Chapter Forty Nine
Kermit leaned against his cane, and he smiled again. That sweet knowing smile, Biff couldn't even look at him. He knew that that frog knew something, and it was horrible that he knew it. The room was silent, as Biff was looking everywhere except at Kermit. Then his gaze settled on Doc Brown.
"You're pitiful, Tannen." Emmett stated. "I know who you've been associated with. The devil himself, then huh?"
"The..devil? I've never been with the devil, Brown. I'll admit, I've done some stupid stuff that could get me jailed." Biff frowned, standing up and leaning against the dusty desk.
Emmett reached into his front pocket, and fished out a few pieces of paper. He set them on the desk, still frowning softly. It was some pictures, of some men. One of them had some men with puppets, in it one of them was smiling broadly, a visible gap in his teeth. He had an orange puppet on his arm, and was making the arm of it wrap around the other person in the picture. The other person was a very young Emmett Brown. He was smiling as well. Another man in the photo had a blue...thing on his arm, and was goofing off, it looked like he was dancing when it was taken. In another one, there were 6 men, smiling and standing proudly in front of a new set. The last one, had just the gap-toothed man, with Emmett standing beside each other, smiling.
"...You killed him, Tannen." Brown stated, as he pointed to that last picture. "Does Takashi ring a bell?" He said sourly, glaring at Biff.
"Takashi?" He didn't remember anyone with that name, he frowned trying to remember. "..I'm sorry...I don't remember anybody named 'Takashi' you crazy old man.."
Doc glared at him, and stepped forward. "You don't.....you have to remember it! Eli Takashi!! HE PAID YOU TO KILL HIM!!!!"
"Kill!? I've never killed anyone in my life!!" Biff backed up suddenly, trying to get away from Doc, who looked livid. He looked like he was ready to kill Biff if he said the wrong thing.
"GREAT SCOTT MAN!!! You did something horrible.....and you were there that day when it happened...." He frowned suddenly remembering that day at the set.
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"When's the people who're gonna get us food coming, Jim?" Frank asked as he lifted Piggy up off of his arm. He stretched his arm out, and frowned. "Man, if Piggy get's any heavier we're gonna have to put her on a diet or something..."
"How bad is it getting, Frank?" Jerry asked, as he stretched out his fingers, and put them inside of Robin, testing out the new lining. "At least you're not having to scrunch your hand so tiny...man...I gotta fix his eye." With his free hand, Jerry picked slightly at the wobbling eye on Robin. He looked up at Jim who still had Kermit on his arm.
Kermit's mouth was holding some papers, as Jim walked over to the other men. He handed them some scripts then sat down for a second. "Okay guys. We've gotta get this song right. Piggy keeps losing her place." He smiled a bit over at Frank.
"Heyy...not my problem Scooter over there broke my glasses last week! Still waiting for them." Frank complained, as Richard laughed softly.
"I said I was sorry, Frank. Didn't realize those were your glasses on the table." He smirked, as he lifted Scooter onto his arm, and moved the mouth a little bit, getting his feel again really quick. "Okay...there we go. I've gotta reline him soon."
"It's wearing out already?" Dave countered, as he slipped Gonzo onto his arm. He fiddled with the nose, and settled back into the chair.
"Yeah, yeah. That song just about did him in. Plus, I've not gotten him re-lined in nearly 6 months now." He picked at the eyeglasses for a second, then he settled back as well.
"Oh, hey Emmett!!" Jim exclaimed as the young man walked over holding some large papers in his hands. "How did the set building go?"
"Got the hole all prepared. The fake insert for the Borcellino Brothers skit is ready as well. And I also took the liberty to fix some of the muppeter's chairs as well. I repadded the head supports for you." He said, positively gushing. He was so excited when Jim had picked him to be head Set Builder for that season.
"Yah!" Dave yelled, happy. "Those seats were murder!! Thanks!"
"Happy to oblige, Dave!" Emmett frowned for a second, then he remembered something. "Oh yeah, Jim. The caterers are here now, if you guys would like to break for lunch right now."
Richard and Frank went ahead and stood up from their chairs. "Yes...lunch!" Frank exclaimed happy. He had forgotten to eat breakfast eariler, so he was quite hungry now.
"Come on guys. Lunch, then I guess we'll practice some more, right?" Richard said, smiling.
"Right everyone. Come on then." Jim smiled, as the rest of them went over to the break room for lunch.
"Well, hi there! My name is Mr. Tan, and I've got just about whatever you fine men would like!" A tall young man waved his hands over this large table filled with all types of lunch. The nearly 40 or so workers started filing inside the break room, starting to get lunch. Mr. Tan served them all, dutifully and effientally.
"...man...that last take was hard, Dave. I don't know how you do that spinning thing with Gonzo. I tried it, I feel like my shoulder's about to pop out!" Richard said, rubbing his shoulder softly. Mr. Tan was filling some drinks at another table, and he walked over to the muppeters table and overheard what Richard was saying about his shoulder.
"Would you care for a neck massage perhaps?" Mr. Tan offered. "It's complientary. I absoutely love your work, it's so...endearing."
"Interesting choice of words. Um, sure I guess. That would really help out, cause I've got a song number with Scooter next take we do." He leaned back, as Mr. Tan started to do a neck massage for him.
"Richard Hunt, right?" Mr. Tan asked, as he started gently massaging the muppeter's shoulders and neck.
"Yep. I'm him." He relaxed into the massage, then looked over at Jim, a look of pure bliss on his face. "Hey...Jim?"
"Yeah, Richard?" He smiled, taking another bite of his sandwich.
"We need to get an on-site massuse..that would be..great.." He replied, feeling more and more sleepy with it. His shoulders were hurting so badly, and that really made it feel so good just then.
"Don't get too comfortable, Mr. Hunt. Your shoulders are so tense, you may feel some kind of pricking feelings, that's the tendons and nerves, okay?" Mr. Tan reminded softly.
"Oh sure. I understand, I've had massages before."
Mr. Tan was wearing a long-sleeved shirt, which hid something quite interesting in it's sleeve. A needle. Just a slim needle, nothing more. He slid it out softly, while he was doing the massage on Richard. He then slipped it quickly into his shoulder, while massaging. With a swift movement, he pressed a small button on the wrist, it held a small amount of a liquid, which then went into the muppeter. Richard didn't seem to notice it a bit, as did anyone else. He let the slim, almost invisible needle slip back into it's holder, and he finished up his massage on him.
"Wow...that was great! Thanks!!" Richard smiled, turning back around to Mr. Tan.
"No problem. Does anyone else want a massage then?" He asked the rest of them. Only Jim wanted one, so he gave one to Jim as well, using the same techique that he had done to Richard....then after that day...no one ever saw the massage giving caterer again.
As Mr. Tan was leaving the set pushing the bins of food and supplies outside, Emmett stopped him. He was glaring at him. "Biff Tannen...what on earth are you doing here?"
Mr. Tan...or Mr. Biff Tannen, smiled graciously. "It's just a quick job I'm doing to help out a friend. Mr....Eli was sick today, so he couldn't cater for them, so I came to help out. That's all."
After three years had passed....two men died. The reports say of natural things, but Doc Brown knew what it was. It was that needle, that he saw in Biff's watch.
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"You massaged them to their deaths' Biff." Emmett stated, frowning sadly at his memories. Biff started laughing at what he had said, until Brown pushed him up against the wall. "Takashi ordered you to kill them, didn't he?"
"Yeah, so what if he did!!" Biff countered, frowning deeply. "He paid me handsomely for it. He had many people under him, they all worked for him and what he believed. Even people who didn't know who he was, worked for him."
"What do you know about him?" Emmett asked, Sadie had not told him much about Eli, as whenever she spoke about him, she ended breaking down after a short while. "Tell me, please."
"Sure. You might recoginize a few of these names, Mr. the Frog...Nancy, his sister, she rounded up kids for the New Order Militia. Steve, he built it up so much...that until he was killed he could have taken over a small city with no problem. His home was only a small amount of what that man was capable of. Then there was Doc Hopper, he intended to go after you, Kermit. You were too close to Jim." He glared over at Kermit for a moment.
"How do you know all this?" Brown asked, curious now. Biff was usually...just stupid and underhanded. Not...this knowing of what he was doing. He just usually had stupid luck at what he did.
He slicked his blond hair back for a moment, and he frowned. "I've stolen your DeLeoran before, Brown. Eli found it out, when I accidently ended up here once. He saw it, and pratically begged for me to help him. Those muppeters had too much influence on the muppets."
Emmett held up his hand for a second. "Wait...wait a moment. The muppeters, and the muppets are both real here?!"
"Yes! The muppeters are people who operate those puppet things to imiate the real muppets! It's...kinda strange, but it works I guess. The regular public don't realize that they are real, cause they think their just ingenious puppets that some man built." He shrugged a little. "...I..I really don't know why they do that. They just do."
Doc raised an eyebrow over at Kermit who just smirked a little bit. "I guess something's are better left unasked...anyways, Biff...what about that them being too close?"
"Jim was about to file a lawsuit against Eli, get him put away for the stress and maniuplation that he had caused to the muppets. Richard used to be a good friend of Eli's, but he squealed to Jim about it...so they both had to be taken care of." Biff looked down. "And I was the one to do it."
"You do have remorse then." Brown acknowledged, looking at him carefully.
"I ended up hating to do it! But if I didn't, Eli would have killed me! I was all ready to just outright kill them, a slow and painful death, but for them it mutated into two different things....that infection to Jim and something that imiated aids, for Richard. They were both so sweet and kind...they weren't vicious and mean as Eli had made them sound..."
"I see...but they're dead now. And he's tried to kill Scooter, and then you've tried to kill Sara. What is with you!?"
"Denays, not Eli...he ordered me to find her and kill her! He already paid me half when I found out she was connected to the muppets! I thought she was just some...regular human..." He looked away, frowning.
"So..if it's just a regular human, you'd kill it?"
"NO! I...I don't know anymore, Emmett..." He shook his head, as he sat there in the dust, wanting to just go away from it all.
He had dug himself into a ten foot deep hole and he couldn't find the ladder anymore.