Chapter 9
Later, outside the museum, Jaime was just pulling something up near the building. It seemed to be a very big truck of some sorts. It made some beeping noises as it backs up towards the back of the very museum. Once he got close to it he pulled out a radio and talked through it.
"Alright, I got the truck from Uncle Edwardo and now it's parked outside ready to go." Jaime said.
"Ok hermano, let's hope this works." Miguel said on the other end.
Inside the museum, Miguel turned to the Ice Age gang behind him while holding a walkie talkie in his hand.
"Ok guys, this is it." Miguel told them. "Any questions before we start?"
Sid then raised his paw. "Yes, Sid?" The Hispanic teen asked.
"Uh… one question I've been meaning to ask…" Sid began before looking at Miguel's walkie talkie. "How did your brother get in that little box?"
Miguel's face fell. "He's not in this thing."
"Oh, then where is he?" Ellie inquired, curiously.
"Outside, in a giant mobile thing called a truck, waiting for us." Miguel stated.
"How do you know that?" Diego questioned.
"Because he told me." Miguel replied, he then held up the walkie talkie. "This is called a walkie talkie, it allows me to communicate with him from a far, thanks to its radio waves."
"Ooh!" Crash said in awe.
"Is it… is it…" Eddie began before he and Crash both said…
"Magic!"
"It's not magic it's science." Miguel said, bluntly.
"Science?" Peaches echoed.
"Yeah, you'd be amazed by what we've created over the years." Miguel told them.
"Fascinating!" Louis remarked.
"Sounds hard…" Crash said.
"And complicated." Eddie remarked.
"Of course it is, you'd have to have a brain to understand it." Diego told them.
"And longer attention span." Shira added.
"Can't argue with that." Miguel agreed. "Now just do what we say and we should be able to get out of here with no problem."
"MENDEZ!"
"And that would be a problem…" he muttered.
"Who was that?" Ellie asked.
"My boss…" Miguel replied. "I don't know why he's here but he does not make out escape plan any easier! We gotta hurry! Come on!"
Miguel then dashes away with the other Sub-Zero Heroes following him close behind.
Around the same time, Miguel's boss Boris was standing near the front entrance looking for Miguel, but couldn't see him anywhere, much to his frustration.
"MENDEZ!" he yelled again. "Where is that slacker!?"
Close by, Miguel and the other prehistoric animals had just gotten to the edge of a corner where they could see Boris standing near the front entrance fuming.
"And whose' that?" Sid asked.
"That is my aforementioned boss…" Miguel stated.
"He looks pretty mad…" Ellie observed.
"He's always like that." Miguel said, sourly.
"And you work for him?" Shira questioned.
"Hey, I need to get paid so that I can help my family." Miguel defended. "Family is important. It's all that matters. You guys agree with that?"
"Of course." Manny nodded.
"Yeah, no one understands family better than us!" Sid added.
"That's for sure, we're family and we're a herd." Diego nodded.
"Pretty cool." Miguel admitted.
"Yeah, it was a bit weird at first… but you get used to it." Shira smiled as she and Diego nuzzled. Miguel smiled at this before they heard Boris yell once more.
"MENDEZ! WHERE ARE YOU?"
"Oh boy… come on, let's get moving amigos!" Miguel told them.
"But what about your boss?" Ellie asked.
"Right him…" Miguel remembered. He then began to think. "What to do…? What to do…?"
"I saw we just go over and say 'hi', and maybe kick 'em, that'll shut him up." Granny declared as she began to slowly make her way to Boris.
"What? No!" Miguel cried, quietly as he pulled her back. "You guys can't be seen! You hear me? He cannot see you!"
"Why?" Sid asked, confused.
"Yeah, your brother was ok seeing us, why not him?" Peaches questioned.
"Because unlike me and my brother he will not be that understanding." Miguel told them. "He might send you to some lab to get very painful things done to you."
Louis gulped at the thought. "Uh… maybe we should leave… huh? Does that sound good?" he asked the others.
"Can't, if we go back to the exhibit that'll be the first place he'll look for me, we're boxed in." Miguel said. "We gotta distract him."
"Ooh! Ooh! Allow us!" Crash piped up.
"Yeah, we're really good at distracting folks." Eddie told him.
"It's true." The other Ice Age animals confirmed with a nod.
"Ok you two, what's your plan?" Miguel inquired.
"Kid, just watch…" Crash began.
"And learn." Eddie finished as they began to scurry ahead.
"Are you sure they have a plan?" Miguel questioned the others.
"Those two always manage to surprise me." Ellie smiled.
"Yeah, sometimes in a good way, sometimes in a bad one… it varies." Diego shrugged.
"Great… our fates are in the fates of two dummies… I feel so much better." Miguel practically.
"If it makes you feel any better, I do feel your pain." Louis told him before he and the others then began to observe the possums brothers.
Crash and Eddie quickly scurried across the floor while Boris wasn't looking and when he did turn in their general direction they were already gone. They pressed themselves against the side of the wall and then turned and began to make their way towards the big man himself.
"What… are they… doing?" Miguel questioned.
"I have no idea…" Manny shook his head.
"Ooh! I can't watch!" Sid expressed as he covered his eyes.
"I don't think I want to watch." Louis added.
"That makes two of us kid." Diego agreed.
Boris then scanned the area one more time, not noticing the two primitive possums near his feet.
"Man, where is that worthless slacker?" Boris grumbled. "I swear when I find him, I'm gonna make him wish he was never born."
They both smirk to each and nod before they suddenly begin to scurry up his pant leg which he noticed, felt and began screaming because of it. Boris yelled and jumped all over the place as the two brothers begin to scurry all over him.
"Ah! Get it off! Get it off!" he screamed while crying out like a little girl.
Everyone else watched this unfold with stunned looks on their faces.
"Well… that's one way to distract someone…" Miguel remarked.
"Yeah, I'll say." Diego agreed.
"Well then let's stop standing around and start moving already!" Manny told them.
"Right, come on amigo's let's go!" Miguel said as he gestured them to follow him just as Boris turned away from them while trying to get Crash and Eddie out of his clothes.
"Hey! Get out there! Right now!" he yelled as he continued to struggle violently while Miguel and the rest of the Sub-Zero heroes sneaked right past them. Once they were clear, Miguel gave the two brothers a whistle and they scurried right out.
Boris shuddered a bit. "Gah! What was that?" he wondered before he spotted a few tails belonging to two certain possums scurrying away. "Hey, you! Get back here!"
Boris then ran off in the direction of Crash and Eddie, which was the same direction Miguel and the others were running down at the moment.
Elsewhere, Miguel and the other Ice Age creatures were all turning around a corner and rushing down a hallway and with each step that he took, Manny practically shook the whole passage way and made them jump a bit. Miguel turned to him.
"You think you can run a little quieter!?" Miguel questioned Manny.
"He can't, he has to since he's…" Sid began.
"Sid, don't you dare tell him my weight!" Manny warned Sid, angrily.
"Sorry…" Sid said, sheepishly.
"Hey, guys!" They heard someone call out.
They turned and saw the Possum brothers rushing down the hallway until they finally reached them.
"Crash! Eddie!" Ellie said, pleased to see her adoptive brothers again.
"Hey, sis!" Eddie smiled.
"Fancy meeting you here!" Crash added.
"No time for chatting, we gotta keep moving!" Miguel told them. "Our window of opportunity is closing!"
"Uh… what's a window?" Crash asked, confused. Miguel just groaned.
"Just run…" he muttered.
"How much further?" Diego asked.
"Not much, keep going, amigos!" Miguel told them.
"MENDEZ!"
Miguel's eyes widened as he turned around and saw his boss, a now furious looking Boris, rushing after him as fast as he could. Miguel's eyes widen with fear when he saw how mad he really was.
"MENDEZ! You get back here right now!"
"Ok, keep going faster!" Miguel yelled as he ran ahead, along with the others while Boris continued to chase them. "Must go faster, must go faster…"
Boris roared as he began to gain on them, Sid looked back and yelped when he saw him and how red his face was getting.
"He's still following us!" Sid cried.
"Boy, this guy just won't give up!" Peaches remarked.
"You're telling me!" Miguel exclaimed. "I work for the guy! Or at least I used to…"
Something then flew over their head, no doubt that it was thrown by Boris, and hit the wall in front of them.
"Yeah, I'd go with 'used to'." Diego told him.
"Slow him down! Quickly!" Miguel cried, stressed out.
"We're on it!" The Possum Brothers said as they stopped and turned to face him again. He narrowed his eyes when he saw them.
"You two again!" he said, in a low tone. He stopped and stared them both down for a minute before they both angrily lunged toward each other.
The others go around another corner and began to hear sounds of a fight brewing, which quickly made them stop, and listen to the sounds, until they finally died down.
"What… what happened?" Miguel asked.
They all waited for someone, anyone, to come around the corner and reveal him or themselves. Then they hear little paws scampering and were greeted to the sight of Crash and Eddie rushing over to them with something in their paws.
"Hey, guys! We got his cheese!" Crash said as he held up the pair of boxers.
"Yeah!" Eddie added, chuckling. Miguel just face palmed.
"Well… at least Boris has a good reason to be mad at us…" Miguel remarked.
"Let's just get going before he decides to rip our fur off." Manny stated.
"Agreed, because me… naked… is not a pretty sight, let me tell you…" Sid began.
"Come on." Diego said, annoyed as he pulled him away while they continued to rush down the hallway. As they got closer to the back door, Boris stepped into the last hallway looking very mad indeed.
Miguel and the others soon came out of the back door, with Manny and his family pretty much making a giant hole as they collided right through it. They soon found Jaime coming out of the large truck nearby.
"Ok, we're all set to go." Jaime told them.
"Good, now everybody in the truck! Go! Go! Go!" Miguel ordered as the Ice Age animals quickly tried to hurry into the truck, while Jaime rushed over to the driver's seat.
"Boy, pushy little guy ain't he?" Peaches remarked.
"I heard that!" Miguel exclaimed.
"Sorry!" Peaches apologized, as she got in along with everybody else.
"Is that everybody?" Jaime called out.
"Yeah, that's everyone." Miguel confirmed, not noticing Scat getting in at the last second. He closed the door then rushed into the truck and sat down next to his brother before buckling up. "Now DRIVE!"
Jaime then slammed on the gas pedal and took off down the road just as Boris exited the building he ran after the truck for a little while before he finally ran out of gas and watched it go off.
"MENDEZ!" Boris yelled at the top of his lungs while the truck continued to drive off into the distance.
The brothers soon sighed a breath of relief once they were at least a mile away from the museum and out of Boris' line of sight.
"Whew! That was close!" Jaime remarked.
"And a complete fiasco!" Miguel added. "Not to mention I'm probably gonna get fired."
"Could be worse." Jaime pointed out. "And now you can get a job with a less… jerk of a boss."
"True enough." Miguel admitted, nodding. "And we get the guys out safely and without anybody else seeing them."
"What about Boris?" Jaime wondered.
"What about him?" Miguel asked.
"Do you think he saw them?" Jaime questioned, suspiciously.
Miguel looked very unsure of this. "I… don't know… I hope not… we really don't need to deal with that right now."
"For real." Jaime agreed.
"How do you think they're doing in their anyway?" Miguel wondered gesturing to their 'cargo' behind them.
"Oh, I'm sure they're fine." Jaime assured him.
Meanwhile in the back of the truck where they were all stored, each of the animals were trying their hardest to stay still and keep their balance as the whole compartment continued to shake and bump all over the place.
"I don't like this…" Sid said, as the whole thing continued to shake.
"None of us do, so stop complaining!" Diego told him.
"But…" Sid began before another bump caused him to hit the wall and pass out. Nobody seemed that effected by it.
"Couldn't have said it better myself." Manny remarked.
"Same here." Shira nodded.
"What is this thing anyway?" Peaches wondered, looking around.
"Miguel called it a 'truck'." Ellie said.
"Whatever that is." Manny muttered.
"Well, whatever it is at least we won't be spotted in it, like Miguel said." Shira said. "Or so he says…"
"Relax, nothing can hurt us in here." Diego assured her.
Unfortunately, thanks to that little bump, the back door of the truck came right off and skidded across the road. The animals all looked out it wide eyed.
"Well, so much for that." Shira commented.
The two brothers noticed something behind them and when they noticed that their back door had been knocked off, they screamed.
"Quick! Get out here before we're spotted!" Miguel screamed.
"Easier said than done!" Jaime yelled as he made a sharp turn, which knocked everyone into the side of the truck before driving down a seemingly empty road.
"I think we're clear. Are we clear?" Jaime asked, looking around before looking at his brother.
"Yeah, yeah I think we're clear…" Miguel nodded, before they heard an angry yell behind them. "I gotta quit jinxing myself…"
Miguel turned and much to his horror he saw his boss, or rather his former boss, speeding after him and his brother on a moped with a furious look on his face.
"MENDEZ!" Boris yelled.
"Oy…" Miguel gulped.
Jaime checked as well and his eyes widen when he sees Boris. "Ay caramba! This guy just won't give up!"
"Can you shake him?" Miguel asked.
"I'll try!" Jaime said as he began making a series of sharp turns which Boris follow exactly. This continued for a while and much to their dismay, he was beginning to catch up to them.
"Everyone to the back, now!" Manny ordered them as they all rushed over and pressed their backs against the back of what considered a metal box while Manny stood in front of them. Boris then began to get closer to the back and peered inside, and he was shocked when he saw Manny before him.
"A Woolly Mammoth!? That's impossible!" he cried. "Wait… you're from the exhibit! But how!?"
Sid then poked his head out from behind Manny. "Heck, if we know, pal!"
"Gah! You talked!?" Boris screamed. Crash then popped out.
"Yeah, and we can also do this!" Crash said as he threw a wrapper that flew right into Boris' face. "Yes! Got 'em!|
"Gah! I can't see!" he cried.
Boris then began to swerve around left and right, completely blind to his surroundings. He struggled to get the wrapper out of his face and when he finally did he saw that he was heading straight for some garbage cans and screams as he ended up crashing into them.
The brothers both looked back and saw where Boris that crashed into and then looked back toward the road, wide eyed and shocked by what had just happened.
"Hope nobody saw that…" Jaime voiced.
"Yeah, no kidding…" Miguel nodded. "Probably should keep driving though."
"Good idea." Jaime nodded as he drove on ahead.
Meanwhile, inside the truck, the sub-zero heroes were all panting and trying to recover from their recent ordeal. Most of them were pretty freaked out by the whole experience, mainly Louis and the Possum brothers.
"Everyone ok?" Manny asked.
"No…" Diego replied, deadpan.
"I'm ok, Dad." Peaches assured him.
"Yeah… thank goodness for that…" Louis breathed.
"Uh huh… can we go home now?" Crash asked, shaken.
"Yeah, that sounds good." Eddie agreed.
"We can't go home now guys, we have to trust that Miguel will find us a new home." Ellie stated.
"We're still gonna put our fates in the care of that kid? Can we really trust him?" Shira questioned.
"We trust you don't we?" Manny pointed out, smirking.
Shira glared at him. "Everybody's a comedian…"
"At least we're all ok." Ellie said, relieved. Then she noticed one of them was missing. "Wait… where's Sid?"
They all looked around and saw that Sid was somehow missing from the truck.
"Ooh… I hope he's not dead… he promised to wash my feet at noon!" Granny said.
"I'm back here…" A voice muffled voice spoke up.
They all turned and quickly figure out that the voice was coming from behind Manny. He stepped back from the wall where he had pressed most of his body against and saw Sid practically flattened against it. He then pushed himself off the wall and gasped for breath.
"Oh… sorry…" Manny said, sheepishly as Sid continued to pant.
"Ah, toughen up ya big sack of jelly." Granny told him as she bonked him on the head, which promptly knocked him down. They all gazed down at him.
"Eh, I'm sure he'll be fine." Shira said, nonchalantly.
"Yeah, he'll bounce back." Diego agreed. "It's one of the advantages of being Sid."
"Exactly." Manny confirmed.
"Until then, we get to play on him!" Crash said.
"Yeah!" Eddie cheered as they began to bounce on Sid, like if he was a trampoline. The others just stared at them.
"Unbelievable…" Louis sighed.
"Be glad you're not related to them." Ellie muttered to him. The others all nodded and voiced their agreement.
"Uh… we can hear you." Eddie pointed out.
"We know." Manny replied.
The possum brothers looked at each other and seemed to shrug in agreement.
At the front of the truck, the human brothers looked back again to see if Boris had returned and was following them again, but thankfully he wasn't, allowing them to breathe a sigh of relief.
Miguel sighed. "Boy… glad that's over…"
"For now." Jaime pointed out.
"You just hate happy moments don't you?" Miguel remarked to Jaime, annoyed.
"Well, if more than one person saw this… then we have to assume that there's nobody we can trust." Jaime stated. Miguel paused for a moment before speaking again.
"I know someone we can trust." Miguel voiced. They all turned to him. "She's a new friend… but I have a feeling we can trust her."
"Ok, who is she?" Jaime asked, expectedly.
Miguel paused before speaking as he thought of a certain girl he met earlier and wondered if she could really be trusted with this secret, he told Miguel the address and they began to drive toward it.
