Chapter 21
The gang returned to Cash's world. 'So, where's Theodore's door?" Simon asked. 'Right next to yours." Cash replied. Simon looked. "Oh, so it is. Okay, is everyone ready?" The others nodded. "Okay, well, allow me." Simon pushed the door open. The crew entered Theodore's world. It took the form of a large kitchen. 'Wow, I feel like Alice in Wonderland, after she drank the shrinking potion." Brittany said. "Wait, was it the potion that shrunk her? I thought that was the magic cupcake. Or, then again, maybe it was the cupcake that made her grow real big." Katrina said. "Uh, girls, we don't really have time to talk about books." Alvin said. 'Alvin's right. We need to find Theodore." Simon said. Brittany and Katrina nodded. "But, it might be harder to find him than anyone else. This place is enormous." Jeanette said "You said it, Jeanette. I mean look. That cookie crumb over there is as tall as you." Katrina said. "Well, Cash, any ideas on where to look in here?" 'Well, following the theme I talked about earlier, Theodore should be somewhere in here that's usually safe, but can also hide secrets. So, I think that we might want to check the cupboards." "Right, because they're usually safe, but people sometimes put things they don't want others to see in there." Alvin said. Katrina counted the cupboards in the oversized room. "One, two, three… there's about six cupboards." "And there's six of us. So everyone check out a cupboard with your persona. Carter, you wait here and let us know if you see anything." Cash said. 'What am I supposed to see?" "I don't know. It's a kitchen, so maybe some giant, mental rats. Look, just let us know if you see anything out of place." "Okay." "Alright, let's go." Cash said, beginning to climb the nearby shelves in order to get up to the cupboard he and Alex would examine. The others followed suit. Cash reach the door of his cupboard and tried to open it. " Arg! It won't move. Alex, give me a hand." "Right." Alex tried to help cash push the door open, but they couldn't make it move. "Damn, that's really heavy." "Man, I know it's big, but it shouldn't be this hard to open it." Cash said. He leaned his head back, wondering what to do next. He spotted a large metal lock hanging off the side of the door. "Hey, Alex, look." Alex looked up. "A lock. Do you think?" "Yeah, it's gotta be the one. But, just to be sure… Hey, guys!" "What, Cash?" Alvin yelled back. "Do any of the doors on your cupboards have locks on them?" The other scanned their cupboards' doors. 'No!' They all yelled back. "Then I hit pay dirt over here. This one's gotta be the one. Hurry over here!" Everyone did as instructed. "So, how do we break the lock?" Alvin asked. 'I don't think any of us can climb that high. Not even you, Cash." "Yeah, I know I can't climb that high." Cash said. "Hey! I just had a thought. Cash, could you throw your sword that high?" Alvin asked. "I doubt it. Hmmm, but I did just come up with an idea involving weapons." 'Lay it on us." "Okay, Al, Sy, think about your sai and staff for a minute. That should summon a mental image of them that you can use." Simon and Alvin did as told. Their weapons appeared in the air in front of them and they grabbed them. "Okay, sweet. Now what?" "Make a little platform with them." Alvin and Simon crossed weapons in order to make a small, foothold sized platform. "Now what?" Simon asked. Cash jumped onto the platform. 'Throw me." "What?" Alvin asked. "You heard me, throw me. Use your weapons like a slingshot and throw me, as high as you can. I'll climb the rest of the way." "Uh, I don't think we're strong enough to do this, bro. Hey, everybody, lend a hand here." Everyone else either grabbed a hold of Simon's Bo staff or Alvin's sai. "Hey, Cash, just a quick thought. Why not have Alex carry you up there? Or, have one of us use our new power of 'persona' to blast the lock?" "I'm trying to get everyone to conserve as much energy as possible. We'll probably need all we can get when we face Vlad. And who knows how much energy either one of those ideas would use up?" "Point taken." "Hey, I'm not saying that those aren't good ideas. I'm just saying we need to conserve energy." Alvin nodded. He then said "Okay, on the count of three." Everyone nodded and readied themselves. "One…Two…Three! Now! Throw 'em!" Everyone combined their strength and threw Cash up as high as they could. When Cash reached the height of the toss, he grabbed on to the side of cupboard door and began to climb the rest of the way up to the lock. 'Whoo-hoo! Go, Cash, go! Man, that was good toss. We threw him half way up." Alvin said. "Actually, Alvin, if I've got my figures right, we actually threw Cash up three quarters of the way." Simon said. 'Really? Wow, we're stronger than I thought." They watched as Cash reached the lock. "Hello, Mr. Lock. Hello, and goodbye! Hiyah!" Cash kicked the lock as hard as he could. He managed to break it. The door opened slightly. "Woo!" Cash yelled, as he slid back down to his family. "Alright, push it the rest of the way open." Cash said, as he landed next to Katrina. Alvin and Simon began to push the door. "Push!" Alvin yelled. The door slowly opened. When they had it opened wide enough for them to enter, the crew went inside. Inside, they found Theodore and his shadow. Theodore's shadow looked slightly different than Theodore. It was taller than the young munk. "Hey, Cash, look. Theo's shadow." Alvin said. 'Yeah, it's taller than Theo himself. I'd say it's about the same height as you or me." "And, is it just me, or does it look a little bit older than him too?" Simon asked. "Now that you mention it, yeah, it does." Cash said. "What's up with that? All of our shadows were exact copies of us. Why's his different?" Alvin asked. 'It might be a reflection of his secret." Carter said. "Hmm, could be." Simon said. "Well, let's go find out. Theodore!" Cash yelled, running towards his younger brother. Theodore turned to his family. "Everyone.." Theodore muttered. "You okay, baby bro?" Alvin asked. 'Yeah, I'm fine." "Then why do you look so beat up?" Simon asked. It was now clear to everyone that Theodore had signs of battle damage all over him. "I was fighting him." Theodore said, pointing to his shadow. "He wouldn't let me out of here when I wanted to leave, and we ended up fighting. He might look like me, but he's a lot tougher. He's as tough as you, Cash. He almost knocked me out twice." "I see. Well, it's okay now, Theodore. We're here." "Yeah, you sit back and rest. We got this covered, baby bro." Suddenly, Shadow Theodore yelled out in anger. "I hate that phrase! 'Baby Bro'. I hate it!" "Cash, you think.." Alvin said. "Yeah, I do. Let's see what we can get out of him." "Right. So, tell us, baby bro, why do you hate that term?" Alvin asked. "Because it reminds me of the fact that I'm younger than you! Oh, why couldn't I have been born first? Being the baby means I have to listen to what everybody else says, and I don't ever get a chance to say what I want, or have people do what I want for once. But, if I was the oldest, then everyone would have to listen to me. But, no, fate wouldn't give me that one little favor. All I ever amounted to was a swing vote, between Simon and Alvin. But, then, Cash came along, and I thought things would get better. Cash took over so easily, and everyone was so willing to listen to him. I thought, well, at least I don't have to be stuck between a rock and a hard place. But you know something? I actually miss those days. At least back then I had a say. I didn't get to voice my real opinion, but I had a small say so in what happened. I thought things would get better when Cash came along, and on the surface, they did. But deep down, they just got worse. I lost my only chance to feel a little bit like I was in charge. Oh, and before I forget, there's something else I hate. I hate how everyone feels the need to speak for me, or put words in my mouth. Just once, in an important moment, I'd like to open my mouth and have my own voice come out!" 'We had no idea." Simon said. "Putting it that way, we sound like real jerks." Alvin said. "Yeah, now you see why I look like this." Shadow Theodore said. "This is how the real Theodore envisions himself. This is how he wants to be. This is what he looks like in those daydreams he has, right after he thinks about everything I just said. He sees himself like this, and do you know how you all look?" Cash, Alvin and Simon shook their heads no. 'You look like little babies. Like newborns, actually! Haha!" "Okay, that's enough!" The real Theodore said. 'It's time for you to shut up!" Shadow Theodore noticed Theodore's fist clench. "You can't beat me, Theodore. At least, not with your fists. I already told you, the only way to beat me, is to tell them the truth." Shadow Theodore said, pointing to the other chipmunk brothers. Theodore turned to his brothers. 'Guys, I…" "We know, Theodore. Everyone's got things they'd rather not talk about." Cash said. 'And, really, it's not your fault for feeling this way, Theo. Anyone treated like you've been treated would naturally feel that way. So, if your about to say your sorry for feeling this way, and I think you are, cause you've got your 'sorry look' on your face, please don't. If anyone should apologize, it should be us." Simon said. "Yeah, we're sorry, Theo. I mean, you're the same age as us, yet we treat you like a little kid. I guess it's because your not as tall as the rest of us, but that's not your fault, and that's not much of an excuse. We're sorry, Theodore." Alvin said. "Yeah, we're really sorry. And, Theo, you gotta know, if you've got an opposing idea to one of ours, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Brothers don't have to agree on everything. Would it be nice if they always agreed? Sure, but it doesn't have to be that way. If there's something bothering you about some plan that one of us has cooked up, just say so. I mean, it's not like we're not going to bite your head off. So, feel free to voice your opinions from now on, okay? I swear to you that we'll listen." Cash said. Alvin and Simon nodded. "I see. Thanks, you guys. You know, I feel really stupid. All this time, I could've spoke up, and didn't, man, I feel dumb. But, now I know, so everything's okay now. And you, being the baby isn't really all that bad. I mean, being the youngest means that I'll be the last to get grey haired." Theodore joked. "So now our baby bro's got jokes, eh?' Alvin laughed. Suddenly, the munks heard clapping. They turned to see that it was shadow Theodore who was clapping. They also noticed that he had shrunk, and now resembled Theodore completely. "Good job, Theodore. You've finally started maturing. But, even so, you guys be sure to help him, okay?' The Seville brothers nodded. "Good." Shadow Theodore said. And then, the transformation process took place. Cash, Alvin, and Simon covered instinctively covered Theodore's eyes when the bright flash of light came. When they looked back, they saw a slightly chubby young spirit man standing in shadow Theodore's place." "Who's that?" Theodore asked. "Hey, guys. I'm Luke. Nice to meet you." "Uh, nice to meet you too. Um, guys, what's going on?" "Well…" The elder Seville brothers explained everything to their younger brother. "I see. Well, if your all going, I'm going to. And, that's my decision." "And I'm going too." Luke said. "Then bond and let's go." Alvin said. Luke and Theodore did so. 'Okay, now it's time to go to rescue the last one." 'Is that Ely?" 'Yup." "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!'