Chapter 4: Three Sunrises, Three Sunsets, Three Days
Outside, Spencer makes his way from the houseboat to the dock above. He walks up to a black car with its headlights shining brightly in Spencer's face. "Mr. Sionis, h-h-h-hi," Spencer waves nervously at the car. The car's headlights go off. "He's going to kill me," Spencer muttered to himself.
The car was on the gangplank that was so narrow that Spencer barely had enough room to walk across the car and to the driver's side. As Spencer tiptoed across the plank, small pieces of wood fell down to the water. The window opens up as Spencer greets the driver with a happy face. "Hello! Hello. Lovely evening. I was just saying the same thing to your two friends."
A black-gloved hand emerges from the window. "Money, Spencer," said a sinister charismatic voice.
Spencer hands the driver the loot box. "You know, I actually have something much better than money," Spencer started babbling, hoping to save his skin. "In that box, you'll find some luxury items that should cover my debt to you."
The driver closes the window as Spencer continues babbling. This driver is Roman Sionis, a loan shark who goes by the alias of Black Mask. He is notorious across Gotham for his nefarious deeds. He is willing to help anyone with money. But he expects to be paid in return and if someone doesn't pay him back in time, he is prepared to exhort to violence.
Sionis opens up the loot box and picks up the wallet Beast Boy picked up. He sees the wallet had a bunch of expired credit cards and coupons for stores that went out of business years ago. Sionis is not pleased by Spencer's loot box and he closes it patiently while saying, "Oh Spencer, my poor boy."
He opens up with the window and shoves the box out. "I don't your garbage Spencer!"
Spencer watches the loot box fall into the water below as he tries to catch and spare a few items. "Oh please Sionis! I really tried!"
Sionis opens the door and dumps his ashtray filled with soot from his cigars onto Spencer's shoes. "I don't think you grasp the severity of the situation."
Sionis shuts the door, causing Spencer to lose his balance. "Oh no!" Spencer hangs onto the side window of Sionis' car. "I did grasp! See? This is how I grasp-," The window snaps off the car and down into the water, making Spencer lose his balance again. "Accident! That was an accident!"
Spencer was about fall into the water until Sionis grabs him, saving him (sort of). "Spencer Shay!" Sionis snaps.
"I'm sorry!" Spencer smiles sheepishly.
"Now I lend you money and I don't see it," Sionis said in a calm fashion. "You know what happens when I don't see my money Spencer?" Sionis asked as he starts rolling the window up on Spencer's neck. "People get hurt." Spencer struggles to get his head out but he couldn't. "People like you get hurt."
Sionis inhales and blows a puff of smoke from his cigar into Spencer's face. The smoke causes Spencer to get teary-eyed and cough. "Do I make myself clear?" Sionis asked.
Sionis rolls up the window on Spencer, making it difficult for him to speak. And yet he was able to squeak the words, "Clear! Very clear!"
Back with the gang in the houseboat, Sleet and Dingo were keeping them occupied. Dingo was searching the boat, looking for anything out of the ordinary. He walks past Tails, who was still hiding from them. Dingo stops for a moment when he thought he smelled something off. Sleet, on the other hand, was flirting with Blaze. "You know Blaze, I can't figure out why you would rather hang out in a dump like this when you could living up town with someone like me."
"Dream on chowder breath," Blaze said.
"Isn't it rather dangerous to use one's entire vocabulary in a single sentence?" Charles asked, mocking Sleet.
"Ha! Good one Charles!" Beast Boy laughed as the two give each other low-fives.
Charles smiles for his mockery on Sleet when the wolf got up in his face. "You got something to say to me, Baldy?" Sleet asked. All Charles could do was stutter.
"Hey, leave him alone! You guys don't scare me," Beast Boy said as he is about to transform but Po grabbed him, preventing him from turning into something large.
Sleet laughed. "Let him go. I like to see him crush me."
"Why don't you pick on someone your own size?" Po asked.
"Like you, Fat Panda?" Sleet asked, getting up in Po's face.
"Whoa, whoa. Sleet, buddy my man, are we losing our sense of humor here?" Sonic asked.
"No, I haven't lost my sense of humor," Sleet said and kicks the television. Pieces of it fly at Tails. "See? I find that funny," Sleet points to his destruction and chuckles.
Back outside, Spencer is begging for Sionis to give him another chance to pay him back. Spencer is literally on his knees, begging. "Oh please! Please Mr. Sionis! PLEASE!"
Sionis, still sitting in his car puffing his cigar, decided to gives Spencer another chance to pay him back. Sionis knew that if anyone found out he had a soft spot; he would deny everything. "Three sunrises, three sunsets…three days Spencer," Sionis says, showing three fingers.
Spencer repeated, "Three sunrises…three sunsets and three days. Three times three times three is nine! You mean nine?" Spencer asked, hoping this was true.
"No Shay, three days," Sionis rolls up his window.
"What!? You mean three days? Just three days?" Spencer started to whine. "This can't get any worse!"
Just then, Sionis beeps his horn to signal Sleet and Dingo to return. The horn scares the living daylights out of Spencer that he falls down to the water below.
Sleet hears the horn when Dingo shouts to him, "Oi Sleet!" Dingo pulls out Tails from underneath some garbage. "Look what I found!"
"Forget it Dingo, we have to go."
"I like foxes!" Dingo chuckles at the sight of a scared Tails. "I like to chase 'em until they're all tuckered out and then I go right for the killing!"
Tails grabs a broken piece of the television and swings it at Dingo, cutting his nose. Dingo yells out in pain and Sleet hears his partner in pain. He corners Tails with Dingo as the two point their ray guns at Tails. They're about to shoot Tails when Sonic runs in front of Tails, protecting him.
"Get out of the way Sonic!" Sleet growled.
"I don't think so Sleet!" Sonic said and the rest of the gang join him.
Sleet and Dingo realized they were outnumbered as the horn is heard again in the distance. "You better run along Sleet," Blaze said. "Your boss is calling for you."
The horn beeps again and Sleet holsters his gun. He knew Blaze was right and felt attacking Tails was pointless at the moment. "Come on Dingo." The two walk towards the exit. "We're not finished yet, Sonic."
"Yeah, you blokes are pay for you did," Dingo said. "Starting with that fox!"
Tails got really scared, wondering what they were going to do to him. The two leave the boat. Beast Boy runs to the door and yells at them, "Oh yeah? You dudes don't scare me! Why don't you come back and say that to my face? I dare you!" Beast Boy walks back to the group, chuckling. "Yeah, those bad dudes will think twice before messing with us." He lightly punches Charles in the arm and Charles lets out a small chuckle.
"What did I tell ya, kid?" Sonic asked Tails. "The Blue Blur here can pick 'em." Sonic opens his palm up for Tails to give him a low five. Tails was about to when Sonic fakes him out.
They hear the door open up and Spencer walks in, soaking wet. His wet shoes squeak across the floor as he mutters, "Oh…three days." Spencer sits in his chair and kicks his shoes off. "How am I going to come up with all that money?"
Sonic and the gang decided to cheer Spencer by making him feel comfortable. Po raises his legs to rest on a foot stool just as Beast Boy puts on bunny slippers on Spencer's feet. "What's the use? I'll never get out from underneath that maniac," Spencer said, not realizing his friends were helping him.
Blaze pulls out an extra blanket from her space while Po picks up a treat on a floor. Blaze and Charles put the blanket over Spencer. "My days are numbered and the number is three. It's hopeless!"
Po puts the treat in Spencer's mouth and Spencer starts eating the treat. The gang watch him eat and Spencer looks around to see that they helped him feel comfortable. He swallows the treat and said with a smile, "Aw thanks guys!"
Everyone is happy to see Spencer is feeling better as Po gives him another panda hug. "Okay Po, okay Po! You're going to smother me! That reminds me, I saw Dingo's nose. Who did that?"
Sonic points to Tails and Tails walks up to Spencer. "You?" Spencer laughed. "Now that took a lot of guts, kid!" Spencer shakes Tails' hand. "We never had a fox in the gang before. But you know what? We can use all the help we can get." Spencer then stretches and groans. He then lies back in his chair as Sonic presses the button that says, "TILT SEAT" to tilt the seat back. "Alright, time for bed! We got a big day tomorrow."
Po picks up a book and shows Spencer. "Hey, read us a bedtime story!" Po asked.
"Aw no," Spencer groaned. "I've read that book a million times!" He sees Po get really sad and changes his mind. "Oh okay." Po becomes happy and hands the book to Spencer. "But just one chapter."
"Awesome!" Po cheered.
Charles pulls the lamp up behind the chair and turns it on. Spencer looks through the book to see where he last left off. "Oh, here we go, Chapter Seven!" Spencer said and started reading. Tails looks at Sonic, who smiles at him.
"Sparky stopped and he rolled in a field of wildflowers," Spencer read. "The dandelions tickled his nose till he laughed out loud. And then something caught his eye! It was Bumper the Rabbit! Sparky jumped to his feet and ran towards Bumper, barking loudly! Sparky knew that Bumper would run and that he could chase over the field. But Sparky would never catch him or hurt him because Sparky was not that kind of dog…"
Spencer continued reading until he too tired to read. Soon, everyone had fallen asleep. Sonic was the last one awake as he turns off the lamp, waking up Tails. Tails sees Sonic walking up to his bed that was in the shape of a racecar or what was left of it. Sonic jumps onto the bed and begins to doze off. Tails runs over to Sonic's bed and joins him. He runs past Blaze, who wakes up after feeling a brush of wind hits her. She watches Tails get comfortable in Sonic's bed. Sonic opens up his eyes and sees Tails sleeping next to him. Sonic smiles and looks at Blaze, shaking his head. Blaze does the same thing and falls back to sleep. Sonic lets Tails sleep with him and he falls asleep. Soon, the whole gang was asleep as the night goes by across Gotham City.
End of Chapter 4. I must apologize for the last part of the chapter of Spencer reading the story. I know it is exactly from the movie. I got lazy and didn't feel like changing it. Enjoy anyway and I will see you next time for Chapter 5!