T.U.F.F. Mission X: Saga 2 - Chapter 6

T.U.F.F. Mission X: The T.O.O.R. Saga – Chapter 6

T.O.O.R. attacks


Dudley, Kitty, the Chief and Keswick have arrived at their destination for their camping trip. It was dark out, and they have set up camp in the woods, getting some orange tents set up and a campfire going. They all sat around some rocks and were roasting hotdogs on sticks.

“It’s starting to feel like we’ve done this before…” said Dudley.

“We did,” replied Kitty. “It was like this on Riptide Island. Only now we’re all together”

“Right! That’s what I was thinking of. I knew I was having that thought where you remember something familiar.”

“That would be ‘déjà vu.’”

“Okay, Kitty,” he said tiredly. “You don’t have to start mixing in words in different languages with English ones. We get it already. Thank you!”

Kitty just decided to ignore his ignorance. “Even though it was a mission where we got stranded, we still managed to have a good time.”

“Yep! We really do make the best of things in some of the craziest situations.” He thought about something. “You got your hair in a ponytail, huh?”

She laughed. “Well, yeah! This is my style when I go camping.”

“Yeah, that makes sense…” Seeing Kitty’s ponytail reminded him of Daisy. This was the second time that Kitty reminded him about what happened between him and Daisy, but it was starting to make him feel a little strange. He was upset over what happened with Daisy, but he thought it was weird how he couldn’t bring himself to tell Kitty about it. He already helped her to feel better, but he still felt hesitant for some reason.

Kitty noticed that Dudley suddenly became quiet. In fact, she was also aware that he became like this the other night before he got his burrito, and he seemed a bit panicky when she came back from her mom’s phone call. She wanted to ask him what was really going on, but she decided to wait until they were both alone.

“Speaking of your last mission,” said the Chief, who was eating a hotdog that was bigger than himself, “I wonder if Snaptrap is honoring his deal.”

Keswick sighed. “As if he had any hah-hah-honor to begin with. He’s a lah-lah-lah-lunatic, you know.”

“Hey now…” stated Kitty. “Snaptrap has proven himself to be a pretty useful ally. I think it would be fair for us to give him the benefit of the doubt when it comes to thinking he’s unreliable.”

“Who knows?” replied Dudley. “He could actually keep his word for once… but that would be super unlikely!”

***

On that same night, Snaptrap was also having his share of complications. He walked into his HQ and flopped onto his couch, feeling very depressed.

“I think I may have to change my name to ‘Woe’ again…” he muttered. He rolled onto his back and looked up at his ceiling. “The one time I find someone as cool as her, and she just had to be a T.U.F.F. agent… Who am I kidding? A villain like me can’t be friends with someone like her. I mean… If I keep hanging out with JoJo, I won’t be bad anymore! I love being around her, but I also love being evil! This…is so…complicated!”

He groaned as he dropped his tail to the ground, rubbing his clawed fingers through his hair. “She said it herself. I’m not such a bad guy after all… Is there any hope for my villainy left?” It was then that he heard someone come through the door. The sound of the footsteps were light, in which he raised his head from the couch to see who it was. “Is that...? It can’t be her… can it?” He saw a shadow coming around the corner. He felt very nervous. “J-JoJo?! What are you doing here? Are…Are you here to go…the next step?! AHH!!!” He began to wave his hands over his head in a panic. “This is all too soon! I’m not ready for this yet! You’re not even supposed to enter my house without asking! You’re breaking your own rules! Your own rules!”

There person who entered the room was not JoJo, however. It was actually Larry! “Who the heck is JoJo?” he asked. “What are you going on about today, Sanptrap?”

Snaptrap was very relieved; so relieved that he jumped from his couch and grabbed Larry, picking him up into the air! “Larry! You’re back!”

“Wah! What are you doing, Snaptrap?!”

Snaptrap made a big grin. “I’m just…so happy to see you right now!”

“Really?” asked Larry with a smile.

“Yeah! I really am! But wait…! I thought you were gone to see my sister?”

“Heh heh… I was, but when I got there, it turned out that she was actually off on a trip somewhere. Since that was the case, I came back here.”

“Why didn’t you just call her?”

Larry looked away, feeling a bit disappointed. “I wanted it to be a surprise…”

“And what took you so long to come back? She only lives a few streets away.”

“Eh, I decided to just stay there for a bit, but since I got bored, I felt like coming back here to see if you got sent to jail or not yet.”

“Wow.” He then raised an eyebrow. “Hang on! Have Ollie and Francisco come back as well?”

He shrugged. “I don’t think so. They might still be on their vacations.”

Snaptrap groaned. “Of course. Now I have no reason to be happy to see you anymore.” He casually dropped Larry on the ground.

“Ow! That hurt!”

“It would hurt a lot more if I felt like punishing you for ditching me, but there’s no time for that! Now that you’re here, I won’t look as pathetic for where we’re going!”

“And how would that work?” he asked dryly. “Where are we going?”

Snaptrap grinned. “Why, anyone who goes there without at least one henchman is seen as a total loser! Since you’re coming with me, everything can work out now! We’re going…to Petsylvania!” Very loud lightning struck outside.

Larry scratched his head. “Weird how things like that happen when people say something dramatic.”

“I know! I wish that kind of stuff happened when I talked about other things more often!” He cleared his throat. “I will now go eat a slice of pizza!” Nothing happened. “Dang it! See what I mean?”

***

It was morning, and Dudley and Kitty just woke up. Dudley was wearing blue pajamas while Kitty was wearing pink. They were in one tent while the Chief and Keswick were in the other. Kitty curved her back up and then stretched herself out while purring.

“Prrrr… Morning, Dudley!” she said cheerfully as she rubbed her nose with her forearm.

Dudley yawned. “Goooood morning, Kitty.” They could hear Keswick and the Chief snoring in the other tent.

“It looks like we got up earlier than those two.”

“Yeah…” He rubbed his hand through his hair. “They were snoring so loudly, I could hardly get to sleep!”

“They were snoring loudly? I think you're forgetting someone.”

“Oh yeah!” he said with a grin. “You were snoring louder than the both of them!”

“What?” she said with a bored expression.

“You heard me.”

“You were snoring louder than anyone here!”

“I highly doubt that. Besides, when you’re a dog, anything is louder. That’s extra true for when you lecture me all the time.”

“I do not…!”

“Yeah-huh! Anyways… I’m going to go for a morning walk. I’ll…see you in a bit, I guess...” He was about to get up, but Kitty placed her hand on his arm.

“Just a minute, Dudley.” He looked back at her. “I wanted to ask you something.”

“Er… What is it?”

“It’s about a couple nights ago. You were not acting excited because you skated like a pro; you were panicking. I could tell. And you were acting so cheerful when we had food until I mentioned how to act around other girls.” He looked away from her while biting his lip. “If there’s anything that’s on your mind… I’m here to talk about it, if you want.”

Dudley hesitated, but he then let out a breath of air. “Okay, okay…” he said quietly. Kitty felt concerned, as she had never seen him like this before. “It’s about Daisy… She got upset with me over a…misunderstanding, and…she doesn’t want to see me anymore.”

Kitty made a small gasp. “Oh no…! I’m so sorry. I had no idea!”

“It’s alright… I didn’t really want you knowing anyway.”

“H-How come? Why didn’t you explain this to me when we were at the park?”

He made a small smile. “Because…you were having a lot of fun that night.” Her eyes widened. “See… I guess I felt a little bad for you, since you seemed a bit depressed over a lot of the things that have happened recently. So I wanted to cheer you up, and since you were having a good time with me, I decided to just keep hanging out with you.”

She shook her head, feeling very surprised. “You…You did that for me? You decided not to do anything about what happened between you and Daisy…because you knew you were making me feel better…?”

He sighed. “Pretty much. I’m glad I did, and we had a great time, but still…” She quickly placed both of her hands on his shoulders and directed him towards her. She was now face to face with him. “K-Kitty…?” he said awkwardly as she stared into his eyes.

“…Listen to me, Dudley. I really appreciate you doing that to help me out, but when something like that happens with your girlfriend, you’ve got to fix it immediately. You definitely meant well, but that’s not the right thing to do when you’re in a relationship. You have to contact Daisy the next chance you have and try to sort things out. Understand?”

Even after all of the years that Dudley knew her, she still managed to surprise him with how serious and mature she could be. “Uh… Right!” he replied.

“Have you tried getting a hold of her?”

“I tried last night, but she didn’t answer. I also…sort of forgot my cellphone today.”

“Well… hopefully she won’t stay upset,” she said, trying to sound more optimistic. “She’s a good person, you know. She’ll come around.”

“Yeah… You’ve got a point.”

She took out her cellphone, which was pink and surprisingly tacky looking for someone like her, as it was covered with plastic jewelry. “Here you go. You can use my phone to call her whenever you want.”

He quickly backed up from it. “Nuh-uh! No way! I can’t call her with your number!”

“Huh? Why not…?”

“It’s…kind of silly, but the reason she doesn’t want to see me anymore is because…” He made a nervous smile. “She saw the two if us having fun at the park.” She raised her eyebrows. “She saw us skating together, thinking that we were on a date.”

She raised her head and placed her hand over her mouth. She looked very shocked to hear that. They were both quiet for a moment… but then she quietly laughed as she removed her hand from her face. “Wow…! She thought we were on a date?” He nodded. “Oh my gosh…” She gave Dudley a gentle shove. “You were right! She can be pretty wacky sometimes…!”

Dudley was a bit taken back by her reaction, but this also made him laugh a little. “Ha ha…! Yeah! It’s crazy!”

“Like, what? Two friends can’t go out to have some fun? Pfft!”

“That’s what I thought! It’s like…if I have a girlfriend, I can’t have another friend who’s a girl, which is super dumb, since I…” He scratched his ear. “Really like spending time with you, you know!”

She flopped her fluffy tail over her leg as she sat, smiling. “Aw… I can see where she’s coming from, though. A lot of girls don’t like seeing their boyfriends with another girl.”

“But if that’s how it is… we can still be friends… right?”

She gave him a small hug. “Best friends, buddy!”

Dudley smiled, feeling much better than he did before. “Of course! Me having a girlfriend shouldn’t make a difference.”

“You’re absolutely right! It’s just like how it was with me an Eric that time. We aren’t going to stop hanging out together over something as silly as that! The way I see it, that Daisy of yours just needs to get used to it. Besides; I’m sure she’ll understand!”

“Yeah! Thanks, Kitty! I feel way better now! I’ll just explain that to her when we get back.”

“In a nice way, obviously,” she added with a grin.

“Obviously! Anyways, I still feel like going for a walk.” He got up and walked out of the tent, turning back to her. “You want to join me on my ‘journey through nature?’” he said as he wiggled his fingers.

“I’m good. I think I’ll stay laying down a bit more until those two sleepyheads wake up.”

He shrugged. “Whatever you want then. I’m off to see what I can find. Later!”

“Later!” she said with a wink. He left the tent and got changed behind some large bushes. In a manner of seconds he was wearing his camping clothes. As he left the camp sight, she watched him go down a path in the woods. She then sighed and frowned somewhat sadly. “Oh, Dudley…” she said softly to herself.

***

Dudley went pretty far into the woods, and he was certainly feeling better after talking to Kitty about what was on his mind.

“As if I couldn’t still hang out with her and date Daisy at the same time,” he said with a grin. “Yeah right! I’ll explain to Daisy what’s going on; no sweat! I hope she's not acting this way because Kitty's a cat, and she's a doggy dog. That would be stupid. Species instinctive rivalry is so weird. I honestly don't get it that much, even though me and Kitty go through it sometimes.” He looked up in the sky. “Still, though… I really didn’t want to talk to Kitty about this misunderstanding. I guess I just didn’t want to hear her reaction about Daisy thinking we were dating! I figured she would at least go ‘ewww!’ or something!” He placed his right hand on his chin as he walked. “Hmm… Something still isn’t…sitting right with me, though. I feel a…hesitation to tell Daisy, but why…?” He shook his head and smiled. “Bah! I’m sure it’s nothing!”

As he walked farther ahead, he came across a more open area of the woods. He liked this area, as it reminded him of his mission to find Purpose. Aside from thinking that Kitty died and having to deal with her Guilt persona, he thought it was a very fun and exciting mission.

“I remember when I thought that Kitty died,” he said with a frown. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt that way for anything. Well… except for when dad passed away. I still can’t believe how young I was when it happened… but I still remember the good times. He used to give me rides on his back, and we played with Frisbees a lot.” He rubbed his arm. “I didn’t want to lose someone super important in my life ever again, and it almost happened with her.” He looked down at the ground and smiled. “I was so relieved to have her back… She really is a great… Err…?”

He bonked himself on the head with the side of his fist, feeling annoyed. “Oh, quit messing around already! Focus on the problem at hand!” He also decided to slap himself, which hurt a bit. “Ah…! What I’d really like to know…is why Daisy was at the park at all. She told me that she didn’t like amusement parks. Like, she told me when I texted her that time- …Wait a minute.” He face palmed himself. “Augh! That wasn’t Daisy who sent me that text! It was Snaptrap’s mom! Man, what is wrong with me?! Stupid! Stupid…!”

All of a sudden, he heard a cracking noise from around the woods. It sounded like someone or something stepped on a branch. His ears stood up as he looked around. “What was that…?” he whispered to himself. “Is…someone there…?” It was then that he heard another noise. Someone had jumped into the air and was charging right for him! Dudley quickly jumped out of the way as his attacker slashed his claws into a nearby tree, just missing him! The attacker made a sly laugh.

“That was pretty keen of you…to dodge my claws at the last minute,” said the mysterious man as he tilted his head to the side, looking at Dudley over his shoulder. Dudley blinked in surprise. What stood before him was a tall and lean Komodo dragon that was covered in shiny red armor. His skin was a light shade of dark green, and he had what appeared to be glowing pink eyes under the black visor of his helmet. His snout was exposed, which revealed several sharp teeth. He also had sharp black claws and a long tail. His armor had what looked like thin black fins on his helmet and shoulder blades, and he only had one shoulder pad, which was positioned on the right side of his arm.

Dudley took a step back. “Who the heck are you?!” he demanded crossly. “And why did you attack me just now, ya nut?!”

The attacker dropped his tail roughly to the ground as he dug his clawed feet into the grass. “Who am I?” he replied with a grin full of razor-sharp teeth. “Why, I haven’t been asked that in quite some time… but it means nothing coming from someone who will die soon. I’ll have you know me as Schism!”

“Schism?” Dudley raised an eyebrow. “What kind of name is that supposed to be, creep?”

“A call sign, of course!” He leaped towards Dudley with extreme speed and kicked him back a few feet. Dudley gagged from the impact. “What kind of idiotic question is that?!” Schism stood still and pointed his clawed finger at a symbol on the center of his chest armor. It appeared to be a black broken building with red flames emitting from it. “Don’t you recognize this armor and symbol? You’re dealing with T.O.O.R., you foolish dog!”

Dudley looked at him wide eyed, suddenly feeling nervous as his opponent laughed beneath his grin. “Wait a minute! Did you just say…T.O.O.R.?”