Chapter 25
The munks awoke to find themselves in a cage, face to face with Ian Hawke. "Ah, Ian!" Eleanor cried. "What's going on here, Ian?" Simon yelled. "Isn't it obvious? You're my prisoners. Which means I won. I finally beat you! And now, just as soon as we wrangle up Katrina, the seven of you will start working to rebuild my life!" "Like that'll happen! We'd sooner go mute for the rest of our lives than work for you! And you'll never catch Katrina! She's too smart for you to nab!" Brittany yelled. "Is she smarter than you?" Ian asked, condescendingly. "You just got the drop on us. You didn't out smart us." Alvin said. "Oh yes, I did, Alvin. I outsmarted you. Or, should I say, we outsmarted you." "We?" Ian stepped aside to reveal Ken. 'Ken!" The munks yelled. "That's right. Ken here helped me pull this off. To give credit where credit is due, he came up with the plan that brought us all here and made those gas pellets that knocked you all out." "And what did you do?" Simon asked. "I acted out the plan. And the key word there is 'acted'. I put on one good act, if I do say so myself." "An act?" Simon asked. "Get the fur out of your ears! Yes, I said it. My part was all about acting. And all I had to do, was put on a disguise and talk to Alvin…like this." Ian said, sliding into his janitor voice. "You mean, you were that janitor?" Alvin yelled. "That's right. And, if you haven't figured it out already, everything I told you was made up. I don't have a twin brother, Alvin. I have three younger sisters. And none of them play basketball." Alvin's face immediately went from angry to defeated. "Alvin, what's he talking about?" Brittany asked. 'You remember when you saw me talking to that janitor at school?" 'Yeah." "Well, what I told you, the whole America's got talent thing, was a lie. I made it up instead of telling you the truth and I'm sorry, Britt. It's just that, I was trying to honor that promise I made to you. About learning to get along with Cash." "Oh, Alvy." "Ah! Man, this is good! Watching your faces as you take this all in is so satisfying. Oh, but, Brittany. Don't get mad at Alvin. After all, he was up against my flawless acting. He never stood a chance. It was all too easy to convince Alvin that Cash was out to get him." "So it's your fault that he snapped at Cash!" Simon yelled. "That's right. Please, hold your applause." "Wait a second. You sound like you already knew what happened between Alvin and Cash earlier." Jeanette said. "That's because we did. We've been watching you, waiting for the moment that Alvin would explode. Once that happened, you'd all be divided and at that moment, you wouldn't be able to work together to stop us. Then we just swoop in and finish the job." Ian said. "Alright, that's enough with the evil villain monolog, Ian. We still have to prepare for the arrival of the other two." Ken said. "Alright. I've had my fun. Let's get to work." "The other two?" Eleanor asked. 'He must mean Cash and Katrina. They must've done something to let them know that they have us and now they're using us to lure them here." Simon said. "And you heard what Ian said. He's only after Katrina now, which must mean that, Ken's got plans for Cash." Jeanette said. At this moment, the munks became aware of a banging noise. They looked to see Alvin banging his head against the cage wall. "Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid!" He yelled. "Alvin…" Theodore said. "I am the biggest idiot in the whole stinking world!" Simon walked up to Alvin and stopped him from banging his head on the cage again. 'Alvin, now is not the time to be beating yourself up. Right now, we need to figure out a way to get out of this cage." "Right, okay." Meanwhile, outside the warehouse, Dave, Cash and Katrina had arrived. "Okay, so how do we get in there?" Dave asked. "Well, knocking on the front door is obviously out. This obviously a trap and so we need the element of surprise to pull this off safely. If we knocked, they'd have us right where they wanted us." Cash said. 'Okay, then what should we do?" "Hmm." Cash looked around. He noticed a gutter nearby. He ran to it and began to climb up it. Katrina soon followed. "Guys, wait. I can't.." 'Don't worry, Dave. Everything will be fine. Just leave this to us." Katrina said before continuing her climb. "Good luck. And don't worry, I'll find some stealthy way inside for my self." As Dave went to find his own entrance, Cash and Katrina reached the roof. They found a hole in the weathered ceiling and slipped inside through there. They quickly traversed the rafters and made their way down to where the munks cage was. They dropped down right in front of the munks. "Ca.." Theodore began but Simon and Alvin covered his mouth. Cash followed this by putting his finger to his lips, telling Theodore to keep quiet. Theodore nodded and then said, very quietly, "You came for us." "Well, of course I did. After all, what are brothers for?" "Throwing each other out on the street." Alvin said, sadly. "Listen, Cash, I…" "No time, Alvin. Let's just get you guys out of here. Where's the lock on this thing?" "Over here." Jeanette said, pointing to the lock, which was by her foot. Cash ran over and jammed his sword into the lock. "What are you doing?" Eleanor asked. "Trying to break the lock. Just hang on a second." As Cash shifted the blade of his sword around in the lock, though he tried to be quiet about it, he still couldn't avoid making a kind of metallic clinking noise. And, unfortunately, this noise was just loud enough to alert Ken and Ian. They turned to see what was going on. Ian made a move to go after them, but Ken stopped them. "He's mine, remember?" Ken asked quietly. "Then be my guest." Ian said, equally quietly. "Okay, Ian. Start thinking. If you don't come up with something right now, Ken's gonna kill Cash and then you lose your chance to have the whole set of eight." Ian thought to himself. Ken quietly unsheathed his sword, which he had hanging from his belt and walked silently over to Cash. Cash and the rest of the munks never noticed, as they were too busy focusing on the lock. "I think I almost got it." Cash said. He then happened to move his blade up in just the right manner to catch Ken's reflection in it. As such, when Ken went to strike, Cash was able to whip around, push Katrina out of the way, and block the strike with his blade. "Heh, have to admit. That was impressive." Ken said. "I haven't even gotten started yet." Cash said. He then lunged at Ken, making him step back. Cash then jumped from the crate on which the munk's cage sat to the floor. "Cash!" Katrina yelled. "Don't worry about me! Just focus on breaking that lock." Cash said, then turned his attention back to Ken. "I warned you, Ken. If you ever threatened my family again, I'd hurt you. And now, I swear, I'm gonna make good on that promise." "And I made a promise as well. I told you that I'd be the one who ended you. And I'll make good on that promise." Cash raised his sword up to eye level. "Agito wished for this to never happen, but it seems that it was unavoidable. This has been a long time coming, but now, it all comes to an end. Today, one of us is going down." "And I know exactly who that is!" Ken said, sadistically. "That's what you think. Ken, no matter what pain I have to endure, I'm ending this tonight. Prepare yourself!" Cash called, as his anger subconsciously caused his claws to deploy. "Oh, I've been prepared for this for a long time, you little freak! Today, I reap my vengeance!" Cash gritted his teeth together roughly. To think that Ken was still using Agito's death as an excuse to come after him enraged him to no end. " 'GRRR!' Enough talk! Let's do this!"