The Big Round Up
"I can't believe those little maniacs!" Jean fumed as she drove her SUV. "When I get my hands on them…"
"Take a number!" Scott told her. Then he was hit with a stuffed squeaky animal. "Okay knock it off you two!" Scott snapped at the babies in the backseat.
"Good thing we also remembered to bring the baby car seats along too," Jean sighed.
Another soft squeaky block hit Scott's head. "Cut it out!" Scott snapped. "Jean why are they doing that?"
"It's one of their favorite games," Jean told him. "Apparently Lance is one of their favorite targets."
"You know for once I'm actually feeling sorry for Alvers," Scott grumbled. "At least we don't have to deal with these guys twenty four seven like he does!"
"Him? It's Althea that I'm getting a new respect for!" Jean said. "And I know that father of hers can't be that much help! That I am sure of!"
"So where do we start looking?" Scott asked.
"I'm having trouble sensing them," Jean admitted. "It must have something to do with that ninja training of theirs."
"Yeah well I think we just got a clue where they were," Scott pointed to all the police cars surrounding the Gut Bomb.
"Well they're not here now," Jean parked the car and put her hands to her head. "Maybe…" Then a smile came to her fingers and she started to laugh.
"What?" Scott asked.
"Let's just say Duncan got what he deserved," She snickered. "But I don't know where the girls are."
"Hey why don't we check that bar over there?" Scott pointed across the street.
"You don't think they'll be in there?" Jean asked.
"Them no, but Polly probably," Scott said.
"Oh come on Scott a parrot in a bar…"
"This is Shipwreck's bird, remember? We should at least check it out."
"Oh all right," She parked the car nearby. "I'll stay with the babies and you take a look inside."
Scott nodded and went in. Two minutes later he came out. "Well?" Jean asked.
"You gotta see this…" Scott pointed with his thumb. "I just need a second opinion to make sure I'm not completely out of my mind."
"Oh all right," Jean sighed as she got out of the car. "But just for a minute." She didn't notice the evil grins of the babies as she left. "So what's so…oh my…"
"I told you," Scott said as they entered the bar and stared at the scene.
"Come fly with me, let's fly, let's fly away. If you can use some exotic booze there's a bar in far Bombay!" Polly sang on top of the piano. The entire bar was enthralled as the parrot sang.
"Is it me or does that parrot sound just like Robert Goulet?" Scott asked.
"More like Frank Sinatra," Jean told him.
"I gotta admit he's good," Scott shrugged. "Okay bird show's over!" He grabbed Polly from behind.
"WAK! HEY I'M IN THE MIDDLE OF A NUMBER HERE!" Polly flapped his wings furiously. So did the crowd.
"Come on Bird! Its time to go home and…Have you been drinking?" Scott winced at the stench of alcohol.
"Well…duh!" Polly squawked. "Why else would I be in a rat hole like this?"
"Well it's time to go," Scott took him to the door.
"Hey!" Norm shouted. "You can't take away our entertainment! It was bad enough when the dragon left!"
"Dragon?" Scott blinked. "Was it purple?"
"Wait a minute…" Norm thought hard. "Yeah…I think."
"Did you see where it went?" Jean asked.
"How should I know?" Norm sputtered. "I was in the john when it left."
"Yeah that thing ate all my peanuts!" The bartender snapped. "Are you going to pay for all the drinks that bird had?"
"How much did it drink?" Scott was afraid of the answer.
"Five beers and a shot of tequila!"
They looked at Polly. "Hey I needed the tequila for my big number!" The bird squawked. "You know the song 'Tequila'? Da…dah, da, da, dah, da!" He started to hum the song.
"I want my money!" The bartender glared.
"Just pay the man Scott and let's get out of here," Jean sighed.
"I didn't bring any money," Scott told her.
"What?" Jean balked.
"Hey you!" The Bartender pointed to a cop sitting at a stool. "Can't you do something?"
"Uh oh…" Scott gulped as the cop glared at them.
"I know you kids," The cop said. "You're some of those mutants from that Institute!"
"What?" The bartender snapped. "Hey I don't want any freaks in my bar…unless they're paying customers. Get out of here!"
"Aren't you a little young to be drinking?" The cop glared at them.
"We're not drinking sir," Scott showed him Polly. "We just came to get our parrot."
"Awk! Will sing anything for booze! Awk!" Polly flapped his wings.
"You gave that animal alcohol?" The cop glared at him.
"No he escaped," Jean tried to tell him. "We'll pay, really. Just call the Institute and…"
"Oh for crying out loud Red the guy's not even supposed to be drinking on the job!" Polly squawked. "I mean what the heck do you think he's been doing here the past hour when he was supposed to be on patrol? Boozing it up that's whaaaaa…." Scott put his hand on his beak.
"He's a very sick bird," Scott grinned weakly. "Hasn't got much longer to live. Can we go now?"
"Look the only reason I'm not going to run you freaks in now is that I have enough paperwork to deal with," The cop growled at him. "Get out and stay out!"
"Okay, fine let's go now," Jean said as she and Scott made their way towards the door. The cop turned their backs on them. "That was close…"
Then Polly imitated the bartender. "Thanks for nothing Flatfoot!"
"What did you call me?" He whirled around and glared at the bartender.
"What?" The bartender had been busy serving drinks and didn't hear anything. "What do you want?"
"I thought you said…never mind," The cop turned around.
"You heard what he said you useless piece of garbage!" Polly then imitated another bar patron.
"All right that's it buddy, you're going downtown!" The cop grabbed the nearest bar patron.
"Hey leggo!" The man shoved the cop away.
"Police brutality! Get the Pig!" Polly made more voices. Soon several drunken bar patrons started to tackle the cop and were brawling.
"That's enough!" Scott put his hand on his beak as the fight started to escalate. "You just had to open your big beak didn't you?"
"So I started a little riot, big deal!" Polly hiccuped. "This is nothing! You should have seen what I did in San Francisco two years ago!"
"Let's get out of here," Jean grumbled as someone sailed across the top of the bar and smashed into a jukebox. "Well one down and…" She stared right ahead at where her van should have been. "Where's my SUV?"
"You know those two know how to get out of their car seats right?" Polly asked.
"SCOTT!" Jean yelled as she saw her SUV rolling backwards. She used her telekinesis to stop the van.
"I got it!" Scott ran to the driver's side and saw Claudius and Barney happily bouncing around in the driver's seat. He stopped the SUV. "Jean how could you leave the keys in the van?"
"Excuse me Scott you were the one that had to drag me in there!" Jean snapped. "Are they okay?"
"Oh they're just fine," Scott grumbled. "You two…" He grabbed them and started to put them back in their car seats.
"Well it's a good thing we got to them before there was any…DAMAGE!" Jean then noticed a dent in her front. She then noticed that a cop car was parked ahead and it had a dent in its rear bumper. "Oh no! They must have went forward before they went backward."
"Let's get out of here!" Scott finished buckling the babies up and grabbed Jean, shoving her inside. They took off down the road. "Okay bird, talk! Where's Lockheed?"
"You'll never break me!" Polly flapped in Jean's arms. "AWWK!"
"I think Lockheed went that way," Jean pointed in a direction.
"What makes you say that?" Scott asked.
"Because those bushes are on fire," Jean sighed as she pointed to a few charred bushes.
"At this rate we'll be lucky if the town's still standing when we catch them," Scott grumbled.
"There he is!" Jean pointed. Sure enough there was Lockheed tearing up a rosebush in the park. "I'll get him." She took out a leash and collar and got Lockheed. "Come on Lockheed! We gotta go boy!"
A drunken pair of men wandered by and did a double take. "Lady," One of them said. "That is the ugliest dog I have ever seen!"
"That's not a dog stupid!" The other drunk said. He glared at Lockheed. "Hey you were supposed to take me to the magical fairyland an hour ago! Where were you?"
"Okay that's it…" Jean used her powers to make the drunks forget they had seen her and she brought Lockheed back into the SUV. "Now all we have to do is find the girls!"
Lockheed barked. "He says he'll find 'em for you if you give him a treat," Polly told her.
"Okay we will," Scott said. "Once the girls are found." At this Lockheed started to bark and turned his head.
"In there?" Jean pointed to a dance club. "What are they doing in there?"
"Gee Jean it's a dance club," Scott said sarcastically as they made their way towards it. "What else would they be doing in there?"
They made their way inside, leaving Lockheed and Polly behind to guard the babies in the van. "I don't see them," Scott looked around in the throng of people.
"Well they're here somewhere," Jean looked around. "I can sense them but there are too many minds around for me to pinpoint them."
Everyone was cheering on a group of black haired girls dancing in the center stage with a middle-aged man. "Man this place is wild," Scott said. "We gotta find the girls and get them out of here!"
"Wait a minute…." Jean stared. "Scott take a look at those girls. Don't they look familiar to you?"
"Yeah…" Scott blinked. "But how…?"
"The holowatches!" They both said at the same time.
"Trinity must have found the Professors new ones!" Jean said.
"They really are sneaky aren't they?" Scott grumbled. "Who are they dancing with? He looks familiar."
"He should," Jean sighed. "That's the mayor."