OH SNAP! I'm here with chapter 12! Now, since the weekend is ending, I may not post everyday, so expect sporadic updates on this story. Anywho, in this chapter, more is revealed, trust is completely obliterated, someone dies, and we see some more of the characters we haven't seen yet! So without further ado, chapter 12 of ON THE LINE!
~On the Line~
~by ChipetteGirl10~
~Too Far To Give Up~
"Let her go Charlene!" The chipette turned to see a red-clad chipmunk and a pink-clad chipette standing behind her. Charlene's grip only tightened around Jeanette's throat. Alvin pulled out his gun. "Let. Her. Go," Alvin snapped firmly. Charlene finally released her grip on Jeanette, and the chipette fell to the ground with a gasp. Alvin knelt down beside her and for a moment laid his paw on her forehead. "I thought Infinity got rid of you," Charlene snarled at them. "Well surprise, surprise," Brittany said mockingly, eyes never leaving her target. "Well now, I guess her job of exterminating you goes to me now, huh?" Charlene hissed, grinning coyly as she pulled out her gun and fired a shot at Brittany. Brittany ducked and the bullet flew over her head. "You think you can kill me, huh?" Brittany asked her. Charlene nodded persistently. "If you chip a nail you break down in tears. Killing you should be easy," she snapped. "That Brittany is gone," Brittany retorted. "Whatever," Charlene said. "How could you do this to us, Charlene? You were one of my best friends!" Alvin shouted.
"I was," Charlene snapped, "until you fell for HER!" Charlene fired another bullet at Brittany. It ripped another hole in her skirt. Alvin jumped in front of Brittany protectively. "Charlene, is it my fault my tree got cut down and we never saw each other again until now? Is it my fault that maybe our love couldn't have lasted?" Alvin asked her. "Hmm, I suppose not. But it's your fault now that Brittany is going to die today!" the golden-haired chipette yelled acrimoniously. "If you kill her I will NEVER love you again!" Alvin shouted back at her, holding onto Brittany. "Well then, I'll just have to kill the both of you." But before she could, she fell to the ground. Alvin and Brittany looked at her to see Jeanette had whacked Charlene on the back of the neck really hard with her gun.
"Jeanette? D-Did you just kill her?" Brittany asked. "No. I made sure I whacked her hard enough only to knock her out. It seems to have worked," Jeanette said nonchalantly with a shrug. "Well, we're glad you're okay," Alvin said, hugging her. Brittany hugged her as well. When they pulled away they could hear frantic shouts. "That sounds like Simone," Jeanette commented, earning a confused glance from Alvin. "You mean to tell me that that freak-a-zoid personality came back?" he shouted. "Um, well, you see, when Simon was captured, they made a clone body of Simone, and then drew the Simone personality from Simon's brain and put it in the body. They returned Simon and Simone to us, and he seemed to be on our side until he tied me up, gagged me, chained me down, gave me a sedative, and stuck me in a treehouse," Jeanette explained to him.
"Oh great. Now he has a mind of his own. I always disliked him, so why did he have to come back? He's stealing my thunder!" Alvin said in exasperation. "Actually…it looks like…it looks like Simon is stealing your thunder!" Brittany exclaimed, pointing behind Alvin at Simon jumping onto Simone's back and tackling him to the ground. "Dang…this looks entertaining and Simon is never entertaining…unless he's falling, of course. Then it's downright hilarious," Alvin said. "Alvin…," Brittany muttered with a roll of the eyes.
"I'm going to have her and you know it!" "Over my dead body!" "THAT CAN BE ARRANGED!" Simone shrieked at Simon. Everyone froze at those words, knowing very well that Simone could easily take Simon's life if he tried. "Don't hurt him," Jeanette pleaded. "Ah, my dear Jeanette," Simone said. "Don't call me your dear," Jeanette snapped. She stood next to Simon. "If you take his life, you'll take mine, too," she said. "You can't force me to kill you!" Simone said with a dark smirk. "Then I'll kill myself," Jeanette snapped at him. "You wouldn't," Simon said, turning to look at her. "I would. Nobody takes Simon Seville's life to get me. If they do they may as well be killing me. I couldn't live without you, Si," Jeanette said, turning toward him. "My fairest Jeanette, I cannot live without you," Simone interrupted. "Well, learn to, because I will NEVER love you, Simone. I don't know what I was thinking back on that island!" Jeanette said. Simon nodded proudly and wrapped an arm around Jeanette. "Yep, that's right. She doesn't love you, so you can just go back to that lab and cry about it on your own time," he said.
"There you are," a voice interrupted them. "Oh no," Alvin groaned, turning around with the rest of the group to see they were being surrounded. Cassidy, Quintessa, Lynette, Leilani, Jonathon, and Ansel stood before them, all holding a weapon aimed at six of the eight chipmunks. "Surrender now or be killed," Jonathon snapped at them. "You guys are traitors, too?" Eleanor asked with eyes wide. "I guess we forgot to mention that to you," Alvin said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. "Where's Hunter?" Brittany demanded. "Funny you should mention him," Leilani said humorlessly. Everyone turned to see Infinity and Ziv dragging Hunter's lifeless, bloody body. "HUNTER!" Alvin screamed. "You KILLED HIM!" "So what? You were next on the list to join him, anyhow," Infinity said, aiming her gun at the red-clad chipmunk.
"You're all done for now," Ziv snarled at the chipmunks menacingly. "How could you guys?" Jeanette asked, hugging onto Simon. "It was easy; you were all so naïve and too trusting. We thought we could easily get you out of our music industry for putting Jett Records into a little-kiddish category and it seems our plan has worked," Leilani snapped, earning herself a disapproving glare from Eleanor. "We sent Charlene to you because we knew the boys trusted her. And we took advantage of the Simone side in Simon by kidnapping him, making a clone body of Simon, extracting the Simone personality from Simon's brain, and placing it in the clone brain until we had a whole person of Simone, another ally leading to your capture. Although we had planned on Jeanette falling in love with Simone, so that increased difficulty," Quintessa explained, looking down at her trainee.
"Enough small talk, don't reveal the plan to them!" Cassidy snapped at the trainers making conversation. They nodded and aimed their weapons, ready to attack. Alvin held onto Brittany, Simon onto Jeanette, and Theodore onto Eleanor. Simone stood in front of the agents holding weapons out at the chipmunks. "Okay, chipmunks, you can surrender right now or we'll be forced to kill you or capture and torture you." Alvin looked up defiantly. "You take one of us down, we have a lot of people on our side who will easily overpower you and avenge us!" he snapped. "Don't give us the odds, boy," Jonathon snapped back, firing a bullet at him. It nearly hit him in the torso, had he not fell flat onto his stomach and brought down Brittany with him. The bullet struck the tree behind them. "Britt," he whispered. Brittany looked to him. "Yeah?" "On the count of three, we're going to run in the trees and hop from each one until we find civilization. From there we're going to find an airport and get the next plane to New York City," Alvin said. Brittany nodded in agreement. "Three!" Alvin cried, bolting up the tree. Brittany followed him. The others quickly caught on and dashed up, instantaneously hidden amongst the leaves.
"GET BACK HERE!" Quintessa screeched at them. They continued running as bullets came flying at them and knives were thrown into the foliage. "Keep running and don't look back," Brittany said urgently. Right then Jeanette slipped and fell, gripping onto the side of the branch, digging her claws in. "Help!" she squeaked. "Jeanette, just don't look back!" Alvin shouted. Simon stopped. "Alvin, she's gonna fall out of the tree!" he yelped. "Then save her and catch up, Romeo!" Alvin called back, urging the others on. Simon sighed as Jeanette's shrieks for help became louder. "SIMON!" she screamed. Simon darted over to her and grabbed her wrists. "Come on Netta, I got ya," Simon said. Jeanette grasped his wrists as he pulled her back onto the branch. "Thank you…," Jeanette whispered. "Come on, we need to catch up with the group. Don't scare me like that again, just please don't. I worry," Simon said. Jeanette nodded solemnly as the two chipmunks took off after the others. Simon occasionally looked back at his counterpart. She looked shaken to the core. Her hair, the chocolaty brown feather ponytail was clumped together with dirt, sweat, and blood. Her clothes were tattered and daubed in dirt, sweat, and blood as well. She was cut in various places and mud was evident. Briefly, Simon wondered if she would not have been so hurt if he had been there the whole time to protect her.
"I'm sorry," he whispered, "I'm sorry I wasn't there enough for you to protect you, and make sure you were out of harm's way. I'm going to try harder next time, and this time I'll take the blows and you'll be okay. If one of us were to die, it's not you, because I'm making it my mission to keep you alive." His eyes were glazed over now with a newfound urge to keep moving, even in his weakest moments. I will not fail. If I fail, I fail Jeanette. If I fail Jeanette, I've failed the others. If I've failed the others, I've failed the fate of the world. And I cannot fail that.
~Meanwhile~
Her hood was on, her features hidden. All she could think about was her closest friends, her boyfriend, and all of the others in that messed up family she had come in contact with. He had instructed her to meet him at the newly abandoned house to think up a plan. The best part was they were under surveillance. And she had a whole list of believable lies in her hand. She knocked on the door and it only took five seconds for the hurried sound of boots against a hardwood floor to come into her earshot before the door flew open. And here he was: total disheveled, angered look that made him seem more grown-up than he really was, or acted at least, and looking like he hadn't slept in a few days. Toby Seville stood inside of the Seville residence belonging to David Seville and the six chipmunks that rocked the music charts, that were now fighting for their lives against their own mentors.
"Toby…" She spoke softly to him. He nodded toward her and pushed the door open to let her inside where Toby's girlfriend Julie Ortega already sat at a rectangular table, with a dim lamp above them serving as their only light source in the darkening night. Toby took a seat next to Julie while their blonde guest, none other than Dave's current girlfriend, Claire Wilson, took a seat opposite them, on the other side of the table. "We have a few questions for you, Miss Wilson," Toby stated in his most formal voice. Claire nodded and bit her lip as the first question came. "Where were you on the night of June seventh, two-thousand-twelve, the night we assume that your current boyfriend David Seville was taken?" "I was at work with the press," Claire said shakily, eying a few cameras due to the fact that this was the real portion of her questioning. "And what were you doing with the press?" Julie pressed further. "We were covering a story about Justin Bieber getting paralysis on his right eyebrow," Claire responded. "When did you realize something was wrong with David?" Toby asked her, adjusting the stack of papers in front of him. "He wasn't answering my calls. The newspapers outside of his house were beginning to stack up. His mailbox was getting full," Claire responded. "And so why didn't you do anything?" Julie asked, leaning over the table.
"I-I-I couldn't. I g-g-got a letter in the mail from the agency saying he was c-called in for an emergency and I could no longer have contact with him a few days after I noticed these things," Claire said. She tried to hide an arc of a smile as the lie began to unfold. She pulled out a neatly typed note and slid it across the table. It even came with the official Jett Records agency seal, the one she had copied from a pamphlet about the agency that she and Dave had received the day Cassidy had given them the tour.
"Miss Wilson, are you sure this is the right pamphlet?" Toby asked. Claire nodded, while Toby looked her in the eye. "Miss Wilson, this is a note stating that they have taken David prisoner to be tortured while his kids are out risking their lives in the woods of Oklahoma in a forced crash landing," Toby responded. He had done his research, contacted Michelle, and had even kept up-to-date with the footage the agency was putting out. And unbeknownst to him before that, Julie was an amazing computer hacker. Whoever is in charge of these letters is so getting fired. These idiots will believe anything we say. I expect a letter in the mail regarding this. Toby smiled at the thought and pushed the letter back to Claire.
Claire nodded at the boy. "Alright, Mister Seville, I guess I should be going now? I will contact you later about finding David," she said, walking out the door. She walked home in the drizzling rain, thoughts never leaving Dave.
OMG another cliffy. Now the gang of chipmunks is all back together, the enemy is discovered…AND THEY'RE GOING TO NYC! Find out what happens next in chapter 13…the unlucky number. Maybe that will give you hints. STAY TUNED!
*dun dun dun*