Last chapter was quite long, right? Oh, well. Sorry if your eyes hurt.

Disclaimer: I don't own Hamtaro.

Chapter 10:

The Note

Penelope was walking from the clubhouse with Pashmina. Only Penelope could talk in English to Pashmina because she was too afraid to talk to anyone else.

"Hey, Penelope," Pashmina said.

Penelope looked up at her best friend. She waited for her statement.

"Did you like the clubhouse?" Pashmina asked with a smile.

"Ookwee," Penelope said while grinning.

Pashmina nodded happily and said, "Good. Tomorrow is Saturday so we can spend all day there."

"Ookwee!" Penelope exclaimed.

Pashmina laughed and walked back to their house while someone was watching them…

Hamtaro walked to the clubhouse by himself. As he opened the door, he was taken aback to see a ham-human sleeping in what looked like a giant sock. He had short black hair and blue PJ's. Hamtaro raced over to him, thinking that he was injured.

"Are you okay?" Hamtaro asked.

"Zu, zu, zu," the boy snoozed.

Hamtaro scratched his head and relieved to see Boss come in with the same expression Hamtaro had.

"I just found him here, Boss!" Hamtaro exclaimed.

"Well? Will he get up?" Boss asked.

"I don't know. I tried."

"Yikes."

"Yeah, I know."

Hamtaro walked over and tapped the boy on the head, but he still didn't get up. Boss went over, ready to hit him with his shovel. Hamtaro help up his hands just in time.

"See? He won't get up!" Hamtaro assured.

"Well, then he can stay, I guess," Boss said slowly.

"Okay!" Hamtaro yelled, "What should we call him?"

Boss immediately said, "Let's call him Snoozer."

"Heke? Snoozer is a great name!" Hamtaro complimented.

"Right. Only I can think of a name that brilliant," Boss nodded.

Oxnard and Bijou walked in at that moment and screamed, "What is that thing?"

Hamtaro and Boss both jumped, shocked at the certain entrance.

Bijou said, "Sorry, 'Amtaro. Sorry, Boss. Who is dat?"

Hamtaro said, "This is Snoozer! I guess we named him about a couple seconds ago, so we'll wait for the others to arrive."

Oxnard nodded and said, "Will he be a ham-ham? I mean if he can get up."

Boss took charge of the conversation and said, "Yeah, I guess he can stay. He's harmless."

"Vat if he isn't nice?" Bijou asked.

Everyone looked at each other and Boss said, "Don't worry, Bijou. I'll protect you."

Bijou looked up at Boss with sparkling eyes. "Boss, you're so brave," she complimented.

Boss blushed and mumbled something that the others couldn't hear.

The others finally walked in and Howdy was last. He yelped at Snoozer's sight.

"WHAT IS THAT? IT BETTER NOT BE AN OVERGROWN RAT YA'LL!" Howdy yelled.

Dexter quieted him down and Panda asked, "Who is that, Hamtaro?"

"Yeah, like, he needs to get up to say hi, right?" Sandy wondered.

"If he's sleeping, maybe we shouldn't wake him. It's rude to wake someone in the middle of a nap," Oxnard said while munching on his seed.

Boss looked at him with a what the heck are you talking about? look.

"Guys! This guy is Snoozer. We just found him here," Hamtaro said.

"Wow, great name. That's original," Stan commented sarcastically. Sandy playfully wacked him in the head.

"Guys! Okay, Snoozer is one of the ham-hams now. I trust him!" Hamtaro exclaimed.

Everyone else looked at him as if he was crazy, but Bijou beamed at him. He is so cute! Hamtaro is a true leader.

"Come on, guys! He's nice!" Hamtaro assured.

Dexter and Maxwell both crossed their arms while Maxwell's book sat on his lap. Dexter said, "Has he ever talked?"

Hamtaro looked confused and muttered, "No."

Maxwell spoke up, "I read you need to know a person well if they want to be your friend."

"It's okay. I can be trusted. Plus, I'm just going to stay here to conserve my energy," an unfamiliar voice squeaked.

The ham-hams gasped at the new voice of Snoozer. Dexter and Maxwell looked most astonished. Hamtaro looked proud of himself and said, "See? I believe that he should be a ham-ham!"

Bijou suddenly thought something was wrong. "Has anyone seen Pazhmina? She has not come yet," she blurted out.

Everyone else pondered the thought and just then, Pashmina ran into the room. Penelope was nowhere to be seen.

"Ah, ham-ha, Pashmina. We were wondering where you were. Where's Penelope?" Hamtaro said.

Pashmina was white in the face and was stuttering with a note in her hands. She didn't say anything and burst into tears.

Bijou and Sandy immediately as they knew their friend most and both said, "What's wrong?"

Pashmina only cried more and handed the note to them. Bijou read the note in shaking hands while Sandy read over her shoulder and her face went white to match Bijou's hair.

"What is it?" Panda asked.

"Its bad," Bijou only said.

"Really bad," Sandy warily agreed.

They handed the note to the others. It said:

Dear Ham-hams,

I have your precious Penelope with me at the tallest mountain to the west. If you want to see her ever again, give me all your money (especially Howdy's). Be here at midnight. NO tricks or Penelope will never be at the clubhouse again. Remember, I'm watching you.

Everyone's face dropped and looked pale.

"What does he mean "tallest mountain"?" Oxnard asked.

"That's Mt. Freely," Maxwell replied weakly.

"Why does it say it wants mostly Howdy's money?" Boss asked.

Maxwell didn't know the answer to this one and turned to Howdy. Howdy was in the back of the clubhouse and looked like he was going to throw up.

"Well, Howdy?" Dexter asked.

Howdy sighed and told his story.

"Okay. Ya see, ma parents own the grocery store, right? Well, we're a little too successful and crushed every little store. We were on a roll. Ma parents also gave me their will and if something ever happened, I would inherit the store and be a millionaire just by that will. How did they know about the will? Ma parents only have one person besides me who knows it. Well, except you guys."

Everyone was in deep thought and Dexter said, "Who is that one person that watches your parents will?"

"Beats me. I think that his name is Spat," Howdy shrugged.

"AHA!" Maxwell yelled a little too loudly.

"OUCH!" Stan yelled, "GEEZ, MAX! WHAT'S THE REASON FOR THAT!?"

Maxwell went red and said, "Well, I think that Spat has Penelope. He's the only one that knows about the will. He wants Howdy to bring his will so he can persuade his parents to change it. He wants the money."

Everything was silent for a while and Boss took the paper from Maxwell. Boss scanned it and Hamtaro took it while he said, "Maxwell, what do they mean by no tricks?"

Maxwell and Dexter thought about this in horror. Dexter said, "It means that we can't bring the police or a fake will. Basically, we can't pull a trick on him or he'll hurt Penelope."

Pashmina burst back into tears and Sandy and Bijou both tried to calm her down. Hamtaro and Oxnard were looking over the note and both said, "What does it mean Remember, I'm watching you?"

Before the two smart ham-hams could answer, a voice boomed into the clubhouse and the TV lit on. All the ham-hams either looked around for the source of the voice or at the TV to see a human-ham with grey hair and a baseball cap with black devil horns. He was dressed in gray and his eyes were a charcoal black. He had an evil grin on his face.

"HEY, HAM-HAMS!" the man yelled.

Every ham-ham covered their ears and Hamtaro yelled, "Who are you?"

The man snickered and boomed, "I'm Spat! And you'll probably want to hear about this little bit!"

The screen moved to show Penelope being tied gagged with fear in her eyes and everyone gasped. The camera turned back to Spat and he cackled, "You read that note! Unless you want to see little Penelope again, give me that will! I'm watching you ham-hams! The cameras are all set up, but you'll never find them! MUWAHAHAHAHA!" (Isn't Spat so evil?)

And with a zap, Spat's face was (Finally!) gone. The lights flickered out and everyone screamed. Panda had his flashlight ready and turned it on. Panda weakly smiled at everyone and everyone was quiet. They all sighed and the only sound they could hear were Pashmina's sobs. Hamtaro took Panda's flashlight and shone it to him.

"Come on, guys! We have to go find Penelope! Midnight isn't that long to hike up to the mountain. We only have 5 hours!" Hamtaro yelled.

Everyone silently nodded and after thourgholy searching the clubhouse for cameras, they thought of a plan without succeeding to find the cameras. Everyone thought of a different plan.

"Like, maybe we an give him a fake will. That way, he'll give us Penelope for free," Sandy suggested.

They heard Spat again and he snickered, "Remember, I can listen to you! You can't trick me! Did you forget about Penelope's eternal absence if you ham-hams try that?"

Everyone was horrified to hear Spat and finally couldn't decide of any trick. Maxwell thought ahead though. He said, "Maybe we could have a backup team. Like three or four of us might stay here with first aid just in case someone is hurt."

The ham-hams shuddered at the thought of one of them being injured, but they all agreed. The plan was that they would head to Howdy's house, grab the will and start to hike up Mt. Freely.

Boss asked, "Who's going to stay here?"

Bijou volunteered and said, "In France, zey taught us first aid. I couldn't come along with you because of all zee stuff that I'd 'ave to carry, but I'll be vaiting!"

Pashmina nodded and inside, she didn't want to see Penelope getting hurt. She too, volunteered. Everyone else looked at Sandy to stay, since it would be a little too dangerous for her, but she just said, "Hey, like, just because I'm a girl doesn't mean that I'm going to stay. I'm going for adventure!"

Stan agreed happily and said, "I'm with ya, sis. We'll teach that Spat dude not to mess with us!"

Hamtaro loved the ham-ham's attitude and said, "Anyone else want to stay?"

Dexter volunteered since he wanted to comfort Pashmina. Howdy was disgusted be this, but had to go because of the will. They both would probably fight over her for her affection, but Pashmina looked like she didn't care. Boss wanted to stay to show Bijou how amazing he was. But Bijou wasn't watching Boss. She was staring at Hamtaro. Boss gawked and how Bijou could love Hamtaro instead of him. I'm going to do something about this! He thought.

Panda packed everyone's climbing gear and other stuff like water and food. Oxnard needed some extra sunflower seeds. Soon enough, they were on their way to Howdy's house. Everyone left at the clubhouse waved goodbye. Howdy ran to his house, grabbed a piece of paper, got out, and whispered to the ham-hams, "This is a fake. No way could Spat watch us. I did it super secret."

Hamtaro nodded and said, "That's great. C'mon, we have to start climbing!"

Oxnard turned to Maxwell and asked, "How much feet is Mt. Freely?"

Maxwell turned a page in his book and said, "About 7,000 ft. That should be about two-hour climb. Mt. Freely has some cliffs and steep climbs, but that's only on a certain path. For safety reasons, we should take the safer side, but that would add about an hour to get around the mountain. The safest path also has one huge steep climb. We're looking at a very difficult climb. The most difficult path takes only one hour, though."

Sandy and Boss found this as a challenge and wanted to show off to their loved ones. Boss said, "How about I go up on the difficult side and let down a big rope for you guys to climb on when you reach the cliff? It'll be easier and faster."

Sandy marched up and said, "I agree with Boss. Like, how about me and Boss go up and help you guys up."

Stan looked deeply concerned and said, "Sis, I don't want you to get hurt. I can't lose you."

Sandy smiled and said, "I'll be fine. Remember who climbed the tallest mountain in North and South America? 7,000 feet is nothing."

Stan grinned back and Panda said, "Here's a rope that's long enough. We'll climb up to the checkpoint with you guys waiting."

Boss and Sandy took the rope and said a goodbye and started to climb. Maxwell was reading for more information and Stan's face fell into a frown. Sandy and Boss were struggling up for some reason. Maxwell scanned a page that said:

Mt. Freely is one of the rockiest mountains in Japan. It is currently know for its sudden rockslides. Climbing is limited and should only done by experts if a climber is to take the most difficult path, which is to the east.

Hamtaro looked questionably at Maxwell's face and read the page he was reading. He read the page and his jaw dropped. He looked back up where Boss and Sandy should have been, but they were higher up. Maxwell read aloud to the ham-hams and their faces fell and started to yell at Boss and Sandy for them to get down.

With Boss and Sandy:

Sandy heard little squeaks and yelled, "Hey, Boss? Do you hear that?"

Boss listened and heard the squeaks too. Then he heard a rrrrrrrrrrr.

"I hear the squeaks and this machine sound," he called back.

Sandy listened carefully and yelled, "ROCKSLIDE!"