Chapter 20: Taz' second plan
Bull was in his home on the phone talking with his boss. "Axl has ran off since I confronted him," Bull said, "Doesn't matter though boss, because I got the job done finally!" "Yeah, I'm sorry about your partner betraying you Bull," his boss told him, "He is indefinitely fired and I'll make it clear to him next time he calls me. However, what are you talking about when you say you got the job done?" "What am I talking about? The Tasmanian Devil of course!" explained Bull, "I finally got one and she will definitely be the star of the zoo! The boat picked her up at least 4 days ago as her cage wasn't around." "Umm, Bull," the boss said with a serious tone, "There was no Tasmanian Devil on that boat as the zoo would've received it and called me by then." Bull's eyes went wide and felt like he had just got punched in his chest. "Your- Your kidding with me...r-r-r-right?" the gator asked with a nervous laugh. "Do I sound like I'm kidding?" his boss replied in an agitated tone. Bull was silent for at least 6 seconds before he said with a shaky voice, "I-I-I gotta go." "For like the millionth time in who knows how many years now, alright, goodbye." Bull hung up the phone.
This had been the closest he had ever been to capturing a Tasmanian Devil, only for it to have slipped away at the last moment. He knew just by what had happened many days ago, who was responsible for this. He grabbed his suitcase full of clubs and a big net. "You may have outsmarted me Axl," Bull muttered, "But that is only temporary..." Bull opened the door of his home and went to his own personal vehicle, which was a Burgundy early 80s looking Cadillac. He zoomed off as fast as he could, in the hopes of finding Jean and Axl, so he could put both of them in the zoo.
Meanwhile, Jean and Axl had left the apartment complex and were walking down one of the pathways in the woods away from it. Mainly the woods so Bull wouldn't see them if he ran into them by chance. The only thing they had were some suit cases with stuff in it. Axl didn't really own much so it was easier than it was for others.
Within the days before leaving the apartment complex, Jean had asked Axl several questions about what had happened after she and Hugh were captured. Axl had explained everything he knew within those days. He didn't know what was precisely going on in Hugh's case, aside from the fact of him being in the hands of Francis. However, he strongly recommended that they don't go risk getting him back. Not only because the tribe is heavily guarded, but because they'd both be in a world of trouble if Francis or one of the other Mudpeople caught them. About 1 day before Taz and siblings came back to Tazmania, Jean tried to go get Hugh herself in the middle of the night. If it wasn't for Axl waking up in the middle of that night to find this out, Jean would've gone right back to square one. Of course, when he found Jean not far from the Tribe of the Mudpeople, he immediately stopped her. Needless to say, it was a harsh reality that she obviously and understandably had a difficult time facing.
"I guess this is it," she whispered under her breath as she and Axl walked through the forest, "Now I know how my kids felt when they were forced to run." Suddenly, she and Axl saw a large crowd walking along path but the opposite way. Jean then noticed 3 faces she was undoubtedly familiar with. "TAZ? MOLLY? JAKE?" she called as she ran over to his children. Taz, Molly, and Jake stopped as well as the rest of the crowd when they saw Jean running towards them. "Mom?" the 3 siblings said. They ran to each other and shared one big hug. "Oh my goodness!" said Jean, crying tears of joy, "I am so happy to see my little angels alright! How did you get back here? More importantly, why did you come back?" Molly explained the whole story to their mother. From the moment they were chased out of the house, to the moment they came back home. The only parts she kept out was Taz eating the passport and not wanting to work, just to save him the trouble of getting scolded. "Regardless of what troubles you went through, I am just so thankful that you guys came back unharmed and okay!" Jean continued, "I also wanna thank Axl here VERY much for what he's done to delay those Acme guys. If it wasn't for him, things would be much different. He is a truly redeemed gator!" "Gee, thanks Taz' mom," said Axl.
"I don't want to sound rude or ruin this heartwarming moment, but don't we have somewhere to hideout?" asked Constance. "Ah, right," said Taz, "Taz says we should keep moving." They continued moving through the forest, as Jean told her side of the story. "Wow," said Jake, "That sounds awful." "I cannot imagine the pain you felt and still currently do," added Molly. "We'll get dad back from them, trust Taz," assured Taz. All Jean could do was pray and hope for the best.
About a half hour went by, and they found themselves out of the woods and into some familiar territory. They all gasped upon seeing what was in front of them. The Tasmanian Devil family's home was completely destroyed and collapsed. Taz, Molly, Jake, and Jean walked slowly towards what used to be their home, as the others just watched. The devils looked and picked up many familiar things that had been seen throughout Taz-Mania. Some of it was just barely fine, while some was broken. The house had been through damage before, but this was damage beyond repair. Originally, the Platypus Brothers were called to destroy Taz' home, but they refused to do such a thing. In response, Dingo called in his spies to destroy it instead. "So...this is where he wanted us all to hide," said Mr. Thickly, "But now it's gone." "Where do we go now?" wondered Bob's mom. Taz' expression then turned angry. "Taz make Dingo pay!" he said, "Taz make Dingo pay!"
Suddenly, Taz noticed a hidden camera that seems to have been recently placed. It said Acme on the sides of it. The other 3 noticed it too. They just stared into it. "Ha! Only Taz here would wanna bring everyone to his place only to make himself a bigger target!" a familiar voice laughed, which turned out to be Dingo coming from a speaker near the camera, "You should have never come back. But hey, you just made my job a whole lot easier by coming to where your home used to stand." Taz filled with rage, absolutely destroyed the camera and speaker beyond repair. A helicopter could be heard in the distance, as well as the sound of speeding cars. Taz already knew what that ment. "RUN!" he shouted. Everyone followed Taz as they went back in the woods, but in a different portion. Townly, the spies and special units arrived and saw the last of the group running into the forest. "We get out and run after them?" asked one of the spies. "We can, but the special units can go through the forest with their military like vehicles easily," replied another.
Taz, his family, and friends ran through the forest as fast as they could. The helicopter was overseeing everything, telling everyone where Taz and the gang precisely were. Townly and the spies ran with their tranquilizers out, while the special units tore through the woods with their tanks and other military like vehicles. Luckily, the woods got more and more thick, which made the pilots have a hard time spotting the gang. After a little more running, Taz and everyone came to a halt. They saw what looked to be some kind of old abandoned 2 story building. From the looks of it, it was likely a former office that had been long since abandoned for at least 30 or 40 years. With Acme getting closer and closer, Taz quickly tornadoed to break the boarded doors open. When they broke, they all went in. Taz sort of put the doors and boards back on to make it look like they never went in.
Acme was going by, until Townly ordered them to stop. He then got out of his limo to observe the abandoned building. Taz and everyone else hid in various places when they saw him approaching. Townly just stared at the building, his eyes becoming increasingly narrow. "Uhh, do you want us to go in?" asked one of the special units. Townly then stepped over to the door which looked like it was boarded up like before. He then looked through the windows closely, but saw a mostly dark and run down inside of the building which turned out to be an office. He didn't notice anyone or anything off. "No, I don't see anyone or anything off," sighed Townly. He called up Dingo on his cell phone. "They seemingly have gotten away Mr. Chairman," said Townly, "We lost sight of them in the thick portions of the forest." "DON'T STOP LOOKING FOR THEM!!!" Dingo bellowed loud enough for Townly to almost drop his cell phone, "SEARCH THE ENTIRE ISLAND! TEAR THIS PLACE APART IF YOU HAVE TO!" Townly got back in his limo and he and the rest of Acme continued forward.
Taz and the gang got out of their hiding spaces. "I guess we're stuck here now," said Jake. "But wait, doesn't this mean we can plan accordingly?" asked Molly. "Yeah!" replied Taz, "Here's Taz' plan." He told everyone what they can do and the plan as a whole in his gibberish, with some help from Molly in case some didn't understand Taz. Some of Taz' friends had some ideas of their own. He liked their ideas so he was sure to include it into their plans. The plan was basically to start off small but take bigger measures once the little stuff goes accordingly. Despite overhearing the Acme folks and what they were going to do, Taz wanted to start plans right around sunset, in case Dingo planned to start early, especially knowing that he and everyone else planned to revolt. The first thing they were going to do was destroy any Acme security systems they found, whether it be out in the open or near one of their targets. The second thing was to go free Hugh from Francis, and possibly take down Francis in the process. The third thing was to make one big revolt against Dingo and Acme. Taz and his family hoped to free Drew as well, but they had no idea if he was still with Acme or elsewhere. Some more planning was made too, but nothing too significant.
All that mattered was that they had a plan and that they were going to make Dingo pay for his wrongdoings...
To be continued in the next chapter...
(Chapter 20 published 10/14/22)
