Chapter 8: Weena
Gerry crept cautiously over to the cave. He whispered, "I'm going to talk to them, and ask them to forgive me. I just hope in my heart that they will accept my apology."
Rocky was standing outside the cave when he heard a rustling noise from behind the bushes. Taking out his laser gun, Rocky said, "Who goes there?"
"It's me," answered Gerry, coming out of the bushes. "I'm Gerry O'Ringtails, and I'm here to talk to the TTC. Do you, by any chance, represent that group."
"Yes. But I'll have to ask their permission before I can let you--"
Gerry pushed him out of the way and walked into the cave. Rocky sighed in frustration, before following him. The cops were fast asleep, unaware that their enemy has approached them. He said, "Um...hello?"
Alex II and the others woke up to see Gerry standing there. Bert shouted, "What the...it's GERRY!" The cops got out their weapons, but Gerry quickly took out a white flag and waved it. He said, "Whoa! Calm down, I give up. I'm just here to talk, not to fight you."
"How can we ever trust you?" said Alex II. "You hurt Fifi."
Xochitl added angrily, "And you hurt my husband!"
Gerry was at a loss for words, but as soon as he found his tongue (and his courage), he managed to come up with an honest answer. He replied, "Okay, okay. Look--I'm very sorry for all of that, because Chris is not going to use me anymore. He's...he's going to kill me."
Charles asked, "And why would my dark side want to kill you?"
"He found me useless, so now he's sending Dark Hunter and Dark Bugs here to do the job and face you guys next."
"Bugs and Hunter?" said Bert.
"Yes," replied Gerry. "Chris turned them into Dark."
Ralph said, "No, he didn't. Jackson did--first, he turned Hunter into Dark Hunter, with the help of Stewie Griffin, and then he got onto Bugs and turned him into Dark as well. That happened during the Great Transcontinental Race years ago, of which I took part."
"If he did that, then how did Hunter and former Vice President Bugs Bunny get here?"
"I don't know. They might've been cloned."
Charles said, "We have to find a way to return them to normal. And since Chris altered it, the Light Swords can't turn them back to good."
"Does it mean that Hunter will be Dark forever?" asked Colleen, with tears in her eyes. Charles III comforted her, saying, "We will get him back, love, and we have to find a way."
"Same as Bugs," said Lola. "But how?"
Just then, they heard a tiny cry for help, which seemed to come from deeper within the cave. Nose Marie asked, "What was that?"
Bertha perked her bent ears up to the sound. She said, "It looks like we might not be the only ones inside this cave. There's somebody else down there, and it looks like she's crying for help."
"Who do you think it is, Bertha?" asked Bentley, as they followed her down a path.
"Beats me. We'll have to go there along this path, and find out."
No sooner had they gone further that the Time Toon Cops arrived at a large recess, where they found an underground river. And in that river, trapped in the middle and struggling to swim, was a little female raccoon toddler. Bert Jr. shouted, "It's a little girl! And she's drowning!"
"Well, what are we waiting for?" said Blaze. "Let's go rescue her!"
The river was too wide and too turbulent for any of the members to cross, so the TTC had to hold each other's hand and try to cross the river in order to get to the poor girl. Reaching out his paw, Bentley shouted to her, "Quick! Grab my paw! I'll pull you in!" The little girl didn't reply--she continued to thrash around, screaming in terror. Bentley continued, "Do you understand every word I'm saying? GRAB MY PAW!"
The girl continued to scream. Without wasting time, Bentley let go of his teammate's paw and trudged across the river to grab the girl himself. PowerPaws shouted, "Bentley! You can't do that!"
"I have to!" replied Bentley. Before he could say another word, a tidal wave lunged forward and swept Bentley and the girl away. He quickly grabbed a nearby rock, and held on to it as he grabbed the screaming child by the arm. Then, he shouted, "Now, you can come on and get us!"
The TTC rushed forward, still linked hand in hand, and reached out to rescue Bentley and the girl. Soon, they were out of the river before another wave could crash right onto them. Bentley looked at the little girl, who lay on the ground unconscious. Immediately he began to administer mouth-to-mouth respiration, until she started to cough up water. After opening her eyes and looking up at Bentley, the little girl cooed curiously.
"Bert asked, "Who is that little girl, anyway?"
"I have no idea who she is," said Bentley. "We just might have to ask her." He turned to the girl and said, "Hey, there. Are you feeling all right?"
The raccoon girl stared at him, a puzzled look on her face. She muttered, "Huh?"
Rufus said, "Bentley, that girl can't understand English. Why not you let me try asking her?"
Bentley handed the little girl to Rufus, who then started to speak to her in a strange language that the TTC had never heard before. And to their astonishment, the girl smiled weakly and nodded. Xochitl asked, "Uh, Daddy...?"
"You see, my friends?" said Rufus. "This little girl just so happens to come from a unique and often unheard of tribe, which has been living in this very cave for nearly millions of years."
"Then which tribe did she come from?" asked Bert.
"The Eloi."
Bentley shuddered. A twang of memory sent a shockwave to his brain--he had read the H.G. Wells novel The Time Machine, and had seen two movie versions of it. And of course, he knew that the Eloi were a race of humans in that book. Rufus continued, "The Eloi are a race of prehistoric raccoons. They look like the raccoons that we know of today--especially Bert and his family--but they are primitive in their way of life and their culture. They came around the same time as early humans did, but as soon as the Ice Age kicked in, the humans drove them out of their original territory in the outside world, and the Eloi were then forced to spend most of their lives in caves and underground caverns like this one, where they have lived ever since."
"How did you know about those people?"
"I've never seen them personally, but I have read books about them. You know how the Eloi are a very shy type of people--they rarely set foot out of the caves nowadays."
"Well, we didn't expect to know that. Can you ask the girl what her name is?"
Rufus talked to the the girl and she answered in a tiny voice, "Weena."
A trip down memory lane for Bentley--the name "Weena" was the name of a woman in the book as well. He said, "So, her name is Weena?"
"Indeed," replied Rufus with a nod. "As far as I know, this little girl seemed to have wandered off from a village somewhere deep within the cave, and ended up in here where she fell into the river. My plan is that we have to go to the village and return her to her parents, whoever they might be."
"But we don't even know where it is," said Melissa.
The girl, named Weena, wriggled from Rufus' arms and walked off. She looked behind her and called out to the cops. Rufus chuckled and said, "I think she wants us to follow her. She knows exactly where the village is." And so, the TTC followed little Weena down another path that led to the deepest part of the cave, to the village where Rufus suspected that she came from.
Meanwhile, outside in Toronto, Dark Bugs and Dark Hunter arrived by Dark Jet, got into their car, and headed over to the Evergreen Forest. Dark Hunter said, "I will kill my love and the others, too."
"Yeah," said Dark Bugs. "We'll even kill Gerry. So. TTC, watch out--we're coming for you..."
Following behind them were 1,325 henchmen, all of them loyal followers of Rayian Fox and his clan. They were on their way to confront the TTC, never realizing that the cops were in a different kind of adventure at this time.
