Larry had just pulled up their suspect's information on the screen as the guys entered.
On the main computer screen there appeared an old black and white photo of a man, wearing a distinctly Victorian era suit jacket and tie. He was balding and had a bad side part of dark hair that tried to cover it. The name Charles Dickens appeared, and Otto's usual excitement for history erupted inside as he immediately recognized and remembered every single thing there had to do with the guy.
"Charles Dickens was a writer during the height of Victorian Era England. His works often focused on the brutal social injustice that his characters had to face that satirized the reality of his day. Some of his most famous novels include Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, A Tale of Two Cities, and A Christmas Carol." Otto said expositionally.
"Can't we ever get a mission that doesn't involve some ol' fuddy-duddy writer or artist type? These guys are the worst!" Tuddrussel complained.
"What are you talking about now?" Larry asked.
"It's always the same with these 'sensitive' types," Tuddrussel began to rant. "It's the artistic ones that are always getting called out because they're completely off their rocker."
"That's not true!" Larry said.
"It is so. Remember Poe? Nuttier than a squirrel turd. And Da Vinci? A Freakin' Beatnik. And Betsy Ross was no better, what with her hippy dippy commune and tie-dye. Oh, and there's Louis Armstrong! He tried to get us killed for obstructing his attempt to drill a hole into the center of the earth. And Vincent Van Gogh? That guy tried to cut off his own ear."
"Uhh, Van Gogh was SUPPOSED to do that." Otto said.
"Well, you weren't there. So who are you to say?" Tuddrussel asked.
" . . .The history books make it pretty clear Tuddrussel." Otto tried to reason.
"Ugh- enough!" Larry interrupted them. He then turned away and started to walk out of the room.
"Larry?" Otto called. "What are you doing?"
"According to the data given to us, we've been advised to prepare for severe weather, it's snowing where we're going apparently," Larry said. "I'm just getting the winter gear, just sit tight."
So they waited for him. It wasn't very long until Larry came back, with his arms full of clothing. Tuddrussel and Otto grumbled amongst themselves as Larry fussily tried to put the clothing down in the chair.
He pulled out his pink scarf and white faux-mink hat and gracefully put them on. Next, he pulled out a green scarf for Tuddrussel. He smiled coyly as he wrapped it around his neck. Larry seemed to enjoy the act, reminding Otto of some part in a movie he had watched once where a wife adjusted a tie for her husband. Meanwhile, Tuddrussel looked uncomfortable as Larry fussed over him, touching him with no warning. But he stiffly accepted it. When Larry was done with him, he turned to Otto. He pulled out an incredibly long scarf, letting the ends drop to the floor. The guys were amazed by the length, which could probably wrap around Tuddrussel at least three times. The last item he pulled out was a jacket. Otto figured it was his, but was surprised by its appearance, as this was not his usual green jacket, but a thick, puffy dark blue coat.
'Here you are," Larry said warmly, handing him the coat.
Otto put it on, immediately regretting it as the coat felt snug. Not snug in the "too small" kind of way, but the "this feels like my body has been swallowed by a boa constrictor" kind of way.
"It's a little . . .weird?" Otto tried to explain as he struggled to move his hands towards the zipper.
"Oh, it just needs to be broken in." Larry waved his complaint off.
Being ever the 'helpful' one, he tried to hurry Otto up by zipping him up instead, and then without noticing the boy's discomfort he quickly proceeded to throw the ridiculous scarf around his neck and carefully wind it around his head until only his glasses were visible.
For Otto, the word 'hate' was an understatement. He wanted to scream his complaints, but found himself muffled in the scarf. To make matters worse, the coat it was stuffily hot, he couldn't breathe comfortably and it was incredibly stiff too. He couldn't bend forward, or back. And no matter how hard he tried, he could not put his arms down comfortably. Otto became frustrated, stamping his foot down at Larry in protest.
"MMMRF MMRF!" Otto tried to say.
"I'm sorry?" Larry couldn't interpret. He pulled the scarf down from Otto's mouth, "I didn't quite catch that."
"I can't put my arms down!" Otto screamed, pitifully trying to shake his arms. Larry cringed as he realized that Otto was right. He watched the tremors that Otto made as he tried to move, and was suddenly beside himself on how to help.
Tuddrussel seemed to have taken pity on Otto, blushing from second-hand embarrassment from the kid's predicament. He scratched his chin to think for a moment. In trying to be helpful, he pushed down on Otto's arms, and he felt them struggle to come down slowly. He swiftly pushed them down to Otto's sides, and let go. They saw this had worked, and felt sudden relief. But then, Otto's arms sprung back up with the force of an umbrella. Otto groaned in humiliation and wondered how on earth Larry expected him to go on a mission like THIS.
"I can't wear this," Otto said. "I WON'T!"
"For Pete's sake, Larry," Tuddrussel said, coming to Otto's rescue by pulling the scarf off roughly, making him spin in his place. "Whoa!" Otto gasped as he fell to the floor, luckily unharmed because the jacket softened the blow.
"This is overkill even for you," Tuddrussel added, ignoring Otto as he argued with Larry. "What were you thinking?"
"I just didn't want him catching another cold," Larry said defensively. "I thought it was suitable."
"He's not gonna be able to catch anything, let alone a cold wearing that." Tuddrussel replied.
Otto lay there helplessly, looking like a struggling starfish out of water as he tried to heave himself up from the floor. "GUYS!" he shouted, shuffling over to them slowly.
Tuddrussel looked down, and cringed at Otto's misery. "Hold on there, buddy." He then pulled him back up to his feet.
"Well if Otto gets sick again, it's all on you." Larry warned him.
"I'll take that chance." Otto said.
xxxxxxxxxxx
They arrived in 1843, London, England. Larry had been right about the weather, it was indeed cold. Otto pulled his usual green scarf down to see his breath in the winter air. Snow had been falling for quite sometime before their arrival, and it was already clear that it would be a challenge to walk in. Larry, still sore at Tuddrussel for making him relent in letting Otto wear his normal winter jacket, grumpily crossed his arms and looked around for any sign of Dickens.
"Well, according to the computer, this is supposed to be Charles Dickens' house."
They looked at the dark gray brick townhouse. From the fogged up windows, they could somewhat see that there were at least a couple of people inside. Tuddrussel went up to the front stoop of the home and knocked on the door loudly.
The door slammed open, scaring Tuddrussel as he stumbled on the icy stoop. "What the?" Tuddrussel stammered. He scrambled to stand more securely as a man, disheveled and gloomy stormed out of the house and ignored the Time Squad. "Charles! Where are you going?" A woman's voice called out.
She appeared at the doorway, looking distraught as she faced her newly arrived company.
"Excuse me, Ma'am, was that Charles Dickens?" Otto asked her, pointing to the man that's walking toward the road.
The woman looked at Otto kindly, taking a handkerchief out of her dress pocket to dry her eyes. "Yes, that's him. He's also my husband."
"What happened here?" Larry asked.
"I don't really know," Mrs. Dickens said. "When he came home, he was acting very strangely. And when I tried to get him to tell me what's wrong he snapped. He started yelling at the children, accused me of conspiring against him- over WHAT I don't even understand, and then he kicked the dog!"
"What's this world coming to?" Tuddrussel said. "What kind of monster kicks a dog?"
"Well, we better go find him before he gets into more trouble." Otto said urgently.
"Don't you worry, Mrs. Dickens, we'll find your husband and get this all straightened out." Larry said reassuringly.
"Oh, thank you! Please do!" Mrs. Dickens said.
The guys left the house in order to catch up to Charles Dickens.
Luckily for the freshly fallen snow, his footprints were easy to trace still. The guys walked down the street and followed the footprints until they came across a bridge. Larry stopped in his tracks, looking closely at the far end of the bridge to see a person precariously standing on the ledge, with only the lamppost to hold on to.
"Goodness, you don't suppose that could be Dickens?" Larry asked, pointing to the figure. Otto and Tuddrussel looked at the person that he was talking about. Nervously, they glanced at each other, silently agreeing that this mission was going to a very dark place.
"Looks like we got ourselves a code 639, just the last thing we need." Tuddrussel said.