terrible what happened to you all."

Speedy glanced warily at Guido, hoping that he was right, for the tears were beginning to well in her great brown eyes.

"Oh!" she exclaimed as she hugged Guido again. "I'm so sorry!" she sobbed.

The explosives emerged from the top of her head …

Polly and Speedy leered at Guido.

Ka-Boom!

The room was black with ash, and everyone stared out with bulging eyes, except for Guido whose eyes were nearly shut, and his teeth were clenched, for Lucile's arms were still tightly strung around him, and the worse of the explosion happened to have sailed right past his face and caused a hole in the ceiling above.

"Lucile …" he moaned. "You promised …"

"I'm sorry," sobbed Lucile. "I forgot. It's a hard habit to break. I—I'm working on it." And her tears began to well again. "I'm so sorry!"

"Ak!" cried Guido. "Do you have anymore?"

"No," said Lucile withdrawing from him and looking down with shame. "They're all out now."

Everyone then heaved a great sigh of relief.