Hello guys! God, I just can't wait til' this crap ends! That's why I'm updating like a madman! OH GOD! I WISH THIS CHAPTER WOULD JUST WRITE ITSELF! But that'll only happen once Giggles hits on Disco Bear.

How this story came to be what it is now was when I was listening to some music. I was listening to the song "You're Gonna Go Far Kid" by The Offspring, and I started thinking to myself, "What if Shifty was framed for a crime he didn't take part in?" I played the thought in my head, thinking of how that could play out. Finally, I posted it on Fanfiction and named it some crap name I came up with in a few seconds, expecting that people would think it was crap and I would have to delete it. I never expected "72 Hours" to take off like it did, and I was extremely surprised when I saw how many people liked it. Reading the reviews always brings a smile to my face, seeing how this is one of my most popular stories. I would just like to thank you for sticking with this story as it's progressed, and supporting this story. It really helps out, knowing that I don't write like crap.

Stripes:… Wow, that was really touching.

Yep, and the touching moment's gone. Thanks a lot, idiot. Anyways, please enjoy this chapter.

Please.

I have nothing else to do, and I don't want all this hard work to end up in the trash.

I ran after Angel, making everyone gasp. "Shifty! What are you doing?" Zer0 exclaimed. I didn't answer, afraid to lose my concentration on Angel. I pushed Grim and Broken out of the way, trying to get to Angel. "Help me!" Angel shouted. "He's trying to kill me!" The female panther was using the same "nice girl" act, making tears quiver up in her eyes and her voice shake in fear.

That was enough to fool Splendid.

The super squirrel was in the air in a minute. I ran as fast as I could, seeing the hero hot on my heels. Splendid was about forty feet in the air, when he suddenly stopped and started flying down at me.

I had only seconds to react. I quickly realized that if I kept at the pace I was now, I would get hit by Splendid. So I stopped running. Splendid, instead of hitting me if I were to keep running, he hit hard ground, making half of his body stuck in the dirt and the other half sticking out. Despite me wanting to laugh out loud and tease the squirrel, I kept running. Making fun of Splendid would have to wait for another time.

I lost just a bit of time, but I still kept running after Angel, determined to completely clear my name.

Now, I'm pretty sure that Angel didn't hide the cursed idol in her suitcase, but it was well hidden in her fancy black suit. If I was wrong, then I'm hoping that Unlimited Bolt will tell everyone about Angel and hopefully check her bag. I didn't care; I just want to see the panther pay for her crimes.

Angel zigzagged her way across town, making it harder to follow her. I growled when she started to run through the alleyways of the buildings, disappearing in darkness. I, being the determined raccoon that I am, followed her, making everything darker.

I could still see her form as we weaved through the buildings, but it was a bit blurry. My pace quickened, despite my legs screaming to give out under me. I squinted, trying hard to find the panther I was flowing, but I could only barely see just an outlined figure. She was fast, but she couldn't escape me for the life of her.

Soon, with no more alleyways to turn, Angel ran out from between the building and onto the street, where I could actually see her. She continued running down the street, and boy, was she fast. She kept looking around for place to go, and soon ran into a large building where Splendid used to work when he actually thought that people fell for his glasses, fedora, and tie disguise.

My heart pounded in my ears as I ran up to the building and tried to push it open, only to find it locked. Angel had locked the door. I growled and tried to force the door open, but it wouldn't budge.

"Need some help?" a voice said behind me. I turned around, only to be shocked. Right there, stood my two siblings, Swifty and Thrifty, and the one person that kept me going, Lifty. I smiled and nodded eagerly.

The three raccoons stepped back a bit, before running towards the door and ramming into it, slamming it off its hinges. I looked at the three of them and smiled. "Thanks guys," I said, before running into the building.

I looked around and saw Angel a bit of a distance away, looking shocked that I was able to bust the door down. I ran after her as she turned her heel and left.

I followed her this way and that, making office papers scatter and newspaper clipping fly around. I finally lost her when she got inside an elevator and closed the double doors just before I could get in. I shouted out in frustration and pounded against the elevator doors, but no avail.

I looked around the room for another way up, when I saw a flight of stairs. I sighed, knowing that I'd have to use all those stairs. My legs already ached from all that running, so going up a bunch of stairs was the last thing I needed. But despite that, I ran up the stairs.

As I was going up the stairs, I checked each floor to see if Angel was there, but it always turned out that she was another floor higher. And then finally, after all the stair climbing and a bit of vomiting, I made it to the top of the building. It turns out that Angel was really good at plying hard to get, because she was on the roof of the building.

Angel stood at the edge of the roof, watching me as I climbed up, heaving and wheezing. I looked at her, trying to form words. "You… suck!" I shouted, panting in between my words. Angel smirked and pulled out the cursed idol from her black jacket. "Looking for this?" she teased, waving the idol around in her paw.

"I… hate… you!" I yelled, still panting, but getting my breath back. "Oh come on, Shifty! How far will you go just to clear your name and get this stupid idol back?" Angel exclaimed. I raised an eye and smiled at her. "I'm sorry, have we met? My name is Shifty Raccoon, the guy who shoved his own brother off the edge of a hot air balloon just to make a few bucks."

"Impressive," Angel said. She put the cursed idol on the ground and raised her paws up in a fighting stance. "Come on, put your paws up." I looked at her weird, but nodded and put myself in the same stance that she was in.

We stood still for a moment, until Angel came running at me. I gasped and quickly stepped back, dodging her punch. I myself threw a punch, but she dodged that as if it was nothing. She swung at me again, but this time she got me.

I stumbled back and grabbed at my stinging cheek. I felt blood run down my face, so I touched my cheek to find three angry claw marks. "You have claws?" I exclaimed. "I'm a panther, duh," Angel said, holding up her paw to reveal a black claw sticking out of each finger.

I frowned and ran at Angel. She dodged and blocked every punch that I threw at her, obviously being more nimble than I thought. Then, instead of just plain punching her, I took both paws and pushed her back.

Angel gasped and stumbled back to the edge of the building. She tried to keep her balance, but ended up falling off. But just before she fell to her death, I grabbed her black jacket to keep her from dying. We looked into each other's eyes, full of surprise even from me.

I smiled as I slowly let my fingers loosen their grip and Angel began to go lower. "You wouldn't dare," Angel growled through clenched teeth, eyes glistening with hatred. I smiled. "I'm sorry, have we met?" I asked. Then I let go of her.

Just before I was about to watch her fall to her death, Angel purposely grabbed the idol and threw it over the ledge. And then she fell to her death.

I gasped as I saw the cursed idol fall from the sky. If the idol broke, the curse would also break and our ability to come back after dying every day would be lost. So I stood up, backed up until was about ten feet from the ledge, and then I did the stupidest thing possible.

I sprinted across the roof and jumped once I got to the ledge.

Now, I've fallen from the sky plenty of times to know that it's not fun unless you know you have a parachute. Lucky for me, I was able to get close enough to the idol to eventually grab it. What sucked for me was that I was falling from the sky from a hundred feet in the air.

I looked at the idol and said, "I freaking hate you." I closed my eyes and waited until my guts were splattered all over the concrete. It never came.

I slowly opened my eyes to find myself floating just inches above the ground. I looked around and saw that Splendid was holding me in the air. I smiled at him and said, "Thanks man. You finally did your job right this time."

Splendid nodded in gratitude, but his eyes widened when he saw the cursed idol in my paw. "What's wrong?" I asked and looked at the creepy looking statue. We then both looked up in unison to see a plane falling from the sky just above us.

I sighed and looked at the cursed idol. "No death should be worth you."

Then we were flattened by a plane, which exploded five seconds later.

I heard whispers, which slowly awoke me. I gently opened my eyes and looked around to see nearly every Tree Friend staring at me. I looked down to see that I was in a hospital bed, and then I looked back up to see them still staring.

"Is there something on my face?" I asked, looking around at everyone. "SHIFTY!" Everyone shouted in unison and I was soon tackled by hugs. "Wah? Is it Valentine's day or something?" I asked, not really understanding what was happening.

"You saved Happy Tree Town!" Muffin shouted, patting my shoulder. Then all the memories of yesterday's events flooded into my mind. I gave a large grin. "Yeah. Yeah, I guess I did! Wait, where's Angel?"

"Cloud has her locked up in Happy Tree Prison," Stripes said and punched my arm. I gasped and held by bruising arm. Everyone was silent for a minute. "Wow, love does hurt!" I said, smiling. Stripes laughed and punched me in the arm again. I frowned and said, "Yep, still feeling the love." Everyone laughed.

The whole hour was filled with people apologizing to me for accusing me of thievery, and others not apologizing, but asking me questions. I was fine with both. I was most happy to see Lifty. He apologized for accusing me and turning his back on me when I needed him most. I instantly forgave him, and I even seen him stealing Sniffles' wallet while he was speaking to me. I guess we were back to the mischievous twin thieves.

It also turns out that Greedy and Scampy had to leave yesterday, Sniffles told me that Greedy was really proud of me, and hoping to meet again sometime.

"I still can't believe Angel did it," Sniffles told me. "Me neither, but she is EVIL!" I responded. "You know what? I'm going to look this girl up to see if she's done anything else this bad before." I nodded and watches Sniffles take out his laptop, sit down on a chair, and started typing. Grim and Broken stood beside him, looking over his shoulder.

Yoyo stood next to me and asked, "So, what's going to happen to this Angel chick?" I shrugged. "We're not sure yet," Stripes answered for me. "Can we at least kill her outside of Happy Tree Town?" Milky asked, crossing her arms. "Yes!" I exclaimed, shocking everyone. "That is a great idea! You don't know how much I would love to hear the words-"

"ANGEL'S DEAD!"

We all turned in shock, seeing that the speaker was Sniffles. "What?" I asked in shock and ran over to him. We all gathered behind him and looked over his shoulder and onto the screen. On the screen was a picture of an old newspaper clipping. The picture on the cover was of a smiling Angel, looking as happy as she could be. The paper read:

Cheerful News Reporter Found Dead in Dumpster

On May 16, 2012, a well-known news reporter by the name of Angel Panther was found deceased in a dumpster beside an old abandoned building was large stab marks in her chest and claw marks were detected all over the young animal's body. It is unknown why anyone would want to murder the twenty year old cat, and we have not yet caught the murderer. Angel's friends and family have placed a large reward for whoever brings back the sweet girl's killer, dead or alive. See page 5 for contact info.

That's when I stopped reading. "That's impossible!" Vlad shouted. "We have her in jail! I'm calling Cloud," Stripes said and pulled out her cell phone.

"This can't be possible," Muffin said. "Well, there's only three possible answers to this," Rachel said. "Either Angel has some sort of identical twin sister, she went back in time and killed herself, or the Angel we have is no Angel at all."

Everyone exchanged glances. "Ah, let's stop worrying about it!" Samiee said. "Let's just be thankful that we have the cursed idol back."

I smiled and nodded, deciding to go with Samiee's idea. Stripes looked at her phone and put it away. "Hey Shifty, do you know what this calls for?" the tiger asked. I shrugged. "What is it?" Stripes cupped her paws around her mouth and shouted, "DOG PILE ON SHIFTY!"

My eyes widened as I was tackled by Stripes, then U, then Bunny, and then everyone else.

I stood there, looking through the bars of my cell. I can't believe my plan failed. Maybe I should've just waited until the whole presentation was over. Maybe I should've left Angel alive.

Angel was a clever, but naive panther. I killed her months ago, which was a bad idea since now her family wants my head. Hiding the young panther's body in a dumpster was actually a really bad idea. I should've just disposed of her body underground.

"Hey Angel, you've got a call," the one named Cloud said. He walked over to my cell and handed me a small phone. I had almost forgotten that I was under Angel's identity. I grabbed the phone and held it to my ear. "Yeah?" I asked.

"You're in jail, aren't you?" a female voice said on the other end. I sighed in response. "Dang it Blade! You were supposed to get the cursed idol, and then I could come in!" the female speaker yelled in anger. "Yes ma'am, but the raccoon named Shifty got in the way!" I explained.

"I knew it was a bad idea hiring you. Listen, I'll give you another shot," she growled. "You screw up again, and I'll take matters in my own hands. Got it?" I gritted my teeth. I hated being bossed around. "Yes ma'am," I forced out. I heard a click on the other end, which meant that this conversation was done.

"Here!" I said and shoved the phone through the bars. The Cloud guy took it and looked at me oddly. "Hey, why'd she call you 'Blade?'" he asked. I looked at him and grinned. I made the "come here" motion with my finger.

Once the wolf got close enough, I shoved my paw though the bars and dug my claws into his neck. The wolf struggled until one of my claws cut through his jugular vein, making him go limp. I grinned and dropped him. I then grabbed the lock on my cell door and put the claw of my index finger inside the hole.

The lock clicked and I removed it. I kicked the door open and ran down the hallway until I reached the door on the end. I kicked it open and ran out. No one was on the streets, so I ran straight for the Happy Tree Forrest. One I was over the border and lost in trees, by appearance began to change.

I grew much taller, taller than that blue moose fellow, and black stripes appeared on my fur. My eyelashes disappeared and my clothes vanished as well. In place of my black suit was a large light brown trench coat that reached my ankles and covering my legs were black jeans along with a black belt. My buck teeth became dagger-like fangs and my packman pupils became black dots with red irises.

This is what I really looked like. I was not a panther, not a girl, and definitely not an always cheerful idiot.

I looked into the distance at Happy Tree Town, forming another plan in my mind.

Thanks for reading and supporting me over the chapters.

Scar belongs to blaze404

Muffin and Rainier belong to MuffinHTF

Grim and Broken belong to Broken and Grim Ruin

Vlad and Rachel belong to XenaTheAlienChick

Cloud belongs to ninakienaki

Bunny and Limit belong to BunnyTheEpicBunny

Zer0 belongs to Carlos45

Clover belongs to Story telling-tallent fairy

Swifty and Thrifty belong to .GirlxX

U and Samiee belong to Flippy Face

Milky belongs to RevGirl7

Yoyo belongs to YoyoHTF

Sub Zero, Stripes, Blink, Link, Mirrors, Blade/Angel, Greedy, and Scampy belong to me.

Everyone else belongs to Mondo Media.

Hey listen, I'm making a new story. Keep an eye out for it, because it gives more info on Blade and takes place a few months after this.

Thanks for supporting me.

Carrots are orange.

-stripesthetiger11