The Moppet Family: The Reunion

[Vibs]

Vibs: no DanDan - you are not going to eat me. Okay? Because I know... THE secret...

 

[DanDanStrawberry]

DanDan: You don't mean...*whispers in Vibs' ear*...because I didn't realise it was a pineapple. I thought it was a mammal! I really did!! *loud sobs*

 

[Vibs]

Vibs: it was. is. they are. yes. *has no idea what the thing is talking about* So let's get back to our seats and try not to eat anybody for shall we say 4 hours? I bet you couldn't do that...

 

[DanDanStrawberry]

DanDan: Not eat anyone??? For 4 whole hours?? I'm not sure I can do that. Wait! I have an idea!!

*runs to lobby*

*eats the sinfully ugly lady*

*runs back to main screen*

DanDan: OK, let's get back to the movie!

 

[theprawncracker]

Me: ...Ignoring the plots of DanDan and Vibs-

Jack: Just like I always do!

Me: -I just had to say that this is amazing!! Father's confrontation with Vic had me stunned! Amazing!! LOVED IT!!! And I'm so worried for mother!! MORE PLEASE!!

Jack: Calm down and have some popcorn. *shove popcorn at me*

Me: Where'd you get this?!

Jack: Stole it.

Me: Why do I even ask anymore?

 

[RedDragon]

Natural curiosity, my friend <sits down next to Ryan>

Mairin: Hey hot stuff <sits next to Jack>

<rolls eyes> Just remember, you two, this is "G" rated...except for the violence, that is...Come on! Let's get this thing started again!

Mairin: Why don't you go write your story?

Maybe I will...or maybe I'll go write your story...and let the whole world in on your...interesting past

Mairin: You wouldn't...

<shrug> Believe what you want...<pulls out notebook and pencil>

Mairin: <looks over shoulder> Hey! That's personal information! Give me that!

No! <runs away>

Mairin: Gah!...humph!...I'll get her later, but someone needs to give story, and soon.

 

[redBoobergurl]

Izzy: Glad you've got some kleenexs dear, because I may need them. *gathers the girls in close to wait for the next part of the story and hugs them tight*

This is just great! I'm trying my best to keep caught up!

 

[christyb]

<rolls eyes> Just remember, you two, this is "G" rated...except for the violence, that is...Come on! Let's get this thing started again!

Welll there was that one scene in my very first draft between Mother and Fa....

Mother: *clamps hand over my mouth* But we won't go into that right now.

Me: mmmpphhhh

Mother: Just post the next chapter.

Chapter Seventeen- Only The Beginning

The kittens exploded out the house and down the driveway, rolling, and bouncing and being kittens. "ANN KELLY! ANN KELLY! ANN KELLY!" Tabby shouted. "WE'RE GOING TO ENGLAND!"

"We're going to England?" Ann said.

"We're going to England!" Tabby exclaimed.

"We're going to England?" Kelly asked.

"We're going to England!"

"We're going to England," Ann stated.

"What's England?" Kelly asked.

"I don't know but we're going!"

Father had called Mr Cole and invited him on the-boy-next-door-now-turned-evil-hunt, it was good cover for his leaving the country. That man could get them through customs any time. And the kittens were a fabulous distraction from his real thoughts, so they were invited too.
Randel watched the girls from a distance.

"We're going to England?" Kelly asked again.

"Kelly? Just pack..." Ann said.

"Can you pack for me too?" Tabby asked, rolling over and over on the grass.

"Pack yourself!"

"Oh, don’t pack yourself, suitcases are so uncomfortable," Kelly stated.

"I'm too excited! We're going to ENGLAND!"

"Do we know what England is yet?"

"Um…no, but we’re going there!"

The kittens spotted the Weird-Man sitting in the middle of the street, legs crossed, feet flat together, hands folded, and white robe hanging off his shoulders folded down over his dark-blue jeans, and stopped suddenly in the middle of their conversation.

"Who's that?" Anne asked.

"What's that?" Kelly asked.

"Why is he there?" Tabby asked.

"I don't know," Anne answered.

"Me either…"

"Let's ask him!" Tabby bounded away from the others, and dove off the edge of the curb into the street.

"Tabby!" Anne squealed. "Dad said never to speak to strangers, and he meant ever never when he said never ever!"

"How could he mean ever and never?" Kelly asked.
Tabby frowned and dashed back. "Come on you two! Weird-Man can't hurt us, see, he's not even looking at us!"

"And we're magic," Kelly stated proudly, then looked left and right to be sure no one had heard. The street was empty except for Weird-Man. "And we're going to England," she added quickly. "I think."

Anne folded her paws. "We do not talk to strangers."

"We talked to the Penguin-Guy!"

"Jack," Kelly said, then blushed.

"Jack, Jack, Jack!" Tabby did a mini summersault, and then stopped near

Anne. "Can we talk to Weird-Man, please?"

"No!"

"Alright, tag!" Tabby poked Anne, and dived off the curb again. Anne
charged after her.

Kelly glanced nervously from Anne to Tabby, then across the road at Weird-Man, and he stared straight back into her eyes. Kelly didn't blink.

"Tag!" Ann shouted, tagging Tabby and running away, she looked over her fluffy shoulder at her sister, and ran straight into Weird-Man.
She backed up, her wide eyes staring at him. He reached a hand towards her. "Hello Anne." His voice was soft like whipped cream.

Tabby and Kelly padded up behind Anne. Kelly peaked over Tabby's shoulder, caught weird man's eyes again

"Tabby." Weird-man nodded. "And you must be Kelly," he went on. "You have a nice name."

"Does that mean mine's horrible?" Tabby whispered loudly to Anne.

"No, no, no," the man said. "Your name is just as delicious, but hers, is special. I once had a little girl…her name was Kelly."

"What happened?" Ann asked.

"Why are you sitting in the street?" Tabby asked.

"Why do you ask so many questions?" He twisted his back slightly, partly blocking Ann from his conversation. "Why are you two playing on the street anyway? Is your home too small?"

"It’s fun!" Tabby said.

"Our home is big!" Kelly said. "Well, big ish, not too small. Smaller than some, I guess, or a castle or something."

Anne walked around Weird-Man, and looked at him from the other side.

"Where did you come from?" she asked.

Weird-Man twisted again, just a tiny amount, and Anne was shut out of the conversation. "Do your parents mind you being on the street? Mine were always worried that I'd be hurt, or have fun."

"But! Fun is fun!" Tabby said. "Why not have fun!"

"Oh, my parents were strange," Weird-Man said. "Very strange, fun was not allowed. And if I had fun, they'd bring me home. Shut me off." Again a slight movement of his back and his cloak, but this time towards Tabby, and now he was only talking to Kelly. "What about your parents?" he asked. "Your father?"

"Oh, well, he's great! He reads stories!"

"About adventures," Weird-Man said.

Tabby pounced around behind him and joined Anne. They poked their heads around his cloak.

"Yes," Kelly replied solemnly. "Awesome adventures."

"Do you like them?"

"We have them!" Tabby exclaimed.

"Oh? You have adventures? What kind?" Weird-Man asked Kelly.

"We, once, sneaked to the dock when our cousin was taken by a pirate."

"And we went home," Anne said.

Weird-Man twitched his cloak. "Did you go home?" he asked Kelly.
Kelly almost glanced at Anne and Tabby, but Weird-Man placed his thumb and index finger under her chin, tilting it towards his eyes. "Or did your daddy grab you home?"

"He...grabbed us home, but…"

"He's cruel."

"He loves us!"

"…heartless…"

Tabby ran around Weird-Man to the other side. He twisted, and she was blocked.

"He…cares."

"...unfeeling…"

"Sometimes he won't let us play in the dark, but…"

"…cruel…"

Anne looked at Tabby. "We've got to find Daddy."

Kelly stared into Weird-Man's eyes. He spoke, "You wish you could be free to do what you want."

"I wish we could be free to do want," Kelly said.

Tabby grabbed Anne's paw, and they ran away from Weird-Man, and bumped straight into him. He was sitting as if he hadn't moved. "Hello Tabby," he said. "You have a nice name."

She blushed to the root of her toes. "Oh, thank you."

Mr Cole paced back and forth in his study. He had agreed to go with Father to England, but there was something fishy in it, he could practically taste something wrong. He wondered if it was Randel. No. not possible, he would have seen him by now. Adam Cole could always see through illusions, ever since the fire. Unless they were stronger illusions than one person could create, and surely no one would be stupid enough to work with Randel.

Mr Cole walked to the window and looked outside but didn’t see anything except the kittens playing on the lawn. He hoped they would be ok in England, though if they got into any trouble he could always yank them out. As a father, he was responsible to keep a hold on his children, to be sure they weren’t harmed.

The study door cracked open and Izzy poked her head in. She was up in human form, smiling, her hair cascading around her face. "I've never been to England! Nor has Grandma K."

Izzy's mother moved into the room, carrying a tray of freshly baked cookies. "I bet the kittens look forward to flying on the air-o-purr-laine," she said. "Adam, I baked biscuits. I know you like them half-baked."

"Thank you, I -" Adam stopped mid-sentence as an echo of a slam spun through his mind. Izzy leapt onto his shoulder, condensing into soft-white-cat form. "The kittens," Adam said.

"They've shut us out," Grandma said.

Izzy arched her back and hissed.

Adam strode towards the door, but it slammed in his face. "What?" He turned to the window as it slid and rattled shut. Adam took hold of Grandma's hand, and flickered to transport them out. Nothing happened. He remained where he was.

A man stood in the study with him. A man in jeans, with a cloak. "Surely you remember your old friend Randel?" Randel said. He was holding two kittens by the scruff of their necks. "And I believe these are yours." He tossed Tabby and Ann into Adam's arms. "Thanks to your adorable daughters, and my charming personality, combined with the life-force of a certain friend of a friend, and the magic life force of your niece, Grey," he smiled, "We have composed an anti-magic ray, and, Adam, tag, you're it."

Izzy leapt from Adam's shoulder onto Randel's face, scratching, biting. Randel scooped her off and tossed her at her husband. She twisted into human form and landed on her feet. "Don't you dare touch my daughters," she snarled.

"Hate to feel things are out of your control?" Randel said, his voice charming but burning with an undercurrent of fury.

Grandma K took the girls from Adam, and crouched with them, as if shielding them from the big bad guy.

"What do you want, Randel?" Adam asked.

"You already know, world domination. Oh, and, what is that thing called? Oh, yes. Revenge." He laughed a hideous laugh.

And Adam punched him in the face.

Randell fell back, and slammed against the wall. "How dare-"

Adam strode towards him. "Don't you remember who I am? I am the Adam Cole, brother of Christy Nicola Cole, the best alumni the Glendale School for the Arts have ever seen."

Randell pulled himself away from the wall, coughing. "And I am Randell, illusionist, and manipulator. Feel it, Adam, feel me taking over."
Adam thrust a hand and grabbed Randell around the throat, lifting him a foot off the ground and pinning him against the wall with one arm. "You may stop my magic, but you cannot stop me."

Randell couldn't breath. Adam tightened his grip. Randell struggled to swallow. Adam's palm pressed against his windpipe.

"I have them," Randall managed to rasp.

Adam's face hardened. "Not yet you don't." He gasped, half releasing his grip, images flashing across his mind, not in his usual shadowy vision, but rather in full fast color. Christy falling backwards into a pile of gold, clutching a wound. A gun shot. Randall's fingers on a gun. "Stop it!" Adam yelled. Ann's peeked around her Grandma, eyes widening in fear. She'd never seen her dad this powerful. Tabby joined her, grinning. "Get that bad man," she whispered.

Ann caught Randell's eyes. She licked her lips with a tiny pink tongue. Randell shifted his pupils, digging into her mind. She extended her tiny claws. Izzy straightened towards Randell, cutting her eyes from him to Ann and back.

Randell closed his eyes, preparing an illusion and focusing it on Ann. Izzy felt it moments before it hit, and leapt between them, catching the force of the illusion magic and deflecting it back into Randell. She cried and stumbled.

Adam dropped Randell, thudding him onto the ground, and caught Izzy before she fell. "Izzy! My beautiful wife!"

She twitched between cat and human form for a moment, then lay still.
When Adam leapt up, Randell was gone. Adam knew his plan, the ultimate revenge for Ron, then Father stealing Randell's girl, but there was no time to deal with that right away, for now he had to deal with his injured wife.

Across the road, Father knew nothing of those events. He was still enclosed in an illusion. He walked out of his house.
"Keys, wallet, shoes, extra socks, have I forgotten anything?" He stopped.

"Oh! The twins!"

He dove back into the house and emerged with two small blue and pink cases.

"That one's mine," Viq said, tugging at the blue case.

"How do you even know that?" Vibs asked.

"It's blue."

Vibs grinned. Puff! The case turned yellow. Viq frowned, and a little hand
slipped into his. Viola.

"Don't worry," she whispered. "I can see through things. I know which is yours. It has a fluffy pink rabbit in it."

Father stepped across the road to the Coles' place. "Come along! This is no time for a cat-nap! Where are they?"

The door opened and the Coles emerged, dragging cases, and kittens.

"Come on girls," Grandma was saying. "Help each other with your purrses."

Inside the house, the real Grandma K and the girls banged on the window, trying to catch Father's attention as he squawked something about pizza vans. Behind them, Adam touched Izzy's soft-white neck, testing a pulse. He stood and opened bottles from his shelves. He found a hypodermic needle, and screwed it together.

Outside, Father helped the illusionary Coles and his twins into a cab, and they headed to the airport, boarded a plane. He thought he saw Jack and Miss Mingostone, but they weren’t there, of course. They had disappeared, hadn't they? Or gone back to where they came from. Father felt a headache spinning behind his eyes. He felt sea-sick and air-sick all at once.

But he was smiling, laughing, making jokes with the twins. Viola watched him the whole flight. Saw the way he was talking to people who weren’t there who he called the Coles. She knew who the Coles were of course, but the Coles were not on this plane. Viola touched his hand for a second, and span into his mind, reading, realizing-

Father shrugged off the hand on his, thinking it was Viq or Vibs. He spoke to Miss Mingostone, who wasn't there either.

And then they arrived in England, and Father stepped into the airport. The twins ran ahead to collect luggage. Viola stayed behind, near Father.
Back at home the fairies had thought Viola too small to make a difference, like a little bug or an insect, not a fairy. Maybe they were right. "Mr Moppet!" she shouted.

He didn't hear her.

She fluttered tiny wings and lifted off, away from him before turning back and rushing straight towards his face. Like a bug, or an insect. And she rammed into his face, knocking him backwards.

Father tripped, falling, and slammed against the hard airport floor, snapping him to reality, out of a dream, an illusion, and into the real world.

 

[The Count]

Thank you for the chapter Sis. Yes, a big scene indeed and of course we loved it. But being the brother of the best alumn that old school has seen... Surely, we find a way to get out of the house and make it to the isle eventually?
And Viola's finally starting to get through to that blockhead... Snapping him back to reality, out of the illusory world he's been stumbling through.

Oh, and the colaboration between authors is rully evident here, with both spellings yielding different pronounciations from my reader program.
Really enjoying this, hope for more soon-ish?

 

[christyb]

Oh you find a way. I'm sorry to say that you have to stay there for the next few chapters. So sit back relax...read a book. Lecture the kittens on why they shouldn't talk to strangers. LoL I'd love to hear how your reader says everything with one writer being American and the other British. It has to be intresting. I'm sorry though...no more until Monday. Beau's sister is getting married this weekend (Congrats!) and he has no time to finish a certain errrhmmmm chapter.