Their shoes slapped against the wet street. A few blocks away, the music was fading. A deafening siren approached.
Lion-O and Felline skidded to a halt. WilyKat and WilyKit managed to stop right behind them, arms windmilling. Snarf didn't stop at all.
"Ow!" Kit gasped.
"Hey!" Kat cried.
"Oh!" said Felline.
"Easy there." Lion-O grabbed Felline before she could fall.
She smiled up at him in thanks, and was fascinated by the faint pink that colored his cheekbones. He grinned down at her.
"Sorry," Snarf said from his hands and knees.
"It's all right, Snarf." WilyKit helped him stand, and then squealed when the ThunderTank zoomed around the corner and halted two inches from Lion-O's toes.
It wasn't really a tank, of course. The Thundera Police Department didn't give tanks to its police chiefs.
It did give him a big, black Interceptor with a modern cowcatcher, three light bars, a floodlight, a loudspeaker, and about a zillion antennas. The cherries spun, washing the street in alternating red and blue.
The siren cut off.
The door opened.
A huge black boot touched black asphalt.
"Mr. King," Chief Panthro rumbled. His shaved head caught the light, slick and shiny and brown. "What seems to be the problem?"
Lion-O, who had stiffened at his name, cleared his throat and took a stab at nonchalance. "Problem?"
Panthro grinned around a lollipop stick. He stepped out of his Tank, slammed the door, and approached on heavy feet, tucking his thumbs in his belt. The walkie-talkie on the belt crackled. His pouchy eyes traveled over all five of them in their costumes, one of his irises warm brown, the other milky gray under a scarred lid. No one could tell if he could see with that eye or not.
"Just got a call in from your brother," he said in his deep voice. "Stolen convertible, royal blue, license plate TC2011, perps dressed as an ape and a lizard and a mummy, that sound about right?"
"I've got it covered," Lion-O said stubbornly.
"Sure you do." Panthro backed toward the Tank and opened one of the rear doors. "Especially now that I'm here to put an end to this." He waved at them. "In."
No one dared disobey. For the second time that night, too many of them piled into a vehicle's backseat. The ThunderTank was huge, though, and Felline wasn't uncomfortable, sandwiched between WilyKit and Lion-O.
"They're getting away," Lion-O complained.
WilyKat, who had been making little purring sounds of pleasure as he examined every nook and cranny of the fitted-out Tank, stopped his bouncing and raised his eyebrows. "Did you think we were going to catch them on foot, Lion-O? This is better. Besides - CANDY!"
"All right!" WilyKit reached over Snarf to get her hands in the shopping bag of candy her brother had found under the front seat.
"Help yourselves," Panthro rumbled amicably. He put the Tank in gear and it rolled smoothly down the street. "I get that for the little ones I run into on patrol."
Felline giggled again. Before Panthro had gotten through the word "help," the twins had stuffed their cheeks to bulging with Tootsie Rolls and a Caramel Apple Pop apiece.
"Any idea where these boys were headed?" Panthro asked.
"You don't sound too worked up over this," Lion-O said accusingly.
The Chief's mismatched eyes surveyed him in the rearview mirror. He didn't say anything. Lion-O squirmed.
"They may be going to the cemetery," Felline offered.
Panthro nodded, as though to himself. "The one on Cat's Lair Street?"
"Yes."
He shook his head and executed what was probably an illegal U-turn. The headlights and cherries flashed off fences, cars, trees, and cable junction boxes. "Every Halloween I have to chase kids outta there."
"TheywanttocallupthespiritofJaga," WilyKit said in a rush.
"Whoa," Lion-O said, alarmed, while Panthro radioed in to dispatch. "Don't you think you guys have had enough candy?"
"Why? No. It's Halloween," WilyKat said somewhat manically. His eyes looked like they might never close again.
His sister opened a bag of Pop Rocks and poured them into her mouth. She spoke around the crackling, too fast. "Anyway, they aren't the only ones there, remember? Ben-Gali and Lynx-O were going there too. Addicus and Slithe probably want to give them a hard time." Sour Patch Kids followed the Pop Rocks.
Under his breath, the police chief muttered what sounded like, "Ghosts and spirits . . . gives me the heebie jeebies . . . dumb kids." Then, scowling, he said over his shoulder, "You throw up back there, I'm arresting you."
WilyKit's ponytail seemed to bristle with indignation. "I'maminor!"
"Doesn't mean I couldn't waste a whole lot of your time, kid."
"There! There! There it is!" WilyKat shouted, tumbling halfway into the front seat.
The ThunderTank rocked as though it had been hit by a missile as Panthro jumped in his seat. "Hey! Kid! What're you doin'? This is a police vehicle! Sit down and put on your seat belt!"
"It's there!" WilyKat's pointing finger almost took out Panthro's good eye. "Lion-O's car!"
"SIT." Panthro snatched a fistful of Kat's tunic, hauled him all the way up front, and planted him in the passenger seat. The shopping bag in Kat's hands rustled. "Shoulda put up the cage," Panthro muttered as he parked with a jerk that almost sent Felline tumbling after Kat. "Everybody out. Now."
Lion-O jumped out before helping Felline down. He helped Snarf, too, who adjusted his ears again. Then Lion-O jogged over to his convertible, running a critical eye and critical fingers over the paint, the door handles, the seats, the steering wheel, and the gearshift.
"Well? Any damage?" Panthro asked, coming up behind him.
"No," Lion-O said in relief.
"Anything stolen?"
"No." Lion-O straightened, snapping the glove box closed as he did. "Everything's fine here, Chief. You can go now. I don't want to press charges."
"Yes, something's been stolen," Kat butted in. "Our candy buckets are gone."
Lion-O made a sympathetic face. "Slithe probably took them, Kat."
"It wasn't Slithe who took Kit's candy."
"That's . . . true." Felline tilted her head, considering the string of thefts. "First Kat, then Kit, then me – it all happened before you arrived, Lion-O."
"I want to file a report!" Kat yelled.
Panthro rolled his eyes, flicked on his flashlight, and studied the path between the rusted wrought-iron gates that led into the cemetery, which gradually turned back into grass on the hill. "Putting that aside, whether you press charges or not, kid, it's my job to pick up delinquents like this."
Panthro's keys jingled, and the flashlight beam bounced from side to side, moving away from them into the night.
"C'mon," Lion-O said to them, resigned. "We'd better catch up."
"Into the cemetery?" Snarf said nervously. "Nuh-uh. I think I'd, uh, better stay here. With the car. In case anyone else tries to steal it."
Lion-O shrugged. He tossed his keys to Snarf and left him putting the top up. He followed the twins, who were steadily eating their way through Panthro's bag of candy, their bodies vibrating like a pair of tuning forks.
"Why don't you want to press charges?" Felline asked as they climbed the slippery, grassy hill, holding hands once again. "Don't you think they won't try something like this again if you don't?"
Lion-O scrubbed his free hand through his spiky hair, looking like he was chewing on what to say. Finally, he got out, "If my dad found out that someone stole my car, he'd hit the roof. He's big on responsibility and all that, and then Tygra would get in on the lecture because my big brother would never have let something like this happen."
Lion-O sighed, dropping his gaze to his shoes.
"Neither of them believes that I can do anything by myself. Maybe I can't."
"I was there too," Felline said. "I didn't stop Kaynar from blowing up that pumpkin or the others taking your keys or your car. It's not your fault, Lion-O."
He chuckled, soft in the night, and then he pulled her through the concealing curtain of a large willow tree. "That's why I like you," he said. "You don't judge."
"Oh, I judge," she said, but she wasn't really paying attention to what she was saying because her heart was doing happy somersaults. "I'm just quiet about it."
A cool breeze combed through willow branches and Felline's hair. Gravestones poked up on all sides, ghostly white, strangely peaceful. Felline had no idea where the others were. Nor did she care.
Because Lion-O was kissing her and that was all that mattered in the world tonight.
Until an outraged roar from Panthro shook rain that had collected in the leafless willow down on her head. "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?"
For just a second, she thought he was roaring at her, but then –
"Outta the way!"
For the second time that night, Lion-O and Felline leaped aside. Addicus, his ape mask askew, charged right between them, sending the branches flying like hair. Slithe tripped, sliding on his chins in the wet grass. Mumm-Ra, struggling with the open duffel bag bulging with spray paint cans that kept slipping off his shoulder, didn't bother to avoid his friend. He left sneakerprints along Slithe's flabby back.
Lion-O bent double, laughing, but Felline scowled after them.
"Where did they go?" Panthro puffed as he ran up, keys jingling.
Felline pointed wordlessly and the Chief of Police hustled out of sight.
"So much for that," Lion-O said once he got control of himself. "I thought for a second 'Jaga' had shown up."
"Nope. Just a trio of vandals," Felline said, shaking her head.
"I hope the chief gets his claws in them," Lion-O said.
"Who's judging now?" Felline teased. She rose up on her toes and kissed him swiftly. "Let's get out of here."
..::~*~::..
Ben-Gali laughed soundlessly as WilyKat bent behind the old Plun-Darr family headstone, being noisily sick while his sister rubbed his back.
"You got it?" Lynx-O asked quietly. He grinned when Ben-Gali put the plastic shopping bag of candy in his hands. Lynx-O rummaged around in it, came up with a packet of Skittles, and waved them under Ben-Gali's nose. "Want the green ones?" he whispered while Kit and Kat made their unsteady way back down the hill. "I liked them better when they were lime."
"Sure." Ben-Gali, who was watching Felline go hand-in-hand with Lion-O, slowly sat next to his friend. He accepted the candies without looking at them.
It had been a successful night, for the most part. Spread a little chaos, eat a lot of candy. Lynx-O had been surprisingly good at it.
Ben-Gali chewed his Skittles, not the kind to suck on them. Maybe next year Felline would be here with them, Trick or Treating Ben-Gali style. She wouldn't be satisfied with a do-nothing guy like Lion-O for long.
As the town clock struck ten, Ben-Gali smiled. He dug through their stolen stash, chose a cookies 'n cream Twix because it reminded him of Felline's costume, and took a bite.
A/N: THIS IS HALLOWEEN. THIS IS HALLOWEEN.
HALLOWEEN! HALLOWEEN! Halloween Halloween! Halloween Halloween!
Reviewer Thanks! The Night Whisperer and Heart of the Demons. You guys have made this such a fun revival of an old story. Thanks so much for being here!
Trick or Treat!
Anne