Wow......good thing I chopped up those chapters. This one STILL went beyond average page length, so this is a long chapter! Enjoy!
But some of you more sensitive readers might want some tissues or somethin' for this chapter......
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Chapter 8: Search Party
"Whoaaa, I'm the type of guy that likes to roam around. I'm never in one place; I roam from town to town! And when I find myself fallin' for some gal, I hop right in that car of mine; travel 'round the world, cause I'm a wanderer, yeahh, I'm a wanderer, I roam a-round, a-round, a-round, a-round…"
"Hey, dreamer!!" Chrissie yelled up to Rocky, who was on the top of the cracked-open window, fur blowing in the wind. "Get your head down unless you wanna go with the windblown look!!"
"I can't hear you, Chrissie-babe! I'm rockin' up here!" Rocky pulled his head out of the wind, then turned and jumped back down onto the car seat where the rest of the gang was. The tuft of fur on his head was a bit bigger and fluffier now. "Hoo, boy!"
"Lovin' the 'do there, Rock." Raphael smirked.
"Very…rustic." Screech put in.
Rocky put his paw out in a very suave manner. "Please ladies, slow down. There's enough of The Rock to go around. Ouch. Don't crowd, ladies."
Chrissie scoffed. "Give me one measly reason why they should."
Rocky looked at her. "Uhh, because I'm cute?" he grinned innocently.
Lowering an eyebrow, Chrissie gave him an unimpressed look.
The cooper suddenly slowed and stopped, as if it was parking somewhere
Boss looked up and saw the side of the forest that had survived the storm, still fairly green. "…There it is." he said, sounding a bit surprised.
"Huh?" Chrissie and Rocky looked at him.
Boss's face brightened. "There it is!!" He jumped to his feet and raced to the window. "There it is! We made it! We made it!!"
The rest of the gang joined him at the window. When they saw the forest, they smiled.
"Ha-ha!!" Rocky laughed. "There's a light at the end of the tunnel, my friends!!"
"Yeah!!" Boss cheered.
They heard the car ignition turn off, and then two humans came out of the car and walked off.
Raphael looked at Boss. "Go on, kid. You first."
Boss blinked and looked at him. "Huh…? M-Me?"
"Yeah, you. Go on."
Nervously, Boss looked up at where the window was cracked open. His face turned to a look of unsure determination and he turned towards the back of the car seat. He jumped and grabbed onto the material, slowly scaling up to the top. The rest of the gang followed close behind. When Boss reached the top, he crouched and took a leap for the open window. He clutched onto it with his front paws and clambered until he could grasp all fours on the window. He looked down from his high perch and gulped, then looked back at the rest of the gang.
"Go on," Victor said, "we're right behind ya!"
"C'mon, kid," Rocky called. "Leap of faith!"
"Just jump out as far as you can!" said Raphael
Boss looked back down at the road. Then, he gathered all of his courage and jumped out as far as he could. He yelled as he bounced along the road and came to a tumbling stop. Only a second later, Rocky came falling down right beside him with a whoop. He sat up and rubbed his head. "Ouch… Ahh!!" Rocky yelled and leaped out of the way as Screech dropped down to join them, letting out a yell as he tumbled to a stop. Then Chrissie came down and joined them, bouncing across the ground and landing on her stomach. "It's raining Ham!!"
Chrissie looked up. "Yaah, dive for cover!!" she yelled and dived at all of them, pushing them out of the way as Victor came and crashed down onto his stomach where they had stood.
Finally, Raphael came down, tucking his head beneath his body as he touched the ground so he skillfully somersaulted and came to a stop on all fours.
Boss turned and looked up the steep hill, where the section of the forest he lived in stood on the other side. He began running up the hill, panting as he climbed.
"Hey!" Screech called. "Wait up, kid!" The gang followed behind, climbing up the hill.
Panting as he reached the top, Boss pulled himself up onto level ground and lifted his head. His face quickly turned from a smile to a frown as he looked at the forest. The trees were blackened and burnt, and there was barely any trace of green in the whole section that had been scorched.
The gang soon joined him on level ground, panting from climbing the steep hill. They all looked up at the forest. Their mouths hung open.
"Holy smokes." Raphael said.
Screech looked around. "This is your forest?"
"Well, what's left of it at least." Chrissie remarked.
Rocky leaned towards Raphael and muttered. "You really think we'll be able to find the kid's folks in this place, Raffi?"
"Well, we told him we'd at least try…" Raphael said back. He looked at Boss. "What do your parents look like, kid?"
"Well, um, my dad Snap basically has the same markings as me, but the patch on his snout only covers his nose. And my mom is gray with a white star print on her forehead. Her name is Charity."
"Okay, gang." Raphael said to the others. "Split up and start sniffin'. Call if ya find anything."
"We're on it!" Chrissie exclaimed. The gang dispersed throughout the woods
As the whole gang was searching, Boss wandered around the burnt trees, looking wide-eyes at the scenery he used to recognize. He suddenly stopped when he came to the giant oak tree that was where he and his parents lived. Looking up, he noted that almost halfway up the tree that the trunk had snapped and fallen over, making almost a bridge-like angle to the ground. The young hamster walked forward and burrowed down into the old tunnel.
As he walked through the tunnel and eventually came towards the end, he noticed that the door had scorched and had somewhat fallen of the hinges. As he moved into the house, Boss's mouth and eyes widened at the sight of wreckage. There were heaps of burnt, torn wood and cloth where furniture used to be. But the most horrifying sight was at the east of the main room, where the ground that had supported the wall there had caved in, leaving a small section of the wall gone. All that was left of it was the frame where two tree roots stood on each side. It was apparently through this entrance that the fire had crept in when a burning branch fell and caused it to collapse.
Boss looked and suddenly noticed something beneath the dirt where the wall had caved in. He went up and brushed some dirt away, at least just enough to pull the object out. It the drawing he had made the very night before the fire. It had miraculously survived the flames, except for some blackening on the edges, thanks to its burial place in the dirt. After looking at it for a moment, Boss slowly folded in up. He took off his helmet and placed the folded piece of paper inside, tucking it securely into the crease.
Raphael wandered around the blackened woods, sniffing around as Boss and the rest of the gang did their part in the search. Eventually, the gang leader wandered to the edge of the woods where his nose picked up some kind of scent. He looked forward and saw the solitary tree not from the forest edge. It was missing some of its branches and it was mildly scarred from where a bolt of lightning had hit it. Approaching it, he squinted at the sight of something lying in the rubble underneath a fallen branch. Looking closer, he noted the markings of the hamster that had apparently been killed when the branch fell. He looked at the splotches of brown on the hamster's nose, ears, and lower body. Seeing the resemblance between this hamster and Boss, Raphael realized that he had found the dead body of Boss's father, Snap. He winced and looked back at the forest, where Boss was still running around and calling for his parents. He knew he had told the others to call if they found anything, but now he was having second thoughts. For Boss to see either of his parents bodies if they were both dead would be heartbreaking and terrifying for a boy only his age. It would probably be wisest to tell the rest of the gang the same thing.
"Umm…Raphael?" Rocky called out from the edge of the forest. "You might wanna come see this…"
Too late. Raphael ran towards the forest's edge where Rocky was calling. Little Boss lifted his head from inside the tunnel. He climbed out of the wide gap in the wall and began to follow Raphael.
Raphael stopped and turned his head to look at him. "N-No, no. Y-You'd better stay here."
Boss looked at him in puzzlement, but then he obediently sat onto the ground and watched him run off.
As he approached where Rocky was, Raphael got that same scent in the air he had gotten just a minute before. He winced, fearing the worst.
Rocky turned his head towards his leader with an unsure grimace. "Look." he said, pointing towards another figure lying among the rubble. Stepping forward, Raphael saw that it was just the thing he hoped it hadn't been. The hamster was female. Though her fur color was hard to distinguish since it had been dusted by the fire's ash, Raphael could tell it was gray. He looked up at the female's forehead, and sure enough, there was the star print that labeled her as none other but Charity. She had apparently stayed in her place at the edge of the forest after the lightning had started a fire that spread through the fields and all the way to the forest, although she must have tried hard to escape her doom. Both Raphael and Rocky looked at each other. "Um…" Rocky started. "So something's telling me we've got a new team member?"
A few minutes later, Raphael walked back over to where Boss was. The young hamster was sitting on his haunches and staring at the ground, clearly exhausted from searching so much for his parents. His fur was a bit dirty from climbing over and under branches that had practically turned to ash. He glanced up at Raphael as he approached.
"Hey, kid," Raphael forced a plastic smile, "you're looking a little bushed."
Boss sniffled and wiped his eyes with the back of his paw. "Raphael, where are they?"
Raphael winced and rubbed the back of his neck. "I-I'm afraid that your mom and dad had to move on, Squirt. You won't be seein' them again."
Boss looked at him, confused. He didn't quite understand death at his young age. All he knew was that when someone died, he would never see them again. Somehow he knew that Raphael was right. He frowned and stared down at the ground in dismay.
"Hey, Raffi!" Victor called from where the gang was standing together, looking out onto the main road. "Look!"
Both Boss and Raphael ran towards the group. Raphael walked in front and stood on his hind legs to get a good view.
Looking out, Boss spotted a large white truck driving down the road towards the city.
"Cheese and crackers!!" Screech panicked and dove at the ground. "It's them Redcoats again!!"
Rocky bowed his head and put a paw to his heart. "Parkston Testing Labs back to torture the innocent victims of the quadruped family. Poor lost souls."
"Who are they?" Boss asked, looking up at Rocky. "What's wrong with them?"
"They're bloodsucking vampires that constantly take advantage of our world and treat us like we're some kind of animal… You don't wanna know the gory details."
"Know this, hon." Chrissie said. "Whatever you do, just don't let those guys catch you."
"Chrissie's right." Raphael said with a suspicious glare at the truck. "You can't trust those guys in the least. They track small game like us just to wire us up and force things into us I can't mention here."
Boss shuddered. "W-Wire us up?"
Grabbing his shoulders, Screech yanked the young hamster up so they were snout-to-snout. "And worse!! Some humans will even take a hamster, dismantle it to a million pieces and mess-your-hair-up-so-bad-that-your-mother-don't-even-recognize-you!!!"
Suddenly, Chrissie came up and whacked Screech upside the head, making him drop Boss onto the ground. "Hey, Sir Gabs-a-Lot! How 'bout we get goin' before ya get yourself a Charlie Horse?"
"I'm with you." Raphael agreed. "We don't want any birds to find us anyway. We'd best find ourselves a transport."
"Hey!!" Chrissie called, pointing to a car coming down the road in the distance. "That one! That one!! It's a convertible!!"
The gang raced down the hill. "Shotgun!!!" Rocky yelled.
Boss took a step down the hill after the gang. He stopped and sadly glanced back for one last look at the burnt forest he had once called home before joining the others down the hill.
Late that night when everyone had bedded down in the alley, Boss had found his own sleeping spot in a tipped over can. He lay on his stomach with his head laid on top of his paws. He stared at the ground.
On the way to his crate, Raphael noticed the young hamster lying idly in the can. He stopped and looked at him. Then, he sighed and slowly approached. "…Hey," he called, trying to make it sound like the start of a friendly conversation as much as he could. "Whatcha doin', Squirt?"
"Nothin'…" Boss muttered quietly.
Raphael shifted his eyes left and right, and then tried to force a smile. "Well I, uh…guess you're gonna be hangin' around with us for a while, huh?"
But Boss didn't seem to be listening. He was staring at the ground sadly with his ears drooped. "…Am I really never gonna see my parents again, Raphael?"
Raphael frowned. He sighed and glanced at the ground. "…Yeah, Squirt." he finally said. "…It's true."
Boss shifted his eyes down sadly. He sat up and turned his back on him, his ears drooped sadly.
"Look…we've all been in the same boat as you. All of us in the gang are orphans too. That's one thing we all share. Sure, Rocky may be an annoying flirt and Victor may be a few apples short of barrel… But we're a family. And one thing you gotta get in your head, Boss: We stick with each other, no matter what. Listen to me; I've seen a lot of kids that have made a livin' out here in the streets. But you're something different."
Raphael turned Boss towards him. The young hamster had tears in his eyes.
"You are unlike any kid I've seen. You have potential, you have courage, and you've got what it takes to be a true Street Ham. But you've gotta take charge and live your own life! No one chooses what you're gonna do with your life but you. You've gotta stop simply dreaming about it and go out there and do it. You do that and you're gonna be unstoppable."
Boss stared at him for a minute, looking like he was processing all of this. Finally he sniffled and bowed his head. He leaned against the side of the can and put his head back down on his paws. He sighed and looked up at Raphael. "Hey, uh…thanks for helping me try and find them anyway."
Raphael smirked. "No biggie, kid. I guess you're gonna be joining the gang, huh?"
"Huh? You mean I can stay here?"
"Sure, sure. We'll teach ya the tricks of the trade if you can prove yourself a worthy member of the gang."
"Really?"
"You think you're up to becoming a tried and true Street Ham?"
Boss smiled a little. "Yeah."
"What? What was that? I couldn't make it out."
"Yeah!"
"Did I hear a 'yes'?"
Boss got to his feet determinedly and got in his face. "Yeah!!"
"Yeah!" Raphael smiled. "That's what I'm talkin' about!! Get a good night's sleep Squirt, because tomorrow we're gonna see what you can dish out and serve here in the city streets!"
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A/N: The quote Screech made about 'mess-your-hair-up-so-bad' etc... is actually a quote from The Blue Collar Comedy Tour, which is really quite funny! XD
But some of you more sensitive readers might want some tissues or somethin' for this chapter......
---
Chapter 8: Search Party
"Whoaaa, I'm the type of guy that likes to roam around. I'm never in one place; I roam from town to town! And when I find myself fallin' for some gal, I hop right in that car of mine; travel 'round the world, cause I'm a wanderer, yeahh, I'm a wanderer, I roam a-round, a-round, a-round, a-round…"
"Hey, dreamer!!" Chrissie yelled up to Rocky, who was on the top of the cracked-open window, fur blowing in the wind. "Get your head down unless you wanna go with the windblown look!!"
"I can't hear you, Chrissie-babe! I'm rockin' up here!" Rocky pulled his head out of the wind, then turned and jumped back down onto the car seat where the rest of the gang was. The tuft of fur on his head was a bit bigger and fluffier now. "Hoo, boy!"
"Lovin' the 'do there, Rock." Raphael smirked.
"Very…rustic." Screech put in.
Rocky put his paw out in a very suave manner. "Please ladies, slow down. There's enough of The Rock to go around. Ouch. Don't crowd, ladies."
Chrissie scoffed. "Give me one measly reason why they should."
Rocky looked at her. "Uhh, because I'm cute?" he grinned innocently.
Lowering an eyebrow, Chrissie gave him an unimpressed look.
The cooper suddenly slowed and stopped, as if it was parking somewhere
Boss looked up and saw the side of the forest that had survived the storm, still fairly green. "…There it is." he said, sounding a bit surprised.
"Huh?" Chrissie and Rocky looked at him.
Boss's face brightened. "There it is!!" He jumped to his feet and raced to the window. "There it is! We made it! We made it!!"
The rest of the gang joined him at the window. When they saw the forest, they smiled.
"Ha-ha!!" Rocky laughed. "There's a light at the end of the tunnel, my friends!!"
"Yeah!!" Boss cheered.
They heard the car ignition turn off, and then two humans came out of the car and walked off.
Raphael looked at Boss. "Go on, kid. You first."
Boss blinked and looked at him. "Huh…? M-Me?"
"Yeah, you. Go on."
Nervously, Boss looked up at where the window was cracked open. His face turned to a look of unsure determination and he turned towards the back of the car seat. He jumped and grabbed onto the material, slowly scaling up to the top. The rest of the gang followed close behind. When Boss reached the top, he crouched and took a leap for the open window. He clutched onto it with his front paws and clambered until he could grasp all fours on the window. He looked down from his high perch and gulped, then looked back at the rest of the gang.
"Go on," Victor said, "we're right behind ya!"
"C'mon, kid," Rocky called. "Leap of faith!"
"Just jump out as far as you can!" said Raphael
Boss looked back down at the road. Then, he gathered all of his courage and jumped out as far as he could. He yelled as he bounced along the road and came to a tumbling stop. Only a second later, Rocky came falling down right beside him with a whoop. He sat up and rubbed his head. "Ouch… Ahh!!" Rocky yelled and leaped out of the way as Screech dropped down to join them, letting out a yell as he tumbled to a stop. Then Chrissie came down and joined them, bouncing across the ground and landing on her stomach. "It's raining Ham!!"
Chrissie looked up. "Yaah, dive for cover!!" she yelled and dived at all of them, pushing them out of the way as Victor came and crashed down onto his stomach where they had stood.
Finally, Raphael came down, tucking his head beneath his body as he touched the ground so he skillfully somersaulted and came to a stop on all fours.
Boss turned and looked up the steep hill, where the section of the forest he lived in stood on the other side. He began running up the hill, panting as he climbed.
"Hey!" Screech called. "Wait up, kid!" The gang followed behind, climbing up the hill.
Panting as he reached the top, Boss pulled himself up onto level ground and lifted his head. His face quickly turned from a smile to a frown as he looked at the forest. The trees were blackened and burnt, and there was barely any trace of green in the whole section that had been scorched.
The gang soon joined him on level ground, panting from climbing the steep hill. They all looked up at the forest. Their mouths hung open.
"Holy smokes." Raphael said.
Screech looked around. "This is your forest?"
"Well, what's left of it at least." Chrissie remarked.
Rocky leaned towards Raphael and muttered. "You really think we'll be able to find the kid's folks in this place, Raffi?"
"Well, we told him we'd at least try…" Raphael said back. He looked at Boss. "What do your parents look like, kid?"
"Well, um, my dad Snap basically has the same markings as me, but the patch on his snout only covers his nose. And my mom is gray with a white star print on her forehead. Her name is Charity."
"Okay, gang." Raphael said to the others. "Split up and start sniffin'. Call if ya find anything."
"We're on it!" Chrissie exclaimed. The gang dispersed throughout the woods
As the whole gang was searching, Boss wandered around the burnt trees, looking wide-eyes at the scenery he used to recognize. He suddenly stopped when he came to the giant oak tree that was where he and his parents lived. Looking up, he noted that almost halfway up the tree that the trunk had snapped and fallen over, making almost a bridge-like angle to the ground. The young hamster walked forward and burrowed down into the old tunnel.
As he walked through the tunnel and eventually came towards the end, he noticed that the door had scorched and had somewhat fallen of the hinges. As he moved into the house, Boss's mouth and eyes widened at the sight of wreckage. There were heaps of burnt, torn wood and cloth where furniture used to be. But the most horrifying sight was at the east of the main room, where the ground that had supported the wall there had caved in, leaving a small section of the wall gone. All that was left of it was the frame where two tree roots stood on each side. It was apparently through this entrance that the fire had crept in when a burning branch fell and caused it to collapse.
Boss looked and suddenly noticed something beneath the dirt where the wall had caved in. He went up and brushed some dirt away, at least just enough to pull the object out. It the drawing he had made the very night before the fire. It had miraculously survived the flames, except for some blackening on the edges, thanks to its burial place in the dirt. After looking at it for a moment, Boss slowly folded in up. He took off his helmet and placed the folded piece of paper inside, tucking it securely into the crease.
Raphael wandered around the blackened woods, sniffing around as Boss and the rest of the gang did their part in the search. Eventually, the gang leader wandered to the edge of the woods where his nose picked up some kind of scent. He looked forward and saw the solitary tree not from the forest edge. It was missing some of its branches and it was mildly scarred from where a bolt of lightning had hit it. Approaching it, he squinted at the sight of something lying in the rubble underneath a fallen branch. Looking closer, he noted the markings of the hamster that had apparently been killed when the branch fell. He looked at the splotches of brown on the hamster's nose, ears, and lower body. Seeing the resemblance between this hamster and Boss, Raphael realized that he had found the dead body of Boss's father, Snap. He winced and looked back at the forest, where Boss was still running around and calling for his parents. He knew he had told the others to call if they found anything, but now he was having second thoughts. For Boss to see either of his parents bodies if they were both dead would be heartbreaking and terrifying for a boy only his age. It would probably be wisest to tell the rest of the gang the same thing.
"Umm…Raphael?" Rocky called out from the edge of the forest. "You might wanna come see this…"
Too late. Raphael ran towards the forest's edge where Rocky was calling. Little Boss lifted his head from inside the tunnel. He climbed out of the wide gap in the wall and began to follow Raphael.
Raphael stopped and turned his head to look at him. "N-No, no. Y-You'd better stay here."
Boss looked at him in puzzlement, but then he obediently sat onto the ground and watched him run off.
As he approached where Rocky was, Raphael got that same scent in the air he had gotten just a minute before. He winced, fearing the worst.
Rocky turned his head towards his leader with an unsure grimace. "Look." he said, pointing towards another figure lying among the rubble. Stepping forward, Raphael saw that it was just the thing he hoped it hadn't been. The hamster was female. Though her fur color was hard to distinguish since it had been dusted by the fire's ash, Raphael could tell it was gray. He looked up at the female's forehead, and sure enough, there was the star print that labeled her as none other but Charity. She had apparently stayed in her place at the edge of the forest after the lightning had started a fire that spread through the fields and all the way to the forest, although she must have tried hard to escape her doom. Both Raphael and Rocky looked at each other. "Um…" Rocky started. "So something's telling me we've got a new team member?"
A few minutes later, Raphael walked back over to where Boss was. The young hamster was sitting on his haunches and staring at the ground, clearly exhausted from searching so much for his parents. His fur was a bit dirty from climbing over and under branches that had practically turned to ash. He glanced up at Raphael as he approached.
"Hey, kid," Raphael forced a plastic smile, "you're looking a little bushed."
Boss sniffled and wiped his eyes with the back of his paw. "Raphael, where are they?"
Raphael winced and rubbed the back of his neck. "I-I'm afraid that your mom and dad had to move on, Squirt. You won't be seein' them again."
Boss looked at him, confused. He didn't quite understand death at his young age. All he knew was that when someone died, he would never see them again. Somehow he knew that Raphael was right. He frowned and stared down at the ground in dismay.
"Hey, Raffi!" Victor called from where the gang was standing together, looking out onto the main road. "Look!"
Both Boss and Raphael ran towards the group. Raphael walked in front and stood on his hind legs to get a good view.
Looking out, Boss spotted a large white truck driving down the road towards the city.
"Cheese and crackers!!" Screech panicked and dove at the ground. "It's them Redcoats again!!"
Rocky bowed his head and put a paw to his heart. "Parkston Testing Labs back to torture the innocent victims of the quadruped family. Poor lost souls."
"Who are they?" Boss asked, looking up at Rocky. "What's wrong with them?"
"They're bloodsucking vampires that constantly take advantage of our world and treat us like we're some kind of animal… You don't wanna know the gory details."
"Know this, hon." Chrissie said. "Whatever you do, just don't let those guys catch you."
"Chrissie's right." Raphael said with a suspicious glare at the truck. "You can't trust those guys in the least. They track small game like us just to wire us up and force things into us I can't mention here."
Boss shuddered. "W-Wire us up?"
Grabbing his shoulders, Screech yanked the young hamster up so they were snout-to-snout. "And worse!! Some humans will even take a hamster, dismantle it to a million pieces and mess-your-hair-up-so-bad-that-your-mother-don't-even-recognize-you!!!"
Suddenly, Chrissie came up and whacked Screech upside the head, making him drop Boss onto the ground. "Hey, Sir Gabs-a-Lot! How 'bout we get goin' before ya get yourself a Charlie Horse?"
"I'm with you." Raphael agreed. "We don't want any birds to find us anyway. We'd best find ourselves a transport."
"Hey!!" Chrissie called, pointing to a car coming down the road in the distance. "That one! That one!! It's a convertible!!"
The gang raced down the hill. "Shotgun!!!" Rocky yelled.
Boss took a step down the hill after the gang. He stopped and sadly glanced back for one last look at the burnt forest he had once called home before joining the others down the hill.
Late that night when everyone had bedded down in the alley, Boss had found his own sleeping spot in a tipped over can. He lay on his stomach with his head laid on top of his paws. He stared at the ground.
On the way to his crate, Raphael noticed the young hamster lying idly in the can. He stopped and looked at him. Then, he sighed and slowly approached. "…Hey," he called, trying to make it sound like the start of a friendly conversation as much as he could. "Whatcha doin', Squirt?"
"Nothin'…" Boss muttered quietly.
Raphael shifted his eyes left and right, and then tried to force a smile. "Well I, uh…guess you're gonna be hangin' around with us for a while, huh?"
But Boss didn't seem to be listening. He was staring at the ground sadly with his ears drooped. "…Am I really never gonna see my parents again, Raphael?"
Raphael frowned. He sighed and glanced at the ground. "…Yeah, Squirt." he finally said. "…It's true."
Boss shifted his eyes down sadly. He sat up and turned his back on him, his ears drooped sadly.
"Look…we've all been in the same boat as you. All of us in the gang are orphans too. That's one thing we all share. Sure, Rocky may be an annoying flirt and Victor may be a few apples short of barrel… But we're a family. And one thing you gotta get in your head, Boss: We stick with each other, no matter what. Listen to me; I've seen a lot of kids that have made a livin' out here in the streets. But you're something different."
Raphael turned Boss towards him. The young hamster had tears in his eyes.
"You are unlike any kid I've seen. You have potential, you have courage, and you've got what it takes to be a true Street Ham. But you've gotta take charge and live your own life! No one chooses what you're gonna do with your life but you. You've gotta stop simply dreaming about it and go out there and do it. You do that and you're gonna be unstoppable."
Boss stared at him for a minute, looking like he was processing all of this. Finally he sniffled and bowed his head. He leaned against the side of the can and put his head back down on his paws. He sighed and looked up at Raphael. "Hey, uh…thanks for helping me try and find them anyway."
Raphael smirked. "No biggie, kid. I guess you're gonna be joining the gang, huh?"
"Huh? You mean I can stay here?"
"Sure, sure. We'll teach ya the tricks of the trade if you can prove yourself a worthy member of the gang."
"Really?"
"You think you're up to becoming a tried and true Street Ham?"
Boss smiled a little. "Yeah."
"What? What was that? I couldn't make it out."
"Yeah!"
"Did I hear a 'yes'?"
Boss got to his feet determinedly and got in his face. "Yeah!!"
"Yeah!" Raphael smiled. "That's what I'm talkin' about!! Get a good night's sleep Squirt, because tomorrow we're gonna see what you can dish out and serve here in the city streets!"
---
A/N: The quote Screech made about 'mess-your-hair-up-so-bad' etc... is actually a quote from The Blue Collar Comedy Tour, which is really quite funny! XD
