If there was one thing that Camila must have paid a lot of attention to when she created Luz it had to be her legs, because she was able to run so fast that in a short time she reached the police station. She obviously didn't know where she was, but all she had to do was wander around the city a bit before she glimpsed a large building swarming with guards.
"Okay. So, what's the plan?" she asked opening her hands to talk to the cricket and spider. For some reason that they hadn't specified to her, they had asked her to be carried while remaining tightly closed between her fingers with almost no opening towards the outside, even though they could easily have stayed on her shoulder.
"Well, you could just turn yourself in" Gus tried to suggest, saying the first thing that came to his mind. "You could go there and say that whatever trouble you've caused is your fault alone, and that Camila forbade you, and therefore only you should be scolded..."
"But I don't want to be scolded!" Luz protested. She certainly wasn't about to get lectured just because she disobeyed her mother and tried to make friends with someone!
"Well, obviously, no one likes to be scolded" Gus said. "But... well, actions have consequences, and you have to take responsibility for them..."
Luz frowned angrily. "I said I don't want to get scolded and I won't!"
Gus shook his head. Willow was absolutely right when she said Luz was a blockhead. She wasn't evil, but she was certainly naughty.
"Forget it" Willow said. "It wouldn't work anyway. The Principal is convinced that the fault of the children's mistakes always lies with the parents. Even if Luz turned herself in he wouldn't let Camila go". A smirk formed on his face. "Rather... let's exploit his obsession to make him go away"
Luz and Gus were quite confused. "I'm not following you" the puppet admitted.
"Even among the guards, few tolerate the Principal. All we have to do is find someone willing to help us and tell him there's a fight going on on the other side of town. That fanatic will rush there like a child on a candy, and in his haste he'll just tell Camila that their talk is over and to go away" Willow explained.
Luz and Gus looked at each other with shining eyes: it could really work! "Willow, you're a real genius!" the spider exclaimed.
The cricket couldn't help but feel flattered. "Modestly" she said, blushing a little. "Now, the question is: who do we ask for this little favor? It has to be someone we can trust. But I don't know anyone here"
"Me neither. I've never left Camila's shop since I got there" Gus said.
Willow rubbed her chin. Even though many guards despised the Principal, they couldn't ask for help to a random person; they risked being betrayed and discovered. "Mh. I don't see any solutions. Maybe we should... hey, Luz! What are you doing!"
The puppet was climbing into a window that had been left open. "I'm coming in, can't you see?"
"Luz, you can't come in through the windows and sneak in! That's called trespassing, and it's a crime!" Willow scolded her.
But Luz shrugged. "It's only a crime if they catch you"
"Um... no, I'm pretty sure it's considered a crime even if they don't catch you" Gus commented.
"Ugh! Well, then they don't punish you unless they catch you! Is it okay like this?" Luz snorted as she finished climbing through the window and entered a hallway of the police station.
"That's not good at all! You shouldn't do certain things just because you're sure you won't get caught! You're such a bad girl!" Willow protested, though she did so softly to avoid being heard by any guards. "What do you have in mind, by the way?"
Luz was rather irritated that that cricket continued to lecture her, but for once she decided to let it go. "Easy. The plan is the one you proposed, with one small difference... since we can't trust anyone, then we will be the ones to deceive the Principal! All we have to do is talk to him from behind a door!"
Both Gus and Willow didn't seem to agree very well. "Luz, listen, I appreciate the initiative, but it's not as simple as you think" the cricket told her. "The Principal may be arrogant and obsessed, but he is not stupid. He will notice whether the voice of the person speaking to him is that of an adult guard or a reckless girl"
Luz reflected and she had to admit that the cricket wasn't entirely wrong; after all, the Principal already knew her voice, he would have immediately noticed the deception. But then an idea came to her: "Gus, you said you were a master at mimicry! If you can imitate the colors and shapes of things, can you do the same with sounds?"
Gus scratched his head. "Well, I can rub my paws together to imitate the buzzing of flies or bees, or I can move my abdomen to create the sound of wind flapping on a plant, I can still tap my paws together to simulate the flapping of a butterfly's wings... but if you hope that I can imitate the voice of a guard, then I'm afraid I must disappoint you. Haven't you seen how small I am? Even if I screamed the more than I can, I would never be able to to be heard by a human being more than a meter away, let alone through a door!"
"Gus is right. Don't you remember how long it took me to get your attention? And I'm a cricket, the loudest insect that exist!" Willow pointed out.
But Luz didn't give up. "Never mind whether a person can hear you or not, Gus. Just tell me if you can imitate a guard's voice"
Gus didn't understand what the puppet had in mind, but she seemed particularly convinced of what she was saying, so he decided to trust her at least for the moment. "I can try. If Willow squeezed my abdomen really hard I could make my voice deeper and hoarse... but only for a few seconds since then I would have to breathe"
"It is enough for me!" Luz said, then she close her free hand into a fist but she left a small space open between the fingers. "When you have to speak, speak in here! I'm made of wood, if I hold my hand like this it will be as if you had a trumpet in front of you!"
Willow and Gus had to admit that the idea wasn't that crazy; if humans closed their hands and blew into them they could amplify sounds, and they were hands made of flesh. With a hand made of wood, even a spider's low voice could have been amplified dozens of times. "Well… that's a good idea" Willow was forced to admit. Luz wasn't as ditzy as she thought, after all. "But you heard Gus, he couldn't talk for more than a few seconds without risking suffocation. We can't summarize an entire speech in a few moments. And even if we could, the Principal would surely answer the door after less than a minute"
"I know. That's why we won't make a speech, but we'll write it into a message for him!" Luz replied. "All we have to do is knock on his door and leave the note there. Gus will say 'urgent missive for you, sir!' and then we'll hide. The Principal will come out and read the note, and he let mom go"
"Wow... you're a true criminal mastermind, Luz" Gus muttered in amazement and genuinely impressed. He doubted that he could have come up with such a complex plan on his own.
The puppet smiled. "Eh eh! You don't need to flatter me"
"You shouldn't take that as a compliment. It's not a good thing to be a criminal mastermind!" Willow protested, even though she had now completely given up on correcting the puppet's behavior. "And anyway we still have a problem: we can't write him a note on just any piece of paper, the guards use special letters. We have to get one"
"Nothing easier! Where can I find them?" Luz asked, with a look that said she thought stealing something from a police station was the easiest thing in the world.
Willow sighed, giving up completely. There was no point in trying to make her understand how wrong that action was. "I think in the archives... hey, wait! Do you even have a plan?" she tried to say, but the puppet didn't listen to her and started running around the police station, being very careful not to make any noise to avoid attracting the guards. Fortunately the building wasn't too big, and in a few minutes they managed to find an office where there were two guards surrounded by numerous papers. "What we seek is there for sure!" Luz whispered.
"Okay, but how are you going to take it... HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Gus screamed after Luz grabbed him by the abdomen and threw him full force onto the two guards' desk. Luckily his exoskeleton was very tough and he didn't get a single scratch, but now he was faced with what from his perspective were two giants.
The effect was exactly what the puppet was hoping for. "EEEEEHK! A SPIDER!" the two guards screamed as soon as they saw him, and one of them must clearly be arachnophobic because he literally jumped into the other's arms: "Quickly, take it away! It could be poisonous!"
"I'm not poisonous! I couldn't even kill a lizard!" Gus tried to say, but the guards didn't even seem to hear him; the terrified one immediately ran out of the archive screaming like a maniac, while the other instead had a little more courage and, despite his arms shaking, tried to lift a rolled up newspaper to crush the spider.
"GUS!" Willow exclaimed when she saw the danger her friend was in, and she rose clumsily into the air; as usual she made a tremendous buzz, certainly not typical of crickets, and she could barely move on a straight path. In fact, it was safe to say that it looked like she was flying in a zigzag pattern. But despite this, her mere presence was enough to make the remaining guard's courage disappear: "AAAAGH! Even flying insects now!? This is a persecution!" he shouted, running away too.
"Tsk. And these are supposed to be the guardians of the law..." Luz said amusedly coming out of her hiding place. "Great job, guys! I knew I could count on you!"
"What the hell were you thinking!?" Willow screamed angrily. "Gus could have gotten hurt!"
"Yeah! I saw my life pass me by! I won't forgive you for this, Luz!" the spider exclaimed still half stunned by what just happened. "Next time at least let me know what you wanted to do!"
"Oh, come on, don't make a big deal about it! You're a spider, so act like a spider! People are afraid of spiders, take advantage of it!" Luz replied without showing the slightest sign of remorse.
Willow was furious. She couldn't tolerate anyone using Gus like that. "You really are a... uh, I no longer have any epithets for what to call you! You just completely lack a conscience!"
Seeing the two arthropods so angry, Luz felt a strange pang in her wooden heart. Maybe this time she had exaggerated a little. In fact she could have informed them of her plan before implementing it, but she couldn't resist the temptation to see their shocked faces; but now that they were looking at her so furiously she was a little regretting having done it. Only a little, of course: the scene had been too exhilarating. But that little bit was enough to make her say: "You're right. Sorry, I behaved badly"
Willow and Gus fell silent. It was the first time Luz had actually apologized for something she'd done... and it didn't sound like she was faking it. Well, maybe she had a bit of a conscience... even if there was still a lot to improve. Really, really a lot. "Well... we'll talk about it later. Now let's think about helping Camila" Gus said taking a piece of paper from a pile on the desk. "This is one of the classic letters from the police. You write that there is a fight at... at the museum, that's it! At Camila's shop I often heard some guys say that a strange guy lives there who often tries to kidnap someone believing them to be a monster in disguise"
"I understand!" Luz said taking the pen, but then she remembered something. "Um... now that I think about it... I never went to school. I can't write"
"And you're thinking about it just now!?" Willow exclaimed on the edge of exasperation, then she took a deep breath to calm herself down. "Forget it. Leave it to me" she said, and she dipped the lower part of her body into the ink, and then she began rapidly moving across the paper forming the letters; every time she had to make a space she skipped a few centimeters, and so in a short time a very clear message was written on the letter. "It's perfect! Very good, Willow!" Gus complimented her.
"Ugh... I'll have to take a bath once this will be over" the cricket grumbled, trying to shake off the ink, and then she looked at Luz sideways. "And starting tomorrow, you make sure you go to school, because I'll never do it again!"
"Of course, of course! Now let's go save mommy!" Luz responded, barely listening to her, picking up the two arthropods and the letter and running to find the office of the infamous Principal.
As I explained in the other chapter, what happens in this chapter is not present in Collodi's original novel, it is my total invention. In the original Pinocchio doesn't care about his father who is in prison, but obviously Luz would never do that. These extra chapters serve more than anything to better outline the personalities of the characters, especially that of Luz (impulsive, stubborn, naughty and not very attentive to the consequences of her actions, but with enough conscience to realize when she hurts someone), but also of Willow (who is practically the voice of reason) and Gus (who is the classic sidekick friend who supports her despite her choices that are not exactly morally acceptable, but who in turn is capable of scolding Luz when she does something very serious). In short, this and the next chapter are mostly for the purpose of introducing the characters, so that they are well delineated when the main story restarts.
