Chapter 9

"News of Dischord"

A few days after Sam had returned to New York, he took Sawyer, Danny and Pudge to Grand Central Station for the journey back to Los Angeles. Sawyer had took her brother's warnings seriously about the thought of communism being swept through Hollywood like a brush fire and wanted Danny and Pudge to be vigilant about it. Upon saying goodbye to her brother, Sawyer was told by Sam that he would be in touch and that if any trouble were to come at her and Danny, she would have to let him know as soon as possible. In fact, during the train ride, Sawyer could not help but wonder what the communism threat was like.

"I just don't understand it, Danny," she said looking out the window. "Sam told me to beware of some threat that is coming to Hollywood, but I don't know what the threat is."

"What kind of threat was he talking about?" asked Danny.

"He said it was a communist threat or something," replied Sawyer. "It had something to do with a new world order or something."

"I'd wouldn't worry about it," said Danny reassuringly. "Besides, if anything were to happen, L.B. would take care of it. There is no communist threat or something that is going to turn our lives upside down."

"I hope you are right, Danny," said Sawyer. "I hope you are right."

Danny wanted Sawyer to be comfortable about all of this, but he knew also that there was a dark cloud that was beginning to form over Mammoth Studios. No sooner did he reassure Sawyer that he heard a strange commotion going on right outside the cabin where they were staying.

"What's going on, Danny?" asked Pudge, who had been woken up from a nap he had been taking. "Can't a penguin get any sleep around here?"

"Sorry, Pudge," apologized Danny. "I'll go find out what is going on. Stay here, you two."

So Danny left the cabin and walked down the hallway and saw what appeared to be a group of passengers huddling around a cabin. Walking over, Danny was shocked and surprised by what he saw next. A pair of gorillas were showing off their newspaper to the group of people that had assembled.

"What's going on here?" asked Danny. "What's all the commotion about?"

"It's Mammoth," said the male gorilla. "He says that he won't sign with the union."

"Yeah," said the female gorilla. "It's looking like Mammoth studios is about to be under siege by the animal actors union."

"How do you know about that?" asked Danny walking over to the gorillas. "Where do you see that?"

"It's on the front page of the paper mac," said the male gorilla and he showed the picture of L.B. that was right on the cover and the headline above read that L.B. was a "greedy non animal employer who doesn't care about the survival of animal actors in the town of Hollywood." Danny refused to believe the truth about his boss and decided to know the truth.

"I can't believe this," he gasped looking at the picture. "I know L.B. Mammoth and he always cared about the animal actors."

"Believe it, Mac," said the male gorilla. "The unions are calling for his head after what he did."

"What did he do?" asked Danny again.

"He refused to sign with the union," sighed the female gorilla. "He says that his studio does not play union games with anyone."

Danny was horrified and left the cabin to let crowd embrace what they just saw. Upon returning to the cabin, Sawyer and Pudge were shocked to see Danny look so upset.

"Danny, is everything all right?' asked Pudge nervously. "You look upset about something."

"It's the newspapers," blurted out Danny. "They are trying to say that L.B. is a greedy studio head that doesn't believe in the rights of animal actors."

"I know that he hasn't hired very many animals since our performance," added Sawyer. "But that doesn't mean that he doesn't care about the animal actors of Hollywood. What about Tillie? Francis? Cranston? Woolie? T.W.? Isn't he letting them star in movies after our box office flop?"

"He is letting them perform like us," said Pudge. "But, my parents always taught me to never believe everything that you hear or see."

"They should be right, Pudge," replied Sawyer who then looked at Danny. "Danny, don't let the papers make you believe that L.B. is an evil man. We all know him for who he is and we both know he fell ashamed for what he did to us after the ark accident."

"Yeah," added Pudge. "It was Darla's fault, not yours."

"How could you say that?" added Danny. "I think the real reason why he sent us to New York was to protect us from this nightmare that is unfolding in Hollywood."

"Is it true what my brother said to me?" remarked Sawyer. "That the threat really is sweeping Hollywood?"

"I'm afraid that it is true, Sawyer," replied Danny. "We are in for a very long ride at this point. Any more movies we make for L.B. is going to not make the money that Lil Ark Angel made. Also, I don't think an all animal musical number is going to save us at this point."

"I hope you are not going to believe that, Danny," said Sawyer. "I refuse to let the one cat who made me realize my dream again, fall prey to something as stupid as this."

Danny was slightly reassured by what his girlfriend had to say as Pudge also lended his support to him by placing his flipper on his hand. Sawyer then came over to her boyfriend and gave him a hug as a sign of support to him as well.

A few days later, they finally made it back to Hollywood. But by then, the citizens of Hollywood were beginning to get on edge as the talk of labor unions was beginning to take hold. Just then, Danny and his friends saw Mickey Mouse pull in his car and rolled down his window.

"Hey, Danny, Sawyer," he whispered. "Get inside, quickly! Ha-ha. There is something that you need to see."

Not really sure what Mickey was talking about, Danny, Sawyer and Pudge got in Mickey's car and they drove off towards whatever was going on. None of them realized why Mickey was so worried, but in due time, they would all find out the truth.