Chapter Forty-Four: Speeding Up
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#animals talking#
(author's note)
I know the symbols for the animals talking has changed throughout the chapters, but that's because they keep disappearing when I post them so I have to put something up that'll show whether the animals are talking or the puppets since both of their dialogues are Italicized.
Puppet Master is an idea from Charles Band and a Full Moon product. They are not mine.
If they were, DK-20 would be immensely pleased to grab Tunneler's rear end. :)
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Chug had a bit of a rough night trying to convince Torch that he wasn't mad at him and that he'd still read to him. Torch finally settled when he agreed to lower his flamethrower's firing range, refusing to outright shut it off in case Torch needed to defend himself and when he called him son.
Torch leaned back in his lap with his teddy-master and listened as he read Moby Dick to him, falling asleep in his lap.
Chug hadn't slept properly in months, and with the new work in fixing up the old hotel as another house, looking after the little Toulons, keeping Six in check, collecting those totem things and looking after Torch when he's sick was starting to grate on him. And this was just the top of his list of other things to do. He owned several charity houses, orphanges, restaurants and jewelry stores all around the world.
He was also in Voluntary Law Enforcement that when he was called in would have to spend several nights without sleep checking his screens, reading through material, checking evidence with a fine tooth comb and help connect the dots and sometimes hit people with a rolled up newspaper to get things done.
The charity houses all did work in making food, toys and clothes for the poor towns and orphanages. The restaurants he would sometimes make a personal appearance and do a public demonstration, but the jewelry stores held his concentration the most. He'd make every piece of jewelry in his stores by hand. Necklaces, earrings, bracelets, watches, rings, tiaras, movie premiere showcases. His diamonds were a popular choice because he took special care of his diamonds. He was very reluctant to part with them.
And then with his medical skills he eventually built some hospitals and would hire people from his brother's ship and ones he'd personally trained to run them. He now had twelve buildings up and running.
And then there was his and his brother's "Family Meetings" on mountains, in clubs, in a park, . . . . you get the idea. But Kegs took care of most of that stuff on his own.
Needless to say Chug was getting well-worn. He could feel an extreme case of exhaustion creeping up on him. He sent another message to Kokiri and curled up around Torch and fell asleep.
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Kokiri pulled his phone out of his back pocket and checked his messages.
~Going to sleep. Feeling ill. Torch worried I might be mad at him. Take over for a few days. Jester soft kung-fu~ -C.
"Who is it?" Blade asked, back in the green house and on the hover disc.
"Kid's not feeling well and he put me in charge of things. So, you stay here and practice your pulse ranges for another three hours then head to bed for some rest. You're going back to classes tomorrow with Jester." Kokiri said and left the green house.
Blade watched him go, shrugged his shoulders and went back to meditating. He was told to practice his pulse range, so practice he shall. He sent out a pulse to keep an eye on the brother.
His mind's eye showed the brother climbing through the lounge window where he had his operation for his new leg and where they watched the movie of the Space Totem things being captured. The brother walked past the piano, brushing softly against the keys, not making a sound. The brother walked past the kitchens, the dining room, the rooms and came to a door that led to a basement.
'We have a basement?' he thought.
Kokiri opened the door to reveal a whole tropical sauna-like room, complete with a waterfall and a large pond.
Blade watched as Kokiri removed his shoes and glasses, placing on a sea shell shelf and walk across the water. The water then began to gently circulate around him and then a bed formed. There was a lump on the bed that the brother walked over to and placed a hand on its head, bring up the covers and gently stroke the top of its head.
Blade had tried to see who that was lying on the bed, but the brother's affection gave the kid away.
The brother left after patting a smaller lump in the bed and the water returned to just that for a second before shifting to a room resembling a kitchen. The brother brought up screens on the walls, tapped away at some, scrolled through others and then . . . ordered a pizza?
'What the devil is he up to?' Blade thought and then felt a jolt through his pulse. The brother plucked the air as if plucking a hidden string for a trap a couple times, making Blade's ears ring with 'ping' sound and forcing him to cut his vision off.
Blade covered his ears and shook his head. 'What the hell was that?! What the devil did you do?!' he shouted in his head.
'You have to get to bed now. You need the rest.' he heard the brother's voice say in his head. 'Get a move on or I'll ring you up again.'
Blade steered the hover disc towards the hotel and up to the attic room as fast as he could, entering through the open window, parking the disc on the desk and ran over to his bed, diving right in. 'Alright, I'm in bed. Just don't make me deaf.' he grumbled in his head and threw himself down on his pillow. The brother chuckled in his head before everything went silent.
'Show off.' Blade thought with a grumble and placed his hat on a post and closed his eyes.
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The next morning he was rudely woken by Jester who had jumped on his bed to wake him up.
"Wake up or you're gonna be late for class!" Jester sang playfully and yanked on Blade's blankets to roll him out of them.
"Jester," Blade groaned sleepily and was helped up on his feet and his hat haphazardly placed on his head and dragged to martial arts classes.
"C'mon, you know the teachers don't like lazy students." Jester said and put Blade in line, tidied him up a bit and then stood next to him at full attention.
Blade heard a screech and jolted wide awake, took a quick look at Jester and also stood at attention. "I hate this class. The teachers don't like me." he hissed to Jester.
"Shoosh," came Jester's reply and stiffened when the Hawk and winged moneky landed in front of them with a slam.
#Master Jester, you have been recommended for the soft kung-fu class. You may take your leave.# the hawk said, opening a wing and allowing Jester to walk past them.
Jester glanced at Blade with a nervous look. "But what about-"
#Go!#
Jester jumped and headed down between the two teachers. "Bye Blade." Jester picked up his satchel and jogged down between the teachers.
'Oh, this isn't going to be good.' Blade thought as he watched Jester run off and leave him all alone with the two mean, relentless, merciless bringers of pain in the ass teachers.
The two teachers looked down a Blade, Blade looked up and tried not to look . . . . uh, nervous. He wasn't scared, he wasn't trembling, he wasn't . . . ok, fine, he was and he blamed the whole thing on the brother.
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Seven hours later . . . .
Blade limped back to the attic room, his hand placed his lower back, his coat was smoking, his hat had a little flame sizzling along the brim, his new leg was throbbing, his other leg felt splintered and his face had soot all across and the edges of his hair were blackened.
Blade knocked on the door with his hook and was let in, he stood on the elevator disc and rode it up to the bookshelf that held his and Jester's beds, got off the disc, limped to his bed and collapsed into a deep, dark, dreamless slumber.
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Six Shooter was pacing his cell, trying to think up of a way to get to Torch. Torch had been locked away from the others due to his sickness and from him, but the sickness was the main concern. He had gotten sick like the rest of them, save himself, seven, going on eight weeks now. Whatever the hell was in that variant formula the kid gave them was sure hell messing with the original in Torch's system. That much was obvious.
So it was simple. Tell Blade that Torch's sickness was because the kid poisoned him and now they have to rescue him, but Six would do it alone, so as not to arouse suspicion to the two brothers about this rescue. It sounds so simple and would be so simple if he wasn't trapped in this . . . . box.
He kicked a wall in frustration and was surprised when it fell over. He looked out into the attic room and cautiously reached out with a hand before chuckling and jumping out and headed over to Torch's room. He stopped just before the border of red tape along the beige carpet and stared at the door.
'Now, how to get past the security?' he thought and brought his upper arms up in thought while the second pair went behind his back and the third pair placed on his hips.
The first time he got busted he was about to use his magic. Maybe if he didn't use any magic, no thought whatsoever of his magic or Torch and took a step past the red tape. . . . Nothing happened. He let out a breath of relief and walked over, keeping his mind clear. He got as far as the center between the door and the red tape when the alarm went off.
The whole room was doused in red light, the sirens going off at a high pitch and then he was surrounded by dozens of scorpions and spiders and lasers.
'Argh, I was so close.' he thought and put all six arms up in the air. The kid wasn't the one putting him back in his cell this time. It was a large black scorpion with pincers that could crush his head like a walnut. He was hoisted up by the back collar of his shirt and placed in his cell by its tail. A spider and a small yellow desert scorpion were putting the fallen wall back up and drilling screws in to keep it up.
Six Shooter paced his cell, trying to think up of a way to get to Torch. . . .
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