A/N: OH MY GOSH GUYS I HAVE TO RANT ABOUT SOMETHING. At school, this guy signed one of my casts. Without my permission! (Not that I'd let anyone but PENNY sign my casts…) You know what he wrote on it? He wrote "friends". FRIENDS! I DO NOT SUPPORT FRIENDSHIP! I was so DISGUSTED I had to go to the doctor again and get a new cast. That meant I had less time to work on this story! Isn't that guy such a jerk? He reminds me of SNAP. Because Snap is a jerk. A BIG JERK. And my arms hurt sooooooooooo bad. It hurts almost as much as being around SNAP. Pity me!

Cryptic Investigation

The BETTER VERSION

By Rudy Clone

Chapter Ten – A Questionable Time

Rudy and Penny huddled together in the swamp. They were really scared. Luckily, they'd built a little shelter around him. Snap was scared and wanted to go in there too, but Rudy wasn't on good terms with him so he said no. Rudy and Penny waited for it to be morning so it would be light enough to leave, even though it was ChalkZone so the light wouldn't change for daytime and it was only dark because of the clouds and trees.

"Rudy, can I have some ice cream?" Snap begged.

"He doesn't even have magic chalk, you idiot!" Penny cried.

They argued, but luckily only for a short time (for ONCE), because soon a Zoner came. It was one of the Zoners SNAP had been so RUDE to earlier. Penny smacked Snap before he could say anything rude and he glared at her. She was so offended. He was such a soulless jerk.

"Can you show us the way out?" Rudy asked the Zoner.

"NO!" it said. "That guy's a jerk!" He pointed to Snap.

"We know," said Rudy, "but we-"

"I'M NOT HELPING A JERK!" the Zoner said and he leaped into the river and floated away.

"Great! Thanks alot, Snap!" Penny cried.

Snap just said something rude. Rudy put him in time out for 15 minutes.

"We'll have to navigate ourselves, but I'm not sure I can lead us," Rudy admitted slightly.

"I'm here for you," said Penny, and Rudy felt like he could do ANYTHING!

Rudy bravely led them through the swamp, protecting Penny from dangerous creatures and shielding her from the droppings of woe is birds. Penny swooned so hard she fell over and knocked her head into a tree. She passed out.

Inside Penny's dream…

Penny was floating around in a void. She had no idea where she was. All she knew was that Rudy was not there, and that frightened her. She shuddered as if someone had ripped off her towel. What was happening?

Penny cried. She wished she was somewhere else, doing something normal like taking a math test. She had wished that during her whole adventure. Then she wondered something. What if…what if Rudy was dead? She gasped! Something dangerous had to have happened for her to end up here…so what if he was? She cried harder, her tears floating off her face and spiraling into a foggy oblivion. She had never felt so woed. She tried to focus on math tests as she watched lizards and ankles float around her. They seemed to mean something, but she just couldn't figure it out! She was too busy wishing she was taking a math test.

Then, she heard a voice.

Could it…could it be? The voice of her beloved? She strained to listen.

BUT NO! It was Snap's voice. "Don't try to get any sense outta her, Bucko!" he cried, tainting Penny's world with the horrible essence of Normal Snap Mode, "She's unconscious! But when she wakes up, you still won't get any sense out of her. Because she's stupid."

Penny wished she was out of this stupid void so she could punch that arrogant jerk's lights out. But as it was, she could just float helplessly in woe.

"Penny?" said another voice. A much, much more wonderful voice. "Are you ok?"

Suddenly Penny was awake, staring into Rudy's wonderful, dreamy face.

"P…Penny?" Rudy asked hopefully.

Penny knew she was ok. Rudy was with her. That was all that mattered. "Y…yes…" she stammered. "But…but there were ankles! And lizards!"

Snap mocked her for being crazy in the rudest way possible. It was so rude, I can't even write it. My brain is not even capable of comprehending such rudeness, let alone putting it into words. It shocked Rudy, but at the same time it didn't, because we all know Snap is a jerk who only cares about himself.

"SNAP!" Rudy yelled, and Penny's eyes glazed over. Rudy was so dreamy when he yelled at Snap for her. "Penny," he said, "do you think you can stand?"

"No…" she said. Really, she wasn't sure, but she felt too frightened to try. Rudy decided to carry her the rest of the way out of the swamp. Snap was still being VERY rude, but Rudy and Penny took solace in the fact that they were much better people than he was.

Soon, they reached the end of the swamp.

They came to a wasteland with a bunch of garbage. "This stinks!" said Penny. Rudy looked at her and smiled. It did stink. Really bad. Penny was so smart.

They were walking, and Rudy realized he was really hungry. But he couldn't eat chalk food, so he cried. Penny comforted him.

"Can't ya just eat the food ya brought?" Snap sneered at them, happy about their misfortune because he cares nothing for the wellbeing of others, not even his 'friend'.

"Oh yeah!" said Rudy, so surprised that he nearly dropped Penny, but luckily he caught her just in time. He took the biscuits and mayonnaise from his backpack.

Snap realized that he couldn't eat Real World food and he cried. He had to search through the garbage and ended up having to eat month old sushi. But anyway, back to Rudy and Penny again.

Penny looked at the biscuits and mayonnaise and trembled. "Rudy…" she said as she turned away, tears glistening in her eyes. She just….didn't belong! How could she? She had never felt so out of place!

Rudy wasn't sure what he had done wrong. How could he have offended Penny? He gasped. "SNAP made me do it! It wasn't my fault!" he yelled.

Suddenly Penny was happy, for all was well again. Of course Snap was the cause of conflict. Why wouldn't he be? She grinned at Rudy and they feasted together. They accidentally ate all their food. Rudy and Penny realized what this meant and cried.

Snap suddenly realized that there were laxatives in the month old sushi he ate. He hurried off to find a bathroom, and Rudy and Penny laughed because it's funny when jerks suffer.

fff

After a while, it was time to get going. They wandered around, Rudy carrying Penny because she still felt weak. He was so tired, and Snap was tired too, and he complained because complaining is something only people who are wimpy jerks do. Like Snap even had a REASON to complain! Being lost in the wilderness with hardly any food was no good reason! Rudy thought that he'd like to see Snap face a real challenge, like not being able to confess his ten year old love to his soul mate. But no, Snap had no real problems and yet acted like he did, as if he actually thought people should care. Wow.

Soon they came to a desert. Penny felt strong enough to walk again, and Rudy was so proud of her. However, as they walked, it got really hot, and they were running out of water. Snap had none but Rudy didn't care because he was too worried that Penny would pass out again. He knew her dreams troubled her. He stared at her worriedly the whole way as they walked.

Soon it was night. Rudy made a tent out of their sleeping bags and he and Penny slept inside. Snap had to sleep outside. Rudy stared at Penny as she slept. The whole night. In the morning they kept walking. Rudy kept giving Penny a worried stare. He never took his eyes off her.

Suddenly he smacked into a block of ice.

"Ow!" he yelled, and Snap laughed at him. He sat up, and realized that he'd walked right into the ice caves! "OH NO!" he cried. He didn't want to go on any more adventures. He just wanted to get straight to the library with the cave in it and these stupid adventures were taking up too much of the story. He sighed. "I guess we'll have to go through them," he sighed.

Penny sighed. They went.

It was like a maze in here. Rudy was greatly annoyed. (And I'M really annoyed that racingwolf put that in there! I don't want to write about stupid ice caves!) They walked through the tunnels and it was very cold. Penny soon collapsed! Rudy gasped and ran to her side. She was frozen solid! "Snap, we have to do something!" he yelled, hoping Snap would care about something other than himself for once.

Snap didn't. He just laughed.

Rudy knelt down near Penny. He knew he had to warm her up, or she would DIE! But he didn't have a blanket or extra clothes or anything! But he needed to find some, or else Penny…Penny wasn't going to make it! "Snap, take your clothes off!" he yelled.

"What!?" Snap cried.

"Just do it!" he yelled. "We need to save Penny!"

"No! I'll die of cold!" Snap yelled.

"You're so selfish, you know that, Snap?" Rudy yelled. He was probably refusing because he hated Penny! He couldn't believe how heartless his sidekick was. He looked at Penny. Around her mouth…was BLOOD. He gasped loudly slightly. "Penny!"

Some very, very sad music played as Rudy looked at Penny. Because of Snap's selfishness, he could not save her. He cried, and the tears froze into icicles on his face. Snap mocked him because he looked stupid, so he cried harder. The icicles grew so long that they reached the floor and froze there. Rudy was trapped!

It was an intense situation (like camping), both Rudy and Penny were unable to leave, and one of them was near death. Snap didn't bother to do anything because he's a jerk, and was just using a piece of ice to scratch "Penny stinks" in the wall of the ice cave. Rudy wondered why he even bothered to have a sidekick. Snap was useless! They were certainly doomed…

BUT THEN!

Rudy looked at Penny, and suddenly her eyes opened! He gasped.

"Rudy…I had another dream," she said. "And this time…you were in it! And…and…you told me to wake up, and I did!"

Rudy wondered how that was able to happen! Surely it was a miracle! Had their love really been that strong? Did…did she feel the same way about him as he did about her?

He knew one thing…he HAD to find that book! Then he would know for sure…

Rudy carried Penny all the way out of the ice caves. He was so relived to still have her by his side. He only wished he could tell her why he felt so strongly about her and cared so much! His true love… He sighed happily as he imagined what it would be like when he did. Then he gasped. But what if it went wrong? What if she didn't return his ten year old love?

Rudy suddenly felt himself fall into a pit of despair. Metaphorically, of course. There were no actual pits there! Come on. That's something stupid that Racingwolf would put in there just to add another danger scene! Rudy realized that if Penny didn't love him, there was no use finding the book. He decided they'd better go home instead. It was the dramatic moment of the story where the hero loses all hope (play some sad music please!).

Penny fell into a metaphorical pit of despair because Rudy was sad. Their misery was linked, for they were bonded closer than either of them knew. Bonded by that wonderful thing called love. But of course, neither of them knew! It was very tragic. Even the woe is birds were woed for them. Even the birds that were not woed were now woe is birds. The only one in the whole world who wasn't sad was Snap, because he only cares about himself.

Rudy and Penny were curled up on the ground sobbing to themselves. Both of them were too afraid to ask the other what was wrong because now that they were in love, they were shy around each other. It was such a simple thing to ask one another something, yet so hard!

After a while, though, they knew they had to leave (as Snap had so RUDELY reminded them). They walked in sadness until they ran into (literally) the Mist Mountains.

"Not again!" said Rudy, but then he remembered that they had to get home, so he guessed it was a good thing. But he couldn't appreciate anything good…now that he could no longer confess his love to Penny. Everything was meaningless without that. His tears fell to the ground. They spattered into a pattern that spelled out a sad face. :C

Then he realized they had no way to climb over the mountains. Rudy didn't want to wait so long.

"Rudy, can we just take that airplane?" Snap asked, pointing to an airplane with a bunch of Zoners lining up by it and a big sign over it that said 'Fly over the Mist Mountains and to Rudy's Portal'. "I want to get home! I'm starving! Even though there's nothing to eat there either, because there's a FOOD SHORTAGE that you won't bother to do anything about!"

"SNAP!" Rudy couldn't believe Snap would be rude at a time like this. Actually, he could believe it. Typical Snap mode as normal. "Can't you see that I'm sad? Do you really have to criticize me now?" Snap only mocked him. "And no, we're NOT taking that airplane because your ideas are STUPID!"

"Yeah!" said Penny. Then Penny saw a river flowing into a cave and that was a good idea for whatever reason Racingwolf said it was (don't feel like describing). "Let's go in there!"

Rudy decided to use her idea because she was smart and Snap was dumb.

Penny built a raft and they all got on it. Snap hogged most of it and got scolded so Penny built a box on the raft and labeled it 'Snap's Room' and Rudy sent him to it. "You are in big trouble!" said Rudy. "Think about what you've done!"

Their raft floated into the cave. Rudy was reminded of the tunnel of love rides, and he cried. Suddenly something hit him in the face. "SNAP!" he yelled, but it turned out to be his backpack. "Penny, we forgot to tie our stuff down! It's going to get washed away!"

Penny was too woed to care. Even Rudy didn't care much when their supplies were inevitably tossed into the river. Nothing mattered if he couldn't confess his love to Penny. Not saving ChalkZone (even if he was the protector of ChalkZone), or anything! He just didn't care. He was lost in woe.

Suddenly, there was a waterfall! Rudy and Penny screamed and clung to each other in fear. Snap tried to cling to them in fear too. Rudy pushed him away. "Snap, I told you, were are NOT. ON. GOOD. TER-"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Snap said, rudely interrupting. They had started to fall over the waterfall.

"Penny!" Rudy cried, "if we don't live through this, I want you to know-" He could say no more, for his mouth had filled with water, and a second later, they all hit the river below.

Rudy life flashed before his eyes. The whole thing was so stupid and pointless…he hadn't confessed to Penny yet! With that in mind, he desperately swam to the surface. Then, he noticed Penny! She was sinking, closing her eyes and wishing she was taking a math test instead of sinking in a river. Rudy grabbed her and bravely swam to the surface. When he finally reached air, he turned to look at Penny.

"Rudy, you saved my-"

Suddenly the raft crashed into them, somehow flipping them out of the water so they landed back on top of it. Snap was being super rude and eating the last of their food which he had managed to save…JUST FOR HIMSELF…even though it was Real World food.

"Hey!" said Rudy, and Snap only sneered and said he deserved it more because he was better than everyone else and therefore Rudy and Penny were beneath him. "SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!" Rudy yelled.

Rudy decided to ignore Snap. The river was sending their raft careening through a dark cave where it was likely to crash into boulders or send them spinning over another waterfall at any second, and he had more important things to think about, like confessing his love to Penny!

He turned to Penny, ready to try to confess, when suddenly loud rock and roll music began blaring throughout the cavern. "Please do not exit the raft until the ride has come to a complete stop," said a mechanical sounding voice, "and remember to response your children."

"Wait? Ride? What?" shouted Rudy. He looked down and seatbelts sprang out of the raft. He and Penny got in them, but Snap was too stupid to do it on his own and had to be responsed.

Then they were off! The ride shot through the river, which had formed into a roller coaster type thing, because Racingwolf is really weird like that. It went super fast and defied gravity, and I guess it would have been a little impressive, but Rudy only had eyes for Penny. He frowned slightly. This ride was not at all romantic. What was wrong with this mountain? He focused his mental powers on willing the ride to change.

Suddenly the river smoothed out, but only for a second before it glitched back into a roller coaster. It was as if it existed to serve the needs of those riding it, and SNAP'S needs were taking up everything! Rudy wished the river knew what an arrogant jerk he was, but then again, he knew it was possible that the river was an arrogant jerk too. Arrogant jerks tended to congregate together.

Rudy thought harder, and the ride was slowly looking calmer and more romantic. Then, without warning, it glitched…majorly, and all the conveniently placed lights in the cave went out.

"That's awkward," said the announcer voice. "It appears we are experiencing technical diff…i…cult…ies…." The voice became warped sounding and faded out. The ride was malfunctioning!

Suddenly they were plunged over a waterfall and into a giant whirlpool! It reminded Rudy of a toilet, and he frowned. Toilets weren't romantic! What is wrong with this place? Rudy safely carried Penny to shore, and then dragged Snap out of the water. "Ok, let's go!" said Rudy, pointing to the exit to the mountains.

They were in a beautiful field, and Rudy paused to pick flowers for Penny. They were just CHALK, but they still looked pretty…for chalk. However, he was too afraid to give them to her, and he spent the next few hours sobbing behind a boulder.

After that, they kept going, and Penny asked how they would get home. Rudy wished he could solve their problem. Penny looked so helplessly lost. He couldn't stand to see her that way!

Then they saw a gigantic, heart-shaped hot air balloon. It was sitting there, with a sign reading "For the world's greatest sweethearts to use as they desire." Rudy gasped. Could it mean….him and Penny? Or did she not feel that way about him? He couldn't know.

Penny looked at the balloon. Was it possible…that perhaps it meant her and Rudy? No, she thought, it couldn't be. Rudy didn't love her! She cried and more sad music played. She looked sadly at the screen (pretend this is a movie, ok?) and it was very, very sad.

Rudy and Penny got in the balloon, and after a few minutes of arguing, they grudgingly let Snap on. However, once they were high up in the air, he and Penny began arguing. Rudy silenced them and scolded Snap, and then drew a smaller basket attached to the bottom of the bigger basket and labeled it "Snap's room". He then forced Snap to stand in it and threw it over the edge. Since that basket was several yards away from the big one, and it was very loud and windy, they couldn't hear anything he said.

Without Snap, this was almost…romantic… Rudy blushed and turned away. He and Penny were too embarrassed to talk the whole ride and Rudy was ashamed. He remembered how he couldn't find the book. He cried. Everything he cared for was gone.

Soon they got to the normal place of ChalkZone. Rudy landed the balloon (which landed on Snap's basket while he was in it hehe haha) and they ran to the Real World. They both went to their own houses and Rudy's parents asked him where he had been for the past few days. "Oh, I just went on a walk," he lied.

"Ok," said his parents.

Rudy walked in his room and slammed his face against the desk. He started to cry and he cried so much that his tears filled the desk drawers. He had FAILED. (This is a very dramatic moment guys.) He did not know what to do…

All was truly lost…

A/N: I hope you liked the chapter! Don't worry it won't be this sad forever just keep reading haha. I know this was really dramatic and emotional, not like RACINGWOLF'S stupid story. Ugh. I can't believe people read that piece of crap. I'm SO EXCITED to get to the later parts, this story is gonna get so epic believe me! It won't be boring like Cryptic Investigation is with all the stupid adventures and stuff. This'll be good I promise and I KNOW good stories!