It seems to me like the Cars FFN page has been kind of quiet lately. So, I've come to fix that. Not all heroes wear capes, guys!
Here is another new-old story for you. This was personally my favourite in this collection, but first of all, I feel like that's like being the healthiest item at McDonald's! XD Second of all, I still did have to make some changes to make what I was aiming for Chick's motivations to be a little clearer. The way I worded it sounded unrealistic and even if this is still unrealistic, at least you can see what I was going for. This fic takes place halfway between the first two Cars movies, making Fudge eight years old in this one.
So, without further ado, here is..
Fudge vs Chick
Part 1
It was a nightmare that the green race car known as Chick Hicks was all too familiar with. Lightning McQueen had won again! He thought racing in the Piston Cup would be easier once Strip "The King" Weathers retired. But no. Lightning, the young hot shot, came onto the scene and won every race. Sure, Chick had won the 2006 Piston Cup, but Lightning had just given that to him, let him win (though there were still some that were convinced that that, along with his little detour to Radiator Springs on the way to the big tiebreaker race, was simply a publicity stunt).
Reporters were swarming Lightning and his team. Chick glared at them all. Lightning was the worst of them all, but the others were almost as bad. The Fabulous Hudson Hornet. Why did Lightning get one of the best Piston Cup racers of all time as his crew chief and not him? That blue forklift that didn't even speak English! But he held the record for the fastest pit stops ever recorded in Piston Cup history. And that human baby McQueen called a cheerleader. Lightning said something to reporters that Chick couldn't hear before kissing said human baby on the cheek. Well, Chick had had enough of all of them. It was time to do something about them. Lightning always stole victories from him? Well, two could play at that game!
Chick had heard a lot about the small town Lightning had gotten lost in. Radiator Springs, Arizona. But he'd never actually been there before. Until now, that is. It was a week later and he was determined to get his revenge.
"What does McQueen even see in this town?!" Chick wondered, looking around of the small town. "There's nothin' here!"
"Isn't that Chick Hicks?" Doc wondered from his spot at Flo's, knowing full well that it was.
"What's he doing here?" Sarge demanded suspiciously.
"He better not try anythin' funny." That was Sheriff.
"Oh, he won't", Doc assured everyone. "I got my eye on him."
Just as Chick was wondering where to start with his plan to get revenge on the entire town of Radiator Springs, one of the residents caught his eye. The human baby, or Fudge, as they called her (why anybody would want to call their child Fudge was beyond Chick). She was running out of her home, Luigi's Casa Della Tires, the tyre store her adoptive parents, Luigi and Guido, owned and ran, something clenched tightly in her fist.
Chick grinned curiously. What was she up to? He decided to try and find out.
"Hey, Fudge!" that tow truck, Mater, greeted her. "McQueen and Sally done headed up to the Wheel Well. Wanna come wit' me up there to spy on 'em?"
The eight-year-old grinned. "Okay!" She ran over to the tow truck, leapt into his truck bed and the two were off. Neither of them were aware that Chick was following them.
At first, Chick thought that spying on Fudge and the others was a bad move. They didn't do anything. McQueen and his girlfriend for the last two and a half years were just talking, not even making out or anything like that. And the human and tow truck were watching, curious to see if anything was gonna happen between them. It was boring, really.
But Chick's patience was rewarded. Soon, Fudge was left alone. Lightning and Sally challenged each other to another friendly race back to town and Mater had seemingly grown bored with the Wheel Well and was heading back to town too.
"Can't I stay a little longer?" Fudge had begged the tow truck when he announced that he was leaving.
"But... how is you gonna git back to town?" Mater wondered.
"I can walk!" the eight-year-old assured him. "It's not very far. And I swear I know the way! If I'm not back in, like, an hour, you can come looking for me. Please!"
Maybe none of the others would've agreed to this, but Mater, not being as mature and practical as the rest of his friends, did.
"Yes!" Fudge cheered. "Grazie, Mater!" Since her adoptive parents were Italian, Fudge was fluent in the language and used it frequently.
And it was when Fudge was all alone that Chick witnessed something big happen. Even Chick himself couldn't believe what he saw. He grinned as Fudge, shaken up and horrified after what had happened, sped off as fast as she could. For him, it was perfect. He could use this for his revenge. That way, he wouldn't have to stick around this godforsaken town any longer (after all, that would just create suspicion) Operation Chick versus Radiator Springs was about to begin! (AN: I'm not sure if I like how I worded that part, but I don't want you guys to know what happened there yet. Although, if you've already read this story, you'd know.)
If there was one thing that Chick Hicks hated, it was waiting. Well, actually, Chick hated a lot of things. Lightning McQueen and everyone else from Radiator Springs (obviously). Coming in second or worse (again obviously). Being reminded of the time he was booed offstage after receiving his first-ever Piston Cup trophy. But waiting was way up the list. Waiting for his first Piston Cup. And now, waiting for the next race. That was when he could begin putting Operation Chick versus Radiator Springs into place.
Luckily for Chick, Fudge was pretty easy to spot in the crowd at the packed speedway. She was the only human in the pits. Even though vehicles and humans generally co-existed pretty well, there was sometimes tension among the different species. Some of it from the Civil Rights Movement back in the 1960s, but some of it was over little things like some cars believing that humans didn't belong at these races and especially not in the pits. Yet Lightning insisted Fudge belonged there because he wanted her there.
The problem was that Fudge was only eight years old, a child, and the crowd was huge. Put those things together and none of the cars from Radiator Springs wanted to take their eyes off her. In fact, Luigi had her sit on his hood for most of the race and if she moved off of his hood, someone would ask every few minutes, making sure at least one of them could see the little human girl, or, at the very least, knew where she was. After she'd gotten lost when they arrived at the tiebreaker race in Los Angeles, they were taking no chances. It wasn't like Chick could talk to her during the race, but before or after, he had to get a moment to talk to her. But how?
For once, Chick didn't mind that Lightning had won. He didn't mind that he took third (one of the rookies, Cal Weathers, The King's nephew, took second). He didn't mind because soon, revenge would be his. He just hung back, keeping an eye on Fudge to see if she would be separated from the group.
"Fudgie, are you okay?" Luigi asked her, concerned.
She nodded. "Yeah... Why?"
"It is just that... You have been very quiet lately." He pulled a strand of hair from her face, looking at his daughter worriedly. "Is there something wrong?"
"No... No... I'm fine. But... I need the bathroom."
Luigi sighed. He didn't really want Fudge out of his sight, but she was the only girl from Radiator Springs who had come to this race. Sally, Flo and Lizzie were all at home. He didn't have much of a choice. "Okay... Do you know where the bathrooms are?"
Fudge nodded. "Yeah."
"Do you think you can find your way back to the sponsor tent?" He gestured to it. "I will meet you there."
"Okay!" Fudge ran off.
Fudge was lying. She didn't need the bathroom at all. She just had to get away from Luigi. As much as she loved him, she didn't wanna talk about what had happened at the Wheel Well a couple of days before. However, little did Fudge know, her problems were about to get at least ten times worse. Probably even more.
Just as Fudge turned around to see if Luigi or any of the others were still looking at her (they probably weren't; she couldn't even see them), she felt herself hit something hard and metal. A car. As she fell onto the floor, she could see that it wasn't just any car. It was Chick Hicks.
Even though she didn't have much personal contact with Chick, Fudge had heard him talk to others and knew what he was like. So, when she ran into him, she was expecting him to launch into insults and criticisms about how she needed to watch where she was going.
So, I think you can understand why the girl was surprised when the first words out of his mouth were, "Sorry! I didn't see you there! You all right?"
"Yeah, I'm fine", Fudge responded in a tone that meant she wanted the conversation to be over. However, it had only just begun.
Chick blocked her as she tried to keep walking. "Fudge, right?"
Fudge paused. "Yeah." Since when did he know her name? Or care about her enough to actually use it?
"Hey, listen, I've been meanin' to talk to ya! I need your help with somethin'!"
"Why do you need my help?" the eight-year-old wondered.
"You're just the right human for the job", Chick explained. "And it's a very important job!"
"I don't wanna do anything for you!" Fudge insisted, trying to get past him. She wondered what made him possibly think she'd agree to whatever it was he wanted her to do. He's really stupid! she thought to herself.
"Okay", he agreed so casually that it almost scared Fudge. "I get it. No-one should force ya to do somethin' ya don't wanna do. I just hope no-one finds out any of your secrets."
Fudge was puzzled and a little afraid. "What?"
"Nothin'. It's just... If ya have any, ya know, secrets ya wouldn't want anyone to know and they got out, surely I wouldn't have anythin' to do with it."
Fudge narrowed her eyes suspiciously. She was young and naïve, but she wasn't stupid. She knew what Chick was saying. "You know something about me, don't you?"
He gave her a cocky grin. "I might."
"WHAT DO YOU KNOW, CHICK?!" Fudge demanded.
"I know what you did at that Wheel Well place."
Fudge looked horrified before she narrowed her eyes again. "Oh, yeah?!" she challenged him. "What?!"
Chick kept his grin as he told Fudge exactly what he saw her do.
"How do you know that?!" she demanded, shocked.
"I was there. I saw you."
Oh, yeah. Fudge remembered seeing Chick.
"Please don't tell!" Fudge begged.
"Well..." The racer pretended to think about it. "I might."
"PLEASE DON'T TELL!"
"All right. I won't tell. If ya do me this one favour."
Fudge paused. She was trapped. Either way, Chick got what he wanted. It was Fudge versus Chick. And Fudge couldn't win.
"All right, Chick", she sighed. "What do you want me to do?"
Two days later, Fudge was in Doc's garage. She remembered the first time she'd ever been in there. When she was four, about two years before Lightning arrived, Doc had been trying to give her a shot. So, she ran away and hid in the garage, unable to read the signs ordering everyone to STAY OUT (Fudge was only just learning how to read at the time). That was when she discovered Doc's Piston Cups and his big secret of being a famous race car. The Fabulous Hudson Hornet.
Now, Fudge was there to protect her own big secret. Looking around at the garage, she wondered how she could do this. This was her family she was thinking of doing this to. Doc had delivered her and Guido and Luigi had watched her being born. They were the only family she had. Her own mother had abandoned her only hours after giving birth and, despite the best efforts of the townsfolk and an adoption agency, they had been unable to track her or any of her family down (they were convinced that when she was found in labour just outside of the small town, she'd given Doc a fake name, but they couldn't know for sure). They were there for her when she had nobody. Now, Chick wanted her to do this to them. She couldn't.
But then she remembered how serious Chick had been in his promise to spread her secret around Radiator Springs if she didn't.
"How will you know?" Fudge had asked Chick at the race. She was worried that he would tell anyway.
"What?"
"How will you know if I do it or not?"
"Tell ya what. I'll come visit Radiation Stinks in a couple of days and see if you've done a good job", Chick had informed her.
"Radiator Springs!" Fudge had corrected him. Why did everyone say Radiation Stinks? Lightning's agent, Harv, that social worker that tried to take her away and now Chick.
"Whatever!" Chick had snapped. "Next race is in Phoenix anyway. Radiation Stinks is on the way there. I'll drop in and see how you've gone."
"Do you have to? Please don't make me do this!" Fudge had pleaded.
"Fine! But your dads are right over there!" He had gestured in the direction of the Rust-Eze sponsor tent. "I could easily go over there and tell 'em that you, their precious daughter-"
"Okay, okay!" the eight-year-old had reluctantly agreed.
The conversation echoed in her mind as she stood alone in the garage. The scene up at the Wheel Well replayed in her mind as well. She couldn't let anybody find out about that. It would ruin her life forever. Fudge cringed and closed her eyes as she reached for some spare tools and a crumpled-up five-dollar note lying around the garage. She stuffed them inside her pocket as quickly as she could before darting out of the garage before anybody saw her.
"Somethin' wrong, Doc?" Sheriff asked, concerned. He had a check-up scheduled and when Doc wasn't inside the clinic, he went to look for him to find him in his garage, muttering to himself in frustration.
"You bet there's somethin' wrong!" Doc responded. "My tools just got stolen!"
"What?!" Sheriff gasped.
"I had my spare tools here", he gestured to a bare part of the garage, "but someone must've taken 'em!"
Before Sheriff could come up with a response to that, the doors to the garage opened. It was Sarge and he did not look happy. In fact, he looked just about ready to go through the roof.
"Sheriff! There you are! I'm glad I found you! There is a no-good rotten thief around here!"
"You got robbed too?!" Sheriff asked. "Doc here was just tellin' me the same thing."
"What they take from you?" Doc quizzed Sarge.
"Fifty bucks, pair of night vision goggles and a whole roll of stamps!" he replied. "Stolen! Stolen just like that!"
"Fifty bucks?!" Sheriff echoed.
"I just got a couple of tools stolen", Doc reported.
"No money?" Sarge sounded surprised.
Doc paused, looking around the garage. "Come to think of it, I could've sworn I had five bucks in here... Now, that's gone."
"Hmmm..." Sheriff narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "Somethin's not right around here."
They had no idea.
"Ramone? You sure you're okay, honey?" Flo questioned worriedly as everyone gathered at Flo's V8 Café later that evening.
"Yes!" Ramone snapped, annoyed. "You guys have asked me that ten times already! And I've only been here two minutes!"
"Come on, Ramone, baby!" Flo urged her husband. "It's obvious somethin's botherin' you. We just wanna know what."
"Well, it would bother you too if you just got robbed!" Ramone shot back.
The entire crowd went silent. Fudge had just arrived at Flo's with Guido and Luigi and her eyes widened in fear, her heart pounding.
"You got robbed?!" Flo gasped.
"Yeah! Some selfish idiot took a can of green paint, an airbrush and a twenty!"
"Poor baby", Flo commented sympathetically.
"He's not the only one", Doc piped up.
Everyone's attention shifted to him. "What?!"
"I got tools and money stolen", Doc announced. "Sarge got money and other stuff taken too."
"And so have I!"
Lightning McQueen had just pulled up at Flo's and overheard the conversation.
"What they steal from you, rookie?"
"Some racing trophies, an entire box of racing merchandise and a hundred bucks!" he answered. "That merchandise was supposed to go to that charity auction next month!"
"A hundred bucks?!" Sally echoed in disbelief.
"I swear", Sarge remarked, shaking his hood in disgust, "when I find out who this no-good rotten thief is, they're gonna wish they never even considered stealin' from us!"
"Yeah!" Ramone agreed. "They ain't gonna know what hit 'em! Don't they realise how much this petty little crime's gonna interfere with our work?! I gotta order some more of that paint and another airbrush! It's gonna cost a fortune!"
"And some of that merchandise was irreplaceable!" Lightning added.
Funnily enough (not), their conversation wasn't helping Fudge at all. It seemed like with every word, their voices rose louder and louder. The louder their voices got, the worse Fudge felt. She'd never seen Lightning this angry before. Or Ramone. For an instant, she was tempted to own up. Only for a moment, though. If they knew, they'd hate her. Besides, what if Chick told them about... No! She couldn't.
Fudge couldn't sleep that night. She didn't feel well. In fact, she felt sick with guilt. She couldn't believe she'd really done that. And she had a lot more to do. She wished it was over. She wished it hadn't even begun. Just go to sleep! a voice in her head screamed at her. Her problems would still be there in the morning, but at least sleep would allow her to escape them for a while. Or so she thought.
That night, Fudge had a dream where everyone in Radiator Springs had turned into horrible monsters who were chasing after her.
"What do you want?!" Fudge demanded fearfully, running away from them all. "Please don't hurt me! What do you want?!"
"We know what you did, Fudge!" Doc informed her as the RS gang surrounded her.
"You're a traitor!" Lightning added.
"Give us our stuff back!" Sarge ordered.
"Why, Fudge?!" Guido, who, for some reason, could speak English in her dream, demanded. "Why are you working for Chick?!"
"Because she's a traitor!" Lightning insisted.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Fudge shouted, beginning to cry. "Please don't hurt me!"
"Why don't you ask Chick to protect you?!" Flo scoffed.
"I HATE CHICK!" Fudge argued. "I don't want to work for him! I never did!"
"Yeah, we know!" Luigi snapped. "Chick told us everything!"
"Even... what happened at the Wheel Well?" Fudge questioned nervously.
"Of course he told me what happened at the Wheel Well!" Guido responded. "I can't believe you! I hate you, Fudge! I HATE YOU!"
"I'm sorry! It was an accident!"
"We'll show you an accident!" Fillmore moved in closer and...
Fudge bolted up in her bed. "PLEASE DON'T KILL ME!"
A couple of seconds later, Fudge heard the sound of her the inside door between her room and Luigi's being opened. Light flooded in from the hall as Luigi appeared in the doorway.
"Are you okay?" he questioned, concerned, rolling closer to his daughter's bed.
Fudge nodded, panting as she lay back down. "Yeah... Bad dream." And that was only a fraction of what was bothering her. She glanced at the clock. 3:17. Less than twenty minutes since she last remembered looking at the clock.
"Poor baby." Luigi gave her a kiss and pulled the covers back over her.
"I'm okay", she assured him. "You don't have to stay with me." But knowing Luigi, he would.
But... surprisingly, he hesitated. "Are you sure?"
Another nod. "You go back to sleep."
"Okay... Let me know if you need me." Luigi kissed her yet again before driving slowly and uncertainly out of the room.
Normally, as the sun rose over Radiator Springs, Sarge and Fillmore would begin their morning routine, which had been around the town for as long as the two of them had. However, that morning, as Sarge began the reveille music and rose the American flag, he awaited for the sound of an electric guitar, but it never came.
"WILL YOU TURN THAT DISRESPECT-" He stopped. He couldn't finish his sentence. Fillmore wasn't playing "that disrespectful junk". He'd been about to yell at him purely out of habit. They went through it every morning. It was like they were acting out a play, but now, Sarge was gonna have to do some adlibbing.
He entered Fillmore's dome to find the hippie bus searching the place up and down.
"Lookin' for somethin'?"
"My Hendrix CDs got stolen!" Fillmore complained. He turned to his best friend. "So have several cans of my organic fuel and two bucks! Who would do somethin' like that, man?"
"I have no idea", Sarge muttered. Why would anybody want to steal those god-awful Hendrix CDs and that freak juice? the Jeep wondered to himself.
"If they didn't have any money for the fuel, they could've just said, man", Fillmore went on. "I wasn't gonna, ya know, bite 'em or anythin'. I'm not violent, man."
"Well, I am!" Sarge reminded him. "And I'm gonna be when I find this thief!"
"So, that's five of us now", Lightning mused at Flo's later that morning when Sarge and Fillmore told everyone.
"Where are those oil cans?!" Flo grumbled to herself from inside. "I just got those sent to me yesterday. I didn't even have time to unpack them!"
"Better make that six", Doc corrected Lightning.
"They take any money, baby?" Ramone wanted to know.
"Yeah, so far, the one thing everyone's had taken is money", Sheriff chimed in.
"I don't know", Flo responded. "Let me check." There was a pause. "Yep. All the money from yesterday's gone!"
"How much was that?" Sheriff wanted to know.
"Close to eighty bucks."
"How much money does this person need?!" Lightning wondered.
"This person's already stolen over two hundred and fifty bucks", Sheriff commented, adding it up in his head.
"More than that!" Luigi piped up.
Everyone looked at him as he, Guido and Fudge arrived at Flo's.
"You got robbed too, did you, Luigi?" Doc asked.
The Fiat nodded. "Yes."
"Well, that's half of us now", Doc commented. "What they take from you?"
"A whole box of whitewall tyres, some racing flags and about sixty dollars."
Fudge remained quiet. All she wanted to do was run as far away from Flo's as possible, but she couldn't. If she did, everyone would suspect her of having something to do with it. Instead, she had to sit there and listen to everyone swear they would kill this "no-good rotten thief" if they ever found out who it was.
"You okay, Fudge?" Lightning asked all of a sudden.
The eight-year-old was snapped out of her thoughts and jumped a mile. "What?!"
"Whoa!" Lightning exclaimed, surprised by her reaction. "Something wrong?"
"Fudge had a bad dream last night", Luigi explained before Fudge could.
"Did you?" Sally questioned, sounding sympathetic.
"Yeah", Fudge sighed, staring down at the ground. "I didn't sleep well because of it... I've been having nightmares a lot lately." Okay. That wasn't actually true, but Fudge got the feeling that it would be soon and this was her way of giving her family a heads-up. Besides, ever since she was little, she'd been prone to nightmares, so it was believable.
"Oh, Fudgie!" Luigi cried. "You never told me that! I had no idea!"
"It's okay. It wasn't that bad at first, but they got worse last night."
"Poor Fudgie!" Luigi gave her a kiss. "You know, you could have told me if something was bothering you."
Fudge continued to keep her eyes fixed firmly on the ground. "Yeah..." she agreed uncertainly. "I know."
Over the next week, the little thefts of Radiator Springs continued. Fudge had taken Sally's phone, some random junk from Mater, snow globes, bumper stickers and postcards out of Lizzie's shop, some flower seeds that Red was saving for the right time of year and some important files from Sheriff's office. Fudge also took money from everyone, whether it be a couple of dimes from Mater or a fifty from Sheriff.
All of the items were hidden. Everything that was small enough was hidden in a locked box under her bed, which she bought to keep her journal in. Some of the larger things were hidden in the attic. She knew Luigi and Guido would never find them. They hardly ever went in there. Only at Christmas to get out the ornaments and maybe once or twice during the year to retrieve something or get rid of stuff.
Things got worse after about a week when Chick himself came to town. He collected all of the money she'd stolen (he didn't force her to do that, but if any secrets got out if she didn't, it would be a tremendous shame) and saw the trouble she'd caused with her thefts.
"Good job", he congratulated her. "Your secret's safe with me... for now!"
"Please!" Fudge begged. "I don't wanna do this anymore! Just let me give everyone their stuff back and we can all forget that this ever happened!"
"Fine. If that's the way you want it, I really don't care. I'll just go and pay your dads a friendly visit and tell 'em-"
"NO!" Fudge cut him off. "PLEASE DON'T!"
Chick nodded, satisfied. "That's what I thought. Now, so far, your work ain't been bad, but now, you gotta step it up a little."
Oh, boy! Fudge thought. "All right. What do I do now?"
"What the hell happened to that paint?!" Ramone groaned, talking to nobody in particular. And he knew what had happened to that paint. Someone had stolen it. The "no-good rotten thief", they'd been dubbed as around the town struck again. This was the first time they'd struck the same person twice. But why were they targeting Ramone again? There was still one of them that hadn't been targeted yet.
"You missin' paints?" Flo questioned, entering his shop.
"Yeah... They got me twice!"
"What colours?!" Flo wanted to know. She sounded desperate.
"Blue, red and orange... Why?"
"Come see for yourself!"
When Ramone left his shop, he couldn't believe what he saw! Red, blue and orange paint was sloshed carelessly over many walls of the town as well as the Stanley statue. Red's flowers had been trampled on, the poor fire truck in tears at the sight of them. One of the shops that was restored when the town got put back on the map had a broken window, an empty paint can, lying inside the shop. Tyres that had been displayed outside Luigi's were strewn all about the road. All of the residents were in shock.
"So, the no-good rotten thief has decided to take up vandalism as well, have they?!" Sarge grumbled. "When I get my tyres on 'em..."
Fudge's eyes widened in horror when she saw the damage done. Not even she knew how it had gotten this bad. The little girl got up in the dark to do her terrible deed before anybody else (she didn't even need to set an alarm; her guilt kept her awake most of the night!). And since the town had been pitch black, she hadn't seen how bad it was. Now, she wished she hadn't.
"Doc! Sheriff!" Sally exclaimed as the two of them appeared, having just noticed the damage done. "Look at this!"
Chick had arrived behind Doc and Sheriff and spoke up before either of them could. "Oh, no!" he gasped sarcastically. "Your town's totalled!"
Everyone narrowed their eyes suspiciously. He seemed to know something about what had happened. Or he just didn't care that about the damage. After all, it was obvious that he never liked Radiator Springs or anybody in it.
Doc and Sheriff looked at each other.
"I think", Doc announced finally, "it's time for a town meetin'."
Several of the others had a feeling he might say that. So, in less than five minutes, the entire town was gathered at the courthouse for the meeting.
"What are we supposed to do about this?" Sally wondered.
"There's nothin' we can do till we catch whoever's doin' this!" Flo responded.
"And then we'll make him-" Ramone began.
"Or her", Fillmore jumped in.
Ramone rolled his eyes. "Or her regret it for the rest of his- or her", he added, glaring at Fillmore as if to say, Happy?, "life."
"I can assure you, the culprit will be caught and justice will be done", Sheriff promised.
"I hope so!" Luigi voiced his opinion. "Guido and I have a daughter here! We do not want her thinking that this is acceptable!"
"Luigi, it's okay", Fudge assured him quietly. "I know that's bad. And stupid. And I shouldn't do that." She really did.
"It is not okay!" he insisted. "This person is a danger to our town! And a danger to you!"
"In the meantime", Sheriff went on, "Doc and I want everyone here to-"
"I think I know who the culprit is!" Lightning cut in. "Chick Hicks! What else would he be doing here?! Besides, you saw how he got when he saw the vandalism."
Immediately, most of the others began yelling things like, "Arrest him!" or "Throw him out of town!" Fudge joined in with a gleeful, "Let's kick him so hard he flies off to the moon and we never see or hear from him again!"
Now, wouldn't that be nice? However, it was wishful thinking. Still, an eight-year-old can dream, right?
"But it can't be Chick!" Doc reasoned. "He's only been here a couple days! This person's been stealin' for about a week now! Way before Chick got here!"
"Well, if it's not Chick, who is it?" Fudge wondered. Or, rather, pretended to wonder.
"Good question, Fudge." That was Doc.
It was a good question, but it was one nobody could answer. So, it didn't take long for the meeting to be adjourned. As soon as it was, Fudge bolted to the door, trying to be the first one out of there.
"Whoa! Slow down, Fudge!" Sheriff instructed her.
"I wanna go!" she insisted.
"Why?" about six or seven of them asked in unison.
"I had another nightmare", she explained, which was true.
"Poor Fudgie", Luigi sympathised.
"What's that got to do with getting out of here?" Sarge wondered.
"It kept me awake last night! I wanna go home and take a nap!"
"Okay", Luigi announced as Guido scooped Fudge up. "We are going home now. We will put you to bed if you want."
Fudge nodded. "I do!"
So, that's what they did. Only Fudge wasn't tired at all. She just took off her shoes (she didn't bother to change into pyjamas) and pretended to fall asleep. Guido and Luigi smiled at her fondly before Luigi announced that he had a lot of work to do. He had recently ordered some new tyres, but he'd only got half of what he asked for. One box didn't show up and two more were not what he ordered. So, he had to call the company he got his stock from to sort that out.
Guido wasn't sure of what to do. They didn't have any customers to take care of. Fudge was asleep (well, that's what he thought, anyway). Luigi was busy. Soon, he heard the dryer beeping to indicate that it was done. So, he began the task of folding his daughter's now-clean clothes and carrying them up to her room.
He tapped on the door lightly. "Fudge?" he asked, trying to be loud enough for Fudge to hear him, but not loud enough to wake her up if she was asleep. "(Are you awake?)"
Fudge, who had been lounging in her bed, leafing through a kids' magazine, threw it on the floor as quickly (and as quietly) as she could before making sure the covers were over her properly. Then Guido came into the room.
Guido knew his daughter. Fudge couldn't fool him. He knew for a fact that she was awake. He was aware of things that Fudge did in her sleep that even Fudge herself wasn't. So, of course, she couldn't imitate them, giving away that she wasn't asleep. Besides, that magazine on the floor had been on the bedside table when she supposedly fell asleep. Still, the little blue forklift ignored it and moved over to her closet to put the clothes in and then he left.
(Why was Fudge pretending to be asleep?) he wondered to himself in Italian, making his way up to the attic, deciding it was time to clean it out. His daughter's behaviour was very strange. She had been acting strange lately and Guido wished he knew why. He was worried about her. Little did Guido know, he was about to find out and it was gonna land him in very big trouble.
Guido was just going through some boxes, seeing what could stay in there and what could be thrown out or given away when he spotted something shiny in the corner. When he rolled closer to it and picked it up, he gasped. It was Ramone's paint! What was it doing in his attic? Guido thought about his daughter's suspicious behaviour. Unless... No! Guido told himself. There was no way Fudge would do that... Was there? No. Of course not. But maybe-
"Guido!"
The little forklift turned around at the sound of Sheriff's voice and headed into the store area where the police car was waiting for him. Then he realised he was still holding the paint can, so he hid it behind him.
"Can I talk to you?"
Guido was confused, but nodded. "Okay..."
Sheriff took a breath. "Somethin' that I- and some of the others as well- find sorta suspicious is that... So far... You're the only one that hasn't been targeted by..."
Guido looked down nervously. He knew where this was going. Of course everyone was gonna find that suspicious. However, he told himself not to worry. He knew he was innocent and they had no actual proof of-
Sheriff narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "What are you hidin'?"
Guido said nothing.
"Let me see it!" Sheriff ordered.
Guido sighed, knowing that he was defeated. Reluctantly, he showed Sheriff the paint can.
"Where did that come from?!" Sheriff demanded, beginning to get less suspicious and more certain that Guido was guilty.
Guido replied in Italian, which he knew Sheriff didn't understand, so he also gestured to attempt to make it clear that it came from the attic, but he had no idea how it got there.
"Hmmm... Well, why don't I take a look in your attic?"
Guido paused, but nodded. He hoped that the paint can was the only thing that was in there. He had no idea, though. He hadn't gotten very far into cleaning the place out.
No such luck. Guido could only watch on in horror as Sheriff unearthed more and more of the stolen items. Cans of oil and Fillmore's organic fuel. The night vision goggles from Sarge's. Lightning's missing merchandise. Fudge's watch (in order to avoid suspicion, she'd hidden her watch and the tin containing her money and claimed they'd been stolen).
"What's all this?"
The poor forklift didn't even know what to say. It didn't really matter anyway. Sheriff wouldn't be able to understand him.
"Follow me to the impound!" Sheriff instructed him as he confiscated everything. "You gotta lotta explainin' to do!"
Guido had no choice but to do as Sheriff said. As they rolled past Flo's, several of the other townsfolk approached them.
"Why would you do this, Guido?!" Lightning demanded. "You traitor!"
"Yeah, what you got against us?!" Ramone added.
"Not cool, man!" Fillmore chimed in.
Guido refused to answer them as he got put in the impound. He was scared. He'd been arrested once before (when he and the rest of the town refused to let social workers take Fudge away) and he could now say from experience that it never got easier. On top of that, all of his friends hated him. He didn't know how things could get any worse.
To be continued...
*Sheepish smile* I know, I know. Things look real bad for the car-acters right now. But it'll get better... Reviews?
