Disclaimer: PoM and ToS do not belong to me.
"A cursed card with a picture of a feather from an evil black bird."
Being in New York's Central Park Zoo, under the rule of King Julian, had taught Maurice to expect the unexpected. In the same place as those psychotic penguins, things never seemed to go according to plan. Of course, he couldn't blame everything on the penguins. The lemurs and even Marlene had caused their fair share of messes. In the end, though, everything always went back to normal.
And now, they were stuck on another crazy adventure, only this time, the reason behind it was not that Kowalski's newest experiment had gotten loose, or King Julian dabbled in something he shouldn't have, or anything of that sort. They were recruited by an odd monkey who worked with Darla to find these strange, almost evil artifacts known as Devil's Arms.
Despite the fact that he had a bad feeling about these weapons, Maurice tagged along, knowing that if they didn't have someone level-headed, things would get blown out of proportion. Normally that role was filled by Private or Marlene, but Marlene wasn't allowed to leave the zoo and Private... well, he'd been acting strange for a while now.
The loud voice of Julian shouting about finding something jolted him out of his thoughts.
Everyone ran over, and Private sighed, "Julian, that's not a Devil's Arm. It's just a toy sword," Maurice wondered if it was only himself that noticed how relieved the youngest of the penguins had seemed.
"How do YOU know?" The mammal retorted. Private grasped the sword in his flippers, turning it over carefully.
"Well, for starters," He began, "It's made of plastic. There's also a logo that says, 'Made in China' at the hilt of the weapon."
Julian scoffed, "Whatever," Everyone rolled their eyes at the 'King'. Walking away from the scene, Maurice saw a look of subtle anxiety on the Private's face.
"Hey, you alright?" He whispered. No need to get the others involved in this. They either wouldn't understand, or get caught up in his business. Private blinked at him, as if just noticing him for the first time. It wouldn't have surprised him if that were true.
"I'm fine," Private lied, "It's just... I feel kinda anxious. That may not have been the real Devil's Arm, but I think the next one is close. Plus, I've got a headache," He smiled at the lemur, though it seemed almost fake, "I'll be fine, really."
Maurice wasn't quite so sure about that. He seemed troubled, and his eyes were darkened, like they always were when he was hiding something. Maurice may not know much, but he did know that whatever it was he's hiding was scaring Private if he wouldn't just come out and say it. But the question was, what was he so afraid of?
Their conversation wasn't going anywhere, so Maurice didn't pursue the subject further. Instead, he ran ahead and caught up with the others. Occasionally, he would glance to the others. The only one who seemed concerned for Private was Skipper, who would send worried looks back to the rear of the party, where Private was walking. The others were either too busy looking for the arms, or talking to each other to notice.
Finally, they made it to the center of the park, where they did their customary splitting up. It was always the same. Skipper would go with Private, Kowalski with Rico, and the lemurs would be stuck together. Unless Marlene was involved, then they sent her with Julian.
"...and so I was like, nuh uh, and she was totally like, uh huh, and..." Maurice found himself to be a pretty good actor, especially when it came to hanging out with Julian. He could pretend to be listening and finding stuff fascinating when in fact he was bored to death and zoning out. In fact, he wasn't even sure Julian knew what he was talking about. The King of Lemurs seemed to talk only to keep things from going quiet.
Rolling his eyes, the sound of leaves rustling a little too hard for it to have been the wind hit his ears. He stopped and, with wide eyes, spun around. The leaves were still again. Nothing was there. He turned back to find Mort and Julian had walked on, not even noticing his absence.
"Great..." The aye-aye muttered. Not only was he alone in Central Park, which he just barely knew his way around, but what just happened had made him jumpy and paranoid.
He moved in the direction he last saw Julian and Mort go in, but was stopped by something fast running in front of him, knocking him backwards. With a quick gasp, he looked around. Suddenly, these woods seemed a lot more eerie then they had mere moments ago. Maurice walked backwards, away from the path, and boldly called out, "Who's there?"
In response, the bushes nearby rustled. Maurice turned to them swiftly, then backed away in the other direction. Something pushed him down to the ground from the other side. Maurice backed up, still on the ground. Two wolf like creature crept through the park flora, growling as they approached the portly lemur. One of them had a pack strapped to him, the other had a blue coat. They both started towards him.
"Heh, now now, let's try to settle this rationally and-" Poor Maurice didn't get the chance to even finish his sentence. The wolves pounced forward, razor sharp fangs glistening with fresh saliva. Maurice just barely dove out of the way of these strange beast, wondering what on Earth he did to make them that upset.
One of them pounced on top of Maurice. The lemur just barely held him back with his bare hands while it tried to bite down at him. Without really thinking, Maurice kicked the thing with all his strength. The result was that the wolf with the bag, the one on top of him, was tossed into a tree. The bag slid open, and a pack of cards fell out. The other wolf attempted to tackle Maurice, but the lemur slipped under him.
Grabbing the pack of cards, Maurice turned to the one trying to kill him. The one he'd kicked into a tree had, luckily, been knocked out. The other one was still trying to catch up to him. Desperately, he pulled two of the cards out, looking at them...
...what the heck was he supposed to do with these?
The second wolf had finally realized where he was and charged at Maurice. In a panic, he did what every creature did. He followed his instincts.
The results were unbelievable. It was like someone had sewn an instruction manual into his head. He knew exactly where to move, when to move there, and how to perform that move. He flipped over the wolf, striking him in three spots. The wolf, stunned, collapsed to the ground, and tried to get up.
It couldn't. Maurice's blows had sealed it's chakra. Breathing heavily, Maurice looked down at the cards that had saved his life. Unlike normal, rectangular cards, they were five-sided, shaped roughly like coffins. Each one was identical, golden with black trimming. At the center of each card was a hand painted picture of a black feather. It wasn't that the cards were particularly scary. It was that some sort of energy within them freaked him out.
Were the cards, perhaps, a Devil's Arm?
"There you are!" King Julian called to his servant, "I was so worried! Don't disappear like that again!"
The others came up to him as well. It seemed Julian had noticed he was missing, and went to the others to start searching for him. Maybe Julian deserved a little more respect than the portly lemur first thought.
Private kept staring at the stack of cards in his grip, "Are those the Devil's Arms? They're different from normal."
Being reminded of the Arms, Maurice quickly told his tale, "It was like, some force within the weapon took me over then. Something strong," He glanced at the cards, remembering that feeling, "Whatever it was, it wasn't just pure instinct."
"Maybe you were on to something when you said these things had a mind of their own," Skipper said, looking at the cards. Maurice wondered who he was addressing, but he had a pretty good idea.
Sure enough, Private spoke up, "I told you, Skippah. These things are dangerous in a way we can't understand."
And suddenly, Maurice saw that same fear he saw earlier. Without thinking he asked, "Do you want us to stop?"
A painful silence followed, ending with Private answering, "No. If you guys are in this, I am, too."
Maurice was used to weird things happening. Evil weapons that took you over, he could manage. Baboon sorceresses tapping into unknown powers, that seemed reasonable compared to some of the stuff he's been through. This adventure, however, was really odd in the eyes of Maurice, servant Aye-Aye of King Julian.
Because this time, the adventure was starting to boar a whole in the hearts of the adventurers.
And so, another Devil's Arm is found. Several Notes:
The cards are called 'Guardians' within the game of ToS.
I would like to apologize to anyone following this story for the recent lateness. My writing muse apparently has left me since school started.
No, Maurice is not a good fighter. I'm just reiterating how powerful the Devil's Arms are. They can take over a person when they're forced to fight. Skipper, earlier, had enough training to resist this.
Mort's chapter is next... any and all suggestions would be appreciated greatly!