CHAPTER 31: REUNION

After the kids had thankfully managed to take out Gibson and save themselves from an abrupt death via explosives,all they could really do at this point was just sit around and think about what their trip to France had become as Linus sighed and meekly asked while he and the kids looked around the shack to see if there was anything interesting inside "Why is it that whenever we travel somewhere,things have to go horribly wrong? That's becoming as much of a trend as all of us sleeping together and something going wrong too." to which Marcie calmly lamented in response "If it would guarantee that I'd be safe the whole time,I'd gladly travel somewhere alone for a day. At the very least." before Peppermint Patty rolled her eyes and firmly disagreed with her friend "Nah,I'd say us going through all this stuff just makes us tougher and gives us more grit."

"I don't know Patty,I may be slightly more used to this stuff now,but that doesn't mean I like it or want to do more of it. Not at all!" Sally shook her head and fiercely disagreed as she looked at herself in a nearby mirror before Claudia calmly asked Skylar when she saw his breathing start to calm down and reduce to a more normal crawl "Are you feeling alright Skylar? Your breathing I mean?" to which the boy nodded his head and confirmed that he was with relief "Yeah,it's looking fine right now,back there I was nearly about to have an asthma attack." which was followed up by Charlie Brown stating with a slight sense of awe while he looked down at Gibson's knocked out body "I still can't believe we managed to take out this guy,he just seems like a very tough guy."

"I just can't believe that they had it in them to be biters. I always thought Olaf would only bite if he would be attacked by food." Eudora nodded her head and added equally as bewildered while she pointed over at Snoopy, Andy, Olaf and Gracie chatting with Roger and Woodstock before Freida shrugged her arms and joked with a light chuckle "Well when the going gets tough,you have to loosen your teeth every once in a while." to which Franco promptly added in agreement "Or loosen yourself up too."

"So was y'all's first distraction idea to literally bite him on the legs?" Roger asked his friends out of curiosity as he pointed over to the knocked out man's swollen looking legs to which Gracie looked over at the man as well and politely retorted "Well we were on a very tight time crunch,we didn't exactly have enough time to think of something else." before Snoopy nodded his head and nonchalantly added in agreement "Yeah,if we had the time to think of something up,I'd just drop his trousers." which prompted the rest of the dogs to laugh at the joke before Olaf calmly stated in response "Well I think there's at least something here that we can all agree on."

"What's that?" Andy looked up at his brother and wondered out of curiosity to which the round beagle nonchalantly guessed "He tasted terrible." which prompted the rest of the dogs to instantly agree with the sny remark over each other before Lucy pointed over at Gibson and asked "So what are we gonna do with that lady's minion down there? We can't just leave him here." only for Franklin to meekly suggest while he looked at his cellphone "Well the most obvious thing to do is to get the cops over here,but it's looking like we aren't getting any service out here. Makes me wonder what we actually are gonna do."

"Don't worry,I'll deal with him." The voice of a significantly much older man suddenly answered Franklin's question as everyone perked up out of surprise and looked over to the front door to see a tall man with a brown trench coat,round glasses and short hair standing at the doorway to which Lucy immediately took action and yelled while she tossed a nearby book at the man's head and knocked off his glasses "Hey look she brought some backup!" which prompted the man to fiercely try to calm them down in response after recovering from the attack "Hey! Take it easy there! I'm on your side!"

"And why should we believe you mister? How do we know you're not some backup for incase this guy here couldn't do his job right?" Peppermint Patty scoffed and bitterly asked in return while she picked up a slab of wood off the ground and armed herself with it before the man calmly explained why as he took out his detective badge and showed it off "Because if I really wanted each and every one of y'all in this very room to be dead,I would've already been heading back to the airport. The names Tyrone,I'm a private detective from the states on a special assignment here,I'm tracking down Mrs Hampton and twenty escaped inmates from a federal prison in Minnesota,and by the looks of things,it seems that two are already taken down."

The kids were certainly left a little suspicious after hearing Tyrone's explanation for why he was here,but on the other had they were still mostly convinced that he was not there to harm them as Peppermint Patty cautiously stated as she dropped the slap of wood on the ground "Well….I guess you do seem pretty legit,it's nice to finally be getting some help out here." before Lucy walked up to the man and sternly wondered "So Tyrone….what are you doing out here then,and how'd you find us? Because that witch of a lady has already flown the coop and left us here with that knocked out sad sack down there."

"I went to the hotel y'all were staying at and found security footage of y'all being tranquilized by her and her men." Tyrone sighed and nonchalantly explained his reasons for arriving at the train yard which resulted in Charlie Brown lightly joking in response "Yeah we definitely remember that." before the man calmly continued his explanation "And as I watched the footage and heard her command them to take y'all to this train yard out here,I simply used common sense and went to the closet one that just so happened to be abandoned. Oh yeah,and I also came across a friend of y'all's on the way here." to which the kids raised an eyebrow while Tyrone stepped away from the door and revealed none other than Ed standing in the sunlight behind him as the kids and beagles happily gasped at the revelation while the boy meekly greeted them "Hey guys."

"Ed!" Rebecca ecstatically exclaimed at the revelation that her boyfriend was still alive as she sprinted toward the hermit and gave him a crushing hug that he quickly joined in on while everyone else happily greeted him over each other,Snoopy, Woodstock, Andy, Olaf, Gracie and Roger started dancing in excitement,and even Tyrone couldn't help but smile a little at the sight of the kids being reunited with each other,but that smile of his would soon fade away afterwards when he suddenly felt his phone vibrating from his pocket as he took it out and saw that Mrs Hampton's getaway train had already taken off thanks to his tracker to which the man sighed at the realization.

Once Rebecca and Ed finally managed to let go of each other and the kids and animals ceased their celebration,the former finally started to notice how horrible her boyfriend looked as she meekly brought it up with a concerned look on her face "Ed you look horrible,what in the world happened to you?" to which the boy nonchalantly explained his messy demeanor "I went to the chateau,found out the stuff with my mom was bs and just a trap set up by that lady so she could get revenge on me for sending her to prison,but as y'all can see,that didn't exactly work out well. Oh yeah I also lost my hat and eyepatch in the scuffle,but I can just get another one,I just hope Christine won't be too strung up about it." before Tyrone quietly whispered to himself in awe "Damn,this kid has gone through a lot."

However it was then and there that Peppermint Patty started to notice that Herman was nowhere to be found as she calmly brought it up at the realization "Hey Ed,where's Herman?" to which the boy's look of relief and happiness morphed into a saddened frown while he somberly explained what happened "Herman…...didn't make it." which caused the rest of the kids to gasp out of shock while the five beagles along with Woodstock started crying at the revelation that their friend was dead before Charlie Brown, Freida and Claudia went up to them in an attempt to apply some comfort while Ed meekly suggested in an attempt to move past the conversation for the moment "Let's…..let's head outside and move on from there."

"S-sure thing babe." Rebecca nodded her head and timidly obliged in a shaky voice on the verge of tears due to her and the others feeling sorry for their friend's loss before they all slowly began to make their way outside and be free of the dark confines of the shack,all the while Tyrone walked up to Gibson and calmly stated as he picked him off the ground and followed after the kids "You're really lucky that THEY took you out before I could,because I definitely wouldn't have been as gentle."

NEXT CHAPTER: SETTING THE STAGE