Chapter 6
(Okay, so I hope this story has been pretty good so far, I'm really glad this has gotten some attention)
The Bad Guys and Zeke made it to Marmalade's mansion in Malibu. "Big and fancy." Webs said, "Rodent's got taste, okay!" Shark said in amazement. "Almost makes me wanna be cute." Snake said, "Oh my gosh, my eyes!" Zeke said, immediately covering his eyes, seeing as the first he saw as he opened the door, it was Marmalade's sculpture. "They say experience is the best teacher." Marmalade said, as the others looked around for him. "And they are wrong. I am." He said, revealing himself to be right in front of them. Egocentric much, Zeke thought.
"Good morning, students of goodness." The guinea pig greeted, "And welcome to the first day of your best life—"
"A giant butt!" Piranha said, pointing at the statue of Marmalade holding the meteorite. The professor looked over and quickly said, "Oh! It's not a butt." He clapped his hands, and the craters of the meteorite lit up, a little excitedly, "It's a lamp! In the shape of the Love Crater Meteorite, my greatest—"
"I wonder whose butt it is." Piranha said, still in his zone. Zeke started giggling.
Marmalade looked at his with deadpanned expression, "Once again, it's not a butt, thank you." He clapped his hands again to turn off the lights. "It's a heart. Now, as I was saying—"
"Then why does it have cheeks?" Piranha said, everyone trying to quiet him down. Zeke started laughing, loving it whenever his Tío acted like a child. "What? I've never seen a heart with cheeks." Marmalade chuckled, trying to continue, "It's not a—"
"Booty!" Piranha, Zeke started laughing louder, Wolf trying to tell him to quiet down, until Professor Marmalade shouted "It's not a butt! Not a butt!" He looked angry, "He's temperamental." Zeke muttered. Piranha, scoffed, "Does he even know what a butt is?" Professor Marmalade cleared his throat, "As I was saying, on the outside, the five of you are villains, predators, remorseless sociopaths." He explained,
Shark smiled at that, "Oh stop, you're making me blush." Zeke looked at him, "That shouldn't, but whatever." He muttered.
"But inside, there's a flower. The flower of goodness, and when it blooms, and you feel that tingle of positivity radiating through your body," Professor Marmalade explained, Wolf looked back his tail, "You're going to want it all the time." Tarantula folded her arms, "So we're going for a tingle?" She asked,
"Not just any tingle. The tingle of goodness. And you, young man." Professor Marmalade turned to Zeke.
"While you may not be known for being involved in the Bad Guys, you may need help being a bit more kind. So, feel free to try, okay?" He said, reassuringly.
"Aight then, g. But first…" Zeke said, before putting his hands together, having his two index fingers out and inhaling dramatically. "You nude statue scares me, you made yourself too egocentric and your names for things are weird, sometimes." Zeke said, bluntly, which left Marmalade speechless. "Huh…Go, Zeke." Webs said,
"Sorry, just had to get that off my chest." Zeke said, the professor chuckles nervously, "You're a strange child. But, back to the topic of the tingle, you'll be able to feel…" He explained before heading to his room near the backdoor. "In my state-of-the-art Sharing Laboratory!" He did his trademark pose again. "Okay, Mr. Snake. I'm going to give you a push-pop." Snake took it, enthusiastically. "Great! Push-pop, just for me!" Zeke immediately knew where this was going, "No, to share." Snake just gave him an annoyed look, "Why?" He asked.
"Well, on a fundamental level, it's about putting someone else's needs before your own." Shark was already sitting at the table, chuckling at Snake's dismay.
"U-Uh, I'll volunteer to help!" He said, pushing Shark off the chair and back with everyone else, to which Shark looked, confused, "Zekey, you don't have to—" Zeke shot an aggressive glare Shark's way, giving him an "I'm watching you!" signal. Shark only nodded, understanding why Zeke intervened. "Oh no. No way." Wolf called Snake out, and glared at him to cooperate. Snake groaned, "Ugh, all right." Snake held it out, shaking, "Uh, thanks, Uncle Hubert." Zeke said, trying to reach out for the popsicle.
"Nope!" Snake said, before taking it back and eating the push-pop himself. "Sucker." Snake smirked, Zeke only sighed and went off, "This is why I buy extra. Silver-lin—"
Before he could finish that sentence, Shark tried to attack Snake, "It's one thing when it's me, but when it's a kid, that's just cold!" Snake only smirking, saying "Worth it."
"So much for silver lining." Zeke said, sadly. "Why don't we try something simple, instead, then?" Professor Marmalade suggested, taking a mental note of Shark and Snake's behavior when it comes to push-pops.
"A good person always pays attention to the needs of other." The professor said. They went outside by the street. "Now, here's a kindly and frail grandma." Marmalade showed Wolf dressed as an old lady. Everyone laughed to Wolf's dismay.
"Mr. Piranha, help grandma across the street." Piranha scoffed, "Sure, sure, sure. I do this all the time." Walking over and grabbing Wolf's hand. "Here you go, ma'am." Piranha said, everyone else still laughing.
"Oh, he's TOTALLY gonna blow it." Webs said, laughing at Piranha. Zeke rolled his eyes, but then freaked out when he saw what was coming. "What was that? What did you just say?"
"Get back!" Zeke ran straight ahead and pulled both Wolf and Piranha from the truck that was nearby. "Phew…" Zeke took a few breaths to calm himself down. Wolf grabbed his son and got out of the street alongside Piranha. "Th-Thanks, chamaco." Piranha said, worried about what would've happened if they got hit by the truck. Professor Marmalade looked concerned, "Maybe simpler?"
They went back to the professor's house, with a cat stuck in a palm tree. "Hey look! It's a cat stuck in a tree." Wolf said, Professor Marmalade chimed in, "It doesn't get much simpler than that. Now, what in this scenario would give you that good tingle?"
Snake rolled his eyes, "I know whatever I say is gonna be wrong, so Zeke, tell us what the answer is." Zeke just stared at him blankly. "I'm not Easy Mode, Uncle Hubert. The professor wants us to s…"
"Smack it." Wolf said, "Skin it?" Snake asked, "Stab it." Shark suggested, "Sauté it." Webs said, "Sing to it?" Piranha asked. Zeke just looked down. "Why?"
"Save it. I want you to sa…" Marmalade stopped, questioning why the didn't get it. "It's so obviou—I want you to save it." The Bad Guys nodded their heads in understanding. They looked up at the kitten, "HERE KITTY, KITTY!" They all said aggressively.
"If this was a fun anime moment, I'd be laughing, but we just scared him up further." Snake turned to defend himself, "Well, that cat is obviously defective." Piranha looked angry at him,
"What's wrong with you. You're gonna give it a heart attack. I'll handle this." Piranha climbed up the tree and shouted "WHAT'S UP, PAPA?!" which scared the kitty out of the tree and jumped on Wolf's head. In fear, it aggressively scratched him! "Get him off my face! He's on my face!" Zeke tried to jump to get the cat off and it responded with more self defense. "Oww! Hey, no claws!" Zeke held the cat out, while trying to calm it down. Gently petting it…after a few minutes, the cat calmed down. "Here. You go on ahead, g." Zeke said letting the cat walk off. The professor acknowledged the young rabbit's ability. "W-Well done, young man. Now then, Ezekiel has shown what you should do. Don't scare the cat." Professor Marmalade shook his head, knowing none of these attempts were working.
"Okay. What—May I ask—ARE you good at?"
Piranha opened up first. "Stealing stuff?" He said, "Oh yeah! We're great at that!" Shark said. "Robbery." Snake said, "Larceny." Webs said, the list continued. Until it eventually reached "Heists."
"Wait, 'Heists,' you say?" Professor Marmalade asked them, "Well, that's…Yeah, that's kind of our specialty." Wolf said, "Why are you surprised?" Zeke asked, "You literally met us on one of their heists." Marmalade looked at Zeke, wondering why he didn't include himself. "Not a member, I just live with them." The professor nodded. "I might just have an idea."
(And here we are! So, I hope I handled the experiment scene well, I wanted to include that Zeke was trying to handle this, so I hope this works. Remember, stay strong and awesome! And relax for today when you can, even if you're working today, remember this day is Holy.)