The Good Guys

Diane stared dumbfounded by what she saw. She knew Mr. Wolf and his no-good-baddies stole a lot of stuff, but she never imagined this much! It would take her hours to pack these things up and deliver them to their rightful places. That was why she was glad that she was the governor so she could have all of the help she needed.

"Need any help?" She heard a familiar voice. She looked and saw Mr. Wolf leaning on the wall.

"Mr. Wolf?" She asked. "What are you doing here?"

"My buddies and I had stolen a lot of stuff as you can see." He said to her. "So I figured that you might need my assistance. I could let you do this all by yourself, but that could take hours. I know that you are the governor so you probably have all of the help that you can get, but I still want to help. It feels right after all that my friends and I have done. So, what do you say? Let bygones be bygones, and let me lend you a helping paw?"

"I don't know." She said. He walked closer to her.

"Oh, Diane, come on! I thought we were good. I thought you were starting to trust me, was I wrong? Am I doomed to be bad forever?"

"Well, no, I suppose not. It's just that…"

"Just what? I don't know what the matter is. I just want to help out and right my wrongs. Is that so wrong?"

"Well, no, I…" What was she doing? Does she have no faith in Mr. Wolf? Moments ago, he was in a car with her driving to his friends' hideout to undo his wrongs. So, he had proven to be good. If he was still bad, he wouldn't have offered to help by telling her of his and his friends' hideout. The fox sighed and looked at him.

"I trust you." She said. "I could use help with all of this stuff. That'll be very helpful and considerate of you. Thank you."

"Don't mention it."

Diane noticed a lone push pop in the fridge. She was about to take it, when Mr. Wolf spoke up.

"Whoa, there! I left that Push Pop there on purpose. Snake loves those things. He can't resist them." Diane then looked at him.

"And he's still bad, isn't he?" She asked. "I know you're new to this whole good thing, but we don't reward bad behavior. We only reward good behavior."

"And you should. For if you reward the bad, how will they ever learn? But Snake and I aren't really on good terms now. I figured if he sees this push pop, he'll remember me, and hopefully start to go good with the others. Hear what I'm saying?" Diane thought about this.

"I suppose you're right." She nodded. "Okay. I hope you're right about your friend." Mr. Wolf smiled.

"Snake might not look like it, but deep down, he's a sweetheart. He's my best friend, so I feel awful stabbing him in the back like that. This is the least I can do to make it right with him."

"Or at least you hope so, right?"

"Right."

"Whatever. Let's just get to that meteorite before Marmalade does." With that, she and Mr. Wolf went down the elevator to the car outside.

Mr Snake slithered to the elevator. He had to be alone to process this. He was terrified when he saw that his tail was still wagging as the elevator was taking him down, but then he had a plan. He knew what he had to do. Once the elevator doors opened, he slithered out.

But he had cold feet almost instantly. He went to a wall to think this over.

He couldn't believe this! Snakes are known for being bad. He had been judged all of his life just because of who and what he was. It wasn't, and still isn't fair, but he chose to accept their judgments. He thought his friends were all on the same page. So, why did Mr. Wolf suddenly change and want to be a good guy now after all of these years being bad with his friends? It was all so confusing to him and it really hurt that he would stab him in the back like that. Because he figured long ago, that if the world only saw him as a sneaky and untrustworthy snake, then there was no point in being anything else. He remembered the first time he realized that was in his childhood.

He was just playing with his friend on the playground at school. His friend was a chinchilla .

"Okay, Snake." The chinchilla said to him. "I'm the good guy and you play the bad guy." This disappointed Snake for he was always the bad guy.

"I was thinking I could be the good guy." He had said to him. "I'm always the bad guy. I want to mix it up today."

"Sorry." Chinchilla said to him. "No can do." This confused Snake.

"But, why not?"

"Because you're a snake and everyone knows that snakes are the bad guy."

"Well, what if I change that and I'm a good snake? Please, for my birthday tomorrow?"

"Sorry. What can I tell you? You're the bad guy. Now are we going to play or not?" Snake then became angry. He was sick and tired of this.

"No!" He snapped. Chinchilla looked at him.

"What did you just say?"

"You heard me. I said 'no'. I don't want to be the bad guy anymore." Chinchilla grinned slyly.

"But that's who you are, a snake. A bad, untrustworthy snake and that's who you will always be." Outraged by this,Snake pounced on Chinchilla, pinning him to the ground. Chinchilla screamed. Onlookers gasped and adult humans ran over to help.

"TAKE IT BACK!" Snake yelled. "I AM NOT BAD AND UNTRUSTWORTHY! TAKE IT ALL BACK!" The humans held back Snake.

"You can forget about me coming to your birthday party tomorrow!" A sad Chinchilla said with tears in his eyes. Snake realized what he had just done and the humans released him.

"What? No, Chinchilla. I didn't mean to…" He went closer to the upset furry little mammal.

"No! Don't come closer to me you….you monster!" Chinchilla scampered off, crying.

"Chinchilla!" Snake tried desperately to go after him, but humans blocked his path. Snake was so overwhelmed that he slithered away from school as fast as he could. Nobody even bothered to go after him.

The next day was his birthday. He knew Chinchilla wasn't coming, but he was sure his other friends were. Hours went by without anyone coming. He then gave up on all hope and broke out crying. Was Chinchilla right? Is everyone in the world going to see him as nothing but bad and untrustworthy? Is he a monster just because of who he is? He couldn't help being a snake. Why couldn't they see that? He just didn't understand.

And so from that day forth. Mr. Snake became bad. He was a troublemaker throughout school, got suspended a lot and even expelled a few times. When he was done with school, he began the robberies and heists. Soon after, he met Mr. Wolf, Mr. Piranha, Mr. Shark and Ms. Tarantula and they started committing heists together. And they have been doing it ever since.

Mr. Piranha, Mr. Shark, and Ms. Tarantula were talking amongst each other.

"Guys," Ms. Tarantula said to the others. "We were all wagging. That never happened before."

"Yeah." Mr. Shark agreed. "It felt good just like that Push Pop Snake gave me. If being good makes you feel this good maybe…"

"We should do it more often?" Piranha guessed. "My thoughts exactly, 100%." He then was puzzled. "Wait, can we? Is it even possible?"

"Of course we can!" Ms. Tarantula answered. "Why isn't it?"

"Because the media makes all of our species look bad." Mr. Shark replied. "Some of them are really scary."

"Well, perhaps we can change that."

"We can?"

"Sure, why not? It's like Mr. Piranha's song."

"Yeah!" Mr. Piranha agreed. "We're going to be good tonight!"

"Not just tonight, every night, every day, 24/7 each year." Her friends both agreed.

"What about Snake and Wolf?" Mr. Shark wanted to know. "They are still part of the team, right? They shouldn't miss out on all of the fun."

"Fortunately, Wolf is already good." Ms. Tarantula said. "So he's already convinced. Snake, however, is a different story. He'll need a little more convincing." She looked up. "Snake! I'm sorry, but the guys and I decided to go good! We are no longer bad." She looked around, but didn't see Snake anywhere. "Snake?"

"I don't get it." Mr. Shark said. "He was just here a minute ago. Where did he go?" He then began to cry. "First we lost Wolf and now Snake? We're losing our team members one by one! I don't want to be next!"

"Relax, Shark." Ms. Tarantula assured him. "We aren't going to lose anybody. We just need to look for him. He couldn't have gone far." Shark and Piranha agreed, and they, along with Ms. Tarantula, called for their reptilian friend repeatedly.

Mr. Snake looked up and saw a cat pawing at the door. But, it wasn't just any cat. It was the same cat that Wolf had rescued from the tree. Mr. Snake slithered to the door and opened it with his tail. The cat came in.

"Hey, what the?" Snake wondered out loud. "What are you doing all the way out here?" The cat nuzzled up to Snake and mewed. Mr. Snake smiled. He liked that. He then frowned and sighed.

"I don't know, little kitty cat." The reptile spoke to the cat. "I just don't know. My friends all want me to turn into a good guy and my tail was wagging, but I just don't think I'm capable of it. I think I want to, but it's just that I've been bad for so long, and my species is notorious for it. I don't know what the people will think of me. Me? A snake? A good guy? I'm so conflicted by all of this." He felt the cat nuzzle him again. He looked down and smiled. "You know what? I'm just going to do it. I don't care what people will think of me. They can judge me all they want, but I won't care." He then thought of something. "I know what I have to do. I have to stop Marmalade. Thanks, little cat." With that, he slithered out of the door. The cat followed after him. Mr. Snake closed the door behind them, once again, with the help of his tail.

Snake couldn't believe he was about to do this. He was in front of Marmalade's mansion. He ate all of those other guina pigs. He could probably eat Marmalade too, then he remembered his plan, and the plan didn't involve eating guina pigs. He slithered inside.

"Marmalade!" He yelled. Marmalade turned to him.

"What are you doing here?" He wanted to know. "I thought you would be with your friends."

"Hate to tell you this, but Wolf and I aren't friends anymore after he went so low as to betray me. Same with my other friends, they prefer to go good." Marmalade frowned.

"Aw, that's too bad."

"Yeah, I know. Wolf and I have been friends our whole adult lives, and to have him betray me the way he did, really hurts."

"You poor creature. That must have been terrible."

"It was and still is. It hurts like you wouldn't believe. That's why I have a proposal for you."

"Oh, you do? What? I'd do anything to ease your poor, sad, little snake heart." Mr. Snake grinned evilly. This was going better than he thought.

After Marmalade gave him the mind control helmet, Snake couldn't believe that his plan was working beautifully without a hitch. He couldn't believe how gullible Marmalade was being, but he supposed that was the perk of being a dumb guina pig, and he loved it! Not wanting to mess this up, he told the guina pigs his orders through the helmet.

"I don't get it." Piranha told his friends. "We searched through the whole building and Snake isn't anywhere. Where is he?" Mr. Shark began to cry again.

"Oh, we lost him!" He cried. "We lost him to the dark side forever. We couldn't convince him nor his own tail. He didn't see the light. I'm going to miss him!"

"But we didn't lose Wolf." Ms. Tarantula informed them. "We have to go. We have to make things right with him. We know he's at Marmalade's mansion." Her friends agreed as they went off and out of the building, Shark was still sad about Mr. Snake.

The animals got inside the building sewer as a way to hide from Marmalade. They all went though the sewers, in hopes of finding Wolf. Fortunately, they found him. He was with Diane…and they were both tied up and being lowered into a pit of really sharp blades. They all gasped.

"Oh no!" Tarantula said. "Wolf! What are we going to do!"

"Well we have to do something fast for he and his girlfriend are goners!" Shark cried. They then heard evil laughter from Piranha and turned to him. "Piranha? Why are you laughing like that?"

"Because I was made for this, baby!" He stated. "Flatulence, don't fail me now!" He then released a nasty odor.

Mr. Shark, Mr. Snake, Mr. Wolf, Mr. Piranha and Ms. Tarantula were all arrested. But while they were being taken away by the police cruiser, they all knew one thing. They were all heroes, every one of them, and the citizens loved them for it. They didn't think this would erase prejudice entirely, but this was a start. After so long, the bad guys were finally the good guys!