Note:
Thank you to everyone has reviewed! I realized that I haven't done any disclaimer or explanation yet! This story is being written by my sister and I, so if different parts seem a little different, that's why! Obviously, we don't own any rights to the Monkees, Feel free to offer suggestions or improvements as well as any requests!
Chapter 3
Micky woke up, his head and shoulder throbbing. Groaning he attempted to rub his head, but quickly discovered that his hands were tied behind his back. Starting to panic, he began to squirm, pulling at his bindings in hopes to release his hands. Making no progress and only increasing the pain he glanced around taking in his surroundings.
He was seated on a chair in a small cement room with only one tiny glass window towards the ceiling. While it wasn't very big, the room was full of an assortment of small furniture and boxes, giving Micky the impression that he was in some sort of basement. Most everything was covered in a small layer of dust, except for a couple of newer looking items and the chair he was currently on.
A short stairwell was at the other end of the room, leading up to a heavy-looking door. Eyeing this Micky started scooting his chair in that direction. Wincing he ignored the screech produced in that action, concentrating only on the task on hand. It wasn't until he reached the stairwell that he realized that going up was going to be impossible.
He sighed, looking up the stairs in despair. Hopefully Peter would be able to find help, but he knew that they wouldn't know where to look. He remembered seeing a movie where the hero escaped by breaking the chair, so he proceeded to attempt to slam himself against the wall, which only resulted in him lying on the floor on his side with pain radiating through his injured shoulder.
Biting the inside of his cheek Micky squeezed his eyes shut, willing the pain to go away. While he could tell that the injury was minor, and that the bullet had not lodged itself in his shoulder, the amount of blood that had previously been lost plus the amount that was now making its way out was making him light headed.
I wish Mike were here! Micky groaned to himself. No wait! I don't!
Meanwhile, the other three band members and Magnolia were searching desperately. Peter had led them to where Micky had last been seen, but as expected the area was clear. No one was interested in splitting into groups again to continue the search, so Mike had decided it was the best time to explain the situation to Magnolia.
"Mr. Zero and us have a bit of a history. A little while ago Mr. Zero was able to trick Peter into signing a contract that designated his soul to him."
"How did he trick him?" Magnolia could already feel herself getting invested in the story.
"Well, Peter just has an ear for music and a curse of naivety that when combined makes him a sucker for sketchy pawn shops selling cheap musical instruments. Somehow he found his way to Mr. Zero's shop and fell in love with a harp there. All it took was a blind promise and he willingly signed the furshlugginer paper without reading it first."
Peter nodded, unsure of what Mike meant by naive, but his tone of voice didn't sound negative so Peter was inclined to agree.
"All the begging and pleading and negotiating and stalling in the world wasn't going to change his mind, no matter how hard we tried. It wasn't until we were almost out of time and he had come to officially take Peter away that we challenged the validity of the document. To make it right we requested a court hearing, and Mr. Zero granted it to us, perhaps in premature cockyness." Mike paused for a moment to glance down yet another alleyway, causing the others to resume searching as well as they had been lost in the story. Seeing nothing Mike continued.
"To further help his rotten scheme he filled the courtroom with his own minions. The judge was Roy Bean, otherwise known as the hanging judge and often a character utilized in childhood stories, especially in Texas. The jury consisted of convicts from the penal colony of Cayenne, which Mr. Zero proudly called Devil's Island. It's kind of known for being a harsh atmosphere where almost everyone who entered died, and nobody cared because they were criminals."
"Yeah, they were scary…" Davy recalled.
"They kept on chanting that we were going to be one of them." Peter shuttered.
"Well, that's what he thought!" Mike grimaced. "The 'witnesses' were just as scary. I guess it makes sense, but some of the most powerful, destructive personalities from history had all been drawn into the devil's influence. I had to approach Henry McCarty, also known as Billy the Kid, but completely lost face and only strengthened Mr. Zero's case by agreeing that he was the best gunfighter in the west. Davy tried to question Edward Teach, or "Blackbeard the pirate," but got seasick and had to desert."
"Oh, Mike!" Davy exclaimed at the terrible wordplay.
"But, uh, no! That's not what I was, uh, trying to say! He had to retreat?"
Peter nodded, "Much better."
"Anyway, Micky was the only one who got close to reasoning with a witness. His was Attila the Hun, known for his vast empire that he obtained through conquest. The two of them got into some kind of fight in whatever language Huns speak, and to this day I have no idea if Micky actually knows how to speak it or if he was just spewing sounds like he always does. Whatever I said was just a collection of sounds that resembled the sounds he was making, but it kept him from chopping Micky's head off."
"At that point Mr. Zero was fed up, and tried to end the hearing there, before we had a chance to present any witnesses. We managed to convince him to stay and be our witness, although he refused to swear on the bible. I dig. Touching the bible probably would have burned his hand or something."
"I've had a lot of experiences with formal documents in my past. I used to deal with a lot in relation to family issues, and it's become extremely beneficial when dealing with Mr. Babbit, our landlord, or other conniving individuals like that Renaldo cat from the Dance Au Go-Go. I knew exactly what Mr. Zero had promised and I also know a lot about Peter. You see, Peter has most musically inspired heart I have ever seen in my life. I've seen him learn how to play an instrument in a day, simply because he liked the way it sounded. The amount of time and love he had put into that harp was ten times more than I have ever seen him give before, and I knew that deep down inside, he'd always been made to play the harp. All I had to do was convince him of that. I had to make him ignore the odds that were stacked against him." Mike continued to search even though the others had abandoned the task, enthralled in the story they were hearing. He was speaking much faster at this point, hoping to get past the mushy part of the tale.
"To release Peter from the contract all we had to do was prove that Mr. Zero had not held up his end of the bargen. Granted he had definitely given Peter fame and fortune by exploiting him in the newspapers and whatnot, but I got him to verbally claim in front of the jury that he had given Peter his harp skills. Once that was done, all Peter had to do was play the harp for the court after Mr. Zero 'took it away.' He did, and it was beautiful. The contract was null, and Peter was free. Now Mr. Zero stalks us like a coyote, and apparently he still thinks we belong to him."
Mike glared at a trash can that had been knocked over, ignoring the three faces of shock as he wondered if that mess had anything to do with Micky.
"Mike, how do you know all that? About the people in the courtroom?" Davy asked. Peter nodded numbly. He'd heard of all of them, and vaguely knew what they were known for, but Mike's knowledge astounded him.
"After we returned from the hearing I couldn't help but feel like I hadn't been able to fully reveal Mr. Zero's lies. There was something fishy about the whole thing, and I knew that Mr. Zero had probably failed to fulfil his part of many bargains. I went to the library the next day and researched all of them, and I was right. None of them are quite as they're made up to be. The hanging judge? He only condemned two men to be hung, and only one of them actually died. Rather, he was completely unqualified for his role. Often his punishments were silly or ridiculous. One book claimed he charged a dead man for having a weapon. In Texas. Everyone has weapons in Texas. Especially in the 1800s. The whole judge thing was just a way to get people into his saloon that he owned but also held court in. Absolutely no power whatsoever."
"I have no idea who was actually the greatest gunman in the west, but it wasn't Billy the Kid. He was just that. A kid that died when he was 21. He only killed eight men, and most of them were in self defense while he was escaping prison. One newspaper exaggerated his reputation, and shortly after that he was found and shot.
"Blackbeard was also far from the pirate model he is portrayed to be. Yeah, he was a pirate who invaded ships, but they were the ships belonging to the overly wealthy with Indian merchandise. He treated his prisoners kindly, and by no means killed people just for the sake of it. Absolutely not the devil's style."
"Attila the Hun was perhaps the most credible of the bunch, be even he wasn't infallible. No matter how hard he tried, he could not take over the Roman Empire which was his ultimate goal, therefore proving that he was not the great conqueror that he claimed to be. Each of these men enjoyed some success, but ended in a battle that happened because of their particular skills. In other words, Mr. Zero hid their disappearance by having them killed by the very thing that he promised them in contract form. The hanging judge was never as rich or as respected as he would have liked, Billy the Kid was not the greatest gunman in the west, Blackbeard was not an undefeated pirate, and Attila the Hun failed at being the ultimate conqueror. Mr. Zero is probably the most fraudulent being ever, which matches his title I guess."
Davy felt his mouth drop open. How had he not known that Mike had put all this work in? How did Mike feel that his speech about love wasn't good enough? Peter also felt surprised, not realizing how Mike had pulled the talent out of him. He previously had no idea why he was able to play the harp that day, and now it made sense.
Micky lay quietly on his side, trying to conserve energy that he presumed he'd need later for an escape. It was clear that being tied to a chair by a staircase on his side wasn't getting him any closer to freedom, so he had stopped struggling ages ago.
After all this time he knew the others would have at least started searching for him. He didn't know if any clues were left behind, but somehow they would find him. They always did. Whether it was Dragonman or Klutz, they had managed to find him, and this time would be no different.
"Well, you've gotten yourself into an uncomfortable situation!" Babyface's sneaky, vicious, mean face appeared at the top of the stairs.
"I didn't get myself into this! If I had any choice I'd be home right now, filling Davy's shampoo bottle with honey. Besides, I'd rather be by the stairs!"
"Why? It's not like…" Babyface was cut off.
"Well, Mike would kill me if I messed with his shampoo, and Peter would probably cry, so Davy's my only choice. At least I'm not filling it with hair dye. Mike nearly killed us when that happened. It's a good thing his hair is so dark because…"
"I meant why do you want to be by the stairs. It was a rhetorical question. Because there's no point in trying to make a quicker escape." He snarled.
"Escape? Pshaw! I wasn't going to try to escape. I just had a better view out the window from there!" From the floor Micky couldn't see out of the window at all, but clearly that excuse wasn't going to convince him anyway.
Babyface was clearly getting impatient with the small talk. Using Micky's shirt he pulled him back into an upright position. "Your friends weren't at your house!"
Micky beamed. "Oh good! They're safe!"
"Oh, no!" Babyface's face twisted into a disturbing grin. "They're not safe at all! Because you're about to tell me exactly where they're hiding!"
"Oh, see, I wasn't planning on that, and oh boy! You really need to brush your teeth!"
Babyface threw Micky down, causing the chair to teeter on the back legs before falling backwards. With a flash of stars Micky felt his head bump against the concreter floor. Catching his breath he tried to shake the pain away, but only succeeded in making the pain and dizziness worse.
"Be careful!" The second evil voice only made Micky feel more nauseous. "I need him alive remember!"
"Mr. Zero! I'm trying to get information out of him!"
"Don't be a fool! While he has an extremely loose mouth, he would never betray his friends that easily!" Mr. Zero retorted.
"Hey! I think?" Micky felt confused, and he worried that a possible concussion may be increasing his cognitive difficulties.
"Silence! I know exactly where his friends are! They are currently in the alley where you idiots shot him. I would recommend that you act fast. The more time they spend with Magnolia the more she will learn!"
"Right! And once she realizes what a weak villain you are, she will stop being worried about losing her life!"
"I would watch my mouth if I were you." Mr. Zero spoke in a slow deliberate tone. "I don't want to kill you just yet, but I could cut out your tongue."
Micky considered a comeback, but as his tongue was his moneymaker he wisely remained silent.
"That is much better! Babyface, I would recommend that you not fail me. If I have to call up backup I will not be happy." WIth a puff of smoke Mr. Zero disappeared.
"Babyface? Needing backups! I think Mr. Zero will enjoy that much more than you!"
"Be quiet! I'm not afraid to cut out your tongue either!" Satisfied with Micky's lack of response Babyface left, leaving Micky to worry about his friends.
The rest of the Monkees and Magnolia walked in silence, brainstorming where Babyface could have possibly taken Micky. Peter squirmed, nervous about what harm could be happening as they tried to follow the few clues they had. He wished he hadn't let Micky go off with one of his crazy ideas. He rubbed his shoulder, pushing away the pain. The dull ache was probably nothing compared to what Micky was feeling. Magnolia approached Mike, deciding to use the pause in conversation to figure out what else was going on.
"Mike, you explained Mr. Zero to me, but who was that Babyface, and why does he look exactly like Micky? And why does he hate you so much?"
Mike sighed. "It's another long story, but it seems we have the time, and you deserve to know." He took a deep breath and began his monologue.
"We found out about Babyface a while back when Micky got attacked by a man for no obvious reason and we reported it to the police. They immediately thought Micky was Babyface and after we convinced them that he was not the most vicious killer in America they tried to convince Micky to help them catch the rest of the criminal gang and their loot. We tried to refuse, but Micky got attacked again by some of Babyface's enemies."
"This whole experience is part of the reason we generally try to figure things out on our own, because the police force thought it was a good idea for Micky to meet Babyface and learn his mannerisms, which resulted in Babyface himself attacking Micky. His voice sounded weird for a whole day after Babyface tried choking him to death!"
Mike paused in his story, shaking his head. "We really need to keep Micky out of these situations…"
"Anyway, Micky went to their hideout at the Purple Pelican, impersonating Babyface. According to him he had to deal with Babyface's girlfriend, but she was able to help him find the rest of the gang. They must have been some idiots, because they didn't see though Micky's impersonation, which usually only stays solid for about five minutes. I guess since Babyface was in prison they weren't too happy to see him and tried to attack him, but somehow ended up attacking each other. For once Micky had a good plan, and stayed low until they had knocked each other out. They accepted him back and he did a great job convincing them to lead him to wear they hid priceless jewels. I was starting to get nervous about how deep in he was, and Peter and I suggested that we go with. Babyface's gang found us in the pad, so Peter and I pretended to be specialists. We all went to this fancy house where jewelry was hidden and Peter and I tried to stall as long as we could. Some idiot policeman actually found us, but only ended up selling us tickets to the policeman's ball. For some reason I bought all of them…"
"Babyface had escaped and conveniently turned up right then and confused all of the gang members, slowing everything down more until Peter accidentally revealed which one was Micky."
"Sorry…" Peter whispered.
"It's ok, buddy. It turned out ok." Mike returned. "The cops finally showed up and captured the whole gang, but Babyface tried to impersonate Micky until Peter convinced the police which one was the real Micky. So I guess Babyface escaped again, and is after Micky again."
"I'm sorry that these things keep happening to you." Magnolia apologized. "And I'm sorry that I got you involved with Babyface again.'
"Don't apologize. This is all part of Mr. Zero's plan. We are going to be seeing a lot of our enemies, and we just weren't prepared yet. We'll find Micky and barricade ourselves in the pad."
"I guess I'm just a little confused! How did you find me? How did you know you needed to find me?"
The trio shared a glance. She'd have to know what was going on at some point, but the truth would probably cause her to lose trust in them and would probably scare her away putting her in excessive danger. However, the longer they took to tell her that they were actually sent to kill her, the more she would hate them when she found out.
"Magnolia, I'm not really sure how to say this, but…"
"They were hired to murder you. By your friend, Mr. Zero."
The voice caused them all to jump and turn in his direction.
"Babyface! Where's Micky?" Mike growled.
Babyface laughed, enjoying the anger that had boiled up in Mike and the shock and fear crossing Magnolia's face.
"He's...safe." The way Babyface spoke made Peter yelp in fear for Micky's life.
"I swear, if you even hurt a curl on his head…" Davy's voice was low and threatening.
"What?" Babyface scoffed. "You'll stomp on my toe? Admit it, kid. You're as dangerous as a flea."
"Have you ever been bitten by a flea?" Peter retorted. "I haven't, but I imagine it wouldn't be comfortable. And it itches a lot."
There was an awkward silence for a moment before Davy gave Peter a small smile and whispered "Thanks anyway." Mike shook his head before returning to the issue.
"Give us Micky back! He was only acting under police orders!"
"At any point he could have simply walked away! Besides, this isn't about that! Although it is certainly making this more enjoyable!"
"Then what do you want from us?" Peter asked.
"He doesn't want anything from us. He's working for Mr. Zero." Mike glared at Babyface's smug smile.
"Then why does he only have Micky?" Peter frowned in confusion.
Babyface laughed. "Micky walked into this mess! And now that we have him, it's making it much easier to get you and more importantly Magnolia!"
"Well, you're not going to get her!" Davy fired back.
"Yeah!" Peter stood in front of her defensively. "You'll have to go through us first!"
"That's not going to be a problem!" As Babyface spoke four men with guns stepped into the alley, each one aiming at each of their targets. "We'll go through all of you at the same time!"