Chapter 23: Truths Unfold

The black SUV was driving fast in a street in Elmore. Eric and the blue cat was sitting at the back while a masked driver was driving on the road.

"You couldn't have made it a lot more subtle, can you?" Asked the driver.

"No can do." Replied Eric who was keeping an eye on the knocked out white humanoid. "His brother was there as well, and you know he's a good fighter."

"He didn't really showed much potential down there." Said the blue feline. "After I pinned him to the ground, he couldn't even get out until he had enough of your yapping."

"Hey, cut me some slack, rookie. I thought he would be alone. Least show some respect to the seniors." Eric grunted.

"Yeah, the senior who's 2 years younger than me and the one who I beat in the combat competition a couple months back." The blue feline taunted.

"That competition was rigged. I got distracted."

"That's enough, you guys. You can keep on complaining but we're still gonna have to tell boss that we lost Crowbar and that means you guys are telling." The masked driver said.

"Still ironic how he got a codename Crowbar and is literally a crowbar." Eric said laughing under his breath. "How's about we rob some place? Couldn't speed up the process but at least we'll get some money off of it."

"Sounds good to me." The blue feline said and nodded in agreement.

"You do realize we're gonna get it once we get back, right?"

"You got a better idea? We can't really kidnap out in the open with just three people, all the more two of them being teenagers. It's gonna be hard." Eric said.

" *sigh* Alright, but you're the ones answering to boss later."

"We're gonna be doing it anyway, Mr. Obvious." said the blue cat.

"I like you already, Strike." complimented the driver as he drove past the traffic. "So where to rob?"

"Most common place to rob." Eric said.

Moments later, at the gas station, Lexy was just about to get the carton of milk Richard asked for. She looked through the aisle and found one last carton of milk.

"Aha! Jackpot!" Lexy said as she grabbed the carton of milk. However, at the same time an old lady that looked like a crocodile got their hands on it at the same second she did. "Oh, so sorry but this is mine." Lexy said politely.

"It's not yours till you pay for it." Said the old lady as she held up her cane and beat Lexy with it on the head multiple times.

"Ow..hey..stop..doing..that!" Lexy said between hits and she pushed the old lady into the shelves and some of the stuff rained down on her. Lexy started panting and easing her head because of the hits.

She walked over to the check-out counter where there was a line. She felt that something was off. Maybe it was because there was usually not much people at the gas station at once. She shrugged the thought off and started wandering her eyes around the vicinity. She saw a few cars outside filling up gas.

The one that caught her eye though was a black SUV as she thought it seemed familiar. But as she focused on the vehicle, he saw a young adult get out of the car and filled up his car with gas like any normal person would do. After a few moments, she looked at the black SUV again and saw the person finishing up and was about to get into the vehicle. When he opened the door, however, he didn't want to go in. Two more people in black suits came out of the SUV and ran into the gas station. Once the door opened, they started ordering people around and it didn't take her more than two seconds that it was a robbery.

"Alright, everyone! Get on the ground!" Said one of the robbers while holding a gun out. Everyone got on the ground as told, even Lexy. The other robber walked up to Larry and handed him a duffel bag.

"Put everything in the cash register in here, NOW!" He said, pointing a gun at him. Larry hesitantly and slowly put in the money into the duffel bag. The two robbers felt as if their patience was being tested. "Do it faster, slow rock!"

Lexy was contemplating on what to do at a time like this. She felt that it all seemed familiar. That's when she remembered. The first time she met Cato and Amber. Only this time, she was in Cato and Amber's shoes. "What would they do at a time like this?" Lexy thought. When she tried to remember what happened four years ago, she started having doubts that it'll work in this situation. The longer she took, the more she felt helpless as she couldn't do anything.

She noticed that one of the robbers were too focused on Larry, while the other had his back turned on her. She snuck up to the robber and kicked his knee from behind, causing him to fall down. His grip on the gun became loose which gave the perfect opportunity for Lexy to grab it from him. She stomped on the robber's back so that he couldn't get up and put her weight on him while pointing the gun at the other robber.

"Hey, lady. You really don't want things to get ugly." Said the robber who was dealing with Larry.

"Of course I don't. Which is why I'm politely asking you to back off." Lexy taunted.

"You got guts. Sorry it had to be this way."

"Before this goes on, mind I know who's ass I'm whipping?"

"Name's Haywire. And that's Strike you're sitting on."

"Dude, shut up! Get me outta here!" said Strike.

"Zip it, blue head!" Lexy shouted right at his ear.

Meanwhile, Cato was running towards Riki's house to warn him about the kidnappings. However, he heard ruckus coming from nearby. He stopped and tried to listen for the sound to find out where it was coming from. Moments later, he ended up at the gas station where he found a familiar black SUV at the petrol stand.

"Oh hell no." Cato ran to the gas station and found two black suited men, one was pointing a gun while the other getting pinned down. But the person who pinned him down was... "Lexy?"

In the black SUV, the driver noticed Cato coming in. He turned on his walkie talkie and told Haywire and Strike. "Hey, you might wanna wrap this up quick. You got a buddy on your tail." He put down the walkie talkie and started the vehicle in case of a getaway.

Back inside the gas station, Lexy and Haywire were still in a standstill. It took a few moments before Haywire started rushing towards her to make the first move. She attempted to shoot but somehow missed. Haywire punched her face and she fell to the ground. Strike on the other hand managed to recover and got back onto his feet, only to be assaulted by Cato who just got in.

"Eric, don't you know it's rude to hit a girl?" Cato said.

"Eric?" Lexy questioned.

"Dammit, not again."

Haywire noticed Strike being attacked by Cato but he had his own problems.

"Tch, you punch like a baby. I'll show you how to punch." Lexy taunted as she went full blast to punch his lights out. Haywire managed to block it with his arm, but he felt pain from that punch. "Heh, you do pack a punch. Let's dance." Haywire said as they started going on a 2v2 brawl while everyone else evacuated the place, even Larry. Lexy managed to get on Haywire's back and pulled his mask before he pushed her off, with the mask along with it thus showing Eric's face.

Lexy was caught by surprise when she saw his face. Not because she's met him before, but because of a feature on his neck that caught her eye. It was a symbol that she recognized. She was too deep into space, Eric took the chance to throw her off guard, pushed her down and make a run for it. Cato and Strike on the other hand had a brawl of their own, only to be separated by Eric who kicked Cato straight to the jaw.

"Let's get outta here, c'mon!" Eric said as he dragged Strike out of the gas station. The black SUV drove to the entrance and both of them got in. Cato laid face-first on the floor from Eric's hit and faced towards the SUV. He could visibly see his brother tied up on his hands and feet inside the SUV as they opened the door. Once the door closed, the driver made a getaway out of town.

Lexy got up and faced the floor thinking about the mark she just saw on Eric's neck. Cato, however tried to ease up the pain on his jaw. The two teenagers were left alone in the gas station. Cato got up and walked to Lexy.

"Hey, you alright?" Cato asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. How's your jaw?"

"I've seen worse days. I'll be fine."

"Do you know those guys?"

"One of them. He's my little brother's friend. It's the one you pulled his mask off." Cato explained. "What's wrong? You seemed to lost focus earlier."

"I saw a mark on his neck. I know that mark." Lexy said.

"How?"

"You remember the first time we met? Back when the whole Pick Menace thing. There was a lot I didn't tell you guys. I was working for an organization called..."

"CR1M3? 1 for an I and 3 for an E? You got 3 factions and 3 bosses for that 1 organization. Is that it?" Cato said guessing on what she was about to say.

"How did you know?"

"I bumped into them when I came to visit my brother. There were three of them, one of them is with the police now."

"What happened?"

"I'll explain to you on the way, right now we got bigger problems at hand. That organization is planning on a mass kidnapping around town and Anna might be a target." Cato explained.

"Wait, kidnapping? Around Elmore?"

"Yeah, it's a good thing for you Anais is out of town."

"But she's coming back tonight. She should be at the airport by 8." Lexy said, both of them making a worried face.

Both Cato and Lexy stood there facing each other not knowing what to do. They tried to pull themselves together and tried to calm themselves.

"Okay, we need to take a step back on this." Cato said.

"Yeah, since Anais won't be here in an hour, we should head to Anna's place first."

"An hour? What time is it?"

"It's already 6.30 man." Lexy said as she pointed at the clock on the wall behind the check-out counter.

"Shit, then we gotta move fast." Cato said in a rush as he had a head start running normally while Lexy tried to catch up. "Hey, wait for me!"

At the Watterson's residence, Gumball, Darwin and Dante were watching a TV series together, Richard was still waiting for Lexy to bring back the carton of milk while Nicole just got downstairs and got ready to pick Anais up from the airport in an hour.

"Richard, why aren't you ready yet? We're gonna be leaving soon." Nicole questioned as the pink bunny sat lazily on the couch.

"I'm still waiting for the milk. Where could she be? It doesn't take that long to get to the gas station and back."

"Dad, getting to the gas station takes us a whole thirty minutes by walking." Gumball said facing his dad.

"C'mon Richard, we need to pick Anais up. You can have your celebration dinner once we get home." Nicole said as she was walking to the door.

"Or after we pick her up, we can stop by Joyful Burger and have our celebration dinner there!" Richard exclaimed as he got out of the couch. "Yes, it's foolproof! Kids, get ready!"

"Then we still gotta wait for Lexy to come back." Dante remarked.

"Yeah, and who knows how long she's gonna take to get back." Darwin added. "Can't you just take that pizza to go?"

"Oh sure. But I can't promise that most of the pizza will be gone by the time we get back." Richard said before he ran out the door and started the car.

"Okay, kids. We'll be back in a couple of hours. Have a good night." Nicole said. When she grabbed hold of the door knob, Gumball stopped her.

"Wait, mom. Mind if I follow you to the airport? I wanna see Anais again. I don't care if she doesn't wanna see me anymore. I wanna see her again." Gumball said begging on his knees, literally.

"Alright, Gumball. You can come. We might need someone to stop your father from eating some extra pizza slices anyway." Nicole said.

"See ya guys." Darwin said before Gumball shut the door behind him and got into the car with his parents.

It was 7 in the evening and the day has already gone dark. The road to Arashi's residence was quite far from the gas station, but they still made it in some time.

"That took way longer than expected." Lexy retorted.

"4 years and they still live in this area. I have no idea how they managed this." Cato commented. The Arashis were forced to live in the low-moderate side of town, where there were more bad stuff happening than good stuff, but only about 60% bad to 40% good.

Cato has been to Riki's house a few times, mainly because to play some of his games on his new gaming console. They both walked up to their doorstep and Cato rang the doorbell.

"Hold on Anna, I'm coming." Said a voice from inside the house. The door opened to reveal Riki's face full of anger as he was about to say something but changed his mind because he didn't see his sister, but his two friends from school. "Oh, it's you guys. Have you seen Anna anywhere?" Riki asked.

"That's why you're pissed?" Cato asked back only to get elbowed by Lexy.

"We were just about to ask you the same question. We thought Anna was here with you." Lexy said.

"No, she went out for a jog three hours ago and she still hasn't come back yet. It's 7 o'clock and I'm worried sick on where she might be." Riki said with a look of concern on his face.

"Yeah, that's why we're here. You see..." Cato was cut off by a voice from a distance. "Riki!"

They looked to where the voice was coming from and saw a dark blue wolf running towards them. She ran up the steps and stopped right behind Lexy and Cato, panting and putting her hands on her knees. She had bruises all over her face and body.

"CJ? What are you doing here? What happened?" Lexy asked.

"It's..It's Anna. She's been kidnapped!" Christine said.

"What?!" The trio shouted when they heard the news.

"Where was she kidnapped?" Riki asked.

"We met each other at the park and we decided to walk home together after grabbing something to eat. And then on the way, we got blocked by a black SUV and four guys came out of it. They took Anna, I tried to stop them but they beat me up. I'm so sorry." Christine explained. She started letting out tears feeling so helpless. Riki on the other hand was filled with rage and punched the wall of the house from the outside.

"Do you think it was the robbers from earlier?" Lexy asked Cato.

"No, CJ said there were four guys. The ones we bumped into had 3 at max, those two we fought and a getaway driver." Cato said. "Okay, here's what's happening guys. There's gonna be a mass kidnapping going on around Elmore, and obviously the ones being targeted are the kids. Problem is those kids might be a part of something we don't want them to be put in. A criminal organization. We should get to Gumball's house and tell everyone to meet us there." Cato explained hoping everyone to calm down.

"And why's that? Why are we just gonna sit around and talk this out? This is no time for talking!" Riki said letting out his anger on Cato.

"Riki! My brother is in the exact same position as your sister right now. And probably Lexy's sister, Anais will be too if we don't head to her house. My brother got kidnapped just like your sister, but we can't just rush into it without a plan. We need to think this through." Cato said trying to put Riki at ease.

"*sigh* Okay, so what do we do now?" Riki asked.

"We head to Gumball's house." Cato said. "And I might know just the guy who can help us get there faster." He continued as he took out his cell phone. He dialed a number and suddenly a portal opened behind them, and the person who walked through it was none other than Ivan Rika.

"Hello?" Ivan said through his cell phone.

"Now's not the time to play around Ivan. We need to gather everyone at Gumball's house." Cato said.

"You got it. One portal coming up." Ivan opened up a portal to Gumball's house and everyone went through it quickly.

Darwin and Dante were still at their home watching television.

"What do you think Anais would feel once she finds Gumball?" Darwin wondered.

"Maybe she'll feel happy, maybe she'll feel angry. Either way, Gumball's gonna be damn glad to see her again." Dante said.

"True." Darwin said and nodded at the same time. Suddenly, a portal opened up and Riki, Lexy, Ivan, Christine and Cato came through it in a rush. "Whoa, what's wrong with you guys?"

"I'll go get Jake and Kelsey." Ivan said as he walked into another portal.

"Where's Gumball?" Cato asked.

"He just left with Mrs. Mom and Mr. Dad about ten minutes ago." Darwin answered.

"What's going on? Normally when we gather it's something important." Dante questioned.

"It sure hell is. Anna just got kidnapped." Riki said.

"Along with other kids around Elmore probably, including Andrew." Cato added.

"Then what happened to CJ?"

"She was with Anna before she was kidnapped. Got ambushed by four guys in black suits and beat her up and took Anna after." Cato said. Another portal opened up and this time, Ivan came with Jake and Kelsey.

"What's going on?" Jake asked.

"Mass kidnapping happening around Elmore, dozens of kids here are at risk, Anna and Andrew already got kidnapped." Cato said briefly as he's too fed up to explain the same thing over and over again.

"Oh my, this isn't good." Kelsey said with a quick gasp.

"We actually came here to warn you guys and make sure Anais is safe, but guess it's too late since they're gone to get her."

"Then why wait? We can still catch up to them. Ivan can open a portal right?" Darwin suggested.

"I can, but we're gonna have to make trips. The farther the portals, the shorter it lasts. So that means we have to stop by a few spots." Ivan explained.

"Then we better get going. There's still time." Riki said in a haste.

"Wait!" Lexy said. "I need to tell you guys something."

"What is it?" Kelsey said.

"When I fought the robbers at the gas station, Cato, I saw a mark on that wolf's neck. I know that mark." Lexy said hesitantly.

"What do you mean?" Cato asked her, looking concerned.

"I was..." Lexy said slowly while rolling up her sleeve on her arm. It revealed the same mark that was on Eric's neck. "I was one of them."

Everyone in the room gasped while Lexy tried to explain herself.

"I was with them since I got kidnapped when I was a baby. That's where I've been, and that's how I got the Pink Menace name."

"So, you were with them?" Cato asked.

"Yes, was. Not anymore. I'm not backstabbing you guys. This has nothing to do with me." Lexy said. She got scared as she noticed Riki grinding his teeth against each other and clenched his fists.

"At least we got someone on our side who knows them. That's a good thing, right?" Jake said.

"Yeah, it should be. We can have all the info we need about them." Kelsey added, supporting her boyfriend as always.

"It just hit me when I saw the mark on that green wolf." Lexy said. Christine was in shock on what she said.

"Green wolf?" Christine said slowly. "Did you just say green wolf?"

It was finally time for Anais to meet her family at the airport. The plane arrived sooner than expected and she couldn't help but get excited to get off the plane. She waited at the waiting space for her parents as they have just arrived. Little did she know, she was actually being stalked by a few men in black suits.

Nicole, Richard and Gumball finally made it to the airport. They parked up front and Gumball got out of the car as excited as Anais got out of the plane. He can finally meet his sister after four years. They went inside and called Anais to know where she is.

"Hello, Anais? Where are you, sweetie?" Nicole said through her phone.

"Hi, mom. I'm at the waiting area." Anais said.

"Okay, honey. Just stay there and..." Nicole said but got cut off by Anais screaming.

"Hey! Who are you?! Let..go of me! HELP!" Anais screamed through her phone before the call ended all of the sudden. The scream can actually heard by everyone in the area because it was nearby.

"Honey, what was that?" Richard asked.

"That was Anais. Something must've happened. She was screaming" Nicole said.

"Well if she was, it came from this way. C'mon." Gumball said leaving behind his parents.

Gumball ran to the waiting area and had no sight of Anais. All he saw was people passing by like nothing happened. Then he bumped into a pink bag with a tag strapped around the handle which got him worried. It was Anais' bag. It made him more concerned when he found Anais' phone on the ground as he accidentally stepped on it, already crushed into bits until it's not even visibly a phone anymore. The parents finally caught up to him and had the same look of concern. Gumball started shouting for her.

"Anais! Anais where are you?!" Gumball shouted.

"Gumball?! Gumball, help!" Anais said without even confirming that Gumball was actually there after what happened to them. When she heard his voice, she thought she started hallucinating and light headed and heard his voice. Thoughts started running around her head thinking if Gumball would actually be there to help her now or not.

Gumball on the other hand heard her voice and ran towards it, again leaving the parents. He ran and ran until he got back to the entrance and started getting confused. He looked around and saw a very suspicious black SUV and two guys in black walking towards it. The door opened and he can visibly see 4 other kids inside that SUV. And when he managed to see one of their faces, he was stunned. It was Anais in that SUV. Anais saw Gumball in the distance and yelled out his name in front of the two kidnappers.

"Gumball, help me!" Anais yelled.

"Anais! I'm coming!" Gumball ran with all his might and stamina as the two kidnappers got in the SUV and shut the door. He jumped and almost made it to the vehicle until they managed to drive away and Gumball fell on the concrete floor. He looked up to the road and saw the SUV drive away with his sister in it. He can just cry there lightly and in a few minutes, his parents managed to find him again.

"Gumball, what happened?" Nicole asked about his condition. He was clearly hurt from that fall and bruises was on his left arm and leg due to falling sideways.

"They got away. They took Anais and got away." Gumball said regretfully. It was bad enough that he left her for four years and the only purpose for him to come was to apologize, but now he's failed to rescue her from a kidnapping. "I can't believe it. She got kidnapped...right in front of me." Gumball said slowly.

Back at the Watterson's residence, the group wanted to head out and chase after the rest of the Wattersons until Christine stopped them.

"You did right?" Christine said again. "You did say green wolf?"

"Yeah, he was a wolf and he was green. Didn't get his name though. He only mentioned that he was called 'Haywire'." Lexy said.

"I do. His real name is Eric Jackson. He was my brother's friend and they lived together at that gas station with some other guys who worked there." Cato explained briefly.

"Oh my god." Christine said, stunned and shocked at what he said. "Eric?!"

"Do you know him?" Lexy asked.

"He...he got kidnapped...last year. He's my brother that I lost."

God, that chapter was a doozy. Not to mention keeping track of the time on each scene to putting in elements of shock and suspense in the scene as well. The part where Lexy was in an organization was made up, I don't really know if that even is what happened but there was no actual backstory on what she has been doing when she got kidnapped...ever in the fandom (I think). So, you can count this as a theory of some sort. Kudos to those who figured out that Eric was Christine's younger brother who got taken this entire time. I mean both have the name Jackson, both came from Florida, Eric is a year younger than Christine, it would seem obvious at some point when you look at it like that, don't ya think? And these guys from the criminal organization really have A LOT of black SUVs too. But as of now, hope you guys enjoyed this piece of the story. Leave a like and comment below on what you think of the chapter and story so far and I'll see you guys in the next chapter like always. Love you guys, peace out!