A/N: Sorry for taking so long. I got sidetracked writing a super long chapter for one of my other stories. =P By the way, Flint and Emma are 17 now. Oh, and look! I finally figured out how to put the title of the chapter up top! Finally!
One more thing: any artists out there who'd be willing to draw some of the scenes from these moments that weren't in the movie? PM or say so in the review! Pretty please? =D
Cloudy Hope
Chapter 11
Monkey Thought Translator
"Done!" shouted Flint, holding up his newest invention for all (no one) to see. Steve, now fully grown and rehabilitated, was sitting across the lab on Flint's bed, chewing on who-knows-what. Steve looked up at Flint and said something in his little monkey language.
"EXACTLY!" exclaimed Flint. Steve looked back up at Flint, clearly confused by his sudden outburst. "See, I didn't understand what you were saying, and that's why I created this!" Flint held up what looked like a tiny child toy radio thingy and a sweatband with an antenna. Steve cocked his head to the side.
"It's a monkey thought translator," explained Flint. "It'll let me understand everything you're thinking so I can know when you're hungry or thirsty or something like that."
Steve jumped up and down.
Flint smiled. "I take it that means you're excited."
Flint looked at the headband nervously, and carefully slipped it on Steve's furry head. Steve looked up at it, his brow furrowed in confusion. Flint found a black elastic belt strap and gently pulled it around the monkey's chest, making sure it wasn't too tight, but that it wasn't loose enough to fall off. Steve seemed comfortable with it, and that was good enough for Flint.
Flint hooked the speaker onto the band, and was just about to turn it on when his phone (that he built himself last year) started ringing.
Flint you have a call, Flint you have a call.
Emma had set that ring tone.
"Speak of the devil," muttered Flint, looking at the caller ID. Flint answered the phone. "Hey, are you almost done?"
Emma's voice came through from the other line. "Yeah, I'll be done in 15 minutes." At the moment, Emma was right next door, babysitting 7-year-old Cal Devereaux, Officer Earl's son.
"Okay, I'll wait," said Flint, sitting down on his bed.
"Hey," said Emma, "didn't your dad say he wanted to watch you test all of your new inventions from now on?"
"Oh yeah," moaned Flint, covering his eyes with his hand. Ever since the flying car incident, Tim had always kept a close eye on Flint whenever he was inventing. "I guess I should go down to the shop and set it up. Meet you down there?"
"Okay, so I'll- oh dear God..." Emma turned her phone off, but right before she did, Flint could hear her voice in the background, saying something like... "Cal, spit that out!"
Flint closed his phone and held his arm out for Steve to climb on. Steve scrambled up to Flint's shoulder and perched there, excited to go somewhere. On his way to the elevator, Flint grabbed the video camera and pedestal. They entered the elevator and zoomed down, coming out at the bottom and hearing the chaos coming from the yard next door.
"Now Steve," coached Flint, "you need to be good this time. Dad's still not sure if he's gonna let me keep you, so you need to stay away from his mustache this time. Got it?"
Steve made a cooing sound, and Flint took that as a yes. "Good."
15 or so minutes later
"No really Dad, it'll be simple. I'll just press the button and we'll be able to hear what he's thinking! It's simple and harmless," said Flint as he set up the camera and pointed it at the table that Steve was sitting on.
"Well, then go ahead," said Tim, clearly unsure about having Steve in the shop, mainly because of what happened last time. Tim had made sure that the only customers in the store, Joe Towne and the old man with the glass eye, were way on the other side of the shop.
Flint looked up at his dad. "I can't. I'm waiting for-"
Flint's sentence was cut off by the sound of screeching tires from in front of the store. Flint knew that sound. Emma had arrived.
Flint walked to the front of the store and opened the door. Emma parked her car, a yellow convertible, right outside the door halfway on the curb in a no-parking zone. There were tire marks on the road behind her; a clear sign that she had been speeding all the way here, eager to see the test.
"So the Dare Devil finally decides to join the party," joked Flint.
Emma hopped out of her car and took off a pair of sunglasses that she was wearing. "So where's the monkey?"
"Inside," said Flint. He and Emma walked inside. The second Emma came through the door, Steve stopped fiddling with the speaker and looked at her hopefully.
"Sorry Steve," said Emma. "No gummy bears this time." Steve looked disappointed. The last time he had been in the shop was when Emma had returned to Swallow Falls from a visit to the States.
She had brought a bag of gummy bears, and Steve had stolen them, hid under the counter, and pigged out. Then, 10 seconds after he finished the bag, he went totally Tasmanian Devil and spazzed out, ripping out half of Tim's mustache, destroying nearly half the store, and even crippling one of the older customers, giving him a glass eye and forcing him to walk with a cane. The old man never sued though, and he was still a regular. Flint thought his name was Mr. Jenkins, and he was sitting right across the shop, but that didn't matter now.
Emma walked towards the camera, but somehow managed to trip over her own foot. She lurched to the left and whacked right into one of the shelves, knocking a few cans and bottles off the shelf. She regained her balance and looked sheepishly at Tim. "Sorry Tim!" Then she looked at the ground angrily. "Stupid flat surfaces!"
Tim shook his head and sighed. "It's okay..." he went into the isle and began returning the runaway items to their proper location.
"Ready?" asked Flint, laughing.
Emma took off her jacket and tossed it on a spare table, showing off her t-shirt that said: 'If you don't like how I drive, stay off the porch!'. "I was born ready." She took her position behind the camera.
"Ready Steve?"
Steve made excited monkey noises and jumped up and down a little bit. The speaker shifted a bit, and Steve went back to playing with it.
"Ready Dad?"
"Um..."
"I'll take that as a yes!"
"And... rolling!" exclaimed Emma. She hit a button on the camera, and the magic red light came on.
"MONKEY THOUGHT TRANSLATOR!" exclaimed Flint, using elaborate hand motions. He stood straight up and pressed the button on Steve's speaker.
After a breathtaking moment of silence... "Hungry!"
Flint forced himself to keep from squealing like a little girl and dancing around the room. HIS INVENTION WORKED! If only Mom could see me now...
Flint knew he had to say something, so on a split decision, to cover his state of shock, he said: "How wise."
However, Steve became freaked out by the aspect of hearing his thoughts out loud. He must have thought it was an enemy trying to attack him, and the first thing he locked eyes on was the camera.
"HUNGRY! HUNGRY! HUNGRY! HUNGRY! HUNGRY! HUNGRY! HUNGRY! HUNGRY! HUNGRY! HUNGRY! HUNGRY! HUNGRY! HUNGRY!" shouted Steve.
He lunged at the camera and knocked it over on its side. Emma jumped back just in time as Steve jumped over the camera and at her head.
Steve flew clean over Emma's head and ignored Flint's desperate cries of "NO STEVE! NO!"
Steve ran around the shop, screaming "HUNGRY" over and over again. He ran near the table where Joe and Mr. Jenkins were sitting and jumped on the shelf, knocking it over. The results were like dominoes. Each shelf fell in time with the others, stopping at the shelf Tim was standing next to. Tim stepped back in time to avoid getting his toes chopped off, but he bumped into the shelf behind him, knocking them over too! When Tim turned around to inspect the damage was when Steve attacked.
The deranged monkey jumped on Tim's shoulder and grabbed Tim's beloved mustache.
"STEVE NO!" shouted Flint. But it was too late.
Steve grabbed the left half of Tim's mustache and yanked it clean off!
"RAAAHHH!" roared Tim. Joe and Mr. Jenkins sat enjoying the show.
Steve jumped off of Tim's shoulder and ran out the door.
"Emma, let's go get him!" shouted Flint. Emma stood up and they ran out the door, with Flint calling: "Sorry Dad!" over his shoulder.
Flint and Emma burst out the door and onto Main Street. For a terrifying second, Steve was no where to be found, but then...
"AAAHHHHH!" shouted someone to the right. Flint and Emma whipped around to see none other than Daniel Faris, with a very hungry monkey on his head.
"GUMMY BEARS! GUMMY BEARS! STEVE! HUNGRY! RED! GUMMY BEARS!" shouted Steve as he ripped handfuls of Daniel's hair out.
Flint took a step to get Steve off Daniel's head, but Emma put a hand on his shoulder. "Let the boy learn."
Meanwhile, across the street, three 12 year old kids watched the scene play out. They were taking bets on which would come first: Daniel loses all of his hair, or Flint gets tired of watching Steve punish Daniel.
"I'm not buying him any hair cream," said the boy, putting his hands in his bottomless pockets.
"I'll buy a camera," said a brown-eyed girl.
"Maybe he can just borrow one of Shelbourne's wigs," suggested a blonde girl.
At that point, another girl, about 12 years old, walked up to the group. She had brown hair with red streaks in it and brown eyes. She was wearing converse shoes, jeans, and a t-shirt that said 'STUDENT + DYING = STUDYING'. She had about 10 rolls of duct tape hanging on her belt, and probably more in her bag. "What's going on?" she asked.
"We're watching Steve rip out that bully's hair," said the brown-eyed girl. "By the way, my name's Kalina. This is Jacob," she pointed to the boy, "and Amy." She pointed to the blonde girl.
"My name's Lydia. Who's Steve's owner?" asked Lydia.
"That guy in the lab coat. His name's Flint," said Jacob.
"And he isn't doing anything because..."
"Because the guy getting his hair ripped out is a total jerk," said Amy enthusiastically.
Lydia shrugged. "Oh, okay." They went back to watching the carnage.
"RED! GUMMY BEAR! HUNGRY! STEVE! HUNGRY! HUNGRY!" With a very painful yank, Steve took out a huge handful of Daniel's hair, causing Daniel to roar like a demented carnivore of some sort. Steve got spooked and hopped off of Daniel, running to hide behind Flint.
Daniel hunched over, grabbing his head where patches of his short greasy red hair were missing. Then, slowly, he looked right up at Flint, snarling.
"This is all YOUR FAULT, LOCKWOOD!" shouted Daniel, stepping up to Flint and jabbing him in the chest. Flint took a step back, as did Steve and Emma.
"H-how is it my fault?" asked Flint, his voice much sturdier than it should have been in this situation.
"It's your monkey, it's your stupid inventions, and it's YOU!" Daniel grabbed Flint by the front of his shirt and lifted him off the ground. Daniel was taller than Flint, and even though Flint didn't really weigh that much, Daniel still had no trouble getting him off the ground.
The first thing Flint noticed was the smell. Daniel smelled like old rotten sardine that had been left in a pile of dog poo and left to sit out in the sun for three months! And, unfortunately, Flint spoke from experience (well, he does live in Swallow Falls)...
"Just give it up, Lockwood," snarled Daniel. "You're a failure, and you'll always be a loser! Nothing you build will ever work! So why don't you just give up while you still can?" When Flint didn't respond, Daniel shook him. "Answer me you pathetic little twit!"
Flint narrowed his eyes. "I don't actually think failure is all that bad," he said calmly. "And so far, all of my inventions have worked! Spray-On Shoes, Remote Controlled Television, Hair Un-Balder, Flying Car, Monkey Thought Translator; they all worked. Just... not the way I planned..."
Right about now, Daniel looked confused, Flint looked confident, Emma looked cocky, the kids across the street were cheering, and Steve was still hungry.
Daniel narrowed his beady eyes and flung Flint down. Flint stumbled backwards and fell. Emma managed to grab him before his head hit the sidewalk, but he still hit his left hip pretty hard.
"You'll always be a failure, and nothing you do is gonna change that," snarled Daniel.
Flint stood up, not putting any pressure on his left leg. "We'll just see about that."
Daniel advanced forward, but at this point, Emma stepped up from behind Flint. "Where's Brent?"
As if in response, they heard a loud high-pitch scream coming from down the street. Everyone turned and looked, shocked to see Brent running for his life, being chased by bees. A bit too distracted to be controlling Daniel at the moment.
As the kids cheered for the bees, and Brent disappeared from sight down the road, Emma looked kinda pale. She scratched at her wrist absentmindedly. "He's allergic to bees, isn't he?"
"Yep," growled Daniel. He turned back to Emma and Flint. "He's not gonna stop me, and I know you're not gonna stop me," he said, pointing at Emma.
"How do you know I can't drop kick your sorry butt right here? Too afraid to fight a girl and lose?"
"Oooohhhh," muttered the kids from across the street.
"I'll never lose in a fight," said Daniel, bending over a bit to be at Emma's eye level. Emma scrunched up her nose at the smell of Daniel's breath. He was five feet away but she could still smell it. It smelled like he had been eating carrion for the past week, and unfortunately, she also spoke from experience.
"I'll call that bluff," said Flint, stepping up. Daniel smiled and cracked his knuckles.
"Flint, don't," warned Emma.
Daniel whirled around to face her. "Why don't you go swim with sharks you stupid limping little grease monkey!" he exclaimed.
Emma blanched, her face pale, eyes wide, jaw smacking the sidewalk. Everything was dead quiet for a second. Even the kids stopped chattering.
"Bad," said Steve.
Daniel turned to Flint and smiled smugly, but his smile faded when he saw the dark look on Flint's face. Flint clenched his fists and, without hesitation, launched himself at Daniel.
Flint grabbed onto Daniel's neck and somehow managed to get on his back! The kids were cheering: "GO FLINT! GO FLINT!"
Daniel yelled and tried to grab Flint off of his back, but Flint was too quick for him. He grabbed what was left of Daniel's hair and yanked. Daniel roared and spun around in circles, trying to get a hold of Flint.
Flint kicked Daniel in the back. Daniel cried out and stumbled backwards. Unfortunately for Flint, Daniel smashed his back into the side of a building, causing Flint to bang his head and back against the cement wall.
At the moment, Brent came running back down the street. He was no longer being chased by bees; instead, he was being chased by the Remote Controlled Television!
As Brent ran by, Emma stuck out her left foot and Brent tripped, crashing to the ground. Emma then performed the coolest ninja move she had ever done in her life and planted her left boot on the Television's screen. The Television stumbled backwards, and it's screen displayed that "technical difficulties" yelling rainbow screen. It ran back off into the forest.
Emma turned and grabbed Brent's arm, pulling it behind his back at an odd angle, putting him in a chicken wing. She pinned him to the ground with a knee on his back.
"Whoa," muttered Brent. He tried to look up at Emma. "Where did you learn to wrestle?"
Emma smiled a bit. "All of my cousins are guys. Now call off Daniel!"
"What? How do you expect me to do that?"
"I dunno, blow a whistle, say 'heel,' do anything!"
At this point, Flint was dangerously close to falling off of Daniel's back. He was tired and aching from being smashed into a wall. Knowing he wouldn't be able to keep this up much longer, he kicked Daniel's legs out from behind.
Flint's plan was to jump off, grab Steve and Emma, and book it as soon as he hit the ground. However, as he fell, Daniel reached up and grabbed Flint's neck. He flung Flint over his head and slammed him down onto the sidewalk, back-first!
Flint was immediately winded. He gasped for breath, but almost stopped breathing when Daniel stood over him, smiling smugly.
Daniel picked Flint up by the front of his lab coat and lifted him up off the ground. He pulled back his right fist, about to knock Flint's lights out, when...
CLICK!
A deep grizzly voice from behind Daniel said, "Put down my son."
Daniel turned around to see Tim Lockwood, standing right behind him, holding a shotgun. His eyebrow was raised and his eyes were red.
Everything became quiet again.
"Awkward," said one of the kids. Tim turned to look at them and did the eyebrow thingy even more. The kids screamed and ran off in different directions. Emma slowly stepped off of Brent's back and let him up.
Slowly, Daniel lowered Flint to the ground, where he collapsed to his knees, gasping for breath. Emma and Steve (who had been running around in circles during the fight) ran to his side.
"Up against the wall," said Tim in the voice he used to use during his days as a cop.
Daniel slowly put his hands in the air and faced the wall. From his pocket, Tim pulled out a pair of handcuffs, which he had also kept from his days as being a cop. However, as he reached for Daniel's wrist, a voice came from behind them all.
"Ahem," said a cold silky voice. Flint stiffened. He knew that voice too well.
Turning around, he saw the solid formal posture of pale-skinned, red-haired, green-eyed Dr. Alexander Faris. "I believe you no longer have the authority to arrest my son," he said in a formal tone.
Tim turned, lowering his eyebrow. "No, but he does." Tim pointed to Officer Earl's police cruiser, screaming down the street.
Earl pulled up in front of the shop and hopped out. He tipped his hat to Tim and Tim nodded.
"Alright, what's goin' on here?" demanded Earl.
Everyone started talking at once. Daniel pointed at Flint and Steve; Emma pointed at Daniel; Brent tried to point towards where the Television had vanished; and Tim and Alexander pointed at each other. All Earl could make out was: "He started it!" and "His fault" and "Ninja kicked the Television" and "Gummy bears."
"Hey!" shouted Earl. Everyone stopped accusing one another and looked at the muscular police officer. "One at a time! Tim?"
"What am I supposed to say? I came out here and this delinquent was beating up my son!" exclaimed Tim, pointing to Daniel.
"He attacked me first!" exclaimed Daniel, pointing to Flint, who was still on his knees on the ground. Emma narrowed her eyes and snarled at him. Daniel yanked his finger back, afraid Emma might bite him and give him rabies or something.
Earl looked back and forth from Flint to Daniel. They both looked relatively uninjured; the only difference was Daniel was missing patches of hair and Flint was on the ground gasping for breath. Earl narrowed his eyes at Daniel.
Turning to Alexander, he said, "I'm gonna need to take your son in for questioning."
Alexander kept a straight stiff posture, almost as if he had a wooden board nailed to his spine. "I understand," he growled.
"WHAT?" shouted Daniel. He suddenly found that he already had handcuffs around his wrists.
"Just get in the car kid," said Earl, shoving Daniel into the back seat. He slammed the door shut and turned to Flint. "I'm guessing you wanna file charges?"
"Yes!" exclaimed Emma.
"No," gasped Flint.
"No?"
"Yes!"
"What?"
"No, I don't wanna file charges," said Flint, standing up. Everyone stared at the inventor for a minute.
Finally, Earl shrugged. "Suit yourself." As he went to get into his car, he glanced over at Emma's whacky and illegal parking job. He sighed a bit and shook his head, but he didn't give her a ticket. He simply got in his car and drove down to the police station, Daniel fuming in the back.
Tim turned to Alexander. "You can go now," he growled.
Alexander smiled coldly. He turned on a dime and walked stiffly away.
After he was gone from sight, Flint turned to Tim. "Dad, do you want me to stay and help you clean?"
"No," said Tim, looking down. "Just go home. I think you've done enough damage for one day..."
Flint took a step back, hurt. It wasn't his fault that Steve went nuts.
Wait a second... thought Flint. It was my fault...
Casting his gaze down, Flint slowly turned and walked off towards home, the sky turning purple with the setting sun.
After a minute, he heard the soft, quiet, slightly uneven footsteps of Emma following him. Dejectedly looking over his shoulder, he saw Emma walking a few feet behind him, Steve sitting on her head.
"Don't you have an illegal parking job to attend to?" muttered Flint. "And why didn't he give you a ticket?"
"I babysit his kid for free. I don't get tickets," she said. A second later, she caught up with him. "Why didn't you file charges?"
"Because it was my fault that whole thing started," moaned Flint, rubbing his bruised back. He still hadn't quiet caught his breath.
Steve hopped onto Flint's shoulder and started playing with his hair. "Hungry," said Steve.
Flint and Emma smiled. "Well, at least that's working," said Emma.
They walked back to Flint's house in silence. Emma would glance up at the sky every so often, smiling. At one point, she turned to Flint. "I think Dr. Faris is a vampire."
Flint smiled. "Why do you think that?"
"That was the first time I've ever seen him out in the sun!"
"Then how come he didn't burst into flames?"
"I dunno, SPF30?"
Flint smiled and they rounded the corner to Flint's driveway. Steve jumped off of Flint's shoulder and dashed over to the lab, climbing up the elevator tube and through an open window.
Flint and Emma entered the mag-vator and began their ascent into the lab. Something poked Flint in the side and he looked down, realizing that Emma was holding the camera.
"When did you get that?" asked Flint.
"Right before I ran after you," said Emma. "I think the tape's gonna be pretty priceless."
Flint smiled and took the camera off the pedestal.
The elevator came to a stop and they stepped out into the lab. Flint took the camera over to his computers and plugged it in. He clicked on the video feed and the film started to play.
They watched as Steve attacked the camera and laughed, playing it again frame-by-frame. After a while they let the video play and saw Tim trip over something after Flint and Emma had run out. After a minute, he got up and turned the camera off. The video ended.
Emma giggled a bit. "I didn't know your dad had a shotgun."
"He keeps it in case someone tries to rob him," said Flint. He swung the mouse around and dragged the video feed into an editing window and began editing out the part after Steve had ripped out Tim's mustache.
Behind him, Emma turned around. "Uh, Flint?"
"Yeah?"
"I think Steve broke something."
Flint turned around and immediately all the color drained from his face. Steve had found a tape and had pulled out some of the film.
"STEVE! NO!" shouted Flint. He leaped out of his chair and lunged at Steve. Steve yelped and dropped the tape.
"Aw man, aw man, aw man..." muttered Flint. He picked up the tape and quickly looked around. Spotting a screwdriver on his work bench, he ran over to it and grabbed it. Using the screwdriver, he slowly and carefully turned the jack, reeling the film back into the tape.
Once it was all inside, Flint tossed the screwdriver over his shoulder and ran over to his bed. From under it, he pulled out an old tape recorder playing device. He quickly put the tape in, grabbed a pair of headphones, plugged them into the headphone jack, and hit the play button.
For one heart-stopping minute, Flint sat still, listening. Then, finally, he relaxed and breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh thank god," he muttered.
"What?" asked Emma. "What was that?"
Flint stopped the tape and took it out, slipping it into his pocket. He walked over to Emma and took the tape out again. "My mom made this for me," he said. "This and my lab coat are the last things I have to remember her... Well, and these." He pointed to his shoes. "And the flying car. And-" he gasped.
"I have a new invention."
"What?" asked Emma.
Flint smiled. "It's a secret. I'll let you know when I get what I need."
Emma smiled. "Whatever." She looked at her watch. "Aw crap, I've gotta go! See ya Flint!" With that, she ran out the door.
Flint shrugged, used to Emma's strange behavior. He looked down at the tape in his hands. "Where am I gonna hide this...?"
Looking around, he suddenly found the perfect hiding spot. He walked over to his computer and began to type.
A/N: Again, sorry for taking so long. I was busy with another super long 78 page chapter. Hehe, sorry... Uh, any questions? Let me know what you liked! And don't worry, all questions will be answered in the end. ;)
