Animal Crossing In Action: Duo Of Justice
Chapter 10: Redd's Shooting Gallery
Every Sunday of August, Redd the fox was setting up the booth for the Fireworks Show. Isabelle got everything prepared for the fireworks tonight. When she saw the fox setting up something new for his booth, she checked it out to see what it was.
"Hey Redd, what's with the setup?" Isabelle asked.
"Setting up the new minigame," Redd answered.
"Sweet, what new minigame is this?"
"It's the shooting gallery. Allow me to explain it to you. You shoot the target with the toy gun; and inside of the toy gun, there were pellets. If you shoot the middle of the target perfectly, you actually won the game!"
"Ah, that makes sense! I'm pretty sure someone will love to try it! It sounds really fun!"
"Of course it is fun, Isabelle!"
While Isabelle and Redd were still preparing for the Fireworks Show, the shadowy animal appeared behind the town tree and began to flee. The kangaroo went behind the town hall and explained the situation to the spy navigator.
"Good job, Walt," said Lewis. "Now, let's get on to the plan, shall we?"
Robert left the hotel and wanted some fresh air that he'd never felt so better in his life. He was starting to enjoy it as he could and looked at the ocean waves. Lorelei and Darren saw him outside that they decided to join him.
"Hey big brother!" said Lorelei. "You're looking happy today! So, what's up?"
"Hey Lorelei, Darren, I'm starting to feel better all of the sudden!" said Robert in triumph. "I don't know how exactly, but it feels as though that my senses are coming back to me!"
"Really, dude?" Darren asked in amazement. "Then, what about Neon?"
"I'm also feel a bit better right now," Neon replied, as he appeared right in front of Robert and the others. "It feels as though my powers are getting stronger again, but in seventy-five percent!"
"Yeah, that is pretty close to one hundred percent..." said Lorelei. "I'm not really sure of how it happened, but you guys will be back in full power in no time!"
"That's exactly my thought," said Robert softly. "And thank you so much, you guys..."
At the Silverwings' house, Vicki was looking at the golden rose that Masked Swordmaster gave her when she was Phantom Angel. She was fixing up her hair and put the rose inside of the box very gently without ruining it. As soon as she closed the box, she put it aside and went downstairs. She took something from the kitchen, dust off her shorts, and put her sandals on before she left her house.
Vicki walked to the fountain and sat down for a while. She took out the small container and placed four or five bites of cheesecake on the small clean plate. When Serena appeared all of the sudden, she took one of the bites and ate it. Vicki ate the remaining cheesecake bites from her container and felt very glad.
"My, my, someone's in the good mood today," said Serena, while she was taking a bite out of her cheesecake.
"Hmm? Oh Serena, I'm always in the good mood," said Vicki.
"Yeah? But it looks a lot like more than just normal to me. I mean, the 'normal' good mood..."
"Oh, but what do you mean by 'more than just normal'?"
"What she means is there is something happening in your mind lately!" said Nick, as Vicki and Serena looked at him and Serenity.
"Oh hi, Nick, Serenity, what's up?" Vicki asked innocently.
"We were just passing by," Serenity answered.
"Well, not just that, but we seriously want to know about you-know-who!" Nick added, while Serenity was glancing at him arrogantly.
Vicki chuckled nervously whether or not she was ready to tell the others a bit info about Masked Swordmaster. Because there was something she could tell them, but something that she could not. Now, she was beginning to lose her mind when they were staring at her in attempt moment.
In the evening, Redd's booth was almost done before the Fireworks Show begun. With the finishing touch, his booth was now ready to open. As he entered behind the curtain, he has everything ready like prizes and toy guns were already filled with pellets. Suddenly, someone knocked him down from behind, and he collapsed to the ground unconscious.
The Fireworks Show began at seven in the evening as always, but only on every Sunday in August. Everybody, in town, watched the fireworks in the sky and began to cheer in excitement. Robert, Lorelei, and Darren went to the town and saw the fireworks. As they went to the town plaza, they saw some booths like snacks, souvenirs, and minigames. When Robert paid attention to one of the booths, he was looking at the shooting gallery game that Redd was setting up in the morning. He immediately watched the two players, Filbert the squirrel and Lopez the deer, as they were shooting the target and none of them had a perfect shot.
"Aw, that's too bad, boys!" said Redd in disappointment. "But better luck next time!"
"Oh, I want the prize so badly, but I don't have enough bells for another try, bucko," Filbert cried.
"Well, there's always another try next time, buckaroo," Lopez sighed, as he and Filbert walked away from the shooting gallery.
After the two animals left, Redd immediately saw Robert standing there and looking at the game. While he was eyeing on him, Robert glanced at the fox and started to sense evil within. He quickly walked away from the minigame booth and went somewhere else. Few minutes later, he almost bumped into Vicki, and they started to stare at each other with their glimmering eyes.
"Oh hey, Vicki!" said Robert surprisingly.
"Oh hi, Robert!" said Vicki. "What's the rush?"
"Oh, I was just...um...forgot something and left it in my hotel room. I'll be right back!"
"Y-Yeah, okay..."
After Robert ran off, Vicki went to Redd's booth and saw the new minigame. When she was looking at the fox, she thought that something's not right about him. So, she kept on walking pass the booth and quickly hid behind the town tree.
Redd looked around to see if there's no customers in sight. So, he quickly hid behind the curtain and changed into a different form. It was Lewis who disguised himself as Redd all along. His henchmen gathered around as he formed a plan while Walt was keeping an eye on the real Redd, who was tied up this whole time.
When Vicki started to sense evil within one of the booths, she quickly looked around to see if no one's around. She kept on moving really fast and went behind the town hall. She took out her transformation mic and transformed into Phantom Angel.
Phantom Angel flew up on top of the town hall. She was investigating the town plaza if there's any trouble in sight. While she was on the lookout, someone tapped her on the shoulder. It gave her a surprise when she turned around and saw who it was. It was none other than Masked Swordmaster.
"Where on earth did you come from?" Phantom Angel asked. "And how did you get up here?"
"I may not able to fly, like you," Masked Swordmaster explained. "But I have a few tricks up in my boots."
"Your boots? Do you mean your sleeves?"
"Uh no...I literally said boots." Masked Swordmaster tapped his boot heels to show Phantom Angel of what he really meant by that. "You see, I have a few boot tricks that you'll never know yet."
"Oh, I understand now! I just never realized that your boots have some abilities!"
"Exactly, but enough of that. Should we get into that booth right now?"
"Are you talking about the minigame one that Redd just set up in the morning?"
"Yes, that is exactly my thought! Let's get in there!"
Phantom Angel and Masked Swordmaster jumped down to the ground. As the duo went to the town plaza, some of the animal villagers were excited to see them and others wouldn't believe their eyes. Everyone clamored in excitement that the heroes didn't seem to mind at all. They were focusing on Redd's booth that they went in and checked it out. While they were inside, they looked around to see if anyone's there. Few moments later, they heard someone made a loud muffle and the thumping noise. It came from the crate box so they quickly opened it and found Redd got all tied up.
"Oh my god, it's Redd!" Phantom Angel exclaimed.
"Let's get him out of there and set him free!" said Masked Swordmaster. "I wonder who could've done him like that!"
Phantom Angel and Masked Swordmaster quickly got Redd out of the crate. Before they could untie him, something fell from above and knocked them down. After the heroes were lying on the ground and were out cold, Lewis, Walt, and the henchmen appeared before them. Redd was struggling and muffling so loud that he was helpless.
"Wow, they sure fell for it!" the first henchmen laughed.
"Now, what are we going to do with them, Lewis?" the second henchmen asked.
"Ah, that is a good question, hmm..." Lewis replied, as he was starting to think until he found the solution. "Oh, I know! You guys can hang those two behind the curtain." Then, he turned to the kangaroo. "And Walt, I want you to remove those pellets from the toy guns and put the two deadly bullets. One in each of them, got it?"
"Got you cover, pockets!" Walt cackled, as Lewis gave the small bag of bullets to him so he could put one bullet in each toy gun.
Thirty minutes later, Sammy and Jimmy were at the snack booth. They each bought the cotton candy and spun them around, but Jimmy had lesser than his older brother because he ate almost all of it. Then, they spotted the minigame booth that Redd was in charge. So, they checked it out and decided that they wanted to try it out.
"Oh Crazy Redd, we wanted to play the shooting game please," said Sammy.
"Yeah, we wanted to try it out if you may," said Jimmy.
"Err, boys...no offense, but you're not highly experts of shooting," said Redd, who appeared to be Lewis in disguise.
Sammy frowned. "What do you mean we're not highly experts?"
"Yeah, I thought all players from different levels won't matter in this game!" Jimmy complained.
"Well boys, we're setting up the new rules right now; and I'm afraid that I cannot help you!" Redd argued. Until he spotted Nick and Darren who happened to walk pass by, he chuckled and grinned evilly as he begun to call them. "Hey, you two fine boys! Come on over here and play a game! What do you say?"
After Nick and Darren heard Redd's calling, they looked around to see if he's referring to somebody else. Although, there's no mistake to that when they were looking at each other in confusion.
"Who? Us?" Nick and Darren asked in unison, as they were pointing to themselves.
"Them?!" Sammy and Jimmy asked, as they were pointing at Nick and Darren with their eyes wide-opened.
"Yes, you two, with the great eye contact and intuition!" said Lewis, as he still sounded like Redd while talking to Nick and Darren. "So, why don't you two play a game, and I'll give each of you a prize if you just shoot the target perfectly? What do you say?"
Nick and Darren started to look at each other for a moment. Then, they decided that they should try the shooting gallery game. So, they paid some bells to Redd, and he gave each of them the toy gun. Sammy and Jimmy were so furious that they crossed their arms and glared at Redd.
"Hey fox man, what about us?" Sammy asked. "We got here first before those two nerds showed up!"
"Yeah, we just got here five minutes ago and wanted to try the game, too!" Jimmy complained.
The Slapjack twins and Redd were starting to argue at each other while Nick and Darren were staring at them dumbfounded. What everyone didn't know was there were two heroes, who were unconscious, hanging up behind the curtain and the two targets. None of the duo were awakened yet while there was a commotion going on in front of the booth.
While the argument was still on, Nick and Darren were waiting for Redd so he could watch them shoot the targets. After the fox told the Slapjack brothers to leave the booth, he told the players to go right ahead. When they were ready to shoot, Redd glared at them in amazement and began to grin evilly. But before they began to shoot, Nick started to speak with Darren.
"Hey Darren, can we make a deal on something?" Nick asked.
"What kind of deal, Nick?" Darren asked.
"Well, the deal is if one of us shoot the perfect target, then the winner gets five hundred bells from the loser. How's that?"
"Hmm, that doesn't sound like a bad idea to me, and it's a deal, Nick!"
"Great, boys, now let's start the shooting, shall we?" said Redd unenthusiastically.
Nick and Darren apologized to Redd for the small chat they're having. So, they were ready to aim the target before they would shoot. But Darren lowered the toy gun and talked to Nick for a second.
"Wait a minute, Nick..." said Darren. "Can we bet one thousand bells, instead of five hundred?"
"Well, okay, I'm not going to complain about it though," Nick answered.
"Okay, boys, can we get on with the shooting part already?!" Redd asked impatiently, as he was starting to raise his voice in front of the players.
Phantom Angel and Masked Swordmaster were finally awakened after hearing all of the shouts. They quickly placed their feet on the curtain where the targets were placed. Nick and Darren started to shoot the targets, and they both fell to the ground all of the sudden. Redd began to laugh joyfully while the two players stood up on their feet. They looked at their targets and both of them had a perfect shots.
"Unbelievable, it's a tie!" said Nick surprisingly.
"You're right, we both have the perfect shots!" Darren exclaimed.
"Well, congratulations to both of you!" said Redd happily, as he passed out the fortune cookies to each one of the players. "As I promised, here are the prizes!"
Behind the curtain, Phantom Angel and Masked Swordmaster were still alive. It's all because of their soles and heels were bullet-proofed, they blocked the shots in order to protect themselves. Neither of them had spoken a word since Lewis's henchmen placed the duct tape over their mouths. Masked Swordmaster revealed his pen in one of this hands and changed it into a jack knife to cut the ropes.
After Redd handed out the prizes to Nick and Darren, he looked around to see if nobody's there. The henchmen appeared right before him so he could change back to his true form, Lewis. The spy navigator snickered happily as he and his henchmen went behind the curtain. But when they got there, the two heroes had disappeared into thin air. All the enemies saw were the ropes hanging around very slowly.
"W-What's this?" Lewis asked shockingly. "Where did the dynamic duo go? They should've been shot right now that they hardly escaped!"
Suddenly, one of the henchmen walked very clumsily that he rubbed his back and told Lewis about the report. "One of them slugged me when I wasn't looking!" he explained. "But there's more, they ran off with Walt; and that crazy fox hit my back so hard with his stick many times now..."
As soon as the henchman fainted, the other henchman caught him in time before he collapsed to the ground. Lewis was pissed off that he had to come up with another plan. Until he saw Redd with the stick, the fox began to shout at them furiously that he started to hit them. As soon as he got them out of the booth, everybody, in town, were in shock, especially Isabelle.
"Redd, what's going on?" Isabelle asked in confusion. "And who are these people?"
"Those people are the criminals and villains!" Redd explained, while he was still hitting the bad guys with the stick. "One of them tried to impersonate me when I was tied up in the crate box! Then, his evil scheme is to let the 'expert' players shot down the two heroes with deadly bullets that were inside of the toy guns!"
"What?" the crowd murmured, as some of them were confused and some were very frightened.
"If the heroes hadn't set me free, then I would've been stuck in the crate box forever!"
"Why, you little sly fox!" Lewis growled, as he immediately grabbed the stick that Redd was holding. "Just tell me how they survived the gunshots! Hmm?!"
"Hey, just leave that business fox alone, you punk!" said the familiar voice. Everybody turned their attention, including the villains', to Phantom Angel who spoke up just now. "You, sir, have no right to mess with the animal's business!"
"That's right!" Masked Swordmaster exclaimed, while standing next to Phantom Angel side by side. "Not only that, but you ruined the Fireworks Show for everybody in town!"
"Phantom Angel, Masked Swordmaster, you're finally here!" said Redd happily. "Now, get rid of those bad guys and save StarLily for everybody's sake!"
"We will do it, Redd!" said Phantom Angel. "And as for the rest of you, just run for your lives now!"
While the two heroes were fighting against the villains, people and animals began to run and scream at the same time. Lorelei started to record the video with her smartphone while she was standing behind the tree with Darren. Nick and Serenity went inside of the Roost as they looked through the window to watch the fighting scene. Redd tried to pull Isabelle by the arm to avoid danger while they were running.
After the duo beat up the henchmen, they're ready to face off against Lewis who was the only one still standing. He took out the needles from his sleeves and began throwing at them. Masked Swordmaster took out his sword to cut them down as his counterattack. Then, Phantom Angel released her light orbs attack at Lewis, and he got slammed to the town tree after he got the direct hit. He collapsed to the ground before he quickly stood up in few seconds later.
"Tougher as usual, I see," said Lewis. "But I won't go easy on you next time, you twosome heroes!" Finally, he disappeared into thin air.
Phantom Angel and Masked Swordmaster got rid of the evil once again. Isabelle quickly rushed to them and wanted to give them an interview. She took out her pen and her small notebook from her pocket and began asking some questions.
"Um, excuse me...is it okay if I can ask either of you some questions?" Isabelle asked, as the duo gave her a nod in response. "Great! Now let me see, here's the first question..."
While Isabelle was asking the heroes, Lorelei and Darren moved a little closer from one tree to another. She quickly took a picture of them before she could start recording the video with her smartphone. Nick and Serenity left the Roost and watched Isabelle interviewing with the heroes.
"Can you imagine Isabelle becoming the reporter to those two heroes?" Nick asked.
"Be quiet, Nick, I can't hear them," said Serenity sternly, as she elbowed her boyfriend.
The interview didn't take too long for the heroes after Isabelle was done asking them some questions. So, they're ready to take their leave and give their thanks to Isabelle. While the fireworks continued to blast off at the night sky, they were on top of the building at Main Street. Masked Swordmaster slowly touched Phantom Angel's hand before they're starting to hold hands in few seconds later.
"Say, Masked Swordmaster, this is kind of random, but do you have a dream?" Phantom Angel asked.
"A-A dream?" Masked Swordmaster trembled, with hesitation. "W-Well, how do I put this? I-It's hard for me to answer this really..."
"U-Unfortunately, never mind that. That's very silly of me for asking you this! Unless if you're planning to ask me that question, then it's very hard for you to believe when I tell you about my dream..."
"Oh, um...okay."
"But anyways, do you have any fans in your former town?"
Masked Swordmaster sighed in despair. "Well, I hate to tell you this, but I don't have any fans like you have right now..."
Phantom Angel was shock to hear Masked Swordmaster's sad response. "A-Are you serious? Not even one?"
"Just only two or three, but not that many..."
"Oh, I see. But I don't think two or three fans are that bad at all..."
While the duo were having a conversation, they didn't even notice that the psychic panther named Katrina was watching them. Her eyes began to glimmer like the stars in the sky. She took a deep breath and slowly exhaled while closing her eyes.
Soon the time will tell when the two heroes will combine their powers, Katrina thought. The new power will be born and awaken within their dreams...