A/N: Hi hi! Okay, so I know it's been maybe 3 years or so since I've updated, but sorry about that-forgot all about this for a while, actually! . I hope that fanfictions are just a pasttime for most people, so hopefully y'all won't mind!

Anyways, I hope that you like the (finally) beginning chapter of Australian Diamonds, which I've decided to start from an unexpected point of view: Madame Medusa's!


Chapter 1 - Next Steps

Ha ha, at last!

Madame Medusa couldn't help a low, throaty chuckle as she snuck back into her pawn shop/apartment through the back door. It was pouring outside, and she was wet from the rain under her coat, but she didn't care, because, in her bag, stuffed inside a teddy bear, was her most precious possession to date, which would solve all her problems: the Devil's Eye Diamond!

Since she beat Snoops and that little brat Penny back to New York, she knew that she wasn't safe, since they'd know where to look for her if they wanted the diamond back. And, oh yes, she knew they did! Her only solution was to move, go someplace where no one would ever find her!

Hmm, why not make it a place where she could make more money, more profit somehow? She knew that she loved diamonds, so why not find some more? She had the biggest one, of course, but the more the better, right?

Humming a tune to herself, she flipped through one of the old pawn books she had in the shop-an atlas. Hmm, there were quite a few places that had been tried for diamonds already, but the government was too close to those. What she needed was...was somewhere empty, where she wouldn't be caught. Devil's Bayou had been a good start, because of pirates, but where else could she look?

Ah, pirates and thieves! Medusa thought, chuckling. Thieves and criminals always had loot hidden away somewhere. Then...what better place to look than where many criminals had been sent before in history?

"Australia, of course!" she said, her shrill voice cutting through the air like a knife. She heard her next door neighbor wake up and start pounding on her door to get her to be quiet, but she didn't care. Growling, she quickly packed everything she thought she'd need, and then went out to her car. The old thing wasn't working properly, as always, but somehow she got it to start.

Australia, here she comes!


Meanwhile, Medusa's neighbor, Mrs. Poole, was more than a little annoyed with Medusa. First, that crazy redhead goes off in the middle of the night to who knows where, is gone for weeks, and then comes back just as suddenly in the middle of the night! Mrs. Poole had been telling her husband for years that something was up with Madame Medusa, but he would never believe her!

Now, maybe, he will, Mrs. Poole thought. Oh yes, and wasn't there something about Australia mentioned as well? Oh well, it was the middle of the night and she couldn't think about it. Turning off the lights, she headed back down to bed.

However, for a little mouse living in her apartment, Mathilda, something smelled rotten about this whole thing...


A/N: Also not long, I know, but I'm just getting back into my writing groove after a L-O-N-G hiatus, so please allow for a few chapters for me to get my ideas back in order.