All characters, save for my OCs, belong to either SEGA or Craig Bartlett and Nickelodeon.
Antoine and Sid: Chickens of Valor
'How the heck do I get into situations like this?' Sid thought in distress as he sat on the bare, dirt ground, putting his face into his hands and groaning meanwhile.
Why did Arnold have to pick this deathtrap of a jungle, of all places, after winning the essay contest? Wasn't he supposed to be the practical one? Because right now leaving your classmates behind to get lost in the jungle for no reason at all did not sound like Sid's idea of adventure...not by a long shot.
Especially with the psychotic river pirates that popped out of nowhere and attacked everyone, causing the whole group that consisted of the rest of Arnold's classmates, Mr. Simmons, Principal Wartz, and the chaperones (of which Sonic, Shadow, Amy, Ms. Bonnie, Mr. Hyunh, and Olga were a couple) to scatter for the sake of survival.
Fortunately for Sid, as well as the rest of the kids, the adults and teens wisely took upon themselves the strategy of taking one or two of the students each with them.
Unfortunately for Sid, he got stuck with Antoine.
The hoity-toity coyote, dressed in a red shirt and blue shorts that belied his aristocratic heritage, would've put Rex Smite Higgins and his grandfather to shame with his stuck-up attitude and ever-so-convinced sense of authority—okay, he so did have authority over Sid, being an adult and all, but he didn't have rub that fact in his face.
Like now, for example.
"Come, come, we must not do ze dilly-dally, you foolish boy! We need to find ze the others as quickly as possible, and we cannot do zat if you are lazing around like a certain hedgehog I know. Move it!"
Sid resisted the urge to grind his teeth, although he did make a fist out of the hand Antoine couldn't see (since the coyote stood at the kid's side instead of in front of him). 'Keep talking and I'll move something, alright.'
Huffing in approval at the lack of protest, Antoine marched along like the soldier he claimed to be, a spring in his step and a confident grin on his face. Now Sid, reluctantly following in step with the man, really resisted the urge to grind his teeth—and deck the canine in the snout.
Not that his reaction should have been anything new or a surprise—Sid and Antoine had had a tense relation ever since they met each other at Hillwood last month. Sid had known Bunnie, who he got along with much better, for a while before that fateful encounter. Bunnie had invited Sid, along with Harold and Stinky, to join her, her husband, and Rotor at the local ice skating rink. Rotor proved to be a pretty cool guy (even if Sid thought the big lug would've related much more easily with Phoebe or Peapod Kid), but Antoine...
Ugh. That was the only word Sid could think of to properly describe the ego-driven coyote: Ugh.
And now the two of them were wandering an ancient, abandoned in a massive stone temple, stuck together in what virtually equated as a life-or-death situation. Lovely. This trip couldn't get any more perfect.
"Hello gentlemen."
Strike that last statement.
All of sudden Antoine and Sid found themselves confronted by about four or five of La Sombra's huge, hulking river pirates, their toothy, yellow-stained, leering smirks doing nothing to ease either of the boys' minds. Antoine lost his poise surprisingly quickly, the golden canine going so far as to even hide behind Sid like a soldier hiding behind a shield.
To say Sid was more speechless at this guy's behavior than at the turn of events would've been a lie. He'd expected all along that this dude was, as Sonic would say, "all shoe but no run." But right now there was no room for further argument, not with their lives on the line.
"Uh, heh, heh, hey guys," the fifth-grader greeted in as suave a tone as he could pull off under the circumstances, "How's it goin'?"
"How eez it goeeng?" Antoine mocked in a falsetto imitation of Sid's voice, "Zat eez ze best you are comeeng up with?"
"Well I don't see you coming up with any bright ideas," Sid snapped back in a harsh whisper, "Now shush! I will handle this."
Antoine rolled his eyes, his stomach clenched with a strong sense of foreboding...which only got worse once he caught sight of the machete in the hands of the lead pirate.
'Zat eez what I am being afraid of.'
Half an hour later...
The very second they got outside the temple, Sid and Antoine collapsed to their knees in pure exhaustion. Those pirates, as the Mobian solider anticipated, had drawn their swords and guns before Sid could get even a single word out—so much for smooth-talking.
"Okay, so that wasn't what I had in mind"-Sid huffed for air, his chest heaving heavily, and wiped the sweat off of his forehead as he admitted this. Yeah, having to stave off a bunch of pirates definitely wasn't what he had in mind. On the bright side-"At least we're still breathing."
"Oui," Antoine nodded, panting from the rush of the run as well, "It eez good thing I had leftover smoke pellets Princess Sally gave me before trip. Otherwise, we would have not made eet."
Sid perked a little in remembrance at the smoke pellets. Oh yeah, in all the, uh, "excitement", Sid had completely forgotten about Antoine's smart move back there. The pirates, so sure of the fate of their seemingly cornered victims, never counted on being rendered blind. As a result, not only did Sid and Antoine manage to give those creeps the slip, but the pair also managed to deck some of the goons they rushed by, leaving the remaining ones to deal with their fallen comrades.
After that escapade, finding the exit ended up being easier than expected. How, Sid had no idea—and he doubted Antoine had about as much of a clue as he did—but who cared? They still survived in one piece!
And all thanks to Antoine's quick-thinking...speaking of which...
'I never thought this guy could think on his feet like that,' Sid begrudgingly confessed in his head. Maybe this dude wasn't so bad, after all...mostly.
But Sid missed the opportunity to thank Antoine for a moment because the Mobian, in spite of his lingering fatigue, managed to stand up and began walking away from the temple at a fast pace, gesturing his companion to follow. Not that the fifth-grader minded—anything to get as far away as possible from those jerks was fine by him.
Still...
"Say, Ant," Sid said once he'd finally caught up with Antoine. He ignored the look of amazement—and perhaps slight warmth—that crossed the coyote's face. Apparently, Antoine hadn't counted on the boy using his nickname—at least not for another ten years. Sid rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment as he tried to collect his thoughts and find the right words.
"Uh... what you did back there. That was kinda cool, y'know."
"Oh, eet was notheeng. I could have handled those ruffians myself," the golden canine waved a hand dismissively, his haughty demeanor back and same as ever. Sid almost rolled his eyes at the display of bravado, but Antoine took the boy straight off guard with his suddenly solemn expression.
"Of course, I could not risk putting a child's life on ze line. I may be a coward, but I am not cruel."
Antoine said nothing more as he and Sid continued on. Sid shot a friendly smile at him for the first time.
"You know what, Ant? You're alright—for a snotty French guy."
"And you are alright, as well," Ant returned the smile in full, "for a leettle brat."
Don't ask why I made a chapter around these two...because, quite frankly, I'm not sure why myself. They're both oddballs. That is all.