Tuff Puppy Chapter 5: Messenger of Solice
The next day, the city was relatively quiet other than for Dudley's attempts to catch the ice cream man using the Tuff Mobile. At the prison, after lunch was served the Chameleon and Dark Angel were taken back to their cell.
"Okay, now I will break us out." Dark Angel says as he stops leaning on the wall. "How are you going to do that, you are in here as well?" the Chameleon says starting to believe his cell mate is crazy. "The suit that I wear is bonded to my skin, it cannot be taken off. It allows me to diffract light, allowing me to change my image into any form I choose just by a thought through the helmet that is inside the suit, I can also use it to become invisible." Dark Angel says looking at the Chameleon, slightly annoyed by the question. Dark Angel turns invisible. A guard patrolling every cell sees that Dark Angel isn't in the cell.
The guard unlocks the cell and enters it. The guard falls to the floor unconscious. "Since neither of us know where your suit is right now, you will have to follow behind me till we are out of here." Dark Angel says as he puts on a pair of knuckles with claws on the end. "What are those for?" The Chameleon asks with a slightly scared curiousity. "These claws are made out of a extremely durable metal that I stole, this will only break if it is used for two long then is hit by any solid object." Dark Angel says as he heads to a wall. Dark Angel cuts a hole in the wall. Dark Angel then cuts a hole in the fence outside of the prison. "Since you are my employer right now, you will decide where we will meet to discuss the details of the job you want me to do." Dark Angel says to the Chameleon as he tries to get through the hole. "Let's meet there now." The Chameleon says getting through the hole. "You must be pretty desperate to hire someone as soon as you meet them. I'll follow you," Dark Angel says following the Chameleon.
When the Chameleon and Dark Angel arrive at the Chameleon's house, Dark Angel is kind of freaked out by the location. "I need you to take care of tuff Agent Charlie Cheetah?" The Chameleon says holding a picture of Charlie. "Wait, did you say Charlie Cheetah?" Dark Angel says surprised by the name of his target. "Yeah, are you scared?" The Chameleon says trying to get a deal. "No way, I just served with his father while we were members of the Oblivion Squad. Torell told me great things of Charlie. It will take a pretty big price for me to take care of my partner's son." Dark Angel says angered by the Chameleon's question. "First, you were a member of the Oblivion Squad? Second, how much are you talking about?" The Chameleon says surprised by the name Oblivion Squad. "Yeah, I was the recon man for the squad while Torell was the leader as well as the technical expert. Second, about a full million would be the price including the fact that Torell has been telling me that his son's technical knowledge now matches his own."Dark Angel says grinning since he beleives the Chameleon doesn't have that much dough. "That's most of my villain's savings account, but fine. With him out of the way, I can steal the money from banks." The Chameleon says writing Dark Angel a check. "So you know, the money will be refunded if I don't get the job done the first time." Dark Angel says accepting the check before heading off.
Back at tuff headquarters Charlie was finishing up on some upgrades on the Linerunner. Charlie starts to hear a bunch of noise upstairs. Charlie takes off his gloves, goggles, helmet, and gets out from under the Linerunner. Charlie heads up to through the stairs and when he arrives at the tuff agents' desks he sees that Dudley and Kitty are fighting over the final donut again. "Charlie, get over here and tell Kitty that the final donut is mine." Dudley says trying to grab the final donut. "I am his girlfriend, so he is going to side with me. Isn't that right Charlie?" Kitty says swatting away Dudley's hands. "Don't worry I have a solution." Charlie says as he heads over to the box with the donut.
Charlie takes the final donut and eats it. "There I told you I have a solution." Charlie says licking his fingers. Dudley and Kitty stand there stunned by that not just did neither of them get the donut, also their partner was the one who ate it. Charlie heads into the restroom to wash of the oil and grease from his face. Charlie exits the restroom and sees that Kitty and Dudley are still standing the same exact way they were before he entered the restroom. "You two just going to stand there? It is nearly time to head back home." Charlie says waiting for an answer. Kitty moves first while Dudley stays at the same pose. Charlie waves his hand in front of Dudley's face. Dudley shakes his head and starts moving.
When Charlie arrives at the hotel room, he heads up the stairs and finds his room. Charlie hears some foot steps coming from inside his room. Charlie pulls out his laser, then slowly turns the knob for a bit before letting go. Charlie heads to a restroom a slight bit down the hall. Charlie enters the room and gets on his wrist-com. "Chief, an unidentified person has entered my hotel room. The person may or may not be hostile, but I want some back up with me in case the person is volatile." Charlie says over his wrist-com. "I will send your partners toward your location, stay there for now." Chief says with a coffee cup behind him. Charlie nods and waits for his partners.
A couple minutes later Kitty and Dudley arrive in the tuff mobile. The three meet up by Charlie's hotel room just by the stairs. "Okay, be prepared for anything." Charlie says as he and Kitty get out their lasers. Dudley takes out a fork and a knife. Charlie and Kitty looks at Dudley like he is stupid. "What, you said be prepared for anything, doesn't that include dinner?" Dudley says as his tongue appears out of his mouth. "How did he make it through basic training?" Charlie says to Kitty not believing that Dudley could have been a trained agent. "Chief put him on, he didn't go through training." Kitty says ashamed of the answer. "That tells me so much." Charlie says as he looks around the door to his room. Dudley finally takes out his laser.
Charlie opens the door and the agents enter with Charlie first, Kitty and Dudley get stuck in the doorway for a while. Charlie doesn't see anything out of place. Dudley starts firing randomly around the room. Charlie's entire room looks like a train wreck by the time Charlie figures out that it is Dudley firing and not the person in the room. "Dudley, you moron, what are you doing? This room has pressure plates under several pieces of carpeting, they are hidden and the other pieces of carpeting are raised so the plates blend in." Charlie says taking Dudley's laser. "Let's separate, but stay withing viewing distance of each other." Charlie says to his partners. Charlie gives Dudley his laser back. They search around the room. While heading to the kitchen, Charlie walks straight into something invisible. Charlie gets sent back by the invisible object.
The object reappears and turns out to be Dark Angel. "Hello Charlie, long time, no see. How is your father?" Dark Angel says to Charlie who is getting up. "It has been a while Dark Angel, dad's fine. What are you doing here?" Charlie says using the shot up couch to stand up. "I am here to take you out of the picture." Dark Angel says getting on his knuckles. Dudley and Kitty see Dark Angel and they start firing their lasers. Dark Angel bats them toward Charlie who struggles to dodge the lasers. Kitty stops firing while Dudley keeps firing. "Dudley, stop that. The person is batting them back at Charlie." Kitty says before nailing Dudley on the head. Dudley and Kitty get into a fight while Charlie and Dark Angel fight.
"You forget Charlie that all the members of the Oblivion Squad taught you how to fight, including myself, I know your moves enough to counter." Dark Angel says mimicking Charlie attacks. Charlie does a flip back before getting his claws out. Dark Angel shakes his head before Charlie rushes toward him. Dudley and Kitty stop fighting and run to Dark Angel. Dudley runs forward with his head out. Dark Angel moves out of the way a little bit before Dudley can hit him. Dark Angel grabs Dudley while he still running and spins him around. Dark Angel releases Dudley so that he is running toward Kitty. Kitty is too close so she can't avoid the run. Dudley rams Kitty in her stomach with his head continually until Dudley runs into the wall. Dudley and Kitty get knocked out.
"Chief, I need back-up, my partners are out cold and the person is an imitator who wants to take on my identity till it's too late to repair the damage he does." Charlie says avoiding Dark Angel's attacks. "Okay, I will send Repentance your way." Chief says looking at the situation. "You have gotten soft Charlie. I still remember the time you worked for your father. As soon as a single hero figures out that you have infiltrated their base, they know their job is a failure." Dark Angel says nodding his head in disbelief. Footsteps are heard running up to the hotel. Then the same footsteps are heard running up the stairs. Repentance enters the room and instantly kicks Dark Angel so hard that he goes through a wall right into another room. "I will take care of him while you try to get your partners awake." Repentance says looking back at Charlie. Charlie nods before running to Kitty and Dudley.
Dark Angel starts to get up when Repentance takes out his swords and runs through the hole. Dark Angel gets up and blocks the katanas. "Hey Terry, remember me? It's Torell, you know from High School and the Oblivion Squad." Repentance says silently to Dark Angel. "Torell, I heard that you might have gone soft, but I didn't believe it. Now I see that it is true." Dark Angel says pushing Repentance back. Repentance and Dark Angel stay on par with each other, neither of them are able to connect with a hit to the other.
Meanwhile Charlie had managed to wake Kitty up without having throw a bucket of cold water on her. "What's going on?" Kitty says putting her left hand on her head. "Repentance is dealing with the imitator while I was trying to get you awake. We should help him out once we get sleeping butt-muncher awake." Charlie says as he and Kitty look at Dudley who is muttering something while asleep. "Come here you delicious steak." Dudley says before instantly waking up with a scared look on his face. "Nice to see you are awake. Now we can help Repentance." Charlie says as he helps Kitty up. Dudley picks himself up and the three of them start to run toward Repentance and Dark Angel.
In the room on the other side of the hole, Repentance and Dark Angel are still in deadlock. Repentance jumps over Dark Angel and does a turn getting ready to deal a horizontal strike. Dark Angel sees where Repentance is going to land and jabs straight toward the spot. Repentance cuts the central cord that connects the helmet to the rest of the suit, but Dark Angel jabs Repentance right at the time he lands. "Sorry Torrel, but it is a job that I am getting paid a fortune to do." Dark Angel says as he pushes Repentance off of the left claw. The swords drop down onto the floor.
Charlie, Kitty, and Dudley stop when they see what happen. "Oh no." Charlie says as he waits for Repentance to get up, but he doesn't. Charlie whispers something to Kitty and then to Dudley. The two of them nod at about the same time. Dark Angel comes through the hole. Charlie runs to the left of Dark Angel, Dudley runs to the right and Kitty runs right toward Dark Angel. Dark Angel looks toward Charlie, but looks back at Kitty who kicks him. Dudley gets behind him and lays down. Dark Angel trips over Dudley. Charlie runs to Dark Angel, does a flip over him and grabs his shoulders half way during the flip. Charlie lands on his feet and throws Dark Angel into a wall. Dark Angel hits it so hard that an imprint of his body remains on the wall. Kitty hand cuffs Dark Angel while Charlie and Dudley run through the hole and pick up Repentance.
When all five are outside, tuff agents put Dark Angel in custody and put Repentance in an ambulance. "Hold on. He will want his swords when he wakes up." Charlie says to the medics. They nod in agreement. Charlie runs up and finds the swords. He looks at the hilt and sees two words imprinted by really small rubies. The words say Kara Cheetah. Charlie is in disbelief when he sees the names. "Dad." Charlie says before picking up the swords and runs back to the ambulance. The medics take the swords. Charlie tries to get in the ambulance, but the medics stop him. "Sorry no room left." One medic says before the ambulance drives off to the hospital. Charlie stands still for a while.
"What's wrong Charlie?" Kitty says to Charlie who is still facing where the ambulance drove off. "Oh, nothing's wrong." Charlie says back. "You found out that he is your father, didn't you?" Kitty says figuring out what is wrong. "The swords he has bear my mother's name. She died when I was only eight." Charlie says looking down. "What happened?" Kitty says sadly. "I will tell you two, after I talk to my father. Head back to hq for now." Charlie says as he runs to the Linerunner. Kitty gets Dudley, they get in the tuff mobile, and they head back to hq.
Charlie drives to the hospital and heads up to the counter. "Yes, I am looking for a patient called Repentance or Torell Cheetah." Charlie says to the receptionist. "Oh yes, he is room 206, just head through the left doors at the second intersection make a right and it will be the first room on the right." The receptionist says. Charlie thanks the receptionist before running off. Charlie finds room 206, and enters. He sees the two swords on the ground next to his father's bed. Torell opens his eyes and sees Charlie. "How did you know that I was Repentance?" Torell says sitting up on the bed. "I didn't, but you forgot that besides me and you, those swords were mom's most precious things." Charlie says taking a seat next to the bed.
"I just wanted you to admire me, like you did when I worked for Retribution." Torell says looking at the swords. "I always admired you. I didn't really care if you were good or evil. I didn't like it though when you changed just because mom died." Charlie says looking at his father. "Well, things have changed since I was a hero, so I will be retiring from now on. You can come back home now to rest Charlie." Torell says smiling to Charlie. "I have my own place, but I will come and see you every now and then." Charlie says as he heads to the door. "I would like that." Torell says before going back to sleep. Charlie exits the room, enters the Linerunner, and drives back to hq.
Back at the prison, Dark Angel paces in the cell. "I am so in for it. I just broke the most important rule of the Oblivion Squad. 'Never hurt a comrade, even if they turn soft.' I will be lucky to make it out of the city as a pulp." Dark Angel says still pacing around in his cell. "I'll never be able to work for any villain since of that. Then again, no one will hire a former villain who attacked another villain." Dark Angel says still pacing around in his cell. "If Torell is able to change then so can I, but where can I go? He can give me some advice. I just hope he didn't die. If I killed him, that is as good as signing my own death warrant." Dark Angel says pacing even faster around in his cell. Dark Angel sees a guard coming. "Can I make a call?" Dark Angel says to the guard. "Ok, but this will be your only call for this month." the guard says to Dark Angel. "Suits me just fine." Dark Angel says as he is taken to the phone room.
At the hospital, the phone in Torell's room rings. "Yeah, this is Torell." Torell says over the phone. "Yeah, Torell this is Terry, what should I do? The rest of the squad is going to make sure that I don't live to see dinner." Terry says sadly. "Don' worry, I talked to all of them, they won't stop you from finding your own path, in fact you can count on them and myself to help you out if you need it." Torell says gladly. "Yes, that is some good news, but what is my path?" Terry says first glad then sad. "Think of something that you enjoy to do during your free time and find something that deals with that?" Torell says reassuringly. "Thanks, if you ever need me, you know that all the squad members keep their communicators with them." Terry says as he finishes up his conversation. Later that day, Terry breaks out of jail, he escapes the cops and only the other squad members know where he is now.
Charlie arrives back at tuff, he sees Kitty and Dudley outside. "So what happened?" Kitty says seeing that Charlie's mood improved slightly from before. "Let's go in first." Charlie says as the three of them enter the building. They head to the cafeteria which is empty. "Okay, my mother was assigned to stop a super villain from building a doom's day device. She fought her way to the room with the device when she discovered that it was an ambush. The villain had decided to test it out on her. Unfortunately, he didn't understand how important the wiring was in such a weapon, the weapon malfunction and caused a massive explosion. My mother tried to escape through a window in the weapon room. She had used her swords to climb up the walls. She was engulfed in the blast and the swords which were the first out were shot from the lair and got stuck in City hall of Petropolis." Charlie says before taking a breath. "I tried to ask my dad what happened, but he wouldn't tell me. When a member came to our house with mom's swords, I snuck downstairs and heard the conversation. Dad was devastated. That was the last time he was a hero until a couple days ago." Charlie says looking at the ceiling. "Where did you live, before you dad kicked you out?" Dudley says trying to gets a drink of toilet cola. "I will show you guys tomorrow, as it is nearly time for the building to shut down, and we need our rest." Charlie says dragging Dudley away from the machine. The agents head home.
The next day, Charlie, Kitty and Dudley head to Charlie's old home. Torell lets them in and shows them around. Charlie's old house was a mansion that his parents built together. In the backyard, Dudley and Kitty see an entire jungle gym in the twenty acre area.
"My dad at that time knew how much I liked to experiment with the jungle gym. I used the swings and the slide to shoot myself up about thirty feet in the sky. I also used the monkey bars, the trampoline and the swings to get in my room after I missed my curfew. It didn't work, and I was grounded for seven full months. The last thing I did before mom died was also the thing that caused the cut on my eye." Charlie says taking them to a bike. "Cool, what happened?" Dudley says amazed at the fact that Charlie was actually some fun at one point in his life. "I tried to use the trampoline, the slide and the swings in order to gain enough air on my bike to get over the house. I was getting close when the front of my bike went off of the trampoline. I was shot toward the top of the swing. There was a sharp part at the top my dad didn't dull at that time. I cut my eye there and slid down the entire slide." Charlie says showing them a slide with a red line on the left side. "What is this red stuff on the slide?" Dudley says poking the red line. "That would be some of the blood that came out when i cut my eye. When I was at the bottom of the slide I started to cry. My mom came out and saw the mark. She took me to the hospital. Ironically enough, the day that I cut my eye, was my seventh birthday and the bike was my present." Charlie says grabbing Dudley's hands so he doesn't poke the blood.
"Let us see how you did these stunts?" Dudley says jumping up and down while Kitty stands there stunned. "Okay, but look to the right of the window." Charlie says pointing at a spot on the house. Dudley and Kitty look at it and the see an imprint on the wall. "Yeah, if I had moved more to the left, I wouldn't have gotten busted." Charlie says as he grabs his skateboard. Charlie sets the skateboard down in front of a swing. Charlie starts swinging on the swings, building up enough speed to do a full flip on the swings. Charlie still swinging immediately steps on the skateboard and zooms right toward the slide. Charlie zooms right up the slide and gets hundreds of feet in the air. "COOL, I JUST INVENTED SKYBOARDING!" Charlie yells down to Kitty and Dudley when he was doing tricks in the air. Charlie looks down and sees he is heading for a neighbors house. Charlie adjusts his skateboard in midair. Charlie lands on the neighbors house and grinds down on the edge. Charlie hops off his skateboard when he is on the ground and runs back to his backyard. "Well that blows my previous record out of the water." Charlie says setting his skateboard down.
Kitty is stunned at the precision that is needed for the lift off as well as the landing on the neighbors house. Charlie heads up on to the top of the monkey bars. He jumps down onto the trampoline and bounces toward the swings. Charlie grabs the bar on the swings and starts to swing himself for a while. Charlie releases his grip and heads toward the house. Charlie hits the same spot on the wall as he did last time. Dudley and Kitty close their eyes when Charlie is about to hit the wall. Charlie falls to the ground after a while. "Okay, note to self, don't ever do that again." Charlie says dazed by the collision.
"How about that house trick Charlie?" Dudley says bringing over the bike. "No, that still scares me from my first attempt which was also my last attempt." Charlie says denying the bike. "Okay, I will do it myself." Dudley says as he hops on the trampoline while on the bike. "You don't know how it is supposed to play out, Dudley." Charlie says as he runs over to stop Dudley. "Of course I do, hop from the trampoline onto the slide and onto the swings to gain more speed." Dudley says as he spins around on the bike. "No, that isn't how it is supposed to be done." Charlie says as he sees that Dudley is spinning closer and closer to the back of the trampoline. The front tire slips off the trampoline. Dudley goes right through two monkey bars and goes hundreds of feet away from the house.
"Moron, Linerunner go into Gradine mode and get Dudley before he hurts himself or more importantly others." Charlie says into his wrist-com. Out in the front of the building the Linerunner changes into the Gradine and flies toward Dudley. "Gradine, get above him and use the the cables to catch Dudley using his shirt." Charlie says looking at the wrist-com which shows Dudley who is still gaining air. The Gradine gets above Dudley and deploys a wire that connects to Dudley's shirt. Dudley is heading back to the house when the cable starts to break. "Gradine, get him here fast before the cable breaks." Charlie says as he hears the numbers of cables breaking increase. The Gradine is right in front of the house when the final cable breaks and Dudley falls to the ground hitting it all at once.
Kitty and Charlie close their eyes before Dudley hits the ground. Charlie helps Dudley up off the ground. "That doesn't look good, who knows how long for the damage to be healed." Charlie says looking up. "Thanks Charlie." Dudley says smiling. "I was talking about the concrete." Charlie says frowning toward Dudley. Kitty laughs in the backyard. Dudley walks to the Linerunner stumbling. "Let's go Kitty, before Dudley hurts himself any more." Charlie says walking over to Kitty. Kitty and Charlie walk over to the Linerunner.