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A Shermer Christmas Carol
Chapter Sixty Five
By Chris Fulmer
In the Amazon River section of the park, Andie and Claire watched as the
lights near them lit up. A surefire sign the action was headed their way.
"Well, this is it," the rich girl told the poor girl, "Either this works or
we go out in a literal blaze of glory--or infamy."
"It's kind of ironic that all of us would get together and do this, "Andie
philosophized as they rushed to their first outpost behind several dense
synthetic shrubs, "All of us together are about as different as they come:
rich, poor, old, young, popular, ignored, smart, crazy; I could probably go
on even further. That we'd all agree to do this is a great sign, even
though it's kind of risky and all. Especially since these guys we're facing
are all narrow-minded of purpose and all."
"True, I'd never have dreamed in a million years that I'd be doing anything
of this magnitude with someone like you," Claire agreed with a slight trace
of sarcasm, which Andie picked up on. "I see you're still serving out
dishes of conceitedness, Claire," she said sternly, "Could you please
refrigerate it until after we get this over with?"
"No problem," Claire watched a squad of soldiers come into sight through
the trees. She formed a snowball from the snow at her feet and tossed it at
them. It hit one in the side of the head. "They're in there!" he shouted,
firing off some machine gun blasts into the dense shrubbery. The girls
crouched behind a bulletproof tree trunk as more shots rang out. "Are you
sure that sleeping stuff we put on the spears will knock them out?" Andie
had to know.
"Andie, Brian's confident again, how couldn't they? "Claire posed, "If he
says it'll work, it'll work. Now let's just hope these guys hold up their
part."
And do their part the soldiers did indeed; they charged straight into the
growth guns a-blazing. The leaders ran straight into a tripwire connected
to the trigger of a multi-barreled blowgun rigged in a nearby tree, causing
it to fire off several darts into the rears of the men trailing. The
leaders, after getting up from their stumbling over the tripwire, continued
onward--straight into numerous snare traps that had been laid out for them.
With loud shouts they were jerked clean off the ground. "Hey, get us down
from here!" one of them called to his associates on the ground, who were
swooning with exhaustion from the darts. Captain Lyons, who was among those
now hanging by their ankles, was thoroughly perplexed. "What the hell's the
matter with you guys?" he called down to them as they collapsed in a snoring
heap, 'This is no time to be napping on the job!"
"Well, that puts them out of commission," Andie said as she and Claire
scurried for the nearest service door, "It's good we decided to reduce their
numbers a little like this. Let's see if we're needed over in the Desert."
Back in the Victorian Village, Kevin stuck his head out of the second story
window of the citrus house. His arch-nemeses were assisting the soldiers
still on the street in searching from building to building. But he needed
them and them alone for what he currently had in mind.
"Hey guys," he called over to them, "Up here." Both burglars heads shot
around faster than a hummingbird's wings. "You ain't got a chance in hell
this time, kid, so come on outta there!" Harry shouted up at him.
"I surrender," Kevin waved a white flag, "You guys win. Come on up and get
me."
As he expected, both crooks idiotically took the bait. "Come on Marv,
let's get him, "Harry waved his buddy toward an oak tree that was right next
to the window. They slowly clambered up it, Marv whimpering at being high
up again. Kevin set about working on the spray fan that would pump out fake
snow to fall on people below in the event there was no snow in the first
place. He twisted it around to face where they'd be coming up. Harry
huffed up to the window. "Okay, come on out here and we won't hurt ya," the
crook called to his foe. Kevin instead hit the fan's on switch, and Harry
took a spray of soap suds right in the face. "Fooled you!" the child said
mischievously, "Come and get me if you still want me!"
He ran off down the hall and up the stairs to the roof. Danny was
finishing the task of pouring axle grease on the ground. "It's all ready,"
he told Kevin as they crouched inside an open barrel, "They've just got to
hit it right, and it's really going to pay off the way we planned it."
"It will," Kevin reassured him, "These guys are too dumb not to do what we
predict."
Harry was steamed as he climbed in through the window. "Oh that's it, now
he's really askin' for it!" he bellowed as he hauled Marv in after him,
"Come on Marv, we got him cornered up here."
"Up where?" Marv looked around for any sign of his hated foe.
"Up here, dummy, dummy, dummy," Kevin called down to him. Both burglars
ran up the stairs as fast as their feet could carry them. Harry barged
through the door and promptly began slipping on the grease. He managed to
keep upright, but unfortunately for him, Marv collided with him from behind
and sent him sliding across the roof and over the edge, where his fall
lasted a story before it was rudely interrupted by an air conditioner that
was sticking out of the window below him.
"Harry!" Marv slid his way over to the edge of the roof, "Are you OK down
there?"
"Do I look like I'm okay?" Harry yelled up at him, "Get me down from here!"
"Don't go anywhere, Harry, I'll have you down in a minute," Marv started
back toward the door, but slipped on the grease and landed on his back.
"OK, better make that two minutes," he called down to his buddy as his
slipped and slid his way back toward the stairs--and slipped face-first down
them.
Down below, Harry barely had time to start feeling the harsh pain in his
inseam from his landing than the air conditioner started to slide out of the
window under his weight. His face flushed with horror at the knowledge of
what was about to happen, he grabbed onto the nearest cable going down the
side of the building just as the air conditioner gave way and fell. The
cable gave way also, and Harry fell himself, pulling off the roof the very
large DirecTV satellite dish the cable was attached too. Unaware that so
many objects were now falling, Marv rushed out into the back alley,
attracted by his colleague's screaming. "Don't worry, Harry, I'll catch
ya!" he shouted holding his arms up to catch Harry. Instead he caught the
air conditioner. In the forehead. Marv crumpled senseless to the ground.
Harry landed hard on top of him a moment later. Noticing the falling cable,
the shorter crook had just enough time to look up at the plummeting
satellite dish and exclaim, "Oh no!" before it crashed down on top of him.
"Yes!" Kevin pumped his fist in excitement and gave Danny a high-five.
"Now THAT'S what I call a good start," he said, glancing down at the dazed
crooks below them in the alley.
"You might say they finally got their MTV," Danny joked.
"And about eight hundred other channels they probably wanted," Kevin agreed.
On the public side of the street, General Blum strode over to the barber
shop, where Douglas was now flying around wildly in circles. "Are they in
there, Douglas?" he asked his pet. Douglas screeched loudly, apparently
saying yes. Its master drew his guns and kicked the barber shop door open.
"Come on out of there you!" he shouted, "I will give no quarter if you
don't!"
Without any warning, Ferris popped into the doorway wearing a barber coat
and handlebar mustache. "Good evening sir, welcome to Bueller's
Barbershop," he told the surprised general, "Please come on in."
He took Blum by the hand before the general could put up any resistance and
dragged him over to the barber chair, closing the door behind them so no one
else could come in. "Please put your weapons on the counter," he said,
relieving Blum of his guns and sword and tossing them out of his reach. He
strapped the still off-guard military man to the barber chair.
"What the hell do you think you're doing, you filthy delinquent!?" Blum
demanded.
"Please sir, I require complete silence while I work my mastery," Ferris
removed the general's cap, shook up the nearest bottle of shaving cream, and
started spraying it all over Blum's head. "Stop it!" he shouted.
"Oh, don't you think it's safe?" Ferris asked him. He picked up the
electric razor. "Let's find out: is it safe?" He turned the razor on and
started shaving Blum's head. "Fiiiiiiiiiiiiggggaro, figaro, figaro, figaro,
figaro!!" he boomed out, "Astamo fistino Il Pacino, Luigi seltzero como se
qua, Eduardo Scissorhandzi, whata closa shava....!"
"Cut it out!!" General Blum bellowed, trying hard to twist away,
unsuccessfully. Once Ferris was finished, he walked over to the fire hose
on the wall, turned on the water, and sprayed Blum in the face, washing off
the excess shaving cream. "Thank you for stopping by, come back soon," he
told the general. He picked up Blum's weapons and ran out the back door.
Blum broke loose form the strap holding him to the barber chair. He rose to
his feet and ran over to the mirror to see the extent of the damage Ferris
had wreaked on his hair. The sight of these results made him scream loud
enough to crack the mirror: his mustache was gone, and his hair had been
shaved into the pattern of a tic-tac-toe board, complete with Xs and Os!
Over in the Forgotten Desert, Vernon stepped warily down the main street of
the Western town Roy Walley's innovators had created. He'd heard some of
the screaming start in the other parts of the park, and was on extra guard.
Especially with Bender on the loose.
The sounds of footsteps over by the Wild Bronco made him turn. "Who is
it!" he demanded, waving his rifle in the direction of the roller coaster,
"Show yourself!"
He noticed several soldiers coming up the street behind him. "You there,"
he shouted over to them, "Come here. I need superior firepower."
"Where are they?" one of them asked, looking over the silent coaster.
"I know there here somewhere, I heard them," Vernon said. They approached
the coaster and looked around. No sign of anyone. Vernon shook his head.
"I could swear I heard...." he started to say, but then came the sound of
some sort of tripwire being activated by one of the soldiers. The next
thing the superintendent knew, something large and soft hit him on the back
of the head, knocking him and the others forward into the coaster. The lap
bars automatically came down, trapping them inside. "What the hell's going
on in here!?" Vernon demanded out loud.
"What's going on, Mr. Vernon, is you're going to find out what happens when
we all get tired of you treating us like dirt," came Brian's voice from the
loading platform. Unable to turn around and look the brain square in the
eye, Vernon could only bellow, "If you don't let me out of here right now,
Johnson, I'll take the GPA in all your classes down to a big, fat zero
percent, do you hear me!?"
"Yeah, I hear you," Brian told him. Then he raised his walkie-talkie to
his lips and said, "OK Wyatt, start it up."
The coaster car lurched out of the station. "Oh no Johnson, you are not
getting away with this!" Vernon shouted to him as the coaster started up the
lift hill, "Stop this coaster now or I'll crush your johnson, Johnson!"
"Too late, I...or should I say we, already have," Brian called up to him,
"My advice is, enjoy the ride." He sighed in delight and said to himself,
"God, I always wanted to do that to him."
"I demand you stop this infernal machine now, Johnson, or there'll
be....!!!" Vernon's normally stoic eyes bulged with horror as the car
breezed over the top of the lift hill and stared down the huge fall to the
ground. The superintendent hated thrill rides. "Oh this can't be
HAPPPPPPENNINNGGGG!!!!" he shrieked as they roared around the coaster's
structure at almost ninety miles an hour. The soldiers trapped on board
with him joined in the shrieking. Two of them were already on the verge of
vomiting and the ride wasn't even half over yet. "STOP THIS THING!!!"
Vernon shouted loud enough to be heard over the whole park.
"Guys, I think he wants us to stop the experience for him," Brian radioed
the control room, 'You think you can go a little easy on him?"
"Ten-four," was the response. As the train sped into a high loop, the
safety bars popped back off. Vernon, before he could grab on to anything
else for safety, fell about fifty feet to the ground, where he landed on top
of real, live cacti. "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!" he shrieked at the
top of his lungs. His associates for the ride were somewhat more fortunate;
about half of them hit the coaster track just after the train had passed by,
while the other have fell into a man-made drinking hole with
audio-animatronic horses drinking nearby. "What are you looking at!?" one
of them shouted at a horse who seemed to be laughing at him.
"I know you're in here, Ferris!" Rooney shouted halfway
across the park as he stood in the middle of Space Port Delta, gun cocked,
"Come on out now!"
"Oh Mr. Rooney," came Sloane's voice from behind a column near the Rocket
to Pluto simulation ride. She tossed a snowball of her own at the
principal, hitting him in the arm. "We're in here, get us if you want us,
you incredible bimbo," she taunted him, running inside.
"Petersen you slut, get back here!!" Rooney charged after her firing
several blasts at her. He shoved the door to the attraction open and zipped
through the pre-show area into the large ride chamber simulating a rocket
cockpit. "You can't hide from me!" he warned her, looking around for her,
"Show yourself!"
"He's in position, turn the ride on," Sloane whispered into her
walkie-talkie from her hiding place behind the curtain in front of the
simulator screen. In the control room, Gary clicked the appropriate
override button on his computer for the Rocket to Pluto ride. The next
thing Rooney knew, incredible G-forces filled the room, pushing him to the
floor. When the stopped, he was surprised to find that, in accordance with
outer space scenes showing on the screen, weightlessness had taken over the
room, and he was started to float upwards. "What are you doing, Petersen!?"
he demanded to Sloane over the "Mission Control Chief's" ,"It's now safe to
remove your seat belts.
"Isn't this fun, Mr. Rooney,.....Ed?" Sloane asked him, floating out into
view, "Weightlessness is so enjoyable."
Furious, Rooney fired off blasts at her, but the lack of gravity caused the
bullets to act bizarre and float away from her. Sloane backstroked up
toward an air duct. "It's just like taking those accursed swim classes you
made us take," she told him, "Only drier."
"If you don't surrender to me now, I'll have no reservations about slicing
you clean in two!" Rooney threatened her. He started swimming through the
air after her.
"Talk is cheap," Sloane yawned. She opened the duct and climbed out.
Rooney was starting to gain on her. "Okay, let him have it," she informed
the people in the control room. Rooney grasped for the duct handle, but
before he could grab it, gravity came back into effect, and he abruptly
plummeted twenty-five feet into the seats set up in the chamber. He groaned
in pain, clutching his back.
"Good work," Buck commended everyone involved with this particular booby
trap. He looked over at Lloyd's screen. "Be on alert, all of you in the
water park, we've got a squad coming your way."
"So where are they?" Lieutenant Maltin asked, confused as they strolled
into the still-uncompleted water park, " I could swear I saw a flare go up
in here."
"I know we saw the flare," Sherman told him. He turned to his small
command. "Listen, I know we have orders, but if we find them, let's just
take them into custody. Don't kill them. There's been enough killing
tonight."
"Major, you know we can't disobey orders," one of his soldiers told him.
"I know, but I'm just not convinced....." Sherman started to tell him, but
a quick movement above them. The large bucket at the pinnacle of the park
had filled up completely with water and was tipping over. Before any of the
soldiers could react, an avalanche of H2O utterly drenched them. The troops
started shooting away at the bucket. "Hold your fire, they're not up
there," Sherman ordered them.
"No, we're up here," Skylar called from atop the Uni-Bomber thrill slide
nearby, "Come and get us."
"Hold it," Sherman held back several eager troops who lunged
toward it, "He's just a kid. Lieutenant, you and I can take him."
"Right," Maltin followed his superior up the long and winding stairs to the
cylindrical launching door of the attraction. "We don't want to kill you,"
Sherman called out to Skylar, "Just be a nice kid and turn yourself in."
"I'm in here, bozo," came Skylar's voice from inside the launcher. Both
men charged in--and found themselves staring at a tape recorder. Before
they could do anything else, the door was slammed shut behind them. Maltin
yanked on the knob. "Hey, unlock they door, kid!" he shouted.
Skylar strutted into view outside the plastic window. "Sorry," he told
them, "But guess what happens when I push this button here?"
Horrible expression swept over Sherman and Maltin's faces--they'd been
tricked. They glanced down to see a very noticeable divide up the middle of
the floor--and that they were right over top of a very long water slide.
"No, please kid, don't do it!" Sherman screamed through the window.
"We'll give you a million bucks if you don't do it!" Maltin added.
Skylar shook his head and pushed the button. The floor opened up, sending
Maltin and Sherman screaming--both figuratively and literally--down the
slide. "If you've got it set up already, get out of the way," Skylar
radioed Kayla.
"I heard," Kayla scurried away from the very large balloon she'd rigged up
at the base of the slide. Seconds later, both men slid down on top of it,
causing it to explode in a shower of.....
"BUBBLE GUM!!" Maltin exclaimed. He and Sherman were now stuck in a huge
glob of it. "That little delinquent will pay for this!" the lieutenant
ranted, "He ruined my uniform!"
"Will you forget about the uniform!?" Sherman shouted at him, "We've got to
radio for assistance!" he reached for his, but found it buried under the
gum. He sighed, seeing no alternative but to yell, "HEELLLLLLLLLPPP!" at
the top of his lungs.
The rest of the command heard his plea from where he and Maltin had left
them. "Let's go get the major," one of them gestured to the others. As
they ran toward the pool their comrades were now stuck in, one of them
activated a tripwire connected to the controls of a cement truck parked
nearby, activating the mixer. Before any of the soldiers knew what hit
them, a load of quick-drying cement was dumped all over them. "Where did
this come from!?" one of them demanded.
"Us, you moron," Kayla called from across the plaza. The soldiers charged
at her, but started to significantly slow down as they got near here, and
eventually managed to harden completely in place.
"Well, that scratches about a dozen more," Skylar said, joining her. He
waved his hand in front of several frozen soldiers. They were unable to
move at all. "I'm glad we could cement our friendship this way, guys," he
told them mockingly.
In the back of the alley, Harry groaned as he pushed the satellite dish off
his chest. "Oh boy, he's really gonna pay for that one!" he raged, "Come on
Marv, he can't've gone far!"
Marv grunted and slowly heaved himself to his feet. The two thugs stumbled
back through the citrus house to the main street, where the
building-to-building search was still in progress. "Hey general, did ya
happen to see if the kid....?" Marv started to say, but his attention was
distracted by something else. "Is something wrong with yer hair there?" he
had to ask.
"It's none of your business!" General Blum snapped, pulling his hat down
low over his head to disguise Ferris's job on his hair, "No, I didn't see
the creep. I know he's...."
"Hey guys," Kevin stuck his head out of the funhouse up the street,
"Looking for me?"
"C'mere you little creep!" Harry charged toward the funhouse. "You guys,"
he shouted at a clump of soldiers across the street, "C'mere! We need yer
firepower!"
"Give us one good reason why," Private Siskel asked him roughly.
"How about half our loot," Harry told him, feeling like an idiot for giving
away that much of his haul.
"Fine, but I really don't like you idiots, and I think it's safe to say the
rest of us don't like you either," Private Ebert told him.
"Ah, go suck soap," Harry snorted at him. They all entered the funhouse.
"Be on your guard," Marv warned the troops, "This is like his home turf, the
funhouse."
"We're battle tested over a decade, buddy," Warrant Officer Travers told
him, "We can handle anything."
"He's in there," one of the soldiers pointed at Kevin's silhouette exiting
the Barrel-o-Fun to their right. They all charge straight into it--exactly
what Kevin wanted. "Turn it on full power," he said into his radio.
"What's he doin'!?" Marv yelled out loud as the barrel started spinning
very, very fast.
"How am I supposed to know!?" Harry told him. They all tried to stay
upright, but it was a futile attempt, and they fell over and were churned
around at an almost homicidal rate. Kevin smiled in satisfaction and ran
off towards the heart of the funhouse, making sure he was seen. He needed
them to follow him further.
Somehow, the burglars managed to crawl out of the rapidly spinning barrel.
"Just take your time and catch up when ya get the chance," Marv called to
the soldiers, who were getting green at the gills from their rotating.
The two of them took off up the stairs after Kevin. "Boy, if that's gonna
be the extent of his so-called creative genius in here, he's gonna be easy
pickins'" Harry confided in his buddy.
"Yep, he's sure done worse than this," Marv agreed. No sooner had he said
this, however, than the floor started vibrating. "Now what!?" Harry groaned
as they were tripped up.
"That's why they call it a fun house, guys," Kevin called from the bottom
of the nearest staircase, "Come and get me."
"You'd better pray the others don't catch up with us, kid!" Harry shouted
as he and Marv rushed for the staircase. Kevin waved to Blaine, who was
standing guard at a lever off to the side of the stairs. The rich boy
nodded and threw the lever, turning the stairs into a slide just as Harry
started down them. The short crook slipped and slid down it, colliding with
a support column.
"Harry, don't move, I'll get 'em for ya," Marv called his empained buddy.
He sat down and slid down the slide. Blaine threw the switch back to
staircase setting, causing Marv to tumbled head over heels once it was a
staircase again. The tall crook wasn't immobilized, though. "Hey you! Get
back here!" he yelled at Blaine as he ran off for the nearest service door
and proceeded to give chase, crowbar raised menacingly. Thinking quickly,
Blaine held the door open and waited until Marv was almost on top of him
before slamming it literally in the burglar's face. Marv groaned and
staggered backward, clutching his face in agony.
Rooney tried to get up from his landing spot in the Rocket to Pluto ride
area. His coat sleeve was stuck on a bolt between the seats he'd landed on,
however. "Come on, "he growled pulling hard to try and free it. He yanked
too hard, however, and his whole coat arm was ripped right off his coat.
"Great!" he grumbled, glaring at his exposed tuxedo arm. He picked up his
rifle and stormed for the exit. As he left the building, he nudged against
a line stretched across the doorway. Realizing a zonk, he looked skyward to
see a broken-down Skyway car falling toward him. He had enough time to leap
far enough out of the way to avoid a direct blow, but it still glanced off
the side of his skull and knocked him silly. As he fell to the ground,
Cameron popped out of the bushes and dragged the principal across the street
of Space Port Delta to the Captain CF 3-D show building. "I'm taking him
into the Captain's lair," he announced to the control room.
"Gotcha Cam," Buck told him. He was slipping into a motion control suit
for an idea he'd just come up with on the spot.
Cameron picked up a pair of 3-D glasses from the tray out front of the
theater. Once inside, he put them over Rooney's eyes and propped the
principal into a seat. "Start the film," he told the control room as he
went back out the entrance. As Rooney regained consciousness, he suddenly
found spaceships zooming all around him firing their laser guns. Shocked,
he fired back in every direction at once. One of his bullets, shattered the
supports for a net strung over the theater, and Rooney promptly was knocked
out cold when the ton of bricks the net was holding up fell down on top of
him.
Vernon finished pulling the last of the cactus prickles out of his rear.
He looked around for Brian. The brain had vanished, but Vernon saw his
footsteps headed toward It's a Tiny Planet. "Come on, he went this way," he
waved to the soldiers.
"Forget it pal, I'm not going through it again!" one of the troops told
him. Vernon shook his head and ran toward the building. Not even bothering
about the boats at the ride queue, he jumped into the river and stormed into
the attraction, where the famous millions of dolls sang away with their
nauseatingly cute song: "We are all one people, one human race, we'd just
love to put a smile on your face..."
"Ah, shut up!" Vernon fired off several volleys at the dolls, destroying a
couple dozen of them. "I know you're in here, Johnson!" he called out, "If
you and the others think you can run forever...!"
Suddenly the lights in the attraction went out. "What do you think you're
doing!?" Vernon bellowed. He found out as a ride car ran into him from
behind, knocking him backwards into the front seat. The boat took off threw
the ride area at a high rate of speed.
"Spooky, isn't it Richard?" Buck mocked him over the intercom for the It's
a Tiny Planet building. "There's no earthly way of knowing," he hummed in
his best Willy Wonka impression as Vernon's boat tore through the building,
"which direction you are going. No telling where the boat is rowing, or
which way the river's flowing. Is it raining; is it snowing; is a hurricane
a-blowing?"
"That's not even remotely funny, Russell!" Vernon bellowed at him through
the darkness. He was starting to feel sick again, "Stop this damn boat
right now!"
"What do you think, should I stop it for him?" Buck asked his family.
"Go right ahead," Tia gave him the thumbs-up. Buck walked over to the
appropriate console as Vernon's car exited the building and hit the
emergency stop button. As the boat came to a complete stop in less than a
second, Vernon, who'd made the mistake of trying to stand up, was flung
several yards toward a crane standing near the ride. He slammed against the
control lever, which caused the crane's shovel to tip over, dumping a load
of park trash all over the superintendent. In the control room, Buck
laughed at the sight of his former boss covered in garbage. "Like I always
say," he told everyone with him, "We should always put trash in its proper
place."
"He went out the door, Harry," Marv shouted excitedly to his partner as
Harry got back to his feet.
"Will ya forget about that guy?" Harry told him, "The kid went that way.
Come on; he can't've gone far."
The soldiers who'd been stuck in the Barrel-o-Fun stumbled down the stairs,
still looking nauseated. "This way, ya useless mercs," Harry pointed toward
the next hallway. They all ran down the hall which appeared to dead end.
"Well wise guy, where is he?" Private Siskel asked Harry curtly.
Before the crook could answer, the floor opened under them, and they all
tumbled down a long, curving chute. This led to a human pool table, which
sent them spinning all over the place. After this came another slide down a
slightly shorter chute onto a human roulette wheel. Those who could grabbed
for the center pole, but were unable to hold on and were spun off to the
sides of the roulette wheel, which was spinning at the speed of light.
Harry managed to hook his crowbar around a pipe over the attraction and haul
himself up, a task made no easier by the fact Marv was clinging to his legs.
"Ya need to lose weight," he told his colleague as they pulled themselves
to safety.
"What about them?" Marv pointed to the soldiers still spinning on the
roulette wheel.
"Let 'em spin," Harry muttered, "I'll tell ya, we're gonna
take over the Caribbean, we'll need guys with bigger stomachs than them for
pain."
"How about Krang and the Shredder?" Marv suggested.
"Forget I said anything!" Harry rolled his eyes. Marv had watched too much
of Walley Channel during the last eleven months in prison. "Come on, he
must've left the building."
"Right," Marv looked around, "Where is it?"
"Over there," Harry pointed to a set of double doors clearly marked EXIT to
their right. They rushed over to them. "Hold it," Harry warned Marv before
he could grab the doorknob on the left. He carefully tested each knob for
heat and nodded to his buddy that it was safe. They turned their knobs--and
were promptly hit by a severe power surge from the electrical generator
rigged to both doorknobs. They could have let go of the knobs and saved
themselves much aggravation, but for some unknown reason continued to hold
on as thousands of volts surged through their systems. Finally, after about
ten seconds, Kevin out of mercy turned it off for them. "That'll take the
air out of their sails for a while," he reasoned as he ran off to his next
station, "Now to take out the bigger threats."
"Colonel, status report," General Blum asked to his second in command.
"We're tracking down the subjects inside the Escape the Titanic ride,"
Champlin told him, "We saw the kid in the blue tuxedo run in here a few
minutes ago. There seems to be someone behind the door at the end of the
corridor. Shalit's about to look in and....OH LORD!!!!"
"What?" Blum asked. He could hear the sound of a lot of water on the
other end of the line. The connection shorted out. "Colonel, come in," he
asked. There was only static. He tossed the radio down in disgust. "This
is insane, this is absolutely insane!" he confided in Douglas, who'd
returned to him a few minutes ago, "We've fought the best armies in the
world, and now these fools can't handle an overweight loser, three morons,
and a bunch of smart aleck kids!"
"Sir, be aware, Marty Moose is coming at us," a member of his command
warned him. The general looked up to see a large robotic Marty bounding
toward him. Inside the control room, Buck grinned with uncontrollable glee
as he maneuvered Marty toward his old nemesis via a closed-circuit screen
attached to the front of his motion control suit. "This'll get them good!"
he figured.
"I still don't get how you can control the moose from up here, Buck," Rocco
asked from his computer.
"They said on the behind-the-scenes special two weeks ago on the Magical
World of Walley that they use they robotic models to fill in whenever the
weather's bad or the cast members call in sick," Maizy explained to him,
"These suits are connected to the robots with some kind of small wires;
whatever we do, it does."
"Kind of like how Dr. Octopus controls his tentacles," Miles further
explained.
"Oh," Rocco looked like he still didn't get it.
"Hiya folks," Buck announced to the soldiers. His voice came out as
Marty's. "You know the rules; no guns in the park."
"What is this about?" Blum asked. He gestured his men to take aim at the
robotic moose.
"Aw, you want to go and shoot me?" Buck said, trying to sound offended,
"That makes Marty one mad moose!"
He swung at the nearest soldiers, outtening their lights. The troops
opened fire at him. Buck as Marty ducked the shots and charged with antlers
down toward the nearest cluster, sending them scattering. "Everybody was
kung fu fighting!!" he hummed, delivering harsh kicks to those that chose to
stay and fight with him.
"What the hell's the matter with you imbeciles!!" General Blum bellowed at
his men, "It's just an oversized doll! You can destroy it!"
"Well Colonel Blum," Buck made Marty approach the general, "I've heard that
you've been a really bad boy this year. Since there aren't any kids around,
that means I get to play The Nutcracker with you."
What do you mean the....." General Blum was cut off as the Marty robot
shoved him to the ground, then grabbed him by the nuts and gave them a
violent twist. "YYEEEEEOOOOOOOOOWWWWW!!!" the general couldn't stop himself
from screaming in pain.
"One small pain for you for all the pain you've caused around the world,"
Buck said, "Santa's going to give you a big coal mine for the holidays;
hopefully he'll seal you up in it."
"Let go of my balls this minute, you accursed moose!" General Blum shouted
at him.
"Whatever you say," Buck as Marty said. He relinquished his grip, only to
started jumping up and down on Blum's chest. Several other soldiers pulled
him off. "Let the general go, or we'll go hunt down Marilyn and mount her
head on the wall!" one of them threatened him.
"Don't talk about my sweetheart that way!!" Buck backhanded the soldiers
away from the Marty robot. He cartwheeled over to the outdoor dining area
for the ice cream house. "Here's your table sir," he said, tossing one at a
soldier who came at him with a bazooka. "Have some ice cream, Lieutenant
Dan," he told another with a submachine gun, smashing his head into an ice
cream cart. "Sonny, meet your new partner, Chair," he said, hitting a flame
thrower-wielding soldier over the head with a folding chair. The soldiers
backed off, afraid to take the wild and crazy moose. "Well, don't be
cowards, take him!" General Blum yelled at them.
"Sir, with all due respect, I think he's yours," one soldier told his
commander. Blum glanced down at his still-sore privates and shook his head.
"Chickens!" Buck taunted them, leading Marty away toward the Christmas
tree.
"The Nutcracker, Buck?" Chanice raised an eyebrow toward him, "That was
very nice to say in front of the kids."
"Well it was too good to pass up, Chanice," Buck said as he switched off
the suit's microphone, "Tell me you loved Sonny and Chair, though."
"Well, yeah, Sonny and Chair was a good one," Chanice managed to smile at
the thought of the line.
Back on the street, General Blum watched in surprise as remnants of his
command staggered up the street toward him. "What happened to you men?" he
asked.
"Sir, the situation's worse than we projected," Lieutenant Maltin told his
boss. He and Sherman were still partially stuck together with the gum.
"They pulled a fast one on us in the water park; several of our command are
still incapacitated over there."
"Wounded?" the general inquired.
"Cemented, solid," the lieutenant said, "In fact, I can only think of one
piece of good news with all this."
"And what might that be, lieutenant?"
"Well sir, we can still save a ton on our car insurance if we switch to
Geico."
An angry roar erupted from Blum's throat. He delivered a vicious kick to
Maltin's shin. "That's not even remotely funny!!!" he shouted. He drew his
saber from its sheath. "Men, from now on there will be no quarter given!"
he decreed, "Follow me. When I get through with them, there won't be any
pieces of them left to identify them with!!"
He charged up the street, his command following behind him. Buck stuck
Marty's head out from behind the tree. "No pieces left, huh?" he asked
after the soldiers, "I don't think so!"
On to Chapter 66
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