Chapter 7: The Toyshop
As Fizzarolli was in the toy store, snatching tools, gears, and uniforms from toy soldiers that Valentino wanted him to get off the list, he grunted as he shoved the items into his sack.
Fizzarolli pulled out the list Valentino gave him. "Get the following," he read as he used his pencil to check out the items I've got from the list. "Tools, check. I've got tools. Gears, double check. I've got gears. Girl. No, I didn't get girl." He erased the checkmark he put next to the word "girl". "Uniforms," Fizzarolli continued with a chuckle, "I got plenty uniforms!"
His relief was short-lived when he heard a horse neighing, knowing he'd been caught. "Oh, no!" the robot cried out in a panic, "I gotta hide! Ooh, I gotta hide!" He packed up the stolen items in a bag and took off running in a panic as the horse continued neighing. All of a sudden, the list flew away from Fizzarolli and dropped to the floor.
…
Spindle reached the toyshop that she'd discovered. She let Blitzo hop off her back onto the cobblestone ground. "Splendid job, Spindle!" Blitzo praised the horse.
Octavia held out her arms innocently, waiting for Blitzo to catch her.
Blitzo rolled his eyes at this, but held out his arms for her, anyway. Octavia slid off Spindle's back and fell into Blitzo's arms. The imp boss gave her a worried look before giving her a stern one and set her down on the cobblestone ground. He nudged her as if to say "go on".
Riva was holding Curly in her arms and Blitzo smiled at the two as he held out his arms for them. His wife landed in his arms and he set her on the ground. He even ruffled Curly's hair.
"Go play with Octavia, Curls," Blitzo said as he carried his son and set him down on the ground.
Loona and Millie slid off Spindle.
"Mox?" Millie said.
"I'll catch up with you later, Millie," Moxxie said as he stroked Spindle's mane.
Spindle growled at Moxxie once more before he tipped his hat and she huffed, making Moxxie roll over on the window sill in Blitzo's direction.
Blitzo looked at him with concern before turning to Spindle. "Now, Spindle, sit!" he commanded.
Spindle just stood there, smiling when Blitzo stomped over to her. "Spindle, SIT!"
"Sit, Spindle!" Octavia commanded politely.
Much to Blitzo's surprise, she obeyed her.
"Good girl," Blitzo said, on the stuffy side.
"She was being polite," Riva told him.
"Good job, Via," Curly said.
"If you would excuse me," he said, walking past the children and his wife, who turned around to the imp boss.
Then they turned back to the horse. "You be good now," Octavia said and looked over her shoulder at the other imps and Loona. "We're going to find our father!"
Blitzo hummed to himself in a thinking pose and when he saw a glass door, that gave him an idea. "Aha!" he said, "Here is our friend's entrance!"
"But Blitzo," Moxxie protested, "How can he fit into such a tiny-"
Blitzo held Moxxie's hand, motioning to the tiny hole. "Observe weapon expert!" Blitzo put Moxxie's thin finger through the hole. Moxxie opened the door.
Riva, Curly, Loona, Millie, and Octavia watched in amazement.
"Blitzo, you astound me," Moxxie said, his face through the door, which made his head look huge and goofy.
Blitzo shushed him and Moxxie backed away, knowing they were in their enemy's territory. Blitzo, Riva, Curly, Loona, Millie, and Octavia were the first ones to crawl in through the door, while Moxxie was the last one to come in and close the door behind him.
"You okay, Moxxie?" Millie asked as they entered the toy shop.
"Yeah, Millie, I'm fine," Moxxie said, nodding as they checked for any signs of Fizzarolli. Moxxie bumped into a porcelain doll. Moxxie tipped his hat. "I beg your pardon, but I-" he began, but he looked up to see what it was. "Oh, my! Upon my word. I've never seen so many toys!"
Blitzo stood behind the porcelain doll's leg, warning the other imps, hellhound, and Goetia. "Behind any of which could lurk a bloodthirsty assassin! So please, Mox, be very careful." He returned to the doll's leg and underneath its skirt to hide in the shadows. Then he hopped over the doll's foot and Riva, Curly, Moxxie, Millie, Loona, and Octavia followed him up the ladder.
Up from the ladder, something caught Curly's and Octavia's interest. It was a fireman toy.
"I wonder what it does?" Curly said.
"Let's try a lever and see," Octavia told him and turned on the fireman band toy.
Moxxie and Millie jumped into Blitzo's arms in fear.
"What's that racket?" Riva shouted, covering her ears.
"What the hell?" Blitzo groaned as he threw Moxxie and Millie out of his arms and flung himself to reach for the controllers to stop the machine.
The sound died down. "Please!" Blitzo said tensely.
"Blitzo, what did we say about yelling at them?" Riva scolded.
Blitzo glanced at wife in fear of her wrath. He turned back to the children and said gently, but firmly, "Quiet!" He then came directly over to Moxxie and Millie. "Don't let these kids out of your SIGHT!"
Moxxie and Millie saluted like a veterinary soldier and Octavia and Curly saluted with them.
"Now, Octavia and Curly, dear, stay close," Moxxie ordered as he took Octavia by the hand, which made her smile.
"And you'll be fine, kids," Millie added sweetly.
"We all forget sometimes, Curly and Octavia, but try to avoid touching anything else," Riva warned politely.
"Yes, Mom," replied Curly.
Fizzarolli glared at the demons from above a shelf.
Blitzo pushed a chess piece in front of his wife, kids, and the young Goetia. "Checkmate," he said.
"Blitzo, why did you do that?" asked Riva.
"I was playing chess," Blitzo replied.
"That's not nice, Dad," Curly said sternly.
"AHA!" Blitzo said, examining footprints with his magnifying glass. He turned to Moxxie, Millie, Loona, Octavia, Riva, and Curly. "Evidence of our robotic adversary." He stooped down to look at more footprints, humming as he'd done so and paused to look up at the clothless toy soldiers. "Hmm...How very odd."
"What is it, Blitzo?" asked Moxxie.
"Isn't it painfully obvious, Moxxie?" Blitzo turned to face the small imp couple, his wife and kids, and the Goetia's daughter. "These dolls have been stripped of their uniforms!"
Blitzo knelt down to look at footprints and Curly and Octavia joined him. "And not by any child, either." They exchanged glances at each other when Blitzo turned around to observe something else.
"Ah! Hello!" He saw that the gears were also nabbed from the toy wind-up monkey and wind-up clown. "Someone has taken the liberty of removing the clockwork mechanisms from these toys."
Fizzarolli's eyes widened in astonishment, but scooted from the shelf.
Moxxie's eyes sank down the ground as he saw a piece of paper on the floor. He bent down to pick it up. Octavia and Curly took a glance at it, too.
"Blitzo!" Moxxie said, waving the list to get the boss's attention.
"Please, I'm trying to concentrate!" Blitzo exclaimed exasperatedly.
"But Blitzo, I…" Moxxie said.
"Yeah, Blitzo," Millie said, just as concerned as her husband.
The demons heard music and saw a puppy's head emerge from a top hat, yipping. They also watched as a toy rabbit opened and closed an easter egg with a chick inside, also playing a merry tune. The toy violin man played a giddy melody. The jack-in-the-box made a spooky sound, but seeing bubbles, Octavia and Curly followed them, which led to a cradle, which made a lullaby. What made bubbles appear was a Dumbo toy.
Together, the kids followed the sound from the cradle and peered inside it to see a baby doll. Then, they slowly tugged onto the blanket to reveal a scary robot laughing at them.
"BWAH-HA-HA-HA!" Fizzarolli cackled, scaring the poor children.
Moxxie, Millie, Riva, Loona, and Blitzo turned around just a moment to see the kids in Fizzarolli's grasp. "Octavia! Curly!" Moxxie gasped.
"Gotcha!" Fizzarolli said, carrying Octavia and Curly and threw them in a sack, cackling.
Riva, full of rage over that clown taking her son and his crush, started to chase after him, yelling, "Give us back my son and her friend you clown shit!"
"Quickly, M and M!" Blitzo, Millie, and Moxxie went after him when something wheeled in their direction. It was a toy wheel. "Ahh-ya-haa! Look out!" Blitzo shouted as he grabbed onto Moxxie's and Millie's coats and rolled to the other side. Then, the trio landed on the "Round the World'' map. Just when they thought the worst was over, a porcelain doll tipped over in their direction and the three demons ran on the map pages like a treadmill when they were trying to escape the falling doll. Then, the map ran out of pages. They hopped off it and the doll fell down with a smash facedown.
Moxxie recoiled as a piece of face eyed him, but Millie held him protectively. Blitzo got back on his feet to chase his enemy.
Fizzarolli snickered wickedly as he wound up a toy knight on a horse, sending it on its way to them.
Blitzo and Moxxie stopped to see it fleeing towards them. Luckily for Blitzo and Millie, they hopped and held onto a trumpet before it could get to them. Unfortunately for Moxxie, the knight caught underneath his coat, making him go backwards until the sword hit the target like a dart. Bullseye!
Millie jumped down to find Moxxie and help him.
Blitzo let go of the trumpet and landed on his feet to glare at Fizzarolli, who took Octavia and Curly away from him and his wife. Without warning, the fireman banged his cymbals in the imp boss's face, making him so dizzy, he fell onto a pile of marbles, accidentally hitting Moxxie. Millie managed to kick the marbles away from her and her husband, though.
Fizzarolli pointed as he laughed at their misfortunes. Then waved mockingly as he said, "Bye-bye! Bye-bye!" He opened the door to see a horse whinny at him angrily and slammed it shut. Then, there was another exit for Fizzarolli, so he looked up at the roof and dashed for it, while losing his pink bonnet and hopping onto the register, ringing "No Sale".
Riva helped Blitzo up to his feet. "Are you okay?" she asked.
Blitzo regained consciousness and hopped on a toy horse that bounced. "Stop, you fiend!" he commanded, bouncing after Fizzarolli until he crashed at the top. However, this didn't stop the imp boss from chasing Fizzarolli on top of the pile of toys and blocks.
Riva climbed after Blitzo to help him get the robot.
"Let our son and his friend go, you little crap!" Riva snapped as she managed to get her hands on the sack and she did her best to rip it to release her son and his friend. Yet, the robot swung the sack for her to let go of it.
Just as Blitzo was about to get his hands on the robot for what he did to his wife, Fizzarolli clung on the window of the roof, watching Blitzo and Riva fall in delight.
Fizzarolli smirked and chuckled darkly before swinging the sack of stolen items and two children, who muffled, shouting, "Help! Uncle Blitzo/Dad! Riva/Mom! Help! Help!" Fizzarolli climbed out to grab onto the sack and hopped from roof to roof.
He sang to himself, gloating over kidnapping Octavia and Curly. "I got the gears, I got the tools, I got the uniforms! I got the kids!" He laughed at the melodies he'd sung.
"Help us!" Curly shouted.
"Curly. Octavia. I'm sorry!" Riva said, heartbroken over her failure to protect her child and his crush.