"This is the famous mountain we were looking for," Hugo said on top of the mountain.
"It looks no different from where we were," Sara backed him up.
"At least I'm getting a signal," Zack said aloud. Everyone came running to him and squeezed him to see if it was true.
"What are you waiting for," Zahyra said.
"Call Chief already," Tatyanna ordered Zack.
"Wait, lets cooperate here," Zack said. "Carmen and Sara give me your radios, some operation must be done here. And Josha, I'll need your help too."
Moments, seconds, minutes passed and the others were getting hysterical. (And I guess who was the most hysterical of all.) Then a familiar sound was heard.
"HHHEEEELLLLLOOOOOOO, everyone!" Chief's cheering voice was heard. "What's this, you never called, you never write, you never send an e-mail, not even send bonus miles from American Airlines. What do you think, that I don't have feelings?"
"CHIEF!" everyone cried out loud. They were all cheering and hugging each other.
"But, where you guys have been? ACME's going nuts looking for you. I was so worried, I though I had lost you guys forever in that storm. And….and…" obviously Chief hadn't noticed Carmen nor VILE on the scene. "What are they doing here? And most importantly, where is here?"
"It is a long story Chief," Ivy salutated him. "But we will explain it to you as soon as you get us out of here."
"Time's running out Carmen," Sara said looking at the monitor of her radio.
"Time? Time of what?" Chief asked confusedly.
"Time for N.I.M.H. to find out we are here Chief," Carmen was sure that Chief had never heard of the organization before.
"N.I.M.H…N.I.M.H!…...!" Chief cried out loud. "Those of N.I.M.H.. Those lousy bastards, I though they were all dead."
"Chief you know about the organization too?" Zack asked.
"That I know, that we know. For them is that we have lost more detectives, than a cat looses hair during shedding time."
"What do you mean by that?" Jasmine asked him.
"That because of them some of our detectives are dead, not detectives you knew, but they were the best of their days," Chief's voice was breaking. It was sad seeing him like that.
"Maybe you kids don't know them, but Zahyra and Miguel and even Carmen could remember the famous Thirty group."
"It was the greatest undercover group of detectives ACME has ever had," Carmen said.
"So, their dissapereance is true," Zahyra was shocked.
"No, dear. Their deaths," Miguel added.
"Yes, they were all killed in a mission to destroy N.I.M.H.," Chief concluded. "Their deaths haven't been avenged yet."
"And some others," Ivy said looking at Carmen. "Maybe we can avenge the deaths of our loved ones once and for all."
"How, no one knows were the organization locations are now," Chief said.
"Oh, we do," Lee said.
"In fact Chief, we are on N.I.M.H. island," Armando said.
"WHAT!" Chief shouted. "We must get you guys out of here."
"Wait Chief," Tatyanna stalled him. "Why get out, when we can avenge this souls."
"NO!, not you guys too. I won't let you die like the Thirties group."
"But Chief, we can defeat them really, just give us the tools and high gadgets you have and we'll do the rest," Jasmine assured him.
"I said no, now prepare to leave I am sending the C-5 to your coordinates."
"Look, aaahhh….thingy," Lars said. "Maybe we could also help on this."
"Yeah, and you could let us escape afterwards," Moe finished.
"We can't let them continue on this unlucky business," Hannah said.
"What they are doing to living things is inexcusable," Paige was angry.
"They are creating monster here that may well destroy us," Hugo retorted.
"I'm with them," Sara said. "But their records books must be saved for further exploration."
"We could make history Chief," Zack joined them.
"We will make them pay for using technology to destroy our world," Josha was behind Zack.
"They are right, we can't let them get away with this," Zahyra said.
"Come on Chief," Charlie said.
"Come on old man," Miguel said.
"The ones that play with fire, will get burn," Lina said.
"At least someone is with me on getting out of here," Chief said nearly defeated, looking at Carmen. Everyone else looked at Carmen awaiting her answer. She was with her back at them, but she could feel Ivy's strong look at her back.
Carmen looked at them over her shoulder, "There are six important soul that haven't been redeemed yet."
"YEAH! GO CARMEN!" The group cheered for her.
"There is no way I could send all those people to jail without anyone noticing it. Do you understand that," Chief explained. "Going there means you have to destroy the installation and everyone inside of them."
"Not always, we could just let them in prisoned here," Ivy said.
"I like the way you are thinking," Hugo smiled at her.
"And what about the boss of the organization Crados Snick?" Chief asked the group.
"We'll figure that later. Its time to get moving," Zack commanded Chief.
"Alright, but when you find the installation contact me. I want to be around for anything you could need."
SCENE 2
It was late afternoon and there was still no sign of the installations. Many other bands of golems and chimeras had been attacking them throughout the day and by now they were experts on knocking them out. It was early night and the stars were shinning brightly. The beautiful full moon was shinning with splendid magic over the land. But something else was shinning over the land, it was a powerful light that was reflected by the clouds above them.
"Look," Ivy pointed towards the source of light. "Those lights are man made, not natural."
"The installation must be there. This is getting very exciting," Charlie said.
They were right, the installation was there. The biggest installation they had ever seen. How can an island that small could hide such humoungous installation. It was a great architectural achievement, it combined movement, transparency and many types of materials to its façade.
"That is NIMH alright," Lars said in a low voice.
"What do we do now," Moe asked the others.
"Well the Thirties group had a plan for this occasion that they didn't use," Chief came back to view. "Here Zack, give it a look."
"This is…this is….this is crazy," Zack examined the plans.
"Chief this is impossible to do," Ivy was shocked at the amount of strategy designs on the papers.
"The Thirties were the greatest strategists in ACME history, if they couldn't do it how come we will," Zahyra was disappointed.
"No, many of the high-tech equipment they used were experimental, and this strategies were designed without the slightest clue of where the installation was exactly located," Chief explained to them. "The only thing to do is get to their main control and make the whole island explode."
"The whole island," Armando was shocked.
"You mean the whole island is the installation," Josha said looking at Chief.
"Yes, and the original plan consisted of blowing everything on this marvelous paradise."
Everyone was discussing this supposed plan, but they all came to the same conclusion: it was impossible. This NIMH installation could well be protected by everypiece of high-tech equipment they hadn't seen in their life. Not to mention those monsters, chimeras and golems that were heavily armed and guarded the installations day and night. (This story is getting more complicated by the page. So Cliff Notes will be available next month in your favorite book store.)
"It can be done," said a voice from behind them.
"WHAT!" everyone looked back at the source of the voice.
"I said, it can be done," Carmen assured them.
"How?"
Carmen took the maps and papers and started explaining her plan. It was simple enough to work. It was so ingenious, it had to work. Carmen organized and changed parts of the original plan in order to have atleast seven other alternative plans in case one of them failed. She could tell just by looking at the original plan where we could enter, where the monsters are, where was the main control center and how to destroy it and get out in a matter of minutes.
"That is the greatest plan I have ever heard you explain," Sara was with her mouth open.
"Are you sure about this plan," Miguel asked Carmen giving her a strange look.
"Yeah, when did you get to be such and expert on this NIMH thing," Lee said.
"I've had my adventures in the wild too you know," Carmen walked up to him. "And meeting NIMH up close and personal was one of them."
"Up close and personal in what sense," Zahyra asked.
"Well," Carmen looked for a way to get out of this mess without any complications. "Well, I…"
"It doesn't matter right now," Ivy cut her off. "what matters now is to get inside the installation and destroy it."
SCENE 3
Let's speed things up a little here OK. So, I am going to skip how they got through the main entrance and into the building. What I am going to say are some of the important successes and the methods used for it. Using the special paralyzing guns the Thirties group had made they were able to stun the monsters on the entrance gate. They were all shocked to see the true Zahyra, as she battled like Xena: Warrior Princess on the battle field. Paige was saved by Hugo when she refused to paralyze a metamorphosed bunny that was about to attack her. Zack was quit good at the Nintendo stuff, so Lee, Armando, Josha and him made a contest of how many could they paralyze in a minute. (No one won.) Well, ACME's Angels came to the rescue, Ivy, Tatyanna, and Jasmine. Sara, Lars, and Moe sticked together like glue, each one defending the others back. Charlie didn't knew how to work the gun and just threw it at the beasts, after that his only choice was to run like a chicken. Lina had to rescue him, because Miguel had to stop Zahyra from completely paralyzing everything in sight. Carmen was very good at shooting, without even looking towards the target she always scored.
Now inside the installation everything was different. Outside the monsters were rough, and looked like morphed wolves and tigers. Inside the creatures were a little more sensible, they looked like humans, or at least had parts of humans. They were chimeras and golems, scientific experiments to enhance life and expectancy on living creatures. The group was shocked to see this creatures and their way of suffering.
"Lets split up in groups of five and head out to different sections of the installation," Ivy said in a low voice and crouching behind a metallic fence.
"There are three mayor places we must get our hands on," Zack opened the papers. "The control room, the energy room and the laboratory."
"I want the laboratory," Lee said.
"And me too," Jasmine said besides Lee.
"If there are monsters to fight, I am in," Hugo said behind them.
"OK, Lee, Jasmine, Hannah, Hugo and Moe, have the laboratory," Ivy pointed at them.
"I'll take the energy room," Sara said. "I am fascinated by all these energy sources."
"I'm going too," Lars said. "I am no good at controlling things."
"We'll go to keep an eye on them," Miguel said pointing at Zahyra and Armando.
"Zahyra, Miguel, Armando, Sara, and Lars have the energy room, check," Ivy said. "Then Zack, Tatyana, Josha, Carmen and me take the control room."
"And what are we supposed to do," Lina asked her, Charlie, Paige and Chief were feeling left out too. "Make a dance festival."
"You will keep the isles free of intervention from the creatures and the masters of this installation," Ivy explained to them. "It will be your duty to protect the groups from getting captured by the creatures."
"Meaning what?" Lina was furious.
"You're the diversion," Camen said with a smirk.
(Like a great sage in Disney once said.)
"Hey, what do you want me to? Dress in drag and do the hula," Lina said trowing her hands into the air.
(The next scene is entirely copied from the movie The Lion King of Walt Disney World.)
"HHUUUUAAAAA!" Lina shouted behind a group of monsters, she was dressed, or lets say undressed, with a Hawaiian skirt, roses for a brassier, and a big flower behind her ear. She started to sing: "If you are hungry for a fat and juicy meat!" She jumped on top of Charlie who was lying on his stomach, dressed as a pig with an apple on his mouth, and on a plate. He was smiling at the beasts. "Eat my buddy, Charlie, here, because he is a treat!" She jumped down and took her place between Chief, who was pounding the timbales, and Paige who was playing the ukulele. "Come on a dime, and have a tasty slice, all you have to do is get in line!" The monsters were drooling by now and coming near them. The performers looked at each other but continued the show. "Aaaaare you acking!"
"Yyyuumm, yyumm, yyumm," Charlie said.
"Fffoooorr some bacon."
"Yyyuumm, yyumm, yyumm."
"He is a big pig!"
"Yyyuumm, yyumm."
"You could be a big pig too, UUYYY!"
"GGGGRRRRROOOOAAARRRRRR!" the monsters attacked them
"YYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" the group went running away through the passages with the beasts in hot pursuit.
The others were stunned for a minute. They hadn't expected that snow coming up next in their lives.
"Ok, lets get a move on," Lee said.
"Everyone knows what are you going to do?" Jasmine asked.
"YES!"
"Lets get going already," Moe began to run and everyone dispersed in different directions.
"I wonder from where did she learned how to dance like that," Ivy asked, looking at Carmen for a reaction.
"It work didn't it."
SCENE 4
The laboratory group was doing ok, in fact they weren't doing nothing at all. Hugo was so into exterminating the monsters that all the others were just eating popcorn and looking around the experiments and deciding were to put the charges to explode the entire place. In one of the paper they found a secret experiment that consisted on capturing human beings and with their body parts create new species of humans.
The energy group was heavy into work, they didn't knew how many power plants and connections were used by the installation to work. It was like a wild maze with no way out and with no way around it. They discovered that the installation will need the energy of an atomic explosion to fuel an alternate power source for an extra special experiment.
The control group was not doing that well, they had encountered many difficulties along the way. More creatures with high-tech equipment had been along the way and the control room was very big. It had nearly a thousand workers, many of them humans. Fortunately the diversions group had found their way through it and confused those inside. This gave enough time for the others to capture and paralyze the others. Unfortunately many of the still human beings escaped during the confusion, including the masters of the organization.
They had gained control of the installation. Zack quickly entered on the computer systems to disable it. Ivy, Charlie and Tatyanna were tying up the beasts and on the look out for others. Carmen and Lina were helping Zack get control of the entire institude and program the charges or bombs to explode the island.
"GOOD MORNING SAN FRANSISCO!" Zack's voice was heard all throughout the installation. "This is Zack your good news reporter and I am here to tell you that ACME has gotten control of this institute and is about to burn it down. Relax and enjoy the rest of the day."
"Zack?"
"Yes Carmen."
"Don't you ever change of career."
"You are just jealous of my talent."
"I just lost my appetite," Lina said putting her finger inside her mouth in a mocking expression.
"Armando here, we've just finished putting the bombs in place Zack, we are ready for that barbecue. Also you won't believe what we found, this guy were planing to explode an atomic bomb in order to fuel on of their power plants for a secret experiment."
"Really, wow, now get out of here this place will not stand any longer. Wait us at the entrance of the valley."
"Jasmine and her group are all set up."
"Who appointed you group master," Moe's voice was heard in the radio.
"ME!"
"Sure boss," Hugo said.
"Anyway, we are going to the entrance of the valley too. You won't believe what this people were doing down here, they had this experiment in which they are going to create new human beings using other human beings parts. That is so wrong."
"Great all that is left is to coordinate them and we are out of here," Zack said as his fingers moved rapidly over the keyboard of the computers. "Ready, who will like to be the honored to push the bottom?"
"Let Carmen do it," Ivy said. "She got us into this, she will get us out of it."
"Well," Carmen walked forth. "Lets rock this place." She pushed the bottom and the bombs exploded in an instant.
SCENE 5
"Is everyone alright," Zahyra said as she catched her breath from all that running. The group was out of the institude and were at the entrance of the valley. They looked behind them and the whole building was burning down.
"Did the boss and the others make it out in time?" Hannah asked.
"We hope so," Miguel was staring at the blazing fire, until…; "Look! Look over there! There they are!"
"They made it out alive," Sara was not that thrilled, but she gave in to the commotion.
The group cheered seeing their companions were alive. They urged them to run faster from that burning place. They were heroes, in their own sense, they couldn't believe they had done the impossible. They had done what the Thirties couldn't, they destroyed one of the most secret and elusive complots in the history of the world, or maybe not on the history of books, but it'll do.
"Yes, I knew we could beat them once and for all!" Ivy said.
"This is great," Chief was excited. "You guy have done it. Now the souls of the Thirties will rest in peace."
ACME hugged together and congratulated each other for this great job. VILE congratulated their comrands, and their boss. In fact it was her plan that destroyed the place.
"Guys, look over there," Josha pointed at some figures moving away from the fire at a distance. "I though we had gotten all the creatures."
"They are not creatures," Lars said. "They are human beings."
"What, that can't be," Moe pushed him aside. "It is true what he said."
"But there is nothing human in this place," Paige was sad at this.
"Look they are coming right for us," Jasmine shouted.
"Well I'll be damned," Miguel took a stick from the floor.
"Don't talk like that dear," Zahyra took another stick. "Wait until they come closer."
"What now are we supposed to fight them?" Sara asked.
"So what we have this guns, don't we," Zack took out his gun.
"No, they are useless against humans," Carmen said taking a stick from the ground. "We will have to fight them the old fashion way."
"Come on it will be fun beating those scientists," Ivy threw a stick to his brother and he caught it with a bit of difficulty.
"But…." Zack wasn't sure of this.
"What? Are you scared Zack?" Tatyanna asked him.
"Naaa, I laugh in the face of danger."
"Cool, this is so much fun," Lina said twirling and playing with her stick. "I am pretty good at hand to hand combat."
"Really?" Carmen asked her. "How is that?"
"I have watched every episode of Xena: Warrior Princess there are, including the ones where she appeared on the Hercules show."
"That's the show where the main character has died like a thousand times and has gone to more than nine hells and heavens, and she still lives."
"Yes, isn't she the greatest," Lina thought of what Carmen had just said. "Hey, wait a sec, let me rephrase that."
"I have always been a fan of Tom and Jerry Kids," PONK! Charlie was on the ground by the punch that Carmen and Lina gave him on the head.
"Lets go there and make friends," Hugo started running towards the burning place.
SCENE 6
They finally got to were the scientists where and the site amazed them. The scientists were unarmed and some of them were badly out of shape, but the others were very tall and muscular. They saw the group approaching them and looked for advise from their master. He was a tall and rather skinny man, he inspired fear among his fellow workers, and nobody did anything without his permission.
"Capture them all, alive," He finally said. "But let the woman in red free. She is mine to deal with." He smiled as he saw his workers prepare to battle revealing his golden and silver teeth.
End of Chapter 9