"Revenge is Bittersweet," Chapter Five
by VTBOTS and DragonShadow83
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Katy Kat of the nude MilkCan girls attempts to open the large entrance door, but is having some difficulty. "Gosh, this's a tough door. Maybe the theater's closed...."
"Allow me," volunteers Ma-san as she, with a 'HIII-YA!', kicks the door open effortlessly.
"Nice one, now we won't get arrested for breaking and entering," grumbles Lammy sarcastically. Ma-san proudly smirks at her accomplishment.
"It's a public place anyway... I think, so it shouldn't matter," says Katy, calmly. "Let's just go inside and look around."
So they enter Teriyaki Yoko's theater to do just that, covering themselves (moreso for Lammy and Katy. Not too long after going in, they already receive male stares. One male in particular, the pitbull dog who had his television broken by the owner of this theater, and so was upset for a while, grins broadly at the sight of the poor girls, particularly at the lamb, who simply nervously smiles as she waves with only her fingers.
"Hey there, good-looking," says the pitbull, grinning perversely at her features. "How about you and I go to my room and... you know? Heh heh heh!"
Lammy, blushing, steps back and nervously shaking her head, continually mumbling "No, no, no, no...." Luckily for her, Katy Kat is by her side, and the blue feline roundhouse kicks the perverted mutt in the jaw, forcing him all the way to a trashcan. Lammy silently thanks Katy, who nods in return.
"Ahhh... women!" mumbles the dog blissfully as he slips into unconsciousness. The other males back off when they get a good look at the ferocious expression of the cat. She points dangerously at them, making sure to look extra, extra mean.
"All right, BOYS, any of you gonna try perverted stuff at us, hmmmm?" They immediately shake their heads. "Good! Now where's the women's dressing room!?" They point to the nearest room in a nearby hallway. "Thank you!" With that, she storms off with the rest of MilkCan and, after walking out of the guys' field of vision, softens her expression and almost laughs. When the girls are out of earshot, the guys immediately talk among themselves, saying things like 'Wooo, that cat is hot! An' a pretty darn tough cookie! I'd want to (do this and that)!" or "You kidding me? She and the lamb can't compare to the little one-- she's sexay!!" or "That midget!? C'mon... that lamb is so (blahity blah blah)".
* * * * *
The girls enter the dressing room that the guys back near the entrance led them to. Fortunately, it's empty, so they grabbed what clothes they can get, though Lammy feels guilty for stealing. They re-emerge from the room in their new clothes: Lammy in a sparkling red dress; Katy in long, expensive blue flair jeans (almost like her original slacks but fancier) and short, black shirt; and Ma-san in a dress almost exactly like her original dress, except this one is dark purple.
"I like this place," Lammy comments, smiling as she looks over her pretty dress, and greatly relieved to no longer be nude as well.
"Perfect!" Katy exclaims at her new wardrobe.
"Not exactly my favorite color, but it'll do. Now to find Parappa," says Ma-san seriously.
"... Any idea where to look?"
"None here," says Katy, "there are a lot of rooms in this theater it seems."
"The kidnapper has to be here somewhere... unless he/she tricked us."
"I doubt this person would trick us; he or she wants us too badly for some reason." She looks around for a bit and shudders. "This place kinda creeps me out. I suggest we should stick together and look through all the rooms."
"Sounds good to me..." Lammy agrees. So Parappa's Angels... uh, I mean MilkCan look through one room that they think looks suspicious.
"Hello?" mumbles Katy.
"Hellooooo, hellooooo, HELLOOOOO! HELLO!" tune three singer guys.
"...they can't be it," mumbles Ma-san as she closes the door.
They enter another room, and find a cat guy and a squirrel boy.
"Holy most-wanted, Cat Guy!" exclaims the boy. "Isn't that MilkCan!?"
"You're right, old buddy!" responds the older guy. "I believe that you-know-who wants one of them! We best not be around them; TO THE CAT SLIDE!" Suddenly some corny music plays out of nowhere as the cat person pulls back the head of a statue, revealing a secret passage behind the bookcase leading to a slide of some sort. The duo slide down the passage and the bookcase moves back to place. THe music stops as suddenly as it started. The MilkCan girls blink in total confusion and very slowly close the door.
"Hey, what did that guy mean by 'I believe you-know-who wants one of them'?" asks Lammy. "Could they be talking about the kidnapper?"
"Possibly," replies Ma-san, "though I thought kidnappers would usually keep things like this quiet. Hmmm."
The girls shrug it off for now and continue on, checking door to door for their kidnapper, when they finally reach the most decorative door they've seen thus far. Lammy opens the door to the room, finding...
"HEY!" Teriyaki Yoko shouts angrily, whirling around. To her great surprise, she finds MilkCan, particularly her most wanted enemy. "YOU!?"
"You know us?" asks Katy, before whispering to Lammy, "Is this Teriyaki Yoko?"
"Yeah..." Lammy nods.
"What are you doing here!?" Yoko demands. She sure wasn't expecting to see the girl she's planning to exact her revenge on to be here, now. Especially since her plan hasn't even come into complete formation yet. With her enemy here... she has to improvise. But how?
"A friend of ours has been kidnapped," says Katy, answering her demand, "and a note said that that person is keeping him in this island." She pauses... "You're not the one, are you?"
Teriyaki Yoko blinks. "Kidnapped? Someone's being devious right under my nose without telling me?"
"... okay, so you're not the kidnapper. Well... we're sorry for disturbing you Ms. Yoko, so we really must be on our way to save our friend."
Katy turns to walk away, when Yoko suddenly grabs Katy by the arm. "Who is " she immediately demands in the cat's face. Ma-san clenches her drumsticks, ready to fight just in case.
"Ack, we don't know," says Katy nervously, "it never told us who it is."
"Grrrr," growls Yoko viciously, "how dare they try to use MY island for revenge on someone I wanted revenge on!"
Lammy almost immediately blinks and takes a step forward. "... Hey, wait a minute..."
"Um, what do you mean?" says Katy in an equally suspicious tone.
"Oh... nothing," mumbles Yoko, catching her mistake. "Come on, we should find them!" says Yoko in a mock-determined tone of voice as she walks ahead of the girls. They all eye her, unconvinced.
"Something smells, and you know us girls shower in the morning," Ma-san says aside to her friends.
"Yeah," agrees Katy, "her short rant earlier made me suspicious."
"Who does she want revenge on?" Lammy wonders.
"Stop whispering and come on, quickly!" Teriyaki Yoko shouts to them, seeming to be in big hurry for some reason.
So the MilkCan girls reluctantly follow her... but keep their guard up. She leads them through the hallways of her large theater, eventually winding up in a cellar. When Ma-san gets a good look inside, she suddenly backs off, pulling her friends with her. "Hey, um, we don't want to look in there, c'mon, let's try somewhere else..."
"Um... yeah, what she said: Try somewhere else!" translates Katy, equally reluctant.
Ignoring them, Teriyaki Yoko screams in the cellar, melodramatically, "Anybody in there!?" The girls grunt and cover their ears. "HELLO!?" Yoko screams again, stalking deeper into the cellar.
"I don't think there is anyone in there, Ms. Yoko..." says Lammy.
"If someone's here they're in here, it's the only hiding place on the island."
Just then, Katy's sensitive feline ears pick up faint sounds deeper in, "Hey... I think I heard something. Maybe it's, uh, our friend."
"Leave if you want to," Yoko says, waving her hand toward the direction of the sounds, "I won't allow someone to take revenge behind my back!"
Lammy stares at her in silence. Katy shakes her head and speaks, "... you sure are talking a lot about revenge for some reason."
Yoko catches herself again and, sweatdropping, she says, "What? Oh, it's no reason..."
Katy says aside to Lammy, "Should we go in and see after all?"
"What else can we do?" Lammy replies. So she and her friends reluctantly walk further into the cellar to find where the voice is coming from. "Parappa...?" Lammy softly calls.
A faint, familiar voice responds, "Ohhhhhh.... Ninety-nine bottles of cola on the wall... feel like I drunk 'em all...." And more complaining noises follow. MilkCan is more than happy to hear the sound of his voice.
"There he is!" shouts Lammy as she and her friends run deeper into the tunnel ahead of Teriyaki Yoko. Yoko "hmmmmm"s and stays behind, rubbing under her chin, contemplating on something as she watches the others go ahead.
"L... Lammy? Is that you?" groans Parappa, his voice sounding closer now.
"I'm here, Parappa!" exclaims a relieved Lammy as she runs up to him. "Are you okay? Who did this?" she asks as she looks over the puppy.
"It's... some girl that looks like you..." He tries to pick himself up by hanging on to the wall but slides back down on his bottom. Man, she has poor hospitality, I'll tell you that..." He eyes her and the other two girls strangely, wondering why they're in such expensive (yet pretty darn good) clothing. But he shrugs it off, assuming they were on their way to something... He sure likes how Lammy looks in her dress, though, but looks away for a second when he feels his cheeks becoming hot.
"Looks like me?" asks Lammy as she undoes his shackles quickly, helping him stand up.
"Yeah, 'cept her fur, clothes, and hair are dark. Twin sister of yours?"
"Not that I know of... -- What?" She suddenly says when they all hear the door slam at the entrance. Teriyaki Yoko is nowhere in sight.
Katy Kat growls deep under her throat, gritting her teeth angrily, "That... That... I KNEW IT!" She dashes to the door of the cellar to open it, but it won't open. "It won't budge!"
"W-W-We're locked down here?" Lammy worriedly asks.
"What!?" shouts a voice angrily. "I was about to spring my trap!" Its source leaps from the top, crossing her arms in mixtures of frustration, anger, and disappointment.
Parappa points to her, frowning, "It's her! She's the poor hospitality girl: Rammy!"
"Huh? Aw man!" whines Rammy at the realization that she revealed herself too soon.
"YOU did this!?" asks Lammy, now recognizing the unfortunately familiar kidnapper of Parappa's.
"Yeah yeah, whatever, we have more to worry about!"
"Yeah, but why did you kidnap Parappa?" asks Katy curiously.
Rammy answers her by pointing accusingly at Lammy, and shouts angrily, "YOU stole my gig!"
"What? What gig?" blinks Lammy innocently.
"RAGH! Shut up! You know what gig you gig-thief!"
At the mention of the word 'gig', Lammy suddenly remembers one of her own... One that is arriving way too soon now.... "Gig... Oh gosh, I forgot, our gig is tomorrow," she says, refering to her and MilkCan.
But Parappa says, "Tomorrow? Uh, don't you mean tonight?"
The MilkCan girls' jaws nearly drop to the floor. "... It's tomorrow already??" gasps Katy, shaking her head.
"How long were we out!?" wonders Lammy out loud, slapping her paws to her cheeks in panic.
" 'Out'?" asks Parappa. "What are you girls talking about?"
"Chop-Chop Master Onion knocked us out!"
"Him?? Why?" asks Parappa, sounding surprised.
Katy rubs the back of her neck nervously, saying, "Um... We don't want to explain at the moment. Let's just try to find a way out of here."
"The only way out now is deeper in," smirks Rammy, "and there's a lot of weird stuff in there."
"... Are you sure?" says Lammy. "You're not just trying to get us eaten?"
"Try the door again if you don't believe me."
So Ma-san, being the strong one she is, hops over to open the cellar door... And the hallway is replaced by...
...a large room with a colorful floor that looks like stones and pebbles from faraway, but if looked at closely one could swear they see little faces of some sort.
"What the..." gasps Ma-san and Katy in confusion.
"Yieeeeeeep!" Parappa yelps, cowering behind his redheaded lamb.
"Well... you weren't kidding, were you?" says Lammy.
"I never kid," replies Rammy in a slightly unconvincing tone of voice.
"Let's go!" Katy says excitedly before running in. But the moment she steps into the room the floor comes to life and it moves in a wavering tide-like motion! The bewildered feline finds herself unable to control herself as she is caught in this tricky floor's movement, constantly getting bumped up, then falling back down again over and over again. It's like some wacky amusement park ride.
"Katy!" the others (except Rammy) call out to her, but she only responds with screams and complaints. Finally, she is bumped right back into the cellar, landing on her face in front of the group. Ma-san immediately closes the door. Dazed, Katy stands up wobbly, looking worse for wear.
She licks her paws and slicks it back down on her line of blonde hair with a groan. "And I just had it brushed..." she whines.
Rammy smirks a bit. "Teriyaki Yoko sometimes unlocks the door on purpose, and uses her powers to change the appearance of the room it leads to -- but most, if not all of them, are traps, and it's near-impossible to escape them. She does this to prisoners she really hates..."
"Now you tell us..." mutters Parappa, also wondering to himself why Teriyaki Yoko would 'really hate' them. 'Maybe it's because of Rammy,' he thinks, not knowing that Teriyaki Yoko has no idea that Rammy is in the cellar with the ones she truly wanted to trap.
"Well, what now?" Lammy asks.
"Well, we could try waiting a bit, then reopen the door," Parappa suggests.
"What should we do while waiting?"
Rammy smirks, "How about, let's jump on the pipe head first?"
"Ha, ha," mutters Lammy sarcastically.
"Well, we could talk about what gig you were blabbering about, Rammy," says Katy Kat.
Rammy suddenly remembers how anger she was at Lammy earlier and shouts, "The one she stole from me!"
"I never stole anything from you!" Lammy shouts back, upset and annoyed at this constant accusation.
"Certainly you're just mistaking, Rammy?" Parappa asks. "Lammy would never steal from anyone."
"I was supposed to be the star of Teriyaki's show. But because SHE stole it, Teriyaki fired me!"
"But... I had nothing to do with that! I didn't even want to play!"
"Yeah," nods Katy, "you can't really blame Lammy if the people were dumb enough to believe that she was you."
"It's her fault!" flares Rammy.
"Was not!" counters Lammy.
"Was too!"
"Was not!"
"Was too!"
"Was not!"
"Was too!"
"Was not!"
"Um... I don't think this is the right time for arguments..." mumbles Parappa timidly.
"Stay out of this, dogboy!" both Rammy... AND Lammy shout at him, forcing him to back out and whimper.
"Humph!" they huffed. But Lammy softens a bit and mouths to Parappa 'Sorry, didn't mean to.' Parappa nods.
"Well, Rammy," says Katy as calmly as she can, "can I ask you something else? If Teriyaki Yoko fired you, whare are you still doing here on her island?"
"Plotting my revenge against her AND the stupid (bleep) that took my job!"
Parappa mumbles, "Uhhhh... Is it their fault you were late?"
"Who asked you!" Rammy viciously shouts, once again causing Parappa to whimper -- he's not used to being talked to this way.
"Don't yell at him!" says Lammy with a frown, standing in front of Parappa.
"You can't bully me, beeotch!"
"Stop talking like that!"
"I will not!"
"You will too!"
"Will not!"
"Will too!"
"Will not!"
"Will too!"
"Will not!"
"Will too!"
"Will not!"
"Will too!"
"All right, that's enough, you two! QUIT IT!" Katy fumes, her patience wearing thin. "We really should be thinking of a way out of here! Now..." Katy takes a breath, "Lammy, how did you escape the island last time?"
"By fax."
"When you were running from me, you coward!" Rammy says with a frown.
"... by fax?" Katy blinks. "Oooookay. Then we just got to find this fax machine." She pauses a bit. "Should we reopen the door now and see if anything's changed?"
"Let's find out now," says Parappa as he goes over to the cellar door. Rammy crosses her arms over her chest with a slight "Like, I don't care" frown, while Lammy watches him eagerly, as he opens the door to reveal...
...a hallway similar to the one Teriyaki Yoko and MilkCan went through on their way to the cellar. It's a little darker than before, however...
Parappa sighs with relief anyway. "Good, we have something normal."
"Hmmmm," goes Ma-san as she rubs under her chin suspiciously.
Parappa starts to step out into the hallway, when Rammy suddenly grabs his shoulder. "Wait," she says, snatching his hat and tossing it into the hall.
"Hey!" whines Parappa, grabbing the top of his head, mouth open. "Whatchoo do that for?"
His question is answered when he, Rammy, and the others witness a bunch of moths appear and tear the hat apart very gruesomly, going away as quickly as they appeared afterwards.
The MilkCan trio look to Parappa, scared out of their wits when they realize that that could have been him out there. Parappa cannot believe it. One is that his trademark headgear is totally destroyed. But one thing that surprises him more is that this archrival of Lammy's just did something that even leaves MilkCan with their jaws open.
He turns to her, staring up at her with big, puppy dog eyes. "Wow, you... saved me?" He then jumps up and down gratefully, saying, "Oh, thankyouthankyouthankyou!" And then, out of his control... he hugs her. Just like that. Boom.
Parappa finally realizes what he's doing and backs off quickly. "Uh, I mean, whatever," says Parappa, pretending to frown. "Wish you were down there, though." Katy, Ma-san, and even Lammy can't help but smirk.
Rammy smirks as well, but glares at him, warning, "Touch me again and get a guitar rammed up your woohoo."
Parappa gulps and nods, "Yes ma'am..."
"So anyway," says Katy, "what should we do, close the door and try again?"
"We could try, I guess..." mumbles Ma-san.
"What's the point?" Rammy asks Katy mostly, since she doesn't understand Ma-san's language. "There's no way to get past anything she would set to trap us. The only way out is to dig straight up through the building."
"Well, what can we use to dig?" asks Parappa, looking down at his paws. "I don't think our claws are that strong..."
"Nothing..." sighs Rammy, "we're trapped."
Disheartened, Parappa backs to a wall and slides down on his bottom, mumbling something under his breath.
"Well, this's just great," Katy frowns, kicking dust in frustration.
"I'm bored," yawns Ma-san. "I wanna watch TV."
"How can you think about TV at a time like this?" Katy asks, shaking her head. Ma-san shrugs in response.
"Well... like hell I'm spending the rest of my life with YOU, I'm leaving," grumbles Rammy as she turns and heads back toward the other side of this creepy cellar, close to Parappa's cell. "I'm just going to die over here away from you people."
Katy rolls her eyes. "Whatever. You started this."
"Yeah, whatever, kitty bitch."
"What was that!?" flares Katy, on the verge of pounding Rammy's face in.
"Just ignore her, Katy..." sighs Parappa.
"Grrr... Fine!" growls the cat as she sits there Indian-style. Ma-san leans against the wall beside her and slides down with a yawn; Lammy whistles boredly. Rammy sits at the other side of the cellar far away from the group, her arms crossed and back turned to them, frowning deeply.
Parappa looks to dark, evil version of Lammy, concerned. He wonders why Rammy would want to kill Teriyaki Yoko so bad just for merely firing her. Sure, being fired always provokes anger in the former worker, but usually not enough to want to kill the former boss. 'She's hiding something,' Parappa muses to himself. 'I think there's much more to her story than that.' His curiousity gets the best of him, so, despite Rammy's attitude, he leaves the group to walk over to where Rammy is, sitting Indian-style beside her.
Rammy, who heard his footsteps, faces him and growls, "What did I just say, dogboy?"
"I heard what you said. I just felt like sitting over here a minute," Parappa tells her.
"Whatever," Rammy mumbles, turning away from him again.
They sit there for a minute or two in silence. Parappa then decides to let his curiousities out, feeling that Rammy should have cooled off by now. "So... Rammy..." says Parappa, twindling his fingers -- he almost snickers as he realizes that he's starting to pick up Lammy's habits.
"What?" frowns Rammy, though in a tone not as angry as before.
"Can I ask you something?"
"Whatever."
"Are you sure you want to kill Teriyaki Yoko and Lammy just because you got fired? Or... is it because of something else?"
"None of your business."
"Come on, Rammy... You can tell me. I mean... heck, we have nothing else to do, anyway. So out with it. I promise I won't laugh, if that's what you're afraid of."
Rammy sits there in silence, contemplating. It's true that there is nothing to do in this hellhole of a prison besides sit there and die. But being laughed at isn't really what she is bothering her. It's her background story; something that really does not wish to think about. She would bust open this weird puppy for reminding her again (not that she can ever forget anyway), but, for the sake of getting rid of or at least reducing boredom, she turns to him and sighs, smirking a bit.
"Fine, you win," she says. Parappa smiles and sits right beside her, ushering her to tell her story. Taking a deep breath, Rammy begins:
"I wouldn't say I have much of a past. In fact, my past is pretty darn short. See, when Teriyaki Yoko first began her singing career here, she wanted a guitar player, in hopes of having a wider audience. None of the people on the island were electric guitar-playing experts. So... she decided to create one. Since her theme is darkness she wanted someone, well, dark. Like a dark version of a guitar expert. But she can only create one if that person is closest to her. And so... I was born."
"Teriyaki Yoko created you?" Parappa gasps.
"Yeah. I wasn't born as a baby. I have no childhood or anything. I was just... artifically created. Just to serve her and her band."
"Man... I never knew," says Parappa sympathetically, his ears drooping. "That's really sad." Then a thought came to her mind. "Wait, this could explain why you look like Lammy! Lammy must have been the closest guitar expert in range, so you turned out to be a dark version of her."
"Yeah... I guess so," nods Rammy, this realization never hitting her ever since she first met Lammy. Quite interesting, indeed. "Anyway, I played for her for a while, but I had a problem: I was late a lot."
Parappa opens his mouth to say that Lammy is tardy many times too, and so must have gotten that from her, but decides to let Rammy continue.
"After being late so many times, Teriyaki Yoko punished me. Her punishments were... the torture room." Parappa looks to her sadly as Rammy's expression suddenly changes to depression and anger at the memory of those nightmarish times. "She unleashed a variety of things to torture me. Like using that medieval thing that painfully stretches out your limbs. Or hanging me upside down with a rope for a whole hour (major headache!). Or slashes her energy-like whip against me. Or... the worse of all... her electrical attacks. She constantly throws bolts after bolts of electricity, for as long as she pleases. She didn't use enough power to kill me, but sometimes I wished it DID kill me...." She shudders, almost feeling the excruciating pain of Teriyaki Yoko's power again.
"That... that monster..." growls Parappa, feeling his blood boil. "Why didn't you just fight back?"
"Well, she is... or was my boss, dogboy," says Rammy. "And if it wasn't for her, I probably would have nowhere else to go. Besides... she's way more powerful than I am. She's a master sorceress. She claims herself to be the queen of darkness or whatever, and she has the power, the attitude, and the lack of showing mercy to back them up. She's definently not the person you see onstage -- In reality, she is a merciless, black-hearted, monstrous bitch!
"Then... one day--that is, just several months ago--I was late again. I thought the show would be on hold until I arrived... But on my way there, I heard that the show is over already. I wondered how can that be without me, and they said that somebody was already playing the guitar for Teriyaki Yoko. So I rushed back to the theater... And that's when I saw HER!" Rammy growls, pointing to the direction of Lammy, who is still listening to her story quietly without Rammy and Parappa's knowing. "I tried to get Lammy right there, but she got away. Teriyaki Yoko, who didn't care that her agent and cronies made a mistake and thought Lammy was me, tossed me in that same dreaded place and tortured me again in her room for being late more than ever. I was so used to it by now it was like a daily chore you that you just get over with. I thought she would let me off again...
"But she said instead, in these exact words." Then, imitating Teriyaki Yoko's voice the best she can, she growls: " 'If you are going to be so late that I needed to find an emergency guitar player replacement, then why must I keep (bleep) like you!? You no longer deserve to be my servant! You... are... FIRED!!' " Sighing, Rammy returns to her normal voice, saying, "So she banished me from the island."
Parappa sighs with her; never before has he felt so much sympathy for somebody than for Rammy. What a dark past... "So... You're here for payback," he says.
"Right! I was beyond pissed off. I mean, I did everything for her, I played for her concerts, I put up with her punishments as best as I could... and she fires me!? I'll get her for this... along with that Lammy whore -- it's because of her I got fired in the first place!"
"She's not a whore!" says an upset Parappa, not at all liking the insult thrown to his friend.
"Whatever. She'll still pay."
"Rammy, there's no need for that."
"And why not?"
" 'Cause... Didn't you hear what she said? She was forced to perform. It wasn't like she intentionally had you punished. You know how stupid some meer cronies can be; they obviously mistook Lammy as you, and brought her to Teriyaki Yoko to play for that concert. Now can you really blame Lammy for a mistake like that?"
Rammy stares at him for a long time... It's as if she is considering his words, as she scratches under her chin in a Thinker pose. But she puts on her attitude face again and says, "I still feel like beating her up." Parappa sighs in response.
"Anyway..." Rammy continues, seriously, "I don't often tell my thoughts to other people. In fact, you're the first, dogboy. I don't know, it just feels... kinda good."
Parappa smiles a little. "Sharing your feelings and talking things out usually makes someone feel better."
"Then... I guess it's a good thing you came over here to bother me. Ummmmm..." her face twists into disgust as she struggles with the words, "T... Th... Than... Thank... y... you!" Rammy tries not to gag.
"You're welcome, Rammy," Parappa says, smiling. Rammy looks to him again. This is the weirdest person she has ever met in her short life. Here she is with the desire to kill or at least totally beat the heck out of one of his friends, and yet here he is coming over here and being... being... nice to her! Nobody has ever been this kind to her ever since the day of her creation. Something about this is making her feel... warm inside-- An unknown feeling she has never experienced before. And, not knowing what she's doing, her frown very slowly turns upside down...
"Heeeeyyyyy," gasps Parappa playfully, "you're smiling!"
The moment she hears the word 'smiling', she quickly shakes her head and her frown returns. "I am not!" she protests. "My mouth had a... slight inch, that's all." Parappa laughs a bit, still smiling at her. Those strange feelings return to her suddenly and she looks away. "And stop looking at me like that!" she growls. "You shouldn't be smiling; I'm still gonna get back at Lammy one way or another. Got that? I'm gonna so get that wuss!"
She angrily points to the direction of the mentioned rival. But instead of feeling empty space, she instead feels something furry. She slowly turns around to discover her finger right on the cheek of Lammy, who is, with the other girls, right behind her and Parappa! Startled, Rammy backs off, shaking her fist at all of them. "Hey, don't creep up on me like that!"
"Wow, Rammy, you sound like you were scared," Katy teases.
"I was NOT!" growls Rammy viciously. "What are you doing over here anyway?"
"W-W-Well," stutters Lammy, twidling her fingers, "we came over to tell you that we got an idea, when we heard you telling Parappa about your past. Ummm... I'm sorry about all that stuff that happened to you. But it wasn't my fault." Raising her voice slightly, she adds, "And I'm not a wuss!"
"Whatever," says Rammy, crossing her arms impatiently. "What's your lame idea?"
Katy frowns at the 'lame' part but replies, "Since you said that the only way out is to dig our way through, we decided we let Ma-san here be the digger. She's pretty darn strong!" Ma-san flexes her arms proudly.
Rammy cannot help but snicker. "That shrimp? Hah."
But Katy smirks, "She may be little, but her strength isn't something to laugh at her about."
"Please," says Rammy, shaking her head, "give me a break."
Ma-san replies in some weird mumbo-jumbo that Rammy does not understand. Katy translates for her: "Hmmm, a non-believer. Looks like I'll have to make you look stupid." Rammy simply shrugs and ushers her to go ahead and try her ridiculous idea.
The others back out as Ma-san walks over to the creepy cellar wall. She cracks her knuckles and, with power that could put many pro-wrestlers to shame, she begins pounding... and pounding... and pounding... Until the wall is reduced to a large hole, with debris lying around like a mighty bulldozer tore through it.
"Great!" exclaims Lammy happily.
"What did I tell you?" says Katy to Rammy, smirking.
"Lucky she hit a weak spot," replies Rammy, smirking back.
"Uh-huh, surrrre," says Ma-san. Rammy doesn't need a translator to know what Ma-san said; her expression is enough. But Rammy shrugs it off.
"Good work, Ma-san!" compliments Parappa. "Let's go!"
* * * * *
And so Ma-san leads the others into the newly-formed hole, silently "digging" any obstacles in this tunnel.
"A-A-Any idea how we get out of h-h-here?" mumbles Lammy, shuddering because their surroundings is darker and creepier than before.
"I don't know," replies Parappa. "We just gotta keep moving on until we find a way. It's either go through here or have the moths eat us alive."
"Actually, the killer bunnies are probably out by now," smirks Rammy.
Lammy's eyes widen in fear. "K-Killer bunnies!?"
"What's wrong, Lammy?" asks a concerned Parappa.
"I... kinda had a slightly bad experience with rabbits some months ago," she responds, nervously playing with her hair.
Rammy smirks and shakes her head at her. 'What a big baby,' she mumbles to herself.
Katy, too, shakes her head, but not at Lammy. "Killer bunnies? Now I've heard everything..."
"Well, anyway... I wonder where this tunnel leads to."
"Wherever it is, it has to be better than here," says Lammy in a low voice.
Eventually, they (well, Ma-san technically) burst through a wall and climb out of the tunnel, entering a large, uneasy-feeling dark room of some sort.
"Where are we NOW?" cries Lammy, losing her patience.
"This looks like the dungeon." Then, smirking, she says, "There's a way out of HERE, if we live that long."
"... Whatcha mean by that?" asks Parappa, shaking in fear a little. "We'll make it out alive... won't we?"
"I say we have about a five percent chance."
Katy Kat shrugs. "Well then, might as well use that five percent to get the heck out of this place."
"Sure... but first, I'm killing Lammy," says Rammy simply.
"What? Why?" asks Lammy, trembling and backing off, for she thought Rammy had forgotten about that by now.
"I'll be damned if it's one of HER traps that kills you instead of me doing it."
"Oh, come on, enough of that," says Parappa exasperatedly, stepping in front of Lammy, shielding her. "Leave her alone."
"Make me!" Rammy challenges, balling her fists and putting them up. But Parappa doesn't move an inch. Katy and Ma-san blink and stare at him-- They can't tell if he's being really brave or really stupid. Lammy, too, looks at him, and can't help but admire the way he's standing up to her.
"So beat me up already; I won't let you hurt her, Rammy," frowns Parappa.
" 'Kay," smirks Rammy, unleashing a slight jab.
"HEY!" frowns Lammy. But Parappa continues to stand there, staring back at Rammy with a frown. Rammy pauses a bit and punches him again. "What was THAT for?" asks the colored lamb.
"He kept looking at me," the dark lamb replies.
"Oh really..." Parappa mutters, rubbing his hurt cheek with a smirk.
"Duh."
Parappa gives her the big, puppy dog eye look playfully. Katy, slapping her paw to her face in disbelief, grumbles 'Parappa...' as Rammy slaps the dog clear across the face. Annoyed, Katy gets between the two, saying, "All right, knock it off you two! Let's just find a way out of this weird place. It gives me the chills. Brrr," she shivers.
"Scaredy cat," Ma-san teases.
"Am not!"
"Which way do we go?" asks Lammy.
"Flip a coin, maybe?" suggest her dark self.
"Here's one right here," says Parappa, taking out the penny he used back at Beard Burger from his pocket.
"Okay, heads we go left," says Lammy. So Parappa flips the coin into the air. It drops down and lands on the cold, hard floor, spinning around and around and around....
"Well... what does it say?" Rammy asks.
"It's..." begins Lammy, when the penny lands on its edge, "... a tie."
Parappa sighs in even more exasperation. "Not again..."
"Knock it over," says Rammy.
Ma-san thinks carefully of this as she looks carefully at the coin. She quietly goes over to one spot and stomps on the ground with one foot, to try to knock the coin on Heads, saying a sarcastic "Oops." But instead the copper piece of change rolls away.
"What the heck?" says Lammy as she watches the coin roll away from the group.
"Man, my penny sure likes toying around," mumbles Parappa, scratching his head.
"Well, after it!"
So the group of five chase after the rolling penny, much to the dismay of Parappa, who had faced a similar misery before.
"It has to stop somewhere!" shouts Lammy.
"Well, why don't we just try to step on it?" suggests Ma-san.
"I guess... hey look!" Lammy and the rest look up, seeing a door with light shining through...
"Wow..." Rammy slightly gasps, staring at the exit with a shake of her head.
Parappa smiles. "Wow. It's as if the penny had a mind of its own or something, and just led us to where we want."
"Now you're being stupid," she says to him.
"Being? He's always been that way," laughs Ma-san.
However, Parappa whirls and points to the littlest member with a frown. "Hey! I heard that; don't think I can't understand you... 'cause now I can." He half-smiles, half-frowns ass he picks up his penny.
"...oops," mumbles Ma-san as she covers her mouth. She failed to remember that if one spends enough time hanging around her, he or she will gradually begin to understand her language, which explains why only Lammy and Katy could know what she says until now.
"Why? What'd she say?" asks Rammy, blinking.
"Forget it, it's an old joke," says Lammy, wavering her paw, as if to tell the subject to go away. "Let's just get out of here while we can!"
So the fivesom dash into the exit, bathed in its light. They shield their eyes as they step through, and when they uncover their eyes, they find themselves in...
... Teriyaki Yoko's dressing room.
"What? HEY!!" screams Yoko as she covers herself up quickly.
Parappa almost instantly looks down on the floor, trying not to grin. "Well... look on the bright side: At least we're not in some creepy dungeon or cellar, or a mock rollercoaster ride, or in a bare hallway with killer moths. We certainly made it out of there in a flash..."
The gang silently look to him, then at their... situation. They're in big trouble now.
* * * * *
TO BE CONTINUED...