Ziggy's Corner: Okay chapter ten opens up just around twenty minutes before Bentley made contact with Sly in the last chapter. So for those of you who feel we're back tracking a little bit, you are correct sirs and madams. Oh and also I've decided on a theme music for Charlie the Great. If you get a chance to listen to the song Tybald's Death, from a certain ballet (I'm not sure which one it is, if some one knows I'd be very appreciative), and listen to the last two minutes, you'll hear it (I could have used the Jaws theme for him, but that was both corny and too cliché for my tastes). Yeah I know, I'm kind of a geek for giving him a theme from a ballet song, but I felt the music just kind of fit him, so there, Lol. Okay that being said, here's the tenth chapter!
It was a few hours into his search, and though he was the quickest member of his group, Sly still had a hard time keeping up with the boy. Though he wanted to constantly move, the anti-venom made him tired, and he fell asleep during the night, cursing himself in the morning as the sun rose to meet his weary eyes. He could only think of the hatred he would see in Carmelita's eyes if he told her that he had lost her brother. The raccoon hoisted himself to his feet, pressed another dosage of anti-venom, albeit a smaller dose, into his arm, and rushed forward, his chest aching as his eyes inspected the landscape, in search of the boy.
He called out Gabriel's name, hoping to catch his attention, hoping that nothing had truly happened to the boy. The raccoon flipped and leapt around the landscape, ever ready to grab the boy and drag him away from danger, to be the hero that rectified his villainous behavior.
It wasn't long before he found the boy, and bit his lips, not sure how to approach the child without doing even more damage to the boy's psyche. If he had grabbed the child by his shoulders, and forced him back to the van, then he knew without a doubt the boy would never trust him again.
"Gabriel?" he called; his voice soft and easy. The boy turned and gasped, backing further away from the raccoon, his feet nearly pushing too close to the edge of a cliff. "No, no it's okay," the master thief said, waving his arms about. "I won't hurt you."
"That's what you said in the beginning, and then you tried to attack me," the nine year old said.
"Gab-Gabriel, that wasn't me talking, I've been poisoned, and it affected my mind." Sly shivered and held his arm as he spoke. He could feel the virus pushing its way back through his body, forcing the anti-toxin into a slow but steady retreat. "It made me all coo-coo."
"So why should I go with you?" Gabriel snapped, "How do I know that you are contagious or something?" He took a few steps back; his mind focused on the thief perched on some rocks, and not on the cliff that seemed to be welcoming him to an early death.
"Look kiddo, it's not that kind of poison," Sly said, trying his best to smile, his mind soaring with horror at the thought of what was going to happen in the next few minutes. He edged himself off of the rocks and took an inch further toward the boy.
"I don't think I can trust you," the boy said uneasily.
"Then why don't you take a few steps away from there, and we'll talk," he said, slinking away from Gabriel so as to earn his trust, and get the boy from danger. His ears rose and fell as the wind blew and he scratched them.
"I'm still not sure," the boy said with a frown, placing a finger on his lips. He took numerous steps back, and the sound of cracking dirt falling made the adult thief gasp, causing the boy to edge closer to his doom.
"Gabriel, listen to me, its fine if you don't completely trust me," Sly said, his words coming out in rapid fire sounds, "but you have to come away from there right now!"
"You're not my dad," the boy growled. The little fox stomped a slender paw to the ground and it groaned beneath him.
"Listen kiddo, either get away from that ledge, or I'm going to come and take you away," Sly said, slapping his forehead. That'd didn't come out right.
The boy got the drift of that statement, both the good and the bad. His eyes moved away from Sly for a split second, and gazed behind him, tripling in size as he saw the gapping valley of death just beneath one foot. He squeaked and froze in place, as if he were staring at a rattlesnake ready to strike should he make just one move.
Sensing the boy's hesitation, Sly rushed into action leaping down at the boy and looked down at his own lower regions, frowning. You know maybe it's the poison affecting me again, but why am I always going free willy and pant free? He smiled for a second, Perhaps that's why Carmelita's always on my tail?
Shaking those impure thoughts out of his head he swooped down and caught the boy, performing a ninety degree arch cartwheel in the air, landing on his back, holding the boy next to his chest as tightly as he could. Then he released the child and gasped for air, the poison playing mind games on him again. A pant-less man holding a young boy, ew how ever did I manage to get pulled into Michael Jackson's world?
"Are you okay, kiddo?" he asked, looking at the young fox cub. The boy looked at him with a worried frown and shuddered. Sly lowered his head and sighed, "I understand," he moaned.
"No, it's not that, it's just that," he averted his face away from the raccoon's gaze and swallowed. "I guess that you can be trusted after all, but does that mean I shouldn't listen to my sister anymore?"
Sly looked at him for a long time and then smiled, "Do you think she would have wanted you to stow away in my bag?"
"Well … no, but," the boy began.
"And what about reading her diary?" the master thief asked, holding laughter at bay.
"If she had found out about that, she would skin Christian and me alive, if we were lucky," he said, a smile coming across his own lips. He remembered one time when the boys were six. They had made a mess in her kitchen trying to make themselves chocolate pudding. When she caught them, not only did they get a lecture, but she handcuffed them to her kitchen chairs, took the pudding that they had made, and forced them to watch her eat it all, mocking them with how good it tasted. Of course the ultimate joke was on her, as they had unknowingly put in laxative in the mixture thinking it was some weird kind of flour or something. Carmelita spent the rest of the day in the bathroom, swearing in at least ten different languages until momma and poppa came to pick them up. She had threatened to skin them then too, but couldn't make it two steps away from the bathroom without having to run howling back for relief.
"So then you already don't listen to her about some things, right?" Sly asked, wondering what had gotten the kid smiling so big about. Well, at least he was in good spirits again.
"I guess that's true," the boy said.
"Then my advise is, listen to her about the very serious stuff, and kind of relax around the not so serious," the raccoon said with a wide smile.
"So then mate, what would you call this, very series, or not so serious?" a new voice asked from behind them. The two of them turned around and saw legions of thugs with armed guns aimed right at them. "You're money, or your lives, you pick, mate," a crocodile said with jaw menacingly grinning.
As they drove along the road, Murray couldn't help but gaze over and spy the boy, sulking in the back of the jeep.
"Oh come on, are you still mad at me?" the hippo said.
"Not so much you, but at me," the kid said. "I wanted to be the hero, I convinced Gabriel to go along with me, and now look at where we are." He sighed and rested his chin on the back of his hands.
"It's not your fault you know," Murray said, not watching where they were going.
"That's not how my father is going to feel," the boy said. "I'll be lucky to see the sun again when I'm ninety if he finds out."
Murray chuckled and looked deeply at the boy, "Don't do the time, if you can't do the time."
The boy looked at the large hippo and rolled his eyes. "Like I need a lecture from a thief about breaking the rules."
"Sure you do," Murray snapped. "What better place would there be than straight from the source?" He looked at the boy's sour face and turned back to the road. "Let me tell you something Christian, being a thief can be fun at times, but it's very dangerous."
"Gee you don't say," the boy grumbled.
"I do say," the hippo continued, "True I have my friends behind me, but sometimes even their not enough to keep trouble away, and sometimes I'm not enough to keep it away from them." He began the long story of their adventures in trying to retake the Clockwerk parts, and how Neyla had nearly gained godhood because of them.
"There are countless villains and bullies always trying to get in our way, or hurt innocent people that we either do or don't know. It drives me crazy sometimes, it's like fate just won't let us alone to do our own thing."
"And this helps me stick to the rules how?" the boy asked.
"Those that stick to the rules are normally blissfully unaware of the true nature of the world around them. Those who break the rules are pushed into one of two directions, forced to confront the darkness around them, like Sly and Bentley and me, or they embrace the dark, and make the world a much more dangerous place."
"And you're telling me that what's best is that I just stick to the rules, and live a nice simple life." Once again Christian rolled his eyes and leaned back in his seat. "You're forgetting, I already broke the rules, so did Gabriel."
"Well, you're still young enough, karma may leave you alone for a while," Murray said with a large grin. Then he turned deadly serious, and stopped the jeep as he turned fully around and looked at the small boy. "But if not, then the question remains, which side are you willing to join? Which path will you take?"
"The right one, duh," the boy said, sticking his tongue out at the hippo.
"Christian, you're going to find, that once you enter the road of rule breaking, there are many more paths to travel than just two, like there would be if you obeyed the rules. Some paths may seem right at the time, but will bring nothing but agony to you or your loved ones, while others may seem too dark and dirty to go down, but go down them you should."
The boy frowned and crossed his arms. "Is that the path you and your friends decided to take?"
Murray smiled and chuckled under his breathe. "You could say that," he said. "But it's more like we were forced into it by destiny." He sighed and raised his head to the sky. "But to tell you the truth even if it hadn't, we probably would have gone that way anyway."
"So which path has Carmelita chosen? She hasn't done anything wrong, and yet she's still not 'blissfully unaware' of the true nature of the world."
"True," he said, starting the jeep again and beginning to drive off, "but your family made that choice for her a long time ago, when it decided to step up and battle the darkness. And she cemented that path for herself, when she decided to become an officer of the law."
"You obviously haven't met my sister, Olivia," the boy said. "She's nothing like the rest of my family."
"Actually Sly has a lot of her movies on tapes," Murray began, and then clamped his mouth shut. "I-I mean he's looked at the covers of her movies in video stores, er, wait, I mean . . .," he began stuttering.
"Yeah, him and about a million other horny guys," the boy snapped. "The only good thing about her movies, according to momma, is that their not sex movies." He thought for a moment and shook his head, "Though poppa says they might as well be."
"Well your sister is just another example of what I was talking about, she's seen the darkness, and decided not to let fate interfere with her lifestyle," Murray said.
"So, then Olivia is bad?" the fox asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Well I wouldn't call her bad, I mean she's not doing anything illegal, or physically hurting anyone, but . . .," he thought and sighed. "You know not everything can be explained so easily."
They continued driving through the Australian wilderness, when Murray suddenly slammed on his breaks. A tall, massively built rhino stood in their way, wearing nothing but a tee shirt and dark black pants. Murray knew who it was instantly, though he hadn't seen this guy for almost ten years. "Christian, stay in the jeep, and keep your head low," he whispered in a low growl.
Murray opened the door and closed it, stomping over to the rhino. "It's been a long time, Alexandr," he said.
The dark red rhino brushed aside some of the hair from his eyes and smiled. "It sure has been Plumpy," he said in a harsh Brooklyn accent. "I never thought I'd ever see you again ever since you and those two little dim wit friends of yours left the orphanage."
Murray growled and clenched his fingers into fists. "You haven't changed a bit, either Alexandr. Still the mean spirited bully that you were when we were kids."
Alexandr snorted and smiled down at the smaller mammal, "Oh things have changed, at least for me anyway." He elbowed the hippo in his stomach and gaffed, "Still can't lay off the burgers, can you?"
"I don't know why you're here Alexandr, or why you're blocking this jeep, but get out of our way, if you know what's good for you."
"Out of our way?" the rhino asked, craning his neck to look behind Murray. "The only one I see here is you."
Murray frowned and turned to look in the jeep, groaning as the spot where Christian had been was no absent, and the door wide open. Not this again. He turned around just in time to see Alexandr's large fist strike him right in the jaw, sending him flying into the dirt.
"Just like old times, eh Flabby?" the fiend chuckled as he stalked toward the smaller being. "Of course you don't have that brainiac or the gymnast to help you out this time." He rushed over, the ground shaking at the weight of his feet, and kicked Murray right in the ribs, tossing him end over end. "Come on, you had more fight in you than this when we were kids, don't tell me you've gotten as soft in that department as you have in your gut?"
"Back off," Murray groaned. "I've got a kid to find, and get back to safety." He pulled himself to his feet and slowly raised his fists.
"I do too, and a computer chip to boot, although I doubt the kid will be safe in the big fish's fins," Alexandr cracked his knuckles and rushed forward, skidding to a stop as Murray side stepped him.
"Kid, computer chip, big fish?" He thought for a moment and then shook his head. "You know you're the second one to go after that poor guy for that reason."
"Well who do you think it was who hired the poachers in the first place?" Alexandr laughed, slamming his foot to the ground, causing it to crack a little. "Charlie the Great wants that chip, and for some reason thinks that fox cub has it."
Murray was at full attention now. He wiped his mouth and raised his own fists. "Even if he does, you aren't getting him or it." He flung his own fists, which the rhino dodged easily, his reaction turning to shock as Murray preformed a pin wheel and used a round house kick to the back of his skull. "I've changed myself."
Alexandr picked himself to his feet and chuckled, wiping his own mouth. "Then this should be more fun than I thought it would be."
Christian didn't take long to decide to get out of dodge when the two behemoths faced each other. He hated leaving Murray like that, but the hippo was still a thief, so technically he was still a bad guy, even if he did bad things for the right decisions. And judging at the size of that rhino with the red scruffy hair, he was no match for the larger criminal.
One of the benefits of being small, and being a member of the Fox family was that he was quick, he could make good time in smaller bouts of time than most adults could. He was far behind the fight before it had even started. However that didn't mean he was an immortal. His stomach rumbled and he knelt down to the ground, picking up pieces of grass and small berries that he could find. His mother taught his Boy Scout troupe how to survive in numerous scenarios if they ever got lost – another plus to being a member of the famous Fox clan. But the energy that these small berries and the grass he ate wouldn't give him the go he needed to keep this up forever. There were smaller lizards along the landscape, primitive and unintelligent, he knew that the Aborigines would eat them when they needed food, but he couldn't risk making a fire and being seen, and he had nothing to catch them with.
Something caught his eyes, and he crawled over to the glowing item, shining with yellow light in the dirt and grass. The sun was hot, unbelievably hot, and the boy stared up at the sun high above. It was Autumn in Paris, so that meant it was Spring here, but it since it was early October when he and his brother had snuck into Sly's bag, it meant it was mid Spring here, which meant Summer in this continent was coming. Christian didn't want to be here in the middle of no where during the height of Summer, it was hot enough already. He swallowed, his throat frantic for cool water to pour down his throat, but his curiosity was too strong for him, as was his need to survive.
The boy got up to the small disk and held it in his hand, it was the size of a computer disk, but it was metallic, and hot from the sun. Christian tore a piece of his shirt off and wrapped it around the disk, so he could get a better look at him without burning his hands. It was odd, and it seemed to hum as he touched it, as though it was alive.
Then a shadow hovered over him, and as he looked up, a tall Aborigine looked down at him and smiled. "I believe the spirits were right about their prophesy after all, though there is only but one of you." He seemed gentle and very kind, there was no threat at all about this man, and Christian knew instinctively that he was safe. With that calming thought, the boy slipped into unconsciousness as the old man lifted him off the ground.
Sly turned off his radio and clutched his side. He couldn't believe his bad luck, he had the boy; he had him! Then those stupid poachers attacked and he had to fight those low lives, which gave Gabriel enough time to slip from his view. He should have gone right after him, but the venom drove him mad, and before he knew what he was doing, he slammed a large dosage of the anti-toxin in his blood.
Sly rose to his feet and then dropped; grabbing his stomach as it turned summersaults and went numb on him. Stomach cramps. Either he had laughed too hard at Bentley, hadn't eaten enough, the anti-venom was doing him more harm than good, or the poison had really done a new number on him.
"Good day, Herr Cooper," an irritatingly familiar voice said.
"Great, this is all I need," he moaned. Sly looked up and glared at Dr. Goren.
"You've caught me on an interesting day, Herr Cooper," the hyena snarled. Around him were dozens of jackal henchmen. "On one hand Charlie the Great has relieved me of interrogating your girlfriend, and her sister, but on the other, it turns out he has given me a sweeter challenge."
Poachers, thugs, super villains, "What is this, a nut job marathon?" he groaned, doubling over in pain as a new wave of stomach cramps caused tears to run down his cheeks.
"Well this may not be as fun as I thought," the evil doctor said. "But rewarding enough," he snapped a finger and a few of the jackals dragged a struggling Gabriel forward. Goren smiled. "I doubt the boy has what we're looking for, but this will be sweet enough for Herr Great not to decide to turn me into a chew toy."
"Let him go," whined Sly, holding to his stomach for dear life.
"I have a better idea, Herr Cooper," he snarled. A goose stomping boot hit him in the stomach and Cooper collapsed in blackness. "There, you see, you're tummy hurt, and as a good doctor, I healed it," where the last words he heard for a while.
There was a knock on the door, and Bentley opened the door quickly, hoping it was either Sly, or Murray, or perhaps both, with the boys in hand. It had been over ten hours since the first running away, and he was crazy to see what had happened. But when he opened the door, there was only one individual, at the door, and the only thing that he could think of to say were the words, "Oy vay, you're . . .,".
Oh, by the way, sorry for the Michael Jackson joke to any of you who are his most adherent fans, I meant no disrespect.
Holy crud! Could I put any more cliff hangers in one chapter? So how does the fight turn out between Murray and Alexandr? What's going to happen to Sly and Gabriel? Who was the old man who picked up Christian, and what's with those computer disk? And who was at the van and what was Bentley about to say! Well, I guess you're going to have to come back for chapter eleven and find out. Disappears in a puff of smoke, only to fall off a cliff and hang dangerously over a roaring ocean Oopps.