A/N: Today at school I fell down. Ow.
Cryptic Investigation
The BETTER VERSION
By Rudy Clone
Chapter Nine – Wandering in the Dark
Rudy woke up at the slight sound of rain. It was soaking everything and making the swamp even more swampy. Well, as swamp-like as chalk could get, but even though it was chalk, it was still very swampy, and he thought it was almost like a swamp. Pretty swamp-like for chalk. Rudy sighed and went back to sleep.
Suddenly the rain was more than slightly! It was…dramatic rain. Rudy gasped and sat up as lightning filled the sky. He glanced worriedly toward Penny, who woke up and gasped. Snap woke up and gasped and fell off the tree because he's incompetent like that. Even though he was laying on the ground (but he climbed in the tree to get out of the mud sometime in the night because he's rude like that!).
Rudy and Penny jumped down because they are NOT incompetent, and landed in the mud. Penny gasped as she saw that her clothes were muddy. She thought she might faint at the horror! She hoped that Rudy would catch her if she did. Suddenly the thought of Rudy drove all the bad thoughts from her mind. She looked at Rudy dreamily. He…just had to be her soul mate. She would have to confess to him sometime!
Suddenly lightning hit a branch and it caught on fire! It fell down and hit Snap on the head just as he was about to make fun of Penny. Rudy giggled.
"We should get to shelter!" said Penny, and Rudy was really impressed because she was so smart.
"Where do we go?" Snap asked, and Rudy scolded him for being rude.
"We should go back to our car!" said Penny.
"That's in the river?" Rudy thought about it for a moment. "Ok!"
They wandered around and didn't find it. It kept raining and lightning kept striking all around them. Penny yawned because she was so tired. Rudy promised her that he'd find a good place to rest. One time, Snap got lost and Rudy took the opportunity to try to tell Penny how he felt, but unfortunately Snap found them too soon and he wasn't able to do it.
"Guys!" Snap yelled, but Rudy and Penny were not on good terms with him so they did not reply. "GUYS!" he yelled again, and this time Rudy noticed that Snap looked worried. That was so weird. Snap didn't usually have varied emotions. He usually only had one, and that was typical Snap mode. "I FOUND A HOTEL!" Snap yelled.
Rudy gasped. He hadn't known Snap was competent enough to find things! Snap was waving his hands frantically, as if he thought Rudy and Penny were too stupid to realize he was saying something important. He probably DID think that.
"It's this way!" yelled Snap, and he ran off.
Rudy and Penny ran and ran. Snap got lost a few times because he's useless, but eventually they got to a clearing with a big gray building. 'Wow,' thought Rudy, 'for once my sidekick was actually good for something!' But it seemed a little…too good to be true. He ignored the feeling. Then he looked at the way to the building and frowned. It was an open field with lightning striking EVERYWHERE! He gripped Penny's arm. "Don't worry, Penny! We'll get through this!" he said.
"Ok," said Penny.
They held hands (Rudy blushed) and ran across the field screaming. Snap ran after them but got struck by lightning a few times because he couldn't keep up. But then he healed instantly because we don't care.
Rudy and Penny reached the doors of the building. They knocked, but no one answered. They flailed all their limbs against the doors, but no one answered. They cried, but no one answered.
Rudy cried. "I don't know if anyone owns this hotel anymore!"
"They've got to!" said Penny, and Rudy believed her because she was smart.
Rudy tried to open the door.
It worked.
They walked inside and even Snap made it in. He then turned to Penny and began arguing with her! (He said really mean things and just to clarify he was being really vicious and nasty and Penny didn't even do ANYTHING!) Rudy clamped his hands over his ears. "You guys, go look for the hotel workers!" he yelled.
They obeyed because Rudy is in charge of them.
Rudy settled down to sleep.
fff
Penny and Snap were at each other's throats the whole time they wandered around the building. Their hatred for each other, normally already very potent, was overflowing due to the fact that Rudy was not there to monitor them as usual.
"Snap, you always think you know everything even though you know nothing!" said Penny. "And you LIE. You and Rapsheeba NEVER got snow cones. That was a LIE! And also, do you really think you know more about things in ChalkZone than I do just because you live here? You must be the most arrogant person on the planet!"
"Yeah, well you're just a stupid girl," said Snap. (By the way Snap hates girls and he's a JERK. All his female friends in ChalkZone it shows on the show aren't really his friends he actually hates them because they're girls. BELIEVE ME! I'M RIGHT!)
"I'm not stupid, your are stupid!" yelled Penny. "You always get us worked up about nothing! I can't tell if you do it on purpose just to annoy us or you're really just that dumb!"
Snap couldn't think of anything to say in reply because Penny was waaaay smarter than him and he was too dumb to come up with another insult. He was just REALLY angry because that stuff Penny said was completely true.
"And another thing," said Penny, "You always beg Rudy for stuff you don't deserve! Why does he have to draw you stuff all the time? It's so SELFISH. And making him draw you money for fancy restaurants after you've dragged him there so it's too late to back out? WOW, I can't believe you!"
Snap was furious, but he had no problems coming up with an insult in reply because he is the king of rudeness. "Well, you're completely crazy! Tryin' to find the meanin' to your dreams which don't actually mean anythin', since they're DREAMS. But you're just too stupid to realize that, 'cause you're really stupid, Buckette. I can't believe Rudy even tolerates ya! (See this is what Snap would really say because it's in his accent haha!)"
Penny stomped her foot in irritation. "I can't believe Rudy can stand you!" she shouted. "Why he ever drew you is a mystery. IT'S A MYSTERY!"
"Yeah, well I don't even know why he'd want to be your friend!" Snap yelled and yelled.
Penny yelled and yelled.
This went on until they reached a place that was completely dark. Penny suddenly stepped down on open air and she started to fall!
Snap was too much of a jerk to stop her from falling.
Penny flailed for a few seconds before she plummeted down to the ground, slamming against the floor slightly. She got a collapsed lung.
Snap laughed at her (just in case you forgot, Snap is a jerk, see?).
fff
Rudy woke up. His Penny senses were tingling. He gasped slightly. Something was wrong with Penny! He had to find her!
Rudy grabbed all their backpacks (along with whatever else they had with them) and ran into the hallway. The lights were only glowing slightly. In fact, they were glowing so slightly that they weren't glowing at all. It was pitch black. He squinted his eyes. It was still black.
Not being able to see, he stumbled around for several minutes. He was really annoyed. He couldn't see the hotel staff ANYWHERE! They NEEDED to help PENNY!
He ran along, suddenly smacking into a door and opening it. It was slightly light now. He looked in the room and saw it was a giant mall. He started to walk, when he saw a store that sold diamond rings! He gasped, running up to the window and gazing at them. It would be perfect to propose to Penny with! Someday… Even though it was made of chalk. It was still as ring-like as chalk could be.
He tried to open the door of the shop, but it was closed. He cried. Then he remembered that the window was just CHALK, so he tried to lick his way through it. However, it tasted really bad and after fifteen minutes of licking he still hadn't gotten very far because the glass was slightly thick. He cried. He tried to use his tears to wipe it away, but there wasn't enough of them. He had cried so much that he only slightly had any tears left. Then he thought of something. He could break the glass! After all, it was only CHALK!
Rudy found some random heavy object and threw it at the glass wall. It shattered. Some of the glass hit him and he BLED ALL OVER THE FLOOR. But he didn't care. All that mattered was getting a ring for Penny! He picked the prettiest one because Penny deserved no less. Then he remembered that she was in trouble.
"PENNNNNNNYYYYYYYYYY!" he yelled so loudly. But no one answered…
So he RAN into the next hallway, before stopping so he could put the ring in his backpack because he didn't want Penny to see, and then RAN AGAIN. Suddenly he saw PENNY! "Pennnnyyyyyy!" he cried, and wanted to leap into her arms but he didn't because then she might guess about his crush. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah," Penny told him.
"What happened to you?" he asked, his voice full of concern (You could say Rudy is a much better person than most boys.)
"I fell and got a collapsed lung," said Penny. When she saw Rudy's concerned gaze, she blushed. "Don't worry. I got better."
"That's good!" said Rudy.
Snap, who had been RUDELY eavesdropping as he stood near them the entire time, suddenly fell down some stairs. Both of his lungs collapsed and he BLED ALL OVER THE FLOOR. (Haha, karma!)
Anyway, back to the main point of the story.
Rudy and Penny wanted to embrace each other, but they couldn't bring themselves to. It was so tragic that it brought some slight tears to their eyes.
"P-Penny?" Rudy asked, looking at her seriously after checking that Snap was unconscious and couldn't hear them. "I…I need to tell you…"
"Y…yes?" Penny asked.
"I…."
Snap woke up.
"DARN IT!" yelled Rudy. He kicked the wall in frustration.
"Do you mind?" said the wall, and it turned into jelly.
Rudy gasped. "The building can change!" he cried.
Snap's eyes glazed over. "Can it change into…ice cream?"
"NO!" yelled a mouth in the building's ceiling. Even buildings hated arrogant jerks.
They started to walk around, realizing that they were lost, especially since the building was so stupid and confusing. Suddenly, Rudy fell through a hole in the ground and got a collapsed lung!
Penny pulled him out of the hole, looking at him worriedly. "Rudy!" she cried. She hugged him and Rudy felt a little better. He blushed.
They were all tired so they walked in a room with chairs. Snap laid down in the most comfortable chair because he's a jerk and didn't even think once that Penny might need it more than him.
"We should stay awake in case something comes to kill us," said Penny. "Snap, you do it."
"NO!" said Snap. He was tired.
"DO IT!" yelled Rudy and Penny. They scolded him but he didn't listen, and then they remembered he was too incompetent to be useful anyway. So Rudy did it. He noticed that everything was vanishing and that was dangerous for some reason. "RUN!" he yelled. They ran to the door. Rudy turned to Penny. "Penny, if we don't get out of this alive, there's something I need to-"
He smacked into a door.
"RUDY!" Penny yelled. She embraced him, hoping he'd be all right, and he looked up at her dreamily…then he snapped out of it because she couldn't know his secret! They ran into the hallway and slowed to a walk.
"So, Rudy," said Penny, "what did you want to tell me back there?"
"NOTHING!" yelled Rudy, and he shed a single tear at the thought of not being able to tell Penny. It dripped to the floor and BURNED A HUGE HOLE IN IT even though it takes more than a drop to erase chalk drawings. They went on.
"Snap, it's your fault we're in danger!" Penny yelled.
Rudy crossed his arms and nodded. "You just had to lead us to this hotel, didn't you?" he said. I can't believe I trusted Snap to do something useful…
"How was I supposed to know!" Snap said arrogantly. They scolded him for being rude.
They walked on, and when Rudy opened another door, he gasped! The room ahead of them had changed into a very fancy, very romantic looking restaurant. Rudy desperately wished Snap weren't there and that he and Penny were already boyfriend and girlfriend so that they could have a romantic dinner there. Even if the chalk food would taste like chalk, it wouldn't matter if Penny was by his side.
The room was so romantic, Rudy couldn't help himself. "Penny, can you and me go in there…alone…" he added, glaring at Snap, "for a minute? I've got to tell you something."
"Why?" said Penny.
"I'll explain inside!" he said.
"Ok," said Penny.
They went in and Rudy closed the door in Snap's face.
Alone in the room, the romanticness of the place was making Rudy's eyes glaze over. It was all he could do not to jump into Penny's arms right then and kiss her. He held her hand, looking into her eyes. "Penny….ever since I first saw you, I…I…"
"Rudy, it's the vanishing stuff!" Penny said.
Rudy was sad she interrupted, but he couldn't be sad at her for long so he smiled again. He ignored the room slowly disappearing around them. He couldn't focus on that now. He had to do this!
He went on, trying to build up the courage, but before he could confess, Snap opened the door RUDELY and pulled them away just as the vanishing stuff vanished the last of the floor.
"SNAP!" Rudy yelled, "why did you do that?" He cried because of how horrible his friend was, and Penny smacked Snap for it. "You're so selfish!" she shouted at him, and he was mad because it was true.
"Let's go now," said Penny, and Rudy nodded sadly. He'd missed his chance to confess.
"I'm sorry, Rudy," said Penny, and he felt a little better. He imagined some romantic music as he watched Penny gracefully walk down the hallway.
They journeyed on and had many adventures in the weird rooms that kept changing, but there is no time to write about them (who wants to read about ADVENTURE, anyway, when there are things like ROMANTIC TENSION to read about!).
Eventually, they got back in the mall. Rudy gasped. He hoped Penny wouldn't see the broken jewelry store! Then she might KNOW! He was about to blame Snap for it when he realized that the store had changed into a little shop selling powdered grapes. He sighed in relief.
Suddenly the building started to change, and Rudy sighed. Then his eyes widened in HORROR! The designs on the walls of the mall room were changing to depict…friendship! His eyes burned and he turned away, unable to bear the sight of such an inferior type of relationship! He couldn't stand it!
"Rudy!" Penny cried, concerned about him. (She was concerned because she's in love.)
"It's ok, Penny," he said, not wanting her to worry. (He didn't want her to worry because he cared about her, since he was in love.) "I'm ok!"
"Ok," she sighed in slight relief.
There was a hole in the floor that was widening, and as Rudy looked down, he saw a bunch of books about….FRIENDSHIP! He clung to Penny in fear. If they weren't careful, they'd fall into the dreaded pit. He looked to the other side (they needed to get to there so they could climb up to a window, forgot to mention it sorry). They would have to jump across it. He gulped.
He and Penny held hands (they both blushed secretly) and leaped over the gap. Snap did too, and when he got to the other side he told Penny she was crazy and made her cry. Rudy told him he would never draw him ice cream again. Snap cried.
Rudy looked at the wall they needed to climb. The horrible friendship images burned his eyes, so he pushed his eyeballs back into his head so he wouldn't have to see them. He ran blindly toward the wall, knowing they needed to climb it to the window.
"Rudy, I don't know if I can climb it!" Penny said, looking helplessly at the wall.
"It's ok, Penny, I can carry you!" said Rudy. He did. Normally he was not that strong, but love gave him strength. He scaled that wall like a pro. Snap was too incompetent to climb himself, so Rudy tied a rope to him and he was carried upward as he climbed.
Snap kept knocking into the wall while attached to the rope. "Ow…ow…ow.." he said.
"Snap, quiet! I'm trying to concentrate!" Rudy yelled in a scolding voice. "You're going to time out after this."
"But whhhhyyy?" asked Snap.
"BECAUSE WE ARE NOT ON GOOD TERMS!" Rudy yelled, shaking his fist at Snap. Because of that, he almost lost his grip, and he scolded Snap more. I don't know why I even took Snap on this adventure…
Finally, they made it to the top. Rudy looked at Penny and said,
"Penny, the window is closed!"
Penny gasped!
Rudy looked up at the window. It was shiny, even though it was made of chalk, and he could see the chalky handle that would open the chalk-looking window, and even though it was made of chalk, he thought he could grab it. It looked fairly hard to move, for chalk, and he wasn't sure how he was going to move it, even though it was chalk. He sighed.
Grabbing Snap, Rudy started ramming him against the handle. But Snap was useless so it didn't work. Then he lifted Penny, and she managed to turn it and open the window! It swung outwards and hit her on the head, and she passed out.
She had a dream about lizard ankles.
"Snap, we have to get her out of here!" said Rudy. The building was slowly turning into a parties supplies store and Rudy thought birthdays were stupid unless they were the birthday of his soul mate, Penny.
"Nah, let's leave 'er here, Bucko," Snap said because he is a heartless jerk.
"Snap!" Rudy yelled. Rudy was so mad at him, and he wondered again why he had ever drawn Snap with a mouth. Why HAD he, anyway? He didn't want anyone but Penny to talk to him.
He started to lift Penny himself. He strained and strained, seeing that the window was moving and they had so little time! But he couldn't fail her…not Penny…
It was a very dramatic moment.
Finally, he did it! He got Penny and himself to safety. He didn't know how, but he knew it must have been his love. Wow…it's more powerful than I thought….
He then had to pull Snap up because Snap was too pathetic to climb up himself. Then they had to figure out how to get down, but luckily there was a set of pink stairs with hearts on them at one part of the building, and Rudy carried Penny down carefully. Snap falled so hardly and got three collapsed lungs.
Once he was down, he set Penny gently on the grass. "Penny…please wake up!" he pleaded.
As if on cue, Penny twitched. Then she opened her eyes. "RUDY!" she yelled, and hugged him.
It was the best moment of Rudy's life.
A/N: I hope you liked it! I was so excited to write that last part, it's so romantic and dreamy…. I hope you enjoyed and I'll write a next chapter soon so please revieuw!
