"I'm sorry." He said.
John continued, "We're not allowed to speak of such things without authority."
Debbie slapped her face. She grabbed one of them by the shirts and snarled in their faces. "What kind of guards are you?! My sister's been missing for more than 24 hours, and all you can do is sit there!? It may have been Sloan, and only you two can give us some clear answers!"
Marianne walked to her hysterical elder daughter. Putting her hand on the girl's shoulder, she gently pried her hands off of the man. "Come down dear." Marianne Thornberry then turned her glance towards Adam and John, who looked at her a bit nervously. They were worried they'd get a similar reaction out of Marianne.
"Excuse my daughter. She's a bit upset."
She winced and shrank her head to her shoulders as her teenaged daughter screamed in frustration. "A BIT UPSET?! THAT DOESN'T EVEN DESCRIBE IT!!!" She screamed at the top of her lungs. Everyone else was plugging their ears.
Nigel turned to Debbie, and raised a hand. "Deborah, why don't you go back to the comvee and keep an eye on Darwin and Donnie, all right?"
Debbie rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Okay." She said, and walked off towards the comvee. The comvee was sitting out only about 20 ft away. She opened up the door and closed it. The first thing she noticed as Darwin munching on his Cheese Crunchies, and Donnie squeezing her shampoo all over the place. Debbie fumed, and gritted her teeth. "DONNIE!!" She began chasing the wild child all over the comvee. The commotion was so loud that the vehicle was actually bouncing up and down.
Nigel and Marianne winced as they heard sounds of Darwin screeching, Debbie screaming, Donnie jabbering, and the comvee moving up and down. Marianne turned to the officers. They both had a wide-eyed look in their faces. The woman shrugged her shoulders. "That's just how she gets."
Nigel cleared this throat. "Now that that is out of the way...We came here because we wanted to ask you questions about what Sloan has been up to lately."
John blinked in surprise. "Ask us? You already did!" He held his hands out and shrugged his shoulders as if confused. 'What more do they want?' John wondered.
The naturalist sighed. "Debbie seems to think that you're hiding something." He pointed out. "And I'm beginning to think she's right."
John was taken aback by this statement, and Adam placed his hand in front of his mouth. John looked at his partner, and asked, "Can I go? I don't want to be here when..."
Adam nodded. He was the oldest of the two, and John thought of him as his boss. He shook his head, and then said to Nigel, "Okay, I'll tell you what I know. Just don't tell Sloan I told ya." Marianne smiled and nodded.
"Your secret's safe with us." Nigel said. Adam backed up a little, and started to explain everything he knew. It wasn't much, but it would link Sloan to Eliza's disappearance hopefully.
"Okay, here's what I know. Sloan had been going in and out of jail lately. He was having one of us drive him to someplace called Poacher Guild, where he met with Bree. We weren't allowed to talk about it, and if we refused he'd kill us."
He got a breather, and then continued with the explanation, "I once snuck in the Poacher Guild, and listened to Bree and Sloan talk. They mentioned something about this machine to eliminate Eliza Thornberry from this very dimension. I still don't know what they were talking about, but it sounds serious."
Gasping, Marianne and Nigel looked at each other with the same shocked look. 'From this very dimension? What could he possibly have meant by that?' The female naturalist gestured for him to continue, but the officer simply waved his hands out in front of him. "I'm sorry." He shrugged. "That's all I know."
Nigel clamped his hand over his mouth. He gazed at Marianne, and back at Adam. "Oh my, what could Sloan have possibly meant by that?"
"I don't know Nigel, but it worries me."
"I know." A female voice announced from behind them.
"Ahh!" Nigel and Marianne jumped in surprise. They turned around and saw Debbie standing there. In one hand he held Donnie, and in the other Darwin. "At least I think I know. I hope I'm wrong, though." Her voice started to show signs of deep depression. Her gaze became distant.
"Well?" Marianne asked her daughter. "What is it?"
Debbie looked as if she had a single tear rolling down her face. "Sloan sent her to another dimension, but I don't know how..."
"WHERE IS SHE?!" A dark voice from the other dimension called out. A large vehicle, the comvee, sped almost out of control as it almost struck the side of a dead tree. The man inside, the evil Nigel Thornberry, tried to turn the key in the ignition, but it wouldn't budge. He angrily struck it with his fist. "Turn on!" He shouted. He hit it again, and finally they heard the sounds of the engine going. He turned his attention towards the front, and kept a look out for Eliza. 'That brat thinks she can get away from tricking us? Well we'll see about that...' He pressed his foot on the pedal harder. Apparently, he could drive the comvee better than the other Nigel Thornberry, not that the good Nigel couldn't drive at all.
Marianne sat in the other seat and was the lookout. She placed her arm over her head, and scanned the horizon. "I don't see Eliza, or Elizabeth, anywhere." She announced, frustration started to get the best of her. "If only we thought more carefully...We should've just...I don't know." The adult female poacher grumbled angrily.
Debbie narrowed her eyes. "I know Eliza could not have gotten far." She turned her gaze upwards and out of the window. She stared hard and long, and finally spotted something. "THERE! STOP THERE!" She pointed and jumped almost excitedly at something in their pathway.
Nigel slammed on the brakes, and unbuckled himself. "What is it, Debbie?" Debbie ran out of the comvee, and walked up to the object that she had seen laying there for no reason.
"Look." She lowered herself to her knees, and picked up the object. It was yellow, and made of fabric. The same kind that is used in clothing. Nigel picked it up and smelled it. His keen sense of smell almost surpasses that of the naturalist Nigel Thornberry.
The poacher snarled once, and announced, "Eliza. She was here." He straightened up right away and looked down the pathway. He could very well tell that Eliza had been this way. The trail of scent zigzagged up the road, and in the direction of...
"Sloan and Bree!" Debbie shouted. "She probably went to them for help!" She hissed, and gave the direction a death glare. 'Wait until I get my hands on her.' She thought with a vengeance.
Marianne hopped back in the comvee. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's move!"
Eliza moved down the hallway with Sloan and Bree. They were taking her to a room where they could discuss more of the problem that they were facing. They were convinced that this Eliza was good, and seemed a bit willing to help her. But they were still worried about something. They needed to catch the poacher family before they could do anymore harm. Eliza thought that she may know a way, but it would be very tricky.
Sloan said, "How tricky are we talking about?"
Eliza looked at him with a look of anticipation. "Very tricky. And yes you'll need some bait. Something to lure them out, you know?" She grabbed a book. They had arrived in the room. It was the library. The book Eliza grabbed was filled with pages of information on every animal in Africa. She skimmed through the thousand page or so books, and tried to look for something that a poacher may want. She finally found something worthwhile. "This!" She pointed at a picture of a black shadow. Sloan and Bree walked over. "That's what we could use as bait!" The picture of the animal was a rare Black Rhinoceros.
Bree looked at the picture, a bit surprised. "You want us to capture a Black Rhinoceros? Don't you think that..."
"No, no." Eliza waved her arms in front of her in denial. "That's not what I meant." She looked at the picture again, and pressed her finger against the picture. "What I mean is make them believe what they're seeing is a Black Rhinoceros and they may take the bait."
Sloan rubbed his chin in thought, and looked at the small girl. 'Interesting approach.' "And just how are we going to do that? How can we trick them?"
"Well, we could take a full-body Black Rhinoceros costume and walk around in brush. They see it, and think it's real, and go after it, giving the rest of us time to get to where we need to go, and build a trap accordingly."
Bree nodded, smiling. However there was one thing that bothered her. "And exactly who is going to wear the costume?" She asked Eliza. The two females looked at each other. They blinked a few times, then all four eyes locked on Sloan. The man looked at the girls, who were staring at him and smiling almost devilishly. His eyes widened like saucers as he realized what they were going to do.
"Oh no..." He backed up, his hands out in front of himself to defend. "There is no way I'm going to do that! Not no way, not no how." He folded his arms like a stubborn child. Bree and Eliza smiled at each other, and walked closer to Sloan, who started to back up. "No...no....NO!!!"
The two girls were upon him. Before he knew it, Sloan had been fitted with a large rhino costume. It covered him from head to toe. The skin was a bit flabby, but it worked nicely. The ears flopped to the side of the man's face, and seemed to hover in his eyesight. They drooped like a puppy dog's ears would. The head part of the rhino slipped over his face, and blocked his eyesight almost completely. He could barely see where he was going. The coloration was a dark color like a normal Black Rhinoceros, except there was a few white spots visible on a couple parts of the costume.
Blushing furiously, he shouted at the two, "I look like a rhino who spent part of his lifetime painting himself with white spots!" He waved his hand in the air in the form of a fist.
Bree and Eliza couldn't help themselves. They laughed loud and long. Eliza managed to say, "That's the funniest thing I ever....." She fell to the ground, and tried to calm herself down. "I'm okay." She said weakly as her laughter slowly came to a halt.
An angry Sloan picked himself up off the ground and walked over to her. He glared daggers at her. "This is the last time we use any of these costumes." The darkness in his mutter made Eliza's blood freeze. But she didn't have time to worry about that now.
"I know they're coming sooner or later. We have to get ready!" Sloan and Bree nodded to each other, and together they took off outside, and Eliza scanned the horizon for any signs of the avenging parents.
Elizabeth, still in fox form, lifted her long head into the air, and sniffed around. 'I know she came this way.' Her brown eyes narrowed as she tried to figure out which way to go. The paths looked the same. The trees swayed in her presence. She smiled, and lowered her head. 'They've gone...this way!' She turned to the west and took off. She kept running. Her heart raced as the time slipped by. "I have to find Eliza." She said as the wind pressed against her face as she ran. There was no way that anything was going to stop her now! 'She saved me. Now it's time to pay my debt.' She finally came to a clearing. The road had ended. 'Finally.' She smiled and walked forward and onto the outside part of the forest. She gasped as she looked ahead. It was her family, and they seemed in a big hurry to somewhere. Memories flooded back to her, and she realized just what they were going to do. 'No...' She narrowed her ears and growled viciously.
"They mustn't!" Elizabeth ran down the side of the hill she was on, and took off. She decided to turn and hide, because if her parents see her, they'll only see a fox, and not a person. 'I just hope I can figure out some way to stall them...or help Eliza.' Elizabeth lied down in the dry grass, and tried her best to stay hidden while her family approached.
The dark Thornberrys were getting dangerously close to the hiding spot of which Sloan, Bree, and Eliza were staying in. Eliza looked, and watched the family draw closer and closer. She hunched down on all fours like the two adults with her were. She squinted her eyes to get a better look, and noticed that the family was slowing down. "Looks like they're going to stop." She whispered. She shifted her attention towards Sloan, who was still angry about having to wear the rhino suit. "Okay, when I count to three, you get into your position. Okay?" She held up her fingers, three of them, and counted down, lowering each finger each time. "Three...two...ONE!!" She pointed outwards, the signal.
Reluctantly, Sloan walked over to the outer part of the brush, careful not to expose himself entirely. He did manage to raise his body up off the ground and expose the back part of the costume. If done right, he was told, it should make it believable that it's a Black Rhinoceros lying down. 'I'll get Eliza for this.' Sloan swore as he felt embarrassed about the suit. Bree and Eliza giggled, but they had to keep their voices down.
Bree gasped as the vehicle, the comvee, stopped. "I think it's working." She said in a low voice. The two females watched from a distance, anticipating what would happen, and if the plan would work.
Nigel's eyes widened as he looked ahead. Something dark-colored risen over a couple of dried up foliage. "Look!" He shouted, and pressed his feet quickly to the pedal, halting the comvee. Everyone else felt themselves tossed forward, and grabbed a hold of something to keep their balance.
Marianne angrily brushed hair from in front of her face. "Nigel, what was that for?!" But she noticed that his glance wasn't towards her or Debbie. It was towards the outside of the comvee. She got up and walked over towards the front of the comvee. She peered outside, and noticed what Nigel was looking at. A Black Rhinoceros had risen up off the ground partway, and was standing right in their way. Marianne's face scrunched to an evil smile.
"A Rhinoceros? Perfect!" She scrambled her pockets for her pistol shotgun. "Shall we take that animal down first?"
Nigel thought for a moment, and also nodded, his face looking menacing. "Yes...and then Eliza."
Debbie's arms dropped to her side as she watched them getting ready for the kill. She closed her eyes, and shook her head. "Oh, boy. Here we go again." She placed her hand on her forehead to block her view. She didn't need anymore animal bloodshed for today.
The comvee started to swerve and go faster towards the Black Rhinoceros, who was really Sloan Blackburn in disguise. He saw them coming, and started to shake violently. He looked at Eliza, who placed a finger on her lips, and signaled for him to remain quiet. She glared harshly at the oncoming comvee. Never before in her life would she rather see the comvee sink in the bottom of the ocean than running on the dry land, fully functional. The comvee drew closer, and she and Bree got ready to run outwards. The comvee got closer and closer...
Finally Eliza stood up and shouted, "RUN!!!" Right away, Sloan picked himself up, still on fours, and ran as fast as he could in one direction. The poachers were so worried about catching the "rhino" that they failed to notice Eliza standing there and running off with Bree. Well most of them didn't anyway. Debbie saw something out of the corner of her eyes. Her gaze narrowed into slits.
She growled and turned to her parents. "Mom! Dad!"
Nigel growled, "Not now. We still have the creature in our sights!"
Debbie protested angrily, "But dad, I just saw..."
"That has got to be the scrawniest looking rhino I've ever seen!" Marianne shouted above Debbie's voice and pointed in the direction of the animal. Nigel made the comvee go faster, and they were catching up. The blonde teenager couldn't take this anymore, and screamed at the top of her lungs.
"I SAW THAT TREE-HUGGING ELIZA!!!!"
Nigel and Marianne widened their eyes and Nigel slammed the brakes on the comvee. Sloan stopped and hid behind a rock, and was watching warily. 'Why have they stopped..unless...oh no! They must've spotted Eliza and Bree!'
Outside the vehicle, dust had kicked up and was blocking everyone's view from inside the vehicle. Marianne and Nigel coughed a little because some of the dust reached inside.
The two poachers turned around. "You saw Eliza?" Debbie nodded.
With a look of vengeance, Nigel asked darkly, "Where?"
The teenager nodded again, and pointed towards the back end of the comvee. "I saw her and Bree Blackburn run in that direction."
Marianne recognized that trail. She smiled evilly. "Perfect. They're headed straight towards that valley area, whatever it's called. It's a dead end. We'll be able to trap them there." With that, the family of poachers changed directions, and went the opposite way that they had been going. Sloan rose up, and slowly took off his costume. 'This is not good.' He thought as he watched the family disappear from sight.
Elizabeth watched the entire situation, and was becoming more and more desperate to find Eliza. "I've got to warn her." With that thought in mind she changed into another animal. More specifically, she became a Peregrine Falcon, and flew towards the direction of the valley. With her incredible eyesight, she should be able to spot Eliza and Bree from a long distance away. She finally found them, walking now, along the trail towards the valley. But because this was a different way, Bree didn't recognize the jungle, and neither did Eliza Thornberry. '
There they are!' Elizabeth swooped down and landed behind the foliage. She landed a couple of miles in front of the two, so she could de-transform without someone catching her. She lowered her position, and waited for the two to come over. 'I just hope I can convince Eliza and Bree to believe me.' She looked to the ground in shame. She still remembered what she had said to Eliza the last time that they saw each other, and it wasn't anything nice. 'I told her animals were just animals...and nothing more. I know now that I am wrong.' She sighed, and sat down on her knees.
Bree and Eliza walked along the dugout path. They smiled gently as a few animals scurried by. "Isn't nature wonderful?" Eliza heard herself ask Bree. 'Why did I ask her that? She wouldn't..oh yeah...alternate dimensions..'
Bree smiled, and nodded. It was her answer, yes. Eliza gazed at the taller woman, but still felt intimidated by her presence somehow. What did she need to worry for? The family was headed in the wrong direction after Sloan, and they're going this way to make the trap. Sloan is supposed to turn around and head their way towards the trap itself. Bree assured Eliza that her husband could run fast for very long periods of time.
They then both felt something flash behind them. "What was that?" Eliza asked Bree anxiously. Bree looked nervous herself, but she didn't have an answer as to what it was that ran by them. The shadowy figure appeared again, this time from behind the bush in front of them. Eliza stepped back, and Bree moved herself in front of the child to protect her.
The figure stepped out into the light. It was a girl like Eliza, and she was waving her hands in the air, and shouted, "IT'S A TRAP!!!" Both of the people knew who this was, and both were equally full of aghast.
They shouted, in unison, "Elizabeth?!"
Back in the other dimension, Nigel and Marianne were still trying to digest the information that was given to them by Debbie Thornberry. "Deborah, are you positive?" Nigel asked, concern and some doubt in his voice.
The teenaged child slowly nodded her head sadly. "Yeah. I watched a Sci-Fi movie once, and that's what happened."
Marianne cocked an eyebrow. She said in an accusing voice, "Oh, and I thought you didn't like Star Wars."
Debbie narrowed her eyes. She placed her hands on her hips angrily. "I don't!"
The two parents stepped back one footstep at her outburst. 'We've no time for this.' Nigel thought as he looked towards the skies. 'If Debbie is right, and Eliza is in another dimension...' He couldn't finish his thought. His wife had gently grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him. "Nigel, we have to find those poachers!" Her voice sounded determined, and he knew he wouldn't be able to calm her down until they find Eliza.
All of a sudden, she felt something wet on her jeans. "What the...DONNIE!!" She screeched. Donnie had gotten a hold of the shampoo again, and was spraying Debbie's jeans with them. This time, Debbie couldn't hold back her anger nearly as well as last time, and she gave Donnie the death glare. "Wait 'till I get my hands on you, you little...!" She snarled, and began chasing Donnie again.
"Oh boy, there they go again." Nigel said, pointing at the two humans running around in circles around the comvee. Marianne rubbed her head. She was getting a headache with all this. Eliza had disappeared a while ago, and they knew where she was now. The problem was that they couldn't get to her. They'd have to find the poachers responsible for that. They were Sloan and Bree Blackburn. Bree might be a little easier to handle, but Sloan was a different story. The blonde woman shouted,
"Come on, you two!" She had Darwin's hand and was guiding him back towards the comvee. "We need to go and find Sloan and Bree Blackburn!" Debbie stopped as she grabbed Donnie by the arm. She seemed a bit surprised, but was a little happy that they were heading back to Sloan. Now she could give him a piece of her mind. She smiled almost evilly, but shook herself out of the trance. She sighed, and walked back to the comvee, and held Donnie in her arms.
He struggled to get loose, but she responded to his efforts, "Don't even try it, because I'm not coming back for you if you do." Hearing this, the jungle kid immediately stopped, and sadly jabbered as the comvee door slammed behind him, and the comvee started moving back towards the direction of the jail. 'I will have a nice and long talk with Sloan Blackburn and Bree Blackburn.' Marianne thought as they headed towards the jail. Anger was on everyone's mind. Debbie was no better. She looked ready to kill.