Author's Note - Welcome back to TCL's little corner of random blaaah. Let me just say that anyone who posts R/P has my permission to rule the universe. *uses amazing hypno-telekenetic powers* You will write R/P… You will write R/P… You will write R/P… (And SoL, you WILL re-write the R/P fanfic. 'LORA COMMANDS IT SO!!!)

I added some extra stuff to the ends of Parts One (not the prologue!) and Three (the chapter before this one.) The extra stuff is important. Yesh. And once again, thank you to those who have reviewed. One final note: I have a picture of Kiki up on DA, so I've provided the link in my profile in case you wanna know what she looks like. So, behold, marvel in her OC-ish glory, and now, having nothing else to say, I'm just gonna shut up and continue writing the fic. Amen.

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Initiation

Part Four

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Thursday morning cast a heavy, gloomy shadow over Plainville. Rudy heaved himself out of bed upon awakening; he felt very jumpy, for some reason, and he wasn't sure why. In any case, he had to get up early; he felt motivated to check up on ChalkZone after the chicken and pixie incident of the previous day. Hopefully, nothing too dangerous had been erased since then. Still a little tired, he sauntered to the chalkboard, opened up a portal and crawled through, not caring that he was still in his PJ's.

ChalkZone that morning seemed the same as it always did; bustling with activity and the sounds of the outdoors. A flock of migrating pencils passed by overhead, pursuing a runaway buttonfly. The quaint little candy cane forest was visible in the distance, home to entire patches of two-lips, taffy-dils, and all kinds of bizarre native flowers. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary; for ChalkZone, at least.

"Looks like I didn't miss much." He yawned. "Maybe I could sleep a few more minutes before heading to school…"

"Hold that thought, bucko!"

Rudy sighed, exasperated, as he watched his blue companion head downhill towards him. "Snap. Is something wrong?"

"You bet there's something wrong! Get down to ChalkZone City right away! And bring Penny, won't you? We're gonna need all the help we can get."

Woah. There was a new one. "You actually want me to bring Penny…" Rudy repeated in disbelief.

"Yes, yes! Hurry!"

Gathering his thoughts, Rudy started to head back to the portal- then stopped, because he figured it would be faster just to get into Penny's house through her home chalkboard. He knew where it was ended up - It was somewhere in the dump, and probably had some kind of equation written on it. The dump was a thirty-minute walk away (and he was far too tired to run), so to speed up the process a little he doodled up the first thing he could think of - a rocket-powered scooter- and took off in a blaze.

He couldn't stop thinking about what he had heard the girls talking about the day before. Was Penny really fed up at his inability to listen? Were her scientific discoveries really that important to her? …Oh well, there would be other times to patch up their friendship. First things first. It sounded like there was saving to do in ChalkZone at the present.

With the aid of the scooter's rocket boosters, he reached the dump in five minutes flat. It seemed to go by in seconds, though; his thoughts were still at work. Forcing himself to concentrate, he gazed around the area searching for some kind of representation, some kind of distinction that would tell him where Penny's chalkboard was…

"Aha. There it is." A pi sign, a few random letters and variables, and many more symbols that he had yet to recognize. They were just hovering in midair. He ran over and opened the full-sized portal without caution- it was Penny's room, who else would be in there? He hopped through without hesitance.

"Rudy?! What are you doing here?!" It was Penny, all right, clad in her regular green turtleneck and skirt, sitting at a desk with a couple of bubbling beakers. "Why- Do you have any idea how early-"

"Come on! Snap said it was urgent."

"But… I can't go now!" She protested, taking a nervous glance around.

"School can wait! We may be talking about lives at stake!"

"Rudy, I can't."

The boy groaned, staring at the test tubes with contempt. "Is this about your experiment?"

"No, it's-"

She paused in mid-sentence. The sound of footsteps could be heard, growing ever louder with each passing second.

"Quick! Cover the portal! Do something!" She urged him. "Hurry!"

The doorknob began to turn. Knowing there was no time to crawl back through the hole, Rudy erased it instead with one furious swipe of his sleeve. The glistening white circle was wiped away almost entirely, leaving only a smear. And just in time. The door was heaved open, and in walked… Kiki? … Who blinked, and stared at Rudy for a moment through wide eyes.

"Woah." An amused smile played on Kiki's face, probably the first trace of one she'd acquired as of yet.  "Nice fashion statement."

Confused, Rudy glanced down at himself- then blushed lightly as he realized that he'd forgotten to change out of his PJ's. Both girls giggled at Kiki's comment, making the situation seem even more humiliating. But it could've been worse- what if it had been Mrs. Sanchez at the door instead? Hoi- he didn't want to think about that. Penny's mom never had really liked him that much.

The smile on Kiki's face had converted back into her normal cynical smirk, but her eyebrows were now arched in suspicion. "Okay, now I'll ask - why is he here?"

"Um… I… uh…" He was hoping she wouldn't ask. "I left… my… really important… thing… here, last time I came over."

"Still, you could've had the decency to change out of your nightclothes first." Kiki took a seat at Penny's desk and started to assist her with the beakers. "What exactly is this really important-"

"Rudy!" Penny interrupted, cutting her friend off. "You left your… uh… Your really important thing… in the attic." She gave him a discreet wink. "It's a mess up there, though. Want me to help you look for it?"

Rudy nodded, vigorously.

"Okay. You'll have to stay and monitor the experiment, Kiki. Rudy and I will be back in a moment."

The two of them raced out of Penny's room and down the hall, leaving the blonde girl behind them. Still trying to make as little noise as possible, Rudy followed his genius friend through the weaving hallways upstairs until they reached the attic door.

"In here." She grabbed his hand and dragged him inside, and shut the door behind them. He instantly started to cough from the sheer amount of dust in the small room, and began to fan the air around him to get it away from his face.

"Yeah, it's a little dusty up here." She commented dismissively. "Anyway… What exactly is this big crisis?"

"I don't know. But it's very urgent. Penny, we have to go now! Don't you have another chalkboard…?"

"Just the one in my room."

"Oh, great." Rudy turned to face the attic door, and poked his head through the crack a little to make sure they weren't being watched. "Why is Kiki over here so early, anyway?"

"Not that it would be any interest of yours, but…" Penny adjusted her glasses indignantly. Rudy winced as he suddenly recalled Penny and Kiki's conversation from the previous day. Did Penny really believe he never listened to her? "…She's helping me out with my science project."

"Ergh- another one? …We don't have one due this week, do we?"

"It's not for school, Rudy. It's…" She shook her head quickly. "Oh, never mind! We're getting off track! We need to do something about ChalkZone… but what?"

"Our only hope is to get Kiki out of your room." Rudy's thoughts started to race again. "We could set off a fire alarm, or you could just send her home, or… We'll think of something!" He heaved the door open. "There's no time to waste. Come on!"

But Penny hesitated. She planted her feet in the ground, unready to move. "Wait a minute! I have an idea."

"Great. What is it?"

"Why not just explain the situation to her?"

The boy sighed. "That would mean exposing ChalkZone… remember? We can't exactly leave out the most important detail."

"Have you seen Kiki's art? She may be trustworthy of the secret. We can depend on her. She won't tell anyone,"

"What?!" Rudy shook his head firmly. "Penny - you met her yesterday. You hardly know her. We can't just share the biggest secret of our lives with someone we've known one day!"

"We may have no other option. The clock is ticking. Please, Rudy, you're going to have to trust me on this one."

"It's too risky. Listen, just send her home, okay? You guys can make up later."

She stared at him, bitterly, but admitted her defeat. "Alright. I suppose… It's reasonable enough."

"Let's go!"

--

Kiki had known, as soon as the two walked back in the doorway, that she would be asked to go home. She had a talent for reading faces.

"Took you long enough." She commented, irritated. "What's the matter? Couldn't find the important thing? Or did you stop to make out?" She savored their shocked expressions as the last sentence was uttered.

"Kiki!" Penny exclaimed in surprise, blushing intensely.

"Oh, please. Can't take a joke?" The blonde girl absent-mindedly fiddled with two of the test tubes as she waited for them to continue. "Ah, forget it. Now, would you mind telling me what's going on?"

"Yes, um, uh… You have to go home now…" Penny wished she could've said it better, but Rudy was silently pressing her on with his frantic eyes and gestures. "Your… mom called."

"Did she?"

Penny felt herself sweat. Lying was definitely not her forte. "…Eh… Y-Yes."

"'Kay, then. Guess I'll see you both in school soon." Kiki rose from her seat, gathering her backpack in her arms, and headed towards the doorway. "Have fun while I'm gone, you two."

"We will! Bye!" Penny waved furiously as Kiki strode out into the hall, taking her sweet time. Rudy rushed out and closed the door behind her before racing to the chalkboard once again. He busted out White Lightning in a flash, and was already starting to open up the portal.

"I wonder what the big crisis is." Penny wondered aloud as she hurriedly crawled her way through. "It had better be something important."

"It has to be. Snap wouldn't get us worked up about nothing."

"I'm not entirely sure about that." She sighed, skeptically, as he followed suit. "It's not like he hasn't done it before."

Ignoring the last comment, Rudy seized her palm and dragged her aboard the rocket-powered scooter with him. Without a moment's hesitance, he turned the handle and off they went. Penny hurriedly clamped her arms around his waist to keep from falling off.

ChalkZone City closely bordered the dump, so the ride lasted about a minute (and most of that time was spent navigating around the heaps of erased words and numbers). Push, the trash-talking disposal, waved to them as they continued on, but in their panic they were oblivious.

"Cleanies no sweep to Push's wavey!" He blathered, in his nonsensical mix of trash and English, as they passed by. "Rude, they are!"

Back to the kids.

"So, Rudy, should we find Snap?" Penny asked, having finally overcome her fear of riding the precariously speedy scooter.

"Nah… I think if there's really something wrong with the City, we'll be able to tell what it is without having to ask him." He squinted at the buildings, down the hill below them. "There it is, dead ahead!"

"It doesn't look to be in ruins, at least. Do you see anything wrong with it?"

"Well, not yet. But keep looking!"

The two of them stared at the city ahead of them, looking for anything out of the ordinary. ChalkZone City looked the same as it did every day; full of color and strange buildings and all kinds of curious inhabitants. It was drawing ever nearer with each passing second, and still nothing seemed in disarray.

Penny bit her lip. "Maybe we should find Snap… I mean, if we can't tell what's wrong, then-"

She stopped abruptly, in mid-sentence, for her eyes were locked on the spot where the Globe Theatre used to be. It was the same place the three of them had seen Rapunzel about five or six months back. The thing was, there wasn't anything there. Just a smoldering pile of ash.

"Oh… my, uh… Rudy…"

Her counterpart sounded equally glum. "Yes, I see it."

An entire crowd was gathered around the burnt mess, all buzzing with chatter. Rudy and Penny skidded to a halt and hopped off the scooter, heading towards the disoriented masses to get a better understanding of what was going on.

"What happened here?" The masculine of the pair asked of the group.

Every head in the crowd turned to stare at him through angry eyes. A couple of spiteful shouts rose from the crowd. The two children took quick glances at one another, startled.

"…Did we do something wrong?" He asked, innocently.

"We can understand why you're all upset…" Penny piped up, trying to ease the crowd. "Look, we would've been here earlier, but…"

A familiar head suddenly popped out of the crowd, cutting the girl off. It was Snap, and he seemed just as fierce and fuming as the rest of them. The little blue boy made his way towards the two baffled humans, panting.

"Not an exactly an early boid today, are you, bucko!?" He demanded, furiously. "While you and Penny were having a field day in the real world, there was an assault made on the Globe Theatre! Or should I say, the late Globe Theatre. Don't you know this is where Rapsheeba has always preformed?" He shook his head in anger, grunting with contempt. "Ugh… Not much of a help you were."

Rudy felt himself growing a little savage under all the pressure. "Look, I'm really sorry, Snap, but it wasn't our fault. At least no one was hurt. I can just re-draw the theatre. It's  not that much of a problem." He raised a brow. "Who attacked it, anyway? Wasn't a swarm of those vicious pixies, was it? There seem to be more of them around…" he didn't tell Snap that he actually knew the pixies' source.

"Yeah, you could redraw it, but it's only authentic once. It'll nevah quite be the same!"

"Answer our question, okay?!" Penny hissed. It didn't take long for her to grow angry at Snap.

"Look, all I know is, the one who attacked this theatre was some kind of… walking… lizard-thing. It was white with red bands around its joints. Sound familiar?! Because strangely enough, after it was through destroying the Globe Theatre, it wrote a very suspicious message in the ground using invisible lasers from its eyes. It's over there if you want to see it."

The human duo's eyes traveled to a cut-up portion of the ground. There was, indeed, something written into the soil, so they walked over to observe it.

Penny took the liberty of reading the message aloud. "'Should you ask who brought my wrath upon you, know that it was your one true creator, your future lord and master.' " She snorted. " Are you all thinking that Rudy drew that beast? This doesn't prove anything! And anyway, he would never draw something so… destructive… right?"

"Of course not!" Rudy seemed disgusted with the thought. "I didn't draw that thing - walking lizard? White with red bands? I scarcely ever draw lizards as it is, and never with chalk."

Snap suddenly grimaced. "To be honest… I was kinda hoping you had drawn it, buddy. Because… Does this mean there's another creator around?"

Penny mirrored his expression, staring down at the ground fearfully. "I imagine it isn't out of the question."

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A/N: There was something else I wanted to ramble about, but I don't quite remember what it was, so I'll save it for next time, in the event it comes back to me. 'Til then… adios!