Split Opinions
The next morning, Charlie arrives at work early in hopes of blowing the Chameleon's cover as Pat, but that plan proves impossible early on. As soon as he steps out of the Linerunner inside of the tuff parking lot, he sees Pat, Dudley, and Kitty. "What's going on here? Charlie says looking at the three of them. "We have a new mission. Snaptrap plans on using an invisibility helmet for some evil purpose. Chief says for us to deal with him." Pat says looking serious. Charlie looks over and sees that Kitty and Pat are closer both literally and metaphorically. In conjuction with the fact that Charlie knows that Pat is really the Chameleon adds to Charlie's internal frustration regarding the image in front of him.
Charlie remains calm and gets back into the driver's seat for the Linerunner. "Let's go then, I want to have a one on one talk with Kitty." Charlie says as he buckles himself into the driver's seat. "About what Charlie?" Kitty asks curiously as she sits between Pat and a door in the back of the Linerunner. Dudley takes the final seat in the back of the Linerunner. "If I told you right now, it wouldn't be one on one." Charlie says as he starts the Linerunner back up. Charlie spins the Linerunner around and punches the gas as high as he can get it, swerving in and out of mildly dense traffic of Petropolis streets. "Charlie you can can slow down a bit, or a lot." Kitty says as she collides with the door on several occassions. "Sorry Kitty." Charlie says as he slows down the Linerunner.
Charlie stops only a couple inches from the pathway to Doom's lair and gets out of the Linerunner. Kitty, Pat and Dudley all get out shortly afterwards. "This isn't right. They should've heard us arriving. I drove as loud as a pack of rhinos." Charlie says walking around Doom's lair. "Maybe they are inside waiting for us so they can surrender." Pat says motioning his hands to emphasize his point. "No, I know villains. I'm heading in to deal with traps, you can follow when you please." Charlie says before running into Doom's lair.
"Is he always like this?" Pat says looking over at Kitty, who's cheeks turn red. "Yeah, he cares for the team, that's kind of him and all, but he can be a worry wart at time." Kitty says nodding her head. "We should go help him." Pat says before running after Charlie. "Wait for me." Kitty says following Pat. "DUDLEY!" Kitty yells out to Dudley. "Huh? Hey, stop leaving me behind." Dudley says grumbling as he runs to catch up.
Pat, Kitty, and Dudley walk through the cave and see Franciso knocked out to the side as well as several traps that were placed and made very poorly. When Kitty, Dudley, and Pat arrive at the center of Doom headquarters they see Charlie in the center of the room with his eyes closed. "Charlie what are you doing?" Pat says confounded at Charlie's actions. "I agree with Pat, what are you doing?" Kitty says slightly embarrassed. "Shhhh, they are all invisible, I need to hear them to stop them." Charlie says keeping his eyes closed. "This is ridiculous." Pat says walking around before bumping into something or someone that he couldn't see. "Oomph." Francisco says invisible. "I stand corrected." Pat says running back over to Charlie.
"Get behind cover, it's going to start soon now." Charlie says searching around. A bunch of lasers fly from several directions. Charlie opens his eye and does flips over to an area where one of the lasers are coming from. He grabs the person and throws them at where another one of the lasers are coming from and the two people or things collide and the lasers stop. The last source of the lasers stop and starts running off. Charlie hears the footsteps. "Kitty, target at 10 o'clock from the way you are facing." Charlie calls over to Kitty. Kitty sticks her left leg out at the specified spot and she feels a brief pressure on it before something or someone falls to the ground.
"Dudley, you, Kitty and Pat work on finding the helmet for that one, while I deal with these two." Charlie says before heading over to where the two other invisible people or things are and uses his paws to feel around for something mechanical. He comes across what he is looking for on one of them and pulls it off, revealing an unconscious Snaptrap. Charlie repeats the same thing with the other person or thing and pulls off the helmet, the other thing actually turning out to be Francisco who is knocked out from the impact. Charlie looks over and sees Dudley jumping with joy along with Kitty and Pat who are standing side by side near an apprehended Ollie. Charlie struggles but manages to hold back his anger over the sight of Kitty and Pat before handcuffing Snaptrap and Francisco.
Charlie takes Francisco and Snaptrap by the handcuffs and puts them in the prison transport part of the Linerunner as Kitty puts Ollie in the same transport. Charlie locks up the prison transport and sees that he's the only person that isn't inside the Linerunner and heads to the driver seat and takes the criminals to the prison before converting the back part of the Linerunner back into it's original form and drives back to TUFF HQ. Once Charlie arrives in the garage of HQ, the rest of the team exit and go their own ways. Charlie grabs Kitty's arm stopping her from walking away with Pat. "I still need to talk to you Kitty." Charlie says with a loose but cautious grip on Kitty's arm. "Alright Charlie." Kitty says nervous and slightly worried about what Charlie has to say that the two of them need to be alone.
Charlie looks around and waits for the coast to be clear of anyone else before he takes a deep breath. "Kitty, Pat is really the Chameleon." Charlie says calmly, expecting an outraged outburst and isn't disappointed when he sees Kitty's face. "Charlie, that's ridiculous, you can't prove it. You are just jealous that I love Pat now, so you decide to make lies about him." Kitty says outraged. "Kitty, I saw him change into the Chameleon myself, you have to believe me." Charlie says doing what he can not to flat out cry. "Charlie, stop saying lies about him or we're through." Kitty says getting angrier. "Kitty, I'm not, please believe me." Charlie says struggling to hold back his tears. "Charlie, we're through." Kitty says before pulling her arm out of Charlie's grasp then walks away.
Charlie turns his back toward Kitty and sheds a couple of tears before wiping them away with the sleeve of his shirt. "Kitty may not believe me, but Chief has to believe me." Charlie says before heading up the elevator into the actual base. Charlie heads toward Chief's office and knocks on his door. "Come in." Chief says from the other side of the door. Charlie opens the door and takes a seat in front of the desk. "Ah, Agent Cheetah. What do you need?" Chief says smiling toward Charlie.
"Chief, Pat is really the Chameleon in disguise. I don't know what his plan is but I don't want to see it happen." Charlie says calmly. "Agent Cheetah, I think that all of our initial suspicions toward you have gotten to you. Besides, Agent Katswell told me about the break up and as skilled as you are, I have to agree with her. You need some time to calm down, so I'll be sending you on vacation to calm down and relax." Chief says rather depressed. "Chief, I'm fine. Yes, I'm upset that me and Kitty broke up, but I am not one to waste your time." Charlie says starting to hate his luck. "No buts Agent Cheetah, you are now on vacation for one week." Chief says starting to lose some of his patience.
Charlie growls, but not at Chief, but rather at his own stupidity for not knowing it was the Chameleon sooner and for not doing anything about it as soon as possible, but to Chief it sounds like he's angry at him. "Agent Cheetah, stop that or you are fired, do I make myself clear?" Chief says obviously angry. Charlie takes a deep breath and calms down. "Alright Chief. I'll leave tomorrow." Charlie says before getting up and leaving Chief's office. Charlie heads back down to the garage and hops into the Linerunner and drives back to his apartment. Inside a bathroom that he locked, Pat watches as Charlie drives away in the Linerunner. Pat changes into the Chameleon. "This is perfect, with Agent Cheetah out of the way, I'll have no problem destroying Agents Puppy and Katswell then TUFF." Chameleon says laughing to himself quietly before changing back into Pat before unlocking and exiting the bathrooom.
Charlie arrives at his apartment and unlocks it, he looks around sighing about this rotten turn of events. "All that I had to do to make up for my past mistakes, was it really worth it?" Charlie thinks to himself. Charlie packs up one briefcase full of clothes and a second briefcase with racing gear. Charlie sets the two briefcases down near his couch before heading into his dresser and pulling out a card with a red wire and racing wheel design. "Never thought I'd use this again. The guys will be glad to see me though." Charlie says as he puts the card into his pocket.
Charlie pulls out a cellphone and then quickly dials a number. After a while a voice is heard on the other side of the phone. "Hey there Katy." Charlie says with Katy's side of the conversation unable to be made. "I'm fine, just some relationship problems." ... "Yeah, and that person is actually the Chameleon." ... "I tried to tell her and Chief, they both said I was just jealous." ... "I am and I told that right to them up front, but the still didn't believe me." ... "I am on a forced vacation to get some time to calm down. I'm going back to meet up with the guys for the tournament." ... "Yeah, I should be allowed to go straight to the finals with my team since of my previous wins on the seasonal circuits." ... "Thanks, I would like you to keep hold of my wrist-com while I'm off." ... "Yeah, I expect the Chameleon to be making his move sometime while I'm away." ... "Thanks Katy, you're the best. Love you sis." Charlie says before closing his phone.
Charlie takes his briefcases down and out of the apartment and puts them into the Linerunner and has it change into the Gradine. Charlie then flies off out of sight of Petropolis.