Chapter #18: Hide and Seek

The crowd of animals cowered in fear at the sight of the army, and many held up their hands in surrender. Tortimer, Tom Nook, Blathers, and the heroes ducked into the crowd to avoid being spotted. A sneaky-looking black wolf wearing armor—a spy for the secret police—stepped out from the robot horde to address the animals.

"Citizens of AnimaCity, you have brought this invasion upon yourselves by bringing Rebels of Big Boss's empire into your homes. The Boss had no choice but to sweep this town clean of the Rebel scum. If everyone cooperates and there is no violence on the Rebels' part, then no one will be hurt. So, will we have to fight to take control of this city? Or will you surrender without needless bloodshed?"

The crowd whispered intently, wondering what to do: should they surrender to ACSP control or fight to the last man? Tortimer knew what had to be done, for he had been in this situation before. He gathered his friends and the hero gang together.

"There's no use fightin' 'em," he whispered. "It'll only lead to unnecessary bloodshed. They've got us outnumbered."

"But if we do that, they'll capture you guys!" Tails protested, his namesakes twitching nervously.

The mayor gave him a wink. "Not if we hide from them first. Ya see, I'm gonna send one of my police officers up there to give the answer. But I'll have him request that no arrests are made tonight, and we'll be safe for the moment. We'll stay with the crowd and find some nice hiding places in our buildings that nobody else knows about!"

Sonic nodded. "Not too bad of a plan. You sure it'll work? And where are we gonna hide?"

"There's a secret room in yer old livin' quarters."

"Our house? But that was destroyed!"

"Not anymore," Tom Nook replied. "I rebuilt all of my houses, with help from Tails and the boys."

"Our own little surprise," Spike remarked, folding his arms.

"We even moved in some furniture to make it look better!" his cousin added.

Tortimer continued, "The ACSP know who y'all are 'cause of Resetti, so yer gonna hafta be careful. I'll have a villager move into the house and hide ya."

"But we can't hide here forever. We'll eventually need to sneak out of town," said Tom.

"What about Copper K.K., Ratchet, Clank, and the rest?" Sonic interjected. "They'll be here any minute, and the 'bots will get them!"

The mayor scratched his chin and thought hard for a moment. "They're gonna be a problem. I think the only way we're gonna help 'em is to have someone wait for 'em and sneak 'em outta town. That's all I've got."

Tom Nook rubbed his forehead like he was getting a headache. "But whom do we send?"

Spike stepped up. "Jimmy and I can go."

Tortimer frowned. "It's a dangerous job, but…if yer so sure about it…all right, then. Let's send out the officer."

A minute later, a chocolate Labrador nervously left the crowd to parley with the army of robots. After licking his lips and clearing his throat several times, he said in as loud and clear a voice as he could, "We will surrender on two conditions. One: we are allowed to return to our beds as you establish control here."

The wolf nodded. "This is acceptable."

"The second is that you do not make any arrests tonight." The army leader frowned at this, so the dog added, "We have had enough terror tonight; your raids would only cause more."

It was obvious that the wolf was reluctant, but he answered, "Fine. The Secret Police will not make any arrests tonight. However, anyone seen wandering outside after 10:00 will be apprehended and questioned. You are all dismissed." (A/N: It was about 9:15 then.)

The crowd sighed in relief and dissipated. Tortimer, Nook, and four of the heroes left for Acre B-3. Spike and Jimmy went with a crowd to the beach and hid in a thicket that had a perfect view of the jetty. Five minutes later, the fleet of boats pulled up, and the boys told Copper, K.K. Slider, Ratchet, and Clank everything. The police dog ordered the company to hide the boats, and the foursome followed the boys back to Acre B-3. Tortimer told the two dogs to smuggle all the Allies that had been captured before onto a train and take it out of the town. They nodded and left the house.

When they were gone, Tom led the heroes up to the second floor and showed them the false wall he had built into the back of the room; the room was the same size as the bottom floor, but the false wall made it look smaller. It was made of the same material, and bookshelves were lined up against it. A panel was at the bottom, hidden under a writing desk. The panel was made to look like the back of the desk, and it lifted upwards. They had to crawl on their hands and knees to reach the secret room, which was the same size as the other part of the room. It was padded with thick carpet to silence any footfalls in the room, and there were some cots and sleeping bags on the floor, and a green pantry and a sink in one corner.

"It took quite a bit of work, but it was worth it," said Nook as he walked across the secret room. He pounded on the false wall to listen for any hollow sound. "It'll take years for Big Boss to find this one…hopefully."

Sonic glanced about the plain room and began tapping his foot. "We really oughtta be helping out. I can't stand being cooped up in a secret room all day."

"Me neither," agreed Ratchet, "especially with Patrick in the same room."

As if for emphasis, Patrick randomly exclaimed, "Pickled peanuts!"

Tortimer sighed and folded his arms. "Would ya rather be out in the open where the 'bots can see ya and git caught?"

The Lombax commando and the blue hedgehog both shook their heads with small sighs. Then Spike asked, "Will the animal living in here know we're here?"

"Yes, he will," the tortoise replied. "I've talked with him and made sure he was willing, 'cause we don't want anybody gettin' caught and spillin' the beans on everybody else."

"Beans?! I love beans!" Patrick cut in. Ratchet quickly dispatched him with a clunk on the head with his Omniwrench.

"The green pantry in the secret room is full of snack food; you'll need to eat yer meals in here. We've also arranged a buzzer system so that if somebody who doesn't know about the secret room comes in here, the villager will alert ya before they come up to the second floor. When ya hear the buzzer, y'all will hafta scramble into the secret room and take everythang, and I mean everythang, that's yours inside. We'll have some drills tomorrow, but I won't tell ya the exact time."

"Tortimer, one last question," Ratchet asked. "Where are you and Tom gonna hide?"

But the mayor only shook his head and said, "The less ya know of our hidin' spot the better, sonny. G'night, fellers!"

Tortimer and Nook left the house, and the gang went into the secret room and fell asleep.


The next morning, the heroes awoke to loud banging on the secret panel, and SpongeBob and Patrick huddled together in fright. Sonic motioned for everyone to be silent.

"Open up in the name of the Secret Police!" a voice shouted.

The gang was wide-eyed, but they said nothing and didn't move. After about fifteen seconds, the shouting stopped, and the panel slid open. A brown horse in an eight-ball shirt came in with a big grin on his face. "Guess I fooled ya good, didn't I?" he said.

The group breathed again; this was one of the drills Tortimer had mentioned. Then said tortoise and Tom Nook came inside, also grinning.

"And ya passed!" Tortimer announced.

SpongeBob perked up. "We did?"

"This was a test to see if everybody would keep silent if the ACSP really did come and find the secret room."

Jimmy scratched his head, a little puzzled. "Wouldn't they barge inside instead of just banging on the panel?"

Tom chuckled and replied, "That's one reason why I made the door small; the robots can't get in! Only animal agents can!"

The eight heroes exchanged impressed looks; they hadn't thought of that.

"Now that the drill's been done," Tortimer continued, "I need to make an introduction." He gestured to the brown horse. "Gang, this is Buck. He'll be stayin' here."

"Howdy," Buck said, waving one hand (err…hoof?). The group uttered greetings and returned his wave.

"Hey, Tortimer, Nook," Ratchet said, "whatever happened to Copper and the others?"

The raccoon sighed. "There's good news and bad news with this. Good news is they got away safely; bad news is their escape alerted the Secret Police, and now they're goin' to search the entire town for us."

Spike frowned in worry. "Will you guys be safe?"

"Not for long, I'm afraid. I think we're going to need to leave tonight."

"Where will you go?"

"Out of this county, probably," Tortimer answered with a shrug. "It would be best not to tell y'all 'till we know fer sure if yer comin' with us."

"What about all the Allies that are still here?"

Tom looked down at his feet and shook his head. "They'll probably have to escape on their own. Tortimer and I are being hunted, and we could get in trouble if we organize a great escape."

During the whole conversation, Tails and Clank had been deep in thought. Then an idea came to them, and they whispered their ideas to each other. Presently Tom noticed this.

"Is something the matter?"

The fox and robot shot each other one last glance, and then the latter responded, "The two of us have devised a plan to smuggle out the rest of the Alliance."

Tails then took over. "It's simple: we just get everyone over to the train station. Porter can load them up and take them to safety, like you guys did with Copper and the rest!"

Everyone stared at the pair in surprise, and Tortimer mulled it over for a moment, then smiled.

"Not a bad idea, fellers. In fact, it just might work! That wolf guy leadin' the robots has called fer some supplies fer both the animals and themselves. He wants Porter to pilot the trains and make sure the goods are delivered. The Chief also wants 'im to ship some crates of destroyed robot parts from the police station." Ratchet snickered at that part. "Maybe we can pack some of our men into the crates! The rest can sneak inside while the guards are distracted!"

Nook shook his head, also smiling. "It looks like we've got ourselves an escape plan. We just need to gather everybody together and work out the details. We'll come back at noontime!"

The mayor and the storekeeper left the house, and Buck and the heroes got breakfast. When they were finished, the group got out some board games and started playing them. Tails and Clank played a game of chess. Sonic, Spike, Jimmy, SpongeBob, and Buck played Monopoly, and Ratchet was stuck with Patrick in a game of Go Fish.

But, pretty early into the Monopoly game, Spike rolled the dice and moved his piece across the board. "All right! Madison Avenue! Hey, Sonic, gimme one of those houses! I'm buyin' this place!"

But when the hedgehog looked for the houses, he found nothing. "Uhhh…there aren't any houses in here."

"What?! No houses?!"

SpongeBob's face turned red. "Oops, I almost forgot. Patrick and I played this the other day, and he ate 'em all."

The other players turned and stared at him. Buck's mouth dropped open, and he exclaimed, "He ate the houses?!"

The sea sponge nervously shrugged. "He'll eat anything."

His buddy's voice carried across the room. "Pickled eggs! Spinach-flavored ice cream! Week-old cheese!" The Monopoly players made nauseated faces.

"Oh well, so much for Monopoly," Jimmy said, and he threw his paper money back into the game box.

After cleaning up the game, they checked on Tails and Clank, who were locked in a fierce chess match. Both of them had lost the same amount of pieces, but it looked like Clank had the advantage; he had captured Tails' queen piece, and he still had his own. He processed all the possible moves and tactics in his head before moving in to attack Tails' king. (A/N: For those of you who don't know how chess works, this move is called a check.)

The little robot set a rook (the piece that looks like a castle) a few spaces to the right of the opposing king. "Check."

Tails was silent for a moment. The rules of the game said he had to move his king out of check (out of danger) by either moving the king or moving another piece to shield the king, and he couldn't move any other piece until then. Then he saw an opportunity to make him and Clank even. He moved his rook a few spaces in front of his king, taking the king out of check. Clank hid his surprise at this foolish move and captured the piece with his queen.

The fox smiled, and his twin tails twitched in delight. Clank noticed, and realized that he had walked into a trap.

Clank had taken the rook and put Tails' king back into check, but he had exposed his queen to another one of Tails' pieces: the knight, the piece that resembles a horse and moves in an "L" shape. The fox snapped up Clank's queen and grinned at his cunning tactic. Clank slapped himself for not seeing it earlier.

In a few minutes, it was all over. The capture of Clank's queen set off events like dominoes. Tails' army surrounded Clank's, and the fox put the king into check, or should I say…

"Checkmate!" the fox kid declared proudly, setting his lucky knight in the correct spot for the finishing move.

Checkmate is when the king is in check but there is no safe spot he can move to, and…you guessed it…the opponent wins, in this case, Tails.

Sonic grinned and slammed his sidekick's back. "Good job, Tails!"

Clank, of course, wasn't a sore loser. He reached across the chessboard (a bit tough, considering his size) and shook his opponent's hand. "Good game, Tails. Foxes really are cunning animals like the stories say."

Tails grinned back. "Thanks! You did a good job, too! For a while I thought you would beat me!"

Suddenly two voices were heard from across the room.

"Come on, Patrick, you've gottahave that Jack!"

"Go fish!"

"Grrrr…"

You probably know by now that they were Ratchet and Patrick, and that the Go Fish game had turned into a disaster. Ratchet had already gotten a pair of Jacks and had the third in his hand, and now he was looking for the final card.

"No Jacks!" Patrick repeated, one of his teeth sticking out in a goofy fashion.

"You've gotta have it," the commando fumed, "'cause I've gone through the whole stinkin' stack and it isn't there! Gimme your deck!"

But the starfish twisted away from Ratchet and held his card hand out of his reach. "My cards!"

Spike quickly came over. "Ratchet, that's probably a bad idea. Remember Booker and the bone?"

Ratchet immediately stopped what he was doing and sat back down. "Good point."

SpongeBob, knowing he would probably have better luck, also came over and asked politely, "Patrick, can I see your cards?"

Patrick handed over his card hand with a happy face. "Llamas!"

The yellow sponge glanced at the cards, and then turned to Ratchet. "Nope, he doesn't have any Jacks. Sorry, Hatchet."

"It's Ratchet," growled the Lombax. How many times did he have to say that?!

Sonic looked through the stack of Go Fish cards, and he looked up at them with a confused expression. "It's not in here either."

"I'll bet it's been missing before y'all even started the game," Buck interjected. "That happens sometimes."

"That can't be! I checked before we played! There were four Jacks!" Ratchet told him.

As they sat and thought, Spike realized where the missing card probably was, and he slapped his face. "I think I know."

Everybody turned to him, and his cousin asked, "Where is it?"

The red-haired teenager turned to SpongeBob. "SpongeBob, remember how you said that Patrick would eat anything? Does that include cards?"

SpongeBob didn't need to answer, because just then Patrick took a bite out of an ace. He chewed on it for a few seconds, then mumbled, "Mmm, tasty." Then he tore into the rest of the ace.

Jimmy slapped his forehead. "Case closed." Ratchet glared intently at Patrick, with one eye and his right hand twitching.

Suddenly they heard the doorbell ring (they installed a doorbell, okay?), and the gang threw all the board games and cards into a kiddie bureau and ducked into the secret room. To their relief, it was Tortimer, Tom Nook, Porter, K.K. Slider (who had stayed behind instead of going with Copper), and Blathers. They gathered on the second floor to begin the discussion of the escape plan. Tortimer asked Tails and Clank to explain, since they had come up with the plan.

"The best course of action," Clank began, "would be to hide all endangered agents in secret rooms all over the town until nightfall. Then we can smuggle them onto a train just like you did with Copper and the others. Can you tell us where there are some secret rooms, Mr. Mayor?"

Tortimer pulled a map of AnimaCity out of his shell and laid it on a pine table, and they gathered around it. He pointed to several locations. "We have secret rooms in the Post Office, Nookington's, the Museum, and the Able Sisters' Shop. Those are official hidin' spots. Some villagers have unofficial places in their houses—Daisy, fer example. The folks sometimes have as many as ten agents in their homes. Most of these are good places, but some might be easy to find. The official secret rooms can hold as many as fifteen at once each, and the police will have a very hard time locatin' 'em, I guarantee that."

Tails nodded and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Okay, so we probably should use the hiding places at the Post Office and the store. We'll sneak agents from the rooms to the station. We'll hafta go in small groups, though, so we don't attract any attention."

"Porter, when does your train leave here to pick up the supplies for AnimaCity?" asked Clank.

The monkey pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and glanced at it. "Sometime before curfew, about 6:00," he replied. "I won't be going anywhere safe though; I'm going into Big Boss's territory for the crates. I'll come back after dark, around 8:30. The shipment of robot parts will go to the nearest recycling plant, which is close by Alliance territory. Also, I'm shipping supplies for that factory; some animals are forced to work there, and they need food and clothes. That's when we should smuggle everyone on my train."

Tails continued, "When the train comes tonight to drop off the supplies and pick up robot parts, we load as many animals as we can into the empty crates."

"We've gotta be careful though," Porter pointed out. "The guards at the plant might get suspicious if they see too many crates."

"We have taken that into account," the little robot said. "It is probably best if we only smuggle out known and suspected agents. Members of whom the police are not aware may remain here longer, hopefully without being detected."

"There's one other problem: I can't make any extra stops. The overseers at the factory expect me to be right on time, so if I'm late for no good reason, they'll begin to think I'm up to something."

K.K. Slider sighed and rubbed his forehead. "That bites, 'cause then you can't drop us off at any safe town."

Ratchet suddenly sat straight up in his chair and interrupted, "I think I know how to solve the problem!"

Porter turned to him, surprised. "I thought Tails and Clank were the only ones doing this."

"I'm volunteering. Anyway, why don't you stage a robbery?"

"Kinda like those old Western movies?" Jimmy asked.

The commando shrugged and answered, "I have no idea what you're talking about. I was thinking of the train robberies out in Metropolis on planet Kerwan." Everyone but Clank gave him confused stares.

Clank pointed out, "But the train is not shipping money, or anything of monetary value."

But Spike caught on to the idea. "What if the 'robbers' wanted food and supplies instead of money? They can actually stop you near a safe town and take the crates of agents!"

Ratchet grinned. "Great idea, Spike! Not bad for a human!"

"Hey!"

Porter returned them to the subject by saying, "That could actually work! I've been robbed before, and some agents do that stuff!"

"But who are the robbers going to be?" asked Tom Nook.

"Why not Copper and the others?" K.K. Slider suggested. "They're close by Pine Ridge, and they could sneak us over the border too!"

Clank continued, "We can mark the crates of agents so they know which ones to steal. But, like Porter said, they cannot steal too many crates, or else the robots will become suspicious."

Tortimer clapped his hands together and exclaimed, "All right then! It looks like we've got ourselves a plan! Now fer assignin' roles! I think Tom, K.K., Blathers, an' I should git on the train as well; like I said before, we're bein' hunted, and this is the perfect chance fer us to git outta here!"

"I'll contact Copper and let him know about the plan," K.K. volunteered.

Blathers stood up. "I guess I must go gather up the agents and assign them hiding places."

Clank climbed up onto the table. "I believe that Ratchet, Spike, and Sonic should hide the groups in the secret spots and smuggle them out, one at a time."

The blue hedgehog nodded in approval. "I'll take the groups from Nook's shop."

"I can do the Post Office," Spike said.

Ratchet twirled his wrench. "I'll load them."

Jimmy exclaimed, "What are the rest of us gonna do?!"

"Jimmy," his older cousin warned him, "you guys could get in trouble. You should stay here and wait your turn for loading." The younger boy folded his arms and pouted.

The mayor finished up the meeting with the time for the plan. "Let's start movin' before the 8:00 curfew; it'll still be dark, but we won't git in trouble fer bein' out too late."

Suddenly there was loud banging on the door, and the discussion halted. Buck quietly walked down the stairs to open the door while the rest of the group grabbed their belongings and ducked into the secret room. Sonic was last, and he heard robotic voices saying that they were searching the house. He shut the secret panel quickly but quietly and told the others what he had heard. They didn't move and were silent.

The gang heard the sound of heavy footsteps coming up the stairs, and the horse talking about his living quarters. The footfalls moved about the room, and there were sounds of furniture being moved around. They heard rapping on the walls; the robots were testing the walls to see if any were false. Then the footsteps faded away, and the voices left as well. Only when Buck opened the panel and told them it was safe did they breathe a sigh of relief and crawl out.

Tortimer removed his hat and wiped sweat off his forehead. "Whew! That was a close one! Looks like yer secret room passed the test, Nook."

"I was worried they would find it for a moment," the raccoon confessed, fiddling nervously with his tie.

K.K. was a little more optimistic. "Now we know this spot is pretty safe. We can make this secret room an official hideaway. Maybe some of us can stay here for the escape."

"Good idea!" said the tortoise. "The group here can hide in this house until it's time to leave." Then he turned to Buck. "You should come too, Buck. They might find out ya helped us git away, and they'll arrest ya."

The horse nodded. "I think yer right, pardner. I'll come."

After working out the details of the plan, the meeting was dismissed, and the animals left to begin preparations for the escape. The gang of heroes did some preparing of their own: Sonic exercised with some of the equipment kept in one of the bottom floor's extra rooms, Spike practiced his Stun Club moves with a punching bag, and Ratchet checked, cleaned, and tested his weapons. Clank and Tails decided to do another game of chess, and SpongeBob and Patrick played Go Fish…with a different deck of cards, of course!

But none of them were fully aware of the danger they were walking into…


Version 2 Author Notes:

Just a really quick disclaimer here. I do not own the game Monopoly; I forget who does...Parker Brothers? And I hope my explanation of Tails and Clank's chess match was clear enough.