Chapter Nine: Sunny Came Home

Bill was rapt. His restaurant was
FINALLY open! The beach-themed burger restaurant was situated right
where the creek fed into the lake, lending itself to some fine views.

“This is the best Uncle Bill.”
Belle said one day as she tore into her steak burger. The restaurant
was empty except for the seven friends and Bill.

“I'm surprised it's not more
expensive.” Daniel added.

“I like to keep things affordable,
that way more people can enjoy my work.” Bill replied, wiping a
glass. “So what do you youngins have planned for today?”

“Study.” Charlie groaned.

“More study.” Belle added.

“So much studying.” Daniel sighed.

“Even more studying.” TJ piped up.

“Studying too.” Petunia caught on.

“No studying for me, we had our exams
yesterday.” Sammy grinned, earning him a few dirty looks. Tammy
simply smirked.

The bell on the door rang, and in
walked Sunny. She smiled shyly at the group of friends.

“Hi Sunny! How are things?” Belle
pulled up a chair next to her.

“Getting there I guess.” Sunny
shrugged. She sat down, looking uncomfortable. Petunia cleared her
throat.

“We were just talking about the exams
we have next week.” She told Sunny. “Apparently the twins have
already had theirs.”

“Seriously? I'm not looking forward
to the maths one. That's going to get ugly.” Sunny said.

“I'm not looking forward to the
biology exam. That one is going to be painful.” TJ groaned.

The sound of sirens in the distance
made them all stop.

“That's odd. Marion and Revolver are
still in prison, and most of the DVG and the Mob have gone
underground.” Daniel looked out the window.

“Do you think we ought to check it
out?” Charlie asked.

“I think so. Sorry Bill, can you
keep this warm for us until we get back?” Daniel started to grab
his things and head out of the door.

“I suppose.” Bill sighed as the
group minus Sunny stormed out, nearly knocking over poor Joe as he
walked in.

“Young hooligans.” He chuckled
fondly. He saw Sunny sitting by herself at the now abandoned table.

“How have you been recently Sunny?”
Joe sat down next to her where his grand-daughter had been sitting.

“In some ways it's been easier.
Daryl doesn't give me nearly as much grief as he used to.” Sunny
replied. She sighed.

“But in other ways…my parents still
don't talk to me as much as they used to, especially my Dad. He's
gotten a fair bit angrier nowadays.”

“I understand.” Joe said, putting a
hand on her shoulder. “You love them and you want them to love
you.”

“You make it sound so simple.”
Sunny replied.

“It probably is.” Joe smiled
kindly.

Sunny looked out of the window.

“I want to get back at them too.”
She said suddenly. “I want to prove to them that I'm just as good,
if not better than Daryl.”

“Also understandable.” Joe nodded.

“I wish I could go and help the
others. I could repay them and get back at my parents at the same
time.” Sunny got up. Joe got up too.

“No. It's too dangerous.” He said
sternly.

“You let Belle out.” Sunny pointed
out.

“That's not my decision.” Joe
replied. “Her father thinks she can handle it.”

“Then why not me?!” Sunny
protested. Joe looked at her.

“Come with me. There's some old gas
masks out the back that the contractors left behind, good strong
ones.” He said.

–

For the first time in a long time
Giggles was scared. The man in front of her in the weird dragon mask
had rigged the tall Council building near the middle of the city to
explode, which would take out many of the buildings around it.

Lady Silent was quickly trying to
diffuse the explosives with the help of a bomb expert, while the rest
of the Knights of the Last Order and Chuckles were fighting off the
dragon-mans minions.

“Who ARE you?” Giggles asked. They
were both on top of the building, the sun still high in the sky above
them.

“I am Demon.” The man said. His
dragon mask was black with gold trim, and only covered the top half
of his face. His mouth was painted red and his face painted white.
He was dressed in a white karate uniform with a black belt, and black
combat boots. He held a large boomerang, wooden with beautiful
native decoration.

“Demon, huh?” Giggles drew out the
Lucky Seven Gun.

“That doesn't belong to you.” Demon
pointed out.

“So? Would you prefer it in the hands
of Master Revolver?” Giggles shot back.

Demon didn't reply. Instead, he aimed
the boomerang straight at Giggles and threw it. Giggles shot up into
the air.

“HA, you miss-OW!” She cried as the
boomerang came back, slicing into her leg and returning to Demon.
Blood poured from the wound.

Giggles knew she was in trouble if she
had to get to ground. She had about nine minutes of air-time left.

Demon threw the boomerang again, this
time Giggles was able to shoot it out of the air. It went flying
back towards Demon who caught it easily.

“Damn him!” Giggles thought. Just
then, the Backpack cut out.

“Of all the times for it to
malfunction…” She growled, landing on her bad leg.

“This city, it's Council, it's cops,
everything in this city is corrupt. The system has failed when
children think they have the right to stamp their authority on the
city. Pleasantville needs to start again.” Demon stood over her.

“You're kidding. You're having a go
at US for being vigilantes? What about you?!” Giggles pointed out
the hypocrisy.

Demon laughed.

“YOU serve the corrupt system. I
wish to destroy it and start again.” He told her.

“With a name like Demon?”

“You're exceedingly nit-picky you
know that?”

Giggles groaned and tried to stand up
again. Demon kicked her over.

“Now. It's time for me to take the
first – OW! WHAT IS IT WITH PEOPLE GETTING SMACKED OVER THE HEAD
IN THIS CITY?!” Demon screamed in pain as he was hit over the head
with a metal baseball bat.

Giggles almost laughed. The person who
had hit Demon was wearing a gas mask, a pair of blue swimming
goggles, a bicycle helmet and various pieces of cricket padding.

“Leave Giggles alone.” The figure
said.

Demon growled.

“Who are you?”

“None of your beeswax. Leave Giggles
alone.” The figure repeated.

“Very well, I seem to have
miscalculated. Never matter. My men and I shall return.” Demon
said. Two smoke bombs went off.

“Damn!” Giggles cried. The smoke
cleared and Demon was gone.

“Are you okay?” The figure asked,
helping Giggles up.

“Yeah. Nah.” Giggles tried to put
some weight on her injured leg. Thankfully it was only a cut, but it
was still a deep one that would need stitches.

“We'd better get back to the tip.
Your grand-father will meet us there.” The figure said. Giggles
gasped

“Sunny?” She asked.

The figure nodded. Giggles smiled
underneath her helmet.

“Good on you Sunny!” She laughed.

She quickly fiddled with the Backpack
(which had simply had a momentary glitch, how's that for timing?)
before flying herself and Sunny back to the tip, where Chuckles and
the Knights of the Last Order were slowly making their way in.

“They all escaped. Smoke bombs.”
Chuckles flung himself down on one of the old mattresses.

“What happened to your leg?!” Lady
Luck cried, throwing herself at Giggles wounded leg and starting to
clean it.

So Giggles told them about Demon, and
how he wanted to rule over Pleasantville.

“Is he insane? The Ostrayan
Government would send in the Army and squash him flat.” Sir
Lionheart scoffed. “But you haven't gotten to who this is, or why
they're here!” He pointed to Sunny.

“It's me!” Sunny pulled off her
mask. The others gasped.

“You saved Belle?!” Chuckles asked
incredulously.

“Well, yeah.” Sunny shrugged.

“You're really brave!” Sir Hyper
looked up at her.

“A little bit.” Sunny blushed. Sir
Lionheart walked over to her, suddenly having an idea.

“Put your mask back on.” He said
solemnly. Sunny did so, and Sir Lionheart led her into the middle of
the group. Silence fell.

“You have shown great courage, not
only to save Giggles, but to see your old ways of bullying us were
wrong, and that you can have friends.” Sir Lionheart said. “Please
kneel.”

Sunny got down on one knee, shaking.

“Lady Silent, go and get one of the
other watches.” Sir Lionheart commanded. Lady Silent quickly
retrieved the purple watch and handed it to him. He faced the
kneeling Sunny.

“You have shown yourself worthy of
being our friend, and you have shown yourself worthy of being a
Knight. I dub thee Lady Courage!” Sir Lionheart touched her
shoulders with his slingshot.

Lady Courage! Sunny felt tears welling
up behind her eyes. Someone valued her. Someone cared about her.

She finally had friends who wanted her.

“Arise Lady Knight!” Sir Lionheart
helped up the newly coronated Lady Courage.

“I hate to break up the impromptu
party, but Belle needs medical assistance yesterday!” Lady Luck
piped up.

Within the hour Belle was stitched up
and heading back home with her grand-father and uncle. Looking out
of the window, she smiled.

“You were right Pa. All Sunny needed
was time and friendship. Now she's come good.” She said.

“Aren't I always right?” Joe
replied gruffly as Bill turned into their street.

“Your tipping would suggest
otherwise.” Bill shot back.

“Was I talking to you?”

“Chill out you old git.”

“Watch your mouth you little-,”

“I love this family.” Belle hugged
herself.

–

“And how was your day Daryl?” Mrs.
Jones sat at the dinner table eating roast beef and mashed potatoes
and roast pumpkin.

“Pretty busy, I had to do my speech
about the School Camp today. Being the School Captain is hard
sometimes.” Daryl grinned, shovelling his dinner into his greedy
mouth. “Plus we had revision for our Maths exams.”

“And your day?” Mrs. Jones looked
down at Sunny, who was eating slowly.

“Fine.” Sunny replied, pushing her
beef around the plate.

“So do you think you're going to pass
the Maths exam?” Mr. Jones quizzed his son. Sunny tried to pay
attention to the conversation, but soon it just became a drone in the
background.

It wasn't her fault that her mother had
gotten pregnant again after they'd had Daryl. It wasn't her fault
she was a girl. As much as she was happy with her new friends, the
pain of rejection from her parents hurt.

She did the dishes, cleaned up the
kitchen and the lounge room, put a load of washing through the drier
and then headed upstairs to her bedroom. Her homework was already
done and she was tired.

She looked out of her window towards
the creek. Her parents small boat was sitting tied to the back
fence. They were rich, but money would never help Sunny.

She was about to cry herself to sleep
again like she had so many nights before, when she noticed the gas
mask out of the corner of her eye.

“No. I won't cry anymore.” Sunny
thought to herself. “I'm Lady Courage, and I am important.”