Rudy closed her eyes and busted through the door. Waiting momentarily she expected to hear Romeo's voice, but it never came. Opening her eyes, she looked around the empty office. Romeo was nowhere to be seen. Walking around, she stopped at his computer, which was still on. Romeo never left his computer on. He worried that somebody would steal his cupcake recipes. Sitting down in his rolling chair, she reached over and shut off the monitor. Taking a breath, she gathered her thoughts. Using her foot, she propelled the chair in a circle, spinning around a few times. Reaching out, she caught herself on the edge of the desk. The pure black computer screen reflected back the mess that she felt she was. Her normally brushed fur was unkempt, she was in nothing but her underwear and shoes, and she had been crying. Why wasn't he here? The restaurant was still open for a few hours, and usually Romeo stayed late when it was busy. Then it hit her that it was probably still busy because she had ditched work, which just made her feel worse. How was she supposed to face them now? Like this? Her head dropped onto the desk and she stretched her arms out above her head. She felt so hopeless. A knock on the door spurred her into a tizzy. The chair spun around as Rudy ran into a closet just before the door opened. Watching through a crack in the door, a purple horse walked in. It was just Sleepy. Pushing open the closet door a bit more she called out quietly. "Sleepy! Sleepy!" the horse waddled his way around, unsure of where the voice was coming from. "In the closet!" Rudy gulped as he made his way over.
"Is that you, Rudy? What are you doing in here? We've been slammed today. Romeo and Allen are already missing we need you out there!" Sleepy tried to pry open the door against Rudy's resistance.
"Sleepy, I need you to listen. Where is Romeo?" preparing herself for the worst, she watched as the horse looked at her confused.
Scratching his head, he walked over and sat down on the chair, rubbing his back against the leather. "How should I know? All I know is Allen comes running in here, right by everyone. Nearly knocked over Amanda. Anyways - he runs in here and there's a lot of commotion coming from the office. Well I was busy handling a batch of fruit pies and couldn't come check it out. Next thing I know, Allen comes sprinting out and Romeo leaves a few minutes later and they've been gone ever since. Whatever it was, they seemed pretty angry."
Rudy's stomach tightened up. Romeo was usually so calm and level-headed. Something bad must have happened. But how could he have known? She was only gone for about an hour or two, and she knew for a fact Berry didn't have Romeo's number. She tried to calm herself down. "Um, did you hear them say anything about where they were going?"
"Um. Nothing I can think of. I think Allen said something about "teaching that purple jerk a lesson." Not really sure what he meant, but it sure didn't sound that good. Rudy didn't stay to listen to the rest of the sentence. Allen must have found out. Which means Romeo knew! She needed to find Romeo to explain. Sprinting out of the office she heard Sleepy call behind her. "Rudy.. you forgot your hat!"
Ignoring the onlooking eyes as she made her way down the street, she only had one place in mind where Romeo would go. The wooden planks on the street were covered with sand which would occasionally cause her to slip before catching herself. The closer she was to the beach, the more images flashed in her mind. Her first date with Romeo. They had gone here. This is where Romeo and Allen went after their mother had gone missing. Finally reaching the shore, she jogged through the sand. Slowed down as her feet sunk into the sand she made her way passed the dock and near a small plantation of shrubs. Making her way towards she water, she saw the imprint in the sand. Kneeling down she placed her hand into it and watched as the sand formed around her hand. It was cold, it didn't seem like anybody had been here for awhile. Laying down in the sand, she lined herself next to the figure. Placing her hand into the empty space she looked up at the gray sky. A single raindrop plopped onto her face. Then another. A light drizzle began to combine with the chilly breeze. Rudy could feel her lack of clothes now. Sobbing she didn't care anymore. This day could not get any worse. Pulling sand over herself to protect herself from the rain she slowly buried her body. This could be her grave, she didn't care anymore. Watching the clouds slowly drifting by, all she could think of was how Romeo must be feeling. She could only hope he'd ever talk to her again. A rumbling from underneath her arm shook the sand away. Sliding her whisper device out, she took a deep breath. She wasn't ready to read it. But she had to know what it said. Biting her hip, she felt her heart pounding and her skin tingling. Opening her new messages, she scowled. "Hey. Allen just came to my house and tried to attack me. Anyways, called the cops and he just got arrested. Better watch yourself. Anyways I'm quitting, so good luck.
Romeo sat down at the polished wooden table as three light blue mice dressed in fancy looking suits walked in. All of them had of them had matching pins that read "Three Blind Mice Attorneys At Law" sitting in front of them, they all laced their hands in unison and leaned forward. The left-most mouse on the left, the biggest, spoke first. "Good afternoon, Romeo. We're sorry to have to meet under such unfortunate circumstances." the other two mice nodded in agreement.
"Thank you for being able to meet on such a short notice." Romeo exhaled slightly, his mind still racing with worries. At this point everything that had happened with Rudy was overtaken by his brother's fate. Clasping his hands together he leaned in as well. "So would you be able to take this case?"
The right-most mouse leaned back and sighed. "Son. While we may be blind, it is impossible not to see how tough of a case this is looking for you guys. I mean, the court is looking at charging Allen with attempted murder in the case of Dumb Dumb Dumb Rabbit, as well as criminal trespassing, and assault in the third degree for Mr. Static. He'd be looking at twenty years, minimum."
"But he didn't do anything wrong! They provoked and attacked him first! They should be the ones in jail!" Romeo stood up and yelled.
"Romeo, we need you to calm down." The middle mouse added. "We will take your case, but we just want to be very up-front with things. We can probably get the attempted murder charge brought down to assault in the second degree, and we can probably plea away the trespassing as Allen never actually entered the home. But even with those, we're still looking at a couple of years. There are several witnesses, and right now Mr. Rabbit is still hospitalized with injuries."
The right-most mouse chimed in, interrupting his brother. "If that wasn't bad enough. We don't have any evidence that either Mr. Rabbit or Mr. Static instigated the attack. Unfortunately right now it's going to be trying to lessen the charges rather than getting him out. Right now, that would be considered a huge win. Now, your brother is what, twenty-five?"
"Twenty-six." Romeo replied quietly, taking his original seat.
"Ah, yes. That's right, my apologies. Now, your brother is quite young. We can probably use that to our advantage. Juries take kindly to youth and making mistakes. We will definitely play that angle. If all goes well, Romeo would be out before his thirtieth birthday."
Romeo leaned back and buried his face in his hands. Four years? He couldn't lose Allen that long. Why was this all happening. "Is there nothing else we can do?"
The older mouse pinched the bridge of his nose and looked at Romeo, exasperated. "I'm sorry Mr. Romeo. We will do everything that we can, but we cannot make any guarantees." pausing for a few moments he looked at his brothers and nodded. "Now, I guess we should discuss payment. We will only be billing for our services as one, rather than three attorneys rates due to your situation. However we do require a retainer of 2,500 jellybeans. We bill at 100 jellybeans per work hour. Is this something that you would still be interested."
A tear rolled down Romeo's eyes. "Of course. I'd do anything for Allen." frustration filled Allen's mind. He had only recently opened his bakery, and while they were doing well, he was personally struggling financially. He'd likely have to take out a mortgage on the building, or lay off several employees in order to afford the legal counsel, but what other option did he have? "Um, could I send the payment in tomorrow? I will need to stop by the bank, as I don't have any money on me right now."
"Of course, son." The oldest mouse stood up and walked around the table, patting his back. "We would love to help for free, however due to the ongoing fighting, business has been a bit slow and we are a bit strapped for cash ourselves. Just let us know if there's any issues and I'm sure we can work something out. We will go be heading down to the station to meet with Allen and start our next course of action. We will be in touch." The oldest mouse waddled his way out of the room, followed by his two younger brothers. Romeo sat in the chair, unable to say or do anything. He just wanted to wake up from this terrible nightmare.
Clover placed down two mugs of hot chocolate in front of Miko and Hula, who were fidgeting around in their chairs. Bloople was seated across from the two, his hands clenching his biceps as he rubbed his arms. Watching as Clover took a seat in the middle, Bloople took a deep breath and looked at the pair. "Girls, I'm sorry about yesterday. You two deserve to know what's going on. I was scared and upset and I didn't act like I should have." pulling his own mug closer to him, he felt the radiating heat of the warm liquid which relaxed him a bit.
"Did something happen to Auntie Pickle?" Miko added, quietly.
Bloople pursed his lips, trying to contain his own emotions. "Girls. Right now there are a lot of bad guys coming into Toontown who are trying to hurt us."
"Do you mean the cogs?" Hula questioned.
"Um, yes. Well you see, the cogs are very dangerous and so to protect us a lot of Toons were taken, including your Aunt Pickle." pausing he felt himself trembling. Clover reached over and put her hand on Bloople's which helped calm him. "Girls. Auntie Pickle loved you both tremendously, and she did not want anything bad to happen to you..." a tear streamed down from his face as he struggled to continue. Miko and Hula stood up and walked over to him, wrapping their arms around him and squeezing softly. "Auntie Pickle will be going to see Grandma and Grandpa and won't be coming home."
Miko scratched her head, confused by everything that was going on. "I'm sorry daddy, we had really hoped to all go to Silly World together."
Bloople reached out and held Miko and Hula to him. "I know sweetie. We will still go. I promise. When all of this is over, you, Hula and I will go and we'll have so much fun that Auntie Pickle will be having fun with us."
"Can Miss Clover come with?" Hula tweaked her ear as she asked.
Clover laughed and looked at Bloople. "I think that's up to your dad. If he'd be willing to let me come with. I mean, I don't know if you guys would want a boring, stinky, Toon like me going with!"
Giggling, the girls walked over and hugged Clover. "You're not stinky or boring!" Miko shouted.
"Can she go daddy, please?" Hula begged.
"Hmm. I GUESS we can let her come with. But she has so make us hot chocolate every morning. Sound like a deal, Clover?" Bloople wiped his face and smiled as the green cat went into deep thought.
"Sounds like a deal." Clover giggled back, reaching over and tickling the girls. "Now you two need to get ready for school, don't you? Let's go upstairs and try on those new dresses you guys picked out yesterday!" chasing the two young girls upstairs, Bloople watched as Clover struggled to keep up with their energy. Taking a sip from his mug, he smiled. Pickle wouldn't want him to sulk. He had to be strong, and he was going to. For her and for them.
Raindrop bent back as he watched the Business Angel narrowly avoid the wedding cake, which instead splatted three cogs that were standing behind him. Shaking his fist, he watched as the remainder of the cogs stared up at him. He was still out of range to hear what the cog was saying, but he could figure it out when the cogs propellers popped out and they started flying up towards him. Quickly abandoning his ecstasy, he took off running down the catwalk. He needed to get the cogs away from Mindy and Cookie as quickly as possible. After that, he wasn't sure what he was going to do other than wing it. Reaching into his gag pocket, he pulled out some marbles and threw them behind him. The slamming of metal on metal and the eventual explosion let him know it worked. However there were still at least eleven cogs left and he was low on supplies. Stopping he watched a quickly approaching Big Wig. Grabbing his last birthday cake that he had scrounged from the bottom of his pack underneath some TNT. It was squashed, but it would work. Taking aim, he launched it an angle, allowing the aerodynamic pastry to smack right into the cogs face. He watched in glee as The Big Wig sank to the ground and exploded.
"Get them, Rain!" Cookie screamed out. Realizing that he was still untied he looked over at the Business Angel. They had confiscated his gags, but he wouldn't let that deter him. Running over to the distracted cog, he jumped on his back and started pounding on the back compartment. Although the reverberating of the the pain rang through his entire body, he continued to strike. The Business Angel spun around quickly, sending Cookie flying off rolling onto the ground.
"I've dealt with bigger challenges than you, Toon." he muttered as he slowly approached Cookie. Pulling out several large, yellow, glowing rings he began to toss them. "Halo and goodbye." Cookie was soon wrapped in the electrified rings. They began to shrink and administered small electric shocks. Cookie began to panic as the pain of the gripping metal, as well as the stinging of the zaps were starting. Wriggling around, he felt his arms pressed against him. Standing up he attempted to run, but was quickly hit with another ring which constricted around his legs, tripping him up.
Raindrop finally reached a dead-end where a ladder led to the floor. Scrambling down the rungs, he watched as a group of cogs started to make up the distance. Trying to keep his eyes on the ladder, he couldn't help looking up. Unfortunately the split second caused him to miss a step and he slid off, dropping off he plowed to the ground. Narrowly avoiding hitting his head on the hard floor, pain shot through his back and legs. The light began to fade away as the looming cogs blocked out the barely visible florescent lamps hanging above. Slowly dragging his arm, he reached into his pocket. He panicked, there were no more gags. They must have fallen out as he dropped off the ladder. Closing his eyes he breathed. Was this how it was going to end? Tears gushed out of hie eyes. He just wanted to see his mom and dad one last time. Plus he couldn't save Cookie. He would just have to accept his fate. Clenching his fists and gritting his teeth, he let out one last scream.