Walter knew this wasn't gonna be easy. His heart pounded faster, the closer the Electric Mayhem bus got to the Southwest Marine. The abandoned docks that were rarely used anymore. Of course they would bring Lily there. It was isolated, and perfect if they wanted to truly kill Walter.
Kill Walter. The two words slashed through the boy's mind. He had no idea what his upcoming faith was gonna be. All he knew was that no matter what happened to him, Lily and his Muppet family would be safe.
But knowing Kermit, he wouldn't let anything pass so easily. The frog wasn't only protective of all the Muppets, but had grown a specific attachment to Walter. He was the youngest of the group, and Kermit felt responsible for his safety. Though Walter wouldn't admit it, he knew Kermit felt as though he was his son. That was hard for the boy to admit to, considering he lost his dad.
His dad. It echoed in his head.
He lost his father, he wasn't gonna lose Lily too.
It was no surprise that the ride there was an uncomfortable wave of dead silence. Each and every one of the Muppets had no reason to be feeling anything else but fear for the girl. They've all grown to love her, and how happy she has made Walter. It was uncanny that the boy's eyes lit up every time she entered a room. It really was love.
And that's why they needed to get her back. For both of them.
The bus pulled up near one of the docks, and went into park. As soon as Dr. Teeth turned off the ignition, no one said anything. They all feared for Walter's life when he was in a coma, and felt that same feeling creep up again. Sick to their stomachs, and heads aching. They wouldn't let it happen. Now was the time for all of them to be brave.
"Do we all know the plan?" Kermit was the first to speak. The Muppets all nodded. Gonzo looked out the window of the bus, and saw a figure standing a few yards away.
"I see one of them." He said. Many of the Muppets shifted in place all at once.
"Is the police on their way?" Walter asked. Kermit nodded.
"Okay. Let's go." The boy said. The Muppets all began to pile out of the van. Still, no one spoke. Not in a situation like this. They made a quick plan on their way to the docks, but it was risky. Anything to keep Walter safe, but still get his girlfriend back.
They all walked towards the figure, that became more and more clear. As soon as they were close enough, they saw a gruff looking man standing before them. His eyes darted at Walter, and didn't break his gaze.
"No surprise you brought the rest of them." The man said with his deep, Russian voice. The Muppets all shivered at the same voice that had been sending them threats for the past while.
"Where is she?" Walter said, ignoring the man's scoffing. The man picked up a walkie talky, and spoke into it.
"Now, Arkady." The man said. The doors of the nearby boat house came busting open, startling the Muppets. Another one of the men came out, and he held Lily bridal style. She was tied up, but didn't look conscious at all. She was completely passed out, but her sleeping face was distressed. Clearly, she had tried to put up a fight but couldn't stand tall for long.
"What did you-" Walter was ready to march up to the men, but Kermit held him back.
"Relax, Muppet Boy." The other man, Arkady, said. "Chloroform. She's unconscious."
"Made this process a lot easier." Vitaly laughed. Walter shook with fury, and Kermit still held him back.
"Give. Her. Back." Walter said, trying not to explode.
"You know exactly what you're here for." Vitaly said. "You come with us, then we let her go. Constantine will not prevail until you are eliminated."
"And this time." Arkady added. "No silly car tricks. Not a coma to get off easy. You were lucky the first time, but now this ends."
The Muppets all inched closer, trying to keep Walter away from the men as much as possible. The boy didn't dare move, however. Not as long as his girlfriend was in the evil hands of one of Constantine's goons. If this was any plan made by the evil frog, he knew it would be deadly. So far, the Europe situation was a cake walk compared to this.
"If I go with you." Walter said. "How do I know you'll really let Lily go?"
Arkady and Vitaly exchanged a look. Arkady shifted Lily in his arms, teasingly.
"Smart boy." Vitaly said. "No wonder you're the future leader."
Kermit's hand remained on Walter's shoulder from when he held him back. His squeeze tightened at the mention of Walter's future with the Muppets. The frog remained calm though, for everyone's sake.
"Too bad you'll never see the day that Henson built on a pedestal for you." Arkady smirked.
At that moment, Kermit felt his heat drop at the mention of Jim. That was too far.
"You have no right to talk about Jim." Kermit said, a little too aggressively for his persona.
"And there's no way you're taking Walter!" Gonzo stepped up, breaking the silent fear the Muppets had been broiling in.
"W-what they said!" Fozzie said.
"Fine then." Arkady said. He lifted Lily, and tossed her unconscious body. Walter and Kermit both heavily caught her, lowering her to the ground gently. A few of the Muppets began to untie her ropes, as Miss Piggy tried to gently wake her up.
"That was easy." Fozzie chuckled.
"Not quite." Vitaly said. "Now."
Without warning, Arkady pulled out a big brown sac and threw it over Walter. He tied and slung the bag over his shoulder, Walter wrestling inside.
"Hey! Let me out you jerk!" Walter's yelling muffled through the bag. The Muppets all felt their chests go heavy, at the sight of Walter in danger.
"Animal, now!" Kermit said, panicking.
"ARGH!" Animal yelled, bolting towards Arkady. He dove onto the jail break, knocking him to the ground. Kermit went towards the bag that Walter was in, trying to untie the tight knot. Walter continued to shuffle inside.
Though the tied knot was hard to budge, it wouldn't have prepared the frog for the impact of what happened next.
"Oh, no you don't." Vitaly said, giving a hard kick to Kermit. The frog fell backwards, at haze for second. Time slowed down as he lifted his hand to hand to his face and felt the substance that creeped out of his snout. Blood.
"Kermie! Are you okay?" Piggy asked, helping him up. The frog had no time to respond when he stood up. Vitaly had already took off in the other direction with the sac that still contained Walter.
"Come on!" Scooter yelled, as him, Rowlf, Fozzie, and Gonzo bolted after Vitaly in the attempts to keep on his tail. Kermit wobbly got to his feet.
"Kermie, no. The others can-" Piggy tried to restrain him, but was no use.
"No!" Kermit yelled running off to where the other four had ran after Walter. "I lost Jim, I'm not gonna lose him too!"
"RAWR!" Animal yelled, continuing to bat at Arkady. The rest of Electric Mayhem came around, trying to restrain the prisoner.
"Get your colourful claws off me!" The Russian prisoner yelled at them. They took the ropes that were tied around Lily, and began to tie his hands. Miss Piggy went back to the young girl's aid, who began to slowly wake up.
"Lily?" Piggy asked the young lady. She held her head for support. Lily shifted slightly.
"Can you hear me? Can you say something?" The pig continued to ask. Floyd and Janice came to their aid, also attempting to wake the girl up.
"...mmh..." Lily mumbled, as her eyes slowly inched open. The light bothered her vision for a second, before taking hold of the three Muppets looking down at her. She felt relief seeing them, knowing she was no longer under the fugitives' grasp.
Her relief disappeared when she didn't spot to familiar image that was her companion.
"Where...is he...?" She asked, her head feeling worse the more she talked. Piggy exchanged a look with Floyd and Janice. The sounds of Arkady struggling from the Muppets' hold on him still motioned in the background. Though Lily was lying down and looking at them straight on, she could read the alarm on their faces.
"No..." Lily said, sitting up. They helped her into a sitting position.
"Don't worry." Piggy assured her. "Kermie and the boys went after one of them. Walter is...gonna be fine."
"I'm going with them." Lily said, trying to get to her feet.
"No." Piggy said. "We can't let you. If anything happened to you dear, Walter would never forgive himself."
The three Muppets that were at Lily's aid looked off into the direction that the villain ran off in. Lily looked into where they kept their eyes to. A part of her hoped and prayed that Walter's silhouette would form in the distance at any moment. That he would just walk up, and assure her that these criminals had been stopped.
"Miss Piggy?" Janice asked. The pig looked towards her. "Before Kermit ran off...he said he wouldn't lose Walter too..."
"Because he already lost Jim..." Floyd finished. The pig felt the inside of her chest swirl around, at the thought of the pure panic that was in her partner's voice before he ran off to go save their young friend. She rarely heard him that panicked, before.
"He'll stop them." Piggy said, thinking of Kermit. "He never let's us down."
/~/~/~/
Kermit felt his heart burn in his chest, as he kept Scooter, Gonzo, Fozzie, and Rowlf in eye shot. But, it was mainly the figure that they sprinted after that kept the frog at a rapid speed. The sight of the man with the sack slung over his shoulder, Walter still putting up a feisty fight inside.
Don't worry, Jim. The frog thought. I'll save him.
Kermit came to a sharp stop, when his four other friends were standing in a frozen state. He was ready to encourage them to keep running and stop Vitaly. Until Kermit saw the sight in front of them, too.
Vitaly stood at the edge of the dock, holding the brown sac that still contained Walter over the edge. The water was mellow down bellow, but was deeper than ever. Walter was also in the bag. One drop, and he would suffocate.
"40 feet deep." Vitaly spoke, gripping the handle of the bag. "Any sudden moves, and I drop him."
Walter still shifted in the bag, but it dialled down. The sudden silence and stillness clearly didn't go unnoticed by the boy, and he was trying to be cautious. His life was on the line, and his friends needed to choose their words very carefully.
"Please." Kermit said. "You can't do this."
Vitaly gave a bone chilling smirk, glaring at the five.
"Really?" The fugitive scoffed. "Sorry, but not sorry frog. We did not break out of the gulag, and travel to America for nothing. We will follow in on Constantine's wishes. It was his last command before being sentenced for life in prison."
The man loosened his grip on the bag.
"No!" All five Muppets said, preventing him from further loosening his grip.
"I'm telling you." Kermit said. "If you do this...you have no idea what you'll be causing."
Vitaly arched an eyebrow. "And what exactly is that?"
The frog exhaled out a heavy, shaky breath. If there was any time for a big speech, it was now.
"We love him." Kermit said. The other four didn't turn to look at him, considering showing any break of their bravery for Walter's safety might have been a risky move. They certainly didn't expect him to say that, but it was still the truth.
"Love? Ha." Vitaly ridiculed. "You don't know what you're talking about. Love isn't a recurring attachment, it's nothing but a fake feeling for fools."
"Actually." Kermit said. "You don't know what you're talking about."
"Kermit..." Scooter said, warning the frog. Anything gone wrong meant the end for Walter. They couldn't shatter the thin line of hope that was holding the boy's chances of living.
"It's okay." Kermit said. "Listen. A long time ago, we lost Jim. He wasn't...well...isn't just family, he's...a part of us. We wouldn't be together if it weren't for what he brought to this world."
Vitaly let out a brief puff of air, as mockery. "What does this nonsense have to do with your Muppet Boy?"
"Well..." Kermit continued. "I doubt you know this, but Jim died three years after Walter was born."
"So?"
Kermit swallowed. "So, the year he was born was the when Jim started to get sick. Though he didn't admit to it until the year it happened...that's when it started. I spent three years knowing things didn't look good, and kept trying to get him help."
"Get to the point, froggy."
The amphibian bit back the sadness that pounded in his chest. "When one life ends, a new one begins. Walter was put on this earth to be with us." Kermit said. "His presence in this world brings happiness to all of our hearts, and our audience. We love him for who he is. And I know with all of my heart that he's meant to carry on what Jim created. I see Jim in him, I see myself when I was young in him, and I see...my family."
Walter had completely stopped shifting in the bag. Kermit clearly caught his ear by this point.
"I see a Muppet leader." The frog finished.
The other four officially broke their gaze, and exchanged looks amongst each other. They expected Kermit to plea for Vitaly to leave Walter alone, or maybe threaten him that the police would be arriving at any moment. But like many times before, the frog surprised them.
"So, please." Kermit said. "Don't do this to Walter. Don't do this to us."
Vitaly still held Walter in the bag above the water. The Russian fugitive seemed to be in a frozen state. Kermit felt a spark of hope blossom within him. Maybe he did the impossible, maybe he got through to him.
"We all make mistakes, frog." Vitaly spoke, quietly. "Why do you think I got in prison?"
The four Muppets stayed quiet. They didn't move a muscle.
"Unfortunately." Vitaly continued. "I never really learned from my mistakes."
Without warning, the fugitive let go of the handle of the bag. The sac that contained Walter flew bellow, Walter letting out a brief yell inside. The sudden empty air that passed through him startled him, and he soon hit the water and began to sink.
"NO!" Kermit yelled, fear striking through him. Vitaly wiped a bit of sweat from his brow.
"A job done." The criminal smirked. Kermit gave an unforgiving scowl.
"Not yet." The frog said. Once again, everything passed without warning, as the frog through himself off the edge of the dock. Fozzie, Gonzo, Rowlf, and Scooter all chased after where he jumped, looking over the edge.
"Forget it, Muppets." Vitaly said. "Muppet Boy is approximately 10 feet deep by now, considering the bag is preventing him from floating. Not even your frog friend can make it after him."
Scooter adjusted his glasses. "Well, amphibians actually-"
"L.A.P.D! Freeze!" A police officer yelled, pointing a gun towards Vitaly. The criminal put his hands up, and the four Muppets felt relieved.
"Where are they?" The chief officer asked, referring to Kermit and Walter.
"Walter was in bag! A-and, he got thrown in after Kermit made this speech! And then, Kermit jumped! Chaos!" Fozzie yelled quickly, after being quiet for so long.
"What?" A female voice said, approaching. Lily came running, with Miss Piggy behind her. "No! What're we gonna do!?"
"We need a water rescue, over." The chief officer spoke into his shoulder walkie talky.
Lily and the few Muppets looked over the edge, where Kermit had jumped after Walter. The fact that no one had come up yet, gave them very little hope. They shook with grief, and feared the worse. What if Walter didn't make it? What if Kermit couldn't get him back? What if they end up losing both of them?
What if this was the end of the two leaders?
Oh no! The chapter ended on a cliffhanger, whoops! Make sure to come back for the next part!