And We Bring You A Christmas Interruption...

Theo woke up inside of a room that looked rather like her room, except that outside, it was snowing. She had to rub her eyes and clean her glasses to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating. The last thing she remembered was that she was in a helicopter…in the middle of summer. She flopped down on her bed, and sighed. “Hey author, or authors…you dragged me out of the story again, didn’t you?” she asked out loud to whoever was in control. No otherworldly voice spoke, but a knock did sound at her door.

She got up and opened the door, where she saw a familiar face. “Hi there…Theo, was it?” asked a boy with shockingly grey eyes. It was those eyes that helped Theo identify the mystery person.

“And you’re Dennis,” affirmed Theo. “You look slightly different.”

“Really?” he cocked his head to the side in thought. “I guess I do. My author never really defined my appearance the first few times he or she wrote the story. Now they started anew, so I guess I have a slightly different look.” He combed his black hair with his fingers absentmindedly and fixed the large magnifying glasses on his face. “It appears we’ve been whisked off to an alternate universe again. I wonder what for this time.”

“Do you know the date?” asked Theo. “I was in the middle of summer, and I don’t think it snows in the middle of 20-plus degrees weather.”

Dennis shook his head. “No idea.”

“Well, I guess we’ll have to go find out for ourselves,” she replied, after a brief search around the room for a calendar. She and Dennis walked down the stairs where they found themselves in a large living room that didn’t belong to either of them.

“Hey, it’s you again!” said a voice, and they turned around to see a familiar girl with glasses and a boy accompanying her. “Do you remember me?”

T.N - Chapter 60

Well, I’m not sure if I would agree with the “Angry Magic School Bus” description, but I can work with it. I was hoping for a more realistic analogy rather than one taken from a children’s show, but it seemed to be the only really viable one at the moment.

After I got over my disbelief (I’ve had a weird past month…I don’t think much more can shock me for very long) I started debating with myself as to what the next course of action would be. I mean, this mystery person managed to destroy all of the men down there who were chasing after us. So quite possibly we didn’t need to run away and we could find out whom our new ally is. But then again, they or he or she or whatever was after us and gaining quite a bit of ground (which is usually not a good sign).

Finally, I came to a decision: better to be safe than sorry. I urged Charlie to keep us going as far away from the truck. “Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go,” I muttered, watching as the corpses of Kyle’s men started disappearing out of sight. I shuddered, and thought about how that easily could be us in a few seconds.

“Well then, out of the pot and into the fire,” said Dennis, trying his best to be lighthearted.

“I believe it’s out of the frying pan, not a pot,” replied Kent drily, and there was an awkward silence. Dennis started tapping his fingers on the window rhythmically, and Charlie started humming some obscure tune.

“Well either way, we’re screwed unless we lose that truck,” I said, and the others nodded their heads in agreement. I looked back, and the truck was still tailing behind us, slowly gaining on us. “Take a sharp turn,” I told Charlie.

He stopped humming and glanced over at me. “Why?”

“Since we’re a smaller aircraft, we should be able to outmaneuver something so bulky, correct?” I asked the others.

“Logically, yes,” replied Dennis, “but right now, logic isn’t really in our favour.”

I couldn’t argue with that, but it was worth a try. I turned to see that once again, Charlie wasn’t at the controls, but rather looking behind him. “You idiot, if you’re going to pilot, stay focused!” I leaned over and yanked the throttle towards me. The helicopter took a very sharp bank to the right, and I could hear sudden complaints as Heathcliff and Kent were flung onto Dennis.
"Watch what you're doing!" said Dennis, pushing the two off of him.
"Well maybe next time be more prepared," I said. I looked over at Charlie, who looked a little startled. He was back at the controls again.
I looked behind me, and saw that the truck was still behind us. "Ok, turn left this time," I said. Charlie did so, causing a pile-up in the backseat with Kent getting squashed this time. 
"Oh come on, stop it already," complained Dennis. 
"I said it out loud that time didn't I? And I'm doing it again in a few seconds." I couldn't help but smile at my brother's obvious discomfort. "Charlie, do another right." 
This time, Kent was able to hold onto the back of Charlie's seat to prevent himself from toppling over, but Heathcliff was still too intoxicated to comprehend my warning. I could hear a clunk as Dennis's head connected with the window, and a muffled "Oof!" as the two collided.
I looked behind me and giggled. "Don't say I didn't warn you."
"Bah," said Dennis, pouting childishly. "After all that, we better have lost the truck." He looked through the window, where to my surprise the truck still was. He sighed. "Looks like we're out of luck."
Of course, at that moment, the helicopter suddenly decided to drop. Several lights on the dashboard started flashing, and there was an insistent beeping noise. I screamed, and I'm sure I heard a yelp or two from the others.
I calmed myself down, as screaming wasn't going to help the situation. "What is that?" I asked.
"It appears we have run out of fuel," replied Kent. "I knew there was a problem with the engine type."
"What do you mean, you knew there was a problem? Haven't you used this before?"
"Actually, I did mean to say that this was a prototype..." mumbled Kent.
I could nearly not believe my ears. A prototype? "You're kidding, right?"
"Uh, no...we've been meaning to test it out the last few days, but with you and your trouble there was no time to. This is the first time it's been flown."
I leaned back and covered my eyes. Great, we were either going to die by falling or by the truck. Absolutely fantastic.

? - Chapter 59

Mr. Dragon's jaw sort of dropped. He had to close it with a hand after he realized it gaping wide open.
Although his face was still bloodied and badly disfigured, Mr. North laughed like he never did before. Mr Dragon shot out his chair, tipping it over in the process, and grabbed for Mr. North's throat. Mr. North, his hands tied to his chair, couldn't do anything about it.
Mr. Dragon strangled Mr. North for only a few seconds, and Mr. North's face was being drained of color, when Mr. Dragon's phone rang.
'Jesus H. Christ!' Mr. Dragon roared in his furious voice, his let go of Mr. North's neck and turned around to his desk to pick up the phone.
'Who the FUCK is this?' Mr. Dragon raged into the phone, his face swelling a brilliant red, emphasizing the swear word in the sentence, which is uncharacteristic of him, because he was was usually a morally principled evildoer who used swear words sparsely, preferring action over blowing steam.
'Woah, Dragon, it sounds like your head is exploding over there!' The voice in the receiver said.
'WHO IS THIS!' Mr. Dragon roared into the speaker.
'It's T-Rex, at your service.'
'Alligator? Is that you?'
'No, no, no, I'm not The Alligator anymore, that's so not a cool codename, I am now THE TYRANNOSAURUS REX!' Mr. T-Rex said excitedly.
Mr. Dragon covered up the receiver with his hand and snickered into his sleeve, barely containing his laughter. Finally collecting his composure, he spoke into the phone. 'You know, T-Rex, why don't you just settle this codename crisis with the title of Mr. Reptile, since you've been pretty keen on reptilian animal names for the past while.'
For a moment, Mr. T-Rex was delighted at the suggestion. 'Why that's a wonderful...hey, wait a minute, was that an insult?'
'Of course it is!' Mr. Dragon began to laugh right into the speaker, 'T-Rex! Really, in the twenty years we've known each other this has to be funniest name you've retched up thus far, no joke, absolutely not!' Mr. Dragon was in an unnatural fit of giggles and laughter, forgetting entirely that at the moment Mr. North was working on untying his hands from his chair with a splintered fingernail.
'YOU! YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU DAMN YOU YOU...DAMN HERETIC!' Mr. T-Rex protested in frustration, 'IT'S NOT FUNNY! THIS IS NO FUNNY MATTER!'
Mr. Dragon laughed harder. 'Oh my dear T-Rexy, you just made my day!' He slapped his knee in glee.
'IT'S NOT FUNNY I SAID!'
Mr. Dragon was hysterical. He was slamming his fist on his table.
'DAMN YOU IN THE NAME OF SATAN! DAMN YOU!' Mr. T-Rex shouted.
'HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!' Mr. Dragon howled, 'Save your holy damnation for the enemy, Mr. T-Rexy, as for me, I'm not worth your while.'
'Well, now, how about this!' Mr. T-Rex huffed indignantly, 'Just now, your men were machinegunned by an unidentified flying vehicle that resembles the Magic School Bus in a really bad mood, how's that huh? Do I have your attention now?!'
Mr. Dragon laughed some more and then the message began to recall some sense into him. Suddenly, he sat straight up into his chair. 'WHAT DID YOU SAY?' He roared into the speaker.
'Ha! You didn't pay attention, well, TOO BAD FOR YOU MR. DRAGON! Because thanks to your insensitivity, I'm not going to repeat what I just said, how about that, huh? HOW ABOUT THAT!!!'
'MR. T-FUCKING-REX! WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST SAY!' Mr. Dragon barked, now furious once again. In the back of his mind, he thought musingly, at this rate, I'll have to start taking anti-bipolar medication. I'm getting too old for this job.
'I'M NOT REPEATING WHAT I JUST SAID, SO HA!' Just like that, Mr. T-Rex slammed his end of the phone and the line went dead, leaving Mr. Dragon itching to skin the man alive when he finds him.
Mr. Dragon was about to leave his office to go after Mr. T-Rex and teach him a lesson when a powerful, solid force struck him at the back his his head, knocking him down flat onto the ground.
Decades of Ancient Eastern Martial Arts training had taught Mr. Dragon to detect such types of attacks at split second notice. The leg of a wooden chair shattered against his skull just as Mr. Dragon braced his cranium from the impact and spun back up to his feet and around to find himself face-to-face with Mr. North, freed from his bounds.
Circling each other for the second time in a week, the two ex-friends and current enemies were all set for round two of an martial arts duel, and this time, Mr. North was out for blood.