Chapter 30: Deja Vu?
(Before I begin, I'd like to apologize for my long absence. I have many stories and plots in my head and it's hard to decide which one to work on first. I've finally decided to go through as much of one story as I can before I work on another. Charlie's story is the closest to completion, so I'll finish it first. It will still remain a work in progress in the case that anyone has any ideas for an additional chapter.)
Kitty and Dudley walked into TUFF headquarters. Kitty looked around curiously. Normally Charlie would be here earlier than they would and would be working on something, the normal something being the Linerunner. Such would obviously generate a noticeable amount of noise, but today that noise was absent.
Dudley, do you hear any noise? Charlie's normally working on something and it makes some noise. Your hearing's better than mine." Kitty asks looking over to Dudley, her concern already appearing on her face despite the lack of adequate evidence that something's happened to him.
"No, I don't hear anything. Are you sure that he's not just relaxing in his cube or something?" Dudley answers doing his best to try and ease Kitty's concerns while not really wanting to get too involved with something that could potentially turn out to be nothing.
"No, you should know just as well as I do that Charlie is practically always doing something." Kitty answers, her concern increasing and becoming even more apparent as Dudley sighs out of exasperation.
Meanwhile at DOOM's headquarters, Charlie is tied to a wooden chair. The Chameleon, Birdbrain, Snaptrap, Dr. Rabies and Madame Catastrophe all lie in front of Charlie. Charlie was still somewhat asleep despite the rather uncomfortable way he was put in the chair. Eventually Charlie started to wake up. His eyes open slightly, not wanting to deal with harsh light as his eyes have yet to adapt back from the darkness of the previous night. Once they were adapted, Charlie looked around and noticed four of Petropolis's most wanted villains in front of him and then uses his sense of feeling to determine that his arms were tied behind his back behind the back rest of the chair and his legs were tied to the front two legs of the chair.
Well, this is an unwelcomed surprise. Thought that you can take me and TUFF down by working together?" Charlie asks raising an eyebrow, putting off working on his escape to determine his adversaries intentions as well as their plans.
"Of course you numbskull. We are all tired of you constantly putting us behind bars. We can't take you down individually, so we decided to put our grudges against each other aside long enough to destroy you." Madame Catastrophe answers as she takes a step toward Charlie.
"You do know that Kitty and Dudley will notice my absence and will suspect that something has happened to me. They will be here to free me shortly." Charlie answers not afraid of being outnumbered five to one despite also being restrained.
"That's where you're wrong agent. I'll be taking over for you inside TUFF headquarters waiting for the signal to destroy TUFF from the inside. Since I am assuming your appearance, you'll be blamed for the destruction and will probably be run out of town." Chameleon answers as he changes his shape to assume his closest appearance to that of Charlie, his eyes still in the normal weird arrangement. Chameleon doesn't stay much longer after his transformation as he heads out of DOOM's headquarters and runs to TUFF headquarters.
"That little charade won't hold up. I still hold my TUFF wrist-communicator." Charlie answers honestly although he was still gathering intel on the situation, but he decided that he was getting as much as he could from his adversaries and popped out the claw on his pointer finger on his right hand and starts to work away at the bindings on his arm. Not that any of you will hear this, but if you outnumber me, it's probably a good idea to make sure I don't try to cut myself free. Charlie thinks to himself.
"We already prepared for that. Rather than waste time getting yours off, it'd be easier for us to just let your girlfriend and her partner that we took yours and to ignore any messages that you send them. Now enough talk, it's time for you to meet your doom." Madame Catastrophe answers.
Charlie could not help but chuckle at them assuming that he'd go down so easily. "What's so funny about you going to perish?" Snaptrap asks confused and mildly angry about Charlie's laughter.
"There's a reason why I don't work by myself and it's not for Kitty's or Dudley's sake." Charlie answers quickly still working on his arm bindings, almost finished with the rope.
"Why would that be then?" Snaptrap asks curiously. Madame Catastrophe starts up a laser aimed to Charlie.
"It's for your well-being." Charlie answers, his eyes dilating outward and his pupils narrowing as he lets loose and goes feral.
"Not like it matters." Madame Catastrophe answers as she fires the laser toward Charlie.
Charlie breaks his arms out of the rope and quickly leans forward, causing the laser to hit the chair he is still partially bound to, vaporizing it. Charlie stands back up and takes off the now useless rope that's still around his legs.
"GET HIM OR PERISH!" Snaptrap yells out of frustration before all the adversaries draw out their laser guns and begin firing at Charlie.
"We know that already you pea brained parasite." Doctor Rabies angrily replies as he keeps firing.
Charlie takes off toward Madame Catastrophe, avoiding the majority of the laser shots aimed at him, ignoring the pain from the shots that made contact. Once Charlie is close enough to Madame Catastrophe, she stows her laser gun and begins to fight Charlie in a mixture of hand to hand combat and martial arts. Doctor Rabies, Birdbrain, and Snaptrap stop firing having decided that it would be a waste of ammo to fire, especially when they were bound to miss or hit Madame Catastrophe more than they were to hit Charlie. Charlie and Madame Catastophe managed to block or evade the others strikes for several minutes. The tables tipped in Charlie's favor when he tries to sweep Madame Catastrophe's feet, Madame Catastrophe jumps above the sweep but Charlie was throwing a flurry of punches toward her stomach. Madame Catastrophe uses her arms to shield her stomach from the barrage. Although, she was minimizing the damage to her stomach, each punch was sending her slightly further and further back. Charlie stops throwing punches but still doesn't allow Madame Catastrophe any time for a counterattack by grabbing her arms and throwing her in Doctor Rabies' direction. Madame Catastrophe took the time that there was distance between her and Charlie to regain her stepping and recover in midair. By the time she did though, Charlie was already nearby. Charlie jumped and kicked Madame Catastrophe in her stomach propelling her even more toward Doctor Rabies.
Doctor Rabies realizes what is going to happen and starts to run from the sight of the collision. Despite the head start he got, Madame Catastrophe was flying to fast in the air and collided only a slight bit later with Doctor Rabies than what would have happened. As Birdbrain and Snaptrap started to fire their lasers again, Charlie was handcuffing Doctor Rabies and Madame Catastrophe. Once the two of them were handcuffed, Charlie turned toward Birdbrain and Snaptrap. Birdbrain scared and almost terrified of what he had seen, turned and started running. "Are you a Blue-Footed Booby or a chicken?" Snaptrap asks angrily as he looks toward Birdbrain.
"I can't fly so apparently I'm a chicken." Birdbrain answers before making chicken sounds as he keeps running.
"That's kind of sad isn't it?" Charlie asks as he cracks his knuckles. Snaptrap gulps out of fear before starting to fire his laser at Charlie again. Charlie started on his way, running to Snaptrap. Snaptrap backs away from Charlie as he keeps firing at Charlie. Unfortunately for Snaptrap, his fear was causing his hand to shake making every shot veer off course enough that it was causing Charlie to laugh as he stopped running toward Snaptrap and started walking. Snaptrap eventually ended up backing into a wall as he wasn't checking where he was walking. Charlie kept walking toward Snaptrap as Snaptrap kept firing. Charlie waited until he was only a couple of feet from Snaptrap before he once again broke into a run toward the DOOM leader. Snaptrap kept firing until Charlie had used his palm to aim the laser gun up toward the ceiling. Snaptrap tosses the laser gun to the side before engaging in a one sided match of hand to hand combat. Charlie quickly tosses a barrage of kicks toward Snaptrap's stomach, making the villain hunch over in pain, Charlie drops his foot on Snaptrap's back with enough force to make him bounce off the ground after hitting the floor. Charlie finishes it up by kicking Snaptrap into a wall near the restrained Madame Catastrophe and Doctor Rabies. Snaptrap attempts to get up, but Charlie presses his foot on Snaptrap's back to keep him on the ground as he grabs Snaptrap's arms and handcuffs them.
"I'll send someone to pick you three up, but before that I have to make sure that the Chameleon doesn't reach Kitty and/or Dudley." Charlie answers as his pupils return to normal. Charlie doesn't take much of a rest before dashing out of DOOM headquarters on his way to TUFF headquarters to catch the Chameleon.
Back at TUFF, Kitty paces back and forth nervously near the front doors to TUFF hq, having not heard from Charlie in roughly one hour since she and Dudley arrived at TUFF headquarters. "That's it. It's been one hour since we've arrived. I'm going to call his wrist-communicator." Kitty says hurriedly over to Dudley who was relaxing in his cube as the rest of TUFF had arrived at headquarters during that time. Before she had enough time to even start to connect to Charlie's wrist-communicator, Chameleon Charlie enters through the front doors, exhausted from running all the way over here.
"Charlie, there you are. Where have you been? Why didn't you contact either me or Dudley if you were in trouble?" Kitty asks as she stomps over with a mixture of concern and anger on her face, mainly anger.
"I'm sorry Kitty. I was kidnapped by DOOM while I was asleep. Snaptrap, Birdbrain, Madame Catastrophe, Doctor Rabies, and the Chameleon all were working together to destroy me. The Chameleon took my wrist-communicator so I couldn't contact you. I managed to eventually fight my way out, but the Chameleon might arrive saying that he's the real me." Chameleon Charlie answers using deceptive maneuvers to technically give away part of his plan to manipulate the situation and possibly turn the two TUFF agents against the agent that the Chameleon thinks is still bound in the case that he manages to get out of DOOM headquarters and make it back to where he is.
"Wow, they must really hate you Charlie. They don't normally get along with each other well enough to work together. You go ahead and take a rest at your desk. I'll go tell Chief to put the headquarters on high alert if the Chameleon does show up. Dudley will keep watch on the front door, won't you Dudley?" Kitty answers relieved that 'Charlie's' safe, but on high alert of what she was just told.
"Sure, I told you that it was nothing worth worrying over." Dudley answers having not paid attention to what 'Charlie' had said. Dudley turned his attention to the door while chewing on a chew toy.
"Butt munch, he was attacked by DOOOM, it was worth worrying over." Kitty answers angrily before she walks to Chief's office as Chameleon Charlie heads to a random desk, not knowing which one does actually belong to Charlie.
Several minutes later but before Kitty could tell Chief to put TUFF headquarters on high alert, the real Charlie arrives through the front door and begins to look around for the Chameleon who assumed his appearance. Dudley wasn't paying attention as he was enjoying his chew toy until he notices Charlie at the front door. He turns and sees Chameleon Charlie at a desk. Dudley spits out the chew toy he had in his mouth and pulls out his laser gun, pointing it at Charlie. "Not so fast Chameleon." Dudley says keeping the laser gun at Charlie.
"Dudley, it's me Charlie. I have to find the Chameleon before he tries to destroy the base." Charlie answers trying to walk past Dudley, who in turns pushes him back toward the front door.
"Nice try Chameleon. Charlie already told us the entire story." Dudley answers remembering that 'Charlie' did say a lot, but he doesn't remember what he said exactly.
"Dudley, I don't have time for this. I'm already tired as it is." Charlie answers as the commotion catches the attention of Chameleon Charlie who begins to walk away from the scene of the altercation.
"You're not going anywhere Chameleon." Charlie says as he begins to try and run past Dudley, who manages to stop him and push him back a second time.
"That was your last warning Chameleon. Take one more step forward and I will fire." Dudley responds with his pointer finger near the trigger for the laser gun. Charlie doesn't respond but still takes a step forward. Dudley does just what he said he'll do and fire's at Charlie, hitting him in the stomach and turning his entire outfit and fur a dark charcoal black. Charlie shortly afterwards fall downs to the ground. Dudley leans over and sniffs Charlie.
"Ewww, burnt cat. Not the Chameleon. But that would mean..." Dudley speaks out loud to himself, but was cutoff by Charlie having recovered standing back up on his feet.
"Now do you believe me?" Charlie asks as he wipes off all the soot and dirt from his fur and clothes from the ground and from the laser shot. Dudley doesn't respond verbally, responding instead by nodding his head.
"Good, now we have to catch up with the Chameleon and stop him. I'll explain the true plan they were planning to do once we catch him." Charlie exclaims before he takes off with Dudley
Meanwhile, Kitty manages to tell Chief about what Chameleon Charlie told her and Dudley. "Good idea agent Katswell. We won't let the Chameleon get inside our headquarters that easily." Chief responds happily before turning on the loud speaker to TUFF headquarters. "Attention all TUFF agents, the Chameleon is going to attempt to infiltrate TUFF HQ. Seal all windows and place agents at all doorways to do check for TUFF badges." Chief speaks out across the loudspeaker before pressing a red button. All the windows become barricaded with steel on both sides of the glass and agents scramble and compete for who will be stuck at each of the doors.
Kitty exits from Chief's office and notices Charlie running with Dudley. Upon closer examination by Kitty's sharp eyesight, she notices a wrist-communicator on Charlie's wrist. "DUDLEY, what are you doing with the Chameleon?" Kitty practically shouts as she walks over to Dudley, keeping her laser pointed at Charlie.
"Kitty, stop. This is the real Charlie. We've been made a fool of by the Chameleon. I shot Charlie and he smelled like burnt cat, just like when I shot you when I thought you were the Chameleon." Dudley answers quickly moving in between Kitty's laser and Charlie.
"I'd really rather not talk nor remember that day. Anyways, do you even know what the Chameleon smells like when he's changed shape?" Kitty answers lowering her laser gun, but raising an eyebrow instead.
"You're right." Dudley answers not taking that into account.
"I hate to interrupt, but we can find out when we catch the other Charlie. Then we can determine which one of us is the real one and which one is the Chameleon in disguise. We can also have Dudley determine the Chameleon's smell. It might actually come in handy later." Charlie answers really wanting to find the silver lining for the cloud as well as to minimize any delays in their search for the Chameleon.
"Okay, I'm pretty sure you're the real Charlie. The Chameleon would not suggest we do something that would help us to track him down." Kitty answers her face a mixture of embarrassment and shame.
"Kitty, anyone can make that mistake if they gave a good enough story, myself included. Right now, we have to worry about the Chameleon." Charlie answers doing his best to console her. Kitty nods her head before she joining Dudley and Charlie as they ran after the Chameleon. Eventually, they come across the Chameleon heading toward the beverage room.
"Seriously, I don't need a repeat of what happened the last time this occurred." Charlie says out loud before taking out a grappling hook gun and aiming it at the Chameleon's legs as he's still Charlie while Dudley and Kitty keep running toward Chameleon Charlie. The grappling hook misses but instead trips Chameleon Charlie.
"Not so fast Chameleon. We know that's you now." Kitty answers as she pulls out her laser gun again and aims it at the Chameleon. The Chameleon doesn't respond but changes to a snake. Charlie doesn't even retract the grappling hook he shot, instead just tossing the gun to the side before joining Kitty and Dudley who stay near the Chameleon.
The Chameleon tries to slither up to the button to initiate the self-destruct sequence for TUFF HQ, but is unable to get up far enough. He attempts to try and change to a form that can stand, but is quickly taken down to the ground by Kitty who immediately handcuffs him. "Now that he's been captured. You can say what really happened." Dudley answers curious but not really going to pay attention what Charlie says.
"The majority of it you already know. Snaptrap, the Chameleon, Birdbrain, Madame Catastrophe, and Doctor Rabies teamed up and kidnapped me during the night. Not sure how I didn't wake up during the travel. Anyways, I was bound to a chair and I got that much from them. Where the stories differ is that they didn't want to waste the time getting off my wrist-com, so they devised that story to make up for it. They told you that as a back up in the case that I managed to escape from them. Despite being outnumbered four to one, they didn't utilize their advantage to the fullest and I managed to get free and fought them all off. On that note, Snaptrap, Doctor Rabies, and Madame Catastrophe are all handcuffed back at DOOM HQ." Charlie answers describing what happened to him, the memory of DOOM HQ reminding him about the three villains that he took care of before he returned to TUFF HQ.
"We'll get them right now." Kitty answers as she picks the Chameleon by his arms and pushes him along to outside TUFF HQ. Outside, the police were waiting to take him to prison.
Charlie watches as Kitty comes back, Dudley suddenly get the feeling that the story was missing one person. "Hold on Charlie. What happened to Birdbrain?" Dudley asks bringing up a good point.
"Dudley right Charlie. You said that Madame Catastrophe, Snaptrap, and Doctor Rabies were all knocked out back at Doom HQ. Where did Birdbrain run off to?" Kitty asks curiously her instincts a bit more alert since the flightless villain could be nearby.
Charlie chuckles nervously for a bit, "I had to resort to going to a more feral fighting style when I fought against the four of them. It had scared off Birdbrain, so he's probably somewhere trying to calm down." Charlie answers rubbing the back of his head. The very thought of Charlie having to use that rather merciless style of fighting brought goosebumps to both Dudley and Kitty's body.
"That must've been some fight. It's a bit strange that Jack Rabbit wasn't amongst the group to have kidnapped you." Kitty answers bringing up the name that still somewhat haunts Charlie after that event in which the two of them first met.
"No offense Kitty, but I'd rather not remember him. Though, to be honest with you, I actually agree with the curiosity of him not having been part of the group. He could have easily have taken the opportunity to take away the information I know about TUFF for his own devices. I guess that he has something else in mind that may relate to draining us all of our information about TUFF." Charlie answers visibly upset at the beginning, but his face quickly changing to more and more of an analytical standpoint.
"Doesn't matter. He hasn't succeeded yet, and he won't succeed ever." Kitty answers confidently, her paws on her hips. Charlie doesn't respond with a verbal response, instead going to smile and nodding his head in agreement without a slight bit of hesitation.
"Let's worry about him after we get the three unconscious villains to their new homes in the Petropolis state prison." Charlie answers as he presses a button on his wrist-com, calling over the Linerunner to his location outside of TUFF HQ. Charlie hops in the driver's seat and Kitty in the front passenger seat, Dudley as always going to the middle in the back seat.
"Charlie, what do you plan on doing after we get the city crimeproofed?" Kitty asks curiously as she looks over to Charlie who has started to drive back toward Doom HQ.
Charlie couldn't help but to stifle a low chuckle which immediately drew concern from Kitty, while Dudley was rather oblivious to the context of the conversation. "I'm sorry Kitty, I couldn't help but laugh. To be honest, I find it an impossibility that we'll be able to get the city crime free permanently. To answer your question though, I was planning to go into a tech shop, spending some of my free time getting up to par with you in martial arts." Charlie answers glancing over to Kitty using his peripheral vision to keep his eyes on the road.
"Wow, that's a real optimistic way to look at thing Charlie." Kitty answers visibly annoyed, which causes Charlie to get nervous as he doesn't want to see how Kitty gets when she is mad.
"I'm sorry Kitty, but that is just how I feel about that matter. I don't think that our work will ever be done, even after the two of us are retired from our jobs as secret agents." Charlie answers hoping to calm Kitty down as he gets Doom HQ in his sight as he slows down the Linerunner.
Kitty doesn't respond, partially due to still being mad at Charlie from his earlier response and partially due to thinking through Charlie's last response.
Once the Linerunner reaches DOOM HQ, Charlie engages the Prisoner Transport attachment, the attachment engaging from the back of the Linerunner. Charlie heads into DOOM HQ and grabs the three knocked out villains one at a time, first is Doctor Rabies, second is Snaptrap and finally is Madame Catastrophe. After getting all three villains into the transport, Charlie drives to the Petropolis state prison. Unbeknownst to the three unconscious villains and the three TUFF agents, a mysterious figure was watching them from a rooftop using a pair of advanced binoculars. After losing the sight of the Linerunner and the occupants, the figure stows their binoculars and pulls out a commset from their pocket. "This is the scout from Petropolis. Intel about our desired member is correct. Request sending out the oblivious guest to initiate Operation Smoke Screen. Also send out a representative to contact his adversary organization so that Operation Smoke Screen will result in the inhibition of both organizations to keep them from being a nuisance during our collection of the desired member. Understood, returning to base." The figure says into the commset before putting it away. "Soon this place will be yet another crater. We are delayed enough as it is, but once we get him, we can hopefully progress beyond our set guidelines. " The figure says mumbling to himself before running off.