Ziggy's Corner: Okay the first thing I want to do before I start this chapter is to apologize to demonthief for not acknowledging his or her review, somehow your review got lost in the mail, and I never received it, so my deepest apologies. It was not until I looked at my review page off line today (10-8-05) that I saw you. Well that being said, on to chapter nine. And as I promised, it is indeed longer than the last couple of chapters. And now without adieu on with the story.
It was seven o'clock in the morning now, and Bentley could only manage two hours of sleep, his heart racing for his friend and the small child he had gone off to rescue. Different kinds of scenarios ran through his mind, how Sly could get hurt, or worse, hurt Gabriel, because the anti-venom had run its course, and this strange poison had retaken its effect. He sat down, jumped up, sat back down again, and then lay in his bed for another half hour before getting back up. This is pointless.
The turtle sat on his bum yet again and looked at his radio. Why hasn't he called yet? He stroked his chin, and reached for another cup of coffee, his sixteenth in fact and looked fiercely at the mechanical device for what seemed like ages, finishing his cup and pouring the seventeenth. Well at least I know there's no real mystery as to why I can't sleep. It was eight o'clock now and the turtle had had enough. He reached over for the radio and turned the dials carefully. "Attention Sly, Sly can you read me?"
There was static, and metallic whining on the other side and the turtle groaned and switched a few knobs to adjust the sound. "Sly, if you can hear me, what is the situation?" His words were scrambled, and sentences were coming from his mouth as if they were one word. Bentley began jerking his left leg and he scratched his bald head as he waited, narrowing his eyes. Damn I know its natural, but I really wish nature, or God or whatever is in charge of evolution or creation or yada-yada would have seen fit to give turtles full heads of hair. It was in times like that that the turtle wished he was not so agnostic. Sly's family had a full range of religious beliefs, while Murray's had been fully Calvanistic in their thoughts, almost to the point of Puritanical. As to what his family's beliefs had been, as much as he tried he could only find a few of his ancestors, and they had all been Jewish, with a Greek Orthodox here and there. The turtle frowned, and then shrugged. Jewish, eh, well nothing wrong with that at all, actually something I find to be proud of.
He waited for a few more minutes and then switched a few more knobs until he could barely make out his best friend's voice. "Bentley … found Gab… but … they got away." As the turtle strained to hear his friend, he was certain that it sounded like his friend was in extreme pain.
"Sly, you're breaking up, what did you say?"
"… Kidna… ambushed us …," there were more sounds of groans, and Sly's heavy breathing could be heard all over the vehicle. "Almost out of anti-venom, whatever got me is really strong, buddy."
Bentley felt icy fear run through his body and at the same time, jubilation that he had the reception was returning. "Sly, thank goodness the reception is clearer! What were you saying about Gabriel?"
Sly groaned and hissed, apparently using more anti-venom. "There was an ambush," he said sleepily.
"Sly how much of that anti-venom have you used?" Bentley's frown reached a record breaking deepness in frown level. He had said that he had no idea how long the first injection would last, but he had also given the raccoon enough anti-venom for twenty four hours. Was the poison rushing through his friend's veins that powerful?
"I lost count," the thief said over the radio, his voice obviously giving hint that Sly was going off into Slumber land.
"Sly," Bentley said, his voice cracking, the turtle trying to control the level of panic in it, "it's very important that you stay awake Sly. With it being day now, and you somewhere in the Australian desert, the last thing you want to do is fall asleep."
"I read you loud and clear buddy," Sly groaned, straining to apparently rise to his feet.
"I know its tempting to use the anti-venom, but please don't do it anymore unless you feel it's an absolute necessity," the turtle lectured. "If it's not working as long as we'd hoped for, then you're only doing more harm than good by putting it in your system. Now about Gabriel . . .,"
"Ow, my head," Sly said interrupting him. "Bentley, I almost had him an hour ago, but then I lost him, the toxin was too strong, and I needed to use the anti-venom. Is Christian still okay?"
"Yes, he's asleep," Bentley said, his leg shaking as if he were a dog getting his ear scratched. The turtle groaned and grabbed on to it, hoping to hold it steady, but it was shaking so much that it was taking his hand and arm for a joyride.
"Okay, then I'll radio in once I have Gabriel and we'll reunite and decide what to do from there."
"Sly there is one more thing I have to tell you before we sign off," Bentley said, gnashing his teeth together.
"Alright," the master thief said, ready for the information.
"Just remember, that if you come across any native Australians the proper thing to do when you first met them is this," at that moment Bentley's eyes widened to the size of saucers and his hands immediately reached for his lower regions. He tried to stop the words from coming from his mouth, but it was a losing battle, "I'm going to piss my pants with the mighty waters of Niagara Falls!" With that he rose from his chair and rushed off to the bathroom, wailing as he went, nearly bowling over Murray.
The hippo looked at him go and scratched his head, looking at the sounds of Sly laughing at the radio. "Sly? What's going on?"
As soon as he was able to stop laughing long enough his friend told him what was up. "Bentley was at the coffee all morning again, wasn't he?" he wheezed.
"Looks like it," the hippo acknowledged, glaring down at the dozens of the cups lying by the chair.
"I can only imagine what some Aborigine chief might do if I shouted that out at him," the raccoon chuckled. "I kind of wish he hadn't said it though, it hurts to laugh."
"You just take it easy and come back if you have to, Sly," Murray said. "Until then, Bentley and I will hold down the fort." They said their good byes and the hippo cleaned up the cups, putting them in the sink and headed back to the back of the van, when he spied Christian looking up at the bathroom door, with a puzzled look on his face.
"You know, if you really have to go, there are a few bushes outside," Murray said with a smile.
"It's not so much that, I was just wondering who the turtle is in there with?" the boy asked, pointing at the door.
Murray listened at the door and gasped as he could hear Bentley moan in complete bliss, urging something to keep going. Of course he knew exactly what that something was, but the child, who apparently was not as innocent as he appeared to be, thought it meant something else. "He's just really happy to be using the toilet," the hippo said. "That's all, there's no one else in there with him."
Christian frowned for a second and shrugged, "I guess he really likes the toilet then," the boy said. "I've already used the bathroom outside, and I just wanted to see if my brother was back yet."
Murray sighed and shook his head. "Soon though, Sly's almost caught up to him."
"That filthy thief," the boy shot, his fist waving in the air. "It's his entire fault that this happened."
"Now don't talk like that about Sly," the tall pink mammal snapped. Let's not forget who it was that snuck in Sly's bag in the first place."
"But let's also not forget that it was Cooper who broke into my sister's house and took her computer," the boy growled, pushing past Murray.
"Yeah, but if he didn't we wouldn't have been able to stop a very dangerous criminal," Murray retorted.
"Yeah, you guys have done a wonderful job so far," Christian roared. The boy turned to face the large thief and stomped a foot to the ground, "If you're not going to do anything to save my sisters, then I will." He turned and rushed out of the van, disappearing around the edge of it as the hippo raced out to catch up.
The large thief; doubled over in as he rested his hand on the van and licked his lips, trying his hardest to catch his breath. There was no sign of the boy, though he knew that the boy couldn't possibly have gotten to far from the van. He rushed back into the van and pounded on the bathroom door.
"Uh, Bentley, we have a situation here."
"I can not believe that you let him get away," the turtle snapped at his larger friend. "What were you thinking?"
"Well maybe he might not have gotten away if someone hadn't been drinking so much coffee, and using the bathroom like it was his midnight lover," Murray growled smacking the turtle in the head.
"Fine, fine, whatever, but we've got to find Christian and get back to the van as soon as possible, before Sly gets back."
Murray scowled and looked at his friend. "Why did we decide to leave the van and walk on foot anyway?"
"If Sly comes back and the van is gone, then what?" He smiled and nodded his head. "With the venom in his system we can't have him gallivanting all over Australia can we?"
"I suppose not, but what happens if someone who's not supposed to, finds the van?"
"Morgan Skye was nice enough to allow me the option of creating a code word that would open the van up, once I locked it, I told Sly when you were taking a shower yesterday."
"And if Sly is in a deluded state because of the poison?" the hippo asked with a frown.
Bentley sighed and shook his head. "I can't think of everything, Murray, I'm a super genius not a god of intellect."
"Maybe it would be better if only one of us went after Christian," the hippo said, stopping in his tracks. "That way one of us would be there for Sly, especially if he is acting all loopy, I wouldn't know how to heal him."
Bentley looked at his friend and tapped his chin. "That is true, I guess," he said.
"And we'll need more surveillance of Charlie's operations if we're going to get in there and save Carmelita and her sister and stop that psycho shark."
Again Bentley nodded with a sigh. "That is true," he said half heartedly. "How did you manage to get so smart in these decisions," he asked with a smile.
Murray chuckled and slapped his friend's back. "I had a good teacher in that department."
Bentley blushed and laughed, handing his friend another hand held communicator. Then he watched the hippo walk off in the distance and turned back to the van, his heart sinking with each step. It was the second time they had all been separated, and truth be told he did not like it one bit.
Murray rushed forward, wiping sweat from his brow as he continued on. He wasn't deep in the outback, but it was still hard to move forward all the same, this whole country was surrounded by water, which made it nearly, perhaps not all, but mostly nearly all humid. Now would be a good time for me to go on a diet. The hippo lumbered on, huffing and pouring water down his throat as he called out to the boy. From time to time he stopped as he heard shuffling feet and prayed to God that it was not him, there would be no energy in his body for a chase. Then again if it was a predator, or a thug, or something else more dangerous he didn't have that much energy for a fight either.
He pressed forward, resting against a rock, or a tree swallowing whole, a couple of Aussie bites mixed with Veggie-mite that they had been given by Walter before they went their separate ways. Murray hurried on, walking for over two hours, before he caught sight of the boy's foot prints. He shook his head and groaned, the kid was faster than he had actually thought.
Thirty minutes later, he caught up to the boy, but he wasn't alone. There were six thugs surrounding him, pushing him into a jeep and keeping their eyes out for intruders who couldn't keep their noses in their own business. Intruder's like Murray.
"Hold it," he called out, mustering his energy into a full sprint and rushing toward them.
One of the thugs, a nasty looking jackal (well all of them were jackals, but this dude was nastier than the rest) turned and aimed his AK-47 at the hippo, firing without asking questions. Murray leapt over the bullets, flipping over some rocks and gasped. "We can do this the easy way if you want, just hand over the boy and I'll let you guys go."
Another jackal pulled out a rocket launcher, and aimed it at the rocks where Murray was hiding. "Murray, look out," Christian cried. One of the thugs snarled and smacked him across his face. The boy whimpered and leaned back against his chair.
"Okay, if that's the way you want to play it, then I'll have to show you villains the true power of the Murray," he growled. The hippo slammed his fists together, sparking a flame that covered both gloves, and hauled himself over the rocks. With the speed of a cheetah, the large thief rushed at the fiends, slamming his fire fists into their bodies, tossing another in the direction of the rocket launcher criminal, knocking both out. The hippo bashed his fist to the ground and caught the rocket launcher as it flew into the air, firing the missile into the distance, and then used it as a sling as he pounded the thugs silly.
It was over before any of them knew what had happened. "It should teach you all a lesson in trying to be a bully to a child," he said with a raised lip. "Now get out of here before the Murray decides to be less than merciful than he is." Those kidnappers who could stand pulled themselves up and shook their heads in shock, rushing off into nothing.
"And as for you young man," he said, turning to the boy. His eye brows arched down angrily for a few seconds and then he shrugged. "Well, at least you weren't hurt too badly."
"I just wanted to help my sisters, and my brother," Christian said. "You don't know how much trouble my little brother can get into without me by his side," the shorter of the twins said.
Murray blinked and shook his head. "Little brother? But I thought that," he stammered.
"That I was the younger of the twins, because of my size," the boy said, his eyes shimmering with frustration. "Everyone who doesn't know us very well thinks that."
"I see," the hippo said. He looked at the jeep and sighed, "Well, I don't think they'll need this for a while, I can drive us back to the van with this."
As they drove back, he turned to the boy. "So what were they, did they tell you?"
"I thought they were poachers at first," the boy said.
"They certainly seemed like that," the hippo said with a nod of his head. "They certainly were weak enough."
"But then they said something about me having some kind of computer chip, and how much money they were going to make at the market."
Murray's ears perked up for a moment and he squinted thoughtfully. A computer chip? Why would common thieves think a boy they met in the wild Australian country had such a thing? He scanned the boy, he didn't look like he had money, and most people did not know of the Fox family around this area. So then did that present the possibility of that these thugs belonged to Charlie's gang? And if so why would they take a computer chip to market, and not him, unless he was the market, and they were speaking in code. But then why speak in code . . . ? Murray groaned and clutched his head with a hand as he drove, thinking this much was not his forte.
"All I would like you girls to do is open your minds to me," the scorpion said, her smile never leaving her face since she took over the interrogation hours ago. The two fox sisters grimaced in pain, still tied to their boards, eyes shut. "We've been over this for hours now, and while I have a massive patience level, I'm no saint, in case you couldn't tell."
Her bright blue eyes shone down on them, large and slanted as she stared down at them. "Really its not that hard, I thought you'd appreciate this much more than Goren-san's tickle bots." She chuckled and held their jaws in her hands. "To be perfectly honest, as an arachnid I'm as ticklish as they come, much like the Contessa. I know what it's like to be tickled for too long, although I have to say, I could have handled at least four more hours than you girls did."
"You're sick, Nyoko," Carmelita snapped. "It's called masochism, get some help."
"Actually I think she's more sadomasochistic," her sister said, straining under the pressure of Nyoko's clawed hand on her chin.
"Ah yes, psychology, you know the Contessa tried that with me, and found it wasn't much to her liking by the time I was done with her." She smiled and released their chins, pressing a button so a neck clamp held their heads up straight. "Other than Cooper-san, I was the only inmate to withstand her mind games." She began pacing back and forth, her whip and long tail thrashing in the air.
"How very nice for you," Carmelita said. "I'm sure that you have a very interesting story, too bad we won't be around to hear it all."
"I never said I was going to tell you all my dark, tasty little secrets," the ninja said. She giggled and walked up to the officer, "And I never said I wanted to hear all of yours. Just a few tidbits will be enough."
"I'll say this one last time, eight legs, we don't know anything about any computer chips," Carmelita growled.
"Oh, but your sister does," she said, looking at Elisa. "True, she probably doesn't know where they are, but once I find out what they look like, I can scan your mind, and see what you might have done with them."
Carmelita frowned and looked at her sister and tried to cock her head. Elisa glared at her little sister for a split second and shrugged, but there was something very guilty in those eyes. "You know, didn't you?"
"I know what they're up to, but I don't know about the computer chips," she said.
"How could you?" Carmelita wailed, trying desperately to break free to strangle her older sibling. "You put us all in trouble, and worse, you didn't even trust me enough to know what was going on. Elisa, you gave me those files, knowing that some kind of computer chip was what Charlie the Great wanted."
"Calm down Carmelita," her sister howled. "You're letting Nyoko get to you. You read the files; you know what she can do to a person's mind. She can woo a man and make him do unspeakable things . . .,"
"Or I could turn two sisters against one another, very good detective," Nyoko laughed, clapping her hands. "However my powers can do much more than just than." She walked over to Elisa, her eyes growing wide as she looked at the officer. Try she could, the officer could not control her eyes widening. It was as if the ninja was watching an alien world through Elisa's eyes. An alien world in which she would find the key to a door that would unlock incredible power, and would bring the world to its knees. This was a technique she had perfected over the last five years.
And it had never failed her. Never . . .
Okay, this was chapter nine. It's definitely a lot longer than the last couple of chapters, so I kept my promise. I would have written more, but I wasn't quite sure what to write anymore. So I decided to end it right here. By the way, this story is my silver medal winner in FFnet with 29 reviews. The gold medal belongs to my Avatar the Last Airbender romance, A MidWinter's Romance, with 32 reviews, and the bronze belongs to another Avatar romance, Kiss and Tell, with 22 reviews. Interesting, feel free to check them out and review them too if your interested in that show, or just want to know what other kinds of things I write! (With Christmas coming up in the next couple of months if might be nice to see some more reviews for my Avatar story Flames of Hatred, or being the first to review the Avatar story Fire Hunt, hint, hint, ;), Lol. Of course if it takes you away from reviewing this story, then do what your heart tells you, I don't mind).
That being said time to answer some reviews!
demonthief: I again apologize for not answering your review, so I will thank you first. Thank you for your Love, you get a cyber cookie of your choice! .
Kaiseronni: Thank you again for your kind comments. I think its coming along very good too. I guess that's what happens when you write a few brief chapter briefs to let you know where the story is going to take you before starting the story itself. If you think the poison was making him act coo-coo now, wait tell it really takes effect (I can only thank Writer's Digest Book Club's Howdunit series in helping me write about the perfect poison – The book is called Deadly Doses, written by Serita Debrah Stevens, with Anne Klarner for those who want to know). Anyway I thank you for enjoying this story, and your kind comments.
chitorye 12: I have younger brothers, so I know what it's like to get hit in the crotch too. Thank you for the compliments.
Heiduska: My dear you are very welcome for the kind words (You are a girl, right? Geez I'm doing this a lot, but the name sounds feminine). Sorry for a late update, but it can not be helped. I wish it could but being physically disabled and all, no wheelchair involved, I just live with my folks, and help them with the kids (My idiot biological parents abused me until I was at the state where I am today, now I live with my adoptive parents). Anyway keep thinking about the poison, if you re read the previous chapters, you'll find the answer ;). By the by, because you ARE the number one fan of this story you get a big, massive basket of cyber cookies of your choice!
Shark: You know he did seem like he needed a priest, didn't he? Oh, and very good guess, but let's see what everyone else thinks, hm? I you get two bags of cyber cookies for such a guess. (No one look at his review now, that's cheating, anyone looking at his guess and then saying the same to get bags of cyber cookies, will find that I poisoned them, so beware! Okay now I sound like the box ghost from Danny Phantom, Lol.)
Lt. Cooper: I've got to read your story one of these days. Thanks for the compliment, and I'll try and sign up as soon as I'm on line the next time.
DivineGuardian: Sorry for making you so sad, I'll send you a big bag of cyber cookies to cheer you up. Thanks for the compliment, and I'll see you later (well not see you exactly, more read your reviews, but you get the picture ).
METHEPERSON: Awesome, another new face! Well chapter nine is written and I hope to have at least chapter twelve written by the time I update next. Thanks for the love.
And that's it, see ya all in chapter ten!