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The Zoo: Chapter 4

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Jenny, usually a claustrophobic kind of person, had the toughest job of dusting the air vents. She was to make sure that the air vents in every single building of the Zoo were completely spotless...or else she'd face the consequences. She was working her way up in cleaning the air vent above Double D's office when, upon looking up, saw Super Snooper and Blabber Mouse. They didn't look like the same cheerful type of a detective duo that she was used to seeing on TV-both of their white trench coats were dirty. And they looked thin, wasted, and very sad.

Jenny crawled up to have a closer look at them. Snooper and Blabber looked up, saw her, and quickly backed away. She whispered, "Hey...Snoop, Blab..." They looked at her in surprise-they had never seen that person before. Jenny continued, "It's me...I'm Jenny, your #1 fan...I won't hurt you."

"How do we know?" answered Snooper. His voice sounded hoarse and quiet. "You're one of the Red Guy's new people. If you abuse us any further, I swear I'm going to--"

"But Snooper, please! I will not hurt you or abuse you in any kind of way. Here, I'll prove it to you..."

She tried to reach her hand out to touch him, but he flinched. She waited several seconds before trying to reach out to him again--she put her hand on his cheek. This time, Snooper permitted the approach. Jenny whispered, "See? I won't hurt you."

She turned to Blabber and patted his head. Now that they've seen this gesture as a sign that Jenny was not one of the Red Guy's zookeepers, they were able to trust her even more. Blabber said, "So, you're not mean after all."

"Of course not," replied Jenny. "I'm more of a gentle kind of person rather than a rough one. However, it's so depressing watching you guys spend the rest of your lives in this awful place."

"It's true."

"I know. But anyway, just how did you and your friends end up in here?"

Snooper sighed. He said, "It's a long story. You see...it all started back when Cartoon Network wanted to give all the classic cartoon stars a chance to make a comeback-I was one of them. Being the star of a series of shorts that were part of the Quick Draw McGraw show, Blab and I had a desire to have a show of our very own. 'The Snooper & Blabber Show', we called it. It was a ton of fun in the old days...we used to hang out with our friends a lot. And the villains from the other shows, who were percieved by viewers as the 'baddies'--well, they were actually our friends in real life."

"Most of the time we were on TV a lot just to entertain the human folks. But whenever we go off-the-air...we'd go crazy! Our break times were much more fun than our work times. We had pool parties, barbeque parties, video game parties, whatever party we wanted to throw. We celebrated each other's birthdays with flair. And the pranks! We loved pulling pranks on each other and on our friends. Crank calls, putting a bucket of cold water on the top of an unsuspecting neighbor's front door, the fake spiders and rubber rats...man, we were nuts while we did those funny jokes. Oh, the memories..."

He sighed happily at the recollection of the past, before he continued sadly, "Yes, we were living the good life...until those new toons came along. One was Chowder, the other was Flapjack, the cast from Total Drama Island-also known as TDI--and a whole host of anime and live-action losers. And Adult Swim--ugh! It took the fun right out of late-night TV. I don't know how they got to Cartoon Network, but they were there for only one reason--to boot us off in order to take our places. And so, we were forced to move to Boomerang--it was a TV station dedicated to viewing classic cartoons, and it wasn't that bad. So we resumed our everyday lives as usual. Then, the death blow came--the new cartoon stars who took over Cartoon Network now wanted to take over Boomerang. Their plan was to get rid of us. And do you know who they hired to accomplish that feat? You guessed it--the Red Guy. He was one of those villains from 'Cow & Chicken', from our old-school Cartoon Network days. He used to be our favorite pal, but when the new cartoon stars told him that they'd give him a hundred billion dollars for putting the old toon stars away for good, he turned against us. First, he scammed Eddy, the Zoo's old boss, and then...here we were, trapped in individual cells, with no sanitation, no food, no water...and no hope."

After hearing Snooper's story, Jenny felt herself crumbling up inside. "Those poor toons!" she thought. "They've had their freedom, but it got taken away so soon. Once I get the chance to go up to the Cartoon Network studios, I'll give those so-called 'new' cartoon stars a piece of my mind..." She asked, "Whatever happened to the old boss of the zoo?"

"He hanged himself," replied Blabber. "He couldn't stand to watch all of us suffer like this. And now the Red Guy is in charge of the whole place."

"I know--he told me and Erin about that when he met up with us. He's one cruel dude, all right."

"Yeah! Wait until I get to him. I'll give him a left and a right, an uppercut, and a--"

Snooper grabbed Blabber by the collar of his trench coat. He said, "Get a hold of yourself, Blab. If you had the nerve to beat up our boss, he'd lock you up faster than you can say 'Jack Robinson'. Or even worse..."

Jenny laughed. She knew that underneath their starved, dirt-stained souls, they were still the same old cat-and-mouse detective duo that she had been admiring all these years. She hugged them and said, "It's good to have you guys back."

"You're much obliged, Jenny," replied Snooper. Just then, he heard his stomach growl. He continued, "Pardon me, but won't you mind feeding us a couple of morsels of some food? We haven't had a bite since the opening of the Zoo."

Jenny nodded and said with a smile, "Why, yes, Snoop! I will. As a matter of fact, I'm a little hungry, too. Let's see if we can find the nearest cafeteria around here..."

Slowly and carefully, they crawled out of the air vent, appearing behind the building. Then Jenny beckoned Snooper and Blabber to follow her in a pursuit for the cafeteria. Suddenly, a familiar voice shouted, "JENNY!"

It was the Red Guy...again. She looked over her shoulder and whispered to her friends, "Snoop! Blab! Find somewhere to hide!" Luckily for them, there were a couple of trash cans near the building--Snooper and Blabber managed to jump into them before the Red Guy showed up.

"So, Jenny," said the Red Guy in a smug voice. "Have you finished cleaning the air vents?"

Jenny looked up at the building, before turning back to the Red Guy and replying meekly, "Yes, sir."

"Oh, goody! You've done a GREAT job! Here's a little gold star for your efforts!"

He took out a small golden star-shaped sticker and pinned it on her vest. He continued, "Now, for your next job, you will have to SWEEP all the floors of the cafeteria! And, if by the time I check back on you that I find the floors not so sparkly clean that I can't see my handsome face in it, YOU'RE HISTORY!"

Jenny flinched, before saying, "Thank you, sir. But can I ask you one more thing before you go?"

"Yes?"

"Where is the cafeteria?"

"Oh, that's pretty easy--you just take a walk to a building NEXT to the Entertainment Center. You won't miss it."

Jenny nodded. As soon as the Red Guy had left, she turned around and said, "Okay, you guys, you can come out. The coast is clear." Snooper and Blabber crawled out of the trash cans. Snooper said, "Did he mention the location of the cafeteria?"

"Yes," replied Jenny. "It's in that building next to the Entertainment Center. Wait a minute, that's where Erin is! I'll bring you guys to meet her before we get something to eat."

They went to the Entertainment Center, where they found Erin mopping next to the cage Huck was confined in. Snooper looked him over, and shook his head sadly. He said, "Poor old Huck...I guess he'll never live to see another day."

"Yes, I know," said Erin, sobbing. "But...I just wish he was alive so I could see him again...he was my favorite Hanna-Barbera character, after all..."

Jenny looked around and saw an untouched glass of water on one of the tables. She grabbed it and went over to the cage. With the glass in her hand, she tried reaching out so far enough to reach Huck. But he was lying a few feet away from her. Jenny muttered, "I can't reach him. Let's see if I can try getting inside..." She attempted to open the door of the cage. It was locked. Jenny sighed again. She said, "It's hopeless. If I can't find a way to get into the cage somehow, Huck will die of thirst. And Erin will lose her hero. And we will lose our hope of ever getting out of this place again..."

With that, she put her face in her hands and began to cry. Erin, hearing her friend's sobs, went over to comfort her. There was indeed no hope...but at least they got each other. Then, something strange happened. The bars around the cage began to glow a bright golden color and they immediately began to melt until they were nothing but molten globs of metal. And they heard a gentle male voice, so calm and so quiet: "Here you go, Jenny..."

Erin looked at the cage, which was now completely open. She was shocked. "What...was...THAT?"

"I don't know," replied Jenny. "I've never seen that happen before. But at least the cage's finally open. Now let's see if we can wake Huck up."

She went over to Huck's body, bent down, and splashed some water on him. In an instant, he coughed and spluttered, and slowly opened his eyes to see Erin and Jenny standing over him. Jenny asked, "Huck? Are you all right?"

"Where am I?" muttered Huck. "What am I doing in here?"

"Um...you passed out while trying to make a hundred of people in this theater laugh?"

"Oh...so that's what I was probably doing."

Erin ran over to him and gave him a big hug. Happy tears were falling from her eyes as she said, "Oh, Huck! You're still alive!"

"Of course, I am--why do you think I'd be dead when I'm really exhausted? And plus, I'm hungry, too."

"No problem, Huck," said Jenny. She turned to Erin and said, "I've got Snooper and Blabber free--they're the first two toons I rescued. And then there's Huck. We've got a long way to go before we set the rest of the cartoon characters free, and then we can band together and put an end to the Red Guy's reign of terror."

"That's right," replied Erin. "Still, I'm a little puzzled about the instant melting of the cage bars. And that voice, that mysterious voice...where do you think it came from?"

Jenny froze. Even though she knew the mysterious male voice from somewhere, she had never revealed its source to anyone...not even her best friend. She said, "Well, uh, it's probably...um, I don't know. I mean, I know the voice, but I forgot where it came from. Anyway, let's go and feed our pals here. The cafeteria's next door to the entertaining area, and we can sneak in there and manage to get some food to them...but only if the Red Guy's not around watching us. We can discuss our plan there."
The fourth chapter of "The Zoo".

Jenny @ Me
Erin @ :iconcoopergal24:
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