OOC: UM... I forgot to add something in the conclusion of the last chapter, so I have to put it at the beginning of this one. It's kinda out of place... Later I'll move it back so the transition is more smooth... That's why the last chapter seemed so short/slow... and this one so loooong ... sorry D:
This chapter is sorta... on crack. I'm not sure what I was thinking of when I wrote it. (Though stayed up till 4 O clock in the morning working on it, so that's probably why it has so many mistakes. I'll try and fix em later, but I have PROMISE to someone that I would upload it within a weak.
It has a little language... sorry. It also has a fight scene (yay) but no romance yet. Next chapter there will be... yus.
Oh, as a side note, I didn't make up the Cat Clan. Or their names, look it up in Wikipedia, they're actual characters in Pucca, just not major ones.
--
Rust and broken glass crunched under Pucca's shoes. It was dank, dark, and depressing, and she couldn't imagine why Garu might have decided to shelter here. She had lost his trail shortly after she had slunk under the chain link fence, and now she was on a complete goose chase, picking her way through forgotten, clockwork machinery. It didn't helped that she kept on thinking she had seen Garu's face staring from each shadowy corner. One could very well go mentally insane in here if they stayed more than a day.
It was when she was on her way back to the entrance where she finally found her clue. Her foot had bumped against an empty bottle, which she picked up and read: Shampooing Félin'. Next to it was a little wash bucket, still filled with gray water, nest to that little sink scrub brush, and what looked like a infant's blanket. It was as though something small had been bathing itself here.
What was even more curious, tiny paw prints, feline at that, pranced around in nervous circles in the powdery rust. Her eyes followed their maddening patterns until they stopped near a crumbling wall, then her heart momentarily paused. A larger person had been sitting just in the corner, she could see the shape embedded into the rust. She knelt down and ran her fingers over the track, finding blood stains nearby. Her fingers met something soft, and she picked it up. It was a scrap of cloth, a heart shaped cloth no bigger than her palm, the heart that was patched on Garu's ninja suit. He had been here, and recently. She pocketed the cloth in her hakama, looking to where the paw prints and boots lead...
"Awww, does wittle Peucke wanna see her boyfweeiind?"
Pucca spun round, clutching Garu's sword in front of her, her eyes strained to find the speaker in the darkness, biting her lip and holding her breath. She knew the voice, but for a moment, she wondered if she had merely imagined it. After all, this was a mad place after all.
Though, materializing from the shadows, a perfect hourglass figure swayed with hands on hips. Pink, high heeled pumps made sharp tack on the ground that echoed around the mill, lustrous blue hair tumbled past her shoulders. Clothed in the most flattering attire possible, Pucca was even surprised to find herself blushing. She lifted her sword above her head and tensed, into a battle stance. RingRing's eyes seemed to glow a daemonic red, as she approached her enemy without falter, a twisted little smile curling her lip.
"Hello sweetie." she purred, then lunged.
--
"So what do you do? Fight crime?"
"Sort of. You'd be surprised of how much trouble we get in our tiny village."
Two cats strutted calmly down the street. Penelope, for perhaps the first time in months, was laughing. It seemed that Mio had an extremely unlucky streak to his life, something she could empathize with. He proclaimed that he was a well trained ninja, just like Garu.
"So what, you do catfu?" she was asking. Mio was serious, but loosened up quick when they began to talk. He seemed to pride himself in entertaining her.
"Well, if that's how you Americans put it... I can also do a mean feline jutsu..." Mio struck a bravado pose.
"Right."
"Oh what, you don't believe me?"
"If you're really ninja, then prove it." she prompted, and they stopped trotting. Mio looked cocky for a moment at her remark, then cleared his throat and threw his chest out.
"Ok then, better stand back." Penelope did so, although she eyed him in amusement. The black cat flexed himself testily, first his front end, then his legs and unfurling his tail. He flexed each of his claws experimentally. Then he paused for a moment, throwing a smirk at Penelope, and simply vanished.
At first, Penelope wasn't sure what had happened, her amused smile had faded as she inspected at the spot where he had just been.
"Mio?" she called tentevily. There was no answer, only the cawing of a rook overhead. She cocked an ear, not moving a muscle. There was not a stir in the wind, not at all. Though, something was making her increasingly uneasy, as if she where being watched from behind. Her fur prickled restively, the white stripe expanded twice it's size.
In the quiet there was a twig that snapped behind her, and she spun around on the spot. A leafy wall of foliage faced her, filled with ominous shadows and thorns. Perhaps Mio was really just quick, and while she had blinked, and he somehow found his way into the bushes without her knowing. It seemed far fetched, but she had to believe it...
"Mio? I think I believe you now." she was saying as she turned her attention to the shrubbery. However, there came no reply from the leaves. There was, a presence however, hidden there, silently watching, and Penelope's fur bristled even higher on her back. She took a pendulous step forward, her ears flicked back against her head.
"Please," she said meekly "please... come out and let me see you... "
"ALLRIGHT! all right! You caught me." Penelope's breath was coming out in all sorts of erratic variations as she spun on her toes... Mio had appeared behind her, a lopsided grin on his face, he dusted off a few stray leaves from his fur. "You looked too pathetic to keep waiting like that..." Though he quickly noticed Penelope's distress, his grin faded.
"What's wrong? Why, it looks like you've eaten some of Uncle Dumpling's Dragon Pepper Ramen..."
"Wha- where... you?" she shilly-shallied "I... could... couldn't see you..."
"Well, of course you didn't, I was up in the tree!" Mio puffed up his chest a little, something about Penelope's tone set him off a little. He watched her look up above to the tree where he had been crouching only moments before. Something was odd about her, something Mio couldn't quite settle with in those large, yellow eyes...
"Are you? I mean..." he shrugged his shoulders... "Is there something bothering you?" Penelope stared at Mio for a good few seconds, and then her eyes softened... she began to laugh.
"Me? Are you kidding? I'm fine! No..." she took a few steps forward and prodded him playfully in the shoulder. "I've never felt better... now that I am under the protection of a ninja."
There where a few passing moments that the two cats stood and simply regarded each other. Penelope's words skipped pointlessly around in Mio's head inow that I know I'm under the protection of a ninja.../i protected from what? Gradually, Mio touched noses with her. He felt content, well mostly... charming as Penelope was, he was beginning to get the impression that she didn't get out much.
"You think we should check up on that crazy old lady?" he invited.
"Probably."
They started back down the path, but once she was a little behind her companion, Penelope shot a backwards glance into the bushes she had been staring into earlier, where she had felt someone watching her. Her expression was unsettled, confused, but it was soon lost though as she trotted to catch up with her friend.
--
Pucca served forward with the katana, aiming the double edged blade towards Ring Ring's long, flowing hair. RingRing's face had turned a stunning, bloody crimson, eyelashes elongating over her fierce red eyes, filled with rage and hate. Her red lips were pulled back into a sneer, her perfect white teeth seemed to resemble the fangs of a wolf. With one swift movement she had knocked Pucca's weapon away.
"Ya 'lil maggot!" she flouted. "Fight me like a woman, hand ta hand combat and nunna of this sword swinging' crap." She raised her arms, with nails, filed sharp as knives, struck her hard in the face. The force in her blow was stunning, but Pucca regained her balance, but before she could reach up to strike a blow of her own, Ring had landed two more blows on her face, knocking her backwards. Soon, she felt her enemies nails swipe with reckless abandon at her upstretched arms, trying to defend her countenance. She heard Ring laugh through the swinging and gouging, ripping the fabric of Pucca's sleeves into ribbons. With a swift move, Pucca plunged to the floor and swung her foot out hard against Rings ankles, causing her to drop and hit the floor.
Without a moments delay, Pucca seized her and threw her into one of the textile machines nearby. In the resulting crash Ring disappeared into a pile of twisted metal and flying rust. Panting, Pucca darted to the sword that had been tossed aside and swung it over her shoulder. Then she hastened towards the entrance, but something caught her foot in mid run and she tripped and hit the floor, hard.
She looked behind her and found that her foot had been snagged by a long, blue tendril of hair. It quickly constricted her ankle, seeming intent on breaking every bone in her leg. To where the other end of the hair stretched, their came movement and shifting of metal, grunting and cussing as RingRing attempted to free herself from the ruble. The hair's grip grew as it began to wind up her leg, fastening its grip on her. Bringing the blade over her head, Pucca swung her sword down on it, severing it on the spot. As soon as the blue fibers where sheered, their came a terrible, ear piercing scream.
Pucca got up and ran, but she was bearly fast enough. The walls shook with the force of Ring Rings howl, the mills walls wobbled on their ancient foundations. Debris began to fall from all directions, beams, doors, bricks, windows shattered and old equipment fell like dominos on top of each other. Rust rose everywhere, clouding the horrendous scene, and the noise was almighty. Above all, Ring Ring's voice grew ever louder and steady, until it reached an all time high, (any professional musician would have remarked she was singing a high C sharp).
The entrance to the mill was lost from her gaze, Pucca strained to focus on where she thought it was, but had trouble concentrating... the high C sharp vibrated her skull, vibrated her brain. She thought her head was going to explode. Something sharp fell on her arm and cut her. Using the sword as a walking stick, she continued onward blindly, as the shriek became ever louder and clearer. With tremendous effort, Pucca ran into one of the walls, and felt her way along it, searching for a handle for door...
"BITCH!"
Something crashed above her and sent her bolting, a large hurled object aimed promptly for her head was blasted to thousands of wood and metal splinters. She ran, risking the chance that she might get impaled by machinery she couldn't see, as more explosions erupted behind her, she realized that RingRing had freed herself and had found her...
"You messed up my HAIR!" her shriek echoed down the hall as Pucca dashed along it, her hair ruffled as what looked like a metal piano whizzed past her ears. It crashed in front of her, but she took a running start and sailed over it. Ahead, the rust was beginning to reminisce, and she could see the hallway lead into an expanded room. As soon as she met the doorway, she spun and slammed the heavy metal doors shut and barred it with a nearby fallen pipe. She doubted it would stop RingRing, but any source of her delay was what she needed. Inspecting the room, there where metal pillars stretched into the high ceiling where metal support beams became a wild, tangled mesh. Getting an idea, Pucca bounded to the closest wall, grabbing onto the crevices of the crumbled bricks and clambered her way up to the top. It was just in time, for as soon as she reached the metal beams their came a almighty crash behind her. Her enemy had battered down the iron doors and now stood in the archway, tendrils of rust cloud circling her.
Pucca, as quickly and as quietly as she could, slipped along the metal beams, weaving in and out of places, finding a suitable resting spot in the shadow of a support beam. She squatted, clutching the sword to her breast. She didn't want to waste her time fighting her antagonist, she had to get out of here, and fast.
Below, RingRing surveyed the scene... she looked completely different than she did before. No longer did she resemble a damsel of elegance, wit and power. No, her hair had come undone, and moved in a snakelike manner, tentacles of air swaying this way and that for something to strike at. Her face had acquired vibrant red markings, contorted in rage... she was still beautiful, but now, in a wild and uncontrollable way. Like feminine medusa, she slowly made her way through the room, her pumps cracking fallen glass.
"Ya'know... I'm surprised at ya Princess..." she was saying as she stalked "Why suddenly no spine?" Pucca, in her hiding place, listened, trying to calm her breath. There where no more doors leading out of the room, and no more windows. Perhaps she could smash through a wall?
"I think it's because your a coward." smirked Ring, her eyes scanned the room for any movement, but all was still. So she began to check behind equipment, using her hair to feel their way underneath and around them...
"Ya'know you will loose against me, don't ya? And your afraid because a'that..." Pucca was listening, but not at the same time. Ring was trying to make her mad, so she could come out to fight her, but it wouldn't work. Pucca wasn't a coward, but Ring was not worth fighting on Garu's cause...
"Look kiddo, I know why yah here," came RingRing again, she was directly below Pucca. She made no reply, Pucca was always short of words, perhaps it was because she admired how Garu always managed to express himself without verbal language. Just thinking about him made her reach into her hackama and pull out the torn heart. Absent mindedly, she began to tie the threads to the hilt of the sword.
"I know where your little boyfriend is." said RingRing again "He's been torn to near ribbons, but somehow managed to drag himself here. You've been lookin' for him, I know, because I watched you comin' up the tracks... he's around here somewhere, in this city, hiding, like some scared mangy dog..."
And that was the sentence she spoke. RingRing had no time to react as Pucca streamlined down upon her from above, smashing her deep into the ground. Stalagmites of concrete rose up from the pavement from the force of the blow. RingRing found her opponent on top of her, and looked more red in the face than she was. She held Garu's blade to her neck, breathing heavily. She was mad, she always was so defensive when someone insulted Garu. RingRing found it pathetic...
RingRing cooed cynically, and with a twist of her head, her hair knocked Pucca off of her and onto the ground, though she immediately found her footing and sprang to meet her again, the katana blade point poised at her head. RingRing whipped her hair around in a vicious whirlwind of blue, smashing everything around them, but failing to reach her antagonist as she dodged between the long braids. Pucca slashed the blade left and right with blinding speed, severing locks of hair, where they then fell like writhing, blue leeches, to the ground.
RingRing flung herself upside down into the air, rounding off to kick Pucca in the jaw, but Pucca counteracted and flipped sideways, twisting in midair and landing just out of reach of RingRing's heel. Not expecting the same move twice though, Pucca was cuffed by the edge of RingRing's heel when she back flipped again, only faster and while Pucca was still regaining her footing. Pucca fell sideways, but sprang forward on the momentum that was expended on her, managing to clash into RingRing again, sending her backwards, their bodies suddenly going into an ecstatic rage to separate themselves again.
Neither of them would back down.
The two enemies fought, their graceful movements blurred in fury and with flying miscellaneous flying objects, where making more of a racket than they realized. The factory in which they where in could only take so much stress, (after all, it was over a half century old), and it physically, and literally, swayed, very slowly, to one side. Banshee screams and deafening collapsing of machinery, grew ever louder and more intense. A young boy, a child probably of ten or eleven stopped near the chain link fence near the factory. He stopped to listen to the ruckus with his little dog cocked his ear at the pipes and pieces of machinery that where flying out of the factory's windows.
After what seemed hours... and most likely was... there came the most deafening crash of all. A giant, almighty crash that shook the very ground that the boy stood on. The remaining birds that had not already took off during the racket of the fight flew off, cawing, screeching in alarm. Then, abrupt silence. The noises from inside the textile factory had ceased altogether. Except, no, the last remaining window that hadn't already shattered suddenly exploded. A long sword was flung out of it with an inhuman force. It landed a few yards away from the boy in the long grass, just on the other side of the fence. The boy and his dog looked at each other nervously. There was complete silence. Carefully, and cautiously, the boy crawled under the chain link fence and reached for the katana. It was sleek and long, but it was soiled with blood, and had a little cloth heart tied to it. At first the boy was afraid to touch it, but curiosity got the better of him and he picked it up, hardly believing his luck.
Then, there came a laugh. A long, quiet, haughty, laugh that rose higher and higher until it reached a malicious peak. The boy looked up from the sword and cowered back, his dog yipped anxiously. Immediately Herman - for that was the little boys name - rolled back under the fence. The voice from inside the building crowed with triumph in such a shriek that the little boy and his dog turned and fled back down the railroad tracks, not once looking back.
--
"Ring Ring, are you there?"
Psssht.
"Ring Ring, are you there? Come in!"
"You've got to use the name master."
"Yes master, you must use the name!"
"Shut up! I know what I'm doing!"
Psssht.
"Eruh... Princess?"
Psssht.
"Yeeeeees?"
"What's your status?"
"I've got your goylie, whad else do ya want from me?"
Psssht.
"Nothing, nothing at all... just stay where you are and we'll take it from there."
"You've got her boyfriend yet?"
"No, not yet..."
"Well HURRY UP! He's not gonna sit around waiting for a yutz like you!"
Psssht.
"Oh don't worry, we're on his trail. Three of our spies spotted his cat running around with some flea-bitten skunk. We're following them up."
"Whatzatt? A skunk?"
"Yes. A skunk. Apparently Mio is flirting with a young, female skunk."
"Goish I hate doez thingz."
"They smell."
"Well DOI."
Phhsssht.
"Where are you right now?"
"At some old factory on the East side. Don' bother lookin' for me though, cauz I'm gonna move. I made too much noise, and plus I need to wash my hair, I've got blood in it."
"Where will you go?"
"How the hellz am I supposed to know? Not many people will check in a murderer at a saloon."
Phsssht.
"You murdered Pucca? ALREADY?!"
"Uh, well no, not quite."
Phssst.
...
"Are you there hun?"
Phsst.
"Yeah, sorry, I got distracted. I believe Someone just insulted me in French and I'm trying to figure out who it is."
"Well, good luck with that. I'll be see'in ya soon."
"Over and out."
--
Garu was not in the best of moods. How in he managed to end up in the nude, in a bathtub filled with what looked and felt like animal lard, he hardly any idea. The old lady seemed to be treating him like a five year old child. She had wrestled him into the bathroom with surprising strength, where he stood helpless as she brought out can after can of an unknown substance that smelled like fish paste, and dumped it into the tub.
The hot cuts and sores all over his body now seemed numbed by the cool substance. Finally, he decided, it was some sort of medicine that the lady was dumping on him. Some strange, disguisting, pulpy ointment...
So he had sat there, for some hours, sulking, in the white, pasty muck until the old lady had yelled at him to get out and clean himself up. At least, that's what Garu thought she had meant when she yelled from outside of the bathroom door. You see, since she spoke German, he obviously couldn't comprehend what she meant by... "von wo dieses Blut ist..."
What he didn't know, is that the old Lady wasn't talking to Garu at all. In fact, she was addressing another boy who had just made his appearance. Beside him was his little dog, barking frantically. The boy, Herman, was wide eyed and breathing hard as he hurtled past the old woman, who happened to be his grandmother. However, she caught him by the scruff of his neck, yanking him back. She began to yell at him passionately, and for good reason, for the boy was carrying a sword, which he quickly dropped to the ground at his feet. It was covered in blood.
It was at this point Garu stuck his head out, groggy and half dressed. He had washed the white cream completely off of himself, but he was still covered in bloody cuts and bruises, and looked quite grotesque.
As soon as Herman saw him he screamed, Garu slammed the door shut again.
While Old Lady Jolenta wrestled her grandson into his room, Mio and Penelope, who had just returned from their walk, scampered up the steps and into the house. (The door had been left open by Herman, who had forgotten to shut it in his panic)
Penelope scampered to push it shut until she heard the lock click. She looked back to Mio and gestured for him to come over, her yellow eyes where wide and timorous.
"Look, I think we're being followed." she said as he came close. She spoke in a hushed whisper
"Followed?" Mio repeated. He kept his voice low as well, even though he didn't know why he needed to.
"Yeah. Back when you climbed the tree, I felt like someone was watching from the bushes." said Penelope nervously. "I didn't want to tell you just then, just in case it was just my imagination. Then I felt as though it where following us all the way back to the house!"Mio looked at her with suspicion and interest.
"Why didn't you tell me this before?"
"I was afraid to! What if whoever was following us understood our language? They could have attacked us." Mio was silent in befuddlement. Penelope persisted, with her huge yellow eyes.
"Is there anyone that has it out for you? That wants to hurt you I mean?" Mio could see her shifting paws, one right after another. He wasn't able to decide whether to heed her warning or to dismiss it as a part of her paranoia, which she seemed to have a lot of.
"I suppose." he said. "I doubt that they're here in Germany though." already he could see Penelope's eyes expand... "Look, we're a long way from home. There's no way that they'd follow us here, and even if they did-"
But Mio was caught off. There was a soft scratching was coming from behind them... both the cats looked around in alarm, but there was no one there. The sound was coming from behind the closed door leading outside. It sounded as though as someone was softly dragging a nail down a chalkboard. Penelope's hair stood on end, Mio stood up and arched his back, unsure of what to do.
Then they heard a very audible, feline yowl. Mio flinched.
"I know that voice." he whispered.
"What? Who is it?"
Mio turned to Penelope. "I guess you where right. We were being followed," and he looked quite shaken, "...by the Cat Clan."
"Cat Clan?"questioned Penelope, panicked even though she had no clue who they were.
"Yes. Go find Garu, get him out here and then we have to leave right away. I'm going to guard the door if they decide to break through." Penelope nodded and took off into the house.
The Cat Clan were well known to be Mio's arch enemies. Famous feigns of the feline franchise. The three of them, Brutus, Socrates, and Napoleon, where a rough gang of cats that liked to harass him with just about everything. But the reason Mio hated them most of all was the fact they they were infatuated with someone he had deep interest in, a feminine feline named Yanni...
What worried him most is that they had followed him here. The Cat Clan was famous for their petty crimes, mostly stealing and vandalism. Although, what could possibly bring their mischief to Germany? He didn't know, and he wasn't sure he wanted to find out. As he crouched at the doorway he could year the high pitched yowls behind the door become more agitated. They wanted to get in... and he could just hear their conversation through the other side... he stepped forward and pressed his ear to the door...
"What if that wasn't him?"
"It was him, I swear it was. And even if it wasn't, we know that Garu's other pet is there."
"What other pet?"
"The skunk you dummy! You looked at her square in the eyes earlier! Garu was spotted with a skunk earlier, frightened a bunch of kids. That definitely HAD to be the skunk they'd been talkin' about."
"Whadda we do?"
"Break down the door. Tie and gag our targets without anyone noticin', then the human ninja's will come in later, and take care of Garu."
"Why not visa versa? It seems more practical to get rid of Garu first, then Mio."
"Because... you moron, then we'd have to fight Garu, and the human ninja's would have to fight Mio. I'd be stupid for us to fight a human when we're cats and humans to fight cats when they're human."
"Oh... ok. You've always been the smartest."
"So then what happens, when the job is done?"
"If we're lucky, we'll all get on the house kitty treats and a belly rub."
Meanwhile... Garu had reemerged from the bathroom, fully clothed this time, not in his normal ninja suit, but something that he found suitable in the bathroom. Black pants, long black shirt, and a black sweatshirt to top. He'd dressed his wounds with bandages quite tightly, the wrappings coming down his arms and legs, but allowing movement for his feet and hands. He had made his way to the living room, for being quite hungry, he'd smelt the aromas of food permeating throughout the house. With the old lady gone, (he could hear her at the other end of the house somewhere, yelling), he couldn't allow himself not to eat. He hadn't had any food in a day or so.
With a small plate had helped himself to some beef, biscuits, some sausage and even sauerkraut. However, when it came to eating it, he paused. Usually he would have reached for his chopsticks, but there were none. Garu eyed the fork and knife suspiciously at first, but he was too hungry to complain. He stabbed his sausage and ate voraciously, for the first time in a while, he was beginning to feel a little better.
As he ate, his mind began to wander. Perhaps after this he could get a nights sleep (for he was rather tired) and begin to head off the next day. Already, with food, he was feeling stronger. The loss of blood that he had had. The only thing he began to think about was what about the village, and what would Tobe be doing once he went back there... he could only imagine. He wondered what people would be saying about him, if they thought he was dead. He worried about Mio... who he had left practically stranded.
... and Pucca, Garu thought about her as well. He wondered what she might be doing right now, if she was worried about him... well no there was no DOUBT she was worried about him. She was probably looking for him, the poor thing. She'd never find him.
...and that was when Penelope stumbled into the room.
At first Garu didn't notice her when she meowed at him, he was so deep in thought, but upon the second he looked up. Penelope was staring at him, wild eyed, which startled him, for he had forgotten completely about her. After the two watched each other for a moment, Garu called to her softly, offering his hand close to the ground. She didn't budge however, she merely meowed louder.
Something seemed amiss.
Quickly shoveling the rest of the food into his mouth, he got up and approached her, but she quickly turned around and darted down the hallway. Then she stopped and looked back, and meowed again, persistently. Garu, beginning to catch on, followed.
Mio was waiting for them at the entrance to the house. The scratching at the door had escalated to vicious pounding, and the door looked as though it was about to burst open at any second.
Then several things happened at once.
First, Garu spotted Mio, and his initial reaction was to run forward to greet him, but then he spotted his bloody sword on the ground, and instantly became confused (for he knew that Mio wouldn't be able to carry a sword by himself). Then, the door to the house suddenly cracked and blew inward, crashing loudly to the floor. Because of this Penelope jumped nearly ten feet backward, and as a result landed in the Old Lady's arms, who, throughout all of the ruckus, had decided to investigate what was going on. Then from outside three cats flung themselves into the house, hissing and spitting, hackles raised, and their narrowed eyes fixed on Mio.
A moment later, all hell broke loose.
--
Now poor Pepe le Pew, he was completely oblivious to what was going on. After he had left Pucca at the railroad tracks he had backtracked to the spot where he had first had the strange encounter with the many men. It wasn't too often he got distracted from something so important as love, but mystery was also another thing that intrigued him. As some say, romance and enigmas often go hand and hand at times.
This was one of those times.
Pepe was beginning to form a pretty good conscious at this point, and it was telling him that he should still try to help the man he had tried to save that one night. It would be difficult to find him,
"But since when was anything easy?" he had mentioned to himself.
And that is when he began tracking (which was something he was rather good at) with the prints that the men had left in the dirt. It started out quite hard, because it seemed like the men had vaporized into thin air. It took him a moment to sort it all out, ninjas wouldn't remain on a road after being knocked out so embarrassingly. No, they would take the scenic route, no? He looked into the nearby woods, which seemed to him as just a friendly place as anything else.
Then he noticed that some weeds nearby were broken and snapped, as if someone had stepped (or fallen) on them. As he inspected them, he noticed that another patch of weeds a little further away seemed wounded as well, so he went over there to make sure. And indeed, almost as soon as he reached that strange track, he found yet more clues, a broken log here in the grass, where someone's foot may have been. A scratch mark in a tree there, where a sharp weapon may have nicked it. The most obvious clue was a jump rope carelessly strewn on a branch nearby. The skunk was soon strutting to spot to spot, quite casually, pausing once in a while to inspect a clue, only to resume on the path that Tobe and his henchmen left behind. Pepe soon found that he could retake his earlier statement... this was easy, almost too easy. The sun was setting, and even in the darker light he could find his way. Either he was an expert at stalking and following people who didn't want to be found (which he was, but that isn't the point) or the people he was following were complete idiots (which, by all means, were, but that's not the point either).
Pepe had long left sight of the road and was making his merry ever deeper into the wood, although he was not quite as merry as he would have liked to have been. It would have been more cheerful with some company, at least. He was just thinking about how nice it would have been with someone to talk to, when he began to hear voices ahead of him.
Noisy, routy laughter. Booing, guffawing, sneezing, coughing, and all sorts of obnoxious noises came from up ahead. Pepe approached cautiously, taking a shady route to a little clearing ahead. He could see a little fire through the leaves of a thicket, a group of men in suits huddled around it, poking the coals with boredom. He slipped closer, taking care to his stealth, (he could only hope that he was coming down wind to them) and took a closer look at their faces. They looked like the same men he had unleashed his horror to earlier, but who could tell? It was dark then.
Then he heard a voice... a loud, authoritative voice. Not far away from the bored looking men was yet another man, dressed in a ridiculous violet looking suit. He paced back and forth across in a line, excited. There was a little worn path now were he had been pacing.
"...just stay where you are and we'll take it from here." The skunk leaned in closer to listen. The man was talking on a walkie talkie, he held it close to his mouth.
"No... not yet..." the man began, then there came a thunderous voice from the other end. A woman's voice, with a New Jersey accent
"Well HURRY UP! He's not gonna sit around waiting for a yutz like you!" she was so loud that it startled a few of the ninjas, or at least woke them up from their naps. The purple ninja held the walkie talkie away from his face and screwed up his eyes. When she was finished he let out an insidious chuckle.
"Oh don't worry," he said as the other ninjas watched him with vacant expressions. Pepe had found interest in one who was picking his ear, and another who was picking his nose. How egregious. "we're on his trail. Three of our spies spotted his cat running around with some flea-bitten skunk. We're following them up."
That caught Pepe's attention.
"Whatzatt? A skunk?" came the voice from the other end, which sounded skeptical. Pepe could see Tobe shrugging. He seemed as uninterested in the matter as Pepe was concerned.
"Yes. A skunk. Apparently Mio is flirting with a young, female skunk." Pepe thought he heard his heart slam point first into a concrete wall.
"Goish I hate doez thingz."
"They smell."
"Well DOI."
"Where are you right now?"
"At some old factory on the East side. Don' bother lookin' for me though, cauz I'm gonna move. I made too much noise, and plus I need to wash my hair, I've got blood in it." Pepe was becoming more alarmed by the second. There was only one old factory that he knew of, that was the one he had seen Pucca going towards... that had to be the same girl they were speaking of.
"Where will you go?"
"How the hellz am I supposed to know?" came the angry voice, which was beginning to become annoying. "Not many people will check in a murderer at a saloon." both Pepe and Tobe flinched, the ninja nearly screamed into the walkie talkie.
"You murdered Pucca? ALREADY?!"
It was the last part of Tobe's statement that did it. The urge of bursting out of the bushes and tackling the man with the walkie talkie and forcing it down his throat finally got the better of Pepe. He cupped his hand to his mouth and bellowed
"VOUS MÉTIS!" which meant something like "YOU MONGREL!" in French. However, the initial reaction of all the ninja's made him hang back. All of the nearby henchmen jumped a foot in the air, even though they had been sitting or even sleeping. A few cried out in fright, one tripped over another and fell into the fire, sending a shower of sparks onto the surrounding ninjas, only furthering the outburst of panic. Tobe seemed the most bewildered of all, he seemed to believe that one of his henchmen ninjas had suddenly became bilingual. He faced them all for a moment, but the only few ninjas that noticed him only stared dumbly back. He soon turned back to the walkie talkie without concern for the few ninjas trying to put out a fire that had erupted in one of their comrades hair.
"Yeah, sorry, I got distracted." he muttered in a more private, but an obviously befuddled tone. Pepe had begun to inch closer to him, away from the spot he had shouted from. "I believe someone just insulted me in French and I'm trying to figure out who it is."
"Well, good luck with that." came the other voice. "I'll be see'in ya soon."
"Over and out."
Then Tobe stood up and looked to his ninjas, who were paying absolutely no attention whatsoever. This is going to be tricky', Pepe thought. No choice, he would have to follow the troop closely now if he ever wanted to find Garu, or ianyone else/i for that matter.
"All right, whoever wise guy is who thinks he can speak French can go and and sit on a pin." barked Tobe. "Meanwhile, I've got to go and pick up the remainders of Garu, now that I know where he is hiding." he looked around "who will come with me?"(No volunteers stepped forward)
"Fine then you're all coming." Tobe grunted sourly. He turned and pointed into the forest wall, which Pepe only assumed was the direction they where now headed, the henchmen finally roused themselves up to get ready.
"Onward to Garu's demise my men." their leader growled. With that, he vaulted into the foliage. The rest of the team followed him, but much less gracefully. The skunk waited for a few moments for the the last of the ninja's to get ahead, his adrenaline was pounding furiously through his ears.
"Tally Ho." he muttered, and then sprang after them.
--
Meanwhile, heading towards their demise, Garu, Mio and Penelope had their hands full.
Only moments after the old lady's house was broken into, a battle had begun. Mio had leapt forward and attacked the trio of felines, which sprang back for him. Soon it was a flurry mass of claws, fangs and fur. Although it was no ordinary cat fight, it was a ninja cat fight. Soon the felines where rechoshaying off the walls and ceilings, shaking the foundations of the house and knocking vases over and picture frames askew.
The Old Lady (who up until this point had been watching, dumbfounded) suddenly let out a war cry. She dropped Penelope on the floor, and with a rolling pin (she had suddenly conjured out of nowhere from the depths of her apron) went after one of the fighting cats. The feline, Napoleon, had been pinning Mio to the ground and was caught completely off guard. He got full force of the blow and was knocked several yards away outside of the house.
"Outside!" barked Mio "RUN FOR IT!"
With the old lady roaring, waving with her rolling pin, she started for Garu next, furious that he had brought feral animals into the house. The ninja quickly back flipped, landing in the outside garden (smashing some pentunias) and taking off down the garden path. Penelope was right behind him, running like she hadn't run in months, pursued by Mio, and behind him was Cat Clan. Soon, the entire party was far beyond the borders of the Old Lady's garden and into the forests of beyond.
Garu, despite his wounds, felt quite agile again, even with the sword. With a surge of newfound energy, he leapt upward inhumanly, grabbing nearby tree at the edge of the yard of the garden, and swinging himself up into the branches. He leapt, tree frog like, to another canopy of a different tree, then leapt to another. Soon he was leaping nimbly, tree to tree like a spider monkey. Mio followed his masters suit, leaping to a nearby tree and quickly ascending to the leafy treetop. In turn, so did the Cat Clan. Now most of the chase was taking place in the canopy, with all five of them tree hopping, except for poor Penelope. She tried her best to simply keep pace with them down below on the ground, looking up above in the dark to check where they were, following their shady silhouettes making breaks in the sunset sky.
It was getting gradually darker and darker, and the Cat Clan becoming increasingly angry. They yelled and yowled and hiss and spat, always on Mio's tail, but never getting close enough to rake him with their claws. Leaves shook, branches snapped as the party whizzed through them like arrows. Garu glanced behind him, Mio was close behind, and he was glad for it. He was glad to have his old companion back by his side.
What neither Garu, or any of the felines knew, is that coming straight in their direction, was a party of another sort. Tobe's.
Tobe was making a wild dash of his own, only he was on the ground, stirring up leaves on the ground as he ran, and he was being followed by his ninjas. Who, in turn, where unknowingly being pursued by Pepe le Pew, who by this time was becoming quite annoyed with himself. Tobe knew not of the failure of the Cat Clan to capture Mio, only that they had discovered Garu's location, and informed him about it. So now the man was eager to finish his opponent off, his face contorted with anticipation, his pace all the more accelerated, much to the disappointment to his henchmen.
Neither groups (Garu's or Tobe's) had spotted each other yet, in fact, they could quite possibly pass each other by completely unnoticed; they where going so fast, and they where traveling at such differing height levels. In fact, that is what would happen. Penelope, however, was still traveling on the ground, and she wouldn't be able to avoid Tobe's group no matter how hard she tried.
It was a pity she was the first and only to realize this.
Up ahead, through the long towers of tree trunks, she could see a ripple of movement. At first she thought she imagined it, but then she saw a figure tip and fall to the ground (it was one of the bumbling henchmen ninjas, who had tripped over a stump). There was a whole group of men coming towards them! Penelope glanced up into the canopy to see her two friends tree hopping gracefully.
She cried out. Unfortunately, no one heard her.
The men up ahead showed no signs of slowing, and Penelope was close enough to see that there were at least a good thirty of them coming her way. If she didn't find a place to hide, she could get tampled. She stopped in her tracks, looking doubtfully into a nearby oak. She hadn't climbed trees in a while, and she wasn't very good at it, but she had to. She grabbed on, digging her claws into the bark, and hoisted herself up. She was nothing compared to the swiftness of Mio or Garu; it took her few moments to shimmy herself just half way up the trunk, but just in the nick of time.
First to arrive was Tobe, who was chanting some horrible, warlike tune. It was probably meant to lift his henchmen's adrenaline, it seemed to be having a reverse effect. The henchmen trudged faithfully behind him, but they where in no way enthusiastic. As they marched on by, Penelope caught a glimpse of their faces and nearly laughed despite her desperation of the moment. Their expressions where of nothing that could be described, except perhaps of someone who just discovered that their ticket to paradise was squandered by fat man with ear hair.
Penelope clung to the trunk for a minute or so as the group passed underneath her tree, not noticing her at all, and the sound of their tramping footsteps began to fade away. Penelope looked around, finding that everyone she had been following had disappeared into the dimming sunset.
"MIO!" she called, but it was too late. He way out of earshot by now. Garu and Mio had not noticed their friends absence, and neither had the Cat Clan. They didn't notice Tobe and his ninjas either pass directly underneath them, and neither Tobe or any of the ninjas noticed the tree hopping group pass directly overhead. Both parties continued on past each other, completely oblivious to what had happened.
Feeling exhausted, Penelope shimmied down the trunk. As soon as her paws touched the ground she began to run again. She headed direction she had seen Garu and Mio go. She sprinted so hard that she hardly felt her paws touch the earth, her tail lifted out and her ears laid back, she focused on the sunset up ahead, dashing through the dying sunlight beams that twinkled through the leaves. She knew she would have to hurry if she ever wanted to catch up with her friends, and she had a feeling she could if she kept up her pace.
That thought was short-lived however.
Within the next moment or so, she came face to face, with Pepe le Pew.