Disclaimer:I don't own the Cartoon C.O.P.S. or ANY of its maincharacters, (that would be DIC studios, and Saban Entertainment, I believe), nor amI making any profit off this. I am just postingthis story for entertainment, and for all the fans of this hot sci-fi crime cartoon that appeared in the 80's. (Too bad it couldn't hold a candle to Ninja Turtles... LOL!) The only characters I have of my own are Leslie Janes, (my protagonist, writtenin his POV, and in 1st person - a rarity on this site, I've noticed) his older brothers, Doug and Randall, their cousin Benjamin, Leslie's filmco-star, Molly, and his agent/manager, Jill. Please read and review, and I hope you like it. Thanks! :>)

A NOVEL DISHONOUR

Chapter 1

"And, cut it! That's was perfect!"

I took a harsh breath, like I've been keeping it in too long, and started walking towards the movie director. "Thank God!" I moaned. "We've done this stupid beach scene, like, a million times!" It was summer, very early in the evening, and my friend and co-star, Molly Lansing, and I had just finished shooting one of those scenes at the beach for a teen-based romance. For a scene that guarantees only five minutes of screen time, it took us all afternoon to film. And it was so hot! I could scarcely concentrate in this heat; we both goofed up a fair bit. But what really bothered me was that there was only one camera, and the director insisted on shooting us from every single angle. That's one of the more annoying things about doing a movie. You can never get a scene done in one take, even if you go through the whole thing without screwing up.

The director followed me to a table. "Oh, come on, Leslie Janes!" he scowled. "You're a show business veteran! You should be used to this by now!"

I opened a new bottle of water and took a swig. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Still, I'd love to track down one of my brothers and ask him to pick me up a burger and a soda. I'm dying of both hunger and thirst." Both of my older brothers, Doug and Randall, are police officers here in Empire City. Law enforcement is a big, important tradition in my family; Doug and Randall are sixth generation cops.

Oh, you probably want to know a little bit more about me, and why I didn't become a cop like the rest of the family. First, the cop thing. See, I've lived with cerebral palsy since birth, and there's no way I'd be a successful police officer, even if I went to the academy. I'd probably do all right on the written part of the exam, but with my limitations, I'd flop out on the physical part. Everyone in the family knew this. So, whenever my father was teaching his sons about good police work, he'd leave me out of his lectures.

My mother has been working in theatre for over thirty years now. When I was a child, she'd have me put on one-man skits to entertain at family functions. As I grew older, I would do comedy routines and dramatic readings at the annual Empire City policeman's ball, and charitable functions my parents were involved in. At eleven, I was discovered at a cystic fibrosis fundraiser, doing a one-man rendition of the battle scene in Peter Pan. Jill McKinley, my agent and manager, liked me so much, she talked to Mom about putting me in a new Broadway play called Little Matchmaker, which Mom helped produce. You've probably never heard of it. I played the son of a unlucky-in-love single mother, who goes in search of a perfect mate for her. It's a hilarious play. It ran for about twenty shows, but it got me noticed. Soon, I was getting tons of offers for movie roles. About a year later, I acted in my first feature film, Sgt. Jackman's House. I played a teen that ends up in a police family after his late parents forgot to mention him in their will. It was a heartwarming drama, and critics nationwide praised my acting talents. I even won a Golden Globe. Suddenly, I'm a "teen heartthrob," one of the hottest young stars, acting in the leads of many teen and family-based movies. And here I am now, twenty-five years old, producers still lusting after me, while I divide my time between Hollywood and Empire City.

But it's not all fame and glamour for me. Besides the endless shootings and retakes, and two to three hours of sleep per night, I also have to spend hours upon hours studying my lines and cues. With my cerebral palsy, I feel like I have to commit whole scripts to memory, just so I don't forget anything. It's really tough work, kind of like studying for final exams.

Anyway, so after I drank a whole bottle of water, I screamed at Jill to give me my cell phone. "I want to call headquarters and ask Bulletproof where my damn brothers are!" I told her. "I want them to bring me some food and a drink. I'm starving!"

She went to a nearby table and handed it to me. I dialed C.O.P.S. headquarters, thinking, It'll be so wonderful to talk to Bulletproof. I know that he was partnered with my father when he first joined the police force some years ago. Dad was his mentor, and Bulletproof became a friend of our family. I was always the polite, outgoing one in the family, great in meeting other people, so he took an instant liking to me. I remember opening night of Little Matchmaker, when Bulletproof showed up with my whole family. Afterwards, he told me himself that my performance was, "better than anything you did at our policeman's balls." Now that's total fondness. That's how I became friends with the other C.O.P.S. that Bulletproof put on his force later on. I met them through him and my brothers while working in Empire City. I make sure I don't go twenty-four hours without talking to them or my brothers, no matter where I am. Thank God my cell came with a cheap minutes deal.

I heard Bulletproof answer on the other end.

"Bulletproof, it's Leslie!" I said. "Listen, I need to talk with Doug or Randall, please."

Bulletproof grumbled loudly. I rolled my eyes. "Sorry, I mean Roughneck and Aquayouth."

He put me on hold and I rolled my eyes again. This is the one thing I'll never understand about Bulletproof, his fetish for code names. I don't know what he was thinking when he was giving his men and women code names, even Doug and Randall. Doug's code name is "Roughneck," because of his really aggressive nature when apprehending criminals. Randall's code name is "Aquayouth," because he's famous for two things: deep-sea rescues and cases involving children. When I'm talking to, and in front of, Bulletproof and the other C.O.P.S., I have to refer to my own brothers by their code names. And they despise me calling them by their real names, even though I know what they are. For example, I know that Mainframe's real name is Off. Tina Cassidy. One time, while serving her croissants and coffee, I called her Tina just to see what she'd think. She threw her coffee onto my shirt, started screaming and cursing at me, and ended her rant with, "You call me 'Mainframe!'" before ordering another cup. Another time, I went up to Mace, this bloody massive dude, and called him by his real first name, Colt. Swear to God, I thought he was going to kick my ass. He grabbed my shirt, threw me up against a wall, and threatened to "knock my brains out" if I didn't call him Mace. I don't want to think about what would happen if I called Bulletproof, "Baldwin." And yet, Doug and Randall don't let me call them by their code names when it's just me and them. If you ask me, I think that's stupid. Luckily, I can tell between their two voices over my phone.

Doug had answered.

"Doug, this is Leslie," I said. "Listen, are you and Randall going on break or off shift soon? I was thinking maybe we can go out for dinner."

"Yeah, actually our shifts are almost over here," Doug replied. "How about some pizza?"

"Love that!" I put him on hold and called, "Molly! Pizza?"

She was talking with the director, something about whether or not we have to come back later for more filming. (God, I hope not; I want tonight off!) So, I yelled louder, "Yo, Molly!" Both of them looked up. "Doug and Randall are taking me out for pizza? Are you game?"

Molly smiled. "You bet." I smiled back, and asked if she could join us. Doug said yes.

"Great, so we're leaving the beach right now, and we're near Empire City Park," I told him. "You want us to come to headquarters, or are you picking us up?"

"Don't be silly, of course we'll pick you up," Doug said. "Just find a park bench in an area where we can find you. We'll swing by in about ten minutes."

"Great, see you!" I hung up and took Molly's arm. We ran to the other side of the park and sat at the closest bench to the playground.

Five minutes later, we saw a police car drive up. It had to be my brothers. I was right; the driver's window rolled down to reveal Doug's arrestingly handsome face, or so his wife always says. It makes me think he could pass for Mace's brother.

"Hey, Doug. Hey Randall," I smiled. Randall leaned forward a bit in the passenger's seat to smile at me. Molly and I got into the back and buckled up.

We arrived at Toretti Family Pizza on Malone Avenue. I noticed that Doug and Randall were grinning and talking amongst themselves the whole way there. Obviously, that meant good news; perhaps our relatives were coming to Empire City. But the only times the whole Janes family gets together are special family events and police conferences. And I'd never learned of either one that was coming up. Still, they wouldn't tell me until we were inside the restaurant and seated, no matter how much I prodded them.

When we sat down and received menus, I gave my brothers a patient, yet unnerved look. I said, "All right, you've been chatting and keeping me on edge for this long. Is there anything you wish to tell me?"

"There is," Randall answered. "We got a personal call from Cousin Benjamin at lunch today. He's flying in from Miami tomorrow to promote his first novel. There'll be a book signing party at the Empire Bookstore on Saturday afternoon."

Cousin Benjamin is our Dad's younger brother's son. He's the only other member of our family to not go into law enforcement, besides me. See, Uncle Matt's wife died almost twenty years ago, he never remarried, and Ben is his only child. He never wanted Ben to be a cop because of how dangerous it is, and Uncle Matt worries about outliving him. So, Ben chose a writing career. He got his first job writing for a Miami newspaper at age sixteen. He writes these stories about police, peppered with a lot of action and awesomely believable dialogue and cop lingo. Many of the short stories he wrote in college got published in his local Sunday paper. I knew that he'd been working on a novel lately, but he never told us anything about it, except that it was about, "a really hot-looking plainclothes cop who's a real lady-killer." Still, he's only twenty-seven. Most writers don't get first novels published until their thirties, or even forties.

"Really?" I asked. "He must have been working on that for about a year or so. God knows how he's been living all that time, where he got his money."

"I'm happy for him, but I'm worried about him coming to Empire City," Doug said. "Why, by the time he leaves, he'll be more famous here than Bulletproof and the rest of us." We all laughed.

Minutes later, the waitress came to take our orders. Molly and I ordered a Hawaiian pizza, while Doug and Randall ordered a meat lovers' one. While we waited, my cell phone rang. "Hello?"

"Leslie, hi, it's Jill," the voice said. "Listen, the movie's going to be put on hold for a while. The director's going to be flying to San Francisco tomorrow."

"Is anything wrong?" I asked.

"His mother was admitted back to the hospital," she explained. "Apparently, her heart has given out. He's worried she might go any day now, so he's going to be with her and his family."

"Oh my God, that's terrible. Does anyone else know?"

"He's told a few other cast members, and the whole crew knows about this. He told me to tell you."

I was speechless for a few moments. Then, "Well, tell him that Molly and I send him our love and prayers." When I hung up, I told everyone about the director's family crisis. My brothers were just as speechless as I was. Molly was shocked and saddened.

Our pizzas came. As I ate, I was thinking about what an opportunity this was. I was sorry for the director, but with the movie on hold during Benjamin's visit, I could probably spend some time catching up with him. Maybe I can even read his book before the signing. I was already eager to find out what it was like.

So what does everyone think? Yeah, I know some of the narrartion rambles on, but it really sounds like Holden Caufield, a la Catcher in the Rye, don't you think? Again, please read and review, tell me what you think, etc. Chapter Two is in the works as we speak, and I will be putting it up following this one. Enjoy, everyone! Peace!