Wednesday, February 18, 2004

   Cream Filling & Nougat: Second Coating (Chapter VI)
With only the sound of the waves under the pier and the breath from their faces, Cream and Nougat made their way to the nearest payphone near the waterfront. They had long since been bereft of their identification, money, and sidearms; Cream had also lost his cel phone, either the ocean or to their assailants. Though Nougat was no worse for wear, Cream still had a heavy pain in his head and a piece of his shirt wrapped around his recently-cut wrist. Despite that, his resolve was only more set in catching Basil and Connie.

"Hello, operator?" Nougat said into the phone, "can you get me the police? It's an emergency . . ." Cream had long since sat down on the cold sidewalk as he waited for Nougat to get them a ride back to civilization. The quiet waterfront was somewhat haunting to him, especially when compared to the utter throbbing in his temple. He was running the past events through his head: they were almost drowned. Before that, he was hit in the head twice; once when he was standing, and once again when he was on the ground. As he thought about the previous events, the image of something shiny flashed in his mind. He was ready to discount it as a simple precursor to blacking out, though he still felt certain that the flash came before the second blow . . . in any case, he wasn't up to pondering much more. All he could do was sit and listen . . .

"Yeah, someone get a car down here . . ."
"What do you mean everyone's busy? Well, send something, okay? This is an emergency!"
"They've got our guns, our badges, everything . . . hey, shut up . . . . ."
"I don't know where the hell they could be now . . ."

At that moment something shot through his head and he bolted to his feet. He snatched the receiver from Nougat's hand and immediately spoke into it,
"Get Sakai!" Nougat was still in a bit of a shock, trying to piece together what was happening before him.
"Whip', what's up?" he asked as Cream raised a finger for silence . . .
"Sakai? Hey, it's Whip'. Yeah, I'm peachy . . ." Nougat couldn't tell if it was possibly a concussion or something, but there was definitely something in his partner's eyes - a sense of purpose, perhaps. "Alright, now I know I let you plant a GPS tracer in my phone because I can still remember your whining for me to let you . . . . ." Suddenly Nougat understood completely.

"Alright, thanks Sakai!" Cream said somewhat cheerfully. He looked to Nougat. "You still wanna talk to anyone?"
"I'm good," Nougat said back, "our ride should be here in about 20 minutes." Cream frowned a little at that, and hung up the phone.
"Well, my phone is stationary on the corner of Main and Willow," Cream said.
"Main and Willow," Nougat thought, "that's back downtown, right?" Cream nodded. "Maybe it was from after we were at the hotel?"
"No, couldn't be - the hotel is about five blocks away from there in the wrong direction." The two of them spent a little more time throwing ideas back and forth between themselves as the evening got later and later.
"Alright . . . so we've got a friggin' strong neat-freak nerd Bonnie & Clyde wannabe going around downtown on Valentine's Day . . . why?" Both of them thought hard - about all the events of the day . . . . . Cream was first to gasp.
"Holy crap!" Nougat jumped.
"What?!"

"Okay, so before she knocked the hell outta me, I saw something flash," Cream started explaining.
"Maybe it was just you getting concussed?" Nougat suggested.
"It was before she hit me, trust me on this . . . no, she had something around her ankle or something."
"What, a shackle?"
" . . . . . try harder, Noug'." Noug' thought harder.
"I dunno, an anklet? Some kind of jewelry?"
"Yeah! Something like that!"
"So? Chicks like jewelry . . ."
"Yeah, they do . . . but that thing was shiny! I mean, her parents' house was nice, but it wasn't that nice . . . . ."
" . . . I'm not followin'."
"Think about it, man! What is two blocks away from Main and Willow?"
"Why don't you just tell . . ."
"Just think, old man!" Nougat sighed and thought a bit.
"Okay . . . the Plaza next to the City Centre."
"Which is currently housing . . ." Nougat thought for about three seconds longer before everything clicked.
"Holy crap! The jewel show!"

Both of them were getting really excited by this point.
"Okay," Nougat said, "so that explains most of those electrical schematics at his place."
"Yeah," Cream agreed, "if he's gonna crack through 'Mel's people's work, he'd need everything he could get."
"Yeah, and now they've got guns too," Nougat said, bringing the reality of the situation back to bear.
"Clearly, we can't put too much into that thought - we gotta stop them!" Nougat shot an eye back.
"Yeah? You thought that all by yours . ."
"Dude, I'm hurt and I wanna die right now, what if I trade you my punch for your cutting me for your shutting up now?"
" . . . done . . . . . . oh hey, our ride's here." Sure enough, a squad car was in front of them, headlights in their eyes.

"Hurt time?" Nougat asked.
"Ohh, it's gonna hurt so good . . ." Cream replied . . . . .


Man, I was gonna write in that anklet thing during the ACTUAL time it happened! This REALLY complicated things! Seriously!!! Let this be a lesson to you people: don't forget your plans when you plan ahead!!!
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