Chapter 3: The Great Cheese Caper

A week went by after Tom, Robyn and Jerry's discovery at Montgomery manor, and it was overall a safe bet all three of them had made a new friend in no time flat. Whenever she could make time between her classes and chores, Robyn would (along with her pets) take time to visit the estate.

To their amazement, the old mansion did eventually find its missing heir: the person in question turned out to be a mid-30s aged man named Colby Montgomery, who was revealed the long lost heir to his Jack's estate. Jack, as it turned out, was soon revealed to be Colby's uncle, who could never find him, mostly because of family problems and the like. Much like his uncle, Colby was a renowned scholar who loved books and knowledge — as far as employment was concerned, he was an English literature professor who worked at a local university not too far from the neighborhood. Plus, he was a good friend to Robyn's dad.

Having learned of his inheritance from our group of friends, he thanked them all and eventually had his uncle's old home be given a complete remodeling inside and out, as well as a good scrub down. Once the place was all spick and span, the newfound friends had lunch with their new neighbor and fellow professor.

But enough of that, I have to get on with today's episode…

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One day while taking a break from her studies on Friday after school, Robyn decided to have herself a snack from the kitchen. Approaching Tom and Jerry, the 9-year old found the two playing a round of poker and watched with interest, both were evenly matched and neither one were backing down as they stared at their cards.

"I'll take two," said Jerry, who dropped two useless cards.

"Okay," replied Tom, who gave his mouse companion the required cards.

Eventually, as they stared at their cards, there was a long silence until Jerry raised his stakes and spoke to Tom once more — the cat, of course, went all in with his chips too.

"I'll tell you what I'm gonna do," the mouse grinned, "I'll make you a little deal…" The cat nodded and listened. "Loser makes the winner a charcuterie board complete with cheese, salami, olives and everything else."

"Excellent," smirked the feline.

"Wearing a French maid outfit," added the brown rodent.

"Even more excellent," nodded Tom, who showed his hand and grinned like a certain Cheshire counterpart in his family. "You'd better suit up, mousey boy, I've got a straight… in diamonds."

"You're good, Thomas," sighed Jerry, who shook his head with sympathy. "But just not good enough."

"What?" asked the cat, whose smile faded.

The rodent smirked as he showed off his hand of cards.

"In your honor, and mine for that matter, a royal flush."

"Dang it!" cursed the gray and white feline.

Having witnessed everything, Robyn giggled in amusement and smiled.

"Having fun, are we?" she asked, and the cat and mouse nodded. "Come on, guys, let's grab a charcuterie board and share it together."

"Good idea," agreed Tom.

Before they could enter the kitchen, however, they heard a loud clatter.

"What was that?" asked Robyn.

"I don't know," replied Jerry. "But I bet if we go to the kitchen we'll find out.

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Upon their arrival in the kitchen, the three friends investigated the possible places as to where in the kitchen the loud noise came from earlier.

While checking the fridge, Tom soon noticed something abnormal about the cheese pantry… there was none whatsoever there, it was all gone.

"Where the heck is the cheese?!" he cried, doing a double take. He then turned to Jerry with a scowl. "I'll bet that this was your doing, Jerry!"

"Me? Me?!" squeaked the mouse incredulously, who then frowned. "I was playing poker with you and didn't eat anything, except for the fruit and veggie platter Robyn made for us, Tom!"

"Oh, sure," groaned the cat. "That's what they all say, " "I'm innocent until proven guilty"! You know, mousey boy, I oughta —"

"Bring it on, cat," said Jerry, who sensed what Tom was gonna do as he did a "bring it on" pose.

The two began chasing after as they used to all those years and times ago back when they used to work on their older cartoons.

"Tom, Jerry!" cried a shocked Robyn. "Stop!" They didn't do so. "Please stop?"

But they still didn't listen to her.

The 9-year old heavily sighed began looking for clues as she took out a magnifying glass. Now and again, she would take whatever objects Tom tossed at Jerry and put them back in their proper place, same to be said vice versa on whatever Jerry threw.

Amidst all of the excitement, Robyn eventually found a clue.

"Hey!" she said, that caused Tom and Jerry to stop fighting. "Check this out!"

"Look," said Jerry, who looked inside the fridge. "Whoever was in here, they didn't take the American cheese." He scratched his head in confusion. "Now why would they do that?"

"That's easy," replied Tom, Jerry looked at him for the answer. "It's because American cheese is a processed cheese when compared to your normal stuff like Cheddar, Feta, Brie, Mozzarella and so on."

"Oh, right," nodded the mouse.

"And look at this," added Robyn. "The perpetrator left behind a trail of pawprints."

"Those aren't mine," said the cat who quickly defended himself.

"Obviously," nodded the mouse. "They're much bigger than your own."

"But the question still remains," said the 9-year old girl, "who would want to steal our cheese and why? It's not like I gave Professor Colby a spare key to our house."

"Beats me," both animal friends answered.

"Well," sighed the blonde-haired kid, "one thing's for sure: we have another adventure on our hands."

"That, and the perp is definitely a cat, like me," agreed Tom.

After agreeing to set aside their differences for the umpteenth time (plus a little persuasion from Robyn helped) Tom and Jerry agreed to call it an investigation, starting the the next morning.

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The very next morning, at breakfast, the three had decided to investigate the case even further and locate the miscreant who took their cheese. There was just one catch, and all three knew it…

"What are the odds," began Tom, "that whoever hit our place they hit other places that have cheese too?"

"Probably very high," replied Jerry. "Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if they've hit grocery stores and cheese shops too."

"That's definitely good enough as any place to start," agreed Robyn.

"Speaking of our cheese swiping fiend, Robyn," said Michael (his daughter told him everything that happened last late afternoon), as he looked up from his paper, "check this out…"

The man then showed his daughter and their pets a headline that he was reading in the paper.

The Barbera Herald
September 18th, 1993 — (AP) —

Mysterious Cheese Thief
Strikes Again!

In a stunning turn of events, the mysterious
and notorious cheese thief has struck once
more.

The police are baffled as to both when and
where he will strike next — there is no photo-
graph on file of the ever hungry perpetrator.
The only things that are known about the
unknown thief is his appearance and his given
name…
The thief is said to a be very, very fat cat and
his given name Cheston Bailey, better known by
his nickname of "Cheeseball".

If you have any clues whatsoever as to where
the perp will strike next, or may be hiding, or you
happen to have any clues, contact your local police
station at once.

The instant that Robyn got through reading the headline, she gazed at her animal friends with a wide grin.

"Well, well, well…" the 9-year old girl stroked her chin. "Now that we know a little more about our mysterious thief, I think we can investigate this situation a little more thoroughly."

"Now we need to find the pest and bring him to justice," said Tom.

"And we'll need to do it before he steals more cheese," added Jerry. "The big question is, of course, how do we find him? We have no idea what he looks like."

"Maybe if we ask other cats and mice," suggested Robyn, "that may give us some hope."

"We can only hope," agreed the cat and mouse duo.

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So for the rest of the day, all three friends went around asking cats and mice of all sorts if they'd seen or knew anything about Cheeseball — but everywhere they looked, their results turned out to be less than encouraging.

However, when all looked to be their most bleak, they eventually came across one cat who was happy to share details.

"Cheeseball, eh?" he said in a poker faced and clipped middle class British accent. "Yeah, I've seen the guy."

"Where?" asked Jerry. "What does he look like?"

"What you're looking for," explained the newcomer, "is a red-furred Burmilla with light green eyes." He paused before speaking again. "And there's something else. Cheeseball… he's uh… he's very, uh—"

"… fat? We know. " nodded Tom. "But where do we find him?"

"Beats me," sighed the fellow cat. "He's been here, he's been there and heck, he's been everywhere."

"Great, we're back to square one," sighed Robyn.

"Not quite," said the fellow feline. "Maybe a trap can catch him. Good luck!"

"Thanks, Mr. uh—?" said Jerry.

"Just call me, CB."

"Thanks, CB."

The three fix to leave, but as they did so, something soon occurred to them: the cat they had just talked to was that of a complete stranger. Despite them getting info on what they wanted to know about the famous cheese thief, there was a good distinctive possibility maybe, — just maybe, mind you, that they'd been tricked?

"Hey, wait a minute," said Tom, as he did a double take in anger. "That cat we talked to, guys?" Robyn and Jerry nodded. "I think that guy was Cheeseball!"

"Get him!" cried Jerry.

The three then did their best to catch him, but no matter what traps they laid out for the cat, he was very clever in avoiding each and every single one of them.

"Sayonara, suckers," Cheeseball teased in a singsong-esque voice. "Thanks for the thrill of the hunt."

The instant he said that, the new feline ran in a mad dash to avoid getting caught.

"Well," sighed a disappointed Robyn, "now we're back to square one!"

"I'll say," agreed Tom. "Talk about rotten luck, right, Jerry?"

The mouse didn't answer.

"Jerry," asked the concerned 9-year old girl. "Are you okay?

"Look out!" said her cat, who grabbed his owner as they hid behind a trash dumpster to take cover. Safe to say, the cat knew what was coming next, "he's gonna blow!"

The mouse then began to twitch, safe to say, something inside of him was about to snap. And wouldn't you know it, that is precisely what happened…

"HOW," yelled an angry Jerry, who emphasized each word, "CAN A CAT… THAT FAT… MOVE BLEEDING FAST?!" Calming down, the mouse inhaled and exhaled. "But in all seriousness, we still don't have an idea as to where he'll strike next."

"Not to worry, Jerry," said Robyn. "I think I have an idea as to how we can trap him."

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Later, back at Starling Manor, the young girl and her pets had just returned from the grocery store and made a charcuterie board. To add further insult to injury, to ensure their plan succeeded, they also made a grilled cheese sandwich.

"Now all we gotta do," she said, "is wait for Cheeseball to show up, fall for the trap, the cops show up to arrest him, and things go back to normal."

"But how do we know that he'll show up for sure?" asked Tom.

"Let's just say I left Cheeseball a little note," Robyn said grinning from ear to ear.

Back in his alleyway, upon return from who knows where, Cheeseball soon found the note that was left for him.

"Cheeseball," he read. "If you want more cheese, come to Starling Manor. We are completely helpless, my pets and I have decided that it's best to let you have all our cheese. PS: Please help yourself to all our salami and olives. Sincerely: Thomas Jasper "Tom" Cat, Robyn Eden Starling and Gerald Jinx "Jerry" Mouse."

As soon as he was done reading the note, a rather big devilish smile came to the fat cat's face.

"Jolly good!" he cried in happiness as he wrapped a napkin around his neck. "I've so always admired nothing but a delicious cheese banquet." He chuckled warmly. "Especially to those who give it to me willingly."

And with that, he headed on his way over to Starling Manor ready to eat his meal, not knowing it would be his last. He arrived 5 minutes later…

"Where do I start?" Cheeseball asked himself in delight.

He soon found his answer to a trail of cheese that was scattered all over the floor. And as he helped himself to the banquet, among all the cheese he came across included, but did not limit to…

Red Leicester, Tilsit, Caerphilly, Red Windsor, Stilton, Gruyere, Emmental, Norwegian Jarlsberger, Liptauer, Lancashire, White Stilton, Danish Blue, Double Gloucester, Cheshire, Dorset Blue Vinney, Brie, Roquefort, Pont-l'Eveque, Port Salut, Savoyard, Saint-Paulin, Carre-de-L'Est, Boursin, Bresse Bleu, Perle de Champagne, Camembert, Gouda, Edam, Caithness, Smoked Austrian, Japanese Sage Derby, Wensleydale, Greek Feta, Gorgonzola, Parmesan, Mozzarella, Pippo Creme, Danish Fimboe, Czech Sheep's Milk, Cheddar, Manusquire, Ilchester, Manusquire, Limburger, Armenian String Cheese and Stinking Bishop.

Eventually, after all that, Cheesebal then found the grilled cheese sandwich and was trapped in a very, very big box until the cops came to take him away.

As he was handcuffed and led to a police car, the fat cat also revealed the whereabouts as to where he took everyone and every place's stolen cheese. Then, he also confessed to something else.

"You were correct," he said to our three friends, "in assuming that I don't like American cheese, my dear friends," the cat gave an involuntary shudder of disgust. "How anyone can stand that ruddy stuff I'll never know."

"But why, outside of hunger pangs, did you do it?" asked Jerry.

"Quite simple, really." The thief answered. "No reason at all, I just love cheese and nothing more."

"There's more food in life than just cheese, Cheeseball," said Tom. "You should at least consider looking into fruits, vegetables, grains and protein. Believe me, I know."

"We'll see," said the British accented feline, who was led away.

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And so, having solved the case of their missing cheese perp, our chapter draws to a close with Tom, Jerry, Robyn and her dad relaxing that night, watching a movie and having delicious charcuterie board.

As before, the charcuterie board came complete with cheese, salami, olives, nuts and all those other delicious things you find on one.

"This is the life, eh, Jerry?" said Tom.

"You said it, Tom," agreed Jerry.

"Hear, hear," nodded Robyn.

"Amen," commended Michael.

Basically, the night was good. Well, that is until Jerry noticed something off about the charcuterie board.

"Hey!" he cried. "Where's the crackers?!"

Unfortunately, that, dear friends, is a chapter for another time.

Author's notes:

• So that was the third chapter of The New Tom, Robyn, and Jerry Adventures, and as always, please fill free to leave me your feedback.
• The thief of known as Cheeseball was created by fellow writer and friend I've made contact with who helped me with this story, niccunningham.
* And yes, to answer your question for those who will ask me in reviews of the chapter, it WAS indeed my idea to have his voice (let alone his fondness for cheese) be a little inspired by comedian John Cleese as seen in the Monty Python's Flying Circus sketch "The Cheese Shop".
- For those of you are wondering, how Cheeseball moved so fast, to you all I say, "It's cartoon logic, don't question it."
• That said, the outcome of Tom and Jerry's poker game was inspired by the poker game between Hallie Parker and her sister Annie James (played by Lindsay Lohan) in the 1998 Parent Trap remake from Disney.
• For those of you have to ask regarding the newspaper, Robyn's dad reads, or The Barbera Herald, I say to you all "yes", the name of the paper's company, WAS indeed named after Tom and Jerry co-creator Joseph Barbera.
• Fill free also to leave your comments also who you want (at least for this story) to invision as the voice of voice of Jack Montgomery if this show existed in the 90s.
• And finally: I own nothing in this fanfiction, as such: Tom, Jerry, plus everyone else have their rights and everything else are owned and © by Warner Brothers.
* And the plot and Cheeseball were all thought up by niccunningham.
- The only thing I DO own, is the words to the story.

That said, until the next chapter, my fellow readers and Toons:

I'm M. R. Parkerson signing off…