Cool Kid Saves the Cats
Chapter 24: The Twin of the Mask
"Cool Kid? What are you? Have you ever thought about this? I don't mean like, are you human or not, or a robot or some stuff like that. No I mean, have you ever looked into yourself and wondered what you truly are. Why do you think the way you do? Why do you fight for others? Why did you kill Jaime and Maria? Did you hate them? No….no that can't be the answer. You don't know hatred. After all, your hero, Cool Cat, could never hate anyone. Right?"
Cool Kid's eyes slowly opened. The blazing sun sat above him in the sky. The violent rays from it burned down into his eyes. If he didn't look away, his pupils would have become eggs. He laid his head to the side, and felt an insane sharp pain in the side of his head. He let out a massive scream and shot his body upright.
"Holy shit! Cool Kid!" FaDoug screams. "Are you okay? I didn't realize- I mean, when did you get up?"
"Owww…." Cool Kid says as he calms down. "Just a second ago...what happened?"
"Oh uh...well you shot yourself in the head and killed Maria. Then uh you walked outside and uh-"
"N-no, I mean after that?"
"Oh, well you passed out after you uh...fixed your brain. While you were out I tried to fix you up, so I put a patch over the hole in your head and uh...well I'm not sure how good I did…"
Cool Kid raises an eyebrow and rubs the side of his head. He feels the patch on his head. It barely covers anything and doesn't even fill up the hole in his head. He sighs, luckily the hole will heal itself up over time, and this bandage is more than he could ask for. He smiles at FaDoug.
"You did well, FaDoug. This should keep me over for a lot longer." He gets up and stretches his back, then looks at FaDoug. He smiles, then wraps his arms arms around him tightly, loving hugging him. "Thank you so much, FaDoug. You mean so much to me." He smiles.
FaDoug blushes, then slowly hugs him back. "S-sure thing Cool Kid, no prob." He lightly let's go of him. Cool Kid sighs then looks at FaDoug.
"Hey FaDoug….let's go on. We still got a cat to find!" FaDoug looks at Cool Kid.
"But uh, what about your head? Isn't it-"
"It's totally fine! Or uh….it will be in time. The point is, I can walk, talk, and feel now. Better than ever!" He smiles happily. FaDoug scratches his fedora.
"Okay….well let's uh, let's go then!"
"Awesome! Follow me!" Cool Kid happily marches while FaDoug follows him. He can't help but feel that the bullet in Cool Kid's brain did more damage than they thought. Cool Kid walked up a nearby hill with FaDoug. The hill isn't particularly large, but it overlooks the town. There's a lone tree that rests at the center of the hill, it appears to be dead.
While looking over the town, Cool Kid places his non robotic arm on the tree. The wood of the tree cracks a little. It's clear nobody has paid attention to this tree for years. There rests only one single leaf on a branch of the tree, both of which seem to be hanging by a thread. FaDoug looks at the leaf on the tree, then looks as Cool Kid.
"What are we uh, doing here Cool Kid? There's not much here…" Cool Kid chuckles a little.
"First of all FaDoug, there's much more here than you realize…" He breathes in, then smiles. "Secondly, I'm looking over the town. The town...I once loved." FaDoug raises an eyebrow.
"Once?"
Cool Kid smiles and sighs. "Yeah, once. This place...it was so special. I never wanted to leave it. This was the home of Cool Cat. This is the place Cool Cat shot his films with Derek Savage all those years ago. This town….this town and Cool Cat are inseparable." He looks down and breathes deeply again. "But now? Now, I can't separate this town and death."
FaDoug looks nervous and walks up to him. "Hey Cool Kid, it's oka-"
"It's not okay FaDoug. It isn't. The evil that has spread through this world… I need to stop it, and I can't be nice about it any more. From now on, I will be brutal. I will make sure none of my enemies...Cool Cat's enemies...survive." FaDoug looks at him in shock.
"Where...where did this all come from Cool Kid?"
"That doesn't matter. It's the truth. I need to be merciless to bring back the love I once felt." In silence, he pulls out the bottle containing Stormy Mikey that he had hidden in his coat. Mikey was still screaming from the bottle, he had been screaming all this time. "I put Mikey in this bottle when I defeated him. Heh, he's one noisey fucker eh? I've been able to drown it out since it's nothing but garbage." He goes silent for a bit. "What about you FaDoug?"
"Me? W-what about me?"
Cool Kid sighs and puts the bottle away. "There's no way you didn't hear him when we met up after that fight, so why didn't you say anything?"
"Oh...I uh...well I know you so well! I knew you defeated him that way! And I didn't wanna question you, you know?"
Cool Kid sighs. "Why didn't you wanna hug me?"
"What?"
"Hugging is important FaDoug. It's what separates man from monster. Hugging is what brings us together as people. You should know this."
"I...I do know this, I did hug you!"
"You did...but you didn't mean it!"
"Yes I did!" FaDoug starts to tear up. "Yes I did! You know I did!"
"Stop it FaDoug….please."
"You stop it! I meant it! You….Asshole!" FaDoug's screams causes the final leaf to release itself from its lonely branch. As it descends, Cool Kid breathes in.
"I knew it…."
As the leaf descends further, it falls to eye level between the two. As if time stopped at that very moment, Cool Kid pulls out his pistol and turns around. Without a moment's notice, he fires a bullet at the leaf. The bullet blasts the leaf into pieces, then, without delay, strikes FaDoug in the head.
The sad remains of the leaf, hit the ground, with a soundless thud.