Chapter 14

No sooner the Chris left then Dr. Campbell had returned and Surly was already sweating in fear at what the human was going to do. He wanted to run away but the cage made it impossible, except for backing all the way to the corner and shuttering in fear.

"Now my fine specimen, prepare to-"

BONK!

Before the human could finish a pan whacked him over the head and he fell limp on the floor with a derpy look on his face. Surly looked up and realized that Noah had hit the human over the head by standing on a chair and struck the man down with one blow of the pan he had found.

"Noah!" Surly exclaimed happily "How did you find me? Was it Chris?"

"The chickadee?" Noah asked as Mole, Grayson, Andie and the Bruisers hopped onto the table to free their friend "Well... yes and... him."

Cardinal landed on top of the cage and stared at Surly with it's creepy black eyes and Surly gasped as he said "What's that flying little monster doing here?"

"Raccoon, aka Liam, sent him over to help us bring you to him." Mole said with a frown "Was not our choice mind you."

"Raccoon's back? Oh no, I should have known!" Surly said as Noah unlocked the cage and Grayson opened the door, allowing Surly to jump out before he realized someone was missing "Hey, where's Buddy?"

"Uh, that's kind of snag number two." Grayson said with an uneasy grin on his face.

"What do you mean snag?" Surly asked with a frown.

"Raccoon captured him." Jimmy said with an angry look on his face "He said he was going to feed him to the alley cats if we didn't bring him to you."

"What?!" Surly replied with a shocked look that turned into sheer anger "When I get my hands on that faker I'll... I'll..."

"We'll figure something out soon, we're running out of time," Andie exclaimed "The sun is setting and in half an hour it will go down entirely!"

"And we still have no idea where Raccoon is!" Johnny exclaimed before Cardinal flew off and the group saw him head out the door and the groundhog added "Except for him, fallow that bird!"

The group ran outside the building and imminently saw the bird stand right next to an open manhole and Andie quickly realized what the bird was trying to tell them "The sewers? Raccoon and his minions took Buddy into the sewers?!"

"Figures that pile of slime would pick something that would match his personality." Surly said with a growl "Come on!"

One by one everyone went down into the sewers as Grayson groaned and said "Oh man, the things a hero has to do to save the day. I just hope I don't get any of the sludge on my tail, I just had it washed!"

Once they were all down Cardinal let them down the path towards the hideout with Noah holding everyone in his arms and Jimmy took in a sniff and said "Nice tunnel, too bad it stinks. Of course it's just as bad as my brother when he breaks wind."

"What are you talking about? It's yours that stinks worse then mine!" Johnny said as he pushed his brother and began a tussle before being interrupted by Mole, who put his arms between them and frowned.

"Please don't! It's bad enough this place stinks like high heaven!" Mole exclaimed "Well, at least I can see down here so I'll be everyone's eyes."

"And I'll keep an eye out for trouble, in case you overlook some." Jamie said.

With Cardinal and Mole leading the way, it wasn't long before they reached a garbage and waste pile covered area decorated to look like a camp ground site before Raccoon emerged with Buddy, still in the jar, by his side.

"It's about time you got here, we were just started to losing patience." Raccoon said

"When do we get to rip out his tail?" Johnny whispered to Andie.

"Not until Buddy is safe." Andie said "His safety is all that matters."

Surly and Andie were the first to approach Raccoon as he drummed his fingers across the side of the jar and Surly said "Alright Raccoon, here I am... now give back Buddy."

"Alright, a deal is a deal." Raccoon said.

But just before anyone knew it Raccoon shoved the jar and Buddy went rolling towards a steep drop right next to a waterfall made of sewage, The park animals tried to rescue him but they were tackled by either rats or cats, leaving Noah to try and reach Buddy before he could fall over the edge.

"Get off me you oversized hairball!" Jamie exclaimed as she tried to move but the cat who held her down refused to move.

"Get your hands off me! Don't you know who I am?!" Grayson asked in anger.

"Don't worry Buddy, i'll save you!" Noah exclaimed before he reached down and scooped up the jar. However he realized too late he was standing to close to the edge and fell, managing to grab the edge with one hand and the jar in the other. Noah hung there as he tried to figure out what to do before Raccoon loomed over him and he said "Well, well... it's not often that you happen upon something like this."

"Help me!" Noah cried "Help me and Buddy!"

"Stay away from the kid Raccoon," Jimmy warned as he tried to get up from under the paws of some cats "Or you'll regret it!"

"I have a very bad feeling about this." Mole said while some rats held him down.

"Why won't you help me?" Noah asked Raccoon.

"Why won't I help you? Why didn't your kind help me?" Raccoon asked "Why didn't you help these rats? Why didn't you help these alley cats here? We're all here, scrapped and scared from the abuse and torment that we are forced to put up with because of you monstrous humans, some have lost limbs like arms and tails, others lost their lives and futures and for those like me... we lost our families, mothers, fathers, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins... and even wives and children... I had a glorious future planned for my beloved wife and my only son... and you humans took that away from me. Ever since then I've waited for my chance to get revenge on the humans one day... and now I finally can."

"But not all humans are bad! I'd never hurt anyone and there are a lot more humans like me who would never hurt animals!" Noah exclaimed "You can't kill me because of that!"

"Actually... I can." Raccoon said with a smile.

Before Noah could respond Raccoon bit his fingers, causing him to scream in pain and he ended up losing his grip and tumbled into the waters of the sewage below.

"NOAH!" The park animals cried in horror.

Noah was pulled into a swirling vortex along with Buddy, who's jar broke when it hit a pipe and he hung on tight to the boy as they were pulled deeper into the merky waters before they were sucked into a pipe and vanished out of sight.

All the animals had watched this from the side of the drop and Andie broke down into tears as she fell to her knees and sobbed as hard as she could and Surly tackled Raccoon as he yelled "You monster! You killed Noah and Buddy!"

"I had to do it, to avenge those you lost you have to be willing to do anything for justice." Raccoon said "Even if someone else will have to die along side them. I wouldn't expect you to understand, just like your mother didn't understand."

"What?" Surly asked in shock.

"Yeah, she was rabbling on about unfair things on how Raccoon was running the park and planned to replace him with herself as the new leader..." Miguel explained "Of course, my old pal had to hire me to 'take care' of the complaining squirrel and we did... and now she doesn't complain or talk about paradise as much anymore."

Surly was so stunned he fell to his knees and allowed the rats to drag him away as Raccoon turned to his minions saying "And now we can go to Liberty Park, where Andie will step down as park leader and I will take my rightful place as leader once more... and this time no one will take it away from me ever again."

"Nobody's going to willingly go along with this!" Jamie exclaimed as the cats and rats dragged their prisoners away.

"They will... unless they want to be eaten by cats or tortured by rats." Raccoon said "And believe you me, you have no idea how long they've been waiting for this moment."

Andie was so heartbroken she threw her arms around Surly and continued to cry while Surly gently wrapped her arms around her and tired to calm her down even thought he was becoming a mess of tears himself.

"What now Surly?" Andie asked "What are we going to do?"

"I... I... I don't know..." Surly said in defeat "I don't know."