Author's Note: Can someone say... "Spider-Man" rip-off!
Yeah, those 4 mechanical arms were taken from Dr. Octopus, one of my personal favorite superhero villains. I just had to use them for this story. I thought they'd work PERFECTLY for it! So yeah, I'm just saying that there's another thing in this story that I don't own.
Disclaimer: Just mentioned it above, but yeah, I don't exactly own the mechanical arms (I edited their features a tad, though)or any of the hamsters you meet (except Sky.)
CHAPTER 3 - First Attack
CLINK! CLINK! CLINK! CLINK!
Maxwell's controlled arms were stomping on the ground loudly. Their strength was so great; the ground seemed to rumble with each step they made. Like he was the master, Maxwell simply had his arms folded and his face slightly lowered with a bizarre smirk he's never made before. His eyes opened wide when he finally saw his target: the tree where the underground led to the Ham-Ham Clubhouse.
When he was within a close radius of the tree, he stopped and slowly descended to the ground.
"Wait a sec..." Maxwell said to himself. "I can't let them see me like this. The murderer will notice my plan and attack quickly! I must get him by surprise... but how?"
Maxwell squinted his eyes and looked to the ground. He then wondered if something with his arms would work. He soon made his hands into fists as he grunted. The arms were starting to close their fingers. A whirring noise was made as they started to shorten and the hands got closer to Maxwell. When they reached his back, they turned to face down. The whirring stopped.
"That's it!" Maxwell yelled furiously. "They're still visible!" He sighed so angrily that his shoulders went up and down with his deep breathing. "I guess I'll just need something to hide them from view."
He looked around for something like a blanket or anything long that could cover up the arms on his back. Something like a leaf or a cloak or...
"A blanket!" Maxwell yelled as he spotted a yellow blanket lying on the grass in front of a root of the tree. His upper-right mechanical arm came out, spread out its fingers, and extended itself to reach the blanket. The arm grabbed the blanket and shortened so Maxwell could grab it with his own hands. The blanket was hamster-sized, but was long enough to cover the arms.
"This'll do just fine." he said to himself as the mechanical arm went back into its original place and he placed the blanket over the arms. Maxwell didn't want to tie the blanket onto his neck, making it look like a cape, which made him look corny and moronic to his disgust, so he simply held it on while walking toward the hole that led to the clubhouse.
After a minute of walking of walking, Maxwell reached the door and opened it. To his surprise, everyone jumped and ran toward him.
"MAXWELL!" The Ham-Hams yelled out.
"Dude, where were you!" Stan said in anger. "We were worried sick! We thought you died or somethin'!"
"And what's with the blanket?" Boss asked with his head cocking to the right.
"I'm sorry, guys. And the blanket... well I... I was just cold."
"That's not important right now!" Stan furiously yelled to Maxwell and Boss.
"Hey, Stan, stop that! Yer killin' our ears!" Howdy said with his hands cupped over his ears. "Meh, I'm gonna go in another room so you won't assault my ears anymore!"
"Hey, don't you think you're overreacting, Howdy?" Dexter asked him with a raised eyebrow.
"Me! Tell that to Stan, he's the one yapping away!"
"Uh-huh..." Dexter said with a sweat drop. Boss was now annoyed.
"Howdy, you're assaulting MY ears now! Now get in my room and shut up!"
"FINE!" Howdy yelled and ending the shouting by entering the other room and slamming the door shut.
"I agree with Howdy, I think you should calm down, too." Hamtaro suggested.
"CALM DOWN!" Stan screamed with his arms waving up and down. "Do YOU see Sandy with Maxwell? Nuh-uh, you don't! Now where's Sandy, Maxwell!" Stan pointed a finger at Maxwell, demanding a response.
"S-Sandy... she..." Maxwell stuttered. His eyes looked at the ground and were turning wet. Everyone looked concerned about this.
"Max?" Stan said absolutely worried. He even started to shake a bit. "N-nothing bad happened to her... right?"
"Stan..." Maxwell sighed. "I... I regret to tell you and everyone else this... but her house... it got burnt to the ground."
Maxwell couldn't believe he let it out. He was trying to think of a lie, but at the same time, he knew not to lie about something like this and so it just came out.
Everyone was devastated. Stan went pale, Boss's eyes went wide, Cappy just hid inside his pot, the girls were on the verge of crying, and the rest had this extremely sad face.
"What are you saying...?" Hamtaro said, trying his best not to cry. He sniffled. "Is she...?"
"I... I didn't see her... in the ashes." Maxwell answered. Stan didn't move or say anything. He was practically frozen from any movement.
"I'm sorry, Stan." Maxwell said. He would've placed a hand on Stan's shoulder, but not only was he unsure if Stan would attempt to attack him or something, but he didn't want to let go of the blanket that hid his mechanical arms. If the blanket dropped... ooh, he didn't want to think about it.
"How, Maxwell?" Boss suddenly asked. "How did her house just burn and fall to the ground?"
"The freak hamster." Maxwell replied, now not in sadness, but in anger. "You know, the one that kidnapped that other hamster? It was his fault. He tried to kill Sandy!"
"WHAT!" Boss replied in shock and irritation. "I can't believe this! That's it! If I ever find that guy... oh hoo hoo hoo, he's gonna get it!" Boss then started to grip his shovel more tightly, like he was ready to attack. He breathed very deeply, his lungs almost expanding to their limit.
Stan was now turning red, like life came back to him. He started to shake and his face was creating this face like he was seriously ticked off. Suddenly, his mouth let out an enormous scream and he started to violently pound on the walls.
"I can't take this!" Stan roared out to the Ham-Hams. "He's gonna die, you hear me, guys? He's gonna die!" Tears and sweat rolled down his fur as his whole body shook, like it was struck by lightning. His fists made the thunder as he again pounded on the walls as hard as he could, making cracks appear in areas. The girl hamsters were down bawling after seeing all this and just wanted it to end.
"Stan, stop this right now!" Boss ordered Stan, but it didn't affect him. "Grr... LISTEN TO ME!"
Boss yelled as loud as he could to Stan, which was great enough to create a creepy echo throughout the clubhouse. Suddenly, everything was silent. The crying, the yelling, the pounding... everything just went away. Stan then started to whimper and form more tears.
"Why Sandy?" Stan said with his back turned on the hamster. His voice was cracking and he kept sniffling. "What did she do to deserve this? She's innocent! INNOCENT!" He went down on his knees and started to sob with his hands cupped over his face.
Everyone else was silent. They felt sorry for Stan and wanted to comfort him, but didn't know what to do since they didn't want to anger him again. They were all devastated about this event and just sort of took a moment of silence, without even thinking about it.
Suddenly, Maxwell thought of something. It gave him both anger and excitement.
"Wait a sec... why exactly did Howdy go inside that room and why hasn't he come out? Is plotting something? Wait a... of course! It's him! Quiet Howdy, murdering an innocent girl-ham! The fool! He'll pay for his deeds!"
"Howdy!" Maxwell angrily gasped out loud, causing the hamsters to look at him confused.
"I'm sorry, guys..." Maxwell quickly said. "But I just wanna, uhh... wanna check on Howdy. He's been in that room for quite some time and uhh, I'm just concerned, you know..."
Maxwell looked around the room for any signs of suspicion, but found none, so he proceeded to the room, quickly let go of the blanket with his right hand to open the door and then grabbed back his blanket, and entered the room. He closed the door by kicking it with his right foot.
Inside, he saw Howdy pacing around the room, mumbling to himself. Instantly, Howdy noticed Maxwell enter the room and remained mad.
"What do you want!" Howdy yelled to Maxwell. Maxwell gave Howdy an unusual look. He had a plain face, but his eyes showed something that Howdy couldn't explain.
"What do I want, you ask?" Maxwell calmly said to Howdy. "I want..." Here, Maxwell cracked his neck. "...Sandy!"
"Heke?" Howdy blurted out, confused by Maxwell's statement. "What 'cho on, Maxwell? I heard you clearly say that you couldn't find Sandy."
"Of course I can't, you fool," Maxwell angrily said to Howdy. "You have her. Now give her back or suffer!"
"Uhh... Maxwell?" Howdy said shivering, scared by Maxwell's words. "If this is a joke, uhh, it ain't that funny. So could ya stop, purty please?"
"A joke?" Maxwell said, letting go of the blanket. "You call all of this a joke!" Maxwell was now furious. Soon, the mechanical arms sprouted out of the stem on his back and extended out so Howdy could perfectly see them. One of the arms reached out for a table near Howdy and placed it in front of the door and jammed under the doorknob so no one could get in.
"What the... what are those!" Howdy fearfully wondered, pointing at the arms that were looking at him.
"Your death," Maxwell plainly said. Instantly, an arm pulled back a bit and then quickly extended forward to Howdy. Before Howdy could even make a move, the arm slammed into Howdy's face, violently knocking him to the ground. He groaned as he tried to get up and also checked his face for any blood. No blood was there, to Howdy's relief.
"What's wrong with you!" Howdy yelled to Maxwell. This only earned him another hit in the face with the same mechanical arm. He then was carried by all four arms and they shortened to bring Howdy to Maxwell.
"I'll give you one last chance, Howdy, and don't you dare play games with me." Maxwell said in this dark voice Howdy has never heard from Maxwell, which gave him the chills. "Give me back Sandy."
"Darn it, Max, I don't have her!" Howdy screamed, irritated by all this happening to him. "Now please, put me down!"
"Your loss," Maxwell said to Howdy. Maxwell's eyes then opened wide as his arms pulled Howdy back, and then furiously threw Howdy to the wall, creating a loud SHUD that filled the air. Howdy then fell to the floor, not moving at all. The arms carried Maxwell to Howdy so he could examine him. After moving his body and seeing that it did not move, he grinned and chuckled to himself. Suddenly, he realized something.
"Sandy?" Maxwell called out as he looked around the room. He expected her body and soul to appear... but no one appeared.
Maxwell pounded on the ground and cursed loudly. He got even more irritated when he heard Boss and the other hamsters trying to open the door.
"What's goin' on in there!" Pashmina yelled out in this worried voice.
"Open this door right now!" Boss commanded!
"You better explain yourself, Maxwell and Howdy!" Stan grunted.
Maxwell quickly thought of a way to get out. He remembered Panda installing a secret emergency exit in the room he was in. Knowing where it was, 2 of Maxwell's mechanical arms shot straight to a corner of the room, grabbed the wall, and pulled out a chunk of the wall, revealing a tunnel that led to the outside of the tree. His arms carried Maxwell and quickly ran to the tunnel. Right when Maxwell disappeared from sight, Boss roared with all his might and smashed the door the down, destroying both it and the table jamming it.
The hamsters gasped as they saw the scene: Howdy down and not moving, and the emergency exit exposed with its entrance door dropped on the ground.
"What the...?" was all that came out of Boss.
"Howdy!" Pashmina cried out after seeing Howdy's body just lying on the ground. Dexter had a tad bit of jealousy seeing her run to him, but he ignored that feeling and focused in Howdy.
"How did this happen!" Panda exclaimed while shivering at the grimly sight.
"Do you think...?" Dexter started to say, shocked by his own theory. "...that the kidnapper attacked Howdy and got Maxwell?"
Those words startled Oxnard and made him whimper. "Ohh... why is this happening to us!" Oxnard sobbed and Bijou tried to calm him down for the hamsters' sakes.
"This is going too far!" Boss declared at this! "From now on until further notice, Ham-Hams, we are in an emergency situation! Panda, I need you to install the traps all over the appropriate of the clubhouse. This time, he's ours!"
"How long is that gonna take?" questioned Cappy, who finally came out of his pot and wanted get into the discussion.
"Ah, don't worry about it," Panda answered calmly. "The traps are a bit complex, yeah, but they're actually not that hard to put on. In fact, for some, I just need to press a button for them to come up and get ready for action! Trust me, we're gonna be fine."
Outside, Maxwell was far from the clubhouse so he couldn't be seen. He was walking in a circle, thinking to himself.
"I don't get it. I got the killer. I got the guy who killed Sandy... but Sandy didn't come. She was supposed to come ... unless... hmm... unless I just got the wrong guy. That's gotta be the reason. Maybe Sky can tell me a bit more about the killer. I'm gonna find the freak and, ooh hoo hoo, he's gonna wish he never existed!"
After finishing going through his mind, Maxwell's arms got up and carried him to the bridge.
Hey, readers, I just wanna thank you on the reviews. Really, they're definitely telling me to continue the sotry and I promise not to disappoint y'all! Course... I can't promise quick updates, unfortunately. Stupid school...
Also, I have a comment about one of the reviews. April... did you really cry? Like actually have some tears? Now I'm not making fun of you or anything, I swear, but crying... oh man, that's a big compliment to me. That really shows something. I'm sorry, I just wanted to mention this to you.