Chapter Two: That Fateful Day.

Belle was allowed to keep the kitten,
and soon it was as if they'd had Meow their whole lives. She had the
bad habit of chasing Woof, much to the amusement of many.

School soon started, and both children
were enrolled into the local private school. Unfortunately, the
Jones siblings were also enrolled, as were their posse, and soon
Belle and Charlie came to dread school. Worst of all, Mr. Jones,
their father, was filthy rich and often donated funds to the school,
which made the teachers brush a lot of the siblings behaviour under
the carpet. Still, Belle and Charlie had each other, and they had their tree,
which the Jones siblings found impossible to scale.

The years went on, the arguments
between the Masters men continued, the world continued to be envious
of Thomas Begly, and the two children grew into young teenagers.
Life was pretty routine, until the day that changed everything.

The children were sitting in the school
auditorium for the weekly torture session, a.k.a the Friday Assembly.
Belle stared at the principal, trying to remain conscious while he
waffled on about school uniform policy.

“You're drooling.” Charlie
whispered. Belle shook herself.

“How are you awake?” She whispered
back, keeping an eye out for the teachers.

“I heard something outside.” He
whispered back.

At the age of 13, Charlie was already
starting to grow muscular like his father, helped by his karate and
ju-jitsu classes. Unlike his father on the other hand, he looked
like he was going to get his mothers height. As Peter said, “The
boy will be built like a brick out-house!”

Belle, at 12, while not as muscular as
Charlie, certainly had an athletic build, thanks to being a gymnast
and her father insisting she learn how to use a gun properly. She
was also very fast, and still looked like a clone of her father. As
Betty said, “That girl is going to knock 'em out all over the
place!”

“I think you're just hopeful.”
Belle replied, just as a teacher spotted them.

“HEY, you two, want to share with the
rest of us?” He snapped, glaring at the pair. Sunny Jones, sitting next to Belle, smirked. She knew there'd be tears.

Belle stammered. "Uhhh…"

What would have happened next no one
could say, because there was a loud bang, and the room was stormed by
men in balaclavas and wielding machine guns.

“Oh no. The DVG!” Sunny groaned.
“DVG” stood for Death Valley Gang, a thuggish organisation that
specialised in robbery and drugs. The thugs quickly knocked out the
teachers and one of them held up the principal, while the others kept
their guns pointed at the children.

“Masked Revolver!” Sunny shuddered again. Masked Revolver was the leader of the DVG, and a
superior marksman. His modified Colt.45 was special, in that instead
of six chambers, it had a “lucky number seven” chamber as well.
It was said that he never had to use the seventh chamber, as he could
destroy any opposition in 6 bullets. The only people who had seen
the face behind his black and red mask were dead…yeah, you get the
picture. He's a real bad guy.

Masked Revolver only stood by the door
however – it was the boy who was holding up the principal who
seemed to be running the show.

“Pick up the phone, and call the Head
of the School Board. NOW.” The boy commanded. He followed the
principal to the phone that was on the wall near the stage, his gun
pointed at the older mans back the entire time.

Belle was terrified. She gripped
Charlies hand tightly. Were they doing to die?

“Nawww, how cute is this? The Dumb
Valley Gang are holding up a SCHOOL!” They heard someone gloating.

“Rack off Marcus you clown!”
Masked Revolver snapped at the new intruder. Mobster Marcus with his
long, flowing hair was sitting on one of the skylights, peering in at
the action.

“Oh great, not the Mob too.” Sunny was really starting to get on Belles nerves. Everyone knew who
the Mob were – the Mobsters of Misneach were lead by Mobster
Marcus, a proficient swordsman whose five-foot blade was just as
feared as the Lucky Seven Gun that Masked Revolver held. It was
rumoured that if you dared blink in front of him you'd find your head
gone before you opened your eyes again.

Rumours in Pleasantville have a habit
of being far fetched.

“My my, such temper! Such petty
thuggery.” Mobster Marcus chuckled. “Well, while you play with
the kiddies, we're going to go and play with the big boys. Around
about now, the Pleasantville National should be overrun with my men.”

“We'll see who's gloating after your
men have been shot down by security, whereas I'll escape with a
decent ransom from parents who are scared for their little babies.”
Masked Revolver grinned.

Mobster Marcus smirked and left.

Charlie looked at Belle. Who had
disappeared.

“Belle? Why are you under your seat?”
Charlie quickly ducked under the chairs with her.

“They got distracted. So I hid.”
Belle replied.

–

“YO, TJ, over here!” Daniel called
to his friend.

“CATCH!” TJ bombed the football in
Daniels general direction. Daniel grinned and was about to grab it,
when little Sammy leapt up on his back and took a speccy.

“Sam!” Daniel laughed, chasing the
boy around. He quickly handpassed the ball to his twin sister,
Tammy, who kicked it to her best friend Petunia.

“Come on guys, you know I can't play
football!” Petunia groaned. Poor Petunia was rather on the
overweight side, and much preferred reading about medicine and
practising to be a nurse than roughing around with her friends.

“Yes you can 'Tunia, you just got to
get up and run!” TJ thumped her back.

“Thanks, Theodore.”
Petunia shoved the ball back into TJs stomach.

Daniel sighed. He
was the oldest at 14, with short brown hair, thick glasses and bright
blue eyes. TJ was next at 12, a pale kid with dark black hair who
liked to dress in a Gothic style. Petunia was 11, with long red hair,
freckles and green eyes. Finally there were the 10-year-olds Tammy
and Sammy, with jet black hair and dark skin. The five were
inseparable, and were some of the few students who attended the
run-down public school.

“DON'T
call me Theodore!” TJ snapped, snatching the football away.

“Naw,
don't fight guys!” Sammy whined.

“Yeah,
how about we all go and get some ice-cream? I still have my pocket
money.” Daniel suggested.

“I
love ice-cream!” Petunia cried.

“I
can't complain about that!” TJ grinned.

“Ice-cream!
Dan, you're the greatest!” Sammy hugged his hero.

Tammy smiled and
clapped. A car accident when she was little had robbed her of her
voice, but she was highly intelligent.

“Remember,
we need to stick together, even if it's daytime there are some
Gangsters and Mobsters around.” Daniel reminded them of the
ever-present crime threat.

“Actually,
I haven't seen any of them around today. Must be bank-robbing day.”
Petunia piped up.

The five made their
way along the street, when they saw why the coast was clear.

“They're
holding up a school? How low can they go?” TJ fumed. He looked
towards the small police force gathered at the front of the school.
“Why isn't the whole force here?!”

A loud explosion
came from the city.

“I'd
say because the Mob robbing a bank.” Daniel pointed out.

TJ glowered. His
father was an officer in the police force, and TJ thought the world
of him. Alas, unfortunately the senior constable was a man called
Wallace Dingbat who was completely useless.

“I
can't believe it. The DVG will more than likely get away with this
because that MORON is in charge!” Petunia looked at the school
building. Parents were starting to crowd around the school, all of
them in various stages of fury and fear.

“My
little girl is in there! I have to save her! Let me GO!” Peter
Masters was trying to pry himself free of Bill and Joe, who had him
pinned down.

“Mate,
you can't do anything, if you get killed what will she do?” Bill
tried to calm his older brother down.

“She's
my little girl!” Peter cried.

Joe looked towards
the building and growled. “We have to wait.”

Peter sunk to his
knees and put his scarred face in his hands. Two scars adorned his
face, one across his eye and the other across his nose. Both were
earned defending Belle. His father had three scars, one across his
eye, one across his nose and the other across his lips. Bill got the
one across his eye while climbing out of a womans window trying to
escape her husband.

Yeah…

Daniel and the
others walked away from the scene. None of them felt like ice-cream
any more.

“I
wish we could do something.” Petunia said.

“Anything!”
Sammy kicked at a stone, missing and stubbing his toe. “OW!”

Daniel looked back
towards the building.

“Maybe
we can sneak in around the back, get the Gangsters attention, and
maybe then the police can come in and save everyone?” He
suggested. “Nah, too dangerous.”

“Yeah.”
Everyone agreed.

So they went and
did it anyway.

–

Belle was thinking.
It was the family fault, her father told her, they were cursed to be
forever thinking. It was a symptom of rather high IQs.

“Anything
yet?” Charlie poked her.

“No.”
Belle snapped. The DVG hadn't noticed the two children out of
hundreds missing thankfully. The two remained hidden behind some old
stage props while the Gangsters kept an eye on the kids, waiting for
their ransom.

“If
they got distracted again, we could sneak up behind them and take
them out.” Charlie said. “Then everyone else could escape and
we'd be heroes.”

“Charlie,
there are at LEAST ten of them out there! There is no way on Earth
we stand a chance.” Belle pointed out. “You're only thirteen,
and I'm younger still.”

“I
have the Improbability Clause on my side though.” Charlie said.
The Improbability Clause was the term the Begly family used to
describe their often sheer dumb luck, usually after a Masters had
pooh-poohed their plans.

“You're
kidding me.” Belle facepalmed. “And would you mind telling me
where this distraction is coming from?”

Suddenly there was
a loud banging on the windows. Someone was throwing rocks at the
South wall!

“TAKE
THAT YOU GANGSTER SCUM!” Daniel called out from underneath the
bucket on his head, obscuring his face.

“Leave
us kids alone!” TJ threw rocks behind his hockey mask.

“You're
mean and cruel!” Petunia called from behind her surgical mask.

Sammy and Tammy
just threw rocks as hard as they could, both wearing handkerchiefs
over their faces.

“Get
'em you Mighty Knights of the Last Order!” TJ cried, hitting the
DVG boy who was running the show squarely between the eyes.

“You
were saying?” Charlie grinned at Belle. “They've left one of
their guns over there, you can shoot them!”

“You
might have the Improbability Clause, but you know that the Masters
Code says I'm not allowed to kill!” Belle hissed back. The Masters
Code was five rules that every Masters lived by – no killing,
always respect your elders, always wear something nice, never hold
back and believe.

“Yeah,
but the Code says to never hold back too, you can still take their
legs out!” Charlie pointed out.

“Oh
dear…CHARLIE!!!!” Belle hissed as Charlie rushed out to attack.
She followed him, grabbing the gun he mentioned and firing wildly.

“What
the-?” Masked Revolver cried as he ducked underneath a barrage of
bullets, only to have a rock fly through the window and smack him on
the head.

“It's
working!” Sammy cried.

“Sir
Dark, get the door!” Daniel commanded, looking at TJ.

“Sir
Dark? As you command, Sir Lionheart! Sir Hyper, follow me!” TJ
grinned at Daniel and beckoned for Sammy to follow him. Together,
the pair managed to get one of the doors open.

A barrage of kids
streamed out of the room to their relieved parents.

“Watch
out!” Petunia knocked Tammy aside as one of the Gangsters fired.
“That was close Lady Silent!”

“Thank
goodness for you Lady Luck!” Daniel helped the both of them up.
“Knights retreat!”

Meanwhile, Belle
and Charlie were trapped, taking on Masked Revolver and the boy, who
turned out to be Masked Revolvers son. The other Gangsters, sensing
defeat, had bolted, most being apprehended by the police outside.

Charlie was making
short work of Revolver Jr, the other man having run out of ammo.
Belle meanwhile was in trouble. Masked Revolver had pulled out the
Lucky Seven Gun, and had already fired two bullets.

“You
have Stormtrooper Syndrome or something?” Belle asked.

“Not
cool Belle! We're Trekkies here!” Charlie snapped.

“Yeah!”
Revolver Jr. looked annoyed.

“My
apologies.” Belle bowed her head, before taking off with Masked
Revolver in pursuit. Charlie was about to follow, when his foot was
grabbed by Revolver Jr.

Belle foolishly
climbed up the ladder above the stage, before realising she'd sold
herself into a dead end. She looked at Masked Revolver, terrified.

Masked Revolver was
having difficulty himself, he couldn't properly balance on the narrow
walkways. He steadied himself to fire at Belle.

“It's
over now brat!” He grinned. He fired, just as Belle dropped,
hanging onto the beam for dear life. The bullet unfortunately hit
one of the supports that held the beam up, dropping it about a foot
causing Masked Revolver to fall.

He landed head
first into the stage, killing him instantly.

“NO!”
Revolver Jr. cried, running towards his father. “Where is it?!”
He quickly searched the body, pulling off the broken mask. “Where
is it!?”

The police quickly
swooped in. Belle carefully climbed back down to the ground, when
she noticed something shining under one of the curtains.

The Lucky Seven
Gun. Without thinking, she shoved it into the pocket of her skirt.

She ran over to
where Charlie was answering Officer Dingbats questions. It was
mostly rubbish, Dingbat was clearly incompetent.

“Belle!”

“Charlie!”

The two children
were swamped by their parents, who proceeded to fuss over them.

“It's
not fair Dad! How come Charlie and his family get the ability to
completely circumvent logic, but all we get is a silly code of
ethics?!” Belle complained as the group made their way back home.

“You're
still young yet little one. One day, you'll come to appreciate the
Masters Code.” Joe patted her head.